Earthlight Magazine / Books / Home
Copyright © 1997 by E. A. Young
All rights reserved. Inquiries should be addressed to
Twelve Star Publishing, P.O. Box 123, Jefferson, MD 21755
Earthlight Magazine / Books
/ Home
Copyright © 1997 by E. A. Young
All rights reserved. Inquiries should be addressed to
Twelve Star Publishing, P.O. Box 123, Jefferson, MD 21755
For ten years Steve Bhaerman wrote a humorous New Age advice
column, using the pen name Swami Beyondananda. This punning
pundit was carried in over two dozen publications. During that
time he delighted millions of readers with sage advice and observations
that punctured the self-importance of the New Age movement. In
1996 Swami Beyondananda went on vacation. Loyal readers and new
fans will be thrilled to once again connect with Swami, as we
interview his creator.
Earthlight: What did you do prior to becoming Swami?
Steve Bhaerman: That's a long story, long story. I was a high
school teacher originally, started my own alternative school,
and wrote a book about that. I worked as a freelance writer for
many years, and always enjoyed humor. Finally it dawned on me
that I had a gift for it.
EL: Except for Swami Beyondananda, the New Age has been pretty
much devoid of comedy. Why do you think that is?
SB: "New Age" is very broad. Let's say, "People
who are involved in earnest spiritual pursuits." Ernest and
Julio, both of them, and their spirits!
What comedy does, and what the Swami has done, in a very gentle,
heart-opening way, is to allow people to see the shadow side of
their spirituality. I think he has a very important function,
because among people who are earnest and spiritual there is a
tendency not to see the shadow.
Let me explain. I did a presentation at a retreat center where
the guru had been involved in some indiscretion and left in a
scandal. The people who were living there had such a tremendous
sense of betrayal. My feeling is, you get illusions, you're gonna
get disillusioned. Part of their illusion was that they were living
in an idyllic, heaven-like place where there was no darkness;
that they were good, the world was bad. All of a sudden, there
was this betrayal amongst them and their entire world crumbled.
Doing comedy there contributed to a great healing, because it
allowed them to look at their own little selves in a bigger perspective.
There was a lot of relief in the laughter.
EL: So you think people in orthodox or serious spiritual pursuits
are not likely to see the humorous side?
SB: Even if we are following an Eastern path, we are all influenced
by Western ways of viewing religion. The Western way of viewing
religion has to do with authority. You don't want to laugh at
God, you don't want to laugh at the authority, because something
might strike you down.
There's that wonderful story, where Jesus is up on the cross.
It's very late in the day; he's parched and dry; and he whispers
in as loud a voice as he can, "Matthew, Matthew." His
disciple gets up and walks over to the cross and strains to hear
what Jesus is saying. Again he hears, "Matthew, Matthew."
And Matthew goes, "What? Please tell me. What?" Jesus
says, "I can see your house from here."
EL: (Laughing) So what is Swami's basic message?
SB: Swami's underlying vibe is, "Life is a joke, but God
is laughing with us, not at us." But I didn't figure that
out until afterward.
EL: What draws people to Swami?
SB: I think that the laughter itself is satisfying. As we said
earlier, a lot of the paths these people go on are earnest. They
are serious about wanting to change themselves. They're serious
about recovery. They're serious about seeking whatever they're
seeking. I think they're a lot like the old Art Crumb character,
Flaky Foont. Mr. Natural was the guru and Flaky Foont was the
perpetual seeker. He had no sense of humor, because he took things
literally. People, for various reasons, come to these spiritual
paths and take them literally. Swami plays with that literalness.
Swami makes jokes about the literalness. He takes things literally
and shows people what it would be like at its absurd conclusion.
I did a piece on Tantrum Yoga when I was living in Ann Arbor,
Michigan, where Swami was introduced. I would go to people's houses
and there was "Tantrum Yoga" up on their refrigerators.
It finally dawned on me that this was a reminder that even though
they were on an earnest spiritual path, they were human and they
had permission to express human feelings.
EL: What directed you to an Eastern character?
SB: When I was a kid, one of the things I remember most vividly
was watching Ramar of the Jungle, about an American physician
who goes to the jungles of Africa and India to find medicine.
The first episode in India, Ramar is trying to ascertain what
kind of plant made his partner unconscious, and this guy comes
walking through the jungle. He's got this long beard, and he's
wearing a robe, and his name is Guru. Guru tells Ramar to put
his hand on his partner's forehead, and in doing so he goes through
this dream sequence where he's able to read his partner's mind
and see exactly what happened to him. I never forgot that. I think
it made a real impact on me.
I never became a follower or a disciple of any particular guru.
I like the incense, I like the chi (energy). I used to go to midnight
chants when I lived in Ann Arbor. But I've never studied a path
seriously or been a follower or any of that stuff, so I guess
in that sense I'm a fraud.
It's one of those things that just kind of happened to me. It
could of been anything. I was considering Doctor Humanitarian.
Swami Beyondananda is just the way it chose to express, and it
was an express and I was a caboose as far I'm concerned. It had
a life of its own.
EL: Does Swami's appeal go beyond the New Age?
SB: I've done the humor on radio for old ladies in Missouri, and
they love it. They go "Oh, a Swami. It's kind of like Carnack
(The Magician)."
One lady asked the Swami, quite seriously, "Swami, my dog
has a problem, he eats my rugs. What should I do?" Swami
said, "Let me ask you something. Does your dog like eating
rugs?" She said, "He loves it." Swami asked, "Is
he good at it?" She said, "He's very good at it."
Swami responded, "Then he doesn't have a problem. Does he?
It sounds like your problem."
EL: What are some of the roots of your humor? A lot of the stuff
might play at the borscht belt.
SB: I've definitely grown up on plenty of that borscht. I spent
my formative years in Brooklyn, New York. I think that there is
something in the water, probably, that causes humor. My parents
had a very good sense of humor, and it was used in a wholehearted
way.
A lot of my stuff is recycled. I'm an anachronism. I rely a lot
on word play. I just read the biography of Harpo Marx, and the
witty circle at the Algonquin Hotel in New York, seventy years
ago. I would have fit right in.
It's an attitude. In the Jewish humor of that era there is a lot
of wonderful irony. There is a wonderful story about Yom Kippur,
which is the Day of Atonement. It's the time when people face
their shadow and look at their unworthiness. Right at the front
of the synagogue are the banker and the lawyer and the doctor.
They're beating their breasts and saying, "I'm no good. I'm
unworthy. I'm unworthy. I'm unworthy." The little janitor
also goes up front and sits down and he too begins to beat his
breast and say, "I'm unworthy. I'm unworthy." The lawyer
turns to the doctor and the banker and says, "Look who thinks
he's unworthy."
There's a lot of spiritual irony in Jewish humor. I think partly
what the New Age has lacked is irony. Irony deficiency. Myself,
I'm on daily laughatives, irony supplements and so on.
EL: Look into your crystal ball and tell us what's in your future.
SB: I'm creating a live act called, "Duck Soup for the Soul."
That will include Swami, and other observations. I'm very excited
about speaking in other voices, and in my own voice, whatever
that is. I've been working on some new pieces and I'm finding
that there are certain things that the Swami says better than
I do. Swami may not be invisible permanently, but he's going to
go on an "I'm Invisible" tour. This is where the Swami
appears on tape in different locations. We put a pillow on a nice
chair, and put a microphone up to the chair, and play the tape.
But I miss having a regular venue, so I've come up with something
called, "Absolutely Not the News." So much of what we
see and hear is not the news, disguised as news. But with "Absolutely
Not the News," you have my guarantee that none of this has
ever happened. We have one on the Presleytarians, the Elvis sect,
and one about Brown's Disease, which is sort of like Turret's
Syndrome, only the people give forth with these James Brown-like
grunts, a very disturbing illness.
I also have Swami Beyondananda's State of the Universe Address.
There's a lot of stuff that I like to address as the Swami. I
just needed to back away from it for a little while.
EL: The ventriloquist Edgar Bergen considered his puppets Charlie
McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd almost as children or real characters.
Do you have the same feeling towards Swami?
SB: Absolutely. I even did a meditation as a joke where I asked
him for advice. There's a lot of richness in us, a lot of different
kinds of people in there. In fact there's a workshop I've been
doing called "The Alchemy of Humor." Part of what we
deal with is finding those humorous characters.
Talk about these characters coming alive, when Edgar Bergen was
auditioning for his first radio show, the producer was very skeptical
about how a ventriloquist would go over on radio. Bergen asked
the producer to show him the script and the producer put the script
in front of his face. And just at that moment, Charlie McCarthy
said, "Hey, let me see that too," and without thinking,
the producer put the script under the dummy's face. That's the
power of these characters.
EL: What would Swami Beyondananda say about Steve Bhaerman?
SB: (In an East Indian accent) "Well, he might say that Steve
Bhaerman is a very, very serious guy. In fact, I think he comes
from Serious, that place out there, so he needs more influence
from the Playedies. That's why he's doing all this. Because he's
trying to bring forth the Playedies. Too many people are focused
on the Workadies, you know?"
One of the thoughts I had when I decided to stop doing the column
is that people might not need the Swami so much anymore. People
today do have a better sense of humor and are less likely to take
things so literally. I think in essence Swami has done his job.
But I like playing the Swami, so there will be pieces coming out
from time to time.
Interview by earthlight! contributing writer E. A. Young,
a corporate public speaker, and market researcher who has also
worked as a stand-up comedian, written comedy for television,
and hosted a talk radio program.
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