“What do we do, Wanda?”
Wanda Sykes is onstage at the Chevalier Theatre in Medford, Massachusetts, launching into her newest material about the Trump administration, when a woman in the balcony shouts this earnest plea.
“Pray and speak up,” Sykes responds, and the audience roars. It’s the advice they expected, and what Sykes thinks they need to hear. “I don’t know if they want me to tell them what to do,” Sykes muses the next morning, recovering from a late night at a Boston casino with a plate of eggs and a mug of green tea. “They want some relief. They want someone to tell them, ‘No, you’re not crazy.’ That’s what I give people.”
Sami Drasin for Variety Magazine
Of course, if they are crazy, she’ll tell them so. Onstage, Sykes gets more I-love-you’s than Obama in ’08. “That’s exactly what we need more of!” she calls back, until the repetitive cries start to interrupt her flow. “I love you. Now shut the fuck up!”
At 61, Sykes calls herself “blessed to be in a position where I get asked, ‘What do you want to do?’” Right now, that’s live comedy: Her current tour, titled “Please & Thank You,” began in March 2024 and runs through March 2026. “Stand-up is the hardest thing I do,” she says, but it’s also her first love. While working a day job at the National Security Agency after college, Sykes spent nights and weekends telling jokes, eventually nabbing a gig opening for Chris Rock. She joined his mid-’90s “Bring the Pain” tour for just one weekend, but she made an impression. “You’re funny — I’m gonna look for you,” she remembers him saying. Soon after, she got a career-changing call.
“Everything started for me with ‘The Chris Rock Show,’” Sykes says. Her work on the writing staff of the late-night series, plus her occasional screen time, opened new doors: comedy specials, movie roles, even her own spot in late night. “I don’t miss that. I had too much on my plate,” she says of “The Wanda Sykes Show,” which Fox canceled in 2010 after one season. But she’s proud of it all. “I can’t think of anything that’s like, ‘God, why did I do that?’ Maybe ‘Pootie Tang’ — but people love ‘Pootie Tang,’” she says, chortling.
In 2009, during Obama’s first term, Sykes became the first Black woman and the first openly queer person to headline the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. “When I got the call, the first thing I said to my publicist was ‘They know I’m gay, right?’ Because they were doing a horrible job of vetting people in his administration. I was like, ‘He knows?’ She was like, ‘Yes, everybody knows.’” Later that year, HBO released “I’ma Be Me,” her comedy special that she says “took me to another level. People were like, ‘Pay attention to what she’s doing.’”
They’ve paid attention ever since. A look through Sykes’ recent press tours reveals her as your favorite cultural commentator’s favorite cultural commentator; prominent liberal voices like Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel regularly seek out her thoughts on the state of the world. And in a moment when several of Sykes’ contemporaries, like Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Burr, spout off hot takes about the industry and what can and cannot be done “these days,” Sykes offers an alternate point of view.
“I’ve never been one to pontificate about comedy,” she says. “When I hang around comedians and they’re all really into talking about comedy, I’m like, ‘Just go tell your jokes.’ I’m not a yapper.”
That may be true, but she doesn’t hold back either.
You’ve said that your tour title, “Please & Thank You,” is about wanting our culture to return to civility. What does that actually look like?
Even that has changed. I was like, “That’s the basics. That’s square one.” I was trying to say, “Can we hit the reset and just get back to that?”
You wouldn’t call it that today?
Probably not. But we got the tour jacket. The posters are up, so we gotta stick with it.
Do you interact much with Trump supporters?
I have friends who are — I mean, they’re Republican. But yeah, they voted for him, so I guess they are Trump supporters. But it’s best not to talk. We don’t bring it up.
You were supposed to be on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” the night ABC pulled it from the air. Tell me the story of that day.
I was doing some last-minute makeup. My publicist called and said he’d been preempted, and they didn’t know when he would come back. I was like, “Well, what did he say?” I was texting with him. A lot of people work on that show. Jimmy was like, “I have a lot of people to protect.” It was a real — I don’t want to say a wake-up call, because we were aware of how bad things were. But this is crazy now. I still don’t see how what he said was outlandish or hurtful.
Has it made you think twice about the things you say onstage about Trump?
You can’t really censor yourself like that and give people a good show. I can’t. So I don’t.
The Kimmel situation has recirculated conversations about “cancel culture.” What’s your relationship to that term?
Before, it was just a bunch of people who were upset that they couldn’t say stuff that they wanted to say. Well, what is it that you want to say? Because you can say anything that you want, but you got to deal with the fallout when people say, “Hey, we don’t like what you said,” and stop buying your tickets. But what happened to Jimmy, that’s real. People online are losing their jobs for stuff they post. It’s not about what a comic says — now, the guy who works at the post office says something on Facebook, and people jump all over him and want that person fired. So now it applies to everybody.
Is there any truth to it when established comedians say they wouldn’t be allowed now to make the jokes they used to?
Again, you can say whatever you want to say, but I want to know: What is it that you want to say? What is it? What’s the problem? You want to say it — just say it! I don’t get it.
What did you think about the American comedians who performed at the Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia?
I’m sure it was a nice paycheck. And hey, these comics feel comfortable going there. I wouldn’t. I’m a Black gay woman. I have no business there; I wouldn’t feel comfortable with the treatment of the LGBT. But then again, I think Jessica [Kirson] went, and said she was gonna talk about being a lesbian. I guess that worked for her. But I wouldn’t.
She later apologized and donated her profits. And Atsuko Okatsuka shared that the Riyadh contract required comics not to criticize the Saudi government.
To me, that’s anti-comedy. If you complain about cancel culture, but then you go and take money to not say things, I mean …
You’re at a significant moment in your career with the final season of “The Upshaws” coming to Netflix in early 2026. As co-creator and star, how has it felt to say goodbye to your character, Lucretia, and the show?
It was pretty cool seeing the kids grow up, and I think people will be happy with the way we wrapped everything up. With Lucretia, we wanted her to put herself first. Her whole thing had been taking care of her sister [Regina, played by Kim Fields] and making sure the family was OK. It was nice getting her to a place where she had to make a decision about “This is something I really want for myself.”
Lucretia’s disability is rarely a topic of conversation on the show, but it’s visible because she uses a cane. What’s the story behind that?
I just know so many families where the one relative who’s well off, it happened because of some accident. So I wanted to show that. She has money, but she got it from a lawsuit.
Why did you decide to make your character straight?
We knew we wanted one of the kids to be queer, and for Bennie [Mike Epps] to have to deal with it. So if Lucretia was gay, that takes away [the surprise he feels]. Hopefully, it will help somebody, seeing how that guy can love his son and stand up for him. He was still uncomfortable with it, and that’s OK, but he showed up for his son.
Had you been wanting to try acting in a drama before you joined the upcoming indie movie “Undercard”?
I wasn’t looking for it. The director-writer, Tamika Miller, reached out to me, and she was so confident I could do it that it made me go, “OK, yeah.” I just really like the story: a former boxer whose career ended with drugs and alcohol. Now she’s a trainer, and she gave her son up when he was very young. It’s about trying to reconnect, overcoming her demons — but it’s not perfect. It’s still messy.
“The Chris Rock Show” launched your career. What did being in your first writers’ room teach you?
Chris is very generous. I remember writing a sketch and I said, “Your lines are too straight. I gotta add some jokes for you.” He goes, “It doesn’t matter who’s saying them — if it’s ‘The Chris Rock Show,’ they’re my jokes.” I’ve been in situations where another person, if it’s their show, they usually take the best jokes. But he wasn’t like that.
You hosted the Oscars in 2022, which is usually a career highlight for a comedian.
I forgot about that.
Your work got overshadowed when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock.
Mm-hmm.
Do you still celebrate that night as an achievement? Or is the memory soured?
I mean, I loved working with Regina [Hall] and Amy [Schumer]. But like you said, it got overshadowed. People talk to me about that night without even mentioning, “Oh yeah, you hosted, right?” Like I was in the audience or at home, watching TV. But I was there.
After Smith publicly apologized to Rock, you once said that he hadn’t apologized to you. Did he ever end up reaching out?
He did. He called. I had COVID or a bad cold. I just texted to say, “Hey, I got your message. Thank you. I can’t talk.” But he did call.
“Monster-in-Law” was one of your first big acting roles. Any favorite memories from that set?
Jane [Fonda] was the best. One time, she came to my house, and the kids were 1 or 2. She had these big boxes, and she built tunnels and was crawling through them with the kids. She’s amazing.
What kinds of offers are you getting these days?
Usually, people write things with me in mind. Sometimes the character’s even named Wanda. I’m like, “Come on, guys. Let’s stretch a little.”
What advice would you give people trying to break into comedy right now? What advice do you wish you had at the start of your career?
It’s funny. I look at my path and I go, “If somebody had given me advice, would I have listened?” Some comedians go to a class to learn how to do stand-up. But I automatically go, “I bet 100 bucks this person is not funny at all.” It’s not something that you can learn. I think you have it, or you don’t.
Charity Spotlight: The Ruth Ellis Center
The Ruth Ellis Center is a Detroit area nonprofit that offers housing and resources to homeless, runaway and at-risk queer youth. In 2022, the organization opened a 44,000-square-foot facility, complete with apartments, a library, an art studio and more. Its new home is a huge improvement from when Wanda Sykes first visited 15 years ago — in part because of her efforts.
“I was doing a show in Detroit, and one of the administrators there reached out and asked if I would come by and say hello to the kids. It was this shady-looking building on the corner — I had my security with me on the visit,” she recalls.
When Sykes arrived, she joined a group of young people sitting in a circle of chairs. “The kids expressed how much that place meant to them — and you could see it.” Their stories still get to her. “Remember,” she says, “this is the Midwest. It gets cold. Imagine you’re a kid, and you’re kicked out of your house just because of who you are. Immediately I was like, ‘I’m on board. What do y’all need? What can I do?’”
“One of the young boys, Frank, is now a man,” she says, speaking of a Ruth Ellis Center client who later became one of its administrators. Getting to witness the growth of individual community members reminds Sykes why she’s been fundraising for the center all these years. “Coming through the center, they prepared him for life. And now,” she says with a smile, “he’s doing great.”
Styling: Susan Cho; Hair: Larry Sims/Forward Artists; MU: Tammy Yi/Tracey Mattingly Agency; Top and pants: LAPOINTE; Shoes: Gucci; Jewelry: XIV Karats
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