Comedian Lara Beitz has spent the better part of a decade turning the absurdities of everyday life into sharp, unflinching standup—and she’s not about to tone it down now. The Los Angeles–based comic and Milwaukee native spoke with CleveRock about her no-frills writing process ahead of her one-night-only appearance at Hilarities Fourth Street Theatre on February 5. Hot of the heels of her 2025 special, Stoppable, Beitz discusses the unexpected advantages of coming up in a smaller market, and the very real challenges that still face women in comedy. From fans who almost skipped her show “because we don’t like female comedians” to frightening encounters onstage and off, Beitz doesn’t shy away from the darker side of the job—but she meets it all with the same weapon that got her here in the first place: jokes.
Her humble beginnings quickly escalated to a spot on Comedy Central’s Lights Out with David Spade, earning the distinction of being named a New Face at the 2022 edition of the prestigious Just For Laughs festival in Montreal, and toured with comedy heavyweights including (but not limited to) Joe Rogan and Theo Von.
Beitz’s upcoming show marks her first time at Hilarities. She knows she’s in for a treat!
“I’m so excited,” she tells CleveRock. “I’ve heard really great things about that club!’
Her show carries a ‘Rated R’ warning on Hilarities’ website. This honor has been bestowed on past performers at the club including Jon Lovitz and Louis CK, and now, Beitz’s show carries the same cautionary label.
“I don’t think I’m dirtier than other comics, really,” she clarifies. “I don’t have graphic stuff. I don’t really have controversial stuff. I am a big fan of the F-bomb. I’m sure it’s just my language. I curse in my set.”
No writing process across and medium is easy. Words are hard. Beitz does have a simple way of letting material come to her the natural way.
“All of my stuff is just taken from my life and my writing process is pretty much if I see something in my daily life and it makes someone else laugh or it makes me laugh, I put it in the notes app on my phone, and then when it’s time for me to sit down and write, which I try to do every day, then I look in the notes app on my phone and I write that stuff out,” she explains.
Not dissimilar to Cleveland, her shared home of the Miller Brewing Company is a smaller market, which sometimes, leads to expanded opportunities. Female comics including Mary Santora and Liz Blanc cut their teeth in Cleveland (both of whom spent time on the Hilarities stage as headliners and as feature acts for nationally renowned talent). Beitz found a similar fortune in her native city.
“I think that being in Milwaukee helped my career a lot because I was able to get a lot of stage time, because there was a pretty small scene in Milwaukee when I started,” Beitz said. “Just out of supply and demand, I got to do long sets. I got to headline shows really fast. They were very excited to have a woman doing comedy there. And so I got put on a lot of shows and then did that for three years, and then moved to Chicago, and did stand up in Chicago for three years. And then from there, moved to LA. This year will be 10 years in LA.“
While she does attribute being a woman as an advantage to getting stage time early in her career, it isn’t always sunshine and rainbows for comics lacking a Y chromosome. One could easily argue that the opposite is true. Sure, progress has been made compared in the past decade; many of the more prominent comedians on the touring circuit are female, but women striving for recognition they deserve is still an uphill battle.
“I have so many feelings and thoughts about this, because, I agree with you. There are way more successful female headliners now than when I was starting out. It’s night and day,” she affirms.
“We’ve come so far in the time that I’ve been doing comedy, which is great. And with that said, I still get so many comments online, see it on my stuff; see it on my friends’ stuff. I often hear:
‘Women aren’t funny.’
‘This is why women aren’t funny.’
‘I hate female comedians.’
Even at my shows, I will have people come up to me at meet and greets after shows where I headline who are like, ‘Yeah, we almost didn’t come because we don’t like female comedians.’ There are a lot of very funny women out there doing standup right now. And, I think that if people don’t think that we’re funny, they just have not watched enough of us, because I have hilarious friends. I’ve had crazy experiences as a female comic that I just know that my male counterparts haven’t had. I had a man come on stage and grope my body. I was yelling for people to help me get them off me. They wouldn’t do it, because they thought it was part of the bit. I had a man kiss me on the lips as I was trying to push him off of me at a meet and greet once. Women still have to deal with that stuff, but that happens less now than it used to. It’s a crazy world and all of those things are true at the same time.”
The male race owes her an apology.
“I’ve had crazy experiences as a female comic that I just know that my male counterparts haven’t had,” she continued. “I had a man come on stage and grope my body. I was yelling for people to help me get them off me. They wouldn’t do it, because they thought it was part of the bit. I had a man kiss me on the lips as I was trying to push him off of me at a meet and greet once. Women still have to deal with that stuff, but that happens less now than it used to. It’s a crazy world and all of those things are true at the same time.”
Beitz was not lying when she said that she had lots to say on the matter!
Think women aren’t funny?
Challenge: Come out to Hilarities on Thursday, February 5 and try not to laugh.
Can’t make it? Check out Lara’s recent special, Stoppable, follow her on Instagram, and laugh your ass off!
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