A lot has happened to Maria Bamford between her last stand-up special—2012’s The Special Special Special, performed for an audience of two: Bamford’s parents—and her new one, Old Baby, which debuts on Netflix May 2. And if you watch them back-to-back, it shows.
In 2012, Bamford was trying to recover from a breakdown that led to hospital stays and new medications with severe side effects. “I wasn’t feeling so good five years ago,” she tells Vanity Fair. “I wanted to expend the least amount of energy possible; I didn’t feel like I had it in me to do a big, theater show. I thought, How could I get the most support and then roll back into bed right afterwards? Do it in your own living room, for your parents, who will work for only $600 a day. My dad is still a little pissed that he wasn’t union.”
The intervening half decade has seen Bamford living with her medication for some time, feeling “a lot more stable and joyful.” During that time, she also met and married her husband, Scott Marvel Cassidy, and hooked up with Mitch Hurwitz (Arrested Development) to produce the comedy series Lady Dynamite, whose second season debuts on Netflix this fall. So while Bamford is still a socially awkward outsider, Old Baby shows a confidence and lightness that fans have never seen from her before.
Bamford shot this special in various venues, for various audiences—including herself in the mirror, her husband, some people on a bench in front of a hot-dog stand, and a bowling alley. Oh, and a thousand-seat theater. The idea came from a friend who thinks Bamford gets funnier the larger her audience is.
“I think that’s just so funny,” says Bamford. “For me, I prefer to have two people who are paying attention—as opposed to a thousand people who are shuffling around, maybe ready for the show to end, because they haven’t gotten enough water.”
Bamford can also admit, in her act and in interviews, that she doesn’t always want to do comedy, despite a successful 25-plus-year career. “Even doing that joke [in the special] where I say, ‘I didn’t even want to be here tonight,’ feels like a total relief, because that is so true. I felt embarrassed that I don’t even want to do my dream job. I don’t want to do any job,” she says. “My attitude has been generally poor, all along the way. I don’t like any job sometimes. I’m extremely lucky to do this job, but my natural state is inertia. I just want to stay in one spot.”
All along, Bamford has been completely open about mental illness. In 2010, she was diagnosed with type-II bipolar disorder, and her breakdown happened shortly after that. “I just was very frightened about getting on something that I had translated as meaning that I was ‘crazy’ or something. Then it turned out, it just got worse,” she says. “I refused to go on the medications, then deteriorated until I had to go on it, which is not the best way to do it. Go the other way around. Try the meds.”
She’s not quite sure what triggered the breakdown—though she has some idea of a surprise possible source. “It’s so silly, but I did some Target commercials, which was super fun. But then I started to, and this was part of the mania, obsess about the ethicality of advertising something, and consumerism, which are things that I’m not for at all. But I was really wowed by the creativity of it, and the money. So I got very confused about that and, people started coming to shows who were ‘Target Lady’ fans. And I was like, ‘Oh no! Oh no!’ That’s not what I wanted.”
While she misses the creative energy she had during her manic periods, on balance, it doesn’t matter: “I think I [now] feel how most people feel, which is general enjoyment of life, looking forward to things. I don’t have any thoughts of suicide ever. I never had that in my whole life.”
Bamford is also excited about the second installment of Lady Dynamite, which will feature plenty of exciting cameos: “Well, here’s the guest stars: Jill Soloway, Judy Greer, Andy Samberg, David Spade, Weird Al Yankovic, Mo Collins, Ana Gasteyer, Kurt Braunohler. Lennon Parham, Bridget Everett, Paul Scheer, Jason Mantzoukas, Fred Armisen,” she says. “The animals featured are: raccoons, a coyote, the two pugs, a baby goat, then . . . what are they called? Not an emu . . . an alpaca. An alpaca named Meadow, if you need to know.”
Presumably, her marriage will also have an impact on the show; it has influenced her stand-up, and she’s as open about that topic as she is about everything else. One of the funniest bits in the special is the song that she and her husband created about their couples counselor. Cassidy has also helped her appreciate comedy more. She gave him stand-up classes as a present, and he’s re-ignited her interest in improv; Bamford is currently taking a beginner-level class at the U.C.B. theater in L.A.
Do her classmates notice that they’re doing scenes with famous stand-up comedian and Lady Dynamite star Maria Bamford? “Nobody gives a shit,” she says. “There’s not a hierarchy at all. Then, of course, we do improv together and they’re like, ‘She’s not that good. I don’t want to be in a scene with her.’ ”
