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A look at the stand-up career of ‘Resident Alien’ star Alice Wetterlund
Perhaps ‘Peeping Tom’ should be changed to ‘Punching Paul.’
D’arcy Bloom may have begun as the resident bartender on SYFY’s Resident Alien, but lately she’s been searching for something more. The queen of barbs and jabs is no stranger to consuming a lot of alcohol, but she wants to change that behavior. That hasn’t affected her wit, which is skillfully deployed by actress Alice Wetterlund.
The masterful comedic timing that Wetterlund brings to the character doesn’t come out of nowhere; she is a stand-up comedian as well as an actress. She has a versatility that certainly plays a part in enriching D’arcy’s presence on the show.
In a special taped at the Gothic Theater in Denver, Wetterlund jokes about society’s slow progress when it comes to women’s rights, something that D’arcy herself might joke about.
“The older you get, the more confident you are, the wiser you get… and I also love as I age, I actually become less attractive to serial killers,” Wetterlund says in the special. “It’s a perk, you know?” She goes on to talk about how the term “Peeping Tom” should change, and that maybe violence against women should actually be taken seriously. One of the terms she suggests is “Punching Paul.” Cops shouldn’t expect her to be “less sexy” in her own bedroom.
She goes on to joke about how she once ran after a stalker, but was dressed the same way he was, in a black hoodie.
“So if I caught up to him, it would look like I just wanted to intern,” she said. “Hey, wanted to see if I could break into this, get some Peeping Tammy’s in there.”
She brings up her own alcoholism in the same special, another subject that directly relates to D’arcy.
“I stopped drinking in 2016…” she says, adding, “…wrong year to stop.” She goes into more detail, saying, “I was a messy drunk, I had to clean up my act, basically I was getting drunk and punching people who weren’t Nazis.”
How did she feel about alcohol while she was active? “Oh, it’s like my best friend, it’s the only thing I trust,” she said of her drinking days. When a friend asked if she drank every day, she joked about responding, “Oh yeah, but only because I need to.”
Her routines obviously deal with serious subject matter, but Wetterlund is able to find the humor beneath the horror, especially when it comes from her own personal experiences. Her dark comedy comes from a real place, and it doesn’t punch down. She doesn’t mock others, she mocks herself more than anyone else, save for when it comes to the very obvious shortcomings of societal norms.
Her sketch comedy appearances have been a little different, with one of her more memorable appearances being a fake commercial in the MTV series Girl Code. The commercial was selling a cure for diarrhea. The sketch stands out, but it’s hardly her only contribution to the show. Still a prolific comedian and podcaster to this day, Wetterlund balances it all with her acting work. Her own personal sense of humor, even when it comes from dark places, can’t help but inform her work on Resident Alien.
New episodes of Resident Alien air on SYFY at 10:00 PM every Wednesday night.
