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Maddie Wiener has learned to love taking the audience to uncomfortable places.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do love a laugh that\u2019s also a groan. Like, \u2018Oh, I didn\u2019t want to laugh at that, but that got me.\u2019 That\u2019s kind of my favourite button to push,\u201d says Wiener, who makes her Rumor\u2019s Comedy Club debut from today to Saturday.<\/p>\n
She isn\u2019t interested in easy punchlines. Much of her material starts with questions she\u2019s asking herself, awkward truths she\u2019d rather not admit, or thoughts most people would rather not expose for all to see \u2014 or laugh at.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it\u2019s something where you\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, I actually am embarrassed to admit that,\u2019 there\u2019s usually something really funny on the other side of it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
That sort of self-examination runs through almost everything she talks about. During a conversation that bounces from free speech and comedy to Alzheimer\u2019s, sexism and pet rabbits, Wiener seems to genuinely enjoy pulling apart ideas to see what makes things tick.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like thinking about stuff,\u201d she says. \u201cHuman consciousness is this thing that happened to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not exactly the answer you\u2019d expect from someone who spends her nights offering up self-deprecation as a means to make strangers laugh.<\/p>\n
Growing up, Wiener wasn\u2019t the class clown. She describes herself as a straight-A student, a teacher\u2019s pet and a dedicated rule-follower.<\/p>\n
Then she discovered standup at 16.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was the greatest thing ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Part of that attraction, she says, came from finally finding a place where talking too much was encouraged. She credits her father with helping shape the way she sees the world. He encouraged her to question authority and challenge assumptions rather than simply accept them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t disrespectful to question authority,\u201d she says. \u201cI think it\u2019s made me an adult who values questioning things.\u201d<\/p>\n
That instinct shows up everywhere in her comedy. Rather than telling long personal stories, Wiener says she\u2019s more interested in exploring ideas and observations, which can sometimes come from difficult places.<\/p>\n
Part of her current set focuses on her father\u2019s Alzheimer\u2019s diagnosis, a topic she discusses with his permission.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s obviously been a hard experience,\u201d she says. \u201cBut we\u2019ve been laughing a lot about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
She recalls an older comic telling younger performers there are no bad experiences in comedy because anything can become material.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe worst thing in your life can happen and you\u2019re like, \u2018Well, I have this other thing that I can turn it into,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a really fun way to metabolize the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n
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Wiener is also candid about being a woman in standup. She says audience members have told her they expected less from her onstage.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2019You were actually really funny,\u2019\u201d she recalls being told. \u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s a compliment. I mean, I\u2019m glad I could win you over.\u201d<\/p>\n
At Rumor\u2019s, she promises a mix of material ranging from pet rabbits to depression and suicide. The combination can sound jarring on paper, but the goal isn\u2019t shock value.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can expect dark, you can expect weird,\u201d she says. \u201cBut hopefully in a way that brings everyone on board.\u201d<\/p>\n
fparts@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Calling from a North Carolina airport in a voice just above a whisper, Maddie Wiener sounds more like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":744551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-744550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=744550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/744551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=744550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=744550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=744550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}