Rochelle Takes on Comedy - Why Comedy?

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.

A friend recent­ly asked me why I do com­e­dy. It mir­rored what I ask myself in the mir­ror every­day and what my mom asks me when I ask her for mon­ey. Why com­e­dy? But I was sur­prised how eas­i­ly the answer came to me and how in such a short time it has become increas­ing­ly dif­fi­cult for me to want to do any­thing else.

Why com­e­dy? It’s the kind of thing that you hear at a job inter­view. Why do you want to work here? What they’re real­ly say­ing is this place sucks, you just don’t know it yet, and they are won­der­ing why you would sub­ject your­self to this. Which is total­ly applic­a­ble to com­e­dy. Let’s see, there are def­i­nite­ly more lucra­tive things to do (see arti­cle above) and stand­ing in front of peo­ple bar­ing your­self to them hop­ing that they laugh so that you can get a hit of dopamine is an exer­cise in masochism at best. And if you’re an ​“edgy” com­ic, it’s clos­er to sado-masochism.

So why comedy? 

Here’s what I’ve come up with: I do it for the con­nec­tion. In the moments when you are on stage, you have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­nect with a room full of strangers and maybe say some­thing that will pos­i­tive­ly impact their lives. Now that sounds all nice and stuff but if you’ve seen my com­e­dy, you know that I’m a gut-punch­er. I like laugh­ing and then say­ing some­thing true that hurts a bit — some­thing that with­out com­e­dy we prob­a­bly couldn’t even talk about.. 

It’s like med­i­cine with a sug­ar chas­er. Because there’s things that need to be said, con­ver­sa­tions that we have to have. And lucky us, we are blessed with com­e­dy. Come­di­ans have the abil­i­ty to reach across lines of dif­fer­ence and say some­thing real, if we choose to.

So what is your why? What is the thing that makes you work at it, go back to it, change it up and do it again and again? Let me know what dri­ves you @rochelle_war. I want to under­stand the beau­ty of what you do.

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.