Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
It’s Just A Joke
Comic says don’t take her too seriously
Though Jessica Michelle Singleton has been part of a wedding in the backyard of a trailer in middle-of-nowhere Arkansas — “it was like a cartoon of what people think country songs are like” — the stand-up comedian has never performed in The Natural State. That changes today as Singleton brings her sometimes self-deprecating, sometimes raunchy, often stream-of-consciousness style of stand-up to Rogers for two shows as part of her summer comedy tour.
“I think there will be in the future an even better time, but right now, there’s never been a better time to be a woman in comedy,” Singleton says just days before the beginning of her tour.
“Look at Amy Schumer — she blew up. And I think regardless of how anyone feels about her material individually, it shows there was clearly a huge hunger: people want women in comedy. They’re willing to just consume, consume, because
I feel like there’s not enough of it mainstream yet.”
With material on cats, her looks, comparing herself to her hot roommate and yes, the “obligatory period joke” in her debut comedy album “Please. Don’t. Leave. Me.,” Singleton covers a few of the most significant parts of the female experience. It’s her selfdeprecation and her poking fun at both genders that makes her humor relatable for everyone, though.
“Self-deprecation I’ve found is good, but you walk a line with that, too,” she says. “Because sometimes people take everything too literally, and if you make fun of yourself even a little, they’re like, ‘Oh she’s really sad.’ And it’s like no, these are just jokes. I’m fine. This isn’t a Ted Talk. This isn’t an AA meeting. You guys can laugh.”
Another line Singleton has started walking is in her material on depression and mental health. You always know the people who are depressed or know someone who is, she says, because they’re the ones laughing the hardest.
“I think it’s an important thing to talk about, but people are a little weird about it because there’s stigmas, and it’s a little dark, but I think there’s a way to frame it that’s funny,” she explains. “I would like that sort of material to become something that encourages people to be OK with talking about things.”
Singleton explores that normalization of a subject entrenched in stigma in her jokes on sex and sexuality as well. Though she feels many comedians, and female comedians, present crass material simply for the shock value, a gross anecdote devoid of a meaningful punchline isn’t her style.
“People are like, ‘You’re a dirty comedian,’ but I don’t write anything dirtier than the men you watch. You just think it’s dirty because I’m a woman,” Singleton argues. “I’ll happily stop writing about sex when it’s totally normalized, but until then, there’s just so much shame around it. Men can talk about, ‘I [had sex with] a dog,’ and people are like, ‘Bro, you’re crazy!’ And a woman can’t have sex with her boyfriend without people being like, ‘You’re a slut.’ I do want to encourage women to feel positive about their sexuality and in charge of it.” Singleton promises her set isn’t just an evening full of sex jokes. Because of the stream-of-consciousness nature of her material, though, Singleton can’t necessarily make any promises beyond that. She says some of the best moments she’s come up with were during tangents in the middle of a planned bit.
“I feel like I’m not as connected when I’m sticking to a script,” she reveals. “I feel like for my style of comedy, if you can feel like you’re actually connected — if it feels like you’re having a conversation with the crowd — everything hits so much harder, and it’s just a better experience for all of us.”