by Liz McMahon
“Every mom is doing her best and never feels like she’s doing it well enough,” Kristin Hensley, comedian, mother, and half of the Los Angeles-based comedy duo #IMOMSOHARD, tells Style. Kristin and her partner-in-comedy, Jen Smedley, share their thoughts on motherhood via online video shorts with gut-level honesty, resulting in full-belly laughs.
Both women have backgrounds in standup comedy. “We separately moved to Los Angeles with comedy aspirations,” Smedley shares. “After becoming friends, and then mothers, we were as surprised as anyone to find out that would be when we met our biggest success.”
The duo reflects on experiences from their own lives, covering everyday motherhood topics, like feeding children, throw-up, and time-outs, that might often be cast aside as mundane. Beyond just raising their children, they discuss issues that mothers deal with on a personal level, such as budgeting, beach bodies, and beauty routines (or lack thereof). Typically, they each have a glass of wine or mimosa in hand.
“Often motherhood compromises your career, or that’s the fear,” says Smedley. “In our case if was just the greatest source of material.”
#IMOMSOHARD has taken its show, with both families in tow on their tour bus, on the road, and will perform live in Baltimore on Saturday, July 15.
The show “starts with our videos, then we do 40 minutes of standup, then more videos, and then we do a Q&A with the audience that is super interactive and makes every show different,” Hensley says. “Jen likes to call it a Monster Truck show for moms.”
The tour has “a little more ‘nighttime’ talk than our videos,” Hensley admits. The event will be less family-friendly and more of a take a well-deserved break, moms.
“As a mom, especially on social media, there is always someone telling you how to do this one thing better or there are perfect pictures of kids playing with a gentle breeze in their hair,” Hensley reflects. “In real life, everyone is screaming and mom usually smells like barf. Jen and I just felt it was time to laugh at those moments so we can all cope a little easier. Plus if we don’t laugh, we’ll cry.”
Regarding their stop in Baltimore, Hensley and Smedley let it slip that they also #RavensSoHard and wouldn’t mind in the least if Joe Flacco decided to partake in an evening of mom-com.
Check out #IMOMSOHARD videos and tour details at imomsohard.com.
Mom’s Night Out: Summer Break Tour. July 15 at The Lyric. Tickets: $35-46. 410-900-1150, modell-lyric.com.
