Rosebud Baker: Sharp, Scrappy and Killing it On Stage
Rosebud Baker is on fire. She killed her spot on “The Nasty Show” at Just for Laughs this summer, was a writer on “That Damn Michael Che,” worked with Bill Burr’s company, All Things Comedy to produce her first hour special “Whiskey Fists” and released it on Comedy Central Digital today!
My favorite thing about “Whiskey Fists” is that as sharp and scrappy as Rosebud is on stage, she still allows for moments of vulnerability in her writing. She does this by pulling from content that is very personal and her joke about the ex-boyfriend who inspired the title, “Whiskey Fists” is the perfect example of this. Prior to watching her special, I had no idea Rosebud had been in an abusive relationship and was thankful to have had the chance to talk with her about it. She said, “I look at him as like a sick guy. I have no anger about that. I always think of that Patrice joke where he’s like ‘I’ve been with my girl for about 6 months. She’s been with me for 3 years.’ I was like the girl in that situation. I was with him for longer than he was with me, but it was about 2 years which is a long time if you think about how unstable it was. I liked ‘Whiskey Fists’ as a name because it kind of encapsulates something bad that happened that I was able to turn into a punchline.” I loved her attitude. It was inspiring. This is exactly why the transformative power of comedy is essential and no subject matter should ever be off the table.
Rosebud took a lot of chances with the material she wrote and developed on this special. Her “Whiskey Fists” joke was just one of many that stood out to me. I also loved her joke about knowing when her ex’s start sleeping with new people, her rape whistle jokes were hilarious and her jokes about her sisters (including the one who passed away) were hilarious! That was a first for me. I didn’t even know that a dead sister joke was a premise that could make me laugh… but it did!!! I grew up with two sisters and we still argue like 12-year-olds, so I asked Rosebud what the dynamic was like growing up between her and her sisters. She said, “It was like war and factions. You would form alliances based on something you had done. It was like, how quickly can you get to the other sisters to tell them about what happened, so they’ll be on your side. It was like chess. I have a political granddad but the dynamics in my family were such that, I thought those were political as well. We understood early on the value of making a deal. Do you know what I mean?” I totally knew what she meant! My sisters and I would even raise the stakes in our family by getting our young aunts involved in our drama so they could help us try and win favor with our mom. They say necessity is the mother of the skill and if anything is going to develop a person’s instincts when it comes to forming alliances and making money moves, growing up in a political family with a house full of sisters will do the trick.
Rosebud eventually chose comedy as her path in life. She moved to New York, got sober and her comedic talents began to blossom. Soon enough, she was being asked to open for comedians such as Michael Che, Amy Schumer and Bert Kreischer. When speaking about these opportunities she said, “There’s been a lot of comics along the way who have reached out to help me and believed in me. I owe them a lot and I’m so grateful to all of them, that I get almost tongue tied trying to say it because I don’t know how to be that sincere.” She may have been laughing when she said this, but it was clear to me that her humble gratitude was totally authentic. In addition to doing shows with some of the funniest headliners in comedy, Rosebud’s hour special was produced by Bill Burr’s company All Things Comedy, so I asked how that came to be. She said, “I remember getting a call that Burr was looking for comics he could introduce to his audience, and I was lucky enough to be a part of that. It was such a great opportunity for me because I was working on all these jokes that were very specific to me and “The Ringers” felt like the perfect time to do them. But still, whenever I talk to Burr, I go mute. He’s one of my favorite comics and I just get stupid around him. Normally when you work with somebody, you start to understand them as a human but I’m just like a fangirl around him and I feel like a fucking dummy. I just go mute. I’m so afraid of trying as hard as I want to try, so I just don’t say anything. If I feel myself muscling to be accepted by someone or liked by someone, there’s no worse feeling so I just go to bed.” That reminded me of the three stress responses of either fight, flight or freeze and she said, “If the zombies come, I know what my tactic will be.”
Speaking of the zombie apocalypse, another topic Rosebud joked about in “Whisky Fists” was her obsession with watching murder documentaries and she isn’t going to be giving them up anytime soon. “I’m on the road with my best friend, Blair Socci right now and she is a very pure soul, so I was like, ‘I hope you’re cool with falling asleep to someone getting sawed in half.’ Something’s wrong. I need help.” I grew up watching scary movies with my sisters and friends from our block and have so many fun memories from that time. I asked Rosebud what her favorite scary movie is and she said, “I will never forget the first time I watched The Conjuring because it’s what made me love horror movies. I was watching it alone, on my laptop, in the dark at my dad’s place on Christmas. I kept shutting the computer screen and screaming and running around, like it was Def Jam or something. I was having a Def Jam reaction to The Conjuring and from that point on I have loved these movies. I’ve spent most of my life feeling pretty neutral about everything. I’m numb… but when I watch a horror movie it jolts me. It’s like that adrenaline is something I don’t have and don’t get from anything other than a panic attack. It’s like sensation where there’s numbness. It sounds so sad but it’s true!” I was laughing so hard when she was telling me this. I didn’t think it sounded sad at all. It sounded inspired. Rosebud is such a talented writer and since The Conjuring resonated with her so well, I thought maybe she should give writing a thriller a shot and she said, “I never thought about that but my sister is a crazy horror fan and she had an idea for a short horror film so we’re kind of talking to some people about it now. It was her idea and she’s writing it but, I’m already kind of working on something like that.” How cool is that?! I hope it happens for her and her sister but for now, go to Comedy Central Digital and check out her special. Rosebud’s comedy is dark, her content is personal and she’s a hilarious comedian with a ginormous pair of “Whiskey Fists.”
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Sara Dahms
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