It was an ordinary day at home in Pennington for 15-year-old Liz Miele, that is, until George Carlin called.
Determined to become a stand up comic before she was even in high school, Miele heeded a piece of advice from her dad and reached out to people doing what she wanted to do.
Miele wrote to more than 40 comedians. Most didn’t reply, a few sent headshots, but Judd Apatow and Carlin took the time to respond. Apatow sent her an email and told her to get a writing degree, and Carlin called Miele to offer his own advice and discuss the best ways to write jokes.
Miele, now 30, said the experience was like a dream. It was one of the few times all four of her siblings were out and she had the house to herself, and she joked that it felt like she was actually just losing her mind afterwards.
“It was pretty surreal, and I called everybody I’ve ever met after I got off the phone,” she said.
Miele kept in touch with Carlin until his death in 2008, exchanging emails or meeting up for lunch when he came to New York City. Carlin was always willing to give advice to Miele, who was an up-and-coming stand up comic.
“He wasn’t just nice to me, the story of his niceness is vast, and so many people have stories about how gracious he was with his time and knowledge,” she said. “In a weird way I just want to grow up to be that kind of person.”
Since that initial phone call with Carlin 15 years ago, Miele’s career has grown significantly. She moved to Brooklyn, where in addition to performing in comedy clubs she created two web series, “Apartment C3” and “Damaged.” She released her first album, “Emotionally Exhausting,” in 2014 and will be headlining The Cutting Room in New York City this May.
Even with guidance from one of the most legendary comedians in the business, the road to becoming a stand up comic was a long one for Miele.
When Miele discovered stand up comedy at the age of 13, she immediately fell in love with it. After watching countless stand up specials from just about every comedian, including Wanda Sykes and Dave Chappelle, Miele began writing her own jokes at just 14 and decided she wanted to be a stand up comedian.
Miele first began performing stand up when she was 16, traveling from Pennington to New York City with friends and sometimes — often without her parents’ knowledge — alone. In fact, Miele kept her stand up comedy a secret from them, James and Terry Miele, for about six months.
Even though Miele didn’t initially tell her parents — who own the Princeton Animal Hospital and Carnegie Cat Clinic — about her stand up comedy because she was afraid they wouldn’t let her go into the city and perform, they were happy to support their daughter’s dream.
“Her whole family is incredibly proud of her,” James Miele said. “She’s incredibly dedicated to doing her craft and doing it right.”
In order to get into the city to do stand up comedy for the first time, she planned a girls’ weekend in New York with her friends.
“I was a nervous wreck,” she said. “Everybody was having fun in New York City, and I was losing my mind.”
Miele said her first show went pretty well, but admits in hindsight the crowd most likely recognized that a young kid was trying something for the first time and politely laughed. She had all of her jokes written on her arm and was trying to be physical, something she quickly learned makes her feel uncomfortable on stage. Miele has since worked to find her voice, which required many more trips into the city.
“She said, ‘I want to be a stand up comedian,’ and I said ‘OK what’s the plan?’” James Miele said. “I don’t discourage [my children] from anything they want to do, but I want to know what the plan is.”
Miele’s plan was to keep writing jokes and performing them as often as possible. Carlin advised her to keep writing and rewriting jokes, and Miele was driven to become the best she can be.
“Liz is a highly motivated self-starter, but incredibly introspective,” James Miele said, adding that his daughter is a self-improvement addict.
Most comedy clubs only open the stage to new comedians during Bringer Shows, which require the comedian to bring a certain number of people — who are then required to buy a certain number of drinks — in order to perform. Miele’s father usually accompanied her and her fiends to the shows and was always in awe of how many people she was able to bring with her.
“I’d be sitting in the seat a little further back, and I’d just be amazed that she got all these people to go up to New York City so she could get up on stage,” he said. “She would work the phones all week like a marketing person, and I was always impressed. She’d be calling up teachers, parents of students, students, anybody she could get to come up to New York to do these bringer shows.”
After high school, Miele attended The New School in Greenwich Village and moved to Brooklyn after graduating. However, she learned that in order to make it as a comedian, she’d have to do more than stand up.
“The thing about stand up comedy — and everybody tells you this and no one believes it, including myself — you can’t make money,” he said. “It is so hard to make a living doing stand up comedy.”
Miele was told many stand up comedians are left with two choices: become an actress or a writer. With the same drive and passion that once got her on stage for Bringer Shows, she began to research screenwriting.
She started the web series “Apartment C3” with her former roommates after they were trapped in their apartment during Hurricane Irene. She also wrote an animated web series “Damaged” — a story about two damaged teenage robots adopted by humans — but didn’t have the money to fund it herself. Rather than let the idea die, she started a Kickstarter and received $8,000 to put out the first season in 2013.
“The nice thing about my generation is we don’t have to let ideas die or wait around for people to care,” she said.
While Miele was writing and creating her web series, she never stopped performing stand up. Over the last decade, Miele has found her voice, which she describes as ranty and boisterous. Her jokes range from stories about her dating life to jokes her pet cat, saying we’re all one just one devastation away from owning a cat.
One of her jokes about feminist sex positions went viral in 2014. Miele decided that since all of the names and acts for sex positions are misogynistic, she created new ones that had a slightly more realistic or empowering tone. The video of her performing the stand up joke has more than 300,000 views, and an Upworthy video of her and another actor performing her joke got more than 1.5 million views in its first day.
Eventually, Miele felt she was ready to tackle the career milestone of releasing an album. She tried to record it twice, once in Boston then in New York, but encountered audio issues each time that prevented it from ever being released.
“It got ruined twice in a six-month period, and I was devastated,” she said.
The destruction of her first album ended up being a positive experience, however, because she decided to write new material that better represented who she was at the time.
“That hour from when I recorded it the first time, it was disjointed,” she said. “Half the album was jokes I had been doing for years and half the album was new material.”
Since Miele often draws from personal experiences, her jokes are very open and honest, sometimes brutally so. She said she is very closed off in real life, but on stage she was always able to open up and speak her mind.
After her first album attempt fell through, Miele then spent the next year and a half writing new material for “Emotionally Exhausting” that reflected her personality and views at the time.
“I wrote a whole new hour, and it felt like me because all that material still resonated with me,” she said. “Why I still love stand up after 13 years is it’s kind of my truth.”
Now, Miele is working on her next album, “Mind Over Melee,” which she’ll be performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She says that 98 percent of what she says on stage is true, even if she is talking about an old experience.
“Sometimes when I’m telling a joke it doesn’t fully represent me anymore because by actually talking about it I’ve gotten through those feelings and I don’t feel that way anymore,” she said. “You’re always playing a character of yourself, and sometimes that character is you three months ago.”
More information about Liz Miele, including her tour schedule, is online at lizmiele.com.
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