In this podcast exclusive, Charlamagne tha God and Daily Show producer, David Kibuuka, discuss Charlamagne's week as guest host, Trump's impending Revenge Tour, and the reason he wanted to interview Rep. Nancy Mace and Nikki Haley. Plus, he talks about how he manages anxiety when performing, and why he believes in consciousness over anti-wokeness.
You're listening to Comedy Central.
You're anti woke. I've been canceled enough to know that it don't kill you.
Hey, here's Edition listeners. This is David Kibuka, a producer on the Daily Show. Every week we want to give you listeners, and here's Edition Extra. Today, I'm here with Charlemagne, the god host of The Breakfast Club and guest host for the Daily.
Show, Kabooka David Kobuka.
Firstly, Charlemagne, Yes, sir, I would like to say to the listeners out there, if you guys think that I am not reading well, I am doing this intentionally to prove that I am not an AI.
You sound like a idol.
All right, how are you doing, Charlemagne?
I am blessed black and holly favored.
How you doing, my brother, I'm blessed black and highly favored as well.
Yespecially to be with you.
Yeah, And we're just here to talk about your experience that you you know, the week that you had. Do you have any overall first impressions that you would like to throw.
Out there as far as television hosting a talk show, because I've done quite a few, and as far as TV is concerned, I've never been a part of a machine that has been this well oiled, you know. I mean, the Daily Show is a system that you would kind of have to be like an idiot to mess this up, you know what I mean, Like, that's how great of a system this is. I'm literally blown away because I'm one of those people who I really like watching the process of things and to coming here at nine o'clock in the morning watch you know, your whole team in the writer's room sitting there watching headlines like y'all are reading your morning paper or you know, watching your morning you know, cable news shows, and you know, laughing at the things that you're seeing coming up with these tapes, and then leaving from there and going into the next writer's room, which you know, where it's scaled down, where it's just you and you know, J and the showrunner a few other people, and it's just like breaking down, Okay, we're going to do this story, that story, that story. But then seeing everybody, all the writers just putting all of the takes in, It's like we just walked out of this room fifteen minutes ago, how was it thirty forty takes already? Right, So it was just like that then coming back and then you know, like stuff like rehearsals and the rewrite after rehearsals.
I've just never been a part of a.
Machine that was that well oiled and like meticulously you know, beat up, beat up, beat up, beat up, beat up a script until you got you know, exactly what you wanted. So it's been like really mind blowing for me and very eye opening for me in a lot of ways.
Oh well, I mean the show has been going for twenty five years, so I think that the length of time the show's air has given the opportunity to make it slicker and slicker. But I will say you are extremely slick, thank you. Like after the first day, I'm like, you are a professional. Remember even said to you.
You whispered to me, you said, well you learn to read like that boy.
Which is I'm like, how you are fully formed, you know what you're doing.
I think that I have ideas and I have takes. I only disagree with you a little bit. I'm fully formed of what I want to say, not how I want to say it. Okay, I think, yeah, when you can sit down with a team and say this is the idea I have this is my my take on it, right, Like my take might be a line or a sentence, like you know, you know, like something simple as simple as hey, Joe Biden and Kamala hass are they still a winnable ticket?
These are the reasons I don't think they are.
And then y'all are able to take that and like crafted and formulated, and I think that's just man.
Yeah, y'all are well old machine.
And it's funny you said that about the time, because I was saying that yesterday to my people. I'm like, I don't think you can get this kind of system without time. And the problem with a lot of you know, networks nowadays, they're not giving anybody time. Yeah, because you can have something good, you can have a good team, but you know, you got to give it time. Everybody wants immediate results, and you know, I don't think that's the way things are when you're trying to really cook up something good, like you have to give it time.
I do agree with you in terms of the fact that time is a crucial ingredient to the success of the show.
And you've been here, like what a decade, right, Yeah.
Coming to a decade. So that's time in itself. A lot happened during your week in the world of the presidential candidates. Mike Pence entered his campaign, Dean Phillips challenged Biden, and then there was the run Dessantus shoe controversy. What do you think is the current states of both parties disarray? I think both parties have lost their way. Both parties have identities that neither one of them are living up to. I think that we're at a crucial point right now where democracy really is on the brink. But Democrats have said that so much that so like, ah, you just the boys and girls who cried wolf at this point. It's get a Democrat who cried wolf at this point, you know, and it's like, no, democracy is really on the brink. But what motivation are you giving the American people to go vote other than fear the time that we should actually literally, truly be afraid. Twenty twenty four is a time where none of us should want to sit home. But they have pushed that card so much that people aren't even like taking it serious anymore. And I fear that we live in a current society where if everything causes outraged and what's truly outrageous. Yes, And when you brought up to Ron DeSantis boots thing, that's a good example, right, because people turn things like that in the news, and it shouldn't be not with everything that's really truly going on in the world, like that shouldn't be something that we're talking about, Like who gives a damn about Ron just Stander's boots. It's funny for us, you know, you know, for radio shows and talk shows, but I'm talking about to the real world where people are out here starving, people aren't feeling safe, you know, like what is being offered you know to them? Yes, you know, And so I just think that, you know, like when you ask me what's the problem with both parties, I just say disarray. Like I think that I would love to see the Democrats move away from President Biden and implement some new energy. And I'd love to see Republicans move away from Donald Trump and implement some new energy.
And this is part of your long story short that you did.
Absolutely I want you to imagine the future. The year is twenty twenty four. Taylor Swift, as head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs. Mitch McConnell has been frozen for four hundred and eighty seven consecutive days, and Joe Biden is up for reelection against a twice impeached, convicted felon. Democrats are clearly nervous about this election, and they should be because, Yeah, Biden has accomplished a lot, historic investments in green energy, record breaking job growth, and he even got a black woman on the Supreme Court. Yeah, I mean with a six y three conservative majority, and she's powerless there, but she at least got a free road. But despite Biden's record as president, it's still close, which is a hell of a thing. You think running against someone who has ninety one felony charges against them, who you.
Already met, would be a pretty easy victory.
So the question is how the actual is Joe Biden losing to Donald Trump. I have a theory and it's something I want to discuss more in Tonight's Long.
Story Short twenty twenty four. You're gonna have three choices.
Yes, you're gonna have you know, Donald Trump, who's the criminal. Yes, you have Joe Biden, who's the coward. I think all of the Democrats the cowards. And then you're gonna have the couch meaning people are going to stay home and sit on their couch, like voter apathy is going to be the biggest issue in twenty twenty four. People feeling like I don't care about that rematch, like I'm not going out to vote for either one of them. And you fool around and you know you have another Trump presidency, yes, and then what yes, you man go about a revenge tour. Remember when Drakes that I'm looking for revenge. You're gonna see Donald Trump. That Donald Trump revenge tour is going to be like when you know Biff got the Almanac and Back to the Future part two and went back the hillside and was making all the bets and was winning everything, but he ruined the whole the whole town. That's that's what Trump is going to do to America. He's gonna lock up all his political all his political opponents, anybody who has ever done Trump wrong. Like it's gonna be bad, yeah, bad, And you know we don't want that, but feels like we can't stop ourselves fro running right into.
That, which goes into like your choice of guests, which seemed to be very you. You had a Republican guest, which the Daily Show is not known for having Republican guests for various reasons. You know, sometimes they don't want to come on or and why did you go with a Republican guest as a choice.
Well, just looking for people I actually wanted to talk to. You know, Nancy Mace, as y'all saw on the show. You know, me and Nancy Mace attended the same high school. You know, we're like the same age. I think I'm like a year older. My mom and her mom both taught at Strafford High School and in South Carolina, Miss Mace and Miss McKelvey.
She got kicked out, well, she dropped out.
I got kicked out, and so you know, we met earlier this year, and I actually saw her on Bill Maher earlier this year. When I saw her on Bill Maher, I was like, I haven't heard a conservative speak like that, you know, I haven't heard a conservative challenging other conservative the way that she was. And then I was like, oh, she's from South Carolina. So I had no idea. I literally had no idea. And so when I started asking about her and you know, looking her up after the fact, you know, after I saw her on Bill Maher and then literally the next friday. This is how fate works. I saw her the next Friday at the Dave Chappelle show. She was in the back and her and Dave were kind of like arguing, you know, because soon as she says she was a conservative, Dave just you know, started telling her about the prophlemc he sees in the Conservative Party, and so it's like we connected then, and like, you know, me and my wife and her her husband went out that night with some of my friends and we just kicked it. So we've just been in constant communication since then. So I just felt like, yo, I'm doing the Daily Show, you know, why not pull up on me and you know, have the conversation. So it wasn't even like, oh, I'm looking for a Republican. I was just thinking, oh, this is be an interesting guest. And then when we were in the meetings with the rest of the producers and I bought her up and they was like, oh, that's great.
We never have Republicans on.
So then I was like, well, hell, let's shoot for Nikki Haley too then, because you know, one thing I found interesting throughout my career was twenty Like the twenty twenty election when it was a whole host of Democrats running like it was, you know, everybody from Kamala Has to Corey Booker, the people to just all these people were running. They all came through the Breakfast Club. And you know, if you've been paying attention to the Breakfast Club this year, it's been kind of happening the same way, like a lot of the Republican presidential candidates have been coming through. And I have no problem talking to people that I don't agree with. I think that's what we should do. I think we should all sit down and have conversations with each other, regardless of what a person's political party is, regardless of a person's race is, you know, regardless what a person's religion is. But sit down and have the conversation. And so it just happened like that. I'm sitting here like y'all they told me they don't really get Republicans. I'm like, oh, let's shoot for Nicki Haley. And I gave Nicki Haley some props on my show on the Breakfast Club a few weeks ago when she talked about the term limits and how she feels like, you know, you should have to step down after a certain age, and I was like, yo, I agree with her, And for whatever reason, me saying I agreed with her turned into Fox News when Nicki Haley was on, the guy on Fox News was like, did you know Charlamage, the god is a fan of yours? Like all I said was I agree with determin limit thing. That's just common sentence. I don't think politicians should have fans, Like I'm not a fan of any politician. And when I saw that, I'm like, okay, let's have her on the Breakfast Club. She already wanted to do the Breakfast Club, so I was just like yo, I just just threw it out there, like, let's try to get her on the Daily Show, and she decided she wanted to do it.
You didn't go for any quote unquote Democrat guests.
Nah, because I felt like I did a lot of that on my other shows on Comedy Central, you know, like I had Vice President Kamala Harrison and I had you know, said Richmond on like I had. I always did that, Like I felt like, you know, let's try something different, yeah, you know, it to make for a more interesting conversation. And I wanted to talk to people I hadn't spoke to before. Yes, you know, I've never interviewed either one of those individuals, Nancy Mace or Nikki Haley, which is very rare for me because I've been doing Breakfast Club for thirteen plus years. Like we've interviewed, damn it, everybody. I've never had a conversation with either one of them. And I think one of the most difficult things to do when you're coming from Breakfast Club a radio show where you have these conversations with people, is making every conversation new and interesting. It's easier to make conversations with politicians new and interesting because there's always something new going on with them. Yes, but I just felt like I've never spoken to either one of those individuals, so why not do it here on the Daily Show.
What was your experience in terms of, like when you were on stage performing or like on set performing, because your choice of humors a little bit darker than maybe what we're used to, and you go for some of the holy cows in our audience.
You didn't care about that.
You were like, no, I'm doing what I'm doing, And you know, what was your experience when it came to that.
Well, for me, funny is funny, And you know, I can't help it if I got a dark sense of humor. And I can't help it if the people here at the Daily Show also have dark senses of humor that they may not be able to express because the host they're using at the time doesn't want to. Because sometimes I'll be looking at the jokes that they write and I'm dying laughing, And.
You know, to me, it's not even dark humor. It's just funny, yes, like that.
The best humor is always that really edgy humor to me, you know, And it's not even to me, it's not even really that edgy. It's just like, oh, I can't believe he said that. Yeah, we need a short president anyway. Okay, people always talk about Napoleon complexes. Well, that guy ruled the entire continent. Abraham Lincoln was tall and he got shot in the head.
So you tell me, you.
Tell me who's more successful.
Okay, But at least now I know why DeSantis is in that huge fight with Disney.
It's not because of wokeness.
It's because you got to be this tall to ride the magic teacups, you know what I mean. It's not like it's disrespecting anybody. It's not like it's putting anybody down. It might make you feel a little bit uncomfortable, but did you laugh. Yeah, we laughed. That's all that matters at the end of the day. Yeah, you know, And like I said, I think I said that this morning. I'm in the meeting and I'm looking at some of the jokes, y'all right, and I'm laughing, and I'm like, I love that one, and I'm like, I don't.
I don't know if y'all know what. I got a dogs into human It was like, we.
Know, yeah, we gathered after a certain amount of time. We gathered.
Absolutely, And I'm not even doing that for shock value.
Like the other thing I told you all earlier this week, like I'm not really the joke person.
Like I'm not.
That was then interesting thing that you said, I'm not really the joke person. But then you told a lot of jokes and we used a lot of jokes that you you.
Said because I feel like they're not jokes.
There are things I would say in conversation that people may laugh at, Like you know, it's not like a punchline thing, but you would.
Say, this is my idea and then you would tell the joke with a punchline, and then we would be like, but that is a joke.
Yeah.
All my comedian friends tell me that all the time. They were like, yo, you know you do bitch, bro. Yeah, they say that to me all the time, been saying that to me for years, And I'm like, I don't look at it like that, But I do love the way comedians and writers think. Okay, you know, I love the way that y'all are able to take ideas and structure them to wear because I feel like humor is what keeps people engaged. Yes, Like you can give people some medicine, some candy, some medicine, some candy, and I feel like that's how everybody here on the Daily Show, right, That's why I've always loved The Daily Show, whether it was John Stewart of Trouble, I've always loved it because you get medicine, you get candy, medicine, candy, And I mean, like, that's that's that's the way I like to deliver content.
Yeah.
Well, it was much appreciated because, as you say times, our sense of humor is darker than than you would expect.
Yeah. Yeah, And I love it.
I just think that we live in this era where we all pull ourselves back as not to offend. You know, it's not the cause outrage. And so it's like you got two kinds of people. Now, you got conscious people, which I believe we are, which you should be, Yes, you should be conscious, But then you have people who are purposely trying to push the line.
And I think that that's not authentic. Yes, you know what I mean.
If like, if you wake up and you're saying yourself, how can I shock people today? How can I pisch people off the day? What am I going to say today that's going to get people in the uproar? That's that's fake to me, you know. But if you are conscious and you're willing to take the risk, that's the other thing, right, Like you have to be willing to take the risk of some of this documents.
I'm fine with that as long.
As there's a great message attached to what it is we're taking the risk on. And if what we're taking the risk on is funny, yes, I'm fine with that.
Yes, because you are you're anti woke, You're very you're anti.
Woke, anti woke. I believe in consciousness. I believe it is being conscious. I think that some of these people are so woke that they need to take a nap. You know how when like you're tired, you don't think straight like you.
Like you little foggy like you know what I mean.
Like, I think that some of these people have been awake a little little too long, because some of this.
Stuff just gets really really ridiculous, you know.
And also there's no like middle ground like you you know, we don't call these cups anymore. Yes we call them munks. Yes I still say cup. And now you want me just dead, you know what I mean?
You want me just gone vanished from all of society, you know.
And it's triggering because it reminds me of growing up Jehovah Witness when they would just fellowship you for quote unquote doing the wrong thing. And when they just fellowship you, they would announce that you were just fellowship and you come to the Kingdom Hall and nobody.
Would speak to you. Wow.
And so what that made a lie lot of people do, especially my pops, because my pops got this fellowship, he just stopped coming. Why would you come and deal with this abuse? And but on the on the entertainment side. What you've seen is a lot of people so called this fellowship. So they was like, you know what, I'm not even coming to that party no more. I'm not going on no more auditions. I'm not trying to be in the industry no more. We got these youtubes, we got these social medias. I'm gonna be over here putting this content out over here. And so what ends up happening? They blow up. Now they're selling out arenas all over the world, and now the industry is like, how can we tap into what they're doing, you know? And now these people over here are like, I'm good, I'm cool on y'all. You know you should have you know, let us be risky and edgy and make all mistakes over there with y'all.
Now we got it over here, we'll be fine. So y'all figure it out.
But ask yourself, like when you look at you know, look at somebody like my man Andrew Scholtz, look at the the Shane Gillis's of the world, people like eighty five South Show, Jess Hilarious, like they overhear winning in the industry is trying to figure it out and tap into what they got going on. And then when you give these people opportunities like an eighty five South show on Netflix, what happens at number one on Netflix with a comedy special knocking off people like Black Mirror, and people looking like.
Well, who are these guys? You know what I mean?
Meanwhile, there's a whole culture who knows who these guys are. These are some guys who decided to say, Hey, I'm gonna be over here doing my thing. I'm gonna build my content space over here, and y'all gonna catch up later. And that's what I'm seeing now. I'm seeing the whole industry trying to catch up with all of these people that they so called this fellowship.
Yeah, which was quite refreshing for us to have a person who is anti woke.
You know, I've been canceled enough to know that it don't kill you. All right, I've been canceled enough to know it don't kill you.
Did you enjoy it?
Like because you do the breakfast clip in the morning and you would come in, uh direct after that, do you enjoy having that kind of because the breakfast club is a whole it's a whole career on its own.
Yeah, And then to come into this like, did you enjoy that?
One hundred percent? Enjoyed it?
You know, it's very time consuming, it's a commitment. You know, I've never done it daily show. All my shows that I did for MTV two in Comedy Central were weekly. Yeah, it's a different ball game, you know what I mean. Like, don't get me wrong. The Breakfast Club is a daily morning show, so you create conversation and you see the chatter every day.
But honestly, even though we.
Talk to four million people, I think monthly, that's a whole different demographic.
Yes, you know than the daily showing.
On Breakfast Club, we're talking about everything hip hop and you know, of course from politics come in there, you know, pop culture. But daily show is like very very very politically driven.
Yes, and I like that.
I do like I like being a part of That's why I said, those are my interests, my interests of mental health and politics and hip hop, like, those are my interest as a human being. You know, that's the only thing I didn't get represented on the show this week because a couple of people that I wanted to have on, you know, had other engagements the mental health side, well, no, the hip hops o the hip hop side in my head, Rich Paul sort of he did.
He represents the culture side, at least in my you know, like at least in my head.
Yeah, I was trying to get the city girls though. I wanted JT and Young Miami, like for real, for he had a hell out of comed Es Central's audience. That's what I want, you know what I mean. I wanted them to come in here and bring that three oh five floor, you know, That's what I wanted.
I wanted them for Thursday. They were both in Miami though, cool.
And like working with correspondents, I mean, you didn't get it wasn't it was every day you worked with the correspondent.
How do you How do you feel about that?
Man?
Loved it, loved it.
The only show has some of the most diverse correspondents in the business.
It was so fun.
Man, were working with Ronnie Chang and does Heli Dick, you know, like it was just it was just great, like and that that was a part of the show that I wasn't expecting. And the reason I liked that part of the show cause when you get to that kind of part of the show, for me, a person who deals with a lot of anxiety and has to like really work himself up and get himself in the right mind state to go on there and perform like that.
It's two things that relax me.
The first time you make the audience laugh and when you get to that part with the correspondence, because you know you don't got to do no more to heavy.
Lifting, you know what I'm saying.
That's always the hardest part because I know I'm gonna say something that's gonna make you think. Yes, I know I'm going to say something that's going to make you be like, Okay, I can see that point. It's always the laughter because I'm not a comedian, so it's always the laughter that you know, I'm not sure about.
You keep saying you're not a comedian, but you are a fighting person. You do know that. But that's a natural conversation, like you know as much as I do. It's different when you just sitting around having a conversation and you saying some things to make people laugh. Yes, but it's different when you performing and you're this is it's an expectation.
That's why I said, Man, being a stand up comic is the hardest job in the world. World to get on that stage and play one versus three hundred or in some cases one versus three thousand, one versus twenty thousand. Yeah, and the expectation is to make these people laugh.
Whoa, whoa. Yeah.
You also, I mean, you know, you've done so much for black mental health.
Yesterday I thought to myself, isn't it like odd or interesting that you chose a career that is full of anxiety?
You know what I mean?
The crazy part is I've been dealing with anxiety my whole life. I didn't get clinically diagnosed until twenty ten, so my whole life, I had no idea what this was, you know, but I've always had to sink or swim mentality. Okay, you know, it's like okay going on stage, but you know it's so scrange sometimes you go on these I can go on stage and.
It doesn't bother me.
It's weird, Like I can go on stage in front of people and if I'm prepared, I know, like, okay, I'm cool with this. It's when you got to stand up and just speak like you know you have you know, sometimes you got a party like speeches, It's like, oh dang, ain't I don't have nothing to say to it.
I'm just like, thank y'all, you know, thank you, thank you.
That's it, you know. But when you're prepared, it's different. If I'm prepared, I'm cool. If I got to just go out there and say speech is like, uh, you know what I mean?
Because with anxiety, I imagine you become a librarian or something like that.
You know what I mean.
I mean in terms of you decide, Okay, cool, I've got anxiety, but you're saying twenty ten, I got anxiety.
Let me perform in front of three hundred people a night.
You know.
It's so interesting though, now that I think about it, that is why I developed that performance of it all because I wanted to distract people from the fear that was inside of me.
Yeah, like that they didn't know was there. Yeah, you know.
So it's like a lot of times, and it's so funny because I can look at certain people now and I'm just like, oh, they just projected, you know what I'm saying, Like that they really insecure because I was that, you know what I mean. So I can look and tell when somebody's really insecure, when they're really fearful. You know, and they try to do other things to deflect from what's really going on. That was me always, like I remember the first day I got dropped off at Memagia Elementary School. That was the first panic attack. I remember my mom, my mom. I'm talking like, y'all know what these places are. But in Charleston, South Carolina, my mom used to teach you at a place called Courtney Middle School downtown.
And I went to Memoga Elementary.
For like my first first grade and I remember her dropping me off at Memogia and I just cried like ball like that whole day. I don't even remember what made me calm down, you know. But then I remember being able to hold court in first grade. I remember being able to hold court like literally, you know. We're at recess and I'm sitting around telling some story and everybody was intrigued and engaged, and I just realized, like, yo, storytelling is you know what can deflect from whatever insecurity or anxiety or anything else that that that I'm feeling. And so that's something that I've always held on to.
Oh so performing this week, and I mean in your life, but this week in particular, it's like a good thing.
It like helped things out.
With absolutely one hundred percent, you know, because like I said, y'all be in a well oil machine that y'all are me me always looking up to the Daily Show. I've always looked up to the Daily Show. Anybody that's ever worked with me on talk shows to tell you that, like you, you've all Daily Show has always been the bar for me.
It's always been my muse.
And so you know, sitting in that chair and you know, doing it and you people, you guys and women telling me I'm doing a good job and I can tell y'all not and I can tell y'all not blowing smoke up by ass, you know.
So it's like it made me. It made me feel like, oh, I can do this.
And you know, and we're all lying on ourselves if we say we're not seeking validation, right, Like, are you like those pats on the back?
You like those votes of confidence? You know?
My problem with the world we live in now, we're seeking validation from things like social media. You're seeking validation from people that don't matter. You're seeking validation from people that don't even know you, they've never had any real world experience with you. I can listen to anybody in this room or anybody that works on this show, tell me something about me professionally this week, because y'all had the experience of doing it. That's a different ballgame. That's a different level of validation. That's the type of validation that gives you the actual security that you that you might be looking for. Well, I would say that this week you made us happy and you brought us a peace of mind.
Man, thank you very much. That means the world.
I always tell people wherever you show up at when you leave, all you want the people you worked with to say is that person was a pleasure.
To work with.
Well, I'll say this, you were a pleasure to Thank you, Sir, Charlemagne the God, Dadan Jevin, thank you very much. Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by searching The Daily Show wherever you.
Get your podcasts. Watch The Daily Show week nights at eleven ten Central on Comedy Central and stream full episodes anytime. I'm on Fairmouth Pluff. This has been a Comedy Central podcast