Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Occasionally, a gone too soon show gets a second chance, as was the case withArrested Development.
Byer was pretty devastated, but with the help of her therapist, eventually moved on.
You grew up in New Jersey and then moved to New York.
Is New York where you started performing?
I had taken acting classes in New Jersey.
I had done plays in high school and whatnot.
You kind of do it all: improv, sketch, standup.
What did you start out doing?
I didnt start doing standup until 2013.
It was afterGirl Codestarted airing.
I kept getting presented with college shows.
I was like, I dont do standup.
They said, You do characters.
you could frame your characters into standup.
Thats how I started doing standup.
Between improv, sketch, and standup, is there one you like more than the others?
Baby, thats apples and oranges.
Putting a wig on and a costume and doing a wacky character is always fun.
Improv is so freeing because there are no bounds, theres no safety net.
You just say something and get an instant response.
Standup is a real battlefield for me.
Theyre all so different, and I really love doing them all.
Youre right, they are all different.
At the same time, you learn skills in each of the forms that translate over to the others.
Yeah when Im doing standup sometimes I improvise something in a set and then that becomes a joke.
Everything feeds into everything.
I think doing all three has prepared me pretty well for everything I get thrown at me professionally.
I didnt like LA at first, but now Im so happy to be here.
What is it about LA that you like so much?
The weather is so nice.
Everyone is so nice to you because they dont know who you know.
I dont care if its fake anymore.
I feel like if you dont care if its fake then you have the advantage in that conversation.
Plus, Im just nice to people in general because Im a good human being.
So you were in New York eight years before you moved to LA.
What was the thing that pushed you to move to LA?
Things were going pretty good for you in New York, right?
There wasnt too much shooting in New York.
I moved to LA before the television bubble started happening.
It was justGirls,30 Rock, late night.
They also asked me to do the CBS diversity program in LA.
In my mind I thought I would move back to New York.
I thought I would just go to LA for pilot season.
Do you consider LA home now?
Are you going to stay put?
Oh yeah, baby.
I bought a house!
What does a typical week look like for you?
Now that were all wrapped its a lot of waking up and being like, you oughta write something.
you should probably write jokes for your show tonight.
it’s crucial that you write a treatment for a movie.
Its a lot of writing right now.
Its not something that comes natural.
I have to sit down and go, Nicole, you better do shit.
You got a mortgage.
But Im being smart about my money.
I think sometimes people arent asking for enough money.
I grew up around coal miners and steelworkers who bought houses and property in the towns they worked in.
They had families there.
They spent their money there.
They made lives for themselves.
You seem to be doing that confidently.
You mentioned asking for more money.
I dont think enough people are even talking about money.
I remember how everyone reacted when Maria Bamford talked about what she makes.
We should be sharing this information with each other so we can all make more money.
Its interesting that people dont want to ask about money.
Im on an email thread with a bunch of women where we talk about financial planning, like IRAs.
What the fuck is an IRA?
I believe in my career, but I also did the math.
In high school they dont even tell you how to balance a checkbook or what property taxes are.
There are a lot of things you have to learn on your own.
I took it upon myself to look into things and figure out viable options.
I always ask male comics how much they make.
Im not ashamed to ask for more money.
Networks have it, so lets do it.
Why do you think so many performers dont feel comfortable talking about money?
You should be happy that they want you at this show and that theyre paying you in Skittles.
you better pay me because Im giving you something.
Theres this whole mentality that you have to eat shit before you get shit that sucks.
It shouldnt be like that.
No one should be opening for free.
Sometimes the host makes nothing.
Weve been conditioned that its impolite or rude to talk about money.
Thats why you have pay discrepancies.
Thats why you have dudes making more than women are making.
Everyone needs to talk about it more.
Lets talk aboutLoosely Exactly Nicole.
MTV picked it up, dropped it, and then it got picked up by Facebook.
Can you take me through that ride?
When the show got canceled at MTV I was pretty devastated.
I put a lot of hard work into it and I thought it was funny.
The reaction I got from people was that it was funny.
I was like, Okay, let me go to therapy.
Let me move through this.
Im all about mental health right now.
Mina Lefevre left MTV and went to Facebook.
She said We want to resurrect your show.
I said, Actually, I went through a lot of therapy and Ive come to terms with it.
My manager was like, What are you doing?
I was like, Oh, youre right.
I want to do a second season.
Facebook was good about being open to what we wanted to do.
We would send them stuff and they would say, We like this.
We dont like this.
It was very collaborative and they were pretty hands-off, which was cool.
We went and shot it with more money than we had at MTV, which was awesome.
Facebook seems to be really into it and very supportive.
