It’s no exaggeration to say multi-talented cutie Bridget Everett has a fanatically devoted fan base. The Manhattan, Kansas-raised singer-actor-performer-sex-symbol creates pandemonium when she announces dates for her regular cabaret shows at Joe’s Pub and the shows sell out in minutes. She first made a name for herself performing her delightfully raunchy songs in downtown clubs and venues. An early champion was Michael Patrick King who created Sex and the City. A development deal with HBO led to her show, Somebody, Somewhere, which just finished its third and final season and was hailed by critics and fans alike as one of the most exciting shows to come along in ages. “It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me and I’ve never had kids so I can say that.” she explains, “It’s just, it changed my life and it’s what I would do until the day I die but that’s not how showbiz works.”
We caught up with Everett as she was contemplating what’s next for her. Whatever she decides to do, we will definitely be watching.
I think of you as being so deliciously, delightfully raw and topless. Has winning a Peabody Award made you more hesitant to be topless in public? Has success made you less trashy?
Since I had a TV show on the air, I just was like, “I should probably color a little more inside the lines than I normally do.” But now that we’re no longer in production, I have some shows coming up and it’ll be fun to see if I revert back to full old school Bridget or not.
So much has changed and I like to try to evolve, but there’s also part of celebrating a woman’s body, which for me means no bra on stage, just really deep cut dresses from House of Larreon. And I like to… I’ve said it before, “When I sing, I sing from my tits to my toes.”
I mean that like it’s a full body experience. And when I say full body experience, I mean full body experience. So, sometimes the tits are going to fly and, for me, that’s freedom and why not?
Absolutely.
We only got two tits and one life, so I might as well go for it.
Speaking of your shows, they sell out so fast, I’m telling you, you create hysteria when you’re at Joe’s Pub. I’ve only seen this level of hysteria for Beyonce and Taylor Swift. It sells out in minutes! So, that’s great and you deserve it, congratulations.
Yeah. I like to try to play the room sometimes too, but there’s a comfort for me and the audience being at Joe’s Pub. It feels like home.
Playgirl • June 2025.
This series is about extraordinary women. Are there women who really have inspired you or who you’ve thought of as role models?
Yeah, a ton. When I was in grade school I remember walking around the playground thinking that I wanted to be Debbie Harry and singing Hot Child in the City. Now I know that’s not one of her songs, but…
Nick Gilder
… I just thought she was the coolest person on the face of the planet. I think she still is.
She was. And is.
But mostly the most influential woman in my life is my mom and it’s because she was so incredibly unique, a dichotomy in many ways. I don’t know. She was a conservative school teacher with a foul mouth and beaver tails flying (beaver tails are tits).
She never wore a bra when we were out in public and she always said really sly things. My dad was a real wit. Everybody always thought he was the funny one. But my mom just had this real physicality and could bring you to your knees with just a look. And I mean bring your knees with laughter. She was really special but also probably a narcissist and so I took a lot of that on.
Is she still alive, your mother?
No, she died about two years ago.
I’m sorry. My mother died a year and a half ago.
Yeah, it’s hard. It’s really hard.
I didn’t realize until recently that your family was the Kennedys of Manhattan, Kansas. So, through that description of your mother, was she the Ethel Kennedy, was she the Jacqueline Onassis? Or none of the above?
None of the above. Both my dad and my brother were mayor of Manhattan. My dad was a state representative, state senator and so in that way I consider us a political dynasty, but we were also like the Kennedys in that the kids got in a lot of trouble. I mean, we never killed anybody or anything, but just got in some trouble here and there.
Bridget Everett photographed by Allison Michael Orenstein.
So, you were more like the children of Ethel, you were more like the drug addicts and partiers.
We like to have fun and you know how it goes.
Absolutely.
In small towns you find yourself at keggers and do all kinds of crazy shit.
You might be tired of talking about Somebody Somewhere and how it must’ve been heartwarming that people were outraged that it wasn’t renewed. Remind me how that series came about and how it’s always referred to as semi-autobiographical. How semi-autobiographical do you consider it?
Well, I got a deal with HBO however many years ago, and I called up Carolyn Strauss who is a TV producer or HBO producer, Game of Thrones and Last of Us and Chernobyl. We happened to be friends and I said, “I got this deal,” and she helped build this show around me and for me. We talked to Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen who came up with the idea.
We call ourselves a four top. We’re the central creatives on the show. I guess, the way that it’s semi-autobiographical is it takes place in my hometown, our first love is singing, we both struggle with self-worth.
Ok.
The kinds of people that populate Sam’s life also populate mine, for instance, Murray Hill. And my friends are largely queer and it was just like, “Oh, if I stayed in my hometown what might my life look like?” So, a large part of it is all of that.
But I’ll never get tired of talking about that show, talking about Somebody Somewhere. It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me and I’ve never had kids so I can say that. It’s just, it changed my life and it’s what I would do until the day I die but that’s not how showbiz works.
Yeah. But the way showbiz works is in 15 years they’ll want to do a reboot and you will be ready to go and we’ll all be ready to subscribe to whatever platform HBO has then.
Yeah, let’s make the movie, come on, let’s go.
What I will say is that it honestly just is a miracle that we ended up on HBO and that we got three seasons…
Agreed.
… and I’m really grateful for that and I know that only HBO would do it. It’s just so fortunate we got to do it.
Flashing way back, how did you first meet Michael Patrick King? I know that he’s credited as being at the early stages of your career.
Yeah, definitely. Years ago, HBO had this comedy festival in Aspen, the HBO Aspen Comedy Festival. I went in 2006. I’d been doing a show at Ars Nova and Jon Steingart, who is a founder of Ars Nova, he knew Michael and he’s like, “There’s this young woman I think you should see.” And so, Michael came to the show.
And you do these things with all these industry people and so they’re going to other events and people walked out halfway through my set and some people stayed. I was just crying and Jonjon Battles… He was my roommate at the time and we were also good friends. And I remember, I was like, “I blew it, this was my chance. I blew it.” And he was hugging me and then Michael walked in and he was like, “Well that was fantastic.” So, it just goes to show that just because some people walk out, it doesn’t mean that you’re doing the wrong thing and maybe it means you’re doing the exact right thing.
Bridget Everett photographed by Allison Michael Orenstein.
And so, you ended up doing a show with him At Least It’s Pink?
I think it was called, At Least It’s Pink: A Trashy Little Show and it was really fantastic. That was in 2007 and we still… I was just on vacation with him for New Year’s. He’s been somebody that’s been really instrumental in me developing my artistic voice and my confidence and everything that goes along with that.
Speaking of which, not to keep going back to the Peabody Award, but having won the Peabody and all the other awards you mentioned, do you still struggle with your self-worth?
I felt really laid bare in that show in many ways. So, it really punctuated a history of not feeling great about myself.
But I have to give myself credit for what I’ve accomplished and where I’ve gotten in my life and my career. I’ve done a lot of that all by building things for myself.
And so, yeah, not every day is perfect, but I’m doing a whole lot better. I’ve come up in the cabaret world and cabaret singers weren’t quote-unquote, “cool,” at the time. I’m not sure they still are, but to me they were.
Me too, me too.
To me the cabaret scene, you got Justin Vivian Bond and Cole Escola and Erin Markey and all these people that are so wildly creative and exciting to watch and people that, I think, were the coolest people in show business.
I was the first one to get at that time a Comedy Central special, and I couldn’t believe it was happening and I still can’t. I mean, just all the people stand up there with a microphone and some jokes and my show was not that.
Are there other moments in your career that you feel like made you stop and say, “Wow, I’ve really made it,” or, “Oh wow,” you’ve felt like you’ve achieved your goals?
I honestly think that when I would watch Somebody Somewhere and I always watched it by myself. I’d sit on my couch and then that HBO logo comes on and that sound, you know?
Totally.
And every single time I’m like, “Okay, bitch, you did this.” Just start looking around the room like, “Okay, you happy now, bitch?” But it’s not like you’re happy now but that is a real pinch me moment. Winning a Peabody Award was a little out of body and felt very cool. And sometimes I look around the room and I’m like, “How did I end up in a room with these people?”
I love it.
Even early on when I met Murray Hill, Murray was a legend to me. Kiki and Herb were legendary and Murray Hill was legendary. And when I started to become friends with Murray and Viv and John Cameron Mitchell, I was like, “Wow, how did I end up here?”
Then it just progressed and I’ve made more friends in show business. But there’s another moment when there was something that ran on me in People Magazine and I remember my family was like, “Oh People Magazine.” I’m like, “Yep, People Magazine honey.”
Speaking of famous women who you worked with: Loni Anderson, who is, of course, an icon (Everett and Anderson made a pilot together with Michael Patrick King that wasn’t picked up)
I know. I thought that pilot was so good and it was very highly rated. They used to do a thing where they would put three pilots on and people would vote and it was the highest rated. I thought Loni was so incredible in it.
She’s also an icon to me. I was just on eBay looking for a signed 8 by 10 picture of her that I could frame and put up in my house. I’m looking for a very specific one. It’s her holding a Persian cat or something.
I look around and I’m like, “Where’s the Loni Anderson renaissance?” I think she’s so incredible. She’s beautiful, she’s so funny, she’s such a pro.
That was a real pinch me moment doing it. She auditioned for it. She auditioned to be in this pilot that I was doing with Michael Patrick King and Bobcat Goldthwait and she was just incredible.
Legendary.
She came in the room, she lights up a room. She still wears these heels and gosh, she looks incredible. She is incredible.
She was warm and she nurtured me when I was like… It was my first time ever doing a pilot. I didn’t know what I was doing. She helped keep me calm. I just can’t say enough about her. I really love her.
What’s next for you after your triumphant return to the not so cool cabaret scene and the basking in the afterglow of Somebody Somewhere?
I’m trying to dream up what the next thing is. I’m writing some music and I’m just trying to figure it out. I am going to be shooting Family Feud with my siblings, which will be wild.
Bridget Everett photographed by Allison Michael Orenstein.
How did your family feel about the show? Were they worried that their personal business was going to be exposed
Well, the show’s not about them. I mean, there’s little pieces of everybody in my life in the show, but there’s no… My parents for instance, are very different than the parents in the show. But my brothers, the two of my brothers would always text me. Well, my brother, Brad, would always text me right after watching the show. He watched it in real time.
I think the show brought us closer and I know that they’re proud of me. There was just, there… I spent a lot of time running away from Kansas and the show brought me back home in many ways and closer to my siblings is one of those ways.
Are you the most famous person from Manhattan, Kansas at this point?
Well, Elvira spent some time there.
Right, right… I would say you’re probably the most current famous person from Manhattan, Kansas.
Yeah, but I can still walk around the streets there and it’s probably one in 20 people that give me a look. So, there’s no statues of me there.
Well, not yet, but there should be.
I think all of us do get it a lot on the streets in New York. We get stopped a few times a day, but it’s very manageable and it’s very respectful and I think a lot of people have an emotional connection to the show and it means something to them, and why would I ever get tired of talking about that?
Absolutely.
It’s pretty great and I get a lot of very meaningful messages on Instagram. I don’t always read the messages or whatever, don’t read the comments, but sometimes I do and there’s always something there that’s very moving to me. But have I gotten laid because of Somebody Somewhere? The answer is no.
Oh no. Boys, get it together. Let’s make it happen if you want it to happen. But, I mean, I think you should be getting laid for your service to humanity.
Thank you.
So, when are your shows at Joe’s Pub? I mean, it might be before this piece comes out.
I’m going to do some in June. They’re not announced yet, but I’m doing a run in June.
Okay. Maybe I need to pull some strings to buy some tickets.
