SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Aug. 13, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — Matriarchs and those that love them can get their laugh on as the “Moms Unhinged” comedy tour comes to Utah for two shows next week.
The performances, which feature a rotating lineup of all mom comedians (and the occasional token dad), explore subjects such as midlife crises, marriage, divorce, and online dating.
“We do clean (ish) comedy and this is a fun night out with your girlfriends, drinking club (I mean book club), neighborhood group or your own mom,” the website for the tour says. “Comedians in our repertoire are mostly Colorado-based currently, but as we expand our network nationwide, we are able to include the very best funny women in other cities.”
The tour will visit the State Room at 638 S. State St. on Tuesday, Aug. 20 at 8 p.m. There will also be a show at Peery’s Egyptian Theater at 2415 Washington Blvd. in Ogden, on Wednesday, Aug. 21 at 7 p.m. The lineup for both will be “Moms Unhinged” founder Andrea Marie, Meaghan Elwood and headliner Stacy Pedersen. For tickets and more information on both shows, click here.
We chatted to Andrea Vahl, who goes by the stage name Andrea Marie, over the phone from her home outside Boulder. Vahl is an international speaker and comedian who has performed at venues such as Comedy Works, Denver Improv, The World Series of Comedy in Las Vegas and as part of festivals in Boston and Chicago. She is a mother of two boys, “giving her an endless source of material,” her bio says.
Vahl is originally from Chicago, but moved to Colorado in 1996. For years, she traveled across the country, speaking with and advising small-business owners on how to use social media for marketing. She also co-authored the book “Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies” and is the author of “Facebook Ads Made Simple.” The comedy group began just before the pandemic six years ago. Vahl, who had begun to do improv comedy, had put together a show with a group of moms and came up with the current name. Although they only planned to do the shows a few times a year, the comics had so much fun that Vahl started scheduling more “Moms Unhinged” performances. Vahl also noticed that after the pandemic, shows repeatedly sold out, and in early summer 2024, she began to run the group full-time.
The show now includes a rotating roster of comedians from across the country. No topic is off-limits; typical shows last about an hour-and-a-half and include three or four comedians: the host, an opener, a feature act and a headliner.
“Moms Unhinged” currently has some 70 public performances nationwide scheduled through the end of the year.
We asked Vahl first to talk us through how the group began and how it has developed.
“It started about six years ago, and I said: ‘hey, let’s do an all-women show, all-mom show, because something that happens with comedy is that often women aren’t getting on as many shows, and we’re not as represented,” Vahl said. “And I thought it would be fun to have just the moms and really focus on pulling in that audience. And it did really well, we sold out our first show. But when we started, my kids were a little younger, and so I was only doing a few shows a year, and we’d just always sell out. And then we did a couple of Zoom shows over the pandemic, which was a little crazy thing. But then, after the pandemic, we said, these shows are just so fun, and they sell out, so let’s do more. So we started finding more venues around Colorado here.
“And then this last year, I think, I said: ‘Hey, let’s try and do as many shows as we can,’ because we were finding more mom comedians. And then we thought, OK, let’s take the show on the road. And so we started doing venues all over the country, and they’re, you know, not every single one is selling out, but they’re just doing so well. And we’re just finding that the audience is really winning, and the comedians are really winning because we’re getting in front of the right audiences and then the venues win because a lot of times they’re doing the shows during the week, because that’s when the moms’ night out is.”
Vahl explained there is a roster of around 50 comedians. She also told us what the audience can expect if they come to one of the Utah shows.
“We’re finding more and more, and the comedians are now also all over the country, and so we’ve got comedians in Seattle and New York and Dallas and Atlanta, so we’re really connecting with lots of mom comedians as we’re doing these different shows,” she said. “And then the fun thing is, every show is different.
“Yeah, so on the Utah shows, we have three comedians, and one of them is there for another event, so she said: ‘Hey, I’m going to be here for this event, so what if we did a show here while I’m here?’ And then another one has a lot of family in the area, so that’s what we also try and do is, when a comedian has family in an area like, OK well, let’s put you on that show so your family can see you and come out and everything like that. And then when we come back to Utah, because I know we will, we’ll have a whole new lineup.”
Vahl will also be appearing at both the Salt Lake City and the Ogden shows.
“Yes, I will be on these shows, I’m not on every show; we have about 70 shows between now and the end of the year,” she said. “Not every comedian can travel, because some of them are like: ‘No, I can’t travel yet. You know, my kids are young.’ Others are able to travel. And so we’re just kind of working it out, but we definitely have a ton of fun. We’re usually in an AirBnB together, or something like that, it’s great.”
We also asked Vahl why she thinks the “Moms Unhinged” show resonates so much with audiences.
“We’re under so much pressure as moms and as women, and so often we’re trying to hold everything together,” she said. “And that’s kind of our tagline, is: ‘barely holding it all together.’ But it’s just there’s a lot of pressure, and it’s fun when you can laugh and find out that someone else thinks the same way, or has had the same experience. It’s not just you, you don’t feel so alone, and you can really laugh at it together, and people just come away from our shows feeling so uplifted, and just having had a fun night out. And the fun thing is at all of our shows, we see groups of women taking selfies together, because they’re all out together, they’re all making it a night out. Maybe they haven’t gotten together in a while and this is an occasion to laugh together and have fun.”
Vahl also explained that the comedians get a cut of the door.
“It’s super important to me because so often, comedians don’t earn a living wage, and as the shows do well, the comedians are the ones who are the talent; they are putting on the shows, and they are working hard with their comedy,” she said. “And I just want them to get paid well for their art that they are contributing and also, you know, especially with some of the travel shows, sometimes we’re taking them away from their families, and I want them to be able to earn a good living. And I think all of our headliners are really doing this job full-time. This is their main income. And some of them are supporting their families as a single mom, or just this is a really important source of income for them. So I want to make sure that they’re paid well for that.”
We asked Vahl what her ultimate goals are for the group.
“You know, I see it going to all different countries, and reaching different places, and also reaching every state; we haven’t been in every state yet, and I’d like to have multiple shows going to all different states, and I think we’ll get there,” she said.
Finally, she told us what other than comedy brings her joy and fulfilment in life.
“I really love traveling, so this is a great combination,” she said. “I have always loved seeing new places and international travel, and I’ve done a lot of traveling with my kids. Now they’re out of the nest, but I’m planning on shows while I’m visiting them in college, so that’s kind of a fun thing. And I get to travel and see a lot of friends. So it’s a great, great combination of things for me, that I get to travel and make people laugh.”
She added of her sons: “They really are excited for me and what I’m doing, and my oldest son just saw my show for the first time a few weeks ago. I joke that I couldn’t bring them to comedy when they were younger because I was worried they were going to be scarred by what I’m saying about them; now I just don’t care,” she laughed.
For more on “Moms Unhinged,” click here.
