Labor Day weekend has passed.  The summer has come and gone! I cannot believe it, I mean, I am not complaining because everyone knows I love me some fall and all things Pumpkin Spice he-he, but still, time is ticking away. This summer may have flown by a bit quicker than usual for me.  Yes, I was extremely busy cooking for half of America while they were vacationing down the Jersey Shore (ok, ok a bit of an exaggeration I suppose, but that is what it felt like), but it was not because of all my cooking.  This summer I embarked upon a new journey, and what I hope will be the next chapter in my life. I have kept my lips pretty sealed until now, but over the summer I took some “me time”.  I put down my chef knives, took off my chef coat, and put on a comedy act! Yes, that’s right, I tried my hand at stand-up comedy, and fell in love with the thrill of making (or trying to make lol) people laugh.

How it all got started

A little background on my life before I took center stage in the kitchen. My passion has always been in entertaining/theater arts. Up until a few years ago, you could find me acting, singing (well, trying to sing) and dancing in various shows throughout South Jersey. There was even a point in time that I had an agent (hello old headshots!) and would go on TV auditions.  I will forever pride myself on the opportunity I had to dance with the Radio City Rockettes. Ah, I still get goose bumps as I write this. Then, somewhere along the line, Eat Your Heart Out Edibles (EYHOE) took over my life.

I truly do LOVE what I do, and I would not change a thing about my career choice and my baby EYHOE. But being a young entrepreneur def has meant some sacrifices, one of them being not making any time for things outside the kitchen. So, at the start of 2018, I told myself that I HAD to get back on the stage!  I figured it had been long enough, I might as well start from scratch with something entirely new and different. One “Intro to Stand-Up Comedy” class and I was sold; summer 2018 was going to be a funny one.

My Life as the brunette version of Lucille Ball

There is a reason the title of my blog is Annie’s Anecdotes (My Life as the brunette version of Lucille Ball), because it is true! Some crazy shit-take mushroom things happen to me! LOL I have been told so many times “OMG you tell the funniest stories, you have write that  down” or “ Annie, the funniest things happen to you!!” And since I do not have time to write a book, I figured I might as well get up on stage and tell random strangers about my life’s shenanigans.

Total normal thought process, I know (insert sarcasm haha). I could ramble on and on about my experience in my 10 week Intro to Stand Up Comedy 101. My teacher and classmates were awesome, and so talented. I learned a lot, it was scary and fun all at the same time. I realized just how much work (and writing!) goes into making a joke funny, and that relaying that to your audience, is truly an art. I think the one thing that stood out to me the most was the difference between being on stage in a theater production vs. doing stand-up. In a theater production, you are playing someone else, and have written lines that you have to remember.  If you forget a line, or mess up a line, there are other actors on stage who have your back, but who are also affected by messing up your lines/their cues. With stand-up, there are no lines to memorize per se, and you do not have to worry about messing up your fellow actors if you drop the ball; but most importantly you are not playing a role or a character, you are yourself, and that my friends is what is scary and addicting all at the same time. If no one laughs, it is not because the show or the lines were not funny; it is simply because I was not funny.  When I took the stage for the first time on July 14th, in front of an audience full of friends and family, I realized that the five minutes I had on stage was five minutes of straight Angela Rose Capanna, and I just had to hope to God that what I find comical was going to be perceived as funny by the audience, because humor is SO subjective.

I am going to wrap this up, and let you be the judge yourself on my sense of humor, but I really hope to keep writing (jokes) and getting out there and going to open-mics. Maybe for fun, maybe for a platform to vent, and just maybe for a way to turn Chef Annie/EYHOE into a comical cooking YouTube Channel! I realized among the top few things I love in life (cooking being one of course!) is laughter, either belly laughing myself or making others laugh. The other night when I was wrapping up from cooking for a private dinner party, I was saying my good-byes and starting cracking some jokes. My client paid me the biggest compliment, when she said she had not anticipated a “comedy routine” at the end of the night! So NOW of course I want to offer dinner parties with stand-up nights! Ha ha

I leave you with this quote from Carol Burnett: “Comedy is tragedy – plus time”. My hope that is in due time, I am able to make some bellies laugh, and keep them full of good food and “eating hearty without the headache!”

I hope you’ll enjoy the full “routine” here.