She was one of the few women working in stand-up comedy in the 1970s and 80s, and she broke ground by adopting an observational style that included frank discussions about her life as a single woman, as well as political commentary.
"[3] Born into a Jewish family and raised in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, Boosler was the youngest child of seven with six older brothers.
[14] She graduated from Sheepshead Bay High School in 1969,[15] and was enrolled at the University of South Florida, but she dropped out after two years[16] and traveled to the Bahamas where she worked for six months as a singer and dancer in a musical revue, before returning to New York.
[7] On a night when one of the scheduled comedians failed to show up, Boosler took to the stage to try some comedy and spent an hour telling jokes.
By 1976, comic Jimmie Walker was her manager, she was the subject of a multi-page article in New York Magazine and had appeared on Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell and The Merv Griffin Show.
[18] That same year she made her first appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, with Helen Reddy sitting in as guest host.
[3] Her comedic material drew upon her own life, including her experiences as a single woman, and also featured topical and political elements.
[12][18] Her performance style set her apart from the more self-deprecating humor of female stand-up predecessors such as Joan Rivers and Phyllis Diller, whose jokes often revolved around being a wife and mother.
[7] In the end she personally financed Party Of One, which was shot in 1985 and which aired on Showtime in 1986, making Boosler the first woman to have an hour-long comedy special on a cable network.
[11] After the success of Party Of One, Showtime signed-on for her subsequent specials Broadway Baby, Top Tomata and Live Nude Girls.
[27] Boosler starred in the 1982 NBC series The Shape of Things, alongside Dottie Archibald, Rhonda Bates, Alvernette Jimenez, Maureen Murphy and David Ruprecht,[28] and also appeared on The Andy Kaufman Show, a talk show parody created by Kaufman that aired as an episode of the PBS series Soundstage in 1984.
[30] Throughout the 1980s and 90s she played guest roles on sitcoms such as Night Court, The Cosby Show, Living Single, Dear John and Sisters.
[30][33] Her 1992 New Year's Eve comedy-variety special, Elayne Boosler's Midnight Hour, was a 90-minute show filmed at The Town Hall in New York City and was telecast live on Showtime.
[36] She also moderated a forum sponsored by the National Organization for Women during the 2004 Democratic Party presidential primaries that was televised on C-SPAN.
[39] Boosler has written several pieces published in high-profile publications: She wrote a tribute to Andy Kaufman for Esquire in 1984.
[43] She has also written pieces for George, USA Today and The New York Times[44] and was a frequent contributor to The Huffington Post between 2011 and 2017.