COMIC TAKES A STAND
Women can be funny: Sykes
When the name Wanda Sykes pops up, most people associate her with TV gigs — from The New Adventures of Old Christine, to Curb Your Enthusiasm, to The Chris Rock Show, to her Emmy-winning writing — or with her LGBT activism.
Not to detract from the above, but Sykes also happens to be among the funniest and sharpest stand-ups in the business.
Anyone familiar with Sykes’s HBO solo special I’m a Be Me — or any of her other specials, for that matter — can attest to her comedy smarts. In one of her bits, she ruminates on how much harder it is to be gay than black:
“I didn’t have to come out (as) black. I didn’t have to sit my parents down and tell them (I was) black.”
Nor did Sykes have to hear her mother say: “I know I shouldn’t have let you watch Soul Train.” Or “that the Bible says Adam and Eve, not Adam and Mary J. Blige.”
On the other hand, Sykes and her wife, Alex, have differences of opinion when it comes to raising their twin children. “She says TV is no good for the kids. Wait a minute, TV paid for the TV.”
What irks Sykes more is the too-often-repeated mantra, generally perpetuated by the male-comic species, that women can’t be funny — or at least that they can’t be as funny as the boys.
“I don’t even know how that started,” Sykes says. “When you look back, there have always been really funny women stand-ups throughout history.
“Look at the ratio of guys in the business who aren’t funny compared to women who aren’t funny. I’d say there are more unfunny guys working.”
Sykes cites Moms Mabley — “one of my idols” — as well as Phyllis Diller, Joan Rivers and Paula Poundstone as comics who were/are giants in the biz, and who could hold their own against any of the boys.
In a perfect world, Sykes would have her own late-night TV gaba-thon, where she would crack wise and go nose to nose with an array of celebs and politicos. Actually, she did have her own talk show on Fox five years ago. But the sad reality is that TV execs go for the guys, and almost invariably the white guys — save for the recently installed Larry Wilmore (who took over Stephen Colbert’s slot on Comedy Central) and Trevor Noah (who is to take over from Jon Stewart, also on Comedy Central).
“I’ve been thinking about different vehicles, but I haven’t yet found the one where I go, ‘This is it’ — the project that will have me get up every day and be dedicated to it. I’m still trying to figure out what that is. But I’m fortunate enough in the interim to stay busy doing my standup and on my various projects with my company,” says Sykes, whose Push It Productions is the force behind NBC’s Last Comic Standing and the Herlarious specials on Oprah’s OWN network.
Sykes says she used to take shots at comics who would yak about their kids in their routines. But, “Now I get it. With my kids, it took a while before I could do such simple things like reading a newspaper. You suddenly become this idiot-like parent. When you devote yourself to raising your kids, those first few years just take over.
“There were times I would be walking around in a daze and asking if Obama was still president. I had no idea what was going on in the real world. But now that they’re older — they’re six now — I’m coming back into the world.” The timing couldn’t be better. “What’s going on in the States right now is so ripe for comedy,” Sykes says. “What? Are we up to 200 Republican candidates for president? Including Donald Trump. Oh, and can’t forget that Confederate flag business, where people are actually saying the flag is part of their proud heritage. No, it’s not. It’s like keeping a bust of an uncle who molested kids.”
Sykes, who is married to a French woman, says a lot of her comedy these days comes from the fact her wife and kids are white.
“When I look at my life at the end of the day, I’m taking care of white people,” she says. “That’s what I do. How did this happen? All the progress that my people have made — hell, we have a two-term black president. And what does Wanda Sykes do? She takes care of white people!”
Look at the ratio of guys in the business who aren’t funny compared to women who aren’t funny. I’d say there are more unfunny guys working.