#246 The Many Amazing Stories of Comedian Gina Yashere

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Jeff Dwoskin 0:29

thank you so much for that amazing introduction. You get the show going each and every week and this week was no exception. Welcome, everybody to Episode 246 of classic conversations. As always, I am your host, Jeff Dwoskin. Great to have you back for what's sure to be a hilarious good time with my guest Gina Yashere international comedian originally from London now tours the world making everybody laugh. She's a co creator and now showrunner of Bob hearts abishola Jean has got a million stories to share. And that's coming up in just a few seconds and in these few seconds I just want to remind everyone of last week's interview with gale Anne Hurd executive producer of Fear the Walking Dead The Walking Dead Man killer producer of Terminator Terminator to the abyss. Every movie TV show you love Galen hurt was right there. Check that interview out. It's awesome. But also awesome right now is my conversation with Gina Yashere author of the memoir cack handed she has numerous comedy specials streaming you've loved her on Last Comic Standing The Daily Show with Trevor Noah so much so many stories. You're in for a treat. Enjoy. All right, everyone I'm excited to introduce my next guests loved her on The Daily Show. The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Last Comic Standing the creator of the hit TV show Bob hearts abishola, author of cack handed a memoir named Best Comedian four times in a row by the Black Entertainment and Comedy Awards, originally from London but now it takes a world by storm currently on her the woman King of Comedy Tour. Never want to get stuck in an elevator. Welcome to the show, Gina Yashere. Hey, how's it going, Jeff, how are you?

Gina Yashere 2:22

I'm good. Thank you. Good.

Jeff Dwoskin 2:24

I've been practicing your last name and I've been practicing. Bob, what yards?

Gina Yashere 2:30

It was perfect. I was giving you thumbs up. Did you see me thumbs up in me

Jeff Dwoskin 2:35

and I said it right fast. Sometimes when you start to go quick to answer you start to get some momentum. Things can go wrong. Pretty fast.

Gina Yashere 2:43

It was smooth. It was confident. It felt good. I thought for a second. I almost forgot you weren't Nigerian?

Jeff Dwoskin 2:53

Well, that I'll take that as a top compliment. You're coming to Detroit pretty soon in July.

Gina Yashere 2:58

Oh, yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin 2:59

How is the tour going right now? Woman King of Comedy Tour.

Gina Yashere 3:03

Well, I haven't started the American leg yet. So I did two dates in the UK, which were fantastic. Both sold out within hours. And so the American leg starts next week starts in San Francisco, but I'm coming to Detroit on the 22nd isn't a lot. I'm looking forward to that much because I played a show in the outskirts of Detroit in Farmington before but I've never played Detroit proper. So I'm going to be at the Majestic Theater. So I've never played that. I've heard it's a great venue. And yeah, I need everybody to come out and have a good night with me

Jeff Dwoskin 3:35

when you played in Farmington, Michigan. Yeah, I grew up in Farmington Hills, Michigan, which is right. Kind of probably right. Yeah. I did a

Gina Yashere 3:42

show at a Nigerian restaurant. There's a Nigerian restaurant in Farmington, Michigan. And they brought me out there a few years ago to do a show before I got Bob hearts abishola. So and that was kind of part of the reason why I placed the show in Detroit because I was like, Well, you've got that wonderful history of industry in Detroit. And then I met a bunch of Nigerians there. So I was assuming that there's a good Nigerian community there.

Jeff Dwoskin 4:06

Yeah, I was watching Bob hearts abishola And I was I in the open air when it goes Detroit, Michigan. I always I love when things are set in Detroit. I know you don't film here, but I know you use like Woodward is the name of the hospital. Yeah,

Gina Yashere 4:21

we're not allowed to use the actual names of hospitals. But we do send our camera crew out to get so when we do the green screen in the cars, we make sure that we get proper Detroit landscape when we're driving. So we we do it as best as we can. Yeah, I performed at a cola Restaurant and Lounge. So if you ever want fancy some Nigerian food and get a feel of that flavor of the show, go and check that place out.

Jeff Dwoskin 4:43

I think I will put that on my list of things I must do. Like I was watching. Like he's driving and it's like Detroit. 97.10 Yeah. So when you come to Detroit, then you're gonna get to be able to kind of do the Detroit things.

Gina Yashere 4:59

I want to come Want to take some drives down those street that we've had in our show? And I also watch what's that show with the two gay boys that do the houses bargain bargain block. I'm a massive fan of the TV show bargain block. So I'm definitely going to go around Detroit and look at look for those houses that they've done that but do you ever watch bargain block? Jeff is brilliant.

Jeff Dwoskin 5:21

I haven't watched it. There's, you know, there's so much stuff out there just like what okay, but I'm like, I got places to eat. Now I got shows to watch. This is like the greatest interview ever.

Gina Yashere 5:30

Yeah, it's cool bargain. This gay couple ones that really super talented artists. One's a super talented contractor. And they buy these rundown houses on blocks in Detroit. And they do them up beautifully, just themselves. They kind of move into the house, do it up beautifully paint euros and they dumpster dive for furniture and then they refurbish this furniture and then they sell it to local residents that really good prices. They're not like developers coming in and just overpricing things. They sell it to local Detroit people. It's amazing. Little wants to charge Yeah. All right.

Jeff Dwoskin 6:03

It's analyst it is I'm a fan

Gina Yashere 6:04

of Detroit, Jeff, is what I'm saying. I'm a fan.

Jeff Dwoskin 6:08

I can tell i That's awesome. So I will we'll work back up to the to the sitcom. As I know this so much life story. Gina, I couldn't even begin I was fascinated by your whole origin story and your mom's origin story and your grandma in Nigeria? I mean, that is just wow.

Gina Yashere 6:30

Yes, a small section of my life. So yeah, my parents were born in Nigeria. And I actually reincarnation of my grandmother. So my grandmother was part of a hurry. Because in Nigeria back in the olden days, you know, a man couldn't marry more than one woman. She was one of many wives. She was the second wife and the favored wife of this chief, but the otherwise we're climbing jealous of her. And you know, she had a lot of kids. And she, you know, she used to say to my mother, her daughter, you know when I come back because we've Nigerians believed strongly in reincarnation, she was like, why not come back with a speak English, I'm gonna live in England, I'm not going to have all these kids, I'm going to have no kids, I'm going to do a man's job. I'm gonna do jobs that men are supposed to do. I'm gonna be a rebel. I'm gonna, I'm gonna live a totally different life when I come back. And she died quite young, because she was poisoned by the otherwise. I mean, that is a show in itself. The otherwise poisoned her and she died because they were jealous of that. But when she died, she died with a mark on her throat. And so I'd never met my mom, my grandmother, I was born years after she died. But when I came out, I came out with a birthmark on my foot, which was a sign to my mother that I was a reincarnation of her mother. And I came out basically exhibiting all of the traits that my grandmother had said that she was going to have so totally rebellious. You know, I did men's jobs. You know, I did jobs that was specifically for it. Not even just a comedy. I was an engineer. Before I did comedy. I was an elevator engineer, I build and repair elevators. And I was the first woman engineer that Otis had ever had in their 100 year history in the UK. So I came out basically doing all the things that my grandmother said that she was going to do. So I'm hoping that she's happier with their life this time around. And then my parents met in England and had us I was born and raised in England. Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin 8:12

I mean, you your grandma had 10 Kids and and these other wives before being so jealous that they murdered her like, as well.

Gina Yashere 8:21

A lot of her son. Yeah, all her sons died. Yeah, my mother has brothers, but brothers from the other wives, her full brothers, all of them died under mysterious circumstances. And we believed that the other wives were, you know, so that my grandmother wouldn't have stronger standing within the family. They were basically killing her sons, because it was cutthroat back in those days. I know. It's like the worst of a royal you know, but then again, that stuff was happening in the British royal family in the 1300s. You know, if you look at the brothers in the tower, one king lot, two brothers and a tower, left them there to die so that he could become kicked like so that they wouldn't become king and usurp his power. You know, this stuff has been happening in medieval times. For the longest

Jeff Dwoskin 9:02

Your grandma is murdered, and then you end up in London. Your mom fled right to London. Then she made

Gina Yashere 9:09

mom's and my grandmother sent my mother to London before that she was killed and said there was a big my dad, my granddad to send her to England to get away because my mother, they weren't really into educating girls at those times. And yet my grandfather, because my mother was kind of one of the space favorite child he educated and she was very well educated. And the otherwise we just because that girls weren't getting educated. So yeah, basically, after my grandmother was killed, my grandfather finally saw sent and sent my mother to England to study where she's been ever since. And she met my dad there, and that's where we were all born.

Jeff Dwoskin 9:45

Awesome. So alright, so you grew up in London. I was just in London not too long ago. My daughter spent a semester there at West Minister so we came to visit. Oh, cool. I did the Abbey Road thing.

Gina Yashere 9:57

Oh, yeah, everybody does that.

Jeff Dwoskin 10:01

It's I when we get there, and I'm like, oh my god, this is just like an intersection. This is like, Yeah, nobody cares. It's

Gina Yashere 10:08

a separate crossing. That's all it is. It's just the average zebra crossing.

Jeff Dwoskin 10:13

I mean, the photo is great. But like this, the idea that I could have died and he said,

Gina Yashere 10:19

No, we have to stop as zebra crossing. So the likelihood of you dying is quite low. Okay. It's against the law. If you see someone on a zebra crossing, if you run them over, you are in big trouble. Yes, you have

Jeff Dwoskin 10:31

to stop. Okay. Well, I wish I had known that. Yeah.

Gina Yashere 10:34

So you could have taken much more pictures. I went away way. You got a lot of abuse. But we would have had to wait for it.

Jeff Dwoskin 10:42

Yeah, to slow down a little bit. So how was growing up in London and the path to becoming this in an engineer before you then moved on to comedy for coming to the United States.

Gina Yashere 10:55

I mean, I was a kid in London in the 70s, when large numbers of immigrants were now being invited or coming over from various countries from Africa, from the Caribbean, from India, Pakistan. And I was living in the East End of London, which is a very, it was a very working class area. But unfortunately, the the working class white people were not too happy about all these black and brown people flooding in, or they call it flooding, and we weren't flooding it. We were bringing something to the you know, to the neighborhood, our food, our culture, our work ethic, but you know, the classic divide and conquer system, they turn the working class white people against the working class, black and brown people that are coming in. So I didn't have much of a good time I was I spent my childhood running away from skinheads a lot. But I didn't know any different. That's where I was born. I still had a really fun childhood. I still enjoyed life, despite all that. And yeah, so I'm born and raised in London. And then I studied electronics at school and became an engineer only because I couldn't stand the sight of blood. My mother's first choice for me was to become a doctor. But then I got to a level advanced level biology and we had to cut open a rat. And I was like, oh, yeah, this ain't gonna work for me. I can't stand the sight of blood or squishy bits. So I switched to engineering. So I went from physics and biology, chemistry to physics, maths, and French. Yeah, we call it maths because mathematics is plural. It's not math. It's Matt. So yeah. And I ended up becoming an engineer and ended up working for Otis building elevators,

Jeff Dwoskin 12:25

do you find a lot of comedians are brilliant, like yourself? When did you decide fixing elevators wasn't for you, and comedy was going to be your path in life?

Gina Yashere 12:34

Well, it wasn't a decision, so to speak, because that was the company's first woman engineer that worked on a lot of construction sites, you know, men on construction sites are not the best. And they're certainly not the best when they have a black woman who comes in and they've never had their space invaded. Good. They saw me as an invader. So I put up with a lot of sexism and racism and misogyny on site, I'd come into work in the morning, and I'd put my overalls on, and there'd be banana skins stuffed in my pockets, or a picture of a monkey on the wall. But like, it was pretty gnarly. But I stuck it out. Because I was like, you like driving me out of this job. I'm gonna prove I'm better than you guys. And you're not gonna drive me out. So I stopped the job at four years. But being with the company, because I was their first woman, they didn't know what to do me. So once I qualified to the point where I stood out, because I was studying all the time I was working, I was doing my degree while I was working. And I qualified to the point where I should be able to run my own site. And what I qualified for that they wouldn't let me buy my own site, because they were like, well, yeah, guys aren't gonna listen to a woman boss. So we'll give you the promotion and give you the money, but we're not going to give you the responsibility. And I was like, well, then there's no point me being here anymore. What's the point of working to get to this point, and you're not gonna you know, what's the point of hiring a woman and letting me work my way up the ranks but not letting me do the job. So I left basically, they were making, you know, the building industry went through a slump in the mid 90s. And they were laying people off, they were never going to lay me off. Because I was the poster girl they hadn't on the front of every brochure, look at us look out for things to me. I've got a woman, we got a black woman, look, we got both look at this. But I was like, let me go. Or else. I'll go public with exactly what I've suffered within within the walls of this company. And they were like, Yeah, we're gonna let you go. So I left. And it was in that time that I fell into comedy. My plan was to leave that job, enjoy the summer off because I left in sort of June, and I was like, I'm gonna enjoy the summer and then come October, I'll get another job. Once my I've run out of money. And I just never ended up going back to work. I started doing open mics and and people started going, I'll give you 50 bucks if you come and do my show, and I'll be like, 50 bucks for 10 minutes. I'm gonna be a millionaire by the end of this year. And so basically, I just started doing open mics and within six months of starting, I got booked for talent show that was on television and it just went from there. And I just never ended up going back to engineering. The elevator job was my last job as an engineer,

Jeff Dwoskin 15:09

Gina, it sounds like it was a nightmare, or like with racism and like your color, your sex. I mean, it's just like, Oh my God. Yeah. Glad you persevered and like, show them. And then I have a question. So you know, you mentioned you didn't come out then but Otis is still around now, right?

Gina Yashere 15:27

Oh, yeah. Oh, this is largest elevator and escalator company in the world. So they

Jeff Dwoskin 15:32

heard you talking about it now and said anything. They've said

Gina Yashere 15:35

nothing. They've kept real stone. And I've tagged them in posts where I've talked about what I suffered. Nobody from the company has ever contacted me or try to apologize. They've just gone. Let's just keep quiet. And hopefully she'll go away.

Jeff Dwoskin 15:52

All right. Well, if I'm ever in a building that isn't too tall, I will take the stairs. There are too many.

Gina Yashere 16:02

Yeah, let's do it. Let's let's, let's, let's boycott Otis

Jeff Dwoskin 16:06

is hashtag walk times.

Gina Yashere 16:09

Walk. And you know, everybody will be fixed as a result. I mean, it's pretty. It's a win win situation.

Jeff Dwoskin 16:14

It is really? Yeah. I think we just saw a lot of the world's problems. Yep. So comedy wise, in London, you're blowing up on London, you're on TV. You're winning awards. So you're becoming a superstar in London. That's kind of your first stop.

Gina Yashere 16:33

Yeah, well, in the UK, I was traveling all over the UK and the world because at that point, I was traveling, you know, to places like Hong Kong and Singapore and Australia and Dubai to do shows. So I was doing pretty well in the UK doing the stand up doing guest appearances on TV shows and selling out small theaters. So it was definitely was making a good living doing what I love. I felt like I kind of hit a glass ceiling as a black woman of comedy. You know, there's only so far you can go in the UK, there is a bit of a nightclub policy, when it comes to black comics is like one day in one hour. So when one black comic gets a TV show, the rest of us are like, Alright, we just have to wait for them to die. And that's basically how it was. So even though I was making guest appearances on other people's TV shows, I was never going to get my own TV show, because there was a black comic ahead of me who had TV. So I knew I was never going to hit that. Whereas a million white comments are getting their TV shows and blowing up like comedians who are opening up for me at some point then surpass me and went on to be selling out stadiums. And while I was still waiting for this one black comic to die, so it got to a point where I was like, I need to get the hell out of here. As a kid, I'd always dreamed of living in America, because I used to watch different strokes in the Cosby Show. And I was like, wow, these kids live. The greatest life American kids have a great life. They get to go to the beach after school, and ride around their neighborhoods on bikes, solving crimes. So I was like, I need to go to America. So from childhood, I always wanted to live in America. Even when I worked as an engineer, Otis is an American company. And that was a conscious decision to work for an American company. Because my plan was to at some point, transfer and become an engineer in America and live my dream as an engineer in America. So when I started doing comedy, then I was like, well, comedy in America is the home that comedy. So you know, even in the first few years of my UK career, every year, I'd fly out to New York and just go up comedy clubs and just do sets for free just to see if my stuff would travel. So it felt like I'd been planning to come to America since the age of four. So once I got to a point where I was like, Alright, I'm not gonna reach the heights that I want to in England. Let me go to America and swim with the sharks.

Jeff Dwoskin 18:44

Alright, and just just to kind of confirm your suspicions. I did solve many crimes as a child on my bike,

Gina Yashere 18:52

telling you, man. I don't doubt it. I don't doubt it. I bet she caught a bunch of burglars.

Jeff Dwoskin 19:03

Oh, yeah, we won't stop the bank robbery. It was pretty well known. Sorry to interrupt, but we have to take a quick break. I do want to thank everyone for their support of the sponsors. When you support the sponsors. You're supporting us here at Classic conversations. And that's how we keep the lights on. And now back to my incredible conversation with Gina Yasha. re so you're on TV in London, you're doing all this when you travel the world even that then or now or when you came to America and we do these sets in New York? How did the comedy translate?

Gina Yashere 19:33

Yeah, I never change myself. I obviously I adapted my comedy for the audience I was playing. So if I'm playing in New York, I was always I play I've always played it as an outsider. So if I go to a different place, yet the majority of my stuff is storytelling anyway. It's about myself on my culture, my life and who I am, which doesn't change but then when I go to a new place, I like to wander around and observe things and pick up if it's in a foreign country, I pick up bits of the languaging Pick up the local curse words and incorporate that into my act. So they know that I'm actually catering and not just doing a paste of my set. Wherever I am in the world, I like to actually incorporate local stuff into my act. And when I go to America, I used to talk about the fact that I'm a black British person, and observing, especially black British culture, observing black American culture, as an outsider looking in. So I did a lot of material based on that and explaining who I am. Because when I was getting to America, people didn't know there were black people in England, so I'd have to explain. Yep, I look like you guys. But I'm not from here. We are black people. We are in England, we are all over the world. And I'd have to spend time explaining so I'd write jokes to explain that rather than do a, you know, TSA before I walked on stage I incorporate into my act and it went down very well. I was different. I was exotic.

Jeff Dwoskin 20:51

way my way my way. Back up for one time there's black people in Britain.

Gina Yashere 20:57

You know, now it was hell, but has changed the game

Jeff Dwoskin 21:04

was Last Comic Standing the first big bridge to America.

Gina Yashere 21:07

Yeah, so I've been coming over the gays just testing my stuff out. The year before Last Comic Standing, I'd entered myself into a competition called the Bay Area comedy competition. And it was a urban comedy competition. A lot of black comics from all over America flew to Oakland to compete. And I thought, You know what, I'm gonna fly myself back to America just compete. I mean, the prize money was like, I remember the prize money being $2,000, which was less than what I paid for the flight. So for me, it was very much an experiment just to see how I would do in fact, this crowd, so that was the year before Last Comic Standing. So I've always been planning to somehow get to America. But it's very difficult to get a visa to work in America very difficult. So I didn't know how I was going to do it. But I was hoping at some point, the opportunity will present itself. And then I was doing the Montreal Comedy Festival Just For Laughs that same year that I flew myself out competition, and a comedian came up on stage, her name was Roz G. Rip, God rested. So she's died. Now, she came up on stage. And they announced her as, as seen on the Last Comic Standing. And I was like, what is that? And I Googled it. I was like, oh, it's kind of like an American Idol. But the comedians, and at the time, it was very much an American centric show, as it was just American comics within America. So I immediately called my agent in London from one QR code rap. And I said, Listen, this is TV show in America. Last Comic Standing, I want to become the first redish comic to appear on that show. I want to be on that show. I don't care if they've ever they pay me on that I'll fly myself over. I'll pay for my own hotels. They don't have to pay for anything. I will just fly myself over there so I can compete, and hopefully get into America that way. Well, the universe luck will have it that a producer from Last Comic Standing Paige Hurwitz had been in London six months before and had gone to the Comedy Store in London and had seen me perform and had gone back to America and said, there's this British comic I saw Virginia actually, I think she's hilarious. She needs to be on this show. In fact, let's open up last last comic, standing worldwide and have comedians from all over the world compete for as I was phoning my agent to say, get me on the show. Last Comic Standing, we're already looking internationally. Later on that year, I was on tour in Australia, and I auditioned for the show in Australia. So that's why the first couple years I was in America, people assume that I was Australian, because they'd see me on the show or audition in Sydney, Australia for the show. And that's why I got on the show. When I got through. So audition, I got through to the semi finals, which has been shot in Los Angeles, in order to come over from England to Los Angeles to compete. They had to get me a work visa, and they got me a visa. And I was like what oh, I assume they were just gonna get me a visa for the four weeks that I was going to be on the show. And when I looked at the visa, I was like, this visa is for two years. So I called up the NBC lawyers. And I was like, let me just double check something. This place is like two years. So does that mean I can live and work in America for two years, regardless of how far I get on this TV show? And they were like, yes, a two year visa bought and paid for. So I then put my house on the market in England sold and gave away everything I owned through a massive party for all my friends and family and was like, I'm moving to America. Goodbye. And everybody's like, You're crazy. Suddenly a two year visa, you're gonna have to come back. And I was like, Nah, I'm gonna turn that visa into a green card and then into citizenship at some point. I ain't coming back. Goodbye. And I left. It turned up in Los Angeles for the semi final of Last Comic Standing with two suitcases to my name, thinking oh, I'll be fine. I'm gonna win this show or win that port of a million. I'll use that quarter of a million by myself and now Nice little condo in LA and then move on to TV stardom. It's a done deal. And I got voted off the following week. But I still had that two year visa. So I basically spent the next couple of years just working hard hitting all the comedy clubs I could and just hustling and turn that two year work visa into a green card.

Jeff Dwoskin 25:19

Gina, are you just you have a history of seeing opportunity and just going all in? It's very inspirational.

Gina Yashere 25:25

I'm very gung ho.

Jeff Dwoskin 25:28

So you said you were the first British comedian on Last Comic Standing, but

Gina Yashere 25:33

I wasn't because they I wanted to be the first and only but because they'd already decided to go international. A bunch of us British comics came out and competed. Yeah,

Jeff Dwoskin 25:42

but because of you. We weren't because they had seen you. So indirectly, whether you you didn't know at the time and you're calling your agent. That's, that's a great idea. You inspired that whole concept, which was next to we're going for.

Gina Yashere 25:56

That's true. Yeah. I didn't even think about it that way. Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin 26:00

Amazing. That was so that's season five. Right. So John reap won that year. That's the year that brought us Amy Schumer. Ralph. Yes. Yes. Benson was there Dante was there with you. Okay, yes. Oh, and Lavell Crawford? Oh, yeah, we had an amazing turn and Breaking Bad.

Gina Yashere 26:20

If I'm gonna be 100% Honest, Lavelle should have won the show. I'm not gonna disagree with Yeah, you should have won the shot. In fact, he because it was it was between him and John Wick right. To me, John Wick was like a Let me see 20 Forever 21 version of Larry, the cable guy at the time was that he was in that vein, he was fine. But he was nothing new. The valve should have won. But you know, basically after the final after he'd won the valve came back down the corridor singing America, man.

Jeff Dwoskin 26:52

Eight sometimes it's not about taking first place, right? I mean, you won you were there you were probably one of the biggest winners because look what you turn that into?

Gina Yashere 27:00

Oh, well, it took a long time. After that. I struggled for a long time after Last Comic Standing to get you know, I thought well, now I bet on this show. Surely that's gonna turn into many opportunities. And it did not. I spent a few years hustling and struggling after Last Comic Standing. But I had to work things. I was able to live and work in America. So that was the one thing that last comic gave me is a foothold into America.

Jeff Dwoskin 27:25

Were you ever one of the first Brits on Last Comic Standing to the first on Def Comedy Jam,

Gina Yashere 27:31

the first and only British comedian ever to do Def Comedy Jam? Yes, indeed.

Jeff Dwoskin 27:36

Tell me that story how you got on that.

Gina Yashere 27:38

That was also another opportunity that just presented itself in the moment. So there's a promoter call nitch shell Murdoch, wonderful promoter who's been doing a show in the belly room of the Comedy Store for years and she's very supportive of young comedians coming up. And comedians like myself coming from different places. It always puts us up and lets us perform. They were doing an audition for Last Comic Standing at her night, which is called cracking up Thursdays. They will auditioning comedians for Last Comic Standing. I was not part of that process. I'd literally just moved to America at that point. I'd just been booted off of Last Comic Standing and I was just going around the comedy clubs just seeing seeing what was what I couldn't get on at these comedy clubs. I used to just sit you know, because they didn't know who I was. Even though I was a famous comedian from England. They're like we don't know who the hell you are. Don't know we're not going to book you. So I said just sit at the back of comedy clubs, hoping for somebody to late so for comedian was late. I'd go well, while you're waiting for them. I can go up and do five minutes up until they get here. And that's how I got on at comedy clubs when I first moved out here, but I was sitting in the belly room watching this audition happen. I didn't know an audition was happening. I was just watching comedians go up. And Damon Wayans Jr, who's the son of Damon Wayans? Who's quite a famous actor in his own right and comedian in his own way, went up on stage and absolutely destroyed the place, killed, absolutely killed. And the comedian who was meant to be going after him didn't want to go up. Didn't want to follow in his way. So they were like, well, who wants to go on up? Who wants to go up after Damon? And lot of comedians like Yeah, and I was just sitting there. So I was like, I'll go up. Because I didn't care at this point. I'm like, I'm already a well known comedian. I know that I can follow anybody. I'm confident in my abilities. So I was like, Oh, God, they were set until you guys decide who's gonna go up. So they were like, fine, and they threw me up and I did my thing. And I killed also. And then the next day, I get a call from a producer saying hi, we saw you at the Comedy Store in the belly room at crack Mark Thursdays and we'd like to book you for Def Comedy Jam and I was like, Cool, how much you pay in curse. I've been booted off Last Comic Standing. And I you know, I just went in the room of somebody and I needed money. I was basically living off my savings from the UK. And I was like, alright, yeah, let's go. So yeah, I became the first and only Brit to do Def Comedy Jam.

Jeff Dwoskin 29:58

They are again season Yeah portunity Yep, indeed amazing. It's amazing how many people just kind of just sit there and in winter have done it. And then you kind of think, oh, what could have been right? Exactly. How did you come to a working with Jay Leno on The Tonight Show as Madame Yahshua ray.

Gina Yashere 30:16

So when Jay Leno, when he entities run out the Tonight Show, he got another show afterwards, which was another Tonight Show, basically, which was on after the Tonight Show. So Conan O'Brien took over hosting the Tonight Show. And then Jay Leno had a show after that called the Jay Leno Show, which was essentially the same show. And so they were looking to try and differentiate the show from the Tonight Show. So they were out looking for new talent to do sketches or do something on the show to make it look a bit different. So they'd seen me performing around town taking late comedian spots, and they basically invited me to come in and pitch ideas to perform on the Jay Leno Show. So I wrote up a list of fantastic ideas that I came up with the sketches that I could do on the show. And on the drive there at a traffic light. I came up with another idea. I was like, Oh, I used to do a routine about fake psychics on how they like your name. You know you I see a man coming through his name is John James. Michael. He's name begins with A, B, C, D. So I used to do this whole routine about thanks, psychic. So I traffic like on the way to the meeting, I scribbled down fake psychic, just one night at the bottom of all these beautifully fleshed out ideas that I'd spent hours creating get to the meeting with the producers that worked on Jay Leno Show. And I pitched all these ideas, one after the other. And one after the other. They were like now, now No, until my last idea that I fleshed out. And they turned down every single idea. And I was like, oh my god, well, this is a complete failure. And they were like, Have you got anything else? There's nothing else and I was like, No. And then I looked at the scribble at the bottom of the page. And I was like, well, there was this idea about maybe me playing a fake psychic. And the eyes opened and there is picked up. Now I had nothing written down. All I had was fake psychic that scribbled down at a traffic light. But they were like, well tell us more. And I just started winging it that just like yeah, just the fake psychic. And she we put her in a booth and members of the public won't know that she's a fake psychic. And they come in and I give them fake readings. And it's gonna be like a candid camera type thing. And they were like, we love it. Because they had a thing that they used to do on The Tonight Show called Photo booth where they put a photo booth on Santa Monica Boulevard. And people would come in thinking they're taking a photo and then they'd have a comedian doing the voice to saying your hair looks ridiculous take off their stupid, whatever that so for them, it was like, Oh, it'll be like photo proof, which we know works very well. But now we're doing fake psychic instead. So yeah, They latched on to that idea that scribbling and that's how I became the surly psychic on the Jay Leno Show.

Jeff Dwoskin 33:08

It's amazing. Curious Altana vedge?

Gina Yashere 33:10

Yes, killer soltana, which was Yeah, did the voice of potable Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin 33:14

That's an amazing story, though. I mean, sometimes Oh, that's, I mean, that's kind of like when you're coming up with material, right? Probably some of the first things you think of, you know, get them out of the way and then made room in your brain for fake psychic. But sometimes you can overthink these things. It makes sense. Oh, that's so cool. That's a great, that's a great origin. So everything everything about you has a great story attached. Probably why you wrote a book, right?

Gina Yashere 33:41

Well, there you go. And I stopped the book at the point where I get on the plane to America. So all the stories that I'm telling you right now, those are going to be probably in the second book, the struggle in America and how you know and the stories that Jay Leno story that the how I got Bob hearts abishola These will be the second book. The first book literally just covers is a memoir called cack handed available in all good bookstores by the way, go get it. But yeah, it covers my upbringing. Up until the point I guess I stepped on the plane. So there's so many more stories that I haven't even told you

Jeff Dwoskin 34:13

and cack handed means left handed clumsy candidate. I'm left handed Yes, we got that in common boom, yay. That's handed people rule the world. So

Gina Yashere 34:22

we do. Like if you look up some of the top people in the planet we are left handed. Whoopi Goldberg left hand what but dinner was left handed. Like there's a lot of talented people that are left handed. I say it's all good. It also means awkward and clumsy. But I believe that we are perceived as awkward and clumsy because 90% of the world is right handed the majors the world is made for them.

Jeff Dwoskin 34:42

That's right. That's left handed people about Obama. Oh brah Paul McCartney handed Lady Gaga exactly bomb. Exactly. Our famous lefties. We got to start a club. Alright, so this is again another amazing story. So Chuck Lorre, He is on the Google. Right and comes across you as he's developing or has this idea for a show?

Gina Yashere 35:08

Yeah, it wasn't even that family on Google. So basically what happened? Chuck had approached Eddie Gorodetsky. And our Hagen's, who are the two co exec producers that word and show runners that worked with them long, long for a long time? Because I want to make a show, Billy got down. Again, I don't but I don't want to do another micro Molly. You know, I just came back from vacation in Africa. And I think I want the woman to not be another Melissa McCarthy. Let's make her African. What do you think? And the guy's like, Alright, we'll see if we can make it happen. Chuck goes away. And then a few weeks later, he comes back, he's like, is never going to happen. Where are we going to find an African female comedian, and help us make the sitcom it's never going to do that even exists. Now. In the meantime, alimenti had been a typed into Google, Nigerian female comedian, because when you google Africa, Nigeria is the loudest of all the countries, we come up first. So then they narrowed it down from an African into a Nigerian comedian. And they typed into Google, Nigerian female comedian, a few of us came up as a few of us, but obviously, the best obviously, they found a set of mine that I've done on TV in England, where I was doing my material, and I was talking about my upbringing and my culture. And my mother was in the audience. And I pointed to my mom with my mom stamps, my mom stands up and full Nigerian regalia. And the crowd goes nuts. So they found this set of mine, and they were like, well, this girl was promising. And they'd had it on the laptop and pause for days. So then chuck comes back in and then they go scrap that idea. We're never gonna find a Nigerian female comedian. Maybe we'll make her something else. And then Elena, they were like, Well, what about this woman? And then they just turn the laptop round to face Chuck, press play, Chuck, what's my watch? Is my set, laughs and goes, where is this woman get her out of the blue. In the summer of 2018. I get a call. I'm living happily in New York pursuing my standup living life. Because I've moved to New York by this point. Because after seven years in LA, making no money, I was like, I need to go to New York where I can actually make a living, doing stand up. So I'd been in New York at for five years at this point. And I get a call out of the blue from my agent saying, You gotta fly to Los Angeles on Sunday night for a meeting on Monday morning with Chuck Lorre. So I get flown over from meeting and I walk into the to, you know, into his office, Allen idea there. And basically, Chuck says, I've got this idea for show there's nothing on paper, it's not fleshed out, you know, this is what I want to do. Can you help us? We're three white guys, we can't do this. We need you to help us, you know, do this properly. I'm obviously suspicious. And at the end of the meeting, I go, thanks for that. Lovely, and I leave the meeting. And then I call my agent and go now this don't sound like tell them. Thank you. But no, thank you. But I've got no interest in this. This just sounds weirdly exploitive. And I don't trust I don't trust. I've been ripped off by too many white guys in this industry. Have my ideas stolen and done with other people? I don't trust this. No thanks. And my issue was like, I'll give you a day to think about it.

Jeff Dwoskin 38:13

Sorry to interrupt, just as we are about to learn the fate of Bob hearts. abishola. But we have to take a quick break. And we're back to find out what happened. And in

Gina Yashere 38:23

the meantime, I told my brother, my best friend about this meeting, they called up to find out how it had gone. And I was like, Yeah, I'm not doing it. Yeah. My brother and best friend just screamed at me for two hours. Like, are you an idiot? This is an opportunity for you to make a show. You're always complaining about the opportunities not being there for you as a black woman in this industry. And here's a guy handing me a key to the door into the industry. And you're turning it down, you idiot. And I was like, yeah, maybe you're right. So I went back and had another meeting with the guys. And I decided to stay and write this pilot with them. And so this Monday meeting turned into two and a half weeks of me in a room with Chuck Allen Eddie, writing a pilot. So I you know, I created the characters of the family. I picked the names I picked where they're from in Nigeria, and basically took elements from a story. And here's the thing again, this is why I was so suspicious. Because the year before, I've been pitching a show based on my family and based on my life, which is now in the memoir, which is the memoir, basically. And I was pitching that show the year before and I pitched it to every network, every streamer, and nobody wanted it. Nobody. And then a year later, I get a call. So I was suspicious. I was like nobody wants my show. But suddenly this white guy wants to make a show, which is basically going to be using many elements from the show that I was pitching that nobody wanted but okay, fine. And I didn't trust it. But I once I got in the room with Chuck Allen Eddie, I started to trust the process. I was like, Well, I've got all these ideas that are in my pitch that I did last year that nobody wanted. I could bring these ideas and enjoy them into this show, which is more likely to get made because it's Chuck Lorre, I tussled with that. And I struggled with the idea for a day or two thinking, Should I take my ideas and give it to these guys and hope they don't steal it, and lock me up process because then my show is dead. And they go forward with all my ideas, and I'm done. But once I've gotten away with Chuck, I thought this guy is no nonsense is no bull, I'm going to trust Him. And so basically, I began using the stories for my own life, which were in my original pitch. So if you know abishola story, that is the story of my parents, you know, my parents met in England, my mother was a qualified head teacher, dad was a lawyer, they met in England, but at the time, England in the 60s was super racist, black people could only drive buses, or work in the post office. And so my dad was like, Well, I'm a lawyer, you're a head teacher, let's go back to Nigeria. So we can work in our respective fields. And my mother was like, No, my children are British, they're born here, I'm gonna stay here and sacrifice my career so that my children can have all the opportunities that will be available, available to them being born British, and my dad was like, Okay, then. And then he went back to Nigeria. And him and my mother, that was the end of their marriage. And my dad went back to Nigeria, became a lawyer in Nigeria and lived out his best life had a whole other family. And my mother stayed in in England, and struggled to raise us on her own. That is the story of abishola. If you know the story, if you know, the show, Bob hearts abishola that established on a story where her husband goes back to America become an architect, and she stays behind and is left raising delay on her own. So basically, I took many, many elements from my life, and from the pitch that I'd been trying to sell a year earlier, and injected them into this show, I put all my chips on the table and push them in and was like, Alright, let's do it. And luckily, Chuck is an honorable man. And we made this show, you may be a co creator. And now season four. I'm a show runner. And yeah, it's been a very successful runner. And I'm very excited. I'm very happy that you know, it's annoying that it took a white, wealthy, well connected man to get my show made. But I'm grateful to him, because if he hadn't opened that door for you didn't have to, he could have just got to I can make the show. I don't need a black person to help me make it. I could do it. I'm Chuck Lorre, I can do this. But at least he had the foresight to go, you know what, let me bring in someone from the culture. And that is now open doors, not only for myself, but I was able to open doors for other black writers, but for actors who are now working on the show who might have struggled to get in the industry door. So Chuck has opened the door for a whole new wealth of talent.

Jeff Dwoskin 42:38

Well, God bless check. And God bless you. That's a great story two, oh, man. Wow, see? So this part two of the second books can be just as good as the first one. Oh, yeah. What made you guys come up with the idea that this, Billy, the main guy, Billy, Bob, Billy Gardez character as a sock manufacturer. Just seems.

Gina Yashere 43:03

So we obviously base the show in Detroit, and that whole industry, the industrial history of Detroit, but we didn't want to just go, we wanted to do something different and fun, and make it a business that nobody ever thinks about tonight. I mean, nobody fix when they put on socks, where do they come from? So we went through a bunch of different ideas. You know, the office did a paper, you know what I mean? We're like, let's bring to the company, a business that is overlooked a lot, that nobody would even think about delving deeper into the machinations of this business. So that's where we came up with the compression socks.

Jeff Dwoskin 43:41

I mean, it's it's important. He's it's funny. I owe the Daily Show. We were British correspondent for The Daily Show. I was Yeah. Did you know my caster? Do you ever there?

Gina Yashere 43:54

I was on The Daily Show before Mike came on. But I think I think I was Yeah, I don't think he was one of the columns. But But I knew him before because I when I first moved to LA, I used to see him on the circuit doing stand up. So I knew him before.

Jeff Dwoskin 44:08

Okay, he's from Michigan. He's, I used to do open mics with him.

Gina Yashere 44:13

Oh, wow. Yeah. So I used to see him around there like so I knew him before became a correspondent. And that is also another interesting story, because I never auditioned for it, because I never thought my face fit for Comedy Central. You know, I tried to get specials on Comedy Central over the years and being turned down. It was mainly because they didn't think my I fit their demographic. So basically, I wasn't hot enough or young enough or pretty enough to put the Comedy Central's demographic so I never when they were looking for correspondents to audition for the show, I never did audition. I was like now they're never going to book me. I don't fit their demographics. I'm not going to Bumble waste my time. But what it was I known Trevor Noah before us before when he first came to America, Gabriel Ecclesias had a show called I think it was called Stand Up Revolution. or something like that. So here's what I did this TV show. Gabriel glaziers had seen me on a show when I opened for Katt Williams and Kat and got into a fight with a member of the audience and this was at the Improv in, I'm gonna say Orange County's Ontario get improv Ontario cat had got into a altercation with a member of the audience on the Friday nights on the Saturday night, the comedy club decided that they weren't going to allow him back in the building and the show was sold out. So they were like, Gina, can you go out and do 45 minutes and we'll get other famous comedians to come in and do sets to fill the time. So I went up and did a set Gabriel was on that night and a few other famous comedians came in to do sets that night. And Gabriel had seen me there. So when he got his TV show Stand Up Revolution, he booked me to do a set on this show. So I did the set. And Trevor Noah was on the show, I'd never seen this guy before he he basically come over and he was touring with Gabriel, you know, while he worked his way into the American market, he went out and absolutely destroyed. So I saw him afterwards. And I was like, Oh my God, you're really funny, right? And I and in my head. I'm like, Who the hell is this kid. And then I went home and Googled him and I was like, Oh my God, he's a superstar in South Africa. You know, he was already driving Ferraris, and a multimillionaire before he even set foot on American soil. He was already a superstar. That's why this kid is so good. He's a superstar in South Africa. And then I kept bumping into all over the world. Because I'm an international comedian. I go do shows in Australia, and it shows in Singapore, and I kept bumping into him, I'd be doing my little shows in Australia, and he'd be selling out an arena down the street. After my shows, I'd go to his arena and stand outside handing out flower fliers for my show going, well, if you like, Trevor, you might like me. And that's what I would do. I'd just follow his big shows around and stand outside flying, he shoves and get trying to get his audience to come and see me. And then I'd go in and hang out with him and stuff. So I'd kept I kept bumping into him all over the world under that guise. And then he moved to New York. I was in New York at the same time, and we'd sit at the comedy cellar in New York, and we chat and talk about the difficulties of being a foreign comedian and trying to do it in this market. And so when he got the Daily Show, I was happy for him. I texted him, I was like, congratulations. And then maybe a year into him being on a daily show. I get a text from him going, Hey, I'd love for you to come in and meet us. I'd like you to do some stuff on the show. So Comedy Central never booked me. The Daily Show never booked me. Trevor just texted me and goes, come on in. I you know, I like what you do. Let's get you doing some stuff. And that's how I became the British correspondent. I mean, I didn't do that many appearances on the show, because somebody behind the scenes was caught blocking me because they hadn't booked me even though I was doing stuff on the show and doing really well. They just weren't given me the many opportunities on the show. So eventually I was like, Thanks for the opportunity to ever but you know, i In the end I just stopped pitching because they just kept turning down my pitches. And then Bob hearts abishola came along and then I never looked back.

Jeff Dwoskin 48:01

You are you reincarnated grandma so the jealousy was bound to slip in accident. Gina, this has been amazing. I can't thank you so much for sharing all these amazing stories. Do you want to bug your your website and your socials and yes,

Gina Yashere 48:17

no, my website is Ginayashere.com. Keep it simple Jeannie ashaway.com no dots, no dashes boom my socials are exactly the same on Instagram. I'm actually in the Ashaway no dots, no dashes just type my name in and I'll come up same on Twitter. Same on Facebook. Obviously I'm doing the show in Detroit. Please come out. I'm so looking forward to the show. And that's gonna be July 22. At the majestic Come on out, book your tickets and buy my book. I've got a book called Cat candy. It's a good book, even if I say so myself. There was some stories in it and they're funny stories and they're interesting. And yeah, available on Amazon and AWS. So but yeah, come out Detroit. Come and see me. Let's Hi

Jeff Dwoskin 48:59

hanging out with Gina in Detroit get Gina's book. There's multiple comedy specials on Amazon Prime and some on Netflix. So all the Gina you want in your life is available at your fingertips. Gina thank you so much for Hey, thank you.

Gina Yashere 49:16

Thank you, Jeff.

Jeff Dwoskin 49:18

All right. How amazing was Gina Yashere a had such a great time talking to Jean at so many stories. Every one of her stories has a story amazing incredible, get her memoir cack handed, check out our comedy specials go to Ginayashere.com For links to shows in your area Detroit July 22 Majestic but she's touring all over so check all those out all there I'll put everything in the show notes for you so you can have all the gene Ayyash array at your fingertips to enjoy. Check out Bob hearts abishola So much well with the interview over I know it can only mean one thing. This episode has come to a close I can't believe it. It just lives by. Thanks again to my amazing guest Jeanne ashtray. And of course, thanks to all of you for coming back week after week. It means the world to me, and I'll see you next time.

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