Comedian is just one of Nicole Byer’s many gigs. She’s an author, actress, reality show host, and co-hosts four podcasts, including Why Won’t You Date Me? With Nicole Byer. When we spoke with her, mostly about her last special ‘cause it’s great, she talked to us about her experience of building an hour of material, her journey as a comedian, and her favorite joke she’s ever written.
HT: When you put a special out into the world, do you pay much attention to the response?
Byer: I mean, everybody has their own opinion about everything. You hope that the opinions are nice and that people liked it. But there are people in the world who don’t like you. And that’s fine. I think it was like RuPaul, who was like, call me whatever you want as long as you’re talking about me. I’m from that school. Talk about me negatively, positively. Hopefully, there are more positives than negatives.
I think Eddie Murphy had the best response to any criticism, “The check cleared, so it was a success.”
Yeah. Really, say whatever you want. My checks, I’m doing all right. I’m doing enough that I don’t have to talk about you. You know what I’m saying? It’s like, “Yeah. My bank account is nice to look at.”
[Laughs] So, when do you know your hour of material is ready for a special?
Well, for me, personally, I worked backwards with stand-up. So I was doing improv and sketch to begin with. And then I got Girl Code, and then colleges were like, “These college kids fucking love you. Come do stand-up at our fucking schools or whatever.” And I was like, “I need new characters.” And my …
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Author: Jack Giroux / High Times
