Meet Ali Gordon | Author and comedian

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ali Gordon and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ali, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
I have always been a creative person. I think this is a common through-line with people who end up pursuing artistic careers: it has been an impulse for as long as you can remember. I always wanted to write a book. When I was a kid I used to “write books” that I would mail to my grandparents so that they could “review” them before mailing it back with the reviews taped to the back cover. I used to walk past the bookstores in my neighborhood and fantasize about where I would want my book to be featured in that spread; upright by the window, or fanned out on the table? So, no one in my life was surprised when I announced I was publishing a novel. Happy for me, sure! But certainly not surprised.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I am coming to publishing with a bit of an unconventional background – I studied musical theater in college, and for many years performed in musicals. I also am a comedian who teaches and performs improv all over the world. I was sending my final editing passes back to my publisher while I was performing musical improv at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last summer! So, there are some unconventional skills and insights that I am bringing to writing longform fiction.

I began writing this book in 2020, shortly after the death of both of my parents. I needed fiction as a cipher to make sense of a lot of feelings. Many friends and colleagues, in an extremely well-meaning way, kept saying that I was going to someday turn my story into an incredible autobiographical show — my “Baby Reindeer” of sorts. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized I had no interest in telling an autobiographical story, nor did I want to perform it as myself. I had a lot of truth I wanted to share, but it wasn’t necessarily the exact truth of my real life.

Before writing, I had a thought that I kept coming back to, which is that I felt like the world had ended. I kept shuttling that thought away because it felt overdramatic, or immature, or maybe selfish. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized there was truth to it. *A* world had ended – there was a world as I had known it that I could never return to. And in opening myself up to that thought, and allowing myself to experience some sensitivity to it, the rest of the narrative of this novel made itself clear to me. That, even in the face of apocalypse, there are hundreds of small ways a world ends every day.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
The Last Bookstore in DTLA is an easy answer, and an easy way to blow a book-lover’s mind. I also, of course, have to highlight Skylight Books which is my favorite bookstore in all of Los Angeles! I also love to spend an afternoon at Descanso Gardens. The landscape is incredible, and there’s always some unusual, fantastic exhibit at the Boddy House/Sturt Haaga Gallery.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Before moving to Los Angeles, I was working in New York. While auditioning and working as a musical theater performer, I discovered the Upright Citizens Brigade theater. Friends had recommended taking an improv class as a way to stay mentally limber between performing gigs, and pick up some new skills. I thought I’d take a class or two and move on, but I caught the improv bug, and I caught it hard. Improv very quickly became an important part of my life, and UCB the community that propelled me through my 20’s and into exciting professional work. While my novel is not comedy-driven, what I learned about character, communication, empathy, and storytelling from doing longform improv is immeasurable. I know that seems unlikely – especially since my book is so earnest, and not really driven by humor! But I felt extremely aware of it while in in the writing process — characters’ voices came much more naturally to me, and it was easier to sensitively convey characters’ histories and justifications for their behaviors. Even if you’re not a person who wants to write a book or screenplay or pursue anything creative professionally at all, I have to shout-out how much I recommend everyone in the world take an improv class. Yes, even you, reader.

Website: https://www.whatdoesaligordondo.com

Instagram: @msalicenutting

Image Credits
Photo of me holding book at Skylight Books – Delani Carlson
Photo of me in front of The Corner Bookstore in NYC – Allison Stock
Other photos including headshot – Grace Stockdale