“Make them laugh…make them laugh. Don’t you know everyone wants to laugh.” Those lyrics could easily be Wanda
Sykes’ mantra. The comedian, actress and author has taken her perspective on life, LGBT rights, and the current issues at hand and turned it into comedy gold. The out activist and mother of two twins is coming to the Starlight Theatre at Pala Casino on Friday, August 27. The Rage Monthly thought it would give you the heads up early, as her show is sure to be a sell-out. Here, Wanda Sykes shares a bit of her own brand of humor, her take on LGBT rights and charity work and just why she became a comedian in the first place.
The Rage Monthly: You have a comedic gift for bringing light to a situation. Your original take on gay marriage, for instance, really makes sense in a comedic way. How would you describe your style of comedy writing and what subjects draw you in to talk about on your current tour? Wanda Sykes: Oh boy. I guess my style is grounded in reality. I always like to start
some place where it’s either something that’s going on socially or personally, current events or whatever and start there. It’s even better if there is a bit of hypocrisy going on (laughter). I really love that, especially with politicians or the people in power to bring down. Yeah.
Rage: I love your performance in Monster-In-Law. WS: Thank you. Oh, thank you.
Rage: Are you familiar with the actress of the 1950s and 1960s known as Thelma Ritter? There is a touch of her in your character. WS: Oh yeah. Definitely. Yeah. I love Thelma Ritter. I can see that comparison.
Rage: Your work for charity…Equality California and the likes, that really strikes home for LGBT people. Can you explain your passion for doing this? WS: I think as I’ve grown as a person and as a performer, the work in the LGBT com-
munity has been even more important to me. Especially now, that I got married and I started a family, those rights…they touch home, especially for my children. The more I got comfortable with being myself and being out, it gave me the strength and the passion to fight for rights not just for myself but for the community.
Rage: I was lucky to be in that window of gay marriage. I got married on October 18 of 2008. WS: Oh great. A week before I did.
Rage: One interesting aspect of your talk show was that you imbibed on air. Was this an idea of yours to go with the flow and
make the discussions more relaxed? WS: Oh yeah, that was mandatory (laughter). When I got the show, I wanted it to be
like people coming over to my place and hanging out, very relaxed. We drink at my house. My friends come over and we have drinks, so that’s what I wanted to do on the show.
Rage: Yeah. We have a Sunday garden chat where that’s pretty much the routine. WS: Oh nice! Tea parties…uh huh (laughter). I’m surprised you can get the conversa- tion out with all that loud music behind it. [Wanda does her best beat box sounds).
Rage: Yeah. I’m in charge of the music and they are always telling me to turn it down. When you are at home with your wife, do you both watch the same television shows together? WS: We do and especially this last year, we had such a limited time of when we were
able to watch TV together. So, we’d pick the show and say, “Okay. This is going to be the show that we watch.” Amazing Race is one of our things. You really don’t have to follow anything or think…you just watch it and enjoy. We laugh and try and put ourselves in that position as to who would screw up that challenge. We also started following Flash Forward and of course, it gets cancelled (laughter). We try to pick a few shows and just TiVo it and stick with that. If not that and the TV is on, we are watching the news or HGTV. We watch a lot of that.
Rage: My housemate, Tim wanted to ask, “From your heart, what was it like to meet President Obama and his wife, Michelle?” WS: It was incredible! They have this ability to really connect with
you in a short amount of time, even when they’re surrounded by
JULY 2010 | RAGE monthly 35
by bill biss STANDING UP FOR COMEDY AND LGBT RIGHTS!
“I think that’s just how it goes…the more comfortable you are with yourself, the easier it is to open up and dig a little deeper to give a point of view.”
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