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Comedy Culture

Isn’t life a Bitch?

BITCH SALAD featuring Julie Klausner, Sara Hennessey, Emma Hunter, the Cheeto Girls and host Andrew Johnston, at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (12 Alexander), Friday (June 28), 8 pm. $25. 416-975-8555.

This year for Pride, Andrew Johnston’s all-female comedy revue is getting the gift of the gab. Headlining his fifth annual Pride edition of Bitch Salad will be NYC writer, social media star and host of the popular comedy podcast How Was Your Week, Julie Klausner.

Known for her candid scenester tell-all I Don’t Care About Your Band and a new young-adult novel, Art Girls Are Easy, and for a string of viral comedy shorts, Klausner’s biggest hit so far has been her weekly comedy interview podcast, which started in 2011. It’s featured guests like Amy Poehler, and Fred Armisen discussing anything and everything and has won praise from the New York Times, GQ and Rolling Stone for its smart, offbeat conversations.

Onstage at Buddies, Johnston plans to take a meta approach, engaging Klausner in a 45-minute interview about her interview show. They’ll revisit some contentious moments, she’ll dish on friends and foes of the show and just riff on whatever pop culture topics strike her as funny or important in the moment. For hardcore Klausner fans, this is as close to watching a live version of her podcast as they’ll get.

While the sit-down will top off a night of stand-up and sketch, Klausner admits she’s avoided live performances herself for almost a decade.

“Stand-up is something I’ve always circled around. I tried it for a while eight years ago, but it wasn’t really for me,” she says on the phone from New York City.

“I was definitely approaching it like, I wrote a joke, here’s another joke, here’s another joke.’ I wasn’t really telling stories and wasn’t letting myself think out loud on the spot.”

However, her recent two-night cabaret show, Too Gay For Brooklyn, reveals a willingness to give live performance another try, especially now that’s she’s found a sweet spot via her podcast.

“Cabaret is a great format,” she says. “All you have to do is sing and be funny sporadically. I sang some Monkees, Fiona Apple, Billy Joel, Nancy Sinatra, some Ann-Margret. In between songs I gave myself permission to fail on my feet, to write on my feet, to tell a story in a way that felt more conversational, like I do on my podcast, and not desperately search for a laugh every five seconds.”

Part of what makes Klausner’s weekly podcast so entertaining is that her multi-faceted career takes her to many different corners of the media in the span of a few days. While her schedule may seem helter-skelter, that variety keeps her happy.

“The only thing that’s a challenge for me is not working. I get depressed when I’m not in motion. I’ve tried open-ended jobs and found myself incredibly unhappy. I don’t like the monomania of showing up every day and doing the same thing. I don’t know where my next cheque is coming from, I don’t know where my next job is coming from, I have really sketchy health insurance, but I need variety in my life.”

So what’s up with Klausner post-Pride? The usual bricolage of projects: waiting to hear about two TV pilots she’s pitched, more TV writing and shopping around her first play. The only thing that seems to have any permanence is the podcast.

“It’s the first thing I’ve done that I’ve felt committed to I would do it forever. It’s my own show. Everyone says they want their own show, so what could be better?”

stage@nowtoronto.com

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