Comedy: Jackie Kashian

Though she has been to Iraq to entertain the troops, comedian Jackie Kashian says she doesn’t really do a lot of political material.

“I always have my opinion,” she says, “but I don’t always have all of the information. I know that doesn’t stop anybody else, but I can’t do it.” Instead, Kashian relies largely on her family for inspiration. Her father, sister, bothers and husband, she claims, are an endless supply of material. For example she describes the time her father met her for coffee and he showed up wearing a sleeveless denim shirt and homemade ‘Diary Dukes.’ “On my dad!” she exclaims. “Where have you been in this outfit? And he says ‘fishing.’ For men? It looked like he had just come from a gay rave.”

Kashian also has a soft spot for, as she puts it, “dorks.” For the past seven years she has hosted the podcast The Dork Forest which is essentially a conversation with folks, mostly comedians, talking about their particular hobbies and interests. The show stems from a joke in her act about how far into the “Dork Forest” one has to go to venture to engage with Civil War re-enactors. She says she wouldn’t mind having one on her podcast, though she does bristle at World War II re-enactors. “Let’s wait until everyone is dead (from that time) before we play World War II re-enacting games. Can I be a Jew? It’s a terrible idea.” It did give her a notion though. “I’m going to start my own game; Vietnam War protestor re-enactors. We would just sit around, get stoned and pretend that we were making a difference.” She adds, “People either love or hate that joke.” Check out full audio of this interview here. Kashian performs at The Funny Bone on the Levee Thursday-Sunday. Tickets are $15-$17.