Wildly popular lesbian comedian Christine O’Leary just wants to make people laugh. And she’ll surely do just that when she returns to St. Petersburg on March 13 and 14.
“I am codependent enough to have the perfect work ethic for stand-up. I will do whatever it takes till I make you like me!” says O’Leary.
O’Leary is a favorite among the Tampa Bay/St. Pete community. She first appeared at Laughter in Paradise in 2008. In 2010, O’Leary returned to open for famous drag performer Varla Jean Merman. For St. Pete Pride in 2012, O’Leary and was named Mistress of Ceremonies.
However, stand-up isn’t her only goal—O’Leary has a long history of social activism.
“Comedy is a way to tell the truth, and comedy is a way to solve a problem. And everybody has a little of both,” says O’Leary.
She acknowledges that gays can still be fired from jobs, kids are still bullied for coming out, and transgender people are still mistreated. Her newest shows will benefit LGBT programming at Metro Wellness & Community Centers (MetroTampaBay.org).
We called her in her Connecticut home—as feet and feet of snow surrounded her. We caught up on her life and her expectations for the St. Pete shows. Her boundless energy and enthusiasm, though, immediately got us diving through current pop culture:
CHRISTINE O’LEARY: Have you seen Transparent?
WATERMARK: Yes, this is weird; I just started binge-watching it last week!
CHRISTINE O’LEARY: Excellent! My friend, Ian Harvey, is the love interest in episode five, named Dale. He’s a trans comic who I started my career with.
It’s so funny, I just love Transparent, and I still sort of waited at first to watch it. So, Ian’s telling me over and over I have to, and I was, “I will, I will!”
At first I was like, “Amazon? You mean it’s more than just free shipping?” And then I was, “Oh, it’s like Netflix.” I didn’t get it at first: Roku, Apple TV, HDTV – it was all like, “Wait, what?!” I was lost.
And then, after I started, I had to keep reminding myself that there were only 15 episodes. It was like the most delicious plate of dessert, and I was worried because it kept getting smaller and smaller as I consumed it. I wanted it to go on and on. It’s really great, so nurse it and savor it. I love it, but when it’s over, it’s over.
Stay away from Netflix or you’ll get sucked into Orange is the New Black.
Strangely enough, I live very near that prison… I sound like a big namedropper so far…
Can you be a namedropper about a prison?
Good point! Anyway, Department of Justice: it’s seven miles down the road. And now it’s been converted to men, except for a hundred women who are finishing their sentence. They’re in a separate…I don’t know, whatever, “campsite,” including Teresa Giudice, Real Housewife of New Jersey.
Classy lady that she is…
Who had an egg in my favorite diner, Elmer’s! I was like, “Why did you stop at Elmer’s?!?” It was my diner! (Sigh) Just do your time; you’ll be out in a few days. So as Watermark’s film reviewer, did you have to see Fifty Shades of Grey?
Yes, it’s princess porn.
Ha, princess porn! And, come on, there’s such hotter lesbian erotica—Susie Bright, 1993. It’s the hottest shit there is. 50 Shades is so boring next to that!
Then on the other hand, I feel like all the soccer moms I know—I think “good for you. I hope you get something out of this!”
Well, and I guess pornography doesn’t really need to be well written.
[Laughs] True, true! It just needs to do the trick, so to speak! That reminds me of my friend Wayne! I used to sit on the couch and read these magazine-book things while he exercised. I’d read aloud while he did a few reps. This must have been back in 1986 or something. These books were always burgundy on the outside with these black-and-white drawings on the inside. We’d call them “smutties.” And we’d laugh!
This is a blast! Do you want to start the actual interview?
Sure!
You have a loving relationship with St. Pete. How’d that start?
I really do! Here’s the thing—St. Pete: my friend, Cate Colgan [of Cate.tv], introduced me to St. Pete about a million years ago—we’ll have to figure out how long ago. I remember it was for St. Pete Pride, and then I did a show at the Nova 535. They were just opening, and I did very well, I got a standing ovation; that was exciting! That was the start of my affair with St. Pete.
Just to give new audiences a sense of your style:you do a lot of improvisation and freeform stuff, with quick-fire joke after joke. How’d you create that style?
People make a lot of assumptions when you are doing stand-up. I address those. Sometimes I can get people to laughing quicker. More in stand-up is not necessarily better—quicker is better. Stand-up is about economizing. My experience has been that young comics try to fill time. If you have 15 minutes, and you only have 5 minutes of material, I say do 4 and half minutes, kill, and get out.
How’d you get into training other comics?
I love stand-up and I’ll do that for the rest of my life… I get high on making people happy. This may sound cliché, but if you’re happy I’m happy.
But I also found another thing that gives me a greater kick, and that’s sharing the tricks. Teaching makes me happy. It’s like freebasing joy. Now, I’m getting it tenfold. If I have 12 students, and I’m teaching them how to make 40 people in an audience happy, then I’m making 480 people happy.
I am a happiness junky.
You had a famous incident once in St. Pete…
Oh, yeah, you mean the famous Segue incident?
Ok, so I got booked for another Pride. I was Grand Marshaling the whole time on this Segue, did a whole show that way. Yeah, Bette Midler and her wheelchair have nothing on me!
After about an hour and a half on the Segue, in a big pink, floppy hat and a pink prom dress, I went to park it—it’s like a flashback, I swear!
Now I’d ridden Segues before in high heel shoes even; it has nothing to do with my Segue skills. It’s very important to me that everyone understands that I’d been on there for almost two hours.
I had to get off of it and quick, because that machine started having a mind of its own, going back and forth and back and forth. I ended up face down; it was a good thing I didn’t bust out all of my teeth! Face down in a dress with a hat!
Then the left front toe of my shoe basically gets pulled into the motor of the Segue, and the machine is bucking, and the corner of my dress is about to be ripped away. I cannot find any of my people because they’re waiting for me at the hospitality center.
Out of nowhere came this man—who I now know as Cecil Warf—who helped me, and he and a bunch of other people I now consider dear friends talked me into going to the hospital. My left ankle was swollen, but I was basically OK.
Now I’d sold out that night’s show! Earlier that day, I’d done a fashion show with [gay comic] Alec Mapa, and I asked him to take over my sold-out show. He said, “I didn’t sell out the show, Christine, you did. You have to do it.”
They got a wheelchair, and these two lovely gay boys wheeled me on and got me into a recliner, and I did my show. I mean, foot up, no shower, just put on extra lipstick, do the Pocahontas twist with the hair, in a recliner on stage. And I killed it!
Now, I look forward to coming back to St. Pete, minus the Segue.
You seem to remember every name you run into!
I think it’s one of those borderline idiot-savant skills that don’t exactly yield anything useful to society as a whole… It’s helpful to me, personally, but there are weird things I remember forever! I remember energy, the sort of energy people put off. I don’t remember dates, but I remember people.
I’ve been to people’s houses. I met a lot of people and then I snuck out of a window in St. Pete at Naked Yoga. I get treated very well at all the restaurants down there. You’ve got trans folks who are very welcoming. I don’t know how you do it, but you have great church communities, who are very kind. They just shine on me. They’re worth remembering!
More Info
WHO: Christine O’Leary
WHEN: March 13 & 14
WHERE: Metro Wellness, St. Petersburg
TICKETS: MetroTampaBay.org
