Actress and comedian Lisa Ann Walter has her share of New Year’s resolutions, but she’s giving herself a break.
“I have gotten much more rational over the years — and realistic,” Walter said. “Instead of going, ‘That’s it, I am no longer gonna sit with the entire bag of Garrett’s [popcorn] on my lap and eat it until it’s gone,’ I don’t do that anymore. I just go, ‘You know what? All those times that I thought I was 10 pounds too fat, I was fine. I’m gonna let it go.’ ”
Leading up to the new year, the “Abbott Elementary” actor said she will not only enjoy the popcorn, but Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse, Lou Malnati’s, Walker Bros. pancakes and anything else locals recommend when she spends time in Chicago between her performances this weekend at Zanies Comedy Club in Rosemont.
Walter fondly recalled exploring Chicago while filming the 2005 comedy “The Trouble with Dee Dee,” directed by Mike Meiners.
“I was there for a whole summer and I fell in love with multiple aspects of the entire Chicagoland,” Walter said. “I went to the Crosstown Classic. I went to blues bars.”
She also spent time at the Chicago Blues Festival.
The shows at Zanies are happening during a busy time for Walter, 60, who is currently filming season three of “Abbott Elementary,” which will premiere Feb. 7 on ABC, following a delay due to the writers’ and actors’ strikes this past summer.
Walter also stayed active during the break; she did stand-up, appeared on game shows including “The $100,000 Pyramid,” and advocated and raised money for striking workers in the entertainment industry.
Walter said taking her comedy act back on the road wasn’t easy.
“Developing that hour [of comedy] was the first challenge,” she said. “I used to think to myself regularly, ‘What are you doing? Why don’t you just sit home?’ But truthfully, I was put on this earth to make people laugh. … I really think the world needs it.’”
Over the years, Walter’s act has included bits about her identical twin sons, now in their 20s, who, coincidentally,
share the same birthday as the twins portrayed by Lindsay Lohan in “The Parent Trap,” which featured Walter among the cast. But Walter, a mom of four, said one of her twins
recently sent her a text asking to be cut out of the act.
“He said, ‘I don’t know if that’s the way you really feel about me,’ ” Walter recalled. “And I was like, ‘No, it’s extreme for comedy.’”
Walter said she called him and listed all the things she loved about him.
“And he goes, ‘OK, I don’t mind if you do stand-up about me.’ ”
Walter is also a mother figure, so to speak, for a classroom full of children, through her role on “Abbott” as tough second-grade teacher Melissa Schemmenti — a character inspired by Walter’s late mother, who was an educator.
“It’s the best job I’ve ever had,” Walter said. “Truly how it feels is like home. We were just firing off each other just like there was no time apart. … It is crazy chemistry.”
Walter said there is a special spark between her and actress Sheryl Lee Ralph, who portrays kindergarten teacher Barbara Howard.
“Sheryl and I have such a shorthand and we’re so close that I know what I can do to get her going,” Walter said. “We know what the other one is thinking before they think it. So that’s a fun thing to play.”
Walter also complimented Ralph’s improvised phrases, such as “Sweet baby Jesus and the grown one, too!”
“She’ll come in with a series of different one-liners, and all of them will be funny,” Walter said.
Walter said she and her cast mates, including Tyler James Williams (portraying first-grade teacher Gregory Eddie), had a feeling the show was special from the beginning.
“The famous story is that Tyler said to Sheryl on day three of shooting the pilot, ‘Do you feel it?’ ” Walter recalled. “And she said, ‘Yeah.’ ”
On another occasion, Ralph asked Walter what she thought about the show’s chances.
“I was like, ‘I think we’re OK,’ ” Walter said. “And she goes, ‘I do, too!’ And she was like, ‘Well, the good Lord will take care of it no matter what.’ And I said, ‘I think the good Lord’s busy and he doesn’t have to worry about this because I think we’re good.’ ”
