SLUG Localized: Stand-Up Comedy Showcase
Interviews & Features
I recently met up with local comedians Quinn Johnson, Andrea Morton, Clint Holt and Kendra Green at Salt Lake Coffee Break for a group interview in preparation for their sets at SLUG’s Comedy Localized show on December 19 at Urban Lounge, which you can grab tickets for here. The conversation started about wrestling, which I loved, and moved through talking about Jerry Seinfeld changing his comments on leftist comedy, the time Andrea Morton flooded an entire YMCA, and Kendra Green’s chance to be in the same room as Jim Caviezel.
Kendra Green
Kendra Green is one of the most proper people I’ve met in my life. She’s always put together and wearing fashionable fits. Green is an avid baseball fan, an interest she inherited from her L.A. Dodgers-worshiping mother. Another interesting tidbit about Green is that she was involved (in no small way) in the marketing for the movie The Sound of Freedom. Green survived brain surgery, and some, including this writer, are happy she did so that she could be an indispensable part of this year’s Comedy Localized. Green loves telling stories. She first realized she wanted to do standup after recovering from brain tumor surgery and watching Iliza Shlesinger’s special Elder Millennial. After that, in the summer of 2018, she went to a group performing stand-up on the BYU Idaho campus and fell in love with it. Her dream gig is to host the Oscars one day.
When I ask if she has anything to plug, she responds with, “Single and looking for a nice boyfriend. Just kidding, please don’t put that in a magazine. That is embarrassing. But also, if a guy sees my photo and is like, ‘She’s hot, I want to go out with her,’ I wouldn’t mind.”
Clint Holt
Clint Holt is from Fairdealing, Kentucky, the best-named unincorporated community I have ever heard of. He says he decided to do stand-up when “a random guy told me a joke I could use in my little skits.” In his stand-up, Holt talks about growing up Southern, his observations on being white trash and the benefits of having a local meth head. Holt started doing stand up six years ago at a brewery in Paducah, Kentucky, because a girlfriend pressured him into doing it. Holt is a charming man that I’ve been lucky to spend a lot of time with over the past summer. He has played an integral role in nurturing my love of wrestling and never fails to have interesting theories on where storylines might go, whether that be in wrestling or the fantasy novel genre. He is also an avid country music fan, and, if you ask, he may or may not know how to steal audiobooks. Holt can be found regularly performing at Wiseguys Comedy Club, and you can find his show dates and more on his Instagram page, @itsclintholt.
Quinn Johnson
Quinn Johnson started doing stand up in “the year of our Lord, 2019,” and it’s been all uphill from there. Johnson loves to rave and drink White Claws, and he’s still championing the long-since forgotten Juul pods we all started vaping with and frankly, forgot were still around. Johnson has seen hard times. When I ask why he started doing standup, he says, “I was going through a divorce, and I realized that my life couldn’t get worse. It got worse.” From his divorce to running out of molly at his last rave, Johnson knows what it’s like to suffer.
Johnson is the most adept with crowd work among all the comedians that I’ve seen locally. He never seems to slow down and is always jostling about on stage, moving to the next joke. Many of the sets I’ve seen Johnson do involve him directly provoking the crowd and dissolving the barrier between audience and performer. He’s silly, lovable, quick on his feet and draws a lot of inspiration from the late, great Brody Stevens. He hosts a podcast called Let’s Get Fired with local comedian Drew Simon. “You’ll like it if you’re about to bake some pumpkin bread and watch The Sopranos in Spanish,” Johnson says. You can also check out the two open mics he hosts: Monday nights at 7:30 p.m. at The Alliance Theater in Trolley Square and Wednesday nights at 9:30 p.m. at Boomerang’s on Main Street. Look for upcoming show announcements on his Instagram page, @quinnjohnswagswerve.
guides her hilarious stand-up comedy, which she has
been performing for a decade. Photo: India Mendoza.
Andrea Morton
Andrea Morton is transgender, and she “needs you to know that.” Much of her stand-up is about her trans identity. Oh yeah, and the fact that she once hiked from Mexico to Canada, a fun fact that she cannot seem to shut the fuck up about! Whenever I’ve spent time with Morton, I always feel exhausted from laughing and having fun. She has been doing stand-up for 10 years now and is also a keen improviser. She started at an open mic at The Barley Street Tavern in Omaha, Nebraska. “I did [the open mic], and I’m sure it went okay enough for me to keep it up. Here I am, 10 years later, still doing open mics.”
Much of Morton’s stand-up is autobiographical. She talks about her experiences living as a trans woman and working in the recovery community. When I ask why she loves standup, Morton replies, “Some people I talked to about it said that as a trans person, I could do some good normalizing trans people as a comedian. If I could let some people know it’s okay to be yourself, I’d be stoked, as long as people laugh, too.” You can find her on Instagram and TikTok at @thatandreaperson.
Catch stand-up sets from Quinn Johnson, Andrea Morton, Clint Holt and Kendra Green at SLUG’s Comedy Localized on Thursday, December 19, at Urban Lounge. Get tickets here.
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