Danielle Thralow is one of the mainstays in the Twin Ports comedy scene.
She’s also performed nationwide, from Miami’s funniest competition to being named as the second funniest person in the Twin Cities. Much of her humor centers on identity, with a frequent opening line being “I’m transgender and 62 years old” — just in case, she says, audience members have any confusion about her age.
“I still use that joke,” she said, “but another introduction is how I grew up on a farm in Minnesota. When I told my parents I was transgender, they were fine with it. What really shook them up is when I told them I was lactose intolerant. My mom was like, ‘Oh, your father’s not going to like that lifestyle decision.’”
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Thralow spoke with WPR’s Robin Washington on “Morning Edition” in advance of her performance at Honest Dog Books in Bayfield on Nov. 22.
The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Robin Washington: How does your humor play in different parts of Wisconsin? Bayfield is pretty progressive, but it’s a different territory a few miles south.
Danielle Thralow: I usually open my sets with something a little silly. Like about my sister, who loves trees so much that she argued with her husband over what to name their twin boys. He wanted to name them Andrew and Connor. She wanted to name them Andrewfer and Conifer. I said, “That does sound like a tough deciduous.”
As the audience develops trust, I’ll get a little more revealing about things personal about me. Once people are laughing, it does something to the neurons in the brain, where people are more receptive to novel situations.
Those chemicals in the brain help the neurons embrace novelty and find things less threatening and open to new ideas. I’ve had it work so far.
RW: One of your routines touches on these issues using the Green Bay Packers:
“What a divisive time it is in Minnesota and Wisconsin. I saw a guy with a pickup truck, flags waving out the back with that same disgusting message — ‘Go Packers!’ I grew up in central Minnesota and my whole family is Vikings fans. Then my sister married a Packers fan. I cannot believe the Supreme Court made that legal!”
The country is a lot different now than it was 10 months ago. All joking aside, transgender politics are not the same as they were at the beginning of the year.
DT: Sarah McBride is a U.S. representative from Delaware who’s transgender, and she faces a tremendous amount of bullying. If anybody could be bitter or cynical, she would have every right to be.
But I listened to an interview with her and she was just so magnanimous. She said that being cynical is being lazy and being hopeful and optimistic is a muscle that we have to exercise. That really hit home with me. So I’ve been working harder to have more optimism in my jokes and look at more of the positive side of things.
One example, the passport issue where our government has determined that you can only have an M or an F on your passport. They changed my F to an M. But I know why they did it: It’s because they want to make sure that there’s no confusion that I might be a DEI hire. According to the United States government, I’m a privileged white male.
RW: It sounds like you could mine almost anything for humor.
DT: Yeah. If something makes me sad or angry or even just whimsical, I’ll write it down.The next day it may not be funny at all. But every once in a while it is. My guess is about one out of 100 things that I write down make it to this stage.
If you have an idea about something in northern Wisconsin you think we should talk about on Morning Edition, send it to us at northern@wpr.org.
