Former adult film actress and present-day stand-up comedian Stormy Daniels received an enthusiastic reception from her Redding audience on Saturday evening.
Daniels brought her “Unicorns in the Kitchen” tour to a packed house of about 90 people at Karma’s House of Spirits on Lake Boulevard.
She spent about an hour on stage telling risque jokes that was followed by a Q&A session where she answered written questions from the audience. One answer explained how she came up with the name of her national tour.
Despite her appearance in a deep red part of California, her one-liners and personal stories – many that dissed President Trump – were greeted with laughter and plenty of woos.
No protests, no hecklers and the only boos from the audience came when Daniels brought up Trump’s name.
The 47-year-old Daniels, who grew up in Louisiana and has legally changed her name from Stephanie Clifford, described herself as “a washed-up porn star.”
She gained national notoriety in January 2018 when news outlets reported that Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen arranged a $130,000 hush-money payment to keep quiet about an alleged one-night affair she had with Trump in 2006 before he was president.
With regards to the name of the tour, she said she wanted to come up with a name so that if someone at work was looking for tickets, they “didn’t accidentally end up googling the wrong thing and end up in HR.” Plus, she said none of her adult movies have the words unicorns or kitchen in the title.
The story is that Daniels once got a birthday cake for her husband and when she opened the box on the kitchen counter to put candles on it, she noticed a hole had somehow appeared.
She asked her 2-year-old daughter if she poked her finger in the cake and the girl’s reply was: “No, I have 10 fingers mommy and I only see one hole. I think it was a unicorn.”
Convenient stop for show
Mount Shasta comic David Rodriguez, who produces one to two comedy shows a month in Redding, was the one who brought Daniels to Redding. He also opened the show with his comedy act.
He said he arranged the date after hearing she was passing through town en route from her sold-out show in Salem, Oregon, to another sold-out show in Sunnyvale.
Rodriguez said he didn’t have an impression of Daniels until he watched a documentary about her.
“I was like, ‘Oh. she seems like an interesting person.’ She picked herself up from the bootstraps from a poor family,” he said.
Rodriquez had said he wasn’t sure how Redding’s mostly-conservative audiences would receive Daniels but previously told the Record Searchlight that he thought “people would be wise to understand the difference between politics and having a fun night with an interesting lady. Politics divides people but truth and freedom unite people.”
Audience members react
Dawn Duckett and her husband, John, had positive things to say about the performance. They also got a photo with Daniels afterward.
“We actually thought she was funny and an entertaining storyteller. Her anecdotes about her time working in the adult entertainment industry were fascinating and sometimes hilarious,” Dawn Duckett said.
“Since we had VIP tickets, we had the opportunity to sit down with her before the show for a visit and both John and I found her to be an excellent conversationalist,” she added.
Others also had complimentary opinions.
“This is the best thing that Redding has had to offer in the five years since I moved here from Albuquerque,” said Adam Strickler, a local stand-up comedian.
“It was pretty good. Stormy has had some amazing experiences that she shared with us,” said Strickler’s 79-year-old mother, Leslie.
Parting advice
Daniels told the audience she didn’t have enough time to gain an impression of Redding, but that she’d like to return and spend some time at Lake Shasta.
Daniels sympathized with the audience about being tired of hearing about politics.
“No one’s more tired than me. Trust me. That’s all I hear about every day,” she said. “They want us to be quiet. They want us to stop paying attention because we can’t handle it anymore, right?”
But Daniels urged everyone to stay focused, vote and organize.
“There’s more of us than them and the only way that we are ever going to drive out this darkness is with light,” she said. “I know it sounds cheesy. Love, laugh and vote,” she said. “And you know what? You might just have a unicorn in your kitchen,” Daniels said in closing her show.
Mike Chapman is a veteran Northern California reporter and photojournalist who retired from the Redding Record Searchlight. His byline also has appeared in the USA TODAY Network, Siskiyou Daily News and the Eureka Times-Standard.
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Stormy Daniels brings comedy act to Redding and audience loves it
Reporting by Mike Chapman, Special to the Record Searchlight / Redding Record Searchlight
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By Mike Chapman, Special to the Record Searchlight | USA TODAY Network
