1
00:00:00,200 --> 00:00:04,400
Speaker 1: I'm so tired of learning new things. I hate learning.

2
00:00:05,440 --> 00:00:09,200
Speaker 1: It's bad, it's stupid. Why have I done all this

3
00:00:09,400 --> 00:00:12,159
Speaker 1: just to learn how to do a separate thing. I

4
00:00:12,400 --> 00:00:14,080
Speaker 1: don't like it. I don't like it.

5
00:00:14,320 --> 00:00:19,239
Speaker 2: Oh, somebody marked that. Someone marked that, right there, Amber Ruffin.

6
00:00:19,520 --> 00:00:20,760
Speaker 2: I hate learning.

7
00:00:21,200 --> 00:00:22,239
Speaker 1: I hate learning.

8
00:00:22,280 --> 00:00:23,000
Speaker 2: I truly do.

9
00:00:23,200 --> 00:00:31,400
Speaker 1: Any teacher I've had will tell you she hates it. Hi,

10
00:00:31,640 --> 00:00:34,879
Speaker 1: my name is Amber Ruffin. I'm in your ears, but

11
00:00:35,040 --> 00:00:37,199
Speaker 1: if I was in your house with you, I'd give

12
00:00:37,240 --> 00:00:38,159
Speaker 1: you a little pinch.

13
00:00:45,760 --> 00:00:50,080
Speaker 2: Hi, friends, and happy Tuesday or whatever day you're listening

14
00:00:50,159 --> 00:00:54,680
Speaker 2: to this episode that was released on a Tuesday. Welcome back.

15
00:00:55,000 --> 00:00:58,600
Speaker 2: This is Off the Beat and I am Brian Baumgartner

16
00:00:58,640 --> 00:01:05,040
Speaker 2: and my guest today is the wonderful Amber Ruffin. Now,

17
00:01:05,080 --> 00:01:09,559
Speaker 2: Amber is a late night legend. Okay, she has worked

18
00:01:09,560 --> 00:01:13,000
Speaker 2: on Late Night with Seth Myers since his very first

19
00:01:13,040 --> 00:01:17,840
Speaker 2: episode back in twenty fourteen. But that's not all that

20
00:01:17,959 --> 00:01:21,880
Speaker 2: Amber has done. She does improv. She worked with Improv

21
00:01:21,920 --> 00:01:26,840
Speaker 2: Olympic and Second City Sketches on her own The Amber

22
00:01:26,920 --> 00:01:31,560
Speaker 2: Ruffin Show, to appearing in multiple hit series like Girls

23
00:01:32,160 --> 00:01:36,640
Speaker 2: five EVA and If that's not enough. She is also

24
00:01:36,720 --> 00:01:40,360
Speaker 2: a New York Times best selling author with her sister.

25
00:01:40,560 --> 00:01:44,480
Speaker 2: You'll never believe what happened to Lacey. Crazy stories about racism,

26
00:01:44,840 --> 00:01:48,640
Speaker 2: and now she's even stepping into the world of Broadway.

27
00:01:49,680 --> 00:01:53,880
Speaker 2: Amber may hate learning like you just heard, but I

28
00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:57,919
Speaker 2: really loved learning about her and her story, her career

29
00:01:57,960 --> 00:02:02,520
Speaker 2: in improv her career at late Night, her lifelong dedication

30
00:02:02,680 --> 00:02:06,400
Speaker 2: to avoiding things like numbers and education. I mean, we

31
00:02:06,480 --> 00:02:10,799
Speaker 2: all know I can relate to that. Listen closely, everybody.

32
00:02:10,880 --> 00:02:14,359
Speaker 2: You might just learn something and that is a threat.

33
00:02:14,880 --> 00:02:18,440
Speaker 2: Here is my new friend, Amber Ruffin.

34
00:02:22,160 --> 00:02:23,720
Speaker 3: Bubble and Squeak.

35
00:02:24,480 --> 00:02:25,240
Speaker 1: I love it.

36
00:02:25,760 --> 00:02:28,079
Speaker 3: Bubble and Squeagana.

37
00:02:29,320 --> 00:02:33,680
Speaker 2: Bubble and Squeaker could get every more over from the.

38
00:02:33,760 --> 00:02:46,919
Speaker 3: Ninety before, Hiever, You're real.

39
00:02:47,720 --> 00:02:49,680
Speaker 2: I'm a real person.

40
00:02:50,040 --> 00:02:50,400
Speaker 1: Hi.

41
00:02:52,760 --> 00:02:53,480
Speaker 2: How's it going?

42
00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:57,320
Speaker 1: Pretty nice? I just had some cashes and raisins because

43
00:02:57,520 --> 00:02:59,160
Speaker 1: I'm one hundred years old.

44
00:02:59,639 --> 00:03:01,080
Speaker 2: Cash using raisins.

45
00:03:01,360 --> 00:03:03,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm either one hundred or five. That's fighting.

46
00:03:06,400 --> 00:03:10,280
Speaker 2: Well, it's the canned variety, so it's very fresh.

47
00:03:10,800 --> 00:03:12,440
Speaker 1: I insist.

48
00:03:13,440 --> 00:03:16,720
Speaker 2: Insist on the can variety of cashews and raisins.

49
00:03:16,919 --> 00:03:17,359
Speaker 1: That's right.

50
00:03:17,720 --> 00:03:20,320
Speaker 2: Are they like raw cashews or do they have a

51
00:03:20,320 --> 00:03:21,239
Speaker 2: little salt on them?

52
00:03:21,440 --> 00:03:23,720
Speaker 1: They have to have salt on them, all right, good,

53
00:03:24,040 --> 00:03:28,440
Speaker 1: although I guess some people just be eating flavorless nuts.

54
00:03:29,360 --> 00:03:32,160
Speaker 1: That's fine, like a squirrel, like a square.

55
00:03:32,280 --> 00:03:37,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly where are you are? You? Are you in? Which?

56
00:03:37,160 --> 00:03:38,800
Speaker 2: Which side of the country are you on?

57
00:03:39,200 --> 00:03:39,680
Speaker 3: New York?

58
00:03:40,120 --> 00:03:40,280
Speaker 1: Yeah?

59
00:03:40,360 --> 00:03:43,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what I thought. How's it going out there

60
00:03:43,160 --> 00:03:43,760
Speaker 2: in New York?

61
00:03:44,240 --> 00:03:47,040
Speaker 1: I mean it's pretty strikey, it's.

62
00:03:47,080 --> 00:03:48,560
Speaker 2: Very striking in New York.

63
00:03:48,880 --> 00:03:52,480
Speaker 1: Yes, probably also strike you over there, Yes it is.

64
00:03:53,480 --> 00:03:57,720
Speaker 2: What are we at, day day fifteen of the Writer's

65
00:03:57,760 --> 00:04:01,560
Speaker 2: Strike of twenty twenty three, Yes we are. That's right,

66
00:04:01,680 --> 00:04:04,120
Speaker 2: day fifteen. Do you miss going to work?

67
00:04:04,680 --> 00:04:07,720
Speaker 1: No? No one does. No, I shouldn't say that. I

68
00:04:07,800 --> 00:04:10,240
Speaker 1: really do. Though. We have a lot of fun at work,

69
00:04:10,480 --> 00:04:13,360
Speaker 1: but we haven't been back to work physically in twenty

70
00:04:13,440 --> 00:04:16,799
Speaker 1: nine years. Yeah, we haven't been back full force since

71
00:04:16,960 --> 00:04:18,200
Speaker 1: before COVID.

72
00:04:18,839 --> 00:04:21,039
Speaker 2: So you've you've still been working at home?

73
00:04:21,440 --> 00:04:25,200
Speaker 1: Yes, I've been. I mean I've been doing various things,

74
00:04:25,400 --> 00:04:28,440
Speaker 1: but at late night, at late night, we don't come

75
00:04:28,480 --> 00:04:31,120
Speaker 1: in very much at all. If you have a bit

76
00:04:31,640 --> 00:04:35,479
Speaker 1: that's going, then you come in. But I guess regular

77
00:04:35,480 --> 00:04:38,839
Speaker 1: old writers they're like, stay your goofy behinds at home.

78
00:04:39,400 --> 00:04:41,440
Speaker 1: No one wants to be like a part of your

79
00:04:41,480 --> 00:04:46,840
Speaker 1: silly bits or you know, TikTok videos. Keep that at home.

80
00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:47,840
Speaker 1: I'm like, that's fair.

81
00:04:48,320 --> 00:04:52,560
Speaker 2: Well, do you think that that is that the future?

82
00:04:53,640 --> 00:04:58,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's our future. They're happier than they've ever been

83
00:04:59,160 --> 00:05:00,240
Speaker 1: because we're you're.

84
00:05:00,160 --> 00:05:02,440
Speaker 2: Not bothering now because you're around.

85
00:05:02,560 --> 00:05:05,719
Speaker 1: No one's making like a crock pot of k so

86
00:05:07,960 --> 00:05:13,760
Speaker 1: like having races down the hallway. I do think they

87
00:05:13,880 --> 00:05:16,680
Speaker 1: love not having us, and I'm not doing a bit.

88
00:05:16,800 --> 00:05:19,680
Speaker 1: I think they love not having to deal with our mess.

89
00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:26,120
Speaker 2: Do you think that it hurts the collaborative creative process?

90
00:05:26,520 --> 00:05:30,239
Speaker 1: No, No, I mean the way we well, I guess

91
00:05:30,279 --> 00:05:33,240
Speaker 1: some of us do write more collaboratively, but the way

92
00:05:33,279 --> 00:05:36,200
Speaker 1: I write, and Jenny and Lutz and stuff is we

93
00:05:36,240 --> 00:05:39,279
Speaker 1: write a script and then I email you the script,

94
00:05:39,640 --> 00:05:41,520
Speaker 1: and then you take a pass at it, you email

95
00:05:41,560 --> 00:05:44,360
Speaker 1: it back. That's how I've always written. So this doesn't

96
00:05:44,400 --> 00:05:48,000
Speaker 1: really bother me. But I miss being bad.

97
00:05:48,920 --> 00:05:53,599
Speaker 2: Yeah, well that makes sense. All right, let's go. Let's

98
00:05:53,600 --> 00:05:57,160
Speaker 2: go backwards in time you grew up. I was very

99
00:05:57,200 --> 00:06:02,200
Speaker 2: surprised to hear that you grew up in Nebraska, Omaha, Nebraska,

100
00:06:02,520 --> 00:06:04,799
Speaker 2: the youngest of five by the way. I should also

101
00:06:04,880 --> 00:06:08,800
Speaker 2: mention how was early life in Nebraska for you?

102
00:06:10,120 --> 00:06:12,200
Speaker 1: Very very outdoors?

103
00:06:12,720 --> 00:06:13,320
Speaker 2: Okay, okay.

104
00:06:14,080 --> 00:06:19,599
Speaker 1: I see these children here in New York, and they

105
00:06:19,640 --> 00:06:25,960
Speaker 1: are indoor children, and they are very like aware of

106
00:06:26,040 --> 00:06:29,720
Speaker 1: their surroundings in a way that I never had. Like

107
00:06:29,880 --> 00:06:32,479
Speaker 1: you can tell when you're walking down the street because

108
00:06:32,520 --> 00:06:35,160
Speaker 1: we work, you know, at thirty Rock, so there's a

109
00:06:35,200 --> 00:06:38,240
Speaker 1: ton of tourists, and you can tell who's from the Midwest,

110
00:06:39,040 --> 00:06:42,440
Speaker 1: especially the children, because they're just everywhere, and they're under

111
00:06:42,480 --> 00:06:46,160
Speaker 1: your feet and they're in your way and they can't

112
00:06:46,200 --> 00:06:51,159
Speaker 1: think of like a consequence for that. And they also

113
00:06:51,320 --> 00:06:54,280
Speaker 1: just don't have the spatial awareness that you need to

114
00:06:54,440 --> 00:06:57,920
Speaker 1: live in a tiny city filled with a billion people.

115
00:06:58,640 --> 00:07:02,520
Speaker 2: Right. I had a dream for a while. I have

116
00:07:02,560 --> 00:07:04,800
Speaker 2: young kids, and I had a dream for a while

117
00:07:05,080 --> 00:07:08,400
Speaker 2: of I don't think I could do New York permanently,

118
00:07:08,600 --> 00:07:13,880
Speaker 2: but to bring them there for a year because that

119
00:07:14,160 --> 00:07:16,160
Speaker 2: gift that you're talking, which I do think it is

120
00:07:16,200 --> 00:07:23,160
Speaker 2: a gift of understanding your environment and moving through people

121
00:07:23,400 --> 00:07:27,640
Speaker 2: and being sort of aware of the environment and your

122
00:07:27,680 --> 00:07:31,000
Speaker 2: circumstances and all of that would be like a great

123
00:07:31,640 --> 00:07:33,800
Speaker 2: learning tool. Do you think so, or do you think

124
00:07:33,840 --> 00:07:36,480
Speaker 2: the fact that they're stuck inside all the time kills

125
00:07:36,600 --> 00:07:38,080
Speaker 2: whatever benefit that might give.

126
00:07:39,320 --> 00:07:42,000
Speaker 1: You Know what kills whatever benefit that might give is

127
00:07:42,040 --> 00:07:46,320
Speaker 1: when you see people who are in mental health crises

128
00:07:47,200 --> 00:07:50,640
Speaker 1: all day and all night. Every day you have to

129
00:07:50,720 --> 00:07:53,120
Speaker 1: walk past someone who's having the worst day of their

130
00:07:53,160 --> 00:07:57,040
Speaker 1: lives without thinking of them or giving them any attention.

131
00:07:57,200 --> 00:08:01,040
Speaker 1: And that when I do see children, New York children,

132
00:08:01,120 --> 00:08:04,040
Speaker 1: I think that can't be good for you. Right, It

133
00:08:04,120 --> 00:08:06,680
Speaker 1: must kill whatever tiny bit of baby empathy you had.

134
00:08:07,640 --> 00:08:12,280
Speaker 2: Right do you think growing up in Nebraska and being outdoors,

135
00:08:12,800 --> 00:08:15,360
Speaker 2: did you play imagination games?

136
00:08:15,720 --> 00:08:19,000
Speaker 1: I definitely was an imagination kid. But more than that,

137
00:08:19,120 --> 00:08:28,560
Speaker 1: I was like running, climbing and biting. Like I think

138
00:08:28,720 --> 00:08:33,040
Speaker 1: we were catching snakes and looking them at one another,

139
00:08:33,960 --> 00:08:37,760
Speaker 1: like catching bugs and mushing them. We're just the worst,

140
00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:42,520
Speaker 1: the worst type of little boys is into it, sticking

141
00:08:42,559 --> 00:08:44,960
Speaker 1: your hand in the mud, seeing what's in their bag.

142
00:08:45,080 --> 00:08:48,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, being the youngest of five, do you think that?

143
00:08:48,200 --> 00:08:51,360
Speaker 2: How do you think that that affected you? Now?

144
00:08:52,200 --> 00:08:55,480
Speaker 1: Being the youngest of five is why I'm bad? Okay,

145
00:08:55,720 --> 00:08:59,000
Speaker 1: because it was like leave the baby alone. The baby

146
00:08:59,000 --> 00:09:02,160
Speaker 1: wants to sing you, so give that to the baby.

147
00:09:02,400 --> 00:09:05,640
Speaker 1: Does somebody check on the baby. Oh look at the

148
00:09:05,920 --> 00:09:09,480
Speaker 1: and they just let me. And then that behavior got

149
00:09:09,559 --> 00:09:13,400
Speaker 1: passed down to all My sisters and my brother are

150
00:09:13,440 --> 00:09:18,320
Speaker 1: always like uh huh, yeah, that's great. Even today, I

151
00:09:18,440 --> 00:09:21,400
Speaker 1: think they still act like that, but I can see it.

152
00:09:22,520 --> 00:09:25,760
Speaker 1: I knew that that was happening. But then once they

153
00:09:25,840 --> 00:09:29,480
Speaker 1: started having children, then I really was like, this is

154
00:09:29,559 --> 00:09:33,760
Speaker 1: how you used to do me. You don't care that

155
00:09:33,880 --> 00:09:38,960
Speaker 1: this child drew this picture. But yeah, it was just

156
00:09:39,000 --> 00:09:44,000
Speaker 1: like severe encouragement all of the time, which I think

157
00:09:44,160 --> 00:09:47,480
Speaker 1: creates a monster, but a fun monster.

158
00:09:47,360 --> 00:09:48,600
Speaker 2: But a confident monster.

159
00:09:48,960 --> 00:09:50,000
Speaker 1: Yeah good.

160
00:09:50,200 --> 00:09:55,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, you were interested in snakes and mud and squishing bugs.

161
00:09:56,800 --> 00:10:01,199
Speaker 2: When did you start to have an interest in either

162
00:10:01,840 --> 00:10:05,880
Speaker 2: the creative arts or writing or performing. Was that something

163
00:10:05,880 --> 00:10:07,680
Speaker 2: that came to you early on?

164
00:10:09,240 --> 00:10:12,240
Speaker 1: I guess I did the thing kids do where you're like,

165
00:10:12,600 --> 00:10:14,920
Speaker 1: you write a show, and then you make the neighbors

166
00:10:14,960 --> 00:10:16,120
Speaker 1: come to the show.

167
00:10:16,320 --> 00:10:19,600
Speaker 2: Right that we did that, By the way, Not everyone

168
00:10:19,679 --> 00:10:22,800
Speaker 2: does that, but yes, I knew what you mean, know

169
00:10:22,800 --> 00:10:23,360
Speaker 2: what you mean?

170
00:10:23,520 --> 00:10:28,320
Speaker 1: Yes, those poor people. But oh so this is really

171
00:10:28,360 --> 00:10:31,679
Speaker 1: how it happened. I was learning how to play the

172
00:10:31,679 --> 00:10:36,000
Speaker 1: piano at twelve from the minister of music at church.

173
00:10:36,800 --> 00:10:41,840
Speaker 1: Then she cheated on her husband, and then she was

174
00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:46,360
Speaker 1: not allowed to play the piano anymore. I think that's what.

175
00:10:46,559 --> 00:10:49,200
Speaker 2: Wait, that was the punishment. That was the punishment. It

176
00:10:49,240 --> 00:10:51,120
Speaker 2: seems like she should be a different punishment.

177
00:10:51,760 --> 00:10:55,040
Speaker 1: But she couldn't be an official, an efficient.

178
00:10:54,760 --> 00:10:57,600
Speaker 2: At the church, she couldn't come to church, she couldn't.

179
00:10:57,280 --> 00:10:59,880
Speaker 1: Be in the pulpit because she was doing dirt.

180
00:11:00,360 --> 00:11:02,480
Speaker 2: Okay, that was the rumor.

181
00:11:02,559 --> 00:11:05,760
Speaker 1: Who knows what's true. Okay, But she had taught me

182
00:11:06,120 --> 00:11:09,840
Speaker 1: exactly one song, and so I played it that Sunday

183
00:11:09,960 --> 00:11:12,800
Speaker 1: by myself because I had to and this was not

184
00:11:12,920 --> 00:11:17,400
Speaker 1: the plan. And then she didn't come back to a

185
00:11:17,480 --> 00:11:21,080
Speaker 1: rehearsal for choir rehearsal, and so then I would just

186
00:11:21,120 --> 00:11:23,920
Speaker 1: show up at every choir rehearsal and I would figure

187
00:11:23,960 --> 00:11:27,440
Speaker 1: out how to play something for them for Sunday. And

188
00:11:27,480 --> 00:11:29,440
Speaker 1: I just figured out how to play the piano. I

189
00:11:29,440 --> 00:11:32,240
Speaker 1: can't today because it was math and not like a

190
00:11:32,320 --> 00:11:36,280
Speaker 1: talent that I have, But I just figured it out,

191
00:11:36,520 --> 00:11:39,480
Speaker 1: and every week I figured it out and it was fine.

192
00:11:40,120 --> 00:11:43,720
Speaker 1: And it also gave me insane confidence because I was like,

193
00:11:43,840 --> 00:11:47,280
Speaker 1: I have no there are a million people ahead of

194
00:11:47,280 --> 00:11:49,520
Speaker 1: me in line for what I'm doing right now. It

195
00:11:49,559 --> 00:11:51,800
Speaker 1: should be the last person who play. But I figured

196
00:11:51,840 --> 00:11:53,040
Speaker 1: it out. You can figure it out.

197
00:11:54,040 --> 00:11:56,120
Speaker 2: So this is really your first experience in front of

198
00:11:56,160 --> 00:11:59,520
Speaker 2: an audience and in your brain and your confident, young

199
00:12:00,120 --> 00:12:05,040
Speaker 2: fifth child brain. This made you a star. Yeah, yeah,

200
00:12:05,120 --> 00:12:05,520
Speaker 2: I'm starr.

201
00:12:05,559 --> 00:12:08,440
Speaker 1: I'm great. I can do it. But more than I'm like,

202
00:12:08,840 --> 00:12:12,480
Speaker 1: they trusted me to do this thing that an adult

203
00:12:12,520 --> 00:12:15,720
Speaker 1: should be doing, right, I was like, all right, if

204
00:12:15,720 --> 00:12:17,120
Speaker 1: it's up to me, I'll figure it out.

205
00:12:17,600 --> 00:12:20,400
Speaker 2: What about writing, I don't know.

206
00:12:21,800 --> 00:12:25,040
Speaker 1: Writing was never a part of it, never, never, And

207
00:12:25,080 --> 00:12:28,280
Speaker 1: that's the main thing now. I think when you start improvising,

208
00:12:29,160 --> 00:12:32,640
Speaker 1: all improvisers are writers, really, because you're all writing down

209
00:12:32,679 --> 00:12:35,760
Speaker 1: the sketches and stuff. But writing wasn't a part of

210
00:12:35,760 --> 00:12:40,480
Speaker 1: it at all. I just thought I just didn't think

211
00:12:40,520 --> 00:12:44,040
Speaker 1: of sketch writing as a job, and it certainly not

212
00:12:44,120 --> 00:12:48,000
Speaker 1: a job that could lead to other jobs. Right, But

213
00:12:48,720 --> 00:12:49,320
Speaker 1: I was wrong.

214
00:12:50,400 --> 00:12:55,000
Speaker 2: You eventually you joined a theater group in Omaha, you

215
00:12:55,120 --> 00:13:00,640
Speaker 2: wanted to perform, and this brought you to Chicago for

216
00:13:00,920 --> 00:13:04,040
Speaker 2: a gig. Right, So tell me about that important trip

217
00:13:04,080 --> 00:13:05,679
Speaker 2: and the aftermath of that.

218
00:13:06,640 --> 00:13:11,160
Speaker 1: In Omaha, we started an improv group and it was very,

219
00:13:11,320 --> 00:13:15,120
Speaker 1: very fun, and then we decided to go visit Chicago

220
00:13:15,840 --> 00:13:19,160
Speaker 1: for Chicago Improv Festival. Was that you know, back then

221
00:13:19,240 --> 00:13:23,280
Speaker 1: that was basically the only place there was any type

222
00:13:23,320 --> 00:13:27,840
Speaker 1: of improv where you could make a living at it. Right,

223
00:13:28,360 --> 00:13:30,959
Speaker 1: So then I moved to Sor. We go to that

224
00:13:31,280 --> 00:13:35,040
Speaker 1: improv festival and a lady named Shanna Halpern who used

225
00:13:35,080 --> 00:13:38,000
Speaker 1: to run Io, which was a big famous improv theater.

226
00:13:38,559 --> 00:13:43,480
Speaker 1: She yeah, she told me that if I moved there,

227
00:13:43,640 --> 00:13:46,480
Speaker 1: I would have a full time job within a year.

228
00:13:47,200 --> 00:13:50,719
Speaker 1: So I moved there. She let me intern at Io

229
00:13:51,240 --> 00:13:54,240
Speaker 1: and uh, it took six months and I got hired

230
00:13:54,240 --> 00:13:57,520
Speaker 1: at Boom Chicago, which is a theater in Amsterdam, and

231
00:13:57,559 --> 00:14:01,000
Speaker 1: that was a full time so I was instantly. The

232
00:14:01,040 --> 00:14:04,480
Speaker 1: second I was out of classes, I got called up

233
00:14:04,480 --> 00:14:09,160
Speaker 1: to do Boom Chicago and was doing full time comedy

234
00:14:09,280 --> 00:14:10,839
Speaker 1: was my full time job ever since.

235
00:14:11,360 --> 00:14:14,679
Speaker 2: Boom Chicago is an improv group that is in Amsterdam,

236
00:14:15,160 --> 00:14:20,280
Speaker 2: which is very confused, makes the name very confusing. Talk

237
00:14:20,320 --> 00:14:23,600
Speaker 2: to me a little bit about this group and its importance.

238
00:14:24,160 --> 00:14:31,160
Speaker 1: Well for you, Booms Chicago is a theater in Amsterdam

239
00:14:31,200 --> 00:14:35,240
Speaker 1: where we write our shows, We write all our reviews,

240
00:14:35,280 --> 00:14:39,560
Speaker 1: it's just like Second City, except it's way more improvised. Okay,

241
00:14:40,000 --> 00:14:43,720
Speaker 1: like we probably have a written opening, a couple of

242
00:14:43,800 --> 00:14:47,000
Speaker 1: sketches throughout, but then the rest is just improv games.

243
00:14:47,880 --> 00:14:53,800
Speaker 1: And it's really really nice because you have to just

244
00:14:54,160 --> 00:14:56,480
Speaker 1: figure it out, just like being the Minister of music

245
00:14:56,520 --> 00:15:01,480
Speaker 1: when you're a kid. You can't complete prepare for it,

246
00:15:01,800 --> 00:15:03,600
Speaker 1: Like there is no way to prepare for doing a

247
00:15:03,600 --> 00:15:06,040
Speaker 1: show for three hundred people for whom English is their

248
00:15:06,080 --> 00:15:10,680
Speaker 1: second language, right And if you've never you know, done

249
00:15:10,720 --> 00:15:15,720
Speaker 1: short form improv and I hadn't really, but I you know,

250
00:15:16,080 --> 00:15:19,320
Speaker 1: could really improvise songs very well. So then that I

251
00:15:19,360 --> 00:15:23,840
Speaker 1: think is what got me the job. But it was

252
00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:29,120
Speaker 1: so formative because you're making money at comedy for the

253
00:15:29,160 --> 00:15:33,880
Speaker 1: first time, and like there are all these famous alums

254
00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:37,560
Speaker 1: and you really feel like, oh, I'm doing it. And

255
00:15:39,200 --> 00:15:43,960
Speaker 1: at Boom Chicago you can do whatever you want. Like

256
00:15:44,320 --> 00:15:49,360
Speaker 1: if halfway through the show you were like, let's stop

257
00:15:49,400 --> 00:15:51,880
Speaker 1: doing the show and do a different thing, and you

258
00:15:52,040 --> 00:15:55,800
Speaker 1: just put on a different thing that would be allowed

259
00:15:56,160 --> 00:15:58,920
Speaker 1: if the audience had a great time, you could in

260
00:15:59,080 --> 00:16:01,320
Speaker 1: order for or the audience to have a great time.

261
00:16:01,400 --> 00:16:05,120
Speaker 1: You can do literally anything like one day when I

262
00:16:05,200 --> 00:16:08,600
Speaker 1: knew that we were not going to be supervised very heavily,

263
00:16:09,280 --> 00:16:12,280
Speaker 1: I was like, let's just pick a running order and

264
00:16:12,320 --> 00:16:15,000
Speaker 1: do whatever we want. We did whatever we wanted. Thought,

265
00:16:14,960 --> 00:16:17,240
Speaker 1: he's had a great time. We were just like calling

266
00:16:17,320 --> 00:16:21,960
Speaker 1: audibles and like filling time until the show was over.

267
00:16:22,040 --> 00:16:25,280
Speaker 1: It was the best. But that's how boom Chicago is.

268
00:16:25,320 --> 00:16:31,080
Speaker 1: And then you in addition to that, you do corporate gigs,

269
00:16:31,240 --> 00:16:34,360
Speaker 1: tons of corporate gigs. You're doing a gig in like

270
00:16:35,640 --> 00:16:39,040
Speaker 1: in like a like a like an amusement park, or

271
00:16:39,080 --> 00:16:44,760
Speaker 1: in the window of a shopping center, or like an

272
00:16:44,880 --> 00:16:50,200
Speaker 1: afternoon at the United Nations. Yes, man, everywhere we went everywhere.

273
00:16:50,360 --> 00:16:53,400
Speaker 1: We went to Malta, we went to Spain and stuff.

274
00:16:53,600 --> 00:16:55,560
Speaker 1: We went to Chicago. I didn't go to Chicago, but

275
00:16:55,600 --> 00:16:59,600
Speaker 1: they went to Chicago. But it was just every gig

276
00:16:59,680 --> 00:17:03,120
Speaker 1: you could think of, That's what it was. And it

277
00:17:03,240 --> 00:17:08,600
Speaker 1: was so what's your good headed? Your confidence is like,

278
00:17:08,680 --> 00:17:11,880
Speaker 1: I'm probably a piece of shit, So I'm so confident.

279
00:17:12,080 --> 00:17:16,080
Speaker 1: But after like three hundred Germans bow you you're fine, right,

280
00:17:16,280 --> 00:17:17,920
Speaker 1: You're gonna be fine.

281
00:17:19,760 --> 00:17:24,080
Speaker 2: What what do you think that style of improv with

282
00:17:24,240 --> 00:17:28,359
Speaker 2: no rules? What did you take from that today or

283
00:17:28,400 --> 00:17:30,760
Speaker 2: what did you learn from that or how did you

284
00:17:31,200 --> 00:17:35,080
Speaker 2: how did you mold that into to who you are today?

285
00:17:35,480 --> 00:17:39,080
Speaker 2: Because you have rules today. You work in network a lot,

286
00:17:39,200 --> 00:17:42,040
Speaker 2: so I know for a fact that there are rules,

287
00:17:43,080 --> 00:17:45,320
Speaker 2: But what did what did that experience give you?

288
00:17:46,600 --> 00:17:53,000
Speaker 1: It? Really? I mean it taught me that there are rules,

289
00:17:53,160 --> 00:17:58,879
Speaker 1: but are there? I mean, come on, it's really like

290
00:17:59,760 --> 00:18:02,640
Speaker 1: it's taught me that people ask for a certain thing,

291
00:18:03,520 --> 00:18:05,760
Speaker 1: but what they want is the best thing they could have,

292
00:18:06,600 --> 00:18:09,800
Speaker 1: right And sometimes and this is the worst thing I

293
00:18:09,800 --> 00:18:13,960
Speaker 1: could say, And sometimes you know best, like you know

294
00:18:14,080 --> 00:18:19,200
Speaker 1: best what you can deliver crystal clear, you know that,

295
00:18:19,320 --> 00:18:21,119
Speaker 1: and you know what they're asking for. There might be

296
00:18:21,160 --> 00:18:24,359
Speaker 1: a difference there, right, So just do the thing you like,

297
00:18:24,760 --> 00:18:27,560
Speaker 1: do the thing you like, stop doing the thing people

298
00:18:27,600 --> 00:18:29,320
Speaker 1: think they want. They'll know what they want.

299
00:18:30,880 --> 00:18:34,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's interesting, And I see that in your work

300
00:18:35,119 --> 00:18:41,400
Speaker 2: because it is surprising, particularly late night. There's a structure, right,

301
00:18:41,560 --> 00:18:43,879
Speaker 2: I mean, even if you erase everything else and you

302
00:18:43,880 --> 00:18:46,000
Speaker 2: say there's a commercial break every seven and a half

303
00:18:46,040 --> 00:18:49,360
Speaker 2: minutes or whatever, it is, right, like there is you're

304
00:18:49,480 --> 00:18:54,560
Speaker 2: set within a structure. But I find that you, at

305
00:18:54,640 --> 00:18:58,840
Speaker 2: least what I have seen as a performer that you're

306
00:18:59,119 --> 00:19:02,520
Speaker 2: you're constantly surprising, and those seven and a half minutes

307
00:19:02,560 --> 00:19:09,080
Speaker 2: can be wild and disparate in a way that is

308
00:19:09,440 --> 00:19:13,080
Speaker 2: not necessarily breaking the rules but is different. But potentially

309
00:19:13,119 --> 00:19:16,960
Speaker 2: that work at Boon Chicago, and then having the discipline

310
00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:20,040
Speaker 2: now to put it within, if not rules, at least

311
00:19:20,080 --> 00:19:22,960
Speaker 2: within a given structure. I think that's a great that's

312
00:19:23,000 --> 00:19:24,040
Speaker 2: a great gift.

313
00:19:25,240 --> 00:19:30,040
Speaker 1: Yay, so doo we do like like at the end

314
00:19:30,080 --> 00:19:32,720
Speaker 1: reff and show, we would just be like, what do

315
00:19:32,840 --> 00:19:36,440
Speaker 1: we feel like doing? And we would do exactly whatever

316
00:19:36,600 --> 00:19:40,000
Speaker 1: we felt like doing. Inter saying that was the big

317
00:19:40,080 --> 00:19:43,800
Speaker 1: surprise is people like it when you're having a fun time.

318
00:19:44,320 --> 00:19:47,000
Speaker 1: I would not have guessed that. I mean, certainly not

319
00:19:47,119 --> 00:19:54,120
Speaker 1: to that extent, but goodness, people watch you a smile

320
00:19:54,160 --> 00:19:56,600
Speaker 1: about a picture of a pony for ten minutes. They

321
00:19:56,680 --> 00:19:59,800
Speaker 1: just love that you're having fun. And it's so much

322
00:19:59,800 --> 00:20:03,359
Speaker 1: more severe. People like people so much more. I'm taking

323
00:20:03,400 --> 00:20:11,119
Speaker 1: off my earrings because I'm gonna fight you. But people

324
00:20:11,680 --> 00:20:16,960
Speaker 1: like people so bad. People love people. They love looking

325
00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:19,160
Speaker 1: at them, they love listening to them, they love whatever

326
00:20:19,200 --> 00:20:22,119
Speaker 1: weird things they love. And that I'm always reminded of

327
00:20:22,119 --> 00:20:24,359
Speaker 1: that whenever I end up in the middle of some

328
00:20:24,560 --> 00:20:28,120
Speaker 1: documentary of like what was the one? The Pez Guy?

329
00:20:28,240 --> 00:20:31,320
Speaker 1: The Pez documentary? I'm this guy loves this and then

330
00:20:31,359 --> 00:20:34,040
Speaker 1: it makes you love it. I don't love pets. I

331
00:20:34,040 --> 00:20:36,760
Speaker 1: don't care about Pez even I think Pez tastes bad.

332
00:20:37,320 --> 00:20:37,960
Speaker 1: How about that?

333
00:20:38,280 --> 00:20:42,720
Speaker 2: I know that's really true, and it's so true. I

334
00:20:43,240 --> 00:20:46,560
Speaker 2: think about that one? What was it? The the Donkey

335
00:20:46,720 --> 00:20:48,560
Speaker 2: Kong one? Did you see that?

336
00:20:49,520 --> 00:20:52,440
Speaker 1: I wrote a musical about it? Oh?

337
00:20:52,520 --> 00:20:57,919
Speaker 2: You did music? There's that's bad research by me. But anyway,

338
00:20:57,960 --> 00:20:59,840
Speaker 2: go ahead, I wrote.

339
00:21:00,760 --> 00:21:03,359
Speaker 1: You'd be the only person who knew about it. I

340
00:21:03,400 --> 00:21:06,480
Speaker 1: wrote a two man musical with my very good friend

341
00:21:06,560 --> 00:21:10,040
Speaker 1: Lauren van Kiren and our musical director David Bull, and

342
00:21:10,119 --> 00:21:12,720
Speaker 1: it was directed by Brendan Hunt, who's coach Beard on

343
00:21:12,760 --> 00:21:17,879
Speaker 1: ted Lasso. Now, yeah, and we had the dumbest It

344
00:21:17,920 --> 00:21:20,000
Speaker 1: was just like the two of us and it was

345
00:21:20,040 --> 00:21:25,120
Speaker 1: a quick change musical about the best, in my opinion,

346
00:21:25,160 --> 00:21:28,240
Speaker 1: the best documentary of all time, which is King of Kong.

347
00:21:28,480 --> 00:21:31,399
Speaker 1: King of Kong quarters the best. It's the best documentary.

348
00:21:32,320 --> 00:21:33,560
Speaker 1: And if you haven't seen it.

349
00:21:33,880 --> 00:21:36,199
Speaker 2: You should know. You should definitely see it, and to

350
00:21:36,280 --> 00:21:39,800
Speaker 2: your point, you'll start being like God. I didn't appreciate

351
00:21:39,880 --> 00:21:43,600
Speaker 2: Donkey Kong enough, like your yeah, that's your Yeah, You're like,

352
00:21:45,119 --> 00:21:47,919
Speaker 2: I need to go buy a Donkey Kong machine so

353
00:21:47,960 --> 00:21:51,320
Speaker 2: that I can start playing this game that I've never

354
00:21:51,359 --> 00:21:53,280
Speaker 2: really had any desire to play before.

355
00:21:53,800 --> 00:21:56,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've never given it a single thought. But then

356
00:21:56,160 --> 00:21:58,959
Speaker 1: they love it so bad. Their love for it is catching.

357
00:21:59,600 --> 00:22:22,679
Speaker 2: Since, Yeah, what brought you to leave Boom Chicago and

358
00:22:22,720 --> 00:22:24,080
Speaker 2: come back to the United States.

359
00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:28,440
Speaker 1: Well, I was at Boom Chicago for two years, then

360
00:22:28,560 --> 00:22:32,240
Speaker 1: I left to do Second City, and back then I

361
00:22:32,320 --> 00:22:34,120
Speaker 1: called them on the phone and said, will you give

362
00:22:34,119 --> 00:22:39,320
Speaker 1: me a job? Now, they gave me a job because

363
00:22:40,119 --> 00:22:45,320
Speaker 1: I just so happened to slum Dog Millionaire it. They

364
00:22:45,320 --> 00:22:49,160
Speaker 1: didn't know me at Second City. I did I owe

365
00:22:49,240 --> 00:22:53,200
Speaker 1: while I was living in Chicago, But one night I

366
00:22:53,359 --> 00:22:55,800
Speaker 1: just so happened to show up there. Because if you're

367
00:22:55,800 --> 00:22:58,720
Speaker 1: an improviser, they'll let you do the set with them. Well,

368
00:22:58,760 --> 00:23:01,800
Speaker 1: the night I showed up was to same night Martin

369
00:23:01,840 --> 00:23:04,439
Speaker 1: Short showed up, so I was like, oh, they're not

370
00:23:04,440 --> 00:23:06,040
Speaker 1: gonna let me do the set, but he didn't want

371
00:23:06,040 --> 00:23:07,960
Speaker 1: to do the set, so then they let me do

372
00:23:08,040 --> 00:23:11,560
Speaker 1: the set. And then the three suggestions were like a

373
00:23:11,600 --> 00:23:14,840
Speaker 1: spark plug, which I just so happened to know how

374
00:23:14,840 --> 00:23:19,159
Speaker 1: to change sign language, which I just so happened to speak,

375
00:23:19,840 --> 00:23:23,080
Speaker 1: and gymnastics and I used to be a gymnastics coach.

376
00:23:23,760 --> 00:23:26,359
Speaker 1: And I was like, I must seem like a fucking

377
00:23:26,440 --> 00:23:32,520
Speaker 1: genius in these people. It was the slum dog millionariest

378
00:23:32,800 --> 00:23:34,360
Speaker 1: thing that has ever happened.

379
00:23:34,520 --> 00:23:36,320
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, crazy, crazy.

380
00:23:36,480 --> 00:23:37,919
Speaker 1: So then when I called him, I was like, I

381
00:23:37,920 --> 00:23:42,320
Speaker 1: want to job. They were like, okay, because because Martin

382
00:23:42,320 --> 00:23:44,840
Speaker 1: Short was there, all the people who make decisions were there,

383
00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:47,720
Speaker 1: so then they all knew I was the lady who

384
00:23:47,800 --> 00:23:49,080
Speaker 1: did the thing that one time.

385
00:23:49,560 --> 00:23:53,000
Speaker 2: Yeah. To be able to do those three things is

386
00:23:53,119 --> 00:23:54,399
Speaker 2: pretty crazy.

387
00:23:54,840 --> 00:23:57,200
Speaker 1: What are they? Gods? I didn't know who. I didn't

388
00:23:57,200 --> 00:23:59,200
Speaker 1: shout it out. It wasn't a plant.

389
00:24:00,160 --> 00:24:05,040
Speaker 2: Plant. You had bought all the tickets in the theater

390
00:24:05,480 --> 00:24:07,280
Speaker 2: and they were all your friends, and they were like,

391
00:24:07,280 --> 00:24:10,800
Speaker 2: one of the weirdest skills that Amber has. Oh yeah,

392
00:24:10,800 --> 00:24:14,240
Speaker 2: here we go. Hey, yeah, uh not weird. That's I

393
00:24:14,240 --> 00:24:19,200
Speaker 2: don't even know why is it weird? But different different skills. Okay,

394
00:24:19,240 --> 00:24:22,080
Speaker 2: So you came back to start working with Second.

395
00:24:21,760 --> 00:24:25,560
Speaker 1: City yep, And then I did Second City Denver. We existed,

396
00:24:26,520 --> 00:24:30,920
Speaker 1: and Maine Stage Chicago, and then from main Stage Chicago.

397
00:24:31,000 --> 00:24:35,360
Speaker 1: A lot of people go to LA, but Boom Chicago

398
00:24:35,480 --> 00:24:38,000
Speaker 1: was so fun. So I went back to Boom Chicago

399
00:24:38,040 --> 00:24:42,400
Speaker 1: for three years, you did, and it was the most

400
00:24:42,400 --> 00:24:44,960
Speaker 1: fun I've ever had. Like, Boom Chicago is very fun

401
00:24:44,960 --> 00:24:46,600
Speaker 1: when you're bad at it, and I was bad at

402
00:24:46,600 --> 00:24:48,639
Speaker 1: it for so long. I was bad at it for

403
00:24:48,720 --> 00:24:52,240
Speaker 1: i'd say, like a year. But then when you're good

404
00:24:52,240 --> 00:24:56,000
Speaker 1: at it and you're all old and stuff, oh my god,

405
00:24:56,080 --> 00:24:58,760
Speaker 1: it was the old I was a child. But it

406
00:24:58,880 --> 00:25:01,960
Speaker 1: was the fun time. It is the funnest time I

407
00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:05,080
Speaker 1: ever had. And for that that time, I chose fun

408
00:25:05,600 --> 00:25:07,919
Speaker 1: over maybe what I should have done, and I was

409
00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:12,080
Speaker 1: a thousand percent right, most of what I ever had.

410
00:25:12,600 --> 00:25:15,360
Speaker 1: Then after that, I moved to LA to try.

411
00:25:15,200 --> 00:25:17,080
Speaker 2: To make it as an actor.

412
00:25:17,760 --> 00:25:21,439
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that was a mess. But then I got

413
00:25:22,160 --> 00:25:23,840
Speaker 1: late night said, so wasn't all bad?

414
00:25:24,720 --> 00:25:27,000
Speaker 2: Wait? Why why was that? Why was that a mess?

415
00:25:27,400 --> 00:25:29,480
Speaker 2: Why was being in LA trying to be an actor

416
00:25:29,520 --> 00:25:30,320
Speaker 2: a mess?

417
00:25:30,760 --> 00:25:34,760
Speaker 1: La is tough and we were poor and it was bad.

418
00:25:35,200 --> 00:25:38,680
Speaker 1: Being poor is fine. I'm great at it, but uh.

419
00:25:42,440 --> 00:25:46,000
Speaker 2: That's funny. I'm bad at it. I'm really bad. I'm

420
00:25:46,040 --> 00:25:46,760
Speaker 2: bad at it.

421
00:25:47,359 --> 00:25:48,760
Speaker 1: I'm pretty good at it.

422
00:25:49,040 --> 00:25:49,440
Speaker 2: Really.

423
00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:53,359
Speaker 1: I love Yeah, I could be on that show Extreme Couponing.

424
00:25:54,280 --> 00:25:55,080
Speaker 1: I planted out.

425
00:25:56,560 --> 00:25:58,840
Speaker 2: Well, it's funny. It's funny. And partly why I say

426
00:25:58,880 --> 00:26:01,560
Speaker 2: that is because I when I left Collins, we're going

427
00:26:01,640 --> 00:26:03,840
Speaker 2: to talk about me for a second, Like I knew

428
00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:08,439
Speaker 2: enough about myself. I was like moving to New York

429
00:26:08,720 --> 00:26:12,040
Speaker 2: and the idea of the like sleeping on sofas and stuff,

430
00:26:12,440 --> 00:26:14,600
Speaker 2: that was not going to work for me. And so

431
00:26:15,119 --> 00:26:17,959
Speaker 2: I mean not dissimilar to Chicago, but I ended up

432
00:26:17,960 --> 00:26:22,760
Speaker 2: in Minneapolis, where you know, they actually pay you to

433
00:26:22,880 --> 00:26:26,320
Speaker 2: do work in the theater. Not great, but you're getting

434
00:26:26,359 --> 00:26:29,840
Speaker 2: something as opposed to nothing most of the time in

435
00:26:29,880 --> 00:26:34,280
Speaker 2: New York. But I think that that early on can

436
00:26:34,320 --> 00:26:37,440
Speaker 2: be a really important gift to be good at being poor.

437
00:26:38,800 --> 00:26:43,040
Speaker 1: Is this true? Or am I making it up? Minneapolis

438
00:26:43,280 --> 00:26:47,600
Speaker 1: has the most theater seats per capita than any other

439
00:26:47,720 --> 00:26:48,520
Speaker 1: city in the US.

440
00:26:48,760 --> 00:26:52,560
Speaker 2: True except New York. But yes, true, that is a

441
00:26:52,720 --> 00:26:56,800
Speaker 2: very that's a writer stat there. That's something that's something

442
00:26:57,880 --> 00:27:00,400
Speaker 2: that is true. But I can't tell you how many

443
00:27:00,440 --> 00:27:04,960
Speaker 2: people I have said that exact exact phrase. And then

444
00:27:05,119 --> 00:27:09,320
Speaker 2: except New York, to and they go really many many

445
00:27:09,359 --> 00:27:14,040
Speaker 2: what really? But yeah, but you moved to La. What

446
00:27:14,240 --> 00:27:17,680
Speaker 2: was your experience like that? You were you were just auditioning,

447
00:27:17,760 --> 00:27:18,920
Speaker 2: You were on the audition train.

448
00:27:20,520 --> 00:27:27,160
Speaker 1: I moved there with my husband in two thousand national eight.

449
00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:31,080
Speaker 2: Eight. Okay, didn't make that up.

450
00:27:31,400 --> 00:27:34,719
Speaker 1: Oh wait, No, eleven, two thousand and eight is when

451
00:27:34,720 --> 00:27:37,159
Speaker 1: I went back to Boom. We left in twenty eleven.

452
00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:42,240
Speaker 1: Now we're in LA, and it was it was very,

453
00:27:42,400 --> 00:27:48,000
Speaker 1: very bad. Like I was a nanny, cause a nanny

454
00:27:48,200 --> 00:27:51,600
Speaker 1: for the most beautiful little baby. And every once in

455
00:27:51,640 --> 00:27:54,119
Speaker 1: a while, el see you whenever I'm over there and

456
00:27:54,119 --> 00:27:56,880
Speaker 1: he's like eight now and you can talk, and I'll

457
00:27:56,920 --> 00:27:58,880
Speaker 1: be like, hi, I am right, blah blah blah blah blah,

458
00:27:58,880 --> 00:28:01,640
Speaker 1: and then my tears well up in my eyes because

459
00:28:01,960 --> 00:28:03,960
Speaker 1: I used to hold it and be like, are you

460
00:28:04,080 --> 00:28:06,240
Speaker 1: ever going to talk to me? My perfect little baby.

461
00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:09,239
Speaker 1: So I was a nanny, and I try to make

462
00:28:09,280 --> 00:28:11,119
Speaker 1: it seem bad, but it was actually a dream, my

463
00:28:11,119 --> 00:28:13,800
Speaker 1: perfect boy. But before I got that job, I was

464
00:28:13,920 --> 00:28:19,600
Speaker 1: nanny for just the worst children on planet Earth. Yeah,

465
00:28:19,640 --> 00:28:23,920
Speaker 1: God bless it. Oh, just horrible children. I just didn't know.

466
00:28:24,800 --> 00:28:28,160
Speaker 1: I will say, I grew up spoiled siblings wise, because

467
00:28:28,200 --> 00:28:31,840
Speaker 1: it was mostly girls and one big brother. But everyone

468
00:28:32,520 --> 00:28:35,840
Speaker 1: was just so nice and you didn't like yell or

469
00:28:35,960 --> 00:28:38,840
Speaker 1: hit like, we didn't do that. So to watch these

470
00:28:38,920 --> 00:28:42,920
Speaker 1: children just beat the tar out of each other every day,

471
00:28:43,080 --> 00:28:45,920
Speaker 1: I'd be like, what is this? What does this? What's

472
00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:48,800
Speaker 1: wrong with you that you're so angry? You're four? Nothing

473
00:28:48,840 --> 00:28:55,240
Speaker 1: has happened, right, No, but yeah it was we're scraping by.

474
00:28:55,560 --> 00:28:58,040
Speaker 2: Did you go to amprop Olympic? Like, were you performing

475
00:28:58,080 --> 00:29:00,600
Speaker 2: there at all? Because of you? Are? You are? Okay?

476
00:29:00,640 --> 00:29:01,240
Speaker 2: So you're doing that?

477
00:29:01,440 --> 00:29:04,760
Speaker 1: We have to live near IOH because I have to perform.

478
00:29:05,400 --> 00:29:07,720
Speaker 1: And then I was like I have to start taking

479
00:29:07,800 --> 00:29:12,720
Speaker 1: classes at UCB. At this point I had been a

480
00:29:13,280 --> 00:29:18,360
Speaker 1: literal professional improviser for a decade. I was like, I

481
00:29:18,400 --> 00:29:23,040
Speaker 1: guess I gotta take ECB clauses.

482
00:29:24,720 --> 00:29:29,360
Speaker 2: I lived about seventeen seconds from UCB. Yeah, well during

483
00:29:29,400 --> 00:29:32,240
Speaker 2: that during that time that you were there, yeah, fun,

484
00:29:32,360 --> 00:29:36,040
Speaker 2: and then you were auditioning for film and television? Is

485
00:29:36,080 --> 00:29:37,600
Speaker 2: that that was what we were doing?

486
00:29:37,800 --> 00:29:41,320
Speaker 1: I mean yeah, but yeah, I was mostly just putting

487
00:29:41,440 --> 00:29:44,280
Speaker 1: up my own shows. I fell in with this theater

488
00:29:45,040 --> 00:29:49,200
Speaker 1: called Sacred Fools, and it's like a writer's theater and

489
00:29:49,240 --> 00:29:51,120
Speaker 1: you just write your own shows and stuff. And that's

490
00:29:51,120 --> 00:29:53,760
Speaker 1: how I ended up with that King of Kong, the documentary,

491
00:29:53,920 --> 00:29:59,840
Speaker 1: the musical, and it was just the funnest place to be,

492
00:30:01,000 --> 00:30:03,960
Speaker 1: But it was it's weird to be poor in a

493
00:30:04,440 --> 00:30:07,920
Speaker 1: place you don't know. That's less fun. To move to

494
00:30:07,960 --> 00:30:10,600
Speaker 1: a new place to be poor is not fun. If

495
00:30:10,600 --> 00:30:12,680
Speaker 1: I like had to move back to Chicago and be poor,

496
00:30:12,760 --> 00:30:16,840
Speaker 1: I'd be like, Okay, I can do it, or Omaha, fine, right,

497
00:30:16,960 --> 00:30:19,520
Speaker 1: but Saskatchewan, we're gonna have a bad time.

498
00:30:20,280 --> 00:30:22,840
Speaker 2: Because you don't know, I don't know, you don't know

499
00:30:22,840 --> 00:30:30,240
Speaker 2: where to go, right. You then wanted to audition for SNL. Yeah,

500
00:30:30,400 --> 00:30:32,400
Speaker 2: was that the dream at the time for you?

501
00:30:33,040 --> 00:30:37,960
Speaker 1: I mean sure, I just never considered it at all.

502
00:30:38,880 --> 00:30:40,400
Speaker 2: Okay, But then.

503
00:30:41,280 --> 00:30:45,400
Speaker 1: Once they were like, we're gonna have auditions and we

504
00:30:45,480 --> 00:30:47,240
Speaker 1: want you to come, I was like, it's mine. I

505
00:30:47,280 --> 00:30:49,280
Speaker 1: have it, I got it. I'm already on. I'm on

506
00:30:49,440 --> 00:30:50,120
Speaker 1: SNL already.

507
00:30:51,400 --> 00:30:53,400
Speaker 2: Yes. Yes.

508
00:30:53,960 --> 00:30:57,720
Speaker 1: Do not know why I thought. I mean, you couldn't

509
00:30:57,760 --> 00:31:02,320
Speaker 1: have told me any different. Because they had a big audition.

510
00:31:03,040 --> 00:31:05,680
Speaker 1: They were like, we're looking for a black lady, and

511
00:31:05,720 --> 00:31:08,640
Speaker 1: so then I was on all these in all these

512
00:31:08,640 --> 00:31:11,560
Speaker 1: showcases SNL showcases, it was like a million of them.

513
00:31:11,960 --> 00:31:16,080
Speaker 1: And then finally got through to the audition audition, and

514
00:31:16,120 --> 00:31:18,960
Speaker 1: it was four of us. Well, it was a bunch

515
00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:21,960
Speaker 1: of us. And then only four of us survived, okay.

516
00:31:22,400 --> 00:31:24,840
Speaker 1: And the four of us were le Kendra Tooks who

517
00:31:24,880 --> 00:31:28,160
Speaker 1: got hired as a writer on SNL, Leslie Jones who

518
00:31:28,160 --> 00:31:30,920
Speaker 1: got hired as a writer initially on SNL, and then

519
00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:35,160
Speaker 1: Sashir Zamida who got the acting job, and then me

520
00:31:35,600 --> 00:31:43,080
Speaker 1: who did not get So it was like, I extra

521
00:31:43,200 --> 00:31:46,240
Speaker 1: didn't get it.

522
00:31:46,840 --> 00:31:53,960
Speaker 2: We're hiring, We're hiring everyone, but you, Yeah, that fad.

523
00:31:54,520 --> 00:31:59,440
Speaker 2: Are you able now or were you able then to say, well,

524
00:31:59,480 --> 00:32:02,320
Speaker 2: this is just not my thing. My thing is coming

525
00:32:02,880 --> 00:32:04,480
Speaker 2: or not? Was it just crushing?

526
00:32:04,760 --> 00:32:07,000
Speaker 1: No? I thought I was going to die. Yeah, I

527
00:32:07,280 --> 00:32:10,000
Speaker 1: was going to die. And then I just I had to.

528
00:32:10,720 --> 00:32:13,480
Speaker 1: I was in rehearsals for King of Kong. Gosh, this

529
00:32:13,520 --> 00:32:16,680
Speaker 1: is all kay, a show I never mentioned, I've not

530
00:32:16,840 --> 00:32:20,320
Speaker 1: mentioned fourteen times. While I was in rehearsal for King

531
00:32:20,360 --> 00:32:22,920
Speaker 1: of Kong, the call came and it's just me and

532
00:32:22,960 --> 00:32:24,920
Speaker 1: my little girlfriend, and I go, oh my god, it's

533
00:32:25,640 --> 00:32:28,360
Speaker 1: oh my god, it's gonna be uh huh uh huh.

534
00:32:28,440 --> 00:32:36,040
Speaker 1: I didn't, okay, and then I had to keep rehearsing

535
00:32:38,800 --> 00:32:41,400
Speaker 1: rehearsal the middle of it.

536
00:32:42,440 --> 00:32:45,760
Speaker 2: Yeah you did, you did? You pause rehearsal and say, everybody,

537
00:32:45,760 --> 00:32:47,960
Speaker 2: come here, Come here, Come here. This is SNL, this

538
00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:51,160
Speaker 2: is gather around, gather around, here we go. Two of

539
00:32:51,240 --> 00:32:52,560
Speaker 2: us put it on speaker.

540
00:32:52,720 --> 00:32:57,920
Speaker 1: But I certainly did say it's here, it comes.

541
00:32:58,200 --> 00:32:59,240
Speaker 2: Oh god, I was.

542
00:32:59,360 --> 00:33:01,360
Speaker 1: So sure I was going to get it, so sure

543
00:33:01,400 --> 00:33:02,200
Speaker 1: it's bigger shock.

544
00:33:04,760 --> 00:33:08,760
Speaker 2: So how then did you meet the folks at Late Night? This?

545
00:33:08,760 --> 00:33:11,960
Speaker 2: This came out of this audition process with SNL. Correct,

546
00:33:12,800 --> 00:33:13,320
Speaker 2: I think SO.

547
00:33:15,240 --> 00:33:18,680
Speaker 1: Said don't audition. Also, I thought my audition was great,

548
00:33:19,560 --> 00:33:22,320
Speaker 1: but so was everybody else's. Like you didn't see other

549
00:33:22,320 --> 00:33:27,240
Speaker 1: people's auditions. But what am I saying? Oh? So? Seth

550
00:33:27,320 --> 00:33:32,480
Speaker 1: Myers was also at Boom Chicago, so I knew Seth

551
00:33:32,760 --> 00:33:35,600
Speaker 1: and Seth had seen me in shows at Boom Chicago

552
00:33:36,200 --> 00:33:41,200
Speaker 1: when he hired me for Late Night. So it was

553
00:33:41,760 --> 00:33:45,440
Speaker 1: SNL calling to say no. Then three days later I

554
00:33:45,560 --> 00:33:49,720
Speaker 1: died and rose again, and then Seth called and was like,

555
00:33:49,760 --> 00:33:51,520
Speaker 1: will you be a writer at my show?

556
00:33:52,400 --> 00:33:57,480
Speaker 2: Were you aware at the time that you were the

557
00:33:57,560 --> 00:34:00,640
Speaker 2: first woman of color to be writing for a late

558
00:34:00,720 --> 00:34:03,239
Speaker 2: night television show or did someone fill you in on

559
00:34:03,280 --> 00:34:03,760
Speaker 2: that later?

560
00:34:04,800 --> 00:34:07,840
Speaker 1: No, an article came out that said I was the

561
00:34:07,880 --> 00:34:13,080
Speaker 1: first black woman to write for a network late near show.

562
00:34:12,920 --> 00:34:15,200
Speaker 2: Now I was sorry, I don't know, that's what I mean.

563
00:34:15,400 --> 00:34:23,239
Speaker 1: A that's a lot of qualifiers, so many qualifiers. I'll

564
00:34:23,239 --> 00:34:26,840
Speaker 1: take it. Okay, we need representation. I'm happy to be it.

565
00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:32,239
Speaker 1: But then I don't don't know. I certainly didn't think

566
00:34:32,280 --> 00:34:35,400
Speaker 1: that that was true. And then even still I'm like,

567
00:34:35,880 --> 00:34:37,920
Speaker 1: is that true?

568
00:34:38,840 --> 00:34:43,279
Speaker 2: It's so funny to me. I don't know. That's fascinating

569
00:34:43,360 --> 00:34:46,880
Speaker 2: because obviously that does have an impact. Now maybe I

570
00:34:46,880 --> 00:34:50,040
Speaker 2: mean you're clearly saying not so much to you, but

571
00:34:50,280 --> 00:34:54,000
Speaker 2: in terms of people who come after you, right, do

572
00:34:54,040 --> 00:34:58,560
Speaker 2: you feel like writers' rooms now are more diverse?

573
00:35:00,200 --> 00:35:03,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're one hundred percent more diverse. I think everyone

574
00:35:04,920 --> 00:35:11,000
Speaker 1: got embarrassed because that's embarrassing, man. And then a shift

575
00:35:11,040 --> 00:35:16,080
Speaker 1: in social awareness happened, right, and people were like, hmm,

576
00:35:16,320 --> 00:35:20,680
Speaker 1: maybe everything we're delivering is through the white lens. Maybe

577
00:35:20,719 --> 00:35:25,360
Speaker 1: we need a different vantage point. So then I think

578
00:35:26,960 --> 00:35:32,319
Speaker 1: things started to shift. And then though white stuff just

579
00:35:32,360 --> 00:35:36,839
Speaker 1: didn't ring true anymore. And then I think everybody could see, Oh,

580
00:35:36,920 --> 00:35:40,320
Speaker 1: if that's how you talk about police violence, you probably

581
00:35:40,320 --> 00:35:45,200
Speaker 1: shouldn't be the person we're asking, you know. So I

582
00:35:45,200 --> 00:35:48,000
Speaker 1: think it's a little bit of everything. Yeah, rooms are

583
00:35:48,120 --> 00:35:50,239
Speaker 1: way more diverse now than they used to be.

584
00:35:51,160 --> 00:35:53,600
Speaker 2: It's so interesting to hear you say that. And I

585
00:35:53,640 --> 00:35:56,520
Speaker 2: didn't think about it until you said there was a

586
00:35:56,600 --> 00:35:59,000
Speaker 2: light that was shined and people got embarrassed. You know.

587
00:35:59,080 --> 00:36:03,840
Speaker 2: I remember Jon Stewart winning again for his show the Emmys,

588
00:36:04,000 --> 00:36:06,719
Speaker 2: and they announced the people and he was on stage

589
00:36:07,680 --> 00:36:12,560
Speaker 2: and kind of embarrassingly made a joke about the fact

590
00:36:12,600 --> 00:36:17,120
Speaker 2: that everybody looked alike. And my memory was like everyone

591
00:36:17,280 --> 00:36:20,160
Speaker 2: was not just white, but Jewish white men that were

592
00:36:20,200 --> 00:36:23,359
Speaker 2: standing on stage. But it was almost like realizing in

593
00:36:23,400 --> 00:36:25,600
Speaker 2: the moment as I was sitting there, like, yeah, this

594
00:36:25,680 --> 00:36:30,200
Speaker 2: is odd, this is odd. Yeah, it just when you

595
00:36:30,239 --> 00:36:35,360
Speaker 2: said embarrassed, I wonder and maybe it was that incident

596
00:36:35,520 --> 00:36:38,080
Speaker 2: or something else where everyone's sort of like, oh, wait

597
00:36:38,080 --> 00:36:40,480
Speaker 2: a second, why is this the way that it is?

598
00:36:41,760 --> 00:36:46,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I hope that it was. I don't

599
00:36:46,600 --> 00:36:48,320
Speaker 1: have to hope. I know that it was the work

600
00:36:48,400 --> 00:36:53,239
Speaker 1: that people did where it just is different. You can't

601
00:36:53,280 --> 00:36:55,799
Speaker 1: help it. It's different. It's different. When you ask the

602
00:36:55,800 --> 00:37:00,440
Speaker 1: people involved to talk about it, you just get a different, fish, fresher,

603
00:37:00,560 --> 00:37:01,479
Speaker 1: better point of view.

604
00:37:02,480 --> 00:37:07,440
Speaker 2: Yeah, you have moved on, I mean not moved on,

605
00:37:07,800 --> 00:37:10,879
Speaker 2: but you were working on so many different projects at

606
00:37:10,880 --> 00:37:16,799
Speaker 2: the moment as well. Why are you still at Late Night? No,

607
00:37:16,920 --> 00:37:19,440
Speaker 2: I'm serious, Like what is it? What is it about

608
00:37:19,480 --> 00:37:24,000
Speaker 2: that job or your relationship with Seth or whatever it is?

609
00:37:24,560 --> 00:37:26,760
Speaker 2: Why stay there? Yeah?

610
00:37:27,080 --> 00:37:31,960
Speaker 1: Late Night is everyone's favorite. You We have probably the

611
00:37:32,080 --> 00:37:39,120
Speaker 1: least turnover of any show, Like right, people love it there.

612
00:37:39,719 --> 00:37:45,040
Speaker 1: And it's like, it's not like writing on a regular

613
00:37:45,280 --> 00:37:51,160
Speaker 1: sitcom because you have job security. You know, these people

614
00:37:51,239 --> 00:37:55,080
Speaker 1: renewed for years at a time. It's not just to

615
00:37:55,280 --> 00:37:58,200
Speaker 1: the for the next twelve episodes, so you'll never get

616
00:37:58,840 --> 00:38:02,680
Speaker 1: as a television writer, such job security does not exist.

617
00:38:03,400 --> 00:38:08,480
Speaker 1: So there's that. But also it's so fun. It's so

618
00:38:08,640 --> 00:38:14,480
Speaker 1: fun and it's good, and I just like, like, I

619
00:38:14,480 --> 00:38:19,960
Speaker 1: write a lot of sitcoms and like Broadway Now and books,

620
00:38:20,920 --> 00:38:23,600
Speaker 1: and I just want to also do this thing that

621
00:38:23,640 --> 00:38:28,080
Speaker 1: I'm good at instead of learning new shit. I'm so

622
00:38:28,239 --> 00:38:33,759
Speaker 1: tired of learning new things. I hate learning. It's bad.

623
00:38:34,400 --> 00:38:37,160
Speaker 1: It's stupid. Why have I done all this just to

624
00:38:37,239 --> 00:38:40,680
Speaker 1: learn how to do a separate thing? I don't like it.

625
00:38:40,800 --> 00:38:41,480
Speaker 1: I don't like it.

626
00:38:41,800 --> 00:38:46,760
Speaker 2: Oh, somebody marked that. Someone marked that right there, Amber Ruffin.

627
00:38:47,040 --> 00:38:48,280
Speaker 2: I hate learning.

628
00:38:48,719 --> 00:38:51,600
Speaker 1: I hate learning, I truly do. Any future I've had

629
00:38:51,640 --> 00:38:53,040
Speaker 1: will tell you she hates it.

630
00:39:11,840 --> 00:39:16,600
Speaker 2: Do you consider yourself a writer or an actor primarily?

631
00:39:17,280 --> 00:39:21,240
Speaker 1: I consider myself a writer primarily, even though that wasn't

632
00:39:21,480 --> 00:39:25,160
Speaker 1: even a part of it originally, right I Also, I

633
00:39:25,160 --> 00:39:28,719
Speaker 1: guess I just believed I couldn't, okay, because no one

634
00:39:28,840 --> 00:39:33,200
Speaker 1: was asking me to and everyone was asking literally everyone

635
00:39:33,239 --> 00:39:35,759
Speaker 1: around me to write this, and that no one's ever

636
00:39:35,800 --> 00:39:38,640
Speaker 1: asking me to write anything. So I thought, oh, well,

637
00:39:38,880 --> 00:39:41,319
Speaker 1: at least I'm a good performer. It never occurred to

638
00:39:41,320 --> 00:39:42,040
Speaker 1: me that I could write.

639
00:39:42,640 --> 00:39:49,160
Speaker 2: Interesting. How do you decide how often and what segments

640
00:39:49,280 --> 00:39:52,719
Speaker 2: that you come on late night and appear on camera for?

641
00:39:53,880 --> 00:39:59,080
Speaker 1: They'll schedule? Amber says what and jokes? I can't tell,

642
00:39:59,800 --> 00:40:04,000
Speaker 1: But like everything else, is just if the spirit moves me,

643
00:40:04,680 --> 00:40:07,160
Speaker 1: and I'll be like, hey, I wrote this, Can I

644
00:40:07,200 --> 00:40:14,640
Speaker 1: do it or not? Sometimes they say no, Sometimes they

645
00:40:14,640 --> 00:40:15,240
Speaker 1: say yes.

646
00:40:15,360 --> 00:40:17,359
Speaker 2: Now who's they? Who's they?

647
00:40:17,480 --> 00:40:21,600
Speaker 1: Seth Myers has the audacity to tell me no, sometimes

648
00:40:22,160 --> 00:40:28,560
Speaker 1: thank you for giving up this platform. Yeah, yeah, but

649
00:40:28,800 --> 00:40:32,319
Speaker 1: sometimes it's really dumb and he's like, no, right.

650
00:40:33,280 --> 00:40:39,520
Speaker 2: In June of twenty twenty, after the George Floyd incident,

651
00:40:39,760 --> 00:40:43,880
Speaker 2: Seth asked you every night for a week to share

652
00:40:44,080 --> 00:40:48,200
Speaker 2: your stories of confrontations that you had had with police.

653
00:40:48,920 --> 00:40:50,800
Speaker 2: How did this come about? Was this something that you

654
00:40:50,960 --> 00:40:53,640
Speaker 2: asked to do or was this something that Seth thought

655
00:40:53,760 --> 00:40:54,480
Speaker 2: you should do.

656
00:40:55,920 --> 00:41:02,080
Speaker 1: When George Floyd was murdered, I wrote something for the

657
00:41:02,120 --> 00:41:05,839
Speaker 1: next day, and it was a sketch kind of and

658
00:41:05,880 --> 00:41:10,879
Speaker 1: then as the day went on, you knew that wasn't

659
00:41:10,920 --> 00:41:15,359
Speaker 1: gonna you couldn't do that, that this was different. And

660
00:41:15,440 --> 00:41:19,759
Speaker 1: then I wrote a rant, you know, which was just

661
00:41:20,040 --> 00:41:26,239
Speaker 1: gonna be me talking. And then that couldn't do Because

662
00:41:26,960 --> 00:41:30,799
Speaker 1: the murder of George Floyd, just America was turning on

663
00:41:30,920 --> 00:41:33,239
Speaker 1: its head and it happened. I watched it happen in

664
00:41:33,280 --> 00:41:36,840
Speaker 1: real time, and I was like, Wow, this is really

665
00:41:36,880 --> 00:41:40,600
Speaker 1: affecting people. And so then I was like, I think

666
00:41:40,680 --> 00:41:45,040
Speaker 1: the only way I could have anything to say about

667
00:41:45,080 --> 00:41:47,960
Speaker 1: it would be to go on the show and just

668
00:41:48,040 --> 00:41:52,000
Speaker 1: tell the story of one of the millions of times

669
00:41:52,040 --> 00:41:55,960
Speaker 1: where I thought cops were going to murder me, you know,

670
00:41:56,200 --> 00:41:59,680
Speaker 1: getting pulled over and them having their guns drawn or

671
00:41:59,840 --> 00:42:02,000
Speaker 1: like stopping me on the street and stuff. So then

672
00:42:02,080 --> 00:42:07,520
Speaker 1: I told that one story and then on that Monday,

673
00:42:07,680 --> 00:42:11,319
Speaker 1: and then I was like, this is one of a

674
00:42:11,400 --> 00:42:13,600
Speaker 1: billion stories I have, and you don't know a black

675
00:42:13,640 --> 00:42:16,280
Speaker 1: person who doesn't have a story like this. And then

676
00:42:16,920 --> 00:42:20,200
Speaker 1: I opened up the show every day that week with

677
00:42:20,760 --> 00:42:23,440
Speaker 1: one of those stories, and that that is how it

678
00:42:23,480 --> 00:42:26,120
Speaker 1: came about. I just I didn't think it would open

679
00:42:26,160 --> 00:42:29,759
Speaker 1: the show though. What was bothering me so bad is

680
00:42:29,920 --> 00:42:35,400
Speaker 1: that people were like, this is special or his behavior

681
00:42:35,480 --> 00:42:39,520
Speaker 1: is special, or these are special police officers and this

682
00:42:39,560 --> 00:42:44,520
Speaker 1: is a special happening, and that really bothered me. I

683
00:42:44,600 --> 00:42:48,040
Speaker 1: was like, there's nothing special about this at all. From

684
00:42:48,080 --> 00:42:53,520
Speaker 1: where I'm standing. This is regular, degular, every day stuff.

685
00:42:54,040 --> 00:42:56,160
Speaker 1: So I just wanted to make that very very clear.

686
00:42:56,520 --> 00:42:58,920
Speaker 1: And I'm so lucky that they let me do that

687
00:42:59,040 --> 00:43:03,440
Speaker 1: because a lot of those other shows would never have

688
00:43:03,600 --> 00:43:09,640
Speaker 1: let anybody say anything like that. Right, Yeah, I'm a

689
00:43:09,719 --> 00:43:10,439
Speaker 1: lucky little bug.

690
00:43:13,440 --> 00:43:18,080
Speaker 2: I was in Minneapolis for just less than twenty four

691
00:43:18,120 --> 00:43:23,600
Speaker 2: hours and the city felt totally different. But how it

692
00:43:23,760 --> 00:43:28,400
Speaker 2: kept getting brought up to me is that these changes

693
00:43:28,440 --> 00:43:32,120
Speaker 2: have happened because of what happened to George Floyd, in

694
00:43:32,200 --> 00:43:36,160
Speaker 2: terms of the architecture of the city, the areas of

695
00:43:36,200 --> 00:43:38,960
Speaker 2: the city where people go, where people don't go, what

696
00:43:39,680 --> 00:43:43,520
Speaker 2: you know, police presence, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

697
00:43:43,640 --> 00:43:46,040
Speaker 2: And that you say you wanted to make it clear

698
00:43:46,440 --> 00:43:50,680
Speaker 2: this is not a unique occurrence. Well, I don't know.

699
00:43:50,880 --> 00:43:55,279
Speaker 1: It really affected people who live in Minneapolis really hard.

700
00:43:55,320 --> 00:43:59,600
Speaker 1: My sister is a pastor at a church that's a

701
00:43:59,640 --> 00:44:03,399
Speaker 1: few locks away from where George Floyd was murdered, and

702
00:44:03,480 --> 00:44:07,480
Speaker 1: it I mean, she was like that it changed everything

703
00:44:07,680 --> 00:44:11,279
Speaker 1: and then her job became like taking care of the

704
00:44:11,320 --> 00:44:16,120
Speaker 1: community in a brand new way. And I was like, well,

705
00:44:16,480 --> 00:44:18,760
Speaker 1: thank goodness, you were there, right.

706
00:44:19,239 --> 00:44:25,800
Speaker 2: Yeah. Twenty twenty, something else happens the Amber rough and

707
00:44:25,880 --> 00:44:30,480
Speaker 2: show starts on the Peacock because I watched a bunch

708
00:44:31,520 --> 00:44:38,719
Speaker 2: there's there's really great stuff in it. You started it

709
00:44:40,520 --> 00:44:43,880
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty, which is significant, of course, because of

710
00:44:43,920 --> 00:44:50,320
Speaker 2: another global event that happened. How was that finally getting

711
00:44:50,680 --> 00:44:54,480
Speaker 2: your own show with your name on it. A pandemic

712
00:44:54,520 --> 00:44:56,759
Speaker 2: comes and now you're producing this in the middle of

713
00:44:56,840 --> 00:44:59,239
Speaker 2: a pandemic. How how was that for you?

714
00:45:00,280 --> 00:45:05,160
Speaker 1: It was super duper fun. It was great. It was

715
00:45:05,160 --> 00:45:07,680
Speaker 1: great that it was on Peacock. It was great that

716
00:45:08,840 --> 00:45:12,160
Speaker 1: there was no audience. I was like, what a great

717
00:45:13,040 --> 00:45:17,880
Speaker 1: little like it was a real show and it was

718
00:45:17,920 --> 00:45:21,279
Speaker 1: a big fancy thing, but it was also just like us,

719
00:45:22,040 --> 00:45:25,400
Speaker 1: you know, so it felt so good. It was the

720
00:45:25,480 --> 00:45:28,399
Speaker 1: perfect way to do things, like I got to get

721
00:45:28,600 --> 00:45:31,200
Speaker 1: all the way to the end of my weirdness and

722
00:45:31,360 --> 00:45:35,000
Speaker 1: back without being because the audience will tell you exactly

723
00:45:35,080 --> 00:45:39,040
Speaker 1: what you want, and then you're just a laser. You

724
00:45:39,080 --> 00:45:44,920
Speaker 1: can hit the laugh instantly because the audience has trained

725
00:45:44,920 --> 00:45:48,080
Speaker 1: you to right. But then without that, you're just like

726
00:45:48,680 --> 00:45:51,920
Speaker 1: having a beautiful time and doing the things you feel

727
00:45:51,960 --> 00:45:55,080
Speaker 1: like doing it. And I think it's pretty clear that

728
00:45:55,320 --> 00:45:56,240
Speaker 1: was what we were after.

729
00:45:56,680 --> 00:46:00,280
Speaker 2: Yeah, well partly That's what I was talking about earlier

730
00:46:00,560 --> 00:46:05,520
Speaker 2: about the time. The timing and the rhythm of your

731
00:46:05,640 --> 00:46:09,160
Speaker 2: stories and at times jokes is so different, and it's

732
00:46:09,800 --> 00:46:15,200
Speaker 2: fascinating because it is. Because there's no audience, it would

733
00:46:15,440 --> 00:46:21,799
Speaker 2: necessarily change, particularly for you as an improver, because you're

734
00:46:21,880 --> 00:46:25,240
Speaker 2: trained to figure out exactly what you just said, where

735
00:46:25,239 --> 00:46:29,080
Speaker 2: that laugh is, and how you get to it. But

736
00:46:29,120 --> 00:46:32,480
Speaker 2: that's that's awesome that you found it liberating and fun

737
00:46:32,520 --> 00:46:35,400
Speaker 2: as opposed to terrifying and horrible.

738
00:46:36,360 --> 00:46:41,200
Speaker 1: Yeah. I also was like, look, the most any Black

739
00:46:41,880 --> 00:46:44,440
Speaker 1: lady has ever had a late night show is two minutes,

740
00:46:44,800 --> 00:46:46,600
Speaker 1: So I'm not going to have a bad two minutes.

741
00:46:49,760 --> 00:46:52,080
Speaker 1: I guarantee you, I'm going to be having a blast.

742
00:46:52,640 --> 00:46:54,680
Speaker 1: We really did. It was so much fun. It was

743
00:46:54,719 --> 00:46:55,319
Speaker 1: so much fun.

744
00:46:55,680 --> 00:46:56,680
Speaker 2: Are we going to get more?

745
00:46:58,520 --> 00:47:04,840
Speaker 1: We We are now going to do specials of the

746
00:47:04,840 --> 00:47:08,040
Speaker 1: Amber Ruffin Show every once in a.

747
00:47:07,960 --> 00:47:09,680
Speaker 2: While, when you feel it.

748
00:47:10,040 --> 00:47:12,040
Speaker 1: When we feel it, when the spirit moves us.

749
00:47:12,480 --> 00:47:16,360
Speaker 2: Okay, there that was the answer I saw. I just

750
00:47:16,400 --> 00:47:19,520
Speaker 2: wanted to hear it from you. Okay, well good, I'm

751
00:47:19,560 --> 00:47:24,400
Speaker 2: glad about that. Three seasons thus far nominated for WGA

752
00:47:24,520 --> 00:47:28,320
Speaker 2: Awards and Emmy's. And again, if you haven't checked it out,

753
00:47:29,760 --> 00:47:34,360
Speaker 2: you absolutely should. Speaking of the WGA, how long is

754
00:47:34,360 --> 00:47:35,120
Speaker 2: this going to last?

755
00:47:35,880 --> 00:47:36,680
Speaker 1: Five more years?

756
00:47:37,280 --> 00:47:37,640
Speaker 2: Okay?

757
00:47:38,000 --> 00:47:40,359
Speaker 1: I mean no, but it's going to be a long time.

758
00:47:40,800 --> 00:47:43,799
Speaker 2: That's that's what I think too. I mean, what I

759
00:47:43,880 --> 00:47:48,600
Speaker 2: said was two thousand and eight was one hundred days.

760
00:47:49,239 --> 00:47:53,080
Speaker 2: I think that's very short compared to where we're at

761
00:47:53,160 --> 00:47:53,600
Speaker 2: right now.

762
00:47:54,040 --> 00:47:58,320
Speaker 1: Do you think, so, I have no idea, but I

763
00:47:58,360 --> 00:48:03,560
Speaker 1: do think that we will not be back to work

764
00:48:04,640 --> 00:48:07,440
Speaker 1: in this season, like I don't think we'll come back

765
00:48:07,440 --> 00:48:09,759
Speaker 1: in the summer at all. I think the fall is

766
00:48:09,800 --> 00:48:11,840
Speaker 1: a possibility.

767
00:48:11,880 --> 00:48:15,400
Speaker 2: But that's more than one hundred days. Then, by the way, that's.

768
00:48:15,360 --> 00:48:17,440
Speaker 1: Right, that's right, you're right, you're absolutely right.

769
00:48:17,800 --> 00:48:21,080
Speaker 2: Because you acted surprised when I said that was short.

770
00:48:21,320 --> 00:48:26,560
Speaker 1: Well, I've never been able to count, so I'm just

771
00:48:26,640 --> 00:48:27,680
Speaker 1: surprised you could count.

772
00:48:28,280 --> 00:48:34,000
Speaker 2: I know, I know. I have to mention a couple

773
00:48:34,000 --> 00:48:37,000
Speaker 2: of books that you've written with your sister. You'll never

774
00:48:37,040 --> 00:48:40,319
Speaker 2: believe what happened to Lacey. Crazy Stories about Racism and

775
00:48:40,400 --> 00:48:45,360
Speaker 2: the World Record Book of Racist Stories. No one asked

776
00:48:45,400 --> 00:48:49,959
Speaker 2: you to write. Now you're writing everything, including books. Why

777
00:48:50,080 --> 00:48:54,400
Speaker 2: your sister, and talk to me a little bit about

778
00:48:54,640 --> 00:48:55,759
Speaker 2: about these books.

779
00:48:56,239 --> 00:48:58,239
Speaker 1: Because these people asked me to write a book and

780
00:48:58,280 --> 00:49:02,279
Speaker 1: I did not want to told them no, I really did,

781
00:49:02,719 --> 00:49:05,319
Speaker 1: and it still doesn't appeal to me. And I done

782
00:49:05,400 --> 00:49:10,960
Speaker 1: did it twice. But when I got there, what's.

783
00:49:10,800 --> 00:49:16,040
Speaker 2: The third one? Well, oh, okay, who knows.

784
00:49:15,880 --> 00:49:16,719
Speaker 1: What the third one is?

785
00:49:16,760 --> 00:49:17,080
Speaker 2: All right?

786
00:49:18,440 --> 00:49:21,560
Speaker 1: But when I got there, my agents were like, go

787
00:49:21,719 --> 00:49:24,000
Speaker 1: see the book. Guy, you got to write a book.

788
00:49:24,000 --> 00:49:26,680
Speaker 1: It's like, I got to do nothing right, Let me

789
00:49:26,719 --> 00:49:28,120
Speaker 1: go talk to this guy. Go talk to him. You

790
00:49:28,239 --> 00:49:30,880
Speaker 1: so much fun. And then he was like, if you

791
00:49:30,880 --> 00:49:32,239
Speaker 1: had to write a book. I was like, I don't

792
00:49:32,280 --> 00:49:34,680
Speaker 1: have to, and I'm not going to. They go, well,

793
00:49:34,719 --> 00:49:36,080
Speaker 1: if you had to, I go, you know, it would

794
00:49:36,080 --> 00:49:39,360
Speaker 1: be a funny book. When I was in the cab

795
00:49:39,640 --> 00:49:42,960
Speaker 1: on the way there, my sister had texted me this

796
00:49:43,120 --> 00:49:48,040
Speaker 1: picture of her because she crazy. Racist things keep happening

797
00:49:48,040 --> 00:49:49,879
Speaker 1: to my sister, Lacy. It's just a part of life,

798
00:49:49,960 --> 00:49:54,440
Speaker 1: and they're always hilarious. Like, yes, there's also bad racist stuff,

799
00:49:54,440 --> 00:49:56,840
Speaker 1: but the number of racist things that happened to my

800
00:49:56,880 --> 00:50:01,279
Speaker 1: sister that are me slappingly hilarious. It's in the billions.

801
00:50:01,760 --> 00:50:05,040
Speaker 1: So I was like, if we sat down and just

802
00:50:05,080 --> 00:50:07,880
Speaker 1: wrote out each of these stories, it would be hilarious

803
00:50:07,880 --> 00:50:10,360
Speaker 1: and we would write it like us talking. So we

804
00:50:10,440 --> 00:50:14,160
Speaker 1: did and it was great. But it just so happened

805
00:50:14,200 --> 00:50:16,520
Speaker 1: that she texted me one of these stories while I

806
00:50:16,640 --> 00:50:18,879
Speaker 1: was in the cab on the way to the book.

807
00:50:18,960 --> 00:50:21,560
Speaker 1: I Otherwise I don't know that I would have thought

808
00:50:21,600 --> 00:50:22,279
Speaker 1: of such a thing.

809
00:50:22,960 --> 00:50:26,239
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, that's how great things happen. Yay.

810
00:50:26,760 --> 00:50:29,439
Speaker 1: So now we got a New York Times bestseller. Who

811
00:50:29,440 --> 00:50:29,799
Speaker 1: would have.

812
00:50:29,840 --> 00:50:35,359
Speaker 2: Thought, congratulations, don't just I have one too? All right,

813
00:50:35,480 --> 00:50:38,239
Speaker 2: So that's what you have to do. That's what you have.

814
00:50:38,360 --> 00:50:39,719
Speaker 2: That's what you have to do. You have to write

815
00:50:39,719 --> 00:50:41,440
Speaker 2: a book. When the book person says you got to

816
00:50:41,440 --> 00:50:42,879
Speaker 2: write a book, then you got to write a book.

817
00:50:42,920 --> 00:50:44,080
Speaker 1: You gotta write a book. That's right.

818
00:50:44,440 --> 00:50:47,320
Speaker 2: You were continuing to work with your sister the Amber

819
00:50:47,520 --> 00:50:51,360
Speaker 2: and Lacey Lacey and Amber show, which I assume is

820
00:50:51,400 --> 00:50:55,920
Speaker 2: because you couldn't agree whose name went first? Why your

821
00:50:55,960 --> 00:50:58,759
Speaker 2: sister first? Off? Like you love working with her?

822
00:50:59,320 --> 00:51:02,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, of her because she's bad. But one thing for

823
00:51:03,120 --> 00:51:08,320
Speaker 1: the book that translates well into podcasts. We rag on

824
00:51:08,440 --> 00:51:13,880
Speaker 1: each other constantly, and when you invite a third person

825
00:51:13,920 --> 00:51:17,040
Speaker 1: to be a part of it, it's so fun. It's

826
00:51:17,120 --> 00:51:20,640
Speaker 1: so fun. But they feel so squished and they're forced

827
00:51:20,640 --> 00:51:24,800
Speaker 1: to choose sides, and it makes us so happy.

828
00:51:26,000 --> 00:51:29,600
Speaker 2: What about your your Are your other three siblings upset

829
00:51:29,760 --> 00:51:32,800
Speaker 2: that that that Lacy got tapped or are they happy

830
00:51:32,880 --> 00:51:34,800
Speaker 2: to be out of the line of fire.

831
00:51:35,080 --> 00:51:38,279
Speaker 1: They're happy to be out. They have had it with us,

832
00:51:38,719 --> 00:51:40,360
Speaker 1: They had it.

833
00:51:42,640 --> 00:51:46,279
Speaker 2: Some like it hot. You're now a Broadway writer. You're

834
00:51:46,320 --> 00:51:50,600
Speaker 2: now a playwright, an official playwright. Uh, and you're also

835
00:51:50,640 --> 00:51:53,720
Speaker 2: involved in a new production of The Wiz. Yes, dude,

836
00:51:54,239 --> 00:51:56,160
Speaker 2: when is when is what is that coming?

837
00:51:57,080 --> 00:52:03,200
Speaker 1: The Wiz is coming to Broadway in twenty twenty four, okay,

838
00:52:03,880 --> 00:52:07,600
Speaker 1: and that's next year, by the way, what so how

839
00:52:07,600 --> 00:52:09,920
Speaker 1: many years is that too? No?

840
00:52:10,120 --> 00:52:12,640
Speaker 2: Next year? I'm all right.

841
00:52:13,640 --> 00:52:20,360
Speaker 1: So The Wiz is so fun and like, we're not

842
00:52:20,480 --> 00:52:25,000
Speaker 1: even it's not even all the way finished. We don't

843
00:52:25,040 --> 00:52:28,000
Speaker 1: have everyone, we don't have all the sets and stuff,

844
00:52:28,360 --> 00:52:33,399
Speaker 1: and it's already so good. It is so good. It's

845
00:52:33,400 --> 00:52:36,160
Speaker 1: so great. But I you know, I can't even brag

846
00:52:36,239 --> 00:52:40,359
Speaker 1: because the Wizz is pizza. It's like, if you go

847
00:52:40,480 --> 00:52:44,160
Speaker 1: to a freaking eighth grade showing of The Wiz, guess what,

848
00:52:44,719 --> 00:52:47,759
Speaker 1: those songs still sound good. It don't matter who's singing them,

849
00:52:47,960 --> 00:52:50,440
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter what that The Wiz is your favorite

850
00:52:50,840 --> 00:52:57,200
Speaker 1: because those songs are untouchable and true to form. Our

851
00:52:57,320 --> 00:53:02,480
Speaker 1: version of the Wiz is exceptional. It's just it's beautiful.

852
00:53:02,960 --> 00:53:06,840
Speaker 2: I love it. And you're returning now. You're returning now

853
00:53:07,040 --> 00:53:13,400
Speaker 2: to where you started. You started playing music in the church,

854
00:53:14,520 --> 00:53:17,719
Speaker 2: as you said, your entree into the improv world. Was

855
00:53:17,760 --> 00:53:20,960
Speaker 2: your ability to improv songs and now you're turning it around.

856
00:53:21,040 --> 00:53:23,200
Speaker 2: Is this a dream for you or is this did

857
00:53:23,239 --> 00:53:26,080
Speaker 2: a play person say you need to do this like

858
00:53:26,160 --> 00:53:28,680
Speaker 2: the book or was this something you actively sought.

859
00:53:29,520 --> 00:53:34,759
Speaker 1: I just thought if I could write co write the

860
00:53:34,800 --> 00:53:37,840
Speaker 1: musical Some Like It Hot, then they would let me

861
00:53:38,719 --> 00:53:42,800
Speaker 1: do whatever show I wanted to on Broadway. But then

862
00:53:43,160 --> 00:53:45,439
Speaker 1: the Whiz came along and I was like, Oh, that's

863
00:53:45,440 --> 00:53:48,160
Speaker 1: what I want. So I don't know if there will

864
00:53:48,200 --> 00:53:50,680
Speaker 1: be a lot of Broadway after this, because I was like,

865
00:53:50,880 --> 00:53:55,680
Speaker 1: it's a like a the most Tony nominated musical Some

866
00:53:55,840 --> 00:54:01,080
Speaker 1: Like It Hot this year, Yes, and then the musical

867
00:54:01,160 --> 00:54:04,799
Speaker 1: You Love the Most. I think I'm gonna have to

868
00:54:04,840 --> 00:54:07,280
Speaker 1: tap out after this. We did it, We did it.

869
00:54:08,960 --> 00:54:12,759
Speaker 2: Well, you have done it, and you are doing it.

870
00:54:13,080 --> 00:54:18,440
Speaker 2: I congratulate you. I find you so funny and again surprising,

871
00:54:18,560 --> 00:54:22,200
Speaker 2: which is my favorite kind of funny. And the fact

872
00:54:22,200 --> 00:54:26,480
Speaker 2: that you've stayed there on Late Show as well. I

873
00:54:26,560 --> 00:54:29,680
Speaker 2: just I love it. I love your story. So thank

874
00:54:29,680 --> 00:54:32,319
Speaker 2: you so much for coming and chatting with me.

875
00:54:33,160 --> 00:54:34,640
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me. I love you so bad

876
00:54:34,719 --> 00:54:35,600
Speaker 1: and I always will.

877
00:54:37,560 --> 00:54:38,440
Speaker 2: Thank you Amber.

878
00:54:38,960 --> 00:54:55,399
Speaker 1: Thanks Bratton Hey.

879
00:54:53,080 --> 00:54:57,640
Speaker 2: Amber, Amber, thank you so much for speaking to me today.

880
00:54:57,680 --> 00:54:59,359
Speaker 2: I have been a fan of your work for a

881
00:54:59,400 --> 00:55:05,640
Speaker 2: long long time, and today, yes, you even exceeded my expectations.

882
00:55:05,800 --> 00:55:09,080
Speaker 2: Thank you. Listeners be sure to tune into Amber's podcast,

883
00:55:09,480 --> 00:55:14,440
Speaker 2: The Amber and Lacey Lacy and Amber Show. It is

884
00:55:14,520 --> 00:55:18,120
Speaker 2: awesome like her and speaking of podcasts, come back to

885
00:55:18,440 --> 00:55:22,280
Speaker 2: Off the Beat this time next week for another guest

886
00:55:23,080 --> 00:55:26,160
Speaker 2: who will be here with me. We'll see you soon.

887
00:55:34,160 --> 00:55:37,120
Speaker 2: Off the Beat is hosted and executive produced by me

888
00:55:37,480 --> 00:55:41,960
Speaker 2: Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer, lingg Lee. Our senior

889
00:55:42,000 --> 00:55:46,600
Speaker 2: producer is Diego Tapia. Our producers are Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris,

890
00:55:46,680 --> 00:55:50,920
Speaker 2: and Emily Carr. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary,

891
00:55:51,080 --> 00:55:54,840
Speaker 2: and our intern is Sammy Katz. Our theme song Bubble

892
00:55:54,880 --> 00:55:58,880
Speaker 2: and Squeak, performed by the one and only Creed Bratton,