At the Beacon Theatre on Monday, comedienne Amy Schumer said it was
a weird time for her, explaining matter-of-factly: "Everything I do
becomes a thing."
She was setting up a joke about a hastily written tweet, but it
could have been about one of many sketches from Inside Amy Schumer that
have gone viral, her buzzed-about speech at the Glamour Women of the
Year awards or her US$500 (S$673) tip to a waiter that became a story
in The New York Post.
The press obsessively covers her because she is on the verge of
replacing Louis C.K. as the pacesetter in stand-up. As LeBron James, a
co-star of her new film, Trainwreck, might put it, she understands the
moment.
Schumer's Trainwreck Comedy Tour, which features the stars of her
movie doing stand-up across North America through Sunday, is itself
kind of a thing. Besides promoting the movie, Trainwreck, opening in
the United States on July 17, it is one of the best comedy line-ups of
the summer, with Dave Attell, Colin Quinn, Vanessa Bayer, Mike
Birbiglia and Schumer.
It is an evening of New York comedy with some Hollywood thrown in,
since director Judd Apatow, who returned to stand-up last year after a
two- decade hiatus, also performs.
Not all of these comics are as suited to theatres as Schumer, who
can effortlessly shift from a dramatic set piece to a chatty intimate
style while still playing to the third balcony. Bayer started the
evening with a joke that bombed and never entirely recovered,
performing bits (like an extensive impression of an imagined episode of
Friends) that were dwarfed by the room.
Apatow also had a wobbly start, with microphone problems and a Bill
Cosby impression that was not nearly as compelling as his tweets about
that comic. But he found his footing with some amiable jokes about
parenting that explored his unease about warning his children about
drugs or sex or even cheating. "What's better than an unearned grade?"
he asked.
Of course, the star of the night was Schumer, whose ascent has been
staggeringly fast. It was only 31/2 years ago that Eddie Brill, the
booker for Late Show With David Letterman, referred to her dismissively
as "that comedian's girlfriend". The comedian, by the way, was Anthony
Jeselnik and they broke up years ago.
Schumer has become outspoken, mocking exactly this kind of slight from the gatekeepers.
She has long used stand-up material filled with frank talk about
sex. But now, her act anticipates being pigeonholed as merely raunchy.
The reason she has broken out is that in a fragmented comedy scene,
she has broad appeal without seeming to try to please everyone. She
carefully avoids playing to a niche, veering from political to
personal, swagger to insecurity, and heartfelt to obscene.
Her stand-up shows off her acting chops just as her sketch
performances reveal the instincts of a stand-up. Just when you think
she is one thing, she shifts to another.
