Oh, how I LOVE this funny lady! Carla Collins has been making me laugh for many years (I won’t say how many ‘coz a lady never tells her age – Carla’s or mine!). This Canadian-born comedy powerhouse has created a brilliant creative niche for herself in Los Angeles that puts Ryan Seacrest to shame – Carla does it all. She’s won awards for her acting, has built a HUGE fan-base for her stand-up comedy and tv series, modelled, authored an hysterical autobiographical book, and is now conquering the radio airwaves as co-host of the LA AF show. She also Founded a unique comedy/meditation program that launched just as Covid hit us (and it took off online throughout pandemic isolation) and is currently applying her artsy-fartsy sketching skills to produce custom “vision boards” for friends and clients. Way too many skills and credits to list here…whew! So why don’t I just let her tell it herself….laughing out loud is permissible and inevitable!!
Carla, as the old ad says… “you’ve come a long way baby”. Did you ever imagine you would be such a successful creative producer, web series hostess, author and comedy goddess in Los Angeles when you first stepped onto the comedy stages here in Toronto? Oh Honey, you’re so sweet but I’m just out here hustling and happy to be doing what I love. Been a rough couple of years for the industry with the strikes and the Jean-Claude Pan Damme so I’m lucky I’m a bit of an arts Swiss army knife and can do some comedy, some acting, some voiceover work, some hosting and even some drawing. You’ll know that I’ve finally made it when I have a butler called Cavendish, warm kittens stacked up next to my bidet instead of moist toilettes and I’m wearing Fruit of the Illuminati underwear!
I remember back in…well, quite some time ago… when the CTV network sent you to Hollywood to host their Oscar red carpet news and interviews. Was it terrifying or did you feel you were finally with “my people”? Yup, it’s been a minute since my red-carpet days and I think I was one of the first Canucks covering the Oscars red-carpet. It was pretty nerve wracking at the time because we were live, and I used to get very anxious doing new things. Now I would jump up and do 45 minutes of stand-up at a garage sale! I have always loved LA but I don’t think this place is necessarily anyone’s tribe or people, more like another planet with great weather! It was wonderful to meet Sting in person and ask him what would last longer, an Academy Awards acceptance speech or a tantric orgasm? As I remember, I took a lot of heat for the Judy Jetson outfit I wore. No regrets! (G: Oh I remember that orange sparkly thing well)
Comedic Meditation – you launched this initiative several years ago, helping people reach nirvana (or at least sort out some shit) via comedy and yoga and just chillin’ out – a strange intersection of philosophies, sure, but it all worked. How/why did you launch CM and how important did your online presentations become during Covid? Actually, there’s absolutely no yoga involved whatsoever, even though I’ve been practising yoga for a couple of decades now. This is simply stand-up comedy followed by an authentic, original guided meditation. It happened pretty organically as I have been a big fan of meditation for years. My Mom practiced Transcendental Meditation so I’ve always known how beneficial meditation can be but so many people in LA are self-proclaimed gurus and many of my friends were too intimidated to go to a meditation center. I started this at a friend’s chiropractic and wellness space here in the valley one night a few months before the pandemic. I had been writing my own meditations for a couple of years because I wasn’t loving the ones online and I wanted to remove the woo woo factor and make meditation more accessible and digestible to everyone. I’m also a very hyper person, most of the time I shake like a chihuahua on meth after a couple of 5 Hour Energy drinks so I figured laughing for 20 or 30 minutes before sitting or lying still to meditate would help burn some energy, release endorphins or at the very least, people would hear about my crazy life and feel better about theirs! Turns out laughter and mediation are a great combo because they both produce the same gamma brainwaves.
People seemed to really enjoy the odd marriage right out of the gate, and I was lucky to get some lovely media coverage early on. Chuckle & Chill (that’s what I call it now) combines my two greatest passions: comedy and wellness/spirituality. I think it seems natural that haha moments would lead to aha moments. I was in Canada doing a mini-Chuckle & Chill tour when the world shutdown and C&C transitioned fairly seamlessly online. I believe people were very stressed and felt more comfortable doing this in their own places. Everyone loved that they could just roll over and go to sleep after a session and didn’t have to drive home! I tailor both the comedy and the meditations to make them more personal for each group or individual. I mean who doesn’t need to laugh and relax more in these rapture adjacent times?
You currently have several projects on the go, including Laugh of Attraction, and especially your unique Vision Pop Boards. You’re helping people create visualizations of their wishes and dreams, right? So how can we get our own customized vision boards? Yes! The Laugh of Attraction family now includes Laffirmations (merry mantras that make you giggle and punch through to your subconscious more easily than the generic affirmations. For example: “My skin is as smooth as jazz” or “I have an attitude of gratitude when I’m in the nude”), “Chaneling” instead of channeling with my French lingerie model stand up psychic character Souffle (“Knock, knock, I know who’s there and what to wear”), Vision Pop Boards where I draw you and what you want to manifest (see below) and coming soon my Tarot Grigio comedic tarot card deck.
When I was a kid and throughout high school, I wanted to be a fine artist. Shout out to my Facebook friend and high school art teacher Mr. Olsen! I would overthink and stress about each drawing or painting, so I abandoned my watercolors even though art was my first love. This year I started sketching again on the down low. My brother and best pal Rick, who teaches Art History at a private school in New Zealand, saw my sketches when he was visiting over the holidays and encouraged me to keep going. I was sketching little vision boards because I heard it was a great manifestation tool and I found it very therapeutic. Rick asked me to make him one. I posted a couple of them online and started getting orders from friends and lovely people on socials. Rick felt my style was more pop art/cartoon thus Vision Pop Boards! Basically, I ask people to send me a few pictures of themselves along with things they love and want to bring into their lives. I sketch the person in the middle of the piece and use symbols, drawings of their desires, pastels and some magic to create the boards. I also do some generic feelgood boards like a winning scratcher ticket. These can all be used as phone or computer wallpapers. You can order your customized VPB by hitting me up on Insta or FB or emailing me directly: carla@carlacollins.com
So tell me about your “professional 3-way” with Grace and Jimmy co-hosting the LA AF podcast – how did you meet, what was the “lightbulb moment” that focused your sights on hosting the show? And what is LA AF all about? Jimmy McCammon and Grace Fae McCammon reached out to me on Instagram back in December and asked me to be a guest on LA AF, a Los Angeles-centric show that has some fun at the city’s expense. I believe their tagline is News. Culture. Snark. As a good, trusting Canadian, I literally drove to a stranger’s home in Pasadena whom I had never met out in the wild or even spoken to. I keep joking that I could have ended up on Dateline. Instead, I was really impressed because Jimmy is an amazing producer and is very funny. He reminds me of my bro. The whole show has a morning radio vibe, is jam-packed with pop culture and is loosey goosey but professional. Grace is a phenomenal jazz singer, like a modern-day femme fatale from the 1940s and a beautiful spiritual soul. They are just the most lovely and talented couple. The chemistry was straight fire and there was a seamless ease to the hour when I was a guest. In January, Jimmy reached out to ask if I would be interested in being a regular host for two of their three shows a week and it’s been a delight ever since. We are getting some great guests and numbers and I’m loving it. It reminds me of my radio days. I have been asked to join several podcasts but this time it just worked. I believe Jimmy started this podcast during the pandemic then Grace joined him and now, we’re a throuple! Professionally speaking of course.
Listeners can stream the shows on Spotify, iTunes, etc. and join LA AF Patreon for the entire show with lots idle extras for just $1 a month https://www.patreon.com/laaf?utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator
We all loved you in Carlawood – the comedic tv series telling of your quest for fame and paid gigs in Hollywood. So has your life actually mirrored those tv episodes? Often and it’s only become weirder and more entertaining, I wish we were still filming. It was back on good, old fashioned cable TV in Canada. More recently on Amazon Prime. When I first moved here, I thought people in LA didn’t understand sarcasm but it’s more that it’s so wild and weird in this city, anything is possible and can happen. Los Angeles is almost impossible to parody. I think there is always a lot of fodder in my life mostly because I constantly find myself doing comedy in the oddest places: funerals, wealthy people’s living rooms, nudist colonies (I mean, where am I supposed to keep my phone?). I’ve had to follow Burlesque performers who are wearing less material than Carrot Top’s act and doing gymnastics on stage with great names like BonBon Paris and Lola Boutee. At that moment, I don’t want to do comedy, I just want to become a Burlesque dancer called Gigi Hadidn’t. I’ve performed stand up at a hospice here (that afternoon we were all dying…) and I’ve even performed at the Kabbalah Center in Beverly Hills where I told them my Hebrew drag queen name was Yum Yum Kippur!
Also, LA is loaded with so many delicious, crazy characters right outta central casting, literally. There’s never any shortage of material here. I recently found out my yoga instructor was a coke head. This explains why we kept only taking in deep inhales. It’s very convenient to take a snort in downward facing dog! I also now know it wasn’t yoga keeping her so slim and confident.
Any more fabulous books in the works? Angels, Vampires & Douchebags (2010) was brilliant, hilarious and a very insightful look into the life of a vixen on her journey to tinseltown. You must have enough material for at least 3 or 4 more books…. Aw, thank you so much Doll, you are too kind. I have recently completed writing a children’s/inspirational book called The HuaHua Way. It’s a love letter to my beloved Chihuahua mix Dr. Zira who passed away. It’s the “true” story of my three dogs: Buster, Miles and Dr. Zira (pictured below with their mistress) which subtly tackles some heavy issues like grief, divorce, sexism, etc… and I hope it brings comfort and joy to animal lovers everywhere. It’s currently being illustrated and should be released in time for the holidays this year. Right now, I’m working on another non-fiction book called Botox in my Third Eye which, like Angels, Vampires and Douchebags, is somewhat autobiographical and combines comedy with self-help.
And your stand-up comedy – you’ve headlined and guested on so many of the BIG stages (and TV specials) across the US and Canada…where are you appearing next, where can fans come out to worship you? Hahaha worship! Welp, you can come laugh at me for sure. I will be on at The Laugh Factory on April 18th with iconic host Frazer Smith. Just follow moi on Instagram @carlacollinscomedian for all upcoming dates and hopefully I’ll be back in Canada for some shows soon.
Any other news or stories you’d like to share? Just that I appreciate wonderful goddesses like you who have always been wonderfully supportive. You have been a tireless champion to many Canadian entertainers, and we really appreciate your expertise and wit Darling. Remember, every time you laugh…an angel gets knocked up by Nick Cannon or Elon Musk so keep laughing! xo
Visit Carla’s website for all her social media links, videos, funny business, news and more… https://www.carlacollins.com/
This blog is dedicated to Carla’s muse, the late great Dr. Zira (below)
On Friday March 14th, there will be a fundraiser for the upcoming 2025 Toronto Fringe Festival comedic play, Grown Ass*d Broads Talkin’ Dirty. This night of music and comedy promises to be fun and full of hilarity, and features renowned singer/actor who also wrote the play, the indomitable Valerie Boyle (pictured below)
Valerie starred, wrote and produced her own one-woman show,Sophie Tucker,which toured Canada, as well as workshopped in London, UK, and she was also Shirley in Shirley Valentinewhen the play toured Canada. She also starred as Mother Superior in Nunsense for twelve productions – a role she is going to resurrect again in 2025 at the Victoria Playhouse, Petrolia, for the Nunsense 40th Anniversary. Valerie also has numerous big & small screen roles to her credit including a turn on Murdoch Mysteries. She is a Canadian treasure.
Rounding out this night of show-stopping musical performances will be Tiffany Deriveau (below) who has performed in Soul Sistas as Tina Turner, Wanda in Beehive: the 60s Musical, Mama Morton in Chicago and Crystal in Little Shop of Horrors, in various theatres across the country.
Bringing the comedy will be Christel Bartelse (below). As a solo artist, Christel has wowed Fringe audiences and beyond with her one-woman shows including CHAOTICA, ONEymoon, Significant Me, All KIDding Aside, The Surprise and Encore. She has been nominated twice for a Canadian Comedy Award and has toured every major Canadian fringe festival, as well as several in the U.S. and has performed twice at the original Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
The emcee for the evening will be Tricia Williams who has graced the Toronto Fringe Festival stage for the past three years in hit shows such as the Sorauren Book Club, Hymns and Hearse and Disarming Venus. She is also a cast member of Grown Ass*d Broads Talkin’ Dirty along with Jorie Morrow, Andrea Davis, Morrie Sinkins and Julie Burris.
The fundraiser will take place at the Performing Arts Lodge (PAL), 110 The Esplanade in the Crest Green Room Theatre. Tickets are $20 cash at the door and $10 cash for residents of PAL. Doors will open at 7:00 pm and show time is 7:30 pm.
