Love her or hate her, this comic diva is a one-of-a-kind, in-your-face, take-no-prisoners artiste. Racy, confrontational, offensive, cynical, off-putting and angst-ridden to a T, this flinty stand-up from Flint, Michigan was born on June 6, 1955, the daughter of Jerome Bernhard, a proctologist, and his wife Jeanette, an abstract painter, sculptor and photographer who later divorced after 38 years. Moving to Scottsdale, Arizona in her early years, her initial comedy stage work in the 1970s was formulated around her "fish out of water" existence growing up as a "Jewess" amongst a sea of "blonde WASPs". A conventional beauty she was not. Her angular build was hardly complemented by angry, pronounced features, notably a trademark slash of a mouth. She managed to survive high school and went to live on a kibbutz in Israel for a period of time. Moving to Los Angeles at age 19, she paid her rent by working as a beauty salon manicurist to the stars as she tried to make a semi-name for herself in such L.A. haunts as "The Comedy Store." It all began quite modestly at an open-mike night at Ye Little Club in Beverly Hills in 1975.
