NYC Comedian Liz Miele: is there comedy when there can be no crowd?

Vance Crowe [00:00:02] As the crow flies on the Vance Crowe podcast, Liz Neely, welcome to the podcast.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:00:09] Yeah, thanks for having me.

Vance Crowe [00:00:10] So I think you win the award for the greatest background. What is going on behind you right

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:00:15] Now? Thank you. Some of us like to go to flea markets everywhere they go and buy lunch boxes from their childhood. So it's, first of all, that yellow one is Mor and Mindy. Wow. I got it. I got it at a flea market when I was 15 years old for $5. It's a little beat up. Some girl didn't respect Robin Williams, but it's like my prize possession. And for years I would sell merch out of it after shows. So like I use those lunchboxes, like they legit are storing stuff in it. Like there's a part of me that if I ever got robbed, I'm like, as long as they don't touch those lunchboxes, I mean there's nothing of value in them. But I do store stuff in them. But yeah, there's PeeWee's, PeeWee's Playhouse, I have Ghostbusters, I have a new kids on the block lunchbox that I got at a flea market in Tennessee for $2 and I've had four different women try to buy it off me. And I was like, no, it's has so much value. I'm, I'm really looking for a hundred dollars or more. But it does have value to me.

Vance Crowe [00:01:13] I, I feel like this makes complete sense as you're describing it, because I have watched your comedy, I don't know, for maybe a year and a half or two years. And you have a, a, a totally different mind than anybody else. I know the way that you put things together is fascinating. And I wanted to talk with you because my sense about comedians is that they are in constant need of a relationship with their audience. They, they, you have to get those laughs in order to understand, am I connecting? Am I making a change with people? So during the pandemic, when everybody is locked away, I was wondering what goes on in the mind of a, of a comic that has to be somewhat addicted to the relationship with the crowd.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:01:56] Oh yeah. Pure depression. This has been a rollercoaster of depression. I was actually much more worried, like really I was worried that I was gonna sink into like a depressive episode because not only is it my lifestyle, I've been doing it almost every single night since I was 16 years old. But I think, how do I say this? Like there's a lot of like chemicals that happen just from getting on stage, performing, getting laughs. You know, I'm not smart enough to know what they all are, but like's say like adrenaline and endorphins and all that crap. And it is like, you know, drugs and, and I do think that doing that over and over and over again, just like a real drug and then stopping does cause some kind of withdrawal. And I'm not like, I'm not here like just crying on my bed every day, but I am uncomfortable and I am like, I'm both like worried for the future of my career and my finances 'cause I have no other skill. Like I did put all my eggs in this basket and I was shocked at work the first time and now that comedy's kind of dead. I'm like, oh, I could see how my parents were like, this isn't a good idea. Like, the whole time I was like, you don't know, I'll prove you wrong. And then for like truly like six years as I was like doing financially okay and touring the world, I was like, told 'em and then coronavirus happens. I was like, you know, they are older and they ha they do know things and I should listened. It's like, I was like, you know, I really, really kind of told 'em they were wrong, but I could see how like, they didn't know about the pandemic, but I think they were like, something could happen.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:03:34] So I, I'm worried I am, I'm sad. Like I, I wouldn't say I've hit like a, I've cried sporadically while doing dishes. I think everybody has like, I don't think anything

Vance Crowe [00:03:47] If you're, if you're washing your own dishes by hand, everybody's crying.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:03:49] Yeah. But it's like, it's usually I cry on the subway because that's when I have alone time. But honestly like there is this, when I'm, when I really think about what's going on and I think truly, like without putting on the filters, like, you know, those like self-help book positive, it's gonna work out and everything happens for a reason. When I take that little filter off, my mind goes to a dark place and I go, you need to find another skill and you need to pivot. Like you need to adapt because this might go on for a long time. And, and like I've been joking since day one of this that I'm not essential. Like I've been, I told my mom, I remember telling my mom this years ago, I go, I know during the apocalypse I will have no value, but I think I have some time. And now I'm like, oh, I was right except for the time part because I'm not saying we're useless. I know people value comedy and blah blah blah, but how my life is set up as somebody that is truly a traveling clown. Like I was traveling up until mid-March and I had to cancel a European, I was in Europe and I had to cancel the rest of the gig and fly home. I have not been home more than a week in years. I mean, on average I'm in on a airplane or in a car every couple of days. There's weeks where I'm in a new city every day. So my life is travel, my life is going from place to place and performing for people. I make 90% of my income from live performances.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:05:21] You know, everybody's being like, you should do Zoom shows, you should do Zoom shows. And I have, and I am, but I've had to adapt to 'em because people don't understand that if I do a Zoom show and you're like, anybody from around the world can come, sure. But then the next time you see me, you know all my material. Like it takes anywhere from two weeks to a couple of months to polish one joke. And if you saw it now, and then I try to go to your place, let's say six months from now, maybe I'll have some new material, but I won't have an hour of new material. So we've, there's also a creativity that has to come into play when everybody has access to this thing that was somewhat sacred before and also takes a really long time to polish. Like we expect some, like a musician, we like to come out with a new album every couple of years, but like the whole time they're trying to make it po and that's how standup is, I think music that kind of hoard it and then they release it and then they tour with it. We are polishing it in front of people the whole time and then we release the polished like the main big polished hour afterwards. But it's, it's been a hard, it's like a hard process both to do alone on Zoom and then also with knowing that I don't know when this will be normal again, if ever,

Vance Crowe [00:06:41] My sense on comedy, and, and this is my kind of running hypothesis, is that people get together when, and they have a comedian stand up in front of them that can say things that nobody else can say and, and get you to connect point A to point Z in a way that you didn't expect. And that laughter is everybody saying like, I had never seen that connection before, but ha ha ha, I see it and I can hear that these other people see it. So as you're describing that, like there's no place for you in the apocalypse during the apocalypse. No, maybe, but after the apocalypse as we come out of it, people won't know what to think and they won't know what anybody else around them thinks until they get into these live environments and you start testing these ideas. To me, comedy is central to getting the economy going.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:07:30] Yeah. I think I I, I'd like to agree. I just, and this is in, we'll put it this way, there's days where I'm like, it's all gonna work out and it's gonna be fine. And then there's days kind of how I feel today, which is I don't know what's gonna be there when we do come back. Like what people have to understand, let's just look at New York City on its own. You have, it's a mom and pop shop. There's not a lot of ch there's some change, there's the improvs, you know the Laugh Factory has a couple of 'em. There's, but there's not, it's not, you know what that there's not a lot of Applebee's of comedy clubs. They're all kind of Mom and pop shops. So everybody owns these individual clubs and you tour from them. They're owned by a lot of families or whatever. So we'll just stay in New York City you have a bunch of mom and pop shop comedy clubs. There's a lot of them in New York, there's like seven or so and some of 'em been around forever and they'll still be around forever. A lot of them won't. So if this goes on, 'cause they're talking about, let's say we've reopened New York City in September, but we're not reopening comedy clubs in September. So we're talking about maybe 2021 that comedy clubs are gonna open. What clubs are gonna survive that when the government isn't assisting them or supporting them. So then you lose, let's say we lose half the comedy clubs, then who are the new co who are, who's coming to these comedy clubs? Who's co who, what tourists are coming to New York City? What like even if everybody is financially okay in New York City that would come out to a comedy club, you have social distancing, you have half the amount of people, if not a quarter of the amount of people that would even show up.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:09:11] So now less shows are happening. Comics that do do, the shows are getting paid less. And then because less shows are happening, less comics are getting booked. So now only top tier comics are gonna be working. So, you know, I work all over the city. I'm, I'm respected and known, but I don't know if I pull in people the same way that, you know, Hassan Minaj is pulling in people because he has a show or Nikki Glaser because she's been on Netflix. So Nikki might be fine, but I might not be fine. And if I might be fine, the people that have only been doing it 10 years or five years, they might not fine. So now you've stunted the way comedy is seen, it's growing. If comics can't get on stage and they can't keep performing and there's nobody there to see it, you're kind of stunting the creative process. So then the next thing is touring, but who wants new? Like it used to be like the flyers would be like New York City comedian Liz Mely coming to Berlin now. It's like, eh, New York City comedian Liz Neely's coming to Berlin. We don't like that. That was the epicenter, why would we want that? Like if this is, now you're kind of a little dirty, but also there's a fear, like this is a small room. Comedy clubs are notoriously in small rooms. It's a small room with somebody that was kind of in the epicenter if, and this is also comes with the fact that we don't know how this virus is working. If it's like you get it and you're immune and now you got a superpower, then I think in some ways there'll be some herd immunity in New York City and we're gonna blossom.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:10:50] People are gonna be like, well nothing bad's gonna happen in New York City. Everybody has it, it's fine. But if this is a thing that's ever growing, changing, there's, there's articles about people getting it and then getting it again, I don't know what's gonna happen to New York City, which is truly where comedy like it is the best place to do comedy. It's my favorite place to perform in the world. Like, and, and it's also where some of the best comics have come out of and where we grow and work on these little bits so that when we do tour they're polished and people are excited about 'em. And it's, it's a workshop of a city as well as a, you know, a place where big co comics live and, and perform. And I'm a little bit, I'm not saying years from now, there won't be positives from it, but I'm saying the next six months to maybe year and a half might be really hard for us. And as somebody, this is my only thing I've ever done as a career, it's my favorite thing. Like we're talking about like if you wait all week to have a piece of cake, like that's how I feel about comedy and I get to do it every night. It's my favorite thing and it's the only skill I have. And now I'm starting to be like, alright, how do I take a little bit of what I've built up and just move it in a different direction? Because not to abandon it, which I've always said, I would never abandon comedy even if I became, you know, a movie star. It's my favorite thing to do. But now it's a little bit like I can keep doing it on a baby level, but I need to figure out how to survive the next two years.

Vance Crowe [00:12:29] This is, I mean, terrifying. This is probably one of the most sobering things that somebody has said. And if somebody offered you a stage right now, you know, you're kind of a junkie and you're worried about your money. If they said, Hey, we're opening up this comedy club, we're breaking all the rules and we want you to headline, would you go do it?

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:12:47] No, I say no. I think it's irresponsible.

Vance Crowe [00:12:49] Okay. I

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:12:50] Mean that's, I think that's the other thing is, so think of the beaches. They, they close the beaches because if the beaches are open, there's people that are gonna go to the beaches and that starts to endanger the community. So they close the beaches for the greater good of the community. And I feel similar in the way that if you open up comedy clubs, yeah, there's people that are gonna come, but then you are a part of that system and you're, you're one of the people that's endangering people. And until we understand what this is and until we've at least tried to put up precautions to help people, I wouldn't feel comfortable about getting on a stage right now. I, and like I said, in a closed off environment, maybe there might be an outdoor stage where everybody's six feet apart again, it wouldn't be that enjoyable. But I think, you know, I've joked on different shows with friends and comics about like the future of comedy where like Gallagher was before his time. Like everybody's gonna have a tarp. We're all gonna be little bubble boys. You know, everybody's gonna have like those like, you know how like they have those like lobster wet naps when you, when you go to, but it'll be like Clorox wipes. And so like you'll get your drink and you Clorox wipe it off and like, and then you drink your little drink and then all have like a little plastic thing like when you're in taxis now. So like, I don't spit on anybody, but I don't know, like I was being silly like a month ago and now I'm like, I think I'm a genius. Like I just feel like there's gonna have to be real precautions for people to feel comfortable around being with other people.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:14:22] And also like you, so my dad sent me this article a couple days ago and it really clarified things for me. 'cause I just didn't understand how asymptomatic people were able to spread it. Because I was always like, you cough, it travels, you sneeze, it travels clearly. If you touch things and you touch things, it travels. But how does somebody asymptomatic if it's all about droplets? But what I didn't realize is when you talk, droplets do come out now, they don't propel the way a a a, a sneeze or a cough would. So if a cough goes this far and a sneeze goes that far, well then breathing or talking is just this far. So you can spread stuff by talking, you can spread stuff by breathing even your nose or your mouse. And that's where masks are kind of helpful. But laughing, you know, that's gotta be half a cough. Like, you know what I mean? Like, and I'm like, I'm like a cartoon character. My head goes back, I cackle like, so there's a part of me that's like anybody that would be scared. I I I wouldn't think they were wrong. And I would wanna protect people as much as possible. Like I, I don't, like I was in London when it started to spread in. I was in Paris and then I came to London early March when I was touring. And a friend of mine had just had a baby and we were gonna get lunch and I told her, I was like, Hey, and this is before we truly really understood what was going on. I was like, hey, I was just in Paris when I was in spreading in Paris. I was like, I'll come to lunch, but like, I'm not gonna touch your baby. I'm not gonna hug you. I'm not gonna kind of touch anything. And she's like, ah, you're being silly, da da da da.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:15:54] And it broke my heart. I wanted to just like wrap my hands in this baby and like hug my friends. And they were just like, I think you're being silly. And then of course things like, you know, I get sent home a week later, but I didn't even understand it. And I knew to take precautions like in Paris, I stopped like shaking new comedian's hands and I stopped like kind of embracing people. It was great. I'm not that social. I really enjoyed that. I really, I've been hugging people for 15 years against my will, but I, even when I don't understand something, there is a part of me that's like, at least let me take precaution and can, in case I'm wrong. And I'm a little confused why most people don't feel that way. Like, what's the harm in being wrong? You didn't hug your friends, you didn't go go out to get food. Like, I get what's going on now where the economies are are collapsing. And, and people, people, there's, you know, I have friends that haven't seen another human in months and it's, they're losing their mind. And then I have friends that are in bad relationships and it's, they're in a bad place in a small apartment. You know, I have people that are scared they're gonna have to, you know, move back home or, or, or live on the streets. Like it's, you're taking the entire inter entertainment industry. And I think that's the thing that people don't really understand. You know who Kevin Hart is, you know who Amy Schumer is, but you know, five celebrities that do comedy. There are thousands of us that are career comedians that the world doesn't know who we are.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:17:30] But you know, like I have 50,000 fans on Instagram. I made a career when I had 10,000 fans on Instagram. I have been touring, I've been a comedian 18 years, I've been touring on my own for probably 12 and making a living, doing it for maybe about nine. Like there are so many comedy clubs, there are so many theaters, there are so many independent rooms. You can work for more established comics. There's so many side hustles you can do with comedy that there are career comedians that are really gig to gig. And then you take away the gigs and there's, there's nothing there. And so I look at somebody that's a career dancer, a career violinist, a career comedian. And I think, oh, there's, there's nothing there right now. 'cause if people aren't going to events, nobody's, nobody's looking for a ballerina to brighten their day. Like, you know what I mean? Like,

Vance Crowe [00:18:27] So what is your day like, I mean, what, how does, how does somebody like you operate if the thing that you used to do was stay up till late at night so you could go do a comedy show and then ride the subway home late at night. I mean, like, what's your day like?

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:18:40] I mean, my, I've moved everything from one side of my room to the other side. That was a big day for me. I was like, I've lived here for five years. Let's see if we can pretend like we moved. I discovered that I have a box addiction. I have three huge like, like big cardboard boxes with tiny boxes in it because they were good boxes and maybe I would use them. So I'm learning a lot about myself is what I'm trying to say. I would say this, I am a, I'm a, I'm a hustler. I'm a busy bee. I don't like when I was starting to realize that I was gonna have to cancel my, my tour and go home, I was staying with my, my best friend for Maria. Maria, she is an American, but she lives in London and does comedy out there. And we'd always joked about starting a podcast based on just how dumb we are. And when things were starting to shut down, I was like, I think we need a podcast. And I, even when I announced that we had a podcast like two weeks later, I was like, I regret to announce that I have a podcast. Like I the last comedian, I'm so sorry you don't have to listen, but it is, it was, it was immediately like I became very quickly aware that we're both gonna be in trouble. 'cause she's also like a career comedian. Like, oh crap. Like we need to pivot. So we started a podcast. So, and like I am, I've made my career off social media, I've been on TV a bunch. But like I said, most of my success has been like viral videos and, and my presence online.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:20:12] And I'm, and I'm fortunate because of that, because now TV isn't what it was before, at least comedy wise. And I immediately was like, okay, I need to find a way to make money and I need to find a way to support my friends because I'm fortunate enough that I make money with royalties. Like my standup gets played on Sirius XM and I get royalty money from that. If you listen to me on Pandora or Spotify, I get a little bit of royalty money, not a lot. Whenever my friends are like, I listen to your thing on Spotify, I was like, thanks for the 32 cents. But you make a little bit of money over time. Same with YouTube views. You make a little bit of money and you know, sometimes it's grocery money, sometimes it's rent money. It's really irregular. But I'm a saver and I have always prepared for a rainy day. I did not expect this storm, but I am grateful. So for me it's about continuing to utilize the money that I'm able to make without doing anything, but then also trying to propel my presence even more with different content. So I started a podcast. We have about 10 episodes. We, I mean the idea was like a week before I got sent home. We started recording as soon as I got home.

Vance Crowe [00:21:27] What's your podcast called?

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:21:28] Oh, it's called Two Non-Doctors.

Vance Crowe [00:21:30] That's what I thought. I was like, it's, it's like I'm not a doctor or something. That's right. Yeah,

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:21:33] That's,

Vance Crowe [00:21:33] I've listened to it. Yeah.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:21:34] Yeah. I, it's, I mean it's very silly. We're both morons every episode we're like, we're dumb, don't listen to us. We don't know what we're talking about. But like, my parents are veterinarians, so I have this undeserved belief that I'm right. And, and I'm a Googler and she's a Googler. So it's just about the fact that we're like very curious about our bodies and like, I diagnosed her misophonia like seven years ago. She misophonia, it kind of translates to the hatred of sound. And she's a crazy person. Like gum chewing was like being assaulted. Like she was just insane.

Vance Crowe [00:22:07] Oh, I have a good friend that if you eat in his presence, it's, you might as well have like gone over and smacked his child or something because yeah, he hates you.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:22:14] Yeah, he has misophonia. But like, she was crazy about it and I adapted because she's my friend and I love her. But just one day I was looking something up and somebody said something about hatred of sound and I was like, oh, I wonder what that is. And I looked and I, I remember I printed out an article and I was like, I think you might have this. And I was waiting for her to be mad at me and she's, she looked at me and she goes, oh my God, I have this. And it like changed her life. Like she stopped feeling like she hated herself, that she was like this and she thought there was something wrong with her. And she's like, oh, it's a disorder, it's not my fault. And like she started to adapt. I mean the only time I see her really freak out now is if she forgot her noise canceling headphones. Like it's a bad day. And then it's just me like being like, like almost slapping gum outta people's mouths. I was like, my friend's coming through like, but, but like I diagnosed her. She's, she's I, I've had so many health problems that I've googled my way out of and really changed my life with like diet and all this other stuff. So it's just like basically our personalities and kind of showing what we learned to other people, but also kind of encouraging people to, if a doctor doesn't know what you're doing, you can kind of take your health into your own hands. 'cause every time I've gone to a doctor and been like, I think I might have this 70% of the time, they're like, oh, this actually might be something. Let's take these tests and dah dah, dah dah. When every doctor was like, I don't know what's wrong with you. And you're like, cool, unhelpful. I canceled my whole day to be with you.

Vance Crowe [00:23:37] But I think that may be something that's like you're kind of hitting on. So if anybody's ever watched your comedy, the way that I found your comedy was that you, before almost everybody else was putting subtitles on your Instagram or your Facebook videos, whatever that was. Yeah. And it made it like, I was like, I can pretend like I'm working and really just be reading comedy, But like the comedian that I think of as you is you take random dots that seem random to other people and you're always connecting them in these like funny novel ways. So it makes total sense to me that you would be able to take like three symptoms and, and figure out like how they're connected in a, in a different way. I, I, I'm, I guess I'm kind of hung up on your idea and I don't know anything about your financial position that, that you don't have a role here because I, I I deeply think that human beings don't even want to know what they think they want to know. What do other people think that I can follow behind? There's a, there's a philosopher named Renee Gerard who talks about the role of the comedian being the person that allows you to go from one way of thinking to another way of thinking. And without somebody that's guiding that jump, people won't make it.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:24:48] I agree. And I think that's why people love late night. I think that's why John Oliver's so successful or you know, the Daily show. And, and I have a lot of political comic friends. I'm not that political myself. I agree. I I mean I, it is even before I started doing standup, it's life changing and I still enjoy watching it. And I have friends that like will blow my mind with, with their, their comedy. I think for me, I'm not saying we don't have value. 'cause I do think we do. I just think it's going to be a huge shift in what we enjoyed about comedy and the reason we got into it and how people take in comedy and how they go about it. The, the need for comedy and the desire for comedy is huge. That has not gone away, but how we want to perceive it. So here's a good example. Almost immediately I started getting asked to do private corporate Zoom shows Grateful money. Thank you. I'm very grateful. They are hard and I don't enjoy them. We're talking about me performing in my bedroom. We're talking about sometimes everybody is muted or they're not muted. And you have somebody vacuum cleaning and somebody yelling at their dog and then somebody being like, I didn't get that. And you're, and you can hear them saying that like almost whispering in your ear that they don't understand you. You're like, cool, I'm bombing in the saddest way possible right now. So it's like, it's, it's distracting. It's unenjoyable. It's a different type of connection.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:26:19] Also some, most of them are muted because of all those distractions. So now even when it goes well, it feels like bombing. And then also I'm a perfectionist. Like I'm having people watch a joke. Like I have this five minute joke about ghosts. I wrote it I think in like January and it just started to get polished and finished in February. And like, that's my favorite time by the way. I have an idea. I start working on it, it's not going well, but I see the potential. And then each week it just gets stronger and stronger to the point where I have a five minute joke about ghosts that's like bam, bam, bam, bam. Like it's my favorite feeling. And I've done that joke perfectly where like every line I've written gets a laugh and then now I'm performing it on Zoom shows. And it's, it's almost like every time I perform it, I lose confidence in it. Like, and they're also seeing it in its shittiest form. Like I want people to see that joke. Like if I was going to invite my favorite person, like just a celebrity or like somebody I look up to to come see me do comedy the first time they see comedy, I want them to see me at like New York Comedy Club packed on a Saturday night when I'm just in the groove. Like when I'm like, everything I say just hits people and people get me. I don't want them to see me alone in their room with no influence, no alcohol at four o'clock on a Friday. As I'm not saying my jokes don't make people laugh without laughter and without the influence of other people.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:27:52] But it feels so much better and it hits you in a different way. That's the reason. Like I never really liked concerts. I was never, I have a lot of social anxiety. I don't like being touched. I don't fucking like, like I don't like not having control. So weirdly enough, I don't like crowds, I don't like, I don't like concerts. But when somebody says they love the, the group think and everybody's like vibing and maybe they're all on drugs and they're all like, you feel like a unit. I get that. Like, I went, I don't care about sports. I went and saw, I went, I was in Spain doing a tour and I went to like a real Madrid soccer game with a friend of mine who lives there fucking awesome. Could not

Vance Crowe [00:28:31] Care. Yeah. It's like your brain just explodes with them. Dude,

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:28:34] Dude, it was so cool. Yeah, don't care about soccer. I'm not a big drinker, but like, it's just people singing and they're cheering and you're like, what a cool experience. And that's how I feel about comedy. Like a lot of times you watch somebody and you go, oh, that joke was so funny. And she, she was great and I really enjoyed that and that's crazy what she said. But really it's like, it's not just me, it's all of us together being like, like you said before, like, oh dude, they all enjoyed that this person made everybody with her mind enjoy that thought. And a lot of my, I'm really dark, like I just lost a bunch of fans on Instagram for telling a dead grandmother joke. And

Vance Crowe [00:29:12] It's funny, I had people

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:29:13] Comment and they were like, they literally were like, unfollow. And I was like, that's fine. I was like, you know, I don't, I don't wanna hurt people with my comedy, but at the same time I heal by saying fucked up stuff. Like that's what I do.

Vance Crowe [00:29:26] So as you were talking, like I, I've done 50 some odd interviews and no one has touched me in this way. Like I feel al almost to the point of like, you know, crying almost because it's, and like I think there's something really important that you're hitting on here because I know the feeling, so I go out and give talks and I am, I need a couple of laughs to make sure that everybody in the audience is still a, a cohesive group. But my point is like, I'm trying to drop an idea. I want them to think about things differently. And I don't do it necessarily through comedy, but I know that feeling of putting something out there and getting nothing in return. I mean, you could be standing and doing comedy. I mean somebody could say, well why don't you practice in front of your mirror? Well it's 'cause you can't, like the, the entire thing is the relationship between me and other people. And if the other people are can't communicate and, and really a lot of it is the other people communicating with each other about what I'm saying. And so this is like, I I I think you're dead on with, with your assessment of it. What what has it been like to live in New York City? I mean, this is the place that the whole world is watching.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:30:37] Yeah, I mean I am, so I'm in Brooklyn and I think man, like Manhattan's always functioned a little bit differently than the other boroughs. Like even like power outages seem to affect Manhattan more harshly than some of the boroughs. I've been through a couple of hurricanes in the last couple of years, years. So honestly, I don't know. I, I joke about New York City being like a rough go fuck yourself kind of place. And I am that person as well. But I also will, I always defend New York City with, we're not gonna be polite, but we are thoughtful. So there's a lot of stares. There aren't a lot of escalators in the subway. There aren't a lot of elevators and usually they smell like somebody took a vomit piss shit all at the same time. They're gross. So there, you know, there's new moms here, there's all this stuff. I have seen people that look like they murder people for a living. Be like, I got you ma'am. Pick up their baby. Take it down stairs, put it down. I've seen people that look like they're not even paying attention. Hold the door so somebody doesn't get slammed with the door. There was these little moments or like, I, I've always been a, I will swipe anybody in. I don't care if you look homeless, I don't care if you look like you have a million dollars, I will swipe you in. I have an unlimited card. I think everybody deserves to get where they're going and you don't know everybody's story. So everybody does their little parts to kind of support this community. I'm not gonna make small talk with you, I don't want you to touch me, but I will.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:32:08] I've said don't touch me so many times that people must think I'm a freak. It's

Vance Crowe [00:32:11] Very clear you don't wanna be touched.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:32:12] Yeah, I'm from a large Italian family that was like, I shared so little. Like I, I've meant for New York City 'cause it's so small, but I'm also like, I've spent my whole life and I'm a tiny person, but I'm just like, I want my space. But anyway, there we are. I do think we're good people and I do think we care. We're just, we're busy and we got shit to do. So with New York City, I see PE like this is a, this is a funny example. So the line, my boyfriend lives by a Trader Joe's and that's where we almost like exclusively shop. And so the line for Trader Joe's is a lot longer than the other line. So most of the time it's anywhere from a half hour to 45 minutes. But we've waited in it for two hours. So, but everybody's on the sidewalk wrapped around the entire block, around six feet apart. And so my boyfriend was going to CVS, this was when like nobody could find toilet paper. And our, our biggest fight was like, you use so much toilet paper. And I was like, I use the regular amount of toilet paper. Like these are the fights I'm having with

Vance Crowe [00:33:06] My boyfriend.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:33:07] I'm just like, I don't know what to tell you. Women use toilet paper. I'm not like just out there like a cat like fucking trying to, you know, use a roll in one sitting fuck off. Like so he's looking for toilet paper at like every CVS and Rite Aid and I'm waiting in this long Trader Joe's line. So it was like a half hour before I saw him again. And so he comes over and he's on the phone with somebody and he's standing right behind me and this guy comes over and he takes like a wide loop around us. He looks me in the eye and he goes, do you know him? And I go, 'cause we didn't even say hi to each other. He was like on the phone so I wasn't gonna interrupt him. And I was like, oh yeah, I do, it's fine. But you could tell that like even just you, I want, like, I've had people where like, do you know him? 'cause somebody's being creepy now. It's like, do you know this guy that is three feet away from you? This is like, are you okay? And I was like, New York City, you're so cute. Like there are these like little moments where people are trying to be respectful. Don't get me wrong, I've already told three people to go fuck themselves. But like truly there is a little, and I do think earlier New York, we're all in this together now. It's like we're all like, I'm freaking out and we don't know how long we're gonna be in our homes kind of thing. But I do see,

Vance Crowe [00:34:14] So there is a culture change there. You, you are seeing like it's, it's gotten less. I mean I know that in my world everybody was, we're all in this together, we're all in this together. And then you start seeing people being like time to go out, time to not go out and that that causing conflict. Yeah. Yeah.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:34:29] I mean every day at seven you hear people cheering and honking and cowbells and stuff like that. I see that support. I definitely see, you know, people being more helpful, being kind to any essential worker. Like I, I think New York City is aware of what's going on and I think the majority of people are doing their best to be good people and to support each other. But I do also do think we are less patient and things start to weigh on us. And we are, I maybe I should just speak for myself. I'm a zero from 60 person on a good day. Like I truly, I've been in the car talking my sister off a ledge being like, you know, you just gotta believe in yourself and if you know, you put good vibes out, you'll get other vibes. I will fucking murder your family if you don't learn how to merge, like screaming at cars, like I will run over your children, just fucking merge. But if you don't, if you don't put kindness out there, you won't get kindness back Emily like that. So it's like, I mean I, I give it out but I I I also try to like, I'm a, a walking contradiction and I, I do think people are trying here and I do, I don't think we were bad people before. I just think things have slowed down in a way that I'm sure that's like, like you were saying earlier, like how do you feel not doing standup? Like I'm still going to bed at 2:00 AM like I have been this person for so long. My dad, me and my dad have never been on the same schedule.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:35:59] My dad used to be a dairy farmer. He's a, he's a veterinarian. He has his own practice. My dad has been getting up at 4:00 AM for as long as I've known him. And I think before I've been alive and it doesn't turn off. And I was like, that's so weird. Like it's a Saturday, like sleep in and now I haven't worked in two months. And I'm like, it's 2:00 AM I'm like, go to bed, Liz like, go to bed. Like you don't, I used to tell people like, I can't go to bed 'cause I have all this adrenaline that I, you know, I just performed at 10 30 at night. It's like taking a shot of espresso. And now I'm like, oh no, I think I just end this person. Like whatever muscle memory I I I go to bed at two no matter what. I dunno.

Vance Crowe [00:36:41] When you think about New York and what it was and what it is and the fact that this is like comedy Mecca as far as I can tell, do you have any inclination that you'll leave New Yorker? You, you a New Yorker for the rest of your life?

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:36:54] I don't wanna leave. I don't, I I've always said I live here because it's this the best place to do standup. Like I've always said, if if standup was in Texas, I'd be in Texas. But I, I come here for my career and for what it's done for me and, and how I can grow and how central it is to kind of everything. But I like it here. Like I, I do believe it's gonna be harder. I do believe we're gonna take a, a giant step back for how we are able to grow as comics here. But I also think there will be a boom and I also think we'll come back stronger. I just don't know when that's gonna be, you know, if I was 70 and still doing standup, which George Carlin was 70 and still doing standup, I might shift. I might, I might use this as a sign to, to, to go somewhere else or, you know, change my life a little bit. But I'm 34, you know, I, I, our airports should still work when they start doing what they do again at the level they did, I, there's still value. It just might not be utilized for like a year or so. And I've always, I'm a planner and I've always looked at my life not as the next six months or the next year, but what the next five years are gonna look like. And I like what the next five years are gonna look like.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:38:26] I think it's gonna be harder. I think it's gonna be, I'm gonna grow in ways that I never expected. But every time I've had to take two steps back, it's been helpful. I've learned something from it. Like I'll, I'll be honest, like I said, I don't like technology but I utilize it and I've always learned just as much as I need to learn to get by. So I edit all my own videos. But if you wanted me to do something complicated, I just learned how to do a little bit of basic more editing than I had been for the last five years because I didn't need it. So I learned two skills on editing and I've just been doing it myself and I didn't need to learn anymore. And now with starting a podcast, putting on Zoom shows, I'm self releasing my special in a couple of weeks I've, I've probably learned five different websites, watched all these tutorials, talk to friends that have been doing it before. I have all these notebooks of like how to self-teach myself and I just don't have a good memory. So I have to write it all down and be like, oh yeah, we go there and then there and then we click that I've had to do all this and I hate it. Every moment of it. Every moment. I hate learning. Learning is so hard for me, but I I know it's essential right now. And I also know that when I don't need it anymore, it's gonna influence how I feel about stuff either in a comedic sense or in a business sense. And it's gonna make me a powerhouse. And that's where I do have still some positivity in my heart. Instagram Live has been around forever. I never used it until a week, like a month ago. You, I'm premiering my, my special on YouTube.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:39:58] It's like this thing where it premieres it, it people can like set a reminder to know when it comes out. Then when it does premiere there's like a chat and you can chat with your fans while it's happening. I've never done it before, but now I've read like four articles. I've heard there's a lot of value to it. We'll see what happens. And now that's something that I can teach other friends and comedians how to utilize. I can use it for other stuff and, and connect with my fans in a different way. I've learned so much about this online sphere that's been here for years that I wasn't utilizing 'cause I didn't have time to learn or I didn't need to learn it. And that's gonna influence how I connect with my fan base going forward.

Vance Crowe [00:40:33] It's so interesting for me to hear you describe your learning like this because I have for the last, I don't know, six months to a year, looked at what you do and I'm like, man, Liz can do this. I can figure this out. Like I'm gonna keep trying this. So it's so interesting to me that you're describing that you like hate learning or you don't like learning. Is that, like you were talking about doing comedy when you were 16. Is that, is, was this a way to have a good experience because education and school not not so great for you? Oh

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:41:02] God, it's torture. I mean I'm, I'm dyslexic. They found out I was dyslexic in the third grade and you know, my sister, my older like, so there we're all my dad's dyslexic, there's five of us. We're all dyslexic to various degrees. Like my brother Sam, who's almost like smack dad in the middle, he's the most dyslexic than me and my sister who are also in the middle a little bit more. And then the kids on the outside are like the smartest and it's not as bad. And my older sister is like, I feel like you use it as a crutch. And I go, well there's also positivities to it. But also I'm so tired of people making fun of my intellect 'cause I don't know how to spell or my grammar's poor when I can, I'm, I'm the person everybody goes to when they need to write a business email. I'm the person that when they're trying to construct a joke and they're having issues, I go give it to me and I can figure it out. So yeah, my spelling is garbage and every time I do write an email I'm like, please spell, check this and grammar check this. 'cause I'm a moron. But at the same time, I'm the one that structurally and eloquently and knows how to like, write good negotiation, knows how to write an interesting paragraph, knows how to write a funny joke. And, and I have benefits over there. So that part of me took years to realize was value because it wasn't valued in school. And I, I read a book called The Dyslexic Advantage. I ended up becoming friends with the doctors that wrote that book and ended up doing a conference for them. And one of my,

Vance Crowe [00:42:24] I saw you, I saw a talk you gave for them. I thought that was awesome. I thought that was like one of the most intriguing explanations of dyslexia that I'd ever heard.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:42:34] Yeah. And they were really sweet. They actually emailed me. So that was four years ago and I've been getting tons. I think just people are home more, but it's been getting tons of views and I've been getting more emails about it and the doctors they wrote to me and they're like, Hey, we just wanted to let you know that, you know, you have the highest viewed video for, from our conference and from our YouTube. But also you're getting the funniest, nicest, weirdest compliments. And one was a screenshot that was like a guy that was like, I'm gonna fucking marry her. She's the coolest. Like, and I was, he is like, you're getting a lot of wedding proposals. And I was like, oh, that's nice. But I, learning is so difficult for me and I push through it, it's important and I feel great when I learn something. I, like I said, I just learned how to do a different type of editing and I like ran outta my room and showed one of my roommates, I was like, you have to watch this. I'm so stupidly proud of myself. So it's always been difficult for me. What has changed is both with age, reading that Dyslexic Advantage book and then also being a little more self-aware that when somebody teaches me in a way that it clicks faster being like, why? And going back and now, now knowing how to teach myself how to do stuff or if somebody's trying to teach me something, I'll be like, this is how you have to tell me to do it. And that just, you don't have those options when you're a kid. Not only did was I not self-aware of it. So now fast forward when I try to learn something, I have to break it down. Like even my little sister, she just lost her job and I told her like, you gotta break things down in ch like chunks, like smaller and smaller chunks. So if what I wanna do is learn, how do I put a podcast online?

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:44:07] How do I get it to Spotify and iTunes and stuff like that, that's a big question. And you don't even realize how big of a question is. So next you have to go, okay, how do I publish my podcast? How do I get my podcast on iTunes? Is it different from getting it on Spotify? How do I update it? How do I do this? Like, and I break that question down into nine different pieces and then I start looking either for tutorials or for people that are close to me that are willing to break it down for me even more and be slower with me. Because like when I ask somebody to spell, I might be like, spell tomorrow. And they're like TOM and I'm like, whoa, you need to talk to me like you don't know me and that you're worried I might have some kind of brain disorder. I want a t, I want an O, I want an M pause. OI don't know how the rest of that's spelled, but you know, I want it, I want it broken down. So I feel like now I know how to teach myself. I now know how to teach other people how to teach me. And I know how to be more patient with myself. And I, I, I wish I could teach a class on just organization and just how to un overwhelm the mind. And I've read like so many books on just that alone because, well

Vance Crowe [00:45:21] Why don't you teach it? I mean like, I'm super interested in hearing this right now. Like I think the power to teach yourself how to learn outside of the school setting. Like I did okay in school. I was like a B student. If I tried and got all my homework done, I could get A's, but like, it didn't make any sense to me. But if you give me a problem, and in particular if you give me a problem and tell me I'm not gonna be, I'm not gonna be able to solve it, then I'm like, oh, I'm just gonna rip into this thing and tear it apart. And, but you, the way you're describing learning is very different than the way that I think about things.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:45:51] Also, there's motivation. So I was an A student, but I cheated. Like I honestly, I did. I like, I remember in elementary school my best friend would like show him her spelling test. I was never gonna do well. So I would cheat off her spelling test. And then even in school, I did whatever I could. I might have not cheated on tests, but like, I just knew a, like, to me it was cheating. I knew the, for this teacher likes participation. And even if I didn't know what I was talking about, I would raise my hand just to ask a question. 'cause it was considered participation. So I would cheat the system so that I would get a good enough grade because good grades got me outta the house with the rules under my family. If you didn't get, a's you were stuck at home babysitting, you were still stuck at home babysitting, but at least you could get a little bit of freedom. So I did whatever it took to get freedom. Now that's not helpful to cheat the system just means that I'm, I'm somebody that doesn't know how to do things. So the motivation to learn, you know, lips syn for podcasts or the motivation to understand the new tools that YouTuber is offering to understand Instagram is for me to be able to continue to do my craft and build a fan base and get to live the life that I wanna live as opposed to learning math. There's no motivation for me. So motivation is important. Standup is hard. It was hard to learn in the beginning. Now it's become like an innate part of me. But when I was 14, 15, 16 years old, just trying to write jokes, I was studying. I would watch the greats, I would write on my own, I would show my stuff to people. I would bomb on stage. It was unfulfilling and heartbreaking a lot of the times, but I was just so excited at the potential that I could get better at this.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:47:29] And every laugh was a little sign that I was getting better, that I've had to trick myself in the same way that comedy was important to me. And there were benefits. The same thing with learning a program that is outside my knowledge and for all intents purposes, I don't care, but it gets me to the next level and it makes me be able to show my craft to people that I wouldn't be able to show. And I now break everything down, both from why is this important? How much of it do I have to learn? And how do I break this down? So that, and I think that's what makes a good teacher. All these people, like my, my roommate right now is reading the biography of Einstein and he was a smart man. Clearly everybody knows that. And he became a teacher and he was a bad teacher. It came easy to him, of course. And now, you know, eventually he became a good teacher. But in the beginning it's like, yeah, idiots, you should know this stuff.

Vance Crowe [00:48:22] Yeah. And he was not even verbal until he was three years old. They said like,

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:48:25] Yeah,

Vance Crowe [00:48:25] Like clearly on the spectrum. Yeah.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:48:27] Oh yeah. And like the, my friend every day tells me like a new chapter in person. He was like, he was a dick. And then the next day you're like, he's being less of a dick today. Like, like, but the same thing is like, I think, I think a good therapist has gone through some shit. I think a good teacher has had difficulty learning something and has had to figure out how to break it down so that, so like for me, because learning is so hard for me, I break it down in even smaller bite size chunks than the average person. So that when my friends that are like, Hey, how did you get your podcast on Lipsy? Or How did you edit this thing for YouTube? I go, okay, this is what we're gonna do. I want you to go here. Do you see this? It's unimportant. Don't look at it. Just focus on this and these are the four things that you should know. And like, I can just keep chunking it down to the point that when I go to teach somebody, I might've learned all this stuff, but I know that you only need to know these three things. And that's even better to just unclutter the learning. Because sometimes that, and that would be a great example of how to tell a story. Like the compliments I get about my standup is my storytelling. And I've always told people, you think a good story is all the information, but really it's the point of the story, which might not be why it happened. What's the narrative? What's the thing that people, you want people to care about? And then the details you put in are only to support that narrative. So a good example is, my fuck Finland joke is about trying to get into Finland. And they did. My passport was gonna expire in less than three months. And that's a rule. So they wouldn't let me board, so I had to get an emergency passport. Then they're telling me they don't accept emergency passports. It was one of the worst days of my life.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:49:59] It's an airport story, but it's a fucking, I'm organized. This shit doesn't happen to me. Story. And that's how I framed it. It could have easily been, isn't the airport the worst place? But that's not how I framed it. I framed it as I'm OCD organized. This shit doesn't happen to me and it's not okay. And so the details I put in there isn't, the airport sucks. The details I put in there are, I went to the DMV and made the woman there smile. I have never run through an airport to catch a flight on time because I show up two hours early. So that, that, that story is this almost seven minute story. If you really break down the details. I'm not talking about airport sucking. I'm talking about how I'm organized. And here's an examples for being organized. So this isn't just a regular bad day. This is a day that was never supposed to happen. And that's where the humor comes in. And I think the people that connect with it are the ones that go, oh, I get her. I get, I get the, I prepared for the meeting and it's going wrong.

Vance Crowe [00:51:01] I mean, I'm feeling it right now. I'm like, man, oh, they kept me out of Finland because my passport, I'd be so angry. I, I totally get it.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:51:09] And so that's, and that's kind of where I think good learning is. And clearly good storytelling is what do you need to learn what is important and only support that motive as opposed to what is school? Here's the war of 1812. I don't know if that's a war, but here's a war. These are the facts you need to know about it. Well, why do I need to know about it? Because you do, Liz. Well, what's gonna happen if I don't learn it? You're gonna get a D. But I don't care when am I gonna talk? Clearly it doesn't matter in my life. Like, so if I'm gonna learn about something, to me, if I wanna learn history, it's because history repeats itself. Or it has, you know, the great de I really wish I paid attention about the Great Depression. It seems like it's relevant information right now.

Vance Crowe [00:51:52] You

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:51:52] Know, like people are like, more people died during the coronavirus than Vietnam. I would love to lo know more about Vietnam. Like I'm not saying like, clearly I should learn to learn, but like, and I like history, but like we have to change the motivations of why people learn about stuff and what information is important to hold in our heads. And then also how do we apply this information?

Vance Crowe [00:52:15] I, I think like, I don't know anybody in my life, I don't think this is all that novel, but I don't know anybody in my life that is super successful that did not have a pretty shitty thing happen to them when they were younger or several shitty things. Like the straight A student that was valedictorian, I think in many ways was taught the way that you get adulation is you never fail. So never step outside of these boundaries, because if you do, you won't be valedictorian and then you won't get all the credit. But the problem is, you don't create somebody that's like, shit, that didn't work. I'm gonna try this thing, I'm gonna try this other thing. Yeah. Which like for me, my life has been about, okay, I just got myself in a whole bunch of trouble. Yeah.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:52:51] Now

Vance Crowe [00:52:51] How the hell am I gonna get out of it? And that's just been over and over and over again until eventually it becomes a career where you're like, oh, this is the way that my life works. I find a problem. And then the way that I find my way out is actually how I create value.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:53:04] Absolutely. My, my roommate clear, my roommate's way smarter than me and I, when I really read a lot, and it takes me a long time to read. I was reading about 25 books a year. Now I'm down to like three. I'm trying to get it up to five. I'm a very slow reader. And then sometimes if I get bored with a book or I don't feel like it applies to me, I'll feel the obligation to finish it, but I won't. And so then the next thing you know, six months go by and I go, I should have just dropped this book.

Vance Crowe [00:53:28] Oh, I'm I if a book starts to bore me. Even a little bit gone. Yeah.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:53:32] Another, yeah, I gotta be better about it.

Vance Crowe [00:53:34] And I throw 'em away too. 'cause I, I want, if I don't like a book, I don't want it in circulation. So I'm not one of those people picks it up line, I throw them away. You

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:53:41] Don't want somebody to be like, oh, how was that? And you're like, never read it. But so my roommate Chris, he, I mean, he's quick and I love, like, that's my favorite thing about breakfast is he'll tell me about a book he's reading and then I'll go, is should I read it? And he will be like, no, I'll just tell you all about it. Or like, right now, there's this book called Range. And he's like, you have to read it. And I'm like, enthralled in it. Anyway, he, he read something and he started to come up. It might've been somebody else's idea, but he basically influenced me in the sense that he is like, he's like, you are a firefighter. Everybody that does a good job at work is a firefighter. And what he meant by that is what is, what is the whole job of a firefighter? Something bad happened and we gotta go put the fire out. We have to go fix it. What is it? If you're like, he's a photographer, his job is to take pictures, but what also is his job? A lens broke, a model didn't show up. This location is off limits, so we can't do it. So you have to figure out, okay, this thing happened. How do we continue to do what we had allotted to do? There's 10 people here, this person could only shoot this day. It has to get done. How do we get this done? You're you're putting out fires everywhere so that at the end of the day, everything went wrong and the client is still happy. And that's what it's like to be a comedian on stage. Everything went wrong. Somebody dropped a glass, some guy's shouting this joke is bombing the person before you did a joke similar to you. And now you have to start different. You're, you're,

Vance Crowe [00:55:07] But if you succeed, it's like cocaine. It's just coursing through your vein.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:55:11] And that's why people like heckler videos is because that wasn't planned and it went so well. And what people also don't know is we're putting out fires you don't even know about. I've had stomach aches where I'm like, I might vomit on stage right now. And my inner dialogue is don't throw up, don't throw up, don't throw up. And people are like, what a great show. And I was like, oh, I throw up. As soon as I got off stage, like as like the whole time I wasn't present, I was very scared. I was like, this could come out of every orifice. That's not how I wanna be remembered. Everybody has an iPhone. I'm gonna be a national sensation that I don't wanna be. How do I finish my jokes and vomit somewhere? Not on stage. Like it's, you're both on stage, off stage. You're in a constant firefighter mode. And my dad, I learned a lot from my dad. My dad is a firefighter in that sense. He is always putting out fires in his life because he had five kids and wasn't making enough money to support them to, he had a business. And there's always problems managing people, managing clients. Animals. Animals never do what you want them to.

Vance Crowe [00:56:17] Is your, is your dad a large animal vet?

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:56:19] He's a small animal.

Vance Crowe [00:56:20] Small animal vet. Yes. I know your mom kills cats, but

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:56:23] Yes. Yeah, of course. Professionally. So yeah, so my mom both, it used to be two separate practices and then they merged them. But my dad did cats and dogs and some other weird animals. And my mom exclusively was a cat specialist.

Vance Crowe [00:56:36] So we're running a little short on time 'cause you gotta run. But I've got one question that I've been asking people asking, what do you think the world is gonna look like in two weeks?

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:56:46] Every day is different. I think I, I think it's gonna be a little bleecker, honestly, because most states are opening up and I think they're gonna eat their words pretty quickly. The states that are listening will kind of just be the same, maybe a little cocky, a little told you. So, and then we're looking at the rest of the world to see what happens. I think everybody is looking at New Zealand and Korea to see that they're starting to open up after kind of handling it the best with all the testing and the tracing. And we're not that, they're giving us those options, but I think every day we're learning something new. And every day I think we're eating our words. But I think anybody that's not being cautious right now is, is putting people's lives at risk. And, and, and whether knowingly or not knowingly, I I don't think we're gonna know. I don't think our lives are gonna be much different in two weeks other than a little scarier. I'm more curious about what we're gonna look like in September or what we're gonna look like in January. I think those two, I think those two time periods are gonna be a shadow of what we're going through right now.

Vance Crowe [00:58:03] Liz, you have a show coming up on Friday where people can tune in online. Can you talk a little bit about that?

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:58:09] Yeah. It's Saturday.

Vance Crowe [00:58:10] Saturday. Saturday. Okay.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:58:11] It's all right. No day, days don't matter. That's not your fault. I don't even know what today is. Yeah. So I started a, it's been every two weeks. I might try to make it weekly. We'll find out. It's all an experiment, but it's called Zoom Diner. It's a little bit of a made up show that like, that I kind of made up. It's a behind the scenes show that I would've never created if regular standup comedy is happening. But me and my friends in between shows or after shows would go to a diner and just kind of catch up or whatever. But I would always be like, Hey, I have this joke, this line isn't working. Can you gimme ideas? Or I'd be like, I have this new joke. I think it might be confusing. Can I run it by you? And I don't do it with everybody. I do it with a handful of friends, people that know my comedic voice, people that I respect their ideas. And I told my girlfriends, 'cause none of us were getting unemployment. We had no money coming in. I was like, let's try to put something together. And it was with my two best friends that I always do that with, and I called it Zoom Diner. And so what it is, is we all do 10 minutes and we give each other, we, we almost show people how we are for each other. So I would tell a joke and my friend Adrian Ucci would be like, oh my God, you told me this story years ago. Maybe you could put that in there. Or Carmen would be like, oh, that's really funny. But what about if you call it back to that, that joke that you have over here, or, and they start to see how the mechanics of it work a little bit. And we did that kind of in a round circle with all three of us. So I decided to branch it out. And now on Saturday, I am doing it with Judah Friedlander, he's been on Netflix and 30 Rock. And then Maria Shahada, who is my podcast buddy, and she's been on, like, she's in London. So it's all like BBBC and, and crap like that.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:59:44] I,

Vance Crowe [00:59:45] And if people wanted to, to get tickets, I'm in. I'll be there on Saturday. Yay. No doubt.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:59:49] Yeah, it's on my website, liz mely.com. It's pay what you can so you can, you can pay a dollar, you can pay $40,

Vance Crowe [00:59:55] Whatever it takes to keep you in, in the comedy game. Yeah.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:59:58] Stay

Vance Crowe [00:59:58] In, stay in the game.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [00:59:59] No, I appreciate it. And then biggest news is my special, I filmed it in New York in November, but it's gonna be free and on YouTube starting May 30th, 8:00 PM Eastern Standard Time.

Vance Crowe [01:00:11] Well, Liz, I am so grateful that you were willing to come on here and, and just chat. This has been for me, it is like the closest person to what my life has been like is yours of all the people I've interviewed. So this has been fascinating. I think that there is a place for you doing comedy among farmers all over the United States.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [01:00:30] So, good to know. Thank you.

Vance Crowe [01:00:31] I, I, I think, I think you're

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [01:00:33] People will resonate.

Vance Crowe [01:00:34] You're

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [01:00:34] My agent.

Vance Crowe [01:00:35] Yeah. So we'll, we'll see about that. I, I, I, I, I hope farmers take you up on it. There are a lot of, a lot of places where your comedy would, would land. Thank you so much for doing this, Liz.

NYC Comedian Liz Miele [01:00:44] Yeah, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.