Bridget McManus

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An interview with Bridget from After Ellen by Dara Nai:

AfterEllen.com: When did you realize you wanted to be a comic?
Bridget McManus: When I was 5 years old, I used to run around with a turkey baster pretending I was a stand-up comic, thinking I was Carol Burnett. When I was 17, I tried but I was young and I didn't really know how. Ten years later, I was [still saying] I want to be a comic. My girlfriend of four years said: "You keep talking about being a comic. Just do it. And if you suck, then you suck. Get it over with and move on."

AE: So you found your voice?
BM: A lot of people say I'm like a straight guy when I talk about things like: "Why can't we just do it? Why do we have to love each other?" I do a joke about how we should stop using the word "love." Everyone uses it so nonchalantly. We should only use it for important things like traveling, food and oral sex.

AE: [Laughs.] Back to the turkey baster comment; are you sure you were channeling your comic side and not your baby lesbian side?
BM: Touché. Well, I'm not very maternal, so I'd definitely say it was my comic side. But yeah, I used to run around chewing on a turkey baster. I was always meant to be a lesbian. I never had a chance.

AE: What was your best comedy moment?
BM: Absolutely getting kicked off of the stage at the Laugh Factory.

AE: What happened?
BM: After the Michael Richards debacle, they imposed a rule that you couldn't swear. So I changed my set. … But you could [still] say sexual things. The guy onstage before me … was pretty graphic. So, I get on and I said, "Some guys don't believe that I'm gay, and I have to break it down for them."

I said, "Me being gay means you can't put your penis here," and I put the mic in my mouth, between my legs and between my tits and I [simulated a sex act with] the microphone. The owner [of the club] got on the intercom and said I had to get off the stage. Everyone in the audience booed, and I was shocked.

I was 45 seconds into my set and a huge section of the audience — lesbians who came to see me — just walked out. It was very biased. If Dane Cook pretends a girl is giving him a blowjob, they're like, "Oh, that's so funny." But if a girl blows the microphone, she's a slut. So I started doing a blog called Comedy Double Standards.

AE: Do you find lesbian audiences are tougher than your garden variety straight audiences?
BM: I have a great lesbian following. Lesbians are so wonderful, and I think that they embrace it. Some of them, you know, give me s--- because I ride on my girlfriend. I talk about how my girlfriend and I have different sex drives.

Aside from little critiques from my friends and acquaintances which help better my routine, I've never had any negative feedback. I'm very, very fortunate. [Also,] I always run all my jokes by my girlfriend because you kind of have to [to] know you have a place to sleep at night.

AE: Good thinking.
BM: I wrote a song called "I'll Love You Until the Lease Runs Out," and I sing it with the tambourine. I make the audience sing along, and that's just great. Everybody really gets going for that song.

AE: Whenever there's a tambourine involved, it's a good time.
BM: Exactly. We need more tambourines in the world. I think it would end war. Honestly, if you send tambourines and not guns over to the Middle East, I think we'd be happier.

AE: What do you do when you're not getting thrown out of comedy clubs?
BM: I was fortunate enough to work on Wanted, which is the new Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy movie with Morgan Freeman — an action movie coming out next year from Universal Studios.

AE: Did you get to meet Angelina?
BM: I met Angelina, I met Mr. Maddox, Pax. They were all there.

AE: How was Angelina?
BM: She was actually very, very sweet. She's a very sweet woman. She's very focused. She has strong opinions because she knows how she wants to be marketed. And she's smart, she's really smart.

AE: Does she have a sense of humor?
BM: Unfortunately, it was more like a business thing. I just didn't pull out any of my lesbian jokes for her. I wanted to.

AE: That's too bad. How many opportunities do you get to tell Angelina Jolie lesbian jokes?
BM: Exactly.

Jennie McNulty

Jennie McNulty has been a professional touring stand up comic for many years. She spends her summers performing in gloriously gay Provincetown, MA and her comedy has taken her all over the world, headlining at comedy clubs; colleges; various festivals and events; onboard Olivia Cruises and for US Military Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Jennie started comedy in her hometown of Detroit, Michigan and soon moved out to Los Angeles where she studied acting and was one of the founding members of the Improv troupe, The Unusual Suspects. She can now be seen with the nationally touring Stand up/Improv troupe Queer on Their Feet.

She was featured in the independent film Tweeked."Jennie was seen on A & E's, Love Chronicles and she was a physical trainer on the NBC show Starting Over. She also plays tackle football in the Independent Women's Football League for the California Quake. --Logo Online