The Comedienne Project at the New York International Fringe Festival is standup framed in a strange way. It is a sort of theater-standup hybrid, allowing its two performers, Katie Hannigan and Corinne Fisher, the room to display their acting (caricature-ish as it may sometimes be) before making time for traditional standup comedy. The show is basically two standup sets framed by an early montage of fake comedians at an all-female comedy night (which is, of course, still hosted by a man). In this early segment there are characters like the militant feminist and the Italian housewife clad in leopard-print. And while these over-the-top costumes may conjure easy stereotypes, the jokes themselves are clever enough that this section of the show doesn’t lag.
The first of the actual standup sets – if they can be called that given their unusual contexts – is performed by Katie Hannigan. Hannigan presents herself as a formerly naïve Midwestern girl – but only when it serves to setup a punchline. Her repeatedly dark and reflective material (including jokes about encouraging violence between roommates and being the prettiest girl in her 9/11 conspiracy group) is contrasted by her obviously curated unassuming appearance. It is difficult not to wonder if this juxtaposition is specific to The Comedienne Project or if it’s Hannigan’s shtick. In either case, the assuredness of Hannigan’s presence and the refreshing tone of her material are worth the price of admission.
Corinne Fisher is the more self-deprecating of the two comics, with bits about her hindrance of a “Jew-face” and believing TLC’s “Waterfalls” contains a message about underachieving. But she has an actively sex-positive comedic voice, something that is reflected in a popular podcast she hosts ("Guys We Fucked: The Anti Slut-Shaming Podcast"). In The Comedienne Project, Fisher occasionally leans a bit too heavily on attempts at presumably relatable “I’ve lived in New York for so long” premises, but most of her material feels relatable merely because of the honesty she permits herself onstage.
The structure of The Comedienne Project is commendable for its creativity, but the framing of these two real-life standups is more than just creative – it’s purposeful. Hannigan and Fisher don’t want to be female comedian clichés. But maybe more than that, they want us as a comedy-spectating society to not feel the need to place female comics into stereotypical roles. And while their fake stage personalities conveyed this wish, their actual sets demonstrated that these two comics would be impossible to categorize even without all that setup.
