Thunder Roads LA Magazine September 2017 Thunder Roads September | Page 26

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Bag Lady Sue
T
hunder Roads Colorado recently had the opportunity
to interview Suzanne Austin AKA Bag Lady Sue.
Sue is a comedienne living here in Colorado that
has performed all over the country, from motorcycle
rallies to the 4Queens in Las Vegas, NV.
We caught up with her a few hours before a show in
Denver to talk to her a little about what she does, why she
does it and how it all began. If you haven’t seen Sue perform
it is truly a sight to see. Generally she enters dressed as
a bag lady (hence the name Bag Lady Sue) and her show
begins. Sue is a fantastic comedienne with great timing
and an understanding of comedy that is refreshing and, to
be frank, quite raunchy. She has a no holds barred style and
an energy that is palpable and she keeps you on the edge of
your seat in laughter.
Her comedy career started some years ago as a bit of a
dare. At that time she was working as a stripper and her
mom bet her that she couldn’t/wouldn’t be able to pull off a
performance that started with her as a bag lady. She made
$250 in 15 minutes and an act was born.
After that first night performance starting as a bag lady, she
began to perform more and more. She entered a contest to
turn an ordinary person into a comedian and came in third and
continued to perform. Audiences find her hilarious with her
blend of bawdy humor and a penchant for improvisation that gets
both her and her audiences riled up and laughing hysterically.
Sue performed comedy part time along with more mundane
work to support herself and raise her daughter for quite some
time. After losing her mundane job as a bartender the week
before Christmas one year, she decided that it was time to
pursue her comedy on more of a full time basis and make it
work. (Who fires someone a week before Christmas?!) She
talks about this as when she decided to be a comedienne
full time and to step up and make that happen—and she did.
Sue began to get her name out there more, doing the
footwork of talking to the owners of bars and other venues
and working tirelessly to make comedy her livelihood. She
began playing bars, nightclubs, rallies and events becoming
a more seasoned and successful comedienne in the process.
Some of the comedians that inspired her are Carol Burnett,
Sam Kinnison, Robin Williams, Bette Middler, and Andrew
Dice Clay.
Sue has been around motorcycles for a long time. When
she was a young and working as a stripper in Pennsylvania,
she bought her first bike, a Honda Rebel. The guys she
worked with used to prank her by putting rice and Chow
Mein noodles in and on the bike. She says that she feels
a connection to the biker community because “We ride
because are looking for that family, we club up and buddy up
because we need families.” Bikers aren’t afraid to stand up
for what they believe in.
Sue spends a great deal of time and energy performing for
charitable events, in particular those that benefit our soldiers.
She started giving back to our troops after a letter that was
sent to her from a brief encounter in Montana.
24 Thunder Roads Magazine Louisiana | September 2017 | www.thunderroadslouisiana.com
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www.thunderroadslouisiana.com | September 2017 | Thunder Roads Magazine Louisiana
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