What do you get when you take a Jewish, lesbian woman, who won’t tell you her real age,  put her on stage in front of an audience and give her a microphone? 

 

You get Michele Balan, who was, the last woman standing, on NBC’s “Last Comic Standing,” last year.  In fact, she believes that she made it that far - not because she is a woman - and not because she is Jewish, or a lesbian, but, because she was the old broad on the show.  “I think that I got on “Last Comic Standing,” because of my age,” says Michele.  “I told the judges that they needed an old broad on the program.  I probably would have won but the people in my demo couldn’t make that many calls from a rotary phone…if my number was connected to ‘Light Alert’ I would have won!” She laughs!.

 

Comedy comes natural to Michele.  As fast as she speaks, she doesn’t miss a beat.  Her sense of humor flows from her lips and her mind is racing at warp speed.  She started her comedy routine back in the 1970’s impersonating Bette Midler.  She says, “I looked a lot like Bette, I had larger breasts than she does, except I’m not sure what happened to mine now…and I started all of this at the age of… 6!”  she says with a big smile!  She would lip sync her songs, ride tricycles off the stage, and had a cult following.  It was that following who would tell her that she should be a professional comedian.  “Whoever they are, I want to kill them today!  I’m working my way to homelessness! Thank you, people!” She jokes!  Michele left a corporate job in sales, where she was making a lot of money, getting promotions and decided to listen to all those voices telling her to go into comedy.  “You just don’t walk out and make a good living,” she says.  “I had a corporate career.  I was working during the day – and I decided to leave my job and do comedy!”  “I don’t know what I was thinking – I had to pay my mortgage.”  “I ended up in a gym selling memberships.  I did go through some rocky roads, but now I can say to people – “Have faith” in what you are doing! Don’t give up that dream!”

 

The comedic life is not an easy road, but it took Michele Balan about five years to get bookings, and start making some money.  She did believe there was hope!  “When I first started performing, I worked the comedy clubs until two in the morning.  You sit around and wait your turn, you could be number 412!  By the time you get up on stage to do your three minute routine, there is one guy left, who’s drunk, and yelling at you to take your clothes off.  So, of course, I yell back, “You don’t want to see that yet, it’s my closing joke!”

 

Comedy can be one of the hardest professions in the entertainment arena.  You never know how the audience will respond to your jokes or your humor, and you always have to be one step ahead. “If I could sing, I would rather do that, jokes Michele.  I hardly have a voice!  With singing, some people may be paying attention, you can interact with the band…you sing - the audience listens.  With comedy you are so vulnerable to your audience.  You don’t know them.  You don’t know what they are thinking.  You always have to be prepared with a mental rolodex of jokes, ready for the next one – just in case!” “It’s boom, I tell you something, and boom you react! The reaction is so immediate – It’s like smoking pot,” she jokes.  “You get that immediate reaction!” “There is no greater feeling knowing that when you hear people laugh, they get what you are doing.” 

 

Being prepared is essential to a great routine. Where does Michele Balan get her material?  “I go from doing a gay man’s cruise to a Jewish country club! It’s unbelievable! It’s like going from one underwear party to another!” She quips almost not thinking about what she just said. “I’ll see something and I just make a joke about it! It’s a gift!  It’s the one talent that I do have!”

 

Her experiences with the “Last Comic Standing” will always be a memorable one for Michele.  The show begins with thousands who audition, hoping to make it down to the final ten.  “The house we lived in on the show, was actually the Queen Mary, the ship that is docked in Long Beach, California.”  “The last time it set sail was 1960 – that was the last time it was vacuumed!” she jokes.  “I haven’t had a roommate in years, now I’m living with ten people, cameras everywhere, filming your every movement.  You are running around so much,  you tend to forget you are on camera.  When I look back at those shots, I wonder – where did they get that one!” “They keep you running on purpose, to wear you out - I got home from a challenge at midnight and we had to get up at 2AM for a radio show…. But its midnight, I said.” The response –“Well you can sleep for an hour.” There was a couple of meltdowns…we were tired…we were hungry!  The show producers wanted to cause drama.  It’s good TV! “I lost my temper with a few people as well…you want to win!  You are in a house with a bunch of comics trying to be funnier then the next. But my focus was to win.  I wanted to get closest to the end.”

 

What about the question of her sexuality?  Do you dare say, the “L” word? “When people knew my sexuality they said, ‘Oh, you are a gay comic!’  “I said, ‘No! I’m not a gay comic! I’m Jewish!  I do comedy. I don’t want to be pigeon-holed! My sexuality should not have anything  to do with my career. A lot of my material is about my life and what I am dealing with at the time. I look back at some of the stuff I did 20 years ago…and it is funny!  Comedy is honesty and it comes from you – we are sharing moments of our lives and our sensibilities.

 

What’s next for comedienne Michele Balan? “I have been traveling so much, I can’t wait to go home to see if they evicted me from my NY apartment!” she says.  And… the Vegas Insider asks Michele to give the inside scoop on something in her life that nobody knows…” Hmmm…I got one,” says Michele, “Something that nobody knows about - I live in a walk up apartment in New York City and I tell people I have an elevator and a doorman - the truth is I don’t!” “Maybe I will move here to Las Vegas since the Jews do well in the desert!”