Student Experience
Homepage
Success Feed
For her first book, Peabody and WGA-winning Kate Sidley '04 found humor in an unlikely place, and her CBS-TV boss, Stephen Colbert, wrote the foreword.
In 2017, we wrote with pride about ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ theatre alumna Kate Sidley's double Emmy nomination as a writer for "." Since then, she's racked up seven more Emmy nominations and won a Peabody and a Writers Guild of America (WGA) Award.
This month, she's out with her first book, "" The book, with a foreword by Colbert, is described by Publishers Weekly as "a delightfully irreverent rundown of Catholic saints and beliefs."
Before she started making a living at comedy writing, Sidley pursued a mix of experiences after graduating from ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ in 2004 — earning an M.A. in Theatre History and Criticism from Brooklyn College, co-founding Sea Tea Improv in Hartford, Connecticut, and volunteering for the Peace Corps in Romania.
The Cleveland native, wife and mother of two answered a new set of questions for her undergraduate alma mater as her book was about to be released in August.
"There's a saying in improv comedy: follow the fun. That advice has served me well as a writer."
A: I've always loved writing in any form. When I was a kid, I would write little "books" on notebook paper and force my parents to read them. But this was more organic. I had an idea and asked a friend if she thought it was funny enough to be a book. She said yes, so I started writing. I think it's hard to set "write a book" as a goal. For me, it makes more sense to think, "I'm going to sketch out some ideas, and if one of them feels like it wants to be a book, I'll write it." There's a saying in improv comedy: follow the fun. That advice has served me well as a writer.
A: I was reading a book about Catholic history at the time (yes, I am a nerd), and the description of the canonization process struck me. I'd never really learned much about it in Catholic school, so I started researching it more. The blend of faith and bureaucracy was so funny to me; I knew there was more there to write about.
A: As someone who was raised Catholic and attended 12 years of Catholic school [St. Thomas More in Brooklyn and (the now-closed) St. Augustine Academy in Lakewood], I think it's important to be able to laugh at ourselves. There's a difference between humor and mockery. The goal of mockery is harm, but the goal of humor is laughter. I think this book does a good job of shedding light on the humor of Catholic history without mocking the faith. Because you have to admit, a lot of Catholic history is hilarious.
A: I was exposed to comedy at an early age. My father, JD Sidley, was a stand-up comedian in the Cleveland area. I majored in theater at ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ, but didn't consider myself a performer. When I moved to Connecticut, I started taking improv classes at Hartford Stage to meet people (it worked — I met my husband!), and that led to an interest in sketch writing, which led to moving to NYC and taking classes at Upright Citizens Brigade. I never really thought about comedy writing being my full-time job, so I wrote part-time while going to school and working. It wasn't until I started getting paid to write that I thought this could potentially be my primary job.
A: I think there are people who are naturally funny, but that's not enough. If you want to be a comedy writer, or any kind of writer, you have to work at it. You have to write. Every day. Even when you don't feel like it. Set a quota (word count, pages, etc.) and hit it. Treat it like your job, and then maybe someday it will be.
A: My coworkers are amazing, so it's sad to think a day will come when I won't start my days laughing with them. But we still have several more months ahead of us, so I'm focused on enjoying the time we have together doing work that we love.
A: I'll say the same thing about AI that I say to my kids when they want to play with the vacuum: It's a tool, not a toy. I think AI has great potential to make work more efficient, safer, and faster. But I don't think it's a substitute for humans when it comes to creativity.
"Get in one good, solid failure while you're still in college. And no, I don't mean intentionally fail a class or bomb a test. What I mean is: You're going to fail a lot in your professional life, and if you don't, you're not pushing yourself hard enough. College is a safe space to try something new, be wrong, admit it, and then learn from it. That's a rare opportunity. Take advantage of it."
A: Absolutely. I would add to that: Support others and find people who support you. I wouldn't have grown from my professional failures if I didn't have a wonderful network of people around me who are always there to offer advice, help, or just a listening ear. Writing can seem like a solo sport, but it's not. Nothing is. Surround yourself with people whose team you want to be on.
Find "How to Be a Saint: An Extremely Weird and Mildly Sacrilegious History of the Catholic Church's Biggest Names" on and at your local bookseller.
