1e. Women in Comedy

Trixie Mattel, winner of RuPaul Drag Race Allstars season three, comedy queen and singer-song writer, stars in her own new Netflix Documentary, Moving Parts, and it is a must-see. Trixie lets the world see the ups and downs of maintaining a career as an iconic drag queen from channeling her abusive past into an armor…

More often than not I find myself admiring or studying new comedy but when I watched Fortune Feimster’s (yes, that’s her real name) new Netflix stand-up special, Sweet & Salty, I was cracking up like I was a little kid again. Feimster is nostalgic, genuine and positive. Her special is a break from all the…

I met Boom Chicago’s newest cast member, Stacey Smith, about a year ago when we brought her in to give the then cast a workshop in musical improv comedy. At the time, the cast and I were in a brutal show process. We were meeting every day from 11:00am to about 3:00am to write and rehearse a new show, perform and stay late for notes nearly every day. The last thing we wanted to do was a musical improv workshop (or anything requiring the least bit of extra energy). I can only imagine what Stacey was thinking when she laid eyes on us. Nevertheless she persisted. And, really, she didn’t even skip a beat. We were immediately swept up in the Stacejam (title of her one woman improvised musical that will blow your mind). Within minutes we were all cracking up and belting out hilarity at…