This is about the long con of one of my favorite male comedians, Emo Philips.
My father loved comedy albums, because he was self-medicating for depression, and my favorites were by Emo Philips, Elayne Boosler, and Bobcat Goldthwait. I have had the honor to work with Emo and Bobcat, and the memories are some of the fondest I have from my 13 years in Los Angeles.
The first time I met Emo Philips, I had driven to Bend for the show with my husband and our friend Danny Norton. Danny was kind enough to take this photograph with his shoe. I introduced myself and told him what a big fan I was, and he was very kind and gracious. It was 2008.
A couple years later, I moved to Los Angeles and went to Comic-Con in San Diego to support my friend Gene Blalock by handing out flyers, and I spotted Emo out of the corner of my eye. He was there to promote Adventure Time, and my friend Jay Tando took a picture. I think this was probably 2014. I introduced myself and said I was a big fan. He was, once again, awesome.
The next Halloween, I met Emo at a Halloween show called Surprise, while dressed as Queen Victoria’s secret, and I had a little heart on my underpants. I felt compelled to show that to him, and he might have blushed. I believe he was dressed as…a magician? I introduced myself and told him I was a big fan. I did not get a photo of this blessed event, but here is my costume, photographed in the booth at the now-dead Complex.
There used to be an alternative comedy club called Meltdown, and it was in the back of Meltdown comics, and I had a lot of really good times there. One of them was when I went to see Emo Philips do a show where you riff or make up jokes based on cues that are projected behind you, called Set List. Comics would usually go for a quip or funny, off-kilter observation (I went for tangentially related stories), but Emo made up Emo Philips jokes at the speed of Emo Philips. He was photographed in close quarters with me by my bestie at the time, Susanna Lee. I introduced myself and told him I was a big fan. This was the first time he looked at me a little suspiciously. Granted, I have been in costume many of the times we met or took a photo together, but you don’t run into a Virginia every other year. This photo is from what I consider the heyday of LA comedy while I was there. Meltdown had a TV show, Jon Hamm was hanging around a lot, and Kumail was still doing standup and wasn’t a beefcake. There was even a really cool comedy show that happened behind Meltdown. This was probably 2017. Meltdown closed and was replaced by a tech startup, and then by apartments.
This is the most recent photo, shortly before I left LA. My amazing friend Janet Planet threw an event she does every five years on her birthday called Spy Day, where you run around with other spies and solve puzzles and it’s like an escape room that happens all over Los Angeles. My friend Matt Kirshen had run into Emo Philips on one of the stops and I was very jealous, but then he was at the afterparty, and his amazing talented wife Kipleigh Brown took our photograph. I told him my name, and that I was a big fan, and he didn’t contradict me, but he did consider it for a long time. He also asked if he could look at the photos and delete any of them that he didn’t like, and I said of course. I think this is the best one. Anyway, I remain a huge fan of Emo Philips.
