After a path through Raleigh, Charlotte and Washington, DC, Sarah Donnelly came to Paris 12 years ago for love. Since then she’s become a stand-up comedian, multicultural mom, and an expert on what’s funny about everyday life in France.
After graduating from Queens in 2005, Donnelly met her now husband 13 years ago while living in Washington. She ended up moving to Paris because “who doesn’t want to live in Paris at least once in their life?” She didn’t know French at the time, but started taking lessons as soon as she arrived. She approaches the language barrier with a positive attitude, “It’s definitely a challenge, but it’s fun. I’ve just been learning and making mistakes along the way. I definitely laugh and make fun of myself.”
Becoming a Multicultural Mother in Paris
Donnelly now has two daughters, aged 8 and 4, and blends her personal experience as an American mother in France with her professional career as a stand-up comedian. “In my show, The Only American in Paris, I talk about what having bilingual kids feels like. And the surprise of having French children as an American.”
Donnelly also embraces this experience through her show Becoming Maman, Raising French Kids When You’re Not French, with her writing partner, Amber Minogue. “When you become a mom, you take on a whole new identity. And when you are a foreign person living in a new place, you take on this new identity as well.”
Amid this process of “figuring out who you are and your roles,” Donnelly recognizes that “moms, we get a lot of criticism around the world. But by being an American mom in France I’m not held to the French mom standard and vice versa. That’s very liberating.”
Going Through the Paris 2024 Olympics
Like thousands of Parisians, Donnelly has been affected by the Paris 2024 Olympics Games. “As we were approaching the Olympics they definitely were putting up more security and more barricades,” Donnelly said. For example, she could not run her weekly comedian show near the Pont Neuf because of security restrictions before the opening ceremony. Donnelly approaches the unfortunate situation as an “exception,” with “a positive American attitude,not the negative Parisian one.”
Comedy Across Cultures
Language is different in France, and so is comedy. “America has a long standing history with stand-up, whereas in France it is still kind of a new art form,” said Donnelly, who recalls that nearly no Parisians knew about stand-up comedy when she started in 2012. “We’d ask people, how many people have seen a stand-up show before? Raise your hands. And we would have no one raise their hands.”
While “stand-up has historically been very much like this is me, this is my point of view, this is my life,” Donnelly explains that French humor -“one-man show-” “has been more theatrical, with a bit more storytelling and more distance from the artist and the storypoint.”
Despite the acute differences, the American has perceived “a lot of great new French standups really talking more of the American style about this is my life,” with platforms like Netflix helping comedy embrace change and “become more global.”
When it comes to her French audience´s taste, Donnelly knows they like “to hear about my perspective on their country and culture as an outsider.” She recognizes the challenges it encompasses, as it requires being thoughtful when making references to an international audience, “I can’t talk about CVS, Walmart, or Target.”
Advice for Americans
“Americans, come to Paris! Take the metro! Stop taking Ubers! You’re gonna get stuck in traffic!”
Avery McMullin
Reporter
Natalia Hidalgo
Reporter
Eleanor Williamson
Reporter
Queens University News Service
