Five Lesbian Comics You Might Not Know but Should
by Dara Nai, Contributing Writer
September 17, 2007
Sabrina Matthews has a casual, laid-back delivery that borders on the deadpan. Her honest and insightful wit earned her a spot on this season's Last Comic Standing. She made her acting debut on America's Most Wanted playing a lesbian comic, then further stretched her acting chops by playing the role of "Suburban Dyke" in Margaret Cho's Bam Bam and Celeste. Most recently, she played a lesbian used-car dealer on The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman.
AfterEllen.com: What was it like being on Last Comic Standing?
Sabrina Matthews: It was actually a lot of fun, getting to work with all those comics and getting to meet some new comics. [But] the show itself is an art competition — I'm not sure how well those two things interact. The best thing you can do is compete with yourself.
AE: Did you make your set less gay because you were going to be on mainstream television?
SM: I changed my set eight hundred and four times, but I never changed it to make it less gay. My set is never really entirely gay. and my set is absolutely never devoid of gayness. I was really glad the network kept the out jokes in my sets because I wanted my fans who were watching to [know] I would [never] chicken out just because it's national television. And I wanted new people to get a sampling of all of me. I think more than anything, I wanted to represent.
AE: When you said, "Do we have to have a special moment where I announce I'm gay?" it got a huge laugh.
SM: Some of your best jokes are jokes that you never knew were funny. That [line] was something I said one night on stage when I realized I was 15 minutes into my set [and] I hadn't said anything about it. I thought I'd better get something in about this — better get to that stuff because I want [it] in there. And it got this huge laugh, so it stayed. I don't actually usually do that line, just where it sort of comes up organically.
AE: What do you think are some of your best bits?
SM: There's a line, I think it may have even made it onto Last Comic Standing: "You know what I hate about lesbian stereotypes? They all apply to me." But I said that and I didn't mean it to be funny. It was about a year before I figured out why it was funny.
AE: Self-deprecating humor is disarming, too.
SM: I have a really strong belief that changes are made in two ways; either huge things happen and people try to recover from them as best they can, or small, little advances are made and then people change [the way they think].
Being an openly gay comic … has been a type of activism. I'm going in and getting straight people who think they don't know about gay people, and laughing with a gay person — me. I have people come up to me after shows and say, "I never met a gay person before."
And I say, "Yeah, you did, you just didn't know it." Those people begin to see gay people as human … [and] have some empathy for them.
AE: Have you ever not used gay material in your act?
SM: I never didn't do it. Actually, that's not true. I tried not being out once, and it wasn't because I was worried about the room. I tried it to try it. It was severely creepy. I had no idea how to feel about it. I hated everything about it. I just wanted to get back on stage and say, "Wait! Wait! Wait!"
Truly, the best comedy shows will have a woman on the bill, a person of color on the bill, a gay person on the bill, maybe someone who talks about being Muslim on the bill. You know what I mean? The more different realities that come to the bill, the better it is. People all have things in common, and that's where comedy comes from — being inside someone else's head. You can't laugh at something you don't understand.
AE: What do you have coming up?
SM: I'm leaving for an RSVP cruise to Alaska in a few days, and then I'll be doing two shows for Hampton Roads Pride in the Virginia Beach, Norfolk area. In October, I've got shows in Provincetown. In November, I'm headlining at the Houston Laff Stop.
AE: The last time I was in P-town, it looked like it was taken over by straight people. Have you noticed this?
SM: It's fun to scare the s--- out of the straight people. One year, this guy was wandering around and he was pointing at the gay people in a derisive way. He was with his wife and his two kids; one of them happened to be a daughter. While he was waiting to cross the street, I came up behind him, leaned up to his ear and said, [ominously] "How much for the girl?"
original article located at http://www.afterellen.com/people/20 07/9/lesbiancomics?page=0%2C3
by Dara Nai, Contributing Writer
September 17, 2007
Sabrina Matthews has a casual, laid-back delivery that borders on the deadpan. Her honest and insightful wit earned her a spot on this season's Last Comic Standing. She made her acting debut on America's Most Wanted playing a lesbian comic, then further stretched her acting chops by playing the role of "Suburban Dyke" in Margaret Cho's Bam Bam and Celeste. Most recently, she played a lesbian used-car dealer on The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman.
AfterEllen.com: What was it like being on Last Comic Standing?
Sabrina Matthews: It was actually a lot of fun, getting to work with all those comics and getting to meet some new comics. [But] the show itself is an art competition — I'm not sure how well those two things interact. The best thing you can do is compete with yourself.
AE: Did you make your set less gay because you were going to be on mainstream television?
SM: I changed my set eight hundred and four times, but I never changed it to make it less gay. My set is never really entirely gay. and my set is absolutely never devoid of gayness. I was really glad the network kept the out jokes in my sets because I wanted my fans who were watching to [know] I would [never] chicken out just because it's national television. And I wanted new people to get a sampling of all of me. I think more than anything, I wanted to represent.
AE: When you said, "Do we have to have a special moment where I announce I'm gay?" it got a huge laugh.
SM: Some of your best jokes are jokes that you never knew were funny. That [line] was something I said one night on stage when I realized I was 15 minutes into my set [and] I hadn't said anything about it. I thought I'd better get something in about this — better get to that stuff because I want [it] in there. And it got this huge laugh, so it stayed. I don't actually usually do that line, just where it sort of comes up organically.
AE: What do you think are some of your best bits?
SM: There's a line, I think it may have even made it onto Last Comic Standing: "You know what I hate about lesbian stereotypes? They all apply to me." But I said that and I didn't mean it to be funny. It was about a year before I figured out why it was funny.
AE: Self-deprecating humor is disarming, too.
SM: I have a really strong belief that changes are made in two ways; either huge things happen and people try to recover from them as best they can, or small, little advances are made and then people change [the way they think].
Being an openly gay comic … has been a type of activism. I'm going in and getting straight people who think they don't know about gay people, and laughing with a gay person — me. I have people come up to me after shows and say, "I never met a gay person before."
And I say, "Yeah, you did, you just didn't know it." Those people begin to see gay people as human … [and] have some empathy for them.
AE: Have you ever not used gay material in your act?
SM: I never didn't do it. Actually, that's not true. I tried not being out once, and it wasn't because I was worried about the room. I tried it to try it. It was severely creepy. I had no idea how to feel about it. I hated everything about it. I just wanted to get back on stage and say, "Wait! Wait! Wait!"
Truly, the best comedy shows will have a woman on the bill, a person of color on the bill, a gay person on the bill, maybe someone who talks about being Muslim on the bill. You know what I mean? The more different realities that come to the bill, the better it is. People all have things in common, and that's where comedy comes from — being inside someone else's head. You can't laugh at something you don't understand.
AE: What do you have coming up?
SM: I'm leaving for an RSVP cruise to Alaska in a few days, and then I'll be doing two shows for Hampton Roads Pride in the Virginia Beach, Norfolk area. In October, I've got shows in Provincetown. In November, I'm headlining at the Houston Laff Stop.
AE: The last time I was in P-town, it looked like it was taken over by straight people. Have you noticed this?
SM: It's fun to scare the s--- out of the straight people. One year, this guy was wandering around and he was pointing at the gay people in a derisive way. He was with his wife and his two kids; one of them happened to be a daughter. While he was waiting to cross the street, I came up behind him, leaned up to his ear and said, [ominously] "How much for the girl?"
original article located at http://www.afterellen.com/people/20
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