Today we’d like to introduce you to Timely Rain.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I always had a dream of being on Broadway, I went to HSPVA and found a love for Sound Design and smoking weed. One of my first gigs out of high school was doing sound for The Secret Group, which was always a favorite opportunity, only one mic, easier than a musical or a 12 piece band. I sat and watched comic after comic go up and thought “I can do that,” so I started writing jokes in my notebook and posting them on the platform formally known as Twitter. I reveled in the 8-10 likes a tweet would get, but I didn’t get on stage until about 5 years later.
I had lost everything in a terrible breakup and started taking improv classes where we would go to an open mic at Dan Electro’s. After the second time attending with my notebook in hand and not going up, the instructor of Play and Improv, Taylor Needham, basically told me I can get up there now or shut up ( in a much more “you go girl” sense). I needed that. I went up to a crowd of no one and told a story about going to the gynecologist and another about a dead baby. I only made Taylor laugh, but that was all I needed.
In the coming year, I would leave my career of managing small family owned restaurants to pursue this dream I never really saw coming, but when I look back at my life now, it was almost so obvious that this was my path.
At a young age, my mom would order old and new SNL dvd’s from Netflix to be mailed to our house (remember that??), and I fell in love with Amy, Tina, Kristin, Rachel and Maya. She introduced me to Carol Burnet and Seth Rogan and all of the stoner comedies any good mother shares with her children. I used humor to get around my failing grades and actually pass my senior year. I used making my mom laugh as a permanent get-out-of-jail-free card. It was my responsibility when things got tough to keep everyone smiling. Now, I’m using it for me and sharing it with people all around the country.
I was in active addiction when I started stand-up and very quickly got off drugs. I knew I couldn’t do both, but making people laugh is its own drug. As super hack as that sounds, it’s short lived, expensive, and you can never get enough.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Not a smooth road, but more like the one when the Muppet’s come to a fork in the road and it’s an actual fork. Most of my struggles feel like ancient struggles that aren’t new or specific to me. I’ve almost always chosen fields that are male dominated, whether that be in a kitchen at a restaurant, a sound technician or a stand up comic. I’ve struggled with people taking me seriously, always having to prove myself, and work ten times harder. You’re given this responsibility of speaking for all women when I’m barely learning to speak for myself. There’s the eternal struggle of trying to get people to come out to your shows without having to give the internet overlords all of our money. Most of us are our own marketing team, PR, social media specialist, and manager. Sometimes the art ends up being the last thing I get to, and that feels like the biggest struggle, trying to keep all the plates up at once.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a stand up comedian, improvisor, and show producer. I enjoy acting in theater from time to time and filming pilot projects and sketches. I was voted OutSmart Magazine’s Favorite Female comic 2023 and 2024, a semi finalist in this year’s Funniest Person in Houston Competition, and have opened up for Mo Amer, Jenni Zigrino and Rachel Wolfson. I am the creator of Girls Night Out at The Coronation Theater.
I went to HSPVA for theater. From there I found standup and then improv and then clowning. I perform and work at The Texas Ren Faire. When I made the move to be an artist full time, I knew I wanted to start producing my own shows. I have way too many differently talented friends to have just done a straight stand up show. My best friend and I produced a weekly variety show and open mic at Avant Garden called Montrose Madhouse, packed almost every week, with performers of all kinds from all around the city, and through that I created an open mic at Brasil that ran for two years that was open format for anyone. It created this community of people from all ages and backgrounds, whether it was jokes, experimental sound, a children’s book reading, or poetry, everyone gathered and listened with respect for each other’s art forms. I’d like to think I’m known for that. I went from those to traveling more for standup, as well as starting my own weekly show at an actual comedy club only three years in: The Secret Secret Show. It’s been running every Sunday for over a year now at The Secret Group.
I’m known for my quick wit and stoner humor. I’ve traveled to several different states, including middle of nowhere places where a redneck with a midwestern accent came up to me after the show exclaiming, “You’re the funniest woman I’ve ever met!” I can’t help but think that I’m the only woman he ever let talk this long. I’ve been told I’m a woman’s comic, but the frat boys who high five me after my set would beg to differ.
In the scene, I’m known for saying the wrong thing at the right time, and standing up for what I believe in. That’s something you can take in for yourself in my TikTok reel where I meet my hero, Ms. Piggy. Queer kids all around the world share it to their stories daily, and it makes me feel like I’m doing some real good out here.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
My advice to anyone starting out:
1. Move the mic stand out of the way.
My advice to women and anyone not a man starting out:
1. Don’t listen to anyone’s advice (including mine) – what we are doing has very little precedent and I promise that old guy who’s been doing standup in his home for 30 years has nothing to offer you that is actually useful. One of the most amazing things about this art form is that there is NO roadmap. there is NO right way, there’s only YOUR way.
2. Put yourself out there, delusion is not only an epidemic in this industry, it’s necessary. If you don’t go ask for that spot it’s going to someone else.
3. The worst they can say is “no.”
4. My mother told me this a long time ago, “Anything anyone thinks about you, good or bad, has absolutely zero to do with you.” You are your biggest fan, supporter, and critic. Treat each of those parts of yourself like you would an actual fan critic or supporter.
5. Have fun. Have fun. Have fun. This was the only piece of advice I got from one of my favorite comics, Scotty Peterson, right before he passed away. I don’t always listen to it. But if you’re having fun, nothing else will matter.
Pricing:
- The Secret Show – Every Sunday at The Secret Group at 9pm – $10
- I will have done comedy for zero dollars; a baked potato; a puzzle; a few hundred. I’m open to offers!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/timelyraincomedy
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/timelyrain420/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/timelyyy
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@timelyraincomedy
Image Credits
Carly Rose @carls.flixx
Michael Clark
Allycia @LeLeShotThis
