Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic
Speaker 1: episode was produced by the team at Pandora.
Speaker 2: What up, y'all.
Speaker 3: It's Liyah from Quest Love Supreme. And on this classic episode,
Speaker 3: we're taking you back to November twenty ninth, twenty seventeen
Speaker 3: for our first conversation with our good friend Robin Thti.
Speaker 3: Now this is before she was a big time show runner.
Speaker 3: Shout out to a Black Lady sketch show. This is
Speaker 3: when the writer, comedian, and late night host talks about
Speaker 3: her life in front of and behind the camera. Her
Speaker 3: puppetry skills are hung and everything you need to know
Speaker 3: about her past show, The Rundown.
Speaker 2: Oh and if you enjoyed this episode, you've got to hear.
Speaker 3: When she came to join us on this year's Roots
Speaker 3: Picnic stage from June twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's a good one too.
Speaker 3: It's always fun with our good friend Robin.
Speaker 4: So enjoy Supremo Sun Sun Suprema Roll Call Suprema Sun
Speaker 4: Sun Suprema, Roll Call Suprema.
Speaker 5: Son Soun SUPREMEA roll Call supremea Son Son Supreme role.
Speaker 1: She don't smoke beaties. Yeah, she was owned some CDs. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she's been to d C.
Speaker 6: Yeah, phone home with et hungry feeding fights me like.
Speaker 1: Michael Jackson here, tired, I see my billy g lines
Speaker 1: to my key. Yeah, Phil, y'alls please leave me. Y'all
Speaker 1: tired of me? He Yeah, I'm feeling needy.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I'm down with opp Yeah.
Speaker 1: Uh, I'll skip to the letter t E. Yeah, ladies
Speaker 1: and gentlemen, It's Robert Feede, Supremo Sun Sun Supreme Roll
Speaker 1: So Supreme roll Car. Name is Sugar. Yeah. My life's
Speaker 1: a dream.
Speaker 7: Yeah, except that one night.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I had to record five hundred of.
Speaker 3: Your name.
Speaker 5: Supreme Supreme Supreme roll Call.
Speaker 1: It was my name. Yeah, not a battle of arena. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm trying not to screw up.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Another Suprema roll.
Speaker 5: Supremo SUPREMEA roll call, Supreme Son Son Suprema roll Call.
Speaker 3: Hey.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'm raging mad, yeah.
Speaker 7: About angry white ladies. Yeah, Supreme SUPREMEO roll Call, Suprema
Speaker 7: Suprema role Car.
Speaker 3: It's like and it's going to be a classic. Yeah,
Speaker 3: rob Yeah, flat Girl Magic.
Speaker 5: Suprema Son So SUPREMEO roll Call, Suprema So Supreme roll call.
Speaker 2: Yeah, in my groove. Yeah, and I don't dance. Yeah,
Speaker 2: make money moves.
Speaker 5: Supremo Supremo roll came Suprema Son Son Supremo roll call
Speaker 5: Suprema Son Supremo.
Speaker 1: Roll call Supreme Son Son Suprema roll.
Speaker 2: That was like fifty What the hell, yo, I did
Speaker 2: not know so many things rhymed with my name.
Speaker 1: It was dope. It's because we really just wanted to,
Speaker 1: you know, reiterate that it is thid.
Speaker 2: Yes, I wanted to. I know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we were all having I know, halfway through I
Speaker 1: almost felt like I was in church.
Speaker 2: Yeah, indeed, it was like, it's very good.
Speaker 1: I hope you're a believer.
Speaker 7: Now, don't be needy.
Speaker 1: I forgot that, Okay, Jeff Tweety Wilco, I forgot to
Speaker 1: shout out Jeff Tweety, Stevie Wonder.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that Beaty was brilliant.
Speaker 1: Michael Jackson, Ladies and gentlemen, our guest today is a writer, comedian, actress, director, producer, author,
Speaker 1: chef Boxer. She's the current President of the United States.
Speaker 1: Box Exactly, you're the you're the president of the United
Speaker 1: States right now I'm declaring that, uh, you're the former showrunner.
Speaker 1: What's happening now?
Speaker 2: It was my crow.
Speaker 1: What's going, what's going on? Yes, you've been a butcher, baker,
Speaker 1: candlestick maker, the maker, breaker and title. She is currently
Speaker 1: breaking new ground on BT's weekly news program called.
Speaker 2: The One Comedy Program. Oh okay, well based on the news.
Speaker 1: Well, it's just I don't want people.
Speaker 2: To think that I'm actually reporting the news because they'll
Speaker 2: be very configured.
Speaker 1: But I assure you that the only way to digest
Speaker 1: the news in twenty seventeen is through comedy.
Speaker 2: That is true.
Speaker 1: It's a very informative show. So I see it. I
Speaker 1: mean you're the you're the new ed. Uh? Who was?
Speaker 2: Can you please say that the black John Stewart and said, yeah.
Speaker 6: And gentlemen, please welcome to Black John.
Speaker 2: I take that back. Trevor Nor probably wants to be
Speaker 2: good or he does the vaginal John Stewart. I don't
Speaker 2: know anywhere.
Speaker 1: This show is going to be.
Speaker 2: Can I heard?
Speaker 6: Yes?
Speaker 1: Let's I think you're the host of the show.
Speaker 2: No, I am not the host of the show.
Speaker 1: You're please please, I just wanted to be casual amongst
Speaker 1: six friends. You know, so our thank you Robin for
Speaker 1: doing this.
Speaker 2: Thank you you know what. You guys are over here
Speaker 2: killing it as always.
Speaker 1: Thank you. You're killing it as well.
Speaker 2: Thank you. You know. Listen, I'm two episodes in and
Speaker 2: I feel like I pretty much mastered the craft. And actually,
Speaker 2: by the time this airs, I'll be like a good
Speaker 2: like five deep, so I will have collected all the Emmys,
Speaker 2: all the Hoodies, all the is that yes, it is right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: so pretty much I'm on top of the world. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's great.
Speaker 1: That's good. Listen, visit to a time when you were
Speaker 1: in the bottom of the world.
Speaker 2: Oh god, now it gets I don't want to take
Speaker 2: us back to the beginning episode, you know what. I
Speaker 2: know everybody goes back to the beginning like no one
Speaker 2: cares about the beginning.
Speaker 1: Quarter. Like the last two episodes. You know, he was
Speaker 1: at the lag quarter.
Speaker 2: Do you know the l I not personally, but I've
Speaker 2: heard tale.
Speaker 1: No, but I have to say, even when I met you,
Speaker 1: and this is the weird thing, like this is the
Speaker 1: one super can't I hope to have a very super
Speaker 1: candid episode of course love Supreme because I know Robin
Speaker 1: well well, not like biblically, but I mean she's my pal,
Speaker 1: so you know, but I have to say that even
Speaker 1: when you told me that back when we first met,
Speaker 1: that you were born in Iowa.
Speaker 2: I know it's weird.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I will say that of the six black women
Speaker 1: that I do know from Iowa, you know, yes, you're
Speaker 1: you're the only one that's not in a certain industry
Speaker 1: farm porn.
Speaker 2: Is it porn?
Speaker 1: That corn corn?
Speaker 2: It's corn porn? I gotcha.
Speaker 1: I was suned out the most alarming rate of black
Speaker 1: porno actresses what and alone. But but here's the thing
Speaker 1: that would like wouldn't as blackborn and uh usually no
Speaker 1: with with like mensa level intelligence, right, and it's it's
Speaker 1: crazy to me. I'm glad you avoided.
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, that's rude that you're assuming I'm
Speaker 2: not also doing that in my spare time. You don't
Speaker 2: know what I'm capable of. No, yeah, I did not
Speaker 2: know that statistic. Usually people go there's black people in
Speaker 2: Iowa when they find out that I'm from and I'm like, no,
Speaker 2: I left, there's no more. Yeah, no, my mother is
Speaker 2: actually you know this, My mother's the state representative. She
Speaker 2: was the first black woman to ever be elected to
Speaker 2: her district. So yeah, black people still make moves, you know, sorry.
Speaker 1: Doing that thing? So are there a lot of first
Speaker 1: in your family? Because you already.
Speaker 2: I'm like eighteen first just first right now?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Oh more than that? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Well what other first besides first show runner or.
Speaker 2: The first yeah head writer, black female head writer for
Speaker 2: late night show? I was the first black female uh
Speaker 2: to be the head writer at the cor Correspondence dinner.
Speaker 3: I can't wait to talk about.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I did not know that.
Speaker 2: Yes, I was the first. I think I think we know,
Speaker 2: we haven't confirmed this, but I think I was the
Speaker 2: first black woman to be the head writer of a
Speaker 2: daytime show and a night time show and a nightly
Speaker 2: commis your daytime show? I was not the same time,
Speaker 2: but I was Queen Latipa's head right, A lot of
Speaker 2: ship for amazingly, you only do things of us first.
Speaker 1: She used to work for a show that formerly had
Speaker 1: the at QLs.
Speaker 2: Yeah that is so true.
Speaker 1: But because the show was dormant, now I have to
Speaker 1: you know, it's fine.
Speaker 2: They don't need it.
Speaker 1: This this this pays to be friends with busin at Twitter.
Speaker 1: I just said, hey, guys, the show doesn't exist, no work.
Speaker 2: Damn you got them to delete their old Twitter account?
Speaker 1: Uh?
Speaker 2: No, ARCHI I have known nothing.
Speaker 7: Are going to work?
Speaker 3: Yeah, y'all, are you powerful quest love you are I try?
Speaker 5: So?
Speaker 1: Okay. So you grew up in a political family.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I did, And it was interesting because my dad
Speaker 2: was actually a Republican. My dad is white. My mom's
Speaker 2: black from the West Side of Chicago. My dad's white
Speaker 2: from a farm in Iowa. He met my mother in
Speaker 2: the seventies. She had a big ass afro. First day
Speaker 2: at college, he said, I want her.
Speaker 3: She's in college in Iowa.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she went to college in Iowa from Chicago.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: And uh they met and been married forty forty ideas. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they're still best friends.
Speaker 1: What is parents?
Speaker 2: I don't what parents? Just like, I know, it's crazy,
Speaker 2: it's crazy. It's at a very unrealistic standard for me. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I was like, this is I thought this was supposed
Speaker 2: to be forever, like every first boyfriend ID. I was like,
Speaker 2: we're gonna be together forever. And they were like, I
Speaker 2: don't even know your last name. But yeah, so they met,
Speaker 2: uh and and yeah they're still together. But yeah, what
Speaker 2: what was the question about?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: None any but yeah, So my family was always political.
Speaker 2: My dad was a Republican growing up, and then by
Speaker 2: the time George Bush Junior came in, he had came
Speaker 2: over to the right.
Speaker 1: I was or, okay, so he's now yes.
Speaker 2: Now he's everybody's on the same team.
Speaker 1: Wow. Still yes, Like he just.
Speaker 2: Saw Trump and was like, hey, yeah, let's do this. No, no,
Speaker 2: he's like the he talks the mostion about Trump, like yeah,
Speaker 2: cause he's like, this is not the way it's supposed
Speaker 2: to be. Because I think I said this the other
Speaker 2: day to a group. I was like, I think white
Speaker 2: people are now like, you know, like they look at
Speaker 2: Trump and they're like, hey, hey, I don't want to
Speaker 2: be associated with that.
Speaker 8: You know.
Speaker 2: It's like how all black people are like, hey, don't
Speaker 2: you know, don't lump us all together. We're not the same.
Speaker 2: But now I think white people are starting to feel
Speaker 2: like that because you can't tell a Trump supporter when
Speaker 2: they're white, from you know, from a non Trump supporter.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: So yeah, so it's good, it's good. My dad is dope.
Speaker 2: He has a family foot of black women. I have
Speaker 2: two sisters, so it's just nothing but black ladies in
Speaker 2: the family. Are you I'm in the middle, okay, yeah,
Speaker 2: so I'm the annoying. Yes, I was tapped in.
Speaker 1: So is this why you're yeah, where you are? Right?
Speaker 2: Now, I'm sure, I think so. Like I'm a Leo,
Speaker 2: I'm a middle child, and my father forced me into
Speaker 2: comedy very early on. He named me after Robin Williams.
Speaker 2: I found out after Robin Williams died, and I didn't
Speaker 2: know that. But I was always funny and weird and
Speaker 2: kookie and like I would always just imitate we you know,
Speaker 2: we didn't have cable, so I used to always just
Speaker 2: you know, imitate like the news and like, you know,
Speaker 2: whatever Sitcom's wrong. So they always just thought I was weird.
Speaker 2: I just sit in a dark room and mimic everything
Speaker 2: I saw on television. And then at night, my dad,
Speaker 2: like on the weekends, he would let me watch like Carolines.
Speaker 2: Used to have Carolines on Broadway used to have a
Speaker 2: TV show where they would have like comedians on It
Speaker 2: was like a two in the morning on NBC local affiliates.
Speaker 2: This would play right, And then we stole cable. We
Speaker 2: lived in a trailer park. My dad Jerry rigged the
Speaker 2: cable from the trailer two doors down and wired it
Speaker 2: over the middle trailer to ours so we could get
Speaker 2: cable to watch Thriller and so we could watch He
Speaker 2: got it for the first time to get Thriller and
Speaker 2: then he duct taped it, so we kept it for
Speaker 2: a little while till somebody cut it. But the other
Speaker 2: thing I remember watching, I know this is great.
Speaker 1: How did somebody, someone as in the cable company or
Speaker 1: someone realized no, like.
Speaker 2: The neighbor we were stealing it from was like, stop
Speaker 2: stealing our ship, you know. So so you know, Chuck,
Speaker 2: the park is wrong. People not nice to each other,
Speaker 2: not neighborly, but but.
Speaker 1: So especially.
Speaker 2: But no so so, so we got it to watch
Speaker 2: Thriller and that was dope. And I hid behind my
Speaker 2: Bible watching Thriller because I was scared and I thought
Speaker 2: that I was little. I was like two, I was
Speaker 2: like tiny, So yeah, it was scary shit. So but
Speaker 2: I remember that, and then I remember later on when
Speaker 2: we had stole cable a second time that we had.
Speaker 2: He used to let me watch what was the Show?
Speaker 2: With Robin Williams and Whoopi Goldberg. It was the first
Speaker 2: time I ever saw was So that was the first
Speaker 2: time I had ever seen a black woman telling jokes
Speaker 2: and I was like, yo, what is this? Wait?
Speaker 3: So you didn't see the first stand up the Broadway
Speaker 3: one when she played the I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't think I was online, Damn, Rob, I mean,
Speaker 2: I don't think I.
Speaker 1: Watched She's were her elders.
Speaker 2: I don't think. Sorry, Okay, yeah, I don't think so.
Speaker 3: Probably were you in high school in the nineties or no, I'm.
Speaker 2: Not gonna watch that. I wasn't even in the nineties.
Speaker 2: I made all this, but no, so so so I
Speaker 2: saw her and then he let me watch. They showed
Speaker 2: her one woman show on PBS as like an anniversary
Speaker 2: special ever or whatever, and that's the first time I
Speaker 2: saw it, and I was just blown away by this woman,
Speaker 2: like absolutely blown away. And then my dad like, let
Speaker 2: me stay up and watch. I remember we could stay
Speaker 2: up and watch s n L until the until weekend
Speaker 2: update came on. Then we had to go to sleep,
Speaker 2: so we got to watch you know halfway through.
Speaker 3: Is that a time thing or do a continent? Yeah,
Speaker 3: it was a time.
Speaker 2: Thing for them. It was just like, okay, that means
Speaker 2: at whatever time in the midwes. I think it was
Speaker 2: like around midnight.
Speaker 1: We could go to sleep because I had to go
Speaker 1: to church or something.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we were in church three days a week, which
Speaker 2: church is.
Speaker 1: That seventh day of venice, no three day.
Speaker 2: No, we were just like so because we were we
Speaker 2: were in the perform Like the only way we get
Speaker 2: performing arts was through church programs. So we were in
Speaker 2: the acting group and like the puppet group. Oh that's
Speaker 2: a whole other thing.
Speaker 1: All about the puppet group. Yeah, we had the mind.
Speaker 2: Yeah I didn't have the mind.
Speaker 1: Wait you no, no, not me, but I think you didn't.
Speaker 1: You just know when I was in the church band,
Speaker 1: can you explain the puppet group?
Speaker 2: So I was in it when I was so thirteen
Speaker 2: to like thirteen, fourteen fifteen. Every summer we were to
Speaker 2: the country with this Christian puppet group called King's Kids, right,
Speaker 2: and my sister and I this is good's even better.
Speaker 2: So we were like Jim Henson school trained, like I'm
Speaker 2: still a professional puppeteer, by the way, I helped the
Speaker 2: Wyatts and I perfect his puppeteering skills and don't let
Speaker 2: him tell you any different. So we uh, so we
Speaker 2: went on the road for three summers and we got
Speaker 2: really good. But my sister and I were the only
Speaker 2: black people in the group, and so we had to
Speaker 2: do all the voices and the use all the black puppets.
Speaker 1: Where was your voice.
Speaker 2: Oh god, I don't remember. I honestly don't remember. I
Speaker 2: did a bunch of them. You know, you just hear
Speaker 2: me slip into weird.
Speaker 1: I don't know, Jesus, I don't know.
Speaker 2: But some of them were just like regular little girls.
Speaker 2: And then some of them were like weird because they
Speaker 2: were like human looking puppets. They weren't all animals, hand
Speaker 2: puppets or yeah, yeah, hand puppets. Well, I can't do it. God, damn,
Speaker 2: it's this podcast I would show you, which you have
Speaker 2: to imagine. Yeah, so here, wait, can I teach you
Speaker 2: guys a trick that won't help the whole audience at all?
Speaker 2: Everybody hold up your hands. Okay, we'll physically describe it. Okay,
Speaker 2: so hold up your hand like that. So everybody's holding
Speaker 2: up their hand like so basically okay, take pictures. Great,
Speaker 2: So basically everybody at home and within the distance of
Speaker 2: my voice. So think about when you hold up your
Speaker 2: hand to talk like a puppet. Right, so your thumb
Speaker 2: is on the bottom of your hand is flat on top.
Speaker 2: Now just say hi, how are you? Everybody at home?
Speaker 2: Do this too? Say hi, how are you move your
Speaker 2: hand like a puppet? Would you all did it wrong. Okay,
Speaker 2: so you all fail, all right. So the professional trick
Speaker 2: is to only move your bottom, only move your thumb.
Speaker 2: So keep your hand flat and then say hi, how
Speaker 2: are you?
Speaker 3: Hi?
Speaker 1: How are you?
Speaker 2: But move it down, don't move it up.
Speaker 1: Go hi Hi.
Speaker 2: Nope, opposite, move your thumb down. Hi hi hih. That's how.
Speaker 2: That's how a mouth works. And if you want to sing,
Speaker 2: you could do that. Oh if that's advance shit, got it.
Speaker 2: But anyway, at home, try this. Keep it top of
Speaker 2: your hand flat. Even the engineers in the other room
Speaker 2: right now, keep this fat. Only move the thumb. Doing
Speaker 2: the best job anyway.
Speaker 1: Yeah, wait, can we just spend one minute doing this
Speaker 1: in silence, irust our audience right now?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's it's very hard. It took me years to master.
Speaker 2: So just move this and that looks real.
Speaker 3: Wow, that is awesome.
Speaker 1: Instagram page for video.
Speaker 2: Yeah it's cool, right, is an art to it? Yes,
Speaker 2: it looks crazy, it's not. I can also use my
Speaker 2: other hand to make the hands and legs move. And
Speaker 2: we went to we went through training, no the Jim
Speaker 2: Henson School teachers. We went through actual profession. I'm actually
Speaker 2: a professional, like certified Bubbeto, You.
Speaker 1: Were you not trying to make it to the children's
Speaker 1: television workshop?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Did you not have those golds like Fraggle Rock? Wait,
Speaker 1: they certify puppeteers, dude, mafia.
Speaker 2: They started clowns.
Speaker 1: Even even when Kevin first came degree in it, even
Speaker 1: when he came to the Tonight show. I mean he
Speaker 1: was saying that, you know, to get in Jim Henson's
Speaker 1: it's the it's the Marionette equivalent of going to George
Speaker 1: Lucas's uh school, Like it's fifteen people graduation ceremony.
Speaker 2: So I only have like a certification. I don't have,
Speaker 2: like the whole degree is that expensive? I don't remember
Speaker 2: you didn't get a master's in moving your What is
Speaker 2: it you're gonna use that you're gonna thank me?
Speaker 1: What is it grant you? Like if you wanted the
Speaker 1: audition for Avenue Q.
Speaker 2: Or I have no idea. I don't think anything because
Speaker 2: I can't sing either, So they'd be like, could you leave?
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't know actually Avenue Q. It would probably be
Speaker 2: helpful if I could actually sing, but I would think
Speaker 2: that they actually go through puppet training.
Speaker 1: I have to say that. Oh wait, this is weird
Speaker 1: paid bill. I'm about to tell the story of your
Speaker 1: other job forgiving that you actually worked at for it.
Speaker 1: I was like, wait, I got this ring you do?
Speaker 2: Am I not wrong?
Speaker 1: I mean?
Speaker 2: Am I correct?
Speaker 1: He is the Joe Ropos of Sesame Street right now.
Speaker 7: Whenever I watched them, they yeah, it's a yeah, we're
Speaker 7: still talking with that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm sorry. Podcast listeners, just fast forward this part.
Speaker 2: I don't know, just see us in three minutes really
Speaker 2: talking about the next track. Yeah, you guys have chapters on.
Speaker 1: These are you are you move on? Are your no?
Speaker 1: Sesame Street? You know, I'm gonna get lost in at
Speaker 1: least like there's a wormhole about to be minute rabbit hole.
Speaker 1: So on Sesame Street. Are your puppeteers and well just
Speaker 1: puppeteers Muppet tears? Are they licensed or no?
Speaker 7: But it's the same, like fifteen dudes that dude like
Speaker 7: dudes and ladies that do Sesame Street and the Muppets
Speaker 7: and mostly other other other things are the same fifteen
Speaker 7: or twenty people.
Speaker 3: It is a mafia for sure, and they're like eighty
Speaker 3: because once you're in, you're in, you.
Speaker 7: Know, Like the guy who plays Grover also does ms
Speaker 7: Piggy and Animal, and then the guy who does the
Speaker 7: Swedish chef's hands is also the cookie monster still and
Speaker 7: stuff like that. Yeah, that'll kind of cross breeze.
Speaker 1: So what happens if all three of his characters are
Speaker 1: in the same sketch?
Speaker 7: They throw their voice around and they were prerecorded. It's
Speaker 7: really cool to watch.
Speaker 2: They're fantastic.
Speaker 1: Are there any out takes? Any out take footage of
Speaker 1: them like just cursing, pacting a fool.
Speaker 2: I've seen them do it, we had them on but yeah,
Speaker 2: they definitely do it. Yes, Sorry, I just don't want
Speaker 2: to get him in trouble.
Speaker 1: AVL listeners Listeners at home were also like silent talking
Speaker 1: to each other like the question.
Speaker 2: But I'm also like, they would just come do it
Speaker 2: for you, haven't They've been on the show.
Speaker 7: I always come to the set whenever that.
Speaker 1: I will Yeah, well, okay, when I do.
Speaker 7: That thing, we do that thing, I will come.
Speaker 1: So you would travel, uh at what part like Bible
Speaker 1: belts or like, yeah, not a Bible belt.
Speaker 2: We would take a van and we would all pile
Speaker 2: in it and it said King's Kids on the side.
Speaker 1: How many of you, like fourteen of us?
Speaker 2: It was a lot like fourteen ten or fourteen, and
Speaker 2: then the funny thing is so one year so like
Speaker 2: the first year was like we drove out to California
Speaker 2: and did like West coast like you know, but like
Speaker 2: like normal places, right. And then the second year, No,
Speaker 2: first year we did the Midwest, so like Saint Louis, Chicago,
Speaker 2: that kind of stuff. Second year, we drove out to California,
Speaker 2: did some stuff like an Orange County. It's fine. Thirty
Speaker 2: year they're like, we're going to Appalachia, Appalachia.
Speaker 7: However, you said Jesus puppets in Appalachia.
Speaker 2: No, they played black people, two black girls. Ok So
Speaker 2: we were like and back then I was wearing a
Speaker 2: big afro, like my hair was you know, big, you know,
Speaker 2: and we were like, oh okay. My mom was like,
Speaker 2: how's this gonna work? And they were like, so what
Speaker 2: we'll do is we'll just go into the churches first
Speaker 2: and make sure that they're cool.
Speaker 3: We're not doing it.
Speaker 2: And like, in hindsight, my sister and I was like,
Speaker 2: this is crazy. Like there was a church where they
Speaker 2: had to pull up and go in and talk to
Speaker 2: them before we came in, and uh, they were not okay,
Speaker 2: with us performing and we canceled the performance, and it
Speaker 2: was those I don't know if you've ever been in
Speaker 2: like Kentucky coal country and all that stuff Virginia. So
Speaker 2: you go on these switchback roads where there's only one
Speaker 2: lane and so the coal trucks are coming down and
Speaker 2: you have to pull over when they come around. Like
Speaker 2: it was some ship I don't ever want to see
Speaker 2: again in my life, and the whole time it just
Speaker 2: sounded like dinner.
Speaker 7: The Roots played a lot in Kentucky, right, Yeah, Actually,
Speaker 7: I mean we I was part of a tour like that,
Speaker 7: right where the day that we got.
Speaker 1: Our official h offer for a record deal, A Hub
Speaker 1: and I snuck out of the church tour that we
Speaker 1: were on very similar to this where we were. We
Speaker 1: were in obal in Kansas, like in the cornfields, Like
Speaker 1: when I go to sleep, I'd hear like, yeah every
Speaker 1: night going to sleep, Like it was that sort of
Speaker 1: thing where you're just in the middle of America and
Speaker 1: you don't know what you're going to be burning to
Speaker 1: across the next day. Yeah. So it was like we
Speaker 1: got a record deal and like he and I like
Speaker 1: snuck out of that and went to the pay phone
Speaker 1: to the seven eleven and called the gap and you know,
Speaker 1: caught a plane at six in the morning, like we
Speaker 1: went a wall. They were probably still.
Speaker 2: Now they saw you on foul and they were like, God.
Speaker 1: Damn it. I'm just curious about those church outings and whatnot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, why, I mean, how.
Speaker 1: Had Was it a repressive atmosphere or no?
Speaker 2: It wasn't at the time. I think for me, it
Speaker 2: was all we knew and the people were very kind
Speaker 2: and very still really good family friends, you know. I
Speaker 2: mean it was.
Speaker 1: Which there was a hard break moment where like you're
Speaker 1: disillusioned and.
Speaker 2: You oh yeah, yeah, yeah that happened in college. Oh
Speaker 2: just about like Jesus.
Speaker 1: Sorry, yeah, just with the church.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, with the church for sure. I think
Speaker 2: at a certain point I just saw, you know, you
Speaker 2: wake up to hypocrisy. That happens in anything, right, but
Speaker 2: for churches. I'm like, Okay, I woke up to hip
Speaker 2: hop and I was like, get out the church. No,
Speaker 2: I I yeah. I think once I got older, I
Speaker 2: got to college, I was like, oh, okay, I don't
Speaker 2: need to be in the church this much. I mean
Speaker 2: even I think later in high school. But you know,
Speaker 2: my mom grew up Catholic. My dad grew up Lutheran. Like,
Speaker 2: they just had a very strong religious background, and but
Speaker 2: they also taught us that while we have this, once
Speaker 2: we became adults, they were like, now the choice is yours.
Speaker 2: We've taught you all the things that we know, but
Speaker 2: you know, go forth and make your own decisions. So
Speaker 2: for me, I think I just don't like that. I
Speaker 2: feel like there's a lot of hypocrisy in the church,
Speaker 2: like in religion, and I think that, you know whatever,
Speaker 2: there's weird things in the Bible, you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: There's just weird shit.
Speaker 1: So I just feel like was guilt ever part of that?
Speaker 1: Like once they once my church found out I was
Speaker 1: doing music, right, you know, it's sort of like, so, uh, mirror,
Speaker 1: are you uplifting the Lord in your work or is
Speaker 1: it just like what I see on the Devil? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Then I just stopped coming to church.
Speaker 2: Because, you know, no, I think once people heard me
Speaker 2: cursing in comedy, they were like, well, she's lost and
Speaker 2: if she comes back, then fine, we'll see her on
Speaker 2: Eastern I don't know, and I still I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I never had that guilt really. Also, I left home
Speaker 2: and went to Chicago, and then I went to Northwestern
Speaker 2: Second City like I was gone. You know, there was
Speaker 2: nobody to like follow me and be like you.
Speaker 3: And you didn't walk into college like that church girl. No,
Speaker 3: I'm holding on to this.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So what year did you go to Northwestern?
Speaker 2: I will not tell you that, But it wasn't that
Speaker 2: long ago.
Speaker 3: Did we just had this conversation?
Speaker 1: Well, no, because I just generally wanted to know, like
Speaker 1: if we ever played her college or that sort of thing.
Speaker 1: You're trying to find out if you get younger.
Speaker 5: Wait.
Speaker 2: Wait, I've talked to you about this. He was in
Speaker 2: the two thousands. Oh sorry, I understand. I see what
Speaker 2: you're doing. I will tell this story. And I saw
Speaker 2: before I met you, I had seen y'all fourteen times,
Speaker 2: fourteen times, two of which I think were at Northwestern.
Speaker 2: I remember, Do you remember this story? I don't. Do
Speaker 2: you remember this night? Tell me how you were y'all
Speaker 2: were playing? But oh god, what am I forget?
Speaker 1: His name?
Speaker 2: Not Cameron. It's a rapper with a c name, and
Speaker 2: he wraps and he frees for a long time. Canada,
Speaker 2: Thank you Jesus.
Speaker 1: There's a big difference betwe I knew I was.
Speaker 2: About to say the wrong name. So Cannabis was over whatever, y'all,
Speaker 2: And this dude freestyle for forty five minutes. Do you
Speaker 2: remember this? Was that what he would do? Because I
Speaker 2: never saw him before in concert.
Speaker 1: We've done it was so long an shows. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: obviously this was like ninety eight ninety nine when is out?
Speaker 3: Didn't you just tell you it was?
Speaker 2: No, it wasn't it was later than that. Well, it
Speaker 2: was later then when I saw it.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, well no, no, I'm yeah, okay, he had other Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: but I remember.
Speaker 2: I would have told you. I was like, actually, that's
Speaker 2: not right.
Speaker 1: We can edit.
Speaker 2: Also, it was like nineteen sixty five. It's fine, It's
Speaker 2: fine now they know I'm eighty. Thanks a lot, I'm
Speaker 2: sorry forgiving thanks Amir. Wait, am I supposed to call you? Quest?
Speaker 2: What am I supposed to call you?
Speaker 1: On this? We know each other?
Speaker 2: Are can I tell you? It is so weird to
Speaker 2: talk about you because people are always like because I'm
Speaker 2: always like my friend of me or did something something,
Speaker 2: and they're like, oh, is he in the business, And
Speaker 2: I was like, it's quest love, Like I don't know
Speaker 2: how to like, do you know what I mean? Like,
Speaker 2: I tried not to say your stage name because it's
Speaker 2: the stage it's yes, and you can't just be like
Speaker 2: so quest love and I were.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 2: It's such an annoying, goddamn name drop. It's the same
Speaker 2: thing I called Queen Jana and people are like, oh,
Speaker 2: you think you're cool, and I'm like, no, I just
Speaker 2: don't call her queen.
Speaker 1: This is weird because whenever I talk about Marshall yes,
Speaker 1: then it's like, oh, you think he's cool, you get
Speaker 1: the car mark.
Speaker 2: No you can't call him eminem.
Speaker 3: Why don't you say m though that is a little extra?
Speaker 3: Why not just say em because.
Speaker 1: He makes you. I hate when people call me.
Speaker 2: Correct even this is yeah, but it sounds like em
Speaker 2: whenever I hear M right, thank you, thank you. Anyway,
Speaker 2: we were talking about something else before I got up
Speaker 2: onto the standard, but go ahead, just yell oh yeah,
Speaker 2: oh yeah cannabis, So yeah, thank you.
Speaker 7: I just ask you for something.
Speaker 2: So cannabis was rhyming, and for the first five minutes
Speaker 2: we're like, yo, this Zude's killing it. He's really free sounding.
Speaker 1: He says, she.
Speaker 2: Got a shirt on her she got and then correct,
Speaker 2: We're like Jesus Christ right thirty eight minutes and we're like,
Speaker 2: this might be your world record in history right now
Speaker 2: forty five minutes saying the crowd is like, bring out
Speaker 2: the room. And then y'all came out and ripped it.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was great.
Speaker 1: I appreciate that.
Speaker 2: I saw y'all everywhere. Man, I saw you in Chicago
Speaker 2: a bunch. I think y'all. Did y'all come to Iowa?
Speaker 1: You had to go back in those days, came to Iowa. No,
Speaker 1: Iowa has probably the the maybe the fourth best record
Speaker 1: shopping experience I've ever had.
Speaker 2: Oh is that right?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Because usually like those places that no one goes to,
Speaker 1: I could just it's enough, Oh God, clean up instantly. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So what else do you go to Iowa for corn
Speaker 3: and porn?
Speaker 2: You don't have to go there for the porn corn. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you don't really go to Iowa for There's a lovely
Speaker 2: place to grow up, sheltered from reality. But it's very affordable.
Speaker 2: I will say that.
Speaker 3: Really, it's like a three bedroom house, it's like a one.
Speaker 1: It's like going to North Carolina.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you can easily get a three bedroom house for
Speaker 2: like one hundred and eighty thousand dollars easily and like
Speaker 2: a nice like a brand new, like new shit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like truth be told.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: Uh, the towns that you have least expectations for are
Speaker 1: probably just some of the best places to visit the.
Speaker 3: Worst weather because then you got hurricanes, you know, and Iowa.
Speaker 3: No it's not real tornadoes.
Speaker 2: Tornadoes, Yes, that is true, tornadoes and cold hurricanes. That's okay.
Speaker 2: I know what you meant. I got you my head
Speaker 2: unless saying climate change is real, it might be some
Speaker 2: godamn hurricanes.
Speaker 1: So second, what drove you to Chicago? The fact that
Speaker 1: you got accepted.
Speaker 2: To my Chevy Lumina literally drove me to Chicago.
Speaker 1: I'm a sharp comedian, but I mean, like, no, that's.
Speaker 2: Just the truth. I wanted to go to I wanted
Speaker 2: to go straight to LA out of high school, and
Speaker 2: my parents were like, please, don't you will do porn,
Speaker 2: which now is why I see why you have that connection.
Speaker 1: I want.
Speaker 2: Uh, they were scared. They were scared.
Speaker 1: They may have, yes, they may have.
Speaker 2: So so you know, every summer I went to Chicago
Speaker 2: because that's where my family went. Some of my mom's
Speaker 2: whole side lived, so I was familiar with the city,
Speaker 2: and I was like, they were like, don't They said,
Speaker 2: they had just asked me two things. Don't go uh
Speaker 2: straight to LA because they knew I wanted to be comedian, actress,
Speaker 2: writer or whatever. But they said, don't go straight to LA.
Speaker 2: Get a college education, and also, don't ask us for
Speaker 2: any money. So I got into Northwestern and I said,
Speaker 2: and they were like, please, don't get a degree in theater.
Speaker 2: You are you're already funny. Get a real degree, which
Speaker 2: is rude, right, But so I got a degree in journalism.
Speaker 2: I went to like Northwestern has the best journalism school.
Speaker 2: They only let in like one hundred and eighty people year.
Speaker 2: I got in and uh, and then I got my degree.
Speaker 2: And then I got scouted by Second City because I
Speaker 2: was running an improv and sketch group there for years
Speaker 2: and they they saw it, they heard about it.
Speaker 1: What was the name of the sketch group, the box okay.
Speaker 2: And still going on to this day, seventy five years later.
Speaker 2: And so I, so I went to Second City. They
Speaker 2: gave me a full scholarship to go to Second City,
Speaker 2: graduated the conservatory, went straight to LA and uh, you know, did.
Speaker 1: You have dreams of seeing Steve Higgins or larn coming.
Speaker 2: In out door.
Speaker 1: Because yeah, of course, for listeners, a lot of people
Speaker 1: that you see on SNL Saturday Night Live, they'll either
Speaker 1: be poached from one of three places. Either the Groundlings
Speaker 1: in LA is there groundlings in.
Speaker 2: New York Groundings The home of Growndings is New York Growndings.
Speaker 2: And I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I was thinking UC Bright
Speaker 2: There is no Groundlings in New.
Speaker 1: York, Okay, So yeah.
Speaker 2: The uc B here Growlings in lacon City was a grounding. Yes,
Speaker 2: Miam Melissa McCarthy, A bunch of them are groundling, right,
Speaker 2: And I think.
Speaker 1: New York is uc being established.
Speaker 2: By Amy Polar.
Speaker 1: Amy Polar the team.
Speaker 2: Uh she had Second City Chicago, right, and my group.
Speaker 1: Last Second City. So those three, those are the three
Speaker 1: comedy universities that will guarantee you maybe half an audition
Speaker 1: at Saturday Night Live? Did you many years?
Speaker 2: Yes, that was the goal. It'll happen, absolutely, that was
Speaker 2: the goal for sure. And I was there with a
Speaker 2: bunch of people who are now famous and they were
Speaker 2: my mentors, So Keing and Michael Key was leaving Second
Speaker 2: City to go do Mad TV and now I fucking
Speaker 2: dated myself, God damn it. But I was also twelve anyway,
Speaker 2: and a bunch of great folks. So when I came up,
Speaker 2: there was kind of a new crop coming through and
Speaker 2: everybody was like, Oh, this is going to be the
Speaker 2: next class that goes to SNL, Like your class is
Speaker 2: going to be the next class that did not happen.
Speaker 2: And I didn't even get close to an audition. I
Speaker 2: just wasn't in the right cycle or whatever, or back then,
Speaker 2: I wasn't looking for black lady.
Speaker 3: I was about to say, who was a black lady
Speaker 3: this season? Because there wasn't.
Speaker 2: It was Ellen Claghorn, and then it was Leslie Jones,
Speaker 2: like there was with Maya in the middle. That's literally it.
Speaker 2: But there was one more, uh what's her face? Who
Speaker 2: passed away Sandley? But years ago what was her name? Yes,
Speaker 2: thank you?
Speaker 1: Yeah, damn. I remember a joke on the Apollo like
Speaker 1: get your baby some cool lights, or she did a
Speaker 1: joke about cool cigarettes. Oh did she a baby smoking? Yeah?
Speaker 2: She wasn't on very long, but she was funny as shit. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but anyway, so so yeah, so it never happened. I
Speaker 2: went to LA. It took many, many years I didn't
Speaker 2: audition for Lauren until twenty thirteen.
Speaker 1: WHOA that a long time? Damn?
Speaker 2: But I was on other sketch shows. I was on
Speaker 2: you know, Jamie Fox, Savy on Crocodile Jehan Fox. I
Speaker 2: was a bunch of stuff that never saw the light
Speaker 2: of day. I did a sketch show with Mike EPs
Speaker 2: for Comedy Central that never saw the world. You know,
Speaker 2: I did a lot of sketch stuff. I wrote for
Speaker 2: a lot of stand ups. I toured the country with them.
Speaker 2: I wrote for sitcoms.
Speaker 1: But did you wait? You're just here? Reminded me that
Speaker 1: I too was on a failed pilot that almost didn't
Speaker 1: make it. Uh, there was going to be a Black Saturday.
Speaker 1: I only remember because this is how we wrote break
Speaker 1: You Off for Frenalogy. Uh. Who is the the black
Speaker 1: comedy promoter? He did the Kings of Comedy Walter Latham. No, yes,
Speaker 1: Walter Walter, yes.
Speaker 2: Not No, it's not him. Though it's not him. I
Speaker 2: know exactly who it is, and I am blanking somebody
Speaker 2: google it, got to look it up. No, I know
Speaker 2: who it is, and that's not Everybody's not a.
Speaker 3: Charles King or nothing.
Speaker 8: No, no, no, hold on Walter said, wait, he connects.
Speaker 2: No, it's m It's M Latham.
Speaker 6: Yea.
Speaker 1: But once once the King of comedies, once the King
Speaker 1: of comedy kind of blew up. Then Walter decided to do, uh,
Speaker 1: to shoot a pilot. He wanted to do a black
Speaker 1: SNL And it was like Earthquake and other seven or
Speaker 1: eight other heavyweights that I'm forgetting right now. Earthquake, you know,
Speaker 1: don't sleep Earthquake man's funny. He's funny.
Speaker 3: Door is a hell of a reality show actors.
Speaker 1: But back when we were again thirsting for maybe a
Speaker 1: gig that could keep us in one place at the
Speaker 1: same time. Uh, we were the house band, you know,
Speaker 1: we were the s n L band for that show,
Speaker 1: but it just never got picked up.
Speaker 3: Lounge people always forget about that.
Speaker 2: That was the best Tracy, that was.
Speaker 1: The best anyway. So you reminded me that I forgot.
Speaker 2: About and then that kind of came true right in
Speaker 2: a way.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, eventually I saw my future.
Speaker 2: Are you psychic?
Speaker 1: No, I'm not. I'm also I'm thinking, I'm also remembering, Uh,
Speaker 1: is this why I tried to kill this? Also, she.
Speaker 2: Real because that's not because she really did that.
Speaker 1: Her husband dude, like we we were, says she's an
Speaker 1: Indiana girl. I understand it from Indiana. Yeah, said something
Speaker 1: smart or unsavory, and then she took her ear rings
Speaker 1: off and then she grabbed a weapon. Her husband had
Speaker 1: to hold her back. The only good thing that from
Speaker 1: that moment was like because music and she sat in
Speaker 1: with us like that was the thing, like when you.
Speaker 2: Go, yeah, how did you prevent a murder?
Speaker 1: Her husband held her back, but she did the whole
Speaker 1: like you don't know about me, motherfucker, and took her
Speaker 1: shoes off and took her ear rings off, and it
Speaker 1: was one she grabbed.
Speaker 2: Wait butit did she really stab her husband?
Speaker 1: Wait?
Speaker 2: Did he die?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: No, oh, that's good.
Speaker 1: He protected her.
Speaker 3: Why she was gone for a while after that whole
Speaker 3: avunt Duet. I know you don't remember because you were
Speaker 3: a child.
Speaker 2: I was only born yes day, so I just kept
Speaker 2: getting younger every time. I'm not gonna be born until
Speaker 2: this podcast.
Speaker 1: So you went to LA what is it?
Speaker 7: What is what?
Speaker 1: Was the process of pounding the pavement?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 2: So the nice thing was I went out there with
Speaker 2: a one woman show about you know, just like playing
Speaker 2: different character as and autobiographical. But what did I know
Speaker 2: at twenty two?
Speaker 1: Wait, yes, if you didn't see that will be one
Speaker 1: woman show.
Speaker 2: That's not as a kid people, Yeah, yah, that's not
Speaker 2: as a kid. Here's inspiration her all day. So I
Speaker 2: put a towel on my head and then I just
Speaker 2: I literally pulled him Malania Trump and just did her show. No, yeah,
Speaker 2: how did we let her get away with that? By
Speaker 2: the way, But anyway, so yeah, I went out did
Speaker 2: this one woman show and then I got seen by
Speaker 2: Mike Epps's manager, Like I literally only did the show
Speaker 2: like three times. And then I got seen by Mike
Speaker 2: Epps's manager and he was like, Yo, you are so funny,
Speaker 2: you should come right for Mike. And so I started
Speaker 2: writing for Mike. We wrote up the sketch show it
Speaker 2: didn't go and then and I was acting on it too,
Speaker 2: and then uh, I went on the road with him
Speaker 2: a little bit, started working. Then I met Jesse Collins,
Speaker 2: who was, uh, you know, produces bt Wards and a
Speaker 2: bunch of other stuff, and I met him, started writing
Speaker 2: for award shows, and then I just got connected with
Speaker 2: all these different comedians and so I wrote for all
Speaker 2: these different hosts, Jamie Fox, Anthony Anderson, Chris Rock, Monigue,
Speaker 2: Wayne Brady, Sam Jack, like literally everybody I've written for,
Speaker 2: every male stand up black comedian who was like at
Speaker 2: the top of their game for sure.
Speaker 1: How did you avoid the Hollywood shuffle or how did
Speaker 1: you avoid the Chitlin circuit uh Land minds that are
Speaker 1: usually there for comedians, especially for black comedians, like how
Speaker 1: did you avoid the some more route?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 1: Well? Playing the CD bars and over? Like did you
Speaker 1: start off in the comedy store in LA and no?
Speaker 2: So that's the thing, this is how I avoided it
Speaker 2: because I was a sketching, improv comedian. Even though I
Speaker 2: wrote for stand ups, I never did stand up. I've
Speaker 2: never done a minute of stand up in my whole
Speaker 2: career nevertheless, really never, not once.
Speaker 1: That's weird and w I know.
Speaker 2: And I'm always in the comedy clubs always. Yeah, I've
Speaker 2: never done a minute of stand up.
Speaker 3: What do the comedians that you write for when you
Speaker 3: tell them that or if you ever had that in
Speaker 3: that conversation, do they ever what do they say about
Speaker 3: that or do they care?
Speaker 2: I've never had that conversation. I've always been funny, right
Speaker 2: and always you know what I mean? Like, it doesn't
Speaker 2: to comedians. It doesn't matter, Like it's not there's not
Speaker 2: a hierarchy. It's like, is she funny case she write
Speaker 2: great jokes. The other thing about me is I have
Speaker 2: a because I would sit and mimic those people on
Speaker 2: television as a kid. I can mimic anyone's comedic style.
Speaker 2: So I know how to write for somebody. If I've
Speaker 2: heard five minutes of their stand up, I know how
Speaker 2: to write jokes for them.
Speaker 1: You're trying to tell me that the rundown is the
Speaker 1: first time that you've consistently concurrently in a half hour
Speaker 1: or however you take your show at an hour, that
Speaker 1: you stood in front of the audience and dumb material
Speaker 1: and told jokes in a non sketch acting way for
Speaker 1: that amount of time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, wow, that's dope.
Speaker 1: Wow that's rare.
Speaker 2: But you got to think about it this way. I'm
Speaker 2: an expert at stand up comedy because I've been doing
Speaker 2: it for a long like two decades. I've been writing
Speaker 2: it for years, but I'm a performer. Like even on
Speaker 2: the Nightly Show, I was doing the same thing. It
Speaker 2: was just like more sketches and like kind of panel stuff,
Speaker 2: And like my whole career has led to this if
Speaker 2: you look at the breadth of it, like, but no,
Speaker 2: it is true. I guess if you think about it
Speaker 2: that way. Yeah, it was the first time I actually
Speaker 2: did stand up. I don't know. I thought, yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1: Because it's like trusting a food expert that's.
Speaker 2: It's never cooked.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, wait, I'm just talking about myself. You
Speaker 1: sure did anute.
Speaker 2: Wait a minute, you got food books and everything. Motherfucker.
Speaker 1: I'm probably the only James Beard uh dominated exactly author
Speaker 1: that's never cooked. That's weird.
Speaker 2: No, you get it though, you know what I mean. Like,
Speaker 2: so for me, it was like I it's kind of
Speaker 2: better because I was on the road being a student
Speaker 2: of every Like literally, I can tell you if you
Speaker 2: give me a topic, right, like, I'm not gonna do it.
Speaker 1: Listen.
Speaker 2: This isn't like you know who's on the free but like,
Speaker 2: but like if you if I'm okay. So if if
Speaker 2: Trump does something crazy, right, so Trump goes after uh
Speaker 2: somebody in the media, right, he goes after Jamel Hill whatever,
Speaker 2: so she should be fired. I can tell you how
Speaker 2: every host in late night is gonna make a joke
Speaker 2: on it, all right.
Speaker 10: So what was Steven Colbert saying so, so Stephen, Colbert
Speaker 10: is gonna make like, like, okay, so if you go
Speaker 10: for the gamut, right, So Kimmel is gonna make a
Speaker 10: joke that's probably okay.
Speaker 2: It's the Jamel host. Well, he's not gonna do it right, right,
Speaker 2: I picked I picked a black person.
Speaker 1: A lot of them would.
Speaker 2: It was like, Trevor does these funny like impressions. He
Speaker 2: he does all these amazing voices, so he'll slip in
Speaker 2: and do an impression. Colbert's gonna make a stude upside
Speaker 2: down observation that's still silly. Kimmel's gonna make something that's
Speaker 2: a little bit more of a fight humor joke, and
Speaker 2: it's gonna take him down from A to B. Yeah,
Speaker 2: what do you say, Jimmy, He probably won't mention it
Speaker 2: if Trump said it. Yeah, but yeah, but I mean,
Speaker 2: but you know, it's like, but you have to be
Speaker 2: a student of the craft. So it was like, by
Speaker 2: the time I came in, I knew how to write
Speaker 2: for Larry. I knew how to write like John. You know,
Speaker 2: I'm I'm a product of the John Stewart family. He
Speaker 2: was our executive producer at the Night They Show he
Speaker 2: was with us all the time and he taught me
Speaker 2: a lot. And then Chris Rock, who's our executive producer,
Speaker 2: Like I wrote for him when he hosted the BT Awards,
Speaker 2: and he's been a really good mentor of mine since then.
Speaker 2: And like the common theme is like, once you know
Speaker 2: your comedy, especially in comparison to what else is out there,
Speaker 2: then you can sell your product. And I knew I
Speaker 2: had something different.
Speaker 1: How do you feel about, at least the different classes
Speaker 1: of comedy I'm curious about. Like in New York, I
Speaker 1: know that the Brooklyn comics are seen as the you know,
Speaker 1: alternative comics, and.
Speaker 2: All do the same three jokes. It's really a joke.
Speaker 2: I am open minded. I love them, and I think
Speaker 2: some of them are pushing the boundaries. But like, if
Speaker 2: you take a Brooklyn comic, like I'm talking like uh
Speaker 2: straight up, like textbook Brooklyn, like ortismal cheese joke Brooklyn,
Speaker 2: and you and you take it anywhere else in the country, yeah,
Speaker 2: you'll bomb. You can't take that to Uptown, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. You can't go to Atlanta with those jokes,
Speaker 2: especially for black comedians. But like, what are you doing?
Speaker 2: But at the same time, I also can't take some
Speaker 2: of my Trump jokes, and that's why I'm not a
Speaker 2: stand up. That's why I created a safe space where
Speaker 2: I can push my point of view in my comedy.
Speaker 2: But like, I'm not one of those people who can
Speaker 2: go to any comedy club in the country and do
Speaker 2: stand I just never had a passion for that.
Speaker 1: So do you agree now Chris Rock thinks that any
Speaker 1: joke should be able to work in all three mediums.
Speaker 2: Well, he says it because he's a genius. It's not fair.
Speaker 2: His opinion is not fair.
Speaker 1: But I'm asking do you subscribe to that theory? Because
Speaker 1: Brooklyn is the alternative world and then sort of north
Speaker 1: of forty second Street is kind of I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't want to be dismissed him say hacky, but I
Speaker 1: mean that's where like Caroline's is and whatever, like you'll see.
Speaker 2: Like, what are you talking about?
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I mean I don't know. It's just that
Speaker 1: they're so at the cellar in the village. Yeah, there's
Speaker 1: such snobs.
Speaker 2: Yeah they are.
Speaker 1: It's like Chappelle and Brennan, you know, those guys just
Speaker 1: like they know everything. They're like old real hip hoppers
Speaker 1: from like nineteen ninety two. Yeah, so I consider them
Speaker 1: the highest quest loves, the higher, the hardest to praise,
Speaker 1: the hardest to please, insatiable level of Ivy League comic.
Speaker 1: And they look down on the Brooklyn Cats and they
Speaker 1: look they kind of they're glad that they didn't go that,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, even though they respect those guys
Speaker 1: like the Vegas whoever, the David Brenners are of this
Speaker 1: generation like that work way up town and up the town.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of class classes and classism in comedy exactly.
Speaker 2: And then the chillin' circa you got all that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's Chris believes that. You know, Chris will go
Speaker 1: to Outpost and try his stuff in that place, and
Speaker 1: then he'll go to the blackest club uptown. Do you
Speaker 1: think that every comic should adapt to that situation.
Speaker 2: I don't think it's necessary. I think that it depends
Speaker 2: on what you're trying to do. I think if you're
Speaker 2: trying to be a legend, you're trying to be great, yes,
Speaker 2: and that that's Chris is great. He is a legend.
Speaker 2: Like he's so smart, and he he never gets comfortable.
Speaker 2: He's always challenging himself. So I think for him that works,
Speaker 2: but I think there are other comedians whose thing is
Speaker 2: so specific that they're just using stand up to get
Speaker 2: in front of a larger audience anyway, And it just
Speaker 2: depends on your goals. And I don't judge anybody, even
Speaker 2: the Brooklyn commics. I don't judge them like they're gonna
Speaker 2: be great. They're gonna be the lead in a sitcom
Speaker 2: party soon, or they're gonna, you know, have a weird
Speaker 2: like uh, you know, single camera artisanal che artisanal chi show.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I think there's a place for everything. That's
Speaker 2: what's so great about comedy is it's so subjective. Like
Speaker 2: one person can be like yo, like doo hug, he's
Speaker 2: not funny, and then somebody else is like, what are
Speaker 2: you talking about? He's a second coming. That's the great
Speaker 2: thing about That's the great thing about comedy. Like people
Speaker 2: can watch my show and be like, oh, she's whack,
Speaker 2: but obviously they're blind and deaf. But yeah, I mean
Speaker 2: I think there's something for everybody. I don't really judge it.
Speaker 2: I think as long as you have a good work ethic,
Speaker 2: whatever you're doing, it's fine.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well this leads for Laya, who is currently pounding
Speaker 1: the pavement to when I'm not doing.
Speaker 3: This, yes to be.
Speaker 2: I was the girl that tonay and wanted to get
Speaker 2: to tell you better.
Speaker 1: Reference on this show.
Speaker 2: Can I have joy in my life?
Speaker 1: You know what I say?
Speaker 2: Can't two black women? Sharonmal merrel every day?
Speaker 1: So what would you listen? What would you recommend this
Speaker 1: interviews over the table turn? So what would you recommend to? Uh?
Speaker 1: A young up? To start first of all.
Speaker 3: With the whole myth of not for you young damn,
Speaker 3: I'm trying to set you up.
Speaker 1: Okay, born in nineteen ninety four, thank you true. Anyway,
Speaker 1: what would you recommend, especially with the advantages is it
Speaker 1: advantage having you know, do you respect YouTube comedians and
Speaker 1: at the time Vine oh god the Iowa which.
Speaker 2: Damn no, no, no no, it was at the question
Speaker 2: not at YouTubers.
Speaker 1: See, in my mind I thought that.
Speaker 2: Economic Look, I think it's good, but I think what
Speaker 2: happens is, here's what happens to people who have been
Speaker 2: in the game a long time.
Speaker 1: Okay, Uh, you go out.
Speaker 2: For something, you're up for something, and then they're like,
Speaker 2: we're gonna get this YouTube person. They're hot, and you're like,
Speaker 2: but I've done all the professional things like I've gotten
Speaker 2: a degree, or I've been in the streets, like I've
Speaker 2: been in the clubs, like I've been doing all this,
Speaker 2: like I've been doing you know, like I was in
Speaker 2: nine sketch groups at any given time, like like like
Speaker 2: for me, sketch groups and in Propalympic and Second City
Speaker 2: were my comedy clubs when I was performing in writing.
Speaker 2: So it's like I felt like I put in the work.
Speaker 2: I didn't just turn on a camera in my bedroom.
Speaker 2: But that being said, there are people who work hell
Speaker 2: hard on you to but who makes millions of dollars
Speaker 2: so you can't knock the hustle. Yeah, there are people
Speaker 2: making millions of dollars on YouTube, so I don't knock
Speaker 2: the hustle. But I will say that I don't find
Speaker 2: like that a lot of them have longevity. There are
Speaker 2: some that do.
Speaker 1: So this is sort of like how someone my age
Speaker 1: would see new hip hop and see like, okay, you're here.
Speaker 3: Today the mumble something like somebody like me who's been
Speaker 3: doing radio or her life looks at someone like you
Speaker 3: that with a podcasted.
Speaker 1: But I've brought you with.
Speaker 3: Me, right, But I don't have the deal.
Speaker 1: So it's just.
Speaker 2: Personated, so we.
Speaker 1: Cut her mic off engine. So okay, well, now this
Speaker 1: is going to be since you're wise with your with
Speaker 1: your words, looking at like you who's been trying to
Speaker 1: she's been pounding the pavement. Yes, what do you recommend?
Speaker 2: Are you doing stand up?
Speaker 3: I forget my writing a lot. I've done some stand up,
Speaker 3: I've been writing more and I've been standing.
Speaker 1: So how do you help someone find their lane? So
Speaker 1: and again, Okay, I know someone that is a very
Speaker 1: talented person in the arts. I think I think he's
Speaker 1: better off.
Speaker 2: Why are you choosing your words carefully? You said we
Speaker 2: were being candid because.
Speaker 1: Show I'm saying that I don't think he's marketable as
Speaker 1: an artist, but I think there's a future for him
Speaker 1: as a songwriter. And I'm trying to encourage them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but no one wants Brandon T. Jackson to write songs.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to name the person.
Speaker 2: I was just trying to pull a name.
Speaker 1: Listen, but what I'm saying is that you can you
Speaker 1: can open any door that you want once you get in, Like,
Speaker 1: you're not going to go through the front door. You
Speaker 1: might have to come through the kitchen or whatever. So
Speaker 1: I'm saying that, Okay, if you you ramp up your
Speaker 1: songwriting skills, which are brilliantly brilliant, and you get a
Speaker 1: public then yeah, you can write your own ticket. You
Speaker 1: could be like I want to fly to the moon
Speaker 1: next to get in. What I'm saying is, how do
Speaker 1: you help a person? What do you recommend to someone
Speaker 1: trying to find their lane? Like, maybe they're better at writing, yeah,
Speaker 1: or maybe they're better at directing, or maybe they're better
Speaker 1: at being in front of the camera being a stand on.
Speaker 1: How do you help them find Yeah?
Speaker 3: Good question.
Speaker 2: I think you just have to try everything, you know.
Speaker 2: I think if you think you want to be a
Speaker 2: stand up, you got to go be a stand up.
Speaker 2: Like I was denying myself the fact that I was
Speaker 2: a writer for many years. I was just like, no,
Speaker 2: I'm a comedian, I'm a performer. I'm just trying to
Speaker 2: be on SNL. This is what I'm doing. But I
Speaker 2: was writing for money on these TV shows and stuff,
Speaker 2: and I was like, yeah, yeah, but I'm not a writer.
Speaker 2: I don't know why. For years I denied that, and
Speaker 2: then I looked up and was like, yo, I've been
Speaker 2: writing a lot and I always perform on the things
Speaker 2: I write on, So I never had to shut that
Speaker 2: part of me off. But I don't know. For some reason,
Speaker 2: I had this weird shame about being behind the scenes,
Speaker 2: which was odd because once I embraced that, my whole
Speaker 2: career opened up in front of the camera and behind it.
Speaker 3: Is it shame or is also like can I do this?
Speaker 3: Because that's like also a whole level.
Speaker 8: It was.
Speaker 2: Well, I always knew I was a good writer. I
Speaker 2: just didn't think of it as a job, which was
Speaker 2: disrespectful as shit to writers. But I just didn't have
Speaker 2: that knowledge. You know, I went to public school. I
Speaker 2: didn't have a lot of knowledge about this, about the industry,
Speaker 2: you know, I went to public school in the Midwest.
Speaker 2: TV was like, what that was just like a weird dream.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I mean I've always had this kind of
Speaker 2: I talked about this the other day. I've always had
Speaker 2: this kind of reckless confidence, Like I've always been like,
Speaker 2: if I want to do it, I can do it.
Speaker 2: But then I would convince myself, oh but I don't
Speaker 2: want to do that. But then I think that was
Speaker 2: just the fear talking, right. So I think if you
Speaker 2: have a passion for it, you've got to do it.
Speaker 2: You've got to just do it. I think the problem
Speaker 2: with standup is you got to do it all the time,
Speaker 2: right cause it's like golf. If you play for ten
Speaker 2: years and you don't play for a week, you're terrible again.
Speaker 3: Yes, I'm very scared, and you get more scared the
Speaker 3: more time you spend not doing it.
Speaker 2: Correct.
Speaker 3: Oh, correct.
Speaker 2: See Eddie Murphy, it's why he won't it's why he
Speaker 2: won't come back on stage. I mean, he says it.
Speaker 2: I'm not that's just what he says. I can't be
Speaker 2: out here working out material as Eddie Murphy. I can't
Speaker 2: do bad jokes. But the only way you do a
Speaker 2: special is to go out and work out the material,
Speaker 2: and they'll be bad. Chris is not afraid to do that.
Speaker 2: Rock goes into club with a notebook and a pen.
Speaker 2: He'll be like, I'm just gonna read some shit, you
Speaker 2: know when he's working things out, and it's genius to watch.
Speaker 2: But you know, if you're Eddie Murphy, how do you
Speaker 2: do that? How do you go, as the living legend
Speaker 2: top of the game and go into the cellar or
Speaker 2: stand up New York or wherever and tell some terrible
Speaker 2: ass jokes?
Speaker 3: So do you think we'll never see Eddie Murphy.
Speaker 2: I'm just waiting to see if he's actually gonna do
Speaker 2: coming to America too.
Speaker 1: I believe it.
Speaker 2: I don't either. When he was gonna host the Oscars,
Speaker 2: I was like, I believe, want to see it, and
Speaker 2: then he didn't, you know what I mean. He it's
Speaker 2: hard and I root for him, like I'm like, he's
Speaker 2: the greatest living comedian period and I don't think that
Speaker 2: there's any way to live up to that title. And
Speaker 2: so I have you know, I have sympathy for him.
Speaker 2: People feel different.
Speaker 1: Even the ten minutes he did at Kennedy said Kennedy
Speaker 1: so dope, so dope, dude.
Speaker 2: It made me so hungry. I don't care. If he
Speaker 2: just got on stage your talk, I would pay all
Speaker 2: my money. You can have all my money. But that's
Speaker 2: why he doesn't understand the love for him is so great.
Speaker 2: But anyway back to you, just be Eddie Murphy, that's
Speaker 2: all I'm saying.
Speaker 3: That's all you got to do, or just don't be no.
Speaker 2: Look, I think you just got to do it and
Speaker 2: you'll find out. It'll take you where you're supposed to go.
Speaker 2: But don't close the doors on yourself. And if you're
Speaker 2: already writing, then what are you waiting for? You got
Speaker 2: three minutes in the book right now, five minutes, whatever
Speaker 2: you got. That's all you have to do. People think
Speaker 2: you have to go out and do an hour long special. No,
Speaker 2: you work your way up. You do five minutes, then
Speaker 2: you do eight, and then you go back to five
Speaker 2: because those other three you find out didn't work. What
Speaker 2: do you not?
Speaker 3: Did you do this? But do you have some favorite
Speaker 3: clubs in New York?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Look, I think stand Up n Y is really good.
Speaker 2: Stand Up New York is great because they have a
Speaker 2: really good amateur night where anybody can get up. Go
Speaker 2: to Stand Up New it's uptown and then no, I
Speaker 2: think it's in the sixties, like Upper West Side, Cameron.
Speaker 2: I think that's where am I getting it confused?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, no no yeah the media no, no. So
Speaker 2: sant Up New York is a good one. Don't try
Speaker 2: to go to the cellar, no, like you know, that's crazy.
Speaker 2: But there's also like NYU has like random comedy nights
Speaker 2: and stuff where like literally anybody can go up and
Speaker 2: students are kind of a great crowd because they don't
Speaker 2: give a shit, and so they'll either laugh or they'll
Speaker 2: just won't even look at you. But either way you
Speaker 2: can hear what you're You know what the thing is,
Speaker 2: You need to hear what your jokes sound like on
Speaker 2: a microphone. It's not about what they sound like in
Speaker 2: front of a crowd, as much as you need to
Speaker 2: get used to hearing them amplified, and you'll start writing
Speaker 2: them differently because no matter how much you write them
Speaker 2: at home, that ship, once it has an echo on it,
Speaker 2: you're like, oh, that that doesn't work. But honestly, like
Speaker 2: it doesn't. Yeah, yeah, that's why they do that, right,
Speaker 2: because you need to be able to hear the joke
Speaker 2: in the mic. It's not about the crowds reaction. People
Speaker 2: always think that's a joke about the crowd not hearing,
Speaker 2: but it really is like, oh, my joke is not
Speaker 2: working through this mechanism. It's interesting. There's a whole there's
Speaker 2: a whole thing.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you my two secret Smurf spots.
Speaker 2: Like you okay he said it on the rest, Yeah,
Speaker 2: because that's the small little places that any bar in
Speaker 2: Brooklyn has an amateur night.
Speaker 1: By the way, I work out of two spots.
Speaker 3: I say what now, Yeah, I do, which mean you
Speaker 3: work out of two spots.
Speaker 2: Oh you telling me this?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Well, back when I was actively teaching, you're not in.
Speaker 2: Like a yeah, go ahead, because you're not in a
Speaker 2: comedy club. Comedy club, are you?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I mean, but I don't do it as much
Speaker 1: now that I'm not teaching this semester. But I as
Speaker 1: you hear three seconds ago, I mean the reason why
Speaker 1: I write more and instagram more because it's easy for
Speaker 1: me to communicate when I can control my words with
Speaker 1: my ten fingers. But I hate public speaking. So you
Speaker 1: go and you try to given the show. I lose
Speaker 1: sleep the night before whenever we do it, and they
Speaker 1: could be like even the Jimmy Jame and Terry Lewis show,
Speaker 1: like I'm in the mirror like practicing, like like it's
Speaker 1: like jury. Yeah, but yeah, our our our warm up
Speaker 1: guy Seth told me that the way to give over
Speaker 1: your public speaking fear is to just tell five minute story.
Speaker 3: So so you're doing like story slams and ship that's dope.
Speaker 1: Story is also on the low kind of working.
Speaker 2: Out to where do you go?
Speaker 1: Where you said, I don't want to reveal that because
Speaker 1: I don't want people judging.
Speaker 3: Me reveal stuff on this show.
Speaker 2: You just said, I'm going to tell you the standing.
Speaker 1: Look, that's a running theme with this show. Just yeah,
Speaker 1: what they are.
Speaker 2: It's the Apollo at the top of the empire, say building,
Speaker 2: it's real.
Speaker 1: Wait, since you're on the subject, there's no there's someone
Speaker 1: that I am cheering for in the world of me.
Speaker 1: Well besides you, Oh yeah, you're my hero. Jessica Moore
Speaker 1: is well just hilarious or just with the mess, just hilarious.
Speaker 1: She is one of my favorite, uh Instagram comedian, Like
Speaker 1: what she's done?
Speaker 2: Are you No, not Jessica Williams.
Speaker 1: She's just just with the mess or just hilarious is
Speaker 1: what she is on on Instagram.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's even with Azelia Banks and everybody.
Speaker 1: She Yeah, she uses all fifty nine seconds of her
Speaker 1: Instagram account to do awesome crafted uh comedy bits where
Speaker 1: she kind of gives you the ratchet news of the week,
Speaker 1: and it's to the point where that's my show's funny,
Speaker 1: similar to what's his name? Who's who's like the star
Speaker 1: of Vine what's his name?
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's in the movie with Sandra Oh my god, yes,
Speaker 2: wait really yeah he did. He was in the movie
Speaker 2: Oh my god was res Yes, he was in speed.
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
Speaker 1: Now we're all going to forget his Yeah, sort of
Speaker 1: like how do you.
Speaker 2: I didn't do it neither.
Speaker 1: Less less about how do you feel about graduating and
Speaker 1: kind of cutting the front of the bank line. What
Speaker 1: do you recommend to those who are now going to
Speaker 1: make their careers off of strictly YouTube and Instagram to
Speaker 1: get to come or.
Speaker 2: Is it just I don't know that.
Speaker 1: Wasn't that like trap music to me?
Speaker 2: Or like, well, you said that pejoratively, but I don't
Speaker 2: think that. Yeah, I don't. I don't Northwestern, Please give
Speaker 2: me my credit. I got that degree. Ok, Yeah, I
Speaker 2: don't know. I think whatever they choose to do is
Speaker 2: remains to be seen.
Speaker 3: I don't you know.
Speaker 2: Francesca Ramsey is a fantastic YouTube star who's got a
Speaker 2: pilot she's shooting out for Comedy Central, and like, you know,
Speaker 2: I just kind of just I don't know. I keep
Speaker 2: hearing that they all get these shows, but then I
Speaker 2: don't know what's going to happen. Like Joanne the Scammer's
Speaker 2: doing a pilot for Netflix, Like I'm so excited, excited,
Speaker 2: I know, but I don't know, Like I never see
Speaker 2: these things come to the light of day, and I
Speaker 2: wish I would. So I don't know what the disconnect is.
Speaker 2: I don't know if it's because they don't know the
Speaker 2: business a lot. But like Francesca is the person I
Speaker 2: think has a really good chance of making it because
Speaker 2: well she's already made it, but like somebody who can
Speaker 2: really translate over to TV because she's been in the business.
Speaker 2: We hired her at the Nightly Show, brought her on
Speaker 2: as a correspondent, like she's done the kind and she's
Speaker 2: like a writer also. But some of these people, I
Speaker 2: don't know if they write, but if they know TV,
Speaker 2: I don't know if they know how to make a
Speaker 2: product for Tagua.
Speaker 1: But what I'm asking is the definition of quote making
Speaker 1: it right?
Speaker 2: It's different at the end of.
Speaker 1: The ellipses, is making it that dot in our world,
Speaker 1: which is the standard that we've known of long form comedy.
Speaker 1: But what if that medium that they're doing now is
Speaker 1: going to be the standard of which we digest our entertainment.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean I think we'll all have to adjust.
Speaker 2: I think late night comedy on streaming and on demand
Speaker 2: has proven to be tough. You know, Chelsea's show just
Speaker 2: went down.
Speaker 1: I'm shocked about that because I thought it was doing
Speaker 1: the numbers.
Speaker 2: I don't know if it was or not. She said,
Speaker 2: she made it sound like she made the move to
Speaker 2: focus on activism, so it may have just been her choice.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure, but I think Bill Night is the
Speaker 2: only other one that has a streaming talk show, So yeah,
Speaker 2: I don't I'm not sure. Like right now, for Late Night,
Speaker 2: it seems to still be a TV game, but digital matters,
Speaker 2: you know, to go viral, but you have to be
Speaker 2: on a TV terrestrial platform to uh crossover to the
Speaker 2: digital viral platfor it's weird, But yeah, I think I
Speaker 2: think there's a lot of TV like comedy that's happening
Speaker 2: on streaming that's really funny. I mean, look at Kimmy Schmidt,
Speaker 2: you know, look at those are people who are comedians
Speaker 2: whoor you know, who definitely translate. So I think there's
Speaker 2: a room for everybody. I didn't answer your question move.
Speaker 7: On show now, but yes, what it was like to
Speaker 7: go from being a writer to now some writer who
Speaker 7: writes for folks and now you write for yourself? Like,
Speaker 7: what was that transition like?
Speaker 1: Can you write for yourself?
Speaker 7: I mean, like, but now you're like a performer.
Speaker 2: Some people always ask that question, but I never stopped performing.
Speaker 2: It's like when people ask Eddie what was it like
Speaker 2: when you fell off, and he's like, check my resume.
Speaker 2: I always made movies. Every year he's made a movie.
Speaker 2: That's what's crazy about Eddie Murhy. But anyway, I just
Speaker 2: really put myself in the same sense as Eddie Murphy.
Speaker 2: Forgive me, Forgive me Black Jesus. Yeah, so I've always
Speaker 2: been performing. Even when I was head writer on the
Speaker 2: nightly show, I was still on the show like three
Speaker 2: nights a week.
Speaker 7: So you're like the focus, it's your show.
Speaker 2: I tend to think I was the focus on everything.
Speaker 1: I asked about.
Speaker 7: That's clear, and I've learned.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 3: And how snobby were you at choosing writers for your
Speaker 3: own show?
Speaker 2: Verry Verry, Well, I will actually answer your question. It
Speaker 2: is different when it's on you, for sure.
Speaker 1: And how different is it that you're the star of
Speaker 1: the show and you answer to a showrunner a head writer,
Speaker 1: as opposed to where I was going to go with
Speaker 1: it before. You just skip the damn line of the
Speaker 1: question of you being a head a head writer for
Speaker 1: Larry's show before you got your show? What's easier?
Speaker 2: Your question was so confused.
Speaker 1: I'm blessed, I'm lost, I'm lost to you. Anyway, my
Speaker 1: question was before you got your own show, you were.
Speaker 2: The head writer that question, yeah, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1: No, he said, he just skipped to your show.
Speaker 3: As if it was in the context of Bill's question.
Speaker 2: But I understand it.
Speaker 3: Why aren't we all hide because some of us just
Speaker 3: aren't smart enough to get high.
Speaker 1: Anyway, I'll set up for the next minutes you five talking.
Speaker 1: Get what you're saying, Larry Wilmore.
Speaker 2: No, I got it. I got it. So uh to
Speaker 2: answer your question, I think that, uh, the weight, the
Speaker 2: weight is on me now, right, And I've talked to
Speaker 2: all the guys and Samby and Larry said, yeah, it's
Speaker 2: different now, huh, which kind of answers your question, which
Speaker 2: was like, he said to me, you thought you knew
Speaker 2: what the weight was on me, you know, when you
Speaker 2: were my head writer. But it's different now. And I
Speaker 2: was like, you're so right, and there's nothing that can
Speaker 2: explain it except by being in that position. There's something
Speaker 2: like as his head writer, I wanted to take care
Speaker 2: of him and make sure he had the funniest jokes
Speaker 2: and keep the writers organized and keep them happy, and
Speaker 2: keep him happy and just make a great show. My folks,
Speaker 2: focus was on doing whatever made him the best comedian
Speaker 2: to give the best show. And now it's like, I'm
Speaker 2: looking at people to do that for me. But the
Speaker 2: problem is I came with all of that experience, so
Speaker 2: I think people expect more from me, Like I'm not
Speaker 2: like the helpless talent. So the problem is for me,
Speaker 2: I have to break myself of the head writers show
Speaker 2: running like you know, tendencies for sure, because and I
Speaker 2: think we're still finding that, to be honest, because I do.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to be in every meeting and they had
Speaker 2: to be like, get out. You know, Colbert had said
Speaker 2: the same thing when he got his new shown. They
Speaker 2: had to kick him out.
Speaker 1: I knew it. I think that being the star of
Speaker 1: your show and always use this this ray crop Ronald
Speaker 1: McDonald example, But I feel like as Ronald McDonald as
Speaker 1: the face of your product, I mean, I know, I'm like, but.
Speaker 2: God, damn you and your clown. You're right about that
Speaker 2: now the show is over.
Speaker 1: No, But I feel like when you're the face of
Speaker 1: your product. When you're Ronald McDonald, you should let Ray
Speaker 1: Kroc be Ray Crock. You should like Boss Bill is
Speaker 1: Ray Kroc? Which one is Ray Crock?
Speaker 3: Oh that's right, the movie.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, I thought he's one of the.
Speaker 3: Ray Crock Yes, okay, Michael, Michael Keaton.
Speaker 1: Yes, so what I'm saying, you make it sound like.
Speaker 7: Better for all the time I've ever heard in my life,
Speaker 7: all the time.
Speaker 1: I'm afraid of Stephen listening to this everything right now?
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 1: But okay, I know some people that can't let go. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they got to make every decision.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's hard for me about you.
Speaker 1: Oh you two?
Speaker 3: Okay, so.
Speaker 2: Again, because it's easy for you to be in.
Speaker 1: Or is it easier for you not?
Speaker 2: Look, I think I enjoy both. But uh, there's a
Speaker 2: reason I created my own show after I left Larry Show,
Speaker 2: as opposed to, you know, going to somebody else's show. Actually,
Speaker 2: we need to tell that story. You know you are
Speaker 2: an integral part of that story. But anyway we are
Speaker 2: in order because damn.
Speaker 3: I had.
Speaker 1: Would you have for breakfast this morning?
Speaker 3: Tell that story.
Speaker 2: I don't get to eat it anymore. My sketch busy
Speaker 2: now what did I have. I don't know. There's some
Speaker 2: eggs I don't know. But the end of and the
Speaker 2: end of that is that it is really difficult, and
Speaker 2: I'm trying to trying to take myself out of my meetings.
Speaker 2: But the thing is, I you also get this sixth
Speaker 2: sense when you are the host of a show, and
Speaker 2: when you create a show, you can see everything, you
Speaker 2: can hear everything, you know everything that's going on. It's weird.
Speaker 2: You literally have an extra sense. And people are like,
Speaker 2: you don't miss a thing. And I can see, like
Speaker 2: when something's not working, I can see it an hour before,
Speaker 2: so somebody else sees it. And so my problem is
Speaker 2: letting people not fail, but letting them find out that
Speaker 2: what they're doing is not going to work when I
Speaker 2: knew it a day ago or an hour ago. You know,
Speaker 2: that's my problem. That's what I'm struggling with because you're
Speaker 2: I don't know, I really have this weird. I don't
Speaker 2: know how to describe it any other way. But I
Speaker 2: can see more now, and so that's hard for me.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to figure out how to let people just
Speaker 2: figure it out for themselves.
Speaker 1: So you trust it.
Speaker 2: I do trust them, though, I was going to say no,
Speaker 2: I would tell you if I didn't know. And the
Speaker 2: reason why I hired the person I hired is because
Speaker 2: I've known him for years, and uh, I knew that
Speaker 2: whatever I needed, he was going to be there to say, hey,
Speaker 2: step out of that, I got it, you know. So
Speaker 2: so you have to do that. And I have co
Speaker 2: executive producers who are amazing, these amazing teams of women
Speaker 2: who are like they just have my back. So that's
Speaker 2: what's made it easier for me. But it's just a
Speaker 2: personal thing. It doesn't matter how much people take care
Speaker 2: of you if you're used to the one being, you know,
Speaker 2: being the one that making all the decisions. So it's
Speaker 2: a process.
Speaker 3: Did you purposely staff your your writing staff? I mean
Speaker 3: this just feels like a dumb question. But with women,
Speaker 3: did you make and then black women, because you know
Speaker 3: there's been a whole yes and black and black female writers.
Speaker 3: There's not a lot this season on a lot of new.
Speaker 2: Directs, and I have doubled the number, which I've done
Speaker 2: twice in my career. I did it at the Nightly
Speaker 2: Show and then when we got canceled, and then when
Speaker 2: I hired I have a room of uh, we only
Speaker 2: have one writer. My room is all black people, half
Speaker 2: women and half men. And uh so yeah, I single
Speaker 2: handedly employed the most black women in late night and
Speaker 2: uh uh my staff is seventy percent women and people
Speaker 2: of color, which is crazy. That's never been done ever
Speaker 2: in late night television. It's heaven. When people come in.
Speaker 2: We have bottles of cocoa butter. A kid you not.
Speaker 2: We have it constantly. We introduced all the white people
Speaker 2: on our staff to cocoa butter. They're they're like, this
Speaker 2: is a miracle. Somebody came in today. I said it
Speaker 2: smells like cookies. I said, that's the cocoa butter. I
Speaker 2: kid you that. Yeah, yes, yes, we have. We have
Speaker 2: like you know music, you know. It's just like it's fun.
Speaker 2: Like we had Amber Ruffin from Seth Myers and Ashle
Speaker 2: Nicole Black from Sam Bey on our podcast which we
Speaker 2: tape in our office on Fridays, and they came in
Speaker 2: and Amber was just like walking around real slaw. I said,
Speaker 2: hurry up, come on, we got a tape. She was like,
Speaker 2: I've just never seen this many black people in an
Speaker 2: office before. She was like, let alone a TV show.
Speaker 2: She was just like, I don't know what this is.
Speaker 2: This is crazy essen yeah show. Yeah, so it's dope.
Speaker 2: I love it. I love that we've been able to
Speaker 2: do that because that's what I preached, like more black
Speaker 2: people need to be in this genre, like more black
Speaker 2: people behind the scenes in front of the camera. So, yeah, dope.
Speaker 3: Who's the sister that used to be on Larry Wimore
Speaker 3: with you always?
Speaker 2: Which one Holly Walker franchise?
Speaker 3: I guess it was Holly. It was Holly because you
Speaker 3: two are seemed like to always be paired up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we've known each other forever. She was she was
Speaker 2: one of my teachers at Second City years ago. She's fantastic.
Speaker 2: She's dope. She was a writer perform on the nightly show.
Speaker 2: She's dope.
Speaker 1: The kind of political climate that we're living in.
Speaker 2: Right now, I don't like this question. You want to
Speaker 2: talk about how you helped me create this show?
Speaker 3: That's what we were doing. We forgot we forget it.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, how did I help you create the show?
Speaker 2: So?
Speaker 1: So show?
Speaker 2: I hate shock, which is weird? Okay, so so so.
Speaker 2: I so the night they show have been canceled and
Speaker 2: I was a little sad, and uh Amir texted me,
Speaker 2: I think it was like Chappelle eight o'clock, like, let's go.
Speaker 2: And I was like okay, but I mean I text
Speaker 2: you back because I was like hYP but I was like, well,
Speaker 2: I don't think you know this. I was actually really
Speaker 2: sad and like I didn't want to leave my house
Speaker 2: and I was like in pajamas and I was like,
Speaker 2: fuck it, though, it's Chappelle, we got to go. So
Speaker 2: we went to go see Chappelle and you took me
Speaker 2: backstage and you were like, you know Dave right, And
Speaker 2: I was like, no, we've never met. I know all
Speaker 2: these other commanis. I don't know Dave.
Speaker 9: So then Dave uh was like hey, and you were
Speaker 9: like hey, and you were like you know Robin right,
Speaker 9: and he was like uh and you were like from
Speaker 9: the Nightly Show and he was like, oh right, both
Speaker 9: of us don't have jobs, like this was just after
Speaker 9: the night Show.
Speaker 2: And I was like hey, you're right. And then and
Speaker 2: then he says what he always says to me now,
Speaker 2: which was a are you white?
Speaker 1: What is you?
Speaker 2: Are you white? And then he's like no, I'm just kidding,
Speaker 2: I'm just kidding. And so he said, what are you
Speaker 2: doing now that the Nightly Show is over, and I said, oh,
Speaker 2: I'm actually gonna go. I think I'm gonna go try
Speaker 2: to work on somebody else's talk show. I've got some offers,
Speaker 2: because I had offers from most of the white dudes
Speaker 2: and Late Night and Thank You, and so I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna work on SO and soci show. And
Speaker 2: he was like, nah, do your own show. And I
Speaker 2: was like, but I feel like I need to, you know,
Speaker 2: be in it a little bit more, get my name
Speaker 2: out there a little bit more. And he was like, now,
Speaker 2: go to your own show.
Speaker 1: And So Joe and So I'm going to record that
Speaker 1: and make that part of our edit.
Speaker 2: So so I was like, Wow, maybe I should do
Speaker 2: my own show. And then I don't know if you
Speaker 2: remember this, we were trying to meet up with Rock.
Speaker 2: This was a very like Hollywood New York night, but
Speaker 2: we were trying to meet on the trope to completely question. Okay,
Speaker 2: yeah right right, So you and Dave Schabelle and Spike
Speaker 2: Jones he was also standing there, and we were trying
Speaker 2: to go get chicken at the spot.
Speaker 1: You know, it's weird.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you always take people to get always We've got
Speaker 2: chicken many times. But yes, this was the this is
Speaker 2: all right.
Speaker 1: The weirdest thing about this night, yeah, was that I
Speaker 1: didn't realize that with Spike Jones until six minutes and.
Speaker 2: You're talking to him. Yes, I remember you telling me this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I didn't know what spi Joe.
Speaker 2: I saw the emphany on your face. You were not slick,
Speaker 2: and then you were, and then you tried to clean
Speaker 2: it up. You were like, yeah, I just saw your video.
Speaker 1: It's so dope.
Speaker 2: Yeah, are you that smart? I think I just know you, okay,
Speaker 2: because he was very flattered. He could not have been nicer,
Speaker 2: but you were like in the video at all man,
Speaker 2: and then the treadmills that I knew you went extra
Speaker 2: hard on letting him know that.
Speaker 1: It was Robin know, I know, we gotta get married now.
Speaker 2: So so so we went to go get chicken and
Speaker 2: we couldn't find Chris or David. So it's just me
Speaker 2: and a Mirr eating chicken. And the chicken was fantastic,
Speaker 2: but it was like.
Speaker 3: Chicken right now, chicken?
Speaker 2: No, it was not?
Speaker 1: No, what is that?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: It was probably No, it was not.
Speaker 2: It's a place where we have to go up the
Speaker 2: rickety staircase.
Speaker 7: I love the chicken right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what I was gonna say. I wasn't gonna
Speaker 2: say that.
Speaker 1: Like Robin, I actually do like you.
Speaker 3: Like you that's so cute.
Speaker 1: No, I don't remember the first chicken spot I talked
Speaker 1: about on our pilot episode.
Speaker 2: Yeahs a cigaret spot.
Speaker 3: Damn only take the top tier bitches.
Speaker 1: Was damn Okay, it's good that you remember it. I
Speaker 1: didn't remember. You remember that means I really like you
Speaker 1: as a person.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Himson, I wouldn't say the name or where it is.
Speaker 1: There's certain people I can't let me, let not them
Speaker 1: see me like throw down on yeah chicken.
Speaker 2: It was.
Speaker 1: First we ate the chicken on out. It was the
Speaker 1: best we ever did. Remember that, Yeah, like this and
Speaker 1: then after the chicken chicken, we'll put.
Speaker 2: You straight like yeah. Yeah. So so we went there
Speaker 2: and I don't remember how much we really talked about
Speaker 2: it that night, but I was like, God, I think
Speaker 2: Dave is right. So I had a meeting two days
Speaker 2: later at Jack's Media, who does full fun Toble sam Bee,
Speaker 2: Amy Schumer's Inside of Me Schumer broad City. There's this
Speaker 2: amazing production company and I was in there to meet
Speaker 2: with them to run a different show. I was like, well,
Speaker 2: maybe I'll just go to meet with them about this
Speaker 2: sitcom whatever to like run it, not even gonna be
Speaker 2: on it. And we were having this conversation. They were like,
Speaker 2: so if you were to do your own late night show,
Speaker 2: just like like we were just shooting the shit. I
Speaker 2: wasn't in there to pitch. I didn't have a pitch
Speaker 2: on me. And they were like, so, if you were
Speaker 2: going to do your own late night show, what would
Speaker 2: it be. I was like, I don't know, probably just
Speaker 2: everything I do, like sketch, you know, political satire, but
Speaker 2: also like pop culture satire because I care about what
Speaker 2: black China is doing as much as I care about
Speaker 2: what the president is doing. And they were like, that's dope,
Speaker 2: we'll buy it.
Speaker 3: So you were first for them too, because it's not
Speaker 3: you was the first piece of brown for that production
Speaker 3: company you say you name like Amy.
Speaker 2: Fernandez is Brown owns that company. But I don't think
Speaker 2: they have any other shows with predominantly black people, and
Speaker 2: that's for sure. But they did produce Top five and
Speaker 2: they so they got they got some stuff under that.
Speaker 2: They have a lot of good shows. They're really great.
Speaker 2: But they were like, yo, so cause I told them
Speaker 2: the story about Dave and then they said, oh, well,
Speaker 2: and your friends with Chris. I was like yeah, and
Speaker 2: then they were like, well, we'll just call Chris. So
Speaker 2: I was like okay, and I walked out of the meeting.
Speaker 2: I was like, that's not a thing, Like, that's not
Speaker 2: how you sell a show, right because I've been a
Speaker 2: picture show is my whole life, and I'm like, that's
Speaker 2: not how it works. And then a couple of days
Speaker 2: later they called and they were like, yeah, so yeah,
Speaker 2: we're gonna make your show Chris on board. I was like, wait,
Speaker 2: Chris didn't even me what. I was like, you're not serious,
Speaker 2: and they were like yeah. We called Chris and we
Speaker 2: said Robin Thiety's doing a show. It's a mix of
Speaker 2: politics and pop culture. It's late night. And he goes yes,
Speaker 2: and they go do you want us to tell you more?
Speaker 2: And he goes no. I said yes, and we were
Speaker 2: like what. Like the way it came together was so crazy,
Speaker 2: and then we shot a pilot and then Network's bid
Speaker 2: on it and we went to bet now we're on.
Speaker 1: Damn man. We all lived happily we did.
Speaker 3: That was perfect because it was nobody else to feel that,
Speaker 3: like you really you were the answer, because when you
Speaker 3: think about it, it's like, who else do you think about?
Speaker 3: They could fill that void in that way.
Speaker 2: You know, I know a lot of women who could
Speaker 2: do it. But the thing that Chris always says, the
Speaker 2: reason why he signed on to this so quickly is
Speaker 2: not because I was funny, because he there's plenty of
Speaker 2: people who are funny, but because he knew I could
Speaker 2: create and run a show, and he knew that when
Speaker 2: it came to making the pilot and when it came
Speaker 2: to making the show, I was going to put people
Speaker 2: in charge who were great. And he knows my standard
Speaker 2: or quality is like way high, so you know, I wasn't.
Speaker 2: And it didn't matter where we went. It wasn't like, oh, well,
Speaker 2: we'll make a good show for B E T. It's like, no,
Speaker 2: we're going to make a show that's going to rival
Speaker 2: anything else out there, you know, with whatever budget we get.
Speaker 2: But you know, we wanted to make something that that
Speaker 2: anybody could watch. But it was nice that we went
Speaker 2: to BET because BT only gave us two directives. They said,
Speaker 2: we want to make the show that you want to make,
Speaker 2: but it's got to be unapologetically black and add some
Speaker 2: music every now and then. I was like, bet, great,
Speaker 2: what network would tell you that.
Speaker 1: There?
Speaker 2: It really is. No, it really is. And they're they're
Speaker 2: they're really open to having things that they haven't had
Speaker 2: or things that they've tried. You know, they tried the TJ.
Speaker 2: Holmes Show, but they didn't really try it with the comedian, so,
Speaker 2: you know, I think they wanted something in this genre.
Speaker 2: And this was when Stephen Hill was still there, so.
Speaker 3: They needed something smart, like they needed smart cool at
Speaker 3: the same time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think they were really excited about what we
Speaker 2: were bringing in, what they knew I could bring to
Speaker 2: the network. And it was really a homecoming for me
Speaker 2: because my first technically my first writing job was on
Speaker 2: the BET Awards. That's what got me into the Writers Guilt.
Speaker 3: Which year were you, I'm sorry a couple of years.
Speaker 2: No, No, that was my first BT Awards was two
Speaker 2: thousand and seven. It was with.
Speaker 1: You didn't throw jokes at I thought, that's.
Speaker 2: How No, that's how No. I met Chris Rock because
Speaker 2: of you. You told Chris Rock I was funny, and
Speaker 2: then he hired me to write for write sketches for him.
Speaker 2: I was already doing the BET Awards.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that's all I. When I die, you will
Speaker 1: realize that I'm a bridge.
Speaker 2: You told no. I was already going to work. So
Speaker 2: I worked for the BT Awards for like ten years
Speaker 2: from two thousand and seven, like well, not till twenty seventeen.
Speaker 2: But I wrote many years in between that, and so
Speaker 2: when Chris was hosting, Chris hired his writers. But then
Speaker 2: they have other writers the right leg sketches and monologue
Speaker 2: bits and or bits for other people. But Chris met
Speaker 2: me when I walked in. I walked into the meeting
Speaker 2: late as fuck too. They had given me the wrong time.
Speaker 2: Can I tell you this story? So no, no, no, no no,
Speaker 2: And this was all me. This was all this the
Speaker 2: noh to do with BT. I just read their email
Speaker 2: wrong and got there at the wrong time. And I
Speaker 2: walked in and Chris Rock's sitting there holding court with
Speaker 2: like Leslie Jones and John Max, all these amazing writers comedians,
Speaker 2: and I walk in and I was like oh, and
Speaker 2: I was like hey, and I literally it was one
Speaker 2: of those things where I had to walk around everybody
Speaker 2: to get to the test where I cadish slow motion
Speaker 2: and everyone's staring at me. And I'm like, hey, everybody,
Speaker 2: and Chris goes, who are you? And I was like,
Speaker 2: Robin THEDI and he goes, Emir said you're funny, and
Speaker 2: I was like, well, he does have good taste, and
Speaker 2: then the whole room started cracking up and he goes, okay, okay,
Speaker 2: But that was the test. It was like, if I
Speaker 2: hadn't have said something funny to him, I think it
Speaker 2: would have been all down.
Speaker 3: Joe, Robin, can you walk us through because I'm so
Speaker 3: curious about the process of a war show, Like you
Speaker 3: just said, like it was a room of people and
Speaker 3: then people certain people do different segments. Yeah, like how
Speaker 3: does that work?
Speaker 2: So every host is different. Usually what happens is there's
Speaker 2: an in house crew three to four writers who write
Speaker 2: all the uh presenter bits and all the kind of
Speaker 2: connective tissue and stuff, so all the stuff that the
Speaker 2: actors get up there and fuck up. You know, they
Speaker 2: work really hard for weeks on end to craft something
Speaker 2: really funny, and then what ends up happening is the
Speaker 2: artists or the publicist or whatever read it and then
Speaker 2: they're like, ah, client doesn't really want to do that,
Speaker 2: and then it becomes like this weird amalgamation of something
Speaker 2: and then they get on stage and forget their glasses
Speaker 2: and then just say what they want. That's why a
Speaker 2: war show is making funny, Yes, because not for lack
Speaker 2: of writing. Like people always like, ah be tenise new
Speaker 2: writers or whatever. It's like, no, trust me, the bits
Speaker 2: are really funny, but just stuff goes crazy. Like I
Speaker 2: don't know. People just say what they want and but
Speaker 2: sometimes the bits work really well. But uh so then
Speaker 2: the host comes and whatever the host is usually hires
Speaker 2: their own team of writers as well.
Speaker 1: Do you recommend that I do? I do?
Speaker 4: I do?
Speaker 2: Like, Well, that's because yeah, BECAUSEL has twenty five writers
Speaker 2: who are all at the top of their game. So
Speaker 2: and SNL is writing for a specific they know themselves
Speaker 2: better than you know them. I think at SNL it
Speaker 2: doesn't make that much sense. But I think if you're
Speaker 2: hosting a wardsone where you're selling your personality and you're
Speaker 2: the host, yeah, you definitely need your own writers. And Chris,
Speaker 2: the funny thing is people like Chris they hire writers,
Speaker 2: but they don't need them. Chris Rock does not need writers.
Speaker 2: He comes in with material that's already killer three months
Speaker 2: before the show. I'm telling you there's some comedians who
Speaker 2: definitely need writers.
Speaker 4: But.
Speaker 2: Uh, and I am one of them. Let's be real.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm a great writer, but I have to
Speaker 2: write my jokes, you know what I mean? Like, I
Speaker 2: need to craft my jokes. And I could. I could
Speaker 2: absolutely write all my own material, But.
Speaker 1: I like music. I think comedy you should bounce off
Speaker 1: of other people.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I do too too.
Speaker 1: And there's no Kevin has that. Kevin will stand in
Speaker 1: the circle. Yeah, I mean his six guys will.
Speaker 2: Be like yeah, but Kevin's also very funny on his own.
Speaker 2: I wrote for Kevin too. Kevin's Kevin's very funny. And
Speaker 2: you get Kevin something, you can give Kevin something like
Speaker 2: here's the cool thing. So, so Chris is like a wordsmith.
Speaker 2: Everything those words have to be in a formula and
Speaker 2: he will mess with it for months, years until he
Speaker 2: hits a joke. Right, Kevin Hart. You can literally go, Okay, Kevin,
Speaker 2: here's the joke. The door is gonna open, and you're
Speaker 2: gonna say, well, I don't even know what time it is, right,
Speaker 2: and like, that's not a joke, right, But he will
Speaker 2: come in and be like, I don't do it, Kevin impression.
Speaker 2: But he will come in and make I don't even know,
Speaker 2: you know, I don't even know what tap is, you
Speaker 2: know whatever. That's a terrible Kevin Hart. What do I
Speaker 2: do not do? Impression? His body language and his body language,
Speaker 2: his style, but also just that crazy ass voice. He
Speaker 2: can make anything funny. Really he really can't. I've never
Speaker 2: seen anything like it.
Speaker 1: Is the voice important in comedy? The voice. Yes, I
Speaker 1: was gonna say, how long have you had you have
Speaker 1: this sort of ratchy Joan Rivers thing going on?
Speaker 2: I usually get Kathy Griffin.
Speaker 1: Okay, I can hear that now. Yeah, but she said,
Speaker 1: but I'm just saying how she was if you had
Speaker 1: this scratchy voice. Because you can go Jewish grandmother, you
Speaker 1: can go hood, you can Italian grandmother.
Speaker 2: Yeah, still racist.
Speaker 1: Even more German grandmother.
Speaker 2: That is my heritage.
Speaker 5: Do that?
Speaker 2: Yeah? How long have I had this voice?
Speaker 7: Jesus puppets?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Probably it actually changed when I had uh, when I
Speaker 2: stopped eating dairy. This is actually true, This is not interesting.
Speaker 2: Feel free to cut it. Ten years ago I stopped
Speaker 2: eating dairy because it would make me sick and like
Speaker 2: my throat would start closing up. And I realized I
Speaker 2: was like definitely allergic to dairy, and my voice became
Speaker 2: scratchier and less nasally. I used to kind of tongue like, no,
Speaker 2: I didn't, but like it did sound more nasally. Yeah,
Speaker 2: then I do.
Speaker 3: That, and now you're clear.
Speaker 2: That's crazy. Yeah, now I'm clear. I'm clear and raspy.
Speaker 1: I see.
Speaker 2: I don't know. It's always kind of been this way
Speaker 2: since then.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, now that you're talking, this is the clear,
Speaker 1: this is the salters. Your voices sounded.
Speaker 2: But what do you mean my voice is always sounded,
Speaker 2: But in the beginning.
Speaker 1: Of the show, you had the Kathy Sledge. I know, scratchy.
Speaker 2: It's just because I talk a lot. Right now, I
Speaker 2: just came from rewrite, like our shows tomorrow, What did
Speaker 2: I agree to do a two hour podcast the night before?
Speaker 1: I need to take what time you have to wake up?
Speaker 1: We have a tendency to keep your guest up way
Speaker 1: past this forever. It's ten don't look at you. Don't
Speaker 1: look at you.
Speaker 2: Christ you got ten minutes, but can you? Guys are
Speaker 2: so fun? Thank you Steve picked up my hat for me.
Speaker 3: Thank you for introducing me to what's his name, du
Speaker 3: Duk Duckworth.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, don't busy.
Speaker 1: Did you know? Did I know?
Speaker 2: Did you? Were you aware of Duckworth?
Speaker 1: I know of d work he did what. I didn't
Speaker 1: know him personally.
Speaker 2: Did you see him on the show. Yes, Oh, he's
Speaker 2: so right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was gonna say, I love your your I
Speaker 1: was kind of jealous of the music. Yeah, you told me.
Speaker 2: To do that little one hundred percent. I got his director.
Speaker 2: It wasn't as fire, but it's a direct goddamn ripoff.
Speaker 2: How about that?
Speaker 3: Wait?
Speaker 2: Andre Allen, who did all music, is my show director.
Speaker 2: That's why I look. I surround myself with greats.
Speaker 1: That's what you need to show you're you're damn. I don't.
Speaker 2: I didn't come to play.
Speaker 1: You can't make it, But now you're not. Only are
Speaker 1: you going to make it. I think you're gonna thrive.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna make it. I'm gonna make get.
Speaker 3: Especially if you keep dancing with the folks like yeah,
Speaker 3: that's like as cool, like a dream.
Speaker 2: There's a body roll in every episode. It's my Afford
Speaker 2: Hitchcock moment. Look for it every episode. You'll see it
Speaker 2: every episode. I don't know if you saw a Hairmaid's
Speaker 2: Tale last week, but I body roll out a window.
Speaker 2: Like I'm telling you you need to see it in
Speaker 2: every This is something that you will totally geek out on.
Speaker 2: Like if you just binge the show whenever you have time,
Speaker 2: you will see I body roll at least once in
Speaker 2: every episode. It's like a secret. And now we're like
Speaker 2: elevating where you'll find it. It's not in a regular place,
Speaker 2: small as body rolls.
Speaker 1: Boss Bill is doing the fat Albert invisible. I am
Speaker 1: such a proponent of the body roll, right. I think
Speaker 1: everybody should body roll twice a day.
Speaker 3: Correct.
Speaker 2: I do it all the time. But I kept doing
Speaker 2: it in these like sketches we were shooting and in
Speaker 2: the music and all this stuff, and they were like, yo,
Speaker 2: everything we edit your body rolling.
Speaker 1: Damn.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the Easter Egg, look for it.
Speaker 7: I have a question.
Speaker 1: Yes, so I don't think.
Speaker 2: What is happening?
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't think. I get b E T H.
Speaker 2: No problem, that's no problem.
Speaker 1: He does? What what channel? I mean? What srime? What
Speaker 1: day is it?
Speaker 2: It's on Thursdays at eleven pm Eastern ten pm Central.
Speaker 2: You can see it for free on bt dot com.
Speaker 2: Full episodes seven days from when we air, so between
Speaker 2: from one episode to the next you can see it
Speaker 2: for free. Otherwise gotta log in. You can probably also bootlegged.
Speaker 2: I don't know there were clips on YouTube.
Speaker 1: But yo, don't I really, I really don't want this
Speaker 1: conversation to stop.
Speaker 3: Robin, are you saying?
Speaker 2: Uh? Anyway? I am single? That what are you looking?
Speaker 3: What?
Speaker 5: What?
Speaker 3: What is a what is a man to you?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 3: The perfect non perfect man?
Speaker 1: Mate? Oh?
Speaker 3: Sorry, oh ship, No, No, I like men.
Speaker 1: Okay, no, no, just trying to steer around.
Speaker 3: Her hetero vibes.
Speaker 1: So I just thought, right, I'm just saying that we're.
Speaker 2: Trying to lure all the men with my hetero vibes.
Speaker 1: Woman, that's it. Men.
Speaker 8: You like.
Speaker 1: Your question?
Speaker 2: She didn't answer. I have a question for you before we.
Speaker 1: Love the Tables, I want to ask.
Speaker 2: Okay, first, okay, what is your favorite Robin memory? Excuse
Speaker 2: just know what. Everyone turned around and stared at me
Speaker 2: right now. He's a sweating bullets, tiny bead of sweat.
Speaker 11: Listen, I had it was good for you, Jamie Fox, whoa,
Speaker 11: I am sorry?
Speaker 1: Sorry, look it up the best? All right? No, I
Speaker 1: have to plead the fifth on this because it's a
Speaker 1: definite moment. But I can't say on the air because
Speaker 1: as the third person, I know what it is.
Speaker 3: Can you tell the story?
Speaker 1: Does it involved Yeah?
Speaker 2: An inside flood? Oh you don't even remember.
Speaker 7: Was that cosie for something?
Speaker 2: No, no, it's an actual flood that happened inside a building.
Speaker 2: It happened in Las Vegas.
Speaker 7: There's Oh you were with us.
Speaker 2: Yes, I'm with you everywhere. Don't you just look to
Speaker 2: your left. I'm there anyway. Whatever that might have been it,
Speaker 2: But I know, actually I know what it is. All right,
Speaker 2: Well tell a different story that you could tell. Okay,
Speaker 2: I'm putting you on the spot. It's fine. So you
Speaker 2: know you have seven your stories about you, but it's fine.
Speaker 3: Yours are shorter.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well I literally told like sixteen personal Yeah, do
Speaker 2: it so he can still we'll be.
Speaker 1: Robin.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Thank you guys so much. Relations Thank you.
Speaker 2: It doesn't sound girl.
Speaker 1: Don't tell sugar Steve. We will help you find bet
Speaker 1: We're gonna help you.
Speaker 3: Just help me.
Speaker 1: Get to comedy comedy show bill. I'll make sure that
Speaker 1: the checks in the mill as always. Thank you.
Speaker 2: Cocoa butter, Yes, we'll send you guys some coco.
Speaker 1: You get some cocoa butter, and we in fante. Yes,
Speaker 1: we will be crashing your wedding.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Mary, Yes, aren't we missing someone?
Speaker 1: Yes, we're missing he's getting married right now. So thank you,
Speaker 1: I appreciate it, and we will see you on the
Speaker 1: next go around. The Quest Love Supremium. This is Quest
Speaker 1: Love signing off Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: This classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.