February 12, 2025 • 49 mins
This week S.E. gets to sit down with one of today's most unique and hilarious talents, Bridget Everett! She's gained a (rightfully) wider audience with her critically acclaimed (and fantastic! Go watch it!) HBO show, Somebody Somewhere, but Bridget has been a standout, unafraid to pave her own way, for decades. From musicals, to cabaret, to starting a cabaret band with a Beastie Boy (Ad-Rock!) called Tender Moments, to behind the camera and in front of it, come hear why Bridget is the nicest force to be reckoned with and might just be this generation's Bette Midler.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
I love it because there are no rules. You know.
It's low necklines, yeah, high notes and trem ankles, and
we're all going for it all three of the same times.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Great. Welcome to Off the Cup my personal anti anxiety antidote.
This week's guest is one of the funniest and most
unique talents out there today. She says she actually produces,
she's on TV, she's in film, she's on stage, she's
in cabaret. Okay, you know her from Inside Amy Schumer,
(00:33):
the hit HBO show Somebody somewhere. She might just be
this generation's Bette Midler. I'm going I'm going with that.
I am going with that, and she's hilarious. It's Bridget Everett.
Welcome to Off the Cup.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Hi, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I'm so glad you're here. I'm a fan.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Thank you for that intro. Thank you it was so nice.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
I love what you do, I love the energy you
bring to everything that you do. It's just how do
you feel about being this generation's Bette Midller? Does that
sound right to you?
Speaker 1 (01:06):
I mean that would that's Bette Miller is like a
She's like the person I kind of idolized the most
when I was growing up. So you know, you look
at that, you hit a good one for me, A
good one.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Okay, Well it feels like you're really one of those
like old school performers we don't see enough of these days,
like a vaudeville, like a throwback. Do you do you
see yourself in that way?
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Well, I think that I don't see a lot of
people around me that do the same thing. So and
that way, I feel like making something my own feels
very of that generation and just kind of carving my
own path. So yeah, I think a little bit. I mean,
you know, I got started with in the cabaret scene,
which is not as like a hip as everybody thinks
(01:54):
of it.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Well I love it. I'm a fan of theater, so
I mean, I just love it.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
But you know, people that were around me, you know,
are doing really well. Now there's like Cola Scola of
doing overy on Broadway and like doing crazy things and
justin Vivian Bonds is one that MacArthur Grant. So you
know what it's like, all those people that were shaping
me when I was in my start, my start of
years are doing great things and they've always been their
own person. So it's been pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
I love it. I want to talk about your whole career,
but can we start with a sweet spot for me?
The Real Housewives. I'm a Bravo holic. I know I
know every franchise, every every housewife and seeing you with
Luanne and Sonya doing Cabret, it just made my heart happy.
What was that like?
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Look, I I love the Housewives. You know, I'm actually
filming watch it Happens live tonight Salt Lake City with Mary.
I'm very I'm excited and I'm nervous. But you know,
they're like their own sort of subset of celebrity and
kind of yes, their whole their whole world is is
just wild. It's like once you sort of get like
an inner a glimpse of the inside, it's just it's
(03:03):
so huge, it's so colorful, it's so full on. And
Sonya and Luanne and all of them are they're real characters,
but I think it's genuinely who they are.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Yes, I mean, Luanne's really special. I've worked with her
a little. I've had the job of trying to interview
a number of housewives at like Bravo Khan and stuff
like that, And when she's in one of those panels.
I'll just say it's tough because she's really I mean,
she just does her own thing and she wants to
(03:35):
kind of be the you know, the spotlight. She loves
being on stage, as she says she does.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
And you know, you have to give it to Luan.
Is was she gifted with the textbook version of the
voice of an angel?
Speaker 2 (03:47):
No?
Speaker 1 (03:47):
No, no, but she sells it.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
She's the voice of Marlborough is what she is.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
But what I said, I mean, I'm like, more power
to her because people want to come see her and
she has fun doing it. Good for her.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Yes, And you gave a very diplomatic answer to Andy
on another watch What Happens Live when he asked you
to rate her singing. You just said what you just said,
which was I give her credit. She's a ten out
of ten, you said, because anyone who gets up there,
I get it. But between us girls, she's got a
great act. A girl cannot sing. And when I say that,
I mean like hit notes.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Well, she's got a good you know, four or five
that she can dance around and that does it.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
You know, her act is great.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
I mean she looks incredible. She like she really like
What I love about her is that she is aware
of who she is and she has fun with it,
and like she celebrates it. I think it's pretty pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
It's incredible because she's been through some shit, and like,
had I gone through one of the things she had
gone through, be in a hole, yes, I would not
be on television and I certainly wouldn't be putting it
all in an act for everyone to enjoy. I mean,
that's so ballsy and body and all all the things.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Yeah, totally, I love it.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
I love it for her maybe.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Yeah, okay, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
You grew up in Manhattan, Kansas. It's funny because for
you know, I do like politics, and sometimes to make
a point when I'm trying to make a point about
like the rest of the country as opposed to the coasts,
I'll say something like, you know, what matters to people
in Manhattan isn't what matters to people, and I'll say Manhattan, Kansas.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
That is.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
It's sort of like, yeah, yeah, so that's you. You
but you grew up in a political family, right sort.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Of, well sort of, yeah, my dad was a state senator,
state representative, and you know, my dad and my brother
were both mayor of my hometown. So yeah, you know,
it's sort of a we're sort of a small town
political royalty.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Are you like if you go back and people know
your family from that?
Speaker 1 (05:55):
No, No, I think I just I just laugh at
it because you know, being a politician in a small
town in Kansas, it certainly doesn't have the same you know,
we're not the Kennedy's. Let's just put it out and
nobody cared. Like when I started, nobody cared. Yeah, exactly, exactly,
thank god.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Yeah, you were very popular in high school.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
I mean, you're not supposed to admit that, but I
guess I was. I mean I was homecoming queen, So
you know, what are you gonna do?
Speaker 2 (06:23):
You were most likely to be Ruler of the World
and most likely to win an Academy award. Yes, you
were in the Pops Choir, the Chamber Choir, the Fellowship
of Christian Athletes, SAD Student Council, Vice President, Tribe Council,
MC of MHS, Live Winter Homecoming Queen and Maggie Jones
in forty second Street. Did you ever go to class bridget?
Speaker 1 (06:44):
How did you find this out? This is that is
like such a deep diveh.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
This is bridget For people who can't see, this is Bridgete.
She's homecoming queen. Who's your gentleman, who's your squire?
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Uh? That's Jason Kastner, it is. I saw. It's the crown,
by the way, it's in my bastomook.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Amazing.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Oh my god. Yeah, my mom made me get that real.
You know, everybody had the claw like the bangs, but
you know I had a bob and like you know,
I was trying to like real timeless in my senior picture.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Class in nineteen ninety man.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Yeah, yeah, there you go. Oh my god, I.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Got your yearbook? Is how I know all this? I
got your yearbook?
Speaker 1 (07:25):
That is incredible. I don't I'd like a copy of
my yearbook done that thing.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Speaking of Amy, Jones said of your performance in forty
second Street, I liked bridget ever at the best because
she was funny and acted crazy. Was that your first review?
Speaker 1 (07:40):
That's my first pull club, my first poll quote, and
probably still the best one. It's so good because I
was so pissed that I didn't have a bigger part,
and I had my friend Rachel. My friend Rachel, and
if you go to the cast photo, we're like because
we thought we should have the two leads, and we
were sitting in the in the group photo just with
a scowling on our face. So when I got the
pull quote in the yearbook, I was like, okay, okay, right.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
See I told you Sol you were wrong.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
That's so funny.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
No, but really you did a lot. What what was
tribe council bridget Oh.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Tribe council got It's so this has been like, you know,
thirty blah blah blah years ago before. I can't remember
what I mean. I remember tribe council, but I can't
remember what it was. I've just just too many years
of shardonnay to washed it away.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Well, it looked like you had like I hated high school.
I was not popular in high school. Looked like you
had a great high school experience, at least according to
your senior year photos.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yeah. I mean, you know, I had, you know, the
issues that linger with you through life, you know, But
but as far as like friends and activities, and I
enjoyed it. I you know, growing up in Kansas is
a good place to be, you know, you can it
was pretty safe, you could walk places, we had keg
parties by the lake. You know, there's still still all
the drama that goes with high school, but it was
(09:00):
in general, it was it was fun. Oh my god,
I can't believe I said that it looked.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Like it looked like you killed it. Like it looked
like like my husband always talks about how great high
school was, and I'm like, I don't know what planet
you were on. High school was torturous for me, but
like he killed it. He was like in all the
sports and had all the friends, and I just always
wondered what that must be like.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Well, you know my brother who was the I mean,
I guess a six with my brother Brock, who was
number five out of six. He was very popular. And
it wasn't because he was like he just was. He
He was curious about other people. He was nice to
other people, and he was very funny and and I
like that too. I mean, I'm not like that anymore
at all. But I was used to be very curious
(09:41):
about people. I like to talk to all different groups.
You know. I thought it was sit by different people
in class. I liked it. Yeah, Now I'm not like
that at all. I mean, I'm like, just leave me
in my apartment. I'll be I'm a fine leave me alone, right.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
If you're not one of my people, I don't want
anything to do with you.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Well, it just takes so much energy to get in
people at this age.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
You know. So we're you go to ask you on
a full scholarship for music and opera. You were you
were set on being a performer.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Yeah, well I wanted to be a singer. And I
also just wanted to get out of Kansas, even though
I loved it, I wanted to see other things. And
and my one of my best friends at the time,
her older brother was like, oh, Arizona States of party school,
and I was like, oh, it is turned out he
was right, and I had a real good time, and I.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Had a fake I d take in there once by too.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
I think it's a rite of passage. No did you
did you get put in the back of the car?
Do they just know?
Speaker 2 (10:40):
He just let me walk away, which was very kind.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
That's good. I got because I got put in the
back of a car at a high school keg party.
And it was because I had this like this like
squeezy refillable thing that used to take my you know,
my like I'd stop at quick shop and get SODA's
every day and before school and then anyway, I took
it to this keg party because I loved it so much.
You could just like squeeze. It was like sort of
like a boxer thing, you know, had boxes on the
(11:04):
corny squeze shoots in your mouth. And I took it
to a keg party. I filled up with beer and
the cops came, and I didn't want to lose my
little squeeze thing, so I held onto it and I
emptied it out. But they came and they could still
smell the beer. So they put me in the back
of the car and my mom had to come pick
me up at the police station, and she was not happy.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Yeah, and they took your squeeze thing.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
They took my squeeze thing. I sucked on a penny
because I'd heard that that would like get rid of
the smell of alcohol. Mom. Yeah. And then but my
mom when my mom picked me up, she had so
much booze on her breast she couldn't tell. It's perfect
small town living.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
So how how did you did you enjoy college?
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Yeah? I mean it was college was like a little
you know, I sort of got lost because it's such
a big place. Arizona State is so huge, and I
have fun because I could be by the pool, I
could get a tan. I was on the swim team
for a little bit. And like I said, I was
a party school. But I wasn't like getting any parts.
I wasn't you know. And then shows really it just
(12:08):
but I did find karaoke at the end of my
and I started singing it like a professional at spring
training baseball games, which was fun. So I met a
lot of athletes because I used to work at PF
Chang's in Scottsdale, the original PF Changs.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
That is my favorite PF Changs.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Oh yeah, that's the one that was the original. And
I used to wait on like Charles Barkley and and
he came in a lot, and I waited on a
lot of the baseball players so they'd be there for
spring training, like I said, and Mark McGuire and Dusty
Baker the old and they like would have me come
and sing at their spring training games. I was singing
the national anthem, so I don't know.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
I was like, that's right. I uh, well, I covered
sports for a long time. And then also I was
a kid. As a kid, I grew up in Arizona,
in Scottsdale, and so when that PF Schangs.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Came, you know what, I might have been your waitress
at some point. You have been.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Yeah, that's such a that's the o GP of Chang's
is the best pe of Chang's. And yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
I wonder if it's still there.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
It's still there?
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Oh wow, amazing, it's still there.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
I was just there in April because we went for
spring break to visit family. And it's a must. It's
a must every time I'm in Scottsdale.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Gotta go. You gotta get up the chicken letus wraps
and a glass of arden. That's got right there?
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Got it? That is it. My very close friend Megan McCain,
daughter daughter of Arizona. Obviously, the lettuce wraps a p
of Changs are her all time favorite. I love it
all she wants on a special occasion, I love it. Yeah. Okay,
So where do you go from college? After college? Do
you go to New York?
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Yeah? I was spending my summers in Maine at this
place called quist Asana, which is sort of like a
dirty dancing kind of resort. And and so you would
you know, wait, tables during the day and you do
shows at night. And so they would bring people from
performing art schools all over the country that would go there.
So that's where I met some of my friends from
New York. And I was like, you know what, I'm
(14:12):
just gonna I'm just gonna go. So the last summer
I worked there, I worked there seven summers. I just
packed up my car, my Nissan CenTra, and I drove
to New York and I found a place to live
and I just was like, I think this is where
I want to be and I haven't left.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Was it scary?
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Not so scary because I knew all these people and
they were all singers and yah and performers, and I
think there's no way I could have done it without
meeting all those people first. And they and they were
like just so confident in themselves, like, no, I'm gonna
go to New York. I'm gonna be on Broadway and
uh then I'm gonna do TV, some film and you know,
maybe maybe a little time in LA but mostly New
York because I'm more about theater, and you know, just
(14:52):
like I was like, and then I came here and
I got my equity card, right away. I did like
a traveling show off off Broadway and that's it's I
And it was like, you know those little bus and
track things. We were all like in a little van
together essentially, and there was five five of us driving
around and it was absolute hell. I hated it. I
(15:13):
was like, oh, this is what And so I was
like when I ended up waiting tables for years, I
was like, well, at least I'm not doing theater right right? Yeah,
where'd you work?
Speaker 2 (15:24):
What restaurants did you work in New York?
Speaker 1 (15:27):
I worked at Rain, which was on the Upper west Side,
and then I worked at PF Chang's for not p Changs,
I'm sorry, we got a Ruby Foos. I worked at
Ruby Foo's on the Upper west Side from the day
it open until the date closed.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
I love Ruby Foos.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Yeah, that was and I got hired there because I
saw PF Chang's on my resume and they're like there.
They were like, oh, we have a star and I.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Was like yes, So what's your first break?
Speaker 2 (16:02):
What's your big break?
Speaker 1 (16:06):
God, it's such a it's interesting to think of like
things in terms of a big break. I guess like
in two thousand and six, I met Michael Patrick King,
who is behind Sex and the City, and just like that,
they come back and everything, and we did a show
at Ours Nova called at Least It's Pink and the
and that was and I thought that was gonna be
(16:26):
my big break. But in a way, it was like
an off off Broadway show that got great reviews, but
just kind of came and went and I was back
at Ruby Foo's. But the good part about that was
that I met Michael and he sort of set things
in motion for me because he gave me a part
in the original Sex in the City movie and it
was just a.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
It is a very memorable short but memorable scene. Gassi. Okay, okay, Kasi.
I mean, yeah, it is a great scene.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Are you drunk a little bit? In fact, like their
their rap gift I think for the Sex and the
City movie was like things said a little bit on it.
I was like, oh my god, oh my god. But yeah,
I just I uh, that was kind of just started
things because I met Michael and you know, we did
(17:15):
a pilot together, and then you know, Amy Schumer took
me on their road with her and that was a
really big thing. But you know, god, I didn't start
stop waiting tables until like ten years ago. I think
it was almost just ten years ago, so it was
maybe someday somewhere has been my big break. I don't
know all it's hard to say.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Well, and how did you meet Amy?
Speaker 1 (17:36):
At the Montreal Comedy Festival? Have you ever been to that?
Like this is the just for last Montreal Comedy Festival,
and it's it's you know, hundreds of comedians, all comedians,
you know, TV and film executives, and everybody goes down.
They stay at the Hyatt and they all party every
night at the big in this big Hyatt lobby bar.
And I was like, no, thank you, I will be
(17:56):
in my room and that's where you can find me.
But Amy, I think knew me from Ours Nova and
you know, at Lisa's Pink and some of this stuff.
So you know, she was like, why do you come
down and meet me, you know, down at the bar
for a glass of chardenay? And I was like, I'm not,
I'm not going down there. She's like, what's you know,
what's the worst that can happen? And so I went
(18:16):
down and we just became like sharp. We'd have the
same kind of you know, similar sense of humor. Yeah,
and we both love chardonnay and yeah, and she's very confident.
She'll talk to anyone, you know, she's all you know.
And I'll just I'll just sort of sit back and
watch her and be like, oh, yeah, I'm Bridget and
you know, I've met people, and she she helped get
me out of my shell, you know, bring me back
(18:37):
to nineteen nineties Tribe council. Bridget Ever, the one that
you know, you know, like the high school girl.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Right MHS MC of MHS Live, Yes, exactly. Amy found
that that Bridget in you did you guys ever like
write material for each other?
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Well, she she Yeah, she's put me in stuff, you know.
She put me in train wrecks. She rode a little
part from me. She wrote apart from me in another
movie and I didn't end up getting it. I ended
up reading with uh to play the part of Bridget Everett,
and I read with Jedd Apatow and I didn't get.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Apart Wait, someone else got the part of Bridget Everett.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Yeah, but it was I can't I can't remember which
movie it was, but it got the whole storyline got
cut out. It might have it might have been trained Wrek,
it might have been. There was like originally going to
be like she was doing a story on like a
you know, a killer, and I was going to play
the killer and and I think when I when I
read with him, he you know, he ultimately said to Amy,
(19:34):
He's like, Bridget doesn't seem like she would kill anyone.
So I didn't get the part, but I got another
part to stay in the movie, so it worked out.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Okay, how do you come to cabaret at this point
in your career?
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Well, because I was doing a lot of when I
was waiting tables, I was just singing in karaoke bars
and like going wild, like getting on top of the bar,
are ripping my shirt off, like you know, taking flaming
zambuka shots while I'm singing a piece of my Heart
and like, you know, you know, just absolutely out of
my skin crazy. And my friend Jason Egan who's now
(20:11):
my friend, saw me performing performing a karaoke bar, singing
at a karaoke bar, yes, and he was like, I
think you should do a show, and so he he
was the one that got me to perform it Ours
Nova his show and this is theater and yeah, and
I've just it's honestly, it's so such a huge part
(20:34):
of who I am. I love singing. It's the love
of my life. There's nothing that makes me happier, and
it makes me connect to people. But in a way
that I can be in charge. I had the microphone,
I sort of control the temperature.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Of the room totally.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
But I love it because there's there are no rules,
you know, it's just it's low necklines, yeah, high notes
and trim ankles and we're all going for it, all
three at the same time. Great.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
How does one like if I want I don't, But
if I wanted to go into cabret, how does one
because you're just like seeing at a karaoke bar. I
know how this happens to luwan? How does one? Are
there agents for cabaret?
Speaker 1 (21:15):
No? No, it's not.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
Like it's not like a I don't know how one
gets to cabaret if one wanted to, I would one
go about trying to get to cal I don't know.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
I just fell into it, you know.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
And Murray Hill was another person who plays Frederick Coco
on My show. He's, you know, a big legend in
New York City. And he asked me to you know, anytime,
anytime anybody ever asked me to sing or perform anywhere,
I'd be like, yes, yes, even if it was in
the back room and a sex club, you know, Like
I was always honestly like I've seen it all and
I've done it all, and I performed at weddings, birthdays, clubs,
(21:51):
you know, everything I could get my hands on. Yeah,
And and I think that's kind of the way that
you do it. You just you keep singing until someone listens.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
That's what it seems. Yeah, that's what it seems like.
There's not like a direct route from A to B
if someone wanted, you just have to be like talented, hungry, lucky,
we'll be places, be seen kind of thing and not.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Care about you know, having health insurance or money or.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Success retirement account yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Yeah, or acceptance by your family for us.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Right, tell me about the tender moments and how did
you meet Adam Well?
Speaker 1 (22:29):
I so I had been doing this show at Joe's
Pub called Our Hit Parade, which is we we would
cover downtown performance artists in cabaret people. That's where I
met Cole School and some other folks. And like you
would take a pop song and you would do your
own spin on it. And it was a wild, really
fun show and we did it for a number of years.
And then so he Adam I think you're talking about
(22:52):
ad Rock, the King ad Rock from Dacy Boys. Yeah,
he and his wife Kathleen Hannah were big fans of
the show and they they would come and and eventually I,
you know, and we became friends. I joined his softball team.
My friend Murray took me to be on the softball
team Team Pressure, because I was depressed and Murray's like,
you gotta get some vitamin D, kid, So he went
(23:13):
outside to play and that's when I found out Adam
was a fan, and we became friends. He's so funny.
He's such a great guy. And at one point I
was just like, you know, I think I'm going to
start a band, and he's like, well, can I be
in it? And I was like, you want to be
And you want to be in my cabaret act ad
Rock King ad Rock of the Easy Boys, right, He's
(23:36):
like he's like yeah. And so he was the you know,
the first person that signed up to be in my band,
and then everybody, you know, I got Mike, Mike Jackson,
Carmen Covelli and Matt Ray and then we all and
we we decided to call it the Tender Moments because
that's when I when I used to hang out with
my nieces and nephews, I'd be like, come, come sit
with me, Let's have a tender moment, and we would
(23:57):
just sit there very quietly. And I don't know, I've
always kind of love that.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
So that is cute. That is cute. What is your
what's your connection to Janice Joplin? You you famously sung
a number of her songs, Yeah, on Jimmy Fallon and.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Because she's like one of the you know, the way
I connect with anybody is when they're their their own thing,
like she her voice is very unique sounding. She seemed
like she just was her own and her own special
little planet. But her voice to me is like just
ripped from the heart, just so raw, so like full.
(24:34):
It's a full force. It's like it's a it's a
punch of energy, emotion and vitality. And I just she
lights me up. Man, I can't help it.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Oh she's great, and you're so great, you know singing
her songs? You've made you did Me and Bobby McGee
with Patti LuPone at Carnegie Hall. How does that happen?
Speaker 1 (24:57):
She saw me at a show that I was doing downtown,
and I remember her. She was she's good friends with
my friend Scott Whitman, songwriter with Mark Seaman for like
Hairspray and Smash and and all these other great shows.
And anyway, they called me while I was at my
bank depositing tips from the shift of my shift from
(25:18):
the night before at us at Ruby Fuz or something,
and and Patty was like, I was wondering if you'd
want to sing with me at Carnegie Hall. And I
was just like putting in my two hundred dollars into
the things like beep, beep beep, and I was like,
let me think about it. I'm like yeah. And because
(25:38):
Connie Call is a place I never thought that I
would ever get to walk across that stage. And and
so she you know, so they had me on the
show and I was, you know, to me, Patty is
like the great broad living diva for me, you know,
I mean, there's so many great Broadway performers and stuff,
but to me, she's like a diva. But she's also
(25:59):
like a and really cool and just does not give
a shit about any Yes, she's and I just love that.
You would think that somebody like her, with her Tony's
and her you know, and her Julliard background and all this,
that she would just be kind of buttoned up, her
stuffy or something. That is absolutely not true. She is
like throw down, lay down fun. She's so fun. She's
(26:22):
very funny, and she really cares about, like, you know,
she's taught me a lot about like performance because she
cares about every little detail after all these years of performing,
it's important to her. And I don't know, I just
think that I think she's pretty magical.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
She's incredible, And it was.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Incredibly jenous of her to bring me like this sort
of whatever cabaret singer at the time and and bring
me on to the stage. And she basically stopped the
show and gave me such an effusive introduction, like she
was like sort of anointing me in a way or something.
She's like, get down at Joe's Pub. You have to
see Bridget everythre's oh my god, there's nobody else like her.
(27:01):
And people did like I was doing shows and I
was like, my audience looks a little different tonight.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Oh my god, that's so cool.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
I'm like, I'm like, what are you doing here? Because
I talked to the audience a lot, and like Patty
sent me, I was like, oh, okay, well welcome shit.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Yeah, I have goosebumps. Oh my god. Listening to her
talk about Andrelaid Webber gives me life, Like the way
she shits on Andreloyd Webber with reckless abandon like, well.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Don't don't shit on Patty because you're gonna get shit
on right back exactly.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Oh I would. I would never.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
No, I know, not you. I'm just saying in the
and the you know, that's what happens. Like she does
not care, Like she's like, I don't care if it's andre.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Lloyd Webber, Like I don't like Andrelaid Webber's musicals for
the most part either. Yeah I'm a little overrated. But
I interviewed fran Leebowitz once, who also is not a fan,
and the way she talks about Andrelaid Webber is very
similar to the way the Paddle Up talks about Angelaid Webber,
which is just I just want one day to have
(28:06):
so few fucks to give that I can talk about legends,
living legends, the way that she talks about Madonna and
Angelaid Webb with like no cares.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
In the world, does not care her. I mean, Patty
and I are developing something right now for for Broadway.
I hope it because it is along road where we're
you know, it's been ruin for us, and we're developing,
and we've had a little we just had a workshop
and and you know, I told them like day one,
I was like, like, is there anything anything wants to
(28:38):
say to sort of, you know, kick things off. And
I was like, I'll start. I'm scared to work with
Patty because because first of all, she she brings her
a game to everything, Like she's not resting on anything.
She is always showing up and and I can, I
can be a little lazy, but I'm also just like
I don't want to. I don't want to disappoint her
(28:58):
because I don't want to. You know, she'll tell you right,
And I just want to have to be able to.
I want to be able to show up, do a
good job, and uh so Patty can be proud of me.
I'm not disappointed.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Oh yeah, she's very she's very intimidating. And when she
she did this whole thing years ago where she talked
about how like the standing ovation at theaters has become
so overdone and like very few people actually deserve a
standing ovation in the theater, and like they're just handing
(29:32):
them out. Now.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
She won't stand up. She won't stand up, and I'm like,
and I I love it. Like that's another thing, like
that's Patty's like she's I love it. She does not
care And I want to be like Patty me too,
because I stand up. I'm like, oh god, I got it.
You know, your body's all tight. After two hours, it's
like all right, here we go.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
All right, we're doing this.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
And then you know whoever's up there, who's just phoned
in their performances, like oh thank you, thank you. They've
they've never been awake for the two hours they've been
up on stage. But when they get through their bow
and receive all the love there, they're finally there's there's
a twinkle in their eyes. It's like, no, if you
don't give it to me. From the moment, it's like action,
like get off the stage.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Yes, yes, uh okay, Well when you when you see her,
just tell her, tell her, don't don't I love her.
I'll never say anything bad about her. I don't ever
want to be on Patty's outside. I love her so much, none.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Of us do. But you know there's I don't. I
don't think you know she If you're great, she loves you,
and that's that's that's good enough for me.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Well, then you better be great, you better are great.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Exactly, you are great.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
You're lucky, you're great. You're great. She loves you, but
not everyone's great, Bridget, but Donna's not great, according to
Paddle the Pone and Pattle the Pone is right about
about the way she talks about Madonna. But I mean, yeah,
you gotta be great, talk about somebody somewhere, talk about
how that came to be and how how how autobiographical
(31:03):
it is, because it's sort of well.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
I got a deal with HBO a number of years ago,
and and I I remember when that happened, because that
did feel like this feels like it's a big deal.
That feels like a big deal. And so I called
up Carolyn Strauss, who is who i'd met through Michael
Patrick King. So all the you know, everything sort of
(31:25):
leads to what it's supposed to lead to. But I
was like, I just got the seal with HBO, and
I'm I was wondering if you would want to work
with me, and like, and if you don't know who
Carolyn is, she is behind some shows like Game of Thrones,
Last of Us, she was, you know, running HBO. It's
you know, during the Sex and the City in Soprano days,
(31:46):
you know, so she's she's the the the the deal,
not just a big deal, she is the big deal.
And so she was like because she'd see my cabaret
show and and she's like, yeah, I'd love to work
with you. And I was like, oh, the look, my
job is like smacking on the floor. And anyway, she
(32:07):
was like, I think we should, you know, talk to
Paul and Hannah. Paul three and Hannah bus who she
you know, they're they're sort of from the similar community
as I am in the city and in New York,
and they came up with this idea for somebody somewhere
and we have you know, it's been a very collaborative
process over the three seasons, and but as we've gone
(32:30):
into it more and more I've put more and more
of myself into it, more of my own story, more
of like my feelings and my feelings about grief and
about the love of singing and music and about and
and about self worth and all these things, and and
we we all sort of had the same way that
(32:50):
we wanted to tell a story that felt not like
document not documentary document documentary style, but like that felt
that felt natural, that felt lived in and that felt
slice a life. E and I remember watching the pilot
and I cried first because I was like, I was
moved that we did it. And then I cried because
(33:12):
it's like, nobody is going to like this, because this
is not a cool show, and Carol and Carolyn was like, no,
this is there's something special about this. And then we
and our probably got picked up. We shot our first season,
second season, and now third season which is wrapping up.
But you know, it's if you know me from the
cabaret world, you know you've it's I'm sort of like
(33:34):
a wilder beast or something like a real wild like
sort of unhinged. But this is a different side of me.
And I mean I do saying and stuff in the show,
but it's more about like the human side of me,
like the things that make me me laugh and that
make me cry and the and the I've learned through
the experience of doing the show that other people see
themselves in it, and that's been great. You know, it's
(33:57):
been really rewarding.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Yeah, you love being on stage so much. Did this
like scratch a part of your brain you didn't know
you would love so much?
Speaker 1 (34:08):
Yeah? I mean I just didn't think I could do it.
I'm not a trained actor. I've never written a TV
show before, I've never produced. But you learned very quickly,
and luckily because Paul and Hanna and I had Caroline
is like a reference, Like she was such a great
sort of like a coach and a mentor and a
champion and like never treated us like she was above us.
(34:29):
She just kind of lifted us up, helped us grow.
And we all learned so much during the filming of
the show. And now I know I can I can
do a.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
TV show, you know, I do it all. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
Yeah, you just for people like me. I'm not somebody
who's like and I'm going to do this one day
and I'm going to do that one day. It's like
I sort of fall into it and I try to
rise to the occasion and for the best. Yeah, and
that's and this time it just happened to be a
TV show for HBO's to be right, yeah, if you know,
(35:02):
just say it out loud, like when I want to
sit down and watch the show, I'll usually watch it
by myself. And I turned on the TV and it's
got that HBO logo, the you know that goes that.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
I know, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
Every time, I'm like and I'll continue to be you know,
for a long time as long as I keep running it,
you know somewhere I'm deep on the.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Channel or what yeah, I should say for honesty full disclosure.
HBO is also my parent company. I'm at CNN, but
uh I pitched a pilot to HBO and years ago
and it was coming right out. They had just stopped
FEEP and the pilot I pitched was for a sitcom
(35:47):
set in a newsroom, like deep in a newsroom, and
and I had a great meeting, and I was so excited.
I couldn't believe I was in like HBO offices and
like that this was happening. And I had a great
meeting and there was some interest, and then someone said
it was a little too close to BEEP and they
were moving to a new direction, and that new direction
was eventually Game of Thrones, and they wanted that was
(36:08):
not what I was very different, so they were becoming
something a little different, kind of getting away from the
sort of the sitcom y content. But it was even
just getting close, Like even just having a meeting at
HBO was thrilling for me. So I can only imagine,
just like life changing, that you have a show there,
(36:30):
and a successful one.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
It's still exciting to go on to their offices and
to feel like, yeah, you're like a part of even
though our show is very small and our audience is small,
loving and loyal, but small, Like yeah, I'm a part
of the fabric of HBO. Now, Like there's no, you can't.
You can't take that. I cannot take that away from myself.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
Like that, this can't.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Yeah, this happened, and and and it's not the first
time I've been on HBO, and I hope to be
on HBO again. And it's yeah, it's to me, it's Mecca.
Is that where it's like yeah, to me, HBO was
like the yes, the Pinnacle, Yes it is. I'm not
saying I wouldn't work for other networks Sti't get me wrong.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Of course, of course in Netflix, we love you too.
But but you.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Know, as far as it's like television goes.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Yeah, but you didn't just make up a pilot, which
in and of itself incredible. You got picked up season
and another season like, yeah, you made it, you made it.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Yeah, I guess, so I guess when you put it
that way. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
After the break, it's the Lightning Round with Bridget Everett.
I make her choose her favorite musical before we get
to like a little lightning round. I just want to
talk to you about isms I'll explain and the isms
(37:53):
you might have faced in your career, because for me,
I love talking to two women in this business. For me,
there was a lot of sexism early in my career
in the news, of course, men not taking you seriously
or of course hitting on you or even sexually assaulting
you like on camera. But now as I get older,
(38:14):
it's agism and it is so wild, Bridget. For women
in my business, it is like you hit forties and
it's suddenly you are no longer good at your job,
and you're like, I've done nothing differently. I'm doing the
same thing. But I have so many friends and colleagues
who are no longer in work. Suddenly their contract is
(38:35):
not renewed. They are shown the door and hung out
to dry. And it's crazy and it's such a mind
fuck because you're like, I'm still me. I'm doing the
same work, if not better work than I've ever done.
And thanks to modern skincare, I look better at forty
six than Barbara Walters did it twenty. What the fuck
is going on?
Speaker 1 (38:56):
But what are you using? I want to know that
is a oh.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
Yeah, ialuronic acid and retinal but no, that ism, the
ageism is such a mind fuck and I obviously hate it.
I'm wondering what isms you have faced as a woman
in your career.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Well, I think like my size. You know, I'm a
I'm a what I like to call a post athletic build,
but you know, I'm a plus sized woman. I'm like,
you know, I'm I'm in middle aged, which is wild
to say, but like, you know, like people would, people
were flocking television executives, you know, people were flocking to
(39:42):
my show, like my live show, but they're like, we
just can't see her on television. And I do, ultimately
feel like it had a lot to do with my
body in the way that I looked. I'm not conventionally
like cutie little girl, you know, I'm not like attractive
in that way, and like, how can you make that person?
Can you put them on the poster of a TV show?
(40:02):
And I have to give HBO a lot of credit
that they they wanted me to be me. But I'm
telling I can't tell you how many meetings I went
into and people were just like nothing, like just checked out.
And then and also like there's the stuff online, like
I did a talk show and I wore this dress
(40:24):
and like, you know, I can't find a bra for
my boobs, you know, because I'm, as I said, I'm
a plusize woman and I think boobs, and so I
tape them and anyway, I sat down on the couch
for the thing, and my dress sort of flipped open
in a certain way, and the way I taped them
was very sloppy, and so you know, it's so it
just sort of have its like weird look at whatever. Anyway,
(40:45):
the clip is on the internet and it's like been
viewed by you know, thirteen million people or something, and
there's thousands of comments about my body and I'm like,
I'm like, you are missing the point. I'm I'm wearing
this dress. I'm if you came seeing my show, like
I try to make everybody feel good about who they
(41:05):
are in their own skin, and like people just they
can't see past my what my what I'm walking around
in the skin I'm walking around in. Yeah, and that's
you know, that's that obviously is you know, can be
different for different people. You know, however that looks about
how you look. But my point is just like I
(41:26):
had to kind of whatever I've done, I've always had
to force myself in the room. I've always had to
thrust myself upon people. I've had to make it happen
for myself because people can see it because it didn't
look like what they thought it should be. So I
don't know if that's the right, Yeah, if that's sort
of what you're talking about, but yeah, that's for me,
that's what it's been.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
I mean, I don't know a woman who hasn't dealt
with an ism somewhere over the course of her life
or career. And yeah, I mean it's just sort of
how you move through them.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
Yeah. And also, you know another thing is like, because
some of my stuff I got me night, let me up.
I don't know. Another thing is like, I I want
to Arizona State, but I'm not like a scholar, you know,
I'm not like a smarty pants person. But I so
I've worked with people who have looked down on some
(42:20):
of my blue humor, like that it's not smart, so
it's not valid and like and I think if something
makes people laugh and it makes them feel good, and
you're and you're not hurting anybody. But I've I've literally
worked with somebody who was like, you know, that's you know,
your your lyrics aren't smart, you're whatever. And I'm like,
but I go out to you know, now thousands of
people come to see me sing and I may saying
(42:42):
a very simple lyric, but it's but what's everything that
I am? Body that it works? It works for them,
it works for me. Yeah, but you know, maybe I'm
just not smart enough for some people. And to them,
I say, I don't know if I can say this,
just bleeve it fuck off?
Speaker 2 (42:58):
Yeah you can say it, Yeah, glad I did. People
are the worst. Yeah, people are. It's really hard to
become and remain a confident woman and in this in
this world, there's always something coming at you, well, what
(43:21):
is next for you?
Speaker 1 (43:24):
I don't know. I'm just like taking a look at
my phone to see and to be called, and they
have not, so I don't know. See I truly, I mean,
I hope the same with Patty comes together. I have
a lot of faith that well, because that'll be cool. I'll,
you know, I'll keep I'll keep performing live and I'll
and I hope to dream up a new un show
(43:44):
because I've loved doing it so much. I don't want
it to end, so I gotta figure out a new
way to do it.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
You will, you will, all right, let's get to a
lightning round. Okay, what's your favorite musical? I know I
know a.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
Sound of music because it's got a lot of good
memories as a kid.
Speaker 2 (44:07):
Okay, that's a good one. What musical role would you
most like to play?
Speaker 1 (44:12):
I really wanted to when they did The Little Mermaid,
I really wanted to play Ursula in some shape or form.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
That would have been so good.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
I know they really missed the mark. I mean, Mlissa
McCarthy is incredible, But you know what, I think I
could have had something wonderful to offer as well, So
keep that in mind for the future.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
And that's that is a role for a singer. I
mean that song. Her song is really good and big,
and it's a big it's a big song.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
But when I say I like to sing, I like
to sing from my tits up through my toes, me white,
my toes up tits. Yes, And I think that I could.
I could give Ursula something, something real, meaty, something real special.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
I love that. I hope that happens someday me too,
Sonya or Luanne.
Speaker 1 (44:55):
Oh man. You know it's different every day. But today
I'm gonna give it to Louis because I just saw.
I know she's been on that cabaret life and you
know I got I love them both. I love them both,
but today Loui Anne.
Speaker 2 (45:08):
I love it. If you were a real housewife, what
would your tagline be?
Speaker 1 (45:16):
Big, tiss trem ankles, come at me? What would yours be?
Speaker 2 (45:25):
I don't know. I've thought about this obviously, but probably
something some pun on the news, like you know, I
read the news, but I'll read you or something. I
don't have something something like that. But I could never
be a housewife. I am so boring, Bridgett. I'm so
like a verse to to conflict I mean I thought
(45:46):
with a friend, like ever.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
Yeah, I'm like I've been watching you know, Salt Lake City,
just getting up to speed on what's going on. I'm
like this, this is I mean, I always feel like
I have to lay down after I watch a lot
because it's yeah, so much just back and forth, and
I'm conflicted versus well, so yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
Yeah it is for when they do that, it's for
a certain kind of person, and yeah, God bless them
because that's given me so much entertainment. But I could
never what's your favorite movie?
Speaker 1 (46:15):
I love Ordinary People, I love Rudy. Those are probably
my two favorites. So good, Yeah, I love my friend
got me an autographed Rudy Rudiger jersey when I started
doing the show.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
So that's amazing. I cry every time I see that movie,
like every time, and I know what's gonna happen, and.
Speaker 1 (46:35):
More than once, by the way, I.
Speaker 2 (46:36):
Like, yes, when he finally gets in on like the
fourth time, I am ale so good. That movie is great. Yeah,
do you have a favorite opera?
Speaker 1 (46:47):
You know I used to sing this are two Katie
Jel from Turn Dot and so I love that Katie
got it. Just cut that out. But like that that's
probably it's just because it's like you know, it's a
lot of power, a lot of power.
Speaker 2 (47:04):
Yes, okay, this is the last question. It's very important
to me. When is iced coffee season.
Speaker 1 (47:11):
Well, I feel like I'm gonna get this answer wrong,
but for me, I think it's always ice coffee season.
Speaker 2 (47:17):
That is the correct answer.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
Yeah, because look, I like to you know, you can't
have your hot coffee in the morning, but in the afternoon,
I would have that.
Speaker 2 (47:26):
One year round is the right answer, Bridget, It's the
right answer. You survived.
Speaker 1 (47:36):
Oh my god, that's a lot of pressure. God, I
didn't know that was gonna happen. Oh my god. I'm
glad I got it right.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
It's why we end with it.
Speaker 1 (47:44):
Oh how many people get it right?
Speaker 2 (47:46):
You'd be surprised how many people get that question wrong,
either by saying I don't drink coffee, which is like
get the fuck out of my podcast, yes, or or
like well it's from like June to shut the fuck up. No, No,
it is this. It is one hundred percent year round.
But a lot of people have gotten it right. We
have lots of friends. We have lots of friends, all right,
(48:08):
as coffee family. Thank you so much, Bridget This will
be really great and fun.
Speaker 1 (48:13):
Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (48:16):
Next week on Off the Cup, I sit down with
the Summer Houses Carl Radkey. When you first started the show,
what did you think you were getting yourself into?
Speaker 1 (48:26):
Just having fun and partying with my friends.
Speaker 2 (48:29):
They're just gonna follow us a little bit, and yeah,
maybe something could come of it, But I never knew
in a million years it would turn into what it
turned into. Off the Cup is a production of iHeart
Podcasts as part of the Recent Choice Network. I'm Your
Hostess Cupp Editing and sound designed by Derek Clements. Our
executive producers are met Sie Cup, Lauren Hanson, and Lindsay Hoffman.
(48:49):
If you like Off the Cup, please rate and review
wherever you get your podcasts, follow, or subscribe for new
episodes every Wednesday.
I love it because there are no rules. You know.
It's low necklines, yeah, high notes and trem ankles, and
we're all going for it all three of the same times.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Great. Welcome to Off the Cup my personal anti anxiety antidote.
This week's guest is one of the funniest and most
unique talents out there today. She says she actually produces,
she's on TV, she's in film, she's on stage, she's
in cabaret. Okay, you know her from Inside Amy Schumer,
(00:33):
the hit HBO show Somebody somewhere. She might just be
this generation's Bette Midler. I'm going I'm going with that.
I am going with that, and she's hilarious. It's Bridget Everett.
Welcome to Off the Cup.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Hi, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I'm so glad you're here. I'm a fan.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Thank you for that intro. Thank you it was so nice.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
I love what you do, I love the energy you
bring to everything that you do. It's just how do
you feel about being this generation's Bette Midller? Does that
sound right to you?
Speaker 1 (01:06):
I mean that would that's Bette Miller is like a
She's like the person I kind of idolized the most
when I was growing up. So you know, you look
at that, you hit a good one for me, A
good one.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Okay, Well it feels like you're really one of those
like old school performers we don't see enough of these days,
like a vaudeville, like a throwback. Do you do you
see yourself in that way?
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Well, I think that I don't see a lot of
people around me that do the same thing. So and
that way, I feel like making something my own feels
very of that generation and just kind of carving my
own path. So yeah, I think a little bit. I mean,
you know, I got started with in the cabaret scene,
which is not as like a hip as everybody thinks
(01:54):
of it.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Well I love it. I'm a fan of theater, so
I mean, I just love it.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
But you know, people that were around me, you know,
are doing really well. Now there's like Cola Scola of
doing overy on Broadway and like doing crazy things and
justin Vivian Bonds is one that MacArthur Grant. So you
know what it's like, all those people that were shaping
me when I was in my start, my start of
years are doing great things and they've always been their
own person. So it's been pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
I love it. I want to talk about your whole career,
but can we start with a sweet spot for me?
The Real Housewives. I'm a Bravo holic. I know I
know every franchise, every every housewife and seeing you with
Luanne and Sonya doing Cabret, it just made my heart happy.
What was that like?
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Look, I I love the Housewives. You know, I'm actually
filming watch it Happens live tonight Salt Lake City with Mary.
I'm very I'm excited and I'm nervous. But you know,
they're like their own sort of subset of celebrity and
kind of yes, their whole their whole world is is
just wild. It's like once you sort of get like
an inner a glimpse of the inside, it's just it's
(03:03):
so huge, it's so colorful, it's so full on. And
Sonya and Luanne and all of them are they're real characters,
but I think it's genuinely who they are.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Yes, I mean, Luanne's really special. I've worked with her
a little. I've had the job of trying to interview
a number of housewives at like Bravo Khan and stuff
like that, And when she's in one of those panels.
I'll just say it's tough because she's really I mean,
she just does her own thing and she wants to
(03:35):
kind of be the you know, the spotlight. She loves
being on stage, as she says she does.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
And you know, you have to give it to Luan.
Is was she gifted with the textbook version of the
voice of an angel?
Speaker 2 (03:47):
No?
Speaker 1 (03:47):
No, no, but she sells it.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
She's the voice of Marlborough is what she is.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
But what I said, I mean, I'm like, more power
to her because people want to come see her and
she has fun doing it. Good for her.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Yes, And you gave a very diplomatic answer to Andy
on another watch What Happens Live when he asked you
to rate her singing. You just said what you just said,
which was I give her credit. She's a ten out
of ten, you said, because anyone who gets up there,
I get it. But between us girls, she's got a
great act. A girl cannot sing. And when I say that,
I mean like hit notes.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Well, she's got a good you know, four or five
that she can dance around and that does it.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
You know, her act is great.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
I mean she looks incredible. She like she really like
What I love about her is that she is aware
of who she is and she has fun with it,
and like she celebrates it. I think it's pretty pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
It's incredible because she's been through some shit, and like,
had I gone through one of the things she had
gone through, be in a hole, yes, I would not
be on television and I certainly wouldn't be putting it
all in an act for everyone to enjoy. I mean,
that's so ballsy and body and all all the things.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Yeah, totally, I love it.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
I love it for her maybe.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Yeah, okay, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
You grew up in Manhattan, Kansas. It's funny because for
you know, I do like politics, and sometimes to make
a point when I'm trying to make a point about
like the rest of the country as opposed to the coasts,
I'll say something like, you know, what matters to people
in Manhattan isn't what matters to people, and I'll say Manhattan, Kansas.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
That is.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
It's sort of like, yeah, yeah, so that's you. You
but you grew up in a political family, right sort.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Of, well sort of, yeah, my dad was a state senator,
state representative, and you know, my dad and my brother
were both mayor of my hometown. So yeah, you know,
it's sort of a we're sort of a small town
political royalty.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Are you like if you go back and people know
your family from that?
Speaker 1 (05:55):
No, No, I think I just I just laugh at
it because you know, being a politician in a small
town in Kansas, it certainly doesn't have the same you know,
we're not the Kennedy's. Let's just put it out and
nobody cared. Like when I started, nobody cared. Yeah, exactly, exactly,
thank god.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Yeah, you were very popular in high school.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
I mean, you're not supposed to admit that, but I
guess I was. I mean I was homecoming queen, So
you know, what are you gonna do?
Speaker 2 (06:23):
You were most likely to be Ruler of the World
and most likely to win an Academy award. Yes, you
were in the Pops Choir, the Chamber Choir, the Fellowship
of Christian Athletes, SAD Student Council, Vice President, Tribe Council,
MC of MHS, Live Winter Homecoming Queen and Maggie Jones
in forty second Street. Did you ever go to class bridget?
Speaker 1 (06:44):
How did you find this out? This is that is
like such a deep diveh.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
This is bridget For people who can't see, this is Bridgete.
She's homecoming queen. Who's your gentleman, who's your squire?
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Uh? That's Jason Kastner, it is. I saw. It's the crown,
by the way, it's in my bastomook.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Amazing.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Oh my god. Yeah, my mom made me get that real.
You know, everybody had the claw like the bangs, but
you know I had a bob and like you know,
I was trying to like real timeless in my senior picture.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Class in nineteen ninety man.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Yeah, yeah, there you go. Oh my god, I.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Got your yearbook? Is how I know all this? I
got your yearbook?
Speaker 1 (07:25):
That is incredible. I don't I'd like a copy of
my yearbook done that thing.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Speaking of Amy, Jones said of your performance in forty
second Street, I liked bridget ever at the best because
she was funny and acted crazy. Was that your first review?
Speaker 1 (07:40):
That's my first pull club, my first poll quote, and
probably still the best one. It's so good because I
was so pissed that I didn't have a bigger part,
and I had my friend Rachel. My friend Rachel, and
if you go to the cast photo, we're like because
we thought we should have the two leads, and we
were sitting in the in the group photo just with
a scowling on our face. So when I got the
pull quote in the yearbook, I was like, okay, okay, right.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
See I told you Sol you were wrong.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
That's so funny.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
No, but really you did a lot. What what was
tribe council bridget Oh.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Tribe council got It's so this has been like, you know,
thirty blah blah blah years ago before. I can't remember
what I mean. I remember tribe council, but I can't
remember what it was. I've just just too many years
of shardonnay to washed it away.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Well, it looked like you had like I hated high school.
I was not popular in high school. Looked like you
had a great high school experience, at least according to
your senior year photos.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yeah. I mean, you know, I had, you know, the
issues that linger with you through life, you know, But
but as far as like friends and activities, and I
enjoyed it. I you know, growing up in Kansas is
a good place to be, you know, you can it
was pretty safe, you could walk places, we had keg
parties by the lake. You know, there's still still all
the drama that goes with high school, but it was
(09:00):
in general, it was it was fun. Oh my god,
I can't believe I said that it looked.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Like it looked like you killed it. Like it looked
like like my husband always talks about how great high
school was, and I'm like, I don't know what planet
you were on. High school was torturous for me, but
like he killed it. He was like in all the
sports and had all the friends, and I just always
wondered what that must be like.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Well, you know my brother who was the I mean,
I guess a six with my brother Brock, who was
number five out of six. He was very popular. And
it wasn't because he was like he just was. He
He was curious about other people. He was nice to
other people, and he was very funny and and I
like that too. I mean, I'm not like that anymore
at all. But I was used to be very curious
(09:41):
about people. I like to talk to all different groups.
You know. I thought it was sit by different people
in class. I liked it. Yeah, Now I'm not like
that at all. I mean, I'm like, just leave me
in my apartment. I'll be I'm a fine leave me alone, right.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
If you're not one of my people, I don't want
anything to do with you.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Well, it just takes so much energy to get in
people at this age.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
You know. So we're you go to ask you on
a full scholarship for music and opera. You were you
were set on being a performer.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Yeah, well I wanted to be a singer. And I
also just wanted to get out of Kansas, even though
I loved it, I wanted to see other things. And
and my one of my best friends at the time,
her older brother was like, oh, Arizona States of party school,
and I was like, oh, it is turned out he
was right, and I had a real good time, and I.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Had a fake I d take in there once by too.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
I think it's a rite of passage. No did you
did you get put in the back of the car?
Do they just know?
Speaker 2 (10:40):
He just let me walk away, which was very kind.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
That's good. I got because I got put in the
back of a car at a high school keg party.
And it was because I had this like this like
squeezy refillable thing that used to take my you know,
my like I'd stop at quick shop and get SODA's
every day and before school and then anyway, I took
it to this keg party because I loved it so much.
You could just like squeeze. It was like sort of
like a boxer thing, you know, had boxes on the
(11:04):
corny squeze shoots in your mouth. And I took it
to a keg party. I filled up with beer and
the cops came, and I didn't want to lose my
little squeeze thing, so I held onto it and I
emptied it out. But they came and they could still
smell the beer. So they put me in the back
of the car and my mom had to come pick
me up at the police station, and she was not happy.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Yeah, and they took your squeeze thing.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
They took my squeeze thing. I sucked on a penny
because I'd heard that that would like get rid of
the smell of alcohol. Mom. Yeah. And then but my
mom when my mom picked me up, she had so
much booze on her breast she couldn't tell. It's perfect
small town living.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
So how how did you did you enjoy college?
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Yeah? I mean it was college was like a little
you know, I sort of got lost because it's such
a big place. Arizona State is so huge, and I
have fun because I could be by the pool, I
could get a tan. I was on the swim team
for a little bit. And like I said, I was
a party school. But I wasn't like getting any parts.
I wasn't you know. And then shows really it just
(12:08):
but I did find karaoke at the end of my
and I started singing it like a professional at spring
training baseball games, which was fun. So I met a
lot of athletes because I used to work at PF
Chang's in Scottsdale, the original PF Changs.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
That is my favorite PF Changs.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Oh yeah, that's the one that was the original. And
I used to wait on like Charles Barkley and and
he came in a lot, and I waited on a
lot of the baseball players so they'd be there for
spring training, like I said, and Mark McGuire and Dusty
Baker the old and they like would have me come
and sing at their spring training games. I was singing
the national anthem, so I don't know.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
I was like, that's right. I uh, well, I covered
sports for a long time. And then also I was
a kid. As a kid, I grew up in Arizona,
in Scottsdale, and so when that PF Schangs.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Came, you know what, I might have been your waitress
at some point. You have been.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Yeah, that's such a that's the o GP of Chang's
is the best pe of Chang's. And yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
I wonder if it's still there.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
It's still there?
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Oh wow, amazing, it's still there.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
I was just there in April because we went for
spring break to visit family. And it's a must. It's
a must every time I'm in Scottsdale.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Gotta go. You gotta get up the chicken letus wraps
and a glass of arden. That's got right there?
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Got it? That is it. My very close friend Megan McCain,
daughter daughter of Arizona. Obviously, the lettuce wraps a p
of Changs are her all time favorite. I love it
all she wants on a special occasion, I love it. Yeah. Okay,
So where do you go from college? After college? Do
you go to New York?
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Yeah? I was spending my summers in Maine at this
place called quist Asana, which is sort of like a
dirty dancing kind of resort. And and so you would
you know, wait, tables during the day and you do
shows at night. And so they would bring people from
performing art schools all over the country that would go there.
So that's where I met some of my friends from
New York. And I was like, you know what, I'm
(14:12):
just gonna I'm just gonna go. So the last summer
I worked there, I worked there seven summers. I just
packed up my car, my Nissan CenTra, and I drove
to New York and I found a place to live
and I just was like, I think this is where
I want to be and I haven't left.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Was it scary?
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Not so scary because I knew all these people and
they were all singers and yah and performers, and I
think there's no way I could have done it without
meeting all those people first. And they and they were
like just so confident in themselves, like, no, I'm gonna
go to New York. I'm gonna be on Broadway and
uh then I'm gonna do TV, some film and you know,
maybe maybe a little time in LA but mostly New
York because I'm more about theater, and you know, just
(14:52):
like I was like, and then I came here and
I got my equity card, right away. I did like
a traveling show off off Broadway and that's it's I
And it was like, you know those little bus and
track things. We were all like in a little van
together essentially, and there was five five of us driving
around and it was absolute hell. I hated it. I
(15:13):
was like, oh, this is what And so I was
like when I ended up waiting tables for years, I
was like, well, at least I'm not doing theater right right? Yeah,
where'd you work?
Speaker 2 (15:24):
What restaurants did you work in New York?
Speaker 1 (15:27):
I worked at Rain, which was on the Upper west Side,
and then I worked at PF Chang's for not p Changs,
I'm sorry, we got a Ruby Foos. I worked at
Ruby Foo's on the Upper west Side from the day
it open until the date closed.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
I love Ruby Foos.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Yeah, that was and I got hired there because I
saw PF Chang's on my resume and they're like there.
They were like, oh, we have a star and I.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Was like yes, So what's your first break?
Speaker 2 (16:02):
What's your big break?
Speaker 1 (16:06):
God, it's such a it's interesting to think of like
things in terms of a big break. I guess like
in two thousand and six, I met Michael Patrick King,
who is behind Sex and the City, and just like that,
they come back and everything, and we did a show
at Ours Nova called at Least It's Pink and the
and that was and I thought that was gonna be
(16:26):
my big break. But in a way, it was like
an off off Broadway show that got great reviews, but
just kind of came and went and I was back
at Ruby Foo's. But the good part about that was
that I met Michael and he sort of set things
in motion for me because he gave me a part
in the original Sex in the City movie and it
was just a.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
It is a very memorable short but memorable scene. Gassi. Okay, okay, Kasi.
I mean, yeah, it is a great scene.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Are you drunk a little bit? In fact, like their
their rap gift I think for the Sex and the
City movie was like things said a little bit on it.
I was like, oh my god, oh my god. But yeah,
I just I uh, that was kind of just started
things because I met Michael and you know, we did
(17:15):
a pilot together, and then you know, Amy Schumer took
me on their road with her and that was a
really big thing. But you know, god, I didn't start
stop waiting tables until like ten years ago. I think
it was almost just ten years ago, so it was
maybe someday somewhere has been my big break. I don't
know all it's hard to say.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Well, and how did you meet Amy?
Speaker 1 (17:36):
At the Montreal Comedy Festival? Have you ever been to that?
Like this is the just for last Montreal Comedy Festival,
and it's it's you know, hundreds of comedians, all comedians,
you know, TV and film executives, and everybody goes down.
They stay at the Hyatt and they all party every
night at the big in this big Hyatt lobby bar.
And I was like, no, thank you, I will be
(17:56):
in my room and that's where you can find me.
But Amy, I think knew me from Ours Nova and
you know, at Lisa's Pink and some of this stuff.
So you know, she was like, why do you come
down and meet me, you know, down at the bar
for a glass of chardenay? And I was like, I'm not,
I'm not going down there. She's like, what's you know,
what's the worst that can happen? And so I went
(18:16):
down and we just became like sharp. We'd have the
same kind of you know, similar sense of humor. Yeah,
and we both love chardonnay and yeah, and she's very confident.
She'll talk to anyone, you know, she's all you know.
And I'll just I'll just sort of sit back and
watch her and be like, oh, yeah, I'm Bridget and
you know, I've met people, and she she helped get
me out of my shell, you know, bring me back
(18:37):
to nineteen nineties Tribe council. Bridget Ever, the one that
you know, you know, like the high school girl.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Right MHS MC of MHS Live, Yes, exactly. Amy found
that that Bridget in you did you guys ever like
write material for each other?
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Well, she she Yeah, she's put me in stuff, you know.
She put me in train wrecks. She rode a little
part from me. She wrote apart from me in another
movie and I didn't end up getting it. I ended
up reading with uh to play the part of Bridget Everett,
and I read with Jedd Apatow and I didn't get.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Apart Wait, someone else got the part of Bridget Everett.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Yeah, but it was I can't I can't remember which
movie it was, but it got the whole storyline got
cut out. It might have it might have been trained Wrek,
it might have been. There was like originally going to
be like she was doing a story on like a
you know, a killer, and I was going to play
the killer and and I think when I when I
read with him, he you know, he ultimately said to Amy,
(19:34):
He's like, Bridget doesn't seem like she would kill anyone.
So I didn't get the part, but I got another
part to stay in the movie, so it worked out.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Okay, how do you come to cabaret at this point
in your career?
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Well, because I was doing a lot of when I
was waiting tables, I was just singing in karaoke bars
and like going wild, like getting on top of the bar,
are ripping my shirt off, like you know, taking flaming
zambuka shots while I'm singing a piece of my Heart
and like, you know, you know, just absolutely out of
my skin crazy. And my friend Jason Egan who's now
(20:11):
my friend, saw me performing performing a karaoke bar, singing
at a karaoke bar, yes, and he was like, I
think you should do a show, and so he he
was the one that got me to perform it Ours
Nova his show and this is theater and yeah, and
I've just it's honestly, it's so such a huge part
(20:34):
of who I am. I love singing. It's the love
of my life. There's nothing that makes me happier, and
it makes me connect to people. But in a way
that I can be in charge. I had the microphone,
I sort of control the temperature.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Of the room totally.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
But I love it because there's there are no rules,
you know, it's just it's low necklines, yeah, high notes
and trim ankles and we're all going for it, all
three at the same time. Great.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
How does one like if I want I don't, But
if I wanted to go into cabret, how does one
because you're just like seeing at a karaoke bar. I
know how this happens to luwan? How does one? Are
there agents for cabaret?
Speaker 1 (21:15):
No? No, it's not.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
Like it's not like a I don't know how one
gets to cabaret if one wanted to, I would one
go about trying to get to cal I don't know.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
I just fell into it, you know.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
And Murray Hill was another person who plays Frederick Coco
on My show. He's, you know, a big legend in
New York City. And he asked me to you know, anytime,
anytime anybody ever asked me to sing or perform anywhere,
I'd be like, yes, yes, even if it was in
the back room and a sex club, you know, Like
I was always honestly like I've seen it all and
I've done it all, and I performed at weddings, birthdays, clubs,
(21:51):
you know, everything I could get my hands on. Yeah,
And and I think that's kind of the way that
you do it. You just you keep singing until someone listens.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
That's what it seems. Yeah, that's what it seems like.
There's not like a direct route from A to B
if someone wanted, you just have to be like talented, hungry, lucky,
we'll be places, be seen kind of thing and not.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Care about you know, having health insurance or money or.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Success retirement account yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Yeah, or acceptance by your family for us.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Right, tell me about the tender moments and how did
you meet Adam Well?
Speaker 1 (22:29):
I so I had been doing this show at Joe's
Pub called Our Hit Parade, which is we we would
cover downtown performance artists in cabaret people. That's where I
met Cole School and some other folks. And like you
would take a pop song and you would do your
own spin on it. And it was a wild, really
fun show and we did it for a number of years.
And then so he Adam I think you're talking about
(22:52):
ad Rock, the King ad Rock from Dacy Boys. Yeah,
he and his wife Kathleen Hannah were big fans of
the show and they they would come and and eventually I,
you know, and we became friends. I joined his softball team.
My friend Murray took me to be on the softball
team Team Pressure, because I was depressed and Murray's like,
you gotta get some vitamin D, kid, So he went
(23:13):
outside to play and that's when I found out Adam
was a fan, and we became friends. He's so funny.
He's such a great guy. And at one point I
was just like, you know, I think I'm going to
start a band, and he's like, well, can I be
in it? And I was like, you want to be
And you want to be in my cabaret act ad
Rock King ad Rock of the Easy Boys, right, He's
(23:36):
like he's like yeah. And so he was the you know,
the first person that signed up to be in my band,
and then everybody, you know, I got Mike, Mike Jackson,
Carmen Covelli and Matt Ray and then we all and
we we decided to call it the Tender Moments because
that's when I when I used to hang out with
my nieces and nephews, I'd be like, come, come sit
with me, Let's have a tender moment, and we would
(23:57):
just sit there very quietly. And I don't know, I've
always kind of love that.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
So that is cute. That is cute. What is your
what's your connection to Janice Joplin? You you famously sung
a number of her songs, Yeah, on Jimmy Fallon and.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Because she's like one of the you know, the way
I connect with anybody is when they're their their own thing,
like she her voice is very unique sounding. She seemed
like she just was her own and her own special
little planet. But her voice to me is like just
ripped from the heart, just so raw, so like full.
(24:34):
It's a full force. It's like it's a it's a
punch of energy, emotion and vitality. And I just she
lights me up. Man, I can't help it.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Oh she's great, and you're so great, you know singing
her songs? You've made you did Me and Bobby McGee
with Patti LuPone at Carnegie Hall. How does that happen?
Speaker 1 (24:57):
She saw me at a show that I was doing downtown,
and I remember her. She was she's good friends with
my friend Scott Whitman, songwriter with Mark Seaman for like
Hairspray and Smash and and all these other great shows.
And anyway, they called me while I was at my
bank depositing tips from the shift of my shift from
(25:18):
the night before at us at Ruby Fuz or something,
and and Patty was like, I was wondering if you'd
want to sing with me at Carnegie Hall. And I
was just like putting in my two hundred dollars into
the things like beep, beep beep, and I was like,
let me think about it. I'm like yeah. And because
(25:38):
Connie Call is a place I never thought that I
would ever get to walk across that stage. And and
so she you know, so they had me on the
show and I was, you know, to me, Patty is
like the great broad living diva for me, you know,
I mean, there's so many great Broadway performers and stuff,
but to me, she's like a diva. But she's also
(25:59):
like a and really cool and just does not give
a shit about any Yes, she's and I just love that.
You would think that somebody like her, with her Tony's
and her you know, and her Julliard background and all this,
that she would just be kind of buttoned up, her
stuffy or something. That is absolutely not true. She is
like throw down, lay down fun. She's so fun. She's
(26:22):
very funny, and she really cares about, like, you know,
she's taught me a lot about like performance because she
cares about every little detail after all these years of performing,
it's important to her. And I don't know, I just
think that I think she's pretty magical.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
She's incredible, And it was.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Incredibly jenous of her to bring me like this sort
of whatever cabaret singer at the time and and bring
me on to the stage. And she basically stopped the
show and gave me such an effusive introduction, like she
was like sort of anointing me in a way or something.
She's like, get down at Joe's Pub. You have to
see Bridget everythre's oh my god, there's nobody else like her.
(27:01):
And people did like I was doing shows and I
was like, my audience looks a little different tonight.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Oh my god, that's so cool.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
I'm like, I'm like, what are you doing here? Because
I talked to the audience a lot, and like Patty
sent me, I was like, oh, okay, well welcome shit.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Yeah, I have goosebumps. Oh my god. Listening to her
talk about Andrelaid Webber gives me life, Like the way
she shits on Andreloyd Webber with reckless abandon like, well.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Don't don't shit on Patty because you're gonna get shit
on right back exactly.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Oh I would. I would never.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
No, I know, not you. I'm just saying in the
and the you know, that's what happens. Like she does
not care, Like she's like, I don't care if it's andre.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Lloyd Webber, Like I don't like Andrelaid Webber's musicals for
the most part either. Yeah I'm a little overrated. But
I interviewed fran Leebowitz once, who also is not a fan,
and the way she talks about Andrelaid Webber is very
similar to the way the Paddle Up talks about Angelaid Webber,
which is just I just want one day to have
(28:06):
so few fucks to give that I can talk about legends,
living legends, the way that she talks about Madonna and
Angelaid Webb with like no cares.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
In the world, does not care her. I mean, Patty
and I are developing something right now for for Broadway.
I hope it because it is along road where we're
you know, it's been ruin for us, and we're developing,
and we've had a little we just had a workshop
and and you know, I told them like day one,
I was like, like, is there anything anything wants to
(28:38):
say to sort of, you know, kick things off. And
I was like, I'll start. I'm scared to work with
Patty because because first of all, she she brings her
a game to everything, Like she's not resting on anything.
She is always showing up and and I can, I
can be a little lazy, but I'm also just like
I don't want to. I don't want to disappoint her
(28:58):
because I don't want to. You know, she'll tell you right,
And I just want to have to be able to.
I want to be able to show up, do a
good job, and uh so Patty can be proud of me.
I'm not disappointed.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Oh yeah, she's very she's very intimidating. And when she
she did this whole thing years ago where she talked
about how like the standing ovation at theaters has become
so overdone and like very few people actually deserve a
standing ovation in the theater, and like they're just handing
(29:32):
them out. Now.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
She won't stand up. She won't stand up, and I'm like,
and I I love it. Like that's another thing, like
that's Patty's like she's I love it. She does not
care And I want to be like Patty me too,
because I stand up. I'm like, oh god, I got it.
You know, your body's all tight. After two hours, it's
like all right, here we go.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
All right, we're doing this.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
And then you know whoever's up there, who's just phoned
in their performances, like oh thank you, thank you. They've
they've never been awake for the two hours they've been
up on stage. But when they get through their bow
and receive all the love there, they're finally there's there's
a twinkle in their eyes. It's like, no, if you
don't give it to me. From the moment, it's like action,
like get off the stage.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Yes, yes, uh okay, Well when you when you see her,
just tell her, tell her, don't don't I love her.
I'll never say anything bad about her. I don't ever
want to be on Patty's outside. I love her so much, none.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Of us do. But you know there's I don't. I
don't think you know she If you're great, she loves you,
and that's that's that's good enough for me.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Well, then you better be great, you better are great.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Exactly, you are great.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
You're lucky, you're great. You're great. She loves you, but
not everyone's great, Bridget, but Donna's not great, according to
Paddle the Pone and Pattle the Pone is right about
about the way she talks about Madonna. But I mean, yeah,
you gotta be great, talk about somebody somewhere, talk about
how that came to be and how how how autobiographical
(31:03):
it is, because it's sort of well.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
I got a deal with HBO a number of years ago,
and and I I remember when that happened, because that
did feel like this feels like it's a big deal.
That feels like a big deal. And so I called
up Carolyn Strauss, who is who i'd met through Michael
Patrick King. So all the you know, everything sort of
(31:25):
leads to what it's supposed to lead to. But I
was like, I just got the seal with HBO, and
I'm I was wondering if you would want to work
with me, and like, and if you don't know who
Carolyn is, she is behind some shows like Game of Thrones,
Last of Us, she was, you know, running HBO. It's
you know, during the Sex and the City in Soprano days,
(31:46):
you know, so she's she's the the the the deal,
not just a big deal, she is the big deal.
And so she was like because she'd see my cabaret
show and and she's like, yeah, I'd love to work
with you. And I was like, oh, the look, my
job is like smacking on the floor. And anyway, she
(32:07):
was like, I think we should, you know, talk to
Paul and Hannah. Paul three and Hannah bus who she
you know, they're they're sort of from the similar community
as I am in the city and in New York,
and they came up with this idea for somebody somewhere
and we have you know, it's been a very collaborative
process over the three seasons, and but as we've gone
(32:30):
into it more and more I've put more and more
of myself into it, more of my own story, more
of like my feelings and my feelings about grief and
about the love of singing and music and about and
and about self worth and all these things, and and
we we all sort of had the same way that
(32:50):
we wanted to tell a story that felt not like
document not documentary document documentary style, but like that felt
that felt natural, that felt lived in and that felt
slice a life. E and I remember watching the pilot
and I cried first because I was like, I was
moved that we did it. And then I cried because
(33:12):
it's like, nobody is going to like this, because this
is not a cool show, and Carol and Carolyn was like, no,
this is there's something special about this. And then we
and our probably got picked up. We shot our first season,
second season, and now third season which is wrapping up.
But you know, it's if you know me from the
cabaret world, you know you've it's I'm sort of like
(33:34):
a wilder beast or something like a real wild like
sort of unhinged. But this is a different side of me.
And I mean I do saying and stuff in the show,
but it's more about like the human side of me,
like the things that make me me laugh and that
make me cry and the and the I've learned through
the experience of doing the show that other people see
themselves in it, and that's been great. You know, it's
(33:57):
been really rewarding.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Yeah, you love being on stage so much. Did this
like scratch a part of your brain you didn't know
you would love so much?
Speaker 1 (34:08):
Yeah? I mean I just didn't think I could do it.
I'm not a trained actor. I've never written a TV
show before, I've never produced. But you learned very quickly,
and luckily because Paul and Hanna and I had Caroline
is like a reference, Like she was such a great
sort of like a coach and a mentor and a
champion and like never treated us like she was above us.
(34:29):
She just kind of lifted us up, helped us grow.
And we all learned so much during the filming of
the show. And now I know I can I can
do a.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
TV show, you know, I do it all. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
Yeah, you just for people like me. I'm not somebody
who's like and I'm going to do this one day
and I'm going to do that one day. It's like
I sort of fall into it and I try to
rise to the occasion and for the best. Yeah, and
that's and this time it just happened to be a
TV show for HBO's to be right, yeah, if you know,
(35:02):
just say it out loud, like when I want to
sit down and watch the show, I'll usually watch it
by myself. And I turned on the TV and it's
got that HBO logo, the you know that goes that.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
I know, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
Every time, I'm like and I'll continue to be you know,
for a long time as long as I keep running it,
you know somewhere I'm deep on the.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Channel or what yeah, I should say for honesty full disclosure.
HBO is also my parent company. I'm at CNN, but
uh I pitched a pilot to HBO and years ago
and it was coming right out. They had just stopped
FEEP and the pilot I pitched was for a sitcom
(35:47):
set in a newsroom, like deep in a newsroom, and
and I had a great meeting, and I was so excited.
I couldn't believe I was in like HBO offices and
like that this was happening. And I had a great
meeting and there was some interest, and then someone said
it was a little too close to BEEP and they
were moving to a new direction, and that new direction
was eventually Game of Thrones, and they wanted that was
(36:08):
not what I was very different, so they were becoming
something a little different, kind of getting away from the
sort of the sitcom y content. But it was even
just getting close, Like even just having a meeting at
HBO was thrilling for me. So I can only imagine,
just like life changing, that you have a show there,
(36:30):
and a successful one.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
It's still exciting to go on to their offices and
to feel like, yeah, you're like a part of even
though our show is very small and our audience is small,
loving and loyal, but small, Like yeah, I'm a part
of the fabric of HBO. Now, Like there's no, you can't.
You can't take that. I cannot take that away from myself.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
Like that, this can't.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Yeah, this happened, and and and it's not the first
time I've been on HBO, and I hope to be
on HBO again. And it's yeah, it's to me, it's Mecca.
Is that where it's like yeah, to me, HBO was
like the yes, the Pinnacle, Yes it is. I'm not
saying I wouldn't work for other networks Sti't get me wrong.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Of course, of course in Netflix, we love you too.
But but you.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Know, as far as it's like television goes.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Yeah, but you didn't just make up a pilot, which
in and of itself incredible. You got picked up season
and another season like, yeah, you made it, you made it.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Yeah, I guess, so I guess when you put it
that way. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
After the break, it's the Lightning Round with Bridget Everett.
I make her choose her favorite musical before we get
to like a little lightning round. I just want to
talk to you about isms I'll explain and the isms
(37:53):
you might have faced in your career, because for me,
I love talking to two women in this business. For me,
there was a lot of sexism early in my career
in the news, of course, men not taking you seriously
or of course hitting on you or even sexually assaulting
you like on camera. But now as I get older,
(38:14):
it's agism and it is so wild, Bridget. For women
in my business, it is like you hit forties and
it's suddenly you are no longer good at your job,
and you're like, I've done nothing differently. I'm doing the
same thing. But I have so many friends and colleagues
who are no longer in work. Suddenly their contract is
(38:35):
not renewed. They are shown the door and hung out
to dry. And it's crazy and it's such a mind
fuck because you're like, I'm still me. I'm doing the
same work, if not better work than I've ever done.
And thanks to modern skincare, I look better at forty
six than Barbara Walters did it twenty. What the fuck
is going on?
Speaker 1 (38:56):
But what are you using? I want to know that
is a oh.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
Yeah, ialuronic acid and retinal but no, that ism, the
ageism is such a mind fuck and I obviously hate it.
I'm wondering what isms you have faced as a woman
in your career.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Well, I think like my size. You know, I'm a
I'm a what I like to call a post athletic build,
but you know, I'm a plus sized woman. I'm like,
you know, I'm I'm in middle aged, which is wild
to say, but like, you know, like people would, people
were flocking television executives, you know, people were flocking to
(39:42):
my show, like my live show, but they're like, we
just can't see her on television. And I do, ultimately
feel like it had a lot to do with my
body in the way that I looked. I'm not conventionally
like cutie little girl, you know, I'm not like attractive
in that way, and like, how can you make that person?
Can you put them on the poster of a TV show?
(40:02):
And I have to give HBO a lot of credit
that they they wanted me to be me. But I'm
telling I can't tell you how many meetings I went
into and people were just like nothing, like just checked out.
And then and also like there's the stuff online, like
I did a talk show and I wore this dress
(40:24):
and like, you know, I can't find a bra for
my boobs, you know, because I'm, as I said, I'm
a plusize woman and I think boobs, and so I
tape them and anyway, I sat down on the couch
for the thing, and my dress sort of flipped open
in a certain way, and the way I taped them
was very sloppy, and so you know, it's so it
just sort of have its like weird look at whatever. Anyway,
(40:45):
the clip is on the internet and it's like been
viewed by you know, thirteen million people or something, and
there's thousands of comments about my body and I'm like,
I'm like, you are missing the point. I'm I'm wearing
this dress. I'm if you came seeing my show, like
I try to make everybody feel good about who they
(41:05):
are in their own skin, and like people just they
can't see past my what my what I'm walking around
in the skin I'm walking around in. Yeah, and that's
you know, that's that obviously is you know, can be
different for different people. You know, however that looks about
how you look. But my point is just like I
(41:26):
had to kind of whatever I've done, I've always had
to force myself in the room. I've always had to
thrust myself upon people. I've had to make it happen
for myself because people can see it because it didn't
look like what they thought it should be. So I
don't know if that's the right, Yeah, if that's sort
of what you're talking about, but yeah, that's for me,
that's what it's been.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
I mean, I don't know a woman who hasn't dealt
with an ism somewhere over the course of her life
or career. And yeah, I mean it's just sort of
how you move through them.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
Yeah. And also, you know another thing is like, because
some of my stuff I got me night, let me up.
I don't know. Another thing is like, I I want
to Arizona State, but I'm not like a scholar, you know,
I'm not like a smarty pants person. But I so
I've worked with people who have looked down on some
(42:20):
of my blue humor, like that it's not smart, so
it's not valid and like and I think if something
makes people laugh and it makes them feel good, and
you're and you're not hurting anybody. But I've I've literally
worked with somebody who was like, you know, that's you know,
your your lyrics aren't smart, you're whatever. And I'm like,
but I go out to you know, now thousands of
people come to see me sing and I may saying
(42:42):
a very simple lyric, but it's but what's everything that
I am? Body that it works? It works for them,
it works for me. Yeah, but you know, maybe I'm
just not smart enough for some people. And to them,
I say, I don't know if I can say this,
just bleeve it fuck off?
Speaker 2 (42:58):
Yeah you can say it, Yeah, glad I did. People
are the worst. Yeah, people are. It's really hard to
become and remain a confident woman and in this in
this world, there's always something coming at you, well, what
(43:21):
is next for you?
Speaker 1 (43:24):
I don't know. I'm just like taking a look at
my phone to see and to be called, and they
have not, so I don't know. See I truly, I mean,
I hope the same with Patty comes together. I have
a lot of faith that well, because that'll be cool. I'll,
you know, I'll keep I'll keep performing live and I'll
and I hope to dream up a new un show
(43:44):
because I've loved doing it so much. I don't want
it to end, so I gotta figure out a new
way to do it.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
You will, you will, all right, let's get to a
lightning round. Okay, what's your favorite musical? I know I
know a.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
Sound of music because it's got a lot of good
memories as a kid.
Speaker 2 (44:07):
Okay, that's a good one. What musical role would you
most like to play?
Speaker 1 (44:12):
I really wanted to when they did The Little Mermaid,
I really wanted to play Ursula in some shape or form.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
That would have been so good.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
I know they really missed the mark. I mean, Mlissa
McCarthy is incredible, But you know what, I think I
could have had something wonderful to offer as well, So
keep that in mind for the future.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
And that's that is a role for a singer. I
mean that song. Her song is really good and big,
and it's a big it's a big song.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
But when I say I like to sing, I like
to sing from my tits up through my toes, me white,
my toes up tits. Yes, And I think that I could.
I could give Ursula something, something real, meaty, something real special.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
I love that. I hope that happens someday me too,
Sonya or Luanne.
Speaker 1 (44:55):
Oh man. You know it's different every day. But today
I'm gonna give it to Louis because I just saw.
I know she's been on that cabaret life and you
know I got I love them both. I love them both,
but today Loui Anne.
Speaker 2 (45:08):
I love it. If you were a real housewife, what
would your tagline be?
Speaker 1 (45:16):
Big, tiss trem ankles, come at me? What would yours be?
Speaker 2 (45:25):
I don't know. I've thought about this obviously, but probably
something some pun on the news, like you know, I
read the news, but I'll read you or something. I
don't have something something like that. But I could never
be a housewife. I am so boring, Bridgett. I'm so
like a verse to to conflict I mean I thought
(45:46):
with a friend, like ever.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
Yeah, I'm like I've been watching you know, Salt Lake City,
just getting up to speed on what's going on. I'm
like this, this is I mean, I always feel like
I have to lay down after I watch a lot
because it's yeah, so much just back and forth, and
I'm conflicted versus well, so yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
Yeah it is for when they do that, it's for
a certain kind of person, and yeah, God bless them
because that's given me so much entertainment. But I could
never what's your favorite movie?
Speaker 1 (46:15):
I love Ordinary People, I love Rudy. Those are probably
my two favorites. So good, Yeah, I love my friend
got me an autographed Rudy Rudiger jersey when I started
doing the show.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
So that's amazing. I cry every time I see that movie,
like every time, and I know what's gonna happen, and.
Speaker 1 (46:35):
More than once, by the way, I.
Speaker 2 (46:36):
Like, yes, when he finally gets in on like the
fourth time, I am ale so good. That movie is great. Yeah,
do you have a favorite opera?
Speaker 1 (46:47):
You know I used to sing this are two Katie
Jel from Turn Dot and so I love that Katie
got it. Just cut that out. But like that that's
probably it's just because it's like you know, it's a
lot of power, a lot of power.
Speaker 2 (47:04):
Yes, okay, this is the last question. It's very important
to me. When is iced coffee season.
Speaker 1 (47:11):
Well, I feel like I'm gonna get this answer wrong,
but for me, I think it's always ice coffee season.
Speaker 2 (47:17):
That is the correct answer.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
Yeah, because look, I like to you know, you can't
have your hot coffee in the morning, but in the afternoon,
I would have that.
Speaker 2 (47:26):
One year round is the right answer, Bridget, It's the
right answer. You survived.
Speaker 1 (47:36):
Oh my god, that's a lot of pressure. God, I
didn't know that was gonna happen. Oh my god. I'm
glad I got it right.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
It's why we end with it.
Speaker 1 (47:44):
Oh how many people get it right?
Speaker 2 (47:46):
You'd be surprised how many people get that question wrong,
either by saying I don't drink coffee, which is like
get the fuck out of my podcast, yes, or or
like well it's from like June to shut the fuck up. No, No,
it is this. It is one hundred percent year round.
But a lot of people have gotten it right. We
have lots of friends. We have lots of friends, all right,
(48:08):
as coffee family. Thank you so much, Bridget This will
be really great and fun.
Speaker 1 (48:13):
Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (48:16):
Next week on Off the Cup, I sit down with
the Summer Houses Carl Radkey. When you first started the show,
what did you think you were getting yourself into?
Speaker 1 (48:26):
Just having fun and partying with my friends.
Speaker 2 (48:29):
They're just gonna follow us a little bit, and yeah,
maybe something could come of it, But I never knew
in a million years it would turn into what it
turned into. Off the Cup is a production of iHeart
Podcasts as part of the Recent Choice Network. I'm Your
Hostess Cupp Editing and sound designed by Derek Clements. Our
executive producers are met Sie Cup, Lauren Hanson, and Lindsay Hoffman.
(48:49):
If you like Off the Cup, please rate and review
wherever you get your podcasts, follow, or subscribe for new
episodes every Wednesday.
Host
S.E. Cupp
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