-Welcome to the show.
It is so nice to see you. It's so nice to meet you.
-It's so nice to meet you. Honestly, what a treat!
-Everyone around the office loves you, and I go, "Yeah."
But for all different reasons.
They go, "I know her from her stand-up.
Her specials are unbelievable."
I go, "Yeah, that's how I know her."
They go, "Then also, she's on --
Co-hosts 'Wipeout' with John Cena."
I go, "Oh, yeah, she does." -Mm-hmm.
-And then someone's like, "No, no, her podcast is like
unbelievable." Then someone goes,
"No, she's on a different podcast."
Then I go, "She's on 'Grand Crew.'"
-Yeah, I'm tired. [ Laughter ]
Yes, I'm exhausted. -I mean, wow!
You are kicking butt right now! -Yeah, it's really nice.
I get recognized a lot by, like, little kids for "Nailed It,"
which is weird because I talk about
non-child stuff in my stand-up. [ Laughter ]
-Okay, yeah. Can you tell what people
know you from what show? -Ooh, yeah.
If it's a gay man, it's "Why Won't You Date Me?"
which is my podcast about why I'm single.
[ Laughter ]
But people love yelling "Nailed it" at me,
and I was telling this to John Cena, I was like,
"Oh, my God, it's so awful.
They're just screaming 'Nailed it' at me."
And he said, "Nicole, people are just trying
to identify with you, come to you,
have a commonality with you."
And I was like, "Huh. You are a wise, wise wrestling man."
[ Laughter ]
-He is a very wise man. -He is.
-It's unbelievable. -Oh, he's so sweet.
-Is it true that people's kids have gotten you jobs?
-Okay. They haven't gotten me jobs.
They've gotten me auditions. -Okay.
-So, sometimes casting directors will be like, "Oh, my God.
My kid loves you so much that we were like,
'Let's bring you in and not book you on it.'"
[ Laughter ]
-"And I love driving to Santa Monica
in the middle of rush hour to make you laugh!"
[ Laughter ]
-You host -- How many podcasts do you host, four?
-Four, yeah. -Yeah.
And right now, you're up for Best Female Host
at the iHeartRadio Podcast Awards.
-Yes. -Last year -- congratulations.
[ Cheers and applause ] -Thank you.
-Last year, you beat out -- you beat Michelle Obama.
-I know. Isn't that wild?
-I love it. How exciting is that?
-I know. I think it's just people
identifying with a desperate woman, you know?
"I'm just looking for the [bleep]"
[ Laughter ]
"I just want it!"
[ Laughter ]
"Where is it?"
[ Laughter continues ]
It's not back there." -It's not there, no.
But I -- [ Laughter ]
Let's talk about one of the other podcasts,
which is called "Newcomers." -Yes.
-"Newcomers" -- genius idea. You talk about things
that everyone seems to know about, except for you.
-Yeah. So it's me and Lauren Lapkus.
She's so funny. -She is so great!
-I love her so much but we -- -"The Wrong Missy," by the way.
-Yeah, it's so funny. She falls off a cliff
in one scene. I was like, "Oh, my God, I'm dying."
-She's brilliant in it. Anyway...
-But we watched
"Lord of the Rings," and people like it.
[ Laughter ] -Wait.
It's a very popular film. [ Laughs ]
A lot of people like it. They love it.
-But why -- It's just a magical hike.
[ Laughter ]
They're going for this ring, and then there's Gollum.
He's got thinning hair, and he's like, "My ring!"
I'm like, "You're just a woman, like,
wanting a man to propose to you."
-Yeah, that's really, that's -- [ Laughter ]
-He's like, "Where's my ring?!" Like, I'm Gollum.
Oh, my God! [ Laughter ]
-No, you're not Gollum! -I'm Gollum!
-You are not Gollum! No, no, no.
What other big franchises is everyone into
that you are not sure about? -Oh, so, like, Marvel.
I'm not a Marvel head.
-Have you seen any of them?
-Well, I've seen "Black Panther" 'cause I'm Black, and --
[ Laughter and applause ]
-Uh-huh, yep. -We had to.
-You had to. -We had to!
Otherwise, we'd lose our card. -I understand.
[ Laughter ]
-Oh, there are my friends over there. Hello.
-Yeah. -They know, they know.
Y'all know, over there. [ Laughter ]
But I recently saw the new "Spider-Man."
I had not seen any of them. I had so many questions.
-Oh, yeah. -And one of them --
I was like, "Jamie Foxx is in 'Spider-Man'?"
And then, my friend was like, "Oh, yeah, this is a picture
of him from the original one that he was in."
-Yeah. -Yeah, and I was like --
-We'll pull out this. -What plot point
brought this man to look like that?
[ Laughter ]
What -- What does Spider-Man do to this --
Is this -- What happened?
Is it -- What? How? Why?
I don't get it. Someone did his hair and said,
"Go to set." Like what is that?
[ Laughter ]
-Yeah. -I still haven't gotten
any answers. -Yeah, no --
-It's wild to look at. -But do you have any idea, like,
maybe he might end up being a villain or coming together to --
-Well, I know he's a villain, I think.
-Okay. -But he, like, didn't seem
that mean, so I was like, "Who's the real --"
I don't -- There was so many things going on.
-Yeah. -And then there was --
Well, I don't want to ruin it. Did everyone here
see "Spider-Man"? [ Cheers and applause ]
-But just -- But don't -- You can't spoil anything.
-Okay. Well, there was things that happened that I was like,
"What?" -Be generic.
-Be generic?
I don't know what generic means. [ Laughter ]
I'm kidding. -I know.
-I'm just bougie. [ Laughter ]
-I mean, basically -- what did you think happened in the film?
-I know Spider-Man was, like, mad about something,
and then there's a box, and then there's this man
who lives in snow. And I was like, "Who are you?
Why is there snow in your house? You look rich.
Get a -- Can someone just shovel that [bleep] out?"
Like -- [ Laughter ]
It was so confusing. [ Applause ]
-Yeah, yeah. That was interesting.
-I was like, "What a choice." Like, I just -- I don't know.
-"What a choice." -Then there's the Avengers.
It's like, "What? They all get together,
have a slumber party?" Like, what is the Avengers,
and why do they all have to get together?
They all have their individual movies."
I don't understand Marvel. [ Laughter ]
-You've been doing comedy for a long time.
[ Laughter ]
You're pretty good at it. But I just heard that you
auditioned for "Saturday Night Live"
at one point. -I did.
-I don't remember that.
What did you do for your audition?
Do you remember? -This was years and years
and years ago.
I do an Oprah impression, or did an Oprah impression.
And I was trying to figure out
what Oprah would be talking about.
And I found out there's over, like, 100 different types
of lemurs, so it's just --
The impression is just me screaming lemur names
in Oprah's voice. [ Both laugh ]
No wonder they didn't hire me.
[ Laughter ] -I like that.
-They're like, "What is this?" -"A lemur!"
-"A red lemur!" [ Laughter ]
-I would watch the Oprah lemur show.
-So then I did a Jamaican Nanny bit,
and it's based on this real thing that happened to me.
I, like, was a nanny, went to the park,
and I was like, "'Owdy, ma'am,"
and this lady looked at me, and she said,
"What are you aiming at?"
'cause she knew I was faking the accent.
And I was like, "Um, I don't know. Friendship?"
[ Laughter ]
-"You're not supposed to talk back to me, I'm just --"
-I was, like, just gonna talk to her.
-Yeah. -But then she was like,
"You're a liar." And I was like, "Oh, okay.
We go to a different park," and I scooped him up,
and I was like, "We gotta go." [ Laughter ]
-"We got to get out of here." Is there anything else
you want to try that you're doing all of this stuff?
-Anything else I want to try? -I mean, not here on our show,
but I mean in life. I mean, you're doing --
-I was like, "What are we gonna do?"
-No. "Bring out the red lemur!"
[ Laughter ]
But you've done podcasts, shows --
I mean, how about a -- -Put me in a movie.
Put me in "Black Panther 2." "I'm from Wakanda."
[ Laughs ] That was a bad accent.
-No, that was good!
It's not that I want you to do anything else.
You're great on "Grand Crew," by the way.
-Thank you. -And it's a hit show for NBC,
which we love.
But can you set up what "Grand Crew" is about?
-Sure. So, it's a bunch of friends
who hang out in a wine bar, and they're navigating
their late 20s, early 30s.
I don't know if we have ages,
but, like, we're having a good time.
We drink wine. Wine's fun.
Gets you drunk. -That's all they talk about.
That's what I love. This was --
When they developed this,
they had you in mind for their character.
-Yeah, my friend Phil Augusta Jackson,
I've known him for like over a decade.
We performed here in New York at the Upright Citizens Brigade
Theatre, and he was developing the show.
And he was like, "I have a part called 'Nicky.'
It's based on you. Would you like to do it?"
My government name's Nicole, and I was like,
"Yeah, it's close. Let's do this."
And it got picked up. And I was, like, you know,
fortunate enough to be able to play the part.
-And did you know the cast before you started
working with them? -Yeah, Echo Kellum and I,
who plays my brother, we did sketch together.
It used to be in L.A.
Carl Tart, we do improv together in L.A.
Aaron Jennings, we have worked together.
Grasie Mercedes and Justin Cunningham,
we hadn't worked together, but they, like,
fit in so wonderfully. Honestly, like,
we have so much [bleep] fun. Like, it's so fun.
It's not a real job. -It's a good --
It's a good vibe. -Oh, I love it.
-It's not a real job.
-Like, we're always just laughing.
It doesn't feel like a real job. -That's what we want to watch.
That's why people love it, because you want
to watch and laugh.
I want to show everyone a clip. Here is Nicole Byer
in "Grand Crew." Take a look at this.
♪♪
-Nicky? Why are you in my home?
And why are you here so early in the mo--
No, no, no, you didn't.
Standing still doesn't make you invisible.
Did you sleep with my brother? And don't you lie to me.
-Oh! Yes. Like, three times last night.
-Didn't need to know how many rounds you went.
Just wanted a yes or no. -You said don't lie to you.
Also, two more times this morning. Ooh!
[ Laughter ] -Oh.
Just because you're standing still doesn't mean --
-Ooh! -Nicole Byer!
"Grand Crew" airs Tuesday nights at 8:30 on NBC!
Fantastic. Come back, please.
-Thank you so much for having me.