Whitney Cicero Is Here For The Laughs

Whitney Cicero didn’t plan on being a funny mom on Instagram. Though she went to UCLA wanting to become an actor, she spent her career in corporate America. And then, like so many other moms on Instagram these days, she leaned into her roots and started bringing her talents to social media. Fast forward to today, and the Gen X Californian owns an influencer casting and content creation agency called Whink, and is a standup comic on the side.

She has two kids: Charlotte, 20, who, when we spoke via Zoom last week, was about to leave for a study abroad program in Italy, and her son is a freshman at Tulane. As a new empty nester, Cicero has a unique spin on mom content; what drew me to her were her “Middle Age Mom Updates,” which are so funny and charming and alarming all at once.

Despite the nearby but thankfully not too close wildfires, we had a lovely conversation about motherhood, comedy, and, yes, aging.

Scary Mommy: First of all, we need to talk about being an empty nester because now you're in it. What has that transition been like for you?

Whitney Cicero: It was really hard because you just feel like your heart is walking around outside your body and you don't have control. Initially, it's horrible. Here's the other side of it: No one's making nachos at 1:00 AM in the morning. No one's stealing your phone chargers. You're not worrying and staying up because you're like, because you stay up and wait until they get home. And your house is clean. So that's the trade. And I got to say that's been kind of nice because my children are disgusting. They're somewhat feral.

SM: What do they think of your social media personality?

WC: It's interesting. Charlotte's more an extrovert like myself, and she's into it. My son's an introvert and was mortified and has absolutely spent probably the last 10 years being mortified because his friends follow me and his teachers follow me. I had a partnership with Bush Bomb where I used their trimmer through a car wash to show how fast it was to trim your bush. And he was like, "Mom, I got so much shit for that. It's really embarrassing." Now, just the last time I saw him, he goes, "Mom, you are completely unhinged. And for so long, I hated it. But now I kind of respect it." I was like, "Oh, thank you." So they've come around.

SM: Do you agree that you're unhinged?

WC: I think for my age group and being a mom and putting it all out there and having no filter... yeah, I think compared to other moms.

SM: So when did you start doing this?

WC: I used to do Facebook way back when. Before video was even around, and my friend who was a documentary filmmaker, said, "These [posts] are funny, you should record them." And I'm like, "What? I'm not going to put this on video." And she goes, "Well, I'll film them." So that took off, and we went viral pretty early on my Facebook time and hit 100,000 followers, which was great. I was a late adopter to Instagram.

SM: What is the best part of being a 54-year-old mom on the internet? I love the middle-aged mom updates. Those crack me up.

WC: I think the very best part for me, Kate, is when I get a DM that says, "Thank you for making me feel normal." All of it is worth it. If I made one woman be like, "Yeah, this is hard, and you made me feel normal and you made me feel seen." I'm like, "Good. My job is done." That's all. And I think humor, my thing's about humor.

SM: Right. What's with the New Stepford name?

WC: The Stepford Wives are the perfect wife through the male gaze and through patriarchy. And I was like, I think we need to flip what a perfect woman is and reinvent what it really means to be a perfect mom. No one is perfect. Nobody knows what they're doing. So the New Stepford was kind of like, "Hey, we're going to rewrite the narrative a little bit about what it means to be a mom." And it's so funny, some people get it and some people don't get it.

SM: Oh, it's great. Are you kidding? I feel like you have to get it.

WC: Younger people don't get it because they don't know the reference.

SM: Oh, that's even sadder.

WC: Yeah, I know. Read a book, people. Put down TikTok. Read a fucking book.

SM: So how did you come up with the middle-aged mom bit?

WC: I was inspired by a couple of things. Watching other mom influencers kind of niche down into stuff because if you go back into my feed about a year and a half, two years ago, it was a bit frenetic. And then I started being like, "Let's kind of start putting a theme to it." And it was really just a middle-aged mom update. They started doing well.

SM: It's really fun. Do you have any favorite followers on Instagram?

WC: I have a girl crush on a writer named Kay Cannon, and she's the one who did Pitch Perfect. She wrote for 30 Rock. I would just tag her in things because she's such an inspiration to me, and one day, she started following me. And now we kind of go back and forth on Instagram stories and DMs.

SM: How fun is that?

WC: She's who I want to be when I grow up. She's just a brilliant, brilliant writer.

SM: I love that. Ok, this is not a serious question. What, especially as you age, has been like, if you have to get ready in 10 minutes… what do you put on your face?

WC: Always sunscreen. I read one of those Teen Beat articles when I was 14 and I think it was Nicole Kidman, and she's like, "I never go out without sunscreen." And since that day I've never gone out without or wearing a hat. So I think that's number one. Then lashes, when I had a little more disposable income. I'm a little broke right now, but I've loved getting my lashes done.

SM: What is your standup schedule these days?

WC: In a perfect world, I would perform standup three nights a week and go watch two nights a week. That's really what I need to get better. We're very lucky in LA we've got the Improv, we've got the Comedy Store, we've got the Laugh Factory, and they are incredibly polished veteran talents. And for me as an aspiring comic, I just really, I learn. Then I decided to produce my own show, called MILF and Cookies. And part of that is going around and trying to curate new talent and find new talent and put them on my shows. I do them twice a month. It forces me to work on my set because I have to host, plus it forces me to get out there and find new comics. And I pay my comics, which is different than a lot of small shows and open mics because I'm like, "You need to be paid for your talent."

SM: That's so fun. Do you watch a lot of standup shows then? Or do you do more smaller-time comics?

WC: I think Nate Bargatze is fantastic. There's another one named Kate Blandford. She's not a mom, but she's funny as hell. I love the "I can't believe he just said that" kind of shit. Like Anthony Jeselnik. He's really, really dark.

It’s been an interesting journey, Kate, because I'm pretty, I'm blonde. I stand up there and I tell jokes about suicide and people don't quite know what to do with it. And so I think I'm on my journey. I haven't really discovered my voice yet as a comic. I'm getting there.

SM: It's so fun.

WC: It is fun. It's a muscle you got to flex. And that's why when you ask me who's my favorite people that I follow, it's the writers. I want to be Andrea Savage.

SM: Oh, she's the best. I interviewed her once. I'm Sorry is one of the greatest shows.

WC: One of the great TV shows of all time. This is kind of funny. I'm Sorry inspired me to go to UCLA and take sitcom writing classes. So the very first pitch script I wrote was an I'm Sorry spec script. And I think I nailed it. I reread it. I'm like, "Damn, that's funny."

You know what, if you have a minute, tune into No Good Deed.

SM: Oh, I've watched it.

WC: I think that's very surprisingly sharp. I was like, oh, this is good.

SM: Well, Lisa Kudrow can basically do no wrong, first of all.

WC: Exactly.

SM: And Linda Cardellini too. Fucking age, woman.

WC: She's not aging. Her tits look fantastic. She's a gorgeous woman, and I love that she played the villain this time.

SM: So if you have a TV night, what do you watch?

WC: Well, the Whitney Cicero special is eating my weight in Indian food and watching horror movies. I'm a horror junkie.

SM: Oh my God. I hate horror movies with a passion. They scare the shit out of me.

WC: And some people like it. And I think that's my dark humor side.

SM: I take it too literally. What are your favorite horror movies?

WC: My favorite horror movie is Cabin in the Woods. It took every single horror trope and it flipped it. And so, as a horror fan, it just kept pivoting the tropes, and it kept you on your feet the whole time. And it was both funny and gross, but thoughtful and weird. A lot of people would like, oh, it's The Exorcist. And I love The Last of Us.

SM: Do you watch comedy shows, or do you only watch horror?

WC: I surprisingly don't watch as many comedy specials as I probably should because I think, to be very honest, I have professional jealousy, so I'd rather go see the comics live, get to know them, befriend them, get them on my shows.

SM: Do you read a lot, or are you mostly just doing comedy stuff?

WC: No, I read a ton. I have stacks. I currently have six different books. I have a book I keep in my car, so if you're ever like, I'm just going to grab a bite to eat, you can take it with you. I have a purse book that's like a thinner paperback that can go into the dentist's office with me, and then I've got four by my bed.

SM: How do you read all this at once and not get confused? Also, what are these books?

WC: I've got The Dance Macabre by Stephen King, which is his book about writing horror, and then that branched into like, well, you've got to read Jekyll and Hyde and Frankenstein and Dracula. You have to go back to the classics if you want to completely do that. So I just bought all those and then Mad Honey. That's my current car book. And then my friend just wrote a book called Moonshine. That's my purse book right now. And then I'm an atheist, so I've got all of Dawkins and Hitchens stuff right by my bed... But that just depresses me.

SM: Ha! OK, a few more questions, then I'll let you go. What's the most bogus parenting advice you've ever received?

WC: Can we flip that to the inverse?

SM: Sure.

WC: The best parenting advice was to learn the phrase, “This doesn't work for me or my family.” Because you get so much advice and input, and at some point, you just have to anchor to your own moral code and be like, that noise doesn't work for me. And being like, that doesn't work for me or that doesn't work my family.

SM: That's great.

WC: “You should pre-pack your lunches.” “You should put it on a spreadsheet.” “You should have a calendar.” Great, that works for you. That doesn't work for me. It was very powerful because you start to establish boundaries, and it also makes you go, not everybody's right. You have to really listen to your own strengths and your kid's strengths and figure out how to work it all together.

SM: That is really good advice. OK, last question. What was your last meal?

WC: I had an apple and peanut butter last night for dinner after we came home from pub trivia, which we won, and we won a bottle of Fireball.

SM: Oh my God. They still make that?

WC: They still do. So my dinner was a Fireball and Coke and an apple and peanut butter. Breakfast of champions.

SM: That's hysterical. Also, is Fireball and Coke any good?

WC: It's delicious. Cinnamon Coke. I took the shot, I poured it in, and I'm like, give this to God. I don't know how this is going to taste. And it was delicious.

SM: I love that you actually opened the bottle of the Fireball that you got too. It's pretty impressive.

WC: We won! My husband is a savant. He retains everything, and I offer nothing unless it's musical theater genre or random horror movie stuff. Those are the only times I can contribute.

SM: Those are two good things to be able to have an expertise in because not everyone has that.

WC: Right? It's very niche, but when that category comes on, I'm like mmmhmmm.