Rachel Bloom Writes a Love Letter to Carol Burnett
In a world short on joy, humor can be a unifier and a survival tool. In that spirit, we bring you our Comedy Issue, a month-long celebration of funny (and fearless) women and the enduring power of a good laugh. Here Crazy Ex-Girlfriend star Rachel Bloom salutes the woman who made her see the value in being herself onstage.
As I sat back down at my seat in the Beverly Hilton after winning the Golden Globe for best performance by an actress in a television series in 2016, I did what any millennial with a touch of ADHD would do: I checked my email. And the first thing that popped up was a message from Carol Burnett congratulating me. Not to sound ungrateful to the Hollywood Foreign Press, but that moment was my real Golden Globe.
A month or two earlier our mutual friend (and my Crazy Ex-Girlfriend costar) Donna Lynne Champlin told me Carol had asked for my email address. My response to her was, “OF COURSE YOU CAN GIVE CAROL FUCKING BURNETT MY EMAIL ADDRESS. GIVE HER MY SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER AND MY LIVER TOO.” It was laughable that Carol felt she needed permission to email me. But when I finally got to meet her, I realized that, in a wonderful way, her fame still hasn’t quite sunk in. Carol Burnett doesn’t know that she’s Carol Burnett.
She was the first comedic actor whose essence I couldn’t put into words—all I knew was that I couldn’t stop watching her. When I performed my own rendition of “Little Girls” from Annie for my eighth-grade talent show, the director told me not to copy her mannerisms. (Not because I couldn’t try—of course I did—but because she is a performer who is un-copy-able.)
I read Carol’s memoir One More Time during an eight-hour bus ride in 2009 and was struck by the fact that, like me, she had trouble booking acting gigs during her first year living in New York City. She put together her own musical showcase with women in her boarding house and got discovered singing the original song “I Made a Fool of Myself Over John Foster Dulles,” which reminded me of a song about an older gentleman that I had written called “F*ck Me, Ray Bradbury.” I had forgotten about it until I read Carol’s book. That song became a music video that got me my agent.
I realize now that this is a lot about me. Forgive me, but that’s the only way I know how to gush over an icon who has done as much for female comics as she has. If Carol hadn’t ignored the head of CBS when he said that variety was a “man’s game” in the sixties, she wouldn’t have made it possible for me—and all of my female creator-performers in TV—to do what we do. She may not ever know that she’s Carol Burnett, but at least now she knows how much I love her.
St. John blazer, turtleneck, skirt, $495; Jimmy Choo pumps, $650. Ulla Johnson dress; Ventrone Chronicles earrings, $45; M. Gemi pumps, $248. Crap Eyewear sunglasses, $79 each.
Read on for Glamour west coast editor Jessica Radloff’s interview with Carol Burnett:
GLAMOUR: Talk to me about the importance of mentoring talent like Rachel Bloom.
CB: I don’t think about it as mentoring. I just think about it as I’m a fan of hers. We’re friends. I watch Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Donna Lynne [Champlin], who is on the show, played me on Broadway in a play [Hollywood Arms] that my daughter and I wrote about my growing up with my grandmother and my mother. So I was watching it to see Donna Lynne and I got hooked on the show.
GLAMOUR: Did you have anyone who was instrumental to your own success?
CB: Lucille Ball. But she never considered herself a mentor. We were buddies. She was 22 years older than I, and she hired me on her show. Not I Love Lucy, but the later incarnations of that, so I was able to work with her. Then when I got my show, she came on as a guest, so it wasn’t like the years between us mattered. We were friends. And that’s what I consider Rachel.
GLAMOUR: What qualities do you love about Rachel?
CB: Aside from all the music stuff, which of course I love, she’s a very talented actress. So to see what she comes up with—the lyrics and the music—is just overwhelming. And then to see her in some of the more serious scenes, she’s the whole ball of wax. Early on [in my career], I remember thinking, I want to be able to say things funny so that you can put a spin on a line and get a laugh. Because sometimes if you read it on the page it doesn’t translate as being funny. Rachel does that; she says things funny. And that’s what I admire.
GLAMOUR: Going back to the days of The Carol Burnett Show, what’s changed in comedy and what hasn’t?
CB: Funny is funny. I dare anybody to look at the dentist sketch with Tim [Conway] and Harvey [Korman] and not totally crack up today. And that’s 45 years old. So that can remain the same. What has happened I think, and I’m kind of sad about it, is that people on television want to be edgy. Sometimes a bit too much. And I’m not a prude by any stretch of the imagination, but I find that some of the sitcoms today feel like they’re written by a bunch of high school boys in a locker room. They’re not clever. Look at All in the Family, Mary Tyler Moore, Dick Van Dyke, Bob Newhart, Cheers…they were clever, funny, and classy. There are very few today that have that. So that’s what I’m sad about.
GLAMOUR: Were you told you were funny growing up?
CB: I wasn’t. But I never tried to be funny, so naturally I wasn’t told that. I was a very quiet student, a complete nerd in high school. I was editor of the high school paper, and a good student, so it was kind of a shock when all of the sudden I started [theater] at UCLA because I had no idea that I would ever wind up like this. At all. There should be no hurry to decide [what you want to do in life]. Let it happen.
