Comic Liza Treyger Takes On Louis C.K., Kimmel, & Why She’ll Perform at the Comedy Cellar

Stand-up comic Liza Treyger, next seen in Netflix’s The Degenerates comedy showcase, talks to Awards Daily about working with Louis C.K. and what Jimmy Kimmel gets wrong about comedy.

Liza Treyger recorded the upcoming The Degenerates comedy showcase for Netflix in Las Vegas, where Jimmy Kimmel will open a comedy club with Caesars Entertainment in 2019. In his interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Kimmel said about comedy: “Comedy is very democratic. The people who are great, rise to the top; the people who are good, rise to the middle, and the people who aren’t good, don’t make it.” 

Treyger believes Kimmel’s comments are out of touch with what it really takes to make it in comedy.

“It’s not true,” says Treyger, of Kimmel’s remarks. “Just because you have commercial success. What is success to him? There are so many great weirdo comics that may never be heard. Having money and support makes things easier. He wants to believe he deserves [to be] where he is.”

Treyger is no stranger to taking on controversial men, having appeared on Louis C.K.’s tragicomedy web series Horace and Pete, working with the likes of Edie Falco and Jessica Lange. Despite C.K.’s fall from grace, Treyger doesn’t regret working on the show, even if she does regret the way there have been no repercussions for the comedian.

“I knew all of this [him exposing himself to women] and [if he approached me], I’d be into it. I wanted to fuck him,” she says quite candidly, similar to the tone of her bawdy stand-up. “I was prepared for it, but so many women might not have taken the job knowing what he might do. It’s really unfortunate I think because he’s so talented and that’s what sucks now. It’s gross that he’s performing [again]. He’s a multi-millionaire with multiple housing properties. There has been no punishment. No one cares. Harvey Weinstein is not even in jail.”

Treyger cites “No one cares” as the biggest frustration with the comedy scene, with Bill Cosby’s decades of abuse plus sell-out audiences as another example. People asked her if she was going to boycott performing at the Comedy Cellar after C.K. performed there twice, and she said no, based on her recent experiences at the club.

“Three men in a row had jokes about how annoying the #MeToo movement was. Not perform? I want my voice to be heard.”

Liza Treyger can next be seen in The Degenerates, coming soon to Netflix.