A chat over dinner before hitting the Enmore Theatre for SANDYLANDS. Over Thai spring rolls, a discussion of Sandra Bernhard and how funny she is. Sure, sure. All true I thought but as a Mardi Gras event I was hoping for a bit of in-your-face, agent provocateur, pull no punches loudmouth action. No sooner did this thought hit my consciousness than ‘careful what you wish for’ appeared in bright, rainbow coloured neon.

So. I prepared as we traveled across the road and was ready for anything after a pre-show beer and a sneaky gawk at the seriously un-homogeneous audience. I was ready for anything … except what we got.

Our Ms Bernhard has grown up. I still see the enfant terrible but SANDYLANDS is the work of a  mature artist who has grown into her rich voice and who has crafted a funny, impudent show of style and whimsy. There is a lot of hard work needed to make something appear so effortless that the improvised or extemporaneous blend seamlessly with the set pieces. With music as the glue, each section is placed in its exact position around an observational monologue.

Her Musical Director Mitch Kaplan is on piano (they are celebrating their 30 year anniversary) and local musos Paul Burton and Mitch Farmer are on guitar and drums with Bernhardt on half-moon tambourine.

The cover songs are there. She begins by belting our Stoney End in a very un Streisand-like way. She attacks Jolene with a very un Parton-like slow jazz bent. And what she does to Miley’s Wrecking Ball at the encore is just magic. And her voice! Warm, chesty and throaty in the earthy songs she has written for herself but several times soaring to those high clear top notes which inject the power into the light and shade. Her range takes me and everyone around me by surprise.

And what does she observe? She’ll let you know. Especially if you pay big money to be front row centre and arrive late. Or offer her your drink. She describes herself as highly flammable and toxic but her skill in deflecting catcalls from an audience who haven’t come to grips with this new version of her is clever and polished. And knowing. “That calmed you down. See when you feel real emotion you can’t just blurt shit out!”

She has a go at a sexist UBER driver, two dotty old broads in the mid rows and drinkers (no AA … just stop drinking or fucking die.) Celebrities get the pointy edge too. Ariane Grande’s Kabballah red string, Jane Fonda thinking she was Sandra Bullock in an email and a perverse Brangelina sex triangle fantasy in Cannes. Not to mention the fact that her daughter, Cicely, thinks Amy Poehler is the funniest woman in the whole world.

Dressed in a deceptively simple sleeveless black dress with sparkly silver necklace and bracelet combined with silver pumps, this fashionista is not afraid dropping names like Vogue and Chanel and has an hilarious story about one little black dress too many. She is an advocate for deep capacious pockets in cocktail dresses to give women confidence and courage. However when she hits the stage for her encore dressed in boots, singlet and tighty whities, my friend breathed “that’s better”.

She is such a life force that I think of her as tall for a woman but she’s not really. It’s just that she really knows how to use her physicality to effect. She can do a cartoon run off, a horse riding slow move and a sassy sashay when the mood takes her. She knows how to bend down for the right effect during her bottled water riff and reprise. Despite telling the wolf whistler “too late for that” she really is a great looking woman.

When she sings, there is little or no movement, the Diva just is. She is prone to holding the mic stand at waist height with both hands and letting the voice carry the audience to the emotional place of the song. Apart from the encore the mic stays on the stand and she moves in orbit around it. A star turn.

She hasn’t been to Sydney for 10 years because she has been too busy. The quirky outsider from the Roseanne days now has arcs written for her on TV series like Brooklyn 99 and Two Broke Girls. But don’t think that her performance maturity has dimmed her brash community spirit. Proudly and openly bisexual, she speaks wryly of her girlfriend not her partner. Comparing the latter word to a law firm… a little light lovemaking to close the deal.

SANDYLANDS was a wonderful show, created with care and insight into the humanity of shared laughter and song but still defiant and unique. Sadly the show played for only for one night at the Enmore Theatre Sandra Bernhard appeared as part of the 2015 Mardi Gras Festival.