Starring as Melissa Schemmenti in "Abbott Elementary", Actress, Creator/Producer/Writer Lisa Ann Walter joins Bennett and Laura Boss of The NEW 96.5 to chat about her love for Philly, headlining at Helium Comedy Club in July as the final leg of her comedy tour, plus more.
Listen to Lisa Ann Walter's exclusive Interview with Bennett below.
It wouldn't be a proper Bennett interview without a pup in the mix! While getting ready to dive into what Lisa has in store, her dog Buster joined the Zoom call. Lisa describes him as, "a star of a 90's movie where a business man gets caught in a dog's body [...] he's like Nicholas Cage."
Watch Lisa Ann Walter's exclusive Interview with Bennett below.
While Buster may not be joining Lisa on tour, Lisa dives into her excitement on coming back to Philly from July 11th through July 13th at Helium Comedy Club.
"There's no place like Philly for me right now," says Walter. "I mean, this is my adopted home. I look at houses every time I go there, and I always have such a good time with the shows that we have that we have to add shows. So, this time we went ahead and added a show anyway."
While spending time in the City of Brother Love, Laura Boss asks what some of Walter's favorite things are to do during her time here.
"I gotta get D'Angelo's pizza, and a nice hoagie. The last time we were in town we were shooting [...] and I love being there. We did the Please Touch Museum, which I kept calling the Please Touch Me Museum, and Quinta would yell at me. 'cause she's like 'That sounds filthy, stop it.'"
While Philly is not Walter's home (yet), Bennett goes on to ask what neighborhood is her go-to.
"The algorithm feeds me different neighborhoods. I like these old stone houses, so like the Bala Cynwyd area, like around there, and wherever D'Alessandro's is." Walter is also open to suggestions, and loves that, "Philly doesn't hold back."
Bennett goes on to agree that Philly is "all passion," and asks if that's one of the attributes Lisa learned while becoming Melissa Schemmenti in "Abbott Elementary".
"Well you know, when they wrote the character there was a lot of [...] she has to go to her court date for throwing batteries at the game, and I was like ok, she's like one step over the violence of Lisa, but it didn't feel unfamiliar to me. So when I was like oh, this is the people of Philly - that they're truth tellers, they don't mind getting in your face both good and bad, they'll tell you what's up and they don't have shame about it, I'm like oh, that's me. I already fit in. It's not that big of a stretch."
As far as favorite Phillyisms go, Lisa reminisces on past episodes of Abbott where Lisa gets violent and acts out on her friends. "Melissa's gonna throw down over some Peter Rabbit books," Lisa says.
Bennett shares that his favorite takeaway from Lisa's commentary is that she and Melissa truly aren't that different, and Lisa "is Philly."
Lisa shares, "You know, I am Sicilian, my mother was a Sicilian teacher in a public school in DC [...] She's kind of a bit of the inspiration for Melissa. She had a fresh mouth... she was pretty Melissa."
Lisa Ann Walter is performing at Helium Comedy Club in Philadelphia from July 11 through July 13. Click HERE to find out more and purchase tickets.