Leanne Linsky, comedian turned entrepreneur, is the founder and CEO of the new online comedy club, Plauzzable.
Originally from Waukegan, Illinois, Leanne has a passion for learning. She earned a B.S. in Business Management from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and a Master of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of California, Irvine. Leanne also earned her Professional Coaching Certification (PCC) with the International Coaching Federation and CoachVille, Center for Coaching Mastery.
Leanne studied comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade, the Magnet Theater, The Second City, and IO Chicago. She wrote, performed, and produced her critically acclaimed one-woman show, produced and hosted a comedy open mic, and produced and hosted a weekly stand-up show in New York City and California.
Today Leanne’s on a mission to bring people together with laughter. When it comes to comedy, Leanne couldn’t be more serious.
Create your free Plauzzable account and give and get laughs.
We are a LIVE online comedy platform. When you watch comedy on Plauzzable, you’re directly supporting independent creators who write, perform, and produce their own shows. Discover a wide variety of comedians, browse our show schedule, and enjoy LIVE (in-real-time) comedy from the comfort of your own home, office, or wherever you are!
SLAP the Power is written and produced by Rick Barrio Dill (@rickbarriodill) and Maiya Sykes (@maiyasykes). Associate Producer Bri Coorey (@bri_beats), with assistance from Larissa Donahue. Audio and Video engineering and studio facilities provided by SLAP Studios LA (@SLAPStudiosLA) with distribution through our collective home for social progress in art and media, SLAP the Network (@SLAPtheNetwork).
If you have ideas for a show you want to hear or see, or you would like to be a guest artist on our show, please email us at info@slapthepower.com
Leanne Linsky, comedian turned entrepreneur, is the founder and CEO of the new online comedy club, Plauzzable.
Originally from Waukegan, Illinois, Leanne has a passion for learning. She earned a B.S. in Business Management from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and a Master of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of California, Irvine. Leanne also earned her Professional Coaching Certification (PCC) with the International Coaching Federation and CoachVille, Center for Coaching Mastery.
Leanne studied comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade, the Magnet Theater, The Second City, and IO Chicago. She wrote, performed, and produced her critically acclaimed one-woman show, produced and hosted a comedy open mic, and produced and hosted a weekly stand-up show in New York City and California.
Today Leanne’s on a mission to bring people together with laughter. When it comes to comedy, Leanne couldn’t be more serious.
Create your free Plauzzable account and give and get laughs.
We are a LIVE online comedy platform. When you watch comedy on Plauzzable, you’re directly supporting independent creators who write, perform, and produce their own shows. Discover a wide variety of comedians, browse our show schedule, and enjoy LIVE (in-real-time) comedy from the comfort of your own home, office, or wherever you are!
SLAP the Power is written and produced by Rick Barrio Dill (@rickbarriodill) and Maiya Sykes (@maiyasykes). Associate Producer Bri Coorey (@bri_beats), with assistance from Larissa Donahue. Audio and Video engineering and studio facilities provided by SLAP Studios LA (@SLAPStudiosLA) with distribution through our collective home for social progress in art and media, SLAP the Network (@SLAPtheNetwork).
If you have ideas for a show you want to hear or see, or you would like to be a guest artist on our show, please email us at info@slapthepower.com
That's exactly what this was designed for is so that fans can come in and they can look through a whole talent directory. So if you think of when you log into Netflix or something, what if you had, like, all the actors and people on there and then you're like, oh, what is this person in and you see all their movies or whatever Well, I'm plausible. You can look through the talent or you can go to the all shows listing, because everything's in real time live. So it's kind of like appointment TV or like the TV guide oh cool, you have to be there at a certain time.
Speaker 1:you know, and some people were like Lee Ed, why would I be at a certain time I go if you were to go to a club. You just don't show up whenever you want and expect a performance.
Speaker 2:You go at a real yeah, all right, all right, all right.
Speaker 3:What did you?
Speaker 2:what did do? The world may not need another podcast, but it definitely can use a slap.
Speaker 4:A slap right in its face.
Speaker 2:That's right. Welcome to slap the power. How you doing, Maya? It's good to see you.
Speaker 4:I'm wonderful. How are you doing, Rick?
Speaker 2:I'm great On on the show today we're going to focus on. I love this. I love empowerment, I love the empowerment story, but I especially love female empowerment. And on the show today we're kind of focusing on something that's sort of near and dear to me now, which is, you know, post post pandemic, and everything we had to assume is the pandemic hit. We had to stop touring and instantly go into an online world, and it seems like we haven't come out of this online world. It's still.
Speaker 2:It's a streaming world that we are kind of now in, and whether we're musicians or comedians, you know, it interests me on how our world has changed now that we exist in a streaming world, and so I'm looking forward to it. We have a guest on today, leanne Linsky, who will be coming up a little bit later, and she actually built a whole platform around dealing helping streaming and comedians and to take control of their own content, and so I'm looking forward to talking with her a little bit later. But what I'm really interested in right now is how was your weekend, tell me?
Speaker 4:you know, my weekend was good when? Were you I was in Vegas with Billy Idol, which was cool, and then I was at Delilah's on Sunday the Vegas one and that was really cool. I hadn't been there in a while, so it was fun to sing in it. It's a bigger room at the one out here, but.
Speaker 2:I think that you here's bigger, or?
Speaker 4:Vegas is bigger. It's almost twice the size Delilah's Delilah's but what I did notice, just based on those experiences, was OK.
Speaker 4:We're definitely in a scenario in which the world is still grappling with how we treat artists and how we treat workers, because in the midst of being in Vegas there were four strikes, and I don't know that people recognize that there have been 312 strikes just in the last year.
Speaker 4:Jesus. People are fed up and I think that Leanne's story is something that really illustrates something that not only happened because of COVID, but happened pre-COVID, Because people were finding that it was hard to play at venues. They had to pay to play almost everywhere they were, they were being paid very poorly and in a lot of these venues, even today, as a musician, you're still looking at $100 to $150 per person to play for three and a half and four hours. So the wait staff is making more in tips than you are, but you had to go to school to do this profession. And no disrespect to the wait staff, I mean, they're working hard too but it just doesn't feel comparable or fair, and I'm noticing that in almost every aspect of workers of some kind, whether it be musicians, actors, writers the people who are creating the thing are being paid the least.
Speaker 4:The people who are doing the labor are being paid the least, and it's not working. So I think that this episode is really timely because it's showing what can be done, but it also shows how you have to change the attitudes of people, because people don't want to do something new.
Speaker 2:And I think it's interesting because overnight, when 95% of our income pre-COVID came from live music, overnight, instantly that was all gone and it didn't even come back the same way either, just because of the nature of technology.
Speaker 4:But even the fact that 95% of your income came from live performance is skewed. That shouldn't be the case.
Speaker 2:It should not be the case.
Speaker 4:And I think that what you're seeing is a reclamation of we got to make income somehow, and if you're going to take it away from us every other place, we have to design a new place. And the thing that I'm worried about now is I remember this happened when you first had Lime Wire and Pandora is that at first, it was this unregulated market that took so much away from the record industries.
Speaker 4:They made it punitive for artists, because that's really what we're looking at here is a field in which, because streaming platforms were basically giving things away, but they were doing it on the backs of artists that they never consulted or let in on the thing. So now, in this new podcast channel, make your own channel. The rules are different, because people got hip, but it's still the Wild, wild West.
Speaker 4:So it's still this arena of how does one make money and who gets to the seat at the table. Because what I learned from Leanne, and especially in just listening to her story, is that she was able to create this pathway because she wanted to be ethical about it. But what if the person who had gotten to that same seat at the table was like I just want to make another thing where I get 98% of the money and instead of you getting 3%, I'm going to give you 5% and you should be happy about it Right, and you just hit.
Speaker 2:you just kind of hit it on the head where it feels like in the case of streaming post, lime Wire and things like that, we really need to talk about the elephant in the room, which is that of the late stage capitalism. The last three sort of labels could bought into the streaming companies, so when they were controlling the streaming, naturally they're giving preferential treatment to their artists and things like that, whereas and the same thing in comedy it feels like there was a lot of. You know, it was always about getting a special right. You wanted to be able to get your special, get your special. And now, owning your own RSS feed as a as a podcaster, owning your own TikTok feed and being able to put out your own content, where you're removing that sort of big machine in the middle where it was like, oh, hbo gave me a special, netflix gave me a special right.
Speaker 4:Now you're like you can do this on YouTube, joe Seales.
Speaker 2:Exactly. So that's where the the empowering and the inspirational part I'm really excited about. You know our conversation with her and so but before we go, I actually kind of I stumbled across something and I wanted to throw this into the episode because I think that this is awesome. This is actually something to sort of celebrate. Now, you know, when I was coming up in Florida and you know Florida A&M and and and a lot of the you know drumline things that would go on Like, I was always drawn to a lot of those situations. Well, I saw this the other day.
Speaker 2:The world is becoming more African. According to the New York Times, right, they declared in a story that full of it's, really, really is full of fascinating stats, but it's about Africa's population boom. The African population is projected to double to 2.5 billion over the next 25 years. Okay, in contrast with high income nations where birth rates are declining. And in 1950, africans made up 8% of the world population. By 2050, they're going to be 25%. So shout out to the continent of Africa showing up, showing up. You know, and I'm stoked about that.
Speaker 4:Shout out to the Mandingos with the ten wives. You know what she was doing. Believe in your dreams, yeah believe in your dreams.
Speaker 2:Believe in your dreams. But it's great too, because at least one third of all people, 15 to 24, will account for 25% of the population too, which to me, that's just. That's just. That's a cool. That's a cool stat, right? Because I remember when we were little, it was it's all about China and it's all about the Indians, and there's, you know, 1.8 billion Chinese and 1.2 Indians. And now shout out to Africa.
Speaker 4:Listen, I could tell you back in the day that Africa was stepping up and all you needed to know, all you all the proof you needed was watching your Netflix timeline. Do you know how many movies out of Nigeria? And other countries and it will be the most complicated storyline, but somehow it goes hard.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Are you serious? Like they have as many like real housewives of whatever they have, the real housewives of Uganda or whatever, and they are going just as hard. They're bringing in just as much wealth they're bringing in just as much technology and people have been sleeping on Africa for quite some time and they were like going ahead and sleep no. Going ahead and sleep.
Speaker 3:Go ahead.
Speaker 4:They had one of the best responses to COVID globally. That's right. That's right. Anybody had and they were like oh, y'all was talking about us, Y'all was out show next about how we a third world blue blob. And we can't do nothing. We going with kind of this for and they sure did so I think it's interesting because we still undermine the potential of groups based on race and we still have a color politic globally, whether we'd like to admit it or not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and, and it is yes, there's a color politic globally, but I love it.
Speaker 4:The article went on to say that, to buy 2100, two out of five people on planet Earth will be African, and I think that's Fucking awesome because it just sort to me it underlines we are a global we're becoming more and more and more global community, and it's about time that you know that the timing may be mad, but it also makes me concerned, because it makes me think of these Christian nationalists who are like sound the alarm, there might not be as many white people, it's a crisis, and they're really acting this way.
Speaker 2:What's funny?
Speaker 4:sometimes I'm like.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and what's funny is, if you heard it the other way, it would be considered racist, right? If you're like, hey, but you know by X amount, you know by 2100 there's gonna be nothing, but you know, so two out of every five people on planet earth gonna be white people. It might be kind of something nowadays where it's like that would be considered Eugenics or whatever. The reason I brought it I brought it up to me is it's a lot more interesting because it almost just seems like it just seems like the way nature you know and the way things should be right. It's like that's a big Africa's a big continent has been good and it's been getting its Minerals and all kinds of things sort of mine.
Speaker 2:For the last 20 years. China's been going through there, where we're definitely not Free of not being guilty in that situation too as Americans, and just raw materials and stuff like that. But from a population perspective, I think it's great because you, you definitely can drive the economy, you can drive technology, like you said. You can drive all kinds of things art, farmers, pharmaceuticals and everything. So we're a global. We're a global.
Speaker 4:We've always been a global community. Yeah they are just. There has been a shift into not being that yeah and I think that that's by design, because it's a way to control public Nationalism, yeah, to make you believe that we aren't wholly dependent. Yeah on other countries and other nations is silly, but it's something that we have as a part of who we are yeah, and you know.
Speaker 2:So, you know, shout out to the internet for bringing us closer. That's, you know. That is something that is a good part about the internet, right? Not so. All right, coming up after the break, our interview with Leigh Ann Linsky. All right, welcome back joining us.
Speaker 2:Today we have a really special episode because Sort of empowerment from the post COVID era for us artists. It is something that I am Extremely interested in because, as musicians, we were our, you know, 95% of our income comes from live touring and overnight. Because of COVID, we had to become, we had to take music and figure out a way to do it online and do it over the internet. And so our guest today. She's a business leader and entrepreneur. She's got a masters of innovation and entrepreneurs from UC Irvine. She, you did time at Upright Citizens Brigade, second city. I owe Chicago, which is cool because my wife's from Northwestern as well. I can't wait to talk about that. But everybody, please welcome. Thank you for coming on the show. Leigh Ann Linsky, yes, thank you for coming on. My first question is who parties harder, uc Irvine or Northwestern? Or do you know who parties hard is at University of Nevada?
Speaker 1:That's where you, yeah, so great question, even Northwestern in the mix because I grew up in Illinois, like 45 minutes away from Northwestern, and I did Make several trips there for parties, not because I want to go there, so those are pretty impressive. Yeah right when you're in high school? Yeah, and then I would say you and LV is definitely a.
Speaker 4:I was gonna say yeah, you're just.
Speaker 2:It's Nevada. You got a rep.
Speaker 1:It's the gosh. It's the guy I mean Vegas pretty good place to be when you're in your, you know, early.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I don't know how you did that, because I wouldn't have gone to class like I would just been like, ooh shiny, I Am not the one now you as a comedian, please?
Speaker 2:you know, I'm interested in finding out. I'm sure we have people that we cross over with, you know, but how long were you in Los Angeles?
Speaker 1:in LA. I was there probably nine years.
Speaker 2:Wow, okay, so we can you show your weapon. Where are you at now? Where are you based now?
Speaker 1:now I'm in Seattle. Yeah, oh, okay.
Speaker 4:Seattle's really doing big things now. Yeah, I think that a lot of people are unaware that Seattle's really popping it is.
Speaker 1:It's a pretty happening place, it, which I really need to learn more about, because I got here two years ago and I barely my home hey, I'm twice as old as what I lived in Vegas, but also Since COVID, when we first landed here, everything was real, really still shut down in a way. This was it was very slow to reopen and kind of get going.
Speaker 2:But yeah, things are definitely happening here in Seattle and the, the innovation part, the entrepreneur part, the self, and, like you, you know, you kind of took things into your own hands. You're the CEO of an online comedy club called plausible and and you I noticed in you were saying that it wasn't a result of Necessarily COVID, but that it. I'm sure you probably got thrust into Having to put this thing together and having to just kind of deal with all the technical issues and everything of having an online club like that. How did that come about?
Speaker 1:Yeah, great question. So After Vegas, I lived in Vegas for 16 years. I stayed there after college and I that's where I started comedy, and I started with a writing, a comedy writing class, and then second city had a training center there. So then fast forward to. I ended up in New York and I was doing, I went in full time Like trying to do comedy and acting and the whole thing, and then when I moved to LA, I suddenly found myself spending more time on the 405 than I did on any stage and I was this is my life right now, you know, yeah, so long on so many levels, and I would try singing that, but I would break your mic.
Speaker 1:So there's a reason I'm in comedy and not a musician, although I did musical improv. That's hilarious.
Speaker 1:Yeah but but yeah, I found myself spending so much time in traffic and this is before COVID, obviously because I was out and about and I was doing in-person shows. But you know, take going two miles was like an all-day experience. So the other thing is I right, and I missed my, my colleagues and fellow comedians and From New York. So I was like, how do I connect the two? I'm like Skype, maybe I do things on Skype, you know, maybe. And then I was like, yeah, I'm gonna do the Skype thing. And then life happened. I was producing shows and Long Beach and Fast forward to. I can't take it anymore. I really have to do something online. And I had been using zoom for work and I'm like I'm gonna create a zoom mic. So I did and I invited comedians from both East Coast and West Coast and they're like what, this is, this is really cool. And then other people would be like why would I ever do that? And then COVID happened.
Speaker 4:And then people are like, oh, that's why I would do that, right and that's the thing is that I feel like right even before COVID, covid allowed for a perfect storm to happen in which we Knew that the tide was turning in some direction and it kind of had to turn more in favor of the artist, because we were making the least but doing the most work. And I think once COVID happened, it made you understand that adaptability is essential. So one of the questions I wanna ask is how did you convince others to adapt, cause it seems like you were about that life for quite some time. How did you convince others?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that was an interesting thing. What I ended up doing in convincing others and this is like right before COVID and kind of during COVID was I would talk to people I knew, because if I talked to people I knew and already had a relationship with, there was more trust there of like why I would do this. When I started posting about it on social media, then the trolls appeared and were like what? And that just hurt my heart. I'm like, oh, I'm trying to do something to help you. I'd be so cruel and so. And then to your point.
Speaker 1:The other thing I found is, although the existing technologies are fantastic and they really made the pandemic more bearable and connected us, they weren't designed specifically for entertainment and there were a lot of new problems created and I was like whoa, that kind of was really eye-opening.
Speaker 1:How do I fix some of those problems?
Speaker 1:And then also why I'm at it and digging in is like there's so many things in the entertainment industry that could be disruptive, because the business model, the way we're constantly paying for stage time, the way we're constantly being trying to sustain our living on tips or burgers or a free beer right, and how do we fix that? I mean, yeah, you guys are like no, and it's like, oh my gosh, like this is an opportunity. And so I was like how do I change this whole thing? How do I get other people who understand where my vision is? And that's what inspired me to go back to school and I thought I can. I wanna build a network of people on the business side of things so that I could really bring my vision to life. So I ended up creating this entire platform, not using existing technologies, but building our own from the ground up and what we needed as entertainers. So there is no audio delay or latency in plausible, because, as a comedian, that one second your type it throws death yeah it could be death.
Speaker 2:Yeah, same thing as like singing and being in pocket, Like if you're yeah, it's yeah, you feel it, even by the slightest amount.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's, and I don't know if you've ever tried to do a writing session on Zoom, but as a musician I just remember in the early parts of the pandemic wow, that was frustrating.
Speaker 3:Yeah, good.
Speaker 4:You'd like all of y'all would be off just a half a measure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, no, totally totally.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and you're like this is so bad.
Speaker 2:When the pandemic hit, for us as a band, one of the things we were trying to figure it out. Trying to figure it out, and one of the first clubs that we actually played out was a club called Harvelles. Shout out to seven and everybody at Harvelles. But in what they did, is they instantly kind of put together like a live stream situation and we would go with masks and everything, and everybody that was there was, you know, had masks and everything. But it was the first time that we played and you'd play a concert, right, and then you come down and you're done and it's just dead silent, yeah, and that sort of interactive reaction. You know, I think that's what I think a lot of the listeners and everything. Actually, you know it served its purpose kind of in the very beginning. But how does that work for you, especially in comedy? You know, if you're doing remote stuff, how does that work? You can, in laughter you're bringing laugh tracks in, you're doing any of that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:Well, because of the audio setup on ours. So some of the things that we're familiar with and I'll use as an example, like Zoom or Google Meets or something, if I'm talking and then you cough or you talk or make noise, all of a sudden your frame lights up and cuts my audio off. It's like one directional right. So with plausible, everybody can talk at the same time, as though we're in the room and no one gets cut off.
Speaker 4:Oh, wow, yeah.
Speaker 1:And so we have that and that's like the first thing a lot of the comics notice when they log in is like wait a minute, I don't have to wait, like we're all talking at the same time and the only thing that really creates the latency is if someone has bad wifi signal, maybe.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Which you know I can't control that, but we can definitely make it better in the sense that we can hear each other in real time without that just exhausting pause. But the other thing that I found in Zoom and especially because I was back in school during COVID and it went from in-person to online and I found myself in gallery mode even when the professor was- speaking because it was so fascinating to see what my fellow students were doing and that most of them should really put their clothes back on.
Speaker 1:But, ah, yeah, there's one of those moments. What I found fascinating is with the way things were set up, I could, as a viewer, go from gallery mode, which I would always be in, because that just it seemed like it would bring people together more, right. And then, if I were speaking, I'd want to see the response, because not everybody has their audio on. Well, as a performer, you know, when we look out in the audience we're usually blinded partially by the lights from the stage. But we can see a few people, we can get that interaction and just enough, you know, nonverbal response to understand where we're at in our performance. And that's always plausible, right.
Speaker 1:Well, with plausible, we designed the screen layout so that the performers always dominate and anchored on like the left side of the screen, and then all of the audience members are on the right and they pile in, but you don't see them all at once. You don't go into gallery view and then minimize your performer, because that's the whole reason. You're there, but you want to enjoy other people, so you can see up to like six at a time, but you can scroll through, they carousel through while the performer stays stagnant, so you never lose real focus of what you're doing. And even if I'm the performer, I can do a quick scroll and I can read my audience fairly quickly without having to lose myself, or, you know, multitask.
Speaker 2:So how much do you have in the way of people that? Because I love the fact we live here in Los Angeles and Hollywood. If we get a hair up our ass at the last moment, we can go down to the store. You know, you can go to a comedy cell there. You can see people running reps at any time. It's the same thing with New York and everything like that. But what I love about the idea of plausible and what you've created is if somebody as a fan, wants to casually look for new comics in a way, to where you can just be like hey, it's a Thursday night rather than watching, you know, an episode of whatever I've seen a million times 90 day fiance although, shout out, a 90 day fiance, it is pretty legit. Or the golden how does what's that?
Speaker 1:Or the golden bachelor.
Speaker 2:The golden bachelor is pretty solid as well.
Speaker 4:I've seen none of this. I am culturally ignorant. No, no, no, we'll talk about that.
Speaker 2:But how much do you have in the way of like people that are like casually going through and then like, hey, I want to dip in and you know, from a fan perspective.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's so. I love this because that's the whole. You nailed it. That's exactly what this was designed for is so that fans can come in and they can look through a whole talent directory. So if you think of, like, when you log into Netflix or something, what if you had, like, all the actors and people on there and then you're like, oh, what is you know what is this person in and you see all their movies or whatever, well, I'm plausible. You can look through the talent or you can go to the all shows listing and because everything's in real time live, so it's kind of like appointment TV or like the TV guide you have to be at a certain time.
Speaker 1:You know, and some people were like Lian, why would I be at a certain time I go if you were to go to a club? You just don't show up whenever you want and expect a performance. You go at a real time. Yeah, so that's how it's set up. So you can also proves it that way, and you're absolutely right.
Speaker 1:Fans log in, they create a free account and once they log in, they can proves all shows, see what fits their schedule. They can, you know, they can see the job description, the show description. They can look at the comics that are in it and read more about them. All of the things are all right there, whereas if you go on to other streaming services, you know where people are independently creating. It's just the service to stream it, not a directory or not a show guide or nothing like that, and so we wanted to incorporate all that and also give the Comedians an opportunity to make money so they can determine if it's a free show or Mike, or if they want to charge a ticket price. They could do that, and then they oh, that's cool, yep, so that's so that's how you've monetized it for Participants.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so they have free access right now to everything. We're in beta testing out a lot of these features, so everybody has free access to anything, and if a performer wants to charge for it, they can set their ticket price and they get the majority of that that ticket price as their revenue. And then, of course, we take some, as that's how we monetize it and cover right. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so you have a basically a virtual audience, and so if a guy or a girl Wants to run some reps, they could just kind of join, plausible as a comedian, and be like you know what, I'm gonna go up, you know I'm gonna go up today, I want to, you know, work on this or whatever that's. That's really great, we can. We don't have that.
Speaker 4:There's no place I can try my not so tight five.
Speaker 1:I'd love to get your feedback, as a musician, what your experience would be yeah, no, I would definitely.
Speaker 2:I, you know, I it's something I'm looking forward to sort of casually trying out as a fan as well, because I know what when I, when I learned about you and plausible, I was like thinking about it much from the CEO kind of you know badass Female perspective.
Speaker 2:You know, which I do want to get into, you know, but as a fan I can't wait to sort of check it out as well. Speaking of that, the female empowerment side of things, I know I'm a big fan of, you know You're like all like the boss kind of female comedians right now, in a way that I feel like I'm I'm used to hearing about how bad the misogyny might have been, you know, like back in the day, but but it seems like there's a moment where, where there's this empowerment that's coming along, whether it's Whitney Cummings, whether it's there, or Silverman, where, and almost you know when it's grown, grown into the from a producer's standpoint, kind of controlling that side of the table. How did you find, as being a female entrepreneur in a predominantly kind of poorly Managed male you know Sector like comedy, stand-up comedy especially.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so interestingly enough, before and when I started comedy, I was actually working for a home builder a national home builder and I worked for this company for 13 years. We built homes and for your several years of that time, while I was there, I was doing construction, I was a back-end superintendent. Talk about male dominated industry, right? Oh my god, I was the only girl in the field. It was a blast. I had a blast, I can't lie.
Speaker 2:I was gonna say you probably. You know you got a lot of attention.
Speaker 4:I'm sure, but they were probably like she run this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was fascinating and and they were in the, in the guys in the field, they were some of my dearest friends. Like we became really close. They were really good to me. We were super competitive I cannot tell why. Like we were very competitive, but a healthy competitive, it was really good and I enjoyed it. I that was like I Just happened to be at the right place in the right time in that particular industry. So when I moved to comedy, it didn't, it didn't come it. It didn't seem to phase me that it was super male dominated, it's like well, I could survive the construction into building.
Speaker 1:You know I could take this on and Like, watch me, you know this is what you do. And I ended up, you know I I ran an open mic in New York for seven and a half years and Pretty shows and did all the things. And so when I went to LA, I did the same thing. It and I don't know if it's because I had two older brothers who Inspired me, because they left home right away and they joined the military, they went off and they did things and they went and they traveled the world and I thought that was so cool and I and I think a lot of the time when I took things on, I I wanted them to be impressed with me. You know, like, think, like, oh, my sister, she's cool, she's a badass like I'm like yeah, the proof.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I kind of yeah, yeah. I want them to think I'm cool and I'm doing things and I'm not Assisi and I owe and and I was her full sister, and so I think I kind of had somewhere in the back of my mind a lot of time of like, yeah, I can do this and and also my parents also were really good about you know, the road ahead does not lead back home.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which for a lot of comedians and musicians. Sadly it does that is hilarious.
Speaker 4:They were like um look forward my child.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you go anywhere. You can't come here.
Speaker 4:Thanksgiving, yeah, and holidays.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I think that had that, that because I was raised where my parents were like we're raising you to be independent and to take care of yourself, because you know when you're 18 that's your job, like we're not doing it.
Speaker 1:Yeah and they were really good about that and at the time I probably didn't appreciate. I'm pretty sure I didn't appreciate them as much as I do now looking back. But I think that had a lot to do with it. And then I Also there's something instinctively in me of like you tell me that something's hard. That just irritates me. It's like it's okay if it's hard, Okay with something being hard. I like yeah. If it's not hard, why would I waste my time? Almost it's kind of my mentality on it.
Speaker 4:It's like well, but I almost feel like that became part of this culture. Yeah, in the last 20 years we were like it's hard, I don't want to know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and.
Speaker 4:I will say that I also don't find it that surprising that it's a little easier For women to move in comedy, because if you look at. Okay, if you look at the top Specials right now on Netflix, it's half women, half men. That wasn't even true a decade.
Speaker 4:No, exactly but there have been so many strides and so many Female-led projects that were written by women Yep, which I think is so huge to mention, because there's been this Mythology that women aren't funny, and I was like, no, it was what she wrote, for women wasn't funny to say hey, right so that's a huge difference. And now that you're seeing women-led productions, women directed Films, women-led comedy tours, you're seeing what women actually have to say and surprise it's like an awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, and.
Speaker 1:I love that you're pointing that out. I think it has shifted for sure, and I think a lot of it. I see it on plausible. The majority of comedians producing on plausible our woman.
Speaker 4:Cuz they were like oh, I don't have to deal with no bullshit or no dude. No, I was making suggestions about what might be funny for me. Oh my gosh, how novel.
Speaker 2:I got straight access to my curns. I ain't got to put nobody in between me and my curns. Yeah, I hear what this bullshit?
Speaker 4:Yeah it just irritates the piss out of me, and it's so interesting that men will Simultaneously say what they don't think is funny, while trying to put what they think should be funny on a woman Without listening to what that woman actually has to offer. Yeah, it's very. It's just an interest, but I feel like that's been happening for every marginalized group. Yeah any marginalized group was always going to have to Fight to be like no, but here's what we actually say yeah, I know, this is what you heard. One person say that one time.
Speaker 4:Yeah in this one restaurant. But here's how we actually talk. And also, surprise, we are not a model it. So some of us talk like this right.
Speaker 1:Some of us talk like oh, my god, it's so true. And you know, what I think also helped in the shift is technology, because it kind of absolutely leveled the playing field on who and made it accessible for people to share their voice, things like YouTube, social media. Before, like where, you know, there were gatekeepers to everything yeah, now.
Speaker 2:Taylor, taylor Tomlinson with with tiktok, like for example, you know, and yeah, and yeah, matt, yeah, I just feel like all these girls were like L woods and getting being like what, like this, is hard.
Speaker 4:Okay, right. Yeah, you know, and I was here for it, because I think that there's a new generation of women that are never gonna grow up with the stigma of a man told me I couldn't do it and that is the first time you're ever gonna see that like. I think that that's the first time that's happened Historically. That will ever be on record, but I see that the blowback of that is so vast.
Speaker 4:You know, I think that that's why you're getting all these abortion debates and Just things trying to take you back to the 50s. Yeah because this really is the first time where women are at the helm of what's being produced, what's being said on both sides of the coin. Yeah, you know the conservative party is most emboldened by women, whether or not you know yeah, I do look at it. There's an empowerment, yeah, and this is the first time in history we could ever say that. So Yep, in written history anyway, yeah, and that's something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think you hit it. You're actually hitting on something that's really, really big. I think when you flatten the playing field, when somebody has the ability to sort of corral their own Community, their own audience, that will support them. That is that is power, that is leverage. And in that respect, if you own your own you know YouTube channel, you own your own TikTok channel and you're putting great stuff out there, you know it's, it's, it's undeniable, you can't deny that.
Speaker 2:And from there, I think, comes, comes power, and that is that's what's inspiring to me, and it's inspiring about what you did, leigh Ann, in that you just take it in and think creatively, entrepreneurially and, you know, also from an empowerment perspective. That's the part I love is is giving people there the ability to sort of, you know, take their own future into their own hands. Rather than, I know, for us in musics we joke about this all the time you know there's 80, 100,000 songs that goes up Spotify every day. That's like scratching a lotto ticket, right. But if you can control something, you put something out there and you, you know, kind of work at it to control your own, your own content and your own channel. That that definitely, you know, that's where the empowerment comes from. I love it.
Speaker 4:What has been the humor that you're seeing Like, especially given like this post COVID?
Speaker 2:post.
Speaker 4:January 6th.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like what?
Speaker 4:what comedy is like? You know where we need to go.
Speaker 1:One of the things I always learned in improv and I love this, that one of my improv instructors always shared was play to the top of your intelligence Play to the top of your intelligence. Assume your audience is smart, right, because? A lot of times when people go into stuff. We tend to a lot of times in comedy like new. New people might dump things down or go for low hanging fruit, but I think dig and fart jokes.
Speaker 2:That's where the money's at. That's what my mom always told me.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and it's like what are the points at the top of your intelligence and really educate yourself, like I find that some of the best comedians are really. They're so well read and they're so educated.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, so whether through school or other means, but they really take the time to be aware and to pay attention. They're typically good observers of life and take things in and and I think that's so valid. So, to kind of get into your question of like, what am I seeing? I do see a shift. I see people are more self aware, right when they're more aware of what am I saying, what repercussions could it have?
Speaker 1:You know, kind of thinking before we speak and when, at mics and stuff, I see a growing trend in feedback mics, where, where peer to peer feedback is shared among comedians, like hey, I really appreciated that joke you said, but you may want to be cautious because this could be misinterpreted into this, but if you switch your words around it will come across clearer, or so there's a lot of conversation about how to approach topics so that we can still be relatable and find humor in them without punching down. So there's a lot more punching up versus punching down, or laughing with instead of laughing at, and I think a lot of people right in more of those things into consideration, no matter what, because the truth is is that in a world as big as it is, with billions and trillions of people in it. We're pretty hard pressed to find someone exactly who walks and talks and thinks like me. Right, there's one of me and also that sounds boring as hell and it's kind of like even in. Did you ever see that movie multiplicity?
Speaker 4:And the guy copies himself like multiple times and then he starts getting the stupid ones.
Speaker 1:I like pizza Steve. Yeah, that guy barely talk, right, it's so messed up.
Speaker 4:I love that family guy when Stewie does it and he's like I did, did I do good, stewie, did I not eat the poos?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like they just did, it More and more morphed out of like reality and it's so funny. But it's like if I, everybody can't tell jokes the way I do. And God, I'm so glad you wrote and advice versa. But what I love about having all these possible example like people, we had a mic where someone from Sri Lanka, someone from Ireland, someone from the UK, someone from you know Virginia, someone from you know California are all together and we all have completely different life experiences. We all grew up completely different.
Speaker 1:Views of the world are different, but we can laugh about the same relatable things for an entire hour and enjoy one another, and it's like I think, comedy is. Though we talk about provocative topics and stuff, there's so many opportunities where we can come together because it's relatable, and I think part of comedy's job is attention and release. We laugh at things that probably we shouldn't laugh at because there's, if you look at the science of why people laugh, sometimes it's out of fear, Sometimes it's out of discomfort, awkward moments, right when someone let the air out of the situation.
Speaker 1:The energy yeah yeah, it can deescalate something and so, although something could be really dicey, it cracks us open to a bit of like okay, that was awkward and uncomfortable you uncomfortable okay, it's okay to laugh at and sometimes and let this out, and I think that's. That's just that's part of comedy. And I think some of good comedians, like people, always say who's your favorite comedian? And then I find it hard to answer because I like so many different comics and for different reasons, because you know, this.
Speaker 4:that's a main question, Because I know that people, when people ask me what's my favorite song or who my favorite artist is, I'm like well, what day is it? Yeah?
Speaker 3:exactly.
Speaker 4:Like I don't think that, I think that that's rude and I think it's easier for most people, in a creative sense anyway, to say here are the people I'm feeling right now and here are the people I will feel to the day is long, to the dawn of time. Like I mean, richard Pryor is always gonna be Richard Pryor and he's gonna be, funny. I don't need you to tell me that.
Speaker 3:Do you know what I'm? Saying yeah like I don't need that.
Speaker 4:But it's cool to hear there all the I like going to comedy stores or even especially in the pandemic. It was great to go on things like Twitch or you know plausible like, and see new things that you would see, because I have been exposed to comedians that I wouldn't have known about, that have these wonderful perspectives on the world, and to me, the best comedians can take a highly nuanced idea and simplify it to a massive audience Like to me that's my favorite.
Speaker 4:Recently I was. I went to the comedy store and I forget the comedians name, but she was hilarious and she said okay, you know the House of Providence, they were looking for their new speaker or whatever, and they were unable to do so, obviously. And she said you know what this reminds me of? She was like I'm from Texas and this reminds me of a weave store that doesn't know. It's a weave store like a Skyweaves and donuts and alcohol and guns, but mostly what it has is weaves and it just should call itself weaves and things. But it hasn't. It's called itself Jays and you don't know what the hell they sell at Jays or what they do. But really Jays is weaves and things and it should just be called weaves and things. And I was like that's really brilliant.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like they should change the GOP to just Christian Nationalists right, just just just go ahead, because that's what you're selling, that's what you're all doing, that's what you're all doing, that's what you want.
Speaker 4:You voted in a bloc, so yeah, let's just call us bait us fade, like y'all just should call yourself Christian Nationalists and things, Christian Nationalists.
Speaker 2:That's right and thanks and thanks and just put in thanks.
Speaker 3:And thanks.
Speaker 2:For when Like yeah, Christian Nationalism and others.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thanks.
Speaker 2:Thanks. The sign up front of the Capitol. We're off topic, but I definitely, definitely appreciate your time. I feel like we could talk to you all night. I love, I feel like comedy. We're going to need it more than ever.
Speaker 4:It's such a unifier, and I always think that comedy is the new CNN. So, for our listeners. What's the best way to find you? How can we get people to your show and to support you?
Speaker 1:Oh, thank you so much. The best way is plausiblecom, and that's P-L-A-U-Z-Z-A-B-L-E, plausible, like yeah.
Speaker 2:Like like ZZ Top.
Speaker 4:Like applause.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, thank you so much, leanne, for your time and I we're going to keep checking in with you periodically because I want to see how it's going and, yeah, keep us, keep us on top of how things are from your end. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you, I'd appreciate that and you two are really funny. Maybe you should come to an open mic.
Speaker 2:Hey, we'll do it.
Speaker 4:Christian Nationals and thanks.
Speaker 2:Thanks, leanne, all right, all right Before we go. We can't leave the people without giving them the segment that they're asking for Tour stories. So, seeing this how you're fresh back, you know I'm going to let you give me one this week. What's your best tour story this week?
Speaker 4:Well, okay, so one of the things that happens when you tour with a kind of legend act that's what I call them Like someone who's not new or someone who's not like, you know, super, super popular for today, but they're popular like forever, like they're always gonna be popular in some kind of way Is that they always have a set of super fans right, and they ride the line of stalker, but they're not stalker-esque, but I mean, they're like super fans with like, if they wasn't on the right cocktail of things, it could go awry.
Speaker 4:But for the most part, they're just super fans right Good intentions. And they are super fans with the best intentions. So management or security or whatever you know, acknowledges that these people are gonna be at every city and they're gonna hang out weirdly, but not weirdly in a like we're gonna John Lennon-U type away. Just you know, we're gonna make you feel slightly uncomfortable.
Speaker 2:Sure, and they give them a wide berth right Like you can hang out.
Speaker 4:So me and the other backup singers are relatively new to the outfit and shout out to Kit and hey, girl, hey.
Speaker 3:Hey girl.
Speaker 4:But they're sometimes where they just because they've told the band the same information for hundreds of years, they haven't noticed to like, oh, like, tell them, like, no, that's Ashley Larry out there, he's fine, he's harmless. Do you know what I mean? So for a couple of shows and a couple of like, just we're sitting out there, there were these three dudes that looked like they had just gotten off the Staten Island ferry and I was just like okay, well, and I thought that, for whatever reason, I didn't clock that I had seen these same three dudes in three other locations, but they were at this one hotel, in front of this newsstand, and they were there every day and they would just literally stand with their arms folded, like they were, you know, on the lower enforcement team from the Sopranos. You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:So I was like okay, I just thought they owned this and they were just very protective of the newsstand and so I accidentally like went up to them one day being like hi, can I get a cup of coffee? And like some skittles, and they were like the newsstand's clothes and I was like, well, why are you here? And they were like we're waiting for Billy. And I was like, oh my bad, and my whole face if you could have seen my whole face just look cracked, being like okay, and so then the security had to say no, no, no, there was like these guys and they're very harmless, but they do come whatever, and it was one of those things where I forgot that that's a real possibility.
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 4:So it just kind of made me laugh that you know these super fans are almost another part of security because their super fandom keeps the talent safe from the real, real crazy people. But if you don't know, yeah they're, like you know, a secondary wave if you will. But if you don't know them, you're like, hi, what do you do? Okay, nothing, okay bye. And then you have to be careful not to engage them too much, because then they'll like want to tell you their entire life story.
Speaker 4:No, you'll be there for an hour and somehow want to get backstage and you're like I just got this job two days ago, sweetie, yeah yeah, I am not your end.
Speaker 2:okay, I don't know how to get it Billy's cell phone, I don't know how to help you.
Speaker 4:I don't rebel yell, that I mean I rebel yell on the stage and then I go oh no but the one cool thing I will say is so Billy Idol shot a movie of a concert that he made just for his, like most VIP fans, and then shot it in the middle of Hoover Dam, and that's the first time that's ever happened.
Speaker 2:How'd they not get the water on all the instruments and stuff like that?
Speaker 4:I mean we were like on the outside part so we weren't like in the water tour, but we're in like the basin part, like right.
Speaker 2:Oh snap, yeah, yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 4:So you can see that film if you want to. So it's called Billy Idol State Line and it's that one line that divides. So you can see, like all the right, so it's right there. And. But I think that it was really cool because he also talks about the conservation effort and how the Hoover Dam helped that in that area and the challenges that it's facing. So to be a part of that film was really cool, so we got to see the first screening of it and it looks awesome.
Speaker 4:It's so beautifully shot. But it was cool that Billy Idol himself came out thanked us all for being a part of the film. But it did feel like being a part of living history because you're at something that's never happened before. That was pretty crazy, yeah congrats, so shout out to. Billy Idol and his whole team, that was, and if you want to see the movie, I'll definitely put the stuff in.
Speaker 2:I'll put the links in the show. And it's called one more time. It's called Billy.
Speaker 4:Idol State Line.
Speaker 2:State Line.
Speaker 4:And it comes out November 15th.
Speaker 2:Hey, I love it. I love it All right. Well, that's it. We're going to leave you with that for this week. What a great interview and I'm glad to have you back. It's good to see your face.
Speaker 4:It's great to see you as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we'll talk to you guys next time.
Speaker 3:Bye. Slap the Power is written and produced by Rick Mario Dill and Maya Sykes. Associate producer Rikuri audio and visual engineering and studio facilities provided by Slap Studios LA with distribution through our collective home for social progress in art, slap the Network. If you have any ideas for a show you want to hear or see, or if you would like to be a guest artist on our show, please email us at info at slapthepowercom. Yo hey, won't we go slap today?