Name: Marianne Sierk Works At: The Half King, 505 W. 23rd ...
SO THE GUY who owns this place wrote The Perfect Storm? There's three owners and they're all totally successful. There's Sebastian Junger, who wrote The Perfect Storm, and Scott Anderson, he's a writer for the New York Times and Nanette-I forget her last name-she directed or produced this new documentary about film students on IFC. They're the best owners and I'm not just saying that.
It's hard to imagine having one career that's so successful you can go and do something else. That's the idea. Acting and writing-that's all freelance. It comes and goes, you know that.
Don't remind me. Now, do you get a lot of weird writer-types in here? It's supposed to be a writers' restaurant, but usually it's people from the galleries.
Frank McCourt doesn't come by and complain? If he does, I don't know about it. We get that guy who was in Life Is Beautiful, I forget his name, he won the Oscar and he went nuts-
Roberto Benigni? Yes! He's awful! He's the worst human ever! He's almost banned.
Does he go crazy when he's ordering, standing on people's heads and stuff? Yeah! And his party won't be seated, and he'll be like, "I want this!" And then he'll rearrange furniture, which is a fire hazard, and he's told managers to shut up?
Now you're a comedian. Or should I say "comedienne?" I say comedian.
But some actresses, they call themselves an "actor," when they'd never call themselves a "waiter." It's annoying. Women get all high and mighty like "We are all equal!" You know what? We're not. We're different.
But the word "comedian" seems better for both. I agree.
Have there been any bad gigs in your career? Several. More than there were good gigs.
Does one stand out? There were two. One was at Wiggles. It's a strip club in Queens. And we had to perform in the lobby? It was a Thursday, and there's no alcohol-which is pivotal in comedy-and they just had this curtained-off area in the lobby. And it was real ghetto, and I was really scared walking there.
That sucks. The other one, I had to drive two hours to Connecticut, in this guy's car. The gas fumes were blowing into the car and I felt nauseous. And then we got there and I got half the amount of money I was supposed to get. It was a contest between Boston and New York, and they made me pretend I was from Boston because they needed more people [from Boston].
Damn. And then I got my ass kicked by my friend, the guy who drove me. So I felt like an ass, then we had to drive two more hours in the same car. I just felt sick, it was just this nauseous ride. And then we had to do the same thing the next night! The mic was awful, people weren't listening?just the typical stuff. I had to ask myself, why am I doing this? For $50? Is it worth it?
Do you think it's harder to be a comedian than to be an actress? It's harder to be an actress. Because at the end of the day, I can get up and perform twice, every single night, as a comic. As an actress you have to wait until something comes along.
But most people don't realize how little comedians make. A really great headlining comic can make $50 a show at the best clubs [in New York]. And they make a living because they get two or three a night. But I'm talking guys who've been doing it for 14 years. If I emcee, I'll get $10 or $15.
And if you don't emcee? It's free.
You told me earlier you're moving to Los Angeles. Is this why? Yes. It's been a struggle for me to be here. It's always been a struggle. The weather, the sixth-floor walk-up, the high rents, slaving away for nothing? I do get a lot of stage time here. But it's time to make some money. o