Laugh Lines: Conversations With Comedians Read Free Page A

degrading thing. Make her less than she already is. Already, she’s got enough problems.
     
    Even old game shows were based on ridicule and rejection. ‘Blank, you’re an idiot and get the hell out of here.’ Everything is just dump, dump, dump.
     
    I don’t know. I probably yearn for a little ‘Beaver.’ I don’t know.
     
    Corey: You did Kathy Griffin’s show this season. I really used to like her stuff several years ago more than now. It was self-deprecating. She really was living the D-list life that she talked about. It made her seem more relatable to those of us trying to do what we can to make it out there, instead of dishing and saying mean stuff about celebrities, which I think a lot of her stuff has become lately.
     
    Lily: I thought in the older days, she talked more about celebrities and made fun of them. Then I thought she turned a little there and made herself more vulnerable and the effect of that I liked much better. Now, you’re right, she’s anything but D-list. She’s like top dog. I don’t know where that leaves her. I can’t speak to that part of the culture entirely. I went on that show because I like her as a person. I know her a little bit. She asked me to be on it very early. I was always traveling. My mind was to be on with her mother in an earlier time and talk to her about behaving differently. That was my acquiescence to that part of the culture.
     
    Corey: I love her. I think she’s fantastic. As she’s gotten bigger, I know it’s gonna be difficult to seem real, like on the D-list and struggle to make it. I am amused. Her mother is a stitch. The whole season did seem put on, though.
     
    Lily: Maybe too many celebrities. Did she always have a lot of celebs?
     
    Corey: They got a concept this season. She’s gonna get higher-rung people to tell her how to be A-list. It’s a concept. They may have found out it’s not that successful.
     
    Lily: And she’s really fun, and that is how she is. She goes on like that all the time, and she’s good at it. I get a kick out of her, too.
     
    Corey: You’re certainly a role model to up-and-coming—not that she’s up-and- coming. You’ve got that timeless quality about you. I’m sure people have said you’re a hero and role model. How does that affect you, or how do you take that in?
     
    Lily: It’s nice. I don’t…I mean there were plenty of people before me, too. It’s an evolution of time and life. I was influenced by people. Maybe I influence some people in some way. I continue to be influenced. If people just come to like you for your sensibility or something, then it’s more personal. I don’t live out of reality that’s its overly significant, you know.
     
    Getting by day by day, year by year, then they’ll turn on me at any moment. I didn’t know. You have to be ready for it.
     
    Corey: At live shows during the Q&A, have people brought up the YouTube clip of your filming ‘I Heart Huckabees’? (There are two clips online of Jane and ‘Huckabees’ director David O. Russell in heated arguments during filming.)
     
    Lily: Yeah, sometimes they do. Oh, the YouTube. I was doing an interview, sitting right in this little chair. I sit at the one little table because I can signal someone in the kitchen to bring me a cup of coffee. I was doing an interview with someone in Miami. That old clip had been around agencies for four years. You forget about what a clearinghouse the Internet is now. He said, ‘How do you feel about clips on YouTube?’ I said, ‘I don’t know. What are they? Oh, did I overlook something when I was getting out of that limo the other day?’ ‘From “Huckabees” or something.’ ‘Which clip did you see, the one in the car or the one in the office?’ So initially, some people would see just the office. They would call or write, ‘I was so proud of you. It was so dignified.’
     
    I’d say, ‘Did you see the one in the car yet?’ (laughs)
     
    So, what can you say? It’s right