September 2020’s Centre Stage with Carla White
Spotlight on Carla White by Will Collins, ACWB Communications Coordinator
Local humourist and storyteller, Carla White, shares her philosophy with this quote from George Burns: “Someone who makes you laugh is a comedian. Someone who makes you think and then laugh is a humourist.”
White is a proud Alberta farm girl who moved to Edmonton for university, then lived and worked in London, England. She settled in Fort McMurray in 1991, where she has had a fruitful career, raised her family, and more recently discovered her artistic side.
As a storyteller, White published her first literary work in 2018, Reignite Your Spark: Simple Steps to Extinguish Stress and Go from Burned Out to Fired Up.
Jack Canfield, co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul® and The Success Principles™, wrote this about White’s book: “Reignite Your Spark is an insightful and relatable book, in which Carla recounts her journey from the darkness of depression to the light of love and laughter, in which she shares the powerful and meaningful lessons she learned on her search for happiness and fulfillment.”
“For a long time, I never considered myself creative, let alone an artist,” says White. “I did creative projects, but I continuously told myself I wasn’t creative. The idea of self-expression and artistry didn’t happen until I did a LOT of personal development and redefined my idea of both creativity and artist.”
“After writing and publishing my book,” says White, “I attended a writing workshop by Charmaine Hammond in partnership with ACWB. I started to broaden my perspective and realized I was a literary artist.”
Others may know Carla White as the Angry Housewife, her original comedic persona and also the name she gave to her inner critic. Her debut one-woman show called Shut the F❤k Up: Confessions of an Angry Housewife launched in 2018, and is a show of truth, vulnerability and outrageous stories to illustrate the realities and struggles of the modern-day working woman.
White is also the founder of Healing with Humour, a deeply transformational 90-day experience where participants unleash their personal power to heal inner doubts, fears and worries as a way to learn emotional mastery and experience more fun, ease, happiness, and effortless success.
Even in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, she continues to find opportunity to grow as an artist. “Not being able to have live events has had me pivot to do more online work, which has a bit of a learning curve.”
From September to December, White is ACWB’s Artist in Residency and will be presenting two workshops: Finding the Funny Faster and Writing & Publishing. Plans are in the works for White’s residency to culminate in a staged reading, so stay tuned for more information. Learn more about White’s projects and performances at www.carla-white.ca, or follow her on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.
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