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Steel Roses Podcast
Steel Roses is a podcast created for women by women. Social pressures for women are constant. Professionals, stay at home moms, working moms, we are here to tell you that you are not alone! This podcasts primary focus is providing real honest content shedding light on the daily struggles of women while also elevating women's voices.
All women are experiencing similar pressures and hurdles, and yet, no one is talking out in the open. If these topics continue to only exist as whispered conversations then we further permeate a culture of judgement and shame.
Join Jenny weekly as she discusses topics that effect women in a relatable, honest way.
Steel Roses Podcast
From Punchlines to Power: Redefining Comedy's Landscape with Lynn Harris
Lynn Harris, founder of Gold Comedy, is revolutionizing the comedy industry by creating spaces where women and non-binary creators can develop their skills and launch successful careers. Through her work, she demonstrates how comedy can be a powerful tool for social change, connecting people through shared laughter while challenging outdated norms.
• Comedy creates connection – when people get the same joke, they're on the same page
• Lynn's journey from journalist and stand-up comedian to social change advocate wasn't linear
• Despite progress, women comedians still face significant barriers in the industry
• Gold Comedy provides classes, community, and opportunities through an annual membership model
• The platform offers everything from stand-up training to sketch writing and video editing
• Gold's "Build and Pitch" class helps members develop and pitch show concepts to TV executives
• When diversity in comedy is normalized, it changes power structures and cultural narratives
• Comedy matters because it helps define what's normal and shapes societal perspectives
• The online format makes high-quality comedy education accessible to creators worldwide
Use code "STEELROSES" for 10% off Gold Comedy membership or classes by DMing @goldcomedy or @lynnharris on social media.
https://goldcomedy.com/
https://www.lynnharris.net/
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Good morning everybody. Welcome to Still Roses podcast. This podcast was created for women, by women, to elevate women's voices. I am super excited this morning to introduce all of you to our guest, lynn Harris. She is the founder of Gold Comedy, a comedy school, professional network and content studio where women and non-binary creators launch and grow their comedy careers. A stand-up producer, creator, journalist and author, lynn has dedicated her career to use comedy as a force for social change, because when you make people laugh, you make people listen. Lynn, welcome to the podcast, thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:Lynn, I would love it if you could share your story with the listeners. First of all, how did you come about with founding Gold Comedy and really taking this position of using comedy to really reach and resonate with your audience?
Speaker 2:Well, you know, I've done a lot of storytelling and I've taught a lot of storytelling and in those it is a hard and fast rule that your story, when you create one for a stage, has to have a beginning, middle and an end. I would be lying if my story in my life was as clearly organized as that. It is not. So I kind of I have really just kind of followed my nose and and the thing this is we're going to hate this metaphor now that I started it but and the smell that I was following. You know what my nose liked was funny things and good things I mean good for the world and so, little by little, as I cultivated them separately, I thought, do you know what I'm going to try to do these at the same time? So what I mean is I always, I was always just drawn to comedy and comedies and silly funny things. My parents Well, yeah, my dad was kind of a big joker actually and my mom was also very funny, but also an equally good audience. We, you know the basically the soundtrack in our house was either opera, which is my parents thing, which is can also be very funny actually, or Carol Burnett I Love Lucy, the Muppet Show, monty Python, and that was just normal, and they weren't trying to get me to be funny or God forbid trying. They were not trying to get me to start a comedy career, but that was just normal and so I loved it. I just inhaled it, loved it, loved it, loved it. And so I was just drawn. I did not make a plan, but I was just drawn to anything that was art and performance related and writing. My mother was indirectly a writer as well.
Speaker 2:Little by little as I cultivated, I became a pretty successful, very successful journalist. I developed a stand. I was, I did stand up for about 10 years and I wrote. I wrote and co-wrote books that had sort of a seriousness of purpose, but a funny package. For example, I co-created a book with a dear friend of mine who lives right there Hello, he's not up yet Chris Kalb about surviving a breakup.
Speaker 2:But what we did was we created and this was really Chris's idea initially created a superhero character named Breakup Girl who was there to help you survive a breakup, to get through a breakup. We have heroes who can bend steel bars how about one who can mend broken hearts right? And even that had kind of a social justice bent because she was a female character but she helped everybody, and so we were trying to kind of push back on the idea that, like, women talk about relationships and men talk about, you know, rotisserie football, you know like it. And so the audience was super, um was all genders. We were talking about issues back then that no one else was talking about. Um, uh, trans stuff, gay stuff, like we were talking about it then because we, because it was packaged with like a very powerful but also fallible and relatable superhero, people were drawn to be able to talk about those things in. It was a welcoming space where everyone could laugh together, even as we were talking about really serious stuff. Sometimes that's really tough, yes, yes. So that was so and really that can.
Speaker 2:So when I say I didn't have a plan, you know that the breakup girl came about because we were working on this book together and we realized we had more pages to fill and and we were like if only there could be some sort of through line and so, cut to. You know, chris was like how about a superhero? Great, you know. So, like we didn't have a plan for like we'll change the world by creating a comedy superhero.
Speaker 2:So that was kind of how things went and the planlessness that kind of did have a through line, when it's also what I cultivated as a journalist eventually, when I had the enough experience and kind of freedom to do that, and that was really dig into issues that are not inherently funny or issues that people don't inherently want to laugh about, but finding I developed a knack and I'm not the only one, but I developed a knack for finding ways to talk about an issue with humor that is appropriate and illuminating. And so I eventually then also worked for a human rights organization called Breakthrough that worked primarily in the US and India and their calling card was pop culture driven campaigns that encourage people to see a given human rights issue as real and relevant and actionable. So not something over there that someone else's problem that maybe you'll write a letter about, but how am I? Part of building a culture of human rights and we use pop culture stuff all the time. I did I created a series of comedy shows called dudes against violence against women, because duh, and you know we were like finally I'll do lineup on purpose, you know, and so that's super serious, you know, but we got a bunch of dudes on stage really kind of owning their part in the culture that creates that perpetuated gender based, perpetuates gender based violence, etc.
Speaker 2:So I'm getting ahead of it. But the point is this is, once I kind of got my footing started to get my footing professionally, I was able to more deliberately bring together the stuff that I love the most, which was making the world a better place and laughing.
Speaker 1:This is a really unique angle and I mentioned, like when we were chatting quickly before before we got rolling here. I like this angle very much because I work in communications and as a communicator, like I've often and I've and this is how I talk like with my colleagues I'm like I will often use comedy as a segue in some instances to try to, like you know, level set or to ease into a different topic or to, you know, just to kind of break up the mood, because I mean, everything is always so serious and especially in my industry, like we're. I mean it's very like tense and very stressful, and I've used it almost my entire life and I don't know where I picked it up. At some point I learned, like you can make someone laugh. It sort of eases the tension a little bit. It kind of eases the tension a little bit. It kind of bursts the bubble a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it really does and sorry go ahead.
Speaker 1:No, no, it's okay. No, I want you to go, you using comedy to address topics that, yes, it's really serious, it's really intense. These topics get violent reactions from people. People will. I mean, I've had people that I'm pre-interviewing for the podcast and it won't even be a full topic conversation, but people react really quickly and really heatedly and I don't know if that's just because of today's society and because of how things are today, but I've had like really abrasive reactions and I'm like you know, everyone's allowed to their opinion on this show.
Speaker 1:Like this is a safe space and I think that's what you're doing here and I actually wanted to acknowledge and commend you for that, because you're making it safe to talk about. You know, like it's you're making it like this doesn't have to be taboo. We can just talk about this and I love that because that's what this podcast is here for. Yeah, these topics that are not out there, that are related to women, we don't have to not talk about stuff. We can talk about things in other ways and level the playing field or level set with each other. So I love that you're doing that. That's really fantastic.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Well, three things. One is thank you. Well, four, one is thank you. The second is I certainly there's actually, at this point, a lot of academic research into the role of comedy and social change. So, like it's certainly not like my own, you know, my own, my own idea, you know, but I do care very much about it and find it to be incredibly potent. And I think the reason I think a lot of times people think that when you're bringing, when you're sort of stirring comedy into something not funny, I think sometimes people think it's just about like lightening the mood. And I actually think it's deeper than that, because I don't know, I'm not really talking about like hey, let's make rape fun, you know, like that's not like but so that's not it at all.
Speaker 2:But I think what happens is and, by the way, there is there's a lot of great comedy about rape culture and about which is fair game. Right, it's not side note, it's not about making fun of the thing, it's about finding the comedy in the stuff around the thing. Whatever the bad thing is right, yeah, so in any case. But what I think really is why it's effective with your clients or whoever is not that you're just laughing to. It's not just the laughing that is diffusing the tension. It's like why are we laughing right now? It's because when two people get the same joke, they're connected. You know, because I remember I was traveling in, for when I was a journalist, I was traveling in in Newfoundland, one of my favorite places on earth. I remember it was finding out.
Speaker 2:We were like up one night, you know, drinking Canadian beer and doing something I don't remember what, and we're telling jokes, and I wanted to tell a joke. You know that, like the jokes that are like and they're very offensive typically or let's put it this way they can be offensive where you, you know you're like okay, you know, an Italian, greek Polack, walk into a bar, you know. And so I asked I was going to tell one like that, polack, walk into a bar, you know. And so I asked I was going to tell one like that. So I asked the people in Newfoundland, okay, so when you make fun of another part of Canada, which one is it? Because I was going to make that one the butt of the joke? And they were like Newfoundlanders. And I was like, no, no, no, no. What I mean is who were we making fun of here? And they were like, oh, only in Newfoundland are people going to get a joke. So now I learned the culture is that we make fun of Newfoundlanders in Newfoundland. Okay, Would not have known that. So when you're in Newfoundland you're making jokes about Newfoundlanders, you get, you're connected, you get it right. You and I wouldn't get the joke Right.
Speaker 2:It's a long way of, if it's not overt is from the setup to the punchline, and between the setup and the punch there's a twist. Something unexpected happens. The comic or the writer or whoever makes you think they're going in one direction and they pivot. And so it's like you know, take my wife, please. You know. Sexist, great joke, four words, amazing joke, right, penny Edmund. Sexist, great joke, four words amazing joke, right, and so if you're going to be able to follow the writer or the writing or whatever from the setup all the way around that curve to the punchline, you guys are on the same page because you are getting the same joke. So it's that moment of connection that is sort of underlying just the kind of opening a steam valve for laughing, and so that's what I think is so powerful about those moments and why they enable people to kind of let their guards down and be like okay, all right, we're doing this.
Speaker 2:When you add humor, to something that they initially did not want to be part of.
Speaker 1:maybe I never thought of it that way. I've never thought of comedy in that fashion. And I have to tell you, I am a person that, like at night, you know, after the kids are in bed, my husband's always like, what do you want to watch? Like, what do you want? And I always feel like I want to watch something funny, like I always want to watch something funny, I always want to watch comedy. I'm not so serious, you know, all day long I have to worry about, like my whole world and everyone's world in my orbit, Like so I like to just at at night, laugh my ass off like I, that's what I want to do. And he's he's actually he's always like oh, you know, he wants to watch, he likes to watch uh, what is it? Action movies, and I like that too.
Speaker 1:But comedy is always my go-to because that's it does. It feels cathartic, it feels like a release. When I get to laugh and we laugh so much here and I'm always like really proud of that because we joke around here at my house, we tease each Like my kids will come up to me and be like, mom, we're going to roast you. We have some jokes. I'm like all right, let's hear it. Go ahead and like my son like consistently is like doing things like that. My daughter's like, they all like the joke and I encourage it Cause I'm like, yeah, do it Like it's funny, you know, as long as it's in good humor and it's something that, like, I'm open to him, like, why not, right?
Speaker 1:I do want to also commend you on something because you started talking earlier about like you know, when you were being brought up, and like comedy, like filter house basically, and that you made the through line of like you followed your nose. But I have to tell you, you know you, following your intuition and doing what you're doing, you're, you're serving such a larger purpose here with what you're doing. Like this, just this isn't just comedy, this is something so much more, and I don't think comedy ever is just comedy, because there are so many topics that come up that you know, do hit a nerve with some people Like I've watched comedy shows on TV where you can hear the audience audibly, like you know, like, do one of those things. If somebody says like something not quite the right way, there's definitely, I think, a lot of talent and work that has to come behind the comic, and I'm going to ask you about your, your 10 years.
Speaker 1:You said you did stand up. Yeah, I mean, I rehearse for phone calls, so I can only imagine the rehearsals that have to take place to prepare yourself to have the right facial expression, body movement, tone of voice. All of those things are coming through in comedy and I don't know if people realize, like, how complex it actually is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and, frankly, most of the rehearsal happens on stage. You know, like you can learn to, you can learn to. I'm not, I don't want to like create a fake hierarchy here, but like you can learn to play piano in your house, right, you cannot become a standup in your house. I'm not saying that standup is harder than piano, I'm not making a direct comparison, I'm just talking about two different kinds of art.
Speaker 2:There are two different kinds of art. That's one. The reason I kind of drift can't be a standup Like there's no, that's, there's no other way to do it. It's not possible. It's like being a pilot and never flying a plane. You can't. It's like you can say you're a pilot but you're not. If you're not in a plane, you know you can have a pilot's license but you're not pilot. You know you're not piloting.
Speaker 2:So I think that's what a lot of people don't know is like when, and not you, not you, but when people say like I loved your skit, you know. Or or your routine, and it's like girl, it's anything, but you know. And, of course, yes, you know, if you see a standup doing their hour on remember premium blend, any standup on premium blend, blend that is like they're doing it exactly the way they plant. But that is because they have worked on those bits of material for years. Yeah, and every time they get on stage, well, depending on where they are, they do, um, they do some new stuff mixed in with some anchor stuff and they're always figuring out like you know what? I got to take a longer beat on that, or, you know, maybe the word kumquat would be funnier than grapefruit. You know, I don't know, like they're always, always tweaking as they go and so, and which I love. So that's part of what I love, like love and loved about it.
Speaker 2:But so that's and that's what, like, a lot of people do, stand up and improv and there are also people, like people like me, who just I've done a little improv, but I can improvise, like myself, you know, I can, sort of I can do it, I can. You know, if I'm hosting something, it's easy for me to just to sort of not prepare or, you know, underprepare and kind of, yeah, I wouldn't, I don't want to say it that way. I don't need to do a lot of prep. I can be okay in the moment, but like on an improv team, that's terrifying to me. And a lot of improvisers who are like I don't know how you can get up there alone, you know. So it's like it's just, you know, everyone has their different, yeah, their different things.
Speaker 2:But I think the question you asked me that I didn't answer yet is about gold comedy, which, as you correctly said, is comedy school and a community professional network and a content studio where women and non-binary folks launch and grow their careers, and the thing about that is that's also the social changing part is that it's actually still not. It's well, two things are true at once. They're exact opposites, and they're both. Oh, thank you. There are two things are true at once. They are, and again, exact opposites. One is that things are so much better than they were in the nineties, when I did stand up for women and non-white dudes, right, non-straight white dudes. The other, the same thing is also the opposite is also true. It is terrible.
Speaker 2:So, and they're both so like, so like, don't you know, don't be like writing angry DMs to the podcast, like it's both. Okay, it's both. It's like, hey, it's great out here. No, yes, it is. Also it's terrible, and what I mean is that it's still not weird, it's not unusual to be the only woman in a lineup. It's don't have all the behind the scenes data to prove this, but, like as with other industries, women work harder to get to the same place. Women work harder to get paid, half the, you know, 70%. All that stuff is the same in comedy still, and there was just a club in Boston, venerable comedy club in Boston, that had an all-women's night, which I'm also kind of sick of Like can you just, we're just comics, can you just, you know, just like?
Speaker 1:put us in regular. It doesn't have to be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's. Also, it makes you the flyer that was on Instagram. This was not 1983. Okay, this was this summer. The flyer was the faces of the women, the real comics on, photoshopped badly onto naked Barbie dolls. Are you kidding me? You know, and people and one of the comics comics commented that she liked it, which fine, that's okay. I don't if it's your, if you like it, that's fine. But you know, first of all, but like, that's not the point. But they liked it. No, that's not the point. Like would you ever? First of all, is it ever going to be dudes night? No, every night is dudes night, right? Um, second of all, would you ever, would it occur to you to do that like with a bunch of like naked Ken dolls? That's what I think. It wouldn't even. It's not even. There's no cultural attraction.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Like what? What's the logic behind that If it wasn't women? Like why? What? Why Barbie dolls? Yeah.
Speaker 2:And you were just sending the message that you were sending the message from your directly, from your club, that you think women comics are different, and I hate to the word objectified is overused, I'm trying to avoid it but that you don't think of them as real comics and therefore I don't also want to, and this is like a venerable club, you know. So I'm not shocked because it's old-fashioned, but still so you're sending the message that you aren't interested in women at all. I'm not saying that's true, I'm just because I don't know, I don't know the mindset behind it. I saying that's true, I'm just because I don't know.
Speaker 1:I don't know the mindset behind it. I'm just saying that's the message. No, you're right though, because it's. I've pointed that out to my husband a few few times, just like because I have a deep appreciation for marketing. Like I really like marketing and I like to look at what gets put out into like the ether, like I like seeing stuff and there are certain things that will come across. And there's been ads like we're watching tv and these are ads from like big major corporations. And I'm like, oh ew. And he's like what? And I'm like, can you go back? Like you know, now we can rewind commercials. And I'm like, are you not getting the undertones here? And I'll like start pointing stuff out. And he's like, oh yeah, I guess.
Speaker 1:And I'm and I say to him, I'm like it's this kind of thing that like and and with the example you provided, it's those kinds of things that are, it's tone deaf, really. And then it's also like the thought behind it, because it's not just going out to like okay, maybe the comedians were fine with it and maybe they approved it and said it was all good with them, that's fine, like that's all good, but it's really like the next layer of it, and some people, like even my husband, will tell me, like, jen, like you're going too deep with that or, you know, you're looking into that too far. I'm not, though, because if you look at movies and ads in the eighties and nineties and early two thousands, it's like shocking. And now I watch stuff and I'll be like, oh yeah, I remember this movie was funny and I'll put it on the TV and my kids will be watching it. And then I'm like, oh wait, this is like really offensive Right.
Speaker 1:We've done that so many times and like okay yeah, I watch stuff now and I'm like, oh shit, like this is like really inappropriate and really offensive, and I'm like damn. And my kids are like this is funny. And I'm like, oh no, it's not. Yeah, I was gonna change it.
Speaker 2:I know well my kids, like they, they're 16 and 18 now but when they still tease us because we pretty much let them watch anything, but the deal was that they had to let us pause, you know. So we'd be watching and I'd be like, okay, pause. And then my, you know, my kid would be like mom, I know what slut shaming is, you know, yeah, look at Lynn. Okay, then we'll proceed with Dirty Dancing, but like I mean, this is, I mean this is why this is the whole thing, this is why it matters From day to day. The idea is we are going to.
Speaker 2:Comedy is hard for everyone. Comedy is hard for the straightest, whitest, you know, dude is dude, right, it's hard for everyone. Yeah, I'm sorry, but it's still harder for people who are not the straightest whitest, cisest dude, and so I would like to make it easier, I would like to help make it easier for the people for whom it is still hard, because they still get their picture on a naked Barbie, right, and so that's the thing, like full stop. If that's all we were doing, full stop, that would be great. But the interesting thing, I think the sort of like the big, you know, the big vision, is well what happens when we help that many more people who are outside the comedy norm become successful comedians in whatever we do everything.
Speaker 2:So, whether it means they, you know, they get into the writer's room at john oliver, which, by the way, is a bad example because their writer's room is has historically been very diverse and fantastic. But whatever they get into writer's rooms, they get into, they got on stage, they get, they do solo shows, they produce things, they, you know, they're behind the camera. There's so many, and even you mentioned commercials, side note, men are still two or three times more likely than women to be the funny one in commercials, and also four to five people consumers prefer their brands to be funny, which is a whole other topic. That's interesting, because it's not because they want their brands to be entertaining. The idea is that funny brands inspire trust. Yeah, but that's also what you said.
Speaker 1:Their brands to be entertaining. The idea is that funny brands inspire trust. Yeah, but that's also what you said. But that makes sense, right? It makes sense For what you said earlier. Yeah, right.
Speaker 2:So I'm also including, like women who are like writing commercials, so you're not like, so it's not like that same damn commercial with, like the dude messing up the laundry and the woman going, hmm, Q, whatever. So the point is, in the aggregate, when the vision here is, if we're able to kind of shove that many more people who represent some sort of diversity into the industry, then we make it. It's going to sound the opposite, but we make it not that interesting for someone to be different and we normalize. That's the whole thing about using culture to change culture, which my old organization used to say we make it, we normalize all sorts of different faces, voices, et cetera in comedy. That's better for the industry, it's better for the product, as is true in any industry. And then also bringing it back to the very beginning, yeah, comedy matters because comedy helps define what's normal, it helps define points of view, it helps define power structures, and so the more we can nevermind if the comic themselves is talking about an issue, doesn't matter, they could be slipping on a banana peel.
Speaker 2:But the but. The more we normalize different difference in comedy, the better we all are, the better comedy is and the more power we give to those, you know, overused word, but underrepresented points of view, and we were. You know, we're all better for it and that's why you know. So, if we make, when you make people laugh, you make people listen great. Let's build a world that listens to more different people. Yeah, and so that's the big. You know, that's the sort of big I would like to contribute. Gold can't do it by itself, but I would like to contribute to that kind of change.
Speaker 1:If someone listening here is saying like you know what this actually sounds like, something I'd be interested in I'm going to pull the website up against gold comedy. How would that work? Would they just go to the website and contact you there? It's like a sign.
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, um it. So, with a few exceptions, that typically the way we work is we have a core community and so instead of this is unusual instead of paying typically, instead of paying class by class and just like just you know, taking one class after another, just taking one class and leaving whatever we operate on a membership basis. So you join for the year and typically people stay two or more years because when you join, you get not only unlimited access to all the classes we offer in what we call the club, so you can take all the classes. You can take all the classes more than once People do that also you get access to. We have super friendly, open. It's mostly online, so you can be wherever you are.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's perfect oh awesome which, yes, you can do comedy online. We've all learned that, we knew it before the pandemic, but now we really know it and you have access to super friendly open mics on Monday, celebrity and pro speaker series on Wednesdays a constant rotation of classes we have right now we have sketch writing going and stand up. We have sketch bootcamp happening right now. Stand-up Bootcamp starts next week. We have we're teaching a whole class on how to edit for comedy, how to edit digital video for comedy, which, ps, you know, snl just disbanded its sketch team. Please don't destroy because one of the dudes is now a cast member. So now it's an opportunity for SNL, who has had historically very funny digital sketch teams and they have been 100 white dudes which like what, how and gold has eight, uh, six digital sketch teams making funny sketches. Wow. And you have to. That's a selective process that happens once a year. We have seasons, um, but. But you can also, if you want to, if you want to be on a sketch team but you don't have a lot of experience that you can also join and take all of our sketch classes and do all of our sketch workshops and learn how to edit, learn how to produce and learn how to do lighting, and learn how to do sound, and learn how to do all those things, because you need that and then put yourself in a position to be on one of our teams. We are definitely we're very welcoming to novices. We have people, you know, with tons of experience, who are leveling. The point is, you can level up from wherever you are, so you don't have to be, you know, you don't have to like there's nothing. There's no such thing as like, well, I'm not ready yet. No, you're right. Like wherever you are, you're ready.
Speaker 2:And we have people who started, you know, in started there's. I'm thinking of one woman named Rocky who started comedy as her third career Well, second and a half. She was a high school art teacher and also a volunteer firefighter and now she, even though she is still taken care of her son, has extra needs and she takes care of her grandchildren, but she really went all in on comedy with Gold and she lives in North Carolina and just this week I finally met her because she and four other Goldies were part of a solo show festival. That one of our instructors, iris Barr, who was also like super famous and very cool she was, I can tell you she was, but she actually Iris couldn't be at her own festival because she's shooting an Amazon on Prime series in, as it turns out, in New Mexico this week, so Iris couldn't be there, but anyway. So Rocky came from, just started stand-up with us and now had her own show in New York City the last couple of days as part of this festival downtown.
Speaker 2:So in any case, so Rocky started with just the will to do it, so anybody can give it a whirl and we do. We take it very seriously. But we're really nice and so we make it. So you don't have to. So you don't have to like, show up at Mike's with where you're the only, you know, 35 year old, 40 year old woman with a bunch of white dudes, with hoodies and backpacks, like, and again, maybe they're very nice, I'm sure you know, I know you're talking about, though, because it's really it is intimidating.
Speaker 1:It's intimidating in any industry and you know, like I see it on the corporate side, so that is intimidating to be like as you were talking. So, listeners, I'm going to link Gold Comedy, the website, into the description for the video, for the podcast, so you guys can check it out, because we do have listeners across the US, across the globe, it's international. So I would love for you guys to check it out, because we do have listeners across the US, across the globe, it's international. So I would love for you guys to check it out. But what I'm getting at here is that, like as you were talking, and I'm like wow, I'm like you know, anyone could start, like anyone could get into this, and then I was imagining myself doing it and I was like I, I would be terrified.
Speaker 2:But that's the thing where, yeah, we're so nice. So we, you know, we really give you and even I'm not even sure that like a room full of 25 year old white dudes is intimidating they just might not be your people, right, they might, they might, who knows? But they might not like. We're your people, and it doesn't mean that we're not diverse, we are. It doesn't mean that we have one point of view or one type of joke or like women, am I right? We're not that and we're not even a hundred percent women, because we're just 100% women, because we're just, but we're just nice, yeah, so it's a really safe space also, even if you're in the middle of your career, ever, you know, just to find your people make funny stuff, just like, let's do this and there's no, it's just we just get to focus on the funny stuff.
Speaker 1:I like it too because healing is that laughing and laughing is such a healing thing for the body and like there's been actual, like legitimate cases where people laugh themselves into a cure. And it sounds kind of nuts to say it, but I've, I've, I've heard it, I've read it, like I've read the research on it, and it does have an impact. That's why, again, like I said, like we laugh a lot in my house and I like that because that really like brings this other energy to it. So I think you, creating this safe space for people to come and practice their craft and even if they decide, like, not to go too far with it or if they just want to, you know, stay within goals, like you know, at least you're leveraging a part of your creative, your creativity. That's like also feeding your soul, which also I heard a lot in what you were talking about this morning, lynn.
Speaker 1:Your energy and the way that you're talking about this space is very much like it's something that well one. It sounds like it was something you were meant to be doing. So it like that in itself is like a big deal, because so many women like myself included, like I've talked on other episodes about, like how I was really lost and like what I was trying to do with myself and what was making me happy until I was, like in my late 30s. A lot of women come on here and say that like they hit like a fork in the road, or they hit this moment where they're like, oh my God, like I'm not happy with anything I'm doing, like I need to pivot, and you've made that. You like blazed that path. So I think that's really awesome, that you've taken this route.
Speaker 1:And now you founded gold comedy, which is helping other people to step into that framework and know, like, oh, this is the same space, like I can practice, and because it's online and because it's virtual, across the world, people can tap into this and say, like I'd really like to get into this. I don't know what to do. I'm starting out brand new. Like where, where am I starting from? So this is such a great service that you're providing people to come together also as well, because even you know, like for I use the podcast as an example because of this podcast, I've gotten this like great tribe of women that now I'm in contact with all the time to be like, oh, just checking in which when, by the way, I do do that to all the guests.
Speaker 1:Just good, good that's great radically whenever it pops into my head. I'm like I haven't talked with lynn or I haven't talked with so-and-so in a while and I'll just like shoot a note and be like hey, like just checking in, like I hope everything's well. You know it's creating that community is also like incredibly important, which is lacking a lot in today's world. Everyone's very like siloed at home just with a device, and this opens up a little bit more for folks. So I think this is such a great service that you're providing. Is there any thing that you would like to leave the listeners with? Any final thoughts that really resonate with you that you want people to hear?
Speaker 2:Well, this is a plug for something we do at Gold, but I'm saying it specifically because I think it makes people go oh, I could do that. And that is the following we also have a class called build and pitch or, depending on how much space we have, build and pitch any idea, or develop and pitch any idea, and it's taught by Ryan Cunningham, who is amazing. She was a producer on Broad City Search Party, amy Schumer like she's got the credentials and what she does. This is a premium class that we have that we offer about once a quarter, where she takes you whatever idea you have Could be for a TV show, could be for a podcast, could be for a film, could be for a web series typically TV shows, but not necessarily. You can have the tiniest little seedling of an idea, like my family's a dentist. There's probably something funny. There Could be as much as you show up with and in 12 weeks you, through her magical process, you come out on the 12th week ready to pitch your show to three TV executives, just who have been in the business for a while. It's not a real pitch, but things do come out of this where you are ready to give an industry standard practice polish pitch for your show that has come from may have come from nothing but an idea. And what is kind of magical about this class? And, by the way, shows do go on from this class to get into development, turn into a web series, which we have one now out there called Ratzar, that started in this class. That's fully produced and done out there in the world. Others are in development.
Speaker 2:The reason I'm mentioning it now is that a wide range of people do take this class, but to me the most kind of juicy population who takes this class are women who are successfully in their own, successful in their own careers, whether those careers are entertainment related or not, who have this idea for a thing that they can't stop thinking about, and whether it's like post COVID or whether it's like empty nest, like whatever it is, they're like I'm doing this and they're very, very serious. They buckle down, they get the job done and they really have magic happen by just finally learning this skill of this formula, this process of communicating this thing that is so important to them, getting it out of their head, out of a drawer, off their heart, into a format that can connect with people who can help them make it happen. There's a Billy who is a is a public health and she works in public health. Just teenage kids wrote a show called and I'm going to swear because it's the best title in the world wrote a show called Bad Shit Debbie. That is now that's loosely autobiographical about her ADHD et cetera. That's now in development in Canada that she did in this.
Speaker 2:So these are people like you and me know, who are successful in something, maybe entertainment related or not. Some of them one of them is someone taking it now is a veterinary oncology surgeon working on the show that she had, that she has on her heart, and so it really is transformative for people not just to produce this thing but to know that they can and to have it out in the world and really be a thing and not just an idea like I should do that, I should do that, I should do that, I should do that. And so it's particularly this sort of population of women in their 50s who really make that magic happen in this show. So in this class. I just want to say that because people you think of like the comedy they oh, I have to go be a stand up or comedy, oh, I have to.
Speaker 1:I'm glad you said that and I'm sorry to interject. I'm glad you said that and I'm sorry to interject.
Speaker 2:That's fine, go for it.
Speaker 1:I'm glad you said that, because that's literally exactly what I had. I was like, oh, okay, so gold comedy, like you're gonna go online, you shouldn't take virtual classes. This is just strictly stand-up or just like yeah, like basically fine-tuning your craft or what you know, make sure you have like your content for everything, but what you're doing now, you're what you're saying now, actually so much more. So gold comedy is not just stand up, we're talking about. You're pulling people together and you're offering courses like this. This is that's actually really big.
Speaker 2:So that's what no one else does that.
Speaker 1:So if you become that no, that's a huge, honestly, like you just like my ears like perked up because there's a lot of folks that have come on this show that would be highly interested in that.
Speaker 1:So I'm I am going to want to get more information from you on, like when that is coming around, because I'd like to share that with some of my former guests because they would be like, incredibly interested. There's been a lot of writers that have come on here that have stories already that are ready to go. There's a woman that came on a couple of seasons back and she shared her menopause story and she put it into a book and it was incredible, like I was crying reading her book the whole time and I'm like this could be something that would really help other women if it really got to like mass market. So that's huge. So if somebody, somebody signed up, let's say, like for the annual plan I pulled up your website, by the way, while you're talking. When you, as soon as you start talking about this, I was like, oh my God, what did I miss? This is huge. So you'd sign up for like a year membership and then you gain access to these kinds of courses to help typically.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's either. Typically people get joined for the year and then they have all of almost all of the classes included, except our premium classes, which are more in-depth, like focused, longer and typically organized around, like this class. The pitching class is actually like a college level class that Ryan developed in a college setting that now she's exported to us. So if you're a member, the premium classes are discounted for you. If you join through a premium class, you also get included in the tuition is your first year of gold. So when you join a premium class, you also get access. It's just basically two doors into the same place.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it depends on what your interests and needs are, but it's all on our website. I just opened enrollment for Ryan's class for November, december, november Anyway, late fall. And for your listeners, if you DM me at gold comedy or at Lynn Harris and tell me that you want to either join the club or take a class, I will. I'll hook you up with a discount code If you just tell me that you heard me on this podcast 10% discount.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's not nothing, especially with the premium classes.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that's awesome 10% off for your listeners. For that you kind of you got like my creative brain going like, by the way, it was firing so hard just now. I got so excited. So I mean thank you for that. Thank you for giving me your time this morning. I really appreciate sharing all this. Listeners, I'm going to link gold comedy in the description here so you can check out the website too and check out the courses that are available. I was already scanning through them. And then, lynn, let's connect on you know the class that you were just talking about, the pitch class, because I would love to hear more about that. Listeners and viewers, thank you so much for being here with us this morning. We appreciate you. Excuse me, early morning frog in my throat and we will catch you on the next one, take care.
