GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

NOVEMBER 22, 1996

Evenings Out

No Cleveland jok

by Doreen Cudnik

Cleveland-Being a native Clevelander, Amy Altshuld knows all about winters on the North Coast. She and comedy partner Vickie Shaw, a Houston native, will bring their show to the Improv Comedy Club at the Powerhouse in the Flats on Monday, December 2 at 8:00 p.m. Altshuld's main concern? "That nobody will show up because you'll be snowed in!"

"It's so strange when you live in different realities. It's 80 degrees here, so it's hard to imagine that you guys are buried," Altshuld said in a phone interview from her Los Angeles home, during Cleveland's record snowstorm in mid-November. "I was worried about [nobody showing up]," she said. "When it rains in L.A., people don't go out for weeks. 'Oh I can't go to the store, it's rainin', I saw some clouds earlier, let's just stay in tonight.' But then I remembered that this is

"Oh my God, they're still talking about the Mistake on the Lake and the burning

But being from Cleveland, she says, has kept her "nice." "It's the difference between being a New Yorker-my comedy is very nice, I don't have that biting, bitter humor. And I never make Cleveland jokes. Oh my God, they're still talking about the Mistake on the Lake and the burning river. I guess if you're going to make a mistake you better remember it's going to be with you the rest of your life-you've got to build a lot of stadiums to get over that."

Vickie Shaw, Altshuld's comedy partner, delivers a totally different brand of humor. "We have very different styles," Altshuld said. "Her style is more straight standup, while mine is more improv." That works out great, Altshuld said, since people who come to see the show get two for the price of one. "There's something for everybody."

Shaw, who is also a les-

river. I guess if you're going bian, was introduced to

to make a mistake you better remember it's going to be with you the rest of your life—you've got to build a lot of stadiums to get over that."

"

Cleveland-you guys are used to this.

Altshuld grew up in Mayfield Heights on Cleveland's east side and moved with her family Los Angeles in 1976, the day after she graduated from high school. "Since then I've been the wandering Jew," Altshuld said, “I've moved from L.A. to Tucson, San Francisco, Boston, New York, and now L.A. again." Altshuld, who is out as a lesbian in her life and her work, credits her "zany family" with helping her discover her comedic talents. "We were just always funny," she recalled. "And then I realized, 'Hey you guys, I can make money doing this.' But it wasn't actually until I left Ohio that people other than my family recognized that I was funny."

After doing some stand up in and around the Los Angeles area, her career took off on the other coast-New York-where she was the featured comic at clubs like Stand Up N.Y. and Comedy U. It was her work with the a New York improvisational

Groundlings, theater group, and her one-woman show I'm a Little Bit Country, I'm a Little Bit Kaiser Roll, that really got her noticed. One of the people who took notice was Woody Allen, who cast her in his 1987 film Radio Days. Being a native Clevelander has given Altshuld lots of material for her stand-up, but she refuses to make fun of her home town in order to get a cheap laugh. "People always think I'm from New York," Altshuld said. "I don't know what that's about, but if you look Jewish and you have a big mouth, then you must be from New York. I hear people make fun of Cleveland, and I'm like "Hey, hey, hey--you better watch your step----don't be talking 'bout Cleveland that way! And then of course I turn into a New Yorker."

Altshuld in Los Angeles by a comedy agent. At the time she was in an 18-year marriage and raising three children. "Needless to say, Vickie's life has changed drastically in the last five years,' "said Altshuld. "She came up to L.A. where people like myself corrupted her," she recalls with a laugh. It was like, 'Ooh, Vicki, you are getting sleepy,' and she woke up and said, [in a Texas drawl] 'Oh my God, I have to go home and get divorced!' And she did!"

Shaw's resume includes two Olivia cruises as well as appearances at "Gay-La-Palooza" and the Houston Women's Festival. Dan Woods of Spellbinder's Comedy Club in Houston, where Shaw has performed, described her as "a touch of Joan Rivers and a spot of Brett Butler... and a whole lot of Clairol."

Altshuld is pleased to see the emergence of so many new women comics—many of them lesbians and says that it seems as if non-gay audiences are finally starting to “get it” about gay and lesbian people.

"I'd like to believe that other people are watching gay comedy besides gay people," Altshuld said. "I know of all the times that I've performed-I've always been out on stage, and I've never had anybody not laugh at the same jokes that everybody else laughed at. Unless you're going to go to the middle of nowhere--if you can relate to the audience, [being gay] is just something else to be funny about. As long as there is no 'you're the good person, I'm the bad person' attitude or viceversa, you're going to engage everybody."

Ironically, being more comfortably out as a lesbian has led her away from performing "gay" comedy, or material specifically geared towards gay and lesbian people.

"I find myself moving away from it, bccause that's just one small part of me. Everybody knows I'm gay, and it just makes them

Y

understand where I'm coming from. It doesn't necessarily have to be about being a lesbian. Like some stuff about relationships—it could be about anybody, it just happens that I'm a lesbian."

Altshuld points to one of her favorite comediennes, Lily Tomlin, as an example. "Here's a woman who has never, ever come out, but everybody knows. She just kind of does her work quietly. She's the consummate character actress. It's not about the jokes, it's about

Amy Altshuld, above, and Vickie Shaw, below.

making you feel something. And of course, she's had that little ol' Jane Wagner helping her all these years!" (Wagner is Tomlin's comedy writing as well as life partner)

One issue that Altshuld feels will give her plenty of fodder for her act and for many gay comics is the same-sex marriage debate. "I think the whole marriage thing opens up just a huge box of goofy things. On one hand, it's a very serious issuc-everything that we discuss is always very serious-but on the other hand there is a lot of room for comic exploration."

Altshuld hopes to meet lots of people from Cleveland's lesbian, gay and bisexual community when she is in town, and figures the big snowstorm will have given them plenty of incentive to come out and see the show.

"Oy, you're going to need a good laugh--especially after all that!"

The Improv is located in Cleveland's Flats in the Powerhouse. Tickets are $10, reservations are suggested. Call 216-6964677.