Your performances are very interactive-you are quite literally in your audience’s faces. Singing is like some great equalizer, I think. I can emote and communicate things through songs that I never could over a cup of coffee with a buddy. The thing is, music is incredibly personal-to me and most other people. I’ve always felt a connection with the audience, and I tell them things I would struggle to tell a close friend. How did overcome any hesitations about openness-or have you always been the incredibly open, vocal person you are? Mostly I sit in the tub with my phone and try to make myself laugh-that’s when I write it down and show it to a friend. If they make me laugh after a week, I work on them some more. I come up with silly ideas and sing them into my phone. In the beginning, people thought I was really wild, and I was, but I was doing what I wanted, and I still am, and I’ve never been happier. I wish I had a crystal ball and I could go back 20 years and say, “Listen to yourself, Bridget!” because the truth is, if you’re different and you are doing things that aren’t cool or trendy, you should keep doing them if they are making you happy. Professionally, I started believing in my own ideas and what was making me happy and doing exactly what I wanted to do. I looked to people around me to let me know I was good enough or important or talented or whatever, but it wasn’t until I clocked what I was thinking about myself that I really developed confidence. She knew it would happen for me, and her influence is immeasurable. She knew I wanted to be a singer, and even as the years were ticking by and I wasn’t finding success, she kept cheering me on. My mom has always been a real believer in Bridget Everett. How did you go about developing your act? You have such a potent, powerful presence during your shows. My friends were cheerleaders, choir geeks, Mormons, student council members, outliers, and everything else between. I was on the swim team and in two choirs, and I lifeguarded in the summertime. We would rake the yard, and he would tell us stories that were HILARIOUS. I had great friends like Stephanie, but I also hung out with my friend Alanna from across the street and her dad, who was a poet at Kansas State University. Growing up in a small town informed the person I am today. But we also had sleepovers, played kick the can, and listened to Purple Rain together on vinyl when someone broke our hearts. We got caught doing a lot of stupid shit like smoking cigarettes, sneaking out, playing strip poker…god only knows. My best friend, Stephanie, and I have known each other since we were born. I know I have, and people laugh at me all the time when I say I’m from there. MADS JENSEN: What was it like growing up in small-town Kansas? Was it boring, or beneficial to creativity and self-reflection?īRIDGET EVERETT: You know, Kansas is an easy place to make fun of. We talked to Everett, who lives in New York and grew up in Kansas, about the fun and importance of doing what makes you happy, and doing what makes you different. Have you ever seen someone on stage who was so fearless, so magnetic, and so totally their own freak-self that the audience was entranced, in love, and a little scared all at once? Bridget Everett-a trained opera singer, the leader of her own band, a legendary New York cabaret performer, one of the most delightful on-screen cameo-makers (her appearances in Sex and the City and Trainwreck are among the evidence), and the star of her own Comedy Central special-is one of those performers. Collage by Ruby Aitken, using a photo by Todd Oldham.
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