Welcome to our weekly Giggle Goddess question and answer session with comedivas spreading giggles like wildfire. This week, we talk to Amanda Deibert: the brains behind our beloved comic Hot Mess and the web-show Drinking Without Income!
This Q & A will take you deep within the depths of her soul … sorta.
Fangirlishly stalk the funny-lady at the following locations: Youtube, Twitter, and Official Website. ****
What’s your favorite cupcake flavor?
First of all, thank you for making me a “giggle goddess”! This feels like an important step in my life long dream of starting my own religion.
Now, onto your question about cupcakes:
My friend Caroline makes a pumpkin cupcake with whiskey frosting. PUMPKIN SPICE and WHISKEY = the key to my heart.
What or whom inspired you to pursue a career in comedy?
I just fell into it, one pratfall at a time. When I was a kid I made up comedy/variety shows to entertain my little sisters. This mostly involved me wearing weird costumes and “accidentally” walking over the edge into the pool. Then I just kept doing weird things into my adulthood.
If Chuck Norris were to corner you in an alley and challenge you to a duel, what would be your weapon of choice?
I’m gonna call on everything that I learned from Indiana Jones and say: a gun.
What are some challenges you’ve faced since going down the comedy track and what, in your experience, has made those obstacles worth overcoming?
Other than the crippling fear that I am not funny and am wasting my life trying to do the hardest thing ever?
Um, my grandmother’s ability to use facebook. My humor includes drinking, sex, cursing, liberal intelligentsia and being gay. None of this goes over well my conservative grandparents. I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that there is no way I can hide what I’m doing from them, even when it’s a bit raunchy or risque. It’s worth it to me because I feel like humor is one of the greatest things that humanity has. It can make people feel less alone and challenge thinking. And I also believe that the best comedy comes from getting over insecurities and laying everything out in the open. I am no great comedienne yet, but I am honest…and sometimes relatable.
Oh, but I do still cling to the desperate hope that somehow my grandmother hasn’t seen the music video where I am a bearded vagina spitting out ping pongs… it’s possible she hasn’t, right?
What’s the funniest thing you’ve ever heard/seen?
Have you seen that video of the squeaking porcupine eating corn?! Look it up. Right now. Don’t even finish reading this interview.
Which comedienne, dead or alive, would you love to work with/meet?
Carol Burnett. I admire her so hard.
In what ways do you think you’ve improved or evolved since your first comedy venture?
I have no dignity anymore. None.
What long-term/short-term goals do you have for your career?
I’d like to get to the point where my abilities meet up with my taste. There is a great Ira Glass quote about that which I cling to, but basically, I want to make the kinds of things that I would love to watch. It sounds simple, but if you’ve ever had to watch yourself perform, or read your own script, or made your own film, you probably know what I mean. This is where my short term goals kick in: constantly working, improving, and refining. Also, hanging out with people more talented than I am.
Which character do you most resemble from The Divas?
I’m a bit of them all, but mostly I’m a super girly version of Shirley.
Do you have a specific audience to whom you play/would like to play? Describe that audience, and why/how you’re playing to them.
I like to say that I’m playing to everyone, but that is just not true. Mostly, I’m playing to women and a very left-wing, free-spirited, artsy, urban crowd. Like most people, I tend to like people who agree with my own world view, so those are the people who I want laughing with me.
When you’re not writing/performing comedy, you’re…
Cuddling with my amazing wife and/or watching super nerdy TV shows and/or reading super nerdy books. Currently, this means I am reading The Hunger Games and bawling my eyes out every 15 pages. You guys, it’s soooo good.
What’s the difference between appealing to women and appealing to men?
I’m not entirely sure. I think a LOT of humor crosses gender lines, but — and this goes back to what I was trying to say about my “target audience” — we tend to find things the most funny when they relate directly to our own experiences. Obviously, there are a lot of experiences that are particular to a gender.
But as a gay woman, I have to say, boobs appeal to me as much as they do to a dude. Sorry.
What’s your favorite comedy movie or T.V. show of all time?
Clue.
The title of your autobiography?
So…That Happened.
Amanda Deibert is a writer and actress/filmmaker type in LA. She currently works for HULU’s morning pop culture show, The Morning After, which you can giggle at on hulu.com. You can check out the rest of her hijinks in writing and filmmaking atamandadeibert.com. She lives with her beautiful wife and 100,000 cats. [sz-youtube url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj9GyuZRWZI” /]
This Q & A will take you deep within the depths of her soul … sorta.
Fangirlishly stalk the funny-lady at the following locations: Youtube, Twitter, and Official Website. ****
What’s your favorite cupcake flavor?
First of all, thank you for making me a “giggle goddess”! This feels like an important step in my life long dream of starting my own religion.
Now, onto your question about cupcakes:
My friend Caroline makes a pumpkin cupcake with whiskey frosting. PUMPKIN SPICE and WHISKEY = the key to my heart.
What or whom inspired you to pursue a career in comedy?
I just fell into it, one pratfall at a time. When I was a kid I made up comedy/variety shows to entertain my little sisters. This mostly involved me wearing weird costumes and “accidentally” walking over the edge into the pool. Then I just kept doing weird things into my adulthood.
If Chuck Norris were to corner you in an alley and challenge you to a duel, what would be your weapon of choice?
I’m gonna call on everything that I learned from Indiana Jones and say: a gun.
What are some challenges you’ve faced since going down the comedy track and what, in your experience, has made those obstacles worth overcoming?
Other than the crippling fear that I am not funny and am wasting my life trying to do the hardest thing ever?
Um, my grandmother’s ability to use facebook. My humor includes drinking, sex, cursing, liberal intelligentsia and being gay. None of this goes over well my conservative grandparents. I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that there is no way I can hide what I’m doing from them, even when it’s a bit raunchy or risque. It’s worth it to me because I feel like humor is one of the greatest things that humanity has. It can make people feel less alone and challenge thinking. And I also believe that the best comedy comes from getting over insecurities and laying everything out in the open. I am no great comedienne yet, but I am honest…and sometimes relatable.
Oh, but I do still cling to the desperate hope that somehow my grandmother hasn’t seen the music video where I am a bearded vagina spitting out ping pongs… it’s possible she hasn’t, right?
What’s the funniest thing you’ve ever heard/seen?
Have you seen that video of the squeaking porcupine eating corn?! Look it up. Right now. Don’t even finish reading this interview.
Which comedienne, dead or alive, would you love to work with/meet?
Carol Burnett. I admire her so hard.
In what ways do you think you’ve improved or evolved since your first comedy venture?
I have no dignity anymore. None.
What long-term/short-term goals do you have for your career?
I’d like to get to the point where my abilities meet up with my taste. There is a great Ira Glass quote about that which I cling to, but basically, I want to make the kinds of things that I would love to watch. It sounds simple, but if you’ve ever had to watch yourself perform, or read your own script, or made your own film, you probably know what I mean. This is where my short term goals kick in: constantly working, improving, and refining. Also, hanging out with people more talented than I am.
Which character do you most resemble from The Divas?
I’m a bit of them all, but mostly I’m a super girly version of Shirley.
Do you have a specific audience to whom you play/would like to play? Describe that audience, and why/how you’re playing to them.
I like to say that I’m playing to everyone, but that is just not true. Mostly, I’m playing to women and a very left-wing, free-spirited, artsy, urban crowd. Like most people, I tend to like people who agree with my own world view, so those are the people who I want laughing with me.
When you’re not writing/performing comedy, you’re…
Cuddling with my amazing wife and/or watching super nerdy TV shows and/or reading super nerdy books. Currently, this means I am reading The Hunger Games and bawling my eyes out every 15 pages. You guys, it’s soooo good.
What’s the difference between appealing to women and appealing to men?
I’m not entirely sure. I think a LOT of humor crosses gender lines, but — and this goes back to what I was trying to say about my “target audience” — we tend to find things the most funny when they relate directly to our own experiences. Obviously, there are a lot of experiences that are particular to a gender.
But as a gay woman, I have to say, boobs appeal to me as much as they do to a dude. Sorry.
What’s your favorite comedy movie or T.V. show of all time?
Clue.
The title of your autobiography?
So…That Happened.
—
Amanda Deibert is a writer and actress/filmmaker type in LA. She currently works for HULU’s morning pop culture show, The Morning After, which you can giggle at on hulu.com. You can check out the rest of her hijinks in writing and filmmaking atamandadeibert.com. She lives with her beautiful wife and 100,000 cats.
