Bio
As the youngest of seven in a musical family, my childhood memories are centered around a crowded piano or crowded dining table in my childhood home in Boise, ID ... crowded being the operative word! I'm definitely most comfortable in front of a crowd. Throw in music and food - and you've hit my nirvana.
I inherited the "ham-bone" gene from my Pop, a phenomenal piano player, singer, and story-teller. But I probably got my singing chops from my mom, a beautiful singer - from a huge family of singers.
Pageants got my professional singing career off the ground at age 18 when I was crowned Miss Canyon County, ID. However, I went on to get a BSED in education instead of music. I quickly realized from teaching second graders that I needed to stick with show biz. The joke was: “Mrs. Loyst's students can't read or write but they sure can sing and dance!”… because I was always "putting on shows" in our spare time. So I started singing and dancing at SIX FLAGS OVER GA. A move to Florida gave me the opportunity to work on a cruise ship, and a variety of other entertainment work:
jazz duos
commercials and industrial acting jobs
regional theater - (FL Studio Theaters)
touring house-band for Adam's Mark hotels
A move to NY in 1991 brought the mother-lode of entertainment blessings for a decade:
HANK LANE ORCHESTRAS
STEVEN SCOTT ORCHESTRAS
JOEY JAMES BAND
MILLENNIUM (my own band)
off-Broadway shows
cabaret shows (Roses Turn and Don’t Tell Mama - hired as a performer and also performing my own shows)
indies
commercials
TV/radio
I expanded my talents studying voice with geniuses Richard Hilty and Steve Sweetland, acting at HB studios with Uta Hagen, dance classes, and film-making at NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
I started a musical parody company, Roast & Toast, Inc., a musical revue just for you! With over three-hundred shows, I am now equally qualified as psychologist to parodist. Delving into what makes a person tick, and getting that information from others is an “enlightening” experience, and it’s been a huge privilege and blessing to be a part of so many banner occasions and events.
Motherhood and 9/11 shifted our lives, and once again we made a major move from NY back to ID. I returned to cabaret shows, but on a much grander scale. The shows were written in two acts, made for four-course meals and went from the typical one-hour NYC cabaret to two-plus hour shenanigans with "surprise" guest artists. Great fun!
One last move brought us back to Tampa Bay, FL where I finished raising our children. I turned my love for writing parody into fiction writing, and completed a novel, LEFTOVER LIFE, the first in a trilogy. I hope to be a published writer in the coming years.
But music called me back, and I officially came out of cabaret retirement in 2025, performing three sold-out shows: TORCH!, BROADWAY BABY WANNABE, and BIG BAND CHRISTMAS. Upcoming Shows in 2026 are: SPRING FEVER, A BIG BAND SALUTE TO AMERICA'S 250th, and SPICE OF LIFE. If you're still reading - hope to see you at one of them! Laurie Loyst on facebook.