We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Liz Zagone. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Liz below.

Alright, Liz thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

My parents have always supported my creativity and my sensitivity. I’ve always gotten very overwhelmed in big crowds and as a kid, I would often cry and cling to my mom. She coined the phrase “Too Many People” Party and I still use it today. My parents celebrated all my art projects and performances. Making my mom laugh is one of my favorite things in the world.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I was a very creative kid and then a very insecure and miserable young adult. In my late 20’s, I decided to take a writing class at Second City in Chicago. I chickened out last minute because I was scared (of what? I’m not sure). My younger brother had asked if I had ever considered doing stand up. Up to that point, my only performances were reenacting annoying interactions between me and customers at my bartending job. I signed up for a Stand Up 1 class with the agreement that I would never do it again and it would be an exercise in stepping outside of my comfort zone. I quickly realized that if I wanted to be good at it, I would need to do it a lot more. I hosted open mics, produced shows, and was booked regularly at the Chicago clubs before moving out to LA at the end of 2021 to fully pursue a career in entertainment.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wish I knew how to ask for help. I got a BFA in Illustration and graphic design but never did anything with my degree because I thought I wasn’t good enough. In stand up, it took me years to finally ask people, “Hey, how do I get booked on this show?” or “How does this even work?” The good news is, there’s no right way to do anything creative. Everyone has a different approach and it’s important to take every piece of advice with a grain of salt. I’m very careful who I ask for help or guidance but I wish I started earlier.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I used to get so nervous posting videos online, especially stand up clips. Not only are you putting yourself on the internet but it’s also vulnerable to put jokes online where people can shit all over them. I’m genuinely concerned for our population as a whole based on the way people respond to jokes online. The thing that I found the most success with was posting videos relating to bartending. Most people can relate to working in restaurants at some point in their lives and once I found that audience, I doubled down. I’ve noticed that the less effort I put into a video, the better it does. I try not to read the comments but people love to hate on my hairy arms. In return, I started posting about my arm hair as a nod to my Italian heritage and those videos blew up too. Videos where I’m wearing my tight work jeans also do very well. My rule is that I’ll never put anything on the internet I wouldn’t want my grandma to see. She’s very active on Facebook so trust me, she sees a lot of it.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lizzagone/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/liz.zagone/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Lizzagone/shorts

Image Credits

@Bahareh.co (just the headshots)