Sandra Bernhard "I Love Being Me, Don't You?"

Sandra Bernhard took over The Atlantic Club on Saturday July 14 for her first performance in Atlantic City, NJ.  Bernhard's show, "I Love Being Me, Don't You?", is an hour and a half mix of songs, standup & observations.  

 
Bernhard in a chic black cocktail dress opened the show with a cover of Neil Sedaka's "Laughter In The Rain" which led into her talking about staging her own "Occupy Wall Street" on Whole Foods, the history of her cocktail dress, her LA home, the royal wedding and what she has in common with Michele Bachmann ("We're both fag hags.  She went as far as marrying one.") before singing a song that she says defined a chapter in her life, "Eres Tu".  

After a bit on Jackie O & Marilyn Monroe bit fell a bit flat with the audience, Sandra offered up "You'll catch up with it, it's okay.  It was a very humid day, I know.  Sometimes Atlantic City can really get the best of you".  It seemed that the audience at times just didn't get Sandra's brand of humor or her irony.  Certain jokes, observations should've gotten more applause and laughs but it was as if the audience (consisting of a lot of an older/senior crowd) was a bit out of touch with what's going on in the pop culture world around them.  


As the show went on, Bernhard offered up her musings on motherhood and parenting her daughter with girlfriend Sara.  Some of the observations included her daughter wanting to give up camp over the summer ("We threw out all her Judy Garland albums, all of her boas...") and her strict views on her daughter's cell phone use ("I know you're thinking-Sandy: hippie, groovy...no honey, I am a mother fucker, I had one kid, I did it a little late, I'm not going to screw this kid up"). 

Moving on to pop culture, Bernhard skewed Tyra Banks & "America's Next Top Model", complete with impressions of contestants and Tyra.  Lady Gaga's Thanksgiving special last year was discussed and followed by a piano led cover of "The Edge of Glory" which showed just how simple of a song it really is when broken down.  Following the number Sandra thanked all the "little monsters" a la Gaga and talked about how Gaga somewhat exploits her gay fan base which led Sandra to proclaim about her gays: "My gays look just fine, look at my gays!  My gays are chic, upbeat and having a ball."

For Sandra's next musical number, she talked about an inspirational conversation she had with Broadway vet Kristin Chenoweth on the set of her now defunct TV show,"GCB", which  led into a powerful rendition of "Before The Parade Passes By".  A Twitter encounter with Cindy Crawford was talked about afterward and before saying goodbye to the audience with a cover of REO Speedwagon's "I Can't Fight This Feeling", she urged the audience to buy her merchandise, "You will go back, you will get in line, you will purchase some of my...offerings...it's not shit honey, it's not some tacky, glittery bullshit.  It's in keeping with who I am, love".  

After a brief costume change, Bernhard emerged in one of her own T-shirts with a black hat and a pair of black fishnets and heels to do an all out rock medley of "Sex Shooter", "Pumped Up Kicks" and "Janie's Got a Gun" closing the show on a  high, energetic note.

   
*A side note on this performance: This was my 5th time seeing the great Sandra Bernhard work the stage.  She always puts on a fun, on point show and this was no exception.  I was excited to attend what was her first performance in Atlantic City, but I have things I want to add to the review from my personal experience.  

First off, this was not Sandy's type of audience.  Like I said above, it was filled with a lot of senior citizens and people who had no idea what to think.  Sandra did get laughs and applause, but some of her jokes seemed to have fell on deaf ears at times which was really unfortunate.  A few people also got up and left during the performance which I think is incredibly rude.  

I wanna take the time to thank a great couple I met before the show in line, Bill & Nancy.  The performance was general admission and we were excited to get front row only to find out the first 10 rows were reserved.  Bill was able to talk to one of the ushers and managed to get us from 12th row to 5th row to front row.  They really enjoyed the show and it was a lot of fun chatting with them.  I want to thank them again for making me their honorary son for the evening.

After the show, not a lot of people remained and Sandra came out and took pictures, chatted and signed merchandise.  In response to the crowd, Sandra just said "They were a bit rusty", but didn't seemed too phased by it which shows you what a professional she is.  This was my 2nd time getting to meet Sandra and I was thrilled.  It's always great to meet someone you've admired over the years.  She is an incredibly strong, talented woman who isn't afraid to speak her mind and marches to her own beat.  

SET LIST
-------
-Laughter In The Rain
-Eres Tu
-The Edge of Glory
-Before The Parade Passes By
-I Can't Fight This Feeling
-Medley: Sex Shooter/Pumped Up Kicks/Janie's Got a Gun