Warring with Words: Jan Donahue, Military Comic

Jon Plombon

Staff Writer

I don't know what I'd do if one of my family members left for Iraq. I guess I'd be happy. Especially if it were my sister. I don't care for my sister. That explains why I wouldn't mind shipping her off to war. I don't have son. But if I did, sending him off would be great to get away from him for a few months, too.

But some other people are less enthused at the prospect of losing someone to a war. They're a little—different.

Jan Donahue is a little different. She has a family. And she's a little concerned about them.

She's concerned because her husband Kevin, an Army cook with the Minnesota National Guard, was deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq to serve his country (both in a figurative and cafeteria-tray sort of way). Though he returned from his 2002 stint after a year, he was later called for training camp and duty in Iraq. His ongoing absence has lasted roughly three years, which just so happens to be three consequential years in Jan and Kevin's adolescent sons' lives. It was a sacrifice, but a sacrifice that they were anticipating. But then she received some good news. She lost her job. It kept on coming. She needed surgery. It got better. Her doctor prescribed her Prozac. "I'd sit and watch the television until five or six at night," she says in her routine, "then I'd turn it on."  That's pretty scary stuff.

But then she found comedy. And with it her depression softened. She began with small comedy clubs in West St. Paul, Minnesota, honing her craft. Then her name popped up in newspapers around the state. Gigs outside of her home state were offered. She was trying her hand in California. Dean Reynolds did a piece about her on ABC World News Tonight. And she was named one of the notable women of 2007 by Minnesota's first lady, Mary Pawlenty.

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