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Cher says that while she is at home on stage, as witnessed in her upcoming concert special on NBC, she's quite shy in person.
By ERIC DEGGANS, Times TV Critic
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 7, 2003
This is a woman who has appeared onstage in costumes that seem smaller than a postage stamp. But ask Cher what would most surprise longtime fans about her life, and she offers a curious answer: She's really shy.
"I basically have two personalities," said the singer, speaking to reporters during a conference call Tuesday to promote her farewell concert special, airing at 9 p.m. Tuesday on WFLA-Ch. 8. "I feel totally confident when I'm doing my art (onstage), but offstage I'm totally introverted. I could do something in front of 100,000 people that I couldn't do in front of five."
Those who doubt that statement need only check out Cher: The Farewell Tour, the two-hour concert taped in Miami that immortalizes this 56-year-old diva's final concert tour.
One moment, she's singing Take Me Home, decked out in a tight, spandex-and-streamers costume that looks like she's only covered by the funky wig she's wearing. The next moment, she's using the "b" word in reference to youngblood singers such as J. Lo. and Britney, daring them to match the avalanche of costume changes and dance numbers packed into her newest stage show.
In her element and in charge, she seems to be having the time of her life. So why is the Oscar-winning actor/pop star saying -- yet again -- that she's leaving the concert stage for good when this tour is done?
"On the road, you feel like you're in jail, and the only highlight is doing the show," she said. "You get into a place at 3 a.m. and you're not really sure where you are. ... I can see why people do drugs, because you just don't know how you're going to get from place to place."
Fans who saw Cher's two farewell performances in the Tampa Bay area in September and February (the often-extended tour has played many big cities multiple times) will see an awfully familiar show Tuesday.
There's the dozen or so costume changes, covered by film clips ranging from footage of her movies to images of her dueting with her ex-husband, the late Sonny Bono. Then there's the set list: from a disco cover of U2's I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For to a medley of '70s hits such as Half Breed and Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves, along with her 1998 hit Believe. And there's the stage effects, including a fake elephant and dancers twirling from the ceiling.
But don't think this farewell stuff means you won't be seeing any more Cher records. "The thing that's good for my temperament is that you don't do any one thing very long," said the singer, who is currently working on a new album. "You make an album, work on it really hard, and it's over. On to the next thing."
In Miami filming scenes for a Farrelly Brothers movie (Called Stuck on You, it stars Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear as conjoined twins, one of whom wants to be an actor. Really.), she's shopping for a house there and dreaming of new projects -- including a Broadway musical version of All About Eve.
And though some might find it strange that NBC is devoting two hours in prime time to her concert in the middle of a war, Cher finds it all makes a certain kind of sense.
"People really like being taken out of their life and the war for the two hours that they come out," she said. "I have people coming to the concerts who are dying from cancer. To take people out of their worries and lives for those couple of hours ... it's an important thing."
She's worked as a ship welder in Tampa and a ski instructor in Austria.
So when producers from NBC's Fear Factor told Tampa resident Alexis Merrill she'd be competing on the stunt-based reality show, she had few qualms about trying for the program's $50,000 grand prize.
But signing all the waivers required to participate in the game was another matter.
"Death was mentioned 24 times in it," said Merrill of the thick packet of releases and contracts contestants must sign. "I thought that was pretty funny. But my mother didn't."
Not long after selling her ship-repair company, Marine Metalworks Corp., Merrill, 33, headed to California to tape the show last December.
"It was like going to summer camp," Merrill said of the program, which airs at 8 tonight on WFLA-Ch. 8. "The men were literally scared to death. But the women: One was listening to a Walkman, I was reading a book and another was sleeping. It was interesting seeing the difference."
Commercials for the show have revealed Merrill faced a go-cart stunt and a competition to free herself from chains while underwater. But the biggest challenge may have been avoiding unwanted attention from the show's cameras.
"They want to exploit you . . . (so) the camera goes right to the boobs," she said, laughing. "I noticed one camera had been on my boobs for 20 minutes, so I leaned down and said, 'Have you got enough, already?' "