Lexie Grace: Positively Fabulous

This week we round up our 2019 Out of Bounds Com­e­dy fes­ti­val cov­er­age with a come­di­an who has described her­self as hav­ing a ​“Christ­mas Hall­mark movie” per­son­al­i­ty. Lex­ie Grace is a come­di­an and film­mak­er based in Los Ange­les, but took time from hit­ting Austin land­marks like Toy Joy to talk to Valerie Lopez about what makes her unique­ly vivacious. 

Out of the gate, Grace cops to hav­ing done home­work for the pod­cast, even con­sult­ing with her moth­er about some of Valerie’s trade­mark ques­tions. The rea­son­ing for this becomes clear quick­ly, as Grace’s moth­er was her­self a standup com­ic, and exposed Grace to it at an ear­ly age. So, prac­ti­cal­ly from birth, she was immersed in the art, as her sin­gle moth­er made time to hit the stage with ​“raunchy” bits, yet still ensure she was in the church pew on Sundays.

Grace has a pos­i­tiv­i­ty that she also attrib­ut­es to her mother’s ​“Tony Rob­bins-like” moti­va­tion and encour­age­ment style. It’s a habit that often must be cul­tured, and can be applied to many of life’s chal­lenges; she notes, ​“I have less anx­i­ety if…I have pos­i­tive intent, ver­sus neg­a­tive intent.” 

All this didn’t mean Grace was ready to hit the stage once she shed her dia­pers; as with many of us, there was a bit of a nat­ur­al aver­sion to the pro­fes­sion our par­ents had made their own. Amidst dreams of becom­ing a ​“chain smok­ing detec­tive”, or going to Yale to join the cul­tur­al elite in secret soci­eties, she even­tu­al­ly found her inspi­ra­tion in cre­ative writ­ing in forms back­ing per­for­mance pieces. 

Life lat­er led to the tra­di­tion­al (yet most­ly thank­less) 9‑to‑5 job, with a side serv­ing of improv class­es. Grace admits some of them didn’t go her way, but she applied that proac­tive pos­i­tive men­tal­i­ty and pow­ered through, even­tu­al­ly find­ing her­self in stand-up class­es, among many oth­ers. At the urg­ing of one of her teach­ers, and against the grain of resis­tance to enter­ing her ​“mother’s pro­fes­sion”, Grace found the thread that final­ly seized her atten­tion: her pas­sion for writ­ing could be trans­lat­ed into the per­for­mance she was seek­ing behind the com­e­dy mic.

As Grace’s inter­ests and per­for­mances grew from this seed, we had to know: how does her pos­i­tiv­i­ty-for­ward per­son­al­i­ty fare in the com­pet­i­tive – some might say aggres­sive – LA com­e­dy scene? ​“I do believe that if you keep pre­sent­ing your­self as your­self, peo­ple will get the hang of it, they’ll go ​‘oh, I get who you are,’” she says of find­ing accep­tance in a cul­ture that some­times breed the sense that your peers are har­bor­ing ulte­ri­or motives behind their pub­lic personas. 

Grace is tena­cious in bring­ing her per­son­al­i­ty to the fore, even post­ing pos­i­tive sto­ries almost week­ly on Insta­gram and YouTube. The work con­tin­ues to pay off, as fans fol­low, and even find her, through the medi­um. It also con­tin­ues to return div­i­dends on stage, giv­ing her the tools to relate to not just recep­tive audi­ences, but for man­ag­ing (with love!) the occa­sion­al heck­ler. She tries to fol­low the advice of UFC fight­er Ron­da Rousey, sum­ma­riz­ing her strat­e­gy as ​“nev­er leave it in the ring,” giv­ing her per­for­mances all she can, whether killing or bomb­ing. Yet anoth­er sign of her upbeat phi­los­o­phy can be found in one of her favorite Mex­i­can proverbs: ​“They tried to bury us, but they didn’t know we were seeds.” 

Where is all of this going to take Grace next? She’s done fes­ti­vals across the nation, and rec­om­mends oth­er comics try them for the unique expe­ri­ences and venues they can pro­vide. She also advis­es that, no mat­ter how a project or per­for­mance goes, make the most of it: ​“Life is so sad already, why not have light and lev­i­ty, and make fun…laugh at it.” She per­forms con­stant­ly in Los Ange­les, and will no doubt be at more fes­ti­vals in the future. 

Wher­ev­er you see Lex­ie Grace, you can bet she’ll be wait­ing for you with a bright smile on her face. Check out her week­ly videos on Insta­gram and YouTube, and stay up to date with her per­for­mance dates at smilelex​ie​.com.