The Innovative Comedian

I was never really all that into stand-up comedy until I recently discovered the hilarious Amy Schumer. She made her big debut about 4 years ago on the Comedy Central show, Last Comic Standing. Although she is a recent sensation, I first became introduced to Amy Schumer last semester when I was in Los Angeles. My good friend, Diana showed me one of her skits and I was instantly hooked.

Schumer is what I like to call a filterless comedian. She is known for her subversive feminism commentary and touches on some very sensitive subjects. Direct quote from her: “I enjoy playing the girl who time to time, says the dumbest things possible…” This may come across as an ignorant quote but Schumer’s ability to go against the grain of what’s acceptable actually works in her favor a lot of the time. Not that this is anything new for comedians, but Schumer has a very unique way of making her points that we actually tend to encounter on a daily basis. For example, one of my favorite Amy Schumer skits is titled, “I’m so bad.” This skit depicts several beautiful young women, sitting around a table enjoying lunch. It is commentary on women who deal with petty, individualistic problems when there are much bigger issues going on. Here are some examples that come up in the skit, “I was cyber-bullying my niece on Instagram the other day and I literally ate fifteen mini muffins, I’m so bad.” or, “The other morning, when that woman walked off the GW bridge, I didn’t do anything to help her, because I was chewing my calzone. I’m so bad!” As I said - Schumer is a filterless and what some would consider an offensive comedian, however her humor is definitely something unique and rings true to a lot of what we see today.

This past summer, Amy Schumer came out with her own movie titled, Trainwreck. This film definitely captures her notorious humor but also hits on a deeper level. It depicts her life as a promiscuous young women afraid of monogamy because her father told her so. The film follows her romantic life and the struggles she faces, when she starts to fall in love with a nerdy sports doctor. What I like about this film is that it is different from what I am used to. I always saw Schumer as a hilarious comedian but her ability to develop a story arc and make us feel emotions as an audience gives me a lot of respect for her as a storyteller. As a semi-new comedian, she is about as successful as she can be and I can’t wait to see what kind of innovative ideas she comes up with next.