When Bridget Everett was growing up in Kansas, the question “How are you feeling?” was not often asked. That’s part of the reason why Bridget embraced singing and making music as her primary way to connect with people. She tells Marc how this led to the development of her live cabaret shows which got her noticed by Michael Patrick King, Amy Schumer, and eventually HBO. They also talk about how Bridget’s acclaimed and beloved show Somebody Somewhere taught her how to face grief and live with it. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: What was Bridget Everett's childhood like?
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Lock the gate!
Alright, let's do this. How are you, what the fuckers, what the fuck buddies, what the fuck nicks? What's happening? I'm Marc Maron. This is my podcast. Welcome to it. How are you? What's going on? You know what? What is going on? I have been immersed. I have been immersed for what seems to be a year and a half. I have been immersed in heading towards this special taping.
I've got no more dates to announce. I've got nothing. I've got nothing but this and you and some promotions to do. You know, for a lot of things. I've got things happening, but I mean, what am I going to do comedically? I just did it. I did it and it went well. You know, I could be a little self-conscious and a little diminishing and a little dismissive of myself, but I think it went very well.
It's weird. It almost happens in a dream. I'll try to tell you about it. I will try to tell you about it. Today on the show, I talked to Bridget Everett. She's the star and executive producer of the HBO series Somebody Somewhere. She got her start in the New York Cabaret scene. And I'll be honest with you. When I got the opportunity to interview Bridget, I didn't really know her.
I didn't know the show, but I knew she was a thing. I knew the show was a thing for some people. So I was like, okay, sure. You know, Brendan told me she got started in, you know, Cabaret. And I was like, all right, well, that's close to comedy. All right, fine. And then I started watching the show, Somebody Somewhere. And what... A great show. What a great show.
Look, I don't know if it's for everybody. I'm not even sure why it's for me. But I started watching it and I was locked in. I loved her. I loved her character. I loved the comedy of it. I loved the other characters. I was crying. I was laughing. I was invested emotionally. I watched it like nonstop all the way through all three seasons. She just got me, man.
I mean, I just couldn't pull away from it. I just thought it was so beautiful and human and interesting and eclectic and diverse. And there's something about her character that I obviously identified with emotionally. And man, did we have a conversation. I can't explain it. Sometimes I just feel so connected to somebody's character. But she's a lot like the character. It's basically her character.
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Chapter 2: How did Bridget Everett get started in cabaret?
You know, from a week ago Friday through, you know, Toronto and Vermont, Portsmouth, New Hampshire. That show went great. And then, like, I drove down. We had a rented car, me and Kathy Ladman, who was opening for me. She did great on the special and on all the shows. We drove down from Portsmouth to Boston, flew to New York. We made it. I didn't lose anything else. I got home.
My computer was back. Which was nice. And my cats hadn't shit anywhere. And there was limited cat drama. I don't know how it worked out. You know, the woman who watches my cats, she bought them a bunch of toys. She exhausted them every night. She was giving them the Zilkine or Charlie and some probiotic calming stuff. It seems like him and Buster are kind of at it again, but no shit.
I mean, no shit. Which was really nice to come home to. Now I gotta wait for three days for them all to calm the fuck down and realize I'm back in charge. I got it. I'm the king. I'm the alpha of you three little fucks. Sammy, I'm not even sure Sammy knows me. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp.
Mental Health Awareness Month, let's encourage everyone to take care of their well-being and break the stigma. The world is better when people are healthy and happy. Untertitelung des ZDF für funk, 2017 We're all better with help. Visit betterhelp.com slash WTF to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp.com slash WTF. So, I gotta tell you, man. The Special looks stunning.
All the people at the Bam Harvey were just great. And that theater is such a special place. I can't even explain it to you. You'll see it on the special, but it was built in like the early, early 1900s. And instead of renovating it. They kind of preserved it in its decay. So it has a sort of personality that you don't see much in theaters that old.
Because most of the time they get flipped, they get renovated. Many places renovate them appropriately to the time or restore the stuff that was there. But this place, the Harvey, is completely unique in that it has kind of broken down a bit. It's almost a bit of a ruin in a way. So they just let that be and they just kind of maintain it. They didn't, you know, restore it per se.
They honor what it is. And it's got an incredible personality. And when I first went to the place and I saw the back wall of the theater that I believe still had paint on it from somewhere back in the 1900s, early 1900s. And the whole back of the theater, as I might have said before, looked like a piece of art to me, like a Rothko painting or something. It was chipped away.
It had different colors, different tones. And I'm like, we're using that wall. We're using that wall. And my production designer, Mark... Janowitz, it was like he got it right away and he started talking to me, I don't know if I told you guys this, but he started talking to me about, I think it's called Kintsugi. It's a Japanese art. They take old ceramics Ja, genau.
So he had this whole concept and I didn't know necessarily how it fit into the special, but it certainly felt it fit into the vibe of the room. So he kind of based his vision.
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Chapter 3: What is the significance of 'Somebody Somewhere'?
Der zweite Show ist wahrscheinlich der, den wir am meisten benutzen werden, weil es war wie ein bisschen auf Feuer. Aber ich denke, dass es viel damit zu tun hatte, dass ich mich ein bisschen zerbrochen habe. Ich bin aus der Routine zerbrochen, was ich in meinen Live-Shows immer tue, weil es alles flüssig ist.
Aber wenn du einen dieser Spezials machst, willst du all deine Teile schießen und du willst nicht zu viel rumschreien. Also kam das natürliche rumschreien, weil ich es kaputt gemacht habe. You know, something was lifted and then I relocked in with a different energy. I got to remember if I ever do a special again or if I'm ever allowed to do one again or offered the opportunity to.
I'm not the kind of guy that's going to put one up on YouTube. But I got to remember that. And I kind of do remember that. But there's a looseness that gets lost sometimes. But it sort of came back because of this little fuck up I did. And it made me kind of go, all right. But I hit all the material I wanted to hit. Some of it's pretty challenging and some of it's pretty interesting.
And I just wanted to make sure that between the two shows we could have stuff to work with. And I think we do. I think it went great. I want to thank all the people that came out to the BAM Harvey and saw the shows. I really appreciate it. After the second show, we had to redo the opening a bit. And then I ended up doing just a half hour, a little bit of material I didn't do, a little bit of Q&A.
And then all of a sudden you realize, hey, buddy, you got union guys working. We're running out of time. And that's that's the weird come down. So I finished the show. I'm packing up my stuff. We got to get out of the theater. And I was maybe downstairs getting my shit together for a half hour, 40 minutes. My brother came with his partner and some of his stepkids.
And, you know, there was people there. Aber, weißt du, als ich durch den Top of the Room rausgegangen bin, haben sie bereits die Bühne unterbrochen. Und dann kommt diese verdammte Schmerz über dich. Weißt du, das war es. Ich hoffe, wir haben es geschafft. Weißt du, ich habe das Ding ein Jahr und ein halbes oder mehr gearbeitet. Und das war es. Das war, worauf ich gearbeitet habe.
Und jetzt ist der Ruck für die Bühne schon weg. Die Lichter sind bereits runter. Everything's going away. There's a crew of people tearing it down. And then I'm just kind of like, did I do it? Was it good? And then I get back to the hotel and it's just this horrendous, horrendous empty sadness that happens when you finish something like that.
And all your whole life just comes screaming back at you. It's almost like you land back in your life with all the things that were causing you anxiety or problems or all the things you were kind of pushing aside or I'm talking about me, you know, leading up to this thing, at least the last week, just to keep the focus. And there's a sadness to it. I feel good about it.
But, you know, just now I've got to retire this set. But again, great experience, great theater, great crew, great audiences. I appreciate all of you. You hear me? Do you hear me? Das Podcast wird von Squarespace untertitelt. Mit Squarespace kannst du alles zeigen, was du willst, mit einem customisierbaren Website, designt, um Klienten oder Fans zu erzeugen und dein Geschäft zu wachsen.
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Chapter 4: How does Bridget Everett cope with grief?
Ja, der flotten Maus in der Pool.
Ja, und dann sind sie bereit für die Frogs. Ich kann es nicht. Ich kann es nicht.
Yeah, frogs, toads, yeah. They'll show up in the filters.
Oh, jeez. Do you have a pool here?
No. I had one when I was growing up.
Okay.
And there were frogs around.
Yeah.
And they'd kind of show up.
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Chapter 5: What themes are explored in Bridget's performances?
Aber, weißt du, es ist wie, es ist fast, oh Gott, das ist, was ich so furchtbar bin, weil es ist, es ist ein Pack von, was nennen wir es, ein Dänen, glaube ich, oder was nennen wir es, dass es lebt, es gibt all sorts of wildlife up there.
Und ich habe ein kleines Pomeranian und es ist, oh nein, ich habe mehr Angst vor den Katzen, weil sie da draußen sind, einfach, weißt du, aber es macht mich auch gut, dass sie da sind, kind of. Aber sie mögen die Meisen töten und sie lassen sie.
Sie sind wilde Tiere. Es gibt nichts, was man tun kann, außer sie zu füllen und sie zu bewegen.
Ja, sie lassen mich sie tatsächlich beruhigen, aber dann lasse ich das Essen für sie raus und ich habe diese Kameras, natürlich. Ja, du hast Kameras, ja. Und das ist, als ich herausgefunden habe, dass ich auch einen Possum habe, weil er einen Clean-up macht.
Er wandert um.
Die eine Katze, wie Sweetie, nimmt einfach, was sie will. Ja, ja. Und dann kommt der Possum und ich bin so, fuck. Ja, das Buffet. Ja.
Hast du den Bär auf der Kamera gesehen?
Oh, this is gonna be a big day. Yeah. I gotta mark his mark.
This is where it all turns around.
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Chapter 6: What challenges has Bridget faced in her career?
To get to a point where you're not... Ja. Ja. Ja. Ja.
dealt with grief. Everybody does.
It's the most common thing that people want to avoid.
In my universe, it's just not my current circle of friends. They're artists and we talk. But where I'm from, it wasn't like... How are you feeling?
That's like just something that just wasn't... Yeah, and if you get that question, it's a one or two word answer and you move by.
Yeah, exactly. Great, good. Yeah, good, yeah. Yeah, let's have dinner. All of that. But you grew up in Kansas? I grew up in Kansas, yeah. I'm from Manhattan, Kansas.
The place that's in the show.
Yeah, the place that's in the show. We sort of, we were going to try it in Emporia, Kansas and then we visited Manhattan while we were scouting and that was like this is where it should be because it's a military town and a college town and it's where I'm from. And you know it. And I know it.
So there's a comfort level there. Es gibt einen Komfort-Level. Ist es aufgrund von dir? Wie kam der Show dazu? Ich bin kein großer Kabarett-Mann. Überraschend.
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Chapter 7: How does Bridget connect with her audience?
Ja.
Und ich liebe das Gefühl nicht. Ich habe es besser gemacht, aber als Comic oder jemand, der auf der Bühne lebt, um das Teil von mir zu zeigen, fühlt es sich so fragil und seltsam an. Aber das ist nicht, wo mein Showman-Stuff kommt. Ich singe nicht mit Sicherheit.
Ja, aber wer kümmert sich? Ich meine, es geht nicht darum. Für mich geht es immer um Verbindung. Es ist wie... Singen und Musik sind für mich der beste Weg, mit anderen Menschen zu verbinden. Es ist egal, wie groß du bist. Ich liebe es, tolle Sänger zu hören. Aber für mich würde ich lieber jemanden sehen, der... It's in their heart, you know, you can feel it.
It's so moving, man. If I go to a musical and even watching your show, like when you finally get up on stage, I'm like, oh God. I've just become this crying man. I try to do it alone. Are you a crier? I am, but I mean not in situations that would warrant it. Like I feel... If I'm in a situation with a human and that feeling comes up, I'll try to keep it down. But if I'm watching a show or a movie.
It's all out. Yeah, it happens.
Do you put this roll of paper towels here in case I start crying?
Well, I usually have Kleenex out here. Tom Green was in here the other day and his dog threw up.
Oh, okay. Well, look.
It works for all holes. Exactly. Sure. But so all your siblings just kind of beat up on you? Yeah.
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Chapter 8: What future projects does Bridget have in mind?
The first P.F. Chang's?
The first one, thank you very much. That's intense. It's in Scottsdale, actually.
In Scottsdale?
The fashion square there.
Sure, so that was when it was like kind of a... It was a great new restaurant here.
It was hot. It was like Charles Barkley and all his friends, and he brought on all these people, and so I got to know a lot of professional athletes, and they would have me... Sie haben mich gefragt, den National Anthem zu singen bei den Spring Training Games. Das war das einzige, was ich gemacht habe. Und Opern auch? Ich singe in klassischer Art. Aber hast du schon Opern gemacht?
Ich meine, ja, aber das ist das, was ich... Du musst deine Konzerte machen und all das. Aber ich gehe wild an den Wochenenden und gehe zu Karaoke-Bars und das war meine Leidenschaft.
Was waren deine Songs?
Weißt du, du musst es wissen, Peace of My Heart, die Klassiker.
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