writer / Koko Ntuen
photographer / Katy Pritchett
styling / Regina Amato
hair / TAMAH @ The Wall Group
makeup/ Christine Symonds@ The Wall Group
Julie Klausner might be the funniest difficult person you know. On the HULU helmed series Difficult People she lives up to this role trading crude jokes and making uncomfortable situations hilarious and even more uncomfortable with fictional and real life best friend and resident funny guy Billy Eichner. Sample jokes include, “I can’t wait for Blue Ivy to be old enough so R. Kelly can piss on her.” A joke that got the show on tabloid headlines and Julie a heap load of shit from Beyonce’s loyal army and more conservative demographic. In episode 3 or the first season she is confronted by Andy Cohen for calling him an “Organ grinding monkey in Gucci,” and then asked promptly to leave Watch What Happens Live with Billy in tow. If you think these are crazy antidotes you are in for a long haul. The show spent a season making laughs that might have turned network TV on its head.
The fiery red head grew up in Scottsdale 45 minutes from NY and made a brilliant career for herself in writing and comedy penning such projects as her 2010 memoir, I Don’t Care About Your Band, her podcast How Was Your Week, and her cruel but absolutely entertaining New York Magazine’s Real Housewives shows recap. In Difficult People Klausner and Eichner star as a parallel lives versions of themselves but less successful and completely unfiltered. Billy plays a fouled mouth waiter/ struggling comedian and Julie is is right hand woman playing a sarcastic TV recap writer with two basset hounds and the nerdiest boyfriend you ever say. The two met in real life when Julie sent initiated an email to him and they realized they were both mutual fans and wanted to collaborate. Later Julie went on to write for Billy On The street.Â
“I started writing for him during season one and have been there ever since. We found that we have a very similar sensibility and we had a great working relationship, got along very well, had a really great way of communicating and natural chemistry,” says Julie.
The two carried on their comedy chemistry after Julie wrote a spec for the series her show and ask Billy to play her best friend. Then comedy empress Amy Pohler got involved. Julie explains further, “She picked out the tittle Difficult People and she helped shape the actual series. Needless to say it was a pilot but she kind of challenged me to think about what the characters would be in my world, in Billy’s world. With her help we went around and pitched, we got to make a pilot and then we got to sell it as a series.”
The show is an unfiltered, no holds barred fiasco, where nothing is off limits and the dialogue and scenes very unique to Julie’s brash but relatable tone. “Without sounding too Disney Princess status, it’s really just a dream come true to write things that actually get made and to show up on set and to see things that I just previously just imagined come to life. To be in my own show and able to make the shows I want to make, write the episodes I want to write and have people pay me to not only do it but to actually make it happen. It’s crazy; it’s the best thing ever.“
“To be in my own show and able to make the shows I want to make, write the episodes I want to write and have people pay me to not only do it but to actually make it happen. It’s crazy; it’s the best thing ever.”
Julie’s career is certainly one to follow and one a lot of brave writers can learn from. Her advice, “There’s no shortcut and a certain point you have to stop networking and snoozing and put your head down and do the work. A lot of what takes to succeed is a quiet and boring. That’s the work. The best way of getting a chance to perform is to write yourself an opportunity. I think people who can write, should write.”
Jacket: Vintage Pendleton Shirt: H&M Pants: Zara  Shoes: Swedish Hasbeens Sunglasses: Vintage Christian Dior  Belt: Urban Outfitters Bracelet: Artelier Rings: Jay Nicole Scarf: Vintage
