Fortune Feimster on A Roll, Performing in Vegas and Writing Her Own Sitcom for ABC
Fortune Feimster is on a roll,which is good news, since she’s headed to Vegas this weekend to headline as part of the Lipshtick Comedy Series. She says she has terrible luck with gambling, but that doesn’t seem to be affecting her luck in her career. Within the last year she was a part of the Chelsea Lately team, has appeared on Mulaney and Two Broke Girls, was offered a big role in a Tina Fey project, which lead to an even bigger project with Tina Fey, and now she’s headlining Vegas. We got the chance to talk with Fortune about performing in Vegas, and all of the exciting new developments in her career.
This weekend when Fortune headlines at the Venetian Hotel it will be her first time headlining on the Vegas Strip. She said she was honored to get the call to be a part of Lipshtick, a Vegas showcase of some of the top names in comedy– all women. “It was a double cool situation” she told us, “because there were so many awesome comedians doing it and I was proud and honored to be a part of it. But also I’ve never performed at the Venetian before and that’s really cool because it’s such a big hotel and they have such amazing entertainment in Vegas and it was really cool that I get to do this.” When she takes the stage this weekend, she’ll join the ranks of some great names like Roseanne, Susie Essman, Lisa Lampanelli and and so many other great women who have been a part of the Lipshtick series.
Being a part of the series is just one part the amazing directions her life has taken. Up until last year, she was a big part of the Chelsea Lately family of writers and performers. She left the show eight months early because yet another incredible opportunity crossed her path. She was cast in a sitcom under development with executive producer Tina Fey. The project, Cabot College, didn’t come to fruition, but the experience was priceless and opened up yet another door for her.
“When Cabot didn’t go, I was so bummed” she said, “because they had put together this incredible team of people.” The team consisted of Matt Hubbard, Robert Carlock and David Miner along with Tina Fey. “I was just like, I want to keep working with these people, so I pitched an idea to Matt about my family and myself and he was on board and then we talked to Tina about it and her writing partner, Robert Carlock and they were just like, lets do it!” Fortune said she was so excited about the opportunity. “I was like, jaw to the floor- couldn’t believe that they said yes and I’m just so pumped. So we ended up selling it, and this ones going to ABC and so I hope that this second time is the charm.”
The sitcom will be based on her own life and the lives of her family. “It won’t be completely factual,” she told us. “It will be things that inspired my life. But for me I think I’m almost better at playing myself than anyone else. I feel like it will showcase me. It’s my voice.” She told us it’s going to take place a few years ago, during the time of her life when she was first coming out to her friends and family. “I’ll be a little bit younger, I’ll be in my mid-twenties and my character will have just come out of the closet.”
They had a number of offers for show, but she chose ABC, in part, because of ABC’s track record when it comes to dealing with families. We went with ABC because they seem to be doing a lot of shows– they have the Cristela show and Cristela’s a stand up, and they have Modern Family which has the gay aspect and they just seemed like they were the most open to trying something new. And different.”
Of course it’s not a done deal yet. “When you sell a show, everyone’s like, ‘we can’t wait to watch it!’ and you’re like, so much has to happen first,” she told us. Right now they are writing the pilot, and they will turn that in around Christmas and wait to find out if they’ll get to shoot the pilot. “I’m writing it with Matt Hubbard, and then Tina and Robert will give us some notes and fill in the holes. I couldn’t have my life story in better hands.”
We asked Fortune if she feels that there are more lesbian are thriving in comedy now than ever before. “It seems like the gay thing is not as taboo right now,” she said. “You’re seeing more and more shows have gay characters, and Orange is the New Black is so popular and gay stand ups are having a good time and they’re funny and people are enjoying that different brand of comedy.” But, she pointed out, her generation is not the first generation to take on issues of being a gay woman in comedy. “Gay stand ups though, women in particular have always been strong. I mean Ellen and Rosie and now Wanda; they’ve always made such a splash. I feel like there was kind of a gap between them…and us. And now we’re sort of coming up through the ranks, and hopefully we’ll be doing the same kind of cool stuff that they did. And we’re just lucky because they opened up a lot of those doors and kind of paved the way for us.”
No matter what happens with her sitcom, Fortune plans to keep performing stand up. “The live performance– there’s nothing that can compare to it. You just hope that you get a show on the air and that it will help as far as people who want to come to your stand up shows. So the goal is just, to continue to grow your audience so that more and more people can see your comedy and share your stories with them.
But for now it’s Vegas and the Venetian this weekend sharing the stage with Iliza Shlesinger, and Fortune is excited. “Hopefully people come and have a good time. Iliza is so funny and we both are silly and we just want people to come and laugh and drink and have a good Saturday night.”
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Fortune will be performing in “Lipshtick” with Iliza Shlesinger on November 15 at the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas. To get tickets, visit http://www.venetian.com/lipshtick.html
Lipshtick: the Perfect Shade of Stand Up” marks the first time in the history of Las Vegas entertainment that a comedy stage will be performed on exclusively by female performers. Some of the funny women that have already headlined include Heather McDonald, Susie Essman, Roseanne, and Sara Schaefer.
Upcoming Lipshtick Shows
- November 15th Iliza Shlesinger and Fortune Feimster
- November 22nd Loni Love
- November 28 & 29: Whitney Cummings
- December 26 & 27: Lisa Lampanelli
- January 2, 3: Whitney Cummings
