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Talking to Maria Bamford about mental health, her parents and her forthcoming Netflix series

Nashville Scene (TN) - 5/12/2016

See the rest of our Wild West Comedy Festival coverage: our interviews with Trevor Noah and Trump vs. Bernie's James Adomian, and more of our recommended WWCF shows.

Ahead of her show May 20 at TPAC's Polk Theater, we spoke with Maria Bamford via phone:

You talk a significant amount in your act about mental health and your own dealing with that in your personal life. What sort of reactions do you get to that topic? Do you find a lot of people reaching out to you who identify with you based on that topic? Or maybe some people who don't really understand it? I don't think it's ever - beyond Internet trolling - I don't think I've had anyone say negative things. I've only heard people say, "Oh, I'm glad you're speaking about this," or, "I've had that experience or a friend or family member [has]." So, only positive.

Do you find that people after a show will approach you? Yeah, after a show, or - I mean, I would hope ... somebody's that's in need of real help, you have to hang up and dial 911, as they say. [Laughs] Don't talk to your local comedian - they may not know exactly what to do. But yeah, it's been really wonderful. It makes me feel useful.

Lady Dynamite is based on your actual life, correct? Yeah, very loosely. In 2011, I had kind of a mental shutdown. I was having a sort of a hypomanic episode where I got very agitated and suicidal at the same time. You can be depressed and have a lot of energy at the same time. Just enough chutzpah to kill yourself. And so I went into a psychiatric facility three times and tried to get on some meds. And now, for the past five years I've been on a good regimen of medications, and I slowed down quite a bit in terms of touring, for me. And it's been delightful. Of course, making a TV show was uh - [laughs] that was a lot of energy.

Is it difficult to mine experiences like that for humor or is that naturally how you cope with things anyhow? No, I think, for me anyway, there are some very funny things about psychiatric facilities. I mean, No. 1, they are some of the most depressing places you could ever imagine. Like hospice, where they know you're gonna die, is so much more infinitely cheerful than any other hospital setting [laughs]. Or [maternity wards]. Babies, that's pretty cheerful, they usually have pictures in pastels up. Maybe, breast cancer sponsored by yogurt can get some pink retouching in the paint.

[Psychiatric facilities] are some sad situations in terms of, the buildings and stuff are in disrepair, and there's just not a lot of funding for it. ... I just think that's super funny. Like, not only do you want to kill yourself, but we're gonna put you in a cement block where the only place you can go outside is to circle an orange cigarette bucket. With no tree, you know, just cement. Like, wow.

Or they're super understaffed. So the staff has to do a lot of, at least from what I could tell, paperwork. Or they were always on their computers, so there'd be this line of people, you know, not doing very well - some people are schizophrenic, all sorts of mood problems - waiting to ask the nurse for like a graham cracker. Or, you know, like a little pack of graham crackers. Like, just heartbreaking. [Laughs] And a giant big-screen TV playing ultimate fighting all day.

Oh God, that doesn't seem like the right choice. No! No, it is not. But one guy liked it, and nobody else could seem to get him to turn it off. So. Or puzzles that are half-gone. Like half the pieces gone. So you can never really finish the puzzle. Or, yeah, no it is dark. ... Oh, there was an exercise or a movement class, I'm not sure exactly what it was, where you would be in a circle and you could join. I was so agitated. I wanted to stand, I didn't want to sit down. But they wouldn't let you, they said for, I think, insurance reasons, they couldn't have you stand. So you had to sit. And then you could move your arms around, and the woman who was teaching the class liked '70s rock. And depending on how you feel about that, it could take you out of the game entirely. [Laughs] Anyways.

How do your mom and dad feel about kind of being such an integral part of your act? Has that, like, changed the dynamic of your relationship with them? I think they're super pumped about it. They're very proud. My dad carries around a business card with my website and address on it and my sister's to hand out to people. He's very proud. And Mom is - they're older now, so you get to that place where like, "Who cares?" you know? And my mom gets some, just enough name recognition, when someone says, "Oh, are you Maria Bamford's -" so it's not that stressful. People who like my stuff are usually, like, kind of shy. She gets nice things, like somebody will give her an extra bottle of water upon checking in at a Hampton Inn. That sort of thing.

Last week there was a bill signed into law that effectively allows therapists to turn down clients actually based on sexual orientation. Whoa!

A therapist is allowed to turn somebody down for health care based on their own religious reasons or moral reasons. Does that seem like a particularly harmful move to you? Well. Yes! ... Well, my mom is Christian. And I know that, "Judge not lest ye be judged." That's one of 'em. What's the other? There's a couple more in there. Jesus hung out with prostitutes, and in terms of sexual behavior, judging or saying something's right and something's wrong, they're just ridiculous. And that's sickening. I was a person who benefitted from mental health care at the age of 10. So had somebody turned me down as a young kid and said, "You know, we can't" because of either my gender identification or my attraction to women - I'm relatively heterosexual, I am married to a man. [Laughs] ... It's just crazy. It's too bad. And it's hurtful and prejudiced. Bigotry. And all those things that I thought Christians were not supposed to be. Everyone is a beloved, perfect child of God. Or a beloved perfect miracle of creation. What happened to the miracle of creation? And how perfect it's supposed to be. So, there it is. That's my opinion on it. Nobody asked. Wait, you asked.

... I have received terrible mental health care before. I have a type of OCD called Unwanted Thought Syndrome, where I have unwanted violent or sexual thoughts or episodes, like [when I was] 10 years old. I don't have it anymore, because I finally went to an OCD professional who understood what it was and could help me. But I went to a few people before then who were frightened of me, misdiagnosed it as psychosis. ... And it makes you not want to go for help again. And that's what causes suicide and drug and alcohol addiction and et cetera.

So you're playing as part of the Wild West Comedy Festival Series here. One thing I noticed on the lineup is, at least on the billed headliners, it's like 24 of you guys, and I think you and Kathy Griffin and Miranda Sings are the only female names on there. Do you feel like women are just wildly underrepresented in the comedy world? Well, it sounds like it. [Laughs]. When you say it like that! My friend Jackie is opening for me, Jackie Kashian, and she is a delight. She's a comedian, but she is also a woman. So she's coming, but yeah. That is unfortunate, because I'm sure there are a lot of female comics even in the area. Zanies is a club that I've frequented, and I'm sure that would be an interesting thing to address. As a part of covering the festival. ... Anyway. I'm curious. I'm curious now. But yeah, I think that still is, unfortunately, a thing. On TV, you look at the late-night shows and that's what's happening. But Samantha Bee! Samantha Bee! Samantha Bee! That's something! And hopefully more to come. ... I can't wait until a person who's - I haven't written this joke yet, but OK. I can't wait until it is a hack premise if you are trans female and you also have schizo-affective disorder and you're open about that and you're talking about using public transport all the time. I can't wait until that's hack.

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