Last night I went to see Carrie Fisher’s one-woman show Wishful Drinking at Studio 54. (Side note: Ingrid Bergman’s daughter was there. Pia Lindstrom. Spitting image. And I heard her laughing at one point, and thought: Holy crap, that’s Ingrid’s laugh.) I’ve been a fan of Fisher’s writing for a long long time, and if you haven’t listened to her commentary track on the DVD of Postcards from the Edge, all I can say is, you are missing out. She’s smart, hilarious, acerbic, and when she nails a phrase, there is sometimes a moment of stunned recognition in an audience, like: wow. Let me just SIT in that for a minute. There were many moments like that in last night’s show, which was wonderful. I would find myself laughing uproariously, and then she would say something that yes, would be funny – because she just has a knack for putting things in a humorous way – but the underlying truth would be so searing that you could FEEL its impact in the audience. So we were laughing, but we were also nodding to ourselves thinking, “How true that is …”
“Resentment,” she said, “is like feeding yourself poison, and waiting for the other person to die.”
There wasn’t a self-indulgent moment in the whole night, and that’s really saying something, when you consider the story she has to tell: addiction, mental illness, rehabs, not to mention her absolutely insane upbringing. She can see it all as funny. Not because it IS funny, but because she lived through it. And some things you just can’t make up.
For example, she was diagnosed with manic-depression. A couple years later, someone told her that her picture was in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, used to illustrate bipolar. She was baffled by this. What? What picture of me is in there? Me in therapy? She eventually tracked down the journal, and saw the picture. There was a big screen at the back of the stage, where pictures were projected throughout the night, and suddenly there it was: On one side, an official-looking page of text: BIPOLAR blah blah blah … and on the opposite side? A sulky picture of her AS PRINCESS LEIA. Insane. She was a middle-aged woman when she got her diagnosis, and Princess Leia’s image was the one they chose. Hysterical. So bizarre. Like – who has a life like that?
She is also a Pez Dispenser, which became a running gag throughout the night.
“So not only am I a Pez Dispenser, but I am also used as an illustration in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.”
I think my favorite part of the night was when she was trying to explain the insanity of her parents’ marriage and what went down back then. Her daughter, who is 17 years old, had a little flirtation with a boy who was somehow related to Mike Todd (Elizabeth Taylor’s husband who died in a plane crash). Now, if you are up to date in Hollywood lore, then you know that Eddie Fisher (Carrie’s father) went to “comfort” Elizabeth Taylor in her time of grieving, and he left his wife (Debbie Reynolds) within the week to be with Elizabeth.
Carrie said, “He RACED to her side to comfort her. And then he comforted her from THE FRONT.”
Carrie’s daughter came to her and said, confused, “Now … help me understand … am I related to this boy I have a crush on?”
So began Carrie’s lecture to us on “Hollywood Inbreeding 101” (those words were projected onto the back screen). Down from the wings above came an enormous flow-chart, covered in familiar faces, with lines drawn from one face to the other. She got a big pointer, and then walked us through the whole thing. It was a masterpiece of self-deprecating and honest humor. There was audience participation, because there was so much repetition in the story (infidelity, divorce, remarriage – often to the same person – divorce again) – that Carrie would ask a specific audience member in the first row (her name was “Judith”) to finish her sentences. “So then the clouds came in, and Judith, what happened next?” Judith called out from her seat, “They got divorced.” Carrie went on, “But then they ran into each other again, they felt nostalgic, and then what happened, Judith?” Judith called out, “They got remarried.”
The Hollywood Inbreeding lecture was my favorite part of the show. I could have watched her walking around with that pointer for an hour more.
Her words about the insanity of Star Wars were awesome, and the best part is is that George Lucas came to see the show in San Francisco. She tells the well-known story about how she was doing a costume fitting, and she went to show George the white dress that Leia wears. He looked her over and said, “You can’t wear a bra.” Carrie asked, “Why, George?” He said, “Because there’s no underwear in space.” Carrie was laughing, saying, “And he said it with such certainty – like he had BEEN in space, and he KNEW.” So George Lucas comes backstage after seeing the show, and the first thing he said was, “You know why there is no underwear in space?” (Not “good job, Carrie”, not “great show”) She said, “Why, George?” He said, “Because of zero gravity, you could be strangled by your own bra.”
Makes perfect sense.
Fisher was told she needed to lose 10 pounds when she got the role of Leia. “Please realize,” she said to us, “that I weighed 105 pounds at that point – and 90 of it was IN MY FACE. So what do you do when someone has a wide face? Naturally you give them a hairdo that MAKES IT EVEN WIDER.”
The set for her show was like a comfy cozy living room, with big overstuffed chairs, and cans of soda that she would sip on throughout the night. She would curl up in the chair, as though she was in her own house. She also was basically wearing her pajamas. Silk men’s pajamas and a long bathrobe, which I just loved, because it took the edge off. It made it all seem perfectly normal, that she would be telling us intimate details of her life – because why wouldn’t she? She was in her pajamas.
Her sensibility is inherently comic. That was probably her saving grace. She knows her demons very well, and she has given them room to breathe and express themselves. She doesn’t seem bitter, although her humor can be quite sharp.
What I am left with, ultimately, is the impression that I just spent 2 hours in the presence of a really nice woman, someone I am glad I got to know. Just a little bit.
And this may be strange to say, since I don’t know the woman, and have no stake in her life whatsoever.
But watching her up there, stalking around with her pointer, cracking jokes about her crazy parents, and making an entire packed Broadway audience roar with laughter – I felt really proud of her. I thought: Good for you. Good for you.
(Pia Lindstrom. Yes. I am a member of the paparazzi)
I’m so glad you got to see her show! I read the book, where she pretty much tells the same jokes and stories (complete with flow chart) and it was the breeziest and most enjoyable time I have ever had reading. Did she give the crack about the Leia blow up sex doll? In the book, she wrote something about it potentially being handy because if anyone ever tells her to go fuck herself, she can go out, buy the doll and actually do it.
Did you ever see that George Lucas roast where she followed the “no underwear in space” story by saying to him “I hope I slept with you to get the job, because if I didn’t, who in the hell was that guy?!?!?”
I LOVE her.
Emily – she actually had a lifesize copy of the ‘sex doll’ and had it lowered from the rafters – she knocked at the leg at one point and said, “It’s cement which I don’t find erotic … anymore.”
Insane!!
It was a really fun night – but not without its more chilling moments, where she revealed how bad it gets for her at times. Man, she has a way with words. I loved this line. She was talking about her “mania” and how she could describe exactly what it was – but the “other mood” she “would not name … because even to name it, means you are summoning it.”
I have goosebumps right now writing this. I know of what she speaks, the fear of summoning “that other mood” – and I really appreciated her WAY of saying it.
I love that line about Lucas!! hahahahahahaha She is VERY funny about her relationship to him.
“He owns my likeness. So every morning, when I look in the mirror, I have to send George a coupla bucks.”
She does have a marvelous way with words. I can’t remember which talk show it was – I think it was Bonnie Hunt – but she was talking about the Elizabeth Taylor thing and said “When her husband died, my father consoled her…with his penis.”
And in the book she writes about how, with Paul Simon, she had pretty much married her father.
“Short. Jewish. Singer.”
Hahahaha. She’s got a wonderful sense of self-awareness. And the life-sized sex doll – brilliant.
How about her describing driving in her car and hearing one of Paul Simon’s songs about her come on the radio?
“It’s very odd to be driving along hearing someone complain about you in song.”
These are wonderful. I really need to read the book. She’s always the best part of any Star Wars documentary.
Ironically just as I’m reading this she’s on “The View” and repeating the same stories you just brought up!!
I just love how honest she was about that relationship and how much she loved Paul Simon because of his own use of language. I haven’t been able to hear the song “Graceland” the same way after she pointed out the line that was about her – “she comes back to tell me she’s gone/as if I didn’t know that/as if I didn’t know my own bed/as if I never noticed the way she brushed her hair from her forehead.” When he follows that by singing “losing love is like a window in your heart/everybody sees you’re blown apart,” I practically want to cry.
Did she talk about how many guys she’s had come up to her over the years and tell her that their first erection was seeing her in that gold bikini in ROTJ? Some guy actually said “I thought of you every day since I was thirteen. Actually, more like twice a day.” hahaha!
Cullen, definitely read it. It is an absolute JOY. It only takes a couple of hours and you’ll be sorry and left wanting more at the end. It’s a must-read for anyone who grew up with Star Wars.
At the end of the show, through the big screen at the back of the stage, you could suddenly see whirling red and blue police lights. And she said, “Okay, folks, that’s my ride.”
Emily – yes, she talked about the damn bikini a lot! She said that she knew, at the time, that by wearing that get-up, she was “signing a contract” with the audience to ALWAYS look like that. She gestured at her 52 year old body and said, “Obviously I am in breach of contract.”
I love her honesty about her weight, too. She’s like, FUCK ALL OF YOU PEOPLE. I HAD A BABY. I’M 52 YEARS OLD FOR GOD’S SAKE.
And yes, she did tell the story about the guy who said he thought about her “twice a day” for many years. HAHAHA
Emily – yes, the whole Paul Simon thing was very revealing and very moving. I loved how she said something like, “even when we disagreed, we understood the terms of disagreement.” Like, they argued in the same way. They didn’t play dirty. They understood each other on this crazy intellectual level.
I saw her in an interview where she was obviously upset and hurt by all the stupid “Jabba the Hutt” jokes after she’d put on the weight. As if is her frickin’ duty to remain frozen in time to maintain some idiot’s adolescent fantasies. Screw those people. She still looks BEAUTIFUL.
Oh and Emily, the way she opened the show was hysterical. There was the screen at the back – music started – and then the screen opened and she emerged, in her pajamas – everyone applauded – and she started singing “Happy Days Are Here Again”. (She has a wonderful voice – she’s her mother’s daughter!) This COULD have been really bad – but as always she undercut it. Slowly, as she sang, she walked down the stairs at the side of the stage, and began to throw handfuls of glittery confetti on each person in the front row. She moved along, making eye contact, singing, and then basically DUMPING glitter on their heads. I saw a little old man in the lobby after the show, with his nice suit on, his glasses, and he still had green glitter stuck to his few strands of hair. So all of this was funny and wacky – but added onto all of it was a slow dissolve of images across the screen of the tabloid headlines.
About her parents, about her – so she’s singing “happy days are here again” as we see photos of a weeping Debbie Reynolds on the front page of the Inquirer – so the whole thing, instead of just being a “bit”, became a witty moment of acknowledging the absolute cray-cray from which she has sprung.
It was so show business-y – I loved it.
I like Carrie Fisher. I think she’s smart and funny and aware. But that quote about resentment? That’s been floating around for quite some time, only “bitterness” is usually used instead of resentment. The quote has been variously attributed to Hubert Humphrey, Nelson Mandela and Anne Lamott – among others.
So she’s in excellent company!
And strangely – I guess I was totally unaware that Eddie Fisher was still alive. I knew Debbie Reynolds lived on, but it was news to me that Fisher is still around!
Sheila, hahaha. Not knowing Fisher was still alive. I consider that a justice of sorts. Both Debbie and Carrie have become icons in their own right, and he’s slipped into obscurity to the point where people think he died a long time ago.
I’m just picturing her doing that thing with the glitter and am howling thinking about it!
“She knows her demons very well, and she has given them room to breathe and express themselves.”
Wow talk about having a way with words and phrasing.
Cullen – there are some really hilarious Star Wars anecdotes – many of which she has already told in various documentaries and stuff, but they’re so fun to read again. One anecdote that I HADN’T heard was that in the trash compactor scene, Mark Hamill worked so hard at being afraid and stressed that he burst a blood vessel in his eye. The next day they were filming the handing out of the medals scene (gotta love the out of sequence filmmaking) – and Mark had this bright red dot in his eye – and apparently to MASK this, he smiled this huge wide smile the entire time (I have to go back and look at the scene) – to make his eyes seem smaller. hahaha Carrie handed him the medal and said she was thinking, ‘why am I giving this loser a medal when he has a BIG RED DOT in his eye??”
Man, I would love to see that show. The End.
I listened to the audiobook a few months ago while I was in my car on the way to school. She narrates it, so it’s fabulous. I was literally laughing so hard that I had to pull over a few times!
Sounds wonderful!
Great piece. Makes me want to fly to NY and see the show soon!
I’m dying to see this show. It was in DC before it went to New York and I’m hoping it will come back for a repeat performance. Her speech from the roast of George Lucas never fails to make me smile. And that line about “the other mood”…wow. Just wow