by Thom Fowler
Janeane Garofalo, stand-up comedian and actor, rapped with us here at the Poop Shoot about the difficulty of being an opinionated entertainer, people she’s worked with (like Kevin Smith and Bruce McCulloch), stuff she likes and doesn’t like and clears up some common misconceptions about herself.
Thom: Someone told me you said once, “The perfect boyfriend goes to the comic-book store every Wednesday for new issues.” Did you mean that literally?
Janeane: I don’t know if I ever ... in the context of the perfect boyfriend, I was speaking about a lot of the boyfriends I’ve tended to have over the years. There have been a couple of common denominators in their sense of humor and their comic-book needs. The kind of person that goes to See/Hear in NewYork, just getting the EIGHTBALL or JOE MATT or BURN VICTIM. I actually really like that place.
Thom: Is that where you go cruising, in the indie section of a comic-book store?
Janeane: They seem to find me, rather than me cruising them.
Thom: I imagine you with a trench coat, hiding behind the latest issue of EIGHTBALL.
Janeane: Yeah, with little eye holes cut into the cover.
Thom: Is it weird that people remember something you said and it gets repeated over and over again and those sound bites then become part of your public persona?
Janeane: I think it’s not so much weird as it is irritating because it tends to be wrong in the first place. As you know, in any kind of “journalism,” whether it be hard-hitting news or celebrity, most journalists don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story. And oddly enough, you learn things about yourself that you never said ever, that are attributed to you or they combine things for the sake of a sound bite.
Thom: What kinds of things have you learned about yourself that you didn’t even know was you?
Janeane: First of all, my age changes. Where I was born changes, where I went to high school changes, where I went to college can change. Certain people that I know are news to me. The worst thing that happens to me is that people take things from your stand-up and take it out of the context of a stand-up comedy routine and they quote you as having said this thing. And as you know, irony and sarcasm do not translate to the printed page.
Thom: Do you feel like a walking myth? Are you aware of your recognizability factor?
Janeane: I don’t think [my recognizability factor is] that high. There are certain places you go where it’s high, but if I’m making a doctor’s appointment or making a vet appointment or a dog-grooming appointment, those people don’t know who I am. It’s not like when Janeane Garofalo calls for an appointment people know who she is. They absolutely don’t. Most people in the mainstream adult world don’t have any idea who I am. So its not like I have any misconception about how famous or not famous I am. My recognition factor tends to skew with people between the ages of maybe 19 and 37. Much younger people don’t seem to know who I am and older people than that don’t seem to know who I am. I don’t have any illusions that I’m a very famous person.
It depends on what circles you travel in. I’m sure the circles you travel in, yes, they do know who I am. But if you were to go out into the public sector most people probably don’t or if they do they might recognize me on sight but they don’t know why. But they wouldn’t know my name. They think they know me from some other place than television or something.
Thom: Like “Were you at my aunt’s wedding?”
Janeane: Yeah, like, “You look like my cousin’s friend or something.” I can tell by the way they look at me they aren’t quite sure how they know me, but I can tell that most people don’t know my name.
Thom: Isn’t that in one of your routines? The way people look at you when they are trying to figure out if they know who you are or recognize you or not?
Janeane: What I’ve said is, sometimes what happens is I’m walking down the street and maybe two people are coming towards me and one of the people recognizes me. And as they pass me I overhear this conversation between the two people, “Who? Who gives a fuck?” That’s usually what you hear. Once the other person is told who it is by the person who knows, the other person couldn’t be less interested.
Thom: Are you more of a non-fiction or a fiction person?
Janeane: I like them both. It’s a case-by-case basis. I am a very voracious reader, I read constantly. I do make decisions every once in a while to stick to certain genres but right now simultaneously I’m reading THE SHORT STORIES OF EDGAR ALLEN POE and FAST FOOD NATION, so I sometimes mix it up that way too.
Thom: Do people often mistake you for a lesbian?
Janeane: Yes. It’s totally fine because if I were to react badly it would imply that it’s a negative thing to be. Which I don’t [think that being gay is]. I’ve never understood that, why people are so adamant about proving their heterosexuality as if it’s creepy to be gay. I think its just as offensive as when people call another person “girl” as a pejorative term. Like when Eminem at the VMA awards was calling Moby a “girl,” which is just another reason to dislike Eminem, as if there weren’t enough. Just his attitude and his misogyny that he gets away with is really quite shocking. It would seem like I was anti-gay if I were to be upset by being thought of as a lesbian. It’s fine with me if people think I’m a lesbian.
Thom: When I was asking people what they would want to know about you, someone said that you had a THINK tattoo but then you had it covered over but then she said it was something you might not want to talk about.
Janeane: I got so tired of people asking me, “What is that on your arm and why?” that I covered it with a design. It’s an homage to Mario Savo, who was a student activist at Berkeley.
[And now a very brief introduction to Mario Savo. "There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!" - Mario Savo, from his speech before the Free Speech Movement Sit-In at UC Berkeley, December 3,1964.]
Thom: New York vs. Los Angeles. Did you ever live in L.A.?
Janeane: I lived in Los Angeles and I moved back to New York in 1994 to do SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE. I was there from September to March [1994].
Thom: Do you go between wanting to entertain and be funny and wanting to communicate something to society?
Janeane: Absolutely. My stand-up comedy is a constant conflict with that. The way I do stand up anyway is sort of a hybrid of spoken word and stand-up comedy anyway. Especially when I do a two-hour live show. There are some times when I try very hard to be socially responsible and sometimes it’s met with such resistance that I just go “Aw, fuck it.” You know what I mean? So few people really feel like listening to anyone’s politics. I try and make it funny but sometimes you can’t help but get passionate or angry. Even as it pertains to my level of anger at that Toby Keith song. That one “We’ll put a boot in your ass.” THE ANGRY AMERICAN, that country-western song. Mr. Dork Toby Keith. He’s just the worst of what this country can represent. A “kick their ass, take their gas” attitude. So he wrote a country song on this album called THE ANGRY AMERICAN, which is basically a song about how we are going to kick your ass in the Middle East. It’s the number-one-selling country-western single. And sometimes when I try and start humorous stuff about it, I get so aggravated and become so irritated with people like Toby Keith and the fans who support him.
Thom: You just want to call them all up and say “ASSHOLE!”
Janeane: Exactly. You find when you are doing stand-up a lot of times there will be people who start heckling you if you get too deeply into politics. It’s a really hard thing because I feel it’s a responsibility of anybody with a microphone to be not only true to themselves but to say something socially responsible. Especially right now. Especially the fact we are living under an administration, the George W. Bush administration, that was NOT democratically elected. You know what I mean? It’s a NOT democratically elected president that is about to lead us into the biggest mess in history and it’s important to say something about that. At the same time, because people don’t care to be informed and they blindly support George Bush you start getting booed and stuff like that. So it’s a real drag.
Thom: What is the core Janeane Garofalo message?
Janeane: I don’t have one. But if I did have one it would be, “Watch Better News Than Mainstream Network News.”
Thom: So switch from Fox News to CNN?
Janeane: No, I would say, “Watch BBC news, read The Nation, read PUNK PLANET, go online, there’s Salon.com, read Greg Palast, read Michael Moore.”
Thom: Would you ever double-bill with say, Margaret Cho, in a surly diva showdown?
Janeane: Now I need to ask why you would call either one of us a surly diva. That was a very sexist thing you just said. That we are surly, which I don’t really know what you are basing that on. And that we are divas. Both of those things are sort of considered pejorative in this culture. I consider that we both are just doing stand-up comedy. Would you say that Dennis Miller and George Carlin would have a showdown in a surly diva way? I don’t think you would.
I would gladly do a double bill with Margaret Cho but neither of us are surly and neither of us are divas.
Thom: Who would you like to do a movie with?
Janeane: Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese, I would like to do movies directed by them. I would like to act with Parker Posey and Sam Rockwell.
Thom: If there was a television show developed around you, what is the most plausible story concept?
Janeane: If there is a TV show, I’m not playing myself. For any actor, what does that mean, plausible or implausible? I wouldn’t want a show built around me. I don’t mind doing a TV series if it’s good but I’d like an ensemble series. If I’m an actor, I’m not trying to play myself.
Thom: Your dogs -- you talk a lot about them -- Do you take them to the dog park or walk them around fifth avenue on a Saturday afternoon? Isn’t it hard to take care of dogs in Manhattan?
Janeane: I walk them three times a day in various locations. I try to change it up for variety’s sake. We used to go to the dog park a lot until Dewey got attacked by a pit bull in Washington Square park, so we don’t go to the dog park anymore.
Thom: Is it difficult to take care of dogs in Manhattan?
Janeane: Not particularly, it would be nice to have a backyard where you just open the door and they run outside, but it’s not harder to take care of them per se.
Thom: Whose idea was FEEL THIS BOOK? It was a parody, but there seemed to be a core of “Wouldn’t it be nice if there some things you could do that would help you live a better life and be a happier person?”
Janeane: It was Ballantine Books’ idea. They approached Ben [Stiller] and me. It’s pretty much a straight-up parody.
Thom: Do you keep in touch with Paul Reubens from MYSTERY MEN?
Janeane: Every once in a while he calls me on my birthday. He’s a very kind person.
Thom: What was it like working with Bruce McCulloch?
Janeane: Great, real interesting, enlightened, intelligent guy. Very funny.
Thom: Have you ever been hired to do anything without an agent?
Janeane: Lots of things. If people want to hire you once they sort of are familiar with you, they do it regardless of your agent. So there are many things people do without their agent. Agents are very reactive, not proactive. They jump on the bandwagon as opposed to getting you jobs for the most part.
Thom: Did you work as a writer on THE LARRY SANDERS SHOW and THE BEN STILLER SHOW, or just an actor?
Janeane: I was just an actor on SANDERS. On STILLER I did very little writing. I was mostly just an actor.
Thom: How do you develop your material?
Janeane: I’ve been doing it since 1985. I just always keep notebooks with me and jot stuff down and hope that it coalesces into an interesting set.
Thom: Do you ever collaborate on your stand-up material with uncredited writers?
Janeane: No, never. I’ve never enlisted anyone else’s help only because it’s very difficult actually for people to write for you even if they think they can. It’s just not the same thing. So few people can speak for other people. It’d be different if I were hosting the Emmys or hosting the MTV Movie Awards, then it would be useful to have someone write more sort of generic jokes. But since I don’t do stuff like that, I don’t really need it.
Thom: Do you ever get approached to do things like hosting awards shows?
Janeane: I used to. Not so much anymore.
Thom: Do you ever go to these big-name awards shows?
Janeane: I have a couple of times, but for the most part it’s just not my thing.
Thom: Did you want to be a performer when you were in high school?
Janeane: I sort of started thinking about doing stand-up in high school but it didn’t really become a solid wish until my junior year of college but I never had a desire to be an actor.
Thom: What college did you go to?
Janeane: Providence College in Rhode Island.
Thom: Was THE LARRY SANDERS SHOW your big break?
Janeane: The BEN STILLER SHOW was in a strange way. The BEN STILLER SHOW was a big break for Andy Dick, Bob Odenkirk and myself in that it got us sort of noticed for other TV stuff. And then SANDERS, of course, was very helpful. But the biggest break I got was REALITY BITES and THE TRUTH ABOUT CATS AND DOGS.
Thom: What did you do to survive before you “made it?”
Janeane: I was on the road a lot of the times. I was a working comedian. I still had day jobs, temp jobs, but I was able to quit all day jobs by the time I was 27. But I was working on the road doing college gigs, stand-up gigs, paid gigs. But they weren’t paying enough that I didn’t have to have, like, temp jobs. But then I was cast in the BEN STILLER SHOW and THE LARRY SANDERS SHOW in addition to doing stand up and I was able to quit day jobs.
Thom: What is some real good advice about making it in entertainment? How do you get an agent?
Janeane: I would question why they want to. I honestly don’t understand why anybody pursues it. You have to really be doing it for the right reasons because it sucks too much to be doing it just because you want to be famous. And also just wanting to be famous is an incredibly hollow goal that you will never get any fulfillment out of. You have to first of all question why do you really want to be in the entertainment business? Is it purely narcissistic or do you really feel you have something to contribute? And then beyond that, I would say you better have the thickest skin and be prepared to be misunderstood at every turn. And also not well-liked at every turn because everybody’s a critic.
I believe in what I’m doing with stand-up. I’m not so sure how I feel about acting anymore. I really have a very low level of interest in that right now. It’s not worth it to me to try to be in mainstream studio films anymore because they don’t edify anyone. They don’t make anyone’s life better. I am very interested still in the indie film world but I just really don’t care about acting anymore.
Thom: What was the most fun character to play? What was the most challenging role?
Janeane: I enjoyed doing THE MINUS MAN and STEAL THIS MOVIE. I liked WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER.
Thom: I liked WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER too. I’m all about any movie that portrays positive images of homosexual relationships. Seen any movies lately that you liked?
Janeane: I saw a foreign film called RUSSIAN DOLL about an arranged marriage between an American man and a Russian woman. I saw the WILCO movie, which I thought was good. Other than that I don’t really go to movies very much.
Thom: What did you think of Extreme Elvis when you saw them?
Janeane: I didn’t understand it. If it was performance art it went over my head and I didn’t get it.
Thom: You talk a lot about weight and image in your stand-up. Why do you keep visiting those topics?
Janeane: I don’t. And I don’t talk about my weight. That’s another one of those misunderstandings that drive me to distraction. I talk about body image and the mass media. I don’t usually talk about my weight per se. Not that I’m opposed to doing that; I just don’t focus on “This is how much I weigh today.” But I do touch in my stand-up at certain points on body image and the mass media. But it does not define me. That is one of those misunderstandings about myself and Margaret Cho. People think we are two women who incessantly speak about our body. Which is part of who we are. It is not all of who we are.
Thom: Are you going to LadyFest East?
Janeane: I’m really into that. I went last year and the year before. I’m a big supporter.
Thom: A friend of mine is acting in a show called FAT FUCK about weight issues and body image, performing as part of LadyFest East. She used to do a 'zine called FAT GRRRRL. I thought maybe you’d be interested in something like that. Do you get out to a lot of shows or art openings?
Janeane: I don’t get out to a lot of art openings. What I do try to do every once in a while because I feel so woefully inadequate artistically is I read [the magazine] ART IN AMERICA to try to learn something. I’m so ignorant as to so many levels of art that sometimes when I do go to art shows or galleries I don’t feel right being there. I don’t even know what I’m looking at. I’m not well-educated in this area.
Thom: What kinds of stories interest you?
Janeane: I’ll read anything no matter how original or how trite if it’s good. But there’s not anything where I go, “Oh, I love this story about the fish out of water,” “I love this story about a woman overcoming adversity.” I don’t have anything in particular in my mind that I love more than anything else.
Thom: If you were cast in a period romance, what part do you think you’d get?
Janeane: At this age, probably somebody’s mom.
Thom: What kind of directing styles do you like best?
Janeane: I like a director that trusts their actors, that actually allows them to improv, that actually take their input into consideration. There’s a lot of directors you work with who are purely technical and the only thing they are interested in is how cool the shot looks or how it’s lit and they have no skills with the actors or no interest in dealing with the actors.
Thom: What do you need as an actor when you are on the set?
Janeane: Water. I would just like to have some freedom.
Thom: Do you and Kevin Smith keep in touch?
Janeane: Every once in a while someone from his office will call to check on my address to send me a nice Christmas card or something. I’m actually very interested in possibly having Kevin direct a stand-up film. I would be interested in discussing that with him.
Thom: Paul Rudd?
Janeane: I see him all the time, he lives near me.
Thom: Someone once described you to me as the “most unfamous famous person.” What do you think she meant?
Janeane: I don’t look like a famous person and I certainly don’t dress like one. And I don’t do many of the things that people usually think of when they think of famous people doing them. Whatever that means. I think I don’t fit into whatever the mainstream idea of a famous person is.
Thom: I’m obsessed with our society’s obsession with celebrity.
Janeane: I hate it. It’s a thing you think you want and then when you are part of it, it’s really quite disappointing. And it’s also embarrassing, this national obsession with celebrity, when there are really more important things to be interested in.
Thom: Can you make any fancy mixed cocktails?
Janeane: The fanciest I get I think is a Greyhound.
Thom: Are you now or have you ever been a communist?
Janeane: I am not, nor have not.
Thom: If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?
Janeane: That’s unanswerable.
Thom: What’s the most annoying thing in the world?
Janeane: That is just too numerous to mention. Oh wait, I know what’s the most annoying thing. Toby Keith. Country and western dork Toby Keith.
Thom: Cook or eat out?
Janeane: Eat out.
Thom: Subway or taxi?
Janeane: Subway AND taxi.
Thom: Coffee or tea?
Janeane: Coffee AND tea.
Thom: Wheat grass juice or vodka?
Janeane: Well, it was both but now I’m sober for a year. Now it’s gotta be just wheat grass juice. Actually I’m going to say neither because I hate wheat grass juice.
Thom: East Village or West Village?
Janeane: Both.
Thom: What is the greatest irony in your life?
Janeane: That there is none. There is no irony.
Ms.Garofalo will be performing in Santa Barbara on September 27th, Long Beach on September 28th and dates in New Orleans, Houston, Seattle and San Diego over October and November.
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