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I Am Not The Hero of This Story

Jackie Kashian

Stand Up! Records · Album · 2017 · 54 min

A veteran comic meets national anxiety with practical midwestern charm.

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Jackie Kashian starts her 2017 stand-up release with an apology to her crowd. She had prepared a solid, carefully structured forty-five minutes of material, only for the 2016 presidential election to happen six weeks prior, rendering her apolitical set obsolete. Her solution is to pivot directly into the discomfort, opening with a blunt question about whether the audience realized they were going to be the bad guys in World War III. What follows is a pointed, conversational reckoning with a shifting political landscape, delivered with the warm, midwestern demeanor of someone trying to keep her father from starting fights on Facebook.\n\nRecorded live at the Acme Comedy Company in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the album caught Kashian at a veteran stage of her career. Having started in stand-up in 1984, she had spent decades building a dedicated following through tireless touring and her long-running podcast, The Dork Forest. This release, put out by Stand Up! Records, showed her expanding her typical focus on pop-culture obsession and personal neuroses into topical social commentary.\n\nWhile the record begins with political anxiety, Kashian quickly grounds the hour in the personal. She details the exhaustion of explaining modern politics to her Wisconsin-native father and her own half-hearted attempts to try being gay. The latter half of the set shifts to her home life, highlighting the specific domestic eccentricities of being married to a video game developer, why 47 is the ideal age to have a child, and her confusion over the logistical demands of tantric sex. Upon release, the album debuted at number three on the Billboard comedy charts, cementing her reputation as one of the most reliable technicians on the club circuit.

The set list

5 bits

  1. Becoming political after the 2016 election

    Opening the show with brand-new material about how being apolitical was no longer an option, joking about whether Americans would be the bad guys in World War III.

  2. I Need a Team

    Proposing assembling a dream team to support her life, drafting her siblings (Darla, Phil, Russ), Legolas for bow and arrow training, Jennifer Lawrence to star as her, and Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson as her supportive trainer.

  3. Armenian Genocide

    Blending dark historical subject matter with comedy, discussing the shrouded events of 1915-1917 survived by her grandmother with a spoonful of satire.

  4. Moccasins / Hunger Games Kit

    Recounting receiving moccasins along with a bow and arrow as a Christmas gift and feeling ready for a Hunger Games scenario at the grocery store if trained by Legolas.

  5. Procreation at age 47 and Tantric Sex

    Laying out her comedic thought process regarding why 47 is the ideal age for having children and analyzing the intricacies of tantric sex.

How it plays

Tone
Empathetic, hilarious, thoughtful, and satirical with an underlying sincere air of hope.
On stage
Straightforward, open, honest, and welcoming with magnetic Midwestern friendliness ('Midwest Nice') portraying herself as a Midwestern La Femme Nikita.
Pace
Urgent delivery tempered with Midwest Nice, grounded presence, and precise comedic timing.
About
2016 presidential election and dystopian politics, Family relationships and siblings, Armenian genocide, Marriage to a game developer, Aging, procreation, and adulting, Nerd and geek culture

What the critics said

Reviewed as wire-to-wire fantastic and a masterclass in writing, delivery, and personal perspective, successfully generating big laughs from dark subjects while maintaining warmth and sincerity.

In the room: Knowledgeable and receptive club crowd at Acme Comedy Company, willing to follow Kashian into risky and untested political territory.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: standuprecords.com, theinterrobang.com, moviemars.com, eponymousreview.com, thecomedybureau.com, thecomicscomic.com, en.wikipedia.org, startribune.com, apnews.com, alisonrosen.com.

Backstory

Recorded six weeks after the 2016 US presidential election; Kashian, traditionally known as an apolitical comedian, felt compelled to address the dystopian political climate and current events.

Details

Released
Taped
2016, Acme Comedy Company, Minneapolis
Runtime
54 min
Where
Stand Up! Records (album)
Honors
Debuted at the top of the iTunes and Amazon comedy charts
Topics
Before
Comedy Central Presents (2003)
After
Alter-Kashian (2026)

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