BB Spotlight - Christine DeWitt
BB Spotlights feature Edmonton individuals that intrigue, inspire, and interest us and will be published once a month.
Chances are you probably know Christine DeWitt. She is a bilingual lawyer, Northern Light Theatre board member, Rapid Fire Theatre Improviser, and an overall amazing woman. She was just recently listed in Avenue Magazine’s Top 40 Under 40, and there is no doubt why. If you haven’t had the luck of knowing this woman, we have no doubt you’ll fall in love with her when you do.
We got together with Christine, ate delicious food at The Common, and shopped the most elite secondhand items at Swish Vintage Clothing, to discuss all the dynamic facets of her life, why she loves Edmonton, and how comedy has changed her life.
How would you title yourself and what you do?
I am a lawyer, and I also love comedy - I improvise and I try to write funny things, generally try to do the exact opposite of what I do in the daytime.
You get a nice balance in life.
Yes!
And you just got listed as one of Avenue Magazine’s Top 40 Under 40. Congratulations! Tell us a bit about that as a process.
Thank you! I found out in the spring that I was nominated. Once you’re nominated, Avenue contacts you for more information. You have to answer a number of these questions and provide them with references. From there, judges go through all the nominees and finalize the list. I actually found out at the end of July but I couldn’t tell anybody! After that, they did an interview, and then came to my office for a photo shoot. Finally, at the end of October there was a big launch party for the issue.
What does it mean to you to be on that list?
I feel very honoured and humbled because there are people on the list that do really amazing things. The neat thing is that the list is made up of people from all kinds of disciplines; there are physicians, and scientists, and artists, and professionals. The unifying thread is that, no matter what the discipline, the list is compiled of people who have their ‘thing’ and are passionate about it regardless of what it is. There’s also a big focus on Edmonton – increasing the profile of the City and being an active Edmontonian.
You were born here?
I was born here and have lived here most of my life, except for 5 years, when I was gone for law school and lived in Calgary briefly.
Where did you take law school?
In Moncton, New Brunswick. So it was very different!
Why did you decide to go there?
I decided to go to law school on a whim, because that’s what you do when you’re 20! I hadn’t written the LSAT (the standardized test that everybody is supposed to write before you apply to law school). But, I’m bilingual and so I decided to apply to all of the schools that offer common-law law degrees in French because you didn’t need to write the LSAT to apply to those schools. So I figured I would apply and if I didn’t get in to those schools, I would wait a year, write the LSAT and do the big application process. But I got in, so I went to the one that was farthest away. (Laughing)
How was that experience, living over there all by yourself?
It was super fun. I had never been farther east than Saskatoon in my life. It was an adventure, it was interesting, and really really eye opening in terms of the cultural differences that exist across the country. And, of course, I made lots of wonderful friends who I’m still really close with.
Did you plan to stay?
No. The thing about Moncton is that it’s lovely, but it’s a bit small for me. By the end of each semester, I’d just get cabin fever and need to come back to a bigger city!
Why do you think you have stayed here in Edmonton?
When I left, I thought I’d never come back. I didn’t think I would stay in Moncton, but I didn’t think I’d come back here. But, distance made the heart grow fonder, and there was a point where I knew I would come back. There’s something so welcoming and grass roots and artsy and a little bit rough around the edges in a charming way about Edmonton. And the cool thing is it’s the perfect time to be here. It’s a great size, especially in our age demographic, because if you want to do something, it’s big enough that chances are there are other people already doing that same thing, but small enough that that thing is still accessible. Does that make sense?
And of course, Edmonton is home, and my family is mostly here, so that is a huge draw.
Tell us about your family.
I have two brothers, and I have two step sisters. I’m the second-oldest… and the oldest girl, which kind of makes me the matriarch of the siblings. All five of us used to all be here in Edmonton, but one of my brothers just moved to Calgary and one of my sisters is traveling the world! She’s 24 and just finished cycling across Vietnam all by herself. She’s the adventurous one. And now she’s in Thailand waiting for my 20-year-old sister to visit her for Christmas.
How long have you been married?
Three years!
And how did you meet?
I was living in Calgary and Sean was living here. One of my best friends, Debbie, who I’ve known since I was about four, has known Sean since we were about fourteen. I think that probably in the late 90s, early 2000’s, we were definitely at the same parties, same punk rock shows, but we never met each other. A few years ago, Debbie had the idea of setting us up. Apparently the story goes that she was really pregnant and she couldn’t sleep one night. She just looked out at the moon and thought ‘Sean and Chrissy, why have I never thought of this before?’. I really resisted it for a long time! I was like, ‘I’m single, I’m in Calgary, I don’t want to meet your friend!‘ But, then I met him and that was the end of that. We actually almost eloped to Vegas a few weeks after we met, but I couldn’t find my passport. We settled for a normal wedding two years later!
What type of lawyer are you?
I work in a few different areas. I primarily practice in administrative law, which for me, means that I do a lot of work for professional regulatory bodies. I also do some work in the area municipal law.
Do you do everything in English?
I’ve done a little bit of work in French and there are a couple other lawyers at my firm who also speak French so I’ve been able to get some work through them. The weird thing is, when I was finishing law school (in French), the transition from French to English was very difficult. Getting used to thinking about the law in English and even just the vocabulary, it was a huge transition. And now it’s the exact opposite.
What do you love about law?
I worked hard in law school and it was the best, I loved it. I loved all the classes that most people didn’t like. I loved constitutional law and I wrote my thesis on the right to equality under the Charter. I thought for a time that I might try to pursue that further, get a Ph.D and become a professor, but that whole thing about having to pay for law school sunk in, so I figured I’d work for a while. What a cliché story!
What do you find most rewarding about your job?
The most rewarding part is getting to use my brain all day… which, oddly, is something that I often complain about too!
What got you into improv?
Saturday Night Live is my favorite show in the whole world and since I was a kid, my ultimate life dream was to be on SNL. So cheesy. But here’s the thing, when I was younger – when I was young enough to actually pursue something like that as a goal, I didn’t have enough confidence. It took me a while to get comfortable in my own skin. But I love comedy, I love sketch, I love improv. Then, just over two years ago my friend, Sean (a different Sean than husband Sean), received a Rapid Fire class as a birthday gift from his wife. Before his birthday, his wife asked me if I would do the class with him, so he’d have a buddy. I said yes – I had been procrastinating about taking a Rapid Fire class for years. So I took this class and just fell in love with it.
And then you went on?
I did all the class levels and got super into it. I was invited to audition, and I made the cast! It’s kind of crazy because there are kids who are in the rookie ensemble with me who are like eighteen and just out of high school. There are a few of us that are older, but I’m the oldest, so I’m like the grandma of the rookies. But that’s ok!
Is it noticeable to you, the age difference?
No, not really. I don’t know if that means I’m immature, or they’re mature. Ultimately, good improv transcends generations so it doesn’t matter if there’s a twelve year age difference between you and your scene partner. A good scene is a good scene. And it’s actually kind of fun and probably makes the group more dynamic. I’m impatient though, and sometimes I wish I would have started sooner so that I wouldn’t be a rookie at 30, but I have to remind myself that I just started a couple years ago and I’ve come a long way. And I think that my life experiences make me a better improviser because I just have a broader spectrum of stuff to draw from.
So now being part of the company, you perform every Friday at 7:30 and 10pm?
Yep! Our little ensemble, the Free Improv, does the warm-up piece of the show. So we do the first fifteen minutes. So Fridays become a very long day. But that’s alright. I love it and I just want to do it more.
Is there something specific about improv that got you hooked?
I think there are lots of things that got me hooked. You can let your imagination run wild – you’re creating a world out of nothing. But, it’s also challenging, and sort of like a team sport in many ways. You need to trust your teammates and take care of them, and know they’ll take care of you in return.
And it took you to Chicago to the Second City workshops. How long did you go for?
I went for two weeks this summer. Chicago is really wonderful because it’s the mecca for improv and sketch. The experience was totally immersive. I was in class from 10am to 5pm. Then I’d do homework from 5 to 7:30. Then I’d try to catch a show or two – from 8 until maybe 11, and then I’d keep working on homework until 1 or 2 in the morning. Then I’d sleep for a few hours, wake up and do it again.
Are you going back?
Oh yeah, totally. I have to.
Did you get what you expected out of the class?
It was more than I expected. I didn’t think I would like writing so much. I didn’t think it would suit my personality and I hadn’t really done much creative writing in the past. I write all the time at work, but it’s different. In Chicago, I had awesome writing teachers – Tyler Dean Kempf and Jay Steigmann. They were both awesome and even now I still hear Tyler’s voice in my head. They are such talented people, such wonderful teachers. I feel like I really lucked out. Maybe everyone feels like this but, from the people who were in my cohort to the teachers we had, I just feel like it couldn’t have been any better. Everything just clicked.
Has improv affected the rest of your life?
Yes, (laughs) it takes up all of my time. When I was a kid, I was super focused on school. I played sports and did some extracurricular activities but I never placed enough value on creativity. Or perhaps I placed a high value on it but not in terms of my ability to create and be creative. I just didn’t think that it was something I could do. I self-labeled myself as an academic kid and that was that. But in the last couple of years, I have discovered this whole other side of myself. When I was in Chicago, I had this moment of self-reflection where, for the first time in my life, I felt like I was an artist making art. It was a big moment. So I think improv has changed how I look at myself, it’s changed how I perceive possibilities for myself and I think it’s brought me closer to my true self. So cheesy.
When so much time is spent on the logical side of things, then it’s probably such a release to start discovering the rest.
Plus, I had these very narrow views of who I was and who I could be just in terms of my thought processes. I am very type A, a bit of a control freak, but there are ways in improv to use that, to draw upon it to create cool stuff. But, the flip side of that is that improv is a great way to practice not being like that!
Have you noticed any changes in your law practice?
I don’t know if I have, maybe because I’m too close to it to notice it. Maybe I’m more willing to be myself at work which probably indirectly affects the actual product I’m working on. Law is important and it’s serious, but I don’t feel like I can’t be my goofy, cheery self, while also still doing that.
What do you see in your future for comedy?
I just want to do more of it. I would love to get to the point where I was writing and performing stuff more often and more seriously. Now that I’ve discovered I can be an ‘artist’ (laughs), I feel like I can pursue it more seriously. So I want to. I would love to teach improv, work my way up the cast at Rapid Fire, and who knows what else. It’s already a big part of my life but I’d like to make it a bigger part.
Are there any words or advice you live by?
This is going to sound cheesy (I am full of cheese, apparently), and it’s something I’ve heard a million times before but I don’t think I really started figuring it out until recently: You have to do what makes you happy. My problem for a long time was that I focused on what was expected of me or maybe more accurately, what I presumed was expected of me (I don’t think I really felt any external pressure – I created it all myself). So I would go about my life, making the decisions I thought I was supposed to make, without ever evaluating whether or not something actually made me happy. So, yes, there it is – just do what makes you happy, whatever that is.
