More jobs the merrier for Whitney Cummings
Comedian Whitney Cummings from the show "Love You, Mean It with Whitney Cummings" attends an E! Network upfront event at Gotham Hall in New York. (April 30, 2012) Credit: AP
Is Whitney Cummings trying to take over the world?
Just a couple of years ago, she was a cult stand-up comic best known for her appearances on "Chelsea Lately" and a series of Comedy Central Roasts.
Last year, however, the 30-year-old Cummings started to diversify in a big way, co-creating with Michael Patrick King ("Sex and the City") the hit CBS sitcom "2 Broke Girls," on which she continues to produce and write, as well as create, executive produce and star in her own NBC sitcom, "Whitney," which recently started its second season.
Starting Wednesday night at 10:30, Cummings takes on a third project, "Love You, Mean It With Whitney Cummings," a weekly half-hour talk show on E!, which the channel is pairing with "The Soup."
How in the world is she going to keep all these balls in the air? "Here's the loophole: I haven't actually done this yet, so it has actually to be proven that I can do all three of these shows and survive it," Cummings says. "We'll see, but frankly, I'm not entirely confident that I'll live through it. What I am most OCD and detail-oriented about is in finding the right staff and writers to choose, and that's what I am putting a ton of energy into right now so I know that I have a great team around me."
It helps that Cummings' star has risen to the point that she's learned to trust her instincts now instead of second-guessing herself. So, even though Cummings is, in a sense, venturing onto the same turf as close friend and mentor Chelsea Handler with this new E! series, the two shows will be quite different, Cummings says.
"I'm going to be doing my show sober, so there's a difference -- at least for the first couple of months," she cracks. "It's also a little bit different formatwise. Chelsea has a very signature format. She has three comics on, and then she has a guest. Because she gets such big celebrity guests, I think I'm going to try to do more of a variety-show format. It's a little weirder, to be honest."
Cummings says she expects to be more deferential to her guests than Handler often is. "Chelsea does not suffer fools. I do," she says. "Just hang out with me and my friends sometimes. I not only suffer fools, I love fools."
