She’s back for more. Roseanne Barr is set to record a live podcast in New York this week, but will her comments make headlines?
“Craziness happens all the time at Stand Up NY. Whatever happens I wouldn’t be surprised,” Stand Up NY owner Dani Zoldan tells Us Weekly exclusively. “It will be unpredictable.”
Barr’d is set to take place at Stand Up NY on Thursday, July 26. The live podcast recording will feature the 65-year-old Roseanne alum and Rabbi Shmuley Boteach in what the comedy club has dubbed “an intimate and revealing interview.”
Zoldan just hopes the performers don’t flake at the last minute. “There’s been a lot of buzz. I’m worried that she’ll get cold feet. It’s her first trip out to New York since the incident,” he explains, referring to Barr’s racist tweet about Valerie Jarrett that led to Roseanne’s abrupt cancellation in May. “We want the club to be a place that they feel free, even if the attendees don’t agree with the content. We want them to feel comfortable speaking their mind and having a platform to do so.”
The comedy club owner did his research before allowing Barr to appear at Stand Up NY. “What she said was horrible, but I spoke to the head writer for the original Roseanne show. She’s African-American and said she loves Roseanne,” he notes. “Roseanne was always good to her, and she said Roseanne paid her employees very well.”
Meanwhile, Barr and Boteach, 51, share a history, having known each other for 20 years and recorded podcasts together before. The comedian cried and apologized once more for her tweet during a June appearance on his podcast. “The rabbi invited her to this, and she said yes. We want her to feel comfortable and have a conversation,” Zoldan says. “They talk about the Bible, Judaism, politics, all of it. She loves talking about Judaism and spirituality, and that’s where she feels most comfortable. A lot of the conversation will be about that.”
He adds: “She doesn’t want to whip up controversy. She’s not doing it for publicity.”
Barr will appear on Hannity Thursday for her first TV interview since her firing. Earlier this week, she compared her situation to James Gunn‘s — the Guardians of the Galaxy director was fired by Disney on Friday, July 20, after some of his old tweets, which featured jokes about pedophilia, resurfaced. “I’m disgusted to read all of the support for James Gunn’s pedophile jokes-as the same people supported blacklisting me for a joke they didn’t even understand,” Barr tweeted on Monday, July 23.
With reporting by Travis Cronin
