Poor Cameron Esposito has been so bogged down with her plethora of podcasts, releasing a hit comedy album (“Same Sex Symbol”) and packing houses on the road, that she didn’t have time to assemble a Halloween costume this year.
However, the comedian did give this column the exclusive scoop that she will host a costume contest on the stage of The Independent at 628 Divisadero in San Francisco, on Sunday, November 1, to close out the big holiday weekend. (She may also provide saltines and soda water for those who stuffed down too much candy corn with tequila chasers.)
“Maybe I’ll just bring some of those little, weird pumpkins that are also like candy corn. Those are the best, because, what is that even?” Esposito said. “The problem with my life is I haven’t done anything cool for multiple Halloweens now because I’ve been in a hotel room by myself.”
Esposito does fondly recall dressing in ill-fitting Charlie Chaplin garb as a child. Gender-bending at Halloween was a toe-in-the-pool toward coming out.
“I talked to my fiancée, Rhea [Butcher], about this and we compared costumes when we were children. ‘For a while, I was a pirate.’ ‘And I was Garfield.’ It’s all falling in this realm of testing our boundaries of our femininity,” Esposito said. “Not that Garfield is very feminine. He does love lasagna and sleeping, and that sounds just like a woman!”
While it’s adorable to see little tykes trick or treating during the hours of 6 to 8, it can be obnoxious when high school-age-and-beyond young adults come beating on your door for Reese’s at 10 p.m. Esposito has a unique way of looking at that holiday annoyance.
“First of all, I’m proud of those 22-year-olds for not having any amount of shame,” she said. “If you get a high school-age trick-or-treater at the door, just know that they’re not trying to break into an abandoned swimming pool or drink 27 40s. Love them because they’re trying to do the right thing.”
Esposito hosts “Wham Bam Pow,” a sci-fi/action movie-themed podcast with panelists Butcher and Ricky Carmona. Just because it’s the season of the witch, don’t expect her to be discussing any horror flicks on there.
“No. Forget it. It’s disgusting. I really like horror movies as a concept. I like the idea. That stuff fascinates me, but I’m just terrified of everything,” she said. Esposito added that while she’s not watching the current smash show “American Horror Story,” she does keep up with online synopses and photos.
“It’s a very strange tightrope that I walk between fascination with the macabre and being completely unable to see it,” she said.
Visit cameronesposito.com or theindependentsf.com for more info on the Nov. 2 show.
Corey Andrew has been interviewing comedians and writing about comedy for the last decade and a half. He recently published the book, “Laugh Lines: Conversations with Comedians.” Corey was a writer and performer with Midwest sketch troupe, The NonProphets, before moving to the Bay Area with his family several years ago. If you have ideas for future columns about comedy, you can send them to coreywrites@yahoo.com or follow him at twitter.com/coreywrites.
