Exclusive: Listen to a Track from Emily Van Dyke’s Debut Comedy Album Feeling Myself

What’s in a name? I’d try to quote the rest of that line, but I read Romeo and Juliet all the way back in freshman English and I get enough flashbacks of that time from my high school stress dreams. But I’m pretty sure my old friend William Shakespeare was trying to get across the point that names are necessary so we know to look up when someone’s shouting at us, however we’d be wrong in determining something’s worth based on name alone.

Comedian Emily Van Dyke certainly knows the trials of having a troublesome name; besides possibly getting mistaken for a distant relative of Cockney accent expert Dick Van Dyke, her surname has been a source of consternation for the Indiana native because of its use as a pejorative against lesbians. Now, on her upcoming debut comedy album Feeling Myself, Van Dyke looks back on her time as a high school arts teacher when her well-meaning students shortened her surname because of its potentially negative connotations (even though, like many slurs against queer people, it’s been largely reclaimed). The resulting nickname was… not great. We here at Paste have an exclusive preview of the “Ms. V.D.” track from Van Dyke’s record for you to listen to.

After being let go from her position as an art teacher in 2011, Van Dyke tried her hand at stand-up by taking classes at SF Comedy College. She’s now been in the Bay Area comedy scene for over a decade, and Feeling Myself is the culmination of her work so far. Van Dyke’s debut album tackles everything from marriage to her spooning experiences as a “sturdy medium,” from the perils of office life to what art teachers really impart to their students—all analyzed from her candid, no-nonsense Midwestern perspective. Feeling Myself is out on February 9 via Blonde Medicine.