Comedy

Ali Wong delivers disarming comedy at MGM Grand

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Four stars

Ali Wong February 3, MGM Grand’s KÀ Theatre.

Ali Wong’s Netflix special, Baby Cobra, was one of the funniest things to happen in 2016. Not one of the funniest comedy specials for a woman, but one the funniest specials of the year. Period.

Those are pretty high expectations to live up to, but Wong’s show at the KÀ Theatre inside MGM Grand did not disappoint on Friday night.

Sure, half her Baby Cobra special was dedicated to jokes about how she tricked her husband into marrying her so she didn’t have to work, but that’s the genius of Wong’s stand-up. She turns feminism on its side, simultaneously making fun of and championing it. Wong knows the power of the stage, and she uses it to her full advantage.

No longer pregnant, as she was for her Netflix special, Wong spent most of her hour in Vegas on what her life has become now that she has a new daughter. “I love her so much, but I’m on the verge of putting her in the garbage,” Wong said, just minutes into her set.

It only got more outrageous from there. “I need to be here to miss her, so that I don’t go to jail. … I was stupid and naïve and I thought being a stay-home mom was about chillaxing. I didn’t understand the price you had to pay for staying at home … You’re just in solitary confinement all day long with this human Tamagotchi that ain’t got no reset button.”

Wong’s fearless delivery felt more bold since most audiences aren’t used to women making jokes about period sex or bodily fluids, or mothers making jokes about what having kids can do to their body. And Wong took it one step further.

“A lot of young women have anxiety about giving birth. Giving birth ain’t nothing compared to breast feeding. … [I thought] it would be a beautiful bonding ceremony, [not] squirting out of 15 holes like the Bellagio fountain.”

Nothing seems too gross, too personal or too “female” for Wong. Wong disarms experiences considered shameful by generations of women, putting them out on the table and leaving her audience in stitches in the process.

“How do you balance family and career? Men never get asked that question, because they don’t. They just neglect the child for 95 percent of the day, and that’s perfectly socially acceptable.” Wong then admitted to hiring a nanny. “Our nanny is 62 years old. You’re a dumbass if you’re hiring a 25-year-old to be your nanny. If we’d had hired a 25-year-old man who was great with my daughter and said yes to every chore, you best believe I would eat the sh*t out of his butthole every day.”

With every joke and story, Wong doesn’t just level the playing field for female comics—she flat-out bulldozes it.

Judging from the laughter in the crowd Friday, Wong proved that a woman’s experience—more importantly, a woman of color’s experience—isn’t just funny to for women. Menstruation and motherhood are part of the whole human experience, which means they can be funny for everyone.

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