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Theres no traditional route into comedy especially none like Ms. Pats.
When she was 30, a social worker suggested comedy.
you’re able to read excerpts from the transcript or listen to the full episode below.
Tune in toGood Oneevery Thursday onApple Podcasts,Spotify,Stitcher,Overcast, orwherever you get your podcasts.
Alchemizing Anger
I wanted to start by saying congratulations on your special.
You are redefining the genre of comedy in so many ways.Thank you.
Ill tell these grimy, dark stories, and if they like it, they like it.
If they dont, they dont.
Thats the hardest part of comedy finding your voice.
Young comics tend to do the people that they like.
Who Chris Rock was.
Other people who were storytellers.
I mean, you’re free to only write so many dick-sucking jokes.
I think that I found my voice when I started to be honest with who I was.
A lot of my shit comes from the way I grew up.
Open doors in my life that I shut.
Deal with a lot of the pain.
I think thats what made me stand out.
Because nobody can tell the stories I tell.
Theyre hard to steal.
How many people got their nipples shot off?
Your stories are so rich.
A lot of people say, I cant believe youre not angry.
I didnt want to be a part of it anymore.
I can almost tell where they come from.
Marc Maron podcast?Bob & Tom?Ms.
What has really gotten crazy with my fan base is that theyve turned Black.
I didnt have many Black fans until the show came out.
Then they were like, Where the hell have you been?
And Black folks, my people, are crazy as hell.
Theyll just come up and snatch you:Give me a hug, bitch!
Theyre aggressive they feel like they know you.
Like theyre part of your family.
My other fan base is like, Oh, Ms. Pat!
So happy to meet you.
They think Im their cousin like Im at the barbecue and theyve known me 20 years.
I have all types of people.
The diversity just makes me smile.
See, no one does that.
No one has the balls to stand up for themselves in this business.
I didnt want to be drowned out and let the web link dog-walk me.
It was for Fox.
Theyd say, You should be happy as fuck.
Youre about to make a shit ton of money!
Money was never the issue with me.
Whatever I do, I want it to be good.
So we ended up with this writer and, as you say,This is not it.
And they say What?!
I dont care if I dont get another opportunity.
I dont wanna be on TV like that.
So we had to part ways with the writer.
It was me who said no.
Then we get another writer, and they didnt like the script.
They say you only get two or three chances in Hollywood.
We found a 22-year-old kid still in college in New York named Jordan E. Cooper.
I cant get down with the fake shit, Bert.
I pull this kid to the side, and I say, Look.
Theyre never going to give you this fucking job.
Lets write a script behind their back.
We wrote a script behind their back.
I told him, Take your fucking name off of it.
If they dont like it, then they cant say that you cant write.
We can put it back on me.
I give it to Lee Daniels, who was like, Who wrote this?
I said, Me.
And he was like, Nuh uh, everythings spelt right.
They loved the script.
So we shoot the pilot at Hulu.
I pick up on spirits with good people and bad people.
Im from the street, so my instincts have kept me from getting killed.
And theyre like, Why?
My spirit said,That person doesnt understand me.
The first thing the Hulu person says is, Why is she hollering at her kids like that?
Motherfucker, you never been in a Black neighborhood?
Youve never spanked your damn kids?
So Hulu drops it, and I say, I told yall Hulu was gonna drop it.
I never felt like it wasnt going to get picked up.
I felt like we were going to land where we needed to land.
Not to get into some fucking existential woke conversation, but Im in a business where everyone understands me.
The shorthand is very quick.
This is what people want to see.
Because one person didnt get it, they didnt allow it to go further.
Everybody aint gonna get you.
Everybody aint gonna like your honesty.
Everybody aint gonna like your style.
Everybody aint gonna like what you do.
So Ive learned in life to fuck with people who fuck with you.
These interview excerpts have been edited and condensed.
