14
The 35-year old comedian also wrote aFriendsscript in which they got to kiss Joey.
Conjuring up memories of adolescence is easy forMae Martin.
It solidified their dreams of becoming a comedian.
It is all I ever really wanted to do.
I dont think I had a backup plan.
I was a match that had been struck.
Take me back to 2001-2002, when you were 14.
How were you feeling about life?
I had braces, I had long hair.
When I would take it out of the bun, it would have that crimp in it.
It was the worst.
That was a big year because I had just found Second City improv classes.
I was doing them extracurricularly every Friday I would go.
It felt pretty seismic and life changing, meeting all these other freaks and discovering improv.
I was basically obsessed with comedy at that age.
Do you remember any of your bits or characters from that time?
It was pretty surreal.
There was Frankie and Freddie.
They were sort of gay six-year-old boys, and they were very fastidious and always getting into trouble.
Then there was a sketch about three teenagers starting a band called Stab Wound.
Their mom keeps coming in and ruining their mystique.
I mean, none of these would hold up.
I feel very grateful that this was before smartphones and YouTube.
If there was a living record of any of these, my career would probably be over.
Do you remember when you realized you wanted to do comedy?
Ace Venturacoming out was huge for me.
I was eight, or something like that.
That performance was pretty electrifying to me, and I wanted to be Jim Carrey.
I think hed taken Second City classes and was like, you should do that.
He was the funny guy at camp, and I hung on his every word.
I always had boyfriends, but I was the weird kid.
I didnt know that I liked girls.
In a way, provoking a laugh from someone is an involuntary response.
Theres something quite cool about that.
Maybe thats what I was trying to do, connect in that way.
What kind of music were you into at 14?
Around 15, everything went dark, and I got into Elliott Smith and cocaine and other bad drugs.
It was just a blissful time.
It was a cinema filled with 14-year-olds having these kind of intense, psychedelic experiences with Pink Floyd.
It was life changing.
What was your room like at 14?
It was really weird.
I was in the basement.
There was a small bedroom, but then there was also the main basement.
I had a mini fridge where my parents let me [store] tiny bottles of booze from airplanes.
Now Im like, Why did you do that?
I had framed pictures of Tim Curry, Clint Eastwood, Bette Midler, maybe Paul Reubens.
I still had stuffed animals out at that point, a lot of monkeys and bears.
I mean, I still have a bear.
Age 14 can be a delicate time with puberty.
How you were feeling in your own skin?
I remember feeling absolutely disgusted with myself.
I assume everyone feels that way, very greasy, and everythings changing.
Retrospectively, I can see it was more acute for me because of gender stuff going on.
I didnt figure out about wearing bras until I was 19.
No one told me, so I had very weird, pointy… it was not a good look.
And I was plucking my eyebrows.
Oh, we all over-plucked.
Oh my God, within an inch of their life.
They were tiny little lines.
What were your biggest struggles at 14?
I was highly emotional.
[Everything] was so visceral, and even the bad emotions were so intense.
But its sort of a golden moment in my memory because I met my best friends.
I laughed probably harder in those two years 13, 14 than I have ever in my life.
It was this hysteria of puberty and feeling awakened to the absurdity of the world.
The most minute thing would happen, [and it would] just make us cry with laughter.
I love laughing like that.
What was the sap for you at 14?
It was my new friends, and it was comedy.Buffy the Vampire Slayerwas big.
I miss that level of fandom, which I dont really have anymore.
I was really intoFriends.
I wrote a spec script forFriendswhen I was about 13.
In the episode, people were like, Joey, stop kissing this 13-year-old.
Be him and be with him.
What do you think your 14-year-old self would think of you now?
I think Id be alarmed at the amount of time I spend on my phone.
I was smarter about that stuff then.
I think Id be shocked that I dont smoke weed, but it just makes me paranoid now.
At that age, it didnt.
I think Id be really happy and overwhelmed.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
