WANDA PSYCHED
The comedian sounds off on Roseanne Barr and why we shouldn’t get our news from Cardi B
THREE years after her last televised stand-up special, Wanda Sykes is ready to let loose.
“This one is a little more annoyed Wanda. I’m back in my sweet spot,” the fiery comedian tells The Post about her current comedy tour, “Oh Well,” which comes to Town Hall on Thursday and Friday and will be filmed for an upcoming Netflix show.
Her last special, “What Happened . . . Ms. Sykes?,” aired just two weeks before the 2016 election. A primary target was then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. She’s ready to dig into him again, but also prepared to poke fun at the convergence of politics, pop culture and the press.
“CNN is quoting Car di B—I mean, what the hell is going on?” she says about the singer’s January Instagram tirade on the government shutdown. “Cardi B! Not Paul Krugman — no, no. Let’s not talk to an economist; let’s see what Cardi B is talkin’ about.”
When she’s not torching others on tour, Sykes keeps busy with a recurring role as Dre’s (Anthony Anderson) boss Daphne Lido on the ABC sitcom “Black-ish.” She was also a producer for the “Roseanne” revival, but she quit last May when creator Roseanne Barr posted a racist tweet about former Barack Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett. (The show was canceled shortly thereafter, but brought back as “The Conners” without Barr.)
Sykes, who will turn 55 on March 7, lives in Los Angeles with her wife, Alex Niedbalski, and their twins, Olivia and Lucas, who turn 10 in April. She recently spoke with The Post by phone from their home. Has today’s political climate made it harder to do comedy?
It’s harder now, because we’re so polarized. That middle group where we could laugh at each other — it’s hard to find. People are either 100 percent left or right. Before, during the Bush era, we could make jokes, and people weren’t so crazy. Now it’s like, “I’m taking this position and gonna stick by it, and anything you say against it I’m gonna have to disagree and yell and hate you, because you’re saying something that opposes what I believe.” Last September at a show in Red Bank, NJ, hecklers said you were too political, and a woman in the audience said you should never “bash” the president. What’s your reaction to that?
[Laughs] I found it hilarious that she was even there in the first place. If you know anything about me, why would you even come to the show? And also, it’s not about “Don’t make fun of the president” — it’s about a black woman shouldn’t be making fun of the president. If you turn on any late-night shows, all the white guys are making fun of the president, you know? For her to say you shouldn’t make fun of the president, I think it was more that I shouldn’t make fun of the president. Did you have any concerns working on the “Roseanne” revival since your political views don’t gel with Barr’s?
No, not at all. Just because our politics aren’t the same doesn’t mean we couldn’t work together. We did. She wanted to address issues, and we did, so I was very happy with the show we produced. It’s just unfortunate that social media and someone with some issues just don’t blend well. She basically blamed your resignation for the cancellation. What’s your opinion of that?
I think the blame is [on] the tweet she made; that started everything. Come on — if she had never made that tweet, then things wouldn’t have transpired. She shouldn’t have put me in a position where I had to make a decision. Speaking of tweets — when Kevin Hart stepped down from hosting the Oscars over his old, anti-gay posts, do you think his mea culpa was enough?
As an African-American and a part of the LGBTQ family, I just know how damaging those tweets and the things he said are to so many kids with parents having a hard time dealing with it, who are thrown out of their homes, who are abused, you know? So I would’ve liked more of an apology and some action on Kevin’s part.