EP 404: Suzanne Westenhoefer - Breaking Barriers

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Welcome to Episode 402 of The Clean Comedy Podcast!  This week I interview the amazing Suzanne Westenhoefer! Suzanne is an out lesbian stand-up comedian. 

With her platinum locks, immaculate makeup, and chicest blazer, Suzanne personified 1990s lesbian chic when she appeared on Sally Jesse Raphael’s “Breaking the Lesbian Stereotype” episode. She has been breaking through barriers from being the first lesbian comedian with an HBO comedy special to being the first lesbian comedian to perform on “Late Night with David Letterman” and all points in between. 


Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-clean-comedy-podcast-w-jd-creviston--4825680/support.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, everybody, Welcome to another episode of The Queen Comedy Podcast,
where we keep it light and funny, the most importantly,
we keep it clean. Now, before we dive into today's episode,
I want to give you a quick heads up. Here
on the show, we love to celebrate all kinds of
people and the unique experiences because, let's face it, life's
funniest moments come from the world around us, and that
world includes everyone. Now, today's episode I touch on some
themes related to the LGBTQ community. Now know this is

(00:20):
the Queen Comedy Podcast, so are assure you that everything
we discuss will stay true to our commitment for good
queen fun. But I just want to give you a
little insight into the lives of folks who might see
the world a bit differently. So if it's not your
cup of tea or you're listening with little ones, I
completely understand if you want to skip this one and
join us again next time. But if you're up forward,
I think you'll find that humor has a way of
bring us all together, no matter who we are or
who we love. So I hope that you'll listen. I

(00:43):
hope that you'll enjoy this episode. I hope you'll that
you'll enjoy the guest as much as I do. I
love everyone. If you're a Christian like me and you
believe in love, you believe in everyone is a child
of God. This is a great insight into love and
joy and how to people can connect who don't come
from the same background or same walk of life. And

(01:04):
just honestly, if you just listen to this episode, you
will hear the amount of love and kindness and caring
coming from both sides of this of the speakers in
this episode. So I hope you enjoy it. I hope
you get a listen to it. Thank you so much. Again,
If you want to skip it, I totally understand, but
I just thought i'd give you a heads up. Thanks,
have a good one and let's jump into the show. Hey, everybody,
welcome to Queen Comedy Podcast. It's James and today I

(01:26):
have probably one of the most amazing guests that I'll
ever have or that I ever have had on this podcast.
I met this lady at Jar's Comedy Coby Ventura. It
was the most packed the room has ever been the
best energy I've ever seen in a comedy room ever
in my entire life, and I was like, what the
heck is going on? And not only was the room amazing,

(01:49):
not only were the where it was, the crowd amazing,
but I got to talk to her before and after
the show. And if you want to meet one of
the greatest human beings ever who is kind and sweet
and caring and has amazing stories, this is the person.
So I'm gonna get into it. But she's been a
stand up comedian since the nineteen ninety I was to say,

(02:13):
ninety one ninety when you got dared.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
My first time I ever did stand up was ninety
but I went on the road and started headlining in
ninety one.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
There you go. Well, she is already here, She's already
in it. Please give it up for Suzanne wesson hoffin
Welcome she is. You are amazing, by the way of
every comedian that I've ever worked with met whatever, there
is an energy about you that is so positive and
so amazing that it just emanates from you.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Well, I gotta say, and you must know this, we
have the world's greatest job.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
One hundred percent.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
To ever be in a bad mood or cranky, you
almost want to go. You don't work in a factory
you know what I mean. You don't know what real
work is. You get up, they pay you to make
people laugh. Take it down a notch.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yeah. Yeah. When I hear people get upset about it,
like I don't get this. I don't get that. I'm like,
we're jokers. We go on state we don't. Yeah, we
contribute humor to society, but we're not changing the world, right,
We're not building cars or whatever. Well, yeah, you are. You.
Actually that's true. You are changing the world and you
have changed the world. So what that was good? Well,

(03:27):
what I was gonna say is actually the funny thing
about you. I don't know if you've ever looked at
your IMDb or your or your Wikipedia, but like on
your Wikipedia, the first thing it says is that, okay,
so you became accepting a dare. She began her career
delivering gay the material straight off audiences and mainstream comedy
clubs in New York City in the ninety nineteen nineties.

(03:49):
She became the first openly lesbian comic ever do appear
on television of nineteen ninetyone, on an episode of The
Sally Jesse Rafael Show entitled This Is Where It Got
Me entitled break in the lesbian stereotype. Lesbians who don't
look like lesbians? What what does that even mean?

Speaker 2 (04:03):
You imagine? But in nineteen ninety one, we thought that
was perfectly appropriate to say, lesbians who don't look like lesbians.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
I'm like, what does that even mean? Like, what are
you saying?

Speaker 2 (04:15):
I think it meant back then it meant didn't look
like a woman playing softball or you know, the stereotypes,
and that was it, right, So if you if you
weren't wearing a uniform playing basketball, you weren't a lesbian.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
Wow, that's what. Wow. The things that we stereotype in
the world is insane to me because that doesn't sound right. Right.
That's like saying every gay man is like mascuated whatever
and has a lisp, and like we do all those things.
I have a gay uncle. That's not what he was like,
It's that's super weird. But again, that's the nineties, right.

(04:56):
If you could not do that show in twenty twenty four.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
No, And also, I'll tell you what though, especially as
a comic, you should, right you You probably realize you
use this when they think stereotypes are useful, right, you
know what I mean? And it's a kind of quick language. Yeah,
but what happens when we take the stereotype and go
and that's the only way it can be.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
Yes, that's when it gets screwed up, right, that's yeah,
that's what we get in trouble. And that's when we
don't open the door to other people. Let other people.
And as I said in the beginning of this, the
room at Jr's Comedy Club for the show that you
performed had the most positive energy I've ever felt in
any room in my life. I'm not kidding like I was.

(05:41):
I was like, this is amazing. And at first, I'm
not gonna lie to you, I was a little nervous. Right,
straight white guy going into a room. Yeah, they loved me.
They loved me. They were like it was like I
was embraced in a warm hug, and I was like,
this is I just want to stay here all day? Right,
this is perfect.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
Well, I've been doing stand up so long that now
other when a straight white male does comedy with me
there the audience assumes I've vetted him, like I know
that he's a good guy, that he's not, you know,
a bad straight white male. You know, Yeah, give them trouble.

Speaker 1 (06:20):
Do they ask you, Do they ever ask you, did
you vet that person? Or do they assume that They
just always they just.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
Assume that if he's getting up straight, if a straight
comic's getting up before me, that because they know me,
and I'm a little bit controlling, they know me that
I wouldn't allow somebody to get up and make dyke
jokes or you know, I mean, or fat chick jokes

(06:46):
or something like that. They know that already.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
Yeah, No, I would, and also I would. I'm very
picky about who I let on lineups to for that
same exact reason. Is that to why anybody to put
anybody down. We're here to have fun. We're not here
to beat on anybody or to pick on anybody. That's
not what comedy is about. How good comedy.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
And I don't want my audience to be subjected to it.

Speaker 1 (07:09):
Right, that's great, And we're here to have fun.

Speaker 2 (07:13):
We're here to laugh. There's enough stupid stuff that we
do that we can laugh at that doesn't hurt anybody's.

Speaker 1 (07:20):
Feelings exactly right, So with your dare to get up
and do stand up do lesbian material in front of
straight crowds In the nineties, first of all, how scared
were you? And then how did that kind of start?
Because like there has to we're still at the end
of the AIDS pandemic. We're still at the end of

(07:42):
people being scared about.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
Really they didn't even have the cocktail yet.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
Yeah, yeah, but we're still pushing a fear, a fear
mongering type world on that there is no such thing
as LGBTQ community or rights or anything like that. Right,
that's not it doesn't exist yet. How do we How
was that for you? Like, how scared were you or
were you scared?

Speaker 2 (08:07):
Well, I wasn't scared. I was an activist, okay, and
I went to I was born and raised in Leicester County, Pennsylvania,
but I went to New York City. I had to
live in Jersey because I couldn't have city. But I
became a bartender and I was trying to be a
Broadway actor. But I was never in the closet. Once
I knew I was gay, I was out, you know

(08:28):
what I mean. And so during the eighties we were
marching all the time because of the AIDS crisis. Reagan
mentioned AIDS. Reagan reg you know me, and we were
very much trying to get him because people were dying,
and they died very fast back then, you know what
I mean, And no one knew what it was. And

(08:49):
as far as anyone knew, gay people were getting it,
that's all they knew. And so anybody in government wasn't
paying attention to it because gay people were expendable, right,
And uh so I was marching all the time. And
then when I bartended, I bartended Monday through Friday, like
eleven to a happy hour, so that I could have

(09:11):
a relationship with my partner who had a real job,
you know what I mean. And so I bartended and
I was completely out find out neing seafood restaurant and
my regulars who would come in every day, and back

(09:31):
then we called them regulars. Now we call them alcoholics.
But you know what I'm saying, the same guy, I'll
have a double Finlandia martini and maybe a salad, you
know what I mean. I'm sorry, my allergies are bugging
me and I uh So, one day one of the

(09:54):
regulars came in. He said, you know, you're in here
making us laugh about gay stuff all the time. I
saw a comic on HBO last night, and he wasn't
that funny. He said, why don't you win one of
those open mic nights in New York City and do
the stuff you do here? You know? And I would
because I remember, I said, I can't go in there

(10:16):
and be openly gay. I don't even think they'd allow
me to get up. And he said, well, they don't
want you to be openly gay here at this bar,
but you yell at your manager every day and say
too bad, you know what I mean? And he said so,
and it made me think, And so I signed up
for an open mic in July of nineteen ninety and

(10:39):
I got up. You know, you remember open MIC's like
you had to bring two people who would drink, you
know what I mean, that kind of thing. So I
showed up and I did my perfectly memorized three minutes,
and I won. And I came out and said, I
guess I'll be your only lesbian comedian tonight. I laughed

(11:02):
and laughed and laughed and laugh and I said, and
then when I said, like, when they understaid no, I
mean it, they were like, what's going on here? But
it was funny enough. I won the contest twenty five.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
Oh there you go now?

Speaker 2 (11:18):
And then because that happened, and no one else was
doing that, right, So everybody came for me, like uh
Heroldo and Sally, Jesse, Raphael and all that. They wanted
to have me on their show. And clubs, not the
big time clubs, not like Catcherizing Star or the Improv

(11:41):
or anything like that, but smaller clubs came for me
and they wanted me to do this because this was
not being done. This was crazy, you know, right. And
then as a matter of fact, within about a year
into it, I dish at Caturizing Star and I passed Wow,

(12:04):
and I got in at Caturizing Star. So then I
felt pretty like, oh yeah. And so then I I
auditioned at the Comic Strip and he said, you were
very funny, but we're not. We groom our people for
television and there's never going to be an open lesbian
on television, so we're.

Speaker 1 (12:25):
Not wow using you.

Speaker 2 (12:28):
He's dead now.

Speaker 1 (12:32):
That's the best spots led. He's dead now. Well, I mean,
you know he probably could. I mean, you couldn't foresee it.
If you asked somebody in the seventies or eighties if
there would be openly gay or lesbian personal TVV, they
probably go No, that's the truth. It is.

Speaker 2 (12:47):
And now you can't go to any major town and
I mean medium sized town and they have a comedy
club that has a gay comedy night. Yeah that's you know,
it's normal, which is great, But I had I did
want to change the world. I was trying to make
it safe for homos, meaning don't fire us, don't beat

(13:11):
us up, just let us be us. We're not trying
to do anything. We don't need or we don't want
special rights. We just don't want to be beaten up
or fired or what you know, I mean whatever. And
that was what I was doing. Did I know that
that would be my career. No. I thought I was
going to do this for a year or so to

(13:32):
get this message out because I didn't think I was
a comic, do you know what I mean? Like, I
never wanted to be a comic. I wanted to be
a great Broadway actress that went well, and so I
didn't know. And then all of a sudden, And when
I say sudden, I mean sudden like three years later,

(13:53):
I have an HBO special. Yeah, I mean, And I
never middled, I never featured, I never and I went
right from the open mic contest to a couple more
open mics to headlining.

Speaker 1 (14:07):
Wow, that's would you know, you know why people would
kill for that now, like they would kill Yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
I hate to tell the story because it's I I
know how it sounds, and because comics bust their chops
right out there on the road just to get featured,
just to get middling, just to get headlining, you know.
And I was I think between the way I looked,
which is in the nineties nobody thought a lesbian looked
like me. I had the big spiley kerm and blue

(14:35):
eyeshadow up to hear, you know, uh, and the way
I looked, and the fact that when I talked about
being gay, I didn't apologize right Like, I didn't go
I didn't say, oh, I'm gay, you know. I was like,
I'm gay and you're not bummer?

Speaker 1 (14:52):
You know.

Speaker 2 (14:53):
People were like, what the hell? You know? That was
a big deal the way I was feeling it. So
I was very fortunate. I was really right time, right,
and the right attitude.

Speaker 1 (15:06):
Yeah. I think the attitude is so important though, that
what you do is because it is you make it
so positive, you make it so unapologetic, that it's that
it's fun like in listening, I've listened to your albums,
all right, I watched you before what yesterday?

Speaker 2 (15:21):
My son is so sweet.

Speaker 1 (15:24):
I listened to albums. I'm laughing so hard, I'm crying
in the car. I'm like, this is insane. How is
how we are You not everywhere where everyone knows you?
It is a travesty to comedy, not only the comedy,
but just to the world that that is not your
Your stand up is not everywhere. You're not on Netflix,
You're not on everything possible. It doesn't make sense to me.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
What happened is just as that could have happened. Like
I was having meetings with King World and different companies.
I was here in La to maybe have my own
talk show late night or an our thing. Just at
the moment that was happening, a couple of people who

(16:07):
were already famous and lesbian but.

Speaker 1 (16:11):
Not out came out okay.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
And once they came out, Hollywood kind of went, huh, okay,
we have a lesbian.

Speaker 1 (16:20):
Ah, So so you could be we could have got
the Suzanne Show instead of the Ellen Show, is what
you're saying, possibly right? That would have been way better.
Not gonna lie. I mean, I.

Speaker 2 (16:34):
Would have been nicer than my people.

Speaker 1 (16:36):
Yeah, that's exactly what I was about to say. I
was like, you would at least been nicer to everybody,
you know.

Speaker 2 (16:41):
That's absolutely true.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
Yeah, that's so, that's that's amazing. And then but you
are featured in a documentary that's out on Netflix Outstanding
about the comedy Revolution, So you're on that. So that's good.
Is that could that could open doors to Netflix or
Netflix Special because there is opportunity there. That is something
that should be export And if anyone, guys, if you

(17:03):
have not listened to any of her albums, I'm gonna
put them in the show notes so you can listen.
They are hilarious. They are amazing. You don't have to
be LGBTQ any of that stuff to enjoy every single
moment of it. It's so funny. And I just yeah,
because I even thought about the gun part, Like I
don't know if you've had that, but like we were

(17:24):
talking about you and your partner not having a gun
in the house because you right, that happened in my
house with me and my wife, and I was like,
oh my gosh, Like this is you don't saying that's
reallyable with partners.

Speaker 2 (17:34):
Yeah, yeah, and sometimes it's a little different when it's
two girls or two guys, but it's just enough gift
different in my opinion, to be funny.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
Yeah, of course. And it's it's all the human experience,
right of having to be in a relationship, of dealing
with someone who's different than you, trying to understand why
they want to sleep with eighteen dogs on their bed
and you don't want to sleep with eighteen you know
what I'm saying, Like, those are all things that we've
all gone through as as couples, as humans, So the
experiences actually not different like I was expecting.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
Human.

Speaker 1 (18:08):
Yeah, it's the human experience, and I think sometimes we
forget we like to divide it up by saying this
is gay, this is straight, this is whatever. It's like, no, no, no,
We're all humans and we're all experiencing these same things
just through different lenses, right, And it's.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
And the differences when you have two guys or two
girls are usually I'm sorry, funny. It's funny that you know,
the two girls who have their period at the same
time is going to be funny. And also they're not
going to have to explain it to each other, you
know what. I mean, they're not gonna have to say,

(18:43):
you know, like no, I'm having my period and then
the guys goes, what's that mean? Why does that make
youse Bobby blah blah blah blah, buh, partner's gonna go uh,
you know what I mean. So the differences, in my opinion,
are just enough to be fun and interesting and different.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
Yeah, so what is your You've been touring since since
the nineties, You've gone been assuming all over the world
would be my guest, right, I've been all over.

Speaker 2 (19:12):
The North America. I did. I've done lesbian and gay
cruises where I've gotten to perform on ships in different countries,
but I haven't actually done shows in Europe.

Speaker 1 (19:27):
Really, Wow, that's surprising, Like you seem to have a
huge following. I mean the amount of people that came
out to see you. Keep in mind, this is a
small club in Ventura, California. There's not all you know
what I'm saying, and it was packed. I actually had
to turn people away, like I was like, we don't
have any I can't. I can't physically put another human
being in this room like I would have loved to,

(19:49):
but I couldn't. I'm like talking to anything, like we
don't have any more space. Like if I put two
more tables in here, we're done. We can't walk around.
You know. It was amazing a fire code. Yeah I
don't need that either. Yeah, I don't want that either.
So that sounds like a bad idea. So what has
been your favorite like journey or tour or place that

(20:13):
you've been that you've got to perform? What's the place
that you come back to do you always go? I
love coming back here. It is my great place for
me to perform.

Speaker 2 (20:20):
There's a lot of cities that I really really like
going back to. But my favorite thing that I've ever
done was in nineteen ninety three, I think it was
we had the Gay Games. We weren't allowed to call
them the Olympics.

Speaker 1 (20:38):
Oh, so they.

Speaker 2 (20:41):
Had basically a gay version of the Olympics. And the
closing ceremony was a Yankee Stadium, Old Yankee Stadium. And
like I said, I'd been doing stand up for about
two years and I got asked to do this and
I stood on second base at at like sixty thousand people.

(21:02):
I'm on the jumbo t I'm like Madonna, I'm on
the JumboTron right behind, and I did like eight ten
minutes of comedy and got a standing ovation. That was
to me the cool one of the coolest things I
ever experienced. I mean, you never think, even once I
started to understand that maybe I would do stand up,

(21:24):
you never think you're going to be standing at Yankee
Stadium and get his That's like, that was crazy.

Speaker 1 (21:32):
That's also like the worst place you could do stand
up is like second Base open air stadium, not built
for comedy. Yet you still get a standing ovation and
people love it. That's that just says everything. That says
everything you need to know about your comedy right away,
that yeah, you are a star, You're made for this,
You're built for comedy, and you should have been doing
it for the.

Speaker 2 (21:51):
You had to really shout into the micro.

Speaker 1 (21:54):
I wonder how it sounds over those terrible speakers in stadiums.
Baseball stadiums have the worst speakers system for some reason.

Speaker 2 (22:01):
Yeah, I don't I don't know how it sounded. So
I'm maybe someone has a film of it or something.
I don't know, but I do. I do know that
that was one of my man that I think it
was that moment when you're hitting and you're feeling good
as a comic, and then you realize it's a circle
of people. So I start turning, you know what I mean,

(22:24):
and then see the jumbo trons turn and see myself
on the jumbo trons and it's just like, I'm I'm
a rock star. I mean, like, this is never and
it's never happened. I've never been on a jumbo tron again,
I don't think. But that was that was pretty. That

(22:45):
was whoa that went. And in ninety the same year
of the year after Gaze marched on Washington, as we
do now and again and so like about it depends
on who you ask. Between eight hundred thousand and a
million people marched from Washington and what they did is

(23:08):
they marched down to the mall and they set up
a big stage at the end of the mall and
then they had entertainment for the rest of the night
and they had four comics we hosted for one hour each.
It was kate Lea Delaria, Margat Gomez and myself. We

(23:29):
each got an hour to host to bring out people,
you know what I mean, And it was I mean,
it was fun and that was an astonishing experience too,
because you're standing and looking out at so many people.
I mean, you just can't believe it, you know what

(23:51):
I mean. It's you're doing your set and you're trying
to remember who you're supposed to introduce.

Speaker 1 (24:00):
Is the hardest part part of hosting is like wait,
I'm doing, well, what am I supposed to do after this?
Like you're forgetting? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (24:06):
Yeah, So I would say that was one of my
other pretty astonishing moments that I got to do. You know.

Speaker 1 (24:15):
Yeah, Now you do a lot of cruise ships, right,
you do a lot of cruises. How often are you
out on cruise ships as opposed to being back, you know,
in a land at home club stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (24:25):
I only do like two or three cruises a year. Okay,
I do gay cruises, all lesbian cruises every once when
I do the gay guy cruises. The gay guy cruises
are fun. But if you are a little bit uh,
if you're a little bit worried about what you'll see,

(24:47):
don't count. Okay, fair the gay guys, they're like, yeah, well,
job contest, let's do it. You know. You're like, uh,
but I do about three cruises a year. They're all
lesbian cruises. And which is completely different from the gay
guy cruise. The gay women are like we're holding hands. Yeah,

(25:14):
very different kind of thing. I do them because I
love being with all the you know, it's like two
thousand gay women on a ship. Because when I work
for one of the cruise companies is Olivia Cruz Company,
they take over the ship. I mean not with guns
and stuff.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
They don't.

Speaker 2 (25:35):
I just realized how that sound. I mean, we bring
on all lesbian entertainers. Everything is done by gay people,
all gay girls. So the only the only men on
the ship are you know, cleaning your room and making
your bed right.

Speaker 1 (25:54):
Yeah. I remember we talked about that Hacks episode where
where she goes on and you said, no, that's not
how works. Because I was very interested. I was like, oh,
this is what see, this is how straight people go.
We go. I saw that on TV. Right, that's you
probably get that a lot like I saw that on TV.
You're like, that's that, honey, that's not how it is.

Speaker 2 (26:10):
No, No, no, they well, and now there's more and
there's different kinds. But like there are groups of lesbians
or groups of gay men who will go on as
straight cruise okay, and they'll do their kind of do
their own thing as a group of like eighty people

(26:31):
or one hundred people, whatever that happens. And so you're
you're doing the straight stuff, you're seeing the straight entertainers.
The idea behind Olivia when it started in eighty nine,
I think it was Wow the lesbian Cruisers was that
you would come on the ship and everything would be
for us. It would be a complete matriarchy. All the

(26:55):
singers were gay singers, All the comics were gay cut
you know, like every the cruise director, everything got done
by someone who was a lesbian. And that's not as
it doesn't seem as important now maybe, but that such
for women who were like living in the same town

(27:15):
across the street but had been partners for thirty years,
but they couldn't even act like they were together. That
meant something to them, you know, to be able to
vacation together, and then not just vacation together, but vacation
openly together with other people who were openly together, with
the singers and the plays and the talents and the

(27:36):
stuff all being focused on being gay, being lesbian, that
was so important.

Speaker 1 (27:42):
Well, yeah, it was a safe, safe place, right, it's
safe where the rest of the world. Wasn't that makes sense? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (27:48):
Right?

Speaker 1 (27:49):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (27:50):
And oh my god. In the beginning, in in the
early nineties, we would the ship would pull into like
someplace in Barbados. I don't know, I'm just making stuff,
and it would be all the people who are selling
stuff would come down to the ships. They're used to,
the cruise ships, you know what I mean, And all
of a sudden it be all women getting off the ship,

(28:12):
you know what I mean, And then more women, and
then nothing but women and the guys who are selling stuff,
you know, or paint in your face or whatever they're doing.
That is it American nuns? You know, because they didn't.
They wouldn't. They didn't understand, and who's going to explain
to them now we're just a group of asies. It

(28:33):
was nineteen ninety something, you know what I mean. And
we went to and when they first went to when
one of the Olivia trips went to the Greek island
of Lesbos. Oh, we made front newspaper.

Speaker 1 (28:50):
Yeah I bet.

Speaker 2 (28:51):
Yeah, in Lesbos. I can't read it. It's Greek, but
you know. But and we did all kinds of fun
things that made it good, like all the all the
lesbian ships got known among different little areas where cruise
ships would go because they would jump out two thousand

(29:12):
lesbians in Turkey and we buy every rug. Yeah, like
we spent money, We bought everything, you know, and so
we got a reputation as being like they'd be like,
welcome lesbians, welcome. You know. It went from are those
nurses to welcome American lesbians. We were we were, we were,

(29:41):
we were. We got a reputation a spending some bucks.

Speaker 1 (29:44):
Yeah. Yeah. Now what is over your time as being
comedian and developing material? Has there been hard parts? Has
there been times where like, it's been hard for you
to create content because you're out so much, you're traveling
so much, you're doing so many things people know who
were Was it hard for you to write jokes or
do you ever get stuck with that stuff or feel
like you had to even always cater to a certain

(30:05):
like thing that you like, Hey, I always got to
come back to X, Y and Z. Is that did
you ever find that? Or No? No, you just wrote
about life.

Speaker 2 (30:14):
No, and I don't really right per se.

Speaker 1 (30:20):
Oh okay, I.

Speaker 2 (30:21):
Say stuff on stage. It's funny and back and back
in the day, I used to cassette, tape it so
and then listen to it the next day and go, oh,
that's funny. I'll say that again.

Speaker 1 (30:33):
Really, you don't write out material. You don't write like
sit down to write out jokes or write out really
Oh my gosh, wow.

Speaker 2 (30:42):
I have hours of the material.

Speaker 1 (30:46):
How how do you? How do you keep it all
categorized and know like what you're gonna say or what
you're gonna use? Then like, how does that know what
I'm gonna say?

Speaker 2 (30:54):
I just go and it's like this. If it's like
if I'm up and I start talking about out my
cats and they're just sort of chuckling, then I get
off the cats and start talking about my girl, or
start talking about the traffic or you know what I mean.
I just I let the audience tell me what to say,
you know, direct me, like if they're responding to certain things,

(31:18):
like I don't get up with an act, and then
that's the act I'm gonna do. I get up funny,
and then I have a whole bunch of stuff in
my head and I let the audience like if they're
responding to like if I get up and I start
talking about something with weather, and that's just killing them.
Then I'm going to stay on the weather stuff.

Speaker 1 (31:40):
Right, Okay, I left the audience directed. Well, when you
were back back in the green room before the show,
you're writing stuff on like an envelope or something, right,
was that just ideas what set lists? Okay?

Speaker 2 (31:54):
Yeah, I've had those since I started. It's it's sort
of like a security blanket, like in case I go
blank on stage, I write, I have to think I
have like you know, and they're not the joke. It's
just a word. It'll say like bananas, right, you know
what I mean, because you have a banana story. You
know what I mean. You probably have them too, and

(32:16):
I usually take one on stage with me just in
case I go blank.

Speaker 1 (32:21):
Right. I didn't see you use it until the end
where you said, oh, what did I want to talk about?
Which was funny. It was like what did I want
to talk about? And I don't think you were like
ever even yeah, I gotta yeah, I'll just pick something
and you kind of just pick something. It was funny.

Speaker 2 (32:35):
But remember too, the show you saw I was was
not a great show for me because remember I stepped
up on Oh that's right, and I didn't realize it
was small, and I fell off stage right away, and
so the next I think I did forty minutes. I
don't remember, but I.

Speaker 1 (32:52):
Do forty eight I believe if I I remember that.

Speaker 2 (32:56):
The first twenty odd minutes, I was going, am.

Speaker 1 (32:59):
I gonna fall?

Speaker 2 (33:00):
I gotta fall fall? I was talking. You didn't know
I was doing that, but in my head, I was going,
where's the end of the stage. Where's the end?

Speaker 1 (33:09):
Oh man, I didn't. I didn't know that. That's wasn't
even going through your head. After that, like I thought like, okay, yes,
oh my gosh, well you you covered it up so
well like I would have never ever even known good good.

Speaker 2 (33:21):
Yeah, because nothing like please welcome Suzanne Western afore you
get up on stage, thank you all very plump.

Speaker 1 (33:29):
Oh gosh, making my heart hurt because I feel bad
like I did a.

Speaker 2 (33:35):
I'm like, damn it, how do you recover from that?

Speaker 1 (33:40):
I would have never That's the thing, is I you
There was no indication that that you were off at
any point in any of that at all, like probably
the minute after. But then after that was like, Okay,
she's back on. That's going again. That's good because.

Speaker 2 (33:56):
There I was thinking about it seriously for easily twenty
minutes until I last I was like, please don't.

Speaker 1 (34:04):
Please my gosh, well you you killed it there. What
is the what is like the one thing if you've
got to if you had to start comedy over again,
like if like you had to go for some reason,
or you got to go back at time and tell
yourself when you were starting over, give yourself one piece
of advice. What piece of advice would you give yourself?

(34:27):
H I don't.

Speaker 2 (34:29):
Know how this will sound. Don't just do your own
Just just trust yourself and don't listen to the haters.
Because a lot of people who are out now openly
gay comics told me not to do it and to stop,
and we're pretty hateful to me. And I let that

(34:51):
stuff bother me. I let that hurt me, and I
didn't try for things sometimes that I might have gotten,
do you know what I mean? Yeah? Because yeah, I
let I was doing something kind of new, you know

(35:13):
what I mean. And so if someone was a headliner
already and it'd been doing stand up for like eight
ten years, but they were gay, but they were telling
you don't do this, don't do you know? You kind
of listen. I shouldn't have. I should never have listened
to any of them. It was bad advice and it

(35:34):
probably it probably kept me from doing stuff I could
have done.

Speaker 1 (35:39):
Right, Yeah, because they were probably doing a lot of
self preservation stuff, right, thinking that it would help you.
But if you're already openly out and you were doing
and you were being successful in that, why change that formula,
why change that that style? Yeah, that doesn't Yeah, there's
probably more self preservation.

Speaker 2 (35:56):
They had their own issues. Why weren't they out in
the first place? And I think there was also a
lot of resentment of me for being out, you know
what I mean. Well, I will always credit Rosie O'Donnell
because she saw me in a restaurant in like nineteen

(36:17):
ninety five and she broke from her crowd and came
over and she goes, I just want to thank you
for what you're doing. You know, a lot of us
couldn't do it, and we can't do it, but what
you're doing is great. She was the only one. Wow,
And she sort of broke away and whispered.

Speaker 1 (36:36):
It in my ear, you know, yeah, yeah, because you
I mean, that's the thing is there are in the
industry and entertainment people want to be They want to
be trendsetters, but they're scared to be trendsitters, or they're
scared to be themselves, or are scared to say what
they truly think and then afraid of a backlash that
will come from that from doing that, I can see

(36:58):
that that makes sense.

Speaker 2 (36:59):
And unfortunately people were dying who were meaning that that
was like on top of it, like it wasn't just
like me being openly gay. Let's learn to accept this,
me being openly gay. Let's learn to accept this. By
the way. We don't know why, but a whole bunch
of us are dying, you know what I mean it
because that's back when the Jerry Folwells in that crowd

(37:22):
was saying aids is God's punishment for gays.

Speaker 1 (37:25):
Yeah, yeah, do you remember like that and.

Speaker 2 (37:28):
Very and people really believe that stuff.

Speaker 1 (37:30):
You know, right, I was. I was scared for my uncle.
I have a gamble that I love. He's a great guy,
and I was scared scared for Hinder that time. You know,
I'm growing up and I'm going are you okay? Are
you gonna be okay? Yeah? I have no idea what's
going on? Right? How do you how do you know
how do you know.

Speaker 2 (37:45):
We didn't know how it was, how it was, how
we were getting it, or how it was, you know,
getting it through blood or anything like that. We thought
there was a time when people thought you could get
it from drinking from a glass, that's right, kissing somebody.
And for a law time, they didn't understand that the
women weren't getting it.

Speaker 1 (38:03):
Oh okay, I didn't know that either.

Speaker 2 (38:09):
Unless the woman was an intervenous drug user, you know,
uh that sort of, or her husband brought it home
to her because he was on the down load of fag.
You know, Gay guy lesbians weren't giving it to each other.
We weren't getting it at all. Oh and when that

(38:29):
suddenly became sort of obvious, that got really weird in
the gay community too, because like the guys were dropping
like flies and the women weren't getting it at all,
And so a lot of a lot of us were
caring for gay guys, you know, and we started all
those organizations like caring for their pets after they passed

(38:50):
and all that stuff, you know. But that that that
was a weird time too.

Speaker 1 (38:56):
Yeh. That sounds that sounds actually like so gary of
like these are your friends, this is your community and
half of them are passing away and half of them
have nothing, and you're like, what is going on? Yeah,
like what do you That almost sounds like a horror movie,
like you're living in a horror movie. Honestly, Like I don't.
I don't know how I would have. Like I'm glad

(39:16):
I was like young enough to not fully understand what
was happening, but like understanding that my uncle is part
of this, and like he there's some kind of effect
that could happen to him. At this point. I remember,
this is like the funny, Like I'm in high school.
I remember being in high school. Do you remember when
the world were gay was used for everything that you
were like, Oh, that's gay whatever. Yeah, And we're having

(39:38):
dinner and my my grandparents say something and I mutter out,
oh that's gay, and my uncle just puts his stuff
down and looks at me in the face and goes, really,
you're gonna it's a negative context to you. And I
was like, oh, I'm sorry, like I did not get it,
like I was just a stupid teenager and in that moment,
I went, I am sorry, and I like never under

(40:00):
that phrase again about something that's bad, And it was
just just a moment of, like, I care about my uncle,
I know that he's gay, but like, I'm using this
word as a slander, as a bad thing, and not
understanding that it hurts his feelings or hurts other people's feelings.
And so it was just a good reminder in a
moment of like, in the future, be aware of your words,
be aware of what you say about people. And I

(40:22):
think that really stuck with me, especially when it comes
to comedy, of how I address things in comedy of
not hurting anybody, of trying to lift people up and
make them laugh.

Speaker 2 (40:30):
And so I'm saying that there's so much changing, Like
if you're over forty, you don't even, you can't even.
I feel like some of us should be grandfathered in
for certain phrases, because like when I came out, I
was nineteen years old, right, and I knew a lot
of transgender folks, and they said tranny. They preferred to

(40:54):
be called tranny.

Speaker 1 (40:56):
Yeah, was there.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
Choice? And so I learned to call them trannies. And
then all of a sudden, but there wasn't any like
nobody told anybody that was bad, you know, and that
sort of stuff isn't like or like fags will say
fags to each other, and we say faggot to each other.
I used to say, I'm the only I'm a girl faggot,

(41:22):
you know, things like that. It wasn't bad for us
to say it to each other, but to say that
word dyk, especially in certain parts of the country, was
like cursing. That was like the worst thing you could say.
Or queer, Oh my god, most of the country hated
the word queer. That was the worst thing you could say. Really, yes,

(41:45):
it was never queer pride, honey, it was always gay pride.

Speaker 1 (41:48):
Oh, I guess that makes sense. I see. This is
the thing as a straight man, I don't know any
of these things. These are things like are you so
like they.

Speaker 2 (41:56):
Don't tell us either. There's not like meetings. It's just like,
all of a sudden, it's not okay to say to
say tranny, But like, where was the memo where we need.

Speaker 1 (42:08):
To know like newsletter people newsletter? Yeah, that's wow, that's
so interesting because, yeah, we don't think about the context
of words that we've had, that we grew up with,
that we're used to using, and then all of a sudden,
it's like no, you can't use that any word anymore.
You're like, really, like what happened?

Speaker 2 (42:23):
You know, most of my life, queer was the worst
one you could say. Really, now, that's like the queer community,
I hear. I just heard a guy on CNN say
the queer community is saying that. Blah blah blah. I'm
going and it still makes me go wow, like just wow.
You know, he's just the journalist on CNN going and
he's calling it the queer community, and I'm going, damn.

(42:47):
I didn't mind any of the words, right, God loves
all words, yeah said, but I didn't mind any of
the words. I didn't mind dyke, I didn't mind queer,
I don't mind any of them. But I was shocked
when there was like a flip flop of what was
okay to say and what wasn't in our group, and

(43:09):
that felt weird.

Speaker 1 (43:11):
You know, does anybody ever word police you? Do you
ever get word policed by people where they say, hey,
you can't say that, like if you had that like
happen here, Oh my gosh, how do you how do
you deal with that? Because like, for me, I get it,
Like I apologetically, Oh, I didn't know that that word
was there, but like, if you're in a community where
those are your words, how does that Well, I'm just.

Speaker 2 (43:32):
The last time. One of the times I remember is
about eight or ten years ago. There's a week in
a provincetown a the typicate cod called Women's Week, okay,
Leslie Week, Dyke Week, but it's followed by what we
always called Trandy Week. Okay, but they call it Fantasia.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
There, Okay like that now.

Speaker 2 (43:56):
I don't know, but I said something like eight years
ago I said some be like, well, I'm going to
be in provinsand for Women's Week and then I might
stay through Tranny Week. And somebody went, you can't say that,
and I was like it used to be on signs.
I mean, what do you kid me?

Speaker 1 (44:16):
Like how?

Speaker 2 (44:17):
And they got mad at me for that.

Speaker 1 (44:19):
Wow, that's gotten.

Speaker 2 (44:22):
And I got in trouble once on stage because I
was doing a thing about all the letters that we have. Now,
yes I was, and i'm and I still feel this way,
there's too many letters. You gotta let go of the letters.
Well I'm so old. It was just LG. I came
in and then the bees started, you know, fussing around,

(44:44):
and we went, oh, all right, that makes sense. And
then without anybody knowing, all of a sudden, tea was on.
I was standing in New York City reading a poster
for Pride when it said LGBT with two t's, and
we all went, what's the tea? We had no idea,

(45:06):
and uh and and then they were doing asexual and
ally and all this, and I said, the reason this
is bad is it's it's separating our community instead of
making us one. And it's still making it seem like
the only good thing to be is straight white male
than everything else. You get a letter, yeah, yeah, and

(45:31):
you're you're you're still on to them, you know what
I mean. And it's not a good thing. I don't.
I don't care for it.

Speaker 1 (45:37):
Just so you know it's not it's not amazing straight
white male. We I used to think it was awesome,
but it's so it's okay. I don't mind.

Speaker 2 (45:44):
You're not in its best time period, that's true.

Speaker 1 (45:47):
But also I am more of a uh, what's the
I'm more of a heart warming, open straight white male.
We're like, I like love everybody. I'm not like you
like I am dobbin. It's mail and you do what
I say? Like I'm not. That's not who I am.
So maybe that's why I'm not good at it. I
don't know. I have daughters and a wife. I'm more

(46:08):
surrounded by more feminine energy than anything.

Speaker 2 (46:10):
You're you're a girl, dad.

Speaker 1 (46:12):
And stuff like that, So I have like this open
heart all the time. Yeah, So like maybe that's what
is I'm just a softie and I'm okay with that.

Speaker 2 (46:20):
I know some good guys.

Speaker 1 (46:22):
Yeah, we're out there.

Speaker 2 (46:27):
All right now? Three?

Speaker 1 (46:28):
All right? Yes, I made the list.

Speaker 2 (46:30):
What's up?

Speaker 1 (46:32):
So what would your what are your career goals? What
are the things that you want to accomplish, and let's
put out in the universe so people know so we
can get that going. What are things that you want
to do, the things that you're looking forward to that
you want to try.

Speaker 2 (46:42):
I would really like to have a late night cable
talk show. I'm really good at interviewing people, and I
care and I ask good questions and I have good stories.
I think I might have aged out past, but that's
what I would like. My partner, my wife would like

(47:05):
me to write a book about all the stuff I've
gone through. But I I'm I'm just not good at that.
I don't know how to get started. I don't know.
Every time I sit down to to like type out stuff,
it doesn't sound good. So I have to find I
have to find like a person I can, because if

(47:26):
I'm telling you the story, the story is great.

Speaker 1 (47:29):
Yes, I'm right.

Speaker 2 (47:30):
If I'm trying to type the story or talking into
the thing and there's not an audience, it's the story
is boring.

Speaker 1 (47:36):
Yeah, so that's what he's happened. I think you because
you were telling me stories and I was like, and
I said it probably three or four times, yeah, to write.

Speaker 2 (47:44):
What's behind you going?

Speaker 1 (47:45):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah. It wasn't a straight white guy for once.

Speaker 2 (47:49):
Like no, she likes she likes straight people. When she
when she moved in with me twelve years ago, she
moved we've been together fourteen years, but our first two
years she was in Massachusetts and I was here and
she moved to Los Angeles twelve years ago, and it
was so funny. After like six months of living here,
she turned and she said to me, she goes, it's like,

(48:12):
you don't have any straight friends at all. And I go,
I know, right, because I thought, I mean I had
called them out of my like I had done that
on purpose, you know. And then she taught me that
straight people can be nice.

Speaker 1 (48:27):
We're not so bad, We're not terrible.

Speaker 2 (48:29):
Useful and fun. Who knew? So now in these last
years I'm trying. She's also taught me integrity. She's taught
me to be open to straight people.

Speaker 1 (48:43):
That's good.

Speaker 2 (48:44):
So now I'm trying to be open the street.

Speaker 1 (48:47):
So now you have three three that you like.

Speaker 2 (48:51):
That's it, though.

Speaker 1 (48:56):
You're it'll it'll grow, It'll grow as you get to
know us, you get to love us, and then we
become part of your the fabric of your world. It's okay,
it's great.

Speaker 2 (49:04):
I don't know. I mean, I'm open to it.

Speaker 1 (49:10):
And would you like to do a Netflix specially? You
think of Netflix stand up comedy special? Wid be awesome?

Speaker 2 (49:15):
I want a Netflix special badly. I can't believe I
don't have one.

Speaker 1 (49:19):
I can't believe you do.

Speaker 2 (49:21):
I just don't. I don't have an agent that does that.

Speaker 1 (49:25):
You know, how is that possible? Like somebody is letting
you down somewhere. We've got to figure this out. Yeah,
was there anything else that you want to promote? Anything
that you Where? Where should people look for you? Where
should they find you, where can they contact you, fall
in love with your comedy, with you as a person,
all that stuff.

Speaker 2 (49:45):
Well, I'm still on Twitter, even though I got off
of it for a while because we hate Elon Musk
and I'm not gonna call it whatever he calls it.
It's Twitter right the way it is. I'm at suzannew
dot com. That's my website. It was going to be
Suzanne dot com, but Suzanne Summers was alive and.

Speaker 1 (50:05):
She got it first. Really I didn't know that. Okay,
that's interesting.

Speaker 2 (50:09):
So suzannew dot com is my website. But you know what,
if you what I want, what I really need, is
for people to start creating comedy shows. Like there used
to be people who were organizations like they had like
it was a book club and they had a comedy
or they had a dinner every year for to give

(50:31):
out a worse whatever. And that's not happening anymore. And
that's a lot of work that comics need for practice
and for good and you know, stuff like that, because
it isn't all just comedy clubs. In fact, most comedy clubs, yeah,
and they're often run by.

Speaker 1 (50:47):
Failed comics with vendettas.

Speaker 2 (50:53):
Yeah, and it's I try to stay out of the
comedy clubs.

Speaker 1 (50:58):
Yeah, but people.

Speaker 2 (51:00):
Always say to me, well, come to our city, come
to our city, Come to our city. And I'm like,
I can't just show up, Like, find the organization in
your town that has an event or two people who
can rent the auditorium from the high school and bring
me in. I'm not expensive. It's not a big deal, right, No,

(51:23):
but that's what I need more of that because I
had so much of that. But then after the pandemic,
it like I lost all those little rock clubs I
was doing. I was the only comic doing some of
these rock clubs in the Midwest. I was their only
comic for like Wow, and they all loved it, you
know what I mean. It was because they were doing

(51:43):
rock with rock clubs, you know what I mean. I mean,
I didn't sit on the couch in the green room.
I'm not an idiot.

Speaker 1 (51:49):
Don't do that, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (51:51):
But I loved doing those rock clubs. But they were
all very mom and pop rock clubs, you know, boomers
who opened their own rock clubs, and they, like at
least of them, just disappeared.

Speaker 1 (52:01):
Yeah, the pandemic killed so much stuff. That's the hard
part is trying to get this train going again, right
because we're kind of like still playing ketch up to that.
It's not we did nothing, yea.

Speaker 2 (52:13):
And people don't understand. They're like, why aren't you back
at work? And I'm like, it's not like that. It's
not like a job that you just go back at work.
It's you got it. It's almost like you have to
start all over again, you know.

Speaker 1 (52:23):
Yeah, no, I agree. All right, well, let's let's see
what we can do. Everybody listening, if you know, somebody,
reach out to me, reach out to Susan. Let's get
this going, because he deserves a Netflix special there she
is so much offered the.

Speaker 2 (52:39):
Show together somewhere. Yeah, because we met and fell in
love and that does not happen between lesbian and straight mail.
And maybe that's the movie they need to make. But
I am your I am your.

Speaker 1 (52:55):
Mom, and yeah, it seriously feels like you are mom.
I like, I never have had like such a bond
with a person.

Speaker 2 (53:04):
It's such a and that was weird, right.

Speaker 1 (53:06):
Yeah, one hundred percent. Yeah it was great. But like
you you, that's that moment of why you feel like, oh,
this person's I know this person, like we should yeah,
like yeah, it's weird. It was the weirdest thing, but
it's also like felt so natural normal, where I was
like I came home and told my wife, I'm like,
you should I gotta tell you about this, and she
was like, wow, okay, that's awesome, and I was like,

(53:27):
I don't know what happened, Like it's great.

Speaker 2 (53:29):
It just felt like we'd known each other before.

Speaker 1 (53:31):
For sure, exactly. Absolutely, you probably were my mom in
another life. That's what I'm thinking. That's what I'm like,
that's really what I think happened.

Speaker 2 (53:40):
Mom.

Speaker 1 (53:41):
Yeah, a great mom for sure, one hundred percent, like
no doubt about it. Where I was like, you could
feel the love and energy like there's like no way
that you go, yeah, that didn't happen exactly. Well, thank
you so much, Thank you everybody for listening. I would
put all the show outs in there. Also. I'm gonna
put all the links to her albums that are in
on Apple in there. Go download and then listen to
them if you want laugh until you cry, which is

(54:01):
exactly what I did. Thank goodness that my Tesla drives itself,
Otherwise I would have crashed into something but I was
laughing and crying. It was just one of the best
experiences of my life. And every joke I was like,
this is I mean, that's why I want to ask
you about writing. And you're like, I don't write it
just go from from the heart, from the gut. That's
to me, that is amazing. I don't I don't think
I could do that at all.

Speaker 2 (54:20):
Tds out there too.

Speaker 1 (54:23):
You do wear Are they on Amazon? You know? Well,
if I find them, I'll put them. I'll put them
in the show links as well, so everybody can get them.

Speaker 2 (54:29):
All right, somebody filmed like two different shows I think,
and plus.

Speaker 1 (54:33):
The HBO special years ago now nineteen ninety four. Yeah,
that's awesome, But I wonder if it's still on HBO.
Do you know if it's on HBO, Max, I should
look I should have looked up. I'm gonna looked that up.

Speaker 2 (54:46):
I do know that I still have that jacket and
that those pants because it was my first and only
Armani suit.

Speaker 1 (54:53):
Really, Okay, that's awesome the way I was getting rid
of that, Yeah, of course not. Why would you? All right, Well,
thank you everybody so much for listening to have a
good one like subscribe and we'll talk to you soon.