Interview with comedian Whitney Cummings

The hilarious and beautiful Whitney Cummings who has been seen on Chelsea Lately, Comedy Centrals: The Roast and stars in her own sitcom, properly entitled Whitney which only slightly foreshadows her life, TheCelebrityCafe.com has learned. With only a few minutes to spare in her ever busy life, Whitney Cummings took a moment to discuss playing Whitney, a slightly more understanding version of herself.

TheCelebrityCafe: Besides the name “Whitney,” what similarities do you and your character, Whitney, share?

Whitney Cummings: We’re both really loud and have abrasive voices; we both sound like Fran Drescher. We are both loved by America! We are both charismatic [laughing], no let me think here. We always say in the writer’s room where we talk about TV Whitney versus real Whitney and if we made Whitney exactly like me nobody would watch it! It would be like Damages, it would be very dramatic probably and sad…more like Jackass.

The character on the show is Whitney Cummings, I’m Whitney Cummings – which is obviously a stage name that I chose - but what we see come out of the stories are a lot of the things based on me and not just the way I handle things but … I mean I can be very stubborn, I’m kind of obsessed with justice, I don’t like being disrespected.

I think TV character Whitney is a lot stronger than I am. She’s very, you know, when she’s done with a fight, she’s done with a fight. Like, she puts things to bed whereas when I get into an argument with my boyfriend like three years later I’m like, “OKAY! Well, remember Cabo!” I can’t put something to bed, so she’s very mature in a way where she handles a situation which is sometimes in a crazy-outlandish, occasionally illegal way… she can at least move on.

There’s an episode where Alex, my boyfriend on the show, goes to a strip club and I give him a very specific rule, I’m very cool about it, which in real life I probably would not have been cool about it, but I was like, you can go to a strip club but you’re not allowed to go to the champagne room, that’s my rule. In real life, if you go to a strip club at all we are done and I will ruin your future. So, TV Whitney is a lot cooler, but he does violate the rule like a moron and then I go insane, but then once we solve it, I’m done. TV Whitney learns things and moves on, real Whitney kind of learns things, forgets them, and continually will get in fights about them over and over… I’m growing! I’m growing and I’m working on it!

TCC: What is your favorite part of the Whitney journey thus far?

WC: Oh man, it’s been so awesome. My boyfriend on the show is Chris D’Elia who is my best friend and who has been my friend for like six years, we came up doing stand-up together so spending time with him every day was such a blast, we have the best time. So working with him is just the greatest. He’s a stand up too, so being in front of a live studio audience, his stand-up is just such a dream. I have the best cast ever, they are so cool, I think they just hired everyone I wanted to be friends with.