for the near future. and and i'll keep writing, painting and doing what i do because. that's the way i live. that's the way i survive. and i don't mean the money i make from it. even though, you know, directing and producing tv, i'm very fortunate. but certainly you know, yeah, these books are are. their ticket to i love it. so thank you all for being here follow follow the dream. ooh, that was like a symbol. thank you, jack and jack. thank books. yeah. i also signed books. yeah, i'll do all that stuff. thank you, everyone thank you.jy

award nominated writer and comedian. she is the creator of soft focus with jena friedman, an adult swim and the comedic true crime series true crime story indefensible, hosted by jena friedman on amc. plus, she was a field producer at the daily show with jon stewart and has written for the late show with david letterman and borat. subsequent moviefilm. she recently appeared in the sundance movie hit sorry hit movie palm springs and her latest stand up special lady killer is available on peacock. also, she will be performing tonight at the den at 8 p.m. and tickets are still available online or at the box office. lindsay hunter is the author of two story collections and three novels. her newest novel, hot springs drive, will be published by roxane gay books in november 2023, after the event, the books will be available for sale outside along with the signing. so welcome and thank you for being here.

check, check, check, check. jenna my first question why jena friedman man and not jenna freed woman. well, when my great grandma garcia came over on ellis island, i think now there is a mythology in our family. i guess not their side of the family. other side of the family may have a cousin here. this is really boring. i don't know what i'm talking about. so next. i don't know. thank you for that thoughtful answer. i was wondering if it's harder in your estimation to write a book or to write a set? i think it depends on what the covid levels in the wastewater are. when i wrote the book, it was like during the delta variant, so i wasn't really excited to get out there and work out material.

but if there's no covid, i think it's a lot harder to write a book because it's so boring, because it's just requires a level of discipline that, you know, it's. it's hard to feel your faces to that and then be filmed with so many empty seats. this is really uplifting stress as seat day. that's what it is. that's cool. i feel like it's it really freaks me out, too, to think of writing a joke that you then perfect again and again and again and and then perform again and again and again like that to me feels so hard. my background's an improv i got i talk about it in the book. i got started in comedy in chicago in an improv, and so standup to me also feels a little hacky because you, especially if somebody has seen you tell a joke twice just from an improv background, i feel i feel like a fraud, but it's it's performance art.

you tell a joke, you have to make sure it's funny. the audience is what informs that. and you just keep doing it until you do it enough where it's really funny. and then you're bored of it and you have to find new ways to make it funny. mean standup is crazy. i don't know why i still do it. i do know i still do it because of the writers strike. it's the only thing pays. i mean, you're laughing, but i'm not joking. no, it's. you're allowed to laugh. it is. it is a grim world out there for us writers, directors and actors and standups. like the one thing we're still allowed to do. and and book and writing books. so far, right? yeah, we might go we might go on strike. yeah, we're talking. yeah. authors are going to go on strike. there. no their care we have no ability to unionize. i actually have multiple copies of my book on amazon that are counterfeit and written by other

people and it's really funny. white and i bought one of them and it was just kind of like was like an ai version of not funny. i didn't know that that. yeah. existed. yes. so now could be like your purpose in life to collect all of them. yeah. and then displayed. well they are, they do make great paperweights and they're only like they're like a couple dollars less than the book. so they're not extensive. but i don't know who is doing this. i thought it just one guy named sean something and i bought that book. king sean king. i bought that book. stephen king is just like writing. fake books. you know, i bought that book. jealous yeah. and then there are other there like other books. there are like or five and they have different, like funny not no, they're called. i mean i could i could like show you right now they're called not funny the like and filtered out are like unfiltered biography of jena friedman they all have different art on the covers. it's really just like a couple. but i mean, this is a thing.

i think they must be doing it to a lot of authors on amazon. i had no idea, is this so thrilling that you guys are just watching on my phone? that's when, you know, in events going well, the phone comes out. yeah, but everyone's rapt. they're all watching. all right, okay. here's one top hand publisher, not jena friedman a biography fee. that's one beautiful picture of you. oh. oh, my god. i've never seen this one. andrew. edward cusack jena friedman a feminist voice in a male dominated industry. they all have different covers, too. this is real. i don't know how many if you should check online if your books do that too. um, yeah. they're like. they're like a bunch of them. i don't know. i don't know who's buying them. they're all 1099 one or this one's 1399. should i? you know what? if they have the audio? no, just paperback. they didn't have an air yet. do the audio of that. but i feel like i would listen to like a three part p would bee

reply all episode of reply, all this, you know what i mean? but yeah, it doesn't exist anymore. do you? if it had been around by women, you know, kevin, june and emma. and speaking of sets, you're going to perform tonight at the theater at. yeah, i have a show at eight, so it's called not funny, which might be why i still am asking people to buy tickets. i have a show at eight tonight and i'm working on a new hour. i'm calling it not funny to tie it to the book, but it's all new material and it is not yet totally funny, but some of it's funny. and you know, this is what we do. it's if you want to watch polish comedy, you can check out netflix. but if you want to watch people working out the craft, which i've always found chicago audiences are game to do. yes, i have a show tonight at the den and tickets are still available. how much are the tickets? i don't know, but not a lot. i heard that they're really affordable. yeah, so anyway, you're looking to help. thank you for that plug. i appreciate it. i hope to see one of you there. it would really be a boon to me

ego. one of my favorite parts of the book is when you ask famous male comedians questions that female comedians are often asked. i relate to it so much as a female writer, not a writer. a female writer. and you make bob odenkirk so uncomfortable, which was i mean, he's an american treasure, so we all love him. but it's also funny to watch him be so uncomfortable. and eugene mirman was going to jump off a cliff by the time you were done. bob was the first person i interviewed, and he's a friend and has always been a mentor. i didn't realize. so i actually took questions that female comedians had gotten, and i realized afterwards, as i started to do press for the book, every guy who interviewed me was just like not they were like they had like i think i made them really nervous and i didn't mean to. it was it wasn't i didn't mean for it to be as indicting as i think it might come across on the page. i just thought it was funny. i took actual questions and i cited them because some of them are unbelievable. and i reached out to my favorite

male comedians. i reached out to a lot of people and the ones that are in the book are the ones i got back. i reached out to louie. he didn't get back to me. i wanted to see if louie would think that, you know, if, if, if he thought that men accepted his apology. i reached out to norm macdonald. no norm had reached out to me about something else, and i reached out to norm and i was like, hey, by the way, i'm doing an interview thing. and he was so uncharacteristically game, he's like, oh my god, that sounds really cool. i'm totally down this like weeks busy but follow up and he died. and i think when i when i heard that norm died because we had worked together on roseanne for one day, which then became the conners, which i write about in the book to norm knew that he was messing with me. i'm sure he did. if i were like about to die, i would totally be like, yeah, like, oh, totally. do your podcast. why don't you fly me out? tell me the ticket and i'll get you. he just it was a joke to him. and i love that.

and that's my last memory is and i'm like, oh my god, i can't believe i. i asked this person, i'm always afraid to ask people for stuff. and he said, yes. and everything's working out. that is so. norm macdonald that the punchline was death. yeah. really smart, really great guy. any who bob was the first person that i asked and i was like sweating as i was asking these questions. i, we get them so often they're not as offensive. but when you go to when you ask bob odenkirk, do you write your own material like, you know, it's it's a lot. and i think and i hope that i capture their essences. and in that essay. and the funniest part about it to me was having to do the audiobook where i had to actually i'm not an impressionist but i don't know if any of you listened to the audiobook. do any of you listen to the audiobook he did? no. okay. well, up out there, i had six different iconic male comedians

who i love and i had to, you know, mimic their voices for this essay. and the only one i could even remotely do was fred armisen. please do fred armisen for us. precious, like, i mean, i can i can try to read i don't know. well, i guess i'm not it's not i can't i'm not an impressionist, but it's just capturing a vibe on the on that page. okay. i just i think i was around 32. it wasn't that much of a decision. i just started doing comedy more and more that it's not fred armisen. but in a sea of unidentifiable voices, that's the closest one i got. it's in the audiobook. i can't i can't i can't do more. if you look at like the volume of words of answers that you got from each comedian and you look at what jim gaffigan gave you. so i want to say in jim gaffigan's defense, he was on tour and. he just did it over email.

and i don't think the others it was a discussion that was like edited for clarity with jim. it was just i sent in the questions or he wrote them back really quickly and he i don't think he got that. it was a joke. so he just does come across as pretty stiff. but jim's great also. and yet jim kind of was like, this is why biggest question. i'm like, there. it's satirical. i was like, eugene mirman was like, oh my god, i can't believe you have to do this. it was fun. i have the audio too. i mean, it was it was really just fun to kind of it because you know, when you talk about being a woman in comedy or sexism, it's not funny and fun, but this was like a really fun way to be like, yeah, when we get questions like, do you write your own material? they are subtly undermining and you don't even realize it. and also so one of my favorite moments, i think was with eugene or something where was as i was asking the question i was trying to kind of soften it and i was like, these are all just, yeah, you know, and, and, and if you want to edit them or if there's

anything you say you don't like, i'm happy to edit it. and he's like, i know that you weren't given the opportunity when like. isaac chotiner at the new yorker asked you these questions, you know, and yeah i wasn't, but you're just kind of constantly like on your back foot on the defense, hoping you don't say something that's just part, i guess, job requirement. i loved how you doubled down on calling them male comedians. mm because we don't ever do that, right? we always, we say female comedian. that makes sense to us, but we don't when we say comedian. what comedian. yeah. comedian. and i, you know, in the writing world, it's the same thing. it's writer and it's writer and i can remember being told like, oh, i like your stuff because you write like a man, which kind of just means like, you know, you're taking chances edgy. you're, you know, you're not writing about your cancer, not writing about your kids. no one's crying. you know, you're not in your period. it doesn't seem like your only

blood come out of me. yeah, yeah. why do you think it's so uncomfortable for us to even about our experience, for us personally, to talk about know, like for women, to to say, like, you know, this, why does it make people so uncomfortable. man? why are the big men? so i think well, i mean, i think it's changing. i think it's changing. people are men in trump's america are men. and then women are wombs. but i think changing as more women get in positions of power and curate what mainstream watches as to consumes. i think it's changing for sure, but i think for so long all the public spaces were dominated by men. so women produce creating stuff and putting it out there. it was and there was an otherness to it that i think otherness makes people uncomfortable. yeah, possibly that could be it in my show that i'm doing which the den, which could be it could be like the last time i do it.

i'm talking about the past year and i became a mom. i lost the mom a lot of it's really personal and i am talking about my birth experience, which makes me cringe and i can't believe i'm talking about it. and to find funny ways like i've never thought i'd say uterus on stage and why does it make you cringe? is it because of the antics like what you're anticipating, people feeling about you talking about that, or because you just generally like talking about that? it could be in culture, asian and like 15 years of comedy. and i talk about this in the book too, like my generation of female comics were, i don't think we were ever like, you're not encouraged to talk about your periods on stage. just like there was like this unwritten rule, unspoken rule. like if yo that's why the borat scene, i don't know if you guys saw borat two, but that period i never dreamed that anything like that could ever be in a mainstream project. and to sasha's credit, like, i just that is that was such a special to me. i want to i mean, so many i don't wanna be like the sad

about the pandemic on camera we got this. one of the things that i had wished when that movie came out was that we could it in the theater, because i wish could have seen people for the first time see that scene because to me it was even i mean. it was the funniest. it was the funniest scene to choreograph. it was the funniest just everything about it. i was with maria, the actress in it. the following halloween and all of these girls on instagram and tok were dressed like her with their stained dress and just proud of it. and i was like, this is progress. like this progress. absolutely. i read this book back to back with another book called the red zone, which is all about periods. it's just every chapter is about periods. there's blood all over the book. yeah. and i felt exhilarated i felt so happy and excited and the same thing when i felt when i saw that scene for the first time. just like i think i stood up and was just like, yes, yes. and and i don't think that

that's a universal reaction to seeing -- blood. well, it should be. and i mean, so i do think so. we shied away from it. i think. and there have been people forever talking about this stuff and a lot of time, like a lot of it is on the fringe where mainstream hasn't really accepted it yet for that period, dunst did feel like a shift, and i think the past couple of years for all of us with the pandemic and all these other kind of reckonings happening, i think we're looking inward as our at society and kind of like, well, what is going on? and i think about what we talked about before with with motherhood is a really interesting thing because that has always been relegated to the fringe, but it's child care is insanely expensive. people don't people men don't even realize that. and we don't have paid leave and like we have these retrograde policies. so do think if we can push things more front and center in through with comedy, we can kind of like slowly start to get people to understand and

hopefully and this could be very pollyanna ish as we're heading into the next election. but like maybe, if people realize like how hard it is to be a mom, they're not going to force people. that's not going to happen and they're not doing it. they're forcing people because of like power and control and they're trying to relegate us to the sidelines. and they don't want women in public life because women historically vote for progressive policies and in that meeting, can you tell us and we --. and we --. but i think maybe it could activate who aren't really thinking to kind of think about those experiences in a new way and maybe that could maybe activate them to vote or something don't know. yeah you know i, i've been thinking a lot about how you can't like you can no longer speak truth to power. power doesn't want to hear truth. it feels like the facts are alienating. it seems in this day and age and you know i have close family members who voted voted for trump and what we live in two

different realities. so it's not that you can't speak truth to power. it's just like how you know, how that that's what i'm wondering is if the lane we now take huma right like it's a way that like if we're all kind of laughing together about something feels like almost like out of mystically true or real. there's something there that we're sharing. i don't know what else how else to do it. yeah. um, yeah, i don't know, i, i don't know. i think people are so siloed that sometimes i'll get right leaning people coming into my shows because i'm just like a blond white lady and they think i'm someone else. and i can, you know, prod them a little bit. but we are so siloed with what we consume culturally that it really is hard. and also it's like a of emotional labor to try to reach out to people who don't see you as deserving, you know, basic human rights and, try to talk to them and talk them back from, you know, who they're voting

for. and that whole i didn't mean to get so into politics right away, but it does i mean there's just like this cult of personality that. it's like how do you de-radicalize people in it's a very weird time right now and then on top of all the weirdness politically you have like a i was just just like yeah changing everything which is writing really great books, which is writing really great book like a good price at a good price. the one i read, i think it said that i got my comedy chops in like des moines or and i was like, okay, i didn't that but cool the midwest it's all right. yeah. des chicago yeah. one of the chapters where i felt like the most excited then the most like i don't know if i can go there and then the most like, oh my god, she did. it was the dead babies. oh, before i had i wrote a ton about like dead babies or creepy babies. yeah. and then it changed, like crazed, desperate mothers after i had kids, right. but i really feel like that's a

chapter where you and the whole book is just, like, completely edgy and hilarious and you're saying things that. yeah, yeah, okay. and it's sale right out there. do you hear that? ghosts over there? yeah. talking to you. are you getting them before? no. cool. and i think take square out there. so if you don't have cash it's fine. but the dead baby's chapter felt like a really like a like a huge leap that you were successful we made. thanks. i was thinking about, like, how, you know, because i wasn't ever the class clown where this came from and i always had a morbid sense of humor and the basic just as i look at dead baby jokes, which i told all the time as a kid and, they're really just it's just shock value. and it's also weirdly equal opportunity kind of, egalitarian shock value because unlike racist or sexist jokes like

every culture has dead babies, they transcend class. also. and so then theater tonight at eight, i don't have any dead baby jokes but yeah, i mean, i wrote this whole book before i was pregnant, so but yeah, i mean, it was like the perfect kind of example of like the roots of my comedy were dead baby jokes. and when i started getting into standup i started telling abortion jokes, and it was kind of like, oh, it's really just like, you know, using shock value to actually, i don't want say de-escalate, but i talk about an anecdote in the book where i grew up in a very parochial small town and kids would tell racist jokes. and i always was uncomfortable, so i would just tell a dead baby joke, which was equally like dark and edgy, but not offensive in that way. and then everybody would stop with the racist jokes and be like, she's weird. and that was that was like, how kind of that was my first attempt at comedy. and it hasn't changed. it's still i'm still like going

through these jokes and i like, she's weird. but yeah, i mean, there am so i just kind of i went into looking at like the origins of these jokes and i traced them back to kind of to the u.k., but then to the u.s. in the sixties and seventies. i think those kinds of jokes emerged. and i think it's really interesting that those jokes emerged around the time of women's liberation and and the pill and these other kinds of things. and so it's necessarily anthropological but i tried to do a little bit more of like an academic analysis of these jokes, then just kind of talk about my own experiences. mm hmm. yeah. i really feel like was a moment where you were. you brought it in for a landing thank you. and, like, that was the first essay i wrote for the book, and then i just burned. yeah. 9000 words. and i was like, how many more. that's also how i write books. i'm like, okay, about 60,000 words. all right, we got there. we're done. the end.

yeah, there's one chapter. if you read it, you can do me. which chapter? you think i phoned in because i started on the true crime show. anyway, speaking of true crime, what do you think? true crime and comedy has in common, aside from killing women and? women killing? i never thought that you could make it funny, but have any of seen. i had this show that was short lived indefensible on amc plus. two, three people. that's about right. i mean, it's on a streamer. you know, if like a if a tree falls in the woods, i didn't think it would be possible make murder funny and the show does not make murder funny but there's like this when you zoom out obviously like tragedy plus time is comedy, but when you zoom out and you can make comedy about injustice, i think that's at least how i find funny. so the show itself is the first act is the true crime, and then it just kind of becomes how did this happen? and then who's to blame? and then that's where we have fun with, you know, idiot prosecutors, defense attorneys

or an expert witness who like things. i don't know. it's all it's pretty. it was pretty. that show was pretty cathartic and shocking yeah, the example you have in the book is dr. martin blender. yeah. who testified that a man was perfectly fine in killing his wife because she was nagging him. yeah. that was the home run. that was the pilot episode. so i don't know if you guys have heard about the twinkie defense. dr. martin blender testified in the trial of dan white, who killed milk and mayor moscone, san francisco. he was the expert witness who said that the killer had eaten too much junk food in the weeks leading up to the trial impaired. his judgment and then he ended up getting a reduced sentence to five years. dr. blender also testified that in many other trials he was kind of this expert witness for hire. in our story, he testified that the woman was a nugget -- who drove her husband to kill her as a jewish woman, i was like, let me sit down with this guy. and i can't believe he talked to

me. and he really the thing about those kind of interviews, they're like daily show esque interviews is you can really just let people show who they are. and so it was i think that that format was really effective. like i that was an interviewer had never been angrier and just kind of was like quietly trying to let him hang himself and he really did beautifully. i think he's still alive also. i shouldn't say this out loud, but his husband say, never mind, read the book. read the book. now i need to know i was you and i a clip where you're telling stephen colbert what you named your child when they were in utero, right? oh, you're going to do that joke. well, i was just really pleased with how uncomfortable stephen got there. i love stephen very much. we have a little history with the show. i was on his election night show in 2016 and he was like, how are you feeling in real time of trump was winning and i was like get your abortions now because we're going to be -- and we're to live with it. and it was live on showtime and. i still get hate mail for that.

i was wrong. i was hysterical. anyway so i was on his show. i just given birth and i and like in the green room was like oh we found a halloween picture of you and your baby and your husband. can we show it? and i called my husband to ask permission. he's like, yeah, of course. and so i think he was like trying to soften me to a mainstream audience, which is a great thing to do if you're to help someone's career. and i was like, no, no, no, don't try to make me palatable to the mainstream i'm going to just scare them with this creepy that i tell about my son being named jeffrey epstein because my husband's last name is and we had a pregnancy app that i'm doing the joke for you now, but did we named him jeffrey and the pregnancy app? because i was like 39 and i was like, god, i want to get attached know until he's like 18 and i don't wanna get attached until. he's alive, you know, because i was so scared and so. and that's also to tie back to like a lot of the comedy is stuff i, i things i'm afraid of

and i joke about them. i think to feel less afraid and less alone and make you guys creep out too. that's what i do. and so, yeah, we, we named the fetus jeffrey epstein and i did have a pregnancy. and every month they were every week they're like jeffrey epstein is the size of a quad. it was just so cute, you know, like jeffrey epstein, the size a like a bunch of bananas. i picked fruit. other people pick different things. i thought fruit was a good. yeah, it's just because in that moment, stephen colbert is like, i know how to make a comedian you love uncomfortable is i think one of my favorite things in the world. yeah it was beautiful. i don't because i've never seen him like that, before. squirm. yeah, squirm. that's exactly the word. yes, it's cool. that's the name of your next book? sure. yeah, yeah, sure. i had a friend who said when i was worried about motherhood changing me, i said, no, no, don't worry. it doesn't change who you are. it enhances who you already are.

so everything that you already are is like going to be at like a ten oh, okay. would you say that that's true for you are for your writing, for your comedy? i don't know because i haven't had time to do any. i have a 11 month old at home. i haven't really had to do much comedy. you'll see if you come tonight, when you come when you come tonight. it has. i see. i had i heard someone be like, you know, you get used to it. i'm like doing it. you see it or does it just break us? does like being a mom just like it's just all consuming. i don't know how it's changed me yet. i mean, i'm a lot i was i was like a ten before on the neurosis scale and now i'm like a million. so there you go. his point is proven. the only reason i'm indoors a mask on is because i had covid two months ago for the first time. so super immune and there's good ventilation in here. but watch out. you guys. it's coming back to chicago.

no kissing on the mouth. well, or just, you know, this is not what you wanted to here. and i'm really glad we're taping it. and that's an ally. but want careful, you guys because covid's back covid's back. yeah. you can get free tests from the library. yeah. and just get unpacked slowly right away and hopefully you'll be okay. yeah. on that amazing note, would anyone like to ask jenison questions? yes. what questions do you have. yes. so one of the first the first thing i found was, okay, bring that next door to the college. i'm just going to put your question for the one person in the back. i have a show called south focus on adult swim and there's a segment with sex dolls. continue. i was just wondering if we brought them to the practice. do you ever think about those? do i ever think about the people that i troll like i did not ejaculate? okay. so for those of you who haven't

seen, i put it if you google jennifer even on campus rape, you will find a comedic segment. i don't know why all the rapists don't do. that too. if they made comedy, then the first thing that would come up is something funny. and then everyone would forget the allegations so if you google my name one end because i know you probably don't know i am and you're just inside cause you've had too much fun. if you google jena friedman on campus rape. i have a segment that i did for adult swim and the whole segment was using comedy to kind of lightly troll people and educate college guys. i think you can meet them where they're at with comedy. and so much like high school kids use like baby baby doll to teach their baby dolls, to teach them about being responsible parents. we decided to use sex dolls, teach college guys to be like good allies and, you know, not rapey and during production because a lot of unscripted stuff is very much scripted and it changes during production. the one guy was like very serious things. like, i'm afraid to say this,

you guys are going to take me out of current next. my like, my, my man. so then at the end, we're like, what if we just accuse him of coming inside one of the sex dolls, see what he does mean? they all signed releases, and he was a really good sport about it. and then he's like, wow, that felt it was really afterwards. like when someone from our crew came in a sex doll. not you. sorry, falsely accused you. and he was like, it felt so bad to be falsely. i felt like no one believed me. and i was like, wow that's almost like victims feel. and he's like, oh. and that i spoil it. but that's the type of stuff that i do. i know your face. i see it. i feel the same way. i'm out of my body watching myself talk to next question your question. love it. do i ever feel bad? do i feel bad about that? no, not until just now. thanks a lot, no. i mean, they all sign up. i'm there. i try docu style, comedy is really murky and the ethics are

weird. i know i. i didn't. i never take people out of context. we get their and they all seemed cool afterwards and yeah i mean just the contracts you guys like when you're on camera which i didn't do but i haven't signed anything so yeah, jennifer even did not sign anything but it's also news isifferent than docu style stuff anyway, i the only time i felt bad for somebody i did a segment, it was i was at the show and it was a segment on factory and there was a woman who came and she was a representative, the agricultural lobby and. i felt guilty. i was like, oh my god, we're to make her look like such a jerk. and the weirdest thing happened when the piece aired, she emailed me and said things she liked. the piece because she got to say what she wanted on behalf of the farm lobby, which was basically their thesis was that big. peta was using videos of animal

for fundraising and nobody should be allowed to film that and just eat your food and don't think about where it comes from or how it's made. so she got her point across and was really happy about so. but yeah, i mean it's it's a weird form of comedy, but i do think when it works it's it can really powerful. and the other questions someone's coming to the mic. oh sure. and then dun dun dun dun so you made a comment about academic analysis in context, sort of i don't know if it was reviewing your jokes or i'm just curious what that concept is to you. or even if you remembered. yeah, well, i'm so i got into comedy by studying it. i was a, i went to northwestern,

i studied anthropology. the senior honors thesis requires you to. immerse yourself in a world for a year and then write a paper about that world. anthropology also has a kind of dodgy history of like, white men going to foreign cultures and being like this is what they do. and i didn't want to be like that. and so i was like, what's a world that i could study as an outsider, but also maybe blend into? and i had always been interested in in comedy. and i was in chicago, so and there really wasn't a robust and up scene in the north side of chicago at the time and people were like about improv. and so i stumbled io i said, can i see the classes i'll take? is there like a month pass where i can just observe? and they were like, wow, if you sign up for a class, you can watch all the shows you want for free, like any cult. that's how i that's how i got into comedy. so i got in by studying it. i talk about this in the book i

wrote a year long paper, kind of. i was an academic analysis of improv olympic. my advisor, mikayla de leonardo at northwestern is like a feminist marxist. so she was like, it's not just about gender, it's about race, class, gender, political economy. i wrote this paper that i thought was pretty innocuous about improv as a reflection of social inequality and progress that's being made. it's wonky. talk about in the book, the paper ended up getting posted to a comedy blog a year after i got into improv, and then it got me kind of blacklisted from show. and then i to get into stand up. that's really the saddest about that story. i love, improv and it was addictive and goofy. and then i ended up becoming a standup, which is terrible but. so to answer your question about academics, i, i do see a lot of comedy through an academic lens, and that's the least funny sentence. and i have to kind of hide it. and so when i talk about dead baby jokes because dead baby

jokes on their face are so putting, i did want to actually infuse a little bit of like an academic analysis, which means like reading. i read a journal of folklore about baby jokes. there's not a lot written about them. i cited it and so i kind of put on my like anthropology hat as i was writing that essay and tried to infuse my own anecdotes with actually like, where do these things come from? and what do people in the field actually say about them? so that's to answer your question question. i just saw the dog make like your dog just like opened his mouth, like he just like it was like i'm like watching my, like, edit this that just coming from you to the dog like, does the dog have a question no no dogs were hurt in the making of this book. what other questions. oh, my. you got to get your steps in on the mic emits.

asian is the sincerest of flattery are you flattered that they're doing books about you? i mean, they're not doing them about me. yeah. yet is imitation is the sincerest for flattery. i feel like payment. paying people is the sincerest form of flattery. pay me it just that will make me you know, i don't know if imitation is actually i don't know who said that i'm going to find out. anyone else is your chance don't raise your hand at the end tonight you can it's fine it's fine you can can favorite female favorite comedians. yeah i mean i've i've always loved sarah silverman. yeah she's my favorite uh, i mean, there are so many younger comics. i can't even keep track of. my friend jacqueline novak has a show that's one of the best shows i've seen. she's been doing it in chicago

alive called get on your knees. i think she just taped it for someone for a streamer. i shouldn't say. and then keep her. lana's another friend who is very, very funny there there are there are too many funny comedians right now. i don't even it's i couldn't even begin to answer that question but. oh yeah mean she i think and i also think getting in through improv which i which is like a gateway drug to comedy and seeing so many female improvisers chicago um susan messing jean villa pique they made me who had no interest or not even interest but like i never thought it was in the realm of possibility that i could be a comedian. and then i saw them consistently being funny and doing improv and being fearless, bold on stage. and i just i was like, oh, i mean, i, i want to do that. and so, yeah, i think i do attribute me even being in comedyired and wanted to be like like, i'm curious

microphone like i'm curious this is kind of unrelated. anything to say about saturday night live has evolved over the years? um, yeah. i mean, yeah, i think that it, i mean, it went from like an edgy risk taking show to like the flagship, uh, like nbc brand. and so i think because of that, they probably can take risks much. and also, i mean, yeah, i mean, it's still every so often they, they hire the funniest people i know. and every so often there are sketches that kind of go get through the pipeline that are brilliant. um, but like anything, i think when something kind of starts off where you don't have any money behind it, you can just take more risks and be funnier.

and so i do think the show kind of has obviously like everything on tv, you know, it's not what it was, but it's a it's a huge launching point for so many brilliant comics. and any other question, oh, sorry. hi. hi. i haven't read your book yet, but i'm going to address this in here. but i was wondering, just because i was raised in such a like household, like you have to have a practical job. yeah. i was wondering, um, if you were and yeah. and like how for example your mother now so do you intend to tell your child like there's a possibility that can do a creative job instead of a, you know. yeah. computer all day. well i think that's a couple questions like yes, my mom was an accountant, my dad a doctor, and they just like i have a joke in the book about. when i first told my mom, when i first came out as a comedian, i was like, i want to do this.

she said verbatim, said, i'd rather you be gay because least that's something you can't control. and was really worried about me and. i, i think with my son, i mean, first of all, he's a boy. so it's i don't know. he'll be fine. um, but also the world that we're in now is so different than the world. even when i started comedy, there was a real path for comedians. and, i mean, when i got first writing job, my parents breathed a sigh of relief. it was a very well-paying job and comedy until i mean, that's why we're striking. i don't need to talk about the strike, but if you're interested, we're striking. try to make this industry a living like a profitable industry like it once was. and we're striking the same way all other industries, i think, are striking right now. tech has come in and just kind

of destroyed an industry under the guise of disrupting it, but they really just it and took out all the things about it that made it sustainable for the people working in it. and the other thing about the writers, because it has historically been such a well-paid industry, we are able to strike as long as we need to and we have no other options at this point because these companies, they don't they don't want us writing. they are fine with the air version of the book because they don't think that people want really good and i have a lot to say, probably more than we have for. but tonight, you know, i'll was up with that but you yeah i don't i think that if there automating artists we're all screwed so i don't know what the future looks like i don't know if it's just going to be like a universal basic income for everybody and then like tech overlords. i have no idea what the brave new world entails.

i do know from my own experience that i will try to nurture and my son and intellectual curiosity, and i just want him to like enjoy what he's doing. because for me it was like, can you go into baking or consulting? and i just i tried really hard. i worked at booz allen in chicago, and i don't i was not a good fit. and i tried to innovative solutions that endure that was that was on the pens that was on the pen and said delivering innovative solutions that endure. i tried. thank you so much to everyone and jenna thank you so much as a female person seeing out there doing what you do is incredible it's energizing it is it's so meaningful to me, to so many of us. and i'm just honored to be in your presence and so happy that i got to read your book and can't wait to see you at the den tonight. all of these people, thank so much. and can you can we plug