By Lauren Means • Photo courtesy of Matt Misisco
With a name like Fortune, she was destined for greatness. Fortune Feimster, who’s named after her great-grandmother, is everywhere right now and shows no signs of slowing down.
Fortune is making a stop in Nashville for two showings of her “2 Sweet, 2 Salty” tour. She says she’s going to pick up where her Netflix special, “Sweet & Salty,” left off and covers the adult version of her life including getting married.
The tour was initially set to launch in March of 2020 but was postponed until this year and Fortune is happy to be back doing what she loves. She said, “It’s so cool to be back on the road. I love Nashville. It is such a great city for comedy.”
Fortune got her start in the entertainment industry as a personal assistant to Emily Proctor of “CSI: Miami.” Both are from North Carolina and met at Fortune’s college graduation where she gave the commencement speech and Proctor was the keynote speaker. In 2003, Fortune moved to Los Angeles to work for Proctor and pursue a career in comedy.
Fortune eventually decided the personal assistant life was not for her and she linked up with Proctor’s neighbor who happened to be a journalist for the Los Angeles Daily News. Fortune spent seven years as an entertainment reporter. During those seven years, she also joined the Groundlings and began to study and proceed with a career in comedy.
In 2010, Fortune was a semi-finalist on NBC’s “Last Comic Standing.” From there, she became a writer and panelist on E’s “Chelsea Lately.” This led to an impressive resume of television and film credits including “The Mindy Project,” “Claws,” “The L Word: Generation Q,” “Office Christmas Party,” “Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar,” and more. She has also had a very successful Netflix Special, “Sweet & Salty,” and a new stand-up tour fittingly titled “2 Sweet, 2 Salty.”
Out, Open and Proud
Fortune has always been “out” during her career. She came out in 2005 before she ever hit the entertainment scene. She was always supported by the people around her to live authentically and share her story. When she was auditioning for “Last Comic Standing,” she asked her manager if she should include stories about being gay and without hesitation, she was told she should absolutely do it. She says her manager said it’s part of who she is, and people will like her for who she is and that she should not hide it.
She has said in the past how it was easy to be sheltered coming from a small, southern town. In a 2010 interview with AutoStraddle, Fortune explains the moment she realized she was gay was when she was watching a Lifetime movie saying, “I’m watching this like, 15-year-old girl coming to terms with being gay and just being OK with it, and something just clicked and I was like, ‘oh my gosh, here I am at 25 years old, and I know that there’s something… I know that this is in me and this is who I am.’ I think that was the first time where I was like, ‘oh my God, I am gay!’ I swear to God, it was just like some epiphany, and the first time I ever said it out loud to myself. And I don’t know, Stockard Channing man… she just brought out the gay in me!”
Fortune says growing up, she knew what gay was but didn’t grasp the concept of being gay as it related to her personally. Part of this was from growing up in a time when there wasn’t much representation of the LGBTQ+ community in the media. It also came from not having anyone in her community being out and ok with being out. She’s part of the shift in changing this for future generations by being out, open and proud.
It’s More Than Just Storytelling
“The awesome part of being able to tell my own story is the hope that it’s funny to people because I’ve gotten to a place where it’s funny to me — it’s difficult in the moment when it’s happening but it tells other people who have gone through that similar experience that it’s a relatable experience,” says Fortune.
She’s also had straight people come up to her after a show and tell her, “Your telling that coming out story helped me realize what it’s like to have to come out as a gay person and I never thought about that before.”
She knows it wasn’t always that easy saying, “That didn’t use to happen. People would lose their careers if they talked about things like that.” Fortune says she is very thankful for the progress but acknowledges “there is work that still needs to be done” for there to be complete equality for the LGBTQ+ community.
Stand-up is where she’s really able to connect with her audiences. “I’m very lucky that audiences have been good to me and embraced me.” She’s able to talk about who she is as a person and her experiences in life which come from the lens of being a lesbian. She says, “I’ve had more people come to my show than ever before and selling out shows so for me it’s a sign of progress.”
She explains how she looks out and can see people from all walks of life and all colors of the rainbow in the audience. “It’s about people coming together and finding a common thread in comedy,” she notes.
From Ms. to Mrs.
Although 2020 postponed her latest tour, it didn’t postpone her wedding. In October 2020, Fortune and her then-fiance Jacquelyn Smith tied the knot in a small ceremony. She says getting married during the pandemic was a unique situation but it made their wedding that much more special. “It was positive and happy when times weren’t so positive and happy in the world,” she states.
“The pandemic was a challenging time for everybody but the one silver lining was we got to spend a lot of time at home with our dogs and it be about our relationship and not crazy work stuff,” speaking to the pandemic married life.
You can catch Fortune at TPAC’s Polk Theater on Saturday, November 20 at 6 pm or 10 pm. If you’re lucky you might also find her hitting up her Nashville favorite, Biscuit Love, for some Bonuts.
For more about Fortune Feimster visit fortunefeimster.com. For tickets to the show visit tpac.org/event/2021-11-20-to-2021-11-20-fortune-feimster/.
