Martha Chaves: Laughing Til You Cry

Mary Anne Ivison (Voiceover)  0:02  
The Women of Ill Repute, with your hosts Wendy Mesley and Maureen Holloway. 

Maureen Holloway  0:07  
Well, our guest today is the most famous Nicaraguan Canadian LGBTQ plus stand up comedian in the world.

Wendy Mesley  0:17  
So I bet there's only one. No one's gonna argue with that. So I think it would be- Oh, she's there, but we're not going to talk to her for just a second. Martha Chaves, she's a- She's a trailblazer. She's a barrier breaker. She was obviously born in Nicaragua, but she became an adult in Montreal. That's a long story. She found her comedic voice there so now she does stand up corporate events. She appears on The Debaters, a whole bunch of shows. 

Maureen Holloway  0:42  
I love her on The Debaters. Martha's also acted in several one woman shows and she's put out a comedy album called Chunky Salsa. Bottom line is Martha is successfully funny, but she says that her humor comes from the things that make her mad, and I totally get that.

Wendy Mesley  0:57  
Yeah, comedy is the best revenge. 

Maureen Holloway  1:00  
Oh, it is, and it's safer than murder. You don't go to jail for telling bad jokes, although some people should.

Wendy Mesley  1:05  
Yeah, here to talk about language, racism, heroism, mentorship, and alternative uses of Preparation H is Martha Chaves.

Maureen Holloway  1:22  
Martha, hi, you do put it under- you put it under your eyes?

Martha Chaves  1:27  
You just put a little bit, because God forbid it goes into your eyeball, and then the bags under your eyes go away.

Wendy Mesley  1:37  
So I used it, but it- I sort of have satchels now. I don't- I no longer have bags, but I don't think it actually did any- it's supposed to shrink things though. Right- some- isn't it?

Maureen Holloway  1:50  
It's supposed to shrink hemorrhoids. I mean, let's let's be blunt.

Martha Chaves  1:54  
Yeah, it's supposed to- it's for the hemorrhoid, but probably get that from my mom who was she was an expert in her own skin care. And she even made their own skincare and own skin cream, my mother. She made it from- this is gonna sound gross. Chicken skin. Again, but it was a huge like a cauldron. A huge process and then it will be aromatized by flower- by rose petals. But I put it once, and it gave me- it gave me a lot of reaction, you know, like pimples, but her, she had- up to the moment she passed, she had beautiful skin.

Wendy Mesley  2:37  
So you relied on the Preparation H. But I wonder like who? Who discovered that?

Martha Chaves  2:42  
Yeah, who found that out. How close did you have to be? It must have been a customs officer who found that out. Oh, there is no cocaine in there, but somehow I feel rejuvenated. Tell everybody. Now I'm doing schtick in your show.

Maureen Holloway  3:05  
By all means, it makes you think of all the things you could be making. Like nobody makes their own shoes. Have you noticed people make their own clothes, but they don't make their own shoes.

Martha Chaves  3:15  
No, I would like to have that gift making my own clothes. I like transforming clothes, like I am in now into the transfers. The- the heat transfer on T shirts. And I also like to paint T shirts and stuff but I have no time and I have no space. My wife protest.

Wendy Mesley  3:39  
Well, it's good that you have no time. It's so lovely to like see you in person. I feel like I- I know you, like we kind of-

Martha Chaves  3:47  
I feel like I know you, too. Yeah, because you've got me right waking up. And I'm so sorry that I forgot the interview was today. I came back late from our show last night. And I don't go to sleep right away, of course. Because I'm looking at the Empire. What happened? What is going on in crazytown in the United States? And then I fall asleep like at four o'clock in the morning and wake up late but I like to wake up early.

Maureen Holloway  4:14  
Sure you do. 

Martha Chaves  4:15  
No, I do. I do. Because it's so- whenever I have an appointment in the morning, do you- do you ladies work at night or in the day? 

Maureen Holloway  4:24  
We work during the day, although we are called Women of Ill Repute. We probably should be working at night. But no, we do. But- But Martha for years, I used to get up- I used to do a morning show on radio and I would get up at 3:30 in the morning. And I did that for- on and off for almost 40 years. And so Wendy and I were just talking about how we actually like- we get- what is it Wendy, we get up at eight or nine?

Wendy Mesley  4:47  
Eight or nine? Yeah, yeah. And it's all- I don't know how I managed I could doing a podcast and writing for Substack, it's like a job, but it's a mini job compared to a real job. But you're still- you're still pumping it out, like obviously I knew you were Nicaraguan Martha, but I didn't know your whole-

Martha Chaves  5:04  
I'm so sorry, the light that makes me beautiful is falling down.

Wendy Mesley  5:12  
So I don't want to name the person but we did an interview with somebody who put a filter on and got rid of all the gray hair. So do you think I could do that? Like, can I walk around with a light in front of me all the time?

Maureen Holloway  5:23  
Oh, no, no, you know what? Just you- You're beautiful just the way you are. You don't need a filter. 

Martha Chaves  5:29  
Exactly. You're beautiful just the way you are. Just a second. I'm gonna show you what I did. 

Maureen Holloway  5:35  
Oh, you've got it. You've got it with tape.

Wendy Mesley  5:38  
It's a fishing line. No?

Martha Chaves  5:40  
I make it I wear that because I like- I say- Linda, my wife, said it was Nicaraguan, because I tell her that in Nicaragua, we don't throw things. We just repair them when they- I mean, I don't even know, I haven't been in Nicaragua since the 80s when I first left, and then the- then 2005 was the last time, because my family lives in Guatemala. But I remember that things will get broken and then you will fix them.

Wendy Mesley  6:08  
Well duct tape fixes everything I find. Oh, there we- So I'm not sure that this is going to work, Martha. 

Maureen Holloway  6:16  
No, no, it's just-

Martha Chaves  6:18  
It's not going to work for the podcast.

Maureen Holloway  6:21  
Yes it's working. We are actually- you know, the podcast is happening as we speak.

Martha Chaves  6:27  
But I guess I have a halo because I bought it when the pandemic, because we used to have a lot of, of shows on Zoom, like you even remember the pandemic like how hard it was? We all came back broken.

Maureen Holloway  6:43  
Do you think so? I actually I had a good pandemic. I'm an introvert. I quite liked not being able to go anywhere. 

Martha Chaves  6:52  
Yeah, me too in a way. I like to- I am a homebody, but I miss performing that's what I miss. 

Maureen Holloway  6:59  
Of course. 

Martha Chaves  7:00  
Yeah. I miss smiles. You know, I was going around Toronto with a- with a stick in case I run into a raccoon to poke it. So you will show the teeth. You know like it's- there's not really a smile. But beggars can't be choosers. In the pandemic, I was also worried. What if we are never gonna be able to go visit my family in Guatemala? 

Wendy Mesley  7:23  
Yeah, so who's left? So you were in Nicaragua, and then your family had to- they went to- like it became refugees in Guatemala and you got sent to Concordia? And then- 

Martha Chaves  7:33  
Yeah, I was sent here, right? That's, you know, when all the conflict was happening, and then my parents had to leave, because they have work for the former government. And somebody told them, If you don't leave, they're gonna come and kill you. So they left. And they went to Guatemala. And I was already here with a student visa. I went, I went in limbo, because I couldn't go back to Nicaragua, because my parents were allegedly thrown out. And then I couldn't go to Guatemala, because I had no papers. So my father who was a lawyer, he told me, why don't you investigate about political refugee status, because of them? Not because of my political- I was 17. And I was babysitting for this Jewish lawyer in Montreal. And he sent me to another lawyer to help me to apply. That was the same story, but my family never came here. I didn't want them to.

Wendy Mesley  8:32  
So now you're in Toronto. So you discovered you were funny in Montreal?

Martha Chaves  8:36  
Yeah. I always say, you know, like, I like to quote myself. I always say that I have been doing comedy, stand up comedy, for 30 years. And I still go on the road to little towns, because I like the challenge. I like the challenge. But sometimes it doesn't go well. And in those times, I say, you know, 30 years in this. Thirty- if I had killed the person who suggested that I should be doing comedy, 30 years ago, I would be on parole. But now I am in Alberta. Exactly. How do you say a sentence. It's a sentence.

Maureen Holloway  9:12  
It is a sentence. But you love it. You love it. 

Martha Chaves  9:16  
Now I teach it. Now I am- I am teaching at Humber and I am teaching at Metropolitan University, older students 55 Plus, and their students are the Humber College comedy writing and performance program.

Maureen Holloway  9:30  
So teaching comedy- I mean, I actually, you know, went to grad school and wrote my thesis on women in comedy, so nothing sucks the humor out of something more than actually approaching it academically, but, but I loved it. But teaching people how to be funny. That's not what I was doing. But can you teach people? I mean, don't you have to have some sort of natural gift to be funny?

Martha Chaves  9:57  
Yeah, it's like, I always think about like, I love to dance. I love to- I am a very bad dancer. I'm a very bad Latina that way. I love- but I love to dance, but it doesn't occur to me. You know what? I'm going to apply to the ballet school. I'm going to be dancing with the Bolshoi Ballet. No, you have to- you have to have a realistic perception of your abilities. There are some people that are naturally funny, and they just need technique. Because there is a technique and there is a- 

Wendy Mesley  10:29  
So what's the technique? What's the tip? What's the secret? I want to be funny, so please tell me.

Maureen Holloway  10:37  
Yeah, please tell Wendy.

Wendy Mesley  10:39  
Yeah, haha.

Martha Chaves  10:41  
Yeah but you're funny.

Maureen Holloway  10:42  
Wendy is funny. And she smells funny too, which is really fun. Yeah. But no, it was what- give- what are- I know that letters, it's words that start with k are funnier. Odd numbers are funnier than even numbers, it's just- 

Martha Chaves  10:56  
No, there are a lot of things that like- for example, if people are not surprised, they don't laugh. In a stand up comedy setting. But even in movies is the same kind of formula like one laugh when you're very surprised at something, when when they line went like this, and then all of a sudden took a turn. So there is- there is a technique with that, there is a technique of delivery, of emphasizing no making the kids and the older folks who are good, like I had them doing shows. I rented the comedy bar at four o'clock on Sunday afternoon. And I have my older folks doing proper at a comedy bar comedy scene, not only at the school, and it was a huge success, because he was like a matinee. And we call that the golden giggles and everything. But I always say you have to admit the most difficult part I think for a performer and writer or a comedian is to know what is inside to know what what is it that you want to say with this? What is it that you want the audience to think when you're fooling them, so you can pull the rug under their feet. So there are a lot of exercises with that. And we do them now of course the kids will do whatever they want. But at the end of the season, as they they have to give a presentation. And then we work very hard for that. Yeah, and there are some that will go farther and some that want to have anything they'll throw in every day it is also is a commitment, it is not that you will just show up and just like you know, talk about us eating, that is an epidemic. There is certainly a piece of eating in the communist stages. Like can you imagine like I am so happy that I am learning the tools that I avoided that stage.

Maureen Holloway  12:54  
But apparently you didn't, Martha because you're talking about it now.

Martha Chaves  12:57  
No, I know. But I mean, like I told them listen at first of all, when I see you on stage, I don't believe you. Second of all, it is gross. Third of all, like and most importantly, I think, is you have to be original, find things to say that the other people are not saying.

Wendy Mesley  13:14  
So I've always thought that comedians, and this is such a cliche, you know, that they had difficult childhoods. Are there like any happy comedians, because Maureen says that it's all about being being mad. 

Maureen Holloway  13:27  
Grievance. Well, actually, I didn't- I didn't say that. I think it was Marshall McLuhan who said that every joke has a grievance behind it. Right. And- and Martha actually, that's true. You have said that your comedy comes from things that make you mad.

Martha Chaves  13:41  
Yeah. Not only- not only that, but give me one second. Menopause! I have to put on the fan.

Wendy Mesley  13:48  
So first the tape and now the fan. But we'll be- will be organized in just a moment. 

Maureen Holloway  13:53  
No, but it makes you look very windblown and beautiful. Yeah.

Martha Chaves  13:57  
Women- woman of ill repute and ill preparation for a podcast. I think that everything comes from, for example, when I started, I really didn't know. I took a course in Montreal with Andy Norman who was the CEO of Just For Laughs. But I just wanted to learn to be funny in a context of I wanted to be a tour guide. And then to just say funny things with the people. I was terrified because every book that I have read about a stand up comedy, they revise you have this page and hecklers. Exactly. And in those days, ideas speak as well as now that I sound as a saint Laurence Olivier. And then for me, there were a lot of things that I had to concentrate first, watch a lot of stand up comedy to learn the rhythm. There is a rhythm and you'll develop your own rhythm as you progress. I have my rhythm and then sometimes I wonder are people people get into inside that way? them kind of like they expected. But then when I started, everything was about the way they see me. The way they see me I call escape the ethnicity and the accent. So I had to refer to it. Especially 30 years ago in Montreal, I was an allophone in the sense that I was not English or French. 

Wendy Mesley  15:22  
Yeah, you learned how to speak English in Quebec? That explains a few things.

Martha Chaves  15:28  
Yeah, and French in Quebec.

Wendy Mesley  15:30  
Well, the French part I get but the English part. Yeah,

Martha Chaves  15:34  
I learned how to speak English incorrect sometimes. I wonder if my cadence when I speak is not influenced by by the cadence of French Canadian? Oh, I'm sure it is. But that's it. So I had to deal with the accent with the ethnicity. I didn't talk about the lesbianism at the time, because it was too much. It was the it was like I mean, it was it was too much and and I think I was more comfortable in my skin. 

Wendy Mesley  16:01  
Well, didn't you- didn't you say somewhere that your mom sent you to Concordia to cure you of lesbianism?

Maureen Holloway  16:07  
Did they have a course on that?

Martha Chaves  16:10  
Yeah, my mom sent me- they said- they decided to ship me off to out of- out of Nicaragua, because my mother found out by reading my private conversations that I was getting involved with this woman. And then she thought that it was just a phase. And in order for me to stop having those feelings, I will have to be dispatched, separated from the person. But then-

Maureen Holloway  16:37  
To Montreal!

Martha Chaves  16:41  
They sent me to Montreal! With the most beautiful women in the world in Montreal, and gay culture. But you can even though with all of that, even though if I always knew, I am what they call a Goldstar lesbian because I never went out with guys. And even if I always knew I remember with my first girlfriends in Montreal, we will go to- I mean for me it was like a revelation to go to a- to a gay bar, you know, that you there are people holding hands like that that was so subversive that you will hold hands in public- like in- while in public, not really in public, but with other people around. But I remember that my girlfriend and I, we were both what they call lipstick lesbians. And we will say but we will see butch lesbians and we will go we are not like that. As you know like, there is a self internalized homophobia, it- I got cured of it like in a year, but at the beginning that was it. 

Wendy Mesley  17:38  
Well, there's none left anywhere in the world now. There's no homophobia or sexism or race. There's there's none of that left now.

Maureen Holloway  17:45  
Yeah, it's gone. It's- we did it.

Martha Chaves  17:47  
No it's cured, it's cured, we did it. If you read the comments about gay pride on Facebook, you know how much they love us. They love us. So- but I wasn't afraid because of- of coming out on stage because I thought that the audience will hate me. I was afraid of my mother. That's what I was afraid when I- finally when my mom passed away, and I hate to say it in 2007 I started coming out, coming out not consciously, but- and then all of a sudden everything was like you know, I talk about a lot of things and I happen to be a lesbian when I talk about those things. But I don't emphasize only on that part because I think that we are human, right, first. So I talk about a lot of things. I never did- I was never in the closet in the sense that I will be talking about my my boyfriend or anything like that, like sex with men. I never- you know what I mean? It was not that kind of closet. But some people have asked me though, how come you didn't come out before? Everybody comes out as they can.

Mary Anne Ivison (Voiceover)  19:00  
The Women of Ill Repute.

Wendy Mesley  19:03  
Are you LatinX? Are you Latina? Are you Hispanic? Like, I'm sorry to- the- I feel like these are all cliched questions.

Martha Chaves  19:12  
No, it's not cliche. I even wrote an article for the CBC about LatinX. The thing is that because in Spanish everything is gendered. A lot of like la mesa, del carro, that's the car and the table. La mesa is feminine, the table is feminine. Del carro is masculine, the door la puerta is feminine. They have- you know, so a lot of people came up with the instead of putting Latino or Latina to put Latinx so is genderless. It's been a war- I think is a good idea because that implies that we are like the X Men. We have superpowers but it takes a while to get used to. But I yeah because they call us Lat-Latin and for example, Brazilians are Latin too and they don't speak Spanish. Hispanic is all Latin America and Spain, but not Brazil because they don't speak Spanish. So it's confusing.

Maureen Holloway  20:13  
It is confusing. I thought they were. I thought if you're a Brazilian just because you spoke Portuguese. In fact, I thought Portuguese people were part of Latinx. Now I find out that they're not. 

Martha Chaves  20:23  
No, no, they are Latinx. But they are not Hispanic. 

Maureen Holloway  20:26  
Oh, they are. 

Martha Chaves  20:27  
Hispanic doesn't define all of So- of South America or Latin America, that we don't come from Latinia. So I don't know why they called us Latin, I guess because the language is Latin. 

Maureen Holloway  20:43  
But French- French is Latin based and they don't- French people aren't considered Latin. So.

Martha Chaves  20:48  
No, it's complicated. Yeah, it's

Maureen Holloway  20:51  
Yeah, c'est tres complique. Martha, you wrote a an article on mentorship not long ago. I know that it's been very important to you to have a mentor or I guess now be a mentor.

Wendy Mesley  21:05  
Well, yeah, cuz you teach, right? 

Martha Chaves  21:07  
Yeah, it is important. It's become so important to me that I go every Tuesday I go to see the kids. Even if we are on vacation. But on Tuesdays at Yuk Yuk's, they practice. The Humber kids, they practice. So I go every Tuesday to see how they are progressing to give tips. And comedy is I think the only art, or craft if you want to call it that way, that people believe that say if you start playing the guitar, if you go ring, ring ring, you don't think you're ready to go play with the Rolling Stones. Whereas in stand up comedy, you can do five minutes. And they all feel that way, they're ready to go play at Massey Hall. So I kind of I like to mentor and guide. But I don't like to criticize, because I was criticized a lot and sometimes you take about a negotiation, the communication those are positive, I like to be positive. I like them to emphasize on their strengths. Like if I have a student that is a that is very gifted with voices, I will say do- put in that joke, put a voice, put an imitation. If I have a student that is very gifted at writing, which I do have some times I say, well, you know that's very nice. Find something that is really from your heart to write. It's important for me, mentorship, because I was in the wild, I didn't have role models. I was the only ethnic comedian on the Yuk Yuk's roster, up to maybe 2007. Ethnic in the sense of Latin there were black comedians, but no, no, they were Trinidadians maybe, but not Latin. Now there is a lot of them. And not precisely Latin X but I mean people from- from Bosnia Herzegovina, people from Nigeria, people, people with accents, where before was only me and maybe two French Canadians.

Wendy Mesley  23:09  
So you- you did it. What made you so positive? I mean, you said that there was lots of- there's lots of shit around. Obviously, as you were, as you were coming up, you were exposed to- and it's- as we were joking earlier, I was, but it's still around, but you're positive. What makes you so positive?

Martha Chaves  23:27  
Well, you know what, like I have come to realize in my old age that I was exposed to a lot of racism, sexism, homophobia, but I blinded because I toured with guys for 20 years maybe, with white heterosexual cis men. And I heard a lot of things I hear- I heard Oh, you're only funny because of the accent. And then I took notes. I took note. Oh, I'm only- It will make me down. Oh, people think I'm stupid. But I'm only funny- that they are laughing at me. Not with me. But then I realized, well, I could be using this to my advantage. They gave me- or they will go, they just laugh with you because you're new, you're- you're a novelty. You're a flash in the pan. And I heard a lot of things especially if ever I did better than them. And I will be coming back in the car with them. I will hear a lot. Like if I did like I was here. I love that. Oh yeah, like putting me down, putting me down. But I didn't want to listen. And there was something in my head that protected me from that. I just dislike the horses, that they go in that direction. I just wanted to become a good comic like what I thought a good comic was which was, you know, talk from your heart and communicate with all sorts of people. I don't look down in the audiences, my feelings are there. If they tell me it's a horrible bar. Nobody does well, in that bar. For me is like, you know, I'm gonna try to communicate with these people. And it's always nice when I go places in which I'm not in Toronto which is multicultural and then very open to- to LGBTQ2IA+pi. You see that they, their acronym is growing, we even have plus, because we are open, we are open to suggestions. And then when I go places, I just like I said, I'm a person. If I see a guy on- on the car- in the crowd, that was when I finally see him laughing, oh, boy, that's the best for me. Because we finally made a connection. Every form of communication is a- is a foremost of translation. So I believe that that we translate ourselves on stage for the people to understand us.

You have quite the drive to do that. And I'm just trying to imagine somebody who said to you, well, you're only funny because of your accent. Well, yeah, well, you try it, you try it with an accent. You try being funny. It's- it doesn't make it easier. It makes it harder in some ways. 

It makes it hard. I think my comedy has improved a lot since I am with Linda, my wife, because she's she's an Anglophone white woman. So there were things that maybe I took longer to explain. But with her it's like, sometimes she writes jokes for me.

Wendy Mesley  26:37  
So it must be fun at the dinner table. 

Martha Chaves  26:38  
Yeah, yeah. Sometimes she- she- because I have a joke that I say. But everybody- like I was telling you that from but after the pandemic, everybody has a condition. Everybody has something something mental. And my joke was if you don't have it, is because you haven't been diagnosed. And Linda goes, but ask your friends. And that right there, that took it to another- It's always nice to bounce things off with people, and her father was a writer, and a humor- He loved humor. So I think it came to her. Of course, there is not easy to go on stage right? Is not the hardest part. Like some comics like to romanticize the whole thing. Oh, is it hard, the job? No. You're not operating on a brain. But it's not as easy as some people believe. It's like cutting hair, right? Everybody knows how to operate a scissor. And everybody could do that to your hair. But they wouldn't do a good job. It's like, some people think that it's just- you just go and talk whatever. No, you have to- in the- in a limited set of minutes, you have to convey the most- the more ideas and the more laughter that you ca- that you can.

Maureen Holloway  27:59  
Who is it that said dying is hard, but comedy is harder? I think it was Woody Allen? We're not supposed to quote him anymore.

Martha Chaves  28:06  
Dying is easy, comedy's hard. I think was Mel Brooks. 

Maureen Holloway  28:11  
Okay, let's say Mel Brooks. Who is still with us at least as- as of press time.

Martha Chaves  28:18  
That is my hope you know, because a lot of comedy people die older, and they don't put you out to pasture in that showbiz thing as they do when you're an actor.

Maureen Holloway  28:28  
No, you're right. You're right. Don Rickles, George Burns. Mel Brooks.

Martha Chaves  28:33  
Yeah, Joan Rivers.

Wendy Mesley  28:35  
So there's- there's hope. I'm gonna- I'm gonna read up about all your tips. And then it'll be good, in my 80's I'll be funny. 

Maureen Holloway  28:42  
Well, let's hope.

Martha Chaves  28:49  
But ask me things. I monopoized the conversation. 

Maureen Holloway  28:52  
No, no, not at all. In fact, you've just been wonderful and we're out of time. 

Wendy Mesley  28:56  
Yeah, it's a short podcast. So Martha, thank you.

Maureen Holloway  28:59  
And even shorter when we have someone as entertaining as you.

Martha Chaves  29:03  
Thank you. Is half an hour only?

Maureen Holloway  29:06  
It is half an hour only.

Martha Chaves  29:08  
Oh, well. That's great. I feel really honored that you invited me to do this.

Maureen Holloway  29:13  
You're perfect for us.

Martha Chaves  29:15  
I love being of ill repute with you.

Maureen Holloway  29:19  
Yes. Well, good. We're in great company.

Martha Chaves  29:23  
How did you come up with that name?

Maureen Holloway  29:25  
Wendy. Wendy came up with it. And yeah, it was funny.

Wendy Mesley  29:30  
Well, there's a lot of women who are invited to- and I- we- maybe all have been invited to speak at Women of Influence and I'm just like, No. The other side of the coin is we're all women of ill repute, or at least the interesting ones are. 

Maureen Holloway  29:45  
Well, if you've made- if you've found some success or some joy, let's not use success, doing something different or in a different manner, and certainly comedians fall into that, then we consider you a woman of ill repute, and we certainly consider you to be one.

Martha Chaves  29:59  
Thank you. You're women of ill repute. I like that. May I borrow it?

Wendy Mesley  30:05  
Yeah.

Maureen Holloway  30:05  
You may have it. 

Wendy Mesley  30:06  
Just give us credit.

Maureen Holloway  30:08  
We can share it. Yeah. We can share it. 

Martha Chaves  30:11  
For the show in Spanish that- because in Guatemala, the stand up is not very well understood as a format. So you have to name your show. No, I wanted to call it the rainbow sheep of the family. You know, the rainbow sheep of the family but in English. La veha rainbow de la familia. We will see, I let you know.

Maureen Holloway  30:36  
Got a nice ring to it. Thank you, Martha.

Wendy Mesley  30:40  
Thank you, Martha. 

Martha Chaves  30:42  
Thank you very much. Thank you.

Wendy Mesley  30:47  
So I can't believe that I confessed, Maureen, that I put Preparation H under my eyes. 

Maureen Holloway  30:53  
You've come a long way, Wendy Mesley. You said it didn't work though. 

Wendy Mesley  30:58  
No, it didn't do anything. 

Maureen Holloway  31:01  
Do you have hemorrhoids under your eyes? No. So I would argue that it worked. 

Wendy Mesley  31:04  
Yeah, maybe it did. Maybe it did. 

Maureen Holloway  31:07  
I'm gonna try it. I'll try anything once anyway. So that was a little scattered but charming nonetheless, maybe all the more so, and she's- like, she's been through shit. She's been through a lot of hell. And is living proof that what doesn't kill you makes you funny. 

Wendy Mesley  31:22  
Yeah, I mean, I only know her as a funny person with an accent. And I've been hearing her forever and laughing at- so she's quick. But I didn't know the whole story. I didn't know that her- like her- they left during the Somoza years, and they left Nicaragua, and there was a war going on there, and her family became refugees in Guatemala, and she was sent to Concordia to-

Maureen Holloway  31:48  
Sent to Concordia to get straight. Montreal is Disneyland for lesbians anyway, but no, good stuff. Martha Chavez, have been listening to her for years, and it was just really nice to meet her, so. I'm gotta go get some Prep H and put it under my eyes, it's gonna be great.

Mary Anne Ivison (Voiceover)  32:03  
Women of Ill Repute was written and produced by Maureen Holloway and Wendy Mesley. With the help from the team at the Soundoff Media Company and producer Jet Belgraver.