Shlesinger grins as they bare it
You can't see Iliza Shlesinger on NBC's "Last Comic Standing" anymore because she won the reality competition two weeks ago. But you still can see her anchoring a comic news show on TheStream.tv -- in her underpants.
"I'm not out to be scandalous," Shlesinger says. "Originally the (online video) studio was hot. There were lights and everything. And so I was like, 'I'm wearing a blazer to look professional, but I don't need to wear pants.' "
Shlesinger will be all covered up on Sunday, though, when she starts doing eight- to 10-minute routines at "Jubilee!" at Bally's.
She's happy to be opening for the topless show, instead of performing between showgirl numbers.
"That would be my worst nightmare, like: 'Glitter, glam, sex, boobs -- and Iliza's jokes about pizza!' "
"Jubilee!" is a good gig, especially compared to some of her stand-up dates in the past. One time, she took a job at a country club where, as she learned when she got there, she had to joke while strippers worked the male crowd.
"I didn't plan on those guys being (wasted). And I didn't plan on there being strippers there," she says. "They were just naked and sitting there on their laps. Yeah."
She wasn't thrilled. But she got through it.
"You can figure out a way to work with it, or you can work past it, but you can't work against it," she says. "I just imagined, 'Oh my God, what if they actually listened to me?' That helped."
Shlesinger's delivery on "The Weakly News" is pretty entertaining and sometimes fixated on her doing impressions of her half-Manx/half-Persian cat, Catsby.
"My cat's actually not very cute," she says. "One of his eyes doesn't work, he drips earwax, he's missing part of his ear, he's got a gross mouth. ... He's like the fat chick at the party.
"Nobody wants to take him home, but he's got a great personality."
Shlesinger and I talk about Catsby for so long, we wonder if this column should be written solely about felines.
"That would be brilliant if it was just about cats," she says.
Alas, we had to talk about the panties and strippers and showgirls.
She opens for "Jubilee!" at 7:30 and 10:30 p.m. Sunday-Wednesday ($50-$112; 967-4567).
Doug Elfman's column appears on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Contact him at 702-383-0391 and delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.
