Brooklyn’s 50 Funniest People: Lane Moore
Lane Moore
News flash: Dating in New York City is terrible. Which is why Lane Moore is a blessing. With clear eyes and a skeptical heart, Lane Moore delivers the gift that is Tinder Live!, which should help any of us who have submitted to using the app (or, as Moore calls it, “Where sadness goes to fuck”) feel immeasurably better about it. Suddenly, being loveless in New York City feels ok. Healthy, even. She is also joy on Twitter, where she once wrote one of my favorite tweets of all time: “my favorite comedian is any TSA guy giving instructions at any airport.” Look for more good stuff to come from her and fellow-funny person, Lauren Maul, who, together, are unleashing a new musical comedy project.
When was the first time you remember making someone laugh? What happened?
I don’t know that I remember it but I know I was definitely around 2 years old. I have a photo of me at that age doing an impression of a funny face my stuffed animal was making, so I was always going for the joke or the impression or whatever it was pretty much at birth. That’s such a tiny age to already be doing impressions, but it doesn’t surprise me at all because I can’t remember a time when that wasn’t my driving force.
What is the toughest part about being on the comedy scene in Brooklyn today?
What is the best?
It doesn’t pay well for the most part, like a lot of art forms don’t, but that’s true in most cities. I also accepted that fact from a very early age because I know that’s just how it is. Hopefully it won’t always be. The best part about the comedy scene is Brooklyn is diversity is really encouraged. People want to hear from women and people of color and LGBT people because our city is full of all sorts of beautiful, wonderful geniuses and if you have a distinct voice and you can make people really, truly laugh and feel amazing, they will flock to you and they will stay loyal and they will support the hell out of you. I love being a part of the comedy scene in Brooklyn so much you don’t even know.
Who do you find funny?
Janeane Garofalo and Amy Poehler and Molly Shannon and Cheri Oteri and Rachel Dratch and Mr. Show and MST3K and Amy Sedaris and Mo’Nique and Margaret Cho and George Carlin and Bill Hicks were everything to me as a kid. I also always thought Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion was one of the funniest movies ever. It’s so underrated and brilliant. I used to watch it every single week when I was a kid. Now, I still love stand-up and sketch so much (Maria Bamford and Morgan Murphy and Wanda Sykes are some of my favorites) but there are also TV actors who make me lose my mind. The guy who plays Rogelio on Jane The Virgin makes me lose it all the time. His line deliveries are so so good. Bob Odenkirk will always crack me up and so will Kate McKinnon, who I want to be friends with so badly.
What was the last time you laughed so hard you cried?
I do that all the time with my friend Dustin David who’s also a comedian and we’ve known each other forever. We came up in the stand-up scene together years ago in LA with our friends Jerrod Carmichael and Yassir Lester and our late friend Angelo Bowers. We all did shows together every night and supported the hell out of each other. I also produced and hosted my own comedy show in LA that was stand-up and sketch and improv and we’d all just go hang out and try out jokes and chill together. It was such a tight-knit comedy family I felt so lucky to have. To now see everyone blowing up in different ways is just so incredible. But yeah, Dustin and I have an insane comedy chemistry and when we talk to each other it’s just a laugh-until-your-abs-are-in-so-much-pain situation. I love that so much.
What are your goals for your comedy career?
I want to have multiple TV shows on the air that people really love, I want to keep writing and directing and producing and performing, I want to keep popping up on other people’s TV shows all the time in comedic roles, I want to be able to tour all of the places I want to tour, not just with Tinder LIVE (which I’m finally touring with now), but with just me as a stand-up comedian and have a ton of people come out in every city. I want to make things that matter and that help people through really difficult times in their life. My whole life, the only person or thing I’ve had as any kind of constant or support was comedy and music. That’s it. It kind of bothers me when comedians will say stuff like, “Oh please, I’m a comedian, what I do doesn’t matter.” I really disagree. I think art can be so powerful and healing and vital to some people’s survival. It always has been for me.
What is your favorite knock-knock (or otherwise goofy) joke?
I can never remember these, but I do remember ordering a lot of joke books as a little kid and then getting them and thinking, “What the shit is this? These aren’t funny at all. What a rip-off.” I did Google knock-knock jokes just now though and even with the best one I found is like…it’s fine. For what it is, I laughed in spite of myself and then hated that I laughed, which I think is the point of a knock-knock joke. But I still don’t even want to repeat it because that’s how much I hate knock-knock jokes.
To see 49 more of Brooklyn’s funniest people, click here.
Photo by Nicolas Maloof.
