Finding her voice in lots of comedy voiceover work in 2022!
I know, I know. The world is weird. People are weirder. My apologies for taking a beat on Thursday to try to make sense of the world before finishing up the transcript for this week’s podcast. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
— the management at Piffany HQ
Blair Socci played Division I college volleyball at UCLA, a renowned school for the volleying of balls, and then headed East to New York City to pursue a master’s degree in creative writing. Credit a failed relationship for leading her into the world of stand-up comedy? As Socci told me during my recent Zoom session with her, she actually wrote about stand-up before ever performing, with clips on Splitsider (RIP Splitsider, long live Splitsider, acquired by NYMag’s Vulture in 2018) to show for it.
In 2022, she has lots of voiceover work in the can already, including gigs on Netflix’s Q Force and Adult Swim’s upcoming Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie. She also co-stars in the voice cast of Comedy Central’s new topical show Fairview, and Socci spoke to me about how she has found her way thus far.
But last things first, here’s something she did in 2016 where she’s interacting with a talking bird that claims to be the reincarnation of Rodney Dangerfield (voiced by JP McDade). Presenting Socci’s webseries, “Rodney Loves Blair.”
And before we get into the transcript, here’s a clip from an episode of Comedy Central’s Fairview. See if you can guess which character Socci voices. You really shouldn’t have to guess, so my apologies for that, too.
OK, to the transcript! Edited and condensed for all our sakes…
ME: Last things first, Blair Socci: Congratulations on your new series Fairview!
SOCCI: Oh, thank you so much. Yeah, I’m excited.
From your about page or your bio online, it seems as though you have a lot of voiceover work in the pipeline. Is that true?
Yeah, it seems like it’s starting to pick up, which is cool, because you know, it’s something that people always… it’s like SNL for people where everyone’s always like, ‘Have you ever thought about voiceover?’ I’m like, ‘Yes, I do a lot of auditions. Thank you.’ Yeah.
What would the kid version of Blair think about this recent development? That someday, as an adult, you would be voicing cartoons?
It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, so it’s really exciting for me. I hope I get into children’s cartoons as well. I love Pixar movies and I have a bunch of nieces and nephews so I’m hoping to land one of these Nickelodeon shows that they audition for every week. Like, I’m Petunia the pig, or all these crazy characters that I’m always sending in for.
Ones where you’re not necessarily cussing.
No, this one’s a unique show. It’s so fun. The writers are amazing. It’s so funny to me like I’m cracking up the entire recording.
Yeah, I just had RJ Fried on my podcast, and he was talking about how you do the readings on Zoom. And that you do them on Mondays and he says it’s kind of amazing and hysterical how it all comes together.
Yeah, RJ is brilliant. And same with Mike (Leech) and Zack (Smilovitz) and I know that they’re just constantly revising and also they really work under the gun because the show is topical. So I mean, we’re recording it sort of like right before they’re coming out and they just work so hard and are genius.
Does that result in like getting a frantic text message or phone call at the last minute going, ‘Blair we need you to read these two lines were quick!’
It actually hasn’t been like that. They’re pretty organized. We do pick-ups, so they’ll like sometimes change a line or two, but no, it’s been really mellow. We record every Monday a new episode. And it’s really fun and it’s really fun getting to see the cast. There’s like such funny people on the cast too.
Now there was something you said on a podcast. And I just want to ask you about this for clarification sake. I heard you say that your parents still had never seen you perform comedy on stage or on TV. Is that true?
They’ve seen me on TV now. Recently. The saw me do stand-up on (The Late Late Show with James) Corden. But yeah, they’ve never seen me live. They’ve never seen anything really. They watched Fairview last night. They told me, and they thought it was funny, but I don’t know. Like, I don’t think they really want to. They’re not like really interested.
Are they worried about what they might hear, or what they might learn about you?
Totally, I think they’re definitely worried about that. I mean, I come from a really conservative place. I don’t think they’re thrilled about having a female child speaking the way I speak.
How did they feel about about the previous iterations of you which were volleyball player and aspiring novelist? Were they impressed with those versions of Blair?
Above: Blair Socci on the UCLA Volleyball team
Yeah, I think volleyball was an easy one to be impressed by because it was just such a natural phenomenon for me. And I come from, you know, a very sports, masculine family. Novelist, they were like, what the hell are you doing? Do you think this is like 1930s France? And so I don’t think they were thrilled about that. But you know, they’ve come to terms of it and they try to be supportive in the best way they can. I don’t think they’re going to be coming to shows anytime soon, but they do try to be supportive now.
Knowing that you grew up in competitive athletics: How do you feel like that prepared you for the competitive nature of stand-up comedy and show business?
Gosh. I definitely have a pretty built-in work ethic from that time of my life. Or most of my life, being a high-level athlete. I would say that’s helpful. And you know, it’s the whole thing like you’re only as good as your last game. So you’re only as good as your last set. And then also you know, being able to shake off like a bad set, and just keep going I guess, but competition-wise with comedy. I think also like the older you get, you realize like, that’s like an insane, you can’t look at it as competition because you’ll drive yourself crazy and ultimately have a really unhappy life. So it’s just like, I think, as I get older anyways, I think like the more fun I have, and the looser I can be with everything, the happier I am and that translates into my work and everything.
Is that something you were able to adjust to even in say, your first year going to open mics in New York City?
I would say, I mean, I was nervous at first. Anthony DeVito says he remembers my leg shaking onstage because I was nervous. But once I got going a little bit, I would say like six months in, I wouldn’t say I was afraid of people. I just grew up around a lot of like, I was the youngest in my family. A lot of like older guys and I just wasn’t really afraid of the open micers.
How long did it take you to find your friends or to find your pocket in the New York comedy scene? I know you’ve made lots of friends. How was that process for you in the beginning?
I found it really easy. I guess. You’re in this very unique situation where nobody really knows what they’re doing. And you just kind of gravitate to people that you think are funny or nice. I loved it. I loved getting to meet people from everywhere. And I think it just happened very naturally.
Who was your first comedy friend? Was it Farah Brook or Corinne Fisher?
Oh, wow. You have a good memory.
I’m not gonna say Rosebud Baker because I know you two are frenemies. (laughs)
Rosebud and I started together so we’re best best friends. I literally remember her first show. And yeah, I mean, there’s a lot of guys, too, that have been in my life since I started. I just got off the phone with Rosebud a second before we got on. It’s just so cool. Especially the female friendships in comedy. I just didn’t come from a place where I saw women like fully expressed. And just I remember when I first started like seeing women above me where they just like were saying anything they wanted and I was like, I’ve just never met anyone like that. I’ve never seen that in my life. And I thought it was so cool. I didn’t grow up watching comedy. So I didn’t know anything about comedy basically, til right before I started. I had no point of reference. I wasn’t one of those people that it was like a lifelong dream. It was like I discovered it and started it.
I find that fascinating about your your life story so far is that, when you moved from LA to New York, it wasn’t to do comedy at all.
Yeah, and I actually wasn’t living in LA I was living in Orange County.
I wasn’t sure how soon after UCLA that you moved.
Yeah, it was later. When I went to UCLA, I was playing volleyball and I never like we were going anywhere in LA like we are going to the beach to play volleyball like so I wasn’t like I never saw any of the other parts of LA or like the entertainment world or anything like that.
So your plan was to write novels? What was the actual plan when you first showed up in New York City?
Yeah, I moved to go to grad school at The New School. And I got my MFA to become a novelist, and I started comedy my second semester of grad school and I just it was sort of like, Oh, I could just feel it. That took all my attention. But I still finished my degree because I, you know, I was like, that’s not going to be my career. That’s crazy. You can’t, that’s not a career, but I thought being a novelist was a career somehow. But yeah.
How has the novel writing come along? Did you stop completely or do you still have chapters on your desktop or on your laptop that are…?
I ended up, for my thesis, I ended up turning in a collection of short stories, which I’m sure are very bad, and I could do much better now. It just sort of went out the window. I still like fiction a lot. I spent my whole life reading fiction and I was like, this would be really cool. But once I started comedy, I was like, Oh, this is it. And so yeah, I mean, maybe later on, I’ll get back into fiction when I like slow down and I’m old or something.
How would you describe the differences in the writing process, between sitting down to write a short story or, or the germ of an idea for a novel versus writing out bits?
Well, I was just like, Oh, God, I mean, to be a novelist. It’s just like, days and days. You’re like spending your whole life alone writing, you know, and it’s so much discipline and it’s really solitary. And I am super introverted. So I do spend a lot of time alone. That’s like, probably how I ended up down that path, but I don’t know it’s just so much better writing a bit and getting immediate feedback. It usually starts with like a dumb idea, and then I’ll write it out. But I’ll say the influence from that time of starting from fiction writing is that, I am super into precise wording, and, the way things sound linguistically. I’m not someone who writes onstage you know, I like to write before.
What about in terms of, I know a lot of writers talk about having set times in the day, because you need to have structure to be able to get anything done as a writer. Did you have that when you were writing fiction and do you have that still in stand-up?
The way I write stand-up is usually I’ll write like 15 minutes on one thing, or like 10 minutes. I like to do like large chunks, which all my friends think is crazy. They’re like, try like one or two new jokes and work it in that way. But I love like, just going deep on like one subject. And I don’t know, it just depends, like, I think I’ll get myself to where, I’ll set a goal or a project and that’s sort of how I work.
Yeah, very goal oriented. How did you end up meeting Ron Funches? I know you’ve been touring with him for a few years now.
I actually met Funches through I was writing for Splitsider right before I started comedy. Which is crazy because nobody knew less about comedy than me. I could write. I mean, I was basically just writing interviews where I would interview them. And so it’s not like I was writing pieces or anything. I had literally just discovered comedy about six months before I started writing for Splitsider. But I interviewed him and that’s how I met like a lot of headliners at the time, and that was, I don’t know six months or like a year before I started comedy.
How do you come around then years after interviewing Ron, to getting to a place where you can open for him and then feature for him?
Well, it was just like I moved to LA, and he asked me to do a show and then he asked me to go on tour. We had kept in touch over the years just like distant friends. I always think he felt like I was a weirdo. And like, you know his comedy is very silly and eccentric as well. And so I think he thought we were a good fit.
What have you learned from him? What have you taken away from touring with him and being on his podcast multiple times and just hanging out with him?
We’re like family at this point. And Ron’s good because he keeps his circle really tight, and he really tries to take care of the people in his life. He’s been such a support to me. The main thing I’ve learned from him is he has a lot of fun. And I really like that because I think comedy itself is too self-serious now. a lot of it I think is too self-serious. And it’s too hard-core. And also, you know, trying to have a career in this business as you get older and support yourself and have quality of life and everything like sometimes, you know, I like that he prioritizes having fun like in his personal life and in comedy and just having a good life, I think is like really important and that can get lost easily.
Was that a factor in terms of you taking up breath work over the pandemic? I know that’s something that’s a relatively new aspect in your life.
Um, I wouldn’t call breath work fun at all. I don’t think it’s fun. I’m really interested in learning. Like I love learning. I’ve always been that way. So I’m always researching and taking classes and courses and stuff when I have time. And over the pandemic, I suddenly had a lot of time so I took Reiki certification, all sorts of weird shit. And breath work was one. I’m really into like psychology and therapy and stuff and I have done a lot of cognitive therapy, and breath work is basically about like getting into the body and out of your mind, which I think it’s difficult in this day and age and we don’t spend a lot of time in that space.
Even before the pandemic, I was hearing a lot of talk about the concept of like, “The Body Keeps the Score,” I think, is the book?
Have you read that book?
I haven’t, but I’ve talked to enough people that I feel like I’ve learned some of the aspects of it.
I read that book, and that was part of why I tried breath work, but I think it makes a lot of sense. I think it like really registers logically.
As I’ve both grown older and started to take try to take better care of myself, you know, practice self care. I’ve tried to be more in tune with like, what is my body telling me whether it’s whether it’s an ache or a pain, or do I just need a nap or do I just need a sandwich? You know, what’s what’s really going on?
Right, right. I also think that when you are an entertainer in any form, like even on a small scale, your energy is being all dispersed out to people, and staying grounded in who you are. It’s important, even more so than if you’re you know, not in public life.
Fairview is your new Comedy Central project, but I know it’s not your first time working with Comedy Central. Because you’d been a big part of The Trevor Moore Show, which was a Comedy Central web series. What can you tell me about that whole experience?
Yeah, I mean, I’ve been working with Comedy Central now since like, I don’t know probably 2016 on different things, but The Trevor Moore Show. It was just a crazy experience because I had just moved to LA and I got asked to be on Trevor’s 24 hour Trev-A-Thon to promote his special. And I had never met Trevor and, God, I keep talking about him like he’s still here.
(Trevor Moore died Aug. 7, 2021, after accidentally falling from the balcony at his home. He was 41.)
I know it’s delicate to talk about.
Trevor was really into a lot of just weird science stuff. Really into like robot singularity, like all sorts of weird shit like he just love all that stuff. And just like going down like researching all these like weird things on the internet and so he had on like, during my slot, he had on these two foremost researchers of singularity. You know, obviously, I’m a comedian. And so they were having very serious discussion and I was just sort of completely messing around when I went on. And they asked me if I could stay a couple more hours, but I couldn’t. And so then when they pitched the show, Trevor asked me to co-host with him and Sam (Brown), and we had such a fun time. He basically found the weirdest people he could find on the internet to come on. And yeah, he is just such a delight and so beloved, and one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, or worked with. So I look back. I’m like, God, that was such a blessing. And I do think that show could have, like would have gone on to probably make it to air. I just know from going on the road — how many people, I didn’t realize, but when I went around the country, like how many people loved it.
I thought it was amazing, because you know, he had Sam on the show, and they go all the way back to college, pre-Whitest Kids U Know. And then there you are as like the comic foils. How did Blair end up in this crazy mix?
Yeah, I mean, it was so random. Trevor was just really supportive of me. And it was so cool to that he asked me to do that. We laughed so hard. Like I remember I even told him — I think it was like a couple of weeks before he died — but there was a clip or something. And I can’t watch any of it. But like, I was laughing so hard the whole time. I was like, This is so annoying. I was so annoyed by my own laugh. I was like, How could anyone watch this? But it was just so funny. I was laughing to death the whole time. But yeah, I mean, Trevor was a really special person. And it’s one of those things I’ll never really understand. Because this man, he was really living the dream. He had been with his wife for 20 years. They’re super in love. They had this darling boy. I always joked with him, he had like 17 shows going at once. Like, he had so many projects with so many people, and he was just so energetic and enthusiastic and just it’s yes, it’s really tragic. It changed me, though, his dying.
It did change you?
Yeah. Like I felt like my life changed, like, weirdly where I was just like, oh, it could just go any second. Like, you know, like, I gotta just enjoy life.
You actually did a podcast with Funches that aired maybe a couple weeks after Trevor died. And I remember you saying to Ron that you had started taking to telling everyone how much you enjoyed them.
Oh, yeah, I try to do that all the time. It’s actually just kind of natural now. Because I’m just like, Oh, nothing is guaranteed. And you look at someone like that, where like, like, Oh, God, like he was just so treasured.
A similar thing happened with Bob Saget, too. (Saget died Jan. 9, 2022, following an accidental fall in his hotel room while on tour in Florida)
It’s so crazy and unexplainable.
Did it also change your goals and expectations in terms of show business, or what you want out of life going forward? Other than getting parts in Comedy Central animated series, obviously.
I don’t know. I think when you’re coming up as a comic, you’re like, OK, how am I gonna survive? How am I gonna make money? And that’s always been an issue. That’s why there’s a lot of pressure, because it’s just a crazy thing to do, to think you can even make money and make a living off of this career. But things have been going well for a couple years now. And I think, stepping back and letting go. I just try to enjoy stuff as much as possible and live in the moment.
I appreciate you taking some moments to get on Zoom and hang out with me. I really do appreciate it.
Oh, yeah, for sure. Thanks for having me. It’s great.
I saw on your schedule, that you’re going to be at South by Southwest.
Yeah, I’m excited. I’ve never performed with the festival. I hosted something for MTV when I was younger at South by Southwest and hopped on shows, but I’ve never done the festival. So I’m really excited to do it this year. And Rosebud’s gonna be there. We’re gonna have fun.
This should be very exciting. Well, I look forward to seeing hearing your voice in future episodes of Fairview and what else do you have coming up?
I’m in the new Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie that’s coming out. And I’m really excited about that. I have a podcast with I Heart Radio coming out on March 28. That’ll be Dear Owen Wilson, a version of my live show that I’ve had for a while. So that’s really what’s coming up in the immediate future and then just going on the road.
Yeah, awesome. Well, I look forward to checking all that stuff out.
Thanks so much.
From The Comic's Comic 
Leave a comment