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"Shame-less" Shayma Tash Most female comedians seem to fall into one of two camps: the ditzy and naive bimbo, or the aggressive and nasty tomboy who tries to out-dirty the foulest of men. But if you have the good fortune to catch rising star Shayma Tash, who performs primarily in Los Angeles, you'll see a female comic with the guts and talent to break those molds. Blessed with a presence that walks the line between confident and cocky, Tash still has a likeability that wins crowds over en route to an impressive final string of impressions that closes each of her shows. (When's the last time you saw a woman pull off a dead-perfect Robert DeNiro before nailing her take on Fran Drescher, the notoriously obnoxious former star of the sitcom The Nanny?) "I don't know if Sarah [Silverman] writes her own stuff, but judging by what I see, I think she just hangs with a bunch of guys who tell her 'say this.' Or she talks that way because the shock is entertaining for a bunch of guys," says Tash, when asked about the reigning hipster queen of comedy. "I don't get female comics who have to call themselves a whore or be self-deprecating to be funny. I try to go against that, because I don't want to defame myself just to make somebody else feel secure about themselves. A lot of comedy is making the audience feel superior, but I don't think it has to be at my expense." The decision to stand by her guns is paying off for Tash, as she recently landed a regular gig on the E! cable network conducting humorous exit interviews with local moviegoers to glean their opinions about films. "I [had] to see The Dukes of Hazzard for research, but then again, I did get to see Hustle and Flow and I can't believe I'm so enamored of a movie that chants 'Whoop that trick!' throughout, but it's so honest and edgy," says Tash. "I love how ugly it is, it's not dressed up and Hollywood, where they have to put fake lashes and makeup on every last person. At least it's not another remake -- which are just so lame and thoughtless and terrible ideas that disturb me." Tash grew up in San Diego but also lived in San Francisco for a time because of her parents divorce. The unsettled situation inspired her to enter the comedy profession because, as she phrased it, "I have four parents, but they're all cheap. "I haven't gotten Christmas presents since I was a kid. I used to send baskets and gifts to my family members, but for some reason they couldn't get around to sending a card, so I stopped," says Tash. "I was 0 for 4 with the parents and stepparents, but not one of 'em was even remotely fit to be a parent at the time. Comedy was a way to escape just the dreary realities of my family life, like pretty much most comics." Tash learned to follow great comics early, recalling Lily Tomlin and Richard Pryor as her earliest influences thanks to the fact that her parents "didn't really censor anything." She notes that "I have a lot of friends that are comics whom I look up to and are gonna do great things, but they're not household names now." Although her writing process varies between typing out her act, trying notes out onstage and improvising, she regards writing as a therapy that enables her to purge uncomfortable incidents with little sarcastic remarks that make them funny. Tash is heading to U.S. military bases in Japan later this month as part of a Morale, Wellness and Recreation (MWR) tour. While she's been lucky not to perform in Iraq yet, she has already completed lengthy MWR tours of Bosnia that left a lasting impression on her. "It's hard to be moved personally by pictures on TV, but if you're in a war zone or what was one, you can see the apartment buildings where people lived and see the actual machine gun holes covering the entire building," says Tash. "In Bosnia, there were crosses in every third yard to honor their family dead. There are 465 million land mines in the area and they only gave me a note to not walk on soft ground. If they had mentioned that to me I might have made another decision than to travel over there, but Iraq I've been lucky not to deal with." Tash went "solely pro" about six years ago and has seen the hard-won progress that has enabled her to make a successful living in one of showbiz's most difficult fields. "I'm actually excited about this point in my career because I feel I've done the work, and now I have the opportunity to get a little bit more exposure and generate some heat," says Tash. "My whole goal was to try and be honest, even if it's at the expense of getting people to like me. I have to find my own voice. It's a real risk because they're not rejecting a character, they’re rejecting you. It's more personal when you're a comic, but it's very gratifying especially when it does work."
Carl Kozlowski is a regular Arriviste contributor and the co-author of the satirical
self-help guide Life: The Final Frontier. (Pick
this up!) He has also performed standup coast to coast and written
for the Chicago Tribune, New City Weekly in Chicago, Chicago
Reader and Pasadena Weekly. |
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