How Did Amy Schumer Learn to Be Funny?
ON SHOPLIFTING:
When you were young, you had a whole unusual fondness for shoplifting, didn't you?
Is it unusual? Actually, I think it's pretty typical of white girls.
Well, doing some shoplifting may be typical. But it sounds like you did a bit more than that.
Yes. I started just with my girlfriends—we would steal a bathing suit or some makeup or I don't know—and then I just got more serious about it. It became grand larceny when I was in college. I just discovered this department store where you could just take whatever and then return it for cash—no tags, no receipt, nothing. You know, thousands of dollars. It was exciting. It was the adrenaline—the actual act of getting away with it. It wasn't about the money, even though the money was nice. And I didn't feel bad about it—it was this huge corporation. You know, I never stole from people. I never stole from a little store.
You've said you might have stolen about $100,000 worth of stuff overall.
Sure. Yeah.
That's…
It's a lot. Yeah. I was stealing, like, age 14 to 21? I think I was arrested when I was 21. I got arrested stealing from Bloomingdale's with my sister—which I'd never stolen from before but Kim was like, "It's really easy," and then we found out it's the hardest place to shoplift from—and they kind of got it down to disturbing the peace, but if anybody dug into my record they would see that it was grand larceny.
What was the punishment?
shyt, what was it? Community service? A fine? I don't remember. But I just remember I was, "I don't want to go to jail." It felt really bad, being arrested. You have no say. And it was embarrassing.
I was relieved because I got caught doing this other thing—had they caught me for the thing I'd been doing for years and years, I would probably have had to do time. So, relieved actually. But it sucked.
Was it easy for you to stop after that?
No. I missed it. It was a physical longing. It was hard. I don't ever get impulses anymore. It's been years.