One of the true joys of operating our store has been the many, many wonderful people we have met, and friends made all over the world. Please allow me to introduce the Official Stand Up Comedian of Cats Like Us! O.K. well it may be a little corny, but we think she's pretty funny, and she wears Cats Like Us well! Here is an interview with long time customer, avid blogger, and retro style enthusiast April Richardson:
1. We discovered you just doing a search for (I can't remember) and were pleasantly surprised to find you talking up Cats Like Us. How did you find US? What do you like the best about shopping on our website?
I can't remember how I found you guys! I think I was just searching for something by a brand I like that I couldn't find elsewhere? And you guys had it in stock? And I was excited to see your selection! I think I like that best about you guys -- all the brands I like in one place! And your site is easy to navigate, and I like knowing I can check out the new items every Thursday, and of course you guys are super nice and have awesome customer service!
2. We have been following your blog (remarkably dressed). You have a wonderful fashion sense with a modern take on retro clothing. What inspires your fashion sense?
Hey, thanks! Well, honestly, I just rip off everyone I like -- I'm just trying to be a combination of everyone whose aesthetics I admire. I mean, first and foremost, obviously I bite Bettie Page's general style with my hair and stuff. But some days I will wake up and think, "What would Bettie Page wear if she tried to join Devo?" and put on like, big white glasses and blue tights and whatever. Most of the time I will watch old music videos and get inspired by them. I saw Elton John live last week and came home thinking, "I want to wear neon blazers now." I very much like pinup and vintage looks because I think those sorts of clothes are made to fit my body type best, but I like to mix other eras in there, too. Sometimes I want to dress like Morrissey in the '90s and sometimes I want to dress like Katharine Hepburn in the '40s and sometimes I want to dress like a prep from an '80s movie and sometimes I want to dress like Divine from any John Waters movie, heh.
3. You combine lots of bright colors, and make it work. What's your favorite color or color combo and why?
I love color. All of them. However, my favorite combo is probably blue and green -- the brighter, the better. My whole apartment is decorated in bright blue and green accents, too. I just find it really pleasing to the eye. I also wear a lot of navy blue and red, nautical style. Blue is my favorite color, and I just love all shades of it.
4. You are a comedian, and we have to say pretty talented. With appearances on several television and web shows I would say you're having some success. How did you get started? How long have you been doing it?
Aw, thanks! I have been doing comedy for about six years now, and I started after I moved to Los Angeles. It was something I always, always secretly wanted to do, but it just didn't seem like a real job I could have, you know? So I was a copy editor by day and doing stand-up at night, and then I lucked the hell out and was alerted to the job at Chelsea Lately by my friend Jen Kirkman, and I was hired on the show and it changed my life!
5. You have modeled before with one of our favorite Cats Like Us brands Mode Merr. How did you start doing that? Does that help you in front of an audience?
Angela from Mode Merr is the best, and basically it happened just because I bought her stuff all the time! I was just always ordering from her, and I sent her a couple of pictures of me in her clothes at special events and such, and she was like, "Do you want to model for me?" and I absolutely jumped at the chance! I had also already worked with Mitzi Valenzuela, her chosen photographer, on other pinup shoots, so it was easy to set up! It was awesome and fun and I love her clothes so, so much, so it wasn't hard to get excited about promoting them! And I think modeling definitely helped me develop another side of me, because I am basically a goof about 90 percent of the time, and Mitzi helped me act, well, more ladylike and sophisticated in front of the camera.
6. You maintain several blogs, ranging from retro style to podcasting about Saved By The Bell. Does that passion for some varied topics help feed into your stand up? (Feel free to rant about SBTB here ;-) What keeps you excited and writing new material?
Well, yeah -- I am just plain excited about a LOT of stuff. I am a big fanof a lot of people and things, and just really enjoy reading and watching and learning about and talking about things that I like. I'm just INTO THINGS, you know? Lots of things. I spend a lot of time alone just consuming stuff, like books and albums and movies. And I wrote a zine allthroughout my teen years, and just always enjoyed breaking things down. My Saved By the Bell podcast (http://gobayside.tumblr.com) is basically just an audio outlet to do one of my favorite things in the world: really critically analyze and apply logic to ridiculous stuff. I love that. I just love seriously looking at ridiculous things and going, "Listen to the MANY WAYS in which this is totally absurd!" A lot of my stand-up is like that, too -- just going, "Listen to how ridiculous this is if you REALLY look at it!"
7. What are you the most proud of so far?
Hmmm... I don't know? Simply having a job in comedy is pretty rad, but I don't know if I'm necessarily "proud," because that seems to discount the huge amount of pure luck involved in landing such a job, luck that I really just fell into. But I mean, being able to pay off my college loans feels pretty great. I did stand-up in front of my parents in my hometown of Atlanta a couple months ago, and it went really well -- that was pretty awesome. I don't know, I think I'm just an all-around CHILL DUDE, so I'm proud of that about myself? I guess? OH! Also, for a whole year straight I wrote about a song every day (it's been sporadic since that year of 2010, but still sometimes updated) at http://songsthatsavedyourlife.tumblr.com -- it's been my favorite writing project so far. I'm proud of a lot of the stuff on there.
8. What can we expect from you in the future? Any exciting upcoming events or appearances you'd like to plug?
I regularly appear on the Chelsea Lately round table, which you can watch weeknights at 11pm on the E! network. I also perform stand-up regularly around Los Angeles and sometimes other places, and my calendar is up at my site: aprilrichardson.com. I am currently working on my next zine (yes, an actual photocopied print zine!) about my travel adventures over the past few years, which I hope to finish in the next few months (the key word there being "hope"). Also there's my podcast, which is my favorite thing I do right now -- it's called Go Bayside, and it's on iTunes and at http://gobayside.tumblr.com.
9. Do you have a website? How can people find you?
Everything you need to know about me can be found at aprilrichardson.com !
10. Is there anything else you would like your public to know?
I just realized when I hit 30 that I can care about fashion and makeup and looking cool and still also simultaneously be a badass feminist; the two are not mutually exclusive. I wish I'd have known that sooner!
Thanks for the interview April!
~Andrew