Janeane Garofalo, who brings her stand-up act to Dublin this month, insists she is not a political comedian, but her words have still managed to stir up controversy in her native US
THOUGH BEST KNOWN for acting roles in The West Wing(as campaign adviser Louise Thornton), 24 and The Larry Sanders Show(as the slightly crazed researcher, Paula), Janeane Garofalo defines herself as a stand-up comedian. Performing on the US comedy circuit since she was in her 20s (she's now 44), she was always hearing about a fabled festival in Scotland which could make, or more likely break, a person. "Doing the Edinburgh festival became this big thing for me," she says. "I would hear all the stories from other American comics – a lot of horror stories about their time there – and it was always something I wanted to do.
“Unfortunately the festival always coincided with acting jobs I had, but this year I made it over.”
Rather rashly, in hindsight, she decided to perform at the UK music festival, Latitude (of a similar ilk to the Electric Picnic), before going up Edinburgh. She lasted only 10 minutes on the stage before walking off.
“It was just terrible. I just sucked,” she says. “I’ve no one to blame but myself. Performing in a tent during the day is just not for me. It wasn’t the audience’s fault, it was mine. So I decided just to leave. It’s a horrible feeling.”
It didn’t leave her in a good frame of mind for Edinburgh. “I was so worried about the festival – I know there’s about a million shows on and the audiences can be very tough, but it went very well.” An early review in the all-important Scotsman newspaper was pretty horrific, but other reviewers were favourable and picked up on her quick-witted scattergun approach.
In the US, Garofalo’s political activism has made her something of a household name. As a left-wing liberal, she was a vocal opponent of the war in Iraq and regularly appeared on TV programmes to debate the issues around the invasion. She is a bright and articulate political spokeswoman who appears to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of whatever political issue she is talking about, but she is not, she stresses, a political comedian.
“That would be a very misleading description of what I do as a comic,” she says. “I don’t even view myself as a female comedian. I like to think my material is gender-neutral and I don’t see myself in any way as an American comedian – I’ve always felt more like a global citizen.
“There is going to be some politics in there because I do deal with current events – but how much I do varies a lot from night to night. I think politics is part of the fabric of our lives all the time, so it’s hard to say what is ‘political’ and what isn’t.
“I find it hard to talk about my set because these things never really transfer well into print, but there’s a lot of personal and very confessional material in there. All of what I talk about is true and has happened, but there is some embellishment obviously.
“Sometimes there’ll be something that has just happened to me, or there will be something in the news that will change the shape of the show – but that all depends on the night.”
Garofalo delves into sex, drugs and rock’n’roll territory on stage and is happiest when pointing out the ridiculousness of some aspects of contemporary culture. Fast-paced and self-deprecating, she once said of her material: “I prefer to see the dark side of things. The glass is always half-empty. And cracked. And I just cut my lip on it. And chipped a tooth.”
Inspired by the likes of Bill Hicks and George Carlin (both great iconoclasts), Garofalo began as a comic while still at university.
“Then it became something I just kept doing around the clubs afterwards. It wasn’t until a few years later, when I was 27, that suddenly all these opportunities as an actress presented themselves,” she says.
She realised a dream of sorts when she got to join the famous Saturday Night Liveprogramme, but left after a few months, disillusioned that the only roles she was getting were subsidiary ones.
She has worked the actor/comedian route since and says the name recognition from her TV work helps get audiences into her stand-up shows. “The only thing there is, people think they have some idea of who you are – but they don’t at all,” she says.
Programmes such as The West Wingand 24 have given her large-scale exposure, but there's no glamour there, she says. "With acting, it's not like you can want to be in a programme or aim to get to a certain place – you just do what you're offered."
On the election of Barack Obama, American comic Rich Hall said it was a sad day for comedians, joking that “in a year’s time either I’ll have no material or I’ll be a racist”.
Garofalo sees no such danger and says comics can thrive in the Obama era. “Firstly, the standard of political journalism in the US is so poor that that’s always going to be a rich area for any comic. Secondly, the right wing in the US has, since Obama’s election, become even more belligerent and aggressive than they were under Bush. I still describe myself as a taxpaying citizen of a managed democracy – because in the US it is only a ‘managed’ democracy.”
She is still in the political news in the US for remarks she made last April about the Tea Party protests, a series of gatherings across the US organised by people opposed to Obama’s economic reform package and his healthcare bill. Garofalo referred to the Tea Party protesters as “racists” saying: “This [the protest] is all about hating having a black man in the White House.”
Her comments were widely criticised, not least among commentators who believe that any criticism of Obama should not be swatted away simply as being “racist” in origin.
“There are some people who just can’t cope with the idea of a black president,” she says. “For me, both as a political activist and a comedian, Obama’s election can only be a good thing. It keeps throwing up more and more issues.”
- Janeane Garofalo performs in Dublin, alongside Al Madrigal, in the Olympia Theatre, Dublin, on Sept 23 as part of the Bulmers International Comedy Festival, which runs from tomorrow until Sept 27; bulmerscomedy.ie
Bulmers Comedy Six To Watch
The Bulmers International Comedy Festival runs throughout September in a variety of venues around Dublin, featuring a small army of comedians from all corners of the world. While some of the acts are well-known, others are relatively unfamiliar to Irish audiences (although they are big names in their own countries).
THREE YOU WILL KNOW . . .
Michael McIntyre
Live comedy’s new star act. He had the biggest sales for a debut DVD in the UK and sells out massive arenas. His style is a mix of Peter Kay and Eddie Izzard (Olympia, September 6th and 7th).
Paul Merton
Known from his TV work, Merton returns to Dublin with a bunch of players for a night of comedy improvisation (Olympia, September 25th).
Jimmy Carr
Currently touring his Rapier Wit show, Carr remains a huge audience favourite thanks to his sometimes scabrous routines
(Olympia, September 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th).
THREE YOU WON’T KNOW BUT COULD BE PLEASANTLY SURPRISED BY . . .
Stephen Lynch
Lynch is an accomplished American comedy songwriter with a huge following at home (Olympia, September 9th and 10th).
Dan Antopolski
A smart and inventive British comic who specialises in a form of quiet surrealism with a biting edge (Academy, September 17th).
Maz Jobrani
As part of the Axis of Evil travelling show which featured three US comics of Middle Eastern descent, Jobrani made his name as an astute observer of attitudes to Muslims and religion in general (Olympia, September 26th).
