It's important for Black women to make our own way because if we don't, ways will not be made for us.
If HBO hadn't come forward to do this special, I was going to do it myself.
I was gonna do it myself. It may have made me $5, but I was gonna do it myself.
I'm here with Amanda Seales about your upcoming HBO comedy special 'I Be Knowin''
Thank you.
'Cause you be knowin’.
Some things, some things, some things.
All the things.
Not all the things, but, you know, some of the things. Most of the things.
What I really appreciate about your comedy is that it's also told through a lens of, like, trying to educate your audience while they're learning—
they're learning while they're laughing.
And that also stems from the fact that you have your Master's in African American studies from Columbia University,
which I feel like everyone says, but I'm gon' keep sayin' because educated Black women is important.
Nice, nice. I appreciate you.
Why do you think it's so important to educate your audiences through humor?
Well, first of all, I feel like we're especially in an age of our country's history where we're just, like—
we have people that have way too much power and platforms that are putting out this notion that information is unimportant,
that facts are neither here nor there.
And so I think it's critical that people who have common sense
and who understand the value of knowledge are using their platforms to push that messaging out there
to counter what is really a mind game that's being played with people.
You know, they basically tell people be scared and be stupid.
Can you talk a little bit about the difference between stepping on stage for that HBO special
compared to stepping on stage for your first stand-up performance, like, six years ago.
You know, when I started doing stand up it was because I had grown to have this keen awareness that
if I really wanted my voice to have value with a humorous lens,
I was going to need to do stand up, and do it well.
I knew that I was a funny person. I didn't necessarily know if I could be funny on demand,
on a stage, in front of an audience with written material.
Fast forward, I know I'm funny on stage now. So, that's probably the biggest difference.
I didn't know and now I know.
Then they want you to smile.
"Why you mad?"
"Lemme see them pearly whites..."
"Yo, why you ain't smiling, ma?"
You know why I'm not smiling?
'Cause I just spent the last twenty minutes in a public bathroom
fashioning a makeshift maxipad
out of a longass CVS receipt.
You, kind of, connect your audience through the Black experience and connect them through speaking your truth as a Black woman.
Anybody who knows me knows that, like, my love for Black culture, my love for my Blackness, my love for my culture and ethnicity is not put on.
It is true and authentic and genuine.
So, I wanted to make sure that I made something that was truthfully related to that because, especially since this is my first special,
I eventually came to feel like it was important that this particular special spoke directly to, like, my personal experiences
versus just my commentary on the social scope of things.
And so naturally that adherent Blackness would be apparent.
What I love most about you and, kind of, following you through this journey is that you're very committed to making your own way.
It's important for Black women to make our own way because if we don't, ways will not be made for us.
I mean, that's just, kind of, the reality of the situation.
We're not yet at a point of enlightenment where folks are, like, sitting around a conference room table saying
"But what about the Black women?"
It's just not happening. We see it in the amount of people who are like, "R Kelly, R Schmelly."
Our voices are silenced behind, you know, stereotypes,
behind just attempts to diminish the value of what we're saying
because it's uncomfortable or because it's loud or because it has colloquialisms, etc.
And so, I think it's not only important, but it's a necessity that Black women create our own inroads
and do the same, to bring in other Black women,
because if we don't, we end up still looking for approval, looking for access,
you know, like, "Please, let me in."
And it's like, nah, we're—
It's really a "Kick in the door wavin’ the 44" kind of situation at this point.
or just, like... Build your own house.