globeandmail.ca
Comedienne plays it straight with money
Radio host Carla Collins has taken plenty of career risks but relies on adviser to keep finances on track, CAROLINE ALPHONSO writes
By CAROLINE ALPHONSO
Wednesday, July 17, 2002 – Print Edition, Page N1
She's worked as a lambada dancer, a calligrapher, an aerobics instructor and a flight attendant. But lots of laughs are what's brought Carla Collins fame -- and she's laughing all the way to the bank.
The petite, perky and no-holds-barred blonde has been continually raising her profile through a variety of jobs, including co-anchoring CTV's eNow entertainment show, hosting her own Comedy Network show, Chez Carla, and, most recently, becoming the country's first female morning-show lead in a major market on Toronto's MIX 99.9 contemporary radio station.
And while she knows to save and invest some of her earnings for a rainy day, the details of the stock market are a real snoozer to her.
She'd rather leave the nitty-gritty work up to her financial adviser, met through mutual friends, as well as her husband, who has more of an interest in investing.
"I will only be a series of clichés when it comes to money," the 38-year-old says over lunch. "I don't know a great deal."
Ms. Collins' husband, Jonathan Burnside, a former police officer who owns In the Zone, a service delivering meals to clients of the Zone Diet in the Toronto area, dabbles in a few stocks. They recently bought into ailing Nortel Networks Corp. and Dimethaid Research Inc., both "speculative plays" -- Nortel, says Mr. Burnside, because it's dropped so much and Dimethaid because of promising drugs in the pipeline.
But it's up to Ms. Collins's financial planner, John Fisher of Investors Group, to remind her to hand over lump sums of her earnings to invest. For the past nine years, Mr. Fisher has ensured his client's diversification by putting the money into six different mutual funds: the Investors Real Property Fund, IG MAXXUM Dividend Fund, the Investors U.S. Large Cap Value Fund, IG AGF Canadian Growth, Investors European Growth Fund, and the IG Janis Global Equity Fund.
"Carla has no desire to keep in touch with the investment side of things. I bug her to put money away," Mr. Fisher says with a laugh. "She must appreciate it because she hasn't got rid of me yet."
Ms. Collins admits her days are too hectic to have time to make "any kind of knowledgeable guesses" about stocks. She has her morning radio show, comedy gigs and TV appearances. She played Hollywood star Rusty in the Canadian sex-crazed soap opera, Paradise Falls, and will be making an appearance as herself on Degrassi: The Next Generation. She's also working on a comedy DVD.
Not conservative with her money, she spends on what she likes and spreads the wealth with gifts to family and friends. Still, she knows enough to put cash aside because of the risks she's taken through her career.
The Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., native moved to Guelph, Ont., when she was 11. There she learned about money, working at her dad's variety store. Since then, she's moved from one job to another.
She began her broadcasting career on a whim as a student in France, where she did her first radio gig (on an exchange program). After graduating from the University of Western Ontario, where she studied languages, Ms. Collins went on to work for radio stations in Quebec and Ontario.
In 1990, she anchored the Weather Network. One night she was "goofing off" with a group of friends when one of the owners of the Comedy Nest in Montreal approached her and invited her to do standup comedy at his club. Although terrified, a year later, she was up on stage. "I just remember throwing up for a couple of hours before I went on," she says. "Up until really recently, I had a huge nerve problem with comedy."
But she didn't bomb. Even better, the comedy gigs grew more consistent, with Ms. Collins appearing in places such as Just for Laughs and Yuk-Yuks.
When she came to Toronto at the age of 28, she became CTV's glamour queen working on eNow.
"The job was a great blessing, and I know that there would be a lineup that would rival the Men in Black II opening to get that job, but it wasn't the right fit for me," she says.
Before CTV, she says she was hired and fired by MIX 99.9 and a Montreal radio station. She refused to take a demotion in Montreal and a new boss came in with his own crew in Toronto.
She came back to MIX a year ago because of an offer she just couldn't refuse -- being the lead host on a morning show.
She jokes that there's an office pool as to how long she'll last at the MIX this time around. "I'm almost breaking my own record," she says with a mischievous smile.
These days, there doesn't seem much that could stop this self-confident, sexy woman. Her days are busy. "I get less sleep than Martha Stewart," she jokes.
"I'm going for quantity, instead of quality," she says. "I'm really not good at any one thing. I do a lot of them."
When asked if she makes a lot of money doing radio, she says, "What's a lot? I'll have to have my lawyer call you."
But it's the comedy work that Ms. Collins enjoys most, even though it doesn't pay a lot. The big money is in entertainment gigs for corporations. She charges $7,500 to $10,000, depending on whether it's an hour or a full-day, and has appeared before groups as wide-ranging as venture capitalists and bakers.
"I'm all messed up. I'm like a bizarre, parallel-universe person. So when everything else is slow, I'm on fire," she says.
As far as finances go, Ms. Collins has paid down all her debts. "I'm never in the red," she says. The only loan hanging over the couple, who have been married for three years, is a mortgage on their north Toronto home.
Ms. Collins admits that her less conservative style is in contrast to that of her husband, who she describes as "Captain Coupon." Still, it's good to have a steady job to anchor her lifestyle, she says.
But "I'm not really frightened of what would happen if I was fired because I always land in a better situation," she says matter-of-factly. "I've always been paid more at my next gig."
At the same time, she admits to liking the independence a strong financial footing provides. "I don't think you should be ruled by money," she says. "But it's obviously freedom." |
