Roseanne Barr rose to fame as America’s domestic goddess, but has since moved onto other roles—writer, talk show host, even political candidate. Barr has now returned to stand-up, including multiple performances as part of The Venetian’s Lipshtick series. Her time as a judge on Last Comic Standing inspired her to segue from writing books and articles to writing for live audiences again. She took time out of her busy schedule to talk to Las Vegas Magazine’s Matt Kelemen about returning to the stage.
You’re touring again. How is your mood?
I’m excited. I’ve been doing it a little bit these past few months and I’ve really been enjoying it, so I’m looking forward to it, actually.
It’s been fairly well-reported that appearing as a judge on Last Comic Standing inspired you to go back on tour. Were you thinking about being on stage or coming up with new comedy while participating in the show?
Well, it’s just really stimulating to be around comics and watch comics. It’s what I love, going back to the roots, you know?
Had it been awhile since you surrounded yourself with other comics?
Yeah, it had been quite awhile, actually. I’d been living in Hawaii for quite a long time and not working too much.
How long would you say that period lasted?
About five or six years. I did a few things in that time, but mostly I was there for my son to go to high school.
Are you the Macadamia Nut Goddess now?
Oh yeah. We still have all those nut trees and that’s a lot of work, but it’s really fun and I like all that stuff. We’re not selling them or any of that. That’s too much work. We just eat ’em and give ’em to our friends.
Is the way that you turn your life experiences into material the same as it’s always been?
Yeah. I just got real rusty because I didn’t do stand-up for 14 years, really. It’s taken me several years to be able to get back into the rhythm and the craft of it. I’ve done three or four dates each year just so I don’t get all the way rusty. But working every night, there’s nothing better than that to make you sharpen up your skills.
You performed at The Venetian last year. How does appearing at Lipshtick compare to the Sahara engagement you had a few years back?
We comics like a theater that’s shaped like the one at the Venetian. We like that kind of a theater because you can interact. You can see everybody; they’re right in front of you. It’s kind of more exciting, and the stage is deep and big, so you can walk. … But I’ve had a blast in every place I’ve played in Vegas. I’ve always had a wonderful time and had great audiences all over the place, and that’s the challenge of it. A lot of audiences that are in Vegas, there’s so many things for them to do, you have to work extra hard to get them in the zone.
How did you get back in the zone for writing material again?
I always was writing, just for a while I was writing for the reader rather than a live audience. It’s two different kinds of writing. Then there’s television writing, which is something completely different. Just getting back to stand-up, that’s how you write stand-up. You have to try it out in front of a live audience and you keep sharpening it. It’s a process.
Do you lock yourself in a room when you are ready to write comedy, or do you try to capture the ideas you get in fleeting moments in the car?
Yeah, I do all that. I sit down and write, and carry a pen and paper wherever I am. Something will start making me think about a joke and I’ll write it.
Are you going to be writing for the reader again soon or will you be purely focused on stand-up for a while?
I’m kind of purely focused on stand-up for a while because I’ve signed on to do some cities, and of course I want to focus, so I’m only doing one thing at a time and giving it all my energy. When I worked on the Roseanne show I had that kind of focus, and then I had no focus. So it’s good to have some focus back, and I’m just thinking, “Here’s comes my show,” and I say whatever I want. There’s no interference or censorship or nothing, except the audience. It’s just fun.
I was just reading Roseannearchy, and my favorite line in it was: “There’s defense, and there’s the insane policy of beating your plowshares into swords and acting threatened and victimized when you’ve got the biggest life-threatening sh*thammer in the world on your side.” Even when I got to “beating your plowshares into swords” I didn’t expect what was around the corner. Do you get a rush when you write lines like that, or is it all the same when you’re writing for the reader?
Sometimes I’ll just sit and fill up the page and it looks like a crazy person wrote it. Then I’ll cull it down, down, down over a few days. There’s no better feeling than writing a great line, oh my God. There’s nothing better.
It feels like there’s a resurgence of comedy in Vegas, where it’s the rock ‘n’ roll of the Strip right now. It seems like there’s more of an appreciation, and Lipshtick and [Aces of Comedy at] the Mirage are kind of the main things pushing it forward.
That’s cool. I mean, stand-up’s always the thing that saves show business. (Laughs). After they forget that for a really long time, they’ll come back to it.
Yeah, yeah. And it seems like that’s what’s been happening, or generating more momentum during the past year.
I thought so too! That’s why I was excited to get there. All my friends, they’re all wanting to do it too.
I had a blast at Whitney Cummings.
Isn’t she great? I just love her.
She was fantastic. I was in the front row. What’s really great about her is she tackles things from a female’s point of view and saying some outrageous things, but I don’t think of her as a “female comedian.” I think of her as a comedian, where a few years ago some women were still being looked at as the female comedian version of a guy, or that’s how Comedy Central seemed to be presenting it to us.
Well, that’s in your head. That doesn’t have anything to do with me or any other comic or woman. That’s all in y’all’s head.
[Laughs] She was really fantastic though, and the current crop of female comedians—it just seems like we’ve come to a new place.
Yeah, that’s right. I think so too, and I hope to do a tour with some other women or something. I’m thinking about that too. That would be a blast. We’d throw a guy in there for good measure, but I’d like to tour with some women.
You’re probably the only comedian that could pull that off.
Well, we’ll see. It’s kind of exciting. There are so many great women comics. I’ve seen great men comics too on the show [Last Comic Standing]. There’s some pretty great men comics, and that’s exciting too, you know? There’s men out there just saying … they’re so brave and funny.
Who makes you lose it when you see stand-up today?
Oh, I like them all! I just love every comic getting up there, when they can construct and deliver a good joke. I’m excited to see Larry David’s Broadway show [Fish in the Dark]. That looks great. The other day I went to Hollywood Boulevard where Dick Gregory was getting a star, and he’s still the funniest. He is so funny, and he’s in his 80s. He still has the fire; he’s just a great comic. Everything makes me laugh. I’m looking forward to getting back on [Last Comic Standing] because I love seeing these new, inventive, different kind of comics. It seems to be all about the women, too. I think this year’s really going to be about the women comics.
So you’re going to do [Last Comic Standing]. You really enjoyed it.
Oh, I loved it. They were so nice to me. And I’ve made a couple of appearances on Cristela, the ABC show starring Cristela Alonzo. I love that. I’ve never played a sexy girl before, so that’s fun. And I’ve got another show on Investigation Discovery called Momsters, and that’s coming back, too. So I’m very happy, and I’m doing my stand-up and enjoying my life.
Do you feel like a spiritual godmother to some of these young comedians?
Yeah, kind of. I do in a lot of ways because I was one of the first ones out there when they were saying we weren’t funny. We were like, “Are you kidding? Women are funniest!” Women are the funniest people on Earth, and it’s cool that that’s happened and the change has been made. And there’s so many great women now. It was hard being one of the only ones, but this is a new age.
I read an article at shriverreport.org related to TV that you probably know about called, “Where Have You Gone, Roseanne Barr?”
Oh, no. I never … I don’t know anything about that.
It was from 2009, and it examined how was there was an absence of women portrayed “as everyday breadwinners and caregivers” in television since your presence was no longer there.
Well, it is though, because my show is on five times a day.
Yeah, but I think they were referring to new television shows. Do you think Cristela fills that void in primetime a little bit?
I think they’re just getting their legs. They’ve only done one season. I was just impressed with all of them. They’re great actors, hilarious actors, and it was a blast to work with them. They’re finding their legs, and it’s fun to be part of a first season again.
It must take you back.
Well, I just love them. They’re all so nice, and a lot of the writers were Roseanne show writers, so that’s fun too.
When you watch the young comedians on Last Comic Standing, does it take you back to some of your early performances? Does it remind you of slugging it out in the beginning?
No, because when we first started we didn’t go on TV. We didn’t go on TV until we had an hour. Now, some of these people only have seven minutes, and when they get up there … it’s different to see how people who have never done TV before think it works. It’s interesting.
I was watching your stand-up, and it struck me that I didn’t see any overt influences. I’ve interviewed a lot of comedians and they usually have one that they are particularly reverential toward. I feel like your transition from life to stage was a lot more organic. Would you say you had influences early on?
My dad was really funny. He was like a would-be stand-up comic, and his favorite was Lenny Bruce. But you know, Phyllis Diller, all the women … Totie Fields, my father and I used to watch on TV. Moms Mabley. I can’t remember everybody’s name. Joan Rivers. All of them influenced me. I liked how they all did it. I loved Richard Pryor, too. Dick Gregory. I like comics that can shake it up, just say a few words and people are screaming. It’s great.
Do you ever see video of yourself on stage and see a little bit of your dad in a little twist of phrase or characteristic?
Oh, totally. All the time.
So when we’re watching you, we’re kind of seeing your dad?
Your seeing a lot of Jerry Barr, yeah. He was very funny, very dark. His humor was very dark, but we had all the comedy records and used to watch the comics together on Ed Sullivan on Sunday nights. May dad would tell me, “This guy….” He knew about comedy. He made me into a comic.
Did you get exposed to Dick Gregory through your father, or did you get exposed to him later?
Uh-huh. Through my father, yeah. He was one of my dad’s favorites, too. My dad thought he was like a prophet, social [satirist], like a Mark Twain. And he is.
That’s pretty amazing that you ran for president as the candidate of the party that nearly nominated him for its first candidate in 1968.
We ran for the same party. We talked about it, yeah. He ran when I was … I guess it in the ’60s, and he was real cool.
I understand you might be doing a documentary about your presidential run?
Well, I did do it, and it’s done. We’ll see. I don’t know what in the hell’s going on with that.
Do we have a title for it?
Mmm, I can’t really say right now. Because … I don’t know. You know how it is. I gotta wait for someone else to make an announcement, so I can say nothing. In the next couple of weeks there should be something out about it.
I get the impression that you don’t read about yourself online that much?
You know, when it’s intelligent or smart, or someone recommends it I will, but most of it’s just trash, so I don’t.
I read some of the latest posting to your blog and Twitter feed. Are you embracing your Jewish heritage a little more at this time than you have in the past? There were a lot of holiday references on your blog.
I’ve been that way since I was a little girl. My family’s like that, so I’ve always been that way. I’ve just gotten more vocal about it, more public about it. That’s all.
Do you have a favorite Roseanne episode? Or two?
Oh, I have so many. I have so many. I couldn’t narrow it down.
What was it like for you after the show ended, when all business was wrapped and you knew you weren’t going back in for a taping? What was it like for you mentally and physically?
I felt like it was just the time, putting it to bed, I loved it. It was like my kid, of course, and I would miss everybody. But I knew that would be it, and it was time for that.
Well, it gave you more time for writing. What’s been your favorite writing so far, and what do you have planned for your next project?
My favorite so far has been my presidential campaign speeches. That to me was the most fun. That’s the most fun it’s ever been, because it was kind of funny and serious too, and that was a cool balance to find.
Will those surface one day?
Yeah, they’ll be in my movie.
What do you think we’ll see from you in the future? Fifteen years from now, what do you want to look back on and know that you wrote?
Well, you know I’ve written three books, and … I don’t know, man. I think my favorite is the one I didn’t write yet. I’m not sure. I can tell you the way I live my life is I do what I want to do every single day. I have to do, of course, things that I have to do and need to do, but I also do things that I want. If I feel like writing, I’ll write. If I feel like roller skating, I’ll go roller skating. So I’m really happy. I’m always thinking, and right now I’m enjoying other people. It’s the Oscar season and I’m watching all the great performances and writing. I’m a big fan of other people and their work too, so I’ve been doing a lot more of that because I’ve had more time to read. I like reading and seeing other people do their thing, you know? It’s cool.
Are there any movies that you’ve seen that you …?
I just got my copies because I am an Academy member, so I’m looking forward to watching maybe six movies per day. Just sitting here with popcorn and a bottle of booze.
The Venetian, 9:30 p.m. Feb. 28, starting at $49.50 plus tax and fee. 702.414.9000
