At Valerie’s side was Katie Felton, an Austin transplant from Orange County, by way of NYC. She was the teaching assistant, and got to perform in the showcase as well. I can still recall her material today—so deadpan, self-effacing, and utterly fucking hilarious. Katie, too, had taken her first stand-up class earlier that year, but she was far from finished with comedy. With a combination of perseverance and raw talent, she made herself into a unique face in the Austin comedy scene, performing regularly in stand-up shows and teaching comedy classes of her own, including Stand-Up 201, which teaches open mic hosting, and Stand-Up 301, a class that revolves around different comedy styles. (Worth noting that Stand-Up 201 was also accompanied by an open mic, which Katie and her students hosted every Monday at the Front Page in Austin. The mic is currently on hiatus, but hopefully will be returning soon!)

As you might imagine, Katie boasts quite the comedy résumé. Her lip-syncing stand-up showcase, Lip-Shtick Battle (exactly as amazing as it sounds), is an Austin fixture, and, along with fellow stand-up Austen Silver, she hosts the monthly show Quackin’ Jokes at Captain Quackenbush’s Coffeehouse and Bakery. Last year, she was a semi-finalist in the Funniest Person in Austin competition, and this past September, she beat out hundreds of ATX stand-up hopefuls and made it all the way to the FPIA finals.

These days, you can find Katie rocking the mic at comedy stages all over Austin. When she’s not busy opening up for bigwig comedians like Melissa Villasenor and Jared Freid, she’s hosting her podcast on Instagram, 3 Minutes With Katie. And, just recently, she’s been announced as the headliner of her very own show: Live at Coldtowne with Katie Felton.

We’ve known each other for a few years, and I’ve been lucky enough to take both Stand-Up 201 and 301 with her. I can say in all honesty that it’s been a privilege to watch her incredible career arc, and I was grateful that she decided to drop by my little Substack to chat (on my birthday!) about her comedy inspirations, the challenges of the Austin scene, and why Robin Williams is still the absolute best.

Follow Katie:

IG: @kabbagepatchkatie

Podcast: @3minswithkatie

Threads: @kabbagepatchkatie

Showcase: @lipshtickbattle

Classes: merlin-works.com

Growing up on the other side of the mitten-shaped state was Jena Tiller, who became my roommate in 2008. We lived together in a cozy East Lansing apartment, surrounded by trees and rowdy Michigan State undergrads. The roommate connection came about because of a Craigslist ad which, instead of murder, has resulted in almost 20 years of friendship. Jena and I quickly discovered we had much more than living quarters in common. We were the same age, lifelong Michiganders who played clarinet in high school, and both attended multiple summer sessions at the same place, Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, without somehow crossing paths. We spent weeknights up way too late watching Adult Swim and making Taco Bell runs, scarfing down chicken quesadillas while bonding over our shared interests in music and comedy. Bizarrely, we found out that we’d even attended the same Green Day show at Cobo Hall in Detroit on Nov. 6, 2004—four days after George W. Bush was reelected president. (The band opened with “American Idiot,” followed by Billy Joe opining, “this song has extra fucking meaning now!”)

In 2010, I moved to Austin, Texas, but Jena and I never lost touch. Like me, she’d spent her younger years feeling like a bit of an outcast—a quiet and reserved kid from a big family whose perspective always seemed to clash with the conservative backdrop of rural western Michigan. Even among her three siblings, Jena told me that she never really seemed to fit in. Then, she discovered Green Day as a teenager, and in classic rock-‘n’-roll-saved-my-life fashion, found her people. And her people were punk.

Something important to know about Jena is that, yes, while she’s a dyed-in-the-wool punk rocker, she’s also a talented multi-instrumentalist. Hailing from Kalamazoo, Michigan, her all-female band, Sierra Miffed, made their smash debut on the scene in 2023. (Ironically, the same year that its namesake, Sierra Mist, was discontinued). As lead singer and guitarist, Jena drives the trio straight to the top of its power-chord pedestal, and indeed, her musical chops have been long in the making. She started playing guitar at 15 (“Once I learned power chords, that was all I needed”), but has also played drums, piano, oboe, trumpet, and, of course, clarinet. In fact, she was so proficient with clarinet that she was the first chair section leader her entire high school career. Yet, she’d long had ambitions to start her own punk band; an all-girl band, in particular. We’d been exposed to the same media as kids: the same scathing, haughty coverage of female-fronted bands. We looked up to women like Courtney Love and Shirley Manson for presenting a feminist message that called out to us. So, when Jena was introduced to Katy May by mutual friend Jake Simmons—of Jake Simmons and the Little Ghosts—the two women started practicing together in earnest, with Katy on drums and Jena on guitar. Later joined by bassist Tobi Larmee, they began playing at bars, venues, and clubs all over western Michigan. In 2024, they released their demo on Band Camp, and, just this past March, got to open up for ska legends Mustard Plug at Bell’s Brewery.

Fuck, I could not be prouder. That’s my girl up there!

On Nov. 13, you can catch Jena and Sierra Miffed bringing the house down at The Dormouse Theatre in Kalamazoo, as the opening act for a screening of the cult film Nowhere, and next year, Jena has big plans for the band. Check out our interview below, where we got to chat about 90s media, anxiety problems, and Simpsons trivia.

(Note: the Texas punk band Radioactivity is mentioned, so they deserve a quick shout out!)

Follow Sierra Miffed:

IG: @sierramiffed

Facebook: Sierra Miffed

Band Camp: Sierra Miffed