Photo taken of Wilbur stage by writer
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Writer’s note: This was written on Nov. 29, 2023. This piece was on spec to Ziwe’s hometown newspaper which she mentions in both her book and act. It is also my hometown newspaper, my first byline in 1984, when I was 14, so I was very disappointed when the article was ignored by the editor, who didn’t answer me ever.
Ziwe has been featured in The Boston Globe, but for some reason *ahem* my article was filed and ignored. I said if it was my work, they needed to get someone else to cover her accomplishments. They didn’t.
I was also a public school teacher in her hometown, and although she was never my student, I am incredibly proud of her. Teachers hope their students get to live their dreams and she certainly seems to be.
I finally am running it here.
As comedian and actor Ziwe commanded the Wilbur Theater stage in Boston on Wednesday night, her audience likely had a difficult time believing that she was once an awkward Lawrence Public School student.
But the Lawrence native not only proclaimed her childhood awkwardness, she tried to prove it. She displayed one of her elementary school pictures. In it, young Ziwe definitely looked uncomfortable. Adult Ziwe, known for her fashionable, unique outfits, pointed out her unfashionable white collared blouse. She explained it was part of her required school uniform. “Yes, it was public school, and yes, we had a uniform,” she told the crowd.
Born Ziwerekoru Fumudoh, she said her Nigerian name was difficult for teachers and classmates to pronounce. She told people to use a shortened version of her first name, Ziwe, pronounced Zee-way. When she went to high school at Phillips Academy Andover, she continued to explain how to say her last name.
But when she started in the entertainment industry, where your name is a brand, it got more difficult. In her recently released book, Black Friend, she wrote that people continuously announced her name wrong just as she walked on stage. In her Wilbur Theater performance, she comically described some of the many ways it had been mispronounced. She only uses Ziwe now.
As the mononymous Ziwe stood in front of her Lawrence Public School picture, she launched into some highlights of rising comedic career. She lamented the recent cancellation of her Showtime talk show, which ran for two years. Adapted from her earlier shows on Youtube and Instagram, Ziwe employed an irreverent interview style designed to use discomfort to drive discourse on race, societal expectations, politics, and pop culture.
One of her most watched interviews is with Chester(Chet) Hanks, son of actor Tom Hanks. Although both Ziwe and Chet attended Northwestern University and “met on her first day,” the interview went viral because it is so cringe inducing. The younger Hanks has faced criticism for his erratic behavior and his public comments. Her 2022 sit down with him still had her shaking her head on Wednesday night.
“I am afraid that Chet Hank’s name will be in my obituary,” she laughed, as a picture of him was displayed on the screen.
In her 75 minute set, she flipped through other slides, sharing her love of Brittney Spears, the weirdness of the website Wikifeet, and her parents’ confusion with her career choice.
She said her Nigerian immigrant parents always wanted her to be a doctor or a lawyer. She said they support her now, but she was still mad that they never let her go to sleepovers.
Throughout the show, she shared her memories of living in Massachusetts. She recalled school field trips to Lexington, Concord, and Salem. She bragged about meeting Tom Brady. She named towns in the Merrimack Valley. She said Haverhill correctly. She seemed to forget where Lynn was for a minute when an audience member from there joined her onstage, but then figured it out with audience cueing.
But it is obvious she hasn’t forgotten her time in Lawrence. In her book, she recalls specific memories, like reading The Eagle Tribune with her father. But her recollection of an unnamed teacher who promised her class a pizza party for perfect attendance, is particularly humorous. She theorizes that he probably thought they wouldn’t comply. But they did, and the teacher seemingly tries to avoid his end of the bet. She is relentless though, and she forces the teacher to order the pizza. In the book’s footnotes, she writes that as an adult she realized that her teacher may have been underpaid.
Ziwe may not live in Lawrence now, but she certainly acknowledged how her childhood in the city shaped her. Watching Ziwe dance, joke, and sing across the Wilbur stage made it nearly impossible to believe that she was once the unsure girl in that uniform. But Ziwe proved that she learned to believe in herself during those years.
Her confidence was obvious throughout the show, but especially so at the end. She knew her almost-hometown audience wanted to please her. She assigned three people to release mini confetti cannons and demanded the rest of the audience accurately perform a sing-a-long. She threatened that she’d start over if the lyrics she displayed weren’t followed, even though no one knew the song, and there was a lag in the slides. After a few attempts, and two early confetti clouds, she accepted a flawed version of the audience rendition of her song, and the third confetti cannon was timed perfectly.
Ziwe was just 35 miles from where she used to wear a white and blue uniform like everyone else, hoping to blend in with everyone else. But now, in a bright pink beret, and black platform boots, she was the center of attention. She demanded the laughing crowd deliver, like she once demanded that pizza party. Like then, she knew she’d earned it.
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