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Interview: Comedy Roommates Amanda & Jennie
Sunglasses, sunshine, and some hilarious girls. Photo courtesy Amanda & Jennie.
Amanda and Jennie are best friends. Best friends who live together and do comedy together and, judging by their photo, friends who lay in the grass and stare at the sky with their sunglasses on. America needs more of this, but until the word gets out about these two lovely comediennes, we must content ourselves that Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre LA is their home, and we can see them every week, hosting their new improv showcase Let's Do This! on Friday nights at 11pm.
The girls are a highly successful tag team of comedy that have been plying their trade all over Los Angeles for a few years now. They'll be taking their hilarious sketch show Amanda & Jennie: Best Friends to the SF Sketch Fest in San Francisco and continuing their hosting residency at UCB on Friday nights. LAist sat down with Amanda & Jennie to discuss the nature of comedy in LA and what it means to live without health insurance.
LAist: Where are you from, and what made you come to Los Angeles for comedy?
A&J: We met in college (that's Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo for the curious) and did comedy together there. Jennie had the balls to move to LA before Amanda, but Amanda soon followed in 2005. We came for the smog, but stayed for the traffic.
What are you currently working on and where can we see you next?
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We're writing a new show that should be done in spring. You can see us on January 23rd in San Francisco for the SF Sketchfest or every friday night at 11pm for our show, Let's Do This! at UCB in LA.
How easy / hard is it to be a working comedian in Los Angeles?
Making people laugh is fun and free, but there is definitely no health insurance. We've made it work by having day jobs that are cool with lots of "doctor" appointments. Jennie's employer thinks she has a spotted liver and Amanda's boss thinks she has a five year old child that needs to be picked up from school everyday.
On an average night doing comedy, where can you be found?
The Upright Citizens Brigade! If we're not doing comedy, we're watching it there. We've found it to the best place in LA for stuff that makes us giggle.
At what point do you consider yourself as having 'made it'?
When Amanda can finally afford her crack habbit and Jennie can stop selling crack... or when we have our own TV show, whichever comes first.
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How do you handle roadblocks that prevent you from doing the creative things you'd like to do?
Just by remembering that tomorrow is another day. You can always open another credit card and ketchup + salt = tomato soup!
Who are some of your current favorite comedians?
That's tough to answer because there are so many, but here are a few: The Birthday Boys, Paul Rust, Convoy, David Neher, and Lennon Parham.
What are some of the best/worst shows you've seen?
The Birthday Boys' show "Hot Doggin" was great because you never see it coming and those boys are so adorable, you just want to keep them in your pocket. Lennon Parham's "She Tried To Be Normal" was amazing, Lennon's characters are just perfect. Those were our two favorite shows from last year.
What is your opinion of the Los Angeles comedy scene?
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LA can be a rough town to survive in, but the amount of amazing stuff going on makes it worth it.
What is one thing you think most people in Los Angeles are missing out on?
Pupusas... Seriously? Have you had one of those? They're awesome.
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