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KPBS Midday Edition

Sandra Bernhard: Still Stirring Things Up After All These Years

Sandra Bernhard performing in her one-woman show, "I Love Being Me, Don't You?", which runs March 14-17 at the La Jolla Playhouse.
Courtesy photo
Sandra Bernhard performing in her one-woman show, "I Love Being Me, Don't You?", which runs March 14-17 at the La Jolla Playhouse.
Sandra Bernhard "I Love Being Me, Don't You?"
GUESTSandra Bernhard, comedienne and actress

When comedienne/actress Sandra Bernhard first appeared on "The Johnny Carson Show" in 1983, she told Johnny, "I just want to stay in shape, I want to be healthy, I want to live a long life and I want to be here for a long time...to bother a lot of people."

Thirty years later, Bernhard continues to fulfill this prophecy—and is still making us laugh with her unabashed humor and sharp satire, which tackles everything from politics and pop culture to her family and everyday life. She has appeared in several films—making her big-screen debut in Martin Scorsese's "The King of Comedy"—and on many television shows, including playing one of TV's first openly gay characters on "Roseanne" from 1991-1996. She is also a singer, performing her own original songs as well as covers, and a writer, having published three books with a fourth on the way.

And the years have been good to her in more ways than just fueling her cultural output. In her new one-woman show, "I Love Being Me, Don't You?", Sandra tells her audience she knows it's hard to look at her and not think somehow, time has stood still for her. The show's title is inspired by the narcissism Bernhard sees in our society, which she chalks up to omnipresent social media where everyone is weighing in constantly (she is very active on Twitter, though she tells the New York Times that she exhibits a bit more caution online than on-stage).

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Always provocative, the perennial bad girl is bringing "I Love Being Me, Don't You?" to the La Jolla Playhouse's intimate, cabaret-style Potiker Theatre, where she will be backed by a three-piece band, serving up her signature comic observations interwoven with live music. Bernhard speaks with KPBS Midday Edition about her new show and her thoughts on being a performer.

"I Love Being Me, Don’t You?” opens tomorrow and runs through March 17 at the La Jolla Playhouse in La Jolla. For more information, visit www.lajollaplayhouse.org.

Sandra Bernhard on Johnny Carson, 1983
Sandra Bernhard in "The King of Comedy"