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2 Broke Girls co-creator Whitney Cummings likes to plan far ahead. The Money Shot and I Love You celebricomic has a landslide of opportunity on her doorstep—simultaneous network and cable spots, endless travel for shows and her forthcoming third hourlong standup special. Cummings is like a real-world Liz Lemon. When not planning her standup routine like a script, she's navigating the doomed love life of a comedian. But ahead of her three-night run at Helium Comedy Club this weekend, she talked to WW about freezing her eggs and her decade in show biz.
WW: Would you consider yourself Max or Caroline from 2 Broke Girls?
Whitney Cummings: Definitely Max—Kat Dennings' character. When Michael Patrick King started this show, he wanted two girls who were broke. And I came up with the idea that one fell from grace—she was a billionaire and lost all her money. I was the Max and he was the Caroline. But Michael was also a waiter in New York and a comedian with a really funny, dark sense of humor, so Max became an amalgam of both of us.
Given the time you spend on the road, how involved are you with the show?
Michael Patrick King runs it. I focus so much on standup, and I'm touring all the time, so I read scripts, send in jokes and talk to Michael about stories. I'm as involved as I can be.
Your first gig was on MTV's Punk'd. Did working without a script affect the way you approach standup?
Improv is you trying to be funny—in Punk'd, I never tried to be funny because you'd give away the prank. But my standup is very written. I write jokes, work on it, try it a million different ways until I find the funniest read on it. Then I do it more as a play.
After your last special, 2014's I Love You, you said the guy you were dating broke up with you because of some of the material. Has that impacted the set you're working on now?
When you're making comedy or any kind of art, you can't do a piece where you worry about what anyone's going to think. I try not to ask for permission. To a certain extent, we're all martyrs in our personal lives. I don't know a lot of comedians who are happily married.
Did you finish I Love You and immediately start on the material you'll film at the end of this tour?
I want to do another TV series, and you can't really do [that and be on the road]. But I have a lot to say. During [Whitney, from 2011 to 2013], all this stuff started happening to me, but I didn't have a chance to talk about it onstage. I'm going to be 33 in September, so—fertility stuff—I froze my eggs. I talk a lot about that and how hard it was, why I did it, and how nobody knows what it is. Everybody thinks it's so desperate, crazy and extreme.
Really? In 2015?
I want to have a kid one day, but I'm not qualified right now. I don't even know my PayPal password. There's so much more that I want to do. Stop working and have a kid? Fuck that. Biology is all wrong. You can have a kid at 15, but not 40? That's crazy. I've never met a 15-year-old and been like, "You would make a great mom. I love your Snapchat."
SEE IT: Whitney Cummings performs at Helium Comedy Club, 1510 SE 9th Ave., 888-643-8669. 7:30 pm Thursday, 7:30 and 10 pm Friday and Saturday, Aug. 13-15. $30-$38. 21+.
WWeek 2015