Interview: Sandra Tsing Loh on I’LL BURN THAT BRIDGE WHEN I COME TO IT

Sandra Tsing Loh is an American writer, actress, radio personality, and former professor of art at the University of California, Irvine, who was raised in Malibu and went on to take the comedy world by storm, is returning to the Odyssey Theatre in Los Angeles on Saturday, Jan. 18 at 8 p.m. with an encore performance of I’ll Burn That Bridge When I Come to It (An Hilarious Self-Immolation by Sandra Tsing Loh) as part of the Odyssey’s Thresholds of Invention. Her solo play is based on the true story about when her new play was dropped from Center Theatre Group’s 2023 all-female season, only to rip through Los Angeles, New York, and London for 16 explosive months.

I decided to speak with Sandra about her journey to bring her courageously outspoken stage presence back to her appreciative fans here.

Hi Sandra. Thanks for speaking with me today. In doing research for this interview, I discovered your varied education starting with a degree in Physics from Cal Tech. I’m curious about inspired you to pursue a career as a solo stand-up performer?

As a teen, I had always been interested in the arts, but my father was a Shanghainese engineer who was convinced if his children didn’t go into aeronautical engineering, we would starve on the street. So I went off to study physics - my worst subject, in fact - at Caltech which was extremely difficult. And in senior year, I spectacularly bombed my GRE. Upon graduating, barely, I went right into grad school in English at USC, started writing, doing performance art, playing music, and never looked back. That said, I cannot say for sure, at age 62, that I disproved my father’s notion about liberal artists starving on the streets.

Who are your mentors who steered you in this direction? How so?

TC Boyle, the legendary humorous literary novelist, and a wonderful writing teacher at USC, has an irreverent spirit I treasure to this day (after almost four decades of knowing him). Jude Narita was doing solo performance before most and she’s always been a wonderful light. More generally, the performers who came up in my time - the 1990s - were inspired by the late Spalding Gray.

I read about your groundbreaking piano performance on a freeway overpass. What memories or lessons stick with you about that event?

It’s extraordinary how far DIY can take you if you have a super clear, simple vision!

Do you still play piano or other instruments?

I am so delighted to play violin (an instrument I started at age 45) with TACO, the Terrible Adult Chamber Orchestra of Los Angeles. Playing with this fabulous group is one of my greatest joys. Learn about them at https://www.tacola.org/

Tell me about your radio show.

The Loh Down on Science, your daily informative, humorous, one minute capsule of science, originally created by Caltech, celebrates its 20th anniversary this year! Hosted by myself and written by UC Irvine’s LDOS “Hive” (a cracked team of self-directed scientist and science communicators), we’re heard daily on LAist (formerly SCPR/KPCC) and syndicated via NPR. https://lohdownonscience.com/

How did the two plays which are part of the Odyssey’s Thresholds of Invention get put together? Are they related in topic(s)? Are you friends with the other playwright/performer?

Thresholds of Invention is a unique performance series curated by maestro Tony Abatemarco, legendary actor, writer, muso, and a creative force on all fronts. John Fleck is a longtime Los Angeles brilliant performer, a former NEA 4 - look it up, kids - who I'm honored to know. There’s such a wonderful tribe of Los Angeles theater makers who've been around here for a few decades and who I feel only get more fantastic and bolder with age. Trademarks of this tradition are a real sense of humor, irreverence, playfulness, and yet a deep sense of theatrical culture and history. John and I developed our pieces separately; but I do feel, given our wacky Los Angeles lineage, we're in a similar performance conversation.

Your comedy storytelling style has been described as “observational humor” which was certainly true during your “The Bitch is Back” show in 2021 about menopausal women. Do you think that term accurately describes your type of performance art?

If “observational humor” means observing humans, and our foibles, sure!

How do you describe I’ll Burn That Bridge When I Come to It (An Hilarious Self-Immolation by Sandra Tsing Loh)?

It's a “You’ll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again” for theater. For those unfamiliar with the reference, “You’ll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again” was movie producer Julia Phillips’ tell all about the nasty side of producing in go-go 1970’s Hollywood. It was so scathing that after the book's publication, she never worked in Hollywood again. My goal is to never work again in the desperate, pompous, hypocritical world of conventional theatre. I am 100% confident my mission will be a success!

How will the current performance of I’ll Burn That Bridge When I Come to It (An Hilarious Self-Immolation by Sandra Tsing Loh) be different from the last time you performed it in L.A.?

This is such a key question. There were to be two performances only of this (last November), but due to audience overflow/demand, the Odyssey Theatre booked this extra January date. Over the ensuing two months, my incredible director David Schweizer (the very core of the LA theatre tribe I described above (in fact, he has directed both Tony and John) suddenly and tragically died of a heart attack at 74 at a New York book party. He was core to the deep irreverence if the piece, and was, in fact, in it (playing a kind of God-like director).

Our wonderful colleague Julian Fleisher (noted singer/songwriter/actor/producer/restless creative spirit) is flying out from New York to helm the piece and to assume David’s role. The evening will be dedicated to David, will be in honor of him, and we will toast him afterwards sporting his trademark leopard print scarves. David and I had just been creatively reunited after over a decade, and I’m so honored to have been one of his last two theatrical projects (he had also been directing an Austin Pendleton play in New York). DS is the original artistic DIY-er, and I'm proud, touched and fired up to carry on his legacy.

What caused CTG to drop your play “Madwomen of the West” from its 2021 season, a play which you took from Los Angeles to New York to London to great acclaim?

At the end of the day, I'm going to say “identity politics.” It was a play written by a straight 62-year-old Asian-American lady starring four white actresses (who are very specific/unique Boomer icons). Racially, that would be a non-starter in the times we were living. To wit, I was counseled to make one of the characters Black so it could be “producible.” But because of the very particular conversation about “privilege,” or lack of, that occurs in the play, making just one of the characters Black for boilerplate equity purposes would not have been an easy or authentic switch.

I take you name names during I’ll Burn That Bridge When I Come to It (An Hilarious Self-Immolation by Sandra Tsing Loh). Were you ever worried about the reaction of those mentioned? Why or why not?

I’m not worried. Although Doris Duke is apparently a murderess who got away with it because of her “philanthropic” millions, there’s literally zero chance that I'm ever going to get a $500,000 artist’s grant from the Doris Duke Foundation. Also, just because I'm over Lin Manuel Miranda's pious alliance with BIPOC oppressed theatre folk when he's a $100 zillionaire from Hamilton doesn’t mean I’m NOT going to get a life-changing phone call (surely, Disney needs an Asian-American CIS-crone to voice a sassy but wise grandmother character in their next self-empowered princess movie!) that was otherwise coming. No. None if these folk will get wind if it or remotely care! This is the blessed freedom of one-night only pop-up performance by a non-MacArthur Grant Genius Award winner.

I also read about your performance during which you distributed hundreds of one-dollar bills! What was that event about and where was it held?

It was a performance art piece ironically entitled “Self-Promotion.” It was kind of a moralistic parable. In Los Angeles you can pay people to come be your audience, but then they will trample you trying to catch the money that’s raining over you, which is, in fact, what occurred.  Best of all, my dad, the Shanghainese engineer, attended the performance. On television news, he brandished dollar bills he'd snatched out of the air, and told reporters, “I sent her to Caltech, and all I’ve gotten back are these four dollars!” Funny man. In retrospect.

What advice would you give a person just starting out to pursue a solo stand-up career?

First off, there is no such thing as a “career” in the arts. Stop right there. (Which is the message of my show.) If you’re driven to create, do what you love and find your tribe (who may be just as poor and crazy as you - with no Netflix deals to lift everyone’s boats). Push yourself to be excellent at your craft and have fun.  Do that, and you can join us, David Schweizer style, as we call it, “Under the leopard flag!”

Lastly, I know it must be tough for you being from Malibu to see the devastation there from the fires this week. Any thoughts to share about it?

Although we grew up with fires in Malibu and were regularly evacuated from school as children, this citywide tragedy is a real game changing moment. Right now, I'm living up here in Pasadena, and Altadena has been brutalized, as I know the Palisades have. The human suffering is real. In the meantime, somewhat embarrassingly, I’m forging forward with a show that in the most incredibly awkward timing is titled “I’ll Burn That Bridge When I Come To It!” However, the Odyssey Theatre itself has functioned, as Beth Hogan calls, in a kind of “bed and breakfast” for the theater community, particularly those needing a haven to be with her pets. So I say, if the Odyssey is there, I'm there, and we're there. One way or another, it's community that will get us through all of Los Angeles’ disasters, which is why I love it here and have always been proud to call it my creative, cultural, and spiritual home.

Thank you for the interview!

And thank you!

I’ll Burn That Bridge When I Come to It (An Hilarious Self-Immolation by Sandra Tsing Loh) performs on Saturday, Jan. 18 at 8 p.m. at the Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90025 with FREE on-site parking lot. Tickets are $25 (plus $3 credit card fee), available at www.OdysseyTheatre.com or by calling (310) 477-2055 ext. 2.

Photo credit: Ben Gibbs

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