Richelle Meiss is an actor, comic, and writer in Los Angeles. You might have seen her in commercials for Heineken, Kohl’s, eBay, and more. Catch her upcoming show The Bachelor Musical Parody at UCB and subscribe to her YouTube channel to see new videos.
This week, Meiss talked to me about her personal life, tweeting at celebrities, and some things she likes about Twitter.
Facebook is a fun thing to talk about because it has seeped into every part of our lives. I’ve found the selling of oils and clothes and makeup on Facebook by my old female classmates to be both funny and disturbing. As soon as you get that “Hey! How are you?!†Facebook message from someone you haven’t talked to since you were 18, you know a pitch is coming next.
How often do you tweet about your personal life? Is there anything that feels too private for you to joke about?
I always tweet about my personal life! Nothing feels too private because I (often foolishly) assume the person I’m talking about isn’t fallowing me. I did have to block my dad, though, because he was showing my mom all my tweets about her. Hey, snitches get stitches!
I’ve also always had a bad gauge on what is too personal to talk about. For the most part, it seems like the more truthful you are the more relatable you become. I’ve exposed too much – there’s no turning back now! Oh well, guess I’ll never be president.
I love jumping on the meme bandwagon during big televised events! This video from the 2018 Oscars is hilarious. I wrote the tweet because Jennifer Garner seems like the sweetest person and a great mom. She deserves better than back tattoo Ben. Am I too involved in celebrity gossip? Absolutely.
Have you ever had a celebrity that you mention respond to a tweets?
No, but I have had guys with big followings retweet me because they had a crush on me and WHAT A RUSH. I’m like, “I hope you’re not expecting anything in return for these one hundred likes, sir.â€
This is a dig at the ridiculous Mexico border wall. I keep thinking of “having a wall up†and tried to combine the two ideas. I’m also pretty bad with relationships and always falling for the wrong guys, so the combo worked!
What are your favorite and least favorite things about Twitter?
I love how memes and jokes develop. Everyone starts tagging and hopping in on a joke, and it makes me feel like we’re all connected (I’m usually a very lonely person, can you tell?). I also like how organically the most clever/topical/hilarious things rise the top. It’s not like Facebook where you see your second cousin’s complaint about Delta Air Lines for three days straight.
My least favorite thing is how easily it is to hop on the bandwagon of being offended about something. Sometimes I open up the app just to find out what I need to be angry about. I also don’t like all the bots. Someone needs to take care of those! Also, men can be so mean towards women. But I guess that’s every online platform. C’est la vie.
I’m the worst kind of LA person. I’m like, “Is this juice COLD-pressed? No? Then I won’t be buying it,†and I’ll go eat a cookie instead. The logic makes no sense! But I still have an air of superiority about me because I think I know what’s “healthy.†My mom says I’m the chubbiest health-conscious person she knows.
It’s weird when a stranger tells you they’re a fan and for a moment you get ahead of yourself and you’re like, “What cool name should I give my fanbase,†and then you remember it’s just one person.
What comedy do you do in addition to tweeting jokes?
I do standup – I produce a show called Sideline at UCB Sunset every fourth Thursday of the month. I also do improv at UCB and perform with my musical improv group Kaboombox. For a year and a half I wrote sketches fulltime for the digital media site Circa Laughs and used to write for Smosh. I wrote a Bachelor musical parody that will be going up in June!
Karen Chee is a is a writer/performer who contributes regularly to The New Yorker and McSweeney’s.