Living Your Best Encore: Deborah Kimmett

What sparked your current journey - whether you’re still working, enjoying retirement, or embracing a “second act? What was the defining moment that led you here?

This is not a new journey but a deeper one. Time is more on my mind, and so I do things that deepen my day. My job has been the same for 45 years: to write and perform for the page and stage. And back then, I made a commitment that my humour uplifts women.

I don't try to be funny. It's how I see the world, but the more I've healed on a personal level, the more I can use humour, whether it's in my book, Window Shopping for God: A Comedian’s Search for Meaning, or my spiritual journey, the podcast Downward Facing Broad, or Sunday Morning with Deb Writing Your Memoirs. I love the power of the story. The stories people tell themselves are very powerful, and this journey of going deeper rather than wider is what interests me in my 68th year.

What is one powerful lesson you learned later in life that you wish you could have whispered to your younger self?

Powerful Lesson: You can't get small enough for some people. For a long time, I let people live rent-free in my head. I thought if I dimmed myself down, I'd have more safety. Now, I feel I shine brightly. And those who come into that circle of light can stay or go more freely. It is a better way to live.

Please complete this sentence: The thing I value most about where I am in life right now is….

The thing I value most now is having no to-do list. I can take as much time as I like to do what I want. Every morning, I read, write, study, and sit by the beach. Living in The Beaches in Toronto, I make sure to spend at least an hour, often two, outside each day.

Deborah Kimmett is A Second City veteran; she has been a regular on the CBC Debaters for 20 years. She appears regularly at CBC’s Winnipeg Comedy Festival, and she has three albums with Howl and Roar Records. Additionally, she is a Governor General-nominated playwright. And an accomplished author of four books: Reality is Overrated, That Which Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Funnier, and Out Running Crazy. Her new book, Window-shopping for God, is nominated for the Indie Book Award and the Stephen Leacock Medal for Literary Humour. Listen to her podcast, Downward Facing Broad, anywhere you find podcasts.

Deborah is also a writing coach and has spent over 40 years teaching memoir and comedy writing. She is deeply committed to community service, volunteering with Hospice and City Outreach, and each year she raises thousands of dollars for Toronto’s underhoused through her Secret Santa Sock Fund. For more information, please visit Deborah's website.

Interested in reading other's experiences of Living Their Best Encore? Check them all out here.