The star of Comedy Central’s Inside Amy Schumer doesn’t shy away from the hard questions.
Amy Schumer doesn't really give a shit that she's now famous.
Already well known for her popular stand-up specials and appearances on celebrity roasts, the 32-year old Long Island native's career has taken off in the last few months thanks to her hit Comedy Central show, Inside Amy Schumer. The Tuesday night series, which mixes sketches, stand-up, and interviews, premiered in late April with a major ratings victory and has already been renewed for a second season. And yet, Schumer hasn't felt like adjusting her day-to-day life too much — even if it creates some embarrassing situations.
"When I'm going to be on camera, people whip me into something that people can look at a little bit more easily, but right now, I cannot claim to you that I'm wearing a bra or that I look at all presentable," Schumer told BuzzFeed last Thursday, connecting by phone while she sat in an airport lounge while suffering from the nausea of eating too many yogurt-covered raisins.
"I look like a newly homeless person, and the people doing PR on this show are like, 'Can you please get it together?'" she added with a laugh. "Somebody just took pictures of me wearing a poncho on the subway the other day and posted them. I get recognized a lot right now and it's embarrassing because I always look like straight up garbage."
She's probably being modest — self-deprecation is a comedian's best friend — but either way, she's obviously doing something right.
Via: Brad Barket / Getty Images
The first sketch of this show that I watched was the one about the 2 Girls 1 Cup audition, and I was just thinking, what happened to the guy that made that?
Amy Schumer: That scene was my idea, and that was actually on the pilot, so we filmed that a year and a half ago now. I always think about that stuff. I'll watch a porn and I'll think about that girl walking to her car after the shoot, some mundane thing, and I'll think, "What was the casting process like for that?" Did they know that girl, were they friends? Were they like, okay, we have showers here or do they have a van and take them to an outhouse?
And then they just go home and cook dinner?
AS: I know. Do they stop at a Wendy's or something?
It's good that you're at Comedy Central, because knowing your stand-up, I can imagine the fights right away at standards and practices at a network.
AS: It's funny, I seriously don't even think of myself as being dirty or anything, but when we're going through the show to pick a clip for a late night talk show, I'm like, fuck, I don't even know. We go through scenes and it's like, "No, I get molested in that scene... that's about rape." It's really hard.
On that topic, there has been a re-sparked debate over the last year and the last few months over rape jokes.
AS: I think rape jokes are fine, but I also think rape is fine. No, I'm just kidding. The way I feel about rape jokes is the way I feel about any jokes. If it's funny, it's fine with me. The whole Tosh thing and all that, I'll always get a comedian's back, unless it's a crazy Kramer rant. I'll always get a comic's back. You're just trying to figure it out. If you say a joke and the crowd responds in a way that's like, "No, we're not really on board with that," you change it or don't do it. But for these smaller live shows that comics are doing in their cities to prepare for TV or larger shows, I just feel like everybody should back off, even if it's a rape joke or whatever. If it's not funny then it's just annoying anyway, and it just makes it a little more annoying that it's a joke about the worst thing you can do.
Those small shows are very policed in a way by camera phones now.
AS: Yeah, it's so unacceptable. I talk about rape in my TV show, and I'm not trying to make light of it and say "who cares." I'm kind of sort of bringing up the conversation that it happens a lot and it's not cool. I was waiting for the backlash on that, but it didn't happen, and I think it's because people saw my intentions.
