BACK IN THE ACT
Sitcom vet Cummings still knows standup
WHITNEY CUMMINGS returns to the world of standup with this Comedy Central special, and it’s good to have her back.
The hourlong set feels a little uneven, with some hilarious passages and a few lulls. She helps herself out by sticking mostly to sex jokes and riffs, which remain the safest area for any comedian because you’ve got that steady base of nervous laughter on which to build further laughter from the jokes.
She plays a lot with male behavior during and after sex, setting herself up as the exasperated Everywoman who has to put up with this.
One of her longest and funniest bits chronicles what women do to make themselves attractive, and she turns several clichés upside down along the way.
For instance: It’s not true, she asserts, that women dress for other women. When a woman is spotted by another woman in her finest outfit, Cummings suggests, the well-dressed woman actually feels embarrassed that she’s been caught going to that much trouble for the mediocre guy she’s trying to impress. But he has a 401(k). Cummings has done less standup the in last few years because she was busy creating her own self-titled sitcom, which flopped, and “2 Broke Girls,” which did not.
Cummings alludes briefly to the former, NBC’s “Whitney,” at the start of this special. When she mentions it and the audience applauds, she gets all snarly and says, “But you didn’t f—ing watch it. If you did, I wouldn’t be here now.”
One final note: Saturday’s special gets fairly graphic, but for those who think that’s not enough, the really explicit version will be available on digital platforms.