Enlighten Up

Vanda Mikoloski’s spiritual comedy turns “a ha” into “haha”
VC Reporter, 5/13/2010

“Beliefs are like diapers … They cover your butt and they hold in all your crap.”— Vanda Mikoloski

It’s a serious business, comedy. Zero Mostel was famously quoted on his deathbed, saying, “Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.” Perhaps the only endeavor more fraught with peril is the discussion of religion; we’ve killed each other since time immemorial over such trivia as the name of God, so comedians are well-advised to tread lightly, as filmmakers Trey Parker and Matt Stone recently discovered, fielding death threats after depicting Muhammad on South Park.

While comedy and religion might seem like disparate, incompatible subjects, in fact they’re closely intertwined, a point not lost on comedian Vanda Mikoloski, who brings her irreverent humor to the Ventura Center for Spiritual Living (VCSL) this Saturday night.

Mikoloski came by her calling naturally, professing a lifelong interest in the spiritual side of things, along with an irreverent, mischievous take on life, in general: “When I was a kid, it seemed like adults were doing their best,” she explains, “but it seemed like they were just full of it. They were saying stuff that just didn’t explain the magnificence of things. So as a kid I just felt stuck. On the one hand I’ve got this mean, patriarchal God down at the Our Lady of the Good Catholic Church, then I’ve got nature all around me, which seems to be telling a very different story.”

Life had some rough treatment in store for young Mikoloski, yet like many quick-witted, intelligent people, it was in her nature to see the humor in it, and it was only a matter of time before that humor led her to the stage. With her abiding interest in eternal questions, the combination seemed a natural — even if those questions seemed to elude easy answers. “The more inquiring I do into the big questions, and the more answers I get from various modalities and belief systems,” she explains, “the more I veer off toward Socrates, who said ‘I know nothing.’ I really love that point of view; I love coming from there.”

It’s an outlook shared by Reverend Bonnie Rose of VCSL, who is too happy to host some irreverent fun. “We’re all fumbling around here on the planet Earth, trying to make sense of the mysteries of living,” she explains. “The ability to laugh at our human foibles releases us from attachment and self-importance. Humor leads to humility, which leads to God. In other words, God loves a good time!”

Mikoloski’s is an unusual brand, but one most welcome in spiritual circles like VCSL’s, which eschews dogma and prohibition for the sake of a more inclusive approach to spiritual community. Yet even they are not immune to her good-natured barbs, as she commented on a recent “new thought” audience:

“They didn’t heckle me like I’m used to. They actually took out their sage and smudged my negative energy.”

Mikoloski’s light-hearted, yet deep, philosophy is one she hopes everyone can connect to. “What is the human comedy?” she asks. “It’s the ridiculous reality of being. It’s the idea that here we are, one vast, holographic consciousness squished through the narrow birth canal, in these skin-bags, like God’s a big pastry chef with a pastry cone splooching us out — sometimes a beautiful rosette and sometimes an embarrassing noise. Welcome to life!”

Regardless of one’s outlook on religion, life or our essential nature, her outlook on the human condition is one we all can share. “If you don’t think all this is funny,” she deadpans, “you’re not taking it seriously.”