“Comedians always go first or second, generally, and so I knew I was at risk, but I thought I was gonna be kept around ’cause I’m funny and I can bring that to the show,” Nikki tells ABC Radio. “So I was really trying to just be myself in the moments that I got to talk — because that’s the problem!”
She explains, “As a comedian, when your voice is taken from you and you just can communicate with your body, but you can’t be funny with your body, ’cause there’s nothing funny about doing a salsa! It’s supposed to be sexy and in control and so I was completely out of my comfort zone, completely disabled with[out] the thing I’m good at.”
Nikki also wants to underscore that she was not making a sex joke Tuesday night when Tom Bergeron asked her if being a comedian had prepared her for being judged. She answered by saying she’d had a lot of rejection and rough sets — as in stand-up comedy sets — but Tom made it sound like she’d said “rough sex.”
“It was a good moment but I just wanna be very clear: I did not mean to say something that dirty on television and I did not mean it that way!” she laughs. “I meant that I bomb a lot in standup!”
Dancing with the Stars continues Monday night at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
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