In her new special Single Lady, raunchy comedian Ali Wong holds back

From her stand-up specials Don Wong and Hard Knock Wife, to her roles in Always Be My Maybe and Beef, Ali Wong has made a name for herself as a comedian who's not afraid to "go there" (with "there" often being the dirtiest place possible).

But in her latest stand-up special on Netflix, Wong unpacks life after her divorce and her ongoing quest for love in a way that's uncharacteristically mild. Has the comedian lost her edge? Or, has she made the rare move of setting some clear boundaries around what she will and won't address on stage?

Today on Commotion, film critics Rachel Ho and Rad Simonpillai, as well as comedian Cassie Cao join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to discuss what they respected — but maybe didn't like — about the Netflix comedy special Ali Wong: Single Lady.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, including the panel's thoughts on the new Apple TV+ series Disclaimer and the upcoming Western film Rust, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.

Elamin: Ali Wong is known for a really raw, sort of in-your-face comedic style. How was she in this new special?

Cassie: I really liked it. This is her fourth special. I think her first one, Baby Cobra, it's now [almost] 10 years old, and I want to highlight to everybody how hard it is to maintain a level of consistency across specials, across this much time. Also, how hard it is to write good stand-up when you're successful and rich, and you absolutely don't need to do it anymore.

I think she's really excellent. And the level of consistency — she delivers. She doesn't pull any crap on her audiences. She doesn't bring out a notebook. She doesn't go off the rails. She delivers what you paid your ticket for, and I really appreciate that.

Elamin: How did you feel about her vulnerability? Because that's something that I think we take for granted with Ali Wong, is she's going to go to the vulnerable place. Like, the jokes are raunchy and dirty, and then there's a turn. There's a turn in every Ali Wong joke; she sort of turns it inwards, and that's her brilliance. Did you feel like she got to a vulnerable place in this special?

Cassie: I would say this is definitely not her most vulnerable special, but I also understand it. First of all, I think of her as maybe the dirtiest comic that I can even think of. She holds it back for her Netflix specials. She's giving us the most PG stuff she has in her joke book. I thought the one before, Don Wong, was so dirty, and I was thinking she had garnered enough trust with her audiences to go even dirtier. And I was a little disappointed that it didn't go dirtier. It didn't go more vulnerable. She didn't talk shit about her husband. I was waiting for that, you know? But at the same time, I really respect Ali Wong for being such a huge star, so successful, facing so much pressure from media and fans, and she holds her boundaries. She's like, if I'm not going to talk about it, we're just not going to talk about it. And I think that's a really powerful message.

Elamin: Rachel, you are not a fan of Ali Wong's brand of comedy. I want to talk about this. That said, what did you make of the themes and the issues that she's kind of trying to tackle in the special?

Rachel: I want her to be successful, and I feel like it's important for us to support one another within these smaller communities. But I feel like she's closer to being a shock jock than to anything else. Like, she says things to get a rise out of people, and to me that's not necessarily clever comedy. It's not necessarily intelligent comedy. It's just saying the thing that people don't expect you to say, like playing against type. I feel like that has kind of been her thing, and it doesn't feel all that authentic to me personally. 

I do like, though, the themes that she talks about in this one. I think it's interesting. I mean, the idea of being 40 and being divorced and being a single mom and trying to date again and the openness with which she shares her journey, I think is pretty cool. And I like that. We all know who she's dating right now, and so I understand why maybe she's not going full-throttle into it, because he is a fairly well-known individual himself. But I do think—

Elamin: I was like, do we all know that? I mean, I don't know if I know that.

Cassie: We do. 

Rachel: Bill Hader?

Cassie: And he could take a joke.

Rachel: He absolutely could. But I feel like the fact that she doesn't just shows there's a respect there, right?

Cassie: Yeah, I agree.

Rachel: There's a respect between the two of them to not do it. And I don't know, I respect her more than I like her. And I think the same could be said about this special. I respect it, but it's not necessarily something that I was laughing through the whole time.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Ty Callender.