We were lucky to catch up with Melly Kazel recently and have shared our conversation below.

Melly, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?     

Despite pursuing comedy, I’ve never wanted to be famous. I tell stories and play goofy characters on stage because I love making strangers laugh together. Knowing that sharing one of my embarrassing moments could turn someone’s whole day around inspires me to keep going. So, I hope my legacy is simply this, bringing people together to laugh like no one is watching. (And to not care even if someone is watching because it’s just that funny!)

Melly, 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?

I started pursuing comedy as a career and created @MellyKazelComedy during the summer of 2021. However, I’ve loved comedy since I was a child. My Dad showed me everything Adam Sandler ever created while my Mom brought me to every comedy show that allowed children. It wasn’t until high school speech and debate that I went from a fan to a comedian. As a teen, I competed in Humorous Interpretation (HI) and After Dinner Speaking (ADS). HI involves bringing a funny story to life by playing all the silly characters while ADS is essentially standup comedy with a good message at the end. I ended up making the finals at the state competition in both events but didn’t plan to continue with comedy after that. However, in college, when faced with difficulties including antisemitism, I needed to find a way to turn this tough time into something positive. So, I started performing standup comedy. I turned all my embarrassing moments, and some tough experiences, into stories that made people laugh. I’ll never forget the first time I performed standup as an adult, I called my Mom and said, “This is what I want to do with my life. There’s nothing better than making people laugh.”
After this, I joined a wonderful group called Bellingham Entertainment in Washington State. I performed shows with them and even created a comedic sketch together. This is when I began writing scripts and sketch comedy, moving into that avenue of the industry as well.
Since moving to South Carolina, I’ve continued pursuing both sketch and standup, with a focus on live performances. And I’ve begun working with Stone Grown Comedy. I’ve been lucky enough to perform at the North Carolina and New South Comedy Festivals. I’ve also traveled to perform in five states, WA, SC, NC, TN, and GA. I’m hoping to expand that list and bring laughter to all fifty states someday.
In addition, I met the love of my life, a local comic named Kirkland Manning, and we are launching a joint sketch channel called MKaaay!Comedy in the coming months.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

While living in Washington State, I was on the precipice of going a bit more professional early on. I’d made some contacts in LA and was about to be accepted into a rather large festival. However, this was during the time of the pandemic and the COVID-19 vaccine. I decided that getting the vaccine was not right for my body. My contacts and the festival refused to work with me unless I got the vaccine. It didn’t matter how funny I was, or how hard I worked unless I did what they wanted me to do with my body. Despite being told I would never succeed if I didn’t listen to them, I stood by my choice and moved across the country to pursue my dreams. Now I’ve been able to perform all across the Southern US with a collection of people who only judge comics on how many laughs they get and how much time they put into getting funnier every day. And I’m incredibly grateful to be able to continue bringing laughter to so many venues and to work with people who sincerely don’t care what I do with my body so long as funny words come out of it.

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

While competing in speech and debate during high school helped me improve as a performer, I had to unlearn some of the prim and proper ways of speaking required for those events. Performing standup is best, in my opinion, when it feels like a conversation with a friend. I was used to the opposite, competing in front of judges who weren’t even allowed to laugh. So, I’ve had to grow out of that and develop a comfortability with the audience. I’m now at a point where I’ve written jokes to allow me to interact with the crowd and let audience members join in on the bit.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://instabio.cc/MellyKazelComedy
• Instagram: @mellykazelcomedy
• Facebook: Melly Kazel Comedy (private account, must request to be friends)
• Youtube: Melly Kazel Comedy
• TikTok: @mellykazelcomedy

Image Credits
@danilaceyphotos took all the photos where I’m not on stage or where I am aggressively pink