Elayne Boosler
| Elayne Boosler | |
|---|---|
| Born |
August 18, 1952 Brooklyn, New York, United States |
| Occupation | Comedian, writer, actress, Founder of Tails of Joy non-profit animal rescue org. |
| Years active | 1974–present |
| Spouse(s) | Bill Siddons (m. 2007) |
Elayne Boosler (born August 18, 1952) is an American comedian and advocate for animal rescue.
Boosler was born into a Jewish family and raised in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. She was the youngest child and only daughter of her father, a Russian acrobat, and her mother, a Romanian ballerina. She attended public schools in Brooklyn, including Shellbank Junior High School and Sheepshead Bay High School. She is married to Bill Siddons, a music industry executive and former manager of The Doors.
After a job as a singer/dancer in touring companies and many unsuccessful waitressing jobs, Boosler worked as doorman at The Improvisation comedy club in New York City for two and a half years. While working there, she met comedian Andy Kaufman, a regular at the club, who convinced her she should do standup comedy. They lived together in Greenwich Village for three years and remained close friends until Kaufman's death. For her "comedy education" Boosler credits Kaufman as well as her other peers at the time, which included Freddie Prinze, Jay Leno, Larry David, Richard Lewis, Richard Belzer, Jimmie Walker, and Ed Bluestone.
In 1986, Boosler became the first female to get her own one-hour comedy special on cable when Showtime aired Party of One. Having no credit cards or borrowing power, Boosler saved her money to produce the special herself when cable executives told her that they did not believe people would tune in to see a female do an hour of comedy. She successfully toured for 50 weeks a year performing a two-hour comedy show. People magazine gave it an A. John J. O'Connor in the New York Times wrote: "How refreshing, a woman who doesn't have to tear her own skin off for our amusement... an attractive human being simply standing there being funny, the first to feel she doesn't have to be a grotesque...."
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