Our article on the lovely and witty British comedienne, Kay Kendall, has elicited requests for a follow-up piece on similarly beautiful comedy stars. —Happy to oblige!
Topping our list of Kendall’s sassy successors is an all-too-obvious choice: Tina Fey! She’s not only a really funny and now wealthy star comedienne, but has also been praised for her writing and producing acumen. As for her beauty, it even got her on the prized cover of Vanity Fair magazine in 2009.
In our view, second place goes to Aisha Tyler, the first woman and black talent to host “Talk Soup.” We’ve enjoyed Tyler’s stint as cohost on “The View” and have also seen her host a travel show. Tantalizing trivia: During a telecast of “The View,” duskily lovely Aisha volunteered the information that she is part Filipino on her mother’s side. —How true?
Kristen Wiig is another lovely comedienne who’s moved up to stellar status after paying her dues on “Saturday Night Live.” She’s also known for her penchant for spot-on impersonations of celebrities like Katharine Hepburn and Jamie Lee Curtis.
Easy on the eyes
Sarah Silverman is a TV-film comedienne who’s really easy on the eyes, and knows how to tickle viewers’ funnybones into giggling submission.
Amy Poehler usually plays straight gal to Tina Fey in comedy gigs (think the Golden Globes), but she’s popular in her own right as the top female lead of “Parks and Recreations.”
Other lovely and lively comers include Maya Rudolph, Beth Littleford, Maria Bamford, Ellie Kemper and Chelsea Handler, who’s now a certified TV star with a controversially sassy TV show to call her own.
On the local TV-film front, the pioneering comedienne with very good looks was the late and still much-missed Nida Blanca. A true-blue all-around performer, Nida became a musical-comedy star, but could also “do drama” very well, as proven by the acting awards she received.
After Nida, the next batch of lovely comediennes were the so-called “Dolphy’s Angels,” cute and sexy kittens led by Carmi Martin, who’s popular to this day (she’s on “Ismol Family”).