JJ BARROWS: One Colorful Storyteller

Creativity in Captivity

A color-forward visual artist, comic storyteller and the author of the new book Kinda Funny: Stories by a Full-time Comedian (with Four Part-time Jobs.) JJ takes her stories from the comedic stage to the comedic page in a comedy-club-meets-therapy-session collection of essays. From aging parents, awkward first dates, and avoiding the dentist to traversing the difficulties of eating disorders, wrestling with faith and depression, and yet still stumbling into love after looking for thirty-five years in very odd places. JJ uses her experiences to reveal her understandings of humor, faith, mental health, and what it means to finally “grow up,” if that’s even something we ever actually do. Her book offers stories that are kinda funny, kinda deep, kinda awkward, and even kinda spiritual, giving readers a place to go, offering comfort, sanity, and little to no answers about how to live a better life, but certainly a place to feel a little less alone and a little more entertained. KINDA FUNNY reveals the freedom a quippy sense of humor can unleash in all of us by bringing levity to those gritty moments.