Bringing Up The Funny

On Saturday night (Sunday morning, technically), at about 1:30 a.m., I was watching a comedy TV Show (produced by Levity). I tuned in late, so I missed the name of the comic. She was an overweight comic who mixed in overweight jokes with being-stoned jokes with wannabe-a-cougar-is-there-an-age-limit? jokes. Talked a mile-a-minute, and was very funny!

Anyway, the show ended and the credits rolled by, rather fast, when suddenly I recognized a name. I missed the function of the person: all I remembered was ‘Melissa Verdugo’.

Melissa Verdugo? The same person who was active in local community theater for at least a decade? I looked her up, and sure enough, it was the same person! I even mentioned her to Pam Kay Lourentzos in her Sunday morning ballet class. Pam was impressed. She said: “we knew her when!”

So, here at last was proof that community musical theater can get into the entertainment business, if not on stage, at least back stage. So I decided to drop her a line....

Hey Marc,

So nice to hear from you! And very exciting that you saw my name on the credits :) Do you remember which special it was?

I am down in Los Angeles Managing comedians and helping to Produce our Hour Specials and TV shows. You probably saw my name under Executive Assistant, but I have been promoted since!

I was not involved in Comedy at all in Sacramento. I actually didn’t get involved in Comedy until about 3 years ago when a contact from Musical Theatre got me the job at my current company :) Funny how life works.

Please give Pam my love!!

Thank you,
Melissa Verdugo