43
Shaking up the routine
By John Benson
A slap in the face is what comedian Wanda Sykes is talking about these days in her stand-up routine.
Sure, the funny lady, who returns to Northeast Ohio for a Friday show at the Akron Civic Theatre, will be covering her staple topics of politics and marriage, but also getting more stage time of late is her experiences as a mother of adopted twins.
“Mainly it’s like my kids have taken over my life right now, it’s crazy,” said Sykes, calling from New York City. “I didn’t realize how much my life would change. And it’s not that I’ve changed. It’s just being a mom I don’t have time to do the [expletive] that I like to do. I just don’t have the time to be me. Kids just suck all of the life out of you. They really do.”
Naturally being a celebrity mother must be different for Sykes, who over the past decade has appeared in feature films “Monster-in-Law,” “Evan Almighty” and “License to Wed.” However, her credits also show plenty of kid-friendly movies such as “Over the Hedge,” “Barnyard,” “Brother Bear 2,” “Rio” and the recently released “Ice Age: Continental Drift.”
So she must be a cool mom considering her animated voiceover work, right?
“They’re 3 years old,” Sykes said. “They look at me, they listen to the voice, they look back at me again and they look at each other and say, ‘That’s not her.’ Plus, everybody hates the people who go, ‘Do you know who I am?’ So I can’t do that.”
Still, anonymity is getting harder and harder for the 48-year-old comic, who in the past has earned a Comedy Central Commie Award for “Funniest TV Actress” and was ranked among Entertainment Weekly’s 25 Funniest People in America.
Largely recognized for her own brief episodic television show, “Wanda at Large,” or as a regular on the “Chris Rock Show” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” the Maryland native said she’s currently working on material for her next stand-up special, which will be the follow-up to 2009’s Emmy Award-nominated HBO “I’ma Be Me.”
“It takes me about two years of touring with a show to go, ‘OK, I’m ready to shoot this,’” Sykes said. “For my next special, I’m looking to probably 2013.”
Aside from the numerous animated features, Sykes admits her mainstream appeal stems mostly from the canceled CBS series “The New Adventures of Old Christine.” While the network show aired for five seasons, it never truly seemed to find its main audience.
“Yeah, CBS played around with our time slot for a little bit and our audience seemed like it caught on after we got canceled,” Sykes said. “I have so many people who tell me how much they love the show after it was canceled and in syndication. You can find it on all the time now.”
It has to be frustrating when people say they watch now but weren’t viewers when it aired originally. Don’t you just want to slap them and say, “Where were you when we needed you?”
“What do you mean do I want to?” Sykes laughed. “I do it.”