Girl Crush: Juliet Hope Wayne

In a male-dominated comedy world (hat's off to you Apatow), it’s a great feeling when you stumble upon a funnier feminine counterpart. Upon first glance, the nympth-like Juliet Hope Wayne takes you aback. Her quick smile, petite frame and sapphire-blue eyes look more like the makings for an art photographer or a fashion designer, perhaps even as a Zooey Deschanel or Katy Perry stunt double. But when Juliet opens her mouth, it’s to tell massively funny stories far funnier than you’d ever expect—from anyone, man or woman.

Whether she’s talking about dating, falling in love, or a roommate from long ago, Juliet’s stories go far past the surface in order to reach that deeper, darker more profoundly personal level of hilarity. 

Wayne just finished a stint with The Unchained Tour that took her across Georgia telling stories along with other phenomenal storytellers. Suffice it to say, Juliet left quite a wake. 

“There needs to be uncontrollable laughter everyday. Anything else is unacceptable,” the visual artist and storyteller writes on her blog. “My lowest points were bearable because of riotous laughter.” 

While Juliet  has always had a knack for spinning a great tale, her stories are always true.  “There’s something very scary about people who lie well,” she admits. Coming from a family of “really funny storytellers,” Wayne says she learned to be funny on stage by listening to people in her family...and by watching Bugs Bunny cartoons. “In cartoons, so much happens in such a short period of time. It can turn at any point. That’s kind of what I visualize when I tell a story—that animated speed. There are a lot of tricks you can learn for telling stories that don’t have anything to do with writing or storytelling. I also study things like gymnastics, and I look at sheet music—for classical music— and sometimes write out difficult lines from stories on staff paper. Music and visual art have such a propulsion.”

Juliet’s stories are all extracted from real events that occurred in her own life and are usually extremely personal. But in a sense, having the stories be personal ones is sort of a super power too. “Sometimes when someone’s frustrating me, I have a hard time sticking up for myself and saying what I should. Words don’t come out right, but when I tell a story on stage, and I have hard things to say on stage and they come out right...it’s like the revenge.”Juliet also admits that she's funny because she's got a patient group of friends.  “If I have something festering inside of me, I have to get it out and tell my friends about it. In order for me to keep those friends, I have to keep my stories interesting. The stuff I’m going through now will be funny in five years, though it isn’t funny to me now. Just like the stories I’m telling on stage now, they weren’t funny at the time, but once I get past them they are.” 

When asked about the modern comedy scene and why woman always either have to be crude and manly or hot and dumb in order to be funny, Juliet suddenly turns melancholic. “You know over the years, I’ve noticed at various places, like boyfriends’ shows and things, all of the girlfriends of guys in the bands were backstage whispering about boots while the guys were the ones doing all the really funny interesting talking. When I hear anything like that it makes me so sad. I try to make a fool out of myself wherever I go and get other people out of their shells,” she says. 

“Guys have so much confidence. Even a guy who is mediocre at best will go further because he has confidence. At the same time though, I think a lot of men sometimes intentionally stunt their emotional development, to not be held back by pain, in favor of confidence and the 'successes' that are awarded to the charming and resourceful in our society. But it's a devil's bargain- they sell the kingdom for the crown- especially for a writer or artist! They forfeit their own evolution. Women, I've noticed, gather strength, they confront their pain and come out on the other side. But with that comes questioning and vulnerability. It's hard to get on stage and tell a story when you're in the throws of something like that. Even if it's an old story- the spirit of the times soaks into any retelling." 

Juliet has stepped away from the storytelling scene for the time being and is working on animated 2D versions of her story. When she’s not crafting or gabbing, Juliet can be found working as a line cook in Philadelphia, taking long walks alone, listening to music and being with her friends.  

To learn more about Juliet, her stories or her art, visit http://juliethopewaynesampler.typepad.com/

A few final words from Juliet: “You pay for every giggle in this world. You pay through the nose and the teeth. If you’re not crawling on your hands and knees looking for the next one then you're just waiting for the tab to come, collecting on the last big laugh."