“If I looked at a crib sheet that much during my show,” I heard one punter complain on leaving Sandra Bernhard’s gig, “I wouldn’t have a career.” Ah yes, one might reply – but you’re not Sandra Bernhard, who is here to sell not her craft, but her charisma. Movie star, singer and raconteur, Bernhard is one of those acts – her compatriot Kathy Griffin, a recent visitor to these shores, is another – who trades less on any one skill than on force of stellar personality. That, and a four-decade career’s worth of names to drop. I give you a typical line from tonight’s show: “Recently both Diane Keaton and Lily Tomlin commented on my height … ” When such names can be rallied to boost your stature, why bother learning lines?
Or adapting your material to the country you’re visiting? Bernhard’s show Sandemonium – some stories, some songs, some chat – is full of perplexing references to AARP (come again?), Nina Griscom (who she?) and Crown Heights. “I’m just trying things out,” she says. “Tomorrow night I won’t talk about things you don’t know about.” Which is great news – for tomorrow night’s audience. As for tonight’s – well, we get the crib sheets and the parochial references, but we also get a winningly easy swagger to Bernhard’s performance. There’s a lot of love for her in the room, and she surfs it with style and occasional welcome self-irony.
Which she needs, early on, as – before her well-heeled London crowd relaxes – several lines engineered to elicit whoops (on the upcoming Roseanne reboot: “Nancy is back!”) are greeted with uncertain silence. You can almost hear Bernhard recalibrating as anecdotes that might get US audiences hurling their baseball caps in the air are received here with frigidity. “Isn’t that a great story?,” Bernhard is reduced to asking, anxiety barely concealed. But too often the answer is: no, it’s not. It’s a mildly amusing observation (about gun crime, say, or bitcoin) that she’s not really bothered to process into comedy.
In many instances, her stories peter out before coalescing into anything resembling a point: the one about going to see Hello, Dolly! on Broadway; the one about finding a $50 bill on the sidewalk. She recites an email exchange with Jane Fonda, which relies on its protagonists’ star power for its limited comic charge. A later section finds Bernhard reading out small ads and fragments of conversation she’s overheard on the subway, barely any of which are notably funny, although our host’s emphatic, sarcastic delivery almost persuades you into thinking otherwise.
She keeps it passably entertaining because she’s a good sport, and has a few neat lines in her locker (including one about her dad’s girlfriend, “who bedazzles scenes of the desert on sweatshirts – don’t underestimate Bonnie!”). Then there are the songs, not all of which convince, in a venue that exposes Bernhard’s voice to close scrutiny. Backed by a three-piece band led by Mitch Kaplan, she pulls off the rockier numbers best, including Patti Smith’s The People Have the Power, while her closing medley of Let It Be, Let It Go and Take on Me by A-ha is endearing in its oddity. It’s a genial if casually thrown together 75 minutes – which, had I paid the £50-£100 ticket price, I might have felt less inclined to indulge.
• At Ronnie Scott’s, London, until 23 February. Box office: 020-7439 0747.
