I’ve known my friend Danii Gallegos for about two years now. We worked at Urban Outfitters for awhile and we both found the job monotonously chic. We lost touch for awhile, I left the country and she delved into the world of comedy, but recently we reconnected. This wonderful 23-year old lady has been doing standup comedy on stages in Chicago for a year now. She even has a monthly show called “We Still Like You.” I asked her to do an interview for “Obvi, We’re the Ladies” and she excitedly obliged. The interview was casual. The two of us lay on my bed as she enlightened me on the inner-workings of comedy.

Q. What would you define as standup, what is standup to you?

A. Standup to me is getting up on a microphone and telling punchlines. Things that have a setup and in turn make people laugh. Also getting people to trust you, because laughing in public is a pretty vulnerable thing.

Q. Is that the thing you like most about standup, the vulnerability?

A. I think so. I like that people can relate and it’s a really cool feeling to have people laugh at your jokes and then tell you “Similar things happened to me too!”

Q. As a 23-year-old woman, do you feel that your experience of standup is different than other people?

A. I think that it is similar to other girls and women trying to do standup, but it is not similar to other guys. For guys, there’s a lot of things that they don’t have to be as aware of when they go up on stage. So many guys that do standup that I know never think about the way that they look. They’re not worried if they’ll be overly sexualized by their clothes, or if they’re wearing too much makeup. Basically, they’re never worried about their appearance. With me, like any other girl that I know who is doing standup, it is something that comes to our minds. Are people only going to pay attention to me or dismiss me because I’m a girl?

Q. Do you have an example of that?

A. One time I was wearing a see-thru blouse on stage and I told one joke where I was surprised that somebody thought I was attractive or something like that. After, the host got up and told me “You obviously think you’re attractive, you’re wearing a see-through blouse. Nobody who doesn’t have the confidence would do that.” And I was like “Fuck you, dude. I was telling a joke.”

Q. What is the biggest thing you’ve learned from doing comedy?

A. Always have confidence in your decisions. Never apologize, especially on stage. Once you’ve decided to do something, then commit!

Q. How do you celebrate when you do a good show?

A. I drink a lot.

Q. Inversely, what do you do when you have a bad show?

A. I’ll probably end up going home, because I don’t want to be social afterwards. I’ll think about why I felt bad about it. What was wrong? What can I do to improve? I don’t let myself be upset about it for more than maybe an hour or two, what’s done is done.

Q. How has your view of yourself changed as you’ve done standup comedy?

A. I have become more confident in social situations, and I’m much less afraid to say things out loud. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but it’s been fun for me! I think it’s made me more productive with my time, that has transitioned to many parts of my life.

Q. What’s your favorite memory about standup?

A. The best part of it are the friends that I’ve made. My two best friends, I’ve made through standup. We just went on tour together, and it was so fun. From being in the bus together, to all of the weird shows that we did. We pick on each other a lot, but we create so many positive feelings together. On a more selfish note, I went to a party not too long ago. There were these four dudes who kept looking at me funny. Finally I was just like “Why are you staring at me like I have a third ear?” And they’re like “Do you do comedy?” They recognized me! They said “Oh my god! We say you perform three months ago at a show! You were so funny!” And they were quoting my bits at me, it was the coolest feeling. So yeah, friendships and attention!

You can catch Danii at her monthly show called “We Still Like You,” the first Saturday of every month, aka, THIS Saturday!