We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Felicia Madison. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Felicia below.

Felicia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

Being that I started my career in my 50’s of course I wish I had started it earlier. I never really knew what I wanted to do growing up, or I did but my parents just were not supportive (broadway dancer). After college I floundered and went from job to job to job looking for fulfillment. Before I was able to find my passion I found myself married and pregnant. Motherhood became my full time job for 30 years.

I love telling the story of my dad because it inspired me and is very similar to my journey. My father’s father died when he was 6 and he grew up poor and struggled in school due to undiagnosed dyslexia. Not graduating high school. he went to occupation school and became a mechanic. When he was in his 40’s my mother dragged him to an art class. She was having her mid life crisis and looking for a passion, but she wasn’t brave enough to pursue it alone. While my dad sat bored watching my mother, the teacher, feeling sorry for him, gave him a lump of clay to keep him busy. My Dad, to the awe of the teacher and everyone in the class, proceeded to create a perfect bust of my mother. This began my Dads life long journey into the world of sculpting. He received many accolades, awards and found great joy in the creative process. The moral of the story, and one I tell my kids every day, never stop looking for you passion. I also wrote, produced and acted in a one woman show about this very story.

While a mother I tried a lot of different things but for some reason nothing every got off the ground or stuck. I joked on my tombstone it would say “She Tried”. A friend of mine was doing standup on the side and I had been going to see a lot of his shows. I thought to myself, I would love to try that. He suggested I take a class so I got a friend to join me and I enrolled in Comedy101. I took the class, had my graduation performance and I was hooked!

Now do I wish I started sooner, yes and no. No because I was able to somewhat (haha) enjoy raising three marvelous children which to this day is still my greatest accomplishment. Yes, because it is very hard to get ahead and not a lot of opportunities for me at this age. I have had to be resourceful and make my own opportunities. Also, I will say I am not sure I would have much material and be as successful if it were not for my family..they are the gift that keep giving me comedy.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

After taking my first class, I started performing in a lot of what are called in the industry, bringer shows. A bringer show means you have to literally bring your audience. So if you can get four people to come, you can get time on the show. It was getting more and more difficult to get my friends downtown, late at night for drinks as they were like me all busy with their kids at night, homework, bedtime and exhausted. I came up with the idea of bringing comedy to them during the day when their kids were in school and they had time thus the start of Laughing Lunches. I created comedy shows uptown in restaurants where i invited other comics to perform during lunch. This started my business Laughing Affairs. Then I started an open mic with another mom com Friday at noon for the same reason I started the lunch shows. This Friday mic launched me in a long convoluted way to a club nearby, West Side Comedy Club. where I started doing my lunches there, then mics, then I was asked to run their new talent shows (bringer shows) which rolled into booking for the club to then running and managing it. I believe it was my organizational skills, ability to identify talent and nurture them, combined with my, only found in old age, confidence to believe in my vision that really contributed to my success. I say this because along the way I was constantly told, that can’t be done, and I would answer the way my Father answered this comment when someone told him that, I said, “watch me”.

I continued to perform stand up, wrote produced and acted in a one woman show, and just completed my One Hour Special, Better Than Sex that will be launching as of now on 2/20 on YouTube.

In addition, I took my passion for finding and helping young talent and decided to start a full fledged mutli-tiered comedy school, FUNYStandup and a record Label FUNYrecords. I just launched my first class this month and am teaching in the Friday noon mic slot that got me started. I cofounded it with three fellow comedians Eddie Brill, Brian Scott McFadden and Clayton Fletcher. We have a full roster of comedians and excited to see the school grow, I will also start producing niche compilation comedy albums starting with my first one on parenting in April.

I think what sets me apart is that people really trust me and know that I truly care about what is in their best interests, some people call me their momager, watch out Kris Jenner. I have a good eye for talent and an ability to nurture, teach and help comedians on their road to success. The School is different than other schools because like a regular school you have to graduate from level to level. This ensures that you are ready to move on, keeps comedians of same levels together forming a community to work together and ultimately leads to a residency at the club… if you can make it through.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I have always been very driven and very competitive. I started in high school where I was on two Varsity Sport, Dancer and EMS trained and rode an ambulance, yes I was premed. As a result, I guess I always had my eye on the competition so to speak. In comedy, and in work in general, it is difficult to see others succeeding and perhaps passing you. It can be very debilitating to your ego and not help at all as you strive for success. The biggest lesson I learned was to keep you eyes straight ahead, don’t look left, don’t look right keep the eye on your prize. This helps you to stay focused and happier.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

HA, my entire life has been one pivot after another If I pivot one more time I am going to break a hip.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.feliciamadison.com
• Instagram: @feliciamadisoncomedian
• Facebook: felicia.m.levy
• Linkedin: FeliciaMadison
• Youtube: @feliciamadison7926
• Other: Westsidecomedyclub.com FUNYstandup.com @funystandup. instagram

Image Credits
JT Can Shoot JJ Ignotz