Foul-mouthed and funny; Sykes keeps Clay Center laughing - Charleston Gazette
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Any review of comedian Wanda Sykes is going to be short. Most of her routine can't be printed in a family newspaper.
The 47-year-old black married lesbian with white twins age 21/2 is coarse, crude - and funny. She performed Sunday at the Clay Center to a receptive audience.
Her material covered the indignities of age, racial differences, politics, sexual situations and parenthood. Some of it can be repeated.
Sykes explained that her wife is French, which she said sounds classier than being white. "Besides, I'm a black celebrity and we all have white wives."
Sykes said her wife never has to worry about her cheating on her. "If she finds me in another woman's bed, I'm just taking a nap. . . . It's quiet in her house!"
Motherhood might be exhausting, but Sykes has found a gold mine in her children's physical peculiarities -- especially her son. "Don't worry, Wanda," her pediatrician reassures her. "It's normal, just ignore it."
I couldn't help wondering if her kids would ever see her portrayal of them, and at what age and if they would think their mother was as amusing as the Clay Center audience did.
Sykes' description of her first bikini wax was painfully funny. And she took pot shots at herself, as well. When you pass 40, she lamented, no amount of crunches is going to get you six-pack abs. "A keg, maybe," she said, rubbing her stomach.
She confided that she has named the roll of fat around her midsection Esther. And Esther likes her bread and alcohol.
Sykes didn't shy away from more topical materials. On President Obama, she said, "I'm just tired of him being the one-half white man. I want him to go all-out black."
She began her show by saying how scared she was to come to West Virginia, and she wanted to make sure there were no whites attending. It took a few more lines for me to realize that she meant "White," as in Jesco White.
Yes, she had viewed "The Dancing Outlaw," and actually did a good imitation of his movements.
Reach Rosalie Earle at ea...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5115.
The 47-year-old black married lesbian with white twins age 21/2 is coarse, crude - and funny. She performed Sunday at the Clay Center to a receptive audience.
Her material covered the indignities of age, racial differences, politics, sexual situations and parenthood. Some of it can be repeated.
Sykes explained that her wife is French, which she said sounds classier than being white. "Besides, I'm a black celebrity and we all have white wives."
Sykes said her wife never has to worry about her cheating on her. "If she finds me in another woman's bed, I'm just taking a nap. . . . It's quiet in her house!"
Motherhood might be exhausting, but Sykes has found a gold mine in her children's physical peculiarities -- especially her son. "Don't worry, Wanda," her pediatrician reassures her. "It's normal, just ignore it."
I couldn't help wondering if her kids would ever see her portrayal of them, and at what age and if they would think their mother was as amusing as the Clay Center audience did.
Sykes' description of her first bikini wax was painfully funny. And she took pot shots at herself, as well. When you pass 40, she lamented, no amount of crunches is going to get you six-pack abs. "A keg, maybe," she said, rubbing her stomach.
She confided that she has named the roll of fat around her midsection Esther. And Esther likes her bread and alcohol.
Sykes didn't shy away from more topical materials. On President Obama, she said, "I'm just tired of him being the one-half white man. I want him to go all-out black."
She began her show by saying how scared she was to come to West Virginia, and she wanted to make sure there were no whites attending. It took a few more lines for me to realize that she meant "White," as in Jesco White.
Yes, she had viewed "The Dancing Outlaw," and actually did a good imitation of his movements.
Reach Rosalie Earle at ea...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5115.
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