-Our next guest is
an Emmy-nominated writer and comedian
whose work you've seen on "Detroiters," "Drunk History,"
and right here on "Late Night."
She's the host and star of "The Amber Ruffin Show."
New episodes are available every Friday night on Peacock.
Please welcome back one of my favorite people,
the wonderful Amber Ruffin, everybody.
♪♪
-Whoa! Whoa!
Oh, hi.
Whoa, whoa!
Seth! -Oh, Amber, how are you?
-[ Laughs ] It's weird to be in the same room
with someone who's not your husband
with no mask on.
-I know. Look at us. -Weird.
-This is -- but, yeah, this is, like,
counts as a full affair in 2020. -Yeah.
Oh, yay, finally.
-Now, obviously, we're taking advantage of our distance here,
but we have both --
because you're doing a show in the building
and I'm doing a show in the building,
we're both getting tested a lot.
We should make sure, in case anybody's watching
and feels like this is --
if they're feeling a little squirrelly watching,
they should know that we're very safe.
-We are tested constantly.
How often are you tested?
I'm tested two or three times a week.
-Three times a week.
I'm three times a week. -Whoa.
-Yeah. Are you getting better at the self-swab?
-I'm a pro at the self-swab. -Yeah.
-'Cause once you had your mask on all day,
you got a bunch of snot going, anyway.
Self-swab is easy. -[ Laughs ]
-But when that man sticks that thing in your nose --
-They're called a doctor. [ Laughs ]
-You know, the man with the white coat.
-[ Laughs ] Yeah. -I don't know who he is.
But when he sticks that thing in my nose, that's very bad.
-Now, that guy is in the building, right?
This isn't a man on the street.
-Oh, yeah, he's got -- he's right outside the building.
-[ Laughs ]
-He's always like, "Hey, hey, come here."
"Okay." [ Laughter ]
-You are too gullible. You are --
You have too big a heart. You think everybody --
-I get a lollipop, so I'll do it.
-Oh, that was the -- that was the exchange?
-Mm-hmm. -So, Amber, you are now --
on Friday, you will record the third episode
of "The Amber Ruffin Show." -Yeah.
-And for those who haven't seen it --
or I should say, for those who have seen it --
it looks very different than this set,
but it is taking place right here in this studio.
-You guys, it's the same --
Hey, hey.
You guys, this is the same set. -[ Laughs ]
How is it launching -- obviously, we're figuring out
how to do a show during a pandemic.
How is it launching a show during a pandemic?
-It's perfectly fine.
Look, Jenny, our head writer and my little best friend, and I
talk nonstop.
Now, the only way that that could possibly have been solved
is if we work over Zoom. -Right.
-I don't know how we would do this show
if we didn't work over Zoom.
Because you have to say goodbye
so that you can use this same computer
to write your sketches.
Otherwise, we would still be on that first call.
We love to talk. -[ Laughs ]
-And we do set aside an hour
'cause we know we're going to be like,
"Oh, my God, do you remember that guy with the red hair?"
"Yes, I remember that guy."
And then that's a whole hour gone.
-Now, one of the things that people might not know
about our writer's room
is that it's all of our writers at "Late Night" share a room.
-Yeah. -And so -- and you know,
and one of the nice things is, of course, the fact that,
when 50 people share a room, there's always good gossip.
Do you miss that about the writers being distant right now?
-Yes. Who knows what's going on with these people?
-Right. -We don't have
enough time together.
We -- You know, I miss people showing up
and wearing something they don't normally wear.
-Yeah. -And then getting made fun of
so terribly that they want to go home,
but they can't because they work here.
-Yeah, I feel as though
we have a very loving, supportive environment.
But if somebody dresses even a little outside --
not like what we dress like,
but their own -- what they have established.
-The tiniest bit different, whoo, buddy.
You want to come to work in shorts?
Go on and try it.
-Now, I'm not gonna name names, but, obviously someone...
-Mike Scollins.
-...showed up on Zoom in a tank top.
-[ Laughs ]
One of the writers showed up to Zoom in a tank top.
And that was, no kidding, five minutes of bits.
-Yeah, five minutes. -Solid bits on this poor guy,
and his -- and he's in his house.
-Yeah. -He's not even with us.
-He should be allowed to do whatever he wants.
I should note, I think, again,
it speaks to how supportive we are,
the next Zoom call,
Mike Karnell, another writer, also wore a tank top.
-In solidarity. -Yeah.
-[ Laughs ] It's so cute. -It's like when Adam Sandler,
like, pees his own pants in that movie.
-[ Laughs ] -It's like,
"Hey, don't feel bad, kid. We all piss ourselves."
-"I pissed my pants."
-You mentioned your --
I guess Jenny is --
is she the producer of the show, head writer of the show?
-Jenny is the head writer and executive producer.
-And she's also a writer for "Late Night,"
a writer that you introduced to us.
And you knew Jenny back in Second City days.
-Yeah. Jenny and I did Second City Denver together,
which is a real thing that really happened,
and no one knows about it.
But Second City Denver existed.
Yes, there's Second City Toronto --
Is that true? -There was for a while.
-Yes, there is Second City Las Vegas.
And, yes, there's Second City Chicago.
But Second City Denver also existed at one point.
-And that's where you guys met?
And did you guys click right away?
-Yeah. We had the best time.
We all lived in this big building downtown.
Friggin' just like the first regular paycheck of your life,
and, like, you live in this nice apartment for free.
It was horrible.
We behaved terrible.
-[ Laughs ]
You also have a sidekick on the show.
-[ Gasps ] Tarik Davis. -Tarik Davis,
who I've known for a long time --
you've known longer, obviously.
And one of the things --
certainly, one of the most fun parts
about putting together writing staff when I started this show
was hiring people that I'd known in the past.
Are you enjoying working with Tarik?
-Yes, but you misspoke.
You said that I knew Tarik longer than you knew Tarik,
but that's not true.
-'Cause I knew Tarik first.
-'Cause we all met --
when we got to Boom Chicago,
Tarik and I went to Boom Chicago at the same time.
That time when we got there,
you were there visiting for New Year's Eve.
-Oh, my goodness.
-So the three of us met each other
on the same day. -All in the same night?
There you go. Look at that.
And now here we are. -Yeah.
-You -- You mentioned we met in Amsterdam.
-Yes. -We both worked for a theater --
Tarik, as well -- called "Boom Chicago."
You -- You are now married to a Dutchman named Jan.
-Yeah. -Which sounds like, you know,
a stereotype, but it's also true.
-Yeah, he loves cheese. -[ Laughs ] He does.
How did you and Jan do through quarantine?
-We've been doing great, but we are,
like, super raggedy. -How so?
-Like, I look like this because several people stopped me
and shook dirt off me and, like, primped me up,
but, naturally, I'm a raggedy dude.
Like, my husband and I both have,
like, 14-year-old boy vibes.
So, like, it's us just, like, drinking
and, like, ordering a lot of food.
And there is no adult there to, like, clean it up
or tell us to go outside or shower.
It's -- It's pretty bad.
-It's pretty bad. -Yeah.
-Now, obviously it's very -- one of the things that I think
people are very excited about your show --
it's very rare for a black woman
not just to write for a late-night show,
but now to have her own late-night show.
But the think the real trailblazing is,
I think it's probably safe to say
you're the first black woman to have a talk show
who also speaks Dutch.
-[ Laughs ] -Do you want to say anything --
say anything to our Dutch viewers real quick?
-[ Speaking Dutch ]
-[ Laughs ] -[ Speaking Dutch ]
-That was great. Thank you.
-So, them -- they're like, "Ohh, she -- her Dutch is bad."
[ Laughter ]
-"Still, like, I guess we can't be picky.
I guess we can't -- we have to --
we have to take what we get."
Hey, so, you provided a great service not just to our show,
but I think to our viewers after the George Floyd murder.
You opened our show --
we were still remote at the time --
for a whole week,
telling stories of your interactions with police.
I think it was very eye-opening to people,
not just that you had the one story,
but you had multiple stories.
And -- And you pointed out, on the last day,
that you had more to tell.
Were you surprised at how surprised people were by that?
-I guess so. I was surprised.
I thought everybody knew that,
but it makes sense now that I realize they did not.
But, you know, people went off the hook because,
look, people have been saying this.
And if folks didn't realize that,
then what they have
is an unwillingness to believe black people when they say,
"Hey, this [bleep] is crazy."
So people have been saying it.
Now they're getting the hang of it.
There you go.
-You're providing another service, as well,
which I should note is a little more on the humorous side
than what you shared on the George Floyd week.
-Yeah. -Which is you and your sister,
who grew up in Omaha, Nebraska --
basically, you just wrote a series of true stories
that she had written down over the years
of things that happened to her.
And the title of the book is?
-"You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey."
[ Both laugh ] And it's true.
Lacey is just, like, very, very tiny.
She's, like, exactly this -- me, except smaller and cuter.
So people really think that she is to be messed with,
but she's not.
So she just writes down
everything that is a crazy, hilarious, racist story.
And she's done this for years and years and years.
And you know, if you're a black lady at work,
you have to do that for work on a regular basis,
but not me -- if you do comedy...
[ Light laughter ]
But she, you know, had been doing that for years.
And then we decided
to just put all of the funniest stories in a book.
And there were enough for a whole book.
Just the funny ones were enough for a book.
-And this is just ones that specifically happened to Lacey.
-It's just racist stories that have happened to Lacey
that you would never, ever, ever believe.
-And when will -- when is the book gonna be out?
When are we... -The book comes out
January the 12th.
And I am 79% sure that that date is right.
-[ Laughs ]
Either way, people can preorder something like that.
And the date that I think we can both agree on
is Friday is the airing of a new "Amber Ruffin Show."
Amber, it is just always a delight to spend time with you.
Thanks for being here. -Good, 'cause I'm always here.
-[ Laughs ] You are always here. It's still really nice.
New episodes of "The Amber Ruffin Show"
are available Friday nights on Peacock.
We'll be right back.