Ali Wong's hilariously debauched 'Single Lady' is an atypical take on divorce
In her new comedy special "Single Lady," Ali Wong seeks to reframe the stereotype of middle-aged divorced women with herself as the leading example.
For all that comedian Ali Wong talks about sex onstage, her first three specials came from a place of inherent sexual constraint: a long-term, monogamous marriage.
In “Single Lady,” her fourth, self-directed hour, all guardrails are off. Two years ago, Wong got divorced from her husband of nearly a decade. Wong now narrates in the same gleefully graphic detail she once applied to the birth of her first child. “I really went on a tear,” the 42-year-old says, and has the anecdotes to show for it.
But with “Single Lady,” Wong wants to do more than simply recount her exploits to an ecstatic crowd at L.A.’s Wiltern Theater. The stand-up wants to reframe the middle-aged divorced woman from a pathetic figure, per popular stereotype, into a triumphant one, with herself as the leading example.
“Look how much fun I’m having,” she exhorts her audience.
Wong makes a convincing case, albeit less about the broader condition of midlife divorce than her own highly exceptional set of circumstances — starting with the fact that her own split was national news, an experience she calls “a bat signal letting all potentially interested men know I was suddenly available.”
Rating: 5