THE BOOBY PRIZE was nominated for BEST COMEDY (voted in top 3) at the HOLLYWOOD FRINGE FESTIVAL 2011!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

7/12/2011

This uplifting one-woman, two-booby comedy chronicles Writer/Performer Lizzie Czerner’s struggle to stop playing second banana to her two melons, and find true love.

THE BOOBY PRIZE is an official jury selection of THE NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL FRINGE FESIVAL 2011 and has also been selected for “THE BEST OF THE HOLLYWOOD FRINGE FEST” with four additional shows added in Los Angeles, to be performed later this month.

Comedy writer and sketch-comedienne Lizzie Czerner performed her solo show in The Hollywood Fringe Festival to full houses and standing ovations. In attendance was Cynthia Szigeti, legendary improv guru – The Groundlings, The Comedy Store Players, and The Acme Comedy Theatre, who says this, of the show:

“Brave, witty, and smart – Lizzie Czerner’s THE BOOBY PRIZE is one of the best things I’ve seen all year. She fills the stage with an infectious energy that plants a smile on your face as well as your heart. This production is a must-see!”

A seasoned performer with degrees from Sarah Lawrence College and N.Y.U. Tisch School of the Arts, and with off-Broadway credits to her name, Lizzie was a member of the successful and long-running sketch comedy group, Faulty Logic, (St. Marks Theatre/HA! Comedy Festival) and her solo shows have been performed in venues all over New York and Los Angeles. Her show entitled GETTING NAKED was an official jury selection of the New York International Fringe Festival in 2009, and her newest work, THE BOOBY PRIZE was performed at Upright Citizens Brigade, Santa Monica Theater and BANG Comedy Theatre, prior to its festival debut in The Hollywood Fringe Festival.

THE BOOBY PRIZE will be performed in Los Angeles as part of The Hollywood Fringe Festival “BEST OF THE FEST” at Artworks Theatre (6569 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90038) on Thursday, July 21 at 8:00pm, Friday, July 22 at 8:00pm, Saturday, July 23 at 8:00pm and Sunday, July 24 at 7:00pm. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at www.hollywoodfringe.org.

The show will also be performed in New York City at The Players Theatre as part of the New York International Fringe Festival on Saturday, August 13 at 7:30pm, Sunday, August 14 at 8:45pm, Tuesday, August 16 at 5:00pm, Friday, August 19 at 4:15pm, and Sunday, August 21 at 4:30pm. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at www.fringenyc.org, or $18 at the door.

To look at writer/performer, Lizzie Czerner, one might say that she is “blessed”, but Lizzie never considered having large breasts much of a blessing. She was teased as an adolescent, and as an adult, she received the sort of male attention that is usually reserved for blow-up dolls. As a result, Lizzie spent most of her life trying to hide her “blessings”, until one day when she realized she was not only hiding her figure…she was also hiding HERSELF. THE BOOBY PRIZE is about one woman’s decision to come out of hiding and experience life.

Lizzie brings her superb writing skills and impeccable comedic timing to the stage in this one-woman tour de force, allowing us to go with her on a wild roller-coaster ride from laughter to tears as she risks opening her heart – and her blouse – to a man in hopes of finding love… only to find that to him she is merely a sex object. Lizzie becomes desperate and goes to extremes in an effort to prove to herself, as much as to the man she loves, that she is more than just a ‘booby prize’. Combining hilarious characters and rapid-fire one-liners, Lizzie weaves a heart-warming story with non-stop laughter that leaves the audience breathless and wanting more.

Audiences are raving that THE BOOBY PRIZE is “Funny, smart, poignant, fearless and sexy”.

LA WEEKLY calls Lizzie “Vivacious”, and SPLASH MAGAZINE writes, “Lizzie’s comedy and writing is hilarious. She is a delight to watch.”

Media Inquiries:Contact: Lizzie Czerner 

Email: [email protected]: 323-241-2469

• PRESS *

6/23/11

By K. Malone

“THE BOOBY PRIZE” is a real WINNER!
Actress and top-notch comedienne, LIZZIE CZERNER, was blessed (or so one might think) with a notable physical attribute: A big, lush bosom that became the focal point of too many sets of eyes from the time this petite cutie first entered puberty.

“Mom! Why do I have 3 heads now?!” was her plaintive cry.

“Why, honey. You’re gonna learn to love ‘em, mark my words.”

Well, Lizzie may not have quite learned to love them, but she certainly learned to use them…as comic relief. They – the twins – form the basis for one of the most outrageously funny one-woman shows we’ve seen in a long time. “Booby Prize” lives up to its name, but Lizzie Czerner doesn’t need those appendages to engage an audience. She exudes unique, unselfconscious humor, with a highly expressive “rubber” face. We aren’t sure if she really knows how pretty she is, but who cares? When the laughs come as fast and furious as they did the other night at Improv Olympics West, on Hollywood Boulevard, there is no need to examine the various factors that elicited them.

As Lizzie says, the boobs enter the room before she does, but what follows is sheer hilarity.
Unfortunately, this latest iteration of “Booby Prize”, part of the Fringe Festival, has ended its short run. You will just have to stay alert and try to catch it the next time it’s performed.

LA THEATRE REVIEW
The Booby Prize at I.O. West
By Tony Bartolone
Lizzie Czerner is psychotic. And she has my respect for baring it all in to a room of strangers. With spot on timing, clever wit and infectious insanity, Czerner goes beyond neurosis and takes the crowd with her.
Subject matter seems to be drying up in Hollywood, but The Booby Prize is original and refreshing in world of overdone and recycled. A personal story about being ashamed of your body and the effects it has on relationships is something most people can relate to. What’s remarkable is how easy Czerner made it to relate to irrational behavior by simply justifying it to herself. She begins the play stalking a man and talking to pigeons. It’s almost as if she tells the audience right then, “Ready or not, here we go!” And as the play goes on, you absolutely fall in love with her.
Obviously well-versed in comedy, the impressive thing about her one woman show was the ability to seamlessly jump through contrasting emotional levels. From tender to torture, it’s all entertaining in this play about loving yourself for everything you are.

THE EXAMINER.COM
6/26/2011
By Bob Leggett
What a wonderful comedic piece. Czerner tells her story of being “doubly blessed” but uncomfortable that her breasts were the focus of most men’s gazes.
From the first moment, when we see Czerner sitting on a park bench with her “girls” covered, eating popcorn and looking through field glasses, while the cheerful sounds of birds emanate through the room, you realize that this play is going to be different. It is told first person to the audience, who are the “pigeons” in the park. Czerner admits she is “stalking” her “boyfriend” and then moves the focus back to her childhood to lay the foundation for the story.
Far from embracing her body’s “blessing,” Czerner considered them to be nothing but trouble. She took great pains to hide them from sight, and lived a very solitary life of television and romance novels. As she approached 30, however, she gained a new-found respect for her body, and proceeed to try and make up for lost time.
Led by her “girls,” Czerner began a search for love. The story of that journey to the point were she’s on that park bench stalking her “boyfriend” is told with many wonderful comedic moments. Czerner is a born comedienne with some of the best timing I have yet seen on the stage. You can’t help but be drawn in to her tale. As a man, I found myself longing to just go up there and give her a hug, just to show her that not all men were jerks. Unfortunately, my wife wouldn’t let me :)