“Comedy is a giant middle finger to oppressive systems and a way to create and connect.” Meet Camille Roane.

Camille Roane is a stand-up comic who covers race, feminism, dating and everything in between.

Roane’s comedy calling came very recently: “When every well meaning liberal was having a meltdown thanks to the election of Donald Trump, I got into stand up. I was fired up like most people I know… Stand up was a way for me to tell anyone who would listen that plantation weddings are awful and offensive and that they could not under any circumstance touch my hair. I’ve cooled down a bit since then, but still love using stand up as a way to ‘speak my truth’ while making people laugh (well sometimes I just make them uncomfortable, but I get pleasure out of that too).” We love that Roane uses comedy as a way to promote social change.

Roane is inspired by a whole host of women of color kicking butt in the comedy industry, and she strives to be one of them. Her comedy challenge’s society’s views that “women are best seen and not heard,” a phenomenon she notes is even harder for women of color. Need some funny lady inspiration? Check out Roane’s favorites: Mo’nique, Tiffany Haddish and Ali Wong.

Her New Orleans comedy collective, Black Girl Giggles, is an incredible example of the support and community women create for each other. Although she notes that New Orleans is a pretty good place to be a female comic, it can still be isolating to be one of very few women (and people of color) on stage. Black Girl Giggles was her answer to this problem: “A couple of fellow Black comediennes and I founded Black Girl Giggles originally just to create space for us to hang out and enjoy each other’s company. It was nice to have someone you knew at a show who 100% ‘got’ your joke about being the token Black friend. But we realized that we didn’t just need to support each other we needed to create space so that more women of color would feel comfortable in the comedy world. We wanted to amplify and spotlight women who looked like us. So much of comedy is screaming for attention hoping someone notices you. Black Girl Giggles is us noticing and helping each other and ourselves.”

Camille Roane is leaving us with a few last words of wisdom, and all the inspiration you need to hug those special ladies who support you. “You need these things after a bad stand up set: a hug, a shot and an understanding look. It’s been my experience that the best people to provide those things are other funny women. Pursuing comedy is all about perseverance and it’s been the women in my corner who have kept me growing and when you create your own network you can keep each other going.”