Elayne Boosler

Elayne Boosler (born August 18, 1952) is an American comedian, writer, and actress.

She was one of the few women working in stand-up comedy in the 1970s and '80s, and she broke ground by adopting an observational style that included frank discussions about her life as a single woman, as well as political commentary. Her 1985, self-produced comedy special Party of One was the first hour-long comedy special by a female comedian to appear on a cable television network.

Comedian Richard Lewis told The New York Times in 1984: "She is the Jackie Robinson of my generation. She is the strongest female working. She broke the mold for most female comics." Rolling Stone referred to her as "The First Lady of Stand-Up" in 1988 and included Boosler in their list of the "50 Best Stand-Up Comics of All Time" in 2017. In 2018, CNN included Boosler in their list of "Groundbreaking women in American comedy" and critic Jason Zinoman of The New York Times referred to Boosler as "The Comedy Master Who Hasn't Gotten Her Due." Her father was a Russian acrobat who later worked in the tool and die industry. and was enrolled at the University of South Florida, but she dropped out after two years and traveled to the Bahamas where she worked for six months as a singer and dancer in a musical revue, before returning to New York. She had been working at the club as a singing waitress, whose job was to sing between the comedic performances. That same year she made her first appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, with Helen Reddy sitting in as guest host. Boosler credits Totie Fields for having suggested her to Reddy.

Boosler became a regular performer at the Comedy Store, a male-dominated environment, where most female performers were relegated to a secondary stage in the upstairs corner of the club called the Belly Room. Boosler refused to perform in the Belly Room and performed instead on the club's main stage. Letterman would later invite Boosler several times onto Late Night with David Letterman and Late Show with David Letterman.

In the 1970s, Boosler performed as an opening act for musical performers such as Helen Reddy, Ben Vereen and Johnny Mathis. she performed at the White House Correspondents' Dinner during President Clinton's first year in office in 1993 and in 1997 she took part in a performance for Bill Clinton and United States Congress, filmed at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., and broadcast on ABC. She appeared in CNN's The History of Comedy series broadcast in 2018.

Television work Boosler starred in the 1982 NBC series The Shape of Things, alongside Dottie Archibald, Rhonda Bates, Alvernette Jimenez, Maureen Murphy and David Ruprecht, and also appeared on The Andy Kaufman Show, a talk show parody created by Kaufman that aired as an episode of the PBS series Soundstage in 1984. In 1988 she co-hosted the CableACE Awards show (known as simply the ACE Awards at the time,) along with John Larroquette. Throughout the 1980s and 90s she played guest roles on sitcoms such as Night Court, The Cosby Show, Living Single, Dear John and Sisters. She also made regular appearances on Hollywood Squares.

She wrote, directed, and acted in two half-hour movies for Cinemax: Comedy From Here, a drama that was broadcast in 1986 as part of the channel's Cinemax Comedy Experiment series, and The Call, a 1989 comedy in which Boosler's character awakens to find herself transformed into a cockroach.

Her 1992 New Year's Eve comedy-variety special, Elayne Boosler's Midnight Hour, was a 90-minute show filmed at The Town Hall in New York City and was telecast live on Showtime. She appeared on HBO's Comic Relief for six years and was also a frequent guest on Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect. and in 2004, Boosler hosted the game show Balderdash on PAX (now Ion Television).

Boosler performed at the White House Correspondent's Dinner in 1993. It was the first time that the event was televised on C-SPAN.

Writing Boosler has written for other performers, such as her work on Rodney Dangerfield's 1986 comedy special It Ain't Easy Being Me.

Boosler has written several pieces published in high-profile publications: She wrote a tribute to Andy Kaufman for Esquire in 1984. In 2003, she wrote an opinion piece about comic strips for the Los Angeles Times in reaction to statements made by comic strip artist Berkeley Breathed in an earlier LA Times article. In 2018, Boosler wrote for Time about her experience of performing for the White House Correspondents' Dinner and the reaction to Michelle Wolf's performance at the event that year, as well as a piece for CNN about trying to excuse offensive behavior by claiming it was a "joke". She has also written pieces for George, USA Today and The New York Times and was a frequent contributor to The Huffington Post between 2011 and 2017.

In 2013, she premiered Rescue – A True Story, a musical performance featuring narration that was written by Boosler and that she read aloud to music composed by Carol Worthey and performed by the Glendale Philharmonic Orchestra of Glendale, California. The performance features the story of a dog's rescue. She also appeared on The Joy Behar Show on the CNN Headline News network (now known as HLN.)

Boosler began working in animal rescue in 1996,

Personal life Boosler lived with comedian and actor Robin Williams from 1977 to 1978.

Comedy specials Year Title Studio Video formats Audio formats 1986 Party of One Showtime/Comedy Dynamics Broadcast / VHS (1993) / DVD, streaming (2018) Download/streaming (2019) 1987 Broadway Baby Showtime/Comedy Dynamics Broadcast / VHS (1993) / DVD, streaming (2018) Download/streaming (2018) 1989 Top Tomata Showtime/Comedy Dynamics Broadcast / DVD, streaming (2018) Download/streaming (2018) 1991 Live Nude Girls Showtime/Paramount/Comedy Dynamics Broadcast / VHS (1997) / DVD (2018) / Streaming (2019) Download/streaming (2019) 2018 50/50 Club Comedy Dynamics none, audio album only CD/download/streaming Timeless Brooklyn Productions/Comedy Dynamics 2xDVD boxed set CD