Neal Brennan interviews Carol Leifer (Standup, 'Seinfeld,' 'Hacks,' 'SNL' & Much More) about the things that make her feel lonely, isolated, and like something's wrong - and how she is persevering despite these blocks. Carol's new book is called 'How to Write a Funny Speech... for a Wedding, Bar Mitzvah, Graduation & Every Other Event You Didn't Want to Go to in the First Place: https://www.amazon.com/How-Write-Funny-Speech-Graduation/dp/1797232231 ---------------------------------------------------------- 00:00 Intro 00:48 Start in Show Business 5:25 Jerry Seinfeld 7:49 Improving at Standup 9:38 Moving to LA 12:51 Women in Comedy 14:51 Sponsor: Hims 16:05 Sponsor: Tushy 17:41 Bulletproof 19:71 Becoming Lesbian 26:29 Having a Kid 32:52 Sponsor: Mando 34:35 Sponsor: BetterHelp 35:53 Working 37:32 Seinfeld, Larry Sanders, Modern Family, Hacks 41:55 SNL Regrets 47:40 Career vs. Relationships 50:42 How to Write a Funny Speech 56:38 Spirituality / Mortality 59:45 Goals & Regrets ---------------------------------------------------------- Follow Neal Brennan: https://www.instagram.com/nealbrennan https://twitter.com/nealbrennan https://www.tiktok.com/@mrnealbrennan Watch Neal Brennan: Crazy Good on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81728557 Watch Neal Brennan: Blocks on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81036234 Theme music by Electric Guest (unreleased). Edited by Will Hagle ([email protected]) Sponsors: Visit https://www.hims.com/NEAL for your personalized ED treatment options. Over 2 Million Butts Love TUSHY. Get 10% off TUSHY with the code [NEAL] at https://hellotushy.com/NEAL Control Body Odor ANYWHERE with @shop.mando and get $5 off off your Starter Pack (that’s over 40% off) with promo code [NEAL] at Mandopodcast.com/NEAL #mandopod This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at https://www.betterhelp.com/neal and get on your way to being your best self. Sponsor Blocks: https://public.liveread.io/media-kit/blocks ---------------------------------------------------------- #podcast #comedy #mentalhealth #standup Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: Who is Carol Leifer and what is her background?
hi everybody it's neil brennan and this is the blocks podcast you clicked on it so i didn't need to do that um my guest today is a great comedian who i've been aware of a long time huge comic hbo specials apparently the inspiration for elaine and seinfeld who
Chapter 2: What was Carol's experience starting in show business?
That is amazing!
We'll talk about that, maybe. You have a lot of money coming your way. She's here. She's great. Are you touring?
I'm not touring.
Okay.
Chapter 3: How did Carol become involved in stand-up comedy?
But I have gotten back into stand-up.
Okay, she's getting back into stand-up. Yes. Carol Leifer, ladies and gentlemen. Carol Leifer. Yes. We were just talking before I did that Star-Spangled intro about when did you get into show business?
Oh, my God. I got into show business really early. I was going to school at SUNY Binghamton, now called just Harper College. And I was in a theater group with my then boyfriend, Paul Reiser. And he was the funniest guy I've ever met.
Yeah, that must have been like... Because this is the 70s? Yes. Okay, so that's what I mean. Like it was, nobody was in showbiz.
Well, nobody also was in comedy.
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Chapter 4: What challenges did Carol face as a woman in comedy?
Right. So was it like meeting a Martian? When you were always funny, I would assume.
I was funny growing up, yes.
But then you meet somebody that's like, can do so many things.
Yes. Well, we were in a theater group, and he was funny. But we connected because he could lip sync the 2,000-Year-Old Man album, the Mel Brooks Carl Reiner album, like I could. And it was like, this is Kismet meeting this funny guy.
You had to sleep with him. Yeah, no choice.
No choice. No choice at all. So he told me about... He said, during the summers, I go to these nightclubs, Catch a Rising Star, and anybody can go on audition night. And I've gone on. It's a lot of fun. I was like, oh, I'd like to do that too. So... And we were watching comedians at the time, but it was like Leno on Merv Griffin, Richard Lewis.
It was kind of like those were the guys that were on TV. So I was like, oh, I want to go to these audition nights.
If you see those guys, you see Leno and you see... Richard, did it seem like, I maybe could do that? Or are you just like, I'm around that funny, or I'd like to try to be that funny?
I'd like to try being that funny. Robert Klein was a giant comic then. He played my college. It was like... But more than that, for me, it was like Elaine Boosler was on the cover of New York Magazine. And she was only a little bit older than me and doing a new style of comedy that wasn't Joan Rivers, that wasn't Phyllis Diller talking about Fang.
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Chapter 5: What was Carol's experience with Jerry Seinfeld?
How would you categorize it? Would you say it was like, my guess is, and correct me, it was what it's actually like to be a woman?
Yes, and it was like contemporary woman out in the world.
Dating.
It's no better having the guy stay at your place. Men are very strange, I'm sorry to say, but you know, they wake up and they want breakfast and they don't eat candy in the morning like we do. No.
Yeah. And it also wasn't like, am I right, ladies? You know, like appealing just to that. It was pure comedy.
Just expressing my experience. And I don't care if you had it or not.
Right. About dating and being a single woman in New York City, all that. So it was like, I also felt if she could do it, I can do it.
Okay, and then you and Paul go down, or he takes you, he's been going.
He takes me to Catch Rising Star. I go on fifth.
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Chapter 6: How did Carol's career evolve over time?
It was like probably 20 or 30.
I love how you still remember what order it was.
Yeah. And you had to get there early in the afternoon to get a number to go on.
A lottery.
Yes.
Yes.
And I went on fifth, and I, Neil, I killed. It was like- It was like amazing with my little material that I had thought of.
Four minutes?
Five.
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Chapter 7: What led to Carol's decision to adopt a child?
Yes. Jerry, you know, and I always talk about this, he was like already a star at the comic strip. Which doesn't surprise people now, but way back then, you know, that he put you through, that he was kind of like the top guy at the comic strip, only doing it for a year.
Yeah. But he was... Why? And I don't... I'm not saying this, like, based on what he became. I'm saying, like, what... I've said to Jerry that he's a bit like Tom Brady or Derek Jeter, these guys who you don't even know how good he is, because he's like ubiquitous now. He's like a stereotype of a comedian, but it's like, that dude's so good and so funny, you don't realize it.
So I'm wondering what a guy who's 23, 24, what was he like?
He was very good being in charge, like I'm running auditioning. But he didn't have an ego about it. Or like the other places, he didn't lord it over you. You know, like, yeah, you're lucky to be here. And if I pass you.
Yes.
That's amazing. He just was very regular, but he had a good command of the place. And I think also of his material at the time. He was very diligent about writing. I always talk about how we fucked around so much in the early days of stand-up. He would set aside an hour every day where he would be in his apartment writing material, no matter what everybody was doing.
Like he's always had that amazing work ethic.
Yeah. And also it was probably, it sounds like, I mean, his attitude now is like, no, you're funny. So you get to do standup.
Yeah.
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Chapter 8: How has parenting influenced Carol's life and career?
And I kind of took- How often were you doing it at that point?
I was doing it probably every night except Monday.
Right. And Steven Wright was like, you got to do Monday. That changed everything.
Oh, Steven, do I really have to do Monday, too?
Yeah.
Yeah, every night. And then, you know, in New York, do Catch a Rising Star, do the comic strip. Then I passed the improv audition. And then the cellar opened later. So, you know, on a Saturday night, you could do six sets. And that's how you become bulletproof.
Yeah. And that took four or five years?
I would say, yeah. Yeah.
What do you think is happening? So you were going to theater school? Did it feel like, this is kind of a continuation of that, or did it feel like?
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