Spoiler alert: There are no Amish people in The Amish Guide to Fucking. We know, you’re devastated, right? Nothing says comedy like 60 minutes of bonnet and carriage jokes. But alas, this story is not about the Pennsylvania Dutch. Instead, Kurt Braunohler relates what went down when he and his girlfriend of 13 years decided to take a Rumspringa, the term for the time in an Amish teen’s life when they are allowed to sow their wild oats. Or in Braunohler’s case, an opportunity he and his girlfriend took to try and get laid by someone besides each other.

“It was the worst idea ever,” says Braunohler. Luckily for the audience, what transpires is excellent fodder for one-man comedy.

In the course of his 30 days of freedom, Braunohler encounters a cornucopia of random scenarios, including an audition for Sacha Baron Cohen that went totally awry.

Braunohler grew up wanting to be a priest, but after his first improv class he was hooked on comedy. “I’d always had a lot of different interests,” he says. “But there was nothing I really loved. Then I took that class and I was like, ‘This I love.'”

The comedian has been a busy man as of late. When not touring to different festivals, he can be found working with the adorably dirty comedienne Kristen Schaal, best known for her role as Mel from Flight of the Conchords. You may have caught their web series, “Penelope: Princess of Pets,” which stars Schaal as a woman who can talk to animals. With her orphan friend Kyle (Braunohler), she has to save the world by killing a senator named Stone. Episodes of the series can be found on the Funny or Die website.

Braunohler’s work is consistently quirky, outrageous, and random. Yet it’s only during this recent foray into personal narrative that he has taken the opportunity to mine his own past for material.

“As a stand-up, I don’t usually talk about myself,” he says. “But then I realized all these things that happened to me were so weird, they could be funny.”


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