Rochelle Takes on Comedy - The Struggle is Real

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

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 livestream­er. I’m also a per­son that isn’t great with dead­lines so catch this col­umn when the inspi­ra­tion hits — like Lau­ryn Hill — sans the voice and the keen fash­ion sense.

The art of the comeback

Madea is back! You know retire­ment just doesn’t stick for some peo­ple. Madea must be fol­low­ing the Too $hort and Jay‑Z career plan: retire and then keep mak­ing hits. 

After retir­ing the char­ac­ter in 2019, Tyler Per­ry is back in a dress to the cheers and jeers of Black folks. We love to hate it. But despite the mixed feel­ings, Madea is a proven win­ning for­mu­la for Tyler Per­ry. But what made him bring her out of retirement? 

Some­thing sim­ple — he believes we need to laugh. 

So if the hip hop retire­ment plan holds true for come­di­ans, Madea will soon have some new bangers. Hey, if Too $hort had stayed out of the game, we wouldn’t have got­ten Shake That Mon­key after 1996 or Jay‑Z’s The Sto­ry of O.J. after 2003. 

And I for one am glad she’s back. We need to laugh. If the pan­dem­ic and the world’s forced time­out taught us any­thing, it is that we need to take joy where we can find it. I know we keep wait­ing for things to go back to nor­mal, but as we are start­ing to see, our nor­mal was based on a throne of lies. We smell like beef and cheese. (à la Will Fer­rell in Elf). So wel­come back Madea! Now some­one give me their Net­flix pass­word so I can watch A Madea Home­com­ing.

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.