When Roy Wood Jr. performed sports activities in highschool, he spent numerous time warming the bench, an expertise that ready him for a profession in comedy.
“Your job as a bench hotter is to invent issues in opposition to the opposite group. I took delight in writing insults to hurl at different 15-year-olds,” Wood recalled in a current Zoom interview. “If I might make the referee snort, it could be like applause. If I might make dad and mom snort, that was the standing O.
There, on the sidelines, Wood found that he was humorous, a expertise he relentlessly honed within the a long time that adopted. After years of continuous touring, Wood’s massive break got here in 2015, when he turned a correspondent on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.” His wry humorousness and sharp tackle points like race and felony justice have made him a standout on the late-night program identified for launching comedic expertise. But shortly after a well-received position as host on the White House Correspondents’ Dinner final 12 months, Wood introduced he was leaving “The Daily Show.” The information, coming within the midst of a protracted and messy search to discover a host to interchange Trevor Noah, who stepped down in 2022 after seven years on the desk, was a blow to followers who noticed him as the best successor.
However, it did not take lengthy for Wood to get again on his toes: On Saturday, the comic will make his debut as host of “Have I Got News for You,” a panel present on CNN that can seize the week’s headlines. and try to fill a void within the topical comedy panorama.
An American replace on the BBC program of the identical identify – a fixture on British airwaves since 1990 – ‘Have I Got News for You’ will see company from the worlds of politics and leisure compete in a fast-paced information quiz. Joining Wood are fellow comedy veterans Michael Ian Black and Amber Ruffin, who’re captains of rival groups. While comedy exhibits are an establishment within the UK, the closest equal within the US could also be NPR’s quiz present “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me.” “Have I Got News for You” will tackle present occasions, however with a lighter, extra agile contact, Wood stated.
Roy Wood Jr. says the present is “a chance to speak concerning the information, however we are able to spice it up with gusto, by way of how deeply we wish to delve into a specific matter.”
(Oliver Farshi/For The Times)
“We’re going to seek out ourselves in a really fascinating piece of actual property between, say, a Jimmy Fallon and a ‘Daily Show,’” Wood stated, as he alternated sips of two smoothies, one fruity pink, the opposite wholesome inexperienced. . “It’s a chance to speak about new issues, however we are able to spice it up with taste, by way of the depth with which we wish to method a specific matter.”
After so lengthy on “The Daily Show,” the place each bit, regardless of how foolish, superior a political level, Wood is raring to interrupt free.
“The burden of arguing each time is not on my shoulders,” he stated. “It’s a chance to stay in jokes first, opinions second.”
For Wood, the intersection of reports and leisure is acquainted territory. He studied broadcast journalism at Florida A&M University, a traditionally black faculty, and his father, Roy Wood Sr., was a pioneer radio journalist identified for his protection of the civil rights motion and black platoons in Vietnam, co-founding the primary black radio community.
Yet Wood additionally gravitated towards comedy from a younger age, watching Zucker brothers motion pictures and Nickelodeon exhibits like “You Can’t Do That on Television” and “Clarissa Explains Everything.” When the cable firm in his hometown of Birmingham, Ala., acquired Comedy Central, he found stand-up comedy, however it wasn’t till school that he determined to offer it a attempt. He began with open mic nights at close by Florida State “so if I bombed, I might return to the picturesque tranquility of my campus.”
After commencement, as a substitute of taking a job in journalism, he was employed as a morning radio host on the Birmingham station the place his father had as soon as labored. Because he was changing comic Rickey Smiley, whose prank calls have been well-liked with listeners, Wood was additionally compelled to grasp the artwork. “I did what I might to make them very efficient, not realizing that, in hindsight, these prank calls have been the proper coaching floor for man-on-the-street interviews on ‘The Daily Show,'” he stated.
He continued to hit the street and carry out stand-up throughout the nation. Wood’s early performs weren’t very political, however as he grew up he started to discover socially acutely aware themes that have been “inherently buried in my unconscious,” he stated, on account of his upbringing in Southern black communities.
“The extra you develop into updated with what is going on on on the earth, you say, ‘Wow, that is what my dad was speaking about. The authorities does not care,’” he stated. “All these conferences that I used to go to with my dad, the place I used to be behind the room taking part in on my Game Boy and never paying consideration, he was truly speaking about actual issues. This began to develop into extra evident in my work. Once I bought “The Daily Show,” I needed to admit that I’m only a funnier model of my dad.
Wood joined “The Daily Show” simply as South African Noah was taking up from Jon Stewart, infusing the hit late-night present with a youthful, extra various and world perspective on information. Wood’s tenure started a couple of months after Donald Trump introduced his first bid for the White House, overlapped with the rise of the Black Lives Matter motion and spanned the COVID-19 pandemic and the Jan. 6 rebel. It was, to say the least, a sophisticated time to make political comedies.
(Oliver Farshi/For The Times)
(Oliver Farshi/For The Times)
“The most necessary factor I realized from watching Trevor Noah is to not let anger taint your humorousness. What’s taking place in America is infuriating, however the second you permit your self to be consumed by anger, you lose the power to make enjoyable of all the things,” he stated.
Wood remembers the episode recorded the day the officer who killed Philando Castile was discovered not responsible. “I bear in mind Trevor not permitting anger however compassion to drive the section. As I recall, there wasn’t a single line in that first act,” he stated. “He simply spoke honestly to the digicam about the place we’re as a rustic. There have been so many moments the place Trevor might have used that pulpit to insult l ‘America, and it by no means did, however as a substitute used calm as a extra exact scalpel.”
Noah left immediately in late 2022, and a rotation of visitor hosts, together with Wood, auditioned to develop into his alternative. When it turned clear that former front-runner Hasan Minhaj wasn’t going to get the job, Wood started to fret that there was no plan for “The Daily Show” as an election 12 months approached — and whereas large adjustments have been underway on the dad or mum firm by Comedy Central, Paramount Global. “At that time, Jon Stewart returning wasn’t within the dialog,” he stated. “For me, I assumed, ‘What will my life be like after ‘The Daily Show’? If they select somebody who does not need me as a correspondent, then what is going to I do subsequent 12 months?’ ”
He thought, “if I finally should discover a place to land, I ought to simply begin that course of now.”
“Have I Got News for You” arrives at a time of contraction for topical humor on TV, as networks cut back political programming that exploded in the course of the Trump administration. But “Have I Got News for You” goals to fill a void for exhibits that fall someplace between popular culture and politics. “We’re making an attempt to debate issues which have stakes with out taking too lengthy,” Wood stated, noting that the present will likely be taped on Fridays, giving him a head begin on breaking information.
“Roy is just not a reporter and he isn’t a reporter, however he actually may very well be. It’s simply enjoyable,” stated Ruffin, who hosted his personal late-night present on Peacock for 3 seasons. “Roy is aware of each breaking information story, but in addition their historical past, which is wonderful to me. Even if you suppose, ‘ Oh, nicely, he will not give away the backstory of this factor,” he does.
“Roy has a sort of gravitas. He feels snug in that chair,” Black stated, praising Wood’s ease as a comic. “He feels just like the man you may hang around across the grill with at a barbecue, whereas I’m the man—who’d be like, ‘Do you’ve got any Impossible Burgers?’ ”
Wood ready by taking notes on Steve Harvey on “Family Feud” as a result of he is “the king of listening to one thing ridiculous, taking a pause, reacting after which placing the sport again on monitor.” As for dream company, he needs to e book as many politicians and journalists as attainable and maintain them accountable, in a enjoyable approach. As he says, “We snort on the emperor as a result of he has no trousers, after which we invite the emperor’s tailor and discover out, ‘Why did not you give the emperor trousers?’ ”
And whereas she’s enthusiastic about “I’ve Got News for You,” she’s preserving an open thoughts concerning the future.
“If ‘The Daily Show’ calls, I will not ship them to voicemail,” he stated, “however I’m courting somebody.”
