Giggle Goddess: Ariana Seigel

What’s your favourite cupcake flavor?

Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. LEGIT.

What or whom inspired you to pursue a career in comedy?

My middle school drama teacher, Mr. Huls. I was in 6th grade and told this joke about whale penises (pantomime included). At the parent-teacher conference he told my mom, “She’s pretty lewd, but I think she’ll grow into it.”

What’s the funniest thing you’ve ever heard/seen?

There’s this video of an exotic bird humping this photographer’s head in the jungle. He’s just smiling and smacking this guy’s head with his giant bird wings. I lose it every time.

If Chuck Norris was to corner you in an alley and challenge you to a duel, what would be your weapon of choice?

I’d just start casually chatting about my period. That should do it.

What’s your best impersonation?  Worst?

Best: Ms. Swan/generic Indian deli man. Worst: Christopher Walken.

What are some challenges you’ve faced since going down the comedy track? What are some things that have made all of those obstacles worth overcoming?

Just being okay with bombing. Being onstage, experiencing silence – and knowing that I’ll live to perform again. I think growing up as an overachiever, it’s hard to accept that sometimes you’re just going to do/make something that sucks. Accepting this gives you true freedom to throw caution to the wind and take big awesome risks. It’s usually in these moments where you’re able to do you’re most dynamic work, especially with improvisation.

Which comedienne, dead or alive, would you love to work with/meet?

Lucille Ball and Tina Fey.

In what ways do you think you’ve improved or evolved since your first comedy venture?

I think I tend to work more from my first instincts at this point. Instead of over-thinking choices, I tend to go with my gut and not question it too much.

What long-term/short-term goals do you have for your career?

Getting paid to create/produce content. I’d obviously love to write for TV, but getting paid WHILE having artistic control would be my ideal. I’d also like to be teaching girls how to write sketch/produce their own comedy.

If you were a politician, for what scandal would you most likely be notorious?

Spending tax dollars on something unnecessary and totally superfluous. Like buying my own island and overrunning it with puppies.

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 always think playing to comedians/actors is the most difficult. So I feel like if I’ve humoured them, I’ve probably done a solid job.

What’s your weirdest insecurity?

I wear a lot of leggings, so I’m always secretly afraid the audience can pretty much see through to my crotch.

Name three things you can’t live without.

Strong coffee, family/friends, and a notebook.

Are you a Girl 1 or a Girl 2?

Girl 1.

Which character are you most like from The Divas?

A strange mix of Lucille and Frida.

Guiltiest pleasure?

Night Bacon. To clarify, that is eating bacon at night.

When you’re not writing/performing comedy, you’re…

Enjoying the mariachi bands on the subway.

What’s the difference between appealing to women and appealing to men?

I think Tina Fey said something along the lines of, “men tend to go more for zombies and women tend to go for … more character-based comedy. Also, in the writer’s room, men will pretend to rape each other. Women tend not to do that.”

The title of your autobiography?

Yo, That was Weird: the Ariana Seigel Story.

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