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Feb 2023
1h 11m

Sandra Bernhard

RUSSELL TOVEY AND ROBERT DIAMENT
About this episode

We meet SANDRA BERNHARD, performer, actress, singer, comedian, author and ICON!!!! We discover the influence of her artist mother, growing up in Flint Michigan and meeting/collaborating with artists as wide-ranging as Nan Goldin, Mike Kelley, John Boskovich, Robert Mapplethorpe, Herb Ritts, and Keith Haring and her deep admiration for the work of Cindy Sherman. We also learn about her passion for expressing herself via fashion, walking the runway for Chanel and Comme des Garçons, and her iconic performances on Late Night with David Letterman in the 80s and 90s.


Bernhard is currently starring (alongside our very own Russell Tovey) in the new season of American Horror Story: NYC, having previously made a special guest appearance on AHS: Apocalypse. Her successful, decades long television career also saw her as a series regular in the immensely popular FX Television/Ryan Murphy show POSE as brassy but caring Nurse Judy Kubrack, who works with H.I.V. / AIDS patients. She is also currently in her fifth year hosting her weekly radio show Sandyland on Sirius XM's Radio Andy channel 102, for which she won a broadcasting Gracie Award.


She first gained attention in the late 1970s with her stand-up comedy, where she often critiqued celebrity culture and political figures. A pioneer of the one-woman show, Bernhard brings a completely unique and raucous mix of cabaret, stand-up, rock-n-roll, and social commentary to her live stage performances. Just last year she celebrated the 10 year anniversary of her iconic annual holiday shows at Joe's Pub in New York City, while she also continues to tour throughout the country and overseas. Extremely notable past live stage shows, which she has performed both on and off-Broadway, include Without You I'm Nothing, I'm Still Here, Dammit, Everything Bad and Beautiful, and #blessed.


Bernhard's film credits include The King of Comedy, for which she was awarded Best Supporting Actress by the National Society of Film Critics, Track 29, Hudson Hawk, Dinner Rush, and the live performance film Without You I'm Nothing. Past television credits include Two Broke Girls, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Broad City, Difficult People, You're the Worst, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Will &Grace, The Sopranos, The Larry Sanders Show and Roseanne. Music albums include I'm Your Woman (Polygram, 1986), Excuses for Bad Behavior (Epic, 1994) and the world music album Whatever It Takes (Mi5, 2009). She has written three books: May I Kiss You on the Lips, Miss Sandra?, Confessions of a Pretty Lady, Love, Love and Love.


Follow: @SandraGBernhard on Instagram. Visit her official website: https://www.sandrabernhard.com/


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