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The Office
Watch the special expanded series finale online now.
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Fill us in on what you've been up to since your season of LCS ended?
No grass is growing under my feet. I am working on a TV show (reality, of course) with great TV producers. I have been traveling all over the country, healing people through laughter. Our country needs healing right about now.
How did LCS change your life?
LCS changed my life in a way that I believe in miracles. I wanted to quit comedy before this show. I was actually getting my resume updated to get a job prior to being on the show. I was in a real-life struggle. My dad was dying of cancer and he has passed since the season I appeared. I am now able to live and not stress over where or how bills will get paid. I am performing in clubs now (headlining) that would not even book me as an opener: they would say I am too strong of an act to open.
I now have management that manages my career and gets me to the doors that I cannot get to. I have agents even though I still hustle because I feel no matter what I must be involved in my career not just on stage. I have built through God's grace such a diverse fan base: old, young, black, white, straight, gay... my comedy has no color... color me funny.
Most importantly, before this show I did a lot of gigs because I had to: I needed money. I compromised many times, but now thanks to LCS I have gained the power to say NO. I have choices thanks to Last Comic Standing.
What's it like being on the road? Is being a professional comic all it's cracked up to be? No pun intended.
Before it's all said and done, I want TV and film. Taking this comedy gift I have to the next level being on the road has it ups and downs. I get tired and I have fun even though I have done this national show. I have still been in situations where I have had to prove myself: bookers have said, "Well, you know, she came in fifth place. Will she sell, is she funny for 45 minutes?" And after I leave that club I am back in less than a year, the line is out the door and the manager of that club is saying you should have won or placed in the top three. You are a force.
Being a professional comedienne comes with paying dues and a double minority being a woman and being a woman of color not shaped like a Coca-Cola bottle. And another thing, as a comic there is some real painful moments... and trust me, a river of tears will be shed, but joy will come.
Tell us a funny LCS story that fans never got to see happen on air?
There were cameras everywhere. I got dressed in a little-ass bathroom one day. I got tired and I said to hell with these cameras. I got dressed in my room and I would talk to the camera crew and say I know y'all do not want to see my big ass and struggle to put this girdle on and see these huge boobs, but I need my freedom. If I get dressed in that closet one more time I will die... oh and Ty Barnett was my neighbor and he thought there was a ghost on the ship. I invited him to be my roommate and light candles and in my subtle way seduce him, but he is my lil' brother he cannot get this candy.
Any parting words of advice to would-be comedians?
Be ready to grind. Know that it's a journey and not a destination and understand that everyone will not like you. Be yourself and stay humble or you will be humiliated.
