Sabrina Brier’s Got Layers

This week, we’re highlighting 24 talented writers and performers for Vulture’s annual list “The Comedians You Should and Will Know.” Our goal is to introduce a wider audience to the talent that has the comedy community and industry buzzing. (You can read more about our methodology at the link above.) We asked the comedians on the list to answer a series of questions about their work, performing, goals for the future, and more. First up is Sabrina Brier.

Tell us a story from your childhood that you think might explain why you ended up becoming a comedian.
When I was 10, I went to my favorite Japanese restaurant with my mom, stepdad, and sister and I ended up accidentally pouring soda all over myself. The next time we went to the restaurant, I wore five shirts and two pairs of leggings and assured everyone not to worry because, if I spilled again, I could just remove a layer! I’m not sure what was going on in my head at the time, but in my opinion this proves I was always willing to commit to the bit.

If you were immortalized as a cartoon character, what would your outfit be?
I’d be wearing a pink dress, chunky sandals, and crooked eyeliner (I have hooded eyes and am bad at drawing the wing, but I am trying to learn and grow).

What’s your proudest moment/achievement of your comedy career so far?
There have been so many moments I’m just soooo grateful for, but I have to throw it back to the first project I ever did in New York (that no one asked me to do). I made a web series called Pre-Mature, which I wrote, directed, and starred in. My college friend and I got some people together, and we shot in my old tiny sixth-floor walk-up apartment and around the neighborhood in Greenwich Village. It was the most stressful and rewarding experience I had ever had up until that moment, and though it just sat on YouTube at the time (I never tried to submit it anywhere and didn’t really understand how to!), it was a hugely challenging and enlightening experience that showed me that I want full creative control over my work.

I am reminded of that experience as I work on my audiobook project, That Friend, which is also a full-cast episodic story. When I think of the two projects in relation to one another, it’s really rewarding to feel that a challenge I took on when I was younger turned out to really prepare me for another one way down the line.

Which comedian’s career trajectory would you most like to follow?
There are such a variety of paths I have found inspiring, but it’s the creators like Quinta Brunson, Amy Poehler, and Mindy Kaling who have infused their comedy into longform storytelling who are my role models.

Tell us everything about your worst show ever. (This can involve venue, audience, other acts on the lineup, anything!)
First thing that comes to mind is a small show I did in Brooklyn with friends where I’m pretty sure there were more performers than audience members. One by one, my friends and I got up onstage for our sets and just reacted to the super-awkward energy in the room, and it was just fun and memorable to feel cringey alongside them <3.

Also, when I did improv in college (I literally had to mention that or I would explode), we did a set at an arts festival where we were surrounded by other booths of people talking about and presenting their work. It was nearly impossible to keep people’s attention against the competing noise and lack of an actual stage area. I remember panting from trying so hard to project my voice. Battle scars!

What have you learned about your own joke-writing process that you didn’t know when you started?
When I started really getting into writing in college, I took myself very seriously. Unfortunately, no one else did! I realized that even as I was writing dramatic situations, I’m always going to find the funny, so I might as well lean into that. As I ventured into stand-up in college and over the past few years, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the more traditional process of writing jokes, and it’s become something that informs all of my writing.

What’s the biggest financial hurdle you’ve encountered since becoming a comedian?
Before I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to do online branded work, I was in my early 20s living in New York and working tirelessly as an entertainment assistant (not sure if you guys heard, but they really don’t get paid much) and was under a lot more financial pressure. I had a short window of time to prove career viability before my resources ran out. I remember feeling extremely fearful about losing the opportunity to make my dreams come true, and I think that fear is something a lot of artists experience.

At the end of the movie 8 Mile, Eminem’s character, B-Rabbit, starts his final battle rap by dissing himself so the person he’s battling has nothing left to attack. How would you roast yourself so the other person would have nothing to say?
I think my preference in this scenario would be for B-Rabbit to get up there in my place and really unpack everything he senses that’s wrong with me because I would really love that feedback. He’d be like, “You’re anxious and compulsive, an overthinker who cares too much about what goes on online” (but he’d make it rhyme), and I’d be like, “Mmmm, I was actually just saying something so similar in therapy the other day.” I’d also suggest that B-Rabbit explore all the ways I have the taste of and sometimes behave like a 12-year-old girl, because I think that could be a real gold mine of material.

When it comes to your comedy opinions — about material, performing, audience, trends you want to kill/revive, the industry, etc. — what hill will you die on?
I really believe that the innovative creativity of TikTok and other more unconventional platforms and ways of entertaining should be just as valued as the conventional modes. Great comedy can be found anywhere!

What is the best comedy advice, and then the worst comedy advice, you’ve ever received?
In the beginning of my TikTok journey, there were some people who had suggested I step out of my character for videos, and I’m so glad I stuck to my gut and didn’t. I’m so grateful that my platform is, for the most part, this totally fictional world for me to play in.

And the best advice I got was from my mom, who told me to keep pursuing comedy because, according to her, “You have to be in comedy because you can’t help but be funny. That’s why we’ve been laughing at you since you were little.”