Elayne Boosler

Elayne Boosler (born August 18, 1952) is an American comedian, writer, and actress.

She graduated from Sheepshead Bay High School in 1969, and was enrolled at the University of South Florida, but she dropped out after two years and traveled to the Bahamas where she worked for six months as a singer and dancer in a musical revue, before returning to New York.

She was one of the few women working in stand-up comedy in the 1970s and 80s, and she broke ground by adopting an observational style that included frank discussions about her life as a single woman, as well as political commentary.

In the 1970s Boosler performed as an opening act for musical performers such as Helen Reddy, Ben Vereen and Johnny Mathis.

Boosler started performing stand-up comedy at The Improv in New York City in 1973.

She had been working at the club as a singing waitress, whose job was to sing between the comedic performances.

On a night when one of the scheduled comedians failed to show up, Boosler took to the stage to try some comedy and spent an hour telling jokes.

Afterward, Andy Kaufman suggested that she quit her singing job and try comedy instead.

Her talent for comedy was recognized early by comedians and the media alike.

By 1976, comic Jimmie Walker was her manager, she was the subject of a multi-page article in New York Magazine and had appeared on Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell and The Merv Griffin Show.

She moved to Los Angeles in 1977 and was featured in a Los Angeles Times article about women in comedy.

That same year she made her first appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, with Helen Reddy sitting in as guest host.

Boosler credits Totie Fields for having suggested her to Reddy.

Boosler became a regular performer at the Comedy Store, a male-dominated environment, where most female performers were relegated to a secondary stage in the upstairs corner of the club called the Belly Room.

Boosler refused to perform in the Belly Room and performed instead on the club's main stage.

Other comedians performing regularly at the Comedy Store that time included Freddie Prinze, Jay Leno, Richard Lewis, Richard Belzer, Jimmie Walker and Ed Bluestone.

Like her male peers, Boosler's comedy was of a more observational and frank style.

Her comedic material drew upon her own life, including her experiences as a single woman, and also featured topical and political elements.

Boosler also became known for her rapid-fire delivery.

Her performance style set her apart from the more self-deprecating humor of female stand-up predecessors such as Joan Rivers and Phyllis Diller, whose jokes often revolved around being a wife and mother.

Boosler preferred to distance herself from the "female comedian" label by declining to be interviewed for articles specifically about women in comedy and by avoiding female-centric comedy showcases.

Johnny Carson stopped inviting her to The Tonight Show after she declined to read some self-deprecating material written for her.

Boosler credits David Letterman for bringing her back as a guest on the show during the episodes that he guest-hosted.

Letterman would later invite Boosler several times onto Late Night with David Letterman and Late Show with David Letterman.

Boosler struggled to find funding for her first comedy special and was told that no one would watch a woman perform comedy on television.

Comedian Richard Lewis told The New York Times in 1984: "She is the Jackie Robinson of my generation. She is the strongest female working. She broke the mold for most female comics."

Her 1985, self-produced comedy special Party of One was the first hour-long comedy special by a female comedian to appear on a cable television network.

In the end she personally financed Party Of One, which was shot in 1985 and which aired on Showtime in 1986, making Boosler the first woman to have an hour-long comedy special on a cable network.

After the success of Party Of One, Showtime signed-on for her subsequent specials Broadway Baby, Top Tomata and Live Nude Girls.

Boosler appeared on Larry King Live the following year.

Rolling Stone referred to her as "The First Lady of Stand-Up" in 1988 and included Boosler in their list of the "50 Best Stand-Up Comics of All Time" in 2017.

She performed for Queen Elizabeth II at the London Palladium as part of the Royal Variety Performance in 1989, she performed at the White House Correspondents' Dinner during President Clinton's first year in office in 1993 and in 1997 she took part in a performance for Bill Clinton and United States Congress, filmed at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., and broadcast on ABC.

In 2018, CNN included Boosler in their list of "Groundbreaking women in American comedy" and critic Jason Zinoman of The New York Times referred to Boosler as "The Comedy Master Who Hasn’t Gotten Her Due."

Born into a Jewish family and raised in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, Boosler was the youngest child of seven with six older brothers.

Her father was a Russian acrobat who later worked in the tool and die industry.

Her mother was a Romanian ballerina.

Boosler took singing lessons as a child as well as dance classes with the Joffrey Ballet for several years.

Her first exposure to stand-up comedy was during her family's frequent travels to Las Vegas in her early teens.

She was too young to be allowed on the gambling floor of the hotel, so she often watched the comics performing at the lounge.

It was this experience that first generated her interest in stand-up comedy.