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UnbrokenAuthor: Alexandra Amor
Creative Alchemy explores the healing properties of creative expression after a cult or other traumatic experience. Language: en-ca Genres: Life Sciences, Science, Social Sciences Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Finding Healing in Gender Transition with Comedy with Patti Savard
Thursday, 10 September, 2026
Vancouver Island comedian Patti Savard also happens to be a transgender woman. She brings the subject of gender transition into her comedy. So the biggest question I had for her was, how do we laugh at something that is often perceived as being a very serious subject? I think you’ll appreciate her answer. In the introduction, I mention the unique early morning writing practice that Patti talks about during the interview. And I touch on how this conversation made clear to me how important it is for all of us to allow our creative expression to be what it wants to be. We don’t need to fit ourselves into a predetermined type of creativity. By its very nature, creativity is freedom and expresses itself in infinite ways. We do ourselves a favour when we allow that expression to take any form it wishes. Patti Savard is a Canadian comedian and comedy cabaret performer based in the Comox Valley, British Columbia. Blending stand-up, storytelling, theatrics, and song, Patti creates bold, heartfelt performances that explore identity, belonging, and the strange hilarity of being human.Her one-woman comedy cabaret, Life in Transition, combines razor-sharp wit with disarming honesty as Patti shares stories of living authentically in spaces one wouldn’t expect acceptance of a transwoman. Patti has performed at the Vancouver Just For Laughs Festival and was selected to present Life in Transition at the Glasgow International Comedy Festival, where the show has been nominated for the Sir Billy Connolly Spirit of Glasgow Award. Her work resonates with audiences through humour, vulnerability, and a joyful celebration of authenticity. You can learn more about Patti at her Instagram: pattisavard18 This episode of Creative Alchemy is supported by the audiobook version of my award-winning, Amazon best-selling memoir, Cult, A Love Story. Readers call the book ‘compelling’ ‘gritty’ ‘intimate’ and ‘not boring’ – which is what an author loves to hear. I narrated the audiobook and if you have a Spotify premium subscription you can listen to the audiobook for free as part of that subscription at alexandraamor.com/spotify. You can listen above, on your favorite podcast app, or watch on YouTube. Notes, links, resources and a full transcript are below. Show Notes Performing stand-up for the very first time with three days notice Using comedy as a way to seek acceptance Developing a joke writing practice Receiving mentoring around comedy craft Getting honest feedback from a live audience How comedy is about connection with the audience On writing jokes about the potentially serious subject of gender transition Changing minds and hearts through comedy How working through comedic material to make it authentic brings healing Using dreams as a springboard for creative expression How ‘weird’ is a beautiful expression of humanity Finding healing in helping others Resources mentioned in this episode Iconic Canadian tv show, Corner Gas Syd Bosel, comedian Eddie Murphy’s stand-up comedy film, Delirious Transcript of the interview with Patti Savard Alexandra: Patti Savard, welcome to Creative Alchemy. Patti: Thank you for having me. Alexandra: It’s so good to see you. Tell a little bit about who you are and a bit about your background. Patti: All righty. I am a comedian from the Comox Valley up in Courtenay. I’ve been doing it for going on five years now. I’ve performed in Toronto’s Massey Hall. I’ve performed in Just for Laughs, Vancouver. This year, I performed in Glasgow, Scotland, at the Glasgow International Comedy Festival, and I was nominated for the Sir Billy Connolly Award, which was kind of cool. I absolutely love that man’s comedy. What a fantastic storyteller! So, to have a nomination associated to that guy’s name really feels good. Other than that, I am a carpenter. I run my own business because I’m a Canadian comedian, and five years at this game. I don’t know how to tip the scales, but I don’t want to be a starving artist. And since I have skills, I am happy to use them. I’m a parent also, and I also have to make sure that I’m taking care of their financial obligations that fall on me. Alexandra: I hear you about the starving artist part. I don’t have the answer to how you can tip the scales either. I don’t know about that. Patti: It’ll come all things in time. I don’t know, or I don’t know. I keep doing goofy stuff at work too, so at least I’m not getting lost in the process. I bought a a Kool Aid Man costume, and if you go on my Instagram, you’ll see a video of me running through a wall wearing that suit as I’m doing demolition, which I have written off on my taxes as a business expense because it’s for comedy purposes and for business purposes, it’s my demolition suit now. Alexandra: Exactly. Oh, that’s great. I wonder if you could write that off twice. Wouldn’t that be good? Patti: I think that’s illegal, but um, but okay. Alexandra: I saw you first when you gave a comedy show coordinated through a group that I belong to called Island Queers and Allies Who Care, and that was my first exposure to your work. And one of the things that really struck me was that you talk about your transition in comedy, and so I’m just wondering how that started. Let’s start at the beginning. Tell us about when you felt comfortable to start doing that. Patti: Sounds good. I actually started performing stand-up comedy right after transition, relatively immediately. It was a way of trying to see in front of a large group of people how I would be received as a human, but also, I think the entire process is very funny. I was born in 1983, and so the the concept of transitioning from one gender to another is ludicrous in terms of all the beliefs that I was taught and everything, and so I think the whole act of it is brilliantly funny. I thought using comedy as a way of trying to force people to receive me was very effective, and it worked out. Yeah, so it it all started right at that moment. Actually, as COVID came to an end, it was the very first event to happen in the Comox Valley. Right at that moment when we were allowed to have, I think up to 100 people in a space or something like that. Somebody organized an open mic comedy night, and I went and did it. And it was packed. There were literally exactly 100 people there, and I got really great laughs, and I became addicted. Alexandra: Had you always been a fan of comedy up to that point? Patti: Definitely, but not so much of a follower. I’d actually never been to a comedy show before. Alexandra: You’re kidding! Oh my god! Wow! Where did you begin? How did you start writing jokes and that kind of stuff? Patti: Well, that week, I guess. In comedy, there’s the rule of threes, which is you know there’s certain jokes that you tell them like series of three things together, and usually works out if it’s a good joke. I was working at a brewery in Comox. That’s another story on its own. I was having a bad day, and I just kind of joked around to myself because I was working by myself to try to make my day lifted, and I was like, “That’s kind of funny. Maybe I should write it down, because maybe if I’m having a bad day, I could just look at these stupid things I’ve written, and just cheer myself up.” About an hour later, an older gentleman was walking past the brew house on the sidewalk and to my open garage door that I had there, and I started just goofing around with the guy, and he was like, “You’re so funny. You should be on Corner Gas.” Which, as a Canadian, is a very strange reference. It’s very directly Canadian. But again, it was like, “Oh, you think I’m funny too?” And then my ex wife, well, we were married at the time. She came into the brew house another hour beyond that, and she said, “Hey, did you hear that? There’s an open mic comedy night happening at the other brewery in Courtney.” She told me that because being like, “Hey, that means we can have events now too,” but I took it as I should go perform at that. So I wrote down everything that I thought was funny, and then three days later, I was up on the stage. Alexandra: Really, holy cow! And you said you got lots of laughs, so it was received well. Patti: It was, yeah. I mean, considering I only had a few days to write the jokes, they went okay. But like I said, the whole transition process is funny. So those jokes were up in the old vault. I just had to pull them out. Alexandra: It was stuff that you had been thinking of that was absurd for a while. It sounds like. Patti: Yeah, because I think life is a joke. Everything is a joke, and and and if you just have to see it. Alexandra: I want to talk about courage then. Being creative can require a lot of courage, and it’s something that people can avoid at times because it feels like maybe it requires too much of them, too much courage, too much exposure, that kind of thing. Did you feel like it required courage from you to do this, or did you just take the leap? Patti: No, because you know, like telling my mom that I was trans and my dad, and like, oh yeah, my stepdad, just like my all my family, that was so hard, and so after once that was done, I was just like, I can do anything. Got it. Alexandra: Everything pales in comparison to that. It sounds like. Patti: Mind you. If you threw me in the middle of the ocean, without a boat, I’d probably be losing it. Alexandra: Do you have a practice? So that first show was really put together quickly. Did you develop a practice after that of writing jokes? Patti: Yes, I did. Fortunately, some of the other comedians were new to the Comox Valley and looking to start a comedy scene here. And since I had that brewery space, not the one that we did the open mic at, but the one that I was working in. I said, “You know, we could run a regular occurring open mic to try to get more people out and and start a bit of a scene here.” We started doing that – a monthly open mic, and then eventually a monthly showcase. And so for me, it gave me a reason to write because you know, once a month, I got to get up on the mic, and it’s the same people, so I can’t just say the same jokes every time, which is also a trap. I don’t want to say that that’s a good idea for new comedians. I think the best thing to do is write your best five minutes, and that means perform that same five minutes over and over and over again, so that you can crack the code on making it really funny. But it also is a good idea to write some different stuff here and there. And so I kind of did that. I wrote a few different five-minute sets. About a year later, there was a comedy competition in Vancouver, and I decided to enter it. And then one of my good friends, Syd Bosel, who is a local comedian here, she’s kicking it. But in the comedy scene right now, she’s on CBC Debaters. She’s super good. She was just like, hey, why don’t you send me what you think is your best seven minutes, and I will go over it. Then we’ll go over it together, and we’ll work it down to what your best five is, because she wants to get more into comedy mentoring. I could totally use the mentorship, and so she showed me a few techniques that I’ve taken with me to this day in terms of writing, and yeah, I’m grateful for that. Absolutely. Alexandra: Sometimes I hear about comedians talk about working out stuff on stage. I heard Tig Notaro say that just recently. She figures out what she’s doing and what’s funny while she’s on stage. It sounds to me like you maybe do a bit more preparation beforehand. Is that true? Patti: Yes, that is true. I am definitely a relatively scripted performer. A lot of us are, and the key or craft behind being a scripted person is to make it look like it’s not scripted. That being said, if you learn your stuff really well, that also allows you to sit in the zone, which is basically what Tig is referring to, where you just are in that full zone of comfort, and you just allow to come to you what comes. If I get up there without a book on the stage, so I don’t look at my. We often throw a book out there, especially if it’s an open mic or something like that, where you’re working out new stuff, just to make sure you hit your beats. You don’t read your full word for word. You just name the joke. You write the joke, then you name it, so you can see the name. So, if you ever find a book on the streets and it’s just random statements that make no sense from one to the other, and they’re a little bit inappropriate, it’s probably a comedian stage book. I tend to be a little bit more on the scripted side, but the more that I’ve gotten to know my material, the less scripted I’m becoming. If that makes any sense, because I already know the jokes and I know what I want to say next. But sometimes in the moment, because of an interaction with somebody in the audience, for instance, it makes me say something different, and then that makes me want to change the direction, and then I say something else instead, and I will fall back into the jokes. I’m sure Tig does it too. I mean, there’s no way that she’s entirely unscripted. What she’s referring to is when you go up on stage and you already have written the things in your head, and you just go you pull it from your head. But that’s a long way of saying that. Alexandra: Was this something you could ever imagine yourself doing when you were younger? Patti: Yes, actually, I remember when I was a little kid. Firstly, when I was a kid, I knew that I always wanted to be a girl, like from the age of four, basically. But I believed that to be impossible, and that it was actually that belief system or that thought that I had was potentially a mental illness, and so if I did not allow myself to indulge in it, then I would not become mentally ill. I remember watching Eddie Murphy’s Delirious and just finding it so funny, and just just being jealous of him doing that. I almost pictured myself almost the opposite of being like an Arnold Schwarzenegger muscular kind of person up on stage and making jokes about it being like you wouldn’t expect somebody that to be funny because they just look so big and brash and all that kind of stuff, which is I suppose a touch ironic. If that’s actually ironic, no, I don’t really know what ironic actually is. It doesn’t matter. Schwarzenegger is funny, actually, brilliantly funny. But so, but anyhow, that that that was, yeah, I did think about it, but I was like, never. I’ll never do that. Never in a million years. Alexandra: It sounds like you admired the artists that were doing it at the time. Patti: Oh gosh, yes. Eddie Murphy was one of my favorites, and then Robin Williams, later like Sarah Silverman, and Mitch Hedberg eventually became my favorite of the favorites. Now these days, John Mulaney. But truthfully, I don’t really watch much stand-up. If I’m not performing on stage with you, I probably haven’t seen your material. I just don’t watch things in general. Alexandra: How did you learn? So you did that very first open mic night three days out, after you had the idea, and then what? Did you watch instructional videos on YouTube or read books? Patti: Well, practice, write a joke, practice the joke, go up on stage and do the joke. Take the honest feedback from the audience. Go home, work, rework what didn’t work. Take it back to the stage. Take the honest feedback, and do that until the joke murders. Alexandra: Wow. Okay, I’m just reflecting on being a novelist and someone who writes books, I never really have to expose myself to that kind of immediate feedback from people. That takes courage, I think. Patti: We thrive on it. That is what the art form is. Every once in a while, you get a gift from the universe. You get a joke where you write this, you perform it, and it just crushes, and you never have to change the words. That’s like a a gem. I actually have a joke that I wrote three years ago that always did pretty well, but I I knew it needed something different, and actually, just last week, I reworked the joke entirely, and all of a sudden, now it’s doing what I want it to do, and that’s three years. Alexandra: Wow! I didn’t realize one could do that. That’s really extraordinary. Patti: Well, it’s really about the audience connection, and so that’s I think why we write this way is because comedy is very subjective. What is funny to you might not be funny to everybody else, and so if a joke falls apart, it’s usually lacking in about in three things: clarity, contrast, or shit. What’s the other? It’s 3c’s. It makes it easier to remember, but it’s not working for me right now. Clarity, contrast, and compression. If you’re too wordy, sometimes you know somebody goes on a bit, right? So usually one of those things is what makes a joke land. If it’s tight in all those three areas and context, there’s a fourth C, but I don’t know whatever C’s. Just we’ll just throw C words at it. Alexandra: We’ve talked about feedback, and one of the things I wanted to ask you was what the reception has been like from people about you joking about what can be quite a serious subject: transitioning from one gender to the other. What’s that been like? Patti: Well, therein lies the beauty of comedy, and that and one of the C’s contrast. What beautiful contrast it is, right? It is a very touching, emotionally very personal subject, and so it gets the audience’s attention because not a lot of people are very familiar with it. These days, it seems like most families have somebody in that or who’s trans; that could be a cousin or whatever. Maybe not in your household, but it’s becoming more common now. Not because we are changing in that respect, but because we’re feeling more safe to come out, and so our very degrees of transness are now rising to the surface. That being said, it gets the audience’s attention. It does cut. The hard part for me is when it’s not working. If I have an audience that’s tightening up, and if I can’t shake them I just stand up there and I basically tell really personal things to people, and they give me nothing back. And that, well, as a comedian, you get used to it because everybody bombs. Alexandra: Yes, yes, of course. I think of the performance that I saw that I mentioned earlier. I would consider that audience to be kind of warm. They were all involved with or aware of the organization that was organizing it, and that it was queer focused. In that performance, you talked about performing in bars in Taber, Alberta. That must require another set of skills. Patti: Yes, and I think my first year into comedy, I probably would have cried after performing in places like that. Because I approached it like well, it was last summer that I was in in rural Alberta, Red Deer, Taber, a bunch of places, but you know rural, on the more conservative side of Canada. My strategy going in, well, I have what a lot of well, there’s a term referred to as passing privilege that that we use. Where I mean, those who can’t see me, I don’t know if this is a visual podcast or just audio, but if they can’t see me, my voice might give me away a bit, but not necessarily. And so, I have strengthened my non-trans subject matter material. When I get up on the stage, I just get up and I get them to like me as a comedian first. And the longer I can go without having to touch on the subject, the more trust I get with the audience, and then I cut their legs off. And so I then I out myself as trans, and then I have to pick up the pieces again. 99% of the time it works out, and it’s because you like me already. So if you don’t like me now, there’s something up with you. And this is something I’m starting to now strengthen a little bit. Now is when I out myself at this point, if the audience still tightens up on me, as long as the material was working before I outed myself. Then I can start crowd working them, and just being like, “Oh, you look really uncomfortable. How are you feeling right now?” And then lean on the other audience members who are laughing, and try to pull their laughter towards that person, so hopefully they can crack loose. It’s interesting. It pulls some interesting energies out of the room, but you know, comedy’s all about discomfort and then cracking it. Alexandra: You’re making me realize, and I had just had no idea how many skills are required really in what you’re doing. There’s the courage of getting on stage, which for some people like me would be virtually impossible. And then you’re talking about there’s so many other skills that you’re having to use, and I imagine those have gradually built up over time. Patti: Yeah, with the performance skills, definitely. But a lot of those are life skills too. Just like navigating this world as a human being. I feel like I give credit to whatever it is that you do in life, whenever you take on your next endeavor, because something else that you’ve already done will give you a skill that you didn’t realize was associated to that craft. Thinking about everything that you do in life, pull all those things together, and I think it helps and it goes a long way. Comedy’s not easy. Drag queens get so many tips. I think comedians need to get tips too. We have to figure out how to do that. Alexandra: It’s not fair. That’s very true. Do you feel that comedy is healing? Patti: 100% for me, and absolutely for sometimes audiences that I’ve gotten to perform to, which is really neat. Alexandra: Has anyone ever approached you after a show and said that you’ve changed their mind about things. Patti: That exact statement which you just said. Yes, I was in Salmon Arm, British Columbia, and there was a couple in the front row. They were definitely on the redneck side. You know, but I really joked around with them a lot, and I mean, my dad is such a redneck, you know. So I get rednecks. There’s definitely a tan on my neck too. At the end of the show, the woman came up to me and she said, “I gotta say, I’ve had a lot of negative experiences with trans people, and you changed my mind today. The way that you brought up your material was just so approachable to the subject.” I think I’m using better English than she did. She was a very confrontational human. I imagine everybody in the world that you encounter seems to be a mirror of yourself to some degree. So, I imagine if she had negative encounters with trans people, it’s probably the way she approached it in the first place, and vice versa with the people that she was encountering. That kind of thing happens often, and it’s my favorite part, especially in the rural parts of the country. Usually, I get discussions that are just so raw and real, or somebody asking me questions. I had a grandmother come up to me afterward, and I was so worried about doing this show in the first place because it was a bar, and I’m like, okay, I’m gonna do a few dirty jokes tonight. But there was a table of very old women that were clearly out for a nice night, and I did a few off color jokes about anatomy and things, and I was like, “Oh my God, I can’t believe I did that.” At the end of the show, one of them came up to me, and she was just like, “Well, firstly we loved your show.” And I’m like, “Yes, you did. You guys laughed a lot.” And she’s just like, “But you know, I have a grandchild who’s trans, and I’ve been afraid to ask a lot of questions. And so just the stuff that you said like really made me feel more comfortable about how to approach things.” I love that a lot. Alexandra: It feels like soft diplomacy almost, doesn’t it? Patti: I like that term. Alexandra: That’s great. Oh, and good for her. Getting back to the subject of courage; good for her for having an open mind and for acknowledging her grandchild and wanting to know more. Patti: Yes, and this is another fascinating thing too-a beautiful thing, really-is one of the main reasons why I tour the rural aspects of the country. Firstly, I have the privilege, so I can kind of go undercover until I decide to out myself. But, I believe that there’s more love out there than the news wants you to know. And so far, I see nothing but this come forward. I definitely have the odd encounter, which isn’t awesome, but that’s few and far between, and the majority of people are like opening their minds, and their hearts, really. So it is nice. Alexandra: We touched on healing. Do you feel like there are specific things about your experience or your feelings that have been healed by working on this craft of comedy? Patti: Absolutely, yeah. I was reviewing some of my older stand up videos just to study notes and things, and I noticed my hyper feminization when I first started this four years ago. The amount of hyperfeminization of my voice, the mannerisms a bit too. I kind of had to, like over the past few years for myself, accept that some masculine parts within me are actually part of me and don’t need to be shoved back under the rug, which is kind of like like a teeter-totter game of basically that’s what I was doing. When I lived 30 something years of suppressing everything feminine, and then as soon as I let it rise, that masculine side fell all the way down, and I kind of had to scale it off and accept all parts of myself. I believe we all have a bit of masculine and feminine energy. I’ve got way more feminine energy than I do masculine energy, but it needed to be allowed too. That was a big part of my healing journey that came through with this. Talking about it on stage about these really personal aspects of myself, and then having to rework the material one so that I could believe in it, because in order to believe in it, I had to feel it, which is what actors do with their craft too. I had to truly feel it and own it, and that process itself brought the healing. Alexandra: That visualization of the teeter totter is so great. What I pictured as you were talking about it was sort of the extreme swings, and that what I think what you’re pointing to is that gradually they come into balance. They’re not tipping so much one side or the other. Patti: Absolutely. I think that general state of weak equilibrium of what my normal is is kind of what that what that means, absolutely. Alexandra: I can really understand how tricky that would be when you’ve spent however many decades pushing that feminine part of yourself away. It would take some time and some doing to find that balance. Patti: No doubt. I think you know, for those first couple of years after transition, I really had to let her shine. So I think he had to stay under the rug. I think he did it okay. But then I started having dreams-a lot of dreams-with masculine energy around fire, like just like a lot of visualizations, and with this power, and I wanted to have the fire power that they could have. Dreams are so metaphorical, and my dreams were actually a big part of what showed me that too. Is just that suppression of self was the limitation on finding that kind of power. I part of my writing process is I write down my dreams in the morning. They’re fascinating, and it puts me in creative writing mode. After I finish writing them, I’m already in the creative spirit, and then I can start. Hopefully, jokes are what come next. Sometimes they’re not, but when they are, it’s great. And so yeah, that dream state part. I forgot what the question was, but I think I answered it. Alexandra: Yes, you did. Thank you. On that note of writing practice, do you do that every morning? Write down your dreams. Patti: I do. I wake up much earlier than I need to before work, and I write down my dreams. It takes usually about 20 minutes or so, and then right after that, whatever the finishing thought was after writing out the dreams is usually what I carry forward. Then I go into just free writing, just write whatever comes to mind, or sometimes there’ll be a joke that I was working on yesterday, and then I’ll be like, “Oh, okay, let’s write on that now.” A writer-I forget her name-but she said that when you’re in the zone, when you’re writing, stop yourself like before you’re done. So right when you’re still in the gist of it and you want to keep going, but it’s been a good amount of time, just deliberately stop, and it kind of keeps that thread active for next time. And so I’ve started trying to adapt that a little bit. Alexandra: Nice, and that works for you. Patti: It seems to. I mean, I’m consistently getting new material or or writing strengthening notes on other stuff, and it seems to help out a lot. I mean, there are just those moments too where you’re out doing something, and I’m like, oh, I’ve got to write this down. Most comedians are that way. If something just happens, we’ll drop what we’re doing. Like in the middle of a conversation, I’ll be like, I’m really sorry, but I have to write this down. Alexandra: I’ve seen musicians refer to that as well, and carry little notebooks around with little snippets of ideas. I keep ideas in my phone sometimes too, and that helps. Patti: Me too. I use a phone also. Alexandra: I think I’ve heard Elizabeth Gilbert talk about that, finishing before the thread is finished, and then picking it up the next day. But I don’t think she’s the only person who’s said that. Patti: I don’t remember. I didn’t write the person’s name down, but maybe it was her. I don’t know. Alexandra: As we’re coming toward the end of our conversation here: Is there anything that surprised you about this career and the comedy that you offer to the world? Patti: Good question. I think the thing that surprised me is how small the comedy community is here in Canada. I found that to be rather interesting. I mean, it’s growing a lot, especially since COVID and and there’s a lot of people getting into stand-up now, but that was definitely one aspect. Just how connecting it can be due to that too.. I’ve got friends across the country, just because we share this instinct to get in our car and drive three hours to perform 15 minutes. Sometimes even less. I don’t really know what else. I suppose just how much it’s connected to my life itself. Actually, here’s one: the types of friends that I’m making. I feel like comedians are misfits. We’re all just a group of people put together. I play a lot of sports. Or you’re a computer guy who sits at a desk. We would not be friends if it wasn’t for this, but our brains all have this weird thing. We look at the world in a bizarre way. That it was a surprising thing is the more you talk to comedians we seem to have brains that function in a just an interesting way. A different way of looking at the world. I mean the fact that we’re trying to find the joke in everything means that you can go super dark, or you can go really light, or you can go really goofy, or there’s so many different aspects of it. Those things are definitely a bit surprising. That’s a question I’m gonna have to sit on a lot more though too. What else has surprised me? But I don’t know. That doesn’t help with this interview. Alexandra: That’s great. Thank you. What has the response been from the trans community to your comedy, if any? Patti: I run a monthly show in Nanaimo called “Bring Out Your Weird”, and it’s a comedy cabaret variety show I did at the Vault Cafe on the last Thursday of the month. And the premise of that show is: if you are weird, consider yourself weird, have a weird performance, showcase yourself. Weird is just a beautiful expression of humanity, and I think being trans naturally falls into that. I was asked to join Comox Valley Pride, which I did a few years ago. Being a trans spokesperson, I guess, so to speak, I’ve done a lot of performing within my community, and so I’ve been asked to show leadership in ways. I no longer am on the board because it was just too much work, and I am so not political. But I still perform in functions like, for instance, just coming up this weekend is Comox Valley Pride, and so I’m going to be doing performing at a couple things there. I would like to think that I’m helping mentor some of the younger trans kids and folks who are finding themselves. The QSA in the Comox Valley. That’s the Queer Straight Alliance. They asked me to speak a couple times at their functions to the kids, as well as they do a Pride prom, which is oh my god, such a beautiful thing. It’s once a year. After COVID, there was no prom because the prom committees all just stopped doing it, and so the QSA said, “Hey, why don’t we organize it? It’ll be for everybody, but it’ll be organized by the queer kids.” Naturally, the queer kids thought to throw a party first. Just saying. But every year I do trivia with them. I usually just make up some dumb game, and I do it at their intermission at the halfway point. It is so fabulous getting to be there as an adult, as somebody who’s openly trans and out there, watching these kids who are feeling free to express themselves at a school type function. For me it helped. That helps heal my own trauma, that trauma of not being able to express myself back in those ages. It’s just so amazing to get to watch them do it, and I literally heal every time I’m there. It’s great. I’d say I’m playing my part in my community, doing my best to. But we’re healing each other. Alexandra: Oh, that’s a lovely way to say it. That’s amazing, beautiful. As we come toward the end of this interview, is there anything you wanted you’d like to share that we haven’t touched on yet? Patti: Oh, what haven’t we touched on? I mentioned that I’ve got a monthly show in Nanaimo. And I don’t know. People just follow comedy and comedians. We need the support. We need lots of it. You can follow my social media stuff. I’m PattiSavard18 at Instagram. That’s my social media. I don’t post a lot of videos because I’m currently working on my comedy album, and so I’m just kind of holding the material back until I do that. But I do a lot of self-promotion on there. I do post a lot of video content from the Bring Out Your Weird show because on that one I do a lot of ridiculous things. I’m not just a stand up, and the beauty of this show that Bring Out Your Weird is a concept is that I get to do whatever I want. So this week’s show, for instance, I will be singing Alanis Morissette’s Ironic, but I’ve rewritten the words to make the song actually ironic, just for fun. I do a lot of dumb, silly antics that are just ridiculous, just because I can. I think for whatever people, everybody is a creative person, and I think I want everybody to realize they’re a creative person. So yeah, that’s something I really want to say. If I’m just getting to know somebody, if I go to a pride function or something, and I’m having a conversation with, I hate small talk. I hate small talk. So I’ll just say, “What do you do creatively? And then sometimes they’ll say, “I’m not creative.” I’ll say, “Yes, you are. What is it that you’ve done that’s creative in the past?” They often have to rack their brain, but they’ll come up with something like, “Oh, I used to write poetry.” I’ll ask, “Oh, what made you stop?” actually had that exact conversation with somebody, and then I saw her six months later, and I was just like, “Hey, so what are you doing creatively?” And she’s like, “I’m writing poetry.” I’m like, yay! Alexandra: Well done, wow, that’s awesome. I totally agree. Everybody is creative, and that’s one of the reasons this podcast exists. Patti: Amazing. Alexandra: Thank you for reminding us about that. This has been lovely. I will put links in the show notes to your Instagram, and is there a link I could put in for the Bring Out Your Weird Show? Patti: That is in the top notes of my Instagram. There’s always a link there to the current show. And that one’s monthly, so I don’t know when this will be aired, but so I’m not sure if it’ll be aired before that show or not. Alexandra: Okay, I’ll make sure there’s a link to your Instagram in the show notes. Patti: Wonderful. Alexandra: Thank you, Patti. It’s been lovely talking to you. Patti: It’s been so lovely talking to you as well. Thank you so much for having me. Alexandra: You’re so welcome. All right. Take care. Patti: You too. Click here to grab your complimentary copy of the Creative Alchemy journaling handbook. The post Finding Healing in Gender Transition with Comedy with Patti Savard appeared first on Alexandra Amor Books.
