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00:00Hello, everyone. I'm film editor Mac Robart. I'm pleased to be here to discuss Eliza Schlesinger, A Different Animal, the latest stand-up special from veteran comic Eliza Schlesinger.
00:08With us to discuss, we have the writer, performer, and executive producer of The Hour, Eliza.
00:14But before we dive in, let's take a look at a clip from A Different Animal.
00:18Millennials are not to blame. You are angry. We're not your parents.
00:22We are your older cousin who showed you how to smoke weed out of an apple.
00:30Yes. We are your bosses who will give you the day off because your VVs are in retrograde. We get it.
00:40Also, we're afraid of you. Be kind to millennials because you don't know that we laid the groundwork for everything that makes you you.
00:49We had the 90s first, you bitches.
00:51Yes. I remember the first time Birkenstocks were fucking ugly. I had them.
01:01We gave you everything. We laid the groundwork for the social media you make millions on.
01:05And I'll never forget that millennials walked on MySpace. Yes.
01:12On Friendster. Yes.
01:15We walked three seconds at a time on Vine. We walked on Instagram, Gen Z, so you could run on TikTok.
01:26We gave you everything. So be kind to millennials because we are just as angry as you are, but our backs hurt and we have heartburn.
01:35All right, Eliza. Well, thank you so much for being here. Could you tell us a little bit about the initial spark for this special?
01:46Like how far back does this go? Like when did you first start conceiving it?
01:51It's a great question. Every comic works differently. This material, I'd say, was about two years in the making because the day after you record a special, you kind of start to ruminate on what the next special is going to be.
02:06And shortly after my sixth special, Hot Forever for Netflix, I got pregnant with my son and I knew that I wanted to do another special, but I knew I didn't want to do it pregnant.
02:15So this was about a year and a half in the making. I went back and looked at some notes so you can see set lists that start.
02:22I start to populate those set lists with the new jokes that made it into this special.
02:26And so I think I worked on this material longer than any other special simply because I wanted to have a baby and be in fighting shape to record the special.
02:37Can you tell me about like what you see? I mean, you're you've done this a lot. This is your seventh special, right?
02:42So what makes a great special to you and how do you keep upping the game for yourself?
02:49Well, if that's an endorsement, I appreciate it. I mean, I think polish and I I believe in putting together a polished performance.
03:00I believe that when people spend their time, which is the most important thing we can give and their money, they deserve to see something that has been rehearsed where you're hitting your marks.
03:09You always want to leave room for improvisation. But I believe in a bit of a through line.
03:14I believe in maybe it's old school, but having callbacks.
03:17You know, I believe in really exploring the art and the artistry that is really good stand up.
03:24And so for me, every time I do it, I guess I learn to talk a little bit slower.
03:28I embody the characters more. I think my ideas as I've evolved have become clearer, more concise, hopefully irrefutable.
03:36And I think it's always about wanting to be heard and saying the things that I need to say in a digestible way.
03:43I always want to stand up for and support women, but not at the expense of putting men down.
03:49And if I do, you know, with one hand, I give it with one hand, I take it.
03:53And so I try to keep an even playing field so that everyone and I have fans in all demographics.
03:59When you come to see the show, you don't feel that you've been chastised and you don't feel bad.
04:05I want everyone, especially women, to always leave uplifted and feeling a little bit more seen and understood and understanding ourselves and each other a little bit better.
04:13And I think that that's, I think you're looking at a body of work and I want people to experience my art and feel good about it.
04:21Yeah. Well, there's a number of kind of thematic undercurrents to the special.
04:26We just saw you discussing generational divides.
04:29It's sort of the thematic core of a special, something you just kind of find organically over time.
04:38It is. I don't ever go into a special because I choose when I want to record.
04:43These things. And so it's not like, oh, I know it's got to be December 31st of every year that I have to say something.
04:49And I think it reveals itself. And you're rehearsing this material and you're going over it.
04:54And, you know, I, I don't just tour. I go up when I'm home.
04:59I go up and I do these sets when I'm in town. And I, you know, I was up two times last night and I just gotten off the road because I love the work.
05:05So it's always about refining and finding new tags and new nuances and dropping things at the last minute.
05:11And so you find the themes. My themes are pretty constant of the last few specials.
05:17And this one in particular, it's always about empowering women.
05:19It's always about revealing why we do the things that we do.
05:23I think of myself as like an unaccredited sociologist.
05:25And standing up for my generation, for the things that we are, be it a mom, a woman, a millennial, and sort of giving voice to a perspective and to a people.
05:40Kind of always coming from an underdog position.
05:43But these themes reveal themselves as we get going.
05:45But there's never an intention other than to be funny and honest when I start to develop the material.
05:52Can you talk a bit more about your writing process?
05:54It was interesting for me to learn that you actually don't write, write material down, right?
06:00It's like, it's more just, it exists in your head.
06:03Like, I don't understand.
06:04I don't know how many comics actually do that.
06:06But are you someone who writes on stage, basically?
06:08Or like, how does it work for you?
06:10Yeah, Matt, that's exactly right.
06:11I guess for better or for worse, because I have a lot of material that I've forgotten.
06:16Because I don't write it down.
06:18And I'll have to ask other comics that I know.
06:20I'll be like, what was that joke I had about Vegas?
06:23But I firmly believe, you know, if it's good, it will stick.
06:26So I will jot down, I'm seeing if I have any of these set lists anywhere.
06:29I will, I'll jot down like a word or two.
06:33And then those serial killer grocery lists comprise the hour.
06:37But it's not written out anywhere by me, the full jokes in paragraph form.
06:44It's like trigger words, which I know in our society has like a bad meaning.
06:47But for me, it's so I can remember the jokes.
06:50And then I leave a lot of room for that improvisation when I'm working out the sets.
06:54And I write on stage.
06:55So I get up as much as I do.
06:59Because I write on stage.
07:01I don't believe sitting at the computer.
07:03That's never worked for me.
07:05And I love it.
07:06I love the process of it.
07:07I love getting up on stage at the Comedy Store or the Improv and just finding new avenues,
07:12new tags, finding ways to stay in the pocket on a joke.
07:15So every time you see me, it's going to be a new version of that joke.
07:20Was there one joke in the special that took had the longest road to where it ended up?
07:26Like the most evolution?
07:28You know what?
07:29I'm like looking at an old set list now.
07:30That's a great question.
07:32I wonder if it's the millennial versus Gen Z because it is a monologue.
07:39And so like even the Birkenstock reference in that, which, you know, I've had a lot of
07:44people be like, we wore those in the 70s.
07:46And I'm like, yeah, but as a millennial, we only think of ourselves.
07:50Um, that joke has so many components and there were so many parts of it that I actually didn't
07:56include in this special because you're up against people's attention spans.
07:59You're up against time and you want to be concise.
08:03And of course, brevity is the soul of wit.
08:05So that joke, which I trimmed a lot of the fat and there were other parts of it that were
08:10great that didn't make it in because you want to streamline your ideas.
08:13Because if you give that speech for too long, it becomes kind of like a political rally and
08:17people get tired.
08:18So I think that one, I just had been polishing in different iterations for a very long time.
08:25You've become the mother of two young children in the last couple of years.
08:30Has that given you an abundance of new material?
08:33I do get asked that a lot.
08:35It's the answer is no.
08:38And the true answer is, you know, when your kids are older and you can get angry at them
08:42and they're teenagers, that's, that's its own world.
08:44But my son just turned one and my daughter just turned three.
08:48So, I mean, other than realizing that my daughter eats so much fruit, it's become like an issue
08:53on our plumbing.
08:55I am still as an artist digesting and grappling with what it means to be a parent, like that
09:01life altering, shaking, affirming, crumbling reality.
09:05And I'm in such awe of it for better, for worse.
09:08And so if you see me doing standup now and I'm talking about it, I am in real time processing
09:13this.
09:14So when I do talk about my kids, because I don't share their pictures online or anything
09:18per my voice, it's usually commentary on the commentary on being a mother versus like,
09:25I'm angry at my kid about something.
09:27And I do want to give my experience with them time to develop.
09:31And I want to give it that grace that it deserves as an artist before I truly have something
09:36concrete to say, because I'm still a new mom.
09:39So I want to make sure that I do say something it's irrefutable versus just like a hot take
09:43that I said with my mom brain that was like half wrong.
09:47Do you feel motherhood has influenced you as a comic?
09:50Like, has it, has it affected your schedule?
09:52Because it is this interesting job where you're mostly going up at night.
09:55They're probably in bed early.
09:56So I don't know how much that's weighed in.
09:59Oh, not only that.
10:01I mean, to the people watching this, like hair and makeup was here at 7am.
10:04But I was up at five because a very small little face had come into my room and asked
10:09if she could touch my things.
10:10So it's, um, it's this just every day is completely different.
10:15And motherhood has influenced my act in what it has done to my brain chemically.
10:20And I do talk about mom brain in this special because I do think it is a scientific and, uh,
10:26biological phenomenon that we only talk about in a very flippant way.
10:29But going into this special, I was nervous that I would forget things because your brain
10:36is so chemically different.
10:37And I do think that we have to give credence to that.
10:40And as women, we should be able to explore this with a sense of humor.
10:42I don't feel as, I just feel different.
10:46I don't know.
10:47I can't totally wrap my mind around it yet.
10:48I definitely feel softer.
10:50I feel sweeter.
10:51Um, I feel, I think more about my kids and less about other things that I used to.
10:57And so there is, it's scary and invigorating all at the same time.
11:01The fact that I, I don't feel the same way I feel about a lot of things.
11:06I feel strong around my daughter, but the rest of the time I'm like, should we buy a ceramic
11:10rooster to spruce up the kitchen?
11:12Like who am I?
11:14And so that's, that's a fun thing to grapple with.
11:18Uh, what do you think is the biggest risk you took with this special?
11:21Like the biggest swing?
11:23I feel like people want me to say the pants.
11:26Um, but to me, they weren't a risk.
11:28Like from the bottom of my heart, I saw those pants.
11:31I was like, those are cool.
11:32I'll wear those.
11:32And then it like set the internet on fire.
11:34I think the biggest risk you always take as a comedian is choosing to bear your soul and
11:41choosing to be vulnerable and say something that you deeply feel in the end, at the end
11:47of a tour, knowing people agree because you've polished it and people have laughed, which means
11:51they validated it.
11:52Um, I think at the end, when I talk about how no woman wants to be a bitch, that's a monologue.
11:59And I go into watching myself age and how that has affected my comedy.
12:04And it's just me sort of explaining my experience in real time.
12:07I feel like a journalist on the front lines of aging.
12:10And I'm like, I'm here as a mother of two to tell you.
12:13Um, but I think the vulnerability of saying like, as women, we are these incredible creatures
12:19and we get pushed to an ugly place all too often.
12:22I think when you are, when you make statements about being a woman, you run the risk of misanthropic
12:29women who not only disagree, but violently disagree and are angry for a multitude of reasons.
12:34And of course you run the risk of men who are angry that you are expressing yourself as
12:39a woman.
12:39Now that's a small part of your viewing population.
12:43For the most part, people are enjoying it.
12:45And I always come with the intention of obviously making people laugh, but wanting to express myself
12:51and to express perhaps what others can't express or haven't.
12:56So, so there's always a risk.
12:57Anytime you get on a stage and you express yourself, man, I love that risk.
13:02Well, prior to the special, Netflix was sort of like a long time home for you.
13:06Uh, the kind of marketplace in comedy is, is shifting in a, in good ways.
13:11It seems like, uh, lately there's more opportunity, uh, opening up at places like prime video.
13:16They're getting pretty aggressive in this space and putting out great work.
13:20Um, but what was it about, uh, Amazon for you?
13:23What motivated you, uh, you to get in business with them?
13:26Money.
13:27Fair money.
13:28They were, um, you know, we were looking at, I, I knew that I wanted to do a special.
13:33I knew that I was ready to set a date for that.
13:36And I just, I liked the team at Amazon.
13:40Netflix is awesome.
13:41You know, like they're the blueprint.
13:41Um, and I had an incredible run with them, but I did feel that there were audiences out
13:46there that I perhaps wasn't tapping into.
13:49Um, and I love the support that Amazon gave me and I liked the offer and they've been supportive
13:54of not only this, but, um, Eliza's locals, which is the, um, the specials that I produce
14:01for up and coming comics.
14:02And they were interested in that as well.
14:03And seeing me as an artist with a full body of work, not just the special.
14:08And so, you know, I think it's great that more people are getting into standup.
14:11I don't think it's ever a good thing when it's just one person deciding being a king
14:15maker, be it late night or streamer.
14:18Um, and the great news about the ubiquity of comedy now is that everybody can find what
14:23works for them.
14:23And I just loved getting the opportunity to have Amazon elevate me and hopefully I elevate
14:31their platform and hopefully we get an Emmy, but, um, reaching new people is very special
14:37to me because it enables me to tour.
14:40I mean, my tour this year kicks off in Eastern Europe, which is something I've been wanting
14:42to do for a long time, but the opportunity to play Kuala Lumpur and New Zealand and Hong
14:49Kong, um, you know, all of these places it's because people have streaming comedy and it
14:55is an incredible thing that we're getting to see in this lifetime.
14:59Well, last question would be, uh, I mean, you mentioned your upcoming tour, but what else,
15:03uh, what else do you have coming up?
15:05I mean, you've done so many different things over the years acting and what, what have you
15:08like, uh, what, what can you tell us about this next, uh, chapter?
15:12This next chapter, you know, like a lot of actors, I can't tell you what it is until
15:18it's done.
15:19I always feel like people sound like they're lying.
15:21They're like, we've got a lot of things coming up.
15:22It's like, no, you don't.
15:23And chances are, it's not going to go.
15:24But, um, we have a lot of projects we're excited about a lot of scripts that are being
15:28finalized, a lot of, a lot of ink that is drying on deals currently.
15:33And so I hope that this special is the beginning of an incredible relationship with Amazon.
15:37And I'm just going to keep in the meantime, bringing bigger and better standup as long
15:43as I still can, as long as there's still pants out there.
15:46Excellent.
15:47Uh, well, it's another great special.
15:49Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us, Eliza.
15:51And, uh, yeah, thank you everyone for tuning in.
15:53Please check out a different animal on a prime video.