OMG, I did. I worked in the entomology lab in college because it paid better than other hourly jobs and a friend of mine who was obsessed with bugs got me into it. Entomology is the study of insects. Given my general phobia of any kind of insect, fly, or thing that buzzes, it’s objectively hilarious that I would choose this job. Every day I would have to feed larvae and then transfer that larva to a new container at each stage of growth. There was one stage in particular that was precarious because the larvae would be hatching and turning into flies, so if you made a mistake on that step there would be flies all over the place. Well, I obviously did make that mistake, and then someone had to go in with guns and shoot those flies. Um, I guess I gained from that..the knowledge that I can face and kinda get a kick out of facing my fears? Also, I’m totally fine with blood now, so that’s cool.

I wrote, starred in, and co-directed a comedy pilot, Lonely Girl, based on my own queer coming-out journey. I even did all the casting. The proof of concept we created for the series was so sharp, funny, and emotionally resonant and has helped me get into doors with major studios and network people who otherwise probably wouldn’t have looked at my work. It showed me I am CAPABLE, so I’m in it for the long game.

Every single stand-up set, script, and personal comedic essay I’ve written, I’ve grown so much from it. What I mean by that is, I learned so much about my own internal tickings, my trauma, and my viewpoint on the world through audience reaction but also just simply the PROCESS of writing things in a comedic perspective about my personal life. A lot of comics will try to make light of their traumas as a form of comedy. I think I’m the opposite, I will DIG and find the humor not in making fun of myself but in making some kind of poignant statement about why I see something a certain way. I don’t know if that even makes sense TL;DR, I am obsessed with the self reflection and accelerated growth so intertwined with my journey as a comedian.

Yeah, one time a guy started calling me Jasmine as I was performing. I think he was drunk. I didn’t do anything. I just kind of let him beat himself up by not responding. I made a video about dating a Zaddy on TikTok that went semi-viral and the amount of people calling me a bad person (amongst other things) was pretty nuts, given how innocuous my story really was. I panicked for 48 hours, and didn’t delete it, and then started responding to insults with my comedic wit and signature levity. It was fun actually, and I realized most of the trolls simply weren’t expecting a human to respond and seemed shocked when I did. So that was an interesting learning. They’re just bored. Who cares.

Keep going, bitch.

I’ll have to come back to this one. I honestly black out bad advice.

I was 20 min late to an interview at my last full-time job. I made a joke at the end with the CEO and I think it made me memorable. So I got the job. I fully believe I wouldn’t have gotten it without humor. Humor builds trust, and sometimes I can be a little shit. But I am trustworthy. And funny. So there’s that.

KEEP FUCKING WRITING. Oh also read the book by The Duplass Brothers. It’s helping me think about my comedic filmmaking process in a much more iterative and lean way.

The first thing that came to mind was whoever did the voice behind Daria. So I’m going to say that. I was really struck by Hannah Gadsby when I saw her live. In particular her way of blending humor with poignancy. Lena Dunham’s show Girls inspired me to make something that reflected me and my friends, no matter how unlikable we might get. Who cares.

I block off at least 1 full day a week to write. And then each morning I write for 3 hours. I follow this about 80% of the time currently. The first 4 months of the year I was following it 100% and so much cool shit came out of that. Somehow admin work has crept back in because I’m putting more of this work out. I’ll go back closer to 100% eventually.