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Meet Jessica Abrams

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Abrams.

Jessica, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I came to Los Angeles from New York twenty years ago to write screenplays. I remember it was Winter in New York when I made the decision. Snow — dirty, soot-covered snow — was on streets and my friends in LA were sipping tea on their patio and it was eighty degrees. That plus the fact that I wanted to write for film and television made the decision to move a no-brainer. I’ve never regretted it. Los Angeles is the kind of place that allows you to discover yourself if you look hard enough.

I had some luck writing on various television shows, but I was disheartened by putting my heart and soul into spec scripts that would then live in the bottom drawer of my desk. So I started writing plays. This I can have some control over, I thought. I wrote plays and still write plays, and my play THE LAUGHING COW was produced here in Los Angeles to rave reviews, but all the while something in me was pushing to move beyond writing. As much of a writer as I was, or became in the day-to-day rigor of it, I had always wanted to act. I had a neighbor — a guy who lived across the street — who I’d see while walking my dog. His name was Anthony Meindl and he had — has — an acting studio.

As I was writing plays, I would ask several of his students to be in readings. It had become a home of sorts. So one day I took the leap and enrolled in classes at the studio. I don’t know why it was so hard for me to do that but all I can say is, I was stuck on an idea of who I was and what I thought I was supposed to do. It was this old-school idea that you pick one thing and you don’t divert from it, which I think is changing, particularly in Los Angeles. I honestly think we humans have many people and many lifetimes in us.

Suddenly I began to see myself as the actress I always was… I started to create my web series KNOCKING ON DOORS which allowed me to truly find my voice, both as a creator and a comedienne. That was a seminal experience for me and one that told me where I would like to end up. I started doing standup comedy three years ago. It, too, was a lifelong dream. it found me, at the right time and in the right place.

Now I perform every Sunday night in the Cadillac Sundays show at The Comedy Store, in addition to shows all over town. In June, I’m performing in Paris, I’m living my dream. I know this every morning when I wake up and the birds chirp outside my Hollywood bungalow and the jasmine comes through my window. I think that’s what this city does; it allows you to move past the notions of what society says you “should” do and to connect with what your soul tells you to do. At least that’s what it did for me.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It has not been a smooth road. There have been a lot of “no’s” which, if you’re a sensitive person like me, feel like someone is taking a sledgehammer to your soul. There have been disappointments, projects that don’t take off, meetings that make you think “this is it! I’ve arrived!” that don’t lead anywhere. But the challenge is to welcome the no’s and to understand that the very act of putting yourself out there is the win.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
My business is me — my personality, the jokes I write and the humanity that I infuse into my work. As an actress/stand-up comic/writer, I work to hone my brand constantly. What you see — a funny woman in her forties who is single and doesn’t have kids, who live in a Hollywood bungalow, grateful for the chance to live her dream at this time in her life — that’s who I am.

The goal in my work is to make it as truthful as possible, to connect to people so that they feel a sense of comfort and communion and compatibility with me and can, somehow relate to my story no matter how different theirs might be superficial.

What were you like growing up?
I was always performing and telling stories. I grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina to a Jewish father in the textile business and a German mother. And when I say “German”, I mean, fresh off the boat for the most part. My desire to perform was very foreign to her and she didn’t exactly encourage it.

Sure, I had dance lessons but they were so that I didn’t stumble or slouch when I walked down the street. I would try to entertain my little sister with song and dance and it drove her crazy. I was funny. I knew this, but at the time wasn’t sure how to harness it and turn it into something one does for a living. But I remember my father telling me I was funny and I think that stuck with me.

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