"Goodness Is Being Kind and Generous" - Interview with Wendy Liebman

October 31, 2024

By Bessy ADUT

Wendy Liebman took a class called "How to be a Stand-up Comedian" at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education in 1985.  Since then she has performed on Carson, Letterman, Leno, Fallon, Kimmel, Ferguson, and Hollywood Squares, and in clubs throughout North America.  Wendy has done specials for HBO, Comedy Central and Showtime, and was a Semi-Finalist on NBC’s America's Got Talent, Season 9.  She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two rescued Jindo dogs, produces “Locally Grown Comedy” in Burbank, a monthly show featuring her favorite stand-ups, and is about to launch Who’s Up? with Wendy & Nancy, a late-night podcast with sitcom writer Nancy Cohen. Check out Wendy’s  DVD “Taller on TV” on Amazon.

Where are you located?

West Hills, California.

What are your current projects?

I'm just about to launch a podcast "Who's Up? with Wendy & Nancy" -- two friends who chat late at night about everything.

I'm also about to do my second ever Sing-A-Long on December 18th at Vitello's in Studio City, where the audience sings every song with two world-class musicians (Bill Cinque and Jeff Alan Ross), I lead them and tell jokes in between. The first one was EPIC!

And, as always, I continue to do stand-up comedy at clubs and corporate events (for 40 years now).

Please share how you got started and got to where you are today...

I was going to be a psychologist but I took in my neighbor's mail by accident once and in it was a course catalogue for a night school, and in it was a class called HOW TO BE A STAND UP COMEDIAN. I heard angels singing! I took the class and never looked back.

Has it been a smooth road?

I've taken time off over the years, to help raise my stepsons, during Covid, and one time after having been hit by a car (I was in bed for 14 months healing). I don't know if it's been smooth, but it's been fairly steady.

Tell us more about your life and career...

I had a lot of success early on (I was on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and Letterman nine times), and I've worked steadily for 40 years. I started producing shows in 2018 (Locally Grown Comedy) and now I help other people with their acts over Zoom! I've often wondered why I wasn't just the funniest advertising executive or a hilarious Kindergarten teacher, but I think some people are born performers. When I first started people thought I would be great for a sitcom, but not the right people, so while I was disappointed then, today I feel that I'm exactly where I should be.

What do you think goodness is?

I think goodness is being kind and generous. Thinking of others. Being a friend.

Who are you outside of your professional life?

Outside of my professional life, I am a wife and a stepmother to two grown men (29 and 33). I am a daughter to my 89 and 90-year-old parents, and a sibling to my older sister. I LOVE my family. And I love my dogs -- two Jindos, rescued from Korea. They are special needs dogs and that takes time. I'm also a friend and active on social media. I love music and I love playing the piano. And I ride my exercise bicycle every day for 10 miles while watching TV shows like Elementary and Colin From Accounts.

Wendy Liebman

Are you interested in environmental issues?

Climate Change is real, and scary. I try to do my part to recycle and think about my carbon footprint, but I can always do more.

Do you think the world is not a good place right now?

I think the world is crazy! But I wonder if maybe it always has been and I'm just more aware now. I do think people suffer from addiction -- everything needs to be more and bigger and better, so I wish everyone would just take a breath together.

How do you make the world a better place?

I just try to do my own little part to make the world a better place. I practice something called Tonglen -- a breathing exercise that I learned from a writer named Natalie Goldberg. Basically, when you breathe in you extract someone's negativity, sadness, despair, angst, etc., and when you breathe out you breathe into them happiness, light, goodness, peace. Someone asked me, Are you breathing in the negativity? No, I'm just metaphorically drawing it out of them. I do this in life, one on one, especially when I sense someone is in distress, and I also do this when I'm on stage as well.

How can we all make the world better?

If everyone picked up after themselves, symbolically kissed the ground they walked on, the world would be nicer. And just common decency with other people when you're in public.

How can science and spirituality coexist?

You can believe in the unknown and the known simultaneously.

If you can't prove that something exists, that doesn't mean that it doesn't.

If you could go anywhere, where would you go (and why)?

After watching a show called Doc Martin, I've always wanted to go to where it was filmed, in Cornwall England. It just looks so peaceful. I think I would have good dreams there.

I also want to go to Montauk, Long Island, where I spent a couple of summers during college working as a maid in the hotel. I love the beach.

Please let us know anything else you'd like to share with us...

I do a game on my Facebook page called Today's Joke Writing Prompt. I'll give a premise (e.g., They say you can sleep when you're dead.), and then I'll give a few jokes (e.g., But I'm going to die from exhaustion, You can also die in your sleep, etc.) and then 200+ people share their answers. I've been doing this for almost a year, on both my personal and professional pages, and it's been a highlight of social media for me!

Please provide shareable links (website, social media)...

My website is www.wendyliebman.com

Instagram: @wendyliebman

I'm also on Threads.

Please provide media links to share...

Check out my media clips on www.wendyliebman.com

10 May

“Goodness is a Thing We Do, Not a Thing We are” - Interview with Avishai Weinberger

We met with Avishai a few years ago at the CineStory Writers Retreat in Idyllwild. It was a great experience and I remember him as a passionate writer/filmmaker. We kept our friendship on social media as he lives in New York as an NYU Alumni and he grabbed my interest with his recent success stories, and achievements as well as a fellow Jewish writer/filmmaker. So I asked him for an interview and he said yes.

"Goodness Is Being Kind and Generous" - Interview with Wendy Liebman

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