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• Ms. Barr's official site
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Comedienne reflects on the difficulty in handling fame. (3:01)
 

Full interview. (21:49)
 

Tavis: Pleased to welcome Roseanne Barr back to this program. The groundbreaking comedian and actress, of course, starred and created one of TV's most popular sitcoms, "Roseanne."

Roseanne Barr: Hi.

Tavis: Thanks to one of my favorite - thank you, Roseanne. (Laughter)

Barr: Whatever.

Tavis: That wasn't your cue yet.

Barr: Sorry, sorry.

Tavis: Just sit tight. Can you sit tight for two seconds?

Barr: Yes, sir.

Tavis: Can I show some clips here?

Barr: Uh-huh.

Tavis: All right, thank you. (Laughter) Thanks to TV Land, my favorite network, "Roseanne" is now back on the air five nights a week. And in an age when good TV is so hard to find, it's worth taking a look back at some of the classic work that was and is "Roseanne."

[Begin montage of film clips from the "Roseanne" show.]

Tavis: (Laughter) All right, here's your cue - now you can talk.

Barr: Oh, hi.

Tavis: How are you?

Barr: I'm good, how are you?

Tavis: Nice to see you?

Barr: Yeah, nice to see you.

Tavis: You look back at those clips and you think what after all these seasons, after all these years, I should say?

Barr: What the hell was that? (Laughter) The hell?

Tavis: No, that stuff is as good now as it was then.

Barr: Thank you. Yeah, I'm very proud of it, it's cool. It's coming back around on TV Land, I guess. They're going to show the whole thing again, which is nice.

Tavis: It's not just nice. What do you make of the fact that given what that show was all about, given what the economy is going through now, there's got to be families like that all over America nowadays who can relate to that sitcom.

Barr: Yeah, yeah. The thing about it at the time was that there was a whole class of people that could relate to that, and that whole class is gone. And the class above it is knocked down to that, so the class just above it can look at it like it's nostalgic now. (Laughter) It's like everybody else is like I don't know what happened to people.

But I know time moved against people like Dan and Roseanne Connor, who were working class and were able to have three kids and pay their taxes, pay their mortgage, and feed and clothe their kids and have a business and have a little bit of discussion about savings and college and things like that that that same class of people can't have anymore. So it's kind of like just a nostalgic thing now.

Tavis: For those who were too young or were not Roseanne fans, the two or three people who were not Roseanne fans back then, what do you recall about the politics of the day when this show was in its original run that made it so propitious then?

Barr: You mean - what's propitious?

Tavis: Oh, come on?

Barr: What the hell? (Laughter) What's that?

Tavis: You know exactly what I'm asking you.

Barr: I don't know what that -

Tavis: Don't bust my chops, come on, Roseanne.

Barr: No, no, I really don't know. Are you talking about -

Tavis: This isn't fair; it's me versus a world-renowned stand-up comedian. This ain't fair. Just answer my question.

Barr: Now are you talking about the society -

Tavis: Yeah, what do you recall that was happening in the country then, politically, that made it work?

Barr: Well, it was starting to crumble. And it was like - I was kind of the tip of it for even talking about it. I saw it was starting to crumble since 1980, when Reagan got in. I saw it was all - I saw right where it was going to go, because I was working in a woman's bookstore at the time, a woman's collective in a bookstore in Denver, and my job was like when people called and they needed help, I had this big referral thing and I'd piece through it and I'd go, "Oh, you don't have anyplace to stay? Well, call these people."

And there was, like, hundreds of places I could refer them to for help. That was 1980, and then as soon as Reagan was elected those things, they started going away. Those services started drying up. And I remember in that two-year period which was when I started my stand-up act in 1980, all the social programs were starting to be dismantled and I was very afraid then, and so the "Roseanne" show came out of seeing that happen.

It was on the air in 1988, so it was like eight years into the great dismantling of the social safety net of working class people. So like I say, I was first to talk about it but look at it now. Yeah.

Tavis: For those who don't know your back story, you mentioned that you were doing stand-up; you started doing stand-up in 1980. Give me more of the - I know it, but for those who don't know, give me more of the back story for how you got to a place of being able to have not just a TV show, but one with your own name on it that becomes a big hit. What's the Roseanne Barr back story?

Barr: Well, the Roseanne Barr back story is coming from a real funny family. Everybody one-upped each other all the time. Like a lot of comics I had that kind of family - everybody was really funny. And the way you kind of earned your weight or your way was to, like, have a better slam line than somebody else. (Laughter) Slam lines. Like it's kind of a working class cultural thing to, like, go - it's kind of like African American people and their mother jokes - your mother's so fat.

Tavis: Exactly.

Barr: It's kind of like that in my family. (Laughter) And we had those good slam lines, and I was only three and I had a killer slam line against my Uncle Sherman, who's a big, fat guy that ate a lot and always made fun of my grandma for being an immigrant. And I remember just being three and just going, I'm going to slam - that's my target, Uncle Sherman.

Tavis: Do you recall the line?

Barr: Well, the line was something like well, if you don't like her cooking, why do you eat three bowls of it kind of thing. (Laughter) But only this big.

Tavis: But you were only three years old then.

Barr: Yeah. And his face would always go like this. (Laughter) Like he'd be mad, like, this little girl. So I grew up like that, and so I always had - I was used to being funny and I wanted to do something. Started writing funny things for kind of left-wing and feminist newspapers and magazines in my late twenties, and then a club opened in Denver and I went, here I go. Because I wanted to be like Eddie Murphy and all the rest of them.

I knew comedy was a way out of - a way out and through. So I wanted to go and I knew I could do it.

Tavis: Do you recall the first night on the stage?

Barr: I do recall my first night on the stage.

Tavis: Tell me about it. Did you kill?

Barr: I killed my first night. Oh, my God. (Laughter) I killed, and I was like, oh, yeah, this is just - this is great. Worked all week, came back, died a dog's death the second time, and then, like, the horror of it hit me. I was addicted to, that first night, the high of it, and just like a regular drug addict trying to chase that high. And it took like four years to match.

Tavis: That first night?

Barr: Took four years of crafting to match -

Tavis: To match the first night?

Barr: - the high of the first night, yeah.

Tavis: Wow.

Barr: It was a good lesson for me, though. If I had died the first night, I might never have done it again.

Tavis: What do you make, looking back on it - and there may not be an answer to this; let me ask anyway. Do you have any idea now what made that first night kill for you, and why you died that dog's death, to use your phrase, shortly thereafter?

Barr: Yeah. The first night, I was, like - I knew I was saying something new and I had crafted it over a long period of time, writing for magazines and it was a new point of view that I hadn't heard before. So I was, like, just very psyched to get up and do it and I imagined in my head that when people heard what I was saying they just would hook into it and just laugh and really go, wow, this is - like especially I thought women would go wow, she's doing a woman's point of view kind of thing.

And that is what happened the first night, so it was just great. And then over that week, all the guy comics got with me and they were like, you know, you've got a lot of potential. And then they start telling me how not to do everything that I was already doing, and I listened, and that's what happened.

Tavis: So it's the story of your life - the guys screwed you up.

Barr: Well, I listened. I don't really - I don't think the guys screwed me up, but I listened because I thought - I mistakenly thought that there was one rule for all, and there isn't.

Tavis: Looking back on that now, did you recall - not in detail, unless you recall it - but what was it they were telling - what were they telling you not to do or to do that threw you off your game? You remember what that was?

Barr: Oh, man, that is a deep thing. They were telling me to be more aggressive and to be more like a guy, I guess, where I had kind of done it in a kind of more native way to me. And so then I tried to copy what they were doing and it didn't work.

Tavis: And I'm laughing at this - not laughing; I'm baffled by this, because - and I can't describe this, I can't find the right language for it, but I remember the first time I saw you what made your stuff funny to me, what made it work, was the delivery. You just kind of stand there, kind of lazy-like, and you just kind of talk and you make your point.

But it is kind of laid back. There isn't this real aggressive thing. So I don't know why you thought that that had to change.

Barr: I just thought, well, they know better than me - I don't know. And so I went that way the second time and then it shook my confidence after getting, like - people were upset with me and the second time, this one woman right in the front, she got up and turned her chair around so that her back faced me. She grabbed her husband's hand, like "Don't you worry, honey, I'm not going to let her tell me."

It was like the F-word, the F-bomb - feminist. This feminist (laughter) (unintelligible). And then it was like, oh, no. Before I had worked out a way in my head to say the things in the right way, because stand-up comedy isn't just about saying things. You've got to get them across, you have to communicate them. And I had just done it the way I lived, it was native to me. And so then I started, like, the second time trying to be like a guy. It didn't work.

Tavis: During that four-year period -

Barr: And then it was like, oh my God, then I hated myself for years.

Tavis: To your point now about hating yourself for years, during that four-year period - I want to ask a two-part question here - one, did you ever think about chalking it up, giving it in?

Barr: I did, but I got too mad. I did. They were trying to make me quit because - for very good reasons, I don't blame anybody. It was just the evolution of it. But they didn't want me to work there in their comedy club, so that hurt me a lot. But I thought, well, I'm not going to let them win, (laughter) because that's the kind of family I come from, right? You're not going to win.

I kind of remind myself on that Michael Douglas movie, where she kills the rabbit, that lady? She's like, "You're not going to ignore me." (Laughter)

Tavis: What was that, "Fatal Attraction?"

Barr: Yeah, "Fatal Attraction." (Laughter) "You're not just going to ignore me."

Tavis: "Ignore me."

Barr: So I didn't let them ignore me and I started to work in, like, Unitarian coffeehouses and lesbian coffeehouses and biker coffeehouses and Black jazz club places and I just went everywhere but the comedy club. And it about ended up to be such a good thing for me to get, like, in front of different audiences instead of just that wry kind of just out of college, White, middle class audience.

I got to play at a lot of places and I got braver, I think, because of that. It was hard; I didn't do well in them. (Laughter) People threw things at me and every other thing, but I just got mad. I think the thing that propelled me always was just mad that I can't do it and that people expect that I will give up, and that makes me mad and that makes me stronger and I keep doing it till I win.

Tavis: All right, I'm going to build my way up to this "Roseanne" show, which I want to get back to here.

Barr: Oh, okay.

Tavis: But I love this, though. So you start in the comedy club, the first night, you kill. For the next four years, you're chasing that high, trying to get back. People are trying to get you to quit, you're all across the country. Fast-forward to when that breakthrough moment was.

Barr: Oh, it was such an incredible thing. It came slow. It came slow because a couple of guy comics came to Denver and they talked to the management of the club and said, “This woman's really funny. You need to get her on, because she's funny.” And those guy comics, they helped me a lot.

And so they did put me on and then I kept working it, and the time where I knew I had it was we had a Denver laugh-off, which is where comics compete, and it was me and 15 guys that had before go, oh, man, here she goes with that. Nobody wants to hear that angry woman crap.

And I won, and they were all cheering for me. And it just was like - I was like, wow, this is so karmic and deep that those people who - they kind of made me stronger by doubting me and preventing me, but then in the end they knew it and they were cheering for me, and I knew that since I won the Denver laugh-off against 15 guys, I knew I was going to do it. I knew I was strong enough that I could do it.

I of course didn't know that it would happen; I just hoped it would. And I thought I would be equal to the task if it did come knocking.

Tavis: So how'd you get to Hollywood then?

Barr: I just went out to The Comedy Store, Mitzi Shore, The Comedy Store; that was how everybody did it then. When I knew that I had a tight, strong 45 minutes of - 45 to an hour of good jokes that always worked, and that takes a long time and a lot of work -

Tavis: Took you years to get that tight 45.

Barr: Yeah. And she liked me and she put me on. She took me from auditioning my first - you go on and you do your best five, and she took me from the stage where you do five minutes to the main room where you do 20 in the same night, and all the waitresses said that never happened before. So while I was in there my first night in Hollywood - this was on my first night.

Tavis: First night in L.A.

Barr: First night in L.A. And I went on stage in the big room and the guy from "The Tonight Show" was there, and George Schlatter was there too, and George Schlatter offered me a job on a special he was doing, and "The Tonight Show" came and saw that and my first night there, and I got "The Tonight Show" on, like, the first night. It was just - it was awesome. It was so cool.

Like, within a week my husband could quit the post office. Within a week of "The Tonight Show," I should say - within a week. My first time on "The Tonight Show" I got a job to open for Julio Iglesias on tour - 18-week tour. It was just awesome, a dream come true. That's where it all came from.

Tavis: As you look back on this, what do you make of the fact, how do you read that you struggled all those years to get that tight 45 and on your first night in Hollywood it hits and you end up on "The Tonight Show," and the rest, as they say, is history? How do you contextualize that?

Barr: Well, I just kind of - just a right place, right time kind of thing. I know so many comics that are just great; they're as funny as me, some of them are even funnier, and it just never happened for them. So I think a lot of it's just being - it's just like reaping the wind. I don't know why, but I'm sure glad, of course.

But like I say, there's so many artists and writers and people that don't, and have every bit as much of a right to it as I had and have.

Tavis: Give me the time frame, then, from hitting Carson the first time and your career takes off to the TV show.

Barr: Carson was 1986, TV show, 1988.

Tavis: Things really started to move (unintelligible) for you.

Barr: Oh, they went real fast, yeah.

Tavis: As you look back on that now, were you ready for that level of fame at that pace? How do you think you - were you ready for it? How do you think you handled it, looking back?

Barr: I handled it about as bad as a person could - worse. But I'll tell you, I was ready for the work, because I had the discipline and the vision or whatever you call it. I knew what I wanted the show to be, and I knew how to say it, I knew how to put it in jokes, I knew how to tell a story. But no, I was not - but that's separate from the fame.

The fame, I was not ever - I wasn't ready for that, and no one is. Nobody can handle it. I've never seen anybody that can handle it.

Tavis: Tell me more about it, to the extent you want to. When you look back on that now, what were you not ready for, what was the difficult part about handling all of this coming at you so fast?

Barr: Well, the great and fun part was doing the actual work. Doing the show, putting the show together, coming up with jokes, learning to work in an ensemble cast.

Tavis: So you loved that part of it, the actual work.

Barr: Oh, loved. Oh, my God, I loved.

Tavis: Being on the stage, you love that.

Barr: I had to love it; I was in a building for nine years with no windows. (Laughter) And seriously -

Tavis: Yeah, I kind of know what that feels like.

Barr: Yes, you do. But 10 hours a day, all day, my whole life, and I never noticed a thing because I just loved it, I just loved it. And I had such great costars that made it so fun, and we did have a great family kind of feeling, like all that kind of clichéd stuff. We did have that.

But then the real life, that was - hoo, that was a whole other problem. I was not prepared for it and I couldn't - it was just too weird. It still is so weird to think about - it's just so weird that all of a sudden you're - it's weird when you're a creative person, especially a comic, you have something to say because you want to go against the grain, because you want to mock, things to scorn that you feel like you've got a grudge against or that are morally or ethically wrong.

So you want to say something to it, that's why you're a comic. So you're always a little bit, like, oh, that isn't my world. You're always peering in and then all of a sudden you're loved and accepted?

Tavis: And we're peering in at you now.

Barr: Yeah, it's too freaky. Because you've got this thing where you're like being anti, and then you get accepted for being anti. I don't know where you're supposed to go with that. (Laughter) It doesn't make - so it's like I guess I've got to get even more anti and that's why I totally - like the whole Britney Spears thing, like when she was trying to bash in that window with her bald head and the umbrella, I'm like, "I've been there." (Laughter) "I know exactly where that poor girl is, I know exactly that feeling."

Tavis: Wow. Part of what made the show work -

Barr: It's like, who am I now? What a time - this is too big of a time warp. Anti, pro, what am I and who am I.

Tavis: You've figured all that out now, though? You know who you -

Barr: Some of it, but also when you're famous you're just a thing, you're just a product. Nobody cares if you're a human or anything. It's like oh, well, that thing over there is like a money tree, it's a cash cow kind of thing. It talks. Just go over there and help yourself to some of its money. (Laughter) And it's like you get all these - this freaky element of Hollywood vampires. People here are like -

Tavis: They'll suck your blood, yeah.

Barr: Yeah, they are vampires, and they fly around and they're attracted to talent or people who - I don't even know if it's talent, but somebody that's got some money going on and they all just figure out how to get at your money. They're like, okay, well, my brother-in-law's a lawyer, so you need to hook up with him. (Laughter) And my sister-in-law's a publicist, and you need to hook up with her.

Tavis: My aunt's a make-up artist.

Barr: And every time - yeah, they're all, like, one cabal of vampires after another, getting your money. (Laughter)

Tavis: One of the things that made this show -

Barr: But there's a bad side to it, too. (Laughter)

Tavis: Ba-dum-bump. One of the things that made the show work so well, though - you went right past this right quick, even though you mentioned it - the cast. How great was - I saw this on TV Land the other night. The casting on that thing was so good. Everybody was right for the role they played.

Barr: Yeah, they definitely were. Everybody knew exactly who it was they were playing, at least after the first season they definitely knew. But we all had big thoughts about how we wanted to play it, because we were all from the Midwest, mostly, except for the kid. So we knew this family.

Tavis: You knew this storyline, yeah, yeah.

Barr: Yeah.

Tavis: So I assume you're happy, though, that it's on TV Land every night?

Barr: Thank God, somebody - yeah, thank God I'm getting paid. Thank God. (Laughter) Yes.

Tavis: But now you've got to watch for those folks trying to get your money again. The vampires are back?

Barr: No. No, they take it off the top like they did in the mortgage crisis. (Laughter) They always get paid first, and then they're gone.

Tavis: They take it of the top, yeah. How's the radio show going?

Barr: It's good. I do a couple radio shows. I love it. I just love it. I love being out there on the edge and, like, pushing as hard as I can to tip over everything rotten. Can't wait till it falls.

Tavis: See, I can't imagine that, knowing you?

Barr: No?

Tavis: (Unintelligible.)

Barr: Just can't wait.

Tavis: Anyway, "Roseanne" is back, five nights a week on - I love TV Land, I watch that thing all the time.

Barr: Me too.

Tavis: So "Roseanne" is back five nights a week on TV Land. If you remember it from the first run you'll want to see these episodes again. If you did not, you were too young to see "Roseanne" then or weren't a fan then, check it out now on TV Land, again, five nights a week. I love you, Roseanne. Good to see you.

Barr: Good to see you too.

Tavis: Glad to have you here.