Ultrababyfearless

“I was so scared. I don’t know why, but I was,” says singer/songwriter-actress Shonali Bhowmik about her first solo performance, a mini-set at the Star Bar in 2002. The gregarious musician is speaking by phone from New York City, her home for the past three years.

??
Musician and soundman Joel Burkhart invited Bhowmik to perform a solo spot at the club, she says, but the prospect was daunting even though she’d played the city numerous times with her band, Ultrababyfat. But without the safety net of longtime friend and collaborator Michelle Dubois (now of Luigi), Bhowmik felt insecure. The encouragement of her friends (and a few shots) helped her to endure the ordeal.

??
A few months later, she moved to New York to pursue her lingering dreams as an entertainer. “Now I’m not afraid to try to do whatever it is I want to do.” Since moving to NYC, she’s balanced a variety of creative projects while maintaining a grueling day job as an attorney at a law firm. “I had been talking about moving here forever.” While Bhowmik went off to the big city, Ultrababyfat went on extended hiatus.

??
As she looks out of her office window, her view includes the East River and the Statue of Liberty but she remembers that when she made the move to the Big Apple, she was broke. Through her friendship with comic and former Atlantan David Cross, she quickly met a lot of like-minded entertainers who had all dropped out of their previous careers to do what they really wanted to do. “I know it sounds corny,” she says, “but if you want to do it, you really can.”

??
In the Cross circle of comics (including Todd Barry, Eugene Mirman and Bobby Tisdale), Bhowmik saw the jokesters hone their craft in rock clubs. “Back then a lot of them were playing to nobody; now a lot of them are selling out huge venues. But I watched them play to five or 10 people and I thought, ‘Why are they bothering?’ But I realized that they were really putting themselves out there, trying out material and it was like a rehearsal. I thought what better way to do it, to just do it. So I did.”

??
Her busy but flexible schedule is built around a 55-hour workweek at the law firm. As soon as her day duties end, she’s off to either rehearse with her current band Tigers and Monkeys, do a show with the all-female comedy troupe Variety Shac, participate in commercials and short films, make guest appearances for “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” or Mirman’s shows. “I really don’t sleep that much,” she says. “I wake up and go the gym and leave here and go straight to a rehearsal or to a comedy show. It’s crazy but I love it.”

??
The Variety Shac troupe performs sketch shows and make short films (available at www.varietyshac.com), winning a hardcore fans including “Saturday Night Live’s” Fred Armisen, Amy Poehler and Chris Parnell. The “SNL” gang even emails the troupe after each new film is posted. “I guess we are like the Traveling Wilburys of comedy,” she says.

??
“I’ve always wanted to move ahead in creative ways,” she concludes. “Michelle and I, as kids, were always doing things, like little plays or making tapes, and we knew it was within us both. But I don’t think I knew that I could really be right in the middle of all the things I respect and admire — and be respected and admired, too.”