#1401 - Iliza Shlesinger

Joe Rogan (0:03)

And the first sound is a slurp. Hello, Iliza.

Iliza Shlesinger (0:09)

It's a cozy morning.

Joe Rogan (0:10)

What's going on, my friend? It is kind of cozy, right? For California, it's like a little chill in the air, makes you feel like there's real weather here.

Iliza Shlesinger (0:16)

It does, like we're in a normal place.

Joe Rogan (0:18)

Yeah, a normal place.

Iliza Shlesinger (0:19)

With normal people.

Joe Rogan (0:20)

Like where things change, like you get a winter and a summer and a spring. Yeah, we get a slight chill, and we're like, oh my god, it's real.

Iliza Shlesinger (0:27)

With the season changing, though, nobody ages.

Like it's still that perennial, somewhere between 20 to 45 year old. Nobody ages.

Joe Rogan (0:34)

What do you mean?

Iliza Shlesinger (0:35)

Everybody in LA, like there's like this nebulous age where it's like behavior wise and everything, like you're somewhere between 25 and 45 And then on either side of that, you're too old or too young, but like everybody is this kind of, like just, you can act like a child here.

Joe Rogan (0:50)

That's an interesting observation. It's totally true, right? Because they don't have the responsibility of having to like shovel snow and prepare for the winter and get up and scrape your windshield because there's ice on it.

Iliza Shlesinger (1:02)

Or prepare for life. Like you could be like a 45 year old dude and you're like, I do improv.

And I have a roommate and girls are like awesome.

Joe Rogan (1:10)

Like are they really like awesome?

Iliza Shlesinger (1:12)

Totally.

Joe Rogan (1:12)

Really, what girls?

Iliza Shlesinger (1:13)

None that I know.

Joe Rogan (1:14)

But yeah, none that you're gonna hang out with.

You think so? Other girls that are like that. That's what, who's fucking? Other people that, there's like a, you know, there's certain people that we know. Well, okay, let's not even say we know. That we've run into in our life that are on this show business path, and they are fucked. And you know they're like a stampeding herd of buffalo that are headed for a cliff.

And there's no way out. You're either gonna get some kind of a job, and you're gonna be bitter and angry, or you're just gonna keep doing this forever, and it's never gonna happen.

Iliza Shlesinger (1:47)

I feel like with comedy in particular, it's one of those careers where it's not even you fail up, or you just fail laterally. Comedy is one of those things where you can kind of just continue to exist in and around it despite actual talent.

We all know the comics where it's like, you're not dead yet? They're like, no. I'm writing ads that go on the back of tickets. I'm writing commercial parodies for comedy.net. Just existing in subdivisions of the realm of comedy, and they think that they're in the game, but really they're in the parking lot.

Joe Rogan (2:20)

Well, then there's the weird ones that come to the store, and they come to the improv, and they hang out. But they don't really go up, ever.

Iliza Shlesinger (2:29)

I don't understand that.

The myth of the hang. The idea is that you would be hanging. If you don't know anyone, you want to meet some new friends, or your friends are there.

But I see people that just bob and weave, and they act like they're looking for someone. I'm like, there's no one there. You're just here hoping someone talks to you, but you've been doing this for so long. Go home. Write something.

Joe Rogan (2:50)

Yeah, but it's not going to happen.

Comedy is one of those things. I feel like you could learn how to play music. Someone can teach you how to move your fingers in the right direction. I mean, you might never be Jimi Hendrix. You might never be some virtuoso who stands out. But you might get good at music if you could put the practice in.

Iliza Shlesinger (3:10)

You could learn the math of it.

Joe Rogan (3:11)

Comedy is not that.

Iliza Shlesinger (3:13)

My college, Emerson College, now offers-

Joe Rogan (3:16)

Shout out to Boston.

Iliza Shlesinger (3:17)

Shout out. Shout out. Woo. Offers a comedy major.

Joe Rogan (3:20)

Oh, good luck with that.

Iliza Shlesinger (3:21)

Right. I'm like, you're either funny or you're not. And you can learn what makes a script funny, and you can learn about timing and things, but you have it innately or you don't.

I firmly believe that.

Joe Rogan (3:32)

I do too.

Iliza Shlesinger (3:32)

And the amount of people, you know, you can't tell someone, but there are plenty of people who aren't naturally funny that make a huge career out of things, you know, because someone else unfunny finds them funny. But it's one of those things where I'm not going to be the one to tell you to give up on your dream. Like, that's not my position to tell someone that. But you're constantly surrounded by these, like, it's almost like this walking dead of unfunny.