Carolyn Castiglia is a comedic hip hop and stand-up force to be reckoned with. She has stormed through NYC theaters and clubs, leaving audience in stitches with her brash honesty. Originally her style was quite risqué, but she has since toned down somewhat in favor of more mature themes. City Scoops caught up with her to talk about her music, tv exposure and her upcoming show Brown Ambition, which will be performed in NYC and then at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
CS: One of my recent interviewees–poet Jon Berger–also did a 30-day challenge (although his was to write numerous new poems during his 30 days). Has this become a new phenomenon? What drove you to partake of yours, and how has it affected you?
CC: I think it has become a phenomenon, what with people looking for ways to constantly churn out new content. I just finished interviewing someone for The Apiary, an actor named Brent Rose who is creating 50 characters in 50 weeks. My buddy Livia Scott recently one-upped that by committing to filming 365 characters in a year, one a day, and my friend and photographer Anya Garrett completed the 365 Project on Flickr wherein she took a self-portrait everyday and ended up with a beautiful book of her shots.
I’ve done three 30 Day Challenges so far. The first was a challenge inspired by comedian and UCB bartender Rachel Mason to post “an interesting/unusual fact about me or memory from my past.” I made it to Day 12 with that one. The second was one I completed in May called The Castiglia/Altman 30for30 Challenge between Mortified producer Anne Altman and I. (I did complete the challenge, but only blogged through Day 18, slightly better than before.) Anne and I agreed to do 30 minutes of exercise every day for 30 days, and I added the additional challenges of no smoking or drinking for myself. I missed several days of exercise and drank a few times, but I am happy to say I SUCCESSFULLY QUIT SMOKING! I highly recommend people who are trying to quit commit to it in some kind of public way, via a blog, Facebook or Twitter. In fact, I thought about starting a social networking site called Quitter, that would allow people to follow each other’s progress with whatever habit they’re trying to beat, but then again I also thought about starting a fortune cookie company, so as you can see, I have trouble completing things.
I’m hoping to complete my current challenge, which is simply to post every day for 30 days. My challenge after that will be to wake up every day. It’s good to have goals.
Photo by Anya Garrett
You’ve been filmed rapping on TV a few times. What was the most important lesson(s) you learned from that experience?
Yeah, I’ve been filmed as Miss CKC 3 times, most notably on ego trip’s The White Rapper Show on VH1. I think the thing I learned from that experience is PLAN AHEAD. I had no idea how much attention I’d get from that and I honestly had nothing ready to give the fans. People came crawling out of the woodwork on YouTube and the blogs to say how much they loved (and hated) me, and I wish I had anticipated that so I’d had something more concrete to sell them once the show aired. Thank God for my friend Matt Sears, who saw a rough cut of the show and told me what a big deal it was gonna be. I remember him saying, “It’s like chips? Do you know what you’ve added to the pop culture pantheon with that?” So he and I started G-chatting back and forth and came up with the idea for my first video, CHIPS, directed by Anya Garrett featuring Matt Sears as Illiam Phatner, Badlands Booker, Baron Vaughn and Chris Sullivan AKA Shockwave, who also beatboxed with me in my show Brown Ambition. Since then I’ve made a rap video with Tom McCaffrey called How to Rob Comics featuring cameos by several notable comedians such as Janeane Garofalo and Paul F. Tompkins and I’m about to shoot something with comedian and burgeoning rapper Rob Cantrell, as well as another music video with Tom McCaffrey and also Mara Herron.
Since you are a musician and not simply a stand-up, have you felt the need to prove that you belong in the stand-up community? How do you go about doing that?
Before I jumped into the NY comedy scene, I was doing musical theatre and touring with children’s shows. I played the lead in Pippi Longstocking for 3 months and turned 25 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the murder capital of the United States. The theatre there had an inmate work program, so there I was, putting together Villa Villekulla with a convict. I asked him what he was in for and he said, “Murder.” I decided it was best he not use any tools. He told me, ”You know how it is, Miss. You come to Alabama on vacation, you leave on probation.” Yes, yes. I know EXACTLY how that is. Anyway, time to go put my braids on!
My point is, I started in musical theatre, and pretty much stopped doing it entirely while I was learning how to do stand-up. I’ve always incorporated little musical bits into my jokes, but only now do I feel like being categorized doesn’t so much matter. I freestyle when I do stand-up. I say funny things when I’m musical. You have to be yourself onstage no matter the context, and then you really have nothing to prove.
Photo by Anya Garrett
How about a self-critique of your solo show Brown Ambition? What were your strong and weak points? How would you improve it for the future? Would you work on a continued run or try something different for your next solo show?
Brown Ambition premiered at Ars Nova on February 5th as part of their Tragedy Tomorrow series, and before I finally got onstage and performed it, I’d been dreaming about ”my solo show” for 10 years. So you can imagine, actually getting up there and getting it out felt like a real achievement. At the end of the show I told the audience I’d had the best night of my life, and then I felt a little guilty for saying that, since I have a kid. (Her birth comes in at a close second.)
I think the first incarnation of the show was brilliant, but of course it had flaws. Baron (Vaughn, my director) and I structured the piece to revolve around both the true story of my upbringing and the imagined life of Miss CKC. We got some feedback that though the CKC storyline was hilarious, it didn’t always make sense, so we’re removing that for the upcoming run of the show at 59E59’s East to Edinburgh Festival and adding a bit more stuff from my personal life. The show will still include a lot of freestyling, though, as well as my hit single, “White Bitch.” (Seriously.) It’s a track Baron and I wrote together specifically for the show in which I play several different characters. People seemed to go nuts for it. It’s the new Chicken Noodle Soup.
Are you creating an album? If so, then what will be your focus for that? What message are you trying to get out to your listeners?
No plans for an album right now, since I’m not sure I’m any good at actually writing songs. What I do best is freestyle, and I love sitting in with bands like The Fabulous Entourage and Adira Amram, so I’d like to do more of that. I’m the reigning champion of The BEATdown, and Eliza Skinner took some footage of the last round of finals, so I’m hoping there’ll be a movie coming out related to that. Another comic I know is flirting with the idea of making a movie about freestyle, so we’ll see. Right now I’m just really excited to take my show to the Fringe in Edinburgh and see what people think of it there. After that, I’d like to take it on the road a bit. But, who knows! Like Valerie Bertinelli, I try to take things One Day At A Time.
Self-Portrait after winning The BEATdown
Brown Ambition goes up at 59E59’s East to Edinburgh Festival on July 19 at 2 pm, July 21 and July 22 at 9 pm. Purchase Tickets.
Andrew Singer performs all over the NYC as comedic rapper “soce, the elemental wizard.” He has toured Europe and the U.S., and been featured on numerous media outlets, including MTV, VH1, Here TV, Logo, The Source, Out, Howard Stern and Sirius Shade 45. His music is available on iTunes.
Last 5 posts by Andrew Singer
- Vodka Shoes - March 4th, 2010
- Yisrael Campbell: Circumsize Him (Part One) - February 12th, 2010
- A Weekend of Arts and Leisure - January 4th, 2010
- Evan Morgenstern: A Really Nice Guy - August 27th, 2009
- Tonedeff: QN5's Mastermind - August 5th, 2009
