Today we’d like to introduce you to Circe.
Hi Circe, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I started doing comedy classes at Second City Chicago after college because my degree was in narrative fiction and I didn’t want to write novels. I did standup and sketch and improv shows– which I’m still doing now in LA– but I felt a little directionless because I didn’t have that one project to work on and grow. Then, I met Natalie and we started iRewatch iCarly, which happened completely by accident. Natalie is a forensic scientist who lived across the country. We’d never even met. She was my high school best friend’s new best friend, so naturally I didn’t like her. Then I got to know her and realized that of course she my besties new bestie — she’s awesome. During the beginning of quarantine, I was getting cabin fever from being locked in my mom’s attic in the middle of a Chicago winter. I posted on my finsta yearning for the great outdoors and Natalie responded and was like “I live in the great outdoors, pull up,” so I drove 8 hours by myself to Nebraska to visit a girl I barely knew. The first night there, we ordered dinner and it was kind of awkward. We were trying to find something to watch on Netflix and iCarly popped up. Natalie jokingly told me to put it on, and I jokingly put it on, and while we waiting for the bit to be over, we got totally enthralled in the absolute chaos on the T.V. screen. We were keeping track of every sex joke, innuendo, and suggestive penny-tee we heard in our notes app. We joked about needing to make a podcast. We ended up watching iCarly every night, and joking about making a podcast turned into planning to make a podcast. I drove back to Chicago and now we’re halfway through season 2 with tons of amazing, dedicated fans who make all this effort worth wild.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Aside from both of us having full-time jobs that we’re passionate about–Natalie is a forensic scientist, literally doing hero’s work testing rape kits and other biological evidence and I work in marketing at a marketing technology company, doing hero’s work as well such as sitting in Zoom calls and writing website copy– I also do sketch, improv and standup outside of work and Natalie is auditioning for reality TV every chance she gets and building her Hard Seltzer Review empire (@nataliercollins on Instagram for context), so just finding the time to be writers, editors, entertainers, social media managers, content creators, marketers, designers, entrepreneurs, website builders, and everything else a successful, independently run podcast requires us to be is difficult. We both struggle with ADHD, so just “doing things” is hard and on top of that we have to do A LOT of things. And, of course, we’re chicks, so when our Tik-Toks go viral straight men love to comment “not funny” because we all know women aren’t funny and only men can be comedians. All women know is shop, have boobies and lie.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Aside from the podcast, I’m also a writer. I’d actually mainly call myself a writer who does other things. I’ve been trying to get a TV writing fellowship. My pilot–Tender– was a second round candidate in the Screencraft Film Fund, which I’m very proud of. Those competitions are rough. It’s about a bartender who lives in Chicago and sucks at life. My roommate– who is a comedian I met doing a sketch show together at Second City Chicago– and I are working on a webseries. I love sketch and improv and stand-up, but screen and teleplay writing is what makes me sparkle. I think I bring in the foundations of narrative fiction into script writing: telling a story that is based on a character’s needs and wants, their actions and reactions instead of a “plot.” I think I write differently from a lot of people– like my roommate does an outline of acts and scenes before she writes a film. But I really never know what the plot is before I start writing, I usually just have characters and a moment that I begin with, and as I write, it feels like I’m watching them in my head and just writing down what I see with very little input or control. I don’t like forcing a plot along because the characters are going to do what they want to do. It’s almost like I’m not really creating something, but just transcribing a reality that exists in my head. I think that sounds really pretentious but, people always say to start with an outline but if I try to dictate what each beat will be, the characters tend to rebel and do what they want to do.
What matters most to you? Why?
Having fun. Experiencing joy. I might never make it in Hollywood and that’s fine. I mean, not fine as in “ideal” but fine as in “I won’t regret trying.” I love writing and comedy and performing but I know it might never be my main source of income, it might always be a hobby. And that’s okay. The only thing we have in this world is our own consciousness, the only “meaning of life” that makes sense to me is to enjoy that consciousness as much as possible. I do standup and write scripts and spend hours editing our podcast and spend my weekends writing and filming and auditioning for things because I think it’s fun. It makes me laugh. It brings me joy. I meet the greatest people and do the coolest things and have so much fun. I don’t want to be a rich, famous celebrity, I want to spend my time doing things that bring me joy. And so I do. And it’s really cool that what I create brings other people joy, too.
Contact Info:
- Website: officialcirce.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/circe.mp3/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iRewatchiCarly/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/circemcnaughton/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/tequilathot
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT0FMKyQuQS5C7-OxZzZcPg
- Other: irewatchicarly.com
Image Credits
Headshots are by Mark Walter’s Media
