VH1 is being pretty quiet in launching its new one-woman sketch comedy show, “Stevie TV.” The first episode debuted last Sunday with little or no promotion; I only happened to catch the second one this Sunday.
There’s no doubt that its star, Stevie Ryan, is one talented girl, able to ape any number of modern celebrities; more rare, she has the kind of glamour that’s needed to pull off, say, a parody of Megan Fox lounging as a dorky sitcom star, or Audrina Patridge all dolled up in a golden bikini.
In fact it may be the constant poking at VH1 stars that may have landed her in the lousy timeslot – Sundays at 11 p.m. In addition to Audrina and “Mob Wives” this week she also did an extensive takeoff of “Basketball Wives,” starting first with the women throwing drinks at one another, and then one of the spouces of WNBA stars – “Basketball Husbands.” And even one about mascots.
It’s not necessarily side-slapping stuff, but fairly clever and amusing as any recent “SNL” skits.
The one bit where I recognized she had what it took was her spot-on imitation of the crazy model Courtney from “The Bachelor” and a very timely one too since it comes before that show’s finale.
Doing Lindsay Lohan and the “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” involves wearing bad teeth and doing drunk jokes, but the half hour moves fast and she seems to have collected a pretty good repertory cast so she doesn’t have to do everything.
Ryan’s roots as an internet performer has given her some experience. But as past shows have demonstrated – what’s impressive online doesn’t always translate to TV. But so far, this one does.
Ryan, who appeared before reporters earlier this year at the TV critics winter press tour said of her show “it’s a dream come true, obviously.
I mean, I’m just this poor girl from Victorville that was just like messing around with the camera. And to just go to work every day and have a trailer and have all these people editing for you, it’s pretty awesome,” she says.
Despite her dressing up in bikinis and doing sexy poses for some of her characters, Ryan says her show has a feminist basis.
“I think it really just highlights the silliness of what we’re watching right now and what we’re being exposed to,” she says of “Stevie TV.” “Especially as women, a lot of the time we’re kind of just placed as props into things.
“And for some reason, it’s become okay to be a prop or just to be a pretty prop or and it’s kind of weird, and everybody notices it,” she says. “And I think our show is different because it’s not so much original characters, it is kind of pointing out those things that we’re all thinking, especially as women.”
So far, she’s enjoyed best playing Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga and of course Kim Kardashian, which she says “is really fun just because like I get this huge stuffed butt … and it’s just funny to be Kim and say crazy things as her. “