Sisters Emily Polish-Sims and Nancy Polish rolled into Hopkinsville this week to prepare for their first in-person comedy show — Saturday evening at the Alhambra — based on the podcast “Sister Therapy” that they launched several months ago.
Their routine involves a sisterly back-and-forth about the everyday stuff in their lives — except, in their case, everyday is not exactly routine.
Take for example, a recent late-night walk when Nancy took her new Labradoodle retriever outside for a potty break. In Nancy’s telling, it was about 3 a.m. when she and the big pup, Norman, stepped outside. She heard a “swishing” sound and was soon drenched by the automatic sprinklers outside her Florida home. From there the story veers into an unfortunate encounter with a new neighbor who might have thought Nancy, in her wet T-shirt, was peeking in his window while she waited for Norman to finish his business. They named that episode of the podcast “Peeping Tom.”
Most of their routines go like this. Anything that’s happened to one or both of them in the previous week is fair game, Nancy described Friday morning during a conversation at The Corner Coffeehouse. The sisters were making the rounds in downtown Hopkinsville with Emily’s daughter, Addie Sims, and their friend, Margaret Prim, who is executive director of the Pennyroyal Arts Council and recruited them for the local show.
Their podcast also runs on Facebook Live. Nancy describes their style as edgy but not too edgy. (They know their mother is listening.)
Addie, who is a college student, handles the technical and promotional aspects of “Sister Therapy” for her mother and aunt.
The idea to turn their conversations into entertainment grew out of videos they began recording to promote their Mary Kay cosmetic sales when the pandemic forced them to come up with virtual platforms. They started hearing from people who wanted more stories. A cousin had already been after them to write a book.
Nancy and Emily grew up in a small town in Montana. Their late father was a cattle rancher and banker. Emily says their humor comes from him.
“This is our dad … he would have loved this,” she said.
They both live in Florida now. Their connection to Hopkinsville is through Margaret Prim. She and Emily worked together in communications jobs in the mid-1990s.
“She reached out and said this could be a fun thing to do live,” Emily said. “I know how much Hopkinsville means to her … and I knew she would take care of us.”
Tickets for Girls Night Out with “Sister Therapy” are $25, available online and at the door. Livestream tickets are $10. The show starts at 7 p.m.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
