a personal anecdote about comedy and entertainment

bio

I owe much of my life to comedy. I was incredibly lucky to have my mind opened to various forms of well crafted comedy from a young age. I started my early years with the works of Jim Henson through Sesame Street and The Muppets, and engaging mostly with Spongebob. There came a point in my life where my father made the fortunate mistake of allowing me to watch The Simpsons when my mother wasn’t around. It’s some of the earliest memories I have, and it was then that I really started to understand how the world sort of worked through comedy.

It was all up from there. I was still in elementary school when I was shown many films of the Mel Brooks catalog (Young Frankenstein being my favorite), The Lost Boys, and much more. I discovered raunchy comedy in my middle school days with South Park, but I also found myself watching really great pieces of comedy I don’t particularly think I was prepared to understand just how much it meant to me. Shows such as The Daily Show, Late Night with Conan O’Brien and Chappelle’s Show had such an immense influence on me in which I learned what really great comedy looked like. I’m really thankful for those early years of comedy in teaching me about improvisation, scripted comedy, shorts and skits with silly characters. I’ve accepted just how much that shaped me as a child, and why I thank my father and mother everyday for giving me that gift and trusting me with it from a very early age.

favorite theatrical works

Natasha, Pierre, & The Great Comet of 1812, Lysistrata, The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens, and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord, A Strange Loop, Biloxi Blues, Red, An American in Paris, Come From Away, Thoughts of a Colored Man, Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, Meteor Shower, The Last Five Years, Romeo & Juliet.