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Welcome to another episode of the Comedic Pursuits podcast. I’m your host, Seth Payne. This is the show where I sit down with comedians around the D.C. area, and we dish about their career so far and other fun bits of wisdom they might have for you.

My guest this week is DC improviser and stand-up Kara Kinsey.

Highlights from my interview with Kara Kinsey

Some of the interview questions and answers have been edited for clarity, but you can hear the full version in the podcast recording.

Tell us about your comedy background

My family is really funny, so I was surrounded by funny people. I’m the oldest of five daughters, and as a kid, I was much different than I am today. I was way more controlling and dictatorial. I don’t know if I was ever funny, but at Christmas, my dad would set up a video camera to watch us come in to see all the gifts and everything. I would orchestrate it and be like, “We’re doing this.” Sometimes there was a dance routine, sometimes there was a song. I would lead it, and I’d be like, “This. Is. The. Step,” just obnoxious.

In middle school, I did plays, and I remember getting laughs doing that. But I don’t know if I ever did things to get laughs. I think I was getting laughs because I was taking everything I did so seriously. I was more proud of the fact that I never messed up, and I always knew what was going on. I wasn’t like, “Hello, world!”

But I’ve always loved being in front of people. I did a talent show in high school. At my boarding school, we would have some meeting in the morning. But if you auditioned for the talent show, you didn’t have to go to a meeting. So one of my roommates said, “Yeah, I’ll put together something.” She was a Junior Olympic Taekwondo person, so for her routine, she literally just kicked and punched me around while I did fake falls and she flipped me over. And the panel was like, “Well, what’s your act? That can’t be yours. It’s her act.” And I was already on stage, so I just did an impromptu stand-up set, and I was like, “That’s my talent.” That was the first time that I did anything.

At that point, I was listening to a lot of comedy. I don’t know why I didn’t make the jump to, “I want to do it.” But I was listening to a lot of CD’s, even listening to stuff like, “Behind the Scenes with George Carlin,” like him deconstructing jokes. But I wasn’t making the leap.

Then I was asked to do some weird live play of “Howl.” I got to play Jack Kerouac, but I didn’t read anything. I was just Jack Kerouac, walking around. So during the middle of this person giving this dramatic reading of “Howl” and everyone getting hyped, I went upstairs to the second story, and there was a hole. I climbed through the railing and was hanging by my feet upside down. I didn’t do research on who Jack Kerouac was, I just read a Wikipedia page and was like, “Oh, he’s on drugs, and he’s crazy. This makes sense.” That was my whole justification.

So I’m doing that. I’m doing random comedy bits. I’m getting devastated because I keep trying to run for these major leadership positions,