Taylor Kay Phillips knows what it’s like to be a Midwesterner living on the East Coast.
The writer, actor and comedian has lived in New York City for most of her adult life, and currently writes for Last Week Tonight With John Oliver on HBO. But when she tells the “Coasties” (her words) that she’s from Missouri, they almost always respond with confusion.
“People would say to me, ‘Oh, you're from Missouri. That's so random.’ "What's random about that?" Phillips told KCUR's Up To Date.
That’s one of the reasons she wrote the humor book “A Guide to Midwestern Conversation”: to demystify the Midwest to non-Midwesterners.
The “guidebook” takes the reader on a road trip through the American Heartland, stopping at each of the 12 states the United States Census Bureau has labeled “The Midwest” (and no, Oklahoma, you don’t make the cut).
But the guide isn’t just for non-Midwesterners; it’s also a celebration of the region’s people, language and culture through comedy.
“I'm a firm believer in the fact that humor can be and should be a unifying and identifying way of communicating,” she said.
Phillips clarifies at the beginning of the book that it's not about laughing at or oversimplifying this very large and diverse region.
“I didn't want people – Coasties or Midwesterners — thinking I was coming at this from a place of observing cruelty," she said. "It's more, this is how we behave, isn't that great? Isn't that complicated? Isn't that true? And I think there's a humor and an arresting feeling that makes us laugh when we see ourselves so clearly."
- Taylor Kay Phillips, author, comedian, actor and writer for “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” on HBO
