Work in Progress with Sophia BushComedian, performer, and host Amber Ruffin knew she was funny at a young age, so it's no surprise she is making viewers laugh out loud on "Late Night with Seth Meyers" and CNN's "Have I Got News For You."
Amber joins Sophia to talk about her road to comedy, making history as the first black woman ever to write for a late-night talk show in America, her decision to share her own experiences with police brutality on late night, writing a best-selling book with her sister, her decision to come out as queer earlier this year, and why humor is such an important force for good.
Hi, everyone, it's Sophia. Welcome to Work in Progress friends and digital listener community. Today we are joined by someone who defines being whip smart herself. Today's guest is none other than Emmy and Tony nominated writer, comedian, host, and performer Amber Ruffin. She has become one of the most prominent and celebrated voices in late night television and happens to be one of my favorite people ever to be interviewed by. To interview and to hang out with, Ruffin is not only a cool, brilliant lady, she's also a history maker. She made history as the first black woman to write for a late night network talk show in the United States, joining the writing staff of NBC's iconic Late Night with Seth Myers in twenty twenty four. Her quick wit, boundless energy, and incisive social commentary quickly made her a breakout star, leading to regular on air appearances for her and then the creation of her own segment, Amber Says What. Most recently, Amber penned the revised book for Broadway's current revival of The Whiz. This is actually her second recent foray into Broadway, having received a Tony nomination just last year for co writing the book of the musical sum Like It Hot, based on the classic film, and as the host of her own eponymous late night program on Peacock, The Amber Ruffin Show, she has carved out a truly unique space for herself as a sharp witted satirist and dynamic on camera personality. That might be because Ruffin got her start in the world of improv. She has performed with acclaimed troops in Chicago and Amsterdam before transitioning to writing and on camera work. She has this incredible ability to find humor in the every day and to challenge societal norms. I love her biting, incisive style, and so do the rest of you, because it's earned her widespread acclaim, including the aforementioned DEMI nomination for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series. She is also currently the host, alongside her sister Lacy Lamar, of The Amber and Lacey. Lacy and Amber Shall a weekly podcast produced by our friends right here at iHeartMedia and Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network. This show is so entertaining. It pits the sisters against each other as they discuss life, on pop culture, and more, while inviting exciting guests and games into their sibling rivalry. The sisters have also written two books together and happened to be New York Times best sellers. I could go on and on with more accolades for Amber, but I'm sure you'd rather be hearing from her than me in this intro. So let's dive in and chat with Amber Ruffin. So the thing I love to do the most with people because when I sit down with someone like you, they know you from TV, they know you from being nominated for awards, They've seen you on late night, all of these things. I want to know if from this vantage point, if you got to hang out with Amber the eight year old, would you see the current version of you in her? Like? Is there a through line? Or do you wind up here completely unexpectedly.
I feel like I was a big baby. I'm still kind of a big baby. But then, what do you mean, like scared of everything? It was a bug, but now I'm like a little murderer. For me to feel embarrassed, like I'm kind of loud and I'm up your nose and stuff. But then when I look back at when I was eight, I feel like I was feeling a little scared, but I was still m boogs both clid me and I was very wild, and I don't give myself enough credit for for how bad I was when I was young. It was pretty wild.
Okay. Can we give little use some credit right now?
Yeah? Okay, Amber, you're really bidy and I enjoy that about you.
I love it.
I love it. So were you?
Were you into television talk shows, you know, the local hot goss, which I consider to be politics when you're young, Like, were you into all that as a kid? What inspired you to become, you know, an observational comedian writer, Like, where did it come from?
Well? I feel like I never was into the goss, like celebrity gosp politics, who's Who's. What what happened was is I realized that I was funny and that you could like make a living from it, which I didn't think was possible, but I was sure won't try, so I gave it a show and it worked out. That's kind of how it came about. But I didn't really care about politics, even though my mom, you know, was run around yelling about Ronald Reagan. That's my age, but she would and she would be cussing this man out all the time, and I would go she wouldn't be cussing. She'd be so madified said she discussing. I've never heard this woman say a goussword, but you know, she'd be so mad about him and what he was doing. And it never really occurred to me to be like, I wonder what her deal with is? What's wrong with this guy? Didn't occur to me until Late Night came along, and then I kind of had to know what was up. And you know, the more you find out, the worse you feel.
Way, Hey, Yeah, It's like people will ask me how I got to be such a policy nerd and connect the dots between all these issues, and I'm like, well, once you start pulling on the thread, yeah, yeah, you kind of can't stop. Yeah, because the more you learn, the more you realize there's so much more to learn, and it just continues. How did the jump happen then? From realizing you were funny, realizing there was a world a career in humor, to getting to Late Night like that, what's what's in that gap there?
I moved to Chicago to do improv the gap is, yeah, and then I was there for a long time.
Where were you were you at Second City? Were you at Io.
I was at Io.
Yeah.
Then I went to Boom Chicago, which is a comedy theater in Amsterdam, which is basically the Second City, but it's in Amsterdam. Yeah. And I did the Second City in Denver. Then I did the Second City in Chicago. Then I went to Amsterdam for Boom Chicago, and then I moved to la to make it, and then I got Late Night Seth and then it was off to the.
Races, and then you had to move to New York.
Right then I had to move to New York.
And here we are. And is it like crazy or an uncomfortable accolade, or like totally exciting, or maybe it's a blend of all of them. To know that you you made history, Like we're not that old, and you made history as the first black woman to write for a late night now work talk show when you joined SETH, and like that was only ten years ago. So I don't know what is that like in your brain? It kind of breaks my brain to think about. For you, as I look at.
You, I didn't think about it. I didn't know that that was happening. Oh wow. People were like, did you know that You're the first guy got guga ga. I was like, oh, okay, that's you know, a little sad, but it also makes a lot of sense. Think about the shows you watched and their jokes and what they were doing. Yeah, I bet there wasn't a black lady in that room. I'm pretty sure. But it just is nice because when I got hired, then I think Robin Thedie got her late night show, The Rundown, and then you know sam Bee I think had hired black women, and then just a little bit into my working at late night, Yes, Robin Thetie's birthday and we were like, you know what she likes is black women in late night. And so we were like, bet you we can get everyone to go to a dinner and we called everyone. There was only ten of us in late night. There was one of us that lived in la but I feel like there was just ten people at a table and we were like, this is the entirety of black women in late night. They were like, this is sad, but also quite cool. Wow, cool, I can text every black woman in late night. That was very neat right.
It's like a little both and like hmmm and also awesome. Yeah, you've said you've talked a bunch about how you'll never leave this show. But you've also you're doing all your own shows and you and your sister are writing books. I'm like, you know, a lot going on. So what does that look like? How do you remain part of the Seth Meyers family and do all the other things you do? And why why have you wanted to stay there for a whole decade?
Ay? I want to stay here for a whole decade for exactly that reason, because they let us do whatever. I mean, I love that we turn in sketches. We you know, I don't really turn in jokes a lot. I sometimes turn in jokes. It is a really cool, happy job where they want you to succeed. Like I've with set with Seth's production company, I've had five five pilots and we shot two. We shot three. Yeah, so it's like they reach to succeed. Yeah. Yeah, so it's very cool.
I mean, I you know, not to say I'm like the most experienced at late night person by any means, but yeah, I've been doing like TV shows for twenty years, so I've done a lot of late night press and I will never forget I got to go on as a guest the first week of SETH and I had the best time, and everyone was so cool and he is so lovely and I don't even know how. In like a commercial break, we were talking and he found out I'm a furniture nerd and he was like, oh my god, you got to know my wife's families. They're interior people. And we like started following all these people on Instagram and and then he they would like invite me to things, and I was like, this is just such a nice person. And then I was reading Amy Poehler's book, and I will admit that I was day drinking with a friend of mine. It was a Sunday. We were by a pool, we'd had some rose, and I read sess chapter and I was like, this is just so sweet, Like men in our industry are toxic, and he's such a nice one. And I sent him like a not short, like drunk text about what a good guy and an ally he is. And I think he was like okay, chicky and his wife was like, oh, he doesn't he doesn't know how to handle feelings, but he loves to laugh. But I thought it was sweet and we were cackling. I was like, you too, are just for like people who run a whole amazing industry, which clearly they're also changing. Hence this conversation. I was like, y'all are so normal and funny.
I don't know.
Just as a guest, I never want to leave there, so I would imagine that as a writer, You're like, I'm going to stay. I'm just gonna stay forever.
Out of my cold dead hands. He can enit. I love it.
I love it. Do you do you think about cause it's ten years right and late night happens fast. You're processing politics, pop culture, history, insurrections, you know, all sorts of things are there? Are there like standout moments in that writer's room that you can share with us?
I mean a little like moments are stupid? I love stupid, Like are my.
When I think of the room, I think of like a few moments where like, oh my gosh, who's who's this guy? Who's this guy? Beer? I love beer? O god, I'm on trial for this and that. Who is that guy? What's that guy's name?
Who is it?
It's oh, Brett, Brett Cavanaugh? To you know what? We were better for not knowing his name?
You're right, I try to think of him as as rarely as possible, though it is hard with a whole lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court.
Thing, girl yikes. When he was on trial in the room, we were just like, oh my god. And then when she had to testify against him, I just thought we were all going to explode. It was horrifying and it made me want to jump through the TV screen and choke that gay so that and then we were all just like feeling it as a team. But everybody on Late night is such a sweet little baby. We were all feeling the same anger. And a time that stands out as a the day after Trump won and we come into work and everybody everybody's like and knew it was racist. I didn't know it was this racist. And I was just like, aha, I've.
Been telling you you're like welcome.
Welcome, buddies. And I remember, like I put the bit I was doing in the room on Late Night that night, which I was, yeah, it sucks. These people are crazy. They could be your dad or your brother. Join the fun was just of course I've joined the fun. But the my favorite memory from the Late Night Writer's Room is when John Lutz went on to shoot because he had a show that he had to shoot. So he was gone for a week, and every day of the week we made He said, do whatever you want, just don't eat at my desk. So we every day we brought in a crock pot. One day served kso on his desk Italian beef O my God. And it was just like a long line out of the writer's room. It was the whole office and everyone was just like scooping, said a mean video. Yeah, there's a lot of that. I love it. It's family energy.
Yeah, we'll be back in just a minute after a few words from our favorite sponsors. Humor can save you right when things are hard, Like having community and finding the joy in the middle of it is so important. And I would imagine that there's a there's like a respite and a safety in that because listen, I think America. Look, I'm going to back up to circle back to where we are. It's not lost on me that I have had the immense privilege of a really beautifully diverse community. Not everybody gets the privilege of exposure, like plenty of people have white privilege. But if you have it in like the in a homogeneous sort of space, you're not going to know about the rest of the world. Like I am only as smart as I am because of the community and the company that I keep, and so much of what I understand about the world comes from women like you, women who I was fortunate enough to grow up with, who are like I told you exactly what you said about Like it's your dad, it's your cousin, I told you. And so it's not lost on me that like a safety is required, especially as a black woman in America, to be open. And after the murder of George Floyd and the sort of social justice cry explosions summer in twenty twenty, you recounted your own traumatic run ins with the police on Late Night and I was blown away by it as a viewer and a fan, And I guess I'm curious as like a you know, friend and now interviewer in this moment, like how did how did that happen? Did you say, like, look, this is really important for me to do or was it four years of these horrible Donald Trump conversations that had put so much of it out on the table well that it was ready to go already, Like how did you decide to lead that charge in your writer's room.
So the week George Floyd was murdered, I wrote something up and then I brought it in and as the it was a sketch, it was a regular sketch. And then as the day went on, I was like, oh no, you can't do a sketch about it, because it, for whatever reason, this murder just activated America. So I was like, oh, okay, it has to be a rant. It has to just be me saying my feelings to camera. Then by showtime it was clear that that would have become in poor taste to do. So I was like, oh my gosh, this has never happened where I wrote something and it timed out in me hours. It was too far, So I said, you know what we should do. I can peep. Because my main chorus during the murder of George Floyd was people were saying, well, this is not typical, and I my whole thing was this is extremely typical. This could be any one of us. And so then I was like, this is what I want to do. I want to tell this exact story and just be like, at this point, Late Night has been going on for years and years, and you know me and this happened to me when I was only smaller and cuter. It happened to me. So they were like great, and I said it you know, this was in COVID, So then I recorded it in my little apartment and then sent it in and then the next day that was it. We were still so the country was so like stinging. It stung ye his murder it really took a long time to heal. And so then at the end of the first time, I told a story about my actual recount with the police when I thought they were going to murder me. I was like, and I have a million more stories like this. Yeah. So then the next day they were like, will you tell another one? So they opened the show with it, instead of the theme song, instead of the band, instead of anything. It was just seth going, here's amber to tell a story because we are saddened by the death of George Flood. So yeah, it was really into it, and I did four shows worth of stories, and at the end of the fourth story, I was like, these are not all of the times when I thought a cop was going to kill me. They're so I was like, and I don't know any black person without this many stories.
Exactly.
I just really wanted to make that clear because I've heard everyone I know go, well, the police said that blah blah blah blah blah. So I'm like, wow, but what whoah? Yeah, So that I feel like, of all of the horrible things that happened in the world, of all the things we have to learn about, my big horrible thing that I had to learn about was that people thought we were lying this whole time. Like I was just like, what, so everybody lies this madness? But then you see how ingrained it is. It's just in there owns this white supremacy is hard to get out from it.
It is. And I think it also when I've thought about this a lot in terms of like the structures that we rely on to make us feel safe, even if that safety is an illusion, the idea of a hero is really powerful, right, And if the heroes can also be the bad guys, how do we calm down? And so when that whole summer happened, And I guess I'm just curious what you think of this, because as I thought about it, and to your point, it's stung so deeply and it was different like everybody's been screaming from the rooftops that this is happening. We've said the names of Sandra Bland, of Orlando Castile and all, I mean, all of these people, you know, what hit differently, and I think the length of that tape and the very clear, you know, cries of a person, everybody went, wait. We've always been told, oh, well, you don't understand what happened in the moment and it was a split second and they thought he had a gun and it turned out to be a phone. And there was always kind of like this excuse where you could say, oh, well, you know, they were just doing people would say not you or I, but people would say, well, they were doing their jobs, and their jobs are so hard. And then you watch this and you go, it's not hard to get up off somebody's body. It's actually not hard. It's not hard to listen to the people on the streets begging you to stop hurting someone like it isn't hard. And it pierced the veil of this idea of goodness I believe, and when I try to talk to people about it, because I really don't think it's the job of you, as a black woman, certainly to have this conversation. I think, like women who look like me need to have this conversation with their communities first and foremost. I talk a lot about what we experien and says gender violence with people because I'm like, well, listen, if if one in four women get sexually assaulted by the time she's twenty two, and they actually think the numbers are more like one in two, but a lot of women are scared to report, like we have a problem with men, right, Like it's not our problem, it's actually their problem. If one in three people who die who's murdered in America is murdered by a police officer, which is the statistic, Like we have a problem. We have a problem.
The statistic is one in three.
I believe, So I believe one in three people who is murdered in America. It might be a gun death, but I do believe that that will I will double check it, Like we.
Have a problem.
And that's not even getting into the incidences and statistics of domestic violence in that population. And like if seventy three percent of the women murdered in America are murdered by a current or former intimate partner, like we have a problem. And these problems are connected. Did And one of the things that, as you know, a fan turned friend, that I have admired is I know I can get a little stuck on the data and people are like, god, it's so serious. It's a really heavy conversation, Sophia. And you managed to take your life experiences this really intense pain that is personal and societal, and you showed up and you told these stories on Late Night, and then by the fall of twenty twenty, you started the Amber Ruffin Show, which, to our friends listening, I was lucky enough to go on in COVID and we had a time and I wore a little bow tie shirt because you love a tie. And you managed to give us a show that was so fucking funny and also so incredibly politically timely and topical, and you wove these huge ideas of like American justice and racial justice and gender justice and all these things, and you made it funny and like, yo, a, I bow down, b How Like how do you do that? Because I get accused of being too serious all the time, So like, how did you take this really like heavy historical weight that's past and present, and like, how do you put your your really genius comedic spin on it, because comedy, I think is the medicine that gets the truth in. So maybe what I'm asking is for you to give us a little class.
Your lecture so nice, that is, those are such kind words. It's true we had such a blast on that show. But I don't know that there is a special way to do it. It's just how we are in my family, okay, And I bet it's how most black people are, because it's not you'd go crazy, but we would be. You know. I would come in and I would be like, I can't believe I'm going to say this, But my you know, boss told me, why don't I just straighten my hair like the rest of you people? And I really have it? And my family and I laughed ourselves sick because because it's the most bananas thing I've ever heard of my life. I like to see this, lady, you want to tell me how I'm supposed to look a girl? Also like the notion of being like you have to change the texture of your hair. Why doesn't it change all the time. The texture of your hair a never changed, but I'm not looking so like. We just laughed and laughed and laughed and the next air was fired. Oh yeah, and that's just life. I feel like it's hopefully the younger you are the fewer of those stories you have, But I'm from Omaha, Nebraska, so I got plenty. I got my stories and a couple of stories for sure. Yeah.
Well, and it's the way. I so admire the way you tell stories and the way you and your sister tell stories together, because, like, you know, reading y'all's first book felt like a real peak in to you know, your life, where your sense of humor comes from. And yeah, how how you can process everything from like you know, the benign daily whatever we all have to do, to the not okay, to like the most beautiful moments in a family YouTube, process particularly together in ways that really just I mean clearly make me giggle, but make everybody giggle. Because your book's a bestseller. How did the two of you decide to start telling stories together, Lacey?
I've always noticed that Lacy has so many work racism stories. Lacy has eight billion, and they happened to her constantly, and each story is funnier than the last. They really are. They just make me laugh her just telling it flat with no stank on it. Just her saying the facts of what happened has me doubled over laughing. So then let us get our mouths around it and really be talking about it. And it is so funny. So I just thought the amount of these stories the volume could fill a book. And it did, well, yes it did. But the the uh my agents were like, meet with the book agent. And I was like, I don't want to meet with the book agent. I don't want to write a book. No, thank you, and they were like, just do it. So I did it. And then we were talking and I go, you know what could fill a book is my sister's racist stories. Oh my god, and he was I told him how she tried to She paid for something with a check and she had Black History Month checks and the Black History Month check had a picture of a historical figure on it, and she paid another check out that cashier said, I didn't know you could get your own picture on your checks, no picture of Harriet Tubman. So like I told that story. I was like, that's one of seven hundred stories that I can think of, and he was like, we'll call it. You'll never believe what happened to Lacey I was like absolutely, and then we told a second Yeah. Yeah, it was a very fun book and it's just real life stories that just all of her racist stories that are funny, Like that's still.
So many because you got a laugh for real cry.
Yeah, she has some pretty good ones.
What is it like? Because I imagine you obviously you're going to get a whole lot of feedback when you write a book. Do you have there been people who've been willing to be like, oh that really? That was what made me get it, Like reading your book was what made me go, I see, I'm going to look at the world around me a little bit differently. Or do you think people are too scared to say that.
No, when I did all of Late Night, I never got any fan mail all of Rough and Show, I never got any fan mail. I got fan mail after the book Wow, And people were like, I just didn't get it. I didn't know. I didn't know. Yeah, I didn't understand what was happening. I didn't think people were I thought maybe everyone was exaggerating, blah blah blah. They just didn't get it. Right now, I hope a lot of people do see like that. It seems like it's being exaggerated, but it's not. But it's what is happening every stinking day.
We'll be back in just a minute, but here's a word from our sponsors to come back to the to the writing. You know, we talked about your book with your sister, We've talked about Late Night. I think about all these things you've accomplished, you know, writing for that show and being a bestseller and hosting your own show and getting a Tony nomination and co founding your own production company, you know, making these pilots like you've talked about. Like, with all this stuff under your belt, what has been the most fun and what are you the most excited for that's coming down the line.
The most fun has been It was probably the imberifferind show. That was very fun. But it's also very fun too. One of the things I'm doing now, I was writing a like I wrote. I co wrote some like It Hot, which was a Broadway and then I wrote The Whiz Or Broadway. And now I'm writing my own musical about Bigfoot called Bigfoot. But it's so fun to like write a song but I'm me, regular me, and then you give it to like super Broadway lady and oh she sings it like crazy and go coolest, that's the coolest thing to watch this lady be like hmmm hmmm, I can do it, k And then she just sings bananas. Yeah. I feel like that's my that's my new freakin' jam.
How do you know how to write music?
Like?
Where does that come from?
At Boom Chicago the Comedy Theater in Amsterdam, we did short form comedy like whose line is it Anyway? And a large part of that was improvising songs, which is hard until it's not, and then it's very easy if you're just once you can do it on your feet, if you have time and you sit down and you can type it out. Whoa, It's as easy as it gets. Like to have the luxury of not having three hundred people looking at you and being like, the suggestion was lemon, you better make it back. You know, it's so nice, it's really sweet.
Oh my goodness, that's so cool. When I when I was living in Chicago working on a show, I had this dream of like doing comedy class at Io. I was like, I'm going to do it. I love the improv Shakespeare is It's gonna be so funn and you know, production schedules or production schedules, and I for like three weeks I missed the class I signed up for, and I was like, who what did I? How did I think this was ever gonna work?
So?
Oh man, I like I dream of it someday, But it also sounds so scary, Like I would die if somebody just made me make up a song in front of a room.
You could do it.
I'm sweating like thinking about it.
You'll only die like four times my hands are claiming You'll be fine?
How because comedy that sort of improv To your point, I think you have to learn to get over your own fear, right, Like you have to learn to be a little fearless to fail in real time, you know, do all these things kind of out loud and see what happens. Do you think your improv training has has helped you deal with the kinds of criticism that comes along with, you know, being women in the public eye who are smart about politics.
Did improv help me do with it? Yeah?
Like, do you think that the the the sort of backbone you build has has helped you kind of slough off some of the critiques that no doubt come with being you know, you're a woman in the public eye, a black woman in the public eye, a queer black woman in the public eye, a queer black political woman in the public eye, like all the things that piss off anybody who doesn't like opinionated women. So like, how do you do you think comedy helped you be resilient to that? Or have you had to do more of like a mental health care practice.
No, two things have helped me. One being booed by hundreds of people at the same time, Like, once that happens, once you have just like a comically bad show. Oh feel bulletproof, you know what I mean? Like you can beat you can write whatever little review you want. You're not gonna hurt. My feelings were then two hundred people be like no, no, and that's the worst.
I'm sweating.
But then when I got late night Seth, Seth was like, do not talk to people online. If someone says something sideways to you, leave them alone, do not engage under any circumstances. Don't ever do it.
Oh it's so hard.
So then because of that I feel really really free and really really good, and because it's almost like, well, my boss told me to be chill. Then when people say crazy things online, I can just go whea, none I can do. It's this out of my hands. So it feels really good to just not even so I don't even look at the bad stuff. It doesn't really because it ain't nothing I gonna do. No way.
Oh it's hard though. Yeah, I even even this many years into this, I think I'm pretty good at it, and then every once in a while something just smacks me in the back of the skull, and I like, it's rare that I break. But when I break, I'm like, I deserved. I deserved to say it because I'm pissed, and also I wish I hadn't done it. There's just no good way to do it.
Yeah, there is no way to do it and leave feeling great or yeah, you know what I mean. At some point, I'm like, if not, if I was out here changing hearts and minds, battling people, then that's another thing, and I'll do it right, knowing how rare that is, and knowing how precious my joy is to me.
M you gotta protect it. I like that. How when you think about how precious your joy is, and then what does come with the sort of there's one of you and millions of people out there. I want to tell you what they think. It's a really uneven seesaw. How how did you decide this year to be like? Oh and hey, ps, I'm a queer lady? Is it because you fell in love with someone and knew like you were going to be out and about is it? Did it just kind of feel like time? Duh? Because you said like in an announcement that will shock absolutely no one was essentially the quote which made me giggle. I was like, hey girl, like, how do you make that determination?
I came out because well, I had just found out I didn't think. I mean, I certainly probably thought I was a little something, but I was unaware to the degree. Also, thank god your phone number wasn't in my phone? Then, why dude, what am I doing? No? Oh my god.
I would have picked up the phone in a heartbeat. Also, if you had text me, I would have been like, we're getting on a FaceTime. That's how I like to do everything.
So do I Great, Sophia. We're old people don't do that anymore. But I'm like, if I can talk to you, I want.
To see your phone, I'd rather see your face.
But it is like rememb movies where black people are black, but then they're passing and then they enjoy the privileges of it. That's kind of what it felt like to nasting is say out loud, you know, because I'm like, eventually I'm gonna be holding hands with someone, and I don't want people to be pressing me, you know. And also I don't want my partner to have to endure you what wait you said a goo goo ba, you know. And but most of all, I just want to give everybody, you know, fair warning about the whooping that can catch you like now. But also it's nothing. It I risked nothing, It does nothing because like the Amber referen show rode so hard for every marginalized community that my circle doesn't have any homophobes in it. I would have to go like four people out to even encounter anything like that. So it really cost me nothing. Like I know, my eighty two year old parents, they're fine. Yeah, it's truly nothing, there's there. It took no skin off my back. But it was also like, let's lay the groundwork and let's just look at everything from this point of view, and it's so funny. It's like the little things where it's like, yeah, well one day, one lucky guy, I'm like, no, no, no, I've tried that. I've been that. Yeah. But yeah, so then it was just the smart thing to do.
Yeah, well, I love it. I love this for us, I love it for you, I love it for me, I know. And now a word from our sponsors who make this show possible. How does it all kind of feel now? You know, because there's so much going on and so much you're working on, and that's from you know, the career stuff to the personal life that you're like embracing and growing into, and you've got your latest project Have I Got News for You on CNN, which we love, Like, how does the landscape of life feel right now?
It feels weird, like the new Have I Got News for You feels bonkers because it's like I work here at late night at thirty Rock, and then you just walk a couple of blocks east and then there's also a little office for you that is at Have I Got News for You? I love it, yes, but I love Have I Got News for You? Because not a word I say is written. I didn't have to talk. I sometimes I go to work, I leave my computer at home. When I show up for having.
It, you just waltz right in there and do the thing.
I just start on in I tute around. No one expects anything from me. It's so nice.
I think people expect because you have a show, they certainly expect something. Can you tell the listeners at home about it? Like, how is it different from the other things they've seen? You do give them a little lay of the land here.
So How I Got Newsview is the first Babe CNN show that is funny? So what it is? Roywood Junior, Michael ian Black, and myself are all on a show that is a topical news quiz show that's the caveat when really it's just as shown up in goofing Off. Roywood Junior hosts it. Michael ian Black is one team captain. Amber Ruffin is another team captain. Every week Michael and I have on guests that complete our team and we battle head to head on a news quiz show and it's just us talking about news stories and doing delicious bits. It's very very fun and very much good for you. It's just like a happier way to ingest the news of the week, and that's on sad days on CNN and then maybe the next day on HBO Max.
I want to say, we love it. It's it's kind of my dream way to do news, Like I either want to read an article or enjoy the thing I'm watching on TV. I can't do the cage match commentator, people screaming at each other on the note. It's stressful. Y'all have made staying up to date enjoyable.
Yes, out, but thank you, thank.
You Amber On behalf of the American people.
Hey, I just can't stand to have watched a half an hour of television, a half an hour of news, and I'm still uninformed us of what's going on. Yes, if you talk about one thing for happen, you think I got time like that? Yes, the last time to do that. So yeah, that's why I like, have I got this? Because it's even the sadder not sadder, but even the more serious stuff, but also the Florida man stuff like and everything in between, which makes.
Have you ever have you ever done that? Have you googled your birthday in Florida man and seen what comes up?
Is that something people are doing one.
Hundred All you do is put in day and month and Florida Man, and you see what comes up? And I say this as someone who is in love with the woman from Florida. What do you get?
Florida Man says syringes found in rectum are not and I'm not going to click on the record it and.
Don't do it. The latest one that comes up for me is July eighth, Florida Man dressed is the grim Reaper scaring beach goers.
That's great. Yeah, I hope he's like ye at them about sunscreen.
I hope so too. It's a really fun party game to play.
I am.
I am so excited for you. I'm so excited for the show. I want to know, with all the things you know that you've done and are currently doing, you have in you know, my observation and estimation, you seem to have been that person who has remained so yourself and so authentic in these spaces that can kind of swallow you up and be hard to handle. And my question is twofold, I want to know what keeps you grounded and from this place of groundedness and success, what advice you would give to somebody who would like to follow in your footsteps?
You are so nice. What keeps me grounded is I think it is hilarious when I am messing up. I just think it's so funny. Like the other day on Have I Got News for You, I made such a joke that I had so much confidence in and it went over horribly, and I know, laughed myself sick. I was like, oh man, I really thought I was doing something I was not. I was bringing the show down. But I think I think it's funny to fail. And I think I've had so many like fat, juicy, like good failures where it's like, oh man, you never gonna believe what happened to me, you know, Yeah, Joe in Germany, you know. And that's like, I think it's fun and I think it's good for you, and I think it's the only way to learn, Like you can't learn if you do a bunch of good stuff. You can only learn if you have some bad times. Yeah, But I think the way I stay grounded is comedy just works better if you're grounded. It when you're being honest and you are having actual feelings and looking them in the face, that's when it's funny. It's less funny if you're doing the thing you think you should be doing. If you're presenting as something you're not, that's way less funny than if you're like, you know, oops, I forgot to put on deodorant today, which I really did, Sophia. I have to keep deodorant in the office.
Keep it in your desk.
I have to keep it on my desk. Look at this desk. It's just you just.
Need like a little go back of the things you need that stays.
At the office. That's right, Like.
Exactly, Yeah, I get toothpaste, toothbrush, I would say, deodorant probably like a change of socks, some band aids, some Listerine strips.
A little bit of makeup, and then huh, and.
Then you're good to go. You're prepared for anything.
Yeah. I could show up anywhere in any state. I'm a little bit of a raggedy baby, and I think that's fine.
I am too.
Yeah, yeah, it's good for me.
Diana, I was like, who has like you said earlier, who has the time?
Oh?
I don't always have the time.
Yeah, this I mean if you see me one time, one time I was out with my sister. My sister Lacy will burn me. She roast me alive, and she had been really ragged on me because I did look quite raggedy, I mean, more than normal. And she saw these two people come up and one girl was like, that's her, that's her, I know that's her, And the other woman took a look at me and made a grossed out face and was like, that's not her. And the other girl took a second look and was like, you're right, Lacey. Sylla whole thing and roasted me for a very long time, and I was like, I don't Yeah, that'll keep you grounded, get you a lacy.
Yeah, I was just gonna say that goes back up to the last question. I'm like, how do you stay grounded? You're like, my sister is a tormentor.
Yeah, it's pretty good.
Your best friend in your tormentor.
I know.
It's really important to like figure out how to use all the tools in your tool belt, right, like your observational skills, your love for your community, humor, all these things go into your work, but work aside, like just for you in this moment when you look at the kind of landscape of your life, what feels like you're work in progress right now?
I would say self care might be my work in progress because I'm really slack, and to me, like, what makes me feel good is feeling like I have done a lot of work. You know, that's not that's probably, but I love to just be on this mud type tipity tep type in all day and then sit down at six pm and be like, Wow, look at all this stuff I did. But you know, then, did I do my exercises? Was that eating right? Did I cook myself actual food? Did I care of myself in any way? You know? And a lot of times the answer to that is no, I think I'm I My work in progress is taking a minute and sitting down. Another thing I also don't do is I don't congratulate myself, which if you knew me for two minutes, you would be like, yes, you do, But I don't. I really don't think that I do, like in any real way, like really looking myself in the face and being like you did x y Z, good job, little baby, you did a good job. You deserve manny patty or a massage or something. Yeah, me saying it out loud, I'm like, haha, oh goodness, I really have no I gotta get on it. I gotta get on it.
I feel that I appreciate that too. It's like there really is something I think, especially as women in this industry, like it goes around the clock, and then it's always there's just less of us. And I mean even more so, I would imagine for you and how you feel as a black woman in this industry, and it's like, I don't know, it can get so easy to always be showing up and always be doing the thing, and always be working, and always be on the zoom and always be on the call and always be available, and like weeks go by and you're like, have I gone outside? Have I like moved my body? Have I eaten anything that didn't come out of a plastic bag like O? Which is an especially weird thing if you do some version of this for a living, because all we have is like our body, Like if we get sick, it's over, and so it is. It's kind of it's kind of wild the way you can make yourself the lowest priority when in fact you should be. You should be up there, even not the highest, but like up there near the top.
Yeah, I feel like I'm eating so poorly that I am becoming dumber. I honestly think that that's true. I think I think you can eat yourself dumb, and I think that's what I'm doing.
Literally just slammed my head into the picture behind me, laughing. Yeah.
The other day was like, don't you remember yesterday when you were like blah blah blah and we went here and we did this, and I was like, what are you talking about? And then that made me be like, you know, I don't know that I can have chips for every meal. Yeah, I should probably get after some vegetables a little bit, yeah, a little bit more. It's all self care. Yeah, okay, got to get after it.
Well, if you need an accountability buddy.
Oh right here, that's a lot of work.
Did I eat so our creamin onion ruffles for breakfast? Yes?
I did? Okay, all right, okay, we could use it.
But I've admitted it, and I've told you the truth, and I've told everyone listening the truth. So I'm not gonna do it again.
Tomorrow, Sophia Amber, are you being truthful?
I think so. I'm gonna try my best. I'm gonna text you a picture of whatever I have for breakfast tomorrow. We're gonna talk about it.
If it's chips, you're gonna get it.
You're gonna be in trouble, you're gonna be friends at home. If you have self care tips, this might be the moment to DM them to the podcast so we can do a follow up in six months and talk about this.
Bring it, help me shoot, give us.
Your tips and tricks. I bet you, I bet you. There's some smarties listening to this show who are like, oh, girl, I have breakfast on lock and I would like to have it on lock. So please tell us.
What you know, send a message, save a life.
Exactly, and we'll all get smarter watching Amber's quiz show. Yay, thank you for to day, my dear, this was really fun.
