August 13, 2025 • 36 mins
Episode 03 of Now You Know with Knowa de Baraso pulls up a chair with Roy Wood Jr. — one of the most deliberate, unflinching, and flat-out essential voices in political comedy. Roy doesn’t chase easy laughs; and is never afraid to take aim where it matters.
In this episode, Knowa and Roy strip comedy down to the studs, breaking apart the mechanics of satire in politics — how it works, why it matters, and the responsibility of wielding it well. They dig into the cost of telling the truth in public, how to call out power without losing the room, and why the setup is just as important as the punchline. From military and police corruption to the White House Juneteenth celebration, no subject is off-limits.
With the Hulu special Lonely Flowers, the forthcoming book The Man of Many Fathers, Roy shows how to work the laugh line and the fault line at the same time — proving comedy can shake the room and shift the ground under it.
Follow the show and join the conversation across all platforms @knowadebaraso, and keep the dialogue going with #NowYouKnow.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now you know and know Dave Brosso is a production
of iHeartMedia and partnership with Resent Choice Media. All right,
there's comedy and there's commentary disguises comedy, and that's why
I had to get Roywood Junior on.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Now.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
You know, he's a cultural sniper, making folks laugh while
hitting us with the uncomfortable truth. So today we're talking politics,
media and what it means to be funny and fearless
in a country that prefers one or the other. All right,
how are you today?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
I'm okay. I'm taking the summer off CNN and put
their claws back in me until later on this fall.
So I try to use the summer as a time
to unplug a little bit as best I can from
the news. You know, there's always going to be chaos,
so you kind of have to take your breathers and decide.
(00:54):
Like I look at it like firefighters, right. I didn't
notice until I talked to a buddy mine as a firefighter.
Firefighters running the building they got that oxogen tank. Did
you know? They only be in that building like fifteen
twenty minutes and then the tank is out and then
they have to come out and get a new tank,
and then another group goes in to keep doing what
they were doing. So they just rotate in cycles doing
(01:17):
the job. And when I found that out, I was like, oh,
hell yeah, the summer is when I go outside and
refill my tank.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
I thought the summer was like the opposite.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
I don't know, well, working in political satire and like television,
like for what I do, right, like for Daily Show,
I have to download all of the worst news and
then find the jokes in the midst of all that news. Right,
the summer is the one time where TV ratings across
the board dip because everybody's on vacation, nobody's home, our
(01:53):
viewing habits change, TV ratings dip. There was a time,
young brother, let me tell you about the good old days.
I'm forty. There was a time where there was no
new episodes of television during the summer, before streaming TV
would just at the end of May, that's it. See
you in September for the fall premiere, and the entire
(02:15):
summer was when they showed reruns of the highest rated
episodes or whatever shows were on in that time slot.
So summer has always been in terms of the behavioral
nature of Americans consumption habits, there's always been a dip.
So that's when I try to take my little step
away whatever. When I was at Daily Show, the bulk
(02:36):
of our breaks were in the summer for the same reason.
So yeah, you know, when it comes to I guess
if we're talking just politics and remaining plugged into everything
that's happening, Nah, not in the summer. Not me. Yeah,
you know, I have to know a little bit, but
I choose to not know everything.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
And speaking of Daily Show, now that you're off the
Daily Show, what is a joke that you really wanted
to say on air but they didn't approve it. I
know there's tons of things here I want to say
that I can't.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Oh man, that's a tough one, you know what that's
Oh this is rough because it's not gonna be funny.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
You gotta do it.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
It's the truth. I was trying to make a parallel
at the time about police corruption within the departments, right,
not police corruption towards citizens, just cops stealing money from
the evidence room or covering up a murder, you know,
little things, or or the rogue cops who did bad things.
(03:45):
We were trying to make a comparison in a desk
segment where we're just telling jokes at the desk. It's
not a field piece where we leave the building. We're
in a desk segment. And I'm basically trying to make
the argument that if you want to help people but
also commit crimes, don't join the police department, join the military.
(04:07):
And then you go into a run about military corruption
and the crimes that happen on base. These are real
things that happen. In fact, there's so much corruption in
the military. The military has their own jail. It's called Leavenworth.
No other occupation has their own jail. And the reason
(04:29):
why that piece never came to fruition was because we
could not I could not figure out a way to
fairly denote that corruption is but a small part of policing,
and corruption is also but a small part of the military.
By saying all police are corrupt or join the military,
I'm essentially saying the entire military industrial complex is corrupt
(04:52):
and not beneficial and doesn't help fight for freedom, and
blah blah blah. And you open yourself up to criticism,
and once you're get in critics size people are going
to lose the overall point you were trying to make,
and that's a tough target. Even in stand up comedy.
I haven't been able to nail that one quite the
way I want to. So it's better off never said
(05:14):
I thought that.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Was a joke at first when you were talking about
the military. I know people here don't play about the military.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
You can't say anything, correct, Yeah, you can't. And that's
and that's the whole thing is that you can't say anything.
But we also can acknowledge that there are heinous crimes
that happen on basis domestically and abroad that don't go
investigate it properly. It's at all right, I'm talking you
(05:40):
really want to get into the mud. No, there's dead bodies.
We're talking sexual assaults. So it's not a good thing
that this is happening. If these people are fighting for
our freedom, do they not deserve the same justice that
a citizen raise a point? So okay, but you have
to make that funny Where Daily Show ain't MSNBC, I
(06:04):
don't get to just raise a good point. And at
the time when I was pitching that, we were just
leaving Afghanistan and like it just it just it just
wasn't the right time.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Yeah, So what is like the what makes Roywood Junior
think about this? Like what makes Roywood Junior think about
military corruption?
Speaker 2 (06:22):
I think about any and everything. I'm just trying to
find hypocrisy. Okay, So you know that's not my battle cry.
If there's anything I'd hang my hat on over twenty
five plus years in entertainment, it would be it would
be racism and discrimination in America. But that's because I
grew up in it. You know, we battled the traumas
(06:43):
we faced. That's generally what we tend to lock in
on as people. But you know, for me at the
Daily Show, you know, I was trying to pitch two
stories a week over the volume of a year, that's
a hundred stories. I'm not going to pitch a hundred
racism stories. We had a piece that I really wanted
to do with that we never got out to do,
(07:07):
basically called white Baseball. So I'm obsessed with baseball just
as a sport. We were gonna do a field piece
about how predominantly black colleges field mostly white or Latino teams,
and so I was going to go and talk to
(07:29):
white baseball players at black colleges but call them minority
hires and basically have a conversation about basically why black
people don't using white people at the school as a
vessel to the larger conversation of why aren't black kids
playing baseball as much anymore? On what's happening? Am I woke?
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Now I don't think so. I'm a comedian, so we're
always gonna eventually say something to disappoint somebody, Like I
think I care about people and I think people should
be cared for. So if that defines me as woke,
then fine. I'm just very careful about that word because
so many people define it so many different ways. Some
(08:18):
people use woke as a slur to suggest that the
things that you believe in have no validation. So, you know,
I'm not going to say that I'm solely that, but
I'm definitely somebody that cares about people and try to
be on the right side of most issues. But to
say you're woke, you know, I think it also to
(08:41):
this other swing at that to suggest that you're a
leftist without reason or without any rhyme or analysis for
why you necessarily feel a certain way. I'm just not
a big fan of blanket titles, young brother. It's just
I just think that's part of what's gotten us to
where we are now, is that everybody has a team
(09:01):
they play for instead of a viewpoint.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
It got very deep, really fast. I love it. And
speaking of stand up and stuff, you mentioned stand up,
is there any joke on stand up that you that
you were scared to tell in front of that crowd.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
No, there hasn't been a joke that I've been scared
to tell. There's definitely ones that you have to slowly
weigh your way through and hope that the audience is
with you long enough to get to the punchline. Because
we're in a state of consciousness now in America, and man,
people will boo the premise. They won't even let you
(09:36):
get to the point, like, damn, can I get to
the second part of the joke, bro. There's definitely been
a few jokes where I've had to like, Okay, let
me let me lay this out the right way so
that you can understand exactly where I'm coming from. I'm
(09:57):
trying to think from my first stand up special where
I defend the Confederate flag and I start out the
first line of my first special father figure. The first
line is, but if we get rid of the Confederate flag,
and it's just a question, but it's clear that I
am for keeping the Confederate flag around the amount of
(10:23):
tension while people wait for that punchline. In the early
days of that joke, black people would just audibly go no,
like uh, punchline, but if we get rid of the
Confederate flag, then how am I going to know who
the dangerous white people are? Eruption of laughter. Let's begin
(10:47):
the special because now I've given you what I believe
to be is a justified reason for keeping the flag around.
So in the early days of that joke, I learned
that I had to have a more confused look on
my face instead of a stern look, because confused suggests
(11:09):
that I'm still actively thinking through this point of view.
And I'm not quite sure if I feel this way yet.
But go with me for a second on this line
of thinking.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Yeah, ohda, we gotta pay some bills. And we talked
a little bit about this military corruption thing, and it
reminded me of a question i'd ask any comedian, how
(11:40):
do you separate telling jokes about politicians from spreading misinformation?
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Uh, what do you mean by that?
Speaker 1 (11:47):
So, for example, it's easy to tell a joke about
Hunter Biden during a special and then it leads to misinformation.
So how do you kind of draw that line.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
I don't think that's the comedian's responsibility. I think then
fortunate thing that's happened is that people view comedians as journalists,
so they view the jokes as truth. Because there's a
lot of comedians that bathe their jokes in truth, you know,
if we're talking political satire or whatever. But comedy is
a very wide spectrum stand up. That is, there's people
(12:19):
that would say Dave Chappelle's trans material is dangerous because
it validates people who are anti trans and it motivates
them to commit more heinous acts against the trans community. Okay,
that could be very very true. But then does that
mean if someone like Chappelle did not do those things,
(12:40):
or if he had a disclaimer, hey, don't attack trans
people even though you're laughing at this, does that make
anything he ever said the truth. It could be irresponsible.
It could be used to motivate and weaponize hatred. Absolutely,
jokes can be used. People use jokes all the time.
When I did the White House Correspondence dinner, we made
a point as best we could to have a set
(13:03):
that sprayed material at everybody, so much so that the
day after the correspondence dinner, pretty much every media outlet
had a joke from my set that they used to
motivate their narrative. Fox News took one of my jokes
and used it to push a Biden lie. CNN took
one of my jokes and used it to go at
(13:23):
Fox News. E News fifty cent took one of my
jokes because I talked about power the Power verse, so
I mentioned vander Pump rules and E News was like
he talks about pop coach? Did I? Because I also
could sworn, I called Don Lemon an asshole and I
said something crazy about Taka. I don't still feel that
way about Don Lemon, by the way, that joke was
(13:44):
worded terribly at the time. But my point is is
that everybody took whatever joke they wanted to push what
they believe, and I feel like no comedian is going
to have a joke that protects him from that. So
the idea that I shouldn't do this joke at all
(14:06):
because there's one group of people that are going to
misuse it or weaponize it or misworded if someone wanted
to use the joke for evil. There's also people that
can use that joke to try and educate and them like, Okay,
that is what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
And you caught me. For those who don't know, what
was that Don Lemon joke about what was that and
why that?
Speaker 2 (14:25):
I don't remember exactly, but I was trying Don and
Tucker Carlson together and that good journalist's bad attitude or
something like that was a parallel between the two of them.
What I didn't nail in that joke, what I was
trying to do and didn't nail properly, was that seeing
in is so annoyed with Don Lemon, they'd really get
rid of the truth just because they don't like that
(14:48):
the truth may not like the way y'all do stuff
in the newsroom from time to time. To say what
you want about Don Lemon as a person, if anybody
having the opinions of him, you couldn't doubt his journalism
was solid. Since that time, he's built a YouTube show
and a YouTube channel damn near a million subscribers in
under two years. That speaks to the product that he produces.
(15:10):
Here's some of his stuff probably draws better numbers than
some of the stuff that's currently on CNN. So my
point is, I spoke ill of Tucker Carlson. CNN and
left wing media used that clip. I spoke ill of
Don Lemon. Fox News used that clip. And that was
a George Santos joking there.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Somebody was supposed to go on his podcast and then
he went to jail.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
You still could do it. They be on the phones
in jail man. I was supposed to.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Go to New York and do it, and he went
to jail. It was horrible.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
If Santos could do it over the phone, which you
still do it, and they'd be making rap albums in jail.
There was a rapper named Shine got im Old. He's
before your Time. He did a whole album on the
jail phone.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Did it sound bad quality?
Speaker 2 (16:00):
It was pretty bad, but he was such a good
rapper we let his slat. Okay, it's called Godfather Buried Alive.
He did the whole album on the jail phone over
the course of many days.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
And what's your favorite song from the album.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Oh, Diamonds and mac Ten's okay, he's a good one
also for the record, but that was a fifty disc.
I'm very hesitant to promote this records.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
I love this tracks.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Yeah, but Shine is literally an ambassador for the country
of Belize. He he became like a Hasidic jew Like
he's like picture of religion and world peace. He wears
suits with lapel pins on him. Now, so I'm not
going to tell y'all to go listen to the time
he was mad at fifty cent while he was in
jail for defending Puffy and j Lo in a shootout.
(16:46):
Like that's true story, by the way, Like that's not
That's not how he should be remembered. He should be
revered for what he's doing on the front.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
End, right. I think my favorite part of this is
spoke a lot about the truth and stand up versus
seeing that it's a big difference. I have to ask you,
when is the Roy Wood Junior stand up Netflix special?
When is that? When do we get that?
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Oh? I don't know about Netflix, but I'll tell you
this much. I had a good time on Hulu in January.
Lonely Flowers is my latest special. It just came out
at the top of the year on Hulu and I'll
just say like this, if Hulu wants to make another one,
I'm gonna be right here, ready and willing and able.
(17:31):
You know where I go. Where the love is? You know,
Netflix every want to call up and show some love,
I'm with it. You know, we might go over there
and see what they talking about. I got the book
coming out at the end of this year, The Man
and Many Fathers, So I think there's some stories and
some one man show stuff in that. And I think
maybe in there, maybe in there, we got the Netflix joint.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
There we go in your wars, Roywood Junior, what happened
with the Daily Show?
Speaker 2 (17:58):
They didn't know what they wanted. I feel like that
was the right time to leave, because I didn't want
to be in a situation where I was on a
show that still had uncertainty in terms of the host spot.
Because if I'm not going to be the host, Okay,
that's fine, I understand you have you have your favorites.
(18:18):
But now I have to start thinking about what my
future is after this show. At some point, no job
is forever, you know, Doug Herzige. I quoted him on
the day I announced my departure from the show, and
that you don't own these jobs, you lease them, and
that's okay. So if I'm starting to think about what's
(18:41):
the next for me, and I know I want to
stay in the world of political satire and want to
do something well now leading into a presidential election year,
I know the game. Now I've been around eight years.
New shows emerged during presidential election years, not after after
we've picked a leader, and that's all it was. And
(19:03):
I left, and eight months later I was on CNN
hosting Have I Got News for You, which is a
remake of a thirty year British Stalwart. So we ain't
going nowhere, so that opportunity does not happen if I'm
still on the Daily Show. And sometimes you have to
take a leap of faith into the fog and trust
that there's a place to land. And I'm thankful that
(19:25):
I've had so many milestones and mile markers in my
career before that where I didn't even think twice about
jumping this time. Yeah, So you know, there was uncertainty
about what their host search was going to be, coupled
with my own anxieties about what my life would be
after this show if I am not the host. So yeah,
(19:48):
let's leave, Let's roll the dice and let's leave.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Speaking of the Daily Show, someone on my team told
me that you proposed a bit regarding my DNC thing.
Tell me a bit about that whole bit thing you proposed,
because that was hilarious to me.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
I can't remember what the exact thing was with you
at the time, but I remember you were going around
what's it called after the debate and they go in
the room and everybody lies spin room, the spin room. Yes,
I call it the Room of lies. Why because everybody's
doing My God did great, their God did terrible. My
(20:29):
God told the good lies? Did you see the good lies?
And I'm good mind guy. And I remember seeing you
and I was like, oh, the hell is this kid?
He's good. We gotta take him down. And I think
the angle on the bit with you was going to
be me attacking you for fear that you're coming to
(20:49):
take my job because because she's this young black kid.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
So what is this like? What does this look like?
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Oh, this is just me coming up to you and
imagine if you had a heckler while you were trying
to do your thing. Yeah, hey, don't talk to him,
don't talk to him. He young, he don't know nothe
to talk to me. I know politics. I'm older, and
it's just me constantly trying to sun you wherever you are,
and it's me looking at you and listening to those
(21:22):
types of questions you ask. And then I started asking
those same questions, which is a subliminal way of saying
you're very smart and you're very insightful and how you
approach politics and how you approach people, and it being
ultimately that me, the old fart, can learn something from
the young person in this country, and we should not
(21:43):
ignore young people. We should embrace them, and we should
actually interact with them, and it might actually make us
better and more informed voters. And that was going to
be the whole art. I love it, and then I
write a strike happen, and then I quit the show,
so it never happened.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
My bad Like, would you walking up to me have
been like a green spring thing? Or would ever have
been actors? What is that stage?
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Look on the streets? Bro? It was an election year.
This is middle of twenty three, we're into kind of
mid terms and Biden, we liked Biden enough and Trump
was gonna run on a pose. It's looking like, no
one's gonna battle the DeSantis. Maybe. So it's during that time, right,
So you were out on the trail, you were out
(22:26):
talking to people, and you were showing up to rallies
and stuff. So I was just gonna just pull up
on you at a rally and then just I don't know,
yes what this wasn't a sketch, bro, I was gonna
show up like your political bully and try to out
perform you in front of it.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
I thought this was some sort of bit.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
I think there was also a segment where I was
gonna try to lure you away with a Nintendo switch, like,
hey man, I heard it's all switch over there, and
then you turn around and go for it, and then
I stand in your spot, and now I'm closer to
Elizabeth Warren or whoever's stomping for Biden. That probably got
(23:09):
shut down because it just it felt a little too kidnappy,
you know what I mean, Like, hey, young boy, I
got a kool Ai Kubers and the Nintendo switch over
there at the table. Go over there. Yeah, And then
I start interviewing you know, Marco Rubio or somebody. But
the only question was whether or not to let you
in on the joke. I didn't want you in on
(23:29):
the joke because it's an uximent practical jokers type. Frank,
Let's see how he responds to this.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
I love that. I love that.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
But no, But here's the thing. In the spin rooms
and stuff, it is extremely competitive.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
You should have been there.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
I've done them. I've done them twenty sixteen, I've done
them twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Roy was mid ranch and I promise you we're gonna
get back to it. This is now. You know.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
The spin rooms, the reporters are all friends. The press
as one is a brotherhood. Even the right wing stuff
you don't rock with. But in the spin room, when
it's time to get a quote from a candidate, there
are no friends. And people will loud talk to you,
they will overspeak you, they will step in front of you.
And I'm taller than you, I'm wider than you. My
(24:20):
voice is louder than your. It makes everything for me
to just be your political bully. And that was the
plan while we were going through the guest host stuff
in twenty three, and then during the writer strike is
when everything kind of fell apart between me and the show.
So I just never came back and you can't have
Runnie Chain bullying a young black kid.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Yeah, I'm not with that that. I would have got
somebody on that.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Yeah, you were in the mix man, and we you
do dope stuff, and I hope you continue to do that.
Just make sure you leave a little space for yourself
in there to enjoy, you know, being your age. Don't
let everybody make you so riled up and piped into
politics that you don't go outside and change your oxygen tank.
Oh yeah, every now and then, change the oxygen tank.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
It reminds me last year when I was changing oxygen
tanks at a place in Washington, DC called the White House,
and I saw you there and you were telling your
jokes and sharing history. Why were we on the White
House guest list? What importance did that have?
Speaker 2 (25:26):
What was Oh you're talking about the Junior teenth concert
under the Biden administration. Yeah, I hosted that.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
You did, and I was like, oh my god, roy
Wood Juniors here.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
You know, it's wild. Though. I wasn't allowed to come
out there and mingle with everybody because I was in
the presidential security bubble. Like if you're going to be
back there with the president, because at some point we
know Potus and VP are coming out on stage. Yeah
to speak, everybody that's backstage can never leave backstage until
(25:55):
until they've left the premises. So I get on stage
and this is my first time seeing so many black people.
I respect. Bro Oh yeah, couldn't go over and say hello,
couldn't get a selfie. I won't name celebs I saw
because a lot of them were there on the low
and then Tocnito and you know they're really political. Yeah yeah,
I mean something took pictures, but they weren't wanting to
(26:18):
be called out on stage during a nationally televised music
concert at the White House. You know, a lot of
celebs still try to play their political alliances publicly as
a little bit more low key, even though behind the
scenes you see what they stand for, you see what
they support, and you see what they do.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
I was there. It was great, and you were there
and you told the joke and I was like, that's
Roywoo Junior. That's insane. So tell me about like that day.
What's it like coming in through the front entesce versus
the Roywood Junior entrance where you're going on? Is that all?
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Well? You know, young Noah, I only know the back
entrance of the White House. I've never taken a formal
I'm lying. I've taken public tours. There was a rehearsal,
there was a sound check at three, and they're giving
me the lineup of performers, Kurt Franklin, it's going to
be you know, Patty LaBelle, and it's going to be
all of these different high hat, dignitary people. I think,
(27:13):
was it Frankie Beverly. Was Frankie Beverly still alive? I
don't know. But one of the old school len I
call them the Lennon Blacks. Yeah, one of the white
Lenen Blacks was going to be there. And you know,
I met I met the President and Vice President beforehand.
So at most things like that, I'm in my head
because I don't want to bomb. I still have to
(27:34):
do jokes. And the juneteen concert was different because they're
trying to tell the story of black history through music,
so each artist is coming up to represent a different
evolution in the history of black music. Now, in between that,
I gotta tell jokes. So now I got to figure
out what's the quick joke to tell. After Kurt Franklin
(27:55):
sings God stuff, and then and then the next story
worry I'm going into is about reconstruction and after black
people were free, or at least thought they were free.
So it's this it's gospel by jokes, and then heavy
slavery story. And you have to segue seamlessly through this.
(28:18):
And so you know, I don't really when I'm somewhere
as a performer, I'm not really present in the experience.
You know, there was the thing where Kurt Franklin. Maybe
we can talk about this publicly now, but at the time,
there was the thing where Kurt Franklin pulled the vice
president on the stag, remembering that was not legal. Whoa,
(28:40):
he was not supposed to do that. You're not supposed
to physically touch the vice president. Also, you have to
remember at sound check, everything that's happening on that stage
down to the side of the stage you enter has
been rehearsed and approved and Secret Service knows it's happened.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
So what did he get punished or whatever after that?
Speaker 2 (29:00):
No, he didn't get punished. But it's a moment of
beautiful energy and calamity all at the same time, and
it was so beautiful. Kamala. Vice President Harris ended up
using it in her campaign footage when she was eventually
the candidate for president. I loved it, but at that time,
in that moment, Secret Service don't know Kurt Franklin like that,
and they don't care you're touching the asset. Sniper's on
(29:25):
the roof wondering should we take this, should we kill
Kurt Franklin?
Speaker 1 (29:28):
Do you think they considered it?
Speaker 2 (29:29):
And you have to, you have to. This is not planned.
So immediately there's radio chatter. My point is that happen.
Kirk Franklin brings her up, they dance, it's fine, he
walks her back to the seat, and then I come
back out on stage. Yeah, and mind you, they know
what I'm going to do structure wise. Yeah, in terms
(29:51):
of all right here, I'm gonna do three minutes about
this topic. This part of the show, I'm gonna do
two minutes about this topic I have to talk about
just in the spirit of blackness and a live show.
We all were here, we all saw this, and as
an MC, my job is to usher us through the
night and offer commentary. So I had to start cracking
(30:12):
jokes about Kirk Franklin touching the vice president. And it
was hilarious, and it worked out fine, and then we
segued seamlessly into and now remember when we were slaves,
turned to the video and remember slavery. Like that that,
I'm not even enjoying the show while it's happening, because
(30:33):
I'm constantly analyzing what's happening on stage? Where are we
in the show? What joke just did not work? Because
if this joke didn't work, then these two jokes, which
are similar vein, are also not going to work, So
I need to replace those jokes. It's just it's stuff
like that.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Yeah, I loved it, and like did was it a
problem that he brought her on stage that he even
made contact with the Vice president?
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Contact? You were not supposed to leave the stage. No
perform supposed to leave the stage when potus a VP
or in attendance period, You're not supposed to approach him
because we don't know who you are. We don't know
if you're a secret agent. How do we even know
you really, Kurt Franklin. You might be a clone from Russia,
like it could be anything, might not even be Kurt Franklin.
(31:18):
It might be plies in disguise. We don't know, Noah,
so no, you cannot approach the vice president. But because
Kurt Franklin is who he is, and he's an electric performer,
and he is in the moment, He's of the moment.
That's what makes Kirt moments like that or what make
Kurt Franklin. That's why we love him.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
Yeah, I seen her seven times that every time Secret
Service is chill, Like I don't know why people be like, oh,
Secret Service, don't play. They were chilling, not saying they
weren't inactive, but that they were chilling.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
When Kurt Franklin came off that stage, I saw five
or six people backstage and suits, all with their fingers
to their ear, listening intently on what to do. And
the only conversation that could be had at that time
is do we kill this man or tackle him? Which one?
(32:09):
Which one do you want? Do you want to be
responsible for tackling Kirk Franklin at the Black People's Celebration
concert and then all of Black America going, why y'all
do that to Kirk Franklin. That's just who Kurt Franklin is,
y'all tripping. I ain't voting for I'm voting for Trump.
Now I would hope it wouldn't go to that extreme.
(32:31):
But but yeah, the vice president, she waved him off
and you know, told him to chill out. It's cool.
I'm go on stage with my boys, Kurt Franklin.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
And I thank you so so very much for coming
on and showing love to the podcast. I have to
ask you one last question that is so relevant to
the center of the show. Okay, what are your thoughts
on like the current state of new comedians like Drew
Ski and just Hilarious like that. What do you think
about those kind of comedians.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
They're great, They're self made. They figured out a way
to make themselves popular without leaning on the linear TV
gate system. Everybody your name in the streets chose they
were not no talent exect. Jess Hilarious setting her front
seat telling gossip and gossip her way all the way
to stand up tours and sitting on the Breakfast Club,
(33:20):
which is the premier seat for news and gossip and
pop culture engagement with the black community, which is exactly
what she was doing on a smaller scale, you know,
back back in her early days, you know, four five
years ago, DC Young Fly and Chico Bean and Carlos Miller,
the eighty five South Boys, that's all the self made.
They were chosen, They were chosen by the streets. They
(33:44):
weren't like presented to Black America. You know, the same
with Drew ski Country Wayne, you know, Desi Banks, Ben
the Dawn.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
You're naming people at this point, Yeah, don't.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
I don't even know if you well, if you know
drews skidding, then you can watch then you can watch
a Benda don sketch. I'm not gonna get keep that.
I'm not gonna act like you ain't old enough, you mature,
Funny Marco, like all these people, they created their own
lane for themselves, and people gravitated towards them in their
(34:18):
ticket sales and revenue streams. Show that. I wish more
older comics would realize that they could stand to learn
something instead of being resentful of them.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
And speaking of selling out stand up tours and such.
Where can everyone find you to support you?
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Hey? The only thing I want people to think about
right now is pre ordering my book, The Man of
Many Fathers. My my dad died when I was sixteen.
I wrote a series of short stories of value lessons
I learned from other men along the way. Uh, It's
available from Crown Publishing and Penguin Random House. And I'm
going to be doing the audio book myself, but you
can go to roywood Junior dot com and check that out.
(34:58):
And I'm grab that's wonderful.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
And are you still doing that that CNN show we
talked about?
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Absolutely? Have I got news for you? We're back season
three on Saturday, September sixth. We're back on the airway,
so we helped to see everybody.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
Then I've got news for you. Why is how have
I got news for you? Egoing me? Are we yes?
Speaker 2 (35:19):
Then? Let me then let me talk to the folks
about it. Let me talk to the folks.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
Thanks work, all right, thank you?
Speaker 2 (35:26):
I got a cuss it on that show now, just
so you know we'll see, I ain't saying you got
a cuss I'm just saying Michael Lee and Black might
cussed at you. Hey, listen, we ain't gonna take mercy
on you just because you're young, don't.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
I hate when people do it. I hate when people
do it. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Indeed, respect to you.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Roy said it best, comedy is protests. Protest is power.
I don't know how much I believe that, but that's
what he says. I hope y'all caught the layers because
there was some game all through this one like share
and pull up next Wednesday for another. Now you know
where we talk politics, power and the people changing the
game and folks. You can follow me on all social
(36:07):
medias at Noda barosso k n O w A d
E v A r A s O and give my
name a little search to see the updates. Now you know,
and Noda Brosso is a production of iHeartMedia and partnership
with Recent Choice Media.
Now you know and know Dave Brosso is a production
of iHeartMedia and partnership with Resent Choice Media. All right,
there's comedy and there's commentary disguises comedy, and that's why
I had to get Roywood Junior on.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Now.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
You know, he's a cultural sniper, making folks laugh while
hitting us with the uncomfortable truth. So today we're talking politics,
media and what it means to be funny and fearless
in a country that prefers one or the other. All right,
how are you today?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
I'm okay. I'm taking the summer off CNN and put
their claws back in me until later on this fall.
So I try to use the summer as a time
to unplug a little bit as best I can from
the news. You know, there's always going to be chaos,
so you kind of have to take your breathers and decide.
(00:54):
Like I look at it like firefighters, right. I didn't
notice until I talked to a buddy mine as a firefighter.
Firefighters running the building they got that oxogen tank. Did
you know? They only be in that building like fifteen
twenty minutes and then the tank is out and then
they have to come out and get a new tank,
and then another group goes in to keep doing what
they were doing. So they just rotate in cycles doing
(01:17):
the job. And when I found that out, I was like, oh,
hell yeah, the summer is when I go outside and
refill my tank.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
I thought the summer was like the opposite.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
I don't know, well, working in political satire and like television,
like for what I do, right, like for Daily Show,
I have to download all of the worst news and
then find the jokes in the midst of all that news. Right,
the summer is the one time where TV ratings across
the board dip because everybody's on vacation, nobody's home, our
(01:53):
viewing habits change, TV ratings dip. There was a time,
young brother, let me tell you about the good old days.
I'm forty. There was a time where there was no
new episodes of television during the summer, before streaming TV
would just at the end of May, that's it. See
you in September for the fall premiere, and the entire
(02:15):
summer was when they showed reruns of the highest rated
episodes or whatever shows were on in that time slot.
So summer has always been in terms of the behavioral
nature of Americans consumption habits, there's always been a dip.
So that's when I try to take my little step
away whatever. When I was at Daily Show, the bulk
(02:36):
of our breaks were in the summer for the same reason.
So yeah, you know, when it comes to I guess
if we're talking just politics and remaining plugged into everything
that's happening, Nah, not in the summer. Not me. Yeah,
you know, I have to know a little bit, but
I choose to not know everything.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
And speaking of Daily Show, now that you're off the
Daily Show, what is a joke that you really wanted
to say on air but they didn't approve it. I
know there's tons of things here I want to say
that I can't.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Oh man, that's a tough one, you know what that's
Oh this is rough because it's not gonna be funny.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
You gotta do it.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
It's the truth. I was trying to make a parallel
at the time about police corruption within the departments, right,
not police corruption towards citizens, just cops stealing money from
the evidence room or covering up a murder, you know,
little things, or or the rogue cops who did bad things.
(03:45):
We were trying to make a comparison in a desk
segment where we're just telling jokes at the desk. It's
not a field piece where we leave the building. We're
in a desk segment. And I'm basically trying to make
the argument that if you want to help people but
also commit crimes, don't join the police department, join the military.
(04:07):
And then you go into a run about military corruption
and the crimes that happen on base. These are real
things that happen. In fact, there's so much corruption in
the military. The military has their own jail. It's called Leavenworth.
No other occupation has their own jail. And the reason
(04:29):
why that piece never came to fruition was because we
could not I could not figure out a way to
fairly denote that corruption is but a small part of policing,
and corruption is also but a small part of the military.
By saying all police are corrupt or join the military,
I'm essentially saying the entire military industrial complex is corrupt
(04:52):
and not beneficial and doesn't help fight for freedom, and
blah blah blah. And you open yourself up to criticism,
and once you're get in critics size people are going
to lose the overall point you were trying to make,
and that's a tough target. Even in stand up comedy.
I haven't been able to nail that one quite the
way I want to. So it's better off never said
(05:14):
I thought that.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Was a joke at first when you were talking about
the military. I know people here don't play about the military.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
You can't say anything, correct, Yeah, you can't. And that's
and that's the whole thing is that you can't say anything.
But we also can acknowledge that there are heinous crimes
that happen on basis domestically and abroad that don't go
investigate it properly. It's at all right, I'm talking you
(05:40):
really want to get into the mud. No, there's dead bodies.
We're talking sexual assaults. So it's not a good thing
that this is happening. If these people are fighting for
our freedom, do they not deserve the same justice that
a citizen raise a point? So okay, but you have
to make that funny Where Daily Show ain't MSNBC, I
(06:04):
don't get to just raise a good point. And at
the time when I was pitching that, we were just
leaving Afghanistan and like it just it just it just
wasn't the right time.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Yeah, So what is like the what makes Roywood Junior
think about this? Like what makes Roywood Junior think about
military corruption?
Speaker 2 (06:22):
I think about any and everything. I'm just trying to
find hypocrisy. Okay, So you know that's not my battle cry.
If there's anything I'd hang my hat on over twenty
five plus years in entertainment, it would be it would
be racism and discrimination in America. But that's because I
grew up in it. You know, we battled the traumas
(06:43):
we faced. That's generally what we tend to lock in
on as people. But you know, for me at the
Daily Show, you know, I was trying to pitch two
stories a week over the volume of a year, that's
a hundred stories. I'm not going to pitch a hundred
racism stories. We had a piece that I really wanted
to do with that we never got out to do,
(07:07):
basically called white Baseball. So I'm obsessed with baseball just
as a sport. We were gonna do a field piece
about how predominantly black colleges field mostly white or Latino teams,
and so I was going to go and talk to
(07:29):
white baseball players at black colleges but call them minority
hires and basically have a conversation about basically why black
people don't using white people at the school as a
vessel to the larger conversation of why aren't black kids
playing baseball as much anymore? On what's happening? Am I woke?
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Now I don't think so. I'm a comedian, so we're
always gonna eventually say something to disappoint somebody, Like I
think I care about people and I think people should
be cared for. So if that defines me as woke,
then fine. I'm just very careful about that word because
so many people define it so many different ways. Some
(08:18):
people use woke as a slur to suggest that the
things that you believe in have no validation. So, you know,
I'm not going to say that I'm solely that, but
I'm definitely somebody that cares about people and try to
be on the right side of most issues. But to
say you're woke, you know, I think it also to
(08:41):
this other swing at that to suggest that you're a
leftist without reason or without any rhyme or analysis for
why you necessarily feel a certain way. I'm just not
a big fan of blanket titles, young brother. It's just
I just think that's part of what's gotten us to
where we are now, is that everybody has a team
(09:01):
they play for instead of a viewpoint.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
It got very deep, really fast. I love it. And
speaking of stand up and stuff, you mentioned stand up,
is there any joke on stand up that you that
you were scared to tell in front of that crowd.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
No, there hasn't been a joke that I've been scared
to tell. There's definitely ones that you have to slowly
weigh your way through and hope that the audience is
with you long enough to get to the punchline. Because
we're in a state of consciousness now in America, and man,
people will boo the premise. They won't even let you
(09:36):
get to the point, like, damn, can I get to
the second part of the joke, bro. There's definitely been
a few jokes where I've had to like, Okay, let
me let me lay this out the right way so
that you can understand exactly where I'm coming from. I'm
(09:57):
trying to think from my first stand up special where
I defend the Confederate flag and I start out the
first line of my first special father figure. The first
line is, but if we get rid of the Confederate flag,
and it's just a question, but it's clear that I
am for keeping the Confederate flag around the amount of
(10:23):
tension while people wait for that punchline. In the early
days of that joke, black people would just audibly go no,
like uh, punchline, but if we get rid of the
Confederate flag, then how am I going to know who
the dangerous white people are? Eruption of laughter. Let's begin
(10:47):
the special because now I've given you what I believe
to be is a justified reason for keeping the flag around.
So in the early days of that joke, I learned
that I had to have a more confused look on
my face instead of a stern look, because confused suggests
(11:09):
that I'm still actively thinking through this point of view.
And I'm not quite sure if I feel this way yet.
But go with me for a second on this line
of thinking.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Yeah, ohda, we gotta pay some bills. And we talked
a little bit about this military corruption thing, and it
reminded me of a question i'd ask any comedian, how
(11:40):
do you separate telling jokes about politicians from spreading misinformation?
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Uh, what do you mean by that?
Speaker 1 (11:47):
So, for example, it's easy to tell a joke about
Hunter Biden during a special and then it leads to misinformation.
So how do you kind of draw that line.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
I don't think that's the comedian's responsibility. I think then
fortunate thing that's happened is that people view comedians as journalists,
so they view the jokes as truth. Because there's a
lot of comedians that bathe their jokes in truth, you know,
if we're talking political satire or whatever. But comedy is
a very wide spectrum stand up. That is, there's people
(12:19):
that would say Dave Chappelle's trans material is dangerous because
it validates people who are anti trans and it motivates
them to commit more heinous acts against the trans community. Okay,
that could be very very true. But then does that
mean if someone like Chappelle did not do those things,
(12:40):
or if he had a disclaimer, hey, don't attack trans
people even though you're laughing at this, does that make
anything he ever said the truth. It could be irresponsible.
It could be used to motivate and weaponize hatred. Absolutely,
jokes can be used. People use jokes all the time.
When I did the White House Correspondence dinner, we made
a point as best we could to have a set
(13:03):
that sprayed material at everybody, so much so that the
day after the correspondence dinner, pretty much every media outlet
had a joke from my set that they used to
motivate their narrative. Fox News took one of my jokes
and used it to push a Biden lie. CNN took
one of my jokes and used it to go at
(13:23):
Fox News. E News fifty cent took one of my
jokes because I talked about power the Power verse, so
I mentioned vander Pump rules and E News was like
he talks about pop coach? Did I? Because I also
could sworn, I called Don Lemon an asshole and I
said something crazy about Taka. I don't still feel that
way about Don Lemon, by the way, that joke was
(13:44):
worded terribly at the time. But my point is is
that everybody took whatever joke they wanted to push what
they believe, and I feel like no comedian is going
to have a joke that protects him from that. So
the idea that I shouldn't do this joke at all
(14:06):
because there's one group of people that are going to
misuse it or weaponize it or misworded if someone wanted
to use the joke for evil. There's also people that
can use that joke to try and educate and them like, Okay,
that is what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
And you caught me. For those who don't know, what
was that Don Lemon joke about what was that and
why that?
Speaker 2 (14:25):
I don't remember exactly, but I was trying Don and
Tucker Carlson together and that good journalist's bad attitude or
something like that was a parallel between the two of them.
What I didn't nail in that joke, what I was
trying to do and didn't nail properly, was that seeing
in is so annoyed with Don Lemon, they'd really get
rid of the truth just because they don't like that
(14:48):
the truth may not like the way y'all do stuff
in the newsroom from time to time. To say what
you want about Don Lemon as a person, if anybody
having the opinions of him, you couldn't doubt his journalism
was solid. Since that time, he's built a YouTube show
and a YouTube channel damn near a million subscribers in
under two years. That speaks to the product that he produces.
(15:10):
Here's some of his stuff probably draws better numbers than
some of the stuff that's currently on CNN. So my
point is, I spoke ill of Tucker Carlson. CNN and
left wing media used that clip. I spoke ill of
Don Lemon. Fox News used that clip. And that was
a George Santos joking there.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Somebody was supposed to go on his podcast and then
he went to jail.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
You still could do it. They be on the phones
in jail man. I was supposed to.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Go to New York and do it, and he went
to jail. It was horrible.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
If Santos could do it over the phone, which you
still do it, and they'd be making rap albums in jail.
There was a rapper named Shine got im Old. He's
before your Time. He did a whole album on the
jail phone.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Did it sound bad quality?
Speaker 2 (16:00):
It was pretty bad, but he was such a good
rapper we let his slat. Okay, it's called Godfather Buried Alive.
He did the whole album on the jail phone over
the course of many days.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
And what's your favorite song from the album.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Oh, Diamonds and mac Ten's okay, he's a good one
also for the record, but that was a fifty disc.
I'm very hesitant to promote this records.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
I love this tracks.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Yeah, but Shine is literally an ambassador for the country
of Belize. He he became like a Hasidic jew Like
he's like picture of religion and world peace. He wears
suits with lapel pins on him. Now, so I'm not
going to tell y'all to go listen to the time
he was mad at fifty cent while he was in
jail for defending Puffy and j Lo in a shootout.
(16:46):
Like that's true story, by the way, Like that's not
That's not how he should be remembered. He should be
revered for what he's doing on the front.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
End, right. I think my favorite part of this is
spoke a lot about the truth and stand up versus
seeing that it's a big difference. I have to ask you,
when is the Roy Wood Junior stand up Netflix special?
When is that? When do we get that?
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Oh? I don't know about Netflix, but I'll tell you
this much. I had a good time on Hulu in January.
Lonely Flowers is my latest special. It just came out
at the top of the year on Hulu and I'll
just say like this, if Hulu wants to make another one,
I'm gonna be right here, ready and willing and able.
(17:31):
You know where I go. Where the love is? You know,
Netflix every want to call up and show some love,
I'm with it. You know, we might go over there
and see what they talking about. I got the book
coming out at the end of this year, The Man
and Many Fathers, So I think there's some stories and
some one man show stuff in that. And I think
maybe in there, maybe in there, we got the Netflix joint.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
There we go in your wars, Roywood Junior, what happened
with the Daily Show?
Speaker 2 (17:58):
They didn't know what they wanted. I feel like that
was the right time to leave, because I didn't want
to be in a situation where I was on a
show that still had uncertainty in terms of the host spot.
Because if I'm not going to be the host, Okay,
that's fine, I understand you have you have your favorites.
(18:18):
But now I have to start thinking about what my
future is after this show. At some point, no job
is forever, you know, Doug Herzige. I quoted him on
the day I announced my departure from the show, and
that you don't own these jobs, you lease them, and
that's okay. So if I'm starting to think about what's
(18:41):
the next for me, and I know I want to
stay in the world of political satire and want to
do something well now leading into a presidential election year,
I know the game. Now I've been around eight years.
New shows emerged during presidential election years, not after after
we've picked a leader, and that's all it was. And
(19:03):
I left, and eight months later I was on CNN
hosting Have I Got News for You, which is a
remake of a thirty year British Stalwart. So we ain't
going nowhere, so that opportunity does not happen if I'm
still on the Daily Show. And sometimes you have to
take a leap of faith into the fog and trust
that there's a place to land. And I'm thankful that
(19:25):
I've had so many milestones and mile markers in my
career before that where I didn't even think twice about
jumping this time. Yeah, So you know, there was uncertainty
about what their host search was going to be, coupled
with my own anxieties about what my life would be
after this show if I am not the host. So yeah,
(19:48):
let's leave, Let's roll the dice and let's leave.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Speaking of the Daily Show, someone on my team told
me that you proposed a bit regarding my DNC thing.
Tell me a bit about that whole bit thing you proposed,
because that was hilarious to me.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
I can't remember what the exact thing was with you
at the time, but I remember you were going around
what's it called after the debate and they go in
the room and everybody lies spin room, the spin room. Yes,
I call it the Room of lies. Why because everybody's
doing My God did great, their God did terrible. My
(20:29):
God told the good lies? Did you see the good lies?
And I'm good mind guy. And I remember seeing you
and I was like, oh, the hell is this kid?
He's good. We gotta take him down. And I think
the angle on the bit with you was going to
be me attacking you for fear that you're coming to
(20:49):
take my job because because she's this young black kid.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
So what is this like? What does this look like?
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Oh, this is just me coming up to you and
imagine if you had a heckler while you were trying
to do your thing. Yeah, hey, don't talk to him,
don't talk to him. He young, he don't know nothe
to talk to me. I know politics. I'm older, and
it's just me constantly trying to sun you wherever you are,
and it's me looking at you and listening to those
(21:22):
types of questions you ask. And then I started asking
those same questions, which is a subliminal way of saying
you're very smart and you're very insightful and how you
approach politics and how you approach people, and it being
ultimately that me, the old fart, can learn something from
the young person in this country, and we should not
(21:43):
ignore young people. We should embrace them, and we should
actually interact with them, and it might actually make us
better and more informed voters. And that was going to
be the whole art. I love it, and then I
write a strike happen, and then I quit the show,
so it never happened.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
My bad Like, would you walking up to me have
been like a green spring thing? Or would ever have
been actors? What is that stage?
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Look on the streets? Bro? It was an election year.
This is middle of twenty three, we're into kind of
mid terms and Biden, we liked Biden enough and Trump
was gonna run on a pose. It's looking like, no
one's gonna battle the DeSantis. Maybe. So it's during that time, right,
So you were out on the trail, you were out
(22:26):
talking to people, and you were showing up to rallies
and stuff. So I was just gonna just pull up
on you at a rally and then just I don't know,
yes what this wasn't a sketch, bro, I was gonna
show up like your political bully and try to out
perform you in front of it.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
I thought this was some sort of bit.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
I think there was also a segment where I was
gonna try to lure you away with a Nintendo switch, like,
hey man, I heard it's all switch over there, and
then you turn around and go for it, and then
I stand in your spot, and now I'm closer to
Elizabeth Warren or whoever's stomping for Biden. That probably got
(23:09):
shut down because it just it felt a little too kidnappy,
you know what I mean, Like, hey, young boy, I
got a kool Ai Kubers and the Nintendo switch over
there at the table. Go over there. Yeah, And then
I start interviewing you know, Marco Rubio or somebody. But
the only question was whether or not to let you
in on the joke. I didn't want you in on
(23:29):
the joke because it's an uximent practical jokers type. Frank,
Let's see how he responds to this.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
I love that. I love that.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
But no, But here's the thing. In the spin rooms
and stuff, it is extremely competitive.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
You should have been there.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
I've done them. I've done them twenty sixteen, I've done
them twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Roy was mid ranch and I promise you we're gonna
get back to it. This is now. You know.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
The spin rooms, the reporters are all friends. The press
as one is a brotherhood. Even the right wing stuff
you don't rock with. But in the spin room, when
it's time to get a quote from a candidate, there
are no friends. And people will loud talk to you,
they will overspeak you, they will step in front of you.
And I'm taller than you, I'm wider than you. My
(24:20):
voice is louder than your. It makes everything for me
to just be your political bully. And that was the
plan while we were going through the guest host stuff
in twenty three, and then during the writer strike is
when everything kind of fell apart between me and the show.
So I just never came back and you can't have
Runnie Chain bullying a young black kid.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Yeah, I'm not with that that. I would have got
somebody on that.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Yeah, you were in the mix man, and we you
do dope stuff, and I hope you continue to do that.
Just make sure you leave a little space for yourself
in there to enjoy, you know, being your age. Don't
let everybody make you so riled up and piped into
politics that you don't go outside and change your oxygen tank.
Oh yeah, every now and then, change the oxygen tank.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
It reminds me last year when I was changing oxygen
tanks at a place in Washington, DC called the White House,
and I saw you there and you were telling your
jokes and sharing history. Why were we on the White
House guest list? What importance did that have?
Speaker 2 (25:26):
What was Oh you're talking about the Junior teenth concert
under the Biden administration. Yeah, I hosted that.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
You did, and I was like, oh my god, roy
Wood Juniors here.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
You know, it's wild. Though. I wasn't allowed to come
out there and mingle with everybody because I was in
the presidential security bubble. Like if you're going to be
back there with the president, because at some point we
know Potus and VP are coming out on stage. Yeah
to speak, everybody that's backstage can never leave backstage until
(25:55):
until they've left the premises. So I get on stage
and this is my first time seeing so many black people.
I respect. Bro Oh yeah, couldn't go over and say hello,
couldn't get a selfie. I won't name celebs I saw
because a lot of them were there on the low
and then Tocnito and you know they're really political. Yeah yeah,
I mean something took pictures, but they weren't wanting to
(26:18):
be called out on stage during a nationally televised music
concert at the White House. You know, a lot of
celebs still try to play their political alliances publicly as
a little bit more low key, even though behind the
scenes you see what they stand for, you see what
they support, and you see what they do.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
I was there. It was great, and you were there
and you told the joke and I was like, that's
Roywoo Junior. That's insane. So tell me about like that day.
What's it like coming in through the front entesce versus
the Roywood Junior entrance where you're going on? Is that all?
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Well? You know, young Noah, I only know the back
entrance of the White House. I've never taken a formal
I'm lying. I've taken public tours. There was a rehearsal,
there was a sound check at three, and they're giving
me the lineup of performers, Kurt Franklin, it's going to
be you know, Patty LaBelle, and it's going to be
all of these different high hat, dignitary people. I think,
(27:13):
was it Frankie Beverly. Was Frankie Beverly still alive? I
don't know. But one of the old school len I
call them the Lennon Blacks. Yeah, one of the white
Lenen Blacks was going to be there. And you know,
I met I met the President and Vice President beforehand.
So at most things like that, I'm in my head
because I don't want to bomb. I still have to
(27:34):
do jokes. And the juneteen concert was different because they're
trying to tell the story of black history through music,
so each artist is coming up to represent a different
evolution in the history of black music. Now, in between that,
I gotta tell jokes. So now I got to figure
out what's the quick joke to tell. After Kurt Franklin
(27:55):
sings God stuff, and then and then the next story
worry I'm going into is about reconstruction and after black
people were free, or at least thought they were free.
So it's this it's gospel by jokes, and then heavy
slavery story. And you have to segue seamlessly through this.
(28:18):
And so you know, I don't really when I'm somewhere
as a performer, I'm not really present in the experience.
You know, there was the thing where Kurt Franklin. Maybe
we can talk about this publicly now, but at the time,
there was the thing where Kurt Franklin pulled the vice
president on the stag, remembering that was not legal. Whoa,
(28:40):
he was not supposed to do that. You're not supposed
to physically touch the vice president. Also, you have to
remember at sound check, everything that's happening on that stage
down to the side of the stage you enter has
been rehearsed and approved and Secret Service knows it's happened.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
So what did he get punished or whatever after that?
Speaker 2 (29:00):
No, he didn't get punished. But it's a moment of
beautiful energy and calamity all at the same time, and
it was so beautiful. Kamala. Vice President Harris ended up
using it in her campaign footage when she was eventually
the candidate for president. I loved it, but at that time,
in that moment, Secret Service don't know Kurt Franklin like that,
and they don't care you're touching the asset. Sniper's on
(29:25):
the roof wondering should we take this, should we kill
Kurt Franklin?
Speaker 1 (29:28):
Do you think they considered it?
Speaker 2 (29:29):
And you have to, you have to. This is not planned.
So immediately there's radio chatter. My point is that happen.
Kirk Franklin brings her up, they dance, it's fine, he
walks her back to the seat, and then I come
back out on stage. Yeah, and mind you, they know
what I'm going to do structure wise. Yeah, in terms
(29:51):
of all right here, I'm gonna do three minutes about
this topic. This part of the show, I'm gonna do
two minutes about this topic I have to talk about
just in the spirit of blackness and a live show.
We all were here, we all saw this, and as
an MC, my job is to usher us through the
night and offer commentary. So I had to start cracking
(30:12):
jokes about Kirk Franklin touching the vice president. And it
was hilarious, and it worked out fine, and then we
segued seamlessly into and now remember when we were slaves,
turned to the video and remember slavery. Like that that,
I'm not even enjoying the show while it's happening, because
(30:33):
I'm constantly analyzing what's happening on stage? Where are we
in the show? What joke just did not work? Because
if this joke didn't work, then these two jokes, which
are similar vein, are also not going to work, So
I need to replace those jokes. It's just it's stuff
like that.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Yeah, I loved it, and like did was it a
problem that he brought her on stage that he even
made contact with the Vice president?
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Contact? You were not supposed to leave the stage. No
perform supposed to leave the stage when potus a VP
or in attendance period, You're not supposed to approach him
because we don't know who you are. We don't know
if you're a secret agent. How do we even know
you really, Kurt Franklin. You might be a clone from Russia,
like it could be anything, might not even be Kurt Franklin.
(31:18):
It might be plies in disguise. We don't know, Noah,
so no, you cannot approach the vice president. But because
Kurt Franklin is who he is, and he's an electric performer,
and he is in the moment, He's of the moment.
That's what makes Kirt moments like that or what make
Kurt Franklin. That's why we love him.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
Yeah, I seen her seven times that every time Secret
Service is chill, Like I don't know why people be like, oh,
Secret Service, don't play. They were chilling, not saying they
weren't inactive, but that they were chilling.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
When Kurt Franklin came off that stage, I saw five
or six people backstage and suits, all with their fingers
to their ear, listening intently on what to do. And
the only conversation that could be had at that time
is do we kill this man or tackle him? Which one?
(32:09):
Which one do you want? Do you want to be
responsible for tackling Kirk Franklin at the Black People's Celebration
concert and then all of Black America going, why y'all
do that to Kirk Franklin. That's just who Kurt Franklin is,
y'all tripping. I ain't voting for I'm voting for Trump.
Now I would hope it wouldn't go to that extreme.
(32:31):
But but yeah, the vice president, she waved him off
and you know, told him to chill out. It's cool.
I'm go on stage with my boys, Kurt Franklin.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
And I thank you so so very much for coming
on and showing love to the podcast. I have to
ask you one last question that is so relevant to
the center of the show. Okay, what are your thoughts
on like the current state of new comedians like Drew
Ski and just Hilarious like that. What do you think
about those kind of comedians.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
They're great, They're self made. They figured out a way
to make themselves popular without leaning on the linear TV
gate system. Everybody your name in the streets chose they
were not no talent exect. Jess Hilarious setting her front
seat telling gossip and gossip her way all the way
to stand up tours and sitting on the Breakfast Club,
(33:20):
which is the premier seat for news and gossip and
pop culture engagement with the black community, which is exactly
what she was doing on a smaller scale, you know,
back back in her early days, you know, four five
years ago, DC Young Fly and Chico Bean and Carlos Miller,
the eighty five South Boys, that's all the self made.
They were chosen, They were chosen by the streets. They
(33:44):
weren't like presented to Black America. You know, the same
with Drew ski Country Wayne, you know, Desi Banks, Ben
the Dawn.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
You're naming people at this point, Yeah, don't.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
I don't even know if you well, if you know
drews skidding, then you can watch then you can watch
a Benda don sketch. I'm not gonna get keep that.
I'm not gonna act like you ain't old enough, you mature,
Funny Marco, like all these people, they created their own
lane for themselves, and people gravitated towards them in their
(34:18):
ticket sales and revenue streams. Show that. I wish more
older comics would realize that they could stand to learn
something instead of being resentful of them.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
And speaking of selling out stand up tours and such.
Where can everyone find you to support you?
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Hey? The only thing I want people to think about
right now is pre ordering my book, The Man of
Many Fathers. My my dad died when I was sixteen.
I wrote a series of short stories of value lessons
I learned from other men along the way. Uh, It's
available from Crown Publishing and Penguin Random House. And I'm
going to be doing the audio book myself, but you
can go to roywood Junior dot com and check that out.
(34:58):
And I'm grab that's wonderful.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
And are you still doing that that CNN show we
talked about?
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Absolutely? Have I got news for you? We're back season
three on Saturday, September sixth. We're back on the airway,
so we helped to see everybody.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
Then I've got news for you. Why is how have
I got news for you? Egoing me? Are we yes?
Speaker 2 (35:19):
Then? Let me then let me talk to the folks
about it. Let me talk to the folks.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
Thanks work, all right, thank you?
Speaker 2 (35:26):
I got a cuss it on that show now, just
so you know we'll see, I ain't saying you got
a cuss I'm just saying Michael Lee and Black might
cussed at you. Hey, listen, we ain't gonna take mercy
on you just because you're young, don't.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
I hate when people do it. I hate when people
do it. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Indeed, respect to you.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Roy said it best, comedy is protests. Protest is power.
I don't know how much I believe that, but that's
what he says. I hope y'all caught the layers because
there was some game all through this one like share
and pull up next Wednesday for another. Now you know
where we talk politics, power and the people changing the
game and folks. You can follow me on all social
(36:07):
medias at Noda barosso k n O w A d
E v A r A s O and give my
name a little search to see the updates. Now you know,
and Noda Brosso is a production of iHeartMedia and partnership
with Recent Choice Media.
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