Middlebury Magazine

  • Recent Stories
  • Menu
    • Features
    • Pursuits
    • Q&A
    • Review
    • Old Chapel
    • Road Taken
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • How Did You Get Here Series
    • About
    • Advertising
    • Contact
    • Support
    • Writers’ Guidelines
  • Search

Spring 2019 Pursuits

The Comedian

Making videos impersonating your mother seems an improbable way to launch a career as a comedian. For Alyssa Limperis ’12, it’s done that and more.

By Leah Fessler ’15
Photographs by Max S. Gerber
May 14, 2019
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • Email icon

Wearing a cheap wig and impersonating your mother isn’t a surefire way to get famous. But for Alyssa Limperis ’12, it works. Making “mom videos” on YouTube began as a hobby—a coping method after Limperis’s father passed away and her mother moved to New York to be near her. Years later, the videos boast millions of views. In 2018, their popularity landed Limperis an agent in Los Angeles, where she now acts in commercials and television while inching closer to her lifelong dream of selling (and starring in) her own comedic series.

Her refusal to follow a traditional career path is what makes Limperis so lovable and her comedy so addicting. Spend a minute watching her mom videos and you’ll understand. Shuffling around the house, sighing at the neighbor’s new car, and force-feeding leftovers, Limperis’s impersonations of her mother are relatable; they make you laugh at your own family dysfunction while embracing the reality you’re not alone.

For Limperis, this laughter isn’t just a relief, it’s a means of survival.

After Middlebury, Limperis moved to New York to work as a financial consultant. Soon she spiraled into a dark depression. She knew her job was wrong but she was terrified to leave.  “I dreaded saying out loud that I wanted to be a comedian. But after one year in consulting, I couldn’t go back. I knew if I kept doing it I’d be bitter, unhappy, and miserable.”

So she quit and landed a waitressing gig. For her first year, she did at least three open mics a night, mostly in empty, cigar-filled lounges. She was broke and bombed most of her sets, but she was happy. “I remember finishing my first 10-hour waitress shift, getting on my bike, and riding to the East Village for an open mic,” Limperis recalls. “I’d never felt so free.”

Then, as quickly as things built up, they fell apart. Terminal brain cancer gave Limperis’s father months to live. She moved home to Massachusetts to tend to the man who orchestrated prank wars on every neighbor and who knew her better than anyone else.

Every night, they’d watch Seinfeld, the show she adored during childhood. “It was our half-hour of relief,” says Limperis. “I was watching my dad lose every function in his body. Every day was the worst day I could imagine. But this show was the one thing that brought us light and made him laugh.”

After Limperis’s father died, her mother made the move to New York. “It was a dark time for both of us,” says Limperis. “My mom didn’t want to be at home alone, and we were spending so much time together. I was just watching her react to being in New York City.”

Like any good writer, Limperis saw opportunity in their shared pain.

“Some of the things my mom would say in the city were too funny,” says Limperis. She and her mother began writing down the comments. Once they finished their script, Limperis dressed up in her mother’s clothes, then performed the sketch. Her mother filmed.

“Making these videos became so joyful for both of us. They came from a place of love,” Limperis explains, noting her father’s sensibilities informed their comedy as well.

The mom videos were hilarious, but niche. Then, in winter 2018, everything changed.

Convinced they were beating a dead horse, Limperis and her mother agreed to make one last video, about visiting mom at home.

Limperis published the video, then left for work. Hours later, it had been shared hundreds of thousands of times. Coincidentally, Limperis’s mom was coming for dinner the night their video went viral.

“I was so excited to tell her, and when she got to my apartment, I showed her the responses,” Limperis recalls. “We just sat there, ate Mexican food, and cried. We had come so far. And for the first time in a long time, we felt free.”

Parallels

The Talker

Limperis has developed several characters for videos. This blonde goddess is her overly extroverted Southern woman. Her crowning video is “Woman at Lunch Who Can’t Tell a Story.” “I just love playing with characters who talk without having anything to say,” says Limperis.

The TV Host

This gum-smacker is the star of Limperis’s play, which ran at NYC’s United Citizens Brigade. “The play’s about Tina and Gina, the hosts of your least-favorite daytime TV show, WAKE UP!, which makes The Real Housewives of New Jersey seem like Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”

The Mom

Usually, Limperis wears the mom wig with her mother’s cable-knit sweaters and chinos. “It’s from Amazon, it doesn’t fit me, and let’s be honest, it’s really more of a toupee. But there’s something about putting it on that feels really joyful. When I’m wearing it, I can just escape into a character. It’s the best feeling in the world.”

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Recent Stories

Features

More Than a Game

In a critically acclaimed work of nonfiction, Abe Streep '04 introduces readers to the Arlee Warriors, a high school basketball team on a Native American reservation in Montana, where life's challenges are abundant.

By Alexander Wolff
Photograph by Devin Yalkin
October 21, 2022

Munya Munyati Has A Few Stories to Tell

Catching up with a young filmmaker who is rapidly making a name for himself at Vice.

By Mara Dolan
Film stills by Munya Munyati
September 16, 2022

Reverberations

A transcontinental move, a career discovered, a landmark speech studied and translated—and an identity reshaped.

By Clara Clymer, MA Translation '22
Illustration by Anna Gusella
April 2, 2022

The Road(s)

A little over a year ago, a writing student headed south to Florida for no other reason than J-Term was forced to go remote. She soon found herself reporting on an environmental justice battle that was roiling the state.

By Alexandra Burns '21.5
Illustrations by Yevgenia Nayberg
March 2, 2022

Dispatches

The Repatriation

The Leopard Head Hip Ornament returns to Africa.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Courtesy Middlebury Museum of Art
February 16, 2023

Adventures in Filmmaking

Two professors and an alum have embarked on a journey to take a screenplay from its creation to the end product of a full-length feature film.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
Still Photograph from The Swim Lesson Proof of Concept
February 14, 2023

A Night Out

For one evening in December, Atwater dining hall hosted a student-dining experience unlike any other.

By Caroline Crawford
Photographs by Paul Dahm
January 20, 2023

Finding His Way

What happens when your identity is stolen—not by another person but by your own body?

By Sara Thurber Marshall
December 15, 2022

A Natural Selection

For more than a quarter century, Stephen Trombulak— now an emeritus professor of biology and environmental studies—guided students in avian research on a parcel of College land hard by Otter Creek. This preserved area now bears his name.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photography by Paul Dahm
November 18, 2022

The Utterly Fascinating Life of Howie McCausland

He saves lives. He brought the Internet to Middlebury. He has a degree in astrophysics. And he loves to fish. Yes, this is a true story.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Illustration by John S. Dykes
September 16, 2022

It’s a New Day at the Museum of Art

Reimagining what an art museum can and should be.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Art courtesy of the Middlebury College Museum of Art
June 30, 2022

First Aid

Their projects span the globe—from Kenya to Haiti to the United States. As the 2021-22 academic year came to a close, a cohort of students gathered to discuss what having a social impact really means.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
Illustration by Brian Stauffer
June 28, 2022

The Case of the Purloined Onions

Onions have been disappearing from Middlebury's garden. Now, a team of undergraduate sleuths are honing in on a lineup of suspects.

By Andrew Cassel
Illustration by Naomi Ann Clarke
June 21, 2022
View All

Pursuits

Public Defender

On becoming one of the country's foremost cybersecurity experts.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Illustration by Neil Webb
April 14, 2022

Q&A

The Making of a Teacher

Hebrew Professor Michal Strier reflects on her life an education—in Israel and the States—a journey that led the Language School instructor to the undergraduate College for the first time this year.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photograph by Paul Dahm
May 19, 2022

Editor’s Note

A Brilliant Fogg

Saying goodbye to a dear colleague and friend.

By Matt Jennings
Illustration by Jody Hewgill
February 25, 2020

Old Chapel

Making Democracy Real

An Update on Our Conflict Transformation Initiative

By Laurie L. Patton
Illustration by Montse Bernal
January 20, 2023

Road Taken

What to Wear Now

Through accrued life experiences, a writer discovers that a common question has become a statement of identity.

By Samantha Hubbard Shanley ’99
Illustration by Naomi Clarke
March 11, 2021

Quotation

A summer immersed in a language can do wonders, as veterans of Middlebury College’s famous language-learning program can attest. The lockdown is clearly going to amount to the equivalent of about two summers, and there are mini-Middleburys happening in millions of houses worldwide.”

—John McWhorter, writing “The Coronavirus Generation Will Use Language Differently” in the Atlantic.

Podcasts

Introducing Midd Moment: Season 3

Coming this spring, season three of Midd Moment.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
March 31, 2023

Alone Together, Ep. 9 with Jessica St. Clair ’98 and Dan O’Brien ’96

Dan O'Brien ’96, a playwright and poet, and Jessica St. Clair ’98, a comedian and writer, join President Patton for our final check in with the community during COVID-19 self-isolation. Dan and Jessica are a true power couple in the arts that met in a Middlebury improv group. They discuss Dan's magazine essay "Life Shrinks: Lessons from Chemo Quarantine," how reopening the country feels a lot like remission, and how their art is evolving to reflect the pandemic.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
June 15, 2020

Alone Together, Ep. 8 with Dick Clay, Covid-19 Survivor

In this episode, Dick Clay, a student at the Bread Loaf School of English, shares his story of recovering from COVID-19. Dick discusses when the seriousness of the virus hit him, the "wilderness path to recovery," and how he will process this experience through writing.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
June 8, 2020

Review

Heart and Soul(s)

Funny and touching, this story centers on a small town and the escapades of its inhabitants—both living and dead.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
Illustration by Miki Lowe
March 29, 2023

How Did You Get Here?

Megan Job

By Alexandra Burns '21
February 15, 2021

Leif Taranta

By Alexandra Burns '21
February 15, 2021

Mikayla Haefele

By Alexandra Burns '21
February 15, 2021

Videos

Pomp and Unusual Circumstances

As viewed from above.

By Chris Spencer
June 1, 2021

Davis the Owl Returns Home

Having recovered from life-threatening injuries, a beautiful winged creature is released to its natural habitat.

By Andrew Cassell
April 22, 2021

In the Blink of an Eye

Gone in less than a minute—the middle of June 2019 to the middle of June 2020, as viewed from the rooftop of the Mittelman Observatory.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
Video by Jonathan Kemp/Mittelman Observatory
June 10, 2020
Middlebury College
  • Alumni
  • Newsroom
  • Contact Us
  • icon-instagram

The views presented are not necessarily those of the editors or the official policies of the College.

© 2023 Middlebury College Publications.