Contrary to popular belief, NASA workers aren’t just about rocket launches and mind-boggling equations. NASA employees, like all people, need to find their hobbies, outlets, and passions. Beyond working a normal nine-to-five at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, Donna Lewis showcases her interesting talent on big stages under bright lights across the country.
Lewis’ new passion has put her in front of countless audiences, cracking jokes at Greenwich Village, Broadway, Dangerfield’s, and Gotham comedy clubs in New York City.
Showing people a good time in New York City isn’t too far from Lewis’s roots. She grew up in Harlem, under the wing of her grandmother who, according to Lewis, was “quite the entertainer.”
“My grandma ran numbers. She always had people over playing poker and listening to old LaWanda Page comedy albums,” Lewis explained.
LaWanda Page is famous mostly for her role as Aunt Esther in the 70’s sitcom Sanford and Son, but performed stand-up comedy throughout her career as well.
Evidently, the entertainment gene passed from grandmother to Lewis, thanks to the help of LaWanda Page. Lewis has made quite the splash in the stand-up comedy community. She started her comedy career at the Push Comedy Theatre in Downtown Norfolk, Virginia, where improv, sketch comedy and stand up classes are taught.
“I have always loved improv and sketch comedy because I have been watching Saturday Night Live for over 40 years. I don’t miss a season. So when I saw an online ad for an improv class, I went for it,” Lewis said.
Lewis loved her improv comedy class and decided to take her comedy hobby a step further and take a stand-up class at the Funny Bone Comedy Club in Virginia Beach, Virginia. It wasn’t long before she had the opportunity to open for TV’s Night Court star Marsha Warfield. From there, Lewis was performing not only locally, but in Los Angeles, all around New York City, and even on a cruise ship. Lewis recently founded a sketch and improv comedy group called Lemon Pepper and Sazón, whose members are all people of color.
Lemon Pepper and Sazón performed at the Newark Improv Festival and the Magnet Theater in New York City. They were even booked to headline at the Charm City Comedy Festival in Baltimore, Maryland, but because of COVID-19, the festival was postponed. Still, the virus has been very unsuccessful in slowing Lewis’s roll. She has been performing at several virtual comedy events, including “Funny Over Fifty,” which usually takes place in New York City but moved online when the coronavirus forced people into their homes.
However, with a magnificent brain like Lewis’s, she isn’t all jokes. At NASA Langley, Lewis does configuration and data management for flight projects. She was also on the team supporting the Flight Test Article (PA-1) and STORRM that put an instrument on the space shuttle before the program was retired.
Before NASA, she worked at Jefferson Lab and led tours around the particle accelerator while explaining subatomic physics to guests. Lewis sees comedy as her outlet and as something she can do for the rest of her life, even after she is retired from NASA.
“Thank goodness stand-up doesn’t have an age limit,” Lewis joked. “I’d love to do it after retirement.”
It would come as no surprise if Lewis continues comedy after retiring, especially since she has approached comedy with the same hard work and enthusiasm as working in the space program. Lewis was the recipient of a diversity fellowship award from the Upright Citizens Brigade, an improv school in New York City, which allowed her to take classes under the guidance of some great improvisational and sketch comedy entertainers.
“I love comedy because it takes me out of myself,” Lewis said. “It has really built my confidence. I get to meet so many people and build so many great relationships.”
But as it turns out, Lewis may not have found just her hobby, but also her calling.
“I find everything funny; the news, everyday conversations. As soon as I get an idea, I write it in a notebook. Later, I come back and elaborate on it. Then I just test it out at open mic nights.”
The NASA ethos teaches the workforce to lean forward and learn from failure rather than be afraid to try something difficult. In that spirit, Lewis is unfazed by the possibility of failure and pushes herself to innovate. This unites NASA workers: not an affinity towards math and science so much as their propensity to push themselves to try new things and see the world differently.
Examples of Lewis in action can be found on the internet and social media.
Brody McDevitt
NASA Langley Research Center