all photos by JT Anderson
“So, last year I went through a little bit of a breakup. Some would call it a divorce. Kinda legally in the state of New York you would call it a divorce.”
This is how comedian, writer, and “U-Haul bisexual” Britt Migs begins in her solo show Dolphin Mode, which she performed at the New York Comedy Festival in November. Migs artfully takes the audience through a complicated year of her life featuring divorce, loss, and ultimately, love, all the while inviting people to laugh alongside her. The show depicts her “comically bad divorce and having to come out (and date) all over again in your 30s.”
“There’s nothing worse than a canceled date,” Migs says in the show. “The worst time it ever happened to me, I was already on the subway. And I’ll be real with you guys, I had shaved my entire body. Kinda snout to tail. Just sitting there like a smooth idiot. I was in dolphin mode.”
Dolphin Mode takes place over the course of 2023, a very chaotic year for Migs. Over Super Bowl weekend, she was laid off on Friday and getting a divorce on Sunday. But the worst part, Migs says, was missing Rihanna’s halftime show.
The choice to create the show felt obvious to Migs because all of her material was so chronological. “All of my jokes were like, hey, I got divorced recently, then I started dating, Now I am in a queer relationship,” Migs tells me. “It felt like it was thrust upon me, and it made so much sense to make a show around this year of my life.”
Migs began creating the show by combining her existing jokes and adding in emotional beats. With a more narrative show versus a quicker set, she was able to do different kinds of jokes that wouldn’t necessarily work in a regular show. Her director Taryn O’Connor helped her refine and polish the show. This involved doing a lot more choreography than would typically be put together for a stand-up set.
With each iteration of the show, the most recent being the NYCF performance, audience members reach out to Migs to share how her story helped them. “I have had divorcees come to the show and say that it has made them feel powerful,” she says. “I have had people in my DMs saying that my jokes made them feel really seen… I hope that I can make someone laugh or bring levity to a dark situation that they’re going through. Divorce is really sad and weird and fucked up. I’m glad that I can say ‘Hey, it gets better.’”
Creating the show helped Migs process the experience herself. “I was really sad,” she says. “Obviously, there are stages of a breakup. It’s the stages of grief. Sadness, anger, bargaining, whatever. But when I started joking about it, it freed me from a lot of the sadness and allowed me to– I don’t wanna say become angrier — but become angry-funny. Like, I actually can’t fucking believe that that guy did that! … I think that most comics, artists, whoever, would say that creating art is something that really helps you heal.”
Comedy helped Migs through this time period in both a metaphorical and more literal way. Her ex did not take her seriously about wanting a divorce until he saw her jokes online about it. He had been refusing to sign the papers, believing she would still change her mind. “He texted me when I posted the joke and he was angry, like, ‘Wow. You really did it,’” she says. He was angry about the post, but it convinced him to finally sign the papers. “And — this is so cheesy — he took so much from me… but the one thing that he couldn’t take was comedy. And in that way, it kind of saved my life.”
But Dolphin Mode isn’t just a divorce story; it’s also a coming-out story and a love story.
“I had to have a second coming out with getting back into dating because people really didn’t believe me that I was bisexual,” Migs says. She had mentioned to her parents that she was bisexual years prior, but no one took her seriously. When she started dating women after her divorce, everyone was shocked. “My family was like, ‘Huh? You’re gay now?’”
Migs felt immediately welcomed by the queer community. “I remember it being my first Pride as someone who was fully out and how exciting that was. [My friends] and I would be like, yeah, we’re gonna go be gay!! It was just so exciting and fun and new.”
Migs calls herself a “U-haul bisexual” because she re-entered the dating scene, explored queer dating, and then immediately got into a new relationship and moved in with her new partner after six months. “When I started dating my current partner, my family was like, ‘Ohh, she wasn’t fucking around. She was serious,’” Migs tells me.
Migs says she fell in love immediately. “This relationship is not only like the healthiest one I’ve ever been in, but it’s such a drastic shift from the often verbally abusive cheating relationship that I was in right before,” Migs says.
So what does “going Dolphin mode” really mean for Migs?
The show’s dolphin theme started off as a simple reference to her joke about “going dolphin mode” when dating again after divorce. But the dolphin motif has grown to be so much more. “They were actually a pretty perfect mascot for the show. They symbolize transformation, rebirth, freedom, and the importance of community,” Migs says. “Plus dolphins have been known to do gay stuff!”
“But really, post-divorce I feel like that meme where a dolphin is smiling, often through something difficult, with Lisa Frank rainbows and hearts around it. I am still swimming! Despite it all! And I’m loving it!”
Dolphin Mode will be featured in the Knockouts festival, in LA this summer, and hopefully, the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe.
U did t mention dolphin mode means dating aitistraddle writer. U can be a lesbian and trans man awesome