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PEOPLE
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uzanne Westenhoefer is a groundbreaker.
She is the first comic to do openly lesbian
material on Comedy Central, Evening at
the Improv and Caroline's Com edy Hour
and to have her own H BO special. Last month
she took the out-and-loud act to David Letter-
man’s stage.
Her 2001 show in Portland sold out, and it’s
no surprise why. She’s really funny— probably
the funniest comic I’ve ever seen.
But somehow, our interview turned to some
pretty deep, heavy topics.
Kathy Beige: Tell me all about Letterman.
Suzanne Westenhoefer: It was amazing....
It was more work to do that five-minute stint
than it is to do four months of shows.
KB: How so?
SW : 1 do a 90-m inute show. And I’ve
probably done seven different ones over the
course of about 10 years. I had to go through
all that material and try to find sort of a
mainstreamy lesbian.... I was allowed to he
out. I wasn’t going to be on if I wasn’t
allowed to he out.
Suzanne Is back in lawn
G ro u n d b re a k in g lesb ian , c o m ic te lls a ll...a n d th e n so m e
by
K
ath y
because 1 never had to focus on him. 1 didn’t
have to worry, "W hat was Dave thinking?”
Because he’s notorious for being standoffish.
So maybe for us it worked.
KB: You’ve said before that your dream
job would be to have Letterman’s job. So he
wasn’t there, how tempting was it to ....
SW : I did it! I sat in the chair and was like,
“Meryl Streep, so, your latest m ovie....” I
would bring Martina on all week.
KB: Has it opened any new doors?
SW : It’s kind of hard to gauge that. And, of
B
elge
course, we went to war right after— 24 hours
later. It’s hard to he all excited.
W hat’s interesting is the first big thing
that ever happened to me— I had only been
doing standup about five or six months, and I
got asked to be on the Sally Jessy Raphael show
in January of 1991. “Lesbians W ho Don’t
Look Like Lesbians.” ...S h e introduced me as
a lesbian standup com edian.... They started
contacting her to find me. It was just like off
the charts. And, literally, we went to war with
Saddam Hussein like 24 hours later. We
attacked Iraq. Isn’t that bizarre? Two of the
big milestones of my career, and a Bush goes
into Iraq and attacks. There’s something
creepy about it.
Do Suzanne Westenhoefer’« shows
cause military conflict?
The dyke diva is in Portland
on April 25 and
Eugene on April 26.
KB: OK, let’s change the topic here.
SW: This is so funny, isn’t it? We’re cutting
into all these intense, heavy topics. So much
for the comedy interview.
KB: Do you still love your job?
SW: I love my job! You have no idea. I
have the greatest job in the world.... Look at
what I get to do for a living. I go around, I
make people laugh, I get paid. Yo!
S uzanne W estenhoefer promises not to annoy
you unless you heckle her. She appears 8 p.m .
April 25 at Portland’s Aladdin Theater, 3017 S .E .
Milwaukie A ve. Tickets are $25 from the box
office, It’s My Pleasure or Ticketmaster. She
travels to Eugene for an 8 p.m . show April 26 at
the Hull Center, I Eugene Center. Tickets are
$25 from the box office or 541'682-5000.
KB: So, were you disap
pointed that Dave wasn’t
there and there was a guest
host?
SW : For me it was better
KATHY B elge is a Portland free-lance writer.
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KB: Why Planned Parenthood, as a lesbian?
SW : The biggest reason is that I got preg
nant when I was 16, and I aborted a child. I
know what it feels like to be poor, pregnant
and 16 and scared. Had I known about
Planned Parenthood and gotten the pill, it
wouldn’t have even had to happen.
I also think the abortion issue is a class issue
and a race issue because rich white women will
always be able to get abortions.... I really like
an organization that’s so pro-woman, too. I’m a
lesbian girl, and I’m not going to get pregnant. I
don’t even have a uterus anymore, but it’s such
a female issue— to be able to control whether or
not you want to bring children into the world.
KB: What do you do for fun when you’re
not working?
SW: N ew York Times crossword puzzle in
ink, including the Sunday, thank you. It’s my
obsession. I do yoga.... And I annoy my girl
friend... 10 1/2 years and I still annoy her. J H
KB: You were the first out lesbian
act on Letterman?
SW : They never had a gay
guy either.
Regular membership
KB: When was that?
SW: 1982. Then AIDS came, and I moved
to New York, and I marched with A C T UP. I
marched in the first Queer Nation march when
they split up from A C T UP. I’ve always been a
very vocal and financial supporter of Planned
Parenthood and other pro-choice organizations.
KB: Last time you were here in Portland
was right after 9/11; now we’re at war. How
does this change your act?
SW : I don’t think it does because I’m not
political. I myself am political, extremely, and
I’m an activist, hut my standup is so, you and
me, let’s talk about my girlfriend.... 1 don’t base
my act on MSNBC.
KB: So how’d you choose the
material?
SW : T he hardest part was, how
are we going to start? ...Because
you can ’t come out and say, “I’m
a lesbian. My dog__ ” So it was
really tricky. Finally, the guy
who hires the comics, he and I
just came upon it.
If you’ve ever seen me, you
know that a whole lot of
what I do is about A nnie
and I. So why not just go out
as if I were a girl in a 10 1/2-
year relationship, which I am,
and talk like 1 would at any
show? We had a lot of stuff like, is
she going to say “dyke”? But in the
end, the Letterman people let me do it, and
I’m just really excited because, no matter
what, we’re not going to go hack now. T h a t’s
one little door broken down, and that’s all
that matters.
$15 per night
KB: You say you’re politically active.
With what?
SW: I have always been an activist. I start
ed out starting a gay group on my campus....
God that was hard! ...A small college in
northwestern Pennsylvania called Clarion. We
got picketed. The Christians went nuts. I got
gay-bashed.... It was crazy.
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