Once the quiet kid at Preble High School into punk rock, comedian Kristin Lytie pops up all over the country making people laugh
GREEN BAY - When Kristin Lytie is out on the road doing stand-up comedy, she sometimes talks about being a sober person in Green Bay.
She likes to tell audiences she joined the dating app Single and Sober, and it turned out it was just her in Green Bay.
“That always gets a huge laugh, because I think nationally we are known for our love of alcohol,” she said.
What the city isn’t as known for is its comedy scene, but Lytie is working to change that.
“It has been kind of a mission of mine to get comedy on the map in Green Bay,” said Lytie, who is a Preble High School graduate.
Quiet and reserved in school, she probably wasn't the one her fellow students would've pegged as most likely to one day become a champion for comedy in her hometown.
“I was kind of the weird kid that liked punk rock,” Lytie said. “I imagine most classmates would be like, ‘Her? Oh my God, what?’”
She’s releasing her debut album, “Disassociation Vacation,” on April 26 on Burn This Records, a Los Angeles-based label that aims to give a leg up to what she calls “working-class comedians that don’t have rich parents.” She recorded the project in November at the Altercation Comedy Festival in Austin, Texas, 11 years to the day she performed at her first open mic while living in Chicago.
From her home base in Green Bay, she spends roughly three weekends a month performing, primarily in the Midwest for the sake of convenience, but her schedule this year has already taken her to Atlanta and Los Angeles.
“I’ll go wherever I’m wanted pretty much,” she said.
She also produces Don’t Tell Comedy pop-up shows in Green Bay. Ticket holders don’t find out the location until the morning of, and they don’t know who is performing until they take the stage that night. Don’t Tell shows have popped up at small businesses, including Lion's Mouth Bookstore and Green Bay UFO Museum Gift Shop and Records, and at Safe Haven Pet Sanctuary, where the cats got in on the jokes.
She’s able to tap her many connections in comedy circles across the country to bring stand-ups in for local shows. She has nine comedians from Burn This Records booked for this year’s GBUFO Invasion Fest July 19-21 at The Tarlton Theatre in Green Bay. In between the all-day slate of bands, comedians will perform 30-minute sets at 5 p.m. July 19 and 20. It's a chance to remind music fans that comedy can be punk rock, too, Lytie said.
She's also a union organizer and host of 'Bloody Mary' horror podcast
She got her start in comedy in Chicago, where the scene was vibrant and filled with people she admired. Open mics were her gateway to a career that has taken her to festivals in Alaska, Indiana and New Mexico.
Lytie's day job is a union organizer. During her early years as a performer, she was organizing new unions at places like food processing plants and often getting the police called on her.
“So comedy kind of looked like this emotional, creative release almost,” she said. “I always joke that no one calls the union because they’re having a good day, so it was kind of this space to create joy.”
Her observational-style humor draws from her own experiences — things like growing up in Wisconsin, quitting drinking and her love of horror movies. (She hosts the monthly “Bloody Mary” podcast in which she invites a guest to discuss their all-time favorite horror movie; hers is "The Night of the Living Dead").
There is humor to be found in daily life in Green Bay, like “the Mason Street bridge and the lust everyone feels for driving 30 miles over the speed limit on it for some reason,” Lytie said. But comedy is about more than that for her.
“I really like to look at comedy as a way to solve things that frustrate me," she said. "I feel like if you can bring a group together and make them laugh about a topic you're building a base to create understanding from.”
One of her idols is comedian Maria Bamford, who often riffs on her mental illnesses, including bipolar II disorder, depression and anxiety, during her act.
“What I love most about comedy is this idea of taking things that could be seen as something we should isolate about, like an issue that makes us feel self-conscious but you know a lot of people feel the same way,” Lytie said. “Just kind of putting it out there on the table so that everyone feels kind of like, ‘Oh yeah, I have that, too.’”
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Fighting misconceptions about what it means to be a woman in comedy
Lytie moved back to Green Bay from Chicago in 2018 after going through “a big life assessment.” She got divorced, got sober and got a hip replacement. Coming home was a chance to not only be closer to family but to do union work in a more underserved part of the country where she felt like she could make a bigger difference.
She was well aware that leaving a major market rich with performances spaces for a city without even a single stand-up comedy club would mean less stage time, but she also discovered an unexpected perk. In Chicago, comedians at her level are lucky to get eight to 15 minutes for a set, but Wisconsin, she’s frequently asked to do a half-hour.
In the five years since she’s been back, she has seen the comedy scene flourish. It’s not on par with Madison or Milwaukee, but it is growing. Don’t Tell shows consistently sell out (the next one is May 11), and more comedians in the area are producing their own shows.
Still, the challenges that come with being a woman in the industry persist, Lytie said. Bookers aren’t always as willing to take a chance on a woman as they are a man.
“You have to attack misconceptions about what it means to be a woman in comedy. There are some old-school thinkers out there that think women are just going to talk about their bodies or their periods,” Lytie said. “It’s silly, because your audience is always going to be a mix of men and women and our nonbinary friends. To not book women I think alienates a good chunk of your audience, and I think that’s becoming more understood.”
It wasn’t uncommon to see all-male lineups when Lytie first got into comedy, but more female comedians have advocated for themselves and each other, and it’s making a difference.
“Hey, you can have multiple women on a show. The stage won’t burst into flames. We promise.”
Kristin Lytie’s “Disassociation Vacation” is available for presale. Fans who buy the digital album during the presale through April 25 will have access to a discounted version on lime green vinyl. Follow her on Facebook at facebook.com/KristinLytie and Instagram at @kristinlytie.
Kendra Meinert is an entertainment and feature writer at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contact her at 920-431-8347 or kmeinert@greenbay.gannett.com. Follow her on X @KendraMeinert.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Kristin Lytie is on a mission to put comedy on the map in Green Bay
