Comedian Johanna Tohni wants to champion the cause of a more honest motherhood. That doesn’t mean she hasn’t built the same scenes as others in her time.
These and many other memories of her motherhood have been on her mind lately. Tohni, from Tampere, is a comedian whose observations and experiences have given rise to the stand-up show *Mothers behaving badly*. In it, she makes jokes about her own childhood and about herself as a mother.
Being a mother is great material for a comedian, because there are plenty of embarrassing moments. On the other hand, motherhood as a social institution needs to be aired, according to Tohn.
– Motherhood still seems to be something sacred, mythical and elevated. Mothers have to fit into a certain mould. If you used to be, say, a goth, as a mother you can’t do that anymore, you have to wear a windbreaker.
Fellow mothers praise
In his presentation, Tohni considers, among other things, whether it is permissible to tell a child directly that his stories are not very interesting. At her gigs, she has spoken about her motherhood in a sarcastic and direct tone before, and that’s why she doesn’t worry about feedback.
The social media comments may be appalled at how a mother can talk about her children like that. However, the live feedback after the gigs tells about something else entirely: the need for peer support.
– You can’t always handle children or their things, but because you can’t admit it out loud, the illusion is created that everyone else is having fun all the time. That’s why after the gig, the mothers of small children come to say thank you that it’s wonderful when someone says these things out loud.
For her part, Johanna Tohni hopes to widen the image of mothers on display, which she once even studied in her university thesis.
He got excited about the topic while watching *Winnie the Pooh*.
– One of the characters, Kengu, is a single mother who does nothing but clean and bake on her bed. Come on! Wouldn’t we like to see ordinary mothers who can’t always clean, Tohni gasps.
Fatigue does not make jokes
There was a time when Tohnia didn’t laugh. After divorcing the father of children born three years apart, he was alone responsible for the very active firstborn and the colic child who cried until the age of four.
An exhausted mother wrote a diary. These entries have not ended up on stand-up stages.
– I thought at the time that the writings could sometimes be of help to someone else who thinks that it is now necessary to leave the baby here to cry and go to another room to stay sane. But then I became a comedian.
Now the comedian’s mission is to fight for more honest mother speech. It doesn’t mean that he himself didn’t collapse on the way to build the same scenery as the others.
Tohnia laughs when she describes the day when the small children were tantruming since morning. When a small peaceful moment arrived, the mother caught herself just before she posted on Facebook \”how wonderful it is to listen to the pattering of little feet\”.
In Tohn’s opinion, families with small children are surrounded by a strange atmosphere of competition: who will be the first to be naughty, who will say the first word, we are already walking.
– Competition equipment continues with school grades and who is on the competition team in which hobby. No one dares to say that my children are quite ordinary, and they haven’t found their own thing yet, says Tohni.
Children give feedback
Tohn’s children are now teenagers. They get to read the scripts about them in advance. Johanna Tohni says that she has been asking her children’s opinion for a long time.
– Their friends’ parents go to my gigs. I understand very well that it could be distressing if I were to tell stories that the children themselves have not accepted.
If necessary, a point is omitted from the presentation or edited together. This is done with a serious face, because the children are not really touched by the comedian mother’s humor.
– My 18-year-old daughter is politically correct and supportive. He doesn’t laugh at gigs either, but discusses my performances analytically. The 15-year-old boy, on the other hand, has said directly that you’re not really funny, Tohni laughs.
*Stand up performance* *Badly behaving mothers* *premiers at TTT club on Saturday 14 October 2023.*
*What thoughts does the interview evoke? You can comment on the topic until 11 pm on October 15.*