Whitney Cummings is a regular in the comedy clubs of Los Angeles. She’s a fixture on “Chelsea Lately” and has appeared on MTV’s “Punk’d.” She’s been in indie films like “7-10 Split,” “Grizzly Park,” and “Made of Honor” and is one of the brains behind Showtime’s “Live! Nude! Comedy!” But it’s the roast of Joan Rivers on Comedy Central, airing Sunday night, that might launch the local girl into the stratosphere.
While she had written for Comedy Central roasts before, this is the first time she was invited to be on camera — with the likes of Don Rickles, Tom Arnold, Robin Quivers and Donald Trump, no less. “I had never met Joan before, even though she’s a hero of mine,” said the Georgetown native and graduate of St. Andrews school in Potomac.
So the pressure was on. “You can’t have a weak link,” she said. “You need A-plus material.” So she spent the week prior to the taping trying out her jokes at the Laugh Factory and other famous clubs.
And she made sure she wrote all her own material. “Roast jokes are more precise,” she explained. “They have to be more Catskill-y. You need a dark, deeply disturbed mind.”
And by all accounts, she killed. She said Rivers told her, “This roast for you is like my first appearance on Carson for me.”
And she’s been told she’ll be back for future roasts.
But for now, she’s working on yet another project. She spoke to us from the set of a pilot she’s taping, called “The Station,” which co-stars John Goodman. Produced by Ben Stiller, it follows CIA agents in South America, as they attempt to install a new dictator.
