Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central. Our guest tonight is a
Speaker 1: Tony Award winning actor and comedian who stars in the
Speaker 1: new film The American Society of Magical Negroes.
Speaker 2: Please please welcome David Allan gerre.
Speaker 3: H hold On.
Speaker 4: We are big fans of yours, as is everyone in
Speaker 4: this audience.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 4: We're very excited to talk to you about this film.
Speaker 4: But before we get into that, we have to talk
Speaker 4: about the last very cool job that you just had
Speaker 4: last week. You were what was that the Voice of
Speaker 4: God at the Academy Awards.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, I was. It was really fun. I mean
Speaker 3: I never I can't tell you who did it before me.
Speaker 3: I never was, Like the voiceover guy was amazing. So
Speaker 3: Jimmy Kimmel's an old friend. He texted me and he
Speaker 3: asked me, did I want to do it? And I said,
Speaker 3: being the hord that I am, of course. How many tickets?
Speaker 3: It was really fun though. It was really got to
Speaker 3: take my daughter, who was sixteen.
Speaker 2: So was she over the moon?
Speaker 1: Yes, she really was.
Speaker 3: She walked the carpet with me and it was great.
Speaker 3: When she was a little kid, she told me that
Speaker 3: she wanted to go to the Oscars, and I was like, sure, honey,
Speaker 3: but inside I'm like so, I was glad to make
Speaker 3: good on that promise.
Speaker 1: This film, I'm calling it the new Satirical Film starring
Speaker 1: David Allen Greek because I'm afraid to say the word negroes.
Speaker 2: Oh shit, I just said it, you know.
Speaker 1: But tell me a little bit about this.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well wait, it's so strange to me that I call
Speaker 3: negro the other dword, you know, But that's.
Speaker 1: Why I'm afraid to say it.
Speaker 2: It's really not.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's amazing that people are afraid to say
Speaker 3: negro but not afraid to say so that's the word.
Speaker 3: You should be worried about that. Negro's fine. Don't worry
Speaker 3: about Negro. It's all right.
Speaker 1: This film is it threads the needle perfectly of hilarious
Speaker 1: and informative and sentimental.
Speaker 2: Was that a concern of yours? When you read the script?
Speaker 2: We no?
Speaker 3: I mean, I just you know, when I read a script,
Speaker 3: I just want to be surprised. I mean, the worst
Speaker 3: script is when you read you know what's gonna happen
Speaker 3: ten pages before they're gonna fall in love, someone's gonna
Speaker 3: trip and die.
Speaker 2: They are exactly with that.
Speaker 3: But so this really took me by surprise. It's quirky, different.
Speaker 3: It was a great read because most of them aren't.
Speaker 4: So the premise of the film, that's very true, by
Speaker 4: the way, not that I get sent very many.
Speaker 2: Scripts, well you will have today.
Speaker 4: The premise of the film was inspired by the trope
Speaker 4: that we often see where a black character exclusively exists
Speaker 4: for the sole purpose of affirming a white lead.
Speaker 3: And also, you know, magical negroes have a strange array
Speaker 3: of knowledge, you know, like they can fix. They can
Speaker 3: fix like spaceships, golf swing, you know, soud wars. But
Speaker 3: they have no family, no home. They just appear.
Speaker 1: I saw this film, I said, shit, I have to
Speaker 1: throw away my legend of Backer vants vhs.
Speaker 3: Well, actually, you know, most of my younger career I
Speaker 3: auditioned for those roles, man, because those are the ones
Speaker 3: where everybody they would get nominated. Oh the you know,
Speaker 3: this black character is so sympathetic it made me cry,
Speaker 3: you know, driving Miss Daisy and stuff like that. I
Speaker 3: never got them because I was too crazy or something.
Speaker 3: They were like, David, you're not magical negro material.
Speaker 4: So speaking roles that you auditioned for, I heard that
Speaker 4: you auditioned for the original version of The Color Purple.
Speaker 4: I did and did not get it at that time.
Speaker 3: No, I did not.
Speaker 2: You did. Just in this recent I did, but.
Speaker 3: I auditioned for Harpo okay, and I did not get
Speaker 3: a callback, and I was devastated. I thought, this is
Speaker 3: the last movie, the last part. And then when the
Speaker 3: musical came, I auditioned again and I still didn't get it.
Speaker 3: So this time I was determined to get into it.
Speaker 3: So I just called my whole team. I said, I'll
Speaker 3: do it anything, and I finally got in thirty years later.
Speaker 4: One final question before we let you go. You have
Speaker 4: so many fans of you because of in Living Color
Speaker 4: Reboot reunion?
Speaker 2: Could that ever happen?
Speaker 3: We can't do it this time. Everybody asked for that.
Speaker 3: The world has changed. You can't be doing that crazy
Speaker 3: stuff we did. I mean, we barely got away the
Speaker 3: last time. Because when the Living Color was originally on,
Speaker 3: you could call the station to complain, You could write
Speaker 3: a letter snail mail, or you could do the latest
Speaker 3: technology at the time, which was facts. There was no
Speaker 3: social media. No, we could not do the show as
Speaker 3: it was now.
Speaker 2: So that's just the way it is maybe new version
Speaker 2: that wouldn't.
Speaker 3: Be the show because we were wild back many buck Wow,
Speaker 3: you can't do men on film today.
Speaker 1: We turned it on once in the Costa Family Household,
Speaker 1: and my mom after two minutes was like, yeah, yah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: yah yeah.
Speaker 3: You are our favorite fan base, because, like I thought,
Speaker 3: when I was on the show, it would be like
Speaker 3: it would go off and then I would go back
Speaker 3: to audition for Magical Negroes. I've met so many people
Speaker 3: who were kids either and snuck and watched in living color,
Speaker 3: or they started the next generation. They watched on reruns
Speaker 3: and it just kept going. I mean, I don't know
Speaker 3: where it's on now, but I never thought it would
Speaker 3: last as long. I didn't.
Speaker 4: Well, this movie is incredible. You're phenomenal in it. Everyone
Speaker 4: should go see.
Speaker 1: It's really funny and.
Speaker 5: Gray in theaters March. David Allen, Everyone.
Speaker 4: Our guest tonight is a Tony Award winning actor and
Speaker 4: singer who stars in the comedy series Girls five Evan
Speaker 4: now on Netflix.
Speaker 6: Lease Well the Renee at least Goldsbery all Right.
Speaker 1: You are a Tony Award winning Broadway star of musical
Speaker 1: The Lion King, Rent, The Color Purple.
Speaker 4: No big deal, A big deal.
Speaker 2: Hamilton, miss Hamilton's show My Mom, but you missed it,
Speaker 2: we missed it?
Speaker 4: And Girls by Beva season three dropping now today today.
Speaker 2: It drops today on Network.
Speaker 4: This show is honestly one of my favorite comedy shows
Speaker 4: of all time. It is so so funny. There are
Speaker 4: so many jokes per minute. You almost have to watch
Speaker 4: each episode multiple times to try to catch everything. And
Speaker 4: your character is so funny. She's like the total standout.
Speaker 5: Thank you, thank you, thank you. It's easy to say
Speaker 5: when I'm here by myself, but thank you so much.
Speaker 4: Everyone, and is very talented, but you have some of
Speaker 4: the funniest lines.
Speaker 2: Thank the entire show.
Speaker 5: The show is very dense. We call it JPM dense
Speaker 5: jokes per minute. We showed that clip that you just
Speaker 5: saw at the premiere and everyone missed the third joke
Speaker 5: because they were laughing at the first one.
Speaker 2: That's just how funny is.
Speaker 5: You have to watch it several times, which is good
Speaker 5: because it's streaming. Yes, it's really a dream come true
Speaker 5: of a job. We laugh hysterically. I just spent the
Speaker 5: entire night putting together my BTS reel to post on
Speaker 5: Instagram because now I can and I just remembered.
Speaker 2: It's how much joy we have. It's so fun.
Speaker 4: The season three is coming out now, but you've done
Speaker 4: you did season one, season two before that. Tell people
Speaker 4: if they didn't catch it when it first came out,
Speaker 4: what it's about. What is the show about?
Speaker 2: You to know?
Speaker 5: Girls five EVA is about a one hit wonder group
Speaker 5: pop group from the nineties who discovers in present day
Speaker 5: that their one hit has been sampled by a rap star,
Speaker 5: and so they decide that they are back. In the
Speaker 5: first season, in the first season, they decide they're going
Speaker 5: to stay together. In the second season, they make an
Speaker 5: album called Raternity, and in the third season they go
Speaker 5: on tour. That's that's what's Hot and New. All three
Speaker 5: seasons are on Netflix, but the third season is Hot
Speaker 5: and New. You find us in Fort Worth, Texas. We've
Speaker 5: written a song. We've written a song. It's called Tap
Speaker 5: into Your part Worth. We do it because we discover it.
Speaker 2: Tony right, that's the Tony right there. No, we basically
Speaker 2: discovered there's a hole in the market.
Speaker 5: It's like the biggest city that doesn't have a song
Speaker 5: about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I wonder.
Speaker 5: If we make a song called Happened to your fort
Speaker 5: Worth and you find us in the beginning of season
Speaker 5: three killing in fort Worth.
Speaker 2: She was also in Hamilton.
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you because the show is frustratingly
Speaker 1: funny and seems at ease. However, how are you reading
Speaker 1: the jokes in the script and then saying here's what
Speaker 1: I'm going to bring to it. I mean, is it
Speaker 1: the actors adding things?
Speaker 2: Or is that all in the script?
Speaker 1: I mean, there's so many jokes in this thing and
Speaker 1: makes me angry.
Speaker 2: Now, so is that you? Is it the script? Is
Speaker 2: it all? Is it everybody working together? Is it improvising?
Speaker 2: What is?
Speaker 5: It? Starts with well, you, actually, it's funny that you
Speaker 5: mentioned Hamilton, because it reminds me of that.
Speaker 2: You were in Hamilton.
Speaker 5: I was. Yeah, I say, I say it is as
Speaker 5: often as I possibly can. No, it's it's sometimes you
Speaker 5: find yourself in a perfect storm. The writers are brilliant there.
Speaker 5: It's it's Meredith Scardino and Tina Feates, It's anybody like
Speaker 5: thirty w Off anyone ever, it's that team of writers
Speaker 5: and producers. There's the greatest just design team, the great
Speaker 5: we have all these wonderful songs.
Speaker 2: Let me tell you about the cast, Sarah Burrellis, Paula Pell,
Speaker 2: Busy Phillips.
Speaker 5: We have there's a lot of flashbacks between the nineties
Speaker 5: and today so that we can just kind of figure
Speaker 5: out what went wrong. There was a lot that kind
Speaker 5: of went wrong in the nineties that we weren't aware of.
Speaker 5: Sometimes it's fun to just kind of tap into the
Speaker 5: misogyny of these pop groups in the nineties.
Speaker 4: Blame No, It's true, and you do touch on all
Speaker 4: of that women. When you look back on how female
Speaker 4: pop stars were treated in the nineties and the early adds,
Speaker 4: it's like it's atrocious.
Speaker 2: I actually was.
Speaker 5: That, and I was definitely in my twenties and the
Speaker 5: nineties trying to be a pop star. I didn't even
Speaker 5: have one hit, So I'm actually kind of proud of
Speaker 5: this group, But.
Speaker 2: I do I had no idea. I used to be in.
Speaker 5: A group that was trying to get signed, and we
Speaker 5: had a song called oh yes you can, Yes you
Speaker 5: can find you a good man, But when you do,
Speaker 5: you gotta treat a right. Make sure you love is
Speaker 5: out a skite now now, I.
Speaker 2: Mean, come on, guys, yes you're loving, you're claughing.
Speaker 5: But in reality, like there are so many songs we
Speaker 5: could write about something other than finding a good man.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's yeah, that's what we get to do on
Speaker 2: the show.
Speaker 5: Sarah Burrellis plays the character Dawn, and we know that
Speaker 5: she's a brilliant Grammy Award winning songwriter, but it's fun
Speaker 5: to watch her try to figure out how to write
Speaker 5: songs badly.
Speaker 2: On this.
Speaker 4: Your character is so f She's so incredibly confident and
Speaker 4: really demands the attention of everyone in the room, almost
Speaker 4: to the point where where she's sort of a little
Speaker 4: uh araction, almost arranged.
Speaker 2: She is. She is just shyss, just shy of it.
Speaker 2: But on the paper it could read like that.
Speaker 4: But you have a way of making her so relatable
Speaker 4: and endearing and you root for her.
Speaker 2: How do you do that? Well? I root for her.
Speaker 2: It's funny.
Speaker 5: I think our experience with anything is really about our perspective.
Speaker 2: In the moment right now.
Speaker 5: I am a woman of a certain age who would
Speaker 5: love to have a pop album, who would love wo'd.
Speaker 2: Love to try to make it.
Speaker 5: But I'm always looking at myself like that's a ridiculous
Speaker 5: thing to ask at this age, to be a bubblegum
Speaker 5: pop star at fifty years old.
Speaker 2: That seems ridiculous to ask.
Speaker 5: And I love the fact that I'm on the show
Speaker 5: where someone is trying. I love the fact that this
Speaker 5: crazy group of people gives themself the license to dream.
Speaker 5: It's really more than funny in that way. So, yeah,
Speaker 5: she's very obnoxious, she's very self centered. She's the reason
Speaker 5: why the group broke up the first time. But you know,
Speaker 5: it helps you realize, you know, no matter how bad
Speaker 5: you mess up, you have another you have an opportunity
Speaker 5: for a second shot. And yeah, and we can understand
Speaker 5: why anybody that ambition is so strong it makes you
Speaker 5: want to root for them.
Speaker 1: That's one of my favorite parts of these characters is
Speaker 1: they make fun of themselves, but they still dream and
Speaker 1: the aspire. And my question for you is is that
Speaker 1: you in real life as well? And how do we
Speaker 1: keep aspiring?
Speaker 2: How do we keep aspiring?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 1: And I had this question and other and and people said, Michael, you.
Speaker 2: Going to ask her?
Speaker 1: That's that silly question? And I said, I want to
Speaker 1: know how I'm going.
Speaker 2: To keep a spy because you are a dreamer? Can
Speaker 2: I sing my song? Yes? I don't.
Speaker 1: But they're optimistic yet doing there they are aware of
Speaker 1: their faults.
Speaker 2: And I love it.
Speaker 5: So, yeah, how do you keep how do you keep aspiring?
Speaker 5: First of all, I think that's the beauty. You surround
Speaker 5: yourself with people that don't laugh at you when when,
Speaker 5: or unless unless it motivates you to be laughed at,
Speaker 5: because that works. But you surround yourself by people that
Speaker 5: are trying to do what you're doing. I think that's
Speaker 5: hugely important, and you have to talk about it a lot.
Speaker 5: And what I love about the character Wiki I love
Speaker 5: that she just has these audacious ideas. In season three
Speaker 5: of Girls by Veva, she books them a gig at
Speaker 5: Radio City Music Hall on Thanksgiving morning. Yeah, because all
Speaker 5: the money they've made to do this, it's obnoxious.
Speaker 2: It's ridiculous.
Speaker 5: Like you kind of need somebody out there that takes
Speaker 5: big swings because it's either going to decimate you or
Speaker 5: you're going to pull something off and move forward.
Speaker 2: That's uh. I think that's inspiring.
Speaker 4: Do you have situations in your own life where you
Speaker 4: meet a challenge and you have to channel your inner
Speaker 4: Wiki Roy? Because I sometimes would love to be able
Speaker 4: to channel Wiki Roy.
Speaker 5: I put on a lot of care, I put on
Speaker 5: a lot of there it is, and I get somebody
Speaker 5: to put some eyelashes on.
Speaker 2: No, I actually turn the show on. Believe it or not.
Speaker 2: That sounds so obnoxious, that sound not just like you know.
Speaker 5: I feel bad today, I'm going to turn myself on television.
Speaker 2: But I actually am.
Speaker 5: Doing that this season because I love I just love
Speaker 5: the audacity of these women.
Speaker 2: I think it's super funny.
Speaker 5: We started doing the show in the middle of COVID
Speaker 5: when it was just good to be in breathing around
Speaker 5: other people. I think we gave each other a lot
Speaker 5: of crazy messaging during the last couple of years because
Speaker 5: we had to survive and that was distance means safety.
Speaker 5: I think this show proves that that's not true. And
Speaker 5: I just feel I feel when I look at these
Speaker 5: women that it's okay to have a license to dream.
Speaker 5: I think it's okay to be ridiculously ambitious. I think
Speaker 5: it's okay to join together with your friends at any
Speaker 5: age and sing harmony and dress alike.
Speaker 4: You talked about wanting to be a pop star and
Speaker 4: that seeming ridiculous, But you have your own album coming out.
Speaker 2: I do. I do.
Speaker 5: It's coming out in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: It is a It's yeah.
Speaker 5: I've been writing music for a long time. I've been
Speaker 5: a lyricist for a long time, and I've had the
Speaker 5: great privilege of being able to sing a lot of
Speaker 5: other people's lyrics like lin Manuel Mirandas and Jonathan Larsons
Speaker 5: and I was.
Speaker 2: In Hamilta did you know so. Yeah.
Speaker 5: But I'm excited about the audience that we have on
Speaker 5: our own at the stage of our lives. I'm excited
Speaker 5: about the fact that I actually have more followers than.
Speaker 2: Girls five Eva, so why not to try?
Speaker 5: But most importantly, I do believe that it's never too
Speaker 5: late to try something new. And there are women of
Speaker 5: every age that are killing it right now. I mean, look, there,
Speaker 5: there are just there are just I remember when we
Speaker 5: first started doing the show, Jennifer Lopez was doing pole
Speaker 5: dancing at the halftime show at the Super Bowl.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Like, I love the fact that we are we are
Speaker 5: celebrating those women right now. We should be celebrating those
Speaker 5: women because they're inspiring us that it is never too
Speaker 5: late to have a country album. Beyonce, Yes, it's never
Speaker 5: It's never too late to reinvent yourself.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 4: Well, you are an inspiration. You are so funny in
Speaker 4: the show. Congratulations on season three. Congratulations on the new
Speaker 4: album thank You, Thank You for being here.
Speaker 5: Guys, We checked out all three season with girls Netflix.
Speaker 3: Rene explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe
Speaker 3: by searching The Daily Show wherever you get your podcasts.
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