Photo credit: Brendan Kownacki
“My mother is still the funniest person I know,” Roy Wood Jr. told Hollywood on the Potomac prior to the 20th Anniversary of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at The Kennedy Center honoring David Letterman where he hosted Facebook Live interviews with the talent prior to the show. The all-star cast included Al Franken, Jimmy Kimmel, Norm Macdonald, Steve Martin, John Mulaney, Bill Murray, Amy Schumer, Paul Shaffer, Martin Short, Eddie Vedder and Jimmie Walker. The evening was sponsored by Capital One.
Roy’s mother was a college educator, so when he told her he wanted to be a comedian she was not happy in the least. “For an educator whose job it is to prepare people for the world and your child comes in and says hey ‘I’m gonna do something where fewer than 5% of the people who do it………’ well, pretty much any profession that’s not invited to career day, your parents are gonna hate.”
We asked Wood when was the seminal moment he decided to be a comedian: At 19 “having a C-average in mass media law, flunking humanities and having a pretty decent job at Shoney’s Southern Kitchen. Because I was working in journalism they made us take impromptu speaking classes. So part of the curriculum was that they just give you a topic and you just have to make up something on the spot whether you knew about it or not. And I got laughs from that. So I would take the jokes that I got in class and use them on the tables I was waiting on at Shoney’s and Golden Corral and I got better tips if I was funny. So I figure all right everyday I’m gonna go into work with a couple of extra jokes to throw at the tables and I just kinda figured out like oh, this is like comedy, which I already kinda wanted to do. So, I guess I’ll do comedy now. If you look at the number of comedians that are in this country, and there’s no way to really quantify that number, if you look at the number of working comedians that are paid every single week to do this, I would say that only 10% of them are able to do comedy solely as their only sole source of income. So, to look your parents in the face at 19 and say ‘yeah, I’m gonna try that for a living,’ it’s probably a little intimidating for them.”
Roy Wood Jr. Photo credit: Janet Donovan
Roy is a correspondent on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and named one of 10 comics to watch in 2015 by Variety Magazine, describing his comedy as thought-provoking of ‘Charismatic Crankiness.’ In 2017, Wood premiered his first one hour standup special, ‘Father Figure,’ on Comedy Central and a live album of the same name. In the same year he was named the new host for Season 4 of Comedy Central’s storytelling series, ‘This is Not Happening.’ In October 2006, Wood made his network television debut on The Late Show with David Letterman. “I wanna ask Letterman – just as a fan, as a comedian, just as a fan of comedy – if he’s aware of how many doors he has opened for other comedians?” Letterman was his big break which he traces back to the Montreal Comedy Festival in July of 2006 when Eddie Brill came over and shook his hand when coming off stage. Brill thought he was really funny. “He really made a point to come over and speak to me. And to me it was just a dude in the crowd and I was like, okay whatever. Then one of the comedians comes over and whispers in my ear. He goes, hey that’s Letterman’s booker. I go all right, whatever, because in comedy, there’s so many almost moments. It doesn’t mean he’s gonna book me. Three months later I’m at the Ed Sullivan Theater walking out on stage in front of 8-10 million Americans. That was exhilarating.”
So, we wanted to know if he was fearful before going on with Letterman. “Chris Rock said, and I’m paraphrasing, that basically the fear never leaves you as a performer and that it’s good to have because it keeps you honest, it keeps you prepared. The moment you’re not scared anymore, that’s when something is wrong. And for me, that moment was probably the most horrified I’ve been as a performer. But thankfully, I’m glad I had that because it prepared me for everything that came after that. Being on Letterman was a validation of your wit and your style of comedy. Letterman wasn’t just a talk-show host, he was a genre of stand-up. You were a Letterman guy, the same way you could be a Leno guy – that’s a testament to his legacy. That credit alone moves you to the top of the pile. And at the time, when I did Letterman, I was still living in Alabama. I wasn’t even a coastal comic yet so to be a comedian living in the South, performing around the South with a Letterman credit – you’re getting booked everywhere. Especially as a black comedian to have a Letterman credit, it instantly changed certain prejudice and assumptions that comedy bookers may have had about what your style of comedy was. His name alone was enough to move resumes to the top of piles.”
Roy Wood Jr. and David Letterman
So what’s his end goal? “You know, for me right now, I don’t think I’ve ever had a plan that extended more than maybe three to five years. I’m very happy where I am on The Daily Show. I enjoy the work we do. I enjoy the opportunity that I have to do pieces that don’t fall under the normal metrics of a web series or jokes that you really can’t tell in stand-up. You can address serious issues so I enjoy the opportunity to do that. I’d love to have my own scripted show at some point, then maybe tackle something similar. But, beyond that, I couldn’t tell you what the next door is that opens. I would have never thought in a million years that I would even be sitting right here. It’s very important to be here and be a part of this because Capital One is a co-sponsor of this. They’re the home-town bank. I think Capital One has identified that it’s very important that people who uplift the culture of comedy, be honored. And as you know, comedy at The Kennedy Center has been a program that has been dedicated to elevating the voices of comedy in this country.
Outtakes from the show:
Martin Short: It was an evening celebrating a man “we all…tolerate”
Jimmy Kimmel said Dave abandoned the late night community of hosts: “You went out for a pack of cigarettes and left us with an abusive orange stepfather.”
Amy Schumer was not a fan of Letterman’s beard: “Dave looks like he should be telling jokes to a volleyball,” referencing Tom Hanks in Castaway
“What a reign it has been,” joked Bill Murray in full royal garb as he passed the Twain torch to Letterman.
Paul Shaffer continued to joke about his relationship with Dave. “Dave Letterman would run into a fire for me and I’d do the same if he ever tells me where he lives.”
Letterman ended the evening: “Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.”
David Letterman: The Mark Twain Prize airs on November 20th at 9 PM ET on PBS stations nationwide.
