Breakthrough Jew: Rachel Bloom
Bloom is the hilarious actress/singer/comedian behind 'F@ck Me, Ray Bradbury' and 'Chanukah Honey'
By: Sarah Bauder
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Name: Rachel Bloom
Age: 26
Hometown: Manhattan Beach, California
Breakthrough Cred: Created the viral video, “F**K Me, Ray Bradbury
On occasion, one comes across an individual who from a tender age seems destined for a specific career path. Singer/writer/comedian/actress Rachel Bloom is one of said individuals. “I grew up in Manhattan Beach, California- kind of like the Long Island of L.A. My mother played piano and my grandfather was an amateur director/stand-up comic, so I was exposed to musical theater at a very young age. The first song I learned was “All I Do Is Dream of You” from “Singin’ in the Rain,” and soon after that I started to get up and sing at family functions. And, since I was an only child, all the attention would go to me. Even now when I’m onstage I still feel that special brand of starry-eyed selfishness that comes from having no siblings, and, thus, no competition. “LookatmelookatmelookatmeI’mspecial,” Bloom explained to Serial Optimist in 2012.
However, the self-described “social outcast” didn’t merely limit herself to the limelight of family functions. Before reaching junior high, the burgeoning performer had an epiphany of sorts.
“I was always a nervous, excited, manic kid, and Manhattan Beach was a very “whatevs, dude” type of place, so it exacerbated my feelings of being an outcast. I guess you could call me “strange”- I only listened to show tunes until age 18, my typical outfit between ages 9-13 was sweatpants and oversized funny t-shirts, and I won a grandparent-grandchild lookalike contest at a mall. Since I was so socially awkward, the only thing I had going for me was the fact I was a performer, and, thus, the only time I felt respected by my peers was when I was cast in the lead in a play or got a solo in the choir concert. When I was in 5th grade, I wrote and starred in a talent show act called “The Me Station,” which was a one-person sketch about a television show with only one person. It was the first time I made a whole room laugh, and I realized the power of being funny,” she continued.
This realization regarding the power of humor, took Bloom to “The Big Apple” were she studied theater at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Whilst there, she was head writer and director of the institutions esteemed sketch comedy group, Hammerkatz.
“Hammerkatz was the single most important thing I did in college. It turned me into a writer, it changed my sense of humor, and it gave me a much higher standard for any piece of art. The rules of sketch writing that we used on Hammerkatz (as taught by the Upright Citizens Brigade) are not only very mathematical but also apply to any other form of writing (what is the central idea, how do you heighten that central idea, what is the cleanest way to get your idea across). Learning technique in any art form is seeing the man behind the curtain- shit starts to make a lot more sense. Hammerkatz was also one of the first places that I tried my hardest and failed. I once heard a quote that “Laziness is a form of fear,” and that rang so true to college me- I would slack off just so I could say to myself, “It’s ok that I failed, because I didn’t try my hardest anyway.” ‘Cause that’s the ultimate fear: what if my best isn’t good enough? What if I’m not even talented? However, I fell in love with sketch writing so hard that I had no choice but to work my hardest on that group, and there’s no feeling worse than working your ass off on a piece of writing only to have it fail abysmally. However, trying my best and failing was the only way I got better as a writer,” Bloom explained.
Upon graduating in 2009 with a B.F.A. in drama, Bloom continued to hone her skills at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York. A year later, she had her breakthrough as it were, when Bloom posted her first musical comedy parody, “F**k Me, Ray Bradbury”. Not only did said video garner over 2 million YouTube views to date, she also snagged a Hugo Award nomination for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.
“I was thinking about different concepts for the music video. At one point it was going to be a little more hipstery, and then I was talking to my boyfriend actually and the guy who helped me arrange the song, and they said they were thinking about Britney Spears, and I said "Oh my God, you guys are completely right." I wrote the music video that night, with the Ray Bradbury book signing scene and the sexy teacher and the retainer and stuff like that, and I watched "Hit Me Baby One More Time" a lot, which of course I think is a very good music video,” Bloom explained to Gawker in 2010.
The video’s success led Bloom to subsequently release a myriad of other videos of her songs, including I Steal Pets, You Can Touch My Boobies, and most recently, Chanukah Honey (Santa Baby Parody). Her videos have been featured on everything from Funny or Die to The Huffington Post and Buzzfeed. However, this multi-hyphenate isn’t content with Internet video stardom alone. She’s also landed writing gigs on a slew of television shows such as Robot Chicken, Fox’s short-lived Allen Gregory, and most recently, developing a musical comedy show for Showtime called Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.
This year, Bloom released her first album, Please Love Me.
By all accounts, Bloom is on the cusp of very big things. In 2013 alone, publications like Time Out LA and Backstage have lauded her as an up and coming comic to watch. Not too bad for a one-time socially awkward kid, not too bad at all.
Find Rachel Bloom at her official website, YouTube, and Twitter.
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