The Comedy

On September 10, 2021, I filmed my hometown special at the Franklin Theatre in Franklin, Tennessee. The historic theatre sits almost exactly halfway between the house where I was married for 19 years, raised eight children (four birth/four adopted), and founded THINK HAPPY STUFF…and the house where I fell in love with a pathological liar whose physical and emotional abuse surfaced addiction issues that lie deep within my gene pool.

I stayed in that toxic-shitstorm for six years and kept him in my life for the two years that followed.

In 2016, I moved to Los Angeles, California in an attempt to reclaim my mental health and ultimately, my life. (Clearly, when one is recovering from a mental health crisis, there is no better place to be than HOLLYWOOD.)

Due to a breakdown that involved me driving my car into my abuser’s house, I moved to L.A. with a RECORD. The ENTERTAINMENT industry is a bit lax on the background check thing, so I became an actor. (After all, I had years of experience.)

My first acting job was as a prison inmate. Not kidding. And what they had staged to be a prison had originally been a mental health hospital. (Seriously, I’m not kidding.) The irony amused the hell out of me. That was the exact moment I knew I would (eventually) be “OK”.

Eventually, I began to share my story through stand-up comedy. Finding the “funny” in traumatic life events, and sharing my story kept shame at bay. I quickly learned I was far from alone. Many are driven to madness (unavoidable pun) by staying with a partner who has gaslighting down to an art form.

On April 26, 2020, I quit drinking. I credit both comedy and sobriety for saving my life.

Sobriety brought the gift of clarity and I soon realized my ex-husband was not the sole source of the challenges in our marriage. (An addict doesn’t need alcohol to be a master at shifting blame.)

Doug and I reunited in 2019. He moved to L.A. and quit drinking the same day I did. We remarried in December of 2020 in the midst of the global pandemic. Four of our children joined us on our balcony in West Hills, CA, as we exchanged our (much amended vows). Our eldest birth child officiated. In August of 2021, the Covid bans lifted, the comedy clubs re-opened and we moved to Burbank, CA.

Our marriage is much better this time around because he knows if he fucks up I’m going to write a joke about it.