Comic's out, loud and hilarious
By Cathalena E. Burch
cburch@azstarnet.com
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 08.21.2008
Suzanne Westenhoefer, who bills herself as America's first truly out lesbian comic, would love to have her own television talk show.
But it would have to air late at night, preferably on Logo, cable's lesbian and gay network.
"I don't have the same good filters that (Ellen DeGeneres) has. . . . I share all the inappropriate details," said the 47-year-old stand-up. And if you've seen one of her Tucson shows over the years, you know that no intimate detail is off limits.
Westenhoefer, who hasn't been here in a couple years, performs Friday at the Rialto Theatre. Her shows are off-the-cuff affairs, with about a third of it scripted and the rest summoned from a place in her comic mind that even Westenhoefer might not fully understand.
In a phone interview Monday from her Los Angeles home, she revealed some of what's occupying that mind these days.
Synchronized diving in the Olympics.
"I was one of the people involved in the controversy of why they were showering right after they got out of the pool. They were in the pool for eight seconds. Even if that water was nuclear waste, they would not need to shower for 14 seconds."
Presidential politics.
"I was madly, passionately in love with Hillary Clinton. Still am. Now, all my friends are telling me, including my sister, that I have got to get over myself and get on the Obama train. I have to. I really like him fine. It's not that at all. It really is that I feel completely like I had something right in the palm of my hand that I thought I would never live to see and it got yanked right out."
The idea of Cindy McCain as First Lady.
"I'm pretty scared of her. Her face is too tight, and I live in L.A. and I'm saying that. That can't be good. Do you have any idea how tight the faces are in Los Angeles? If someone in Los Angeles is telling you you're face is too tight, holy s---, cut it open. Let it breathe. That's not good."
Her upcoming wedding to longtime partner Jennifer Houston.
"In typical gay form, we've already been married 10 times. You do the commitment ceremony. Then you do the this ceremony and then the that ceremony. . . . Good God! So we'll get married Sept. 6 legally because now it's legal in California, which is completely phenomenal."
Outing herself as a comedian at the hair salon.
"This is my favorite response: 'Really. You're a comedian?' And you're like, 'Oh my God, I must suck.' It should have been obvious by now. But apparently I'm not that good because you're going, 'What? Huh? A comedian? Didn't really see that.' Nice."
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