W. Kamau Bell

They said, no, because you're black.

But that was back when they would just say, no, because you're black.

And he was like, then I don't want to do the show.

And then they were like, okay, okay, you can do it.

So you see somebody like Dick Gregory, who was on a path to be a star comedian, but it was during the Civil Rights Movement.

He's like, being a star comedian is not important right now.

Being someone who has a big profile like Dick Gregory did, and then going to March with Dr. King, which brings more cameras...

is actually what I should be doing.

So I think the idea is that I wanted to be a comedian because of Eddie Murphy on Saturday Night Live.

But the world said there's your skills may go elsewhere.

You know, so your skills may not maybe maybe I would have been great on Saturday Night Live as Eddie Murphy being the next Eddie Murphy.

But I also think that like, no, the way I was raised and who my mom and my dad and the world I grew up in and moving to the Bay Area sort of like, you know, I was woke before it was demonized.

And and so I don't think about like, how do I make this funny?

Because my brain is that of a stand up comedian who's always like, whatever the story is, I read it starts working on like, that's the way I process the story is by.

just sort of like by rolling over the story, my brain starts coming up with jokes.

And that's because I'm trying to do it.

Yeah.

It's not because I'm trying to do it.

It's just like, man, that's where I can't believe that Trump said that.

That's ridiculous.