Abbi Jacobson on Making Comedy, Voice Acting, and the Terror of Improv

From Broad City to No Good Deed, Abbi Jacobson discussed her career at Emerson College Los Angeles on Tuesday, February 25, to an audience of students, alumni, and friends.

Jacobson joined Doug Herzog ’81 for All Joking Aside, a series produced with the Center for Comedic Arts that provides Emerson audiences with an exclusive, behind the scenes look at the comedy business. Past events have featured Bill Burr ’93 and Trevor Noah, among others. 

Born to parents who are artists, Jacobson grew up in Wayne, Pennsylvania. Art and visual art were things she felt she could do, but it was an obsession with Saturday Night Live that led to an interest in comedy. 

“Gilda Radner was my girl,” said Jacobson, who recalled watching reruns of SNL on Comedy Central with her parents. “I started doing bits and it really killed at home.”

Jacobson joked that her parents being high might have helped. Her confidence grew, however, when she started doing bits at school that resonated with her peers and teachers. 

She attended the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore, studying general fine arts. MICA started a video major while Jacobson was there, which piqued her interest. She started filming herself doing sketches, which were projected on gallery walls. Realizing she might want to pursue acting, Jacobson she transferred her junior year to Emerson. 

“I knew Emerson had this incredible acting and film program,” said Jacobson.

When she arrived, she was required to complete a number of core curriculum classes. While the courses were cool, Jacobson said, it was a difficult adjustment to go from taking wildly creative classes in art school to more general liberal arts courses. The following semester, she returned to MICA, then decided to pursue acting in New York after graduating.

After a short stint at the Atlantic Theater Company, she started taking classes at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. It was there that Jacobson felt like she’d started to build a community.

“Improv is so scary. It’s like one of the scariest things I’ve done,” said Jacobson. “It’s very vulnerable. I think that’s why I loved it, because it was such a challenge.”

In 2007, Jacobson met comedian and actress Ilana Glazer while working in an improv practice group. For a time, the group’s coach was actor/comedian Bobby Moynihan.

“[Ilana and I] hit it off right away,” said Jacobson. “It was truly immediate, the chemistry, where I was like I’ve never met anyone like this person.” 

They both struggled to establish themselves in the comedy scene, so they decided to record their own material. The first sketch video, “Making Change,” that they uploaded to YouTube is about a disagreement the two have when Ilana asks for change while giving money to a homeless man. 

The duo continued writing and performing videos for their web series, Broad City, which focused on their lives in New York, from 2009-2011. The series eventually caught the attention of Amy Poehler, who expressed interest in helping to produce the show. It was developed at FX for a year, but stalled after they were told it was “too girly.” Glazer and Jacobson then brought the show to Comedy Central, where it premiered in 2014 and ran for five seasons.

“I’m so happy that [FX] passed,” said Jacobson. “We ended up at the right place.”

Jacobson told the audience that the show was contracted to air for seven seasons, but she and Glazer decided to end it after five because they wanted the characters to grow and change. They also wanted the show to end when it was still good. 

“This is the best and worst thing: I don’t know if I’ll ever have a job that feels like that. It was the most fun I’ve ever had making something,” said Jacobson. 

Jacobson also discussed writing and co-creating the Amazon Prime series A League of Their Own, voice acting, and her role in Netflix’s No Good Deed. 

“[No Good Deed] was a really fun, new experience,” said Jacobson. “The table read days were my favorite because the cast was pretty siloed in the shooting of it. It was fun. It was nuts. Lisa Kudrow, Ray Romano, Denis Leary [’79]. I was with these comedic greats.”

Jacobson answered questions from the audience at the end of the night. When asked about the differences between voice acting in a sitcom like the Netflix animated fantasy series Disenchantment versus acting on a show like A League of Their Own, Jacobson pointed out that hair and makeup on a period piece can take up to three hours, among other differences.

“Sometimes [voice acting] can be intense because you’re having to put all of it into one element. You have to emote everything just in your voice. It’s a really interesting challenge. I feel so lucky I’ve gotten to do so much voiceover. I think it’s because I sound like a child,” said Jacobson. “I’m okay with it, I guess.”

When asked about whether to consider the audience when creating content, Jacobson said it’s more important to identify and lock into what you believe in.

“Comedy or not, what you are drawn to — follow that,” said Jacobson. “Keep doing what feels funny and good.”