Bianca Moore rediscovers her love for comedy ahead of Wonder Doug Fest

When Bianca Moore takes the stage at Wonder Doug Fest this weekend, she plans to perform at least some material pulled from her earliest days in comedy, embracing her set as a means to pay tribute to the 11-odd years that “Wonder Doug” Cuckler has served as a friend and mentor.

“I’m planning to bring in some jokes that I haven’t done in some time, because Doug was a big part of things when I first started,” said Moore, one of 57 comics, burlesque dancers, artists, and musicians slated to appear over the course of the two-day variety show, which takes place at Spacebar on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 9 and 10, with proceeds benefiting Kaleidoscope Youth Center. “So, it’s nostalgic in a way, because it feels like a time capsule of that time in my life. And looking back and even listening to some of those old jokes – because I have all my sets recorded – it does make me cringe a bit. But it’s also part of my journey as a comedian, a part of my journey as a person. It feels like a roadmap to a city that I remember stopping in frequently, but that I haven’t been to in a while, if that makes sense.”

At the time Moore first crossed paths with Cuckler, she said the Columbus comedy scene wasn’t as diverse as it is now, and in him she discovered permission to appear onstage as her most fully realized self. 

“I think seeing someone like Doug, who is maybe a little bit more, or a lot bit more nervous, who is a lot bit queer, a little bit raunchy, made me realize there was a place for me in comedy,” she said. “Comedy 10 years ago wasn’t as queer led, wasn’t as woman led as it is now. And I think that is something that made us pull toward each other … like, hey, let’s be little queerdos over here in this corner, because we were trying to figure it out ourselves. And to this day I call him my comedy dad. It was that situation where the queer people find each other and sit together in the back of the class.”

It helped, of course, that both were entering into periods of intense personal transformation, with Cuckler taking his first hesitant steps toward sobriety and Moore emerging from what she described as a “terrible, toxic relationship” that left her needing to rediscover who she was on her own. In one another, Moore said they found a collective strength, which helped the two “be the change they wanted to see in the comedy scene,” as she explained it.

“And I can’t say we’re the reason why there are more women, more queer people, more Brown people in the scene,” Moore said, “but I like to think us being there meant something.”

In those earliest days, Moore frequented open mics that she said helped her to discover her own voice – both in terms of the kind of material she wanted to home in on as well as the actual register in which she spoke. “I used to perform like three octaves higher, and when I listen [to those early sets], I’m like, ‘Who is that squeaky girl on the microphone?’” she said, and laughed, attributing this higher pitch in large part to nerves. “I don’t think I ever did it on purpose. I think it might have been a subconscious thing that thankfully worked itself out.”

As for the material, Moore said that early on it tread more internal terrain as she worked through how to find herself on the other side of that harmful relationship, at times leaning more heavily into self-deprecation. She also incorporated work humor (both she and Cuckler worked in sex shops at the time), along with stories she considered deeply embarrassing, which she felt compelled to share because “bringing people into the joke can make them feel less alone, too.”

Depending on the nature of these stories, Moore said it could be months or even years before they wormed their way into her set, which allowed not only time for processing but the space for her skillset to advance to the point where she could more expertly dial in on the humor present in even the most explosively complex situations. When she set her Tinder date on fire (literally), for instance, the story became part of her set in a matter of months. Contrast this with her former stepbrother’s conviction for murder, which she interrogated for more than three years before incorporating it into her routine, finding the humor not in his heinous act but in the casual way her mother delivered the news to her.

“And that was something I really had to navigate before I put it out onstage,” Moore said. “I know my delivery becomes a lot more solid with time and practice, and with getting experience in different rooms. … It was a process of years and years of solicited advice from comedians, and unsolicited advice from comedians, where eventually you just figure it out. And I think it’s one of my favorite jokes now. My mom doesn’t like it, but I do.”

The stage has long served as a therapeutic place for Moore, who has gravitated to the spotlight from her early years as a self-described theater kid, sharing how she was driven to explore the arts by virtue of having a lung removed at age 3. “So, it wasn’t like I was going to do sports,” she said. 

In more recent years, however, she has appeared less frequently on stages in Columbus, stepping back from standup and burlesque and leaning into Twitch streaming after learning that an Ohio comedian had used inappropriate pictures of her and other comedians in his act. “And it really shook me, and it made me very uncomfortable to do comedy in the way that I did,” Moore said. “And I didn’t even realize I pulled back until I was like, ‘Oh, wow, when’s the last time I hit a mic?’”

Moore has since dipped a toe back in the open mic scene, calling specific attention to Brats at Spacebar and the Monday open mic at Antiques on High as events that work to foster a supportive, inclusive environment. “And it definitely felt like, whoa, I need to get my sea legs back,” Moore said of her return. “As someone who has been doing this as long as I have, there was probably more of a learning curve than I even want to admit. But it’s been fun to get back out there. And that’s something I had to remember, too. This is fun. You do like this. You do love this.”