FUNNY BUSINESS

JULY 18, 2024 – My namesake niece, Erica Rhodes, has achieved fame—if not yet a fortune (I’m still waiting for her to buy us a mansion)—as a standout standup comedienne. Based in L.A., she appears at comedy clubs all over the country[1] and never fails to draw an enthusiastic crowd and hearty applause. This evening she returned to headline at the Acme Comedy Company in Minneapolis. It was her second night of a three-night gig.

Comedy is serious business, as everyone in the family has learned over the course of Erica’s career. Of course, to succeed at comedy you must be funny, but to stop with that is a bit like saying that a concert cellist must be musical. The cello—professionally speaking—was Erica’s original career path, first as a student in the highly reputable music department of Boston University near her childhood home in Newton Highlands and later under the tutelage of the internationally renowned cellist, Ron Thomas, in New York.

As the daughter and niece of professional classical musicians, Erica couldn’t avoid being “musical,” but to achieve a level of proficiency even to contemplate a performance career herself, Erica had to work as hard as a professional athlete—or standup comedian. Her equivalent of the NBA aspirant’s “shooting 10,000 free throws” was playing 10,000 scales and 10,000 arpeggios—and then the Bach Suites for Cello (each day) as a warm-up to new and challenging repertoire. With the exception perhaps of Fritz Kreisler, a “rock star” violinist of his generation, no accomplished classical string player—no matter how “musical”—has ever achieved renown without working as hard as a coal miner. Similarly in the case of a successful standup comedian, every line of every joke and particularly every pause within and between lines must be rehearsed a million times until the whole routine flows as smoothly as a cool mountain stream over a bed of polished stones.

For material Erica draws from life’s woes and struggles. She pokes fun at what’s trending; at poor grammar, and relationships. Unlike so much of her competition, without resorting to the sexually crude and raunchy, she makes her audiences laugh without restraint. She “owns” the stage with her confidence and audience appeal and is quick and deft at ad libbing, working audience members into her routine.

Erica inherited her comic talent from her late father, Dean, a professional clarinetist turned tax accountant, who was forced to retire early because of M.S. Despite his total disability, he never lost his sense of humor, and never failed to make his visitors laugh. In his final days Erica returned home to be with him. She tells the story about how she came downstairs one morning to find him slouched in his wheelchair, eyes closed, looking as though he’d breathed his last. Erica called out to the household, “He’s gone! He’s no longer with us!” whereupon Dean opened his still twinkling eyes and formed an impish countenance that said, “Fooled you!” He even went on to say he hoped she’d get some (humorous) material from his dying days.

Dean and Erica were very close, and Erica does a masterful job of working her dear dad into her jokes. “My dad’s here tonight cuz he’s dead . . .” she says. Then after waiting for the inevitable applause, she adds, “. . . so now he’s always with me,” she explains, tugging on the ashes-bearing locket dangling from her neck.

On Wednesday night, Garrison joined Erica on stage to work some dual comedy. It wasn’t the first time they’d shared the stage: back in the day Erica had made multiple appearances on A Prairie Home Companion. This afternoon while Garrison was visiting on our back porch, he talked at length and enthusiastically about Erica’s standing . . . as a standup. “Her timing,” he said, “is absolute genius. Her material, of course is superb, but her delivery is amazing. She’s at the very top. I’d put her in the same league as people like Chris Rock and Jimmy Kimmel.” (I couldn’t wait to relay that to Erica, which I did after the show.)

The judges in America’s Got Talent agree. On a recent installment of the show, Erica received a unanimous “thumbs up” from the judges.

Having worked hard at her craft, Erica connects well with her fans. After the show I observed from a distance her interactions with people. She was genuinely appreciative of their compliments and was wholly cordial and accommodating about having her picture taken with her followers.

As I enjoyed Erica’s brilliant performance and watched her mingle with the crowd after the show, I knew how very proud her father would be—and wondered what funny things he’d have to say about her career being funny.

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© 2024 by Eric Nilsson

[1] Erica has also performed in Canada and Israel.