Melanie Chartoff: Prime Time Actress, Didi Pickles and Odd Woman Out

https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/tpaq3z/Melanie_Chartoff_final_-_2_18_21_1237_PMaccwp.mp3

EPISODE SUMMARY:

From voicing iconic characters such as Didi and Minka Pickles in the animated series Rugrats to writing on the late-night comedy show Fridays, Melanie Chartoff has spent decades securing her mark on Hollywood and making millions of people laugh. On today’s episode, we sat down with Melanie to discuss her career and her experiences working in the entertainment industry during the 70s. Melanie’s book, Odd Woman Out, is compiled of essays written during various times in her life. One of the first stories is about an encounter with Larry Flint, and she started the episode by telling us about meeting Larry Flint in a sex shop. After being prescribed to buy a dildo by her gynecologist, Melanie went to a sex store to purchase one when she happened to run into Larry Flint. He was being interviewed by Entertainment Tonight, and Melanie ended up being photographed buying a dildo with her picture in tabloids. We asked about Melanie’s early career, and she told us about how she started out doing theater performances at Yale. She also studied dance in New York. We also asked Melanie about experiencing sexism in Hollywood, and she told us how it took being in the industry for her to realize how much women were manipulated and taken advantage of in Hollywood. She said a lot of men don’t even realize they’re doing it, since that behavior has been normalized for a long time, and that now, that behavior is being more called out.

When asked about the comedy show “Fridays”, Melanie told us about the stressful but rewarding experience she had working on the show. At the time, she was performing at live comedy shows, and even told us that she went on after Robin Williams a few times. Melanie was first recruited to audition for “Fridays” after being seen at a comedy show, and when she got the job, she worked with comedians like Larry David as a writer. She did notice while working there that she was one of few female writers, and that, for the most part, she and the other women rarely wrote a sketch that would actually make it onto the show. We then asked if Melanie preferred acting on Broadway or in movies, and she told us that she is motivated to do a project not by its platform but by if she feels she can bring something to a character. Melanie spoke to us about what it was like working in comedy during the seventies, and she told us that for a lot of people, especially women, the entertainment industry was hectic. A lot of women were far too busy at that time to start families, and in the writers’ rooms, writers and comedians would do cocaine as a way to keep themselves alert.

She also spoke about how doing improv during that time kept her on her toes, for it made her be more reckless and open to trying new things. When asked about getting married in her sixties, Melanie said that married at that stage in her life was made her relationship even stronger, for both she and her husband felt confident and strong in their bond. In regard to voice acting, Melanie’s journey to voice acting started when she was doing voice overs for commercials. She then auditioned for and booked the voice of Didi Pickles on Rugrats and was also asked to audition for and then voice Didi’s mother, Minka. For Didi’s voice, Melanie drew inspiration from her own mother, and for Minka, she found inspiration after visiting older women. We asked Melanie about her favorite comedians, and she told us a few that she admires, including Amy Schumer, Tiffany Haddish, Sarah Cooper, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge. We then asked about the inspiration behind her book, Odd Woman Out. Melanie spoke to us about how, originally, she’d written the story as a one-women show. When that didn’t feel right, she then made it into a stage play and then a movie script. Eventually, a literary agent approached her and told her that the story felt as if she should be a book, and a year later, Melanie finished and published her book. Along with being a writer and comedian, Melanie also hosts zoom classes on Charisma. She told us that she’s been teaching for years, and that in her classes, she helps people break their own glass ceilings and have the confidence to present as their best selves.

Melanie Chartoff

www.melaniechartoff.com

From Melanie’s Website:

Melanie Chartoff’s career as an actress and singer began early, onstage, with “Three Penny Opera” for Yale University, and the New London Opera Company, and in the children’s company at Long Wharf Theatre in her hometown, New Haven, Connecticut. She backed up the Ronettes and the Crystals as a wholesome go-go girl for Phil Spector, and backed up those experiences with a degree in Theater Arts and TV Directing from Adelphi University, and Hofstra, N.Y.

A student of the legendary Stella Adler, Chartoff soon appeared on Broadway in Galt MacDermott’s “Via Galactica,” and “Scapino,” with England’s Young Vic Company. She studied lyricism with Lehman Engle at BMI’s Musical Theater Workshop. Off-Broadway, she sang in Sondheim and Rodgers’ “Do I Hear a Waltz?” and was featured in the improv musical revue, “The Proposition.” She was a singing ingénue stand-up, goofing on glamour at the Improv Clubs of NY and LA. West Coast Premieres of “Sunday in the Park with George,” “March of the Falsettos,” “Big River,” and “Beyond Therapy” followed in Los Angeles. When television called, she starred and wrote for ABC’s late night comedy show, Fridays, alongside Larry David and Michael Richards. She had starring and recurring roles on the Newhart Show, Married with Children, Seinfeld, Wise Guy, Allie McBeal, Parker Lewis Can’t Lose, and the animated Jumanji. She co-hosted the syndicated What’s Hot What’s Not with Fred Willard, and Dick Clark’s special Where Are They Now?

Chartoff’s voice is recognizable for more than singing. She shares an Emmy and a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for voicing the iconic characters Didi and Minka in the animated series Rugrats, which still streams around the world.

She’s been a popular guest on talk shows, including Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin Show Entertainment Tonight, and Good Morning programs in NY, LA, Chicago, etc. Most fans are surprised to learn that Chartoff is also an environmental inventor. During the last LA drought, she patented a recycling device, the Grayway Rotating Drain™, that directs used, filtered shower water to irrigate gardens and flush toilets.

She co-created, co-produced, co-wrote and directed the pilot and first special episodes of Extraordinary Faith—celebrating traditional church art, architecture, music and Latin liturgy, — now seen monthly on EWTN — a Catholic network.

She’s also the creator and director of Charismatizing℠ Improvising seminars, her popular workshops which empower clients to have a stronger presence when needed in both private and professional realms. She has given talks at UCLA Andersen Business School and Chapman University on Charismatic Communication.

Melanie writes for Jewlarious, One the Table, The Huffington Post, The Jewish Journal, The Funny Times, Defenestration Magazine and performs her pieces as spoken word events for Comedy Central, Jewish Women’s Theater, and Tasty Words, LA.

In addition to the Emmy, Chartoff shares a Dramalogue Award for “March of the Falsettos.” She is a voting member of the Television Academy, the Screen Actors Guild, and belongs to the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, PEN, Women in Film, Jewish Women’s Theatre, Theatre 40, and Actors Equity Association.

Recognition for her charity work includes a Mayor’s Certificate of Appreciation, Los Angeles Certificate of Appreciation, and Citations from the City of Hope for creating and co-producing “Halloween for Hope” – “taking the scariness out of Halloween for kids with cancer and the people who love them.” She mentors two Oaxacan sisters, graduates of high school and college, through the M.O.S.T.E. program. She has also performed her one-woman musical memoir to benefit breast cancer research, at-risk theaters, and children’s charities.

Chartoff is a recent first-time newlywed/stepmom, with a prefab family of brothers-in-law, son-in-law and two terrific kids in their twenties.

Recent projects include the role of Mary Pickford onstage in “The Consul, the Tramp, and America’s Sweetheart” at Theatre 40, the role of Maureen in the YouTube RED feature “Alexander I.R.L;” she currently recurs as Miss Charisma on the Cartoon Network hit “OK, KO;” is directing and starring in her original screenplay “Vivian’s Voice” with Jenny O’Hara and David Proval.