Selena Coppock and Leah Dubie bring their hometown Comedy Rivalry to Mottley's tonight



Selena Coppock and Leah Dubie
bring Comedy Rivalry to Mottley's tonight

 Selena Coppock and Leah Dubie are from neighboring towns west of Boston – Weston and Wayland, respectively. Their high schools used to play football every Thanksgiving, and, as Coppock reports, got into the occasional late night scuffle in fast food parking lots. That’s why their show tonight at Mottley’s is called Comedy Rivalry.

Coppock and Dubie didn’t meet until they both moved out of Boston and became regulars on the New York City comedy scene, where they met and discovered their common history. They became good friends, and both come back to play Boston frequently. You can see Coppock’s work on her Web site, and find her “Townie Martian” series on FunnyOrDie.com. Dubie’s work is on her Web site, as well.

I spoke with Coppock by phone earlier this week.

How much rivalry is actually going to be in this show?

We’re actually going to be doing a Weston/Walyand trivia section, so Leah and I are both brushing up on our sort of lame trivia. So there will be a little bit. It’s all in good fun. We are great friends, but we thought it would be a pretty jazzy little hook because we think it’s hilarious that we’re from rival schools.

Did you know each other when you were going to those rival schools?

Actually, no. Leah is class of ’95 and I was ’98, and I don’t think we played any of the same sports. I played field hockey in high school, but I was terrible. Leah played, I think basketball and softball. So we never overlapped. Although she knows some of the older guys for Wayland I used to have crushes on. But we did not know each other in high school, no. We just met on the New York City comedy scene.

Was it a pretty big rivalry between the two schools?

Yes. We’d play every year in Thanksgiving football. And when I was in high school, there was. As corny as it sounds, and it’s so small town, I remember my freshman year there was a huge fistfight behind the all-night Burger King, and it was Weston versus Wayland. And Wayland definitely womped some Weston ass.

They were pretty tight rivals in all sports. When I played field hockey it was always a big game when we played Wayland. And same with basketball and all that stuff. Because I think the towns were so similar, socio-economically and in so many respects. It is a pretty intense rivalry. I know from dating a Wayland guy when I was in high school, it doesn’t make you very popular in Weston.

Where did you and Leah wind up meeting?

We met here in New York a few years ago. We were both doing a pretty crummy show at the Laugh Lounge on the lower east side. And I used to do, I don’t do it to much anymore, but I used to do a joke that alluded to growing up with a bunch of rich kids, and I actually said the name Weston and I heard from the back her somewhat jokingly booing me. But I didn’t even know her so I was kind of like, “What?”

But we ended up talking, and over the years we’ve become great friends. We went out to Fire Island this year for a great gig. And she used to run a show here in New York and I run a show, so we book each other on our shows a lot. It’s been maybe three years since we met, maybe three and a half. She’s awesome. She’s hilarious.

So you never ran in the same circles when you were both doing comedy up here?

No. Leah went to school in New York. She used to watch a lot of comedy when she was younger, she said she used to go to the Comedy Connection all the time. But she didn’t try it until she got to New York, so for the two years that I was doing stand-up in Boston while I was still living there, we never overlapped because she was doing stand-up in New York at the time. Which is good, because, man, my first two years, I was pretty terrible.

But you had a somewhat common language from having seen the scene here in one form or another?

Yeah. When she goes back to Boston to see her parents, she performs at the Studio sometimes, and Mottley’s and stuff. There is definitely a commonality there. It’s fun, too. Sometimes we go to Dunkin’ Donuts together and hang out in Boston.

Is there a version of this show you do in New York or is this only for Boston audiences?

It’s only for Boston audiences. It kind of randomly came to me, and I thought that it would play best in Boston, just so we could do more local stuff and [be more] Boston-specific. Leah and I end up on a lot of shows together in New York, but I think the Weston/Wayland show might be just a specialty for Boston.

For people who may not be familiar with one or the other of you, what can you say they can expect to see?

I think we’re both going to do a fair amount of local stuff, which is always really fun. I am a very high energy, kind of a spaz onstage and talk about everything from ex-boyfriends to pop culture and what’s going on in my life right now, which is all of my friends in the world getting married and having babies and my thoughts on that. And Leah is a hell of a writer. She’s very steady onstage, great energy but great power behind it. Just calm, and she can run the show. Very witty. And then we have Maria Ciampa hosting, who I love. And we’re bringing Garry Hannon, who is also from Massachusetts, and he lives in New York now. He is very fun and silly. I think it’s going to be a great show, start to finish.