Kentucky native Katherine Blanford never thought she’d be on a travel podcast. But crossing the country with a mic in hand has given her a unique window into American culture, connection, and comedy.
In this episode of Travel Tales by Afar, Katherine shares how road-tripping as a child shaped her sense of humor, the key to audience reactions across regions, and why she considers the Pacific Northwest her performing paradise.
Transcript
Aislyn Greene: I’m Aislyn Greene, and this is Travel Tales by Afar. Every week we hear stories of life-changing travel from comedians, astronauts, authors, adventurers, and so many more.
This week, we’re going to hear about finding humor on the road from a Kentucky native who’s seen pretty much every corner of America.
Today I’m talking with comedian Katherine Blandford. Her sharp observations about growing up in the South have earned her spots at comedy clubs nationwide, and her latest special is called Catholic Cowgirl.
As a kid, her travel consisted mainly of packing into the family van for trips to Florida with occasional stops at her beloved Cracker Barrel. These days, with much more travel under her belt, she has a special knack for connecting with pretty much any audience. In our conversation, she shared about how different regions react to humor, and why, despite crisscrossing America as a comedian, she considers the Pacific Northwest her performing paradise.
Welcome, Katherine.
It’s really nice to meet you. Thanks so much for doing this.
Katherine Blanford: I love this because never did I think growing up—I wouldn’t be somebody that someone would talk to about traveling.
Aislyn: I was actually curious, like what was your relationship to travel when you were a kid? Was it a thing that you did?
Katherine: Truly, this was like as far as we would go is we would pack up the van, I’m in Kentucky. It’s pretty middle of the state, and we would drive 14 hours, get lost twice, and eventually end up in Destin, Florida. And we would do like the spring break there or maybe, you know, a weekend. But it was just like we would go to the Florida beaches. That was it. And I think, I literally remember one time my grandpa remarried a Canadian woman and we went to Calgary to go visit them. And that was like, we are...
International voyagers, like everyone, like our aunts and uncles and our cousins were like, oh my gosh, tell us what it’s like in the different world. We were just like—
Aislyn: Yep. Yeah.
Katherine: Calgary, but it was a big deal.
Aislyn: Amazing. I mean, I’ve never been to Calgary. It sounds like those—they have a big rodeo there. It sounds like a big deal to me.
Katherine: Well, that was funny. I was a kid. My passport, I think I had braces in it. Um, it was the Calgary Stampede. We went, we watched lumberjacks run on the little logs and everything. And then since I’ve had so many friends from Canada, friends from Calgary, and I would be like, I remember as a kid going to the Calgary Stampede and they’re like, oh, that’s a drunken, horny mess.
Sorry. I don’t know if I could say that on here, but it, you know, it, I guess the, the notion is it’s very much more like kind of spring breaky, you know, everyone’s getting drunk and hooking up and there’s this, this big party atmosphere. I was like, oh, I was a child who thought it was the most wholesome thing. I had cotton candy.
Aislyn: Exotic, you know? Right. You’re like, I’ve never seen such short shorts, such amazing boots. That’s so good.
Katherine: Like, wow.
Aislyn: Wow. Gosh. Well, what were those early road trips like? Like did you have the classic, you know, like fighting over the backseat?
Katherine: Oh, always fighting. Always fighting. Always staying at a, my mom would call ‘em’ roach motels. You know? But you know, my favorite thing was stopping at the Cracker Barrels and you’d go into the gift shop.
Did you guys ever stop at Cracker Barrels?
Aislyn: I, you know, I’m West Coast, so like we would stop at like, I don’t know, an REI, I don’t know. I don’t know what the . . .
Katherine: I love.
Aislyn: . . . IHOP probably is the closest.
Katherine: Okay. The Cracker Barrel,
Aislyn: Tell me. Yeah.
Katherine: Oh my God. It’s um... it is breakfasty, but it feels, it feels like one of those institutions that’s gonna stand the test of time. Like if there’s ever like an apocalypse and the only people left are like a few Doomsday preppers, cockroaches, and there will be a Cracker Barrel still standing.
Aislyn: I see.
Katherine: With, with staff in it. Like they got biscuits and all the ladies, they got their names sewn into their aprons.
Aislyn: ‘Cause they’ve been there.
Katherine: There’s a gift shop and they have all like little toy horses and like, I don’t know, little BB guns.
But it’s very still like old school. You’ve got checkers—like on every table there’s rocking chairs on the front porch that old people hang out and rock.
Aislyn: Well, can we go back a little bit to kind of where you grew up, you know, because your home state does seem to feature in your comedy quite frequently. So what was it like growing up and Louisville, right?
Am I pronouncing that correctly or am I—is that too California?
Katherine: I wanna give you the benefit of the doubt, but you’re pretty off.
Aislyn: Oh my God. OK. Tell me—you tell me it wasn’t the worst. OK. What’s the worst? Louisville?
Katherine: Louisville’s pretty—yeah. Uh, it’s Louisville[ luh-vull] . It’s like—
Aislyn: Louisville. Alright. Louisville.
Katherine: Yes. There you go. I always say we drink a lot of bourbon, so pretend like you’ve had a lot of bourbon and your mouth is full of biscuits.
Aislyn: That is like remarkably helpful.
Katherine: Yeah. There you go. You nailed it.
Aislyn: Amazing. Thank you. So yeah, what was it like growing up there?
Katherine: You know what, it is really—I mean, I, I truly feel like I just had a very Americana childhood. I was in Louisville, which was... It’s sad to say the big city. Both my parents come from tobacco farms. My mom’s from Owensboro, the “Boro”, my dad’s family, they all kind of—most of them lived out on farms in more rural parts of Kentucky.
I truly—we were like the family that was like, look who’s coming back. Look who’s coming back, look who’s coming back to the country for a day. You know, we were the ones with a cul-de-sac. We were the city slickers.
Aislyn: Oh my gosh, that is amazing. Did you grow up with horses? ‘Cause I feel like that’s also another recurring motif, shall we say.
Katherine: I I actually didn’t, which is the best part about it. Because I, I was obsessed with horses. I would get the horse books and my friends had horses and there were some barns close to us. We would go ride and obviously we’d go to the track.
But you know, my parents are like, we have three kids and we’re, we’re not getting a horse. We don’t live on a farm. And so most of the jokes I have about just, you know, being a horse because I couldn’t have a horse. But it’s interesting, like, I remember growing up and going to the track—
I say track like Churchill Downs, the big race track in Louisville. That’s where the Kentucky Derby is. It’s such a—it’s a world that you realize, like, these people are so enwrapped in.
Aislyn: Yeah.
Katherine: You go by like, the backside of Churchill is my favorite place to be when I go there for Derby. I’ll stop talking about this in a second.
Aislyn: No, no. I wanna hear all about this. This is what we’re here for.
Katherine: My favorite Derby festival thing to do is—so the Derby is the first Saturday in May.
There’s two weeks of festivals leading up to the Derby. It starts off with Thunder Over Louisville. That’s where there’s a bridge that connects Louisville. It’s the Ohio River and the bridge goes over to Indiana and it’s one of the biggest fireworks shows in the world. And they just have all these activities and everything.
But one of the coolest things to do is called Dawn at the Downs.And so my parents would take us to Churchill Downs in the morning before school. I mean, the sun is rising, it’s just coming up, and the horses are warming up, the horses are training, and you get to go to the backside of Churchill Downs, where all the stalls are and where they bathe the horses and feed them.
And it’s all the trainers, you know, and everybody, it’s back there and it’s just like the sun’s coming up. It’s springtime, so it’s still very cool. And you’re watching these horses like—they just did a bunch of sprints and they’re getting a bath and there’s the steam coming off their body.
And they’re getting apples and they’re so excited. It’s... it’s very cool. It’s a beautiful scene.
Aislyn: Yeah, it sounds like a great photo, like you get a great Instagram photo of the steam going up. Do you try to go back every year? Like is that a part of your adult life?
Katherine: I like to go back more than I actually do, but I always tell people I’m like, you need to have the full experience.There’s so many days to experience different types of Churchill. Like—
Aislyn: Mm-hmm.
Katherine: Obviously there’s the Millionaire’s Row and the hoity-toity areas of the track.
Aislyn: Yes, that we all think of, with like the umbrellas.
Katherine: Yes. But my favorite part is the infield and the paddock.
Aislyn: What happens there?
Katherine: You know, we’re not allowed to tell.
Aislyn: You gotta go. You have to see for yourself.
Katherine: You gotta go. Yeah, yeah. Take a disposable camera. Um, ‘cause your phone will get lost. Um, those are the more wild, rambunctious places, but that’s also where the fun, like, outfits and the really wild things are.
But the paddock is so fun too, ‘cause you just walk around and it’s amazing people watching.
Aislyn: Yes, which is, you know, that’s why I love to travel—like to watch people in places that I don’t know. And have you ever heard of this thing called hobby horsing? I think that’s what it’s called.
Katherine: Oh yeah. Since I was doing bits about like pretending to be a horse . . .
Aislyn: Yes. OK.
Katherine: . . . I get hobby horse videos and clips daily from folks.
Aislyn: Yes. Because I’m obsessed.
Katherine: It warms my heart. I, you know, the comp—I love, like, I love watching clips. You, it’s always on TikTok. You watch a clip of like a competition, and my favorite part is the, the girls are freaking out. You know, like they just had a bad run or they missed the jump. Their stick horse is crying, everyone’s crying, and then you can just glance over in the stands and there’s like four people in the stands. One person is sleeping, you know, it’s so low stakes, but they care.
They care.
Aislyn: I know. They really care. I wanna do a story about it actually, because I’m so fascinated by that aspect, like the mental part. ‘Cause it’s not really about the crowd, it’s not about the people. It’s about like, whatever’s going on. Anyway, we can move on from horses.
Katherine: I love it. My goal is to judge one of those competitions. I wanna host or judge.
Aislyn: You should!
Katherine:I’ve been sent so many clips, but there is like a world championship hobby horse riding competition somewhere in the world.
Aislyn: Isn’t it like Finland or . . .
Katherine: Oh my—
Aislyn: I know!
Katherine: God, I would be in heaven. Thank goodness I didn’t find out about hobby horse as a child.
Aislyn: Yes.
Katherine: I would’ve been so deep in it.
Aislyn: You might not actually be here today. You might be in Finland, you know?
Katherine: Yeah, I may—I may have had a unicorn surgically attached to my forehead at this point.
Aislyn: Oh my God. Alright, well, so now you live in L.A., is that—am I correct in that? So I’m curious what has that transition been like culturally for you? Um, and I know you’ve traveled a lot and we’ll get to that, but yeah.
Katherine: Oh, it’s, it’s wild. ‘Cause I was in the Southeast for the first 31 years of my life. I would say up until then it was always like—the culture shift I ever experienced was just getting deeper into Southern traditions.
You know, it was like, oh, I thought I was from the South and I went to South Carolina, you know, and they’re driving tahoes and saying ma’am, with hunting dogs, and nothing like—nothing I’d ever experienced before.
It was like 31, kind of when my career took off and I started touring and going across the country.
And it was really cool, because then I was trying to write a new hour, but then I always kind of give myself a challenge of writing local jokes at the top of my set.
Aislyn: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Katherine: Comics do it, you know, just to like show that you’re there with them, you can relate to them. You do have to like research the place or walk around, you know, have a local story or something that happens.
So it’s also just a great way to like get out and just walk around the city a little bit.
Aislyn: Yeah, yeah.
Katherine: And it’s cool to see how different areas of the country respond to jokes and their different mannerisms and like, their different, like, ways of expressing if they like something.
Aislyn: Oh yeah, tell me. Like what does that look like?
Katherine: In the Midwest, they could be loving the show, but they have their arms crossed and they’re nodding.
Aislyn: Really? No.
Katherine: Yes! And you’re like, I am crushing with this guy. And you are. Yeah. And then, you know, like in the South, it’s a big hoot and holler, and their hands are thrown in the air and they’re falling on the ground.
Aislyn: When you were kind of experiencing that difference in audience reactions—well, I’m curious to know, like, the first time you came to realize that, like, yes, crushing in the Midwest—was it because somebody came up afterward and was like, That was amazing, and you were like, Oh, OK. But also, how were the coastal audiences? Like West Coast versus East?
Katherine: Yeah, very much. It was, like, I—you know, I went up in Ann Arbor or Michigan, and, you know, it just felt like I was fighting for my life up there. And afterward, people would come up to me like, We had a ball. And you’re like, Are your arms glued underneath your armpits then? Like, let ’em out! Release it a little bit! And then, you know, another comic came up to me and was like, These are just the crowds.
Aislyn: Yeah, yeah.
Katherine: It’s funny, it’s like almost like I could split the country into like 12 different regions, I feel like. ‘Cause you obviously—your coastal elites.
Your L.A., New York—
Aislyn: Yeah. Yeah.
Katherine: Can be fun depending on where you are in the city. But sometimes it’s just, it’s people in the industry or it’s artists or it’s whatever. And they also have kind of like a, a crossed-arms vibe, like “I’m in the arts, I could do this.” My favorite areas, favorite areas are on the coast.
Aislyn: OK.
Katherine: The Pacific Northwest is my favorite, favorite, favorite, favorite place to perform.
‘Cause those people are cold and they’re drunk, but they don’t have an elitist attitude where they’re like above everything. And so they’re cold, and so they’re so happy to be inside somewhere just enjoying themselves, and it makes for a prime audience. They’re also, they’re smart, they’re educated, but they can also, they can hear you out.
Aislyn: OK. Interesting. I’m from Seattle. And so when, when you said cold initially, I was like, oh yeah, people can be a little cold. They can be a little standoffish. But I was like, oh, you meant like actually like physically.
Katherine: Physically cold.
Aislyn: That’s so true. It’s so damp.
Katherine: Yeah, so they’re inside, but they’re smart. But they’re also still kind of just like sometimes mixed with like the, the, the ruralness is very close outside of the big cities, and so they’re still like happy to just be inside experiencing something. ‘Cause sometimes that doesn’t come around very often.
Aislyn: Totally. Yes. Yes, yes. That’s really interesting. Any other kind of memorable, I don’t know, regions or audiences?
Katherine: This is the weirdest one, but it’s a place called Great Falls, Montana—a town I do think will survive the apocalypse.
Aislyn: Do they have a Cracker Barrel?
Katherine: Everyone has their own bunkers. No need for a Cracker Barrel. And, um, it’s just one of those towns where like they have all these quirky things.
Like you stay in a hotel where the bottom of it is a mermaid bar—the mermaids are swimming, it’s—there’s like a pool.
Aislyn: In Montana?
Katherine: Yeah. In Montana. There’s a pet store right next to the venue where if you walk deep enough into the pet store, there’s monkeys in the back.
Aislyn: Oh my God. I love this place.
Katherine: It’s just one of those towns, you know? And the folks are just like—you can tell everybody’s got a secret.
Aislyn: Oh.
Katherine: Even the cutest woman with a cute little blonde pixie, and she’s adorable and she’s sweet—she’s seen death.
Aislyn: Yeah.
Katherine: Everyone’s seen death there.
And it just feels like one of those towns where, uh, you know, like you could stay for four weeks and every day you’d hear some new wild, crazy, insane story.I love towns like that.
Aislyn: Wow. Wow.
So like what’s your approach? Or maybe it changes depending on where you are. Like if you’re trying to kind of go out, get some information about the place, maybe get some stories to work into your act. Like what do you do? How do you tackle that?
Katherine: I’ll ask local comics or people or like the, you know, club people, if I talk to ‘em before, “Where should I go and walk about?” And then I love to just have three hours of wandering. I love a good coffee shop. I want to eat well. That’s my reward. I don’t want to eat healthy, but I want it to be a good meal.
And then I love like, like a, you know, a big park in the area. And then you just kind of get a feel for the people, and then you usually just come back with like a story or two of a very quintessential town-folk kind of person.
Aislyn: Yeah. Does that also segue into your crowd work? ‘Cause that was one of the things that I wanted to ask that I really appreciate about your comedy, is I feel like you’re so good with the crowd and you really meet people where they’re at.
Like there was the, um, it was the guy whose girlfriend shot him.
Katherine: Oh, Arizona.
Aislyn: Arizona, yes. And that was one, I was just like, wow. This was like—it was like a Christmas gift.
Katherine: Oh, yeah. I mean, it was great. I could only put up, I think, a minute and a half on the internet, and it was like, we talked for 10 minutes on stage. It just kept getting crazier and crazier. Um,
Aislyn: Wow.
Katherine: I mean, that’s my third time doing that club, and it’s right outside Phoenix. But it’s like, you very quickly understand Arizona folk and, and Phoenix folk. And it’s just funny, like when you tap into somebody like that and you could call ‘em out on it, like just you—and you’re like, that is an Arizona story.
I like to learn about the town, but not in like a way of “I’m better than.”
Aislyn: Yeah. Yeah.
Katherine: But more in just like I wanna learn about your creatures. I wanna know . . .
Aislyn: Yeah.
Katherine: . . . like, like how, why did these people thrive in this habitat, and what kind of person does it take to thrive in this habitat?
Um, and it’s fun ‘cause it kind of feels like you’re in a new TV show in every town.
Aislyn: Totally.
Katherine: And it’s, yeah. I’ve said this before, but in every reality of my life, I feel like I’m living the best one. ‘Cause every week is a different scenery.
Aislyn: Yeah. Yeah. That’s so cool. Do you like being on the—I mean, I know it can be rough to be on the road—but do you like that for that reason?
Katherine: I love it. I, it’s nice now that I’m, uh, booking full weekends. When I first started touring, it was one nighters so I was doing three cities in three days. That’s grueling, ‘cause you don’t even really get to see the town.
Like if I get like,uh, three days, sometimes four days in a club, that’s when you can chill and walk around and really immerse yourself in a town. And I’m about to do Tacoma, and I’m so excited.
Aislyn: Oh, Tacoma. Oh my God, yes. Tacoma Aroma. I mean—
Katherine: I would record a special in Tacoma. I love it.
Aislyn: That’s awesome.
Katherine: I love like a Tacoma or like, um, a Fort Collins in Colorado, like these little, these like-er, mountainy-ish towns right off the big city.
Aislyn: What—like, what do you think that is for you? What’s the, like, magic sparkly thing?
Katherine: Um, maybe it’s because of where I came from. I wouldn’t say I’m the smartest person, you know, or the most cultured person. So maybe I feel more comfortable being around people that aren’t in the big city and have some big, big hoity-toity job. And I feel comfortable, like, you know, with people more on my level.
Aislyn: Yeah, I feel like there’s the, like—I don’t wanna say humility—but there’s that sense of like, hey, we’re living life. You know? You’re here. We’re here. Let’s just be a human. I don’t know. Yeah.
Katherine: There was, I was in Appleton, Wisconsin, um, and a 4-H Club took a field trip to my show.
Aislyn: No.
Katherine: I was in heaven.
Aislyn: Oh my gosh. That’s amazing.
Katherine: Talking about, you know, their favorite calf they had as a kid.
Aislyn: That’s, yeah.
Katherine: And, you know, drinking the milk that they’re squirting and everything. It just was—that’s my kind of people.I like those.
Aislyn: I like that. Well, do you have any other kind of memorable moments in that way? Like, you know, crowds or like a specific person that you’re like, Wow, you’re just really doing this with me.
Katherine: When I was doing a lot more horse girl stuff, I would end my show by bringing someone on stage and we would have a neigh-off.Yeah. And I just, I did it in Jacksonville, one time. And the woman after, she was so sweet, we’re still friends to this day—she was like, I have horses and you’re gonna come ride tomorrow. And I just—I don’t know. I wasn’t even in a sad place, but it does sound like I went ‘cause I was suicidal, but I wasn’t. I totally trusted her. And I went the next morning, um, and went out to her farm and we rode horses and that’s when I was like: this is the peak of my life.I get to do standup comedy and then meet people who are obsessed with horses, and in the day I get to go ride horses, and now I’m fulfilling everything I ever wanted as a child.
Aislyn: I mean, can you imagine? Yeah. Like, the little kid version of you seeing you now? Like what—how have you made this happen? I think the neigh-off, like—that seems like that’s a vehicle.
Katherine: Yeah, yeah.
Aislyn: You don’t do that anymore?
Katherine: I really had to move on. I mean, ‘cause people—I posted a few clips and then people were expecting it, and people were coming with a really good neigh and I was losing a lot more than I was used to. And it was starting to get to my ego. I can’t—I can’t lose on a neigh-off three nights in a row in Chicago.
Aislyn: Oh, wow. And then just get up the next morning like everything’s fine.
Katherine: No. It stays with you, you know, and it shakes me.
Aislyn: Yeah. Yeah. Understood. Okay, so neigh-neigh to the neigh. Well, before we wrap up—anything else that you wanna add about your travel life, your crisscrossing of the United States, advice?
Katherine: I would just like to issue an apology for me in the past—and I’m gonna go ahead and apologize for how I will be acting in the future.I’m a monster in the airport, and I’m so sorry if I have given your children a dirty look or you for having your children. I just, I’m not a patient person.
And I fly so much and I get in the airport, it’s a very, like, A-to-B mode. I know my routine. And I understand that people have children, and they are not flying every day, so they may move at a slower pace. And I get that now, as I’m sitting in my comfortable apartment in LA.
In the moment, when I’m in the airport, I’m going to step over your crawling child on the moving sidewalk, give you a side-eye. I keep it moving. And just know, I’m just being nasty in the moment. Please forgive me.I’m a good person once I get out of the airport, but I am a monster in the airport, and I apologize.
Aislyn: Okay, good to know. Well, I will avoid you in the airport if I ever, ever run into you. But once you get on the plane, are you fine?
Katherine: I’ve just been in a plane seat too many times with a child behind me who was kicking me the whole time.
Aislyn: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Katherine: So I, I have no patience for it. I really, but I’m to myself on the airplane. As long as you keep your shoes on, we typically can be friendly neighbors. But if you take your shoes off, I won’t say anything to you directly—but I will cough on your Biscoff.I will do passive-aggressive things to you. I do not want to see your long toenail almost about to pierce out of your old Costco socks.
Aislyn: Wow. That is a visual. Well, I think that’s the perfect note to end on.
Katherine: I promise, I love traveling.
Aislyn: No, no. But traveling is different than like, the getting there. I know you actively are traveling, but like—that’s not... That’s just getting to the traveling part.
Katherine: Right. Just—just keep your shoes on. Keep your shoes on.
That was Katherine Blandford. If you want to catch her hilarious takes on travel and regional differences, you can see her live at upcoming shows in Sunnyvale, California, Oklahoma City, and Tulsa—and this October at Red Rocks with Bert Kreischer.
As you heard, she may be a monster in the airport who might step over your crawling child on the moving sidewalk, but she is a lovely person, once she’s safely on the ground. You can follow her comedy and tour dates on social media. I’ve linked to her website and her handles in the show notes.
Next week, join us for an exploration of family and music in Colombia.
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