A Roll named Esther and the Cheesecake

Channel Surfing last night provided me with a real surprise. I have never thought Wanda Sykes was funny and there I was kinda stuck on her one woman show waiting for the Chris Rock special next in the queue. Within 30 seconds, I was laughing out loud, by the first minute tears were escaping, I was laughing so long. She got me first by the exquisite way she gave her midrift bulge a name of its own: esther (no explanation, if you got it, you got it.) It had its own voice, kinda of a rough growl when demanding "cheesecake and alcohol." The roll named Esther brought me to tears when trying to escape to meet Jay Leno. Then the old woman doing the "dead dick" dance got me whooping! Wanda eased a little social commentary in there when she said we've been marching for breast cancer for ten years but men don't march for their balls, when the dick is broken, they just fix it. So she got a quick 'amen' from me, and then it was back to screaming with laughter when she told us all about her waxing experience, I was up walking around the living room, yelling with glee at the tv. We've seen/heard a lot of routines about getting a bikini wax, but nothing ever came close to what Wanda was talking about. Her facial expressions, her body language and her explanations were nuanced, fresh and funny. And when it was all over, the expression on her face as she basked in the wild cheering from the crowd, won me totally. I enjoyed her so much that I turned off Chris after the first five minutes, I wanted to rewind Wanda and laugh loud again. I'm Ruth Adkins Robinson, a Wanda Sykes fan.