But watching her droll, loving caricature of her recipe-challenged mom bodes well for all sorts of new character parts in other films. Sweeney's 1993 film "It's Pat," based on the "SNL" character, bombed so badly it disappeared before it even opened. Her recollections of grocery-list conflicts with a mother who calls every species of pasta "macaroni" will ring bells with many a boomer whose parents were shaped by the '50s and Chef Boy-ar-dee. She finds hilarity in the picture of a divorced adult in her thirties sneaking around with a new boyfriend in her own house, trying to avoid parental discovery, or surreptitiously dragging on cigarettes out back. comedy club while the events on which Sweeney riffs were actually happening, the monologue grew with the encouragement of friends and audiences into a full-length stage performance, playing in San Francisco, Los Angeles and, soon after the film version was shot, New York. ![]() Dave Foley plays Pat's partner Chris, and. The film was based on the Saturday Night Live ( SNL) character Pat, created by Sweeney, an androgynous misfit whose gender is never revealed. The saving grace is Sweeney's instantly endearing self, telling an intimate, humane and resonant story, and telling it in that voice of hers, a diverting blend of whines and giggles. It's Pat The Movie is a 1994 American slapstick comedy film directed by Adam Bernstein and starring Julia Sweeney, Dave Foley, Charles Rocket, and Kathy Griffin. "God Said, 'Ha!'" was filmed on a studio set built to look like a small theater, and though you sense the presence of a real audience, Sweeney talks directly into the camera a curiously stilted choice. The question "Is this a filmed stage performance or is it a movie?" isn't answered so much as fudged. The film, which Sweeney also directed, is stylistically clumsy. And if that isn't enough, Sweeney herself experienced a health crisis just as all the other stuff was coming to a head. With great humor, unavoidable poignancy and the occasional, tooth-clenching edge, "God Said, 'Ha!'" recounts the experience of spending months in a small space with one's mostly cheerful but dying brother, and one's loving but exceedingly square parents. Her parents arrived soon afterward, and Sweeney moved to the couch. She moved him into her bungalow so she could look after him. Then her brother was diagnosed with terminal cancer. ![]() in the early 1990s, Sweeney was ready to start her post-"SNL" life as a writer and performer. She developed the stage monologue that became "God Said, 'Ha!'" as a comic catharsis while undergoing an intense year of tragedy and hilarity when her dying brother and doting parents all came to live with her.Īmicably divorced and settled into a small house in L.A. Julia Sweeney is an American actress, comedian and author best known for her Saturday Night Live career and autobiographical solo shows. Occasional profanity, mild sexual innuendo and descriptions of illnessĪ college roommate of mine used to smile ruefully whenever she experienced a reversal, and credit the Eleventh Commandment: "Thou Shalt Not Get Cocky." Her postscript to Moses' Big Ten applies nicely to a year in the life of Julia Sweeney, the likably bubbly "Saturday Night Live" alumna famous for creating the androgynous "Pat" character. ![]() Julia Sweeney explains how her life suddenly swerved toward absurdity in "God Said, 'Ha!'"
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