Yvonne Orji Says the Comedy World Doesn't Know What to Do With Someone "Sexy and Funny"

Countless fans got to know Yvonne Orji as Molly on Insecure, but before she landed an Emmy nomination for the hit series, Orji got her start in stand-up comedy. And she's still performing today—even though taking to the stage continues to scare her.

"Comedy scared the crap out of me. Still does," Orji shares with editor-in-chief Nikki Ogunnaike on the latest episode of "Nice Talk".

"It is the thing that I know I'm purposed to do, but the thing that I always feel like I'm incapable of doing," she explains. "Before a sold-out show that has my name on the marquee, I'm hyperventilating in the back ... And then, without fail, the minute I hear 'Coming to the stage next, your headliner, Yvonne Orji,' it's like, I grab the mic and I'm a different person. Like, when Beyoncé says she becomes Sasha Fierce, I understand. I become this person that's supposed to do this thing."

One thing that helps with Orji's confident onstage persona is her outfits. She's already excited about the "bedazzled ... oversized" looks she's planning for her upcoming tour.

"You always gotta look good, because even if your jokes fail, everything can bomb, but your shoes gotta be the bomb."

Her shoe of choice?

"I'm always in some kind of a boot, thigh high. It could be stilettos, but, like, just sexy. I want to feel like a femme fatale up there," the 42-year-old says. And she pairs her boots with shorts or pants, because they work well with the physicality of her shows. "I'm dropping down. I'm basically being Mary J. Blige up on stage."

Looking back on the outfits she wore for her two HBO comedy specials, 2020's Momma, I Made It! and 2022's A Whole Me, Orji says, "I was like, we can be sexy and funny."

And while Orji is making this statement loud and clear now, she knows that it's viewed as outside of the norm for the comedy world, which she says tries to "put female comics in the box."

"When I first started doing comedy," she continues, "I would dress up and people were like, 'Oh, you here for the spoken word?' I'm like, 'Is it spoken word? Are we at a comedy club?' They were like, 'Oh, you singing.' I was like, 'If I do, everybody's leaving.' But it was just this idea, this concept that I was too pretty to be funny. I hated it." She jokes, "I mean, I am pretty and funny, and my number is..."

For more from Orji—including the documentary she accidentally starting making and her new podcast, "Foolishness at Its Finest"—check out this week’s installment of "Nice Talk". The episode is available everywhere you listen to podcasts.