June 14, 2023 • 48 mins
In this episode Jill, Aja, and Laiya talk to British-Nigerian stand-up comedian, producer and creator/showrunner about her journey as a comedian, living all your dreams, and being boldly yourself. Call 866-HEY-JILL and leave us a message with your comments on this episode!
For tickets to Gina’s Show: https://www.ginayashere.com/shows
Gina’s IG: https://www.instagram.com/ginayashere/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to j dot IL, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hannah Loves How is everybody doing? Welcome, Welcome back to
j dot IL the podcast. You already know. I'm sitting
here with the lovely age of Graydon Danzla. That's Bob
and the exquisite Lia Saint.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Clair video cheeriold Jady, old good folks. I don't know
that we'll find out. That's how they speak at them.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
What's the cheerio about it? Sit you home?
Speaker 3 (00:37):
No, the cheerio is because we have a woman king
in the building, my friend. Uh, ladies and gentlemen, boys
and girls, listen. You may see her on your TVs
as a character on Bob Park's Aba Shola Honey. She
is the co creighth more of Bob Parts Aba Shola.
She is literally the woman king of comedy of Great Britain.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
It's kind of crazy.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Y'all think I'm joking, but no, I'm talking about Gina YASCHERI.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
We can talk about all that.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
We are in a safe space of black red famous
and I am here for all of it.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
Not to forget that she's also the daughter of loyalty.
Speaker 5 (01:15):
I'm from where the Bronxes came from. I am royalty.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Let's give it.
Speaker 6 (01:27):
Okay, thank you guys, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
It's got to be something because that energy is just wow,
I mean, shoots through whoever is listening, whoever's looking. Have
you always been this way?
Speaker 5 (01:41):
Yes, my mother said in the womb, So when my
mom was pregnant with me and I was born after twins,
but so she says, she had a bit more room
in there, and she had a bunch of student doctors
walk in the room and they were saying, this is
a pregnant woman, she's eight months and blah blah blah,
and she goes to doctors couldn't find me because I
was off during the space, having a good old time,
(02:03):
and the doctors couldn't find me.
Speaker 6 (02:04):
So she was like, from that.
Speaker 5 (02:05):
Moment, I knew when you came out you were going
to be crazy.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
I love it, and it's like, but the thing about
it is that you know, when like you were telling
us about you and about doing comedy, you know, I
at the end of the day, I hate this whole
idea that women as comedians, that we don't get the
energy that we should get and that you know, we
have to try so hard to get this, to get
(02:36):
the label of being funny, and it's just like, it
just drives me nuts. And I'm just like, man, the
fact that you're the queen of comedy and that you're
ushering in such a you know, an underserved group of
black women. Bravo and Bravo and Bravo's.
Speaker 5 (02:54):
Yeah, I mean comedy wise, Yeah, it's been hard in
this industry. And I've always been like, listen, I'm as
funny as any of you. Of you dudes, you know,
all that rubbish about women women funny. I hate that
interview question because I'm like, it's not that women are funny,
it's there's less of us, and.
Speaker 6 (03:09):
So we get judged a lot more harshly.
Speaker 5 (03:11):
There's a million medio carassmen out there, millions I don't
get just because there's so many, you know, And that's
the difference.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Now, Gina, can you see I remember you had you
came back with a book a year ago about your life.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
And the beginning of your story.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
I just want you to share, please share with Jill
or Asia the beginnings.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Of the story of your father and your mother and
all the other women.
Speaker 5 (03:36):
First, so as I said, my family from Ben in
where the bronzes came from my grandmother. I'm actually a
reincarnation of my grandmother. So Nigerians believe strongly in reincarnation.
And my grandmother was one of many wives of a chief,
so she was the second wife. There were many more wives,
but she was kind of the favored wife and the
otherwise were very jealous of her.
Speaker 6 (03:56):
She had a lot of kids.
Speaker 5 (03:58):
But she used to say to me, my mother all
the time when she was a child, when I come back,
I'm going to be British.
Speaker 6 (04:06):
I'm going to speak with a British accent.
Speaker 5 (04:08):
I'm going to I'm not going to have all of
these children when I come back, I'm going to have
I'm going to live a free life. I'm going to
do a man's job. I'm going to do whatever they
men do, I will do because I will be as
strong as them. And she named all these things that
she wanted to do. Now she ended up dying. She
was poisoned by the other jel of sortives and she
ended up being killed.
Speaker 6 (04:26):
It's a whole the whole story. That's the first chapter
of my book. So she ended up being but when
she died of poisoning, she died with a mark on
her throat. And I was born.
Speaker 5 (04:37):
Fifteen years later, and when I came out the womb,
I had this birthmark. And so as soon as I
was born, my mother looked down at me and knew.
She was like, oh my gosh, my mother has returned.
And the whole family rejoiced because they were like, my
mother has returned through my mum. And my nickname in
the family is Granny because my mom calls me Granny
(04:59):
because on my own grandmother. And basically I basically turned
out exactly as my grandmother said she was going to be.
Speaker 6 (05:07):
She was like, I'm not gonna have all these kid children.
I'm going to live a free life. I'm going to
be I'm going.
Speaker 5 (05:12):
To do all the jobs because I used to be
an engineer. Before I did comedy, I was an engineer.
I built and repaired elevators. So everything that my grandmother
said came to pass. I became that person this years
and every time I've gone to a psychic or somebody spiritual,
every time they always say the same thing. There's a
(05:32):
woman guiding you through this life. There's a woman related
to you who is following you and guiding your every move.
So that's part of the story. And then obviously both
my parents and I Jane Thombinin they met, they had
me in England with all my brothers and sisters, and
then obviously in England in the early sixties very racist.
(05:54):
My father was a qualified lawyer, my mother was a
head head teacher, a school principle. They came over here
as very high achieving people, but in England they were like, oh,
you're a lawyer, are you You're a heir. Great, you
can work in a post office and you can drive
a bus. And my father was I'm not driving a bus.
I'm a lawyer, and let's take our children and go
(06:16):
back to Nigeria. And my mother was like, no, no, no,
my children are British. I want them to have all
the opportunities that be in British affords them. I'm staying
here in England, even if I have to sacrificed my
own career. And my dad was like, oh, okay then
and then he went back to Nigeria and that was
the end of that. I never saw him again until
I was thirty eight. So basically, if you watch the
show Bob Hart Savage Shara, that Abashalla story is based
(06:40):
on my parents' story where she ends up in America
with her child, raising her child as a single mother,
and her husband has gone back to Nigeria to be
an architect because he was like, I'm not going to
be in America doing not doing what I'm qualified to do.
Speaker 6 (06:55):
So that's the story of me.
Speaker 7 (06:57):
Wow, this woman interesting from the beginning, Yes, from the
very beginning there.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
That's why it's like all the things, y'all, all the things.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
That's an amazing origin story.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Listen.
Speaker 5 (07:17):
Yeah, so that's the first chatter of My book is
called Candid. It's a memoir. It's literally just come out
on paperback recently in England. It's out in America on paperback.
And yeah, I wrote a book and it's a crazy
story I've had. I've had a life. I've had a life.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
And you talk about the things that like a lot
of black Brooks. I don't know, it just seems I
think we had this conversation before too, like we feel
like sometimes things are quiet, and like you said, what
do you call it racism?
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Subtle?
Speaker 5 (07:45):
Subtle racism? Subtle, it ain't passive, it's just subtle. It's
death by a thousand cuts. Racism well, you don't even
know that, you just got to discriminate against. They're so
clever about it. And you know, I do a routine
on stage where I say that, yeah, American racism is
in your face.
Speaker 6 (08:04):
The British racism.
Speaker 5 (08:06):
The Brits were the architects of racism, the architects savory
the European the way that they just hid it from
high society. Whereas do I say that Americans did the
equivalent of you know, breaking into someone's house and keeping
the stolen goods.
Speaker 6 (08:23):
In their own house.
Speaker 5 (08:24):
It was in America on plantations in America for every
American to see, for everybody to see.
Speaker 6 (08:29):
It was in your face. Whereas the Brits did it differently.
Speaker 5 (08:32):
They stole the same amount of black people from Africa,
but they put them on plantations in the Caribbean, mostly
away from polite British society. It was in Jamaica and
Trinidad and Barbados and all. So that is where the
majority of their filthy deeds were done. So if you
went to England and the eighteen hundreds and went, oh,
in a minute, you stole black people, they'd be like,
(08:54):
but where.
Speaker 6 (08:55):
Where is the evidence? I don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 5 (08:57):
So they did the equivalent of breaking into someone's house
stealing their goods, but keeping the goods in somebody else's house.
So when you come to them, there's no evidence of
what they've done, so, but it's no less heinous, you know.
You know, there's been a lot of discussion amongst you know,
African American actors saying the British actors playing American you
(09:19):
know characters, you know, they haven't had the experiences, you know,
they haven't suffered the levels of racism that we have.
Speaker 6 (09:27):
But that is not the case.
Speaker 5 (09:29):
We've had very black people in the UK and descendants
of slaves in the UK and in Europe, France, Germany,
Belgium have had very similar experiences. It's just that it's
not being publicized. The British and the French and the
Portuguese and the Spanish should be much better at hiding it.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
I think mostly too, that they can't necessarily pinpoint your
anger or your quote unquote crazy. Yeah, you know, the
argument has always been there, you know, about English actors,
and my point of view is that the training is.
Speaker 6 (10:08):
Kind of bomb like.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Honestly, the training is kind of it's not kind of
it's next level. Okay, not that not to disregard our
Juilliard grads or n y U grads or or Cornell
or or Berkeley. I'm not trying to dismiss that. I'm
just saying that's a that's a lot of schools, and
that's a lot of really powerful work. I'm just saying
(10:34):
that also, there's a combination of those things that one
can't pinpoint. You're crazy, you know, can't pinpoint where your
rage comes from, not necessarily because you're We have plantations
here in this place, huh, and we could go visit
them and feel the vibes, you know, at least are
(10:54):
the same for you. I suppose that you're questioners are
on our money and our streets and our schools.
Speaker 5 (11:03):
Oh yeah, I mean we've got you know, during the
Black Lives Matter marches, a lot of statues of slave
owners were being ripped down all over English that was
still very much there and being revered by the people.
Speaker 6 (11:16):
So yeah, we have the similar age. And with the actors.
Speaker 5 (11:20):
The actor thing, just going back to it for a second,
you know how many African American actors have played Nelson Mandela.
Speaker 6 (11:26):
You know, we it's stip for.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
You know what, But you know, I think the I
think the argument comes in when we don't know if
certain history is being taught over there and there may
be a black brit playing a black historical character like
that too, is a whole nother deep argument because I
always wondered that. I was like, do they teach our
history over there?
Speaker 6 (11:45):
Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (11:46):
I mean, to be fair, they don't teach it here,
Harriet tell mean was I mean it doesn't get taught.
I think I think for I think for me, it's
more like I think for me, it's more that. Okay,
So when people with black people, people of African descent
all over this world, right, America has a particular kind
(12:10):
of nasty little rule that if you are an African
of the diaspora and you come to America, you get
othered in a in a very specific way that pits
you against African American list that that little that that
(12:31):
piece is I feel like, what fuels this more than
any of this other stuff.
Speaker 5 (12:36):
Yeah, it is the classic divide and concotic and the
same thing happened in England when Africans came to England.
We were pitted against Caribbeans, black people from the Caribbean.
Speaker 6 (12:50):
You know, as a kid.
Speaker 5 (12:51):
Growing up, I was getting abused, not just by white kids,
but at the black kids ifact take on even more
abuse from other black children. The white children. The white
kids were confused. They looked the same, why are they fighting?
They I don't get it. And I used to get
abused by cabrin because we you know, they they weren't
(13:12):
taught proper British history. So at the time when I
was going the Caribecans, kids had no idea that they
were descendants of African people who'd been in slave They
hadn't been taught that. They thought the black people had
originated in the Caribbean. So I'd have arguments, you're Jamaican kids,
you came from us. The people were stolen from Africa
(13:34):
and that's how you ended up in Jamaica. And they
were like, no, MA mean not to African Yamican. I mean,
I know what you mean. They weren't taught the history.
It wasn't until Roots, when Roots came to England. That
is the only then that they started to realize, oh,
there's something that we haven't been taught. They had no
(13:57):
idea of the history. They didn't not no idea and
so I had a lot. I had so many fights
in my youth because my mom obviously know a history.
My family are from Benin, so my family, yeah you know,
I'm from Nigeren so our family were not enslaves, so
my mother knew the history. My mother would say, these
kids laughing at you and calling you names, it's because
(14:18):
they've not been educated properly in England.
Speaker 6 (14:20):
They don't know their history.
Speaker 5 (14:22):
They don't know that they are in fact our family
that were taken from us.
Speaker 6 (14:26):
They don't know it. So just don't worry about it.
One day they will learn, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
There had to be a mind screwed. Yeah, every day
you're fighting your own.
Speaker 6 (14:38):
People every day. It was crazy.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Well, to be honest, I've heard this same you know,
uh we're not saying, but a similar story with some
kids who are first generation in America whose parents are
are are from the continent and they come to America
and African American kids are like you African booty snatcher,
saying everything I mean, this is And it's so bad
(15:00):
that that particular insult it survived a whole generation that
this same thing that I heard kids call kids when
I was, you know, kindergarten in the eighties they were
calling kids when my kids were in kindergarten.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
I said, now, how on that because the boys in
the hood.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
But yeah, my kids, them kids ain't seen I got kids.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
They seen that movie.
Speaker 6 (15:25):
They's tossed down.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
The fact that that slur seriously though, that it survived,
it's crazy.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
I mean, the fact that the sentiment has survived.
Speaker 8 (15:36):
More real talk after the break.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Well, I'm here to tell you. Definitely proud of you.
I mean it feels like you've had your dukes up
the whole time. Oh yeah, we thought for any young folks,
dukes up. Just mean to hear you prepared and ready
to fight this whole time. But with this level of knowledge,
(16:09):
you know who you are. We were talking about genealogy
earlier and just the privilege and power of knowing who
you are. And man, what's your what was your grandmother's name?
Speaker 5 (16:21):
Patients are bussy and yeah she's She's been guiding me
my entire life.
Speaker 6 (16:27):
And you know, I've.
Speaker 5 (16:28):
Made history on many occasions, like when I became an
engineer for Otis. I was their first human engineer in
their one hundred year history in the UK.
Speaker 6 (16:37):
Ever, yeah, I mean it sounds good, but it was.
It was terrible.
Speaker 5 (16:40):
I got I can imagine the N word every day
at work. I'd come into work and these white dudes
would hang pictures of monkeys and put banana skins in
my own They tried to drive me out the job,
and I was like, now you're not driving out. I'll
prove that I can do this job back than all
of you. And so yeah, it was a yeah. I
was getting into a fight with white dudes every day.
In fact, had to pull do, decide and fight. If
(17:01):
you call me nigga one more time, I got two
brothers dukes up. I will send them to your house.
And then he never spoke to me again. And then,
funnily enough, my one of my first ever stand up shows,
he was.
Speaker 6 (17:13):
In the audience.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
So help us, help us walk through. We fix the elevators.
We fight, and we're fighting racist making, designing building, elevating
the building. We're doing this and then we get to comedy.
How take us on? Now take us on that pathway?
Speaker 6 (17:34):
Okay. So obviously I'm from a very academic.
Speaker 5 (17:36):
Family, so there was no way my mom was gonna
let me go into the arts, even though as a kid.
Speaker 6 (17:41):
You know. Teachers used to say to my mom.
Speaker 5 (17:44):
You know, Genus, she has a personality. You know, maybe
she should get into acting and the arts. You know,
I think she could be an actor. And my mom
was like, yes, well she can act like a doctor
until she become doctor. That was the yeah, I do
joke what I'm saying. An African family, there's only a
few choices of Korea, doctor, lawyer, engineer, accountant, or displaced
(18:08):
to the family.
Speaker 6 (18:09):
Those are the choices.
Speaker 5 (18:10):
And I found out quite early that I couldn't stand
the sight of blood, so doctor was not going to happen.
So I switched to engineering, and I studied in engineering
and I got my degree in electrical and electronics engineering.
And that's how I ended up in engineering as a
living did I worked to Otis for four years. I
stuck it out as long as I could, and then eventually,
(18:33):
because I was the first woman, then didn't I want
to do with me. I'd say, well, I'm supposed to
get this promotion, I've qualified for this, I've I've jumped
through all the hoops and I'm supposed to be this grade.
Speaker 6 (18:43):
And they'd be like, yeah, what was you know?
Speaker 5 (18:46):
If we send you out on your own on this job.
You know, the men there won't They're not going.
Speaker 6 (18:51):
To listen to girl.
Speaker 5 (18:52):
So I was supposed to be in a supervisor posian,
you know, and they wouldn't give it to me because
they were worried that the guys wouldn't listen to me
and all this kind of stuff. So in the end,
I was like, well, I'm never going to have the
career progression I'm supposed to have. So I, you know,
I left in the mid nineties. The building industry was
going through a slump. They were laying people off. I
(19:13):
knew they weren't going to lay me off because they
had me on the all their magazines and posters getting
look at us, We've got a black down and I'd
be like, there was just so they were never going
to let me go because I was their little poster girl.
But I marched into my manager's office and I was like,
you're going to let me go if you don't want
me to go public about what has been going on
in this company, give me my money, let.
Speaker 6 (19:33):
Me bounce, and they were like all right, So they
let me go, and so I.
Speaker 5 (19:37):
Decided to take the summer off enjoy the summer until
it was time to get another engineering job. And it
was in that time I decided to try different things.
I joined the Nation of Islam for about twelve minutes.
I did that for a while. I see that, you know,
I came out of Oti's.
Speaker 6 (19:54):
Very angry, very angry at white people.
Speaker 5 (19:57):
So I was like, I need I'm going to learn
my history and I need a group of people that
feel my pain.
Speaker 6 (20:02):
And Nation of this line just drew me in.
Speaker 5 (20:05):
And then from there I went off and started doing
stuff in the community, you know, helping out with you know,
seat kitchens and things like that for black people in
the community. And then one day they were doing a
fundraiser and they were like, we need poets, singers, dancers
for this fundraiser would doing.
Speaker 6 (20:22):
And so I wrote.
Speaker 5 (20:23):
Me and two of my friends were always messing around,
you know, cracking jokes about our parents, and I wrote
what I.
Speaker 6 (20:28):
Thought was a play for us to perform. And then
we performed this play and it.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
Turned out it wasn't a play because people laughed their
asses off through the entire thing.
Speaker 6 (20:38):
And I was like, oh, this is comedy.
Speaker 5 (20:41):
This is a comedy skit I've written, And so we
took that one skit, and we kept winning all these
talent competitions all around England with this one skit. But
the other two girls weren't that serious. And one day
we were through to the semi finals of another talent competition.
The other two girls just didn't turn up. They just
didn't feel like it whatever, it just didn't turn up.
(21:01):
And I was there and they were like, you guys
are up next. Where's your girls? And I was like,
I don't know, I'll just go up on stage and
talk for a few minutes and just you know. And
I went up stage on stage and talked for ten minutes,
and one that night the heat and got us through
to the finals. So then people were coming up to
me and oh, yeah, I need those.
Speaker 6 (21:20):
Two other girls.
Speaker 5 (21:20):
You're a stand up comic, that's what you are, and
that's how I discovered stand up And then I was like, well,
I'll do this for a while, see how it works out,
and then you know, have a little bit of fun
over the summer, and then get another engineering job at
the end of summer. And I just ended up never
going back to engineering.
Speaker 6 (21:38):
The comedy just.
Speaker 5 (21:38):
Kept building and building, and then I was like, you know,
people are coming up to me and I'll give you
fifty bucks to come and do ten minutes here. And
I was like, fifty fifty bucks for ten minutes. Oh
this is this is great and I just never went back.
Speaker 6 (21:51):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Everybody always talks about it, how the best comedians are
like super intelligent. Would it have to be right? Because
you have to come from you know, I have to
have a real perspective, a ground perspective in what it
is that you're talking about in a vocabulary vocabulary tour,
and also the imagination to tell the story so that
(22:16):
everybody in your audience can see. But now you got
your own TV show? Did you create it? So you know,
people are getting an opportunity to see your vision and
hear your comedy all the time.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
That means and see what's Africans in a different way
to stand an authentic way from a West African woman's
like boys.
Speaker 5 (22:37):
You know, I was a vited to help Chuck Glory
create this show. And I was like, well, if you
want my help, here's the thing. If I say that,
I wouldna, people don't do this. We don't do this
and it's okay in the show. Yeah, you have to
listen to me and and I have to be involved
in the constant. I know that you have your Hollywood
(23:00):
beauty ideals, but here's the thing. The actor who's going
to play every show is going to be a dark
skinned woman. No no, if no butts, it's going to
be a dark skinned woman, preferably Nigerian. But whoever comes
for the audition, if they got it, they got it
with it, you know.
Speaker 6 (23:16):
And so I made sure I was.
Speaker 5 (23:18):
Always in the room when these black actors came in.
So when they came in, they'd see me sitting there,
and their shoulders would just relax immediately because they know
they're not going to be asked to do any kind
of buffoonery because there's a black woman sitting in the
room who has some power.
Speaker 9 (23:35):
You know.
Speaker 5 (23:35):
A lot of the actors afterwards would come out to
me and go When we walked into the room and
we saw you there, Gina, that's when we knew this
show was legit.
Speaker 6 (23:44):
You know.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
I mean, I feel like a lot of black women
writers need to understand what it is they have in
front of them, if there's this is the trajectory that
they want to go on, and just the difficulty around
telling these stories because this has been the conversation, Oh,
our stories need to be told. Oh, our stories need
to be told, you know, But once you get into
(24:05):
their space to be able to tell them, you know,
to say, these are the things you need to be saying.
I want to be a part of the casting. I
want to be you know, I want to be able
to have the last word about these cultural references, like
any other things, like with black writers, black women writers
that are listening that they need to that they need
to put their foot down about I mean, is there yeah, yeah, I.
Speaker 5 (24:28):
Mean it's always difficult because it's spent such a hard
road for black writers, especially black women writers, getting into
those rooms, and they usually kept at a level, you know,
they'd hire them a staff rights, which is kind of
the lowest level of writer, and then they let them go.
They'd never got the chance to ascend through the ranks.
So it's always difficult to have a voice when you're
(24:50):
at the lower end of the ranks and knowing that
if you speak up in a way that you know,
the white exec producer may feel threatened by you being
a little bit too outspoken.
Speaker 6 (25:00):
And we're a little too smart and they don't like it.
Speaker 5 (25:02):
Then you know that you're not going to have a
job the next season, So I understand the difficulty For me.
In a way, it worked out in a way that
when I came in, I came in as a co creator.
I immediately came in as a creator of the show.
They were asking me to help them create the show.
And because of that, I felt I had the power
to speak and I was able to say, this is
(25:25):
what's going to happen, whereas not many.
Speaker 6 (25:28):
Of us have had that opportunity.
Speaker 5 (25:30):
Yeah, and so now I'm trying to make sure that
I pull that door open and provide more opportunities for
other people. So I've got you know, I've got other
black women writers in the room. I was like, you know,
I said to them, you guys found me, you know,
but there are plenty of mes out there.
Speaker 4 (25:47):
Yeah, what did your room look like?
Speaker 5 (25:48):
Janis curious African American writers male and female, my black,
young black Nigerian writer.
Speaker 6 (25:57):
What I did?
Speaker 5 (25:57):
I didn't want to scare these workmen, So I just went,
I'm doing a comedy show. Why don't you come and
see me doing my comedy show? And then I called
my friends to a comedians, I was like, come on
the show and open for me. I didn't tell them
what was about. I didn't want them to be nervous,
so I said, come, I'm doing this show, I'm headlining,
Come and open for me. They came and open for me.
(26:17):
And then this is how one of writers, Gloria, got
on the show. A friend of mine stand up comment
Gloria Pingler, so I got her to open for me.
And then afterwards two of the exec producers who worked
with Chuck were like, we like that woman, Glory, and
I was like, you did because she writes too.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
You know what I see now why you were lie
you get along? No, because you think very similarly. Your
ideas around putting people in the right places, connecting people
who you feel should be connected, who are bringing something
into the world like this is like like a grand
orchestrator of synergy, you.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Like uh, and I think that that's an amazing thing
to pull into what you do. It's one thing to
open up a door, but it's another thing to help
to understand how people will be connected to others. It's like, yeah,
let me let you tell let me let her tell
her story in front of you, so that I don't
have to sell it as, Hey, I'm a black person here.
I want to get other black people in here. You know,
(27:20):
I just think that that's amazing, you know what I mean,
even though you shouldn't have to.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
But literally, that's why I wanted her to come on
this show because I was like, I need Gina. Gena's
already has no fear, but I need her in a
super safe black woman's space. I want her in a
super staf Black women's space. And I wanted y'all to
build his energy and be able to have these hard
conversations sometimes, you know, even from the acting conversation to
these continental you know, versus Black American conversations.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
I need Gina. He has no fears. He literally is
the woman's been.
Speaker 6 (27:51):
Around a long time. I've been around a long time.
Speaker 5 (27:53):
And it took a lot longer for me to make
it because I've always known my wife and I've never
you know, I just never compromised, and it took me
a lot longer than At one point, I was like,
I'm not even sure it's going to happen for me,
but at least, you know, I don't feel like I've
(28:14):
sold my soul in order to do it.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
And.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
When it did eventually happen, I was like, great, now
I want to help other people.
Speaker 6 (28:23):
You know.
Speaker 5 (28:23):
Chut Lolly was because I was pitching shows featuring my
African family for years and nobody wanted it. Nobody wanted
but it took a wealthy, white, well known man in
the industry to go, I.
Speaker 6 (28:35):
Want to make a show with Africans.
Speaker 5 (28:37):
And then suddenly everybody was like, oh my god, that's
a great idea.
Speaker 6 (28:40):
Let's make a show with Africans.
Speaker 5 (28:41):
And I've been pitching this as an African for years
and nobody was interested. But I was like, I'm going
to get bitter about that. You know, I'm going to
take that opportunity and then I'm going to turn around
and try and be that wealthy, well known white person
man for other black artists. So I'm trying to get
as many of us in and get as many of
us working in.
Speaker 6 (29:00):
You see, it's possible, you know.
Speaker 5 (29:02):
I'm just trying to do with other people, for other
people what I wish that someone had been there to
do for me.
Speaker 6 (29:07):
Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (29:08):
For you? Yes, it's interesting that that's the exact same
way the Number One Ladies Detective Agency happened that it
was a white writer and it was a white director,
Italian authentically not from the United States at all, living
in England. That was like, Yeah, I want to do
this story about these beautiful people with these these generous
(29:31):
hearts and these intelligent spirits. I want to find out
about these people. I want to create a story. It's like,
you need that to get the damn door open. No
matter how many times you pitched, and it seems like
you pitched a lot, well.
Speaker 5 (29:46):
Oh, I pitched a lot, and I'm a performer. I
come pitch in a room. I'd have these executives laughing
and going, oh my god, this is so great, and
then I'd walk out in the room and they'd be like, oh,
it's like that. I've always been ahead of my time,
is my problem. I've always been slightly ahead of my time,
and I picked stuff and go people go, oh, we
don't know what to do. And then five years later
(30:07):
I'd see my ideas being done with somebody else and
I'm like, I putched that shit five years ago. So
it was always happening to me. So it got to
a point about five years ago when I was like,
you know what I might be one of those people
that after I'm dead, they'll go look at my work
and go, oh my god.
Speaker 6 (30:24):
She was brilliant. Why didn't we?
Speaker 5 (30:26):
And I was like, you know, maybe I'll be one
of those people. Maybe I just have to settle for that,
because I'm always slightly.
Speaker 6 (30:32):
Ahead of my time.
Speaker 5 (30:33):
And then Chuck came along and gave me the opportunity
and I just grabbed it, and I was like, I'm
going to run with this. You know, this might be
the only TV show I ever get because you know,
as it is for black women, we do well for
one show and then they go thanks for that sea
and then it doesn't become and it doesn't lead on
to anything else.
Speaker 6 (30:52):
But I'm hoping it does.
Speaker 5 (30:53):
I'm hoping to, you know, get some sort of overall
deal where I can then call my friends and go,
bring this scripts. I've got the soveral deal. Let's bring
the scripts. Let's bring your projects. I'll exact produce your projects.
Let's get all our stories told. That is what I'm
trying to do. That's my next part of the journey.
I think hopefully, let's get rhymes.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Yeah, look at this woman, the highest pain writer of
a producer in in all of television. Yeah, yep, like
there are the doors are are beautifully gently opening, and
sometimes you gotta stick a foot in crack at the
time or titty, you gotta get in there.
Speaker 5 (31:37):
I'm gonna toe and I'm gonna I'm gonna towe and
I don't think I can get the whole foot, but
the toe is in there.
Speaker 6 (31:42):
The toe is in there.
Speaker 8 (31:47):
We're gonna take a quick break and then we'll be
right back.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
You know. One of the things I've noticed is that
just in general, like black brit culture, I see so
much more on like social media. I don't know if
it's maybe some mixture of the popularity with like afrobeats
and then some of the artists coming from from you know,
from Britain, but then also even like people who are
like they're like a lot of the hip hop dancing actors,
(32:22):
but from that lens, not where it's like, oh I
gotta take away my accent or pretend to be American
or anything like that. I feel like we're in the
middle of a bit of a renaissance with that right
now period. Is that like is the presence of that
do you feel like that's making things a little easier
for you or are you more so like, look, I've
been on I'm just happy y'all caught up.
Speaker 5 (32:44):
Yeah, I mean, I came to America in two thousand
and seven, so then sixteen sixteen years or something, and
when I came out here, people didn't understand, you know,
they didn't understand. And then Indriks and then all these
British hads start blumbing up, and then there are black
people in England. We thought it was just you, you know. So,
and I think with the way the industry is changing,
(33:08):
streaming the Internet, people making their own content, it's open
the world up in a way that was never open before.
And so now there's a cross pollination of cultures.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 5 (33:24):
And so now you know, I can go into a
meeting and go, you know, and talk about my book
and go, yeah, I want to make that a serialized thing,
and I want it to be like a gritty version
of Everybody Hates Chris Everybody hates Chris Cross with MICHAELA.
Coel's I May Destroy You, you know, that kind of Chris.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
You know.
Speaker 5 (33:43):
So whereby I've got a young actor playing myself as
a youngster going for all these things, and I'm doing
the voice of a bit. It's a bit more gritty
where I'm going. Yeah, and this is the moment when
I decided to punch the bitch in.
Speaker 6 (33:53):
The throat, you know.
Speaker 5 (33:54):
So it makes it a little bit so and I
can have those meetings and people are getting it now
because because they've seen these other shows and the way
that boy is so huge over here, which is a
very British, very British show. The language is don't bridge like, yeah, man,
what you're saying, bro?
Speaker 6 (34:10):
You know?
Speaker 5 (34:10):
And Americans, my children, my children, literally, I'm like, y'all
in this black Bridge link y'all, y'all, not y'all from
West Philly.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Come down Like literally, my daughter says bro so much,
I'll be cracking up. It's just likely always saying men,
men's afroget she demands the demands them.
Speaker 6 (34:34):
And that's the thing.
Speaker 5 (34:35):
And so because this whole thing is happening, Yeah, now
I can be in meetings and talk about my Britishness
without them get her. I don't know, we don't understand
because now they've seen the shows and they've seen how
these shows are doing very well hit yeah, you know,
And so yeah, it's definitely opened a lot more doors.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
It's a game recognizers game as a culture recognizers culture thing,
and it makes me happy because, to be honest, it's
like we feed off of one another, you know what
I mean, the fashion, the music, the dancing, and to
see it, to get to see it is everything because
so much of that again ties us all back to
(35:15):
the continent, and it's like it is the Pan African
vision that so many of our fore mothers and fathers
wanted to see happen. But the fact that it's happening
through art, culture and technology is also the opposite of
what some of these dinos think that we shouldn't be doing.
But this revolution is happening on an artistic level because
of these things. It's because of that. So you know,
(35:38):
you hear it's unfortunate. You're going to hear some nasty
comments from one person or this person, and it upsets you, like, well,
why would that person have a platform and then say
something foul? You know, there was you know, there have
been some you know, black content creators, some actresses, actress
singer types who have said things that are just not cool.
(36:02):
If we're gonna all feel each other and feed off
each other, but the vast majority. What I've seen, especially
with these young people, is that.
Speaker 6 (36:09):
They are on it.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
What's saying.
Speaker 4 (36:14):
Yeah, I'm like, I don't want to know.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
I'm like, who's but we But I'm just saying, like
most people will figure it out anyway.
Speaker 6 (36:26):
Just what they said, Just what they said.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
You know what, I'm not going to say what they said.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
I'm not going to even put up.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
What I am going to say is this, I do think,
and we talked about this earlier in the podcast. It's
a result of hurt. It's a result of life experience
and not being accepted by other black people who are
black just like you, whose descendants are from the same
continent as you, that will come out of their mouth
and say things and treat you in a certain way.
And the clap back is from pain. It's from an
(36:54):
exchange of pain.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
I don't even know which side you're talking about attacked
first on that one both ways.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
That's why I said, I'm not going to say who
it was. I'm gonna say that the activities are happening
between us, and that these young people, as they always do,
they come out and they bust everything out of the
water and they make it okay. They say, look y'all, but.
Speaker 4 (37:14):
For our generation, we still got some work to do.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
And I feel like sometimes that comes from conversation because remember,
we still come from a place where sometimes people would
think that others from the other time, from other places
would look at us as being lazy, right, you know
what I think it's.
Speaker 6 (37:28):
Also a part of the conditioning.
Speaker 5 (37:31):
You know, when I my family came to to England,
the Caribbean people have been fed all these Tarzan movies
of black people being primitive in Africa and running around
and cooking white people in parts. So they thought that
we were cannibals, that we were primitive, that we were animalistic,
that we were violent. And then on the other hand,
(37:52):
Africans have been fed these images of African Americans has
been lazy and not working hard and hate, you know,
And so we've been on fed these mistruths about each other.
Speaker 4 (38:05):
That's so crazy.
Speaker 6 (38:07):
Divide and concotect me.
Speaker 5 (38:09):
It's ain't been using the same technique for hundreds.
Speaker 6 (38:14):
Of hundreds of years.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
Still works, same playbook, it still.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Works, it works well. So the whole time, while Jeffrey
Dahmer just child down.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
Girl in Town on back down on freaking checks, but yeah,
I just wish we could place gives him back to him.
Speaker 6 (38:35):
This is the privilege.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
That's why I said, I just wish we could all
just take a class trip to the Black sony in
and just stay in the basement for a minute.
Speaker 4 (38:43):
That's just all see abasement and just just get the knowledge.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
That's all I'm saying this.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
I'm gonna say this. You know, I actually always hate
this question just because I know that your life is
your influence. But you know, I can't and forgive me
and this might be this is crazy, but I can't
pinpoint in my mind and not saying that that's specifically
who would influence you, but like I can't pinpoint in
my mind a black woman British comedian that I could think,
(39:12):
oh yeah, that person must have influenced She.
Speaker 6 (39:14):
Is Gina, She's the First's why she's the woman.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
But that's what I'm saying. So I need to understand,
like who are your influences? You know what I mean?
And I hate that question, but it's I'm curious.
Speaker 5 (39:25):
I mean, there were black women comedians who came before me.
I'm the first one that kind of crossed over. Was like,
I'm just gonna perform to whoever. I'm not going to
change a thing about myself because it was very segregated
in English as it is it when I came to Americans,
like it's the urban comedy right then, and I was like,
comedy's comedy.
Speaker 6 (39:47):
If you're funny, you should need to make anybody like Yes.
Speaker 5 (39:49):
When I go in front of my people, my black audience,
then I have specific things that I talk about are
shared experience, right, and I will touch on that and
I liked it. But I also come but I'll tell
white people about this and you don't know this, but
this is you know. So I've never changed a lot
about myself. So but there are there other black woman.
(40:09):
There's a comedian called Angela mar who was going before
when I started. But funnily enough, because I never saw
comedy as a career. Yeah, I was an engineer and
I fell into comedy by accident. And then when I
started doing comedy, I didn't want to go back and
watch too much comedy because I didn't want.
Speaker 6 (40:29):
I didn't want to be influenced.
Speaker 5 (40:31):
You know, because you watch some comedians in your Yeah,
I see you watched a lot of it prior because
I could see, oh, I can see my Lawrence was
your favorite comedian because I see you.
Speaker 6 (40:40):
I didn't want that.
Speaker 5 (40:42):
So I didn't watch a lot of comedy because I
was like, I want to keep what is quintessentially Gina.
I don't want anybody to watch me and go, oh, yeah,
she she watched a lot of Whoopy Goldberger, or she
loves a bit of wonder Side she can see.
Speaker 6 (40:55):
So I never watched The Lost.
Speaker 5 (40:56):
I didn't have influences as such because I tried to
be very myself and being my own life. So I've
not watched a lot of comedy. Like you know, some
comedians have an encyclopedic knowledge of comedy.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
Yeah I do not, so so the Netlix special Quintessentially Gina,
I'm just the one. I just want to throw that
on that. Now take that, take that.
Speaker 6 (41:25):
Thank you. I love listen.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
There's times when I speak for for all of us.
Since you get it. I hope everybody that's listening you
feel in big rated. I hope that you you want
(41:50):
to find out about yourself, like your the history of yourself,
of your focuses. I hope you pay attention to your
ancestors that are guiding and moving through you right now,
right in this moment, because it's real, baby, It's real.
It's not a game, okay. And the fact of this woman.
Speaker 6 (42:10):
Gina, you you don't play around as fair.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
You said, I'm going to do I'm going to do
everything that I want to do, and I'm going to
do it boldly and quintessentially myself.
Speaker 6 (42:24):
Brah.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
Vote okay, and you're.
Speaker 3 (42:28):
Gonna add the gay black woman too much?
Speaker 6 (42:30):
Much?
Speaker 2 (42:31):
Were much more success?
Speaker 6 (42:33):
Are you?
Speaker 2 (42:33):
Do you feel joyful?
Speaker 6 (42:35):
You know what I do? I mean joy life.
Speaker 5 (42:37):
I've had to learn because I'm super competitive and I'm
always you know, I had to learn to feel the
joy and enjoy my experience of what I'm doing in
life and not I had to learn to put blinkers
on and just look forward and go enjoy what you did.
Don't look out for people and go but what they
got that I'm glad of. That I should have because
I spent a lot of time doing that because I
(42:58):
was very competitive. And the day that I stopped doing that.
And just when Gina, you're doing something for living that
you love doing, you're living your best life. Stop worrying
about what this person's gone. Why having you got it?
When you're better. Just enjoy your own journey. And the
moment I started doing that, I feel like the universe
cracked open and more abundance came to me. So every
(43:23):
once in a while, I find myself doing it. You know,
you can't help it. In the days of social media,
you on Instagram, game but they're doing well, well I
should And then I have to stop myself and go, Gina,
you're doing great right now. You're living your best life.
Ten years ago you would have dreamed to have what
you have now.
Speaker 6 (43:41):
Enjoy it.
Speaker 5 (43:42):
So I have to remind myself every once in a while,
but I really do. I'm enjoying life right now.
Speaker 6 (43:46):
I don't know. Nobody knows. Tomorrow is not promising.
Speaker 5 (43:50):
Nobody knows, and how long you've got left tomorrow I
might not wake up, but I'm going to enjoy every
moment up until that point.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
I love this.
Speaker 6 (43:59):
I love this.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
I don't I don't know how to say Helen's last
name quite frankly, I was probably Williams at this time,
but Pharrell Williams his wife from Helen. I saw her
recently and it was it was a beautiful moment. Just
we were in Paris on a on a balcony looking
out over Paris. It was just like fly and she
(44:21):
said this, She said, our grass is green as fuck.
And I was like, you know what, attention to your
own grass.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
Baby, because because that.
Speaker 2 (44:36):
Shade of green is unlike you know, anybody else's. Don't
even worry about what shade of green there's is. Our
grass is green as fuck. For having me today, it
has been a privilege, for real, for real.
Speaker 6 (44:50):
So proud of you.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
Yes, yes, I want to.
Speaker 5 (44:57):
I tried to get tickets for you at the boat
that ships so that so quick. So when you come
to l A, just drop me a little text before
you release the announcements so I could get in there quick.
Just give me a little Textlet just let.
Speaker 2 (45:12):
Me know you want to come. You're more than welcome.
Speaker 6 (45:15):
Listen, don't say I'm saying it.
Speaker 5 (45:17):
Don't say don't just if if she.
Speaker 3 (45:22):
Says, you mean it, and then I can sneak in
on your coatails because I live at l A too.
Speaker 6 (45:26):
So no, we're gonna listen.
Speaker 2 (45:27):
I don't have any comp tickets anymore. They don't exist,
so I have.
Speaker 6 (45:33):
I have no interesting comp I wanted to.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
Tell you, but there was not, no none.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
Thank you.
Speaker 6 (45:40):
I was your stuff gone nothing. I don't need comps.
Speaker 5 (45:44):
Just tell me, just give me a little heads up,
just say they're gonna be yourself tomorrow.
Speaker 6 (45:49):
He's a little sneaky link.
Speaker 5 (45:52):
That's all I want. I like to pay and support
my family.
Speaker 6 (45:56):
I like to pay.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
Then we just had this conversation, y'all. Yeah, we just
had this conversation about being supportive of one another.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
I appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
But Gina, for real, for real, high let your girl.
I'll get your number from Layah. You're more than welcome.
I'm super proud of you.
Speaker 6 (46:12):
Bravo, thank you, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
Thank you, Patience, Thank you so much you Patience.
Speaker 6 (46:20):
I don't know where she is, but she's here somewhat.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (46:26):
Yes, how do you eat an elephant?
Speaker 2 (46:32):
One by time? Our grass is green as fuck?
Speaker 9 (46:40):
Can we just take us a love for that and
just soak in that wisdom?
Speaker 2 (46:47):
Okay?
Speaker 9 (46:48):
Jda l fam it's Amber the producer here. Gina is fascinating,
like truly fascinating, and we all eat more of her energy.
I hope this episode left you with the inspiration to
boldly be yourself in every way and to remember how
dynamic you are, and how dynamic we all are, I mean,
(47:11):
an engineer and a comedian like what. There are so
many lives to live in this lifetime, and I hope
you embrace all of yours. And uh, let's add some
more Gina to our lives. I will leave a link
to get tickets to her show in the show notes.
Go see our good says, get a laughing, and get inspired.
(47:33):
For more GENA content, be sure to check out Bob
Loves Alba Sola on CBS and her comedy specials streaming
on Netflix.
Speaker 6 (47:42):
Love you.
Speaker 10 (47:48):
Yeah, Hi if you have comments on something he said
in this episodpisode called eight six six, Hey.
Speaker 2 (48:02):
Jill, if you want to add to this conversation, that's
eight six six four three nine five four five five.
Don't forget to tell us your name and the episode
you're referring to. You might just hear your message on
a future episode.
Speaker 9 (48:17):
Thank you for listening to Jill Scott presents Jay dot lthepodcast.
Speaker 2 (48:25):
Jay dot L is a production of iHeartRadio. For more
podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to j dot IL, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hannah Loves How is everybody doing? Welcome, Welcome back to
j dot IL the podcast. You already know. I'm sitting
here with the lovely age of Graydon Danzla. That's Bob
and the exquisite Lia Saint.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Clair video cheeriold Jady, old good folks. I don't know
that we'll find out. That's how they speak at them.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
What's the cheerio about it? Sit you home?
Speaker 3 (00:37):
No, the cheerio is because we have a woman king
in the building, my friend. Uh, ladies and gentlemen, boys
and girls, listen. You may see her on your TVs
as a character on Bob Park's Aba Shola Honey. She
is the co creighth more of Bob Parts Aba Shola.
She is literally the woman king of comedy of Great Britain.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
It's kind of crazy.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Y'all think I'm joking, but no, I'm talking about Gina YASCHERI.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
We can talk about all that.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
We are in a safe space of black red famous
and I am here for all of it.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
Not to forget that she's also the daughter of loyalty.
Speaker 5 (01:15):
I'm from where the Bronxes came from. I am royalty.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Let's give it.
Speaker 6 (01:27):
Okay, thank you guys, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
It's got to be something because that energy is just wow,
I mean, shoots through whoever is listening, whoever's looking. Have
you always been this way?
Speaker 5 (01:41):
Yes, my mother said in the womb, So when my
mom was pregnant with me and I was born after twins,
but so she says, she had a bit more room
in there, and she had a bunch of student doctors
walk in the room and they were saying, this is
a pregnant woman, she's eight months and blah blah blah,
and she goes to doctors couldn't find me because I
was off during the space, having a good old time,
(02:03):
and the doctors couldn't find me.
Speaker 6 (02:04):
So she was like, from that.
Speaker 5 (02:05):
Moment, I knew when you came out you were going
to be crazy.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
I love it, and it's like, but the thing about
it is that you know, when like you were telling
us about you and about doing comedy, you know, I
at the end of the day, I hate this whole
idea that women as comedians, that we don't get the
energy that we should get and that you know, we
have to try so hard to get this, to get
(02:36):
the label of being funny, and it's just like, it
just drives me nuts. And I'm just like, man, the
fact that you're the queen of comedy and that you're
ushering in such a you know, an underserved group of
black women. Bravo and Bravo and Bravo's.
Speaker 5 (02:54):
Yeah, I mean comedy wise, Yeah, it's been hard in
this industry. And I've always been like, listen, I'm as
funny as any of you. Of you dudes, you know,
all that rubbish about women women funny. I hate that
interview question because I'm like, it's not that women are funny,
it's there's less of us, and.
Speaker 6 (03:09):
So we get judged a lot more harshly.
Speaker 5 (03:11):
There's a million medio carassmen out there, millions I don't
get just because there's so many, you know, And that's
the difference.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Now, Gina, can you see I remember you had you
came back with a book a year ago about your life.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
And the beginning of your story.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
I just want you to share, please share with Jill
or Asia the beginnings.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Of the story of your father and your mother and
all the other women.
Speaker 5 (03:36):
First, so as I said, my family from Ben in
where the bronzes came from my grandmother. I'm actually a
reincarnation of my grandmother. So Nigerians believe strongly in reincarnation.
And my grandmother was one of many wives of a chief,
so she was the second wife. There were many more wives,
but she was kind of the favored wife and the
otherwise were very jealous of her.
Speaker 6 (03:56):
She had a lot of kids.
Speaker 5 (03:58):
But she used to say to me, my mother all
the time when she was a child, when I come back,
I'm going to be British.
Speaker 6 (04:06):
I'm going to speak with a British accent.
Speaker 5 (04:08):
I'm going to I'm not going to have all of
these children when I come back, I'm going to have
I'm going to live a free life. I'm going to
do a man's job. I'm going to do whatever they
men do, I will do because I will be as
strong as them. And she named all these things that
she wanted to do. Now she ended up dying. She
was poisoned by the other jel of sortives and she
ended up being killed.
Speaker 6 (04:26):
It's a whole the whole story. That's the first chapter
of my book. So she ended up being but when
she died of poisoning, she died with a mark on
her throat. And I was born.
Speaker 5 (04:37):
Fifteen years later, and when I came out the womb,
I had this birthmark. And so as soon as I
was born, my mother looked down at me and knew.
She was like, oh my gosh, my mother has returned.
And the whole family rejoiced because they were like, my
mother has returned through my mum. And my nickname in
the family is Granny because my mom calls me Granny
(04:59):
because on my own grandmother. And basically I basically turned
out exactly as my grandmother said she was going to be.
Speaker 6 (05:07):
She was like, I'm not gonna have all these kid children.
I'm going to live a free life. I'm going to
be I'm going.
Speaker 5 (05:12):
To do all the jobs because I used to be
an engineer. Before I did comedy, I was an engineer.
I built and repaired elevators. So everything that my grandmother
said came to pass. I became that person this years
and every time I've gone to a psychic or somebody spiritual,
every time they always say the same thing. There's a
(05:32):
woman guiding you through this life. There's a woman related
to you who is following you and guiding your every move.
So that's part of the story. And then obviously both
my parents and I Jane Thombinin they met, they had
me in England with all my brothers and sisters, and
then obviously in England in the early sixties very racist.
(05:54):
My father was a qualified lawyer, my mother was a
head head teacher, a school principle. They came over here
as very high achieving people, but in England they were like, oh,
you're a lawyer, are you You're a heir. Great, you
can work in a post office and you can drive
a bus. And my father was I'm not driving a bus.
I'm a lawyer, and let's take our children and go
(06:16):
back to Nigeria. And my mother was like, no, no, no,
my children are British. I want them to have all
the opportunities that be in British affords them. I'm staying
here in England, even if I have to sacrificed my
own career. And my dad was like, oh, okay then
and then he went back to Nigeria and that was
the end of that. I never saw him again until
I was thirty eight. So basically, if you watch the
show Bob Hart Savage Shara, that Abashalla story is based
(06:40):
on my parents' story where she ends up in America
with her child, raising her child as a single mother,
and her husband has gone back to Nigeria to be
an architect because he was like, I'm not going to
be in America doing not doing what I'm qualified to do.
Speaker 6 (06:55):
So that's the story of me.
Speaker 7 (06:57):
Wow, this woman interesting from the beginning, Yes, from the
very beginning there.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
That's why it's like all the things, y'all, all the things.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
That's an amazing origin story.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Listen.
Speaker 5 (07:17):
Yeah, so that's the first chatter of My book is
called Candid. It's a memoir. It's literally just come out
on paperback recently in England. It's out in America on paperback.
And yeah, I wrote a book and it's a crazy
story I've had. I've had a life. I've had a life.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
And you talk about the things that like a lot
of black Brooks. I don't know, it just seems I
think we had this conversation before too, like we feel
like sometimes things are quiet, and like you said, what
do you call it racism?
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Subtle?
Speaker 5 (07:45):
Subtle racism? Subtle, it ain't passive, it's just subtle. It's
death by a thousand cuts. Racism well, you don't even
know that, you just got to discriminate against. They're so
clever about it. And you know, I do a routine
on stage where I say that, yeah, American racism is
in your face.
Speaker 6 (08:04):
The British racism.
Speaker 5 (08:06):
The Brits were the architects of racism, the architects savory
the European the way that they just hid it from
high society. Whereas do I say that Americans did the
equivalent of you know, breaking into someone's house and keeping
the stolen goods.
Speaker 6 (08:23):
In their own house.
Speaker 5 (08:24):
It was in America on plantations in America for every
American to see, for everybody to see.
Speaker 6 (08:29):
It was in your face. Whereas the Brits did it differently.
Speaker 5 (08:32):
They stole the same amount of black people from Africa,
but they put them on plantations in the Caribbean, mostly
away from polite British society. It was in Jamaica and
Trinidad and Barbados and all. So that is where the
majority of their filthy deeds were done. So if you
went to England and the eighteen hundreds and went, oh,
in a minute, you stole black people, they'd be like,
(08:54):
but where.
Speaker 6 (08:55):
Where is the evidence? I don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 5 (08:57):
So they did the equivalent of breaking into someone's house
stealing their goods, but keeping the goods in somebody else's house.
So when you come to them, there's no evidence of
what they've done, so, but it's no less heinous, you know.
You know, there's been a lot of discussion amongst you know,
African American actors saying the British actors playing American you
(09:19):
know characters, you know, they haven't had the experiences, you know,
they haven't suffered the levels of racism that we have.
Speaker 6 (09:27):
But that is not the case.
Speaker 5 (09:29):
We've had very black people in the UK and descendants
of slaves in the UK and in Europe, France, Germany,
Belgium have had very similar experiences. It's just that it's
not being publicized. The British and the French and the
Portuguese and the Spanish should be much better at hiding it.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
I think mostly too, that they can't necessarily pinpoint your
anger or your quote unquote crazy. Yeah, you know, the
argument has always been there, you know, about English actors,
and my point of view is that the training is.
Speaker 6 (10:08):
Kind of bomb like.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Honestly, the training is kind of it's not kind of
it's next level. Okay, not that not to disregard our
Juilliard grads or n y U grads or or Cornell
or or Berkeley. I'm not trying to dismiss that. I'm
just saying that's a that's a lot of schools, and
that's a lot of really powerful work. I'm just saying
(10:34):
that also, there's a combination of those things that one
can't pinpoint. You're crazy, you know, can't pinpoint where your
rage comes from, not necessarily because you're We have plantations
here in this place, huh, and we could go visit
them and feel the vibes, you know, at least are
(10:54):
the same for you. I suppose that you're questioners are
on our money and our streets and our schools.
Speaker 5 (11:03):
Oh yeah, I mean we've got you know, during the
Black Lives Matter marches, a lot of statues of slave
owners were being ripped down all over English that was
still very much there and being revered by the people.
Speaker 6 (11:16):
So yeah, we have the similar age. And with the actors.
Speaker 5 (11:20):
The actor thing, just going back to it for a second,
you know how many African American actors have played Nelson Mandela.
Speaker 6 (11:26):
You know, we it's stip for.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
You know what, But you know, I think the I
think the argument comes in when we don't know if
certain history is being taught over there and there may
be a black brit playing a black historical character like
that too, is a whole nother deep argument because I
always wondered that. I was like, do they teach our
history over there?
Speaker 6 (11:45):
Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (11:46):
I mean, to be fair, they don't teach it here,
Harriet tell mean was I mean it doesn't get taught.
I think I think for I think for me, it's
more like I think for me, it's more that. Okay,
So when people with black people, people of African descent
all over this world, right, America has a particular kind
(12:10):
of nasty little rule that if you are an African
of the diaspora and you come to America, you get
othered in a in a very specific way that pits
you against African American list that that little that that
(12:31):
piece is I feel like, what fuels this more than
any of this other stuff.
Speaker 5 (12:36):
Yeah, it is the classic divide and concotic and the
same thing happened in England when Africans came to England.
We were pitted against Caribbeans, black people from the Caribbean.
Speaker 6 (12:50):
You know, as a kid.
Speaker 5 (12:51):
Growing up, I was getting abused, not just by white kids,
but at the black kids ifact take on even more
abuse from other black children. The white children. The white
kids were confused. They looked the same, why are they fighting?
They I don't get it. And I used to get
abused by cabrin because we you know, they they weren't
(13:12):
taught proper British history. So at the time when I
was going the Caribecans, kids had no idea that they
were descendants of African people who'd been in slave They
hadn't been taught that. They thought the black people had
originated in the Caribbean. So I'd have arguments, you're Jamaican kids,
you came from us. The people were stolen from Africa
(13:34):
and that's how you ended up in Jamaica. And they
were like, no, MA mean not to African Yamican. I mean,
I know what you mean. They weren't taught the history.
It wasn't until Roots, when Roots came to England. That
is the only then that they started to realize, oh,
there's something that we haven't been taught. They had no
(13:57):
idea of the history. They didn't not no idea and
so I had a lot. I had so many fights
in my youth because my mom obviously know a history.
My family are from Benin, so my family, yeah you know,
I'm from Nigeren so our family were not enslaves, so
my mother knew the history. My mother would say, these
kids laughing at you and calling you names, it's because
(14:18):
they've not been educated properly in England.
Speaker 6 (14:20):
They don't know their history.
Speaker 5 (14:22):
They don't know that they are in fact our family
that were taken from us.
Speaker 6 (14:26):
They don't know it. So just don't worry about it.
One day they will learn, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
There had to be a mind screwed. Yeah, every day
you're fighting your own.
Speaker 6 (14:38):
People every day. It was crazy.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Well, to be honest, I've heard this same you know,
uh we're not saying, but a similar story with some
kids who are first generation in America whose parents are
are are from the continent and they come to America
and African American kids are like you African booty snatcher,
saying everything I mean, this is And it's so bad
(15:00):
that that particular insult it survived a whole generation that
this same thing that I heard kids call kids when
I was, you know, kindergarten in the eighties they were
calling kids when my kids were in kindergarten.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
I said, now, how on that because the boys in
the hood.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
But yeah, my kids, them kids ain't seen I got kids.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
They seen that movie.
Speaker 6 (15:25):
They's tossed down.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
The fact that that slur seriously though, that it survived,
it's crazy.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
I mean, the fact that the sentiment has survived.
Speaker 8 (15:36):
More real talk after the break.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Well, I'm here to tell you. Definitely proud of you.
I mean it feels like you've had your dukes up
the whole time. Oh yeah, we thought for any young folks,
dukes up. Just mean to hear you prepared and ready
to fight this whole time. But with this level of knowledge,
(16:09):
you know who you are. We were talking about genealogy
earlier and just the privilege and power of knowing who
you are. And man, what's your what was your grandmother's name?
Speaker 5 (16:21):
Patients are bussy and yeah she's She's been guiding me
my entire life.
Speaker 6 (16:27):
And you know, I've.
Speaker 5 (16:28):
Made history on many occasions, like when I became an
engineer for Otis. I was their first human engineer in
their one hundred year history in the UK.
Speaker 6 (16:37):
Ever, yeah, I mean it sounds good, but it was.
It was terrible.
Speaker 5 (16:40):
I got I can imagine the N word every day
at work. I'd come into work and these white dudes
would hang pictures of monkeys and put banana skins in
my own They tried to drive me out the job,
and I was like, now you're not driving out. I'll
prove that I can do this job back than all
of you. And so yeah, it was a yeah. I
was getting into a fight with white dudes every day.
In fact, had to pull do, decide and fight. If
(17:01):
you call me nigga one more time, I got two
brothers dukes up. I will send them to your house.
And then he never spoke to me again. And then,
funnily enough, my one of my first ever stand up shows,
he was.
Speaker 6 (17:13):
In the audience.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
So help us, help us walk through. We fix the elevators.
We fight, and we're fighting racist making, designing building, elevating
the building. We're doing this and then we get to comedy.
How take us on? Now take us on that pathway?
Speaker 6 (17:34):
Okay. So obviously I'm from a very academic.
Speaker 5 (17:36):
Family, so there was no way my mom was gonna
let me go into the arts, even though as a kid.
Speaker 6 (17:41):
You know. Teachers used to say to my mom.
Speaker 5 (17:44):
You know, Genus, she has a personality. You know, maybe
she should get into acting and the arts. You know,
I think she could be an actor. And my mom
was like, yes, well she can act like a doctor
until she become doctor. That was the yeah, I do
joke what I'm saying. An African family, there's only a
few choices of Korea, doctor, lawyer, engineer, accountant, or displaced
(18:08):
to the family.
Speaker 6 (18:09):
Those are the choices.
Speaker 5 (18:10):
And I found out quite early that I couldn't stand
the sight of blood, so doctor was not going to happen.
So I switched to engineering, and I studied in engineering
and I got my degree in electrical and electronics engineering.
And that's how I ended up in engineering as a
living did I worked to Otis for four years. I
stuck it out as long as I could, and then eventually,
(18:33):
because I was the first woman, then didn't I want
to do with me. I'd say, well, I'm supposed to
get this promotion, I've qualified for this, I've I've jumped
through all the hoops and I'm supposed to be this grade.
Speaker 6 (18:43):
And they'd be like, yeah, what was you know?
Speaker 5 (18:46):
If we send you out on your own on this job.
You know, the men there won't They're not going.
Speaker 6 (18:51):
To listen to girl.
Speaker 5 (18:52):
So I was supposed to be in a supervisor posian,
you know, and they wouldn't give it to me because
they were worried that the guys wouldn't listen to me
and all this kind of stuff. So in the end,
I was like, well, I'm never going to have the
career progression I'm supposed to have. So I, you know,
I left in the mid nineties. The building industry was
going through a slump. They were laying people off. I
(19:13):
knew they weren't going to lay me off because they
had me on the all their magazines and posters getting
look at us, We've got a black down and I'd
be like, there was just so they were never going
to let me go because I was their little poster girl.
But I marched into my manager's office and I was like,
you're going to let me go if you don't want
me to go public about what has been going on
in this company, give me my money, let.
Speaker 6 (19:33):
Me bounce, and they were like all right, So they
let me go, and so I.
Speaker 5 (19:37):
Decided to take the summer off enjoy the summer until
it was time to get another engineering job. And it
was in that time I decided to try different things.
I joined the Nation of Islam for about twelve minutes.
I did that for a while. I see that, you know,
I came out of Oti's.
Speaker 6 (19:54):
Very angry, very angry at white people.
Speaker 5 (19:57):
So I was like, I need I'm going to learn
my history and I need a group of people that
feel my pain.
Speaker 6 (20:02):
And Nation of this line just drew me in.
Speaker 5 (20:05):
And then from there I went off and started doing
stuff in the community, you know, helping out with you know,
seat kitchens and things like that for black people in
the community. And then one day they were doing a
fundraiser and they were like, we need poets, singers, dancers
for this fundraiser would doing.
Speaker 6 (20:22):
And so I wrote.
Speaker 5 (20:23):
Me and two of my friends were always messing around,
you know, cracking jokes about our parents, and I wrote
what I.
Speaker 6 (20:28):
Thought was a play for us to perform. And then
we performed this play and it.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
Turned out it wasn't a play because people laughed their
asses off through the entire thing.
Speaker 6 (20:38):
And I was like, oh, this is comedy.
Speaker 5 (20:41):
This is a comedy skit I've written, And so we
took that one skit, and we kept winning all these
talent competitions all around England with this one skit. But
the other two girls weren't that serious. And one day
we were through to the semi finals of another talent competition.
The other two girls just didn't turn up. They just
didn't feel like it whatever, it just didn't turn up.
(21:01):
And I was there and they were like, you guys
are up next. Where's your girls? And I was like,
I don't know, I'll just go up on stage and
talk for a few minutes and just you know. And
I went up stage on stage and talked for ten minutes,
and one that night the heat and got us through
to the finals. So then people were coming up to
me and oh, yeah, I need those.
Speaker 6 (21:20):
Two other girls.
Speaker 5 (21:20):
You're a stand up comic, that's what you are, and
that's how I discovered stand up And then I was like, well,
I'll do this for a while, see how it works out,
and then you know, have a little bit of fun
over the summer, and then get another engineering job at
the end of summer. And I just ended up never
going back to engineering.
Speaker 6 (21:38):
The comedy just.
Speaker 5 (21:38):
Kept building and building, and then I was like, you know,
people are coming up to me and I'll give you
fifty bucks to come and do ten minutes here. And
I was like, fifty fifty bucks for ten minutes. Oh
this is this is great and I just never went back.
Speaker 6 (21:51):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Everybody always talks about it, how the best comedians are
like super intelligent. Would it have to be right? Because
you have to come from you know, I have to
have a real perspective, a ground perspective in what it
is that you're talking about in a vocabulary vocabulary tour,
and also the imagination to tell the story so that
(22:16):
everybody in your audience can see. But now you got
your own TV show? Did you create it? So you know,
people are getting an opportunity to see your vision and
hear your comedy all the time.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
That means and see what's Africans in a different way
to stand an authentic way from a West African woman's
like boys.
Speaker 5 (22:37):
You know, I was a vited to help Chuck Glory
create this show. And I was like, well, if you
want my help, here's the thing. If I say that,
I wouldna, people don't do this. We don't do this
and it's okay in the show. Yeah, you have to
listen to me and and I have to be involved
in the constant. I know that you have your Hollywood
(23:00):
beauty ideals, but here's the thing. The actor who's going
to play every show is going to be a dark
skinned woman. No no, if no butts, it's going to
be a dark skinned woman, preferably Nigerian. But whoever comes
for the audition, if they got it, they got it
with it, you know.
Speaker 6 (23:16):
And so I made sure I was.
Speaker 5 (23:18):
Always in the room when these black actors came in.
So when they came in, they'd see me sitting there,
and their shoulders would just relax immediately because they know
they're not going to be asked to do any kind
of buffoonery because there's a black woman sitting in the
room who has some power.
Speaker 9 (23:35):
You know.
Speaker 5 (23:35):
A lot of the actors afterwards would come out to
me and go When we walked into the room and
we saw you there, Gina, that's when we knew this
show was legit.
Speaker 6 (23:44):
You know.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
I mean, I feel like a lot of black women
writers need to understand what it is they have in
front of them, if there's this is the trajectory that
they want to go on, and just the difficulty around
telling these stories because this has been the conversation, Oh,
our stories need to be told. Oh, our stories need
to be told, you know, But once you get into
(24:05):
their space to be able to tell them, you know,
to say, these are the things you need to be saying.
I want to be a part of the casting. I
want to be you know, I want to be able
to have the last word about these cultural references, like
any other things, like with black writers, black women writers
that are listening that they need to that they need
to put their foot down about I mean, is there yeah, yeah, I.
Speaker 5 (24:28):
Mean it's always difficult because it's spent such a hard
road for black writers, especially black women writers, getting into
those rooms, and they usually kept at a level, you know,
they'd hire them a staff rights, which is kind of
the lowest level of writer, and then they let them go.
They'd never got the chance to ascend through the ranks.
So it's always difficult to have a voice when you're
(24:50):
at the lower end of the ranks and knowing that
if you speak up in a way that you know,
the white exec producer may feel threatened by you being
a little bit too outspoken.
Speaker 6 (25:00):
And we're a little too smart and they don't like it.
Speaker 5 (25:02):
Then you know that you're not going to have a
job the next season, So I understand the difficulty For me.
In a way, it worked out in a way that
when I came in, I came in as a co creator.
I immediately came in as a creator of the show.
They were asking me to help them create the show.
And because of that, I felt I had the power
to speak and I was able to say, this is
(25:25):
what's going to happen, whereas not many.
Speaker 6 (25:28):
Of us have had that opportunity.
Speaker 5 (25:30):
Yeah, and so now I'm trying to make sure that
I pull that door open and provide more opportunities for
other people. So I've got you know, I've got other
black women writers in the room. I was like, you know,
I said to them, you guys found me, you know,
but there are plenty of mes out there.
Speaker 4 (25:47):
Yeah, what did your room look like?
Speaker 5 (25:48):
Janis curious African American writers male and female, my black,
young black Nigerian writer.
Speaker 6 (25:57):
What I did?
Speaker 5 (25:57):
I didn't want to scare these workmen, So I just went,
I'm doing a comedy show. Why don't you come and
see me doing my comedy show? And then I called
my friends to a comedians, I was like, come on
the show and open for me. I didn't tell them
what was about. I didn't want them to be nervous,
so I said, come, I'm doing this show, I'm headlining,
Come and open for me. They came and open for me.
(26:17):
And then this is how one of writers, Gloria, got
on the show. A friend of mine stand up comment
Gloria Pingler, so I got her to open for me.
And then afterwards two of the exec producers who worked
with Chuck were like, we like that woman, Glory, and
I was like, you did because she writes too.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
You know what I see now why you were lie
you get along? No, because you think very similarly. Your
ideas around putting people in the right places, connecting people
who you feel should be connected, who are bringing something
into the world like this is like like a grand
orchestrator of synergy, you.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Like uh, and I think that that's an amazing thing
to pull into what you do. It's one thing to
open up a door, but it's another thing to help
to understand how people will be connected to others. It's like, yeah,
let me let you tell let me let her tell
her story in front of you, so that I don't
have to sell it as, Hey, I'm a black person here.
I want to get other black people in here. You know,
(27:20):
I just think that that's amazing, you know what I mean,
even though you shouldn't have to.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
But literally, that's why I wanted her to come on
this show because I was like, I need Gina. Gena's
already has no fear, but I need her in a
super safe black woman's space. I want her in a
super staf Black women's space. And I wanted y'all to
build his energy and be able to have these hard
conversations sometimes, you know, even from the acting conversation to
these continental you know, versus Black American conversations.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
I need Gina. He has no fears. He literally is
the woman's been.
Speaker 6 (27:51):
Around a long time. I've been around a long time.
Speaker 5 (27:53):
And it took a lot longer for me to make
it because I've always known my wife and I've never
you know, I just never compromised, and it took me
a lot longer than At one point, I was like,
I'm not even sure it's going to happen for me,
but at least, you know, I don't feel like I've
(28:14):
sold my soul in order to do it.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
And.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
When it did eventually happen, I was like, great, now
I want to help other people.
Speaker 6 (28:23):
You know.
Speaker 5 (28:23):
Chut Lolly was because I was pitching shows featuring my
African family for years and nobody wanted it. Nobody wanted
but it took a wealthy, white, well known man in
the industry to go, I.
Speaker 6 (28:35):
Want to make a show with Africans.
Speaker 5 (28:37):
And then suddenly everybody was like, oh my god, that's
a great idea.
Speaker 6 (28:40):
Let's make a show with Africans.
Speaker 5 (28:41):
And I've been pitching this as an African for years
and nobody was interested. But I was like, I'm going
to get bitter about that. You know, I'm going to
take that opportunity and then I'm going to turn around
and try and be that wealthy, well known white person
man for other black artists. So I'm trying to get
as many of us in and get as many of
us working in.
Speaker 6 (29:00):
You see, it's possible, you know.
Speaker 5 (29:02):
I'm just trying to do with other people, for other
people what I wish that someone had been there to
do for me.
Speaker 6 (29:07):
Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (29:08):
For you? Yes, it's interesting that that's the exact same
way the Number One Ladies Detective Agency happened that it
was a white writer and it was a white director,
Italian authentically not from the United States at all, living
in England. That was like, Yeah, I want to do
this story about these beautiful people with these these generous
(29:31):
hearts and these intelligent spirits. I want to find out
about these people. I want to create a story. It's like,
you need that to get the damn door open. No
matter how many times you pitched, and it seems like
you pitched a lot, well.
Speaker 5 (29:46):
Oh, I pitched a lot, and I'm a performer. I
come pitch in a room. I'd have these executives laughing
and going, oh my god, this is so great, and
then I'd walk out in the room and they'd be like, oh,
it's like that. I've always been ahead of my time,
is my problem. I've always been slightly ahead of my time,
and I picked stuff and go people go, oh, we
don't know what to do. And then five years later
(30:07):
I'd see my ideas being done with somebody else and
I'm like, I putched that shit five years ago. So
it was always happening to me. So it got to
a point about five years ago when I was like,
you know what I might be one of those people
that after I'm dead, they'll go look at my work
and go, oh my god.
Speaker 6 (30:24):
She was brilliant. Why didn't we?
Speaker 5 (30:26):
And I was like, you know, maybe I'll be one
of those people. Maybe I just have to settle for that,
because I'm always slightly.
Speaker 6 (30:32):
Ahead of my time.
Speaker 5 (30:33):
And then Chuck came along and gave me the opportunity
and I just grabbed it, and I was like, I'm
going to run with this. You know, this might be
the only TV show I ever get because you know,
as it is for black women, we do well for
one show and then they go thanks for that sea
and then it doesn't become and it doesn't lead on
to anything else.
Speaker 6 (30:52):
But I'm hoping it does.
Speaker 5 (30:53):
I'm hoping to, you know, get some sort of overall
deal where I can then call my friends and go,
bring this scripts. I've got the soveral deal. Let's bring
the scripts. Let's bring your projects. I'll exact produce your projects.
Let's get all our stories told. That is what I'm
trying to do. That's my next part of the journey.
I think hopefully, let's get rhymes.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Yeah, look at this woman, the highest pain writer of
a producer in in all of television. Yeah, yep, like
there are the doors are are beautifully gently opening, and
sometimes you gotta stick a foot in crack at the
time or titty, you gotta get in there.
Speaker 5 (31:37):
I'm gonna toe and I'm gonna I'm gonna towe and
I don't think I can get the whole foot, but
the toe is in there.
Speaker 6 (31:42):
The toe is in there.
Speaker 8 (31:47):
We're gonna take a quick break and then we'll be
right back.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
You know. One of the things I've noticed is that
just in general, like black brit culture, I see so
much more on like social media. I don't know if
it's maybe some mixture of the popularity with like afrobeats
and then some of the artists coming from from you know,
from Britain, but then also even like people who are
like they're like a lot of the hip hop dancing actors,
(32:22):
but from that lens, not where it's like, oh I
gotta take away my accent or pretend to be American
or anything like that. I feel like we're in the
middle of a bit of a renaissance with that right
now period. Is that like is the presence of that
do you feel like that's making things a little easier
for you or are you more so like, look, I've
been on I'm just happy y'all caught up.
Speaker 5 (32:44):
Yeah, I mean, I came to America in two thousand
and seven, so then sixteen sixteen years or something, and
when I came out here, people didn't understand, you know,
they didn't understand. And then Indriks and then all these
British hads start blumbing up, and then there are black
people in England. We thought it was just you, you know. So,
and I think with the way the industry is changing,
(33:08):
streaming the Internet, people making their own content, it's open
the world up in a way that was never open before.
And so now there's a cross pollination of cultures.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 5 (33:24):
And so now you know, I can go into a
meeting and go, you know, and talk about my book
and go, yeah, I want to make that a serialized thing,
and I want it to be like a gritty version
of Everybody Hates Chris Everybody hates Chris Cross with MICHAELA.
Coel's I May Destroy You, you know, that kind of Chris.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
You know.
Speaker 5 (33:43):
So whereby I've got a young actor playing myself as
a youngster going for all these things, and I'm doing
the voice of a bit. It's a bit more gritty
where I'm going. Yeah, and this is the moment when
I decided to punch the bitch in.
Speaker 6 (33:53):
The throat, you know.
Speaker 5 (33:54):
So it makes it a little bit so and I
can have those meetings and people are getting it now
because because they've seen these other shows and the way
that boy is so huge over here, which is a
very British, very British show. The language is don't bridge like, yeah, man,
what you're saying, bro?
Speaker 6 (34:10):
You know?
Speaker 5 (34:10):
And Americans, my children, my children, literally, I'm like, y'all
in this black Bridge link y'all, y'all, not y'all from
West Philly.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Come down Like literally, my daughter says bro so much,
I'll be cracking up. It's just likely always saying men,
men's afroget she demands the demands them.
Speaker 6 (34:34):
And that's the thing.
Speaker 5 (34:35):
And so because this whole thing is happening, Yeah, now
I can be in meetings and talk about my Britishness
without them get her. I don't know, we don't understand
because now they've seen the shows and they've seen how
these shows are doing very well hit yeah, you know,
And so yeah, it's definitely opened a lot more doors.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
It's a game recognizers game as a culture recognizers culture thing,
and it makes me happy because, to be honest, it's
like we feed off of one another, you know what
I mean, the fashion, the music, the dancing, and to
see it, to get to see it is everything because
so much of that again ties us all back to
(35:15):
the continent, and it's like it is the Pan African
vision that so many of our fore mothers and fathers
wanted to see happen. But the fact that it's happening
through art, culture and technology is also the opposite of
what some of these dinos think that we shouldn't be doing.
But this revolution is happening on an artistic level because
of these things. It's because of that. So you know,
(35:38):
you hear it's unfortunate. You're going to hear some nasty
comments from one person or this person, and it upsets you, like, well,
why would that person have a platform and then say
something foul? You know, there was you know, there have
been some you know, black content creators, some actresses, actress
singer types who have said things that are just not cool.
(36:02):
If we're gonna all feel each other and feed off
each other, but the vast majority. What I've seen, especially
with these young people, is that.
Speaker 6 (36:09):
They are on it.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
What's saying.
Speaker 4 (36:14):
Yeah, I'm like, I don't want to know.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
I'm like, who's but we But I'm just saying, like
most people will figure it out anyway.
Speaker 6 (36:26):
Just what they said, Just what they said.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
You know what, I'm not going to say what they said.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
I'm not going to even put up.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
What I am going to say is this, I do think,
and we talked about this earlier in the podcast. It's
a result of hurt. It's a result of life experience
and not being accepted by other black people who are
black just like you, whose descendants are from the same
continent as you, that will come out of their mouth
and say things and treat you in a certain way.
And the clap back is from pain. It's from an
(36:54):
exchange of pain.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
I don't even know which side you're talking about attacked
first on that one both ways.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
That's why I said, I'm not going to say who
it was. I'm gonna say that the activities are happening
between us, and that these young people, as they always do,
they come out and they bust everything out of the
water and they make it okay. They say, look y'all, but.
Speaker 4 (37:14):
For our generation, we still got some work to do.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
And I feel like sometimes that comes from conversation because remember,
we still come from a place where sometimes people would
think that others from the other time, from other places
would look at us as being lazy, right, you know
what I think it's.
Speaker 6 (37:28):
Also a part of the conditioning.
Speaker 5 (37:31):
You know, when I my family came to to England,
the Caribbean people have been fed all these Tarzan movies
of black people being primitive in Africa and running around
and cooking white people in parts. So they thought that
we were cannibals, that we were primitive, that we were animalistic,
that we were violent. And then on the other hand,
(37:52):
Africans have been fed these images of African Americans has
been lazy and not working hard and hate, you know,
And so we've been on fed these mistruths about each other.
Speaker 4 (38:05):
That's so crazy.
Speaker 6 (38:07):
Divide and concotect me.
Speaker 5 (38:09):
It's ain't been using the same technique for hundreds.
Speaker 6 (38:14):
Of hundreds of years.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
Still works, same playbook, it still.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Works, it works well. So the whole time, while Jeffrey
Dahmer just child down.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
Girl in Town on back down on freaking checks, but yeah,
I just wish we could place gives him back to him.
Speaker 6 (38:35):
This is the privilege.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
That's why I said, I just wish we could all
just take a class trip to the Black sony in
and just stay in the basement for a minute.
Speaker 4 (38:43):
That's just all see abasement and just just get the knowledge.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
That's all I'm saying this.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
I'm gonna say this. You know, I actually always hate
this question just because I know that your life is
your influence. But you know, I can't and forgive me
and this might be this is crazy, but I can't
pinpoint in my mind and not saying that that's specifically
who would influence you, but like I can't pinpoint in
my mind a black woman British comedian that I could think,
(39:12):
oh yeah, that person must have influenced She.
Speaker 6 (39:14):
Is Gina, She's the First's why she's the woman.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
But that's what I'm saying. So I need to understand,
like who are your influences? You know what I mean?
And I hate that question, but it's I'm curious.
Speaker 5 (39:25):
I mean, there were black women comedians who came before me.
I'm the first one that kind of crossed over. Was like,
I'm just gonna perform to whoever. I'm not going to
change a thing about myself because it was very segregated
in English as it is it when I came to Americans,
like it's the urban comedy right then, and I was like,
comedy's comedy.
Speaker 6 (39:47):
If you're funny, you should need to make anybody like Yes.
Speaker 5 (39:49):
When I go in front of my people, my black audience,
then I have specific things that I talk about are
shared experience, right, and I will touch on that and
I liked it. But I also come but I'll tell
white people about this and you don't know this, but
this is you know. So I've never changed a lot
about myself. So but there are there other black woman.
(40:09):
There's a comedian called Angela mar who was going before
when I started. But funnily enough, because I never saw
comedy as a career. Yeah, I was an engineer and
I fell into comedy by accident. And then when I
started doing comedy, I didn't want to go back and
watch too much comedy because I didn't want.
Speaker 6 (40:29):
I didn't want to be influenced.
Speaker 5 (40:31):
You know, because you watch some comedians in your Yeah,
I see you watched a lot of it prior because
I could see, oh, I can see my Lawrence was
your favorite comedian because I see you.
Speaker 6 (40:40):
I didn't want that.
Speaker 5 (40:42):
So I didn't watch a lot of comedy because I
was like, I want to keep what is quintessentially Gina.
I don't want anybody to watch me and go, oh, yeah,
she she watched a lot of Whoopy Goldberger, or she
loves a bit of wonder Side she can see.
Speaker 6 (40:55):
So I never watched The Lost.
Speaker 5 (40:56):
I didn't have influences as such because I tried to
be very myself and being my own life. So I've
not watched a lot of comedy. Like you know, some
comedians have an encyclopedic knowledge of comedy.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
Yeah I do not, so so the Netlix special Quintessentially Gina,
I'm just the one. I just want to throw that
on that. Now take that, take that.
Speaker 6 (41:25):
Thank you. I love listen.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
There's times when I speak for for all of us.
Since you get it. I hope everybody that's listening you
feel in big rated. I hope that you you want
(41:50):
to find out about yourself, like your the history of yourself,
of your focuses. I hope you pay attention to your
ancestors that are guiding and moving through you right now,
right in this moment, because it's real, baby, It's real.
It's not a game, okay. And the fact of this woman.
Speaker 6 (42:10):
Gina, you you don't play around as fair.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
You said, I'm going to do I'm going to do
everything that I want to do, and I'm going to
do it boldly and quintessentially myself.
Speaker 6 (42:24):
Brah.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
Vote okay, and you're.
Speaker 3 (42:28):
Gonna add the gay black woman too much?
Speaker 6 (42:30):
Much?
Speaker 2 (42:31):
Were much more success?
Speaker 6 (42:33):
Are you?
Speaker 2 (42:33):
Do you feel joyful?
Speaker 6 (42:35):
You know what I do? I mean joy life.
Speaker 5 (42:37):
I've had to learn because I'm super competitive and I'm
always you know, I had to learn to feel the
joy and enjoy my experience of what I'm doing in
life and not I had to learn to put blinkers
on and just look forward and go enjoy what you did.
Don't look out for people and go but what they
got that I'm glad of. That I should have because
I spent a lot of time doing that because I
(42:58):
was very competitive. And the day that I stopped doing that.
And just when Gina, you're doing something for living that
you love doing, you're living your best life. Stop worrying
about what this person's gone. Why having you got it?
When you're better. Just enjoy your own journey. And the
moment I started doing that, I feel like the universe
cracked open and more abundance came to me. So every
(43:23):
once in a while, I find myself doing it. You know,
you can't help it. In the days of social media,
you on Instagram, game but they're doing well, well I
should And then I have to stop myself and go, Gina,
you're doing great right now. You're living your best life.
Ten years ago you would have dreamed to have what
you have now.
Speaker 6 (43:41):
Enjoy it.
Speaker 5 (43:42):
So I have to remind myself every once in a while,
but I really do. I'm enjoying life right now.
Speaker 6 (43:46):
I don't know. Nobody knows. Tomorrow is not promising.
Speaker 5 (43:50):
Nobody knows, and how long you've got left tomorrow I
might not wake up, but I'm going to enjoy every
moment up until that point.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
I love this.
Speaker 6 (43:59):
I love this.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
I don't I don't know how to say Helen's last
name quite frankly, I was probably Williams at this time,
but Pharrell Williams his wife from Helen. I saw her
recently and it was it was a beautiful moment. Just
we were in Paris on a on a balcony looking
out over Paris. It was just like fly and she
(44:21):
said this, She said, our grass is green as fuck.
And I was like, you know what, attention to your
own grass.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
Baby, because because that.
Speaker 2 (44:36):
Shade of green is unlike you know, anybody else's. Don't
even worry about what shade of green there's is. Our
grass is green as fuck. For having me today, it
has been a privilege, for real, for real.
Speaker 6 (44:50):
So proud of you.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
Yes, yes, I want to.
Speaker 5 (44:57):
I tried to get tickets for you at the boat
that ships so that so quick. So when you come
to l A, just drop me a little text before
you release the announcements so I could get in there quick.
Just give me a little Textlet just let.
Speaker 2 (45:12):
Me know you want to come. You're more than welcome.
Speaker 6 (45:15):
Listen, don't say I'm saying it.
Speaker 5 (45:17):
Don't say don't just if if she.
Speaker 3 (45:22):
Says, you mean it, and then I can sneak in
on your coatails because I live at l A too.
Speaker 6 (45:26):
So no, we're gonna listen.
Speaker 2 (45:27):
I don't have any comp tickets anymore. They don't exist,
so I have.
Speaker 6 (45:33):
I have no interesting comp I wanted to.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
Tell you, but there was not, no none.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
Thank you.
Speaker 6 (45:40):
I was your stuff gone nothing. I don't need comps.
Speaker 5 (45:44):
Just tell me, just give me a little heads up,
just say they're gonna be yourself tomorrow.
Speaker 6 (45:49):
He's a little sneaky link.
Speaker 5 (45:52):
That's all I want. I like to pay and support
my family.
Speaker 6 (45:56):
I like to pay.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
Then we just had this conversation, y'all. Yeah, we just
had this conversation about being supportive of one another.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
I appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
But Gina, for real, for real, high let your girl.
I'll get your number from Layah. You're more than welcome.
I'm super proud of you.
Speaker 6 (46:12):
Bravo, thank you, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
Thank you, Patience, Thank you so much you Patience.
Speaker 6 (46:20):
I don't know where she is, but she's here somewhat.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (46:26):
Yes, how do you eat an elephant?
Speaker 2 (46:32):
One by time? Our grass is green as fuck?
Speaker 9 (46:40):
Can we just take us a love for that and
just soak in that wisdom?
Speaker 2 (46:47):
Okay?
Speaker 9 (46:48):
Jda l fam it's Amber the producer here. Gina is fascinating,
like truly fascinating, and we all eat more of her energy.
I hope this episode left you with the inspiration to
boldly be yourself in every way and to remember how
dynamic you are, and how dynamic we all are, I mean,
(47:11):
an engineer and a comedian like what. There are so
many lives to live in this lifetime, and I hope
you embrace all of yours. And uh, let's add some
more Gina to our lives. I will leave a link
to get tickets to her show in the show notes.
Go see our good says, get a laughing, and get inspired.
(47:33):
For more GENA content, be sure to check out Bob
Loves Alba Sola on CBS and her comedy specials streaming
on Netflix.
Speaker 6 (47:42):
Love you.
Speaker 10 (47:48):
Yeah, Hi if you have comments on something he said
in this episodpisode called eight six six, Hey.
Speaker 2 (48:02):
Jill, if you want to add to this conversation, that's
eight six six four three nine five four five five.
Don't forget to tell us your name and the episode
you're referring to. You might just hear your message on
a future episode.
Speaker 9 (48:17):
Thank you for listening to Jill Scott presents Jay dot lthepodcast.
Speaker 2 (48:25):
Jay dot L is a production of iHeartRadio. For more
podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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