WATCH: Trans comedian reveals what drives her

In the back room of Dakoda’s Bar, a full house enjoys a unique act.

Of the many comics who performed Thursday night, none were quite as distinct as Taryn Anderson, a trans comedian.

“I enjoy being on stage, it’s nerve wracking especially when you’re someone with anxiety,” Anderson told Kelowna10. “But it’s super fun, I was kind of a theatre kid, and a performer.”

She has only been doing comedy for two months, having her first ever set during a FruitCake event in May, being brought back for a major Pride event last month.

“It was so cool because after my set, these four teens came up to me and they’re all covered in different Pride flags,” she explained. “And they were just like ‘that was so cool. Like, you’re so cool. That was so funny.’ And as soon as they said that, I was like, I’m going to do this forever.”

Having grown up watching Just For Laughs and other stand up series, she said she became the person who always wanted to make people laugh.

“Especially as someone who deals with depression and various things, you just want to make people laugh because you don’t want to see people sad,” Anderson explained.

Rather than having the LGBTQ community be the butt of punchlines, Anderson wants them to be in on the humour rather than just being the target of it.

In front of a large supportive audience, she weaved jokes about gender identity, hormone therapy, and how she is perceived by different people.

“That’s what the thing is, we need more people with different voices because you get different perspectives,” she explained. “You get to learn a lot, it’s just nice to see representation.”

Anderson performs every Thursday at Dakoda’s open mic night and has an upcoming performance at the Black Box Theatre on July 23 for a FruitCake Pride event.