Good news, idiosyncratic comedy fans! Maria Bamford is coming to Portland! She’s playing a weekend of shows at Helium Comedy in May. It’s been about a year and a half since Bamford graced our city with her “snerfling comic genius,” and three years since she headlined the All Jane Festival so I expect tickets to sell briskly. Snap’m up!
Bamford is one of the most unique and lovable voices in comedy, known for her dizzying rotation of impressions (many derived from her straight-laced Midwest family) and her candid discussion of mental illness. Bamford lives with—and makes comedy about—depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and bipolar II. And her jokes about her sometimes scary, sometimes deeply ironic experiences are unexpected, hilarious, and deeply human.
If you’re unfamiliar with Bamford’s work (or just looking for a fun binge), her 2007 web series The Maria Bamford Show is a stand-out example of her comedy strengths: impressions, raw honesty, timing, and pug-based humor. Introducing Bamford after she spins off her meds (her family finds her selling clock radios on a sidewalk in Detroit), she returns to the uncomfortable supervision of her parents Minnesotan home while she gets her medications figured out. Bamford plays every character in the show: her parents, sister, friends, old high school classmates, minister, etc. It’s a marvel of innovative low-production visual storytelling and she edited it with just one other person (Damon Jones).
In the years following, Bamford appeared in countless films and TV shows. She was a favorite on the third season of Arrested Development where she played DeBrie Bardeaux, a recovering meth addict who Tobias mistakes for a method actor. She recorded several specials, but my favorite is still the Special Special Special, which she filmed in her own living room to an audience of her parents, a film crew, and a keyboard player.
In 2016, Bamford took another swing at having a show with Netflix’s Lady Dynamite, which lasted two seasons and explored Bamford returning to Los Angeles after treatment. The show was beloved by fans, but seemed to suffer from a lack of Bamford impressions and self-talk. With higher production values (and other actors!), I missed seeing Bamford play off herself.
Things have been a little quiet since Lady Dynamite so it’s exciting to imagine what Bamford has in store for her new shows. And, real talk, I put a lot of funny videos in this blog, but you know she’s even funnier in the real world. Don’t just go down a Maria Bamford Youtube hole! Okay, ONE MORE VIDEO, and then we buy!
(May 16-18, Helium Comedy Club, 1510 SE 9th Ave, $25-38, 21+)
