Everybody Cut , Everybody Cut ...
A
By Tom Lanham
20 illinoisentertainer . com march 2023
s Australian-born pop composer Betty Who recalls it , the only things missing from her recent spine-tingling trip into the supernatural were Scooby-Doo , Shaggy , and their trusty old VeeDubs Mystery Machine with which to beat a hasty retreat . Because , Zoinks ! The three specters she encountered were all too real and not engineered by some local huckster who would have gotten away with it if it weren ’ t for those meddling kids . So how did Who – born Jessica Anne Newham – along with her showbiz chum Kesha – wind up in such a sinister situation , hunting ectoplasmic entities at the historic Antoinette Hall opera house in Pulaski , Tennessee ?
Long story , sighs Who , 31 , calling from the Los Angeles home she shares with her husband , photographer Zak Cassar , and their feisty German shepherd , Hix , who makes himself heard several times during the conversation . And this natural raconteur has got a lot of equally entertaining long stories . She has a buoyant new ‘ 80s-retro album to discuss , BIG !, her fourth and most introspective to date . But so much has happened since her previous 2019 effort Betty – including her debut role in a feature film , Unpregnant , and her first gig as a reality TV host ( The One That Got Away ) — she ’ s practically bursting at the seams with yarns to share , such as her unlikely close friendship with Kesha , which started when they first met in 2017 over a mutual friend they had in common , continued through a peak-Covid-era tour bill they shared , and then solidified when Who was invited to perform on her official Kesha Cruise . Still , Who was taken aback when her pal insisted she gueststar on her own new TV series , Conjuring Kesha , wherein she goes looking for verifiable paranormal activity . Next thing she knew , she was playing Watson to Kesha ’ s Holmes in the basement of that ancient opera house , where three distinct spirits held sway – a deceased concertgoer named Josie , a young girl ghost named Lilly , and a menacing male presence known only as Mr . Nasty .
“ And I have to be honest with you ,” Who shivers . “ I saw some things that I wasn ’ t totally comfortable with , things that still , to this day , make me a little nauseous when I think about them .” First , reacting to the Hall ’ s resonant acoustics , she and Kesha tentatively sang “ Amazing Grace ” together inside before descending down to the cellar ’ s reputed otherworldly portal . “ We had a psychic with us , and I actually felt a lot more comfortable having her along ,” she says . “ But Lilly , the little girl – I definitely felt like Lilly was with us . There ’ s a lot of stuff that happened that didn ’ t make the documentary . Like , we had this whole experience where we were standing in the Hall and talking about Lilly , trying to figure her out . And all of the other lights in the opera house were totally on and not flickering , but one light opposite where Kesha and I were standing , every time we were like , ‘ Lilly , are you near ?’ the light would go crazy !” Kesha felt the touch of invisible hands when no one else was nearby . A Native American spirit guide – who cleansed the site with burning sage and gave both ladies herbal sachets for personal protection – taught them an ancestral song to open and close the portal . Which was fine until everyone in the crew heard a disembodied , distinctly male voice singing along in eerie harmony . As Scooby-Doo himself might have put it , “ Ruh-Roh !”
“ So , leaving Pulaski for good after the last day of shooting ?” Who asks rhetorically . “ I was like , ‘ If I never come back here again , it ’ ll be too soon !’ Because of what I ’ d seen and experienced there ? I actually felt like I carried it with me . And we did a lot of that , Kesha and I , speaking out loud to the spirits , saying , ‘ You cannot travel with me !’ People who ghost hunt tell you that you ’ re supposed to tell the ghosts that they ' re not allowed to latch to you or connect with you , that they have to remain in their space . So I would come home , and I would see a shadow out of the corner of my eye , and I ’ d be like , ‘( gasp !) Did I bring Mr . Nasty home with me ?’ It was a crazy experience , but I ’ m glad I did it .”
You might say that Who is all about embracing the unusual or extraordinary these days , as many new avenues of expression open up to her , and she carefully considers a new path forward . And BIG !, exclamation mark notwithstanding , was intended as a metaphor that works on several levels . The title track alone can be heard as a female empowerment anthem or a simple sonic celebration of “ Tiny Dancer ” -classic pop songwriting , a sound she was always drawn to , even when studying cello as a teen . But it also can be viewed quite literally , with the musician finally standing up to address the one thing she ’ s tried to shrink from for most of her career : “ I ’ m 6 ’ 2 ”,” she says with a self-deprecating chuckle . “ I am a big girl !
And it ’ s so funny how much energy I have spent my entire life trying to be cuter and make my personality a little less strong or masculine because I ’ m already such a huge monster ; I really have to try and bring it down . The joke Zak always makes is , ‘ You think that you ’ re a chihuahua , but you ’ re a Great Dane .’ So I ’ m just trying to be a tiny , little sexy baby , as Taylor Swift says , but I hire dancers who have to be six feet tall or taller , and they wear lifts in their shoes so they can be as tall as me , and otherwise , it just looks crazy , because I ’ m tall and proportionate , proportionate to my size .” But using Marilyn Monroe as a stylistic role model , she ’ s leaning into her Amazonian profile , she says . “ But I don ’ t want to make the creative choices I was making out of fear or out of shame anymore ,” she declares . “ I don ’ t want to create my art around the elephant in the room , which is the fact that I ’ m really big , and nobody talks about it . If you saw my picture , you wouldn ’ t think that I was tall ,” she adds . “ But you meet ? I am quite dominating ! So this whole album is a thesis statement for me .”
Betty Who also happens to possess geishasharp skills in the art of conversation , and an entire hour breezes by , in a chatty stream broken only by the occasional warning woofs of her dog Hix , on serious afternoon guard duty . Here is a good deal of that conversation ….
IE : Before or since Conjuring Kesha , have you ever felt in touch with anything supernatural ? Or sensed that you might have ESP ? BETTY WHO : It ’ s more like I ’ ll have weird manifest things . So I ’ ll be like , “ I think this is gonna happen ,” but I ’ ll have no reason to think that or say that . Like , I was at a bar for my friend ’ s birthday , and I was talking casually to the bartender , and he gave me my first beer , and I paid for it , great . I went out to my friend ’ s birthday gathering , and when I came back to the bar the next time , the bartender was kind of busy , but for no reason ; in my head , while I was standing there , I thought , “ I think he ’ s gonna give me this beer free .” And there was absolutely zero reason I would think that , but he came back over , and said , “ Another beer ?” And
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