STAGE TIME Magazine: Leighann Lord

DVDs
Richard Lewis -
Concerts from Hell:
The Vintage Years

Lisa Lampanelli -Take
It Like a Man (CD/DVD)

Dane Cook -
Retaliation (CD/DVD)

Tom Green - Inside &
Outside

Brother Sam: A Tribute
to Sam Kinison
Laffapolooza 1

Latinlogues, Vol. 2

Platinum Comedy
Series -Bill Bellamy
Deluxe Edition

CDs
Todd Barry - Medium
Energy

Rick Younger-Come On
N'ah

Steven Lynch - The
Craig Machine

DL Hughley - Notes
from the GED Section

Books
Billy Crystal - 700
Sundays

Tom Green and Allen
Rucker - Hollywood
Causes Cancer: The
Tom Green Story

Margaret Cho - I Have
Chosen to Stay and
Fight

Penn Jillette and
Mickey D. Lynn - How
to Cheat Your Friends
at Poker: The Widom
of Dickie Richard

Margaret Smith - What
Was I Thinking? How
Stand-Up Did Nothing
to Prepare Me to
Become a Single Mother

Bill Maher - New Rules:
Polite Musings From a
Timid Observer
Oliver Double - Getting
the Joke: The Art of
Stand-Up

Robert Klein - The
Amorous Busboy of
Decatur Avenue: A
Child of the Fifties
Looks Back

Dave Schwensen -
Comedy Faqs and
Answers: How the
Stand-Up Biz Really
Works

How long have you been doing stand-up? How did you get started?

13 years. I did theater in college and that’s how I got into the love of being onstage,
even though the two things are completely different. Stand up and theater are very
different things. I did theater and I really loved it; but unfortunately when I graduated,
I didn’t do theater. I got a real job.

What did you do?

I worked for Chemical Bank in the Corporate Communications Department. That’s what
I did with my Journalism/English degree and I really hated it. And I said, “I need to
really figure out what I can do that makes me happy.” I really stepped back and said,
“What am I good at?”

I’m good writer. I enjoy being onstage and I make my friends laugh all the time. Wait,
that kind of sounds like stand up. It’s weird but that’s how my mind works. I’m very
anal. I don’t just jump into things so I looked around and I found a comedy class
because I wanted to – no one can teach you to be funny. They can teach you about
business. They can teach you about the rules and how it works, how to figure out what is
funny about you and how to get those things out onstage so that’s what I did.

The end point of the culmination process [was] getting onstage at The Comic Strip for
five minutes. That five minutes seemed like four. I can still remember, I got onstage
and it felt like I was taller…I remember I did it; the audience laughed and I forgot
everything else. It was wonderful and I’ve never looked back from that moment.

Who are some of the comics you came up with?

Oh God, you mean who are still doing it? A lot of people wanted to do stand up. Every
time I turned around there were new comics who I didn’t know. It’s like people come
into this in droves but they don’t stick with it. They find out how much work it is and they
go “Oh, it’s just like a regular job.” And then they move on to something else.

When I started, it was the end of the boom. My mentor, Rob Weinstein, a wonderful
comic - I took classes with him – he said that "comics starting now" - that was in ‘91,
‘92, ’93 - "that it was awful." There was no work. It was very difficult to find work. He
said that “the comics who last through this will be strong comics.”

Which rooms did you work?

Here in the city, I started at The Comic Strip. I love The Comic Strip. I have a soft spot
for that club…The New York Comedy Club is also my home room. Now, it would still be
those two but add to that The Laugh Lounge, The Laugh Factory and Caroline’s on
occasion. I love that room. That is such a beautiful room. It’s one of the rooms that’s
actually built correctly for comedy; I mean the way it’s shaped…They have the ability, if
it’s not a full house to close it off so people don’t feel like they’re sitting in an empty
room.

There’s other little comedy holes where people were doing comedy. There used to be a
place on 14th Street. It wasn’t too far from Nell’s. I also performed at Nell’s. It was
called Planters. They had an open mic in the basement all the time. I also work the
little rooms all around town…

How did your opportunity to perform on Def Comedy Jam come about?

She said, “rolling her eyes.” The tape will pick that up. I’m not a Def Jam comic. I never
wanted to do the show because I did not think I fit. I understand that not everybody is
going to like you. They’re trying fit a square peg in a round hole…So I got invited to
audition for it and I said, “Well, have they seen me?” because it didn’t make sense.
They were trying to change the show. They were trying to show diversity of black
comedy. And see I’ve heard that before where they tell comics that but don’t tell the
audience.

That’s how I got to The Apollo Comedy Hour. Again, “Have they seen me?" "Well, no
Leighann, we want to do something different” and I’m standing in front of an audience
who didn’t know they were trying to do something different. They had no preparation
whatsoever. And they’re looking at me like “Can we boo her?” They didn’t; I did it and
got through it.

My idea was I’ll go to the audition…They usually had the audition in Jersey, [at] a really
rough room. I probably blocked it out to protect myself. But for some reason, they
were having the audition at Caroline’s and I said, “Maybe, they don’t know the type of
comic that I am, so I’m going to do political material so that way they definitely know."
I just had fun. I did the set that I wanted to do. I wasn’t worried about trying to get on
the show. They picked me. I said, “Did they see the audition? Because that’s what I’m
doing on the show.” And they were like, "No Leighann, that’s fine. That’s what we want.”

I get there…I told all my friends, my family. My parents actually came…I remember
sitting in the dressing room with my manager and we’re watching the show on the
monitor. The first comic, I don’t know who it was, a younger comic, went out and was
just vile. I’m watching it on the monitor and I’m like, “Yeah, I thought ya’ll were trying
to change.” I was horrified. I have to go on after that.

I went out and it was odd because I did political material. If you remember Def Jam, in
the front around the stage was really young people. So, they’re sitting there and the
type of stuff I’m talking about, they had never seen it on Def Jam. They’ve never heard
that. They’re not familiar with people like Paul Mooney. The back part of the audience
and the balcony were a little bit older and they were appreciating what I was doing.

Def Jam was not the type of show that booed people. My father told me there was one
guy who wasn’t getting what I was saying and he was like “We should boo her.”
Another audience member turned around and said, “Man, if you don’t know what
she’s talking about, then you need to shut the fuck up and let her do her thing.” I did
my thing. They applauded. I left the stage and I didn’t know this until my parents told
me and I saw the tape: Mark Curry was the host and when he came out, he did a black
power [raised fist] like, “Yeah, that’s what we need to hear.”

I wasn’t trying to be black power or black consciousness. I was just trying to be me and
give you different comedy. There are different flavors and Def Jam was just one flavor.
They gave a lot of opportunities to a lot of people and put us out there but they only
put us out there in one way, unfortunately. The end of the show was great. I met
Russell [Simmons]. I met Steve Harvey and Ahmad Rashad and they were very
complimentary and supportive.

I got an email about two years ago from a girl, who at the time was a freshman at
North Carolina State University. She had apparently got the tape, saw me on the tape,
tracked me down via email to let me know that she had never seen anything like that
before and the fact that she could see a black woman being graceful and beautiful.
She was thanking me and this was years later.

When I started, I did not know what type of comic I was going to be; unfortunately, if
you play the chitlin-circuit rooms, they want comedy one way. And I started discovering
that’s not me. And I didn’t want to be forced to be something I wasn’t. Once again, I
wasn’t going to force it. That’s just not my way. If what ya’ll want is what I can’t give,
then there’s really no reason to force this relationship, so I didn’t play those rooms…I
really tried to place those places that allowed me to develop into whatever type of
comic I was going to be.

How did you deal with club owners or bookers who looked at you and thought,
“Here’s another Def Jam comic?”

That perception doesn’t exist as much anymore. Before I did the show, it was an issue.
But once I got on, people went, “Oh, she’s not that.”

After I did the show, I found out I couldn’t even use Def Jam as a credit when I was
being introduced. Because what would happen is: “Your next comic has been on
Lifetime’s Girls Night Out, VH-1, Def Comedy Jam. Automatically, their minds turn. The
audience thinks Def Jam and it puts the pre-conceived notion in their mind of what
they’re about to see and I’d have spend at least a good three or four minutes
changing that perception or dealing with everyone looking at me like, “When is she
going to talk about her coochie?” You could see it in their minds. They were just
confused. I said, “You know what? I don’t have that much time onstage in the city to
spend the half of it dealing with a stereotype that’s been put in their minds.

Did Def Comedy Jam help your career?

No. It was a show; it was experience. It was a paycheck, a credit that I can use
occasionally.

Who are some of the comics that influenced you?

I was strongly influenced by George Carlin, Dick Gregory, and Dennis Miller - Dennis
Miller back in the day. There are two different Dennis’s. There are political comics who I
really like: Barry Crimmins, Jimmy Tingle and Rita Rudner for women. Her and Elayne
Boosler because what was difficult for me when I first started, was being a girl. It was
like, “Don’t notice me.” So I would wear the big jackets and oversized clothes. “Hey, I
just want to do comedy; I’m not pretty,” because I didn’t know how to deal with it.

Favorite HBO One Night Stand
	Earthquake
	Bonnie McFarlane
	Jim Norton
	Bill Burr
	Louis CK
	Kevin Brennan
	Patrice O'Neal
	Caroline Rhea
	Omid Djalili
	Flight of the Concords

Free polls from Pollhost.com