CHARLENE
deGUZMAN
BREAKING
BY JESSICA JARDINE
PHOTO BY NICHOLAS JOHN RASMUSSEN
10
FLOOD
BACKSTORY: Former Stomp dancer turned actor and Twitter star who has
been namechecked as one to watch by Patton Oswalt
FROM: San Jose, California; now, Los Angeles
YOU MIGHT KNOW HER FROM: Her wildly popular video about the intrusiveness
of modern technology, “I Forgot My Phone”
NOW: Preparing to release her first book, a memoir titled You Can Do It! Just
Change Completely
Talking and writing about topics other
at the beginning of what she describes as the
people might shy away from is exactly what
“bottom,” a period where she was hiding huge
has made deGuzman thrive. An online zine she
parts of her life from those around her and she
published as a teenager earned thousands of
was suffering in very heavy ways. “It was a big
subscribers as well as an advice column award.
turning point in my life because I [grew] from
“I just always had it in me to be really honest to a
being such a horrible, broken, depressed, angry,
bunch of strangers out in the World Wide Web,”
resentful mess of a person who was drunk or on
she says. “I guess that’s my thing!”
drugs all the time,” she says.
It’s startling even to deGuzman how many
Through Twitter especially, deGuzman
twists and turns her life has taken. She grew up
has found her voice and a following that
in San Jose, California, before landing in New
encourages her delightful and blatant honesty.
York City for internships at Jane and Rolling
And when revered standup Patton Oswalt
Stone, where she dreamed she’d become a
began retweeting her jokes and mentioning
magazine writer. But when her brother urged
her in interviews, the followers continued to
her to audition for the stage show Stomp, the
build. Tweets like, “Maybe I’m just a hopeless
former dancer ended up beating out over 1,400
romantic, but I can’t orgasm until I’ve seen you
others for one of just seven available roles, and
properly handle ‘it’s’ and ‘its’” and “I can’t wait
suddenly she was a touring performer in her
to get married and communicate my disdain
early twenties, seeing the country and having
solely through aggressive dishwashing” are
the time of her life.
indicative of deGuzman’s crackling, self-
deprecating wit.
After some time on the road, she moved
EVEN IF YOU DON’T KNOW THE NAME CHARLENE
west to try her hand at acting and writing in
deGUZMAN, CHANCES
ARE YOU’VE SEEN THE VIDEO
LA. Improv classes with the Upright Citizens
production of a screenplay she wrote on the
SHE MADE back in 2013, in which the actor/writer/
Brigade helped her carve out her own unique
horizon, deGuzman is keenly aware of the ways
comedian goes about her day phoneless and mostly
voice, but in the midst of her exploration, she
she’s made the web work for her. “Some of the
wordless alongside friends and loved ones who
realized she was slowly sinking and failing to
things I’ve gotten in my life because of Twitter—
stare into glowing screens instead of interacting.
take care of herself.
interviews to write for TV shows,parts in movies—
Now, at thirty-two, deGuzman sits on the
are amazing,” she says. “The Internet has a lot
touched a nerve in many and spread across
other side of a massive life transition that’s taken
of fucking bullshit but I think my career [has
the Internet like wildfire. Before she knew it,
her the better part of three years to move through.
benefited from it]. It has given me an opportunity
deGuzman was the author of a certifiably viral
She’s used her substantial Twitter following to
to get this audience and share whatever I want,
video, which now sits at nearly fifty million views.
talk about being in recovery from sex-and-love
and some people like it. It works.”
“All of a sudden, [I’m] on Good Morning America,
addiction, and now she’s preparing to release her
the Today show, Fox News,” she says over a plate
first book, a memoir titled You Can Do It! Just Change
Correction: An earlier edition of this piece
of eggs in an LA diner. “It felt good in terms of
Completely. As she describes it, “It’s a collection of
stated that Charlene deGuzman is in recovery
the intention, which was to acknowledge a thing
actual e-mails I’ve sent that show a window into my
for
that’s happening. And that’s cool, because that’s
addiction and my recovery.”
addiction. She is only in recovery for sex-and-
exactly what happened.”
love addiction. FLOOD greatly regrets the error.
As you might expect, “I Forgot My Phone”
In these e-mails, the reader sees deGuzman
With the publication of her book and
substance
abuse
and
sex-and-love