It has long been my dream to be a rapper. When I say dream I don’t mean the kind you relentlessly pursue until it’s fulfilled; I mean the kind you bury—like having a crush on Michael Bublé or hoping to patent underwear you can wear days at a time. In other words, the kind you don’t say out loud for fear of wide spread mockery. I have always admired people who took the leap to do what I was afraid to do. It was in my early performing days at an all-female show called Chicks n Giggles that I saw Carolyn Castiglia accompany her jokes with a freestyle rap. At first I laughed at the novelty—this girl can rap? Then I was amazed by her skill—this girl can RAP! I was star struck, I was impressed, and when I found out she was the mother of a young toddler, I was amazed. It was hard enough for me to work a day job with comedy at night and get myself dinner let alone think about another mouth to feed.

Instead of rebuffing me for my lack of status or simply her lack of time, she reached out to me and answered any question I had about comedy. As a producer she shared with me ways that I could launch my own show, creating my own opportunities and boldly designing the kind of setting where I would like to perform. Since I met her, Carolyn has become a regular at the show she inspired me to create, been a finalist in the Nick at Nite Funniest Moms Competition and her writing and comedy has been featured on television and in magazines, among many other accomplishments. She makes it look easy, but the last two years have been rough–she has endured the pain of divorce, grieved the loss of her father and been challenged with the task of being a single mom in a new home—having a longer commute to the city where she pursues her livelihood. She used her trials to push her creatively, by creating and bringing her one-woman show to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland last summer. If she can do all that I can get the nerve up to make waterproof underwear. I mean rap.