June 6, 2023 • 56 mins
Brian catches up with the hilarious writer and comedian Amber Ruffin, who tells him all about making a career in professional improv, working with her sister, and her lifelong love of (not) learning.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm so tired of learning new things. I hate learning.
It's bad, it's stupid. Why have I done all this
just to learn how to do a separate thing. I
don't like it. I don't like it.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Oh, somebody marked that. Someone marked that, right there, Amber Ruffin.
I hate learning.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
I hate learning.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I truly do.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Any teacher I've had will tell you she hates it. Hi,
my name is Amber Ruffin. I'm in your ears, but
if I was in your house with you, I'd give
you a little pinch.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Hi, friends, and happy Tuesday or whatever day you're listening
to this episode that was released on a Tuesday. Welcome back.
This is Off the Beat and I am Brian Baumgartner
and my guest today is the wonderful Amber Ruffin. Now,
Amber is a late night legend. Okay, she has worked
(01:09):
on Late Night with Seth Myers since his very first
episode back in twenty fourteen. But that's not all that
Amber has done. She does improv. She worked with Improv
Olympic and Second City Sketches on her own The Amber
Ruffin Show, to appearing in multiple hit series like Girls
(01:32):
five EVA and If that's not enough. She is also
a New York Times best selling author with her sister.
You'll never believe what happened to Lacey. Crazy stories about racism,
and now she's even stepping into the world of Broadway.
Amber may hate learning like you just heard, but I
(01:54):
really loved learning about her and her story, her career
in improv her career at late Night, her lifelong dedication
to avoiding things like numbers and education. I mean, we
all know I can relate to that. Listen closely, everybody.
You might just learn something and that is a threat.
(02:14):
Here is my new friend, Amber Ruffin.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Bubble and Squeak.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Bubble and Squeagana.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Bubble and Squeaker could get every more over from the.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Ninety before, Hiever, You're real.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I'm a real person.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Hi.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
How's it going?
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Pretty nice? I just had some cashes and raisins because
I'm one hundred years old.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Cash using raisins.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah, I'm either one hundred or five. That's fighting.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Well, it's the canned variety, so it's very fresh.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
I insist.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Insist on the can variety of cashews and raisins.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Are they like raw cashews or do they have a
little salt on them?
Speaker 1 (03:21):
They have to have salt on them, all right, good,
although I guess some people just be eating flavorless nuts.
That's fine, like a squirrel, like a square.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, exactly where are you are? You? Are you in? Which?
Which side of the country are you on?
Speaker 3 (03:39):
New York?
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yeah, that's what I thought. How's it going out there
in New York?
Speaker 1 (03:44):
I mean it's pretty strikey, it's.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Very striking in New York.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yes, probably also strike you over there, Yes it is.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
What are we at, day day fifteen of the Writer's
Strike of twenty twenty three, Yes we are. That's right,
day fifteen. Do you miss going to work?
Speaker 1 (04:04):
No? No one does. No, I shouldn't say that. I
really do. Though. We have a lot of fun at work,
but we haven't been back to work physically in twenty
nine years. Yeah, we haven't been back full force since
before COVID.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
So you've you've still been working at home?
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Yes, I've been. I mean I've been doing various things,
but at late night, at late night, we don't come
in very much at all. If you have a bit
that's going, then you come in. But I guess regular
old writers they're like, stay your goofy behinds at home.
No one wants to be like a part of your
(04:41):
silly bits or you know, TikTok videos. Keep that at home.
I'm like, that's fair.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Well, do you think that that is that the future?
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Yeah, it's our future. They're happier than they've ever been
because we're you're.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Not bothering now because you're around.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
No one's making like a crock pot of k so
like having races down the hallway. I do think they
love not having us, and I'm not doing a bit.
I think they love not having to deal with our mess.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Do you think that it hurts the collaborative creative process?
Speaker 1 (05:26):
No, No, I mean the way we well, I guess
some of us do write more collaboratively, but the way
I write, and Jenny and Lutz and stuff is we
write a script and then I email you the script,
and then you take a pass at it, you email
it back. That's how I've always written. So this doesn't
really bother me. But I miss being bad.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yeah, well that makes sense. All right, let's go. Let's
go backwards in time you grew up. I was very
surprised to hear that you grew up in Nebraska, Omaha, Nebraska,
the youngest of five by the way. I should also
mention how was early life in Nebraska for you?
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Very very outdoors?
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
I see these children here in New York, and they
are indoor children, and they are very like aware of
their surroundings in a way that I never had. Like
you can tell when you're walking down the street because
we work, you know, at thirty Rock, so there's a
(06:35):
ton of tourists, and you can tell who's from the Midwest,
especially the children, because they're just everywhere, and they're under
your feet and they're in your way and they can't
think of like a consequence for that. And they also
just don't have the spatial awareness that you need to
live in a tiny city filled with a billion people.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Right. I had a dream for a while. I have
young kids, and I had a dream for a while
of I don't think I could do New York permanently,
but to bring them there for a year because that
gift that you're talking, which I do think it is
a gift of understanding your environment and moving through people
(07:23):
and being sort of aware of the environment and your
circumstances and all of that would be like a great
learning tool. Do you think so, or do you think
the fact that they're stuck inside all the time kills
whatever benefit that might give.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
You Know what kills whatever benefit that might give is
when you see people who are in mental health crises
all day and all night. Every day you have to
walk past someone who's having the worst day of their
lives without thinking of them or giving them any attention.
And that when I do see children, New York children,
(08:01):
I think that can't be good for you. Right, It
must kill whatever tiny bit of baby empathy you had.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Right do you think growing up in Nebraska and being outdoors,
did you play imagination games?
Speaker 1 (08:15):
I definitely was an imagination kid. But more than that,
I was like running, climbing and biting. Like I think
we were catching snakes and looking them at one another,
like catching bugs and mushing them. We're just the worst,
(08:38):
the worst type of little boys is into it, sticking
your hand in the mud, seeing what's in their bag.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Yeah, being the youngest of five, do you think that?
How do you think that that affected you? Now?
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Being the youngest of five is why I'm bad? Okay,
because it was like leave the baby alone. The baby
wants to sing you, so give that to the baby.
Does somebody check on the baby. Oh look at the
and they just let me. And then that behavior got
passed down to all My sisters and my brother are
(09:13):
always like uh huh, yeah, that's great. Even today, I
think they still act like that, but I can see it.
I knew that that was happening. But then once they
started having children, then I really was like, this is
how you used to do me. You don't care that
(09:33):
this child drew this picture. But yeah, it was just
like severe encouragement all of the time, which I think
creates a monster, but a fun monster.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
But a confident monster.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Yeah good.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Yeah, you were interested in snakes and mud and squishing bugs.
When did you start to have an interest in either
the creative arts or writing or performing. Was that something
that came to you early on?
Speaker 1 (10:09):
I guess I did the thing kids do where you're like,
you write a show, and then you make the neighbors
come to the show.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Right that we did that, By the way, Not everyone
does that, but yes, I knew what you mean, know
what you mean?
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Yes, those poor people. But oh so this is really
how it happened. I was learning how to play the
piano at twelve from the minister of music at church.
Then she cheated on her husband, and then she was
not allowed to play the piano anymore. I think that's what.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Wait, that was the punishment. That was the punishment. It
seems like she should be a different punishment.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
But she couldn't be an official, an efficient.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
At the church, she couldn't come to church, she couldn't.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Be in the pulpit because she was doing dirt.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Okay, that was the rumor.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Who knows what's true. Okay, But she had taught me
exactly one song, and so I played it that Sunday
by myself because I had to and this was not
the plan. And then she didn't come back to a
rehearsal for choir rehearsal, and so then I would just
show up at every choir rehearsal and I would figure
(11:23):
out how to play something for them for Sunday. And
I just figured out how to play the piano. I
can't today because it was math and not like a
talent that I have, But I just figured it out,
and every week I figured it out and it was fine.
And it also gave me insane confidence because I was like,
I have no there are a million people ahead of
(11:47):
me in line for what I'm doing right now. It
should be the last person who play. But I figured
it out. You can figure it out.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
So this is really your first experience in front of
an audience and in your brain and your confident, young
fifth child brain. This made you a star. Yeah, yeah,
I'm starr.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
I'm great. I can do it. But more than I'm like,
they trusted me to do this thing that an adult
should be doing, right, I was like, all right, if
it's up to me, I'll figure it out.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
What about writing, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Writing was never a part of it, never, never, And
that's the main thing now. I think when you start improvising,
all improvisers are writers, really, because you're all writing down
the sketches and stuff. But writing wasn't a part of
it at all. I just thought I just didn't think
of sketch writing as a job, and it certainly not
(12:44):
a job that could lead to other jobs. Right, But
I was wrong.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
You eventually you joined a theater group in Omaha, you
wanted to perform, and this brought you to Chicago for
a gig. Right, So tell me about that important trip
and the aftermath of that.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
In Omaha, we started an improv group and it was very,
very fun, and then we decided to go visit Chicago
for Chicago Improv Festival. Was that you know, back then
that was basically the only place there was any type
of improv where you could make a living at it. Right,
(13:28):
So then I moved to Sor. We go to that
improv festival and a lady named Shanna Halpern who used
to run Io, which was a big famous improv theater.
She yeah, she told me that if I moved there,
I would have a full time job within a year.
So I moved there. She let me intern at Io
(13:51):
and uh, it took six months and I got hired
at Boom Chicago, which is a theater in Amsterdam, and
that was a full time so I was instantly. The
second I was out of classes, I got called up
to do Boom Chicago and was doing full time comedy
was my full time job ever since.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Boom Chicago is an improv group that is in Amsterdam,
which is very confused, makes the name very confusing. Talk
to me a little bit about this group and its importance.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Well for you, Booms Chicago is a theater in Amsterdam
where we write our shows, We write all our reviews,
it's just like Second City, except it's way more improvised. Okay,
like we probably have a written opening, a couple of
sketches throughout, but then the rest is just improv games.
(14:47):
And it's really really nice because you have to just
figure it out, just like being the Minister of music
when you're a kid. You can't complete prepare for it,
Like there is no way to prepare for doing a
show for three hundred people for whom English is their
second language, right And if you've never you know, done
(15:10):
short form improv and I hadn't really, but I you know,
could really improvise songs very well. So then that I
think is what got me the job. But it was
so formative because you're making money at comedy for the
first time, and like there are all these famous alums
(15:34):
and you really feel like, oh, I'm doing it. And
at Boom Chicago you can do whatever you want. Like
if halfway through the show you were like, let's stop
doing the show and do a different thing, and you
just put on a different thing that would be allowed
(15:56):
if the audience had a great time, you could in
order for or the audience to have a great time.
You can do literally anything like one day when I
knew that we were not going to be supervised very heavily,
I was like, let's just pick a running order and
do whatever we want. We did whatever we wanted. Thought,
he's had a great time. We were just like calling
(16:17):
audibles and like filling time until the show was over.
It was the best. But that's how boom Chicago is.
And then you in addition to that, you do corporate gigs,
tons of corporate gigs. You're doing a gig in like
in like a like a like an amusement park, or
(16:39):
in the window of a shopping center, or like an
afternoon at the United Nations. Yes, man, everywhere we went everywhere.
We went to Malta, we went to Spain and stuff.
We went to Chicago. I didn't go to Chicago, but
they went to Chicago. But it was just every gig
(16:59):
you could think of, That's what it was. And it
was so what's your good headed? Your confidence is like,
I'm probably a piece of shit, So I'm so confident.
But after like three hundred Germans bow you you're fine, right,
You're gonna be fine.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
What what do you think that style of improv with
no rules? What did you take from that today or
what did you learn from that or how did you
how did you mold that into to who you are today?
Because you have rules today. You work in network a lot,
so I know for a fact that there are rules,
(17:43):
But what did what did that experience give you?
Speaker 1 (17:46):
It? Really? I mean it taught me that there are rules,
but are there? I mean, come on, it's really like
it's taught me that people ask for a certain thing,
but what they want is the best thing they could have,
right And sometimes and this is the worst thing I
(18:09):
could say, And sometimes you know best, like you know
best what you can deliver crystal clear, you know that,
and you know what they're asking for. There might be
a difference there, right, So just do the thing you like,
do the thing you like, stop doing the thing people
think they want. They'll know what they want.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Yeah, that's interesting, And I see that in your work
because it is surprising, particularly late night. There's a structure, right,
I mean, even if you erase everything else and you
say there's a commercial break every seven and a half
minutes or whatever, it is, right, like there is you're
set within a structure. But I find that you, at
(18:54):
least what I have seen as a performer that you're
you're constantly surprising, and those seven and a half minutes
can be wild and disparate in a way that is
not necessarily breaking the rules but is different. But potentially
that work at Boon Chicago, and then having the discipline
(19:17):
now to put it within, if not rules, at least
within a given structure. I think that's a great that's
a great gift.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Yay, so doo we do like like at the end
reff and show, we would just be like, what do
we feel like doing? And we would do exactly whatever
we felt like doing. Inter saying that was the big
surprise is people like it when you're having a fun time.
I would not have guessed that. I mean, certainly not
(19:47):
to that extent, but goodness, people watch you a smile
about a picture of a pony for ten minutes. They
just love that you're having fun. And it's so much
more severe. People like people so much more. I'm taking
off my earrings because I'm gonna fight you. But people
(20:11):
like people so bad. People love people. They love looking
at them, they love listening to them, they love whatever
weird things they love. And that I'm always reminded of
that whenever I end up in the middle of some
documentary of like what was the one? The Pez Guy?
The Pez documentary? I'm this guy loves this and then
it makes you love it. I don't love pets. I
(20:34):
don't care about Pez even I think Pez tastes bad.
How about that?
Speaker 2 (20:38):
I know that's really true, and it's so true. I
think about that one? What was it? The the Donkey
Kong one? Did you see that?
Speaker 1 (20:49):
I wrote a musical about it? Oh?
Speaker 2 (20:52):
You did music? There's that's bad research by me. But anyway,
go ahead, I wrote.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
You'd be the only person who knew about it. I
wrote a two man musical with my very good friend
Lauren van Kiren and our musical director David Bull, and
it was directed by Brendan Hunt, who's coach Beard on
ted Lasso. Now, yeah, and we had the dumbest It
was just like the two of us and it was
a quick change musical about the best, in my opinion,
(21:25):
the best documentary of all time, which is King of Kong.
King of Kong quarters the best. It's the best documentary.
And if you haven't seen it.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
You should know. You should definitely see it, and to
your point, you'll start being like God. I didn't appreciate
Donkey Kong enough, like your yeah, that's your Yeah, You're like,
I need to go buy a Donkey Kong machine so
that I can start playing this game that I've never
really had any desire to play before.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Yeah, I've never given it a single thought. But then
they love it so bad. Their love for it is catching.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Since, Yeah, what brought you to leave Boom Chicago and
(22:22):
come back to the United States.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Well, I was at Boom Chicago for two years, then
I left to do Second City, and back then I
called them on the phone and said, will you give
me a job? Now, they gave me a job because
I just so happened to slum Dog Millionaire it. They
(22:45):
didn't know me at Second City. I did I owe
while I was living in Chicago, But one night I
just so happened to show up there. Because if you're
an improviser, they'll let you do the set with them. Well,
the night I showed up was to same night Martin
Short showed up, so I was like, oh, they're not
gonna let me do the set, but he didn't want
(23:06):
to do the set, so then they let me do
the set. And then the three suggestions were like a
spark plug, which I just so happened to know how
to change sign language, which I just so happened to speak,
and gymnastics and I used to be a gymnastics coach.
And I was like, I must seem like a fucking
(23:26):
genius in these people. It was the slum dog millionariest
thing that has ever happened.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
I was like, oh, crazy, crazy.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
So then when I called him, I was like, I
want to job. They were like, okay, because because Martin
Short was there, all the people who make decisions were there,
so then they all knew I was the lady who
did the thing that one time.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Yeah. To be able to do those three things is
pretty crazy.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
What are they? Gods? I didn't know who. I didn't
shout it out. It wasn't a plant.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Plant. You had bought all the tickets in the theater
and they were all your friends, and they were like,
one of the weirdest skills that Amber has. Oh yeah,
here we go. Hey, yeah, uh not weird. That's I
don't even know why is it weird? But different different skills. Okay,
So you came back to start working with Second.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
City yep, And then I did Second City Denver. We existed,
and Maine Stage Chicago, and then from main Stage Chicago.
A lot of people go to LA, but Boom Chicago
was so fun. So I went back to Boom Chicago
for three years, you did, and it was the most
(24:42):
fun I've ever had. Like, Boom Chicago is very fun
when you're bad at it, and I was bad at
it for so long. I was bad at it for
i'd say, like a year. But then when you're good
at it and you're all old and stuff, oh my god,
it was the old I was a child. But it
was the fun time. It is the funnest time I
ever had. And for that that time, I chose fun
(25:05):
over maybe what I should have done, and I was
a thousand percent right, most of what I ever had.
Then after that, I moved to LA to try.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
To make it as an actor.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Yeah, yeah, that was a mess. But then I got
late night said, so wasn't all bad?
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Wait? Why why was that? Why was that a mess?
Why was being in LA trying to be an actor
a mess?
Speaker 1 (25:30):
La is tough and we were poor and it was bad.
Being poor is fine. I'm great at it, but uh.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
That's funny. I'm bad at it. I'm really bad. I'm
bad at it.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
I'm pretty good at it.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Really.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
I love Yeah, I could be on that show Extreme Couponing.
I planted out.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Well, it's funny. It's funny. And partly why I say
that is because I when I left Collins, we're going
to talk about me for a second, Like I knew
enough about myself. I was like moving to New York
and the idea of the like sleeping on sofas and stuff,
that was not going to work for me. And so
I mean not dissimilar to Chicago, but I ended up
(26:17):
in Minneapolis, where you know, they actually pay you to
do work in the theater. Not great, but you're getting
something as opposed to nothing most of the time in
New York. But I think that that early on can
be a really important gift to be good at being poor.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Is this true? Or am I making it up? Minneapolis
has the most theater seats per capita than any other
city in the US.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
True except New York. But yes, true, that is a
very that's a writer stat there. That's something that's something
that is true. But I can't tell you how many
people I have said that exact exact phrase. And then
except New York, to and they go really many many
(27:09):
what really? But yeah, but you moved to La. What
was your experience like that? You were you were just auditioning,
You were on the audition train.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
I moved there with my husband in two thousand national eight.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Eight. Okay, didn't make that up.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Oh wait, No, eleven, two thousand and eight is when
I went back to Boom. We left in twenty eleven.
Now we're in LA, and it was it was very,
very bad. Like I was a nanny, cause a nanny
for the most beautiful little baby. And every once in
(27:51):
a while, el see you whenever I'm over there and
he's like eight now and you can talk, and I'll
be like, hi, I am right, blah blah blah blah blah,
and then my tears well up in my eyes because
I used to hold it and be like, are you
ever going to talk to me? My perfect little baby.
So I was a nanny, and I try to make
it seem bad, but it was actually a dream, my
perfect boy. But before I got that job, I was
(28:13):
nanny for just the worst children on planet Earth. Yeah,
God bless it. Oh, just horrible children. I just didn't know.
I will say, I grew up spoiled siblings wise, because
it was mostly girls and one big brother. But everyone
was just so nice and you didn't like yell or
(28:35):
hit like, we didn't do that. So to watch these
children just beat the tar out of each other every day,
I'd be like, what is this? What does this? What's
wrong with you that you're so angry? You're four? Nothing
has happened, right, No, but yeah it was we're scraping by.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Did you go to amprop Olympic? Like, were you performing
there at all? Because of you? Are? You are? Okay?
So you're doing that?
Speaker 1 (29:01):
We have to live near IOH because I have to perform.
And then I was like I have to start taking
classes at UCB. At this point I had been a
literal professional improviser for a decade. I was like, I
guess I gotta take ECB clauses.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
I lived about seventeen seconds from UCB. Yeah, well during
that during that time that you were there, yeah, fun,
and then you were auditioning for film and television? Is
that that was what we were doing?
Speaker 1 (29:37):
I mean yeah, but yeah, I was mostly just putting
up my own shows. I fell in with this theater
called Sacred Fools, and it's like a writer's theater and
you just write your own shows and stuff. And that's
how I ended up with that King of Kong, the documentary,
the musical, and it was just the funnest place to be,
(30:01):
But it was it's weird to be poor in a
place you don't know. That's less fun. To move to
a new place to be poor is not fun. If
I like had to move back to Chicago and be poor,
I'd be like, Okay, I can do it, or Omaha, fine, right,
but Saskatchewan, we're gonna have a bad time.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Because you don't know, I don't know, you don't know
where to go, right. You then wanted to audition for SNL. Yeah,
was that the dream at the time for you?
Speaker 1 (30:33):
I mean sure, I just never considered it at all.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Okay, But then.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Once they were like, we're gonna have auditions and we
want you to come, I was like, it's mine. I
have it, I got it. I'm already on. I'm on
SNL already.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Yes. Yes.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Do not know why I thought. I mean, you couldn't
have told me any different. Because they had a big audition.
They were like, we're looking for a black lady, and
so then I was on all these in all these
showcases SNL showcases, it was like a million of them.
And then finally got through to the audition audition, and
(31:16):
it was four of us. Well, it was a bunch
of us. And then only four of us survived, okay.
And the four of us were le Kendra Tooks who
got hired as a writer on SNL, Leslie Jones who
got hired as a writer initially on SNL, and then
Sashir Zamida who got the acting job, and then me
who did not get So it was like, I extra
(31:43):
didn't get it.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
We're hiring, We're hiring everyone, but you, Yeah, that fad.
Are you able now or were you able then to say, well,
this is just not my thing. My thing is coming
or not? Was it just crushing?
Speaker 1 (32:04):
No? I thought I was going to die. Yeah, I
was going to die. And then I just I had to.
I was in rehearsals for King of Kong. Gosh, this
is all kay, a show I never mentioned, I've not
mentioned fourteen times. While I was in rehearsal for King
of Kong, the call came and it's just me and
my little girlfriend, and I go, oh my god, it's
(32:25):
oh my god, it's gonna be uh huh uh huh.
I didn't, okay, and then I had to keep rehearsing
rehearsal the middle of it.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Yeah you did, you did? You pause rehearsal and say, everybody,
come here, Come here, Come here. This is SNL, this
is gather around, gather around, here we go. Two of
us put it on speaker.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
But I certainly did say it's here, it comes.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Oh god, I was.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
So sure I was going to get it, so sure
it's bigger shock.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
So how then did you meet the folks at Late Night? This?
This came out of this audition process with SNL. Correct,
I think SO.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Said don't audition. Also, I thought my audition was great,
but so was everybody else's. Like you didn't see other
people's auditions. But what am I saying? Oh? So? Seth
Myers was also at Boom Chicago, so I knew Seth
and Seth had seen me in shows at Boom Chicago
(33:36):
when he hired me for Late Night. So it was
SNL calling to say no. Then three days later I
died and rose again, and then Seth called and was like,
will you be a writer at my show?
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Were you aware at the time that you were the
first woman of color to be writing for a late
night television show or did someone fill you in on
that later?
Speaker 1 (34:04):
No, an article came out that said I was the
first black woman to write for a network late near show.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Now I was sorry, I don't know, that's what I mean.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
A that's a lot of qualifiers, so many qualifiers. I'll
take it. Okay, we need representation. I'm happy to be it.
But then I don't don't know. I certainly didn't think
that that was true. And then even still I'm like,
(34:35):
is that true?
Speaker 2 (34:38):
It's so funny to me. I don't know. That's fascinating
because obviously that does have an impact. Now maybe I
mean you're clearly saying not so much to you, but
in terms of people who come after you, right, do
you feel like writers' rooms now are more diverse?
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Yeah, we're one hundred percent more diverse. I think everyone
got embarrassed because that's embarrassing, man. And then a shift
in social awareness happened, right, and people were like, hmm,
maybe everything we're delivering is through the white lens. Maybe
(35:20):
we need a different vantage point. So then I think
things started to shift. And then though white stuff just
didn't ring true anymore. And then I think everybody could see, Oh,
if that's how you talk about police violence, you probably
shouldn't be the person we're asking, you know. So I
(35:45):
think it's a little bit of everything. Yeah, rooms are
way more diverse now than they used to be.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
It's so interesting to hear you say that. And I
didn't think about it until you said there was a
light that was shined and people got embarrassed. You know.
I remember Jon Stewart winning again for his show the Emmys,
and they announced the people and he was on stage
and kind of embarrassingly made a joke about the fact
(36:12):
that everybody looked alike. And my memory was like everyone
was not just white, but Jewish white men that were
standing on stage. But it was almost like realizing in
the moment as I was sitting there, like, yeah, this
is odd, this is odd. Yeah, it just when you
said embarrassed, I wonder and maybe it was that incident
(36:35):
or something else where everyone's sort of like, oh, wait
a second, why is this the way that it is?
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Yeah, I mean I hope that it was. I don't
have to hope. I know that it was the work
that people did where it just is different. You can't
help it. It's different. It's different. When you ask the
people involved to talk about it, you just get a different, fish, fresher,
better point of view.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
Yeah, you have moved on, I mean not moved on,
but you were working on so many different projects at
the moment as well. Why are you still at Late Night? No,
I'm serious, Like what is it? What is it about
that job or your relationship with Seth or whatever it is?
(37:24):
Why stay there? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Late Night is everyone's favorite. You We have probably the
least turnover of any show, Like right, people love it there.
And it's like, it's not like writing on a regular
sitcom because you have job security. You know, these people
(37:51):
renewed for years at a time. It's not just to
the for the next twelve episodes, so you'll never get
as a television writer, such job security does not exist.
So there's that. But also it's so fun. It's so
fun and it's good, and I just like, like, I
(38:14):
write a lot of sitcoms and like Broadway Now and books,
and I just want to also do this thing that
I'm good at instead of learning new shit. I'm so
tired of learning new things. I hate learning. It's bad.
It's stupid. Why have I done all this just to
(38:37):
learn how to do a separate thing? I don't like it.
I don't like it.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Oh, somebody marked that. Someone marked that right there, Amber Ruffin.
I hate learning.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
I hate learning, I truly do. Any future I've had
will tell you she hates it.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
Do you consider yourself a writer or an actor primarily?
Speaker 1 (39:17):
I consider myself a writer primarily, even though that wasn't
even a part of it originally, right I Also, I
guess I just believed I couldn't, okay, because no one
was asking me to and everyone was asking literally everyone
around me to write this, and that no one's ever
asking me to write anything. So I thought, oh, well,
(39:38):
at least I'm a good performer. It never occurred to
me that I could write.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
Interesting. How do you decide how often and what segments
that you come on late night and appear on camera for?
Speaker 1 (39:53):
They'll schedule? Amber says what and jokes? I can't tell,
But like everything else, is just if the spirit moves me,
and I'll be like, hey, I wrote this, Can I
do it or not? Sometimes they say no, Sometimes they
(40:14):
say yes.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
Now who's they? Who's they?
Speaker 1 (40:17):
Seth Myers has the audacity to tell me no, sometimes
thank you for giving up this platform. Yeah, yeah, but
sometimes it's really dumb and he's like, no, right.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
In June of twenty twenty, after the George Floyd incident,
Seth asked you every night for a week to share
your stories of confrontations that you had had with police.
How did this come about? Was this something that you
asked to do or was this something that Seth thought
(40:53):
you should do.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
When George Floyd was murdered, I wrote something for the
next day, and it was a sketch kind of and
then as the day went on, you knew that wasn't
gonna you couldn't do that, that this was different. And
then I wrote a rant, you know, which was just
(41:20):
gonna be me talking. And then that couldn't do Because
the murder of George Floyd, just America was turning on
its head and it happened. I watched it happen in
real time, and I was like, Wow, this is really
affecting people. And so then I was like, I think
(41:40):
the only way I could have anything to say about
it would be to go on the show and just
tell the story of one of the millions of times
where I thought cops were going to murder me, you know,
getting pulled over and them having their guns drawn or
like stopping me on the street and stuff. So then
(42:02):
I told that one story and then on that Monday,
and then I was like, this is one of a
billion stories I have, and you don't know a black
person who doesn't have a story like this. And then
I opened up the show every day that week with
one of those stories, and that that is how it
(42:23):
came about. I just I didn't think it would open
the show though. What was bothering me so bad is
that people were like, this is special or his behavior
is special, or these are special police officers and this
is a special happening, and that really bothered me. I
(42:44):
was like, there's nothing special about this at all. From
where I'm standing. This is regular, degular, every day stuff.
So I just wanted to make that very very clear.
And I'm so lucky that they let me do that
because a lot of those other shows would never have
let anybody say anything like that. Right, Yeah, I'm a
(43:09):
lucky little bug.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
I was in Minneapolis for just less than twenty four
hours and the city felt totally different. But how it
kept getting brought up to me is that these changes
have happened because of what happened to George Floyd, in
terms of the architecture of the city, the areas of
(43:36):
the city where people go, where people don't go, what
you know, police presence, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
And that you say you wanted to make it clear
this is not a unique occurrence. Well, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
It really affected people who live in Minneapolis really hard.
My sister is a pastor at a church that's a
few locks away from where George Floyd was murdered, and
it I mean, she was like that it changed everything
and then her job became like taking care of the
(44:11):
community in a brand new way. And I was like, well,
thank goodness, you were there, right.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
Yeah. Twenty twenty, something else happens the Amber rough and
show starts on the Peacock because I watched a bunch
there's there's really great stuff in it. You started it
(44:40):
in twenty twenty, which is significant, of course, because of
another global event that happened. How was that finally getting
your own show with your name on it. A pandemic
comes and now you're producing this in the middle of
a pandemic. How how was that for you?
Speaker 1 (45:00):
It was super duper fun. It was great. It was
great that it was on Peacock. It was great that
there was no audience. I was like, what a great
little like it was a real show and it was
a big fancy thing, but it was also just like us,
(45:22):
you know, so it felt so good. It was the
perfect way to do things, like I got to get
all the way to the end of my weirdness and
back without being because the audience will tell you exactly
what you want, and then you're just a laser. You
can hit the laugh instantly because the audience has trained
(45:44):
you to right. But then without that, you're just like
having a beautiful time and doing the things you feel
like doing it. And I think it's pretty clear that
was what we were after.
Speaker 2 (45:56):
Yeah, well partly That's what I was talking about earlier
about the time. The timing and the rhythm of your
stories and at times jokes is so different, and it's
fascinating because it is. Because there's no audience, it would
necessarily change, particularly for you as an improver, because you're
(46:21):
trained to figure out exactly what you just said, where
that laugh is, and how you get to it. But
that's that's awesome that you found it liberating and fun
as opposed to terrifying and horrible.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
Yeah. I also was like, look, the most any Black
lady has ever had a late night show is two minutes,
So I'm not going to have a bad two minutes.
I guarantee you, I'm going to be having a blast.
We really did. It was so much fun. It was
so much fun.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
Are we going to get more?
Speaker 1 (46:58):
We We are now going to do specials of the
Amber Ruffin Show every once in a.
Speaker 2 (47:07):
While, when you feel it.
Speaker 1 (47:10):
When we feel it, when the spirit moves us.
Speaker 2 (47:12):
Okay, there that was the answer I saw. I just
wanted to hear it from you. Okay, well good, I'm
glad about that. Three seasons thus far nominated for WGA
Awards and Emmy's. And again, if you haven't checked it out,
you absolutely should. Speaking of the WGA, how long is
(47:34):
this going to last?
Speaker 1 (47:35):
Five more years?
Speaker 2 (47:37):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (47:38):
I mean no, but it's going to be a long time.
Speaker 2 (47:40):
That's that's what I think too. I mean, what I
said was two thousand and eight was one hundred days.
I think that's very short compared to where we're at
right now.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
Do you think, so, I have no idea, but I
do think that we will not be back to work
in this season, like I don't think we'll come back
in the summer at all. I think the fall is
a possibility.
Speaker 2 (48:11):
But that's more than one hundred days. Then, by the way, that's.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
Right, that's right, you're right, you're absolutely right.
Speaker 2 (48:17):
Because you acted surprised when I said that was short.
Speaker 1 (48:21):
Well, I've never been able to count, so I'm just
surprised you could count.
Speaker 2 (48:28):
I know, I know. I have to mention a couple
of books that you've written with your sister. You'll never
believe what happened to Lacey. Crazy Stories about Racism and
the World Record Book of Racist Stories. No one asked
you to write. Now you're writing everything, including books. Why
(48:50):
your sister, and talk to me a little bit about
about these books.
Speaker 1 (48:56):
Because these people asked me to write a book and
I did not want to told them no, I really did,
and it still doesn't appeal to me. And I done
did it twice. But when I got there, what's.
Speaker 2 (49:10):
The third one? Well, oh, okay, who knows.
Speaker 1 (49:15):
What the third one is?
Speaker 2 (49:16):
All right?
Speaker 1 (49:18):
But when I got there, my agents were like, go
see the book. Guy, you got to write a book.
It's like, I got to do nothing right, Let me
go talk to this guy. Go talk to him. You
so much fun. And then he was like, if you
had to write a book. I was like, I don't
have to, and I'm not going to. They go, well,
if you had to, I go, you know, it would
be a funny book. When I was in the cab
(49:39):
on the way there, my sister had texted me this
picture of her because she crazy. Racist things keep happening
to my sister, Lacy. It's just a part of life,
and they're always hilarious. Like, yes, there's also bad racist stuff,
but the number of racist things that happened to my
sister that are me slappingly hilarious. It's in the billions.
(50:01):
So I was like, if we sat down and just
wrote out each of these stories, it would be hilarious
and we would write it like us talking. So we
did and it was great. But it just so happened
that she texted me one of these stories while I
was in the cab on the way to the book.
I Otherwise I don't know that I would have thought
of such a thing.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
Yeah, well, that's how great things happen. Yay.
Speaker 1 (50:26):
So now we got a New York Times bestseller. Who
would have.
Speaker 2 (50:29):
Thought, congratulations, don't just I have one too? All right,
So that's what you have to do. That's what you have.
That's what you have to do. You have to write
a book. When the book person says you got to
write a book, then you got to write a book.
Speaker 1 (50:42):
You gotta write a book. That's right.
Speaker 2 (50:44):
You were continuing to work with your sister the Amber
and Lacey Lacey and Amber show, which I assume is
because you couldn't agree whose name went first? Why your
sister first? Off? Like you love working with her?
Speaker 1 (50:59):
Yeah, of her because she's bad. But one thing for
the book that translates well into podcasts. We rag on
each other constantly, and when you invite a third person
to be a part of it, it's so fun. It's
so fun. But they feel so squished and they're forced
(51:20):
to choose sides, and it makes us so happy.
Speaker 2 (51:26):
What about your your Are your other three siblings upset
that that that Lacy got tapped or are they happy
to be out of the line of fire.
Speaker 1 (51:35):
They're happy to be out. They have had it with us,
They had it.
Speaker 2 (51:42):
Some like it hot. You're now a Broadway writer. You're
now a playwright, an official playwright. Uh, and you're also
involved in a new production of The Wiz. Yes, dude,
when is when is what is that coming?
Speaker 1 (51:57):
The Wiz is coming to Broadway in twenty twenty four, okay,
and that's next year, by the way, what so how
many years is that too? No?
Speaker 2 (52:10):
Next year? I'm all right.
Speaker 1 (52:13):
So The Wiz is so fun and like, we're not
even it's not even all the way finished. We don't
have everyone, we don't have all the sets and stuff,
and it's already so good. It is so good. It's
so great. But I you know, I can't even brag
(52:36):
because the Wizz is pizza. It's like, if you go
to a freaking eighth grade showing of The Wiz, guess what,
those songs still sound good. It don't matter who's singing them,
It doesn't matter what that The Wiz is your favorite
because those songs are untouchable and true to form. Our
(52:57):
version of the Wiz is exceptional. It's just it's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (53:02):
I love it. And you're returning now. You're returning now
to where you started. You started playing music in the church,
as you said, your entree into the improv world. Was
your ability to improv songs and now you're turning it around.
Is this a dream for you or is this did
(53:23):
a play person say you need to do this like
the book or was this something you actively sought.
Speaker 1 (53:29):
I just thought if I could write co write the
musical Some Like It Hot, then they would let me
do whatever show I wanted to on Broadway. But then
the Whiz came along and I was like, Oh, that's
what I want. So I don't know if there will
be a lot of Broadway after this, because I was like,
(53:50):
it's a like a the most Tony nominated musical Some
Like It Hot this year, Yes, and then the musical
You Love the Most. I think I'm gonna have to
tap out after this. We did it, We did it.
Speaker 2 (54:08):
Well, you have done it, and you are doing it.
I congratulate you. I find you so funny and again surprising,
which is my favorite kind of funny. And the fact
that you've stayed there on Late Show as well. I
just I love it. I love your story. So thank
(54:29):
you so much for coming and chatting with me.
Speaker 1 (54:33):
Thank you for having me. I love you so bad
and I always will.
Speaker 2 (54:37):
Thank you Amber.
Speaker 1 (54:38):
Thanks Bratton Hey.
Speaker 2 (54:53):
Amber, Amber, thank you so much for speaking to me today.
I have been a fan of your work for a
long long time, and today, yes, you even exceeded my expectations.
Thank you. Listeners be sure to tune into Amber's podcast,
The Amber and Lacey Lacy and Amber Show. It is
(55:14):
awesome like her and speaking of podcasts, come back to
Off the Beat this time next week for another guest
who will be here with me. We'll see you soon.
Off the Beat is hosted and executive produced by me
(55:37):
Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer, lingg Lee. Our senior
producer is Diego Tapia. Our producers are Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris,
and Emily Carr. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary,
and our intern is Sammy Katz. Our theme song Bubble
and Squeak, performed by the one and only Creed Bratton,
I'm so tired of learning new things. I hate learning.
It's bad, it's stupid. Why have I done all this
just to learn how to do a separate thing. I
don't like it. I don't like it.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Oh, somebody marked that. Someone marked that, right there, Amber Ruffin.
I hate learning.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
I hate learning.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I truly do.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Any teacher I've had will tell you she hates it. Hi,
my name is Amber Ruffin. I'm in your ears, but
if I was in your house with you, I'd give
you a little pinch.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Hi, friends, and happy Tuesday or whatever day you're listening
to this episode that was released on a Tuesday. Welcome back.
This is Off the Beat and I am Brian Baumgartner
and my guest today is the wonderful Amber Ruffin. Now,
Amber is a late night legend. Okay, she has worked
(01:09):
on Late Night with Seth Myers since his very first
episode back in twenty fourteen. But that's not all that
Amber has done. She does improv. She worked with Improv
Olympic and Second City Sketches on her own The Amber
Ruffin Show, to appearing in multiple hit series like Girls
(01:32):
five EVA and If that's not enough. She is also
a New York Times best selling author with her sister.
You'll never believe what happened to Lacey. Crazy stories about racism,
and now she's even stepping into the world of Broadway.
Amber may hate learning like you just heard, but I
(01:54):
really loved learning about her and her story, her career
in improv her career at late Night, her lifelong dedication
to avoiding things like numbers and education. I mean, we
all know I can relate to that. Listen closely, everybody.
You might just learn something and that is a threat.
(02:14):
Here is my new friend, Amber Ruffin.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Bubble and Squeak.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Bubble and Squeagana.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Bubble and Squeaker could get every more over from the.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Ninety before, Hiever, You're real.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I'm a real person.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Hi.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
How's it going?
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Pretty nice? I just had some cashes and raisins because
I'm one hundred years old.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Cash using raisins.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah, I'm either one hundred or five. That's fighting.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Well, it's the canned variety, so it's very fresh.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
I insist.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Insist on the can variety of cashews and raisins.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Are they like raw cashews or do they have a
little salt on them?
Speaker 1 (03:21):
They have to have salt on them, all right, good,
although I guess some people just be eating flavorless nuts.
That's fine, like a squirrel, like a square.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, exactly where are you are? You? Are you in? Which?
Which side of the country are you on?
Speaker 3 (03:39):
New York?
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yeah, that's what I thought. How's it going out there
in New York?
Speaker 1 (03:44):
I mean it's pretty strikey, it's.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Very striking in New York.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yes, probably also strike you over there, Yes it is.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
What are we at, day day fifteen of the Writer's
Strike of twenty twenty three, Yes we are. That's right,
day fifteen. Do you miss going to work?
Speaker 1 (04:04):
No? No one does. No, I shouldn't say that. I
really do. Though. We have a lot of fun at work,
but we haven't been back to work physically in twenty
nine years. Yeah, we haven't been back full force since
before COVID.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
So you've you've still been working at home?
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Yes, I've been. I mean I've been doing various things,
but at late night, at late night, we don't come
in very much at all. If you have a bit
that's going, then you come in. But I guess regular
old writers they're like, stay your goofy behinds at home.
No one wants to be like a part of your
(04:41):
silly bits or you know, TikTok videos. Keep that at home.
I'm like, that's fair.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Well, do you think that that is that the future?
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Yeah, it's our future. They're happier than they've ever been
because we're you're.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Not bothering now because you're around.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
No one's making like a crock pot of k so
like having races down the hallway. I do think they
love not having us, and I'm not doing a bit.
I think they love not having to deal with our mess.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Do you think that it hurts the collaborative creative process?
Speaker 1 (05:26):
No, No, I mean the way we well, I guess
some of us do write more collaboratively, but the way
I write, and Jenny and Lutz and stuff is we
write a script and then I email you the script,
and then you take a pass at it, you email
it back. That's how I've always written. So this doesn't
really bother me. But I miss being bad.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yeah, well that makes sense. All right, let's go. Let's
go backwards in time you grew up. I was very
surprised to hear that you grew up in Nebraska, Omaha, Nebraska,
the youngest of five by the way. I should also
mention how was early life in Nebraska for you?
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Very very outdoors?
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
I see these children here in New York, and they
are indoor children, and they are very like aware of
their surroundings in a way that I never had. Like
you can tell when you're walking down the street because
we work, you know, at thirty Rock, so there's a
(06:35):
ton of tourists, and you can tell who's from the Midwest,
especially the children, because they're just everywhere, and they're under
your feet and they're in your way and they can't
think of like a consequence for that. And they also
just don't have the spatial awareness that you need to
live in a tiny city filled with a billion people.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Right. I had a dream for a while. I have
young kids, and I had a dream for a while
of I don't think I could do New York permanently,
but to bring them there for a year because that
gift that you're talking, which I do think it is
a gift of understanding your environment and moving through people
(07:23):
and being sort of aware of the environment and your
circumstances and all of that would be like a great
learning tool. Do you think so, or do you think
the fact that they're stuck inside all the time kills
whatever benefit that might give.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
You Know what kills whatever benefit that might give is
when you see people who are in mental health crises
all day and all night. Every day you have to
walk past someone who's having the worst day of their
lives without thinking of them or giving them any attention.
And that when I do see children, New York children,
(08:01):
I think that can't be good for you. Right, It
must kill whatever tiny bit of baby empathy you had.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Right do you think growing up in Nebraska and being outdoors,
did you play imagination games?
Speaker 1 (08:15):
I definitely was an imagination kid. But more than that,
I was like running, climbing and biting. Like I think
we were catching snakes and looking them at one another,
like catching bugs and mushing them. We're just the worst,
(08:38):
the worst type of little boys is into it, sticking
your hand in the mud, seeing what's in their bag.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Yeah, being the youngest of five, do you think that?
How do you think that that affected you? Now?
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Being the youngest of five is why I'm bad? Okay,
because it was like leave the baby alone. The baby
wants to sing you, so give that to the baby.
Does somebody check on the baby. Oh look at the
and they just let me. And then that behavior got
passed down to all My sisters and my brother are
(09:13):
always like uh huh, yeah, that's great. Even today, I
think they still act like that, but I can see it.
I knew that that was happening. But then once they
started having children, then I really was like, this is
how you used to do me. You don't care that
(09:33):
this child drew this picture. But yeah, it was just
like severe encouragement all of the time, which I think
creates a monster, but a fun monster.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
But a confident monster.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Yeah good.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Yeah, you were interested in snakes and mud and squishing bugs.
When did you start to have an interest in either
the creative arts or writing or performing. Was that something
that came to you early on?
Speaker 1 (10:09):
I guess I did the thing kids do where you're like,
you write a show, and then you make the neighbors
come to the show.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Right that we did that, By the way, Not everyone
does that, but yes, I knew what you mean, know
what you mean?
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Yes, those poor people. But oh so this is really
how it happened. I was learning how to play the
piano at twelve from the minister of music at church.
Then she cheated on her husband, and then she was
not allowed to play the piano anymore. I think that's what.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Wait, that was the punishment. That was the punishment. It
seems like she should be a different punishment.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
But she couldn't be an official, an efficient.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
At the church, she couldn't come to church, she couldn't.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Be in the pulpit because she was doing dirt.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Okay, that was the rumor.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Who knows what's true. Okay, But she had taught me
exactly one song, and so I played it that Sunday
by myself because I had to and this was not
the plan. And then she didn't come back to a
rehearsal for choir rehearsal, and so then I would just
show up at every choir rehearsal and I would figure
(11:23):
out how to play something for them for Sunday. And
I just figured out how to play the piano. I
can't today because it was math and not like a
talent that I have, But I just figured it out,
and every week I figured it out and it was fine.
And it also gave me insane confidence because I was like,
I have no there are a million people ahead of
(11:47):
me in line for what I'm doing right now. It
should be the last person who play. But I figured
it out. You can figure it out.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
So this is really your first experience in front of
an audience and in your brain and your confident, young
fifth child brain. This made you a star. Yeah, yeah,
I'm starr.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
I'm great. I can do it. But more than I'm like,
they trusted me to do this thing that an adult
should be doing, right, I was like, all right, if
it's up to me, I'll figure it out.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
What about writing, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Writing was never a part of it, never, never, And
that's the main thing now. I think when you start improvising,
all improvisers are writers, really, because you're all writing down
the sketches and stuff. But writing wasn't a part of
it at all. I just thought I just didn't think
of sketch writing as a job, and it certainly not
(12:44):
a job that could lead to other jobs. Right, But
I was wrong.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
You eventually you joined a theater group in Omaha, you
wanted to perform, and this brought you to Chicago for
a gig. Right, So tell me about that important trip
and the aftermath of that.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
In Omaha, we started an improv group and it was very,
very fun, and then we decided to go visit Chicago
for Chicago Improv Festival. Was that you know, back then
that was basically the only place there was any type
of improv where you could make a living at it. Right,
(13:28):
So then I moved to Sor. We go to that
improv festival and a lady named Shanna Halpern who used
to run Io, which was a big famous improv theater.
She yeah, she told me that if I moved there,
I would have a full time job within a year.
So I moved there. She let me intern at Io
(13:51):
and uh, it took six months and I got hired
at Boom Chicago, which is a theater in Amsterdam, and
that was a full time so I was instantly. The
second I was out of classes, I got called up
to do Boom Chicago and was doing full time comedy
was my full time job ever since.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Boom Chicago is an improv group that is in Amsterdam,
which is very confused, makes the name very confusing. Talk
to me a little bit about this group and its importance.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Well for you, Booms Chicago is a theater in Amsterdam
where we write our shows, We write all our reviews,
it's just like Second City, except it's way more improvised. Okay,
like we probably have a written opening, a couple of
sketches throughout, but then the rest is just improv games.
(14:47):
And it's really really nice because you have to just
figure it out, just like being the Minister of music
when you're a kid. You can't complete prepare for it,
Like there is no way to prepare for doing a
show for three hundred people for whom English is their
second language, right And if you've never you know, done
(15:10):
short form improv and I hadn't really, but I you know,
could really improvise songs very well. So then that I
think is what got me the job. But it was
so formative because you're making money at comedy for the
first time, and like there are all these famous alums
(15:34):
and you really feel like, oh, I'm doing it. And
at Boom Chicago you can do whatever you want. Like
if halfway through the show you were like, let's stop
doing the show and do a different thing, and you
just put on a different thing that would be allowed
(15:56):
if the audience had a great time, you could in
order for or the audience to have a great time.
You can do literally anything like one day when I
knew that we were not going to be supervised very heavily,
I was like, let's just pick a running order and
do whatever we want. We did whatever we wanted. Thought,
he's had a great time. We were just like calling
(16:17):
audibles and like filling time until the show was over.
It was the best. But that's how boom Chicago is.
And then you in addition to that, you do corporate gigs,
tons of corporate gigs. You're doing a gig in like
in like a like a like an amusement park, or
(16:39):
in the window of a shopping center, or like an
afternoon at the United Nations. Yes, man, everywhere we went everywhere.
We went to Malta, we went to Spain and stuff.
We went to Chicago. I didn't go to Chicago, but
they went to Chicago. But it was just every gig
(16:59):
you could think of, That's what it was. And it
was so what's your good headed? Your confidence is like,
I'm probably a piece of shit, So I'm so confident.
But after like three hundred Germans bow you you're fine, right,
You're gonna be fine.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
What what do you think that style of improv with
no rules? What did you take from that today or
what did you learn from that or how did you
how did you mold that into to who you are today?
Because you have rules today. You work in network a lot,
so I know for a fact that there are rules,
(17:43):
But what did what did that experience give you?
Speaker 1 (17:46):
It? Really? I mean it taught me that there are rules,
but are there? I mean, come on, it's really like
it's taught me that people ask for a certain thing,
but what they want is the best thing they could have,
right And sometimes and this is the worst thing I
(18:09):
could say, And sometimes you know best, like you know
best what you can deliver crystal clear, you know that,
and you know what they're asking for. There might be
a difference there, right, So just do the thing you like,
do the thing you like, stop doing the thing people
think they want. They'll know what they want.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Yeah, that's interesting, And I see that in your work
because it is surprising, particularly late night. There's a structure, right,
I mean, even if you erase everything else and you
say there's a commercial break every seven and a half
minutes or whatever, it is, right, like there is you're
set within a structure. But I find that you, at
(18:54):
least what I have seen as a performer that you're
you're constantly surprising, and those seven and a half minutes
can be wild and disparate in a way that is
not necessarily breaking the rules but is different. But potentially
that work at Boon Chicago, and then having the discipline
(19:17):
now to put it within, if not rules, at least
within a given structure. I think that's a great that's
a great gift.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Yay, so doo we do like like at the end
reff and show, we would just be like, what do
we feel like doing? And we would do exactly whatever
we felt like doing. Inter saying that was the big
surprise is people like it when you're having a fun time.
I would not have guessed that. I mean, certainly not
(19:47):
to that extent, but goodness, people watch you a smile
about a picture of a pony for ten minutes. They
just love that you're having fun. And it's so much
more severe. People like people so much more. I'm taking
off my earrings because I'm gonna fight you. But people
(20:11):
like people so bad. People love people. They love looking
at them, they love listening to them, they love whatever
weird things they love. And that I'm always reminded of
that whenever I end up in the middle of some
documentary of like what was the one? The Pez Guy?
The Pez documentary? I'm this guy loves this and then
it makes you love it. I don't love pets. I
(20:34):
don't care about Pez even I think Pez tastes bad.
How about that?
Speaker 2 (20:38):
I know that's really true, and it's so true. I
think about that one? What was it? The the Donkey
Kong one? Did you see that?
Speaker 1 (20:49):
I wrote a musical about it? Oh?
Speaker 2 (20:52):
You did music? There's that's bad research by me. But anyway,
go ahead, I wrote.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
You'd be the only person who knew about it. I
wrote a two man musical with my very good friend
Lauren van Kiren and our musical director David Bull, and
it was directed by Brendan Hunt, who's coach Beard on
ted Lasso. Now, yeah, and we had the dumbest It
was just like the two of us and it was
a quick change musical about the best, in my opinion,
(21:25):
the best documentary of all time, which is King of Kong.
King of Kong quarters the best. It's the best documentary.
And if you haven't seen it.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
You should know. You should definitely see it, and to
your point, you'll start being like God. I didn't appreciate
Donkey Kong enough, like your yeah, that's your Yeah, You're like,
I need to go buy a Donkey Kong machine so
that I can start playing this game that I've never
really had any desire to play before.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Yeah, I've never given it a single thought. But then
they love it so bad. Their love for it is catching.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Since, Yeah, what brought you to leave Boom Chicago and
(22:22):
come back to the United States.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Well, I was at Boom Chicago for two years, then
I left to do Second City, and back then I
called them on the phone and said, will you give
me a job? Now, they gave me a job because
I just so happened to slum Dog Millionaire it. They
(22:45):
didn't know me at Second City. I did I owe
while I was living in Chicago, But one night I
just so happened to show up there. Because if you're
an improviser, they'll let you do the set with them. Well,
the night I showed up was to same night Martin
Short showed up, so I was like, oh, they're not
gonna let me do the set, but he didn't want
(23:06):
to do the set, so then they let me do
the set. And then the three suggestions were like a
spark plug, which I just so happened to know how
to change sign language, which I just so happened to speak,
and gymnastics and I used to be a gymnastics coach.
And I was like, I must seem like a fucking
(23:26):
genius in these people. It was the slum dog millionariest
thing that has ever happened.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
I was like, oh, crazy, crazy.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
So then when I called him, I was like, I
want to job. They were like, okay, because because Martin
Short was there, all the people who make decisions were there,
so then they all knew I was the lady who
did the thing that one time.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Yeah. To be able to do those three things is
pretty crazy.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
What are they? Gods? I didn't know who. I didn't
shout it out. It wasn't a plant.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Plant. You had bought all the tickets in the theater
and they were all your friends, and they were like,
one of the weirdest skills that Amber has. Oh yeah,
here we go. Hey, yeah, uh not weird. That's I
don't even know why is it weird? But different different skills. Okay,
So you came back to start working with Second.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
City yep, And then I did Second City Denver. We existed,
and Maine Stage Chicago, and then from main Stage Chicago.
A lot of people go to LA, but Boom Chicago
was so fun. So I went back to Boom Chicago
for three years, you did, and it was the most
(24:42):
fun I've ever had. Like, Boom Chicago is very fun
when you're bad at it, and I was bad at
it for so long. I was bad at it for
i'd say, like a year. But then when you're good
at it and you're all old and stuff, oh my god,
it was the old I was a child. But it
was the fun time. It is the funnest time I
ever had. And for that that time, I chose fun
(25:05):
over maybe what I should have done, and I was
a thousand percent right, most of what I ever had.
Then after that, I moved to LA to try.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
To make it as an actor.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Yeah, yeah, that was a mess. But then I got
late night said, so wasn't all bad?
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Wait? Why why was that? Why was that a mess?
Why was being in LA trying to be an actor
a mess?
Speaker 1 (25:30):
La is tough and we were poor and it was bad.
Being poor is fine. I'm great at it, but uh.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
That's funny. I'm bad at it. I'm really bad. I'm
bad at it.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
I'm pretty good at it.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Really.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
I love Yeah, I could be on that show Extreme Couponing.
I planted out.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Well, it's funny. It's funny. And partly why I say
that is because I when I left Collins, we're going
to talk about me for a second, Like I knew
enough about myself. I was like moving to New York
and the idea of the like sleeping on sofas and stuff,
that was not going to work for me. And so
I mean not dissimilar to Chicago, but I ended up
(26:17):
in Minneapolis, where you know, they actually pay you to
do work in the theater. Not great, but you're getting
something as opposed to nothing most of the time in
New York. But I think that that early on can
be a really important gift to be good at being poor.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Is this true? Or am I making it up? Minneapolis
has the most theater seats per capita than any other
city in the US.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
True except New York. But yes, true, that is a
very that's a writer stat there. That's something that's something
that is true. But I can't tell you how many
people I have said that exact exact phrase. And then
except New York, to and they go really many many
(27:09):
what really? But yeah, but you moved to La. What
was your experience like that? You were you were just auditioning,
You were on the audition train.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
I moved there with my husband in two thousand national eight.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Eight. Okay, didn't make that up.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Oh wait, No, eleven, two thousand and eight is when
I went back to Boom. We left in twenty eleven.
Now we're in LA, and it was it was very,
very bad. Like I was a nanny, cause a nanny
for the most beautiful little baby. And every once in
(27:51):
a while, el see you whenever I'm over there and
he's like eight now and you can talk, and I'll
be like, hi, I am right, blah blah blah blah blah,
and then my tears well up in my eyes because
I used to hold it and be like, are you
ever going to talk to me? My perfect little baby.
So I was a nanny, and I try to make
it seem bad, but it was actually a dream, my
perfect boy. But before I got that job, I was
(28:13):
nanny for just the worst children on planet Earth. Yeah,
God bless it. Oh, just horrible children. I just didn't know.
I will say, I grew up spoiled siblings wise, because
it was mostly girls and one big brother. But everyone
was just so nice and you didn't like yell or
(28:35):
hit like, we didn't do that. So to watch these
children just beat the tar out of each other every day,
I'd be like, what is this? What does this? What's
wrong with you that you're so angry? You're four? Nothing
has happened, right, No, but yeah it was we're scraping by.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Did you go to amprop Olympic? Like, were you performing
there at all? Because of you? Are? You are? Okay?
So you're doing that?
Speaker 1 (29:01):
We have to live near IOH because I have to perform.
And then I was like I have to start taking
classes at UCB. At this point I had been a
literal professional improviser for a decade. I was like, I
guess I gotta take ECB clauses.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
I lived about seventeen seconds from UCB. Yeah, well during
that during that time that you were there, yeah, fun,
and then you were auditioning for film and television? Is
that that was what we were doing?
Speaker 1 (29:37):
I mean yeah, but yeah, I was mostly just putting
up my own shows. I fell in with this theater
called Sacred Fools, and it's like a writer's theater and
you just write your own shows and stuff. And that's
how I ended up with that King of Kong, the documentary,
the musical, and it was just the funnest place to be,
(30:01):
But it was it's weird to be poor in a
place you don't know. That's less fun. To move to
a new place to be poor is not fun. If
I like had to move back to Chicago and be poor,
I'd be like, Okay, I can do it, or Omaha, fine, right,
but Saskatchewan, we're gonna have a bad time.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Because you don't know, I don't know, you don't know
where to go, right. You then wanted to audition for SNL. Yeah,
was that the dream at the time for you?
Speaker 1 (30:33):
I mean sure, I just never considered it at all.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Okay, But then.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Once they were like, we're gonna have auditions and we
want you to come, I was like, it's mine. I
have it, I got it. I'm already on. I'm on
SNL already.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Yes. Yes.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Do not know why I thought. I mean, you couldn't
have told me any different. Because they had a big audition.
They were like, we're looking for a black lady, and
so then I was on all these in all these
showcases SNL showcases, it was like a million of them.
And then finally got through to the audition audition, and
(31:16):
it was four of us. Well, it was a bunch
of us. And then only four of us survived, okay.
And the four of us were le Kendra Tooks who
got hired as a writer on SNL, Leslie Jones who
got hired as a writer initially on SNL, and then
Sashir Zamida who got the acting job, and then me
who did not get So it was like, I extra
(31:43):
didn't get it.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
We're hiring, We're hiring everyone, but you, Yeah, that fad.
Are you able now or were you able then to say, well,
this is just not my thing. My thing is coming
or not? Was it just crushing?
Speaker 1 (32:04):
No? I thought I was going to die. Yeah, I
was going to die. And then I just I had to.
I was in rehearsals for King of Kong. Gosh, this
is all kay, a show I never mentioned, I've not
mentioned fourteen times. While I was in rehearsal for King
of Kong, the call came and it's just me and
my little girlfriend, and I go, oh my god, it's
(32:25):
oh my god, it's gonna be uh huh uh huh.
I didn't, okay, and then I had to keep rehearsing
rehearsal the middle of it.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Yeah you did, you did? You pause rehearsal and say, everybody,
come here, Come here, Come here. This is SNL, this
is gather around, gather around, here we go. Two of
us put it on speaker.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
But I certainly did say it's here, it comes.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Oh god, I was.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
So sure I was going to get it, so sure
it's bigger shock.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
So how then did you meet the folks at Late Night? This?
This came out of this audition process with SNL. Correct,
I think SO.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Said don't audition. Also, I thought my audition was great,
but so was everybody else's. Like you didn't see other
people's auditions. But what am I saying? Oh? So? Seth
Myers was also at Boom Chicago, so I knew Seth
and Seth had seen me in shows at Boom Chicago
(33:36):
when he hired me for Late Night. So it was
SNL calling to say no. Then three days later I
died and rose again, and then Seth called and was like,
will you be a writer at my show?
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Were you aware at the time that you were the
first woman of color to be writing for a late
night television show or did someone fill you in on
that later?
Speaker 1 (34:04):
No, an article came out that said I was the
first black woman to write for a network late near show.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Now I was sorry, I don't know, that's what I mean.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
A that's a lot of qualifiers, so many qualifiers. I'll
take it. Okay, we need representation. I'm happy to be it.
But then I don't don't know. I certainly didn't think
that that was true. And then even still I'm like,
(34:35):
is that true?
Speaker 2 (34:38):
It's so funny to me. I don't know. That's fascinating
because obviously that does have an impact. Now maybe I
mean you're clearly saying not so much to you, but
in terms of people who come after you, right, do
you feel like writers' rooms now are more diverse?
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Yeah, we're one hundred percent more diverse. I think everyone
got embarrassed because that's embarrassing, man. And then a shift
in social awareness happened, right, and people were like, hmm,
maybe everything we're delivering is through the white lens. Maybe
(35:20):
we need a different vantage point. So then I think
things started to shift. And then though white stuff just
didn't ring true anymore. And then I think everybody could see, Oh,
if that's how you talk about police violence, you probably
shouldn't be the person we're asking, you know. So I
(35:45):
think it's a little bit of everything. Yeah, rooms are
way more diverse now than they used to be.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
It's so interesting to hear you say that. And I
didn't think about it until you said there was a
light that was shined and people got embarrassed. You know.
I remember Jon Stewart winning again for his show the Emmys,
and they announced the people and he was on stage
and kind of embarrassingly made a joke about the fact
(36:12):
that everybody looked alike. And my memory was like everyone
was not just white, but Jewish white men that were
standing on stage. But it was almost like realizing in
the moment as I was sitting there, like, yeah, this
is odd, this is odd. Yeah, it just when you
said embarrassed, I wonder and maybe it was that incident
(36:35):
or something else where everyone's sort of like, oh, wait
a second, why is this the way that it is?
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Yeah, I mean I hope that it was. I don't
have to hope. I know that it was the work
that people did where it just is different. You can't
help it. It's different. It's different. When you ask the
people involved to talk about it, you just get a different, fish, fresher,
better point of view.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
Yeah, you have moved on, I mean not moved on,
but you were working on so many different projects at
the moment as well. Why are you still at Late Night? No,
I'm serious, Like what is it? What is it about
that job or your relationship with Seth or whatever it is?
(37:24):
Why stay there? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Late Night is everyone's favorite. You We have probably the
least turnover of any show, Like right, people love it there.
And it's like, it's not like writing on a regular
sitcom because you have job security. You know, these people
(37:51):
renewed for years at a time. It's not just to
the for the next twelve episodes, so you'll never get
as a television writer, such job security does not exist.
So there's that. But also it's so fun. It's so
fun and it's good, and I just like, like, I
(38:14):
write a lot of sitcoms and like Broadway Now and books,
and I just want to also do this thing that
I'm good at instead of learning new shit. I'm so
tired of learning new things. I hate learning. It's bad.
It's stupid. Why have I done all this just to
(38:37):
learn how to do a separate thing? I don't like it.
I don't like it.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Oh, somebody marked that. Someone marked that right there, Amber Ruffin.
I hate learning.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
I hate learning, I truly do. Any future I've had
will tell you she hates it.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
Do you consider yourself a writer or an actor primarily?
Speaker 1 (39:17):
I consider myself a writer primarily, even though that wasn't
even a part of it originally, right I Also, I
guess I just believed I couldn't, okay, because no one
was asking me to and everyone was asking literally everyone
around me to write this, and that no one's ever
asking me to write anything. So I thought, oh, well,
(39:38):
at least I'm a good performer. It never occurred to
me that I could write.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
Interesting. How do you decide how often and what segments
that you come on late night and appear on camera for?
Speaker 1 (39:53):
They'll schedule? Amber says what and jokes? I can't tell,
But like everything else, is just if the spirit moves me,
and I'll be like, hey, I wrote this, Can I
do it or not? Sometimes they say no, Sometimes they
(40:14):
say yes.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
Now who's they? Who's they?
Speaker 1 (40:17):
Seth Myers has the audacity to tell me no, sometimes
thank you for giving up this platform. Yeah, yeah, but
sometimes it's really dumb and he's like, no, right.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
In June of twenty twenty, after the George Floyd incident,
Seth asked you every night for a week to share
your stories of confrontations that you had had with police.
How did this come about? Was this something that you
asked to do or was this something that Seth thought
(40:53):
you should do.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
When George Floyd was murdered, I wrote something for the
next day, and it was a sketch kind of and
then as the day went on, you knew that wasn't
gonna you couldn't do that, that this was different. And
then I wrote a rant, you know, which was just
(41:20):
gonna be me talking. And then that couldn't do Because
the murder of George Floyd, just America was turning on
its head and it happened. I watched it happen in
real time, and I was like, Wow, this is really
affecting people. And so then I was like, I think
(41:40):
the only way I could have anything to say about
it would be to go on the show and just
tell the story of one of the millions of times
where I thought cops were going to murder me, you know,
getting pulled over and them having their guns drawn or
like stopping me on the street and stuff. So then
(42:02):
I told that one story and then on that Monday,
and then I was like, this is one of a
billion stories I have, and you don't know a black
person who doesn't have a story like this. And then
I opened up the show every day that week with
one of those stories, and that that is how it
(42:23):
came about. I just I didn't think it would open
the show though. What was bothering me so bad is
that people were like, this is special or his behavior
is special, or these are special police officers and this
is a special happening, and that really bothered me. I
(42:44):
was like, there's nothing special about this at all. From
where I'm standing. This is regular, degular, every day stuff.
So I just wanted to make that very very clear.
And I'm so lucky that they let me do that
because a lot of those other shows would never have
let anybody say anything like that. Right, Yeah, I'm a
(43:09):
lucky little bug.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
I was in Minneapolis for just less than twenty four
hours and the city felt totally different. But how it
kept getting brought up to me is that these changes
have happened because of what happened to George Floyd, in
terms of the architecture of the city, the areas of
(43:36):
the city where people go, where people don't go, what
you know, police presence, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
And that you say you wanted to make it clear
this is not a unique occurrence. Well, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
It really affected people who live in Minneapolis really hard.
My sister is a pastor at a church that's a
few locks away from where George Floyd was murdered, and
it I mean, she was like that it changed everything
and then her job became like taking care of the
(44:11):
community in a brand new way. And I was like, well,
thank goodness, you were there, right.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
Yeah. Twenty twenty, something else happens the Amber rough and
show starts on the Peacock because I watched a bunch
there's there's really great stuff in it. You started it
(44:40):
in twenty twenty, which is significant, of course, because of
another global event that happened. How was that finally getting
your own show with your name on it. A pandemic
comes and now you're producing this in the middle of
a pandemic. How how was that for you?
Speaker 1 (45:00):
It was super duper fun. It was great. It was
great that it was on Peacock. It was great that
there was no audience. I was like, what a great
little like it was a real show and it was
a big fancy thing, but it was also just like us,
(45:22):
you know, so it felt so good. It was the
perfect way to do things, like I got to get
all the way to the end of my weirdness and
back without being because the audience will tell you exactly
what you want, and then you're just a laser. You
can hit the laugh instantly because the audience has trained
(45:44):
you to right. But then without that, you're just like
having a beautiful time and doing the things you feel
like doing it. And I think it's pretty clear that
was what we were after.
Speaker 2 (45:56):
Yeah, well partly That's what I was talking about earlier
about the time. The timing and the rhythm of your
stories and at times jokes is so different, and it's
fascinating because it is. Because there's no audience, it would
necessarily change, particularly for you as an improver, because you're
(46:21):
trained to figure out exactly what you just said, where
that laugh is, and how you get to it. But
that's that's awesome that you found it liberating and fun
as opposed to terrifying and horrible.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
Yeah. I also was like, look, the most any Black
lady has ever had a late night show is two minutes,
So I'm not going to have a bad two minutes.
I guarantee you, I'm going to be having a blast.
We really did. It was so much fun. It was
so much fun.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
Are we going to get more?
Speaker 1 (46:58):
We We are now going to do specials of the
Amber Ruffin Show every once in a.
Speaker 2 (47:07):
While, when you feel it.
Speaker 1 (47:10):
When we feel it, when the spirit moves us.
Speaker 2 (47:12):
Okay, there that was the answer I saw. I just
wanted to hear it from you. Okay, well good, I'm
glad about that. Three seasons thus far nominated for WGA
Awards and Emmy's. And again, if you haven't checked it out,
you absolutely should. Speaking of the WGA, how long is
(47:34):
this going to last?
Speaker 1 (47:35):
Five more years?
Speaker 2 (47:37):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (47:38):
I mean no, but it's going to be a long time.
Speaker 2 (47:40):
That's that's what I think too. I mean, what I
said was two thousand and eight was one hundred days.
I think that's very short compared to where we're at
right now.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
Do you think, so, I have no idea, but I
do think that we will not be back to work
in this season, like I don't think we'll come back
in the summer at all. I think the fall is
a possibility.
Speaker 2 (48:11):
But that's more than one hundred days. Then, by the way, that's.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
Right, that's right, you're right, you're absolutely right.
Speaker 2 (48:17):
Because you acted surprised when I said that was short.
Speaker 1 (48:21):
Well, I've never been able to count, so I'm just
surprised you could count.
Speaker 2 (48:28):
I know, I know. I have to mention a couple
of books that you've written with your sister. You'll never
believe what happened to Lacey. Crazy Stories about Racism and
the World Record Book of Racist Stories. No one asked
you to write. Now you're writing everything, including books. Why
(48:50):
your sister, and talk to me a little bit about
about these books.
Speaker 1 (48:56):
Because these people asked me to write a book and
I did not want to told them no, I really did,
and it still doesn't appeal to me. And I done
did it twice. But when I got there, what's.
Speaker 2 (49:10):
The third one? Well, oh, okay, who knows.
Speaker 1 (49:15):
What the third one is?
Speaker 2 (49:16):
All right?
Speaker 1 (49:18):
But when I got there, my agents were like, go
see the book. Guy, you got to write a book.
It's like, I got to do nothing right, Let me
go talk to this guy. Go talk to him. You
so much fun. And then he was like, if you
had to write a book. I was like, I don't
have to, and I'm not going to. They go, well,
if you had to, I go, you know, it would
be a funny book. When I was in the cab
(49:39):
on the way there, my sister had texted me this
picture of her because she crazy. Racist things keep happening
to my sister, Lacy. It's just a part of life,
and they're always hilarious. Like, yes, there's also bad racist stuff,
but the number of racist things that happened to my
sister that are me slappingly hilarious. It's in the billions.
(50:01):
So I was like, if we sat down and just
wrote out each of these stories, it would be hilarious
and we would write it like us talking. So we
did and it was great. But it just so happened
that she texted me one of these stories while I
was in the cab on the way to the book.
I Otherwise I don't know that I would have thought
of such a thing.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
Yeah, well, that's how great things happen. Yay.
Speaker 1 (50:26):
So now we got a New York Times bestseller. Who
would have.
Speaker 2 (50:29):
Thought, congratulations, don't just I have one too? All right,
So that's what you have to do. That's what you have.
That's what you have to do. You have to write
a book. When the book person says you got to
write a book, then you got to write a book.
Speaker 1 (50:42):
You gotta write a book. That's right.
Speaker 2 (50:44):
You were continuing to work with your sister the Amber
and Lacey Lacey and Amber show, which I assume is
because you couldn't agree whose name went first? Why your
sister first? Off? Like you love working with her?
Speaker 1 (50:59):
Yeah, of her because she's bad. But one thing for
the book that translates well into podcasts. We rag on
each other constantly, and when you invite a third person
to be a part of it, it's so fun. It's
so fun. But they feel so squished and they're forced
(51:20):
to choose sides, and it makes us so happy.
Speaker 2 (51:26):
What about your your Are your other three siblings upset
that that that Lacy got tapped or are they happy
to be out of the line of fire.
Speaker 1 (51:35):
They're happy to be out. They have had it with us,
They had it.
Speaker 2 (51:42):
Some like it hot. You're now a Broadway writer. You're
now a playwright, an official playwright. Uh, and you're also
involved in a new production of The Wiz. Yes, dude,
when is when is what is that coming?
Speaker 1 (51:57):
The Wiz is coming to Broadway in twenty twenty four, okay,
and that's next year, by the way, what so how
many years is that too? No?
Speaker 2 (52:10):
Next year? I'm all right.
Speaker 1 (52:13):
So The Wiz is so fun and like, we're not
even it's not even all the way finished. We don't
have everyone, we don't have all the sets and stuff,
and it's already so good. It is so good. It's
so great. But I you know, I can't even brag
(52:36):
because the Wizz is pizza. It's like, if you go
to a freaking eighth grade showing of The Wiz, guess what,
those songs still sound good. It don't matter who's singing them,
It doesn't matter what that The Wiz is your favorite
because those songs are untouchable and true to form. Our
(52:57):
version of the Wiz is exceptional. It's just it's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (53:02):
I love it. And you're returning now. You're returning now
to where you started. You started playing music in the church,
as you said, your entree into the improv world. Was
your ability to improv songs and now you're turning it around.
Is this a dream for you or is this did
(53:23):
a play person say you need to do this like
the book or was this something you actively sought.
Speaker 1 (53:29):
I just thought if I could write co write the
musical Some Like It Hot, then they would let me
do whatever show I wanted to on Broadway. But then
the Whiz came along and I was like, Oh, that's
what I want. So I don't know if there will
be a lot of Broadway after this, because I was like,
(53:50):
it's a like a the most Tony nominated musical Some
Like It Hot this year, Yes, and then the musical
You Love the Most. I think I'm gonna have to
tap out after this. We did it, We did it.
Speaker 2 (54:08):
Well, you have done it, and you are doing it.
I congratulate you. I find you so funny and again surprising,
which is my favorite kind of funny. And the fact
that you've stayed there on Late Show as well. I
just I love it. I love your story. So thank
(54:29):
you so much for coming and chatting with me.
Speaker 1 (54:33):
Thank you for having me. I love you so bad
and I always will.
Speaker 2 (54:37):
Thank you Amber.
Speaker 1 (54:38):
Thanks Bratton Hey.
Speaker 2 (54:53):
Amber, Amber, thank you so much for speaking to me today.
I have been a fan of your work for a
long long time, and today, yes, you even exceeded my expectations.
Thank you. Listeners be sure to tune into Amber's podcast,
The Amber and Lacey Lacy and Amber Show. It is
(55:14):
awesome like her and speaking of podcasts, come back to
Off the Beat this time next week for another guest
who will be here with me. We'll see you soon.
Off the Beat is hosted and executive produced by me
(55:37):
Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer, lingg Lee. Our senior
producer is Diego Tapia. Our producers are Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris,
and Emily Carr. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary,
and our intern is Sammy Katz. Our theme song Bubble
and Squeak, performed by the one and only Creed Bratton,
Host
Brian Baumgartner
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