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Oak
Bay High grad back in town after a touring stint with Puppetry
of the Penis.
Oak Bay's Kristeen von Hagen get us giggling at the Comedy
Cellar
The woman who started her Toronto-based stand-up comedy career
joking about the differences between Oak Bay and Hogtown is
back on the Island this weekend. She'll perform at the Comedy
Cellar (on Yates Street) August 9-10.
Kristeen von Hagen just wrapped up a tour as the opening act
for the Puppetry of the Penis show. She won the Best Female
Standup prize at the Canadian Comedy Awards in April and is
headlining the Vancouver International Comedy this week.
But this coming weekend, von Hagen faces her greatest challenge
-- performing in front of her family.
"It kind of changes the dynamic a bit." she says,
describing here humour as observational and based on her dating
experiences.
"Its odd doing so many shows and never (doing) one in
your own town," von Hagen says.
She says she also expects the audience to be a little more
conservative than what she's used to.
"I'm just going to go with it and see what happens."
That laid-back attitude seems to have served her well so far.
After graduating from Oak Bay High in 1993, von Hagen moved
to Vancouver for a year, working the stand-up comedy circuit.
For the last six years, however, Von Hagen has been living
and working in Toronto.
She calls her stint as the opening act for the Canadian tour
of Puppetry of the Penis -- a show in which two men manipulated
their penises to resemble hammers and other objects -- a "really
lucky gig."
"How much adventure can you get into with two naked Australians?"
von Hagen says laughing. "Ooh! That sounds a little seedy."
Sometimes, von Hagen says the audience's most interesting
reaction to the show came when she unexpectedly went out on
stage before the men.
"I sort of (would) walk out and do five minutes of, 'hey,
I don't have a penis.' "
She says that after watching the show again and again -- with
a few surprising variations -- she is completely desensitized
to what she fondly calls "genital origami".
These days, von Hagen doesn't play on her Oak Bay roots all
that much.
"I used to have jokes about the differences (between)
growing up in Victoria and living in seedy Toronto."
As she's made her move -- slowly but surely -- onto the standup
stages of New York City and Los Angeles, she admits that she
rarely jokes about her Canadian heritage.
"Most times, I've not really mentioned I'm from Canada."
"The Americans are sort of odd ducks," she adds,
telling the story of how one woman in Los Angeles was absolutely
shocked that von Hagen came from Canada, The woman, apparently,
had never met a Canadian before.
Von Hagen says she has her eyes set on bigger things and sees
herself branching out into the world of American television.
She's already been featured on Canadian television in a CBC
Gala Show filmed at this year's Just for Laughs festival,
hosted by SCTV alumnus Eugene Levy.
So far, von Hagen says, she is enjoying her success.
"The fact that I make a living out of it is amusing."
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