Stephanie Bass

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Stephanie Bass’ Driveway Showcase

Posted on September 16, 2021 | 5 comments

Stephanie Bass — a 72-year-old divorced grandmother who was diagnosed with ADD as an adult, and worked at jobs like publishing, marketing, credit card redemption, teacher and Trader Joe’s cashier — was well on her way to a new career as a standup comedian (because, why not?) when the pandemic struck.

Comedy clubs were one of COVID’s many casualties. Packing people in a room while other people spoke into a microphone has not been a thing for the past 18 months.

Stephanie Bass, at the Gotham Comedy Club.

But Stephanie wanted to make people laugh.

Every day, she wrote a message in chalk. She placed the board at the top of her driveway, on Sherwood Drive.

The short road off Compo Hill is not a high traffic area. Yet thanks to social media, Stephanie’s words found an appreciate audience.

One sign read: “If CVS didn’t call me 4 times a day, I’d have no social life.”

Another: “Miss honking at lousy Westport drivers.”

And: “If this is it, sorry I didn’t eat more bacon and ice cream.”

Everyone could relate to “Good News: Moved upstairs to guest room to combat cabin fever. Bad news: My, my iPhone and my charger are never on the same floor.”

As spring gave way to the summer of George Floyd, and then to the presidential election, Stephanie’s chalkboard took on a political edge.

“France called,” she wrote one day. “They want their statue back, and said not to visit.”

She described the days after November 3 — when the result was still in doubt — as “worse than waiting for the results of a pregnancy test.”

Now Stephanie has collected her chalkboard thoughts in a book. “Driveway Showcase: A Comedian’s Year in Lockdown” has just been published.

Like any new author, she’s looking forward to her first book signing. It’s September 26, from noon to 3 p.m. (Books will be available there.)

The location is perfect: Stephanie’s driveway.

Head up Compo Hill, next to Joey’s by the Shore. Take a right on Sherwood Drive. You’ll see it there.

Of course, there will be a sign.

(To order a copy of Driveway Showcase, click here.)

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Tagged Stephanie Bass

Did You Hear The One About Westport’s 71-Year-Old Jewish Mother Comedian?

Posted on June 4, 2019 | 6 comments

Stephanie Bass is divorced. Diagnosed with ADD as an adult, she’s worked at an ever-changing series of jobs: publishing, marketing, credit card redemption, Trader Joe’s cashier, teacher (she ran a class on how to hire a decorator).

For the past 15 years she’s lived with her cat in a small, eclectically jam-packed cottage on Compo Hill.

“My life turned out remarkably well,” Stephanie says.

“I grew up in a shitty town in upstate New York. All the girls got pregnant, moved into apartments above the bakery, and never left.

“Kids who grow up in Westport want to move back. My daughter lives nearby.”

She pauses. “I feel like I won the Jewish mother lottery.”

If that strikes you as a funny line, it is.

Stephanie Bass is a very funny woman.

As in: She’s a stand-up comic.

Stephanie Bass, in her very cool Westport home.

That’s not the usual line of work for a 71-year-old. Especially one who — before this year — had never told a joke before an audience.

For Stephanie though, it’s one more natural turn on life’s quirky path.

Last year — at her 70th birthday party — Rozanne Gates told her, “You should do stand-up.”

“Everyone — including my shrink — always told me that!” Stephanie said. “It was like the universe was calling.”

Years earlier, she’d taken Westport Continuing Education writing classes with Frank Wiener. “I wrote fabulous stuff, trashing my soon-to-be ex-husband. People howled when I read it in class, ” she says with pride.

She also studied with Jessica Bram at the Westport Writers’ Workshop. “She told me I had something too,” Stephanie says.

In another Continuing Ed class taught by Bob Selverstone, she made a timeline of her life. It included accomplishments, and dreams unfulfilled.

“I realized I had 15 or 20 years left before I go,” she says. “And I realized I had a talent for making people laugh.”

She bought a book on Amazon about how to be a stand-up comic. Then she embarked on the very serious business of learning how to be funny.

Stephanie worked on the craft of writing — and rewriting, and editing down — her material. She discovered the importance of finding her own voice, of timing, of presence.

She took classes. She had private sessions with a stand-up coach. A few months ago, she was finally ready for her debut.

At New York’s famed Gotham Comedy Club.

Stephanie Bass, at the Gotham Comedy Club.

If that sounds daunting, it was.

But she survived. Even better: The audience laughed. At all the right times.

They were laughing with Stephanie. Not at her.

She’s performed more than a dozen times since. She follows the advice to talk about what you know.

In her case it’s raising kids — and being single — in the suburbs.

Being a stand-up comedian has been wonderful. “I’ve come in contact with people I never would have met,” she says wonderingly.

“In Bridgeport, I followed 4 guys in their 20s who dissed old rich white people. I got up and talked about being an old rich white person. In 5 minutes, they were my buddies.”

Stephanie loves the laughs she gets. She also loves what stand-up does for her.

“I’m using my brain,” she says. “That’s what everyone says to do in old age. I think I’m getting younger.”

Westport is no stranger to stand-up. Brad Axelrod started the Treehouse Comedy Club here, years ago. He now has several venues, including Bistro B at the Westport Inn.