Few people make me laugh as much as my first guest.
Please welcome my friend, Wanda Sykes.
[APPLAUSE]
Hi, Wanda.
Hey, Ellen, how you doing?
Good, good.
How are you doing?
I'm good.
I am.
I mean, things are great.
It was a little--
I don't know-- a little sad but then,
again, happy for you to hear you're
going to do one more season and that's it.
I don't know how I feel about that.
Well, thanks for feeling that way because that's
what I want you to feel.
I want you to feel--
you don't want to hang around longer than you should.
I want people to still enjoy the show,
but I feel like it's going to be a great next year.
You're going to be here, for sure, next year in person.
Yeah, absolutely, I mean, what?
I've been on every season, and so I definitely
have to be around for the--
Look at us.
We were babies.
--last broadcast.
Yeah, you have to be.
I mean, look, I'm hoping everybody
is on for the last one, but you have been here every year
for 18 years, every single year.
This is your 39th appearance.
Right.
[APPLAUSE]
Shouldn't I get a watch or something?
[LAUGHTER]
Would you like a TCL TV?
[LAUGHTER]
I think I want a watch.
OK.
Yeah.
All right, I'm going to get you in a real nice Timex.
[LAUGHTER]
Oh, I was thinking maybe a Swatch or something,
I don't know.
All right, you name it.
I'm going to get whatever-- you name the color, too,
a nice Swatch watch.
You look great.
Your hair looks great.
You look great, and you know, you recently said--
and I don't know if this is true.
But you said that being on the show
actually helped you come out to your parents.
Absolutely, I mean, you know how you're just iconic.
And the whole community just appreciates you
because you took the blow, man.
You were the first one to really be "out-out" like that,
and it helped so many of us.
It normalized things, yeah.
And you know, it just helped with my parents
having a hard time to deal with it and all,
and then their friends coming up to them and saying, oh, my God,
we love Ellen.
And we love when Wanda's on Ellen, and it does.
It makes a difference, and you made a big difference.
And we're always, always grateful for what you did.
Well, that's so sweet, Wanda.
I mean, you make a big difference, too.
I mean, everybody, obviously, that
lives their truth-- and everyone needs examples of positivity
and love and success and sees that we're just like anybody
else.
And now you're married.
You have kids, and you're doing well.
And your kids are now-- they're 12?
Yeah, they just turned 12.
Isn't that crazy?
It is.
It's cra-- now, what do you get 12-year-olds
for their birthday?
Well, you can get them a lot of things.
They don't want any of it.
[LAUGHTER]
But you know.
Because all the things that they ask for, I'm like, no.
They want phones, and we're saying, no,
not until you're 13.
They want-- Lucas wants Fortnite, and we kept saying,
no, you're not playing that game.
And the thing is now they do the thing of, oh, well, our friends
have it.
Our friends play.
And I'm trying to tell them that their friends, that
doesn't mean anything to me.
If they want to make things happen, they should say things
like, when Sasha and Malia were 12, they got phones.
Or Sasha and Malia, they play Fortnite.
Then maybe I would go, hmm.
Yeah.
Let me think about this because I care about that.
Uh-huh, not the friends.
Well, let's find out what Sasha and Malia got when they
were 12, and we can compare.
What does Olivia-- so he wants Fortnite.
What is Olivia into?
She's in the makeup now.
Yeah.
Oh.
She likes makeup, but we only let
her wear it around the house.
So she's very fancy at dinner, very--
[LAUGHTER]
It's like we should do a red carpet
for her coming to dinner.
Yeah, she's all dolled up.
That's hilarious.
That would be my worst nightmare.
If I had a daughter and she wanted to be into makeup,
I would not know how to help her or deal with that at all.
And I would--
Oh.
Yeah.
Nothing, I got nothing for her.
Nothing.
I have to say, I thought I knew a lot about you,
and I think I do know a lot about you.
But one of your first jobs was at a buffet,
so I need to know how old you were and where was this buffet.
Oh, man, I probably was maybe--
when can you get your work permit?
I think maybe 15, almost 16, I guess.
Yeah.
I think it was in Maryland, and yeah, they put me
in charge of the salad bar.
And I'm going to tell you, from that experience,
never makes me want to eat at another salad bar.
Because it's the-- when you put fresh stuff out,
you take this old stuff, and you put that on the top.
So the suckers, they eat all the old stuff
before they get to the fresh stuff.
So just a little tip, if you go to the salad bar,
make sure you dig in the middle there.
Yeah.
That's where the fresh stuff is.
Yeah, I actually also worked at the salad bar,
and when I was cutting up the egg that goes in the salad bar,
it was a long sausage-like tube.
There was nothing egg about it.
It was white with yellow stuff in the middle,
and once it's chopped up, it looks like egg.
But it's not egg, and it's in the salad bar.
That ain't no eggs.
Yeah, yeah, that's my salad bar story, so all right,
Wanda, we're going to come back.
We're going to talk about your new incredibly
successful and hilarious show.
We'll be back with Wanda.
[APPLAUSE]
That's Wanda Sykes.
That's a clip from her new show that she co-created.
It's called The Upshaws.
Congratulations, it's in the top 10 on Netflix.
That's fantastic.
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you.
All right, Lucretia, tell everybody what it's about.
[LAUGHS] Well, it's about a working-class African-American
family in Indianapolis, and I know you going like,
well, OK, what's the big deal about that?
I mean, that's just it.
There isn't a show out there like that.
We went through this period where it's either
African-American families are doing well off
or show business or whatever or coming out of slavery.
It's like Juneteenth or something,
so we really wanted to do a show that represents how most
Americans are living right now.
Yeah, it's a-- congratulations, it's a great idea,
and it so obviously is a great idea.
People are loving it, and you're hilarious, as always.
So the thing about the show being on Netflix, too,
is that Alex can watch it in French.
Oh.
[LAUGHTER]
[SPEAKING FRENCH]
That's just--
[LAUGHTER]
Why?
[LAUGHTER]
It's fantastic.
I'm glad.
It is.
It is because there are some things that she wouldn't get,
I think, in English, like just some of the terms
and stuff that we use.
I'm sure that the French helps, and it also
makes us sound really classy.
Right, right.
[LAUGHTER]
It changes it a little bit from the concept of the show.
Wanda, it's great seeing you.
I miss you, and I hope to see you soon and be
able to have dinner again.
And then next year, I hope to see you here.
Absolutely, absolutely, miss you, too.
All right, thanks, pal.
The Upshaws is available now on Netflix.
We'll be back.