Lynn Ruth back in her San Francisco again
The last two blogs have been written by American comedian and 84-year-old burlesque performer Lynn Ruth Miller, returning to the US for three weeks of gigs.
This was what happened on her first weekend back in San Francisco…
Saturday was a Thanksgiving dinner – because I will not be here for the real one – and two shows back-to-back that I thought I would love.
And, indeed, it was all magnificent.
We had turkey that tasted like turkey! I do not like to admit that food makes my world go round but it sure did today. Turkey with gravy, sweet potatoes, stuffing, veggies and peach cobbler for dessert.
Still stuffed, I left for the Retzlaff Winery where I MC’d a show I helped establish ten years ago with Michelle Hemmenway. It has grown by leaps and bounds and the place was filled with comedy lovers.
I opened the show for an all-woman line-up and the sad thing was that the women were really not very sharp even though the admission was high enough for people to expect to hear the Bay Area’s finest.
This is not to say that Michelle has not booked some wonderful people but it was very mediocre. The headliner especially made me sad because her jokes were really marvellous, clever and well thought-out but they were spaced so far apart she lost the rhythm of her set.
I am very, very spoiled I guess. In London, the women are sharp if not sharper than the men. I have to say they are a challenge to me and I doubt I will ever be as funny and wonderful as they are. Someone like Tiff Stevenson makes me realize how much farther I need to go to be a great comedian.
Not so in the Bay Area. These women keep the stereotype alive… that we are funny in our way but not great.
But we all CAN be exceptional if we give it the time and the attention it takes.
Stand-up comedy is an art and cannot be mastered in a month, a year or even five years. It takes time.
All things that are worth it do.
I left the winery to run into the city to do another show called Body Taboo Defiance.
This was a burlesque show but Dottie Lux, the producer and originator of the show, wanted me to talk about my anorexia.
I sang one song and told the story of the chocolate icebox cake and people came up to me afterwards with tears in their eyes telling me how much they loved what I did. It was very gratifying.
In fact, to my surprise, the entire night was brilliant for me because people were so accepting and so receptive to me… if only they had been that when I lived here.
I guess that is the way it is in the world. No-one thinks much of the kid next door. It is the one out-of-towner that shimmers and glows.
The rest of that show was unique in the extreme.
It was all dance and naked burlesque with one man who wanted to be a woman, one woman who wanted to be a man, one black girl who wanted to be anything but what she was and Dottie Lux herself who stripped to the flesh and painted her body parts with blue paint she blotted on paper and pasted to a ladder.
We saw bodies that were misshapen, flabby, solid and lean and what I loved about the show was that – because they all were naked we didn’t judge their looks – we judged the quality of the dance and the message their movement gave us.
It was truly a thoughtful, interesting show that made us all question our own body image problems. The women in the show were brave and courageous and each beautiful in their own individual way.
Sunday was catch-up day and, once again, I was struck by how far I have drifted from Bay Area values.
Many of the lovely people I am with voted for Trump.
One beautiful friend whose husband is physically falling apart and needs home care voted for Trump not realizing that her vote encouraged his administration to cut the very services she needs to keep her husband alive and comfortable.
She is a wise and liberal woman in every way as are the others that I have met here who voted Republican.
It is almost impossible for me to come to terms with their reasoning when I know them as superb people who are intelligent, socially-conscious, kind and loving human beings… not the idiots we in Britain assume are the clods who wanted Trump to be in the White House.
Go figure.
I also met with two women who were in direct contrast with one another.
One is a writer who has published a beautiful book but, to keep herself afloat in this very bloated economy, thinks she has to do PR for a product she doesn’t believe in and is in a relationship that is not satisfying to her.
Her health is precarious and her fear of her future is immense. She got the flu and swears it made her lactose intolerant. You figure that one out. She feels locked into routines she never wanted and never planned to have to face in her late sixties.
The other woman is truly happy, with a life she orchestrated and created bit by bit – a well-adjusted, artistic, creative mother who loves being a mother and enjoys the life she and her husband of ten years have created. He is a creative musician who has figured out how to channel his creativity into government-funded projects exposing families to music and all the pleasure it can bring.
It is always a joy to be with her because she confirms my theory that happiness is something we each create for ourselves no matter what the circumstances.
… CONTINUED HERE …
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