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Jun
Inspirational Women of the Entertainment Industry: Lisa Sundstedt
by Danielle Turchiano
0 Comments | Posted by thatgirl in Amuse Me, Making Waves, Sit Back
“I hate waiting for the phone to ring,” Lisa Sundstedt divulges. “I create all of my own opportunities, and it’s what I encourage all of my students to do, too. That’s what stand-up is [after all].”
Sundstedt, a former actor and dancer, half-jokes that she started the stand-up comedy showcase Pretty 
Funny Women back in the mid-nineties after a guy told her she was “too pretty to be funny.” “I wanted to be a star; I wanted to be famous!” She laughs casually—but in all seriousness, it was Sundstedt’s fearless ambition and deep determination to make things happen for herself that allowed her to create such a forum.
Soon she found herself working much more behind the scenes as a writer and producer than a performer. “To be a comedian you need a really strong point of view,” Sundstedt explains. “Your audience needs to be able to sum you up in a few words…I found it was much harder to write for myself because I’m kind of a chameleon.”
Sundstedt knows that in order to achieve something you have to first believe you can do it. However, the most important thing might be to have a role model. “Somebody you’ve seen do it…to know you, too, can achieve it,” Sundstedt explains. She credits the women who really “[did] it all and put on a show” who came before her (like Carol Burnett, Lucille Ball, and Bette Midler) as her own inspirations. To many trying to come up in comedy today, though, Sundstedt has become that inspiration.
Traditionally, comedy has been a field heavily dominated by machismo and often misogyny. Just a few weeks ago, Norm Macdonald publicly commented to an interviewer that he didn’t think “chicks” could draw the big laughs. Such a thing should be discouraging in 2009, but Sundstedt doesn’t let it stop her. In fact, to counter such attitude, she encourages her girls to dress up and do their hair and make-up like they’re going out on the town. She doesn’t want them to downplay their gender in order to fit in with the guys. “I don’t want you to ever be someone you’re not,” Sundstedt stresses. Instead of conforming, she wants them to carve out their own spaces.
Sundstedt teaches three workshops a week and encourages her students to “stay together; write together; and support each other.” She gushes when she discusses her classes and students and admits it is the one thing she can see herself doing forever. And though those who enroll in her classes are women who want to become comediennes, her words reach across all professions. “Helping other women…is so fulfilling,” Sundstedt glows. “Nothing is [greater] than having someone come up to me at graduation and say, ‘You made one of my dreams come true.’”
Pretty Funny Women can currently be seen at five venues around the country. For information on upcoming shows, please visit: www.prettyfunnywomen.com