How to Stop Thinking and Start Doing with Lace Larrabee
On this week’s Level Up! With Shay, I am excited to introduce you to Lace Larrabee, actor, stand up comedian, founder of Laugh Lab, and co-host of the Cheaties podcast. Lace shares her story of being a child actor, eventually moving to pageants where a lot of her comedy started to take shape, the lessons she learned growing up from her hard-working parents, the struggles of a female comedian in a male dominated space, and she opens up about how she gets through the hard days and stops herself from doom scrolling on Instagram, even if it’s just getting some sun for 15 minutes.
I hope you enjoy our conversation and if anything that Lace says resonates with you, please share this episode on Instagram and tag me @levelupwithshay and Lace @lacelarrabee.
Subscribe to Level Up! With Shay wherever you get your podcasts.
Thank you so much for being here. It’s time to level up.
Lace Larrabee’s Links
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lacelarrabee/?hl=en
Cheaties Podcast: https://linktr.ee/cheatiespodcast
Laugh Lab Comedy Class: https://www.instagram.com/laughlabcomedy/?hl=en
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/lacelarrabee
Level Up! With Shay Links
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/levelupwithshay/?hl=en
Sign up for my weekly email: https://shaybeats.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=296c0fcd9d9ff8f4ab2a4c387&id=ac7c13ed71
Follow Level Up! With Shay
Timestamps
3:27: Lace talks about acting when she was a child and then eventually joining pageants
10:16: How Lace rose to the top by practice even with putting her own flare on how to do it by performing comedy
15:36: Lace’s family taught her how to overcome any hardships with laughter and comedy
20:13: One lesson Lace’s family taught her while growing up that has stayed with her to adulthood
22:24: How Lace’s first time doing stand up was very unconventional and the perspective she kept as she started
26:01: The challenging transition between being a proper beauty queen to being a stand up who talks about sex and other “non-royal” topics
32:38: One challenge Lace overcame doing stand up and how it helped change the scene of Atlanta comedy
39:41: Letting go of shame and other people’s judgement of how you make your money as a creative and an artist
41:31: How Laugh Lab, Atlanta’s first all female comedy class, started, who it’s for, and what it teaches you
45:16: What Lace does on the hard days to stay moving, motivated, and continuing on day-to-day with her craft
50:09: A few things Lace is currently doing to level up including self care, more comedy, and taking on new and challenging jobs
53:22: Advice for artists who are hesitant to put their work out there and why it is so important for getting your perspective out into the world
Transcription
Shay 0:00
Hello and welcome to Level Up! With Shay. I am a comedian and lover of personal growth here to share stories on my level up journey, to bring other fascinating and inspirational people to share their story and to help you realize your potential to fulfill your biggest dreams. I am so excited about today's guest Lace Larrabee. Lace Larrabee is an Atlanta based actor and nationally touring stand up comedian. Lace was named 2018 Best Local Comedian by the readers of Creative Moafing Magazine. Laces has opened for comedy favorites such as Tig Notaro, Iliza Shlesinger, Dave Attell, Nikki Glaser, Maria Bamford, and many more. Hor comedy has been featured on Viceland, the Weather Channel, Fox Network, Epix, and the Game Show Network. Lace founded Atlanta's first and only all female stand up comedy class, Laugh Lab, at the legendary Punchline Comedy Club. I took that class back in 2021. It was co-ed and it was incredible. Atlanta Magazine voted Laugh Lab 2019 Best Comedy Class so go check that out if you're in the Atlanta area. Lace and fellow Atlanta comedian Katherine Blanford co-host the hilariously healing podcast Cheaties where they interview guests who have either been cheated on or been the cheater and I have been on the podcast. So go take a listen to that episode. This podcast focuses on the mistakes we all make in relationships and more importantly, how we overcome them and make it out on top. I met Lace within the first few months of living out in Atlanta and when I heard all the great things she was doing with her all female comedy classes and then saw how funny and welcoming she was, I knew I wanted to have her on. So please welcome to Level Up! With Shay, Lace Larrabee.
Shay 1:57
Welcome everybody to Level Up! With Shay. I am here with the hilarious Lace Larrabee.
Lace Larrabee 2:05
Yes, I am here with you Shay.
Shay 2:07
I'm so excited to ask you a bunch of questions. I took your stand up class a couple months ago.
Lace Larrabee 2:14
Yes, you did. Thank you for doing that, by the way, because you are already so funny and talented. And to have people that are already like a slightly bit established, like taking a class, it just it means the absolute world and you were so good.
Shay 2:28
Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, that class is just great for just being comfortable with being on stage and having a supportive group around you, a supportive teacher, TA, all of it. And I remember we had our graduation show and then we went to that club afterwards.
Lace Larrabee 2:49
Yeah, Johnny's Hideaway. What do you mean "that club?"
Shay 2:52
There we go. Johnny's Hideaway. Thank you.
Lace Larrabee 2:55
The Legend of Johnny's Hideaway.
Shay 2:58
(laughs) I guess so. That was the first time that I was in there, but I just remember during that time, we were talking a little bit and I think I just asked a question, or maybe somebody else asked a question, one of the other students, and I wanted to ask you more questions and I was like, "We're in a club right now." (laughs) "This is not the place for a mini podcast right now."
Lace Larrabee 3:22
(laughs) And listen, it would not be the first or last time that someone has tried to ask me comedy advice at Johnny's Hideaway.
Shay 3:27
Yeah, right. Okay, so I'm glad I have you in a safe space in your home. Well, we have so much to get into because I have so many questions. So I just want to start off in the beginning, when you're a kid, you were in pageants.
Lace Larrabee 3:44
Not as a kid.
Shay 3:45
Okay. Not as a kid? Okay. After 13, right?
Lace Larrabee 3:48
After 13. Started at 13. Yeah.
Shay 3:51
Ok so teenage years, you were in pageants and I'm just curious, what got you into that, what did you like about them and also, like, how did you improve at them? How did you get to be good at them?
Lace Larrabee 4:08
These are great questions, Shay. So let's back up, pre-pageant years. And for any listeners who are outside of Georgia, this might not make any sense, but I grew up all over the state. Okay. So there's a big difference between North Georgia, even middle Georgia and especially south Georgia, right? So I grew up all over the state. We moved around for my mom's job. I'd always loved performing, but never in a professional sense, obviously, as a kid, I was just like, you know, I'd make my own plays and make my family watch it. The same story that every entertainer has, right? We put it on and our family was like "(clapping) Ohh this is terrible," but they would be supportive, which was cool. And then when I was nine, there was a movie being filmed in the town that my grandma and everybody else lived in. And Grandma called and she goes, there's a Julia Roberts movie being filmed down the road. And as a kid, I looked very Julie Roberts-y because I just had a mouth. I was just a little brunette kid with just a mouth from ear to ear and none of my features had come in yet, like nothing else. And so everybody was like, "You, look like a little Julia Roberts." I don't now, but listen, it's fine. I, I'm dealing with it, I'll get a good plastic surgeon and we'll fix that. But I, so she was like, "You gotta come down, they're asking for extras." And it's just one of those things where we were like, "Okay, let's do it." And we went, me my mom, my aunt, like over a course of two weeks of them filming these big scenes where they needed a big audience, we snuck in most of my family. Me, my mom, my dad, my grandma, my grandpa, two of my aunts, one of my uncle's - we all snuck into this, like every day and my mom and I were the first ones to do it. We just showed up. And at like 5am call time and we're checking in and they go, "We don't have you on the list." My mom's like, "I should be on the list. I should- you should have Ginger and Lace Larrabee on the list. We should be there." And if this gives you any idea of just how my future ended up going by my mother. So my mom's like, "No, we're getting her into this movie. She's meeting Julia Roberts. This is what, this is it right? We're gonna, we're coming, we're moving on up." And oh my parents had me when they were in high school. So my parents were super young. So at this time, my mom is like, in her 20s. She's like 25, 26, she would have been like 26 at the time, all right, feisty as hell, young. And then they were just like, "Okay, we believe you ma'am." And we filled out some extra paperwork and we were in. And then we ended up filming for like, almost two weeks as a family. Every day we'd bring another family member with us. (laughs) So anyway, I got the bug, I loved it. And then I started doing those model searches that they used to have at malls. I know you're very young. I don't know if you remember a mall, Shay.
Shay 7:01
I went to one of those.
Lace Larrabee 7:03
Did you?!
Shay 7:05
Oh yeah.
Lace Larrabee 7:06
Did you get far? You should because you're so tall.
Shay 7:09
I wasn't tall back then. I was taller a little later in high school and again, the features weren't there. (laughs) I was just a girl with the dream. Nothing else.
Lace Larrabee 7:23
(laughs) Same. I just had a mouth and a dream. So, did some of those ended up getting some auditions. I got an agent. I got some auditions. I did a couple commercials when we were in the Atlanta area. And then everything came crashing down when I was 12 years old, my mom got a job in South Georgia and we had to move to middle of nowhere where there was one red light. And I was coming from the last few years of literally my parents would take turns taking off work to take me to auditions. Like, things were happening. We literally were considering, that year my mom was considering sending me off to one of those houses for kid actors in LA where they ship you off. And there's like a lady, like a madam? I don't know what you call that. There's just like a house mom. And you work on acting together and she gets all the kids in the house around to auditions. Like, I don't know. I don't know what it looked like, but we literally were this close. I mean, we were so close to filling out that paperwork and shipping me off. Then we moved to the middle of nowhere. All right? Nothing. No agents. The closest thing to a play was the Christmas pageant at the churches. That's it. So that's how pageant started. My school had a pageant. I said, "Okay, there's a chance for me to get on a stage. I got to do it. I got to do something." I signed up, didn't know what the hell I was doing. My mom didn't know what the hell we were doing. We knew nothing about pageants. And I learned how to walk, I learned how to do the pageant walk at practice, because they made us go to practice, we had like five or six practices before. And I would watch the girls who've done this 1000 times, who've been doing it since they were like, fetuses. And I was like, "Huh, okay." And I befriended one of the girls and I was new at school, everybody hated me. And I befriended one of the girls and I was like, "Show me what you're doing." And she stood next to me and was nice enough to be like, "Here's a T stand. Here's a step, pivot step. Here's this, this, this. Here's how you do all this. You keep your head over your shoulder, you do blah, blah, blah." And I was like, "Kkay, bitch, okay. Thank you so much." We rented a dress from a place, I looked like a fucking cupcake. We curled my hair with ringlets, like ringlets, like a creepy ghost child from the 1700s. That's what I looked like and I entered the pageant and I won.
Shay 9:41
Wow.
Lace Larrabee 9:41
And I beat everybody.
Shay 9:42
First pageant?
Lace Larrabee 9:44
First pageant...
Shay 9:45
Wow!
Lace Larrabee 9:48
Ughhhh...
Shay 9:48
Ughhh...sorry about it.
Lace Larrabee 9:49
Beat that girl who helped me practice and everything and I was like, "Oh sorry...I didn't know what I was doing." But see what they don't know is after practice, I was going home my mom would be like, "Alright, practice what you were doing." And we cleared out all the shit out of the living room, pushed everything over. And she's like, "Okay, do it again. Nope, go back do it again. That's not how Tina's doing it. Do it again." I'd be like "All right!" We were like a team man cuz I love that shit. It creepy stage mom like people see with kid pageants. She wasn't like "Do it" and I'm like "I don't wanna!" I wanted to do it as much as she wanted me to do it. And it was something to look forward to. And then it's kind of like stand up, once I did it once I couldn't stop and I was like, "Where do I sign up for another one? How do I do this again?" And I signed up for everything that I could get into, everywhere that I was eligible and then I did it until I got into the Miss America system when you get old enough to start doing that stuff. And the rest is history. I did that stuff until I aged out completely and I paid for most of my college doing it, went to Miss Georgia four times. Was never Miss Georgia but I made it there four different titles. Made it to Miss Georgia USA four times. So competed in both the systems for years and then I got cellulite and had to stop.
Shay 10:16
(laughs) And so practice is really what it was
Lace Larrabee 11:06
100%! I loved it. And I loved just performing and the further along you get in pageants - the cool thing about starting when I was 13 is that that was the age group that talent started being a part of pageants, but I didn't get up to pageants with talent until I was 16. So inbetween I would enter the ones that had a speech competition, or something additional to just walking around in a dress. I was like, "What else can I do?" Yeah, I loved it. I love, love, love the challenge of, you know, write a speech and do this or do a monologue about blah, blah, blah or whatever. I love the questions once you started getting the interviews and all that shit. Yeah, I'm just highly, highly competitive and I love being on stage. And I never had a problem being up in front of people. So it just fed all that ego shit for me. And I was in a new town and I hated it. And the kids hated me for a long time because I was new.
Shay 12:02
And that kind of gives you some freedom a little bit.
Lace Larrabee 12:02
Yeah!
Shay 12:02
Yeah, you get to kind of make who you are who you want to be.
Lace Larrabee 12:03
It was my own thing I could focus on because I wasn't, like I said, I wasn't making a ton of friends or anything yet. And yeah, it just gave me something to look forward to and get better at. Man I love that.
Shay 12:23
Yeah, yeah. I want to talk about the talent portion of the pageant because I like the idea of just turning something on his head and really making it your own thing. And so you did comedy.
Lace Larrabee 12:37
I did. I didn't do stand up comedy, but I did comedic monologues. If I would have known about stand up - I knew about stand up, I watched it all the time, obsessively watched when Comedy Central became a thing. I remember being like, "Holy shit. I've been waiting my whole life for this. My whole 10 years of life for this." And I remember being obsessed with Comedy Central and obsessed with stand up. So my mom would let me watch when HBO would do stand up stuff and all that, but that seemed like such a faraway world, that was like famous people, you know? That's like, you're watching like Jerry Seinfeld and Ellen DeGeneres and all these people that were, you know, and I'm like, "Oh, that's a famous person. That's the thing for people who have sitcoms, like that's not, you don't get to do that." If I would have known that it was an option for me as a teenager to learn and do stand up, holy shit man, my life would have been so different.
Shay 13:28
(laughs) Yeah
Lace Larrabee 13:29
But anyway, so I did comedic monologues so I just did funny pieces from plays. So we just ordered a bunch of books, playbooks - I still have most all of them on my shelf right there that my mom ordered at the time from the internet, and we ordered all those books and then would just sort through until I found something that was funny that I liked that was appropriate for families.
Shay 13:50
Yeah. Did anybody else do comedy stuff?
Lace Larrabee 13:55
Handful of people, not much people. Most of the time when people did monologues they would do dramatic monologues. Nobody was doing comedy monologues. It was very rare that you ever saw it. Everybody was singing opera and doing, you know, the classical shit. They all did classical stuff, piano, ballet, baton twirling, like that kind of stuff and then I was like, "I don't wanna..." I mean, I could dance, like I took dance classes and stuff, like I could do that. But I was like, "I don't want to do a shitty jazz dance when I can like be funny."
Shay 14:28
Yeah.
Lace Larrabee 14:29
Because I'd much rather use my my face and my hands and you know, run around on stage and costumes and stuff and I had a blast. And Georgia because it was a competitive state they only wanted classical talents. Even though I was great, I nailed interview, I was great in every other competition, evening gown, onstage questions, swimsuit. I won the swimsuit award at every single pageant I did, almost, won the interview award most of the times, and then I'd be like a runner up, because they didn't like my talent. They're like, "It's just not competitive enough for the National." And I would go in the interviews, they would ask me, they'd be like "Well you're doing, like, acting for your talent, like, Why? Why do you not?" And I would be like, "Well, that's gonna be my career."
Shay 15:12
Yeah.
Lace Larrabee 15:12
That's what I would say. I'd say "That's my career. I want to be an actor and a comedian when I grow up." And I stood by that the entire time I did the system where talent was required. I stood by that the entire- I was like, this is a job.
Shay 15:27
I love that! I love that you stuck with your guns.
Lace Larrabee 15:32
Yeah!
Shay 15:33
Even if it wasn't widely accepted, even if it didn't-
Lace Larrabee 15:36
It wasn't! (laughs)
Shay 15:36
Right! But yeah, like a Miss America doing stand up as a talent, like, you wouldn't see that. So I want to go back to your family. There was something I read where you said "My family always overcame any sort of hardships with comedy." So what did that look like? I know they were working, you know, multiple jobs or extra shifts.
Lace Larrabee 15:38
Yeah. For years.
Shay 15:46
Yeah. What did that look like with your family, kind of using comedy through those hardships?
Lace Larrabee 16:06
Yeah, my parents are hilarious. Like, they're so damn funny. And I was always so thankful that no matter how hard things were, no matter what we were going through, because I mean, we were, I mean, obviously, my parents had me they were teenagers. Like, they had nothing, and neither one of their families supported them. I mean, especially early on. I mean, shit my, well RIP, but even my grandma, she was kind of mad, like, everybody was kind of mad about the whole situation. And they're just like, "You're ruining your lives. What are y'all doing?" And I think to teach them a lesson my grandparents at one point and this was only for a short amount of time, but they were trying to charge for babysitting to babysit me to teach them a lesson of how hard life is out there. And then they came around, and everybody came around afterward and it was totally, you know, we all had good relationships with extended family later after they saw how hard my parents worked. But no matter what, like when we were in low rental housing, when we were in trailers, when we, like you said my parents were working two jobs apiece, always. They still, we've always still laughed. There was never not laughter in the house, even when things were hard. Like we could go from fighting to making fun of each other and laughing right after. Probably looked crazy, I mean, I'm sure. But like, I had an ex boyfriend who used to say he's like, "Your family's like, I know y'all aren't Italian but y'all act Italian. Y'all laugh hard. You fight hard. You eat a lot. Y'all act like Italians." And I'm like, "Oh, maybe. Maybe we are. We're like Italian in our hearts." But yeah, it was just, my parents, it's mainly because they're hilarious. They're just they're super funny people naturally. And then we definitely, like self deprecation became a big thing because we would just like, we cut each other down and also cut ourselves down. And because you're always being picked on, you found a way to laugh at the things that you're bad at and whatever, you know, whatever your insecurities are. Maybe that had a lot to do with why I could handle rejection in acting and pageants and stand up cuz I got used to like, "I know exactly what you're gonna make fun of me for. So go for it. Fucking go. I've heard it. My own parents said it to me. Go! What you got?!"
Shay 18:25
Yeah, I love that. I feel like I needed a little bit more of that in my childhood.
Lace Larrabee 18:31
Really?
Shay 18:32
Yeah because I think it was kind of just like, "love yourself." "Love yourself, love yourself, love yourself," which is great.
Lace Larrabee 18:40
Sure! That's awesome!
Shay 18:41
Yeah, but it's also like, I don't have to take everything so seriously. I can laugh about some of my goofy things that I do or insecurities.
Lace Larrabee 18:55
Now, don't get me wrong, my mom is an absolute perfectionist. And yeah, there was always the 'even if things are not going perfectly or not going well or we don't have any money, we're never going to look like it or act like it. When we leave this house we are you know, we are stage ready.' So I think pageants were a really easy thing for us to get into and get excited about because it's all about, you know, how you carry yourself. And you're always liked carrying yourself better than what's going on at home. And so my mom was always making sure we were constantly, you know, we were always matching, clean clothes. We spoke a certain way. My mom would count our "umms" and "likes" in the car.
Shay 18:59
Ohhh...
Lace Larrabee 19:00
Yeah, we'd say "Umm" and she's like, "What'd you say? That's one!"
Shay 19:07
Yeah, my mom was an English teacher.
Lace Larrabee 19:08
Oh shit! (laughs)
Shay 19:15
So I kind of got that too. I don't know about the counting but yeah.
Lace Larrabee 19:53
Oh, mama would count 'em. Oh it was bad. But anyway, yeah. So there was that level too, I mean, it wasn't like all like, "Ahh just go out there and who gives a shit!" It was never that but at least at home, we were always I mean, we still to this day, we all just make fun of each other all the time.
Shay 20:13
Yeah, I love that. And what did your parents teach you? Like, what do you think is one lesson that they taught you during those times when they were just working really hard and supporting you?
Lace Larrabee 20:17
That no one else is going to save you, you have to save yourself, you have to take care of yourself first. And they would use that, they showed me that in their life. You know, like, especially because early on, they didn't, they had no help. So they had to help themselves. No one else was going to come to their rescue. No one was going to come to our rescue. But that was especially true and especially, they reminded me and my little sister constantly that like, when it came to relationships, they're like, "Don't expect a man to take care of you one day. You take care of yourself first and then anybody who comes into your life is lucky to be in your life with you. But you be self sufficient first." So that for sure. I mean, and that's just something too that we just as a family took pride in and I learned to take a lot of pride in doing things on my own. And now and for a long time and probably still today it's still a defense mechanism of mine to not ever look or seem dumb or that I don't know something or know how to do something. I never want to be like "I don't know. Oh how do change a tire? Oh, how do I...uhhh" like if there's something I want to do I figure out how the hell to do it and I would rather do it and be a know-it-all and annoying about it than to sit around and go "Oh, help me. Somebody help me." And that came from them. The second I could reach an ironing board, I was ironing my clothes. I begged my parents for a curling iron for my hair so I could like, I was curling my bangs in like fourth grade. Like plugging in my little Vidal Sassoon fucking curling iron. I'm in the mirror like curling my bangs and figuring out how to do everything. I wanted to do it. I wanted to be grown up from the time I was a kid. I wanted to cook. I wanted to do everything.
Shay 20:26
I wouldn't know how to use a curling iron right now. (laughs)
Lace Larrabee 20:55
(laughs)
Shay 21:01
There's no way.
Lace Larrabee 22:05
Well you got to follow your passions.
Shay 22:18
Exactly.
Lace Larrabee 22:19
Curling my hair was and is still a passion. So it's just different priorities. (laughs)
Shay 22:24
Yeah, for sure. Let's go to stand up. I read that your first time being booked was a surprise.
Lace Larrabee 22:33
Yeah, essentially. I mean, it was yeah and then the first time I was on stage, I was booked. I didn't sign up for an open mic or do a show up, go up.
Shay 22:41
What happened? How did that happen?
Lace Larrabee 22:42
Well I was bartending at the time. I bartended even through starting standup for years. I bartended in total, like 12 years. Anyway, I was at a restaurant in Buckhead working, had a regular who loves stand up. We got to talking because, well the reason we started talking about stand up to begin with was because he pulled out his wallet the first time I waited on him and his wallet, it was so weird, Mitch Hedberg was on his wallet. And I was like, "How the hell do you have a Mitch Hedberg wallet." I was like, "That's so weird and random." And he goes, "You know Mitch Hedberg?!" I was like "Of course I know who Mitch Hedberg is. I love Mitch Hedberg." I remember crying when he died and I was not even in stand up. I was like, "Oh my god, this is crazy." And he's like, "I got it off Etsy!" or some shit, I don't know. He was just a super spunky guy and he was so nice and we talked stand up all the time. And he's like, "I love stand up. I love it" and I was like, "Yeah, me too, man. I've always dreamed about doing it one day, you know, one day when I'm not working 17 hour days." Next thing you know he started running open mics or shows, it was one or the other, he was doing both. And he still is like, really into production. He does DJing, he DJs stuff and helps put on events. And he didn't stick to stand up but for a while he just likeed running shows. He was a really good show runner - he would find venues, he would have everything set up to the nines, like this is before everybody was filming their shows, he filmed every single show. He provided you tapes of your show, like you know, just all the stuff that like, it was very high quality shows. He had the posters and all that. Not everybody was doing that at the time. And long story short, he came in, he's like, "You got to do stand up." I had just gotteb out of a relationship. I had broken up with my ex of six years, and I was just ready for a change. I was ready to do something different. And it just all happened at the right time. He's like, "Okay, you've been talking about, we've been talking about this for years when I come into the bar." He's like, "I've signed you up for a show. You gonna do 10 minutes on my show." And I was like, "I'm gonna who, what, who, where, huh?" And he's like, "I took one of your headshots off the internet," like one of my acting headshots, and he's like, "I took your headshots and put it on the poster so you can't get out of it now." And I was like, "Damn you, Richie. Oh, damn you." And I did it. I had like three months to prepare. So of course I wrote all my jokes, you know, two days before.
Shay 23:43
(laughs)
Lace Larrabee 23:55
(laughs) And I did it! I did like eight and a half minutes.
Shay 24:54
Wow. Okay.
Lace Larrabee 24:55
Yeah didn't make it to 10, but I made it to eight and a half. And I watched it back and it was really, it was kind of good actually. I had jokes. Like, I wrote jokes. I wrote jokes. Like I had, like, three examples and like a misdirect and like all this shit like, it was good.
Shay 25:20
Wow, that's an awesome first show, as a booked show. That's...scary!
Lace Larrabee 25:26
But also, let's put it in this perspective, I was 28 the first time I ever did stand up. So I had lived a life. I had just, I just told you about most of my upbringing, like shit, I'd already, I feel like I had lived four people's lives at the time that I was already 28 and already made it through. I was already aged out of the whole pageant system, was through that whole time in my life, through my failed acting, shortlived acting career, you know, through a terrible six year relationship, through bartending since I was 18. Like, I'd already been been there, done that. Nothing was scary about stand up.
Shay 26:01
Yeah. You say you found your voice through comedy. Were you ever scared to use your voice? What was it like kind of before comedy? Was there ever a time that you were scared to say something or scared to stand up for yourself?
Lace Larrabee 26:17
Yeah, for sure, because the biggest, the hardest thing to get over was the perceived perfection that you develop out of doing pageants for years. You've got to be a certain way, carry yourself a certain way, say the right thing at the right time, don't be caught not saying the right thing, and don't embarrass yourself, don't embarrass your title. Once you have a title, you hold that title for an entire year and you speak the entire year. So you do public speaking the entire time. So like my last year in the Miss America system, I was Miss Cobb County, which was the largest Scholarship Pageant in the state. So it was a huge deal that I got that. Took me four times to get it, I got that title. It was better than ever even like being a state title holder. Like it was amazing. They're so supportive. I did 98 speaking engagements that year, while I was in school, while I was working. So you get really used to standing in front of people, and you got to talk about your platform and my platform is the Multiple Sclerosis Society, the National Multiple Sclerosis society, I was a keynote speaker at a few of their events, did a lot of charity stuff, spoke at tons of civic organizations, schools, all that. So I was doing that constantly, right? And you, you have a crown on your head, you literally go to these events with crowns on your head. And so people are looking at you, and they're expecting a certain thing and you're a representative, and everything's weighing on you because you've got a lot of people who've put time, money and energy into you at that point and so you can't just be yourself. Now offstage, I was myself, right? I love to party. And I mean, you know.
Shay 27:59
Yeah (laughs)
Lace Larrabee 28:00
You met me at Johnny's Hideaway, you see, yeah, I've never met a dance floor I didn't like. I like a drink or two. I like to let loose, okay, I like to have fun. And I did that, like at 21 I started having a couple drinks and going out and partying and dancing with all my girlfriend's. So I was always myself off stage but I was always extremely wary of who's taking pictures, where are they posting it, you know, what's being said about me, you can't have a bad reputation, you don't want to tell the full truth, you want to tell just enough of the truth that you need to, you want to tell your story, but not all the details of your story, you need to tell the rose colored glasses parts of your story and just highlight the best parts of you. Which you know, nothing wrong with that, a lot of people like to keep a private life and that's cool. It was very hard to transition between 'you are this curated version of yourself on stage' then to stand up where you are your real self and you are your rawest, most vulnerable, real self. Because if you don't show vulnerabilities, and you don't show that you've been through some shit to an audience, they're not going to relate to you. And they're gonna think certain things of you right out of the gate, and you're not going to feel - I don't know, relatability is so important in stand up because when you're watching a stand up comedian, you either just like their jokes and they've got really good observational jokes, or they're telling you real parts of themselves that you see yourself in and that's why you can laugh cuz you're like, "Me too. Me too." And that's what was hard for me. That transition took a while. And it took a while too for me to get out of the habit of 'sounding like a stand up comedian. And here is where the joke goes.'
Shay 29:36
Yeah, yeah. (laughs)
Lace Larrabee 29:38
'Now laugh. Okay, here's the next joke. All right!' To where nowadays, I'm just "BLEH" when I get on stage, in a good way, I think. I mean I hope.
Shay 29:47
Yeah, it feels like conversation.
Lace Larrabee 29:49
It should be conversational.
Shay 29:51
And I want to know more about that transition because I think nowadays with social media, we want to be authentic and raw and we want to be out there and, you know, you talk about sex in your stand up sets and I feel like that's something you wouldn't talk about in a pageant setting.
Lace Larrabee 30:11
(laughs) God no! No! What are you talking about?!
Shay 30:14
I didn't do my research, but you know...
Lace Larrabee 30:15
Girl, no! No. You had to be virginal!
Shay 30:20
Right?! You had to be perfect in a way.
Lace Larrabee 30:23
'You are sexless, but be sexy!'
Shay 30:25
Right.
Lace Larrabee 30:26
Yeah, I mean, now it's a totally different world, but then once you get into stand up, and it took me years to get really personal and talk about really personal things, or things like sex and all that. And I guess also being married for April, it'll be four years since I've been married, being married will also make things a lot easier to kind of just talk about, because it's not, it's not like I'm onstage trying to pick anybody up from the audience. So I'm not like holding back, you know what I mean? So it doesn't, I'm not, I don't have to act like I'm available or act like I'm a catch to anybody, which makes it so much, that takes off, which you know, I mean, that's, if you're single, like, you're always, like, that's always a part of what you're - like you want to be professional, and you want to be this and you wanna be that, but you also like, want to be likable, and you want people want you and like you and be interested in you and see something, you know, whatever. And it's like, once that's gone, once you don't have that anymore, it's like you don't give a fuck, it's just so much easier to just talk about life.
Shay 31:22
Okay I' m gonna get married.
Lace Larrabee 31:24
Get married! Do it just for comedy!
Shay 31:28
Do it for comedy (laughs)
Lace Larrabee 31:30
But once you lose that whole thing that we have when we're just like, you know, too vulnerable, well vulnerable in a way of like, "I don't know, I could get a job from this, I could get a relationship from this, I could get all kind of things..." when you remove a couple of those layers, and you're just like, you're just doing it because you want to entertain people. Psh, makes things so much easier.
Shay 31:50
Yeah, there are those layers that it's like, "Well, I don't want to offend anybody."
Lace Larrabee 31:55
Right.
Shay 31:56
Like with the jobs because a lot of comedians have these corporate gigs that they go to, right, and saying cuss words, or talking about sex is not the material that they want. So is that something...
Lace Larrabee 32:10
Ummm it sometimes is! I've done a ton of corporate gigs. And I always ask them like, "Is the, when you say 'clean' when you say 'corporate clean' do you, is it content or language or both? Or which one is more important?" And they go, "Oh, some language is okay." Like, I'll ask some people and they'll like "Ass and damn is totally fine." You know, you could 'hell' you can say stuff like that. Sometimes even you can say bitch. What they really mean is they don't want graphic stuff.
Shay 32:37
Yeah, yep yep.
Lace Larrabee 32:38
They don't want graphic content. But yeah, you could totally be funny. If you're, you could talk about stuff, I think I did in a corporate gig recently, I did one of the, my husband coming up to me with his boner and thinking that that's seduction. And the a whole place was husbands and wives for the most part, because it was like a, it was a very blue collar company and it was a lot of hard working guys, a lot of truckers there. And so it was like the perfect - and they're bringing their wives and spouses and whatever for they're big Christmas thing. So it was corporate, but it was like, I definitely needed to do relationship material, because that's what they liked and that's what they laughed about. And I talked to the people who booked me about that, and they were totally fine with it.
Shay 32:38
Yeah. What was one challenge you remember in stand up that you were very proud of overcoming?
Lace Larrabee 33:29
It's so weird because I've been doing it for so long, it feels like forever now. I mean, I'm on my 10 years in stand up. And I've done, I've tried to stop counting after like, easily over 1000 plus shows if not way more than that. I used to count and I was averaging somewhere around 200 and something shows a year for like the first year. So I'm probably easily around like 2000 shows let's just say. I don't know. So it's really hard to pinpoint moments like that and a lot of stuff does it's like over time and it's not just a one time thing but I think helping break the stereotype in Atlanta especially. And I can mainly speak for the Atlanta comedy scene because when I first started and you know not to hate on these dudes, but a lot of the show runners at the time were mostly men. And they were very open about "Nope, we've already got a woman on this lineup." They said that all the time. I heard that constantly. Or you know, "We can't have two women" if there were two women you were lucky, that's almost an all women show. You got two do out of 10? Holy shit. That's almost too many women! That's two too many for them. (laughs) And they would never put us back to back right. You couldn't have a woman back to back because God forbid the audience will leave! So it was just such a weird thing. But to go from that, I guess when I started I'm gonna just say because there were a lot of times I had no problem being booked for a while and I'll be honest with that. I didn't struggle trying to get booked. When I first started stand up, like I said, I was like, already established as a performer and a public speaker and all that. So once I came on the scene people like, "Oh, holy shit!" I mean, they were excited to have a woman that was doing stand up that was sticking to it that enjoyed it. And I was a bringer. I brought a lot of people to shows for a while. Not anymore, but I used to, and- wear out those welcomes real soon, as we all know. But anyway, so everybody was like, "Oh, yeah, cool. Let's get a woman on our lineup. We'll book her." So I got a lot of those bookings. But unfortunately, it was the 'we need a woman on the lineup' bookings. Hey, you know, whatever. But so I never really had a problem getting booked. But I did see how tough it was for other people who would start. I saw a lot of women start comedy, and not stick with it. They would show up and then I heard, I remember being in different scenes. I was in, I don't remember what town doesn't matter, because it could be any town but I was somewhere in another stand up scene in another city and I was sitting there talking to these guys and I said something about "Yeah, not a lot of women or whatever." And they go "Well, we would love to have more women, but they start and we can't keep em!" You know, I'll reach out and one guy was like, "Uh, you know, I'll reach out to him be like, 'You should come back' and invite them!" And I was like, maybe that's it? Maybe that's why, maybe you're being too much, maybe you're too aggressive. You're making them uncomfortable. And then all these guys are like, "Yeah, it's just women just don't stick to comedy." And I'm like, "But we would if it was welcoming..."
Shay 36:31
Right.
Lace Larrabee 36:31
And if dudes weren't sending us dick pics, the second we started.
Shay 36:35
Yeah...
Lace Larrabee 36:36
And I lucked up to when I started stand up. I met my now husband pretty soon after and he was a working stand up comedian, at the time had been doing it for like 12 years when I met him. So he was well known and I was openly dating him like six months into me starting stand up and so people left me alone. So I didn't really have to worry about that until I would go to other scenes. So I really wasn't bothered in that way, that was great. And I also probably have this air of please don't hit on me, I guess. I don't know, people just don't. They don't. No one hits on me and I never- like I know I'm married, but somebody please hit on me. So anyway, that was good so I didn't have that but I watched it happen to other people and then I would hear other male comedians just be like, "Oh, we don't know what it is." And I'm like, "It's y'all! It's the environment y'all create. You do this one-woman-a-show shit. Too many of y'all hit on them. Too many of y'all are weirdly aggressive. Too many of y'all say, 'Oh, I don't get that joke.'" There's so much negativity towards women in comedy. And then I would do shows and half the damn audience would come up afterward and it's just like such a bizarre culture people coming up going "We don't really like women, but you're funny."
Shay 37:45
(laughs) Oh god...
Lace Larrabee 37:47
And almost every woman I know who does stand up has heard that recently. And I'm like, what is that shit? If y'all were saying that to every single one of us, then y'all we must be funny. Right? If every single time you see a woman comedian, what is that? Why do people have in their heads that women aren't funny? There's so many funny women. Like it's crazy. So I guess to answer your question, to go back. I think the thing that I had to overcome was, "Fuck it. Let me help other women do this." And when I started my class I very strategically wanted it to be an all women's class. And I genuinely did and still do want those women to succeed. And I was like, You know what? I've earned so much at this point, not a ton, but you know, enough, that I'm comfortable in myself, and I'm confident in my abilities and what I've earned. I don't care if I create competition, I realize that's what's going to happen. I'm okay with that. And I want, like a rising tide raises all ships, right? Like, I want us all to do well, and it just felt good to be able to take the stuff that I learned and share it with other people and then watch all of them, like so many of those comics over the last four years go on to run shows and earn all sorts of things, whether it be in stand up or just stand up adjacent or entertainment wise. Like, holy shit it's the coolest little club that I started. And I think that's the biggest challenge was like letting go of, You know what? It's okay. Like I can, there could be 1000 more women in comedy and I don't care if any of the guys are pissed off about it. I truly don't. I truly don't give a shit if people are talking about me behind my back because I'm a teacher. And I do stand up. So many people talked shit about me.
Shay 39:27
Because you are a teacher?
Lace Larrabee 39:28
Mhm... And whatever. I mean, at this point, it's just like, I'm still working. I'm still a working comic so it doesn't hurt my feelings at all. It did, but it doesn't anymore.
Shay 39:41
Yeah, I love that because I feel like I've also kind of struggled with that idea of I have a laughter workshop that I started in this year. And so teaching people how to use laughter and mindfulness to improve their lives and, and it's just like, "Ughhh, I'm teaching something." It's uncomfortable when you're Like, "Oh, I want to be this entertainer" but then teaching something, like it's a struggle, I think with people and with creators these days, that's kind of sometimes what can pay your bills, you know? So you don't have to work another job.
Lace Larrabee 40:15
Yeah, you got to. Guess what? I don't give a shit. Somebody can, they can talk about me all day long, but I'm totally fine with this. This is just another way that I found how to succeed in the entertainment industry and there's nothing wrong with that. I mean, no one would get mad if I got a writing job. They wouldn't be like, "Oh, you sold out from being a stand up because now you write," it's like, well, no, now I help people. I'm essentially being a freelance consultant, if you really think about it, for all these other people who are halfway interested in standup, I am helping them curate their own words and they are hiring me for coaching to put this in a certain order and perform a thing. How is that any different than a show hiring me to punch up their scripts? These are people hiring me and I'm just happening to teach them at the same time, because it's easier that way. I can't teach everybody individually. So what's wrong with being hired to do consulting? No one would talk shit about me if I did it the other ways. No one said anything when I was doing punch ups, no one said anything when, you know, when huge comics hire unknown comics to help them write jokes all the time. How is that any different than what I'm doing as a teacher? Doesn't make me less talented. It's another way that I found out how to survive in this business so I'm not having to work behind a desk.
Shay 41:31
Yeah you have to find the ways. Well, I love it. That's a great transition, though because I want to talk a moment about your class. You kind of show in your class that everybody can be a comedian, you know, students, professionals, comedians, or, you know, at least tell five to 14 minutes of jokes. (laughs) Because you have you have students write down all this stuff about their life, and then craft jokes around that. So is that what you made it for? For just really anybody to do stand up at first? Or did you make it towards comedians? Or how did that start?
Lace Larrabee 42:05
Here's my philosophy on that - if you sign up for a stand up comedy class, you think you could be a stand up comedian. So I don't actively go try to find, well, anybody for the class, I don't actively go out and tell people to take my class unless they're interested in it. Like, if they're interested in stand up, or they're new to Atlanta, like, I'm pretty sure I talked to you when I met you at the brewery. I was like, "Hey, if you want, since you're new to Atlanta, or whatever, like if you want to do this, if it's something you're into, and blah, blah, blah, it's a great way to meet people and network." Like, I'll do that if I know people are into stand up. But other than that, I'm not trying to find people who are off the street and have no interest and I'm like, "I can turn anybody into a stand up comedian!" This is a thing that I saw that a class in Atlanta says, and they say "You give me money, I'll make you funny." Woo boy. So that is not my philosophy. My philosophy is, I put it out there, I say what I do, I say what you're going to get when you sign up. And if you sign up for it, you want to do stand up. You see yourself, you think you're funny, you know you're funny, secretly or outwardly, you are funny, somebody has said to you, "You should do stand up," or you secretly watch and listen to stand up all the time, and it is your passion, but you don't know how to do it, or you've tried it once and then you gave up and you really need to push to do it again. Or you've been doing it and you're not getting as far as you'd like and you really need to refresh yourself. I just assume that everybody who signs up fits into one of those categories. So I'm not thinking that anybody that I'm going to like, take a terrified, you know, civilian off the street and be like, "Alright, let's do this!"
Shay 43:46
And you really shaped the class to "Hey, this is how you get booked." You know, this is what stage time will look like, etc.
Lace Larrabee 43:54
That's why I do that business and comedy night. That's so important because I don't want anybody to leave the class and then - well, two reasons, it's one laziness because I don't want to answer 1000 questions afterward. And after a while, like after so many graduates, I tried to count recently, it was 370 or 380 something graduates so far. Yeah, like I just I don't want to have to answer a million questions from people after they leave so I want them to get all the info they need and know Okay, once you're out here, fly, little bird. If it's something you want to do, go for it. I've given you all the tools. I mean, I had to figure this shit out on my own. Granted, yes, I was dating Jared but like, he wasn't that helpful. I mean, he was helpful at like, he introduced me to people, but he's like, "You gotta learn to shit." He's like "I had to learn to shit on my own. You gotta learn this shit on your own." It's tough. You're by yourself. No matter who you're opening for, working with, who you know, you are ultimately by yourself. You're by yourself on stage. You are by yourself in this world, especially in this business. It all goes back to like 'Fend for your damn self and figure out how to take care of yourself. No one's gonna save you," right? So that's kind of how I want to give everybody everything and if they've gone through the six weeks and and they're still hungry and they still want to do it - hell yeah. But I like to give them all the info too so they don't leave and go "Oh my god, I'm going to be so famous." Maybe but maybe not. Most likely not but you can have a career in it if that's something you want to keep doing.
Shay 45:16
Yeah. What do you do on the hard days? On the hard days when you don't want to perform, when you don't want to write? I know maybe that doesn't come up as often anymore. But did those come up?
Lace Larrabee 45:28
Girl this whole pandemic - I've been the most depressed I've ever been in my entire life. What are you talking about? I thought my whole life was over. 2020 hit, that was gonna be my year dude. Everyone says that it but I truly meant it. I truly believed it. I had so many things lined up for 2020, big, big things. And whew boy, when all that got cancelled, everything kept getting moved and then this and then shifted, and then got further and further away and reality got further and further, like, reality started hitting harder and harder and harder, which is "Shit, how long is this gonna last? What if things don't go back to normal? Everything about how I make money relies on gathered people in a building." So I was screwed. And I got really, really, really deeply depressed. And I can, I can be completely honest with you right now and say, I'm not totally out of that at all. I've just been, I think I've done like 10 shows in the last like two weeks. Finally again. But prior to that, like between, because then like after 2020, then everything shut down again, like the beginning of 2021, or whenever that was like, pre vaccines and stuff, which shit was still shutting down. And then I lost my grandma suddenly, and then my dad got really sick and he's still dealing with all that. So between personal stuff, and just career stuff feeling like it's over, I was looking into, and I still am this is still not gone, but I was looking at getting a real estate license. So I wish I had a better answer for what to do when it's hard because what I did is just I will just shut off like when I'm really, when I'm really deep in it, I'm a shut off completely person. So I will just hibernate disappear from the world, you know, and then just jealousy scroll online. That was really really really really hard for me, I'm gonna be completely honest. And might as well just be honest, because a part of succeeding in this business, a business where there's so much rejection, it's so easy to compare yourself to other people. And then there's a global pandemic, things are hard, things aren't easy, things aren't going to go back 100% to normal anytime soon. And I got on Lexapro. That's what I got on in 2021. I got to the point where I realized this isn't something I can handle on my own. I had been too depressed for too long. And I needed something to clear my head and to make me less angry. And so yeah, I got on meds and I have no problem admitting that I needed that. And now that helped a lot through the rough times being able to pop a little pill in the morning that helps get my serotonin levels the way they need to be because clearly I couldn't handle it on my own. And then making sure that I, you know, even the days where I couldn't work out, because obviously like working out and trying to eat a little healthier and all that will always help you feel better - the days you can't, you need a little help. You can't always handle things by yourself, but I make sure that I at least get some sunshine on my face even if I just stand outside. I heard somebody say it on a podcast once or read it or whatever, but just grounding yourself, putting your bare feet on the ground, just sitting in the sunlight, just getting that vitamin D directly from the source and then taking a little extra vitamin D too just to get the head right, that's helpful. That's helpful. Another friend of mine who deals with depression, who's a stand up comedian and writer, and he's been doing it for years and years. I think we've been doing it for about the same time, we're still good friends. He and I were talking one time and he said, "If you just can't do anything, if you cannot get off the couch or you're feeling really angry or whatever, just walk. Just walk, just moving your body forward." He said "I get up and I force myself to go on a walk." And I'm like, that's genius. Because that's not like, 'Go to the gym!' because that's even 10 times harder when you're not mentally feeling great. So just physically walking, moving, if you can, obviously, you know, just physically walking, getting a little sunlight, those little things are helpful on those days, and then it kind of resets and then you're like, "Oh, maybe I can feel funny. Maybe I can look at content online without it making me beat myself up. Maybe it'll be inspiring," you know? So I'm going to be honest, things have not been easy, you know, but just having another thing to look forward to is very helpful too. So I'm always still trying, you know, I'm always still putting myself out there and maybe just updating your website or putting a picture you're proud of on Instagram. Even if you can't make a whole reel or a video if it's not coming to you just putting something out there just to get some likes and some comments and know that you're not alone and know that you're not forgotten about is very helpful. Sometimes you just need to fucking stand in the sunlight, turn your phone off for a minute.
Shay 50:09
Okay, so what is something that you're doing these days to level up? To push yourself to get better at?
Lace Larrabee 50:16
So I am, all those things I just said, that's all very helpful. And I have been sticking to that and doing that I changed some things about the way I was eating a few weeks ago. And that's been helping a lot. There's a really great book, I'll plug it has nothing to do with comedy at all but just health in general, Danica Patrick, the racecar driver, she's got a book called Pretty Intense, and it's a 90 day workout food regimen, mental, you know, pump yourself up book. And even if you just do a couple of things that are in there, it's very helpful. Taking out some certain foods out of my diet, that's been great. So I've been focusing on that, because I need some sort of control and discipline like in the world where I've literally built my whole life around not having a schedule, and a routine. And I love spontaneity, and I love not having to do the exact same thing every single day, but then there is a part of me that's like shit, maybe I need a little bit more discipline and that's something I'm lacking and that's maybe why I'm not feeling so great on some days. So trying to focus on my food, definitely not starving myself, I'm eating a lot but eating the right things a lot. So just trying to make sure I'm healthy on the inside to the outside. And then I've got a really cool job I just took. So also kind of comedy related, I got it because I'm a stand up comedian. But I'm going to be a sideline reporter for a new Arena Football League, called FCF. It's called Fan Controlled Football. And it's apparently a pretty big deal. They get like a million views per game, like last season, they were getting pretty good views, it's on Twitch. It was on Twitch last year and this year it's going to be on Twitch and two other streaming services. This is really cool. And yeah, I went through a whole bunch of interviews, and I just got the job last week. So for two and a half months, I'll be a sideline reporter for these jobs or for these games. And that's a cool job that I took on. So I have been trying to, since that's gonna, my schedule is going to change a lot with that for those two and a half months, I've been trying to book as many shows as I possibly can. And I'm also working towards recording my album this year. So that's the way I decided that I was going to level up is I've been doing comedy for 10 years never recorded an album. And I was like why? So working towards that, making sure that my schedule is in order so I can get as much stage time as possible in between these games. And then just you know, focusing on my health a little bit more, so that I can be my best self on screen, because these will all be filmed and everything. And I'm just super, super excited about that. I've also been brushing up a lot on football. So yeah, you know, you're never too old to learn something new. And I'm super jazzed about it. Apparently there's something about me they liked and I hope that I make them happy. I'm excited. I'm excited about having a whole new group of people seeing me do something, you know. These aren't people who would normally look me up or come to my shows or whatever. So maybe I'll get a new little fan base or something. I don't know. I'm excited.
Shay 53:10
I love it. I could totally see you as a sideline reporter. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
Lace Larrabee 53:14
Thank you so much! I think it's the combo of the pageants and the comedy life, it's all coming together.
Shay 53:19
It is. Last question.
Lace Larrabee 53:22
Yes.
Shay 53:22
What advice would you give to someone who really has something to say but they're hesitant to say it? Because I know with you, you've been so confident in your performance because you've been doing it for so long, so I'm just curious, how can somebody believe in themselves, they have something to say they're hesitant to say it? Anybody who is creating something, so artists in general.
Lace Larrabee 53:49
Okay, yeah, artists in general. This was one of the best pieces of advice I got early on before I ever even started stand up, when I would tell people that I want to do stand up. This one guy who was a stand up comedian, who I happened to meet, a different guy than the guy who booked me, he just happened to be at the restaurant, he was talking stand up and I was like, "Dude, are you talking about stand up comedy?" I'm telling you, I was like a creepy stand up stalker before and I was at the table and things just kept coming into my life. And I was like, "I've been thinking about it." He's like, "If you're thinking about it, do it." Okay, so number one, he was like, "Stop thinking about it, just do it." And he said "Get on stage." And I said, "Okay," and for some reason that one, just that one line 'get on stage' stuck with me more than any other advice, any more than even my friend who was pumping me up and telling me to stand up all the time and all that. I just needed to hear that one thing and then what he did is he friended me on Facebook and he messaged me and all he said was "Get on stage." And that just stuck. Like that, that right there I was like "Shit, I do need to just stop thinking about and just do it!" Just do it and do it without comparison. Do it without hesitation, just do it. Just try it, right? And then my second piece of advice would be other than people who don't want to necessarily get on stage and perform and all that is to, if you stay as true to your story as possible, it's going to be so much easier not to compare yourself to other people, because I think comparison is the death of so much art. Because we think, "Well, we can't do... this person's already made this, why even?" And if that was the case, like, post Leonardo da Vinci or whatever, like why would anybody ever invent anything else? Why would anyone ever paint another painting? Why would anyone make another song after Beethoven has existed, you know what I mean? And if we thought about it that way, "Oh it's already out there, we can't do it," we'll never get anything done. And I'm only saying this from personal experience. I'm really trying to say this to myself, to be completely honest, because I have to remind myself that I have a different story to tell, even if there are other women my exact age who look even similar to me, who are also married, who also might have done pageants, who are also- their story is still going to be different, their take is going to be different, their observations are going to be different, the way they speak is going to be different, where they're from is going to be different. There's going to be something that is special and unique to me that someone else doesn't have and that's the thing that keeps me going. And that there is an audience for everyone. There are billions of people on this planet. When we start thinking like, "Ugh, well, people who like comedy, they already like Whitney Cummings, why are they gonna like me?" You know, there's already a Whitney Cummings! There's already an Amy Schumer or whomever, like they're gonna think "Well there's no room..." of course there's room for you! There's so many people right now on my street that I live on, that probably don't know who any of those women are, but they might like me. There's an audience for all of us. So, I guess that. Stay as true to your story as possible. And remember that there's enough people out there to like you.
Shay 56:57
Whew! Mic drop.
Lace Larrabee 56:59
Sorry, I don't know, was I... (laughs)
Shay 57:01
Comedy mic job. No, that's so true. I mean, we can get caught in this thinking and comparison is just so big right now, like you said, comparison scrolling. Like, I find myself having to stop and give love to that person or supportive comments, something to where I'm not judging.
Lace Larrabee 57:07
Yes. It's so hard. I'm telling you, I deal with it constantly. Lexapro helps. I was in a real dark place where I was just like, "Why is this person getting this? Why is that person? Like the whole rest of the world is shut down, why is this person still making content? Or why is this person doing this? Or how is everybody thriving when it feels like I can't even get out of bed?" Like you know, so sometimes need a little extra help
Shay 57:50
Yeah, I love that. Thank you. That's the last question. Thank you so much.
Lace Larrabee 57:56
Yay! Yeah, no problem.
Shay 57:57
Yeah thank you for speaking with me and being so open and vulnerable about your struggles.
Lace Larrabee 58:01
Yeah, I'd be full of shit teaching my class if I didn't walk the walk, you know?
Shay 58:06
Right.
Lace Larrabee 58:07
So it's important.
Shay 58:08
Thank you so much Lace!
Lace Larrabee 58:09
Thanks boo! I appreciate it.
Shay 58:10
Talk to you soon.
Shay 58:11
(outro) Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. If anything that Lace said today resonated with you, please share this episode on Instagram and tag me @levelupwithshay and tag Lace @lacelarrabee. All of her social media links are in the show notes so go show her some love and support over there. Subscribe to Level Up! With Shay wherever you get your podcasts. Again, thank you so much for being here. It's time to level up.
