USA: To celebrate the 20th anniversary of her one-woman show, Sandra Bernhard is bringing it back

Record ID: 393255

  • Title: USA: To celebrate the 20th anniversary of her one-woman show, Sandra Bernhard is bringing it back
  • Date: 17th January 2009
  • Summary: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (RECENT) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) COMEDIENNE SANDRA BERNHARD SAYING: "Well, you know my work is different than stand-up comedy. I don't really tell jokes. It's not a one-off. I try to craft pieces that start from an emotional place and draw in what's happening on pop-culture political front to make it more of a personal experi
  • Embargoed: 1st February 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVA5GAZTTIG8ETIJF7L975FRIGW5
  • Story Text: Sandra Bernhard brings back the show that made her, updated with contemporary references. She also says that the passing of Proposition 8, the California gay marriage ban passed by voters in November, was a good thing.
    It has been 20 years since comedienne Sandra Bernhard first made her mark on the stage with her one-woman show "Without You, I'm Nothing," and to mark the moment, she's decided to bring an updated version back.

    "It was very, kind of new and fresh show at the time and it's held up over the years," she told Reuters. "It's a seminal piece of work for me as an artist and a lot of my audience wants to see it and people who were too young to see it then want to see it again."
    The show will consist of older pieces about her life growing up in Scottsdale, Arizona the daughter of proctologist father and an abstract artist mother and working to make-it in New York in the late 1970s. It will also include contemporary pieces that reflect on popular culture. It is an amalgam of singing, rants, satire and social and political commentary all done with humour. She describes it less as comedy and more as pieces of performance art.

    "Well, you know my work is different than stand-up comedy. I don't really tell jokes. It's not a one-off. I try to craft pieces that start from an emotional place and draw in what's happening on pop-culture political front to make it more of a personal experience."
    Bernhard, who is an openly gay artist, reflected on the passing of Proposition 8 in California recently, which effectively banned the right of same-sex marriage in the state, after it had been legalized earlier. She said it was a good thing that the ballot initiative passed because it could be a wake-up call for the gay community, she said. She believes the community as a whole has become too complacent of late and should be getting more involved in Washington politics if it wants to effect change.

    "Nothing comes for free," she said.
    "No civil rights has ever been easily fought."
    A staple of Bernhard's act has been to comment on celebrities like Madonna, who she was once close friends with in the 1980s, and others. In her latest holiday show in New York, actress Joan Collins was the target of her tongue.

    "Yeah, I've always done things about performers and other artists but I try and do it from a more intelligent point-of-view than just kind of taking the piss out of people or doing what's obvious," she said.
    Sandra Bernhard will be touring the United States all year to bring back "Without You, I'm Nothing".
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