Alison Stevenson on The Politics of Comedy, TikTok comedians & Her Show 'Horny Bitch'

LA based comedian, podcaster, performer and writer Alison Stevenson launches her new solo comedy special Horny Bitch and our Junior Editor Charlotte Landrum asked her thoughts on the politics of comedy, the rise of TikTok comedians, and if men could ever be as funny as women…

What are the main inspirations behind your recent solo show Horny Bitch?

Wanting to expand my horizons and try new things, really. As I grow older and more confident in my abilities and myself, I now find that I want my stand-up to greater reflect that. I want my comedy to be bolder now, I guess. Bolder, more camp, and more shocking. That’s what “Horny Bitch” showcases, I think. I hope. Of course, while still being honest and having some hints of vulnerability. Especially when I talk about having a fat pussy.

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You’ve worked in a lot of different types of mediums in comedy, which one is your favourite and why?

When a stand up set is really good, it’s the best feeling in the world. I love it all though. I view myself as a writer at heart, though. 

How do you find doing a solo show vs your previous work in a group?

Working with The Perfect Women was something I’ll always cherish. We had a really fun, weird, most importantly, dumb dynamic. Working in a group like that has a lot of benefits. You can play off what others are saying, and there’s less onus on you to constantly have to say something funny or whatever. What I like about tackling a solo show and stand-up comedy in general is the kind of challenge it brings. You really have to trust yourself and your instincts. You have to be okay with potentially failing and navigating how to manage that completely on your own. That takes chutzpah. I like doing things that scare me a little for those reasons.

What are your thoughts on the current ongoing discussion surrounding comedians being ‘offensive’ or shocking for comedic value? Is this type of comedy necessary/have a place in the entertainment world today?

Oh boy. There’s a lot to get into here, but I’ll try to keep it brief. I think a lot of these guys aren’t really being productive in their attempt at being offensive or shocking. Like, if you hear the jokes they’re trying to defend most of them are tired iterations of the kind of jokes I heard in middle school, you know? It feels like they mostly want to defend their lazy comedy. They want to keep telling the same jokes they told 15, 20 years ago. How is that being a truly good comedian?

I think there is a place for humor that can be shocking, but it has to be for the right reasons. It has to be productive in some way, if that makes sense. I look at someone like the great John Waters as a great example of this. His movies played on and exaggerated fears surrounding the queer community and sex in a way that showed the foolishness of such exaggerated panic. If he offended or shocked anyone it was the uptight squares and normies. Those are the right people to offend and shock, in my humble opinion.

I love how you merge your comedy with the frustration towards how we view bodies, obnoxious men we’ve all encountered and existing as a woman in general. Do you feel like comedy has the potential to shift peoples views on more serious topics like how women and their bodies are viewed in the current political and social climate?

Thank you and yes definitely. I think that’s a big part of why I got into comedy in the first place. I like approaching these topics in a way that’s artful. It has a greater ability to connect with people that way too. It’s subtle a lot of the time, but if people get it, it can really be eye-opening in a fun and less stressful way.

As Horny Bitch was under the faux streaming platform VubiTV+, I was wondering how you felt about all the new ways comedians now have to share their work? Especially with TikTok, it feels like there are more and more new paths to getting your work out there which didn’t  exist just a few years ago. Does this make it harder to be successful or easier?

 My answer is both. What I find tedious and unfortunate is the ‘have to’ part. There’s so much emphasis on social media right now that didn’t exist when I was first starting out. Like, it was cool if you had a bunch of followers on Twitter or something, but that wasn’t the primary deciding factor on your bookability, viability, etc. It feels more today like a lot of your “importance” is placed on your following and that creates an environment where comics are overextending themselves and doing a lot of free work with little payoff. It can also make you want to create content you know is going to be popular versus content that is maybe more true to you and your style. God, even saying “content” is so cringe to me but that’s the landscape now. This shit has really fucked with my mental health, honestly. I’ll see certain people blow up and not understand why the algorithm favors them more than me and come to self-deprecating conclusions. I’ve had stretches of feeling like maybe I shouldn’t pursue this anymore because I can’t keep up or go viral or get as many “likes” as other comics and that just overall made me feel a sort of hopelessness. It made me question my talent. Like, if I don’t have a huge following what does that say about me? I took it all too personally. Sometimes, I still do.

 Then there’s the other side, the better side, where I see how much more freedom these platforms can bring. I love putting the power in my hands, even though that still requires a lot of time and personal finances plus still having to make the right connections. That agency to do whatever you want, put it out there, and skip a lot of bullshit middle steps can be extremely beneficial. I also love connecting with people from all over, acquiring a fan base of people who have grown with me over the years -- who have seen me in all my stages of writing and creating and still follow me on my journey. These folks really help keep me going. It’s great to communicate directly with them. My mentality now is more like, I’m here for the people who like me and get me and if more people want in on that, cool, but I’m not going to stress it anymore.

As your audible series Like Mother had a strong auto-biographical approach, how do you find integrating personal experiences into your work? Is it important to you that it’s coming from a real-life place?

Yes, definitely. It’s what I gravitate most toward. Even when I’m being my silliest and stupidest, I can’t help but infuse a more genuine or vulnerable side. I think that’s why I was drawn to comedy in the first place. Since I was a kid, I could see how this could be a unique approach to airing out feelings and frustrations, which I have a lot of. For whatever reason, it’s hard for me to not get personal when performing.

Horny Bitch blended ‘stand-up comedy with experimental theatre’ which sounds super exciting. How did you do this?

Without giving too much away, I have a side to me that is more publicly sexual and explicit. My Instagram gives hints of it, a lot of writing from my past does too. Plus I created a size-inclusive strip show called Thick Strip Enterprises, had an Onlyfans for several months, and have dabbled in kink on and off for years. My stand up, though, is still generally pretty tame. I mean, I talk about all this stuff, sure, but I’ve never really blended these two sides of me in a visceral way like I’m doing with this show.

There’s this stigma (though I feel it’s definitely eroding) that women in comedy shouldn’t be overtly sexual. That something about embracing this side of yourself will take away your credibility as a talented comedian. We all know that’s some Madonna/Whore shit in action, but I internalized that a lot in my first few years of comedy. However, as the years went on I found that I couldn’t help being a slut. I was posting thirst traps on Instagram back before “hot girl comedy” was really a thing. It was scarier to do that then. Especially as a fat woman. Not trying to paint myself as some sort of maverick or whatever, but really just pointing out how only in the last few years did things really change in a way where it’s all a somewhat more socially acceptable (while still needing a lot of work…ESPECIALLY for sex workers).

How was being in an Ariana Grande music video? How did that come about?

Oh man, that’s a throwback, but yeah I was in the video “Every Day” making out on top of a car. It was a lot of fun. My friend Lola Blanc recommended me for it to the director of the video, Chris Marrs Piliero. I auditioned the next day and got it.

Finally - do you think men can ever be as funny as women?

No.

Words: Charlotte Amy Landrum | Photography: Andrew Steres