Where the corn has Beth Lapides been lately? The former host of UnCabaret, that unparalleled comedy monologue series that ran for years at LunaPark and then M Bar, is back with a new one-woman show called 100% Happy 88% of the Time, which “leads us boldly into the 'now age' with standup, original songs and multimedia.” Original songs?

Where have you been?

In the desert, on the road, up in the sky, at my desk, on my yoga mat, in the recording studio. And on Facebook of course.

What inspired this new show?

I was fired and evicted, which propelled me to make some giant changes. As I was making these changes I got that we're being evicted individually, from jobs and houses and lifestyles, but that we're also being collectively evicted from the Newtonian, network news-ian, petroleum filling up-ian, Piscean Age into the fluid Aquarium quantum field. The shift is really hitting the fan.

I never cared much about being happy. In fact, I always thought being happy was so bourgeois. Then I woke up one day and realized I was miserable and suddenly happiness didn't seem so bougie anymore.

I learned about Dr. Emoto's work with water and other citizen scientists working with intention and consciousness. And I started to understand that our individual happiness directly impacts the world and realized I had to become a lot more emotionally green. Forget about my carbon footprint, what about my unhappiness footprint?

I always drew my woo-woo line at angels. Then I had a dramatic, and kind of ridiculous, angel healing. I had to re-evaluate and change my belief system. In fact I find that I am now in an almost constant state of change. And change makes us so unhappy, because we cling. But you have to change to be happy because life is change. So you have to be unhappy to be happy. It's so simple. Painful but simple. In fact I've started to think of everyone in my life as a PIC, a Partner in Change or a PPC, a Person Preventing Change.

Do you miss doing Un-Cabaret ?

I don't miss doing Un-Cabaret because now I'm doing this show which I love and contains a lot of the spirit of Un-Cabaret. It was hard to let go of Un-Cab, but I felt like I needed a bigger canvas. Un-Cabaret was about the now of the day and the week maybe even the month and this show is about a bigger now. But then again, it was Un-Cabaret! And I desperately miss it.

Have you always been a singer?

I've always been a singer … in my dreams. Then, about a year ago, I was workshopping this show and my now-director Clifford Bell saw it and loved it but thought it would be so much better with more music. Then he introduced me to my now-musical collaborator Mitch Kaplan and my dream came true. I love that the show, which is about change and breakthroughs, has been a vehicle for change for me as well as for a lot of people who have seen the show and a lot of people who are working on the show. As an interesting side note, I had no idea that pianos had 88 keys when I titled the show 100% Happy 88% of the Time. Coincidence? I don't think so.

How would you rate yourself as a singer?

I'm a comedian who uses songs to tell parts of the story that I can't get to with just words. I'm a new singer. Maybe even a nubile singer.

Wednesdays, 8 p.m.; Wed., Nov. 24, 8 p.m.; Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Starts: Oct. 6. Continues through Dec. 15, 2010

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