Kate Sidley will never be a saint, but she’s more than happy to tell you what’s funny about them.
The former Old Brooklyn resident and current member of the writing staff for “Late Night with Stephen Colbert” recently published her first humor book “How to be a Saint.”
Sainthood may not be the usual topic for a humor book, but her book’s subtitle may offer a little insight: “An Extremely Weird and Mildly Sacrilegious History of the Catholic Church’s Biggest Names.”
Growing up Catholic, the Baldwin Wallace University graduate said the stories of the saints and the process of becoming one is the thing that fascinated her most about Catholicism, and that’s what sparked the idea for the book.
“I was reading a book about the history of Catholicism because I am a nerd,” she said.
The route one must take to become a saint is what inspired Sidley’s book.
“The process is what interested me the most,” she said.
She has divided the book into three sections: Part 1: How to be a Catholic, Part 2: Sainthood is Five Easy-ish Steps and Part 3: You’re a Saint! Now What?
Origins of a comedy nerd
It’s easy for Sidley to decide who is the biggest comedic influence in her life – her dad the late John David Sidley. John David Sidley was one of the co-founders of the Cleveland Comedy Festival, a standup comic, and writer of novels, short stories and plays.
Kate Sidley said in the Sidley world there is no such thing as writer’s block.
“You just keep writing,” she said. “There are some days where maybe 10 percent of what you’re writing is good. I remember when my dad came home from work. He would change his clothes and then go to his computer, and he would write until it was time for dinner. And if we (Kate and her sister Diana) had homework, he would go back to the computer after dinner and continue writing.”
Being from Cleveland, Sidley said she believes growing up in Northeast Ohio makes you resilient and helps youtake whatever life throws at you in stride. “Growing up in Cleveland I think you get that underdog mentality that is really beneficial.”
Like the challenge of being a Cleveland sports fan. “I remember having an old Cleveland Indians photo growing up and on the team picture where I had written above a bunch of players ‘traded’ or ‘retired.’”
The future
Although “Late Night with Stephen Colbert” will be ending next May, Sidley said she plans to savor every moment until then.
She said once a month the writing staff does a show at Second City in Brooklyn, New York.
“It’s a way to stretch yourself,” she said.
And for her, Sidley said, one of the best things at the show is her co-workers. “The whole writing staff works together so collaboratively. Everyone is so funny and talented.”
Sidley and her husband Joe now have two children, and she thinks having kids has helped her.
“I am much better at letting things go. I think having kids helps give you perspective.”
Comedy writing was not the original career plan for Sidley. She had planned to become a theater professor.
But in an email exchange, Victoria Petryshyn, one of her classmates at the now closed St. Augustine Academy in Lakewood and currently a professor at the University of Southern California, credits Sidley for taking the leap.
“Kate did a brave thing leaving her PhD program,” Petryshyn said. “It’s not like academia has that much job security either, but fully throwing herself into a career in comedy had to be scary. At the time, the problem was that no one in the academic field seemed to take comedy seriously as an art, and Kate disagreed. I’m not a comedy scientist, but I thought at the time she was right. No one should have to stay in a profession where all their colleagues look down on their area of study. And all these years later, we are really seeing how important comedy is to the world. If we can’t laugh and be happy for a few minutes, what is the point of the rest of it?”
And Laura Meissner, another St. Augustine Academy classmate now working as an independent consultant in the Washington, D.C. area, said there was a logic to Sidley becoming a comedy writer.
“Honestly, it made sense!” Meissner said. “One of my most enduring memories from freshman year of high school — Kate, Vicky, and I took turns passing around a notebook where we wrote an epic story; and her chapters were always the funniest. She’s had so many phases in her career — Peace Corps volunteer, academic, improv company owner — comedy writer just felt right.”
Meissner also appreciates the way Sidley writes comedy.
“Kate is incredibly talented at finding the silliness in everything,” Meissner said. “At the same time, she is always kind — there’s no mean-spiritedness in her jokes. She’s always laughing with, not laughing at. Maybe part of that comes from coming from Cleveland, which at least gave me a real ‘you don’t get to make fun of us, only we get to make fun of us’ ethos.”
And what are Sidley’s hopes for her book?
“I hope people read it and enjoy it and then buy four or five copies for their friends.”
She does have to start a college fund for her two kids after all.
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