Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central, Now what is? What would
Speaker 1: you say your biggest challenge has been getting you to
Speaker 1: where you are hurt? Oh hope. People don't talk about
Speaker 1: how hard hope is. To live in that place where
Speaker 1: you're like, it's gonna happen tomorrow, It's gonna happen tomorrow.
Speaker 1: It's gonna happen tomorrow. Is a very hard place for
Speaker 1: people because sometimes it lets you go. I can't. I quit,
Speaker 1: so a lot of them. So I've been doing stand
Speaker 1: up since two thousand and nine, but I've been acting
Speaker 1: since I was a kid, and I've been singing since
Speaker 1: I was a kid, and I have a theater degree.
Speaker 1: But y'all know me as a comic. So now all
Speaker 1: this work that I do, and I used to do musicals,
Speaker 1: I've done children's shows, I saying I was in an improv group.
Speaker 1: I did all of these other things, but y'all know
Speaker 1: me as a comic at a correspondent on the show.
Speaker 1: So now all of these things I did since I
Speaker 1: was seven years old, I have to now reintroduce everybody too.
Speaker 1: But if I had lost hope and didn't start doing
Speaker 1: because I started doing stand up because somebody told me
Speaker 1: I was a comic. It wasn't something that I chose
Speaker 1: to do. I just happened to be good at something.
Speaker 1: So someone saw something in me that I didn't see
Speaker 1: in myself, and so that was the biggest challenge for
Speaker 1: me to go okay. I have a theater degree. I've
Speaker 1: never been on stage and been myself and said my
Speaker 1: own words, So getting into stand up was one of
Speaker 1: the hardest things for me because I'd never been myself
Speaker 1: on stage. I knew how to perform. I knew how
Speaker 1: to find my light. I know how to plant my feet,
Speaker 1: I how to do I knew all of the trappings
Speaker 1: I'd done on stage nine hundred set theater with no
Speaker 1: microphone and saying to the back of a room, I
Speaker 1: can perform, but it not as me. So that was
Speaker 1: the hardest part of the whole process of going okay.
Speaker 1: I have to be duel set before, so that was
Speaker 1: the hardest part in that. And also listening to my
Speaker 1: mother because a comic told me in two thousand and
Speaker 1: seven then I should do stand up and I didn't
Speaker 1: listen to him, but I started when I was supposed to.
Speaker 1: You see what I'm saying, so you get things and
Speaker 1: you're supposed to, which is always hard to hear. But
Speaker 1: in two thousand and nine, I and once again on
Speaker 1: a unemployment look at God, and I was taking a
Speaker 1: sketch comedy class and I got laid off from a
Speaker 1: job and the comic Big Kenny is like, again, come
Speaker 1: take my stand up class. And I was like, uhh,
Speaker 1: I don't have a job. I can't afford the three
Speaker 1: hundred dollars class and he's like, you're supposed to do this.
Speaker 1: I won't charge you for the class. And then I
Speaker 1: couldn't decide what to do, and my mother told me
Speaker 1: because Big Kenny had been inviting us to shows for
Speaker 1: two years, He's like, you have to do this, you
Speaker 1: have to do this. I was like, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I'm good. And then my mother came up to me
Speaker 1: one day before the class started and she said she
Speaker 1: had a dream that the whole world was laughing at me,
Speaker 1: and she didn't understand what it meant. She's like, why
Speaker 1: people laughing at my daughter? I don't understand what's going on.
Speaker 1: What did she do? And then she said she prayed
Speaker 1: on it. And she was like, oh, my daughter's a comedian.
Speaker 1: So because of my mother and I didn't talk about
Speaker 1: this for a long time because he used to piss
Speaker 1: comics off. When I took a stand up class and
Speaker 1: my mother supported my choice to do stand up. A
Speaker 1: lot of comics don't get that feedback from their family,
Speaker 1: and so I did it. And so May twelfth will
Speaker 1: be my stand up anniversary. And if someone can do math,
Speaker 1: that's what fourteen fifteen years. Thank you Grassi as I
Speaker 1: went to school in Georgia. So I don't know what
Speaker 1: you want from me, but Gwydnett County, so you know
Speaker 1: I did okay, but you know I can't the sixes
Speaker 1: and multiplications are funky, and so yeah, on the twelfth,
Speaker 1: it'll be fourteen years. But either a lot of things
Speaker 1: from just like I'm not sure. I moved to LA
Speaker 1: with suitcases. I moved here with suitcases, and now I'm moving,
Speaker 1: you know, and it's like, so now you're moving, it's
Speaker 1: you have to just go. I will be okay. But
Speaker 1: for me, the hardest part is hoping is I want
Speaker 1: to be a mother and have children and I don't
Speaker 1: have that in my life. So the same hope that
Speaker 1: I applied to work, I now have to figure out
Speaker 1: to apply to this other thing. And that's even harder
Speaker 1: because I knew what to do to be successful in
Speaker 1: my career. I don't know how to hog tie some man.
Speaker 1: So and that's when I, uh, the Lord gave me
Speaker 1: my ministry of no more broke Dick and so yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm the hardest part of any of this is hope,
Speaker 1: because you have to believe in you more than anybody else,
Speaker 1: and you have to love you more than anybody else.
Speaker 1: I have to admit when it just came up on
Speaker 1: the screen, almost tear it up and I was like, no,
Speaker 1: you have a makeup one.
Speaker 2: Don't do it.
Speaker 1: Don't do it. But no one's gonna bring you in
Speaker 1: a tissue. Listen, I'm so excited for you. America's next track,
Speaker 1: Superstar Congratulations with Sashakoby. Now tell me you're in your
Speaker 1: winning era.
Speaker 2: Definitely, definitely early.
Speaker 1: I was at the Sasha Colby meeting. Great period And
Speaker 1: if you weren't watching the show and don't catch that
Speaker 1: you need to get your life together. How does it feel?
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, it's two weeks since I won, and
Speaker 3: it's like still like integrating in me, Like I haven't
Speaker 3: realized that I actually want the big one, Like I
Speaker 3: caught the biggest fish that you.
Speaker 1: Could and it hasn't clicked.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, like it'll be random. I'll be like
Speaker 2: on a plane, I'll be like, oh I did it, Like.
Speaker 1: That's pretty listen. It's like I was. Someone asked me yesterday,
Speaker 1: it's like, so, how does it feel to be hosted
Speaker 1: a daily show? And it didn't click for me until
Speaker 1: about four pm yesterday because I've been like moving and
Speaker 1: I was like time and I was like, oh shit,
Speaker 1: I'm hosting a daily show. So I know exactly how
Speaker 1: you feel. Because what I got here, I was like,
Speaker 1: they're asking me all these questions. I'm like, oh shit,
Speaker 1: I'm hosting a date.
Speaker 2: Oh I'm supposed to know the answer.
Speaker 1: I'm supposed to do to answer to these questions. So
Speaker 1: it's like, listen, now, I know. The running joke we
Speaker 1: told y'all was the Sasha Colby meet and great Now,
Speaker 1: what's it like competing as a queen who was already
Speaker 1: legendary before she got on the show, Because you are
Speaker 1: a legend and you have to appreciate her as Goddes sees.
Speaker 3: Daughters, greatness is greatness, absolutely, So tell the children what
Speaker 3: it was like to be legendary and then be out
Speaker 3: here with the children. Well, I mean, I am mother, true,
Speaker 3: so I deal with a lot of kids, right, A lot.
Speaker 2: Of kids come in and out of the way.
Speaker 3: But I must say the group of girls, the group
Speaker 3: of drag performers that we were with that I got
Speaker 3: to be so blessed to compete with, were such amazing girls,
Speaker 3: like literally the best cast I could ever have dreamt
Speaker 3: to be with. Okay, but legend they all knew, you know.
Speaker 3: That's why they all stood.
Speaker 1: Up with the mead and greet and like listen, because
Speaker 1: I remember when you walked in the room. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you've ever seen shock and awe before, but
Speaker 1: I'm talking about face cracked, jaws drop. I literally saw
Speaker 1: somebody go.
Speaker 2: And I think you can hear a nature go. Should
Speaker 2: we all go home now?
Speaker 1: Because you walked in the room, and it's like, should
Speaker 1: we even try?
Speaker 3: I'm glad the delusion was hitting hard and they did try.
Speaker 3: I mean, I want I want him good next to me,
Speaker 3: you know, I want to beat the best.
Speaker 1: I'm going to go respect that because the nature was
Speaker 1: not playing when it came to the lipsy, just free.
Speaker 2: Willing, no, ma'am.
Speaker 1: If you did not do no free Willie moment because
Speaker 1: the nature was not playing with anybody. That's why the
Speaker 1: whole season, I was just like, please please please put
Speaker 1: Sasha in a nature together. Television is not ready. They
Speaker 1: have to compete together.
Speaker 3: Yes, I mean after that lolla perusa. I mean that
Speaker 3: was like a final two number right there.
Speaker 1: It had to happen. It had to happen because the
Speaker 1: drag delusion was real.
Speaker 2: It's real.
Speaker 3: We all suffered from it a little, some more so
Speaker 3: than others.
Speaker 1: Mother, this this on the like now y'all know for
Speaker 1: like I've watched the show. I was a judge on Rupel'
Speaker 1: Drag Race like last season like two seas and I
Speaker 1: was like, it has been my dream forever to be
Speaker 1: a judge on that show. So I'm waiting. Listen, they're
Speaker 1: gonna put you on All Stars. They're going to a winner,
Speaker 1: also a winner now because you are legendary, because you
Speaker 1: are mother, we need to know about the journey. So
Speaker 1: I do want to know that you're the first Hawaiian
Speaker 1: queen to take the crown.
Speaker 3: Yes, actually I think I'm the first Hawaiian queen to
Speaker 3: compete All That's actually show one of other Polynesian girls,
Speaker 3: but the first representing Hawaii.
Speaker 1: Praise God. So how is your Hawaiian heritage shaped you
Speaker 1: as a trans woman?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 3: Well, I think being any indigenous culture, there is the
Speaker 3: third sex. There is this level of non binary that
Speaker 3: was always known and spoken about before you know, colonization, Christianity,
Speaker 3: all that love you Christians love yourselves anyway, that's the reality.
Speaker 2: How you gonna love anybody else? It's gonna get an as.
Speaker 1: I may read the word, that's not the point. Often
Speaker 1: we thought that truly tangents, tangent cholls. What was the question?
Speaker 1: How we've both got distract it? Because you were so
Speaker 1: pretty and this jacket is shiny, and I like shiny things.
Speaker 1: I was asking you, how how has your Hawaiian heritage
Speaker 1: shaped you as a trans woman?
Speaker 3: Well, like I would saying before I interrupted myself, in
Speaker 3: any indigenous culture there was space for trans and non
Speaker 3: binary folk and they were integral parts of our society
Speaker 3: and every indigenous culture you can find. So my transness
Speaker 3: is in my blood, it's in my dna, it's it's
Speaker 3: what has been going on since before any man made religion,
Speaker 3: any any of these like standards that we hold ourselves
Speaker 3: to any male woman.
Speaker 2: All of that that's just.
Speaker 3: A way to oppress, you know, a way to keep
Speaker 3: been lying, a way to segregate everybody. And that's why
Speaker 3: I feel it's so important to be really into your culture,
Speaker 3: to figure out your culture, because we are always programmed
Speaker 3: to believe what our parents need us to believe instead
Speaker 3: of what it's actually going through our veins, in our
Speaker 3: DNA and our blood.
Speaker 1: Right and then with the society at large wants you
Speaker 1: to believe, because if we go about mainstream society, then
Speaker 1: none of us would be able to dance.
Speaker 3: No man, I definitely would have been able to show
Speaker 3: my tits on national television.
Speaker 1: And we all needed that.
Speaker 2: I mean we all needed realty.
Speaker 3: Like I was like, everyone saw like a great competition
Speaker 3: in Sasha Kolby, but all my friends were like, they
Speaker 3: didn't even see Sasha Koba at naked.
Speaker 2: Drunk at brunch, you know, rolling around have naked.
Speaker 1: I think you showed us so much. I think only
Speaker 1: doctors would.
Speaker 2: Need to see anymore not a cough.
Speaker 1: I mean listen, if I closed my eyes and they
Speaker 1: were like, okay, Sasha Kolby is missing, I'm like, all right,
Speaker 1: don't you It might have to identify it for our pitties.
Speaker 3: But I got you, you said, or you know, identified
Speaker 3: by booty and that bang is Spider Mermaid.
Speaker 1: And as the one bang off of We Bang and listen,
Speaker 1: I don't recognize. Yeah. Now, as women of color, especially,
Speaker 1: we always have to worry about representation, right, And I
Speaker 1: know you want to be an example of a happy
Speaker 1: trans person in the media. Why is that important to you?
Speaker 3: Well, all that media has been concerned with a lot
Speaker 3: of the time is telling the transition, story, telling the trauma,
Speaker 3: telling the effect that it did on the family, but
Speaker 3: not showing why why we go through all that?
Speaker 2: And how how happy like being being so.
Speaker 3: Adamant about making yourself feel comfortable in your own skin. Uh,
Speaker 3: that's the whole reason why we do the transition. It
Speaker 3: isn't to like hurt or harm or traumatize our families
Speaker 3: or anyone else. It is to be our true happy selves.
Speaker 3: And we are missing that a lot. And I don't
Speaker 3: want it to get like misconstrued that I want to
Speaker 3: be a representation of only I'm a happy trans person.
Speaker 3: There are so many happy, well adjusted, loving trans people,
Speaker 3: but you only.
Speaker 2: See us getting murdered.
Speaker 3: And yes, so to be able to normalize the fact
Speaker 3: that you probably have come into contact with three or
Speaker 3: four trans people every day and not even know it
Speaker 3: because we are everywhere and we're not going anywhere.
Speaker 1: Well, I can definitely understand that because being you know,
Speaker 1: a woman of color and a plus size one of
Speaker 1: color in this industry there spent a lot of time.
Speaker 1: It's like, oh, well, you're plus sized, you must be unhappy,
Speaker 1: and it's like, no, I'm not. Also, I'm the very
Speaker 1: saty girls are unhappy hungry. It was a hundred hungred
Speaker 1: girl that was at a diner at Thram and I saw
Speaker 1: this drunk white girl eating a salad and I'm like,
Speaker 1: that's not what you want. What you are drunk a Thram?
Speaker 1: Why are you eating lettuce?
Speaker 2: Eat the girl?
Speaker 1: You were in a track suit, your yoga pants working,
Speaker 1: Eat the fat drunk and a salad. You're going to
Speaker 1: be sick. Now I have to ask this question because
Speaker 1: we know we have to ask this question. Now. You
Speaker 1: won drag race at a time a drag is being
Speaker 1: politicized for absolutely no reason. What do you think they're
Speaker 1: really trying to do?
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, the the legislation. I don't want to
Speaker 3: be like political and say like this.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, you know they're out here knocking
Speaker 1: a donkey.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: It's always about these white men trying to control people's bodies. Right,
Speaker 3: So they're there were doing, you know, controlling women's reproductive rights,
Speaker 3: controlling our medicine like a basic human right of giving
Speaker 3: trans people and like even like anyone good health care.
Speaker 3: So it's always about controlling. And I always notice that
Speaker 3: these guys, they're not really killing a lot of like
Speaker 3: trans men.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of trans women being murdered.
Speaker 3: That's because these men objectify trans women as much as
Speaker 3: they objectify CIS women.
Speaker 2: Yes, so once they objectify you and you're living your truth, they.
Speaker 3: Get so mad because they're one and jealous that they're
Speaker 3: not living their truth, yes, and two because it makes
Speaker 3: them question why do I like this?
Speaker 2: But why do you have to question that? Why does
Speaker 2: that even have to be a thing? You know?
Speaker 3: So for all of them, just I think they just
Speaker 3: want to be in drag or they.
Speaker 2: Probably win in drag. Yeah, and then they look awful. Sanchos.
Speaker 1: They say, you hop in, you find out you're a booger,
Speaker 1: and you bitter bitter burger, bitter burger, and you're like,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm all this free tress wig might not
Speaker 1: be for me.
Speaker 2: She couldn't find a mother, she couldn't come from They say, no.
Speaker 3: Lost cause.
Speaker 1: Nows. Oh my goodness. Nothing like calling CPS on a
Speaker 1: forty five year old man, like not on his children's
Speaker 1: at on you you need adult supervision. This is true.
Speaker 2: This is true.
Speaker 1: So with all these anti drag bills that they're starting
Speaker 1: to pass places, has that affecting where you can work?
Speaker 3: Yes, I'm a little nervous to go to Tennessee and
Speaker 3: I do have a booking there in like a month
Speaker 3: or so.
Speaker 1: You could be committing crap.
Speaker 3: I mean technically walking like sending foot down there. I'm
Speaker 3: breaking the law for some reason. You know, it's insane,
Speaker 3: even when you're in grog. Well like so if you are,
Speaker 3: I'm not too sure exactly, but I've heard from my
Speaker 3: queen friends like Aura, she lives in Tennessee, like you
Speaker 3: can get in drag at the venue, but you out
Speaker 3: like walking from your car to the venue. If you're
Speaker 3: in drag, you're breaking the law. So someone like me
Speaker 3: who doesn't this is what it's made for. I can't
Speaker 3: get out of drag. I'm trans woman, because you're going
Speaker 3: to be breaking the law, and that's what they want.
Speaker 1: Oh, because they're trying to learn about.
Speaker 2: Way to get trans people controlled.
Speaker 1: So they're trying to say you're in drag when you're
Speaker 1: really just caring the legislation.
Speaker 3: I believe like the wording is if you're in an
Speaker 3: article of clothing that is not your assigned birth article
Speaker 3: of clothing. That's how they can round about say that
Speaker 3: drag is illegal, and then the real thing is being
Speaker 3: trans is illegal.
Speaker 1: Oh dad, I did don't even know that they live
Speaker 1: in New York. They think they.
Speaker 2: We live in a good left bubble.
Speaker 1: It's listen. I've had a lot of people try to
Speaker 1: con me and tell me that New York was a
Speaker 1: racist Go outside anyway, Like y'all know where all the
Speaker 1: Dominicans are, Okay, that's not racist anyway. If you know
Speaker 1: where every part of our group is, it's right since
Speaker 1: I shouldn't be able to roll go across that street
Speaker 1: that's where they at. But you know what, that's not
Speaker 1: what we're talking about. We're talking about I call me
Speaker 1: right now.
Speaker 2: This is a this is a segment of tangents.
Speaker 1: I mean, listen, I am tangential. I'm a tangerine. So oh,
Speaker 1: they messed out of Tommy vocabulary. Now all right, Now
Speaker 1: we have talked about all of the the political thing. Yes,
Speaker 1: we have talked about the experiences. But what I do
Speaker 1: have is one final question for you mother. If I
Speaker 1: was in the family, what would my drag name be?
Speaker 2: Oh? I mean, says already, A sick dragon called me
Speaker 2: something really nice. I just gave birth again so many ten.
Speaker 2: I think water is broke.
Speaker 1: Listened somebody gets us puts in a wrapped up.
Speaker 3: On Hey.
Speaker 2: Baby.
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Speaker 1: This has been a Comedy Central podcast