Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Chris Farah. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Chris, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
The magic of being a creative artist is the process of evolving and opening up to new experiences, people, mediums and stories. It’s challenging to let go of the control you’d like to have, desperately wanting one project to go smoothly, or wanting one person or one avenue to work out exactly how you envisioned. It sometimes will but mostly it won’t, and holding space for the discomfort that comes is the meditative part of this work. It’s impossible to know how anything will go, and so to trust the process, to trust your work ethic and soul, and move through the world in a state of openness is at it’s core, all you can do.
My most meaningful project is my bio-Queen character Fancy the Show, based on the song by Bobbie Gentry and made famous by Reba. On the surface she is my love letter to women and to camp comedy and characters like Elvira, but she was truly born from a deep desire to dissect gender and sexuality, and to give myself my very own drag Godmother.
Let’s go back a little, and here’s my point to this. I graduated with B.A. in Theatre Arts from Loyola Marymount and an intense fondness for Anton Chekhov. I had dreamed of going to a conservatory in New York but instead found myself studying improv and sketch comedy in Los Angeles for the next 10 years.
Often I would feel lost or invisible and then a certain kind of furious rage took it’s place. Unfortunately I had to do something that made me very uncomfortable and insecure, which is write. My mother would sing me the song Fancy, which in itself is ridiculous and hilarious but basically she is a po’ country girl turned high falutin’ prostitute. Fancy does not care what you think of her, she cares only what you think of you. I found myself in the basement of a Mexican restaurant in Silverlake called Cavern Club premiering “Fancy: A Southern Gothic Camp Parable”, her own one person show. I took that to the Hollywood Fringe Theatre Festival and was nominated for Best Solo Show and then the next year I wrote her cabaret show “Fancy! Secrets from my Bootydoir” and won Best Cabaret. Other shows followed, including “Fancy: Hoe for the Holidays” and the newest one “Fancy’s Hookin’ for Love”.
Ultimately why @FancyTheShow became my most meaningful project though is that I was then asked to develop the Hollywood Fringe Theatre Festival’s Diversity Scholarship program, where for the past 10 years we have given out scholarships to shows from underrepresented writers. I have been privy to the most beautiful and prolific work by artists here in Los Angeles, people who can feel unseen. I feel sharing our stories, theatre and comedy specifically, heals people on micro and macro levels.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Chris Farah is an actress and comedian, storyteller, podcaster and producer. She is a board member for the Hollywood Fringe Theatre Festival and co-created their Diversity Scholarship Program, after winning Best Cabaret/Variety for her cult hit Fancy! shows. Chris is also a pop-culture curator, having appeared on Chelsea Lately, Hello Ross, and numerous podcasts where she frequently breaks down current entertainment topics. She also hosts the podcast DocuSweeties with good friend Wahima Lino, recapping everything from 90 Day Fiancé to Chimp Crazy. As an actress, Chris has worked on Modern Family, Superstore, Kenan and the new Frasier. She holds a B.A. in Theatre from Loyola Marymount University and has worked with Cornerstone Theatre Company in “Making Paradise: The West Hollywood Musical”, the Celebration Theatre with their musical improv show GLAADLIBS, Open First Theatre Company’s DeLearious, WOMEN at the Broadwater and REDCAT’s N.O.W. fest’s “Circle Jerk”. Her previous solo shows include Fancy: A Southern Gothic Camp Parable (2014 nomination for Best Solo Show and Winner of the Veterans for Virgin Award); Fancy! Secrets from my Bootydoir (2015 winner Best Cabaret/Variety), Fancy: Hoe for the Holidays, and Lebanese Debutante (2023 nomination Best Solo Show), Chris was also named one the Arab-American Foundation’s 40 Under 40 and has performed comedy at UCB, the Elysian, the Comedy Store and LA and OC’s Improv. Follow @ChrisLFarah and @DocuSweeties for more or go to www.ChrisFarah.com
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
It feels as though we are at the precipice of humanity’s choice to connect with each other or to forgo the pain of interpersonal relationships and exist entirely online and at home. At this point, it becomes less about how society can help artists, as if they were separate, or even how one human can support art in itself. We individually get to decide who gets our attention, love, money and time, which things speak to us and which we amplify to others.
I want, for myself and for everyone, to trust ourselves and our intuition, and to share what speaks to us. The more we show up for ourselves, the more we listen to what speaks to us and connect to the voices that align, we then can support and share what we feel others will connect to as well.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
I feel and have felt an intense calling my whole life to make people feel connected and not alone. My life’s goal is to ease the pain of detachment, to sew together people’s soul’s for a moment, perhaps because of unexpected joke in a small, dark, black box room.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.chrisfarah.com
- Instagram: @ChrisLFarah
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChrisLFarah
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ChrisFarah
Image Credits
Robyn Von Swank and Ziggy Metzler