Kate Clinton’s Currency Is Her Topical Humor

After Ellen DeGeneres made headlines last spring by coming out as a lesbian, comedian Kate Clinton suddenly found herself discussing the issue with all kinds of people.

The discussion “really has trickled down in society in odd ways,” said Clinton, who will perform at the Coach House on Friday. “I talked to my dad, who’s 86. I told him, ‘Gee, Dad, you figured out that Ellen is gay faster than you figured out that I was gay!’ I loved that. It seems like it’s uncorked a dialogue that was waiting to happen.”

Few people are better qualified than Clinton to dissect the impact of DeGeneres’ disclosure. Her intelligent, topical humor is akin to a lively current events lesson.

In fact, Clinton taught high school English in upstate New York before quitting to become a stand-up comic in 1981. She initially concentrated on gay material, because she primarily worked the lesbian coffeehouse circuit.

Hilarity Clinton--as she is sometimes jokingly called--eventually began to tackle broader political issues as well. Now she finds herself tilting back to more gay-specific topics.

“It seems that the mainstream has positively overflown its banks with the whole Ellen coming out [issue] and the movie ‘In & Out,’ which is so mainstream and yet very gay,” she said by phone from her home in Provincetown, Mass.

“As we get toward the end of the century, the distinction between gay and straight seems to blur a little bit. It’s actually fun to pull up and talk about actual gay issues.”

Clinton’s show also serves as a reminder that political work on behalf of civil rights for homosexuals remains undone. Society is rife with examples of homophobia, blatant and subtle, she pointed out. She jokes that during telecasts of Womens National Basketball Assn. games, the network cameras invariably show a father holding a small child in the stands, rather than a sea of short-haired lesbians high-fiving.

The DeGeneres fallout may have lulled some people in the gay community into complacency, she added. “Money and membership in national [gay] organizations is off,” Clinton said. “When that happens, it’s frightening. But we’ve made [strides] culturally, and if it translates politically, then it would be wonderful.”

*

These days, Clinton is as much a writer as a stand-up comic. For the past three years she’s penned a humor column for a liberal political magazine, the Progressive. A few months ago, she became a regular columnist for the gay and lesbian monthly the Advocate.

She is also finishing up her first book, tentatively titled “Don’t Get Me Started.” Chapter headings for the collection of essays, due in spring, include CommuniKate and AdjudiKate.

She said all the writing has kept her stand-up act fresh and lively.

“Writing essays and magazine columns is wonderful because you can develop longer arguments,” she said. “But it also helps my performing. Things that were written to be read. I then think about how I can make them into things I can say [on stage].

“I wrote this piece about how things are going to be so different that there’s going to be B.E., Before Ellen, and A.E., After Ellen. So I do bits of that in the show, which really keeps it current.”

* Kate Clinton will appear Friday at the Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano. 8 p.m. $18.50-$20.50. (714) 496- 8930.