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Q&A
Food for comedy
BY JON GARELICK

Actress/comedienne Janeane Garofalo came through town last weekend to pitch a screening of her new film, The Independent, and help the Coolidge Corner Theatre, where the film was playing, celebrate "Marquee Week." Since Garofalo is a kind of Renaissance woman with varied interests, including Boston bands (the Gravel Pit are pals), we asked her what else she’d be up to in town — and were surprised to find out that she was going to the Partisan Review’s "Our Country: Our Culture" symposium.

Q: Why are you going to the Partisan Review event?

A: [Laughs] It seemed like a good idea. I was reading the Nation, and it had an article about the series and some of the speakers, and I’ve read some of their stuff before, and I thought, well, I’m going to be in Boston, I can go to BU.

Q: I don’t think of you talking in your stand-up act about Norman Podhoretz.

A: My stage show is anywhere between an hour and two hours long, and I do stand-up all the time, and I always talk about whatever I’m interested in.

Q: So these guys might show up ...

A: [Laughs] Well, I don’t know that I would name their names, and say, well, [deep voice] "Norman Podhoretz’s editorial today ..." I would not do that. But I always talk about things that interest me in the media, pop culture, current events.

Q: When I saw you on Conan O’Brien shortly after September 11 talking about Bush, it was the first doubt or anxiety I’d heard expressed about him on an entertainment TV show. Up until that point all I’d heard anyone say was that he was doing a swell job, and thank God for Bush.

A: I definitely talk about how I’m not 100 percent supportive of George W. Bush and his administration, and I’m not 100 percent supportive of any administration. And I never pretend there’s a huge difference between the Democratic and Republican Parties, because there’s not. They’re both equally disappointing no matter what administration is in office. It’s just that as a stand-up comic, there’s been tons of resistance on the road if you even question George W. Bush. With a lot of the audiences that come see my shows it’s like preaching to the converted, but if you go and do a set at Caroline’s Comedy Club in New York on a Saturday night — just forget it. The average John and Jane Q. Public are not pleased to hear anything other than the status quo.... Comedy-club audiences don’t disappoint in their ignorance a lot of the time.

Q: So do you get heckled?

A: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, all the time. And it’s not like I’m standing on stage as some radical. At all. I consider myself incredibly diplomatic about presentation whenever I have something to say about current events.... There will be people who start booing when I say I wasn’t a huge George W. Bush enthusiast on September 10, and I don’t know how enthusiastic I am now — "Boo!" — that’s all you have to say to get it started. Then you’ve got someone whose knee starts jerking immediately. Or they’ll yell, "Shut up and move, then!" That old chestnut.

Issue Date: May 16 - 23, 2002
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