'Somebody Somewhere' is about finding your people: Here’s how Bridget Everett found hers

Comic, actor and cabaret singer Bridget Everett grew up in Manhattan. No, not the Big Apple, the "Little Apple" — that is Manhattan in Kansas. Though she had friends, Everett didn't feel like she fit in; she says didn't share the "traditional values" that seemed to dominate her conservative community.

"I had kind of a blue sense of humor, and I was always getting in trouble for doing something naughty — not keg parties and whatnot, but from my mouth," Everett says. "I just felt like [Kansas] wasn't where I was supposed to be."

After studying music and opera at Arizona State University, Everett made her way to New York City. One of the first people she met was Murray Hill, a comedian and drag king performer. Something clicked: "I was like, my God, this is what I've been looking for. These are my people," Everett says.

Everett spent years waiting tables while also developing a raunchy cabaret performance. She stars in the semi-autobiographical HBO series, Somebody Somewhere.

The show, which just began its third and final season, centers on a 40-something woman named Sam who returns home to Manhattan, Kan., to help care for her dying sister, Holly. The series begins about six months after Holly's death, when Sam befriends Joel, a gay man in town who welcomes her into his community. Everett says the series was inspired, in part, by the death of her own sister.

"I was waiting tables at the time. I barely had two pennies to rub together and I couldn't go see her at the end," she says. "And I've kind of never forgiven myself for it. So this is a way to honor her in a way that I wasn't able to before."

Interview highlights

On Sam finding her person in Joel on Somebody Somewhere

I think for Sam, and it's sort of central to the show, actually, is that for some people, romantic relationships aren't the goal. Sam just wants to be loved and wants to have her person, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a romantic relationship. And I think that usually in TV and film or in theater or whatever … it's about boy meets boy, boy meets girl, girl meets girl … that's the ultimate, that people fall in love. But this is it for Sam. Joel is the person.

On the final season of Somebody Somewhere

The fact that we even got a pilot felt like a miracle. And every time we got greenlit for another season, it felt like a miracle. It's a small show with a small audience on a small budget. And we have a very loyal and loving audience. ... Behind the scenes, we wrote every season like it was a moment in time and never knowing when the show would be over. So this is the end of this iteration. But maybe we'll do a movie one day. Maybe. Who knows what's next? Because for me, the characters still live on and I know that their stories are not done.

On why she likes performing cabaret with no bra

My mom used to go to the grocery store in just her nightgown with no bra. And for as conservative and buttoned up as she was … she also had this kind of off-the-rails part about her. And that's the part about her I loved. So I think the sort of lawlessness of her going to Food 4 Less, a grocery store, without her bra on, like I just loved that.

So now I go onstage without a bra and I just want people to not be so locked up. I want them to come in and to let go. And so I do everything I can to help them feel free, because when I grew up, I didn't feel that way. And I guess I chased that feeling onstage. ... Nothing's meant to take itself too seriously. But what I do take seriously is making people feel good. 

On her mother, a music teacher

My mother was a music teacher. She was a public school teacher, music teacher. And she also taught after-school lessons: violin, piano, guitar, everything. She did not teach me, but she insisted that we all take piano lessons. And what's great about having a music teacher for a mother is that she thought that me wanting to be a singer was totally OK and she really supported it. … I remember I booked a festival in Australia and I called my mom and she said, “Look at that! You're going across the world because of your singing.” … She loved [my voice]. … If I didn't get the lead part in the musical, she thought I got robbed. And she loved my singing.

On her mother’s drinking

My mom's drinking was honestly always out of control, but I just thought that that's the way life was. And then when I was in college, or when I was living in Arizona, it really got bad. Like, she stopped going to work, she locked her doors, that kind of thing. And then my brother and sister came and got her and took her to rehab. So they were the ones who really took action. … When she went to rehab, she just stopped. She was like, “I lost the taste for it.” But her life was really out of control because of drinking. …

Even though she drank a lot, she made us laugh and spent so much time with us. She came to every single swim meet, every concert, sitting in the front row. And she was very supportive. She just drank way too much.

On what she learned by studying opera in college

You have to care for your voice. You have to warm up. You have to cool down. It's like any other muscle. You want to stretch it, you want to care for it. I wish that I took care of my insides and the rest of my body the way that I care for my voice. I'm always drinking way too much water. I'm always running for the toilet. But I know that's going to help my voice stay healthy. Because when I can't sing, when I lose my voice, if I get a cold or for whatever reason ... it really sends me into a spiral.

Lauren Krenzel and Anna Bauman produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the web.