Travels from California, USA
Ellen Degeneres's speaking fee falls within range: Over $75,000
Ellen DeGeneres is one of the most prominent personas in television and has paved the way for women and gays and lesbians in the entertainment industry. Noted for her one of a kind ability to tastefully blend humor with sensitive issues, DeGeneres’s clean comedy and emotional intelligence caters to a wide audience while alienating no one.
Using her wit, talent, and determination, DeGeneres broke into the male dominated field of stand-up comedy in the late 1970s, becoming the first woman ever to do an onscreen chat with Johnny Carson on his famous sofa after performing on The Tonight Show. Throughout the years she did various film roles, but cemented her career with her 1990s sitcom, Ellen, which some called “the female Seinfeld.” DeGeneres made television history in “The Puppy Episode” as the first leading television character to openly come out as a lesbian, paralleling her real life declaration on Oprah earlier that year.
Though DeGeneres’s courage undoubtedly contributed in the long run to the representation of gays and lesbians in the entertainment industry, shortly after she came out her show was cancelled and her career came to a standstill. However DeGeneres mustered the strength to start from scratch again, returning to stand-up before eventually finding her niche as a daytime television show host. Her hit program The Ellen DeGeneres Show boasts incredible ratings, a large loyal fan base, and a remarkable award record of 25 Emmys.
Today DeGeneres uses her celebrity status as a platform for animal rights, humanitarian movements, and equal representation of gays and lesbians in media. She has done charitable work for Global Aids Awareness and the David Lynch Foundation, which helps people with chronic stress disorders through meditation.
Think “television funnywoman” and it’s likely one woman will come to mind: the inimitable Ellen DeGeneres. A beloved TV icon and entertainment pioneer, DeGeneres’s distinctive comedic voice has resonated with audiences from her first stand-up comedy appearances to her current work as the host of the Emmy-winning Ellen DeGeneres Show.
It was DeGeneres’s work in the hit show Ellen that cemented her place as a pioneer in the world of television. The sitcom’s critically acclaimed “The Puppy Episode” marked DeGeneres’s character’s coming out as a lesbian to a record 46 million viewers, effectively changing television history. Since then, DeGeneres has appeared in numerous films (including as the voice of “Dory” in the Pixar hit Finding Nemo); become a New York Times best-selling author with her books The Funny Thing Is… and Seriously… I’m Kidding; enjoyed a judging stint on American Idol; and hosted the Oscars, Emmys, and Grammys. Most recently, she can be seen as a spokesperson for Cover Girl Cosmetics. She also starred in the national “My Life. My Card.” campaign for American Express and, prior to that, crossed the country on a 35-city stand-up comedy tour, entitled the “Here and Now” tour. The series of shows included a performance taped at the famed Beacon Theater in New York, and became HBO’s highest rated comedy special in years.
Other television credits include executive producing and starring with Sharon Stone in the Emmy-nominated If These Walls Could Talk II for HBO, and a guest appearance on The Larry Sanders Show, for which she received an Emmy nomination.
In 2005, DeGeneres hosted the Primetime Emmy Awards for the third time. Under her stewardship, the telecast enjoyed a five million viewer increase over the previous year. Her previous performance hosting the 2001 awards show garnered her rave reviews for providing a perfect balance of wit with heartfelt emotion to the post-9/11 telecast audience. Her inaugural efforts hosting the award show in 1994 won her an American Comedy Award.
In addition to her stints hosting the Primetime Emmys, DeGeneres has also hosted industry events including the 38th and 39th Annual Grammy Awards, for which she earned an Emmy nomination, the VH1 Honors that garnered a Cable Ace Award, VH-1 Divas Las Vegas, and The Saturday Night Live Christmas Special
In May 26, 2010, DeGeneres announced she was starting her own record label entitled “eleveneleven.” The acts thus far signed to the label are Greyson Chance, Tom Andrews, and Jessica Simpson.
Beginning with her 1982 nationally recognized breakout as a comedian in New Orleans, DeGeneres and her many contributions to the entertainment industry have earned her numerous accolades including a Golden Apple Award as Female Discovery of the Year from the Hollywood Women’s Press Club, a Lucy Award honoring women in Television and Film, and an Amnesty International Award.
In her enlightening, hilarious presentations, Ellen DeGeneres shares the personal stories and insights she has gleaned from her years as an actress, television personality, and comedian. Audiences will walk away delighted and inspired by her pioneering rise to success.
“For those of you watching around the world, it’s been a tough couple of days for us here. It has been raining. We’re fine. Thank you for your prayers.” Speaking in front of one of the toughest audiences in Hollywood, Ellen DeGeneres’s Academy Award ceremony opening monologue draws rolling laughter.
Ellen reflects on how as a child and teen she always wanted to do something that would make people happy. She remarks on how the universe took her through many twists and turns before finally leading her to her destiny as a comedian. “I tried everything: I chucked oysters, I painted houses, I sold vacuums cleaners, I was a court runner. But there was always a voice saying ‘You should be doing something different’ and it was usually my boss and I was being fired.”
Ellen DeGeneres: Speaking Honestly Speaking with candor and humor, comedian Ellen DeGeneres shares the story of her growth from lowly New Orleans comedienne to one of the most recognized faces in entertainment today. She speaks to the obstacles and the trials she had to overcome in a professional life that often intertwined with the personal, and the strength and support she fostered to come out on top.
The Funny Thing Is: An Evening with Ellen DeGeneres
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Seriously…I’m Kidding I’ve experienced a lot the last few years and I have a lot to share. So I hope that you’ll take a moment to sit back, relax and enjoy the words I’ve put together for you in this book. I think you’ll find I’ve left no stone unturned, no door unopened, no window unbroken, no rug unvacuumed, no ivories untickled. What I’m saying is, let us begin, shall we?
The Funny Thing Is… Ellen DeGeneres published her first book of comic essays, the #1 bestselling My Point…and I Do Have One, way back in 1996. Not one to rest on her laurels, the witty star of stage and screen has since dedicated her life to writing a hilarious new book. That book is this book.
After years of painstaking, round-the-clock research, surviving on a mere twenty minutes of sleep a night, and collaborating with lexicographers, plumbers, and mathematicians, DeGeneres has crafted a book that is both easy to use and very funny. Along with her trademark ramblings, The Funny Thing Is…contains hundreds of succinct insights into her psyche, supplemented by easy-to-understand charts, graphs, and diagrams so that you’ll never miss a joke.
Overseeing all aspects of production, DeGeneres labored over details both significant and insignificant, including typefaces, page number placement, and which of the thousands of world languages to use. Ultimately she selected English, as it’s her mother tongue, but translations into Hindi and Pig Latin are already in the works.
DeGeneres takes an innovative approach to the organization of her book by utilizing a section in the beginning that includes the name of each chapter, along with a corresponding page number. She calls it the “Table of Contents,” and she is confident that it will become the standard to which all books in the future will aspire.
Some of the other innovative features you’ll find in this edition:
Sure to make you laugh, The Funny Thing Is… is an indispensable reference for anyone who knows how to read or wants to fool people into thinking they do.
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