Published: August 01, 2007 06:10 pm      

Everybody laughs at the shy girl

Elizabeth Snyder McQuern, formerly of Zionsville, may have been an introvert when she graduated from Zionsville Community High School, but now her words are making a louder impact. But she says many people from her hometown may have a hard time believing this.

“Anyone who knew me in high school would probably be shocked to hear that I regularly get up on stage in front of strangers,” McQuern said. “I was very introverted and intense, and not the most self-confident girl in the world.”

McQuern graduated from ZCHS in 1990, and earned a degree in history with an English minor at Marian College in Indianapolis.

Although she was always interested in comedy, during college it wasn’t in her job description; instead she was an entrepreneur. She began a business called Happier at Home that provided pet-sitting, house-sitting and personal assisting to more than 100 Zionsville clients for almost 10 years.

Eventually McQuern realized that if she wanted to have a career in comedy she’d have to start it soon. In May of 2005, she sold her business to Karen Laczin, and left for Chicago with writing experience, but hardly any experience in comedy.

“I was terrified to finally leave Zionsville, the only place I'd ever lived, and had no idea how to start a new life,” McQuern said, “but my family and friends kept saying ‘you have to try.’”

She was welcomed to Chicago by her brother Andrew Snyder, who had been living there since the late 80’s, and her longtime Zionsville friend Emily Kennerk. Even with friends and family to support her, beginning a brand new career was not effortless.

“Starting a writing career when I had no experience was really, really tough at first, and I had a lot of doors slammed in my face, but I knew I had to keep at it,” McQuern said.

Keeping at it proved the right choice in the end, as she was offered a job as editor of “The Bastion,” a Chicago branch of a New York alternative comedy blog called “The Apiary.”

The credibility from her new job as a comedy editor helped her find more comedy writing jobs, and she has been published in Chicago Magazine, The Indianapolis Star and several Real Estate magazines. Last March, her writing was featured in a show at the famous improv comedy training center, Second City, after she participated in their comedy writing program .

Although her comedy writing was successful in the big city, her dream of doing stand up was still yet to be accomplished. The problem was the shyness she still carried from her days in Zionsville.

“I kept dragging my feet out of sheer nervousness (and a total lack of performance experience),” McQuern said.

Then she and a friend came up with the idea of auctioning her stage fright on eBay, complete with a certificate of authenticity and a contract requiring her to perform. She ended up selling her stage fright for more than $100, and performing at her first open mic.

Since that first foray onto stage she has continued to perform, and says she has gotten more and more comfortable. Fortunately, many of her friends are also “stand up newbies” as she calls them, but have much more experience on stage. She said learning from them has been fantastic.

“I don't know exactly what the next few years hold for me,” McQuern said, “but I will definitely continue to establish my ‘serious’ writing career and push on with comedy in whatever form that takes.”

Nancy Beckett, her teacher at Second City training center, is one of McQuern’s biggest supporters. With McQuern through her whole journey into comedy, Beckett has been able to see the improvement.

“She’s transformed,” Beckett said. “She was the classic wallflower, and she’s really blossomed.”

Speaking nothing put praise about her student’s “prodigious” writing and humor, Beckett said she believes McQuern has found a home in Chicago.

“She’s a good example of someone who finally got what they really wanted,” Beckett said. “Slowly, but surely.”

As a nervous, small town girl, McQuern could have decided to run her Zionsville-based business for the rest of her life. Instead, she decided to take a chance at her dreams.

“If you have a creative spark inside you, it's there for a reason, and that reason is about more than just you,” McQuern said. “If there are no opportunities in your immediate environment for what you want to do, you owe it to yourself and the universe to take the initiative and find a way to do it.”