INTERVIEW WITH COMEDIAN DEANNE SMITH AVAILABLE ON SCENESTR

DeAnne Smith is a Canadian-American stand-up comedian who has taken the world by storm and is now returning to Australia with her new show Worth It. When I spoke to her in late January it capped off a week where I had interviewed for Scenestr Magazine fellow comedians Arj Barker and Michael Che and where the bulk of my recent interviews had been with stand-ups. I feel enormously privileged to have spoken to everybody I’ve gotten to interview. These interviews have been the scariest and most fulfilling things I’ve gotten to do in the past year. So I don’t say this lightly, DeAnne Smith was one of my favourite interviews and part of why is the same reason she is a successful comedian.

Open, unapologetically herself but friendly and warm she constantly gets audiences to laugh at things that may have challenged them or threatened some in another context. Worth It deals with money and the value we place on wealth and during our talk a few threads of conversation came from this. It can be painful sometimes to have someone say some truly fascinating things that you have to cut out in service of sticking to a word count. There was a lot of that with the interview I did with DeAnne but hopefully you still enjoy the piece over here at http://scenestr.com.au/comedy/deanne-smith-her-show-is-totally-worth-it Speaking with sincere love for her profession and audiences those who attend, her upcoming tour should be in for a treat.

Produced by Eyeball Media Enterprises Scenestr. is an online national magazine with local offices around Australia. Celebrating 25 years in 2018 of publishing history they’ve excelled at moving into the digital realm but they remain at heart from the streets. They still publish magazines in print for Perth, Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane every month. This interview was published in print in the February Queensland edition of Scenestr which is always a thrill for a GenX guy like myself. A digital version of the print edition can be found here http://scenestr.com.au/read/QLD/2018/1101-QLD/scenestr-QLD-1101.html#p=60 with the interview on page 60.  If you’re into music they’re a great read but they do cover all of the arts including festivals, stand-up comics, fashion, theatre and film. I feel very fortunate to get to write for them.

-Lloyd Marken