the wardhole interviews: meaghan strickland
On no longer bragging, not going crazy with the commitment to the day job, and on writing her hour of comedy.
Hi all :)
Welcome back to a new wardhole!
One thing that has been hack to me in the comedy world is skinny people talking about or joking about Ozempic. I know it’s in the media and everyone is doing it - I just do not want to hear what skinny people have to say about it.
It’s like if people who were born without heads could take a medicine to give them their heads back and then people who have had heads their whole life are like “WOW I guess some people REALLY wanted an easy way at getting a head, huh?” Maybe there is a pun in there.
For what it’s worth - I am taking a semaglutide!
The major downside is that I have to have a check-in with a doctor about my weight-loss every month. Before I started taking Wegovy, I had to get my blood checked and to make sure everything was “good under the hood.” This came with a weigh-in. During the weigh-in I was able to use a medical grade, American-made scale and I weighed a number that I had never seen before (let’s say it was 270.) I was used to a number 20+ lbs more than that.
So when I was ready to get on my Zoom with my doctor (ok 2023 MUCH?) I got ready to get on my $12 Amazon scale made at the Temu factory. Weirdly the scale always says I weigh something around (285-290.) So when I got on the call with the doctor, I did lose about 10 pounds it felt but I didn’t know if I was meant to measure that off the top of what my bad scale said, or the medical grade scale said. So - amidst all of this I am trying to tell my doctor over Zoom about the machinations of me weighing myself - and she stops me and screams “these meetings are 15 minutes - I can’t do this, I need to write down a number.” So I said 270 (the number I started out with) but I let her know that I feel I lost weight, which I am sure is worth it’s weight in gold. :)
WOW. I have never written this much upfront - how did we feel about that? Does this feel like I am fluffing everyone up to get ready to read this interview with one of the funniest people in the world?
Today we are talking with Meaghan Strickland.
She touches it on a little below, but the way she is able to laser focus on topics, make you think of them a different way, and laugh your ass off. She has a joke from a clip I will link below - where she says “why does the shower lining stick to you, and then sometimes wants NOTHING to do with you - it has EVERYTHING to do, with your menstrual cycle.” The fact that this set-up makes me giggle and is in my mind EVERY single time I take a shower - I think that is the true power of comedy.
If I could shout from the mountain tops that every person should follow Meaghan’s career and start watching her NOW - I totally would. I however don’t have a mountain top, instead I have a Substack.
Follow Meaghan on INSTAGRAM and see her every Wednesday at Funny Games an open mic/show every at 8:30pm at The Elysian Theater.
ENJOY THE INTERVIEW XO
wardhole: why did you pick the picture you sent over?
Meaghan Strickland: I picked this picture because I think it’s the most funny recent photo of me. I used to be judgmental about posting unflattering selfies but now I’m like – I’m really good at making my teeth look like Bud Dink’s (from the cartoon Doug) (picture below) - so why shouldn’t I use that skill? Also the picture I chose is not me doing the Bud Dink teeth thing, I just share that as an example of my selfie powers.
wardhole: what are you working on right now?
Meaghan Strickland: Right now, I’m trying to get really good at standup and it’s not working!!!!!yet. I’m also working on taking my pursuit of comedy really seriously and to just go for it, gogogo. Feel like maybe I was in survival mode comedy-wise for awhile (“let me just cram for this show” but now I’m like “let me build and save and prepare for winter here.”)
wardhole: what makes you laugh?
Meaghan Strickland: news bloopers like this one (though I haven’t dipped into that well for awhile).
Tim (whom is my roommate and boyfriend) makes me laugh so much.
My friends and my family.
And dang twitter really gets me sometimes…the things people are saying on there…
Also I show this sketch (feel like it’s a good all-audiences share) and this sketch to people a lot.
wardhole: what media are you consuming right now?
Meaghan Strickland: are books media? I’m reading Mel Brooks’ autobiography right now (I found it on my dad’s shelf, I’m home for a couple weeks) and I just finished Later the Same Day (book of short stories by Grace Paley). I didn’t know Mel Brooks wrote and directed The Producers. How much of an idiot is that?* Reading Mel Brooks autobiography I’m struck by how not lasting being well-known is. I mean, it’s lasting but it’s like …your exact contemporaries are really the only ones that fully get what’s up with you (your friends, I think I’m meaning here). Of course we all know who Mel Brooks is but do we really get how much ‘the guy’ he was? Will current babies get how much ‘the guy’ Greta Gerwig is or whatever? Mel says in his book he started doing movies because they last unlike TV and they do but really, your full presence is only felt during your time (maybe?). We’re all just doing stuff for our friends is what I’m saying and for right now? Is that right? Echoes get ever softer or whatever.
*intentionally idiotic phrasing
Also I caught a lot of season 3 (?) of Murders Only in the Building as I’m home for a couple weeks (did I mention that?) and my mom was watching it. (My mom watches all the hip tv, it's cray. My dad and her are like “have you watched The Bear, it's really great. You should watch The Bear” and I’m like okay I def need to check that out.)
wardhole: what advice would you give to younger you?
Meaghan Strickland: Don't stand there (I would give this advice to me on the day a pelican pooped on my back).
Don’t go so crazy with the commitment to day job, if you can help it, put yourself and your passions a little more first.
Record your sets.
Don’t be afraid to say stuff twice (onstage)
wardhole: what advice would you give to a stranger?
Meaghan Strickland: feel like the closest I can come to giving a stranger advice is to say “You dropped this.”
hmm maybe “Please, please don’t vote for Trump.” (is that advice?)
wardhole: how would you describe your artistic style to a normie?
Meaghan Strickland: Kind of observational and making fun of self and silly. That said, I worry that I think I’m onstage making my little observations but I'm really just textbook describing a (my) mental illness.
wardhole: you're given 5 billion- what do you do with it?
Meaghan Strickland: First of all, dinner is on me guys!!! Tonight and evermore.
Then, everybody on Earth gets healthcare, shelter, enough food. Invest like crazy in clean energy, stop climate change in its tracks (is 5 billion enough for that? Please sir, may I have some more billions?).
Also, buy my parents a house and buy Tim and I a house (with a little back house for our parents) (Tim and I don’t have the same parents I just mean for my parents to use as well as his parents to use). Also my house will have a washer /dryer in it and (I’m splurging here!) a dishwasher. Oh, and a pool. And a pet monkey. Jk on the pet monkey but remember when you were a kid and used to draw pictures of your “dream room” (I feel like everyone did this?) and it would always include: a bunk bed or a waterbed, a slide out of the window into a pool and a pet monkey.
wardhole: what is your artistic process for writing jokes?
Meaghan Strickland: morning pages, jot stuff down and try onstage/find onstage, transcribing my sets, sitting down and trying to more write out stuff I’ve already said.
wardhole: what’s on your notes apps?
Meaghan Strickland: I have a note called “Comedy” (which is sort of a joke in itself because it’s just a lot of stuff like “I NEED TO SPEAK TO A SCIENTIST!!!!” and “There are actually 4 Hollywood signs”).
Other notes are “Books read in 2023,” “Want to watch/read,” “To film,” “Passwords,” (it's not what you think jk it is) “Big House Tasks,” “Gift ideas” etc etc
wardhole: who made you laugh recently?
Meaghan Strickland: This
My brother Michael pretending to be a CEO at the top of a meeting saying “First of all, what day is it? Tuesday? Really?”
John Early’s “ask app not to track” bit in his new special.
Michael Patrick O’Brien doing a set at the Best Fish Taco show in Los Feliz. I wish I had a transcript of this set because I want to remember exactly what he said and be able to revisit it at my leisure.
Saw Hannah Einbinder in a standup show recently and she had this bit about cheerleading and how intense it is. And she’s like “you’re right, you’re right. Cheerleading is not a sport...it’s a subset of the United States military.” LOL
Also!! Jo Scott and Kate O’Connor (my Funny Games co-hosts - well I am really their co-host, you know what I mean) make me laugh so hard every week!! They are very funny. And by the way, Funny Games is an open mic/show every Wednesday at 8:30pm at The Elysian Theater – plug alert!!
wardhole: do you have any "white whales" in comedy - something you’ve wanted to tackle for awhile but haven’t?
Meaghan Strickland: yES! Next question.
Jk, my white whale is I want to do a solo show /standup show/“an hour” that is really funny the whole way through.
wardhole: what is hack to you?
Meaghan Strickland: okay i'm not mad about this and also I do it and everyone still does it but the “not to brag” tag is insane in its ubiquitous-ness. And as I type this, I’m realizing that “not to brag” has now actually maybe been shortened to just saying “brag” instead. I think it's sticking around because it really kind of always gets a laugh? And now I’m realizing it's actually hack talking about the “not to brag/brag” tag as hack as that is also so done. So in conclusion what is hack to me is me. I am hack.