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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 2018)
NOVEMBER 1, 2018 // 3 SCRATCHPAD A WHS grad’s career in comedy By ERICK BENGEL COAST WEEKEND A COURTESY RACHAEL O’BRIEN Comedian Rachael O’Brien, a Warrenton High School graduate, does stand-up. coast INSIDE THIS ISSUE weekend arts & entertainment 2 4 8 THE ARTS North Coast Food Web 2019 calendar highlights local farms, restaurants COAST WEEKEND EDITOR ERICK BENGEL CALENDAR COORDINATOR REBECCA HERREN CONTRIBUTORS DAVID CAMPICHE RJ MARX BRENNA VISSER JON WILLIAMS COASTAL LIFE Close to Home Maori artists visit Astoria To advertise in Coast Weekend, call 503-325-3211 or contact your local sales representative. © 2018 COAST WEEKEND FEATURE Stormy Weather Arts Festival New items for publication consideration must be submitted by 10 a.m. Tuesday, one week and two days before publication. New beginnings for artists young and experienced TO SUBMIT AN ITEM 12 DINING A South County vacation Gearhart Golf Links, McMenamins expand options FURTHER ENJOYMENT MUSIC CALENDAR ....................5 CROSSWORD ...............................6 ART WALKS ...................................7 SEE + DO ............................. 10, 11 CW MARKETPLACE.......... 15, 16 Find it all online! CoastWeekend.com features full calendar listings, keyword search and easy sharing on social media. Phone: 503.325.3211 Ext. 217 or 800.781.3211 Fax: 503.325.6573 E-mail: editor@coastweekend.com Address: P.O.Box 210 • 949 Exchange St. Astoria, OR 97103 Coast Weekend is published every Thursday by the EO Media Group, all rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced without consent of the publisher. Coast Weekend appears weekly in The Daily Astorian and the Chinook Observer. comedian, almost by definition, has had to overcome hurdles. “You wouldn’t become a co- median if you didn’t,” said Rachael O’Brien, a stand-up comic from Los Angeles, invoking the pain-plus-time- equals-comedy formula that governs her profession. O’Brien, 33, who grad- uated from Warrenton High School in 2003, performs Sunday, Nov. 4, at Portland’s Curious Comedy Theater and took a moment to chat with Coast Weekend. After her monologue, O’Brien and her friend, Sabrina Danzl — a fellow WHS grad who often goes on the road with her — will cohost a live episode of O’Brien’s podcast, “Be Here For a While.” Some VIP ticket holders will have a chance to join them onstage. Though she studied polit- ical science at the University of Oregon, graduating in three years before moving to California, O’Brien figured out early on that political humor wasn’t her expertise. “There’s other comedians that do it so much better that I don’t want to get into that,” she said. Instead, the rising comic found her voice in dry, self-deprecating humor — the deadpan, drawn- from-life depictions of such experiences as, say, being a chubby kid and not realizing it at the time. “My parents didn’t tell THOMAS ROTT PHOTO Features Editor Erick Bengel. me,” she said. “It wasn’t until someone alerted me at school that I was chubby, because I thought I was awe- some.” “It was my fault,” she added. “I mean, I ate way too much.” Growing up, O’Brien lived in Astoria and War- renton, playing sports and dancing in Maddox Dance Studio’s Little Ballet The- atre. At 5, she was an extra in “Kindergarten Cop” when it was filmed at her grade school, Astor Elementary, but her scene got cut. “They didn’t know talent,” she said. Though not yet a house- hold name, O’Brien has performed in lineups with Judd Apatow and David Spade (her biggest comedic influence). Stage fright was never a problem for her, but appearing in front of her idols is its own gauntlet. “I get more nervous to do well in front of them than I do in front of an audience of people I don’t know,” she said. She’s also gone on Unit- ed Service Organizations tours for troops overseas, on military bases in Kosovo, Germany, Netherlands, Bel- gium and all over the U.K. Asked if, as her career got underway, she had shows flop, she said, “Oh yeah. Everyone’s bombed. Of course.” Each audience is like a focus group for the next one — sometimes the laughter, or its lack, is in the comic’s control, sometimes not. With each successive show, comedians must do with their routines what they do with their lives: take stock of their shortcomings and turn that knowledge into a strength. It’s in that scary realm of self-awareness that their art is born. “No one wants to hear you tell jokes about all the wonderful things that are happening to you all the time,” O’Brien said. And, she added, “you have to have a certain amount of empathy. You have to be able to look at situations and see the dark- ness in it, but then also the humor.” Tickets for O’Brien’s show can be purchased at curiouscomedy.org. CW
