The Bernhard Way

One look at Sandra Bernhard tells you just about everything you need to know about the infamous comic's signature style: caramel highlights frame a face braced for battle and her stiff upper lip curls into a half-snarl, ready to unleash a barrage of stinging barbs, sarcastic asides, and homages to Prince. Piercing brown eyes see through pretense and straight into the bittersweet core of humanity, and her fists rest on her hips in the pose of a sassy warrior queen. After dropping into town about a month ago to spend an evening with thousands of tranny-chasers as a guest judge at the Trannyshack Pageant, the comedic virtuosa and homosexual magnet returns to San Francisco to ring in the New Year at Sandra Bernhard's All New New Year's Eve Extravaganza. Outside, hundreds of hyperactive gays will claw each other's eyes out for the opportunity to see Miss Bernhard trip out on a brassy rendition of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going," namedrop the adorable Anderson Cooper, and kick off the first few hours of the New Year with a tempest of witticisms.
Mon., Dec. 31, 11 p.m., 2007