Coming Out Made Wanda Sykes a Better Comedian

by Michael Jones · 2010-01-01 17:58:00 UTC
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Wanda SykesTalk about a year for lesbian comedy folk. Jane Lynch became a household name for playing quite possibly the best role on television, GLEE's Sue Sylvester. Ellen DeGeneres continued to rock the daytime world with her talk show, plus her ascension to American Idol judge set to pop into place later this month. And then there's Wanda Sykes, who not only opened for President Obama, she became one of the only women, not to mention the first lesbian, to host a late night talk show.

Sykes also starred in an award-winning ad campaign from the Ad Council and the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN), where she helped challenge the middle school/high school convention of using the phrase "That's so gay" to describe bad, weak, or otherwise stupid things. That's pretty awesome for a woman who came out just about a year ago in the aftermath of Proposition 8.

Turns out that busting open the closet door also makes you a better comedian. At least, that's how Sykes puts it, noting that the closet door has a way of stifling creativity and forcing people into unfunny little boxes.

Sykes talks to USA Today, and spills the beans on how her comedy got better after she told the world those two magical words, "I'm gay."

"I don't have to think as much onstage, 'If I say this, they're going to ask me about this,'" Sykes says. "It gets rid of all the things you have to protect. I have more range because I don't have any boundaries."

And Wanda Sykes with no boundaries is a pretty damn funny thing. Case in point, her HBO special, "I'ma Be Me," which rocked the funny and delivered some of the year's most hilarious material, like when Sykes called out teabaggers for making a sideshow of the Congressional town hall meetings on health care.

"They need to start holding these town hall meetings in emergency rooms," Sykes quipped. "They so violent, I wouldn't go to a town hall meeting unless I had some health insurance."

Good stuff, made all the more better knowing that the person behind it isn't hiding behind a closet door.

(Photo courtesy of dashcraft1's photostream on Photobucket.)

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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