-Our first guest tonight is an
Emmy-winning comedian and writer you know her from her work on
"Black-ish" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm."
Part one of the second season of her comedy series
"The Upshaws" begins streaming tomorrow on Netflix.
Let's take a look.
-I heard my name and "clothes." What'd I get? What'd I get?
-Something from me.
-I'm about to be fake grateful, aren't I?
-Relax, little girl. Vintage is in.
-What's The Limited? -[ Laughs ]
Honey, your aunt is trying to do something nice, okay?
At least try something on.
-Thank you, Aunt Lucretia.
-Hey, you might find something that you like.
She ain't gonna want none of that.
-I don't care. It gets it out of my house.
I was gonna drive it down to the church,
but your coffee doesn't require a donation
to the building fund.
-Please welcome back to the show
our friend Wanda Sykes, everybody.
[ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪
We are so happy to have you here, Wanda.
-Why, thank you. Happy to be here.
-How are you feeling about the
state of the world right now?
-Oh, the world's on fire, Seth.
It's terrible. It's terrible.
-It's terrible. -It is.
-I will say, it's very lovely to have your show, "The Upshaws,"
which is sort of, I mean, a throwback, in a way,
of a kind of family sitcom I grew up watching,
which is quite lovely in times like these.
-Yes, yes. Absolutely.
You know, that's --
Like you said, that's what I grew up watching.
And when Mike Epps said, "Hey, I want to do a show about
a working-class black family," I was like,
"Well, that's kind of bland."
And I thought about it. I was like, "Oh, shoot.
You know what? They don't exist anymore."
-Yeah. -Yeah.
So very excited about it and work with, you know,
Regina Hicks on it.
And we put it together, and it's really funny.
We just love it, yeah.
-You get to be in front of the camera
and behind the scenes, as well.
You're Aunt Lucretia, as we saw there.
I'm assuming you get to pull from your own family history
when you get to write a colorful character like this.
-You know, that's the beauty about this show.
So many people approach us and say, "You know what?
That's my aunt. That's my uncle. That's my dad."
You know, so it's like you do -- It's very relatable.
You get to see--
-Does your family get worried when you're working on
a family sitcom, that you're gonna pull
specifically from your history?
-They might be a little nervous.
They might see a few things pop up
every now and then, you know?
-But, usually, they're cool. -Yes, they are.
They're cool. They're cool.
You know, I send flowers and, you know, stuff like that.
-Oh, very... That's right.
You've been in the business a long time.
You know how to handle this. -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-So, your twins, right? They're...
-I have twins, yes.
-Yeah, they just finished seventh grade?
-Yes, yes. -Unbelievable.
That's a real -- They're real adults now.
-Yeah. Don't tell them that. -Yeah.
Where are you gonna --
What are you gonna do with them this summer?
-Well, they're in France right now.
So, you know, they -- My wife is French.
She's white, but I say French because it sounds classier.
[ Laughter ]
-That's such a fancy way of saying -- Yeah, yeah.
-Yeah, it's so fancy.
So, yeah, they're over there, you know,
with their cousins, and, also,
they'll spend most of the summer over there.
And if, you know, [bleep] gets rough here,
they might not come back.
I don't know. Who knows?
-We've talked in the past about how your wife, Alex,
takes advantage of the fact that you don't speak French
and will sometimes communicate with the kids that way.
-Mm-hmm. -Is she continuing to do this?
-Yes, but I've been -- You know, I've been doing
the Duolingo thing, so I'm learning more French, you know,
so I'm getting good at it.
But my wife is awful when it comes to, you know, like,
speaking French with me.
She's too hard on me, you know?
-Oh, really? -Yeah, and it hurts my feelings.
Like, she'll -- You know, it's like,
I'm trying to say a word.
She's like, "No, no.
That's not how you say it, baby."
Or they'll laugh at me.
So I've decided that I am going to become fluent in French
and never speak a word of French to her.
I'm gonna go to France,
I'm gonna parlez-vous my ass all over the place,
and she's only getting English.
-I noticed, now, were you miming a cigarette
because she actually smokes
or is that just how you mime all French people?
-That's how I mime all French people.
-Yeah. I do it, too.
-Even the babies.
[ French accent ] Goo-goo, ga-ga.
-Yeah.
[ French accent ] Yeah, I do not like this stroller.
You celebrated Pride -- not here in the city,
but you were on Fire Island.
What's it like -- what's it like out there?
-Oh, I love my community over there on Fire Island,
you know, in the grove.
And we -- It's -- Okay, I've got to say,
we might skew a little on the older side,
so you might not see, you know, the parade
like you do here in New York.
You know, it's a small island, so there's a lot of, you know,
people on the Rascal scooters and stuff going by.
But that's actually their mode of transportation.
It's like, you know -- But the parade,
they just stick a rainbow on the front of it,
and, you know, we good.
-But, you know, people who do a Pride parade
that are that age, they've really been through the battles.
-They have been through it.
-Yeah. -Yes, absolutely.
-So there's even something more to celebrate about somebody
at the age where they're on their Rascal, you know,
even at a scary time like this, right?
It's important to note
that we're farther ahead than we were.
-Yes, yes.
But just don't want to go backwards.
And the parade, actually, and this Pride,
it has more weight to it because you know we're next.
-Yeah, of course.
-They're coming after us next, so it has much more meaning now.
-Well, it's really nice, and I think there are times
like that and especially, you know, in a month like this,
it's really important to think about that
and remember that it can all be taken away.
-Exactly. -You know, it's not permanent.
-Exactly. And you have no idea how far --
what else they're gonna take away.
I'm like, "Do I need to go further north?"
-Yeah. -You know?
-You know, in Canada, there are parts of Canada
where they speak French, too.
You're going to be ready to go. -There you go.
[ French accent ] Bonjour.
-Oh, you're -- Duolingo is really working.
That was perfect.
Thank you for being in this room with us.
While we agree it's nuts, I really appreciate it.
-Appreciate it. -Always a pleasure.
You guys, that's Wanda Sykes.
Part one of the second season of "The Upshaws"
begins streaming tomorrow on Netflix.
We'll be right back with Kesha, everybody.