“There is a very fine line from getting someone to laugh and getting someone to scream.”

-Alfred Hitchcock (Horror and Humor by Nöel Carroll)

Horror and comedy go hand in hand for Chicago-based artist, Maison Monroe. Majority of Maison’s art is created through a comedic and horror lens. Pieces like, ‘Retail Nightmare’ a 10-minute play about a burntout manager of a Forever 21 being attacked by sentient store mannequins that premiered in Columbia College Chicago’s Comedy Festival (2023) and Acting & Playwriting New Stew (2023). Or in Maison’s stand-up routine wherein she performs a fake virgin sacrifice inspired by Jennifer’s Body (2009) with audience participation and the use of retractable fake knife. Or even during her Columbia College Chicago term with Second City, where she wrote and performed a sketch called, ‘Spit,’ about her childhood Catholic Private School’s abstinence program that included drinking a cup full of spit which had the audience audibly gag throughout.

Above all, Maison Monroe’s artistic work is campy, referential, and out to make people laugh so hard, that they just might die…