Hannah Crooks
Most comedians don’t start out working on Wall Street before they climb their way up in the comedy world, but that is just one of the things that sets Michelle Wolf apart. After attending a taping of “Saturday Night Live,” the young Wolf of Wall Street made a drastic career change into comedy, starting off with improv, which later developed into performing standup shows.
“I think I liked working in finance for the first month or two maybe, but that wore off pretty quickly,” she said. “I cannot imagine my life if I still worked in finance. I think I would probably have an ulcer and a heart attack. Comedy is a much better place to be.”
After a recent switch from “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” Wolf works as a writer and on-air contributor for “The Daily Show.” She also performs standup on tour, one of those stops being on Saturday at the Mill, 120 E. Burlington St.
Wolf said her comedy consists of mainly political topics, relationships, and in general, what it is like to be a woman “from a perspective you might not hear from men.” She has done bits on “The Daily Show” about abortion, Donald Trump’s misogyny, and Kellyanne Conway’s rhetorical fallacies, to name a few. For her standup tour, however, she strays a little from such politically saturated topics.
“I’m going to be doing the show I’ve been doing for the past couple months, which is just a lot of big social issues that are happening right now,” Wolf said. “A little politics, but not too much. I talk about politics all day at work, so I don’t necessarily need to do it all night, too.”
Her subject matter is not the only thing that changes when she shifts from “The Daily Show” to her standup shows. Given the smaller audience, standup allows Wolf to be more daring.
“My standup is definitely more silly and probably pushes the envelope a little bit more,” she said. “With standup, you get a little more freedom to do your own thing. And of course, with “The Daily Show,” Trevor is a very different person from me, so the jokes that I write for him aren’t necessarily jokes that would work coming out of my mouth.”
Apart from standup and “The Daily Show,” Wolf has also created and starred in “Now Hiring” and “Used People,” two digital web series. *Used People*, which costars Dan Soder and follows the lives of two quirky car salespeople, is being developed into a half-hour TV show for Comedy Central.
“We’re writing a pilot right now with Comedy Central for it,” Wolf said. “Dan is just the best. He’s one of my best friends, we work very well together, and he’s funny. It’s one of those things where we’re good friends, but luckily, we also work well together, so it’s kind of a perfect match.”
After her toe-dip in finance, Wolf has maneuvered her way up in the comedy world in a few short years. On how to succeed in the industry, she gave this piece of advice: “Work 10 times harder than you think you have to. And then don’t get discouraged if that doesn’t get you anywhere. The people who really want to do it will stay in it no matter how long it takes.”
When: 8 p.m. Saturday
Where: Mill, 120 E. Burlington
Cost: $15 in advance, $20 day of show