Ziwe enjoys a good haymaker. On her self-titled Showtime variety and talk show, which resumes its second season in November, the guests don’t tell breezy anecdotes or set up clips from their latest movie. Instead, the host’s questions are designed to make the subject and the audience squirm a little.
In one episode, she presented comedian Julio Torres with a quote in which he had said he didn’t want to use his gay or immigrant identity as a calling card. Ziwe asked him, “Who do you want to represent less, immigrants or gay people?” She showed actor Adam Pally a photo of himself with his hair in cornrows and asked, “Is this allyship to the Black community?” She asked Ilana Glazer if she was profiting off of climate change by calling her stand-up special “The Planet Is Burning,” and followed up by asking if any fossil fuels were used to make “Broad City.”
Her aim is to subvert the tradition of talk show niceties to get to something more real. “It’s a different entry point,” Ziwe says ahead of her live show Oct. 14 at The Wilbur, “where you really get to understand the celebrity by giving them an unfair question.”
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