One-woman show mines the humor in aging

Getting old hurts.

But Las Vegan Kim Russell laughs in the face of that pain. She even mocks it. When you think about it, she says, old age is really kind of funny.

Russell invites others to laugh at it, too, when she presents her original one-woman act, "Life After 50: Survivalist Training Required" Friday and Saturday at Reed Whipple Cultural Center, 821 Las Vegas Blvd. North.

"It's a little bit of stand-up comedy, sketch comedy and a little bit of dry humor," says Russell, who declines to give her age, saying only that she is 50-plus. "It's my revenge for getting old."

A Northridge earthquake refugee, as Russell calls herself, she moved to Las Vegas from California 15 years ago. She took an acting class after moving here, which led to her performing in schools and on college campuses as Sojourner Truth, the 19th century abolitionist.

Russell started "Life After 50" more than a year ago, but only in the past couple of months has the topic truly resonated with her when her mother had triple bypass surgery. It has become very personal to her, she says, making her face her own issues of mortality.

"Aging is a terrible adversary to the body," Russell says. "It's not fun what it does to the body and it certainly corrupts memory."

The best way to handle it is to laugh, she advises.

"There is a great deal of source material but the challenge is sometimes we're so close to it, it's difficult to see the humor in it," Russell says.

For instance, Russell's father suffered dementia before he died several years ago. Though it was sad to see him in that state, "there was a moment in his battle that it was hysterical to watch him," she recalls. "And (I) wished that he knew because he would have appreciated the humor, too."

Being able to find the humor in aging is a tool for sanity, she says.

Contact reporter Sonya Padgett at spadgett@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4564.