Linda Smith

I'm a veteran comedian who has been in this field for 12 and a half years. I served three years in the Army in Germany, arriving in 1973 at Hanno, Germany, where I was welcomed as the only woman there. After my military service, I raised my daughter and we were like sisters. Then I got hit by a drunk driver and developed mild dementia from brain trauma. My daughter couldn't handle it and walked out of my life, and that's the day I started comedy. My whole focus is to inspire people and bring light to special issues of the military, meaning their traumas and their PTSD, in a fun way by relating my stories and making them laugh. Laughing can be healing, laughing can prevent suicide, and we need to make our military laugh. I've interviewed over 1,200 comedians and agents, and my favorite, most famous interview was with Sinbad. I've also interviewed Tommy Chong and other real big names in comedy, and they respect me. That's been a huge accomplishment. But I want to catapult it all to being a big name as a woman doing it on her own, out of her own stipend from the military and social security. I do it all myself, making military and veterans laugh, and I inspire young people like you wouldn't believe. That's my brand, that's what I am. My biggest accomplishment was doing comedy for one veteran in his hospital room, because it's not a numbers game, it's one-on-one. I've been on TV a few times for what I do on local news, I got invited onto Steve Harvey's show but couldn't make it, I did go on Your World with Neil Cavuto, and I was on the Wendy Williams show. Making people laugh is just who I am. When I go on stage, I'm really me, that's just who I am.