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02/07/2018 07:30 AMCarol Burnett once described comedy as tragedy, plus time. For Lisa Donnan, the tragedy that transformed a lifelong love of comedy to a career choice came in 2014, when she lost both her father and brother to cancer just three days apart from each other.
It’s a decision she doesn’t regret.
“It’s unexplainable, the feeling that you have when you’re onstage,” Lisa says, “You’re able to connect with people, and take them out of that stress-filled world outside and give them an opportunity, for just a little while, to forget about all that.”
Lisa has also watched her son, Spenser Long, acting in theater performances, and says seeing him have so much fun performing helped contribute to her career decision.
Now, anyone looking to get a laugh from Lisa can view her YouTube page (www.youtube.com/lisadct) or her Twitter account (twitter.com/lisadonn2). She has more than 18,000 followers on Twitter, where she posts her daily “Minute to Spit It,” which is a roughly one-minute video of current events with some comedy thrown in. She’s performed stand-up routines for corporate events and even at Comix comedy club in Mohegan Sun Casino.
For her comedy routines, Lisa says she chooses things that are based on reality, including things that have happen to her personally. Topics might be jokes about getting older, or experiences with her mother.
“You could do a whole set on just her and the things she says,” Lisa says.
Of the changes from her former career as a medical transcriptionist in a neurology practice, she says “it’s a lot less pay” and jokes that the new career keeps her up late at night.
At “Mohegan Sun, my gigs are usually at 10 o’clock at night. I’m usually in bed by then at my age,” Lisa says.
Speaking of Mohegan Sun, she has a performance at the Comix comedy club on Thursday, Feb. 8 at 10 p.m. She says many “big name” comics have performed at the club and signed the wall, and she’s hopeful she’ll add her name to that wall one day.
Comix has been a particularly welcoming venue for her.
“The first time they called my name and I walked out on stage, it felt like home. I can’t explain it,” Lisa says a.
Acquaintances are beginning to find out about Lisa’s venture into comedy. A former high school classmate has put together a Facebook page to see if anyone else who graduated in Lisa’s class would want to go to her show at Mohegan. Lisa’s hopeful that people she knew from high school will go, saying it would be “awesome” to see them there.
A North Haven resident all her life, Lisa says she’s “working toward the ultimate goal of really getting my name out there, and having this small-town girl…break out into a comedy career.”
Some might also know Lisa as “The Mother of the Internet” because in addition to getting feedback on her comedy, she also gets messages from individuals who might be going through a tough time.
“I talk to everybody, so I’m kind of a comedian-slash-mother, because that’s what I am in real life,” Lisa says.
She’s spoken with people about “coming out of the closet” to their parents, and women who might be stuck in abusive relationships. Having left an abusive relationship herself, it’s something to which Lisa can relate, and says the people she talks with will often reach back out to her and let her know how things went.
“There’s just so many stories of people that I have met over the past year; their stories are just amazing,” Lisa says, “People just want to know that there’s people that appreciate them and hear them.”
Lisa says she’s going to keep plugging away at her new career, adding that she wants to get some shows in New York. She says her goals would be to make it on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, and eventually branch out in other ways besides stand-up.
If there’s anyone out there thinking about making a transition like Lisa did, she gives this advice: “Don’t live your life with any regrets. Jump, and wait for the parachute to open.”