-Thank you so much for being on the show.
-Nice to be here, Jimmy.
-Larry, where do people recognize you most from?
Is it "Daily Show"?
-You know what? It depends.
Because I have different buckets.
But there are a lot of people that know me from
"Senior Black Correspondent."
I have to say "Senior."
-Senior. -Exactly.
-Senior Black Correspondent.
But here's what's great.
See, I'm not famous enough for people to think that I suck.
[ Laughter ]
Alright? That's the best level of fame.
-Wow. -I'm only famous enough
so that the people that know me like what I do.
-Yeah, no one -- -"Oh, Larry Wilmore.
You were so great on 'The Office.'"
Thank you very much. Eh...
I created "The Bernie Mac Show" on TV.
Some people may know.
[ Cheers and applause ] There you go.
-You won a -- -I won an Emmy.
-You won an Emmy. You won a Peabody.
-I won a Peabody Award, as well.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Hey, man. You guys remember the show?
"Bernie Mac Show"? -I love Bernie Mac.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Bernie was fantastic, man. -I love Bernie Mac.
-We won almost every award you can possibly win.
-How fun is that. -Yeah, it was great.
And then I got fired. So there you go.
-You got fired? -It's true. True story, yeah.
-Why? Just --
-That's how Hollywood works, Jimmy.
-You win the award and then they fire you off the show?
-"Larry, we're done with you now." Yeah.
It was funny, because, you know, Hollywood is just like this.
But I took the high road.
In the press -- This is true. I'm not making this up.
I said, "You know, we had creative differences.
I was creative, and they were different."
-There you go. One of the -- I like that. I like that.
-Keep the high road, Jimmy.
-Keep the high road, buddy. -Keep the high road, man.
-I was doing a little research about you
because you were coming on
and I found something I thought was fun.
You had a recurring role on "The Facts of Life."
-I did. I actually did. This is a true story.
Oh, my God. This is --
-I have a photo of you and Mrs. Garrett.
-Oh, man. -This is real.
-There you go. It's true. -Look at Larry.
Look at Larry Wilmore right there.
[ Audience awws ]
-Wow!
-Wow. -That's a deep cut.
-I know. -I love that show. Come on.
-I love that I got the puppy "aww."
That was very nice. -Yeah, you got the "aww."
-I look exactly the same. It's amazing, isn't it?
-Were you doing stand-up during that?
-I was. I was doing stand-up.
It's so tough when you're starting out stand-up.
Am I right? -Oh, it's the hardest.
-You never know what's gonna make it.
So -- And, you know, when you're trying out jokes,
you always want to hammock jokes, right?
So what you do is you have a joke that works,
then you have new joke, and other joke that works.
New joke, 10 seconds at the most.
If it doesn't work, gone.
Audience doesn't even remember it.
-No one -- Yeah. -Right.
I was trying out a bit. -Okay.
-A bit is a little longer than a joke.
-A bit is longer than a joke. -It is longer than a joke.
You know where this is going.
Bit can be 30 seconds to two minutes.
Guess how long my bit was, Jimmy.
So -- And I wore my contacts all the time.
This time I decided to wear my glasses.
And I'm wearing a robe. I don't even know what the bit was.
Why I was wearing a robe, I have no idea.
It's just my memories -- -I'm embarrassed.
-I'm not making this up, guys. I bombed so hard.
And the things are --
You know you're bombing in the first ten seconds,
but you can't leave the bit because it's a bit.
-Yeah, and you're wearing an outfit.
-Exactly. I'm wearing an outfit. And I'm wearing glasses.
I swear to you, guys. My glasses started fogging up.
I am not making that up.
-That's how embarrassed you were?
-Yes! It was flop fog.
[ Laughter ]
-Yes! -Not even flop sweat.
Flop fog. I couldn't even see them.
I could feel these waves of hate, like, coming at me, right?
But, like, the Lord saved me.
I couldn't see them and everything.
And to make it worse, they hated me so much --
I was also emceeing that night.
So guess who got to come back on stage.
[ Laughter ]
-"Remember the skit about the bath robe?
Yeah, that's not me. It's a different guy now."
-I know. There were like, "Why is this guy back?
We hate this guy. Didn't he get the message?"
-But look at -- But look at you now.
Look at you now. Come on, bud. You're in a big movie.
Let's talk about "Jerry & Marge Go Large."
-Very exciting. Very exciting. -Great cast, by the way.
Bryan Cranston. I love Bryan.
Annette Bening. -Ah. Man.
-It's drama. It's got comedy. It's heartwarming.
It's based on a true story.
Can you tell everybody what the story is about?
-Sure. It's based on this guy named Jerry Selbee.
True story. You guys may have seen it on "60 Minutes."
He beat the lottery. He didn't cheat it.
He beat it using math.
And he got the whole town involved.
So he didn't do it for the money.
He won the town like $27 million over like seven or eight years.
Unbelievable story. Bryan Crantson plays Jerry.
Annette Bening plays his wife, and I play his accountant,
'cause the brother's got to count the money.
-Yeah, okay. Of course. Yeah.
-And it was just so much fun working with them, Jimmy.
It was just great. -We were saying backstage --
I said the reviews have been great.
And you said, it kind of feels good for people to go like,
"Hey, Larry, we need this." -I agree.
You know, I was telling Jimmy I'm living in gratitude.
Now, I lost my brother last year to COVID,
and I said, "I've been trying to live in gratitude
this past year."
When I read this script, Jimmy,
it was the type of movie that I feel people need.
We just want to laugh at something.
We want escape, right?
We want to feel good about something.
-Yes, please.
-And something for the whole family.
You can go enjoy. You're laughing. And it's feel-good.
It's about a community that's doing something together.
How different is that
than the world we're living in now, right?
Right? -Yeah, I know.
-People are pulling for each other.
It's such an inspirational story.
It was so much fun to be a part of it.
-I want to show everyone a clip.
Here's Larry Wilmore in "Jerry & Marge Go Large."
Take a look at this.
-So you want to start a corporation?
-Bring in the whole town.
If we sell shares, we'll have more capital to invest.
-Go big or go home. [ Chuckles ]
-Then we'll split the profits with the shareholders.
-Everybody rides.
-Will you stop talking like that?
-Sorry. I'm just really into it.
-She's really into it.
'Cause she knows it'll work.
-House always wins. -Stop it!
You really think people will come in on this?
-Yep. You did. -Yeah, but I'm a depressed
widower with nothing to live for.
-You want to buy more shares, then?
-Yes!
-[ Laughs ] Larry Wilmore, everybody!
"Jerry & Marge Go Large"
premieres this Friday on Paramount Plus.
Thank you for making us laugh. I appreciate it, buddy.
Good to see you.
Muna performs after the break. Stick around.