All of my life I wanted to be a comedian. As a little girl (yes I was small at one time), I used to write plays and get the neighborhood kids to act in a play I would produce in my parents garage -charge admission, the whole thing!

I acted in high school plays, summer theatre (Theatre Le Homme Dieu in Alexandria) and then entered a stand up comedy contest. "The Twin Cities Funniest Person" competition at the Acme Comedy Club in Minneapolis on June 8, 1995 was actually the very first time I took to the stage to do stand up comedy (I believe the stain is still on the carpet!). Actually, I came out third in a sea of 200 people. But I was the only female to make it to the finals!! People took notice........ya know, stalkers and such...

Later on in my career, I went on to co-develop and produce one of the best venues for female comedians -"Women Out All Night"- an all female standup comedy showcase playing to sold-out audiences since 1996. I have also hosted my own open stage and professional show "Hot Rox". For five years, I fostered the likes of over 300 comedians including Nick Swardson, who is now getting rave revues in Los Angeles. Skyway News coined me the "Diva of Late Night Comedy" for my efforts.

I was a founding member of the Minnesota Comedy Club, one of the country’s only comedy clubs operated and managed by comedians, for comedians! My observational style of humor, views on life, single-hood at 50, and my high energy have made me an audience favorite.

I started in the comedy scene in the early eighties. There was some action in the late seventies, but things didn’t heat up until the early eighties and the scene may never have taken off if Rodney Dangerfield, who was working the Carlton Celebrity Room in Bloomington, hadn’t dropped down and did a guest set at a small little dive in northeast Minneapolis called Mickey Finn’s. Louie Anderson was there and Scott Hansen and myself at the time.

Soon, the Star Tribune and Reader were doing features on comedy and we had a small, but loyal following of people who liked to laugh. This audience was an eclectic mix of people who make Minneapolis and southern Minnesota the comedy market it is today. Joel Hodgson, a prop genius flourished. Jeff Cesario and Tom Arnold were regular performers on all the stages in town.

Los Angeles became the destination of choice for people who had talent. First, Louie left and soon was a regular on the Tonight show. Joel Hodgson moved and became on overnight sensation on Saturday Night Live. Jeff Cesario did Letterman and Maxine Jeffries had a great set on the Tonight show. I moved out to LA in the mid-eighties and found a home on Evening at the Improv, eleven times!

Most of us ended up writing on television shows. Tom Arnold hired myself, Joel Madison, and Sid Youngers to work on the Jackie Thomas show. Later, I sold a pilot (Valdez, three airings in May ‘97) and did movie re-writes. Jeff Cesario was head writer on Gary Shandling and Dennis Miller. Jeff hired me for some time on Dennis’ show as well. And Joanie Marchinko is still working on Will and Grace.

Today, most of us have moved back to the Minneapolis area. I do mostly corporate work these days, but I’m still a regular on the Bob and Tom Show, a national radio show in 175 markets, including Mankato. To sum it all up....my reality has far exceeded my dreams and very few people can say that in life!

When I stepped onto his first comedy stage in a shabby, hole-in-the-wall bar in Minneapolis named Mickey Finn’s, my fears outnumbered my expectations. I was a "serious" actor, trained in the dramatic classics, and now I was standing on a makeshift stage of plywood and steel milk cases in the back of a working mans bar in Northeast Minneapolis. A comedy christening deserves no better venue.

In high school, I was able to vent my creative humor through satirical editorials in the school newspaper. I had always been able to retort humorously to many of my life situations. Never a class clown but a "class wit," I chose the written word as my forum for early comedy. My column became a copious source of 70’s revolutionary ideas: Love, peace, botulism and prom dates!

I had no copious dreams of fame. I just enjoyed making people laugh. It seemed natural for me. When my advanced acting, improvisation classes and more thespian chances arose; no goal of Hollywood stardom was set. When a major in drama replaced journalism studies, the only goal in my mind was trying to find a way to make people laugh - at my thoughts.

So, when the comedy industry was an embryo in America, I jumped at the opportunity to write, direct, produce and develop the ideas that had made friends laugh for several years. As much as I hated the public eye, I knew of no other forum that could allow me to be that totally free and that enabling of my creativity. I had to give it a try.

Now, chosen for five Minnesota Comedian of the Year Awards over comedy greats Louie Anderson, Joel Hodgson and Tom Arnold, successful appearances on A&E’s Comedy On The Road and Showtime’s Comedy Club Network, and writing and performing with Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, Tim Allen, Roseanne Arnold and Tom Arnold (a little known fact is that I actually was the one who hooked them up) my attitude hasn’t changed.

For me it isn’t the pie in the sky. It’s the laughs. It’s still the laughs.