When Sandra Bernhard returns to Joe's Pub for a three-night New Year's run December 29-31, she'll bring a new band and "a couple suprises."
One of them will be a guest bit, at some of the shows at least, with singer-songwriter Justin Bond--another Joe's Pub fave who plays Kiki in the Tony-nominated drag cabaret duo Kiki & Herb.
Bernhard and Bond are currently writing a musical, Arts And Crafts, and will premiere one of the songs at Bernhard's show.
"We've guest starred in each other's shows, and it's loosely based on those performances," says Bernhard. "It goes into our spiritual evolutions separately and together and is funny and crazy and the music is really great."
She hopes the show will be staged next fall.
"I'm really excited about it," says the versatile comedian-actress-singer-songwriter, whose acclaimed album Whatever It Takes came out last year.
"Of course I love doing my own shows," she continues, "but it's nice to take a creative break and work with somebody else. I work so hard year after year to be at my best and top last year's show--or even my last performance, period--and it's really important to me to never let my audience down. But creatively it's kind of exhausting, so it's nice to do some things that aren't totally dependent on digging so deep into my own life and observations."
Bernhard will be backed at Joe's Pub this year by White Widow, an Austin-based female rocker who is a big fan of Bernhard, who has brought her down to Austin three times to perform.
"She has a little bit of a PJ Harvey vibe to her music and singing," says Bernhard. "She plays keyboards and guitar and is a great songwriter and arranger. She'll be on keyboards, and we'll have a New York guitarist and drummer."
Bernhard will otherwise serve up "a combo plate" of old and new songs.
"Writing new major pieces takes a lot of time--which I don't have right now," she notes. "So I'll do some material from older shows that didn't have that much exposure. On the road I feel freer to do more improv, since there's nothing to lose. But in New York I need a more cohesive show, and I'll bring in a couple pieces I know I can fall back on."
But she's not suggesting by any means that she'll shy away from her trademark topicality and spontaneity.
"I tend to stay away from all the stuff that gets in our face every day--that I don't feel any humor in," she says, hastily adding: "But you know me! I draw from the esoteric--so many things I observe walking along that are exclusively mine and not the material everybody's heard from everybody else. Anybody can say Sarah Palin's a bitch. We all know that, but how much more can you say about it that's really entertaining?"
So Bernhard promises her usual "recognizable ideas and themes--but from a more esoteric and personal point of view."
Meanwhile, she's working on TV and film projects, including a film comedy production in Chicago, The Ted And Ellen Show, that's "a takeoff on a reality TV show where I play a producer," she says. She may also do a radio show, and is planning a joint appearance with her friend and fellow New Yorker Rosanne Cash at the Rubin Museum of Art, when scheduling permits.
"The stars are aligned and I feel good things are coming up in 2011!" she concludes.
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