Milwaukee-Born Lara Beitz’s Homecoming at The Improv

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Photo via Improv

Lara Beitz

Context can give us a glimpse into just how special what we once had still is. Or so comedian Lara Beitz has discovered in her move from Milwaukee to Chicago to her current home in Los Angeles. 

“While I was growing up, I didn’t really have a frame of reference for what made Milwaukee special,” Beitz recalls, adding. “But when I moved to L.A., being from Milwaukee made me special. I sounded different, I was friendlier, and I’m still the first one to show up to shows because we’re punctual here!”

So, Beitz should be on time playing the main room of The Improv (in The Corners of Brookfield at 20110 Lower Union St., Brookfield) at 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 30. She will be a bigger fish in a smaller pond that night than where she resides now, but she’s thankful for how she was able to grow in her artistry in her old hometown. 

“It’s harder to stand out in a big scene than in a smaller one, and L.A. is obviously very competitive. I was grateful to start in Milwaukee because I had so many opportunities for stage time before I really got good at comedy,” Beitz says.

Definitely Midwestern

Another thing Milwaukee has given Beitz is a vocal presentation that, if not stereotypically so, most definitely Midwestern in sonority. “I think I get away with more because of my voice,” she affirms of its uniqueness.

Among what Beitz gets away with—often putting her act in the hard R-rating zone—is sex shtick. Comedy doesn’t come much more unabashed than when she cracks wise about whomever she has bedded or has a mind to get between the sheets. Though her voice goes a long way in making such material almost innocently material winsome, she’s going with what has proven to get her guaranteed chuckles, too. 

“Honestly, if I could talk about current events and meaningful issues and make people laugh, I’d do that, and I’ve tried,” Beitz explains. But “People just laugh the most when I talk about dating and sex, so that’s what I do. Gotta give the people what they want!"  

Writing for TV

Something else people may want from Beitz are scripts. Learning to write for the medium kept her occupied during some of her COVID-19 downtime. “I took a writing class and wrote a pilot,” Beitz mentions among her lockdown activities, including “writing stand-up, which was completely unusable by the time I got onstage again, climbed the walls, and got in shape physically. I cried, FaceTimed friends, panicked, and screamed into pillows.  

“I feel like I’ve come back to life now that I can do comedy again, like my world has gone from black and white back to color. I’ll never take it for granted again, although I don’t think I ever really did.”

And to hear Beitz tell it, comedy is good for her audience as is for her. “I think just making people laugh is so important. I perform for so many people whom I know disagree with me on a lot of major issues. But when we’re all in a room together laughing, relaxing, I think a tremendous amount of healing and connection takes place, and that’s what we need. That happens in comedy clubs and venues in a way that it doesn’t happen anywhere else, and I just think it’s so special and essential.”

Here Beitz chronicles an intimate depilatory procedure she may not have undergone had she remained in Wisconsin...