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Interview With Rebecca Drysdale

If Rebecca Drysdale, the Time Traveling Lesbian, were to jump back to Aspen, Colo., circa 2005, she’d witness herself winning the first-ever Breakout Performer Award at the Aspen Comedy Festival and landing a coveted development deal with HBO.

In 2006, Drysdale found herself on lists such as “Top Ten to Watch in Comedy” (Variety), “Comedy Innovators” (Time) and “100 Women We Love” (Go magazine) because of material such as a song parody of Dr. Seuss’ “The Sneetches,” in which the star-bellied and starless-bellied Sneetches are replaced by butches and femmes. The song concludes, “You can’t rely on clothes to make a good match, ’cause when the clothes come off, a snatch is a snatch.”

Cut to the present. Ohio native Drysdale’s original deal with HBO for a half-hour comedy has been replaced by Time Traveling Lesbian, a web series that “kinda shot out of the side of that by accident.” Originally posted on Funny or Die, Time Traveling Lesbian found an even larger lesbian audience on AfterEllen.com.

I recently caught up with Drysdale to talk about the making of Time Traveling Lesbian, writing for The Big Gay Sketch Show (Logo), the writers’ strike, and why time traveling back to the Roaring ’20s might not be such a great idea.

AfterEllen.com: Congratulations on the success of Time Traveling Lesbian. It combines so many things I love: lesbians, gadgets, Quantum Leap Rebecca Drysdale: Yeah. The original pitch was Quantum Leap meets The L Word. I just don’t think I’ve met a human being in the world who did not love Quantum Leap.

AE: I know I did. RD: I love time travel stuff and I love sci-fi stuff. It was like, “If I could be in any show, what would that show be?” And then, “Well, I’d probably be a time traveler and just make out with really hot girls.” So, let’s make that show.

AE: Hot girls from any time in history. It’s genius. What was your favorite era to shoot? RD: Well, I would say the era that looks the best is Rome [which appears in Episode 3]. We were shooting at Grant’s Tomb [in New York City ] at like 5 in the morning, and it was literally a thousand degrees below zero. It was totally miserable. But I think it looks the best. Everyone was like, “Where did you shoot that?” And I’d say, “We went to Rome.”

AE: [laughs] By way of Riverside Drive. RD: We didn’t have a budget, and we didn’t have the time, so we faked a lot of things and that was what was really fun about it.

AE: Sometimes that’s when you create your best stuff. RD: Yeah. The part where I’m in the future and I pull the Yellow Pages out of the thin air? We spent 20 minutes talking about the logistics of how I’m going to get this thing. And then I was like, “F— it, I’m just yanking it out of the sky.”

AE: I often think that, too. But the thought doesn’t end with “the sky.” So. If we really had time travel, where you would want to go to? RD: I don’t know. I feel like there’s always like a catch. I’d love to go to the ’40s and see Billie Holiday singing in a jazz club. But at the same time, I would have been a woman in the ’40s.

AE: Worse. A lesbian in the ’40s. RD:A lesbian in the ’40s might not have gone quite as well as I have it in my head. I’d love to go to Studio 54 but, you know, that party turned sour pretty quickly. I’d love to see a Jackson Five concert. And I’m not at all a hippie person, but Woodstock is something that I’d want to see. I want to go to the Roaring ’20s, but at the same time, I don’t want to have no rights. I take these questions way too seriously.

AE: I want to be in the future at the moment when the aliens attack. RD: When they attack?

AE: Yeah. RD: There’s a lot of assumptions going along with that. [laughs]

AE: [laughs] Yeah, you’re right. I noticed a little Battlestar Galactica reference on TTL. You said, “Commence jump.” RD: Battlestar was a major, major, major inspiration for Time Traveling Lesbian. It’s my absolute favorite show. The titles, the credits, the “previously on” and the belt buckle thing? I mean, that’s completely Battlestar.

AE: Your belt buckle is an homage to Battlestar Galactica? RD: Yeah. On Battlestar, the sneak peek of the episode you’re about to see – it ends with the Battlestar logo. So that was my little salute to Battlestar.

AE: We do love a great belt buckle. RD:I know! Well, when I went into it, I was like, “I gotta get a belt buckle.” [It’s] the most expensive singular piece of costume in the entire series, because you have to pay the setup charge, get the mold made, and all that stuff. But now, I have my Time Traveling Lesbian belt buckle. Nobody else has that.

AE: Not yet. You know, girls are going to want one, too. RD: I’ve gotten emails: “Where can I get the belt buckle?” I wrote the woman who works at the belt buckle company. She said, “Well, just let us know. We have the mold ready to go.”

AE: So, where can one get a TTL belt buckle? RD: I have to figure out how to go about it, so I would say for now, people can email me at [email protected] for more info.

AE: Merchandising is always fun. RD: Well, I hope so. The most publicized thing that I’ve done in the lesbian community doesn’t have my name attached to it: the “Lesbian Speed Dating” sketch from the first season of The Big Gay Sketch Show.

AE: That is one of my all-time favorite Big Gay Sketch Show sketches. RD: I’m actually in that sketch. I play the extra. It’s one of those things where people are like, “You should find out who wrote that lesbian speed dating sketch.” And I say, “I f—ing wrote that.” [laughs] But I can’t really take credit for it.

AE: Why not? RD: I mean, I take credit for it, but I can’t. It’s part of the show. It was really fun, though.

AE: When is Episode 9 of Time Traveling Lesbian coming? I need to know who Carl is. RD:I want to know who Carl is. I desperately want to make more, but I would also love to do a deal to write a half-hour script, the actual show. I’m hoping I can do more because I would love to know what happens.

AE: Have you talked to gay networks like Logo about turning Time Traveling Lesbian into a series? RD: I haven’t because HBO owns it right now. So I can’t unless someone wants to pay full price to buy it from HBO, which ain’t gonna happen.

AE: Everyone knows about the big mountains of money the gay networks are sitting on. RD: I know. Well, Logo, you know, is the Jay-Z of television networks. One of the reasons I’m so happy this is getting out into the lesbian world is to get enough support and a following to be able to go back to HBO and be like, “Look, I’m bringing my audience with me.”

AE: We are a ridiculously loyal audience. Look at The L Word. You may not love it, but most lesbians – RD: Still come back for more.

AE: Right. RD: It’s like living in Chicago and being a Cubs fan.

AE: Is it? RD: You know what I mean? It’s like, I know they’re gonna lose, I know it’s going to be a disappointment every single time, but I will be here next week [watching] instead of actually talking about what’s going on in our real life [laughs].

AE: Which, if you’re lucky, isn’t a big train wreck, like Jenny or whomever. RD: God, I wish that were true.

AE: Is your life more of a train wreck than that of the characters on The L Word? RD: There are times where it’s an unfortunate “yes,” and there are times where I’m like in great shape.

AE: Which is it today? RD: Now I’m OK. [But] I like to make a mess.

AE: Well, maybe this is your year, professionally, I mean. RD: I hope so. Unfortunately, I’m on strike so I’m doing a lot of sitting at home and recording covers of Pat Benatar songs, which is what I did today.

AE: That’s fun. RD: Exactly. I don’t know. It’s a nice, non-cynical hobby, though, you know?

AE: Yes. And something to do during the writers’ strike. How is that affecting you? RD: I’m in trouble. The people I know who write for 30 Rock and Colbert and Saturday Night Live, a lot of those people have money to carry them over. But a lot of [other] people are now saying, “Maybe we’re not going to drop off our laundry anymore.” Everyone’s kind of gotten to that point. I got to that point the day it started.

AE: So what did you do? RD: Well, my dad and I have had this joke for a very long time, where I promised I was going to pay them back everything I owe them. And then, I was going to buy them a house in the south of France.

Whenever I need to borrow money from them, it always adds something onto the house. If ever I’m in a jam and my dad lends me money, it’s always like, “Well, that’s the fountain. That’s the art studio, the music room.” It’s turning into an extremely nice house in the south of France. But I will make good on it. AE: Maybe that will make up for the gray hairs you gave them when you dropped out of Sarah Lawrence to do comedy. RD: I was so amped up and excited to just go start chasing my dream. At Sarah Lawrence, my friend Jordan [Peele of MADtv] and I just stopped paying attention to school [and would] sit in my room and improvise. Very cool of us. Eventually I said: “I’m going to Chicago [to Second City]. Do you want to come?” And Jordan said: “Yeah. All right. Let me just go get my hat.”

AE: And that went over well with Mom and Dad, right? RD:Oh, of course. Well, you know, any Jewish mother dreams for their daughter to become gay and drop out of school and go into comedy.

My brother [Eric] was a comedian anyway. That kind of softened the blow a little bit. I think if my kid said, “I’m going to drop out and do comedy,” I’d be pretty freaked out also. But I made good on it.

AE: You did. RD: And, now I have a house – it’s so funny, I just moved and in unpacking – I just have a house full of weapons.

AE: May I ask why? RD:From Time Traveling Lesbian. I have boxes full of costumes and weapons from every era in my house. All the costumes, I took [them] out of the budget, so I could buy them myself. So that I could keep them.

AE: Good thinking. RD: They’re all over my house. I look like a crazy person.

For more on Rebecca Drysdale, visit her official website. Watch all the episodes of Time Traveling Lesbian here.

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