Last September I was contacted by someone from the Juilliard Journal asking if I would write something for the publication’s Life After Juilliard section — where alums write briefly about what they’ve been up to post-graduation. Apparently they needed one more alum to round out their winter issue, and I was happy to submit something. I sat down and wrote an honest update on my life post-conservatory, and even wove in a little message about the benefits I found in beginning a new craft (that new craft being stand-up comedy, as I went to Juilliard for viola performance).
I felt it was a nice piece of writing that could be beneficial for a current student, especially one who might be feeling a pull in a direction away from their major. I know if I had read it as a student — who was riddled with performance anxiety, repetitive-stress injuries, and self-doubt — I would have felt comforted, or at the very least, intrigued. I remember these publications being strewn about the school building, so I figured what I wrote would fall into the hands of at least one current student who might read it on the toilet in the bathroom during a practice break or rip it out to use as rolling paper or something.
Recently, I checked out the winter issue of the Journal and noticed they didn’t include my piece. I glanced at some of the pieces they did publish, then reread mine and started laughing — I don’t think my submission was what they were looking for.
Anyway, since I have this piece of unpublished writing, I thought I’d share it with you now. Here it is.
Oh, wait, first I need to plug some upcoming shows:
4/26 + 4/27 in Vienna, VA at Wolf Trap
5/2 in NYC at Merkin Hall
5/31 in Seattle, WA at Benaroya Hall
7/12 + 7/13 in Houston, TX at The Riot Comedy Club
7/26 + 7/27 in Chicago, IL at The Comedy Bar
All tickets at isabelhagen.com
Also for anyone who’s been following along with the progress of my film On A String, we’re currently editing it to be ready for the 2025 festival season submissions (the timing of production didn’t line up with the deadlines for the 2024 season — filmmaking is a slow process!) This movie has been my main creative focus for a long time now and I’m so excited for the world to eventually see it!
And now for the piece I submitted back in September:
Being a Beginner Again
I spent eleven years at Juilliard as a violist: five in the Pre-College division, four for my Bachelors degree, and two for my Masters. I would never have thought this would lead me to a career in stand-up comedy, but in 2015 when I graduated from my final year at school, I found myself going to NYC open mics almost every night. Sure, I was freelancing as a violist, but I had a new comedy itch to scratch.
It all started in the first year of my Masters degree, when I began having arm pain and had to take a couple months off of playing. With my new free time, I decided to try a comedy open mic, since I had always told people that in another life, I would be a comedian.
I did a few more open mics while at Juilliard, but was still focused on getting back to playing and finishing my degree. But once I graduated, all I found myself wanting to do was tell jokes in basements and back rooms of bars. Unlike the formal training one receives at a conservatory, comedy is a skill you learn simply by going out and doing it as much as humanly possible. I would (and still do) record every set, listen back, and then try the jokes slightly differently the next night until they started getting laughs.
When I started comedy, I was of course very bad at it. But the beauty of being a beginner again was that during the early stage of trying jokes, my improvements were more noticeable than I had been experiencing on viola. I had been playing music for about 20 years by then and had reached a point in my practicing where I no longer sensed I was making any progress. It felt stagnant and disheartening. Then I started comedy, and the tangible gains were a reminder that I could trust a process. This in turn made me enjoy practicing viola again, because I remembered that if I just work at something every day it will get better, even if it doesn’t feel that way in the moment.
For four years I kept my viola and comedy careers separate. I was a New Face of Comedy at the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal and did a set on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, both without my viola in hand. I was also subbing on viola in Broadway pit orchestras, playing recording sessions, and traveling with various new music ensembles. I lived a double life. People would often ask if I ever thought of bringing out the viola when I did comedy, but the thought of doing that made me cringe and sounded so hack. Then one day, it just hit me: I could combine the two, and the simple juxtaposition of skilled viola playing with irreverent jokes might be really funny. And it was.
Another unexpected outcome of performing comedy and writing jokes was a new found passion for screenwriting and film directing. I ended up writing, directing and starring in a web series IS A VIOLIST that you can watch on YouTube, and am now developing that series into a feature film called ON A STRING that I wrote and will be starring in and directing as well*.
*Since writing this, the film has finished production, as mentioned earlier.
Some bonus content for those who’ve read this far! On April 10th I got to sing (yes sometimes I sing!) on The Daily Show in a little choir backing up the band Vampire Weekend. You can watch it here!