♪ ♪
ANNOUNCER: Coming to you from New York City,
the only city in America, it's The Daily Show.
Tonight: America's gas is out of control.
Remembering January 6th.
And Michael R. Jackson.
This is The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.
(cheering, applause)
What's going on, everybody. Welcome to The Daily Show.
I'm Trevor Noah. Thank you so much for tuning in.
Thank you for coming out in person.
This is it. We made it.
We're here. Take a seat, everyone. Let's do this.
We've got a really great show for you tonight.
Joe Biden is beefing with Mexico's president.
Congress is trying to do something about guns.
And the price of gas is still rising.
So the next Fast and Furious is just gonna be Vin Diesel
giving piggyback rides to everybody.
(imitates Diesel): But only for family.
(regular voice): Plus-- really excited about this--
our guest tonight is the creator of one of the most amazing
Broadway shows ever created, nominated for 11 Tony awards,
Michael R. Jackson is gonna be joining us.
So, let's do this, people.
Let's jump straight into today's headlines.
-♪ ♪ -(cheering, applause)
All right. Let's kick things off
with the price of gas. Aka petrol,
aka car cocaine. (grunts)
There are few commodities out there
that affect the cost of living more than gas. You know?
It's how we get to work.
It's how we ship products across the country.
And it's how we let our ex know that we busted them cheating.
Now, I don't need to tell you that over the past few months,
the price of gas has ben climbing faster than
your grandpa's heart rate on Viagra. In fact,
gas is so expensive, instead of champagne, ballers
have started ordering canisters of premium at the club. Yeah.
Just like... (imitates hip-hop air horn)
(imitates explosion) That club was really lit.
And as the national average in America hits
five dollars a gallon for the first time ever,
people all over the country are doing whatever they can
to stretch a tank as far as they can.
NEWSMAN: For a nation that feels like it's stuck right now
in gas gridlock, many drivers aren't sitting idle
with soaring costs-- they're getting creative.
My salary hasn't changed, so I carpool with my sister to work.
Uh, one week she drives, and the one week I drive.
I just bought the motorcycle, of course,
and now, for 20 bucks, I use, like, for three days
to four days. It just saves me a lot.
NEWSMAN: At a time gas prices are so high,
bike sales are exploding.
I've moved to the city. I don't need my car.
Um, can't afford gas.
NEWSMAN: And even Google Maps is your friend,
with an option to navigate based on fewer hills and traffic.
Even police departments are under strain.
This Michigan sheriff's office is feeling the pain at the pump
as well, according to its Facebook post, and has advised
deputies to manage non-urgent calls over the phone.
Well, well, well.
I guess Joe Biden did end up
defunding the police, yes.
The secret
was just defunding everyone at the same time,
so we didn't notice. I see you, Joe, very slick.
But, yeah, gas prices are so high even police
have to do their jobs over the phone.
Which, you got to admit, is gonna be tough for some cops,
you know? It's just gonna be like, "All right, sir,
"are you Black? Okay, then I'm gonna have to ask you
"to whup your own ass a little bit. Yeah.
"Just frisk yourself for no reason, just to be safe.
You know who's actually gonna be hit the hardest by this, right?
It's the Karens. Yeah, 'cause they're the main people
calling the cops with non-urgent shit. They're like,
"Hello, police, there's a Black man at the grocery store
"buying Trix cereal, which is illegal,
"because Trix are for kids.
Hurry! Hurry, quickly!"
But, yeah...
All over the country, Americans are doing anything they can
to save on gas. Carpooling,
switching to motorcycles.
Shit, I pretended to be sick this morning
just to get a free ambulance ride to work.
-(coughing) -(siren wailing) -(monitor beeping)
Oh, it's definitely AIDS monkeypox Ebola.
(coughing)
I do-I don't think I'm gonna make it.
I-- I don't know how much longer I have--
Oh, wait, that-that's my office, you guys can put--
you can drop me off here. Yeah, I-I'm gonna pull through.
I'm gonna pull through. You guys can pull over here. I'm good,
I'm good. Yeah, I'm good. I-I'll see you guys tomorrow.
All right, bye-bye, bye-bye.
(cheering and applause)
You know, for real, though, it's actually times like this
that a lot of people are glad they live in New York City,
because you don't need to pay for gas here.
Right? You can walk. You can ride a bike.
You can take the subway.
And then with all that money that you save not buying gas,
you can afford a room the size of a coffin. Yeah.
♪ In New York ♪
♪ Concrete jungle where you have ten roommates ♪
♪ There's no space for any of you. ♪
That was a verse they cut out of the song.
But it goes to show you how desperate times are.
America will do anything to save on gas right now.
I mean, not investing in mass transit, obviously,
but anything else. Anything else.
And that means we're gonna have to move on,
because unfortunately,
gas prices aren't the only problem
affecting American people right now.
And yes, I'm talking about guns.
The never-ending problem
that America just can't seem to solve.
Which, now that I think about it,
maybe America, like,
shouldn't keep hitting the same brick wall.
Maybe America can just use some of its problems
to solve some of its other problems.
You know? Yeah, like, like maybe the price of gas
will get so high that mass shooters
won't be able to drive to a gun store
to buy weapons in the first place.
You don't need red flag laws if gas is $20 a gallon.
(applause)
But until that happens, lawmakers in Congress
are trying to find any measure
that can help reduce the amount of guns
that end up in the hands of madmen,
and yesterday, the House took action.
A major legislative package on new gun measures
is headed to the Senate
after passing in the House yesterday.
By a 223 to 204 vote,
lawmakers approved the Protecting Our Kids Act.
The legislation is a collection
of six new gun safety measures,
including raising the minimum age
to buy semiautomatic rifles from 18 to 21
and requiring that all firearms be traceable.
Five Republicans joined Democrats
and also supported the bill.
It is, however, unlikely to pass in the Senate,
where control is evenly split.
NEWSMAN: One Republican congressman
who voted against the bill, Congressman Steve Scalise,
explained his opposition to new gun control laws.
I go back to September 11th.
Airplanes were used that day as the weapon
to kill thousands of people
and to inflict terror on our country.
There wasn't a conversation about banning airplanes.
Wow.
Wow, that is a good point.
I can't think of any way flying changed
after 9/11.
Now, if you'll excuse me,
I have to get to the airport 15 hours early
so the TSA has time to run a background check on my shampoo
to see if it has any links to ISIS.
(applause)
This is a terrible comparison.
Nobody's trying to ban all guns.
They're trying to add small measures
to make people more safe,
which is exactly what happened to air travel after 9/11.
I mean, do you even remember
what airport security was like before 9/11?
You could basically walk onto a plane
and just browse around like it was an IKEA. Yeah.
You could just be like, "No, I-I don't have a ticket.
"I just wanted to check out the cockpit.
This is nice. This... What does this do?"
(imitates beeping)
"This is fun. All right, have a safe trip."
But this is the problem. You see, this is the problem
that gun lovers have in America.
There's nothing else that is as unregulated
as they want guns to be.
So their-their options and the, like,
the analogies they use always don't make sense.
They're always like, "Cars kill people, too,
"but you don't regulate... Wait, wait.
"Actually, I mean, alcohol kills people, too, but they...
"Wait, actually... No, wait. Medicine kills people, too,
"but we don't regulate... Oh, no, wait. We do.
"Uh, let me think. Guns kill people,
"but we don't regulate those, huh?
"See what I did? Oh, that's... I've gone back on myself.
-That's what I've done." -(laughter)
-But despite... -(applause)
Despite these dumbass objections from people like Steve Scalise,
the House still passed a gun control bill.
The only problem is that everyone already knows
that it has zero chance of passing in the Senate,
which has got to be rough for the House.
You know, you work so hard on something
that you know is going to lose.
You know, they're like the New York Knicks of legislation.
(laughter)
Like, what a weird system in America
where one chamber of Congress
spends all its time passing legislation
that they know the other chamber's gonna shoot down.
It's such a strange system.
Normal for America, crazy for most of the world.
America's basically doing that thing
that parents do with their kids, you know?
You know those parents that aren't on the same page?
Like you ask your dad, "Dad,
can we eat ice cream for dinner?"
And he's like, "Yeah, sounds good to me,
but you got to ask your mom."
And you know Mom is gonna say no!
So I should have just asked her!
Why are you even a part of this process?!
"Well, if I get your mom on the record saying no,
"then I can run ads against her next year
and then we can get a new cooler mom. Yeah."
But what's especially interesting to me
is that, as modest as this bill is,
only five Republicans voted for it.
Only five.
And get this-- four of them
aren't running for reelection.
Yeah. Which is really interesting.
You know? Time and time again, you see
whenever Republicans aren't worried
about pandering to Trump voters,
all of a sudden, they make commonsense decisions.
And I'll be honest, this-this has shown me something
that, like, maybe America needs to relook the process.
Maybe people in Congress shouldn't get to be reelected.
You just do one term and you're done. That's it.
Yeah, because then America's politicians
would finally care more about governing
as opposed to getting reelected, you know?
It's kind of like the same way people in relationships
finally tell the truth when they're breaking up.
You know what I mean? Yeah.
Because, the whole time, you're worried
about saving the relationship.
But if you're not worried about that anymore,
you become a lot more honest.
Yeah. All of a sudden, you're like, "Well,
"it's gonna end anyway, so I might as well tell you now
"that you fart like a beatboxing machine
"in your sleep, Sarah!
The whole night."
(beatboxing)
(chuckles)
Moving on.
This week, Los Angeles is hosting
the Summit of the Americas.
Because contrary to popular belief,
America isn't the only America in the world.
Yeah. There are dozens of countries
in North and South America,
and, every once in a while, they get together
to discuss issues that affect the entire region
and then they bitch about Christopher Columbus.
But, for this year's summit,
the person most countries are bitching about
is Joseph Robinette Biden.
Drama before the diplomacy officially begins
this week in Los Angeles,
where President Biden will be hosting
the Summit of the Americas.
There is a significant snub.
The president of Mexico has announced
that he is refusing to attend the summit
because the U.S. is not inviting Cuba,
Venezuela and Nicaragua
over their lack of democratic values.
But Mexico says the agenda of migration,
economics, climate and COVID
is just too important to exclude
any of the nations from this region.
The White House counters that it believes
that no dictators should be invited.
W-Wait a second.
Joe Biden has stopped a Mexican from coming to America?
You know, wherever he is,
Trump must be so pissed off right now.
He's like, "Joe Biden is stealing my ideas.
"I'm the Mexican man!
Mom!"
But seriously though, this is such a petty story.
This is a meeting of the leaders of an entire hemisphere.
But, instead, they-they sound like middle school mean girls.
You know? It's just like, "Hey, Mexico?
"I'm having a party and you can come,
"but don't tell Cuba and Venezuela
and Nicaragua, because they're not invited."
Like, "Oh, America, it's so brave
that you think you're cool enough to even throw a party."
(gasps) "You bitch!
Oh, my God! Ra-ra-ra-ra-ra! Ra-ra-ra!"
I will say this, I think we can all agree
that Mexico's making a good point.
America's stance on human rights violations
seems a little inconsistent.
Right? Think about it.
You won't even talk to Cuba and Nicaragua?
But then you're gonna fly to Saudi Arabia
and beg Prince Bone Saw to release more oil? Huh?
I mean, it seems like America's a lot more tolerant of countries
that have a little, uh, cha-ching.
Is that what it is?
Yeah. In many ways, the American government
is like a stripper. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, if you ain't paying,
they don't care about you.
And I hope you know that, Saudi Arabia.
America's not actually into you.
They're just saving up for college.
That's all this is.
It's not about you, America.
A transaction.
Here's the thing. Here's the thing.
Whether the U.S. likes it or not,
it is connected to these countries. Right?
They affect the United States
and the United States affects them.
Don't you think it's weird that you're gonna be talking
about migrants from Nicaragua
but then Nicaragua is not gonna be at that summit?
You don't think it's strange?
It's gonna be like staging an intervention
without the person there.
You've got to get your life together, Barry!
Is what I would say if Barry was here.
I think this would have been good, guys.
This would have gotten through to him.
It really would have been great. Where is Barry, by the way?
What? Drunk again? Oh, well, we tied.
All right, that's it for the headlines, but before we go,
let's check in on the traffic
with our very own Roy wood, Jr., everybody!
(applause and cheering)
Hey, Wood!
Looking nice. Looking nice.
-What is going on, Roy? -Oh, hey, what's up, man?
What's happening, man? What's happening in the traffic?
I'm just... I'm just looking, man. Ain't nothing happening.
Ain't nobody out there. The gas cost too damn much.
Everybody at home. Ain't nobody on these roads today, man.
It's looking pretty... looking pretty good out there.
You know, I'll be honest, man. With these gas prices, man,
I kind of... It's got me kind of rooting for monkeypox.
-(laughter) -Sorry. What?
How was traffic during the last shutdown?
It was good, wasn't it?
It was good. The last pandemic, there wasn't no traffic.
So bring back another pandemic. Boom.
Traffic fixed, problem solved.
-I mean, that's... -I'm telling you, man.
The gas prices are getting out of hand.
Like, I kind of like the fact, though,
that the police can't respond to every call.
That's cool for now, but then, when the emergencies start...
really start piling up, then it's gonna be bad, man.
Eventually, the police gonna have to start carpooling
with the fire department and the ambulance. They're gonna have
to ride together. Like, the only way they're gonna come
and save you is if all three things are happening
-to you at the same time. -(laughter)
Like, if you get shot, you got to set something on fire.
Then they'll show up.
They're gonna have to combine their vehicles.
-It's gonna get bad. -(applause)
They're going to have to come check on you
in a fire truck ambulance cruiser.
NOAH (laughing): A fire truck...
Yeah, the fire truck ambulance cruiser.
That's with all three-- police cruiser, ambulance, fire truck.
-All combined. Well, thank you, Roy. -Yeah. It was in
-Boyz n the Hood. -What's happening in the traffic, Roy?
(laughter)
It's just... it's just people going... errands.
People are just going to and fro, man.
It's just... It's a beautiful thing, man. It's just...
Real quick about the-the gun law stuff, the gun...
whatever they're trying to pass.
Yeah, the gun safety, yeah.
That's part of it, all right? Can we...?
Like that's the only solution to gun violence is gun...
-regulating guns. Gun vi... -That's a good...
A lot of different things contribute to gun violence
-in this country. -I agree. I agree.
You start with the guns, but then you look at communities,
you look at schooling, you look at eradicating poverty.
-I hear what you're saying, Roy. -I'm not talking about that.
I'm talking about lonely white dudes. I'm talking about...
-(laughter) -We got to have legislation.
Like, every lonely white dude got to have a friend.
We got to legislate friends for lonely white men.
-(applause and cheering) -And I think that's how we get...
That's how we fix some of it.
Like, it would be like jury duty.
Like, you think you got to... You think you, like,
you get to go out this week, but then you got a letter
in the mail like, "Report to Gary's basement."
And you got to be Gary's friend for a little while.
'Cause them lonely white men ain't got no friends, man.
So you don't let the lonely white men
not have a friend is what... Okay, but then,
-but then white... -You're giving 'em a friend.
Every lonely white dude gets a friend.
-Yeah, yeah, I understand that. -Rotating group of friends.
Yeah, but then what if they put a lonely white man
with another lonely white man?
Then isn't that double dangerous?
No, that's called a militia. That's safer
-than a lonely white man. -(laughter)
A militia is much safer than a lonely white man.
Militia got a uniform, they got a website,
they got a schedule, they get permits.
They let you know when they're going to show up.
Who would you rather deal with? A militia or a lone wolf?
-Militia. -That's what I'm saying.
-Yes. -That's what we need.
-We need that... -Yeah, the structure.
Yeah, 'cause we got to do...
Somebody got to talk to these white dudes in person.
We tried talking to them over the Internet,
but Reddit didn't work. It was a big failure, so...
(laughter)
Okay, well, um, let's get the traffic, Roy. We...
It's just so beautiful when you just stare at it.
Ah, let's get to it. We got time?
-We got time? -No, we ran out of time again, Roy.
-We don't have time? -We ran out... Yeah, we-we...
-Just let me just... -No, we have... we have no time.
Just let me... let me just real quick?
Okay, what are you going to say?
(laughter)
It's just, so that guy's going to have a wreck.
-He is going way too fast. -You know what, Roy.
Thank you so much. Roy Wood, Jr., everybody.
When we come back, we're gonna find out
what MAGA insurrectionists and Black people have in common.
You don't want to miss it. We don't have time.
(cheering, applause)
Welcome back to The Daily Show.
Tonight, Congress officially launched
a major round of hearings
into the events of January 6th, 2021.
Juneteenth for Trump supporters.
The day when white people visited the democracy store
and demanded to speak to the manager.
And by the way, they're still arresting people for this.
You may not know that, but they are. In fact,
just today, they arrested a guy
who's running for governor of Michigan
because he also stormed the Capitol. Yeah.
And you know that's definitely gonna change the whole
course of the election, 'cause now we know he's gonna
win the Republican nomination. I mean...
You can't do that.
And this is a-this is a new experience
for a lot of these white people, you know?
All of a sudden, they're finding out what it's like
to be on the bad side of the police,
and it turns out they do not like it one bit.
The January 6th defendants are being treated differently
on a whole nother level.
They are denied religious services, haircuts,
shaving, the ability to trim their fingernails.
Imagine a group of men being held in jail
with no idea of when they're going to go to court,
no ability to bail out, no ability to see their family.
If you're Peter Navarro, they will literally pull you
off of a plane, shackle you and throw you in the brig.
I wound up in leg irons.
I wasn't allowed to call a lawyer.
No food, no water,
solitary confinement.
Illegal aliens to al-Qaeda terrorists
-were treated better than I was. -Better than you.
They actually followed him in the car to the airport
to make a scene and to handcuff him.
Um, why would they do that?
It actually puts an exclamation point
on the fact
that we have a two-tiered justice system.
Uh, if you're a Republican,
you can't even lie to Congress
or lie to an FBI agent,
or they're coming after you.
You can't even lie to Congress
or the FBI without them coming...
You realize he's just stating the law
but in an angry voice.
(angrily): "You can't hit pedestrians and drive away.
"You can't even sell another man's kidney
"on Craigslist.
"And if you steal your neighbor's dog
"and sell it back to them for the money,
"it's also not allowed.
"Is this America?
Is this America?"
(cheering and applause)
It is wild that Louie Gohmert over here
is complaining about not being allowed to lie to Congress
because he's in Congress.
Why does he want people to lie to him?
Why would you want that? I feel like
he must have asked someone for their honest opinion
at some point and then gotten it.
"Tell me the truth. Do I look
"like someone 3D printed Elmer Fudd?
"Wait, I changed my mind. Lie to me.
Lie to me."
But yeah, as you can see,
many, many Trump supporters
are saying that they're being oppressed
and they're just learning
how tough the justice system can be.
You know?
I mean, Marjorie Taylor Greene. You heard what she said.
She's like, "Can you imagine a group of men
who can't pay bail and can't see their family?"
Well, you don't... You don't have to imagine it.
America's already got
the largest population of them in the world.
And then just so we're clear, so we're clear,
I'm-I'm glad the people who stormed the Capitol
are being held accountable, but I don't take delight
in the idea of them experiencing the shitty side
of America's criminal justice system.
Yeah. So, Marjorie Taylor Greene,
I hope you keep this exact speech ready
for the next time Black people in America
are complaining about the exact same thing.
You don't even have to change the words.
(cheering and applause)
You don't even have to change the words.
It was wild that they've been treated like this
for, like, five minutes,
and, all of a sudden, they're like,
"It's a two-tiered system!"
They're like, "It's so hard being a Republican
in this country."
I was waiting for them to go into, like,
a white Negro spiritual.
You know? It's just like...
♪ Ooh, go ♪
♪ Go to the Whole Foods ♪
♪ Ooh ♪
♪ My gluten intolerance is getting me. ♪
Anyway, conservatives are now learning
that interactions with law enforcement
don't always end well.
Which means they're gonna have to have
some hard conversations with their children.
As a Trump supporter in America,
you already know that cops treat people like us differently.
We can be profiled and misjudged anytime,
just trying to overthrow a free and fair election.
That's why it's time for us to have...
-the talk. -The talk.
As a Trump supporter, it's important to remember
-that law enforcement is always out to get you. -Mm-hmm.
You could be targeted solely because of how you look
or what you chant
or who you're assaulting with a flagpole.
How many young and middle-aged men
have already been arrested just because they tried
to vote for Trump one too many times?
And then stormed the Capitol.
And then posted on Facebook for some reason.
And they'll use anything against you--
your skin color, your politics,
evidence.
If you so much as think
about overthrowing the government
and then actually attempt to,
there is nothing anyone can do to protect you.
Well, unless your husband is, like, on the Supreme Court.
-Oh, sure. -Yeah.
-So first rule-- always listen politely to the police. -Mm-hmm.
Don't freak out and call them bullies or fascists
until after you're booked on Tucker Carlson.
The bad news is that if they do arrest you,
-you can expect the worst kind of abuse. -Mm.
They'll put you in handcuffs, take you to the station,
and put you behind bars and then lock them.
These are things no criminal should have to suffer.
And now they're openly throwing around the word "traitor"?
Yeah, with a hard "R."
You know, every time I see a young man being hassled
by police for smearing feces on the walls
of Nancy Pelosi's office, I think,
-that could be our son. -Mm.
-He is a sweet boy, and we're proud of him. -Yeah.
He is a Proud Boy.
So that's the way things are.
And hopefully, the next generation
of conservatives won't have to have this talk.
-Because there won't be elections. -Exactly.
(applause and cheering)
Powerful. Powerful moment. Thank you, Desi and Michael.
All right, stay tuned, because we're going to be joined
by the playwright Michael R. Jackson right after the break.
You don't want to miss it.
(applause and cheering)
(cheering)
Welcome back to The Daily Show. My guest tonight
is Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Michael R. Jackson.
He's here to talk about his smash-hit new musical
A Strange Loop, which is currently
nominated for 11 Tony awards.
♪ White girls can do anything, can't they? ♪
♪ Black boys must always obey their mothers ♪
♪ White girls can do anything, can't they? ♪
♪ Can't they, can't they, can't they? ♪
♪ They get to be cool, tall, vulnerable and luscious ♪
♪ They get to be wild and unwise ♪
♪ They get to be shy and introspective ♪
♪ They get to make noise ♪
♪ They get to mesmerize. ♪
Please welcome Michael R. Jackson.
-♪ ♪ -(cheering, applause)
Welcome, welcome.
Welcome to the show.
-Thank you. -Mr. Michael R. Jackson.
Thank you for having me.
Before we get into the show that you have created,
that is getting everybody buzzing,
let's talk about the name.
-Let's talk about it. -How-how many people
do you disappoint when you show up?
I mean, like, not now, obviously, maybe now
it's more like, it's apart. But, like, Michael R. Jackson--
people just see "Michael Jackson."
I don't know, I think, like, I always get people
-to perk up a little bit when I-- -Oh, I like that.
-Like, my name precedes me. -(Noah laughs)
-You just show up, "Mr. Ja-- Oh, Mr. Jackson." -That's right.
-Yeah. -And then-- Um, the-- was the R always--
the R was always there, I'm assuming.
Uh, I kind of dropped it in there
-Okay. Well, that's what-- -to make a distinction,
I-- On Facebook, I'm the living Michael Jackson.
I like that. It's-- The only other person who I think has it
-is Michael B. Jordan. -That's right.
-Right. -Why-- He interned at All My Children--
I-I interned at All My Children when he was, like, a kid
-working there. It's really weird. -There's a connection.
-There is. -Look at it-- all the famous names people
going on to create their own famous names,
and that's exactly what you've done. A Strange Loop--
congratulations, 11 Tony award nominations.
-Thank you. Thank you. -(cheering, applause)
I...
I-I had the pleasure of seeing this production,
and I can't even explain it to people.
But, you know, what I love about it
is it makes me seem cool when I recommend it.
-Ah! -You know? No, no, no, 'cause, you know, in this world,
there's not many things you can recommend to people
that'll have them leaving feeling like you're so cool
because you told them to go.
Everyone I tell to see this goes and sees it,
and then they're like, "Trevor, oh, thank you so..."
I'm like, "Yeah, that's what I do.
-I, uh..." -(laughter)
Did you know when you finished creating this show,
did you know that it was gonna be the hit that it is?
Um, not even close. Like, it was, like,
not on my vision board even a little bit.
So it was really exciting.
But you took 20 years to write it.
-Yeah, almost. Yeah. It... -That's wild.
George R.R. Martin would be like,
"Yeah, I-I know what that's like. That's like, uh..."
Did... I-I would love to know, like, where this...
where this-this idea came from.
Because I don't want to give anything away for the audience,
'cause part of the joy of the show
is that you won't really know what it's about,
and you'll just be in a story.
But what we can tell people is it is a story
of a gay Black man
who is in the world of theater,
and he's in the world of being Black
-and the world of being gay, but it comments on... -And fat.
And every... Gay, Black, fat. Yes.
-And you talk about that in the show. -(chuckles) Yeah, yeah.
One of the funniest shows I've ever seen.
One of the most poignant shows I've ever seen.
People crying, people laughing.
It, like... That... I see why it took 20 years.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh, yeah, it just started off...
You know, I was about 23 years old.
I'm 41 now. And I had just graduated
from undergrad playwriting at NYU.
I didn't know what I was gonna do with a BFA degree.
I was living in this old lady's bungalow-style house
in the middle of nowhere, Jamaica, Queens,
which, if you live in New York, that's, like, all the way
to the end of the E or the F train,
and then you take a bus that's, like, ten minutes
-to get to the house. -(laughs)
It was crazy.
And, so... And I was just, like...
Didn't know what I was gonna do with my life,
and so I started writing this monologue
called "Why I Can't Get Work."
And it was just about, you know,
a young Black gay man walking around New York,
wondering why life is so terrible.
So, and from... And sort of the show
sprang from that sort of primordial soup.
I-I didn't know that it was... it was true
that you worked as an usher at The Lion King.
Yeah, I worked at, uh... When The Lion King
used to be at the New Amsterdam Theatre,
-and I worked there for five years. -Uh-huh.
I did, like, four years of Lion King
and a-a year of Mary Poppins,
and then I did, a couple years later,
a seasonal stint at Aladdin,
so I ran through the whole Disney pantheon.
W-Was there anything that-- was there anything that you saw
where you were like, "I-I don't ever want to see this again
in a Broadway show so I'm gonna create something differently"?
Or was there something you saw that inspired you
that made you want to create the show the way you did?
Well, it was kind of both. It was a strange loop.
-Ooh. -(laughing)
-Ooh! I like what you did there! -(cheering and applause)
Okay. Okay.
-Mm. -Um, yeah, like, you know,
you're standing in the back of the theater,
you're ringing the bells, you're watching the audience
night after night after night,
show after show, you get a little... bored.
And-- But, luckily, you know, I was there with my thoughts
and just sort of thinking through the show.
I used to-- We used to have to stuff the playbills,
and sometimes I would write little ideas for--
that would go into the show on the back of the inserts...
-Right. -...for like, "Today, the-- this understudy's in"
or whatever, and I would collect them
and they would be in all my pockets when I got home.
Um, but so it was wild. Like, but I, again,
I never expected that anything would come of it.
But I just was doing it to sort of keep myself sane.
What do you think you have taken away from this?
You know? I-I saw so many people in the audience
who were touched for different reasons, you know?
If people grew up in a religious family,
I saw them connecting with the show in a different way.
If people, you know, had-had issues with their identity
growing up or maybe they were bullied,
may-maybe they're struggling today--
it doesn't matter what it was--
you-you're looking for work in America,
you, you know, you're just trying to get by,
you're trying to find friends, love--
all of these themes are touched on.
And I-I watched people in the audience feel something.
I watched ev-- Everyone walked out just making sounds.
That's when you know. No one-- no one said anything.
Everyone was just like, "Mm." "Ah." "Oh." "Huh."
"Ah." "Ugh." It-it was-- it was beautiful.
But then I wondered what you got by creating this,
like, for yourself.
Did it change anything in your world?
I mean, I guess, for me, the best part of the show
has been actually talking to people after,
when, like-- when it lets out.
Because what I've been finding is that,
for some people, the show is a mirror.
And for other people, the show is a window.
And that seeing people there, uh, together,
experiencing the same thing
but through those two different lenses...
-I love that. -...has been-- creates a really powerful energy
that sort of goes up onto the sta--
goes to the a-actors onstage and they-they send it back.
And it really brings the audience into the loop
of the show of-of the character's mind
that we're in as we're watching.
You-you had a great--
Uh, I-I forget what was the phrase you called it.
You said it was like a-- It was a big, gay, Bl...
Big, Black and queer-ass American Broadway show.
-I love that. I love that. -Yeah.
No. You know what I loved about that. Yeah, it was...
(applause and cheering)
Was what you just said. I've seen some shows
where, you know, if an audience is,
let's say, from New York, they really get the show.
If they're not from New York,
maybe they don't enjoy it as much.
Or if the audience is Black, maybe they get it more or less.
This was one of those shows where everyone was enjoying it
-from a different perspective. -Yeah.
There's a lot of different reference points sort of in it
because that's kind of what it's like to be a person.
You're made up of all of your reference points,
-your history, your different memories, everything. -Mm.
And so the main character, Usher-- that's his name--
he loves a lot of different things,
and he hates a lot of different things.
And so, my sort of hope was, by exposing the audience to that,
everybody can sort of meet Usher and the show wherever they are,
and they can take from it what they need to.
And that the show is sort of promoting a spirit
of inclusion for anybody
who decides to come in and stick it out.
I don't think anybody's sticking it out.
I will tell you now. No, genuinely. I...
Well, no. There's some difficult moments for some people, and...
But you know what? That's... I think
that's what made it so amazing is,
-it's not difficult for the sake of being difficult. -Right.
It's difficult in, like, a life way.
-It's not gratuitous. Yeah. -It's not at all.
And I have seen shows where audiences go,
-"Aah, I'm uncomfortable." -Right.
But here it was people experiencing the discomfort
-that somebody else may be living through. -Right.
Yeah, and because that's what
the character and I am trying to do is, we're trying
to get the audience to feel what it's like
-to walk in this skin that they may not be... -Yes.
Either that they don't feel familiar with,
or that they feel familiar with,
-but feel unseen, unheard or misunderstood. -Yes.
It's phenomenal. It's one of the funniest, most intelligent,
just everything and this that you put...
I hope you win every single Tony Award
-that you're nominated for. Congratulations. -Thank you.
-Thank you. -Everyone needs to go watch the show.
-Thank you. -Thank you for being here.
A Strange Loop is nominated for 11 Tony Awards.
It's now playing at the Lyceum Theatre on Broadway.
Go and watch it. I promise you now,
it's the best thing you'll ever see.
We're gonna take a quick break,
but we'll be right back after this.
A Strange Loop. Don't forget.
-Again, thank you. -(applause and cheering)
Well, that's our show for tonight.
But before we go, please consider supporting
March For Our Lives. This Saturday, June 11,
the youth-lead movement dedicated
to eliminating gun violence is marching again on Washington
and in communities across the country.
So if you can, please go to the link below
to donate and get more information
on how you can show up and demonstrate
to elected officials that we demand
and deserve a nation that is free of gun violence.
Until next time, stay safe out there, and remember--
gas costs money, but holding onto the back
of your neighbor's car while he drives-- that's free.
That's free. Now here it is-- Your Moment of Zen.
This is such a bunch of baloney.
-This is baloney! Baloney. -...anything about that.
-That's baloney, Dan! -Did you just hear what I...?
His apology was a bunch of baloney.
Her position on this is absolutely baloney.
-Idiot? -I hope it's not baloney,
uh, you know, masquerading as steak.
It's all baloney. Baloney. Baloney, baloney, baloney.
That's a lot of baloney. Uh, baloney.