Beth Norton is a comedian and writer with an unnatural love of public speaking and pooping outside. Ew! Not in the street! Next to performing, one of Beth’s favorite things to do is backpack in Idaho. A current resident of Boise, she also works full-time to pay rent (a major accomplishment in this market.)
Beth spent most of her childhood in foster care in Santa Cruz, California and has spent most of her adulthood in therapy and breaking up with boyfriends all over the country. Beth was the first child of a teenage mother who had also grown up in foster care; she was a hot blond who loved to tan and dug holes for her big belly in the sand. The sound of the sea is stuck in Beth’s psyche forever.
When Beth was three years old her mother took her and disappeared for five months. When they returned it was reported that Beth was so emaciated she had a hard time walking. What happened during that time was well documented and sealed in court records that Beth would reclaim as an adult. They detailed severe abuse amounting to torture by her mother’s boyfriend. After escaping and returning to the family, Beth’s mother abandoned her.
Beth’s biological father also abandoned her and raised children with a woman who mistreated her.
For a long time Beth thought she was the common denominator. She was not.
From three to six or seven years old Beth lived in south San Diego with extended family and hit the beach a lot. One day, while her aunt or uncle yelled and smashed inside at one of her cousins, she stood outside on the sidewalk. Under a great tall palm tree that seemed to go up forever she would look up and up and think something like, “it can’t be like this everywhere; there is something else.” It was her Belle at the fountain with the blue birds and her book singing, “there must be more than this provincial life” moment.
She was removed by child welfare and was moved many times to many places until she landed back in Santa Cruz, this time up in the mountains. She would grow taller under even taller trees, redwoods, in the magical mossy forests, full of slugs and a soft floors. At nine years old she settled in a stable but emotionally abusive foster family, the youngest of six girls. It felt like a different kind of torture, with body shaming and all you could eat tater-tot casserole.
Court-ordered weekend reprieves with a maternal aunt, a couple of weeks at an overnight summer camp just for foster kids, and public school got Beth through that time. She always loved to learn and might not have made anything of herself without the positive regard she got from her teachers. Bless them. She she did VERY well in school and graduated with a 4.0, 6 college credits and a full-time job at a diner. She went straight to Chico State University where she earned her bachelors in psychology in four years. Later she would go on the get her masters in public administration at Boise State University, where she focused on studying the foster care system.
It was on a college backpacking trip that Beth began to feel that something of a different kind of life she’d been unable to see but believed in all those years ago. Soon after college she took a job on the East Coast to work in outdoor education with other challenged teens, canoeing with them through the Florida Everglades, backpacking the Smokey Mountains of North Carolina and portaging through the large lake system of central Maine. She learned the way life should be and it would create in her a lasting and saving bond to nature.
In her late 20’s Beth settled in Burlington Vermont were she she found her cats, comedy and many boyfriends. The cats and comedy are still with her today. She followed one said boyfriend to Boise (he still feels really bad about that.) It was her “Belle goes to live in a haunted castle with a prince,” moment, except she was Beautiy AND the Beast. She struggled to regulate her emotions and was unable to trust her very trustworthy prince. With his support she found a childhood trauma specialist, who diagnosed her with PTSD and suggested she get a copy of her court records. Together Beth and her theapist processed the horrific events documented there through EMDR. This was a critical part of her healing journey as would all the meditation and writing retreats her budget could afford.
Many more years of chronic unemployment and poor relationship choices would follow; healing was a long, slow, painful process. As her research deepened and information became more avialable, Beth discovered that actually she has complex-ptsd, a diagnosis not currently recognized in the United States. It made all relationships feel impossible. Stand-up comedy was a safe way for Beth to feel connected to other people, to reconnect with her own human experience and to feel valued in society.
Beth has practiced stand-up comedy for over a decade, performing at Treefort’s Comedy Fort, the 208 Comedy Fest and Idaho Pun Slam where she tied for 1st! She’s even headlined a brewery a time or two. Beth is the creator of Idaho’s Best Worst & Weirdest Comedian and the producer of many creatively themed variety shows throughout the years.
As the director and emcee of Story Story Late Night she’s curated and hosted 18 unique shows, and coached many storytellers, getting to know her community in a uniquely intimate way. She has held a job for 2.5 years and has a small but growing 401k and even a little savings. She is single, almost 40 and quite happy about all of that. This is her “the whole enchanted house turns human again,” moment. The homecoming is ongoing.
