E27: Take A Chance on THIS and The Rest Will Take Care of Itself - Kalea McNeill | Stand Up Comic
She Shed Comedy: Empowering Your Comedy Career
Release Date: 08/05/2022
S2E18: REPLAY: Why Letting Your Set BREATHE (by doing THIS) is So Important
She Shed Comedy: Empowering Your Comedy Career
Have you ever been out to dinner with a group of friends and after a bunch of chit chat the table falls to a dead silence… And as that awkward feeling starts creeping up your shoulders someone starts babbling again and relief washes over you? What is it about silence that gets to people? I think that we are so used to being bombarded by sound, that when silence arrives, it’s so unfamiliar that we have an unconscious need to fill it back up. Why? Because nature abhors a vacuum. We have an unconscious need to fill empty space. What does this have to do with comedy? Well, It’s been said...
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S2E17: REPLAY: The Best Nuggets From Season 1
She Shed Comedy: Empowering Your Comedy Career
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S2E16: REPLAY: Going PRO - What It Means To Be A Professional Comedian
She Shed Comedy: Empowering Your Comedy Career
-If you are going to do this, just decide to be a professional. Learn some skills; give it some time. It's not going to be easy; set proper expectations, go out there and give it your best and just keep doing it.- 'Go Pro' by Eric Worre. For some people, being professional is synonymous with having years of experience on stage. For others, it could be the aura you emit, the way you carry yourself, what style you show up with, your outfit, and a host of others. Robin Williams said, "Comedy is the only art form that you can use everything you know." In this episode, Linda Schwartz takes us...
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S2E15: REPLAY: Pt2 Going From A Tight 5 to Tight 7 - Deconstructing My 7 Min Set
She Shed Comedy: Empowering Your Comedy Career
Standup comedy is a personal development course in action, according to our host, Linda Schwartz. Her comedy is a work in progress, as is she, but she’s sharing her (cringeworthy) experiences to help you improve, too. On the last episode of She Shed Comedy, we dissected Linda’s tight five from her 2022 Pretty Funny Women show. Today, we’re taking a look at her seven-minute set, so get ready for some laughs and a few lessons! Perhaps one of the most important things to remember about crafting a set is that the time of a set isn’t how much time you actually have. This is comedy, after...
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S2E14: REPLAY: Going From A Tight 5 To A Tight 7 - Deconstructing My 5 Min Set
She Shed Comedy: Empowering Your Comedy Career
Every comic starts out with a five-minute set or what the industry refers to as a ‘tight five’. This tight five will evolve over time and eventually expand into a seven-minute set, then a 15-minute set, then a 45-minute set, and so on. Since Linda started performing, her set has evolved constantly, with minor tweaks from show to show. Today, we deconstruct her tight five and take a look at how she put her set together to get it as tight and structurally cohesive as possible. This episode offers insight into the methodology behind crafting a set using Linda’s performance from the Pretty...
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S2E13: REPLAY: Bombing Pt 1: Why You Must Embrace This To Get Better
She Shed Comedy: Empowering Your Comedy Career
A comic’s biggest fear is going on stage and hearing crickets, or worse, heckles. Bombing on stage is quite traumatic, it can stay with you for years to come and even be the reason you leave comedy all together. However, chances are, most comics WILL bomb, it’s just the name of the game. So how can we look at bombing differently and reframe our perspective to make it work for us? On today’s episode, you will be hearing 5 different women comic’s takes on their bombing experience, what they felt when it was happening, and what they learned from it. These incredible...
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S2E12: REPLAY: How To Mine Your Life For Comedic Gold
She Shed Comedy: Empowering Your Comedy Career
We’ve heard this from women time and time again, “I don’t want to become my mother”. This begs the question, why are mother-daughter relationships so complicated? This is a tricky question, especially if you’ve grown up with a mother who was abusive, narcissistic, and neglectful. As a comic, you would think, wow, these traumatic events could be comedic gold, because comedy equals tragedy plus time right? Well, there is a missing piece to this equation, and that is the part in between tragedy and time, which is, reconciliation. To not retraumatize yourself as a...
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S2E11: REPLAY: Funny Mom? Start Here… This Episode is For YOU.
She Shed Comedy: Empowering Your Comedy Career
“You can’t pour from an empty cup”, is a quote our host Linda Schwartz now lives by. Linda lived this reality when realizing she had abandoned herself and her creative pursuits after diving headfirst into motherhood. However, being a mother and a wife doesn’t mean you stop being you. This is a fact Linda wants to drive home to you listeners by hearing her journey how she came back to herself to become the comic she is today. In today’s episode, Linda gives her backstory of becoming a mother and living with guilt and regret only to realize...
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S2E10: News News News: NEW YORK & Holiday Hiatus
She Shed Comedy: Empowering Your Comedy Career
As Fall rolls through, it's time for us to slow down and get settled into a space of reflection. As Linda heads to NY next week for the NY Comedy Festival, we are winding down the year with a Holiday Hiatus and will not be producing new episodes until the new year. If you're in NY and want to attend a show Linda's performing in, please . Until NEXT YEAR, Stay safe, Stay Happy, & Stay Healthy!
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S2E9: Pausing: Why Letting Your Set Breathe(by doing THIS) Is So Important
She Shed Comedy: Empowering Your Comedy Career
Have you ever been out to dinner with a group of friends and after a bunch of chit chat the table falls to a dead silence… And as that awkward feeling starts creeping up your shoulders someone starts babbling again and relief washes over you? What is it about silence that gets to people? I think that we are so used to being bombarded by sound, that when silence arrives, it’s so unfamiliar that we have an unconscious need to fill it back up. Why? Because nature abhors a vacuum. We have an unconscious need to fill empty space. What does this have to do with comedy? Well, It’s been said...
info_outline“If you continue to operate at a level of excellence, then someone is gonna figure you out.” - Kalea McNeil
Creating connection, being personable, and being authentic, are not the first things you think about when you think of surviving the comedy circuit. The industry is known to be cut throat, so you would think you would need to meet it with the same energy. However, being a jerk, won’t get you very far in any industry. People want to book comics who they like, who they can sit down and have a beer with. Being self-aware and real can take you places being a jerk never could, because let's face it, there are a lot of funny people that want to be comics, but aren’t anywhere to be found. This is such a shame, however, our guest on today’s episode realized this early on, and it has helped propel her career forward by just being genuine. It also helps that she is incredibly hilarious too!
With a bachelor's degree in theater arts from Clark Atlanta University, guest star on many popular television shows, and has performed at her fair share of legendary comedy clubs, actor and stand up comedian Kalea McNeil joins us on today's episode to talk about her journey to comedy. Specifically how she navigated the murky waters of the comedy scene by being unapologetically herself and making genuine connections with the right people. This has landed her some big gigs, and has helped her to produce her own shows. She is a force in the scene with some great advice for anyone new or seasoned comic.
Topics discussed in this episode:
- How Kalea got into comedy
- Spiritual kick in the pants to move forward
- The moments of affirmation that helped Kalea move forward in comedy
- The importance of being personable and kind when networking
- How creating genuine connections can take you far in comedy
- What life is like on the road like for a comic
- One of the biggest lessons Kalea has learned as a comic
- Making sure the people around you are elevating you
- How Kalea created her own shows after abandoning open mics
- Benefits of using bullet points when writing for comedy
Connect with Kalea:
Instagram
Connect with Linda Schwartz:
Visit https://getlaughpass.com/ and use coupon code “SHESHED” for discounts on live comedy shows in your area!