Street roots
June 10, 2011
HAMEISTER, from page 1
And I was just blown away by the talent and
how genuine these kids were and how much
potential they had. It was just extraordinary.
The work that p:ear does is unbelievable. I
was really lucky growing up. I was slightly
upper-middle class, and so I never had to
deal with being afraid of not having a place
to live, but I do know that had I not had a
creative outlet, I don’t know what would
have happened to me. I very well could have
taken all that neuroses and allowed it to
feed on itself instead of sending it put into
the world. I think that all of our fears inside
of us can just grow to be gigantic, and as
soon as we speak them, they shrink. So an
outlet like p:ear for these kids, it’s a place,
for people to go and have that recognition —
that there are people like me, and we
matter. If that person matters, then I matter
to.
one of the questions he gets ask more than
any other is “is this normal?” About any
sexual act Because we all want to know -
am I normal? There is no such thing as a
normal family or a normal person. But you
can hear that moment when you go too far
with an audience, I was with you right up
until... Now you’re weird.
Every single show with Live Wire!, I feel
like I’m throwing a party, and if people don’t
have a good time, it’s my fault And also I’m
talking to really, really brilliant people and I
want to make them look good and make
sure I don’t look bad.
J.Z.: It’s interesting that Live Wire! is a
nonprofit, a 501c3.
C.H.: We’re independently produced, and
I think we’re pretty original. The majority of
these shows come out of their stations, and
we don’t coine out of OPB, and part of the
reason that decision was made was so we
can get grants, and it’s been extremely
successful for that
J.Z.: There’s that shared freak issue again.
C.H.: Exactly. I’ve had mental illness in
my family, and for me the way our country
and our culture deal with the mentally ill is
a devastating problem^ and the fact that
mental illness isn’t viewed as an illness in
this country, in-the same way that cancer is
viewed as an illness, in terms of the way
that health insurance companies deal with
Jit So for me, the mental health and
homeless issues are intertwined. I just think
that if we were able to address the mental
health issue, it would address the homeless
issue as well. That pisses me off, too.
J.Z.: How have you weathered the economy,
selling a comedy show to major funders?
C.H.: We’re more an arts organization, so
we approach foundations as if we are the
opera, or the symphony or Portland Center
Stage, but it’s rough. Its rough for us. We
obviously have some really brilliant and
forward-thinking and nationally recognized
thinkers come on our show, but we also
have sketch comedy, and sketch comedy
isn’t perceived as particularly high brow,
which is why it has a little difficulty finding
it’s place in public radio. They love political
satire, and they love comedy that téaches
you something, but comedy for the sake of
comedy doesn’t live in a lot of places on
public radio. Because “The Moth” is so
successful and there are so many funny
stories being told, we’re just Hoping mere
will be more and more. And obviously “This
American Life” has (David) Sedaris and
Sarah Vbwell and people come on and tell
funny stories, but they’re obviously funny in
a more quiet or public radioey way than a
sketch about a phone with a subtexting
feature.
J.Z.: Are we missing something?
C.H.: On the majority of public radio
stations, these are people who are
journalists, and they’re used to there always
having to be a reason to have content. You
have to be teaching something, or you have
to be making people think in a différent way.
But honestly, the best comedy that I’ve
heard does make people think in a different
way about whatever it is you’re doing a
sketch about. Or it focuses a laser light on
if. We did a sketch recently where Osama
Bin Ladèn, Muammar Gaddafi and Kim
Jong-Il had a terrorist club and they were
trying to come up with who to attack next,
and they were having trouble picking a city.
It was all about how these cultures hate us
so much but they can’t help but love the
things we create. We weren’t trying to make
a statement with it, we were just trying to
be absurd, but for me, I like the skewed
vision of the world, where you take a really
ùgly thing and you’re able to laugh at it And
of course now we know that Osama bin
Laden had porn in his hideout.
J.Z.: What’s your take on Portland politics?
What gets your goat, what turns you on, and
what do you roll your eyes at?
C.H.: I don’t read a lot about local
Portland politics, so I don t really get angry
about a lot of local stuff. I’m talking with
Caitlin Baggott with the Bus Project now
because I guess BRO is about to launch a
bigger campaign. I’m really concerned with
Planned Parenthood losing funding. The gay
marriage issue — and I keep coming back to
it in my work and elsewhere — that to me
is probably the biggest social polity issue
that, pisses me off and I don’t understand
why people are so upset about it. I’m not
J.Z.: True, they don’t treat it the same even
though we’re talking about the most complex
organ in our bodies.
JENNIE BAKER PHOTOGRAPHY
"I know that had I not had a
creative outlet, I don't know
what would have happened
to me. I very well could have
taken all that neuroses and
allowed it to feed on itself
instead of sending it out into
the world. I think that all of
our fears inside of us can
just grow to be gigantic, and
as soon as we speak them,
they shrink."
gay myself, but ! have people in my life that
I really care about, and it feels like it’s so
simple. It feels to me like the one issue that
more than anything else is fueled by fear
and hate and misunderstanding. Almost like
people have to work to be that
unempathetic. You see all the stories out
there and I’m like, how many stories do you
need to see to show that gay people are just
people. I was fascinated to see that
“Modem Family” is one of the top three or
five shows among Republicans. That doesn’t
jive with me. How can you love the couple
on the show and watch their lives and still
legislate against it?
J.Z.: How do you leverage your profile to do
something about it.
C.H.: I talk about it whenever I can. I had
just mentioned that Schwarzenegger Vetoed
marriage rights for gays and lesbian’s twice.
He vetoed it twice in California. And when I
see people like this who are so clearly
fucking up on the marriage front, and
they’re allowed to vote on this legislation; I
say once you’ve had two failed marriages,
you’re not allowed to vote on marriage
legislation anymore. It’s like losing your
license? I talk about it on (the podcast) Cort
and Fatboy. And I did a piece on OPB on
Measure 1 in Arkansas that said even
straight couples who weren’t married can’t
adopt So whenever I can, I write about it
and we do sketches about it on Live Wire!
We did a sketch a few years ago where gay
marriage had become legal and this couple
was in their home, and the guy said, “You
know, it’s weird, I feel like just cooking our
children and eating them!” Like gay
marriage had just caused this massive
hysteria and horrible stuff, that everyone
claimed was going to happen. So we try to
comment on it whén we can.
J.Z.: Do you hear from people who say
“thank you. ” Do you ever get the feedback that
you helped someone or are making people’s
lives better?
C.H.: That would be the ideal situation. I
tend to get that when I do essays. I write
more personal stuff, and people will come
up to me afterward -r and so many of our
experiences are universal — and they come
to me and say that just happened to me. You
just wrote my life for thè last six months.
That’s hugely satisfying, and I’m really
grateful that people are even willing to come
up and say something like that. Part of the
reasons that I would love for my book to be
published is it just makes me feel better
when I read something that somebody has
written that makes me feel the same way.
Like when I’m reading an essay and I can
hear people recognize. It’s the same thing.
It’s, thank God, somebody feels the same thing.
C.H.: I’ve had a couple of experiences
where I’ve had to either take people to the
mental ward of a hospital or visit people in
the mental ward of a hospital. One was like
15 years ago in Ohio - my father was bipolar
- so we had®Ta^nim to the hospital. And
1 remember walking into the hospital,
through the maternity ward, going down an
elevator, and then through a series of
creepy hallways until you got to the mental
ward. The maternity ward was this beautiful,
warm, gorgeously appointed room,
everything to make you feel better. Huge
amounts of money spent on this ward.
These are the happiest days of your life.
And then you get to the mental ward -
worst days of your life. It looked like they
hadn’t changed things since 1930. Metal,
linoleum floors, ugly, grey, no money. What
the fuck is wrong here? And it’s because our
health system treats the mentally ill and
believes that they’re not worth as much as
other patients.
J.Z.: That they’re not normal.
v C.H.: That they’re not normal, and I just
think it’s utterly and completely backward,
in my experience. Recently, I had a friend
who was having a rough time and I went to
visit her in a hospital and same deal it’s
like the worst, ugliest part of the hospital.
15 years later - same deal.
J.Z.: You’ve been riffing on Portland life for
years. What do you think of the TV show
“Portlandia?”
C.H.: I think it’s funny. I think it’s great
for Portland. And it could be really bad for
Portland. I’m on Twitter, and when you’re
on there you just see the public
consciousness flying by you really quickly.
And when “Portlandia” came out, my
favorite comment on Twitter was “Great,
now no one’s ever going to take Portland
J.Z.: Goes back to the not being the only
seriously again.” It was so adorable. Like
freak in the room.
when the fuck has anyone taken Portland
seriously? We’re taken seriously in terms of
C.H.: Exactly.
sustainability, absolutely. Sustainability, city
planning - there are lots of things about
J.Z.: You ’ve gotten involved in the homeless
Portland that are amazing - but still -
frónt, doing an event for p:ear a few years ago.
seriously? No.
If anything that calls attention.to Portland
C.H.: I did, and I got to go in one time for
’ is good to a point But what I don’t want to
a writers group with some of the teen-agers
happen is for one day people to say, “Oh,
there, and I got to sit in with them, and I
Portland’s so over? We’re not a flash in the
got to read some of their stories and talk to
pan. We’re not a trend — we’re a city.
them, and that was an amazing experience.