Joanna Hausmann Never Fit In–and Made it Funny

Joanna Hausmann never fit in, and she figured out how to make that her strength.

“I’d say my childhood was a mosaic of identity [crises]. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that I just moved around a lot,” Hausmann says on the latest episode of Latino Alternative Storytellers, the LatiNation Media’s original docu-series.

The Venezuelan-American comedian and writer grew up in many places: England, Boston, Venezuela, Chicago. Without roots in one place, without defining characteristics of a singular ‘home’, she struggled forming her sense of identity.

Comedy filled that void.

“Comedy was a language I could communicate very clearly with, and make friends with,” Hausmann explains, “that wasn’t predicated on understanding the culture or the place I was in, or knowing the right words, or speaking the right way.”

There was something funny about being the ‘outsider’ in every new place she called home. She became the American in Venezuela. Or the Venezuelan in America. Perhaps even the Bostonian in Chicago. She started processing each new chapter like an improv set, finding the funny in the new people she met, spotting the jokes in the new places she encountered—and that gave her a deep sense of purpose.

But who is Joanna Hausmann if she isn’t an outsider?

“I think there was a point in my career where I realized that who I was, was so important in what I said,” she says. “I think it was around 2012 I started really embracing who I was: my Venezuelan-ness, my Jewishness, my neurotic-ness, like, who am I?”

Around that time, she started doing stand-up comedy, which taught her how to explore who she was, because it gave her comedy deeper substance and better context.

Nowadays, for Hausmann, it’s impossible to separate yourself from your work as a storyteller. Whether she’s preparing a stand-up act for herself or writing TV characters for others, she filters experiences through her unique point of view. Her Venezuelan roots and her Jewish heritage find their way into her stories when her pen meets paper.

“The word ‘comedian’ includes so many different facets,” Hausmann says. “It basically just means I do things trying to seek the funny. The worst tragedies you can imagine—there’s always someone making a joke about it.”

From the fall of Venezuela to getting diagnosed with skin cancer, her sense of humor has helped her get through the most challenging of times.

“They’ve done studies where they’ve noticed the same patterns of jokes that happened in Eastern Europe and in Russia during the worst of their economic crises, and those jokes have sort of replicated themselves in places like Venezuela,” Hausmann explains. “I don’t think that’s a coincidence. I think comedy, I think sense of humor, is a survival mechanism. The people who have gone through the most difficult things are usually the [funniest].”

Joanna Hausmann chooses comedy every time.

She currently works as a staff writer for Disney and continues creating her own content, much of which can be found online. She also has some exciting news on the horizon that will change the way she walks through the world, which will certainly change her comedic approach. Find out on the new episode of Latino Alternative Storytellers.