Standup comic DeAnne Smith opened for Hannah Gadsby at the Fox Theater in Oakland in June. But it’s been years since they’ve performed in San Francisco.
Smith’s shows Sept. 21-22 at The Lost Church, “DeAnne Smith Is Queer, As in Funny,” mark their official comeback to the city, and their first time headlining there.
“I feel like for as many queers and people who I hope would enjoy my comedy that there are in San Francisco, I haven’t been there nearly enough,” says Smith, a New York resident and dual citizen whose comedy career began in Canada.
Smith, whose performance “Straight Men, Step Up Your Game” boasts millions of online views, has an act covering a range of topics. They include: top (i.e. gender affirming) surgery outcomes, cisgender heterosexual men needing to put more effort into their relationships, they/them pronouns, and anxiety, about which Smith says, “My mind sparkles with imaginary danger.”
Smith always takes pride in their ability to connect with audiences.
“I always try to bring something that hopefully will open up people in the audience a little bit, or help them open up to other people in their lives, potentially,” Smith says, adding, “The most fun shows that I have and that I think the audience has, too, is when I’m really kind of going off on riffs. The structure is there, the jokes are there, but we’re free to really play and explore and go wherever the moment leads us.”
Smith, who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, credits their neurodivergence for their ability to string together ideas in a unique way—and as a reason why doing standup suits them, including the routine travel required.
“I am not going to do well—I would never have done well—with a typical kind of nine-to-five structure. I need novelty and for it to be different and challenging and weird,” says Smith.
Smith’s frank and creatively assembled considerations of queerness and gender identity resonate with LGBTQ+ audiences.
“A lot of queer people feel really seen, and that, of course, makes me happy. I’m always happy to be the weirdest one in the room; I’m happy to kind of go far out there so that everybody else goes, ’Ah, yeah. Maybe whatever I’m feeling isn’t so crazy,’” they said.
But Smith’s approach extends beyond the queer community. Recalling performing at a lodge in a rural area of Canada a couple of years ago, Smith said two audience members expressed gratitude: “I was doing a lot of gender stuff, and afterwards this couple came up and said (something along the lines of), ‘Thank you so much for making it approachable. Our 13-year-old kid is nonbinary and going through some stuff.’ And it just felt good to be with the community and have everybody laughing about things, but in this kind of open way.”
“Obviously there’s no punching down when it comes to my comedy, and so that sort of feedback is what really makes me feel great and inspires me to want to keep doing more of that sort of thing,” they added.
Bay Area comedian Rea Kapur opens this week’s shows, with Wonder Dave hosting. The appearances are part of “Safe Words Queer Comedy Showcase” produced by Team Wonder Dave Productions, with Wonder Dave and Jonah Price at the helm. The duo’s other local shows include “SMILF-Straight Men I’d Like to Friend,” the queer variety show “Castro Comedy Cabaret” and “Mental Health Comedy Hour.”
“Safe Words” is about giving queer comedians a stage—one that’s safe and supportive—on which they can thrive. The duo began producing the showcase, a longtime staple at SF Eagle Bar in the Leather & LGBTQ Cultural District, a couple of years ago.
“Dave was approached with the idea of taking it over. The show, at the time, was not a queer show, but when we signed on, we wanted to definitely make it one,” says Price.
“Like many shows, it went away during lockdown and had struggled to come back, side-slash, not really come back. We then made it over and restarted it,” adds Wonder Dave.
Today “Safe Words” is a monthly fixture featuring a diverse lineup of LGBTQ+ comedians from the Bay Area and beyond; August’s “Laughs in Trans Nation” featured transgender comics Los Angeles-based Nina Nguyen and Natasha Muse from San Francisco.
Describing the benefits of “Safe Words,” Price says, “Considering the reality of what it’s like to just exist as a comedian at all, let alone a queer comedian, in a space that’s really, like everything else, dominated by the cis[gender] straight male, it quickly became very special.”
Dave and Price started working with Smith after seeing their act on social media.
Price said, “… We usually do try and share a lot of the queer comedy that we come across on Instagram, and so you’ll see that really populating our stories. DeAnne reached out and said, ‘Hey, thanks for sharing that. Can we work together?’”
In San Francisco, Smith will share stories and observations about their relationship with their partner, their dog Rudy, their grandmother’s deathbed—and fascism.
“Trust me, I’m going to make it funny, and I’m going to make us all feel at least a little bit better. I cannot help but talk about the real state of the world—[because] that’s never far from my mind. So the show is not complete escapism. If you’re looking around feeling like, ‘What the f—?’ I would hope that you could come to the show, have a laugh and feel surrounded by like-minded people who are also like, ‘Yeah, what the f—?’”
Following the San Francisco shows, Smith heads to the East Coast for Oct. 24-26 appearances at the Vermont Comedy Club in Burlington.
“As much as I love San Francisco, I don’t know when I’m coming back, so I would say, ’Please come check out the show while you can,’” Smith says.
“DeAnne Smith Is Queer, As in Funny” is at 8 p.m. Sept. 21-22 at The Lost Church, 988 Columbus Ave. San Francisco. Tickets are $20 at Deannesmith.com.
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