I bought the cassette of her legendary one-woman show Without You I'm Nothing for a dollar in a second-hand store near my apartment in Ottawa in 1989, and over the next five years I played that thing for all it was worth, until I had it memorized. Good thing too, because that's when my 'friend' Shani 'permanently borrowed' it, and as far as I know it's been lost* forever. Which reminds me, I really should get on Facebook and razz her about that**.The lessons I gleaned from this bravura performance are still with me today: Go big or go home, confound all expectations, and as long as you do your own thing eventually you'll draw a crowd.
Without You I'm Nothing was later made into a film, and although the CD of the concert wasn't available for many years it has been re-released through Bernhard's website, and is now available here.
*Not that it matters, since I haven't owned a tape deck in ten years.
**I have since razzed her about it to her face...
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