All Hail the Sinisterhood
Kevin Beane talks to local comics Christie Wallace and Heather McKinney about their podcast Sinisterhood.
by Kevin Beane
published Friday, November 23, 2018
Photo: Kaspars Skels
Christie Wallace and Heather McKinney at a taping of Sinisterhood
Dallas — Dallas Comedy House bills itself as a place for standup, improv, sketch, and storytelling. To that list we can now add “live podcast tapings,” as local comics Christie Wallace and Heather McKinney pressed the record button in front of an enthusiastic audience on a Friday night in October.
The podcast, Sinisterhood, takes on a subject from the world of true crime and Forteana, riffs on it, and Wallace and McKinney in the end make individual declarations on their beliefs in the matter.
One of the most pleasant surprises of the taping was the house was probably 95 percent full, but I recognized very few faces, which means not a lot of comedy regulars. Which is to say, Sinisterhood has built their own robust following, independent of the DFW comedy scene.
While their format and subject matter is already tried and true in podcasting, two important distinctions make Sinisterhood a little different, according to Wallace. One is that McKinney is a lawyer, so she can bring some jurisprudent observation into the matters at hand.
The other is that they are improvisers. They support each other. “We are 'yes, and...' comedians,” says Wallace. “Yes, and...” is the signature phrase of improv comedy.
The chemistry they have together is obvious from the start, but the same is true for lots of podcasts. Unfortunately, all too many of them take that chemistry to weave an impenetrable spider web of inside jokes that demand listening from episode one.
The women of Sinisterhood deliberately keep their show accessible, whether the listener started listening at episode 1 or episode 25. McKinney explains this in the simplest and sweetest terms.
“We want everyone to feel like our friend.”
Episodes drop about once a week at sinisterhood.com.