Comedian and producer Holly Rizzuto Palker calls being a mom her superpower. “You can’t take a break or stop being Mom, ever,” she says. “You’re Mom even when you experience your worst moments.” It’s precisely that no-days-off reality that fuels everything Rizzuto Palker does, including The Mom Coms, the comedy troupe she founded on the premise of raw, unfiltered honesty.

Meet the Mom Coms

After performing standup at the Erma Bombeck Comedy Festival and then at the South Orange Performing Arts Center (SOPAC) for Ladies of Laughter, Rizzuto Palker was hooked. She recruited her friend Stephanie Silberstein, a Short Hills resident, acting coach, and teaching artist at Paper Mill Playhouse, to take a standup workshop with her in South Orange, led by Rita Desnoyers-Garcia. They performed together at The Fox & Falcon at the culmination of the workshop, and the chemistry was undeniable.

The idea of Rizzuto Palker producing her own show started to take shape, and when the first opportunity arose—a performance at The Vintage Tea on Staten Island—the first call she made was to Silberstein. Silberstein not only encouraged the venture but suggested bringing in Liz Glazer, wife of Temple B’nai Jeshurun Rabbi Karen Perolman, to headline.

Liz Glazer, who has appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and has her own show at SOPAC on Sept. 19, was essential to getting The Mom Coms off the ground. Her profile drew crowds in the beginning, and Glazer has since grown into the creative director of The Mom Coms. “I don’t think we would be where we are currently without her expertise,” Rizzuto Palker says.

From there, momentum took over. Rizzuto Palker reached out to Jay Kim, owner of Sunny Scrambled, and a residency was born. Throughout the past year and a half, The Mom Coms have performed five shows at the beloved spot, with another performance scheduled for Oct. 1. Their first event there, “Mama Said: Mom’s Night Out,” sold out for two nights near Mother’s Day. “There is something magical about the space at night,” Rizzuto Palker says of the venue.

Although Sunny Scrambled has become a home base, The Mom Coms are hardly staying put. On July 16, they took the stage at the College of Staten Island Center for the Arts, their first performance in a big theater.

Funny Business

Running a comedy ensemble is its own kind of performance that happens entirely offstage. Rizzuto Palker gives founding members first access to shows and new roles like podcast host or editor. She also makes a point of meeting everyone where they are along their journeys. “We’re all at different places in our careers and as mothers,” she explains.

Once The Mom Coms established itself with the help of Glazer, Rizzuto Palker began elevating other members within the troupe. Becky Veduccio has stepped into headliner status, and GL Douglas will headline the Oct. 1 show. “It provides our local audience with new and old blood, and it provides the talent with the flexibility to pursue other work,” she says. “It’s a win for everyone.”

Labor of Laughs

As for the stuff that actually makes audiences laugh, Rizzuto Palker ensures she’s always the target of her own jokes, hard-won comedy mined from her own life. “Most of the comedy that I write comes from a place of difficulty, trauma, and stress,” she says. “What makes it funny is seeing the upsetting moments in retrospect, after having developed hindsight.”

She performs a bit about being a “pop up” doomsday prepper, sharpened by COVID-era grocery shortages. She jokes about white-knuckling her way through the college application process—“I was beside myself, verklempt!”—and tackles the delightfully specific territory of being an Italian-Catholic woman from Staten Island who married a Jewish man and is raising her children in the Jewish faith. “Basically, if it kept me awake at the time it happened, I know making a joke about it will resonate,” she says.

The comedian even wrote a Substack post about it called “The Serious Process of Being Funny.” It starts with recording kernels of ideas, fleshing them out into jokes, and road-testing them on her family. “Once I see what resonates, I fluff the jokes even more and create transitions and a flow for a 10-minute set,” she says. “I shop the set at open-mic nights and refine it after I gauge the audiences.” From there, she brings it to Silberstein and writer Liz Alterman for rehearsals the week before a show.

“I do it because I love it,” she says, which is fortunate, because she admits the process takes way too many hours. “When someone, who isn’t my mom, goes out of their way to congratulate me after the show, that makes it all worthwhile.”

Comic Relief

Although she seems to connect with all mothers, Rizzuto Palker has a particular interest in reaching empty nesters and grandmothers. “I love that we provide a space for mothers of any age to come together and feel seen,” she says. “Just as we needed playgroups when we had toddlers, we need outlets for menopause and college talk, too.”

The comedian hopes to expand the troupe’s monthly shows, grow the video podcast, land Sebastian Maniscalco for an “interfaith off,” publish books, and one day have her own dedicated space with a stage where moms at any point in life can gather, perform, and connect.

To catch Rizzuto Palker in the act of doing what she loves, check out one of her upcoming shows. The Mom Coms perform next on Oct. 1 at Sunny Scrambled. For more information, visit themomcoms.com.

Photograph by Will Gecsi