-I want to say that your dad -- your dad flew out
to see the show. -He did.
I just -- My dad is, like, a -- my dad lives in L.A.,
but he's just a massive, massive fan of you guys.
And he is like, "They always be having fun on that show.
They always just playing games." -I'm like, "Wow!"
He's like, "Yeah, I love they do stuff, Ariana Grande."
You guys keep him relevant. -Really?
-Yeah, yeah. -I love it.
What's your dad's name? -Leon.
-Hi, Leon, wherever you are. He's in the crowd somewhere.
-There he is. -Hi, Leon!
[ Cheers and applause ] Hey, buddy.
You got to be very -- [ Applause ]
Leon, you must be... [ Cheers and applause ]
There he is, making his "Tonight Show" debut.
-You guys can't see him. but he's just going...
He just did that for, like, a long time.
-Yeah. -Hey, Dad.
-You ought to be very proud of your daughter.
She's very funny and very, very nice.
-I -- That almost made me go into a sweat,
because I thought -- were you gonna say something, Dad?
I'm, like, sweating right now. -He's being very quiet.
You know, my dad heckled me, the first "Tonight Show."
-What'd he say? -The first day I did --
The first show I hosted of "The Tonight Show,"
I came out and I said, you know, if you would have told me
that when I graduated high school
and went on to do 'SNL' and get this show,
I would have said, "Wow. I graduated high school?"
[ Laughter ] My dad yelled out -- he goes,
"We paid a lot of money for that school!"
[ Laughter ] -He's right, though. He's right.
-No, he's not. I went to a public school.
He didn't pay anything. What are you talking?
Why would you heckle me at my own show, Dad?
-I don't know. He kind of, like, earned it.
-He's a dad, right? -He can be mean to you.
Yeah, he's kind of a part of all this.
-I love you, Dad. Yeah, exactly. -My dad's psyched, too.
Dad, thank you for coming. It does mean a lot.
-Yeah, I appreciate you. [ Cheers and applause ]
-You moved from L.A. to New York City
to do "Daily Show", right? -Yeah.
I got "The Daily Show"
when I was in college at Cal State Long Beach.
And it was kind of a cool thing, because I got to
tell all of my teachers that I was gonna miss an exam
because I was gonna go audition for "The Daily Show."
So I was like, "Yeah, I have an audition coming up
for 'The Daily Show,'" and they were like,
"Go, go. Fly free." -Really?
-Yeah, so then I just packed up all my stuff.
I got the job, and I moved here.
-How was it like, adjusting to New York City life?
-It was a lot. New York was really intense.
In L.A., it's very like, "Dude, definitely vibes."
And here I had realized that I had changed,
because I think, a few months in,
I was getting off of the subway.
and there were these two, like, really cute, sweet old ladies,
just, like, shuffling, like, having a day.
And they were walking so slowly that my instinct was like,
"Get away from me! Get away!" [ Laughter ]
I just wanted to, "Ugh!" just push them.
-You wanted to push these nice old women?
-I wanted to take them down. And they didn't deserve it.
-Yeah, no. -They don't deserve that.
But that -- that just went through your mind.
You didn't do it. -No, of course not.
But my instinct was like, "Move!" like, "Just get!"
-Then you're like, "I'm officially -- I'm a New Yorker."
-Yeah, I made it. I made it. -You made it now.
Absolutely, yeah. -Yeah, yeah.
-And you met Phoebe on the set of "The Daily Show?"
Your partner in "2 Dope Queens." -Yeah.
So, I met my partner for "2 Dope Queens" --
Phoebe Robinson. she's a great stand-up.
I met her shooting this segment that I did for "The Daily Show"
that was on black hair in the military.
-Yeah. -And I knew her
because we both did Upright Citizens Brigade,
and she was another black woman in the company.
And so I'd just sort of known who she was a bit.
And she had invited me to co-host her live show
that she was doing at Upright Citizens Brigade East.
So I went and did that. And then we found
that we had this amazing chemistry together.
And so we just kept doing these shows.
And with every show, we wanted to make sure
that we had a woman, a person of color,
or a member of the LGBTQ community
who is a stand-up on the show,
'cause we just wanted to, like, showcase and feature
people that we really love and think are super, super funny.
[ Cheers and applause ] -Good for you.
-Yeah. And it just -- Thank you.
-It just grew from there. -Yeah, massive.
-I love the podcast, "2 Dope Queens."
I listen to it all the time. -Thank you. Do you really?
-Yeah, of course. -That's exciting. Thank you.
I'm so sorry for a lot of the trash that we say,
but also not sorry. -Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah.
No, you're good. You tackle everything.
I think you do a great job. -Thank you.
-In fact, Michelle Obama asked to be on your podcast.
-Yeah. -Isn't that amazing?
[ Cheers and applause ]
So it's not only -- Lookit, I like this one
'cause you were cracking her up here.
-Yeah. I mean, well, the crazy thing is,
I absolutely don't remember what I said,
because I think my emotions, comfortably, like,
I can operate between maybe a 4 and a 7
on the emotional scale. -Uh-huh.
-And in that photo, I was at like a 10,
so I completely blacked out. -You don't remember the day?
-No, I was so excited. -Really?
-I'm happy there's podcast footage and everything,
because I was really just so excited
that I just don't remember.
-But that was the final podcast? -Yes.
-And now it's all about HBO. -Yeah.
So, now we have these four HBO specials
that are coming out on Friday.
Guests that we have on the first episode is, like,
like Lupita Nyong'o. [ Cheers ]
We also have Lizzo, Janet Moss, Daniel Radcliffe.
-Lizzo was just on last night. -Yes.
-And she rocked the house.
Dude, run, don't walk. Run and go see Lizzo.
-Yeah. -She is unbelievable.
I've never seen anyone like that.
-No, she's unbelievable, and she's a force of nature.
And I'm so excited for her. -Yes.
-And we have an incredible interview with her.
And we also have Keegan-Michael Key.
-Oh, man, we love him! He's incredible.
-Yeah, and it's really, really fun.
-That's great. Well, I want to show everyone
a clip. Here's Jessica Williams
in "2 Dope Queens," talking about
getting her septum pierced. -Ah.
-Take a look at this.
-It was really easy. The guy who pierced it is --
he's got all these piercings -- -Yeah.
-But -- And all these tattoos.
So, on the surface, he looks really intimidating.
But I remember, when I walked in,
he gave me this -- he looked like
he had just meditated for seven hours,
because his energy was so zen. and he was like, "Yeah,
I wanted to let you know, this is something
that you're doing, and it's really brave.
So you should respect and honor the space you're in."
I was like, "What the [Bleep]? Like, I'm not marching on Selma.
You know what I mean? [ Laughter ]
He's was like, "No, it's really brave.
A lot of people wouldn't do that,
but you believe in something, and I'm gonna pierce you."
[ Laughter ] And I was like,
"Thank you so much. You [Bleep] rule."
And so he's like, "Just breathe in."
And I did. And he did it so quickly.
I had no pain whatsoever. -There you go.
Jessica Williams, everybody! [ Cheers and applause ]