How tough and dedicated is comedian Roz G? A few years ago I was scheduled to interview her for a weekly paper in Cleveland. Hours before our phone conversation she was in a serious car accident, but she still managed to do the interview. "The car was totaled," she says. "Everybody walked away, (but they all) went to the hospital except for me, ’cause all they was thinking about was, ‘Oh, I'm gonna get me some money.’ If something was wrong with me I'd (have gone) to the hospital. Ain't nothing wrong with me, I’m taking my ass home.”
Her toughness served her well when she was a social worker, but her softer side took her out of that line of work and eventually into stand-up comedy. "I used to get emotionally attached to the clients," she recalls. "I would go to their house, and I would look for them, ’cause I just wanted to see people get better. My bosses would say, 'You can't do that, it's unethical. You really shouldn't care that much. Your job is to do the paperwork and push them through the system.’ ” From there Roz went back to corporate American and motivational speaking. "I fell into comedy years later," she says. While speaking experience made her more comfortable on stage, it hamstrung her comedy. "For a couple of years I stopped doing my speaking gigs and focused on my comedy,” she says. “It took me about five years to find my voice in comedy."
Roz G. performs at The Funny Bone on the Levee in Newport Thursday-Sunday. Go here for show times and ticket information.
