Stand-up Maria Bamford mines her own troubles for comedy gold

Stand-up comic Maria Bamford, performing at the Lobero on Sunday, says she owes her career to the Internet. Susan Maljan photo
Stand-up comic Maria Bamford, performing at the Lobero on Sunday, says she owes her career to the Internet.
Susan Maljan photo

Maria Bamford’s story is one of keeping at it until it works, no matter what comes in the way — anxiety, depression, attempted suicide and what has been dubbed “unwanted thoughts syndrome” (examples of which might be too disturbing for the average reader). But she has emerged as a stand-up comic who mirrors our own dysfunctional times, her stage persona a stunned version of herself that dives in and out of multiple characters and voices. Yet her jokes do not exist to invoke pity, they are just brutally honest.

When I talk to her over the phone two weeks before her trip to Santa Barbara to play the Lobero on Sunday, she’s “in the back room of a bookstore,” one of the places where she feels comfortable, surrounded by reading material.

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