Michelle Wolf (‘Joke Show’): ‘I will sell my morals for a punch line immediately’ [EXCLUSIVE VIDEO INTERVIEW]
“I’m just happy to keep doing specials and keep evolving as a comedian,” confesses Michelle Wolf in our recent webchat (watch the exclusive video above). She continues, “I love telling jokes, I want to be able to tell jokes and keep getting better at it and keep flexing muscles that I don’t know if I have yet. And hopefully I can figure out and get stronger. Just get better like the nerd that I am.”
Her latest stand up special, “Joke Show,” was released late last year on Netflix. In the special she jokes about rapist otters and male menstruation. She reveals, “My favorite joke is the one about white women being privileged victims. I talk about how white men were really smart because they kept us comfortable. It’s very hard start a revolution from under a duvet. I see women playing the privileged victim card. A lot of women talk about protesting like it is the new brunch. We can make everything about ourselves. It’s quite the skill.”
On putting together a special, she explains, “I make sure I explore every nook and cranny of the joke, I don’t want to leave any jokes on the table. I want to make sure it feels like you just saw something. It wasn’t just a string of not connected jokes. I go on the road and run the show over and over and over again to make sure every joke works everywhere.”
In the special she refers to the reception her 2018 White House Correspondence Dinner performance received. Her “vulgar” performance was attacked, particularly by supporters of Donald Trump. She admits, “It’s hilarious to me. I like to live in the grey. I live in the middle. I like to take the route that gives us the funniest joke. I will sell my morals for a punch line immediately. It’s funny to watch either side going after each other. All these news networks are on for 24 hours a day. They need to fill that time with something, so why not fill it with a bunch of fights and heightened drama. Things that seem catty and gossipy, rather than digging into the real meat of situations like policy.”
On performing stand-up, Wolf says it “is really just you out there, your ideas, your point of view. Stand-up is its own particular thing. Any of that stuff said outside of that particular category could sound crazy or mean or cancel-ly. In that particular stand up arena, anything goes. We’re in a club, we’re in a basement. Let’s get dirty together. It is part of the reason I like it. When writing and preforming on television, everything needs to be a bit more polished.”
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