This is posted on Thursday, March 9, 2017 by Rodney Ho on his AJC Radio & TV Talk
Comic and actress Sandra Bernhard has seen her career wax and wane. She feels she is on the rise again thanks to her daily Sirius/XM radio host on Andy Cohen's channel she started 18 months ago. In recent years, she has done guest roles on Hulu's "Difficult People," CBS's "2 Broke Girls" and Fox's "Brooklyn Nine Nine." She is also in the midst of a national tour with her signature blend of stand up, music and cabaret.
On the day I interviewed her, she had kibitzed with Alec Baldwin on her radio show. "We're the same generation yet we've transcended every generation," she said. "He keeps it fresh and hip. He was a great guest."
She didn't ask him to do Donald Trump but he couldn't help himself: "He went right into it. It was hysterical. He did a couple of moments in his Trump-esque voice. It was really effective."
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She enjoys doing radio every day. (Her show airs live at noon EST and repeats at 3 p.m., 6 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.)
"I'm the linchpin of the channel. I do it five days a week. People have gotten hip to what I'm doing," she said.
Bernhard is quite sick about having Trump as president and he won't escape her notice during her show Friday at the City Winery at Ponce City Market. (Buy tickets here.)
But she said the emphasis will be on entertainment, not politics. "People now more than ever want a connection," she said. "They're desperate to go out and escape with other like-minded people, to rally around a performer who speaks to everybody."
Although she came to Atlanta in recent years for a gay fundraiser, she said it's been a few years since she's done a proper gig. "I used to play Atlanta more often," she said. "Sometimes you're just too busy to hit all the markets. Atlanta is a sophisticated Southern city. It's an important market, always has been, always good crowds."
She is unsure who is really running the Trump administration. "He's sort of a puppet," she said. "He's got Steve Bannon. He's got all these other people that weigh in. It's sort of the theater of the absurd. There's so much negative hate-filled rhetoric."
Bernhard is just hope he buries himself and gets himself impeached at some point. "We don't know the exact date of implosion. We know it's coming."
And like a lot of Democrats, she misses Barack Obama. "He was measured. He was precise, balanced and compassionate. All the elements you want in your president. He was classy and handsome. He knew how to wear a suit. He knew how to talk to people in a smart, interesting way. It's shocking who we have now in the office. It's like somebody just pushed the system off the cliff."
Bernhard is working on television projects, one which is in the backdrop of Los Angeles in the 1970s. The other is a project for herself and a transgender performance artist Justin Vivian Bond. "It's about the two of us who play cousins and reunite. It's a post-modern odd couple," she said. "I come out of the boondocks and visit her in New York City and decide to stay."
COMEDY PREVIEW
Sandra Bernhard
8 p.m. Friday
$45-$60
City Winery
650 North Avenue Northeast #201, Atlanta
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