It’s a long, hard journey from a poor childhood in West Virginia to internet virality, but Courtney Michelle stuck the landing. And now the comedian, actress and macro-influencer is preparing to take her act to the next level: a five-city tour of her semi-autobiographical, multimedia live show, Girlwind.
Beginning in August, Michelle, three friends and a pianist will perform Girlwind in Nashville, which she now calls home, Chicago, Atlanta, Austin, TX and Los Angeles. More information on the tour can be found here.
“It’s a sketch show that tells the story of one girl-slash-woman, but it’s a bunch of multimedia things,” says Michelle, who has amassed more than 900,000 followers across her social media platforms — nearly 680,000 on TikTok alone. “It’s vulnerable as well as fun and goofy, and it’s a lot of my life,” although she adds, “I have a little opening thing in the beginning where I say, if it’s really sad and pathetic it’s totally made up. If it’s funny and cool, it’s part of my life.”
The show also includes snippets of 17 songs — seven of which Michelle sings — including Meredith Brooks‘ “Bitch,” Green Day‘s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” and Smash Mouth‘s “All Star.” Via Zoom, she speaks with Billboard about her love of millennial girl pop, how she developed Girlwind, and why comics who made their bones on social media still crave live performance.
For those who aren’t familiar with your background, tell us a little about yourself and how you got into comedy.
Oh, my goodness gracious. Where to begin. I am from West Virginia. Grew up an only child in a small town. I grew up really poor, and all those things made me want to please people and wanting them to like me. That combination manifested into, I’ll make you giggle. I did musical theater. I was a total ham. I went to college and after graduating, I started acting in Miami of all places. Then I moved to L.A, and did a good stint there — had an incredible time.
I live in Nashville now. Like most people during the pandemic I was like, I’m not auditioning. I can write but where do put it? So, I thought, the Tok of the Tik, and took off from there. I’m still slowly building and trying new things to make people laugh without completely disobeying my parents and making them hate me.
Were you doing standup before you embraced TikTok?
No, I never did standup. I did improv classes and stuff like that. It’s funny. When I started acting, I wanted to be a serious actor. Then I’d be talking to people, and they’d tell me, oh, you’re funny. And I’d be like, “Yeah, I’m funny in conversation, but I want people to perceive me as very cool and serious — and hot, quite frankly.”
Then you get older, and you start getting more cellulite, and you’re like, “This is not doing it for me.” So, I said, “Let’s lean into this comedy thing. It makes me feel whole. And that’s a nice feeling.” I started doing standup when I moved to Nashville, and it’s a whole different world. It’s so scary.
How would you describe your comedy to someone who has not seen your work?
“Observational” is how I describe it to most people, which is so vague.
In your videos, you often portray annoying people who, I’m guessing, you’ve encountered in your life.
Yeah, and a lot of those people are me. I’ve been in situations where I’ve done something, and after I’ve left the room, I think, “That was awful that I did that. I’m going to make that a character and relive that.”
When I first started making content, I was just throwing spaghetti at the wall. And at some point, I realized what was working, an,d what I liked best doing, was making people feel seen — either a situation where they felt like the other person was awful to them or, like a Seinfeld or Curb Your Enthusiasm moment where you’re like what is happening? What TV show am I in right now? And that has been the most fun ride. I’m trying now to expand that.
Who are your comedic heroes?
When I was young, my family didn’t watch standup comics or SNL. I didn’t do any of that until later in life. We watched Reba. My mom loves Reba. It’s a great show. But when I was young, my comedic inspirations were the people around me who changed the energy in the room, who had a commanding presence by being funny.
My mom and my dad are divorced, and they dated a bunch of different people. There were always these different people and families coming in and out of my life, and they were essentially doing standup telling me about their lives. They had punchlines, and this presence that made everyone else in the room release tension and laugh. Back then, I thought they were just cool — but they were being comedians. The formation of my inspiration and my soul came from those people.
How did Girlwind develop? It’s inspired by people you’ve met over the course of your life?
Yes, Girlwind is about the whirlwind of girlhood. I’ve been wanting to do a live show. Like I said, I started in musical theater. I love the stage. I love an audience. I love that energy. I’ve built this audience online and that’s its own awesome thing. But I want to be in real life with people as well. I had seen a few live shows in various cities and thought, “Maybe I could do this.”
But I had no idea what the hell I wanted to write about. I was like, “What do I have to offer? I like writing for women. I like making women feel like they’re related to.” So, I thought, “How can I take this experience that I’ve had being a young lady to this old lady in her 30s? How can I address my relationship with my mother, with men and female friendships in a funny way? How can I break these things down into relatable but funny moments?” I worked with my friend Ollie Osawe and spitballed a bunch of things. And he would give me feedback.
You sing in the show.
I would use that word lightly. I grew up in the era of Hilary Duff and Ashlee Simpson, when it seemed like any girl with straight teeth and blonde hair should have a singing career. So, I was like, “That’s what I’ll do.” I tried that for a little bit, and it just wasn’t fulfilling for me. I love music. So, I thought, “How can I incorporate music into this and make it funny?”
We use music to help tell the story — and that’s probably my favorite part of the show, because I feel like music helps add another sensory level to the show. It’s that sixth sense of being able to feel the emotions through music — or I guess, a seventh sense if you can see dead people.
Have you workshopped the show?
We did one test run with a handful of people — I could not recommend that less. Doing a comedy show for less than ten people is awful, because you need that energy in the room.
I left that little dress rehearsal thinking, well, this sucks, and I went back to do some rewriting and basically gave myself an eye stye for about three weeks. Then we did it for a full sold-out show, and it ended up being really great. We’ve done the show twice now, before taking it on the road to see how it does with different people. I hope it maintains that same energy, because the one show we did in Nashville was amazing.
I’m so proud of it. It’s me and some really good friends, Haley Putnam and Ryan Stevens and Ali Alsaleh, who are splitting the role and performing in different cities. And we have one of the most amazing piano players ever, Alex Dolezal. He does piano for a lot of the improv musical people here, so he’s just a fricking beast. He also works with country artists. I think we’re going to have a blast. So, again, I could talk about this all day because I love it so much, but then I’ll start crying and throwing up.
Did you use any metrics to route the tour based on where your fans are concentrated?
I took a really scientific approach: a Q&A on my Instagram stories that said, “Where should I go?” And did a literal tally of what people said, and we based it on that. There are a few cities that just make sense location-wise — and I lived in L.A., so I wanted to make sure we took it there. It was a combination of, “Where can we go where people might want to see my kind of comedy?” and places where my friends can come.
A lot of comedians who have blown up on social media are going on tour. You talked earlier about really wanting to have that one-to-one connection with the people. How important is live performance in terms of the career you’ve established?
I don’t think anyone is drawn to comedy because they don’t care that other people laugh. If you are a comedian in any capacity, you need to hear a literal chuckle to survive. It is protein, It’s water. The live component helps you build your brand, helps you learn about your audience, and it helps you get into more markets. But besides all the business mumbo jumbo, there is nothing like doing comedy for a live audience and getting that feedback and that energy. It’s life. People who do comedy online — we’ve spent so many years making jokes to LED screens and ring lights that we’re like, is this funny? I don’t think anyone gets in the comedy to talk to themselves.
Well said. Do you have plans to turn this show into a comedy special for YouTube or one of the streamers?
Yeah, who do you know on Netflix? Let’s get it going. I would love for this story or some variation of the story to become a TV show or a comedy special or even something that we tour with on a larger scale. That would mean it’s resonating. I would love to see where it goes. As a creative person, I’m always thinking, what would the next thing be? But I am also focusing on this tour and making sure that it really, really works.
Are you going to have merch?
I’m thinking about it. I think it would be fun, but my brain would have to get over the idea that I’m essentially saying people are obsessed with me and want to wear my face on a shirt. That seems crazy. So, if we did merch, it would be something that I think would support what I already like doing — which is making people giggle, making people feel seen. It would have to be merch that is less about me, maybe less about the show, and more about the aspects of the show that are relatable.
Girlwind is such a great title that if you put it on a hat or t-shirt, I think it will sell.
It kind of sounds like farts. But we’re working through it.
I’m thinking more along the lines of force of nature.
I like that much better than farts.
Since this is Billboard, I’ve got to ask you: who are your favorite music artists?
I was hardcore Britney Spears, Madonna and all those girls who really owned their sexuality when I was growing up. Not that we’ve gotten away from it, but I feel like I’m now at an age where it’s nice to hear music that I can actually relate to, as opposed to being 12 and wondering, “What are these nipples on my body?” Girlwind is very millennial, so all of the music is very throwback millennial.
As for current music, I’m so basic. I just love pop, and I’m a fairweather country fan in the summer. I want to be on water with a beer listening to some white dude sing about trucks. It just hits the right spot. I’m also enjoying the girl pop resurgence. I love all these different new girls, old girls, being hot and sexy and having fun with that.
My mom was visiting me and we watched Daisy Jones and the Six. I love Fleetwood Mac, especially Rumours, and the TV show was based on a book that was inspired by the song, “Silver Springs” [which was inspired by Stevie Nicks‘ breakup with Lindsey Buckingham]. The show is so cheesy and beautiful. It’s dark, it’s light, it’s fun, and the music in it, for whatever reason, just gets me going. It has literally been on repeat for three days in my car.
