23: Artist’s Brain - Holly Laurent - Improviser, Comedian, Writer

Welcome to an interview with one of our favorite artist’s brains. Holly Laurent is one of Stormchaser’s long time coaches and mentors and has been one of our greatest influences. Holly brings joy, love, and poetry to the improv community. She injects humanity into her characters and breathes authenticity into her work, and if you’ve met her, you’ve undoubtedly felt her warm and sunshiny presence.

Holly Laurent is the creator and host of the hit podcast MEGA, she’s the co-host and producer of the podcast It's a Wonderful Lie, and she’s a featured contributor on the nationally syndicated radio variety show Live From Here (APM). She is an alumnus of the Second City main stage in Chicago where she wrote and performed three critically acclaimed revues. She toured with the Second City national touring company and was a featured performer at the TBS Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal. Holly is also a founding member of the longstanding improv group The Reckoning, which you might hear us talk about a lot. You can also watch her on Tacoma FD (truTV), Drunk History (Comedy Central), Key & Peele (Comedy Central), and The Late Late Show with James Corden (CBS).

On this episode, we get real and we talk about how the pandemic has affected us all as live performers, we also talk about how to approach creating art that wrestles with challenging topics, and Holly shares how she intentionally deals with her fears as an artist. It was an emotional and raw conversation, and as you’ll hear, I think those qualities are part of what makes Holly such a brilliant storyteller.

You can connect with Holly on Instagram @hollylaurent and on Twitter @laurentholly. And make sure to check out her wonderful podcast Mega on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts and on instagram @megathepodcast.

Right now, Stormchaser is doing improv live on facebook.com/stormchaserimprov. For show times and other fun goodies, connect with us on Instagram @stormchaserimprov.

And before you go, if you’ve enjoyed the podcast, could you please do us a solid and review us on Apple Podcasts? Tight. Thanks.