Meet Lindsay Goldapp | Educator & Performer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Lindsay Goldapp and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lindsay, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I had been doing improv for about 15 years, and while I knew that improv was fun to learn and to perform, I also knew anecdotally that it was also great for emotional and mental health. Learning improv had improved my life and mental health and those around me. I began to see a lot of research and data that supported the idea that the process of learning improv and using the skills was beneficial to different populations, including those on the autism spectrum, people with anxiety, and those with Alzheimer’s and dementia as well as their caregivers. I loved doing and creating comedy, but there was real, hard data that showed that it was also genuinely good for people. Creating a space for people to learn and practice these skills combined my life’s mission and my career goals in the best way. Unbeknownst to me, my future co-founder Andrea K. Baum was on this same thought trajectory. Andrea is a licensed psychotherapist (who was in private practice at the time) and is a caregiver for her father and she happened to be taking improv classes for fun; she saw the positive impact that improv could have on emotional and mental health and connecting people. Once we found each other we knew that we had a common mission of not just making people laugh but genuinely improving their lives using improv and improv skills. The rest was history!
Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My absolute happy place in both my career and my personal life is in the back of the theatre watching the audience laugh while the performers crush it at an amazing show in a space and environment that I helped create and cultivate. I love writing and performing and directing but my favorite part is teaching people to do those things and then watching them create and perform on stage. Similarly, I am a personal stylist, and I like to look stylish but I am much more fulfilled when I help someone else find their personal style and feel confident. I love to perform but getting praise, attention, and accolades is definitely not my comfort zone. Watching others find their creative flow and learn new skills and be amazing is what I love the most. Getting emails from caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s and dementia that say that tools we gave them improved their relationship with their loved one- that’s what makes me tick. Like everyone else, I’ve faced a few challenges in my career and I try to take the lumps and challenges and use them as a learning experience and a tool to improve myself. I want to always be learning- both as a performer and creative but also as a human being. The hardest thing about what I do is and has always been the financial uncertainty. I am a person who likes structure and security and organization and that butts up against my creative brain. A career in the arts and the non-profit world don’t provide as much structure and security as a corporate environment or profession would. But here I am in a startup non-profit…
Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
This is so hard! I think there are so many great things about Dallas and so many places that I would want to take them. Let’s pretend that we aren’t in a global pandemic and I can take them anywhere I want…I would want to hit several things. We have to hit some nature- Cedar Ridge Nature Preserve for a hike; a day at Burger’s Lake in Fort Worth; a little jaunt over to Kidd Springs Park in Oak Cliff. For food, we would get Tex Mex (namely Bob Armstrong Dip and margaritas) on the patio at Matt’s El Rancho Martinez in Lakewood. We also have to hit Dunston’s for the iconic steak and salad bar. Oh my gosh, we also have to take a trip out to Grapevine to get some rustic Texas kitch and drink some wine. Can you tell I’m no spring chicken? I can’t say I’m a big nightlife person but I love to people watch so we might have to take a jaunt down to Deep Ellum or Bishop Arts just to sit outside and take in some scenery. I love dive bars and quirky places so we would have to hit up Cosmo’s in Lakewood for drinks and do karaoke at Pekers in Oaklawn at some point. We would have to spend at least one day at King Spa getting some R&R and check out the art at Fabrication Yard. This list was all over the place but that’s what I love about Dallas!
The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I have an incredible team at Stomping Ground Comedy. The Board of Directors, the leadership team, the staff, and the volunteers give me grace and keep me going on the hardest days. They’re the reason the organization is still standing after a year of being temporarily shuttered and they’re the reason I’m personally still standing. My co-founder, Andrea K. Baum, is my business partner/soulmate and she gives so much of herself to the organization and to me. I’m incredibly grateful for my team.

Website: www.stompinggroundcomedy.org

Instagram: lindsaylooksdallas

Twitter: wizardofawesome

Facebook: www.facebook.com/lindsaygoldapp

Other: www.lindsaygoldapp.com

Image Credits
Angela Ross Photography Ed-U-Care Conference