courtesy of the artist

A healthy, if not entirely sanitary, marriage

When beginning a career in comedy the question most often asked is, “How do you write a joke?” It varies of course. There are comics who tell stories, there are comics who use one-liners, and then there are comics who are more abstract. But jokes, no matter what form, usually consist of a premise and a punchline. For Teresa and Doug Wyckoff of The He & She Show, the premise is the two of them and the punchline is marriage. The Wyckoffs will be performing their new show at The Cell (700 First Street NW) on Friday, July 25.

“We were dating, as comedians, in Maui, and we found that over time a lot of our jokes were about each other, our relationship and relationships in general,” says Teresa. “So we decided to combine our comedic superish powers and do a relationship-themed show.” The Wyckoffs got hitched recently, and so their new show explores the shift between dating and marriage. During the show they solicit marriage advice from the audience. Thus, part of the show is stand-up and the other half is improv.

“We take marriage advice from the audience. It's interesting, because every city ends up having their own 'theme' of common streams of marriage advice. Sometimes one town is naughtier than another,” says Teresa. Some advice is crazy, some is incredibly dirty, and some is just a desperate question on how to make it all work. They never know what they’ll get and that’s part of the fun of it, but “even the worst advice can be funny and we reserve the right to make fun of any advice we receive,” says Teresa.

Having only been married for a year, the Wyckoffs are calling this their Newlywed Tour. The tour marks a huge change in their lives—marriage and moving from one coast to the other. Originally from Oregon, “We [sold] all our belongings—well, what doesn't fit into a small Toyota—and got rid of our house and most of our trappings. After we hit all 50 states we will then move to NYC to pursue comedy there,” says Teresa.

But besides delving into their life changes the Wyckoffs have nobler goals. “If [the audience] relates to our struggles in marriage and relationships, and sees us laugh at those issues,” says Teresa, “maybe that can help them laugh at theirs also and realize we're all in this together.” Local comedian, husband and father to three children, Eddie Stephens, will join the Wyckoffs as they joke about the difficulties and joys of marriage. As we all know, relationships are hard. Like anything in life that’s worth it, relationships take a lot of effort and sometimes they become tense but, as Teresa says, “Laughter tends to suck all of the tension out of any situation.”

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Genevieve Mueller is a writer and comedian. She performs all over the country and runs two monthly shows in Albuquerque: Comedians Power Hour and the Bad Penguin Comedy Show at The Box. More at genevievemuellercomedy.com or on Twitter: @fromthefloorup.

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