WHET Elayne Boosler

She was sooooooo 1980s. I have honestly not thought about her since.

[quote] She was once so big.

I AM "big"!

It's the stand-up comedy venues that got small...

Google is your friend....

She vanished alright - right behind her new face.

Once fucked around with a nice guy in France and, though I was drunk as a skunk, I do remember his story about working on a talk show and telling Boosler he liked her latest special -- only to have her freak out and start screaming that nobody was supposed to have seen that yet (she was there to promote it so makes sense they would watch it for questions). He survived and wasn't fired but he hated her guts for it, which made me laugh.

She's a friend of an acquaintance of mine, and evidently a nice gal. She's married to Bill Siddons, onetime manager of The Doors.

Its not the face...its the hair...it used to be very curly/frizzy

(And karma took care of the rest. She disappeared from the face of the earth soon after).

Elayne Boosler, Susie Essman, Mark Pitta and others were all over cable, comedy clubs and other places in 1980's through 1990's or so, then most just faded into background.

She was so of the 80s and that awful "am I right, ladies?" type of humor that was so prevalent among female comics of the time.

Is she Jerry Seinfeld’s muse?

Unsure why but I never liked her. She always seemed phony and put on.

She was supposed to be in that ghastly Betty Buckley musical “Triumph of Love” but she dropped out due to creative differences. I wonder what Betty did to her? Nancy Opel took over her role.

She's active on Twitter, OP. Find her there.

LOL ^^^ Sorry wrong thread - now how the hell did that happen/ This new keyboard is so sensitive it skips me all over the place.

She seems to have landed a good simple life.

I always liked Judy Tenuta, another 80’s comic that disappeared.

R17

Judy Tenuta is still around, you just have to look about carefully.

Again like so many others cable television of 1980's and 1990's was a godsend, but that didn't last and they have moved on..

On another note these comics by and large are all in their late fifties to almost middle sixties by now.

Boosler was always hacky. Tenuta and even Rita Rudner were funnier.

Rita Rudner was another contemporary of Elayne Boosler et al who is still around.

Who would have thought the little blond lesbian, Ellen Ellen DeGeneres, would become the famous and most wealthy of them all.

Ironic when you think about it, everyone predicted Ellen coming out (or was it being outed?) would end her career. She can buy the lot of them; Paula Poundstone, Elayne Boosler, Rita Rudner, etc.. the lot and get change back.

Paula Poundstone was funny.

"Never let them see you sweat!"

Comics usually have one shtick, and don't vary far from things. Sometimes it will last, others not so much.

Don Rickles worked his brand of insult humor for decades, became wealthy, booked sell out shows, and was in high demand on television "late night" show circuit. Meanwhile by middle to late 1990's or so many of the cable television stand-up comics were fading fast.

Robin Williams was another of the few who managed to create a decent enough career after starting out in stand-up comedy.

True, there were tons of stand-ups on the various cable tv shows in the 80s and early 90s and most of them fizzled out.

Judy Gold had a fairly interesting podcast interview with Elayne a few years ago. Here is Part 1…

And here is Part 2 of Judy and Elayne shooting the shit.

Poor Paula Poundstone and that demon child she adopted.

No good deed . . .

R26, can you summarize in a nutshell - what did she say happened to her career?

I had no idea that she lived with Andy Kaufman for 3 years. She's getting all her paperwork together to retire to Italy. I say good for her. She's still hilarious

When I read that Rita Rudner’s mother died when she was 13, her fake mother jokes and stories seemed insincere to me.

I hate that we feel so compelled to compare female comics, female singers, girl groups, etc. I find it a bit ignorant and sexist. It's just like how we compare black male comics, and how that's a bit racist.

Do we have threads that compare Bill Maher, John Oliver, Jon Stewart, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, John Mulaney, et al.? We really don't....these guys are allowed their own domains, even as many of them compete with each other. That's privilege.

I would prefer we just talk about Elayne on this thread, and other 80s comics (male and female) that have vanished...but of course I'm not in charge here.

Carry on...

R31, if she was a male comedian we'd find it quirky and endearing.

The best thing Elaine Boosler did for herself was drop out of 'Triumph Of Love.' It was awful.

she wasn't really big, big

I don't know her

She tweeted this today. I remember a really uncomfortable sketch they did together in the 70's. I think they had broken up before they did it.

Elayne's not dead.

Her career is.

Ohhh R5 - how interesting your red-tag is!

R33 is the gunty twat who says that men get praised for everything women are called out for.

She heard someone say something like that in 2000 and she parrots it, because she's too dumb to create her own argument.

You know, something based on fact.

Because sometimes women are just horrid.

R40, sorry about your dad and I feel sorry for your mom.

Don’t get me started…….don’t EVEN get me started!!!

She got into a little trouble at Dodger Stadium this past Sunday.

R21: Ellen always seemed completely lacking in talent as a comic--an anxious Seinfeld knockoff.

R43 Are you sure that wasn't John Goodman doing his Linda Trip drag?

Boosler used to play at one of the Comedy Clubs on a regular basis in my area in the late 80s - early 90s (she was very good friends with the owner, and she loved trying out new stuff in his club). When she was in town, she used to come into the store I owned. I didn't know her at first, but one of my employees was a huge fan of hers and used to assist her (after the second or third visit he told me about her HBO specials, which I finally watched and realized how funny she was). One thing I recall, she was very loud in my small 330 sf store - I always wondered if she talked so loud from being on stage talking to everyone ?

She was very nice and polite - used to sign autographs for anyone in the store who recognized her. She used to always come in with 'extra tickets' and drop them off to me and my employee, and any customers who wanted them. I never went to see her in person because I hate comedy clubs. Anyhow, by the mid-90s she disappeared - never played the comedy club again as far as I know (I wonder if she and her friend had a falling out, and he wouldn't book her anymore ?).

That dodger incident makes her seem like a real c***. Because that guy supposed to decide she gets to bring in her bag when I'm sure his butt is on the line if anybody smuggle something in. What she meant is that he should let her do it because she's white just like she claimed the cops are nice to her because she's white.

One of my exes and his best friend knew her from college. Said she would wander the campus singing Laura Nyro songs. They called her the Dakota Song Bird.

R18- What are you talking about-

They are by and large in their 70's today including Boosler and Judy Tenuta. Judy was in her 70's when she died in 2022.

How / Why did this old thread become new again?

Hey whadya want she’s from Brooklyn and a life-long Mets fan. Seriously though, the nephew could have taken the bag back to the car either with the kid or given the kid to Elayne to go into the stadium. Oy, such a tsimmes over a bag!

[quote] I hate that we feel so compelled to compare female comics

We’re just trying to figure out if any of them might be funny.

Is Boosler sober?

[quote]She was handcuffed and placed in the back of a squad car by two officers whom she described as “very nice” but added that it may have been because she is white.

She wants special treatment from security and is angry when she's treated like everyone else, but then she supposes officers may have only been nice to her because she's white. Obligatory divisiveness slipped in there for good measure.

A bit off topic but has anyone else noticed that almost no comedy clubs exist anymore? Back in the 90s in my large city there were comedy clubs everywhere. A lot of hotels had them and they popped up in suburban strip malls all over but now there only maybe two venues here that only headline big names. The other ones have all shuttered. It's almost like comedy had a huge explosion during that time.

The comedy club she used to play at in my town is still open and going strong. The owner books up-and coming / popular names as well as local talent (Matt Rife had three sell-out shows last month, Matt Friend is booked next month). The rest of the clubs closed by the 2000s - especially the ones which were close to the college campuses.

She was SO 80s with that awful "am I right ladies?" kind of stand up. Good thing they all disappeared.

R57 Joy Behar was part of that group of comediennes, and she's done the best of all of them. I remember her stand-up acts on HBO specials along with Boosler, Esserman and the rest of them.

Just for the record, Elayne’s specials were on Showtime, not HBO. They were re-released in a DVD set a few years ago. Elayne had the sense to own the rights to her comedy specials. If I recall correctly, she said HBO wouldn’t give her a first special, so she approached Showtime. The show was very successful, and Showtime approved 3 more specials over the next few years.

R58 I don't think so.