STANDUP STANDOUT
It turns out this serious small screen lawyer has a knack for comedy
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 masters 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 her Insecure character 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. “It’s also kind of cool, because in some ways I’m like the underdog. People are just like, ‘Yeah, you know, we’ll go support because we like Insecure,’” she said. “And then they leave like, ‘Yo, that was funny, though!’ I love being underestimated. I love that people get more than what they expected at the end of the day.”
Orji got her start in standup after competing as Miss Nigeria in an American pageant. When event officials called to ask what her talent was, she was stumped. “When you’re the child of immigrants, you’re not allowed to have talents,” Orji deadpanned in an HBO featurette last year. “Your only talent is just to get straight A’s.” A devout Christian, Orji prayed — and received her answer: comedy. Her first joke, about Nigerians talking loudly on overseas calls, tapped into the same bicultural insights she infuses into her HBO special.
Orji relishes those experiences and identities in her special and other projects, including Jesus and Jollof — the podcast she co-hosts with friend and fellow Nigerian American, author Luvvie Ajayi — and her forthcoming book, Bamboozled by Jesus: How God Tricked Me into the Life of My Dreams. Orji said it feels natural to share her journey with fans.
“I’m still kind of amazed that I’m here,” she said. “I’m still pinching myself, in a way. My parents did not, could not dream this when we left Nigeria.”
The Washington Post