Erica Rhodes: In Funny We Trust

May 19, 2017

Interview

Valerie Lopez

Article

Richard Goodwin

Listen

I always knew I was cool­er than the oth­er kids. I didn’t wear the hip” clothes, made sure to not watch the pop­u­lar movies of the time, and, most impor­tant­ly, I was addict­ed to Prairie Home Com­pan­ion: a radio pro­gram so cool that lit­er­al­ly no one else I hung with knew about it. So there was a spe­cial place in my heart just wait­ing for the time Valerie Lopez got to sit down with Eri­ca Rhodes, a fre­quent play­er on that show (among many, many oth­ers). My only regret is we didn’t get to record it in Lake Wobe­gon; instead they caught up dur­ing the 2017 Moon­tow­er Com­e­dy Festival. 

Born in Mass­a­chu­setts, Rhodes start­ed per­form­ing from the ripe old age of 5, grow­ing up in a musi­cal fam­i­ly and with a taste for singing and comedy. 

A chance encounter in col­lege with a woman whose name has been lost to the ages, led her into act­ing. The choice was bol­stered by hero and men­tor Keil­lor, dri­ving (in more ways than one) Rhodes to move to Los Ange­les. Her choic­es led to a boun­ti­ful and var­ied career in movies, TV, and the web, dur­ing which she start­ed try­ing her hand at comedy. 

It only takes a few min­utes lis­ten­ing to Rhodes to real­ize she’s in con­stant motion; she’s a woman of many pas­sions and pur­suits, includ­ing being a trained cel­list, with an explod­ing body of media and com­e­dy work. Humor is a cen­tral theme to it all, and it’s amaz­ing to watch her weave her comedic tal­ents through the dif­fer­ent medi­ums she graces. In addi­tion to her recent Moon­tow­er Com­e­dy appear­ances, she fre­quent­ly guests on @midnight and Com­e­dy Bang! Bang!, and runs her own show, Night Light Com­e­dy Show at Open Space in Los Ange­les, the last Mon­day of every month. 

If you can’t get out to see her show in per­son, be sure to fol­low her on Twit­ter where she shares both her inter­nal mono­logue and oth­er upcom­ing appear­ances. See oth­er appear­ances, videos, and more, at eri​carhode​scom​e​dy​.com. Rhodes recent­ly land­ed two new shows you should plan to catch: 

  • In the role of Lau­ra Silverman’s sis­ter on Dr Katz: The Audio Files, pre­mier­ing on Audi­ble Chan­nels on June 8th, and
  • As the lead in THE OFF SEA­SON, pre­mier­ing on ABC Dig­i­tal on June 20th (watch it via the ABC Go app)
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Erica Rhodes