Jen Rosenstein
Iliza Shlesinger
Monday, Oct. 23, 2023 | 2 a.m.
Longtime Las Vegas comedy headliner Iliza Shlesinger recently revealed to People Magazine that she’s expecting her second child in February, but don’t ask her those obvious, annoying questions about balancing the demands of being a mom with an ever-expanding career as an in-demand entertainer.
“I don’t think of it as a wrinkle as much as that I’m just so lucky to get to have a real career,” she says. “What I realized about having a baby is that life just starts to move faster. It’s not about balancing it as much as holding tight and taking everything in. I take everything as it comes and I don’t plan on everything being a certain way, and I think that’s a good model going into Las Vegas.”
Shlesinger’s next round of performances take her back to Encore Theater at Wynn Las Vegas for a Hard Feelings Tour stop at 8 p.m. October 27-28. Tickets start at $45 and are available at ticketmaster.com.
She’s already hit the stage at Wynn once after years as one of the stars of the Aces of Comedy series at the Mirage Theatre. At this point in her career, a venue change is taken in stride with ease. “At this level I’m there to do my act. I’m sued to performing everywhere from casinos to boardwalks to arenas to theaters to high school auditoriums in foreign countries,” she says. “Going from one nice casino to another does not faze me.” (That high school auditorium show was in Iceland, just FYI.)
Shlesinger has been rolling for a while now. In the last year she’s released “Hot Forever,” her biggest Netflix comedy special to date, as well as her third book, “All Things Aside: Absolutely Correct Opinions.” Between stand-up tour dates, film roles and her podcast “Ask Iliza Anything,” there’s no slowing down, and there are always new projects in the works. One of the latest she’s hoping will find an audience soon is a travel show filmed in New Zealand.
“I’m always working on stuff and I generally don’t like to talk about it until the ink has dried on the contract, but I’ve been wanting to do a travel show for a while,” she says. “It’s a weird hole in the market. So many men get to do it, to explore and travel and say whatever they want, and there aren’t as many women [doing it].
“I’m already traveling, my husband is a brilliant chef and writer and he came with, and we were asked to do it. I think we made something special.”
There might be a little travel talk in the new collection of material Shlesinger will perform at Encore Theater; it’s definitely a set Vegas audiences haven’t seen or heard before. And she says it’s ready to go for a scheduled taping of her next special after February.
“It’s very polished,” she says. “I always love Las Vegas and I’m very much looking forward to doing this new hour there.”
