Comedian Maria Bamford has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and a form of obsessive compulsive disorder that caused her to worry she might hurt or kill her family. She's had suicidal thoughts and checked herself into a psychiatric ward three times.
But she's found success openly sharing her struggles, first in her standup and recently in the Netflix series "Lady Dynamite," which follows a fictionalized version of Bamford over three time periods: in Los Angeles before she's properly diagnosed, staying with her family and seeking treatment in Duluth, Minnesota, and back in LA as she tries to rebuild her life. Bamford says she wants to help make mental illness feel more normal through her comedy and that she found it comforting to listen to others' experiences when she felt isolated.
"That's the tradition I'd like to continue," said Bamford, who is performing Saturday night at the Balboa Theater.
Bamford's latest album focuses on her recent marriage, which she calls her first sustained romantic relationship. Bamford used to think she had to find another Type A personality in order to be happy, but was struck by seeing husbands and wives visit her fellow patients in the psych ward. "What am I waiting for to be loved and to love someone?" she asked herself.
Now she finds things as mundane as grocery shopping are more meaningful when she does them with her husband.
"Watching shows, creating Christmas gifts and mailing them to people, those kinds of things I didn't really do or I was doing by myself and it's fun to have somebody else to do them with," Bamford said. "Oh and sex. And they’re naked, I forgot about that part, how naked they are all the time.”
Bamford joins KPBS Midday Edition on Wednesday to discuss her standup and how her medication's side effects may cause her character to be replaced by a puppet in the next season of "Lady Dynamite"—at least in some scenes.
