Page 7 - Pop History: Wanda Sykes

Episode Date: April 14, 2020

We explore the life and career of the wonderful and wildly funny Wanda Sykes.Want even more Page 7? Check out our Patreon page! Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of Page 7 ad-free.Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I thought it'd be really fun to tune in to the LPN show. I was like, oh, cool. Oh, it's my friends, Ben and Holden. Talking, that's nice. And within 30 seconds of it starting, you say, finally, Henry's wife is going to allow him to play video games. Henry's wife. He keeps telling me.

He's like, we have, we share the same TV. I can't play with you boys. I can't do it. We have the same TV. Soon I'll move into the house. and then I'll have my own room where I can play my game. Yeah, you know what? You know what he's doing?

You want anybody to get mad at? Get mad at him. He's thrown you under the bus big time right now, Natalie. He is tossing you under the bus so hard. The episode starts with women taking back what is theirs, standing up for themselves and not allowing anyone to say bullshit about them. And you know what? Thank you, Natalie.

I'm going to say thank you for doing this. Welcome to Bob. Our episode is on Wanda Sykes today. And man, talk about a woman that is doing what she's fucking got to do for herself. I was completely obsessed with Wanda Sykes growing up. I'm still completely obsessed with Wanda Sykes, which is very interesting because I'm not usually, I don't usually like political comedy. That's not my thing at all.

But I love everything that Wanda Sykes is. And hi, I'm Jackie Zabrowski. Hi, my name is Holder McNeely. and here joining us as well is my co-host. My co-worker, my colleague, aerialist, stuntwoman, actress, what doesn't she do? And I guess she's married whatever. Natalie Jean. Wow, I totally expected you to call me Henry's wife.

So this was a big one for Jackie. This one was definitely, I mean, it's funny. Wanda Sykes, especially doing the research. I'm like, oh my God, she's everywhere. She's been in everything. I've seen her in so many different things. But it was never like in the front of my forehead. Like let's do Wanda Sykes.

But you have super loved her growing up. And why don't you speak towards that a little bit? Because for me it's like I'm just impressed by the sheer volume of her work. I've watched a bunch of her stand up over the past week. Incredibly impressed by it. She commands the stage. She has a million great things to say to. Great perspective.

She's got everything you want in a stand up in that sense. But Jackie, what is your whole situation with Wanda? I mean, obviously, she is someone that not only says what she wants to say and really fucking owns it, but also she is a woman that fucking plays with the boys. And that is something that I have always, in watching her especially growing up and coming into my own as my own sort of comedian and trying to figure it all out for myself, I've always been in a boys club. And this is something you'll see again and again in this episode

is that it is her going up against the white man's club And I apologize Holden But you guys were I always worked with a big group of dudes And I always prided myself in being the one that could roll with the guys And hold my own and even at times when in the beginning It may have been a little you know that I was trying to be the most aggressive And trying desperately to be the one that would upset people the most disgusting That's disgusting, I think.

Yeah, but that's what I thought in my head. That's how I thought you were supposed to do it. Same with working in film for me when I was in stunts too. You counteract being awkwardly the only girl in some places by being the most offensive or the most gross or the most like, I don't give a fuck attitude. To the point where it's like not even real anymore. But I think for you and me both, Jackie, we both kind of have a side that we're. relates a little bit to, I don't want to say like the masculine part of entertainment, but kind of, I guess.

Well, she, because she's no holds barred and she doesn't give a fuck, but not in a way that there are a lot of comedians that are just upsetting for upsetting sake. She says what she means and not in a way, and we'll see it like with the White House correspondence dinner, that she's trying to desperately be funny, but also stick by what she believes. and also not just trying to say things just to upset people. That's not what she's about. And I think that there is such a nuance to that kind of comedy

because not everybody can pull it off and stick through it and also have the insane career that she's had because when Holden was asking me, he's like, well, what were your favorite things to watch? Yeah, I was going to ask you that again, actually, for this podcast right here, right now. What did you grow up seeing her in being inspired by, with watching her and her stand-up and TV and stuff.

I was obsessed with her book, yeah, I said it. And I even put, I took a little clip of it. There was this one, she was talking about metrosexuals and women dating metrosexuals. And then she said, you know what I want to see? A mesosexual. The woman who just don't give a fuck. She wears flannel shirts, boxers, never combs or washes her hair, drinks beer out of the can, fingernails look like she's been playing and a dirty fan.

But she loves dick. How many guys are going to be chasing after her ass? And I remember reading that when I was, I don't know, 16 and just being like, fuck yeah, Wanda Sykes. I fucking love that. That was something that I always kind of, I like put in my back pocket in between that and fucking Pouti Tang, man. Pudy Tang, dude. Pouty Tang, I watched, I don't know, 60 times.

And I watched it last night and Jeff had never seen it before. And he stopped it at one point and he looked at me and he's like, is this where you garnered all of your sexual aggression from? Yes, man. I wanted to be Biggie Shorty. I wanted to be Jennifer Coolidge in it. I want, like, that movie also, I think it holds up, but I don't know if everyone else would think it holds up.

Apparently a lot of people hate Pootie Teng. It's so divisive. Pudy Tang is like... But isn't it supposed to be? I think so. It's very much, I think, comedy nerds, for the most part, I think really love it,

especially if you grew up around that time as a comedy nerd, because it's just so weird. I mean, it was what? It was directed by Louis C.K. who, who since, said like he tried to distance himself from the film. Which is ridiculous. I think that it's, I think

it's a lot of fun. And also again, Wanda Sikes is one of the people that they gave women the birth to be funny in that. They gave them, wait, birth, girth? I think you're looking for slurth. Is it slurth? It's slurth. They gave them that slurth. To slide

into that movie. And it wasn't just a, even though you look at it you think it's a boys club movie. And it's not. There's also great female characters in that movie. I mean, I think that's what, as we've talked about some of the good films that we've discussed, that even if it's like, quote unquote, a chick flick, there's actually these other elements added to it that it's not this one dimensional thing and the fact that the

women get to be crazy in that. Yes. But, and also, I think at that time, I didn't grow up with that movie, but I knew of her from a young age because she was in everything, like you said, Holden. I have one of my earliest memories of hers actually from the show, Dr. Katz, professional therapists. Oh, my God, I love Dr. Katz. As a kid, I was obsessed with it. It was a comedy central cartoon.

You can find it on YouTube where he basically, the main character gives therapy sessions to comedians, and so they kind of act out their stand-up bits. And that's where I first remembered her from. And then I would catch her, I watched her stand-up and, like, all the little, show part she started having. She's great. I mean, all of her early st, tongue tied is amazing. And that was her first comedy special. And the fact that which we

haven't even touched upon is the fact that she changed and pivoted her entire life twice. And there's this quote of hers that I'm completely obsessed with. It just says, I'm here today because I refuse to be unhappy. I took a chance. And that is something that you will see again and again in her life is that she wouldn't take it standing down. She made the changes that are hard as fuck to do to just completely stop dead and be like,

no, I don't want to do this. I'm going to go do this to make herself happy. And the projects she chooses are things that make her fucking happy. And I love it. And I'm so excited that we're, thank you guys for indulging me and talking about Wanda Sikes. Yeah. I love her. So let's jump in.

Let's do it. Let's dive in. to Wanda Sykes and her life with her wife So many things to talk about It's Wanda Sikes Okay I just got off the phone with Wanda Sykes

And she says from that song She doesn't want us talking about No, but we're just at the beginning of the episode All right well we will not be doing an episode I'll love sorry there will be no episode about Wanda Sikes it was a lie It was a trist to try

Wait a second Wait a second We can't sing through this episode too She never sings Singing is not her thing I want to do more pasta songs Like we did on the Lady Gaga episode Alright if you can make

All right then you can You're only allowed to do Wanda Sykes Related songs then But they have to be I'm here for the Wanda Here for the Wanda Rwanda Oh yeah that was Rwanda

Wiconda Oh isn't that like a super here There's like a hotel or something. Rwanda. You're thinking of Wakanda, you idiot. That's Black Panther. All right. Let's get into it. Jeez, Louise. This woman was born on March

7, 1964. That's all I got. That's the only thing of my head. That's it. All right. She was born in Portsmouth, Virginia, but she grew up in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, and had a brother, an older brother, a U.S. Army Colonel father, and a journalist

mother. He was a, she was a funny child and boisterous recalling, I remember in the first grade telling some woman her wig was crooked. I thought I was doing her a favor. Her parents would be terrified to have friends come over and visit. Sykes said about this, I would look at somebody and if they look funny, their wig was crooked or if I'd heard my parents talk about who owed them money, I would just bring it up. I was like a whole time bomb. If I heard my parents talking about how one of the relatives borrowed money and if they came over and they were wearing new clothes, I'd say hey, that's new. Don't you owe my dad $50?

And I knew my parents were thinking it. Someone would come back with pictures of a vacation they'd been on and I'd be like, hey, vacation, don't you owe my parents money? That's a kid you want around. Yeah, it's honestly. She's a stinker. And her inspirations were her, she says time and time again, Mom's Mabelie was a huge inspiration to her

and she gets to play her character later on her life, which I can't even imagine. I would have lost my fucking mind. Yeah, that's cool. She says as a kid, I watched her on the Ed Sullivan show. I always watched comedy, except when Roots was on. But when I got older, my friend's dad had Richard Pryor records, and we listen to those. There's nobody close to Richard Pryor.

And Whoopi Goldberg. I really love how Whoopi never put herself in a box with her career. She can go from the color purple to Sister Act. Whoopi didn't limit herself to a black woman. She could be in Jumpin Jack Flash or do roles made for a man, woman, or any race, and I love that about her. She graduated from Arundell High School in 1982 and went on to Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia,

which is like a super hippie college, kind of funny. She ended up there getting a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing. Well, it is actually, it's a historically black college as well, and at the time she had pledged to Alpha Kappa Alpha, which is the first historically black Greek-lettered sorority as well. So she comes from a very strong conservative, family. They were raised, and she says even now, she does go to church fairly frequently. She's a big, she was raised Christian. And so if you think about all of this, she was very close to her parents

and comes from such a very strict background that will come into play, which is why she didn't, she hasn't even come out to her parents until she's 40 years old. 40 years old. And we will definitely get into that when we get to that point in the timeline. She says, This is one of my favorite bits about her. She says, it's harder being gay than it is being black. I didn't have to come out to my parents as black. Yeah, it was very true. And, yeah, she went on to work a terribly boring job at the National Security Agency

as a contract specialist dealing with the procurement of spy equipment. That is kind of interesting, I guess. But for anybody working a desk job who wants to secretly be a performer, it's death. I could assure you. Yes, she was in the- spy equipment? She worked with the NSA. and my favorite part is that she talks about,

she's like, essentially I was just buying shit. She's like, I was just buying shit for, but like spy shit rather than, you know, buying shoes. Like I sat at a desk essentially and bought things all day. And going to that kind of job as something that I think that we have all been in that place before, that you hate and it feels like such a dead end place

and making that switch, even though you have everything, you've got, you know, you have health insurance, you have the stability, and she, but this is when she started doing stand-up. In 1987, a local radio station put on a talent show, and Wanda Sykes decided to enter in the comedy category.

She said it was great. It was a rush. I didn't think about the downside, the rejection. I just got on stage, did it, and fell in love with it. When I finally got into the comedy clubs and found out all the things that could go wrong, that was when the fear hit. I was like, oh my God, what have I subjected myself to? It's the classic story of her very first time,

went kind of well. And if it had not gone well, we might not have the Wanda Sykes today that we see. She even says all the time, like, if I had bombed like my first time, I don't know that I would have continued to do it. But of course, you get that little itch. You get that good reaction. Oh, yeah. And you get that first laugh.

You get that first laugh. And it's over for so many people. And I think that this is a very important quote about just the choice of doing comedy, especially when you feel like your life is in a dead end place. She says, it got to the point where the couple of nights I would go on stage just felt better. So I had something to compare it to, where I was going to work got extremely hard for me. As soon as I built up enough to leave, I would leave. Everyone was saving up their annual leave.

It just got harder and harder to go to work. And I said, this can't be my life. To me, I was more afraid of that becoming my life. That was the fear to me, going out and doing stand-up that looked like freedom. I was more afraid of getting stuck in the job. and I felt like if I do stand-up and it doesn't work, I can always get another one of these. I can always get another job somewhere.

I'm employable. We're not taught that. We're raised that you go to school, get a job, and stay in the job. You don't see your parents hopping around from job-to-job changing careers. You're not going to do it. It's all about security.

And she just... It's funny how you can jump. You could replace the word stand-up with the word crank and it would sound exactly the same. It is so addictive. very similar to being a drug addict. It is very addictive. That's why so many addicts actually find stand-up as a way out from their

addictions, as crazy as that sounds, because you're in bars and stuff all the time. But you actually, it is something that so many addicts flock to because it's just like, oh, can I just have a drug that doesn't consume me physically like actual drugs do? So, but Sykes, Wanda Sykes's very conservative parents came to see her at an open mic. It was her third ever performance.

And it goes terribly. She's super bombs. The audience booze her. Sykes' mother after the performance is like, it's okay, you have a good government job. Well, Sykes quits that motherfucking job. She moves to New Jersey and pursues comedy full time. Sykes says leaving security, help benefits, and a good job to stand in a club and try to make a bunch of drunks laugh.

That's nuts. Going into entertainment is an act of insanity that you have to like, accept truly. And everybody, and you actually have to like, it almost feels like you have to, like, sit everyone around you down and be like, this is what I'm doing. I know it sounds great. Like, you get, you know what I mean? People just don't accept it. They're like, what, wait. I remember I had, I remember I sat down with my parents like in college, but I said it, I was so self-assured. I can't believe I said this to them. I'm just like, I am after college, moving to New York City with my sketch comedy group and we are going to get a show on television.

And they're just like, okay. You know what I mean? Shut up mom and dad. You don't understand. About her struggles early on, Wanda Sykes said the first one I did went great. I almost won the contest. I did really well. So that's why I stayed with comedy.

And then the second time, it didn't go well. I just bombed. I think because I was just so confident from the first time that I maybe got a little too cocky. Actually, I think it was the first time being on stage that it went great. And then I started going to comedy clubs. And I saw how it could actually go really poorly. just go off the rails. I watched comics bomb, and then when I went back on stage again, I was just really nervous

because I realized they don't have to laugh. They can actually sit here and boo. So I think that's what happened the next time I did the competition. I think that's my favorite too. I think as being a comedian that we get taught time and time again right before you go up to stage, like remember, people are here to laugh. They're going to laugh at you. They're here to laugh.

That's not fucking true. Not true. I'm going to say 45% of every audience. Are people there that are like, go ahead, make me laugh. I'm never going to laugh. And probably about 5% are people there specifically to antagonize you. Yeah, yeah. Or don't even realize it, but they get too drunk.

And then all of a sudden they forget what the dynamic is between audience and showmentinson. Showmentonson. Oh, the last podcast shows have some great stories. Oh, yeah. I mean, I've heard them just barrel through stuff too. I've seen some shows of theirs where I'm like, damn, they just didn't even listen to that random stranger. But I've also cackled with laughter at some of the,

we've fared pretty well, I would say, Jackie and Natalie in terms of that. We haven't had nothing too crazy thrown our way just yet in our live show. Oh, I just can't wait for it. I can't wait for it. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. That's what Kelly Clarkson says.

Hey, I'm your blog lost brother. Oh, no, you have a third. I got the DNA test. He's actually holding a DNA test. Oh my God. I think it's real. He doesn't want to be in this family. Bring him on stage.

I want to be on stage. So this is, you're just, the heckling is going to be like a Mori Povich. Oh my God, that's kind of fun. That is my other father. Oh, hell no. And then we start breaking chairs over each other as long as we can break. I think that we should start setting up at least three breakaway chairs. All right.

Those aren't expensive at all No, they're not For a two-second gag I think it's worth it So she actually ends up making A very early TV appearance on Russell Simmons deaf comedy jam In the early 90s

But her big break came from opening for Chris Rock Who super took her Under His Wing This is my favorite This shows The comedy community I think that's why I love Working in within the comedy community

Way more than I do Saying that I'm an actress Because there's so much more loyalty. It's loyalty. It's people that are there that usually help each other up and support each other. Now, Chris Rock, he asked her to come. She starts opening for him while he was preparing for Bring the Pain at Caroline's, which if you haven't seen Bring the Pain,

please stop it right now and go watch Bring the Pain. Because referring to this, because it's an Emmy winning 1996 HBO comedy special, Wanda Sykes said, when Chris did Bring the Pain, That just elevated the whole bar as far of what stand-up is, how sharp it can be and what it can be used for. I went, all right, this is how it's done. I've got to step it up a notch. So her relationship with Chris Rock started and influenced her so much.

And he just kind of brought her along at the beginning because she knew that she could fucking hold her own. Have you seen the Chris Rock show in recent times? Yes. I went through a bunch of the episodes. It's great. other than being great, finding all the little bit parts

she was doing on the show was so delightful because she's just so funny even back then. Yes, and it's a, that's, watching the Chris Rock show being young as well, it's another thing of just like, there is a woman that it's not that she's brought on as like, here is a woman correspondent

that we have coming in, had nothing to do with that. And at that time, that wasn't seen very often. Rather than being like, we've got a female standup coming to the stage, which you still hear, all the time. Just say they're a fucking stand-up. Why do you have to preface it? Why do you have to brace the audience that a woman is coming

to the stage? And that's something that she talks about often that it was difficult for her at the beginning because there's a lot of shows that you go on and they're like, oh, we already have a woman in this set tonight. It's like, what do you fucking mean? That doesn't mean anything. I mean, how many period jokes can you hear a night, you know? That doesn't fucking mean anything. Also, yeah, her comedy was neutral, I would say, as far as male-female, she had both sides. of that very evenly naturally. And she had a really great, always has had a really great dry sense of humor that

resonates, I think, with a lot of different kinds of people. Yes. Which is, you know, not necessarily something that was associated with, quote, unquote, female comedians back then. Right, right, right. And that's another, and that Chris Rock gave her this opportunity when she was asked, how did she get to start playing bit roles on the Chris Rock show? Because she wasn't an actress.

She was just doing stand-up. She said, man, that show. was cheap. The production was cheap. They had to use what they had. Everything I learned and know about being and writing for TV, I learned on that show. It was like the little rascals. Everyone was pretty cool and pretty supportive.

So they kind of just like, work together. Yeah, she was a writer and performer for five years on that show. And she ends up winning an Emmy in 1999 for Outstanding Writing for Variety Music or Comedy Special and really just launched off her whole career for it. It's crazy.

She says, Chris has such a huge following, especially within the industry. Because of that, she says, I got nutty professor too because Eddie Murphy saw me on the show. I got a part on Curb Your Enthusiasm

because Larry David watch it. So yeah, I got a lot of notoriety, including after the Chris Rock show, she got a series deal with Fox because Fox Entertainment president, Gail Berman, signed Wanda Sykes to a series deal.

She said, Wanda has this irresistible, erascible? Erascible. What does that mean? Oh my God. Do I have to Google this right now? Is that what's happening?

Tell me what it means. I don't know what it means either. I'll continue with the quote. Wanda has this irascible point of view. Having her showing a tendency to be easily angered. I ain't got one of those. What are you fucking talking about? She's nobody's fool and she's hysterically funny.

So all of those things come together for us and a character that we like a lot. And this is also from the same person that said the first time I saw Roseanne at Catcher Rising Star in New York, I was stunned by how remarkably different she was. I feel exactly the same way about Wanda. Yeah, I feel that. Hell yeah. Now, also during this time, she has her first marriage, and it's to a man. To a man. A filthy man named Dave Hall. He was a record producer, and this was back in 1991. They were married for seven years. Hall helped produce Mary J. Blige's first album. Sykes said of the

marriage, I didn't have intimacy. Maybe that's because she comes out just gay later in her life. Sykes claims she knew she was gay in the second or third grade and, quote, chose to be straight for this marriage. Sykes says, I wanted to get away like, God, there's his stupid face and he's chewing. Does he have to breathe? Make him stop breathing. That's why I was listening to this interview of her at Just for Laughs in Montreal.

And she went into an explanation that she essentially got married to a man because she thought that that's what she was supposed to do. She always knew she was gay, but she was essentially trying to fake it until she made it until eventually she realized, until she made it to loving dick. And she said, man, what am I doing? I like pussy.

When asked how did she get through it, doing heteronormative sets, she said she drank a lot. And I think that it's very interesting in watching her early stand-up where you can tell that she's trying to be careful in how she talks about relationships.

and her relationships. And even it's noticeable that in talking about relationships and just dating and all that kind of thing, she was so angry about all of it and a way that it's so obvious how it changes after she finds her wife. And that it finally sunk in with her. And I think that I know that she says a couple of times that she didn't feel like she felt like herself or found herself until she was able to be herself. Totally. So this is when it's just a whirlwind of credits. It is absurd how much stuff she does around the early 2000s.

After her divorce, she's on fire. She does the Tonight Show in 01. She makes appearances on the Drew Carey show, Dr. Katz, Matt TV. She is now like a go-to funny person, in other words. Her regular role, this is where it gets great, Larry David's curb your enthusiasm, as friend and neighbor of David's wife, which that really, makes her a household name. She's fantastic in this show. I love it. She says,

if I'm out in public, fans expect the same character they saw on Kirby's enthusiasm. They expect me to be this crazy woman and just yell at them or curse them out. It's like, that's not how people behave in real life. You think I'm this mad, crazy woman who's just going to go off for no reason? I get this all the time. Like,

Wanda, it's my husband's birthday. Can you call him and tell him he's an asshole? It's like, why would I do that? That's not normal. Jackie, would you do that? A thousand percent. Please give me some sort of outlet. And Cameo was born. True.

She also in the early 2000 stars in two short-lived sitcoms of her own, Wanda at large for Fox and Wanda does it for Comedy Central. And that is such a huge thing. That's insane. To be given two separate shows on your own that you sell. And my favorite is that she openly says that working on your own show sucks. She says it was fun, but it always. starts off like you have this idea and you know what you want to do and by the time it gets to air

it's not what it was supposed to be right they keep saying things like you should have kids on the show you know i don't want to work with kids and then it eventually becomes whatever you can salvage from what you started with and that is that age old clash with producers and creative directors and like everybody involved in like a network show there's so many hands in the pot which we talked about before with albums yeah and i love it too and it's exactly what i think that we've done here at last podcast network was when asked what does she love about working on her own show she says employing people that's what i love when you're doing a show and you look at your friend you say this motherfucker got a job because of me sorry i also wrote it out in how she speaks because i was um translating it

from a radio like a podcast interview she also puts out an hour long special tongue untied hosts a stand-up series premium blend you may have heard of it serves as as as as a correspondent for inside the NFL and has a regular character Gladys on the puppet prank call show Crank Yanker's, which she will be they are bringing that show back by the way I'm so excited. She is definitely cast on it

the redo as well which is pretty great How does that even going to work? I loved crankancers people don't answer their phone well I guess you call cell phones and do those kind of calls yeah I mean I guess they call they call like a lot of customer service yeah it's a lot of businesses and stuff for sure so but yeah Crank Eggers, of course, if you don't know, it's a prank call show where they would record the prank calls and then, like, have puppets

act it all out. So good. And it's great. And they're totally bringing it back, which is awesome. She also puts out Jackie's favorite book. Yeah, I said it in 2004. So good. So I said, writing a book is one of the great American dreams.

It's right up there with finding your soulmate or buying a home or raising non-sociopathic kids. You know? Yeah. Any other highlights from, yeah, I said it or kind of what is the? the book of Vogue essentially before we move on into. No, I mean, it's just, it's like, it's a stand-up book. Yeah, you know how stand-ups to write just like. Witnessisms.

Yes, yeah, and it's great. It's just like they'll just be like a topic and then she goes off on it. And I think that's another thing that she really does learn how to hone and that is going, shifting her writing and her joke style from just ranting into more structured, organized ways to make solid punchlines. And you can definitely see the difference between tongue-tied and not normal in how she structures a joke. And she just learned how to do that by doing it over and over again. But not to downplay her ranting, because her rant is great.

Oh, I love her ranting. But it's just, it's cool to watch this shift in how someone creates, you know, their own artwork. Oh, for sure. One thing I think is interesting about Wanda Sykes' career is, like, you don't always have to be the person. who has your own show. It very clearly seems because she's going to get a couple more of her own shows moving forward and none of them really work out, spoiler alert. She openly says that she prefers supporting roles.

She says that she loves to get to play a variation of herself. In 2006, she gets a reoccurring role as Barb on the New Adventures of All Christine, performing alongside Julia Louise Dreyfus, which became a series regular role in the third season. She seems like she is dynamite at coming into a show. being the next door neighbor, being that, being that person, and crushing it and becoming, and going from every, you're on a show, episode every now and again, to making yourself a series regular. She does that over and over again. Obviously, she had that run and curb, which is such an amazing skill.

It is, and it's also, in a lot of ways, it's more ideal, like, than having your own shit. Because you have a lot more freedom to sort of flit in and out of places that you want to be. when you have your own show, you don't have any life. No. Your life is your show now. That is what you do. Yeah, and then she gets to have her own stuff with her stand-up and her specials. She gets to have it all.

It's so smart. She's so good. And the pussy. And the pussy. Well, the pussy. She gets a big old bucket of that. And he says, a wee-wee. Because her wife is French, but we'll get there.

She voiced parts in animated. Now, this is something what your niece loves, right? Barnyard. Well, she did, yeah, a long time ago, yes. Yeah, Barnyard, Brother Bear, too. If you said that now about her, she'd be like, oh, my God, shut up. Shut up, and Jackie is not true. No watch anything with the cows in it.

That's, I like that now I'm doing the voice of my teenage niece, like Henry does my voice. We call him out. Oh, and I really, you know what? Over the Hedge is delightful. I love that she also pivots her career. to doing a lot more voiceover work, which she digs. She has done a lot. She didn't realize how much she did.

Yes, it's so amazing. And I love this story. So apparently, I think that Steven Spielberg may have been like an executive producer or something. He had something to do with Over the Hedge. He's always got something to do with everything. All of it. And she had said about it.

Steven Spielberg had flown all of them in a private jet, everyone in the cast on a private jet for the publicity tour. and the interviewer was there a moment when you thought holy fuck it seems like it would be surreal she said I said that on the way in the car pulling up to the private airport look at this shit

this is how these people roll they don't go through the regular airport they go through the private airport and not just to the airport but to the fucking jet I got into the car and I was on some carpet five steps on this carpet I'm on this fucking plane and I'm like look at this this is crazy and I kind of wish I'd brought a gun

because that would have been cool to fly with. And the person said, just say that you did. And she said, I was like, I wish I had a gun in a kilo of Coke right now. Just because I can. Spielberg has a DVD collection on the jet. And when they gave me the library list, I was like, wouldn't it be funny if I opened this? And it's all E.T. and one copy of the color. Yeah. Gadiol, because like that is, what a way for her, because this is what, I mean, not even 10 years into her starting stand up that she is on Steven Spielberg's private chat. Yeah, that's crazy.

My mind would explode. I mean, there's something to be said about that being psychologically damaging as well and probably any therapy for something like that. But I think that's why she's so spread out and that it's not like she's doing 20 projects a year either. I think that like she really did find the balance of how, of doing very different projects,

of doing kind of small projects, but doing lots of them and not all one specific thing and I feel like isn't maybe that the way you don't lose your mind? But then in 06 she puts out one of your favorite specials of her sick and tired. It takes so much work to put a a stand-up special out. Some people only do that. That's all they do. You know what I mean?

Because it takes a lot of work. Yeah. So it's, no, she's crazy. She works like an animal. Yes, she does. And she loves like a beast. Yes, and this is another fucking episode where I'm just like, oh, I'm never going to be this famous. Yeah, I'll never work. Because I don't have this hustle. I just don't have it.

So here we go. Now for the romantic part of the story. I'm ready for the romance. So on a boat ride to New York's Fire Island, which is gay. That's where Jeffrey goes with all of his boys and his chicken. And that is Eina Garten's husband. That is, which is hilarious. Sykes spots a woman with a computer bag talking to a baby and took to her immediately.

Sykes said something. really said to me like audibly, wow, that's what you need, Wanda. Later, Sykes was complaining about her love life to a friend who in return told her to stop talking about her kitchen renovation to every stranger she met and used cheesy pickup lines instead. And in protest, Sykes to the next person she meets just goes on and on and on about her kitchen renovation. And that person says, you know who I should introduce you to this beautiful French woman who sells granite countertops. and that woman was the same woman that Sykes had admired on the boat with the computer bag of her magic is a...

Her name was Alex Niedbalski and she just happened to be single. They date for two years before getting married in a private ceremony in Las Vegas in 2008. One month after the marriage, Sykes comes out publicly at a same-sex marriage rally in Las Vegas that was trying to get rid of Proposition 8. Now, we have to talk about this

because I think it's very interesting that she was kind of forced to come out and she didn't know that she was going to be coming out at this 2008 LGBTQ rally in Las Vegas. She says it wasn't planned at all. I was in Vegas performing and there was a protest in Vegas. So it's like, hey, let's go out and support and protest. So I get there and it's a large crowd and ahead of the LGBTQ center, she's speaking and she said, we have someone out here who's an ally and she has a strong.

voice for the community and I'm just going to put her on this spot and see if she will come up and say a few words. Now I'm looking around the audience thinking, is Drew Barrymore here? Is pink here? What's going on? I'm looking around for the ally and then she says Wanda Sykes. I'm like, oh no, I'm a part of the family. I'm not an ally. So I go up and it just happened. And I made this speech. When I got back to the hotel room, I'm looking at CNN and now I'm on the crawl. And I was like, oh boy. This was at least after she. she had told her parents about coming out. And the one thing, unfortunately,

so her parents did not attend her wedding. As we know, they are very conservative. They're very religious. And eventually her parents started opening up more to it. They started the conversation. And her mother had asked her not to be publicly open about her sexuality until they passed. But then this protest happens.

So Terry Gross had asked her, That's just, I'm sorry. I just gotta say that is such a selfish thing to ask of your child. For sure. Yes. You don't, you want to be, you're so ashamed of this that you need to be dead before people know. Well, that is weird to say until I passed away, that does change things. I was going to say it's also sometimes coming out of a ridiculous desire to protect the child because you don't want them to face the whatever.

I will say I appreciate that they do start the conversation, though. It wasn't just a, then they don't talk to each other anymore because then that's why Terry Gross had asked her, like, then what do you, he asked, so what do you honor? Do you honor, like, the LGBTQ community? Do you honor your own sexuality? Do you honor your wife? Or do you suppress all that for a while while your mother's still alive and honor your mother? And she says, I mean, it was hard.

And, you know, deep down, I look at it as if I'm honoring my mother because I'm a product of my parents and my parents instilled these values and this strength in me. And so for me to deny who I am and to be silent, then I think that would be dishonoring them because that's not the person that they, you know, made me to be. So I, I had that conversation with them from that angle and eventually they got it. And now, you know, we're so close and everything's great. They're amazing grandparents. And, you know, I think that now they're concerned. It's more for my safety than anything else. And it's also apparently some family members stepped in and convinced the parents as well. Wanda's aunts and uncles, Sykes said,

my father's sister, who's the oldest, she was like, you know God loves you and God loves your family. Don't you let anybody tell you otherwise. It's like, wow, okay, good. This is how it's supposed to be. And so they would eventually come to be, not just accept this thing, except her being a lesbian and everything,

but to really embrace her wife, embrace their children. Alex, her wife gives birth to twins in 2009. The family will split their time between L.A. and suburban Philadelphia, while also visiting relatives out in France throughout the year. So here we get into a very historic moment for Wanda Sykes, her performing at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner. She was the first African-American woman and the first openly LGBT person to get the gig, a featured entertainer,

at the White House Correspondents Association dinner. This is in May of 2009. Obama is in office. She made a lot of enemies that night going after the conservative party. Sykes, this is what Sykes said is. I will say, though, before she does her set, she is pretty pissed off at herself

because apparently she could have been friends with Michelle Obama. She says, I was sitting pretty much right next to Michelle Obama. I messed up because I probably could have been chummy with the first lady, but I was so focused on having to go up and perform that I was blowing her off. I think I even looked at her one time like,

will you shut up? Don't you see I'm sitting over here going over my notes? I saw her on my book tour and we laughed about it. She was like, I was just trying to make conversation and you wanted nothing to do with me. Man, I get it. If I was about to go up and do that shit, I would be like, don't talk to me.

Don't talk to me. And I think that that is in one of the interviews she had done, that it was like, that is such a quintessential comedian thing to do with like, where he's like, I don't give a fuck who you are. I'm, I have a set to think about. Thank you very much.

Oh, I, I was watching the stand-up special she had at this time period. I'm blanking on the name of it. Was it Amma B-Me? I think it might be-me. Or what happened, Ms. Sykes? I think it's going to be me. Okay. But I'd seen it a million times, but it had been a long time since I had seen it.

And I had to say it was a little bit sad watching it because the world was in such a different place. Like Obama had just been put into office. And the vibe and the air is just so different from right now. It was a little depressing. Yeah. And she's, of course, very excited as an African-American. But not depressing is the sick vest jacket combo. She's wearing this purple vinyl during that.

Her outfits, I mean, I know that I'm mostly in my brain of just here as Biggie Shorty and Pouty Tang, and I love her outfits so much. But her outfits, man, she kills. I want. wherever she's getting her pantsuits from, I'd like the number of that tailor. How do you have huge tits and also rocked a pantsuit that well? She's definitely getting that tailor.

Yeah, oh, yes. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So back to the WHCA. Here's some things she had to say about some folks. Sykes said this about Dick Cheney. Oh, my God, that's a scary man. Scares me to death. I tell my kids if two cars pull up and one has a stranger

and the other car as Dick Cheney, you get in the car with the stranger. This is what she said about Rush Limbaugh. Rush Limbaugh said he hopes this administration fails. That's like saying, I hope America fails, or that I don't care if people are losing their homes, their jobs, our soldiers in Iraq. He just wants the country to fail. To me, that's treason. He's not saying anything differently than what Osama bin Laden is saying.

She turns to Obama. You might want to look into this, sir, because I think maybe he was the 20th hijacker. But he was just so strung out on Oxycontin that he missed his flight. also Rush Limbaugh says I hope the country fails I hope his kidneys fail how about that he needs he needs and that was the joke that it was also what people were really pissed off about they really didn't like the jokes against Rush Limbaugh specifically about that I hope that his kidneys fail and about that joke she said I'm ahead of my time really I mean I called it I called it no regrets now was it a very Christian thing thing of me to wish that a man's

kidneys fail? No, but it was a funny joke. But that's how, you know, that's how I felt about the whole thing where he was hoping America fails just because there was a black president. Right. Also, lastly, Sykes on Sean Hannity, who said earlier in the year that he'd be waterboarded for charity, like Keith Olberman waterboard him. He can't take a waterboarding. I could break Sean Hannity just by giving him a middle seat and coach. Also, I love how many times waterboarding came up in this. It just gives you an exact idea of like, it really exactly. what time period it was. Like no one talks about waterboarding anymore.

And Terry Gross had asked her how she felt. Now, this is after Michelle Wolfe, who was also a comedian that did the White House Correspondence Dinner. After Michelle Wolf, they decided no more comedians are ever going to host the show again. They are going to have historians and said. And Juana's like to ask about that.

You can't be walking around making fun of people's makeup like that. I mean, what the fuck, man? That was the whole thing. It's just like, so this is about Sarah Sanders, Huckabee's makeup that the joke that Michelle Wolf had made and wanted it's like, it's just ridiculous. It's a funny joke and it's based on, you know, the truth.

Now, you know, you know what? They're doing us a favor because really accepting that job and doing and going into that room as a comic, it's like hosting the Oscars, but without all the glam and their red carpet and the nice swag bag and all the stuff, you know, it's, we're doing God's work. I've heard from, I don't know if it was Michelle Wolf. One of the people who's doing it says that really nobody's even paying.

Everybody is networking in the room and nobody's even looking at them. No, paying attention to them. And you put so much work into it. Yeah. And they're all looking at you with like absolute disdain because like the last person who wants to be made fun of publicly as a fucking politician.

Yes. They're all trash. Did I say that? Lord. That's fine, actually. So then she moves on doing a brief stint as a host of a late night talk show for Fox called the Wanda Sykes show. Again, this does not really take off.

She puts out her second comedy special though. Wanda Sykes, I'm a be me on HBO. Yes, that was the one. Natalie, that same year. She performs as Miss Hannigan in a production of Annie at the media theater in Media, Pennsylvania. That would have been amazing. I know. I would have loved to have seen that production.

She did it for like a few months. She voices the character Granny in the movie's Ice Age Continental Tript and Ice Age Collision course. And she played a Democratic senator from Illinois in Amazon series Alpha House, which was written by the creator of Dunesbury. I'd never heard of that. And it seems interesting. This is around the same time that she went in for a breast reduction. She said I had real big boobs and I got tired of knocking stuff over.

And every time I eat, oh Lord. She is top heavy. Yeah, I'd carry a tide stick everywhere I go. My back was sore so it was time for a reduction. She goes in for the reduction and they found out that she had ductal carcinoma in situ in her left breast. Oh, why are our breasts so scary all the time? Breasts are very scary. She said I was very, very lucky because DCIS is basically.

basically stage zero cancer, so I was very lucky. But cancer is cancer. I had the choice of you can go back every three months and get it checked, have a mammogram, MRI every three months to see what's going on, but I'm not good at keeping on top of stuff. I'm sure I'm overdue for an oil change and a teeth cleaning already. On top of which, I have a lot of breast cancer history on my mother's side of the family. I was like, I don't know. Should I talk about it or what? How many things could I have? I'm black, then lesbian. I can't be the poster child for everything. So, she ends up getting a double mastectomy to hedge her bets, essentially. And with a laugh, she notes, at least with the LGBTQ issues, we get a parade, we get a float,

it's a party. But I was real hesitant about doing this because I hate walking. I got a lot of cancer walks coming up. So then she wanted to be open about the fact that she was also a someone, she doesn't consider herself a cancer survivor. So she's in a weird middle portion. But it's something that she does try to do lots of foundation shows for charity work, shows for foundation shows, and she's not trying to be, again, the poster child of it.

But it is a big part of her life experience. Well, I think she's being selfish and she should be dedicating more of her time to being the face of things and doing more charity work. Yes. I like where your head's at, Natalie. So now we get into a weird era for her. You were talking about how nice things were back in 2009 when it came to, especially Wanda Sykes' politics and things like that and her stand-up. Four days after Trump gets elected,

Wanda Sykes takes the stage and says, I am certain this is not the first time we've elected a racist, sexist, homophobic president. He's just the first confirmed one. It was a performance in Boston, a benefit for comics come home. And she's getting, and she gets crazy booed by the audience.

Actually, I think it's just like a portion, obviously, a portion of the audience. Her response was, Fuck you motherfuckers. Fuck all y'all. And that was five minutes into her set. She stayed on and finished it out. She gave the booing audience members the bird as she walked off stage.

But one thing she does like to say is she said she's like, I didn't get booed off the stage. I stayed on. I got laughs. Like I did pretty well like after that. And then I finished my set and I left. But apparently the white comics before her did similar material and totally got away with it. Sykes said when it came out of my mouth. Fucking Boston.

It was like, oh, wow, okay, so the black woman isn't allowed to say anything. So that's when it hit me. Boston's rough, notoriously rough for audiences, by the way. So that's when it hit me, oh shit, this is bad, this is bad. But also Sykes realized she needed to take a break from performing. This is my favorite part of this story. She needed to take a break from performing for a bit as she was, quote, just ranting. There's not even a joke here.

I had to step back and go, how can I make this funny? And I think I was so professional of her. You just have to find the spot and ultimately be able to be funny in the midst of all this shit that's insane. And so she took her time to figure out, like, because that was a weird time for all comedy. Exactly. And like a boring time too almost because everybody just wanted to get up and like take a big fat dump on Trump.

And I get that, but it was like, okay, but you can't just, I get that everybody's heated right now, but just doing that is not really what standup comedy is about. And also it's like satire ate itself. Like reality had jumped the shark. So it's a really weird spot for people who do. humor-based content. What do you do with this?

Yeah, she says multiple times, too, that she's like, when you can't make jokes that are funnier than what the actual president is just saying or tweeting out, it does make it a little bit more difficult for you. Now, this is also around the same time that what happened Ms. Sykes comes out as an epic special. Now, this was actually supposed to be a Netflix special. According to Variety at this time period, Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle reportedly received $20 million per special on Netflix.

Amy Schumer received as much as 13 million. This is around the time that Monique was creating a stirrup because she says that she was only offered 500,000. And Sykes then comes out and says she was offered even less. Monique, thank you for speaking out. At Netflix offered me less than half of your 500,000. I was offended but found another home. Sykes tweeted in January, referring to her 2016 special, what happened Miss Sykes.

So Sykes wouldn't disclose how much Netflix had offered her for a new special, but she didn't hold anything against them, which also shows because not normal will come out a couple of years later. She says, I never had a bone to pick with them. I looked at it as it's business, you know? I said, hey, Monique, she's making a valid point. They offered me less than they offered her. However, I found another buyer, Epex. And I made a good deal with them, and I was happy with them, and delivered a great special.

I think there's another important thing of the kind of thing that Wanda Sykes does is that she never is, like, unless of course she makes her political jokes. But business-wise, she never throws anybody under the bus for no fucking reason. And I think that that's an important thing. She could have been like, fuck you, Netflix, fuck you for San Jose.

She could have gone public with it. She could have made a huge thing about it, but she was like, no, my special deserves more money than this, and I'm going to just take it elsewhere. Not that she wouldn't have been completely within her right to flip out publicly about it. But I think that it makes what happens with Roseanne that much.

of a choice because she didn't do it willy-nilly. It wasn't something that she's like, oh, she just said something bad about a black person? Well, I'm fucking done. That's not what she's doing here. This is something that was built up into it because she had been working with Roseanne. She had started working with Roseanne

when her production company became the producers of season eight and nine of Last Comic Standing. So NBC had come to her production company and asked them to resurrect it. And she said yes, but only if these changes were made. That it was invitation only, so you don't waste people's time

because train wreck comedy isn't good. America can't vote. And also NBC told her, you guys have to get great judges. And then we'll bring the show back. So they reached out to Roseanne. My producing partner, Paige Hurwitz, and I had a lovely dinner with her in L.A.

Roseanne was like, Wanda, I've loved you for a long time. I want to help you. I'll do the show. Great. I want to put young comics out there. I want to get women out there, people of color. And we're like, yes, that's exactly what we're doing.

Last comic standing happens. Roseanne's great. And then one item looking at her Twitter, I called Paige, we've got to get Roseanne off of Twitter. She's going to kill us. This is before she starts working with Roseanne on the Roseanne reboot. Well, yeah. And Roseanne had been kind of this voice on Twitter for a while,

which sucks a lot. Yes. Roseanne is one of my favorite, the original Rosanna is one of my favorite all-time shows. It's one of the best comedies of all times. And the reboot was so cool. Honestly, I really liked the reboot too. Sykes said, I mean, Roseanne is just an old lady who shouldn't be on Twitter. She believes everything she reads because when you're from that generation, you read stuff.

You're like, well, what do you mean? It's not true. I'm reading it. Look, I accidentally followed Justin Bieber for 30 minutes and it scared the shit out of me. She also said about working on Roseanne, about working on the show. She said, we have to have those conversations. The scary part for me right now. is that we're having them with each other

instead of crossing over and talking to people who don't feel the same way as us. They're all talking about how awful we are and we're all talking about how awful they are. I love that quote and I love her her drive to work on the show and try to bridge that divide

and that's what the show really was doing and attacking and I thought it was great. And I like that she also says that Roseanne was a big proponent of showing both sides of the show. She wanted to address issues. She wanted to show both sides. And they thought it was great because at least Roseanne might be the thing that will start the dialogue between the Trump supporters and non-Trump supporters.

So great. First season. This is, of course, yeah, Sykes is consulting on the revival of the sitcom Roseanne starring Roseanne Barr in 2018. Season 10. The two sisters are politically opposed with Roseanne, a Trump supporter, and Jackie, a liberal. And the idea is to try and find common ground in the show. That is your name, Jackie. Isn't that amazed?

Sykes said, I was in the room. him for like two days a week, helping punch up stories and jokes. I was really happy with the way things turned out with the scripts. I'm a Roseanne fan. I'm a fan of the show. It saddens me, but it also cracks me up. Extreme anything is nuts. Extreme left is just as nuts as the extreme right. The only way that we're going to patch things up in this country is the people in the middle got to start talking to each other instead of just battling it out on Twitter. Roseanne speaks to so many people. They just want to be entertained. It kills me when people say it's a pro-Trump show. Absolutely not. These people are struggling. They're sharing medication.

Trump's America. They're still broke as hell. Trump takes credit for everything and we can't control that. Of course, he took credit for the show doing well. Of course. Yes, of course. And if you took this show, the revamp without the Roseanne

Twitter stuff that people already knew about, you would look at, objectively you go, this is a really great discussion. Just like the old show was too. The old show addressed things that were far left, far right all the time. And Roseanne in her own right is one of the greatest female stand-up comics of all time. And that is undeniable. Yeah. And Roseanne, the original show, was very liberal and very pro.

All of these things that are still being unfortunately debated now in 2020. She was one of the first women who got up there and really talked about what it was like to be in a difficult marriage, to be a poor mother, you know, all of these things like incredibly honestly and incredibly comically. That's why it's just the whole thing is very unfortunate the way it all went down. Of course, the show debuts in March with major ratings and was immediately renewed for a second season, but also

of course that momentum would get stopped in its tracks by a tweet Barson out at the end of May in 2018, which led Sykes to leave the show the next day. And she said she wrote a bunch of different drafts for the tweet that she wrote out about, you know, with opinions and this and that. She was like, you know what? Just walking away from the show, we'll say it all.

So she just said I'm stepping away from the show in a tweet the very next day. Sykes would later show empathy for Barr, as many have, saying, and this is very true. She has, quote, some mental issues. She said so herself, and I think for anyone with mental issues, social media is not the place you should be. She was tweeting something that I honestly didn't know what it was. Kadan, what the hell is this? I was telling my producer partner, we have to get her off social media. This is nuts. So yeah, and I mean, She was hit by a car at a young age.

She's had an unbelievable amount of mental issues throughout her life. She's been off and on. She's openly been off and on a lot of medications. And for those of you who aren't aware, she is deeply invested in the Q&ONON conspiracies that come out, which are all bad shit. A little cuckoo banana pants. They are cuckoo banana pants.

But this is another instance where Wanda Sykes, even though Roseanne will come out via tweet saying that it was Wanda Sykes' fault that it was taken down because the show was not canceled until after the tweet. And even after that, Juanicex is still saying, I don't think that she's racist. And I think that she just has a lot of mental issues. And also, she would still be willing to work with Roseanne again in the future. She just wasn't going to work with her at that point in time. They haven't talked since. And Juanis Sykes said, quote, I would love to in reference to them being able to just have a conversation again. But, man, she just kept hitting the ground.

running. Actually, this adult-oriented Harley Quinn animated series on the D.C. Universe channel is actually quite good. She plays the Queen of Fables on that in a regular role. And it is actually one of those surprisingly solid TV shows that everyone should go check out. And she's also apparently killing it with a vampirina right now. It's another, it's a kids show that she's doing voice work for that apparently is delightful. I'm not around any little kids anymore, so I don't get, I miss being a nanny, for that reason of watching stuff. I'm like, hey, this weird kids show is really fucking great.

Just watch it. Just be weird, just be a creep. Okay, I'll be it. I'll do it. She's also, of course, doing that thing she does. She has a regular role in the TV series Blackish as Daphne Lido. Emmy nominated role, by the way, too, where she again comes in just for a couple episodes.

It just kills it. And she kills it every time she's on the show. We talked about this on page seven. She played Louise in a live taping of an all in the family and the Jefferson's episode. not too long ago, which was fantastic. Delightful. And apparently they're going to be doing another one fairly soon, so I'm fucking ready for it.

Awesome. She also was the ghost of Harriet Tubman and Big Mouth, which is fantastic. And we mentioned it before, but she got to finally play her idol, Moms Mabley, in the previous season finale of the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which our friend Jordan Temple worked on, which was fantastic. And this show's created and directed by Amy Sherman Belladino, who I love, and I wouldn't do an episode on the day. She, I love Marvelous Miss Maisel.

So, yeah, absolutely. I was, I don't know what year it was, because she did give us a year, but I did want to throw this in here because I thought it was kind of fun. She was asked what her worst slash most cringy gig ever was. And she replied with a Vegas-themed bar mitzvah. She says, the check was just ridiculous.

I said, if I say no to this, it almost feels like a sin. It was the gaudiest over the top. And I'm like, oh my God, this. I mean, they had show girls and big fuzzy dice. And I think my opening joke was, I understand, you know, the Jewish tradition. That's when a boy officially becomes a man. And what do you do, Dad?

What lesson do you give him? You buy him a black woman. And that's what she opened with. And apparently she killed. Nice. Which is great. But it's got to be a very uncomfortable situation to walk into. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. Most recently, Latin. just last year she did her stand-up special for Netflix called Wanda Sykes, not normal. Sykes said my sensibilities are pretty much the same, but I think I've gotten better as a performer. Before it was all about the material

and relying on the jokes. But now my acting out and really performing the material has really improved. And she talks about her family and personal things. But she does also, even after all the booing she received after Trump got elected, she delves into politics. Sykes said, for me to go out

and not do anything politically, it would be ignoring the orange elephant in the room. People expect me to say something. I'm a black woman and I'm a lesbian. There's a lot of shit that's wrong in my world right now. So for me to just go out and talk about my family and act like everything is fine, it's like, what planet am I living on? And she opens with, if you voted for Trump and you came to see me, you fucked up again.

But I do like because she does go back and forth. She does. And Jackie, we watched, I don't remember if you were there, but we watched. this stand-up special with your parents over the holidays last year and your parents, especially, your dad particularly, they're Republicans, like the old school kind. Oh, we were watching one of the roasts.

We were watching a roast on Comedy Central, right? No, we watched, it might have just been me and Henry with them. We watched her special. Why? Because she's funny as shit. I mean, I know, I understand that, but why would they want to watch it? We threw it on. Oh, you guys put it on. Okay, that makes a lot more sense.

But not like for any, like, we weren't, because Because Juanisike's funny, not because we knew it was going to cause this a discussion in the house because I kind of forgot. She does politics. Oh, gotcha. But she started it. And they're definitely not like Trump people, but like they're Republicans and they're a little bit more on that side. They're old, they're old school blue collar people.

But your dad was cracking up the entire time because she's so funny. And even though it's stuff that maybe he wouldn't have listened to otherwise, he got to listen to it from her and laugh about it. Oh yeah, because they're not the kind of people that have like, you know, hands over ears of like not listening to another side, don't get. No, they're very, they're actually weirdly now in looking at the world fairly open. Yeah, absolutely. But she's also, I mean, her comedy is, her timing is so undeniable that I think even

the more stubborn whatevery type. She can reach all kinds of people. Yeah. Well, we'll find it funny. I'm going to close on this personally. and you guys say your pieces as well. Sykes's advice for any stand-up going into their first special, and this was told to her by Chris Rock,

and before him was told to Chris Rock by Andrew Dice Clay, which is this, don't go up there and just do a set that you do at a club. You want people to walk out and talk about a joke you did or remember a joke you did. You have to set yourself apart, and that is a legendary, what, legendary stand-up makes.

And that is, I think, definitely fantastic, fantastic advice. When she gets up there for her specials, man, she, you walk away with just so many great laughs. And she is such a great performer, especially in this theater space, commanding the attention of a large room of people. She is just so good at that. And so there you go. Her energy is palpable. she's almost like people are drawn to her whenever she comes into a room.

Oh, yeah. I have to just, I will end by saying one thing we didn't talk about that I think is really important to her comedy is that her stand-up and her acting, she is an impeccable physical comedian in a way that you might not even notice because she's not doing these huge prat-folly kind of things, but the way she incorporates her movement into her jokes is one of a kind and makes her her jokes elevated to another level and it's so fucking funny what she does with her body. Oh, yeah.

And the fact that she's just, again, is you don't just say, oh, she's just a stand-up. She's so much more than that. And she's the kind of person that has kept herself open to doing new projects and trying new things and never shying away and being like, oh, well, I've never done that before. She just jumps in and just assumes that she's going to

learn as she does it and kept finding people that believed in her and gave her the opportunity. But this is something that I think that we also brought up with Lady Gaga where it's like, you could be set up to do all of these great things and also choose to not do it. You don't have to take the jump. You don't have to choose to make a life that is actually harder for yourself to try and seek out your own happiness. But Wanda Sykes fucking did it. Fuck yeah.

And I love her. And thank you guys. Thank you guys for learning about Wanda's likes today. Also go again and watch Poudi Teng. Because Pouti Teng is, it is, I will definitely say the women in it are problematic. But again, definitely. It's the 90s. What are you going to do?

It is all like that. It is what it is. Their outfits are amazing. And it's actually fairly, I think it really holds up. But please watch it and hit me up, guys, if you agree. Or if you don't agree. And you're canceled. And you're canceled.

And I am canceled and you will be canceled. All right. Let's go get canceled. Guys. Thank you again, everybody for joining us. You can check me out at twitch.tv, forward slash hold later. So more importantly than that, check out patreon.com forward slash page seven podcast. We do weekly bonus episodes for just $5 a month and it helps this whole thing keep a rocking and a moving.

Natalie. I'm Henry's wife. And you can follow me at the Natty Jean on Instagram and Twitter and all that. And also we have page 7 LPN on TikTok and Instagram. And I am Jackie Zabrowski. You follow me on Instagram at Jack That Worm. And you know what? Go have a smile today.

I choose you and you are listening to it. Go have a smile today. Force a smile. That sounds good. Yes. Aggressive. I mean, Henry's sister. Thank you.

Thank you very much. A do, adieu, adieu to you, to you. to you. We'll talk to you guys fuck boy. Thank you guys so much for joining us. Bye. This show is made possible by listeners like you. Thanks to our ad sponsors. You can support our shows by supporting them.

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