We were lucky to catch up with Carmen Barton recently and have shared our conversation below.
Carmen, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
Learning and honing my craft as a comic and writer is really never ending because as I face challenges or successes in life I incorporate them into my comedy so I’m continually leaning new ways to make certain things funny. For instance my life family and career seemed perfect and I joked about finally finding my soul mate after raising my children as a ding je mom and facing so many funny challenges dating. Just when I had perfected this comedy set my husband died suddenly. So me entire life changed in an instant. Although this situation may have been relatable it wasn’t necessarily funny so finding the funny in situations like this can be challenging.
Carmen, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Although I’ve lived in Los Angeles for nearly 15 years I was born and raised in St. Louis Missouri and spent most of my life living a the small subdivision of Ferguson. As a single mom I received most of the help raising my children from my Dad who encouraged me to explore Hollywood and supported me in my move to LA. Despite Hollywood being somewhat over saturated with comics from all over the world, I was able to stand out and almost immediately received recognition and landed numerous tv appearances not long after moving to LA. I even fabled in reality tv but stand up comedy remained my first love and I was able to gain almost unlimited stage time and substantial financial security as a road comic opening up for legendary stand up comics. This was a great way for me to hone my craft and support my family at the same time. I was also able to utilize my passion for fashion by creating unique fashions and selling them on the road. Selling merchandise has always been a huge part of my income. After years on the road and raising my children to adulthood I met and married fellow comedian Nick Carthan who migrated to Los Angeles from New York. He had joint custody of his 3 year old daughter and we instantly became a beautiful blended family. Just as I was adjusting to being a wife and step mom o really had a major desire to slow down my roadwork and focus on writing. I served as an associate producer for an independent film that I co starred in alongside my husband. The film “This is Life” featured on Tubi and Amazon Prime garnered much success but sadly my husband died suddenly just weeks prior to the films premiere. This devastating loss nearly broke me but my passion for comedy gave me a reason to keep pushing. Continuing to focus on my clothing brand but having a desperate need to continue to create beyond comedy I continued to write and spent some time in Atlanta serving as a punch up writer for popular sitcom “the Ms Pat Show” on Bet+. But as I continued to explore other means of creativity to help with my grief, I began to do home decor projects and inspired many people via nearly a million views on social media. In addition to home decor I’ve discovered a new love and amazing talent in the new wave of glam charcuterie and food styling. Who knows where these new talents will take me but I’m honestly just happy to be able to inspire and influence others.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Something that illustrates my resilience was my ability to return to the stage after suffering an extremely traumatic loss. I speak about this in my book whrn I participated in an anthology with several other widows. The book is called “and then she bounced back: standing in broken pieces” and made it to Amazon’s best seller in several categories. In the book I describe the major impact of layered loss. My husband and I had joint custody of his daughter who I raised with him since she was 3 years old. My step daughter lived with us more than 50% of the time and when my husband died full custody defaulted to her biological mother. My husband and I had gone through years of extremely Tumultuous court battles with his child’s mother and I was unable to obtain any type of visitation via the courts so when my husband died I lost my entire family. Although I have 3 adult children they’re all living independently. Never in my life had I felt so defeated how was I supposed to get onto a stage and make people laugh when I was dying inside. I can remember trembling as I walk near the stage wanting to just turn around and go back into my shell of sadness and devastation. But before I had the opportunity to go back my name was called. There was a sold out crowd waiting for my to lift them up with laughter and despite whatever I was going through they paid to see a show. It was that resilience that would eventually rescue me from myself. My goal mission as a comic has always been to inspire people by showing them the funny side of life’s trials and tribulations. In that moment I had to inspire myself. It was one of my best performances to date.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
One of the goals driving my creative journey is to support and encourage grievers by being an example of how to explore and fall in love with new hobbies and creative outlets to soothe and ease the pain of living after the loss of a loved one. I’d also like to bring awareness to how difficult this journey can be without the proper support. I’d like to develop a sitcom or mini series that would display a realistic concept of living after loss that’s funny and relatable. 
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Carmencomedy
- Facebook: Comedienne Carmen Barton
- Twitter: Carmencrazy
- Youtube: Carmen Barton
- Other: IMDb Carmen Barton