Comedy with (Holly) Hart

When it comes to com­e­dy, Hol­ly Hart does not phone it in – not even on Zoom calls. While the rest of us were bare­ly show­er­ing dur­ing quar­an­tine in 2020, Hart was per­form­ing on Com­e­dy Wham Iso­la­tion Com­e­dy shows in an elab­o­rate ball gown (evi­dence avail­able in our Twitch archive!), waltz­ing around her apart­ment in an anti-MTV Cribs-style, crack­ing up her vir­tu­al audi­ence. That’s because whether she’s doing stand up, improv, or sketch – in per­son or oth­er­wise – Hol­ly Hart goes all out, nev­er skimp­ing on the fan­fare. ​“I got­ta make this…fun for me,” she told Valerie, which in turn makes her com­e­dy even more fun for her audience.

Hart start­ed doing stand up com­e­dy in Austin only a short time before the world required such Zoom shows, and has since hit the ground run­ning. The tim­ing of the start of her com­e­dy career put her on the cusp of both the old and the new Austin com­e­dy scenes; and she has since become loved (and thus booked) by both. Regard­ing the two scenes though, Hart shared ​“I think as time [goes] on, those divi­sions are becom­ing less and less… I think FPIA offered an oppor­tu­ni­ty where every­one was see­ing peo­ple that maybe they’ve nev­er got­ten the chance to see.” And as a 2022 Cap City Com­e­dy Club Fun­ni­est Per­son in Austin con­test semi­fi­nal­ist, Hart def­i­nite­ly seized that oppor­tu­ni­ty. In addi­tion she was select­ed as a 2022 Moon­tow­er Com­e­dy Fes­ti­val per­former. These estab­lished fes­ti­val and com­e­dy club oppor­tu­ni­ties are bring­ing Hart’s com­e­dy to a wider audi­ence, shar­ing her unique com­bi­na­tion of being charm­ing yet hilar­i­ous­ly bizarre, with lots of sil­ly con­cepts and clever mis­di­rects speck­ling her set. 

That charming/​bizarre label can also be applied to the sev­er­al shows Hart has pro­duced. In line with Hart’s incli­na­tion to go above and beyond for her gen­er­al per­for­mances, she often cre­ates entire com­e­dy shows with a twist – a com­e­dy talk show, a com­e­dy truth or dare show, a com­e­dy potluck din­ner-style show (some­how, yes.) Her shows are always high-con­cept, mak­ing for unique, mem­o­rable enter­tain­ment with a lot of heart. Think alt com­e­dy, but also adorable. Take her show, Heart to Hart which had a 6‑month res­i­den­cy at The Fall­out The­ater, for exam­ple, where she sat come­di­ans down for an inti­mate chat in an elab­o­rate, cozy liv­ing room set to ask ques­tions like ​“Ok, who’s your favorite war crim­i­nal?” The con­cept came from her own per­son­al expe­ri­ence of ask­ing strangers weird ques­tions: an acci­den­tal­ly hilar­i­ous byprod­uct of learn­ing to use ice­break­ers in col­lege and nev­er know­ing how to get con­ver­sa­tions going with new people. 

Hart’s ambi­tious show ideas prove she puts in a lot of effort into what she wants her audi­ence to expe­ri­ence. This helps her not only enter­tain but con­nect with crowds, which she cites as her favorite part of per­form­ing. “[My favorite part is] the adren­a­line rush of real­ly con­nect­ing with an audi­ence… espe­cial­ly when some­one has a dis­tinct laugh and you keep hear­ing it… It just makes me so hap­py.” She also notes that wacky laughs are a good reminder that audi­ences are not just col­lec­tive mass, but rather a group made up of indi­vid­u­als. And Hart’s belief in that dis­tinc­tion is exact­ly what makes her not only a great come­di­an, but a great come­di­an with heart.

Fol­low Holly

• Twit­ter — @hollyhartatx
  
• Insta­gram — @hollyhartatx
• Tik­tok- @hollyhartatx

Hol­ly can be seen and heard:

• Shows all over Austin
• Com­e­dy Wham Iso­la­tion Com­e­dy episodes on Twitch
  • July 10, 2020