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Shameless Leadership

24: Ophira Eisenberg - Comedy, Cancer and A Kid

Shameless Leadership

Sara Dean

Self-improvement, How To, Business, Management, Education

4.7800 Ratings

🗓️ 18 May 2016

⏱️ 65 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

I met Ophira in a hot tub in Sayulita, Mexico. It was just as romantic as it sounds. My husband and I had never before, nor have we ever since, made vacation friends. Meeting Ophira and her husband, Jonathan, was hitting the vacation friend jackpot. We know we’ll never get that lucky again.   When I met Ophira she was a stand up comedian in New York City. She still is. And she’s amazing. But since meeting her 6 or so years ago, she has endured the longest, darkest journey of her life – while still getting up on stage to make others laugh.    In this episode, Ophira and I talk about her life off stage over the last couple years. The life her audience couldn’t see. The life she couldn’t share. Because you can’t get on stage and laugh about cancer and miscarriages – until they are over. Then they are fair game for comedy content, right?    Ophira recently became a first time mom at 43 - after slaying the NYC comedy scene, landing a job at NPR, writing her memoir Screw Everyone: Sleeping My Way to Monogamy, and beating cancer. She literally did it all and did a lot of guys along the way (sorry, I had to throw that in there.)   This episode will make you laugh, for sure. But it will also give you some amazing perspective on the true pursuit of happiness.    Also, take note of the superpower Ophira wants to give all moms. We NEED this, ladies.       Connect with Ophira here:   Medium.com article: From a Cancer Diagnosis to Miscarriage to Pregnant – at 43   Ophira’s Memoir: “Screw Everyone: Sleeping My Way to Monogamy”   Ophira on NPR’s Ask Me Another   Ophira’s Comedy Album: BANGS!    See Ophira live at SHIT SHOW on May 26, 2016 in NYC!   Ophira on Facebook Ophira in Instagram Ophira on Twitter   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to the Shameless Mom Academy. I'm your host, Sarah Dean, and I'm here to give you and

0:08.8

other passionate, dedicated moms the tools you need to bridge the gap between motherhood

0:13.0

and living the life of your dreams. I'm also here to help you be a little more shameless every day,

0:18.4

because if you aren't building a life, you're extraordinarily

0:20.8

proud of. What kind of legacy are you building? So let's dive in.

0:28.4

Okay, I'm not going to lie. I'm kind of peeing my pants over today's episode. Today, we're

0:32.5

interviewing my friend Ophira Eisenberg, and Ophira is a stand-up comedian in New York City.

0:37.1

I met Ophira in a hot tub,

0:38.5

so we'll talk about that on the episode a little bit later. She's an amazing comic. She's obviously

0:44.1

super funny, but she has a scope of talent that is pretty hard for a layperson like myself

0:50.6

to even wrap my head around. So Ophira is a comedian, a writer, and a host of NPR's

0:56.2

hit trivia comedy show, Ask Me Another, where she has interviewed and played silly games with

1:00.4

the likes of Ellie Kemper, George Takai, Sir Patrick Stewart, Ethan Hawke, David Cross, Dr. Ruth, Lewis Black,

1:08.0

Uzo Aruba from Orange is the New Black, and many others.

1:12.1

She's appeared on HBO's Girls.

1:13.9

She was just in the most recent season and the very last episode, I think it was season

1:17.7

five, which was my favorite season of girls, by the way.

1:20.7

She has been on the nightly show with Larry Wilmore on Fox's Red Eye on the late,

1:24.9

late show, the Today Show, Comedy Central, and VH1.

1:28.8

Selected as one of New York Magazine's top ten comics that funny people find funny and featured

1:33.6

in The New York Times as a skilled comedian and storyteller with a bleakly stylish sense of

1:39.3

humor.

...

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