Speaker 1: I'm so tired of learning new things. I hate learning.
Speaker 1: It's bad, it's stupid. Why have I done all this
Speaker 1: just to learn how to do a separate thing. I
Speaker 1: don't like it. I don't like it.
Speaker 2: Oh, somebody marked that. Someone marked that, right there, Amber Ruffin.
Speaker 2: I hate learning.
Speaker 1: I hate learning.
Speaker 2: I truly do.
Speaker 1: Any teacher I've had will tell you she hates it. Hi,
Speaker 1: my name is Amber Ruffin. I'm in your ears, but
Speaker 1: if I was in your house with you, I'd give
Speaker 1: you a little pinch.
Speaker 2: Hi, friends, and happy Tuesday or whatever day you're listening
Speaker 2: to this episode that was released on a Tuesday. Welcome back.
Speaker 2: This is Off the Beat and I am Brian Baumgartner
Speaker 2: and my guest today is the wonderful Amber Ruffin. Now,
Speaker 2: Amber is a late night legend. Okay, she has worked
Speaker 2: on Late Night with Seth Myers since his very first
Speaker 2: episode back in twenty fourteen. But that's not all that
Speaker 2: Amber has done. She does improv. She worked with Improv
Speaker 2: Olympic and Second City Sketches on her own The Amber
Speaker 2: Ruffin Show, to appearing in multiple hit series like Girls
Speaker 2: five EVA and If that's not enough. She is also
Speaker 2: a New York Times best selling author with her sister.
Speaker 2: You'll never believe what happened to Lacey. Crazy stories about racism,
Speaker 2: and now she's even stepping into the world of Broadway.
Speaker 2: Amber may hate learning like you just heard, but I
Speaker 2: really loved learning about her and her story, her career
Speaker 2: in improv her career at late Night, her lifelong dedication
Speaker 2: to avoiding things like numbers and education. I mean, we
Speaker 2: all know I can relate to that. Listen closely, everybody.
Speaker 2: You might just learn something and that is a threat.
Speaker 2: Here is my new friend, Amber Ruffin.
Speaker 3: Bubble and Squeak.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 3: Bubble and Squeagana.
Speaker 2: Bubble and Squeaker could get every more over from the.
Speaker 3: Ninety before, Hiever, You're real.
Speaker 2: I'm a real person.
Speaker 1: Hi.
Speaker 2: How's it going?
Speaker 1: Pretty nice? I just had some cashes and raisins because
Speaker 1: I'm one hundred years old.
Speaker 2: Cash using raisins.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm either one hundred or five. That's fighting.
Speaker 2: Well, it's the canned variety, so it's very fresh.
Speaker 1: I insist.
Speaker 2: Insist on the can variety of cashews and raisins.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 2: Are they like raw cashews or do they have a
Speaker 2: little salt on them?
Speaker 1: They have to have salt on them, all right, good,
Speaker 1: although I guess some people just be eating flavorless nuts.
Speaker 1: That's fine, like a squirrel, like a square.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly where are you are? You? Are you in? Which?
Speaker 2: Which side of the country are you on?
Speaker 3: New York?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what I thought. How's it going out there
Speaker 2: in New York?
Speaker 1: I mean it's pretty strikey, it's.
Speaker 2: Very striking in New York.
Speaker 1: Yes, probably also strike you over there, Yes it is.
Speaker 2: What are we at, day day fifteen of the Writer's
Speaker 2: Strike of twenty twenty three, Yes we are. That's right,
Speaker 2: day fifteen. Do you miss going to work?
Speaker 1: No? No one does. No, I shouldn't say that. I
Speaker 1: really do. Though. We have a lot of fun at work,
Speaker 1: but we haven't been back to work physically in twenty
Speaker 1: nine years. Yeah, we haven't been back full force since
Speaker 1: before COVID.
Speaker 2: So you've you've still been working at home?
Speaker 1: Yes, I've been. I mean I've been doing various things,
Speaker 1: but at late night, at late night, we don't come
Speaker 1: in very much at all. If you have a bit
Speaker 1: that's going, then you come in. But I guess regular
Speaker 1: old writers they're like, stay your goofy behinds at home.
Speaker 1: No one wants to be like a part of your
Speaker 1: silly bits or you know, TikTok videos. Keep that at home.
Speaker 1: I'm like, that's fair.
Speaker 2: Well, do you think that that is that the future?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's our future. They're happier than they've ever been
Speaker 1: because we're you're.
Speaker 2: Not bothering now because you're around.
Speaker 1: No one's making like a crock pot of k so
Speaker 1: like having races down the hallway. I do think they
Speaker 1: love not having us, and I'm not doing a bit.
Speaker 1: I think they love not having to deal with our mess.
Speaker 2: Do you think that it hurts the collaborative creative process?
Speaker 1: No, No, I mean the way we well, I guess
Speaker 1: some of us do write more collaboratively, but the way
Speaker 1: I write, and Jenny and Lutz and stuff is we
Speaker 1: write a script and then I email you the script,
Speaker 1: and then you take a pass at it, you email
Speaker 1: it back. That's how I've always written. So this doesn't
Speaker 1: really bother me. But I miss being bad.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well that makes sense. All right, let's go. Let's
Speaker 2: go backwards in time you grew up. I was very
Speaker 2: surprised to hear that you grew up in Nebraska, Omaha, Nebraska,
Speaker 2: the youngest of five by the way. I should also
Speaker 2: mention how was early life in Nebraska for you?
Speaker 1: Very very outdoors?
Speaker 2: Okay, okay.
Speaker 1: I see these children here in New York, and they
Speaker 1: are indoor children, and they are very like aware of
Speaker 1: their surroundings in a way that I never had. Like
Speaker 1: you can tell when you're walking down the street because
Speaker 1: we work, you know, at thirty Rock, so there's a
Speaker 1: ton of tourists, and you can tell who's from the Midwest,
Speaker 1: especially the children, because they're just everywhere, and they're under
Speaker 1: your feet and they're in your way and they can't
Speaker 1: think of like a consequence for that. And they also
Speaker 1: just don't have the spatial awareness that you need to
Speaker 1: live in a tiny city filled with a billion people.
Speaker 2: Right. I had a dream for a while. I have
Speaker 2: young kids, and I had a dream for a while
Speaker 2: of I don't think I could do New York permanently,
Speaker 2: but to bring them there for a year because that
Speaker 2: gift that you're talking, which I do think it is
Speaker 2: a gift of understanding your environment and moving through people
Speaker 2: and being sort of aware of the environment and your
Speaker 2: circumstances and all of that would be like a great
Speaker 2: learning tool. Do you think so, or do you think
Speaker 2: the fact that they're stuck inside all the time kills
Speaker 2: whatever benefit that might give.
Speaker 1: You Know what kills whatever benefit that might give is
Speaker 1: when you see people who are in mental health crises
Speaker 1: all day and all night. Every day you have to
Speaker 1: walk past someone who's having the worst day of their
Speaker 1: lives without thinking of them or giving them any attention.
Speaker 1: And that when I do see children, New York children,
Speaker 1: I think that can't be good for you. Right, It
Speaker 1: must kill whatever tiny bit of baby empathy you had.
Speaker 2: Right do you think growing up in Nebraska and being outdoors,
Speaker 2: did you play imagination games?
Speaker 1: I definitely was an imagination kid. But more than that,
Speaker 1: I was like running, climbing and biting. Like I think
Speaker 1: we were catching snakes and looking them at one another,
Speaker 1: like catching bugs and mushing them. We're just the worst,
Speaker 1: the worst type of little boys is into it, sticking
Speaker 1: your hand in the mud, seeing what's in their bag.
Speaker 2: Yeah, being the youngest of five, do you think that?
Speaker 2: How do you think that that affected you? Now?
Speaker 1: Being the youngest of five is why I'm bad? Okay,
Speaker 1: because it was like leave the baby alone. The baby
Speaker 1: wants to sing you, so give that to the baby.
Speaker 1: Does somebody check on the baby. Oh look at the
Speaker 1: and they just let me. And then that behavior got
Speaker 1: passed down to all My sisters and my brother are
Speaker 1: always like uh huh, yeah, that's great. Even today, I
Speaker 1: think they still act like that, but I can see it.
Speaker 1: I knew that that was happening. But then once they
Speaker 1: started having children, then I really was like, this is
Speaker 1: how you used to do me. You don't care that
Speaker 1: this child drew this picture. But yeah, it was just
Speaker 1: like severe encouragement all of the time, which I think
Speaker 1: creates a monster, but a fun monster.
Speaker 2: But a confident monster.
Speaker 1: Yeah good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you were interested in snakes and mud and squishing bugs.
Speaker 2: When did you start to have an interest in either
Speaker 2: the creative arts or writing or performing. Was that something
Speaker 2: that came to you early on?
Speaker 1: I guess I did the thing kids do where you're like,
Speaker 1: you write a show, and then you make the neighbors
Speaker 1: come to the show.
Speaker 2: Right that we did that, By the way, Not everyone
Speaker 2: does that, but yes, I knew what you mean, know
Speaker 2: what you mean?
Speaker 1: Yes, those poor people. But oh so this is really
Speaker 1: how it happened. I was learning how to play the
Speaker 1: piano at twelve from the minister of music at church.
Speaker 1: Then she cheated on her husband, and then she was
Speaker 1: not allowed to play the piano anymore. I think that's what.
Speaker 2: Wait, that was the punishment. That was the punishment. It
Speaker 2: seems like she should be a different punishment.
Speaker 1: But she couldn't be an official, an efficient.
Speaker 2: At the church, she couldn't come to church, she couldn't.
Speaker 1: Be in the pulpit because she was doing dirt.
Speaker 2: Okay, that was the rumor.
Speaker 1: Who knows what's true. Okay, But she had taught me
Speaker 1: exactly one song, and so I played it that Sunday
Speaker 1: by myself because I had to and this was not
Speaker 1: the plan. And then she didn't come back to a
Speaker 1: rehearsal for choir rehearsal, and so then I would just
Speaker 1: show up at every choir rehearsal and I would figure
Speaker 1: out how to play something for them for Sunday. And
Speaker 1: I just figured out how to play the piano. I
Speaker 1: can't today because it was math and not like a
Speaker 1: talent that I have, But I just figured it out,
Speaker 1: and every week I figured it out and it was fine.
Speaker 1: And it also gave me insane confidence because I was like,
Speaker 1: I have no there are a million people ahead of
Speaker 1: me in line for what I'm doing right now. It
Speaker 1: should be the last person who play. But I figured
Speaker 1: it out. You can figure it out.
Speaker 2: So this is really your first experience in front of
Speaker 2: an audience and in your brain and your confident, young
Speaker 2: fifth child brain. This made you a star. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm starr.
Speaker 1: I'm great. I can do it. But more than I'm like,
Speaker 1: they trusted me to do this thing that an adult
Speaker 1: should be doing, right, I was like, all right, if
Speaker 1: it's up to me, I'll figure it out.
Speaker 2: What about writing, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Writing was never a part of it, never, never, And
Speaker 1: that's the main thing now. I think when you start improvising,
Speaker 1: all improvisers are writers, really, because you're all writing down
Speaker 1: the sketches and stuff. But writing wasn't a part of
Speaker 1: it at all. I just thought I just didn't think
Speaker 1: of sketch writing as a job, and it certainly not
Speaker 1: a job that could lead to other jobs. Right, But
Speaker 1: I was wrong.
Speaker 2: You eventually you joined a theater group in Omaha, you
Speaker 2: wanted to perform, and this brought you to Chicago for
Speaker 2: a gig. Right, So tell me about that important trip
Speaker 2: and the aftermath of that.
Speaker 1: In Omaha, we started an improv group and it was very,
Speaker 1: very fun, and then we decided to go visit Chicago
Speaker 1: for Chicago Improv Festival. Was that you know, back then
Speaker 1: that was basically the only place there was any type
Speaker 1: of improv where you could make a living at it. Right,
Speaker 1: So then I moved to Sor. We go to that
Speaker 1: improv festival and a lady named Shanna Halpern who used
Speaker 1: to run Io, which was a big famous improv theater.
Speaker 1: She yeah, she told me that if I moved there,
Speaker 1: I would have a full time job within a year.
Speaker 1: So I moved there. She let me intern at Io
Speaker 1: and uh, it took six months and I got hired
Speaker 1: at Boom Chicago, which is a theater in Amsterdam, and
Speaker 1: that was a full time so I was instantly. The
Speaker 1: second I was out of classes, I got called up
Speaker 1: to do Boom Chicago and was doing full time comedy
Speaker 1: was my full time job ever since.
Speaker 2: Boom Chicago is an improv group that is in Amsterdam,
Speaker 2: which is very confused, makes the name very confusing. Talk
Speaker 2: to me a little bit about this group and its importance.
Speaker 1: Well for you, Booms Chicago is a theater in Amsterdam
Speaker 1: where we write our shows, We write all our reviews,
Speaker 1: it's just like Second City, except it's way more improvised. Okay,
Speaker 1: like we probably have a written opening, a couple of
Speaker 1: sketches throughout, but then the rest is just improv games.
Speaker 1: And it's really really nice because you have to just
Speaker 1: figure it out, just like being the Minister of music
Speaker 1: when you're a kid. You can't complete prepare for it,
Speaker 1: Like there is no way to prepare for doing a
Speaker 1: show for three hundred people for whom English is their
Speaker 1: second language, right And if you've never you know, done
Speaker 1: short form improv and I hadn't really, but I you know,
Speaker 1: could really improvise songs very well. So then that I
Speaker 1: think is what got me the job. But it was
Speaker 1: so formative because you're making money at comedy for the
Speaker 1: first time, and like there are all these famous alums
Speaker 1: and you really feel like, oh, I'm doing it. And
Speaker 1: at Boom Chicago you can do whatever you want. Like
Speaker 1: if halfway through the show you were like, let's stop
Speaker 1: doing the show and do a different thing, and you
Speaker 1: just put on a different thing that would be allowed
Speaker 1: if the audience had a great time, you could in
Speaker 1: order for or the audience to have a great time.
Speaker 1: You can do literally anything like one day when I
Speaker 1: knew that we were not going to be supervised very heavily,
Speaker 1: I was like, let's just pick a running order and
Speaker 1: do whatever we want. We did whatever we wanted. Thought,
Speaker 1: he's had a great time. We were just like calling
Speaker 1: audibles and like filling time until the show was over.
Speaker 1: It was the best. But that's how boom Chicago is.
Speaker 1: And then you in addition to that, you do corporate gigs,
Speaker 1: tons of corporate gigs. You're doing a gig in like
Speaker 1: in like a like a like an amusement park, or
Speaker 1: in the window of a shopping center, or like an
Speaker 1: afternoon at the United Nations. Yes, man, everywhere we went everywhere.
Speaker 1: We went to Malta, we went to Spain and stuff.
Speaker 1: We went to Chicago. I didn't go to Chicago, but
Speaker 1: they went to Chicago. But it was just every gig
Speaker 1: you could think of, That's what it was. And it
Speaker 1: was so what's your good headed? Your confidence is like,
Speaker 1: I'm probably a piece of shit, So I'm so confident.
Speaker 1: But after like three hundred Germans bow you you're fine, right,
Speaker 1: You're gonna be fine.
Speaker 2: What what do you think that style of improv with
Speaker 2: no rules? What did you take from that today or
Speaker 2: what did you learn from that or how did you
Speaker 2: how did you mold that into to who you are today?
Speaker 2: Because you have rules today. You work in network a lot,
Speaker 2: so I know for a fact that there are rules,
Speaker 2: But what did what did that experience give you?
Speaker 1: It? Really? I mean it taught me that there are rules,
Speaker 1: but are there? I mean, come on, it's really like
Speaker 1: it's taught me that people ask for a certain thing,
Speaker 1: but what they want is the best thing they could have,
Speaker 1: right And sometimes and this is the worst thing I
Speaker 1: could say, And sometimes you know best, like you know
Speaker 1: best what you can deliver crystal clear, you know that,
Speaker 1: and you know what they're asking for. There might be
Speaker 1: a difference there, right, So just do the thing you like,
Speaker 1: do the thing you like, stop doing the thing people
Speaker 1: think they want. They'll know what they want.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's interesting, And I see that in your work
Speaker 2: because it is surprising, particularly late night. There's a structure, right,
Speaker 2: I mean, even if you erase everything else and you
Speaker 2: say there's a commercial break every seven and a half
Speaker 2: minutes or whatever, it is, right, like there is you're
Speaker 2: set within a structure. But I find that you, at
Speaker 2: least what I have seen as a performer that you're
Speaker 2: you're constantly surprising, and those seven and a half minutes
Speaker 2: can be wild and disparate in a way that is
Speaker 2: not necessarily breaking the rules but is different. But potentially
Speaker 2: that work at Boon Chicago, and then having the discipline
Speaker 2: now to put it within, if not rules, at least
Speaker 2: within a given structure. I think that's a great that's
Speaker 2: a great gift.
Speaker 1: Yay, so doo we do like like at the end
Speaker 1: reff and show, we would just be like, what do
Speaker 1: we feel like doing? And we would do exactly whatever
Speaker 1: we felt like doing. Inter saying that was the big
Speaker 1: surprise is people like it when you're having a fun time.
Speaker 1: I would not have guessed that. I mean, certainly not
Speaker 1: to that extent, but goodness, people watch you a smile
Speaker 1: about a picture of a pony for ten minutes. They
Speaker 1: just love that you're having fun. And it's so much
Speaker 1: more severe. People like people so much more. I'm taking
Speaker 1: off my earrings because I'm gonna fight you. But people
Speaker 1: like people so bad. People love people. They love looking
Speaker 1: at them, they love listening to them, they love whatever
Speaker 1: weird things they love. And that I'm always reminded of
Speaker 1: that whenever I end up in the middle of some
Speaker 1: documentary of like what was the one? The Pez Guy?
Speaker 1: The Pez documentary? I'm this guy loves this and then
Speaker 1: it makes you love it. I don't love pets. I
Speaker 1: don't care about Pez even I think Pez tastes bad.
Speaker 1: How about that?
Speaker 2: I know that's really true, and it's so true. I
Speaker 2: think about that one? What was it? The the Donkey
Speaker 2: Kong one? Did you see that?
Speaker 1: I wrote a musical about it? Oh?
Speaker 2: You did music? There's that's bad research by me. But anyway,
Speaker 2: go ahead, I wrote.
Speaker 1: You'd be the only person who knew about it. I
Speaker 1: wrote a two man musical with my very good friend
Speaker 1: Lauren van Kiren and our musical director David Bull, and
Speaker 1: it was directed by Brendan Hunt, who's coach Beard on
Speaker 1: ted Lasso. Now, yeah, and we had the dumbest It
Speaker 1: was just like the two of us and it was
Speaker 1: a quick change musical about the best, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: the best documentary of all time, which is King of Kong.
Speaker 1: King of Kong quarters the best. It's the best documentary.
Speaker 1: And if you haven't seen it.
Speaker 2: You should know. You should definitely see it, and to
Speaker 2: your point, you'll start being like God. I didn't appreciate
Speaker 2: Donkey Kong enough, like your yeah, that's your Yeah, You're like,
Speaker 2: I need to go buy a Donkey Kong machine so
Speaker 2: that I can start playing this game that I've never
Speaker 2: really had any desire to play before.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've never given it a single thought. But then
Speaker 1: they love it so bad. Their love for it is catching.
Speaker 2: Since, Yeah, what brought you to leave Boom Chicago and
Speaker 2: come back to the United States.
Speaker 1: Well, I was at Boom Chicago for two years, then
Speaker 1: I left to do Second City, and back then I
Speaker 1: called them on the phone and said, will you give
Speaker 1: me a job? Now, they gave me a job because
Speaker 1: I just so happened to slum Dog Millionaire it. They
Speaker 1: didn't know me at Second City. I did I owe
Speaker 1: while I was living in Chicago, But one night I
Speaker 1: just so happened to show up there. Because if you're
Speaker 1: an improviser, they'll let you do the set with them. Well,
Speaker 1: the night I showed up was to same night Martin
Speaker 1: Short showed up, so I was like, oh, they're not
Speaker 1: gonna let me do the set, but he didn't want
Speaker 1: to do the set, so then they let me do
Speaker 1: the set. And then the three suggestions were like a
Speaker 1: spark plug, which I just so happened to know how
Speaker 1: to change sign language, which I just so happened to speak,
Speaker 1: and gymnastics and I used to be a gymnastics coach.
Speaker 1: And I was like, I must seem like a fucking
Speaker 1: genius in these people. It was the slum dog millionariest
Speaker 1: thing that has ever happened.
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, crazy, crazy.
Speaker 1: So then when I called him, I was like, I
Speaker 1: want to job. They were like, okay, because because Martin
Speaker 1: Short was there, all the people who make decisions were there,
Speaker 1: so then they all knew I was the lady who
Speaker 1: did the thing that one time.
Speaker 2: Yeah. To be able to do those three things is
Speaker 2: pretty crazy.
Speaker 1: What are they? Gods? I didn't know who. I didn't
Speaker 1: shout it out. It wasn't a plant.
Speaker 2: Plant. You had bought all the tickets in the theater
Speaker 2: and they were all your friends, and they were like,
Speaker 2: one of the weirdest skills that Amber has. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: here we go. Hey, yeah, uh not weird. That's I
Speaker 2: don't even know why is it weird? But different different skills. Okay,
Speaker 2: So you came back to start working with Second.
Speaker 1: City yep, And then I did Second City Denver. We existed,
Speaker 1: and Maine Stage Chicago, and then from main Stage Chicago.
Speaker 1: A lot of people go to LA, but Boom Chicago
Speaker 1: was so fun. So I went back to Boom Chicago
Speaker 1: for three years, you did, and it was the most
Speaker 1: fun I've ever had. Like, Boom Chicago is very fun
Speaker 1: when you're bad at it, and I was bad at
Speaker 1: it for so long. I was bad at it for
Speaker 1: i'd say, like a year. But then when you're good
Speaker 1: at it and you're all old and stuff, oh my god,
Speaker 1: it was the old I was a child. But it
Speaker 1: was the fun time. It is the funnest time I
Speaker 1: ever had. And for that that time, I chose fun
Speaker 1: over maybe what I should have done, and I was
Speaker 1: a thousand percent right, most of what I ever had.
Speaker 1: Then after that, I moved to LA to try.
Speaker 2: To make it as an actor.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that was a mess. But then I got
Speaker 1: late night said, so wasn't all bad?
Speaker 2: Wait? Why why was that? Why was that a mess?
Speaker 2: Why was being in LA trying to be an actor
Speaker 2: a mess?
Speaker 1: La is tough and we were poor and it was bad.
Speaker 1: Being poor is fine. I'm great at it, but uh.
Speaker 2: That's funny. I'm bad at it. I'm really bad. I'm
Speaker 2: bad at it.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty good at it.
Speaker 2: Really.
Speaker 1: I love Yeah, I could be on that show Extreme Couponing.
Speaker 1: I planted out.
Speaker 2: Well, it's funny. It's funny. And partly why I say
Speaker 2: that is because I when I left Collins, we're going
Speaker 2: to talk about me for a second, Like I knew
Speaker 2: enough about myself. I was like moving to New York
Speaker 2: and the idea of the like sleeping on sofas and stuff,
Speaker 2: that was not going to work for me. And so
Speaker 2: I mean not dissimilar to Chicago, but I ended up
Speaker 2: in Minneapolis, where you know, they actually pay you to
Speaker 2: do work in the theater. Not great, but you're getting
Speaker 2: something as opposed to nothing most of the time in
Speaker 2: New York. But I think that that early on can
Speaker 2: be a really important gift to be good at being poor.
Speaker 1: Is this true? Or am I making it up? Minneapolis
Speaker 1: has the most theater seats per capita than any other
Speaker 1: city in the US.
Speaker 2: True except New York. But yes, true, that is a
Speaker 2: very that's a writer stat there. That's something that's something
Speaker 2: that is true. But I can't tell you how many
Speaker 2: people I have said that exact exact phrase. And then
Speaker 2: except New York, to and they go really many many
Speaker 2: what really? But yeah, but you moved to La. What
Speaker 2: was your experience like that? You were you were just auditioning,
Speaker 2: You were on the audition train.
Speaker 1: I moved there with my husband in two thousand national eight.
Speaker 2: Eight. Okay, didn't make that up.
Speaker 1: Oh wait, No, eleven, two thousand and eight is when
Speaker 1: I went back to Boom. We left in twenty eleven.
Speaker 1: Now we're in LA, and it was it was very,
Speaker 1: very bad. Like I was a nanny, cause a nanny
Speaker 1: for the most beautiful little baby. And every once in
Speaker 1: a while, el see you whenever I'm over there and
Speaker 1: he's like eight now and you can talk, and I'll
Speaker 1: be like, hi, I am right, blah blah blah blah blah,
Speaker 1: and then my tears well up in my eyes because
Speaker 1: I used to hold it and be like, are you
Speaker 1: ever going to talk to me? My perfect little baby.
Speaker 1: So I was a nanny, and I try to make
Speaker 1: it seem bad, but it was actually a dream, my
Speaker 1: perfect boy. But before I got that job, I was
Speaker 1: nanny for just the worst children on planet Earth. Yeah,
Speaker 1: God bless it. Oh, just horrible children. I just didn't know.
Speaker 1: I will say, I grew up spoiled siblings wise, because
Speaker 1: it was mostly girls and one big brother. But everyone
Speaker 1: was just so nice and you didn't like yell or
Speaker 1: hit like, we didn't do that. So to watch these
Speaker 1: children just beat the tar out of each other every day,
Speaker 1: I'd be like, what is this? What does this? What's
Speaker 1: wrong with you that you're so angry? You're four? Nothing
Speaker 1: has happened, right, No, but yeah it was we're scraping by.
Speaker 2: Did you go to amprop Olympic? Like, were you performing
Speaker 2: there at all? Because of you? Are? You are? Okay?
Speaker 2: So you're doing that?
Speaker 1: We have to live near IOH because I have to perform.
Speaker 1: And then I was like I have to start taking
Speaker 1: classes at UCB. At this point I had been a
Speaker 1: literal professional improviser for a decade. I was like, I
Speaker 1: guess I gotta take ECB clauses.
Speaker 2: I lived about seventeen seconds from UCB. Yeah, well during
Speaker 2: that during that time that you were there, yeah, fun,
Speaker 2: and then you were auditioning for film and television? Is
Speaker 2: that that was what we were doing?
Speaker 1: I mean yeah, but yeah, I was mostly just putting
Speaker 1: up my own shows. I fell in with this theater
Speaker 1: called Sacred Fools, and it's like a writer's theater and
Speaker 1: you just write your own shows and stuff. And that's
Speaker 1: how I ended up with that King of Kong, the documentary,
Speaker 1: the musical, and it was just the funnest place to be,
Speaker 1: But it was it's weird to be poor in a
Speaker 1: place you don't know. That's less fun. To move to
Speaker 1: a new place to be poor is not fun. If
Speaker 1: I like had to move back to Chicago and be poor,
Speaker 1: I'd be like, Okay, I can do it, or Omaha, fine, right,
Speaker 1: but Saskatchewan, we're gonna have a bad time.
Speaker 2: Because you don't know, I don't know, you don't know
Speaker 2: where to go, right. You then wanted to audition for SNL. Yeah,
Speaker 2: was that the dream at the time for you?
Speaker 1: I mean sure, I just never considered it at all.
Speaker 2: Okay, But then.
Speaker 1: Once they were like, we're gonna have auditions and we
Speaker 1: want you to come, I was like, it's mine. I
Speaker 1: have it, I got it. I'm already on. I'm on
Speaker 1: SNL already.
Speaker 2: Yes. Yes.
Speaker 1: Do not know why I thought. I mean, you couldn't
Speaker 1: have told me any different. Because they had a big audition.
Speaker 1: They were like, we're looking for a black lady, and
Speaker 1: so then I was on all these in all these
Speaker 1: showcases SNL showcases, it was like a million of them.
Speaker 1: And then finally got through to the audition audition, and
Speaker 1: it was four of us. Well, it was a bunch
Speaker 1: of us. And then only four of us survived, okay.
Speaker 1: And the four of us were le Kendra Tooks who
Speaker 1: got hired as a writer on SNL, Leslie Jones who
Speaker 1: got hired as a writer initially on SNL, and then
Speaker 1: Sashir Zamida who got the acting job, and then me
Speaker 1: who did not get So it was like, I extra
Speaker 1: didn't get it.
Speaker 2: We're hiring, We're hiring everyone, but you, Yeah, that fad.
Speaker 2: Are you able now or were you able then to say, well,
Speaker 2: this is just not my thing. My thing is coming
Speaker 2: or not? Was it just crushing?
Speaker 1: No? I thought I was going to die. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: was going to die. And then I just I had to.
Speaker 1: I was in rehearsals for King of Kong. Gosh, this
Speaker 1: is all kay, a show I never mentioned, I've not
Speaker 1: mentioned fourteen times. While I was in rehearsal for King
Speaker 1: of Kong, the call came and it's just me and
Speaker 1: my little girlfriend, and I go, oh my god, it's
Speaker 1: oh my god, it's gonna be uh huh uh huh.
Speaker 1: I didn't, okay, and then I had to keep rehearsing
Speaker 1: rehearsal the middle of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah you did, you did? You pause rehearsal and say, everybody,
Speaker 2: come here, Come here, Come here. This is SNL, this
Speaker 2: is gather around, gather around, here we go. Two of
Speaker 2: us put it on speaker.
Speaker 1: But I certainly did say it's here, it comes.
Speaker 2: Oh god, I was.
Speaker 1: So sure I was going to get it, so sure
Speaker 1: it's bigger shock.
Speaker 2: So how then did you meet the folks at Late Night? This?
Speaker 2: This came out of this audition process with SNL. Correct,
Speaker 2: I think SO.
Speaker 1: Said don't audition. Also, I thought my audition was great,
Speaker 1: but so was everybody else's. Like you didn't see other
Speaker 1: people's auditions. But what am I saying? Oh? So? Seth
Speaker 1: Myers was also at Boom Chicago, so I knew Seth
Speaker 1: and Seth had seen me in shows at Boom Chicago
Speaker 1: when he hired me for Late Night. So it was
Speaker 1: SNL calling to say no. Then three days later I
Speaker 1: died and rose again, and then Seth called and was like,
Speaker 1: will you be a writer at my show?
Speaker 2: Were you aware at the time that you were the
Speaker 2: first woman of color to be writing for a late
Speaker 2: night television show or did someone fill you in on
Speaker 2: that later?
Speaker 1: No, an article came out that said I was the
Speaker 1: first black woman to write for a network late near show.
Speaker 2: Now I was sorry, I don't know, that's what I mean.
Speaker 1: A that's a lot of qualifiers, so many qualifiers. I'll
Speaker 1: take it. Okay, we need representation. I'm happy to be it.
Speaker 1: But then I don't don't know. I certainly didn't think
Speaker 1: that that was true. And then even still I'm like,
Speaker 1: is that true?
Speaker 2: It's so funny to me. I don't know. That's fascinating
Speaker 2: because obviously that does have an impact. Now maybe I
Speaker 2: mean you're clearly saying not so much to you, but
Speaker 2: in terms of people who come after you, right, do
Speaker 2: you feel like writers' rooms now are more diverse?
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're one hundred percent more diverse. I think everyone
Speaker 1: got embarrassed because that's embarrassing, man. And then a shift
Speaker 1: in social awareness happened, right, and people were like, hmm,
Speaker 1: maybe everything we're delivering is through the white lens. Maybe
Speaker 1: we need a different vantage point. So then I think
Speaker 1: things started to shift. And then though white stuff just
Speaker 1: didn't ring true anymore. And then I think everybody could see, Oh,
Speaker 1: if that's how you talk about police violence, you probably
Speaker 1: shouldn't be the person we're asking, you know. So I
Speaker 1: think it's a little bit of everything. Yeah, rooms are
Speaker 1: way more diverse now than they used to be.
Speaker 2: It's so interesting to hear you say that. And I
Speaker 2: didn't think about it until you said there was a
Speaker 2: light that was shined and people got embarrassed. You know.
Speaker 2: I remember Jon Stewart winning again for his show the Emmys,
Speaker 2: and they announced the people and he was on stage
Speaker 2: and kind of embarrassingly made a joke about the fact
Speaker 2: that everybody looked alike. And my memory was like everyone
Speaker 2: was not just white, but Jewish white men that were
Speaker 2: standing on stage. But it was almost like realizing in
Speaker 2: the moment as I was sitting there, like, yeah, this
Speaker 2: is odd, this is odd. Yeah, it just when you
Speaker 2: said embarrassed, I wonder and maybe it was that incident
Speaker 2: or something else where everyone's sort of like, oh, wait
Speaker 2: a second, why is this the way that it is?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I hope that it was. I don't
Speaker 1: have to hope. I know that it was the work
Speaker 1: that people did where it just is different. You can't
Speaker 1: help it. It's different. It's different. When you ask the
Speaker 1: people involved to talk about it, you just get a different, fish, fresher,
Speaker 1: better point of view.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you have moved on, I mean not moved on,
Speaker 2: but you were working on so many different projects at
Speaker 2: the moment as well. Why are you still at Late Night? No,
Speaker 2: I'm serious, Like what is it? What is it about
Speaker 2: that job or your relationship with Seth or whatever it is?
Speaker 2: Why stay there? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Late Night is everyone's favorite. You We have probably the
Speaker 1: least turnover of any show, Like right, people love it there.
Speaker 1: And it's like, it's not like writing on a regular
Speaker 1: sitcom because you have job security. You know, these people
Speaker 1: renewed for years at a time. It's not just to
Speaker 1: the for the next twelve episodes, so you'll never get
Speaker 1: as a television writer, such job security does not exist.
Speaker 1: So there's that. But also it's so fun. It's so
Speaker 1: fun and it's good, and I just like, like, I
Speaker 1: write a lot of sitcoms and like Broadway Now and books,
Speaker 1: and I just want to also do this thing that
Speaker 1: I'm good at instead of learning new shit. I'm so
Speaker 1: tired of learning new things. I hate learning. It's bad.
Speaker 1: It's stupid. Why have I done all this just to
Speaker 1: learn how to do a separate thing? I don't like it.
Speaker 1: I don't like it.
Speaker 2: Oh, somebody marked that. Someone marked that right there, Amber Ruffin.
Speaker 2: I hate learning.
Speaker 1: I hate learning, I truly do. Any future I've had
Speaker 1: will tell you she hates it.
Speaker 2: Do you consider yourself a writer or an actor primarily?
Speaker 1: I consider myself a writer primarily, even though that wasn't
Speaker 1: even a part of it originally, right I Also, I
Speaker 1: guess I just believed I couldn't, okay, because no one
Speaker 1: was asking me to and everyone was asking literally everyone
Speaker 1: around me to write this, and that no one's ever
Speaker 1: asking me to write anything. So I thought, oh, well,
Speaker 1: at least I'm a good performer. It never occurred to
Speaker 1: me that I could write.
Speaker 2: Interesting. How do you decide how often and what segments
Speaker 2: that you come on late night and appear on camera for?
Speaker 1: They'll schedule? Amber says what and jokes? I can't tell,
Speaker 1: But like everything else, is just if the spirit moves me,
Speaker 1: and I'll be like, hey, I wrote this, Can I
Speaker 1: do it or not? Sometimes they say no, Sometimes they
Speaker 1: say yes.
Speaker 2: Now who's they? Who's they?
Speaker 1: Seth Myers has the audacity to tell me no, sometimes
Speaker 1: thank you for giving up this platform. Yeah, yeah, but
Speaker 1: sometimes it's really dumb and he's like, no, right.
Speaker 2: In June of twenty twenty, after the George Floyd incident,
Speaker 2: Seth asked you every night for a week to share
Speaker 2: your stories of confrontations that you had had with police.
Speaker 2: How did this come about? Was this something that you
Speaker 2: asked to do or was this something that Seth thought
Speaker 2: you should do.
Speaker 1: When George Floyd was murdered, I wrote something for the
Speaker 1: next day, and it was a sketch kind of and
Speaker 1: then as the day went on, you knew that wasn't
Speaker 1: gonna you couldn't do that, that this was different. And
Speaker 1: then I wrote a rant, you know, which was just
Speaker 1: gonna be me talking. And then that couldn't do Because
Speaker 1: the murder of George Floyd, just America was turning on
Speaker 1: its head and it happened. I watched it happen in
Speaker 1: real time, and I was like, Wow, this is really
Speaker 1: affecting people. And so then I was like, I think
Speaker 1: the only way I could have anything to say about
Speaker 1: it would be to go on the show and just
Speaker 1: tell the story of one of the millions of times
Speaker 1: where I thought cops were going to murder me, you know,
Speaker 1: getting pulled over and them having their guns drawn or
Speaker 1: like stopping me on the street and stuff. So then
Speaker 1: I told that one story and then on that Monday,
Speaker 1: and then I was like, this is one of a
Speaker 1: billion stories I have, and you don't know a black
Speaker 1: person who doesn't have a story like this. And then
Speaker 1: I opened up the show every day that week with
Speaker 1: one of those stories, and that that is how it
Speaker 1: came about. I just I didn't think it would open
Speaker 1: the show though. What was bothering me so bad is
Speaker 1: that people were like, this is special or his behavior
Speaker 1: is special, or these are special police officers and this
Speaker 1: is a special happening, and that really bothered me. I
Speaker 1: was like, there's nothing special about this at all. From
Speaker 1: where I'm standing. This is regular, degular, every day stuff.
Speaker 1: So I just wanted to make that very very clear.
Speaker 1: And I'm so lucky that they let me do that
Speaker 1: because a lot of those other shows would never have
Speaker 1: let anybody say anything like that. Right, Yeah, I'm a
Speaker 1: lucky little bug.
Speaker 2: I was in Minneapolis for just less than twenty four
Speaker 2: hours and the city felt totally different. But how it
Speaker 2: kept getting brought up to me is that these changes
Speaker 2: have happened because of what happened to George Floyd, in
Speaker 2: terms of the architecture of the city, the areas of
Speaker 2: the city where people go, where people don't go, what
Speaker 2: you know, police presence, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 2: And that you say you wanted to make it clear
Speaker 2: this is not a unique occurrence. Well, I don't know.
Speaker 1: It really affected people who live in Minneapolis really hard.
Speaker 1: My sister is a pastor at a church that's a
Speaker 1: few locks away from where George Floyd was murdered, and
Speaker 1: it I mean, she was like that it changed everything
Speaker 1: and then her job became like taking care of the
Speaker 1: community in a brand new way. And I was like, well,
Speaker 1: thank goodness, you were there, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Twenty twenty, something else happens the Amber rough and
Speaker 2: show starts on the Peacock because I watched a bunch
Speaker 2: there's there's really great stuff in it. You started it
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty, which is significant, of course, because of
Speaker 2: another global event that happened. How was that finally getting
Speaker 2: your own show with your name on it. A pandemic
Speaker 2: comes and now you're producing this in the middle of
Speaker 2: a pandemic. How how was that for you?
Speaker 1: It was super duper fun. It was great. It was
Speaker 1: great that it was on Peacock. It was great that
Speaker 1: there was no audience. I was like, what a great
Speaker 1: little like it was a real show and it was
Speaker 1: a big fancy thing, but it was also just like us,
Speaker 1: you know, so it felt so good. It was the
Speaker 1: perfect way to do things, like I got to get
Speaker 1: all the way to the end of my weirdness and
Speaker 1: back without being because the audience will tell you exactly
Speaker 1: what you want, and then you're just a laser. You
Speaker 1: can hit the laugh instantly because the audience has trained
Speaker 1: you to right. But then without that, you're just like
Speaker 1: having a beautiful time and doing the things you feel
Speaker 1: like doing it. And I think it's pretty clear that
Speaker 1: was what we were after.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well partly That's what I was talking about earlier
Speaker 2: about the time. The timing and the rhythm of your
Speaker 2: stories and at times jokes is so different, and it's
Speaker 2: fascinating because it is. Because there's no audience, it would
Speaker 2: necessarily change, particularly for you as an improver, because you're
Speaker 2: trained to figure out exactly what you just said, where
Speaker 2: that laugh is, and how you get to it. But
Speaker 2: that's that's awesome that you found it liberating and fun
Speaker 2: as opposed to terrifying and horrible.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I also was like, look, the most any Black
Speaker 1: lady has ever had a late night show is two minutes,
Speaker 1: So I'm not going to have a bad two minutes.
Speaker 1: I guarantee you, I'm going to be having a blast.
Speaker 1: We really did. It was so much fun. It was
Speaker 1: so much fun.
Speaker 2: Are we going to get more?
Speaker 1: We We are now going to do specials of the
Speaker 1: Amber Ruffin Show every once in a.
Speaker 2: While, when you feel it.
Speaker 1: When we feel it, when the spirit moves us.
Speaker 2: Okay, there that was the answer I saw. I just
Speaker 2: wanted to hear it from you. Okay, well good, I'm
Speaker 2: glad about that. Three seasons thus far nominated for WGA
Speaker 2: Awards and Emmy's. And again, if you haven't checked it out,
Speaker 2: you absolutely should. Speaking of the WGA, how long is
Speaker 2: this going to last?
Speaker 1: Five more years?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 1: I mean no, but it's going to be a long time.
Speaker 2: That's that's what I think too. I mean, what I
Speaker 2: said was two thousand and eight was one hundred days.
Speaker 2: I think that's very short compared to where we're at
Speaker 2: right now.
Speaker 1: Do you think, so, I have no idea, but I
Speaker 1: do think that we will not be back to work
Speaker 1: in this season, like I don't think we'll come back
Speaker 1: in the summer at all. I think the fall is
Speaker 1: a possibility.
Speaker 2: But that's more than one hundred days. Then, by the way, that's.
Speaker 1: Right, that's right, you're right, you're absolutely right.
Speaker 2: Because you acted surprised when I said that was short.
Speaker 1: Well, I've never been able to count, so I'm just
Speaker 1: surprised you could count.
Speaker 2: I know, I know. I have to mention a couple
Speaker 2: of books that you've written with your sister. You'll never
Speaker 2: believe what happened to Lacey. Crazy Stories about Racism and
Speaker 2: the World Record Book of Racist Stories. No one asked
Speaker 2: you to write. Now you're writing everything, including books. Why
Speaker 2: your sister, and talk to me a little bit about
Speaker 2: about these books.
Speaker 1: Because these people asked me to write a book and
Speaker 1: I did not want to told them no, I really did,
Speaker 1: and it still doesn't appeal to me. And I done
Speaker 1: did it twice. But when I got there, what's.
Speaker 2: The third one? Well, oh, okay, who knows.
Speaker 1: What the third one is?
Speaker 2: All right?
Speaker 1: But when I got there, my agents were like, go
Speaker 1: see the book. Guy, you got to write a book.
Speaker 1: It's like, I got to do nothing right, Let me
Speaker 1: go talk to this guy. Go talk to him. You
Speaker 1: so much fun. And then he was like, if you
Speaker 1: had to write a book. I was like, I don't
Speaker 1: have to, and I'm not going to. They go, well,
Speaker 1: if you had to, I go, you know, it would
Speaker 1: be a funny book. When I was in the cab
Speaker 1: on the way there, my sister had texted me this
Speaker 1: picture of her because she crazy. Racist things keep happening
Speaker 1: to my sister, Lacy. It's just a part of life,
Speaker 1: and they're always hilarious. Like, yes, there's also bad racist stuff,
Speaker 1: but the number of racist things that happened to my
Speaker 1: sister that are me slappingly hilarious. It's in the billions.
Speaker 1: So I was like, if we sat down and just
Speaker 1: wrote out each of these stories, it would be hilarious
Speaker 1: and we would write it like us talking. So we
Speaker 1: did and it was great. But it just so happened
Speaker 1: that she texted me one of these stories while I
Speaker 1: was in the cab on the way to the book.
Speaker 1: I Otherwise I don't know that I would have thought
Speaker 1: of such a thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, that's how great things happen. Yay.
Speaker 1: So now we got a New York Times bestseller. Who
Speaker 1: would have.
Speaker 2: Thought, congratulations, don't just I have one too? All right,
Speaker 2: So that's what you have to do. That's what you have.
Speaker 2: That's what you have to do. You have to write
Speaker 2: a book. When the book person says you got to
Speaker 2: write a book, then you got to write a book.
Speaker 1: You gotta write a book. That's right.
Speaker 2: You were continuing to work with your sister the Amber
Speaker 2: and Lacey Lacey and Amber show, which I assume is
Speaker 2: because you couldn't agree whose name went first? Why your
Speaker 2: sister first? Off? Like you love working with her?
Speaker 1: Yeah, of her because she's bad. But one thing for
Speaker 1: the book that translates well into podcasts. We rag on
Speaker 1: each other constantly, and when you invite a third person
Speaker 1: to be a part of it, it's so fun. It's
Speaker 1: so fun. But they feel so squished and they're forced
Speaker 1: to choose sides, and it makes us so happy.
Speaker 2: What about your your Are your other three siblings upset
Speaker 2: that that that Lacy got tapped or are they happy
Speaker 2: to be out of the line of fire.
Speaker 1: They're happy to be out. They have had it with us,
Speaker 1: They had it.
Speaker 2: Some like it hot. You're now a Broadway writer. You're
Speaker 2: now a playwright, an official playwright. Uh, and you're also
Speaker 2: involved in a new production of The Wiz. Yes, dude,
Speaker 2: when is when is what is that coming?
Speaker 1: The Wiz is coming to Broadway in twenty twenty four, okay,
Speaker 1: and that's next year, by the way, what so how
Speaker 1: many years is that too? No?
Speaker 2: Next year? I'm all right.
Speaker 1: So The Wiz is so fun and like, we're not
Speaker 1: even it's not even all the way finished. We don't
Speaker 1: have everyone, we don't have all the sets and stuff,
Speaker 1: and it's already so good. It is so good. It's
Speaker 1: so great. But I you know, I can't even brag
Speaker 1: because the Wizz is pizza. It's like, if you go
Speaker 1: to a freaking eighth grade showing of The Wiz, guess what,
Speaker 1: those songs still sound good. It don't matter who's singing them,
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter what that The Wiz is your favorite
Speaker 1: because those songs are untouchable and true to form. Our
Speaker 1: version of the Wiz is exceptional. It's just it's beautiful.
Speaker 2: I love it. And you're returning now. You're returning now
Speaker 2: to where you started. You started playing music in the church,
Speaker 2: as you said, your entree into the improv world. Was
Speaker 2: your ability to improv songs and now you're turning it around.
Speaker 2: Is this a dream for you or is this did
Speaker 2: a play person say you need to do this like
Speaker 2: the book or was this something you actively sought.
Speaker 1: I just thought if I could write co write the
Speaker 1: musical Some Like It Hot, then they would let me
Speaker 1: do whatever show I wanted to on Broadway. But then
Speaker 1: the Whiz came along and I was like, Oh, that's
Speaker 1: what I want. So I don't know if there will
Speaker 1: be a lot of Broadway after this, because I was like,
Speaker 1: it's a like a the most Tony nominated musical Some
Speaker 1: Like It Hot this year, Yes, and then the musical
Speaker 1: You Love the Most. I think I'm gonna have to
Speaker 1: tap out after this. We did it, We did it.
Speaker 2: Well, you have done it, and you are doing it.
Speaker 2: I congratulate you. I find you so funny and again surprising,
Speaker 2: which is my favorite kind of funny. And the fact
Speaker 2: that you've stayed there on Late Show as well. I
Speaker 2: just I love it. I love your story. So thank
Speaker 2: you so much for coming and chatting with me.
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me. I love you so bad
Speaker 1: and I always will.
Speaker 2: Thank you Amber.
Speaker 1: Thanks Bratton Hey.
Speaker 2: Amber, Amber, thank you so much for speaking to me today.
Speaker 2: I have been a fan of your work for a
Speaker 2: long long time, and today, yes, you even exceeded my expectations.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Listeners be sure to tune into Amber's podcast,
Speaker 2: The Amber and Lacey Lacy and Amber Show. It is
Speaker 2: awesome like her and speaking of podcasts, come back to
Speaker 2: Off the Beat this time next week for another guest
Speaker 2: who will be here with me. We'll see you soon.
Speaker 2: Off the Beat is hosted and executive produced by me
Speaker 2: Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer, lingg Lee. Our senior
Speaker 2: producer is Diego Tapia. Our producers are Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris,
Speaker 2: and Emily Carr. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary,
Speaker 2: and our intern is Sammy Katz. Our theme song Bubble
Speaker 2: and Squeak, performed by the one and only Creed Bratton,