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Aisha Tyler on How to Break Into Comedy

Posted by carolyncastiglia on March 12, 2008
Filed Under Uncategorized |

I just stumbled across this blog post on Aisha Tyler’s MySpace page.  This is probably my favorite line:

“Great comedy is like that incredible conversation you had with your best friends in college, telling stories and drinking wine from a box until five o’clock in the morning, after which you made scrambled eggs and hot dogs for breakfast and thought secretly to yourself that you had the coolest friends in the world.”

I totally had that exact experience in college!  My 5th year (don’t ask… smoking too much pot followed by eating too many chicken finger subs does not leave one with much time to “study…”) a bunch of girls from the theatre department got together and started having “Ladies Night” at our house.  I lived with two great girls, both of whom have since gone to Africa in the Peace Corps and are excellent musicians, and we wanted to create a vibe in which women could just get together and have fun - without the greater pressures of wanting to be cast and constantly trying to impress people.  Out of those Ladies Nights, my first bit was born: a character I did called Lesbiana who is sort of a poor man’s version of the great Leibya Rogers, since I can’t actually play guitar.  After that, I continued to pursue theatre, but I knew in my heart I wanted to do comedy.  When I finally started doing stand-up it was the most freeing experience in the world.  I had found my home… in a clown shoe.  And I loved it!

I still sort of run one of those Ladies Nights today, now in the form of Chicks and Giggles.  We will be having our last show at Ochi’s Lounge next Tuesday, March 18th, so be sure to come out!  If you’re lucky, we might even make you scrambled eggs and hot dogs.  But we will definitely make you laugh.

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