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By Lisa Chamoff
Staff Writer
NORWALK - Like many divorced, single mothers in Fairfield County, Sally Burns juggles a few jobs. During the day, Burns works as an office manager and corporate video producer at a financial services company in Rowayton.
At the end of the day, she returns home to raise her three sons.
For her third job, Burns travels to New York City several nights a month to joke about her typical suburban life.
Since June, Burns, 47, has been performing as a stand-up comic, which is part career, part mid-life crisis for the Darien native.
"Reaching middle age, you start thinking of things you haven't done," Burns said. "I went and took ballroom dancing (and) that didn't have as much success."
Burns recently competed against 20 other comedians in the "Funniest Comic in Connecticut" contest, held at a restaurant in Orange and sponsored by Treehouse Comedy, which puts on shows. She made it to the semifinals before being eliminated earlier this month.
Burns also will perform at the Rowayton Civic Association's Comedy Night fundraiser May 10 with headliner William Stephenson, a New York City comedian back by popular demand.
The annual fundraiser will be Burns' local debut. She performed at a 40th birthday party in the fall, but few people know about her alter ego.
"There are many acquaintances of mine who don't even know I'm doing this," Burns said.
Burns always wrote nonprofessionally, and when she spied a posting on Craigslist.org last summer for new talent to perform at Stand-up New York, she spent weeks writing a routine. Then she invited friends to the city to watch.
Since then, Burns has taken a class at the Manhattan Comedy School and performs on weekends and occasion weeknights - as long as it doesn't interfere with school events.
Burns did not reveal the names of her three sons, ages 10, 14 and 16, so they can avoid teasing from their peers.
"It's an odd thing for a parent to do," Burns said. "High school and middle school are hard enough as it is."
She tries out most of her comedy material that is rated PG on her boys, who "have really good, sophisticated senses of humor. They understand it's an act," Burns said.
Their response, though, when she told them she was planning to try stand-up comedy was " 'Mom, you're not funny' - which, as a parent, is true," Burns said. "You shouldn't be funny as a parent."
During a recent set at Caroline's on Broadway that was taped, Burns addressed a quirk of raising teenage boys.
"Just the other day I told my 15-year-old son exactly what part of my body I shave with my razor," she said. "He hasn't borrowed mine since."
Much of her comedy focuses on parenting and suburbia, but Burns hasn't taken to riffing on life in Fairfield County, as Greenwich comedienne Jane Condon does.
Although Burns grew up in Darien, she lived in several places before moving back to the area in 1992. After studying at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Burns worked in advertising and spent several years in Los Angeles producing television commercials.
She was a stay-at-home mother for a decade after her first son was born and has done decorative painting. Humor has helped her through it all, Burns said.
"Part of what got me through the demise of my marriage is looking for humor in life," she said. "If you can't find the humor, I don't know how you survive. I do think there are an awful lot of us in this area. . . . We do all tend to take ourselves and things around us awfully seriously."
Craig Spinney of Rowayton, stage manager for "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" who organizes the annual comedy fundraiser, said he hasn't seen Burns' act. But he has known her for several years, since Burns did decorative painting for a company Spinney owns.
When Spinney ran into Burns recently, she told him she was doing stand-up.
"She's very naturally funny, with an extremely dry wit," Spinney said. "If there's anybody who's a natural, it would be her."
The fundraiser will be one of Burns' few local shows.
"Aside from up in Hartford, we don't really have comedy clubs," Burns said.
The reaction to her jokes can vary by crowd or time of night, and Burns knows that "making it" as a comedian in New York, where there are thousands of struggling comics, is hard. But she's taking her new job seriously.
"There's something really exciting when it works," Burns said. "There's something terrifying when it doesn't. (But) to be able to do something that I love, and try to make an additional living off of it, is fantastic."
Copyright (c) 2008, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.
No laughing matter: For third job, woman tries stand-up comedy
By Lisa Chamoff
Staff Writer
NORWALK - Like many divorced, single mothers in Fairfield County, Sally Burns juggles a few jobs. During the day, Burns works as an office manager and corporate video producer at a financial services company in Rowayton.
At the - Stamford-Norwalk Advocate
By Lisa Chamoff
Staff Writer
NORWALK - Like many divorced, single mothers in Fairfield County, Sally Burns juggles a few jobs. During the day, Burns works as an office manager and corporate video producer at a financial services company in Rowayton.
At the end of the day, she returns home to raise her three sons.
For her third job, Burns travels to New York City several nights a month to joke about her typical suburban life.
Since June, Burns, 47, has been performing as a stand-up comic, which is part career, part mid-life crisis for the Darien native.
"Reaching middle age, you start thinking of things you haven't done," Burns said. "I went and took ballroom dancing (and) that didn't have as much success."
Burns recently competed against 20 other comedians in the "Funniest Comic in Connecticut" contest, held at a restaurant in Orange and sponsored by Treehouse Comedy, which puts on shows. She made it to the semifinals before being eliminated earlier this month.
Burns also will perform at the Rowayton Civic Association's Comedy Night fundraiser May 10 with headliner William Stephenson, a New York City comedian back by popular demand.
The annual fundraiser will be Burns' local debut. She performed at a 40th birthday party in the fall, but few people know about her alter ego.
"There are many acquaintances of mine who don't even know I'm doing this," Burns said.
Burns always wrote nonprofessionally, and when she spied a posting on Craigslist.org last summer for new talent to perform at Stand-up New York, she spent weeks writing a routine. Then she invited friends to the city to watch.
Since then, Burns has taken a class at the Manhattan Comedy School and performs on weekends and occasion weeknights - as long as it doesn't interfere with school events.
Burns did not reveal the names of her three sons, ages 10, 14 and 16, so they can avoid teasing from their peers.
"It's an odd thing for a parent to do," Burns said. "High school and middle school are hard enough as it is."
She tries out most of her comedy material that is rated PG on her boys, who "have really good, sophisticated senses of humor. They understand it's an act," Burns said.
Their response, though, when she told them she was planning to try stand-up comedy was " 'Mom, you're not funny' - which, as a parent, is true," Burns said. "You shouldn't be funny as a parent."
During a recent set at Caroline's on Broadway that was taped, Burns addressed a quirk of raising teenage boys.
"Just the other day I told my 15-year-old son exactly what part of my body I shave with my razor," she said. "He hasn't borrowed mine since."
Much of her comedy focuses on parenting and suburbia, but Burns hasn't taken to riffing on life in Fairfield County, as Greenwich comedienne Jane Condon does.
Although Burns grew up in Darien, she lived in several places before moving back to the area in 1992. After studying at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Burns worked in advertising and spent several years in Los Angeles producing television commercials.
She was a stay-at-home mother for a decade after her first son was born and has done decorative painting. Humor has helped her through it all, Burns said.
"Part of what got me through the demise of my marriage is looking for humor in life," she said. "If you can't find the humor, I don't know how you survive. I do think there are an awful lot of us in this area. . . . We do all tend to take ourselves and things around us awfully seriously."
Craig Spinney of Rowayton, stage manager for "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" who organizes the annual comedy fundraiser, said he hasn't seen Burns' act. But he has known her for several years, since Burns did decorative painting for a company Spinney owns.
When Spinney ran into Burns recently, she told him she was doing stand-up.
"She's very naturally funny, with an extremely dry wit," Spinney said. "If there's anybody who's a natural, it would be her."
The fundraiser will be one of Burns' few local shows.
"Aside from up in Hartford, we don't really have comedy clubs," Burns said.
The reaction to her jokes can vary by crowd or time of night, and Burns knows that "making it" as a comedian in New York, where there are thousands of struggling comics, is hard. But she's taking her new job seriously.
"There's something really exciting when it works," Burns said. "There's something terrifying when it doesn't. (But) to be able to do something that I love, and try to make an additional living off of it, is fantastic."
Copyright (c) 2008, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.
No laughing matter: For third job, woman tries stand-up comedy
By Lisa Chamoff
Staff Writer
NORWALK - Like many divorced, single mothers in Fairfield County, Sally Burns juggles a few jobs. During the day, Burns works as an office manager and corporate video producer at a financial services company in Rowayton.
At the - Stamford-Norwalk Advocate
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Still working on that hot first release.
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Bio
Sally was born and raised in one house, in one town, in CT. She has worked as an administrative assistant, a painter, a television commercial producer, and a chambermaid. She has lived in CA, DC, MA, MD, MN, NH, VA, and VT and has the license plates to prove it. She pillaged those eight states for fifteen years before succumbing to the pull of her nutmegs state's roots and now lives back in her hometown with her three sons. Sally is still an assistant, a painter, a producer, and a maid; she just doesn't get paid for it.
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