Elayne Boosler crashed comedy's boys' club in 1986 when her first Showtime special, "Party of One," opened the door for women comics to headline their own cable shows and earn club fees equal to the guys. Boosler still works regularly, doing mainly corporate gigs, while running her non-profit animal rescue, Tails of Joy, and polishing a book about the New York and Los Angeles club scene when she was coming up.
She spoke with Eric Estrin about the strength she gained through one-time boyfriend Andy Kaufman, the push she got from superstar Bill Cosby, and the recognition she finally earned from gatekeeper Peter Chernin.
I started standup, by accident, in New York. I had no direction at all in life. I just knew that I needed to be able to get an apartment and live. I tried everything; answering phones, booking escort services, receptionist, hostess, waitress. I was fired from every restaurant in New York City. I kept forgetting the forks.
I was beaten down and intimidated. I ended up backing into comedy as a singing waitress in a New York club. Andy Kaufman was a regular there, and we fell in love. He heard me sing and said, "You're the only person who makes me laugh in life; you're so funny. Just go up and tell those stories. And you should never sing publicly again."
We lived in Greenwich Village for two and a half years. Then we came out to California and split up but remained very close friends. He's the reason I'm still in it. For those 12 years, every time I was lost onstage, his voice would pop out from the back of the room in some city where you'd never expect he even knew I was. He'd save my show and then we'd go eat. It was like having an angel.
In the early '80s I was playing the same clubs for the same money and selling them out over and over again. At that point cable TV was your only shot for survival and expansion. All the guys by then were already on their second cable specials, and there still hadn't been any women.
I kept pitching to HBO and Showtime and they kept saying, "People aren't interested in seeing a woman do an hour." And I would say, I do two hours in clubs; they pay for that! But no, they wouldn't hear it. They were probably using the same market research that says women aren't interested in seeing gorgeous naked men in movies.
By then I had a boyfriend, Steve Gerbson, who was a really good cameraman, DP, producer, director. He said, How much money do you have? I had exactly $30,000 -- no credit cards, nothing else. He said, "Okay, we'll do a special." I said, "These specials are like hundreds of thousands of dollars." He said, "Don't worry, we'll do a really good special, but you'll have to learn to produce and direct and edit because we can't afford extra people."
