THE MERKIN SISTERS
THE MERKIN SISTERS' DEBUT ALBUM...
Album Release Date: November 13, 2022
Now Available on Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music and more
THE MERKIN SISTERS
DEBUT ALBUM PRESS RELEASE
Stand-up comedian Stéphanie Morin-Robert, Juno-nominated comedy songstress Shirley Gnome, and
physical comedy artist Ingrid Hansen have spent a decade touring their live comedy shows across North
America. This winter, they convened to write a dark-pop comedy album together. The three multi-award-
winning femme comedians holed themselves up in an apartment in Winnipeg in the darkest of January,
only venturing out for short walks in the perpetual blizzard to buy wine and chocolate. The resulting album, THE MERKIN SISTERS, is a five-song genre-smashing EP with the vibes of a high-budget pop album
and cheeky, surprising lyrics.
The album features a sweet and sultry french crooner about murdering abusers and fonduing their flesh
in chocolate. A trashy pop tune raises a glass to the Diva Cup and its bloody contents. The Merkin Sisters
embody their male dirtbag personas for a husky, revved-up country jam with a screaming hook, “DON’T
EVER APOLOGIZE FOR YOUR BODY!”
Hansen and Morin-Robert began touring their no-holds-barred physical comedy duo The Merkin Sisters
to sold-out crowds in 2017. Critics describe their work as “hilarious, terrifying, and utterly baffling,” (Vue
Weekly Magazine) and “wild and unimaginable, but PISS-YOUR-PANTS FUNNY,” (Montreal Rampage
Review). Whether smash dancing in full-body-covering curly ginger suits of hair, turning a pastel-pink
woolen sweater into a vulva puppet for an operatic birth scene, or divulging the audience’s darkest secrets
on stage, The Merkin Sisters broke the brains of audiences and critics across North America and have been looking forward to ‘birthing’ a new project together ever since, thanks to the generous support for the
Canada Council for the Arts’ Digital Now initiative.
Merkin Sisters Hansen and Morin-Robert met comedy musician Shirley Gnome touring the Canadian
Festival circuit and had an instant appreciation for each other’s uncensored, subversive, and empowering
humour. “Shirley made me laugh so hard I snorted beer up my nose,” says Hansen. “We instantly felt a
connection and knew we wanted to welcome her into our MERKIN EMPIRE.” added Morin-Robert. “Being
in the raucous crowd of their shows felt like a newfound solidarity with like-minded people,” Gnome
finished. Gnome has been heralded as “The Queen troubadour of intelligent dark-comedy sex balladry”
by the Edmonton Sun. Her latest solo album Decoxification went to #1 on the Itunes Comedy Charts in
Canada and was nominated for a Juno Award for Comedy Album of the Year.
Chart-topping Fake Shark frontman and Juno award winner Kevvy helmed the production of the EP, rounding out this critically acclaimed team. The Merkin Sisters album will drop on Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, and a bunch of other streaming platforms on Sunday, November 13th, with a new live show to follow.