Being a mom can be a lonely, exhausting experience. One positive aspect of social media is that it has provided many of them an outlet to vent their frustrations and provide a window into the amusing and often confounding challenges they face day to day.
So three moms with storytelling savvy and a knack for making funny videos have teamed up Avengers-style and developed a comedic theater show called “My Name is Not Mom.” It is coming to Center Stage August 13 with tickets available at ticketmaster.com.
Dena Blizzard, a 48-year-old New Jersey mom of three, said the three friends “found how important our roles were for our own sanity talking to people during the pandemic. Everyone was feeling crazy.”
Floridia mom Meredith Masony, 40, said she had an epiphany earlier this year. Tiffany Jenkins has younger kids, Masony has tweens and early teens and Blizzard has older ones. “I realized we cover every stage of motherhood,” she said. “There’s a thread of relatability for every mom.”
Blizzard said the show is a blend of stories, jokes and theater pieces, some with all three of them on stage, some individually.
“We all approach motherhood different and our stage presence is different,” Jenkins said. “Meredith is loud. She’s running around the stage. I stand there awkwardly. I get stage fright! Dena has an ‘I don’t give a darn’ attitude.”
They had three test shows in Jacksonville, Florida, before audiences of 300 recently that they felt went well.
“It was like being seen and heard after being stuck in the house so long,” she said. “The shows were like hanging out with a bunch of friends. After it was over, I was in the dressing room and was ready to go out and do it again. I can’t wait!”
Here is a summary of each woman:
Tiffany Jenkins
Age: 36
City of residence: Sarasota, Florida
Kids ages: 5, 6 and 10
Social media following: 3.4 million on Facebook; 1.1 million on Instagram; 1.9 million on TikTok; 236K on YouTube
Her hook: She was once addicted to opioids, but after overcoming that while raising three children, she began to blog, then wrote a book, then started doing videos online, many of which went viral. She also created her own solo stage show. “I would look at the Internet and everything looked perfect,” she said. “It made me feel like I was failing as a mom when you looked at the hurricane inside my house. I decided to get honest about motherhood and got this huge amount of support. Then I branched out and talked about addiction and mental health and depression and anxiety. The more honest I was, the more people gravitated toward me. It allowed me to be me without the use of drugs and I was helping people in the process.”
Meredith Masony
Age: 40
Residence: St. Augustine, Florida
Kids: ages 10, 12 and 15
Social media following: 3 million followers on Facebook; 361,000 on Instagram; 160,400 on TikTok
Her hook: Seven years ago, she needed an outlet for her frustrations about motherhood so “I began airing my dirty laundry on the Internet via livestream on Facebook and creating sketch comedy videos. But I’ve always wanted to do some sort of show about motherhood for moms. This is kind of a dream come true.”
Dena Blizzard
Age: 48
Residence: Moorestown, New Jersey
Kids: Ages 17, 19 and 21
Social media following: 456K on Facebook; 41K f on Instagram; 29K on YouTube
Her hook: She was a stand-up comic for many years, then raised three kids. She has done an Off-Broadway show, “One Funny Mother,” and has generated two big viral videos, “Back to School Rant” and “Chardonnay Go.” The latter became a board game for “wine lovers, moms and other shameless people.” She also hosts a Facebook Live show “One Funny Morning.”
SHOW DETAILS
“My Name Is Not Mom”
8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 13. $30-$45. Center Stage, 1374 W. Peachtree St. NW, Atlanta. ticketmaster.com.
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