People like to pretend that all women have the same experience or that all gay people have the same experience. But everyone's life is different, and everyone's point of view is valid.
— Phoebe Robinson
I never really watched much stand-up growing up. I just was not really that into it. But I can say I honestly fell in love with it the second I touched the microphone. It was like this weird thing where it's like, 'Oh, yeah, this is what I'm supposed to do.'
One cannot control the life they are born into.
It is utterly asinine that people continually go to comedy shows without bothering to see if their sensibilities line up with the comedians.
At its best, alt comedy can be challenging, surprising, and innovative. And at its worst, alt comics think that being awkward.com/FAQS is a substitution for punchlines.
A lot of times in comedy, and also in podcasting and television, there are different kinds of voices that can be celebrated. So you can have 'Insecure' exist, you can have a '2 Dope Queens' exist, you can have 'The Mindy Project' exist - very distinct, funny voices from women and from people of color.
As a kid I used to always write these stories... some of them were really cute; some of them were kind of crazy.
I think, at the end of the day, you have to decide what you want. Do you want to be famous? Do you want to be rich? Do you want to have a career? Those are three very different things.
I want to have an empire. I like being in front of the camera, performing - but I would like to get to a place where I'm also executive producing and bringing other people along. People of all different walks of life, highlighting their voices.
I started watching 'Daria' when I was in college because I didn't have cable growing up. It's such a smart show with a different type of female character.
I'm not a caffeine person.
Being in a male-dominated industry, you can feel like a little excluded. That was making me feel like maybe I'm not funny. I was really seriously considering, like, quitting standup.
There's so many careers that didn't happen because women are like, 'I can't deal with this harassment. I'm going to leave this industry.'
I love doing standup, but I love watching it more. Watching people like Michelle Buteau or Baron Vaughn get up and do their thing - that is what comedy can be like.
Sometimes in stand-up, you want that late-night set where you get that five minutes, then you want a half-hour special, and then the crown, if you will, is an HBO special.
The great thing about being a standard-issue, straight white person is you have so much time. Gay people, people of color, we have less time! We have to be a living Learning Annex to everybody. We don't have time to master hobbies like skipping rocks along lakes.
One of the things I love about 'Idol' besides the drama, the backstories, and the crazy arrangements on popular songs is the auditions, when everyone is full of hope and nerves.
I think people just don't respect women's bodies in general, the bodies of women of color in general.
Anyone who does stand-up comedy can agree that doing a late-night spot is a dream of theirs.
I like hot people being hot. How else do you explain my high school infatuation with Ricky Martin in all his shirtless glory?
Any joke can be funny, but not any joke is funny. Any joke has the potential to be hilarious to you, but more importantly, the joke has the potential to not be funny to you but to someone else.
There are just so many brilliant voices out there. I'm not the funniest person out there, I'm not the best interviewer. I'm not the best at anything, but I really just am a big fan of everyone. I'm really driven by trying to make sure that representation is out there.
I am a workaholic - my family will agree with that.
I never really thought of comedy as a career. My goal was, when I moved to New York, I was going to write serious films.
I'm fabulous on a budget.
You got a snaggletooth? Show it off. You have an overbite? Bite some more.
I try to read 20 books a year.
I will allow myself to sleep in until 9 A.M. on the weekends.
I'm from Cleveland, Ohio. I was the only black girl in my grade. And I was just, like, really dorky. Like, I wasn't cool.
I've experienced harassment. I've had male comedians be very inappropriate.
I think anytime you work on something, even if you feel really good about it, you're never really sure. Once it's in the public space, it's out of my hands.
I'm a very business-minded person.
If I have a daughter and she grows up to be an astronaut, she's gonna end up on a Black History Month stamp.
I have watched every single season of 'American Idol' since the beginning, when Ryan Seacrest co-hosted with Brian Dunkleman. Brian who? Exactly.
'2 Dope Queens,' it was just a way for us to showcase female comedians, showcase comedians of color, showcase LGBT comedians, and shake up the landscape and be like, 'Hey, there is more than just what is out there.'
Technology has been the great equalizer: you can find your audience, you can build your brand, and the people that are into you, great. They're going to follow you to whatever platform you go to.
Even the best comedians aren't always sure what is going to be funny, what is going to work. So that means they're constantly and trying and failing in order to get there.
Comedy is subjective, and any joke can be funny.
With '2 Dope Queens,' with stand-up, and also with 'Sooo Many White Guys,' the interview stuff that I do, I really am a fan first.
I don't have a stylist.
I was a funny kid growing up, and I did improv in college and went to Pratt Institute, but I did it very informally. It was just me and some of my friends goofing around on campus.
I thought I was going to be a serious screenwriter and produce serious films. It was going to be 'American Beauty' and very important work.
I think that comfort is underrated in a lot of ways.
I like the gym the best when it's mostly empty.
Just because you're not like other people doesn't mean that you're bad. It means that you're different, and that's great.
What's important is to have more women creators behind the scenes, being producers and being in charge. That will ultimately help push this boys'-club, locker-room mentality out the door.
Typically, in New York, there are so many comics on a single lineup that you can only do eight minutes.
For me personally, I was just worried that transitioning from a podcast, which is a very intimate sort of experience - people tell me they listen to my podcast while they're at the gym or on road trips, so you're in someone's ear - to being on television - that's a lot of space to fill.
It's just a wild experience to have thousands of people stand up and cheer for you.
I'm going to keep doing the comedy and the art that I do. I'm going to keep uplifting marginalized voices, and I think that's my place to do that.
