The talent level of the performers at this year’s All Jane No Dick festival is impressive. The headliners aren’t just “names” in the comedy scene, All Jane has picked a group of great comics who, like Portland itself, are both awesome and just… cool. Seems to be a perfect fit for one of this year’s headliners, Bonnie McFarlane. With her own HBO One Night Stand and Comedy Central half-hour specials and having appeared on Last Comic Standing, as well as co-hosts with her husband, comedian Rich Vos the podcast My Wife Hates Me, Bonnie is a veteran to the comedy scene. She’s great writer, is sharp, funny, really down to earth and I wanted a chance to chat with her before we met in Portland.

After shooting the shit for a bit (because she was nice enough to ask about me and I’m a blabber mouth, so of course I told her everything about myself), she talked with me about the stand up scene, balancing work versus home life, and the film she wrote and directed with her husband, Women Aren’t Funny.

Serial Optimist: You and your husband do a lot together don’t you?

Bonnie McFarlane: We try not to. Haha. He’s on the road a lot and it’s hard because sometimes he comes back!

SO: Don’t you two have a podcast?

Bonnie: Yes! We have one called My Wife Hates Me. We just did the LA podcast festival, that was pretty intense. We kept going “are we nerds?” It’s mostly just us arguing. Like if you want to hear a real marital spat, tune in! But we sometimes have ‘celebrity’ guest marriage counselors. At the festival it was Andy Kindler and Jake Johannsen.

SO: Oh that’s a fun idea! Ok, so you’re married, you both perform and it sounds like you’re apart a lot. Is it tough to balance the work life and the home life?

Bonnie: Well, I don’t do much balancing. I take Rayna (her daughter) with me a lot and I almost never do shows where I have to leave her overnight. The only reason I’m doing this festival (AJND) is because 1. it sounds super fun and 2. Rich was local this weekend so he is going to watch Rayna. I couldn’t leave her over night with a sitter. I mean, I could…

SO: So it is possible for women to have a career, husband, a baby and a life!

Bonnie: No – Haha. It’s harder than I thought. Not because of the ‘sacrifice’ that’s what people always think you’re doing but the truth is, I like being with my kid. She’s such a good hang. So, like, last Friday night I cancelled my shows so I could do movie night with her. I’m lame.

SO: Yeah, but I think in the end that’s what’s important. I spent this last year really trying to focus on the important things in life, you know the whole “being in the moment” stuff… spending time with my dog, my husband, going on walks and not JUST focusing on the career stuff.

Bonnie: Right, but if you are in this career, then you like being creative and being around other creative people so I think it’s important to not neglect that either.

SO: That’s true.

Bonnie: The part of the career that is detrimental is the competitive part of it. Comparing yourself with other people, and I do this thing where I compare my stand up to the guys who can go out and do it every night without worrying about having to get up at seven am and all that. I feel like I have to be as good as they are without the ability to put in 14 shows a week. So, I decided to just work smarter. I have less time to fuck around. I mean, onstage, I’m always working something out. I’m always writing when I have a spare minute. I’m always trying to keep up. It’s hard, because having fun and not taking it too seriously is part of being good at comedy but then also you have to be like, this is a job. You have to always have those dueling thoughts in your head: it’s the least important thing ever and the most important thing ever.

SO: Right. Oh man, I totally struggle with finding that balance. Are you a Type A personality?

Bonnie: No, never. But I do LOVE to write so that comes pretty easily to me. Since having the baby I made a movie that will be coming out soon called Women Aren’t Funny, I have another movie I wrote in pre-preproduction and a TV show in preproduction and a book deal with Ecco books which is part of Harper Collins. So I do have a lot of writing every day.

SO: Two things – 1. I watched your interview on Modern Comedian and loved what you said about how writing is writing, that whether it’s a book or stand up, etc they’re skills that lend themselves to each other. I think it’s great to have lots of baskets that you put your work in.

Bonnie: Thank you. I sometimes think for women, stand up is not the most ideal outlet for comedy. (Ooooh, controversial!)

SO: I’ve also written a lot of weird stuff like knock-off Groupon deals, which you mention on Modern Comedian. What’s the oddest thing you’ve written? (Sorry… the women in comedy part is the 2nd thing I was going to ask. We’ll go back to that for sure.)

Bonnie: Ummm, I wrote a lot of ads and pamphlets for weird stuff like kayaking safety equipment. I wrote for game shows, I wrote for reality shows, hidden camera. I wrote a stand up act entirely for Clairol hair color products once for a convention. 20 minutes on hair dye!

SO: Hilarious. Was it good?

Bonnie: I used a couple of the jokes in my act for a while! It helps I think to have some distance on stuff that you’re writing jokes about. It’s easier to write a joke about something I don’t have a super strong conviction about.

SO: Oh that’s interesting, because a lot of people say to write what you DO have strong feelings about, that it helps your point of view.

Bonnie: I know, I don’t buy it. I don’t like preachy comedy. I also think people mix up truth in comedy with telling stuff about themselves. It can just mean the truth about what you think is funny.

SO: So then where do you come up with material? What inspires you?

Bonnie: I’m all about JOKES. I have been trying to not tell jokes lately, which sounds odd but I think to get a little bit deeper into original thought you have to stop writing at some point and just start telling what’s in your head. Does that make sense? My comfort zone is jokes. Set up, set up, punchline.  I guess I’m just so used to with stand up, peppering everything with a laugh every 30 seconds, I don’t get to the root of things sometimes. I just touch on a topic and then I’m off to something else. Not writing, I mean, just letting the ideas flow without worrying if it’s that funny. Not constructing a joke in there until the idea is formed. God, I sound like a douche talking about writing comedy like this.

SO: Well comedy is always funnier when you deconstruct it. (wink)

Bonnie: I think it’s a harder thing for women. (generalizing!) but I see successful female stand ups doing lots of fast hard jokes. I think you get started doing that because you need the audience to get on your side fast. You don’t have the luxury of a sorta fat white guy who they expect will be all kinds of hilarious until they prove they aren’t, but who knows. Everything is open to interpretation

SO: Right. It’s definitely a different beast for us, whether people want to admit it or not. Ok, so that leads into the other part from before…On one hand, I hate this subject, because as Stacey Hallal (founder and artistic director of All Jane No Dick) says, the question of women being funny or not, is boring. Obviously we are. BUT you did write and direct Women Aren’t Funny and I’d love to hear your thoughts on women in comedy, because the fact that we still have to talk about it, means it’s still an issue. Also, how was making the movie? Any resistance?

Bonnie: Well, I wanted to make fun of the whole debate and I think I did but at some point, I was like, geez, there are people who really don’t think women are funny. I was kind of shocked by that, because I always thought it was sort of just this ball busting thing. No resistance. Damn, everybody wanted to talk about it. Everybody seemed to have a theory about it. It’s like one of those topics that everybody wants to weigh in on. I remember talking to a doc film maker before I started doing the interviews and he said the hardest thing would be to get people to say that women aren’t funny on camera. Boy was he wrong! People said their thing. Even club owners whom you would think would be a little more careful with their words.

SO: Thank you internet and free speech! People certainly like to speak their mind.

Bonnie: True dat! But it’s one of those biases that doesn’t really come back to bite you in the ass like racism or whatever. It’s a heated thing, but ultimately no one’s going to lose their job over it. And that’s the thing, it’s just opinions. Women get so mad about it but who cares really at the end of the day? Right now is the best time ever to be a funny women. It’s your time on Tv in movies as a writer, it couldn’t be better.
thank you!

SO: Absolutely! The best way to debate this “issue” is to just go out there and just do a good job. I’m excited to watch it at All Jane! I’m really glad I checked out your stuff and am looking forward to meeting you. Have you ever been to Portland?

Bonnie: I’ve never been! I’m excited to go and have fun and be kidless and maybe drink a cocktail without having to worry about waking up and playing Barbies at 7am!

SO: Fair warning, I’m a hugger, so I’ll probably hug you when I meet you.

Bonnie: I hug too. Shaking hands with women seems weird.
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SO NOTE: Follow Bonnie @bonniemcfarlane for updates on upcoming projects and shows. Go to alljanenodick.com purchase tickets to see Bonnie live!