Speaker 1: Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 2: Hey besties. Today on the bright side, we're getting real
Speaker 2: with comedian and actress Still Say Sloan. She's here to
Speaker 2: tell us how to live life unapologetically. It's Thursday, April
Speaker 2: twenty fifth.
Speaker 3: I'm Simone Boyce, I'm Danielle Robey, and this is the
Speaker 3: bright side from Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 1: All Right, see money.
Speaker 3: We recently talked about Caitlin Clark's ridiculously low WNBA salary,
Speaker 3: and we weren't the only ones talking about it. The
Speaker 3: whole Internet blew up over it. She's making less than
Speaker 3: one hundred thousand dollars a year for her first four
Speaker 3: years in the league.
Speaker 1: But we have some good news today.
Speaker 3: She's apparently getting ready to sign a twenty eight million
Speaker 3: dollar deal with Nike and it's going to include her
Speaker 3: signature shoe.
Speaker 2: Well, guess that little paltry salary doesn't matter anymore, does it?
Speaker 1: It still matters to me.
Speaker 3: I want these WNBA players to be making proper money
Speaker 3: like the men are.
Speaker 1: I mean, the men I think make too much money.
Speaker 1: I want teachers to make that much money.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean, it's systemic issue that's going to
Speaker 2: take some time to change. But I'm just happy that
Speaker 2: that little number is going to pale in comparison to
Speaker 2: what she's going to make from this shoe deal. So
Speaker 2: I love that for her.
Speaker 1: Are you rocking the shoes?
Speaker 2: I got to see what they look like, but I
Speaker 2: want to say yes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know.
Speaker 3: I actually sometimes don't care what shoes look like when
Speaker 3: they're designed by women like Melody Asani has really great
Speaker 3: Jordan's and those I actually really love, but sometimes I
Speaker 3: think they're ugly. But I want to support the women's shoes,
Speaker 3: so I buy them anyways.
Speaker 2: It's very selfless of you, Danielle. Okay, Danielle, I can't
Speaker 2: stop thinking about this wild interview that Anne Hathaway gave
Speaker 2: to V magazine. It's not really that the interview is wild,
Speaker 2: but what she revealed is so shocking to me. She
Speaker 2: talks about breaking into the industry back in the early
Speaker 2: two thousands, and I had no idea how inappropriate the
Speaker 2: chemistry tests were. Back then.
Speaker 3: We knew about the casting couch. We did not know
Speaker 3: about the chemistry test exactly.
Speaker 2: This is that other layer of the onion that didn't
Speaker 2: quite get peeled back during the me too movement, the
Speaker 2: height of that. But so these chemistry tests. That's when
Speaker 2: casting directors they put two actors together to see if
Speaker 2: the sparks are going to fly on screen. But back
Speaker 2: in the early two thousands, producers would force actresses like
Speaker 2: Anne Hathaway to make out with the guys who are
Speaker 2: testing for the role. So she could be kissing up
Speaker 2: to ten strangers in one day of work.
Speaker 1: She's not on the Bachelor exactly.
Speaker 2: She's not a contestant on the Bachelor. She's a professional actor.
Speaker 2: This is so insulting to me, and she found it
Speaker 2: gross at the time too, But she was worried about
Speaker 2: being labeled as difficult. I mean, how many women can
Speaker 2: relate to that.
Speaker 3: I haven't seen you this fired up over a story
Speaker 3: in a while. Why are you so fired up over this?
Speaker 2: I think it's exploitative. They are forcing her to do
Speaker 2: something that is physical and sexual in tone in front
Speaker 2: of a room full of people. There are producers watching,
Speaker 2: there's probably a director casting director in there. I think
Speaker 2: it's unnecessary to put her through this, And like, there's
Speaker 2: so many other ways that you could be assessing chemistry
Speaker 2: between two actors. And that's the point that she is
Speaker 2: bringing up right now. So in this interview, Anne Hathaway said,
Speaker 2: it was just a very different time in the pre
Speaker 2: me two times, and thankfully now we know better and
Speaker 2: as an actor and producer, she's finding better ways to
Speaker 2: test chemistry, especially with her new film, The Idea of You.
Speaker 2: She basically asked actors to pick a song to dance
Speaker 2: to that they felt the characters would love, and then
Speaker 2: they did a short little improv like, wow, what an idea.
Speaker 2: Don't force strangers to kiss at work even before they
Speaker 2: get the job. I mean, I know that's part of acting,
Speaker 2: but they haven't even gotten the job yet.
Speaker 3: I think that's a little bit of a reach. I
Speaker 3: don't think it really shows chemistry. It's more about like
Speaker 3: knowledge of character. But I also don't think people should
Speaker 3: be kissing a bajillion people to get a job.
Speaker 2: She's saying that dancing together is still a way to
Speaker 2: assess chemistry. I think dancing is a better way to
Speaker 2: assess chemist that's safer than kissing.
Speaker 1: Dancing to me, feels like embarrassing.
Speaker 2: I don't want to dance on camera. You'd rather kiss
Speaker 2: ten strangers than dance with ten strangers.
Speaker 1: I'm being very clear, I'm not with the kissing.
Speaker 3: I'm just also not with the dancing, okay, but I
Speaker 3: do think there needs to be better ways to test that.
Speaker 3: The thing that stuck out to me about this article
Speaker 3: was Anne Hathaway said, I didn't say anything because I
Speaker 3: didn't want to be difficult, And it kind of hit
Speaker 3: me in the chest because the amount of times I
Speaker 3: have held my tongue because I didn't want to be difficult,
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, are just numerous. Brooke Baldwin, who was a
Speaker 3: former anchor at CNN, came out with a Vanity Fair
Speaker 3: piece this week that gave me chills, and it talks
Speaker 3: about how she found her voice. It speaks to this
Speaker 3: exact issue. If you are a woman listening to this,
Speaker 3: please read her article. I think it'll fire you up.
Speaker 3: I needed it.
Speaker 2: I honestly think that article is a bigger indictment of
Speaker 2: the news industry overall and the fact that these anchors
Speaker 2: like Brooke Baldwin were expected to play a game and
Speaker 2: go a lot along with these arbitrary rules, and clearly
Speaker 2: her bosses didn't feel like she was doing that.
Speaker 3: But she couldn't use her voice because she didn't want
Speaker 3: to be difficult. And it's this It's like I hear
Speaker 3: this with women all the time, in every industry. It's
Speaker 3: not just Hollywood, it's not just media. It's at a
Speaker 3: corner store because you need your job and you got
Speaker 3: to pay your bills. It's just so it's rampant. And
Speaker 3: I don't think that we are at a place in
Speaker 3: culture yet where that has shifted.
Speaker 2: We definitely are not. But I think the more often
Speaker 2: that we speak up and we decide to speak our minds,
Speaker 2: whether or not we'll be perceived as difficult, I think
Speaker 2: that's when the change will happen.
Speaker 3: I'm so grateful to people like Brooke and Anne Hathaway
Speaker 3: and anybody who does speak up, because it makes it
Speaker 3: easier for the next person to do so. And usually
Speaker 3: there are ramifications for speaking up, so I'm grateful for
Speaker 3: them for making a sacrifice too. Okay, I'm gonna switch
Speaker 3: up the a little bit because Mother's Day is coming. Yes,
Speaker 3: it's May twelfth, and it always sneaks up on me
Speaker 3: the day or two we four.
Speaker 1: I'm always like, shit, I.
Speaker 3: Forgot, like I forgot to order the flowers or something.
Speaker 3: But my mom always says to me, like, save your money,
Speaker 3: don't buy me a gift.
Speaker 1: What do you do with your mom?
Speaker 2: I still get our a gift. My mom likes gifts.
Speaker 3: I think mine secretly does too, so sometimes I do it,
Speaker 3: but sometimes I just send a sweet note. This year,
Speaker 3: Hello Sunshine is helping us all plan ahead. Thank you
Speaker 3: so much. I love an easy button. They have a
Speaker 3: Mother's Day Gift Guide that they just released. It's a
Speaker 3: one stop shop for all gifts. Their handpicked to bring
Speaker 3: mom's joy, and all of the products are made by
Speaker 3: female founders. A few of my standouts personally a Favorite Daughter,
Speaker 3: which was founded by the Foster sisters. They have a
Speaker 3: cute mom of the Year baseball hat. I love a
Speaker 3: recess pickleball paddle for all the picklers. Fastest growing sport
Speaker 3: in America. I'm not getting agreement there, but that's fine.
Speaker 3: Everybody who loves pickleball, please at.
Speaker 1: Me at Danielle Robe. I need some support.
Speaker 2: Do you play?
Speaker 1: Of course? Who doesn't play pickleball?
Speaker 2: Me?
Speaker 1: Okay, We'll get you on the court, my mom, and
Speaker 1: I'll get you on the court.
Speaker 3: Spanx has a cropped wide leg gene for anybody who
Speaker 3: thinks that Spanx is just body shape where I actually
Speaker 3: just tried on their clothing the other day.
Speaker 1: They fit really well.
Speaker 3: Sarah Blakelee is a goddess and just everything she does
Speaker 3: is so great.
Speaker 2: I haven't tried their clothes.
Speaker 3: I have to try that surprisingly good and so for
Speaker 3: a little bit of extra joy, Simone and I are
Speaker 3: offering a couple gifts to our bright Side besties too,
Speaker 3: because we haven't talked about this on the podcast yet,
Speaker 3: but we.
Speaker 1: Each have our own businesses.
Speaker 3: Yes, we do tell us about your entrepreneurial endeavor.
Speaker 2: Yes, So this is technically a collaboration with a local
Speaker 2: sustainable fashion brand called Poplin, and it's my friend's company,
Speaker 2: and I was so honored to design a clothing collection
Speaker 2: with her. It is a matching top and bottom set
Speaker 2: that's super comfortable. The first time I wore it, I
Speaker 2: did not take it off for like three days. It
Speaker 2: was not comfortable, And I was really inspired by ambitious
Speaker 2: women and moms when I made it, because I wanted
Speaker 2: to make something that's as versatile as we are, an
Speaker 2: outfit that you can wear when you take your kids
Speaker 2: to school or take yourself on a summer vacation. So
Speaker 2: we also made a toddler set so you can match
Speaker 2: with your little one on Mother's Day.
Speaker 1: I know what you guys are wearing in your family photo.
Speaker 2: Right here, and I made a tall version. And probably
Speaker 2: the best part is that this company, pop Linen, is
Speaker 2: all about sustainability and size inclusivity, so it's good for
Speaker 2: people and the planet. So if you want to get
Speaker 2: a Simone set, go to Poplinen dot co and use
Speaker 2: discount code bright Side twenty for twenty percent off your purchase.
Speaker 3: You were rocking it on Instagram. You have brown, white
Speaker 3: and black.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: It looked really good on you, really flowy, really comfortable.
Speaker 2: Have yours?
Speaker 1: Why do you always surprise me?
Speaker 2: Because I love surprising.
Speaker 1: He surprises so sweet.
Speaker 2: Thank you, You're welcome.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited. What color did I get?
Speaker 2: I gave you black because you asked me to pick
Speaker 2: and you said that you love black the most, so
Speaker 2: I gave you black. But if you want a different one,
Speaker 2: let me know. We can get you a different one.
Speaker 3: You know this means I'm going to use my coupon
Speaker 3: coat to get my mom a matching set. Mom, I'm
Speaker 3: sorry that I blew the gift for this year and
Speaker 3: you listen.
Speaker 2: Every day now you know? Wait, but your question everything
Speaker 2: cards are in the gift guide too.
Speaker 3: Yes, So the backstory behind these is that Larry King
Speaker 3: was my mentor and I used to go to breakfast
Speaker 3: with him when I was unemployed flash fun employed, and
Speaker 3: he really taught me how to ask better questions and
Speaker 3: the meaning and connection that you get from deeper conversation.
Speaker 3: And when he passed away, I wanted to create something
Speaker 3: in honor of him, and I always called him the
Speaker 3: King of Questions. So I put together a deck of
Speaker 3: fifty two of my favorite questions, questions that have really
Speaker 3: changed the relation in my life, both professionally and personally.
Speaker 3: And I always say it's not a game, it's a
Speaker 3: game changer because not everybody has access to insane dreams
Speaker 3: like I'm five to one. I'm never going to be
Speaker 3: a basketball player. It's just not in the cards for me.
Speaker 3: But everybody has access to the power of asking questions,
Speaker 3: and I really do think it's a game changer.
Speaker 2: Was it hard to only pick fifty two? Did you
Speaker 2: have a much longer list?
Speaker 3: I had a list of a thousand questions. Stops so
Speaker 3: hard to whittle down, but they were carefully curated in
Speaker 3: order to It kind of starts off a little soft,
Speaker 3: and then I think of it as a song. It's
Speaker 3: almost like a crescendo. It gets a little deeper, but
Speaker 3: I think they'll make you laugh and make you cry.
Speaker 2: They're so good. I've played the game myself. They're amazing.
Speaker 1: So thanks to money.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I have a coupon code for the bright
Speaker 3: Side Vesties. Of course, it is bright Side twenty and
Speaker 3: you can head to my Instagram at Danielle Robe and
Speaker 3: click on the link in my bio and it'll take
Speaker 3: you to the Pretty Smart Shop where you can grab
Speaker 3: the Question Everything card game. And also please make sure
Speaker 3: to check out the Hello Sunshine gift guide. These are
Speaker 3: all female founders and the products were really carefully curated.
Speaker 3: I think you're going to love them. After the break,
Speaker 3: Dulce Sloan is here to give us the gift of laughter.
Speaker 1: How is that? See money?
Speaker 2: Good pun No notes ten out of ten. All right, Danielle,
Speaker 2: we are back with one of our favorite comedians. It's
Speaker 2: Dulce Sloan. You know, she's a senior correspondent on the
Speaker 2: Daily Show and she always has me cracking up over
Speaker 2: her hot takes, witty observational humor. If you haven't seen
Speaker 2: her Black Karen sketch, you have to go watch it
Speaker 2: right now.
Speaker 3: Dulce started doing comedy back in two thousand and nine,
Speaker 3: and since then she won Stand Up NBC. She's also
Speaker 3: been named as one of Rolling Stones ten Comedians You
Speaker 3: Should Know, and recently added author to her resume.
Speaker 1: We feel like you should know her too.
Speaker 3: Her new book is called Hello Friends, Stories of Dating,
Speaker 3: Destiny and Day Jobs. D'll say, Sloane, Welcome to the
Speaker 3: bright Side.
Speaker 2: Welcome dulcey.
Speaker 3: Hello.
Speaker 4: It's a me.
Speaker 2: I want to start out by asking you about your
Speaker 2: name for a second, because I totally have name envy.
Speaker 2: Duel say Sloane.
Speaker 4: It's just so.
Speaker 2: Delicious when it rolls off the tongue, and in your
Speaker 2: book you joke about how it almost sounds like it
Speaker 2: could be a blaxxploitation character. What's the story behind your name?
Speaker 5: Well, I say that because my first name means either
Speaker 5: sweet or it can mean candy and Spanish. And then
Speaker 5: my middle name is Lazaria, which is the feminine virgin
Speaker 5: of Lazarus. So I say that, like Sweet Lazarus, Sloane
Speaker 5: could be like a blaxploitation character.
Speaker 4: But my mother went to hair.
Speaker 5: School with a Cuban lady named Dulce, and she really
Speaker 5: liked her name, and it was like years ago, and
Speaker 5: she's like, oh, yeah, there were some Cuban girl used
Speaker 5: to smoke cigarettes with us outside, and she said they
Speaker 5: kept trying to tell us that she was as old
Speaker 5: as we were.
Speaker 4: I was like, she wasn't.
Speaker 5: She said, girl, Now we were seventeen, she had to
Speaker 5: be thirty something, I said, she said, she said, girl,
Speaker 5: we carried a purse.
Speaker 4: She had a handbag. Ain't, no way.
Speaker 3: Wait, what do you think the difference is between a
Speaker 3: person a handbag?
Speaker 4: Girl? You know what the difference is between a person
Speaker 4: a handbag?
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 2: Is a person's like smaller, more petite, more cute, and
Speaker 2: then a handbag is more for function a person.
Speaker 5: What a seventeen year old told herself around in a
Speaker 5: handbag is what a grown woman has. Yeah, so persons
Speaker 5: like you give little girl purses like grown women have handbags.
Speaker 1: You know you think grandmothers have pocketbooks.
Speaker 5: Yes, so it's a pocketbook, handbag, person situation.
Speaker 2: These are the life stages of a woman defined by
Speaker 2: the bags that we carry.
Speaker 4: Absolutely.
Speaker 3: I love that you brought up your mom so quickly,
Speaker 3: because I know she's such a huge part of who
Speaker 3: you are in your story. There's this book I read
Speaker 3: called Raising an Entrepreneur, and this author, Margaret Bisno, interviews
Speaker 3: sixty successful entrepreneurs, and she said the one thing they
Speaker 3: all had in common was that every entrepreneur in her
Speaker 3: book had a parent.
Speaker 1: Typically a mother, who believed in them.
Speaker 4: I mean, I remember being backstage one time.
Speaker 5: My mom was with me in a comedy club and
Speaker 5: one of the comics was like, so you're like supportive
Speaker 5: of her doing stand up?
Speaker 4: She said, yeah, of course, she's very funny. He goes,
Speaker 4: can I give you a hug? Because my parents aren't supportive?
Speaker 5: So she's like hugging comics backstage, She's just like she
Speaker 5: supports her. I think she hugged like three people. If
Speaker 5: I'm not mistaken, I know it was at least that
Speaker 5: one dude. But you know, your mom not being supportive
Speaker 5: of the things you want to do in your life, Well.
Speaker 3: She said one time that she had this dream of
Speaker 3: the whole world laughing at you.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: That's how I got in a stand up because it
Speaker 5: was Big Kenny trying to convince me to take a
Speaker 5: stand up class for two years and I was like,
Speaker 5: I don't know all I want to do it because
Speaker 5: I have a theater degree of an accecince I was
Speaker 5: a kid, So stand up scared me because it was
Speaker 5: the only time I would only be on stage and
Speaker 5: I wasn't playing a character and it would be my words.
Speaker 4: So just be me on stage.
Speaker 5: And the way that I am on stage is a
Speaker 5: comic is a heightened sense of self. That's what every
Speaker 5: comic is. But for the most part, it's all of
Speaker 5: my thoughts that I wrote down that I was like, hm,
Speaker 5: a bunch of strangers might laugh at this. So that
Speaker 5: was a thing that was so hard about stand up
Speaker 5: for me to even get into it was because I
Speaker 5: had been on stage performing wasn't the issue. It was
Speaker 5: how I was performing that was confusing and very scary
Speaker 5: to me. And so when she was like, I had
Speaker 5: a dream that the world was laughing at you, and
Speaker 5: I was like what she said, I prayed on it.
Speaker 5: I was like, okay, She's like, yeah, so you know,
Speaker 5: I think you should take the stand up class. And
Speaker 5: as you know, any child of color, especially black and
Speaker 5: brown children, when your mother has a dream about something
Speaker 5: and usually means you can't do something. So it was
Speaker 5: very refreshing where she had a dream and I could
Speaker 5: do something. So yeah, she's really how I got into
Speaker 5: stand up. But now she is reading the benefits of
Speaker 5: that dream because I retired her in twenty eighteen, and
Speaker 5: I bought her a car in twenty nineteen, and I
Speaker 5: bought this house last year and moved my mom and
Speaker 5: my brother and her dog and my cat to la
Speaker 5: in September. So we drove cross country from Atlanta and
Speaker 5: I moved them in and then took them the Walmart,
Speaker 5: went to sleep for three hours, and then flew to Toronto.
Speaker 4: To pay the mortgage.
Speaker 5: Basically, so I leave a lot so my mother never
Speaker 5: has to work at Amazon ever.
Speaker 1: Again, it's a lot of weight on your shoulders. Still say, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's too much.
Speaker 4: I don't know where my husband is, but he's late.
Speaker 1: Nine too.
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
Speaker 5: Every time I pay a bill, I'm like, all my
Speaker 5: money again, Jesus. Okay, I didn't sign up for this.
Speaker 5: This is feminism. I want to recount.
Speaker 4: This is what we was marching for. I think we
Speaker 4: did this well. I'm kidding.
Speaker 2: This reminds me of one of the things that stood
Speaker 2: out to me from your book, which was this idea
Speaker 2: of this hope deficit that you've been really vulnerable about
Speaker 2: you shared that professionally you often feel hopeful, but in
Speaker 2: your personal life you tend to struggle with the feeling
Speaker 2: of hopelessness. Yes, what do you think would need to
Speaker 2: change for you personally in order to feel more hopeful?
Speaker 2: A better caliber of man trying to talk to me.
Speaker 5: The worst thing that ever happened to somebody was a
Speaker 5: dating app because truly see the caliber of men who
Speaker 5: want to talk to you. Knowing that you should be
Speaker 5: dealing with the best, but only the worst are coming
Speaker 5: for you is upsetting because it's just like, I've always
Speaker 5: gotten positive reinforcement when it came to my professional life,
Speaker 5: so I was always able to have hope because I
Speaker 5: always got the positive reinforcement and things were proceeding and
Speaker 5: I knew what to do. When it comes to my
Speaker 5: personal life, I want to get married and have children.
Speaker 5: So this is the only goal that I have for
Speaker 5: my life that truly depends on another person participating. It's
Speaker 5: the only thing where just like, I really need some
Speaker 5: stupid man, because I've had more men ask to give
Speaker 5: me a baby than ask me on a day.
Speaker 1: Yeah they do that nowadays.
Speaker 2: Wait, what can you guys tell me about this?
Speaker 5: What is that Bove had been offered to get me
Speaker 5: pregnant more times than a man who's asked me to
Speaker 5: go on a net.
Speaker 4: Yeah, because like that. That's why I think it's so funny.
Speaker 5: Like when we talk about like reproductive rights for women,
Speaker 5: and you know, the reversal of ro versus Wade and
Speaker 5: all of these, you know, different states passing all these laws,
Speaker 5: we never take into consideration that the fact that pedero
Speaker 5: sexual men love the idea of getting a woman pregnant.
Speaker 2: Nick Cannon, that's all. That's all I'm gonna say.
Speaker 5: Right, and there are women who will participate because you
Speaker 5: know that's chet right. I mean, honestly, it's nice work
Speaker 5: if you can get it. Listen, some very rich man
Speaker 5: just like, hey, you can work when you want to.
Speaker 4: Girl.
Speaker 5: You think i'd be going on the road the way
Speaker 5: I'm going on the road. And a rich man popped
Speaker 5: up and been like, hey, you can work because you
Speaker 5: want to. I will take care of anything. I'll give
Speaker 5: you babies.
Speaker 4: But da da da da dah. I don't know if
Speaker 4: that's true.
Speaker 2: You're so resilient, you're such a hard worker, you're so
Speaker 2: good at what you do.
Speaker 5: Say resilient Resiliency comes from struggle. Resiliency comes from having
Speaker 5: to make stuff happen on your own. I said, work
Speaker 5: because I want to, not work because I have to.
Speaker 5: I wouldn't stop working. Yeah, because I can't be financially
Speaker 5: dependent upon this man one hundred percent.
Speaker 4: That's how you get messed.
Speaker 3: Up To'll say, I think you're hitting on something that
Speaker 3: so many millennial women feel. Yep, we're like caught in
Speaker 3: this double bind. And you joked about if this is
Speaker 3: what we marched for, But there's so much that's under
Speaker 3: this mountain.
Speaker 2: Yes, right, how exhausting it is to be an independent woman.
Speaker 2: We've put this idea of an independent woman up on
Speaker 2: a pedestal for so long, and I think a lot
Speaker 2: of women in our age group are asking, is it
Speaker 2: time to take her down? Because it's just exhausting. Well,
Speaker 2: I think it's been used against us. That's the fair Ooh,
Speaker 2: what do you mean, Well, it's.
Speaker 5: The idea, like if you put make a whole song
Speaker 5: about something and you spelling independent, then it's because think
Speaker 5: about it. One of the reasons I'm not in a
Speaker 5: relationship is because I've been a relationships and dealt with
Speaker 5: men who were resentful because I was successful. Because I've
Speaker 5: heard men say, well, women make as much money as us,
Speaker 5: they won't need us. It's like, of course I need you.
Speaker 5: Trash Day is Tuesday. What are you talking about.
Speaker 2: There's a spider in my bathroom. The feminist leaves my
Speaker 2: body whenever there's a spider, and if.
Speaker 5: There's a spider somewhere, I can't open this jar. I'm
Speaker 5: five four. A lot of things are high.
Speaker 2: To will say. You said that resilience is a product
Speaker 2: of struggle, and when you said that made me think
Speaker 2: of your experience of growing up all over the country.
Speaker 2: And I really relate to that because that was me
Speaker 2: growing up and it's probably the single most impactful experience
Speaker 2: of my upbringing. How did that shape you?
Speaker 5: We lived in Miami, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Georgia before I
Speaker 5: started kindergarten, but I also went to very diverse It
Speaker 5: was either predominant white or diverse schools, and so I
Speaker 5: was able to be around a lot.
Speaker 4: Of different groups of people.
Speaker 5: So I think, for me, I'm very grateful that I
Speaker 5: grew up in Atlanta. Me and our friends were joking
Speaker 5: that every black person that is not from the South
Speaker 5: needs to come to Atlanta. Just for a week or whatever,
Speaker 5: because I got to see black wealth growing up. Yes,
Speaker 5: I got to see generational black wealth growing up. I
Speaker 5: got to see black professionals, but I had black doctors
Speaker 5: growing up, and I got to see.
Speaker 4: Black people excel.
Speaker 5: I was just gonna see black could be mediocre because
Speaker 5: they lived everywhere. And even if you're outside of Atlanta,
Speaker 5: you're still in Georgia. We're still everywhere in Georgia. Like
Speaker 5: if you go to Savan or you going to Columbus,
Speaker 5: you go to all been like our family down there,
Speaker 5: we're everywhere.
Speaker 3: I love that you're talking about community because when I
Speaker 3: look at the comedy community, it feels like equal parts
Speaker 3: competitive and supportive, which is super rare.
Speaker 1: Like you guys see really tight knit.
Speaker 5: It's the interesting thing about comedy is that there's so
Speaker 5: many bad comics. Is that when there's a good comic,
Speaker 5: like a really good comic, all of the comics were
Speaker 5: like have you seen this person?
Speaker 4: Oh my god d D.
Speaker 5: If I know a comic that's I will tell my
Speaker 5: manager about them if they're not ripped.
Speaker 4: Even if they are, I'm like, hey, this person has
Speaker 4: horrible managers. You need to know about.
Speaker 3: Them, like you want to see good people win, because
Speaker 3: you guys love the sport of comedy.
Speaker 4: Deborah to Giovanni.
Speaker 5: Is one of the best comics in the fucking world.
Speaker 5: We were on the show called The Barbie Show at
Speaker 5: the Comedy Store and it was like me and Tiffany
Speaker 5: and Geniacherie and Laurie Kilmartin and Deborah got on stage
Speaker 5: and a bunch of us and we're all in the
Speaker 5: green room.
Speaker 4: A bunch of us left the green room to watch her.
Speaker 5: And when you see comics come out there, like who's
Speaker 5: on stage, We're all like running to go into the
Speaker 5: audience to watch this person. We were just every time,
Speaker 5: hands on chests, just moving our minds.
Speaker 1: Well, is this what Michelle Bueau did for you?
Speaker 4: Washout?
Speaker 5: She helped me with the idea, She helped me come
Speaker 5: over with the concept of the book. My manager called
Speaker 5: me and was like, hey, what if you wrote a book?
Speaker 5: And I was like that sounds hard, no, thank you,
Speaker 5: And he was like, what if you just took a meeting.
Speaker 5: I was like, I'll take a meeting.
Speaker 1: I don't mind a meaning.
Speaker 4: I would take a meeting.
Speaker 5: And then I took a meeting, and then I took
Speaker 5: another meeting, and two more meetings later. He called me
Speaker 5: when I was in England hosting some TV show and
Speaker 5: he called me and was.
Speaker 4: Like, so you got to write a book. I said,
Speaker 4: wait a minute, howd up? I didn't read of this?
Speaker 5: He said you did, uh, he said, Andscape bought your book,
Speaker 5: and so you got to write a book now. And
Speaker 5: I was like, shit, Michelle just done her book, Survival
Speaker 5: of the Thickest and I was just like, I called Michelle.
Speaker 4: I's like, hey, Michelle, She's like yeah. I said, how
Speaker 4: do I do this? Because I've never read a book before.
Speaker 4: I don't want to write a book. Why do I
Speaker 4: do this?
Speaker 5: And she said, just start with she said, start with
Speaker 5: jokes that are too long to til on stage. And
Speaker 5: so when you read the story about like the mechanic
Speaker 5: and the dummy and me uh, getting into it with
Speaker 5: one of my bosses at a car lot, those were
Speaker 5: all stories that I wanted to tell well on stage
Speaker 5: that were just needed more context of like teachers and
Speaker 5: stuff like that.
Speaker 4: And so I started from a place of comedy with the.
Speaker 5: Book, where we're like, these are all stories that I
Speaker 5: would have loved to tell on stage, but they're too
Speaker 5: long or they need too much context. And then I
Speaker 5: was like, Okay, well, people are gonna want to know
Speaker 5: about Daily Show, and people are going to want to
Speaker 5: know about my childhood. And so that's why I came
Speaker 5: up with like the idea and like the structure of
Speaker 5: the book was talking to the show.
Speaker 2: Honestly, that's genius. That's such a genius approach to writing
Speaker 2: a comedy memoir. We want to know about the Daily Show.
Speaker 2: We want to talk to you about that. Becoming a
Speaker 2: correspondent and guest host on the Daily Show, I mean
Speaker 2: that seems like one of those look, ma, I made
Speaker 2: it moments, But how did it really feel?
Speaker 5: It's exhausting, and I don't know how Trevor did it
Speaker 5: for seven years. I don't know how John did it
Speaker 5: for twenty something. But I talk about it in a book.
Speaker 5: I didn't want to audition for Daily Show because I
Speaker 5: didn't want to move to New York. When you audition,
Speaker 5: you have a piece that they have a pre written
Speaker 5: piece for you, and then you have to write your
Speaker 5: own piece. And so I send that tape in and
Speaker 5: I'm just like, Eh, I'm probably not gonna get this.
Speaker 5: He calls back, all right, you got another you gotta
Speaker 5: call it back, It's like all right, fine, and then
Speaker 5: you get to write another piece. And so my second
Speaker 5: piece was how hard it is to be black and patriotic,
Speaker 5: especially for me because my birthday is July fourth.
Speaker 2: Get out really?
Speaker 1: Mm hmmm?
Speaker 2: Do you love the holiday?
Speaker 4: It's I mean, as a kid, it sucked, but that
Speaker 4: as an adult it's fine.
Speaker 3: Do you feel like the Daily Show changed the trajectory
Speaker 3: of your career? Like did it blow up after that?
Speaker 4: I thought it was gonna blow up more? Yeah, Because
Speaker 4: here's the thing.
Speaker 5: My friends think I'm famous and I'm just like, no,
Speaker 5: I'm on TV, and they're like, what, Like, think about
Speaker 5: all those shows on the CW. You don't know who
Speaker 5: the fuck all those people are. They're on TV, they're
Speaker 5: doing well. They are very famous to certain people, but
Speaker 5: like Quentin, now, can't go anywhere, right, I just came
Speaker 5: back from the grocery store with no problems. So I
Speaker 5: am very famous to very specific people.
Speaker 1: But don't you feel like this is the perfect level
Speaker 1: of fame.
Speaker 5: I need the next step up from this, Because because
Speaker 5: one of my friends, who is legitimately famous, came up
Speaker 5: to me and Dave was like, you know, you're famous, right,
Speaker 5: I was like, no, bitch, you're famous. It's like, what
Speaker 5: do you mean, I said, When I walk into a restaurant,
Speaker 5: they say, how many when you walk into a restaurant,
Speaker 5: the whole restaurant loses a mine.
Speaker 2: Is it fame that you're really after or do you
Speaker 2: think it's respect?
Speaker 5: Honestly, I just want to be able to go to
Speaker 5: all the little parties I listen. I want to be
Speaker 5: able to get to the essence black lady in Hollywood,
Speaker 5: uh lunch.
Speaker 4: I want to be able to get into that.
Speaker 2: You should be there already. That's crazy to me that
Speaker 2: you're not there. Crazy to me as well, you will say.
Speaker 2: I am a sponge for comedian content. I listen to
Speaker 2: every interview with comedians. I watch a lot of comedy,
Speaker 2: and I often hear comedians say that they get high
Speaker 2: off the feeling of making people laugh. How real is
Speaker 2: that for you?
Speaker 4: That's not a real thing for me.
Speaker 2: No, not at all.
Speaker 5: No, because I came in a different way. Okay, I
Speaker 5: came in as an actor, as a stage actor. What
Speaker 5: I like is the connection with the crowd is what
Speaker 5: I'm going for. Like when I look at other comics
Speaker 5: and they're just like I just want to make people laugh.
Speaker 5: I got to stand up because of a stand up class.
Speaker 5: I wouldn't have gotten a stand up without a class.
Speaker 5: So for me, I already knew what a crowd felt
Speaker 5: like before I started doing stand up. There are other
Speaker 5: comics that just started doing shows and had never had
Speaker 5: this experience before, which is insane to me. So like
Speaker 5: for me, it's like, I'm always looking for the connection
Speaker 5: to the crowd, because the crowd's going to tell me
Speaker 5: what I can do. As in, there's some crowds where
Speaker 5: you're like, I can try this silly thing and you
Speaker 5: can take them with you on this journey of Yea,
Speaker 5: I can a riff, I can go off on this tangent,
Speaker 5: I can do this, and other crowd like I'm doing
Speaker 5: the hits. I'm doing the things that I know are
Speaker 5: one hundred percent funny, and I'm not doing nothing else.
Speaker 4: This is not the crowd to play with.
Speaker 3: I think something that we've both noticed during this conversation
Speaker 3: is that you are willing to say the things that
Speaker 3: a lot of people won't say.
Speaker 1: Where does that come from?
Speaker 2: In you?
Speaker 5: I'm a black woman in America. There's a goss courses.
Speaker 5: I can say what I want Who's gonna tell me now?
Speaker 3: But I just say nothing, rude, don't say where can
Speaker 3: we see you next?
Speaker 5: I have Netflix as a joke on May third at
Speaker 5: the Improv Lab. That's my next big thing coming up
Speaker 5: in Los Angeles. And then for all of my other dates,
Speaker 5: you can go to my website, Don'lsaysloan dot com. Also,
Speaker 5: I have a lift gloss business with comedian Lay's Larabee
Speaker 5: called Giggle Gloss Love that, and I pack all the
Speaker 5: orders at the house. Me and Lay started this as
Speaker 5: a company for one pressap merch to sell on the road,
Speaker 5: and two to give other comics the opportunity to to
Speaker 5: sell merch that's easy to handle on the road. So yes,
Speaker 5: giggle glass dot com or talk. Two selling colors right
Speaker 5: now are no more Broke Dick, my Ministry and Perse
Speaker 5: Vodka are too in future, wife, those are top three
Speaker 5: colors right.
Speaker 1: Now, not pocketbook vodka and not handbook vodka.
Speaker 4: No no, no, no pers vodka.
Speaker 5: Because we are classy young ladies who you know, you'll
Speaker 5: never know if we don't have an adult free son
Speaker 5: in our band.
Speaker 2: She's a true multidisciplinary creative y'all. Do we'll say thank
Speaker 2: you so much, thank you so much.
Speaker 4: For having me.
Speaker 1: Thankst'll say, Thanks Bye.
Speaker 2: Do'll say. Sloan is a comedian and the author of
Speaker 2: Hello Friends, We'll be right.
Speaker 1: Back, Sweet, Sweet, dull Sy Sloan.
Speaker 2: She seriously has the best name ever.
Speaker 3: She does. She really does. What stuck out to you
Speaker 3: about our conversation, I.
Speaker 2: Like how real she was about that achievement of reaching
Speaker 2: the Daily Show. We tend to romanticize these jobs, these accomplishments,
Speaker 2: and she was like, listen, it was really exhausting behind
Speaker 2: the scenes, and at the end of the day, it
Speaker 2: didn't give me the kind of juice that I thought
Speaker 2: it was going to.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was actually kind of shocked to hear her
Speaker 3: say that. I liked how real she was all around
Speaker 3: you and I have been doing this for ten fifteen years,
Speaker 3: and it's like, you don't get a lot of people
Speaker 3: that are just willing to say all the things, because
Speaker 3: no matter how big of a celebrity somebody is, there's
Speaker 3: always that next job, and nobody wants to be looked
Speaker 3: at as a problem or a liability, and so everybody's
Speaker 3: really careful about what they say, and she was like
Speaker 3: letting it all hang out.
Speaker 1: It was very refreshing.
Speaker 2: It also is good to see that because I think
Speaker 2: that people can tend to idolize the personalities that they
Speaker 2: see on TV. But she's just as real as everyone else.
Speaker 2: The stars, they're just like us. Uh.
Speaker 1: That's funny.
Speaker 2: Do'll say as someone who lives unapologetically, And I think
Speaker 2: you can only get to that place in life if
Speaker 2: you really learn how to love yourself and be kind
Speaker 2: to yourself.
Speaker 1: She's on that journey.
Speaker 3: I think maybe that's what we want to leave with
Speaker 3: ourselves and everybody listening today is speak about yourself the
Speaker 3: way your friends would speak about you. And when I
Speaker 3: say that, I'm actually really talking to me too.
Speaker 1: I need to do that.
Speaker 3: Tomorrow on the show, we have poet Laureate Ada Lamone
Speaker 3: joining us for National Poetry Month. She's talking all about
Speaker 3: her latest poetry project and she has a few words
Speaker 3: for us.
Speaker 2: Listen and follow the bright Side on the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can
Speaker 2: find me Simone Voice on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 3: And I'm Danielle Robe at Danielle Robe on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 1: That's ro Bay.
Speaker 2: We'll see you back here. Tomorrow, keep looking on the
Speaker 2: bright side,