cried. Everybody cried. I didn’t feel
that I failed in anyway in my per-
formance. I felt I needed to find a way
to get out of it, without us all crying.
What I didn’t know when I was writing
that piece was that incest was going to
become kind of fashionable overnight,
but unfortunately it did. I feel an obliga-
tion to do the piece; the more we talk
about it the easier it will be to address it.
If you just want an evening where you
laugh all night without ever stopping and
you never are moved, don't come to my
show. That’s why I say ‘not for the faint
of heart.’

OITM: How does being a lesbian in-
fluence your work? How does it fit into
your concept of yourself and what you're
trying to say in your performance?

Janice: I think that being a queer in this
world, which is what I really am, in all
senses of the word queer, it's my favorite
word, it’s perfect for me, cause I’m real-
ly queer. (laughter) I’m really odd! I love
that word. I'm exposed to a sensibility
that most strictly heterosexual people
aren’t, and that influences me. When I
tour, I'll go to a town and people will
come to my show and after my show,
lesbians will wait to talk to me and invite
me to do things with them. . I get a
whole aspect of German culture that
most people, most heterosexuals who are
just traveling around would never get. I
have a community of support and in-

formation, a certain kind of information,
radical leftist information.

OITM: Who are your role models, her-
oines?

Janice: My latest is Carol Burnett. They
had her special on and I went, ‘holy shit,
thats what I do’ I come out, I hang
around with the audience, I talk about
topical events chat wth them, then I sing
songs do some routines, sing some more,
do some more chatting, show's over. She
was brilliant. I had forgotten how bril-
liant she was. Physically her comedy
was amazing. Fabulous costumes, really
weird, really great faces, she was just to-
tally cornitted to each moment, she
wasn’t holding back at all. She was very
political, And June Anderson is one of
my heroes. She is an opera singer. She
is a recent hero. I just can't stop listening
to her.

OITM: What does Janice leam from Gal?

Janice: It’s funny cause Gal is my nick-
name so it’s hard to separate the two, but
when I look at a video then it's really
clearly separate. If I read something and
it really pisses me off, I can talk about it
immediately to 250 people. It's kind of a
relief. The person on stage is much more
fearless than I am. In my performance
it's my duty to push myself. In my per-
sonal life it's less clearly my duty.

July/A ugust 1993

OITM: What preparations do you make
for yourself before a performance?

Janice: Ironing is a really great thing. It
really is, because it takes a long time,
and all I can do is stand at the ironing
board and iron. I'll do that and listen to a
tape of a good night to try to get the or-
der, remember little funny weird things.

Then I do my makeup. That takes a long ,

time, about a half an hour. I eat pasta at
four o'clock.Complex carbohydrates.

OITM: Any advice for aspiring young
feminist comedians?

Janice: Do it! Don't not do it because
you're afraid. Just do it!

OITM: Plans for the future?

Janice: I received a grant to finish my
collaborations we started last year , with
Dana Yetosn. The goal is to finish writ-
ing the play. I'm going to Florida for a
theater festival, in Orlando. Then I’m
going to Switzerland, and to Germany.
Then I’m going to do this really fun
thing in Denmark, a woman's festival.
Then I’m going to come home for ten
minutes, do some dishes... V

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