A Day in the Life of... Lauren Bishop
The day began dark. Cold. Raining. The day began at 6:30 a.m.
Handing out parking passes, courtesy of [Insert Giant Department Store Here].
This was the worst of the assignments for the morning. People just don’t want parking passes, you know? Free candies, sure. But there was no moving these passes. The job went right until 9 a.m. Of course, she did it with a big smile, the whole time.
That she is Lauren Bishop, Stand-Up Comedian, Actress, Singer, Voice Artist, Dancer, All-Around Good Girl.
This particular day, Lauren was doing some work through Comedy Sportz, who contract with different businesses in Chicago when talent is needed for various functions. Her gigs on this day would be three different stints to greet passersby with goodies and free treats, courtesy of the new department store downtown. Unfortunately, it was cold and rainy, but the smiles never stopped.
After the first round of “newsies” work, Lauren and crew headed to Ada’s Famous Deli for breakfast. After finishing up, she had to battle the now-pouring rain, grab a taxi, and head over to a voice audition for a 10:30 a.m. call time. After touching base with the casting agent, discussing recent union issues with him, she was put up first for the audition because she had to be back to the department store in a half hour – at 11 a.m., for the second stint.
By 11:30 a.m., it’s back to the streets, this time with candy and umbrellas, which go decidedly quicker than the parking passes earlier. Stand-up comedian Nate Craig was on-duty for this stint, too, so there was a lot of chatting with him about some upcoming projects, in between making people smile with handfuls of free chocolate.
By 12:50 p.m., Lauren finally got a chance to eat some lunch, touching base with her agent and sorting out her planner over tomato bisque. She also caught us up on a new venture she’s now working on -- the host of Prep Channel. The creators knew Lauren prior, and asked her to get on board with the endeavor, ensuring her that they wanted her to be Lauren Bishop, Comedian, and not worry about adhering to some kind of clean-cut Midwestern image for the high school student audience. The Internet channel recently partnered with NBC to produce the series.
Lauren also expounded on what stand-up means to her in terms of her art and her mode of expression. In a written statement where she breaks it down for us, she discusses the following:
The Bastion is constantly astounded at how hard-working Chicago comedians are, both onstage and in the rest of their lives. We decided to begin highlighting the busiest people on the scene with this new series, "A Day in the Life of..."
