Maggie Faris is a lot of things: a former ice cream man, a giant shoe enthusiast, and a State Fair superfan. And all of those things rip! But now, she’s being recognized for the thing she does best: standup comedy.
Despite the fact that she started performing standup back in 1999, Faris says she has never quite managed to break through to the next level.
“I thought there was a ceiling I had reached,” she explains. “Like, even up until this year, I kind of felt like, ‘I can keep doing what I’m doing, but this is kind of it for me.’”
While Faris has certainly attained—dare we say it?—local legend-status in the Minnesota comedy universe, this year the rest of the comedy world finally started to catch up. Last spring, Faris took home the $10,000 grand prize as the winner of the annual Loons on the Lake Comedy Festival in Minneapolis, and followed that up by being named MVP of the Big Sky Comedy Festival in Montana this fall.
“A lot of comics talk about Big Sky,” she says about her big win. “They get like 1,000 applicants, take 24, and then whittle that down to eight finalists. When I got there the first night I was like, ‘The caliber was so high that there is no chance in hell I’m winning this one.’ I’m sure it was a photo finish but my foot went out just a little bit more and I ended up winning that one, too.”
Now that she’s won oversized checks and a championship belt, Faris is doing what any major entertainer on-the-rise would do next: selling out on TikTok.
This Wednesday night, she’ll be performing two shows at Laugh Camp Comedy Club in St. Paul, which will be recorded, chopped, polished, and pushed to the almighty algorithm, hopefully allowing the internet to see just how funny she really is.
“I did some clips with my last album, and that was about the only traction I ever got on social media,” she says. “So I want to do it bigger and better this time.”
While she’s always writing and exploring the current seasons of her life through comedy, the shows this Wednesday are going to be more of a greatest hits compilation for Faris.
“It’ll be like 99% stuff that I’ve done and I know will crush,” she says. “Then I’ll probably throw in a few short jokes that I want to test out, and then some stuff that feels more narrative.”
Faris’s comedy has always been mostly silly and lighthearted, touching on stuff like her career as a snowplow driver and fighting bees. Still, her journey through comedy hasn’t always been smooth.
“I wasn’t what the industry wanted back then,” she says plainly. “For a long time being gay in comedy wasn’t widely accepted by the people who were booking TV shows and things like that. And then even once it became more accepted, I started feeling like maybe I was too old for what they wanted. It was tough.”
Never one to sacrifice her own beliefs, Faris famously got into an argument with producers from the inaugural season of NBC’s Last Comic Standing in 2003, when she was quickly—and her opinion, wrongly—dismissed during the audition process.
“You wait outside all day in the freezing cold, and you get like 60 seconds to impress these judges,” she recalls. “And I remember there was this beautiful woman who went up right before me, who was a mediocre comic at best. And the judges loved her. They told her how funny she was and they couldn’t wait to see her in the next round. Then I got up and within 10 seconds they stopped me and were like, ‘OK, thank you.’ So I started arguing a little bit like, ‘You let that lady through because she’s a hot chick but you can’t even hear my whole set?’ They were kind of taken back by that, but they let me through the next year because I stood my ground.”
That kind of prejudice has also fueled Faris to provide opportunities for other comics.
“When I was coming up, dudes brought you on the road if they wanted to screw you,” she says. “They weren’t trying to bring someone like me on the road. So I always try to bring women with me or book very woman-heavy on my own shows because they still don’t get the same opportunities [as male comics].”
But this Wednesday is all about Faris. And even though the taping may not be an “official” special, in true Faris fashion she plans to bring out all of the bells, whistles and (*checks notes*) tiny motorcycles you’d expect from her.
“I’m going for the most epic comedy entrance ever,” she says excitedly. “I’m going to ride in on a tiny motorcycle, wearing an Evel Knievel onesie. There’s going to be fog and lasers, and I’m going to have to cross a little bridge and go through a ring of fire. All kinds of shit.”
As for the future, Faris has big plans for 2025. She’s secured management and representation, and is looking to find her way to TV, colleges, and maybe even the occasional cruise ship. And while it would be incredible to see our hometown hero finally get her just due, Faris says she just wants to finally quit her day job.
“At least in the next year or two,” she says, tempering her own expectations and giving her fellow snowplow drivers peace of mind before winter truly hits. “Honestly, I’m just really happy that maybe I didn’t miss my window after all.”
Maggie Faris
Where: Laugh Camp Comedy Club
When: 7:30 & 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, November 27
Tickets: $17-$25; click here for tickets
