Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “W. Kamau Bell on his new CNN show and race at SXSW”.
Hey guys is Kwame open with the verge and I’m at South by Southwest with the comedian, w kamau Bell and we’re gon na talk about a couple things, a couple things the new show with Kwame open, oh yeah, so you actually have a new show. It’S on CNN. That was just announced. Yes, I don’t yet, unless somebody has done something without telling laughs, yeah. Oh it’s on, and it’s gon na hit. You guys all know it’s on the cover of every magazine, yeah yeah, it’s it’s! The United States of America, yeah yeah, it’s a racing culture travel show. I mean that’s a not any topic for you at all. No, no, no, those three I’m familiar with all those things: race, culture and traveling. So I do I do those things regularly.
It’S just now, I’m bringing a camera crew with me everywhere. I go so like you’re gon na be visiting cities and talking people about, like the issues of the day, the issues of all the issues of their of their day. Basically, the issues that are going on in their place and and also just experiencing different cultures that I wouldn’t experience without CNN’s travel budget. No, you know it’s uh, it’s an opportunity to sort of.
You know one of the one of the things that people most enjoyed from totally biased. That I hear about is the man of the street interviews, and so this just takes that concept and blows it out into a whole show where I’m talking to people about their thing. You know this is a much smaller crew than totally biased. Like you needed a lot of all hands on deck to do a daily show, but this is a much smaller like film crew and it’s also not it’s a funny show, but it’s not based in mostly the writing.
It’S based in the interactions with people. So it’s not a thing words. It’S not written like that. It’S just talking to people and because I’m a comedian – and I can get people to open up about stuff. We find things that are funny and I just do things every time that I have fun doing, and sometimes those things look ridiculous and people laugh at them. Is it like it’s coming out of the process of you being in totally biased and then a connection of cop talk which we talked about before it’s it’s? Yes, it’s whirls around people who know me and like me, will like this show it’s just a more. It’S probably it’s, this is the show like totally biased, was the thing that sort of I got an opportunity to do that, and I was happy to do it and happy to pursue it and drive it to the wheels fell off which and they fell off and But this show, if I’m honest, is actually like a show. I had an idea first like this before Tori we came around because I’m a big fan of Anthony Bourdain and I’m a big fan of sort of that it’s half journalism, but most but also half the personality of the person.
So it’s like it still. You learn something when you watch it, but then it’s also about you get to hang out Danny, Bourdain or micro, or at least a ling or these. These shows where it’s like follow me. Go through this thing and it’s not the news, but you do get to learn something to experience something so I’ve always been a fan of those types of shows and always felt like. I could do well at one of those shows and then luckily the training I got from totally biased from doing the man on the street interviews. Sort of set me up for that because I don’t think I don’t think I would have been as good as I feel like I’m being at this show if I hadn’t had that time until he buys to do all those man on the street interviews which initially I was pretty scared of just walking a few on the street and say: hey. Can I talk to you about racism, so I feel comfortable sort of talking to people and very quickly sort of figure out a rapport so yeah. It certainly feels like I got trained to do this from totally biased and I’m taking the thing that everybody over one when people said people advice that they really dug and turning it into a whole show and still beginning to do it.
I’M not competing the thing about having a late-night talk, show is suddenly you’re competing against other late-night talk, shows and there’s just sort of sense of like what come out. Why can’t you call Justin Timberlake and have him lip-sync songs with you on your show, because I wasn’t on sorry. I live for 10 years. I don’t have a Rolodex of all the most famous people in Hollywood and also it’s not my thing right.
So, but now this show is not really I mean it’s, you have to get ratings on stuff, but it’s not competing directly against anybody’s thing right, it’s its own thing and all the shows that it would sort of be naturally competing against are on the same network. Okay, it’s Morgan, Spurlock and Leigh Bourdain, Lisa, Ling, micro. All those people are on the same network as me, so I’m not gon na be going up against them. It’S all part of the same team so that point it’s freeing yeah it’s for it’s a lot. We can we’ve shot four episodes so far, and everyone has dramatic differences like there’s just things about that, because we sort of are adapting to wherever we go. So if you’re in East LA talking about undocumented people and immigration and the Chicano identity that just automatically becomes a different show than going to Barrow Alaska, the northernmost tip in North America and hanging out with the new black people, who are the natives and talking about You know, what’s it like to have 365 days of snow or whatever or 360, I don’t know exactly, and and what’s it like to live a place where you can only get to by plane that you can’t drive into town and there’s no movie theater and there’s Not people don’t go to there’s no Starbucks.
There’S no, you know so those are automatically shows you have to approach differently. So it’s it’s freeing. It feels more authentic to me so you’re South Park and are you finding like any of those interactions and any fodder for comedy here I mean you’ll have to be along. No, I got, I guess I mean this is my third year in a row here and I was hoping to take this year off boy. It’S a lot of just you know to me South by Southwest it feels like a high school reunion with people. I didn’t go to high school with, like, I can’t believe we made it and I’m like we did, I mean, maybe you did, but everybody sort of silently high-fiving each other like just sort of look at each other guy like high-five.
As far as like people color black people walk, I don’t see it’s a very white show from so far. What is the thing? Fellow black man, the South by is a lot about money. Whenever you make things a lot about money like when it costs, I don’t know what the badges cost cuz. Luckily I don’t have to.
I wouldn’t come if I had to pay for it like I, I get brought by other people but yeah. Whenever you think make things expensive, it tends to whiten things up. You know you know: people make fun of Blackpool for eating chitlins and sort of the worst parts of the pork, but we did that because it was cheaper right. You know.
If Germans were like $ 1000, an ounce, they would be a white people delicacy. You like caviar, I can only imagine yes poor white goofy in there either, but there just happens to be a higher percentage of for black people. Yeah, I’m not breaking it down. I mean I’ve been around to the couple panels and I feel like there’s like more attention paid to diversity at least these days.
Well, I think you know we there in the in the year 2015, if you want to be regarded as a open and accepting and liberal and progressive, you have to sort of at least nod to diversity. So yeah I’ve certainly seen people of color with badges on, but not in the same percentage that people of color exist in the country right. What do you look for when you’re around here? Like what catches your eye? Most often I like going to cities and going to the places where people in the city go to you like we just ate and apparently there’s the taco trucks that are set up for this festival and there’s taco trucks that are like the locals eat at.
So we went to the locals taco truck at least what they told us. It was there’s, probably a deeper level of localism that we didn’t get to, but you know so that’s the thing with my TV show like I’m trying to do the things that people in that place do not the things they’ve set up for outsiders to do. Okay, thanks so much Kwame .