Sarah Jamie Shtern will be performing at Difficult to Name on Friday, April 24
In addition to your work as an actress, clown, and comedian, you're also a photographer. How has photography made you think differently about performance? I apologize if this is a bad question.
There are no bad questions! Only bad actors. Photography was something I was always intimidated by because I didn't have the technical knowledge to pull it off. My friend Rachel Ho, was putting on an absurdist clown ensemble show called "Town" and she asked online if someone can take photos. I said yes before thinking and borrowed my ex-boyfriend's camera and just experimented. It was really cool to be experimenting in a new art form and capturing my friends who were also experimenting. Since then, I've had the opportunity to shoot some of my comedic heroes and continue to develop my eye and sensibility. I love experimenting with multiple exposure and cool angles and lighting. I am obsessed with taking photographs with spunk and personality rather that just capturing "the moment". I've shot a lot of Freak Nature's work and it's always such a fun creative challenge to capture their larger than life puppets and give them a new life in still imagery. I'm really lucky to have tons of insanely cool and creative friends who have trusted me to capture their precious performances. It has given me more confidence behind the scenes and I hope to parlay it to directing as I have developed my own style and eye.
Wait, the question was how has it made me think differently about performance? I am so precious about live performance and feel weird about video sometimes. I love that photography captures the moment without trying to reproduce it. I always love getting my photo taken and looking gorgoeus on stage. I have a lot of respect for career photographers.
Does that answer the question?
You were so funny when I saw you perform with your alt comedy astrology theater group Planets, Planets, Planets. How are you able to balance character, comedy and astrology in your work at those shows?
I am the idiot in Planets, Planets, Planets. More of a personality hire if you will. I love that group, we're all real life friends who have come up together in the clowning/alt comedy scene and it's super fun to play and devise with all of them. I tend to be a solo performer and devising in a group had taught me to leave my ego at the front door and try to balance being free while also being "professional". Not "professional" in a traditional sense because I am an exhibitionist with a dirty mouth, but just remember that it's work and failure is a part of the process and sometimes being a part of a team means making your team mates look better.
Right now, my focus is on acting and writing (hey hire me!) and doing as much standup as possible. I try to blend clowning principles with standup and just be as free as possible. I'm a slut for the audience.
I'm gonna steal that thing from Nate Silver's podcast and ask if there are three books you'd recommend.
Famesick by Lena Dunham (I haven't read it yet)