-How y'all doing? Look at this beautiful audience!
The energy! -Come on. You feel that?
-Needed this! Yes. [ Cheers and applause ]
-Right? We need it, right? -It feels good.
-We need that -- to recharge our batteries.
-Yes. Feels nice to be around people again.
-I saw you, by the way. You did a great job at the Emmys.
You're on E! on the red carpet now.
-Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean? I'm trying to get
to my little Ryan Seacrest gig right quick,
you know what I mean? Step in.
-You're fantastic at it. Do you enjoy doing it?
-Listen, it was a dream of mine.
I used to work in social services.
And I lived in Texas,
and I was a single father, for anybody who doesn't know.
I could not afford hosting classes.
And so I would mute my TV,
and when Ryan Seacrest, Joan Rivers, Giuliana Rancic,
you know, the E! hosts were on,
and I would pretend, like, using captions that I was them.
And to be there now --
-Like, reading like a teleprompter?
-Reading the teleprompter. It was like me being at home,
the kids are doing homework, and I'm like, "Today on E!,
we're gonna --"
And now, like -- And now here it is.
I tell this story,
because anybody out there who has a dream,
literally, you might be in a circumstance right now
where you feel like you can't make it.
Just believe in yourself. Keep practicing.
Keep doing what you gotta to do. And you can make it.
It's the truth.
-I love that. -It's the truth.
Yeah. -That's a crazy story.
-Yeah, it is.
-Did you bring anyone with you?
-I did. I brought my best friend of 25 years.
His name is Tre, best friend Tre.
And it was really hard for me to get him.
But we been homies since like 18 years old, college days,
and I was like, "If I'm having this experience,
I want him to be there." You know what I mean?
-Yeah. -And I brought him, got him in,
and I said, "You got to look like you doing something.
So I'm giving you one job.
Take photos of me with these celebrities.
These are some of the icons of the icons."
-Yeah. And you can hang out, go to the Emmys.
-Yeah. -And all his job was to do --
just take photos of you and the celebrities.
-Take photos of me and the celebrities.
-You brought us some photos?
-I did. I mean, amazing photos.
-Taken by Tre. -By Tre.
-Yeah, this is a great picture of you with Angela Bassett.
-Angela Bassett, the queen.
-Yeah, take a look. -And if you can see,
Tre clearly didn't understand the assignment.
-That's you, and that's Angela Bassett.
-The bald head. Angela Bassett.
-Angela Bassett. And there's Tre.
-There's Tre. [ Laughter ]
-Oh, this is a good shot here.
That is you and Cedric.
-Cedric the Entertainer. Y'all know Cedric.
-Ced, he's the best. -He's one of the best
of the best. -You and Cedric the Entertainer.
Here's just a great photo of you.
-Yeah. -And the Entertainer.
There you go. That's --
[ Applause ]
-What'd I tell you?
I told Tre, "All your job is,
is to take photos of me and the celebrities."
-That's it. This one is my favorite one,
because this is a picture of you and Taraji P. Henson.
-This -- He didn't even get me.
[ Laughter and applause ]
♪♪
I appreciate that.
There's literally a point at the day, Jimmy,
that literally, he just said, "Forget it. I'm just
going to start taking photos of myself and the celebrities."
Like, he had 98 photos, no joke, 'cause I counted, on his phone,
and only 2 were of me in it.
Two. -Tre?
-That was it. -He's got a sense of humor.
He's funny, man. -Yeah, he is, he is.
Well, you brought something that I think is even a cooler thing,
which I appreciate you saved for our show,
because I was talking to you about the E! red carpet,
and you were like hosting, and you go, "Yeah."
I go, "When did you get started doing this?"
And you got a weird opportunity, right?
You got into, what, modeling?
-Yeah, so, when I was leaving social services,
I started to model, try to host, as well.
And I got this call, and they were like, "You're working with,
like, a big celebrity. This going to be, like, a big job."
And I was, like, freaking out.
They wouldn't tell me who it was, what it was.
They were like, "You have to show up
and, you know, just get hair and makeup ready,
and you're going to work with this big celebrity,"
and I'm freaking out.
Get there. They start putting makeup on me,
and they're like, "You're a zombie."
And I was like -- Seriously, a zombie.
I was like, "I don't get it. What do you mean?"
They're like, "Don't worry.
The celebrity wants you to be a zombie.
They want you to be a zombie."
-Like, "We need some good-looking zombies."
-"We need some good-looking zombies." And I was like --
I'm looking at the girl with me. She's like 5'10" and gorgeous.
I'm like, "Well, I guess we're gonna be cute zombies.
Okay, girl." Like, yeah.
We get there, and it's literally Joan Rivers.
-Oh. -The icon.
-This is you.
-No one has ever seen these photos.
I took selfies where I'm a zombie
with Joan Rivers,
eating meat.
-Dude, that is insane.
-This is one of my first Hollywood jobs, again.
Like -- -I love that you --
-Look at this, Joan Rivers.
[ Laughter ]
-And how was Joan? What was this for?
-I have to tell you, I had no idea what it was for,
because I never saw it anywhere. -Really?
-Like, literally, we showed up at her house. We took photos.
She gave me a couple kisses on the mouth.
Like, the best kiss ever, while looking like that.
-Yeah. -And I was like,
"Girl, are you sure you want to do this?"
-A zombie, yeah? -Yeah. And --
-Did she talk to you or give you any advice?
-She did. She actually pulled me to the side, and she was like,
"For you to have a sense of humor to come here and do this,
you have a humility about you.
Keep that. Keep going.
People are going to try to break you down in this business.
Do not let them break you down.
Don't let no's stop you. Let them propel you."
I mean, she was just dropping knowledge after knowledge.
-Really? -Yeah and I'm sitting there
in zombie makeup, and I'm like, "Okay, Joan."
Yeah, whatever you want. -Yeah. Yeah. Joan Rivers,
that's how you do it. -Exactly, that's how you do it.
You know what I mean?
[ Cheers and applause ]
-I love her, man. I miss her. -I do, too.
-I do want to talk to you about your acting role
over in "Dear White People." -Yeah.
-You join the cast for the season -- the final season.
-Yeah. -How did you get the gig,
and did you always --
I mean, you're a good actor.
-Oh, you know what, Jimmy? Hold on!
-No, no, this is -- -Mama, we made it!
-No, no, no. Come on. We -- -Okay, we --
-We will see soon, in the clip. -Okay, yeah.
-But that's great. I mean, you just auditioned or --
-No, you know what? I did audition,
but it was something that in the back of my mind,
I always wanted to do. But I didn't tell anyone,
'cause sometimes people in our lives have this unconscious fear
of stopping us from going after what we want
because they're afraid to go after their own lives.
So I secretly studied, did what I needed to do.
And then Justin Simien,
who's the creator of "Dear White People," was like,
"If you want to audition and try it, here it goes."
And I auditioned just like everyone else and got the role.
And luckily, it wasn't too far away from what I do naturally.
I'm playing a college counselor.
So I'm still guiding people and counseling them.
-Yeah, but, no, dude, you're fantastic in it.
-Appreciate it, brother. -I want to show everyone a clip.
Here's Karamo in "Dear White People."
Take a look at this.
-Harvard Medical is well within your reach.
-Pathobiology didn't ruin anything?
-You talking about the "A"-minus?
-Ugh. -You kidding me, right?
You brought the class average up to a --
A "D"-plus. -[ Sighs ]
-Yeah, I got to get a lot more people
to sign up for psych this year.
-Yeah, well, I was thinking of adding something.
-Joelle, you are familiar with the ancient art of sleeping.
-Yes, but I guess I just wish
there was something on my schedule worth waking up for.
-Listen, you're no good to anyone else,
especially yourself, if you're burnt out.
If you have to add something,
go ahead and add something that's fun.
We all have a lot of needs.
But, Joelle, being productive is just one of them.
-Yeah, we need --
I need more Karamo on my TV!
I want Karamo in the movies!
Karamo, everybody!
The final season of "Dear White People"
is streaming now on Netflix.