Inspired by: Patti Harrison
Miista
Fri Aug 23 2024
At Miista, we’re inspired by people who do the opposite thing – the pioneers who take risks, challenge conventions and encourage bold decisions.
In our Inspired By series, we showcase the stories of these individuals, whose attitudes embody everything we celebrate in our designs and production process.
Nobody’s ever quite sure where they're standing at a Patti Harrison show.
A seemingly earnest set-up might tempt you into believing she’s getting all serious for a second, before she turns the entire story around on itself – and on the audience. Equally, the next joke might have you feeling a little unsettled, before leaving you in stitches.
Either way, her humour is deadpan and absurdist, with the same kind of creative unpredictability that drives how we do things at Miista.
Known for Shrill and I Think You Should Leave – as well as her leading role in the film Together Together – she’s been touring her live comedy show ‘My Huge Tits Huge Because They Are Infected NOT FAKE’ for the last couple of years, and recently ended a run of performances at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
We met Patti in the Scottish capital before she flew back home to LA, to chat about creative risks, taking advice from celebrities, and why she didn’t want to be pigeonholed as an activist comedian.
Miista: Tell me about teenage Patti.
Patti Harrison: I actually didn’t do comedy or anything when I was a teenager; I was pretty hard-in-the-paint incel-adjacent. [Laughs] No, I was really into drawing and art as a teenager. I really wanted to design guns and design cars, but that was pre-me transitioning, so I think I was trying to masculinise myself, when really I’d secretly draw clothes and shoes and big-titted ninja women, manifesting what I’d become later in life.
Can you describe a time when you took a creative risk and it paid off in an unexpected way?
No [laughs]. I think every time I’ve taken a creative risk I look back on it and I’m like, ‘I shouldn’t have done that.’
"My goal for success is to be mildly rich, because I think you have to do really evil stuff to get super rich."
What’s a time that’s happened, or at least where you got pushback from a crowd?
Last year, at the Fringe, I was doing an early version of the show I’m doing now, where I use the F-slur in this context of me saying I have the agency to say it because I’m a homophobe and I hate gay people – ha, ha, ha. It’s not true, it’s a joke, if you can believe that. There was an older male gay couple in the audience who started yelling stuff. I couldn’t really hear what they were saying, but they were definitely having a negative reaction, and they went out and chewed out the door person, who’s this, like, non-binary teenager angel, who has nothing to do with the show.
I guess this couple was really upset and said I didn’t have the agency to be using the F-slur – and I get that. I get how being provocative can have negative responses, but it’s not my goal. My goal, as best as possible, is to communicate enough that the journey there might be a bit uncomfortable, but hopefully people understand that we’re ultimately on the same side. If someone disagrees and wants to have a discussion about it in a calm way, I’m like, ‘Yeah, sure.’ I like to hear other people’s points of view. What was not OK about that situation, to me, is that they went and yelled at someone. It was such an entitled reaction.
Do you think it’s the responsibility of artists – and comedians specifically – to talk about politics and serious issues in the news?
It depends. I do feel like people’s opinions can be influenced if someone they like speaks out on something, and I would implore people not to seek political guidance from actors, or influencers, or comedians. Comedians can point towards things and be like, ‘Look at this.’ But I think then you need to dig a little deeper on those things, and not just be like, ‘Jerry Seinfeld’s talking about Gaza, those are my opinions now.’ I mean, he is so cool and so hot… kidding.
People on Earth can truly do whatever they want. If you have a lot of influence and a platform, and you can use that for good and to point that towards people towards something distressing that’s happening – say, Gaza – then amazing, use your platform for that.
What do you personally find funny?
There’s stuff I’ve always thought was funny – which is instances of shocking, graphic, unexplainable violence – that I actually realise I’m having a shock response to and laughing at out of nervousness, not actually because something’s funny. So there are definitely things I talk about in my show where I haven’t actually written a joke, I’m just describing something really awful happening in graphic detail – and what’s funny to me is the extent of explaining it and how many adjectives you can use to describe it, because there are so many in the language – so many synonyms.
Shout out synonyms.
No, do not shout out synonyms.
"If you keep talking about what you want to talk about, eventually you build a base of people who get it. But it definitely took time and committing to going against what I thought other people wanted me to do."
What do you enjoy most: writing, performing live or acting?
I like performing live. Getting paid to act in stuff is really fun and nice, but most of the things I’ve acted in professionally aren’t things that I wrote. Whereas, performing my own live stand-up show, I have a lot more control and autonomy, for better or worse. And onstage, the confirmation of whether something you made is good or not is pretty instantaneous. Also, the interaction of live performance is really exciting. Sometimes it’s scary, but my experience performing live has been 99% positive.
What does success mean to you?
I think my idea of success when I was a kid was being super rich. Now, I feel like my goal for success is to be mildly rich, because I think you have to do really evil stuff to get super rich – and I want to get to the point where I’m rich, but I haven’t had to lay off 400 people to make my first billion on a company that uses chemicals that kill people in places I’ll never go.
We left our meeting with Patti struck by her commitment to creating a career on her own terms, no matter how long it took. Goes to show persistence pays off, especially if you're going against the grain.
