The Rockstar Storyteller

Brought up in the world of bands, booking and backstage, Sara Manson has been ingrained in the performing world as far back as she can remember. And as this freshly minted stand-up enters year two of her comedy journey, she’s making every moment count.

Comedian Sara Manson performs a set at Boss’ Comedy Club in Tea, S.D. (Photo Credit: Adam Goodge)

Manson’s penchant for performing seems almost genetic, her father having been a touring musician for decades since his Canadian-based band traveled to Sioux Falls in the 1970s and he put down roots here. He met Manson’s mother, opened Westmoor Music in the Empire Mall and made a life making music here in South Dakota.

“When I grew up, my dad was always on stage performing, singing and playing,” she said. “And I remember being a little kid and him bringing me up on stage to sing for all the people that came to see him play. So I really grew up on stage. I mean, that was common for me to be up on stage in front of people and I loved it — my dad did it, and I was so proud of him and always wanted to do it myself.”

Though a dalliance with the family interests in piano didn’t connect with the comic, she knew being near and around artists was her lot in life.

“I did a lot with bands, but it was more like booking bands and marketing bands and doing things like that,” she said. “And I always really felt like I was born to be on the stage. Though I was meant to do something in the performing arts.”

After some time in the local theatre scene, Manson stumbled across the local improvisational, comedic theatre experience The Dinner Detective and things started to click for her. Not to mention, her abilities as a promoter and behind-the-scenes manager continued to present opportunities for her to bump elbows with other artists.

“My mom when I was growing up was always booking the bands and managing them and marketing them,” she said. “And so I have really kind of grown up in self-promotion as well. I think that's a big key to starting out in anything, especially something like comedy where the more you can do in self-promotion, the faster it's going to take off.”

It was a local open mic at Lucky’s, upon the urging of friend and fellow theatre lover Melissa Prostrollo, that Manson first took her shot as a standup almost a year ago.

“It was absolutely incredible, and I loved it,” she said. “The comedy community was so supportive, much like the theater community was when I started doing that. People were really excited to have somebody new and they were super welcoming. After my first mic, I had a bunch of local comedians that were like, ‘When are you coming back?’

“Somebody told me once that theatre is telling someone else's story and comedy is telling your own. It’s just the most overwhelming, wonderful feeling. Getting up on stage and doing comedy is me writing a story every day about my life and telling it to make people happy. And that brings me so much joy.” 

The comedian quickly discovered that storytelling approach was her go-to motif in her stand-up. With years of providing hospitality to touring musicians and bands over the years under her belt, she had ample material in her own history from which to draw.

“I guess I'm a born storyteller and that's just always how I've been with friends,” she said. “At first, I was just getting up and telling funny stories and then, as I'm continuing to grow in comedy, I'm understanding more about the format of it. I guess I'm more structured in that I know exactly how long my bits are because I don't just get up and tell joke after joke. I know I have seven-minute stories, I have five-minute stories and I have 10-minute stories.”

Cutting her teeth in the local comedy scene has been one of Manson’s biggest joys since giving it a try, primarily due to the open-mic opportunities and the support and positive feedback of fellow comics.

“It was very encouraging to me to go back every week,” she said. “I started befriending some of the local comedians, like Ian MacLean, Chris Freier, Jerry Irby. And Ian at one point told me, ‘Okay, so Mondays we go to this mic and Tuesdays we go to this mic and Wednesday we go to this mic.’ I thought, oh my gosh, this is too much. But they told me the more you get up on stage, the better it gets.

“It really helped me understand that you need to read your crowd and you need to do some research going into it, the kind of people that are going to be at your show.”

The self-described “rockstar storyteller” has cultivated her voice as a stand-up into one with a distinct point of view — one she hopes to continue exploring as she enters her second year of performing.

“I tell stories about my life touring with bands and working for celebrities,” Manson said. “And some of them are just fanciful. They always start in truth. But I have a lot of friends who say, ‘You're the only comedian I know who gets up on stage and tells the truth. You get up there and you do stories because truth is always better than fiction.’”

The comedy hustler has also frequently tried her hand at hosting, including most recently her weekly open mic at ICON Event Hall on Tuesdays.

“I think for me, I was a born host,” Manson said. “My closet is filled with more sequins than you've ever seen, and I just like to get up on stage and dazzle and I'm good at getting people's attention and taking them on a journey. I love to be on stage, I love to introduce people and I'm good at getting an audience's energy up. And that's the key to hosting is getting people in the mood to laugh.

“A lot of people want to be a headliner. That the more time you have on stage, the more important it is. But for me, I would rather host everything. I get to meet all of the acts that come through town, and I love to get up there and get people amped about my friends when they're doing shows. I want everybody to succeed.”

With a jam-packed — and well-promoted — schedule for this newly anointed standup, including her first headlining gig at the end of the month and a stint as one of the selected performers for Sioux Falls’ Last Comic Standing in mid-April, Manson is hopeful her comedy future is as brightly shining as her closet.

“I know that’s the dream of most performers — to be able to survive on doing the thing they love,” she said of her now full-time status as professional comic, performer and hospitality provider. “I think that's just who I am. I'm just fearless and I don't have the fear of getting on stage in front of people. I mean, what's the worst that can happen?”