Dancing on Common Ground

This week I got to interview musical comedy duo extraordinaire Mel and El (otherwise known as Melanie Adelman and Ellie Dworkin) for G.L.O.C (Gorgeous Ladies of Comedy), a wondermous website that promotes the work of…well, you get the idea.

I am not making it up when I say that I had a kick-ass time chatting (or as someone’s unfortunate high school boyfriend used to say) “clamming” with them. They are (as my world-traveled Canadian-Great-Aunt-by-marriage Phyllis used to say) a laugh and a half. 

The interview is posted here, so please enjoy, and go see their shows when they’re back in action. I’ll be there!

It’s always thrilling the first time you find common ground with someone – especially if very few people graze on that common ground in the first place. Listening to Mel and El talk about their creative process, the symbiosis between their work and their friendship, and their frustration with the way friendship between women is typically portrayed, I felt a huge sense of kinship and…relief. There were SO many parallels to my experience working with Kath and Sabrina that at a certain point I had to stop myself from nodding and saying “…yes…YES” because a) I started to sound like a deranged life coach, and b) I was recording our talk and needed their answers to be audible for transcription. But it was great. And it made me remember why comedy-ham-types like us need to get out of the rehearsal room once in a while and compare notes with others of our tribe. We have to go to each other’s shows, laugh, yell stupid shit, and have drinks afterward. Be a community. Especially ladies but boys too. As the divine Jen Kirkman recently said, we have to talk to the dudes too.

Ok, now I REALLY sound like a life coach. Enjoy this video of Sam Kinison to charge your rage batteries and restore your nihilistic disgust for humanity.