(audience clapping)
- 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 and 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.
- Yes.
I try and hang my hand out, but you're right.
Never gonna let me in.
- No
- 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
- American idol
- American idol with my kids.
(audience laughs and claps)
- What? Wait, how old were your kids Then?
- So they were little.
They were, you know, they're in their early, they're
in their early twenties now, but they were little.
- Wow
- So you are the person that,
that you belong to me and my daughter.
- 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.
- Yeah.
- 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!
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.
- Yes.
- Which I love.
Why did you title it that?
- Well, you know, I took on society
cause I'm really,
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'm 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.
Everything has gotten so politicized.
I was like, I wanna bring back
unity by making fun of everybody.
(audience claps)
- I mean, and that's what I love comedians.
Its like everyone gets made fun of
and that's and then everybody gets
to laugh at their own self.
Yeah, it's it's hard though.
- Yeah.
- 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?
(audience laughing)
Oh, I'm like, we get nervous
cause 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, it's a hard thing to navigate.
- Well, you know, I just, I have adopted a belief
that you can invalidate somebody's struggle
because it doesn't look like your own.
- Yeah.
- 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 monitoring 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? I think 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 in 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.
When I walked down the stairs, this woman yelled out
at the audience, who does this bitch think she is?
I proceeded to bomb so bad cause it got to me.
- Yeah.
- Then Kevin Hart handled her later
but I made a shirt that said,
who does this bitch think she is?
I turned that acronym,
and now bitch stands for
being in total control of herself.
(audience cheers and claps)
- I love that
You need to like write a book.
Everything you keep saying I'm like,
gosh, I would read your book.
I love all your little sayings and things.
- Thank you.
- By the way,
did it not occur at one point to be like, I'm this bitch.
- I know, it took a while.
- Yeah. 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.
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.
(audience claps)
- 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
- You're so funny and awesome in person as well.
Aida's specialist called Fighting Words.
It's on HBO Max.
Y'all gotta check it out.