Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Jenn Sterger On Working For AEW, Her WWE Divas Tryout, Standup Comedy & More

Episode Date: December 2, 2022

Jenn Sterger (@jennifersterger) is a comedian, actor, TV host and previously a backstage interviewer for AEW. She joins Chris Van Vliet for an in-person interview in Hollywood to talk about her time working with AEW, interacting with people like MJF and Chris Jericho, helping to write promos for Peter Avalon, how she got started as a standup comedian, what happened at her WWE Divas tryout in 2012, how she feels her situation with Brett Farve would be handled now, why Back To The Future is the perfect movie and much more! Check out Jenn's website: http://jennsterger.com If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests. For more information about Chris Van Vliet and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are good. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Bleas! Oh, it is so good to see you. Welcome back to another audio adventure on Insight. I'm CBV, Chris Van Fleet, and my goodness, how is it December already? I mean, I know how it's December, like all the other months ended, and then this month began, but, wow, 2022 is almost done. 2023 is right around the corner.

But I got to say, like, in my personal. of life, 2022 has been pretty great year. Like, this is certainly one that I will never, ever forget. I got engaged this year. We bought a house this year. And I'm sure you've seen the news, but we're having a baby. And we just found out on Saturday, and we're having a little baby girl. So I'm so excited for what 2023 has in store for us, like me and my fiancé Rachel, so excited to see what 2020 has in store for you as well. But that's just a lot. But that's just a lot of you. But doesn't mean you're off the hook for 2022. I mean, there's still a whole month left here. So all those things that you said you were going to do this year, all those things that last year, you're like,

yeah, I'm going to get to that next year. Well, guess what? It's next year right now. So you've still got time to make this happen. So I'll let you chew on that for a little bit. So excited to have Jen Sturger joining us in person for this interview today. I mean, you know her from her time in AEW as a backstage interviewer. And if you're a fan of the movie Trivia Shmodown, she was a big part of that as well. And she just crushes it as a comedian. So check her out on her website. It's jenstirger.com. She actually just did a photo shoot on there with C.J. Perry, aka Lana from WWE. So you can see that on Jensturger.com. Take a screenshot. Let us know that you're listening and tag us so we can share it out. On social media, she's at Jennifer Sturger. I'm at Christopher Vival.

Van Fleet. No, I'm just joking. I'm at Chris Fanfleet. And speaking of social media, so cool to see those Spotify wrapped numbers around this time of year. I'm always so blown away by how many people have insight as their number one podcast of the year or in their top five podcast. And that means so, so much to me, especially when like it's a top five with like Chris Jericho or William Regal or Joe Rogan or Eric Bischoff or Dak Shepard, like, you know, these people that are just absolutely crushing it. So I just want to say, thank you.

And we started doing this again as my way of saying, thank you for leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. I'm reading one out on every single episode. So this one's from B-M-M-M-M-A-M-U-D-88. CVV's interviews are always top-notch. Every time CVV drops a new interview, I have to listen. He asks different questions than most others,

develops a solid relationship with his guests, And doing that, it creates a conversation between two people and less of an interview. He's done gym workouts, movie interviews, wrestling interviews, in a set or on location, and he always stays fresh. Well, thank you so much for that. And if you haven't left a review, go on Apple Podcasts, leave a few words. Or if you have left a review, go in there, add an emoji, add a few words, write a whole new review. It'll send it right back up to the top and we'll read it out here on the show. So just thank you for being on this journey with me.

All right, let's get to it. Please welcome. Jen Sturger. How many times when you shopped at Abercrombie and Fish, do they offer you a job? Oh, I did work at Abercrombie. You did? Of course you did. And I got fired because I got fake boobs and they were like, you don't look like the

All-American Girl anymore. No way. Yeah, true story. Wow. But I got fake boobs because I wanted to look like Trish and Lita. Like that was, like, I wanted to be a diva my entire life. Wow. But I am so fucking uncoordinated.

So like this is the stuff we need to talk about. Oh, we're going to talk about all this stuff. I grew up in Canada. So whenever I would come to the U.S., we would have to go to Hollister. We'd have to go to Abercrombie. And then one time in Boston, like the store manager pulled me aside and he's like, you've got a really good look. Like we'd love to hire you.

And I'm like, it happened. Yes. And I'm like, sorry, I live in Canada. Exactly. But thank you. Thank you. I needed that ego stroke today. And I'm like, that's all I needed.

Yeah. I landed, like, my first boyfriend out of college was a door greeter at Abercrombie, and I was like, fuck, this is great. Like, he's stupid hot, but he turned out to just be stupid. Did he ever wear a shirt? Yeah, sadly. And then I was like, we don't have much in common. No. But did he constantly smell like fierce?

Yeah. Oh, my God. Fierce. The defining moment of that relationship was when he brushed his teeth with alo, and he was like, your toothpaste tastes weird. And I was like, it literally says, Al, this isn't going to work. We're done. Is this a bit that you do? No.

It should be. My whole life's a fucking bit. Okay. I literally, my friend just sent me a counter in my house and it says days since last incident because you're always like, he's like, you call me and you'll be like, get a load of this shit. I feel like that's a lot of your life. Yeah. But you know what?

Like I said, I don't want to change any of it. When people ask you, because this is the big question in L.A., like what do you do? I feel like you can fall under so many different umbrellas. What is it? What do you tell people? I'm an entertainer. That's what I said. Well, that's a dangerous thing, especially in this part of Hollywood. I know, right? I don't say I'm a lady of the night.

No, but I like to entertain people, you know. I like to host. I like to do comedy. I like to act. I do all of it. I'm a writer. I even teach classes. I teach other women how to write comedy. You know, so it's like Jack of All Trades, Master of None. What are you paying me for? and what am I like magnetized to?

What are you? What am I? What are you magnetized to right now? I love making people laugh. So it's comedy. Right now like it's comedy. Yeah. Like there is no better feeling than when I'm on stage doing stand-up.

Where's home base for you right now? Right now? Yeah. Sherman Oaks. Well, I mean in comedy. Oh, in comedy? In comedy? Laugh factory is one of my comedy store.

Laugh factory. But honestly, I've been doing a lot of stuff on the road because it's one thing to find out if something works here and then it's another thing to find out if it works on the road. Right. Like the road is an entirely different beast, you know, and that's one of those things where you have to know where you are, you have to know the audience, you have to know how the demographics change from place to place, you know? That's what I mean, I don't know if you saw it, that Peter Avalon actually gave me a lot

of credit for it because he used to come out when he was the librarian and he would roast whatever city he was in. He goes, the only reason I was so good at attacking other people's sports teams is because Jen Sturger would write for me. Wow. And so whenever I'd be like, okay, this is what you got to, insult them on. This is what you got to insult them on. He goes, I got the most heat. I was like, I know I could have gotten you canceled. You should just be a heel promo writer. Yeah, I mean,

I think it's a roast writer. That's technically what it is. Yeah. Is the idea that like when you go on the road, you really see what you're made of because it's not your home base. It's not people who know who you are. Yeah. There aren't any friendly faces in the audience. I mean, like, I do have friends come out and see me from like around the country, but it's so, it's so rare to like see faces that I know in the audience once you're out on the road you know like I'm in Sacramento one time I'm going to Indianapolis this week Chicago the following week I so I'll have like friends that I've met along the way usually through wrestling or other gigs that I've had but you find out like the stuff that actually works that like everyday people can relate to because I think we forget that we're

like in a bubble out here oh like this entertainment bubble so it's like things I'll I'll tell that to girls that I'm helping write you know write their sets with them I'll be like that won't work anywhere but here. Like everywhere but here, they're like, I don't get it. Like, it's not relatable. You know, like, we live such a weird life. L.A. life is just, it's weird. It's surreal.

Yeah. And it's a bubble. You're right. Yeah. Yeah. What made you move out here in the first place? I moved out here. Wanted to get away from a terrible relationship.

But besides that, honestly, I just felt like I had done everything that I could do in New York. and at the time I was just getting out of like being involved in the whole like public scandal thing that I had kind of been dragged through and I was just tired of seeing my face on the front page of the post every few weeks. You know, I just wanted some kind of anonymity and coming out to LA, it's like no one cared who I was. Like it was a chance to kind of start over, you know, and reinvent myself and figure out what I wanted to do again, you know? And so at the time I had a job with Spike, Spike TV and was doing some hosting for them and I interviewed this comedian and he, and he, He was like, really funny. He's like, and you're super funny, like off the cuff. He's like, have you ever taken improv classes? And I was like, no. So when I took some improv classes, I liked it. But every time I would get to improv, I was like, you know, it would be great if we wrote

all of this down and then fucking rehearsed it. I was like, I have this thing where I'm just like, yeah, friends don't ask friends to come to their improv shows. It's great to have a skill. But like, I was always drawn more to writing and being a good storyteller and making people laugh. do you find, and I say this with great love and respect, do you find it's tough when you get on stage because before you even grab the mic,

people have a preconceived notion of how they feel about you? No, but that's the thing is people have a preconceived notion about me everywhere I go in life, you know? There's a funny thing, though. I took this class when I first got out here. It was the very first acting class I took out here. And it wasn't really an acting class. It was like this essence class

where you sit down in front of this room of like 30 people who you've never met, you're not allowed to speak to each other before the class starts, and you get up and they hand everyone a list of like 300 adjectives, and they have to circle all the adjectives that you portray without saying a single word. And so at the end of the class, they hand you all of your papers. You have to like figure out what your high scores were, what words came up the most. My top five returns for this little gimmick that they made us do were funny, sarcastic, witty, guarded. and my number one return that everyone in the class circled was damaged.

And this is just you sitting there? Yes. What kind of vibe do you give off? I don't know. You know what I think it is? At the time, you have to remember where I was in life. I was coming out of New York. I was coming out of a rough relationship.

I was coming out of really hard times in my life, like being attacked in the news and in the media on a constant basis. And I didn't realize, like, how. much of that I was like carrying as like an energy that people could read off. Wow. You know, but when you think of all the words that describe a comedian, those are all the words that describe a comedian, especially damaged. So I'm like, I feel like I just ended up where I was supposed to end up. And like, I don't look at it as damage. I look at anything bad that's happened to me. I look at it as as lessons, you know, like I'm just here learning lessons all the time. Like, I'm not failing at things. I'm learning.

Yeah. You know? So that's what I, that's where I've kind of like reprogram damage to me. mean like I'm experienced. I like it. Yeah. So how often are you on stage right now? Right now? Oh God. I mean a couple nights a week for sure. You know and when I'm not on stage like I also help teach classes like I said with women that want to get into stand up and want to get into comedy writing. So I do that as well. But I mean I try to find a way to be funny every day, you know, to stretch those muscles every day. So is this like is it writing it down on your own? Is that how you come up with bits? the bits just kind of come to you sometimes you know you'll be talking to yourself in the car you'll be talking to yourself in the shower you know it's honestly bits come to me when my brain and like my judgment of myself shuts off and I'm like this is hilarious it's usually just like letting your

subconscious kind of come out and like whatever you're dealing with or whatever funny ideas come to you yeah it just kind of speaks to you it's the best way I can like my notes or my phone they're ridiculous you know like and sometimes when I when I just I'm having one of those nights where I feel like I can fool around on stage or I can write on stage. I love writing on stage and like finding ideas on stage. But when I get in those modes where I'm just like, let me just run this by you guys and see how this goes. And I'm like, all right, that one didn't work, but stick with me. Yeah. You know, that's the stuff I really love doing. I feel like our world's cross in so many different ways. Right. Shmowdown,

wrestling. You were great at that, by the way. At the Shmode? Yeah, you were fun. Oh, thank you. That match was so fun. That was so much fun. It was you and Doug, right? Yeah. He was wild. And you were the perfect. What is happening here?

That was, the whole thing was wild. I wish I was able to do it in person. Yeah. But that was just the state of the world that we were living at that time. Exactly. So it was a fun thing to just kind of dip your feet in. That was exactly it. The community of people to, you know, meet.

And I'm so grateful for that show. The Shmodown was this movie trivia show. I don't know if everybody knows what it is. but it was a movie trivia show that like brought all of these people who were, you know, either fans of movies or they were people who talked about movies on the internet, you know, people that hosted shows about movies.

It kind of just even Chris Cherico did it and Kevin Smith did it, you know? And it was just, it brought all these people together that just, from all these different walks of life, that they just loved film, you know? And I have to give Christian Harlov and Mark Ellis so much credit because at a time when I felt like I was kind of still like licking my wounds from all of the previous jobs I had had and like bad experiences I had, they provided me with this super comforting

environment to work in that like they just allowed me to be myself and they encouraged me to be myself. And they're like, bring you, you know, bring all of you. Be funny. Be sarcastic. Be witty. Be off the cuff. They're like, you bring the best out of people when you're being Jen. Yeah, you were so good at that. Thank you. And I, you know, rest of you know, rest of you. I, you know, rest in peace to the Schmodeon. I know. All right, P, I'd force them out, but this isn't your studio. You're renting this place, right? It's very nice. Yeah, it's very nice. I won't, I won't break it. It's a good carpet. Let's not put any water on there. Some of my best friends now are from my time that I spent in the Schmodeon. Like, Ben Bateman's one of my very good friends. That's where I last saw you in person. This is concert. At his concert. And he's just, I love the idea that he's leaning into like his passion of music. You're leaning into your passion. Comedy. I'm leaning into my passion of just, like,

like creating content. Yeah, but it's the thing. The thing is like we were talking a little bit about it. I don't know before cameras were rolling where it's like sometimes when things go away, it's to create space for something better to come in. You know, and whenever I've like lost a gig, I had to like mourn it for a second, but I had to remind myself like, yeah, this hurts right now, but there's something better. Like this is opening space for something better to happen for some new chapter in your life and you just kind of have to be open to the possibilities. And you won't be, in the place that you're meant to be. I mean, you wouldn't be sitting here right now.

We wouldn't, maybe we wouldn't even be connected if all of the things in our life had happened the way that we thought they were supposed to happen. Yeah, no, for sure. If I thought like every, for instance, I thought I was going to be a diva. I legit thought I was going to be a diva

while divas were still a thing. In the WWA. In the WWA. Yeah. Like that's what my dream was as a little girl, you know? I grew up watching wrestling, like Saturday mornings,

religiously right after cartoons came wrestling. And to the point where I loved wrestling so much that I actually, I went to the hospital as like a three-year-old child because I tried to do a flying elbow drop off the back of a couch. Like macho man? Exactly. And took out and took out the coffee table, the coffee table one. But my mom was like, oh my God, I have to take my daughter to the hospital with this broken arm. They're going to be like, what the hell did you do to her? She's like, they're going to think I beat you. And I was just like, no, the coffee. The coffee table won that match. The coffee table got the one, two, three.

Exactly. That's nice of you to put over the coffee table. I know, right? That's all I've been doing is putting over inanimate objects my entire life, being a clutz. But when you were growing up there weren't like, there weren't female wrestlers for you to look up to, really. Not really. Wasn't really till the high school. Yeah.

Attitude era. Because we're at the same age. So like late 90s when Trish and Lita and everyone really at that era. And every girl that watched wrestling. at the time wanted to be Lita. We all got sent home from school for wearing our underwear above our pants. You know what I mean?

That was a good luck. I couldn't find padded bras big enough to be Trish Stratus. Like I wanted to be the, but not just because they were sexy and gorgeous, but because they were just these badass women that despite everything the late 90s put them through,

because let's face it, totally different era of women's wrestling. Yeah. They were just, they owned it. They owned who they were, you know? And I got the opportunity to audition for the divas in, it was like the last divas search that they did, you know,

where they were still taking girls that weren't necessarily athletes or wrestlers. But they were like, are you a model? Are you moderately athletic? Well, thank you. I was in that crop. So they brought me in, I think, at the end of 2012, beginning of 2013, I had just recovered from breaking my neck the previous year.

I somehow passed their, like a physical they may do. I was just like, oh my God, I'm held together by gram crackers. I was like, I have no idea, like, how I'm getting through this. And it just didn't work out. You know, I ended up breaking my neck again in that training. And they were just like, we're just going to, we're just going to table that for now. They tried to bring me in to do like announcing type stuff. But I don't think I understood as much as I thought I watched wrestling.

and I understood wrestling. I don't think I understood the world back then as much as I thought I did. There's definitely something that once you're there, you truly see how the sausage is made. Yeah. Like you get a peek behind the curtain. It's like Wizard of Oz. Yeah. And you're like, oh, that's what you're looking for here. Yeah. And so it's funny because I don't, I don't think I really got the gist of it while I was auditioning at WWA. I still was trying to be Jen the comedian and Jen, like, the host. when it was much more about being a good storyteller. Being a good storyteller.

And even when they were like, Jen, we wanted you to be like a heel announcer. I didn't know what that meant. So I just came in with this roast heat, you know, and they were like, that's not it.

And so now when I look back at my notes from my audition, I was like, oh, that's why I didn't get hired. Can you give us an example? No, I get canceled. Oh, my God.

I don't know. No, you know, I don't remember it exactly, but I just, I remember looking at the notes and I was like, Dear God, and I just put them in the paper shredder. And I was like, let's forget that chapter of our life ever happened. It's funny because there are wrestling fans who've watched wrestling their entire life.

And I feel like they think, oh, man, I'd be such a great wrestler. I would cut such a great promo. I'd be such a great commentator. When you actually get to be in that spot, you realize that you have no clue. No. And that's why I think I had so much respect for like Renee and so much respect for Kayla, who I've gotten a no to. But Renee, I think, was so successful.

And Renee is so talented. Renee wasn't experienced in wrestling, which I think going in with a clean slate allowed her to be as successful as she was. Yeah, I think you're not as attached to it when you aren't a fan and you can just go in and learn it as a profession. Yeah, and if you're coachable, it's just like, oh, you need me to do this? Great. I'll do that.

Meanwhile, doing our mean gene impressions where we're like, I know exactly what I'm doing here. They're like, no, you don't. Calm down. Yeah, I had a friend of mine that worked backstage and basically, basically got let go because they weren't reactive enough. Like you always hear this in wrestling that it's here, right? It's in the facials. And it's like they weren't reactive enough to what was being said on the other side of the microphone.

Yeah, you have to believe what you have to make believe that these things are happening. Even when you know they are going to happen, it's called acting. And that's why it's such a weird, it's such a weird world to live in, you know? Yeah, and it's like you're called a backstage reporter, but you're not really reporting. No, you're just a human mic stand while people around you are yelling and punching each other and just get out of the way, you know? What would be the conversation you would have with someone at AEW backstage before you guys would do the promo? Oh, God. Because, you know, AEW was really good about just going, all right, it's you two and you're selling towards this match, basically go.

Yeah. So, you know, it just all depended on who it was with. And I had such good chemistry with a lot of the cast. and they knew they could be funny with me or they could be engaging with me, you know? I remember I gave, I think it was Scorpio Sky, like a funny one-liner and I was like, you should add that in there because he was cutting the promo

and he was very, it was very rockish. You know, it was a very rock-type promo. And I was like, you should add this line in there. And I'm like, and then, Frank, you should react to you saying that line because it was like a double, it's like a, had like a little entendre to it. And so, and I watch that clip back all the time and I'm just like, God, that was so stupid.

MJF had some fun with you. Yeah, probably too much fun. I mean, before we had an HR department, you know. But I respect that man so much for his skills on the mic. He's just beyond his years good. I think it's going to be really cool to watch and see what comes from him. He's just a great performer. I don't just mean that as a guy who's holding a mic cutting a wrestling promo or a guy who's telling stories in the ring.

he's just a great performer. And I feel like you could stick him in a movie and he would be a great performer. You could stick him in a TV show and he'd be a great performer. For sure. Oh, but it was him. Jericho was always a gift to work with. Jericho, you could come up to him and be like, here's the plan. He'd be like, yeah, I like that plan.

And then all of a sudden he would get like a wild hair and you would just have to roll with it. But whatever he came up with was going to be even more brilliant than whatever you discussed in the rehearsal, you know? But would you say like, all right, do you want me to like tee up like this, you know, upcoming event or match or like, how would you? Usually there were just like key notes you had to hit. You know what I mean? Like you make sure you like promote this match is coming up. Ask their feelings on this. And then this is going to happen. Then you have to react to this. And then this person's going to come in and hit this person. Please get out of the way, Jen. We're not insured for you. Like that type of thing, you know. I had to do one in the ring one time. And I and it didn't go quite as. planned, like someone jumped the queue a little bit faster than they should have. So I'm standing there in the ring interviewing Dustin, Dusty, and Dustin and I was like, Dustin Rhodes and I was like sitting there talking to him. And all of a sudden, I think Sammy or somebody missed their cue and came in early. And I caught them out of my peripheral. And I was like, oh, crap, I'm not supposed to be here. So you just see me sprinting out of the ring in like six-inch heels. And my family was like, I had no idea

she could move like that. Like, everyone was just really impressed her. Like, Jen's got some speed on her. Even in high heels, good for her. But I think I was so scared that it had happened out of sequence that I dropped the mic in the middle of the rings that was picking up all of the noise. I don't, you know what? It was like being involved in a circus.

That's the only way I can ever describe. Well, we were both in AEW so early on when I feel like things were like, they were figuring things out. They were fly by night, for sure. I was on episode one and episode five. So like, you know, they're three years in now, so they're on episode 150 something or 160 something. They've learned so much. And now it's a well-oiled machine.

But like, I feel like when we were there. We were in the French. Yes. And also, when you're a backstage interviewer, you're so low on the, like, totem pole of importance of like, there's so many other. You're like, I'm ready to go. I'm here. And they're like, calm down. Like, know your role.

Yeah, exactly. You are a mic stand. That's all it is. To borrow a line from the rock. Exactly. You are a mic stand. Just get out of the way. Do your job and get out of the way.

Yeah, seriously. It's all it is. Like, I did the segment on the first episode with Kevin Smith and Jason Mews. And the way we rehearsed it and blocked it out like hours and hours before was nothing like how it ended up going on live TV. That's how live television, man. I've done so much of it, you know, not just with them, but with like doing MMA events and things like that. And then working in the Metalands when I worked with the Jets. Like that was probably the scariest thing I ever did in my career because it was live feedback from a bunch of people from New Jersey and New York.

So they were going to let you know if you were not good at your job or if there was a technical difficulty, you were screwed, you know. But I'm nothing about love but for Jets fans, though, they taught me so much about how to entertain a ruckus crowd, you know, early in my career. The worst thing about making a mistake on live TV is the people watching don't realize. They don't know until you pointed out. There's a control room and a cameraman. There's all this other stuff going on. You got an IFB. There's someone yelling in your ear half the time.

Exactly. And people just see you on TV. And they're like, this dork can't do her job. Exactly. And they don't realize everything else is going on. And maybe it was someone else behind the scenes who messed up that you don't even know that their job exists watching a TV. So my very first live television show, like live national television show was when I was like 28. and I had, you know, my IFB piece in,

and it was our A block of the show, and it was four of us sitting around a table, kind of like in a very sports nation first take type situation, and we're having to banter back and forth and have a conversation and make intelligent points about something. None of it's scripted. None of it's a prompter.

And they left open the channel to the control room in our ear. So you're just hearing, go to camera one, go to camera two, zoom in on Jen. Nope, that too close is back up. And you're just like, and the minute we went to come up, We'll be right back. And you just see all of us take our earpiece and we're like,

oh. And they're like, you guys have to close that channel. Whatever was left open, let's never do that ever again. I had one. So the first American market I worked in was Cleveland. So I would be live at events like this particular one. I was live at like some sort of food festival. So I'm standing there and my IFB was like a weird like a CB radio that I was

plugged into with my IFB. And the signal was terrible because I was standing like under this bridge. and they were going to throw to me for like a live tease. And I was just going to be like, oh, I'm here at the food festival. We'll, you know, coming up, we'll talk about this. And they threw to me, but it was all like staticy. And I didn't know I was live on camera. So I'm standing there.

And then I'm like, kind of looking around. And then I just ended up walking off camera and like talking to my cameraman. And I went on Twitter right after. And someone was like, Chris Van Fleet just ate a giant shitburger on live TV. I'm like, come on, man. Yeah, I had that happen at an MMA event one time. And it's just like, that's when you rely so heavily on your producers and like the crew around you to make, like, we are only as successful as like the people around us. You know what I mean?

It's such a weird, thankless gig sometimes, you know? But that's it. I still wouldn't change anything about it. When you dip your toe into the wrestling world, I feel like you are owned by wrestling fans forever. Like you're one of us now. You are. Yeah. kind of, you're a piece of it for sure. Yeah. You're in the zeitgeist or you're just,

you're always going to be in the pantheon type situation. Like you just get put in this cupboard of toys for sure. How much did your fan base change? You know, I think my fan base was always predominantly male, so I don't feel like that really changed. You don't say. Yeah, who knew? But I don't feel like it changed that much. I think actually comedy has, has really started to change my fan base. And I think the more vocal I am about women's issues and the things that really matter to me and creating a safe space for women, not only in comedy, but just I taught a class the other morning about sports media at the University of Florida. And one of the things they asked me about was, you know, just creating a safe space for women and like giving all these women advice that had been through

tough stuff in work environments and things that were going to prepare them going forward. And I just told them, I'm like, it is just so important that women become other women's allies. And that means supporting their projects, supporting their art, supporting, just support women. It's not that hard, you know, we can ask men to be better allies all we want. But if we're not supporting our own, like what, that's the real problem. Yeah. Why do you think it has been for so long that women won't support other women or don't support other women? Because I think that, I think that a male dominated world, has made us feel like there's only enough space for one of us.

So it's competition? Yeah, so we're automatically turned against each other. And the fact of matter is there's plenty of room at the table. We're all so different, you know? Yeah. Like, even when we got brought in basically to do the same job, what you and I do is so different. Like, we are apples and oranges, you know.

When I saw you in Charleston, West Virginia, episode five, I was like, oh, my God, I didn't realize you would be here. And you're like, I didn't realize you would be here. It was like the Spider-Man meme. And we were like, who's doing what today? Are we, we both doing this? And I was like, what are you doing today? And you're like, I don't know.

What are you doing today? I'm like, I don't know. And then I, they made it so like you were doing backstage stuff. And I was more like out in front of the arena. Yeah. Which the weird thing about that is you can't really rehearse it. Nope. You can, but it's not going to go that way when it actually goes down.

Well, you can rehearse it, but not in front of however many people were there, 10,000 people. Yeah. So I just like, I walked out during a. commercial break and I'm just standing there and like people in the crowd are like hey CVV what's up and I'm like yeah okay okay I don't have I don't have an I FV I'm probably on soon exactly and you're like I don't want to be the guy that walks off to go talk to my producer at a food fair right now and all every single time that a camera goes live on you you remember the one time that you messed up at least I did of course I remember the very first episode now so many moving pieces moving parts

And I said to Cody, I said, am I going to have an IFB? Because I brought an IFB if I needed an IFB. He's like, good question. I don't know. I always brought mine too because I was like, I want to talk. I want the truck in my ear. I want to hear what's going on. Me too. And instead it was a camera guy, which worked out great, but I just didn't know.

It was a camera guy basically. Going. Oh, okay. Cool. I guess we're on. Yeah. How many episodes did you do in total? About a year?

I don't even remember. remember. A little over a year, right? Yeah, but I mean, when the pandemic started, I couldn't travel, you know, because I have something called CVID, which scared the crap out of a lot of people during COVID. But it's common variable immunodeficiency. It basically means I don't have an immune system. So I was obviously really high risk when COVID came out because my body doesn't have the ability to fight anything off. So it grounded me immediately. Like, honestly, I stopped flying the week before everyone else stopped flying

because they knew like, hey, there's a possibility there's something going on, you know. And I think the week before that, or two weeks before that, we had been in Chicago for revolution. And I remember working at C2E2 and being like, I don't think we should be here right now. Like, this is just, like, there's a thing like kind of looming around us, you know.

And I was really grateful. I didn't catch it. You know, it kept me safe working from home. I basically, I built a studio. I pitched them doing things from my home studio. And they were like, let's see how good she can make this look. And I basically, I created a home studio in my garage, you know, and it looked like a fully functioning well-lit television studio.

So I was super grateful, you know, if I hadn't, I found a friend here that was a brilliant cameraman and brilliant guy when it came to lighting. And I was like, hey, you know, I can get you this gig. You can work with me. you just have to keep me safe. Like you can't be running around and like, you're like literally one of the few people I see. Sure.

And so luckily enough, like he got it and he was grateful for the opportunity to be able to keep working during a time when most people weren't. And, you know, Cam and I have made some really cool stuff together. That's great. Yeah. Would you still want to work in wrestling?

You know, I think it just has to be the right opportunity. Yeah. And I thought that travel schedule is wild. Because it's way faster than comedy, honestly. Like, you would get in either the morning of on a red eye and then you'd be shooting later that day. Well, you got a long travel from West Coast to East Coast. And we were only doing East Coast loops at the time.

We hadn't made our way out west. So it was like, it was rough on my body. It really was, you know. And not only that, but I was also doing three hours of live radio every single day. So even when I was doing television, I had just come from doing three hours of live radio. Yeah. And that was just such a grind, you know. That's also why I stepped away from.

stand-up, with the exception of doing a couple of, oddly enough, wrestling-related roast, you know, during the time. Yeah. I feel like, again, once you're in it, you're kind of always tied to it. So this isn't the last we've seen of you in pro wrestling. Probably not. No. I know I won't be bumping, that's for sure. I took a bump recently and I went, oh, yeah. We should never do that again. I trained when I was 20 and, you know, your body callous is up to it. Yeah. I was talk about that. But I bumped recently and I'm like, oh, no, thank you. I'm good. No, no.

I don't get it. It's like you're putting your body through all these little mini car accidents is what it feels like. I'm 39 now and I'm pretty happy, pretty grateful that when I get out of bed in the morning, I don't have too many things that hurt. I don't have any that hurt. My wrestler friends who are 39, they got a lot of things that hurt. Oh, yeah, for sure. And so I'm grateful that we were talking off camera about how sometimes the best things in life are the things that don't happen.

And life steers you. Like as much as I always wanted to walk down that ramp and be the next Lita or the next Trish, I was just, I mean, I got defeated by a coffee table early in my career. So like I was never, I was never going to be that, you know, I was never, I look athletic, but there is zero coordination behind that. That's why I'm not on TikTok. I can't, I can't do the dances. You don't need to do dances anymore.

No, this is going to be on TikTok. Oh, great. This clip right now. Maybe I'll get some followers. Yeah. Are you on? Yes, I am on, but I feel like I've only got like two videos. I stayed off of TikTok for so long for that exact reason of like, I don't want to dance or I don't want to lip sync.

Nope. Now I just take clips from these interviews and I put them on there. Yeah. And that's it. That's it. That's all you need to do. Okay. Maybe.

I'm listening. All right. Maybe. We'll see. This clips on there right now. Okay. Okay. The United States Soccer Federation presents the U.S. soccer podcast.

My name is David Goss, and I'm joined by my co-host, Megan Klinemberg. And now we're giving people an inside look at the World Cup. Time's ticking. I think you can feel the intensity. All the guys are wanting to really take their claimant, and they want to be on that World Cup roster. There's no doubt about it. Hosting the World Cup on the home soil comes with its pressures,

but we're just really excited just as the people are. The U.S. Soccer podcast, presented by Hencoe. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. I was saying that our worlds collide in so many different ways. We also both believe that Back to the Future is the greatest movie of all time. Hands down. You know what kept me up the other night as I was looking at the timeline about why the ravine got named the way it did.

I was like, I think they messed up there. I'm such a dork. I'm sorry. But it turned out, no, it didn't get messed up. They just thought they thought everything through. It was so wild. But now, you had this really cool clip of you that you posted on your page before, like, we even set up this whole interview thing.

and it was just like, man, nailed it. And it was this, like I said, the whole concept of like, as much of the bad things that have happened to me in my career and just in life in general, I would still never take any of them back. Because I don't know what spider webbing happened from that moment or what little ripple effect carried out throughout the rest of my life that would have ended up somewhere else.

Yeah, back to the future is the greatest movie all time because it reminds us that moments matter. Like if Marty's dad wasn't a peeping Tom and fell out of the tree and got hit by the car, then his parents never would have met and then Marty would have never been born and all of these things line up. And I think about that every single day in my life. Like what if I had gone through the yellow light instead of stopping at it? Or what if I hadn't like run to cross the street when I did? All of these things, right? That leads to like, like, do you meet this person or do you not meet this person and everything else in your life? Yeah, and sometimes those moments that you think you missed are the moments that you're the most

disappointed by end up being the biggest gift humanly possible. Like I, like I said, I was crushed when the Shmowdown ended because it had been such a safe place for me. You know, it had been such a family and a community that we built around this silly little game show. But when it ended, I was just like, all right, this hurts. It's something better. Like something better is going to come from this. And my comedy career has really taken off. And I'm so grateful for the fans and the friends that I made on that show because they've just followed me. They're like, we know you're talented. We know you're funny. We'll support you. And it's those relationships that I built along the way through the schmo down and through other jobs that I've had. Like, I wouldn't change any of that for the

world. How crushed were you when things didn't work out with WWE? Because I would imagine when you get that call to go audition, you're like, well, it's happening. I'm like, finally. It's going to happen. You know, again, it was not getting WWE. I was also taking stand-up classes at the same time that I was learning to be a diva. Like, I hadn't started doing stand-up yet. I started doing stand-up at the beginning of 2013 was when I started taking classes and really learning comedy and, like, being around comedy.

And so had WWE pan out, I might have never gotten on stage and realized how much I love comedy. Yeah. That's wild when you think about it. I thought you post a story about how, like, when you were auditioning at WWE, they were, like, making comments about your body. Yeah, that was really weird, you know, and I think that that's something that wrestling in general should really get away from because I think it had more to do with the divas era, and you have to remember, this is pre-Me-2.

So we can't get mad about stuff that happened when, like, society is still figuring it shit out. Do you know what I mean? And like, we were different people back then. We have to stop canceling people for things they said or did, even as recent as like five years ago, because so much changes. And it changes so fast, like, what's acceptable, what's not acceptable. It's also interesting who gets a pass and who doesn't. Yeah.

Because Mike Tyson is celebrated, but he also. Yeah, we all forgot about that, didn't we? Went to jail from rape. It's so wild. It's a strange thing who we forgive and who we don't. People will hang on to some things with some people for years, decades even. Yeah, and it's funny because with my situation that happened with like when I was working in sports with the breadfire stuff, I was very much painted to be the bad guy by media.

Media was very complicit in what happened to me and how I was portrayed. Sure. Because it was so easy to look at me and go, look at the way she looked, she deserved what happened to her. No one wanted to hear that their heroes might not be the people that we thought they were. You have to remember, this is like right around the birth time of Twitter. You know, things were just getting kicked off there. You didn't have the access to athletes the way you do now. Instagram wasn't a thing yet, you know.

So it was definitely like the early stages of that. If it happened in 2022, I think I have a totally different career. I think I have a totally different life. But you know what, again, where do I end up? I can't look at what happened to me in 2010 and how poorly I was treated and be like, I'm a victim. Because if I stay stuck in that victim mindset, like, I never grow as a person. You know what I mean?

So I have to look at it and I go, what did I learn from this? And one of the things that I learned from it, you know, through lots of therapy, very expensive therapy, is that I'm not responsible for other people's actions, you know, and that I'm not a bad person because bad things happened to me. I'm simply not responsible for other people's actions. And what happened to me was wrong. And I don't need to, I don't need that validation from someone. I don't need someone to tell me that it was wrong.

As nice as that would be to hear like, hey, what happened to you was messed up. I had to learn how to give myself that. Yeah. Because society took so long to catch up. And so many people didn't know the full story. No, they still don't. You never even met Bradfarer. That was the crazy thing.

about it when that came out was part of the story. Yeah, it was basically weirdo cyber-stalking for lack of, I mean, celebrities, they're just like us. Yeah, it's, I'm so sorry that you had to go through that and that you had to go through that at the time that you went through it. It was a really unsupportive time. You know, I think the hardest part of it all was just being attacked by my peers, was being attacked by women, people that I was like,

you're supposed to have my back because you know darn well. this is happening to every, every single one of us. Yeah. It's just, it's just the way the industry is. But it's funny because I've always ended up in industries that are male dominated. I had a comedian, a well-known comedian tell me the other day. Like, oh, man, you're super funny, but I don't know. Comedy's just, comedy's really hard for pretty women.

I was like, no offense. Every job I've ever had has been really hard for pretty women. And I was like, how about just women? Right. You know, so I had a chance to talk to. to some of the women that attacked me back in 2010 because it was the convenient, easy thing to do to further their career.

And when Me Too happened, and I saw them all, like, beating the drum and standing up for each other, I called them out and I was like, where were you guys when I needed you? I was like, I'm really sorry I was not a good enough victim for you guys to warrant your support.

It's funny how it's just like where the pendulum is because it swings, right? It swings back and forth and it's just where it's at and what's cool to jump on board and rah, raw with. Exactly. And it's like, I don't know, the one thing that really gets me in trouble in a lot of workplaces and just life in general is I just don't have a really great filter.

I'm really honest, you know. In fact, the class that I took that told me all of the words that I was, damage, one of the phrases they came up with to describe myself in the way I speak is they're like, you practice honesty as an art form. They're like, you are so brutally honest that sometimes it is painful to. listen to, but no one will ever wonder where they stand with you. Wow. And they're like, that's the way that, you know, like, you carry yourself. That is both a good quality and a bad quality. Oh, it can be scary. So what's the goal for you in comedy? You know, I really want to get my special taped. I really, I've been working really hard on it. When's it happening? Probably this year. This year? This year? Well, not this year. 2023? Let's make it happen. Set a date. Make it happen.

I'm really aiming for fall of 2023. October 1st, 2023. That's amazing. All right. That's where we're putting. Are we going to put this in our manifesting calendar? What's the, you know,

I'm going to bastardize the phrase, but it's like a dream without a goal is just a wish. Yeah. So it's like. I definitely have goals. Yeah. I definitely have goals. And I like to give myself kind of benchmarks,

but. But a goal written down is like. But the thing about that is, is you can't, can't force how it's going to happen. Of course not. And that's the thing that I think. think a lot of people try to do, and that's where they mess up is they try to, like,

force the way something's going to happen. You know, like, I tried to force being in wrestling, I think, by auditioning to be a diva knowing damn well that I was not athletic enough to handle those bumps. My neck was made, like I said, made out of graham crackers. There was no way I was going to survive that training, but I was so hellbent on being a part of wrestling that, like, I put myself through that. And. But I think that if you can also like try to jam, you know, your 10 years of goals into one year, you might not accomplish all 10 years of goals, but you might accomplish two years worth of goals or three years worth of goals. And you'll be way further ahead. So if you say October 1st is when it's going to happen and maybe it doesn't happen until January 1st, you're probably way further along than if you just said, I'm aiming for next year. Yeah. You know, I'll like, I'll like, write little like notes down to myself. like this is the stuff that I want to accomplish.

And it's funny because I'll forget that that list exists. And then when you're cleaning out your folder and your phone, you know, you come across that list and you're like, oh my God, I accomplished a lot of stuff on this list. Yeah. And some of it is still very much within my reach, you know? And I just think it helps to remind yourself like how far you've come. Because sometimes when you get the thing that you wanted, you've already moved on to the next thing and you forget like, oh, you are exactly where you wanted to be before.

these are the things that I wished for a year ago or five years ago. Yeah. There's so many comedians now that are funding their own specials. Like, I'm good friends with Michael Yo. And the fact that he went out, funded his own special, his goal was to get 50,000 views on this special in a year. He put it out in March, and he already has half a million views or something. I'm like, come on, you did it. You're Michael.

You're Michael Yo. By the way, he's a great human being. We have so many different, like, Sympatigo. So many links. Martin McFly. Michael, yo. So many different links that pull us together. It's wild.

I feel like we'll have to do several more of these. For sure. I'm always down. I end every conversation talking about gratitude because it's such an important part of my life. And I wake up every day I say out loud three things that I'm grateful for. And I do the same thing before I go to bed too. So what are three things in your life that you're grateful for right now?

And I'm grateful for right now. Huh. I'm grateful for the opportunity that I, somehow make money making people laugh, you know, that I literally jeopardize my own safety to make people happy, to make people smile. You know, I'm so grateful that I actually can say like I, I pay my bills like that. I'm grateful that I have this amazing fan base that's just kind of come from all different walks of life, whether it's movie trivia geeks just like me or, you know, cool wrestling kids.

I'm just so grateful that all of these people have somehow found me and are invested in my journey. It's a little surreal to think about at times. And then I think the number one thing I'm grateful for is just the friends that I've made along the way because my birthday was yesterday. Oh, happy birthday. Thank you. Wow, 29 again? Yes, for the past decade.

But I'm just, I was actually overwhelmed with the amount of people who, when they went to describe me, they were like, she is the most selfless, most caring, nurturing individual while also being a ballbuster. They're like, she's the strongest friend I've ever met. And they're like, the number of people that were like, I genuinely could not have made it without her. And I'm just like, oh, wow, these people feel the same way about me than I do about them. And it's just to know that those relationships that you're building and the friendships that you're building are real. Because let's face it, out here, so much of this is make believe. This isn't even a real wall. You know, like, sorry, K-Fab. But, you know, so much of, so much of life is just people being phony and just going through the motions. And so it was like, I'm so grateful for just the amount of real people that I've had in my life that impact me on a day-to-day basis. Yeah, I love that. This has been such a great conversation that we've been. We've gone all over the place with. But thank you for joining me for this.

It's a lot of fun. You're awesome. Thank you so much for having me. You're awesome. You're awesome. Yeah. I'm sure we'll run into each other and another wrestling job soon.

I'm sure. Or a Ben Bateman show. Who knows? Exactly. Or a movie premiere. Who knows? Who knows? All right.

Big thank you to Jen for joining us in person for this interview in Hollywood. And of course, thank you for being in there with us as well. Please follow the show. leave a rating, leave a review if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, and take a screenshot. Let us know what you thought of this episode. Jen is at Jennifer Sturger. I'm at Chris Van Fleet, and her website is gensturger.com.

Maya Angelou said it best. I've learned that making a living is not the same as making a life. That's so good. Be great. Be grateful. Have an amazing weekend. We'll see you on the next one for some more insight. The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s flashback mockumentary.

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Ever heard of them? To Rock Bottom. Dude, I was born in 1987. I can't believe he's doing this. Hammer Alley. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You know,