Meet Comedian Linda Belt
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Her career started at her first open mic. Sixteen years later Linda is still making audiences laugh.
Always Made Me Laugh
I’d been waiting for comedian Linda Belt to perform at a venue closer to where I live.
Linda and I first met when we were students at Rutgers College. She was hilarious. Linda always made me laugh.
We got reunited at a college reunion in 2005 and I learned she was a professional comedian. Two years ago, we found each other on Facebook.
Finally, in February my husband and I caught one of her shows about an hour and a half from home just as the coronavirus was starting to spread. No masks and no social distancing yet; only hand sanitizer.
Linda was part of a trio of hilarious lady comedians performing at Sellersville Theatre in PA on a Sunday night.
I recently interviewed Linda. She shared how she got started, her joke writing process, the types of audiences she makes laugh, what it’s like to work and live as a comedian, how to deal with hecklers, and challenges of age and gender, how to be funny in the time of Corona, and much more.
Linda, a transplant from Jersey City, NJ, hasn’t forgotten the day her life as a professional comedian began. It all started on a January Saturday in 2004 in suburban Connecticut.
Never a Class Clown
One of the first questions I asked Linda was if she was ever voted class clown. Her peers didn’t think she was the class clown but she made them laugh.
“My friends always told me I was funny all through out my school years. I was a prankster, but such a good student that I never got caught.”
A career as a comedian was not on her radar. “I wanted to be an actress. After college, I pursued theater and noticed I was cast in comedic roles. I had taken a few acting classes while at Rutgers on Livingston campus. At that point, I had decided that after graduation I was going to try to pursue acting professionally,” says Linda.
It’s a good thing she’s not a professional actress. Linda has found success as a comedian. She gave birth to her life as a comedian sixteen years ago at her first open mic.
