Conversations with Kara Morgan

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kara Morgan.

Hi Kara, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hello everyone! My name is Kara Morgan and I am very proud to be a professional goofball. I was born in Rochester, NY to a family of singers and artists. When I was two, my family moved to Dillsburg, PA where I lived until I went away to college. I grew up in a church community where there was all sorts of singing and theater, a lot of which was written and directed by my mom! Both my mom and my dad had beautiful voices, as did my grandparents and aunts and uncles and siblings, so it’s no surprise I grew up singing and performing. I got my first taste of comedy when I received a tape recorder for Christmas when I was 8 years old. I spent that Christmas break by the wood stove recording radio shows for hours and hours. I was the host and also the interviewee and also the people calling in. It was a lot of work but I got a lot of solid material that still exists to this day.

When it came time to go to college, I decided to be a music major. I started out as a piano major at the Wheaton College Conservatory in Wheaton, IL, but soon switched to being a voice major. It was in my junior year at Wheaton that I spent a semester abroad in France studying singing at the Conservatoire National de Région de Nancy. I had such an amazing experience during those six months that after graduating from Wheaton, I returned to Nancy for two years where I worked as an English assistant in a French high school and continued my vocal studies at the Nancy Conservatoire. Living in France for two years was an incredibly world-opening experience. After an extreme amount of effort, I was able to learn French fluently, which had been a dream for years. I also got my first experience performing operatic arias with an orchestra. I remember in particular the first time I got to sing a duet from Don Giovanni with a small orchestra. It was a comedic role and I remember making the audience laugh, which was a very powerful feeling. I then decided that opera was what I was meant to do.

I returned to the states and began auditioning for grad programs in opera. I decided to attend the Maryland Opera Studio at the University of Maryland in 2005. Over the next two years I received incredible operatic training and I got the opportunity to perform two fully staged operas. Upon graduation I moved to Washington DC where I began teaching voice and piano and auditioning for local operas as well as national young artist programs. Around this time I began having some vocal problems. I had to take a break from performing, which initially was really difficult for me. And yet it was this unexpected opening in my life that drew me back to comedy. I started writing comedic songs and making music videos. Writing these songs and seeing them come to life as videos gave me an intense joy I had never anticipated. It was an incredible freeing having complete creative freedom after so many years of such intense focus on the technical elements of singing opera. I basically have not looked back since. In 2009 I started creating a youtube series called The Kara Morgan Show–a show where I teach you how to do something you either already know how to do or would never want to do. I soon decided that if I really wanted to do comedy I should probably move to LA or New York. I spent some time in both places and settled on LA. In 2012 I moved to Los Angeles where I’ve been creating comedy online and onstage (and sometimes on TV) ever since. I started studying comedy improv and sketch writing at the world-famous Groundlings theater in Los Angeles. In 2023, after 10 years of studying and performing at the Groundlings, I was voted to become a main company member, one of the greatest honors of my life. I am currently performing a solo show entitled “Inner Voices” that is playing at the Lyric Hyperion in Silver Lake and at The Elysian Theater in Frogtown.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I wouldn’t say it has been an easy path, but it has definitely been an exciting and joyful one! My entire life I have struggled with perfectionism. (4 years ago I was diagnosed with OCD, which is definitely connected to my perfectionism). The desire to “get it right” has stolen a lot of joy that I wish I had experienced while singing opera or performing comedy. I am so thankful to have received this diagnosis because it’s enabled me to get help, to accept my imperfections and even celebrate them.

Another consistent struggle all along my creative career has been the struggle to “break out” or “get discovered”. I’ve been so proud of the many forms my work has taken over the years, but until recently I’ve struggled to find the audience I believed my work deserved. I am so grateful to have found a wide audience on Tiktok and Instagram. I am particularly proud to have grown an audience on Patreon where my patrons support my work financially. I am still working hard on breaking into mainstream tv/streaming/film, but in the meantime I am appreciative of the full creative control I retain over my work.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I create character based comedy that explores the hidden layers of the self. I have a lot of original characters that interact with each other in my videos, which I post on social media. I have about 300k followers on Instagram and Tiktok. I am particularly proud of my “inner voices” characters, which I began creating during the pandemic in 2020. At the time I was working with a therapist who encouraged me to use my comedy to explore the inner voices (or sub-personalities) we were identifying through our work together. At the time there was absolutely nothing funny to me about these voices so I politely ignored her. One day I got an idea for a video that would portray a sub-personality I was dealing with at the time—my Inner Competitor. The idea cracked me up, so I made the video and posted it online. I’ve basically been making Inner Voices videos ever since.

The Perfectionist was my first character to go viral. It’s no coincidence that I created this character in 2021, right around the time I was diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Of all the inner voices I’ve created, the Perfectionist is my favorite to write and perform because they really perfectly encapsulate my struggle with OCD and my incapacitating need to “get it right”. Perhaps the greatest triumph of all this inner work is the increasing inclination to laugh at/with these aspects of my personality rather than be controlled by them.

I think these videos went viral because so many people relate to my struggle with perfectionism. I have received countless comments and messages from people thanking me because my videos helped them with their own inner struggles. Others have shared how much joy my videos have brought them and how grateful they are for the laughter. It brings me so much joy to know that in sharing about my struggles through comedy, I can bring healing and joy to so many others. I think being willing to share about my own neurodivergence helps other people feel less alone and more able to love and accept themselves as they are.

Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
What a great question. I would say my creative journey up to this point has primarily been a search for joy—finding the creative outlet that brings me the most joy possible. I’ve learned that you can’t find that without taking risks.  I would say that I have taken a few significant risks in my life and I am so grateful I did so. I think the biggest risk I ever took was moving to Los Angeles after having established a solid career of singing and teaching in DC over 7 years. Moving across the country to a brand new city to pursue a brand new creative career definitely felt like a huge leap to me. I spent a lot of time meditating on the decision and ultimately knew I had to do it because of how much joy creating comedy was bringing me. I moved to LA with no job lined up. Thankfully my brother and sister-in-law lived in LA and were able to welcome me for a few weeks when I first arrived. I soon got a job singing in a church and found an inexpensive place to live (where I still live to this day!) and I began cobbling together a free-lance living while continuing to create and perform my comedy here in LA. I look back on that person who chose to take this risk and I thank her with all of my heart. I am doing what I love most in the world every single day. It took a long time to get here, but it wouldn’t have happened without taking that initial huge risk.

Pricing:

• You can join me on Patreon (www.patreon.com/karaleemo) and support my work for as little as $4 a month!

Contact Info:

• Patreon: www.patreon.com/karaleemo
• Website: https://www.karamorgan.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karaleemo
• Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@karaleemo
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@karaleemo
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/kara-morgan-643812498

Image Credits
Matt Kallish