The last month or so has been an important point of progress in my comedy career. Vargus Mason, producer of the Nappy Fro Show (that I have now performed on nine times), invited me to come perform on a special event show he was organizing. This show, while on the usual Main Stage at the Comedy Store, would be a chance to show off for an assistant talent coordinator of the Montreal Just For Laughs Festival. If you know anything about standup, you know that Montreal is where careers can be made or broken. This show wasn’t an audition for the festival, but rather a chance to be noticed by a representative of the festival in hopes for a future spot. The fact that I even get the chance to perform for a rep from the festival in my short time as a comic is incredible.

The comics on the show were all very good – a refreshing change from the usual mediocre to bad comics that usually perform on it – and I believe I had the fewest notable credits of anyone there. “This next girl has been on BET’s ComicView, she toured Iraq making the troops laugh… Tiffany Haddish!”. I have nothing like that under my belt… everyone else has 5+ years of experience, I’m just over 2. Nevertheless, I kicked ass at the show. I improv-ed a lot, my material killed, and I was very comfortable the whole time. Every time a show goes that well, it reinforces to me that yes, comedy is what I want to do for the rest of my life.

A few days later, I performed at the Irvine Improv on a show called ComedyJuice. ComedyJuice is done at the Hollywood and Irvine Improvs, and the Ice House in Pasadena. It’s arguably the best show on the west coast, and one of the best shows in the country. Anne and I have gone to the show at the Hollywood Improv a dozen times and seen comics like Dane Cook, Dave Attell, Dov Davidov, Dave Chappelle, and many other huge names. The fact that I was on a ComedyJuice show is an honor. I checked the website over and over for the week prior to the show to see who I’d be performing with. Finally the list went up – Dan Levy, Adam Hunter, and Iliza Schlesinger. Winner of Last Comic Standing Iliza Schlesinger. Saw her a year ago when I moved to LA in a tiny tiny upstairs room at the Westwood BrewCo and developed a comedy crush on her Iliza Schlesinger. Said my parents, “We saw her on Last Comic Standing – she’s like a female you!” Iliza Schlesinger. And now I’ll be sharing a stage with her! F yeah!

I performed on ComedyJuice (feeling like a professional comedian after the show director asked me what song I’d like to go onstage to, how awesome is that? Nothing Is Real by Bottom Line, in case you’re wondering), and I did really well. Tons of laughs. Immediately afterwards, Iliza approached me, introduced herself to me, and said she thought I was great and asked me to come perform on her Comedy Store show next month. We’ve been emailing back and forth and now I’m booked for April 6th. Hopefully I’ll have a new video for you soon after.
What I’ve been hearing from friends, acting coaches, and other comics a lot lately is that I need to stop doing my day job (Make It Work) so much and go out on auditions for TV pilots and commercials. I really want to do that, but the financial insecurity that comes with hoping to maybe get booked on a Snuggie ad is a little scary considering the stabilty that I’ve found with Make It Work. My boss and the COO of the company have started having meetings with another tech (whom I trained) and I every month to discuss what ideas we have for making the company run better. Pretty cool. It doesn’t come with any extra money, but I may be able to work out a deal with them that I only work 3 days a week or something like that.

On that note, I just paused in writing this post and sent a long email to a commercial agent asking what work schedule would be appropriate to go out on auditions.

I need to start making the transition. Fingers crossed.