Jenifer Lewis is back with “Hot Flash”

Whether it’s on the big screen (Madea’s Family Reunion, Dirty Laundry, The Preacher’s Wife) television (Jackie’s Back! Strong Medicine, Girlfriends) or on stage (Dreamgirls) and in her own one-woman shows (The Diva is Dismissed, Bipolar, Bath and Beyond), Jenifer Lewis is a force of nature and someone whose talent I greatly appreciate.

“I am a quadruple threat,” Lewis says in a new interview with Advocate.com during which she fully embraces her over-the-top on stage persona. “You name the bitch who sings, dances, is funny, and can act!”

Jenifer is premiering Hot Flash, her new one-woman show, as a benefit for the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center. It will be performed at the center’s Renberg Theatre each Saturday through March 6. As the tag line for the show says, “Be on time, or Jenifer will cuss you out!”

So why the name Hot Flash? Here’s what she had to say: “Child, please! I’m going through menopause and my ass is on fire constantly. [Laughs] Seriously, Hot Flash is basically about everything. I just happen to be at a time in my life when I am literally hot-flashing. When it first started happening, I thought it was fabulous. I was thinking, My God, I get to burn up every other hour! But now I’m gettin’ sick of it because it disturbs your sleep! Basically Hot Flash is just a metaphor for my life … the extremes of standing on extinct volcanoes … all the way to seeing Mount Vesuvius of Naples and Mount St. Helens. It’s all about my eruptions and the lava flow. It’s basically me talking about the extreme fabulousness of my life.”

I’ve interviewed Jenifer several times but the first time, about three years ago, was my favorite because it was then that I asked her why it is that gays love her so much. I loved her answer: “I think like Judy Garland and any other diva, the gay boys and girls, they relate to not only the ambition and the difference. We’re not of the world, we’re different. We are. I think we also relate with the struggle, the struggle of being different. We don’t live normal lives, there’s nothing normal about us in different lives and I think they see that. There’s a crispness in knowing who you are and doing what we do…”