Today we’d like to introduce you to Liz Savage.
Hi Liz, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
I originally went to The University of Alaska Anchorage to study Journalism & Public Communication which I really enjoyed. We covered local events and learned to tell people’s stories in a captivating and honest way. I had the best professors possible and access to insane Hollywood-quality film equipment, so I would goof off in the film club and make ridiculous movies with my friends. I loved making movies with my friends for the Film Royal, a local challenge to write, produce, edit, and submit a short film in 24-48 hours. Shouting over Village Inn tables about whose idea was funnier, camping out in the edit bay trying to find the perfect song, and exporting a movie before the deadline was a highlight of my college experience.
As I got closer to graduation, we got closer and closer to the circus which was the 2016 presidential election. It was an insane time where truth didn’t seem to matter and the media coverage was chaos. I came to the conclusion, I wanted nothing to do with broadcast journalism. I dove headfirst into filmmaking and television. It was what made me the most happy and came so naturally. I moved to LA for a bit and took some classes at The Groundlings and The Second City to make friends who had similar interests. I would move around more as a military spouse, but I always kept working in the entertainment field. I was able to work for The Voice and other great shows in various capacities. Sometimes, I drove 6 hours to Atlanta only to break even on a day player gig. I would continue to write scripts, produce and participate in independent projects, traveling back and forth to LA every chance I got to keep my foot in the door.
One of my favorite things about building a film or show is that you’re doing it with a team, commiserating and celebrating with others as you bring these stories to life. I have made incredible lifelong friends and feel we have produced work that impacts the world around us by giving people the opportunity to come home after a long day, turn off the media circus and melt into a world of a singing competition, medical drama, podcast, etc.
Personally, I love comedies. When I was a kid I would watch Beavis and Butt-Head, King of the Hill, and anything with Adam Sandler. When I was living in LA, I would go to comedy clubs and watch big names work out their new jokes. My friend Kim McVicar is a stand-up comic and told me for a long time that I needed to try it. It took years, but she finally wore me down.
Stand-up comedy is hard work…if you want to be good anyway. I’m more of a storyteller comic (shocker). It’s a lot of writing, reworking, and then trying to convey your story in a compelling and ultimately funny way to people who expect to have a good time. My blessing is that I have always loved writing. It’s my favorite part of stand-up, which makes actually doing the stand-up the hard part. The reason I’ve stuck with stand-up comedy is similar to the reason I love producing and working on TV. It’s communication and connection. It’s a chance to connect with the audience in person instead of through a screen. Both are important, but stand-up is an intimate, immediate, and irreplaceable experience that we share and if the audience can relate to what I’m saying, we feel connected and if I do my job right, we all have a damn good time.
I do everything under the umbrella of my company, Happy Snails Entertainment. While I do work in NY and LA regularly, I have really enjoyed putting down roots here in Maryland. All of my media and communication experience has put me in a position to produce what I want, do comedy shows, and also help small business owners grow their businesses using multimedia. In the last year, I have gotten to help small businesses and individuals, mostly women, mostly moms identify what makes them great and help them establish their ideal business so they can pursue a career they are passionate about. This has been very fulfilling.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
This has not been an easy road. A few contributing factors have been that my husband has been an active-duty soldier just about the entire time we’ve been married. We moved 3 times before I could finish college which should have foreshadowed how hard it would be to stay in one place long enough to really put down roots. This made it hard to work consistently in entertainment. I would supplement my income by substitute teaching, which I liked (most days) at the time. I would get great gigs, every now and then I got to work on shows I really admired so long as I could travel to do them. I would just keep chipping away, keep writing, keep up with my friends and when my husband would get deployed, I would move out to LA to work for a longer burst of time to keep getting experience. I would get some momentum, then go back to a creeping crawl when I moved back to the base when he returned home. It’s been hard to balance. Call me old fashioned, but I really like living with my husband. He is a better partner than I could’ve ever asked for. He is my biggest supporter and is the most loving and hilarious person I know.
Things were also difficult when I became a legal guardian to my niece and nephews. I won’t go into details, but most people know it is really hard to work when you have kids. Especially when your spouse/partner is away on TDY or deployment often. It’s no longer about you, priorities shift. It’s about giving the kids the best possible home and life you can while they are there. Easier said than done for sure. I didn’t know how to balance it, I felt guilty if I didn’t revolve my entire life around their needs. I was able to do stand-up sporadically, some bars were technically restaurants where I could take teenagers in. Am I horrible? Maybe, but I hope they learned that there is always a way to squeeze in what you love doing and that Shirley temples are delicious.
My job is fun but rarely glamorous, I constantly feel pressured to look a certain way by the industry and every local scene has its cliques and bro code dynamics to navigate. I’ve had to learn to do what makes me comfortable and proud as a performer. Sometimes you have to play by others’ rules, but other times… just make your own rules. Baltimore comedians, Kenny Rooster, and Roberto Reed have been really great examples of this. They have created their own shows and are killing it.
Sometimes, life was throwing the hardest things you can imagine in my way, one thing after another, and all I could do was write about it, make a horrible dark joke nobody was ever going to hear, and keep going until I was in a better position. It has been a crazy roller coaster, but I am grateful I never stopped chipping away. Some days I would only write a funny thought that popped into my head, some days I would just go support others’ shows, but I never completely stopped.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a writer, producer, and stand-up comedian. As a writer I specialize in comedy, I write all of my own stand-up material and have written films and sketches. I am currently working on a half-hour comedy tv pilot.
I am most known as a producer. I have produced a number of independent projects, where I have a talent for building the best crews and stretching budgets to make low-budget projects look like they cost a heck of a lot more to make.
I am most proud of the podcast I produce with my best friend, Phylicia Jimenez. The podcast is called Black Joy and Bootstraps. It is a show that helps bridge knowledge gaps in education, financial literacy, healthcare, etc. that were not given to BIPOC communities, the “bootstraps” if you will.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
I think you need two things, clarity, and perseverance; which can sound like a stock answer, but let me explain. I have seen people work really hard to excel in careers they don’t love only to come home at the end of the day unhappy and barely making ends meet. What good would perseverance be then? What good is working hard to stay on a course if you won’t be happy with the end result?
One of the things I have my clients do is dig into what it is they really enjoy doing. Ask yourself, what do you like doing? Why do you like doing that? I have been lucky enough to pursue a path that most people thought wasn’t possible and I have to tell you, when money is tight, I am a million times happier that I am not trudging into a job I hate, filling other people’s pockets just to pay bills.
Working in the news would have been the easier, more obtainable option. I had a degree in it and there were news stations everywhere, but it wasn’t what I wanted to do. I have just never stopped chipping away at what I want. Do not give up. You can pause, and you can be kind to yourself in hard times, but ultimately if you enjoy what you’re doing, perseverance becomes way less daunting.
Contact Info:
- Website: lizsavagecreative.com
- Instagram: @lizzsavage_
Image Credits
Troy Corbett, RaShawn Goss-White, Scot Wolverton, Kim McVicar, and Lisa Goldberg
