"Funniest Comedian LEA DELARIA vs JESSICA DELFINO"

LEA DELARIA

Lea DeLaria (born May 23, 1958) is an American comedian, actress, and jazz singer. DeLaria is credited with being the first openly gay comic to appear...

Lea DeLaria (born May 23, 1958) is an American comedian, actress, and jazz singer. DeLaria is credited with being the first openly gay comic to appear on American television with her 1993 appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show. She is best known for her portrayal of inmate Carrie "Big Boo" Black on Netflix original series Orange Is the New Black. DeLaria was born in Belleville, Illinois, the daughter of Jerry Jean (née Cox), a homemaker, and Robert George DeLaria, a jazz pianist and social worker. Her paternal grandparents were Italian. She attended kindergarten through eighth grade at St. Mary's Elementary School in Belleville and has referenced her Catholic upbringing in her performances. In 2001, DeLaria was the voice of Helga Phugly on the short-lived, animated sitcom, The Oblongs. In 1996 DeLaria played the part of a woman friend of Carol and Susan in the Friends episode The One with the Lesbian Wedding. In 1999 DeLaria played the recurring role of Madame Delphina on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live, returning in 2008 as both Delphina and Professor Delbert Fina. She continued to portray Delphina on a recurring basis until 2011. In 2008, Warner Records released The Live Smoke Sessions, DeLaria's first recording focused on "timeless pop standards" such as "Down With Love," "Night and Day," "Love Me or Leave Me" and "Come Rain or Come Shine." She noted, "I styled this CD on the old school live recordings ... It is my hope that this CD will take you back to 1948 and the Village Vanguard. So please let me invite you to mix a cocktail and enjoy a smoke while you sit back and soak up the swing." In November 2008, DeLaria completed a tour of Australia, playing Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane. She also frequently collaborates with comedian Maggie Cassella, most notably on an annual Christmas cabaret show in Toronto, Ontario which also sometimes tours to several other North American cities. In July 2010, her version of "All That Jazz" was used on So You Think You Can Dance. DeLaria performed in Prometheus Bound at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 2013, she has appeared in the Netflix Original Orange Is the New Black as the recurring character prison inmate Carrie 'Big Boo' Black. On February 14, 2015, DeLaria received the Equality Illinois Freedom Award for her work as "a cutting-edge performer who has used her talent to entertain and enlighten millions of Americans," said Bernard Cherkasov, CEO of Equality Illinois. On receiving the award at the 2015 Equality Illinois Gala in Chicago, DeLaria said, "As an out performer for over 33 years who has made it her life's work to change peoples perception of butch, queer and LGBT, it is an honor for me to receive such recognition from my home state. I feel I'm doing Belleville proud. Go Maroons!".

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JESSICA DELFINO

Jessica Delfino (born June 8, 1976 in Bridgeport, Connecticut) is a controversial singer, songwriter, and comedian based in New York City. Her songs t...

Jessica Delfino (born June 8, 1976 in Bridgeport, Connecticut) is a controversial singer, songwriter, and comedian based in New York City. Her songs tend to ridicule taboos and typically include jokes about vaginas and other sexual or dark topics. In her act, she plays an assortment of instruments including guitar, flying V ukulele and a rape whistle. She is also an illustrator and attended Philadelphia's Art Institute, as well as the University of Maine. She has won numerous awards, including beating out Flight of the Conchords to win the Best Musical Act at the 2005 ECNY awards, and a 2005 Village Voice "Best of" Award, in which the Village Voice declared her to be "fall-off-your-chair hilarious." She has appeared on Good Morning America as a finalist in a national comedy competition. She has also won many other competitions, some of them unusual, such as The Stoned Spelling Bee in Brooklyn, the Madagascar Institute's Catholic high school talent competition and the Arlene's Grocery "Gong Show," which later became The Gong Show with Dave Attell on Comedy Central. Delfino wrote for MTV's game show, I Bet You Will. Later, Morgan Spurlock hired her to write songs for his recent documentary film, What Would Jesus Buy?. Delfino writes a blog that Wil Wheaton called "the funniest thing I've ever read." Her blog has since been moved to her website. She has also been a regular contributor for TNT's Saving Grace television series blog. In 2016, Delfino wrote a weekly cannabis-themed Twitter round-up column for High Times called Toasted Tweets. Through 2017–2020, she went on to write about parenting and cannabis for High Times and pen pieces about parenting for The Atlantic, Huffington Post, VH1 and The Week and satire for McSweeney's Internet Tendencies, Working Mother, The New Yorker and The New York Times. She also was a contributor in the writer's room on Adult Swim's Mr. Punk Goes To Washington and for Bravo.

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