HOWL & ROAR

Did you hear the one about the actor who went into stand-up comedy, ended up on talk radio instead, and now owns her own record label? Didn’t think so...

- Allison Dore

When I was a kid, I knew I was destined to be a superstar. I would be an A-list actor in Hollywood and win an Oscar by age 30, and lead a very glamorous life being revered by my many fans. As a teen I acted a lot, and I was happiest and most confident when I was pretending to be someone else. When I was about 18, my older brother started doing stand-up comedy and soon after he encouraged me to try it, too. I thought he was being ridiculous, because I wasn’t funny “like that.” I could make people laugh, sure —by accident. I couldn’t write an actual joke if my life depended on it! But a few years later, I finally agreed to try it. And I fell down the rabbit hole into the magical, perverse, uplifting, infuriating, beautiful, ugly wonderland that is the comedy scene. Although I continued auditioning and acting, comedy really became my primary focus.

Life often gets in the way of the best laid plans, and—spoiler alert!—by 30, I was not in actuality an A-list actor. Instead I was in rehab, trying to stop self-medicating for my mental health issues, which I had been doing in earnest since I had a complete nervous breakdown at age 23. I wasn’t ready to let my unfulfilled dreams go just yet, but if I was going to have a chance at achieving them, I needed to make a change. And I needed help to do it.