QLS Classic: Robin Thede

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic
episode was produced by the team at Pandora.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
What up, y'all.

Speaker 3 (00:09):
It's Liyah from Quest Love Supreme. And on this classic episode,
we're taking you back to November twenty ninth, twenty seventeen
for our first conversation with our good friend Robin Thti.
Now this is before she was a big time show runner.
Shout out to a Black Lady sketch show. This is
when the writer, comedian, and late night host talks about
her life in front of and behind the camera. Her

(00:30):
puppetry skills are hung and everything you need to know
about her past show, The Rundown.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Oh and if you enjoyed this episode, you've got to hear.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
When she came to join us on this year's Roots
Picnic stage from June twenty twenty two.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Oh yeah, that's a good one too.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
It's always fun with our good friend Robin.

Speaker 4 (00:49):
So enjoy Supremo Sun Sun Suprema Roll Call Suprema Sun
Sun Suprema, Roll Call Suprema.

Speaker 5 (01:09):
Son Soun SUPREMEA roll Call supremea Son Son Supreme role.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
She don't smoke beaties. Yeah, she was owned some CDs. Yeah,
she's been to d C.

Speaker 6 (01:21):
Yeah, phone home with et hungry feeding fights me like.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
Michael Jackson here, tired, I see my billy g lines
to my key. Yeah, Phil, y'alls please leave me. Y'all
tired of me? He Yeah, I'm feeling needy.

Speaker 6 (01:44):
Yeah, I'm down with opp Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Uh, I'll skip to the letter t E. Yeah, ladies
and gentlemen, It's Robert Feede, Supremo Sun Sun Supreme Roll
So Supreme roll Car. Name is Sugar. Yeah. My life's
a dream.

Speaker 7 (02:08):
Yeah, except that one night.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yeah, I had to record five hundred of.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
Your name.

Speaker 5 (02:14):
Supreme Supreme Supreme roll Call.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
It was my name. Yeah, not a battle of arena. Yeah,
I'm trying not to screw up.

Speaker 3 (02:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
Another Suprema roll.

Speaker 5 (02:29):
Supremo SUPREMEA roll call, Supreme Son Son Suprema roll Call.

Speaker 3 (02:37):
Hey.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
Yeah, and I'm raging mad, yeah.

Speaker 7 (02:40):
About angry white ladies. Yeah, Supreme SUPREMEO roll Call, Suprema
Suprema role Car.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
It's like and it's going to be a classic. Yeah,
rob Yeah, flat Girl Magic.

Speaker 5 (03:01):
Suprema Son So SUPREMEO roll Call, Suprema So Supreme roll call.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Yeah, in my groove. Yeah, and I don't dance. Yeah,
make money moves.

Speaker 5 (03:17):
Supremo Supremo roll came Suprema Son Son Supremo roll call
Suprema Son Supremo.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Roll call Supreme Son Son Suprema roll.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
That was like fifty What the hell, yo, I did
not know so many things rhymed with my name.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
It was dope. It's because we really just wanted to,
you know, reiterate that it is thid.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Yes, I wanted to. I know.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
Yeah, we were all having I know, halfway through I
almost felt like I was in church.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
Yeah, indeed, it was like, it's very good.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
I hope you're a believer.

Speaker 7 (04:02):
Now, don't be needy.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
I forgot that, Okay, Jeff Tweety Wilco, I forgot to
shout out Jeff Tweety, Stevie Wonder.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
Yeah, that Beaty was brilliant.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
Michael Jackson, Ladies and gentlemen, our guest today is a writer, comedian, actress, director, producer, author,
chef Boxer. She's the current President of the United States.

(04:37):
Box Exactly, you're the you're the president of the United
States right now I'm declaring that, uh, you're the former showrunner.
What's happening now?

Speaker 2 (04:47):
It was my crow.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
What's going, what's going on? Yes, you've been a butcher, baker,
candlestick maker, the maker, breaker and title. She is currently
breaking new ground on BT's weekly news program called.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
The One Comedy Program. Oh okay, well based on the news.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
Well, it's just I don't want people.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
To think that I'm actually reporting the news because they'll
be very configured.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
But I assure you that the only way to digest
the news in twenty seventeen is through comedy.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
That is true.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
It's a very informative show. So I see it. I
mean you're the you're the new ed. Uh? Who was?

Speaker 2 (05:29):
Can you please say that the black John Stewart and said, yeah.

Speaker 6 (05:33):
And gentlemen, please welcome to Black John.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
I take that back. Trevor Nor probably wants to be
good or he does the vaginal John Stewart. I don't
know anywhere.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
This show is going to be.

Speaker 2 (05:49):
Can I heard?

Speaker 6 (05:50):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (05:52):
Let's I think you're the host of the show.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
No, I am not the host of the show.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
You're please please, I just wanted to be casual amongst
six friends. You know, so our thank you Robin for
doing this.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
Thank you you know what. You guys are over here
killing it as always.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
Thank you. You're killing it as well.

Speaker 2 (06:09):
Thank you. You know. Listen, I'm two episodes in and
I feel like I pretty much mastered the craft. And actually,
by the time this airs, I'll be like a good
like five deep, so I will have collected all the Emmys,
all the Hoodies, all the is that yes, it is right, Yeah,
so pretty much I'm on top of the world. Yeah,

(06:30):
it's great.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
That's good. Listen, visit to a time when you were
in the bottom of the world.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
Oh god, now it gets I don't want to take
us back to the beginning episode, you know what. I
know everybody goes back to the beginning like no one
cares about the beginning.

Speaker 1 (06:52):
Quarter. Like the last two episodes. You know, he was
at the lag quarter.

Speaker 2 (06:59):
Do you know the l I not personally, but I've
heard tale.

Speaker 1 (07:03):
No, but I have to say, even when I met you,
and this is the weird thing, like this is the
one super can't I hope to have a very super
candid episode of course love Supreme because I know Robin
well well, not like biblically, but I mean she's my pal,

(07:25):
so you know, but I have to say that even
when you told me that back when we first met,
that you were born in Iowa.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
I know it's weird.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
Yeah, I will say that of the six black women
that I do know from Iowa, you know, yes, you're
you're the only one that's not in a certain industry
farm porn.

Speaker 2 (08:01):
Is it porn?

Speaker 1 (08:02):
That corn corn?

Speaker 2 (08:05):
It's corn porn? I gotcha.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
I was suned out the most alarming rate of black
porno actresses what and alone. But but here's the thing
that would like wouldn't as blackborn and uh usually no
with with like mensa level intelligence, right, and it's it's

(08:30):
crazy to me. I'm glad you avoided.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
Well, first of all, that's rude that you're assuming I'm
not also doing that in my spare time. You don't
know what I'm capable of. No, yeah, I did not
know that statistic. Usually people go there's black people in
Iowa when they find out that I'm from and I'm like, no,
I left, there's no more. Yeah, no, my mother is
actually you know this, My mother's the state representative. She
was the first black woman to ever be elected to

(08:53):
her district. So yeah, black people still make moves, you know, sorry.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
Doing that thing? So are there a lot of first
in your family? Because you already.

Speaker 2 (09:03):
I'm like eighteen first just first right now?

Speaker 1 (09:05):
Yeah? Oh more than that? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (09:07):
Yeah? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (09:07):
Well what other first besides first show runner or.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
The first yeah head writer, black female head writer for
late night show? I was the first black female uh
to be the head writer at the cor Correspondence dinner.

Speaker 3 (09:19):
I can't wait to talk about.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
Yeah, I did not know that.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
Yes, I was the first. I think I think we know,
we haven't confirmed this, but I think I was the
first black woman to be the head writer of a
daytime show and a night time show and a nightly
commis your daytime show? I was not the same time,
but I was Queen Latipa's head right, A lot of
ship for amazingly, you only do things of us first.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
She used to work for a show that formerly had
the at QLs.

Speaker 2 (09:44):
Yeah that is so true.

Speaker 1 (09:46):
But because the show was dormant, now I have to
you know, it's fine.

Speaker 2 (09:49):
They don't need it.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
This this this pays to be friends with busin at Twitter.
I just said, hey, guys, the show doesn't exist, no work.

Speaker 2 (09:55):
Damn you got them to delete their old Twitter account?

Speaker 1 (09:58):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (09:59):
No, ARCHI I have known nothing.

Speaker 7 (10:02):
Are going to work?

Speaker 3 (10:03):
Yeah, y'all, are you powerful quest love you are I try?

Speaker 5 (10:07):
So?

Speaker 1 (10:08):
Okay. So you grew up in a political family.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
Yeah, I did, And it was interesting because my dad
was actually a Republican. My dad is white. My mom's
black from the West Side of Chicago. My dad's white
from a farm in Iowa. He met my mother in
the seventies. She had a big ass afro. First day
at college, he said, I want her.

Speaker 3 (10:26):
She's in college in Iowa.

Speaker 2 (10:27):
Yeah, she went to college in Iowa from Chicago.

Speaker 3 (10:31):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
And uh they met and been married forty forty ideas. Yeah,
they're still best friends.

Speaker 1 (10:37):
What is parents?

Speaker 2 (10:38):
I don't what parents? Just like, I know, it's crazy,
it's crazy. It's at a very unrealistic standard for me. Yeah,
I was like, this is I thought this was supposed
to be forever, like every first boyfriend ID. I was like,
we're gonna be together forever. And they were like, I
don't even know your last name. But yeah, so they met,
uh and and yeah they're still together. But yeah, what

(11:01):
what was the question about?

Speaker 1 (11:06):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (11:06):
None any but yeah, So my family was always political.
My dad was a Republican growing up, and then by
the time George Bush Junior came in, he had came
over to the right.

Speaker 1 (11:18):
I was or, okay, so he's now yes.

Speaker 2 (11:23):
Now he's everybody's on the same team.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
Wow. Still yes, Like he just.

Speaker 2 (11:29):
Saw Trump and was like, hey, yeah, let's do this. No, no,
he's like the he talks the mostion about Trump, like yeah,
cause he's like, this is not the way it's supposed
to be. Because I think I said this the other
day to a group. I was like, I think white
people are now like, you know, like they look at
Trump and they're like, hey, hey, I don't want to
be associated with that.

Speaker 8 (11:46):
You know.

Speaker 2 (11:47):
It's like how all black people are like, hey, don't
you know, don't lump us all together. We're not the same.
But now I think white people are starting to feel
like that because you can't tell a Trump supporter when
they're white, from you know, from a non Trump supporter.

Speaker 1 (11:57):
Right.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
So yeah, so it's good, it's good. My dad is dope.
He has a family foot of black women. I have
two sisters, so it's just nothing but black ladies in
the family. Are you I'm in the middle, okay, yeah,
so I'm the annoying. Yes, I was tapped in.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
So is this why you're yeah, where you are? Right?

Speaker 2 (12:17):
Now, I'm sure, I think so. Like I'm a Leo,
I'm a middle child, and my father forced me into
comedy very early on. He named me after Robin Williams.
I found out after Robin Williams died, and I didn't
know that. But I was always funny and weird and
kookie and like I would always just imitate we you know,
we didn't have cable, so I used to always just
you know, imitate like the news and like, you know,

(12:40):
whatever Sitcom's wrong. So they always just thought I was weird.
I just sit in a dark room and mimic everything
I saw on television. And then at night, my dad,
like on the weekends, he would let me watch like Carolines.
Used to have Carolines on Broadway used to have a
TV show where they would have like comedians on It
was like a two in the morning on NBC local affiliates.
This would play right, And then we stole cable. We

(13:01):
lived in a trailer park. My dad Jerry rigged the
cable from the trailer two doors down and wired it
over the middle trailer to ours so we could get
cable to watch Thriller and so we could watch He
got it for the first time to get Thriller and
then he duct taped it, so we kept it for
a little while till somebody cut it. But the other

(13:21):
thing I remember watching, I know this is great.

Speaker 1 (13:24):
How did somebody, someone as in the cable company or
someone realized no, like.

Speaker 2 (13:29):
The neighbor we were stealing it from was like, stop
stealing our ship, you know. So so you know, Chuck,
the park is wrong. People not nice to each other,
not neighborly, but but.

Speaker 1 (13:38):
So especially.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
But no so so, so we got it to watch
Thriller and that was dope. And I hid behind my
Bible watching Thriller because I was scared and I thought
that I was little. I was like two, I was
like tiny, So yeah, it was scary shit. So but
I remember that, and then I remember later on when
we had stole cable a second time that we had.
He used to let me watch what was the Show?
With Robin Williams and Whoopi Goldberg. It was the first

(14:04):
time I ever saw was So that was the first
time I had ever seen a black woman telling jokes
and I was like, yo, what is this? Wait?

Speaker 3 (14:14):
So you didn't see the first stand up the Broadway
one when she played the I don't.

Speaker 2 (14:17):
I don't think I was online, Damn, Rob, I mean,
I don't think I.

Speaker 1 (14:21):
Watched She's were her elders.

Speaker 2 (14:25):
I don't think. Sorry, Okay, yeah, I don't think so.

Speaker 3 (14:31):
Probably were you in high school in the nineties or no, I'm.

Speaker 2 (14:36):
Not gonna watch that. I wasn't even in the nineties.
I made all this, but no, so so so I
saw her and then he let me watch. They showed
her one woman show on PBS as like an anniversary
special ever or whatever, and that's the first time I
saw it, and I was just blown away by this woman,
like absolutely blown away. And then my dad like, let

(14:56):
me stay up and watch. I remember we could stay
up and watch s n L until the until weekend
update came on. Then we had to go to sleep,
so we got to watch you know halfway through.

Speaker 3 (15:06):
Is that a time thing or do a continent? Yeah,
it was a time.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
Thing for them. It was just like, okay, that means
at whatever time in the midwes. I think it was
like around midnight.

Speaker 1 (15:13):
We could go to sleep because I had to go
to church or something.

Speaker 9 (15:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:16):
Yeah, we were in church three days a week, which
church is.

Speaker 1 (15:20):
That seventh day of venice, no three day.

Speaker 2 (15:27):
No, we were just like so because we were we
were in the perform Like the only way we get
performing arts was through church programs. So we were in
the acting group and like the puppet group. Oh that's
a whole other thing.

Speaker 1 (15:39):
All about the puppet group. Yeah, we had the mind.

Speaker 2 (15:44):
Yeah I didn't have the mind.

Speaker 1 (15:46):
Wait you no, no, not me, but I think you didn't.
You just know when I was in the church band,
can you explain the puppet group?

Speaker 2 (15:54):
So I was in it when I was so thirteen
to like thirteen, fourteen fifteen. Every summer we were to
the country with this Christian puppet group called King's Kids, right,
and my sister and I this is good's even better.
So we were like Jim Henson school trained, like I'm
still a professional puppeteer, by the way, I helped the
Wyatts and I perfect his puppeteering skills and don't let

(16:16):
him tell you any different. So we uh, so we
went on the road for three summers and we got
really good. But my sister and I were the only
black people in the group, and so we had to
do all the voices and the use all the black puppets.

Speaker 1 (16:30):
Where was your voice.

Speaker 2 (16:32):
Oh god, I don't remember. I honestly don't remember. I
did a bunch of them. You know, you just hear
me slip into weird.

Speaker 1 (16:38):
I don't know, Jesus, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
But some of them were just like regular little girls.
And then some of them were like weird because they
were like human looking puppets. They weren't all animals, hand
puppets or yeah, yeah, hand puppets. Well, I can't do it. God, damn,
it's this podcast I would show you, which you have
to imagine. Yeah, so here, wait, can I teach you
guys a trick that won't help the whole audience at all?
Everybody hold up your hands. Okay, we'll physically describe it. Okay,

(17:04):
so hold up your hand like that. So everybody's holding
up their hand like so basically okay, take pictures. Great,
So basically everybody at home and within the distance of
my voice. So think about when you hold up your
hand to talk like a puppet. Right, so your thumb
is on the bottom of your hand is flat on top.
Now just say hi, how are you? Everybody at home?
Do this too? Say hi, how are you move your
hand like a puppet? Would you all did it wrong. Okay,

(17:26):
so you all fail, all right. So the professional trick
is to only move your bottom, only move your thumb.
So keep your hand flat and then say hi, how
are you?

Speaker 3 (17:38):
Hi?

Speaker 1 (17:38):
How are you?

Speaker 2 (17:39):
But move it down, don't move it up.

Speaker 1 (17:40):
Go hi Hi.

Speaker 2 (17:42):
Nope, opposite, move your thumb down. Hi hi hih. That's how.
That's how a mouth works. And if you want to sing,
you could do that. Oh if that's advance shit, got it.
But anyway, at home, try this. Keep it top of
your hand flat. Even the engineers in the other room
right now, keep this fat. Only move the thumb. Doing

(18:05):
the best job anyway.

Speaker 1 (18:07):
Yeah, wait, can we just spend one minute doing this
in silence, irust our audience right now?

Speaker 2 (18:14):
Yeah, that's it's very hard. It took me years to master.
So just move this and that looks real.

Speaker 3 (18:22):
Wow, that is awesome.

Speaker 1 (18:24):
Instagram page for video.

Speaker 2 (18:25):
Yeah it's cool, right, is an art to it? Yes,
it looks crazy, it's not. I can also use my
other hand to make the hands and legs move. And
we went to we went through training, no the Jim
Henson School teachers. We went through actual profession. I'm actually
a professional, like certified Bubbeto, You.

Speaker 1 (18:42):
Were you not trying to make it to the children's
television workshop?

Speaker 3 (18:47):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (18:47):
Did you not have those golds like Fraggle Rock? Wait,
they certify puppeteers, dude, mafia.

Speaker 2 (18:54):
They started clowns.

Speaker 1 (18:55):
Even even when Kevin first came degree in it, even
when he came to the Tonight show. I mean he
was saying that, you know, to get in Jim Henson's
it's the it's the Marionette equivalent of going to George
Lucas's uh school, Like it's fifteen people graduation ceremony.

Speaker 2 (19:14):
So I only have like a certification. I don't have,
like the whole degree is that expensive? I don't remember
you didn't get a master's in moving your What is
it you're gonna use that you're gonna thank me?

Speaker 1 (19:27):
What is it grant you? Like if you wanted the
audition for Avenue Q.

Speaker 2 (19:30):
Or I have no idea. I don't think anything because
I can't sing either, So they'd be like, could you leave?

Speaker 1 (19:37):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (19:38):
I don't know actually Avenue Q. It would probably be
helpful if I could actually sing, but I would think
that they actually go through puppet training.

Speaker 1 (19:44):
I have to say that. Oh wait, this is weird
paid bill. I'm about to tell the story of your
other job forgiving that you actually worked at for it.
I was like, wait, I got this ring you do?

Speaker 2 (19:58):
Am I not wrong?

Speaker 1 (19:58):
I mean?

Speaker 2 (19:59):
Am I correct?

Speaker 1 (19:59):
He is the Joe Ropos of Sesame Street right now.

Speaker 7 (20:02):
Whenever I watched them, they yeah, it's a yeah, we're
still talking with that.

Speaker 2 (20:10):
Yeah, I'm sorry. Podcast listeners, just fast forward this part.
I don't know, just see us in three minutes really
talking about the next track. Yeah, you guys have chapters on.

Speaker 1 (20:20):
These are you are you move on? Are your no?
Sesame Street? You know, I'm gonna get lost in at
least like there's a wormhole about to be minute rabbit hole.
So on Sesame Street. Are your puppeteers and well just
puppeteers Muppet tears? Are they licensed or no?

Speaker 7 (20:39):
But it's the same, like fifteen dudes that dude like
dudes and ladies that do Sesame Street and the Muppets
and mostly other other other things are the same fifteen
or twenty people.

Speaker 3 (20:46):
It is a mafia for sure, and they're like eighty
because once you're in, you're in, you.

Speaker 7 (20:50):
Know, Like the guy who plays Grover also does ms
Piggy and Animal, and then the guy who does the
Swedish chef's hands is also the cookie monster still and
stuff like that. Yeah, that'll kind of cross breeze.

Speaker 1 (21:04):
So what happens if all three of his characters are
in the same sketch?

Speaker 7 (21:06):
They throw their voice around and they were prerecorded. It's
really cool to watch.

Speaker 2 (21:10):
They're fantastic.

Speaker 1 (21:11):
Are there any out takes? Any out take footage of
them like just cursing, pacting a fool.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
I've seen them do it, we had them on but yeah,
they definitely do it. Yes, Sorry, I just don't want
to get him in trouble.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
AVL listeners Listeners at home were also like silent talking
to each other like the question.

Speaker 2 (21:34):
But I'm also like, they would just come do it
for you, haven't They've been on the show.

Speaker 7 (21:40):
I always come to the set whenever that.

Speaker 1 (21:42):
I will Yeah, well, okay, when I do.

Speaker 7 (21:45):
That thing, we do that thing, I will come.

Speaker 1 (21:49):
So you would travel, uh at what part like Bible
belts or like, yeah, not a Bible belt.

Speaker 2 (21:56):
We would take a van and we would all pile
in it and it said King's Kids on the side.

Speaker 1 (22:00):
How many of you, like fourteen of us?

Speaker 2 (22:04):
It was a lot like fourteen ten or fourteen, and
then the funny thing is so one year so like
the first year was like we drove out to California
and did like West coast like you know, but like
like normal places, right. And then the second year, No,
first year we did the Midwest, so like Saint Louis, Chicago,
that kind of stuff. Second year, we drove out to California,
did some stuff like an Orange County. It's fine. Thirty

(22:25):
year they're like, we're going to Appalachia, Appalachia.

Speaker 7 (22:28):
However, you said Jesus puppets in Appalachia.

Speaker 2 (22:30):
No, they played black people, two black girls. Ok So
we were like and back then I was wearing a
big afro, like my hair was you know, big, you know,
and we were like, oh okay. My mom was like,
how's this gonna work? And they were like, so what
we'll do is we'll just go into the churches first
and make sure that they're cool.

Speaker 3 (22:50):
We're not doing it.

Speaker 2 (22:50):
And like, in hindsight, my sister and I was like,
this is crazy. Like there was a church where they
had to pull up and go in and talk to
them before we came in, and uh, they were not okay,
with us performing and we canceled the performance, and it
was those I don't know if you've ever been in
like Kentucky coal country and all that stuff Virginia. So
you go on these switchback roads where there's only one
lane and so the coal trucks are coming down and

(23:11):
you have to pull over when they come around. Like
it was some ship I don't ever want to see
again in my life, and the whole time it just
sounded like dinner.

Speaker 7 (23:22):
The Roots played a lot in Kentucky, right, Yeah, Actually,
I mean we I was part of a tour like that,
right where the day that we got.

Speaker 1 (23:35):
Our official h offer for a record deal, A Hub
and I snuck out of the church tour that we
were on very similar to this where we were. We
were in obal in Kansas, like in the cornfields, Like
when I go to sleep, I'd hear like, yeah every

(23:56):
night going to sleep, Like it was that sort of
thing where you're just in the middle of America and
you don't know what you're going to be burning to
across the next day. Yeah. So it was like we
got a record deal and like he and I like
snuck out of that and went to the pay phone
to the seven eleven and called the gap and you know,

(24:19):
caught a plane at six in the morning, like we
went a wall. They were probably still.

Speaker 2 (24:25):
Now they saw you on foul and they were like, God.

Speaker 1 (24:27):
Damn it. I'm just curious about those church outings and whatnot.

Speaker 2 (24:37):
Yeah, why, I mean, how.

Speaker 1 (24:45):
Had Was it a repressive atmosphere or no?

Speaker 2 (24:49):
It wasn't at the time. I think for me, it
was all we knew and the people were very kind
and very still really good family friends, you know. I
mean it was.

Speaker 1 (25:00):
Which there was a hard break moment where like you're
disillusioned and.

Speaker 2 (25:03):
You oh yeah, yeah, yeah that happened in college. Oh
just about like Jesus.

Speaker 1 (25:07):
Sorry, yeah, just with the church.

Speaker 2 (25:09):
Yeah yeah, yeah, with the church for sure. I think
at a certain point I just saw, you know, you
wake up to hypocrisy. That happens in anything, right, but
for churches. I'm like, Okay, I woke up to hip
hop and I was like, get out the church. No,
I I yeah. I think once I got older, I
got to college, I was like, oh, okay, I don't
need to be in the church this much. I mean
even I think later in high school. But you know,

(25:32):
my mom grew up Catholic. My dad grew up Lutheran. Like,
they just had a very strong religious background, and but
they also taught us that while we have this, once
we became adults, they were like, now the choice is yours.
We've taught you all the things that we know, but
you know, go forth and make your own decisions. So
for me, I think I just don't like that. I
feel like there's a lot of hypocrisy in the church,

(25:53):
like in religion, and I think that, you know whatever,
there's weird things in the Bible, you know what I mean,
There's just weird shit.

Speaker 1 (26:00):
So I just feel like was guilt ever part of that?
Like once they once my church found out I was
doing music, right, you know, it's sort of like, so, uh, mirror,
are you uplifting the Lord in your work or is
it just like what I see on the Devil? Yeah?
Then I just stopped coming to church.

Speaker 2 (26:17):
Because, you know, no, I think once people heard me
cursing in comedy, they were like, well, she's lost and
if she comes back, then fine, we'll see her on
Eastern I don't know, and I still I don't know.

Speaker 1 (26:27):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (26:27):
I never had that guilt really. Also, I left home
and went to Chicago, and then I went to Northwestern
Second City like I was gone. You know, there was
nobody to like follow me and be like you.

Speaker 3 (26:36):
And you didn't walk into college like that church girl. No,
I'm holding on to this.

Speaker 1 (26:41):
No, no, no, no, no.

Speaker 2 (26:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (26:44):
So what year did you go to Northwestern?

Speaker 2 (26:46):
I will not tell you that, But it wasn't that
long ago.

Speaker 3 (26:49):
Did we just had this conversation?

Speaker 1 (26:50):
Well, no, because I just generally wanted to know, like
if we ever played her college or that sort of thing.
You're trying to find out if you get younger.

Speaker 5 (26:57):
Wait.

Speaker 2 (26:57):
Wait, I've talked to you about this. He was in
the two thousands. Oh sorry, I understand. I see what
you're doing. I will tell this story. And I saw
before I met you, I had seen y'all fourteen times,
fourteen times, two of which I think were at Northwestern.

(27:21):
I remember, Do you remember this story? I don't. Do
you remember this night? Tell me how you were y'all
were playing? But oh god, what am I forget?

Speaker 1 (27:32):
His name?

Speaker 2 (27:32):
Not Cameron. It's a rapper with a c name, and
he wraps and he frees for a long time. Canada,
Thank you Jesus.

Speaker 1 (27:40):
There's a big difference betwe I knew I was.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
About to say the wrong name. So Cannabis was over whatever, y'all,
And this dude freestyle for forty five minutes. Do you
remember this? Was that what he would do? Because I
never saw him before in concert.

Speaker 1 (27:54):
We've done it was so long an shows. Yeah, so
obviously this was like ninety eight ninety nine when is out?

Speaker 3 (28:01):
Didn't you just tell you it was?

Speaker 2 (28:02):
No, it wasn't it was later than that. Well, it
was later then when I saw it.

Speaker 1 (28:06):
Okay, okay, well no, no, I'm yeah, okay, he had other Okay, okay,
but I remember.

Speaker 2 (28:10):
I would have told you. I was like, actually, that's
not right.

Speaker 1 (28:12):
We can edit.

Speaker 2 (28:13):
Also, it was like nineteen sixty five. It's fine, It's
fine now they know I'm eighty. Thanks a lot, I'm
sorry forgiving thanks Amir. Wait, am I supposed to call you? Quest?
What am I supposed to call you?

Speaker 1 (28:24):
On this? We know each other?

Speaker 2 (28:26):
Are can I tell you? It is so weird to
talk about you because people are always like because I'm
always like my friend of me or did something something,
and they're like, oh, is he in the business, And
I was like, it's quest love, Like I don't know
how to like, do you know what I mean? Like,
I tried not to say your stage name because it's
the stage it's yes, and you can't just be like
so quest love and I were.

Speaker 3 (28:49):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (28:49):
It's such an annoying, goddamn name drop. It's the same
thing I called Queen Jana and people are like, oh,
you think you're cool, and I'm like, no, I just
don't call her queen.

Speaker 1 (28:58):
This is weird because whenever I talk about Marshall yes,
then it's like, oh, you think he's cool, you get
the car mark.

Speaker 2 (29:04):
No you can't call him eminem.

Speaker 3 (29:06):
Why don't you say m though that is a little extra?
Why not just say em because.

Speaker 1 (29:09):
He makes you. I hate when people call me.

Speaker 2 (29:12):
Correct even this is yeah, but it sounds like em
whenever I hear M right, thank you, thank you. Anyway,
we were talking about something else before I got up
onto the standard, but go ahead, just yell oh yeah,
oh yeah cannabis, So yeah, thank you.

Speaker 7 (29:36):
I just ask you for something.

Speaker 2 (29:38):
So cannabis was rhyming, and for the first five minutes
we're like, yo, this Zude's killing it. He's really free sounding.

Speaker 1 (29:44):
He says, she.

Speaker 2 (29:44):
Got a shirt on her she got and then correct,
We're like Jesus Christ right thirty eight minutes and we're like,
this might be your world record in history right now
forty five minutes saying the crowd is like, bring out

(30:09):
the room. And then y'all came out and ripped it.

Speaker 1 (30:12):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (30:13):
Yeah, it was great.

Speaker 1 (30:14):
I appreciate that.

Speaker 2 (30:15):
I saw y'all everywhere. Man, I saw you in Chicago
a bunch. I think y'all. Did y'all come to Iowa?

Speaker 1 (30:21):
You had to go back in those days, came to Iowa. No,
Iowa has probably the the maybe the fourth best record
shopping experience I've ever had.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
Oh is that right?

Speaker 1 (30:34):
Yeah? Because usually like those places that no one goes to,
I could just it's enough, Oh God, clean up instantly. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (30:41):
So what else do you go to Iowa for corn
and porn?

Speaker 2 (30:45):
You don't have to go there for the porn corn. Yeah,
you don't really go to Iowa for There's a lovely
place to grow up, sheltered from reality. But it's very affordable.
I will say that.

Speaker 3 (30:59):
Really, it's like a three bedroom house, it's like a one.

Speaker 1 (31:02):
It's like going to North Carolina.

Speaker 2 (31:04):
Yeah, you can easily get a three bedroom house for
like one hundred and eighty thousand dollars easily and like
a nice like a brand new, like new shit.

Speaker 1 (31:10):
Yeah, like truth be told.

Speaker 2 (31:12):
You know.

Speaker 1 (31:13):
Uh, the towns that you have least expectations for are
probably just some of the best places to visit the.

Speaker 3 (31:21):
Worst weather because then you got hurricanes, you know, and Iowa.
No it's not real tornadoes.

Speaker 2 (31:26):
Tornadoes, Yes, that is true, tornadoes and cold hurricanes. That's okay.
I know what you meant. I got you my head
unless saying climate change is real, it might be some
godamn hurricanes.

Speaker 1 (31:40):
So second, what drove you to Chicago? The fact that
you got accepted.

Speaker 2 (31:45):
To my Chevy Lumina literally drove me to Chicago.

Speaker 1 (31:49):
I'm a sharp comedian, but I mean, like, no, that's.

Speaker 2 (31:52):
Just the truth. I wanted to go to I wanted
to go straight to LA out of high school, and
my parents were like, please, don't you will do porn,
which now is why I see why you have that connection.

Speaker 1 (32:03):
I want.

Speaker 2 (32:03):
Uh, they were scared. They were scared.

Speaker 1 (32:05):
They may have, yes, they may have.

Speaker 2 (32:11):
So so you know, every summer I went to Chicago
because that's where my family went. Some of my mom's
whole side lived, so I was familiar with the city,
and I was like, they were like, don't They said,
they had just asked me two things. Don't go uh
straight to LA because they knew I wanted to be comedian, actress,
writer or whatever. But they said, don't go straight to LA.
Get a college education, and also, don't ask us for

(32:32):
any money. So I got into Northwestern and I said,
and they were like, please, don't get a degree in theater.
You are you're already funny. Get a real degree, which
is rude, right, But so I got a degree in journalism.
I went to like Northwestern has the best journalism school.
They only let in like one hundred and eighty people year.
I got in and uh, and then I got my degree.
And then I got scouted by Second City because I

(32:53):
was running an improv and sketch group there for years
and they they saw it, they heard about it.

Speaker 1 (32:58):
What was the name of the sketch group, the box okay.

Speaker 2 (33:01):
And still going on to this day, seventy five years later.
And so I, so I went to Second City. They
gave me a full scholarship to go to Second City,
graduated the conservatory, went straight to LA and uh, you know, did.

Speaker 1 (33:16):
You have dreams of seeing Steve Higgins or larn coming.

Speaker 2 (33:22):
In out door.

Speaker 1 (33:23):
Because yeah, of course, for listeners, a lot of people
that you see on SNL Saturday Night Live, they'll either
be poached from one of three places. Either the Groundlings
in LA is there groundlings in.

Speaker 2 (33:37):
New York Groundings The home of Growndings is New York Growndings.
And I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I was thinking UC Bright
There is no Groundlings in New.

Speaker 1 (33:46):
York, Okay, So yeah.

Speaker 2 (33:47):
The uc B here Growlings in lacon City was a grounding. Yes,
Miam Melissa McCarthy, A bunch of them are groundling, right,
And I think.

Speaker 1 (33:55):
New York is uc being established.

Speaker 2 (33:57):
By Amy Polar.

Speaker 1 (33:58):
Amy Polar the team.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
Uh she had Second City Chicago, right, and my group.

Speaker 1 (34:03):
Last Second City. So those three, those are the three
comedy universities that will guarantee you maybe half an audition
at Saturday Night Live? Did you many years?

Speaker 2 (34:16):
Yes, that was the goal. It'll happen, absolutely, that was
the goal for sure. And I was there with a
bunch of people who are now famous and they were
my mentors, So Keing and Michael Key was leaving Second
City to go do Mad TV and now I fucking
dated myself, God damn it. But I was also twelve anyway,

(34:39):
and a bunch of great folks. So when I came up,
there was kind of a new crop coming through and
everybody was like, Oh, this is going to be the
next class that goes to SNL, Like your class is
going to be the next class that did not happen.
And I didn't even get close to an audition. I
just wasn't in the right cycle or whatever, or back then,

(35:00):
I wasn't looking for black lady.

Speaker 3 (35:01):
I was about to say, who was a black lady
this season? Because there wasn't.

Speaker 2 (35:04):
It was Ellen Claghorn, and then it was Leslie Jones,
like there was with Maya in the middle. That's literally it.
But there was one more, uh what's her face? Who
passed away Sandley? But years ago what was her name? Yes,
thank you?

Speaker 1 (35:19):
Yeah, damn. I remember a joke on the Apollo like
get your baby some cool lights, or she did a
joke about cool cigarettes. Oh did she a baby smoking? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (35:27):
She wasn't on very long, but she was funny as shit. Yeah,
but anyway, so so yeah, so it never happened. I
went to LA. It took many, many years I didn't
audition for Lauren until twenty thirteen.

Speaker 1 (35:39):
WHOA that a long time? Damn?

Speaker 2 (35:41):
But I was on other sketch shows. I was on
you know, Jamie Fox, Savy on Crocodile Jehan Fox. I
was a bunch of stuff that never saw the light
of day. I did a sketch show with Mike EPs
for Comedy Central that never saw the world. You know,
I did a lot of sketch stuff. I wrote for
a lot of stand ups. I toured the country with them.
I wrote for sitcoms.

Speaker 1 (35:57):
But did you wait? You're just here? Reminded me that
I too was on a failed pilot that almost didn't
make it. Uh, there was going to be a Black Saturday.
I only remember because this is how we wrote break
You Off for Frenalogy. Uh. Who is the the black

(36:19):
comedy promoter? He did the Kings of Comedy Walter Latham. No, yes,
Walter Walter, yes.

Speaker 2 (36:26):
Not No, it's not him. Though it's not him. I
know exactly who it is, and I am blanking somebody
google it, got to look it up. No, I know
who it is, and that's not Everybody's not a.

Speaker 3 (36:37):
Charles King or nothing.

Speaker 8 (36:38):
No, no, no, hold on Walter said, wait, he connects.

Speaker 2 (36:50):
No, it's m It's M Latham.

Speaker 6 (36:52):
Yea.

Speaker 1 (36:58):
But once once the King of comedies, once the King
of comedy kind of blew up. Then Walter decided to do, uh,
to shoot a pilot. He wanted to do a black
SNL And it was like Earthquake and other seven or
eight other heavyweights that I'm forgetting right now. Earthquake, you know,

(37:21):
don't sleep Earthquake man's funny. He's funny.

Speaker 3 (37:27):
Door is a hell of a reality show actors.

Speaker 1 (37:28):
But back when we were again thirsting for maybe a
gig that could keep us in one place at the
same time. Uh, we were the house band, you know,
we were the s n L band for that show,
but it just never got picked up.

Speaker 3 (37:44):
Lounge people always forget about that.

Speaker 2 (37:46):
That was the best Tracy, that was.

Speaker 1 (37:50):
The best anyway. So you reminded me that I forgot.

Speaker 2 (37:54):
About and then that kind of came true right in
a way.

Speaker 1 (37:58):
Uh yeah, eventually I saw my future.

Speaker 2 (38:02):
Are you psychic?

Speaker 1 (38:04):
No, I'm not. I'm also I'm thinking, I'm also remembering, Uh,
is this why I tried to kill this? Also, she.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
Real because that's not because she really did that.

Speaker 1 (38:22):
Her husband dude, like we we were, says she's an
Indiana girl. I understand it from Indiana. Yeah, said something
smart or unsavory, and then she took her ear rings
off and then she grabbed a weapon. Her husband had

(38:43):
to hold her back. The only good thing that from
that moment was like because music and she sat in
with us like that was the thing, like when you.

Speaker 2 (38:51):
Go, yeah, how did you prevent a murder?

Speaker 1 (38:55):
Her husband held her back, but she did the whole
like you don't know about me, motherfucker, and took her
shoes off and took her ear rings off, and it
was one she grabbed.

Speaker 2 (39:06):
Wait butit did she really stab her husband?

Speaker 1 (39:09):
Wait?

Speaker 2 (39:09):
Did he die?

Speaker 1 (39:10):
No?

Speaker 2 (39:10):
No, oh, that's good.

Speaker 1 (39:11):
He protected her.

Speaker 3 (39:12):
Why she was gone for a while after that whole
avunt Duet. I know you don't remember because you were
a child.

Speaker 2 (39:17):
I was only born yes day, so I just kept
getting younger every time. I'm not gonna be born until
this podcast.

Speaker 1 (39:25):
So you went to LA what is it?

Speaker 7 (39:30):
What is what?

Speaker 1 (39:31):
Was the process of pounding the pavement?

Speaker 5 (39:34):
Right?

Speaker 2 (39:34):
So the nice thing was I went out there with
a one woman show about you know, just like playing
different character as and autobiographical. But what did I know
at twenty two?

Speaker 1 (39:44):
Wait, yes, if you didn't see that will be one
woman show.

Speaker 2 (39:49):
That's not as a kid people, Yeah, yah, that's not
as a kid. Here's inspiration her all day. So I
put a towel on my head and then I just
I literally pulled him Malania Trump and just did her show. No, yeah,
how did we let her get away with that? By
the way, But anyway, so yeah, I went out did
this one woman show and then I got seen by

(40:09):
Mike Epps's manager, Like I literally only did the show
like three times. And then I got seen by Mike
Epps's manager and he was like, Yo, you are so funny,
you should come right for Mike. And so I started
writing for Mike. We wrote up the sketch show it
didn't go and then and I was acting on it too,
and then uh, I went on the road with him
a little bit, started working. Then I met Jesse Collins,

(40:30):
who was, uh, you know, produces bt Wards and a
bunch of other stuff, and I met him, started writing
for award shows, and then I just got connected with
all these different comedians and so I wrote for all
these different hosts, Jamie Fox, Anthony Anderson, Chris Rock, Monigue,
Wayne Brady, Sam Jack, like literally everybody I've written for,
every male stand up black comedian who was like at

(40:51):
the top of their game for sure.

Speaker 1 (40:52):
How did you avoid the Hollywood shuffle or how did
you avoid the Chitlin circuit uh Land minds that are
usually there for comedians, especially for black comedians, like how
did you avoid the some more route?

Speaker 3 (41:09):
Right?

Speaker 1 (41:10):
Well? Playing the CD bars and over? Like did you
start off in the comedy store in LA and no?

Speaker 2 (41:17):
So that's the thing, this is how I avoided it
because I was a sketching, improv comedian. Even though I
wrote for stand ups, I never did stand up. I've
never done a minute of stand up in my whole
career nevertheless, really never, not once.

Speaker 1 (41:30):
That's weird and w I know.

Speaker 2 (41:32):
And I'm always in the comedy clubs always. Yeah, I've
never done a minute of stand up.

Speaker 3 (41:36):
What do the comedians that you write for when you
tell them that or if you ever had that in
that conversation, do they ever what do they say about
that or do they care?

Speaker 2 (41:43):
I've never had that conversation. I've always been funny, right
and always you know what I mean? Like, it doesn't
to comedians. It doesn't matter, Like it's not there's not
a hierarchy. It's like, is she funny case she write
great jokes. The other thing about me is I have
a because I would sit and mimic those people on
television as a kid. I can mimic anyone's comedic style.
So I know how to write for somebody. If I've

(42:04):
heard five minutes of their stand up, I know how
to write jokes for them.

Speaker 1 (42:06):
You're trying to tell me that the rundown is the
first time that you've consistently concurrently in a half hour
or however you take your show at an hour, that
you stood in front of the audience and dumb material
and told jokes in a non sketch acting way for

(42:27):
that amount of time.

Speaker 3 (42:28):
Yeah, wow, that's dope.

Speaker 1 (42:31):
Wow that's rare.

Speaker 2 (42:33):
But you got to think about it this way. I'm
an expert at stand up comedy because I've been doing
it for a long like two decades. I've been writing
it for years, but I'm a performer. Like even on
the Nightly Show, I was doing the same thing. It
was just like more sketches and like kind of panel stuff,
And like my whole career has led to this if
you look at the breadth of it, like, but no,

(42:56):
it is true. I guess if you think about it
that way. Yeah, it was the first time I actually
did stand up. I don't know. I thought, yeah, that's true.

Speaker 1 (43:02):
Because it's like trusting a food expert that's.

Speaker 2 (43:06):
It's never cooked.

Speaker 1 (43:07):
Oh my god, wait, I'm just talking about myself. You
sure did anute.

Speaker 2 (43:15):
Wait a minute, you got food books and everything. Motherfucker.

Speaker 1 (43:18):
I'm probably the only James Beard uh dominated exactly author
that's never cooked. That's weird.

Speaker 2 (43:27):
No, you get it though, you know what I mean. Like,
so for me, it was like I it's kind of
better because I was on the road being a student
of every Like literally, I can tell you if you
give me a topic, right, like, I'm not gonna do it.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
Listen.

Speaker 2 (43:39):
This isn't like you know who's on the free but like,
but like if you if I'm okay. So if if
Trump does something crazy, right, so Trump goes after uh
somebody in the media, right, he goes after Jamel Hill whatever,
so she should be fired. I can tell you how
every host in late night is gonna make a joke
on it, all right.

Speaker 10 (43:55):
So what was Steven Colbert saying so, so Stephen, Colbert
is gonna make like, like, okay, so if you go
for the gamut, right, So Kimmel is gonna make a
joke that's probably okay.

Speaker 2 (44:06):
It's the Jamel host. Well, he's not gonna do it right, right,
I picked I picked a black person.

Speaker 1 (44:11):
A lot of them would.

Speaker 2 (44:12):
It was like, Trevor does these funny like impressions. He
he does all these amazing voices, so he'll slip in
and do an impression. Colbert's gonna make a stude upside
down observation that's still silly. Kimmel's gonna make something that's
a little bit more of a fight humor joke, and
it's gonna take him down from A to B. Yeah,
what do you say, Jimmy, He probably won't mention it

(44:33):
if Trump said it. Yeah, but yeah, but I mean,
but you know, it's like, but you have to be
a student of the craft. So it was like, by
the time I came in, I knew how to write
for Larry. I knew how to write like John. You know,
I'm I'm a product of the John Stewart family. He
was our executive producer at the Night They Show he
was with us all the time and he taught me
a lot. And then Chris Rock, who's our executive producer,

(44:54):
Like I wrote for him when he hosted the BT Awards,
and he's been a really good mentor of mine since then.
And like the common theme is like, once you know
your comedy, especially in comparison to what else is out there,
then you can sell your product. And I knew I
had something different.

Speaker 1 (45:09):
How do you feel about, at least the different classes
of comedy I'm curious about. Like in New York, I
know that the Brooklyn comics are seen as the you know,
alternative comics, and.

Speaker 2 (45:24):
All do the same three jokes. It's really a joke.
I am open minded. I love them, and I think
some of them are pushing the boundaries. But like, if
you take a Brooklyn comic, like I'm talking like uh
straight up, like textbook Brooklyn, like ortismal cheese joke Brooklyn,
and you and you take it anywhere else in the country, yeah,

(45:46):
you'll bomb. You can't take that to Uptown, you know
what I mean. You can't go to Atlanta with those jokes,
especially for black comedians. But like, what are you doing?
But at the same time, I also can't take some
of my Trump jokes, and that's why I'm not a
stand up. That's why I created a safe space where
I can push my point of view in my comedy.
But like, I'm not one of those people who can

(46:07):
go to any comedy club in the country and do
stand I just never had a passion for that.

Speaker 1 (46:11):
So do you agree now Chris Rock thinks that any
joke should be able to work in all three mediums.

Speaker 2 (46:19):
Well, he says it because he's a genius. It's not fair.
His opinion is not fair.

Speaker 1 (46:23):
But I'm asking do you subscribe to that theory? Because
Brooklyn is the alternative world and then sort of north
of forty second Street is kind of I mean, I
don't want to be dismissed him say hacky, but I
mean that's where like Caroline's is and whatever, like you'll see.

Speaker 2 (46:38):
Like, what are you talking about?

Speaker 1 (46:39):
Well, yeah, I mean I don't know. It's just that
they're so at the cellar in the village. Yeah, there's
such snobs.

Speaker 2 (46:48):
Yeah they are.

Speaker 1 (46:49):
It's like Chappelle and Brennan, you know, those guys just
like they know everything. They're like old real hip hoppers
from like nineteen ninety two. Yeah, so I consider them
the highest quest loves, the higher, the hardest to praise,
the hardest to please, insatiable level of Ivy League comic.

(47:09):
And they look down on the Brooklyn Cats and they
look they kind of they're glad that they didn't go that,
you know, I mean, even though they respect those guys
like the Vegas whoever, the David Brenners are of this
generation like that work way up town and up the town.

Speaker 2 (47:27):
There's a lot of class classes and classism in comedy exactly.
And then the chillin' circa you got all that.

Speaker 1 (47:33):
Yeah, it's Chris believes that. You know, Chris will go
to Outpost and try his stuff in that place, and
then he'll go to the blackest club uptown. Do you
think that every comic should adapt to that situation.

Speaker 2 (47:50):
I don't think it's necessary. I think that it depends
on what you're trying to do. I think if you're
trying to be a legend, you're trying to be great, yes,
and that that's Chris is great. He is a legend.
Like he's so smart, and he he never gets comfortable.
He's always challenging himself. So I think for him that works,

(48:11):
but I think there are other comedians whose thing is
so specific that they're just using stand up to get
in front of a larger audience anyway, And it just
depends on your goals. And I don't judge anybody, even
the Brooklyn commics. I don't judge them like they're gonna
be great. They're gonna be the lead in a sitcom
party soon, or they're gonna, you know, have a weird
like uh, you know, single camera artisanal che artisanal chi show.

(48:36):
But yeah, I think there's a place for everything. That's
what's so great about comedy is it's so subjective. Like
one person can be like yo, like doo hug, he's
not funny, and then somebody else is like, what are
you talking about? He's a second coming. That's the great
thing about That's the great thing about comedy. Like people
can watch my show and be like, oh, she's whack,
but obviously they're blind and deaf. But yeah, I mean

(48:59):
I think there's something for everybody. I don't really judge it.
I think as long as you have a good work ethic,
whatever you're doing, it's fine.

Speaker 1 (49:10):
Okay, Well this leads for Laya, who is currently pounding
the pavement to when I'm not doing.

Speaker 3 (49:17):
This, yes to be.

Speaker 2 (49:20):
I was the girl that tonay and wanted to get
to tell you better.

Speaker 1 (49:26):
Reference on this show.

Speaker 2 (49:29):
Can I have joy in my life?

Speaker 1 (49:30):
You know what I say?

Speaker 2 (49:31):
Can't two black women? Sharonmal merrel every day?

Speaker 1 (49:35):
So what would you listen? What would you recommend this
interviews over the table turn? So what would you recommend to? Uh?
A young up? To start first of all.

Speaker 3 (49:47):
With the whole myth of not for you young damn,
I'm trying to set you up.

Speaker 1 (49:52):
Okay, born in nineteen ninety four, thank you true. Anyway,
what would you recommend, especially with the advantages is it
advantage having you know, do you respect YouTube comedians and
at the time Vine oh god the Iowa which.

Speaker 2 (50:08):
Damn no, no, no no, it was at the question
not at YouTubers.

Speaker 1 (50:16):
See, in my mind I thought that.

Speaker 2 (50:20):
Economic Look, I think it's good, but I think what
happens is, here's what happens to people who have been
in the game a long time.

Speaker 1 (50:26):
Okay, Uh, you go out.

Speaker 2 (50:29):
For something, you're up for something, and then they're like,
we're gonna get this YouTube person. They're hot, and you're like,
but I've done all the professional things like I've gotten
a degree, or I've been in the streets, like I've
been in the clubs, like I've been doing all this,
like I've been doing you know, like I was in
nine sketch groups at any given time, like like like
for me, sketch groups and in Propalympic and Second City

(50:49):
were my comedy clubs when I was performing in writing.
So it's like I felt like I put in the work.
I didn't just turn on a camera in my bedroom.
But that being said, there are people who work hell
hard on you to but who makes millions of dollars
so you can't knock the hustle. Yeah, there are people
making millions of dollars on YouTube, so I don't knock
the hustle. But I will say that I don't find

(51:09):
like that a lot of them have longevity. There are
some that do.

Speaker 1 (51:12):
So this is sort of like how someone my age
would see new hip hop and see like, okay, you're here.

Speaker 3 (51:16):
Today the mumble something like somebody like me who's been
doing radio or her life looks at someone like you
that with a podcasted.

Speaker 1 (51:27):
But I've brought you with.

Speaker 3 (51:29):
Me, right, But I don't have the deal.

Speaker 1 (51:31):
So it's just.

Speaker 2 (51:33):
Personated, so we.

Speaker 1 (51:36):
Cut her mic off engine. So okay, well, now this
is going to be since you're wise with your with
your words, looking at like you who's been trying to
she's been pounding the pavement. Yes, what do you recommend?

Speaker 2 (51:53):
Are you doing stand up?

Speaker 3 (51:55):
I forget my writing a lot. I've done some stand up,
I've been writing more and I've been standing.

Speaker 1 (51:59):
So how do you help someone find their lane? So
and again, Okay, I know someone that is a very
talented person in the arts. I think I think he's
better off.

Speaker 2 (52:14):
Why are you choosing your words carefully? You said we
were being candid because.

Speaker 1 (52:19):
Show I'm saying that I don't think he's marketable as
an artist, but I think there's a future for him
as a songwriter. And I'm trying to encourage them.

Speaker 2 (52:33):
Yeah, but no one wants Brandon T. Jackson to write songs.

Speaker 1 (52:36):
I'm not going to name the person.

Speaker 2 (52:38):
I was just trying to pull a name.

Speaker 1 (52:43):
Listen, but what I'm saying is that you can you
can open any door that you want once you get in, Like,
you're not going to go through the front door. You
might have to come through the kitchen or whatever. So
I'm saying that, Okay, if you you ramp up your
songwriting skills, which are brilliantly brilliant, and you get a
public then yeah, you can write your own ticket. You
could be like I want to fly to the moon

(53:04):
next to get in. What I'm saying is, how do
you help a person? What do you recommend to someone
trying to find their lane? Like, maybe they're better at writing, yeah,
or maybe they're better at directing, or maybe they're better
at being in front of the camera being a stand on.
How do you help them find Yeah?

Speaker 3 (53:23):
Good question.

Speaker 2 (53:24):
I think you just have to try everything, you know.
I think if you think you want to be a
stand up, you got to go be a stand up.
Like I was denying myself the fact that I was
a writer for many years. I was just like, no,
I'm a comedian, I'm a performer. I'm just trying to
be on SNL. This is what I'm doing. But I
was writing for money on these TV shows and stuff,
and I was like, yeah, yeah, but I'm not a writer.

(53:44):
I don't know why. For years I denied that, and
then I looked up and was like, yo, I've been
writing a lot and I always perform on the things
I write on, So I never had to shut that
part of me off. But I don't know. For some reason,
I had this weird shame about being behind the scenes,
which was odd because once I embraced that, my whole
career opened up in front of the camera and behind it.

Speaker 3 (54:04):
Is it shame or is also like can I do this?
Because that's like also a whole level.

Speaker 8 (54:08):
It was.

Speaker 2 (54:09):
Well, I always knew I was a good writer. I
just didn't think of it as a job, which was
disrespectful as shit to writers. But I just didn't have
that knowledge. You know, I went to public school. I
didn't have a lot of knowledge about this, about the industry,
you know, I went to public school in the Midwest.
TV was like, what that was just like a weird dream.
So yeah, I mean I've always had this kind of

(54:29):
I talked about this the other day. I've always had
this kind of reckless confidence, Like I've always been like,
if I want to do it, I can do it.
But then I would convince myself, oh but I don't
want to do that. But then I think that was
just the fear talking, right. So I think if you
have a passion for it, you've got to do it.
You've got to just do it. I think the problem
with standup is you got to do it all the time,

(54:50):
right cause it's like golf. If you play for ten
years and you don't play for a week, you're terrible again.

Speaker 3 (54:55):
Yes, I'm very scared, and you get more scared the
more time you spend not doing it.

Speaker 2 (54:58):
Correct.

Speaker 3 (54:59):
Oh, correct.

Speaker 2 (55:00):
See Eddie Murphy, it's why he won't it's why he
won't come back on stage. I mean, he says it.
I'm not that's just what he says. I can't be
out here working out material as Eddie Murphy. I can't
do bad jokes. But the only way you do a
special is to go out and work out the material,
and they'll be bad. Chris is not afraid to do that.

(55:21):
Rock goes into club with a notebook and a pen.
He'll be like, I'm just gonna read some shit, you
know when he's working things out, and it's genius to watch.
But you know, if you're Eddie Murphy, how do you
do that? How do you go, as the living legend
top of the game and go into the cellar or
stand up New York or wherever and tell some terrible
ass jokes?

Speaker 3 (55:39):
So do you think we'll never see Eddie Murphy.

Speaker 2 (55:44):
I'm just waiting to see if he's actually gonna do
coming to America too.

Speaker 1 (55:47):
I believe it.

Speaker 2 (55:48):
I don't either. When he was gonna host the Oscars,
I was like, I believe, want to see it, and
then he didn't, you know what I mean. He it's
hard and I root for him, like I'm like, he's
the greatest living comedian period and I don't think that
there's any way to live up to that title. And

(56:09):
so I have you know, I have sympathy for him.
People feel different.

Speaker 1 (56:12):
Even the ten minutes he did at Kennedy said Kennedy
so dope, so dope, dude.

Speaker 2 (56:18):
It made me so hungry. I don't care. If he
just got on stage your talk, I would pay all
my money. You can have all my money. But that's
why he doesn't understand the love for him is so great.
But anyway back to you, just be Eddie Murphy, that's
all I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (56:32):
That's all you got to do, or just don't be no.

Speaker 2 (56:36):
Look, I think you just got to do it and
you'll find out. It'll take you where you're supposed to go.
But don't close the doors on yourself. And if you're
already writing, then what are you waiting for? You got
three minutes in the book right now, five minutes, whatever
you got. That's all you have to do. People think
you have to go out and do an hour long special. No,
you work your way up. You do five minutes, then
you do eight, and then you go back to five
because those other three you find out didn't work. What

(56:57):
do you not?

Speaker 3 (56:57):
Did you do this? But do you have some favorite
clubs in New York?

Speaker 1 (57:00):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (57:00):
Look, I think stand Up n Y is really good.
Stand Up New York is great because they have a
really good amateur night where anybody can get up. Go
to Stand Up New it's uptown and then no, I
think it's in the sixties, like Upper West Side, Cameron.
I think that's where am I getting it confused?

Speaker 3 (57:17):
No?

Speaker 2 (57:18):
No, no, no, no, no no yeah the media no, no. So
sant Up New York is a good one. Don't try
to go to the cellar, no, like you know, that's crazy.
But there's also like NYU has like random comedy nights
and stuff where like literally anybody can go up and
students are kind of a great crowd because they don't
give a shit, and so they'll either laugh or they'll

(57:39):
just won't even look at you. But either way you
can hear what you're You know what the thing is,
You need to hear what your jokes sound like on
a microphone. It's not about what they sound like in
front of a crowd, as much as you need to
get used to hearing them amplified, and you'll start writing
them differently because no matter how much you write them
at home, that ship, once it has an echo on it,
you're like, oh, that that doesn't work. But honestly, like

(58:01):
it doesn't. Yeah, yeah, that's why they do that, right,
because you need to be able to hear the joke
in the mic. It's not about the crowds reaction. People
always think that's a joke about the crowd not hearing,
but it really is like, oh, my joke is not
working through this mechanism. It's interesting. There's a whole there's
a whole thing.

Speaker 1 (58:19):
I'll tell you my two secret Smurf spots.

Speaker 2 (58:22):
Like you okay he said it on the rest, Yeah,
because that's the small little places that any bar in
Brooklyn has an amateur night.

Speaker 1 (58:28):
By the way, I work out of two spots.

Speaker 3 (58:30):
I say what now, Yeah, I do, which mean you
work out of two spots.

Speaker 2 (58:33):
Oh you telling me this?

Speaker 1 (58:34):
Yeah? Well, back when I was actively teaching, you're not in.

Speaker 2 (58:37):
Like a yeah, go ahead, because you're not in a
comedy club. Comedy club, are you?

Speaker 1 (58:41):
Yeah? I mean, but I don't do it as much
now that I'm not teaching this semester. But I as
you hear three seconds ago, I mean the reason why
I write more and instagram more because it's easy for
me to communicate when I can control my words with
my ten fingers. But I hate public speaking. So you

(59:03):
go and you try to given the show. I lose
sleep the night before whenever we do it, and they
could be like even the Jimmy Jame and Terry Lewis show,
like I'm in the mirror like practicing, like like it's
like jury. Yeah, but yeah, our our our warm up
guy Seth told me that the way to give over

(59:27):
your public speaking fear is to just tell five minute story.

Speaker 3 (59:33):
So so you're doing like story slams and ship that's dope.

Speaker 1 (59:37):
Story is also on the low kind of working.

Speaker 2 (59:42):
Out to where do you go?

Speaker 1 (59:45):
Where you said, I don't want to reveal that because
I don't want people judging.

Speaker 3 (59:48):
Me reveal stuff on this show.

Speaker 2 (59:51):
You just said, I'm going to tell you the standing.

Speaker 1 (59:55):
Look, that's a running theme with this show. Just yeah,
what they are.

Speaker 2 (01:00:02):
It's the Apollo at the top of the empire, say building,
it's real.

Speaker 1 (01:00:07):
Wait, since you're on the subject, there's no there's someone
that I am cheering for in the world of me.
Well besides you, Oh yeah, you're my hero. Jessica Moore
is well just hilarious or just with the mess, just hilarious.
She is one of my favorite, uh Instagram comedian, Like

(01:00:32):
what she's done?

Speaker 2 (01:00:33):
Are you No, not Jessica Williams.

Speaker 1 (01:00:36):
She's just just with the mess or just hilarious is
what she is on on Instagram.

Speaker 2 (01:00:41):
Yeah, she's even with Azelia Banks and everybody.

Speaker 1 (01:00:44):
She Yeah, she uses all fifty nine seconds of her
Instagram account to do awesome crafted uh comedy bits where
she kind of gives you the ratchet news of the week,
and it's to the point where that's my show's funny,

(01:01:05):
similar to what's his name? Who's who's like the star
of Vine what's his name?

Speaker 2 (01:01:09):
Yeah, he's in the movie with Sandra Oh my god, yes,
wait really yeah he did. He was in the movie
Oh my god was res Yes, he was in speed.
Oh my god.

Speaker 1 (01:01:23):
Now we're all going to forget his Yeah, sort of
like how do you.

Speaker 2 (01:01:29):
I didn't do it neither.

Speaker 1 (01:01:33):
Less less about how do you feel about graduating and
kind of cutting the front of the bank line. What
do you recommend to those who are now going to
make their careers off of strictly YouTube and Instagram to
get to come or.

Speaker 2 (01:01:49):
Is it just I don't know that.

Speaker 1 (01:01:51):
Wasn't that like trap music to me?

Speaker 2 (01:01:54):
Or like, well, you said that pejoratively, but I don't
think that. Yeah, I don't. I don't Northwestern, Please give
me my credit. I got that degree. Ok, Yeah, I
don't know. I think whatever they choose to do is

(01:02:14):
remains to be seen.

Speaker 3 (01:02:15):
I don't you know.

Speaker 2 (01:02:16):
Francesca Ramsey is a fantastic YouTube star who's got a
pilot she's shooting out for Comedy Central, and like, you know,
I just kind of just I don't know. I keep
hearing that they all get these shows, but then I
don't know what's going to happen. Like Joanne the Scammer's
doing a pilot for Netflix, Like I'm so excited, excited,
I know, but I don't know, Like I never see
these things come to the light of day, and I

(01:02:38):
wish I would. So I don't know what the disconnect is.
I don't know if it's because they don't know the
business a lot. But like Francesca is the person I
think has a really good chance of making it because
well she's already made it, but like somebody who can
really translate over to TV because she's been in the business.
We hired her at the Nightly Show, brought her on
as a correspondent, like she's done the kind and she's
like a writer also. But some of these people, I

(01:02:59):
don't know if they write, but if they know TV,
I don't know if they know how to make a
product for Tagua.

Speaker 1 (01:03:03):
But what I'm asking is the definition of quote making
it right?

Speaker 2 (01:03:08):
It's different at the end of.

Speaker 1 (01:03:09):
The ellipses, is making it that dot in our world,
which is the standard that we've known of long form comedy.
But what if that medium that they're doing now is
going to be the standard of which we digest our entertainment.

Speaker 2 (01:03:30):
Yeah, well, I mean I think we'll all have to adjust.
I think late night comedy on streaming and on demand
has proven to be tough. You know, Chelsea's show just
went down.

Speaker 1 (01:03:39):
I'm shocked about that because I thought it was doing
the numbers.

Speaker 2 (01:03:42):
I don't know if it was or not. She said,
she made it sound like she made the move to
focus on activism, so it may have just been her choice.
I'm not sure, but I think Bill Night is the
only other one that has a streaming talk show, So yeah,
I don't I'm not sure. Like right now, for Late Night,
it seems to still be a TV game, but digital matters,

(01:04:02):
you know, to go viral, but you have to be
on a TV terrestrial platform to uh crossover to the
digital viral platfor it's weird, But yeah, I think I
think there's a lot of TV like comedy that's happening
on streaming that's really funny. I mean, look at Kimmy Schmidt,
you know, look at those are people who are comedians
whoor you know, who definitely translate. So I think there's

(01:04:24):
a room for everybody. I didn't answer your question move.

Speaker 7 (01:04:27):
On show now, but yes, what it was like to
go from being a writer to now some writer who
writes for folks and now you write for yourself? Like,
what was that transition like?

Speaker 1 (01:04:38):
Can you write for yourself?

Speaker 7 (01:04:39):
I mean, like, but now you're like a performer.

Speaker 2 (01:04:41):
Some people always ask that question, but I never stopped performing.
It's like when people ask Eddie what was it like
when you fell off, and he's like, check my resume.
I always made movies. Every year he's made a movie.
That's what's crazy about Eddie Murhy. But anyway, I just
really put myself in the same sense as Eddie Murphy.
Forgive me, Forgive me Black Jesus. Yeah, so I've always
been performing. Even when I was head writer on the

(01:05:02):
nightly show, I was still on the show like three
nights a week.

Speaker 7 (01:05:05):
So you're like the focus, it's your show.

Speaker 2 (01:05:07):
I tend to think I was the focus on everything.

Speaker 1 (01:05:09):
I asked about.

Speaker 7 (01:05:09):
That's clear, and I've learned.

Speaker 1 (01:05:11):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:05:12):
And how snobby were you at choosing writers for your
own show?

Speaker 2 (01:05:15):
Verry Verry, Well, I will actually answer your question. It
is different when it's on you, for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:05:20):
And how different is it that you're the star of
the show and you answer to a showrunner a head writer,
as opposed to where I was going to go with
it before. You just skip the damn line of the
question of you being a head a head writer for
Larry's show before you got your show? What's easier?

Speaker 2 (01:05:38):
Your question was so confused.

Speaker 1 (01:05:40):
I'm blessed, I'm lost, I'm lost to you. Anyway, my
question was before you got your own show, you were.

Speaker 2 (01:05:49):
The head writer that question, yeah, okay, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:05:53):
No, he said, he just skipped to your show.

Speaker 3 (01:05:55):
As if it was in the context of Bill's question.

Speaker 2 (01:05:58):
But I understand it.

Speaker 3 (01:06:00):
Why aren't we all hide because some of us just
aren't smart enough to get high.

Speaker 1 (01:06:03):
Anyway, I'll set up for the next minutes you five talking.
Get what you're saying, Larry Wilmore.

Speaker 2 (01:06:12):
No, I got it. I got it. So uh to
answer your question, I think that, uh, the weight, the
weight is on me now, right, And I've talked to
all the guys and Samby and Larry said, yeah, it's
different now, huh, which kind of answers your question, which
was like, he said to me, you thought you knew
what the weight was on me, you know, when you
were my head writer. But it's different now. And I

(01:06:34):
was like, you're so right, and there's nothing that can
explain it except by being in that position. There's something
like as his head writer, I wanted to take care
of him and make sure he had the funniest jokes
and keep the writers organized and keep them happy, and
keep him happy and just make a great show. My folks,
focus was on doing whatever made him the best comedian
to give the best show. And now it's like, I'm

(01:06:57):
looking at people to do that for me. But the
problem is I came with all of that experience, so
I think people expect more from me, Like I'm not
like the helpless talent. So the problem is for me,
I have to break myself of the head writers show
running like you know, tendencies for sure, because and I

(01:07:19):
think we're still finding that, to be honest, because I do.
I'm trying to be in every meeting and they had
to be like, get out. You know, Colbert had said
the same thing when he got his new shown. They
had to kick him out.

Speaker 1 (01:07:28):
I knew it. I think that being the star of
your show and always use this this ray crop Ronald
McDonald example, But I feel like as Ronald McDonald as
the face of your product, I mean, I know, I'm like, but.

Speaker 2 (01:07:42):
God, damn you and your clown. You're right about that
now the show is over.

Speaker 1 (01:07:54):
No, But I feel like when you're the face of
your product. When you're Ronald McDonald, you should let Ray
Kroc be Ray Crock. You should like Boss Bill is
Ray Kroc? Which one is Ray Crock?

Speaker 3 (01:08:11):
Oh that's right, the movie.

Speaker 2 (01:08:12):
I'm sorry, I thought he's one of the.

Speaker 3 (01:08:15):
Ray Crock Yes, okay, Michael, Michael Keaton.

Speaker 1 (01:08:19):
Yes, so what I'm saying, you make it sound like.

Speaker 7 (01:08:25):
Better for all the time I've ever heard in my life,
all the time.

Speaker 1 (01:08:33):
I'm afraid of Stephen listening to this everything right now?

Speaker 2 (01:08:39):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (01:08:41):
But okay, I know some people that can't let go. Yeah,
and they got to make every decision.

Speaker 2 (01:08:48):
Yeah, it's hard for me about you.

Speaker 1 (01:08:51):
Oh you two?

Speaker 3 (01:08:51):
Okay, so.

Speaker 2 (01:08:57):
Again, because it's easy for you to be in.

Speaker 1 (01:09:01):
Or is it easier for you not?

Speaker 2 (01:09:04):
Look, I think I enjoy both. But uh, there's a
reason I created my own show after I left Larry Show,
as opposed to, you know, going to somebody else's show. Actually,
we need to tell that story. You know you are
an integral part of that story. But anyway we are
in order because damn.

Speaker 3 (01:09:22):
I had.

Speaker 1 (01:09:26):
Would you have for breakfast this morning?

Speaker 3 (01:09:28):
Tell that story.

Speaker 2 (01:09:29):
I don't get to eat it anymore. My sketch busy
now what did I have. I don't know. There's some
eggs I don't know. But the end of and the
end of that is that it is really difficult, and
I'm trying to trying to take myself out of my meetings.
But the thing is, I you also get this sixth
sense when you are the host of a show, and
when you create a show, you can see everything, you
can hear everything, you know everything that's going on. It's weird.

(01:09:52):
You literally have an extra sense. And people are like,
you don't miss a thing. And I can see, like
when something's not working, I can see it an hour before,
so somebody else sees it. And so my problem is
letting people not fail, but letting them find out that
what they're doing is not going to work when I
knew it a day ago or an hour ago. You know,
that's my problem. That's what I'm struggling with because you're

(01:10:13):
I don't know, I really have this weird. I don't
know how to describe it any other way. But I
can see more now, and so that's hard for me.
I'm trying to figure out how to let people just
figure it out for themselves.

Speaker 1 (01:10:24):
So you trust it.

Speaker 2 (01:10:25):
I do trust them, though, I was going to say no,
I would tell you if I didn't know. And the
reason why I hired the person I hired is because
I've known him for years, and uh, I knew that
whatever I needed, he was going to be there to say, hey,
step out of that, I got it, you know. So
so you have to do that. And I have co
executive producers who are amazing, these amazing teams of women

(01:10:48):
who are like they just have my back. So that's
what's made it easier for me. But it's just a
personal thing. It doesn't matter how much people take care
of you if you're used to the one being, you know,
being the one that making all the decisions. So it's
a process.

Speaker 3 (01:11:01):
Did you purposely staff your your writing staff? I mean
this just feels like a dumb question. But with women,
did you make and then black women, because you know
there's been a whole yes and black and black female writers.
There's not a lot this season on a lot of new.

Speaker 2 (01:11:14):
Directs, and I have doubled the number, which I've done
twice in my career. I did it at the Nightly
Show and then when we got canceled, and then when
I hired I have a room of uh, we only
have one writer. My room is all black people, half
women and half men. And uh so yeah, I single
handedly employed the most black women in late night and
uh uh my staff is seventy percent women and people

(01:11:35):
of color, which is crazy. That's never been done ever
in late night television. It's heaven. When people come in.
We have bottles of cocoa butter. A kid you not.
We have it constantly. We introduced all the white people
on our staff to cocoa butter. They're they're like, this
is a miracle. Somebody came in today. I said it
smells like cookies. I said, that's the cocoa butter. I
kid you that. Yeah, yes, yes, we have. We have

(01:11:57):
like you know music, you know. It's just like it's fun.
Like we had Amber Ruffin from Seth Myers and Ashle
Nicole Black from Sam Bey on our podcast which we
tape in our office on Fridays, and they came in
and Amber was just like walking around real slaw. I said,
hurry up, come on, we got a tape. She was like,
I've just never seen this many black people in an
office before. She was like, let alone a TV show.

(01:12:18):
She was just like, I don't know what this is.
This is crazy essen yeah show. Yeah, so it's dope.
I love it. I love that we've been able to
do that because that's what I preached, like more black
people need to be in this genre, like more black
people behind the scenes in front of the camera. So, yeah, dope.

Speaker 3 (01:12:33):
Who's the sister that used to be on Larry Wimore
with you always?

Speaker 2 (01:12:36):
Which one Holly Walker franchise?

Speaker 3 (01:12:38):
I guess it was Holly. It was Holly because you
two are seemed like to always be paired up.

Speaker 2 (01:12:41):
Yeah, we've known each other forever. She was she was
one of my teachers at Second City years ago. She's fantastic.
She's dope. She was a writer perform on the nightly show.
She's dope.

Speaker 1 (01:12:56):
The kind of political climate that we're living in.

Speaker 2 (01:12:59):
Right now, I don't like this question. You want to
talk about how you helped me create this show?

Speaker 3 (01:13:03):
That's what we were doing. We forgot we forget it.

Speaker 1 (01:13:06):
Oh okay, how did I help you create the show?

Speaker 2 (01:13:10):
So?

Speaker 1 (01:13:11):
So show?

Speaker 2 (01:13:12):
I hate shock, which is weird? Okay, so so so.
I so the night they show have been canceled and
I was a little sad, and uh Amir texted me,
I think it was like Chappelle eight o'clock, like, let's go.

(01:13:35):
And I was like okay, but I mean I text
you back because I was like hYP but I was like, well,
I don't think you know this. I was actually really
sad and like I didn't want to leave my house
and I was like in pajamas and I was like,
fuck it, though, it's Chappelle, we got to go. So
we went to go see Chappelle and you took me
backstage and you were like, you know Dave right, And
I was like, no, we've never met. I know all

(01:13:56):
these other commanis. I don't know Dave.

Speaker 9 (01:13:58):
So then Dave uh was like hey, and you were
like hey, and you were like you know Robin right,
and he was like uh and you were like from
the Nightly Show and he was like, oh right, both
of us don't have jobs, like this was just after
the night Show.

Speaker 2 (01:14:12):
And I was like hey, you're right. And then and
then he says what he always says to me now,
which was a are you white?

Speaker 1 (01:14:22):
What is you?

Speaker 2 (01:14:23):
Are you white? And then he's like no, I'm just kidding,
I'm just kidding. And so he said, what are you
doing now that the Nightly Show is over, and I said, oh,
I'm actually gonna go. I think I'm gonna go try
to work on somebody else's talk show. I've got some offers,
because I had offers from most of the white dudes
and Late Night and Thank You, and so I was like, oh,

(01:14:43):
I'm not gonna work on SO and soci show. And
he was like, nah, do your own show. And I
was like, but I feel like I need to, you know,
be in it a little bit more, get my name
out there a little bit more. And he was like, now,
go to your own show.

Speaker 1 (01:14:55):
And So Joe and So I'm going to record that
and make that part of our edit.

Speaker 2 (01:15:06):
So so I was like, Wow, maybe I should do
my own show. And then I don't know if you
remember this, we were trying to meet up with Rock.
This was a very like Hollywood New York night, but
we were trying to meet on the trope to completely question. Okay,
yeah right right, So you and Dave Schabelle and Spike
Jones he was also standing there, and we were trying

(01:15:26):
to go get chicken at the spot.

Speaker 1 (01:15:28):
You know, it's weird.

Speaker 2 (01:15:29):
Yeah, you always take people to get always We've got
chicken many times. But yes, this was the this is
all right.

Speaker 1 (01:15:35):
The weirdest thing about this night, yeah, was that I
didn't realize that with Spike Jones until six minutes and.

Speaker 2 (01:15:42):
You're talking to him. Yes, I remember you telling me this.

Speaker 1 (01:15:45):
Yeah, I didn't know what spi Joe.

Speaker 2 (01:15:46):
I saw the emphany on your face. You were not slick,
and then you were, and then you tried to clean
it up. You were like, yeah, I just saw your video.

Speaker 1 (01:15:52):
It's so dope.

Speaker 2 (01:15:55):
Yeah, are you that smart? I think I just know you, okay,
because he was very flattered. He could not have been nicer,
but you were like in the video at all man,
and then the treadmills that I knew you went extra
hard on letting him know that.

Speaker 1 (01:16:09):
It was Robin know, I know, we gotta get married now.

Speaker 2 (01:16:15):
So so so we went to go get chicken and
we couldn't find Chris or David. So it's just me
and a Mirr eating chicken. And the chicken was fantastic,
but it was like.

Speaker 3 (01:16:26):
Chicken right now, chicken?

Speaker 2 (01:16:28):
No, it was not?

Speaker 1 (01:16:29):
No, what is that?

Speaker 2 (01:16:32):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:16:32):
It was probably No, it was not.

Speaker 2 (01:16:35):
It's a place where we have to go up the
rickety staircase.

Speaker 7 (01:16:37):
I love the chicken right now.

Speaker 2 (01:16:40):
Yeah, that's what I was gonna say. I wasn't gonna
say that.

Speaker 1 (01:16:42):
Like Robin, I actually do like you.

Speaker 3 (01:16:47):
Like you that's so cute.

Speaker 1 (01:16:49):
No, I don't remember the first chicken spot I talked
about on our pilot episode.

Speaker 2 (01:16:55):
Yeahs a cigaret spot.

Speaker 3 (01:16:56):
Damn only take the top tier bitches.

Speaker 1 (01:17:01):
Was damn Okay, it's good that you remember it. I
didn't remember. You remember that means I really like you
as a person.

Speaker 2 (01:17:15):
Yeah, Himson, I wouldn't say the name or where it is.

Speaker 1 (01:17:20):
There's certain people I can't let me, let not them
see me like throw down on yeah chicken.

Speaker 2 (01:17:28):
It was.

Speaker 1 (01:17:30):
First we ate the chicken on out. It was the
best we ever did. Remember that, Yeah, like this and
then after the chicken chicken, we'll put.

Speaker 2 (01:17:40):
You straight like yeah. Yeah. So so we went there
and I don't remember how much we really talked about
it that night, but I was like, God, I think
Dave is right. So I had a meeting two days
later at Jack's Media, who does full fun Toble sam Bee,
Amy Schumer's Inside of Me Schumer broad City. There's this
amazing production company and I was in there to meet
with them to run a different show. I was like, well,

(01:18:03):
maybe I'll just go to meet with them about this
sitcom whatever to like run it, not even gonna be
on it. And we were having this conversation. They were like,
so if you were to do your own late night show,
just like like we were just shooting the shit. I
wasn't in there to pitch. I didn't have a pitch
on me. And they were like, so, if you were
going to do your own late night show, what would
it be. I was like, I don't know, probably just
everything I do, like sketch, you know, political satire, but

(01:18:24):
also like pop culture satire because I care about what
black China is doing as much as I care about
what the president is doing. And they were like, that's dope,
we'll buy it.

Speaker 3 (01:18:35):
So you were first for them too, because it's not
you was the first piece of brown for that production
company you say you name like Amy.

Speaker 2 (01:18:40):
Fernandez is Brown owns that company. But I don't think
they have any other shows with predominantly black people, and
that's for sure. But they did produce Top five and
they so they got they got some stuff under that.
They have a lot of good shows. They're really great.
But they were like, yo, so cause I told them
the story about Dave and then they said, oh, well,

(01:19:01):
and your friends with Chris. I was like yeah, and
then they were like, well, we'll just call Chris. So
I was like okay, and I walked out of the meeting.
I was like, that's not a thing, Like, that's not
how you sell a show, right because I've been a
picture show is my whole life, and I'm like, that's
not how it works. And then a couple of days
later they called and they were like, yeah, so yeah,
we're gonna make your show Chris on board. I was like, wait,
Chris didn't even me what. I was like, you're not serious,

(01:19:22):
and they were like yeah. We called Chris and we
said Robin Thiety's doing a show. It's a mix of
politics and pop culture. It's late night. And he goes yes,
and they go do you want us to tell you more?
And he goes no. I said yes, and we were
like what. Like the way it came together was so crazy,
and then we shot a pilot and then Network's bid
on it and we went to bet now we're on.

Speaker 1 (01:19:42):
Damn man. We all lived happily we did.

Speaker 3 (01:19:45):
That was perfect because it was nobody else to feel that,
like you really you were the answer, because when you
think about it, it's like, who else do you think about?
They could fill that void in that way.

Speaker 2 (01:19:53):
You know, I know a lot of women who could
do it. But the thing that Chris always says, the
reason why he signed on to this so quickly is
not because I was funny, because he there's plenty of
people who are funny, but because he knew I could
create and run a show, and he knew that when
it came to making the pilot and when it came
to making the show, I was going to put people
in charge who were great. And he knows my standard
or quality is like way high, so you know, I wasn't.

(01:20:14):
And it didn't matter where we went. It wasn't like, oh, well,
we'll make a good show for B E T. It's like, no,
we're going to make a show that's going to rival
anything else out there, you know, with whatever budget we get.
But you know, we wanted to make something that that
anybody could watch. But it was nice that we went
to BET because BT only gave us two directives. They said,
we want to make the show that you want to make,

(01:20:34):
but it's got to be unapologetically black and add some
music every now and then. I was like, bet, great,
what network would tell you that.

Speaker 1 (01:20:42):
There?

Speaker 2 (01:20:44):
It really is. No, it really is. And they're they're
they're really open to having things that they haven't had
or things that they've tried. You know, they tried the TJ.
Holmes Show, but they didn't really try it with the comedian, so,
you know, I think they wanted something in this genre.
And this was when Stephen Hill was still there, so.

Speaker 3 (01:21:03):
They needed something smart, like they needed smart cool at
the same time.

Speaker 2 (01:21:08):
Yeah, I think they were really excited about what we
were bringing in, what they knew I could bring to
the network. And it was really a homecoming for me
because my first technically my first writing job was on
the BET Awards. That's what got me into the Writers Guilt.

Speaker 3 (01:21:19):
Which year were you, I'm sorry a couple of years.

Speaker 2 (01:21:26):
No, No, that was my first BT Awards was two
thousand and seven. It was with.

Speaker 1 (01:21:31):
You didn't throw jokes at I thought, that's.

Speaker 2 (01:21:34):
How No, that's how No. I met Chris Rock because
of you. You told Chris Rock I was funny, and
then he hired me to write for write sketches for him.
I was already doing the BET Awards.

Speaker 1 (01:21:44):
But yeah, that's all I. When I die, you will
realize that I'm a bridge.

Speaker 2 (01:21:54):
You told no. I was already going to work. So
I worked for the BT Awards for like ten years
from two thousand and seven, like well, not till twenty seventeen.
But I wrote many years in between that, and so
when Chris was hosting, Chris hired his writers. But then
they have other writers the right leg sketches and monologue
bits and or bits for other people. But Chris met
me when I walked in. I walked into the meeting

(01:22:15):
late as fuck too. They had given me the wrong time.
Can I tell you this story? So no, no, no, no no,
And this was all me. This was all this the
noh to do with BT. I just read their email
wrong and got there at the wrong time. And I
walked in and Chris Rock's sitting there holding court with
like Leslie Jones and John Max, all these amazing writers comedians,
and I walk in and I was like oh, and
I was like hey, and I literally it was one

(01:22:35):
of those things where I had to walk around everybody
to get to the test where I cadish slow motion
and everyone's staring at me. And I'm like, hey, everybody,
and Chris goes, who are you? And I was like,
Robin THEDI and he goes, Emir said you're funny, and
I was like, well, he does have good taste, and
then the whole room started cracking up and he goes, okay, okay,

(01:22:55):
But that was the test. It was like, if I
hadn't have said something funny to him, I think it
would have been all down.

Speaker 3 (01:23:00):
Joe, Robin, can you walk us through because I'm so
curious about the process of a war show, Like you
just said, like it was a room of people and
then people certain people do different segments. Yeah, like how
does that work?

Speaker 2 (01:23:09):
So every host is different. Usually what happens is there's
an in house crew three to four writers who write
all the uh presenter bits and all the kind of
connective tissue and stuff, so all the stuff that the
actors get up there and fuck up. You know, they
work really hard for weeks on end to craft something
really funny, and then what ends up happening is the
artists or the publicist or whatever read it and then

(01:23:29):
they're like, ah, client doesn't really want to do that,
and then it becomes like this weird amalgamation of something
and then they get on stage and forget their glasses
and then just say what they want. That's why a
war show is making funny, Yes, because not for lack
of writing. Like people always like, ah be tenise new
writers or whatever. It's like, no, trust me, the bits
are really funny, but just stuff goes crazy. Like I

(01:23:53):
don't know. People just say what they want and but
sometimes the bits work really well. But uh so then
the host comes and whatever the host is usually hires
their own team of writers as well.

Speaker 1 (01:24:02):
Do you recommend that I do? I do?

Speaker 4 (01:24:06):
I do?

Speaker 2 (01:24:09):
Like, Well, that's because yeah, BECAUSEL has twenty five writers
who are all at the top of their game. So
and SNL is writing for a specific they know themselves
better than you know them. I think at SNL it
doesn't make that much sense. But I think if you're
hosting a wardsone where you're selling your personality and you're
the host, yeah, you definitely need your own writers. And Chris,

(01:24:29):
the funny thing is people like Chris they hire writers,
but they don't need them. Chris Rock does not need writers.
He comes in with material that's already killer three months
before the show. I'm telling you there's some comedians who
definitely need writers.

Speaker 4 (01:24:43):
But.

Speaker 2 (01:24:45):
Uh, and I am one of them. Let's be real.
I mean, I'm a great writer, but I have to
write my jokes, you know what I mean? Like, I
need to craft my jokes. And I could. I could
absolutely write all my own material, But.

Speaker 1 (01:24:55):
I like music. I think comedy you should bounce off
of other people.

Speaker 2 (01:24:59):
Yeah, I do too too.

Speaker 1 (01:25:00):
And there's no Kevin has that. Kevin will stand in
the circle. Yeah, I mean his six guys will.

Speaker 2 (01:25:05):
Be like yeah, but Kevin's also very funny on his own.
I wrote for Kevin too. Kevin's Kevin's very funny. And
you get Kevin something, you can give Kevin something like
here's the cool thing. So, so Chris is like a wordsmith.
Everything those words have to be in a formula and
he will mess with it for months, years until he
hits a joke. Right, Kevin Hart. You can literally go, Okay, Kevin,

(01:25:26):
here's the joke. The door is gonna open, and you're
gonna say, well, I don't even know what time it is, right,
and like, that's not a joke, right, But he will
come in and be like, I don't do it, Kevin impression.
But he will come in and make I don't even know,
you know, I don't even know what tap is, you
know whatever. That's a terrible Kevin Hart. What do I
do not do? Impression? His body language and his body language,

(01:25:46):
his style, but also just that crazy ass voice. He
can make anything funny. Really he really can't. I've never
seen anything like it.

Speaker 1 (01:25:53):
Is the voice important in comedy? The voice. Yes, I
was gonna say, how long have you had you have
this sort of ratchy Joan Rivers thing going on?

Speaker 2 (01:26:01):
I usually get Kathy Griffin.

Speaker 1 (01:26:04):
Okay, I can hear that now. Yeah, but she said,
but I'm just saying how she was if you had
this scratchy voice. Because you can go Jewish grandmother, you
can go hood, you can Italian grandmother.

Speaker 2 (01:26:24):
Yeah, still racist.

Speaker 1 (01:26:26):
Even more German grandmother.

Speaker 2 (01:26:28):
That is my heritage.

Speaker 5 (01:26:29):
Do that?

Speaker 2 (01:26:30):
Yeah? How long have I had this voice?

Speaker 7 (01:26:33):
Jesus puppets?

Speaker 1 (01:26:34):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:26:35):
Probably it actually changed when I had uh, when I
stopped eating dairy. This is actually true, This is not interesting.
Feel free to cut it. Ten years ago I stopped
eating dairy because it would make me sick and like
my throat would start closing up. And I realized I
was like definitely allergic to dairy, and my voice became
scratchier and less nasally. I used to kind of tongue like, no,

(01:26:56):
I didn't, but like it did sound more nasally. Yeah,
then I do.

Speaker 3 (01:27:00):
That, and now you're clear.

Speaker 2 (01:27:02):
That's crazy. Yeah, now I'm clear. I'm clear and raspy.

Speaker 1 (01:27:05):
I see.

Speaker 2 (01:27:06):
I don't know. It's always kind of been this way
since then.

Speaker 1 (01:27:08):
Yeah. I mean, now that you're talking, this is the clear,
this is the salters. Your voices sounded.

Speaker 2 (01:27:13):
But what do you mean my voice is always sounded,
But in the beginning.

Speaker 1 (01:27:16):
Of the show, you had the Kathy Sledge. I know, scratchy.

Speaker 2 (01:27:20):
It's just because I talk a lot. Right now, I
just came from rewrite, like our shows tomorrow, What did
I agree to do a two hour podcast the night before?

Speaker 1 (01:27:27):
I need to take what time you have to wake up?
We have a tendency to keep your guest up way
past this forever. It's ten don't look at you. Don't
look at you.

Speaker 2 (01:27:36):
Christ you got ten minutes, but can you? Guys are
so fun? Thank you Steve picked up my hat for me.

Speaker 3 (01:27:44):
Thank you for introducing me to what's his name, du
Duk Duckworth.

Speaker 2 (01:27:47):
Oh my god, don't busy.

Speaker 1 (01:27:48):
Did you know? Did I know?

Speaker 2 (01:27:51):
Did you? Were you aware of Duckworth?

Speaker 1 (01:27:53):
I know of d work he did what. I didn't
know him personally.

Speaker 2 (01:27:55):
Did you see him on the show. Yes, Oh, he's
so right.

Speaker 1 (01:27:58):
Yeah, I was gonna say, I love your your I
was kind of jealous of the music. Yeah, you told me.

Speaker 2 (01:28:04):
To do that little one hundred percent. I got his director.
It wasn't as fire, but it's a direct goddamn ripoff.
How about that?

Speaker 3 (01:28:11):
Wait?

Speaker 2 (01:28:12):
Andre Allen, who did all music, is my show director.
That's why I look. I surround myself with greats.

Speaker 1 (01:28:20):
That's what you need to show you're you're damn. I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:28:24):
I didn't come to play.

Speaker 1 (01:28:25):
You can't make it, But now you're not. Only are
you going to make it. I think you're gonna thrive.

Speaker 2 (01:28:30):
I'm gonna make it. I'm gonna make get.

Speaker 3 (01:28:33):
Especially if you keep dancing with the folks like yeah,
that's like as cool, like a dream.

Speaker 2 (01:28:36):
There's a body roll in every episode. It's my Afford
Hitchcock moment. Look for it every episode. You'll see it
every episode. I don't know if you saw a Hairmaid's
Tale last week, but I body roll out a window.
Like I'm telling you you need to see it in
every This is something that you will totally geek out on.
Like if you just binge the show whenever you have time,
you will see I body roll at least once in
every episode. It's like a secret. And now we're like
elevating where you'll find it. It's not in a regular place,

(01:29:01):
small as body rolls.

Speaker 1 (01:29:03):
Boss Bill is doing the fat Albert invisible. I am
such a proponent of the body roll, right. I think
everybody should body roll twice a day.

Speaker 3 (01:29:12):
Correct.

Speaker 2 (01:29:13):
I do it all the time. But I kept doing
it in these like sketches we were shooting and in
the music and all this stuff, and they were like, yo,
everything we edit your body rolling.

Speaker 1 (01:29:27):
Damn.

Speaker 2 (01:29:27):
Yeah, that's the Easter Egg, look for it.

Speaker 7 (01:29:29):
I have a question.

Speaker 1 (01:29:30):
Yes, so I don't think.

Speaker 2 (01:29:35):
What is happening?

Speaker 1 (01:29:38):
I don't. I don't think. I get b E T H.

Speaker 2 (01:29:41):
No problem, that's no problem.

Speaker 1 (01:29:42):
He does? What what channel? I mean? What srime? What
day is it?

Speaker 2 (01:29:47):
It's on Thursdays at eleven pm Eastern ten pm Central.
You can see it for free on bt dot com.
Full episodes seven days from when we air, so between
from one episode to the next you can see it
for free. Otherwise gotta log in. You can probably also bootlegged.
I don't know there were clips on YouTube.

Speaker 1 (01:30:04):
But yo, don't I really, I really don't want this
conversation to stop.

Speaker 3 (01:30:15):
Robin, are you saying?

Speaker 2 (01:30:18):
Uh? Anyway? I am single? That what are you looking?

Speaker 3 (01:30:26):
What?

Speaker 5 (01:30:26):
What?

Speaker 3 (01:30:27):
What is a what is a man to you?

Speaker 1 (01:30:28):
Like?

Speaker 3 (01:30:28):
The perfect non perfect man?

Speaker 1 (01:30:32):
Mate? Oh?

Speaker 3 (01:30:32):
Sorry, oh ship, No, No, I like men.

Speaker 1 (01:30:36):
Okay, no, no, just trying to steer around.

Speaker 3 (01:30:42):
Her hetero vibes.

Speaker 1 (01:30:43):
So I just thought, right, I'm just saying that we're.

Speaker 2 (01:30:47):
Trying to lure all the men with my hetero vibes.

Speaker 1 (01:30:51):
Woman, that's it. Men.

Speaker 8 (01:30:57):
You like.

Speaker 1 (01:31:00):
Your question?

Speaker 2 (01:31:08):
She didn't answer. I have a question for you before we.

Speaker 1 (01:31:11):
Love the Tables, I want to ask.

Speaker 2 (01:31:13):
Okay, first, okay, what is your favorite Robin memory? Excuse
just know what. Everyone turned around and stared at me
right now. He's a sweating bullets, tiny bead of sweat.

Speaker 11 (01:31:29):
Listen, I had it was good for you, Jamie Fox, whoa,
I am sorry?

Speaker 1 (01:31:41):
Sorry, look it up the best? All right? No, I
have to plead the fifth on this because it's a
definite moment. But I can't say on the air because
as the third person, I know what it is.

Speaker 3 (01:31:59):
Can you tell the story?

Speaker 1 (01:32:00):
Does it involved Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:32:01):
An inside flood? Oh you don't even remember.

Speaker 7 (01:32:06):
Was that cosie for something?

Speaker 2 (01:32:09):
No, no, it's an actual flood that happened inside a building.
It happened in Las Vegas.

Speaker 7 (01:32:18):
There's Oh you were with us.

Speaker 2 (01:32:21):
Yes, I'm with you everywhere. Don't you just look to
your left. I'm there anyway. Whatever that might have been it,
But I know, actually I know what it is. All right,
Well tell a different story that you could tell. Okay,
I'm putting you on the spot. It's fine. So you
know you have seven your stories about you, but it's fine.

Speaker 3 (01:32:39):
Yours are shorter.

Speaker 2 (01:32:39):
Yeah, well I literally told like sixteen personal Yeah, do
it so he can still we'll be.

Speaker 1 (01:32:48):
Robin.

Speaker 2 (01:32:49):
Thank you, Thank you guys so much. Relations Thank you.
It doesn't sound girl.

Speaker 1 (01:32:58):
Don't tell sugar Steve. We will help you find bet
We're gonna help you.

Speaker 3 (01:33:11):
Just help me.

Speaker 1 (01:33:12):
Get to comedy comedy show bill. I'll make sure that
the checks in the mill as always. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:33:19):
Cocoa butter, Yes, we'll send you guys some coco.

Speaker 1 (01:33:23):
You get some cocoa butter, and we in fante. Yes,
we will be crashing your wedding.

Speaker 2 (01:33:27):
Yeah, Mary, Yes, aren't we missing someone?

Speaker 1 (01:33:32):
Yes, we're missing he's getting married right now. So thank you,
I appreciate it, and we will see you on the
next go around. The Quest Love Supremium. This is Quest
Love signing off Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.

(01:34:05):
This classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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Hosts And Creators

Laiya St. Clair

Questlove

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