Speaker 1: Comedy Saved Me. Hey, welcome to Comedy Saved Me. I
Speaker 1: am your host, Lynn Hoffman, And if you're enjoying the show,
Speaker 1: first of all, thank you, and also, could you do
Speaker 1: me a quick favor maybe drop a rating or review
Speaker 1: on iHeart Apple or Spotify or wherever you listen, because
Speaker 1: it would really help us spread the word and let
Speaker 1: others know that you think the show is kind of cool,
Speaker 1: which we so much appreciate, and hopefully we can get
Speaker 1: more folks to check it out, because the more good
Speaker 1: that we can do and the more good we can spread,
Speaker 1: the better, So thank you for that. Today, I sit
Speaker 1: down with a comedian whose punchlines are like magic tricks,
Speaker 1: boom right between the eyes. You never see them coming
Speaker 1: until you're laughing out loud. She is the queen of
Speaker 1: the perfectly timed pause, a master of the one liner,
Speaker 1: and a trailblazer who's been making audiences crack up for decades.
Speaker 1: Get ready to walk through a sharp, witty, and wonderfully
Speaker 1: surprising world of Wendy Leadman right now on Comedy Saved Me. Wendy,
Speaker 1: welcome to Comedy Save Me. That's so great to have
Speaker 1: you here.
Speaker 2: I loved that intro. Thank you. I hope I can
Speaker 2: live up to that.
Speaker 1: You already have. And then some and everybody knows you.
Speaker 1: You've been on every show that's possible that could feature comedians.
Speaker 1: Wendy and I were talking before we started the show
Speaker 1: about our weird thing that we have with the color black,
Speaker 1: that if you go look her up online, pretty much
Speaker 1: every time you see her on stage, she's wearing black.
Speaker 1: And I thought, wow, I do the exact same thing.
Speaker 1: I went into my closet, it's all black. It's unbelievable.
Speaker 1: So we have that little kinship between us.
Speaker 2: Well, I think when I'm on stage, I don't want
Speaker 2: to distract the audience. So if I just were black,
Speaker 2: then they're not looking at my paisley or skirt or
Speaker 2: you know whatever. But I did tell you that I
Speaker 2: bought a pink jacket to wear on stage the other day,
Speaker 2: just because people need to change every once in a while.
Speaker 2: I don't mean change their clothes, but you know, change grow.
Speaker 2: So I bought a pink jacket from Macy's and I'm
Speaker 2: going to return it tomorrow. I do it, not me,
Speaker 2: It's not me. Who am I kidding?
Speaker 1: I do it all the time, all the time, I
Speaker 1: try to convince myself that it's going to look good,
Speaker 1: and then I always end up throwing on a black
Speaker 1: T shirt and calling it a day.
Speaker 2: I mean, my niece once asked me, aunt, Wendy, why
Speaker 2: do you dress like a mime? And I was like,
Speaker 2: who can say?
Speaker 1: That's all you had to say with the hands I
Speaker 1: love it all right. Well, Wendy, I just got you here,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, we have to take a
Speaker 1: quick break, but we have to pay the bills somehow,
Speaker 1: So if you wouldn't mind hanging out for a second
Speaker 1: and we'll be right back with Wendy Leibman on comedy
Speaker 1: saved me. Comedy saved me, and we're back, Wendy Liebman,
Speaker 1: can you share a moment when comedy truly saved you,
Speaker 1: when laughter helped you get through a really tough time
Speaker 1: in your life?
Speaker 2: You know, honestly, I think I started doing stand up.
Speaker 2: I mean, who knows why anybody does anything, But I
Speaker 2: was very depressed. I was doing psych research. I was
Speaker 2: going to be a therapist. I was doing psych research
Speaker 2: at Harvard Medical School. I had just graduated from college.
Speaker 2: I went to Wellesley and I thought I was going
Speaker 2: to be a therapist. And I myself was very depressed,
Speaker 2: and I took in the mail from the wrong apartment
Speaker 2: and in the mail was a course catalog or an
Speaker 2: adult ed center like the Learning Annets, but it was
Speaker 2: called the adult Ed Center of Cambridge. In it was
Speaker 2: a course on how to be a stand up comedian
Speaker 2: and Lynn when I read those words, it was like
Speaker 2: a light bulb went off, like Eureka, like I heard
Speaker 2: angel singing. And even though I had never thought about
Speaker 2: being a stand up comedian in my life, I just
Speaker 2: felt like it was a calling, basically, like this is
Speaker 2: what I'm supposed to do. And even though I was
Speaker 2: not great for a couple of years, I just knew
Speaker 2: that this is what I am, a stand up comedian.
Speaker 2: So it saved me in that I was less depressed.
Speaker 2: I would go to every comedy show I could. Laughter
Speaker 2: itself is very healing, and they've done studies. There's a
Speaker 2: whole study about laughter. I think it's called gelatology, and
Speaker 2: they it's out of Stanford, and they show how it
Speaker 2: helps increase breath and dopamine and you know, all the
Speaker 2: good things in your body. And just being around people
Speaker 2: was really good for me too, and I decided I
Speaker 2: would rather make one hundred people laugh than one person
Speaker 2: cry as a there or cry by myself. And I
Speaker 2: think it really that was a long answer, but it
Speaker 2: truly was what I needed psychologically, both watching comedy I
Speaker 2: love to laugh, and and being the person on stage
Speaker 2: making the audience laugh. It's a weird job, though, if
Speaker 2: you think about it, like that's what we do.
Speaker 1: It is, and it's interesting to me when I was
Speaker 1: reading about you graduated Wellesley College as a psychologist, which
Speaker 1: is amazing. I minored in psychology, but I kind of
Speaker 1: knew what I wanted to do, so I thought it
Speaker 1: would be helpful just to be able to communicate with
Speaker 1: people overall, just to understand people more. But you actually
Speaker 1: wanted to go full on and help people with therapy,
Speaker 1: and I'm just curious how much of that has helped
Speaker 1: you in comedy.
Speaker 2: I think a big part of being a therapist is listening,
Speaker 2: and I think I really listened to the audience, like
Speaker 2: I've owned that skill. I am aware of the audience,
Speaker 2: like I realize. I'm also aware like if I'm in
Speaker 2: an airport, I pick up on things around me. So
Speaker 2: it just honed my senses. I think being thinking that
Speaker 2: it was going to be a psychologist and then actually
Speaker 2: doing stand up. I don't know if that answered your question,
Speaker 2: but there's some overlap.
Speaker 1: No, No, that does make sense. And it's interesting too
Speaker 1: that you just said that you can kind of tell
Speaker 1: what's going on with people. And is that because of
Speaker 1: your education or maybe you're sensitive.
Speaker 2: I think a little of both. Yeah, yeah, it's hard
Speaker 2: to tell.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is. It's very confusing when picked the right
Speaker 1: career path, right, because you've been incredibly successful. I was
Speaker 1: curious what you approach to comedy and how it evolved
Speaker 1: over the years. You've been doing this a while, and
Speaker 1: what advice you would give to your younger self, maybe
Speaker 1: when you were just starting out.
Speaker 2: Well, I tell comedians now who ask me for advice
Speaker 2: to perform as much as humanly possible, which is what
Speaker 2: I did when I first started. Even though I had
Speaker 2: a day job, I was at at least one, if
Speaker 2: not three, open mics every single night in Boston, and
Speaker 2: there were a lot more venues and a lot fewer comedians,
Speaker 2: so it's a lot easier to get on stage. So
Speaker 2: I would drive all over town or through five states,
Speaker 2: Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and then I'd
Speaker 2: be back at work the next morning. So that's the
Speaker 2: main thing, is performing as much as possible, because you
Speaker 2: could think you're the funniest person in the world, and
Speaker 2: you might be, but until you hear the audience laughing, yeah,
Speaker 2: you need like practical experience. So that's one thing I
Speaker 2: would tell myself, which I listened to. But the other
Speaker 2: thing I would I tell people Now, the thing that
Speaker 2: I wish people had told me was tru I knew
Speaker 2: material all the time, because I would tend and I
Speaker 2: still do tend to hone my jokes that I have
Speaker 2: and work on them for years. And I would have
Speaker 2: a lot more material and a few more specials if
Speaker 2: I had taken chances and trusted the audience enough to
Speaker 2: or trusted myself to feel comfortable trying out new material.
Speaker 2: I write all the time. I just don't try it
Speaker 2: out all the time.
Speaker 1: Well, wouldn't you say that? That would be That's incredibly
Speaker 1: interesting but very familiar as I work with a lot
Speaker 1: of producers and I see that happen a lot, where
Speaker 1: they get in their own way because it's not done yet.
Speaker 1: But it's only subjective to you. But then it's like
Speaker 1: a birthing because then you have to put it out
Speaker 1: there to be judged by everybody, so you want to
Speaker 1: make sure it's perfect. So that's kind of.
Speaker 2: Hard, exactly. And I was with a few comedians the
Speaker 2: other night. I produced a benefit for reproductive rights and
Speaker 2: I performed last year and they asked me to produce
Speaker 2: it this year. And I had some of the best
Speaker 2: talent out there. I had Reader Rudner, who was one
Speaker 2: of my idols, and Kathy Griffin and Kathy Ladman and
Speaker 2: Stephanie Blum, and we were talking backstage about using jokes
Speaker 2: that we wrote thirty years ago. And not that any
Speaker 2: of us is Bruce Springsteen, but I said, Bruce Springsteen
Speaker 2: still sings Born to run every show, so if it works,
Speaker 2: it works. So yeah, if your jokes aren't topical or
Speaker 2: seem out of context or ridiculous, they work, so why
Speaker 2: not use it anyway? But yes, I would tell my
Speaker 2: former self to just take a million chances.
Speaker 1: And be fearless.
Speaker 2: Be fearless. Yeah, but part of what makes me do
Speaker 2: or made me do stand up, was an insecurity of
Speaker 2: that I would fit in or get along. And I've
Speaker 2: I've been heckled a few times, and I've been and
Speaker 2: I've bombed, not many times. I mean, I'm not bragging,
Speaker 2: but like I I've bombed in the last ten years,
Speaker 2: but uh, I haven't bombed like where it was just
Speaker 2: painful where.
Speaker 1: It came out and like dragged you off right.
Speaker 2: But in those times when I have bombed, I felt
Speaker 2: the same way that I felt before I did stand up,
Speaker 2: which was very alone, very missile, understood, panicky and depressed.
Speaker 1: But that hasting true with so many people. What you
Speaker 1: just said, it happens to me all the time. It's amazing.
Speaker 1: You think you get ten steps ahead and then one
Speaker 1: thing happens and then you're right back where you were before.
Speaker 1: You learn that lesson.
Speaker 2: Well, I did a show the other night. It was
Speaker 2: like a private club in Beverly Hills and it was
Speaker 2: thirty year olds somethings, and it wasn't my audience, let's
Speaker 2: put it that way. It wasn't my audience. And I
Speaker 2: had to work, like really work like they didn't know
Speaker 2: me at all. And I was reminded that, yeah, this
Speaker 2: is my this is a job. What's my point. My
Speaker 2: point is every time I get on stage, it's a
Speaker 2: new Audien, and you never know, like I have done
Speaker 2: it so many times for the past forty something years
Speaker 2: that I know that I could get a laugh with
Speaker 2: a certain joke, But there's never any guarantee.
Speaker 1: Forty years, man, you have not even aged a second
Speaker 1: since the first time I saw you. Look amazing.
Speaker 2: It's the filter.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's right. Everything looks better on the camera.
Speaker 1: Your punchlines are famous for their subtle, shall I say, misdirection.
Speaker 1: How did you develop that signature style of yours and
Speaker 1: what challenges sort of came with it?
Speaker 2: I think that's just the way my brain works. But
Speaker 2: I think any quote unquote artist, if I can call myself,
Speaker 2: that is influenced by the people that they grow up with,
Speaker 2: that they start their art with. And I was in
Speaker 2: Boston in the eighties, and I would watch watch comedian
Speaker 2: Jonathan Katz, comedian Brian Kylie, who's my favorite joke writer.
Speaker 2: I would watch Laura Kitlinger, Don Gavin, Steve Sweeney, and
Speaker 2: Kevin Meanie, and I would see them, oh and Bill Broadest,
Speaker 2: and I would see them and see what worked with them.
Speaker 2: And I remember watching Kevin Meanie one night, the late
Speaker 2: great Kevin Meanie, and he was on a roll, like
Speaker 2: there was never any lag and I thought, that's what
Speaker 2: I want to do. I do not want silence, so
Speaker 2: I kept adding taglines. So it was an evolution, like
Speaker 2: that's all I can say. It was like I learned
Speaker 2: from watching and listening, and now in my sixties, I
Speaker 2: appreciate the silence more because I think there's actually my
Speaker 2: husband for our twenty second anniversary gave me a book
Speaker 2: called The Power of Silence. Oh that's just a joke.
Speaker 2: Was he trying to tell you, just a joke.
Speaker 1: I should have been getting that book too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I do like the silence now. I take
Speaker 2: my time now on stage.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's weird. I always felt my whole life I
Speaker 1: had to fill the silence. I'm so nervous, like if
Speaker 1: it's too quiet, it gets weird, right, But now it's
Speaker 1: like very powerful.
Speaker 2: I feel the exact same way. And I realized recently
Speaker 2: that it was about being around my mother, who had
Speaker 2: to fill all the silence too, Like we could never
Speaker 2: have any lag time in our conversation because then it
Speaker 2: meant something else might happen. And not to get too
Speaker 2: not to get too heady and psychological about it, but
Speaker 2: I think that's where it comes from for me. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so I find myself with people probably like you, trying
Speaker 2: to make them feel comfortable and fill the gaps. I've
Speaker 2: been talking to my husband's cousin. She's a wellness coach,
Speaker 2: and at the beginning of our zooms we take breaths,
Speaker 2: and so we have to be quiet.
Speaker 1: Oh God, it must be so cool we can do that,
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 2: All it is.
Speaker 1: What is a common misunderstanding, Wendy that audiences have about
Speaker 1: comedians and stand up comedy?
Speaker 2: Ooh, maybe that we're funny all the time. And I
Speaker 2: have to say, I know some comedians who are all
Speaker 2: always on, and then I know a lot of comedians
Speaker 2: who are like the opposite of funny when they're on,
Speaker 2: I mean when they're not on. In my situation, my
Speaker 2: husband is the funny one for real and for real,
Speaker 2: he's so funny, my husband. But he's also really shy,
Speaker 2: like he would never do stand up. He said, if
Speaker 2: I do stand up, I'm just going to be on
Speaker 2: stage and I'm gonna wet my pants. Hey, Mike gonna
Speaker 2: say right, and I'll say, that's my time. But he
Speaker 2: always has some really creative, funny thing to say about
Speaker 2: every day.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: Well, he's a writer. He wrote on a sitcom called
Speaker 2: Boy Meets World.
Speaker 1: Oh I remember that.
Speaker 2: Yes, And he's also the son of a songwriter who
Speaker 2: wrote a lot of the Sick for Disney. Wow. They
Speaker 2: wrote Mary Poppins and Shitty Chitty Bang Bang. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 2: the music. Yeah. They wrote the song It's a Small World.
Speaker 1: So you're like your own little entertainment mecca empire right there,
Speaker 1: just the two of you.
Speaker 2: Wow, it's just funny. Yeah. My husband inspired the song
Speaker 2: spoonful of Sugar No way Edison go down. Yes. He
Speaker 2: came home from school and his dad said, what did
Speaker 2: you do today? And he said, we got the salt
Speaker 2: vaccine or the vaccine for polio. And my father in
Speaker 2: law said, you let them give you a shot. He
Speaker 2: was seven, And my husband said, no. They put it
Speaker 2: on a sugar cube, and the sugar cube was on
Speaker 2: a spoon and we just ate it.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I know it's I can't believe. That's
Speaker 1: such a fun fact that no one would ever.
Speaker 2: Know, right, And so my father in law like twiddled
Speaker 2: his thumbs and called his brother who was his writing partner,
Speaker 2: and the next day they wrote a spoonful of sugar
Speaker 2: helps medicine go down.
Speaker 1: In the most delightful way.
Speaker 2: Exactly.
Speaker 1: Wow. Wow, you heard it here first. That is very cool.
Speaker 1: Unless you must you must have told that story before.
Speaker 2: I'm sure once or a zillion times.
Speaker 1: What what what's the funniest or most memorable show that
Speaker 1: you've had and what made it stand out? Can you
Speaker 1: remember you've done something?
Speaker 2: I have two shows that I always think about, and
Speaker 2: one was I got to open for Bob Hope in
Speaker 2: the nineties Wow outside for five thousand people wow, and
Speaker 2: in Indianapolis, and that was surreal. I mean I've opened
Speaker 2: for a lot of famous people like Ray Charles and
Speaker 2: and Margaret and Leo Glacy like I can't even believe
Speaker 2: my life. I feel like Zellig sometimes. But that was
Speaker 2: memorable just because of the comedy gravity. And then one
Speaker 2: time I was in a basement of an Italian restaurant
Speaker 2: called Paisanos in Dearborn, Michigan, and there were eight people
Speaker 2: on a Sunday night and it was joyous. I just
Speaker 2: included all eight of us. By the end, we knew
Speaker 2: everybody's name. I think I bought everybody. During why I
Speaker 2: felt like a puk on an air hockey board. I
Speaker 2: was in the moment, I just it was It was
Speaker 2: really fun. And you know, I've gotten much more conversational
Speaker 2: talking to the audience over the years, whereas when I
Speaker 2: first started, it was like I had to follow my
Speaker 2: script and every word had to be in place. And
Speaker 2: because jokes rely on the rhythm and the punchline and
Speaker 2: you know, the wording, there's timing and yeah, the timing.
Speaker 2: So I was very studious like that. But then I
Speaker 2: started talking to the audience, probably just to fill the
Speaker 2: time sometimes, and the audience loves that because it's like
Speaker 2: an inside joke with the audience. You feel like you
Speaker 2: feel like the comedian is not just an actor saying
Speaker 2: lines that they are really the comedy brain. The people
Speaker 2: who are best at that. You know, now you see
Speaker 2: it a lot. Now you see a lot of comedians
Speaker 2: posting their audience interaction videos. But before that, this wave,
Speaker 2: Paula Poundstone is the best at it. She riffs with
Speaker 2: the audience. Comedian named Jimmy Brogan, who was one of
Speaker 2: Jay Leno's head writers for many years. He's phenomenal. Russell
Speaker 2: Peters is amazing, like it's a real gift. And so
Speaker 2: I'm not great at it, but I've gotten better over
Speaker 2: the years and I really enjoy it. Like I opened
Speaker 2: for I have a standing gig opening for Fritz Coleman,
Speaker 2: who was the weather guy here in LA for forty years,
Speaker 2: and he just stand up. That's how he started. He
Speaker 2: was seen at the comedy club and they asked him,
Speaker 2: do you want to do the weather?
Speaker 1: Of all things?
Speaker 2: I know, I know. I think David Letterman started that
Speaker 2: way too. Wow. But so now he is a standing
Speaker 2: gig and I do twenty minutes in front of him
Speaker 2: once a month, and his is more like a play.
Speaker 2: But so I do the opposite of that. I just
Speaker 2: interact with the audience and talk to them about life.
Speaker 2: So love I love using that creative muscle.
Speaker 1: It's sort of like relaxing in the saddle of life.
Speaker 1: It's the only kind of Someone said that to me once.
Speaker 1: Oh I love that right, all of a sudden, It's
Speaker 1: like even when I was doing the show originally, I
Speaker 1: had come off all public stuff for probably like ten
Speaker 1: twelve years, and I really wasn't going to get back
Speaker 1: into doing anything unless it was for good purposes. Hence
Speaker 1: I'm here but being comfortable to say, wait a minute,
Speaker 1: hold on a second, let me look at a note
Speaker 1: that I just had here. You just meant, you know,
Speaker 1: and then it's okay to do that. You don't have
Speaker 1: to be so polished and perfectly right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I bring notes sometimes, and I even asked the audience,
Speaker 2: I say I'm trying some new jokes, would you mind?
Speaker 2: And they're like no, no, of course.
Speaker 3: We'll be right back with more of the Comedy Save
Speaker 3: Me Podcast. Welcome back to the Comedy Save Me Podcast.
Speaker 1: You mentioned Paula Poundstone, and I just found out yesterday
Speaker 1: that she's going to be coming on the show as well,
Speaker 1: So I'm so stoked over that. First I get Wendy Leidman,
Speaker 1: and now Paula Poundstone's going to come on, and I
Speaker 1: can't even wait to talk to her. If you could
Speaker 1: ask her a question, what would you ask her?
Speaker 2: Let me think about that, but I want to tell
Speaker 2: you a story about please yea, that's okay, yea. So
Speaker 2: she originated in Boston, so when I was starting, she
Speaker 2: came back to do a show and I remember watching
Speaker 2: her and thinking, and I had just done it for
Speaker 2: like six months, and I remember thinking, I am, I
Speaker 2: should just quit because I'm never going to be that funny.
Speaker 2: I can never be that funny. And forty years later,
Speaker 2: I have realized everybody has their own voice. It's like
Speaker 2: there's a room for every single voice. And so I
Speaker 2: was on a show that she was hosting recently, like recently,
Speaker 2: probably a year and a half ago, and she watched
Speaker 2: everything and laughed at everything I said, and I thought,
Speaker 2: oh my god. And she even tweeted about me the
Speaker 2: next day, and I thought, oh my god, this is
Speaker 2: surreal and it's full circle. And so what would I
Speaker 2: ask her? I would ask her if she would let
Speaker 2: me open for the road. Now I know that's a
Speaker 2: great question. She doesn't have anybody open for her. I
Speaker 2: don't know what I would ask her.
Speaker 1: Think about that.
Speaker 2: We'll circle, I will, we'll stirkle back.
Speaker 1: I just like saying that. I'm trying to think you'd
Speaker 1: mentioned something that I'll come back.
Speaker 2: Your notes, look, get your notes.
Speaker 1: I'm mean. Steve Sweeney Kevin Meaney, two of my all
Speaker 1: time favorites. In fact, when I was doing morning radio
Speaker 1: in Boston one year, I got a random phone call
Speaker 1: and I didn't know who it was, and it was
Speaker 1: Steve Sweeney and they had hired him to do morning
Speaker 1: radio a comedian doing mourning radio, like having to get
Speaker 1: up at the time you would normally go to bed
Speaker 1: after a show. I have one question for you, and
Speaker 1: I said what he said, How the hell do you
Speaker 1: get up at this ungodly hour and try to be
Speaker 1: funny and entertain people? I don't And it was like
Speaker 1: I couldn't imagine that he would even do the job.
Speaker 1: But he was really good, and we competed against each
Speaker 1: other in Boston and it was wow. It was very
Speaker 1: fun and we became friendly. He is just an amazing
Speaker 1: I love him so much. I just absolutely adore him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, ye, he was like he was amazing. I mean
Speaker 2: he still is. But doing morning radio, that's like in
Speaker 2: any job, it's not just the job. My job I
Speaker 2: see as getting to the gig, you know, either flying
Speaker 2: or driving. There's always some travel, yeah, and it's also
Speaker 2: learning how to do morning pr which is radio, or
Speaker 2: learning how to do press, which I didn't know that
Speaker 2: was part of my job. So I would fly to
Speaker 2: a city on the East coast, so I'm three hours behind.
Speaker 2: I'd go to sleep at three anyway at home, so
Speaker 2: I wouldn't be asleep for more than an hour, and
Speaker 2: then I would have to get up and do radio,
Speaker 2: so it like really messed with my circadian rhythm. But
Speaker 2: what's my point? Yeah, I don't know how. I don't
Speaker 2: know how you did morning radio.
Speaker 1: I love that you get lost. Sometimes I was great.
Speaker 1: But sometimes the more tired you are, the better it is,
Speaker 1: you know, because you don't think so much about what
Speaker 1: you're doing, and you're just like.
Speaker 2: Whatever, oh my god, oh my god.
Speaker 1: Oh wait, you in the back, you have your hand up, yeah,
Speaker 1: oh my god.
Speaker 3: What.
Speaker 2: So for years this is exactly true. I had a
Speaker 2: day job, as I said, so I didn't sleep a lot.
Speaker 2: So a lot of comedians back in the eighties they
Speaker 2: would drink a lot, and so it was easier for
Speaker 2: them to get on stage. I anesthetized myself by being exhausted. No,
Speaker 2: I'm being serious. And then I recently had to do
Speaker 2: a radio show here in La at night, and I
Speaker 2: was not tired at all, and I realized this is
Speaker 2: harder when I am way conscious. Yes, like because I'm
Speaker 2: used to doing morning radio out So yes, I totally
Speaker 2: agree with you. Having less or fewer faculties at that
Speaker 2: hour makes you freer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it just makes you looser and you don't care
Speaker 1: as much. You know, it's kind of what we talked
Speaker 1: about earlier.
Speaker 2: Connected with you. We have two we have the necklace,
Speaker 2: we have the hair.
Speaker 1: You look. I can't even tell you. I really really
Speaker 1: feel connected to you the minute that you popped on
Speaker 1: the screen. And it's really weird. But I grew up
Speaker 1: in Boston, so maybe that might have something to do
Speaker 1: with it. And I'm sure you came on the John
Speaker 1: Lander Morning show once or twice in Boston. It was
Speaker 1: like the number one show for many many years. It
Speaker 1: was Lander and Maddie.
Speaker 2: I'm sure I was on your show, I'm sure.
Speaker 1: And funny enough, it was Maddie at one point, Maddie
Speaker 1: Lander and Steve Sweeney all on the morning's different stations
Speaker 1: in Boston. Isn't that crazy?
Speaker 2: Well, I would have listened to you.
Speaker 1: Ah, thanks, Wendy. When life gets stressful, what role does
Speaker 1: comedy play in keeping you grounded?
Speaker 2: I realized recently that I was having a hard time recently,
Speaker 2: and I haven't felt depressed since the eighties when I
Speaker 2: started doing comedy. I know that's pretty good. I mean,
Speaker 2: medication and therapy help, but comedy just play a big
Speaker 2: role in that. And I realized that I hadn't performed
Speaker 2: in a while, and it's like a thick I needed
Speaker 2: a fix.
Speaker 1: You were going through withdrawals.
Speaker 2: I really was, but I didn't realize it until I
Speaker 2: sat down and thought about it, that it does play
Speaker 2: a big role hearing people laugh. I'm curious about that too.
Speaker 2: I don't have that answer, but hearing laughter for forty years,
Speaker 2: I wonder what that does to somebody's psyche. Wow, like
Speaker 2: maybe some kind of I don't know, I don't know,
Speaker 2: but so comedy. I also love watching comedy, Like yesterday
Speaker 2: I watched a comedian ning Sam Morrill. I've recently watched
Speaker 2: Jessica Curzon and Nate bart Gaze. I don't know how
Speaker 2: to pronounce his name. But I love like listening to
Speaker 2: Brian Reagan and David tel And. Yeah, I just love
Speaker 2: laughing because what it does is it makes me think
Speaker 2: a different way. Like when somebody's making you laugh, it's like, oh,
Speaker 2: there's like an out, So there's another way to think
Speaker 2: about this. It's not all consistent. Wow.
Speaker 1: Wow, Well, I have to tell you two things popped
Speaker 1: into my head when you were just saying that. One
Speaker 1: we need the laugh app, the Wendy Leeveman laugh app.
Speaker 1: Where you just turn it on and it's just funny
Speaker 1: people laughing, like you don't even have to tell a joke,
Speaker 1: just laughing and hearing it. And then the other thing
Speaker 1: I was thinking is my oldest, dearest friend, Scott. He
Speaker 1: had the funniest laugh growing up that I remember telling
Speaker 1: him if we could somehow bottle your laughter and or
Speaker 1: sell it like a commodity, they need it on TV
Speaker 1: shows because back then you had to have laugh tracks
Speaker 1: and stuff. You know, there wasn't any ai or so.
Speaker 1: But I loved him the most, and I look back
Speaker 1: and I think about what you're saying, and I'm wondering.
Speaker 1: You know, he could tell great stories and he always
Speaker 1: made me laugh, but his laugh was even funnier than
Speaker 1: his funny stories. And I wonder if maybe that's another
Speaker 1: reason why I was so close to him, because he
Speaker 1: made me feel so good all the time.
Speaker 2: Well, I think that's it's so healing to laugh, especially
Speaker 2: with somebody, and I feel like laughter is the healing
Speaker 2: is exponential when you're laughing in a group. I want
Speaker 2: to get my quote right. I wrote something and I
Speaker 2: want to get it right, like I can't remember exactly.
Speaker 2: I think it's a laughing crowd is a chorus of
Speaker 2: peace because we're all on the same wavelength at that point,
Speaker 2: and it's joyous. It really is.
Speaker 1: It is. Have you ever had a moment like when
Speaker 1: you were on stage and you felt like you were
Speaker 1: helping the audience get through something and heal, helping them heal.
Speaker 2: Well, always after something big, like after the pandemic or
Speaker 2: after nine to eleven, I can feel that the audience
Speaker 2: wants to laugh more. So we're just the instigator. We're
Speaker 2: like the impetus. We are there to say it's okay
Speaker 2: to laugh, So we're giving you permission, and if what
Speaker 2: you're saying is funny, that's even better. So I felt
Speaker 2: the laughter was like deeper after tragedy.
Speaker 1: So you know, and you bring up tragedy and then
Speaker 1: you know, tell me to shut up or not bring
Speaker 1: something up. But I saw something that in my research
Speaker 1: on you that I thought was just so impressive. And
Speaker 1: you know, you don't have to get into the reasons
Speaker 1: and all of it, but you were kind of taken
Speaker 1: out of commission because of a car accident and.
Speaker 2: Oh, i'll talk about it.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, I mean I don't know, and yeah, but
Speaker 1: what I read was you put yourself back on the
Speaker 1: scene by going on. Was this correct? America's got talent?
Speaker 2: Yes? Okay, so you're talking about the first act that,
Speaker 2: oh there.
Speaker 1: Was more than one. You weren't driving, were you?
Speaker 2: Do you not hang out with me? Unventurable of ours?
Speaker 1: I guess all I could say.
Speaker 2: Okay, the first time my husband and I were driving
Speaker 2: back from a dinner, it was eleven at night. We
Speaker 2: were at a stop light. There were four lanes across,
Speaker 2: two of them were turning left, and we were hit
Speaker 2: by a drunk driver. All seven cars, well he was
Speaker 2: the seventh, but it was like he bowled into these
Speaker 2: stationary cars. The woman in the car right next to
Speaker 2: us died like it was that close.
Speaker 1: Oh my god.
Speaker 2: And so just by fate, by fate, we moved lanes
Speaker 2: because we didn't want to be behind this one group
Speaker 2: of kids in a car that seemed a little rowdy,
Speaker 2: so we moved over. I was sitting on the bus
Speaker 2: bench on the side, waiting for whatever to have the hullabaloop,
Speaker 2: and I thought I have to get back out there.
Speaker 2: That's exactly what I said, because I'd been doing stand up,
Speaker 2: but I was also a stepmom at that point. And
Speaker 2: I stayed home more and so I auditioned for America's
Speaker 2: Got Talent and that really did like boost my visibility.
Speaker 2: So that was great.
Speaker 1: But that's incredible that you put yourself out there that way.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's like you didn't just come back. You
Speaker 1: went on a major, widely watched show and put yourself
Speaker 1: right out there.
Speaker 2: Well. I had seen other like some peers on that show,
Speaker 2: and I thought, oh, they did it, I can try.
Speaker 2: And it was really fun. And I never expected to win.
Speaker 2: I just thought this is a good experience, like that
Speaker 2: I have as I gotten older. I think everything is
Speaker 2: just cumulative, all good experience. And I met amazing people
Speaker 2: and I'm still friends with people that I met. The
Speaker 2: sons of serendip which is this beautiful quartet. They started
Speaker 2: it be You, actually they met it be You, and
Speaker 2: they're just phenomenon. Matt Franco, who won that year, he's
Speaker 2: a magician, he has his own showroom in Vegas. So anyway,
Speaker 2: it was the people that I met.
Speaker 1: That's cool. So you remain friends with all those people,
Speaker 1: that's very cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I fight. I knew I wasn't gonna win, so
Speaker 2: I wanted to win this Congenie out.
Speaker 1: Runner up. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: And then the second accident, I was just walking across
Speaker 2: the street and I was hit by a car. Don't
Speaker 2: feel bad for me, because I.
Speaker 1: I've never read anyone say that to me. No, I
Speaker 1: was hit by a car, but don't feel bad for me.
Speaker 2: Don't feel bad because so they broke a leg and
Speaker 2: both my feet. Oh, then it should have been like
Speaker 2: six months recovery. But when they took the cast off,
Speaker 2: this is something that this goes into the category of
Speaker 2: shit you can't make up. They took the cast off,
Speaker 2: they saw that one of the foot that was being
Speaker 2: rehabilitated or the leg was crooked like they said it wrong,
Speaker 2: the rod was twisted. They had to go back and
Speaker 2: rebreak the leg, and so that took another six months.
Speaker 2: So I was basically in bed. Don't feel bad for me.
Speaker 2: I was in bed for fourteen months. But it wasn't
Speaker 2: all bad. I have to tell you, Like I well,
Speaker 2: I try to find the good and everything, but I
Speaker 2: no pun intended. I needed a break. I had done
Speaker 2: the road for so many years and here I was
Speaker 2: being waited on hand and foot. I felt so loved
Speaker 2: by my friends and I got a little money from
Speaker 2: the woman that had hit me.
Speaker 1: Oh well that's always good, yeah, because that would suck
Speaker 1: if you find out they don't have insurance and your
Speaker 1: sol in bed fourteen months with bed sores. Right, hopefully
Speaker 1: you had cute nurses though.
Speaker 2: Well, I have my husband who now I say, I
Speaker 2: will do anything like he was sick for one day
Speaker 2: recently and I got, oh my god, I can't stand this.
Speaker 1: Nothing gets done and.
Speaker 2: He did it for fourteen months. Wow.
Speaker 1: That means he really really loves you a lot.
Speaker 2: He was an angel.
Speaker 1: How long have you been married?
Speaker 2: Twenty two years and together for three before that? So
Speaker 2: something like that. Yeah, I can't remember. So you got
Speaker 2: to know each other too long? No, No, is there are.
Speaker 1: Piece Actually, let me skip back to one before, because
Speaker 1: you've been so generous with your time and we're kind
Speaker 1: of coming up on that and I'm like, my last
Speaker 1: couple of questions and although I don't want to let
Speaker 1: you go other than comedy, are there other passions that
Speaker 1: you have or creative outlets that we should pay attention to,
Speaker 1: or maybe that you could share that maybe nobody knows. No,
Speaker 1: that answers that question. I love it.
Speaker 2: No, No, it does nothing.
Speaker 1: Else for comedy. That's it. I do you like to cook?
Speaker 2: Love playing the piano? Oh? See, so I'm not a
Speaker 2: good cook. I'm not a good cook, but I watch
Speaker 2: all the cooking shows and my husband's like, why do
Speaker 2: you even bother? I'm like, I don't know, I might
Speaker 2: learn something. I also watch all the true crime shows.
Speaker 2: Oh I don't know how to cook, but I try
Speaker 2: to eat really healthy. Not every night, but I try to.
Speaker 1: It's obvious by the way. Wendy, thank you seriously. You
Speaker 1: are what you eat and you look like you're ageless,
Speaker 1: Like you look exactly the same as I remember seeing
Speaker 1: you ten, fifteen, twenty years ago.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 1: So that's a testament. It's a good eating.
Speaker 2: Thank you. I love my jog. They're in the background.
Speaker 2: I don't know if this is video or audio.
Speaker 1: They're not moving though. It's everything now. They stuffed.
Speaker 2: Yes, I'm attacked to jermists. You know they are the picture.
Speaker 2: Obviously they are rescued from Korea. Oh, they are called
Speaker 2: Jindo's and they were going to be eaten, not joking,
Speaker 2: not joking what They were rescued from a meat market
Speaker 2: in South Korea, and they are I love them so much.
Speaker 2: But they're high maintenance and as trained as a carrot.
Speaker 2: They are.
Speaker 1: That's why I got a cat, Because they do what
Speaker 1: they want. You don't have to worry about it.
Speaker 2: I love it. I actually got them cat treats by accident,
Speaker 2: and they loved them. And now they ignore me like
Speaker 2: a cat.
Speaker 1: Oh see, yeah, very smart, smart animals. They're beautiful and
Speaker 1: lovely that you thank you rescued them from dinner cheapers.
Speaker 1: I know, right, that's crazy to me. Is there one
Speaker 1: piece of wisdom that you wish that you'd learned earlier
Speaker 1: in your career?
Speaker 2: Just to try new material all the time and also
Speaker 2: just have fun, like I try to just have fun
Speaker 2: now in my career. Like I had a show recently
Speaker 2: where I heard there were going to be agents in
Speaker 2: the audience, and I already have an agent, but I thought, ooh,
Speaker 2: maybe they would cast me in a movie or something hike,
Speaker 2: And then I saw, you know what, now I am
Speaker 2: here to make this audience have a ball. Like I
Speaker 2: heard Yo Yo Ma say that every time he stepped
Speaker 2: on stage, he thought of himself as throwing a dinner party,
Speaker 2: and that this the audience were his guests, And that
Speaker 2: made a lot of sense. To me, so yeah, I
Speaker 2: just want the audience to feel good.
Speaker 1: I wonder, I wonder if yo Yo Ma was a
Speaker 1: was a waiter ever, because I don't know why that
Speaker 1: popped into my head. But I worked at a restaurant
Speaker 1: when I was young, and every time i'd get a
Speaker 1: large party, like a table with lots of people, I
Speaker 1: couldn't even wait. Not that I wanted to be a comedian,
Speaker 1: but I just loved, you know, trying to get them
Speaker 1: to laugh, making them, making sure that they had a
Speaker 1: good time. Of course, so i'd get a good tip,
Speaker 1: but most of the you know what I mean, So
Speaker 1: I couldn't even wait.
Speaker 2: Did you ever do stand up?
Speaker 1: No? No? I love making people laugh. I loved. My
Speaker 1: favorites were Carol Burnett, I watched you know, Goldiehan laugh
Speaker 1: and all of it. Saturday Night Live me too huge,
Speaker 1: But I never thought that I could ever do it
Speaker 1: because it was me alone. Like I never wanted to
Speaker 1: host my own show by myself. Wow, careful what you
Speaker 1: wish for, But but I always wanted to work with
Speaker 1: a comedy troup, like a team of people, like a
Speaker 1: collaborative team, which unfortunately is very difficult to find. And
Speaker 1: why most bands need therapy after touring for fifty years.
Speaker 1: So yeah, no, but I wanted to be a host
Speaker 1: that was funny, like Tom.
Speaker 2: Bergern right, you know in Boston.
Speaker 1: Yeah so, and he's been on comedy Save Me too. So,
Speaker 1: speaking of which, before I let you go, Indy, we
Speaker 1: were talking about Paula Poundstone and I've given you some
Speaker 1: time to think about it, although I haven't really because
Speaker 1: I've been talking your ear off. What you know, because
Speaker 1: I'll play it for her if you want, so, if
Speaker 1: you really want it to be opening for her, I
Speaker 1: will do that.
Speaker 2: No, no, because she'll say, I don't have anybody open
Speaker 2: for me.
Speaker 4: I am ask Paula how she started taking pictures of
Speaker 4: a chair at every venue she talks to the chair backstage,
Speaker 4: she takes it.
Speaker 2: She takes a picture of a chair.
Speaker 1: All right, this is cool, this is totally inside.
Speaker 2: And oh, I do want to tell her something though, okay,
Speaker 2: if that's okay.
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
Speaker 2: I follow her social media and in the background of
Speaker 2: her house or somewhere in her house she has a
Speaker 2: picture of I think it's Mary Poppins, and so I
Speaker 2: want to tell her about my connection to Mary Poppins.
Speaker 2: And I've met her like a dozen times now, but
Speaker 2: I don't think she knows who I am. But also,
Speaker 2: we're really good friends with Mickey Dolan's from the Monkeys,
Speaker 2: and she and Nicky share a cat. Not really, it's
Speaker 2: just on on social media. Okay, So I want, I
Speaker 2: guess I want to vet myself by telling her that
Speaker 2: we're best friends with Nicky Dolans. So not really a question.
Speaker 1: So you have a mutual monkey between you exactly. Not
Speaker 1: on our back, not on your back, Wendy Leebman, I
Speaker 1: could talk to you for hours. You're an amazing person.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
Speaker 5: Talking to you and comedy truly saved me from depression,
Speaker 5: from uh just figuring out my life.
Speaker 2: Learn so much from comedy. I once wrote a piece
Speaker 2: called what I learned from stand up comedy. Figure out
Speaker 2: your hair. You are unique, but you're also equal to
Speaker 2: everybody where. Whatever you want, and pray that nobody throws
Speaker 2: anything at your head. I mean, there are like forty
Speaker 2: things on the list, but those are the ones that
Speaker 2: come to mind.
Speaker 1: Oh, and eat healthy if you can.
Speaker 2: And eat healthy.
Speaker 1: Yes, sustenance, Wendy Leibman, thank you for being on comedy
Speaker 1: save me and good luck with everything. And I do
Speaker 1: hope our paths cross again, because it was just.
Speaker 2: I hope so too. You're my sister from another mother.
Speaker 1: I love it. Thank you so much. Have a great
Speaker 1: rest you Oh is there anything you want to plug?
Speaker 1: Where can people find you?
Speaker 2: Website Wendyleibman dot com.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 2: I'm on on every social media platform except X. Thank you,
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, a wonderful day, you too.