- Oh my God.
I was dying watching your comedy,
you are so funny.
I love when comedians take like,
real life scenarios that we all get but no one talks about
and then you use it like that.
It's so funny.
- Driving kids back and forth to school every day,
you gotta figure out how you're gonna survive, like.
- Yes, and I try and hang my hand out, but you're right.
They're never gonna let me in.
(audience laughs)
They're never gonna, yeah, they're like,
"I've gotta be somewhere."
I'm like, don't we all? - I know.
- But someone told me that we almost met years ago.
- Oh man, so I was there when you won...
- [Kelly] American Idol? - American Idol, with my kids.
(audience claps) - What?
Wait, how old were your kids then?
- So they were little.
You know, they're in their early twenties now
but they were little and... - [Kelly] Wow!
- So you are the person that...
you belong to me and my daughter, and so we-
- I will cry right now with that statement, that's so nice.
- You know, we were going through, it was a tough time
and a friend Kevin, who was a musical director there
gave me tickets so that I could take my children
'cause my daughter loved American idol
and we got to see you win.
- Oh my gosh! (audience claps)
That's a weird full circle moment.
Well awesome, not weird. - I know.
- Okay, well let's talk about your comedy special.
So it's called Fighting Words, which I love.
Why did you title it that?
- Well, you know, I took on society
'cause I'm really, you...
if you say I don't like apples on the internet,
to somebody, that means you hate oranges.
- Yeah, oh you can't say anything.
- No, you can't win for losing.
If you speak up against a cause, you're inserting yourself.
If you don't, you're ignoring it.
So I was like, you know what?
I tired of this.
I am going in on everybody.
I don't care where you are.
- I feel like that's what comedians do though.
That's what's funny.
- What we're supposed to do, right?
But everything has gotten so politicized and I was like,
"I wanna bring back unity by making fun of everybody."
Let's do it, right? (audience claps)
- I mean, and that's what I love.
Comedians, it's like everyone gets made fun of
and then everybody gets to laugh at their own self.
I think, yeah, it's hard though.
I talk about that with friends,
that we're all on TV and I'm like,
"Which one of us do you think will get fired first?"
I'm like, we get nervous 'cause like,
it's hard when you're an open person.
and you're also in the public eye and it's like,
well I have opinions too, 'cause I'm a human.
So like, you know, and it's a hard thing to navigate.
- Well, you know, I just, I have adopted a belief
that you can't invalidate somebody's struggle
because it doesn't look like your own
and every time I give myself that, I have peace
because everybody is looking at life
through their own window
and we just can't go around monitor everybody's window.
We have to just say, hopefully they can come to a place
where they're reading, they're seeking information
and having empathy for other people, you know?
Like I think that's... that keeps me sane.
- Yeah, me too.
I think that's a cool thing about art too,
is that we're able to do that through
music, comedy, television, like all of it.
Bombing is hard as a comedian or a singer,
any kind of entertainer on stage,
but you figured out a way to make money off of it, right?
- Yeah.
- I love this.
- So I taped my first comedy show.
Kevin Hart was hosting a show called One Mic Stand
and when I walked down the stairs, this woman yelled out
at the audience, "who does this bitch think she is?"
and I proceeded to bomb so bad 'cause I... it got to me.
- [Kelly] You let it get in your head, yeah.
- And then Kevin Hart handled her later
but I made a shirt that said,
Who does this bitch think she is?
And I turned that acronym and now,
bitch stands for being in total control of herself.
- I love that! (audience cheering)
- You need to like, write a book.
- (laughs) I am.
- Like everything you keep saying, I'm like,
gosh, I would read your book.
I love all your little sayings and things.
- Thank you.
- And by the way, did it not occur toy you at one point
to be like, I'm this bitch.
- I know, it took a while
- Yeah (laughs) I think I would go to anger first.
You were nicer, yeah.
- I was broken.
I had bombed!
I was like, you know, and then I realized, I was like,
oh, I gotta work my way to that place
and when I did I made that shirt
and then I started selling 'em all over the country
and just encouraging all women and saying, you know what?
Let them question who you are, just show up.
Just go girl, just do it, do it, do it!
- Isn't it cool how something negative
ended up being super positive like in your life?
I love that.
I love you so much. - I love you back.
You're so funny and awesome in person as well.
Aida's special, it's called Fighting Words.
It's on HBO Max, y'all gotta check it out.