Iliza Shlesinger began her comedy career as a sassy, smart stand-up comic who won the NBC reality show “Last Comic Standing” in 2008 at 25.
Over the past 16 years, she has become a mom of two, with an array of comedy specials and a successful podcast that have grown her fan base. She is returning to the Fox Theatre in Atlanta on Friday.
She also is prepping for her next stand-up special, set to shoot in Salt Lake City in November. Following six comedy specials for Netflix, it will land on Amazon in early 2025.
“Netflix at one point completely stormed the comedy market,” Shlesinger said in a recent Zoom interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Nothing lasts forever. A lot of other places are doing comedy, too. At Amazon, I liked the team and offer. It’s not to say I don’t go back to Netflix. No door is closed.”
She has been hosting the popular podcast “Ask Iliza Anything” for eight years with a simple premise: Folks send in questions about relationships, in-laws or whatever is on their mind. Iliza, who admittedly does not have a background in psychology or mental health, simply answers in her own blunt, common-sense way.
The podcast draws fans from all over. A recent episode featured a woman who said she heard about Shlesinger through her appearance on Joe Rogan’s heavily subscribed podcast.
“I feel that I have appeal to anyone,” Shlesinger said. “We all as entertainers do other people’s podcasts in hopes of scooping up like-minded audience members.”
Shlesinger was thrilled to be asked about Rogan because she figured this will help people click on this story. “Maybe throw into the story some Kardashians and a muckbang” (a video where a host eats large amounts of food and interacts with the audience), she advised.
She recently joked on social media that she named her seven-month-old son Ethan because she figured Ethans are fundamentally good looking.
It doesn’t hurt that the most famous actor named Ethan is probably Ethan Hawke. “The fact we can only cite one Ethan helps,” she said. “The name just sounds good. So far, he’s responding to the name and hasn’t rejected it and picked up a weird AI binary name.”
Ethan, she said, has been a delight. “At this stage, Ethan is still a little oatmeal blobby,” she said. “The first few months are exhausting, but not much is going on. He is starting to get more fun. He is starting to sit up, so all bets are off.”
Shlesinger hopes her oldest daughter, Sierra Mae, gets along with Ethan as they grow up. “It’s too soon to know,” she said. “All I know is I don’t want to be in the middle of it. They can both take taekwondo and take it from there. We’ll create a little child fight club and take bets.”
She is also happy to call herself an environmentalist. At her concerts, she offers a VIP experience that includes a “biodegradable VIP laminate.”
“I’m someone who has collected every laminate I’ve ever gotten,” she said. “These are things that sit in your office, and if you’re a real fan, in a shrine in the living room. Eventually it will get thrown away. It’s my small way of trying to save the planet while I fly on a plane to every gig.”
More seriously, she said, those VIP experiences are a highlight of any concert for her.
“My fans are incredibly diverse,” she said. “Not just color and religion but across economic class. We have everyone from the far left and far right. I see people coming in that I would assume I have nothing in common with. That’s the power of comedy. It transcends boundaries. You never know how you’re touching people. I try to give every person time to talk with me and have a human moment.”
Shlesinger admits to saving every hotel key card she’s had. And because she has been doing stand up for about two decades, that equates to hundreds of key cards. “My goal is to tile my wall with them so they become a permanent part of my house,” she said.
She was able to explore her past recently on “Finding Your Roots,” the PBS show featuring host Henry Louis Gates sifting through the family trees of famous people. She learned she had family members who did not make it through the Holocaust.
“I wish everyone had a team of genealogists dig into their family backgrounds,” Shlesinger said. “We all deserve to know where we come from. You go in there hoping for Scandinavian royalty and you come out finding you have family who went through the Holocaust.
“But regardless of your lineage, I think we are all searching for a sense of purpose and sense of place in this world. In that search, you’re able to laugh a little along the way. I had come from two people who had almost no family. It’s good to know I have roots.”
She also discovered she is a distant relative of fellow comic Sarah Silverman. “I am friends with her, so I texted her to tell her we’re like fifth chromosomal cousins,” she said. “She was as surprised to hear it as I was.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2TyjArm9sY
IF YOU GO Iliza Shlesinger
8 p.m., Friday. $29.50-$199.50, Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St. NW, Atlanta. foxtheatre.org
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