Welcome to “Rochelle Takes on Comedy” by Rochelle McConico. Have an idea you’d like to share in a column? Submit your pitch here: comedywham@comedywham.com
Be a doer not a talker - Kevin Hart
Hi! I am a dreamer!
Which sounds beautiful, but much like the bubble gum love that we learn about when we are children, it is much better in theory than in practice. Real day-to-day love is sometimes hard and so is being a dreamer. Being a dreamer means that you can be inspired by all the worlds you build in your brain and crushed by your lack of resources, discipline, etc. to bring those dreams to life. And that’s no fairytale. So to those dreamers out there who have the heart to dream and the courage to bring those dreams to life…Huzzah! Know that I understand and I’m cheering for you.
I’m Rochelle McConico, owner of MoonCricket Productions, a live comedy event company. I am a standup comedian, improviser, sketch actor, writer, director, producer and podcaster. I am also co-producing the Lysistrata Comedy Festival, an all female comedy festival in New Orleans, March 18 – 20th. Come check us out!
You’ll see a familiar face — Valerie will be doing the Comedy Wham podcast live! I can’t wait to see what insights she pulls out of our headliners!
What’s your vision? What’s the thing that gets you out of bed everyday. I mean it might just be the job that you go to because practically we’ve all got to eat. But life is bigger than the hamster wheel we agree to get on everyday to subsist in this society.
Maybe you want to be a famous multi-hyphenate like Tiffany Haddish. Maybe you want to make movies like director Betty Thomas (Dr. DoLittle, John Tucker Must Die). Maybe you want to be Salma Hayek and own your own production company (Ventanarosa Productions).
Aside — I realize like most people, I know the names of male directors, comedians, etc. more than females. Excuse my internalized sexism.
But herein lies the kicker. Most of us are dreamers but few of us are doers. And before you think I’m getting down on you, know that I’m not. I understand. There are plenty of reasons not to do. Good reasons. Not excuses.
But in this post, I ask you to put your vision front and center. Is it compelling? Does it wake you up in the middle of the night? Do you wake up with the future you envision in your mind’s eye? If so, I challenge you to go for it.
Not with promises that it will be easy, but the promise that it will be worth it. We have agency in this world. We are the power in our lives. Whether we choose to access that power to drive our dreams forward is a decision each of us has to make. And make and continue to make after that.
This Week’s Show Review and/or Shameless Plug
PGRAPH
How difficult is it just to come up with an improvised scene that makes sense? As an unrepentant absurdist, I can tell you it is very hard. Especially when your natural inclination is to go in as a human-sized sentient spoon.
So to watch Pgraph, or Parallelogramophonograph for short, create a whole improvised play with through lines and characters we care about over an hour’s time is a real treat.
The treat - the improvised play - One Night in Bergerville - starring Wendy Berger, not Burger. We watched as Wendy struggled to save her family business while hiring new employees who seem to not not be involved in “accidental” fires at their previous jobs. Helping her out as she serves the cast of characters who live in Bergerville was her longtime employee and confidant, a frisky, smoky-voiced, elderly woman who reminded me of Roz in Monster’s Inc.
Thank you Pgraph for putting on a cool show on a cold night. My favorite part was when Wendy went on a Playboy shoot even though her new employees read Playboy for the articles not the pictures - mostly. Oh and thanks for the physical comedy. I never know what to do with my hands either.
If you haven’t seen the gem that is Pgraph. Do better! Get a ticket and go enjoy improvisation at a high level!
The Pgraph players are below. Follow them… on IG, not to their cars.
- Roy Janik @royjanik
- Valerie Ward @valetoile
- Kaci Beeler @kacibeeler
- Kareem Badr @kbadr
- Kenzie Slottow (tech) @kenzieslottow
Alright y’all I’ll see you next time! Please feel free to leave a comment, or let me know of a show I should go see by hitting me up on IG at @rochelle_war or on FB: MoonCricket Productions LLC. Thank you Comedy Wham for the platform. You rock!
PS: My Venmo is @Rochelle-McConico, and my CashApp is $rochellemcp. Just in case you were wondering. Cheers!
Rochelle McConico is the founder and CEO of MoonCricket Productions a live entertainment company specializing in interactive, multisensory comedic events. She is a visionary, writer, producer, and performer. In June 2020, Rochelle launched the Amuse-Bouche Comedy Festival to showcase the many great improvisers, comedy podcasters and stand-ups in New Orleans and performed as all three.
Rochelle also wrote, directed, and starred in three plays centering her alter ego character, billionaire media heiress Stangela Angela Hemsworth Kingsley Winthrop Farouk Adams III. I’m Only Here for the Snacks, and Stangela for President were both featured at Infringe Fest 2018 and 2019. Her third play Stangela’s Swamp Thing is currently in production and premieres June 2022. Rochelle also co-produces and co-hosts the comedy-advice video podcast Not Another Black Show and a bi-monthly live-streamed show — The Bookclub. Both shows are designed to take on serious topics and be seriously funny.
Additionally, Rochelle is a member of the multi-talented No Lye Comedy collective — a group of dynamic Black femme comedians. With No Lye Comedy, Rochelle co-produced and co-wrote the sketch and variety show Comedy.Peridot, performed sketch in the Dallas Comedy Festival and the Los Angeles Diversity in Comedy Showcase (LADC), and performed improv in the inaugural 2019 New Orleans Improv Festival and 2021 Baton Rouge Improv Festival. Rochelle has also written and performed for Morphed, a monthly stand-up and sketch show in New Orleans, and performed stand up in the Black Girl Giggles Festival.
