Watch: Skye Townsend on opening new doors in comedy

Skye Townsend tackles creating new doors for Black comedians.

Jul 6, 2023

Over the weekend of CultureCon LA, attendees experience a beautiful, immense event that celebrates Black culture and creativity. Skye Townsend is becoming a household name, Townsend discusses how she tries opening doors for up-and-coming Black comedians.

“The following is a transcript of that conversation.”

James Gilmore: [00:01:30] Again, like a culture icon, TheGrio, we’re all about connecting with, you know, entrepreneurs, people trying to build businesses. What would you say to someone that’s trying to start a, you know, a business or just being an entrepreneur might want to get into comedy? What would you say to other, you know, young black people like yourself. [00:01:47][17.3]

Skye Townsend: [00:01:48] Okay, trying to go into comedy? Yeah, Yeah. Make sure when you’re making jokes that they are laughing with you, not at you. And and second study, I think like we we think that because we have natural talent or God given ability, we are owed something. The studying never stops. So I think, you know, it’s really easy to see the microwave culture where things are happening overnight and people are just blowing up and they think that, okay, now I’ve gotten here, the work stops, the work never stops. So I encourage anybody to study because the greats are still studying, they’re still in class, they’re still trying to learn new voices, never get comfortable with success because it could be gone like this. [00:02:21][33.5]

Gilmore: [00:02:22] Great info. Great info. [00:02:24][2.3]

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