‘The OG Lesbian Bitch’: Rosie O’Donnell On Her New Show, Common Knowledge

It’s been a big year for Rosie O’Donnell — one of her serial workplace bullies was elected to the presidential office again, and she moved her family across the ocean, needing to learn how to become part of a whole new community.

“When I got to Ireland, I wanted to introduce myself to the people there,” O’Donnell said. ”I wanted to give them my origin story. How did I end up in Ireland? How did I end up at this point, with five children and mothering and being a mother without a mother. And how does one accomplish all that?”

Being born right on the cusp of the Gen Z/Millennial divide, Rosie O’Donnell was probably one of the first lesbians I ever saw. The queerness in me saw the way she took up space, the inherently lesbian way she wore a blazer, and knew there was some nameless thread connecting us. 

Her new show, Common Knowledge, isn’t strictly a stand up show — O’Donnell says it’s more a one woman performance. When she was first offered a gig at Edinburgh Fringe, it started out as a comedy set, but it wasn’t until a friend suggested she try it more in the style of a play that the show started to come together. 

“It’s just a different form of storytelling, I suppose,” she says. “At the beginning, when I tell the story of my mother’s death, people are surprised. You hear gasps sometimes, about just how sad it was — five small children losing their mum. 

“We definitely walk the line, but I think that audiences have responded really well.”

Having been in the public eye for more than half her life, O’Donnell has a lot of stories to tell, and not all of them are easy. It’s clear that she finds a sense of solace in telling the truth, and says she hopes audiences walk away with the knowledge that they can tell their truth in any form that suits them.

“Whether it’s cooking, whether it’s painting, whether it’s being a mom, whatever it is that is your art form,” she said. 

“You have to tell your story, and we have to tell each other’s stories as gay people. We have to teach our new flock of new generations, who the heroes were, who came before them. Who do you have to thank, whose shoulders you have stood on? Reverence for our community is important.”

In Common Knowledge, O’Donnell describes herself as the “OG lesbian bitch” — a hard-won reputation. 

“You shouldn’t care so much what other people think about you,” she says. “I think that’s the most important thing. It’s not your business what other people think about you. And you know, everyone has an opinion, and you don’t have to take it to heart, you don’t even have to concern yourself. To know yourself and to be able to be free, to be yourself everywhere, is the greatest gift you can give yourself.”

It’s a striking answer, especially given how much criticism O’Donnell has endured over the decades. She was too outspoken, too political, too much — the sort of descriptors hurled towards women who don’t shrink themselves in a world designed to make them feel small.

Between her take-no-shit, dykey attitude and unabashed embrace of female masculinity, she was an easy target for mid-noughties American culture. 

“When everyone started coming out, it still took years and years and years for people to be able to have a career and be gay as well in show business in America,” she said. “I remember when all of the stuff was coming out and about Ellen, and KD Lang and Melissa. It was a very big deal. 

“It was like a seismic shift for gay people to be visible. And with that comes responsibility… persevere, persist, and know that you are entitled to the same decency, dignity and rights as everyone else.”

Persist she did. O’Donnell went from being the butt of the joke to an enduring legend of queer entertainers, and she hasn’t compromised her views to do so. O’Donnell has been consistently outspoken against the Trump regime — so much so that the leader of the free world recently said she was “a threat to humanity”. 

It would have been easier to shrink as time washed over her — but we all know that’s never been O’Donnell’s style.

“We have to do this for our sons and daughters,” O’Donnell tells me. “We have to do it for the next generation. We have to educate everyone [on] gay history and who our heroes were.”

Rosie O’Donnell is bringing Common Knowledge to Sydney Opera House October 9 and Melbourne’s Hamer Hall October 19.