Corine Cohen:Please tell me what "After Birth" is about?
Dani Klein: "Afterbirth" is a live reading series where well known actors/writers/performers read original stories they write about the moment they knew their life changed forever becoming a parent. And it's funny.
Corine Cohen: Funny is always a plus! How did you come up with this play?
Dani Klein: I was sitting home nursing, or trying to, my first child and I was lonely and anxious and wanted someone to make me laugh about how much harder and life altering becoming a parent is than I anticipated. And I live in Hollywood where all the funny people eventually end up to launch their stand up careers or write television. I'd been a comic for about 7 years at the time so I contacted friends and friends contacted friends and we put the show together. That was 4 and a half years ago.
Corine Cohen: Sounds impressive! When did you realize writing plays was your purpose?
Dani Klein: I wrote a solo show called "The Move" that first appeared at HERE downtown about giving up my NYC apartment and moving to LA to get married. It was invited to be part of the HBO Aspen Comedy Festival. I just told the truth about how I felt and it made people laugh and feel less alone and I knew that's what I wanted to do from then on.
Corine Cohen: If you had ten wishes what would they be and why?
Dani Klein: 1.To earn a living from my writing so I could pay for my children's private school education (an LA imperative) and still have a flexible enough schedule to be with them.
2.To keep making people laugh by telling the truth about the human condition which is a pretentious way of saying continuing to be able to put groups of all different kinds of people together and have them share a laugh.
3.To stay healthy enough to be at my kids' weddings. I'm an older Mommy.
4.To keep loving my husband. I have seen divorce and it's not pretty.
5.To keep loving my mother. She's old and we don't have that much time left together. Would hate to get in a fight and not speak for a few years.
6.To always have my own cappuccino maker. I have very specific ratios of soy milk to low fat milk in my foam.
7.To dance until they put me under ground.
8.That my boys stay healthy.
9.To be thin, really thin, frighteningly skinny and then eat my way back to normal size. I love to eat, I love cookies. I don't eat them because I am not anywhere near this wish.
10.To keep helping people write/perform the truth. I teach at UCLA, I direct and produce these shows, this is my thing in life.
Corine Cohen: What don't people know about you?
Dani Klein:I like to pack in the nude and I always have. Ask my mother and my husband:)
Thanks for taking the time to do this interview, Dani! You can see Dani's play at the Triad theater next Monday and Tuesday.
Where: The Triad, 158 W. 72nd St.
When: April 21 & 22
Doors open 7, show starts 7:30
How much: $20, plus two drinks (all cash)
For reservations go to www.triadnyc.com . To learn more about the history of “Afterbirth…,"
Interview by Corine Cohen for http://www.corinescorner.com
For more information on Dani you can go to her site. http://www.daniklein.com
