Growing up in a Mormon family in Utah and Idaho, thin white androgyne Bobby Higley must have stuck out like ’70s-era David Bowie at a hardcore-punk gig. She has turned the pain of being bullied in school and misunderstood at home into one of the raunchiest and funniest acts on Seattle’s comedy stages.
Higley, who is nonbinary and uses she/her and he/him interchangeably, moved to Seattle from Idaho at 18, after a “difficult, complicated” upbringing filled with intolerance and bullying. The family situation has improved, though, and Higley’s younger sister is her most ardent fan. One of Higley’s most memorable jokes revolves around her grandfather telling Higley that she was dead to him after she came out.
Unsurprisingly, all this led to depression, which resulted in Higley developing a viciously defensive posture. “I was smart enough to say that thing that was just hurtful enough to really hurt you,” Higley says. “And so people left me alone. When I came out, my demeanor changed. I didn’t feel the need to be so mean or sad anymore. But I had already kind of burned all of my bridges.”
