So You Want be a Standup
Need some comic relief after all the planning, cooking, and refereeing this holiday season? There’s no better release than the Showtime comedy special Even More Funny Women of a Certain Age .
The uninhibited, tell-it-like-it-is, special is the brainchild of veteran standup, Carole Montgomery. After the success of the first two specials, Montgomery is back with a third, featuring Golden Globe winner Teri Hatcher with Wendy Liebman, Leighann Lord, Monique Marvez and Marsha Warfield.
Girls Gone 50 shared some laughs with Carole Montgomery about her start in standup, the comedy scene post-50, ageism, and how you, too, can become a standup comedian at any age.
On Women of a Certain Age
GG50: Why did you pick Women of a Certain Age as the name of your special? It could have been People of a Certain Age.
CM: Well, I came up with the idea four years ago when I was 59. When I turned 50, I saw the writing on the wall for my business. And of course, it's not just show business, it's across the board. It's every industry.
“There’s always men who say to me, “Well, why don’t you do Men of a Certain Age?” I just say, “Because Jim Gaffigan doesn’t need my help.” ”
I was on a podcast with a couple of friends of mine. It was all older women. We were all comedians, and it was so much fun, a magical show. I called my husband and said, "I think we should do a show with just women over 50." We started thinking of names and Women of a Certain Age is what came up. One of the things about comedy is, it's a very male-dominated business.
GG50: I think it’s that way in every business.
CM: Exactly. I have some really very close male comic friends, but in the end, men, they help their bros. Occasionally, some famous male comic will go, "Oh, I'll give her a break." But our show has always been about helping women who, for whatever reason, nobody knows them. There's a lot more women that need to be spotlit. We did make history, so I think I'm on the right track.
GG50: Is your audience all women of a certain age?
CM: Actually, it is not, and I'm really proud of that. The first two specials we shot at The Bell House in Brooklyn, New York, which is a hipster joint. I would say half of the audience was Millennials. It’s wonderful.
GG50: Any men in the audience?
CM: Oh yeah. The show is called Women of a Certain Age, but we want the men there because we want the wives to be hitting them, going, "See? See? I told you. I told you."
Carole Montgomery (far left) with the funny women of the first special.
On Getting Started
GG50: Have you always been funny?
CM: I was a pain in the butt, let's just say that. My dad was a larger than life person. I grew up in Brooklyn and we would always watch, I Love Lucy and Abbott and Costello. So he gave me this love of comedy. He was a high school teacher, but whenever they had events he was always the host. So, I really did get this from my dad.
““Because I’m very loud, I’m a loud woman. I’m my father’s son. What can I tell you?””
GG50: When did that develop into a professional career?
CM: I went to college for six months and I remember saying to my parents, "College isn't for me. I started doing small theater things, working behind the scenes. That's probably where my producing skills started.
I was 21 years old, sitting around with the crew, building sets. They kept saying, "Your banter, you should be a comedian." And I was like, "What's a comedian?" Because back then no one knew really what a standup comedian was.
GG50: Was anything planned or you just improvised?
CM: I had written some stuff down, but nothing major. Then I realized that I wanted to do it, so I started working at a club called Pips in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. That's where David Brenner and Joan Rivers had started. Andrew Dice Clay started there.
I also teach standup now. One of the things I always tell young comics is you just keep getting back on the stage. This is the only job in the world where you have to be present for it. You have to be on stage, and work every day. You only get better the more you're on stage.
GG50: Were there any female stand up comedians at the time?
CM: There were a few, but not like there are now, which is great. Back in the day, when you wanted to audition, they didn't have the open mic nights or audition nights. You literally had to sit in front of the club at noon and wait until they showed up at 6:00 pm. They'd give you a number so you could perform.
I remember sitting next to Rita Rudner. We were both starting out at that time.
GG50: How would you categorize your kind of humor back then?
CM: At the time, I was very timid because I had not really found myself. The running rule among comedians that have been in the business for a very long time, is that you don't really find yourself until you're 10 years into doing it.
It takes a long time to really feel comfortable in your skin as a comedian. It was really interesting because I grew up in Brooklyn so we curse a lot.
““I always say the F-word is an adjective in Brooklyn.””
What's fascinating is how the times have changed because cursing used to be the thing that was like, "Oh, you're filthy, you're a dirty, dirty comic."
On How Comedy Changes with Age
GG50: Has your comedy changed with age? Have you gotten bluer?
CM: I think it's changed as I've aged with my confidence. When you get to a certain age, you just don't care anymore. And not that you don't care, but when I was in my 20s, I took everything so personally. Now I just go, "All right, what's next? What's next?"
In that sense, yes, my humor has absolutely changed.
GG50: Has what you find funny changed at all?
CM: That is a great question. I love that question because no one has asked me that. I laugh at the stupidest things. I do. I do.
GG50: Poo and pee jokes?
CM:: Yes, yes. If somebody slips on a banana peel... physical comedy will always kill me. My heroes are the Marx Brothers, they were such physical comics. I've seen the movies hundreds of times and I know the joke is coming, and I still laugh as if I've never seen it.
““In fact, my son used to say when he was young, ‘Mom, you don’t do jokes, you just make faces.’ And I went, ‘Those faces bought you a house.’””
GG50: We find that there are things that make us laugh just because they're age-related. Not in the sense of like physical aches and pains, but just having lived through a lot of things.
CM: Oh, absolutely. There's nothing wrong with being a young comic, but I would much rather listen to somebody who has years behind them because they have a story. If you're a young comic, you're going to talk about the getting high, going out on a date. It's like the same stuff. You don't have any meat on your bones until you get into your 30s or 40s. And then when you get to our age, you got a lot more meat on your bones.
GG50: Personal question: Are you married?
CM: Yes, for 37 years. What's funny is my cousin who is probably in her late 50s now, got divorced in her 50s, so I was living vicariously through her life. She would tell me about these guys. She didn't want to date younger men, she wanted to date men her age or older. And she said they all look like Santa Claus.
GG50: That's really funny. So, what makes you laugh as a woman over 50?
CM: Watching young girls try to walk with high heels. That's hysterical to me. They look like little baby colts. You ever watch that? And you're just like, "You're adorable."
Also what I find very funny is when, and this has only happened a few times, young men hit on me. Because I've been married, like I said, forever. But one guy, a bartender at a comedy club... you can tell when a guy is hitting on you. I literally looked at him and said, "I would break you." Seriously.
On watching “Hacks”, the hit HBO Series about an aging female standup comedian.
CM: I had a residency in Las Vegas, myself. It wasn't the Carole Montgomery show. It was a couple of different burlesque shows. So, when Hacks first came out everyone thought, "Was that based on your life?" I said, "No, it was not based on my life."
She had a full residency and lived in a mansion. I lived in a four-bedroom house in suburban Las Vegas. I would have liked to have seen more of the trying to get new material. When I was in Vegas, I was only doing 10 minutes between each of the dances. You do get stale because you know that that's what they want. The producer's like, "Just do your 10 minutes, get them laughing, let the girls change, and come back."
What it did teach me doing 14 shows a week, is your material just is so solid. I loved Hacks. And just to be a little vain, I like to think that my show came out first. So all of these shows that are starring older women, you're welcome.
GG50: I agree. Everybody's helping to open the door a little bit more and more.
CM: Right. First of all, Jean Smart, I mean, she could read the phone book and you'd be like, "Oh my God, she's so brilliant," because she's so good.But why is it that an exception to the rule instead of it being the rule?
““I’m very proud of my show being the first TV special to ever have six women over 50 in a comedy special. We made history. But why is that?
In 2021, why are we still doing this?””
On Ageism
CM: Ageism is so rampant in the world. The next thing that I want to explore is doing speaking engagements or a Ted Talk about ageism and what it is to be growing old in a youth-obsessed world.
I do have some new material about ageism. This next set, there's a good five minutes just talking about ageism. If I had to choose between ageism or sexism, I would take a pat on the ass because it meant somebody noticed me. And when I do that line and it's a mixed crowd, all the young women go, “Awwww!"
On How to Become a Standup Now
CM: The first thing I always tell everybody, write from the truth. Write your truth. The most important thing is to write that first five minutes. That's how I started. I wrote the first five minutes, and then I went on stage as much as I could to get that five minutes strong.
GG50: How do you actually get on stage, though?
CM: You have to go to a lot of open mics. There's a lot of what they call bar shows now. And you just get up on stage. You find a place to get on stage. Comedy is such a normal thing now. Back when I started, they didn't have any of this.
You keep getting it stronger and stronger. I always say to people, write what you think is funny.
When I started this 10 minutes for the next special, I knew it was funny, but I still needed to work it out to make sure that it was coming out as my voice.
GG50: What about delivery? How do you practice that? I mean, you could be a funny writer but not be able to deliver.
CM: That's why you go on stage. It was fascinating when everyone turned to Zoom, which was good, but it still isn't the same thing as live. There's so many comics that started during the pandemic, and then they go to a live crowd, and they're like, "Oh, this is not easy." I'm like, "Yeah. It's not easy."
GG50: Do you have to develop a certain style of delivery or can you just be yourself?
CM: I always tell comics that try to act like another comic, "You can do that. I did that.” You have to look at what everyone is doing. Watch the old comics. There's so much on the masters like Pryor and Carlin, Joan Rivers, Phyllis Diller, Totie Fields. Watch what they did. That's how you learn.
CM: And watch current people. I try to watch people I don't even like personally. If I think they're funny, I will watch them because I know that they are a good comic. I just don't have to like them.
GG50: What do you do if you get heckled?
CM: I'm pretty good at that. That's my take no prisoners attitude. I've been doing stand up over 40 years, so I'll stop a show and turn to the person and go, "Okay. So, all these other people paid money to hear me talk and you're ruining it for them, so you should shut up."
Then the audience goes, "Yeah, wait a minute. We paid good money to see her," and then they all start yelling and booing at the person. They usually shut up right away.
GG50: Is it worse for a female standup comedian?
CM: I think it's that you're being raw onstage. If you don't have a hard shell, what happens if the audience doesn't react to you or what happens if they do?
When I go on stage and I'm working on material, I'm listening to the beats of the joke because my delivery is very musical.
I say, "I don't care if they're laughing." They're looking at me like, "What do you mean? You're a comedian." I say, "Because I’m listening to how to deliver the joke the way I think it should be set up."
So, the laughter will come, it may not come right away, but it will come at some point. It's very scientific the way I work.
Years ago it was harder. But thank goodness because of my age, it's not. I know in my bones that I'm funny, and I don't have to prove that anymore.
GG50: How about timing? I mean, I'm sure that's something you can work on and learn, but are there people who just naturally don't have timing?
CM: Yes. And they shouldn't go into stand up comedy.
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