Aisha Tyler

Photographs by Michael Zeppetello

Where you’ve seen her:
Working the mic as a stand-up comedienne, as the saucy hostess of Talk Soup on E!, and in recent flick Showtime with Eddie Murphy and Robert De Niro.

We’ll take the former:
“You know the deal with guys, you either have to make out with them or make them laugh. So to keep from making out with dozens of men every night, I have to crack them up.”

Every comic needs a sidekick…or two:
“On my second show, the buttons on my shirt betrayed me, and I did a segment with my shirt open. I thought I was so funny, but everyone was, like, ‘You are, but not for the reasons you think.’”

She’s corny:
“I know that there’s this porn-supported myth that girls get together in their underpants and hit each other with pillows, but it does not exist. One girl will go, ‘I have a corn, and it’s killing me,’ and another one will go, ‘Oh, I have something for that.’”

August 2001 (#45)