-How is it being -- for you, with comedy
during this situation, with everything going on?
-I mean, people sort of say,
like, can you be funny at this time?
And I sort of remember back to like 9/11
when I was a pretty young comedian,
and there was a sense of
maybe there's not going to be comedy anymore.
But comedy finds a way,
because people need comedy to relieve the tension.
And so for me, it's like, both of us were funny
before we were "professional comedians," right?
-Yeah. -For me, it's like,
being funny is just how we process the world.
-Well, cut to now you've won Emmys now.
The show's crushed. I think the last time I saw you --
-Hold on, right here.
-Yeah! Come on! Come on, now.
-Hold on. Let me get the last one.
-Number three. Come on, bring in three.
Yeah.
Oh, man. That's got to feel good.
-I keep them on the floor where they -- you know.
[ Both laugh ]
-You don't want to put them at risk of falling from anything.
-Yeah, and they're in my office so my kids won't break them,
which I'm sure is going to happen eventually.
-But that's got to feel good, right?
You put this hard work, and you've done --
What a trajectory,
and you ended up doing this and "United Shades of America."
It's fantastic.
And did you film the whole season before the pandemic?
-We finished filming in February.
Like, I mean, if we had gone maybe another two weeks,
we would have been -- something might have started.
But we finished -- We didn't realize how lucky we were
until about a month later.
We were like, "Oh, wow."
-Well, talk about the new season.
What do we have to look forward to?
-A lot of times with that show,
we end up sort of, like, predicting the news
in a weird way. So a lot of the stuff
is going to feel very much like maybe we knew this was coming.
We have an episode about the gig economy
that now we're understanding
that people who deliver groceries and do ride-shares
are essential workers,
but they're not paid and protected that way.
And we were talking about that before COVID-19.
And now there's been a lot of talk
about we have to redefine who an essential worker is
and how to take care of them.
We have an episode about public schools
and how hard public school teachers have to work.
-Hitting all the bases.
-We have one about reparations. [ Laughs ]
-Wow.
-We have one white supremacy. [ Laughs ]
So it's -- You know.
-Wow. You have a topical, topical show.
-I'm not saying I did this to make my show bigger.
I'm not saying that.
-No, no. Your executive producer is Nostradamus, though,
which is weird. -Yes, exactly, yeah.
-We like to ask everyone that comes on the show
if they have a charity
or something that they want to spotlight.
And this story I think is amazing,
what you're about to talk about.
It's through livefreeusa.org.
It's called Masks for the People.
Can you just quickly just walk us through the story
of what actually went down and how you pulled this off?
-So, Pastor Michael McBride,
who's the minister at The Way church in Berkeley, California,
who I've known for years
and was on an episode of "United Shades,"
reached out to me at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis
saying, "This is going to hit black and brown folks harder."
This is before the news was talking about it.
He said, "So will you help me raise $1 million?
We need at least $1 million
to get free masks and free hand sanitizer
to the communities of black and brown folks
who are hit the hardest by COVID-19?"
I was like, "$1 million?
I think you meant to call Kevin Hart, but I'll do what I can."
[ Both laugh ]
So we started doing
weekly Zoom-like sort of shows on Facebook Live,
for Masks for the People and having activists come on
to raise money. And as we did it like --
We were going to do it one week.
We've done it like 10 weeks now in a row.
But after about the third week,
Jack from Twitter, Jack Dorsey,
said he was going to transfer a billion of his dollars
to COVID-19 work and relief work.
And I asked Pastor Mike, "Do you know Jack?"
He said no. And I was like, "Well, weirdly,
he follows me on Twitter, but I don't know him.
But he follows me. We're all in the Bay Area."
So I slipped into Jack's D.M.s
-No!
-The way a married man should, to ask for money.
-[ Laughs ]
-And Jack gave them $1 million.
And so now we've raised well over $1 million.
And it's still -- The money's still needed
because it's also for gun prevention work
and for violence interrupters in the ghetto
and mass incarceration work
and getting masks to people in prison.
So there's a lot of work to be done.
And, you know, so if anybody else wants me
to slip into their D.M.s --
-You'll do it.
-For the Lord. I slipped into his D.M.s for the Lord, Jimmy.
-For the Lord. Oh, my gosh. Perfect.
It's always good to see you.
And I really appreciate you doing this
and coming on the show and talking to me.
Thank you for having the conversation with me.
I really appreciate it. -Well, thank you for having me.
Like I said, I really appreciate you doing this right now,
'cause we all have to be in everybody's lane right now.
-Yeah. Best to the family. Stay safe, pal.
-Same. -Thank you.