She describes herself as something "between an entertainer and part of the populace"; a fellow commentator has called her "the insider's outsider". Sandra Bernhard's dichotomy is plain for me to see as soon as I arrive at our meeting point, a restaurant on Greenwich Avenue, in her New York neighbourhood. The grand dame of spoken-word cabaret and the matriarch of the bitchy remark ("the theatre amateurs have once again interrupted a great artiste," is her rebuke to latecomers on Everything Bad and Beautiful, the recording of show she is bringing to the UK) is sat eating soup.
She's there early as I am. For my part I want to be ready for a woman who hasn't mellowed with time – she's now 52 with a career spanning more than 30 years. From her point of view, she's early in order to polish off the interview, like her soup, with aplomb, pushing to the side anything surplus to requirements.
For the full interview go to: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/sandra-bernhard-bisexuality-and-savage-wit-397472.html
