Celeb Row

We’ve seen Aisha Tyler get cozy with some Friends and enter the world of ping-pong in Balls of Fury. But she’s also taken dramatic turns in films and on TV. Currently performing around the country promoting her stand-up comedy special DVD Aisha Tyler Is Lit: Live at the Fillmore, the former gawky kid talks sports, Shaq and ruling the room.

You’re six feet tall and this is a basketball magazine, so you know the inevitable first question is if you ever played basketball and were you any good?
The few times I played basketball intramurally, I was very effective at scoring points for the other team, so I quickly gave it up. You see these brilliant women in the WNBA and they’re so elegant and so tall. I never remember being that elegant. I am athletic. I’m an avid snowboarder. I do distance bike riding. I’ve run several marathons. All kinds of crazy alternative sports like ice climbing and rock climbing. But I’m not a team sports person. I don’t know why that is, because I love other people. I just don’t want them to brush up against me when they’ve been sweating.

Do you like watching basketball?
My husband (of 17 years, Jeff Tietjens) played basketball in high school. He’s 6-7, so I was lucky to find a boy who was taller than me, and that I liked. He follows it a little more closely than I do. I jump in at the end and I root for the underdog. I’m an underdog lover.

Do you and your husband ever fight over the remote control?
My dad had the predominant responsibility for raising me when I was little. I have very boy-friendly remote habits. I love sports. I love action movies. My husband and I play Xbox and Wii together on a regular basis. His ability to consume SportsCenter is maybe a little higher than mine. He’s got to have analysis from like the eighth string, 3 p.m. desk jockeys just to make sure he didn’t miss any details. I’m good with one dose of SportsCenter a day. We watch Around the Horn together. He’s definitely lucked out. It’s a battle free house when it comes to the remote.

You once played Shaq's girlfriend on Curb Your Enthusiasm.
I took his shoe off and held it up to my body. It went from my kneecap to my waist. Honestly, too big. That’s all I have to say about that.

What was it like to work with Adam Sandler in Bedtime Stories? Didn’t he break his ankle playing basketball?
He hopped around on set every day for two months and never complained. I know his ankle was killing him. He had this La-Z-Boy and between scenes he would go and recline on the La-Z-Boy and we would watch sports on this enormous plasma screen they had on set.

Is doing stand-up a sense of power to make people laugh?
When you’re on stage and things are clicking and the audience is laughing, it’s electrifying. You kind of get transported into this zone. I think it’s the same zone that athletes talk about where things are flowing and clicking and effortless. You’re not thinking about what you’re going to do next. You’re not thinking about what you’re going to say next. Things are just happening. It’s extraordinary.

From the May/June, 2009 issue