Carla Ulbrich: Press

"I find myself wishing I’d read Carla Ulbrich’s medical memoir several years ago when I began dealing with a complex of health issues. In How Can You NOT Laugh at a Time Like This? Carla, also known as The Singing Patient, outlines realistic coping strategies and supportive advice along with anecdotes of how she deals with several autoimmune diseases. Her unique approach is sincere and instructive...

Carla Ulbrich earned the right to tell her story, and this authority wrapped in friendly humor makes her medical memoir that most accessible one that I have ever read." read the entire review here:

"I find myself wishing I’d read Carla Ulbrich’s medical memoir several years ago when I began dealing with a complex of health issues. In How Can You NOT Laugh at a Time Like This? Carla, also known as The Singing Patient, outlines realistic coping strategies and supportive advice along with anecdotes of how she deals with several autoimmune diseases. Her unique approach is sincere and instructive...

Carla Ulbrich earned the right to tell her story, and this authority wrapped in friendly humor makes her medical memoir that most accessible one that I have ever read." read the entire review here:

http://www.hippocampusmagazine.com/2012/02/review-how-can-you-not-laugh-at-a-time-like-this-by-carla-ulbrich/

press release for Carla's book:
http://bookbuzz.com/releases/carla.html

Demand, and receive, the very best care

By Mildred L. Culp
Passage Media
« Live Well - Magazine

You’re just back from a doctor’s appointment for yourself, your child or an older relative. The doctor was late, and no one apologized.

If this scenario recurs, become a professional patient.

(click link to read the full article)
http://www.livewellnebraska.com/article/20110502/LIVEWELL60/705029833

"Becoming a professional patient is essential if you have a health condition that impacts your ability to work.

Carla Ulbrich, the singing patient at Romantic Devil Records Inc., in Somerset, N.J., incorporates this concept by applying project management and relationship skills to her recovery from lupus, an autoimmune disease. These principles ring out in her songs and lively book, “How Can You NOT Laugh at a Time Like This?” (TellMe, $14.95)."

Read more:
http://tinyurl.com/3eudpm3

"It’s an experience that almost everyone has had. But Carla Ulbrich might the first person to write a song about it.

Her song “Sittin’ in the Waiting Room” is about the frustration of doing just that...

Embracing the humor of her illnesses didn’t just help her cope, Ulbrich writes in the book. It helped her survive..."

read more: http://tinyurl.com/4av7nch

"I had never heard of the author Carla Ulbrich until I read her book, so I was a bit skeptical that a book about being sick could be funny. Well upon reading it there were often many instances that I had to literally stop reading for a bit because I was laughing so hard. She has a way of looking at things that are flat out funny, but more than that she gives the reader some very practical advice on how to maneuver thru the health care system that is invaluable."

read more:
http://kittycrochettwo.blogspot.com/2011/08/how-can-you-not-laugh-at-time-like-this.html

"Singer-songwriter and author Carla Ulbrich got sick at age 24. First she lost her job. Then she lost her hair. She then lost kidney function and had a stroke. She nearly lost her life. At some point during her recovery, she also lost her sense of humor.

“It was devastating. It took over two years to be diagnosed,” she explained during a recent performance at a Middletown support group for family and friends of people with multiple sclerosis. “My friends broke my spell of sadness,” she said, “and I began writing ridiculous, silly songs about being sick.”"

read more: http://middletown-ct.patch.com/articles/support-group-appreciates-sick-humor

"Inside the covers, I found a brilliant writer who maintained an earthy sense of humor about even the grimmest aspects of her health struggles."

In this segment from Oct. 7, 2011, Carla discusses her book, humor, health, illness, wellness, and does 3 song snippets. http://tinyurl.com/44tevbq

"Ulbrich said that the hardest part about writing the book was “deciding whether or not to out myself as having lupus.” She added, “I didn't want to be the girl with the scarlet L, the poster-child for lupus.” ...

When she was in the hospital, Ulbrich wrote parodies of songs. She said laughter is important. Ulbrich's CD, “Sick Humor, The Lighter Side of Illness,” was recorded five years before she wrote the book."

read more:

http://thealternativepress.com/articles/author-shares-how-she-copes-with-illness-at-maple

Carla Ulbrich visited the Tower for the very first time April 07, and for a firstup did brilliant box office. On the night she delivered a stonkingly good performance full of verve, wit and extraordinarily excellent guitar playing. Ulbrich, a name to book even if you can't pronounce it.

Very talented, very funny, very personable, and an easy act to work with.
We would be hard pressed to imagine anyone not enjoying a set from this young woman ... thoughtful and intelligent, sometimes clever observations about life are written in an often wry and humorous manner. They're placed over very strong melodies and guitar work that is recognized as some of the best in her genre"

Sinfully silly

She's one of Dr. Demento's favorites, and now we know why. How many women can sing in Klingon, after all? Carla Ulbrich, the Queen of Parody, can make surgical procedures a laughing matter, as she ably demonstrated Friday at the Minstrel in Morris Township, where she crooned about losing one's derriere, stealing boyfriends and experiencing hospital life in all its invasive glory.

If you want to start your Monday on an upbeat note, check out Carla's song about copyrighting everyone's favorite four-letter word. Our only quibble with the Minstrel show was its sparse attendance. The good news, however, is that this endearingly silly South Carolinian now makes her home in Somerset, NJ. So your odds of catching this funny bone infection again should be pretty good.

She's one of Dr. Demento's favorites, and now we know why. How many women can sing in Klingon, after all? Carla Ulbrich, the Queen of Parody, can make surgical procedures a laughing matter, as she ably demonstrated Friday at the Minstrel in Morris Township, where she crooned about losing one's derriere, stealing boyfriends and experiencing hospital life in all its invasive glory.

If you want to start your Monday on an upbeat note, check out Carla's song about copyrighting everyone's favorite four-letter word. Our only quibble with the Minstrel show was its sparse attendance. The good news, however, is that this endearingly silly South Carolinian now makes her home in Somerset, NJ. So your odds of catching this funny bone infection again should be pretty good.

... a really good show. Her material is pretty remarkable. I find it thoughtful, funny, sensitive, kind of out in "left field,"-- like I used to find Steve Martin's humor... clever, a talented guitarist, and a stage presence that convinces audiences that the characters she sings about, she really cares about, or she knows something about them... the monologs between tunes really work tying the songs to universal (as well as unique) experiences audiences can identify.

"... And therein lies Carla's charm: just under the caustic zingers that pepper her lyrics is genuine warmth and even a sense of optimism in spite of everything, delivered with some skillful guitar strumming at a toe-tapping pace. Maybe she's not such an anomaly in the folk world after all."
Click below to read full review of live show at Luna Star in N Miami

Live Review of Decatur Decorum Showcase at Eddie's Attic

.... Another crowd-pleaser, Ulbrich shined brightly on several funny numbers of her own (including the controversial "What If Your Girlfriend Was Gone?" which has actually generated hate mail for her from jealous, angry women) and on a beautiful song about a child prodigy ("Boy Wonder"). The night's biggest surprise, however, came when the perky, cheerful Ulbrich abandoned her vocals entirely to play a classical guitar instrumental -- a Brazilian Waltz which she swooped seamlessly into "Zippidee Doo-Dah" from Walt Disney's Song of the South.

Serving as emcee for the event was Performer's Blake Guthrie, no stranger to offbeat humor himself, who had the unenviable task of following Ulbrich. Stepping onto the stage after her astounding performance, it was hardly all Guthrie could do to stammer out, "Scuse me while I tune my guitar for 10 minutes."

Carla is cute as a button, hysterically funny and a phenomenal guitarist, possessing and original and lyrically creative folk repertoire.

Her wit and humor are so fresh...it should be date coded.

Saluting the new year at First Night in Morristown was a crosscultural — even intergalactic — experience. Where else can you encounter Delta blues, Japanese drumming, South American woodwinds, celtic harp, Native American dancers, American jazz and a smattering of Klingon, all in one town in one evening?

Down at the Market Street Mission, songwriter/comedian Carla Ulbrich made sure no one had time to feel blue about any blown 2010 resolutions, thanks to her lineup of clever lyrics and parodies. She began the evening with a song “about finding the perfect man. It’s fiction.”

“Won’t you please do something stupid so I can get over you? If you really cared about me, it’s the least that you could do.”

A South Carolina native, she mused on moving to New Jersey with her husband — “that is true love” — and (mis)perptions of her home state. “My neighbor didn’t even know there were two Carolinas,” she confided, “so I told him it was East and West.”

She reminded the audience of some of the Southern state’s great celebrities — “We’re very proud of Vanna White because she can spell” — and its motto: “Thank God for Alabama.”

“One thing you don’t have in New Jersey, and I do miss them: You don’t have any Waffle Houses,” she said. “It’s a crime. … It’s the crossroads of America. Everybody goes to Waffle House — except y’all.”

“The guy who changes the light bulbs changes everything,” she said, noting the frequency of inoperable lights in Waffle House signs, and the odd lettering that ensues.

“Waffle House is ‘awful’ House without the W. … What is Waffle use?”

Displaying a little cultural diversity, she then announced: “I’ve written a duet for myself and a Klingon.” Her husband Joe Giacoio – “we have all our arguments in Klingon” — joined her onstage for a rendition of “I say potato, you say [insert indecipherable Klingon dialect]. … Let’s call the whole thing off!”

“Don’t you know any English,” she finally asked.

“Surrender or die!” he replied.

Ulbrich also addressed holiday disappointments, to the tune of “Let it snow.”

“You didn’t get what you wanted for Christmas, even with your 10-page wish list. But it’s 25 years ago. Let it go, let it go, let it go!”

"She writes funny material, and yet there's always a message," Deitz said. "When we're doing what we do at our best, we're entertaining people, but we're also teaching them something, sending a message or conveying what we think about a topic."

She is quite funny. I love her parody songs. She is a hoot!

“Our patients really loved Carla’s visit to our lupus support group. Not only did she share her story with us , but she brought with her music and laughter. So, not only did our group members feel understood and identified with her story, but they were uplifted at the same time.”

Its very funny but thoughtful collection of essays about navigating the health care system and learning to cope with long term health challenges. A sense of humor, a sense of self and a lot of funny songs keep Carla Ulbrich sane as she deals with Lupus, Fibromyalgia, kidney failure, 2 strokes and bankruptcy.

(click link to read more)