In the world of comedy, there are few individuals as uniquely inventive and laugh-out-loud funny as Carolyn Taylor. With a sharp wit and a penchant for the unexpected, she’s made us laugh time and time again, from her amazing stand-up sets to the brilliant Baroness von Sketch Show. But now, she’s taken her comedic talents to the ice in a way that’s truly unparalleled. In her new docu-comedy series, I Have Nothing, Carolyn Taylor invites viewers to join her on a hilariously absurd journey, as she sets out to accomplish the seemingly impossible – choreographing the perfect, full-length pairs figure skating routine to Whitney Houston‘s 1992 hit from The Bodyguard soundtrack, “I Have Nothing.” It’s an equally heartwarming and amusing adventure that blends the world of professional figure skating with side-splitting comedy in a way that only Taylor can.
I had the pleasure of sitting down with this Canadian comedy legend to get the inside scoop on this whimsical and utterly entertaining escapade and find out how she was able to convince figure skating icons Sandra Bezic, David Pelletier, Ekaterina Gordeeva, Kurt Browning, and more to get on board.
Jeromme Graham: What was it about Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing” that spoke to you and made you want to embark on choreographing a full Olympic-level figure skating routine to it?
Carolyn Taylor: Well, for one, Whitney. It doesn’t get better than Whitney Houston. I grew up listening to Whitney Houston. I loved her and of course, The Bodyguard came out in ’92. I’d obviously heard the song. I must’ve heard it many times between then and the moment I heard it in the car. I was like “Oh my god. This has to be a full-length pairs Olympic level figure skating routine.” Listen. It’s her voice. The loft. Her voice captures passion and then is able to hit those heights. It made me think of the jumps and the lifts with how she’s able to take us up in those key changes. You’ve got to lift a skater in those key changes. It wasn’t a rational thing. It just was a feeling that came through the song, her voice, and the arrangement. All of it.
JG: You didn’t go into the project with the rights to the song. Was that nerve-racking at all?
CT: It really was. I’m just shocked it got greenlit without the rights. We had to have a sort of contingency plan. Have you seen the full series yet?
JG: I have!
CT: So you know there are a lot of scenes where we’re actually listening in headsets, Mae Martin and I in the beginning listening to Whitney. We were doing that as a safeguard in case we couldn’t get the rights, so we wouldn’t lose these scenes. If I was just playing them on a little speaker for someone, it would be the sound of the space. We really didn’t know. It was nerve-racking. We were working on it. I’d written the Houston Estate and they were eager to get on board and liked the project, so that was hopeful. But we still had to get the publishers, David Foster, and Linda Thompson, we didn’t have all that. So yes, it was absolutely nerve-racking but I had faith. I did have faith throughout the whole thing. It was going to work out.
JG: When watching, you were pretty adamant in the show that it had to be that song. Were there really no other songs that gave you a similar feeling of the jumps and drama?
CT: No. And maybe this sounds bonkers, Jeromme, but that was the vision. You know when you’re pursuing a vision and someone is like “Why don’t you do it with gymnastics or why don’t you do it with another song?” The vision’s not gymnastics and it’s not another song. So what am I doing then if I’m not doing what I feel like I need to do? I know it sounds bonkers, but for comedy that seemed really fun. I’m not going to sway from that. I mean, if we didn’t get the rights, who knows? Maybe for the television broadcasts, we would’ve had to play a different song. I always imagined it’d be like “Now, hit play on your mp3 player.” I don’t know how we would’ve done it. I always knew that I’d choreograph to that song and I’d take it as far as I could and we’d deal with it later if somehow the rights didn’t come through.
JG: Wow. You know, I was racking my brain trying to think of other songs that have a similar energy. Mariah Carey’s “Vision of Love” came to mind. Or like Taylor Dayne’s “Love Will Lead You Back.” But you’re right. “I Have Nothing” kind of is in a league of its own. It’s its own thing.
CT: It really is. It’s not like, oh let’s just take another amazing singer and put them in. No.
JG: When you told people that this was what you wanted to do, how did they react? Especially coming off the back of the huge success that was Baroness Von Sketch Show?
CT: It’s interesting. People fell into three streams. One was I don’t know what she’s talking about, what’s wrong with her? Why does she keep saying she wants to do this show? I think some people just didn’t get it and were maybe hoping I’d just let it go and do other projects. Then there were people who didn’t quite understand. Maybe my sister is a good example of that. She didn’t fully understand what I was talking about, but was fully supportive and said “I believe in you, go do what you need to do. I don’t know what you’re saying, but I believe you can do it, whatever that is.” Those close people that love you unconditionally. Then there were the people who really got it. “I see what you’re talking about. I’m excited. Let’s go try to make this happen.”
JG: That makes sense. I feel that comes across in the show with the shots of your sister or Mae and everyone being supportive, yet not knowing quite what this is. But they’re on board, which is half the battle. There are some major figure skating heavyweights that pop up in the show. David Pelletier, Ekaterina Gordeeva, Adam Rippon, and many more. How were you able to convince them and convey to them that you were really serious about this, Carolyn?
CT: Kristi Yamaguchi, Adam Rippon and all of those people came on through Sandra Bezic. She really saw what I was talking about. She was like I hear what you’re saying, this can be done and got behind it. Sandra then started to introduce me to these people. As they were invited on, some of them were just to have that initial interview and weren’t going to be part of the show beyond that. Tara Lipinski, Kristi, Adam, etc. We just asked them to say what they felt, which was that this was bonkers.
The other skaters who actually did work with me had some hesitation as well, but they had trust in Sandra and knew that she wouldn’t come to them with a project if she didn’t believe in it. That faith proxy. We really took a leap of faith together. Anyone who came didn’t know what was going to happen, including Sandra. None of us did, so we all went into an altered space that was unfamiliar. They had never worked with someone who didn’t know what they were doing. I had never worked with skaters or on the ice before. I think the conditions for magic were there because we were all taking a leap of faith without guarantees in any way.
JG: One thing you mentioned a few times in the show was what the Olympics meant to you while you were growing up. What was it like getting to be on the ice and interacting with all of these skaters that had been there?
CT: I still can’t quite believe that it happened. I said this to someone else, but it’s almost like this experience where there are two yous. There’s a 14 or 15-year-old me and then there’s me now, middle-aged. This person can understand that you meet famous people, this happens. Even accomplished Olympians. It’s still amazing but you can process it. My 14-year-old self who still resides inside has a very hard time holding that. That person who watched the Olympics in 1988 cannot believe that I ended up choreographing Ekaterina Gordeeva who is the greatest pairs skater of all time. There’s part of me that still can’t believe that it happened. Kurt Browning would skate by and stop near me or Ekaterina and David, they’re elite athletes. It’s like a Porsche driving by or like a racehorse. There’s so much power. It’s actually really intimidating on the ice because they get really fast. Sandra had said that she was really eager for me to be on the ice with one of them because I’d get to feel the power and it feels like when a giant truck drives by you. Intense.
JG: Definitely. But they all seemed to have patience with you, especially because you were still figuring things out on the ice.
CT: They did. I think they recognized that I was serious about it even though I’m a comedian. That was an interesting thing. I see humor in things and I can make things funny, but I’m serious about this and they saw that. I think that’s where their generosity came in as well. They saw that I wasn’t coming in to make fun of them or their sport. I was trying to participate with them and create something together. I think maybe that helped us all feel safe and then that allows you to feel generous and take chances when you know someone is serious and coming from a place of truth.
JG: As a viewer, it was still funny but also very much a love letter to figure skating and what they do. I can see how they would be game for being part of that. Obviously, the show is hilarious. With you at the helm, how could it not be? But it really speaks to the tenacity of the human spirit. At any point in the process, did you realize that the show could really bring hope and inspiration to viewers?
CT: It’s funny. Zack, who is another exec producer on the show and co-directed the series with me, asked me those questions early on. I don’t know if we even still have that video. I remember saying that I hope people can see this and pursue their own dreams and throw some doubt away. You don’t have to pursue this dream. This is a very specific dream on television, that’s not for everybody. Not many people would want to do that. Anyone who is a friend of mine knows that I’m always that person. If you’re saying that you want to quit your job, I’m the friend who says to do it and asks how I can help. That really is in my DNA. But once I was doing the show, I was so engrossed in the experience and focusing on trying to pull it off that those other considerations left and I was just living it. It’s only now that I can look back to that initial feeling of hoping that people will feel inspired. When I was in the middle of it, I was in survival mode.
JG: I’ve seen all 6 episodes, so I won’t spoil anything. Instead, what was your biggest takeaway from going through the process? What did you learn about yourself?
CT: Immense gratitude for everyone involved and for having had that experience. I think another piece was kind of in the title, I Have Nothing. What do you have? You have an experience and then it goes. Is it a memory? Did it happen? It happened but you can’t hold anything. Something that I’m still processing is how do you approach the things that come into your life and in what spirit because you can’t hold them forever. They go and then you have to allow new things to appear.
I think I realized I had the power to go through my fears. I knew I couldn’t get out of it because there were contracts and cameras. There was a part of me at times that felt I wasn’t up for this and I don’t know what to do here. I would say the takeaway is when you reach that point where you just don’t know what to do, just give it a second. Take a moment. Does someone else have an idea? Take a pause and take a break, which happens in the show a lot. We’d take a moment and then go off into the dressing rooms. Just know that the answer will appear and may not come from the place where you think it’s going to come from. It could come from someone else or a happy accident. You don’t have to have all the steps when you start something. You just have to have a few and a sense of how much gas you have in the tank. Do you think you can do this? Do you think you can get there? Then the steps will appear as you get there. I lived some of that. That is a part of life. When you go into the unknown, you can’t want the unknown to be known. Part of the unknown is that you don’t get to know.
JG: What’s next for you, Carolyn? After this, it really could be anything.
CT: I do have another thought that’s been kicking around up my sleeve, should we be so lucky to get another season. I really love creating and making television. I also like painting. I like music. I like a lot of things. I do have another idea that comes from a true place. That was my only rule for myself. If I’m going to devote everything to something, I have to really believe in it. Otherwise, I don’t want to waste people’s time. There is something. It’s also rooted in the 1988 Olympics. If you were to watch the series with a different lens on, there are clues to the next thing that are kind of there-ish.
JG: Oooh! I’ll have to re-watch and see if I can figure out what that might be.
CT: Yes. See if you can. The clues are there.
I Have Nothing is streaming now only on Crave.
