It’s been four years since Whitney Cummings’ first stand-up special, “Money Shot,” premiered.
During that time, she’s created one of the top-rated shows on network television, “2 Broke Girls,” created and starred in an eponymous sitcom for NBC and even hosted one season of her own talk show on E!.
One of the busiest people in television slowed down just enough for amNewYork to catch up and ask her a few questions:
With everything you’ve done over the last few years, when did you find the time to write another hour of material?
I wasn’t able to do much stand-up while I was doing the TV shows, but the thing about being a comedian is that the ideas and emotions and observations and the anger — all the stuff keeps accumulating. So I basically had three years of ideas accumulating and no outlet for them. By the time I got a little bit of time off I was like a bat out of hell with all this stuff I needed to say.
Your material is centered on sex and relationships. Has anything you’ve said on stage affected you in your personal life?
My material’s gotten so personal that the guy I dated while working on this material for this show, he didn’t come see it for five months. It’s stuff I wouldn’t tell someone I’m dating, but I will say on stage for strangers. He would say, “Can I come see you perform?” And I would tell him, “No! I don’t want you knowing this!”
You’ve also appeared on several of the televised “Comedy Central Roasts” for people like Donald Trump and David Hasselhoff. What makes a good roaster?
You’ve got to tap into your inner sociopath to get through those things. ? You’ve got to have a thick skin and you’ve got to just love jokes. Ultimately, the roasts are so intense, but it’s really just a bunch of us comedy dorks who love great, Catskills-type, well-constructed jokes. This is how we show love to each other. I’m not saying it’s healthy, but it’s how comics talk to each other.
On TV: “Whitney Cummings: I Love You” premieres on Comedy Central on Saturday at 11 p.m.
