Chris Franjola performs at The Comedy Catch

Chris Franjola

For eight years, Chris Franjola wrote more than 1,500 bits for hit E! television show "Chelsea Lately." He's written for other shows over his career, but that experience was as close to doing stand-up as he's gotten when it comes to having the freedom to push the envelope, he says.

The comic, who will perform this weekend at The Comedy Catch, gives show host Chelsea Handler much credit for creating an environment where comics such as himself could experiment.

"We had a lot of leeway," he says.

"I've never experienced anything as freeing as that anywhere else on TV, and I credit her and E! network for that. She was very good at letting comedians be comedians."

Franjola says other shows are constantly being monitored for content and jokes are rewritten and reworked so as not to offend. On "Lately," the format was simple, but effective, he says. It was pretty much "if it was funny, it made it on air."

Six to eight writers would show for a morning meeting to discuss the topics of the day, then break to their respective writing spaces and work on jokes. Then they would meet in front of the cameras for a round-table discussion.

Franjola got more on-air time than anyone except Handler and Chuy, her diminutive sideman. What made the show work, besides having talented comics like Franjola, Heather McDonald, Ross Mathews and Fortune Feimster, was that Handler was perfectly happy to let them have the laugh.

"Not many comics will do that. Jerry Seinfeld is another," Franjola says in reference to how the latter operates on "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee," an online series about just what the title says.

Franjola says his time with Handler "changed my life in every way." He went from small gigs to large venues and, of course, the money got better as well.

"It worked out perfectly. I wanted to write on a daily show, but I also wanted to be on television. I could write it and perform it and get instant gratification with a live audience."

Franjola says he loves doing stand-up because he is the boss from start to finish and he loves working live. In addition to touring, he is writing for Feimster and is a regular on McDonald's podcast (http://heathermcdonald.net), which has proven to be a huge hit with fans.

He is also set to play a sleazy comedian on "GLOW" on HBO. It's based on the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling and is from the creators of "Orange Is the New Black."

Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfree press.com or 423-757-6354.