Comedian and performer Delaney Rowe doesn’t think she’s very funny. This might surprise the millions who have watched the creator’s skewering impressions of self-involved girlfriends, aspiring actors, and other women behaving badly.
But after five years of making satirical videos on the internet, the comedian is hungry for something that can’t be measured in likes. Enter Machine Learning, the darkly comic off-Broadway play about two couples recruited to train artificial companions, where she has begun a run at the Little Engine Theater. Though the 31-year-old Idaho native started out studying acting, stepping back on stage might be causing just a little stage fright.
For CULTURED, friend and fellow comedian Alex Edelman gets to the bottom of their mutual comedy dysmorphia, discusses Rowe’s upcoming essay collection (it may be keeping her up at night), and how the rising actor is learning to live without a punchline.
Edelman: When you started telling me about Machine Learning, it became clear that you’re going to get something really artistic out of it. I’m curious, besides what you can bring to it, what have been the benefits of being in the play so far?
Rowe: Every day when I step into rehearsal, I’m reminded that this is the thing I always wanted to do. Even though I’ve deviated from it in many ways—to become a personal chef originally, and to become a TikTok and Instagram-stress—now, I get to finally circle back and do this thing that I went to school for and have wanted to do since I was old enough to watch film, television, and theater. To feel that muscle memory snap into place, to know that the instincts are alive, despite having to contort them for a completely different medium over the past five years, has been incredible, and it has made me feel like I’m on the right path again.
Edelman: What’s it like working with other people? Are you finding it easy to share the ball?
Rowe: I’m finding it delightful to share the ball. In general, I don’t think of myself as a fantastic collaborator, because I’ve become used to working so singularly and bouncing things off the walls of my brain. I felt a little rough around the edges at first. I’m learning how to be sociable in a work environment again, and it’s really fun, but I always say I’ve definitely annoyed the shit out of Douglas Smith, my incredible costar.
He plays my boyfriend in this play, and he is a masterful actor. We were doing a preview last night, and it’s rare that you see an actor’s disposition transformed so entirely, because usually there’s a lot of crossover from the way that they live in their normal life, like the way that they move their hands, or the way that their face rests. But he’s different. He shapeshifts, and it’s so… horny.
Edelman: So, you’re actually attracted to him within the show.
Rowe: Yeah.
Edelman: That’s fantastic. It’s so funny, because I feel like a lot of actors, if they found out what they were doing was really working for somebody else, they would do it offstage forever.
Rowe: Right. No, he’s going to be very excited that I said this. There are some sexy, risky things in this play that I get to do, that I’ve always wanted to be able to do onstage.
Edelman: Why did you choose this specific show?
Rowe: I thought the writing was great when I read the play originally, and I thought, This is something I can potentially not fuck up. So, it felt like a great first theater exercise that wouldn’t be taking me so far out of my element and become paralyzing.
Edelman: You have done a thing that is really hard to do, which is to build your own thing. When you’re considering other projects, what are you looking for?
Rowe: At this point—where I’m trying to transition into traditional film, television, and theater—when I’m looking at a piece of material, I look for what I can actually deliver on, because I want to feel confident in these early days. I don’t consider this a time of taking terrible, grand risks. I want to be able to get a little bit more street cred and be in my element before I do my Bugonia.
Edelman: But don’t you have so much street cred already?
Rowe: Do you feel that way about me? I don’t know. Every day I wake up and post something on social media, just to keep the engine going and stay relevant. I will get reminded that I’m still around by getting the honor of being on one of these fun lists, like a Time100 thing, but I don’t feel terribly tapped-in anymore, because it’s now grown to a place where it gives me a lot of anxiety.
Edelman: I hear you. I remember once when you and I were talking, you said that you wanted to be on a sitcom, and I remember saying to you, “Don’t apply for a demotion.”
Rowe: Yes, that is one of my favorite Alex Edelman quotes.
Edelman: How far out of your element do you think you want to wind up?
Rowe: I always look to Emma Stone. I was kidding about the Bugonia thing, but maybe I’m not. She did a great job of establishing herself as a comedic actress, and then once that worked, she created her own blueprint and was able to do whatever she wanted after. The audience and the industry really trust her. I would love to do more dramatic things, and real character-acty things. I think I’m destined to be a character actress by the time I’m 60.
Edelman: What does character actress mean to you?
Rowe: When you’re basically only wearing prosthetics and doing a weird walk. I want to do that.
Edelman: You want to do stuff where you’re transformed. You want to be a utility player, like a one-size-fits-all widget. But you’re already a character actress. I hope you don’t have comedy dysmorphia?
Rowe: I totally do.
Edelman: Why?
Rowe: Because I don’t think I’m very funny.
Edelman: I don’t think you’re very funny, but that’s because I know you.
Rowe: Here’s the thing. When I do this play, I can feel that the audience finds me funny, but I’m so technical. I’m going outside-in all the time. It’s the same with my videos. I’m carving these beats down to the millisecond and writing these things so specifically, that it’s almost surgical to me. I’m so technical that I’m barely focusing on the comedy.
Edelman: I think the best thing for the universe is to get a show that is a Delaney Rowe overload, that’s got your voice all the way through it. Which is why, maybe pedantically—as your friend—I get really cross with you when I perceive that you’re not showing proper respect to Delaney Rowe’s comedy. I want to say, “I don’t think you’re allowed to not like your own comedy voice,” but I don’t like mine, so I guess that’s a universal thing.
Rowe: Right? It’s not that I don’t like it, it’s that I’ve just grown so fatigued. I’ve been hungry to do “the next thing” for a long time now. It’s never really enough, and the more things you get, the more you want.
Edelman: Do you have an ultimate thing in mind, though? Is there a dream role for you?
Rowe: Yeah. It’s Jennifer Lawrence’s character in Silver Linings Playbook. What’s yours?
Edelman: Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting.
Rowe: You motherfucker. Do a remake! I can be Minnie Driver, because that’s my celebrity lookalike.
Edelman: You’re the American version of Minnie Driver. You’re small motorist Minnie Driver. Someone’s made that joke, surely. You’re still doing the essay book, right?
Rowe: Oh, don’t ask me about the book. Oh God.
Edelman: It’s so hard. I’m writing one too.
Rowe: It fucking sucks, and it’s a huge source of stress, and it keeps me up at night.
Edelman: But are you learning anything from writing the book?
Rowe: I’m learning the insane amount that a person, a young woman, changes from age 28 to 31. The changes are so rapid that I’m thinking, How could I possibly be satisfied with that essay I wrote at 28? That’s what this book has felt like: just constantly changing. I’ve moved. I’ve been in so many relationships. I’ve had my heart broken. I’ve been a partier. I’ve been a non-partier. I’ve been a smoker. I’ve been a nonsmoker.
What version of myself is this book anymore? I don’t know. In the beginning, it’s these funny essays about sex and the rom-com sitcom version of what happened that night. Then my latest essay is pretty devastating, because I’ve become so much less afraid of being grotesque. Maybe that’s because of what’s happened to me in the last few years. I’ve had to face things publicly and privately, so I can’t really masquerade or hold back in the same way anymore.
Edelman: What a gift to be able to chronicle it in real time. I’m wondering if I’ve ever not known you in a transition moment. I’m psyched that you’re in this show, and that you’re learning from actors who are also definitely learning from you.
My prediction is that you go from strength to strength and the next thing to the next thing, but I’m really excited for people to see you in the show, and I’m really excited for people to see whatever it is you wind up doing next.
Rowe: Thank you, and I hope that you direct my one-woman show, and maybe officiate my wedding. I feel like that could be our next act.
Edelman: That’s a good idea. I’m really into it.
Photography assistance by Isabella Bernstein.
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