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By Kent Larsen
Former Missionary Hits Comedy Network
TORONTO, CANADA -- Former missionary Jessica Holmes is poking fun at
idols, celebrities and friends, and her work was just captured in a
series of 13 episodes that will air starting next week on the Comedy
Network. Holmes, 27, stars as anchor Tricia Farr in "The Itch," a
send-up of Hollywood entertainment shows. Her comedy is also the
subject of an hour-long special, "Holmes Alone" which will air Sunday
as the season premiere of "Comedy Network Presents."
One of the subjects of Holmes comedy is Canadian singer Celine Dion,
who Holmes skewers for her relationship with her husband, who Dion
met when she was 13. But Holmes says Dion is something of an idol. "I
feel so torn about it. I love her music, I love watching her in
concert. It's the people I idolize that I end up poking fun at."
Holmes adds that she wouldn't be surprised at anger from Dion, "I
certainly wouldn't blame her for being angry with me. But I know that
creatively and artistically I do make moral choices." But she also
gets irritated at some celebrities, "I get a bit irked when someone
like Woody Allen marries his stepdaughter, or when Kathie Lee is
getting into all kinds of trouble over sweatshops."
Holmes says she developed her sense of morality from her devoutly
Mormon father and from her mother, a rape crisis counsellor. She says
that her happy and stable childhood had a positive influence on her
sense of humor, "I'm not into dark comedy," she said. "That's not how
I see the world. Maybe I see the world through rose-coloured glasses,
but I love life."
Her comedy has also been influenced by her religious experiences. One
of the characters she has made up, Candy Anderson Henderson, is an
amalgamation of people she met while serving a two-year mission. "I'd
never seen so many curling irons, stamp collections or arts and
crafts materials that somehow related to Jesus," she said.
Source:
Comic sends up folks she loves
Edmonton Alberta Canada Sun 10Nov00 P2
By Steve Tilley: Edmonton Sun
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