Rosalee Mayeux: Healing through Laughter
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
In this exclusive interview with Miami Living Magazine, Rosalee Mayeux – former high-fashion model turned stand-up comedian and actress – opens up about a life defined by unexpected turns, resilience, and reinvention. From runways in New York and Paris to stages across the country, her journey took a profound shift following a life-altering cancer diagnosis that ultimately led her to comedy and the transformative power of laughter. Now, with the release of her new comedy special Rosalee Mayeux: Model Mom, she brings her signature warmth and wit to stories of motherhood, healing, and finding humor in life’s most unpredictable moments. As she continues to connect with audiences nationwide and prepares for her upcoming film Love at First Spite, Mayeux reflects on laughter as both a lifeline and a calling – and the beauty of embracing every chapter along the way.
Miami Living (ML): Your journey from high-fashion model to stand-up comedian is anything but conventional. When you look back, does it feel like a complete reinvention, or was there always a part of you that was meant for comedy?
Rosalee: I love this question. Yes, behind everything, I was always a comedian. Even in the high-fashion world, sometimes a director would pull me aside and ask if I wanted to be in his next comedy short, lol. They could always spot it.
ML: You’ve spoken about how a life-altering cancer diagnosis became a turning point that led you into stand-up. How did humor become a source of healing during such a profound and difficult chapter?
Rosalee: Well, at first I did try to be cheerful, make some jokey spoof videos about the Big C, but I found them largely unsatisfying, and was really just shaking my fist at the sky at my diagnosis. What really got me out of despair and back into the land of the living was the friends who came forward. First, three girlfriends fought tooth and nail to research a cutting-edge medical breakthrough that would end up saving my life. You really do need an advocate when you're going through a horrid medical diagnosis.
Then, an actress friend said come do improv with her - get some laugh therapy. It was fun, and I met incredible performers, but I knew it wasn't enough. Finally, at two a.m. one night in my kitchen, a comedy buddy said, "You're miserable because you belong out there with me, doing stand-up." I thought he was nuts. I couldn't even physically stand up at the time, lol. But he insisted and signed me up. I started telling things from my own crazy experiences and my take on life. And that became the beginning of a new world for me, with a microphone, in a dark club or bar or living room - wherever they had a mic. It was powerful. Working hard as hell to win 10 people over? Yep. After so many years portraying characters' words in film and TV, and years being silent as a model, I fell in love with letting that goofy voice inside come out. From deep inside, where the magic you've known since you were five years old lives.
ML: Your new special "Rosalee Mayeux: Model Mom" feels both deeply personal and universally relatable. What inspired you to center it around motherhood, and what stories felt most important to share right now?
Rosalee: After all my two boys and I had been through together, raising them as a single parent, the cancer years, the struggles when we fought and came out on the other side, I felt I wanted to write my kids a love letter. That's what Model Mom is. A love letter to my kids.
I also wanted to have all the first years of comedy writing on tape for posterity. Even though you're out every night, you rarely get a watchable tape of your early years. They don't let you tape in most clubs. And I had never recorded the short story "Coyote Nights" that won the Columbine Award. Model Mom was the first time I put it all together, so I could never forget that time in our lives.
ML: Parenting teenage boys in today’s world is no small feat, and you bring so much humor to it. What have your sons taught you about life that maybe you didn’t expect?
Rosalee: Oh my gosh, they are so much funnier than I am! I mean, if you want to laugh, just have a barbecue in your backyard and put a bunch of teenagers in charge. You will starve, but you will laugh.
I think one thing I never knew about parenting is that your kids actually do forgive you. Mine forgave all the well-intentioned stupid things I did raising them. I even lost the dog. They never blamed me.
ML: Before comedy, you had a remarkable career in fashion, working with major brands and living between New York and Paris. How did that chapter of your life shape the confidence – or perhaps the perspective – you bring to the stage today?
Rosalee: I was super rough-hewn and had a hard time fitting into the model world that my looks have given me entry to. I truly was a duckling, awkward, unsure, in my red plastic cowboy boots. Looking back on those years, I realize it was teaching me to learn to trust myself, trust that I know what I like and what I don't like, and to discard what isn't mine. It gave me the opportunity to keep my eye on what's important, even though I definitely wasn't able to express that yet.
ML: How would you describe your own comedic voice, and what do you hope audiences feel when they leave one of your shows?
Rosalee: Finding yourself, your voice, is quite a journey, no matter what artistic discipline you work in. Your voice emerges. For instance, I always thought it was a secret that I like to experiment with accents, roll them around in my mouth, and try them out. I found in my modeling years I could imitate any language well enough to give directions to a taxi driver, or film a commercial, pretending I understood what I was saying. I thought that was hysterical. I also lean toward talking in impossible run-on-sentences, because I'm Southern. But all these things were gifts I didn't know I could use. I thought they were just quirks I had to hide as a model or an actress. I didn't know these "quirks" would become my strengths in comedy. In fact, all the things that totally embarrassed me about myself as a young'un are now my friends.
Laughing at ourselves is a sign of mental health. After all is said and done, we're all gonna be okay. 'Cause we can laugh together.
ML: Between performing, writing, motherhood, and everything in between, your life sounds beautifully full. In the quieter moments – when you’re not on stage – what brings you the most joy or sense of peace these days?
Rosalee: Plotting world domination through comedy, of course, ha!
My grandfather was a rice farmer, and he'd say, "a day with your hands in the dirt is a day closer to God". I find that to be true. Quiet time, my feet in the dirt, watching the hummingbirds in the plum tree I planted when I moved here. I find that delicious.
My most satisfying moments are definitely spent with my grown children, laughing uncontrollably at whatever. One evening, we were walking in the SF Botanical Gardens, and we couldn't find the exit, nor a bathroom, which I desperately needed. I told my oldest son I was going to wet my pants if we didn't get out of there, and we started laughing so hard we fell down an embankment. That. That brings me all the joy.
Thanks for having me!
You can follow Rosalee on: