The advantage of a touring with your own material is that when the crowd loves you, it is all you. That can bring a tremendous sense of satisfaction for a performer who is also a writer.

Of course if you bomb, ouch!

Fortunately, that hasn’t been a problem for Katie Rubin as of late.

Her one-woman comedy show, My Spiritual Death plays to sold-out theaters, and conveniently, makes use of the truth that life hasn’t always been a series of curtain calls.

Originally from Miami, Rubin says she now claims a number of home bases around the country, including the Albuquerque, the Bay Area, Grass Valley, and Sacramento--she has appeared in a number of productions at Capital Stage—where she says she feels a sense of welcome and community. The closest thing she has to a permanent address is currently in Los Angeles, where she can explore movie and television opportunities when she isn’t touring or in a stage production elsewhere.

Rubin has spent a lifetime in the spotlight, first as a member of a touring children’s choir and eventually earning a degree in theater and dance at Amherst College. It was Amherst that she discovered her passion: she saw her first improv performance and knew that was what she was meant to do. She auditioned and was accepted, no small accomplishment for a freshman!

Her first original show, Insides Out, toured the country for ten years, and earned her an Equity card. She found she enjoyed the medium,

“You have a lot more freedom when it’s your own material, so that’s really fun.”

Over the years, Rubin was performing her first show, she was consistently gathering material for what she knew would be a new show, a comedy around her experiences with healing, therapy, recovery and resiliency. Eventually she started writing that second show, but writing it turned out to be more difficult than she’d anticipated. Meanwhile, she received a commission for second show from Capital Stage in Sacramento. Amazing and Sage (Joke-o-so-thoem) became her second solo show, while the raw material languished.

Finally, with what amounted to 45 minutes of jokes, but nothing much to hold them together, Rubin gave herself a jump-start: she booked a venue before she had a show. Within three months, My Spiritual Death was born.

Rubin describes it as, “Basically me making fun of my world.”

She admits a fourth show is already “formulating.”

“I’ve always felt like I had things to say about life, and comedy has been a great place to say them.”

My Spiritual Death will be performed for one night only, Saturday, August 25. www.capstage.org