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'Your Jokes Are Great, But You're Just Dressed Too F***ing Sexy.' Why What These Comedians Wear On Stage Matters
CNN —
Close your eyes and imagine a stand-up comedian. Perhaps they're standing in a basement in front of an exposed brick wall. Or sitting on a wooden stool in the middle of a black curtained stage. What are they wearing? A shirt tucked into belted pants? A Rat-Pack-style suit and a loud tie? A graphic T-shirt and skinny jeans?
Today, female comics are more likely to be seen in vintage Versace, Gucci or Alessandra Rich than a denim button-down. Last year, American comedian and host of the YouTube show "Baited," Ziwe, conducted an explosive mock network interview with George Santos while wearing an archival 1980s red Jean Paul Gautlier skirt suit. Ayo Edebiri — best known for her role as Sydney on "The Bear" — began her career as a stand-up comic, although these days you're more likely to see her sitting front row at Prada, Loewe or Thom Browne. Rachel Sennott, another former stand-up comic-turned-A24-actor, is an official Balenciaga ambassador; whereas Saturday Night Live mainstay Maya Rudolph has been donning in-the-know brands such as Khaite, Rodarte and Schiaparelli while promoting the second season of her show, "Loot."
Out on the stand-up circuit, some comedians are arriving on-stage dressed to the nines, stepping out in vintage luxury fashion and statement shoes. Earlier this year, New York-based comic Mary Beth Barone released her first independent special, "Thought Provoking," on YouTube. To the uninitiated, Barone wore a sparkly silver dress. To those interested in fashion, it was a piece of history. The archival Versace chainmail slip dress was previously worn by Kate Moss on the arm of Naomi Campbell at a London charity gala in 1999. According to Moss, she "walked straight off the Versace runway" to the event.
While promoting her show on Instagram, Barone nodded to this strange collision of worlds in the caption: "When the brilliant designers at Versace made this dress for Kate Moss in 1999, I do not think they imagined it would be worn 25 years later by a standup comedian!" Barone then appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in a Fall-Winter 2003 Gucci little black dress, designed by Tom Ford during his tenure as creative director — a niche period in Gucci's history revered by only the most studious fashionistas.
"I love fashion, first and foremost," Barone told CNN during a video call from her apartment in New York. "It was the culture I grew up with; Britney Spears, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Paris Hilton, all these people that were so influential." Barone's feminine, runway-ready wardrobe often stands in stark contrast to her deadpan punchline delivery, two disparate threads coming together to create an intriguing stage presence. She proudly attributes herself to the "pop star generation," inspired not just by the off-duty fashion of these early noughties celebrities, but their commitment to clothes as part of their act — elevating a show's production value. "Those pop stars were so powerful and willing to own their aesthetic and their persona as performers. I just felt like at a certain point, why can't comedians do that?"
"He was like, 'Your jokes are great, but you're just dressed too f***ing sexy."
Mary Beth Barone
Cat Cohen, whose first Netflix comedy special "The Twist…? She's Gorgeous" aired in 2022, is similarly keen to rebrand comedy attire into something more glittery and fun. "I always just thought, 'Well, I'm going to treat myself like a pop star and see what happens,'" she told CNN in a video interview. On-stage, Cohen is all feathers and rhinestones — rarely seen without a sweep of electric blue eyeshadow. Her foolproof formula is a loud mini-dress and tall boots, the more iridescent the better. It helps that most of Cohen's performance looks are custom made by an actual pop star designer, Kelsely Randall, whose client list includes Beyoncé, Lizzo, Lorde and Chloe and Halle Bailey. "If I have a TV appearance, or for example my next special, as soon as we have a ballpark of when we're shooting, I reach out to Kelsey."
Flamboyant female comedians aren't new. Phyllis Diller, Jean Carroll and Joan Rivers were often dishing out zingers on club stages while wearing elbow gloves and pearls. (Rivers was even the inspiration behind the expertly dressed comic Midge Maisel, star of the Golden-Globe winning TV series "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.") But their ilk was slowly replaced with a homogenous muddle of blazers and business casual attire.
"For a long time, female comedians were pressured into dressing like their male counterparts," said Barone. "When I started taking improv, there was a manual you would buy and read alongside classes. In it, it said you should never wear shorts or dresses on stage because if the audience can see your legs it's distracting and it will take away from the comedy." Barone remembers after one particular set, she was followed outside by the booker. "He was like, 'Your jokes are great, but you're just dressed too f***ing sexy."
Cohen, too, felt an expectation that, in her early years, influenced what she wore. "When I first started I felt more shy," she said, "and I was more hesitant to lean into my persona. I remember once wearing overalls and a T-shirt to a show. Like no, babe. That was not me."
Margaret Cho — named one of Rolling Stone's top 50 comedians of all time — has long flown the flag for fashion, performing on-stage in the 1990s in Betsy Johnson, Todd Oldham and Gemma Kong; despite rising to fame during one of the industry's most chauvinistic eras. The comedic landscape of the 1980s and '90s was ruled by men such as Andrew Dice Clay (whose vulgar nursery rhymes got him banned from MTV in 1989) and Louis C.K., who was accused of sexual misconduct by five women in 2017. Given that women were so often the butt of the joke, any sign of weakness — including an outlandish outfit — could undermine a performance. "You had to approach 'attractiveness' in a certain way, you didn't want to go into hyper-feminine mode," Cho said in a video call from LA. "Because then it would automatically negate what you were saying. It was hard to get people to trust you as a comedian if you were 'attractive.' There was such a culture of misogyny."
But Cho still relished the act of dressing up, partly in defiance of the male dominated environment she was working within. "I remember there was a TV show where we couldn't afford a new outfit. So Karen Kilgarriff and Janeane Garofalo and I all bought one dress," she said. "The three of us chipped in, and wore it differently." The frock in question — from fast fashion brand Contempo Casuals, Cho remembers — was a boxy, hammered silver mini-dress. "I think it was a knock-off of one of Kim Gordon's designs for X-Girl. I wore mine without tights, Janeane wore a long (undershirt) and I think Karen belted hers."
As the world's of comedy and couture inch ever-closer, perhaps one day a stand-up set will become as lucrative for fashion brands as a Harry Styles world tour. (During his last series of gigs in 2022, which according to Forbes earnt Styles $617.3 million, the artist almost exclusively wore Gucci.) "It's just like rock and roll," Cho said. "You want your rock star to be fully aware of their style. The brand of a comedian, that really includes style." She already feels optimistic about Ayo Edebiri, Rachel Sennott and the comedic invasion of luxury fashion houses. "(Sennott and Edebiri) are so perfect for bringing in new energy to these old houses. It's a twist on the ingénue, like let's actually use a comedian. It's really special. "
Cohen agrees. "Before, people maybe felt like (dressing) wasn't crucial to what they were doing artistically. But now, I think it only adds to what I do."
Barone — who has recently been seen wearing Y/Project and archival Dior — will have no doubt packed a treasure trove of vintage pieces for the US leg of her new tour, "Pillow Talk" this August. "I don't want it to seem like I'm saying I'm the first person to ever wear a dress to do stand up comedy," she said. "But it feels like there's a shift happening. And I'm excited about it."
Comedian Matt Rife To Publish Memoir That's Part 'Comedy Special' And Part 'First Date' (Exclusive)
Matt Rife is bringing his signature humor to the page.
PEOPLE can exclusively reveal that the comedian and producer will publish his memoir this year. Your Mom's Gonna Love Me will hit shelves this December from Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon and Schuster.
Rife's new memoir details how he rose to comedy fame before the age of 30. In Your Mom's Gonna Love Me, Rife writes of his upbringing in Ohio, his experience playing some of comedy's most notable stages and his rap battles with ex-cons, all before finishing high school. The comedian will also detail his experience with depression and his "brushes with failure" before he found success.
'Your Mom's Gonna Love Me' by Matt Rife.Gallery Books; Eric Ray Davidson/NETFLIX
The book is described as "one part memoir, one part comedy special" and one part "first date," according to its publisher.
Rife has caught the world's attention as a comic through his comedy specials, including 2021's Matt Rife: Only Fans, and 2023's Matthew Steven Rife and Walking Red Flag, all released on YouTube. His most recent stand-up special, Natural Selection, premiered on Netflix in November 2023, and his second special with the streaming platform, Matt Rife: Lucid — A Crowd Work Special, will premiere on Aug. 13.
He is currently on his largest tour to-date, the Matt Rife: ProbleMATTic World Tour, and is the only other live act to break the Ticketmaster website due to high demand aside from Taylor Swift, per a statement shared with PEOPLE.
In addition to his comedy, Rife was also the youngest cast member, for four seasons, on MTV's Wild 'n Out. His other TV credits include The Challenge, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Fresh Off the Boat and That 90's Show. He was named as one of Forbes' 30 under 30 in 2024.
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Matt Rife.Eric Ray Davidson/NETFLIX
"I'm excited for this book to give fans a new medium to get to know me and my journey on a deeper, more personal level," Rife says of his memoir in a statement. "I pushed for more smut, but the publishers said No."
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Your Mom's Gonna Love Me will be published on Dec. 3, 2024 and is now available for preorder, wherever books are sold.
Scott Aukerman Bringing His 'Comedy Bang! Bang!' Podcast To Pittsburgh
On Tuesday night, popular podcast "Comedy Bang! Bang!" will bring its live show to the Roxian Theatre in McKees Rocks. The host of the show — which also spawned a five-season-long TV show on IFC and a bestselling book — is actor-writer-producer Scott Aukerman.
"'Comedy Bang! Bang!' is essentially a fake talk show hosted by myself where we have really great comedians coming in and they play fake people," Aukerman said. "All the guests are fake but they're comedians just improvising really funny characters. So that's basically what people are going to see. … We just have conversations that we've never had before and we haven't talked about beforehand. We just have a lot of fun. It's a kind of high-wire act in a way. We don't know what's going to happen when we're out there. … It's a conversational improv show, if you will."
The show often features celebrity guests being interviewed as themselves and interacting with the comedians' improvised characters.
"Comedy Bang! Bang!" started as a radio show in 2009.
"When I first started it, I thought it was going to be me interviewing comedians. … I was also producing a comedy show at the (Upright Citizens Brigade) Theater at the time and I had comedians on that show who were playing characters, and I thought it would be really fun to have the characters come on the show with me interviewing them like they're on a talk show. Pretty quickly that became the format of the show," Aukerman said.
The show has had an impressive tenure so far, but Aukerman isn't nearly tired of doing it yet. "Fifteen years is a long time to be doing the same show, other than if you're 'The Simpsons' and '60 Minutes.' I do believe we've put out more episodes than 'The Simpsons,' we passed that recently. And I hope to eventually pass '60 Minutes.'
"The show doesn't get old but I do. That's the horrible irony. It's really fun, there's so much variety in it, there's new people every week. I use a rotating cast of people so it's not just me and the same people every episode," he added.
Aukerman also hopes that the podcast can be a source of joy for listeners. "This maybe mirrors the listening experience, but if I'm having a bad day and I have a recording on the books, by the end of the recording, I'm in a way better mood and it makes my problems go away," he said.
Podcast episodes are usually recorded in a studio with the comedians and celebrity guests, but "Comedy Bang! Bang!" is currently on tour, and the episodes taped in front of a live audience do change things up, Aukerman said.
"For me, it's a little bit more presentational. We try to add a lot of physicality to what we're doing. … That's what I've heard a lot from people who come to the live shows, they're really appreciating not just the physicality of what we're doing, we constantly try to get up on our feet and do scenes — like physical scenes — for people, but also they're really enjoying watching the interaction between us all and how much fun we're having."
With a deep background in improv and "alternative comedy," Aukerman is a perfect fit for this type of show. He began in comedy in the mid-1990s and worked as a writer and performer on legendary HBO sketch comedy series "Mr. Show." He and Zach Galifianakis co-created web series "Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis," an unorthodox and funny celebrity interview talk show that also spawned a film. He has appeared in, written and produced many projects throughout his career.
"In my spare time, I write scripts that sometimes get made and sometimes don't get made. I have a strange career where podcasting's become kind of the main part of it, which is so strange because when I was growing up it didn't even exist. It wasn't something I could dream about," he said.
"I really like the different types of things I get to do. One day I'll be recording a lot of podcast episodes, the next day I'll be writing a movie script or making a video, I started writing comic books for Marvel … every day I get to do something kind of different," he said.
Aukerman admires all of the comedians who appear on "Comedy Bang! Bang!" He especially lauded comedian and frequent guest Paul F. Tompkins, who is on the current tour with the show. "I'd say he's the epitome of a 'Comedy Bang! Bang!' guest where he's just an incredible improvisor and he does a variety of different characters."
"But I also love the regular Hollywood stars who come on who really get it," he added. "It can be daunting to come on this show because when you're a Hollywood star, you're used to just kind of being interviewed and talking about yourself. Then you come on my show and you not only have to talk about yourself, you have to share airtime with these really odd, supposedly odd characters that are there."
He said that certain guests — including Jon Hamm, Tatiana Maslany and Jack Quaid — have stood out as especially receptive to the unusual format. "Jack Quaid, he comes on the show and not only is he himself, but he grew up listening to the show, he wants to do characters on it."
Aukerman wants the show to be a good time for everyone. "I really love the people who come on and just have fun with it. That's what the show's about, just having fun," he said.
The "Comedy Bang! Bang!" live show will be held at 7:30 p.M. Tuesday at the Roxian Theatre in McKees Rocks. To learn more, visit comedybangbangworld.Com/tour.
Alexis Papalia is a TribLive staff writer. She can be reached at apapalia@triblive.Com.
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