Kate Clinton – Lesbian Hero
By Tim Gaskin

Kate Clinton has been an out lesbian stand up comic for over 24 years. Now she is coming to the Brava Theatre with her new show “Talking a Blue Streak” June 10 th through June 12, with one goal, to make people laugh.

Clinton laughingly says that there was one big benefit to being an out comic when she started back in 1981, “Nobody ever stole my material.” Ironically, that was the same year that Ronald Reagan and the Pope also got started in the business… of comedy.

To hear her tell it, she got roped into her first performance. Clinton says, “I was an English teacher and I kept talking about wanting to try standup comedy and my best friend said, ‘I’m sick of hearing about this.’ She booked me in a club, and she said ‘You’re on in a month. I don’t want to hear about it’ and I did.”

Her next break was a thirty-day gig replacing a music group which without warning disbanded. That engagement lasted five years. Afterwards Clinton continued playing dance halls, coffee houses and even Unitarian Churches.

She believes lesbian humor really is good family entertainment. “I think if lesbians were happy; if old, black, left-handed lesbians are made to be happy, the whole world would be a better place.”

On stage Clinton is prepared with thirty to forty pages of memorized material and then improvises. “It’s sort of structured like newspaper.” Says Clinton and then she adds, “There’s the national news the local news the international news, lots of opinion, sports, media.”

In her new show, Clinton takes on the burning issues of the day: the return of the ultimate girlie-man to the White House—Mr. Karen Hughes; the selection of the widow Ratzinger as Pope; and gay marriage—the quintessential wedgie issue. Some of the bits are geo-targeted. She says, “By the time I get to the place to do the show I’ve sort of had my spies out and I know what’s happening in San Francisco . Then it’s just pretty much - I wouldn’t say straight stand up - but I don’t do juggling, and there’s no animal acts.” She adds jokingly.

One unexpected challenge of having George W. Bush in office is keeping up with new material. Clinton effuses, “Everyday it’s a gift. I really am just barely staying ahead of the game. I mean, it used to be that if something gay happened in the news I could talk about it for five years.”

Clinton is trying to bring back the lesbian potluck. “Because I think we are all very busy, were not really, were in ‘e-touch’ with everybody, but were not really physically in touch. It fires us up to keep doing the political work that were gonna have to do for quite awhile.”

She also has a satirical message to her lesbian fan base. She pleads, “Don’t die, don’t die because there goes the audience. All right? And if you die, bring a younger gal to fill in.”

Some of her ambitions are less humble. One of her career goals is to be a clue in the New York Times crossword puzzle. She says, “If they know who you are in the New York Times crossword puzzle, that’s huge.”

The future is bright for this long-time performer and she hopes to be around for decades to come. She says, “In maybe ten years i'll go into kind of a George burns curmudgeon thing and people will just invite me because, ‘Oh isn’t she cute, she’s still moving?’”