Iliza Shlesinger
This week is a special one because this is my last blog post of the semester! While comedy is a field dominated by men, more women are starting to step up and show everyone what they got. The world of funny is making room because more and more hilarious and talented women are making it big. This exciting shift is one to note and to go along with that I will be discussing another one of my favorite comedians, Iliza Shlesinger!
Biography:
Iliza Vie Shlesinger was born in New York City on February 22nd 1983. She and her family moved to the city of Dallas, Texas — where she was raised. Shlesinger attended Greenhill High School where she apparently also joined an improvisation team. As she got older she grew into her sense of humor and performed wherever she could. Clearly her practice at such a young benefitted her, as she moved on to become very successful at such a young age. After high school she went to the University of Kansas for a year, and then transferred to Emerson College where she studied film, according to this website here. As she went through college she participated in comedy sketch clubs where she would be able improve her writing and performance skills. After obtaining her degree she moved to Los Angeles to pursue her comedy dream. Right away Iliza joined the Whiteboy Comedy group and even won a comedy contest on Myspace. She gained traction locally and decided to go bigger. She auditioned for the NBC competition television show Last Comic Standing. Once she got accepted to come on to the show, her whole life changed for the better. She ended up winning in 2008 during the show’s sixth season. Celeb Siren.com states she was the youngest winner on the show and was also the first woman to win as well. From that victory on, Shlesinger’s platform grew tremendously and her career took off. She featured in shows like New York Stand Up Show, America’s Next Top Producer, Comedy Central Presents and hosted shows Excused and Separation Anxiety. She has also written and produced titles such as Paradise, Forever 31, Girl Boss and published a book called called Girl Logic: The Genius and the Absurdity. Additionally she has four amazing recorded specials which can all be found on Netflix and will be listed at the bottom of this post. She now has a networth of about one million dollars. Her success is incredibly respectable and has helped to shatter the stereotype surrounding women in comedy. Performing stand-up is already a very difficult feat to master, let alone being a younger woman on top of it, and Shlesinger really did it. She has earned her well-deserved fame just like any other male comic and will hopefully inspire younger generations of girls to pursue comedy.
Review:
Iliza Shlesinger is a fantastic comedian. I emphasize that she is a fantastic comedian — not ‘lady’ comedian. Whenever I watch her perform I don’t think about how she is a woman, I think about how she is making me and the audience laugh really hard. Her style of comedy is something I admire very much. Many famous female comics like Lisa Lampanelli for example tend to make their sets very sexual. Their material is very racy and far from appropriate for children. However, Shlesinger’s routines rarely touch on very inappropriate and graphic content and if she does include it, it’s usually very funny and quite tasteful. In addition to her different style of comedy, she is also a great storyteller and knows how to use her voice and body to animate her material. She is very confident on stage and doesn’t fear making a fool of herself. Whether it’s a scratchy gremlin voice or a weird squatting pose on stage, Shlesinger really knows how to make people laugh based on her behavior alone. Going back to her material, it is really fun to listen to as a girl because a lot of what she focuses on is telling the secrets of what women actually think or how they feel in everyday situations that everyone can relate to. While we’ve all heard this sort of perspective from many male comics regarding their day to day lives, it’s quite refreshing to be able to laugh at my own gender too. While most of her comedy makes fun of both men and women (mostly women), she also has an amazing way of promoting her feminist beliefs. A lot of the time she incorporates political and social commentary into her bits in a way that is not a turn off to the audience and more specifically for men. One of her notable quotes according to IMDB.com is “I feel like our society wants women to be ashamed of their bodies and be insecure. And I was like, ‘What? Society told me to be in shape, so I’m in shape. And now I can’t show it off?’”. She says empowering things in a way that isn’t too preachy, but still gets the point across. Overall she is a great role model because she doesn’t use the “dumb and promiscuous” prototype many female comics tend to resort to because they think that is the only way they will gain approval from society. Iliza demonstrates a strong, successful, intelligent, and most importantly funny image that is very important for young girls to see and aspire to. I recommend her to everyone and will list her material down below. Hopefully you can be inspired by her and most importantly… laugh it up!
Iliza Shlesinger Favorites:
Women’s Eating Habits – Feeding Hot
