I’ll admit, I was a little young to fully appreciate the peak of comedienne Sandra Bernhard‘s fame. My minimal knowledge of her, however, always included the fact that she is a lesbian, a liberal and gives good mock when it comes to overrated celebs.
Though Sandra has been keeping busy over the years (Hello, Charlotte Birch) she recently teamed up with producer Ted Mason (Modern English) for a new rock album, Whatever It Takes, and has taken her acclaimed one-woman show, “Without You I’m Nothing,” on the road again, more than 20 years after its debut.
Bernhard is loud, outspoken and generally has no problem being offensive, which I admire. She also has made no apologies about being a lesbian — ever —which always requires a certain amount of balls — in Hollywood, at least.
Bernhard knows her celeb status is not what it used to be, but she doesn’t seem to care. She told the LA Times that she just wants to continue being creative and working on things that she cares about.
Sara, my girlfriend, is always like, “Why don’t you just enjoy yourself? Why don’t you sit around in the afternoon and read and do nothing?” And I’m like, “I can’t do that! I’ve got to keep going. I’ve got things to do. I’ve got to take care of the house. I’ve got to go grocery shopping.”
Of course, Bernhard worked some political and celeb commentary into the interview, as expected:
On Michael Jackson:
Well, he was a self-loathing young man. With a lot of enablers. Like all these doctors and people who were on the payroll. What do they care?
On Britney Spears:
Britney’s never going to take it that far. Or make that much money. Those days are over … Bless her heart.
On George W. Bush’s presidency:
Dry, dead, lifeless crap that was never even alive to begin with … So long, so depressing, so oppressive!”
On Obama haters:
…I don’t think anybody on that side could possibly feel [as “dry” and “dead” as they did with Bush in office] — there’s no visceral reason for them to feel it, other than the racist fear-mongering that those people deal in.
On her girlfriend:
She’s no lightweight, honey. And I say that with great respect. I wouldn’t want to be with somebody at this point in my life who isn’t as strong as I am. Especially when you’re raising a kid together.
On gay marriage:
No, we’re not into that. I think we have some sort of thing in California? What’s it called? The civil equality or something. Domestic partnership! They sent us a piece of paper and it’s like, oh, now what? She has her health insurance, I have mine. I’d put her on mine, but you know it’s too much paperwork. We’ll get around to it.
Bernhard’s album is out now and features guest performances by Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders) DJ Ucef, Erol Josue, and singer/songwriter Jean Paul Samputu.
You can also follow her on Twitter or read her blogs on the Huffington Post. A good reason to follow her Twitter is to get news like this:
i’ll be on my darling rachel maddow friday night talking about my new record whatever it takes, and i’m sure the state of the world as well
So tune in Friday night to see the two women discuss music and politics.
What do you think of Sandra Bernhard?
