All four comics heading to City National Grove of Anaheim on Friday agree that they never realized how much their lives would drastically change after joining Chelsea Handler’s empire. For Heather McDonald (bottom left), Brad Wollack (right), Jen Kirkman (top right) and Fortune Feimster (top left) signing on with the best-selling author and television star meant stability in the otherwise rocky world of comedy.
The four personalities work as writers on the E! Network’s late-night talk show and regularly appear on Handler’s round-table discussions with other famous or rising comics to dish on daily pop-culture happenings.
ADVERTISEMENT
Chelsea Lately debuted in 2007 and was an almost instant hit, spawning Comedians of Chelsea Lately tours as well as a spin-off – After Lately, a scripted reality sitcom exploring what happens behind the scenes of the show – and another New York Times chart-topping book,Lies Chelsea Handler Told Me, for which her writers contributed chapters on the playful misleadings of their boss.
“I got out all of my emotions on paper,” says Wollack, co-creator of After Lately. “I think people are so fascinated by Chelsea and the world she has created. The book peers into that world and it peeled back the layers, and it was fun for people. My chapter was the longest because I think I’ve been lied to the most.”
Wollack, the show’s resident “ginger” (as Handler refers to him), gets the most abuse from the host during round-table sessions. She often calls him names and plays up how mean she is to him, but the target of her ridicule says it’s all done with love.“Behind the scenes she’s not mean to me,” he says. “We can have a conversation without me being verbally or physically abused. It’s weird, though, because on the show Chelsea is mean to me and then fans think they can come up and say really rude things to me. I’m like, ‘Really, people? Do you think if she hated me I’d be employed for this long by her?’”
McDonald, once a writer on The Keenen Ivory Wayans Show and MTV’s Lyricist Lounge before joining Chelsea Lately, says she’s always been a fan of Handler’s stand-up. The two then-struggling comics initially met at a bar in Westwood years ago.
“That bar should not have had stand-up,” McDonald recalls. “Everyone was talking and drinking, and I looked at this girl on stage who was so young and she was screaming about the Titanic and how her boyfriend wouldn’t pick her up from the airport, let alone let her have the door to float on, like Leonardo DiCaprio did. It was just her bitching in that Jersey accent. We were just acquaintances back then who respected each other and she was always really nice to me.”
In 2007 McDonald joined the writers of the show and signed on for a 13-week commitment.
“That’s all I thought it would be,” she says. “I never thought when I took it that this would be a life-changing job. It just kept building and building.”
McDonald, whom Handler has dubbed Heather “Long Boobs” McDonald on the show, does a lot of impersonations in various sketches throughout the program. She’s got an arsenal lined up as needed, but says there’s one she might retire.
“I can no longer do Amy Winehouse,” she says. “But I love doing Céline Dion and Drew Barrymore and the various Housewives of whatever. I like doing Miley Cyrus and Kim Cattrall or Judge Judy.”
Though none of the celebrities she imitates have called her out on it, she has heard from a few of the Real Housewives and The Facts of Life star Geri Jewell.
“A couple of the ‘Real Housewives’ have seen my impressions and they love it,” she says. “Some of the ones I haven’t done are like, ‘Why won’t you do me?’ I did one of Geri Jewell and she came to my book signing in L.A. Ninety percent of me was like, ‘OK, she’s a comedian and she likes it.’ But I was nervous. She told me she really liked and thought it was funny.”
For Kirkman, being a stand-up comic wasn’t in her plans – she thought she’d be a dancer or an actress. But when she’d audition for serious dramatic roles, she got turned down flat.
“They would always say to me, ‘You’re just funny.’ So I started hanging out at a bunch of comedy clubs. It was a very slow, slow realization for me.”
Kirkman was inspired by Bill Cosby, Roseanne Barr, Joan Rivers and the stand-up comics she’d catch onThe Tonight Show in Johnny Carson’s day. She also shared that the camaraderie behind the scenes ofChelsea Lately carries over into the tours.
“We really are all friends in real life. I don’t know what regular people do with their friends, but it really is just like you see on TV – only, we’re probably nicer to each other than what you see on TV.”
Feimster, the newest face on the show, says she was ecstatic when she was asked to participate on camera just one month after being hired in January.
“But then I was really nervous,” she admits. “I made myself believe that it was my one shot and I couldn’t blow it or I’d never do it again.”
Growing up Feimster would often record episodes of Saturday Night Live on her VCR, then watch sketches with Adam Sandler and Molly Shannon over and over again – so she could go to school on Monday and act them out for her friends at tennis practice. She was also the brains of the family and an overachiever in college, receiving straight A’s.
“I thought I was going to be a lawyer or some sort of academic,” she says, laughing. “So when I told my family I was going to be a comedian, they were like, ‘Oh, when are you getting your master’s degree?’ Now I just show them my job on Chelsea Lately and say, ‘Here’s my masters degree!’”
The stop in Anaheim will be Feimster’s first outing on tour – and she’s nervous about it. “Orange County, you are my introduction,” she playfully pleas. “So laugh, people, please laugh.”
The Comedians of Chelsea Lately, with Heather McDonald, Brad Wollack, Jen Kirkman and Fortune Feimster, plays Aug. 12 at 8:30 p.m. at City National Grove of Anaheim, 2200 E. Katella Ave. Tickets are $30
Source : OcRegister.com
No comments:
Post a Comment