Kim Quindlen’s Got The Goofy Mom Part Down

You might be familiar with Kim Quindlen if you’re a fan of Chicago Med or What We Do In The Shadows. Or you might know her if you happen to be into the improv and comedy scene in Chicago. But more likely, you recognize her from Instagram, where she does hilarious skits, sometimes involving her husband, almost always about being a woman or a mom.

In short, she’s a funny mom follow and I wanted to chat with her about her comedy, her life, and other fun things. Kim is a mom of two boys: one who is 2 1/2 and one who just turned 5. From our talk, it’s clear that Kim loves her life and loves being a mom, and, more importantly, can find the humor in all the ridiculousness that goes into parenting. And that’s more than enough reason for me to want to be friends with her.

Scary Mommy: Were you trained at all as a comedian?

Kim Quindlen: No, I had always been goofy, and my siblings and I grew up making movies and stuff with our family video camera, so we were always doing skits and sketches… After I graduated, I was just working a standard day job, and I was just really unhappy and always wanted to do something like this, but didn’t know how to admit it to myself or figure out where to start.

I remember buying Tina Fey’s book, Bossy Pants, in the airport, and she started talking about Second City in Chicago, and I was like, “Oh, so that’s what I do.” Because by this point, I think I had tried stand-up, and I really loved comedy, but I was like, “I don’t think stand-up is the route I like.” And then I read about her doing improv in Chicago. So I was like, “OK, I figured it out. I’m going to move to Chicago.”

And it worked out really well because my husband, who was my then-boyfriend, wanted to move to Chicago to get his master’s. So we moved here in 2014, and I just jumped in right away. I was working as an admin assistant, and at night I was taking classes at Second City. Then, as soon as you start taking classes in the Chicago community, if you have the fervor to join and get involved, there’s something every single night. And within a year, I think I was out five nights a week, either at a rehearsal or a show or a class.

SM: Fun. These days, do you prefer improv or scripted TV?

KQ: I’ll take any television role in the world. Being on set is the most fun thing I’ve ever done. It’s such a high.

SM: How does your Instagram play into all of this?

KQ: Yeah, great question. It’s a few different things. Before COVID hit, I had been working on different comedy characters, basically the stuff that I have on Instagram now. And I was doing all of that in live shows and stuff, or even just making up characters in an improv show that would just come to me. And then COVID hit, and all the theaters shut down. Half of them are still closed. And in the middle of the pandemic, I had a baby. I had him in July of 2020, and then I was just deep in the thick of, you know how it is, no sleep, delirious for three months, didn’t remember my own name. In January of 2021, I started to feel a little bit more like myself, but I was really missing comedy. Obviously I wasn’t about to go hop onto a theater stage because nothing was open. That’s when it started exploding online with people doing their characters in the front-facing camera.

I was like, “Screw it. What else am I just going to do, sit here and be stuck not doing comedy for who knows how long?” So, I just started putting my videos online, and I’ve been doing it ever since. And ever since we’ve come somewhat back to normal times, I’m still doing shows, but the videos have been a way to still be able to do as much comedy as I want, with motherhood taking up the majority of my time now.

SM: Right.

KQ: Because even after COVID quote-unquote ended, a lot of comedians went back to just doing what they did before if they didn’t have kids. And I couldn’t do that anymore. Not in a bad way, I’m so lucky, but I was like, “I still want to do that all the time, but I can’t go to a show five nights a week. I want to be home with my family.” So this was a way to get the best of both worlds.

SM: Your kids are too young probably to understand what you do, but what does your husband think of all of this? And when he’s in the videos, does it change your dynamic?

KQ: It’s a blast. He loves comedy. He loves to watch comedy shows with me and pause it and dissect it and ask me questions. He’s such a comedy fan. He wants nothing to do with the spotlight or attention or anything. He’s the most low-key person ever, and it works really well that way.

In social situations, he calls me his buffer. He’s good at socializing, but it exhausts him. He loves making the videos with me, but the only rule is his face can’t be in it. I write the jokes ahead of time because we have such a small amount of time between when our kids go to bed and when he goes to bed.

SM: So what do you like better? If you had your druthers, what would be your preferred method of creativity?

KQ: I love performing live. I think that’s easily my favorite, and I would include television in that, too, because it’s just around other people.

SM: What’s your favorite kind of comedy to do? Is it the parenting or general stuff?

KQ: That’s a great question. I love doing the parenting stuff, but that’s relatively a new point of view that I’ve only had the last four to five years. So I would say in the last 10 years that I’ve been doing comedy, my favorite thing to do is low-status characters, making myself the butt of the joke. I don’t like to do mean comedy, so I’d rather do comedy where the characters are not self-aware of how insane they are. I like to play awkward. I like to find really, really specific human interactions that we all do and experience, and make a video about that. Basically, making fun of a version of myself.

SM: Do your kids have any idea that this is what you do? Do they find you funny?

KQ: The other day I was just doing a weird voice or something — I love to do that stuff with my kids. And my older son said, “You’re the funniest girl that I’ve met.” And that was the biggest compliment ever. I almost started crying.

SM: What do you watch for comedy?

KQ: I’ve got the staples of pretty much any millennial. I almost feel like I don’t need to say them, like Parks and Rec, The Office, Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Basically, anything Michael Schur writes. Those are the shows that made me want to go into comedy and try to get on a show like this someday. And then most recently, I love the show — it’s a new show — St. Denis Medical.

SM: I’ve wanted to watch that.

KQ: I binged the whole first season. They’re having a second season. I adore that show. And then Abbott Elementary, too. I missed those mockumentary shows. And the 17- to 22-episode seasons. Then one of the shorter season shows, it’s already over, that I’m sure you’ve heard a ton about is The Other Two. I love that show.

SM: I don’t know that one. I’ll write that down.

KQ: The show is so funny about pop culture and making really, really funny points about society as a whole, but without being preachy about it. It’s just for the sake of the goofiness of it. There is nothing better to me than stupid, goofy comedy.

SM: Yeah, it’s the best.

KQ: Yeah, there’s enough going on. If I’m going to try to grow and expand my mind, that’s what I read for. But for TV, I just want something stupid and weird and goofy and pointless.

SM: So what do you read?

KQ: I go through a lot of genres. I go through different phases, but this all goes back to my grandmother. My whole childhood, when we would stay with her every single afternoon, she was with a book on the couch. And I’m very close with all my cousins, and all of us are voracious readers because of her. We all have Goodreads profiles, we’re all stalking each other’s reviews. So my favorite genres are memoir. I love funny, light books and essay books. I also love pop psychology books, to be honest.

SM: Oh, interesting.

KQ: Yeah. And then I don’t know if this is the best word for it, but whatever they call chick lit, I love romance-lighthearted stuff. After a really bummer week or something awful in the news, that’s when I’m going for a rom-com. So I like a pretty wide range of books.

SM: What would your last meal be? Do you know what your one last meal on Earth would be?

KQ: I do, and it’s a pathetic answer. Actually, no, I’m not going to say that about myself. It’s a great answer. My favorite food in the world is yogurt, and I hate being awake in the morning. And so the only thing that makes me happy about the morning is yogurt and a glass of iced tea. Greek yogurt. So my last meal would be sleeping in until 10:30 and then sitting around on the couch with my whole family, eating Greek yogurt and having iced tea.

SM: Plain Greek yogurt? Anything in it?

KQ: I like some cinnamon in there if I’m feeling a little crazy. I don’t want to lie and give you a great answer. I’m not a cook.

SM: Are you going to be full from that? Don’t you want to get so full because you’re going to be dead, and it doesn’t matter?

KQ: I think I’d want to just die so quickly that I just want to eat the meal and then be dead.

SM: Fair. I have courses and courses and courses in my head, but sure, the one yogurt is totally fine.

KQ: Well, I do need to clarify. I’m not talking about one of those cute little cups. I’m talking like a giant bowl and half of the yogurt tub. I’m eating half of the yogurt tub.

SM: What flavor are we talking here?

KQ: I would say the best one is probably the Trader Joe’s Vanilla Cinnamon Greek yogurt. Feels like you’re eating ice cream.

SM: What’s the most ridiculous piece of parenting advice you’ve ever gotten?

KQ: Well, there’s the classic sleep when the baby sleeps.

SM: That’s the best.

KQ: I don’t even have to explain why that’s a stupid one. So I’ll just say that one, and then I’ll just give a long stare. Are you kidding me? And then any other bad parenting advice? I’m lucky because all of my friends, we all became moms at the same time, and we all just text each other about making fun of our kids. So no one’s like, “Have you tried the bottle warmer? That really helps.” I think I’ve just kind of filtered those people out of my life.

SM: Not bad. Well, that’s the stupidest piece of advice you could ever give anybody, because if the baby’s sleeping, I’m watching reality television.

KQ: Sleep when the baby sleeps. That’s my enemy. That’s it.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.