Standup standout
Yvonne Orji’s mother had long hoped her daughter would become a doctor. So when the Insecure actress informed her Nigerian parents she was pursuing a career in comedy — on the heels of getting a master’s in public health from George Washington University — her mother resorted to what Orji explains is a very Nigerian method of encouragement: “shame and comparison.”
“But you roll up on my mom today, it’s a different story,” Orji, 36, says in Momma, I Made It! her new HBO comedy special now streaming on Crave. She switches to a thick Nigerian accent. “Do you have,” she says, pivoting to a stop in slouchy thigh-high boots, “HBO?”
The bit, which earns loud applause from the crowd at Washington, D.C.’s, Howard Theatre, encompasses layers of triumph for Orji. The special is a homecoming — two, actually. Orji grew up in Laurel, Md., and chose the historic venue as a nod to her mother, who was a nurse at Howard University Hospital for nearly three decades. The special also follows Orji to Lagos, in her native Nigeria, where her family lived before coming to the United States in 1989.
Orji calls the lively one-hour special — recorded in February during a sold-out leg of her Lagos to Laurel tour — “a love letter to my two homes, and to my parents.”
Momma, I Made It! is filled with riffs on Orji’s unlikely path to Hollywood, and her experiences as a first-generation Nigerian American. Orji takes joy in both cultures, riffing on her mother’s exasperated response to Orji saying she was “happy” for a recently engaged acquaintance: “Well, Yvonne, when can I be happy for you?”
When Orji shared a promo for her special last month, some social media users took the opportunity to tell her they weren’t happy with Molly, a driven and effortlessly stylish lawyer who might be a little too exacting in her romantic relationships. Orji, who lives in Los Angeles, said not even quarantine had dampened fan feedback on her character’s recent (and controversial) decisions: “Twitter has let me know how they feel about me,” Orji said with a laugh.