Roy Wood Jr. reflects on the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner and his career moving forward
The following is a transcript of the video below.
TheGrio’s Marc Lamont Hill speaks with comedian Roy Wood Jr. after his White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner performance. The two speak on the “A Seat at the Table” Gala and more.
Marc Lamont Hill [00:00:07] Everybody! We are here with the man of the hour, Mr. Roy Wood Jr.
Roy Wood Jr. [00:00:11] How you doing, man?
Hill [00:00:11] Man. I’m good, man. Not as good as you though! This is a huge night for you!
Wood Jr. [00:00:17] Dude! It’s a blessing to just be in the building with all these powerful white folks and see if we can get the reparations crackin’.
Hill [00:00:22] Well, I —
Wood Jr. [00:00:23] That’s my goal tonight!
Hill [00:00:24] Is that the goal?
Wood Jr. [00:00:25] My goal at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner is to get these reparations rolling or, at minimum, get the Harriet Tubman 20 into print. They still ain’t give us the 20!
Hill [00:00:34] I haven’t seen it yet!
Wood Jr. [00:00:36] They promised a 20 pre-COVID!
Hill [00:00:40] We still ain’t got, man.
Wood Jr. [00:00:41] Still ain’t got it.
Hill [00:00:42] Let me ask you, how do you prepare for something like this? I mean, this is one of the biggest performances of your life.
Wood Jr. [00:00:49] It is. I think, No. 1, as a comedian, you have to treat it as another performance. You started getting into: “This is the one night that will change everything!” And then it don’t even be that night. So at the end of the day, you got to be prepared. You got to do your job. And whatever happens on the other side of that is outside of your control.
Hill [00:01:07] I love everything you’re doing from “The Daily Show.” I saw you on BET recently. I see you obviously here at the Correspondents’ dinner. And you’ve got a million jobs, man. Is it hard to juggle everything now?
Wood Jr. [00:01:16] For as long as I get the time with my son, the sanity feels right. But, you know, at some point I got to figure out what I want to settle into next. You know what’s happening on “The Daily Show.” We’ve got a revolving door of guest hosts, and it’s been working—
Hill [00:01:31] Any chance you’d be the main host?
Wood Jr. [00:01:32] If they ask, I’d snatch that thing that they wouldn’t even have to finish the sentence. But at some point, I have to figure out what’s the next thing I want to go to. What do I want to grow to? Be it hosting “The Daily Show,” be it landing somewhere else. You know it is what it is. But, you know, in the meantime, it’s not overwhelming. Like they say, these the problems we prayed for.
Hill [00:01:53] That’s right. Well, look, we proud of you. We love you, man. We’ll let you get to this party, man.
Wood Jr. [00:01:56] Yeah, man.
Hill [00:01:57] Congrats on tonight! And an amazing performance at the Correspondents’ dinner!
Wood Jr. [00:01:59] Thank you, man. Appreciate it.
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