#44 Laughing It Up with Maryellen Hooper

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Jeff Dwoskin 0:15

Oh, right. Roger, thank you so much for that amazing introduction. You get the show going each and every week, and this week is no exception. Welcome, everybody, to Episode 44 of live from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin. Show. I am your host, Jeff Dwoskin. So glad to have you back for another week have fun and excitement. And this week is no exception. We have one of the funniest comedians in the world with us today. That's right. Maryellen Hooper is here. We're going to be catching up and talking about tons of funny stuff a little bit later in the show. So just hang on. And that's coming up real soon.

This past week was pretty awesome. I was invited to and I spoke at a podcasting conference called PodFest, amazing five-day event, the topic of my conversation was the art of making a comedic tweet go viral. So that was fun. I got to share some of my Twitter knowledge with a whole new audience. So that was pretty cool. enjoy doing that. And I look forward to future conferences and hopefully speaking again in the future, and I will make sure I do a better job of letting y'all know I'm doing that. So you can all tune in and hear me talk.

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It's that time of the show where I'm going to share with you the amazing conversation I had with comedian Maryellen Hooper. We talked about so much stuff Tick Tock strategy, finding your voice family life when your comedian bad gigs, meeting famous people. It's a hilarious conversation and includes a lot of giggling Ladies and gentlemen, here's my conversation with Maryellen Hooper. All right. I'm excited to introduce my next guest. You've seen her on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. She's had her own Comedy Central special one of the funniest comedians around Ladies and gentlemen, Maryellen Hooper.

Maryellen Hooper 5:55

You Thanks, Mr. Jeff. You're so sweet. And I appreciate that. You didn't say the famous female comedian. So that's very rare. That That wasn't a credit. So thank you.

Jeff Dwoskin 6:05

Well, that just goes without saying you are one of the funniest comedians not just female comedian, which I know you did when that one's Yeah. Well, it doesn't define you. It doesn't

Maryellen Hooper 6:15

know. And that's why we're friends. Yes.

Thank you.

Jeff Dwoskin 6:20

Do they even do that anymore? is it now? Is it just like just funniest would you compete against?

Maryellen Hooper 6:24

No, they still do it? It's funny, even audience members will come up the most backhanded compliment that I get it. I hate female comedians, but I liked you. Well, that's weird, because we're all doing the same act. How could that be?

Jeff Dwoskin 6:37

Blah, blah, blah, my period?

Maryellen Hooper 6:41

I guess it's because I don't talk about that. But yeah, it's really funny. I think back in the early 2000s, this woman, she thought she was I don't know, she was just so on top of the women's movement. And she came up and she was interviewing me and she's like, oh, what's the difference about being a woman comic and a guy comic? I said, Well, usually when a guy comic does an interview, they don't get asked that question. And she just went, Oh, no clutter, because she was trying to be edgy with it. And I'm like, kind of just did what we're fighting against. But anytime you're a minority in any kind of job, or sport or life, it's going to be pointed out, right? Because I mean, black comics. Oh, you're the funniest black comic or you're the funniest Jewish comic or you're the funniest comic and wheelchair I've ever seen. It's so unless you're a white guy, you know, no offense, Jeff.

Jeff Dwoskin 7:33

I'm Jewish, and I haven't I haven't ranked Jewish or white. So I got and I'm like, I'm struggling. I'm struggling here.

Maryellen Hooper 7:40

You don't even know your hooks.

Jeff Dwoskin 7:44

I'm failing on all cylinders. Well, it's

Maryellen Hooper 7:46

you know, it's okay. We you deal with whatever it is. And I have to say I've gotten as much work as I've lost because of it. Like if there's a TV show, and they already have two guys, they're gonna hire me because to mix it up. But if there's already a woman, I'm not going to get hired because you can't have two on the same show. Unless it's called Girls, Girls girl. Yeah, you know it. I mean, I'm sure it evens out. But

Jeff Dwoskin 8:12

it should even out because you're just super hilarious. Regardless.

Maryellen Hooper 8:15

You're super sweet. Thank you, Jeffrey.

Jeff Dwoskin 8:18

You could also win Best redhead. See,

Maryellen Hooper 8:21

there's a there's a few of us. Yeah,

Jeff Dwoskin 8:23

man. I was what I was watching. I was watching a clip of you and you were blind. I was like, wait, no. Mariana, Lindsey, redhead. This is

Maryellen Hooper 8:29

well that was when I was touring with three blonde moms. Okay, so I just picked up at the box next to the red one in the beauty supply store. So I could talk with that group. I mean, naturally, I'm dark blonde. But red suits me. I mean, everyone in my family is redhead except for me. But we don't ask my dad without that. Without that

Jeff Dwoskin 8:51

was being a blonde comic more fun.

Maryellen Hooper 8:53

Well, I had a lot more me two stories. That tells you anything. No. And when you're a redhead? Oh, yeah, that was a whole you know, when you back then when we're traveling. And you're just the opener feature act and you're with a headliner. There's plenty of those stories where Hey, I've hit on every waitress in the place. And now I'm looking at you and you've got girl parts. I'm like, Oh, no, I don't travel with him, kept him at home.

Jeff Dwoskin 9:19

Until you get me Not tonight.

Maryellen Hooper 9:22

Not tonight, or you probably don't get tips.

Jeff Dwoskin 9:26

The only time I thought I was getting a tip was I did a show and a guy comes up to me. And he kind of he had he puts his hand out and I could see he's got a bill in it. And I think to myself, Oh my god, I'm about to get tipped. And he hands me the money and I look at it and it's a lot of money. And then I realized, Oh, I just got paid.

Maryellen Hooper 9:45

The owner oh my god was the owner.

Jeff Dwoskin 9:48

I had no idea who he was and was just like, Oh, no, this is not a very generous person at all. This guy's just paying me so

Maryellen Hooper 9:55

that's hilarious. I got tipped in Vegas with that way somebody came After the show and did the whole way in the hand, you know, don't tell you mother, whatever gangster kinda, and I went back to school. Oh my gosh, I get tipped $100. And everyone's like, Oh no, they expected after show. It's Vegas. Oh, so I stayed in the green room until everybody had left.

Jeff Dwoskin 10:21

At least in Vegas with your red hair. You can be like, I'm carota.

Maryellen Hooper 10:24

I was for a while I started out I had some props.

Jeff Dwoskin 10:27

And then what got you out of the prop comedy business?

Maryellen Hooper 10:30

Well, you get teased a lot asked Carrot Top that for one. And then I had my little things in a hat box, like an old hat box. The headliner said here. Oh, I'll put that up on the stool for you. I'm going up there to do Mic check. Oh, my God. Sweet. I know go up there. So then I intro that my first bit and I turn had emptied my prep case. Nothing in it until I see them all in the back. You know, going oh, let's see your be funny now. And I was. So there you go. So I said, Oh, I guess it's a lot of trouble when with music cues and carrying it around and being made fun of so I you know, I think in the beginning, you try to figure out who you are. Right. So I started with the Scott, you know, Carrot Top. And so there was a lot of guys that were doing props and stuff. So I think whatever you're around, you kind of emulate. I mean, I used to wear a jacket with the sleeves pushed up with a T shirt, because that's what guy comics wore. You know, I think it takes a while for you to figure out what you're doing. And the one night I had, I had been up all night crying because my boyfriend at the time had broken up with me and I was on an all women show. So I go up there and I start doing my little stuff. And this woman in the front goes, it looks like you've been crying all night. And that just made me start crying. And I just unloaded and just ripped apart this boyfriend and the crowd went nuts. And in my little MC spot, I got a standing ovation with just telling the truth. And so that's kind of that was my like, remember Sally Field and punch line? Yes, yeah, that was my little Sally Field punch line moment. So like, wow, I don't have to make up jokes, I can just talk about what's going on. And that guy kind of figured it out that it made writing so much easier. I mean, if you're trying to make up joke jokes, it's way harder than just talking about what your boyfriend did to you. is way easier. But now my kids absolutely.

Jeff Dwoskin 12:21

And sometimes those moments are the moments where like when they took your props away, or whatever way you take when you take away I want to say crotch but like, absolutely. When you take that away, and you're like office in force, because you're on stage, you have no choice, right? Yeah. And then you just kind of break out. It's I remember, like, walking into a club in there. Like, you have to do a completely clean set, like fully clean, because it was like a church group. And like I hadn't prepared any Right. Right, right. And so I edited my materials I was going and I was still getting laughs And it's like,

Maryellen Hooper 12:52

look at that.

Jeff Dwoskin 12:53

I mean, I don't have to even push it as far as I was pushing it. So you have those little crutches even in your own thing. And it's not like I'm sure it's not like I'm obscene or anything. I don't.

Maryellen Hooper 13:01

You're not Def Jam.

Jeff Dwoskin 13:02

I know. Yeah. And I don't that dirty. It's just but you know, there's little things you know, we're adults, so we can be adult?

Maryellen Hooper 13:07

Well, I always thought it was funny that comics will be so dirty in a club, only to have to clean it up if you get a TV spot. So for me, it just would make more sense to try to do is i'm not dirty in real life. Like, like, why would I do that anyway, and I and I thought to myself, I'm not I don't cuss in real life. I'm a dirty person. And one day, I might have kids. And would that be horrible? Like no offense to Amy Schumer, but would be mortified if I had teenage sons like I do. And they look me up. And I'm talking about some of the things that she talks about. So it was a personal choice for me. It's just not me and I get got to work on a Disney Cruise ship. So she's probably not going to. But she probably doesn't care, either. But you know, your different choices. She's fine.

Jeff Dwoskin 13:59

As long as whatever you're doing works for you. I agree with that. I remember like when my kids started, I stopped putting stuff on YouTube because I couldn't take the stuff down that was already there. Once it's out of the by now it's out but yeah, it's not like it was bad. But when you do the comedy, it's like a surreal version of your real life. So I'm talking about my wife and stuff like that. Yeah, right. And so it's real but it's but it's based on something that was real

Maryellen Hooper 14:22

sure. You know, I mean, so absolutely. Yeah, my use now I use it for my kids is incentive to do good. I'm like if you don't clean up your room, it's going in the act. Funny how when your kids grow up with you doing this as you know, it's nothing to them right then we realize it but this is so funny. Just yesterday, I hit a coolness peak because somebody is ticked talking some of my bit. Oh, I know. And now I have my son's attention. So now he's like, what is it you do? Because your voice is coming out. This woman's mouth, is it so it's Yeah, it's funny when to get cool points from your teenage sons. It took that

Jeff Dwoskin 15:06

that is actually a really big deal.

Maryellen Hooper 15:08

I was very happy when I saw it.

Jeff Dwoskin 15:11

There's this girl and Tic Tac I just I'm fascinated I watch her and now she does his lip sing john Mulvaney

Maryellen Hooper 15:17

might be the same woman. This woman does everybody do. I was like, Yeah, I mean, because he doesn't wait funnier than I do. Watching her going. Oh, she made a face there. That was funny.

Jeff Dwoskin 15:28

Well, Sarah Cooper became super famous. Just lip synching Donald Trump.

Maryellen Hooper 15:32

You never know.

Jeff Dwoskin 15:33

I tried to lip sync. I can't lip sync. It's It's weird. It's a

Maryellen Hooper 15:36

talent. It really is. Yeah, as Milli Vanilli will tell you how's that for an old reference? Some people can do it. Some people can't or shouldn't.

Jeff Dwoskin 15:45

It was funny to bring this up. Because I was actually thinking the other day I was because all my video footage that I have is kind of far away because I shot it like on a phone or something. So it's not great for tic toc. Because usually it has to be like right up. Yeah. But then I actually thought of the idea of lip synching myself.

Maryellen Hooper 16:01

Like it's coming

Jeff Dwoskin 16:01

from that guy. Yeah. It's like, just play the audio and then just shoot me kind of just, you know, doing my own thing. And then I was like, oh, maybe that could work.

Maryellen Hooper 16:11

Or you could just show yourself and say that your lip synching and they'll know. Wow, he's really good.

Jeff Dwoskin 16:16

Yeah, I'm not. I've had like one thing on tik tok to kind of Okay, and then otherwise, I just say use it just to embarrass my kids.

Maryellen Hooper 16:23

Oh, yeah. I haven't even done tik tok yet. I just got a notice on Instagram that it happened. She tagged me or whatever, though. I like showed my husband and he goes, What? Wait, what is that? What? She's lip synching you? I'm like, it's Tick tock, honey.

Jeff Dwoskin 16:40

Okay, so this is what you need to do. Are you ready? Yeah. So if you don't already have a tick tock account, you have to do? Yes. Okay. Okay. You have on great. If you haven't posted yet, there's a duet feature, you know, to do. Okay, yeah, go duet yourself with those people doing your voice. Okay. You could either be laughing or whatever, or kind of, you know, whatever it is. But that might be a funny way to like, kind of just connect you to the voice and Right, right. It might be a good way to kind of just do it.

Maryellen Hooper 17:09

And why aren't you? Why aren't you leading my career in my social media career? I'm so bad at it.

Jeff Dwoskin 17:15

I'm here to help. A lot of people I've talked to I'm like, oh, here's your idea. This is what you need to do. To do. Yeah, that's funny. I'm better coming up with ideas for other people than myself. Probably because I'm a nobody. Nobody knew. I didn't know. And just by sitting here goes you're not gonna believe that somebody is lip synching. Jeff Dwoskin on tik tok.

Maryellen Hooper 17:36

It could happen chat. I will. How about that? I'll do it.

Jeff Dwoskin 17:39

You do it. That'd be great. That would be great.

Maryellen Hooper 17:42

That was my idea. I think. I mean, if I'm not gonna say it, because somebody will take it before I could do it. But between me and you, I think it would be funny to have comedians doing each other's bits. You know what I mean? I think that would be a fun way to challenge somebody, like say I do. Adam Ferrara. And so now then he has to go do somebody else and then they have to do somebody. That would be really fun to do.

Jeff Dwoskin 18:07

It ends with Frank Caliendo doing you all doing everybody.

Maryellen Hooper 18:13

Oh, my gosh, I haven't laughed in such long time.

Jeff Dwoskin 18:15

Thank you. You're welcome. This is fun.

Maryellen Hooper 18:18

I have to tell you, this is this is my day today. So my kids are virtual because I don't know if you know what's going on out there.

Jeff Dwoskin 18:24

Well, just for the people listening you mean school your kids are real?

Maryellen Hooper 18:27

No, no, no.

there's a new app, you can get virtual kids. It's so much easier to clean up after them. Oh my God, my goodness. We're still or Mira you set it up. Oh, hit it. Okay, so Oh, yeah. So I have a 13 year old, a six year old. Our school gives us the option that they can go virtual. So today I had to drive to the school to bring my son's trifold project. And while I'm there, I had to pick up a package for him to do whatever it is they're doing in class. So I'm like carrying this I'm like, What is this four fingers? It's cow eyeball. Oh, I have a cow. Deborah vegetarian. And I said to my son, seriously, we're not eating the cow, but you're gonna cut his eyeball. Like, how does this fit into our family's morality? I don't know. He's like, because I know mom. I don't want to eat it but I really would cut up it's I so excited. So I don't know what to do. But that's gonna happen in my house. not excited about that. That was what I had to do today pick up a cow eyeball.

Jeff Dwoskin 19:38

I had to do something similar with my kids was lamb lungs. It was it was very interesting in the cafeteria too. That was the funny part. We were on the cafeteria Oh dissecting it. I remember doing fetal pigs when I was in high school from

Maryellen Hooper 19:52

BC I was the I was the boycott girl. I was the one setting them all free.

Jeff Dwoskin 19:57

You're the girl but from ET

Maryellen Hooper 19:58

Yes, cinema.

I couldn't do it at all. That's the funny part about your kids being older now, but I know what I was gonna say is that you're hanging so worked up about this ima is that you were at school this is going to happen at my house.

Jeff Dwoskin 20:18

That's that's a whole new level. Yeah.

Maryellen Hooper 20:21

That's grossing me out so much. I couldn't help my husband will. I don't know. I'm shivering.

Jeff Dwoskin 20:27

You're gonna get through it. I'm gonna get you through.

Maryellen Hooper 20:31

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Jeff Dwoskin 20:33

Yeah, that's why my wife sent me when I was dissecting, she wouldn't go anywhere near a cheese. She's like, yeah, she's not touching it, not touching it. No, it's not like at that age there. I mean, maybe a trigger. What is it? Maybe trigger one, somebody who then wants to be a surgeon or something is that what happens is like, Oh, I was dissecting this eyeball. And it just, it just hit me. I needed to be an optometrist.

Maryellen Hooper 20:55

I wanted to cut everything that wanted to cut it all up. But I can initiate a lung because you can kind of separate yourself but an eye ball, there is no trick in your brain to think it's no playdough that's an eyeball looking right back at you.

Jeff Dwoskin 21:12

And no matter where you walk, that's gonna follow you. Well,

Maryellen Hooper 21:15

we'll see. I'll record it. That'll be my TikTok.

Jeff Dwoskin 21:18

There you go. There you go.

Maryellen Hooper 21:21

Son, do you cut an eyeball it to?

Jeff Dwoskin 21:24

My daughter just did one. We went on a cruise. They had the surfing thing. And so I filmed her wiping out when I say wiping out it was the hardest wipe out I've ever seen and I got it on tape. I don't think as a father it's it's I hate to say this but I've never laughed so hard and I and I probably watched it 1000 times and so there's this thing I Tick Tock a trend where it's like say good old song and it goes Oh no. Okay. Oh no. Right and like in the Oh knows something bad is happening. So should be freeze frame the following. And it's the funniest thing i like i like, I'll send it to you after

Maryellen Hooper 22:00

Okay. Oh, that's hilarious. Oh, funny. Well, my family's a big America's Funniest videos, family like we do have that sense of humor. Like people are falling down and getting hit in the head and the crotch. My family's hysterical, except when it happens to one of them because my little one was really young. And we were at a petting farm. And this goat. I mean, this goat started from the other end of the pasture revved up and he nailed my son who went flying and it's the funniest video, but he gets angry. Like if we put it on, he gets so mad and leaves the room and tears up. And I'm like, dude, you gotta let it go. That was 10 years. And yet he will laugh hysterically watching all the other people you know, get hit and he can't separate it. I don't know. He was traumatized, I guess. But it's very funny for us.

Jeff Dwoskin 22:54

Oh, it's so funny is apparent. There's nothing. There's no greater gift. The there's a there's a CP there's there's a CPK California Pizza Kitchen. There's a window there. Okay, that I don't know. 10 years ago, my daughter walked into and I go, there is nothing funnier than someone walking into a clear plate of glass. It

Maryellen Hooper 23:17

doesn't know its full force. There's no hesitation for

Jeff Dwoskin 23:20

us. It's no it's it's just pure. It's gold. It's gold. And anyone thinking this is horrible. I when I get lying, you're just lying to yourself. Yes. And every time we get there, all I could think of any time just even looking at the window was her just bam, right into it.

Maryellen Hooper 23:39

But it's all those times like it. I think it's where the generation that doesn't spank our kids, right? And so it's all of that pent up non spanking so that when your kid actually gets nailed, you're like, it's such a release. It's like letting air out of the balloon. Hear. It's like, Oh, I was almost gonna wind up on the news. But thank you. Thank you. Save me.

Jeff Dwoskin 24:00

You've worked on cruises. You got a good cruise stories

Maryellen Hooper 24:07

like cruise flies, I guess way back in the day, I did Norwegian Cruise Lines. And that was just mostly adults. But recently doing the Disney ships. I put my foot down and I said no children and Disney's like, you know, we have a lot of them. I'm like, Yeah, no, the adults need something just for them. So they let me do it. So I've been just doing adult shows and the kids are off. And it's been glorious because the parents come in and I can just rip on kids. And they're so happy. It's just like we were talking about before they're like yeah, this little you know what, but it's Disney. So I kind of have to do a lot of tiptoeing around. So I use a lot of code words and I tell them this is code for you know who the biggest mishap that happened was, I was booked to do an Alaskan cruise seven days with my whole family. We all flew up to Vancouver. And the next day we're supposed to get on the ship. But that night we got in, they lost all of our luggage and they said, Oh, it's coming in the next flight will be here in the morning. So we spent all night just hanging out to get up in the morning, go downstairs, there's no there's no luggage. And we call the airline's Oh, it'll be in here two hours. I'm like, okay, but we get on the ship in three hours. And it never came. And we waited and waited. So ahead an hour to shop for a family of four for an Alaskan cruise. I'm talking underwear and coats. And it takes me four hours just to buy a bra. And if it were talking, we had a buy suitcase we had, it was like, you know, that's a digital identity. That was us in the mall, like so on stage, I was like wearing Mickey stuff. And we talked about it and of course, come back from eating dinner and the ship, we walk back to our cabin, and there is our luggage. Somehow they sent it to Alaska. So now we have double the stuff in the tiny little rooms. But you know, the good thing about being a comedian is you can talk about it at night on your shows. And you know, it all works out and we can get away with wearing a Mickey t shirt on stage. Where if I was an opera singer, probably

Jeff Dwoskin 26:21

I bet the parents loved that there's no place on earth that has more family fights. Oh yeah,

Maryellen Hooper 26:30

there's just too many rules to like, uh, what I'm allowed to say like when you work there, they hand you a list and it says no sexual humor, no drugs, no political no race. Don't talk to people don't mention. I'm like, this is my setlist. Talking about why have you hired me. So I was the only comedian working for quite a while on the Disney ships until it was working really well. So they started to hire others and then the pandemic hit. So I still hold the record. Because they all didn't get to go on yet. So

Jeff Dwoskin 27:06

I just started enjoying cruises again. And then I was never a big fan. And then we went we went on a huge like one that had rock walls and

Maryellen Hooper 27:15

Oh yeah, I've seen those in the ports.

Jeff Dwoskin 27:17

Yeah. And like it was just it was like a city. It was like it was all and then a couple years later, we went on another one where it just kind of scaled down. It was just more chill. And I enjoyed that so much more. Did you? Yeah, because I just like chillin, I don't even like being in the sign. I was like, in that place where it was a little shade. And I would just chill. I could see that.

Maryellen Hooper 27:33

I could see that Jeff

Jeff Dwoskin 27:35

And so and I was like, I loved it. And then the pandemic hits. I'm like, you can't go on a cruise. It's like it's a

Maryellen Hooper 27:41

yo, it's an incubator. I yeah, I just said all of my cruises that I had booked all through next year. I just got word note

Jeff Dwoskin 27:50

several years ago on you appreciate this is a kind of a comedy story. Right? So again, on the cruise, the comedian is this guy, Dylan and Dylan. I did open mic with Dylan 15 years ago or whatever, right? So I'm Facebook friends with them. So Facebook and like, I'm like, I'm gonna come to your show. You know, I get there early. And I'm sitting my daughter and why. So the show now starts. So Dylan's now on stage, right? Yes. And my wife and my daughter who had the time would be 1617. Let's say I'm sitting for her to get to me, she has to walk in front of the stage. Okay. So he started my wife, who has been a million shows because I've done comedy sure sits down, but my daughter doesn't see that she sat down. So the 16 year old just casually walks right in front of Dylan as he's doing his show, as if he's not even there and sits down. And then Dylan, of course, starts interacting with her. Okay, on one hand, I'm thinking to myself, Oh, my God, I'm mortified. Because just as a comedian, I'm like, disrupting him. And then on the other hand, I'm thinking to myself, she just handed him gold, right? Because Yeah, because it was the interaction between the two of them was so organic, and just hilarious. You can't ask for anything better to start than that. Right? Yeah, you're welcome. And the funniest fire was me looking at my wife, who knew not to walk in front and totally abandoned my dog.

Maryellen Hooper 29:07

It just threw her to the sharks. There you go. Well, I thought you were gonna go another way with it. I thought it was being inappropriate, like not being able to see how old she was or something like that. But you guys, I've seen that happen, too. It's awkward. It's really awkward.

Jeff Dwoskin 29:21

Yeah, thank you. Thankfully, he asked. And then that was part of it. Like I then he made fun of my iPad she was was young like that.

Maryellen Hooper 29:28

Well, I get that because I'm the Disney shifts. They say no, no kids. one parent brought their kid in and Whitley and I, and I just kept on and on and on going, you know, the kids spaces are open. Have you been to the kids space before? Yeah, how many people here would pay this kid $1 to go to the kid space. So you know, it was really funny to like you said, so when that happens, it's awesome. And I said, Oh, and I'm not supposed to talk to you people. So this will be my last show. And you could say you were at it. So you work with whatever you get.

Jeff Dwoskin 29:59

It's fine boy. You walk around people probably come up to you the whole cruise, right? Yeah, don't when they see you. I'm gonna say fly off the boat to another boat or something. But

Maryellen Hooper 30:07

yeah, we don't sleep there. Don't you know how that works? Yeah, no, of course yeah that they come up and they want to either tell you a joke or tell you, you should come where I work, you'd have tons of material you know all the time and that's what everyone always says you should hang out with me. I could be your whole act like okay. Yeah, it's the top five things people say to every comedian. But what are the other ones? Do you write your own material? You should come hang out with me. What are the other ones?

Jeff Dwoskin 30:36

Where's the bathroom? You don't get that as a headliner. But every club I've ever worked at, I don't get that as much every club I've ever worked at. Nobody can ever find the bathrooms. like everyone's like, Where's over there?

Maryellen Hooper 30:50

raise their hand. Oh, what's the worst thing that's happened to you on stage? Your your nightmare gig.

Jeff Dwoskin 30:56

The worst thing that ever happened to me on stage was I was at this event, and I don't even think they knew they were gonna have comedy and like they brought me up and nobody was laughing and it should have been my wheelhouse. It was like they hired me a Jew to hijo entertain other Jews. You know what I mean? It was like, right roundly starting off with Hey, how many doctors and lawyers are in the house? And like none what user here? What do you got? That didn't go over? Yeah, I thought it would go over. Well, I just it didn't. I was with my people. And it just it didn't nobody. They didn't appreciate me not appreciate me. And I remember, the show was so bad. It can still pick myself. I was so bad. That I remember being on stage, eyeballing the exit. Like, how am I going to get out of here? Thank God, I already got paid.

Maryellen Hooper 31:42

Oh my god, it was early

Jeff Dwoskin 31:43

in my career. I was like, I

Maryellen Hooper 31:45

know, when I started doing colleges. This was this one year, I did really well to showcase you know that they have and it would just be one after another like you go do a noon show and then drive five hours and do a night show. And it was just relentless. So I show up at this one school. It's like a community college and I'm doing a noon show. First thing I look, there's no posters anywhere. And I go, I can't find anyone. And there's a secretary like, I'm supposed to be doing a show. She's like, Oh, yeah, all of the people from the student organization are on a retreat. They're not even on campus. So here's your check. So just, uh, I don't know, just go over into that corner. It's just like the commons area. Just go into the commons area and just go do your show hidden. Like, there's no mic. There's no anything just and I have my check. What do you think I did? See? Yeah. I went over to that corner. And I sat there for an hour. And nobody came. Nobody was there. I mean, I just sweat. Okay, goodbye. And then I got a thank you letter in the mail from the students. We're so sorry, we couldn't be there. We heard your show was great. Everyone's been talking about it.

Jeff Dwoskin 32:59

As they use the template letter from the year before, yeah, there

Maryellen Hooper 33:02

you go. And the check cleared. That's all it mattered. So

Jeff Dwoskin 33:05

that's all that matters. Yeah.

Maryellen Hooper 33:07

Except for the horrific shows that you actually do do and then get paid hardly anything. So it all works out.

Jeff Dwoskin 33:13

Yeah, you reminded me of a show where I walked in, I was working with this guy, Steve is walking in this bar. And there's no one there. And it's like 15 minutes to the show. You guys you want to just get up start? Usually it's the opposite, right? Usually, it's like let's wait an extra 15 minutes to start. So we're gonna we're gonna make you wait 15 minutes past Showtime and keep you here even longer for this miserable experience. You're about to experience. I was supposed to do like 30 minutes. I think he's supposed to do an hour. He's like, we were courteously said to him because there was two people there. And the two people that were there, were accidentally seated there that were supposed to be seated in a different restaurant. Well, you do 30 you do? You know, yeah, they want us to do the whole show. Because like, sometimes they have these power trips, you know, these

Maryellen Hooper 33:51

bars, you get to do what I tell you to do, or you're not getting paid,

Jeff Dwoskin 33:55

right. And so I get I'm doing my thing. Luckily, I just worked with this headliner. And so meaning like I was in a good space, so I could just have fun. I was just doing my ad. And I remember there was this big deer video game in front of the stage. like one of those we hold the gun is like boom, boom, boom, and two people walked in while I'm doing my show, and just start playing the video game like and then I even just leaned into them and started you know, doing my jokes right at them. And it's like, they're acting like I'm not even there. And I'm thinking why is it so just becomes almost like a parody of doing a thing. It was like,

Maryellen Hooper 34:25

you're just lucky they didn't turn I thought you're gonna say they turn the gun and started shooting at you. I wish

Jeff Dwoskin 34:31

they would have ended it faster.

Maryellen Hooper 34:35

Yeah, I think when people you know, once you become a headliner, and you're or you're on TV, or you do whatever people like, I have the best job ever. I mean, you work like an hour night. It's so good. They have no idea. It's, you know, it would be like telling a surgeon Wow, that surgery only took you 20 minutes and you're getting how many 1000s Alright, let's go back to how many years of torture and we Yeah, that's frustrates me sometimes when people I think we're getting that now because all of us are out of work. And everyone's like, ah, poor comedians, or whoever the poor actors are, they're poor. Oh, they're at work, but they don't realize how much work in and it's a real job and that you put way more hours into it than just that little bit that you see on stage, you know, exactly. So it's really hard to have any sympathy and my GoFundMe is like two bucks because nobody cares.

No, kidding.

Jeff Dwoskin 35:35

I always feel bad. Some people do go find me and I'd be like, I need 5000 and then they raise 50. And then some people like do a GoFundMe and they want like 1000 and I can't even get $100 it's like I feel I always feel like really bad. Yeah. Okay, so let's talk Great. So you put the tie you put the time and so let's just make sure everyone is fully aware not only were you 1998 funniest, I'm just gonna say comedian let's always female. We're gonna we're gonna we're changing history. We're just gonna get a any kind of blowback from winning funniest female comedian from like the other female comedians. I was product and Craig Shoemaker. And he was saying like, when he won like comedian of the year, whatever their word was, he won as I get. It wasn't the greatest experience.

Maryellen Hooper 36:19

No, why? What happened for him?

Jeff Dwoskin 36:21

listen to the podcast Maryellen, and he explained it.

Maryellen Hooper 36:25

I missed that one. Well, I can see, you know, like, there's so many more for me, I think it gave like the comedy clubs and people something to promote. So it helps me in that way. So because they had a winner, female comedian of the year, you know, or whatever, to the clubs really like it because they need something to prove that you're worth the money that they're charging. And then I would get work that because again, it goes back to the whole female comedian thing. It was really hard to get booked into a new club as a headliner. Because a lot of club owners back then didn't think women could headline, you know, if you didn't have your own TV show, or whatever. So I literally every almost every club I ever had lined I had to go in is a feature below the headliner off the stage, they literally switch the order in the middle of the week. And then I could come back as a headliner. So I think that helped with that. So people go, Oh, she won this award. I guess we'll have her in. And it was something to make my mom happy.

Jeff Dwoskin 37:27

It is awesome. I remember being very aware of you when we worked together because you had like, Is it fair to say one of the most popular Comedy Central specials? I mean, I feel like it was on a million times I make cuz I remembered seeing it many times.

Maryellen Hooper 37:39

Yeah, I was very lucky. When they they ran that it got a lot of positive feedback. And then when they stopped running, most of them they still would run mine. I was really thankful. super special here like yay.

Jeff Dwoskin 37:55

It was great. And then even on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno twice,

Maryellen Hooper 37:58

twice. Yes. And it's so funny because again, my whole goal right now is to impress my teenage kids they're really into Okay, go they like their their videos. Have you ever seen their videos? I haven't. They do a lot of Rube Goldberg kind of things you know so i really really cool the other cool guys and I go Oh, so you like okay, go so I go and I get my picture of me with on the set of the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Owen Wilson and Okay, go was the musical guest and I'm like, they're like okay, go I go Yeah, to Jay Leno. See Oh, and Wilson. It was the only time I've ever been on film that felt like my nose was very petite. Like this is this is a dainty little nose.

Jeff Dwoskin 38:45

I wanna I'm gonna I'm gonna work with Owen Wilson every time.

Maryellen Hooper 38:50

So, yeah, so it's always about what's gonna impress my kids now it's one of those things that as a comedian I that was like the big stepping stone to do the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Right? Right. There's that group. Then there's the group of people who've done it with Jay Leno. Then there's a crew now this is the group who've done it with you know, it goes on like that. It's like a status thing. It's very surreal. I mean when you when you walk out of that curtain that you're used to seeing every night and it's like you are doing this that you've thought about your entire career and look over at CJ or you know, whoever it's a very out of out of body experience for sure. So cool job my husband that's because I was behind the curtain and I was so excited that he's literally introducing me and I'm going to my husband you know after we do this we should go out because look they did my makeup for free. Look how pretty I look and he's like well you focus to do see you he get way more nervous than I do.

Jeff Dwoskin 39:45

One of the reasons I was excited to talk to you we were together right in 2008 in Ann Arbor Michigan. I love a an arbor and I was great and I was awesome. So you were and I think I might have told you this on Facebook without say I'll say it again. Here is you I didn't have a good set. I remember the first show and I remember you coming up to me and I wrote it down because I made actual scrapbooks. I wanted my kids to know where I was for that 10 years. So I was really into digital scrapbooking and stuff like that. So I took everything cool. And I advanced I really documented well like my first 10 years. Like I took a lot of photos and saved everything and all I

Maryellen Hooper 40:23

wish I had done that. That's awesome. So I have

Jeff Dwoskin 40:25

this thing I have. This is what I wrote. I wrote Mary Allen was one of those comics I remember seeing on TV and my first night not going well. I brought it she had advice. She told me you're the frustrated father, you're jumping around one minute family, then observational II need to pick one the father and drop all the observational stuff. It was the best advice I ever got took a while but I eventually, Reeve refocused my entire act. And then I have an actual copy of one of the jokes. He were kind enough to rewrite for me that I wrote. Now I do it this way every time and it kills every time.

Maryellen Hooper 40:58

It's so sweet. What was the joke? Jeff? I'm trying to remember it was

Jeff Dwoskin 41:01

a dealer no deal joke, which was great when it was how we mapped out and then a guy like, you know, like, sometimes comedians, like they do jokes. And it's like, that show hasn't been on TV for five years. Right? Yeah, yeah. And so like, the greatest gift to me was when Howie Mandela's are doing it again.

Maryellen Hooper 41:17

You're like, thank you.

Jeff Dwoskin 41:23

So anyway, thank you for that. Because it's not often that like a headliner will take that time. It's one thing to listen, it's another thing to kind of, you know, take, take that time and pass along that wisdom. So always remember this sweet?

Maryellen Hooper 41:35

Well, you know, I don't do that unless I think somebody's really funny, or there's a reason to because there's, I work with lots of people, and you're just like, why bother? That's not going anywhere. That's happening. So yeah, so I really thought you were very funny. And you know, that we can see past a crowd. You know, everybody has bad shows. And usually to you The show is way worse than what it seems to everybody else. There are several times that I've actually tried to give a tag or something to somebody and they they didn't want it. He said, thanks. I write my own. And I'm like, wow, you know what, next time, you could just say thank you and not do it. What's the point of like, hurt anybody's feelings? You know,

Jeff Dwoskin 42:17

I know some comedians for some reason feel Oh, I can't take that because you wrote it. But my point of view on that is no, no. And in this in this case, right? No, Maryellen. I inspired it. Mary I channeled the email and it was just channeled through mariappa she heard me it's not like she just thought of the tag. It was just you know, in some things I think people need to hear it helps to hear Yeah, other people's things. And you can hear things that they don't hear because they just get too caught up on it. I think it's always a gift.

Maryellen Hooper 42:42

Yeah, it's in the art community. You know, my husband's art director is it's called the clean eye. So if you're been working on a piece of art for so long, you just can't even see it anymore. As somebody come along and go, Oh, just swipe that with yellow. You fixed it, you know, it's just the cleaner we all think comedically but sometimes you're just too close to it or whatever. But yeah, not so quiet. And again, you were such a sweetheart so I wouldn't have talked to you tried if I didn't think you were funny.

Jeff Dwoskin 43:14

I appreciate it. I wasn't fishing for a compliment but I appreciate it oh so fun hanging out with you here and catching up. Thank you tell everyone where they can keep up with you on the socials and stuff like that.

Maryellen Hooper 43:29

I am on the socials so I'm a big I love Facebook. I have Instagram as well in Twitter but i don't i don't like Twitter This is much I don't know if you do

Jeff Dwoskin 43:38

I love Twitter I did notice I wrote down I needed to talk to you about that. I don't think you've tweeted since 2017

Maryellen Hooper 43:47

I do like to work I think it's because I'm very visual like you know when I perform my faces I just a physical visual person so I really like to put pictures in of stuff you know the people and things that I'm talking about so so I'm more gravitate towards instagram and facebook you know more so but yeah, and apparently they're part of me is on tik tok. But at my website has pretty much a link to everything and it's just my name.com Marian hooper.com that's the easiest. I had a little blog for a while where I wrote stories that's all on there with pictures.

Jeff Dwoskin 44:23

You met a lot of things yeah, Carol Burnett. Martin. Sure you have pictures with I thought I thought my murderer's row is pretty good but you got you got some killer Richard Pryor.

Maryellen Hooper 44:33

You know what, I'm a huge comedy fan. And so I love all I mean, those are the people I grew up with. So to be able to meet them and get your picture with it. I like the old school. Yeah, because

Jeff Dwoskin 44:45

tillery got here.

Maryellen Hooper 44:46

Yeah, so cool. Right. So cool. My favorite was of course Carol Burnett. And that was at the Comedy Awards. I just saw her from across the room, you know, in our eyes, locked it to redheads. Yeah. This is how I picture in my head. We And in slow motion toward each other. So we start talking to her and I go, oh my gosh, I said, I, I'm Maryellen, who she goes, I know who you are, and know just the world stopped. And I was like, it was amazing. And then somebody came up and interrupted us. And I thought, Oh, it's okay. It's somebody else's turn to talk with Carol. I've had my moment and I turned to go and she grabbed my hand as to say, don't go and my heart just slipped out of my chest. And anybody who would walk by I would hold up our hands so that they could see that we were holding and that's what I got to get my picture with her. So I'm so happy.

Jeff Dwoskin 45:39

That's so awesome. That's a great story to

Maryellen Hooper 45:41

Who's your Who is your favorite picture? What?

Jeff Dwoskin 45:43

Okay, well, there's okay that I had to hunt down. Let's let's put it down. I hunted down Jeff Goldblum. Oh, and like I was gonna post it on my Instagram. I still might I realized that over the last 15 years. My weight has not been consistent. And I can and pictures. Really kind of call that out. So is it gold bloom was more of a little heavier face. I'm like, oh, but I hadn't met him meeting Jeff Goldblum was sort of like a bookend to meeting Ben Vereen. Okay, so we had we had seen Ben Vereen and we went off Farsi and New York and my wife bought tickets online and grow a oh okay row a while in Detroit row a doesn't mean first row but apparently in New York dead so we're like fossi front row, right. And it was it was just amazing him doing like Bojangles and stuff like that. So we we like to hot were the people that hang out after, right? So meet Ben Vereen. Get a picture with them. And my buddy had always said to me, if you talk to somebody famous don't bring up the obvious stuff, right? They are more likely to talk to you if you bring up something obscure, so I'm like, hey, Ben Vereen. I loved you in tennspeed and brown shoe. Right. Okay. Which is a show that he did with Jeff Goldblum. years later. I made good Jeff Goldblum and I hunt him down. I'm like, I need this photo. And I say the same thing to him.

Maryellen Hooper 46:59

Did they respond? Well, no, I

Jeff Dwoskin 47:01

had a mom. I had a couple moments with them. Because the funny thing has been Marina must have been nobody was really waiting. Ben Raines is walking out what's wrong? Hey, you have like those like little two mag cameras? Or you know, do they take them to it? And everyone? The young kids are saying, What does that even mean? You could take a picture with 18 less medics and you do now. Cutting Edge cutting edge kids back.

Maryellen Hooper 47:27

Oh, you have to post the pictures and tell that story. That's hilarious.

Jeff Dwoskin 47:31

Oh, well, I Well, I just

Maryellen Hooper 47:33

gave you more advice.

Jeff Dwoskin 47:34

Yes, you're the best. That's fine.

Maryellen Hooper 47:36

And now what you should do.

Jeff Dwoskin 47:38

You do the tick dog thing. I'll

do that.

Maryellen Hooper 47:41

See? It's pay back.

Jeff Dwoskin 47:42

I know that. Thank you very much. I can't thank you enough for hanging with me. Oh, my gosh. My pleasure.

Maryellen Hooper 47:46

It was so nice to hear from you after all these years.

Jeff Dwoskin 47:49

I know. Right?

All right. Well, how fun was that? Maryellen Hooper is the greatest. Check her out on YouTube. Hot downer comedy specials. Once comedians are touring again and she comes to your town get tickets. You won't regret it. She's awesome.

And now it's that time of the show are we spotlight a hashtag from one of the many hashtag games from hashtag roundup this week spotlight is #GingerMyths. That's right. So many misconceptions and myths about redheads and lo rat from reds hot tags. What's kind enough to run this hashtag to help dispel some of those #GingerMyths. All the tweets I'm gonna read are of course retweeted at Jeff Dwoskin show on Twitter. They'll also be listed in the show notes so give them some love retweet them. And don't forget to download the free hashtag roundup app you can play along with all the hashtag games that go on every day and one day you may end up on an episode of the live from Detroit the Jeff Dwoskin show. fame and fortune awaits those that tweets All right, here we go.

#GingerMyths gingers have access to a secret Twitter Edit button. That was true gingers would be the most popular people on social media. Not all redheads are hot headed, but they do sleep on Tempur-Pedics Oh red paint is derived from ginger hair. If you're just tuning in, these are some #GingerMyths they're born blind and become ginger is only after excess. cheese doodle consumption if you rub a ginger his head three times you get good luck. The best way to compliment their freckles is to play connect the dots with a sharpie. That is an interesting #GingerMyths. Here's another one I hear there's sweat tastes like cinnamon. That would be a good thing. They all live in gingerbread houses. Ginger Ale is made from real gingers and the final #GingerMyths that I'm going to share with you. They all hate everyone name Marianne. Hello. All right. Those were some amazing #GingerMyths brought to you by hashtag ground up and red hot stags. All right, check out hashtag roundup play along. You can be featured on a future show. Can you believe it? The End of Episode 44 has arrived. I want to thank Maryellen Hooper for joining me such an amazing guest. I want to thank all of you for listening week after week after week. I can't thank you enough. Don't forget to subscribe, like follow tell your friends about live from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show, and I'll see you next week.

Announcer 50:26

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Jeff Dwoskin show with your host Jeff Dwoskin. Go repeat everything you heard and sound like a genius. catch us online at the Jeff Dwoskin show.com or follow us on Twitter at Jeff Dwoskin show and we'll see you next time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai