Mandee McKelvey

IndyFringe: Exes and Embryos

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This is part of IndyFringe 2022, Aug. 18-Sept. 4 (individual performance times vary) in downtown Indianapolis. Details and tickets at IndyFringe.org.

By John Lyle Belden

Standup comedian Mandee McKelvey (who brought us last year’s “How I Got My Warts Prayed Off”) returns with a new hour of comedy that’s a bit discomforting and roll out of your seats hilarious.

An out-of-the-blue inquiry by a distant friend – would Mandee like to take her extra frozen embryo? – sparks a rather twisty train of thought that includes 15 solid minutes of ranting about semen (using the more common crude word that sounds like a verb). If you can manage that, she also talks about her abortion.

For mature audiences with mature minds who don’t mind some crude humor, this is a must-see. McKelvey’s frank and upbeat delivery (“just trying to find lightness in the darkness”) will win you over. Learn how IVF is like an expensive carnival game, and that standup comedy is not “family friendly” from the comic’s perspective.

Performances are Friday and Saturday evenings, Aug. 26-27, and Saturday and Sunday afternoons, Sept. 3-4, on the Indy Eleven stage at the IndyFringe Theatre.

IndyFringe: How I Got My Warts Prayed Off

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This is part of IndyFringe 2021, Aug. 19-Sept. 5 (individual performance times vary) in downtown Indianapolis. Details and tickets at IndyFringe.org.

By Wendy Carson

Mandee McKelvey grew up in a trailer park in rural South Carolina. Her family was so poor that she had to take a bath with her brother well into her teens to conserve hot water.

During her teen years she began having warts all over her hands and feet. After suffering both physically and socially for more than two years, her mom asked her if she wanted to see a doctor about them. However, she ended up in a dry cleaners with a guy named Bob praying that she would be alleviated of her burden.

While that may have worked, at 13 she became aware that she was developing another physical deformity, and prayer was not going to help this out at all. In fact, she is still coping with this situation. Yet her story is light, funny and hopeful, even if she has become the basis for medical research due to the uniqueness of her plight.

You should definitely come and witness her saga, and learn the truth of the “Pumpkin Nut Foundation.”