Elizabethtown College students welcomed rising comedian Tracey Ashley with thunderous applause Thursday, Sept. 4. Ashley and her audience developed such friendly interactions that Ashley extended her set and stayed afterward to interact with several students.
Ashley, a rising talent in the world of comedy, was born in Georgia and currently lives in Indiana. In her comedy routines, she uses her upbringing and the ups, downs and awkward situations which arise in daily life to endear herself to and entertain audiences. Ashley is a favorite performer on college campuses and has been nominated for several awards, including Best Female Performer in Campus Activities Magazine.
Ashley has also made several on-screen appearances, including co-hosting TVLAND’s Prime Movies and Wanda Sykes Presents: Herlarious. Ashley recently competed on NBC’s Last Comic Standing season 5, making it to the semifinals, which she said was a highlight. Ashley said she did not expect more than the chance to tell some of her jokes and stories on television. She was pleasantly surprised when she found out she was a semifinalist and elated to know that she would be able to reach more people through the show. It was one of the best experiences of her career so far.
Ashley first found interest in performing while watching reruns of “I Love Lucy.” She said that she thought the amazing thing about Lucy was how funny she could be through facial expressions alone. Ashley considers herself a storytelling comedian. Her brand of comedy incorporates both exaggerated expressions and body language, with a storytelling lead-up to the punchline. “I think there’s all different layers of comedy,” she said. “I like to mix it together.”
Ashley loves having fun with her work on stage and the freedom it brings. She appreciates the chance to try different material and see how it works for different audiences. The energy and the chance to have a good time with her audience are some of her favorite things about performing. “I like it when I’m killing it,” she said.
Ashley’s visit to Etown is the latest in her cross-country college tour, which has included St. Joseph’s University and Northern Kentucky University, among others. She uses relatable humor to engage her audience, first talking about how her day went. She couldn’t believe how extensive the corn fields are in central Pennsylvania. Her style of humor utilizes the ridiculousness of everyday situations in order to bring attention to the more serious situations those things might mask. She joked about things as diverse as losing luggage at the airport to mental illness and interracial marriage, saying that it’s important to be able to spin a positive out of a negative. That way, she said, it’s easier for people to deal with something and face it, rather than ignore it and hope it will resolve itself.
Her comfortable stage presence and encouragement of reactions to her stories helped the audience to feel at ease with even her darker jokes. Much of her set advocated being happy with yourself and doing what you love because you only have one life and should live it well. Ashley brings a wonderful ability to reach her audience through her humor and draw them into thinking about deeper subjects.
In particular, Ashley enjoys performing for college audiences. She loves the challenge they present. Each school at which she performs gives her a different set of guidelines to perform by. Working within those parameters helps her think of new material to perform and new ways to present existing material.
On a more technical note, Ashley said that performing for college audiences helps her come up with enough material for her television spots. The guidelines set for college shows she performs are closer to those set for television than club shows are, which helps her identify what she should or should not perform on television.
At the end of her set, Ashley said that her performance at Etown had been her best show all week, and that a good audience can make even the most hectic day worth it.
