Comedian Maria Bamford says she is endlessly baffled by the adulation she receives from her stand-up comedy peers.
Marc Maron called her one of the greatest comics of her generation. Stephen Colbert said she was his favorite comedian. And Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos said her show, Lady Dynamite, is the best original series the streamer has ever released.
“That just clearly isn’t true,” a humbled Bamford, 55, told Obsessed: The Podcast host Matt Wilstein. “There’s no best, there’s no worst. There’s just a bunch of people out there doing a craft and doing it beautifully in all sorts of ways.”
Bamford has carved out a niche in the stand-up comedy landscape with her brazen vulnerability and down-to-earth wit, earning her widespread respect from her peers and comparisons to the late Richard Pryor.
Now, self-described “comedy nerd” Judd Apatow has directed a new documentary about her life, Paralyzed by Hope: The Maria Bamford Story, which just had its world premiere at Sundance.
But Bamford is hesitant to accept her mantle as the ultimate comics’ comic.
“I’m just gonna be happy that Judd Apatow made a documentary about me. That’s good enough. I can slip on a banana peel and be grateful for the rest of my life,” she said.
Bamford, whose comedy touches on everything from her bipolar disorder to her Midwestern family dysfunction, says all that praise has to be karmaically balanced sooner or later.
“I’m going to bomb sometime soon,” Bamford declared, “like, just less than a mile from my house.”
In the documentary, Conan O’Brien sums up Bamford’s unique comedy style like this: “99 percent of comedians will tell you they have anxieties, and you understand it’s a shtick. Maria is like a lobster whose shell has been removed.”
The film explores Bamford’s life and career as intimately as her stand-up specials. Bamford said agreeing to the doc was a double-edged sword.
“I am like, nobody needs to hear about this on one side, and then like, I do need some more eyes on this,” the comedian said, switching into one of her many onstage voices. “And then cash. I love to get paid.”
In one of the film’s opening scenes, Apatow arrives at Bamford’s home with $500 cash and a banana in hand to convince the comedian to star in her documentary.
This past year, Billboard ranked Bamford the ninth best comedian of the 21st century‚ much to the surprise of many readers—and Bamford herself. The highest female comic on the list, she came in behind Dave Chappelle, John Mulaney, and Jerry Seinfeld, but ahead of Robin Williams, Sarah Silverman, and Jon Stewart.
“I think it’s just a trend. And clearly not true. Like what? No, no, no, no,” the comedian lamented, citing other women like Nikki Glaser and Kathy Griffin, who she believes should have made the list as well.
Though she did repost it.
“Oh no, I retweeted it. Just to be clear, the propaganda has been reposted,” she said.
Paralyzed by Fear: The Maria Bamford Story premiered at Sundance earlier this week. It has yet to set a release date.
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