When She Was A Nice Person

Published by Rick on Tagged Uncategorized

It was almost exactly 30 years ago today, when Roseanne Barr was gaining national acclaim for her appearances on Tonight Show and other cable comedy specials, but was a few months away from the debut of the “Roseanne” sitcom, that I met and developed a brief friendship with her. I had been working at the Comedy Store for just over two years, and every time I saw her on stage, she would absolutely smash it. It was hard getting used to that voice, but given her subject matter, the voice perfectly fit. I would usually say nothing more than “nice one” to her after she came off stage, and only once did we ever have anything that resembled a conversation. I seriously doubt she ever saw me perform.

Then came a night away from The Store. My band from San Francisco known as The Stupeds, who performed note-for-note renditions of all the worst (by our reckoning) songs to make the top ten in Pop history, was doing a three-night run of clubs in LA. Our third night was at the LA Cabaret in Encino, which was most of the week a comedy club, but they let us have a Thursday night. As a huge surprise, Roseanne showed up with her first husband Bill Pentland, to whom she’d been married since 1974. Our band tended to condense our song choices into themed medleys, such as our “Diabetes Medley,” which contained all the worst songs with the word “sugar” or “candy” in the titles, about 15 songs in under five minutes. With each song, Roseanne’s big belly laugh would permeate the room.

After the show, she was going overboard with praise, and talking about a national concert tour she was planning, and what a great opening act we’d be. It was pretty much up to me if anything like this was going to happen, as I was the only band member that lived in LA. She and I did begin communicating on a fairly regular basis on the heels of that night, because it was only after that night that she realised I was indeed part of the Comedy Store family, and there was plenty to gossip about, which she LOVED.

She was having an on-off feud with the late Sam Kinison, and I certainly understood that, having spent many nights hearing him spew venom about her. She could be as brutal about him, and it made for such great conversation, that there were times she just called out of the blue to chat. There was one time she left a message on my machine, and I’m so sorry I didn’t have the technological knowhow to save it. In our conversations we hardly talked at all about the band, but I knew from the get-go that the tour idea was a long shot at best. That whole idea would be put to bed about a month later.

The offer came from ABC, “Roseanne” would be on the fall schedule, and remain a solid hit for nine seasons. In the ensuing year, she would become a superstar, split from Bill Pentland to marry Tom Arnold, and I would see her exactly once ever again. That day would be in 1991, when she and Tom came by the Comedy Store to watch the show. They were dressed in matching “surfer” shirts, as we called them back in the mid-60’s (wide alternating white-and-one-other-colour horizontal-striped t-shirts), and it had been at least since then that I’d seen those shirts. They looked strange, but definitely making a statement of being together. In spite of all that had transpired, she was still friendly to me when I went up to say hello, even telling Tom about how much she loved the band. I was on the schedule that night, but they didn’t stay long enough to see me, and that would be that.

I guess I was lucky to have the superficial friendship I had with her, as anyone who got close to her, i.e. most staff members, had little to say on her behalf. Many comic friends of mine came and went on the show as writers; sometimes her only rapport on set with them was to offer, “That’s not funny, change it,” then leave them to figure out what would be funny on that particular day. I stopped watching the show regularly by the third year, not because I didn’t like it, but I just didn’t like it enough. I did watch the so-called “final” episode, which in my opinion tied “Seinfeld” for “worst final episode in history.” I did see quite a bit of Bill Pentland over those ensuing years, as he hung out frequently at the LA Cabaret, which I continued to work until about two years before I came to England. He and I are still Facebook friends.

They never showed the re-boot of the series in UK, at least not on any terrestrial or Freeview channels, nor did they show the spin-off series “The Connors,” which was basically the same show but without her. I wasn’t interested anyway, as I couldn’t indulge Roseanne’s politics, which she chose to infuse into the body of the show. Still, her free fall reminds me of the scene of my all-time favourite film, “A Face In The Crowd,” when the protagonist-turned-villain is exposed for just how horrible he is, and his massive following deserts him overnight. Roseanne said it herself many years ago, when talking about herself and Tom Arnold: “We’re your worst nightmare, White Trash with MONEY.” I will just say I’m lucky to have been her friend in those few months of 1988 before she became that.

May 30th, 2018



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