Roseanne returning to stand-up stage

Roseanne Barr says she isn’t finished running for president, and she doesn’t do it as a joke.

“I’m going to do it forever,” she says. “For 2016 I’ll have some more interesting things to say and more interesting infrastructure as well.”

The comedian drew more than 65,000 real votes in the three states where she was on the ballot last November, despite a campaign run almost entirely on Twitter with a volunteer staff of “about 20 grandmas.”

“That was largely the purpose of why I did it,” Barr says, “to show you don’t have to be severely compromised by money and sell out all your principles to run for office. … It cost me nothing to get those votes.”

Because the other 24 states that accepted write-in votes haven’t come back with a certified count, Barr says she hasn’t officially conceded to President Obama.

But in that window between the last campaign and the next one, the 60-year-old is returning to the stage after an extended break from stand-up comedy.

A sit-down run at the Tropicana’s Laugh Factory was appealing because she has extended family in Las Vegas and also wanted to get into a regimen for some health and weight issues.

But she came up with some new rules this time: “A 7 o’clock show means clean in Vegas,” she says. “I’ve never done a completely clean show, so that was a challenge for me. I’m still edgy (but) I wanted to see how edgy and how out there I could be and be clean.

“I’ve been a comic for 32 years and that’s like the last thing I haven’t done.”

Not that it’s entirely what she’s known for. “People kind of know me from the TV show (a little thing called ‘Roseanne,’ a No. 1 hit for the first half of the ’90s). A lot of them don’t even know I ever did do stand-up. I think some of them are a little bit surprised. I don’t know if they think I’ll be sitting there with John Goodman or something.”

But she points out the show airs somewhere every day and has for decades. She even watches it herself.

“I’ll watch it for a couple of minutes, especially if I’m with my grandkids. … It’s been so long they’re kind of like new now.”

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@
reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.