Comedians are as much writers as we are performers; every bit on stage starts with words on a page and with trying to figure out how to communicate an idea thoughtfully and effectively. So for me, writing has been a natural extension of who I am as an artist. Here’s the back story behind my work.
“Swerve: Reckless Observations of a Postmodern Girl” is my first book, and I’m super proud of it. I got the idea for it while I was on tour—fans would come up to me after my shows and want to talk and ask me questions, and there were funny thoughts and anecdotes that would come up that seemed like they would work best in a longer, more prosaic format than on stage. At the same time, I was reading books by some of our super-cool modern essayists like Chuck Klosterman and David Sedaris, and it just seemed like a great fit to do a collection of comedic essays. I started collecting these musings in a notebook, and “Swerve” was born.
The book got very good reviews from critics overall. But how readers and fans responded was extraordinary. I really just set out to write a collection of random stories and ideas—I wanted the book to be a funny, fun read — but people had a unique response to it. Part of it was excerpted in Glamour magazine, and readers connected to the material in a very emotional way.
They wrote to say it helped them dump a mean boyfriend, or start exercising, or quit a job they hated and follow their passion. I was totally surprised and overwhelmed by the responses; I mean, I just wanted to write a bunch of funny and slightly off-color stories!
I remain really proud of “Swerve.” In some ways it’s very flawed, but it’s really an honest peek into my mind and how I see the world, and I wrote it with a lot of passion and honesty. I definitely hope to write a second book in the future. I just need to get some free time first!
Glamour loved the responses they got from the excerpts they printed of my book “Swerve,” and they asked me to start being a contributor to the magazine. Since then I’ve written several articles for them, as well as contributed to other magazines, including O: The Oprah Magazine and Jane.
One of my favorite Glamour pieces involved an experiment where I watched a photograph of myself get extensively retouched. The result was movie-poster perfect, but completely devoid of personality. I was floored when I saw how marked up the original was with notes for the retouchers; and I couldn’t believe how robotic I looked in the end.
It’s a bit creepy to look at a picture of yourself and wonder what happened to your freckles and that mole you’ve always had. Trying to achieve perfection means you miss out on someone’s sweet, crooked smile or the way her eyes crinkle when she laughs. To me, beauty is the whole of a person, including her flaws and imperfections. Read the entire article here!
Another similar piece I wrote for Glamour focused on embracing real bodies and not obsessing over weight, size, or shape. I used to obsess about my body: how my arms look in pictures, the proportions of my backside, what I should or shouldn’t eat. But then I started thinking about what I could do with the time I was wasting thinking about my weight, and realized that we as a nation need to stop the constant dissatisfaction with our bodies. After all, a recent Gallup poll shows that the women we idolize aren’t the super thin models or starlets, but healthy, strong, powerful women. For me, the new good body is confident, resilient, and unapologetic, and it comes in all shapes and sizes. Read more here!
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