Iliza Vie Shlesinger
(born February 22, 1983) is an American Jewish [1] comedienne from Dallas, Texas, where she attended Greenhill School and participated on the school's Improv Team. She is a graduate of Emerson College. She is the first female to win Last Comic Standing
. She was twice selected by other comedians to compete in the head-to-head eliminations and won both times. She is host of The Weakly News
on TheStream.tv
Shlesinger became the first female and the also youngest winner of NBC's Last Comic Standing
in the series' sixth season. She is currently appearing in The Last Comic Standing Tour. [2]
Shlesinger performed with ComedySportz Dallas. She attended the University of Kansas for her freshman year. She then transferred to Emerson College in Boston and majored in Film. There she was the only female member of the campus favorite comedy sketch group, Jimmy’s Traveling All Stars and refined her writing and editing skills. After graduating college, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue stand-up. In 2007, Shlesinger won Myspace’s So You Think You're Funny
contest and has been featured as the G4 Network’s Myspace Girl of the Week
. Her television credits include E! Network's Forbes Celebrity 100
, TV Guide’s America’s Next Top Producer
, Byron Allen’s Comics Unleashed,
and History Channel’s History of a Joke
. She has written for Heavy.com, had her own show on GOTV’s mobile network and currently hosts The Weakly News with Iliza and Alexis
on TheStreamTV.
Her stand-up comedy résumé includes performing in various cities in Asia for Armed Forces Entertainment, The Las Vegas House of Blues, The Comedy Store, and The Improv. In 2008, Shlesinger was selected to perform at the Montreal Comedy Festival – Just For Laughs in the coveted New Faces showcase Just for Laughs.
Since winning LCS, she has appeared on E!’s “The Soup” taped an appearance for “Chelsea Lately,” and hosted the Playboy TV program "Gadget Or the Girl," a soft core reality dating game show.
She currently resides in Los Angeles.
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ILIZA SHLESINGER TICKETS
| EVENT | DATE | AVAILABILITY |
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| Iliza Shlesinger Tickets 11/15 | Nov 15, 2024
Fri, 8:00 PM |  | | Iliza Shlesinger Tickets 11/22 | Nov 22, 2024
Fri, 7:00 PM | | | Iliza Shlesinger Tickets 11/23 | Nov 23, 2024
Sat, 7:00 PM | | | Iliza Shlesinger Tickets 12/6 | Dec 06, 2024
Fri, 8:00 PM | | | Iliza Shlesinger Tickets 1/17 | Jan 17, 2025
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Last Comic Standing
Shlesinger was auditioned in
San Francisco by judges
Joshua Gomez and
French Stewart. She later won the audition and went on to the Semi-Finals. After getting through that part of the competition, she progressed to the finals with comedians
Marcus,
Jeff Dye,
Jim Tavare,
Louis Ramey,
Sean Cullen,
Adam Hunter,
Ron G.,
Papa CJ,
Paul Foot,
Esther Ku, and
God's Pottery. During the first elimination, Shlesinger, God's Pottery, and Esther Ku were chosen for the head-to-head competition. She won that competition and went on. In the second elimination, Paul Foot and Papa CJ were chosen for the head-to-head competition. Then they both chose Shlesinger to be the third person in the competition. After she won, she went on to the third head-to-head, which had a twist. All the comedians remaining would perform and America had to decide who progresses. After surviving that level, the final eight were announced and America had to decide who would be the
Last Comic Standing. During the final show, the competition was narrowed down to Shlesinger and Marcus, at which point Iliza said that "It feels amazing just to be here and to be able to share my jokes with the world. It's not so much about being a girl, it's about being a funny comic."
[3], Later she was announced
Last Comic Standing
Controversial comments
Schlesinger expressed her dislike of the comedian
Mo'nique in a blog on her
MySpace page dated July 31, 2006. This dislike stems primarily from Mo'nique's obesity and her efforts at promoting "fat acceptance" through the film
Phat Girlz and the UPN television program
Mo'Nique's Fat Chance.
Schlesinger summed up her opinion of MoNiques Fat Chance by saying:
"Being big is one thing, but being fat because you can’t stop shoving food in your face is totally another and, honestly, shouldn’t be rewarded."
"Fact is, most of them weren’t even pretty, they were just fat..."
"It was painful watching her (Mo'nique) as she struggled to enunciate her words over, her fat throat-sounded like it was closing up on her every few seconds. I wanted to hit her, or, in the words of Mike Jones("Ring her fat goose neck till her eyeballs popped out.")
References
- [1] "True Confession: Witnessing" Video on YouTube
- [1]
- NBC.com ''Last Comic Standing'' Retrieved on Sept 26, 2008.