News that the singer had done a slot in New York’s Comedy Cellar was met with derision, but she has always walked a fine line between comedy character and over-the-top pop star

New York’s famed Comedy Cellar has long been known as a testing ground for hot young talent. The Greenwich Village club hosted stand-ups like Ray Romano and Jon Stewart early in their careers, and although tourists now flock to the venue in the hope of seeing an A-lister do a surprise drop-in, young comics can still get their start there. Case in point: last weekend, Madonna did a set at the Comedy Cellar. You may be able to draw nearly 2 million people to Rio’s Copacabana beach for a concert, but in the cutthroat world of comedy, you still have to start from the bottom.

A report in the Sun said that Madonna tested out material for about 30 minutes, and that she was accompanied to the club by her friend Amy Schumer, who later went on Howard Stern to big up Madonna’s act. “She has something in her that’s interested in standup and she knows that, like anything else, you have to work really hard on it. She is kind of working on her set and it’s not cringey,” Schumer told Stern. “She’s funny! She’s got jokes. She’s got things to say. She’s got tea.”