The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Ali Wong - Lessons for Her Daughters in "Dear Girls" and Life as a Female Comic

Episode Date: September 10, 2021

Comedian Ali Wong discusses her book "Dear Girls," playing Keanu Reeves's love interest in "Always Be My Maybe" and the challenges that women in comedy face. Originally aired October 2019. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to Comedy Central. When 60 Minutes premiered in September 1968, there was nothing like it. This is 60 Minutes. It's a kind of a magazine for television. Very few have been given access to the treasures in our archives. But that's all about to change. Like none of this stuff gets looked at. That's what's incredible. I'm Seth Done of CBS News. Listen to 60 Minutes, a second look, starting September 17th, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the day, Shirley Wom. Thanks, Trevor. It's my first time being here.

It is your first time being here. I feel like it's been way too long because like I watch everything you do and I'm like a giant fan and then I see you everywhere else and then... Oh my god, you're like stalking me? No, for real, congratulations on everything you've done. I mean, like we watched you blow up and stand up which everyone loves and then the thing that really brought me joy was just seeing how you kick ass in movies as well. Oh, thanks so much. You're a movie star now, you realize that, right? Woo! It was really fun, and I got to Mac on those three fine-ass dudes. You watched the movie, right?

I know. Yes. It was like, who wrote this thing? Keanu Reeves fighting over you. I mean, and then he came to your show didn't he? He came to my show, which was amazing. He was so sweet and he was like in such a good mood afterwards too, who's really smiley. Yeah, it was the best. Do people get confused though if like Keanu Reeves plays your boyfriend in a movie and they see him at your show. Isn't someone like, I think it's real. No, no one th- I mean like, I'm cute or whatever, but no one thinks that he really wants to date me. They were like, that movie was straight up fiction.

Like all my friends were like, Ali, you're cute, but you ain't that cute. You have fans of your stand-up. You have fans of your movies, but a book is a very different medium for us to engage Ali Wong in your first book. And it's also an interesting style of book. You've written this book, Dear Girls, it's specifically written to your children. Letters to my two daughters. I have two girls who are under the age of four, and the first one was in that striped

dress. When I filmed baby Cobra and the second one's in the leopard dress, and, very aware of it too like they know which which ones they were and I wanted to My dad wrote me this letter before he passed away and my my real name is Alexandra and it was started with dear Alexandra and he like reflected a lot on our relationship and how I had affected his life. And it was a short letter and I love it so much. Wow. But I wish that he had written me more because after he passed, it was too late to ask him all these questions about who he, when I was born, like he was already the successful anesthesiologist.

Right. And in the same way, like, when my girls were born, they only know me after I filmed those two specials, and they don't know what it took for me to get where I am and how I... The grind before. And I think that's such an important life lesson. And I want them to know that I wasn't, you know, that I struggled a lot, and I first got the book, they were like, oh no, Ali wrote this for her two daughters and I was like, oh, this is going to be like

a cute little like, kids book. Oh no, and then she writes about like a rectal dysfunction, like, that she experienced while living in New York. Yeah, yeah, and then I was like, this is, this is like, it's very, it's very, it's, it's, it's, it's, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a... Like, like, like, like, like, like, like, now. No! They're like reading like, they're watching Daniel Tiger. I hope they watch like, it's so, there's so much like dirty content in there that's like even more dirty than my specials that I hope that they watch the specials long before they read the book.

Right. But I mean, as much as it is're telling your story and for instance you share stories about stand-up comedy that I would have never thought of and have never experienced because I'm a man in stand-up. So for instance, you just talk about how much you have to love stand-up as a woman when like you talk about going to, like walking to your car as like 1 a m. Yeah. I think the reason I think a big reason why there are more women women. their. their. their. their. their. their. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. I's. th. I'm thi. thi. I'm thi. I'm thi. I'm thi. I'm thi. I'm thi. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm thi. I'm thi. I'm thi. I'm thi. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I I'm th. I I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm a thin. I'm th. I'm th. I'm thi. I'm thee. I'm thi. I'm thi. I'm thi. I'm thi. I be getting on stage is the easy part. That's the fun part and being funny is the fun part. But going on the, you have to go on the road to be a great stand-up because you have to test out your material in all these different cities in front of all these different audiences and that's, it's a safety issue. I think that's why more women don't do it. because when you go on the road, the first day you go out, as you know, you get into a car with four strangers. Always, yes.

From your, and it's crazy. You just like get into a car and you like, I never met this person before they could kidnap. It's like a random thing. And you're very kidnap. like when we started was before Uber, before any of that. So like what would be funny is you'd get to like a random town. This would happen, like every comedian has a story. You get to a random town, you're performing in a random comedy club and then they're just tell you like Jim is, and then they're like Jim is. And then, they're like, he works with the club.

You're like, there's no picture. It's some like 1975 totor-coroa that smells like the ghost of like a dead comic sperm. And you're just like, are you like, is this for real new? Every time you get in the car, there's always like, you get in the car and the person's always, oh, you can just throw that on the back seat. There's always something on the back, that must be. For a man that's like, oh, this is gross, but so is my apartment, whoever, whatever. But for a woman, it's like, am I gonna get killed? You like every time, you know, you think about that.

And it's, it was, like, I think about the days when I started, and I would never want my daughters to go th and th and th and th and th and th and th and th and to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to be, to be, to be, tho, thoes, tho, thr, thi, thi, thoes, thoes, thoes, tho, tho, tho, thi, thi, thi, thi, th., th........ th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, thin, thin, thin, thin, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, tho,. You also talk about like just the journey of of your rise in comedy. You know, you talk about your success, the grind that came behind it, but then you talk about like just the experiences that you've had where someone, you know, many people in fact try to reduce you to just, you know, your factor. So they went like, you're getting your successful, their success. Oh, their, you're successful, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, their, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you're, you, you're, the, the, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, the There's so many, there was a guy who, I won't name names, he's not a very successful comedian so I don't even know if you would know who he was. No, I don't. But he came up to, you wouldn't know, you're out of there now. But he like came up to me while I was pregnant like, it's like, why don't you finger me while you're at it? This is so not okay. Like just because I'm pregnant doesn't mean it's okay for you to touch my belly?

And he was like, oh so this is your stick. This is like your thing now, right? And I'm like, I was like, you're so lucky, Allie, because you get all of this attention because you're both a female and a minority. And I was like, yeah, because, you know, historically, that's always been the winning combo for recognition and success. And he was like, and he was like, you know what I mean? Like, me, I'm just another white guy. And I was like, be a better white guy. There's so many successful. There's like, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's like, there's like, there's like, there's like, there's like, there's like, there's like, there's like, there's like, there's like, there's like, there's like, there, there, there, there, th. There's like, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, they, they, they. And, they. And, they. And, they. And, they. And, thi, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, like, you know what I mean, like, me, I'm just another white guy. And I was like, be a better white guy. There's so many successful.

There's like, there's Jimmy Kimmel, there's Will Farrell, there's John Melady. I can name like, I could go on this whole show for like 35 days. We'll do like another show just of successful white comedians. Just be a funnier white guy. Like, that's it's thia. th is th is thia. thia. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. thi. thi. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. thi. the. the.'s it. So, the girls are going to read the book. Girls out there will read the book, women can read the book. Men can read the book too, Trevor. I like that.

I did. Yeah. I did. My husband wrote the jokes that you will tell about him on stage which is really nice I like that it was very sweet and what it's like to be married to me you know because people that's the number one question people ask him all the time because they think I'm like standing up on a couch with like a growing life the growing life inside of me like that's not you know. That's not our life. Ali Wong, congratulations on another successful endeavor. Thank you

so much. Thank you for being on the day. the Daily Show with Trevor Noah Ears Edition. Subscribe to the Daily Show on YouTube for exclusive content and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus. When 60 Minutes premiered in September 1968, there was nothing like it. This is 60 Minutes. It's a kind of a magazine for television. Very few have been given access to the treasures in our archives. But that's all about to change.

Like none of this stuff gets looked at. That's what's incredible. I'm Seth Done of CBS News. Listen to 60 Minutes, a second look, starting September 17th, wherever you get your podcasts.