palm trees, beach, repeat.

Hello, friend…

I’ve been in L.A. for a few days now, in town for time with friends and comedy and… trying my hand at something new. A one person show. I’ve been taking this class online for a few weeks now, the end goal coming out with a 10 minute piece. And when I realized that my time in town was a few days away from the class show, I decided to stay and do the big finale in person. And tomorrow, about this time, it’ll be all over and I’ll be wondering where to go next with it! But right now, I am nursing a glass of Excitement and Fear.

My memory is sketchy at best some days, and I worry that tomorrow everything will be wiped like an Etch A Sketch toy once the design disappears.

But then I sit and think about how I’m in CALIFORNIA… debuting my ONE PERSON SHOW… and I’m not anywhere where I thought I’d be, yet likely just where lil’ Kelly knew she’d end up. The more I try and connect with my childhood self, the more I realize she knew more than I do now. And earlier today, I realized that, very much like my younger self, I’m still holding up my art to the world and eagerly hoping for approval from others. I think may be that my younger self would have felt the bruise of disapproval, but would have just made something else in its place… whereas, my older self would sit with it longer and then wonder why I didn’t get into medicine or law until I cried for far too long and then just resumed joke writing.

Each time I come this way, I have to admit, I find myself humming this pop song from the early 2000s by a band called Wave. I think they were a Canadian duo. Anyway. I have no idea what happened to them… I could look it up, but I’m not going to… but I do love this tune they left behind:

MANY moons ago, like in 2006 or something, I was in California and while sitting on a rock on Venice Beach by myself and with my notebook and pen, I finished the draft of my first one act play- How Does A Drug Deal Become A Decent 3rd Date? So tomorrow is a nice, full circle moment in a way. And while I’m not sure what will come of the show tomorrow… I have to tap into lil’ me and just go show my art to the world regardless of validation or disapproval. Whatever happens, it’ll be beautiful and something I made here in California…

Santa Monica, CA 2024

That play went on to tour Fringe stages for a year, and it came quite close to becoming a movie, so who knows what lays ahead for yours truly with this new adventure??

xo.