In the aftermath of Election 2016, comedy is crucial. This is not to make light of things, God forbid, but to get us through our evenings and car rides and any time we just want to step away from Facebook's contentiousness, or stop ruminating. Luckily there are many podcasts and shows that have served as my own distractions. I am fortunate to have discovered extraordinary comedians, ones who are more in touch with the cerebral and unabashed about disclosing angst from the past. They become more relatable to us through what they share.

Janet Varney is a comedian who, through her podcast The JV Club, has gotten other entertainers (all women, with the exception of a summer special called “The Boys of Summer”) to open up about insecurities and vulnerabilities, endearing them to listeners and showing that performers we admire experience the same challenges we do and have faced similar fears. Through humor and wit, Varney draws out details and accounts from adolescence: the shortness of breath in times of panic, the root of one's morbid fascination with true crime, the disciplinary problems in school, the learning disabilities...and more.

Comedians Jamie Denbo and Kether Donahue have opened up on her podcast as well as actor Kristin Bell and The Talk co-host and Aisha Tyler. Now Varney stars in the IFC Chanel's Stan Against Evil as a police officer new to a department haunted by ghosts of witch trials past, working with the officer she replaced to fight demons and break a long-time curse. Yes, it's comedy and like Varney, it's unconventional.

Written and produced by Dana Gould, the horror comedy hits nostalgic notes, conjuring up images of Vincent Price in Diary of a Mad Man or The House on Haunted Hill. Simultaneously, the horror is so deliberately over the top and in many ways, overtly trite, that you must laugh. The script is primed to make you do so, especially if you get the genre and know that Stan Against Evil is not serious horror.

Speaking with Janet Varney after watching episodes of her new show, I mention how prior to this I've seen her as the pretty blond who has made fun of old fashioned female daintiness, or as the spoiled pretty girl whose vulnerabilities get exposed (i.e. a personal favorite, Becca on FXX's You're the Worst). I compare her to a Jenny McCarthy (they have some physical likeness) prior to the outlandish vaccination false prophecies.

"I see what what you mean” says Varney, “but I think Jenny McCarthy pushed it too hard in comparison to what I do. She was more like 'I talk about farting, but look at me, I was in Playboy.' I’m more subtle.I feel that today social media is fascinating in that you have this amazing access to people you admire. When they are humanized to young women and men, people can relate. I don't want people thinking there's this separation. Marilyn Monroe appeared to be perfect but she wasn't perfect."

Varney’s talent is multifaceted. She also sings and so I pose a question to her from a fan, Paris T.: “If you could invite two musicians from any genre, dead or alive, to collaborate on an album, who would they be?”

“That’s a great question!” she responds before thinking it over, “I would want to take two musicians that have nothing in common: I would do something with the band Elbow. They have really fantastic music and you just lean in and start listening to the lyrics. Their sound is a sort of modern day Peter Gabriel type. Then I would take Frightened Rabbit which is a Scottish band with a Dylan Thomas sound. I really enjoy them. It must be part of my Scottish roots that respond...”

On her new role as Sherif Evie Barret in Stan Against Evil, Varney explains "This was Dana Gould's brainchild and I knew it was going to be a blast to work on. It's very him - He's interested in practical effects rather than computer generated imagery. It's that fun experience of having the monster in the room just like the making of old fashioned movies, and there's a "wink" to the audience with this show as we're making fun of and referencing those things. I love working with John C. McGinley, a serious actor who came to the project wanting it to be grounded in some way. We got to play it straight on one level even if there's ridiculous stuff happening. It's comedy, sure, a horror comedy...but while working together it's like doing an action show. There are a lot of scenes we film that involve things I don't normally get to do."

However, there is a lot that Varney has already done in her four decades on earth. This includes, among other projects, voicing animated Avitar Korra (The Legend of Korra), hosting TLC's Dinner and A Movie as well as impressively co-founding the San Francisco Sketchfest and helping launch Huffington Post Live as Host. She also really enjoys her work as the host of Escape! on Geek and Sundry (GeekandSundry.com), where celebrities work together to solve puzzles and riddles that allow them to escape a room before time runs out.

"There's something so enjoyable about watching famous people bumble their way through these challenges," she says, which further attests to her mission of wanting to make famous folks appear normal to everybody else. So much of her work is infused with the desire to eradicate the imaginary lines that divide the famous and non-famous equally mere mortals of this planet.

You can catch up on IFC's Stan Against Evil at www.IFC.com. For more information on Varney and her other projects, check out her website www.JanetVarney.com and be sure to subscribe to her podcast The JV Club.