August 21

[The Story Teller]

August 21
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Rosie O’Donnell
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“Time and time again people told me to quit.... I didn’t listen to them.”
—Rosie O’Donnell
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Rosie O’Donnell is likable. Once you see her on television or in a movie, you feel as if you could be best friends. She’s a wisecracking, funny, effervescent, down-to-earth comedian with a New York accent. She’s also very focused on her career. The middle of five children, Rosie learned comedy from her mother, a gifted amateur comedienne. Rosie was only ten when her mother died of cancer. At about the same time, Rosie decided she would become a movie star—and her entry would be through comedy. Watching TV “almost twenty-four hours a day,” she studied acting, delivery, and comedy. As a teenager, Rosie excelled at mimicking popular comedians, and she eventually began performing her own material.



At age seventeen, after gaining experience at local comedy clubs, Rosie began a five-year stint playing comedy clubs in forty-nine states. As she gradually honed her material, Rosie hoped someone would see her act and “discover” her. Although she was well received by audiences, other actors told her to quit. They called her too heavy, too tough, and “too New York,” but her dream kept her going. With money she won as a five-time Star Search champion, Rosie moved to Los Angeles. Her dream of being discovered came true when Brandon Tartikoff, then head of NBC’s entertainment division, saw Rosie perform at Igby’s comedy club and cast her in the sitcom Gimme a Break. Rosie’s childhood dream has come true. She has appeared in a number of movies, starred in a Broadway revival of Grease, and established herself as an award-winning TV and film actress and comedian.



Consider This: Focus on your dream. Study and practice to make yourself the best you can be. Don’t believe the nay-sayers. Keep taking steps toward your goal.



Submitted by Richard