Q&A With Chelsea Lately’s Heather McDonald

Comedienne Heather McDonald is helping promote the new MasterCard Priceless Gift Finder, an online shopping tool that enables users to identify the personas of people they are shopping for as well as a budget range. It’s a perfect fit for this busy mom of three who also writes and produces segments of E!’s Chelsea Lately. As if that weren’t enough, she also appears as a panelist on the show to talk about the latest foibles of celebrities and psuedo-celebrities. The Nice Girls had a chance to ask this “hilarious hot mom” a few questions about starting out and being a woman in Hollywood.

"Hilarious Hot Mom" Heather McDonald

NiceGirlsTV.com: How did you get started in stand-up comedy?
Heather McDonald: I got started in stand up comedy because I hated my first job out of college which was an assistant buyer for a major department store. I was in a cubical all day and felt more like a bean counter than a fashion consultant. My co-worker threw a Learning Annex magazine on my desk and told me to take the “How to be a stand up comic” class in it and I did. After I left that class that night I said to myself “Okay, I made strangers laugh. I can do this.”

NGTV: How did that lead to being a writer/producer?
HM: It lead to being a writer/ producer because while doing little stand up shows in LA, which is where I’m from, I enrolled in the Groundlings Theater which is sketch and Improv and studied and performed there for 4 years until I got my first writing job writing on the short-lived Keenan Ivory Wayans show.

NGTV: As a woman, was it easy to make that transition into writer/producer?
HM: I love Keenan but working on his show was hard. Out of 13 writers there was only one other woman besides me and sometimes I felt like the Catholic school girl who just started going to public middle school and was scared shitless everyday that I’d get jumped. The guys were very unfriendly the first 8 weeks and then one day I said something really funny and they came around.

NGTV: The smart, funny girls always win! Are there any other challenges that stand out on your way to the where you are now?
HM: Some obstacles I’ve faced happened when I was set up on a blind date by Jennifer Coolidge to a TV producer she’d worked with. Within minutes I could tell he was not interested in me and proceeded to ask me about all the funny “guy” writers I knew. I kept telling him “I’m a comedy writer and I’m available to work,” but he’d dismiss me and kept pushing for me to tell him about the funny guys I knew that he could possible hire.

NGTV: Lame! So you decided to work for Chelsea instead?
HM: I’d known Chelsea for years. We weren’t close but she was always so friendly when we’d see each other on auditions. I was putting a pilot presentation together that she was part of and told her I loved the stuff she was doing on her first show on E! and if it got picked up I’d love to submit to write on it. That show did not get picked up; instead they created Chelsea Lately, so I submitted and found it was a lot more fun to write for a cute white woman like myself than a black man. However, that black man has been very good to me.

Heather McDonald getting ready to appear on Chelsea Lately

NGTV: Aside from writing for someone you can relate to, what do you like best about being a part of the show?
HM: What I like a best about being part of the show is laughing everyday and being around such funny and creative people. I love being able to be on camera as myself giving my opinion and talking about my life on the round table as well as impersonating the many different celebrities in the sketches we do.

NGTV: Do you prefer being behind-the-scenes or in the spotlight?
HM: I prefer the spotlight. Who doesn’t? But I also love writing for other people too and casting them. When we did the Real Housewives of New Jersey reunion parody I had so much fun putting that together right down to helping choose the wardrobe for the gals.

NGTV: Did your gig with MasterCard come out of being a writer/producer or appearing on Chelsea Lately?
HM: MasterCard approached me because they knew me from Chelsea Lately and that I was a married mom of 3 and would have to do a lot of shopping this Christmas season.

NGTV: Why did you choose to work with MasterCard on their Priceless Gift Finder?
HM: I chose to work with Priceless Gift Finder because it is so helpful. I went to the site and answered a few questions about who I was buying for and they came up with great, unique suggestions. Like for my mom, to buy her the Hitchcock DVD series. My mom loves Hitchcock movies but I would have never thought of that and would have fought the mall to get her yet another pair of slippers. Instead I bought it and got 10 dollars worth of free MP3 downloads for me which they give when you use your MasterCard. Priceless Gift Finder can also scan your Facebook friends to help you shop for them.

NGTV: Ingenious. It sounds like you already have a lot on your plate; is there anything else coming up we should watch for?
HM: Besides Chelsea Lately, we have 3 specials airing on E! of Chelsea Lately bloopers which are hysterical starting on 12/22 at 10:30 and the following two Tuesdays after that.

You can catch Heather’s work on E!’s Chelsea Lately weeknights at 10:00PM, and keep an eye on her MySpace page for upcoming stand up dates.