GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

APRIL 5, 1996

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Evenings Out

Pushing all the right buttons

Kate Clinton honed her comic skills teaching English to class clowns

by Doreen Cudnik

"I never know what button to push!" Kate Clinton says apologetically, having just accidentally disconnected our telephone conversation while attempting to pick up a call waiting.

That is hardly the case, I think, since the lesbian comedian has been pushing all the right buttons since she began her stand-up career in 1981, after attending a writing workshop and improvisational class with rising-star comedian Bobcat Goldthwaite.

Clinton will bring her all-new one-woman show, All Het Up, to the Capitol Theatre at Riffe Center in Columbus on Saturday, April 13 at 8:00 pm.

Everything from “family values," the Republican Contract with America, (of which she has commented, "I already have a Contract with America-it's called the Constitution") to the current state of the lesbian and gay movement, are all ripe targets for Clinton's intelligent humor and quick-witted observations.

Prior to coming out as a comic, or a lesbian for that matter, Clinton spent eight years honing her stand-up skills and perfecting her comic timing by teaching junior and senior high school English in upstate New York.

"I can make myself break into a nervous cold sweat just thinking of trying to keep seniors amused." she said. "They've been accepted at college, and they don't really need you anymore. All they want to do is rip the lid off the room. So you really have to work."

Preparing a lesson plan proved to be invaluable experience, and she soon discovered that teaching and stand-up comedy were really quite similar. “I write pages of text, and I'm very happy to improv from there, but I think it's important to have a basic goal that you want to get across-and I think I learned that from teaching."

Her "lesson plan" for the April 13 Columbus show will no doubt include a healthy dose of political humor. Her material, often as fresh as the daily news, focuses on the state of our nation and "those who have put us in such a state.” Although she shares a a last name with the man in the White House (and yes, she does have a brother named Bill), that does not exempt the first family from being on the pointed end of one of her rapier-sharp remarks. She plans on using the Clinton name "shamelessly” during this election year, even selling red, white and blue "Clinton" bumper stickers at her concerts. She has suggested contacting singer Leslie Gore about running with her this election year, forming their own third party-the "It's My Party" party.

Included also in the show will be plenty of local humor, so Columbus politicians may want to run for cover. "It's always important to pump the person who drives you from the airport for information,” she said with a laugh.

Clinton has come a long way from her humble beginnings in feminist coffeehouses and church basements. Her audiences have evolved from mainly separatist lesbians to include gay men and straight folks as well. Although her act has changed to reflect that diversity, she has no desire to give up the label "lesbian comedian."

"I think that we had our moment of lesbian chic, and the temptation is then to think, 'Well, we are there, we've arrived, and I don't need to say that I'm a lesbian any more.' But there's still an awful lot of work to do, and I believe in the palpable power of language. I just think it's important to get the word out, to say it so that more people know it."

Clinton said she's not quite ready for the word queer yet, although she's working on it. “I think that we're just getting to the point where people are able to say lesbian without spitting up.” Clinton gives credit where credit is due for the recent rise in gay and lesbian visibility on television and in the media. "For a really long time, the burden of proof was put on gays and lesbians in the industry to prove that there was an audience for gay and lesbian material. It really has taken some people like Tracy Ullman, and others like Roseanne and Whoopi to take a chance to really put their necks out and say to gays, 'You have a place on my show,' for a difference to be seen. That's how it works."

She recalls the days when gay and lesbian images on television were few and far between. "When I first started, if there was a gay person on television or a very oblique gay reference, you could do it for about five years now it's like I can't keep up!"

Aside from her career as a comic, Clinton is committed to the struggle for gay and lesbian equal rights. She feels that she is taken seriously as an activist by the lesbian and gay movement, and being partnered for nearly eight years with author and activist Urvashi Vaid has certainly helped that happen.

"[Urvashi] is quite the serious activist, although she's starting to laugh a little more at things, and I've probably become more serious."

While they don't make a secret of their relationship, they are also reluctant to become the poster children for lesbian coupledom. “We don't want to jinx it,” Clinton said with a chuckle. One of the things that Clinton is keeping a close watch on is the current “hot button” issue— gay marriage.

“I hope we're prepared for the fight,” she said. “I would hate to get blindsided again like we did with the whole gays in the military issue." She added, though, that whether you love it or hate

Kate Clinton

it, the issue seems to have galvanized the community and there seem to be people getting involved that would never have done so before.

“Anything that gets people involved, or interested or incensed is great,” she said. Despite the trials and tribulations that face the gay and lesbian movement, Clinton maintains that it is crucial to be able to laugh at ourselves too. "I think it's critical, just critical-it certainly has gotten me through a lot of really difficult times. When I just listen to myself during the course of a day, if I'm not laughing a lot, I think something is definitely off."

As a self-described “equal opportunity offender," there is not a whole lot of material that Clinton considers off limits. "I will talk about almost anything if I have the right confidence, the right angle, and the right anger about it,” she said.

A gay male friend recently approached her after a show and said that he felt left out since she didn't do any HIV humor, so Clinton has been slowly working that material into her routine. "People get very nervous," she said, "but that's something that I just keep working on." Preparation is crucial, and Clinton gathers information from a variety of sources before working material into a show. "I'm always kind of worried that I'll go off and say something that I really haven't thought out."

In addition to touring the country with her current show, Clinton has been busy writing a column for the monthly magazine The Progressive, and putting the finishing touches on her first book, CommuniKate, to be published by Ballantine later this year." ‘ForniKate' is a very good chapter,” she promises.

Whether it's through her stand-up, or her writing, the astute humorist plans to keep us laughing for a long time. "I think that as gay people and as activists, we really need to know that we are in it for the long haul," she said. “And what will keep us going is our ability to laugh, and not to take it entirely too seriously..."

Tickets for Clinton's April 13 show at the Capitol Theatre are $19.50. Call the Riffe Center box office at 614-431-0939; or charge by phone by calling Ticketmaster at 614-431-3000.