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Promotional art for Calise Hawkins is 40 AF
Cover image credit: Promotional image via Bandcamp

Calise Hawkins is 40 AF

Calise Hawkins

Blonde Medicine · Album · 2020 · 48 min

A veteran comedy writer marks forty with dry midlife survival stories.

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Released , on Blonde Medicine.

Calise Hawkins treats turning forty less like a crisis and more like permission to quit waiting for permission. Talking through single motherhood without pious gloss, she details the strange economics of raising a child alongside roommates and explains why weed beats wine: one glass convinces you that you are all you need, and by the fourth, you are sobbing because you are all you have.

Hawkins had spent years as a New York club comic and TV writer for shows like @midnight and Comedy Knockout before committing an hour to tape. She recorded the set on her 40th birthday at the Brooklyn House of Comedy on February 28, 2020, released later that summer by Blonde Medicine.

Her material zeroes in on the practical chaos of adulthood, from old gigs working phone-sex lines to growing up light-skinned in Springfield, Illinois. On her daughter, Hawkins notes that she does not blame bad luck for single motherhood so much as simple math: her father never taught her how to dodge suitors properly, and eventually, the volume was going to get her.

Notable bits & set list

4 bits

  1. Raising a daughter while living with roommates

    Recounts the struggles and absurdities of raising her 13-year-old daughter in Jersey City while sharing a room with her and living with roommates.

  2. Creation myth and the evolution of man

    Offers a fun and subversive personal interpretation of the creation myth.

  3. Absurdity of phone sex

    Mines the humorous and awkward realities of engaging in phone sex.

  4. Growing up as a light-skinned Black woman in Springfield, Illinois

    Examines racial perceptions, double standards, and navigating identity as a light-skinned Black woman.

How it plays

Tone
Celebratory, joyful, subversive, and candid.
On stage
Refreshingly honest, painfully revealing, and infectiously celebratory.
Pace
Snappy energy, combining conversational storytelling with quick one-liners.
About
turning 40 and aging, motherhood and parenting a teenager, dating and love life, race and being a light-skinned Black woman, mental health, living with roommates

What the critics said

Praised as a fresh, charming, and hilarious debut that celebratory embraces middle age, single motherhood, and personal messiness rather than relying on standard self-deprecation.

In the room: Warm and responsive live crowd of friends, family, and comedy fans reacting with spontaneous laughter.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: music.apple.com, calisehawkins.bandcamp.com, theinterrobang.com, rebelliousmagazine.com, thecomedybureau.com, eponymousreview.com, blondemedicine.com, sharkpartymedia.com.

Backstory

Taped on her 40th birthday on February 28, 2020, just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns; inspired by her experience performing at the 2019 Black Women in Comedy Festival at the same venue.

Details

Released
Taped
Brooklyn House of Comedy
Runtime
48 min
Where
Blonde Medicine (album)
Topics

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