See how Andrea Henry balances being a mom, being a wife and having a day job with a career as a standup comedian.
By Bruce Lerch
Andrea Henry is a picture of serenity. A shy, quiet, unassuming woman living in Norton, she is the mother of two-year old Eve Henry and wife to David Henry. By day, she works as a guidance counselor at Massasoit Community College. When you first meet her, you would probably never be able to guess what her other job is.
When the sun sets and lights go down at night, this same woman can be found standing on stages and behind microphones performing standup comedy at clubs and theatres throughout Massachusetts. Henry transforms into a wired, edgy, and at times neurotic artist with a focus and determination to make sure that the people who bought a ticket get their entertainment bang for their hard earned buck.
PRE SHOW DOWNTIME
At Foxboro's Orpheum Theatre on April 10th, Henry is backstage chatting with fellow comedians who will perform later in the evening, her booking agent, and the people in charge of the night's show. Henry is laid back and perfectly at ease, simultaneously sharing stories and listening to those of her comrades as they commiserate over the vagaries of the life they have chosen to pursue. It's a double-headline bill, featuring noted Boston-area headliners Paul Nardizzi and Tom Cotter.Cotter has appeared in his own half-hour special on Comedy Central, as well as spots on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and the Late Late Show on CBS among his numerous credits. Nardizzi, whom Henry will open for, has been a headliner in Boston since 1994. He has appeared on the Conan O'Brien show and on Comedy Central, and has even authored two books on standup comedy. Tom E. Merello will open for Cotter, followed by a brief intermission, and Henry will take the stage for a 15-minute stage before introducing Nardizzi. With more than 125 people packing the theatre, this is a pretty big night for a relative unknown like Henry.
COMEDY CLASS: A NEW CAREER BEGINS
As someone who likes to have hobbies aide from her day job, Henry was always on the lookout for things that interested her. There was a brief obsession with going to the gym, musical instruments, and even dance classes before she saw an advertisement in the Boston Globe for a class on standup comedy at the Boston Center for Adult Education four years ago.
Henry figured, "people seem to think I am funny, so why not give this a try?" She went to the Center and signed up, joining what she estimated to be around 15-20 people. When it came time for the big graduation show, only five students survived. Henry was one of them.
"The class started out really big, but each week it would get progressively smaller as people realized comedy wasn't for them and dropped out," Henry reminisced. "By the time we got to our graduation show, there were only five people left."
Henry's graduation marked her debut performance on a stage in front of an actual audience. Granted, it was mostly friends and family and her classmates, so it was comfortable, but at the same time, Henry felt terrified of being on stage for the first time. It also served as the perfect springboard to a new life in comedy.
PRE-SHOW JITTERS SET IN
Henry sits in the last row of seats at the Orpheum Theatre watching Morello rip through his 15-minute opening set. Morello is the picture of confidence: tall, dark and handsome with a tremendous stage presence and a loud, booming voice. He has the audience eating out of his hand. Midway through his set, Henry bounces up from her seat and heads back to the green room.
"God he's really good tonight," she says, with a trace of worry in her voice. "This is why I like to go on first. Guys like this are hard for me to follow with my style."
THE BIG BREAK: TELEVISION
While still in the hospital with Eve shortly after her birth, Henry got a phone call notifying her that she had been selected to appear on America's Funniest Mom's 3, a reality show which aired on cable television as part of Nickelodeon's "Nick at Nite" series.
Henry auditioned for the show in November of 2006 while she was eight months pregnant. She didn't expect to make the cut. She figured, if anything, she'd be the crazy pregnant woman on the show's blooper reel. Instead, she was being asked to go to New York in three weeks, where she made the final cut for the show, and was invited to Los Angeles.
At this point, Eve was just six weeks old. Fortunately, her husband supported her and encouraged her to go. With a little from Andrea's sister, Dave Henry would care for Eve while Andrea shot the TV show. She would go from one life-changing moment to another in a very short timeframe.
"I was in grad school and was teaching as an adjunct at the time, but I had enough time so she could pursue the show," Dave Henry said. "Her sister came down and helped during the day, so it wasn't too bad. The hardest thing was to convince Andrea to kind of just forget about us and focus. You need to make this choice for your career if you want this to go anywhere. This was a pretty big deal."
Andrea went off to LA and lasted just two episodes before being booted off the show after an interesting exchange with comedienne Rosanne Barr, who was one the celebrity judges on the show along with Hal Sparks and Kim Coles.
Henry had a great set, getting stopped a couple of times by the audience to applaud her performance. Both Sparks and Coles were positive in their assessment, but when they got to Rosanne, she looked at Henry and said, "Yeah, yeah, you were funny. Those were good jokes, but a man could have written them. They had nothing to do with being a Mom."
BACKSTAGE
Henry is backstage with Merello and booker Bob Mello as Cotter performs his headline set at the Orpheum Theatre. She's fretting a bit about how her laid back style might not mesh with the more slick and boisterous routines the crowd has already seen. Both reassure her that it's a good crowd and that she has nothing to worry about.
The conversation shifts to the various problems of trying to live life as an opener, and Merello recounts some issues with his car insurance. Henry sympathizes with the young comic and shares a few stories of her own, but her insides are going crazy. She still would have rather been on stage first than have to bring the crowd back from intermission after a pair of energetic performances.
ANDREA HENRY: GUIDANCE COUNSELOR
It's probably hard to envision a standup comedian who has appeared on a national television show sitting at a cubicle 40 hours a week, but this what Henry does from Monday through Friday. Dave is a teacher at Massasoit, while Andrea is a counselor, giving the couple time to see one another regularly.
As part of her job, Henry dispenses advice on various topics to students. Some of the advice she gives comes from her own unique experience as a comedian.
"I've had students come tell me that they are nervous about getting in front of the class and giving a speech," she says. "I just tell them, look, as long as you aren't doing anything outrageous, they aren't going to be talking about you 20 minutes later in the halls, so don't worry yourself about it."
It's an example of how Henry views her standing in the world of standup comedy. She has no pretense about who or what she is, which helps relieve her of any fears she may have about her performances. The way Henry sees it, she's the opening act. The people bought tickets to see someone else. Her job is to simply keep the flow going, and if the audience doesn't dig it, she knows in her heart whether she put on a good show or not.
ANDREA HENRY: COMEDIAN
After a 15-minute intermission at the end of Cotter's headline set, it's Henry's turn to take the stage. After being introduced by Merello, she walks straight to the microphone and launches into her routine. Aside from her hands, there is little movement during Henry's 15 minutes.
Standing just shy of five-feet tall, dressed in a sweatshirt and jeans, the 30-something Henry keeps the audience laughing with her staccato style and self-deprecating humor. She pokes fun at her looks, her clothes and her husband. The crowd laughs when they are supposed to, and even sometimes when they aren't. As she wraps up her last joke and prepares to bring out Nardizzi, she gets a nice ovation. It seems like all went well.
SHE ALSO CAN WRITE COMEDY
Aside from her day job and her standup career, Henry has earned some notoriety as a writer. With friend, writing partner and fellow comedian Erin Judge, the duo scored win at the 2006 Woods Hole Film Festival for their screenplay "The Worst Wedding Ever."
A partnership with another friend, Jenn Dlugos, produced "Sasha," which was a finalist at the Feel Good Film Festival in Hollywood, California. Henry and Judge have another project in the works regarding a beauty pageant but are unwilling to talk about it until they are ready to unleash it on an unsuspecting world.
"IT WAS...OKAY"
After introducing Nardizzi, Henry walks back to the green room where she is greeted by Merello and Mello. She accepts their congratulations on what they felt was a great set, but the look in her eye says she feels differently about her performance.
She felt the audience was great, but maybe they just weren't getting her act. She was happy with her set, but says, "sometimes the audience is with you and sometimes they aren't. These guys were great, but I didn't feel like they popped for me like they did for the other guys. I thought it was...okay."
It seems as though her self-deprecating style of comedy is creeping into her self-critique. Henry's job was to make people laugh and maintain the flow of the entire evening so the headliner has a theatre full of people ready to continue laughing. On this night, in front of 125 people in a tiny theatre in Foxboro, she most certainly did her job.
Here is a clip of Andrea Henry performing at the 2008 Butterfinger Comedy Showdown
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