Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:22):
Welcome to the latest edition of one hundred. He had
Gordon Podcast Today, a conversation with comedian Roy Wood Junior.
In nineteen ninety eight, while attending college, Wood started honing
his comedic skills by doing stand up in small clubs.
In two thousand and six, he made his national television
(00:42):
debut on The Late Show with David Letterman. In twenty ten,
he finished third on The Last Comic Standing, an NBC
comedian competition. Twenty fifteen brought an opportunity to be a
correspondent on The Daily Show, and that brought more note
of variety and a bigger spotlight to the man who
(01:03):
at one time wanted to be a journalist. In April,
would got the highly touted opportunity to host the White
House Correspondence Dinner. Today, he's become a hot name in comedy,
but we started where it all began for him. Born
in Manhattan, but spent your formative years South Birmingham, Memphis,
(01:27):
And like, what do you consider yourself?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
I'm a Southerner, bro. Yeah, we left Manhattan when I
was eight months old. I can't come back claim in
New York. That's why I don't like that.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
A lot of people do though a lot of people do.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
You know, because journalistically, you are from where you are born.
You are from where you got in your first fight
and where you got your first kiss. That's where you're from. Now.
I know military brats, they bounce around a lot, but
you know, we were in Memphis until I was the
third grade, and then Birmingham the rest of the way.
(02:02):
All I have ever known is Mosquito. And I spent
every summer in Mississippi in Clarksdale Country Country.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
That's the whole country. Bro.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
All I know is the mosquito trucks and and just
hearing race cars and freight trains and all of that.
So you know I'm from the South.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Man.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Also, when I get you know, I started drinking, I
get a little tipsy. Man.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
That's whether all come out the boy man.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
You know what I'm talking about, Kemp folk Mann.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Yeah, yeah, you know it's funny. People who've never been
South don't understand. You know, the bit about the mosquito
truck and all, which you know, was hilarious. The the
idea of there, you know, there are there are regional lifestyles,
and there's something about being South. I would go down
South to Birmingham. I grew up in Detroit, but that's
(02:52):
South quite frankly, that's right the country. Yeah, but I
went to Birmingham.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Robes in Detroit.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Yeah, I went to Birmingham in the summers. What was
it about the South that that.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
You still have affinity and affection for, you know, and
shout out to one of the sikes she just talked
about that Mosquito trug.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Yeah, yeah, definitely expecially.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah, to me, the South is beautiful because you know
the good in it, because you walk in it every day.
And the issue is that people outside the South attack
the South because they think that the people that make
the laws represent everybody in the South. And you couldn't
be any further from the truth. Most of these politicians
(03:39):
that make these crazy laws that y'all use toy stereotype
the South. They won by four or five percent. It
wasn't no seventy thirty landslides, you know. So when I'm
out and I'm creating content and I'm talking about the South,
I'm trying to whenever I can talk about it from
(04:00):
a positive place, or use the Daily Show cameras as
a chance to take cameras down South to show good
people that's doing real stuff, that's fighting for things that
are on the right side of an issue instead of
just assuming that everybody down there and just talking crazy
and being ignorant.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Let me ask you this.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
It's funny almost you almost become a defender of the
South in a way. I'm sorry to catch off, but
like you become this like, no, it's not that. Okay,
it's a little bit of that, but let me show
you that other stuff. Yeah, you know, Okay, it's a
bit more of that, but there's good stuff.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Correct. Yeah. Yeah, let me ask you this. Man. It's
interesting to watch you and listen to you because there
is this duality right in your personality. I think there
is the guy that wanted to grow up and be
the journalist and then there's the funny dude. Do you
have an internal fight with that at all? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Yeah, the more so. So. You know, BT has this
series America and Black, that you and I have both
been able to do segments on, and so American Black
is this beautiful sixty minutes. It's almost like the Avengers
of black journalists coming together to create a program every
(05:19):
week with dope black stories. And so then when they
reach out to me. They were like, yeah, we want
you to come on and do something about this. They
used to do a topic and the producer album, and
I go, okay, well, yeah, so I can compose about
that subject. I would love to discuss reparations and the
implications of what they're doing. And over you go, no, man,
(05:41):
make it funny. Okay, I can do you know, yeah,
I can do that too. And what I realized ed
is that, you know, it's a blessing to be able
to have the gifts of humor, to be able to
address stuff that has a lot of weight to it.
You know, I definitely came into the you know, you know,
(06:02):
people like yourself and Jackie Reid, Gordon Graham, Fred Hickman,
you know, just innumerable people that I watched when I
was in J school at Florida A and M. And
you want to do something like that. But then you
also have to respect that my skill set ain't that. Like,
as much as I want to be astute, ain't nobody
(06:23):
taking me seriously when I try to be serious. So
the best I can do is be funny about serious things,
and hopefully within that conversation you take something more serious
away from.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
You know, I ask about the duality of it and
whether you struggle. Because nobody believes this but the people
that grew up with me. I was two votes away
from class clown in high school. Seriously, nobody. Everybody thinks
I'm this dude, and I'm not at all. I got
(06:55):
a buddy who says, I don't know who that ND
word is. It's just on TV. But it ain't the
cat I hang out with, you know.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Yeah. I tried to be all calm and button that,
like I'm not on. I'm one of them Communians. I'm
not on when I'm not on stage. Yeah, I want
to talk about stuff and be real, oh be silly,
and I'm like, okay, I can do that a little
bit too. But I was not a class clown not
till college. In high school, bro, I kept my head lo.
(07:26):
I was in a different school system every two years
until high school, so fitting in and birmingham didn't happen
for me from third grade, and it didn't happen till
like tenth grade. To be real, and once I made
varsity baseball, then you become cool, Like it doesn't matter
what your personality is. Being a varsity athlete in high
school supersede your personality. You know what I'm saying. You
(07:50):
were cool inherently because of your occupation, so I didn't
have to work to be so I was funny when
I rode the bench in high school, I was that,
but I wasn't a class clown. And so when I
got to college, boy, that's a whole new world with
people who don't know you. That's a clean slate. And
I was in school out of state. Come on, dog,
(08:11):
how did you get to completely reinvent yourself?
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Let me say. I was gonna bring this up later,
but I saw the clip of you. Even though you
didn't throw from the rubber, I was impressed with your
first pitch out there in Kansas City.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Boy, So that's because you ain't see the one last
year for Wrigley, I hopped that thing and threw it
too hot unto the plate. Boy, they should have cut
me in high school because he felt sorry for yeah,
one of my loves.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Man, Yeah, man, Let me ask you about your parents.
You know you you spoke so eloquently about them when
you hosted the Correspondence Dinner. Your dad, a journalist of note,
covered the civil rights movement, the Suedo riots, and really
took a look at racism within the Vietnam War for
(08:59):
our soldiers at a time when nobody was really doing
stories like that. Your mom's a was a college administrator.
Talk to me about their impact in your life.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Man. Education first in that house, you know, my dad's
more house, my mama's faan you, so you already know
what kind of house I was built down there. And
you know my mother's years in administration have been at
a black college for the last almost thirty years. So
this idea of knowing yourself and not letting anybody informed,
(09:32):
don't let anybody else tell you who you are. You know,
that was huge in our house. So it wasn't nothing
anybody could say a dude to me that was gonna
make me feel bad, which is exactly what you need
in comedy because you're gonna go on stage over and
over again and you're gonna do terrible and you're gonna
feel bad. But you just have to remember them more
(09:54):
often and not people don't remember what they hate. Like
from an entertainment point, if somebody don't like you and
they bow you, you can go back to that same
comedy club next week, and that personal laugh at you.
That's the one thing I will say that you know.
You know, for as rough as we try to say
a black audience is Black people are very fair, very fair.
(10:15):
I didn't like that. Didn't say I don't like you.
I just didn't like that. Come back next week with
something different, I might laugh. So, you know, they instilled
a lot of confidence in me. My father had a
work ethic that was just insane. He was a good
man to a lot of people. And it's interesting as
a child that you don't even realize you're picking that
up until later on in life when I'm out walking
(10:38):
with my son and I'm just nice to strangers, and
I think there's something to the energy that you carry
out into the world every day when you need the
house that your children pick up on. And you know,
that was something that I didn't realize. I realized at
the time that I was picking up from my father.
But you know, he he woke up every day and
put one foot in front of the other and continue
(11:01):
to work up until three weeks before he died with cancer.
So the man was like, I'm not even going to
let that slowed me down. So you know my mother,
you know, my mother worked a lot, law school, grad school.
I was a latchkey kid for the long time, but
she always was working to build something better for herself
(11:23):
and inherently better for me.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
So you know, when I look at my parents, you know.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Work ethic above all and helping people is definitely, you know,
the one thing that I think I've taken away from
them the most.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Let me ask you in relation to playing audiences, you know,
there's always a question of whether you do different material
or whether a black audience it's harder to make laugh
than a white audience. You know, You've been able to
kind of be one of those rare comedians that can
play to a white audience and a black audience. You
(11:57):
know that comedy often and it is like church is
very segregated in America, So you're one of the few
that really kind of is able to walk that line.
Is there a difference in playing to a white crowd
than a black crowd.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Yeah, you know, white audiences are just now learning the truth.
Black people are hearing it so that they can confirm
that they weren't crazy and thinking what they thought they thought.
So you know, for me, the best joke is a
joke where a black person goes, that's what I've been
trying to tell y'all, and a white person goes, wow,
(12:34):
I didn't know that, and not changing a syllable of
the material. Now, I can't go on stage specifically going
this joke is full black people and only black people.
I write what is true to me and what makes
me laugh and more often and not, it's about the
experience of race in this country. So black people are
going to gravitate towards that a little bit. White people
(12:57):
that are curious about it are going to gravitate. But
you know, you go up in some spots, it's white
folks they I don't want to hear about race, hear
about it at all. But I'm sorry. That's all I
got for you for the next forty five minutes.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Do you have to change lang? Like if you're playing
a predominantly white audience, Right, there's some words, some colloquialisms,
there's some things that they're just not gonna get.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
For a predominantly white audience. Yeah, but I do it
for me first. Then we'll backtrack and give white people
the translation. If you do, I'm not gonna cheat black
people who show up and make them think that they're
watching comedy for white folks.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
This is me.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
I'm a brother. This is how I talk. Oh, I
recognize that you didn't catch up with that running off
with the bag mean stuff laundering, well, running off of
the bag laundry bags. It's you get it anyway, like
you'll take you'll take a segue like that. You know
what I'm saying. But for me, you know I came up.
(13:58):
You know, my comedies a lot of it as a
byproduct of just how I came up. Like you can
do Chitlin circuit in the South, but in the South
end I started in ninety eight. Open mic in most
cities in the South was once a month. It wasn't
a regular thing. Atlanta had weekly open mics. Tampa had
weekly open mics for the most part. Everywhere else that
(14:21):
I could get to from Tallahassee.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
That's the other thing.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
I'm in Tallahassee at school at the time. Other places
I can get to open mics once a month. So
if you want to perform every week, you need to
learn how to tell jokes for black crowd. You need
to go to Biloxi and do this casino that's all
seventy year old white people. You got to go and
do this mainstream room. Then you got to go to
Fort Walton Beach. It's all drunk twenty year old white boys.
(14:45):
So what is the joke? What is the topic? What
is the thing that connects all of those people? And
that's how I started to write my act because I
didn't want to change up every night. I didn't want
to change the joke of the thing. The biggest difference
between a white and black audience for me is speed.
White people. Most of the white audiences I have don't
(15:07):
have enough black friends to keep up with me when
I talk too fasts. Black people can black people speak
to black you can keep up with it. But if
it's a white audience, sometimes I will slow down just
a bit so you can keep up. Go to black artients,
I know you can keep up. Man, y'all keep it
up real good man, y'all look good.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
What's happening? What was it for you man when you
either had to tell your parents that they found out
when you kind of said, let me go on open
for Tommy Davison and oh man, what about this semester
I lost?
Speaker 2 (15:43):
I ain't tell my moment that I ain't think so
matter of fact, you just snitched. You know, my pops
passed when I was a senior in high school. I
was sixteen, so I started working more. So my g
I was working thirty hours a week in high school
was shaky. I didn't have the greatest GBA. I had
a killer act score. That's what got me into college
(16:07):
is that I knew how to standardize tests. So I
get to school. It's just all about staying in school. Man.
And so I get arrested when I'm nineteen for stealing
credit cards, and that's ultimately what got me into comedy.
So now imagine this, You on probation for stealing, and
(16:27):
then you done told your mama, Yeah, I'm I'm gonna
go sleep in this bus station real quick. But you know,
this little education thing you marched for, it's cool, you know,
I get around to it. My mama was not with it, bro,
She was not with it. It was probably three four
years into comedy for real, for real before she even extended.
(16:49):
And then the first time she saw me, I bombed,
So that confirmed to her that you don't need to
be doing this at all. But you know, when my
mother found out I was doing stand up, it was
not a pretty situation because I was back in school
on a thread on a thread, and you're telling a
(17:12):
black woman educator who was amongst the first integrating group
of people at Delta State University in Mississippi that education
ain't that deep. So you know, I got my grades right.
And you know, the deal I made with my mother
was that if I make good grades, you can't say
nothing to me about comedy. And you know, I'll give
her credit to this day, my mama kept her word.
(17:34):
I made good grades, I kept going on the road.
We never talked about comedy. We never talked about it
because she just I don't understand why you're doing that.
And I couldn't understand it either. I just knew that
I liked doing it. And one of my mom's students
saw me sleeping in the bus station in Birmingham. Because
I would come home to do open mics. I wouldn't
even stay at my mom's house because I just didn't
(17:55):
I just don't want you to know what's going on.
And my mom found out I was sleeping in a
bus station and she put down on a Ford focus
for me. You know, and this is a woman who
didn't understand why I was doing what I was doing.
But if you're going to do it, do it safely.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Let me ask you, man, your career started in radio.
You're running through you're doing some reporting. You know, you
move along kind of the comedy circuit. You get the
piece for opening with Tommy Davidson during midterms. That was
d a midterm you flunked.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
And because I didn't know they only offered that class
in the fall, I thought this was a class they
offered in the spring to it.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
So you finally make your way out to LA. You
do Last Comic Standing, landing third Place. You go through
the pilot thing, and people who don't know TV don't
understand how many times you may do a pilot for
a show. You get excited and it doesn't get picked up.
You know, it's it's like roadkill.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
It's imagine if your job. Let you do your job
for two weeks to see if you will be allowed
to do your job for seven years, and every time
you get a job, they go, hey, that was a
good two weeks, but we ain't gonna be able to man,
(19:24):
and you gotta go right back to the grind of
applying for jobs. Yeah, that's that's the cycle. Of scripted television.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
So twenty fifteen becomes pivotal because you do a pilot
for UH with Whoopee. So I imagine you're thinking, Okay,
this is gonna happen. I'm with Whoopee. It doesn't bro.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
So so Jermaine Fowler and Whoopy Goldberg have a sitcom
at ABC where the View is where Whoopee is and
we do the audition or whatever. And this is the
other thing. For a pilot. You go through a screen
test where this is the imagine if that same job
that was going to give you a two week probationary job.
(20:12):
What if they say, hey, just come in and meet
the coworkers and see if you like them, and we'll
see if they like you, and then we'll decide if
we give you to So the chemistry test is what
I need. So I passed the chemistry tests and we
get the show. The pilot's great. They sent it to
network and the story as it was told to me,
and I don't know how much truth there is it
(20:33):
is because I don't know the inside of it. The
story as it was told to me was that at
the time, the View didn't have all of their co
hosts and Whoopee was in the middle of contract negotiations
and they couldn't negotiate Whoopy sitcom deal until they closed
the View deal. But you can't close the View deal
until you figure out who all the co hosts going
to be. And that process took longer than we had
(20:58):
time on people's contracts the sitcom. The sitcom didn't go,
and so I was crushed because, you know, living in
Los Angeles at this point almost ten years, I'd only
really gotten one thing, you know, was because my homeboy
helped me up. So I wasn't booking a lot. I
didn't see a lot of luck professionally in LA. And
(21:20):
the Whoopie thing really was that was really that was
that was a gut punch.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
And then but then Comedy Central comes no Trevor Noah
calls Neil Brennan in LA and Neil Brennan goes, well,
there's a guy. If you're gonna be hire a new
correspondence since you're taken over for John next month, there's
a guy I think you should consider. And the other
(21:48):
thing that helped me was that the entire time that
I wasn't working in LA on sitcoms, ESPN would have
me on so you know, and it wasn't paid, but
it was an opportunity to be on TV and just
talk to sports and I love it and I get
the crack jokes. ESPN they would have me on in
LA and in Bristol when I was playing East Coast Kates.
(22:09):
I gotta I gotta give a big shout out to
Mike Hill and Marcellus Wilie and Michelle Beatle and Jamel
Hill and Bomani Jones like so many people who had
me on their programs who didn't have to just hey,
Stan Burrett said, you want to come home and do
the thing?
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Yeah, yeah, I do.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
The footage from those that year where I was on
ESPN for free was what to help seal the deal,
along with Neil Brennan's vouch to get me the Daily Show.
And it's weird and how you just never know the
moments that you're in in life, how they're preparing you,
you know, for the next thing. But yeah, if the
(22:50):
Whoopie get the irony is that if the Whoopie Goldberg,
Jermaine Pilot, Jamaine Fowler pilot gets greenlit, I don't do
the Daily Show. Wow, And I don't know where I'd
be today, So you know, within failure, there's still opportunity.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Those opportunities led the comedian to being asked to host
this year's White House Correspondence Center, a highly coveted gig
for any comedian, one that comes with a lot of
attention and a lot of pressure. Talk to me about that.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
For you, I can't imagine any gig with more pressure
and more stress because you're in a room full of
people in power, and I feel like the comedian's job
is to represent the people who have no power. So
you have to go in there and say something to
these folks. But one wrong joke, they just gonna all
fold up on you. And the difference between this and
(23:45):
the Apollo is that this audience is not fair. I
don't like that joke, therefore I don't like you, So
now I'm not gonna laugh at anything else to You've
got to say, even if it is funny to me,
that's not fair from an entertainment standpoint, you know, at
least with a black audience. I didn't like that joke.
(24:06):
If you give me enough bad jokes in a row,
I'm going to boo you. Versus I didn't like that joke.
But ooh, that next joke was good. Okay, let's see
if you have enough so there's fairness throughout the performance
and certain audiences to correspondence. Then I don't think it's that.
But you know, I was just trying to go in there,
man and crack a couple of jokes about what's going
on in the country, and then at the same time
(24:28):
talk a little bit about Biden, speak a little bit
about you know, what people say about Kamala, and just
give a tip of the hat to local journalists and
get up out of there.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Happy to be here.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Oh real quick, mispraise and I think you left some
of your classified documents up here. You can get the.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Yeah. No, don't get him to him. I'll put him
in a safe place. He don't know where to keep him. Mamas,
How did you take what comes with whomever sits and
stands at the podium, the praise and the criticism. How
did you take it? It was fine with it. You know.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
There's some people that didn't like some of the jokes,
you know. I know there was a joke that I
made about about trans people. Well, I use the trans
grooming conversation as a setup to get into a school
shooting joke. At its core, it's a joke about school shootings,
and there were people that didn't like the setup of
(25:21):
the joke, and there were people who didn't like the punchline,
period point plan. So I think with comedy there's always
going to be people that don't like something that you
do or something that you said. So I don't think
it's anything that you can really get around, like he
was the joke trans people aren't grooming your kids, even
if they are them. Kids are go and get shot anyway.
(25:42):
They're not going to grow up. So to me, that's
a joke strictly about it's strictly about school shootings. But
what I noticed, even with the Don Lemon material, is
that when you're doing jokes about political topics, people are
going to take your topics and however they want to
make it fit their narrative about something that's bigger, that's
(26:05):
a bigger conversation, they gonna do it, and there's nothing
you can do about that. You have to do the
jokes for the people that are that are just there
for the humor. Some people ain't there for the humor.
Some people are there for the politics. So if this
joke about this thing. I can use this joke in
this post to support something else that I believe or
don't believe, then that's what I'm going to do. So
(26:26):
I think what you have now is not just people
who may not like a joke, but it's people who
are going to take a joke and use it to
support their own agendas. And it ain't nothing not gonna
do about that. And I can't stress that because then
you're worried about every single word being perfect. If you
can't realize that the joke was the joke, I don't
know what to tell you.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Would you do the dinner again? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Not only would I do the dinner again, but this
time I could go a little harder because I feel
like the disadvantage I had is that don't nobody really
know who I am in that room, And if you
know me, you know me from the Daily Show, which
means you don't completely know my sense of humor, Like
my stand up is a little more broader than what
I do as a correspondent on the show. So within
(27:14):
what I did at the last correspondence to dinner, I
feel like there is a I'm trying to tell jokes
that honor what this event is kind of be a
roasty comedian, even though I don't roast, I gotta kind
of jab people a little bit. But also in the
same course of the journey, introduce you to who I
(27:35):
am and inform you of where I come from. Because
the first thing I know at some point somebody's going
to say at the end of his set is.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Who the hell does he think he is?
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Oh, his daddy's a journalist, his mama was a civil
rights Okay, now I'll shut up and listen, So that
part of it is out the way now, So now
I could come back and I feel like really be
able to do something that's fun and interesting and like
really talk about a lot of different issues in the world.
(28:06):
But you know, it's not It's not an easy gig.
I'm not going to add like it was a layup.
I'm thankful that I had some great writers to help
me as well. But you know, at the end of
the day, as a comedian, we juggle dynamite. It's fun.
I don't want to just keep doing regular gigs. No,
put me back. Yeah, what's the worst is gonna happen? Man,
(28:29):
y'all just gonna not like me for a little while
till you find somebody else to not.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Like I was with you that night at some of
the after events, and just the you know, appreciation that
people were showing you for doing us good, doing us proud.
How that make you feel because that's something that you know,
when you're giving a high profile gig, we still represent
all of us.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Wish I'd have went in a little more on reparations.
That's like one.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
Should have said a little more about that one.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
You know, at the end of the day, you want
to be able to contribute positively, or at least I
want to be able to contribute positively to the betterment
of the black experience in this country. So if the
Daily Show lets me take cameras in the weird places,
you know, we spoke with black people that are doing
things to address black on black violence in Chicago, which
people say doesn't happen. That's a lie, you know. You know,
(29:29):
I was grateful. One of the first stories I was
able to do at the Daily Show, I think two
months in it was the twentieth anniversary of the Million
Man March and doctor Greg Carr down there in DC
and our brother Nuri Muhammad from the Nation they sat
down and spoke with me. So if I'm not doing
(29:51):
the work, then let me at least put the camera
in a microphone in front of the people who are.
And to me, it's an opportunity for me to be
a blessing to others people and hopefully they just show
what we're going through, you know, put in a better light.
So you know, I don't get to go as hard
as I want to sometimes because I do work for
Comedy Central, because it is the daily show, you know,
(30:13):
because it is a more button down, mainstream section of
the society. Yeah, but that doesn't mean that I can't contribute,
so to be out with people. You know, April Ryan's
of the right. April Ryan gave me the biggest hug.
That means a lot because to me, y'all are the
people that do the real work. Y'all are the ones
(30:35):
that are like grunting it out and like really taking
a lot of this bs on the chin. So for
somebody to go thank you for saying that or that thing,
you know, that's it's a rewarding feeling. You can't set
that out as a goal. It still has to be funny.
That's the other crazy thing is that none of this
means anything if it ain't funny, because the humor is
(30:58):
how you have to figure out a way to kind
of sneak those you know, sneak those things then on people.
But to be able to highlight my father's contributions, you know,
to the black movement, and you know, my mother's investment
in young black minds and making sure that you know,
these black kids leave with a college degree for the
last thirty years. You know, that's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Who were your big biggest comic influencers?
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Ooh, Sindbad and George Wallace out the gate Just as
a young twelve thirteen year old watching Comedy Central not
really knowing what comedy was. Sindbad, George Wallace, Rondelle Sheridan,
those were the big three because they were clean so
(31:43):
I could watch them all the time, so it were
no drama in the house. Now when I got older,
once Deaf Jam became once the Deaf Jam VHS has
made their way around Birmingham, it became Chris Rock. George
Carlin was a big one as well. You know, like
(32:04):
these were people that I just I was like, wow,
I don't know what this is, but oh, my God,
I got to have more of this in my veins,
and I found and at this point my Pops was
like retiring from radio, so he's bringing home all these
crates of vinyls. So now I'm finding the Richard Pryors
and the Red Foxes and then digging in the crates
(32:25):
in the attic, and that stuff became the stuff that
I was sneaking listening to, you know, late at night.
But this idea of just stand up. I don't think
I've ever laughed harder longer than watching Sinbad like it
just that man. And I'm talking at like thirteen years old,
(32:47):
me and my mom just sitting there laughing at the
same thing at the same time, but for different reasons,
telling about getting the belt and getting hit with the
belt and to MacDonald's shake and the vein come up
in your head for to make the Yeah. Yeah, those
were the people that, Wow, what is comedy? That's very interesting? Okay,
(33:07):
Well if I could just do it like that, you know,
you know, George Wallace has so many intricate jokes, but
then as then there's also jokes. But he'll just go
your mom, Yeah, I got me a Discover card. Imagine
it's surprised when they discover I can't pay him back.
And it's just right. It's just the way he said
(33:27):
the word discover. It's not an intricate joke, but the
way he man. Yeah, yeah, yeah, all right, man. Before
I get to the stand up tour.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
And your future what you want to do, let me
ask you three things that are I think top shelf
for us to be looking at over the course of
the next few months, certainly twenty twenty four election. What's
your expectation.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
I think he got a Biden's Trump rematch. Ron DeSantis
has got to get some parisma. Mike Pence. Ain't no
hope for Mike Pence. People tried to kill your ass.
They're clearly not the polls. The voters showed up to
tell you what they thought about you, Mike Pence. So
(34:20):
you know, I think that the state and local elections,
I think are going to be where a lot of
the hustle is going to be run. You know, I
just I wish that media organizations played paid more attention
to the state and local stories because those are the
people that are creating a lot of these laws that
are getting passed. You know, when you look at what
happened in Tennessee. You know, like that was state officials
(34:47):
who did that. There wasn't no federal gun mandate drama.
It's not federal drag loll drama that state. So the
people you elect in those districts, that stuff matters, but
it ain't sexy. It's not a tension grabbing so nobody
really talks about it. So you know, I really think
(35:09):
that that part of the fight. To me, that matter,
that's as important as president.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
No, but hell right now, we just got to make
sure Biden don't trip and fall.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
No more. Good luck with that upright. My next question
speaks to the general question of leadership in this country.
And some will say, if in fact your prediction is
true of another Biden Trump, that tells you where we are.
Some say, with leadership in this country, I'm wondering how
(35:42):
you see and I'll put this in quotes black leadership.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
Do we have black leadership or do we have black advocacy,
like in the sense of black leadership and in the
sense of elected black leadership, or are we talking about
black people who fight for what's right and whole people
accountable by advocating for things that benefit our people? Because
(36:07):
I would argue that a lot of black advocacy is
as powerful, if not more powerful, than what a lot
of black leadership has been able to do because a
lot of black leadership their hands are tied. Or you're
a Democrat and you're in a district where nobody listens
to you or votes for you, or you just straight
up don't have the majority. Like you know, it wasn't
a long conversation, but you know, Corey Booker. The week
(36:30):
that I guess hosted The Daily Show, Corey Booker was
one of my guests, and you know, we've talked about
police reform, right, we talked about this long drawn out
discussion about oh, we've got to get rid of over time,
and we've got to get rid of qualified immunity, and
(36:50):
we need body more body camera rules and you know
all of this stuff. You know, the Democrats filibustered the
Republican proposed bill from Tim Skott that would have been
something better than nothing type equation, and then the Republicans
wouldn't pass the bill that Corey Booker and them it proposed.
(37:11):
So yeah, two black men just but yeah something. Meanwhile,
nothing gets done. So it's like when we say black leadership.
And I'm not putting Corey Booker out on a limb
by himself and this, but there's so many black elected
officials that are there to do what's right for the people,
but they just don't have the power ability to because
(37:32):
of the way the game is set up.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
And let me ask you, let me ask you quickly
about the state of media.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Media, broke man. They fired everybody, closing up every little
bureau they I mean, ask the question.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
No, that's that's where I wanted to go. And and
you're right, you're not getting No.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
You can barely get coverage of anything that matters because
the reporters who are there to cover it have already
been fired. Bro There is an environmental crisis happening in
so many black and poor neighborhood Like if we just
let's just take Selma, because I'm pro Alabama. There is
(38:19):
issues with sewage within the Black belt in Alabama that
have been going on for so long. And when you
lay that issue of ross sewage backing up into black
neighborhoods and then lay that against the cancer rates over
the last thirty forty years in those areas, there are clusters.
But what reporters going to cover that. More importantly, what
(38:42):
white news director is going to green like that story
to even go in the paper? Do they even care?
And so now you're forced a lot of the time
as a reporter, you're forced to camouflage issues that are
really about blackness. You're forced to camouflage them or couch
them and poverty so that you can make other people,
(39:02):
other racial groups feel like, well, y'all included too, No,
this is happening in black people. So, you know, media
as a whole, I think media chases clickbaita I think
that media that really matters is behind a paywall. And
I think that people that cover the local issues that
really matter, the ones that are still on the staff,
they're overworked and underpaid. So how long you think they
(39:23):
gonna stay there? You better off creating a substack, just
getting subscribers at this point.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
And that's what we're saying that though I won't even
get into the pluses and minuses of that. Talk to
me about the stand up tour that man are embarking
on now.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
Man ain't much. Just say, man, they're happy to be
here too. It We're going everywhere from Sacramento to Hartford
down to Fort Lauderdale. We're crossing over to Minnesota. We
haven't added Chicago yet, but we're add in Chicago, South Caro,
South California, Southern California, and then at some point.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
We'll get to the Pacific Northwest in the mix.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Man. But just the website is roywood Junior dot com. Man,
just well, you go to any of my socials, the
biolink that's my tour dates.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
Well, I would encourage everybody to get out there, man
and see you. The comedy that you're doing is not
only funny, but smart, and we miss a lot of that.
I'm you know, I'm not a comedy snob. I can
get gut bucket comedy. I can get whatever, but we
need smart comedy as well. Man, and and you and
Chris you know, and a couple of others that come
(40:31):
to mind immediately. Obviously Chappelle, you know you you want
that too. We need to kind of cover all bases.
Last question, Man, for you revolving seat right now with
the Daily Show and Comedy Central, you you had your turn.
Obviously it would be something that you want. But I'll
(40:52):
let you tell us you would want that gig.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
I would suspect yes, yes, to be a black man
in America and be giving an opportunity to have a microphone. Yeah,
you can't say no to that. So I don't know
what they're going to decide. I don't know how much
the writers' strike will influence their decision. But you know,
(41:17):
if anybody got my phone numbers Comedy Central, we've been
going together seven years, so they know where to find me.
But you know, in the meantime, it's just important I
keep creating content, going out on tour, telling jokes, staying
connected with people, with the people, you know. So that's
what I'm on.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
Hey, man, listen, congratulations to all that's coming to you.
I've been a fan. You and I have talked for
some time now. I'm glad you got on. But I
told you a few years back how much I appreciate
what you were doing, man, and I salute you and
certainly wish you well on whatever Comedy Central decide and
whatever you do, Man, we're here to support.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
And thank you, brother. Thank you as always Man.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
Again. Thanks to Roy. Go to roywood Junior dot com
to see his tour dates and catch his commentary on
the BT monthly news magazine America in Black One is
produced by ed Gordon Media and distributed by iHeartMedia. Carol
(42:21):
Johnson Green and Sharie Weldon are our bookers. Our editor
is Lance Patton. Gerald Albright composed and performed our theme.
Please join me on Twitter and Instagram at edel Gordon
and on Facebook at ed Gordon Media