-Kenya Barris,
thank you so much for doing the show.
[ Clapping ] I appreciate it.
I'm a fan and, really, it means a lot to me.
Thank you so much for doing "The Tonight Show."
-Thank you for checking off the bucket list
that I would've never even put on my bucket list moment,
so thank you.
-Oh, my gosh.
How is everything? How are you? How's the fam?
Is everyone safe? Is everyone healthy?
-Everyone is safe.
You know, my daughter
going through some crazy thing.
My daughter and me --
My daughter just turned 21 and we had --
I looked up and, a couple of weeks ago,
I saw like a charge.
Like, "Plane ticket?"
And she was like, "Yeah."
And I was like, "For what?"
And she was like, "I'm gonna go to Jamaica
for my birthday." I'm like, "You're not going
to Jamaica,
I was like, "This is a pandemic.
Are you crazy?!"
And she's like, "Yeah, well, I'm gonna be 21.
I'm gonna be grown."
I was like, "You're not going."
I was like, "This is ridiculous.
I was like, "If you go --"
This is like my white moment that [indistinct]
I was like, "If you go, I'm cutting you off."
Like we never get to cut people off, as a Black person.
I was like, "If you go, I'm cutting you off."
She's like, "Whatever." So cut to
I look on Instagram
and it's like her like on a boat somewhere?
I'm like, "Kayleigh, where are you?"
And she was like, "I'm in Miami."
And I'm like, "You're in Miami?!"
-It's not Jamaica. It's not Jamaica.
-I was like, "No, it's the epicenter."
It's ground zero.
It's worse than Jamaica. -She went worse?
Oh, my God. -I was like,
"You wanna be the boss,
then you have to pay the cost of the boss."
I was like, "I'm takin' everything,"
you know what I'm saying? I was like, "You're on your own.
You go and be an adult."
So she comes back and Father's Day was Sunday
and, you know, Saturday, I get this message from her
and she's like, "So I'm not gonna come over tomorrow
because I'm not feeling well and, you know,
I have to take results and I just don't wanna
take a chance of getting anyone sick."
I'm like,
"What are your symptoms?"
And she's like, "Well, you know, I'm not feeling good.
I'm having headaches
and I lost my sense of taste."
I go, "Kayleigh,
you have COVID!"
And I was like, "This isn't even like --
Christ." I was like, "It's almost like you were
trying to get it. You were going to like black market gyms."
She's a COVID chaser.
I was like, "You were trying to get it."
-[ Laughing ] -[ Laughing ] I was like --
"Literally, like, what is going on?"
And she was like, "I know. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
She's like, "You're gonna say, 'I told you so'
and I shouldn't have."
But it was --
I told her. I was like, "I have to, you know,
tell people this," because she's young.
-She doesn't have it?
-She feels like, you know.
They feel invincible.
I don't think it's funny, I have a gallows sense of humor,
but I do think that like the notion of how
people feel like this isn't real,
you know what I'm saying?
"And I'm young."
You know, it's very real and we have to be
very conscious and we have to be aware
and I feel like I was like, "I'm gonna talk about this,"
because I feel like I want people to know
like it can happen to anyone.
I pray that she's gonna be okay
-Oh! -and she's not, you know, having major things,
but she is, you know, sick.
She was trying to get it.
-Is she recuperating?
-She's recuperating.
She's really groggy.
She's lethargic. She's in the bed, so.
Thank you for asking, but, you know, everyone is well.
Other than her, who has COVID.
-I love that, even through this,
you can have a sense of humor, a little bit, and be like,
"Are you chasing this stuff?"
[ Laughing ] -Like, "You did it."
-We have so much to talk about, but,
does it start with "Black-ish" and you take that
and then, you spin off to "Grown-ish," right?
-That "-ish" world has changed my life
and really been something I'm unbelievably proud of.
-Yeah. I will say,
especially the last couple weeks,
there's been clips online, seeing the "Juneteenth" episode.
-Mm-hmm.
And then, I read that
you're takin' that to the next level and doing --
writing a musical with Pharrell?
-So, Pharrell and I sold a play,
along with one of the writers who
we wrote "Juneteenth" with, this guy Peter Saji.
But we sold a play. Plays take a long time,
as you know, so we've been trying to sort of --
Like it's something really important for me to do it.
"Juneteenth," to me, was one of my personal things.
Like I feel like I wanted to make that a national holiday.
I wanted to help make that a national holiday
and I feel like, you know, the notion of people
understanding that slavery is the recessive scar
that all of us -- Black, white, whatever,
you know what I'm saying? Asian, Latinx --
like we all, as Americans,
it's the thing that we all share.
There's never been an apology for slavery.
So, there's never been anything
that said slavery was "legally wrong,"
you know what I'm saying?
Greatest human atrocity in like, you know, modern history.
And so I feel like the idea of celebrating that,
from an American standpoint,
might really start to help the healing,
so it's something really important to me.
So Ted Sarandos and I,
we saw Trump was gonna have his rally
and we started talking. And we were like --
He was gonna have it on Juneteenth.
We were like, "This isn't okay,"
and plays take a long time
and Pharrell, being who he is and being a partner,
when we got together and we called Ted
and Ted was immediately receptive.
And we're gonna do a musical about Juneteenth.
Pharrell's gonna do the music and EVP with me.
And we have a great writer and we're gonna get, you know,
a director, but like we wanna bring this to the audience
and, hopefully, goal is to, next Juneteenth,
you know, have it come on, you know, Netflix
as like a weekend, to say like, explain it to everybody also,
but to celebrate the day in a really big way.
-Well, it's major, but, I mean,
you're not gonna act in this, right?
-[ Laughing ]
-Do you have the bug now?
-[ Bleep ] No, not at all.
I feel like I --
We had a great actor who I love cast for "#blackAF," right?
And, you know, Rashida, who's my partner, who I love,
and who was [ indistinct ]
she was like, "Isn't there kinda already
a show about your life with an actor?", you know.
So I wanted to do something in the marketplace
that felt like it would be different,
you know what I'm saying? And I'm a huge
"Curb Your Enthusiasm" fan, huge Larry David fan.
My producer, who produced "Curb,"
connected me with him
and he could not have been more sweet and supportive and funny.
But he also was like, "Do it."
And it's satire, you know what I'm saying?
I think that we don't, as Black creators,
we don't get to do satire, you know what I'm saying?
It's not something people are used to seeing
and so I think that, you know,
I would say it was really well-received,
but I would say less well-received
than anything I've done before, but at the same time --
-Why? -Say it was --
I think it was polarizing, you know what I'm saying?
I think that it was a different look.
People, you know, there were a lot of -- you know.
People were like, "This is just "Black-ish," done over."
And I was like, "In some aspects, it's my story
and I'm telling it, but I wanted to tell it
in a much more honest and real way."
Like I wanted to show,
in a wish fulfilling, aspirational way,
"This is where my career has grown,"
but at the same time, some of the same problems,
just as being a father,
or just being a Black man, existed,
but they had morphed and I wanted to say it
in a really honest way and it was cathartic,
you know what I'm saying? Like.
-Well, clearly, it's resonating.
It just got picked up for season 2.
-Yes. -"#blackAF."
Kenya Barris, I'm so happy you're on the show
and I want you to come back when we're in person.
I want you to come back many, many times
and it's a pleasure and an honor to talk to you.
-Thank you. -You're crushin' it. You're crushin' it, bud.
-You are crushing it, man. And, to do the show,
the way you've continued to do it,
in this space and just sort of like --
I'm so proud of you, man, like honestly.
You've been a good guy.
You've been one of the good guys since you started
and you've continued to be.
You know, we've bumped into each other in person --
you always are you.
And I kinda feel like that is a testament,
especially in this business, like you do not change,
and so thank you for that, man, and thank you for having me
on this, dude. Like this is great.
-You rock. Thanks, bud. Stay safe and say hi
to Kayleigh, please. -I will. Thanks.