Often seen with her trademark overalls and noise-canceling headphones, Melanie Englert has become somewhat of an Island celebrity. Recognized and approached by strangers who have seen her videos on social media, perhaps in the Islanders Talk group on Facebook, Englert casually goes about her days as an increasing number of people are impelled to introduce themselves.
Having moved to Martha’s Vineyard in 2014, seeking a much-needed change after working in an office for an advertising company in New York City, Englert said the Vineyard always appealed to her, after spending summer weeks on the Island over the years. Originally hailing from Long Island, and spending time moonlighting as a standup comedian in New York City, Englert knows how to effortlessly hit that comedic sweet spot, using her sharp wit to keenly highlight the nuances of year-round Vineyard living.
“Comedy is usually the best way to tell the truth about something,” she said in a recent interview with The Times. The truth, Englert explained, is that the Vineyard’s year-round community is facing some momentous difficulties.
Well-versed in the Island shuffle, Englert moves with the seasons, all the while dabbling in comedy writing in addition to working her day jobs in gardening and caretaking.
Englert lives at the youth hostel during the winter months, and in the summer, “I live wherever I can find a place,” she said, noting that this summer has been particularly difficult.
“It is what it is,” she said of the shuffle. “I don’t know why I do it, but I do it. Maybe it’s because I’m not going to have this place beat me,” she said, after having watched a vast number of friends and acquaintances get priced out, eventually having to leave the Vineyard. Despite her omnipresent sarcasm, watching her friends move away due to the housing crisis is not a situation to be taken lightly. “We’re talking about artisans, electricians, people that this Island needs right now,” she said.
In what are arguably some of her most popular clips, Englert avails the public of “affordable rental opportunities” on the Vineyard, via a fictitious real estate company, showcasing a dilapidated outhouse or abandoned shed.
“For only $1,200 a month … you can make it work,” she says in one clip, as she gestures to a tiny, empty, crumbling shed lacking half its roof. “It’s got a beautiful view of the sky … if you don’t like skylights and open air, you can sleep on this side,”she continues, pointing to part of the structure that’s still somewhat intact.
Need a bathroom? “I got something for you,” Englert says in another clip, displaying a second “affordable housing” opportunity. “This one is a bathroom,” she says as she tours the rundown outhouse, highlighting its “amenities.”
In one of her most recent routines, Englert offers suggestions on “how to deal with our summer visitors.” Want to know how to deal with New York drivers? “Watch tigers on Nat Geo,” she jokes.
From an instruction on how to use a leaf blower to a clip of her in pajamas dodging truck traffic to get to her mailbox, Englert’s videos are never planned. “It’s usually spur of the moment,” she said. But “something usually triggers it,” prompting her creativity. The humorous videos are continuously met with praise, and are hilariously relatable to many Islanders.
Yet her funny videos haven’t always been received favorably by everyone. Englert said some clips made during the COVID-19 lockdown ended up getting her fired, after which she initially questioned if the jokes were worth it (after all, she still needed a paycheck).
But, she explained, “it ended up working out.” Englert found a new position with an employer who was more relaxed and less easily offended. “Somehow I always manage to land on my feet,” she said. “Sometimes you need to go through a traumatic event in order to push forward.”
Humor can be found in anything, Englert said. “I think pretty much everything is funny.” Even after a recent reprimand at work, where she was told to promise, in writing, not to whistle and sing to herself on the job, Englert still found something to joke about. “I’m going to frame it,” she joked of the write-up.
Englert explained that her tendency to rock the infamous overalls was initially an act of Freudian rebellion. “When I was a kid, I wasn’t allowed to wear overalls,” she said, as her mother didn’t care for the look. But “the honest truth is,” she said, “I just love all the pockets.”
Using her funny videos as a way to create and perform a kind of character, Englert is in fact fairly shy, she explained. “[When] you play a character, you can kind of go outside of yourself. It’s just fun,” she said. “Why not have some fun with your life?”
Englert marches to the beat of her own drum, no doubt; exemplified, among many things, by an unsuccessful 2020 run for Tisbury select board, as she was hoping to shake things up. In addition to pursuing a certificate in repairing and maintaining offshore wind turbines from Martha’s Vineyard Education and Training (formerly ACE MV), Englert has worked as a researcher for various true-crime books and documentaries; specializing in the notorious Volkswagen Beetle previously owned by serial killer Ted Bundy.
Englert hopes to enter the increasingly populous world of podcasting after the busy summer. In an autobiographical form, she said, she plans on describing, by way of humor, her own life experiences.
Having inherited plenty of wit from her mother, Englert attributes much of her sense of humor to her father, who passed away last year from lung cancer. “He was one of those rare people who truly didn’t care what anybody thought of him,” Englert said, noting that even at the worst point of his illness, her dad was more than able to crack endless jokes.
The attention garnered by her videos were unexpected, Englert said. But when it comes down to it, people need a good laugh every now and then. “It feels good to be able to give people a laugh,” she said. “[Humor] is the only thing you really have at the end of the day.”