Comedian Zabrina Douglas Finds the Funny in Family-Friendly 'Wonder Project Presents: The Standups'

Comedian Zabrina Douglas | Photo image courtesy New Metric Media
Comedian Zabrina Douglas has built a reputation for turning life's biggest challenges into unforgettable laughs, and she's doing it again in her new stand-up special, Choose Your Medicine (premieres July 16th).

As part of the six-part comedy event Wonder Project Presents: The Standups on Wonder Project and Prime Video, Douglas delivers a fearless, hilarious set that tackles motherhood, nursing, Caribbean family life, and the everyday chaos of raising five children.

With her signature mix of outrageous storytelling and sharp honesty, Douglas proves that sometimes laughter really is the best medicine.

I recently sat down with Douglas to talk about the new special, finding humor in life's messiest moments, and how COVID showed her it is more important to laugh than be serious all the time.

How and where did you get into comedy? You know, a time where you said to yourself, “People think I’m funny. I think I could make this a job if I put my mind to it.”

A lot of people do that, but for me, I've always wanted to do standup ever since I was a kid. I grew up in a Caribbean household, and Caribbean parents either want you to be a doctor or a surgeon. I’m talking about jobs that they know will help them with their future. But I wanted to do standup, and at the time, I was going through a divorce, so I started later in life. I started in my thirties. I had stage fright. I decided, maybe if I do standup, that will get rid of my stage fright. When I started, I really had a fear of public speaking. And this just wasn’t me in a room with a bunch of people. If I was in a room with three or more people, I would get super nervous and never say much. So, I found a workshop online for standup comedy. I think I'm funny with a couple of my friends. If I knew you, I would tell jokes, but if I didn't know you, forget about it. But I found a workshop, and I went on stage during that workshop. I told one joke, and people laughed. After that I thought, this is what I want to do. I want nothing more than to make people laugh.

I've interviewed a lot of comedians over the years, and often they will mention that the first time they ever performed in front of a real audience they bombed terribly. This begs the question, did you bomb that first time or did you, as they say in the comedy world, did you kill?

The thing was it was a workshop with six other wannabe comedians. And I was so nervous and the instructor was like, ‘You know what? Just tell us a story that you would normally tell in front of your friends.’ So, I did an impression of my dad that killed, but it was a workshop. It was a safe space. Then I went to an actual open mic night at a club and nobody laughed. And I got so scared. That's when I was like, I can't do this. But I'm not the type of person that will quit right away. I felt that I had to go back. And this time I need to write my own jokes. But it's different. When you're nervous, it's different. You're just nervous and you want to just get the material out. But I want to talk about something that I know is funny. So, I went back to that same open mic later on and I actually killed.

If you were trying to convince a friend to take the time to watch your comedy special on The Standups called Choose Your Own Medicine, what would you say to encourage them? What would your sales pitch be?

I want to encourage people to just not look at their life and their troubles. Life always seems to be so serious. Laughter is so important. I'm a nurse and people are in the hospital. It's obviously serious, but if you can make them laugh in a time when they're not doing so well, that’s what it’s all about. People are so grateful and it makes such a big difference to laugh and not take yourself so seriously all the time. This is because most of the time life is not that serious.

As you have mentioned, you have a background as a nurse with a Caribbean family background. I have to believe those worlds blend together in some way. With that said, you are known for your slice of life approach to humor. How do you decide which real-life moments to turn into comedy?

I don't choose really sad moments. It just depends. There are things that you can joke about like having kids, and various life moments that come from that. I take care of a lot of elderly people and the stories that they tell me and the life experiences that they have had, make everything so much funnier. I know when something's funny. I can feel it in my gut and then I'll just go out and tell other people. And when they laugh, just based on that common bond that we have, which life experience, I know that is the way to go.

Changing gears, I am always interested in taking a deep dive into a creative person’s process. How a musician approaches a song, or how an actor looks at a role. How do you go about crafting a joke? How does that shape your writing process?

Jokes aren't just something where you come up with something and then somebody laughs. Jokes definitely start with an idea or premise. Maybe something happens or somebody laughs at something you said. And then for me, if I personally would laugh at it, I'd be like, okay, let's see what I can do with this story on stage. So, I'll try it on stage, to find out if the laugh points are similar with different audience members. This is because everybody's different. Not everybody's going to laugh at the same thing or understand the same thing due to varying cultures and stuff like that. You want to find the common bond between everybody. And if everybody finds this situation funny, now I can write this into a joke and find a way to make it even more funny. As a comic, you have to go out there, try stuff out, and then come back and write. Then try it again and make necessary changes to it. This is never a situation of I've been to five shows, and this has never gone for a laugh, so I'm going to take this out of the story. It’s all about getting people to laugh consistently. It feels like a lot of work, and it is, but really worth it if people enjoy it.

Can you describe a favorite bit or story from the special that you think audiences will connect with?

I do a lot of the stuff about me working in healthcare during COVID. It was a serious time for a lot of people, but I was able to find jokes in different situations. Being a frontline worker, you would never think that's funny, but there's always something that you can find to make people laugh, like situations where people think they're in a super, super, super crisis. So, I feel like people would relate to and like that kind of stuff.

After people have had a chance to watch your comedy special Choose Your Medicine as part of The Standups, what would you like to have your audiences take away from the experience? What is your greatest hope for the special?

I remember when I was working one day during COVID, and that was at the beginning where they isolated people for 14 days in one room. And I went into this one patient's room. I don't know how I did it, but I made them laugh and they were like, ‘Thank you.’ From that moment I was in my head thinking this is one of the most important things I will ever do. Don't get rid of your sense of humor. Just be happy. I know life is never perfect. I know this is like something everybody says, but why not choose happiness over being sad? What's the point because we all have to go through whatever we have to go through. And I feel like being happy, being at peace, and accepting whatever you go through in life is most important. And then we can just joke about it and be on one common page. Life is short so we need to laugh and not be so serious.

WATCH A TRAILER FOR WONDER PROJECT PRESENTS: THE STANDUPS: