Mary Beth Barone in Conversation with Leo Reich on Overcompensating, Gay Best Friends and Trying to Become a Billionaire

Mary Beth Barone Interview Polyester Polyesterzine Zine Comedy Gay LGBTQ — Though she’s already beloved for her lightning fast stand up comedy, and as one host of the popular podcast *Ride*, Mary Beth Barone has recently added another considerable string to her bow. Alongside the show’s creator Benito Skinner (aka @bennydrama7 aka her *Ride* co-presenter aka her BFF), she’s currently starring in Amazon’s *Overcompensating*.
Barone plays Grace, the fictional sister of Skinner’s lead character Benny, a closeted former football player. Their relationship onscreen carries an authenticity that could only come from their close friendship away from the cameras – so to discuss how their rapport translated onto the screen, as well as other hard-hitting topics such as *Sex and the City* and the straight male comedian chin filler epidemic, Mary Beth sat down for a quick chat with London-based comedian Leo Reich on behalf of Polyester. Read on to hear more…

Leo Reich: Hi Mary Beth. Let’s address the most important part of your career, which is your hair. It dries into a perfect sunkissed beachy wave.

Mary Beth Barone: Not to make it about me, although the interview is about me, whenever I watch Sex and the City, I’m like “Carrie has such wild curly hair” and I wear my hair naturally for about two days. It’s repellent to straight men in the way that a red lip is repellent to straight men. Can we just have an editor’s note that Leo is vaping during the interview?

Editor’s note that Leo’s hair also looks good despite Mary Beth Barone’s total refusal to engage with that. You’re rewatching Sex and the City. Is that a breakdown move or a taking control of your life move?

It depends on the response it elicits while you’re watching it. It’s when I’m alone with my thoughts that I need to turn on the show, so what does that tell you? [Laughs]

I’m very excited about your show Overcompensating and I wanted to ask you about your relationship with gay guys – the creator of the show and your best friend Benito Skinner (aka @bennydrama7) is a gay guy. Talk to me about gay guys.

My love of gay men… it’s chemical. It’s biological. It’s molecular. And I think it’s partly because I had two gay best friends in high school. It sounds so cliché to be like “We allowed each other to be who we really were.” By that I mean I dragged them out of the closet, and they supported me being like, a goofy bitch.

I just think gay men bring out the best in me and I hope I bring out the best in them. They are the funniest, the most honest – and honesty is something I really value in all of my relationships – and the most supportive. The relationships that I have with my gay male friends are incomparable to any other relationships in my life. I can’t imagine my life not surrounded by gay men.

What about Benny specifically? You’re podcast queens of course but I was so happy when I saw that he was doing a show that you were the co-lead in.

There could be 100 gay guys in a room, and 99 of them don’t believe in you, and all you need is one to believe in you. And that was Benny.

I’ve always loved creative partnerships that are rooted in funny, natural, loving friendships. Your podcast just feels like you’re having a conversation. Is that how it evolved? Were you like, “Oh we’re being so funny now we might as well record it and make a billion dollars”?

It was really in an effort to become billionaires, yes. That’s why we’ve done everything in our careers, to reach that status. It’s really rare in this industry, because it is so competitive and people lack integrity, that you find someone that you truly feel like all of their success is also your success, because you’re so proud and happy for everything that they’re able to accomplish. And I’m really grateful that we found that in each other.

In Overcompensating, we antagonise each other, but on the podcast it’s so fun to just sit down and chat. We didn’t really know if anyone would listen to it. Because it was just like, a gay guy and a bi girl talking about things that they’re obsessed with. We wanted a podcast that was positive, where we got to talk about what we really like instead of just shitting on stuff, because the snarky podcast space is very full. And what’s been amazing is that because the podcast comes from such a place of positivity and celebration, the people that listen to it are all just the sweetest, most lovely, joyous people – gay guys, nonbinary people, and beautiful women with the largest breasts in the world.

Do you ever feel like they feel that they’re your friends because they have been able to listen in on your friendship for such a long time? Is it weird?

It’s not weird because we do share so much on the podcast. So if I knew that much about someone, I would think I was friends with them. And other than a few cases, they’ve all been extremely respectful and lovely.

That’s so nice. Making a TV show is a more structured environment than a podcast. It’s the opposite of a podcast, no offense to podcasts.

Please feel that this is a space where we can offend podcasts. Because yes. It’s a totally different atmosphere – the stakes are a lot higher, and there’s a literal conglomerate backing you. And there’s a budget, so it’s like they’re betting money on you and the project. The podcast really feels like our little playground where we can have creative control, and then with the show, obviously everyone who worked on it was there to bring Benny’s vision to life, and there’s a crew of hundreds of people, and there’s actors. We try not to have actors on our podcast. For obvious reasons.

Let’s talk about stand up, because you’re still doing that.

I didn’t get the email that was sent out to everyone that said “Stop doing stand up.” I missed that. I think it went to spam. All of my peers quit this stuff. It’s not good for you. And yet I’m still out there treading the boards, carrying the standup community on my back, and I get no thank you for that. When you’re the star in a TV show and you’re ready to come back, guess who’s been keeping the art form alive? Me!

I want to co-sign that in a big way. I dipped out of stand up because I couldn’t think of anything funny to say. You’re constantly thinking of funny things to say. Could you tell your joke about female comedians?

Oh sure. This was in my Edinburgh show and in my YouTube special Thought Provoking. I have this joke which is like, “I love comedy. And being a woman in comedy is so fun because the goal is to get so successful that you become the most hated person on the planet.”

It’s so funny and so deeply true. Every time it happens, I’m like, “Surely it hasn’t happened again.”

Look at the history books! Lucille Ball, Tina Fey, Kathy Griffin, Tiffany Haddish… every female comedian who has reached the top has this issue. Back in the 50s, Lucille Ball was accused of being a communist, so it has changed form a little bit. Now it’s just think pieces and nasty articles about why you’re bad for society.

Usually when this happens there’s a split and some celebrities have their defenders, but what’s amazing about female comedians is that people of all backgrounds, ethnicities, creeds, can find it in their hearts to hate them.

And that is what’s beautiful about it. We need more unity in these divisive times. I can only hope I am able to offer that one day.

Can I say one more thing? To straight male comedians. And I know that straight male comedians are reading this because why wouldn’t they be? You don’t need to get chin filler if you are a male comedian. And this isn’t referencing anyone specific except two specific people I’ve seen recently. You don’t need that.

Any straight male comedian who thinks they need to be hot on stage is missing the point. You get to get up on stage, look like ass and just be funny.

There’s some people I’m seeing do it where I’m like “Who is that for? And you look insane.”

Do you feel proud of Overcompensating?

I do feel proud. It’s cool to be in something that I’m excited to talk about and that I think people will like. Filming it felt like a dream and now that it’s going to come out, I’m expecting a big mix of emotions. I definitely think there’s going to be a comedown after the premiere.

Benny really fought for me to be in the show and he has such integrity, and I just respect it so much because there’s not enough of that. The industry beats it out of you – you go in thinking you have ethics and things that you believe in and it chips away at you. I always thought that at some point I would get the news that I wasn’t going to be allowed to do it, but it’s a testament to that gay man’s character that I was. Anything good about the show is because of Benny.

Thanks Mary Beth!

Mary Beth Barone in Conversation with Leo Reich on Overcompensating, Gay Best Friends and Trying to Become a Billionaire

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