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.