The Mercuryâs Fall Arts & Culture Guide
The Only Guide You’ll Need to This Season’s Finest Books, Visual Art, and NPR Hosts Singing Songs
Lost Decadeâs Rock and Roll and Childrenâs T-Shirts
Manu Berelli and Glenn Henrickson’s Homegrown Design Empire
Local Essentials for TBA
Because Art Isn’t Really a Once-a-Year Kind of Thing
Vanessa Renwick, Accidental Visionary
The Unlikely Career of a Portland Experimental Filmmaker and Installation Artist
Ari Shapiro is Coming Home!
The NPR Host Brings His Solo Show to Portland
Jen Kirkman Returns to Portland with New Material
The Veteran Comedian Takes on Politics (and Dreams of QVC)
Carmen Maria Machadoâs Writing Lit Me on Fire
Couple Fights, Fucking, and SVU in Her Body and Other Parties
WolfBird Dance Choreographs Feminism
Where to Wear What Hat Shows the Reach of Gender Roles
After Jen Kirkmanâs two decades in comedy, there are countless places youâve encountered her material: in two books and two Netflix specials, on Chelsea Lately and Comedy Centralâs Drunk History, and on her podcast, I Seem Fun: The Diary of Jen Kirkman.
Speaking on the phone from her home in Los Angeles, Kirkman tells the Mercury that, thanks to her 2015 special Iâm Gonna Die Alone (And I Feel Fine) and her 2014 book I Can Barely Take Care of Myself: Tales from a Happy Life Without Kids, sheâs been accidentally branded a pioneer of the âYouâre divorced! You live alone!â lifestyle. But as much as she enjoys living solo, Kirkman assures me sheâs not trying to make a big statement about it.
âIâm down for marriage again. Iâm a relationship person,â she says. âItâs just... be comfortable with whatever youâre doing, and just know thereâs people that are married that are unhappy, and I was one of them. And I had people coming up to me all the time saying, âYouâre so lucky, your life is figured out, youâre married.â
âEveryone is either single or in a relationship or in between,â she continues, âso I just feel like in those in-between moments, or when people are single for whatever reason, that they shouldnât feel bad about it. Because itâs not how itâs going to be forever.â
The happily childless 42-year-old Bostonian kick-started her comedy career in New York, but for the past 15 years, sheâs been grudgingly living in LA, doing shows once a month to work out new material. Now sheâll test it out on her âAll New Material, Girlâ tour to decide if itâs worthy of a taping.
âThis tour is same as always: personal things that have happened to me but... theyâre more about my reaction to things going on in the world,â she says. âItâs not Trump-heavy, but itâs [about] the emotion I felt after the election, how we deal with our families, what really went on in my brain inside the Womenâs March, and how I was so annoyed at all the women that day.â
âI was this angry, idealistic third-party voter who thought she was really special.â
Kirkman will also take a deep dive into her past. âI talk about what I was like during this period of time when I was this angry, idealistic third-party voter who thought she was really special and making a difference,â she explains.
I Seem Fun listeners will be delighted to hear more political material, since the podcast has become an outlet for Kirkman to make rant-y political predictions and commentary. Carrying on a solo conversation for 45 minutes or more without an audience comes naturally for her.
âIâve been talking to myself since I was a little kid,â she says. By the time she was eight, Kirkmanâs two sisters had both moved out of the house, so she had to entertain herself as if she were an only child. âI loved it!â she laughs. âI would line up my stuffed animals and talk to them.
âThatâs why I wanted to do [I Seem Fun] that way. Itâs kind of very similar to book-writing, when youâre like, âI donât have to be funny, I just have to be relatable.â And somebody might be enjoying this, but the goal isnât necessarily to make them laugh out loud,â she says. âItâs kind of cool to picture the audience but know theyâre not in front of you. Itâs way more freeing.â
But touring, specials, and podcasts arenât even all of it: Kirkmanâs newest venture is a limited-run jewelry line.
âYou know like those âCarrieâ necklaces that say your name?â she says. âI ordered one off this website and I had it say âOver 40â because I was tired of people telling me I look younger. I want people to know my age.â (Itâs something Kirkman often jokes about: She doesnât want to look like she âhas four roommates and shitty towels.â) Other pieces will say things like âChild-free,â âFeminist AF,â and âBoss.â
âIf it goes well, I want to keep doing things like that, designing things that donât even necessarily have to be funny,â she says. âAnd so my goalâand Iâm completely seriousâis QVC by age 50.
âI think fashionâs a big part of my comedy,â she adds. âI love when women come and dress for themselvesâand like, not to impress a dateâto my shows, and they might wear some crazy big coat or whatever. I would love to have a clothing collection or jewelry collection. Because I know Melissa McCarthy has a clothing collection and Joan Rivers had her jewelry, so why not?â