Comic of the Week: Livia Scott

It is generally agreed that great actors have the unique ability to lose themselves in a role. Comparatively, comedians have a slightly more daunting task. When they take the stage, they are purporting to be a real, albeit unusually funny, person. To do that, they must 1) know who they are, 2) be confident in who they are, 3) lose themselves in their character, i.e. who they really are, and 4) act like none of that took any work whatsoever. There's more to be said about that in another post.

What I have always admired about Livia Scott as a solo performer (I'm also a great fan of her previous sketch work with Meat and Dirty Jeans & Thunderchief) is that she deftly handles the sometimes conflicting roles of actor and comedian within the same set. During a live performance, Livia will sometimes drift from character to character, inhabiting them fully as they come and go, occasionally returning to Livia herself to talk directly to the audience or introduce the next bit. She creates a sense of trust and purpose in performances that might otherwise seem like layer upon layer of artifice. She brings humor to characters we might find despicable, giving them a shade of dignity...the dignity of the shameless, perhaps, but dignity nonetheless. And very often the ultimate comment is about why it is that we find these characters so compelling.

I've chosen Livia as the subject for the re-launch DAW's Comic of the Week because she's working on a new project that I'm really enjoying. She's making one video a day — one character a day — for an entire year. Each week has a theme: Week 1 was The Real Housewives of New Jersey. You can imagine the fun. Better yet: don't imagine it, just watch the videos.

WEEK 1 INTRODUCTION



REAL HOUSEWIVES OF NEW JERSEY: CAROLINE



You can follow Livia's project at her YouTube page Live and Let Livia. You can also follow her on Twitter and friend her on Facebook. But don't be all creepy about it, ok?