Comic Hannah Einbinder on 'Hacks', cheerleading and laughter as a love language: NPR

When Hacks star Hannah Einbinder was in college, comedian Nicole Byer came to her campus and asked the improv team if one of their members would open for her. Einbinder volunteered – and the experience was life-changing.

“This was at a time in my life where I wasn’t really feeling well, and [performing] was this eight to ten minute relief from the very bad feeling,” says Einbinder. “And I just became obsessed and started pursuing that.”

Einbinder says her experience on the competitive cheer team in high school taught her extreme discipline and focus, which she then turned to comedy. After that first stand-up routine, she started memorizing comedy albums and driving around town to attend open mic nights: “I honestly never looked back.” It just felt so good,” she says.

Einbinder grew up in a comic family; her mother is laraine newman, one of the original cast members of Saturday evening live. She says being funny was “the biggest currency in our house.”

“It was definitely a love language,” she says. “My parents are both good laughers, so I had to do a lot to…get a big response from them.”

In the HBO Max series Hacking, now in its third season, Einbinder plays a young comedy writer who has a love-hate relationship with her boss, a veteran comedian played by Jean Smart. She says working with Smart has been a real learning experience.

“She is naturally and also technically so gifted when it comes to the very precise blocking work and the continuity,” Einbinder says of her co-star. “She is very sharp and she is very busy. And I tried to absorb as much as possible.”

In her new Max comedy special, Everything has to end Einbinder talks about turning points in her life, including being diagnosed with ADHD, her experiences as a competitive cheerleader and coming out as bisexual.

Interview highlights

Upon landing her role Hacking

During my audition, I added jokes at every step. … [The script] was so funny. And when something is such quality work, it’s so easy for me to get away from that a little bit. So I just loved the material and I had ideas for it, and so I just added jokes along the way. I did about three auditions. My first was a few days before the first COVID lockdown, and then months passed and I called back via Zoom. And again, in that callback I added several jokes and I also added that Ava would vape after a punchline. I bought a vape and smoked it. I smoked it while calling back.

On “cancel culture” in comedy, and how Jean Smart’s character moves forward Hacking is being called out for telling racist jokes earlier in her career

I think it’s about the way the comedian reacts now. I think if you double down on your efforts and… refuse to apologize, you’ll be staying true to the comments you made. And if they’re racist or problematic or whatever, in any case, then that’s a problem. And people have the absolute right not to want to consume your art anymore. And I think a lot of comedians are idiosyncratic personalities who don’t want to compromise and whose job is to have an opinion and stick to it, and their entire work is their own perspective. And so being hesitant about that and being malleable in that way is not something that comedians are typically willing to do. …

There is a famous quote from George Carlin that the comedian’s job is to find the line and cross it with purpose. And I find that valuable, but I choose to cross the line in different ways. For me, I choose to push the boundaries in terms of form and the exploration of the material and the way the material is presented in terms of format and style. I don’t necessarily see – in the case of many of these male comedians today – clowning about trans people as speaking truth to power.

On competing in competitive cheer in high school

I really attribute my desperate pursuit of perfection and my high personal standards to cheerleading, for better or for worse, because my coaches were really intense and they wouldn’t accept anything but perfection. And we won every competition we entered. I liken cheerleading to being part of the US military in the United States [Max comedy] special. And I stand by it. I’m joking of course, but it’s very intense. And when you think of a Russian gymnastics coach, that’s kind of with American nationalism infused into it. So scary, but I don’t know if I regret it.

I certainly don’t feel well. My neck hurts now. My knees: I will probably need replacements at a very young age. They crack. … I almost have to reset my kneecap sometimes when I walk. I mean, I’m really withering away, but a lot of good came out of it and there was no stopping me.

About bisexuality

I think people in general are afraid of identities that aren’t binary. I think we, as humans, really like that red means stop and green means go. And it challenges certain individuals’ worldviews and understandings of themselves and others when confronted with someone who is safe in the middle, safe with gray in a world that desperately tries to be black and white. …

I definitely think I’m different in relationships with men than with women. And I think when I’m with a man, I actually resist those traditional gender roles so violently. But mostly I tend to date guys who are, I guess you could call them “feminine.” I definitely feel like when I go out with guys, I wear the pants. So I guess I’m mommy’s girl. … My mother was 12 years older than my father. And in many ways my father is a very emotional man, which is great. … I think my ideas about gender roles have been completely reversed. … My view of what it means to be a woman is more or less at odds with the popular idea.

About how growing up in Reform Judaism influenced her view on life

I went to Temple Isaiah in Los Angeles. It’s a very liberal, cool, inclusive temple. …The head of the temple was a woman, a Latino woman. And my view of Judaism is a very colorful, vibrant, diverse, exceptional view, if you will. Judaism was always a very positive place for me. I love the way I experienced it, and I really had a great experience doing it. … Since we do not have heaven and hell in Judaism, the most important conclusion for me is that heaven is earth. We are here for a short time and tikkun olam, we must heal the earth. … It’s like all these really beautiful values ​​that are Jewish influence my life and how I live it and what I’m grateful for and what I care about.

Heidi Saman and Thea Chaloner produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz and Beth Novey adapted it for the web.