Inspired by: Lauren Servideo
Miista
Sat Jun 22 2024
Miista's Inspired By series celebrates the people who make us think and take risks.
At Miista we are only the sum of all the micro cultures that exist around us. We have never been quiet about it, and you have heard us before saying we are ‘Inspired By’ – insert: the opposite thing.
There’s a Lauren Servideo for everyone.
Yours might be Anubis, her surprisingly basic, millennial-coded vampire. Or Victoria, the proud Pennsylvanian who often finds herself in situations she’d rather not be in (like leaving a Pride parade with a rainbow flag stabbed into her thigh). Or her unsettlingly accurate, chain-smoking dog breeder rasping about grooming expos from her fold-out lawn chair. Or, come to think of it, any one of the dozens of hilarious characters Lauren summons from the depths of her mind and deposits upon her adoring Instagram audience.
Having started her comedy career as a literal child, making videos on her family computer, in the mid-2010s Lauren took the plunge and began sharing skits publicly on Instagram. From there, it’s been nowhere but up. Scroll deep down her feed and, between crying with laughter, perhaps the most striking thing is how much her fans value her videos, with many leaving comments mentioning how they got them through a particularly hard time in their lives.
We visited Lauren at her apartment in Brooklyn recently, to dig into her comic creations, meet her needy pet bird, Mabel, and talk about the joys and challenges of making comedy online.
MIISTA: Which is your favourite character to inhabit?
LAUREN SERVIDEO: That's such a good question. It definitely vacillates. They're all my girls. I love all of them. They live inside of me. I'm merely a vessel. Lately, I really love doing the dog breeder, like this [changes voice and gets into a character] because I can do it. It just comes so naturally to me. I could never pick a favorite.
Are there any videos you remember being particularly nervous about posting?
I think it’s really important to be nervous about putting your work into the world – especially one that’s expressive of your own interiority. I'm nervous about a lot of them. I have this idea of, like, ‘I don’t know if the people are really going to get this.’ But that never happens, because everyone [in my audience] gets it.
Are you sitting on anything at the moment that you’re not sure about posting?
I used to feel like I had to have this chronic, persistent output. I think it’s important to try and generate, even when it feels like there's nothing up there – because there's always something up there. But now I've been in the mode of letting it come to me, which is sometimes few and far between.
How long did it take you to find a comedic voice you felt comfortable with?
I've been doing it for 11 years now – maybe 12 – and it wasn't until, like, year six that I really was like, ‘Okay, I think I get what I'm trying to say. What everything is about.’ I'm no longer trying on other people's hats. Or inventing hats for myself that don't fit, if we're going to stick with the hat analogy.
[AT THIS POINT, MABEL STARTS HANGING FROM THE EDGE OF A MIRROR BY HER MOUTH]
She’s trying to show you how strong she is. It’s like she’s showing off. She’s definitely a pick me girl. She’s a “bite me girl” is what she is.
What kind of girl are you?
I'm the kind of girl who's a woman? But I like being all sorts of people. Which is why I really love what I get to do, which is just become, like, 700 different types of people.
Is there a comment someone’s left on any of your videos that has stayed with you, good or bad?
Anytime somebody’s left something that says something along the lines of, like, “Oh man, thank you for doing what you do. You got me through the pandemic” it sends a chill down my spine. I was going to say, "There's no cheque that could possibly compare,” but there actually are a few cheques I’d love to deposit into my bank account that could maybe compare to comments like that.
As far as bad comments go, I don't know – I don't love it. People are entitled to their opinions, of course, but I also think if you're going to say something mean, you should say it from your actual account and not a burner. You’ve got to say it with your chest. If it's from a burner then you're just being a big baby.
"Past me was more of a people pleaser, but now I'm more assertive. I love the idea of, with any zodiac sign, there's the evolved version and the less evolved version – and I like to think of myself as ever evolving."
Are there any online comedy tropes that you think should be banished?
People should be able to do what they want: the internet is democratic, and I think the good things rise to the top. I don't know if I have any that I'd want banished, because I believe in free speech, and I think there’s something you can glean from all of it – even the stuff that I don’t think is that great. Everyone keep doing what you're doing. Don't let me tell you what to do.
More talented comedians than me really know how to infuse edgier jokes so that it's not just, like, directly offensive – because I do think that you can generally joke about almost anything; you just really have to know how to do it.
You brought up Fran Lebowitz. She's funny like that. I mean, she really made a brand out of it. She really gives me inspiration as an old woman, crossing from somewhat of a New York legend to total mainstrean for a different generation. She was on all these talk shows in the 70s, but when she did that that documentary [‘Pretend It’s a City’],it kind of got her into, like, “millennial genie territory”. I thought that was so cool. Like, anything can happen at any point in life. Just when you think maybe the book is done, the chapter's closed, it's like: boom, no, there's this appendage. There's a PS and a PPS.
What’s the best thing about what you do?
I mean, just the fact that I can get something out into the world. That’s always the satisfaction of just merely posting.
And the worst thing?
I have a lot to be grateful for, but maybe the fact that the platform I started on doesn't pay, so you have to make your own opportunities – but what can you do?
Before all this, what was teenage Lauren Servideo like?
I was all school, all academics, even though I really wasn't that good at school or academics. I just cared a lot about my teachers. Teachers are so fundamentally important to the foundation of our society – they should be paid way more. That was my focus, but I loved clothes, was always doing silly stuff with making videos – not for anywhere, just for my computer hard drive. I never did a school play or anything like that in high school, but now I now I wish I had, because I think the theater is amazing.
Shot by @orianka
