Robin Thede Made Comedy History… and Got Proposed to 5 Times?

Keke and Robin Thede get all the way into it, and you’ll be laughing start to finish. From the groundbreaking A Black Lady Sketch Show, where she made space for funny Black women to go bold and big, to writing for comedy legends and her historic firsts in late night. And just when you think the convo can’t get any better, Robin drops relationship tea so wild Keke is completely gagged… and you will be too! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Keke Palmer?

  Today's guest didn't just make us laugh. She changed the way comedy speaks. Robin Thede is a true multi hyphenate. Comedian, writer, actor, executive producer, and showrunner. And one of the first black women to host her own late night talk show. Head writer in late night television and the White House Correspondents Dinner during the Obama administration. And then, she had the audacity to create the Emmy-winning A Black Lady Sketch Show. One of the most culturally defining sketch shows of our time. So, get ready to laugh, because, baby, this is Keke Palmer.

• 1:06Keke Palmer?

  Please welcome one of my faves, Robin Thede.

• 1:11Keke Palmer?

  Oh, girl, you look so good.

• 1:15Keke Palmer?

  Yes. Come on, hair done, nails done, everything did, okay? How you doing?

• 1:22Speaker 01

  I'm so proud of my girl.

• 1:23Keke Palmer?

  You look so good, boo. Where you been? You been in L.A. or you been out of town? What's been tea?

• 1:28Speaker 01

  I've been... What do I do with this? How do my t's work? I've been, no, I've been in and out. I've had some things in New York and some things here, but mostly on the West Coast, yeah.

• 1:36Keke Palmer?

  The last time I think I saw you, we were on the set of the Boots movie on I Love Boosters, which they don't know, I don't think they know much about, like, you in there. So I'm just gonna keep it at that.

• 1:45Speaker 01

  Yeah, but we have fun, girl.

• 1:48Keke Palmer?

  We have so much fun. I cannot wait till they see that cameo.

• 1:50Speaker 01

  First of all, your performance in I Love Boosters, the world is not ready. You, all the girls, all the girls, Naomi, Taylor, Poppy, Lakeith, Don Cheadle, Derry Moore.

• 2:05Keke Palmer?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 2:06Speaker 01

  Boots Riley is...

• 2:07Keke Palmer?

  He's the bomb. I really love him. He's such a good person.

• 2:10Speaker 01

  I love him. I'm such a stan.

• 2:11Keke Palmer?

  Me, too.

• 2:12Speaker 01

  Yes, and he's a good person.

• 2:13Keke Palmer?

  He is. That counts.

• 2:14Speaker 01

  It does, it does, but your performance, you know he let me see some of it, like, way early on, and I said, oh.

• 2:23Speaker 01

  I didn't, so like, we all know you have multiple gears. Oh my god. But they not ready, you doing something you haven't done before. Girl, stop, I'm so hyped. No, I'm so hyped, I can't wait. And yes, I have a little, I have a little thing thing that I do. But they'll see it.

• 2:38Keke Palmer?

  It's so cool, it's so cool because he gives us the opportunity, and I feel like you're the same way where people wanna stretch and they wanna do other things, but it's not, the material's not always there.

• 2:46Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 2:47Keke Palmer?

  I think you're somebody that's always been able to craft that lane for black women to have the opportunity to show range.

• 2:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:52Keke Palmer?

  And so, yeah, anyway, I can't wait for you to check that out.

• 2:55Speaker 01

  I can't either, I can't either.

• 2:56Keke Palmer?

  Let's get into this pre-show pull-up.

• 2:57Speaker 01

  Oh, okay.

• 2:58Keke Palmer?

  So let's get into the mind of Robert Thede. So you're a Leo, and I feel like I knew that.

• 3:01Speaker 01

  Period.

• 3:02Keke Palmer?

  Are you an early August Leo?

• 3:03Speaker 01

  I'm a July Leo.

• 3:05Keke Palmer?

  Okay, July Leo, period. But your sun is a Leo, your moon is a Leo, and then your rising is a Virgo?

• 3:11Speaker 01

  Period.

• 3:11Keke Palmer?

  Yes, girl. Do you feel any of that Virgo energy?

• 3:14Speaker 01

  Very much. Whenever I hear you talk about it, cuz you are the queen, you're the queen. Well, you and Beyonce, I gotta give it to y'all.

• 3:20Keke Palmer?

  Oh my gosh, and you know Michael too, he's a...

• 3:22Speaker 01

  Yes, yes, yes.

• 3:23Keke Palmer?

  Kobe Bryant, we've got a list.

• 3:25Speaker 01

  No, you guys have a lot.

• 3:26Keke Palmer?

  But so do you Leos, I mean Barack Obama.

• 3:28Speaker 01

  Hello.

• 3:28Keke Palmer?

  Leo.

• 3:29Speaker 01

  I think Maya Rudolph and I have the same birthday.

• 3:31Keke Palmer?

  Oh, that's crazy. I love Maya, and I love me some J Lo. I love Leos, because you guys are fierce. A stunt queen.

• 3:40Speaker 01

  But Virgos are fierce with grounding, okay?

• 3:43Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 3:43Speaker 01

  And analytical, and smart, and like, I call all my Virgo friends or turn on my Virgo rising whenever I need to like, break down a situation.

• 3:51Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, we don't have all the pizzazz as Leos a lot of times, so that's why we need y'all. Like, Leo and Virgo together, perfect match.

• 3:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:57Keke Palmer?

  Um, what are you most grateful for today?

• 3:59Speaker 01

  Seeing my friend Kiki. I am, I get so excited whenever I see her, you know.

• 4:04Keke Palmer?

  Yes, girl, same.

• 4:05Speaker 01

  I get so excited when I see you.

• 4:06Keke Palmer?

  We always be like, God. Cuz you know, we don't care what our face do.

• 4:11Speaker 01

  No, but wait, I've been, I've been meaning to say something to you.

• 4:14Keke Palmer?

  Tell me.

• 4:15Speaker 01

  One billion?

• 4:18Keke Palmer?

  Minutes?

• 4:18Speaker 01

  Minutes of viewing? Are you kidding me?

• 4:21Keke Palmer?

  Girl, I'm

• 4:22Speaker 01

  Are you seri-

• 4:23Keke Palmer?

  I didn't even know we could do that many minutes.

• 4:24Speaker 01

  I didn't know we could do that many minutes either.

• 4:26Keke Palmer?

  Like, come on.

• 4:27Speaker 01

  A billion minutes.

• 4:30Keke Palmer?

  I'm gagged, I'm gooped.

• 4:31Speaker 01

  But they don't watch us?

• 4:32Keke Palmer?

  Okay.

• 4:33Speaker 01

  Said who?

• 4:34Keke Palmer?

  Come on.

• 4:35Speaker 01

  A billion minutes.

• 4:37Keke Palmer?

  Girl.

• 4:37Speaker 01

  A billion, but has that sunk in?

• 4:39Keke Palmer?

  It has not, honestly. Like, I, like, I keep, like, you know, people are putting the mention-

• 4:43Speaker 01

  So this is for the burbs, obviously. Your premiere on Peacock, the biggest premiere they've ever had. People, a billion viewing minutes in the first, what, hour?

• 4:50Keke Palmer?

  They said like 10 days. They said like the first 10 days.

• 4:52Speaker 01

  That's crazy.

• 4:54Keke Palmer?

  I'm shocked, I'm just so grateful. And again, it's to your, what you're think, what you just said, which is, it disproves things.

• 5:01Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 5:01Keke Palmer?

  Where it's like, oh, we're not being watched, or, you know, whatever you think when it comes to people of color on screen. And so, I love that because then it becomes a, it becomes a radiating factor.

• 5:10Speaker 01

  I hope so.

• 5:11Keke Palmer?

  I do too.

• 5:12Speaker 01

  Cause they love to forget. But, you know, I'm so proud of you.

• 5:15Keke Palmer?

  Thank you so much.

• 5:16Speaker 01

  I'm just so proud of every turn, every choice. You're doing everything right, babe.

• 5:20Keke Palmer?

  Oh, my gosh, girl. And I feel like we both are always stretching wherever we can go. It's like, I'ma do this, I'ma do that, you know, because why not?

• 5:27Speaker 01

  And also because these bills don't stop.

• 5:29Keke Palmer?

  Come on. Now, that's the truth. We wanna have a good life. Comfortable. A relationship or friendship non-negotiable for you? How you treat service workers, kids, others?

• 5:42Speaker 01

  Yes. How you treat other people, but especially people you think are working for you? You know, I worked in fast food, honey. My first job was at Chick-fil-A, like-

• 5:50Keke Palmer?

  Oh, my gosh, shout out that, yes. We love it.

• 5:53Speaker 01

  But people treated me horrible giving out them samples at the mall, baby.

• 5:57Keke Palmer?

  Wow. But that is true. I've actually been around people and I've seen they, you know, did something and I've become disgusted.

• 6:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, I don't like that.

• 6:04Keke Palmer?

  I've never turned on somebody so fast.

• 6:05Speaker 01

  Me too.

• 6:06Keke Palmer?

  You know what I mean?

• 6:07Speaker 01

  I cannot stand if somebody, you know, or they're like talking to the waitstaff. Maybe they're not treating them bad, but they're talking to them like they're dumb.

• 6:15Keke Palmer?

  Yep.

• 6:15Speaker 01

  I don't like that.

• 6:16Keke Palmer?

  No, it's disgusting. And it's actually happened to me in the reverse before, where I thought maybe somebody was a little bit stiff, but then I seen the way that they treat people around them and I was like, oh, no. I've misread you, cause you actually love, you take care of your people. So it is, I do think that's a great litmus test.

• 6:32Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 6:32Keke Palmer?

  Like, how people treat the folks around them.

• 6:34Speaker 01

  Yeah. And kids.

• 6:36Keke Palmer?

  And kids.

• 6:36Speaker 01

  It's very important to me. No, listen, don't let nobody mess with Leo.

• 6:43Keke Palmer?

  Literally, I think about this a lot. Because it gets to the point where it's like, you know, we've been places and, you know, some of the little, you know, they get into stuff and you've got to really calm. That's like a big thing for a mom.

• 6:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:54Keke Palmer?

  Like, having to calm yourself because it's like you cannot protect, you know, your baby has to learn, especially with other kids.

• 6:59Speaker 01

  But that fire comes out.

• 7:00Keke Palmer?

  But that fire, I'll be ready to go to war. I'll be feeling like Denzel Washington.

• 7:06Speaker 01

  My son, my son.

• 7:09Keke Palmer?

  That's how I feel, girl. It's like, suddenly we're in John Q. And I'm ready to blow up the bank.

• 7:14Speaker 01

  Yes. I feel like your knack, okay, everyone knows you do all these impressions or whatever. But what they don't talk about is the quotes that you remember.

• 7:24Keke Palmer?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 7:25Speaker 01

  You are a quote queen.

• 7:26Keke Palmer?

  Girl, do you know that me and my family, so we love, our movies were our love language. Even when we drove to California four days and three nights, we would do quotes. That was like our movie game. We'd be like, what movie this from? And do the line. And they were like, we got to guess.

• 7:39Speaker 01

  That's why.

• 7:41Keke Palmer?

  Yes, we used to play that.

• 7:42Speaker 01

  There's your next game show.

• 7:44Keke Palmer?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 7:45Speaker 01

  Quote this. Hosted by Keke Palmer.

• 7:48Keke Palmer?

  Wait a minute. And it has cards that go with it?

• 7:51Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 7:52Keke Palmer?

  Oh, girl.

• 7:53Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 7:53Keke Palmer?

  Are we doing the game show together?

• 7:55Speaker 01

  Yes, let's do it.

• 7:56Keke Palmer?

  And that's perfect for us because we love improv already.

• 7:57Speaker 01

  I know.

• 7:59Keke Palmer?

  Uh-oh. Come on, Peacock. Billion more minutes, right there.

• 8:05Keke Palmer?

  They got to give us that.

• 8:05Speaker 01

  Oh, wait, you have, oh, yes, the Brandon one. What's the T-Boo?

• 8:08Keke Palmer?

  What's the T-Boo?

• 8:09Speaker 01

  That video.

• 8:10Keke Palmer?

  Oh, my gosh, so gaggy, so campy. You know, I live for a camp moment.

• 8:14Speaker 01

  Baby.

• 8:15Keke Palmer?

  Let me through.

• 8:16Speaker 01

  I'll be throwing my computer looking at you.

• 8:19Keke Palmer?

  What's a question you wish you were asked more in interviews? Honestly?

• 8:23Speaker 01

  Oh, I think I wrote, I have no idea.

• 8:25Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, no clue, right?

• 8:26Speaker 01

  I don't know. People have asked lots of things.

• 8:28Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 8:28Speaker 01

  I don't know.

• 8:29Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 8:29Speaker 01

  What do you want to be asked?

• 8:33Keke Palmer?

  You know, I think I used to always want somebody to ask like, it's not really something that they can ask, but I would want them to find a way to talk about who I am outside of the characters. You know, because even like Keke Palmer can be a bit of a charac- you know, it's like, it's like, you know, but there are other things that I'm thinking about, there are ways that I'm structuring and being, you know, the architecture of my career. I used to always want to talk about that kind of thing. You know, because a lot of times as a talent, which I don't know if you feel this way, because, you know, I think people probably do see the architect that you bring as a writer, as, you know, you come in with all that stuff, not even just for yourself. You know what I mean? That's, that's gotten more important to me as I've gotten older, because it's not like I'm just gagging out. It's like, I've cared about this, I've put up into this.

• 9:18Speaker 01

  You're a producer, you're a director, you're all of these things. You're an architect of all that.

• 9:22Keke Palmer?

  I used to always want, want people to ask that.

• 9:24Speaker 01

  Oh, well, I talk about it, so I don't need people to ask.

• 9:28Keke Palmer?

  And that's like a key, you know, I think it's like, you know.

• 9:30Speaker 01

  I'm recklessly confident. That's the, the book I'm writing is called Reckless Confidence, and I always talk about, you've got to promote yourself. You know, I said Obama needed, because Barack Obama needs my advice. I always thought he should brag more. Don't let me be Barack Obama.

• 9:46Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, because Barack doesn't really brag that much, now that I'm going back into it.

• 9:49Speaker 01

  No, every now and then he'll give you a little, a little cheeky something.

• 9:52Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 9:53Speaker 01

  But, if I had killed Osama Bin Laden.

• 9:58Keke Palmer?

  That's the brag.

• 10:01Speaker 01

  Girl, I'd never let him forget. I'd never let him forget.

• 10:04Keke Palmer?

  That is true, buddy. Someone you've met that made you feel starstruck? Angela Bassett, Patti LaBelle, Whoopi Goldberg. I mean,

• 10:13Speaker 01

  Come on.

• 10:14Keke Palmer?

  Whoopi, can we just like Sister Act 2? I mean, Sister Act 1 was good, but that like, that was the, I feel like.

• 10:20Speaker 01

  No, 2, it gave us what we needed.

• 10:21Keke Palmer?

  Very rarely is a sequel better than the first.

• 10:23Speaker 01

  Very. The Godfather and Sister Act, that's it.

• 10:26Keke Palmer?

  Like, come on. And Patti, Angela Bassett, also one of my all-time fight favorites.

• 10:31Speaker 01

  Listen.

• 10:32Keke Palmer?

  Girl.

• 10:34Speaker 01

  I know people talk about this all the time, but you are Angela Bassett, Whitney Houston, and Lucille Ball all in one.

• 10:40Keke Palmer?

  Oh my gosh, Lucille Ball. I loved her growing up. Oh my gosh, I watched her, I watched, I love Lucy all the time.

• 10:48Speaker 01

  You have reincarnated as all of these women. Some of them are still alive, obviously, but... It's just so funny how you give us all of that, and I just love that. But you and Angela together are very funny. The things you guys have done together.

• 11:00Keke Palmer?

  Yes. Because it's like we only did that movie when I was 11.

• 11:04Speaker 01

  I don't even mean that. Y'all have done little interviews and stuff that kill me.

• 11:08Keke Palmer?

  Oh my gosh.

• 11:08Speaker 01

  I'm like, are you looking in a mirror?

• 11:11Keke Palmer?

  So look, I was at ABFF with her just recently, and I'm doing her introduction for her to receive this award for being the amazing icon she is.

• 11:18Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 11:18Keke Palmer?

  Make a long story short, she, you know, comes up, she's accepting the award, and she's talking to all of us, and then she does this thing where she says, like, young people, I think the line is like, young people, your voices matter. But she turns dead around and looks at me, she's like, young people, your voices matter. And when I tell you, I suddenly felt liv- I, I, this is my face literally did this. Like, I suddenly felt like I, I suddenly mattered.

• 11:44Speaker 01

  I matter. Today, I matter.

• 11:46Keke Palmer?

  I suddenly turned into mattering. Like...

• 11:48Speaker 01

  But that is what Angela Bassett will do.

• 11:50Keke Palmer?

  Why would she ever be that powerful? She literally, young people, your voices matter. I was like, oh, I matter.

• 11:57Speaker 01

  I matter. Like, it's... I didn't know.

• 11:59Keke Palmer?

  Girl.

• 12:00Speaker 01

  No, when we had her on a Black Lady Sketch, oh, she, she...

• 12:03Keke Palmer?

  It's so crazy.

• 12:04Speaker 01

  She did the same thing to me, so she's sitting down. Now, we have her in a sketch called the Bad Bitch Support Group, because she's the baddest bitch.

• 12:11Keke Palmer?

  I think I've actually seen that.

• 12:12Speaker 01

  Yes. And so she, uh, uh...

• 12:17Speaker 01

  She's sitting between takes, and she reaches into, she has like a bag or something, and she pulls out a tiny little bag of almonds.

• 12:25Keke Palmer?

  Oh, yes.

• 12:26Speaker 01

  Four almonds in the bag. You know about the bag.

• 12:28Keke Palmer?

  She's very healthy.

• 12:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, very healthy. And I said, oh, four almonds. And she goes... It's all I'm allowed.

• 12:37Speaker 01

  She goes, "Just kidding." "I'm not on a diet, I'm just..." I don't know if she was or not. But it was so, I was like, "I need to only eat four almonds." And that's not all she ate in a day, but she kept, it kept her energy up through the day?

• 12:48Keke Palmer?

  Yes, so she's always been so, I mean, even when you think about her in, um, What's Love Got To Do With It, she's always really been on the fitness tell, like, I got a groove. You know, her body's always been something we've marveled at. But the four almond things, it's like, um, when I was, I started working with a fitness instructor, that's one of the main things that they taught me. It's right before you eat, like, you eat four almonds. It was before lunch. Something about it, like, helps you, and so you don't overeat, and just, like, helps you. Yeah, it's like a little snack thing, anyway.

• 13:14Speaker 01

  Well.

• 13:15Keke Palmer?

  You know.

• 13:15Speaker 01

  The four almonds, I'll never forget it.

• 13:17Keke Palmer?

  The icons. What's a mantra you live by and why? You never know what people are going through, so watch your mouth.

• 13:24Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 13:24Keke Palmer?

  A lot of people not watching their mouth, Robin.

• 13:26Speaker 01

  A lot of people not watching their mouth.

• 13:27Keke Palmer?

  I need them to watch it.

• 13:28Speaker 01

  They need to watch their mouth and their, and their typing fingers.

• 13:30Keke Palmer?

  And that's really what I mean, because why do you get online and be somebody you're not in real life? Are you a catfish of the mouth? Yeah. Because y'all get up there, they get up there so bold.

• 13:41Speaker 01

  Well, catfishes have big mouths.

• 13:42Keke Palmer?

  Oh, my gosh, they do. It makes you scared. When you look, you be like, "Well, I'm eating that." They be like.

• 13:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, you shouldn't be eating catfish anymore, I don't think.

• 13:50Keke Palmer?

  They're scary, girl.

• 13:51Speaker 01

  Why do you have whiskers? You a dog?

• 13:53Keke Palmer?

  And you know what? Eels are also quite scary. But that sushi.

• 13:58Speaker 01

  The eel sushi is good.

• 13:59Keke Palmer?

  You know I ain't lying, but they look scary if you look at them.

• 14:01Speaker 01

  Well, just chop them up, and then we don't have to worry about it. But the, so the thing about that is, I remember, um, someone, this is gonna be sad, but it's a good lesson. It's not that sad, but, you know, people always like to comment on weight loss or whatever. And people will be like, "Okay, snatch, you look good, skinny." And then I remember watching someone do that to someone, and the person was like, "Well, I've been sick." And I'm like.

• 14:29Speaker 01

  Watch him out.

• 14:30Keke Palmer?

  Are you that person?

• 14:31Speaker 01

  You never know what people are going through.

• 14:32Keke Palmer?

  When people tell me sometimes sad stuff, I do laugh. Because I think that that's how deep the comedy helps me to process.

• 14:38Speaker 01

  That's why I warned you, because I knew you were gonna.

• 14:40Keke Palmer?

  Girl.

• 14:40Speaker 01

  But that is crazy.

• 14:42Keke Palmer?

  That is crazy. Well, I've been sick and that bitch knew she ate with that. Well, I've been sick, so watch your mouth. Like, come on. You know, that reminds me of, I don't know if you've seen Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. They had George Jefferson. I don't forget.

• 14:54Speaker 01

  Sherman Hamslay.

• 14:55Keke Palmer?

  Thank you. He was on there and I think it was when Aunt Viv was pregnant.

• 14:59Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 14:59Keke Palmer?

  And he was like, "Uh, Viv, you put on the pounds. You need to lay off the beer." And she was like, "I'm pregnant." He was like, "You really need to lay off the beer."

• 15:08Keke Palmer?

  So stupid. You're so dumb.

• 15:11Speaker 01

  These are the quotes I'm talking about.

• 15:12Keke Palmer?

  Girl, I live for quotes.

• 15:14Speaker 01

  These are the quotes.

• 15:15Keke Palmer?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 15:16Speaker 01

  You know what one of my favorite ones is? This is so random.

• 15:17Keke Palmer?

  Tell me.

• 15:18Speaker 01

  So 227 had Jack Ags get Sandra Clark on.

• 15:25Keke Palmer?

  Yes, good old Sandra.

• 15:25Speaker 01

  Good, uh, and she was doing the speed round.

• 15:28Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 15:29Speaker 01

  You know, at the end of Family Feud, and they were like, "Uh, name a type of man that you'd like." And she was like, "A rich man." And then they were like, "Name a, name a type of, uh, something, something." Every answer was a man. She was like, "Oh, name your biggest fear."

• 15:42Keke Palmer?

  "A broke man."

• 15:47Speaker 01

  I don't know why that made me laugh, but like, every answer was a man.

• 15:51Keke Palmer?

  It's her delivery.

• 15:52Speaker 01

  It's her delivery.

• 15:53Keke Palmer?

  Her delivery. What an icon.

• 15:55Speaker 01

  What an icon.

• 15:56Keke Palmer?

  I love Jack Ags.

• 15:56Speaker 01

  Oh, I was starstruck by her too, because we got to do 227, the lost episodes.

• 16:03Speaker 01

  We used to do a live show called The Lost Episodes with Amber Ruffin.

• 16:05Keke Palmer?

  Uh-huh. I love Amber Ruffin. Tried to have, very talented.

• 16:08Speaker 01

  Very talented.

• 16:09Keke Palmer?

  And congrats on Bigfoot.

• 16:10Speaker 01

  Thank you. Yes, I'm co-producing a musical she wrote.

• 16:13Keke Palmer?

  Yes, yes. You said it's kind of like a Sam Lot meets, uh, Book of Mormon.

• 16:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, like Sam Lot.

• 16:19Keke Palmer?

  Excuse me, Sam Lot.

• 16:19Speaker 01

  Yeah. It's very campy, very silly, but it also talks about being othered.

• 16:25Keke Palmer?

  Yes.

• 16:26Speaker 01

  You know, in a fun way.

• 16:27Keke Palmer?

  Mm-hmm.

• 16:27Speaker 01

  And the cast is very diverse. It's great. Yeah, she's amazing.

• 16:30Keke Palmer?

  Amazing. Well, first of all, wait. You just got a puppy named Jack. Full name, Michael Jackson, Thedy?

• 16:37Speaker 01

  Period.

• 16:37Keke Palmer?

  Period. I mean, and he's the love of your life.

• 16:42Keke Palmer?

  Have you always been an animal lover?

• 16:44Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 16:44Keke Palmer?

  This is your very first dog?

• 16:45Speaker 01

  This is my first dog on my own.

• 16:47Keke Palmer?

  What made you think?

• 16:47Speaker 01

  Thank you for bringing it up. He's all I want to talk about. Actually, that should have been the question I want to be asked in interviews.

• 16:53Keke Palmer?

  Right.

• 16:53Speaker 01

  He's, I'll give you lots of pictures to show, video, whatever you need. He's a mini golden doodle and he's just the sweetest thing. And I think for me, I'm a little bit allergic, but, because we grew up with dogs, you know.

• 17:06Keke Palmer?

  I'm a little bit allergic is crazy.

• 17:08Speaker 01

  That's like saying I'm a little bit pregnant.

• 17:10Keke Palmer?

  Like, huh?

• 17:11Speaker 01

  Girl, are you or not? Yeah, I can't breathe. But, um, no, he's, we grew up with dogs. We grew up with dogs and, uh, even a cat when we were growing up. We had fish, we had lots of animals in the house. But yeah, I finally had a minute to just kind of slow down and I got my little puppy.

• 17:26Keke Palmer?

  I love that. What kind of pup is it?

• 17:28Speaker 01

  He's a mini golden doodle, so he's like 20 pounds. Yeah, he'll get to be about 25, but he's, he's the best. He's the love of my life. I'm a crazy dog mom.

• 17:36Keke Palmer?

  Oh, my gosh. What does that consist of?

• 17:38Speaker 01

  I had a large portrait commissioned of his likeness that is now in my bathroom.

• 17:43Keke Palmer?

  On the floor. I feel like your house has amazing aesthetics.

• 17:47Speaker 01

  It does.

• 17:47Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, like I do feel like, like.

• 17:49Speaker 01

  Very calm.

• 17:49Keke Palmer?

  Very, okay, so not a lot of like, um, I felt that maybe there would be some abstract pieces in there?

• 17:54Speaker 01

  There are.

• 17:55Keke Palmer?

  Right, right, right. Yes, I feel like, I'll just be waiting on my invitation. I'll tell you guys all about it.

• 17:59Speaker 01

  Yes, anytime, anytime.

• 18:01Keke Palmer?

  Now, on NPR's Bullseye, you recalled your parents, saying, yes, you have a black parent and a white parent, but the world will see you as black. And I've heard this, something similar with, even with Halle Berry, when she speaks about her growing up. But it's obviously not probably every biracial person's situation.

• 18:16Speaker 01

  Right.

• 18:17Keke Palmer?

  But I'm wondering how that helped you or served you, you know, growing up? And even now?

• 18:22Speaker 01

  I got a black mama from the west side of Chicago, so.

• 18:24Keke Palmer?

  Come on, Chi-Town. She's like, baby.

• 18:28Speaker 01

  Right.

• 18:28Keke Palmer?

  You're black.

• 18:29Speaker 01

  Yeah, you know, it was actually my white father who was like, the world will see you as black. Like, when he would take us to the grocery store, people like, is this your father? You know, because we were big kids, we were big fro's back then and like.

• 18:40Keke Palmer?

  Oh, my God.

• 18:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was, it was, um, you know, he had three girls. He had three, he has three black girls he had to care about and he knew what the world was gonna be, you know.

• 18:49Keke Palmer?

  Where's he from?

• 18:50Speaker 01

  He's from Iowa.

• 18:51Keke Palmer?

  Okay, cool.

• 18:51Speaker 01

  My mom's from the west side of Chicago. She met my father in Iowa in college. And then, they've been together fifty some odd years now, girl.

• 18:59Keke Palmer?

  That is such a blessing.

• 19:01Speaker 01

  It is a blessing, but I feel like it's unrealistic now.

• 19:04Keke Palmer?

  I do too, because I also have parents that have been married for over thirty years. And it's like, they set me up for failure, sister.

• 19:10Speaker 01

  A hundred percent.

• 19:11Keke Palmer?

  Thede made that [BLEEP] look too easy.

• 19:12Speaker 01

  A hundred percent.

• 19:13Keke Palmer?

  You can't even find a friend for fifty years.

• 19:15Speaker 01

  Girl!

• 19:16Keke Palmer?

  Like, what?

• 19:16Speaker 01

  Girl!

• 19:17Keke Palmer?

  It's crazy.

• 19:18Speaker 01

  It's crazy. There's no, there's no way. The, the world is not... Relationships are different. Women have too many options. Men have too many options. It's just different.

• 19:27Keke Palmer?

  The options are optioning. But it's like, how you know them options want you? Slow down, boo.

• 19:31Speaker 01

  Hello.

• 19:32Keke Palmer?

  You know?

• 19:32Speaker 01

  It's just the, it's just the idea that they have them.

• 19:34Keke Palmer?

  It's crazy. It's crazy. But growing up in Iowa, it must have been unique. Because there's not a lot of black folks there.

• 19:42Speaker 01

  You'd be surprised. There's more than you would think. Uh, but once I left, now there's none.

• 19:52Keke Palmer?

  I'm howling.

• 19:54Speaker 01

  I'm howling. They're only really in a couple places, and we were in one of the cities. But, you know, the great thing is, I grew up in the Quad Cities. I grew up in Davenport, Iowa, outside of Chicago, about two and a half hours.

• 20:03Keke Palmer?

  Okay.

• 20:04Speaker 01

  So, we would go to the south side of Chicago to my grandmother's house. Every summer. So, you know, Sixty-Eighth and Oglesby raised me as much as Davenport, Iowa did.

• 20:12Keke Palmer?

  And Chicago in the summer is lit.

• 20:14Speaker 01

  So lit.

• 20:15Keke Palmer?

  It's so fun.

• 20:15Speaker 01

  That was back when you didn't have to pay to go to the Taste.

• 20:17Keke Palmer?

  Oh, my gosh. Good old Taste of Chicago.

• 20:19Speaker 01

  Listen, Blues Fest, Jazz Fest, we would, oh, my gosh.

• 20:22Keke Palmer?

  Up at the lake.

• 20:23Speaker 01

  All the museums, up at the lake, everything. So, yeah, that was, that helped, I think, a lot in that. But I think my parents were just very realistic, you know, about what the world was gonna be for us. And, you know, it's different now. I feel like kids have, uh... I don't know, growing up, they really... Like, I never would have been like, "I'm biracial." But, I mean, I guess technically...

• 20:44Keke Palmer?

  Now, there's so much visibility for the biracial perspective. I'm not biracial, so I don't know what it would be like. But I do know, growing up, they used to act like T. and Tamara wasn't biracial.

• 20:55Speaker 01

  You know.

• 20:56Keke Palmer?

  Back then, that was, that's why, that was the whole, they're adopted and then Tim Reed and Jack A was, you know what I mean? And only in the later seasons.

• 21:03Speaker 01

  Supposed to be light skinned on the show.

• 21:04Keke Palmer?

  Exactly.

• 21:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:05Keke Palmer?

  So now, in this generation, we actually do speak a little bit more to like the fact that, yeah, people can be mixed. You know, and.

• 21:11Speaker 01

  But what is that like? Like, I've had people be like, "Why don't you really talk about your white side?" And I was like, "So, here's how the genetics work." You don't have sides.

• 21:20Keke Palmer?

  Right.

• 21:21Speaker 01

  I'm not cut in half.

• 21:22Keke Palmer?

  Right.

• 21:23Speaker 01

  But yeah, I mean, I don't, I think I've been very intentional about, um, you know, black women centering, black women in my work and I think that's because my mom. I just love my mother. I love my sisters. Like, I grew up in a house of, in a family of women. My mom came from six kids and two sets of twins, all these girls, like, just, I don't know. I think black women have been such a cornerstone for me that I don't, I mean, it's not like I haven't had positive white woman influences in my life, but all the real maternal people in my life were always that and so, which is never a question.

• 21:58Keke Palmer?

  Yeah. I also think in general, whether it's black, whether it's biracial, we're not a monolith. So our experiences are our experiences. They don't always, like, you're not gonna always, even a full black woman ain't gonna always be centering black conversations. That just doesn't happen or not.

• 22:12Speaker 01

  In America, like, we all got, there was slavery.

• 22:15Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, yeah. Everybody got something somewhere. Nobody's a hundred percent something. At least I don't know. I don't think.

• 22:22Speaker 01

  I don't know. Not in this country, but I always think it's interesting too, because when people go, "So you're biracial?" And I go, "I guess. I guess I've always just said black, so I don't know."

• 22:32Keke Palmer?

  And I think that is, like, like you said, like, times change.

• 22:35Speaker 01

  Times change.

• 22:36Keke Palmer?

  The conversations around what we speak to and, you know, I mean, but the one drop rule, that's like, you know, it's like, all those things are.

• 22:41Speaker 01

  That's what I grew up knowing about. So I think, yeah, if I was younger, I mean, I am very young.

• 22:47Keke Palmer?

  Very.

• 22:48Speaker 01

  God don't like ugly. That's how the mic broke.

• 22:54Speaker 01

  I'm howling. I said, "I'm very young."

• 23:00Keke Palmer?

  It be like that, girl. I'm still questioning, "Could I play a college student still?"

• 23:03Speaker 01

  You definitely could.

• 23:05Keke Palmer?

  Girl.

• 23:06Speaker 01

  You definitely could.

• 23:06Keke Palmer?

  I'll start, I'll be... I'll get a different posture. I'll do whatever it has to take. That's my young face.

• 23:16Speaker 01

  Wait, hold on. Let me do my young face.

• 23:19Keke Palmer?

  Bright-eyed Bushy Tail. That gave Bright Eyed Bushy Tail.

• 23:22Speaker 01

  That gave Crazy Stalker.

• 23:27Keke Palmer?

  So, when I read that your father named you after Robin Williams.

• 23:31Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 23:32Keke Palmer?

  It became so clear because, I mean, you grew up watching Robin Williams, like, you grew up watching SNL, Living Color with your dad. I can totally see, I mean, that's like the birth of Robin Thede. Tell me what it was like growing up, sharing those moments with your dad.

• 23:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, he's always been a big comedy fan and definitely got me into it way too early. Like, we were watching stand-ups and, yeah, Saturday Night Live and Robin Williams. I mean, just all this, Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder.

• 23:58Keke Palmer?

  Gene Wilder? I love Jerry Lewis.

• 24:00Speaker 01

  Listen, listen, all of that and all the physical comedians and all the, you know, I love Robert Townsend. I love, obviously, all the Wanzas.

• 24:10Speaker 01

  But by the time they came around, I was already, like, so versed in Mel Brooks and Monty Python and all this stuff because of my dad, but also Richard Pryor and, you know, Flip Wilson.

• 24:24Keke Palmer?

  Okay.

• 24:25Speaker 01

  Moms Mabley, like, he gave me an education so early, so early. And I didn't realize it was that. I just thought it was fun and funny. So, yeah, I definitely, he trained me up early.

• 24:37Keke Palmer?

  I love that. Was it at that young age that you thought you, because, I mean, there were a lot of women, right? But I feel, still feel like...

• 24:44Speaker 01

  Not really.

• 24:44Keke Palmer?

  Not really. So, when did you think it could be a career for you to pursue, like, actually?

• 24:50Speaker 01

  You know, I started shooting sketches before YouTube with my sister when we were in school. And like, we didn't even know what we were making, but as it kind of, as I got in high school and then to... To college, I started a sketch group at Northwestern where I went. Called Out the Box, that's still there years later. And I think for me, I was like, okay, this could be something, you know? I think Saturday Night Live and In Living Color helped me see that that could be something. But there weren't a lot of us. That's why I'm such a fan of Kim Wayans and Whoopi Goldberg, right? Her characters and her one woman show, like, all you need is a couple of things to show you. You know, just a little peephole of light.

• 25:31Keke Palmer?

  Yep.

• 25:31Speaker 01

  So those women were that for me, for sure.

• 25:33Keke Palmer?

  I love that. I mean, then you went to Second City, Chicago. What did that experience teach you about building characters and?

• 25:40Speaker 01

  Well, now I was like, oh, okay, like, the hustle is real. You gotta know so many different characters and be able to hop in and out of all this stuff. And I was doing eight shows a week and like, just kind of the hustle, I think of it, and making no money.

• 25:52Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 25:53Speaker 01

  And I think it really solidified for me that I was doing the right thing for my passion. You know, which is good.

• 26:00Keke Palmer?

  It also is very prestigious. So was there any, the process of getting there and staying there and, you know?

• 26:06Speaker 01

  I got lucky. I got scouted because of the, there was a black woman, Deanna Griffin, who came and, Griffith, sorry, who came and saw me at Northwestern in my sketch show. And then she said, you need to come to Second City. And I was like, great. And so she gave me a scholarship because I definitely couldn't afford it. And, and I started learning with these icons, you know? And then just really learn the history of the place and, you know, the Belushi's and the, I mean, John Candy. And just all these amazing, and then Tina Fey was already gone and on to SNL. But all those kinds of folks just, just blew me away.

• 26:42Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 26:42Speaker 01

  And so, yeah, I think it just opened up the world for me and showed me that there was a path.

• 26:48Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, you've said that you really started writing because nobody could ever write for you.

• 26:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 26:52Keke Palmer?

  When did that moment click for you and unlock that you had to?

• 26:55Speaker 01

  So when I was creating characters, I would always create characters from when I was a little kid, right? And so, or mimic people I saw on TV. I feel like I've heard you say this too.

• 27:04Keke Palmer?

  Same, I'm the exact same, yeah.

• 27:06Speaker 01

  The teacher teaches you that mimicry kind of and those impressions.

• 27:08Keke Palmer?

  Yep.

• 27:09Speaker 01

  But I think for me, I started getting an audience from some of that. But it was the characters that were most successful and most funny were the ones that I was creating their voices. And whenever somebody tried to write for me, it just didn't feel. It wasn't nailing what I was trying to express in that character.

• 27:26Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 27:27Speaker 01

  So, yeah, so then I just started acknowledging that I could write also. And that opened up a whole world for me that I didn't know.

• 27:35Keke Palmer?

  Now that you have a very well-established brand, do you feel like it's easier? Like you've been able to teach people how to work with you and they've come with better, you know what I mean?

• 27:44Speaker 01

  Oh, no, now, I'm blessed to be around some of the greatest writers in Hollywood. Like, I've been so lucky. I mean, the women who came through Black Lady Sketch Show alone, but even writers on my late-night show, Ziway and like Alex English and, you know, all these, all these amazing people. Lauren Ashley Smith, who came and, and worked on Sketch Show with us too. I mean, just, I don't know.

• 28:07Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 28:07Speaker 01

  No, I just think I needed to be exposed to better writers, you know?

• 28:11Keke Palmer?

  Okay.

• 28:12Speaker 01

  When I was in college, we were all still figuring it out, you know?

• 28:14Keke Palmer?

  Sure, sure. I'd always ask that too, because I think when people are finding out, building their brand, one thing that I always do say is like, sometimes like, even if they're talented people, sometimes, especially as a person of color, people don't know your voice.

• 28:27Speaker 01

  Oh, well, that's true.

• 28:28Keke Palmer?

  You know what I mean?

• 28:28Speaker 01

  That is still true, for sure.

• 28:29Keke Palmer?

  And so with digital, that was one of the main, like now, whenever I do a brand deal, whenever I do a partnership, they're talking to me the way that I've showed them how to talk to me. They're like, Kiki, we live for you. Like, the gag is, we want to work with you. And it's like, okay, this is, it clicked for me.

• 28:45Speaker 01

  But also slow down with all the catchphrases, like, I'm also a person.

• 28:48Keke Palmer?

  You know you're our girl.

• 28:52Keke Palmer?

  They do, girl.

• 28:54Speaker 01

  I know it isn't, I know it isn't.

• 28:56Keke Palmer?

  Kiki, they literally, it's literally, girl. And, but it's interesting, because I think-

• 29:00Speaker 01

  I didn't want to say eight.

• 29:01Keke Palmer?

  You know? It's so interesting, though, because it really, I think it's a true thing for anybody that's defining their voice. Like, yeah, lean in and do it yourself, because then it gives people the understanding of how to work with you.

• 29:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think so. And I think, I guess my answer to that question was, I get to hire people.

• 29:19Keke Palmer?

  Which is a blessing.

• 29:20Speaker 01

  Who can get my voice? But, but no, I will say that when I am like guest starring on something, or, or like we talked about, I love boosters, Boots Riley calls me and says, "I have this cameo for you, I want you to come do it." He was like, "Do you want me to send you the sides?" And I said, "No, just describe it to me." And he described it to me and I go, "Great, I don't need the script." And so, because I trust him, anything he writes is going to be absolutely genius.

• 29:44Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 29:45Speaker 01

  So, and I'm a fan of writers, I'm such a fan of writers.

• 29:47Keke Palmer?

  I'd also imagine that when you get into a role, people probably are like, "Just improv." Do you love that?

• 29:53Speaker 01

  All the time.

• 29:53Keke Palmer?

  Or you hate that?

• 29:54Speaker 01

  No, I love it.

• 29:54Keke Palmer?

  You love it, right? Because it's like, "Just do your thing."

• 29:56Speaker 01

  Because I love my writing and I feel like I'm good. No, I feel like, like, I'm gonna give it to you, you know what I mean? So, yeah, I do think people, even on like when I presented award shows, they're like, "Do you want to write it, or do you want us to write the copy?" And I'm like, "Take a stab at it, but I'm gonna have notes." But sometimes I don't, sometimes they're great. Because like you said, somebody gets it, or they've hired a black lady, or, you know, somebody who gets it.

• 30:23Keke Palmer?

  What is your process when you're getting ready to do, you know, a hosted show? And obviously, they do always have like some like little thing, do you, you know, what's your process of finding what you're gonna say? Do you think about it that day of like, "Oh, this happened in the news, I'm gonna add that in," or, "This is happening in culture." How do you define what you're gonna, personality you're gonna bring to a host, a show?

• 30:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, if I'm hosting and I have to do a monologue, yeah, I try to be as, as up to the minute as possible on the jokes, for sure, if it's airing live. You always have to consider the room, you know, if I'm doing, if I'm hosting the TCA Awards versus, like I just hosted Ebony's Power Gala, and that was amazing. But you know, you kind of tailor it

• 31:02Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 31:02Speaker 01

  for the room, but, you know.

• 31:04Keke Palmer?

  So you're a comedian, actor, writer, producer, executive producer, and one of the first black women to host a late night talk show.

• 31:11Speaker 01

  Crazy.

• 31:12Keke Palmer?

  Was becoming a multi-hyphenate intentional or necessary? Or both?

• 31:17Speaker 01

  Both.

• 31:17Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 31:18Speaker 01

  Both. Would you want to host a late night talk show?

• 31:21Keke Palmer?

  Girl, I would live. That, it got so, I feel like God jumped in.

• 31:27Speaker 01

  I know, right?

• 31:28Keke Palmer?

  It got so spacious in the room for this moment.

• 31:30Speaker 01

  I just, I just, I'm like, cause I was, I was going through my Rolodex of all of your work. And I know you did the, you know, you did the reboot of, uh, you did Teen Summit, right?

• 31:38Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, we did, I did Just Kiki, which was very much in the frame. It was inspired by Teen Summit, without a doubt.

• 31:43Speaker 01

  But I was like, have you done, I mean, you've, you've done Password and all the, you know, all the game shows, but I'm like, why don't you, is it just scheduling? I'm like-

• 31:53Keke Palmer?

  You know what, it's just never happened, but I do feel like culture needs-

• 31:56Speaker 01

  People must have asked.

• 31:57Keke Palmer?

  You would be-

• 31:58Speaker 01

  Like something like- New York City on Hall, you would be fantastic.

• 32:00Keke Palmer?

  Girl, and I imagine, like, if I did something late night, I would also want it to be like, I would want like a little black lady sketch show, like a little In Living Color, like, I would want, like, like, who are the young-

• 32:09Speaker 01

  You can make it whatever you wanted.

• 32:10Keke Palmer?

  You know, who are the young comedian people that we can do, introduce, you know what I'm saying? What would that look like? Cause we don't have nothing like that. We don't have no Def Comedy Jam.

• 32:18Speaker 01

  No.

• 32:18Keke Palmer?

  We don't have nothing that's comedy center, but it's like, hey, what's up? Let's get into it, you know? We could show some newcomers, then we could do a sketch, and then we could wrap it up.

• 32:27Speaker 01

  Told you, you already know what it is.

• 32:29Keke Palmer?

  We know what it is.

• 32:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, we do.

• 32:30Keke Palmer?

  They heard it here first.

• 32:32Speaker 01

  Listen, I'm there.

• 32:33Keke Palmer?

  Girl, I just feel like-

• 32:34Speaker 01

  I think it'd be so fun. You unfortunately cannot be 10 people. And I know you have to shoot movies and shoot TV shows, but I'm like, what a gift for you to be in our homes for late night. I think you would save late night.

• 32:45Keke Palmer?

  Girl, stop!

• 32:46Speaker 01

  A lot of white men getting fired, so.

• 32:50Keke Palmer?

  You give me so much life, too much life.

• 32:54Speaker 01

  No, I'm telling you, I'm, this ain't a compliment, these are just facts. I know how to find stars.

• 33:00Keke Palmer?

  Well, you, I mean-

• 33:01Speaker 01

  I've been known for making them.

• 33:02Keke Palmer?

  Girl, Black Lady Sketcher, let's talk about the Quinte Brunson of it all. I just have to go to there now because of what you just said.

• 33:16Keke Palmer?

  Do you hear that? Baby, a warm getaway must be calling my name because spring has officially sprung. We're saying bye-bye to endless winter layers and hello to sunny beach season. I finally have a little time off coming up, and with my crazy schedule, that's rare. So. I'm thinking of a long weekend escape with my family. The question is coastal Santa Barbara vibes or desert stay in Palm Springs. All I know is that when I'm planning a trip, booking a stay on Airbnb just makes everything easier. I just love having a whole house to ourselves. We can each have our own space, no cramped hotel rooms to worry about, and come together for fun movie marathons or epic game nights in the living room.

• 33:59Keke Palmer?

  Everyone can be as loud as they want because things can get competitive, y'all. And let's face it, a meal is better shared around a table than a bed, especially when it's my dad's cooking. But here's the real magic, we get to play locals, wandering through neighborhood parks and popping into all the best family-owned, under-the-radar restaurants on the recommendations of our lovely super host. Mmm, you already know I love a good food tour moment. So if you're planning spring or summer getaways with your favorite people, find a stay on Airbnb. Trust me, that home away from home feeling can be topped.

• 34:37Speaker 01

  Now, I didn't have nothing to do with her being great. She was great when she came to me and did me a favor coming on to the show.

• 34:42Keke Palmer?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 34:42Speaker 01

  I just texted her and said, "Just come shoot this show. It's six episodes. It's on HBO." She was like, "Okay." Like, and then she was destined for mega stand-up.

• 34:51Keke Palmer?

  How did you know and how did you see? I mean, has she already been away from?

• 34:53Speaker 01

  Anybody that had seen BuzzFeed.

• 34:55Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 34:55Speaker 01

  Already knew.

• 34:56Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 34:56Speaker 01

  She just has it. And her stand-up is so funny.

• 34:59Keke Palmer?

  Uh.

• 35:00Speaker 01

  She's just such a unique talent.

• 35:02Keke Palmer?

  Yes.

• 35:03Speaker 01

  But Gabrielle Dennis, Ashley Nicole Black, Sky Townsend.

• 35:07Keke Palmer?

  Sky Townsend. I, she's always been really, really funny.

• 35:11Speaker 01

  I need people to recognize her more.

• 35:13Keke Palmer?

  Yes.

• 35:14Speaker 01

  Sky Townsend is unbelievable. She is her father's child.

• 35:18Keke Palmer?

  She's her father's child.

• 35:19Speaker 01

  Oh, she's so good.

• 35:20Keke Palmer?

  She's not afraid to get into a character. She doesn't care about anything other than the joke.

• 35:24Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 35:24Keke Palmer?

  And that's like, I mean, that's all you could ask for from anybody with a comedic voice.

• 35:28Speaker 01

  We got lucky. I, I mean, it was intentional, but you never know how casts are gonna gel.

• 35:33Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 35:34Speaker 01

  And ours just was such, like, in the least cliche way possible, we were such a family, are such a family. We all still so close and I was so happy to have that beacon of sisterhood.

• 35:46Keke Palmer?

  Mmm.

• 35:46Speaker 01

  Cause I think you feel it in sketches, obviously, like Black Lady Courtroom or, you know, all that kinda stuff. And I think that joy radiated in our show in such a way that people felt seen.

• 35:57Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 35:58Speaker 01

  And that was so important to me.

• 36:00Keke Palmer?

  I think it's so interesting as a woman in comedy, I'm wondering how you feel about it, like, do you feel like people are as accepting to the female comedic voice as they are with men?

• 36:10Speaker 01

  No.

• 36:10Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, what is that about, though?

• 36:12Speaker 01

  No.

• 36:12Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, what is that about, though?

• 36:14Speaker 01

  No, we still have people. Girl, I'm sure they've done this to you.

• 36:16Keke Palmer?

  Yes.

• 36:17Speaker 01

  They'll come up to you and be like, you know, I didn't think women were funny. That's how they'll start with me. You know, I didn't think women were funny. This woman came up to me. Now, mind you, his wife is behind him and she's back there going, I'm so sorry. Cause he thinks he's complimenting, I didn't think women were funny, but you actually make me laugh. Thank you.

• 36:35Keke Palmer?

  Boy, ain't nobody trying to make you laugh like that.

• 36:38Speaker 01

  I don't care. Yeah, I don't care. What does your wife think? She was like, girl, I'm sorry, he meant that as a compliment. I was like, I know he did, I know he did.

• 36:45Keke Palmer?

  I find that to be so interesting. It's like, for whatever reason, funny is not an attribute we're supposed to contain.

• 36:51Speaker 01

  I don't know. I don't know what that's about. And I think men, you know, when women list qualities they want in a partner, straight women, they'll say, I want a man who's funny and who's caring and whatever. Men never go, I want a woman who's funny.

• 37:06Keke Palmer?

  No. They don't, girl, and that's my problem now.

• 37:09Speaker 01

  That's my problem too.

• 37:09Keke Palmer?

  Cause I can't stop cracking a damn joke.

• 37:11Speaker 01

  And they don't want you funnier than them.

• 37:12Keke Palmer?

  And they don't, girl, why do-

• 37:14Speaker 01

  Can we talk about it?

• 37:15Keke Palmer?

  I was just talking about that where almost you become just asexual because it's just like, cause I'm not supposed to be,

• 37:22Keke Palmer?

  and it's like, I'm just trying to play with you.

• 37:24Speaker 01

  You're just being fun.

• 37:25Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, I'm just playing with you, damn. I even had to do that with my son one time. My son, he'd be like, no, mama, no, it's not funny. I'm like, I'm just playing with you.

• 37:33Speaker 01

  They so sensitive.

• 37:34Keke Palmer?

  It's in their DNA.

• 37:35Speaker 01

  Listen, they so sensitive.

• 37:37Keke Palmer?

  Cause he already owned me, mama, you play too much.

• 37:39Speaker 01

  Ah!

• 37:40Keke Palmer?

  I'm just trying to make you laugh. They old as. Um, okay, your comedy video, [BLEEP] Black Guys Say. I feel like that was like viral before viral.

• 37:48Speaker 01

  It was.

• 37:49Keke Palmer?

  Even knew itself, right?

• 37:50Speaker 01

  Yes, it was.

• 37:51Keke Palmer?

  I mean, when you think about, or even just like, we're talking about Issa Rae building Awkward Black Girl. That whole wild, wild west of social media and just digital and virality.

• 37:59Speaker 01

  The early days.

• 38:00Keke Palmer?

  The early day. Did you feel like it was that you were pioneering in that, in that time? Or you look at it in retrospect?

• 38:06Speaker 01

  Well, it was so interesting because I was doing videos for Funny or Die and stuff. At the same time, I had created the, uh, Every Little Step spoof with Wayne Brady and, uh...

• 38:16Keke Palmer?

  Shout out to Wayne Brady, he's so funny.

• 38:18Speaker 01

  I know, and Mike Tyson came in to do it. It was so funny. But so I was already kind of doing that stuff around the same time. But really, that got me represented at CAA. I found my first real big agency.

• 38:30Keke Palmer?

  Yep.

• 38:30Speaker 01

  Because of [BLEEP] Black Guys Say. And it was so funny, my friend, Indra Craig Galvane and I, who I knew from Second City. We, the [BLEEP] Black Girls Say had been big, you know? Um, and so I was like, but no one's doing this in drag for men. And I was like, well, I play guys all the time, you know, in my live sketch, you know? So I was like, well, let's shoot it. We shot it in a day and threw it up there and like 2 million views. Back then was a lot.

• 38:54Keke Palmer?

  I mean, it's still a lot.

• 38:56Speaker 01

  It's still a lot, but back then it was a lot.

• 38:58Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 38:58Speaker 01

  So, yeah, that was a big deal, but I just did it because I wanted our voice as well. And I thought it was a funny answer to the trend.

• 39:06Keke Palmer?

  What do you feel like that said about culturally specific comedy resonating widely? You know?

• 39:13Speaker 01

  You know, I think that's always been my comedy. I feel like culturally specific comedy can be universally funny if it's written well. I always say this, like, jokes are jokes, even if you don't get them. Like, I watch, um, I watch a lot of stuff. There's a show called Deli Boys on Hulu.

• 39:29Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 39:30Speaker 01

  It's so universally funny, even if I don't understand like super specific jokes or whatever. It's like, you still get the vibe, you know? And I think Black Lady Sketch Show was like that. I think In Living Color was like that. I think, you know, all of that is very important that we have to do kind of as black comedians. Now, I never like took anything black out. It was like, no, I want to be very black and intentionally black. And then you come to us because it's going to be written well and you're going to laugh.

• 39:57Keke Palmer?

  But then do you ever feel the pressure that can sometimes come with that? Where it's like... You know, now I gotta make sure that I'm, you know, we're funny with it, but I don't wanna joke too much and everybody think we a joke. Do you ever feel that pressure of just being marginalized and representation? I feel like sometimes it gets to the point where it's like, the representation, you know, the weight of it is either we are down and out, or we in a, we in a real big house.

• 40:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 40:22Keke Palmer?

  You know, and it's like-

• 40:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's either slavery or the Cosby's.

• 40:25Keke Palmer?

  Well, yo, like, you know, it's, girl, it's seriously like that with us a lot of times. It's so, especially as like comedian.

• 40:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 40:34Keke Palmer?

  It's like, you can get in your head, and I know especially comedians coming up today. It's really easy to get in your head and not be true to the joke because you're so worried about not being-

• 40:45Speaker 01

  Yeah, I, I, I'm at the place where I don't care. I don't think I've ever cared though. I don't think I've ever cared. I've always cared about what's funny.

• 40:53Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 40:53Speaker 01

  But I know what you mean.

• 40:54Keke Palmer?

  Yes.

• 40:54Speaker 01

  And I do think, you know, that's, that's a really good thing for young comedians to think about, like, do you have that armor? Do you have that thick skin, you know, that you don't care? Now, mind you though, I'm not a comedian that tries to punch down.

• 41:08Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 41:08Speaker 01

  I try to still uplift, you know, it doesn't have to be sanitized by any stretch of the imagination, but I try not to like go for the cheap joke that hurts people.

• 41:18Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 41:18Speaker 01

  I think that's, that's what kinda helps it, then I don't feel like that black excellence crush where I have to let pressure to always be, you know, black excellence or whatever.

• 41:27Keke Palmer?

  You described the show, Black Ladies Sketch Show, as black women living a grounded experience inside of magical reality.

• 41:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 41:33Keke Palmer?

  I mean, what does that mean to you in comedy?

• 41:35Speaker 01

  Oh, you know, for us, it was like, if you're checking out the grocery store, there might be a unicorn standing next to you. You know, that was the kind of what I always told people, like, it's, it's that the reality's gonna have this magic in it, and we don't have to be the magic. Like, there's always that pressure for us to be the black girl magic, and it's like, well, what if there's magic around us and we're just reacting to it? Because I think that's really what the essence of black girl magic is. It's not necessarily that we're magic or we're magicians. It's that in an environment where everything is thrown at us, we make magic happen.

• 42:06Keke Palmer?

  That's literally like the ethos of the It's no wonder why you and Boots connect and why you're in I Love Booters Because that's literally it. And this is literally what he does. When people see his stuff and they're like, "Oh, it's so bright." Because that's how he see where we come from.

• 42:20Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 42:21Keke Palmer?

  That's how we all see it. Somebody could come into the hood and they'll be like, "Oh, it's wack." Or this, this, it's crazy. We'll see magic and wizards and vibrancy and life. It's so true that we are perspective. That is the way that we see the world. And that is so important. Like, the whole, like, era that we've been able to fall into now, this black surrealism and whims and it. Like, I'm so glad we get to be whimsical in here.

• 42:44Speaker 01

  Yes, girl!

• 42:45Keke Palmer?

  Like, can I get a little whims?

• 42:46Speaker 01

  We can skip through the part!

• 42:47Keke Palmer?

  Like, come on! Instead of it just being, like you said, "Is this extreme up or this extreme..." Not this damn fuck.

• 42:56Speaker 01

  Leave it.

• 42:57Keke Palmer?

  And listen to the song. "I love her 'cause she got her on." It's my damn problem now. Let me cut [bleep] off. Sorry, boo. Well, I would say, come now, Miss Independent Neo. I'm in 2010, girl, by the way. Anyway.

• 43:12Speaker 01

  It was a good year!

• 43:14Keke Palmer?

  I just love that. I love what you bring in. I love that, that, that, that's what We are getting more of that these days.

• 43:21Speaker 01

  It's important. I think, you know, we haven't had permission to do those things, to have that whimsy, to have this, you know. But there are independent filmmakers like Boots Riley and, like, so many amazing filmmakers that have been trying. But I think we have to keep that Foot on the pedal.

• 43:36Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 43:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 43:37Keke Palmer?

  What has writing for other people taught you about protecting your own point of view?

• 43:41Speaker 01

  Ooh.

• 43:41Keke Palmer?

  Because I think that's such a skill that you, that you're able to do that.

• 43:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, I've written for, name a black comedian, I've written for them. I mean, Mike Epps and, and Anthony Anderson and Chris Rock and, you know, all the things, right? So I wrote for them for years.

• 43:53Keke Palmer?

  Because that is so cool! That is so freakin' cool!

• 43:57Speaker 01

  But I haven't really written for you yet.

• 43:58Keke Palmer?

  Girl, let's... Go.

• 44:00Speaker 01

  Don't tell me.

• 44:01Keke Palmer?

  Girl, I would really love.

• 44:03Speaker 01

  Oh, I know. And we tried to get you on Skechow forever.

• 44:05Keke Palmer?

  And I literally was telling the producers.

• 44:07Speaker 01

  I want to be clear, in case somebody come for me. We tried.

• 44:09Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 44:09Speaker 01

  Mama is busy, okay?

• 44:11Keke Palmer?

  Literally, we tried so hard to make that happen.

• 44:13Speaker 01

  I know, but, but we are gonna do something. I'm saying it now. You know we talk about this, but yes. We're, we're gonna make something happen, but, but I think for me, writing for other people really taught me how to hone my own voice. Because now, I can, I can watch a comedian stand up for like 10 minutes, and I can write in their voice. Because really, people only make three kinds of jokes.

• 44:33Keke Palmer?

  Tell me.

• 44:34Speaker 01

  And I can watch anybody, well, so like when I would watch Larry Wilmore, like, I knew he was gonna make a political reference. I knew he was gonna do an anecdotal, like tell a story into a punchline. But if you watch like Stephen Colbert, he's gonna do a reverse. You think he's making this joke, and then it's like a salty punchline. You know, you think it's a very serious thing, but then it's like a, you know, or if you watch, you know.

• 44:55Keke Palmer?

  What would you say about me? Could you say anything about?

• 44:57Speaker 01

  Yes, of course.

• 44:57Keke Palmer?

  What do I do?

• 44:58Speaker 01

  Well, impressions, first of all. You're going to embody a joke? You're going to give us a character? You're going to give us a character? But you know what you also do? You also do a very Sandra Clark, Jack A. Harry thing, which is, you'll set up a joke real low, and then the punchline will be loud, so you'll be like, "Well, the gag is." That's what they tell me, you know what I mean? And like, that kind of fun, uh, that's like a cadence thing. So you have a, you have a vocal cadence that's very specific and so perfect for comedy.

• 45:29Keke Palmer?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 45:30Speaker 01

  But acting wise, when I see you on screen, cuz you, Kiki, is different than you, you give us so many layers on screen, like in boosters, but in the burbs, in, in everything. You'll give us, um, I like drama Kiki, because when drama Kiki's doing drama Kiki, but then has a little joke, it comes from nowhere. You know what the thing is about you? You either telegraph the joke all the way, or not at all. And I love watching you do that, because I know I could write any kind of joke for you, and you would know what to do. You know the rhythm of comedy.

• 46:06Keke Palmer?

  Oh my gosh.

• 46:06Speaker 01

  You really do. You have the math of it. Virgo!

• 46:09Keke Palmer?

  Girl, come on, math is ontology. Let's go. It's rhythmic. It is. It's literally...

• 46:15Speaker 01

  You know the formulas. I feel like you see jokes as numbers, or algebra problems, or something.

• 46:19Keke Palmer?

  I do. I do.

• 46:21Speaker 01

  I know you do.

• 46:22Keke Palmer?

  That's crazy, girl. I feel so beyond touch. It feels so good, a moment of recognition. And just that you see what I be on, and what I'm about, and what my heart is, girl. Yes.

• 46:34Speaker 01

  Do you ever just... I watched the clip of you and Yvette Nicole Brown with Rose. I watch it...

• 46:40Keke Palmer?

  By the way, Yvette Nicole Brown.

• 46:42Speaker 01

  Oh!

• 46:42Keke Palmer?

  Isn't she just the best?

• 46:43Speaker 01

  Our Emmy-nominated judge from a black lady in a courtroom!

• 46:46Keke Palmer?

  Like, she's just the sick thing. Yes.

• 46:48Speaker 01

  She's amazing. But watching you, and watching her second-guess herself, but knowing you knew what you were giving her. And even in the moment, I know you're just being you. It's not for camera. Like, that would be how, if we were doing a house party at home, you would be doing the same, "Rose!"

• 47:04Keke Palmer?

  You know, because we're doing the math. Like, girl, you know the math. You know.

• 47:08Speaker 01

  You're giving her the math. I'm watching you do it in real time. I'm such a comedy nerd.

• 47:13Keke Palmer?

  Have you ever had a residency at a school? Have you taught...

• 47:16Speaker 01

  I have.

• 47:16Keke Palmer?

  You have. Yes, I'm like, you are...

• 47:18Speaker 01

  But I don't like teaching.

• 47:19Keke Palmer?

  Damn, you're so... What you just did right now, just breaking down all those different people, I would pay to just watch, hear you say that about comedy. Like, you are so...

• 47:28Speaker 01

  I can break down everyone. I can break... Because I have been a student of comedy. That is why my father named me the way he did. That's why he taught me the way he did. That's why comedy has been my life. I'm such a nerd, but that's what...

• 47:38Keke Palmer?

  That's the coolest [BLEEP].

• 47:39Speaker 01

  The bills, because I could watch anybody's stand-up, anybody's routine, and know exactly how to write for them. They'd be like, "Damn, these jokes are good." And I'm like, "Yeah, because I know what kind of jokes you like to make."

• 47:49Keke Palmer?

  You are cold peace. Because that ain't nothing... That's nothing to play with. Black Ladies Sketch Show, again, I have to just say it again. Elevated voices like Quinta Brunson, brought legends like Angela Bassett, Patti LaBelle, into comedy spaces. I mean, what did building an ecosystem like that...

• 48:04Speaker 01

  You know, Angela Bassett was the first guest star to sign on. She was a fan of my late-night show, and I didn't know that. And we reached out to her, and we said, "Our big first sketch, we want you to be..." And we're going to name the episode after you. That first pilot is called "Angela Bassett is the Baddest Bitch." Period. Any further questions?

• 48:25Keke Palmer?

  There's literally no young people.

• 48:26Speaker 01

  I'm not taking questions because I'm not at all.

• 48:31Keke Palmer?

  Then I would never, that's, I still matter today because of that.

• 48:36Keke Palmer?

  I'm still mattering. Okay? Now, this gagged me, girl. Your mother, Philistini, served in Iowa, the House of Representatives, for 14 years.

• 48:45Speaker 01

  14 years!

• 48:46Keke Palmer?

  Girl, that is everything.

• 48:47Speaker 01

  Elected the first night that Obama was elected in 2008.

• 48:50Keke Palmer?

  What was that like? I mean, seeing her path and her journey, how do you become a House of Representatives?

• 48:56Speaker 01

  So she, you know, my parents were both in education our whole lives, and then they started getting active in teachers' unions and then the Democratic Party, and, um, they just kind of worked their way up. Both my mom and my dad have been very politically active for a long time and worked together on a lot of campaigns, and my mom was simultaneously working with the Obama campaign to help get him elected, um, while she was running her first campaign, and it was just, I mean, there was a picture of us on the newspaper, I'll send it to your people, but there was a picture of us on the front page of the, our home newspaper, the Quasity Times, of me just screaming and grabbing my mother as she was announced, uh, for her first term, and then they have to run every other year, so she had to get reelected seven times. That's unheard of.

• 49:38Speaker 01

  Like, she was truly so, and now she's retired and living her best life, but, you know, she really, really brought so much change, so much focus to, um, a seat that had never been held by a black woman, ever, in the history of that district, so...

• 49:54Keke Palmer?

  That is so incredible, and then it is so great because you were the first black woman head writer in late night and the White House Correspondents' Dinner.

• 50:02Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 50:02Keke Palmer?

  So, I mean, what was it like?

• 50:04Speaker 01

  It was amazing. I mean, we were backstage and got to meet the President and the First Lady before, uh, and they were like, "You better be funny," you know?

• 50:12Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, right, right, right.

• 50:13Speaker 01

  I was like, "It's gonna be funny, don't worry," and they loved it, and it was, I mean, to be in that room is, in this, the kids these days don't know, honey, because the White House Correspondents' Dinner is not what it used to be.

• 50:25Keke Palmer?

  Really?

• 50:25Speaker 01

  But, but back then, it was a big deal for a comedian to, to write for that and to, to host it, and, and Larry did such a great job, and, and he's been one of my mentors for so many years, and, I mean, just meeting, I mean, you've met the Obamas, obviously.

• 50:40Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, they really are amazing.

• 50:41Speaker 01

  They really are, like, I don't want to say, I don't know how to say it other than...

• 50:48Speaker 01

  A really offensive way.

• 50:50Keke Palmer?

  They [BLEEP].

• 50:50Speaker 01

  No, I was just gonna say, they that bitch.

• 50:56Speaker 01

  Please. See, only way I know how to say it.

• 50:59Keke Palmer?

  But it's true.

• 50:59Speaker 01

  But they are.

• 51:00Keke Palmer?

  And we mean it with love.

• 51:01Speaker 01

  Together, collectively.

• 51:02Keke Palmer?

  Like, they are [BLEEP] serious.

• 51:04Speaker 01

  They are, like, they're amazing. Michelle on her own is so impressive and so incredible. But Barack, I could not even call him by his first name.

• 51:14Keke Palmer?

  I know, I feel crazy too. I'm like, I don't know, is it president, my previous president, my P.

• 51:19Speaker 01

  My only president.

• 51:19Keke Palmer?

  You know, it's like, it gets to a point.

• 51:22Speaker 01

  Did you say my P?

• 51:23Keke Palmer?

  My P.

• 51:28Keke Palmer?

  I don't know all the stuff, so I be like, what do I do?

• 51:32Speaker 01

  What really killed me was you pronouncing those fashion designer names. Was that with Scott Evans?

• 51:37Keke Palmer?

  Yes. Because why they put me up to it?

• 51:40Speaker 01

  But here's the thing, what you need to know is that was the most relatable thing. Besides, I'm sorry to, you have given culture so much. I'm sorry to this man, if I saw him in the street, I wouldn't know a thing. But also, but also you pronouncing.

• 51:55Speaker 01

  Lo- Luwebe? I still can't do it.

• 51:57Keke Palmer?

  Lows.

• 51:58Speaker 01

  Girl, me too, I thought it was a hardware store.

• 52:00Keke Palmer?

  We was going to the hardware store. Givenchy, I'm tired of them. I'm tired of all of them. All of that is too much to be said. I don't know why they put us up to that. It's so difficult.

• 52:13Speaker 01

  But you are, you are doing such a service for so many of us. Because you walked so we could run.

• 52:20Keke Palmer?

  Girl.

• 52:21Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 52:21Keke Palmer?

  Thank you. Thank you for seeing me. Thank you for seeing me always, always. I mean, with your parents.

• 52:26Speaker 01

  I know a lot of your quotes. Does this make me look like a stalker?

• 52:29Keke Palmer?

  No. But you know, I feel the same way about you.

• 52:32Speaker 01

  Oh, please.

• 52:33Keke Palmer?

  Girl, seriously. And now I'm just thinking to myself, like, what are we about to do together? Because you damn near know my voice better than me.

• 52:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 52:39Keke Palmer?

  Because this eats.

• 52:40Speaker 01

  Oh, no.

• 52:40Keke Palmer?

  This eats.

• 52:43Speaker 01

  No, no, no. I could write some mess for you.

• 52:45Keke Palmer?

  This has me so on the flow. Like, yes. Um, okay, with your parents doing so much in politics, have you ever felt like that your comedy is your way of giving back? How do you view the way that you, yeah?

• 52:59Speaker 01

  Yes, yes.

• 53:08Speaker 01

  Their service is to people in, you know, on the ground.

• 53:12Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 53:12Speaker 01

  Lawmaking, all of that kind of stuff. And mine is writing fart jokes. So, yeah. No, I love it.

• 53:20Speaker 01

  No, but I do, I do, I do feel like.

• 53:23Keke Palmer?

  I'm calling.

• 53:23Speaker 01

  I do feel like a service and I think that's why I'm so committed to giving underrepresented voices, you know.

• 53:28Keke Palmer?

  Yes.

• 53:28Speaker 01

  Such a platform and all of that stuff. And look, not in that way of like the anti-D-E-I, everybody like, "Oh, I want to hire people just because they're black." It has never been that way.

• 53:37Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 53:37Speaker 01

  I hire people because they're good and because they're black.

• 53:39Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, right. Yeah, for real, yeah.

• 53:42Speaker 01

  Let's be clear.

• 53:42Keke Palmer?

  Because both things can be true. You can be black and you can be good.

• 53:45Speaker 01

  Both things, that'd be true.

• 53:46Keke Palmer?

  You know what I mean?

• 53:47Speaker 01

  We gotta be, how many times is good to get the same? We gotta be twice as good, 10 times as good, 100 times as good, whatever that phrase is. Now, it changes. But, you know, especially in this era where stuff is constricting in Hollywood, I think it's even more important, not only to keep a plethora of people represented, but for black voices, what Ryan Coogler is doing.

• 54:10Keke Palmer?

  It's crazy.

• 54:10Speaker 01

  And, you know, there's so many, obviously Issa and Quinta, all my, all my people. That's, but, but watching what's happening in film and television, but film really, that whimsy that you were talking about earlier, and being able to play in spaces, I mean, obviously, people have talked about it a lot, but that scene in the juke joint in Centers, where all those musical genres.

• 54:35Keke Palmer?

  Chilling.

• 54:36Speaker 01

  I watched it in, I think, 70 millimeter IMAX, I think that's what it was, the first time I saw Centers, because I saw it several times.

• 54:44Keke Palmer?

  Me too.

• 54:45Speaker 01

  And I bawled during that scene. I was just like, "I've never seen us like this." And that the, in 30 seconds, how you can get, I don't know, I was just overwhelmed and I want to create moments like that for people. Whether it's through laughter, through joy, through, you know, drama, whatever it is.

• 55:05Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 55:06Speaker 01

  Creating those moments is so important. I just know what they feel like as a viewer and I'm like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, we need more of that."

• 55:12Keke Palmer?

  Yes, it's like, I feel like that's, to me, the point of art. I, you know, everybody has a different. Reason as to why they, you know, create. And I'm sure it changes, but I think for me, it's probably especially because of the times we're in right now. I want to give relief. I want there to be relief. I want to be, you to feel seen and I want you to feel like you've been given a tone of how to go forward that feels hopeful. Because I feel like it's so lacking now. And so that's like, yeah, I totally get, get what you, do you have a top three favorite movies?

• 55:40Speaker 01

  Coming to America.

• 55:42Keke Palmer?

  Great one.

• 55:42Speaker 01

  Um, Far and Away.

• 55:45Keke Palmer?

  Not Far and Away, who's that with?

• 55:46Speaker 01

  No, no, no, no. It's Far and Away, my favorite.

• 55:50Keke Palmer?

  What is that?

• 55:51Speaker 01

  No, I'm just saying, that is, that is a movie.

• 55:53Keke Palmer?

  Oh, it is, but it ain't your favorite.

• 55:55Speaker 01

  Saying, it's my favorite, like, far and away from anything else, that's my favorite. That is so funny.

• 56:01Keke Palmer?

  Who directed that?

• 56:03Speaker 01

  Far and Away is a movie, I think it's Nicole Kidman about some horses. I don't, that's not my movie. Okay, Coming to America. Boomerang.

• 56:11Keke Palmer?

  Come on, let's give it Eddie, Eddie. Let's give Eddie down.

• 56:15Speaker 01

  When I did a movie with him, I-

• 56:17Keke Palmer?

  What did you do, girl? Because I'm also Eddie.

• 56:18Speaker 01

  Candy cane lane, I did a-

• 56:20Keke Palmer?

  Oh, Candy cane lane, of course, with, um-

• 56:22Speaker 01

  Tracey Ellis Ross.

• 56:23Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, girl, I love Eddie Murphy, doubt.

• 56:26Speaker 01

  I have embarrassed myself in front of that man so many times, being such a stan, and he is so nice, he's so lovely.

• 56:31Keke Palmer?

  So lovely.

• 56:32Speaker 01

  I smeared makeup all over his jacket at the Red Carpet premiere of the movie, he didn't care. I'm a fool, but, but, so Coming to America-

• 56:39Keke Palmer?

  Boomerang.

• 56:40Speaker 01

  Princess Bride, The Princess Bride.

• 56:42Keke Palmer?

  Now, what happened with that one again?

• 56:44Speaker 01

  So, that was a Rob Reiner-

• 56:48Keke Palmer?

  I love Rob Reiner, rest in peace, I really love him.

• 56:50Speaker 01

  Yes, so that one is about, um, there's a, a man and a woman who are separated and they have to come back together and he goes, he gets lost to the dread pirate Roberts and he comes back as a swashbuckling hero and then they have to-

• 57:02Keke Palmer?

  What?

• 57:03Speaker 01

  Save the woman from marrying a horrible Prince Humperdinck. It's quite the movie.

• 57:08Keke Palmer?

  A Humperdinck?

• 57:12Keke Palmer?

  I'm about to watch this. Who are the actors in there?

• 57:15Speaker 01

  Carrie, I don't know.

• 57:16Keke Palmer?

  Keira Knightley.

• 57:17Speaker 01

  No, it's a ma'am. Carrie Yules, I don't know how to say his last name, girl. It's a bunch of Es and W's. Robin Wright Penn. Did you see House of Cards? She played them, okay, cool. It's some white people. White people are in the movie. Billy Crystal's in the movie.

• 57:32Keke Palmer?

  Billy Crystal, I know.

• 57:33Speaker 01

  Billy Crystal's in the movie. Um, but it is, it doesn't matter who's in, Andre the Giant is in the movie. He was alive and dead before you were born. Um, it doesn't matter who's in the movie.

• 57:43Keke Palmer?

  But it was good.

• 57:44Speaker 01

  It's a classic rom-com that has equal comedy and equal romance.

• 57:49Keke Palmer?

  Okay.

• 57:49Speaker 01

  So, and Boomerang, I don't even know if it's one of my top three, but I will say it is, the fashion and the looks.

• 57:57Keke Palmer?

  This is the thing. Boomerang is it now, we, it's almost like Ferris Bueller's Day Off, not in context. Like in what the content is. Yes, and then the fact that it showed you something that is repeated now. To the point where you don't realize how crazy it was for it to happen back then.

• 58:15Speaker 01

  Listen, Reggie Hudlin, who directed Candy cane Lane, brought Eddie Beck. I, I don't know how he did that then.

• 58:20Keke Palmer?

  All black, like the, we're in the marketing. We've got, um, oh my gosh, um, Lady Eloise.

• 58:25Speaker 01

  Girl!

• 58:25Keke Palmer?

  The concept of Lady Eloise.

• 58:27Speaker 01

  Listen, was it Lady, wait, no.

• 58:29Keke Palmer?

  Not Lady, is that Lady Eloise?

• 58:30Speaker 01

  No, it's, um, what was Eartha Kitt's character's name?

• 58:34Keke Palmer?

  Wasn't her company Lady Eloise?

• 58:36Speaker 01

  Oh, yes, it was!

• 58:37Keke Palmer?

  Cause she was like, it was like Estee Lauder, but she was black.

• 58:39Speaker 01

  What, but what was her name? Strajay.

• 58:40Keke Palmer?

  Oh, well, that was the perfume. Strajay was, um, Strajay was, uh, the other girl.

• 58:44Speaker 01

  Oh, right.

• 58:44Keke Palmer?

  It's like that. I mean, they just, it was, they created folklore.

• 58:48Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 58:49Keke Palmer?

  That's what they did. Anyway, we love them.

• 58:51Speaker 01

  Coming to America, Boomerang, The Princess Bride.

• 58:53Keke Palmer?

  Oh, my gosh, so good.

• 58:54Speaker 01

  Yeah. Um. Two black classics and a white classic.

• 58:57Keke Palmer?

  Okay, that's literally, we have diversity.

• 59:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 59:00Keke Palmer?

  We believe, we believe, period. I got a couple of them.

• 59:05Speaker 01

  What are yours?

• 59:06Keke Palmer?

  Okay. I thought you'd never ask.

• 59:08Speaker 01

  Right. Forgive me. I have not been holding up my end of this.

• 59:13Keke Palmer?

  Okay. My number one favorite is, is a very classic black film. It's called The Wood.

• 59:19Speaker 01

  Of course.

• 59:20Keke Palmer?

  You know The Wood.

• 59:20Speaker 01

  Also a rom-com, if some would argue.

• 59:22Keke Palmer?

  Yes. Yes, the fine ass Omar.

• 59:25Speaker 01

  Listen, anyway. Always been fine.

• 59:28Keke Palmer?

  We also have, what's another one of my favorites? Now you've put me on the spot.

• 59:34Speaker 01

  Are you a rom-com girly?

• 59:35Keke Palmer?

  I do love rom-coms.

• 59:36Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 59:37Keke Palmer?

  I do love rom-coms, but do I have?

• 59:40Speaker 01

  There was an ellipsis there.

• 59:41Keke Palmer?

  Brown Sugar.

• 59:42Speaker 01

  Period.

• 59:43Keke Palmer?

  Fabulous. Shout out to Michael Elliott.

• 59:45Speaker 01

  What a gorgeous movie also.

• 59:47Keke Palmer?

  It's so, it's Sanaa Lathan, T. Diggs.

• 59:50Speaker 01

  You don't get any better than that.

• 59:51Keke Palmer?

  The chemistry, most def.

• 59:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 59:54Keke Palmer?

  And then, third, it's gonna have to probably be.

• 59:58Speaker 01

  A white classic.

• 1:00:00Keke Palmer?

  So this is like a random one, but this is one I used to watch all the time as a kid.

• 1:00:03Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:00:04Keke Palmer?

  And it was actually starring the girl that was on, on a, on a, oh my gosh, on Grey's Anatomy for years.

• 1:00:12Speaker 01

  Oh, oh, Katherine Heigl?

• 1:00:13Keke Palmer?

  Yes.

• 1:00:15Speaker 01

  Twenty Seven Dresses?

• 1:00:15Keke Palmer?

  No, it was actually called Wish Upon a Star.

• 1:00:18Speaker 01

  I don't know this movie.

• 1:00:19Keke Palmer?

  Oh baby, it is so classic. So her and her sister are at odds.

• 1:00:26Speaker 01

  Not sisters at odds.

• 1:00:27Keke Palmer?

  Her and her sister are at odds. You know, one is real frumpy, the other one is like, really that girl.

• 1:00:32Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:00:32Keke Palmer?

  One night, they're wishing on a star. But the gag is, you just think the one sister's wishing on a star. But really what happened is, they wished on a star the same night to trade lives.

• 1:00:42Speaker 01

  Oh, it's giving Freaky Friday meets Devil Wears Prada?

• 1:00:44Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, it's like, yeah.

• 1:00:45Speaker 01

  What?

• 1:00:46Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, and so they switch places and they learn that actually, they've actually both always envied each other. And who they had to, the armor that they had to be. And it was, it was just a sweet little movie, Wish Upon a Star. If you know, you know.

• 1:00:59Speaker 01

  Yes, good. Who was the sister?

• 1:01:03Speaker 01

  Never mind.

• 1:01:04Keke Palmer?

  You know the actress, actually.

• 1:01:05Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, our good white sis.

• 1:01:09Keke Palmer?

  Danielle Harris, who we saw again.

• 1:01:11Speaker 01

  Topanga? That's not Topanga.

• 1:01:13Keke Palmer?

  No, Danielle Harris was also, she played a real, you know, goth chick in one of the, um, oh, my gosh, have you ever seen Urban Legend?

• 1:01:23Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:01:24Keke Palmer?

  She was up in there.

• 1:01:25Speaker 01

  OK, OK.

• 1:01:26Keke Palmer?

  That's really a way back one. Urban Legend, come on.

• 1:01:28Speaker 01

  You know what? We need a game show where we don't know the people's names and we have to describe them like old black aunties. You know the girl that had the pink dress? She had the pink dress on.

• 1:01:37Keke Palmer?

  That's like a sketch of Robert E. Ebert. Like if we like were a bad version of it.

• 1:01:41Speaker 01

  Oh, we're doing movie critiques.

• 1:01:42Keke Palmer?

  We're doing movie critiques.

• 1:01:43Speaker 01

  That's a great sketch.

• 1:01:44Keke Palmer?

  That's a really good sketch.

• 1:01:45Speaker 01

  You know, the girl was in it. She was in that shark thing, the shark movie. You know, the shark movie, she was going, girl, Regina King, yes!

• 1:01:52Keke Palmer?

  Exactly, like, girl, what? Like, what? That's crazy.

• 1:01:57Speaker 01

  She was in that movie with the snake, J Lo? Yeah.

• 1:02:01Keke Palmer?

  Yeah. Oh, my gosh, I'm on the floor. Um, you also said, and this is just a quick beat that I want to do because I'm curious of how you feel about dealing with this as well. Fighting for my life in the industry that values AI. You know, when we talk about AI, you know, now we like, it's like, first is AI replacing talent, and then now we see a lot of people licensing their likeness to AI as a form of empowerment or just money. I don't know what they're doing. You know, how are we dealing with, how are you dealing with this new entrance?

• 1:02:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:02:32Keke Palmer?

  You know, because it's, it's happening.

• 1:02:34Speaker 01

  It's happening.

• 1:02:35Keke Palmer?

  You know.

• 1:02:35Speaker 01

  I think, look, if we're talking about replicating

• 1:02:40Speaker 01

  crowd scenes or something like that, I won't get too technical about it, but there's always been some sort of CGI, VFX ways of doing that sort of thing. But AI gets into this place because I have big problems with tech and the data mining that take, this is, I'm about to really, Virgo.

• 1:02:57Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:58Speaker 01

  Strap in for the Virgo.

• 1:02:59Keke Palmer?

  The data mining is scary.

• 1:03:00Speaker 01

  The data mining, but also all of these AI systems are built by people who don't look like us, for the large majority of it, right? So they're using data taken from biased sources because AI starts to be fed by human sources. And so if they don't look like us, our AI is always going to come out looking crazy or, you know. There's no AI software.

• 1:03:22Keke Palmer?

  I've chatted before with AI and I had to get into their ass one time.

• 1:03:25Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:03:26Keke Palmer?

  I said, "This is erasure."

• 1:03:27Speaker 01

  A hundred percent.

• 1:03:28Keke Palmer?

  I said, "This is my language."

• 1:03:30Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:03:30Keke Palmer?

  Just because you don't get it.

• 1:03:32Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:03:32Keke Palmer?

  It don't mean it ain't real.

• 1:03:33Speaker 01

  That's what I'm saying.

• 1:03:34Keke Palmer?

  I had to go back and forth. We got into it. They apologized.

• 1:03:37Speaker 01

  I don't like it.

• 1:03:38Keke Palmer?

  It was tough.

• 1:03:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, I don't like it.

• 1:03:39Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, the biases is real. The dangers of the environment are real.

• 1:03:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:03:45Keke Palmer?

  It's a lot to work through.

• 1:03:46Speaker 01

  Also, it's bad for our water.

• 1:03:47Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:48Speaker 01

  All these, you know, data centers and all this stuff is bad for our clean water. Like, there's, there's so many reasons

• 1:03:54Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:54Speaker 01

  why tech has become the monster that, you know, uh, Joe Morton warned us about in Terminator.

• 1:04:00Keke Palmer?

  Now, who is that?

• 1:04:01Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:04:03Speaker 01

  Before your time.

• 1:04:05Keke Palmer?

  Terminator is good.

• 1:04:06Speaker 01

  Terminator is good.

• 1:04:06Keke Palmer?

  Is that? I'll be back.

• 1:04:08Speaker 01

  Joe Morton played Olivia's dad, Olivia Pope's dad, in Scandal.

• 1:04:11Keke Palmer?

  Okay, but we, are we talking about?

• 1:04:12Speaker 01

  Papa Pope.

• 1:04:13Keke Palmer?

  The mama with them arms?

• 1:04:14Speaker 01

  Hello?

• 1:04:14Keke Palmer?

  Them arms were so good.

• 1:04:15Speaker 01

  Candy Alexander? Baby, don't play with her.

• 1:04:18Keke Palmer?

  So good.

• 1:04:19Speaker 01

  Don't play with her. I love her. I love her. But, but he warned us, back then, the Skynet was gonna take over. All the AI was gonna take over. And like, that's where we are. And I don't mean to sound old and, you know, fuddy duddy about it, but I do think it can be used in ways. I saw this teacher use AI to show her students how they would look in the career that they would want to be. And it was the cutest thing. So they showed, she showed them as an astronaut and the kids cried. They literally could see their future. That's where AI is great, right? Stuff like that is great. But when you, you know, people using AI to tune their photos and stuff and they got six hands in the picture. Look at the hands. It's always the hands. That's where AI can't get it right.

• 1:05:01Keke Palmer?

  How?

• 1:05:01Speaker 01

  Look at the hands. The hands always look crazy.

• 1:05:03Keke Palmer?

  They always make you light skinned, too.

• 1:05:05Speaker 01

  Always.

• 1:05:06Keke Palmer?

  It's like, why did I get brighter?

• 1:05:07Speaker 01

  I don't know, but I don't need any help.

• 1:05:09Keke Palmer?

  It's so crazy.

• 1:05:11Keke Palmer?

  It's true. There's ethical ways and there's not ethical ways. And I really hope that we can get some reins in that make us all feel like, you know,

• 1:05:17Speaker 01

  Like anything else. We need some rules.

• 1:05:19Keke Palmer?

  We need some rules and boundaries. Well, I do want to stop quickly before we get into our game and just talk about relationship goals. Congrats.

• 1:05:25Speaker 01

  Oh, thank you.

• 1:05:26Keke Palmer?

  Yes, Kelly Rowland, yourself, Annie Gonzalez. You play Brenda.

• 1:05:30Speaker 01

  Method Man.

• 1:05:30Keke Palmer?

  Method Man.

• 1:05:31Speaker 01

  Baby.

• 1:05:32Keke Palmer?

  Method Man. Ooh, I can't say too much.

• 1:05:36Keke Palmer?

  But you know.

• 1:05:37Speaker 01

  Oh, they know.

• 1:05:38Keke Palmer?

  You play Brenda, a morning, a morning show host.

• 1:05:41Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:05:41Keke Palmer?

  And, you know, you've been in a relationship for a really long time. You trying to get to that next level. How was it being in the movie? How was it filming? It seemed fun.

• 1:05:47Speaker 01

  It was so fun. It was so fun. Kelly Rowland is a hoot, always. The whole cast is great. Method Man is just, he's so funny and so fun and so game. It was his first romantic comedy.

• 1:05:58Keke Palmer?

  Oh.

• 1:05:58Speaker 01

  Um, and it was a very dramatic role for me. Like, they had me crying in scenes of stuff, girl. I was like, act him. Um, but I'm, I'm excited to stretch and do more than just the sketch characters that people know or whatever, late night stuff. So, it was really, it was such a great experience. Devon Franklin is this amazing producer. Um, you know, Prime Video has an amazing exec over at Amazon, uh, named Amber Raspberry.

• 1:06:22Keke Palmer?

  Amber.

• 1:06:22Speaker 01

  She's amazing.

• 1:06:23Keke Palmer?

  My girl.

• 1:06:23Speaker 01

  She's amazing.

• 1:06:24Keke Palmer?

  I love Amber. We did the pickup. We're getting ready for something else. I very much love Amber Raspberry, yeah.

• 1:06:29Speaker 01

  And then, uh, Linda Mendoza was our director, who used, who started out directing at The Chris Rock Show. So, like, just comedy gods. It was super fun.

• 1:06:36Keke Palmer?

  I love that. I mean, how, how is it getting into a romance bag?

• 1:06:42Speaker 01

  Different for me.

• 1:06:42Keke Palmer?

  I'm scared. Yeah, I'd be scared of the romance bag.

• 1:06:44Speaker 01

  I know.

• 1:06:45Keke Palmer?

  I'm very awkward.

• 1:06:46Speaker 01

  Making out. I haven't ever done a sex scene. Have you ever had to do a sex scene?

• 1:06:50Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, I did like a lightweight one in TLC with Evan Ross, but he was like my, he's been my brother since I was a kid. So, it was like, that was unreal. And then I had one with my girl Haley. Uh, it was a, a female love scene. Also very, say, very fun. We were listening to, "Baby, this is what you came for, just rub it."

• 1:07:11Keke Palmer?

  I felt so safe. I felt so safe. That was a good memory. But yeah, I've just done that.

• 1:07:20Keke Palmer?

  Nothing to, nothing like...

• 1:07:25Speaker 01

  I'm screaming. Um, no, I, so I've never done a sex scene, but even like making out was always for comedic purposes. So I had to, I kinda have to like coach myself. Cause I was like, no, Robin, this is like a dramatic scene and you like really wanna be with this man and don't laugh. You know, so I had to kinda get out of that mode, but, but it was a fun stretch. I wanna do more drama.

• 1:07:45Keke Palmer?

  That was so fun. I mean, it's always fun to shake it up and do something different.

• 1:07:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:07:48Keke Palmer?

  I mean, and speaking of relationship goals, do you have relationship goals? Like what are your top three, top five things or you know?

• 1:07:54Speaker 01

  I have one.

• 1:07:55Keke Palmer?

  Ooh, period.

• 1:07:56Speaker 01

  And it is a Whoopi Goldberg quote. I don't want nobody living in my house.

• 1:08:01Keke Palmer?

  Girl, I feel the same. Why are we the same, girl? Are we in trouble?

• 1:08:07Speaker 01

  No.

• 1:08:07Keke Palmer?

  Cause I, I feel that we are the same and it's just like, I feel the exact same. Cheers, sister.

• 1:08:16Speaker 01

  Listen, I don't want nobody, and I've had somebody in my house.

• 1:08:19Keke Palmer?

  Girl.

• 1:08:20Speaker 01

  And besides Michael Jackson, Thedy, my little mini golden doodle, that's the only man that will ever be there.

• 1:08:25Keke Palmer?

  Okay.

• 1:08:26Speaker 01

  That's how I feel. I heard you saying that you think living in separate houses is probably ideal.

• 1:08:32Keke Palmer?

  I do.

• 1:08:32Speaker 01

  And it was very triggering for me. Because I'mma share a story with you I have never told.

• 1:08:37Keke Palmer?

  Oh my gosh, well, I'm so honored.

• 1:08:39Speaker 01

  A Kiki, baby, this is Keke Palmer. Um, exclusive. I've been proposed to five times. And I've said no five times.

• 1:08:50Keke Palmer?

  By different five mans?

• 1:08:52Speaker 01

  Yes. Now, if the same man was proposing five times, he need to get a clue.

• 1:08:56Keke Palmer?

  Different five mans?

• 1:08:57Speaker 01

  Different five mans.

• 1:08:58Keke Palmer?

  Why would I say that?

• 1:09:01Speaker 01

  It works better that way.

• 1:09:03Keke Palmer?

  That was.

• 1:09:05Speaker 01

  It had you gagged.

• 1:09:06Keke Palmer?

  That's everything, bitch.

• 1:09:07Speaker 01

  By different.

• 1:09:08Keke Palmer?

  You know what I'm saying?

• 1:09:09Speaker 01

  What is it? Because they were all crazy promos. So the first one. He said, "I want to marry you." He had a ring. "I want to marry you. You are the love of my life. There's only one catch." Now, that is not how you propose to somebody. Right. He said, "I want to live in separate houses because I can't really be around you for more than three days at a time."

• 1:09:32Keke Palmer?

  He didn't need that last part, though. He could have just been unavailable for the other two.

• 1:09:38Speaker 01

  He could have said, "I'm busy."

• 1:09:40Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, like, why did he have to tell you?

• 1:09:41Speaker 01

  Why did he have to say that?

• 1:09:42Keke Palmer?

  People got to stop.

• 1:09:43Speaker 01

  So that was a no.

• 1:09:44Keke Palmer?

  Oh, my gosh. Damn, dude. Okay, let's get to two. This is a movie.

• 1:09:50Speaker 01

  Oh, God. Okay, two was, uh... Two was, oh, two was a third date, drunk in Palm Springs. I was not drunk. He was drunk. And he said, "I want to marry you." Stood up on the table, didn't have a ring. But the next day, I was like, "So do you remember what you did?" Because I thought it was...

• 1:10:09Keke Palmer?

  A joke.

• 1:10:10Speaker 01

  Correct. He said, "No, I really want to marry you. Will you marry me?" And I was like, "No." You have an alcohol problem.

• 1:10:16Keke Palmer?

  Like, yeah, dude.

• 1:10:18Speaker 01

  Uh, not that I wouldn't see someone through a problem, but it didn't start off. Um, another one. Picture it.

• 1:10:26Keke Palmer?

  I'm loving this so much.

• 1:10:29Speaker 01

  The Grand Canal, Venice, Italy. Sunset, on a gondola, with the love of your life. The gondolier singing, "Oh, solo mio." He turns to you and says, "I think we should spend the rest of our lives together." You hug him, kiss his neck, and say, "Yes." But right before you can say yes, his phone beeps. He's getting a text. He says, "One second." Turns around. Now, mind you, I'm hugging him from behind so I can see over his shoulder. Opens his text. The last thing he sent before her text is a picture of his dick.

• 1:11:12Keke Palmer?

  I'm about to cuss somebody out.

• 1:11:16Keke Palmer?

  Is this [BLEEP] serious?

• 1:11:21Keke Palmer?

  Robin.

• 1:11:23Keke Palmer?

  And this was our love of our life.

• 1:11:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:11:28Keke Palmer?

  Number four.

• 1:11:32Speaker 01

  I think that was only, was that three? That was three. Four. Uh, four was gonna propose to me on a nationally televised game show and thank God that person who told me it was about to hap- after like six and a half weeks of dating. And so the person, one of his friends stopped it. Uh, as I was walking on to the set. I was like, what's going on? He was like, ah, you probably should know he's about to propose. And I was like, ah, put the brakes on this.

• 1:11:54Keke Palmer?

  Cause you didn't feel the same.

• 1:11:56Speaker 01

  It wasn't that, cause I actually ended up being with them longer.

• 1:11:59Keke Palmer?

  Okay.

• 1:12:00Speaker 01

  But I don't like public attention. And I never really talk about my personal life, which is why this is a Kiki exclusive.

• 1:12:06Keke Palmer?

  Okay.

• 1:12:07Speaker 01

  Um, and five was, uh, five was like, uh, we might as well, do you want this ring? And I was like, no.

• 1:12:16Keke Palmer?

  Cause that's not ecstatic, like.

• 1:12:18Speaker 01

  No.

• 1:12:19Keke Palmer?

  Come on, girl.

• 1:12:20Speaker 01

  Man, I guess.

• 1:12:21Keke Palmer?

  We ain't 80, damn. That's some stuff that happens when you're 80, like.

• 1:12:25Speaker 01

  I don't care if I'm 80, I'm still not gonna be a, we might as well do it.

• 1:12:30Speaker 01

  No matter what Next was talking about.

• 1:12:31Keke Palmer?

  Me me at the altar in your white dress.

• 1:12:34Speaker 01

  Wait, what band was that?

• 1:12:36Keke Palmer?

  That was, you're right.

• 1:12:37Speaker 01

  Was it Next?

• 1:12:37Keke Palmer?

  Oh, no, it was Jagged Edge.

• 1:12:38Speaker 01

  Jagged Edge. I always get the-

• 1:12:40Keke Palmer?

  Girl, I used to get the guy, the one dude from Next mixed up with the dude from-

• 1:12:44Speaker 01

  RL.

• 1:12:45Keke Palmer?

  And, um, mixed up with-

• 1:12:46Speaker 01

  Oh no, RL's Jagged Edge.

• 1:12:47Keke Palmer?

  I, yes, I used to get the mixed, uh, who, who was it? Oh, you know what? I think when I was little, I used to get the dude from Next and Nas mixed up.

• 1:12:56Speaker 01

  Oh no, that makes sense.

• 1:12:57Keke Palmer?

  Cause they kinda look like cousins.

• 1:12:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, I feel like it. I feel like, I feel like I know what you're talking about.

• 1:13:01Keke Palmer?

  But yeah, this is really, really hilarious. I've never been engaged to, and nobody's ever asked me to be.

• 1:13:06Speaker 01

  Ever asked you?

• 1:13:06Keke Palmer?

  No, they just-

• 1:13:07Speaker 01

  Really?

• 1:13:08Keke Palmer?

  Want me to fix they life like my name is Yala. Yeah, yeah.

• 1:13:13Speaker 01

  Now, do they know that they're doing that?

• 1:13:15Keke Palmer?

  No, they don't.

• 1:13:16Speaker 01

  So is it that they expect it?

• 1:13:18Keke Palmer?

  I think they wanna be me.

• 1:13:19Speaker 01

  Is it that they expect it? Or is it that that's what you think you need to do?

• 1:13:23Keke Palmer?

  Well, I think it was both of them.

• 1:13:24Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:13:25Keke Palmer?

  I think it was definitely both of them.

• 1:13:26Speaker 01

  I think the Virgo in me definitely wanted to be a fixer for a long time, and that's bad.

• 1:13:31Keke Palmer?

  And in my whole life, I think that was always like a, a, a, a form of what drove me, where it was just like this idea that everybody needs you. You know? And I think that maybe at one point that not every, not every, not that it was ever true that everybody needed me, but I think that's a form of like having like survival instincts.

• 1:13:49Speaker 01

  Well, you were a breadwinner too, right? So at a young age, and that's hard.

• 1:13:53Keke Palmer?

  Yes.

• 1:13:53Speaker 01

  That's hard.

• 1:13:54Keke Palmer?

  So I think that kinda stays in your mind, and you don't really know that you've accepted that, but you feel like because you have the capacity.

• 1:13:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:14:00Keke Palmer?

  You should offer it.

• 1:14:01Speaker 01

  Well, and you have the resources, right? And so it's like, yeah, how much am I supposed to carry? But then you look up one day and realize you're carrying a hundred percent.

• 1:14:08Keke Palmer?

  Exactly, and then, and then you realize, when you did, cause this is what happens with me is, I'm like, I got the capacity, I got the capacity, and then when I'm tired, you feel like the rug was pulled from under you.

• 1:14:19Speaker 01

  Cause no one's there to pick up the slack.

• 1:14:20Keke Palmer?

  Right, because I be, once I be tired.

• 1:14:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:14:22Keke Palmer?

  Your girl is gone. And, and then it's like, it's now...

• 1:14:25Speaker 01

  And you've tried up until that point.

• 1:14:26Keke Palmer?

  You know what I mean?

• 1:14:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, cause I try up until the end, and then it's just shut off.

• 1:14:31Keke Palmer?

  You know?

• 1:14:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:14:32Keke Palmer?

  It be like that.

• 1:14:33Speaker 01

  What are we gonna do?

• 1:14:34Keke Palmer?

  You know, I, girl, I do think this is definitely true for you. And I do feel that it's true for me sometimes, you know, at least people fall in love with us fast.

• 1:14:43Speaker 01

  They do.

• 1:14:44Keke Palmer?

  They do. We're lovable, we know that to be true.

• 1:14:46Speaker 01

  Well, we're good women.

• 1:14:47Keke Palmer?

  You know what I mean?

• 1:14:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:14:49Keke Palmer?

  So it's kinda like, you know, we'll always have a romantic Venice trip. We might end up seeing they send a dick pic, but, you know, it'll be fun up until that point.

• 1:14:59Speaker 01

  I can't wait till the comments are like, now, Robin, you didn't even ask about the dick pic, maybe it wasn't that bad.

• 1:15:07Speaker 01

  Somebody gonna be like, well, was he cute? Cause he was fine.

• 1:15:10Keke Palmer?

  Girl, I already know.

• 1:15:12Speaker 01

  They all were.

• 1:15:12Keke Palmer?

  The brothers you, I, I, girl, I already know. Isn't that so funny? I do need them to be fine.

• 1:15:19Speaker 01

  I do too.

• 1:15:20Keke Palmer?

  I do.

• 1:15:21Speaker 01

  And I, and it could be like a quirky kinda fine.

• 1:15:24Keke Palmer?

  Okay.

• 1:15:24Speaker 01

  You know, but, but they do, they do need to be.

• 1:15:26Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, I just want some good to look at, you know?

• 1:15:28Speaker 01

  I mean, well, look what they getting to look at.

• 1:15:31Keke Palmer?

  Come on, like, look at the material.

• 1:15:33Speaker 01

  Look at the material.

• 1:15:34Keke Palmer?

  Look at the material.

• 1:15:35Speaker 01

  I love you so much.

• 1:15:36Keke Palmer?

  I love you so much.

• 1:15:41Keke Palmer?

  Robin, that conversation took us from Iowa to late night, from building the first to building something that lasts. You've broken barriers, but more than that, you've built worlds on screen and rooms behind the scenes where Black women don't have to explain who we are, where we get to lead and be fully ourselves. Thank you for betting on yourself. Thank you for betting on us. And thank you for leaving the door open wider than you found it. See you next time on Baby. This is Keke Palmer.

• 1:16:11Speaker 02

  Baby, this is, this is Kiki. Baby, this is Keke Palmer, yeah.