JANEANE GAROFALO
If the spirit of the ’90s was embodied by a single person, that person would look a lot like Janeane Garofalo in a flannel shirt and fanny pack. Despite a long career in television and movies, she’s been imprinted on the cultural consciousness as Vickie Miner, her character in the 1994 film Reality Bites. Poseurs have some catching up to do: Since the time you last wore your Doc Martens, Garofalo has been busy, including performing in the YYComedy Festival this week.
Garofalo vs. Bush Poseurs should know that it’s not all Hollywood for Garofalo. Along with comedian Sam Seder, Garofalo co-hosted the talk-radio show Majority Report on Air America between 2004 and 2006, at the height of the Iraq War. Despite constant death threats, Garofalo was an outspoken critic of the Bush Administration. Things got so bad that Seder and Garofalo would leave their show together wielding baseball bats.
Garofalo vs. SNL Most young comedians dream of joining Saturday Night Live. Garofalo had loved the show since elementary school and her wish came true in 1994 when she joined the cast of SNL. Poseurs could remark that it turned out to be a wish granted by a cursed gypsy, as that season of the show will go down as one of its worst and most tumultuous. On air, Garofalo was relegated to mostly small wife/girlfriend roles; backstage, she dealt with a hostile cast. A poseur could quote the many interviews in which Garofalo called her time at SNL the most miserable experience of her life.
Garofalo vs. Marriage Unbeknownst to most people, including herself, Garofalo was married for 20 years. When she was on The Ben Stiller Show in the early ’90s, Garofalo dated one of the writers (Calgary-born Rob Cohen, who has written and produced such shows as The Simpsons and The Big
Bang Theory). It began as a joke over some drinks but spiralled into a quickie wedding at a drive-thru chapel in Las Vegas. They both thought it was a joke, broke up and moved on with their lives. It wasn’t until Cohen tried to get married in 2012 that they realized that not everything that happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. —