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Since November of last year Champlin has been producing and hosting the monthly “Cocktails and Comedy” show at L.A.'s Girl Bar. She has had running shows at other venues in the past, participated as well as producing.
“I've always been booking something and working in it, because it forces me to write new material,” Champlin says. “Because the same people come back, so you can't do the same material.”
Other standing gigs for Champlin include her annual performances in Provincetown each summer and at Dinah Shore Weekend for the past six years.
The one-time “fish shtick” comic has also expanded her professional territory to include regular performances at sea.
She has been entertaining passengers on R Family Vacations, as can be seen in the television documentary All Aboard! Rosie's Family Cruise. In a clip available on Champlin's website she talks about having to buy a three-piece bathing suit:
“You know…the three-piece? Top, bottom and the curtain that goes over the whole thing? Kids are coming up to me going, ‘What time's the puppet show? What time's the puppet show?' I said, ‘I'll show you what's under the big top. Back off!'”
For over a year now Champlin has also been “working for the boys,” as she puts it—performing on Atlantis cruises, the self-styled “leader in all-gay vacations.” Champlin estimates she has been out with Atlantis eight times, performing three shows per cruise.
“I love the cruises,” she says, “because as soon as you do your show, then all the guys love you, and everywhere you go on the ship they're like, ‘Oh my God, we love you!'” She adds: “That‘s probably why I went into comedy in the first place, because I just wanted to hear that somebody loved me.”
She says she ultimately landed the Gay Games gig via an Atlantis connection. A man responsible for booking the acts got rave reviews about Champlin when he consulted friends, two men who happened to have just seen her perform on one of the cruises. “He told me ‘These guys never rave,'” Champlin says, “so I didn't even have to audition. Word of mouth through Atlantis Cruises was sufficient.”
“So the cruises definitely boosted me up a notch,” she says. “Because of the exposure to the men and that number of men at a time—like 2,000 guys, a lot of them in high places. And then they see me and like me and...”
Champlin had a different, smaller crowd to please the same day she spoke with us by phone. After the interview she was heading off to play a raccoon before an audience of kids in pajamas. It's one of the characters she voices on Tell Me a Story, a newly released children's audio book.
Champlin's girlfriend, Lori Ada Jaroslow, directed and co-produced the recording with author Amy Friedman. “I do a wicked fox too,” says Champlin, who boasts a diverse repertoire of animal voices, some of which can be heard on the audio book.
When asked how long she and her girlfriend have been together, Champlin can be heard directing her voice away from the phone to relay the question to Lori, who shoots back with “Do you count the breakups?” They waver then settle on four and a half years.
As summer winds down Champlin will be in another hemisphere, making her first appearance at the Cape Town International Comedy Festival. “That's going to be exciting because it's South Africa, for one, and they're putting us up in a five-star hotel. And there's only one show a night and it's only for about 20 minutes.”
Her only complaint is that her dog Rocky, a 22-pound shitzu, can't travel with her. “Because he weighs so much, it's hard for me to take him with me—and it's very upsetting to everybody,” she says, delivering the last bit in a tone that suggests she is looking at Rocky right then and speaking to him directly.
But Champlin is looking forward to the Capetown trip, where she'll be spending her days exploring her surroundings and working only briefly each night. “It'd be nice to be able to live your life like that,” she says.
Get more info at Poppy Champlin's website
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