Comedy & You!

Posted by admin on Jan 23, 2008 in Volume 14 Issue 1 | 0 comments

Maria Bamford is a stand-up comedian, currently living in L.A. Her routines focus on “High voice, low voice” impressions of her family members, and wittily constructed social commentaries. She has also done a lot of voiceover work and has appeared in various movies including Lucky Numbers with John Travolta. This interview was a short online dialogue between Maria B. and Frames editor Josh Gregg.

Mars’ Hill: Talk about your roots in comedy—what was it like stepping into the industry?

Maria Bamford: I started in Minneapolis for three years while serving pizza, moved to LA and served baked goods and then became a temp secretary and did standup anywhere/everywhere for five years before stopping secretarial work. The industry is sort of a large concept – it’s just jillions of different projects going on at once – standup live is sort of separate at clubs.

Mars’ Hill: How about the toils of the humour medium? What sorts of hardships did you find – say from being in the industry itself or in developing your ideas into the medium?

Maria Bamford: Just getting myself to do it is the hard part and the rest is fairly easy – just do it and showing up is the whole thing. And asking for help when I’ve run into trouble. I’ve had all sorts of problems – financial, emotional, social, etc. – along the way and have used all sorts of professional and amateur type help. It’s harder to be creative, I’ve found, when I didn’t know how to hold a job that paid me enough to get health benefits. There are some funny things about being poor or in danger, but they usually are more funny (to me) in retrospect.

Mars’ Hill: Much of your humour discusses the darker materials of life. People need humour to work through tragedy. I don’t think that’s something a lot of people understand, that ability to laugh at misfortune. Looking back, are there certain instances in your life that have developed this heavenly ability?

Maria Bamford: I have problems with depression, I have since I was 11 or so, and so maybe that. And from family sense of humour.

Mars’ Hill: Funniest sad story you’ve lived?

Maria Bamford: Having dreams come true (being on TV, etc.) and that I can still get depressed. But that’s a pretty classy problem, I guess.

Mars’ Hill: What percent of your work is charity?

Maria Bamford: I tithe my income – 10 per cent of net to charity – and do shows that have meaning for me, but… I volunteer separately. I like to earn when I work and then volunteer separately doing something besides comedy.

Mars’ Hill: What’s it like being a woman in this industry?

Maria Bamford: The same as being a man. Everyone has special circumstances that make their journey different.

Mars’ Hill: What are your most embarrassing moment(s) while performing or the least funny thing you think you have ever said (on or off stage)?

Maria Bamford: There are always new ones, that’s the exciting part. I get heckled fairly frequently when touring with Comedians of Comedy. Least funny I guess might be calling the roof guy to look at the leak in my ceiling. I think I kind of phoned it in during that conversation.

Mars’ Hill: Have you performed in Canada?

Maria Bamford: I’ve done the Montreal Comedy festival three times, I’ve been to Toronto two times, and I’ve done the Vancouver Comedy Festival two times. My favourite has been Vancouver, but I think that’s more a result of the marketing/venues – where a more “alternative” crowd shows up – than the cities themselves. Canadians are thoughtful, open-minded, but I got heckled a lot at a YukYuks in Vancouver by a drunk guy who kept yelling at me to get off [saying] that I wasn’t funny. There are all types, everywhere you go, but I like Canada – people seem less showy and prestige-oriented than in LA or the States; it reminds me of Minnesota where I’m from.

Surf on over here for the Maria Bamford Show and more.