Debra Clary is "A Curious Woman"

Dr. Debra Clary talks about the inspiration for her one woman "A Curious Woman" that is coming to the Kentucky Center of the Performing Arts...

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You know what news Radio eight fortywhas Terry Miners here. My new best
friend is in the studio with me. Her name is Deborah Clary. Can
I be your best friend? Absolutely? You have a lot of best friends.
Because I've been hearing from people whoknow you. I've been around.
You have a show coming up Saturday, March sixteenth at the Kentucky Performing Arts

(00:21):
Center called A Curious Woman. You'retechnically doctor Deborah Clary. It's good to
have you here. Thank you.But this is we were discussing this earlier
on the show. This whole notionof going on stage by yourself seems paralyzing.
Where'd you muster up the courage todo this sort of thing? Well,

(00:44):
it starts in increments. You knowthat you go on stage for a
few minutes. So if you're doingopen mic, you've got thirty seconds,
sixty seconds. If you do akeynote, maybe you start off with fifteen
thirty minutes and you just begin towork up to it and build your confidence.
I mean, did you get upin front of the class in the
sixth grade and say I got acouple of jokes for you. I wouldn't

(01:06):
say that, but I had reada couple of book reports. You did
and you liked, You liked thewhole staging part of it. I did,
I liked. I'm Irish, soI grew up in an Irish family
that was always telling stories at thedinner table, and so I grew up
with storytellers, and I thought,that's what I want to do with my
life. I want to be astoryteller. Are you telling your own story

(01:26):
in a Curious Woman? I am. And the story is about my life,
specifically being a woman in the corporateworld in the eighties and nineties.
So it's a comedy. Were womengetting thrown in the wood chipper in the
eighties and nineties? That it feelthat way? You know? The story

(01:47):
is it is a comedy, butit's very uplifting. The story is about
determination, hope and the human spirit, and it's about getting knocked down and
getting back up and in the funnythings that I learned along the way,
and where when I look back onit now, it's one of Oh,
what gave you the courage to getback up? And you're like, that's

(02:07):
just what I do. You justdo it. You keep going. Your
resilience and determination puts you back therebecause Friday turns out to be a tree
fell on the hitch in the headmetaphorically speaking. And then Monday you're back
in the meeting room like I'm good. Yes. When I was doing my
show off Broadway, after the show, this man came up to me and

(02:29):
he said, when you told thatstory, like I would have quit,
why did you keep going? AndI go, I didn't know I had
an option? What I had anoption to quit? Well this whole No,
I've done enough of these shows overthe years, like open Mic Night.

(02:50):
I mean I've hosted those, yes, and I've seen people come up
there and just melt into a puddleand then someone else comes up and you
think, this guy, this can'tbe good, and then he he knocks
them out. So what gave youthe notion that I think you were working
for Coca Cola at the time,so this way and now I want to
jump on stage and do comedy.Yeah. So it wasn't that big of

(03:12):
a leap in the sense that Istarted studying great speakers. So there were
great speakers at Coca Cola, youknow, the CEO, the president.
I was always enthralled with how theycould influence an audience. And I did
more research and found out those speakersthat could put a little bit of humor
into their message, that they're ableto anchor the learning, They're able to

(03:34):
anchor their message. So it waskind of based in research, gotcha.
So I just innocently took a howto write Comedy class and then like,
well, if I can write comedy, maybe I could perform comedy. And
so that's how I started just doingopen mics for you know, you'd get
three minutes, six minutes, youknow, very very short. And the
reality is it's my father who wasincredibly supportive of me when I was going

(04:00):
after this, like I'm gonna beamazing on stage. I'm want to be
this great comedy. And he cameto my show and afterwards he says,
you know, I love you andI want to see you live your dreams,
but honey, you're not that funny. Oh no, And he was
true, I can be funny,but I'm not a stand up comic.

(04:21):
That's why I went into storytelling andbeing able to tell a story with a
message that has value but also hashumor. Did he hang around long enough
to be able to see you thematuration process of your skill set. I
mean, he saw me climb thecorporate ladder, and he saw me do
some keynotes, but he didn't seeme do my one woman show. Well,

(04:46):
this show I'm hearing rave reviews onthe website. By the way,
is a curiouswoman dot com. That'ssome serious artwork on there too, Thank
you. I mean it's really cool. I like that. And so when
people leave, are they laughing,are they smarter? Are they intrigued?

(05:06):
Tell me what's the feeling? Whatare you trying to drop in everybody's lap?
My wish for them is that theywill see a future bigger than their
fears. They can see someone likeme growing up in Detroit starting my career
as a freedom lay route driver Teamsterthree point thirty seven, and I had

(05:28):
some success in life, and sowhat did I do that they may learn
from or they may be my agent. They'll identify with, Ah, we
know what you went through. Wewent through it too. You're clearly intelligent
because if you chose freedo lay,you realize you're lifting boxes of potato chips

(05:49):
in their light as opposed to deliveringbowling balls. That's right, that's right.
Now, that's a union job too, that breaks somebody's back. Absolutely,
And when I went for the interview, Now this is right out of
grad school. You think about this. I'm out of business school and I'm
in a warehouse interviewing for a jobto be a free too, a route
driver. And they said what questionsdo you have? And I said,

(06:12):
are there other women doing this?And they said yes. I said,
I'll start Monday. You don't wantto be a trailblazer? Well, I
just figured like physically, I mean, always been an athlete, but I
had no idea like how heavy arethe box is? And how demanding is
it? And then my head wasif another woman is doing it, I
can do it. What's your athleticfortee? What do you mean by forte?

(06:35):
Well, what was your strength ifyou were an athlete? Oh?
I was. I anchored the fourforty and the eight eighty relay. That's
strong. Oh huh, I canrun. I was positioned too. Oh
so that was the weakest link.That's okay. My jobs to just don't
drop the batona. Don't drop thebaton, absolutely, I know that.
But yeah, when you're the anchor, it's all on you. It's all

(06:57):
on You've got to make up allthat ground. Did you talk any smack
to the other person who was runningin the lane next to you? No,
I was too frightened in the cityDetroit, too frightened to just talk
any smack. Wait a minute,Detroit. Didn't you say that there was
a rock star who grew up nearyou? Absolutely? When I was a
young girl, my mother was welcomingme to elementary school and there was this

(07:19):
teenager riding his bike with a guitar, and my mother said, don't talk
to him because he has long hair. It was Glenn Fry. I wish
I had talked to him. Well, things seemed to work out. I
think he met Jackson Brown and theymade a living together. It's amazing.

(07:39):
And then Henley came into the picture, and then off they went. Lots
of incredible stories of musicians and artiststhat came out of Detroit. I think
they were right. Yeah, ofcourse Nugent, obviously, Eminem and then
of course the whole Motown did.Oh yes, it's extraordinary. We went
to visit the Motown House. Thatis astounding. I mean you're looking at

(08:01):
that and you're going all those famouspeople in this little bitty the house,
little house. Yeah, like what, Yeah, it's amazing, amazing musical
city. Well, I'm looking forwardto your show. It is March sixteenth,
a Curiouswoman dot com. And Ithink people are going to really feel
pretty excited about it. I justheard too that your show sold out.
It is what are you going todo about that? All right? Justin

(08:24):
just as I walked in the door, Terry, my producer, called and
said, we're going to add asecond show and it's going to be a
matinee on March sixteenth. Fantastic.So this first show was seven pm,
so what are we talking about?Noon? Or one? Three pm?
Okay, three and a seven?Can people just get tickets on that website?
Get tickets on that website and it'syou know, it is for women

(08:46):
and men, but also there's amessage in there for young women, you
know, high schoolers or in college. So feel free to bring your your
daughters or your sisters. Doctor DeborahClary, I am C L A R
Y. Deborah by the way,is d E B R A. We
always have to clarify that too,don't you great to have you in?

(09:07):
Thank you Terry so much? Allright? And you did how many years
in Louisville? You were a humanin person. Yeah, I've been here
twenty one years now. Oh he'sstill you mana, No, I've retired.
Okay, very nice, All right, the website again. A Curious
Woman dot Com show comes up,two shows now, Saturday, March sixteenth.
We're back in a few on newsradio. Wait forty wha s