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‘I’m still in the game’: Sandra Bernhard on stage fright, The King of Comedy and not running for president

February 14, 2018February 19, 2018TheGuardian

The comic, singer and actor, performing in the UK for the first time in seven years, answered your questions

2.16pm GMT

Thanks for all the questions – I’ll be at Ronnie Scott’s at the end of the week!

2.14pm GMT

unprinted asks:

What does the song You Make Me Feel Mighty Real mean to you? Why chose to cover it?

Mighty Real was sort of an anthem for the pre-AIDS gay experience – a time of unbridled celebration and sexual freedom.

2.11pm GMT

toooom asks:

Another admirer of King of Comedy here. What are you most proud of?

What I’m most proud of is that I’m still in the game. I still love performing and being creative. I love what I do!

2.10pm GMT

sachat asks:

Have you ever had stage fright? Which of your projects has been the most nerve-racking?

Of course! Any time you walk on stage you’re nervous, that’s part of what motivates you to do a great show. But any time that I do television or films that’s the most nerve-racking because other people are dependent on your professionalism.

2.09pm GMT

25aubrey asks:

Who in your eyes, are the real king and queen of comedy, past or present?

When I was growing up, I adored Totie Fields and, of course, my dear friend Paul Mooney.

2.07pm GMT

Genevieve Scoville asks:

I’m a keen listener to your radio show on SiriusXM. Is there someone who sticks out as your favourite interviewee?

Most recently, Mena Suvari was a lovely surprise but on a regular basis, comedian Judy Gold is a fabulous interview. She’s on my show frequently. She’s a terrific conversationalist.

2.06pm GMT

Myam0t0 asks:

Beans on a fry-up?

I adore beans. On anything and everything!

2.02pm GMT

SeanWylas asks:

Today’s political and cultural climate in the US and the UK is shifting in a way that was not expected by many. As a result, it seems that a comment that once would have been seen as thought-provoking (even if you disagreed with it) can now send social media lynch mobs at people and potentially ruin careers (if not lives). This is seen on the left and on the right. As someone who speaks her opinion, how do you feel about this culture? How do you respond to such things?

I have definitely started to edit a lot of things that I would not have thought twice about saying 10 or 15 years ago. It simply isn’t worth it to be exposed to the unsophisticated thinking of so many people. I’ve learned how to recalibrate my approach to social commentary.

1.59pm GMT

Murdomania asks:

You recently said: “I try not to get caught up and swallowed up by the changing tides because they’re gonna keep changing” … however, now that Oprah indicated a lack of desire to be nominated to run to be the next President of the United States, would you be enticed to throw your hat in the ring? Sandra Bernhard POTUS46 has a nice ring to it.

I wish I had it in me but I’m afraid I’m not your lady for this one!

1.56pm GMT

Arthur666 asks:

I’ve always enjoyed your multilayered approach to comedy, and it always seems to have a message. Do you think this is lacking in the current comedy world?

I think the issue is there’s too much product out there. And there’s only a certain amount of things people can talk about. So sometimes it becomes redundant. It’s getting harder to hone your craft because of YouTube and the internet. You really need to get out to the clubs to hone your craft. A lot of people these days don’t have the patience.

1.49pm GMT

Buckaroo asks:

There’s an amazing film of yours from the mid 90s – an Australian film called Dallas Doll (featuring the screen debut of Rose McGowan), a sort of reverse Crocodile Dundee. It had a huge cult following, but is unavailable to buy. There’s a host of classic lines in the film, two of which are particular favourites in our family: “I’d like to see THAT angry!” and “Don’t forget the garlic bread, gorgeous.” For old times’ sake, please would you say those lines again now?

Actually it’s Rose Byrne. Working on this film was one of the strangest experiences of my life. It was like being trapped in a ‘no exit’ situation.

1.44pm GMT

DarkAnaemicI asks:

What’s your favourite memory of filming Hudson Hawk?

All my time spent with Richard E Grant! In particular a trip we took together to Vienna. We always had a great time.

1.43pm GMT

Buckaroo asks:

You performed a brilliant version of the Rolling Stone’s Angie on a Channel 4 show years ago called Viva Cabaret. Is it available now?

The answer is no! It’s one of my favourite songs of all time. It reminds me of my first trip to London in 1973 when the song was released. I was 17 and travelling around the world and having an incredible time.

1.42pm GMT

JimdiGriz6 asks:

[I’m] yet another massive fan of your work in King of Comedy. Did your craziness in that film come from real life, or was it a stronger version of [it]? … I’ve known a few women a little like you at times in that film!

At that time i was much closer to the character in the sense that i was just starting out in my career. I was very young, had a lot of extra energy, emotion to spare. Masha was more in tune with who I was then rather than now for sure…

1.36pm GMT

HdAlex asks:

What things are most important to you in your job?

Promptness, professionalism and no obscene language.

1.34pm GMT

OzMogwai asks:

Are you as funny in real life as you are on film, tv and stage? PS, you fucking own Raging Bull.

It depends on the setting! Of course I can be much funnier offstage rather than when I’m performing but those are private moments with friends who get the absurdity I seem to capture as I go through life!

1.25pm GMT

aemenzies17 asks:

Any advice, ideas or recommendations about how to survive Trumpageddon? I live in the US, and each day is more painful than the last. Please help!! PS, thank you for all the years of comedy therapy!

My best advice is to take big breaks from listening to the talking heads and endless updates on his latest faux pas and do something creative and rewarding so you can continue to have some normalcy in your life. As in all stressful times, this will pass!

1.25pm GMT

Arthur666 asks:

I see you musically as a rock’n’roll vixen. What can we expect from your set at the jazz church that is Ronnie Scott’s?

It’ll be a blend of personal stories, fabulous misc of course with my Sandyland Squad band on hand and a journey in and out of day-to-day quotidian life as I see it!

1.24pm GMT

Hello – It’s great to be back in London where, although the language is generally the same, the culture is much different. And that’s always inspiring!

3.00pm GMT

Sandra Bernhard webchat – post your questions now

To call Sandra Bernhard a triple threat would be selling her short. Since she started out in LA’s comedy scene and on The Richard Pryor Show, she’s been a provocative force in standup, and her cabaret-style shows prove she can deliver a song as well as a punchline.

Dave Chappelle’s ‘reckless’ #MeToo and trans jokes have real after-effects

January 4, 2018TheGuardian

In his Netflix shows the comic defends his right to provoke, but protests against his gags about misconduct allegations and transgender people are justified

Dave Chappelle’s first Netflix specials, released last spring, left his reputation in need of recovery. Those two sets were widely criticised for their transphobia. Suddenly, a comic once considered radical for his super-smart critiques of race in America was toeing a conservative line on a new generation’s struggle for social justice. But now Chappelle’s back with two more Netflix offerings – and he’s not in the business of recovering his reputation at all. At least, not in the way you might expect.

Yes, in the first of the specials, Equanimity, he addresses the row over his trans material. “You know who hates me the most?” he asks. “The transgender community.” He’s not here to express regret. He likes transgender people, he says, and supports their struggle to live equally and without fear. But he reserves the right to joke at their expense. And he does so, once more from the vantage point of a self-satisfied straight guy who finds their identity inherently comical.

The League of Gentlemen announce 2018 UK tour

December 15, 2017TheGuardian

The dark comedy foursome are to hit the road, taking new show to ‘all the wonderful local places in our increasingly local country’

Their three forthcoming reunion specials for the BBC are among this Christmas’s most anticipated television shows. Now, the League of Gentlemen have announced that they will be touring the UK for the first time in over 12 years.

The League of Gentlemen Live Again! tour starts in Sunderland on 25 August 2018, offering local entertainment for local people around the UK, culminating in three nights at London’s Eventim Apollo, from 27 to 29 September.

‘It sounds like Michael Bubbly!’ Big Shaq rates his rivals for Christmas No 1

December 15, 2017TheGuardian

The coat-obsessed Man’s Not Hot rapper has made the viral pop hit of the year – and could now be the Christmas No 1. So does he think he can beat Ed Sheeran, Mariah Carey and Gregory Porter?

Amid the usual sleigh bells, string sections and festive lyrics in this year’s Christmas No 1 race comes a man in a big coat, adamant that he is not overheating. Big Shaq’s Man’s Not Hot has become a snowballing breakthrough hit during the last few months: a parody of hardnut London rappers who use ridiculous slang, impersonate gunshots, and never, ever take off their coats. The knowingly witless aggression of its lyrics – “take man’s Twix by force” – makes them endlessly quotable, earning the track more than 100m views on YouTube and 74m streams on Spotify. It’s even been repeated in parliament by Peterborough MP Fiona Onasanya.

Sarah Silverman: ‘Jokes I made 15 years ago I’d not make today’

November 19, 2017TheGuardian

Sarah Silverman’s comedy has always aimed a laser into the dark corners of sexism, racism and religion. But now she’s using her wit to make sense of the huge issues facing America. Sophie Heawood meets her in Hollywood

Arriving at the Hollywood studio complex where Sarah Silverman has her office, I am surprised to find nobody can tell me where it is. She’s one of the biggest comedians in America, but it takes 15 minutes of shrugged shoulders and wrong turns before I find a door with a handwritten sign: “If you feel unwell turn around and go home and rest! Do not walk thru this door! You are loved, feel better! Sarah!” So far, so adorable.

Germs and visitors might struggle to make their way past reception, but dogs are clearly welcomed like sacred Indian cows here: two of them trot past me unaccompanied. The animals have just left a script meeting in the writers’ room, soon to be followed by a gaggle of comedy writers, including Silverman herself, who is wearing glasses and stopping to stare at her phone. Once installed on the sofa in her own room, with an assistant bringing her black tea, she admits she didn’t realise this interview was in person, hence the phone. “But you’re here!” she says, getting her legs comfy on the furniture. “Great!” Her impromptu welcome is so friendly and her smile so full of shiny teeth, that it only occurs to me afterwards that she might be lying through them – surely nobody wants to be surprised by a journalist.

I live in a little apartment and the washer dryer for the whole floor is in the hallway

I saw my boss was fully jerking off in front of me. And I just said… ‘I have to clean the popcorn machine’

Putting people into power who are addicted to money is like giving cokeheads mountains of cocaine

Louis CK: laughter ends as years of allegations dog comedy superstar

November 10, 2017November 10, 2017TheGuardian

The fallout from CK’s sexual misconduct accusations has begun, with HBO dropping his shows and colleagues condemning a man once hailed as a genius

When Louis CK first attempted standup comedy, at a 1985 open mic night in Boston, it was a disaster. He had a five-minute slot but only two minutes of material.

“It was horrible,” he told NPR 30 years later. “My whole throat constricted and … I heard this roaring in my ears. My eyes were watering. My heart was pounding, and I couldn’t control myself. And I just felt like a pile of garbage. And then I kept doing it.”

Don’t go there? Standups on Weinstein, taboos – and the gags they regret

November 3, 2017TheGuardian

Is it ever OK for comedians to joke about sexual assault? Is there such a thing as ‘too soon’? Margaret Cho, Doug Stanhope, David Cross and other fearless comics on the fine line between funny and offensive

Last month, as accusations against Harvey Weinstein began to flood in, James Corden stepped on stage at a black-tie event in Los Angeles and joked about the film producer’s alleged sexual assaults. “It’s a beautiful night here in LA,” he said. “So beautiful, Harvey Weinstein has already asked tonight up to his hotel to give him a massage.”

Two days later, after a barrage of criticism, Corden apologised. He is one of many comedians who have attempted to engage with a contentious topic only to have the move wildly backfire. It requires huge skill to take on a taboo subject and even then it’s still a minefield. Lenny Bruce was arrested many times for breaking obscenity laws, for saying things like “jack me off” and “motherfucker”. He was eventually convicted in 1964. One routine, which suggested that men will cop off with anything, included the phrase “go come in a chicken”. In 2003, he received a posthumous pardon.

I don’t say ‘faggot’ any more – even though I have defended the use of it in the past

‘Charming, soulful, a proper comic’: Sean Hughes tributes – and his funniest jokes

October 16, 2017TheGuardian

By his mid-20s he had scooped the Perrier award and landed his own TV show. But Sean Hughes never wanted to be a stadium standup. Mark Steel and Rhona Cameron pay tribute to a troubled talent – and we pick some of his best gags

I knew Sean from before he won the Perrier award in 1990. He was a Crystal Palace fan and we used to go to the football together. I remember going to a match with him in the early 90s, when he was on the telly quite a lot, and I took him down the pub with me. He was really warm with people and we ended up staying the evening. There was a genuine charm to him that was way beyond showbiz. He liked that world: being sat in the corner of a pub with a load of people who’d been at the football. Being funny with them but not in a show-off way.

Related: Sean Hughes obituary

Farewell to Sean Hughes, sparky comedy gadfly in a league of his own

October 16, 2017TheGuardian

From the bumbling misadventures of Sean’s Show to the jaunty misanthropy of his later standup material, Hughes – who has died aged 51 – was a master of telling messy truths

There were two distinct chapters to Sean Hughes’ career: the comedy prodigy and ubiquitous TV star, then – after a period of silence – the rumpled refusenik, a celebrity opt-out ploughing an ever grouchier (but just as funny) furrow along standup’s margins. Not many comics run away from commercial success, but at the turn of the century Hughes quit standup for several years. “I found myself playing 4,000-seater venues packed with 14-year-old girls screaming at me,” he said. “That wasn’t why I did comedy.”

Sean Hughes: comedian dies aged 51

October 16, 2017TheGuardian

Hughes, who won Perrier comedy award in 1990 and was team captain on BBC’s Never Mind the Buzzcocks, died on Monday morning

Sean Hughes, the Irish standup comedian and quiz show panellist, has died, his former agent has said.

Related: ‘I matured very late in life’

Very sad news. Early this AM, the master of comedy Sean Hughes past away. @mr_seanhughes
A comic very much ahead of his time. pic.twitter.com/nv5DEn4CH1

In hospital

‘Sean was the youngest winner of the Edinburgh Comedy Award. He was a huge talent – a great comic & writer. He will be missed’ – Nica Burns pic.twitter.com/Ns86KGPwyr

Related: Sean Hughes: My family values

Very sad to hear about Sean Hughes. Started on the circuit with him back in the day. RIP.

Very sad to hear about Sean Hughes. A brilliant comic and a lovely bloke. RIP.

Sean Hughes. What a punch in the soul that is.

Horrible news. Another talent gone far too soon. RIP Sean Hughes x

Can’t believe the news… Sean Hughes will be sadly missed by myself and the rest of the comedy world. Thoughts are with you. Xxx