02/10/2023
Here’s a link to the article on Karen Mills. The text is below.
https://www.timesdaily.com/life/karen-mills-humor-is-healing/article_7860dfd2-43bf-57f9-9baf-4d96151476d9.html
Karen Mill believes laughter is the best medicine.
Though she had forged a career in making people laugh, Mills didn’t know how true those words actually were until a routine checkup with her doctor took a turn for the worse in 2013.
“I always look for humor in everything,” she said. “From visiting the grocery store to ovarian cancer.”
Following her diagnosis, she began sharing her story on stage, but she made a conscious decision to control the narrative with humor.
“It’s a coping skill for me,” she said. “Everyone has difficulties, and everyone goes through adversity, but it’s how you handle it. It’s about finding ways to laugh together and staying positive. Humor is light. Humor is healing.”
While Mills had been doing standup for years before the earth-shattering prognosis, the moment proved pivotal for her career. She began talking to survivors and speaking at seminars and soon realized her gift served a greater purpose.
“I had a daughter come up to me after a show once and tell me, ‘This is the first time I’ve seen my mom laugh since her diagnosis.’ I get that so much,” Mills said. “I do incorporate life lessons into my comedy. I try to deliver lots of laughs on relatable topics. It’s an evening of fun with some uplifting message.”
Mills, who has toured as a comedian for about 27 years, said she’s always aimed to keep her routines clean for a wide array of audiences.
She got her start at The Punchline Comedy Club in 1996, but it hadn’t always been her intention to seek out the spotlight.
“I played sports my whole life. Everyone thought I’d be a coach, including me,” Mills said.
She picked up basketball in the third grade and was so successful in the sport throughout high school she earned a scholarship to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
In 1981, her number 12 jersey was retired after she became the first Division I player from her university to become a first team All American. She was also the first woman to be inducted into Chattanooga’s Basketball Hall of Fame.
After earning her degree, she became a graduate assistant coach but felt teaching wasn’t for her.
“I realized pretty quickly that I didn’t love it as much as I loved playing,” she said.
She shifted her focus and became a mortgage broker for a few years before reflecting on her true passion — entertaining others and making them laugh.
“I’m always doing silly things,” she said. “I can remember being silly all the time. Being on the basketball team and riding on the bus, I enjoyed making people laugh and keeping them entertained. I wasn’t a class clown or anything like that. I was just always very outgoing.”
Sitting on her couch one night watching the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, she remembers thinking to herself, “I could do that.”
While living in Atlanta, she decided to try her hand on stage and took the chance at an open mic night at The Punchline.
“The manager of the club told me I was funny and that I had the potential to make a living doing this, but I had to learn to write my own material. I had just gotten up on stage and told jokes that I knew,” she said.
Mills took the manager’s advice, and eventually got hired to open at The Punchline and other reputable comedy clubs in the area.
Since that time, Mills has toured solo nationally and joined other comedic greats like Leanne Morgan and Etta May. She starred on Season 12 of “America’s Got Talent” and has even written some for television.
“I love it all,” Mills said. “It’s always been such an importance to me to keep humor in the forefront of my life. Its existence keeps light in our lives.”
Karen Mill believes laughter is the best medicine.
