Interview With Liz Feldman

Out writer and performer Liz Feldman, the four-time Emmy Award–winning former writer-producer for The Ellen DeGeneres Show, got her start in entertainment when most of us were still figuring out how to get away with cutting class.

She started doing stand-up comedy at the age of 15 and soon afterward was hired as both writer and talent on Nickelodeon's All That. Spurred by a lifelong dream of working with Ellen DeGeneres, she moved out to Los Angeles and honed her comedic skills at improv schools Second City and the Groundlings before writing and performing on Blue Collar TV. From 2005 to 2007, Feldman realized her dream by writing material for DeGeneres on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Feldman recently returned to the world of stand-up comedy, and she has also produced an award-winning short film, My First Time Driving, which is screening at festivals worldwide. Among the many projects she's currently working on is her own AfterEllen.com comedy series, This Just Out with Liz Feldman.

I recently talked with Feldman about how she got to where she is today, working with DeGeneres, the power of visualization, and how blazers have always been part of her formula for dressing for success.

AfterEllen.com: Was anyone in your family in showbiz?
Liz Feldman: I was influenced by my brother and sister, but they weren't really in the industry. My sister was a really good actress in high school, the lead in all the plays, really pretty and popular. And as my mother says — I'm a big Jew, by the way — during the Purim play at synagogue when I was 6, my sister was 11 and playing Queen Esther, and after the show was done I dragged my mother up the stage, pointed at it and said, "That's what I want to do!"

That's the crazy story — all because of the Purim play.

When I was 10 I became obsessed with the entertainment industry, and I asked my parents for an agent for my 10th birthday, not knowing that it doesn't work that way. They said: "That's nice. Here's a 10-speed." I made a deal with my parents at that time — I'm from Brooklyn — that when I became old enough to ride the train by myself, then I could start auditioning for things.

So when I was 12, I became old enough to ride the train, and I started going on auditions and got involved in theater in Manhattan. When I was 15, I answered an ad in Backstage magazine. They were looking for kids who performed stand-up and wrote their own material. At the time, I didn't do any of that. But I knew I wanted to and that I probably could do it. So I answered that ad.

I wrote three minutes of material. It was all about my mom, a little bit about high school and the SATs, and I auditioned and I got into this show that was about kids doing stand-up. I got a manager and I just started performing.

One of my early jokes — OK, I'll embarrass myself. This is so bad. Hopefully you'll see how much funnier I've gotten over the years. So 15 years ago, this was one of my first jokes: "You know how some kids will get embarrassed when their moms will spit on a napkin to wipe the dirt off their face? My mom just licks my face."

AE: Oh my God, and it's so gay!
LF: So gay! I was screaming out and I didn't even know.

AE: So you got funnier and gayer?
LF: Maybe less gay, I don't even know! Do you want to know what I was wearing when I first started doing stand-up?

AE: A blazer?
LF: Of course! My original stand-up outfit was light linen pants, a white button-down shirt, an embroidered vest and a matching linen jacket.

AE: Jesus, Liz! Come on.
LF: At the time [I] had a boyfriend. However, that suit was dating a woman behind my back.

So I got an agent from doing that kind of stuff. Believe it or not, not a lot of girls doing stand-up at age 15.

So I graduated from high school and I was supposed to go to Vassar, and my mother was thrilled because I had gotten in off the wait list and it was a minor miracle that I was going to a school that someone might have heard of. But then I got a job offer. I had been scouted by Nickelodeon — the show All That wanted a female writer.

I had never written anything other than my own jokes and essays from high school. So much to my mother's dismay, I withdrew from Vassar and moved to Orlando, Florida. Three weeks after graduating from high school I got my own car and an apartment.

It was amazing, but it was far too much. I was not really ready for such a thing. And the experience was … challenging. It was a wake-up call for me, because I really loved being on the show, and I also really wanted to be a kid. I worked ridiculous hours, and it was more than I was really capable of at the time. It made me want to go to college and not worry about having a job. So that's what I did.

So after that I really wanted to go to school, but Vassar wouldn't take me because they wouldn't accept students in January. So I started hanging out with my friend Dan Fogler, who is now a movie star [Balls of Fury]. He went to Boston University and I met all his friends, and as a matter of fact my very first girlfriend went to BU as well.

I was there visiting Dan at BU and he was about to go to an audition for the campus improv group. I thought it sounded like fun, but I didn't go to school there. But I went with him anyway and they accepted me, telling me if I was a student there I could be in the group. So that's why I went to school there, so I could be in their improv group.

Not only did I learn a lot, but I also met my best friend, Jason, doing that, and he and I eventually moved to Los Angeles together. Anyway, I graduated with a B.S. in TV writing [laughs], and lo and behold actually used it.

After graduating, Jason and I got in the car and moved to L.A. Here, I got involved with the Groundlings, and overall I had a great experience with them. I met so many amazing people — really talented, really inspiring — and made a lot of important creative partnerships and definitely found my voice as a sketch writer.