Photography by Tina Turnbow
Friday and Saturday, Lea DeLaria will headline sets at Jazz St. Louis. She expects well over a dozen family members and close friends appearing on the guest list for each of the performances. She can predict this kind of response with every visit here, as St. Louis is her hometown. And here we mean “hometown” in the sense that she was born nearby. And yet, there’re more of these places.
There’s New York, the place where she lays her head most evenings, also considered her hometown. San Francisco, long a place where her live act has excelled in popularity, is another hometown. As is a more-unlikely location, Provincetown, Rhode Island, where she found success as both a touring comic and vocalist over many a summer. These aren’t the only places where she performs live, yet these are the ones that have to be included as often as possible.
Reached on the eve of the Women’s March last weekend, she wasn’t calling from the airport as planned, as her trip to the event was cancelled due to a late booking. This type of zig-zag in travel and lifestyle is, she says, a somewhat normal occurrence these days; she juggles road work with a vocals-and-comedy live show balanced against life on TV sets, where she’s been featured in a host of shows, such as her recent breakout work in Orange Is the New Black.
Along with a Christmas record and a best-of package, DeLaria figures she’s released “four records that have sold pretty well. Some of them really, really well. What I’ve done with these shows is to play songs from each of the four records. Then, of course, there’s my sassy mouth.”
Her comedy bits roll in and out of the musical numbers; instead of written jokes, these are observational items riffed at the moment, with quite a few, these days, centering “on the current administration.” The band that backs her, The Future Is Female, knows to lay back and let these moments run, while also understanding the tricks to regaining the night’s momentum once the music’s the focus.
“These are stellar musicians, professional jazz musicians from New York City,” she says. “They come in and deliver that high-powered DeLaria energy. I work with them as much as I can. When I have to film, when I’m on set, or in a very successful play, each of them have their own amazing careers. As often as I can get them, I do. And they have to cancel some other gigs, but they love playing with me and they understand that it’s a unique thing with me doing so many things in the industry.
“Every singer has banter, but I’m also a standup comic, so my banter is funnier,” she says. “The kind of comic I am is an improvisational comic. I don’t out the jokes; I have ideas and I talk about them. It’s as if they’re improvising chord changes. I have an idea and I go with it.”
Her career doesn’t allow for as many trips as the old days, DeLaria says. "Touring as a standup comic and singer, I used to be able to get there much more often. I haven’t been to town since my last show, and I used to be able to get there a couple, three times a year.”
Though TV work, in particular, keeps coming, the live experience, she suggests “is still where I’d prefer to be any day of the week. It’s my favorite. What I’m doing right now is my favorite thing to do. Having that audience just feeds your soul, your drive and commitment to the genre.”
Ticket information for DeLaria’s weekend gigs can be found at Jazz St. Louis’ homepage.
