Kerri Pomarolli is a popular speaker, author, and comedian. She is one of America’s leading “clean” female comedians. She has been doing stand-up comedy for more than ten years and has appeared on the Tonight Show twenty-nine times at last count. Kerri is the author of Guys Like Girls Named Jennie, the humorous and moving story of one woman’s search for real faith and true love, which is currently being considered for development as a film. Her new book, Moms’ Night Out and Other Things I Miss, is being released alongside the movie Moms’ Night Out. She has also appeared in several theatrically released movies and many documentaries, including the 2014 film American Jesus and 2009’s Hollywood on Fire. She’s appeared on Lifetime TV, General Hospital, ABC Family, and more. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and fellow comedian, Ron McGeehee, and their two daughters.

My mother is the quintessential Christian: She never drank, she’s never smoked, and she’s still a virgin (joking!). She is flawless and I knew I was never going to be her. I think that has made me who I am today. We’re best friends. She calls me every hour on the hour. But compared to all my Southern belle cousins, I was the black sheep of the family because I wasn’t winning pageants and getting straight As and playing piano concerts. I didn’t live life as a “rebel” child; I think it was just obvious I wasn’t going to be put in any molds. I always felt like I was odd man out in pretty much every circle. But it made me stronger and more determined to succeed. Maybe back then it was to win everyone’s approval.

I was always the type of girl who had a go-getter personality, which drew me to show business at a very young age. I had done theater seemingly my whole life and had done some television and commercials. My mother made sure that I went to college. As soon as I got my college degree, I was off to Los Angeles, where my parents dropped me off with a map and an apartment and drove back to Georgia. I cried!

I did what all kids do when they move to LA and started going on auditions. I landed small roles on General Hospital and The Young and the Restless. Interestingly, when I refused to do a nude scene in my first movie (Deadlock), I was cast as a blue alien instead. Go figure. At least they were flexible.

I worked three jobs, did a lot of fun things, and loved living the LA lifestyle. My entrepreneurial spirit spoke to me one day and convinced me I could start my own business. As a multitasker from an early age, I continued to audition as I started my own cellular technology business. I was running my business by day, going on auditions by night, traveling, doing television, and balancing all the plates that I could.

Faith is a really important element of my life and dictates a lot of my decisions; the most important thing in my life is my faith in God, and my life is a walking testimony. I came to the realization that a lot of the roles I was being offered were not the types of roles I wanted to take, so I figured I’d venture into comedy. My friends would probably tell you I was funny, but I never really thought of myself that way. It was a huge leap of faith for me.

I took a comedy class with Judy Carter. Before I went on stage, Judy looked at me and said I was really talented. A short time later, I did a stand-up routine at the Hollywood Improv. Unlike many comedians, my act was 100 percent clean—no sex, no bad language, and no bathroom humor. Soon I started meeting people in comedy. I felt these introductions were my way to cut to the front of the line, ahead of all of the other actors who were just waiting for their phones to ring.

Working in a male-dominated field, I think that funny women get a lot of props, not because of their gender but because they have to be good—you can’t fake funny. There were times at the club when it was all guys and when I did a good show and earned their respect, it was a great feeling. I don’t like it when female comedians get really gross and sexual on stage. They think this will make them better comedians, and that makes me really sad. I like to see women like Ellen DeGeneres, Carol Burnett, Fran Drescher, and Lucille Ball—women who don’t undermine their intelligence to be funny. They’re all examples of classy comedians.

There was a door guy at the Hollywood Improv who used to pray with me before shows. Little did I know then that he would end up becoming my husband, Ron McGeehee. Ron and I had the same vision: We both had faith in God and we both liked comedy. Ten years later, Ron and I have two beautiful girls and we’ve been able to weather the challenges of balancing our comedy careers (and the travel associated with them), family, and our faith. Without our faith, we would not have had the blessed life that we have.

That’s not to say that everything has been easy. I’m on the road forty weeks out of the year, we have two kids, and I don’t have a nanny! My husband is a comedian, too, and we just juggle. It’s not easy, but I wouldn’t trade it. Marriage is tough; in today’s society, it is so much easier to get divorced than to stay married. You don’t have to have the perfect marriage. Life happens. Depression happens, and if you think you are supposed to paddle that boat of marriage by yourself, that’s not how life happens. Back in the old days, communities were designed to support their members, but now we don’t have communities; we have Facebook. If you want an answer to something, what do you do, post it to your wall? That’s not real community.

I know by the time I die, I can be proud of the things I did on this earth: raising good kids, having a great marriage to a wonderful man, and being a minister of hope and encouragement in the Lord. I have gotten to pray with women and see miracles. I have seen marriages saved. I’ve gotten the chance to see a woman survive Stage 4 cancer. I will be proud of the fact I had an opportunity to have one-on-one encounters with these women; perhaps I made a difference in their lives, too.

Your life is what you make of it. You can take your childhood and say that you were really bullied—oh, poor me—or you can take that experience and say that you know how to laugh now and get yourself out of a really bad situation. I was picked on as a child and I think that helped shape who I am. I’m pretty tough now; fortunately or unfortunately, I know how to handle myself in really brutal situations. I know how to handle a drunk heckler in a club. I know how to negotiate tough business deals. Once I was on my way home with this scary cab driver. He started hitting on me in a weird neighborhood. I just told him my Italian dad was in the Mafia and I was in witness protection and he stopped hitting on me. I’ve used humor as a coping mechanism on many occasions.

When I was asked to do comedy at my high-school reunion, I thought about the girls who had been mean to me when I was in high school. Although painful, with the passing of time and age, I realized that “hurting people are hurting people.” They are hurt somewhere within their souls and they lash out. I had never been so nervous before going up to perform. So when the audience started to fall out laughing, it was one of those God-given moments where everything was perfect for thirty minutes, on stage with my funny, cute husband. I felt like it was redemption of sorts—coming back home and feeling really great about it. Plus, I fit into my skinny pants!

So, women, pat yourselves on the back and know that you are having an impact on the world by what you’re doing in your lives, whatever that happens to be. There is nothing you shouldn’t try if you have the desire. Be willing to make a “left turn” in your life for a new opportunity. I think when you take a leap of faith, it always pays off. Even if you fail, you were willing to take the jump and you’ll land wherever you are supposed to be.