Amy Schumer Covers ‘Vogue’: Comedian Talks About Her Persona, Prince’s Death

Amy Schumer skyrocketed to the comedy A-list following the release of her feature film Trainwreck – and now she’s covering Vogue.

Amy Schumer In ‘Vogue’

During her Vogue interview, Schumer found out that Prince had died, and that night she was performing standup in Minneapolis, Prince’s hometown. “I’m not going to do, like, the too-soon Prince joke,” Schumer said. Instead, she poured some wine out for the late icon. What did Schumer think about Prince? “I was always a little confused about him. I was always like, I don’t understand why or what.”

A death that personally affected Schumer was that of former comedian Joan Rivers, who Schumer has long listed as a primary inspiration. “When I heard she had died, I was like, ‘Well, that’s not possible,’” Schumer told Vogue. “It really f–ked me up.”

Schumer, perhaps taking a lesson from Rivers, doesn’t want to feel beholden to the established rules of the entertainment industry. She believes that this might separate her from comedy greats Julia Louis-Dreyfuss and Tina Fey, who’ve carved out different niches for themselves.

“Sometimes I feel like they’re hustling, they want something, and they’re not going to stop until they get it, and they play the game. I am very into making up my own rules,” Schumer said. “Like, I don’t want to play the game and succeed at it. I want to redefine it. That’s the only way I can deal with it. Maybe that’s naive. ”

Schumer has been testing the ways in which women can be funny, relying on a crude brand of humor not dissimilar from Chelsea Handler. However, unlike Handler, the persona of the promiscuous and substance-addled funny woman isn’t quite as close to her reality.

“I was always boy crazy, but I wasn’t promiscuous. [My friends] were acting out sexually years before me,” Schumer confessed. “I loved being around that, but I didn’t have sex until I was seventeen.” She adds later, “I didn’t really remember seeing that many women talk about sex in stand-up. Of course they have. Joan was doing it before anyone else on television. But I was like, I’ll be that.”

Now Schumer includes some jokes about her new boyfriend Ben Hanisch in her act. “We’re in love,” she says. “And we’re still in total honeymoon phase. It’s a real relationship. Who knows what will happen, but we’re real good right now.”