Get Back Up with Comedy Publicist Pam Loshak (Best Of)

Transcript

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How do you go from selling apples on the street to representing some of comedy's biggest names?

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We'll find out during this No Wrong Choices Best Of edition, featuring the comedy publicist Pam Loshak.

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We'll be back with new episodes next week.

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I'm Larry Samuels, soon to be joined by my collaborators Larry Shea and Tushar Saxena, but before we kick off, I do ask that you support our work by liking and following no Wrong Choices on your favorite podcast platform and by connecting with us on social media.

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Now let's get started with our original setup of this great conversation.

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This episode features comedy publicist Pam Loshack, who has supported clients such as Colin Quinn, Michael Che, Neal Brennan and so many others.

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To be upfront, she's somebody who I've been friends with for many, many years and Larry Shea.

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You may not know this, but you have met Pam along the way, so perhaps you're the best next person to set this conversation up.

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In that case, it'll be good to talk to Pam again.

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I guess I don't know how long I've known Pam, but we're going to talk to her today, which is pretty exciting.

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I don't know anything about PR.

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I don't know what it's like to be a publicist, to have a relationship with the media essentially is what we're talking about.

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I don't know how they get paid.

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I don't know how you get into it.

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I'm so excited to talk to Pam just because I know so little about this subject.

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So that's exciting and I know her journey very specifically is fascinating, so cool to listen to her.

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The thing I really want to hear about from Pam is she's a freelance contractor for all intents and purposes, and when you own your own business and you have to worry about where the next paycheck comes from, it ain't easy, and I know that from firsthand experience.

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A lot early on in my career I was a freelance contractor, so it's not an easy life to start with.

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So when you have that opportunity to join a company, or if tomorrow some company calls and says we want you to head up our division, would you do it and there are always pros and cons to that decision I would love to hear what that thinking is from someone like Pam who's in that situation currently.

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Well, hopefully she'll get to that, and if anybody's ever paid their dues, it's Pam.

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So, with no further ado, here is Pam Loshak.

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Pam, thank you so much for joining us today, thanks for having me.

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Hey, pam, nice to talk to you.

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This is Larry Shea.

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Tell us about the job.

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What is the job, what's your role, and let's start by giving people a good background of what it is exactly that you do day to day.

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So I do a lot of things day to day.

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People ask me this a lot and it's hard for me to sum it up, but the best way I've described it is at a certain point in a comedian's career, because I specialize in stand up comedians, who are very much Renaissance people.

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So you know they have stand up, but very rarely does it end there.

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It's there's usually, uh, you know, a TV show and a podcast and a movie and a book and you know whatever else, sometimes, sometimes an off Broadway run, you know, uh, uh, like a one man show or one woman show, one person show.

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I know how woke your audience is, so so it's handling all of those things.

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And when I say handling it, there's a certain point where it makes sense for a publicist to be added to a comedian's team, a certain point in their career, and I'm kind of like a manager, except I manage a very specific piece of their career.

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So I manage the media piece of their career.

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So, pam, now that you've given us an overview of what the job entails, of what your job entails a bit, take us back to the beginning a little bit.

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Tell us what got you involved, not simply in wanting to get into, let's say, the management of comedians' careers, but in entertainment in general.

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Was this always something that you wanted, even even as a, even as a young girl?

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um no, I mean I.

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It's funny when I look back at like eight-year-old diary entries of mine.

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I mean, listen, not once did I write dear diary.

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When I grow up I want to work at a bank you know or?

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I want to fix cars or, like you know, it was always something in the entertainment industry.

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He was an entertainment lawyer in the music business.

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So he worked for Sony Music and then opened up his own practice and worked with various musical acts, including Cool and the Gang, with various musical acts, including Cool and the Gang.

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So I do think.

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And then my oldest brother, who's 22 years older than I am, is also an entertainment lawyer in the film business.

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Not that I knew any of this as, like a child, you know a five-year-old but I was aware um of the uh like.

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I had family in the entertainment industry.

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So I think when you grow up in that um like it just subconsciously implants itself as an option in your mind that that can happen.

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You know so um in in that way, uh, um, I knew that that was a possibility, but I don't think I was like thinking of that at the age of six.

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I mean Jesus what kind of intense people do you have on this podcast?

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Look, some of the people we have on this show are very, very focused.

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I mean, I thought I was for five minutes.

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I wanted to be a writer for five minutes.

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I wanted to be a jewelry designer for five minutes.

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At six years old, that's still pretty focused.

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I mean kind of just because my mom got me some beads and I made a necklace, although I will say I was always very business-minded.

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When I look back in retrospect now, everything I did, I was always like how can I turn this into a business?

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So when I was probably six or seven, I went up to my mother.

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I was like I'm opening up a lemonade stand outside of my brother's little league games.

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I'm doing this.

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Mom and I like set it up and I made signs and I was very charming and I made a bunch of money.

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I think I made like 30 bucks or something very nice um, when I made when, for the five minutes that I was really into making jewelry I like made these necklaces and I set up a stand outside of my grocery store and tried to sell the necklaces, which I'm sure was illegal.

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You know, I definitely didn't have whatever license you need to do that.

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But so I will say that I was always business minded, I guess.

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I mean, when I was very young I wouldn't play house with my friends, I would play entertainment manager and I would, and I would sit.

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I had a bunk bed and I would sit on the on the top bunk and I would make my friend be my assistant and sit on the bottom you did not do this.

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I 100% did.

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Granted, I did it in a princess dress.

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We were in full makeup you know, we were like dressed up, but um, I guess that that is sort of the way my mind always worked, Wow.

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So when did you start to you know?

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Push towards, I guess the real thing.

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An actual job.

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I was going to be 10 years old.

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When did you bring?

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this to real life.

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Um, you know, I, you know I graduated college, I worked in advertising for five minutes because they recruited me out of college for a big advertising agency called MediaVest.

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Called MediaVest, and like nobody else had, all my friends were going to San Diego to, like, you know, get high and like hang out on the beach, and I was like, okay, well, how about I get a paycheck?

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And so I did that and that was hilarious.

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I mean, I started that job two weeks out of college.

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That's not at all where I should have been.

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And so I quit that job and was cocktailing and just doing things around the city and like, eventually, I just got very um, this will come into play later, which is why I'm going to mention this I've never been the type of person, uh, I always need to know where my, how my rent is being paid.

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I need to know, you know, where my paycheck is coming from.

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So, you know, the fact that I'm a freelancer technically now is nothing I ever in a million years would have imagined I would be cut out for.

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Um, so I, but, you know, going back, I think I was just, I was sick of like the, the instability of working at restaurants and I was really broke, and so I.

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I knew that I wanted to work in the entertainment industry, but I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do.

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So I set my sights on getting a job at a, at a talent agency, because they're kind of the nerve center of the industry and I figured that it would be a good place for me to figure out what direction I wanted to go in, and hopefully I would have the connections to do so once I figured that out.

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So you pivoted from working at the ad agency and doing other jobs to kind of to make ends meet, and then you moved over to the talent agency.

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Is that right?

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Yes, which, when you start out at a talent agency, you're not going to make ends meet.

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I mean, I started there as a floater, which means that you're, and I was working at WME, which is a major, major major William Morris endeavor.

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Yeah, it's a major talent agency and you know, the way I got that was that I at the time I just so happened to be dating somebody that knew somebody who was an assistant there, who got my resume in.

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But I did not start in the mailroom, I didn't.

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You know, I was a little bit older than than the other people who usually who started, who who typically start at the level that I started at Usually people come right out of college and do it, and I was like 26, 25.

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So I just didn't want to be in the mailroom, I didn't want to do all of that stuff.

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So I got a job as a floater, which is an in-house temp and you report to HR every day and they put you on a desk if an assistant is out sick or needs extra help with a project, and you float around from desk to desk, which is actually better experience than being in the mailroom, but it's not the track that you typically take to be an agent.

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I just I don't want to gloss over this part.

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I want to get back to this.

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But did you study publicity or marketing in college at all, or where did that spark happen?

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I was very high in college spark happen I was very high in college so you

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studied extracurricular activities my focuses were elsewhere.

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However, I, you know, I always was, uh, I always gravitated towards, was, uh, I always gravitated towards comedy.

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I knew who all the comedians were at an inappropriately young age.

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I was always doing impressions in school.

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I was always the funny one in school.

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I was always a lot of things in school, but the but I was always funny.

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Um, I was, I was, I did a lot of theater.

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I don't think I've missed an episode of snl since I was like seven years old, like I.

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I shouldn't have known who, all the who, all the stand-ups were on hbo.

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You know, at the age of like seven like.

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But that's great parents, that's what I was watching or neglectful parents no, it was cool parents, that's cool parents um, but um so so I'm sorry.

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What was the question?

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Again, when did I get the bug for?

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yeah, what was your major like?

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Did you actually have?

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anything cultural anthropology.

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Okay, so it was basically perfect this study of how us, how groups of people, operate and and and interact with each other, which is, I mean, it's all fitting.

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You know, considering where I've wound up, it's exact.

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It's like exactly what I do.

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I mean, it's just it was I've always been very interested in and very insightful of of human behavior.

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If that makes sense, like I can tell you plenty of things that I'm not good at, for example, figuring out how my stove works.

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I don't know if any of our previous conversation is going to get on this podcast.

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We'll get to air frying in a little while.

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We talked about how I don't know how to use my stove, but there are plenty of things that I'm really not good at, but I am exceptionally good I'm I, it's my talent.

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I think everybody is talented in a certain area, and for me it is um.

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Understanding the, the language of the art of comedy I always have.

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It's just a language I always got.

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And also, um, I always got.

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And also understanding human behavior very, very well, which is not always a fun thing.

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So when you were over at William Morris and obviously floating from desk to desk, maybe you didn't have the opportunity to kind of maybe I wouldn't say pick and choose where you could go, but did you have a preference of working comedy desks over, let's say, actors or uh or other or other type of uh or other uh divisions and departments?

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Well, the way it happened, the way things played out at, at, um, william Morris for me was that, yeah, I was hopping from place to place, and you know I was.

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I always say that I was at William Morris at the right time, with the right attitude, because I had no ego about it, you know what I mean.

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Like I didn't go in there expecting to do anything high profile, I really just wanted to learn and figure out what was going on, you know.

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So, um, there weren't specifically comedy desks, there were agents who handled comedians amongst other clients, agents who handled comedians amongst other clients.

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And when I was there, it just so happened that there were three coordinators, which is, it's like a junior agent level.

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Okay, um, who?

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And?

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And coordinators don't have assistants who were all in the TV department and all had a bunch of stuff going on, and they also worked with comedians.

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And so I went up to them and I was like, hey, I'm really interested in this stuff.

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You do If you ever need any help with anything, if you want me to get you coffee, if you want me to file, answer your phones, whatever like, let me know I'll stay after work if you want, or you can put, you can put in a request with HR to have me come help you guys.

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So I wound up and they did, they really responded to that and so I wound up being sort of their unofficial assistant.

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And then when one of them, this guy, scott Lunker, got promoted to an agent position and, uh, was able to hire an assistant, he assistant proposed to me and I accepted and so and he was just I mean, not everybody people have like horror stories about working at agencies.

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I, I was.

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So it was such a wonderful time in my life working for him and I was there for, you know, two and a half years.

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He was an amazing manager.

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He was also really good.

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He was like the golden boy in the TV department.

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So as long as I was under his wing, no, nothing bad was going to happen to me and he was very, very good to me and he was very, very good to me.

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You know that was sort of important in me developing how I wanted to exist like how I wanted to operate in the business world Right, right, right.

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And so what are you doing at this point?

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What was your hands-on?

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Are you interacting with clients?

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Are you doing administrative type stuff, like what was your?

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role.

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I was his assistant so I was like rolling calls, but when you're at an agency you can listen in.

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You're on the line when all the calls are happening unless they tell you it's private.

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So I was able to listen to all of that and, like, um, you know, figure out what I wanted to do.

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And he repped at the time a relatively unknown Bill Burr.

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He repped Greg Giraldo, he repped White as Kids you Know.

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A couple of those people are dead now.

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Hey, yay ha comedy, big laugh.

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Way to bring it down, way to bring it down.

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Way to bring it down.

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Well, greg giraldo.

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I don't know if you guys know who greg giraldo?

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do you know who he was?

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yeah, comedian, yeah okay, well, whatever, greg, he died on my birthday, which is really shitty of him and, um, he was probably the first comedian that I feel like I personally knew, like I had a personal relationship with.

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But so I was, I was, it was my, the actual work was all administrative, but I was also like going to, you know, when somebody had a taping or somebody had a TV appearance, I would go with Scott, my boss, to all of those things.

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Right and you would represent him, I'm assuming.

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Represent no we would just like like you would just go.

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I got you yeah, just for support and um.

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And then I decided that I wanted to sort of go into, like a, a world.

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I wanted to go into original programming, which is, which is a department at a network they call it a development department, william Morris, no at a network.

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So I decided I wanted to go over to a network and develop and and work in development in comedy.

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Why did you choose to do that rather than go the the agent path?

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Oh cause?

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No, I mean, larry.

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You and I have known each other for many, many years now.

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I'm not an agent.

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I had to ask the question, I would not thrive in that environment at all, nor did I want to like it was not anything that I wanted anything to do with.

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Um so, um.

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So I decided you know, as I talk about it, it's like you know the the decisions that I made along the way are, like you know, like I decided, ok, I want to work in New York.

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This was in New York City, by the way, and at the time everybody is like moving out to LA to, like you know, grow their, build their career in entertainment because the entire industry is out there, or at the time it was, and I was like I want to stay in New York and I want to work in development at Comedy Central in New York City.

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So basically, I was limiting myself to like two jobs, right, yeah right right.

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But it wasn't.

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You know, I didn't pull it out of thin air.

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It was also that my boss at William Morris was like best friends with the head of the new york development department at comedy central.

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Yeah, okay, so which I?

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knew.

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So it's not like I pull, you know, it's not like I invented, like how?

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about.

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I theoretically had a nice smooth path I knew that I I knew that I had an in there.

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Um so I figured it was just an amount of a matter of waiting, which it was fun fact.

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Um.

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So the guy that I, that I did wind up eventually going and working for as as his assistant at comedy central is a guy named Lou Wallach.

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As his assistant at Comedy Central is a guy named Lou Wallach.

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His assistant at the time right before me was none other than John Mulaney.

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No, kidding, really.

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Yeah, so I had to wait for John Mulaney's leave, which he did.

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I don't know if you've heard of him, thankfully for all of us, or fortunately for all of of us, because I do very much appreciate his work.

00:22:47.126 --> 00:22:53.249
Um, so then I went over and I worked at comedy central as an assistant, which I was like, oh my god, this is my dream job.

00:22:53.249 --> 00:22:54.412
This is it I've landed.

00:22:54.412 --> 00:22:59.042
I'm gonna work my way up, I'll be here for, you know, 30 years.

00:22:59.042 --> 00:23:01.987
I'll eventually be an executive.

00:23:01.987 --> 00:23:05.792
This is exactly what I want to do.

00:23:05.792 --> 00:23:06.693
It's perfect.

00:23:06.693 --> 00:23:07.335
It's perfect.

00:23:07.335 --> 00:23:11.669
It's in New York, and it wound up being my worst nightmare.

00:23:12.631 --> 00:23:13.153
Why is that?

00:23:15.320 --> 00:23:19.627
Because I was working for a verbally abusive coke head.

00:23:20.630 --> 00:23:23.634
Okay, okay.

00:23:24.160 --> 00:23:25.365
That sounds unpleasant.

00:23:25.365 --> 00:23:28.439
I can see that being a problem yeah, that's that's a problem.

00:23:28.459 --> 00:23:29.442
Right, that's obviously a problem.

00:23:29.442 --> 00:23:32.881
As you said, you had such a great experience while you were at william morris.

00:23:32.881 --> 00:23:34.905
A lot of people expect that.

00:23:34.905 --> 00:23:36.549
You know that will be the way the career works.

00:23:36.670 --> 00:23:37.632
So I had.

00:23:37.632 --> 00:23:40.905
I had no idea I was so spoiled, I had no idea how good I had it.

00:23:40.905 --> 00:23:47.900
I mean mean also, you know Viacom in general and it's not Viacom specifically.

00:23:47.900 --> 00:23:57.550
It's just working in any media corporation is tough, it's not.

00:23:57.550 --> 00:23:59.433
It's not.

00:23:59.433 --> 00:24:07.477
I would say, at best, if you're lucky, it's 50% about the actual work that you're doing.

00:24:07.617 --> 00:24:08.339
Right right.

00:24:08.579 --> 00:24:12.525
And 50% about navigating.

00:24:12.525 --> 00:24:17.912
You know whatever the corporate structure is and stroking ego.

00:24:17.912 --> 00:24:20.194
You know, executives' egos.

00:24:20.214 --> 00:24:21.135
Office politics.

00:24:21.435 --> 00:24:23.307
Sure, yeah, it's a lot about playing the game.

00:24:23.940 --> 00:24:28.943
And dealing with, and everybody's constantly terrified of losing their job, you know.

00:24:28.943 --> 00:24:59.546
So it really is like eat or be eaten and and I understand, like rightly so I mean people very, very high up executives who are making a ton of money, get laid off or get fired for no reason just because there's a changing of the guards, you know, or you know their company merges with another company and like, and all of a sudden you go from.

00:24:59.546 --> 00:25:09.646
So there it's sort of you're, you're kind of shadow boxing all the time, like there's no way to feel like you have any kind of security.

00:25:09.646 --> 00:25:31.503
You know so, which I didn't have to deal with as an assistant as an assistant, you're just there but I had to deal with the effect that that has on on um, the executives that did work there, like psychologically and how that behave, you know.

00:25:32.766 --> 00:25:36.034
So then, how long did you end up staying at a comedy central?

00:25:37.000 --> 00:25:45.932
I was there for two and a half years and so I was trying to so the so in entertainment, in in what I the field that I'm in.

00:25:45.932 --> 00:25:53.380
One of the hardest jumps that you're ever going to have to make is from assistant to executive or like assistant to junior executive.

00:25:53.380 --> 00:26:04.409
You really have to have somebody who's like championing on championing you, like ushering you into through that transition, or it's never going to happen.

00:26:04.429 --> 00:26:05.750
You need a Sherpa.

00:26:05.750 --> 00:26:06.794
Absolutely, you really do.

00:26:07.101 --> 00:26:20.433
I mean it's, it's just so, and I was working for somebody who had no interest in helping me and, you know, lied about a bunch of stuff and like whatever.

00:26:20.433 --> 00:26:21.604
Ultimately he got fired.

00:26:21.604 --> 00:26:22.548
He works for Netflix now.

00:26:22.740 --> 00:26:23.644
He knows, I don't like him.

00:26:24.441 --> 00:26:25.321
I would say all of this.

00:26:25.321 --> 00:26:41.125
I would say all of this to his face and, by the way, every other boss I've ever had, going way back to my first boss at the advertising agency I am still in touch with and I have very good relationships with.

00:26:41.125 --> 00:26:42.327
I adore them.

00:26:42.327 --> 00:26:43.150
They adore me.

00:26:43.150 --> 00:26:44.613
He was a nightmare.

00:26:45.182 --> 00:26:55.912
I have to ask this question right now because it's it's important because we we often don't spend enough time on, maybe, the decision we make, that we regret it, right, and or the the twist and turn in the road.

00:26:55.912 --> 00:26:59.926
Ultimately, it led to where you are now, which is fantastic.

00:26:59.926 --> 00:27:04.013
If you had it to do over again, though, would you have made the same choice to move to comedy central?

00:27:04.496 --> 00:27:06.643
Yes, because it looked good on my resume.

00:27:07.223 --> 00:27:09.259
Okay, that's a fair answer.

00:27:10.174 --> 00:27:29.439
You know I wish that there had been another position that would have had the equivalent clout you know for my resume in the comedy world, but there really wasn't.

00:27:29.439 --> 00:27:34.824
I mean, I really had limited myself to like three jobs in without moving to LA.

00:27:35.144 --> 00:27:35.885
Yeah, right.

00:27:36.247 --> 00:27:37.388
So, um.

00:27:37.388 --> 00:27:56.369
So I was at comedy central and it really got to the point where I was, so um, I was, so it was like really affecting my like mental health, being there and working for this guy and I.

00:27:56.369 --> 00:27:58.872
You know things were happening like I would go.

00:27:58.872 --> 00:28:09.656
So at the time they moved offices, but at the time the offices were at Columbus Circle, which is right at the for those anybody listening who doesn't know New York City, it's right at the.

00:28:09.656 --> 00:28:18.136
For those anybody listening who doesn't know New York city, it's right at the tip of central park, and I lived right at the end of the other end, of the other side of central park.

00:28:18.136 --> 00:28:28.338
So every day, just to try to like get myself grounded after work, I would walk the entire length of the park.

00:28:28.338 --> 00:28:29.040
Wow.

00:28:29.381 --> 00:28:31.926
Wow which is about home.

00:28:31.967 --> 00:28:44.615
I was living on 110th street at the time, so you were in the best shape of your life, I mean I don't know, I was just walking just because I had to like yeah, decompress, wind down, work it out yeah.

00:28:44.816 --> 00:29:09.590
And then I would go home and I would like collapse on the couch watching TV and I would start nodding off because I'd be so tired and I would try to stay awake, just because I needed time away from that audience, that office, like I needed, like it was bad, it was really really, really bad and and so out of that I was just like I have to get out of here.

00:29:09.875 --> 00:29:33.624
So I started interviewing, which, by the way, my boss at from William Morris Scott, helped me, you know, hooked me up with other people and got me interviews, and it always came down to like me and one other person, but the other person was making a lateral move and I was trying to make the jump from assistant and I would always lose it, and I was going into everything.

00:29:33.624 --> 00:29:48.183
I mean I was I was interviewing for like reality TV jobs which, oh my God, thank God, I didn't get any of those jobs, you know, um, and I just wasn't getting anything.

00:29:48.183 --> 00:30:06.362
And then then, so one of the things I had started doing when I was at comedy essentials, I started volunteering to help work the carpets, uh, the red carpets at the comedy central roasts okay it'd be like a talent wrangler or whatever they needed, you know.

00:30:07.763 --> 00:30:20.784
So I put that on my resume and claimed that I had PR experience, which I didn't really Well, maybe real life, you know practical experience.

00:30:21.085 --> 00:30:23.501
Yeah, I agree, I think you actually did have experience.

00:30:23.501 --> 00:30:24.325
What are you talking about?

00:30:24.325 --> 00:30:25.794
I did not have PR experience.

00:30:26.015 --> 00:30:35.390
Going on a carpet and like showing someone where to go from a car, from a car service is not PR experience.

00:30:35.390 --> 00:30:44.763
All right, that's relating to the podcast.

00:30:44.763 --> 00:30:52.511
So truly out of desperation I someone sent me like a list, a listing.

00:30:52.511 --> 00:31:01.446
I mean you have no idea how much networking I was doing Meetings with everybody, general meetings, interviews, contacting everybody.

00:31:01.446 --> 00:31:02.941
Can you get my resume in with this?

00:31:02.941 --> 00:31:05.000
I mean really, really hustling.

00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:18.347
And then somebody sent me, I think, a listing that they had found on craigslist for like a junior publicist in the in the comedy craigslist of all places.

00:31:18.387 --> 00:31:27.665
Yes, the first time craigslist has come up in any of these episodes well that this was like 2006, maybe yeah, so like and six maybe.

00:31:27.685 --> 00:31:30.490
Yeah, so like that's what was going on at the time.

00:31:30.490 --> 00:31:36.480
And um, and so I contacted this guy and I read the description and I was like.

00:31:36.480 --> 00:31:49.429
I contacted him and I was like, um, here's my rep, like I could give you my spiel, my like cover letter spiel, but you should just look at my resume and we should talk, because my and and um.

00:31:49.429 --> 00:32:02.435
So we did and he offered me the job and again, completely out of desperation, I took it um, just because I had to get out of comedy central.

00:32:02.435 --> 00:32:04.939
It was killing me, like I was not in a good place.

00:32:04.939 --> 00:32:10.125
And um, I took a 50 pay cut.

00:32:10.125 --> 00:32:12.768
I had no ben, I had no benefits.

00:32:13.989 --> 00:32:43.711
By the way, 50 pay cut, it's not like I was making a ton of money at comedy central, I was doing okay, um for still 50 of anything 50 for well, yeah, but I was you, like I was doing OK for somebody who was 30, you know, and single, and no responsibilities and no expenses, in New York City, with a rent, stabilized apartment.

00:32:43.711 --> 00:32:44.873
You know what I mean.

00:32:44.873 --> 00:32:49.522
Like I was doing OK, but I.

00:32:49.522 --> 00:32:51.227
I took a 50% pay cut.

00:32:51.227 --> 00:32:58.704
I had no health insurance, no benefits, no, nothing, um, but and but I.

00:32:58.704 --> 00:33:19.943
It got me out of the assistant title world, it kept me in the comedy world and, um, it was just a place where I could go and still have a paycheck, no matter how small, and and and not be like emotionally tortured every day.

00:33:21.006 --> 00:33:21.286
Yeah.

00:33:22.268 --> 00:33:32.361
And and still, you know, I figured I could still interview, I could still do all the things I was doing, but maybe I wouldn't be so miserable and I wouldn't be an assistant anymore.

00:33:32.361 --> 00:33:41.242
So I did that and I and I want to point this out because it's important I was 31 when I took that job.

00:33:42.084 --> 00:33:42.444
Okay.

00:33:43.346 --> 00:33:56.250
So I don't know how it is in other industries but like to be just coming out of the assistant world at 31 in the entertainment industry is very, very old.

00:33:56.516 --> 00:33:57.480
It's late in the game.

00:33:58.976 --> 00:34:00.281
It's very late in the game.

00:34:00.281 --> 00:34:11.103
So you know that's something that I was wrestling with, you know within myself, and but I did it anyway.

00:34:11.103 --> 00:34:14.009
That was, uh, 2007,.

00:34:14.009 --> 00:34:27.682
Then 2008 hit and, if you recall, there was this little housing bubble thing that burst I do remember that great recession in 2008,.

00:34:27.804 --> 00:34:28.826
It wasn't a big deal.

00:34:28.826 --> 00:34:46.543
It was kind of like loosely reported on um and so everybody, all of my leads, all of like my job leads, were like actually we're not, we're taking this job posting down and we're letting everybody go.

00:34:46.543 --> 00:34:48.947
We're like laying everybody off, right.

00:34:49.088 --> 00:34:51.217
Yeah, no, I remember all that time yeah.

00:34:51.697 --> 00:34:53.740
So I couldn't even interview.

00:34:53.740 --> 00:35:04.385
And, um, you know, I, oh I, Larry knows this, Larry, Larry Samuels, the Larry Samuels that's on.

00:35:04.385 --> 00:35:12.628
Um, you know, I always had a second job, I, I had a second job, probably until I was like 36.

00:35:13.215 --> 00:35:15.182
You sold a lot of apples, from what I remember.

00:35:15.514 --> 00:35:22.342
Yes, Well, one of my jobs, uh, famously for anybody that was in my life at that time is I.

00:35:22.342 --> 00:35:32.811
I sold apples Eliza Doolittle style at a farmer's market in Brooklyn.

00:35:34.884 --> 00:35:37.081
And I did not live With the accent and everything.

00:35:38.775 --> 00:35:42.161
No, because I was so bundled up, it was year round.

00:35:42.161 --> 00:35:53.750
So the only time they canceled the market was if the high temperature was below something like 21 degrees.

00:35:53.750 --> 00:36:11.487
So if it was like 10 degrees all day but for an hour it was 25, you were, you were coming to work and it was and it was for $10 an hour and it was every Saturday and I had to be there at 7am.

00:36:11.487 --> 00:36:16.637
I did not live in Brooklyn, I lived on the Upper West Side.

00:36:16.956 --> 00:36:17.657
Oh, my goodness.

00:36:18.038 --> 00:36:18.717
Oh my God.

00:36:18.717 --> 00:36:20.559
So I had to.

00:36:20.559 --> 00:36:38.199
I was getting up at 5am the freezing, freezing cold um to haul my cookies, to port green, to sell apples, and it was like hardcore manual labor.

00:36:38.199 --> 00:36:39.483
I mean you have to set it up.

00:36:39.483 --> 00:36:47.947
There were, I remember there were like six and a half foot tall wooden tables that I that you had to like unload from the truck.

00:36:47.947 --> 00:36:54.385
I mean it was a thing for $10 an hour, cause I need it.

00:36:54.505 --> 00:36:55.989
I just everything counted.

00:36:55.989 --> 00:36:59.983
You know, I I had restaurants that I worked at on the weekends.

00:36:59.983 --> 00:37:12.791
There was a short period of time where I was working seven days a week, um, but I don't know, I just wasn't ready to give up on figuring out a place for myself.

00:37:12.791 --> 00:37:14.440
It was hard though.

00:37:14.440 --> 00:37:21.068
I mean, I definitely had times where I was like I don't know if this is going to work.

00:37:21.068 --> 00:37:26.806
I've got to figure out something else to do Because, don't forget again, I'm in my 30s at this point.

00:37:30.614 --> 00:37:31.777
Again, I'm in my 30s at this point.

00:37:31.777 --> 00:37:41.726
So all of my friends around me in the entertainment industry are getting traction in their jobs, you know, and their executives, and some of them are far enough along that they're transitioning to, like, senior level executives.

00:37:41.726 --> 00:37:46.278
You know, and I'm selling apples In.

00:37:46.278 --> 00:37:50.166
I mean, I looked like I wore all the clothing that I could possibly wear.

00:37:50.166 --> 00:37:55.387
I looked like the kid from a Christmas story who can't put his arms down.

00:37:55.387 --> 00:38:47.005
So, um and then, but you know, while all of this was happening, all of this was happening, I was also very much in the comedy world and I was at comedy shows all the time, and between my days at William Morris and my days at comedy central and then my days at the job that I had at that time in in comedy publicity, like I knew a lot of comedians and I knew the upcoming class very, very, very well and again, I was very aware of what my talents were and one of them is that I speak comedian, like I speak that language.

00:38:47.105 --> 00:38:49.789
So all of these comedians also really loved me.

00:38:49.789 --> 00:38:54.083
And, um, I don't know it, just I.

00:38:54.083 --> 00:38:57.257
It just got to the point where I was like, how about?

00:38:57.257 --> 00:39:12.056
I remember there was a moment where I very clearly said to myself I was like, how about I stop ask, going to all these other people asking them to let me do what I want to do, and how about I just do it?

00:39:12.056 --> 00:39:26.621
And and at the time I thought to myself I'm gonna, I'm, I'm going to do PR for comedians, but also I'm gonna, like, pitch other projects.

00:39:26.681 --> 00:39:31.369
If I have an idea for a show, if I have an idea for this, for that, like, I'll pitch that.

00:39:31.369 --> 00:39:39.289
And it's really not my problem what label, what title the industry wants to give me, that's their problem.

00:39:39.289 --> 00:39:49.367
What matters for me is that I'm working with talent that everybody else wants to work with.

00:39:49.367 --> 00:39:56.346
If I'm doing that, then they'll, they'll, I'll get, I'll get in the building.

00:39:56.346 --> 00:39:59.275
You know like they'll let me in, they'll have to.

00:39:59.275 --> 00:40:04.630
And so I started, um, and I also have an eye for talent.

00:40:04.630 --> 00:40:10.226
So, like, for comedy talent, you, you, you put me in a room with a band.

00:40:10.226 --> 00:40:15.507
I'm not going to be able to tell you what they're, but comedy five minutes I'll tell you.

00:40:15.507 --> 00:40:22.527
And so I started doing, I started offering to do PR for all of them for free.

00:40:24.396 --> 00:40:26.563
So that actually leads me well into my next question here.

00:40:26.563 --> 00:40:28.197
So then, who was that first?

00:40:28.197 --> 00:40:34.034
Who was the first client that bit and said yes, pam, you're my guy, I want you to lead the way for me.

00:40:34.574 --> 00:40:53.976
Well, the upcoming class, the incoming class of comedians at the time was Michael Che and Pete Davidson and Dan Soder and Big Jay Oakerson, and I mean I don't know how much you know your comedians.

00:40:53.976 --> 00:40:55.719
Um, who else was around?

00:40:55.940 --> 00:40:59.746
I mean a lot of big names, as there always are.

00:40:59.746 --> 00:41:03.780
Like you have it with every comedy incoming comedy class.

00:41:03.780 --> 00:41:18.567
You have the stars, um, and so I just started doing stuff for them for free, thinking to myself I'm just going to do this thing and the money will come because they.

00:41:18.567 --> 00:41:27.704
I believe that these people have careers that are big enough that that eventually, they'll be able to pay me.

00:41:28.585 --> 00:41:30.829
So hold on a second because this is important.

00:41:30.829 --> 00:41:34.440
Like you're saying, bring them this stuff, just do the stuff for them.

00:41:34.440 --> 00:41:38.543
You're getting them interviews, you're getting them scripts, opportunities.

00:41:38.543 --> 00:41:39.224
How's that?

00:41:39.735 --> 00:41:43.224
No, it's interviews to support whatever-.

00:41:45.297 --> 00:41:45.980
They were promoting.

00:41:46.215 --> 00:41:49.498
Whatever they were promoting, whatever projects they had going on.

00:41:49.498 --> 00:42:14.369
So like one of the first big quote-unquote gets that I got was I got, uh, michael che a cover story on village, on the village voice, um, because he was just like this wonder kind, like he was like oh, who's the one, who's the like boy, g boy comedy at the time and so how does that put money in your pocket?

00:42:14.969 --> 00:42:15.650
Like specific.

00:42:15.670 --> 00:42:16.070
It did it.

00:42:16.655 --> 00:42:20.161
You bring him an interview for Village Voice, right Like what do you have to show for that?

00:42:21.355 --> 00:42:23.922
Well street cred Right, right.

00:42:23.983 --> 00:42:26.398
It's just building Right, it's building your reputation.

00:42:27.021 --> 00:42:27.322
Yes.

00:42:27.903 --> 00:42:28.626
Yes, ok, yes.

00:42:31.554 --> 00:42:32.155
And going from there.

00:42:32.155 --> 00:42:51.650
You know, I I was doing things like that for comedians who were I mean, I bring up michael che, because he's like a household name now, but it was also just any of these younger, like hot young comics that everybody had respect for, yeah, so that led to I think he was my first paying client Hannibal Burrus.

00:42:52.672 --> 00:42:52.994
Okay.

00:42:53.355 --> 00:42:59.844
Who I also knew from you know the clubs, but I.

00:42:59.844 --> 00:43:05.342
But he reached out to me one day and was like hey, I have the special coming out, I'm looking to hire a publicist.

00:43:05.342 --> 00:43:07.976
Can we meet for coffee, for a drink or whatever and talk?

00:43:07.976 --> 00:43:22.972
And I was like, yeah, yeah, but I don't think he would have done that had I not occupied a space in his mind where I was already doing this other stuff yep uh that was the beginning that started to set up and that.

00:43:23.114 --> 00:43:28.487
And then people hear that I that I was working with hannibal and I was getting him a lot.

00:43:28.487 --> 00:43:30.161
There was a lot of heat on him.

00:43:30.161 --> 00:43:41.244
I actually repped Hannibal during the whole Cosby thing, which, if you don't know what I'm talking about, then I did my job well, do you know what I'm talking about?

00:43:41.896 --> 00:43:42.900
I know what you're talking about?

00:43:42.900 --> 00:43:43.782
Yes, I don't.

00:43:43.782 --> 00:43:44.695
So, yeah, tell our listeners.

00:43:44.795 --> 00:44:11.230
Okay, well, the thing that the match that lit the fire that brought down the Cosby house was a stand up bit that Hannibal did at a show in Philly, and somebody in the audience, without his unbeknownst to Hannibal and without his permission, taped the bit and put it online and it went viral.

00:44:11.230 --> 00:44:20.246
And the bit was about, um, how there had been like decades of rape allegations against him.

00:44:20.246 --> 00:44:25.807
And it went viral and it sparked everything that that happened.

00:44:26.436 --> 00:44:31.025
So was that an inside known story within the comedy universe?

00:44:31.507 --> 00:44:31.967
Is it what?

00:44:32.695 --> 00:44:38.083
Was it a known thing like an unspoken secret within the comedy universe, what Cosby was doing?

00:44:40.648 --> 00:44:42.418
Um, I don't know that.

00:44:42.418 --> 00:44:48.521
I would say that I I don't know if I was aware of it.

00:44:48.521 --> 00:44:52.867
I mean I don't, I don't, I don't know that.

00:44:52.867 --> 00:45:04.389
I would say that Certainly I don't think anybody knew the extent that he was truly a serial rapist, predator.

00:45:04.389 --> 00:45:17.025
I mean, like I don't know, I mean I think some people knew that there were allegations, vaguely, but you know the media put a spotlight.

00:45:17.025 --> 00:45:18.840

Get Back Up with Comedy Publicist Pam Loshak (Best Of)

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