0:00

I'm Sasha Ann Simons, and this

0:02

is Reset. You

0:14

know her as the street -wise,

0:16

sharp -tongued teacher Melissa Shimenti at

0:18

Abbott Elementary, who takes her Branzino

0:20

and love of the Philadelphia

0:22

Eagles seriously. Melissa, I

0:24

need your baseball bat. Tape it

0:27

under my desk. Poison! If

0:31

I'm taking someone out, I want to watch

0:33

them go. And all these wasted eggs when

0:35

the cowboys are in town. Everybody

0:40

please head to the gym. We've

0:42

got bigger fish to fry now.

0:47

But actress Lisa Ann Walter is more

0:49

than just her character. She can do

0:51

everything from headline a comedy club, author

0:53

a popular memoir, and even win a

0:55

million bucks on Jeopardy. And this

0:57

weekend, she'll also be taking the stage

0:59

at Zany's in Rosemont. But first,

1:01

Lisa Ann Walter checked in with

1:03

us here. I started by congratulating her

1:05

on season five of beloved Abbott

1:08

Elementary. We will start shooting

1:10

season five this summer, and

1:12

we turn around pretty quickly.

1:14

start Table Reads in July, we start shooting

1:17

in August, and it's on your TV by

1:19

September. Oh my goodness. love it when it

1:21

wants our season to be

1:23

like it used to be, an old

1:25

school TV, when you were

1:27

like, school's starting, oh, drag, but our

1:29

new TV shows are coming on. It's

1:31

the perfect schedule, I think.

1:34

Yeah, that's awesome. schedule

1:36

love it of course on that show

1:38

you're playing a teacher and the show has

1:41

been well publicized is named

1:43

after one of Quinta Brunson who's

1:45

the show creator one of her beloved

1:47

teachers from her childhood so do

1:49

you have an educator who made a

1:51

lasting impact in your life 100

1:53

% I do. In fact, I just gave

1:55

a speech to, and thank you for that

1:57

lovely intro. Whenever I hear someone list my

2:00

accomplishments, I always get a little boost

2:02

like, hey, yeah, I did that stuff. That

2:04

was me. I do forget. I

2:06

just did a speech for

2:08

the early childhood educators of

2:10

DC, which is where I'm

2:12

from, Washington, DC. It's

2:14

my hometown. I spoke

2:16

of my favorite teacher, Mrs. Freddie

2:18

Davey, who was one of the

2:20

first kids in an integrated school

2:22

in the country. And she

2:25

was extremely serious about education. She

2:27

was very much like Mrs. Howard.

2:29

She said her W's with H's in

2:31

them, like, what were you thinking? I

2:34

love that. She was so smart.

2:36

She taught me, she was my advanced

2:38

English teacher. in seventh through ninth

2:40

grade. And she taught me how to

2:43

do a theme paper. And it

2:45

was so perfect that I used that

2:47

method all the way through college.

2:49

And I always got A's. She was

2:51

brilliant. She was like teacher of

2:53

the year twice while I was in

2:55

school. Ms. Davy, you said? Ms.

2:57

Davy, you know, you remember your

2:59

best teachers maybe because they protected you

3:01

if you were bullied or they

3:04

taught you something special or they helped

3:06

you. She was memorable because she

3:08

was so tough. And because when I

3:10

talked in class, she understood that

3:12

it wasn't because I was being rude

3:14

to her. It was because I

3:16

was bored. I already, my mother was

3:18

a teacher. I was reading grade

3:20

three. I was five grade levels ahead

3:23

in, you know, all of my

3:25

reading and comprehension. So she would

3:27

tell me to talk and say, come teach it, Ms. Walter.

3:29

If you know it, come teach it. Oh, that's

3:32

wonderful. I went to the front of the class

3:34

and I taught and she would say, you could

3:36

be a teacher someday. And look at you now.

3:38

You are a teacher. Yes. Lisa

3:40

Ann is Melissa. Yes,

3:42

a little bit. I do teach

3:44

the kids in between setups when they,

3:46

we give them handouts to do

3:48

for class so that they are busy

3:50

and they look like they're working.

3:52

And then when we're in between takes,

3:54

they'll come up and say, I

3:56

did all of my multiplication and I

3:58

correct them work. It's, I love

4:00

it so much. I even tell you. That is

4:02

so good to know. Abbot's

4:05

become I think more

4:07

than just a comedy, it sparked

4:09

a lot of conversations

4:11

about just public education, especially

4:13

now underfunded schools. Did

4:15

you expect it to have that kind of

4:17

reach when you signed on for this role?

4:20

No, you know, people said, did you know it was going

4:22

to be a hit? And

4:24

that part we felt, even

4:27

from the first week of shooting the pilot, I

4:30

remember Cheryl plays

4:32

Barbara. My work

4:34

wife, Cheryl Lee -Rapp. Cheryl Lee -Rapp,

4:36

who just got her Hollywood star.

4:38

She got her Hollywood star, and

4:40

I was there. I'm so beaming

4:43

with pride. Yeah. So

4:45

she looked at Tyler James Williams,

4:47

who plays Gregory, and said,

4:49

do you feel it? And

4:51

in that inimitable way. And we

4:53

all were like, yeah, you know

4:56

when you've got a chemistry and

4:58

a cast that, hey, if this

5:00

network doesn't pick it up, somebody

5:02

will. This is

5:04

a great show. This level

5:06

you don't expect. And

5:08

the impact that it had on

5:11

education, I will say that I'm

5:13

extremely proud of the fact that

5:15

I didn't create the show. That's

5:17

Quinta Bronson. It's all her. It's

5:19

all my boss. She's a

5:21

mighty might. the

5:24

Pennsylvania school system in

5:26

particular, because Cheryl is married

5:28

to a Pennsylvania State

5:30

Senator, Senator Vincent Hughes. I

5:33

think that that maybe had

5:35

something to do with the fact

5:37

that they had huge increases,

5:39

trying to make the communities a

5:41

little more equitable in their

5:43

funding. Yeah, that worked out well.

5:46

Yeah, I hope we look at that

5:48

across the country. Yeah. But we

5:50

still have an apartment of education. Of

5:52

course. Well, who knows? Who

5:54

knows? By the time this airs,

5:56

who knows? Because

5:59

of your Abbott schedule, though, you

6:01

were unable to return to Celebrity

6:03

Jeopardy for the Tournament of

6:05

Champions earlier this year. But when

6:07

you were on last year, you

6:10

dominated. I mean, you

6:12

were crushing all of those final

6:14

Jeopardy! clues. You won a

6:16

million dollars for your charity. Are

6:18

you tempted to now, when you

6:20

go out, introduce yourself as a

6:22

high celebrity champion? Well,

6:25

okay, so here's the thing. I won

6:27

Celebrity Jeopardy! I was the second winner

6:29

of this new version. Ike Baronholz was

6:31

the first. He's very smart. So I

6:33

like to say that I am the

6:35

second smartest celebrity. Let's

6:38

just imagine he's smarter. What

6:40

I didn't get to do was the regular

6:43

tournament of champions. They're actually talking about doing

6:45

a celebrity tournament of champions, but I think

6:47

they have to wait until there's a few

6:49

more winners. But as soon as they do

6:51

that, I'm - You're back. Because

6:53

when you play at home and

6:55

you're watching it, I know

6:57

every answer. I think I missed

6:59

one out of - Seems easy,

7:01

doesn't it? Yes. I told

7:03

Michael Davies is the executive producer

7:05

that I'm crushing it from

7:07

the couch. Like every single

7:09

answer. But when you get onto the

7:12

stage and the pressure is on and

7:14

the button, that's the thing that kills

7:16

you. You might know that every answer

7:18

in a category, but you can't buzz

7:20

in. And then it comes to you finally

7:22

because you're just trying to get in there and it's,

7:24

and you blow it. So you were in it to

7:26

win it. You weren't just playing for fun. No,

7:29

I, I'm extremely competitive.

7:31

A. B. I told you

7:33

about my mother, the school teacher. She. was

7:36

a thought of useless, I called

7:38

her the queen of useless information. I

7:40

used to watch Jeopardy with her.

7:42

And in fact, when I won, my

7:45

final Jeopardy answer

7:47

was what book

7:49

created this, I

7:51

don't know, four

7:53

word trove in

7:55

literary, listen to

7:57

me. And

7:59

I immediately heard my mother

8:02

who was a mystery book,

8:05

just love her. She read them four at

8:07

a time. And I was like, oh,

8:09

the butler did it. And I jotted it

8:11

down. And that was, and when the

8:13

other two didn't get it, I was stunned

8:15

because I felt like that was such

8:17

a easy thing to get. So she was

8:19

the one who really taught me a

8:21

love of trivia. And she used to lecture

8:24

us inside the car. She used to

8:26

listen to talk radio, which I love to

8:28

this day. In fact, one

8:30

of the jobs I had, I'm like

8:32

Mr. Johnson on our show. I was

8:34

a talk show host for three years

8:36

on KFI out here. Really? Yeah,

8:38

I love the format of talk

8:40

radio. I love that it's a

8:42

conversation and that a lot of

8:44

times on shows listeners can call

8:47

in. I used to have food

8:49

weekends. It was really fun. Well,

8:51

biased, but I agree. Yes,

8:53

right? And she used to listen to

8:55

all of the talk radio and we were

8:57

in the car. So we were, unless

8:59

we could get her to turn on a

9:01

pop radio station. Yeah. Listening to

9:04

Dr. Art Eulene or whoever it was

9:06

she was listening to. Right. And then

9:08

you could do like a half hour

9:10

lecture about what, well, you know where

9:12

this started in 1700s France. What

9:14

they were doing, they were

9:16

having a. a pushback to the

9:19

royalty. And then we'd get

9:21

a lecture. Yeah, no, I do the same thing

9:23

to my teenage daughters now. They're like, oh, this

9:25

is not your show. Can you stop explaining everything

9:27

that we hear or see on TV? No,

9:30

you can't. And you know what? One

9:32

day they will be sitting maybe on

9:34

a game show, maybe in a party

9:36

with their friends and maybe just at

9:38

their job. And they'll go, I know

9:40

that. Exactly. the reason I know that

9:42

is because of you. Now,

9:44

you got your start. and stand -up

9:46

comedy, didn't you? I did. I was

9:49

an actor's first. I did, you know,

9:51

I worked professionally. I did dinner theater.

9:53

I did community theater stuff. I went

9:55

to school for drama, very prestigious drama

9:57

school, Catholic University of America. I learned

9:59

the Greeks and Shakespeare and all of

10:01

that. And then I moved to New

10:04

York to be an actor after getting

10:06

stage credits in DC. I did some

10:08

off -Broadway in New York and immediately got

10:10

pregnant. So with

10:12

my, not randomly, I was

10:14

my boyfriend. And then

10:16

I had my oldest, my

10:18

son, very young. And

10:21

when he was about a year and a half

10:23

old, I was thrown a dare from one of

10:25

my college friends. It was the height of the

10:27

comedy boom. And she was like, you should be

10:29

doing this. You should be doing stand up. And

10:31

I'm going to give you a date that you

10:33

have to do it by. And it was about

10:35

six months. And I worked up probably an hour's

10:37

worth of material the first time I ever got

10:40

on stage, where they want you to do three

10:42

minutes. Right. And I did

10:44

probably, they let me. go to

10:46

15 because I was crushing. Wow.

10:48

I hadn't killed. I never would have done

10:51

it again. So when you think back to

10:53

that, that time period, was there a moment

10:55

where you thought, OK, I can really do

10:57

this and I can make a living from

10:59

it. That first time on stage, the make

11:01

a living part came later because you were

11:03

getting no money or you were going to

11:05

bring what they call a bring a room,

11:08

which means that you can go on stage

11:10

if you bring five friends that are drinking.

11:12

But my. My ex -husband was

11:14

really smart and he believed in me. And

11:16

what he started doing was putting me

11:18

up at what they call showcase clubs, the

11:20

big rooms, the catarising star and the

11:22

improv in New York. This was a city.

11:24

And he would fill the room with

11:27

his clients. He was in office sales at

11:29

the time. And all of them loved

11:31

me and he would have a whole room

11:33

full of people there. And his deal

11:35

was we get to keep the ticket. They

11:37

could keep the drinks. And the person

11:39

who runs the room has to watch me

11:41

do 20 minutes, not three minutes at

11:43

four o 'clock in the morning. So I

11:46

passed it all the showcase rooms because I

11:48

was doing 20 minutes in front of

11:50

a friendly crowd. And the

11:52

career took off from there. And I started,

11:54

I was paying the mortgage. We bought a

11:56

house off that money. Amazing. Then

11:58

I got the brass ring, come to LA,

12:00

star on your own sitcom, and then the

12:02

career went from there. Yeah. I mean, I

12:04

feel like when you talk to stand -up

12:06

comics, it could kind of go either way,

12:08

right? You hear stories of, like, I lived

12:10

in my car for X number of years,

12:12

and it took forever to get to this

12:15

point, or I never sort of made it

12:17

to that time. The snapshot I did within

12:19

six months of ever stepping on a stand -up

12:21

stage, I was featured at Showtime at the

12:23

Apollo. Amazing. Amazing. It was wild. And you

12:25

know, people were like, aren't you nervous? And

12:27

I was like, no, this is what I

12:29

this walking into a room and making everybody

12:31

laugh is what I did. And my hometown

12:33

is DC. No, I'm not nervous. Exactly. The

12:36

crowd started to boo something like

12:38

what people don't know about that

12:40

show for those of you who

12:42

remember it show time at the

12:45

Apollo. The music still

12:47

gives me. Yes, you're dancing.

12:50

Yeah, right. But what people don't

12:52

know is that they do like

12:54

eight shows in one day. So

12:56

the audience has been sitting there

12:58

for 15 hours and they're exhausted

13:00

and they're behind her and they

13:02

haven't been eating or drinking. And

13:05

they're not waiting for amateur hour.

13:07

They're just ready to, you

13:09

know. I mean, Apollo's a tough crowd. Oh,

13:11

they are. But I will tell you

13:13

that I started to hear little whispers

13:15

of booze and I said something that

13:17

I cannot probably repeat on your show.

13:20

I said something a little off color.

13:22

They lost their minds. Mama,

13:25

who used to sit right in front the center, this

13:27

little old lady who used to sit right in the

13:29

middle, they called her mama. And she

13:32

fell out of her chair laughing. So

13:34

they turned the crowd around and Sinbad

13:36

was hosting. This is way back in

13:38

the day. And Sinbad said, you

13:41

girl, come back anytime. That

13:43

was amazing. That's the moment right there. That's

13:46

the moment. It was a big memory.

13:48

So, you know, when you think of stand

13:50

up, it's so raw and it's it's such

13:52

an immediate art form. How

13:54

do you think then it's shaped

13:56

your work in scripted comedy, especially

13:58

shows like Abbott? Well, you

14:00

know, it's interesting for camera comedy, which

14:02

is not we're doing, we shoot

14:04

three cameras all at once, no audience.

14:06

So all of our action happens

14:09

with a reaction at the same time.

14:11

We don't turn the cameras around

14:13

to get this side of it, which

14:15

is fantastic. Just the reason I

14:17

think why the show works so well

14:19

is all that looks so authentic.

14:21

Yeah, we love the immediate reaction shots.

14:24

Yeah, and you're acting the whole time. It's

14:26

not like you're like, oh, the cameras aren't

14:28

on me. Doesn't matter what I do. The

14:31

thing that makes it so work so

14:33

well is that it's authentic. Everything's happening

14:35

in the moment. I don't know what people

14:37

are doing behind me. Sometimes I watch

14:39

the show and just die laughing because

14:41

I'm like, oh, my God, I can't believe

14:43

Chris Perfetti was doing that crazy thing.

14:45

Yeah. But for camera comedy works

14:48

with an audience and that's how

14:50

I started in the business was with

14:52

an audience And so you're performing

14:54

comedy for an audience sometimes the jokes

14:56

change That's very similar to doing

14:58

stand -up. Ah And the reason why

15:00

I love going back and doing it

15:02

now is because there is nothing

15:04

like that experience in the room It's

15:06

you it's the audience this exact

15:08

performance will never happen again because anything

15:10

that's different I'm gonna make a

15:12

joke out of yeah anything happens in

15:14

the room. We're all experiencing it.

15:16

We know what's going on. If it's

15:18

a little too cold, the room

15:20

is a little too warm. If somebody

15:22

drops a tray of drinks, anything

15:24

that happens, we're all there feeling it.

15:27

So this is us sharing this

15:29

moment. And I get to see

15:31

my audience. I get to love on them.

15:33

I get to accept their laughter, which is

15:35

the reason I got in the business to

15:37

begin with. Yeah. Yeah. So tell

15:39

me this before I let you

15:41

go. If Melissa had a tight five.

15:43

on stage. What kind of jokes

15:45

do you think she would be telling?

15:47

All impressions. Melissa, let me

15:49

tell you a secret about Melissa's dumb impressions.

15:52

I just had the EP tell me the

15:54

other day, he was like, no, we

15:56

know you do impressions. I was like,

15:58

I'm not an impressionist. And like, you're a

16:00

mimic. So you, like I

16:02

mimic Cheryl. And so they said, we

16:05

to come up with stuff that

16:07

you didn't do well, because Melissa has

16:09

to be terrible at impressions. And

16:11

And like, well, you found it because

16:13

Because awful. So you would just

16:15

be up there just doing one impression

16:17

after the other. Yeah, just terrible

16:20

impressions. I it's great. I

16:22

love it. Well, I'll leave it

16:24

there. That's actress and comedian Lisa

16:26

Ann Walter. She be at Zaneys

16:28

in Rosemont Friday and Saturday, April

16:30

25th and 26th. Find out more

16:32

information at rosemont .com.

16:36

Lisa Ann Walter, Madam, it's been such a

16:38

pleasure. Oh, thank you so much for

16:40

having me, Sasha. And you tell your kids that

16:42

I said they should listen to you. They

16:44

should listen to mom. Yes,

16:47

Yes, always. This

16:51

episode of the Reset podcast was produced

16:53

and mixed by Meha Ahmed and me, Sasha

16:55

Ann Simons. It was edited by Dan Tucker.

16:57

Reset chats with all kinds of people to

16:59

connect you deeper to the things that you

17:02

want to know and things you love.

17:04

To never miss an episode, make sure to

17:06

hit subscribe to our podcast. Thanks so

17:08

much for listening. We'll meet again soon.