Kaneez Surka

"I think I’m a pretty woke person. I’m pretty sensitive to the way people feel."

"I think with gender and sexuality, I definitely belong on a spectrum. Even with identity, I want to belong on a spectrum."

"Journalists ask us about being a female comedian, but they don’t talk to us for the work we’re doing, you know? No one really sees Kaneez as an improv artist–just that label of female comedian. And that’s the biggest challenge. People think my brand of comedy is ”˜female comedy’ but that’s not a brand of comedy”¦ Everyone defines me as a ”˜female comedian’ and I do so much more."

"The extra mile that I have to cover being a female improviser is that people are not used to seeing women on stage being funny so for a lot of shows, for the first ten minutes I have to kind of break that down or address it and get it off their minds so eventually they can just see me as a gender-neutral comedian. I have to spend time in making them get over the fact that I am a woman."

"You won’t believe but a lot of us women intentionally dress down because we just don’t want any distraction. We just want you to see us as gender neutral so we end up dressing down which is fine, it does not bother me but it is interesting that we have to do that."