Blaze Your Own Trail - From a Shy Kid with a Learning Disability to Stand-Up Star with Lahna Turner

Episode Date: April 17, 2026

Join us as Lahna Turner shares her inspiring journey from a shy kid with learning disabilities to a successful comedian, filmmaker, and advocate. Discover how her experiences with trauma, addiction, and resilience shaped her path and her latest projects, including a documentary and a comic series that honor her late husband Ralphie May and inspire others. Topics Journey from childhood to comedy Impact of trauma and addiction Creating a documentary and comic series Lessons learned from sports and arts Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Lahna Turner 02:52 Lahna's Early Life and Challenges 05:40 The Journey into Dance and Fitness 08:16 Transitioning from Dance to Journalism 11:07 The Impact of a Life-Altering Accident 16:53 Embracing Comedy and Living Life Fully 18:32 The Spark of Comedy: Lahna's First Performance 24:02 Navigating the Comedy Scene: Mentorship and Growth 31:02 Balancing Family and Comedy: The Journey of Parenthood 37:27 Honoring a Legacy: The Documentary and Comic Book Projects Connect with Lahna Website - https://lahnaturner.com Documentary info: https://comewhatmayfilm.com/ Get the new comic book series: https://poundsofpower.com/     Are you an entrepreneur?Join my FREE Group Coaching Community where we have live calls, Q&A and more! Our Trailblazer Ecosystem also enables you to network with other entrepreneurs and creator hub eliminates multiple subscriptions and logins creating a one stop shop to take action!Use code: FOUNDING100 for 12 months access FREE and Founding pricing for life! (While Supplies Last)Join now! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. My name is Jordan Mendoza. I'm your host and I've got a very special guest today. Her name is Lana Turner and I'm going to have her tell you a little bit about who she is and what she does today. All right. Hey Jordan and everyone. So I identify as comedian. My name's Lana Turner. I say it's spelled with an H because otherwise backwards

it spells anal. I was born in Canada but also raised in Texas. So I was like to say howdy A to anyone from Canada or Texas. Off of comedy, I've pinwheeled a bunch of other stuff as of late. So I have a lot of different titles that I've been wearing. But I'm also a mother. See for many years now, a single mother. And that's probably been the hardest and most rewarding job is raising to now teenagers. And that's the short synopsis.

Appreciate it. Thank you for Sharon. And we were talking offline. We both know all about teenagers and how fun they are and how different each one of them are. And we also found out that I have three times the amount of kids to you or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty crazy to think because I'm only 21 years old. So I don't know how I've done that, but I accomplished that feat. Well, hey, listen, I'm excited. My favorite part of the show, Lana, is really taking a rewind and getting deep context

into my guest story and their journey. So let's rewind. Where were you born and raised? And then what kind of kid were you? Let's work talking elementary middle to high school years. All right. I was born in a little town in Canada called Sarnia, not Narnia. It's known for being a place where Americans can cross the border at 19 and drink. I think go to strip bars at that point. And then we moved from there. I mean, my memories of the place was like the lake and the snow and, you know, that type of stuff. But we moved to Toronto. And then shortly after that, we moved to Texas. And so I just want a Canadian Texan. And I now live in Los Angeles. I say I love LA so much. I say I'm so late. I hear as I'm off. So yeah, I'd show up in

other pants with the Psese Amy. I'm very only. No, I love living in California because of the weather. But as far as what kind of kid I was, I was was very shy. I was diagnosed with a learning disability in second grade and ADHD. And back then that meant I started going to the dummy room. And I believed that was stupid my whole childhood. And now I view the learning disability is my superpower because I think it was just like super creative. And interestingly, my son has the same thing, but now it's not considered such a bad label. It's just something that he had to walk through.

And because of my experience, he's had no problem. But yeah, my parents, I'm in my parents' condo right now. So I'm sure they would have a very different perspective of what kind of kid I was. But I think I was a good kid. Yes. I was a good kid. So what were you into outside of being, you know, shy and quiet, but there are any things like were you into sports, were you into arts?

Like what kind of things were you passionate about back then? Well, in high school, I mean, I loved, I was on the dance team and I loved the dance team, but I didn't love the sorority nature of it. And so I started also when I was about to finish high school, I started working for like the yearbook photo staff. And that created a love for me for photography, which my first career was actually as a photographer. When I was 19, I wandered into the Associated Press Office and they kicked me out. And then I ran into the guy at a press a couple of days later.

His name was Rick Bowmer. He was absolutely like the coolest person I'd ever met in my life up until that point, AP photographer, you know, been to war zones and just amazing. And he saw me at this other event and he was like, you know, give me a call. And so I called him for three weeks straight every single day until I finally picked up the phone and we created an unofficial internship. And I started working for the AP at 19. And then from there, I just fanned out and worked for newspapers for about a decade. And I always thought I'd be a photojournalist. And interestingly, while that didn't pan out as newspapers started folding and I also had a major car accident, which made it hard for me to lift my camera.

It was heavy and it hurt my back. And I ended up finding my way back to being a documentarian in recent years. I just finished the documentary. So it's interesting how your life comes full circle. I always love documenting people. I never thought I would document my own life. But here we are. Very cool.

So you mentioned you like dance, but the culture you didn't really like. So how long did you do it for in high school? Quite a few years, probably, honestly, from middle school right into my junior year of high school. So like six years. And it's great exercise. You did it for quite a while and probably some lessons that you learned being part of, you know, a dance team. So I'd love for you to just kind of dive back into that and talk about, you know, what does it mean to be on a team? What lessons did you extract?

Maybe the good lessons, not the ones with the mean girl culture and stuff like that. But there's got to be some lessons that have added value to your life that you learned over that six years. Well, it's funny that you bring up athletics because before I joined the dance team, I was on the softball team, and I was so bad as softball. I'm actually, you can insert the joke however you want, but I'm afraid of balls flying at my face. And so they stick me in right field. If I got up to bat, everyone knew that I wasn't getting on to base. I was terrible at it. And you can't do this today.

You know how everybody gets an honorary award at the end of the season? I got my award literally said most feminine player. So I, yeah, I was like, I'm kidding. I gave him back that I was so embarrassed. I did a joke in my act for a long time, but I was like, I knew I couldn't be a lesbian because it was so terrible at softball. Like, that's, I mean, I was so bad. So I started dancing and I was pretty good at it.

I wasn't like an amazing dancer, but I love moving and I love being athletic. Right. Now in my life every morning, five days a week that I can, I go and lift heavy and work out because I think that the fitness keeps your mind stable. If you're not living your body, it's really hard for your mind to be healthy. And so I think if anything, those years of dance really instilled in me the need I have to move as much as possible. And I love that. Yeah, that's a great lesson. Yeah. So. Yeah, I've been breakdancing since 1995. So I, I've been break dancing since 1995. So I, I understand how you want to move, right?

You want to continuously move and you want to be active. And as a father of six, too, like, I've got to be active. You've got to stay in shape because, you know, I look down and there's kids that want to play sports and they want to be outside in the afternoons. And so maintaining that has been fun and then teaching other people how to do it as well. I don't know. Have you taught your daughters how to dance at all? Have you, you know, taught many things that you learn back.

when you used to do it? So I have a son and a daughter, and both of them are water polo players. They're, yeah, they're both pretty athletic. I mean, to be able to do water polo is insane. My son is the opposite of me. If there's a ball, he's miraculous. Like I, he can play tennis like nobody's business,

baseball, like whatever it is, you throw a ball at him and he's got it. And my daughter, April, she's really good too. I just wanted them in some sort of sport that instilled a really hard athletic component into their lives, because their dad was a really unhealthy person. And they grew up around that.

So actually, this is a fun story when they were little, well, we can get more into it, but I went through a pretty rough spell. And a friend of mine was running a garage gym in his house. And he moved. And he had a bunch of our neighbors would go over there and workout together. When he moved, I took him, I bought his used a gear. I brought it up to my garage.

And then everyone was coming over to my house to work out. And I viewed that as an opportunity to like really instill that, you know, working out as just part of your daily activity. I've dismantled it since then. It's been quite a few years. But, yeah, I try to keep them as active as possible. My son is way more interested than my daughter. But she's a tough as nails and you put her in the pool. And that's a violence where they beat the hell out of each other in the water.

I just. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. It's, you know, I see them moving through water. I'm like, why does it feel like? like I'm like going nowhere when I'm running through water, but they're just like, they figure it out how to, yeah. Juggling a ball?

Yeah. Yeah. That's a pretty intense sport. You probably won't find me out there playing on a team, I'm sure. But break dancing? I mean, my God, like, that is so rad. I mean, can you like spin on your heads? So I haven't, I don't at 45.

I try to avoid things where I could probably break my neck with, you know, with as many, many things as I have going on. So, but windmills, you know, spinning on my back, popping, gliding, the cricket, which is like where you get on both your hands and you spin in a circle. So yeah, it's, I love it. It's fun. And it also helps too because I play a lot of basketball. And so if I ever get tripped and fall, I just go down into breakdancing and get back up. Just cricket. Like, yeah, I just, I don't fall. I just dance my way back into the game, you know? And so that ends up being pretty, pretty useful. Or if you drop, you know, your groceries, you just spin out of it. And, you know, you know, and you end up giving people some free entertainment every once in a while.

I was going to say that's going to be fun. I love it. Yeah, kids, the kids all hated. I'm like so uncool, but I enjoy embarrassing, as you probably do. So let's get into after high school. So you, you've kind of played some sports, you know, you're getting into some physical things. And then you start working, you become a journalist, you're doing that for 10 years. So did you go to college? Was Is that something that wasn't in your purview because you started to work? I'm just curious. I don't know what path you ended up taking.

And if you did go, what was that experience like? Yeah, no, I went to college. Then my first year, I went to a very small private college that I didn't really like very much. It was in Curval, Texas, called Shiner. And I went there because my mother felt like it would be a good safe landing space for me, being that I had the learning disability and was concerned for me adjusting to college. It was not really necessary.

was way too small for me. But what I did find when I was in Curville was the Curval Daily Times was a little newspaper. So this is before I met Rick. So high school, I started from a yearbook team, or yearbook, whatever it's called, like journalism. And then the year after I was in Curville and working, I worked full time because I was so bored at Shriver for the Curval Daily Times. They hired me at one side. There's one other full-time staffer there. And that's where I got a lot of experience shooting everything, you know, from Little League to driving up and shooting to San Antonio Spurs at that time. And so when I went to Houston and met Rick, I was transferring to a different university. So that's when I started working for the Associated Press and then also

freelancing for a bunch of newspapers in the Houston area. So I got a lot of experience in photography. And I changed my major to art with a focus in photo technology and moved to Texas State University. At that time, it was called Southwest Texas, which isn't South and West. It's like right in the North of the state. I think based on the name alone, you know that it's not. Is that the one that's on the Guadalupe River, I believe? It's in San Marcos. Yeah, in San Marcos.

Yeah, yeah. The rivers. That's not far from New Braunfels and that area. Exactly. Yeah. And the whole like, what's it called the waters? Schlitterbond, Schlitterbond water park. Yes.

Yes. And I mean, it's so much fun there because like, I mean, you two down the river with like a bucket of food and beer. I'm like, oh, I mean, it's an awesome. place to spend a couple of years because it's so pretty right there and you're right next to Austin. So I graduated from there. It took me an extra semester, but I was done in like three and a half years. And then I right around, so a few months before the end of my senior year, I was driving home from college and I have always played guitar. So you asked what I did as a child. I started playing guitar when it was very young. I don't consider myself an amazing guitar player, but I've played my

my whole life. And I love writing songs, but I told you I was very shy. So I would never play the songs I wrote for anybody. And I was writing home in my car from school. And I hear this funny song on the radio. It was this Judd song in Texas called Daddy's Hands. And I just cracked up laughing. It's a very serious song about how they remember their father through his hands. It's a whole, you know, it's a country sap song with sad, but I start laughing because to me, in my mind, it's just this daddy's hand incest song. And so I write the lyrics and I put it like, you know, not, I'm paying attention to the road, but I kind of like jet down the lyrics, throw them on the seat next to me. And I'm singing my version of daddy's hands and I'm driving down the road. And out of nowhere, a tire flies out in front of me.

And I'm going 70 miles per hour. And I try and dodge the tire and I managed to get over to the left of it, but it gets caught under my front left tire, and it flips me up. And I'm in the air for a second. And then I come back down, boom. And I'm like, okay, I'm going to be all right. But the momentum continued to flip me. And I flipped this vehicle on the freeway. And it was the most, is the longest amount of time you can imagine.

If you've been in a car accident, like that's serious. A lot of people explain that time just slows down. And I was, it's probably one of the only times in my life. I've fully been out of control to that degree and fully at peace for those few seconds because there was nothing I could do and I was alone in the world. And that car flew down the road, stopped on the roof. I walked away from it. I was in a Volvo when I was seatbelted in.

I only had one physical mark on my leg. I had a big stretch of my leg. Other than that, it was just neck and back injury. And what I caught out of the car, those lyrics had flown out of the car and they were on the road. next to me when I walked around the vehicle and I picked them up and put them on my pocket and the next day I thought I was in so much pain but I picked up my guitar

and I was like I guess I need to and a year later I went to the Houston laugh stop and I played daddy's hands and two other songs and that was it two months later I was booked and I was working wow yeah what an entrance into you know stand-up comedy and yes I have experience

a accident like that actually at north of 70 miles an hour when I was 19 and we flipped you know about three times landed and my buddy got ejected I didn't even realize I was injured I climbed out we searched for our friend and he had to get life-flighted I had to get rushed because eventually I smelled this very strong iron smell like when you're bleeding a lot and I reached in my right leg my hand went in about a fist deep. And I was like, I think I'm injured. And so I just fell to the ground, got a heat blanket. I've lost so many pints of blood, was rushed to the hospital. They had to rebuild muscle in my right leg, 12 inch cut there, eight inch cut on my left leg, a couple cuts on my wrist, 52 staples later. They said I may not walk. And I'm glad to say 26 years later, I'm still

breakdancing, right? So in my eyes, God is good, and he definitely protected me in that situation and there were some off-duty EMTs that happened to arrive right after the truck landed while we're searching for our friends. So I've experienced it and it is exactly like that, Lana, where time slows down and it's almost like you're just like moving in this really slow thing, you know, but all you can do is nothing. You're just kind of waiting, you know, until until something happens but very scary very very traumatic but i'm grateful to go through something like that and to be out on the other side i'm sure that that it's the same for you and and for you it sparked something that is now something that you're very very passionate about and and diving in even at a higher level

which we're going to be talking about later in the show so talk about this first opportunities get in this accident, you're injured, and you kind of are like, well, the paper landed here. I've got to do this now. I've got to put this out into the world, right? So from shy person to let me go ahead and take the stage at a comedy show. Those are two very different things. So you sure there wasn't a head. No, I'm just kidding.

So you were ready. You already had it inside of you. It was already there. You just were, this was kind of your inspiration to move forward with it. it sounds like. From that point on in my life, there's a couple things, but I, oh my God, your accident, like it's so terrible. I'm so lucky that, I mean, I, I'm very lucky. And I knew, though, had anything gone differently that night, like, I stopped just a few feet from another pole, an additional impact, whatever, like, I, and from that moment on, I was like, wow,

I recognize how short life is and that I could die at any time. So I just knew I had to live life to its fullest. And so anything that seemed like an irrational fear from that point forward, I had to approach it as if it's something I just need to conquer because it's not helping me live my best life. So I never thought I would do stand up. I was just playing songs. I started getting out of my shell and playing them out in public like some open mics

and stuff and somebody said, wow, those songs are funny, you should go to the open mic. And so I was always a huge fan of comedy. I used to go to that club the last stop all the time and go see comedians perform. I really saw females back then. And so it just didn't seem like something that I would do. That's a sad thing for, you know, like little girls if they don't see people that look like them doing a particular task. Maybe you don't think you can do it. But I did.

And it was the moment it happened, I was like, this is amazing. And then when I went back, like I said, I went back two months later. I went back for more open mics, but when I got my first booking, I performed on the stage, the big stage, and the manager put $20 in my hand. And I was like, what's this for? And it's like, oh, it's for your performance. And I was like, it's amazing. I think it's still the same amount of money today. Like, it's so bad. But I was like so excited. And that's when I thought, well, I can actually make a living at this. This is really cool. And I really wanted to pursue it. And so here we are. That's great. That's great. So let's talk about what did that, what was that the catalyst for? So you have this opportunity. You get on stage. You crush it. It sounds like you're getting some cash in your pocket, which is also great. Did you say, hey, like now I need to do more. I need to go on tour. Did you know that process? Like did you have mentors? Like how did you actually start to blaze a trail in comedy when you didn't really. have anyone around you that was doing it that I know about unless you did have a mentor close by. Well, at the time, I traveled the year between college and this opportunity when I started

doing stand-up. So when I got home, I came back to my parents and I started doing what I thought was the next logical career move, which was going back into the Houston media. But instead of pursuing doing still, I would look into doing more news-based, you know, morning news, afternoon news. So I got an internship at the Channel 13 ABC affiliate in Houston. And after a few weeks as an intern, they needed somebody. They were launching a new morning show. And so I got hired on as a grip. And then I worked from Grip to being on the morning news,

doing everything from operating teleprompter to cutting scripts. And I started to learn how to edit an editor. But I really didn't like the confinement of being inside in a booth all day. And so then I was like, well, maybe I want to write the stories. Maybe I want to be on camera, which at the time I was very nervous about that idea. But I was like, okay, this is maybe a logical thing. I'll try it. And I put together a tape and I sent it out and I got a job in a very small market to do reporting on weather, girl type stuff, weather person.

And that's when I walked into the last stop. Right after I'd gotten the job offer, I walked in the last stop. And I had to make a decision at that moment. Do I want to do one or the other? It knew that I just knew. I was like, I wanted to do comedy. At that time, I met another comedian. I met a bunch of comedians that night,

but one in particular was a very overweight comic named Raffy May. And I don't know if he remember him. He was on last comic standing. So he was morbidly obese. Yeah. At that time, Ruffy was, and I'm not exaggerating, Rafi was 800 pounds. So he walked up to me right before my open mic actually standing there with a guitar.

And there was another comedian on stage with the guitar who did a song called Blue Moon. You know, he did a parody of it. And then he dropped his pants and was wearing blue tights. And it was terrible. So Ralphie being Ralphie, the open mic police walked up to me. And can you play that thing? Are you funny? Can you sing?

And I said yes to all three very confidently, even though I had no idea if I was funny. And he walked off very arrogant and was like, well, we'll see. And I thought, who was this fat a-hole? Like, who the hell is this guy, like walking up to me like that? And I mean, he was very big, as you recall. And I got up and I did my set. And like you said, I had an amazing first time. And afterwards, I went into the back room and I was putting my guitar away.

And Rofi came back up to me and he said, you're really funny. And I don't joke about funny, which is hilarious. And then he said, here's my pager number. which is also funny to think, right, back then. Yes. And he goes, give me a call if you want to do a stand-up. I'll help you out. And I was like, all right, cool.

And at the time, he was, like, Channel 13 was on the freeway. And on the other side of the freeway, he was living in a house that was there. I was working 4 a.m. to noon. He got up at noon. So I would get off work and then I would go over to their house. And we would get to hang out and talk. And there was a bunch of comics in there. And it was like a wonderful opportunity for me to meet other people.

meetings that were young and doing stand-up and I could say, okay, this is their future. You know, this is what I could be doing. And I love that. It looked like so much fun. So then I just poured myself into stand-up and he and I became good friends. And I got to know him very well, mostly over the phone because he was traveling between Fust and Philly. He was one of the funniest humans I'd ever made. He was just hilarious and engaging. And over the phone, I fell in love with her. And we ended up getting married and having two kids. That says a crazy story, for one, because when you first meet, you're like, who is this guy? Right? And then he ends up being, okay, well, she's actually funny. And then that kind of sparks a mentorship, friendship, and then turns into something more. So I appreciate you sharing that. I didn't know that. I didn't have that context. It's good that you do that. Yeah. No, that's awesome. And so let's talk a little bit about you, you now.

are doing stand-up full-time at this point, I'm assuming. And so what was that, or maybe not, but what was the transition like if you were trying to weave it into while you were working? And did you end up ever going full-time? So, yes. So very quickly, I went full-time. So, like, initially, I ended up leaving the job at Channel 13 because I couldn't work 4 a.m. until mean shifts and be at the clubs until midnight. I was exhausting. I was split-shifting my sleep and it was killing me. I did that for about. I would say like roughly six months until I finally said I have to devote myself to one thing or the other. And I decided I really wanted to stand up, which meant getting a bunch of jobs that, you know, might not be jobs that I want, but jobs that I can get to help pay means to spend.

So, so I would bartend. I would teach comedy defensive driving classes. I still shot images. I was still freelancing. So I was able to make money for the newspapers. And I had it was also, I'd moved into an apartment with my then best friend and roommate from high school. And that was that in Houston. And it was easy to make a living doing these odd jobs and doing stand-up, picking up gigs, flexible work, going, doing gigs, coming back, paying rent, and doing open heights. Like, you could build yourself in comedy in that way. But if I wanted to move to L.A. or New York, that would change the trajectory of things.

And I did. I wanted to get out of Houston and go to L.A. And Rafi was dividing his time and he was encouraging me to move to L.A. And so I decided to bite little and I did that. And that's a much more expensive move. But I did the same thing when I got to L.A. I found flexible work. So I started, it was almost impossible. I thought, oh, well, I'm working for the news stations in L.A. Maybe I can become a grip. I mean, in Houston, maybe I can become a grip or do that type of work in L.A. But it's so competitive to get that. So I started working temp jobs. And I booked a lot of work that took me out on the road. So I did, I think I did four what comics know as Trimble Runs back then, which are hell bottom of the barrel gigs where you drive 10 hours a day to some hotel, ice skate rink, whatever it is. I performed in an airport once. Like it was just like the most wild gigs in these little tiny towns. And I did that. I did it four times. And it's a big long run. And C.W. Kendall was another booker back then that did like the middle of the country and you just drive and drive and drive and then do these shows. And then you try and sell your CDs or your T-shirts to just pay for gas to get to the next show. And I learned

a lot about being a comic. So I was able to pretty much be a full-time standup early on in my career. That's awesome. Yeah. That's awesome. And so you have two kids now. So I don't know when in the journey that they started to come around. And I'd love to find out, you know, did that have to pivot things for and shift the dynamic of doing stand-up because you are now started to raise kids. Well, I was really lucky in many ways because, okay, so here we are. I meet Ralphie. I moved to L.A. We live in a studio apartment in Hollywood for the first year or so, maybe two years.

I say about a year. And then we start to get more settled. I've got consistent temp work. He's got, he gets his first writing job on more sports, Jane Moore's show. at the time. And we're making a little bit more money. And we live in this, like a studio apartment is so small that I don't even have a closet that's proper. I can hang my clothes. And his, everything he had was ralphi-sized. So if you can imagine just doing laundry was so challenging. So we ended up getting an apartment off Crenshaw. It's just, you know, a rough part of town.

And we lived there for about a year. He and I were dating for, like, roughly around seven years. just broke and really struggling. Maybe it was a little less, but it was when people, I've been judged in my life for being with Rafi because when most people came to know him, he was successful. But he was, when I met him, he was broke and fat and funny. That was it. Like, and people don't, see, I don't blame people for thinking this.

If I see a super old dude with super hung, your hot young chick, I'm like, I'm going to judge, right? So when they saw me with him, like people would judge, but I sincerely love Ralphie. When he started, when he booked Lost Comics Standing, that was pretty amazing because we went from living off Crenshaw to moving to a nice apartment. And he started touring and going to bigger and bitter venues. And I could go with him sometimes or I'd go out and do my own thing. It just depended on what we were doing.

And it was lovely. I got to hang out with him and do shows. or do my own shows, and it was really wonderful. But once we had kids, we had our first daughter, when we decided that first year of her life, I traveled with him exclusively. And it was wonderful because I got to have my baby and be with my husband, and we got to be nomadic and travel together.

And I never had to stop stand up, which a lot of moms would have to stop. And then we had our son, which became even more challenging, but probably the most, we had money, so it made it not so bad. We got a tour bus. We were able to be on the bus together, but what became a problem was his addiction. And that, that's really where it was very hard. And then as, I mean, as the kids were getting older, I also, no matter what, it was important for them to start having their own lives and their own activities and their friends.

So pulling kids out of school all the time to take them on the road. It was not a great idea all the time. But during their early years, I took them, I don't think there's a science center anywhere in this country they haven't been to. So they had an interesting childhood for sure. Yeah, yeah, sounds like lots, lots of travel and lots of cool places and learning

and just being out in the real world, which is always fun. It's always fun having those experiences. And so I know we talked off air, you know, one of your goals now is, is really getting more into comedy. So I'd love to talk about some things that you're up to, some exciting projects that you can share with the audience.

And then, of course, before we wrap up, I want you to be able to share. Where can people get in touch with you? I know people are going to listen to the conversation. And I think we could probably do probably a two-hour show and not really get into everything. But maybe that will lead to a part two down the road too because I know you've got things to do as well.

So talk a little bit about, what you're up to now, what type of projects you've got going on. Well, I am on April 28th. We're premiering Ralphie's documentary at Landmark Theater on Sunset, and then we're doing a second screening in L.A. in North Hollywood. And then I'm taking it on the road. So it's such a long story. I'm going to try and convince this down a little bit.

But when Rafi was alive, we started filming him. It meant to be a weight loss journey, and it ended up being a very different story. And one that even I could never have imagined. And you know, they always say a great documentary doesn't end where you think it well. This couldn't be more of the case with this project. And he left us a gift. It's so just, look, Rafi always said he wanted to help people. And if there's one thing that we can help people at this point with is the addiction and codependency story.

I'm very much a codependent. If you know anything about addiction, this is a very common story. But people don't always get to witness it in real time. And we have that on film, and he gave that as a gift to us. I've been working on the film for a decade, and it's been really hard to get through because I'm part of the story. I hired a director, I co-directed, but I gave him full lead on the story, since I'm a subject. We don't want to compromise anything.

So any part of the story that included me in it, David Gans, who is, the editor and co-director like handled it and he did a beautiful job. But one of the things, as we're finishing the project, so I was trying to figure out, how do I get this out to the world? And I remember the conversation that Ralphie and I had when, you know how you have the conversation? I don't know if you've had this with your spouse, I would assume what you want to have happened with you remains after you pass. So Ralphie told me, I want to be cremated and I want you to scatter. me at comedy clubs all across the country. And I laughed so hard. And I was like, you're going to be

in every vacuum cleaner across the country. And he was like, I don't care. I want to be scattered everywhere. And I'm like, that's so gross. I said, I'll do my best to honor your wishes, but that's really gross. But when he died, his mother really wanted him in the family cemetery in Clarksville, Arkansas. And when his mother called me and asked me, I didn't blink an eye. It's his mother. So we He brought his ashes there and that's where he is. But it kind of was in the back of my mind. I'm like, well, how do I honor this wish of his? It occurred to me.

I was like, well, I have this film and he has this famous bright orange jacket. And so I was like, I'm going to bring him on the room. We're going to take his film out to markets where people loved him and we're going to watch this film together in a special event screening. I'm going to go there with the jacket and we're going to take and let everyone kind of connect with him because one of the things that Rafi always did after his shows was shake everyone's and take everyone's picture, like with them. And I just thought this is the way to do it.

And we took a couple of videos already of people in the jacket. The last one we posted just went viral. And it was, it's just the, it's an amazing already. And we're just starting. I haven't even had the first screening. So I really hope that people come and support this because it's a really special thing that I feel like we've been able to pull together. But you're asking what else?

So with the film, I started this film when, my kids were quite little. And now my son's 16 and my daughter's 18, but they were six and eight when the school home started. So my son doesn't have very many positive memories of his father because, as I told you, he was struggling heavily with addiction. And I was like, gosh, this is a hard thing for them. And I thought, how do I give him a positive memory for him to hold onto? So I created a comic book that is called Pounds of Power. It's about a fat superhero named Johnny. So, So if you think about, okay, what is fat? It's stored energy.

So what if we use that as a tool? You can burn your fat. You can have superpowers. Anyways, this is, I'm so proud of it. It's a four-part series, the first, four books. The first one comes out in conjunction with the film in April. And then May, June, July, we'll have four books. And I have an amazing illustrator, an amazing colorist, and amazing letterist.

And so that's another piece that comes with the film and then when the film goes to stream, or not a biographical book, to explain parts of the story that aren't in the film. And that's gonna be called coming up for air, and I just don't my cover back, and I've never thought I would ever, as a learning disabled, this,

I can't even talk, the real learning disabled girl who couldn't spell, I've written a book, which nobody would have ever thought. And so I'm gonna be putting that out with the film when that comes around and I do a couple of other, things. Meanwhile, just to kind of support us, I have a streaming media company for stand-up comedy where we post bits of comics, and it's helped keep us afloat because when Rafi passed, he didn't take care of us very well, as is a common story with it. And so I had to figure out how to

bail water out of a very sunk ship and get it back on its track. And I'm proud. My mother told me last night, which was really cool. She said that I'm really, she said, she's so proud of me. And I was like, that's just the best words from the one person that really matters. Yeah. Now that, that is great. Well, well, I know this is going to, you know, sorry for your loss, first of all. I know that, you know, it's not easy to lose anyone.

And then to have it, you know, be from addiction, which there's so many people that struggle with addiction in all different areas, you know, every single day. It's one of those things that it's very, very challenging to deal with. So, you know, the fact that you have, you know, a decade later, now you're about to produce something that's going to honor his legacy and give your son something positive and proud to be about it. And I think that hearing other people at these venues talk about him, I think that's going to be a big value at for your son too. So he can see that, hey, there were some positive things. He did bring a lot of light. and although the darkness may have won initially,

but now we're going to kind of shine his light bright, and I think that's going to be a really cool thing. So I'm honored to be able to help you promote that through our show and our platform, and we're going to make sure that we put all of your links down in our show notes so people can access all the amazing things, you know, the documentary, the comic, and then your future book.

Maybe we'll get you back for round two once the autobiography comes out. That'll be a lot of fun. So I'd love to, as we're wrapping up here, What would you give advice-wise to a listener out there? You know, they may hear this and they've kind of heard you like weaving comedy throughout, you know, your story and your journey, which has been really fun. And comedy is so great because it's universal, right? It's something that everybody understands. So what advice would you give for someone out there if they're like, you know, I think I'm funny.

Like everywhere I go, people are like, hey, you're funny. You say things that you have dry humor or you have this type of humor. And how could you encourage them to taking that first step? Maybe go for that first open mic night like you did all those years ago. That's a pretty easy answer, actually. Every comic doesn't matter. I mean, okay, sometimes people take classes first and then they'll get on stage. But I would say every comic that you love, that you are, you know, they all started at an open mic. So you've got to find a mic, you got to go there and you got to go there a lot.

And you've got to learn, I believe, to enjoy the bomb. Like, you'll learn more from any job. It doesn't matter what you do for a living. If you have a bad day, you're going to learn more from the bad day than the good day. So like going out and trying something and not doing it well and going back and trying to do it again. And it hurts. It's tough. But you've got to go out there and you've got to just do it.

But if you're thinking about doing something, anything it is, whether it's stand up or it's anything, you can ask yourself, what's the worst thing that could happen? You know, like you really want to try this stand up. Well, I go and do it and I don't like it or I don't do well. So there's a small room full of people who think I'm not funny. That's the worst thing that could probably happen in that event. I mean, maybe you embarrass yourself. I mean, that's tough for some people to want it. And if that, I don't, I think people ask themselves the question, you know, the worst thing that could happen, you could die.

Like that's right. Or you could hurt somebody else. That's not the case with most of our decisions that stop us from doing things that might end up being one of the greatest things we've ever done. Like, you want to call a girl or a boy or somebody that you are interested in or whatever. What's the worst? Oh, they could say no. And that hurts.

But if you don't try, you'll never know, right? And that's actually worse, I think. So, yeah. I love it. I love the advice. You know, we, I tell my clients all the time, my coaching clients. I'm like, you have to fail forward. Right.

Because we're not going backwards. So you got to fail forward. Right. And if you fail forward, you got to get back up. And it's about the reps, like you said. You got to go put in the reps. No athlete ever got good by just sitting on the couch and watching film. Like they got good because they got on the field and they went and put in the reps.

And so I love the advice, Lana. It's been a pleasure meeting you, speaking with you, having you on the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. Any parting words for the audience before we wrap up? Oh, my gosh. It was nice to meet all of you virtually and auditorily. And thank you, guys. Thanks for letting me share my story. I am really grateful for the opportunity.

Thank you. Yeah, my pleasure. It was great having you on the show. Folks, make sure you run, don't walk to the show notes. Go grab all of Lana's links to her website, to all the other amazing things, the comic book, the documentary. Check all of that out down in the show notes. Lana, thank you so much for coming on the Blazor-on-Trell podcast.

Hope you have a great time with your parents down in Florida, and I'm sure we'll be chatting here very soon. Thank you.