Teacher Profile: Beth Lapides

The first time I encountered Beth Lapides, she was accepting an award for her work as a comedian, teacher, entertainer, speaker, and collaborative force in creating funny, smart, and dare we say uplifting storytelling through the popular and groundbreaking Un-Cabaret series. And in that meeting, I couldn’t help but be struck by her sense of daring, the bold way in which is commanded attention, and her great clothes—a well-put together ensemble that fully expressed that this was a woman with a sense of fun, someone who is comfortable at home in her own self, fully expressive, and imbued with a sense of freedom. I had to speak to her.

From that conversation, a common interest in Yoga was discovered, and not long after, LA YOGA began running Beth’s humorous column, “My Other Car is a Yoga Mat.” (She has produced license plate holders with this phrase emblazoned on them. I’ve seen them adorning cars in L.A. and you, too, can buy one online on Beth’s website to proclaim your love of Yoga.) In her writing in this magazine and other places (including O Magazine and the Huffington Post), her wry and right-on sense of humor, her inquisitive nature, and her views on Yoga and how it relates to life never fail to delight.

As she is on the page, she is also in person: unfailingly funny, never afraid to be vulnerable, compassionate, and caring. She is always ready with a kind word or encouraging thought, always ready to try something new. And she is always dressed as if she is on stage, even when I visited her and her husband and frequent collaborator Greg Miller, for cocktails and dinner in their home, on the night that her camera revealed its first orb photos. (For more about these orbs, see some of her previous columns—or check out her current show, 100% Happy 88% of the Time.)

Speaking of the show.

She sings in the show and in order to develop this voice, Beth has been taking singing lessons. “It’s my new Yoga,” she says. “You have to be so present, it’s crazy.” And it’s not just about getting out of your head. “I’m learning to feel that notes happen in different places in the body, and I can direct the breath in different places in the body.”

“It’s so much about breath,” she says. Sounds familiar.

Singing is more than an exploration of breath, according to Beth. She waxes philosophical about the use of singing in her performance. “It feels balanced, combining singing and speaking.” The two complement each other. As she says, “I’ve heard that talking is the yang part of vocal expression, while singing is the in part of vocal expression.” Exploring both the yin and yang help us to be more fully who we are, a common theme for Beth as she speaks about her aims and goals as a teacher. She wants her students to get comfortable being who they are, with the Yoga of developing that increasing self-knowledge, through performing, even if they never intend to perform professionally. “As a teacher I’m always teaching how to understand yourself better and through that practice, how to live a fuller life and how to shape who you are.” It’s literally through our voice, and as Beth says, “Free your voice and the rest will follow.”

Beth and Mitch Kaplan, who works with her on 100% Happy, have been co-teaching an ongoing series called Singers Anonymous, on Saturdays in LA. She describes her co-teacher as a consummate professional, who teaches the musical part of singing, while she teaches the performing. Whether someone is singing their own material, or interpreting songs written by others, performing songs is a profound exercise in self-knowledge. “It’s a Yoga practice, to get to that place of being comfortable with it.” And she is good at encouraging beginners, “I’m a great cheerleader for those who are learning. I cheerlead, applaud, and give performing notes.”

Giving notes is a frequent part of her method as a teacher when she teaches solo, or with one of her other collaborators or co-teachers, including Miller (with whom she has been teaching The Comedian’s Way: A Creative Path for Writers, at venues including in Los Angeles and as a residential retreat at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Massachusetts). Part of the teaching method is to let people talk, to perform what they’ve written, and then give them notes. It asks the student, the other people in the room, the teachers, to be vulnerable. It’s transformative. And it helps uncover the story any of us held locked up in our hearts. We find it when we speak it out loud. Performing it is raw, courageous, and helps us figure it out. The courage is a big part of the process. “Living now requires a lot of courage, and any time we practice courage we build it.”

She’s practicing courage in the creation of her own show, 100% Happy 88% of the Time, and it evolves with each performance, as she develops the material in front of the audience. When I tell her this is daring, she laughs and says she wishes there were another way, but “the hell and beauty of being a performer is that you can’t do it yourself, it has to be in front of an audience.” There’s a connection there. “People don’t realize how much a monologue is a dialogue with the audience.”

For some people, speaking out loud, singing, or being involved in any kind of performance is one of their worst fears, yet building the courage is profound and spills over into many other parts of life. And while some of Beth’s students are professional performers, others are lawyers, teachers, therapists, people who are changing jobs, people who may not initially see themselves as performers, but for whom the ability to tell a story, express an idea, and be real, is vital. Through that expression, people can work out the material, just like finding a dress that is the right shape, by knowing oneself as a performer, people can see what they can speak, deliver, and express.

She likens the work with people in this way to being analogous to a participating in a beginners’ Yoga class. “I love seeing people at the start of their practice, and I love taking beginning Yoga classes. It’s exciting.”

One of the things that keeps her teaching is her love of laughter, her joy of being in the moment. “I love it when my students make me laugh.”

Fortunately Beth laughs easily.

For more information visit: bethlapides.com.