Kat Ramzinski: Eating Bacon and Crying

January 12, 2020

Photo Credit

Tyson Heder

Interview

Valerie Lopez

Article

Richard Goodwin

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This week’s inter­view is 4 years in the mak­ing. To be fair, 99% of that was wait­ing, due to some con­fu­sion in con­tacts, sched­ul­ing, and var­i­ous mishaps. Nev­er­the­less, Valerie Lopez even­tu­al­ly nailed it down, and gets time with Austin com­ic Kat Ramzin­s­ki to find out what’s going on in her world, talk about NPR hosts and shows, and so much more. 

Ramzin­s­ki is a bun­dle of ener­gy, well worth that mul­ti-year wait to explore. Musi­cal cre­ator of par­o­dy songs via Ver­sace Kolache, and fea­tured in shows and fes­ti­vals like the Alter­ca­tion Com­e­dy Fes­ti­val and Moon­tow­er Com­e­dy, she has sto­ries aplen­ty to tell. From her obses­sion with the car repair show Click and Clack, to the mul­ti­tudes of ways she’s near­ly died – includ­ing not one but two brown recluse spi­der bites – you get the sense that her fre­net­ic ener­gy is the result of careen­ing from one life chang­ing expe­ri­ence to another. 

Some of the best com­e­dy comes in the form of per­son­al sto­ries, and it’s clear that Ramzin­s­ki has plen­ty of mate­r­i­al to draw on. She fre­quent­ly incor­po­rates these nar­ra­tives into her work on stage, includ­ing tales of acci­dents and even being mugged. It’d be easy to dip into the maudlin with these top­ics, but for Ramzin­s­ki it’s fuel for paint­ing a vivid­ly fun­ny pic­ture. ​“I think com­e­dy is fun­nier when it’s true,” she says, and that it’s key to the audi­ence feel­ing that you’re recount­ing a gen­uine expe­ri­ence ver­sus a ​“bit”.

I think comedy is funnier when it’s true.
Kat Ramzinski

There’s a risk in that kind of inti­ma­cy, Ramzin­s­ki acknowl­edges, but says: ​“You’re sup­posed to be uncom­fort­able; it’s about you, you’re shar­ing it.” When deal­ing with sen­si­tive top­ics, like vio­lent per­son­al expe­ri­ences or cul­tur­al taboos, it takes either imme­di­ate knowl­edge or ample skill, and she’s devel­oped a keen sense of know­ing how to mix the two (and when oth­ers aren’t). ​“It has to be fun­nier than it is sad,” she notes, not always an easy bal­ance to maintain.

You’re supposed to be uncomfortable; it’s about you, you’re sharing it.
Kat Ramzinski

Grow­ing up in the small town of Suther­land Spring, Texas, exposed Ramzin­s­ki to a host of eccen­tric char­ac­ters ear­ly on. The town was so small that ​“if you fart, the neigh­bors know,” she jokes. That atmos­phere, and the host of jobs and adven­tures she’s had since, tie right into her phi­los­o­phy that some of the best com­e­dy (and comics) come from hav­ing the strangest lives. 

Ramzinski’s influ­ences grow­ing up are right in line with this, with a diet of SNL, Mad TV, and her ear­ly favorite Kids in the Hall. It makes com­plete sense, giv­en that this panora­ma of sketch humor, draw­ing on sce­nar­ios seem­ing­ly too fan­tas­ti­cal to be true, would shape her affin­i­ty for sto­ry­telling. Of course, it didn’t mean she entered the com­e­dy scene ful­ly formed and ready to per­form. ​“I got my ass kicked for about two years,” she laugh­ing­ly admits. Months and years of observ­ing come­di­ans, from Bill Hicks to local comics she sings the prais­es of, fol­lowed. She knew the sto­ries she want­ed to tell, and grad­u­al­ly learned how to pare each top­ic down to the essentials.

Not all of her sto­ries are told on stage, and Ramzin­s­ki has explored no small amount of oth­er out­lets. She’s cre­at­ed or par­tic­i­pat­ed in rap bat­tles, ​“nerd rap”, and music projects for years, includ­ing Ver­sache Kolache, fronting as a hyper-styl­ized ver­sion of the ​“hoop wear­ing”, gum-pop­ping mall girls she remem­bered grow­ing up. 

With var­i­ous part­ners includ­ing boyfriend Dylan, they’ve opened for Frag­ile Rock, duo Vanil­la Pres­ley, and a host of oth­er crazy expe­ri­ences she shares with Valerie. As an exam­ple, check out the Migos par­o­dy video Ramzin­s­ki lyri­cized for Nerdist, Belle and Bou­jee, to get a sense of where she can mix these top­ics and char­ac­ters into styl­is­tic fan­ta­sy. There’s a recent­ly released video where she raps as the Sin­gu­lar­i­ty in a bat­tle between AI voice assis­tants like Alexa and Cor­tana. And if that’s not enough, she’s also in sea­son 14 of the Roost­er Teeth hit Red vs Blue.

Our time with Ramzin­s­ki ran longer than usu­al, and still wasn’t enough to cap­ture every­thing she has to share. Every recount­ing branch­es into a ver­i­ta­ble tree of moments, each more wild and weird than the last. As cre­ative gifts go, it’s a pow­er­ful one, espe­cial­ly in comedy. 

Luck­i­ly, Kat Ramzin­s­ki has plen­ty more to share, so get out and see her in per­son; she’s def­i­nite­ly got a sto­ry you’ll want to hear.

See more of Kat Ramzin­s­ki at:

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