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Recently, a North Carolina gubernatorial candidate was accused of saying a lot of wild things in the comments section on a pornography site. To which comedian Roy Wood Jr.’s only reaction is — “Who leaves comments on a porn site?”
Wood will bring more such insights on current affairs to the Stanford Live stage in his hour-long performance on Oct. 3.
“I’m looking for the thing no one is saying about the thing everyone is talking about,” said Wood, about his brand of comedy. Entertainment Weekly dubs it “charismatic crankiness,” and Wood approves of the description. “I try to find the weird angle on the thing that people are already talking about.”
Usually, he gleans his material from the news. If he were to analogize his work to that of a chef, then newspapers and television would be his “grocery shopping.” With the upcoming presidential election then, his cart is probably inundated with all manner of fresh produce.
For his Oct. 3 appearance at Stanford Live, though, local news and events will inform his script. “I’ll peruse the local paper,” he said. “Also, for a college show, something that’s very important is campus life and what the students are going through. I’m hoping to put that into words to a degree if I can.”
Understanding the ideology of the people he’s performing for forms a large part of Wood’s research. “Definitely, as a comedian you’re doing a disservice to your audience if you aren’t trying to connect with them on issues that matter to them,” he said. “Because if you do that it gives you the freedom to then share with them the issues that matter to you. It’s kind of a trade-off.”
The material really starts to crystallize closer to the day of the performance. “You can’t really plan more than a week out,” Wood said. This was something he said he learnt specifically while working on the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which he headlined last spring. “You just don’t know what the issues are going to be or which way the wind is going to be blowing.”
Speaking of which, it can be hard to ascertain which topics the audience is likely to take offense at. How does Wood assess the risk involved?
His process is straightforward. “If I’m not adding a new perspective to the topic, I generally don’t discuss it. I’m not going to say something rude for the sake of saying something rude. But we all have opinions, we’re all trying to make a point; we’re entitled to that,” he said. To him, the question of “how far is too far” is akin to asking someone whether a dish is too salty or too sweet. “It’s all perspective — I’m going to season something to the effect of how I would like for it to taste, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to pass someone else’s test.”
In general, Wood has never shied away from bringing up serious issues like race or politics in his comedy. He understands that some people might be sensitive to certain topics, but is clear about retaining control over his material despite that.
“There’s definitely people who don’t want to hear about certain things. You have to make sure you’re not just pissing people off for the sake of pissing people off, but you’re never going to be completely in the clear if you’re joking about things where there is pain. Once you add pain to the equation, for some people it’s never going to be funny …” he said. “I ran into that issue in talking about race in the past; there are a lot of comedians who choose to talk about abortion rights or war — that too for a lot of people is a no-fly zone, but you cannot let the public dictate that because every show is a different audience.”
To him, the hardest part of being a comedian is in fact negotiating boundary lines that are always in flux because people are fickle. “An issue that people weren’t sensitive about at one second, now all of a sudden they are sensitive about,” he said. “So how to remain emotionally in tune with how people are processing information is probably the toughest thing … the line of what is acceptable, what is decent within our culture, often changes. I feel like it is my job as a responsible comedian to know where that line is and constantly make adjustments so that I am not crossing it.”
There’s no denying these are trying times. While it might appear as though people have lost the ability to laugh at themselves, Wood feels there’s more to it. “There are just more ways to complain,” he said, referencing the myriad avenues people have to express their angst, especially on social media. “Because people are more vocal, it seems like people are more sensitive … I also think that’s a byproduct of the increasing pain and suffering that’s happening in this world.”
Wood has entertained across media, including television, podcasts and live comedy. His new show on CNN, “I Have Got News For You,” has been on air since Sept. 14 and will run for 10 weeks every Saturday night at 9 p.m. In the past, he worked as a correspondent on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.”
“Television is probably the most difficult medium because it’s the most collaborative, podcasting is fun because it’s a way to live freely in real time in your thoughts, stand-up comedy is the most rewarding because it’s just you alone on stage with no safety net or arbiter,” he said.
Comedy is a serious, and often stressful, business. Doing political satire comes at a mental cost, not least because the groundwork involves consuming a copious amount of real news, a lot of which is tragic.
“I think that burnout is very, very real, I’ve seen some of my closest co-workers deal with that; it’s something you have to be very cognizant of,” he said. “I thought about it immensely when I saw Trevor Noah step down from ‘The Daily Show.’ I don’t know all the reasons for him leaving the program but I do feel like knowing what I know now with this CNN show — oh yeah, you’ve got to take care of yourself.”
To unwind, Wood enjoys Lego, video games and his biggest guilty pleasure, “stupid” reality TV. Among comedians Wood admires are Chris Rock, Paris Sashay, Wanda Sykes and Erin Jackson.
Roy Wood Jr. performs Thursday, Oct. 3, 7 p.m. at Memorial Auditorium, 551 Jane Stanford Way, Stanford. Tickets are $18-$80. For more information visit live.stanford.edu.
