Kelli Dunham

Fresh Fruit Award winning comedian Kelli Dunham:

Is frequently mistaken for a member of a boy band even though she is an adult female;
Is a skateboarding ex-nun who has never been able to successfully get drunk and lied about her age to get her first library card;
Has an undiagnosed medical condition that makes her crave nutritional yeast on bacon and diet soda with equal (and scary) zeal.

Really, how could she be anything BUT a stand up comic?

Kelli began her comedy career as many other comics do: in the open mic scene at a local club. One Thursday night she was chased in the parking lot after a show by a homophobic patron wielding a broken beer bottle. Kelli realized (in her own words) “I need to find some different venues. Or learn how to run to faster.”

Kelli talked with friends who were indie musicians and realized that alternative venues were going to be more open to her brand of progressive comedy and she began booking herself at prides, women’s festivals, coffehouses, listening rooms and even once (once) a livestock festival.

She released her first CD “I am NOT a 12 Year Old Boy” in 2005. It has been in regular rotation on Sirius Radio’s mainstream comedy channel since shortly after its release.

She released her second CD “Almost Pretty: live from the Stonewall Inn” in July of 2008. It immediately sold out at CDbaby.com and has since received excellent reviews from a number of diverse media outlets.

Kelli’s comedy is gently edgy, but she is not afraid to take her quizzical story-telling style into areas where even slam poetry dares not tread: a torn up birth certificate, the perils of responding to extreme sarcasm coming from a dying lover, trying to avoid being gay bashed while wearing a flowered shirt and Stetson cowboy hat in a Jacksonville Florida Denny’s. And while Kelli’s act is many times political it is also deeply deeply personal and often focuses on that magical moment of intersection when the LGBT and non-LGBT worlds meet, or–at times– collide.

Still reading?

You can listen to audio clips or video clips here, and if you’re interested in purchasing either of Kelli’s CDs, you can find them on cdbaby.