Once In Love With Amy?

Trainwreck was my introduction to Amy Schumer. I'd heard about her, but never watched her TV show or stand-up act.  Until now. I just watched her recent HBO special Amy Schumer Live At The Apollo.

Her stand-up character (which is essentially herself, she'd have us believe) is a cute girl who's not Hollywood gorgeous and isn't ashamed to admit she has certain urges.  I don't know if her act has changed much from earlier days, but from what I can tell, it consists of her talking about eating, drinking and sex.  Mostly sex.

A lot of her material is about double standards women face. How they have to be beautiful in Hollywood, or how they're not supposed to want sex as much as men, or how they have to not eat too much (publicly), or how if they talk about sex in a raunchy way they're labeled differently from how a male comedian would be.  She's also got a lot of material explaining the differences between men and women. She spends a lot of time mocking others, but just as much mocking herself.

The material is alright, but not particularly deep or clever  She has a take on life, but sticks to areas we've seen covered by other comics, and her insights never quite rise to the level of brilliance.  The best stand-up comedians, when they get to do an hour, take you on a journey.  People like Chris Rock (who directed Schumer's special, though I have no idea how much the director has to do for this kind of thing beyond turning on the camera) or Louis C. K. can penetrate deeper than most, and even make you see things differently.

Her audience, mostly in their 20s, loves her. (How do I know how old her audience is?  She asks them in her act, and then makes fun of how all those 20-somethings view life.) And now with a film hit I guess she's bigger than ever.  As a stand-up, however, she's professional, but not top tier.