“Ilike the thought of being able to pull off a terrible idea,” laughs comedian Adrienne Truscott. One half of New York duo The Wau Wau Sisters, Truscott has been making waves with her latest showAsking For It: A One-Lady Rape About Comedy Starring Her Pussy And Little Else!Dressed only from the waist up, Truscott explores the realm of rape culture by daring to laugh at what is possibly the last comic taboo.
Truscott will be performing her provocative show as part of the Sydney Festival, and hopes to do a better job than some of her male predecessors.
“I’m not saying that all comedy has to play by this rule, but in general there’s a fool in the king’s court. The fool is the comic and he’s allowed to take the piss out of the people in power,” she says. “But it’s just a bunch of dickbags already enjoying a pretty healthy dose of power making so-called edgy jokes about various peoples. And it’s not just rape jokes; they’re also saying crazy racist stuff, and it’s just not super-brilliant when you’re the white dude making sexist jokes.
“I didn’t come at it in order to censor their comedy, I just thought that it wasn’t sharp and funny enough for how annoying it was. I’m not saying that my show is funnier than theirs, but I thought I’d just toss my own jokes into the ring,” says Truscott. “I just wondered if there was a way that you could use comedy to talk about rape culture. I’m one of those people who turn to humour when they feel weird and things are tough. Sometimes it’s the absolute perfect way to talk about the absolute hardest, darkest things.”
Although Truscott has received some criticism for the show, there have been far more instances of support from audiences. “It’s been amazing how many people come up and say that they could have a laugh about the topic, even from women who have had first-hand experience,” she says. “People have said that it’s given them a chance to find some light in an otherwise dark place. It’s also been really gorgeous how many young male comics have come up and said really great stuff to me.”
But has Truscott being half-naked in the show proved focal to the point of distraction for her audiences, or is the show so engrossing that the nudity fades into the background?
“You know it’s a tragedy if I have to say that ultimately, my pussy is forgettable,” Truscott laughs. “I’ve certainly been accused of being gimmicky, and it’s absolutely a gimmick to make a fun show and to get bums on seats. But it’s also really relevant to the show to see a woman naked, totally comfortable and thinking, ‘Nothing is going to happen to me, I’m in charge of my body right now.’
“I’ve had people say, ‘If she thinks she’s a feminist and that anyone is going to pay any attention to what she’s saying with her pussy out, she’s kidding herself.’ But if I didn’t think that what I had to say was as interesting as what I was going to wear, I wouldn’t have tried to pull this off. Also, it’s a pretty heavy diss on the audience to assume that they would listen to a lady talk for an hour and that all other realities would drop out and they all would just be like, ‘Vagina!’”
Asking For It as part of Sydney Festival 2015atSeymour CentrefromWednesday January 14 to Sunday January 18, tickets online.
