SANDRA’S CHUTZPAH
Actress reflects on America
Performer Sandra Bernhard just wants people to listen more.
“I’ve got Spectrum TV (American cable company) here and they’re driving me nuts. It’s like something out of my act, it will probably go into my act,” said Bernhard recently over the phone from her New York City apartment.
“You wonder why the world is in the shape it’s in? It’s because some people are so automated and plugged in to their corporate mentality that they won’t even listen to what is going on in real time.”
It’s that disintegration of dialogue that the actress, comedian, singer, and author says has completely infected her home country and made it almost impossible for people to meet and discuss issues without screaming over each other.
“How is America? America is a reflection of the mentality we have to deal with all day long, where people don’t listen to each other.
“It’s everybody. Everybody has gone crazy,” said Bernhard.
You can find out first hand if Bernhard’s disappointment with the cable company, and for that matter her fellow U.S. citizens, does earn show status as the veteran performer brings her multi-faceted one-woman show to the 2019 Chutzpah! Festival.
“I keep cutting and pasting and adding and gluing and changing and weaving. That’s how I keep changing my act year-to-year,” said Bernhard, whose straight-shooting, celebrity-bashing comedy first got her noticed in the late 1970s.
Her star rose quickly, and her position as part of the zeitgeist was cemented in the 1980s when she was a fixture in Madonna’s universe.
Pop culture status aside, Bernhard also built a legit resumé.
She had hit one-woman theatre shows, well-received books and albums. Her acting chops were noted with a critically acclaimed turn in Martin Scorsese’s 1982 film The King of Comedy.
She went on to recurring roles on TV series including Roseanne, The L Word, 2 Broke Girls, and was a guest on Late Night with David Letterman a whopping 28 times.
Most recently she’s had a big role in the award-grabbing FX series Pose.
She’s also made a name for herself on radio with her weekly show Sandyland on Siriusxm’s Radio Andy channel.
“I think I have the ability to jump around from medium to medium, whether it is live performing to acting, or writing and my music.
“I just feel like that keeps me fresh and keeps me engaged and interested in continuing to do it at all times because I just don’t settle into one thing and get bored with that,” said Bernhard, who is the mother of a 21-year-old daughter.
“As an artist your work is a reflection of your life and the evolution of who you are as a person, and if it’s not then you’re not doing your work.”
Bernhard’s role in Pose is literally a reflection of a part of her life.
Pose draws stories from the house ball scene and LBGTQ communities of New York in 1987.
The show stares unblinkingly at the bigotry toward the queer community and destruction at the hands of HIV/AIDS.
Bernhard, who plays the tough but loving nurse Judy Katz on the show, remembers the 1980s and the ravages of the Aids epidemic.
“I was in New York ... when the show actually takes place. I had many, many gay friends, and gay friends who were sick, and many who ended up dying,” said Bernhard.
“Obviously, I wasn’t in the trenches the way these caregivers and nurses and people were. Empathetically I understood what it must have been like to be in that
I think I have the ability to jump around from medium to medium, whether it is live performing to acting, or writing and my music.
position, so it was easy to take that on as an actress. It was inspiring. It was wonderful.”
While pretending to be a nurse on TV is wonderful, there is another type of pretend Bernhard will not engage in.
When you hit her show on Halloween night don’t expect her to give a nod to the spooky holiday.
“I despise Halloween. I have always hated it,” she said.
“I think Hurricane Sandy hit on Halloween however many years ago, and I said if I have my choice between Halloween and a hurricane I’ll take the hurricane,” said Bernhard with her trademark directness.
No candy, costumes or creepy content will infiltrate the show. Instead it’s set to be a classic Bernhard gig complete with a band, big laughs and pointed barbs.
“It will be a fun crazy night of stories and one liners and music and witty asides,” said Bernhard.
“It’s what I do.”