Sandra Bernhard: The Mouth that Roared

Decades after she charmed Scorsese, flirted with Letterman, and made friends with Madonna, Sandra Bernhard is still giving Babe Paley—she’s giving high glamour, she’s moving forward—and the audience loves it.

t’s early December and Sandra Bernhard is fresh from a session with her trainer, wearing a gray sweatshirt and not a stitch of makeup. She looks great, but at the moment there’s something about the lanky star that seems strangely bulky: Underneath the sweatshirt she’s wearing a weighted vest. But make no mistake: Bernhard is no fitness fad follower. “It’s supposed to help with bone density,” she explains. “But I’ve been working out forever. I’m ahead of the game.”

For Bernhard that has always been the case. She has been a comedy pioneer, movie star, fashion muse, radio personality, sitcom regular, cultural critic, author, and perhaps TV’s greatest talk show guest—and at 70 she is still working her worked-out ass off. She recently showed up in Marty Supreme to lend a certain eau de New York. “When it came time to cast Judy, Marty’s mother’s co-conspirator and downstairs neighbor, it took very little time to land on the ultimate yenta punk: Sandra Bernhard,” says the film’s director, Josh Safdie. Like everyone in Hollywood, Safdie knows that Bernhard is incomparable, so if you want a “Sandra Bernhard type,” why not just get the real thing? (Bernhard was also recently cast in the upcoming fourth season of The White Lotus. “I’ve known and admired Mike White for a long time,” she says of the series creator. “This is an incredible opportunity to be part of a show that has transformed the zeitgeist. It’s come at the perfect time for me.”) continue reading…

‘The White Lotus’ Season 4 Casts Sandra Bernhard

EXCLUSIVE:Sandra Bernhard (Severance, Marty Supreme) has been cast in the upcoming fourth season ofThe White Lotus, the Emmy-winning HBO series from Mike White.

Character details are under wraps, as is the logline for this season. She’ll join previously announced Helena Bonham Carter, Steve Coogan, Caleb Jonte Edwards, Marissa Long, Alexander Ludwig , Chris Messina and AJ Michalka in the series. Casting is still ongoing.

A dark comedy examining the dynamics between employees and guests at luxury hotels around the world, The White Lotus‘ new season will follow a new group of White Lotus hotel guests and employees over the span of a week. Creator, writer and director White and HBO selected Château de La Messardière in Saint-Tropez as the hub setting for the next installment of the murder mystery series. continue reading…

SANDRA BERNHARD CARRIES THE ROOM

From Film to TV to Music to Theater, Sandy's Done It All -- But Don’t Call It a Renaissance!

Written by Jo Rosenthal

Taken from VALŪS Issue 002 Winter 2026 glossy print edition - order your copies today!

This essay is the result of a lengthy conversation between Bernhard and Rosenthal. 

Sandra Bernhard is one of the few living legends of Hollywood, a force still moving and shifting the world around her. Bernhard’s internal rhythm is a powerful stride that neither rushes nor waits. She commands every room she enters and makes it hard not to be a fan. Her intimacy arrives in sharp flashes, with her affection tucked inside like a punchline. When she laughs, we laugh alongside her. When she speaks, we listen. 

That’s because Bernhard’s words carry weight, as someone who has always thought a little deeper than the room required. If the world were a stage, she would be standing in the spotlight, alone, delivering truths wrapped in irony with her presence and poise unmistakable. The glamour is there, but it mixes with a modern edge, all polish and provocation. She tells a story with her expressions, as if she knows the world better than it knows itself. It is no small thing that our planet still holds space for someone so vast, so sure, and so entirely herself.

Bernhard has not waited for permission to speak, let alone perform. Growing up in Flint, Michigan, where the winters were long and the sky often gray, she learned to color outside the lines early. Her parents, curious-minded and unorthodox, left the door open to the world. She walked through that door with eyes wide open and questions already on her lips. It was never about fame. It was about freedom, truth, and beauty hidden beneath the noise. continue reading…

Longtime friends Margaret Cho and Sandra Bernhard worked together for the first time on Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and it went so well they’re looking to manifest another job together.

MARGARET CHO AND SANDRA BERNHARD ARE TWO WOMEN WHO NEED NO INTRODUCTION — not to readers, and not to each other. The two actress-comediennes remain ubiquitous decades after first becoming household names, Cho in the 1990s with her raucous stand-up specials and a brief stint leading her own ABC sitcom, All-American Girl, and Bernhard in the late 1970s with her inimitable brand of one-woman cabaret-comedy and a breakout performance in Martin Scorsese’s 1982 film The King of Comedy. Between them, they’ve racked up hundreds of TV and film credits, half a dozen from this year alone.

Cho recently appeared on an episode of ABC’s Doctor Odyssey, had a recurring role on the FX dramedy Dying for Sex and often answers in the form of a question on Celebrity Jeopardy! This was all in addition to a new music album (Lucky Girl, released in February) and a “Live and Livid!” stand-up tour that ended in May.

When Bernhard isn’t hosting her weekly SiriusXM radio show, Sandyland, she tours the country, and her show “Shapes & Forms” has dates planned throughout the year. She was recently a guest judge on season 17 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, appeared on Netflix’s Survival of the Thickest and had a recurring role on the Apple TV+ sci-fi thriller Severance.

continue reading…

Timothée Chalamet Movie ‘Marty Supreme’ Adds Sandra Bernhard

EXCLUSIVE: Josh Safdie’s A24 ping pong prodigy feature Marty Supreme has added The King of Comedy actress and comedienne Sandra Bernhard.

Bernhard will be playing a neighbor and friend of Fran Drescher in a cameo role. Bernard joins a cast that also includes Timothée Chalamet in the title role, Gwyneth Paltrow, Tyler, The Creator; Odessa A’zion, Penn Jillette, Kevin O’Leary a.k.a Mr. Wonderful and Abel Ferrara. The original screenplay was written by Safdie and Ronald Bronstein.

Marty Supreme is based loosely on Marty Reisman’s life, who was a force to be reckoned with in 1950s Ping Pong culture. Known for his unconventional style, he won two U.S. Men’s Singles Championships in 1958 and 1960 and more than 20 international and national titles.

Bernhard recently wrapped Percy Jackson and The Olympians for Disney+ and was seen onscreen this year in Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution for Netflix and in the film Babes directed by Pamela Adlon with Michelle Buteau and Ilana Glazer. Bernhard also reunited with Buteau for an arc on her series Survival of the Thickest. continue reading…

SANDRA BERNHARD STILL SPEAKS HER MIND—WITH SOME EXCEPTIONS

In the 2022 Netflix special Stand Out: An LGBTQ+ Celebration, Lily Tomlin introduces Sandra Bernhard as “indescribable.” That’s a pretty good way of putting it: Bernhard, who identifies as bisexual, has been a transgressive, queer force in comedy since she broke out in stand-up in the 1970s. Soon after, she launched to stardom in Martin Scorsese’s 1981 dark comedy The King of Comedy; since then, her career has taken her to everything from a recurring role on Roseanne to a stint on Broadway, multiple music albums, and beyond. continue reading...

SANDRA BERNHARD: EASY LISTENING

Sandra Bernhard has been hosting her now-legendary New Year’s Eve variety show for decades, enchanting scores of delighted guests with her eclectic musical choices, her unique voice, her utterly engaging stories, and her unending starpower. Bernhard’s love for life cannot be tapped down by year-end global conundrums, whatever they may be, as evidenced by her 1999 show entitled 2001: A Sandra Odyssey, which critics of the time called, assuming the world would literally end January 1, 2000, “throwing caution to the wind on New Year’s Eve in New York City, the night when even Broadway producers aren’t tempting millennial fate.”

“It’s my superstition,” Ms. Bernhard explained to us on a Zoom call earlier this month. “If I perform the last night of the year, I’ll perform the rest of the new year. It’s what I believe. So I had to perform! Even during COVID I did a little complimentary show on Instagram Live. I mean, it was so weird to do it from my bedroom… but I think people really appreciated it.” continue reading…

BUCKLE UP, CHRISTMAS CROWDS: SANDRA BERNHARD STILL HAS PLENTY TO SAY

Sandra Bernhard was early for a midmorning Chelsea coffee date, already perched at the cafe with a hefty cup. She sat not inside at the reserved table, but outdoors in a street shed, in full view of passers-by. She waved at neighbors and greeted her dog walker in a barrage of “honeys” and blown kisses, trilling a song to one of her charges — “Regiiiina” — that stopped the puggle (and some other pooches) in their tracks. continue reading…

Wes Gordon and Sandra Bernhard Discuss the Possibilities of Fashion

Wes Gordon never let time get in the way of his dreams of becoming a fashion designer. In 2009, as soon as he graduated from Central Saint Martins in London, the Atlanta native headed to New York City, where he began his eponymous label out of his apartment, and within two years, was selling his brand of elegant womenswear at Bergdorf Goodman while dressing people like Gwyneth Paltrow and Michelle Obama. In 2017, Gordon began consulting for Carolina Herrera and bonding with its legendary founder. One year later, he was named creative director of the brand. Now, he and his husband, the glassblower Paul Arnhold, have another baby to raise: an actual newborn named Henry. Over Zoom, the performer Sandra Bernhard—who happens to be Gordon’s friend and neighbor—got the nitty gritty on how Gordon is balancing his new life as a dad while steering the legendary fashion house into the future. continue reading…

POSE STAR SANDRA BERNHARD: ‘I NEVER TRIED TO BE REVOLUTIONARY’

The trailblazing actor and comedian on asserting her bisexuality in the 80s, misogynistic male comics – and befriending Madonna

uring nearly five decades in showbiz, Sandra Bernhard has racked up title after title – comedian, actor, singer, author, radio host – and a reputation for controversy. She has worked with a long list of superstars, from Richard Pryor and Robin Williams to Robert De Niro and Cyndi Lauper. But she has never been overshadowed; her force of personality has guaranteed that. Even 30 years ago, the Los Angeles Times was paying homage to her “acid-tongued, antagonistic persona”.

But there are no cutting remarks today. On this sunny morning in LA, she appears relaxed, in a pink-striped shirt and trousers, reminiscent of the early 80s outfits she wore for her many appearances on Late Night With David Letterman.

It is almost a year since she finished filming the final series of Pose, the much-praised TV drama exploring the ball scene in 80s New York and the gay and transgender artists who built it. Bernhard plays Judy Kubrak, a nurse caring for people dying with Aids. Judy has an activist streak, bringing other characters into the fight against neglectful politicians and cruel pharmaceutical companies. continue reading…

PAUL MOONEY AND ME | SANDRA BERNHARD REFLECTS ON HER DECADES-LONG FRIENDSHIP WITH THE LATE COMIC

On May 19, Paul Mooney died from a heart attack at the age of 79. Mooney was one of the most influential figures in the history of modern comedy. A behind-the-scenes giant, he had his hands in so much that would define the art form: He collaborated with Richard Pryor during the stand-up’s creative peak, maybe most famously writing the “Word Association” Saturday Night Live sketch. He was the godfather of the so-called “Black Pack,” working closely with Eddie Murphy, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Arsenio Hall, and Robert Townsend. He worked as a head writer on In Living Color, creating Homey D. Clown. Fifty years into his career, he became a Chappelle’s Show breakout star. He was a stand-up that influenced generations — and a mentor. continue reading…

STRIKING ONE LAST POSE WITH SANDRA BERNHARD

I have been following Sandra Bernhard since the 1980s when this relative unknown came on the scene in a big way going toe-to-toe with seasoned heavyweights like Jerry Lewis and Robert DeNiro in Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy. It was a groundbreaking performance in an iconic film about the cult of celebrity and what happens when things go off the rails. There was something subversive about Bernhard’s arresting portrayal of celebrity-stalking kidnapper Masha which spoke to me. She validated and empowered neurotics everywhere. I continued following Bernhard’s career over the decades across various platforms from her live stage performances to her forays into episodic television from Rosanne to Pose and her Sirius radio program Sandyland. Through it all, Sandra has remained an original who has managed to make us laugh and think at the same time. continue reading…

26 YEARS LATER, SANDRA BERNHARD REVISITS HER ODDLY PRESCIENT INTERVIEW FEATURE

The consummate entertainer and pioneering gay rights advocate, who will soon reprise her role as Nurse Judy on season three of FX’s ballroom drama Pose, revisits—and revises—her Interview feature from 1994. continue reading…

SANDRA BERNHARD TALKS WITH US

About how she schmoozed her way onto the cast of Pose, living in New York in the ‘80s and running into fans.

WATCH VIDEO…

SANDRA BERNHARD DOESN’T THINK NEW YORK IS DEAD JUST YET

Sandra Bernhard has no filter, nor does she need one. Her big break came in 1982, when she starred in Martin Scorcese's The King of Comedy, and ever since then, her bold, over-the-top stage persona has lent itself to scathing musings on politics and pop culture. The performer is also trailblazer in her own right: Bernhard was one of the first to play an openly lesbian character on Roseanne, has always addressed LGBTQ issues in her comedic material, and became something of a New York legend when she appeared around town with Madonna at parties.

On Pose, which takes place when New York's ballroom scene blossomed from subculture to popular culture and Madonna's "Vogue" was on repeat, she plays Judy Kubrak, a nurse who works closely with quarantined patients in AIDS wards. In the season two premiere, Judy brings Pray Tell (Billy Porter) to an ACT UP meeting to discuss a demonstration that would protest the AIDS crisis and the government's mistreatment of the LGBTQ community. Judy also cares for Blanca (Mj Rodriguez), who is diagnosed with AIDS and learns she must take AZT, an antiretroviral medication, to treat the disease. This season, Bernhard's role as Judy has expanded to give her a more colorful background, more screen time, and of course, more of her signature zesty one-liners.

In her Culture Diet, Bernhard muses on her role as an activist nurse on Pose, reading the works of contemporary literature It Girls like Sally Rooney and Rachel Cusk, fighting with social media trolls, and whether or not New York really is dead these days. continue reading…

SANDRA BERNHARD ON LEAVING BITCHY BEHIND

The “Pose” actress and queer-TV trailblazer was embraced by the drag demimonde in her ferocious days but has a gentle vibe in person.

I miss seeing you on television!” an elderly woman named Renee squawked at her neighbor the actress, comedian, and singer Sandra Bernhard. They were in front of the stately brick Frederic Fleming House, on West Twenty-second Street, a residence for formerly homeless New Yorkers, where Renee has lived for sixteen years.

“But, honey, you see me all the time,” Bernhard replied. (She walks her dog, George, along the block daily.)

Renee, who has no teeth and a quantity of chin hair, eyed Bernhard up and down and told her, “You look different on television!” Bernhard is starring in the second season of “Pose,” the Ryan Murphy drama about the gritty, glamorous world of transgender women and gay men who staged New York’s legendary drag balls. She plays an activist nurse at Roosevelt Hospital during the height of the aids crisis.

“We’ll put your show on the schedule,” Martha Binikos, Fleming House’s manager, who was passing by, promised.

“Thank you, sweetheart,” Bernhard said. “This place keeps the neighborhood grounded in old New York—like there’s still a place where people can live, and not be pushed out by twenty-million-dollar apartments.”

Season 2 of “Pose” is set in 1990, when there were still hookers on the piers and Madonna’s “Vogue” video introduced the culture of ballrooms to viewers of MTV. It was a time when Bernhard and Madonna were tight—they were often photographed out together, like a kind of two-headed It Girl. “It was really fun. We would go to parties and be bitchy—we were bitchy to Joan Rivers,” Bernhard said. “I had a little crush on her, and I loved that people were, like, ‘Ooh, Madonna likes Sandy!’ ” continue reading…

SANDRA BERNHARD: ‘POSE’ RECALLS HORROR OF EARLY DAYS OF AIDS

There’s a good reason why Sandra Bernhard was upped to a series regular as nurse Judy Kubrak in the second season of “Pose,” the FX drama about the underground LGBTQ ballroom scene of the 1980s and ’90s. “Nurse Judy is there to serve as a conduit between the characters who are starting to show HIV-positive status — and to do something about it,” she said. “She becomes a friend to them as well as a medical advocate.” The show, which has been renewed for a third season, is addressing the epidemic because “it’s the reality of the time,” she added, but it won’t always be easy. In the season’s second episode Judy convinced Blanca (Mj Rodriguez) to take the antiretroviral HIV medication AZT, but Pray Tell (Billy Porter) remains resistant to treatment.

Bernhard, who turned 64 on June 6, recently spoke with The Post about Judy’s passion, performing during the early days of the AIDS crisis and the show’s message for young viewers.

Could you describe Judy?

Judy is tough. She’s in the trenches and yet very vulnerable and loving towards her patients and the people she deals with in the ragged hospital corridors. She wants to find a way to get them through it and not have them die, but she sees that every day. continue reading…

HOW SANDRA BERNHARD’S LUGGAGE LANDED HER ON THE REVOLUTIONARY FX SERIES “POSE”

Sometimes you get the gig through time-honored channels: Your agent gets an audition, your manager books a stand-up show.

But then there are times, as actress-comedian Sandra Bernhard describes how she ended up on the FX series “Pose,” when it almost seems like fate steps in.

“I ran into the co-creator Steven Canals and one of the writers, Our Lady J, on a flight from L.A.,” Bernhard says of the felicitous way in which she found herself on “Pose” not long after its premiere in June 2018.

“Our mutual friend Judith Light introduced all of us, and I was just talking to both of them by the baggage claim at JFK,” she says. “And I said, ‘I love the show, if anything ever comes up I’d love to do something.’”

As fate would have it, the creative team led by Ryan Murphy, whose previous creations include series such as “Glee” and “American Horror Story,” had just written a role on “Pose” for a nurse working with HIV and AIDS patients. The series is set amid the underground gay and transgender world of ballroom culture in New York City some three decades ago.

“So they went back and spoke with Ryan Murphy, who’s an old fan of mine, and he said, ‘Absolutely,’” Bernhard says. “I think he’d been trying to think of something for me over the years. It’s a great story.”

The moral of which is … hang out at the baggage claim more often continue reading…

‘POSE’S’ SANDRA BERNHARD ON TRUMP, MADONNA, ROSEANNE—AND HOW MISOGYNY STOPS WOMEN FROM WINNING THE PRESIDENCY

Sandra Bernhard tells Tim Teeman she and Madonna don’t talk, Trump must go, de Blasio sucks, and while Elizabeth Warren has her vote, misogyny will kill her presidential campaign.

America under Donald Trump, said Sandra Bernhard, taking a bite of grilled fish, has become “a cheap soap opera.” We met just after Robert Mueller’s brief press conference, which didn’t clarify anything and seemed to upset all sides even more. “Mueller is not the person to pursue,” said Bernhard sitting in Cookshop, one of her favorite restaurants near to the Chelsea home she shares with longtime partner, Sara Switzer. (Her 20-year-old daughter, Cicely, is in her junior year of college.) “Now it’s up to Congress. We just need to get that man out of the White House.”

If you are a Bernhard fan, be assured that off-stage the voice is still that low, ambiguously toned growl of mischief, if quieter. Bernhard is “concerned, frustrated, and fed up, but I’m also activated and doing everything to put the word out, like supporting Planned Parenthood, and women’s reproductive rights.”

Her past and present-day politics and activism mean that her casting in FX’s Pose as Judy, an HIV and AIDS nurse involved in ACT UP, has an acute echo embedded in it.

In the second, just-underway season of Pose, set in 1990, Nurse Judy is both taking care of Blanca (Mj Rodriguez) and Pray Tell (Billy Porter), and is also an avatar of the passionate activists of the time who fought governmental indifference and ignorance to the decimating AIDS pandemic in a time long before HIV-as-a-treatable-condition and PrEP. continue reading…

SANDRA BERNHARD / “QUICK SAND”

The actress, comedian, singer, and radio talk-show host Sandra Bernhard tells it like it is—it’s a big part of her wonderfully gimlet-eyed style—but she’s not here to soothe our nerves during a testy time. (Although she can console.) Indeed, what I look forward to most is her turns of mind and riffs that don’t so much lead to a conclusive point but, rather, mess with all our status-quo impulses, impulses that prevent us from really letting loose on all that bothers us. Commenting on politics, family, entertainment, and a multitude of other subjects, Bernhard’s new show, “Quick Sand” (at Joe’s Pub, Dec. 26-31), asks a lot of big questions about the nature of existence—What is it? Prove it!—and about what makes humor. Bernhard gets up on that stage night after night not because she wants to prove herself but because she has something to say, and loves the rush that comes from being strong enough and brave enough to say it. — Hilton Als continue reading…

SIGNATURE SANDY — SANDRA BERNHARD ON HER HOLIDAY SHOW, ‘POSE’, AND ‘AHS’

The week between Christmas and New Year's means one thing for Sandra Bernhard: Joe's Pub. For more than a decade now, the iconic raconteur and singer has performed two shows a night through New Year's Eve, this year with a show she playfully calls "Quick Sand." (For more information about the show, visit her website)

Reviewing a previous holiday show, a critic for Variety wrote: "What makes Bernhard's comedy so rare — whether she's philosophizing about Taylor Swift's squad or singing Dolly Parton's "Hard Candy Christmas" imagined by Caitlyn Jenner — is that within every keenly observed pop-culture rant, there's an element of piercing truth."

In past years Bernhard would travel with the show to cities around the country in the New Year, but not in 2019. Instead from February through May she will be shooting "Pose," the highly acclaimed Ryan Murphy series that she joins as a series regular as AIDS nurse Judy Kubrak, a role she introduced last season. This season the story moves to 1991 at the height of the epidemic in New York, so expect this no-nonsense character to play a larger part in the story.

She also had a spectacular turn on an episode of Murphy's "American Horror Story: Apocalypse" in which she played a storefront minister with a twist: instead of worshipping Jesus, she leads her followers — in an over-the-top Bernhard manner — in worshipping the Devil.

In addition, Bernhard continued with "Sandyland," her daily radio show on SiriusXM's Radio Andy channel 102, which has introduced her acerbic style to a new fan base and won her a Gracie Award.

EDGE spoke to Bernhard recently. continue reading…

UNFILTERED: SANDRA BERNHARD WILL BRING NEW, ONE-WOMAN SHOW TO LA JOLLA AND SAN DIEGO REGION

It’s not a solution to the current state of world pandemonium, but “Sandemonium,” the latest one woman show from the irrepressible Sandra Bernhard, promises to at least be an entertaining reaction. It plays the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center on Dec. 12. In the show, Bernhard, 63, weaves her biting comedy around musical numbers she sings with a backing band. A broadwayworld.com review of the New York premiere stated: “Keeping the show lively without abandoning who she is and being honest about the state of the world without wallowing it in was something of a high-wire act … (but) she never bailed on her promise to remain upbeat.”

Phoning the Light from her Manhattan apartment, Bernhard called the show “a real roller coaster ride.” “Some of it is stand-up, some of it is more storytelling, some is rapid-fire stream of-consciousness,” she said. “It kind of wraps in and out of songs and dramatic moments. I go all over the map.” Bernhard is in the midst of a resurgence in her acting career. Known primarily for starring on the hit sitcom “Roseanne” from 1991 through 1997, she drew more recent raves for portraying a Satanic high priestess on this past season’s “American Horror Story.” She has also logged well-reviewed guest appearances on the Hulu’s “Difficult People” and another cameo, on “Sweetbitter,” just got fleshed into a recurring role for the Starz series’ upcoming second season. continue reading…

L.A. WEEKLY’S FIRST COVER SUBJECT, SANDRA BERNHARD, ON HER NEW SHOW, SANDEMONIUM

Sandra Bernhard has proven to be a most enduring comedian and her sassy, unfiltered, meta takes on life and pop culture continue to provide thoughtful laughs and so much more. She is and always has been fun to watch and listen to, no matter what she’s saying or doing — in movies, on TV, on record and, more recently, on radio (via her SiriusXM show Sandyland). But being in her physical presence is something altogether other-level. It’s watching a superstar shine but also sort of like hanging out and dishing with your wittiest friend, the one who says things so brilliant and oddball yet spot-on that you often want to jot her words down for future use.

Her latest stage show, Sandemonium, surely will offer all this and then some. Bernhard has perfected her “pastiche of madness,” a term we took from one of her past shows at REDCAT (yes, we jotted it down!). Bernhard is loose and spontaneous-seeming onstage yet remains razor-sharp in her points, ideas and narrative.

Her fearless style made her a perfect first L.A. Weekly cover subject, along with other young groundbreaking female comedians making a name for themselves at local venues like the Comedy Store. The 1978 debut cover story represented everything the paper sought to celebrate: uncensored commentary that was smart and bold but didn’t take itself too seriously, and a celebration of Los Angeles’ creative underground bubbling up to influence and change the mainstream. Forty years later, both L.A. Weekly and its first cover subject are striving for the very same things continue reading…

‘POSE’: SANDRA BERNHARD PROMOTED TO SERIES REGULAR FOR SEASON 2 Of FX DRAMA

EXCLUSIVE: Nurse Judy is coming back. Following a memorable Season 1 guest appearance, Sandra Bernhard is joining the cast of FX’s 1980s drama series Pose as a series regular in the upcoming second season.

She will continue as the brassy but caring Nurse Judy Katz, who works with HIV/AIDS patients.

The history-making Pose, which features the largest transgender series regular cast, as well as the largest LGBTQ cast ever for a scripted series, is set in the 1980s and looks at the juxtaposition of several segments of life and society in New York: the rise of the luxury Trump-era universe, the downtown social and literary scene and the ball culture world.Co-created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Steven Canals, the series is executive produced by Murphy — who directed the first two episodes — Falchuk, Nina Jacobson, Brad Simpson, Alexis Martin Woodall and Sherry Marsh. Canals and Silas Howard serve as co-executive producers, and Janet Mock, Our Lady J and Erica Kay also serve as producers. The eight-episode first season was produced by Fox 21 Television Studios and FX Productions continue reading…

A BALANCED BERNHARD

Funny lady Sandra Bernhard, who brings her raucous new live show, Sandemonium, to Guild Hall on June 30, shares observations from a life of wit and wonder.

PURIST: How would your family describe you?

SANDRA BERNHARD: Vivacious

PURIST: Growing up, what did you want to be?

BERNHARD: An entertainer in the mode of Carol Channing meets Diana Ross meets Mick Jagger.

PURIST: Your live performances are a mix of righteous anger and biting social commentary, and yet also often point toward a kind of spiritual transcendence.

BERNHARD: It’s all about shedding your skin as a performer, getting closer to who you are, stripping away the artifice. I think people now more than ever depend on the seasoned performers to turn to for solace, and also to get out of the mundane and be taken on a journey that lifts them higher. continue reading…

SANDRA BERNHARD BRINGS 'SANDEMONIUM' TO GUILD HALL

Sandra Bernhard is set to return to the Hamptons on Saturday, June 30 when she will present Sandemonium at Guild Hall in East Hampton.

We caught up with the performer, actress, singer and author the week before her Hamptons performance to learn more about the new show. Long known for her outspoken (and hilarious) takes on a range of disparate topics, in recent years Ms. Bernhard has also found her voice in a somewhat new and totally retro realm—radio, where her show “Sandyland” can be heard at noon five days a week on SiriusXM’s channel 102.

While she’s settled into a nice routine with the radio show, when it first premiered three years ago, Ms. Bernhard wasn’t certain what direction “Sandyland” would take. “I had no idea what it was going to be. Though I had done radio, I didn’t know what my point of view would be,” said Ms. Bernhard in a recent phone interview. “But what people want to hear is the day-to- day quotidian tidbits of what you do in your life.

“Everything these days is so political—this is just a chance to be able to get personal and funny,” she added. Fans of Ms. Bernhard’s work will no doubt find her both personal and funny as well as musical when she brings her live show, “Sandemonium,” to Guild Hall’s John Drew Theater on Saturday, June 30. While many comedians these days are using their platform to dissect the current political madness, Ms. Bernhard sees her show as something of a respite from it. continue reading…

ROSEANNE RETURNS!

I home all the time. i that word, housewife. i perfect her if to be called get ready to hear that voice.

No. Get ready. rosean make that 1985. that three minute set catapulted her to fame.

Yeah, that moment right there change for her. now nearly 20 years later, the reboot will air at 8:00 on abc the whole cast is back together she played her lesbian friend nancy.

to celebrate the big night, and for roseanne, some things haven' changed. Everyone's cell phone off. Are you excite. continue reading…

SANDRA BERNHARD´S “SANDEMONIUM” @RONNIE SCOTT´S

Ronnie Scott’s: it’s not the first venue you associate with performances by American comedy legends, but Sandra Bernhard’s not your average American comedy legend and this was far from the average twenty-first century stand-up gig. The style and structure of the performance harked back to the jazz and cabaret clubs where music and comedy took equal billing across the night and often across individual performances; the band stayed on stage throughout the comedian’s set and often helped out with improvisations. This was how Lenny Bruce delivered his routines.

The stage line-up for “Sandemonium” is Sandra plus piano, drums and guitar; her act has developed over the decades from purely stand-up to a combination of songs, observations of everyday New York behaviour, politics (almost inevitably), showbiz stories, family stories and some stream of consciousness, Lenny Bruce-style riffing and spritzing. And that’s before you get to the impressions, which are seamlessly stitched in to the tapestry of the performance, not as stand-alone routines but as a way of smoothly moving the narrative along. Here’s an example continue reading…

CONCERT REVIEW: SANDRA BERNHARD AT RONNIE SCOTT’S, W1

Who would have thought she would end up here? Sandra Bernhard is a rock chick rather than a standards singer, but this show, full of impromptu asides, hot riffs and, yes, the occasional awkward pause, was as exhilarating as the very best jazz gigs.

There’s never been any question about the American entertainer’s all-round talent: remember how she managed to steal scenes from Robert De Niro in that criminally under-rated Scorsese satire The King of Comedy? On stage though, Bernhard can be her own worst enemy: without the right material that caustic outsider wit can sound like the whining of a B-list celebrity who thinks she deserves a stretch limo and a larger swimming pool. continue reading…

TALKING WITH SANDRA BERNHARD: ARE GREAT IN SANDYLAND

Sandra Bernhard returns to Boston this week after a long absence with "Sandemonium," her latest show that offers a mix of her provocative comedy and songs, this Friday night at City Winery. EDGE spoke to Bernhard about the show, her daily radio gig and celebrity culture. It might be hard to believe that Sandra Bernhard hasn't performed in Boston in years. The comedy superstar has been an annual visitor to Provincetown, as well as holding court at Manhattan's Joe Pub during the holiday season, but Boston hasn't been on her agenda. That drought ends this week when Bernhard comes to the City Winery, the relatively new downtown performance space, this Friday night with the appropriately titled "Sandemonium." (For tickets visit the City Winery website.)

For the past three years Bernhard has added radio personality to her resume with a daily show on Andy Cohen's SiriusXM channel called "Sandyland" that has endeared her to many new fans. On the show, she interviews other celebrities as well as offering her pointed commentary on a variety of pop culture subjects. The Huffington Post wrote of the show: "It's hard to describe, much in the same way it's hard to put words to a brilliant jazz artist's improvisations. She simply took the conversation places that were at once enlightening, provocative and intimate." continue reading…