My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - Celebrity Hometowns with Wanda Sykes

Episode Date: November 24, 2021

For a special treat, Karen and Georgia sit down with celebrity guests to hear their stories, from hometown murders to personal accounts of mayhem to legendary family lore. Today's guest is Wanda Sykes.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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We know celebrities. They have hometowns. We want to hear them. That's all we want to do. And that's all we're going to do for the next, oh, I don't know, two hours and twenty-five minutes. We'll see how it goes. Let's just see how it goes.

Oh, it's a short one today. We're really excited for this guest when she said yes. We were like, is she sure because we're obsessed. She's obviously an old friend of Karen's, you know, an incredible comedian and actress and person. And she's everyone's hero. That's right. You've seen her at clubs and colleges all over the country.

Please welcome the legendary Wanda Sykes. You can't beat the clubs and colleges. You can't. Right? You can't beat that intro. That's the best. It's the perfect catch all. It's the perfect intro.

It really is. Yeah. Especially if you can't list out all the credits or if you're not that great of a host and you just kind of need to throw something out there that really fits for everybody. Right. It's a great one. Mm-hmm. Right.

And Georgia, I think once, you know, a woman gets into a certain age bracket, you really shouldn't say an old friend now, because, you know what I'm saying? Long time. She's known this bitch a long time, you know, because it hit, I don't know, I don't know. Wow. It was a little thing. It was a little. It was just a moment.

I was like an old friend. I'm so embarrassed. I'm so sorry. Let's start over. Let's start over. No, not at all. How about this? A dry friend.

Would that be good? The dry, decrepit friend Karen. Just your kind of dusty old friend. I love it. Dusty. She's like the, she's like the quilt of friends. The mothball. Rap.

Mothball. Time. How's it going lately, Wanda? What's going on? Great. Great. I'm super busy, which is awesome, you know, right now we're writing season two of the upshaws, you know, the, the half hour Netflix series, Netflix series, yes, with Mike Epstein,

Kim Fields. Yes. Yes. So we're doing season two and we'll start production in December. So busy on that and also busy with history of the world part two that I'm doing with the great Mel Brooks, how about that? Amazing. Isn't that amazing?

Seriously? Yeah. Yeah. We're doing a series for Hulu. So, and, and it's also Ike Baron who holds and his partner, David Stassen and Nick Kroll. So it's the four of us doing this with, with Mr. Brooks. That is epic. That's epic.

I know. Are you writing with him? Yeah. Like truly creating this series with Mel Brooks. Yeah. Oh, shit. That's incredible. Right?

Yeah. Yeah. I love Ike Baron holds. He's so smart. Yeah. Yeah. So funny. Yeah.

And a good guy. Yes. Yeah. It's a good guy. Yeah. And of course, Nick Kroll is a legend. Yeah. What a group.

Great group. Old friends. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Wow.

That's a lot. That is, you are busy. That's a lot to get, to be getting done. Two days. Yeah. I'm on, I'm on the first stage doing some, whenever I can do tour dates to get ready to do another, you know, another special.

Yeah. That's a good, I saw that. Yeah. You got some upcoming shows. Mm-hmm. How we stand up for you these days out of in and out of quarantine? Oh, man.

It's hard to get a rhythm. That's pretty much how I feel right now. You know, it's the COVID protocols and one thing, you know, that, you know, being on stage, whether you see people with mask or without mask or, you know, or sometimes I go, shit, it looks like I need to be wearing a mask. These people look crazy, you know, or that guy has his shoes on. What the hell is going on?

This is not safe. This is not safe. Yeah. So, like I said, to me, it's just getting a rhythm. But, and it's also, you know, you're like, you know, this is the material that I'm going to do. And if something happens in the world, you gotta throw that out. And I need to talk about this, you know, so. Yeah.

But it's always challenging. I love it. I still love it. Yeah. I bet you can really see progress so much more now because it's like everyone starting back as if it's like your fifth year of stand-up and then, you know, and right, and then hopefully you're moving through and getting it like up to date quickly. But it's like, I just can't even imagine. I can barely even convey my thoughts to you right now,

much less like trying to make 3,000 people understand what I mean and think it's funny. It's a big job. You're right. You're absolutely right. It is that. It's getting a rhythm because it's just trying to, how can I make you all understand this? I don't, you know, yeah, it's, and that is a muscle, you know, that that's been dormant for a while. So it's taking a, you know, a minute to get all that firing back up.

Yeah. That's so interesting. I never thought of it like that. Because let me tell you what doesn't work. This is funny and y'all don't know what you're talking about. The audience, they don't like it. They don't like it when you do that if you do a joke and they don't laugh. And I go, you people are awful. That's my whole stand-up career right there is blaming the audience and walking off angry. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Are you doing more middle of the road stuff or stuff that you feel like, like, do you feel yourself extending yourself to the audience more than you used to have to? Yeah. Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. It's, you know, it's, it's like you, it's with the, the kind of like the shotgun blast at first.

You know, it's like, I gotta hit everybody. I gotta make this, make this so everybody can get a little something out of here. But, and it's going to take a while to bring the more narrow down and the sniper, I guess, to get right to it, you know? Yeah. Of any comic I've ever seen, your jokes, you do take a lot of risks with, you know, your point of view and basically saying, hey, this is what I think. So I'm saying it, but it's like to basically come out of a quarantine or be doing stand-up like for the first time in a long time

and then be like the quote unquote in your face material must be, or maybe it isn't. But like to me, I would imagine it feels a little scarier. Yeah, it does. It does. And it's definitely more challenging because like I said, we've all been in this quarantine. So people have, have become a little more jaded and maybe, you know, not as tolerant and, and they've had all this time to sit behind their little laptops and say whatever the hell they want to say. So, so now like maybe what I want to say to go, I said that months ago, you know, it's like, I passed that woman, you know, it's like, they're just so much,

so much more angrier where I'm like, let's start running right to that. You know, let's, come on, let's ease. I try to ease into it. When they're sometimes I know like, oh, shit, they're already there. They're ahead of me. Yeah, they want to go right there. Yeah, they want to go right there. And I'm like, yeah, but if I go right there, then now we're all just angry. It's not, it's not as fun. That is funny. Yeah, it's a comedy show. It's a comedy show. Yeah. Should we pivot into hometown territory? Yeah.

So basically hometown started as us asking people, what's the story in your town? It could be true crime or some scandalous thing that happened that like, you know, changed everyone or that everyone talked about around the table. But it's turned into anything you want it to be. So like, if you're a bad ass grandma, do you have to have a haunted dorm room or I don't know, anything you want to tell that's just this like fascinating, weird tidbit. True story. True story. Yeah. Okay. Man, when I played in Richmond, Virginia, and we stayed at the hotel,

this hotel, and I'm pretty sure there was a slave visited me in my room. It was creepy as fuck. What happened? So I was, when I was touring and I played Richmond, Virginia, and they, and we stayed at the Jefferson hotel, you know, very historic hotel. And they upgraded me and I was in, I was in a pretty nice, I mean, room for like, old timey, you know, it's like staying at your grandmother's house, old timey. So had a great show, you know, of course, we went out and had some drinks and stuff after the show. Saw some friends from college came to the show.

So he got back to the room kind of late. Right. So I'm in bed watching some TV and the murder was watching the ID channel. Yes. Have to. Yeah. I mean, you know, now that's how I judge hotels if they have the ID channel. Oh, definitely. Yeah. If they don't have that. And I'm like, no, no, you gotta watch forensic files when you get back to your room. Exactly. That's my fall back. I go to if it's not, if they don't have the ID channel and I gotta go watch headline news. Yeah. For forensic spots. So, so I'm, I'm watching some murder, right. And I just, I just like feel something in the room. I'm like looking around.

It's just like something like somebody's in here. So I keep watching television and then I look over in the corner and there's a chair and there's like a, it's a figure. Like I can't like really make out the face and all, but it's like it's, it's a, it's a figure and it's, and it's apparition. Cloudy. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of like cloudy. This figure sitting in the corner and it's just sitting there and I'm looking. I'm like, okay. And I was like, why do you drunk? Get back to your murder. Get back to your murder. Focus on the murder. Focus on this murder. You gotta solve. You've almost, I think we know who did. Let's break this case. Don't pay attention to that cloud sitting in the corner. So I keep looking and I look over and it kind of like does this,

it's kind of like it moves a little bit, right? And it kind of like leans forward and it kind of goes back. And I look and I'm like, okay, this, this looks like rags, kind of like drapery type thing that this, it was something, yeah, cloth or something that was just draped that it was wearing. And, and I said, okay, I'm just going to just talk to it. And I was like, so hello. And of course it didn't answer back. It just was just still sitting there. And I said, I said, you, did you like clean up around here or something? Or are you, you know, do you have a problem with me being here? Basically, I wanted to see if it was like, you know, like my ancestors or if it was one of Lee's ancestors or something, you know, so I was

Who's side are you on? Exactly, exactly. So there was somebody in there, you know, the south will rise. You're like, you have to move me again. I'm so sorry. I have to get out of here. Yeah. So I don't, I just get this, this sense of it was no, no harm, you know, it was, it was just warm. It was something like, yeah, warmth. Yeah. Like I said, it felt like I was in danger. And I'm like, Oh, wow, this, this is a, I just felt like it was a, it was a slave. It was, it felt like that's, that's the thing, the presence that I got, you know, the sense that I got like, Oh, this is, this was a slave and probably either, you know, worked here or yeah. And it just was like just looking at me just kind of like, like, and I was like, you are probably tripping like,

wow, he's this, you know, boozy black woman, you know, you know, chilling out with his cake and his king size bed room service cable TV. Yes. Yes. And I just, I thank the president. I just want to thank you for all that, you know, you, you went through all the strength and the pride and determination, everything that we have that and thanks to you, we owe all this to, to, to you. And, and everything that you've gone through, I said, we still have work to do, but, you know, just thank you. And then, and then it stayed there for a little bit longer than I was like, I was like, so I'm going to watch some, watch my murder. I was like, I'm going to go back and watch my murder. So you welcome to stay, but this is, I'm not going to be able to sleep well if,

if you do hang around. And I just watched my murder and like a few seconds later, it, it, it left. Looking for a better cooking routine? With meal planning, shopping and prepping handled, HelloFresh has you covered. HelloFresh makes home cooking easy and affordable so you can stay on track and on budget in the new year. HelloFresh meals are convenient, seasonal and delicious. Stay cozy all winter long with classic comfort foods available weekly. Why stop with just dinner? Now you can enjoy HelloFresh's expanded menu of quick lunch solutions, weekend brunch, simple side dishes and amazing desserts. Karen January is going to be my month for HelloFresh. I am so sick of takeout. I miss cooking

so much. I haven't lifted a knife or a pan since like early fall. So I can't wait to get back in the kitchen and HelloFresh makes it so easy and also makes it so that my food tastes good, which is hard to do on my own. It gives you everything, everything you need. So get up to 20 free meals with purchase plus free shipping on your first box at hellofresh.ca slash murder20 with code murder20. That's up to 20 free meals plus free shipping on your first box when you go to hellofresh.ca slash murder20 and use code murder20. Goodbye. Hey, I'm Mike Corey, the host of Wondery's podcast against the odds. In our next season, three mask men hijack a school bus full of children in the sleepy farm town of Chowchilla, California. They bury the children

and their bus driver deep underground, planning to hold them for ransom. Local police and the FBI marshal a search effort, but the trail quickly runs dry. As the air supply for the trapped children dwindles, a pair of unlikely heroes emerges. Follow against the odds wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen ad free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app. That's so chill of you. All I can think of is how chill you like that's what I would want to be like around spirit. And then I'd probably just be losing my mind. But that's like, that's powerful. I did tell her, I said, now, if I were you, I would go around and just be scanned the shit out of white people. I said, I would. I said, those are the rooms I would be visiting right now.

Absolutely. I'd be knocking shit all over the ball. Come on. Yes. Throw a vase off the off the mantle piece or whatever. She came by trying to scare you and she was like, oh, she's fine. I'll be on my own next door. Yeah. Yeah. I'm fascinated though by that because I've also had a ghostly encounter one time when I was in college. I was also probably drunk myself, but it's it is a very internal experience. There is something it's very hard to convey like how you knew that that that spirit didn't want to scare you or freak you out, that it wasn't the thing where you you, you know, some people go like the whole room was freezing cold and this and whatever it was, it sounds like it was the opposite sensation for you. Yeah. Yeah. I mean,

when it was first, first arrived, there was something like, oh, what's going on? Something, I don't think it was, I didn't feel like it was cold or anything. You know, first I was under the covers and all. So I guess it was just like, hey, something like, you know, like something runs up your spine type thing or your hair raised like, hey, what's here? What's going on? Yeah. Electric kind of electricity or something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It hit me more like that. And then it was also the thing of you're imagining this is happening. Like, you know, I'm telling myself like, this is not happening. I'm like, no, bitch, this is real. It's going down. This is going down. You look at that wine bottle, you're just like, is this full or was it empty?

Where are we in the wine bottle experience? Did you believe in spirits and ghosts and that sort of thing before this? I mean, more skeptic, you know? Yeah. Yeah. And have you had any encounters since? Since then, no. I'm not, not since then. I think because you took care of it. Yes. It was almost like, in the moment, you were just like, all right. Thank you. I mean, it feels to me like most like movies that involved say post poltergeist or any kind of like haunting or something that eventually that's what the characters in the movie get to is like, what do you want? You know, they're like yelling out up at the thing or whatever. So you took all your polter, having watched poltergeist yourself or whatever, like you took your lessons just like, you know,

hey, if you're here because you want something, I think that's such a beautiful thing to get to be able to say like, thank you for your sacrifice. I mean, I, I mean, I wasn't, you know, emotional. It was, it was pretty emotional when, when it was going down. Yeah. Yeah. I bet. That's amazing. I love that story. That's really good. Also, I love to hear Wanda that you like true crime. I knew that about you. Oh my God. I love true crime. I had to like, like stop watching. I did. Yes. Because I thought everybody, you know, was going to murder somebody, you know, and you know, I'd be at a restaurant watching a couple and I'm like, oh my God, he is so going to murder her. I do that to my husband. Right. Oh, that's, that's a murder right there. Right.

Yeah. And do you ever go like, I need to remember what they're wearing because I'm going to have to testify. Yes. In that trial. Yes. Yes. Absolutely. Yes. Got to do that. And then it also stopped me from like being a good Samaritan, like, you know, you know, it's like still like helping people. I would go, this, this is a setup. I'm going to go over there and try to help them get their costs started. Next thing you know, I'm in the trunk. You know, and it's like an 80 year old person, you know, Sam. But you don't know. You don't know. A young person dressed as an old person. Right. Or an old battled person. Weirdly strong. Yeah. The worst kind of murder a very old but strong. Very strong. Yeah. Yeah. That'd be bad. That'd be bad for 80 year old person, wrestle me

down to the ground and be like, Oh my God. What are you? What are you got a pellet timer? When you try to run an old person, you can't run an old person. Like, damn. That would be a great horror movie. It's fast old people that want to kill you. Yeah. That's scary. Yeah. Just a retirement home full of serial killers with like just their gums. They forgot to put in their dentures. And you know, yeah, like those like those two old ladies who were killing homeless guys and taking their there's their checks. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Dorothy Appuente and stuff. I know was a very famous one. Yes. And she was old too. Yeah. She was no one suspected her. No one away with it for a long time. Don't trust old people. You were right. I was right. This is one message

that one to Sykes wants to put out to the world. Right. Do not trust old people. Don't trust them. Why would you? Why would you? No dusty, no dry old people. Yeah. Don't do it. I was telling Georgia about one of my favorite memories of you was at the rap party for talk show the game show. Uh-huh. When you started dancing, the dancing started say it was at 930 and you got out on the dance floor at 945 and you never left it. You were having full conversations with people. You were, uh, you were, you were making fun of other people dancing. Uh-huh. Exactly. You were doing all kinds of shit and you never stopped moving the entire time. And it was like a full, oh my god, it was truly one of my favorite things that I've ever seen. You had the best time, but you also

were just like people like, of course it's one just so people try to come up and dance with her and she'll do it for a little bit and then make a face and like do it's like if they weren't good dancers, you would do a whole thing and dance away. It was like one of the most joyous, hilarious parties I'd ever been to. I love cutting up a rug. That's brilliant. I love it. I love a dance party. Yeah. Yeah. In today's world, how awkward it is to have to learn how to conversate at a freaking party again to just do dancing instead. Right. Just dance. Right. Yeah. That's a great idea. That's probably also it, Georgia, because like instead of having an awkward conversation, just bust the moves. Yeah. Exactly. Just get away. Get out of here. Because I think a couple

times people tried to come up and actually talk to you and you just would dance away from that. Yeah. No way. There was also you started doing some Michael Jackson moves with someone's hat. I mean, you just had a bunch of stuff up your sleeve. Oh, that's a good one. So I brought in Einstein's props. You were like a dance comic, a prop comic. You were doing it all. It was really enjoyable. You got to do the psychs next time you're at a party. We all got to adopt the psychs. Wait, you used to work at the NSA, right? I did. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. Do you have any stories from there? I bet creepy should happen there. You can't talk about it. I can't really talk about it. You can't. Yeah. Legally bound to not talk about it. Although I'm sure anything

that I know is so outdated now, but I'm still, yeah, I can't talk about it. Oh, yeah. Okay. I know. Next time you're dancing at a party, I'm going to come ask you about it. There you go. There you go. And I won't tell anyone. What's scarier? Ghosts or the government? What do you think? Yeah, I got to go with government on that. Absolutely. Nice. Yeah. So you're going back on the road. Should we talk about some of your dates? Sure. All right. Well, WandaScikes.com for all your upcoming tour dates, December and January coming up. Yeah, you're on the road. Yeah. Yeah. If you've never seen WandaScikes live, treat yourself. She's going to be in Oxnard and Denver, December 10th, December 11th,

respectively. She's going to be in New Jersey, Red Bank, New Jersey on January 8th. She's going to be in Tarrytown, New York, January 22nd. I would kill to watch you figure out what your next special is going to be. I know. That would be the show to watch, because there would be some stuff that's solid gold, but I would love to watch you kind of mess around on stage. And because I've only ever watched you basically do come out and destroy a room at a festival or when I went with you to Montreal that time. That was so much fun. Yeah, we had a good time in Montreal. That was a beautiful trip. Yeah, you put together a wonderful package there. Yes. That bit you did. That was great. Yeah. Yeah. It was Wanda with the selfie stick going all

around Montreal. Wow. It was a really good video. It was great. Oh, that's awesome. I didn't know that. Yeah. But also, I bet you're pretty funny figuring out what you're trying to put together just in the same way of when you have all your solid stuff together. That is the fun part, is putting it together and going up with the notes and just trying to figure it out. And when the crowd is good and they understand the process and what you're trying to do, that's when it's, oh man, it's so productive and so much fun. Yep. Yeah. And when you actually write, if you can, write a new joke on stage like real time, that's what it's all about. It is. Wow. Totally. Riffing. Totally. Love it. Thank you so much for doing this with us. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for

having me. Yeah. We're so thrilled to have you. We really appreciate it. Excellent freaking story. Oh my God. Thank you. There's nothing better than a ghost story. That's the best. Thanks, Wanda. Thank you, Wanda. You're the best. Thank you. Bye. Elvis, do you want a cookie? This has been an exactly right production. Our producer is Hannah Kyle Crichton. Our associate producer is Alejandra Keck, engineered and nixed by Andrew Ethan. Send us your hometowns at my favorite murder at gmail.com. Follow the show on Instagram and Facebook at my favorite murder and Twitter at my favorite murder. For more information about the podcast, live shows, merch, or to join the fan cult, go to my favorite murder.com. And please rate, review, and subscribe.

Bye-bye.