Whiskey Ginger with Andrew Santino - Roy Wood Jr.

Episode Date: November 19, 2021

Santino sits down with Roy Wood Jr. to talk about his new special "Imperfect Messenger." We chat about beef in the business, him finding his ancestors slave owners decedents and the balance of testing material in different political markets to find that sweet spot that Roy does so well. COME SEE ME ON TOUR!!! https://www.andrewsantino.com ORDER SOME MERCH!!! https://www.andrewsantinostore.com Join our Patreon : https://www.patreon.com/whiskeygingerpodcast SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS! EMBER Keep your coffee heated all day and never microwave again Get 10% off first time purchases! http://ember.com/whiskey CANVA PRO - Design like a pro for you and your business team Get a 45 day extended trial!!! https://www.canva.me/whiskey ROMAN - Get help put the boost back in your rocket 🚀 fix your ED now with Roman http://getroman.com/whiskey for $15 your first order SQUARESPACE - Help design your website today with amazing templates and the help of professionals https://squarespace.com/whiskey Use promo code WHISKEY for 10% off! Follow Santino on Insta and Twitter: https://www.instagram.com/cheetosantino/ https://twitter.com/CheetoSantino Whiskey Ginger Insta and Twitter: https://www.instagram.com/whiskeygingerpodcast/ & https://twitter.com/whiskeyginger_ Whiskey Ginger Clips: http://www.youtube.com/c/WhiskeyGingerPodcastClips Produced and edited by Joe Faria Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What up, Whiskey Ginger fans? Welcome back to the show! Man, I can't sing. My voice is hoarse, too, because I've been on the road having some fun. I'm on the road. AndrewSantino.com. Come see me this weekend right now as you're listening to this or watching this. Whatever you're doing. I'm in Grand Rapids, then I'm in Philly. I'm in Philly. Grand Rapids on Friday, Philly on Saturday. Then I take a week off to be with my family in Chicago, dude. I'm excited. The road is going to get heavy into the new year we added shows added dates portland and seattle atlanta dc albany florida going to be in san diego phoenix for new year's and chicago february 5th at chicago theater i'm

so excited about all those dates go to andrew santino.com for those tickets uh speaking of chicago my man roy wood jr is on the show today love this dude a chicago uh chicago staple a finest of chicago one of the guys one of us uh uh he repped chicago hard i love this dude we did this while i was in new york doing the new york comedy festival when i played town hall thank you so much for coming out that was incredible and uh roy wood is the man you must check out this this dude's new special. He is so funny. I mean, everything he's put out to me is consistently hilarious, well thought out.

He's a great dude and a hilarious comedian. Go see him. Come see me, andresantino.com for those tickets. Enough rambling from me. Let's go on to the episode. In here, we pour whisk, whiskey, whiskey, whiskey, whiskey. You're that creature in the ginger beard. Sturdy and ginger.

Like vampires, the ginger gene is a curse. Gingers are beautiful. You owe me $5 for the whiskey and $75 for the horse. Gingers are hell no. This whiskey is excellent. Ginger. I like gingers. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Whiskey Ginger. My guest today is one of my favorite people on earth.

I say that for all my guests, but I mean it once again today. It's Mr. Roy Wood Jr. Roy, thanks for coming. I'm sorry we didn't get to hang out more when I lived in Los Angeles. Yeah. That's the one thing. It sucks when you leave L.A. and you go, oh, damn, that motherfucker was cool.

He looked like all the other motherfuckers at the comedy store. Like, it was, that was a different time for me. It was. Yeah, I was trying to get in at the store when it was, more hurdles in place for certain comedians over others. Just leave it at that. And by the time they changed bookers and I was starting

to get a little more love, I'd booked Daily Show. And it was over. Yeah, I got past at the store and then like left for New York. Well, when I saw,

well, you were, it's kind of funny how that works when people talk about like, you know, it's kind of weird when someone's like an overnight success

is these fake terms that people use and you're like, you don't know how long they've been working on something. When you got the daily show, you were already an established comic, but in people's minds, they'd like to go,

well, that's the thing that made them. And you're like, no, the 15 years before that is all the shit that made you a lot of shit to get there. But when you took off and went to the daily show, I was happy.

Cause you know, it's, I always like to see something. When somebody pops and gets on something and it works, it's always good, man. And you were, you know, I don't know,

did you even like LA while you were there or no? I didn't mind it. There was, I still prefer LA to New York socially. You do? I have friends here

in New York, but everybody that I had like some real in the trenches bond with. Was LA. They're all in LA. Even the niggas I knew back down South before I moved to LA,

they moved to LA. So when I got to LA, it was all my boys from fucking down South. I don't, I don't miss, I've had more, I've gotten more done professionally in New York in six years

than I did in the like eight or nine. Why, why, why do you think it is? This city's a pressure cooker, bro. Yeah. LA,

LA gives you breathers and opportunities to lie to yourself and feel like, Oh, I'm doing fine. And you're not, not New York. You never feel okay. Right? Like even now,

daily show five, years, still paranoid. Are you really? It does not leave me. Do you think that you, like, do you mean paranoid as in like, I might get let go or this isn't going to continue? Yes, this could all be taken away tomorrow. Shit happens. And I felt that pre-COVID.

This isn't some after COVID. Sure, sure. Oh, the world is, no. Right. So as many hour specials as I can crank out, as fast as I can write the material, put that shit on TV, I need to make sure that,

because that's our retirement plan. Yeah. It's comics. Right. We're the only entertainers, man, where it doesn't matter how ugly we become or how damaged we become,

the stage is redemption. So you always have it to go back to. So like everything we do now, man, is so that once you hit 55 and the industry spits you out, if you're not like writing and producing, I have the road. So that's kind of like where I sit.

Like, I don't know if that's healthy, but it's productive. I think it's, well, I mean, as a comic, like I did,

you know, like I came in to do that town hall. I did a gig for New York Comedy Festival and I did town hall. It's so funny, all the other bullshit around doing standup and all the strife and all that shit. And then it disappears for the hour and whatever that you're on stage. And it all comes back. And even backstage, one of the guys was like, I've never seen you live.

That was great. And I was like, yeah, thanks. He's like, what's that like when it's over? It's like, well, now I'm thinking about the next thing immediately. Like I'm thinking immediately like, well, what's the next gig? What's the next thing?

How do I make this better? How do I make that stronger? But I think that's why when you say it's not healthy, I think maybe it is because if there is this like, if you have a propensity to go, well, they can jack this from me at any minute. I think it keeps you fresh. When you get not healthy. I think maybe it is because if there is this like, if you have a propensity to go, well, they can jack this from me at any minute. I think it keeps you fresh. When you get complacent,

I think is when it's scary. Yeah. Because you see guys get complacent. I think the best thing that happened to me in LA was meeting Steve Byrne. I love Steve Byrne. Steve, you know, for what we did for three years on TBS,

it wasn't, knowing what I know now, it was an opportunity to be a part of a huge cast on Sullivan & Son. Yeah. But more importantly, I got to watch veteran actors every day. There were days where I only had a 60-page script. I have three pages. Right. So for the other 50 pages,

I'm just at the bar pretending to drink beer and just watching fucking Brian Doyle and Christine Ebersole and Dan Laurie. It was just acting school. I was just watching. And that shit was fucking great. And burn, we would get done with that whole season. We would shoot that whole season.

And then we would go on the road for three months and do gigs in cities. Together. Together. Yeah. The stand-ups on the cast. We would go out together and just fucking tour for three months.

And knowing what I know now, oh shit, that man had to write the show for three months, tape it for three months, and then he toured for three, four months. And then he's still a father and a husband and two kids at the house and now as i'm trying to develop shows i'm like holy shit and then you realize the battles that burn fought for particular people to be on the show because he knew these people would be right and you know burn it took getting to new york and getting to another plateau and looking back and going god damn the arguments

he had to have oh to get certain shit done yeah and then still go out and be a strong ass fucking comic on the road right that's the balance and this is you're the only thing i'm i'm placating but truthfully when i was watching your special, which is fucking great, by the way, honestly, it's very, very good. It's very well done. Your jokes are fucking phenomenal. I was like, how is he finding this fucking time with all the shit that you've got going on to pump out so much new stuff? And I guess it's, you're just a grind machine. I would rather do it all while I have the opportunity because you just don't know, man.

And that's the shit that, you know, it kind of fucks with me, you know, but like that's the one thing that LA taught me was that you can bang on the door. Like I didn't, the Sullivan & Sons show, that was the only thing I booked. Yeah. Eight years in LA.

You went out for a lot of other shit and it never happened. I went out for shit on a regular. Yeah. Only thing I booked was a show with my friend was the creator, EP,

and star, and even still had to fight to get me in. So, you, when you live through a drought, when it is fucking time to harvest, motherfucker,

harvest. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, you did an hour special. Great, you got another one? You know, and make sure the jokes are tightened that they're good, but you know, it took someone else pointing it out. This is my third hour special in six years.

It's fucking huge. Two years of clip. I'm happy with that. Like that, I'm very pleased with that. So you just have to find, what I've learned though, I'm very pleased with that. So you just have to find, what I've learned though is how to refine the process. And this is where I think COVID kind of helped out a little bit is that because I didn't have as much time

to do this special, because I really wanted to hurry up and get this one done before the end of the year. All right, well then develop the material in places where the audience understands it's new material. So I set up my own new joke night or whatever. It's understood. Me and everyone that's coming up tonight,

we don't know how the fuck this is going to go. But to be able to sit in a 40-minute performance and the audience know that it's all test kitchen shit, it just, I don't know, it got the jokes stronger, faster. And then I also have an just, I don't know. It got the jokes stronger, faster. And then I also have an audience. I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing,

but they'll give me feedback after the show. And it's on you. If you like it, I don't know. It's, but it's not, here's where it's funny, but it's stress testing the theory.

So I had a bit in this, in this new special, um, imperfect messenger. If you can. Yeah. Imper, in this new special, um, imperfect messenger, if you can. Yeah. Imperfect messenger is a special. It's phenomenal.

It's online right now. I have this bit about, about, there's this thing, you know, I don't, I don't know what y'all discussing y'all circles, but in the black circles,

um, black British actors playing famous African Americans and whatever, you know, you know, back and forth about that. So I'm doing jokes about that and then I had a black actor that was at one of the shows

who's worked on set with some black Brits and he's going, hey man, just so you know, some of them motherfuckers be disrespectful and he's like breaking down

his experience and it gave me some balance so it helped me to balance the joke because I'm not trying to come across as pro or anti, it's just,

here's the argument, here's Roy's weird perspective. Sure, yeah. That's all I'm trying trying to come across as pro or anti. It's just, here's the argument. Here's Roy's weird perspective. Sure, yeah. That's all I'm trying to do. Right. And he's going, your shit is skewed because you did not know this fact. So let me add this fact into your life.

So for me, I like that. Now, I don't want someone coming up and going, what you should have said. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shut the fuck up. But the intellectuals know how to say it in a way. In the right way. Where'd you run the show?

Where were you doing the new night? I just got a room. Yeah, you just got a room. Yeah, just a weird, this other thing I found. When you take comedy out of the comedy clubs and put it in weird places, it is received in a different way.

Yeah, totally. You look at a lot of the unruly fuckery that happens in comedy club. Most recently, my man Afion Crockett got ran up on. I saw that online. Yeah, if I'm not mistaken, that was the comedy zone in Jacksonville. Yeah, that's what I thought.

It was a comedy zone. I didn't know where it was, but yeah, I saw that. I only know it because the way the stage was set and then also the UV lighting. I started in Tallahassee, so that was like my regular. Okay, so you knew. In certain rooms, you just know the angles. And I'm like, oh yeah, that's Jacksonville.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's also very Jacksonville behavior. So when you put comedy in a comedy club, there's a different mindset. And whereas I found, we found a space, just some shit like this. It's a space. It was like one of them was a flower shop.

The other one was just like some random like soundstage studio. And we're just like, hey, we're just going to put out some folding chairs. And hey, this is, it looks and feels different. So from the moment you enter the room, it just, I can't explain it, but it just skewed how people viewed it. No, I know what you mean. Because they're, well, they're bringing a different thought to the whole thing. And it was like, I do, there's a couple,

there's shows in LA that are like that. There's a, there's a, there's one, did you ever go to El Cid? Do you know El Cid? That's the Mexican restaurant. Exactly.

Yeah. Yeah. That was, I did, I don't know who's hosting it now. Well, there's a million different people. Now post COVID has changed everything.

There was some guys pre COVID. There were some pieces of shit. Oh really? Yeah. Now it's like there's four different promoters that run the same room. Let's see Vern tell you that story. shit. Oh, really? Yeah. Now it's like there's four different promoters that run the same room. Let's see Vern tell you that story. Yeah, L.A.,

El Cid was fun. The people who booked the night that I was on were not. They weren't cool. No. There's a backyard. Is it Rivers Langley? There's a couple of backyard shows that y'all have in Silverman. Well, I mean, there were so many shows that popped up over the pandemic that became yard party house shows.

There was one where this dude, it was like a jungle. He found some dude that had like trees and a tree house built and I did that and I did so many outdoor and then now,

it was back inside. Did you do the one with the peacock that was like living in the backyard and just walking around? No, no. There's a motherfucker

that has a living peacock. Just wandering around. I'm like just walking around and no no the living peacock it was just wandering around like this feels dangerous too much it's like he's close to the ostrich ostrich will fuck you up like this i don't i don't believe you have the homeowner's insurance required to have 90 drunk people around a peacock right but it's a great show so you know you put comedy in weird places it changes how it's received and so for my audience it's like it's like oh well i can make these jokes stronger faster and then immediately out on the road go out on the road for three days and then bring it back and then deliberately but do you have cities i've always wanted to ask other comics is do you have specific cities that you work

as you're stress testing your hour? And like, not necessarily your order, but I got to do the jokes here. Oh yeah. Because I got to know. Well, because I know the response is either like really picky, like really, really picky. Or I know that they're open for me to try

a weird angle on something. You know, like I love Boston. I've always loved Boston. And I always feel like I can try more there. And they won't, it's not like they'll let you get away with it, but they're more apt to just hearing me say it and being along for the ride. You know what I mean?

Versus some cities, I feel like I have to be much tighter where I'm like, they don't want me to fuck around. They're like, give me the ride. You know what I mean? Versus some cities, I feel like I have to be much tighter where I'm like, they don't want me to fuck around. They're like, give me the jokes. Give me the exact jokes that you know I want to hear and plan it out perfectly. I feel like San Francisco

was very tight in the way of like, they just wanted exactly a performance from front to back. I like San Francisco to test the thesis to make sure you're with me on the actual ideology of

the joke. Yeah. And then I'll go somewhere like Peoria just for the punchlines because they don't care about any wokity. We don't care about your opinion. Yeah. Just make it funny. Yeah.

I want to hear, I want to hear it is make it funny. I don't care if it's the thing that I've always been thinking or that I've been blogging about. Fuck all that. Is it funny? So if you have the police reform joke that is touching on like the traditional, well, here's what I think the police should be doing. Fine.

Fine. Make it funny. Yeah. I don't agree with you because this is Peoria. Right. A lot of us are blue lives fucking trumping. But that's where the joke has to fucking like. It has to work there.

It has to work there. Yeah. Yeah. And then I take it to Atlanta. Those are like the two cities I go to the month before I tape is Peoria and Atlanta. the two cities I go to the month before I tape is Peoria and Atlanta. Because Atlanta is the black side of the joke where, okay, let me make sure I'm still honoring the right part of the, let me make sure I'm not being too pro-British or too pro-cop or what's the

thing that I'm trying to say underneath the joke. Because it's the, the joke is the joke but is there some deeper point that you could make is there something else you could be saying underneath that right and that's where I go because that audience gives a fuck because that's who I'm representing on stage so they give a fuck about that like that shit was funny but what I really appreciated is when you brought up the thing about the history books and the need for civil rights movies because history books are being removed from the classroom. There's an appreciation for a point you made beyond the punchline. So that's where I go for that.

But yeah, it's just working the hour. Once you have a system in place and you know what you want to do, then I think it's easier. I think I know I'm going to take some time before doing a fourth. I've been talking to Birbiglia and Neil Brennan about maybe a one-person show or something like that. Yeah, because Neil's doing his right now, right?

Yeah, it's his second. You can call three, say three mics wasn't a one-person show, but it was intimate. Yeah. They promoted it as a stand-up. wasn't a one-person show, but it was intimate. They promoted it as a stand-up. Netflix was a stand-up. It was a one-man show. Yeah, because it was so involved and very personal.

And a lot of it was very like, it was deep and very heavy message-driven. And I wouldn't say it wasn't funny. It was very funny, but it also had a lot of depth to it. I think the one man show difference is like, I'm giving you some real deep personal shit and you may not like it,

but there is humor right beneath it. Yeah. I think Hasan Minhaj toes that line now too. I've gotten a chance to watch his new hour. It's not like public yet or whatever, but he's working it on the road and it's definitely a lot deeper than what he did that first time around with Netflix.

I wouldn't mind toying in that. I don't know where to start. Yeah. And like I have a couple of ideas, but then it's also family shit and I've never talked about my family. My comedy is always what's happening out there and i've never talked about my family my shit my comedy is always what's happening out there it's never what's happening so right but to grow and to get

stronger you've got to fucking you know try and fight southpaw let's just see if you can yeah switch it up switch the stance well i feel because there's a lot of comics you know look that's like i don't know if that was seiny and that this whole like you don't need to talk about yourself you know and like I think it was him that was talking about when comics go too much in and too too about themselves it like loses this broad jovialness or whatever and I've always kind of shit on me and my family and I've I've always kind of talked a lot about me but it's funny that you say that. I want to do the opposite a little bit.

Sometimes I'm like, I want to get away from talking about me or whatever this issue that I'm having and get more into the outside issues that are easier and more broad or consumable because everyone understands it versus me giving you a little tiny slice of my life and starting out with a joke about me and then hoping, I hope they like this weird experience

that I've had, whatever trauma, you know what I mean? Yeah. It gets tricky, man. I think to me, they're one in the same. Like it's all,

there's a degree of journalism within standup where you're telling a story or you're being relatable based on a shared experience we've all had in the world together, the mask and wearing a mask, or it's the inward journey of I caught COVID and thought I was going to die. Here's the things I did that week. And that's relatable to somebody in the audience or the feeling of death and inevitability as told within my own experience should help connect you to yours yeah somehow so to me i don't know man that shit's all in the same i just know that the stuff that interests me that's the hard part when you go inward is that how do you get

someone to be interested in the thing that is inside of you versus, Hey, mother fuckers, mass shootings. You all scared. I'm scared. Like, of course we're all right. That's a thought collectively.

We've all had versus I know the name of the slave masters who own my ancestors. And I know where their descendants live in Georgia. And I want to go find them and see what the fuck they're up to. That's real? That's real. That is a true statement. How do you know? How do you know?

How did you do that? So how the fuck do you build that into like that ain't something you can step in for 10 minutes and then segue into my kids for he rides a bike. You got to stay in the slavery pocket for a while. For a little while without it being too slavery-ish to turn off the peoria motherfucker who needs to hear it too right and that's the trick is getting it to a place where people who don't want to hear it yeah i fought trick you bitch now you just learned something about the fucking black journey in here we pour whiskey i have spoken uh on this podcast pretty consistently about uh squarespace i really do love squarespace i used it to create my own site and uh i'm a stupid person and it was easy for me so

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Ginger. I like gingers. No, I did Finding Your Roots, man. And Henry Louis Gates. Track down all that shit. Track my whole lineage back to the slave ships. Which is rare in and of itself. But then to also have the documentation of the white family who enslaved and

owned us, like, and then I got a message on Facebook from the neighbor of the daughter of that mother. So Jesus Christ, I could find you, find you right now, but here's the wild shit. The wild shit is that all of my great-greats and great-whatevers were all owned by white people who could only afford three or four slaves. Because when you think about it. They were on a budget.

They had a state budget. We have a tight slave budget. Broke bitches. Because the way slavery is shown, it's the big Amazon factory of workers. But there were also a lot of home, majority of enslavement was just people working for a family of four or five. Like it wasn't a lot of you. So few people that the enslaved were handed down by generation to generation. One would have a kid, they wouldn't even sell him.

They go, good, we got another one. Thanks. We'll keep you too. So, the idea of if you had that information, what the fuck would you do with it? You can't sit on it. I mean, my instinct. I'm not going to go fight them

or nothing. No, but I want to see you talk to them bad. But say what? And that's the thing. I don't even know if I want to talk. First, but I want to see you talk to them bad. But say what? And that's the thing. I don't even know if I want to talk. Like, first, I just need to observe you. I need to drive to rural Georgia where you are and just you own a coffee shop. I just want to come to your coffee shop every day for a week.

Just feel it. Just feel it. But that's what I mean. I guess I'm saying I don't want you to talk to them in the sense of like sit down and have a very formal interview with them. But I do want you to, I think it would be wild to watch. Look, you talk about this in your special. I'm not, I don't want to step on anything in your special at all.

No, it's fine. You talk also about how so much of our present day is a product of our history, whether we know it or not, right? And so with them, whether they know it or not, they may act this type of way because of their history. Whether they know it or not, right? And so with them, whether they know it or not, they may act this type of way because of their history.

Whether they know it or not, it's kind of an interesting thing to feel out comedically how these people act around black people if they do know their own history. Correct. You know, so how does that change how they operate? And there's jokes and there's something to learn within that journey.

Right. There's something. It's something to learn within that journey. Right. There's something. It's something. It's there. I don't know what. I know. But there's something. And that's more interesting than doing another hour special about whatever the fuck just

happened since the last hour special. For me. Right. I've done that three times. Yeah. Change up the stance. Yeah. I want to see you see these people so bad.

It's a long fucking road, bro. It would take a year of just going out, like on some Chris Rock, go live your life and then come back years later type shit. Yeah. Because I got to find them. I got to fucking go interact with them.

If they still live in the county I think they live in, I know they broke. Ain't no rich. Family-owned, family-enslaved people, and y'all still broke. Ain't no rich. Family owned. Family enslaved people and y'all still broke. Like you fucking fucked up the hustle.

It didn't work. Yeah, you fucked up bad. Yeah, you sold the wrong shit. How many white people got broke off? Like, that's how cold corporations are.

Only the corporations got rich in the end of enslavement. That's true though. But also the idea for me always was I always thought the only people that were

slave owners were so rich, like super wealthy rich, rich families. I own acres and acres. No. Yeah, I thought it was like these conglomerate mega families who were like, we married the Buckwalters and we got four slaves from there. You know what I mean? That whole fucking thing. Nope. No.

They were broke slave owners. Broke as I could afford one. And you still bought them just so you could still feel better. Feel good, yeah. Imagine being a white person who couldn't afford a slave. Yeah. How bad was your fucking life?

How fumbled did your fucking feel? But imagine them talking about it at dinner. They're like, we're living beyond our means. We can't afford him. It's just, I don't know what, like, it's like,

you know what it's like? It's like, you know when somebody makes like $35,000 a year and they spend 35 grand on a car? Do you know what I mean? You know that guy?

It's like, that's what it is. They're like, we need this. We need this slave. You bought a slave before you bought a house. Motherfucker,

that ain't how you live life. You got an apartment with a Benz, that type of shit. Yeah, that's what I mean. They have a Benz in a one bed, one bath. That's the same. But this shit right here, this is funny preamble. Yes, for that. To get into something deeper.

So I don't know, man. That's kind of what I want to do. I know that the more I look at that, I know that that's not the type of stuff I could do on comedy central so i don't i don't even know where you put that that's tough i mean we talked a little bit before do you you don't you don't want to put it on there because you know it'll be hard to put on the platform no not with that like when you look at comedy central as a brand if I haven't learned anything else as well over my time in New York,

you learn a lot about how TV stations work and just how they view themselves. And so, you know, this is a barbecue restaurant. And my job as an employee of the barbecue restaurant is to help serve the barbecue. And if I have an idea or a recipe for some barbecue that i think the customers would love i can take that to the chef and we'd make some new roys and perfect messenger barbecue and serve that whereas if you come up with something that's some this is fucking korean fusion, Indian, Jamaican.

Like it's something that is not barbecue. It's food. Yeah. It's good food. But this is not the food we serve. Right. So it's, hey, can we do a special menu for this day? Can we do it somewhere?

But I mean, this will be years from now once I have that together. That's the wild thing. I hosted this Critics' Choice Documentary Awards thing the other night. And they were giving awards to documentaries that were shown on networks that didn't even exist when the documentary first started being filmed. Oh, shit. The doc people just went out and shot their shit. Like, Questlove won a bunch of awards. And he started doing this doc like 10 15 years ago and it's on hulu like streaming was barely a fucking thing

didn't exist we're still rocking dvds right i'm sure questlove was thinking this is gonna be a good dvd i'm gonna kill him so i just think you worry about the art form first and then figure out where to put it yeah where. Where it goes later. Like I've, I've appreciated because the other thing with comedy central is that when we talk about the 15, 16 years leading up before I got daily show, nobody was fucking with me.

Like I would Conan, Conan O'Brien, I can say unequivocally is the only person that fuck with me. Conan, the Bob and Tom show. If we're just talking just television Conan, the Bob and Tom show. If we're just talking just television, just regular exposure.

Tom Joy and Ricky Smiley's in urban radio, but if we're talking strictly television, dog, year after year, Conan. I've done Letterman. I've done all the shit, but there was a four or five year stretch for me in LA where my only television appearance every year was Conan O'Brien. And that single television appearance was enough to get me booked at the next college conference, which got me enough money to get another year in LA, which got me another Conan, which got me another conference,

which got me another year in LA. So when I got to Comedy Central, you know, like, oh, let's do an hour. I'm like, yeah. Because nobody else is fucking with me. And the crazy thing is that half the jokes I did in that first hour, those are the same jokes I was submitting to other networks before I got Daily Show. And they were like nothing. Verbatim. Yeah, same shit.

Because, you know, your first special, it's just your catalog. It's the best of your catalog. Yeah. Plus, here's 35 minutes of where I am now. Right, right, right. You know, here's a little sprinkle of who I was. I can't let this joke go. I wrote it in 04.

It's solid. You need to hear it. But also now, here's a joke from now. So people weren't fucking with me, man. So, yeah, I'll do a special with fucking Comedy Central. It's fine. I think what's happening now though with streaming and the difficult thing just at Paramount and Viacom as a whole

is just as they're starting to transition into part network, part provider, like part producer content. Like they moved a bunch of shows. They moved other two to HBO Max and they moved Southside over. Like they, they did the merger. They pretty much canceled everything scripted except for Awkwafina. So they just creatively.

Southside. Do I know what that is? Southside. It's a show set in Chicago. Yeah. Two guys rent to own. They run a rent to own company and just their regular fucking shenanigans. Who is it?

Do you know who they are? They are Bialo Riddle, and the other brother's name is slipping my mind. Brashear. They're the stars and co-creators. And so the show, to me, in a way, this is a terrible analogy, but it's like this beautiful fucking

alt-universe Atlanta slash niggified broad city where it's two guys and their adventures within the city and just a very, a super specific slice. Yeah, there it is. Yeah, Southside's fucking hilarious show. See, this is my problem. I don't hear, how do I not hear about this at all?

That's the issue that I have a lot of times with these markets now is I'm like, how. I don't hear it. How do I not hear about this at all? That's the issue that I have a lot of times with these markets now is I'm like, how come I don't know that? Like I want to be able to- It's a question for Diallo in there, man. Because, you know, they started out on Comedy Central. They're on HBO Max now, but the network had a full creative molting

in the last year. And so, you know, we have Paramount Plus now. I guess like if you look at my special, right? It's free to watch now on the Comedy Central website and the Comedy Central app, but it's not going to Paramount Plus for another couple months. And that's because Comedy Central as a network

still has obligations to the cable providers domestically and internationally to make sure that the content is available within the on-demand windows and all of that stuff. So you're still beholden to the linear model to a degree, but also Jeff Paramount plus, and it'll be there. But when I go,

Hey, my special is out and people go, Oh, I checked Netflix, bitch. It's not on fucking, it's not there. It's like the first thing they always say,

Netflix is the new Xerox or right. It's Q-tip. Yeah. It's like, no, it's a swab. It's a cottonx or right? It's q-tip. Yeah. Yeah, it's like no, it's a swap It's a cotton swap. No, no, no No, but what's interesting about that is people will say people will watch your special right? They'll love your special and they'll say to you dude. I loved your Netflix special. It was so good Yeah, I've seen people do that to people where I'm like, well, I mean don't correct them because you're like whatever man They saw it because they'll tell you they'll go I've seen people say that to friends and be like,

dude, I saw your, I was with, maybe someone said it to Sam, with Sam Morrell, you know, and he put his out on YouTube. Yeah, Sam Chazal. And they were like, your Netflix special was so fucking, because saying special means Netflix. Like, I think they learned that it's like, if it's a comedy special, it was a Netflix, did it, right?

And you're like, well, it was on, no, it was on YouTube. And they're like, yeah, but Netflix put it on YouTube. And you're like, well, it was on YouTube. And they're like, yeah, but Netflix put it on YouTube. You're like, no, it doesn't matter. Did you watch it? You liked it? Fine. That's how I feel about a lot of shit where I'm like, if you liked it, great.

I'm glad you watched it. Cause I also have, that's a hard time for me to, I don't know how to find this stuff anymore. I'm like hoping it just comes down my pipeline. Like when we shot Dave for FX, thank God FX got bought and Hulu acquired. All of our views came off Hulu. All of our views, all of our views. Like I think FX, people watch FX, like a hundred thousand people watch FX. Nobody saw it live. That was, that was the case with the Daily Show for a minute when they were getting ready to do Paramount+. We were on Hulu for the longest and killing it on Hulu.

Yeah. And then when Viacom was like, no, bitch, come on over to Paramount+. Because you need the anchor show to draw people over. But the thing is just when you're making television with a cable network versus a streamer, it's just a different distribution. The product is just chopped up

and put out there differently. And so, you know, as a comic, you want the instant gratification. I want everyone to say, no, no, no. No, it was live. If you missed it, I'm sorry. Okay, now it's on ComedyCentral.com. You can stream it there for free and watch it. And then now, after all of that, now you can go to

Paramount Plus and stream it on the app. And I get it. I get it from a business standpoint for them because that's their fucking obligation but you know i'm just a fucking i'm just a chef in a barbecue restaurant i want everybody to get the food as quickly as fucking possible but that's just how it has to fucking be done as opposed to the alternative of not having shit on because no one else was fucking with me. And then Conan just got canceled, so I wouldn't even be on Conan anymore. Or Conan ended his show, let me put it that way. So I wish that there was a way for content, for cable companies,

was a way for content for cable companies to be able to disperse their content at the same rate which they as their competitors do and i think that's part of where cable is losing a little bit is because viewing habits have changed people are much more instantaneous you know they want things a lot faster now and that's because the streaming sites are putting pressure on viewing habits that don't necessarily match the way the cable product has been dispersed over the last 30 40 years right and i think that's probably one of the more frustrating things just in general about television you know like i mean you brought up sam i'm sure Sam did all of that because he was like, fuck all y'all. Fuck the politics of streaming and cable. I'm just going to put it out DTC, you know, or, you know, Schultz,

Andrew Schultz is a great example as well. Yeah, he's gone his own way. Yeah. So I think that there's a lot of different avenues. Do you think in the biggest scheme of things, I was thinking about this as well for like changing up stand-up a little bit. Do you think the concept of an hour special in and of itself is still special? In terms of getting eyeballs, in terms of getting, let me scale it back.

You get the hour special to get the views, to get people to come see you live. That was the original inception of the, you would do the tonight show and then a motherfucker, you would sell out every road date for the next year and a half. Cause Jay Leno gave you the fucking anointment. And then the hour special did that. And the hour special would give you the momentum to get into a tour. I wonder if you benefit from an hour or if you benefit from putting out 10 minutes a month. And people have, I've learned that I grew my audience from TV stuff and doing this and doing my other podcasts. And I was like, this is the best way for me to grow my audience because, you know, I got turned down by a bunch of different places. And that was my fuck it was like, okay, well, I'll just focus on making comedy on podcasts and on television and anywhere I can get my comedy out where it's not necessarily my standup, but then you're like, you have to come see me. And I have so many

fucking people that come up to me and go, I've never been to a standup show. And this is, I can't, I can't wait to like dive in standup. And now they'll go, I saw Roy on your show. I'm going to his show. I'm going to, it's like, you know, I'm not sucking my own dick, but like, I feel great about introducing more people to the world. I'm, I want more comedy fans. You found your audience. I love it. I fucking love it. Because then I can go, look at how funny this dude is.

Look at how funny this chick is. And then they go, fuck, then they really get involved and engaged. People trust you. Yes. They fucking trust you. Yes.

Dude, there's this, is there something different though, I guess, how do you feel going fuck it, right? Hmm. And then you book two solid fucking series back to back,

which one I feel like Showtime kind of fumbled. They shouldn't have fucking done it. Well, we had. That's a separate conversation. But you go back to back on, and of course, millions of auditions to book two things. But does that feel like, hindrance isn't the word but how can i put it you've you finally got the agenda and then the industry goes well not yet hey come on back over here we like

hey we have a great artistic show right a guy named little dicky would you win would you mind setting aside three months of everything that you had already set up for yourself and uh it is hard just come do this real quick yeah yeah i know you i know you worked hard at that i know you just i know you took a break from a lot of your stand-up for the showtime thing and that was great that's why we called you. Love, Jeanette. Would you mind taking a break and coming over here real quick? And you're like, oh, fuck me. In here, we pour whiskey.

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your first-time purchase. This is the best deal you're going to find on these products this season. Make sure to order early. That's ember.com slash whiskey. I like cinders. Fucking work. It's hard because it is work. It's a lot of work.

And TV and film and all that is, people have no idea. And it's like champagne problems to bitch to people at home about TV work. But it is, it removes you from life because you're like 7 a.m. to 8 or 9 p.m. every day. When you get home, I'm lucky I don't have kids. I don't know how a lot of people do it.

You're exhausted. And then so thinking about writing a joke or going to do a set, I'm lucky I don't have kids. I don't know how a lot of people do it. You're exhausted. And then so thinking about writing a joke or going to do a set, I would try. It's a fucking nightmare. I'm falling apart on stage at night. I would go to the store and just be exhausted

and not want to do it. And it does, you know, it becomes a compromise of your comedic output for sure. 100%. That's what I meant. It does.

It becomes, it becomes this what's more important. But then I just think there's enough time in my, in my life to do both. And if I have to chunk away some stuff and chunk away some stuff, I'll just do that. I mean, I,

you know, it is what it is. And also as long as what I'm, I'm at a point right now where as long as what I'm doing, and I feel you probably at a similar point in your life and your career where as long as I really am enjoying it, I will still do it. But I'm at a point where I just, if I don't want to do it, I'm definitely not going to fucking do it anymore. Yeah. I mean, that's the one, that's the one cool thing about the daily show is that

there's enough ebb and flow. It's like high tide, low tide in the building where there might be a month where you're just fucking gone a lot. And then there's a two-month stretch where everything you're doing is in studio. So it's fucking great. And there's no science to it. It's just, that's just what the job is.

It's just sometimes shit happens. Sometimes ain't shit happening. And so when ain't shit happening, you can sneak out in the clubs and get your sets in and kind of get your reps in or whatever. It's just when I think about just the concept of live performance and getting people out,

I just think they have to see you. And I think ultimately I feel like we're approaching a place where it doesn't matter where they saw you or for how long. You want an hour special because that's just, you know. It's wonderful. It's wonderful. So yes, we'll happily take an hour special. But I feel like there has to be something that stand-ups are doing to supplement the time between those two specials.

And I think that's the quick hit shit that, you know, like I find myself now in a perfect world. If there was something you wanted to tweet, but there was a way to get it on stage and get it online within 24 hours, even if it's just a 30 second clip, that is more valuable to me than a viral tweet just for the sake of branding. At this, right now, culturally, I think, yes. I think right now.

And who knows what the next turn is, but right now that seems to be the best way to grab, capture, and then keep someone's attention and then grow into fanship. I mean, you really have to, it's like a nurturing thing. It's the same thing as when somebody, you know, when you first started touring and agents or managers or whoever were like, you're building in the market. You know,

I used to hear that all you're building in the market and you, and you knew you were like, what does that even fucking mean? They're all blacked out. They got, they got in here for free. Next time you come, he's going to bring two more people who are also blacked out and got in for free. Run up on you on the stage like they did Afion so they give you those but then you learn on your own you're like I have to find a way to build my own market and build my own chunk of fans and fanship and grow it cause

it's not as easy as the old way used to be which was just do the tonight show with Carson tour the fucking world get a TV deal you know that Richard Lewis generation that that's gone. Nobody goes to JFL and gets a million dollar check. Kevin James was probably the last one.

Right, to get that thing. To do the late night and then get the show. All of it. No one's getting the Michael Roof chicken deals anymore. People don't know there was a comic, Michael Roof chicken deals anymore. People don't know there was a comic, Michael Roof, who went to JFL, which is basically the NFL combine.

Yeah, it is a combine. Yeah, they're drafting you. Yeah, you go and be amazing, and then a network fucking likes you and gives you money. And he did so well at JFL that they gave him, the storyFL that they gave him, the story is that they gave him money to leave town

because they didn't want anyone to poach him. The WB. It was the first year the WB never- Get the fuck out of here and don't come back. Don't come back. We've signed you. You're now getting a sketch on WB. Thank you.

Please leave town. Right. That's insane. That's how crushed, that's how fucking much he crushed, man. So those days are over with. Nobody's fucking crushed that's how fucking much he crushed man so those days are over with nobody's fucking doing that it's not that i don't think that there's a lack of luster on the hour special i just think that attention spans are so divided in so many different places that it's a multi-faceted attack yeah at this point you know it's of an army it used to be you could go in shooting as

a single shooter now it's like well you have It used to be you could go in shooting as a single shooter. Now it's like, well, you have to have backup for sure. Yeah, but there's so much, because there's more platforms, you have to be more educated on the best approaches to these platforms and where your audience is. And SEO,

like my advice to any comedian right now is to learn social media metrics. Learn that shit. That shit will help you the way web design helped me in 98 your own website yeah because i can't afford to pay some fuck to build me a website and at the time you needed a website yeah people gotta find you so i fucking learned that then i learned a little bit i knew a little bit of graphic design from college but that was the other thing you gotta make a flyer you gotta make a flyer so yeah I just think that there's more to all of this shit now and that's the thing that I'm finally finally just going

all right let me learn some of this other shit because that's the other thing with tv if you're not careful that shit will make you complacent. It'll make you lazy. It'll make you out of touch with what's happening in the street. And then your show ends whenever it ends because all shows end except for Law & Order. So unless you're on Law & Order, you're in danger.

Unless you're Ice-T, everybody else is fucked. Chicago Fire's going 10 seasons, so maybe they're safe. And then if you get off that, they'll put you on med or PD or fucking whatever bullshit. He's got nine different shows on it. My cousin just moved to LA from Chicago, and he works in production on the other side, not on camera. And we were talking about that.

He's like, Dick Wolf runs Chicago. I mean, runs Chicago. And he wants all his shows there. And he wants to keep making Chicago version shows. And I was like, I wish there was some other shit coming out of Chicago than just fucking procedural cop shows and firefighter shows. By the way, I love the C on the hat.

Oh, dude. I'm a big Cubs fan. It's the lovely Mother's Day edition. Yeah, I like it. Dust this one off. I was trying to do something similar in Birmingham. Dick Wolf and Tyler Perry, like they just run their respective cities.

Oh yeah. Tyler Perry just bought half of Atlanta. He owns Atlanta. This is my studio now. Yeah. It's Tyler Perry, Delta Airlines, and the Braves.

Coca-Cola. It's Coca-Cola, Tyler Perry, the Braves, and Delta. The big four. It used to be the Falcons, but fuck them.

There's, I just think that there's, there's power in television production, which is what I really want to get into. And that was the one thing, man, with Comedy Central that I thought was really dope. Was that when I,

so I had a sitcom that got greenlit. And. About your life. Yeah, it was, it was loosely, it was more about, so when I, so I had a sitcom that got greenlit and about your life. Yeah, it was, it was loosely, it was more about, so when I was 19, I stole some jeans and I ended up on probation. Right. And it was around the same time. It was the same time I started doing standup because I thought I was going to jail. I was like, Oh shit, this jail's coming around. Fucking come out to fucking iron some man's jail sandals. And I had a probation officer that was super lenient in letting me travel to do stand-up.

Oh, that's nice. Didn't have to do it. Yeah. But it was one of those things that I never forgot. And so criminal reform, criminal justice reform is kind of, you know, that's my little, you know, at night. Some people quilt. I sit on websites figuring out fucking criminal justice.

And so the question was, what would recidivism look like if you had probation officers that gave a fuck? Because when you look at crime in this country, right, crime is basically the way crime is portrayed on TV. It's cops who catch the criminal. It's lawyers debating the criminals or it's a show about people already in jail.

Those are the three quadrants. There's few to no shows ever about what happens when people get out on the other side. The Last OG is probably the only thing most recently. Oh yeah. You know,

I'm sure Orange is the New Black had a couple of storylines and niggas that got out, but I'm talking just the, the dedicated story of this is what it's like for people on the other side of that. And that is also a form of law enforcement. So the show we did for Comedy Central, the pilot we did rather was me as a probation officer,

bending the rules for some of my clients to help them stay out of jail. Because in the real world, there's more people on probation than in prison. And that's where the money is. If you're looking at just crime as being a conduit for making cash for a fucking city or whatever. So you got a lot of POs that, a lot of the rules of probation

fuck you into basically being a violation and then going back to prison. Right. So, oh, you got your car, you had to have a job within 30 days of getting out or we're going to send you back to jail. Okay, cool. Well, the bus routes are fucked.

So there's no way for me to really find a job. Okay, cool. Well, you got a car. Oh shit, the car broke down. But to fix the car for free, because I can't afford to fix it, I have to get the car to another county where my cousin lives who will fix it for free. But he lives outside of my probation district so I have to get permission from my PO to travel just to get my car fixed so I can get to the fucking job you said I need it travel permit denied that's the type of shit that happens to people it's I don't just don't need to get into weeds about it but my point is the show that was the show and I went to Comedy Central and I go,

I think I want to shoot this back home in Birmingham. And we're looking at the numbers of shooting it in Atlanta versus Birmingham. It costs way more. In Birmingham? It costs more. Because there was no tax. There's no tax. There's also no infrastructure.

Right. And there's no infrastructure because there hasn't been shit shot there at a consistent enough basis. There's movies that dabble in and out and there's reality shows up and down the freeway in the state. But to the point of Dick Wolf and Tyler Perry, television establishes the beachhead

of production in a market. And then that's why you can go in and shoot XYZ movies in a market. Nobody was, Marvel is not in Atlanta unless there was already TV in Atlanta. There's no fucking way that happens unless there was 10 to 15 years of Tyler Perry

doing all that shit with TBS. When he used to, he had like a 100, 200 episode deal at TBS. Yeah. Which is crazy to think about. That's old money. Yeah, that's original. That's old to think about that's old money yeah that's original that that's that's old rich hollywood that's real real money yeah so the idea and i told comedy central this shit straight up i was like yo i want to shoot the show there and i want to hire

a bunch of folks from alabama and we're gonna fucking put on for the fucking state. And they say yes. There's no one else on earth. That would have done it. That would have done it. Hey, I want to shoot a show. Hey, how you doing? I'm Roy, Unproven Star. Good to meet you. I'd like to shoot a show in a region that you don't know shit about

and you only portray one sort of way in media. And I know it's going to cost a little bit more and be a little bit more expensive but trust me the city is as important a character as say new orleans or miami is to productions that are shot there thanks for coming in roy we really appreciate your time that's it yeah it's it's wrapped the fuck up them niggas said yes and we went to fucking birmingham when'd you shoot and we shot it was just three years ago he ended up not going we had to do a rewrite and while we're in the middle of rewrite,

COVID merger. Dead. If you're not already on the air, go to, if you're already on the air, go to HBO Max. If you're not already

on the air, fuck you. Thanks for playing. Next try. Come back another time. If your name's not Awkwafina, South Park,

or Trevor Noah, get the fuck out of here. Comedy Central walked in that bitch like a motherfucker kicking people at a house party. Gone. Y'all better get the fuck out of here. Get the fuck out. We just merged, nigga, in COVID, bitch. We broke.

We ain't got time for no scripted shit. Fuck out of here. You think you'll revive it somewhere? Hopefully. I think right now, though, knowing, so with that being said, knowing what I know about every other network on earth, they're not going to let me shoot in Birmingham

unless I've proven myself in other creative capacities. So we sold a show to Fox with Dennis Leary and I'm EPing something over at NBC. And I think TV is a genre where if they trust the creator, they'll let you do whatever you want. So now I got to earn the, I have to basically earn the trust.

If we're talking scripted, I got to earn the public trust with new partners. So creatively prove that you can do this well. And then I go, how you doing? I'm Roy Wood Jr. Proven television star. That's right. And then I go, how you doing? I'm Roy Wood Jr. Proven television star. That's right. And they're like, we like you, Roy.

We'll go to Berkeley. This show's a little too black, but we do like you very much, Roy. A little black, but you know what? That's fine. Can the lead be white? If the lead is white, then we can do the black show. You got a deal.

Then I cash you in, fucking little dicky. We got clapped at the other week of Donald Glover because I guess he's barely on social media. I don't know. But people were arguing about Atlanta is coming back again. Yeah. And people were arguing about our show and their show. For no reason.

It's just people starting fires and nagging him and egging him on. Because they're both shows about rappers. Yeah, and it became this- Therefore, they are the same. It's so funny. It starts at a little nugget of something and just like any YouTube algorithm or comment about anything,

it ends up as the N-word somewhere and you're like, where did this come from? It becomes this fight all of a sudden about shit that you're like, this wasn't the intention of either party. That was never the intention of the shows. It puts the creators and the actors

in between that shit. I mean, I don't know. Did y'all text each other about that? I said to Dave, I said, you're not going to address this, I hope. And he didn't. He was like, no. Because Donald was like, I see a lot of

black people on here that forgot what we did. Um, I don't know the exact quote. And he's like, and I'm the fucking sellout. Y'all are saying I'm the fucking sellout. And it was just, it was this weird thing. He's like, he's like, you know, what we did for black people in black culture, essentially is what he's saying is like, we, it was a revolution. You're trying to compare this Dave show to us. No disrespect, but not even close, which it was definitely disrespect it's weird when somebody goes no disrespect but fuck you but you're like well don't engage with the fans that are talking shit but do you think donald and i i don't know the brother yeah i never met

him briefly i know brian tyree uh but do you think it was from a place of talking about whether or not the two shows are cultural touchstones and what they meant to their respective communities that they were trying to represent? I don't know if that's a shot. I mean, I don't know, but explain to me why you thought it was a shot. For me,

it comes down to beyond the social commentary of what Atlanta did to have that kind of of what Atlanta did, to have that kind of black voice on television, which was massive. And it was fucking culturally changing. There hasn't been a show like that on TV yet. That being said, he's such a success and such a proven storyteller, a proven actor, a proven feature in our business. I don't think he needs to address it. I think,

I know that's a cheap way out, but I just think when you're so successful, when somebody starts negging you about, you know, well, I think fucking Dave is a better show about the world of rap or hip hop or black culture and mental illness and mental health issues and black culture. And when you start picking apart who's doing something better, I just, if I'm him, I'm like, I'm not even going to address it because all that's doing is giving fuel to idiots. Yeah, I mean, you're arguing with the uneducated.

Yeah, so why do it? That's my thing. TV critics, yeah. So then in that regard, then it's disrespect that I think as a black person, what I believe the intention was was from a place of a black person saying that show is better than this when our show was trying to shed light on the black struggling to make. There's a scene, I don't know if it's scene one or scene two,

but they're going to buy like a pit bull puppy or some shit or some expensive dog that they can mate and make money or whatever. And Lakeith Stanfield's character is going, yeah, we're going to buy this dog for $4,000 or $5,000 and then we're going to mate it and then we'll get money in a year. Donald Glover's character explains to him, I'm broke now. I can't work for money that's coming later. Like it's one of those moments in like black poverty where it's like,

yes, motherfucker. That's exactly what that fucking thing. And to, I think once you already have somebody thinking that Atlanta is a show about a rapper, they're already lost in what the actual intention and totally that show was. Yeah.

In general. It's like the people who tried to make that's black people we do that a lot though it was the same shit with power and empire when they first premiered people are like those are the same shows yeah oh running some shit he like because there was a scene in a club in both pilot right you Same show. Yeah. No, one's a record mogul, the other is a fucking drug dealer. Right. And they're two totally separate worlds,

but they're both black men with powerful black women on their arms and we just go, same show. Mm-hmm. So, I mean,

if the disrespect is in him bringing up, him arguing with people in general, which fuels the fire. That's what I, which creates the division. For no reason. Which creates opponents of your show.

Who would have actually loved your show? And I love both shows. Yeah. But I'm also biased because I'm in the business. I just think that for what Atlanta did and speaking to the black experience in this country, especially for the poor, I think in that regard, the shows had different targets.

Of course. They were aiming at different targets to begin with. And that's the shit that idiots on the internet don't get. But that's why when he engaged, I go, the nuance of what you're saying is so far over their heads that I'm like, Donald, you're better than this. You know our shows are not competing with one another. His show is fucking brilliant.

Our show is goofball weirdo bullshit. It does touch on pretty deep stuff sometimes, but the aim for his show was way different than the aim for our show. And so that's when I go, don't engage with these fucking people because they're only going to pick a side and it's not right. It just, it just is, it's doing way more harm than good. Instead of going, I made you a fucking great show. You know, I made you a great show. It has nothing

to do with the other show. You can watch both shows. All right. Let's fast forward to the real shit. Yeah. FX Emmys party. Yeah, here it is. You look across the room and you see LaKeith and Zazie Beetz. Yeah. And then from behind, from behind Zazie Beetz's amazing hairdo

emerges Donald Glover. This is East Coast, West Coast. This is Snoop. This is Snoop getting on stage. You got love for Death Row? You got to go over and speak. No, yeah. No, you know what?

I mean, comic to comic. Because I also still view Donald Glover. Once someone has done stand-up, you can do everything else. But I will always hold you and respect you and revere you. Because you understand everything. I feel like stand up to stand up, you two will be fine. Yeah, no, no, no. I would go say what's up to him regardless.

I didn't take it as an attack on me. I felt bad for the idea of the whole thing that I was like, this is a bummer for, because Dave, whether anybody will admit it, I know him well enough. He's an emotional dude. And I know that he didn't respond. And I know that it struck him

because he really respects and loves him. So it was kind of like- Well, performer to performer, they'll connect on a different- 100%. Maybe rapper to rapper. Rapper to rapper, maybe. But it's not,

but it is that what you said is real though. I can see a standup. I can, who did I just, I just saw someone- That shit gets to you after a while though that's you know that's where that came from with Donald

like this motherfucker just he don't bother nobody yeah no paparazzi this motherfucker just sits in the cut and creates his shit and goes

and every day I'm seeing y'all online chirping about this dumb shit I'm fucking sick of this shit my kid is in here I think he has he has a child

I don't know how old. But definitely at that get the fuck out the room daddy's mad age four or five. And just one day you just go y'all need to shut the fuck up.

And then they go oh shit who's side show? Because that's what the internet the internet is just all about picking sides which is what I have to be careful of with the daily show. It's the same shit.

Yeah I was going to say do you get do you get hate from doing that show? Like you'll get love but do you get people that just start to pick fights with you because of the show because the show is so opinionated politically yeah yeah it's so it's so aimed i can't remember what podcast i talked about this on before it might have been segura's but when we did last comic standing in 2010 it was like first, it was the first wave of live tweeting. So the concept of being online with strangers and reading their feedback through a hashtag.

So dangerous, bro. That's tough. But it was contractually mandated by NBC. Oh, you had, it had to happen. You motherfuckers.

We will tape the episode at five. When it airs at eight, all of you motherfuckers, we will tape the episode at five. When it airs at eight, all of you motherfuckers better be online, interacting with people in the hashtag, replying and retweeting to anything you see fit. It's a nightmare. So you just retweet positive comments about yourself. But within that thread,

it's all of the fucking people talking shit. And it's fucking hard. Oh, yeah. It's fucking hard. It sits. And that that when i was on i got to the finale so this is like eight weeks of this shit bro every fucking monday at 8 p.m eastern i'm reading all of the worst shit about me online but it fucking galvanized me and now i don't care no it rolls off it doesn't bother me yeah the only spot i don't really read comments

is youtube i can't explain it but youtube comments hit different like there's a sincerity It rolls off you. It doesn't bother me. The only spot I don't really read comments is YouTube. I can't explain it, but YouTube comments hit different. Like there's a sincerity. They do. It's like a New York Times review. Like it's- It's a little bit more serious than the other comments. The Tupelo Gazette didn't like your special. Who gives a fuck?

But if the Times trashed you, you'd be like- What didn't they like? It's YouTube. Because YouTube is such a fucking free-for-all. Right. It's anybody. It's anybody. Where Instagram is a certain style of person.

Facebook is a certain style of person. Like Facebook, it's all political zealots in the Daily Show comments. So I don't even interact. Like I don't. Yeah, I wouldn't go in there. Do not engage. Right. But there's days where you definitely are like,

oh, fuck, let me mute this fucking tweet. It's going to fucking be a long day in my mentions if I say anything back. Every now and then I'll chirp back at somebody, but it's for dumb shit. It's never political. Like there's this, Lewis Hamilton just won. He had won

some thing is brazil and as he's crossing the finish line there's just a big plume of fucking colorful smoke and fireworks that go off and the smoke starts drifting onto the track and i just made a goofy comment about like ah yes cover the track in smoke as men approach with 180 mile an hour vehicle. Yeah. And some asshole comes underneath. Wait till you see footage of him driving in the rain, you fucking clown. Motherfucker. I know that they can drive in shrouded visual conditions.

That's the guy I go after. Because this is just yeah there it is as is customary in racing the celebratory fireworks to ensure those behind the winner drive 180 miles an hour into a smoke screen it is distracting as fuck it's just a fucking goofy joke

in some shit bag underneath it just for no reason yeah you're fucking stupid i can tell you don't watch racing i don't engage with that shit i can't i don't engage with that and then there's sometimes there's the people you know what's you know what's interesting about scripted comedy versus late night though is i feel like with scripted comedy there's more open beef between creators yeah it's more my show's not that show it doesn't happen often but when it happens from what i can tell it's more often than not in scripted you would never hear Stephen Colbert throw a shot at John Oliver right or Sam B

go after Seth Meyers there'd be no reason for it yeah why is Trevor going after Fallon or some shit like that like it's it would be a funny beef though Trevor would be funny as shit well then why hey by the way then why did Conan at the was that the Emmys or whatever that was getting up? You know, he's drunk yelling on stage. Gets on stage with Oliver. What was that about? It's just Conan being silly. Being silly as fuck.

Or something underneath that. That's what I was saying. There was, it felt, it felt like Conan having the most fun, but also Conan was saying goodbye. This was kind of a hurrah for him a little bit. He was, it was, it was senior, senioritis. It was like fucking throw pennies. It was nuts. You knowrah for him a little bit. It was senioritis. It was like, fucking throw pennies.

It was nuts. You know, he was like going off. And then a piece of me was like, I wonder if that was kind of a fuck you or not. I couldn't tell. But you know, Oliver didn't care. John Oliver didn't care that Conan was up there. It wasn't, I don't even think anyone

even asked him about it for real. Like it was such a nothing burger. But as a comic though, I was like, I wonder because you know, comics, every time you say some shit about another comic, asked him about it for real. Like it was such a nothing burger. But as a comic though, I was like, I wonder because you know, comics, every time you say some shit about another comic, even in jest,

you're like, there's a little something. So that, which brings me to the point I was about to say. So there's more open chirping and scripted chirping in late night. It all stays in the family. And you're right at your table, right? Yeah.

You don't give it to the, it's all, it's all in. Because. And you're right at your table, right? Yeah, you don't give it to the other. It's all in the table. Because if that same scenario happened, if Atlanta gets an Emmy. And Dave runs on stage. And Dave ran up on that stage. First off, Lakeith Stanford would beat the shit out of Dave.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's it. It's over. Lakeith would fucking joke him the shit out of Dave. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's it. It's over. Lakeith would fucking joke him. He's not having... That is all the story about that. Correct. That night.

Right. Whereas in Unscripted, no one cares. It's some bullshit. They're just fucking around. No one cares. Right. But behind all of that, there is a serious level of competitiveness

between all of the late night shows. There must be. Yeah. That we are all trying to have the best joke. It is all in the spirit of competition. Right. I want to be funnier than you. And that's the comedic thing.

It's all love, but when I get on stage, I'm going to try to crush and make it so you can't follow me. Right. Respectfully. It's all love. That's the job.

Yeah. Yeah. So I think there's a overt versus covert aspect to both of those genres of comedy. But, you know, at the end of the day, it's all love. I mean, half of these shows, if we're being honest, half of these shows, the late night shows, they're Jon Stewart's children. Yeah. You know, just stylistically, you know, if not, in front of the camera, there's a lot of people behind the camera that have

all worked together. So there's still some sense of community with late night. But there's a level of competitiveness that the general public is extremely unaware of. And we like it that way. Yeah, you do. I was going to say, that fuels a

little bit, right? I ended the... And Conan going going to say that feels a little bit, right? Yeah. I ended the, the, and Conan going on stage is kind of a little bit of a, it's embodiment. Yeah. It's a little bit of like,

yeah, it's like, I should have won. I didn't win, but I'm going to be silly about not winning, but I should have won. Let's just agree. It should have won.

That's what I saw when I saw him go up there. That's what I felt out of him was like a little bit of like, you know who the fuck I am. Fuck y'all. Yeah, fuck you guys a little bit. Fuck you guys a little. Look, bring up, do my Twitter real fast.

I ended this, I didn't even say this. When I saw the Donald stuff and I had texted Dave and I thought, you know, because I don't know Donald like that. I thought the only way

for me to have fun with this is to just shit on all of it. So I just wrote neither show or go down as a little bit ago, but I'd retweeted Donald's tweet. You keep going. You'll see it. I retweeted Donald's tweet. Um, and all I wrote was, uh, hold on. I want you to see it because I want to see what I said exactly. There. He said, Donald Glover has a problem with comparing Little Dicky to Dave to Atlanta. And there's the real thing. And just for the record, I'm watching y'all saying Dave is on par.

Like y'all forgot what we did. No disrespect. We got black people on here debating which is better. And I'm the sellout. And I just wrote, neither show holds a fucking candle to nip tuck. Just because I was like, that's the best way to just go, this is a silly argument.

There's no need for all this bullshit. Yeah, I mean, but black people debating on whether or not Dave is the same as a show that was trying to give the world a window into what black people are going through. There's a ridiculousness in that.

Yeah. That I agree with Donald. Yes, I do too. I understand what he was saying. Creatively, what is the best way to address that? Yeah. Is what you're saying. I was like, I just needed to get away from all the,

but I was like, because people were tagging us. Like, what do you, oh, oh, fucking, oh, he's going to get, I was like, no, man. Yeah. He's just making his own point. That's why I had to,

so I picked the other FX show that I've never seen before that I was and it's like, no, man. Yeah. He's just making his own point. That's why I had to, so I picked the other FX show that I've never seen before that I was like, this nip-tuck, man. That's the fucking. The Shield is still the best. Is it? I've never watched it.

It's in my top four, bro. Is it of all time? Of all time. Shield's better than The Sopranos, but it got caught in Tony Soprano's wake, so nobody really gives it the love. Michael Chiklis

was a way better anti-hero, in my opinion, than Tony Soprano. You think so, huh? I respect The Shield. But Chiklis was a way better anti-hero, in my opinion, than Tony Soprano. You think so, huh? I respect the shield. But Chiklis is great. So much of that show is trickling into other shows of its ilk during that era.

But the idea of dirty cop for good reason that eventually becomes swallowed by his own bad choices. It's a great story. It's one that is almost before it's time in a way, where the shield had come out on the other side of the Sopranos, on the other side

of Breaking Bad, then everybody would be putting it in the same category. But it's one of the boxes. I've watched that series in its entirety like three, four times, dog. Shut up. How many seasons was The Shield? Seven. Goddamn. Glenn Close was in that bitch. Forrest Whitaker was in that bitch. Look at that right there. You scroll down, you see them. They got Vic Mackey and Walter White side by side. Cause you go down a little more. Yeah. Right there. Yeah. Like, it's like the idea it, the shield is also one of the few series. It's one of the few drama series, in my opinion, where the pilot and the finale connect to be one perfect two-hour film if you wanted to watch them just together. Everything that happens in between those two moments is driven from the pilot.

And that's fucking wild. That is wild as shit. Now you're going to make me watch the sheet. There's A and B stories throughout. There's runners for every season. But ultimately, everything that's happening in the A story is because of the shit that happened in the pilot and figuring out ways to get around that.

Some of the beast, like it's just, it's good. There's a season where Anthony Anderson, if you ever get Anthony Anderson on his podcast, you should ask him this story. Anthony Anderson plays a villain in one season and it is the most amazing, brilliant, dramatic work I've ever watched him. Like it's, I studied that scene.

Cause you know, like you, you like when you're on, if your career is a baseball path, right? And you're on first base, and you're looking to see who's on second and third. Anthony Anderson is like rounding on third base. And I'm going, I don't know if I'm the best, but I feel like if I start with what he's done, maybe I can.

So what does he do? How does he? And you start looking at the choices he made comedically in the early aughts and then start shifting to drama he did law and order after this and this is all pre-blackish he was so fucking dark and this is like two years after kangaroo jack dog he's fucking murderous villain gangster man yeah and his arc in that season was fucking magical. And it takes him to tell the story of leaving during lunch to go audition for Scorsese for The Departed

and making it back to set on time. To go back to shoot this. To go back to be dark, evil motherfucker. God damn. I'm not, it's his story to tell. But just that, that show brought so much out of so many actors that you wouldn't have expected. Well, that's why.

It's just, you know, what I'm saying is, you should have said The Shield instead of Nip Tuck. If I go back. Can I edit that tweet? Will you edit for me right now? If you pay Twitter $3, you can become a Twitter, whatever blue, whatever that shit is. You can be a Twitter member now.

But yeah, that show, The Sopranos, The Wire, and Breaking Bad, those are the four. That's your top shit. Those are my top four. Now I have to watch The Shield. Now I have to actually invest in this now. Sitcoms are hard, though. Who said that sitcoms age like fruit? I don't know.

That's so good, though. Comedy just ages like fruit? I don't know. That's so good, though. Like, comedy just ages like fruit. So it's like, everything you thought was hilarious, and you go back and watch it 20 years later, you're like, ooh, I don't know if I should have. Oh, that was fresh. It was so good. Like, there was someone who broke down the sitcom Martin and just why he was just so terrible to Gina and not

Marin. And it's, I can't remember all of the bullet points this woman made, but it was such a strong argument for why Martin pain was just such a terrible friend. Bad dad. Bad. Yeah.

He was like, Oh, fuck. Brought man from the fifth floor was the only redeemable. I mean, there's even some, um um there's even a couple of um seinfeld episodes that you like okay then that episode would have gotten some notes oh yeah oh yeah of course but yeah it's it just sucks that that viewership has become this fandom loyalist culture but that's also a byproduct of branding on our side where we make people loyal to us and so now if you don't like the thing it's like the way they attack columnists if they give a artist a bad review or some shit like how

dare you motherfucker you're just stupid and you're not a good critic. And it's like, just go enjoy the thing. They already got their money. It's not like a bad review. They're going to come back and take a pinch off your advance because someone didn't fucking like your shit. But yeah,

that's just what you're beholden to. You know, the thing that's really weird though with The Daily Show is it's not the people who hate us it's the people who love us almost like left zealots where you guys have got to talk about this thing and then we don't talk about it because they don't understand that there's only 30 minutes

in the fucking show yeah i'm sorry we didn't get to that thing that you hold important and now i'm a bad person right then you get like i get more let me think before i say it i'd say it's neck and neck or maybe it's 60 40 but I would say I get I get some criticism like a lot of criticism from people on the left where it's you didn't more than the right you didn't go deep enough right and it's and it's all because you give a fuck I understand that but I put it this way their dms are longer liberals right longer yeah republicans write shit that's just like shut up tell me what to do black ass yeah fuck you stupid fake news we're liberals i really appreciate what you attempted to do in that conversation but what you really should have done is focus on that other issue okay great now find me three jokes and that's that shit you just pitched because at the

end of the day there still has to be a joke. Right. It still has to be funny. Yeah. Somewhere in there, there has to be a joke. Oh, now this I did talk about on Segura's podcast. When I took over for Ari on This Is Not Happening on Comedy Central,

I was getting like shitty DMs from some of his fans. Oh, just saying like, you know. You stole a show, shit like that. But me and Ari, now you want to talk about a comic to comic conversation

I called him before I even said yes to that and he's like if you don't do it they might cancel it and then it's like 50 people that are going to lose TV appearances yeah but we're not getting to crew yet we're just talking comic the bulk of comics we shot and a lot of them especially a lot of people that Ari books they don't get the rep. They're not getting Conan four years in a row. So this is important. So I was like, fine, I'll do it. And whatever comes on the other side of it,

fine. I did Last Comic Standing. I can handle. I can handle your thing. But they were coming and even that shit was short. Yeah. It was still shorter

than a liberal DM like it wasn't like and they never got racist too that was the other thing I told Ari when I saw him you know a couple years later

I was like you see your fans man tell them thanks man tell them thanks yeah for not going there they were just like they were just about

the integrity of the show that's all they cared about that's all they cared about that's great it wasn't racist at all it was just 100% we don't think you're right for the show. That's all they cared about. That's all they cared about. That's great. It wasn't racist at all. It was just 100%. We don't think you're right for the show.

Amen. Neither do I. Ditto. Ari said I got to do it. I didn't have a choice, man. They made me. Something like that. Well, I think you still did a good job.

How about that? It was fun, man. I think you still did a good job. It really was fun. I know that's one thing I do hope Comedy Central brings back. If not, Aria figured out a way to put it up somewhere else. It's,

it's a great style of performance that doesn't get its due. It doesn't exist really. I mean, unless you're a storyteller comic and you get to do your own shit all the time, someone like Segura, you know what I mean? Who does do stories or Bert, you know, those guys, unless you have that as your literal

outlet of standup, most standups have a great story that they're like, I don't know where to put it. I don't even know how to say it. Yeah. This doesn't fit in this. Where to go with it. Right. Are you, by the way, are you touring or no?

Are you going to go? Are you out? No, I'm on the bench, bro. I just burned a whole hour. Yeah. You got to work. I got a couple of COVID makeup dates between now and February.

DC, Madison, Baltimore, and Tampa. That's all I got right now. And then you're good for a while. Oh, Montana. Which, that one I'm nervous about because that's where I got the death threat. The one death threat I've ever gotten from a Daily Show piece came from Montana.

Dude, Montana. That is where they come from. Yeah. It's, it was creepy too. Cause he mailed me a Bible and then the Bible, he had highlighted all of these different like verses of just raff and ass whoopings.

Just like, just all the ass whooping. He was slain down in the town square. Stones were thrown at his head. Yeah, shit like that. And he had the tabs, like a tax form. Signed here. He opened it.

So he wanted me to see, this is the page, nigga. Look at this page. And so, and then in the last page of the Bible, he wrote, thank you for coming to Montana. I forgive you for what you did to us. Jesus. So it's like forgiveness, but like,

it was right. Yeah. Oh, when are you going? I'm not telling you on this podcast. I want you to get clipped out there. Nah, I'm going to just do the show and go right back to the airport.

Yeah. You need some fucking security. Like no bullshit. I might just go right back to the airport, but that's a comics mindset what? return to the city where I got a death threat

how much? pay me get a fucking price if the check is there alright look I love you I appreciate you coming on the show we end the show the same way

every time look into that camera right there into your camera and we end the show with one word or one phrase that's going to end the show on you whenever you want. One word or one phrase. The greatest gift you can give another person is the gift of a second chance. These are the words of Roy Wood Jr.

In here, we pour whisk, whisk, whisk, whisk, whisk. You are that creature in the ginger field. Sturdy and ginger. Like vampires, the ginger gene is a curse. Gingers are beautiful. You owe me $5 for the whiskey and $75 for the horse. Gingers are hell no. This whiskey is excellent.

Ginger. I like gingers.