Welcome to Story in a bottle. I'm your Dan Maccarone, . Each episode, our guests are leading voices in tech, media and entertainment and to get to know them better, we share their favorite cocktails as they share their stories.
The line between journalism and comedy has become thinner and thinner over the past few decades, and one of the people at the forefront of that has been Roy Wood Jr. Over Allagash White Ales, roy talks about his early drive for a career in journalism, but how the comedy bug grabbed him, his early startup success, how ESPN allowed him to combine a love of comedy and sports as well as being a part of the cultural zeitgeist. While on the Daily Show, cheers, cheers to you, cheers to you.
Thanks for coming over, absolutely. And we're drinking beer at 3.30 in the afternoon on a what is today, wednesday? Just one, just one, just one. There might be a second one coming, I don't know. Roy Wood Jr.: We'll see you do the second one, I'm not. Roy Wood Jr.: I got shit to do today and I'm not going to Roy Wood Jr.: be sleepy. Roy Wood Jr.: Alcohol slows me down. Roy Wood Jr.: I think it slows a lot of.
Roy Wood Jr.: I'll drink to be jovial with friends, but Roy Wood Jr.: it's got to be like all right, this is the Roy Wood Jr.: last activity of the day, right? Roy Wood Jr.: And it's like yes, it is. Roy Wood Jr.: And then that's when I'm. You're committed at that point. This is not a committed drinking situation. Roy Wood Jr.: The idea of day drinking is such a foreign Roy Wood Jr.: concept to me? Roy Wood Jr.: There's no way I would. Yeah, I couldn't.
We used to record these at like 7 at night Made. We used to record these at like 7 at night, made it a lot easier. Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, during the day, not as yeah, you need Roy Wood Jr.: to start doing brunch podcasts. Roy Wood Jr.: Just drink some mimosas. Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, totally Something like that, yeah. Well, I appreciate you coming down and having an Allagash. Why Allagash? I know you didn't expect to drink, so no, I asked for a Blue Moon.
Roy Wood Jr.: I just like something lighter and like an Roy Wood Jr.: easier like this. Roy Wood Jr.: I'm like beer I'm very picky about. Anyway, I'm really more of a whiskey and scotch guy, but that's not a 330 um, but I want to talk about what we're here to talk about you, not about me, okay, um, I'm trying to think of best place to start. Actually, first thing we want to hear is I know you left a daily show last year. Yeah, um, were what was like, did you?
Were you thinking about leaving anyways, or was there anything like kind of that kind of spurned that? Roy Wood Jr.: no, it was looking at after the strike. Roy Wood Jr.: This landscape is changing. Roy Wood Jr.: I don't know what the daily show is going Roy Wood Jr.: to be and I don't know if I'll fit into Roy Wood Jr.: that, so let me go and figure out other Roy Wood Jr.: things, just in case.
Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, and trying to leave the door open, Roy Wood Jr.: you know, if they want to come back and Roy Wood Jr.: host school. Roy Wood Jr.: But the idea of trying to be a Roy Wood Jr.: correspondent while also simultaneously Roy Wood Jr.: trying to figure out what's next for me, I Roy Wood Jr.: just didn't think it was fair to the Roy Wood Jr.: position of correspondent to try and do Roy Wood Jr.: those two things at the same time.
So I just stepped away, pretty reasonable, I mean, it seemed like a weird situation for anyone on the staff. Not a bad situation, just a weird situation with a different person coming in every week. What was that? Was that a challenging experience? Roy Wood Jr.: as a writer, I mean as a correspondent, Roy Wood Jr.: it's different because I'm just there to Roy Wood Jr.: work in service of the host.
Roy Wood Jr.: But I imagine a writer's had a challenge of Roy Wood Jr.: basically creating a different offense Roy Wood Jr.: every week, but they won an Emmy.
Roy Wood Jr.: So for whatever they were doing, that's why Roy Wood Jr.: I think it was so dope that the show got an Roy Wood Jr.: Emmy, because you know, for a greater part Roy Wood Jr.: of that time, after Trevor's departure, Roy Wood Jr.: you're essentially creatively trying to Roy Wood Jr.: create something that honors the original Roy Wood Jr.: vision of the show, which goes through one Roy Wood Jr.: host.
Roy Wood Jr.: But now every week you're doing it with Roy Wood Jr.: multiple hosts yeah. Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, one host sensibilities may not be the Roy Wood Jr.: same as the next. Roy Wood Jr.: What's the joke? Roy Wood Jr.: That that host feels comfortable doing that Roy Wood Jr.: also is an alignment with the show itself Roy Wood Jr.: as a whole too.
Roy Wood Jr.: So, yeah, I mean, I wasn't in a lot of the Roy Wood Jr.: writer's wing stuff on the week-to-week, Roy Wood Jr.: but I would imagine that that is definitely Roy Wood Jr.: a challenging thing to have to do. It didn't impact your work as a correspondent, because you're kind of doing your own stuff. Did that work? Roy Wood Jr.: A little bit. Roy Wood Jr.: But you know, as a correspondent, your job Roy Wood Jr.: is to be a chameleon.
Roy Wood Jr.: You know, like this week this is the joke Roy Wood Jr.: and the angle that we're trying to show is Roy Wood Jr.: this to expose the satirical side of the Roy Wood Jr.: hypocrisy, is this that we're trying to Roy Wood Jr.: expose. Roy Wood Jr.: So, as a correspondent, in studio, it's a Roy Wood Jr.: little bit of change here and there, but Roy Wood Jr.: the actual job of going out and covering a Roy Wood Jr.: story, then I changed it all. Roy Wood Jr.: Didn't matter who the host is.
Roy Wood Jr.: There's a little bit of change here and Roy Wood Jr.: there, but the actual job of going out and Roy Wood Jr.: covering a story did not change at all. Roy Wood Jr.: Right, didn't matter who the host is. Roy Wood Jr.: When I'm out of town covering Cop City in Roy Wood Jr.: Atlanta, it's me and my interview. Subject Like there's nothing else to be. You know, it's a piece that's going to be part of that show, no matter what Correct yeah.
Roy Wood Jr.: And I think that's why the job of the Roy Wood Jr.: correspondent is a little bit evergreen and Roy Wood Jr.: that I hate to use chameleon again, but Roy Wood Jr.: you're able to fit in a lot of what we do Roy Wood Jr.: around whomever is host, but the first 10 Roy Wood Jr.: minutes of the show, that's where the Roy Wood Jr.: things become the most different and unique.
Well, I think that, like with your work on the Daily Show and other work I've seen you do, you know, one of the things that's very clear is that you have a very intelligent mind around politics and around kind of what's going on right now, and I'm curious as to how that impacted your experience hosting the White House Correspondence Center also last year.
Roy Wood Jr.: Show, because I get to call out stuff but I Roy Wood Jr.: also get to make jokes that I normally Roy Wood Jr.: wouldn't make on the daily show, just the Roy Wood Jr.: tone of the joke, you know, like it's more Roy Wood Jr.: of a roast in a lot of ways or A little bit, Roy Wood Jr.: but to me it was more of a political, like Roy Wood Jr.: a roasting of ideas and the occupation of Roy Wood Jr.: politician and the occupation of journals.
Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, instead of going after specific Roy Wood Jr.: people. Roy Wood Jr.: You know, like that, that was never the mo. Roy Wood Jr.: But to be able to have a joke where you can Roy Wood Jr.: tell, like within the correspondence set, I Roy Wood Jr.: think I made a joke about cardi b and Roy Wood Jr.: clarence, thomas Thomas, also Vanderpump Roy Wood Jr.: Rules, george Santos. Roy Wood Jr.: I joked about school, like a legit joke Roy Wood Jr.: about school shootings.
Yeah, that's not what I'm going to do. Roy Wood Jr.: But that works in that form and it worked Roy Wood Jr.: that night. Roy Wood Jr.: But if you do that same joke on a daily Roy Wood Jr.: show, there has to be a different angle, Roy Wood Jr.: because I also believe the venues in which Roy Wood Jr.: we receive information dictate how we Roy Wood Jr.: perceive it.
Roy Wood Jr.: The Correspondence Generalist almost Roy Wood Jr.: understood that I could be a little rude Roy Wood Jr.: because traditionally that's what that gig Roy Wood Jr.: is. Roy Wood Jr.: Daily show's a little more buttoned up, Roy Wood Jr.: it's a little more uh-huh, so it's like ew, Roy Wood Jr.: why would you make that joke in this Roy Wood Jr.: particular form?
Roy Wood Jr.: So no, you want to have an opinion about Roy Wood Jr.: stuff and I guess that's where the two gigs Roy Wood Jr.: are similar. Roy Wood Jr.: But with the Correspondence Center, I said, Roy Wood Jr.: the biggest difference is being able to be Roy Wood Jr.: a little bit more extreme and a little bit Roy Wood Jr.: even more absurdist in the punchlines that Roy Wood Jr.: you use to get to the point you're trying Roy Wood Jr.: to make.
And over the past few years I feel like maybe the past decade that Correspondence Center has certainly come to some ups and downs and it's how it's been perceived. And so when you kind of get the task of hosting it, or how it's been received maybe not perceived, when you get the task of hosting it, what is your thought? I mean, it seems like an honor, but obviously what is your thought process going into it? Roy Wood Jr.: Terrific. Roy Wood Jr.: It's horrifying.
Roy Wood Jr.: But also, yes, I will do it Like that Roy Wood Jr.: Because you're getting a chance to talk to Roy Wood Jr.: elected officials, so why not go at them a Roy Wood Jr.: little bit? Roy Wood Jr.: You know, like, why not go at them just a Roy Wood Jr.: little bit? Roy Wood Jr.: But also how far to go, what topics, how Roy Wood Jr.: are you going to do it.
Roy Wood Jr.: But the idea of whether or not I should or Roy Wood Jr.: bit, you know, like, why not go at them Roy Wood Jr.: just a little bit? Roy Wood Jr.: But also how far to go, what topics, how Roy Wood Jr.: you're gonna do it, but the idea of whether Roy Wood Jr.: or not I should or shouldn't do it was Roy Wood Jr.: never. That was never up for question were there questions in your head as to like how far to go? Roy Wood Jr.: yeah, but that's relative, though.
What's too far, that's a question every comedian, I'm sure, asked themselves or ask each other, and it wouldn't be asking itself. Roy Wood Jr.: They should ask what they think is funny Roy Wood Jr.: yeah and somebody thinks it's too far, Roy Wood Jr.: great, don't come see me anymore. Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, vote with your wallet like it's okay. Roy Wood Jr.: Um, how hard to go was there? Roy Wood Jr.: It was some conversation around that, but Roy Wood Jr.: we didn't necessarily live.
Roy Wood Jr.: We didn't necessarily live in that fear. Roy Wood Jr.: But you know, ideally it was just about Roy Wood Jr.: figuring out what are the best ways to Roy Wood Jr.: convey the point we're trying to make, and Roy Wood Jr.: if that's talking about the topic versus Roy Wood Jr.: talking about the person, that's kind of Roy Wood Jr.: where we kind of went back and forth. Roy Wood Jr.: But you know, these are the jokes, man, and Roy Wood Jr.: if y'all are going to be mad, that's fine.
Roy Wood Jr.: I got a hunch that my career will be okay Roy Wood Jr.: either way. Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, like unless I go up there and punch Roy Wood Jr.: Biden, which would be a problem, yeah, Roy Wood Jr.: Frowned upon yeah unless I go up there and Roy Wood Jr.: punch Biden, which would be a problem. Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, that frowned upon. Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, they wouldn't like that I don't know Roy Wood Jr.: what I could do, that people would just go Roy Wood Jr.: wow, I really hate you forever.
Roy Wood Jr.: Versus hey, it wasn't funny that night. Roy Wood Jr.: I don't think he's funny, right, so I don't Roy Wood Jr.: know, I'm not. Roy Wood Jr.: You want to do a good job, so you're Roy Wood Jr.: definitely measuring the jump of how to Roy Wood Jr.: succeed, but the idea of whether or not I Roy Wood Jr.: should jump, no, you have to do that. Roy Wood Jr.: It's a once-in-a-lifetime. Roy Wood Jr.: 25 people have done it, I think. Roy Wood Jr.: Is that right? Roy Wood Jr.: Is that right?
Roy Wood Jr.: Give or take? It's not a lot. It's not a lot, and that is definitely something you gotta yeah, you gotta jump a lot, and that is definitely something. Yeah, you got to jump there. You don't say no. Roy Wood Jr.: So, yeah, just to be on that list. Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, I'll take that.
So it seems to me that, like in in doing a little bit you know, a little bit of research I did on your background or a lot of research, whatever I call it, like the idea of speaking your voice and and kind of being straightforward, I feel like that's like in your blood. You know from from your parents to your childhood, and I'm really curious to hear like how, as you were growing up, you know in.
I mean, you're born in new york and you went to alabama as I heard in birmingham yeah um, like how much was this idea of being straightforward and like speaking your mind and by and like to, and the like to move society forward like a part of that everyday you know life? Roy Wood Jr.: I mean, my father was on that.
Roy Wood Jr.: My dad was, you know, civil rights Roy Wood Jr.: journalists and I don't even know if that's Roy Wood Jr.: fair to say, he was just a journalist, but Roy Wood Jr.: he focused on civil rights. Roy Wood Jr.: You know, he was always talking about real Roy Wood Jr.: stuff and interviewing politicians, calling Roy Wood Jr.: bullshit where he saw it.
Roy Wood Jr.: I think I got more of a window into his Roy Wood Jr.: mind when we were, when we would go to the Roy Wood Jr.: barbershop together when. Roy Wood Jr.: I was little and in those days, just as a Roy Wood Jr.: third or fourth grader, you're just Roy Wood Jr.: listening to grown men talk about something Roy Wood Jr.: that you don't completely understand.
Yeah. Roy Wood Jr.: But you hear it and you're like, oh, wow, Roy Wood Jr.: oh, that's what y'all be thinking, okay, Roy Wood Jr.: cool. Roy Wood Jr.: So that was, I'd say that was probably the Roy Wood Jr.: first influence of giving a damn about Roy Wood Jr.: things, first influence of giving a damn Roy Wood Jr.: about things.
Roy Wood Jr.: But I was very, I was lucky enough to have Roy Wood Jr.: a pretty decent enough childhood to where I Roy Wood Jr.: didn't have to be burdened with a lot of Roy Wood Jr.: the things that my father was carrying Roy Wood Jr.: around from the civil rights movement. Roy Wood Jr.: You knew about racism, you knew about Roy Wood Jr.: injustice, but also, birmingham is a city Roy Wood Jr.: that's 75% Black. Roy Wood Jr.: I lived on the Black side of town.
Roy Wood Jr.: Everything I knew was Black, from the boys Roy Wood Jr.: clubs, the librarians to the base, Roy Wood Jr.: literally Black church, black grocery store. Roy Wood Jr.: So I didn't have the same strife and Roy Wood Jr.: getting chased home by white boys Roy Wood Jr.: experience that my father might have had. Roy Wood Jr.: So in that regard I think things were a Roy Wood Jr.: little different.
Roy Wood Jr.: In terms of speaking my mind, I think, Roy Wood Jr.: where my mom probably hated it was like Roy Wood Jr.: somewhere around sixth grade. Roy Wood Jr.: I got whippers for a little while as a kid, Roy Wood Jr.: but then I think my mom finally realized oh Roy Wood Jr.: well, I'm never going to spank him into Roy Wood Jr.: whatever, so let's just not do that anymore Roy Wood Jr.: and let's just talk.
Roy Wood Jr.: And then that's when I started being able Roy Wood Jr.: to share my opinions on things. Roy Wood Jr.: Hey, I understand you feel like this. Roy Wood Jr.: Let me tell you why. Roy Wood Jr.: This teacher is an asshole and nine times Roy Wood Jr.: out of 10, I lost. Rightfully so or no, if you look back on it, rightfully so. Roy Wood Jr.: But to be able to walk into situations Roy Wood Jr.: where I was allowed to speak my mind.
Roy Wood Jr.: My mom was really integral in making me Roy Wood Jr.: feel comfortable with being able to say how Roy Wood Jr.: I felt, no matter what the consequence, no Roy Wood Jr.: matter if it changes anything.
Roy Wood Jr.: Here is a space for you to share your Roy Wood Jr.: opinion and I would say what I had to feel, Roy Wood Jr.: and sometimes it swayed decisions in the Roy Wood Jr.: house, sometimes it didn't, but it gave me Roy Wood Jr.: the confidence that if my mom will let me Roy Wood Jr.: say what I'm thinking, I don't care what Roy Wood Jr.: anybody else I'm going to say what the hell Roy Wood Jr.: I'm thinking.
Roy Wood Jr.: And so you know that probably carried over Roy Wood Jr.: into adulthood. Roy Wood Jr.: And then I think, once my comedy started to Roy Wood Jr.: mature in my late 20s, early 30s, that's Roy Wood Jr.: when it started coming out like that, like Roy Wood Jr.: that everything I'm talking about late, Roy Wood Jr.: dormant for a long ass time.
Roy Wood Jr.: And then when I graduated from from college Roy Wood Jr.: and started being on the road, then it was Roy Wood Jr.: like yeah you know what I feel, yeah, and I Roy Wood Jr.: had a morning show. Roy Wood Jr.: I was doing morning radio. Roy Wood Jr.: You know what I'm going to tell you what I Roy Wood Jr.: feel about the city today. Roy Wood Jr.: You know, creating a, also having a show.
Roy Wood Jr.: That was a space for other people to speak Roy Wood Jr.: to my you know, residents of Birmingham and Roy Wood Jr.: stuff. Roy Wood Jr.: So you know, yeah, that's kind of where it Roy Wood Jr.: came from. So you mentioned the radio show and I know that you started in radio even while you were in college, right Like you're. Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, I started in, yeah. And so you went to school for broadcast journalism, correct.
Was there any influence from your dad being a journalist to want to be in that journalism world? Roy Wood Jr.: Subliminally maybe, but I wanted to be Roy Wood Jr.: Stuart Scott. Roy Wood Jr.: My father was so serious and so always Roy Wood Jr.: focused about life that that never really Roy Wood Jr.: carried over to me because it just seemed Roy Wood Jr.: too serious. Roy Wood Jr.: And I was a little.
Roy Wood Jr.: I wasn't a class clown, but I was a fairly Roy Wood Jr.: jovial kid and it seems like the stuff you Roy Wood Jr.: swimming in that is just very. Roy Wood Jr.: You're angry all the time, like you're just Roy Wood Jr.: riled up all the time. Roy Wood Jr.: I don't know if I want to exist like that. Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, you know. Roy Wood Jr.: So let me figure out another way. Roy Wood Jr.: I enjoy watching Stuart Scott.
Roy Wood Jr.: Fred Hickman was another guy that I enjoyed, Roy Wood Jr.: but these were black men who looked like me Roy Wood Jr.: and talked like me and they seem to make Roy Wood Jr.: talking about sports fun and that's what we Roy Wood Jr.: did at school every fun and that's what we Roy Wood Jr.: did at school every day. Roy Wood Jr.: That's what we did at baseball practice Roy Wood Jr.: every afternoon. Roy Wood Jr.: So you know what I think?
I'm gonna just try to be like stewart scott so was this, was sports journalism, kind of what you're thinking, or no, just journalism. Roy Wood Jr.: For sure I didn't know where I. Roy Wood Jr.: I knew that I wanted to do offbeat, lighter Roy Wood Jr.: stories. Roy Wood Jr.: I knew I wanted a twinge of humor.
Roy Wood Jr.: There's a woman that's been at cnn for a Roy Wood Jr.: while, jenny most, and jenny had her beat, Roy Wood Jr.: at least in the late 90s, and even now was Roy Wood Jr.: the offbeat odd stories, the things that Roy Wood Jr.: were, the observations that you didn't Roy Wood Jr.: necessarily notice about people and things, Roy Wood Jr.: and then deeper dives into those quirks Roy Wood Jr.: about people. Roy Wood Jr.: That's that's interesting to me.
Yeah. Roy Wood Jr.: Now, if I can tie it into sports, cool, but Roy Wood Jr.: she's funny, but she's curious and she Roy Wood Jr.: follows her curiosities independent of the Roy Wood Jr.: news cycle, right? Roy Wood Jr.: So these places, they're evergreen stories, Roy Wood Jr.: but they're still fascinating. Right, these pieces, they're evergreen stories, but they're still fascinating, correct?
So, jenny. Roy Wood Jr.: Moose was like a big influence Roy Wood Jr.: journalistically in the types of stories Roy Wood Jr.: that I felt like I wanted to eventually be Roy Wood Jr.: able to do. Roy Wood Jr.: Now, of course, the problem is that you're Roy Wood Jr.: in college and when you're taking Roy Wood Jr.: journalism you're just supposed to cover Roy Wood Jr.: the hard hitting. Roy Wood Jr.: You have to learn the basics before you do Roy Wood Jr.: something that's a deviation like that.
Roy Wood Jr.: But the idea of wanting to be like my dad Roy Wood Jr.: no, I never possessed that thought or that Roy Wood Jr.: impulse. Roy Wood Jr.: I'm just someone that eventually matured Roy Wood Jr.: and morphed into a more humorous version of Roy Wood Jr.: the values that he represented. Roy Wood Jr.: And that's just by.
Roy Wood Jr.: You know, community, happenstance, luck, I Roy Wood Jr.: don't fucking know, but it definitely is Roy Wood Jr.: something that I just morphed into over Roy Wood Jr.: time and then looked up one day and like ah, Roy Wood Jr.: damn, I'm him. But you're not right, Because you have a bit more of a jovial nature and a more humorous nature to how you approach life.
Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, I'm more jovial, but I'm not Roy Wood Jr.: necessarily probably as deep and as on the Roy Wood Jr.: government's ass like my pops was, and I Roy Wood Jr.: leave that to other comedians and activists. Roy Wood Jr.: That's their muscle. Roy Wood Jr.: For me, I'm trying to give people a Roy Wood Jr.: different perspective on what is and then Roy Wood Jr.: from that go make your own opinion versus.
Roy Wood Jr.: This is what the fuck is going on and this Roy Wood Jr.: is what y'all need to have your eyes open Roy Wood Jr.: for. Roy Wood Jr.: That's never been my approach, but I'm Roy Wood Jr.: saying that now. Roy Wood Jr.: But who knows what I'll morph into? Roy Wood Jr.: Because if you asked me 20 years ago, I Roy Wood Jr.: thought I wouldn't.
It wouldn't have been this well, if you think about when you're you're early on, you're on the radio, like what it was definitely not politics, it was more, it was more humor. Right, it was definitely not politics, it was more humor, it was more like, weren't you more in prank calls?
Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, it was urban radio, so we followed Roy Wood Jr.: pop culture and we did silly jokes in Roy Wood Jr.: between songs and once a week we would have Roy Wood Jr.: a pastor on or the mayor would come on. Roy Wood Jr.: We had one break every week. Roy Wood Jr.: That was like, okay, this is serious, we Roy Wood Jr.: have a lawyer on who will talk to us about Roy Wood Jr.: law shit. Roy Wood Jr.: The mayor would come on one. Roy Wood Jr.: Like we had one break every week.
Roy Wood Jr.: That was like okay, it's serious, we have a Roy Wood Jr.: lawyer on who will talk to us about law Roy Wood Jr.: shit. Roy Wood Jr.: We had a pastor one week. Roy Wood Jr.: We asked the pastor, asked the lawyer, Roy Wood Jr.: asked the mayor, and I think we had like a Roy Wood Jr.: therapist or like some wild card slot or Roy Wood Jr.: whatever.
Roy Wood Jr.: And that was like the one carve out where Roy Wood Jr.: people would call in for like real Roy Wood Jr.: community issues and things like that and Roy Wood Jr.: we would try to help people and community Roy Wood Jr.: issues and things like that. Roy Wood Jr.: And we would try to help people and find Roy Wood Jr.: solutions. Roy Wood Jr.: The nine o'clock hour we would connect Roy Wood Jr.: people with employers who were hiring.
Roy Wood Jr.: You know, if you work somewhere that was Roy Wood Jr.: hiring, we'd invite you to call the station Roy Wood Jr.: so you could just tell people where to come Roy Wood Jr.: apply for a job. Roy Wood Jr.: So like there was definitely some level of Roy Wood Jr.: service to what we were trying to do, but Roy Wood Jr.: no, my dad was in morning news. Roy Wood Jr.: What is like? Roy Wood Jr.: What is the drive there? Is that kind of.
At that point is that you're thinking like this is a great career, like I mean morning. Radio is its own world, you know. Roy Wood Jr.: Well, it's 2001, so there's still money in Roy Wood Jr.: radio and the opportunity for syndication, Roy Wood Jr.: which is millions and millions of dollars, Roy Wood Jr.: was still real. Roy Wood Jr.: You know, yeah, millions and millions of Roy Wood Jr.: dollars was still real. Roy Wood Jr.: You know.
Roy Wood Jr.: You look at the business model that Tom Roy Wood Jr.: Joyner put out and that you know. Roy Wood Jr.: Howard Stern put out Opie and Anthony put Roy Wood Jr.: out you know, in my days it was Russ Parr Roy Wood Jr.: as well Doug Banks God, I almost forgot the Roy Wood Jr.: RIP.
Roy Wood Jr.: But guys like that, I was like, oh well, if Roy Wood Jr.: I could go home and be funny and Roy Wood Jr.: entertaining on the radio, that'll also Roy Wood Jr.: help my stand-up because eventually I'll be Roy Wood Jr.: syndicated and when I go to those cities Roy Wood Jr.: they'll come see me because I've been on Roy Wood Jr.: the radio.
Roy Wood Jr.: So yeah, that was the ideology behind Roy Wood Jr.: choosing radio over television and over Roy Wood Jr.: print was that radio would give me the most Roy Wood Jr.: flexibility to travel where? where does the comedy start in that? Because you're in, you're in, uh, you're in florida or alabama, you're in florida, right, doing radio and and does the stand-up happen while you're? While you're doing like morning radio?
Roy Wood Jr.: no stand-up happens in 98 while I'm still Roy Wood Jr.: in college. Roy Wood Jr.: I'm in college, I started doing stand-up Roy Wood Jr.: and at that point the stand-up is running Roy Wood Jr.: concurrent with my enrollment. Roy Wood Jr.: I graduate. Roy Wood Jr.: I can't get an internship in journalism Roy Wood Jr.: because all I've done is comedy every Roy Wood Jr.: summer.
Roy Wood Jr.: But I can get the radio job because I Roy Wood Jr.: worked out a little internship situation in Roy Wood Jr.: Tallahassee with a local station where I Roy Wood Jr.: did morning news for class credit, and that Roy Wood Jr.: was just for a class credit.
Roy Wood Jr.: Luck of the draw, those tapes that I did at Roy Wood Jr.: that time ended up being the tapes that got Roy Wood Jr.: me hired in Birmingham, and so they needed Roy Wood Jr.: a comedian co-host and it was a perfect Roy Wood Jr.: situation. Roy Wood Jr.: I'm a comedian who has a degree in Roy Wood Jr.: journalism and I have proof that I've Roy Wood Jr.: already been on the radio, so that's pretty Roy Wood Jr.: golden right there.
Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, I mean that's on some universe shit Roy Wood Jr.: lining up for you, type of stuff. Right, and so when you walk into Birmingham doing that, are you doing clubs around there at night or how does that? Because morning radio is exhausting from an hour standpoint. Roy Wood Jr.: If it was within five hours of Birmingham, Roy Wood Jr.: I drove home every night. Roy Wood Jr.: Wow, that was the general protocol for the Roy Wood Jr.: first two years.
Roy Wood Jr.: For the most part I did not perform more Roy Wood Jr.: than five hours away. Roy Wood Jr.: But on the weekends sometimes I could get Roy Wood Jr.: out of being in studio on a Friday if I Roy Wood Jr.: prerecorded my segments and stuff like that. Roy Wood Jr.: It just varied but the general protocol Roy Wood Jr.: Also. Roy Wood Jr.: They weren't paying me well early on they Roy Wood Jr.: were, or they were not. Roy Wood Jr.: Were not, were not, yeah.
Roy Wood Jr.: So you know what, for as long as I produced Roy Wood Jr.: the show well, you're okay if I'm not I was Roy Wood Jr.: fourth chair on a four-man show. Roy Wood Jr.: You're not missing me. Roy Wood Jr.: For as long as she got the prank call from Roy Wood Jr.: me, you on a four-man show, you're not Roy Wood Jr.: missing me. Roy Wood Jr.: For as long as she got the prank call from Roy Wood Jr.: me, you didn't need anything else.
Roy Wood Jr.: Everything else was extra gravy and I made Roy Wood Jr.: sure that show prep was laid out and Roy Wood Jr.: printed and I would stop by the station Roy Wood Jr.: Friday morning before I hit the road make Roy Wood Jr.: sure everything was straight and then if I Roy Wood Jr.: had an eight-hour drive, I could make that Roy Wood Jr.: comfortably on the road Instead of getting Roy Wood Jr.: off air at 10, hitting the road at 11,.
Roy Wood Jr.: Eight hours getting there right damn near Roy Wood Jr.: at showtime. Roy Wood Jr.: God pray, I don't hit any traffic in the Roy Wood Jr.: middle of Ohio on the way to Cleveland. Roy Wood Jr.: So that was the grind. Roy Wood Jr.: But you're young, you just don't know. Roy Wood Jr.: You don't know any better. Roy Wood Jr.: What do the sets? look like for you and the clubs look like for you. At that point, Are you kind of middling? Are you headlining Like? Roy Wood Jr.: what's the?
Roy Wood Jr.: What is that? Roy Wood Jr.: It's everything I'm emceeing and then I Roy Wood Jr.: work my way up to feature and then by the Roy Wood Jr.: time I was starting to headline, like 05, Roy Wood Jr.: 06, it was like Wednesday through Saturdays, Roy Wood Jr.: and at that point I was on my first radio Roy Wood Jr.: contract.
Roy Wood Jr.: I was under contract at that point, so Roy Wood Jr.: there was a few more carve-outs for Roy Wood Jr.: traveling, but I still had to do all of my Roy Wood Jr.: show prep for the week. Roy Wood Jr.: So that meant if there was a parody song Roy Wood Jr.: that needed to be done, if there was some Roy Wood Jr.: current event that I needed to do a talk Roy Wood Jr.: segment about, we would prerecord that.
Roy Wood Jr.: Goofy NFL picks All right, you can Roy Wood Jr.: pre-record that Tuesday after the show for Roy Wood Jr.: Friday air. Roy Wood Jr.: So you know you do things like that. Roy Wood Jr.: But I just drove, I got in the car, I drove Roy Wood Jr.: and on the off days I slept in the car and Roy Wood Jr.: then drove to the next city. Roy Wood Jr.: It just never not made sense. When did the print calls start?
I mean, I know that turned into albums, like three albums, yeah, we did three print call albums. Roy Wood Jr.: Good luck finding them. Roy Wood Jr.: Now they're gone. Roy Wood Jr.: They were stripped off the internet years Roy Wood Jr.: ago, Took better or worse, do you think, Roy Wood Jr.: For less of the drama with the label. Roy Wood Jr.: I was dealing with a label that just you're Roy Wood Jr.: not going to pay me.
Roy Wood Jr.: I can't tell if you're telling the truth Roy Wood Jr.: about how much money I'm supposed to. Roy Wood Jr.: So you know what Nobody eats. Roy Wood Jr.: How about that? Yeah. Roy Wood Jr.: Now we all fucking can't, so neither here Roy Wood Jr.: nor there, but I did the prank calls. Roy Wood Jr.: The prank calls were essentially part of Roy Wood Jr.: what I had to do to keep the job. So the radio station was like hey, bro, you're now our prank call guy.
Roy Wood Jr.: You are happy to work here, right, we're Roy Wood Jr.: happy to have you work here. Roy Wood Jr.: You can do whatever you want, but we need a Roy Wood Jr.: prank call every morning at 7, 10, whatever Roy Wood Jr.: creative things you want to explore, and I Roy Wood Jr.: wanted to do so many different radio Roy Wood Jr.: sketches, like the idea of like scripted Roy Wood Jr.: podcast stories.
Roy Wood Jr.: Tom joiner was doing that 30 years ago and Roy Wood Jr.: I was like there has to be a way to do a Roy Wood Jr.: younger version of that type of drama. Roy Wood Jr.: Can we do something like that? Roy Wood Jr.: We don't care. Roy Wood Jr.: Do you have a prank call? Roy Wood Jr.: So every day you do pranks and then you Roy Wood Jr.: start selling the prank call cds as a way Roy Wood Jr.: to make a little extra money because the Roy Wood Jr.: station's not paying you.
Roy Wood Jr.: It gives you something to sell after shows Roy Wood Jr.: on the road. Roy Wood Jr.: I was fine with it, but it's not a. Roy Wood Jr.: If someone missed mentioning that in my Roy Wood Jr.: obituary, I would not be mad should we? should we not be talking about it? Roy Wood Jr.: no, it's, but it brought a lot of people Roy Wood Jr.: joy. Roy Wood Jr.: A lot of people laughed at that stuff. Roy Wood Jr.: It put money in my pocket.
Roy Wood Jr.: It kept me afloat at a time where I wasn't Roy Wood Jr.: making a lot of money. Roy Wood Jr.: I'm not going to talk bad about that phase Roy Wood Jr.: of my life, but being known as the prank Roy Wood Jr.: call guy definitely was something I wanted Roy Wood Jr.: to make sure did not happen to me. Well, I mean, obviously you're driving five hours, eight hours. You're getting out of that sphere of of the Birmingham radio reach Right.
So, so you can make a name for yourself as a standup outside of that Right. Yeah, yeah, go ahead, sorry. Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, I sold some of the pranks to. Roy Wood Jr.: Part of how I expanded my reach in the Roy Wood Jr.: clubs was that I sold some of my prank Roy Wood Jr.: phone calls to other radio stations in Roy Wood Jr.: markets where I couldn't get booked by the Roy Wood Jr.: comedy club.
Roy Wood Jr.: Oh, so you get a name there, meaning this Roy Wood Jr.: is the guy yeah and then called the club Roy Wood Jr.: six months later All right, you wouldn't Roy Wood Jr.: book me before, what about now? Roy Wood Jr.: And they go oh, you're in the radio.
Roy Wood Jr.: Oh yeah, if I really nailed it, I would get Roy Wood Jr.: a spot on the station that the club uses to Roy Wood Jr.: promote the comedians, then would Roy Wood Jr.: deliberately ask for a performance slot, Roy Wood Jr.: generally 20 to 30 minutes before the Roy Wood Jr.: comedian is supposed to be on. Roy Wood Jr.: I didn't always have a say in when the Roy Wood Jr.: prank aired, but if I could, I know the Roy Wood Jr.: comedian's on at 7.30.
Roy Wood Jr.: Put my prank call on at 7.10. Roy Wood Jr.: Because I know that the comedian is in the Roy Wood Jr.: car with the booker and they're listening Roy Wood Jr.: to the station as they're riding in. Roy Wood Jr.: And to me that was my way of auditioning. Roy Wood Jr.: That's so smart For the club owner and for Roy Wood Jr.: the oh and for the headliner. Roy Wood Jr.: So, yeah, you, you've heard of me, you at Roy Wood Jr.: least know my name. Roy Wood Jr.: So it some markets.
Roy Wood Jr.: It works, some that didn't. Roy Wood Jr.: But that the point calls. Roy Wood Jr.: They definitely helped to extend my reach Roy Wood Jr.: and and in return, the radio djs they got, Roy Wood Jr.: they got free content to help make your Roy Wood Jr.: show better. Roy Wood Jr.: I'm still in touch with a lot of those guys Roy Wood Jr.: to this day do you now go to those, those Roy Wood Jr.: when you're touring? do you go and do those shows now, or still, or no?
Roy Wood Jr.: most of those markets I don't play anymore Roy Wood Jr.: respect, respect. You know you got to play places on your way up and you know the venues change. Yeah, that makes sense. So when does when does it like for you? Because you mentioned you got the syndicated show as well. At what point do you say you know what?
Roy Wood Jr.: like, my career is really on the stand-up, Roy Wood Jr.: like it's no longer syndicated radio would Roy Wood Jr.: I like when I like, felt confident enough Roy Wood Jr.: just in, stand up. Roy Wood Jr.: 07 08. Roy Wood Jr.: I moved to LA in 07 January of 2007.
Roy Wood Jr.: I was hitlining just enough, so it felt Roy Wood Jr.: like, oh okay, I think I can do this for a Roy Wood Jr.: living now and be okay and at that point Roy Wood Jr.: you, when you kind of make that move, la is Roy Wood Jr.: its own kind of world. Had you been going there a lot already, kind of had your kind of places, your people there, or was it?
Roy Wood Jr.: I'd probably been going there, maybe like Roy Wood Jr.: once a month for a year before, to the Roy Wood Jr.: point where people thought I already lived Roy Wood Jr.: in. Roy Wood Jr.: La, like I, by design, I like set it up. Roy Wood Jr.: I was like, oh yeah, I am I live in la now Roy Wood Jr.: and I'll be right back in three weeks. Roy Wood Jr.: I have gigs but I was still in birmingham Roy Wood Jr.: doing mornings, um.
Roy Wood Jr.: But I kind of primed the pump with la going Roy Wood Jr.: back and forth for a year so that by the Roy Wood Jr.: time I officially moved I'd already made Roy Wood Jr.: the connection, I knew who I needed to know Roy Wood Jr.: to start the process of like trying to Roy Wood Jr.: climb that mountain. Roy Wood Jr.: But that was the first time where I like Roy Wood Jr.: felt confident enough because my rent went Roy Wood Jr.: from 575 to, I think, 1800 in LA 1800.
Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, that's a bit of a jump it was a big Roy Wood Jr.: jump when you're used to paying 575, and Roy Wood Jr.: the downside to LA, though, was that all my Roy Wood Jr.: money was back east until I started really Roy Wood Jr.: hitting it off on colleges.
Roy Wood Jr.: But even then, doing colleges that means Roy Wood Jr.: you're out of LA Right, and college season Roy Wood Jr.: is February to April, which, at the time, Roy Wood Jr.: that was pilot season, when all the Roy Wood Jr.: auditions were going out, so I couldn't Roy Wood Jr.: audition for anything. The whole point of going to LA is pilot season, correct? Yeah, yeah. Roy Wood Jr.: So that part I did wrong.
Roy Wood Jr.: I probably would have been in hindsight I Roy Wood Jr.: should have moved to New York because it's Roy Wood Jr.: shorter flights to go get my money and then Roy Wood Jr.: I can just get better as a standup. Roy Wood Jr.: I didn't really book outside of standup Roy Wood Jr.: gigs. Roy Wood Jr.: I did not book anything of significance in Roy Wood Jr.: Los Angeles for the greater part of eight, Roy Wood Jr.: six years. Really no. Roy Wood Jr.: Nothing that justified me being there.
Roy Wood Jr.: I just bounced around and did sets around Roy Wood Jr.: town and built friendships. Roy Wood Jr.: But I could have done all that in New York Roy Wood Jr.: and been a better comedian. Roy Wood Jr.: I'd have been way better off. Yeah, Do you feel like know you've lived in new york now for a little while like think about the comedy community in new york and the comedy community in la and I know it's crossover. Obviously a lot of people know each other. What is that community?
How do they, how does that help you as you kind of become immersed in that world? Roy Wood Jr.: um, I think new york is a better is a Roy Wood Jr.: series of better accountability partners in Roy Wood Jr.: terms of just getting better as a stand-up. Roy Wood Jr.: If you want to be a good comic, go to New Roy Wood Jr.: York. Roy Wood Jr.: If you want to be a good entertainer, go to Roy Wood Jr.: LA.
Roy Wood Jr.: Good actor good writer, good producer, you Roy Wood Jr.: don't do all that other shit. Roy Wood Jr.: Go to LA, make the connects, meet the Roy Wood Jr.: people who you need to meet.
Roy Wood Jr.: La, you were always getting tipped off on Roy Wood Jr.: what the next opportunity was to level up Roy Wood Jr.: your career, whereas New York, you come off Roy Wood Jr.: stage and two solid comics who've watched Roy Wood Jr.: you do that bit all week will give you a Roy Wood Jr.: tag or call you out for still doing it Roy Wood Jr.: after a year and a half.
Roy Wood Jr.: La is littered with people who haven't Roy Wood Jr.: changed the syllable of their act in Roy Wood Jr.: forever because they think tonight's the Roy Wood Jr.: night that the magic career-changing wizard Roy Wood Jr.: will be in the crowd and make everything Roy Wood Jr.: better for your career.
Roy Wood Jr.: Meanwhile, you can be in New York and Roy Wood Jr.: Christopher Nolan can walk in with Leo, and Roy Wood Jr.: across from them is Gerard Butler and it's Roy Wood Jr.: like whatever. Roy Wood Jr.: Here's the jokes tonight, whereas if it's Roy Wood Jr.: LA, people all crowd around to see if. Roy Wood Jr.: Did he laugh? Roy Wood Jr.: Did he like me? Roy Wood Jr.: Is he going to? Roy Wood Jr.: Why is he here tonight? Roy Wood Jr.: Is he casting something?
Roy Wood Jr.: No one gives a fuck. Just doing the job. That's my favorite thing about New York is you can be anyone you are. Whoever you are, no one cares. Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, it just doesn't matter. And you can go to the comedy cellar. You can go to any of the comedy rooms and know you're going to get a good show and maybe someone will drop by. Maybe they won't, but in the end you're sitting as close as we are to whoever's there.
Roy Wood Jr.: It doesn't matter, new York is you are Roy Wood Jr.: running with people, and when you're Roy Wood Jr.: running with people, there's always Roy Wood Jr.: somebody that's running past you going come Roy Wood Jr.: on, come on, keep up Encouraging. Roy Wood Jr.: You know, I'm not saying that doesn't exist Roy Wood Jr.: in LA, I'm just saying I never saw it.
It's more of a. It is more of a literal community of people supporting each other, helping you all get better, versus a competition. There's always a competition, but you know. Roy Wood Jr.: That's it in a nutshell. Yeah. Roy Wood Jr.: That's really what it is. So what's interesting to me about that is and I agree with that, by the way, I think that's true, not just in comedy in New York.
I think that's true as someone who's lived in the comedy world, lived in the tech world in New York, new York. I mean I think that's true, like as someone who's, like, lived in the comedy world, lived in the tech world in New York very similar, you know very much like everyone want to. You know, get everyone. If you do well, you want the next person to do well. You always want to help the next person yeah but obviously you know you're not, you're not uh shy to to be confident in your comedy.
Even you entered into the competition of comics and last comic standing um, yeah, I did all the competition comedy, yeah, where did that start or how did that start? Roy Wood Jr.: showtime at the apollo. Roy Wood Jr.: 2002 was the first one. Roy Wood Jr.: Boom star search 2003 the reboot. Roy Wood Jr.: There was a reboot of star search with Roy Wood Jr.: Arsenio in 03. Roy Wood Jr.: It was around the same.
Roy Wood Jr.: This is the rise of American Idol, and Roy Wood Jr.: American Idol brought back the research of Roy Wood Jr.: singing in competition shows. Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, apollo Star Search Live in Hollywood, Roy Wood Jr.: which was essentially a West Coast version Roy Wood Jr.: of the Apollo. Are they all? Are all those just comedy? Roy Wood Jr.: Star. Search wasn't right.
Roy Wood Jr.: No, star Search was like categories and in Roy Wood Jr.: the comedy category she versed another Roy Wood Jr.: community. Roy Wood Jr.: But the whole show is a bunch of different Roy Wood Jr.: genres of entertainment. Roy Wood Jr.: Same game we shut down at the Apollo Comedy Roy Wood Jr.: Century. Roy Wood Jr.: Used centuries have a competition called Roy Wood Jr.: the laugh riots, which I got to the Roy Wood Jr.: semifinals three times. Roy Wood Jr.: Finals once, um.
Roy Wood Jr.: Then somewhere there started the run of Roy Wood Jr.: last comic standing. Roy Wood Jr.: I had a good run in 2010 where I got to the Roy Wood Jr.: front. Roy Wood Jr.: I got third place. Roy Wood Jr.: But who was hosting it before that? Roy Wood Jr.: The? year that I got third place. Who was? Roy Wood Jr.: hosting it at that point. Roy Wood Jr.: The year that I got third place was Craig Roy Wood Jr.: Robinson.
Roy Wood Jr.: There was an 07 year where I did really Roy Wood Jr.: well. Roy Wood Jr.: Well enough, I got to the semis that night. Roy Wood Jr.: I didn't get to go to LA Then the first Roy Wood Jr.: year I didn't get to win it. Roy Wood Jr.: What I eventually learned about competition Roy Wood Jr.: comedy is that it's just all rooted in. Roy Wood Jr.: You just need to do well and find your Roy Wood Jr.: audience.
Roy Wood Jr.: But because of the competitive nature of Roy Wood Jr.: comedians, it's must destroy, must win, Roy Wood Jr.: must be best. Roy Wood Jr.: No one can beat me and it's like chill out.
It didn't need to be that, it's okay and and the thing I I remember watching some of last, last time I was standing I forget which, which seasons I watched, but I always felt like the challenge with it was that, as a you're, you're, you're in a place where you kind of need to be everything to everyone, as opposed to you know being able to be your own voice, not that your own voice can be funny to everyone, but that you're on national television.
Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, but you're on a national television Roy Wood Jr.: show doing specific forms of comedy. Roy Wood Jr.: Last Comic's just going to boil competition Roy Wood Jr.: comedy. Roy Wood Jr.: On our network show she's going to boil Roy Wood Jr.: down to which comedian appeals to the most Roy Wood Jr.: of the masses. Roy Wood Jr.: And when you look at some of the past Roy Wood Jr.: winners, it tracks and that's not.
Roy Wood Jr.: At some of the past winners it tracks and Roy Wood Jr.: that's not a bad thing, it's just okay. Roy Wood Jr.: Well, I'm not going to win, but I'm going Roy Wood Jr.: to do exactly what I do so that the people Roy Wood Jr.: who like what I do now know I exist, a Roy Wood Jr.: network person, might see me and want you Roy Wood Jr.: know. Roy Wood Jr.: Right, you know. Roy Wood Jr.: You look at a comedian like Lil Rel Howery. Roy Wood Jr.: Rel was on my season in 2010.
Roy Wood Jr.: Rel does very specific characters and tells Roy Wood Jr.: stories. Roy Wood Jr.: We were never allowed to do a set longer Roy Wood Jr.: than two minutes and 15 seconds. Can't tell stories and do characters. Roy Wood Jr.: It'd take two minutes to set up the Roy Wood Jr.: character before you drop them into the Roy Wood Jr.: narrative. Right. Roy Wood Jr.: So you know, but if you look at the arc of Roy Wood Jr.: his career since then, pretty solid, I'd Roy Wood Jr.: say.
Roy Wood Jr.: So if you do well enough, long enough, in Roy Wood Jr.: this industry, you'll be fine and you just Roy Wood Jr.: can't get upset about it. Roy Wood Jr.: So I just looked at Last Comic Standing as Roy Wood Jr.: an opportunity to be seen by more people Roy Wood Jr.: and the people who, like me, hopefully will Roy Wood Jr.: gravitate to me. And certainly like they can work as a springboard, the way American Idol works. They're a springboard for people who even don't win.
They get a lot of people who didn't win have better careers than the winners did you know? Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, that's definitely the case. Roy Wood Jr.: I mean, last Comic is interesting because Roy Wood Jr.: there were seasons where they picked Roy Wood Jr.: comedians to be in the house, to be in the Roy Wood Jr.: final 10, who were kind of already big dogs Roy Wood Jr.: in a way, and then sometimes they pick some Roy Wood Jr.: that weren't.
Roy Wood Jr.: But regardless, if you have an opportunity Roy Wood Jr.: to find people who like you as a comedian, Roy Wood Jr.: that's a win, because it's noisy and it's Roy Wood Jr.: very, very difficult to do. Roy Wood Jr.: You know, even more recently, the guys like Roy Wood Jr.: Mikey Winifield or Preacher Lawson, who are Roy Wood Jr.: both like beasts of regulars on America's Roy Wood Jr.: Got Talent. Roy Wood Jr.: That's a good thing.
Roy Wood Jr.: Even if they hadn't won, that's a good look. Roy Wood Jr.: So I think that's what you have to be Roy Wood Jr.: looking out for as a comedian is playing Roy Wood Jr.: along. Well for you. You mentioned how you should have moved to New York instead of LA because of how your audience was. It's the only thing in my career. I've changed, but you have done. You know, you have acted. You have had roles on a sitcom.
Was that the next step you wanted to take, or was it really just getting your stand-up building bigger and bigger? Roy Wood Jr.: No, I moved to LA because I thought it was Roy Wood Jr.: time to get a sitcom and then I had a Roy Wood Jr.: couple of meetings with companies and it Roy Wood Jr.: didn't go anywhere. Roy Wood Jr.: It didn't go to anything, never met a Roy Wood Jr.: writer, never wrote a show, never sold a Roy Wood Jr.: script.
Roy Wood Jr.: You know, my buddy, steve Byrne, cast me in Roy Wood Jr.: a sitcom Sullivan and Son in 2011, maybe Roy Wood Jr.: 2010. Roy Wood Jr.: And that that was the thing that slowly, Roy Wood Jr.: you know. You had a few seasons on that, right. Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, it was three seasons, we did three Roy Wood Jr.: seasons, and that was my first foray into Roy Wood Jr.: any regular acting gig ever. Had you done much acting before that? I actually didn't look at that Not really.
Roy Wood Jr.: I was in a PBS Civil War reenactment. Roy Wood Jr.: I don't know how much you count that We'll Roy Wood Jr.: count it for this conversation. Roy Wood Jr.: But you know, I don't think I've done any Roy Wood Jr.: guest star Like. Roy Wood Jr.: All I've done was late night yeah, conan Roy Wood Jr.: and Craig Ferguson and Chelsea lately. Roy Wood Jr.: But then, you're being yourself. Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, exactly, so it's like I've met people, Roy Wood Jr.: but am I really killing it?
Roy Wood Jr.: I don't think so. How did you feel about that sitcom experience that I hear I've never. I've never had that 9 to 5 sitcom life, but I understand. A lot of comedians I've talked to are like this is great. Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, multi-cam, yeah, multi-cam. Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, a single camera show your ass is Roy Wood Jr.: working. Roy Wood Jr.: Oh yeah, you're on your feet all day. Roy Wood Jr.: But a multi-cam is very much like a regular Roy Wood Jr.: job.
Roy Wood Jr.: You come in, rehearse, rehearse the script Roy Wood Jr.: a little bit, go home next day the writers Roy Wood Jr.: show you a new script based on what you Roy Wood Jr.: rehearse. Roy Wood Jr.: Yep, relearn the lines, rehearse it. Roy Wood Jr.: Do that three, four days in a row. Roy Wood Jr.: Three days. Roy Wood Jr.: Fourth day, you camera block for the Roy Wood Jr.: cameraman, so they know exactly where to be. Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, and day five, you shoot it.
Roy Wood Jr.: It's pretty good deal. Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, it's a very solid deal. Roy Wood Jr.: So you know that was that was cool. Roy Wood Jr.: You know that was that was cool. Roy Wood Jr.: You know the network canceled us and then Roy Wood Jr.: that's how I ended up out here on the daily Roy Wood Jr.: show, because you know just opportunities Roy Wood Jr.: lined up at the same time. You know yeah that's let's talk about the daily show preparation.
Roy Wood Jr.: I don't fucking know what to call it, but I Roy Wood Jr.: want to. I want to get to actually before we get to the digital. I want to talk about one other thing, about sitcoms, because don't you have a sitcom that you did write? Yeah, I've got a couple yeah in development for the probation one. Roy Wood Jr.: yeah, that one. Roy Wood Jr.: I had a probation one in um in development Roy Wood Jr.: at comedy central.
Roy Wood Jr.: I stole some jeans when I was in college Roy Wood Jr.: and I had a really good probation officer Roy Wood Jr.: who was like very integral and like helping Roy Wood Jr.: me stay like on the straight and narrow.
Roy Wood Jr.: So I'm like, oh, what would recidivism look Roy Wood Jr.: like if they had more probation officers Roy Wood Jr.: that followed the fucking rules but bent Roy Wood Jr.: them a little bit because they understand Roy Wood Jr.: the rules they're hired to enforce are Roy Wood Jr.: bullshit. Roy Wood Jr.: So we did that. Roy Wood Jr.: That one didn't go.
Roy Wood Jr.: But since that time I've sold a couple of Roy Wood Jr.: sitcom scripts that I've been able to write, Roy Wood Jr.: some helping other writers, but most of Roy Wood Jr.: them quarterbacking myself, and like that's Roy Wood Jr.: been. Roy Wood Jr.: Like that's been dope, that's been very Roy Wood Jr.: dope to be able to be a part of.
Roy Wood Jr.: And you know I have to attribute a lot of Roy Wood Jr.: that time to the time on Sullivan and Roy Wood Jr.: because, knowing what I know now, steve Roy Wood Jr.: Byrne and his producers were very, very Roy Wood Jr.: kind because they would let you hang in the Roy Wood Jr.: writer's room while rewrite was happening Roy Wood Jr.: and it's like damn, in hindsight I was Roy Wood Jr.: learning way too much. Roy Wood Jr.: Most actors are not allowed. Roy Wood Jr.: I didn't say shit.
Roy Wood Jr.: But just to be in prose. Roy Wood Jr.: There's no film school that could give you Roy Wood Jr.: that information or that to recreate. Roy Wood Jr.: You can't even simulate it, yeah. How is that? If you think about the scripts that you've been writing, because I mean sitcom writing is a very specific format, as is screenplay writing, as is whatever. How have you found adapting to that style as a writer?
Roy Wood Jr.: I'd say that TV is about the characters and Roy Wood Jr.: the things they go through. Roy Wood Jr.: Movies are about the story and how it Roy Wood Jr.: affects the characters. Roy Wood Jr.: That's really the only way I can put it. Roy Wood Jr.: Tv is a series of breadcrumbs over which a Roy Wood Jr.: character can evolve or not evolve, but Roy Wood Jr.: it's just a character reacting to these Roy Wood Jr.: things.
Roy Wood Jr.: Whereas in a movie you have a character and Roy Wood Jr.: then these things happen to them and then Roy Wood Jr.: the character has to change and evolve, tv, Roy Wood Jr.: your character doesn't have to be different Roy Wood Jr.: by the end of the episode. Roy Wood Jr.: If you learned a lesson, cool if not cool. but over the arc of it, which has changed over the course of the years.
The sitcom used to be the arc of the show was its own little bubble, right, correct, and now we have this longer storyline. Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, you can play it.
Roy Wood Jr.: I mean, if you're talking cable comedies, Roy Wood Jr.: then yeah, it's definitely a different, Roy Wood Jr.: only murders in the building type of thing, Roy Wood Jr.: whereas if you look at a show more Roy Wood Jr.: currently, like, say, abbott elementary, Roy Wood Jr.: these are teachers figuring out how to deal Roy Wood Jr.: with the problems that are thrown at them Roy Wood Jr.: today.
Yeah. Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, you know, at the end of the show we Roy Wood Jr.: don't need to know if Quentin Brunson's Roy Wood Jr.: character is eventually going to be Roy Wood Jr.: principal, or is that her goal? Roy Wood Jr.: Has she told the staff that she plans to Roy Wood Jr.: retire at the end? Roy Wood Jr.: There's no underlying thing of that nature. Roy Wood Jr.: There's a romance beeline of whether or not Roy Wood Jr.: you're going to date the other, like Roy Wood Jr.: there's that.
Roy Wood Jr.: But the sense of I'm watching this, Roy Wood Jr.: understanding that this character is going Roy Wood Jr.: to be different at the end, whereas in some Roy Wood Jr.: TV the big difference is that maybe the Roy Wood Jr.: character doesn't change at all, maybe it's Roy Wood Jr.: about just telling fun stories, sure, and Roy Wood Jr.: there's a place for all those things. That's why we have so many. We have a good amount of animated sitcoms that haven't changed in years.
They just have a great 30 minutes or 22 minutes of humor. Roy Wood Jr.: You watch Family Guy. Roy Wood Jr.: You know what you're going to do. Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah you do. You do. Roy Wood Jr.: You know and that's, and I think in that Roy Wood Jr.: regard, for television, for a lot of people Roy Wood Jr.: it's comforting, it's escapism, yeah, and Roy Wood Jr.: so I don't want this guy to change, I don't Roy Wood Jr.: want this guy to be a different.
Roy Wood Jr.: You know, whatever, whatever you know, like Roy Wood Jr.: there was, I was reading a book about the, Roy Wood Jr.: the history of the office and they talked Roy Wood Jr.: about Steve Carell's exit and the debate Roy Wood Jr.: around doing a of people didn't want to see Roy Wood Jr.: Dwight as the boss because for 130 episodes Roy Wood Jr.: he's been this yeah, so I don't know if I Roy Wood Jr.: can handle it, so they don't want anything.
Roy Wood Jr.: But if this was a movie about an office, Roy Wood Jr.: the movie would end with Dwight putting on Roy Wood Jr.: the, finally tying up his tie and then Roy Wood Jr.: having world's best boss above. Yeah, you can see the ending shot and he's making his first cup of coffee. Roy Wood Jr.: He makes his first cup of coffee and black. Roy Wood Jr.: To me, that's the difference between TV and Roy Wood Jr.: movies. So you have some scripts in development now.
Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, there's some stuff that I'm clicking Roy Wood Jr.: on publicly. Roy Wood Jr.: I can't say any of it, sure, of course, but Roy Wood Jr.: yeah, we're writing. Roy Wood Jr.: I did not jump off the Daily Show into the Roy Wood Jr.: abyss. Roy Wood Jr.: Well, I'm glad to hear that I'm a fucking Roy Wood Jr.: father, so I must feed the child. Roy Wood Jr.: So things must get written Of course.
Well, let's talk about the Daily Show, because I enjoy the fact that we've kind of taken this journey into what got you there, taking this journey into what got you there. Roy Wood Jr.: So the sitcom ends, and what's your state Roy Wood Jr.: of mind at that point? Roy Wood Jr.: Shit happens. Roy Wood Jr.: I didn't care. Roy Wood Jr.: It sucked, but the idea of bad news being Roy Wood Jr.: bad, it's just news. Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, it's like oh okay, we got canceled.
Roy Wood Jr.: Well, what are we going to figure out? Roy Wood Jr.: You're still doing stand-up. Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, never stop stand-up. Roy Wood Jr.: I had a brief thought about going about Roy Wood Jr.: moving to New York. Roy Wood Jr.: Sully ends 2013. Roy Wood Jr.: All of 2014, I tour and I'm doing stuff on Roy Wood Jr.: ESPN, finally bringing that sports Roy Wood Jr.: journalism. Roy Wood Jr.: So, Sports Nation.
Roy Wood Jr.: There's a guy I graduated journalism school Roy Wood Jr.: with who became a producer at ESPN and he Roy Wood Jr.: called me at the top of 2014. Roy Wood Jr.: He goes hey, would you ever want to come up Roy Wood Jr.: here and sit in on one of the know? Roy Wood Jr.: We got this guy, bomani jones. Roy Wood Jr.: I think you two would be fun together. Roy Wood Jr.: There's also this new lady, jamel hill. Roy Wood Jr.: Maybe all would be cool.
Roy Wood Jr.: We were going to put it with this other guy, Roy Wood Jr.: mike smith, and so I started going up to Roy Wood Jr.: bristol every other month when I was on the Roy Wood Jr.: east coast to do shows. Roy Wood Jr.: I I do well enough at the ESPN properties Roy Wood Jr.: at Bristol. Roy Wood Jr.: He reaches out, the producer guy reaches Roy Wood Jr.: out to the producer for Sports Nation, Roy Wood Jr.: which shoots in LA.
Roy Wood Jr.: So I became a regular guest on Sports Roy Wood Jr.: Nation. Roy Wood Jr.: So all these shows as a comedian. Roy Wood Jr.: This is in the era where ESPN would just Roy Wood Jr.: put random comedians on TV. Roy Wood Jr.: That does not happen now, but in those days, Roy Wood Jr.: yeah, we're going to talk sports and also Roy Wood Jr.: joining us is this schmuck who's doing the Roy Wood Jr.: comedy, chucklehead or whatever. Did you have a tremendous amount of sports knowledge?
Roy Wood Jr.: I'm a regular sports viewer. Roy Wood Jr.: I think the job of a comedian on any show Roy Wood Jr.: like that is to just be a fan. Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, but you were a fan. Yeah, but you are a fan though, yeah. Roy Wood Jr.: I don't need to know who the fourth Roy Wood Jr.: quarterback is. Roy Wood Jr.: That was in the draft in 1995.
Roy Wood Jr.: I don't need to Mill Kuyper Jr, I don't Roy Wood Jr.: need to be a stat nerd, I just need to have Roy Wood Jr.: a passion about the sports that I'm Roy Wood Jr.: passionate about, and those are the sports Roy Wood Jr.: that they'll call you in to have an opinion Roy Wood Jr.: on. Roy Wood Jr.: And when you speak, you better be funny. Roy Wood Jr.: So that discipline of here's the news story.
Roy Wood Jr.: What's the joke that you have that no one Roy Wood Jr.: else on earth would have about this thing? Roy Wood Jr.: And that's kind of where that would be the Roy Wood Jr.: muscle that would become the most used at Roy Wood Jr.: the Daily Show. Roy Wood Jr.: But at the time, 2014 was the development. Were you pre-writing these jokes coming into those broadcasts? Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, no one helps you at ESPN. Roy Wood Jr.: They don't have writers.
Roy Wood Jr.: They don't have comedy writers, they have Roy Wood Jr.: producers who will tell you all right, man, Roy Wood Jr.: this is the segment. Roy Wood Jr.: We know these three people's opinion is Roy Wood Jr.: going to be this. Roy Wood Jr.: We've already had a prep meeting this Roy Wood Jr.: morning, so I know how Michelle Beadle and Roy Wood Jr.: Max Kellerman are going to feel.
Roy Wood Jr.: We know how Marcellus Wiley is going to Roy Wood Jr.: feel, so just keep that in mind as you Roy Wood Jr.: create. Roy Wood Jr.: And that's just them kind of soft Roy Wood Jr.: suggesting. Roy Wood Jr.: Don't make the same point as the other Roy Wood Jr.: three people, because that's not why you're Roy Wood Jr.: fucking here. Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, and that's about that's great Roy Wood Jr.: producing, totally. That's fair yeah, so that's why panels are good.
Roy Wood Jr.: You know when you have disagreements and Roy Wood Jr.: you have some back and forth, you know so Roy Wood Jr.: it taught me that time at espn, taught me Roy Wood Jr.: how to think differently from everybody Roy Wood Jr.: else and start having predictive ideologies Roy Wood Jr.: on okay. Roy Wood Jr.: Well, here's the story you already know. Roy Wood Jr.: Everybody's going to say this or this. Roy Wood Jr.: Hmm, what if I say this Just off the Roy Wood Jr.: opinion alone?
Roy Wood Jr.: You're going to get a laugh. Roy Wood Jr.: And around then was the change, you know, Roy Wood Jr.: in how I saw humor, how I chose to put Roy Wood Jr.: jokes together. Roy Wood Jr.: Like that was the beginning of that. That's something like an important, I think, realization, right Like, is that conscious or that you kind of saw a different? Roy Wood Jr.: No, it was just a new habit that got Roy Wood Jr.: results, so I just kept doing it.
Roy Wood Jr.: I never had to think about humor from a Roy Wood Jr.: place of not stepping on other people's Roy Wood Jr.: toes, so in a lot of cases my punchlines Roy Wood Jr.: were obvious and easy. Roy Wood Jr.: The joke was still funny, but it wasn't Roy Wood Jr.: unique enough. Roy Wood Jr.: The thought, the ideology wasn't unique Roy Wood Jr.: enough. Roy Wood Jr.: So I started enjoying having the most Roy Wood Jr.: unique take on things.
Roy Wood Jr.: So I just pressed forward with that in my Roy Wood Jr.: humor. Roy Wood Jr.: 2015 comes, jon Stewart leaves and I get a Roy Wood Jr.: call from my boy, neil Brennan. Roy Wood Jr.: Neil Brennan says, talking to Trevor Roy Wood Jr.: they're looking for new correspondents. Roy Wood Jr.: Do you want to put your name in the hat? Roy Wood Jr.: I go, absolutely. Roy Wood Jr.: Producers, give me a call. Roy Wood Jr.: Sure enough.
Roy Wood Jr.: First thing, they're looking for new Roy Wood Jr.: correspondents. Roy Wood Jr.: Do you want to put your name in the hat? Roy Wood Jr.: I go, absolutely. Roy Wood Jr.: Producers give me a call. Roy Wood Jr.: Sure enough. Roy Wood Jr.: First thing they're checking is all of the Roy Wood Jr.: footage of me on ESPN. This goes back to your radio days too. You had the footage already. Roy Wood Jr.: I had proof.
Roy Wood Jr.: So I just didn't know that when I was doing Roy Wood Jr.: the thing, that it was preparing me for the Roy Wood Jr.: next film. Roy Wood Jr.: That's why I trust anything that I'm doing Roy Wood Jr.: now. Roy Wood Jr.: It's just okay. Roy Wood Jr.: There's a reason this is happening. Roy Wood Jr.: Don't know why, but I'm going to do it. Roy Wood Jr.: So, yeah, they started ESPN stuff, and Roy Wood Jr.: sports is harder than politics, I would Roy Wood Jr.: argue as a comedian.
Roy Wood Jr.: How come? Roy Wood Jr.: Because sports fans, everyone within the Roy Wood Jr.: ecosystem of sports, thinks that they're Roy Wood Jr.: right. Roy Wood Jr.: We're in politics. Roy Wood Jr.: No, in politics it's understood that I'm Roy Wood Jr.: right, they're wrong. Roy Wood Jr.: There's no wrong party in sports like like Roy Wood Jr.: I would rather like, if you ask me.
Roy Wood Jr.: I saw Keegan-Michael Key one time at the Roy Wood Jr.: airport or some shit, and I told him and Roy Wood Jr.: his wife because he hosts the NFL Honors. Roy Wood Jr.: To me that's more difficult than the Roy Wood Jr.: correspondence, jenna, to a room full of Roy Wood Jr.: athletes who have forever been told they Roy Wood Jr.: are the best. Roy Wood Jr.: Who are you stranger, who I don't respect, Roy Wood Jr.: to make a joke about me? Roy Wood Jr.: How dare you?
Roy Wood Jr.: Do you know how good I am and how elite I Roy Wood Jr.: am? Roy Wood Jr.: How dare you? Roy Wood Jr.: As politicians I can go. Roy Wood Jr.: Y'all are stupid. Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, we stupid, but y'all not as stupid as Roy Wood Jr.: them. Roy Wood Jr.: There's someone to hate. Roy Wood Jr.: There's someone to laugh at Sports. Roy Wood Jr.: We stupid, but y'all not as stupid as them.
Yeah, that's that. Roy Wood Jr.: There's someone to hate, there's someone to Roy Wood Jr.: laugh at Sports. Roy Wood Jr.: You don't have that. Roy Wood Jr.: Also, you know sports you cannot talk bad Roy Wood Jr.: about. Roy Wood Jr.: There's too many landmines. Roy Wood Jr.: I can't insult the team, I can't insult the Roy Wood Jr.: fans, I cannot insult the owners. Roy Wood Jr.: I cannot insult the fans, I cannot insult Roy Wood Jr.: the owners, I cannot insult the players.
Roy Wood Jr.: Now find me a joke that doesn't touch one Roy Wood Jr.: of those four tripwires, and that's the Roy Wood Jr.: joke you get to do. Roy Wood Jr.: And when you get used to dodging those Roy Wood Jr.: tripwires, it's easy to write politics, Roy Wood Jr.: because politics allows you to step on Roy Wood Jr.: landlines.
Roy Wood Jr.: It's better that you do piss somebody off, Roy Wood Jr.: because that means there's another group of Roy Wood Jr.: people going fuck yeah, tell them that's Roy Wood Jr.: what you should do, and I mean the Daily Roy Wood Jr.: Show also. There's not a knock on sports, but I feel like doing that in a smart way in politics is hard Correct. You know what I mean? Correct Because it's so like there's so many easy jokes to make about either side Mm-hmm Every day, you know.
But to do that in a way that makes people think. That's where I think that, like you know your work and the Daily Show's work and John Oliver's work and Seth's work, I think they all get like. Really I think I I admire them a lot because they're not just making the year stupid. Roy Wood Jr.: They're almost like. Roy Wood Jr.: We're right, they're wrong Right. It's almost like I went to J school as well.
I think about everything you write, had to back up your headline or your nut graph or whatever it grows, and I feel like the smart way of doing that comedically is showing, not telling, right. Like we can say, donald Trump is a buffoon and people might laugh at that or use other adjectives that people might laugh at, but to give a whole lot of like just proof that that's true is, I think, more entertaining, but also more education. Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, it's more fun. Roy Wood Jr.: It's more fun.
And so, going into the Daily Show, how do you approach that? You know, thinking about the fact that politics might be easier, but there's certainly a variety of ways to approach it. Roy Wood Jr.: It was the same as ESPN. Roy Wood Jr.: Here's the news. Roy Wood Jr.: What's the weird observation I can make Roy Wood Jr.: that no one else has made? Roy Wood Jr.: What's the weird observation I can make Roy Wood Jr.: that no one else has made?
Roy Wood Jr.: And then from that then expand into making Roy Wood Jr.: the political points or whatever. Roy Wood Jr.: But first look at the issue, figure out Roy Wood Jr.: what can be said about it. Roy Wood Jr.: You know, with the Daily Show, you know Roy Wood Jr.: time there a lot of it is about.
Roy Wood Jr.: Even if it's a tragic issue, you don't joke Roy Wood Jr.: about the issue, you joke about the Roy Wood Jr.: causation that led to it or you joke about Roy Wood Jr.: the people who are preventing changing Roy Wood Jr.: policies that could keep that issue from Roy Wood Jr.: happening again.
Roy Wood Jr.: So that kind of becomes you know the game, Roy Wood Jr.: but you know you get lucky because you walk Roy Wood Jr.: in the building and there's people that Roy Wood Jr.: have already been doing the job longer than Roy Wood Jr.: you and they got you. Roy Wood Jr.: So I think that's probably the coolest Roy Wood Jr.: thing about Daily Show is that I came in Roy Wood Jr.: and immediately my first field piece was Roy Wood Jr.: with Jordan Klepper.
Roy Wood Jr.: It was good to sit and watch. Roy Wood Jr.: I got to say words, I did stuff too, but to Roy Wood Jr.: just be in the mix with him it's like oh Roy Wood Jr.: okay, I see how this goes. Roy Wood Jr.: Sit in a notes meeting with Hasan Minhaj or Roy Wood Jr.: sit over in the cut with Jessica Williams. Roy Wood Jr.: These are all the people that were already Roy Wood Jr.: there when I got there. Roy Wood Jr.: And they're brilliant, brilliant comedians.
Roy Wood Jr.: So yeah, so they gave me the game man, and Roy Wood Jr.: then you just start figuring out how to put Roy Wood Jr.: your own twist on it. Well, I was wondering, like, if you think about when you walked in there, you said 2015,. Right, when you started there, and you think about the eight years or so that you're there, how does your approach change? Roy Wood Jr.: Like how does your interest in stories Roy Wood Jr.: change?
Roy Wood Jr.: You get a little more courageous in Roy Wood Jr.: juggling bigger sticks and dynamite here Roy Wood Jr.: something that's really not funny. Roy Wood Jr.: I bet you. Roy Wood Jr.: I can find a joke in that.
Roy Wood Jr.: So you start swinging a little bit more for Roy Wood Jr.: the fences and, just with the understanding Roy Wood Jr.: that it's well intentioned, but you know a Roy Wood Jr.: lot of it, just boils down to asking good Roy Wood Jr.: questions of the subjects like that's the Roy Wood Jr.: real. Roy Wood Jr.: To me, that's the real make or break of a Roy Wood Jr.: correspondent.
Roy Wood Jr.: It's just how much your curiosity has Roy Wood Jr.: helped to expose whatever it is the issue Roy Wood Jr.: is about. Roy Wood Jr.: I think that's something that Klepper does Roy Wood Jr.: so amazing. Are there things that you feel like you wish you had done or pieces that you feel like you know you could have pushed harder on? Roy Wood Jr.: I wouldn't say pushed harder, it's just Roy Wood Jr.: Trump was a vacuum.
Roy Wood Jr.: So you have all these other stories you Roy Wood Jr.: want to do, but you can't, because if I can Roy Wood Jr.: vacuum, it's hard to get out the door with Roy Wood Jr.: other stuff Because there's so many other Roy Wood Jr.: pressing things going on. Roy Wood Jr.: I came into the game 2015,. Roy Wood Jr.: Next thing, you know, trump wins, there's a Roy Wood Jr.: Muslim ban and then there's women wearing Roy Wood Jr.: pussy hats. And that was within two months.
Roy Wood Jr.: That was a fast first year. Roy Wood Jr.: You look at my pitch about how Roy Wood Jr.: predominantly black colleges are now Roy Wood Jr.: fielding predominantly white baseball teams. Roy Wood Jr.: That's not exactly a priority piece. Roy Wood Jr.: It's an interesting piece about blacks in Roy Wood Jr.: baseball or the lack thereof, et cetera. Roy Wood Jr.: But yeah, man there's, they're putting kids Roy Wood Jr.: in cages right now.
Roy Wood Jr.: So we kind of need you to go cover that Roy Wood Jr.: story, so it's like, and find the humor Roy Wood Jr.: there. Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, and find the humor there, because Roy Wood Jr.: that's the more pressing matter that people Roy Wood Jr.: are dealing with. Roy Wood Jr.: So there are stories that I wish I could Roy Wood Jr.: have done, but they are all stories that Roy Wood Jr.: are for a more calmer water, when America Roy Wood Jr.: has calmer waters. Who knows when that's over.
By the way, I have to say that I can't imagine whether you're working on the Daily Show or any late night show during the Trump era, even maybe now. That must be just fucking exhausting, knowing that every day. It's like you could start the day with news stories A, b and C and by the end of the day there's seven more things that happen that are completely bonkers. Roy Wood Jr.: It's like what the fuck else could you do?
Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, there's days where you think the show Roy Wood Jr.: is set, then something weird happens at Roy Wood Jr.: rehearsal and you got to cover that. Roy Wood Jr.: Like I still follow the news, I still think Roy Wood Jr.: about it in the context of the show.
Roy Wood Jr.: When Nikki Haley stepped out of the Roy Wood Jr.: presidential race, she did it at 10 o'clock Roy Wood Jr.: in the morning I was like, thank God, Good Roy Wood Jr.: for them, they still have the day to write Roy Wood Jr.: the script, but if she'd have did it at Roy Wood Jr.: 3.30, it's like come on, Nikki. Roy Wood Jr.: Why would you? wait that late in the day. You must have pre-written jokes for that. I'm sure people have pre-written jokes for that, not really.
Roy Wood Jr.: You might have pre-written takes and angles. When she drops out. Here are the things, yeah. Roy Wood Jr.: But to get into the specificity of, she Roy Wood Jr.: dropped out right after Super Tuesday but Roy Wood Jr.: she won Vermont. Roy Wood Jr.: So yay, cheese, like, whatever, like you Roy Wood Jr.: can't get that grain out of you. Roy Wood Jr.: So most of the jokes if they are in a joke Roy Wood Jr.: bucket, it's just more broad stuff yeah, Roy Wood Jr.: yeah.
So, as as you said, obviously the daily show comes to a close for you. You decided to leave in 2023. We have, we're talking for almost an hour now. I want to be cautious of your time. Yeah, what is next? What are you? What are you up to? What can we? Roy Wood Jr.: talk about. Roy Wood Jr.: I'm writing TV shows, I'm writing movies, Roy Wood Jr.: I'm touring doing my stand-up. Roy Wood Jr.: I'm trying to figure out what I would do in Roy Wood Jr.: a non-scripted show capacity.
Roy Wood Jr.: But I'll be honest, I'm kind of waiting to Roy Wood Jr.: see how the industry settles a little bit Roy Wood Jr.: From after the strikes and everything. Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, after the strike there's a lot of Roy Wood Jr.: mergers, companies are broke, so a lot of Roy Wood Jr.: the ideas you have made, amen, I don't have Roy Wood Jr.: the money to execute anymore so you know, I Roy Wood Jr.: don't know.
You have a podcast with our former guest b. Roy Wood Jr.: Yes, yes, tell us about that.
Roy Wood Jr.: Yes, um, so b and I have been working on a Roy Wood Jr.: show called tribulations that we've been Roy Wood Jr.: doing um, we haven't done a new episode yet, Roy Wood Jr.: a new live show yet, but it's been a dope Roy Wood Jr.: show where we basically we invited a live Roy Wood Jr.: audience to show up, entertain them with Roy Wood Jr.: some comedians, but there's QR codes on the Roy Wood Jr.: table and audience members can submit
Roy Wood Jr.: random shit that they're going through and Roy Wood Jr.: then B and I well, me and the comedians Roy Wood Jr.: first give terrible solutions and then we Roy Wood Jr.: bring Bea on stage and then she kind of Roy Wood Jr.: works through, like works through it from a Roy Wood Jr.: more therapeutic point of view. She is a professional at that side of things. That's true, that does help yeah. Yeah, I want to know when they are. Roy Wood Jr.: I want to come to one of these shows.
Roy Wood Jr.: Yeah, absolutely. Roy Wood Jr.: Where do you guys do that? Roy Wood Jr.: We normally do them at city winery, but Roy Wood Jr.: we're still figuring out the system. Roy Wood Jr.: Me quitting the daily show kind of upended Roy Wood Jr.: a lot of pre-existing plans, so I gotta get. Roy Wood Jr.: I gotta get my feet under me in other Roy Wood Jr.: capacities first, because tribulation was a Roy Wood Jr.: labor of love, but that wasn't the thing.
Roy Wood Jr.: That was like making me all of the money Roy Wood Jr.: yet oh sure so yeah, that's the thing that Roy Wood Jr.: like, let's get, let's get solid over here Roy Wood Jr.: and then we can go back into the garage and Roy Wood Jr.: tinker with this little live therapy show Roy Wood Jr.: toy that daddy's been working on Totally, Roy Wood Jr.: get it man. I really appreciate you coming on. Roy Wood Jr.: It's been so good to meet you. Roy Wood Jr.: Good times.
Cheers and you didn't finish the beer. Look at that. Oh no, no, that's it for this episode of story in a Bottle. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review for us in the iTunes store or wherever you listen. I'd like to thank our producers at 1459 Production Management and Charming Robots' Eric Bui for his continued production support and, of course, I'd like to thank my guest, roy Wood Jr, for graciously giving us his time.