W. Kamau Bell

speaker

1,269 appearances 5 recordings 5 series first heard Mar 2025 last heard 14 Oct

W. Kamau Bell’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Oct 2025 with 1.

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Blocks: I Wish I Knew w/ Neal Brennan · W. Kamau Bell · 1 May 2025 podcast

So the cover of Essence is probably not coming. You know what I mean? So like, but they have, I have been covered in those magazines. I'm not trying to say that, but I just know that there's like, a certain level, and also I didn't come up through like the black comedy club circuit, and so a lot of the people who would know me didn't know me if I'd come up through that circuit.

Yeah, no, for sure, for sure.

I was like, okay. He's going skiing this weekend. No, and I don't have any, I want to be so clear about this. I don't have any beef with any of this stuff. No, of course not. And I'm the dude who chose to do it this way. So I can't be surprised about what happened. Like, how come I don't get called for, well, yeah, you're not even over there.

I was fully prepared for my career to be over. Like I was fully prepared for like. I can after Cosby. Yeah. I was like sort of preparing for like, maybe I won't get, you know, I had still had United shades at that point. So I was like, I still have that, but like you did four or five years of that seven, seven, Jesus.

That's like, it's like bringing up this guy used to work at McDonald's. Yeah. Uh, but yeah, so, so, uh, yeah, so I, I was just prepared for like, I don't know, this could be so bad. that the whole thing could be over because nobody's going to want to work with me. Because first of all, I didn't know if people would like it. So if everybody hates it, then my career is over.

And I just am one of those people who went down in a blaze of glory. So I was already like, well, I'm here in Oakland. I can get a job. I could probably teach theater. I could go back to school, get my degree, and then become a professor. I know enough. I was like, I know enough that I can keep my family fed and clothed. But I was prepared for that 100%.

But the fact is, is like when it came out very quickly, it became the best reviewed thing I'd ever released, like the best, most critical acclaim. And so I felt like, okay, at least I have that.

Exactly. I won a Black Reel Award. And then what happened, I remember I was at Tribeca Film Festival and this started, this was the first time it happened, but it started happening more and more. This was like months after it had come out. And I was even like worried about going out in public for a little while. Like, I just was like, I'll tell you, Good story about that.

So this black woman came up to me at the Tribeca Film Festival and was like, Kamau Bell, yeah. She sort of waved me over. She's like, you had my group chat on fire. She was sort of saying it like it was great, but people were really in their feelings about it. She's like, you blew up everybody's group chat. And I didn't know that. And I heard from other black people about that.

There was just a lot of like... Yeah, it's, it's, yeah. That ultimately was better. And it came out before R. Kelly, right? The R. Kelly doc? It was after R. Kelly. Because it was sort of, like, the two docs that inspired it were Surviving R. Kelly and Made in America O.J. Simpson.

Yeah, I mean, she had it worse. There was like death threats and bomb threats.

No, I think she had it. I definitely think she had it.

Yeah, she had it worse. But I think Dream also is like, doesn't give, like, probably, maybe doesn't feel it the same way I felt it, because DreamHammond doesn't give a shit. DreamHammond can do what she does. She's the greatest. And she's been a real resource during this time when I was sort of having a rough time.

And so, yeah, so I think that like my male privilege to some extent protected me because I'm not getting as many, I'm gonna rape you as if I was a woman filmmaker. You got some.

Yeah, but I'm not getting, and so like, and the thing that came out of it that I felt like mission accomplished was that Lily Bernard, who I talked about earlier, said after the doc came out and was out for a while, she got less online hate than before the doc came out. Because she's like a very prominent Cosby survivor. And she said the online hate has gone down significantly.

And she said it's consistent since the doc came out. So I was like, well, if I can take the slings and arrows, if nothing comes out of it but that, good job, or mission accomplished. But the story I want to tell you is, so this is how, this is what I sort of,

Sort of the kind of thing I was sort of dealing with so I'm going to the I'm like, I think it's United chasing CNN thing They sing they send a car to my house to pick me up CNN people do that you can explain to them that that's how it works in show business So I go into the car. It's not it's like and you know, if you use a car service lot There's like your regular driver.

Mm-hmm And this was not my regular driver and some other guy and I was I gotta get in the car and we're driving It's a black dude and we get in the highway. He goes man I gotta talk to you about that Cosby doc. Brother, what were you thinking? I was talking to my family, and they were like, why would this brother? I like, and he's like, you know what? I drive him sometimes.

I'm gonna talk to this brother and see what, we're going, it's like a 45 minute trip to the airport.

held captive while this guy hasn't seen it and told his family that I'm going to confront him next time he's in my car. And I have to like, sort of, and it was like, I have to sort of just sort of roll with this, you know what I mean? And sort of finagle. And so that's the kind of thing that I have found myself having to figure out situations like that.

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