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HBO:
So what were you doing before you decided to make a living as a comedian?
Bonnie McFarlane:
I was in college, so this is the only job I've ever had, bumming all across the country. I started in comedy right after college.
HBO:
Did you start as a stand up first, or writing material for other people?
Bonnie McFarlane:
Well, I actually lied to get a job in advertising, and six months later I got laid off from that job. But it still felt like I was a professional writer, so I thought I would write jokes for comedians. Then it became clear really quickly that they had no money to buy jokes, and people kept saying, You gotta do it, you gotta do it. I had no interest in doing it, but I had all this material, so I thought - I'll do it and I did it.
HBO:
So you were writing jokes, like what Woody Allen did, you tried to sell them and you found out there was no market?
Bonnie McFarlane:
Yeah, I don't know anybody who buys jokes. Comedians will sometimes sit around with each other and give each other jokes. Or you'll watch somebody say it and you'll think of a tag and give it to them. But there's also comedians who are really controlling, so even if somebody comes up with something good for them, there's a 90% chance they're not gonna use it because it's like 'I have my own thing going on here.' Sometimes a celebrity will want to start doing stand up and then they'll buy some jokes. But the problem is that, for whatever reason, until you've been doing stand up like 15 - 20 years you can't just do somebody else's material. It's it just doesn't work usually.
HBO:
How long did it take you to find your own style once you started doing stand up?
Bonnie McFarlane:
Last night, thank God. It came to me [LAUGHS]. No, I don't know, I still don't really know what my style is. I like a lot of different kinds of comedy, I like watching it and I like being inventive and original. That's the problem with doing a longer set - you can't do every joke that you have because some stuff contradicts other stuff. Even when you know that the audience knows that you're joking and it's not true, you still can't do a joke about your family dying and then later talk about your Mom. I mean you want to keep some kind of cohesive order going.
HBO:
Continuity.
Bonnie McFarlane:
Yeah. We love it. Americans love it. [LAUGHS]
HBO:
When you first started this in college, who were the people that made you think that writing jokes is something you wanted to do?
Bonnie McFarlane:
I would go to this local comedy club all the time - I watched every show, every night. I just really liked it. But I didn't really know that much about comedy before that. Then I moved to New York a year later and that really opened up this world of all different kinds of comics. And you can do anything - you don't have to do stuff that's just about yourself.
HBO:
You mean the type of comedy you've seen in New York is different?
Bonnie McFarlane:
Yeah. Dave Chappelle was one of the first comics I saw in New York and I couldn't believe how natural his style was. Up until then I had only seen comics that had this on-stage persona. Here they were doing different things. Dave Attell doesn't talk about himself really at all; he just does jokes that are really dark. Instead of going up in his persona, he goes up with his sense of humor, which was a different way of doing comedy too. It just opened up for me different ways to do it.
HBO:
When you were growing up did you have any comedy idols?
Bonnie McFarlane:
Well I grew up in Canada in a really small town. We didn't have running water for a long time and we didn't have TV. Then when we did get TV we only had one channel, so I wasn't exposed to much. It wasn't until I came to New York that I was introduced to different kinds of comics.
HBO:
Did you go to college in Canada too?
Bonnie McFarlane:
Yeah, in Edmonton. NATE - Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. [LAUGHS]
HBO:
Comic hot spot.
Bonnie McFarlane:
Yeah. I think I was the youngest person there. [LAUGHS] I didn't realize it was this trade school where you go out into the world, then go into rehab and then go back to school. That's what everyone was like. [LAUGHS]
HBO:
And now you've been on the road for a long time. Do you have a favorite city to perform in?
Bonnie McFarlane:
I performed in New York for a while and then all over L.A. for the past few years. Then last year I went on the road for the first time, and it was really an eye opening experience. It's amazing how it's different everywhere, and you can't play to the back of the room. There is no back of the room. [LAUGHS] It's just all these people who paid a lot of money to see you, so you better be good.
HBO:
Does it change from city to city, room to room?
Bonnie McFarlane:
Yeah, it really changes. First of all it's amazing to me that people would go see comedy when they don't know anything about the comic. I would never go see a band if I wasn't even sure of the genre, you know? But they'll come to see a comedy show and have no idea what kind of comedy it is, and they'll sit in the front row. And if it's not what they think it's gonna be, sometimes they get upset. And you're like, Well you know, not every comic juggles, I'm sorry. [LAUGHS]
HBO:
Do you ever find yourself having a lot of interaction with the people in the clubs?
Bonnie McFarlane:
Well I try not to, but I do get heckled a lot. Usually from women, alpha females. I don't know, they don't like it when someone else is getting attention or something. But yeah women are usually the most uptight in an audience. If you hear someone in an audience groan, it's usually a woman. [LAUGHS]
HBO:
I don't think I've ever heard an aggressive woman heckler.
Bonnie McFarlane:
Yeah, well I have. [LAUGHS] It's kind of funny. Men like to heckle, but most of the time they understand it's a little interaction, part of the show, and at some point they're gonna let the comedian get back to it. They just wanted their little time in the spotlight, and they want the comedian to get them. In their warped sense, they feel like they've helped the show. Women don't always understand that philosophy - at some point your time is over and it's done. They'll just keep going and going, and they don't understand, [LAUGHS] my job is to shut you up. They'll go, What you're talking about is wrong. Well, you have the opportunity to get up and leave the room. If everyone else is having a good time, whether it seems crazy to you or not, the rest of the people like what I'm doing. So you can't speak on behalf of the entire audience.
HBO:
So it's less of the You Suck kind of heckling and more like You can't talk about that - that's an issue you shouldn't be addressing?
Bonnie McFarlane:
Yes, they get angry at the topics that I am dealing with, and they don't even understand where I'm coming from, or they just don't get that it's a joke. I think a lot of the problem is television too. People don't go see shows. They just watch TV and that's where they've formed their entire boundaries of what should or should not happen.
So they don't realize when you go to a comedy club, part of the appeal is that you get to hear things that you would never hear anywhere else. A comedy club is really the last place where someone can talk about whatever they want to talk about. Occasionally the club owner will tell us not to use the C-word, but most of the time it's whatever you want to talk about. And some people get mad about that.
HBO:
Right. Do you ever look out in the audience and say, you know I better do a PSA kind of announcement upfront here, let people know I'm gonna use the C word, I'm gonna discuss this - prepare them?
Bonnie McFarlane:
I've thought about it. I thought it would be a funny thing to take the shock value out of everything before I start and go, OK, dead babies, c**t, you know... But no, I've never done it.
HBO:
If you had to sum up your show in a few words to someone, what is it about?
Bonnie McFarlane:
Well, if you tune into my HBO special, 26 and a half minutes of sheer brilliance. Of course, if that's not what you're into, you can turn the sound down and I'll be wearing really tight cords.
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