On August 1, Elayne Boosler gave an interview to The Valley Breeze in advance of her appearance at Catch A Rising Star Comedy Club on August 13. When asked, here’s the advice she shares with new comics:
“The best advice I ever heard was from my friend, comic Tom Dreesen,” she says. “As he says, ‘motherfu***r is not a punch line.’”
She explained that she’d just spoken with Dreesen a few days prior to our interview. “He was telling me about roast he did. All these guys were just cursing without doing any writing. When he discussed it with them later on, they asked him what he used for adjectivies. And he just said, ‘I use adjectives.’”
Boosler says she doesn’t give advice on how to break in to the business, because it’s different now than when she started. “The only way to (become a stand-up) is to do it. If you’re a singer, you can sing in the shower until you’re ready for the stage. When you’re a comic, the only way to do it is to do it. It would be terrible if brain surgery was the same way.”
She cautions about listening to “anyone when they tell you what to do. Don’t let them try to shape you at the beginning. Do your thing. Be true to yourself. But if you have nothing to say, then stay home.”
She looks at comedy as a calling. “If you even have to ask if you should be doing something else, then you should do something else. If it really is a choice for you, choose elsewhere. If it’s a thing you have to do, then do it.”
