long time fan, no longer
by mj on 2024-05-21The Danforth Music Hall - TorontoI have been a big fan of hers for years - but this performance completely turned me off from her. Her previous standup was boundary-pushing, but this set was regressive and discouraging. it was disappointing to watch her walk back her unabashed and bold ideas to essentially suggest that society has gone too far in seeking equality (which I thought was a joke, but it stopped seeming to be a joke halfway through her set - given both the content and form of her jokes). She even at one point took audience questions and (without laughter or sarcasm in her delivery) told a racialized woman not to pursue comedy or else Katherine be out of a job. In the current social reality we're in, it's pretty poor taste for a white woman to feel so emboldened that she'd tell a racialized woman not to essentially 'take her spot' in society's hierarchy. It wasn't a joke, so much as a cheeky response to someone answering to Katherine's earnest plea for audience questions. I have noticed she's become less funny during the pandemic (weird coincidence, I'm not sure why), and it's disappointing because I've looked forward to seeing her live for years. Hopefully she turns it around, but we'll see.