Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - STAND-UP GREATS: Tiffany Haddish on Her Rise From Homelessness to Hollywood and Making History on ‘SNL’

Episode Date: November 22, 2025

Tiffany Haddish is an actress, comedian and author whose breakout performance in the hit film Girls Trip launched her into Hollywood’s A-list. In this conversation from August 2019, Tiffany talks with Willie Geist about her journey from experiencing homelessness to starring in major movies like The Kitchen, landing high-profile TV roles and headlining her own stand-up specials. She also reflects on becoming the first Black female stand-up comic to host Saturday Night Live and how that milestone changed the course of her career. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast. My thanks as always for clicking and listening along. I really think you're going to love this week's guest. It is the great, the energetic, the light, as she says, Tiffany Haddish. She's been on an incredible two-year run since the movie Girls Trip came out, got her a lot of notice. That was just two summers ago, 2017. That fall, she hosted SNL in another huge breakout moment where the country got to see how funny and talented she is.

And we're lucky enough to sit down with her. I'm joined, as always, by our great producer of the Sunday. Sit Down podcast, Maggie Law. Hey, Maggie. Hey, how's it going, Willie? Good. So she's, she feels like she's been in our lives for a long time, but it's only been really two years unless you're a super, super diehard fan.

Right. But she's been at this for 20 years. I was going to say, that's what I found out. I had no idea. She said she started stand up in 1997, so it's only 20 years that she's been at this, but really only came out on the scene about two years ago. Yeah, and she has, she'll talk about all this, But her childhood is not to be believed.

She grew up in South Central Los Angeles. Her father left the family when Tiffany was three years old. A few years after that, her mother got into a bad car accident. Right. Had permanent brain damage, became abusive to Tiffany. When she was 12 years old, Tiffany and her siblings were split up and put into foster home. So she grew up in the foster care system. And then she tells the story of being a 16-year-old and her social worker saying, you've got a choice.

Right. we can send you to a mental hospital or you can go to comedy camp at the laugh factory to channel all this crazy energy and humor that she had. Yeah. I love that. I mean, I think it's an incredible story and one that I had no idea about. And she talks about in the podcast about how, you know, to turn that darkness into light and the comedy, the way she got through it with comedy. So it's just, it's so interesting. She talks about being the light because there was so much darkness. And she thought, okay, my job in this family. in this neighborhood is to be the light. She took jobs being what she calls an energy provider. I was going to say that was one of my favorite things I learned about it. No, an energy producer. Producer. I love that.

An energy producer. So what does that mean exactly? You go in and you produce energy. You make the energy. She's like you go to a corporate event. I love it. I love it. And you go in and you just hype the crowd.

You're the hype man. Yeah, exactly. She was her family's hype person. She was her neighborhood's hype person. And I love that she was the high school mascot too. Yes. Yes. Fun fact. She said she was the only mascot in that big wildcat suit or whatever was who talked.

Who was a speaking mascot. Yeah, exactly. She's like, I'm going to talk. And she turned that into a little cash too. So very resourceful, very scrappy. I mean, if you've seen her in any of the movies, seen her do stand-up or Netflix special. If you've seen her on SNL, you know how funny she is. And her new movie, which is called The Kitchen, which she co-stars with Melissa McCarthy and Elizabeth Moss, has nothing to do with any of that. Right. Total turn. Drama. It's basically a gangster movie. It's like a Martin Scorsese Goodfellas Casino kind of movie where you're sort of based on the cast waiting. Right. As I say, you're going to think it's going to be funny and it just isn't. And then, no. It's a serious turn.

It's just like a hardcore kind of violent, well-acted gangster movie. I love it. Yeah. So she's really good in it. It's a great cast. You're just, I don't know, you're just going to be entertained. She starts speaking Japanese at one point. I know.

There's a lot going on in this interview with the great Tiffany Haddish on the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Tiffany, thanks for doing this. Thank you for having me, Willie. I feel like we already kind of had our little interview, but we can start from the top. We're getting to know each other. Yeah, see if the stories stay the same. The second time around. I was just saying to you watching the kitchen, I walked in with obviously an impression of who you are, which is hysterically funny, an impression of who Melissa McCarthy is, which is hysterically funny. I thought I was going to laugh. And about 10 minutes in, I was like, oh, no, this is something different. So how do you describe the movie? Because it is different.

than what your audiences have seen from you. I would describe it as a real mobster movie. A gangster movie. I mean, what's the difference between mobster and gangster? Like, what's the mob and a gang? What's the difference? I don't know. I think gangster's more old school, like 20s, like Al Capone.

Mob might be like 70s and 80s. I'm going to just throw that out there. That's what I got. I don't know. I'm trying to figure it out. Maybe it suits versus jeans. Oh, okay. Yes.

I don't know. And this is more jeans. This is more jeans suits. I mean, it's the 70s. Yeah. So it's three wives, right? All married to Italian mobsters. Not Italian, Irish mobsters.

All married to Irish mobsters. And their husbands go to jail. And they decide that they're going to take over the business because they're struggling financially. And they get in cahoots with the Italian mob. and they developed this really awesome system and do better at gangster stuff or mobster business than their own husbands did. And when their husbands come out of jail,

it's an issue because, you know, it's the 70s. And men, you know. Right. I don't know. There's nothing like the men today. Because before they went to jail, you all were not treated well at all. Right.

Not treated well. And then we earned our respect. And we were being treated well. And then the men came home thinking, oh they can do the same thing that's not allowed it's not allowed no more we're different now we're running things now

we've evolved right it's about the evolution see and so yeah it's some really crazy gangster stuff happens and I enjoyed watching it I must say the first time I saw the movie I had to get up in the middle

and walk out for a second and like pull myself together and then come back in and I finished watching it because I was having a hard time like when we were shooting it I was having a hard time looking at myself in the mirror because I looked so much like my mom when I was a little girl. And then I realized, oh, I got some mommy issues I need to work out, right? And I thought, oh, it'll pass once I finish this movie.

I'm just the way I look. Then when I saw the movie and I saw my mom on screen, like I just was looking. I'm like, I'm looking at my mother. And I walked out of the theater crying at the end. And my mom, she's behind me. She's crying too. I'm like, why are you crying? What's wrong with you?

She was like, you stole my look. She was singing the same thing. Yeah, she was thinking the same thing. And I was like, we probably need to go to counseling, mom. There's things that need to be said. And we're good now. I just bought her a house. Well, that's a good way to pay her back for that.

So this was at the premiere because you brought your mom to the premiere. I brought my mom to the first screening. Oh, first screening. Okay, okay. And that's when it hits you. Yeah. And it's so funny how movies evolved because it's definitely changed since. that first screen.

Oh, okay. Yeah. So was this something you were looking for, Tiffany, because you've done so many comedies. We've been on this run of hit comedies. Did you say to yourself in terms of your career, I want to do something a little different this time? No, what happened was, what happened was, right?

The script that came across my manager's desk, and my manager was looking for predominantly comedies, right? And his assistant read the script and was like, this would be great for Tiffany. And it's like, man, I don't think so. Then she called me, she was like, me, I got this thing, but don't tell nobody, okay? I was like, okay, I'm telling it.

I was, girl, sorry. So I read it, and, you know, before I read it, she's like, I think this would be really good for you. I read it. I was like, what is this based off of? She was like, a comic book. I was like, what? Got the comic book, read the book, read the script again.

I was like, this is my thing. Like, link me up with this director. How do I meet the director? Like, the person that wrote this is so smart. I want to meet the director. She's like, the director is the writer. I was like, bet. link me up with them, link me up.

Who got this part? Who's going to be this? And it was like, they haven't cast anybody yet. So I was like, well, give me Andrea, give me Andrea Berloff. Bring her to me. And she was like trying to set up the meeting. It was hard for them to set the meeting. And then at that time, you know, girls trip had came out.

All the different agencies was on me. And I was like, if y'all want me, bring me Andrea Berloff. Really? So you use that as leverage. I used to get gangster mode, right? That is gangster mode. Then I had to meet the producers first. Then I got to meet Andrea.

And then I convinced her why I'd be right. She was like, you were always right. And I'm like, no, she wasn't sure at first because she thinks of me as a straight comedian. Right. But once she had a conversation with me, she realized, oh, she a boss bitch. There's no question about that.

No one would ever doubt that. So was it fun for you then? I mean, you didn't have this in mind, but once you saw it, you knew you wanted. Was it fun for you to play this kind of character? Once I saw it, I knew this was like right in my wheel. because I've grown up around that type of environment. I know what that environment is.

I know how you have to move around those type of men, how you need to communicate with them in order to demonstrate some sort of power or let them think they have all the power while you just, you know, moving things around. So I knew that, oh, I'm going to have a good time doing this. And when I found out Melissa was on and then Elizabeth Moss was on, I'm like, oh,

oh, this is about to be super fun. Now, mind you, I didn't know, neither one of them and I there was a small part of me that was like what if they're like divas what if they're like super hollywood chicks like when I know how to deal with those I'm gonna be like okay hi and then get out they face right and what were you gonna be like okay hey and then get out of you know you don't talk to those people too long you just hey and get you like get the hell out get the hell out get cheesy and get out but you didn't have to do that with them didn't have to do that with them at all turns out they weirdos

just like me. So we laughed a lot. We did a lot of online shopping. I got them to try things they never had before, like pickles dipped in Kool-A powder. Wait a minute. Pickles and Kool-A powder? Oh my gosh. Have you not had this? No. Okay, they said it was nasty, but that's because they don't have the palate. Right. They don't have the right palate for sweet and sour. Acquired taste. It's delicious. Sometimes you put nown laders in the middle of the pickle and let that dissolve through the pickle. It's like, oh, it's so good. It's good for your skin, too. Or you put a peppermint in the middle of it. You got to get that whole pickle to one of you, you want them pickles like this.

And you put it right in the middle, poop. And it's good. Did you say it's good for your skin? It is. What do you mean? Pickles is good for your skin. Just eating pickles? Yeah, eating pickles is good for your skin because it's cucumber.

Gosh, you are. Did you invent the pickles in the Kool-Aid powder? No, that's a hood thing. That's been happening. That's some gangster stuff. That's what happening. You get the Kool-Aid. You remember Funded?

Of course. Yeah. Same idea. dipping the candy stick, you dip a pickle in it, bam. Right, right. That's some geister stuff you don't know about it. You probably have ice cream trucks. Oh, we had ice cream trucks?

Oh, of course. That's where you get to fund it. I'm not talking about, I'm not talking about, you know. Ringing the bell, pulling up on the loudspeaker. Oh, yeah. Rocket pops. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Hey! Hey! See, I think you'd come up with your own line of food, like the Tiffany Haddish line, which is pickles. She ready line. She ready line. It's already. I already got a trademarked. Things will slowly be releasing.

First pickles and Kool-Aid powder. No, no, that's not going to be the first thing. That's not going to be the first thing. That's going to be like probably the fifth or sixth. But it will come. It will be here. I was thinking about, you mentioned girls' trip. It's only been two years since that movie came out.

It was about this time two years ago. It was late July of 2017. Yeah, 2017. Yeah. So this run you've been on since then? I know, several movies over $100 million. Yeah. Go ahead, get it, okay.

I saw that. Hosting SNL and now this move, which a lot of people view is like a move to even a different level for you because it's dramatic acting. We were talking early, you haven't even had time to stop and think about it. Yeah, I just moved. Do you ever stop and go, wow, the last two years have been insane for me?

Well, every morning when I wake up, I'm like praying, praying and I'm thankful and grateful. And I do review like what happened yesterday or what happened last month. And I'm like great, the things that I'm grateful for. And then I move forward with the rest of the day and like try to figure out what can I be grateful for and what's going to happen super awesome today that I can be grateful for. So I always try to find the good in everything. Because some days suck.

Like, I mean, I'm tired as hell right now, but I look good. That's natural. That just comes out. Yeah. But it is a grind, people don't realize. It's a lot of work, you know. I've heard Kevin say that, I've heard a lot of celebrities say, you know, everybody wants to be famous.

Nobody wants to do the work. Everybody wants the success and the power and the money, but nobody wants to put it into work. And then that just reminds me of that mother him who's like, who's going to help me make the bread? Who's going to help me cut the wheat? Who's going to help me grind the wheat? Who's going to help me stir the dough?

Who's going to help me put the yeast? Who's going to help me make this? Right. You know, and then everybody's like, not me, not me, not me. But once it's done, it's like, let me. And so that's why I cut my family off. That wasn't even a part of the question, but I just wanted to let my family know y'all cut off. That's it?

This is an announcement right now. It's over. I'm done. You didn't help me make the bread. But everybody wants some of the reparations. You know what I'm saying? They didn't put the work in. They all want a bite.

They all want to bite. They all want a nibble. Is it you've worked so hard. People don't realize how many years of work you put in as a comedian before two years ago. Yeah. I started doing stand-up in 1997. Right, right. So you did 20 years before you had this huge explosion.

Yeah, I might have took a couple of years off. Let's be honest. I probably took like two or three years off because I was homeless. But that's a whole other situation. But does that make this all the sweeter when you have all these successes, knowing how hard you've worked to get here? Yeah, I mean, it's like, you know, you do the work, you plant the seeds. It might not grow like tomorrow or today, but it will grow if you keep watering and nurturing.

I think of everything like gardening and food. I love food. You're a big gardener, right? I'm a huge gardener. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I got a small garden now, but I love to do it. It's getting bigger, though.

You're doing well. I'm sure that garden's getting bigger. My garden is growing. You know, I might miss around and have a plantation. At your own place. So when you put together, I mentioned SNL, and we were talking about how I think that was a big moment for you and maybe you feel the same way,

which is that a lot of people who maybe didn't see all your movies in the years ahead said, oh, my gosh, she's standing on that stage. She killed her monologue. Then she was Boo Boo Boo Boo, for you all these sketches. Like unicorn. That you won an Emmy for it, and people were like, okay, she is a superstar. Did that feel like a big night to you, the SNL night?

That S&L night was a huge night. It was huge. First off, leading up to it, the fact that they even asked me to host was like, well, that's a dream come true. Really, I wanted to work on that show. I auditioned for it several times, did not get hired. And then once I came to host and saw, like, what they go through every week, I'm like, oh, thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for not hiring me. I understand now. I mean, I lost 10 pounds in that week. Come on. Yes, I lost 10 pounds that week. Are you serious? Yeah, because that's how stressed out I was. That's how much, like, I realized that, you know, it's a machine. What I learned, I learned so much from that. That it was a machine that's been operating for a long time.

And here I am, I'm just a little oil to keep it going, you know. So I don't need to, I wanted to contribute so much. I had came with, like, this notebook, like, okay, these are the jokes, guys. This is what I want to do. And they're like, no, it don't work like that, baby girl. It don't work like that. Thank you for being prepared. Yeah.

But you just focus. focus on your monologue. We got these things. We're going to get to know you. And I was like, but no, I would say this. I want to do this. Like, you know, I realized, okay,

I don't have to fight every fight. You know, I don't have to fight for everything. And sometimes just go with the flow. And so the last, like, two days, I realized, okay, I'm going to just focus on the monologue and whatever lines they got for me. That's what they got for me. And I'm going to just deliver it to the best of my capability

and relax. And then I was able to eat again. But that night was, absolutely magical and wow once it was all done I was just like okay I made that history I did that because that was history I mean I was a first African-American female stand-up comedian to ever host which I thought was crazy because I just knew Whoopi Goldberg did it but she just appeared in some sketches she's never hosted never hosted I didn't realize that never hosted I thought wanda Sykes did it I talked I called all all the legends everybody that I was like the grave the best that I

best has had to have done this. I'm like, nope. And I was like, Googling. And I went through all the archives. We looked at every episode. I'm like, oh, I'm literally about to make history. I always wanted to be the first black woman to do something. Boo yeah.

Did you know that going in? Did that add pressure to it? On the first day, I asked them, they were doing the research to it. And they're like, yeah, could you not say anything about it? I was like, oh, no, I'm saying, I love about this. I'm going to say something about this because it's huge. Especially for a female in comedy. A black woman in comedy, it's so, I feel like it's 10 times harder than it is for a black man or a white woman or any other kind of nationality coming up in comedy.

That's for a black woman is hard. Does everybody think you're an angry black woman? Well, you don't, I don't know and thinks that about you. I don't think. Some people say, just the funny woman. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She's loud. They don't know when I'm partially deaf.

But what happens? Is that true or no? No. Okay, I didn't think so. I'm getting to know you well enough. I knew that wasn't true. So was that the kind of night then, Tiffany, where you feel like Monday morning,

the earth shift underneath you? Is your life different right away? It's a phone ringing more? The life was not different at all because I was already busy leading up to that. So, but I really, like, and I just, you know, appreciated the moment and everything. I didn't realize that it had that kind of an impact, though,

until I was, like, flying in an airport, and old white men knew who I was. was. It was like, oh, you are pretty, pretty great. You're funny. I like the white dress, the white dress, the white dress. I think that was me, by the way. That was not you. Okay. That was not you. I mean, they were old. They looked like, hello, my darling, hello, my daughter. They were old. Were they doing the Rihanna, Rihanna, your Boo-Boo-Dephry's routine? Okay, good. No, but a lot of kids were doing that. They come out to me, Rihanna, Bianana, Beyonce, say, Beyonce. That's it. Like, yeah, which I think it's hilarious.

You were telling me something interesting before, which is that kids have always liked you. My kids love you based off SNL and then watching all your movies afterward. What do you think that is? Why is that? Maybe because I talk to kids, like, they're adults. Also, I probably give off like a childlike energy maybe. I don't know. But kids love me.

They be knowing all my jokes. I'm like, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, how do you know this joke? This is an adult joke. Why do you know this? And, I mean, that's going back to when I was like, in my teens, you know, like, When I was 17, 18 years old, kids knew my jokes. I wasn't even on TV. We didn't even have the popping like that.

But I did do like a lot of bar mitzvahs and I would do stand up at those mitzvahs. And like energy, my title is energy producer. Producer. I love that. Yeah, I produce energy. So whenever I come into a space and I start to talk, I usually shift for energy. It's usually a pretty positive thing. And that's going back to high school, right?

Or even before? Yeah, probably junior high. Really all the way back to junior high. But I started working as an energy producer in high school. And so what did that mean? When you were energy producer, somebody would pay 50, 100 bucks to go to the party and just set it off? It started out that low. We didn't end up.

But, yeah, they would pay me to, like, come to a barmint for a wedding, an executive party, and, like, MC, or just be there to get people dancing and encouraging to party to bring that positivity throughout the room. Because, you know, especially, like, you know, 12-year-olds, 13-year-olds. It's like, all the boys over here, all the girls over there. I don't want to dance. I don't know if it's cool. And then you get somebody who's like, come on, let's have some fun. And you get like two or three of the cool kids out there.

And all the kids come and all the adults come. Yeah. So you're like 15, 16 years old doing this? Yeah. So how do you even get a reputation as having that much energy being that funny and that charming that people will pay you as a teenager to come to their parties? Well, I really started doing energy producing doing the football games because I was trying to get to that boy.

Adi. It's all in my book. I was mascot in the football games, right? And I was like the only talking mascot in all of the valley, probably in all the LA Unified School District. And then, you know, I started doing the bar mitzvah, and it's word of mouth. You know, word of mouth.

And then it just evolved. So what does a talking mascot do? Do you have the megaphone? Yeah, I had a megaphone. And I went to El Camino Real High School. So I'd be like, Elko what? And everybody would like, me, no.

El called what? And we won the 3A championship. We was killing it. I was like, you know, I had the energy popping. I quit for a little bit because I had finally got a boyfriend. And then he said, he broke up with me because everybody was calling him the assistant mascot. Oh. And then I was like, oh, I need a boyfriend.

I can't be the mascot no more if I can't have no boyfriend. So I quit, thinking I could get him back. But he was gone already. And then, so the dean was like, what's going to take to get you back out in the field? I was like, a boyfriend. He was like, I can't get you a boyfriend. I was like, well, if you give me some money, get my nails and hair done, then maybe I could get a boyfriend, so you got to pay me.

He was like, pay you. I can't pay you. I was like, yeah, $100, that should get it. And then he was like, nope, can't do that, can do that. But what I can do is give you $50 for the candy that you, because I would throw out candy to. And I was like, okay, $50 for the candy, cool. But the candy, see, I was getting that for free from my homegirl who worked at the store that old men's favorite for babysitting for it. So then I got the candy for free.

And then she had the receipts at her store too. So then I got the receipts, turned that in and got to, see, hustle. You were hustling as a teenager in the mascot costume. Yeah. And it continues today. And it still continues today. It much has been made and it got a lot of attention of how difficult your life has been growing up. So where does this shine come from?

How were you able to be so full of energy and laughter and light when you had so much trouble and difficulty? Because I was trying to escape from the trouble. Is that what it was? To get rid of the darkness, you got to turn on the light, you know, and I feel like I am the light. Like I'm a little, I'm like, well, I remember my grandma saying, you know, we all just big balls of energy. That's what we are. Are you going to be positive energy or negative energy? What kind of energy are you? You know, are people going to want you around or people going to want you to go away? What do you want to be? And then, so that was always confusing as hell. And then my mama would say, my mama would say, crazy. They had great analogies, but I didn't understand until I got older.

My mom, like, you on this earth to make it better. How are you making it better? And I'll be like, I don't know, go do the dishes. That's how you're going to make it. Watch the damn dishes. Like, I'm like, everybody's here for a reason. Everybody has a purpose. And so I think I figured out what my purpose is, and that is to bring some joy and happiness.

It's what makes me happy. It makes me feel good when I see people smiling and laughing and enjoying themselves or entertained by something. So why not be the person that administers that? I've heard a lot of comedians who had difficult childhood say they were doing it to make other people happy. They know other people were in pain. The life was difficult. Did you feel like you were the person and the family who had to provide that for everybody? Well, not for everybody, but not for everybody.

Definitely, I would try to make my mom laugh and try to make her cool because if she was laughing, she wasn't hitting. If I could make her laugh, I won't get punched. You know, she might forget that she said she's going to whip me. Or she might forget that she said we're not allowed to do no TV or go outside and play. So I was always trying to figure out how to change her mood. I mean, she had that car accident. And that brain injury really affected her communication skills, her, uh, uh, uh, uh, ability to express her emotions and feelings.

And a lot of times she would get frustrated and it would come out in violence. So how do I transmute that? How do I fix that? How do I make her forget that she's angry right now because she can't say communicate? Because she can't say, sir. It was like words she couldn't say. She was like an linguist, a very accomplished business woman who now her vocabulary is damaged. That's a lot to put on a young kid.

And now I'm taking care of these other kids. So I'm at home or mom, but at school, I'm like, ah. Right, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Let me get out of some good times. Guys, let's laugh. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did they ever get exhausting, though? Yeah.

Always have to be the one who's on? Yeah, but I wasn't always on. Like, I would sleep on a school bus. Like, I sleep in home room. You know, I was on in the hallways, lunchtime nutrition, you know, P.E. I try to be cool in some class. Some classes I turn up. You know, it just depends.

Who else is in the class? Who's around? So with everything that was going on in your childhood, how did you see over the horizon? What was the hope? What was the light? What did you want to do? What was your way out?

Had you started to think about that as a kid? Yeah, I had always thought, like my grandma said, if you do what you love, it's like you never work in a day in your life, if you're always doing what you love, which is true but not true. It's true, but it's not true. It's like, well, I do love doing this,

and it's fun, but, I am sleepy. So, this is kind of work. But I'm enjoying it still. But I always was looking for the things that I love, right? So at first I wanted to be like, I wanted to, I called it horse farming. I just wanted to raise horses because I loved horses. So, and then people were like, what you want to be?

I'm like, I want to be a horse farmer. Like, a what? Where did you even get that idea in South Central L.A.? They used to have, okay, there used to be these grocery stores. called ABC grocery stores in the front of the grocery store in the parking lot. They would have these ponies

and big horses and they would walk around in a circle and you could ride the horses and it would be like a black cowboy which I thought was so cool and they would like you get on there for a dollar and you ride the pony around in a circle or you ride the bigger horse

you pay $2 and you ride around the circle and I thought I could do this for a living this is fun and you see all the kids smiling and happy and stuff and begging their moms please please let me get on please please please right i think that that was like i would do that today if i could do a pop-up uh pony ride in the parking lot like i would do that we got the line of food and the pop-up pony rides yeah first i need to do a wild western movie or something that's

a bit of western type of movie right then it makes sense for me to do it otherwise it's just like why is she doing that this is how we build an empire yeah you have to make it make sense one brick at a time Yes, I need to ride a horse in a movie. And then I do to go around. I can't wait to see your next movie. Just out of nowhere, you're on a horse. And I'll be the only one who understands why. Right.

You and everybody watching this. And I'm doing a movie about Amelia Basano, the first woman to ever publish a book in Europe. And she's a black woman at that. Don't get me started because that's Shakespeare's ghost writer. I mean, well, this is, so that leads me to, like, you're really broadening out, right? Like the kitchen is one, that's one.

I know. I just don't know about it. Well, no, but you're people of you, you're a comedian. You're a stand-up comedian. You're funny, but there's all these other layers that you're now able to show when you've put yourself in that position to be able to do it. And I have showed, like, if you watch, I've been in Lifetime movies where I was a drug addict and very serious scenario. I've done some stuff, man. I've done a lot of stuff.

Yeah, you got to dig for it. So what was the first time you were rewarded for being funny? Not necessarily professionally, but I know when you were in. foster care, it was recommended that you go to the laugh factory, right? Yeah, my social worker was like, you need to go. She was like, you got two choices this summer. You can either go to the Laugh Factory Comedy Camp or you can go to psychiatric therapy because something is wrong with your child.

Easy choice. And I was like, which one got drugs? She said, you'd definitely be on drugs if you go to therapy. So, boom, I go to the comedy camp. And here I am today, you know, 20-some years later, on drugs, telling jokes, starting movies. And you hung in there because, as you said a minute ago, You had times or you were sleeping in your car,

you were homeless. What gave you the hope that you could do it? But the thing, when you said rewarded for being funny, because being in a comedy camp wasn't necessarily

a reward for being funny, but before I went to the comedy camp, I used to be in drama, right? And I used to be in these drama festivals. And that was all to get to that same boy that played football. Again. It all goes back around the boys.

So I love boys. Where is he now, by the way? We should find him. Oh, I saw him. He came to my show. at the Microsoft Theater. I hadn't seen him since we graduated from high school, too. And I talked about him in my book, and he showed up with his wife at my show at the

Microsoft in Los Angeles, which was like sold-out shows, huge. And he was like, I always knew you were funny, but I didn't realize you were really going to do this. He used to say this when we were kids, but I didn't realize you're going to do it. And he still looks exactly the same, except he got new teeth, probably because I bought him candy every week. But that's a whole other, that's a whole other situation. He never should have broken up with the mascot.

Oh, no, I never dated him. Oh, you never dated at all. Oh, you were just trying to get to him. Adi was where I've been trying to get to six and seventh grade. Okay. But never, never accomplished that goal. So it is what it is. You know, his wife is sweet.

She's really nice and he's doing really good in real estate or something like that. All right. So it worked out for both of you. Yeah, it worked out for both of them. Everybody's good. Yeah, he got a family. I got my family. You got this, yeah.

And I ain't got no kids, but that's okay. I don't need him. That's going. But the thing of first reward for my comedy. Yes. Because you were asking a reward for comedy. When I was in this drama festival, and it was a Shakespearean drama festival, and I did Midsummer Night's Dream as a monologue, and I did all the characters in five minutes.

And I won first place. I breed out 370-some kids, and I got a trophy, and I got to perform at Paramount Studios for all these executives and stuff. And there is video footage of me doing that. And I thought, like, when I saw the video for the first time, I was like, wow. I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a make it. Well, I didn't know what I was going to make it as. I thought I would be the funniest horse farmer ever. When is this?

How old are you? I was 14. Right in there. Yeah, I was like 14, 15. I was 15. Yeah, 15. It was 1996, 95, 96. And so here you are.

Back to drama. It actually started with drama. Yeah, I was starting with drama. I interview. Watch I'm going to end up doing it. I'm going to do a period piece. In 1500s, I'm going to play a million personas, and you're going to be like, pooh, ball, ball, ball.

Full circle. I'm going to be speaking Italian and French. Yes. In Hebrew, I'm going to blow your mind. I believe you. I believe you can do anything you want to do. Ni Hongkakao skoshe by karamaskat. Look at this.

I have no idea what you just said. I just asked you if you speak Japanese. No, I don't. Sorry. I mean, I have nothing to come back to you with. I'm sorry. Do you speak any languages? I speak a little French.

Not enough. but a little French. Just a little? Enough to do what? Enough to get by. I have a little conversation at a bar. You know what I mean?

You read too much into that. You read too much into that. There you go. You take all your French. Lady Marmalade, don't you? No, that's Patty LeBelle. That's Patty LeBelle. There you go.

This one. Yeah. Oh, that's right. Yeah, of course. I interviewed Kevin Hart late last year, who obviously loves you. Yeah, I love him too. That's my brother. The story true that when you were living in your car, you knew Kevin a little bit, he'd started talking to you what's going on in your life and helped you get back on your feet. That's a true story.

It is. Yeah. So how did that happen? What was the scenario? We both performed every Wednesday night at the Laugh Factory doing a show called Comedy Playground, where we did sketches and like improv stuff and comics would do their stand-up and he would host sometimes and I would do all these sketches.

I had this one sketch called Ask a Black woman and my name was Tiffnicity. Ask me anything. All you white people ask anything when I... Don't be afraid. This is a time where you can ask any question you ever wanted to ask somebody black. Nobody will get mad.

Nobody will think you racist. And then people would ask these questions and it would be like, wow, like, It would be so crazy. But we never got mad, never got, like... So people actually took that opportunity to ask some stuff. Yeah, it would be like a 10-minute spot, and people would ask some of the craziest stuff.

Like, why does your hair curl? Oh. And then I had to break it down. See, our hair follicles has really tight. When your hair follicles pinch like this, your hair comes out in a curl. Right. And when your hair follicles a perfect circle, it comes out straight.

But you didn't even know that, huh? I mean, I knew about the tight curl, but I didn't know. You didn't know why they're here. Exactly. It's because of the way the, it's the way that the, the, the poor is shaped. See, I'm learning. I'm learning from it.

Yeah. And so he was working those same, that same club at that time? Yeah, the same club, we working here. And I would always pull up like maybe five or ten minutes late so nobody could see my car because I had all my clothes, everything, suitcases all in the car. So one day I pulled up a little late and he was there like the same exact time. He's like, what the hell going on in here? What's all this?

You live in your car? I was like, no, not there's business. I'm in between places. Leave me your mom. It's like, we don't have to have a conversation after this. You got an attitude problem? Like, we need to talk. I don't need to talk to you.

He's like, oh, no, we're going to talk. And so after the show, you, like, pull me to the side, had a conversation with me, and I told him what was up. And he was like, look, you are a pretty girl. You should not be sleeping in your car. You are too pretty for that. I'm sure there's some guy out here that would let you sleep in their house. And I'm like, look, I don't sleep with people for roofs over my head.

I sleep with people to heal them. Okay? So I'm not about to be out here just doing whatever just so I can have a roof over my head and I got a car that's paid for. I was sleeping there. I got my own roof.

And he was like, well, you can't be sleeping in the car in the streets. I'm like, well, I live in Beverly Hills. I sleep in Beverly Hills. I'm doing just fine. The police wake me up every morning, okay? So he was like, Tiffany, no, no. He gave me 300 bucks that find yourself

a place for the week. And then write out a list of goals of what you want to do and start accomplishing those. goals start tackling those things. So I'm like, I don't know how I'm, where I'm going to get a place to stay for a week in L.A. for 300 bucks. That's like impossible. Yeah. So I got me one of the, like, I went to a little Momo, you can get about an hour with it got about three hours, wash my ass, you know, took a little nap and wrote out my list or whatever, what I want, you know.

And then I started attacking those goals. And here I am today. And the list keeps expanding because I keep accomplishing things over and over. So yeah. Right. So now what's on the list now? Now I want to play Amelia Pisano because I want women to know that we've been writing for a long time, even when women weren't allowed to read or write. There were courtes that were in the court of Queen Elizabeth that were writing all kind of cool stuff. And even though women weren't allowed to be in place, we were writing them anonymously or giving them to certain major playwrights and making a huge mark on our art, on our history. history of the world. And I think people should know about that.

And I want to open my own studio and, like, you know, much like Tyler Perry, who's a friend of mine and he's been teaching me how to do that. Because Lucille Ball was able to do that. So why can't I? Right. You know, I should be able to do that too. Own it all. Well, I don't have to own it all, but I definitely want to open it.

And maybe I have partners. Maybe not. Maybe I'm the boss. Maybe I run. Maybe, you know, I'm open to. whatever the universe has for me. I'm not going to say, I own everything, because that's stressful. And then I want to also, you know, I'm on my way to my 50 movies.

I want to make 50 movies by the time I'm 50. Okay. And I'm on my way there, you know, almost at the halfway point. You got that, right? You've still got a decade to do that. Yeah. You're good. Yeah, I'm going to do that.

And then what else? And I want to, you know, produce my own TV show, be the, you know, lead executive. the producer on that, which is coming up. I can feel it in my bones. And, you know, by island, change the world, you know, maybe open up some studios in Africa, open some movie theaters up in Africa, you know, since people be saying go back home, which home is South Central L.A., but my roots is over there. So I can go there too.

Big dreams. Big dreams. Yeah. Big dreams. A lot of them. That's not even the whole list. Yeah. I want all of it.

You want it off? I think we got there, right? Do we have enough time? Yeah. Because this list is long. Okay, let's go. It's a scroll. Let's do it.

All right. So I also want to grow my own hair all the way to my booty, but first I want to cut all my hair off. Okay. I want to see what my scalp look like. I've never seen my scalp before. Oh, all the way down. Yeah, all the way down. Just like a straight, like this buzz cut.

Right. Then I can see if my head is lopsided or if there's moles on my head. Because I want to know. I know every other part of my body. That's true. But I don't know my scalp. I don't know either. Okay.

Then I would like to, what else? And then I want to grow my hair out of the way to my booty. How long is that going to take from bald to the booty? I don't know. That's a process. I feel like if I take prenatal vitamins, it should take two years, maybe three. I don't know. I just started to take them.

That's when my mustache started getting thick. So we'll see. I'm not even pregnant, but I read. Actually, I saw two YouTube videos that said prenatal vitamins. is make your hair and nails grow. Is that true? Oh, okay. I don't know.

I saw it on YouTube. We don't try. I'm a scientist. I'm a polycure cancer because I'm a scientist, and I'm going to do it, you know, the holistic botanical way. I got a microscope. Oh, you got a microscope. I do.

I got a $300 microscope. That's the first thing I bought when I got a big check. I bought a microscope. Is that true? Yeah. And I stayed it for like three days, staring at germs. Really? From all kinds of places.

Now, why is that? Because I'm curious. I'm curious. Yeah. Not a doctor or scientist. Okay. Is a scientist a doctor? Kind of, maybe.

Maybe. Yeah. I don't know. Well, you don't have to go to med school, so just be a scientist. Like, people do call me Dr. Haddish. Who does? Like my friends or stuff, because, like, they might have a rash or eczema or something. I'm like, oh, I know how to get rid of that.

What you need to do is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They're not giving the cure. And they're like, Dr. Haddish. My one friend, I'm allergic to my dog. I'm allergic to my dog. I'm allergic to the dog. I'm like, just get some water and some apple cider vinegar. or even white vinegar, mix it together and spray the dog down.

Your allergies will go away. Now, how'd you know that? You too? No, that's just knowledge. That's just knowledge. Because normally if you're allergic to an animal, it's probably because the animal has parasites. What kills parasites in a natural, holistic way that won't kill the dog. Vinegar.

That's God's bleach. Also, lemon juice, too. Wow. What don't you know? I don't know a lot of random... Stick around to hear more from Tiffany Haddish on the Sunday Sit Down podcast, including why she taught herself to speak Japanese and how she did it. Welcome back. I'm Willie Geis. Now for more of my conversation with Tiffany Haddish on the Sunday Sitdown podcast. You just were dropping some Japanese on me. Where did you pick that up?

Well, I went to Japan and do comedy for the troops, right? For the U.S. troops, not the Japanese troops. And when I was there, I started watching Japanese television, and I was like, man, this is pretty entertaining, especially the soap operas. And this is before I was the first African-American female stand-up comedian to host SNL. And I thought to myself, dang, I want to be the first to do something. And I didn't see any black people on the soap operas. And I thought, oh, what if I'm the first African-American to be on a Japanese soap opera? That would be dope as hell. And I probably would be even more famous and more powerful because there's a lot of people in Japan and a lot of people that speak Japanese.

So when I came back to the States, I went straight to the library and I got Pinslers, Japanese 101. And I started playing those disc in the car when I'm sitting in traffic, you know, L.A. traffic, you sit in the car for two, three hours at a time. And I would just play those CDs over and over and over and over and practice while sitting in traffic. And that kept me from having road rage. And now I could communicate with basically anybody that speaks Japanese. So what happened to the Japanese soap opera idea? I'm just waiting for a call. Oh, so it's still out there.

It's still out there. That would be amazing. I don't know how to audition for one or how to get that going. So, yeah. But it's going to happen. We go get that director, just like you got the director of the kitchen. Yeah, I got to figure out who's directing. And just the other problem, no.

I can't read Japanese. I can only speak Japanese. We can get around that. So, yeah, we can get somebody to tell me what the paper is saying, and then I just do it. Exactly. We need to make this happen. Yeah, because there's a lot of people that are actors now that can't read, but they're getting trophies. They get trophies.

They're getting them. They're buying them. This is so much fun. Thank you, Tiffany. Congratulations. Thank you. I appreciate you. My thanks again to Tiffany for just a great conversation.

She is too much fun. Her new movie, The Kitchen, is in theaters now. Maggie, I don't know about you. My takeaway is, I'm a great. running out to stop and shop to buy pickles and Kool-Aid powder. I was going to say the one thing I learned I have to go try is pickles dipped in Kool-Aid powder. Or fund dip?

Yes. Yes. Yeah, I wasn't expecting that one. And also, she said you can stick a jolly rancher in it if you really want to punch it up. You really want to. I love it. I can't wait for that Tiffany Hattish food line coming out soon. Oh my gosh. She is just the best. My thanks to you as well. All of you for tuning in this week. If you want to hear more of the full-length conversations

with my guests every week, be sure to click subscribe so you never miss an episode. And don't forget to tune in on television to Sunday today every weekend on NBC. I'm Willie Geist. We'll see you right back here next week on the Sunday Sit Down podcast.