Skip to main content

Michelle Wolf: the unstoppable rise of America's provocative political comic

Her caustic White House correspondents’ dinner speech will be no shock for fans of the former Daily Show contributor

When Michelle Wolf arrived at the Edinburgh festival in 2016 she was the latest in a long line of bubbling-under US standups to use the fringe to hone their craft and build an international audience. She returned home with a nomination for best newcomer, and a reputation firmly established for smart, sly, social commentary – laughing in the gaps between political principle and personal weakness. Suffice it to say that, in the last 48 hours, that reputation has extended its reach thanks to her caustic routines about senior figures in the Trump administration at the White House correspondents’ dinner.

I saw her perform twice at Edinburgh – in her own show So Brave, and then supporting Louis CK during his short run. What marked Wolf out, at a festival where more and more comics trade in storytelling or emotional intimacy, was the leanness and efficiency of her comedy. She was, in short, a pro – giving us just enough personal revelation and no more, alongside sharp and steely gags about modern feminism, abortion and dating. In light of this weekend’s hoo-ha, it’s interesting to note that – just as the storm clouds of a Trump presidency were gathering – her material on The Donald was strictly limited. “It’s hard to make a joke out of someone that’s a joke,” she told the Guardian in 2016. “After a while you’re like, ‘This is just sad.’”

Continue reading...

from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2JDq8Md
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Knives Out review – Daniel Craig goes Columbo in Cluedo whodunnit

Craig grills an all-star lineup of suspects when a wealthy novelist is found dead in Rian Johnson’s sharp, country-house murder mystery R ian Johnson unsheathes an entertainingly nasty, if insubstantial detective mystery with his new film, Knives Out. Back in 2005, his debut movie Brick (a high-school thriller) paid tribute to the hardboiled noir genre. Now he does the same thing for cosy crime, although there is nothing that cosy about it. Knives Out has a country house full of frowning suspects, deadpan servants and smirking ne’er-do-wells and an amusing performance from Daniel Craig as Benoît Blanc, the brilliant amateur sleuth from Louisiana who annoys the hell out of one and all by smiling enigmatically, occasionally plinking a jarring high note on the piano during the drawing-room interrogation and pronouncing in his southern burr: “Ah suh-spect far-wuhl play!” Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2L0NKO4
Post a Comment
Read more

Thirty Years of Adonis film review: sexually explicit gay drama mixes porn and pomposity

1/5 stars The line between soft-core porn and pompous art-house cinema grows ever finer in the seventh feature by writer, director and producer Danny Cheng Wan-cheung, also known as Scud. Intended as a philosophical statement about the meaninglessness of life, Thirty Years of Adonis instead comes across as a badly misjudged piece of sensationalist filmmaking. God’s Own Country review: gay love story set in the Yorkshire countryside The film revolves around aspiring gay actor Adonis Yang... from South China Morning Post - Culture feed https://ift.tt/2qgQkop
Post a Comment
Read more

Tracey Emin decorates Regent's Park and a celebration of Islamic creativity – the week in art

Emin and others survey the state of sculpture, Glenn Brown takes his decadent imagination to Newcastle and artists offer northern exposure – all in your weekly dispatch Frieze Sculpture Park Tracey Emin, Barry Flanagan and John Baldessari are among the artists decorating Regent’s Park with a free survey of the state of sculpture. • Regent’s Park, London , 4 July until 7 October. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2IDCpPV
Post a Comment
Read more