STAND-UP GREATS: Tiffany Haddish on Her Rise From Homelessness to Hollywood and Making History on ‘SNL’

Summary

Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist

Episode Title: STAND-UP GREATS: Tiffany Haddish on Her Rise From Homelessness to Hollywood and Making History on ‘SNL’
Date: November 22, 2025
Guests: Tiffany Haddish
Host: Willie Geist
Producer: Maggie Law

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Overview

This episode of Sunday Sitdown delivers an intimate conversation with Tiffany Haddish, tracing her remarkable journey from a challenging childhood and homelessness to her breakout roles in Hollywood and historic turn hosting Saturday Night Live. Haddish and Geist explore her resilience, comedic identity, career pivots, and dreams for the future, all conveyed with Tiffany’s signature candor and unfiltered wit.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. From Hardship to Humor: Tiffany's Childhood and Comedy Origins

• Early Life Challenges

  • Grew up in South Central LA; her father left when she was three.
  • At age 12, after a severe car accident, her mother suffered brain damage and became abusive (00:44).
  • Tiffany and her siblings entered foster care; she was guided by her social worker toward comedy.

• Comedy as Survival and Healing

  • Given the choice between a mental health hospital or Laugh Factory Comedy Camp, she chose comedy.
  • Describes her approach: "To get rid of the darkness, you got to turn on the light, you know, And I feel like I am the light" (23:54).
  • Became the “energy producer” for her family and neighborhood—her own version of a hype-man from an early age (02:53).

• Resourcefulness and Hustle

  • Worked as her high school’s talking mascot, leveraging the role for side income (21:26).
  • Started “energy producing” at parties in high school, being paid to hype up bar mitzvahs, weddings, and local events (20:28).

2. The Rise: Breaking Into Hollywood

• Years of Perseverance

  • Started standup in 1997, but mainstream recognition only came 20 years later with "Girls Trip" (01:35, 12:33).
  • Spent years hustling, including stints of homelessness—living in her car while pursuing her dreams (14:42).

• Homelessness and Kevin Hart's Support

  • Kevin Hart discovered Tiffany was sleeping in her car, gave her $300, and advised her to get a place to stay and write her goals (33:41, 35:15).
  • “He gave me 300 bucks, said, find yourself a place for the week, and then write out a list of goals... and here I am today” (36:42).

• Making History on SNL

  • First Black female standup to host Saturday Night Live (15:49).
  • Felt enormous pride and pressure: "I was the first African American female standup comedian to ever host, which I thought was crazy. Cause I just knew Whoopi Goldberg did it...but she just appeared in some sketches" (17:36).
  • Experience was grueling but transformative: "I lost ten pounds that week. Yeah. Cause that's how stressed out I was" (16:16).

3. Expanding Her Horizons: Drama, Linguistics, and Entrepreneurship

• Taking on Dramatic Roles

  • Cast in “The Kitchen” with Melissa McCarthy and Elisabeth Moss, a gritty mob drama, far from her comedic roots (04:28–07:21).
  • Emotional impact: Seeing herself look like her mother in the film led to a personal reckoning—"I looked so much like my mom when I was a little girl. And then I realized, oh, I got some mommy issues I need to work out" (06:40).

• Multifaceted Talents and Aspirations

  • Learned Japanese by listening to CDs in LA traffic, hoping to break into Japanese soap operas (43:10).
    • "And now I could communicate with basically anybody that speaks Japanese" (44:06).
  • Plans to star in a period piece as Amelia Bassano, believed to be Shakespeare’s ghostwriter (28:49, 32:29).
  • Entrepreneurial dreams: aspiring to launch her “She Ready” food line, open her own studio, and eventually own an island and build movie theaters in Africa (38:24).

4. Philosophy, Comedy, and Light

• Comedy as Escapism and Purpose

  • Used humor to defuse traumatic situations at home: "I would try to make my mom laugh and try to make her cool, because if she was laughing, she wasn't hitting" (25:11).
  • Inspired by her grandmother: “We all just big balls of energy. That's what we are. Are you gonna be positive energy or negative energy? What kind of energy are you?... I think I figured out what my purpose is, and that is to bring some joy and happiness." (23:53, 24:39).

• Gratitude and Manifesting

  • Daily practice: reflecting on gratitude and setting intentions for the day (13:08).
  • Gardening as an analogy: likens her career to nurturing a garden (15:08).

5. Staying Grounded and Giving Back

• Boundaries and Self-Care

  • On newfound success: "That's why I cut my family off. You didn't help me make the bread, but everybody wants some of the reparations." (14:16).

• Ambition and The Next Horizon

  • Current goals: 50 movies before age 50, executive producing her own show, opening studios in Africa (38:24).
  • "I'm open to whatever the universe has for me. I'm not going to say I own everything, because that's stressful" (37:52).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• About turning pain into comedy:
  “To get rid of the darkness, you got to turn on the light, you know, And I feel like I am the light.” — Tiffany Haddish (23:54)

• On her historic SNL night:
  "That SNL night was a huge night. ... I lost ten pounds that week. Yeah. Cause that's how stressed out I was." — Tiffany Haddish (16:16)

• On being recognized by unexpected fans after SNL:
  "I didn't realize that it had that kind of an impact though, until I was like, flying in the airport and old white men knew who I was." — Tiffany Haddish (18:56)

• Summing up her roots in comedy and hustle:
  "Started doing the bar mitzvahs. And it's word of mouth. And then it just evolved into a big old..." — Tiffany Haddish (22:01)

• Her commitment to setting and achieving goals:
  “[Kevin Hart] gave me 300 bucks...and then write out a list of goals of what you want to do and start accomplishing those goals, start tackling those things... the list keeps expanding because I keep accomplishing things over and over." — Tiffany Haddish (36:42)

• On being resourceful:
  "I would throw out candy, right? And I was like, okay, $50 for the candy. Cool. But the candy, see, I was getting that for free from my homegirl who worked at the store that owed me a favor..." — Tiffany Haddish (23:30)

• On her ever-expanding ambitions:
  "I want to play Amelia Bassano...I want to open my own studio...maybe open up some studios in Africa...maybe open up some movie theaters up in Africa. You know, since people be saying go back. Go back home." — Tiffany Haddish (37:05, 38:58)

• On learning Japanese:
  “And now I could communicate with basically anybody that speaks Japanese." — Tiffany Haddish (44:06)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Tiffany’s Childhood and Comedy Beginnings: 00:44–03:23
• Describing “The Kitchen” and its Impact: 04:28–07:21
• On SNL and Making History: 15:20–18:02
• Early Hustles and Energy-Producing Gigs: 20:28–23:34
• Homelessness and Kevin Hart’s Intervention: 33:41–36:42
• Future Goals and Dream Projects: 37:03–40:05
• On Learning Japanese: 43:10–44:06
• Philosophy on Light, Energy, and Purpose: 23:51–25:00

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Conclusion

Tiffany Haddish’s story, as shared in her conversation with Willie Geist, is one of grit, self-discovery, humor, and unyielding ambition. She breaks barriers with joyful resilience, proving that even the most unlikely beginnings can fuel stardom and positive change.

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For anyone who missed the episode, this summary captures Haddish’s journey, revealing both her pain and unshakeable optimism—a blend that continues to light up comedy, cinema, and every room she enters.

Transcript

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[Willie Geist]

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[Willie Geist]

And for delivery. Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit down podcast. My thanks as always for clicking and listening along. I really think you're gonna love this week's guest. It is the great, energetic, the light as she says. Tiffany Haddish. She's been on incredible two year run since the movie Girls trip came out. Got her a lot of notice. That was just two summers ago, 2017. That fall she hosted SNL in another huge breakout moment where the country got to see how funny and talented she is and we're lucky enough to sit down with her. I'm joined as always by our great producer of the Sunday Sit down podcast, Maggie Law. Hey, Maggie.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Hey.

[Maggie Law]

How's it going, Willie?

[Willie Geist]

Good. So she's, she feels like she's been in our lives for a long time, but it's only been really two years. Unless you're a super, super Die Hard fan.

[Maggie Law]

Right.

[Willie Geist]

But she's been at this for 20 years.

[Maggie Law]

I was gonna say that's what I found out. I had no idea. She said she started stand up in 1997. So it's almost 20 years that she's been at this, but really only came out on the scene about two years ago.

[Willie Geist]

Yeah. And she has. She'll talk about all this, but her childhood is not to be believed. She grew up in South Central Los Angeles. Her father left the family when Tiffany was 3 years old. A few years after that, her mother got into a bad car accident, had permanent brain damage, became abusive to Tiffany when she was 12 years old. Tiffany and her siblings were split up and put into foster homes. So she grew up in the foster care system. And then she tells the story of being a 16 year old and her social worker saying, you've got a choice. We can send you to a mental hospital or you can go to Comedy camp at the Laugh Factory to channel all this crazy energy humor that she has inside.

[Maggie Law]

I love that. I mean, I think it's an incredible story and one that I had no idea about. And she talks about it in the podcast, about how to turn that darkness into light. And the comedy, the way she got through it with comedy. So it's just. It's so interesting.

[Willie Geist]

She talks about being the light because there was so much darkness. And she thought, okay, my job in this family, in this neighborhood, is to be the light. She took jobs being what she calls an energy producer.

[Maggie Law]

I was gonna say that was one of my favorite things I learned about it. No, an energy producer.

[Willie Geist]

Producer.

[Maggie Law]

I loved that. An energy producer.

[Willie Geist]

So I asked her, what does that mean exactly? She means you go in and you produce energy.

[Maggie Law]

You make the energy.

[Willie Geist]

It's like you go to a corporate event.

[Tiffany Haddish]

I love it.

[Willie Geist]

Bar mitzvah.

[Maggie Law]

I love it.

[Tiffany Haddish]

I love it.

[Willie Geist]

And you go in and you just hype.

[Maggie Law]

You're the hype man. Yeah, exactly.

[Willie Geist]

She was her family's hype person. She was her neighborhood's hype person.

[Maggie Law]

And I love that she was the high school mascot, too. That was fun fact.

[Willie Geist]

She said she was the only mascot in that big, like, wildcat suit or whatever it was who talked.

[Maggie Law]

Who was a speaking mascot. Yeah, exactly.

[Willie Geist]

I'm gonna talk. And she turned that into a little cash, too. So very resourceful, very scrappy. I mean, if you've seen her in any of the movies, seen her do Stand up or Netflix special, if you've seen her in on snl, you know how funny she is in her new movie, which is called the Kitchen, which she co stars with Melissa McCarthy and Elisabeth Moss. Has nothing to do with any of that.

[Maggie Law]

Right? Total turn drama.

[Willie Geist]

It's basically a gangster movie. It's like a Martin Scorsese, Goodfellas casino kind of movie where you're sort of based on the cast waiting.

[Maggie Law]

Right. I was gonna say you're gonna think it's gonna be funny and it just isn't.

[Willie Geist]

And then. No, seriously, it's just like a hardcore kind of violent, well acted gangster movie.

[Tiffany Haddish]

I love it.

[Willie Geist]

Yeah. So she's really good in it. It's a great cast. You're just. I don't know, you're just gonna be entertained. She starts speaking Japanese at one point. I know there's a lot going on in this interview with the great Tiffany Haddish on the Sunday Sit down podcast. Tiffany, thanks for doing this.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Thank you for having me, Willie.

[Willie Geist]

I feel like we already kind of had our little interview. But we can start from the top.

[Tiffany Haddish]

We're getting to know each other.

[Willie Geist]

Yeah. See if the stories stay the same.

[Tiffany Haddish]

The second time around.

[Willie Geist]

I was just saying to you, watching the Kitchen, I walked in with, obviously, an impression of who you are, which is hysterically funny. An impression of who Melissa McCarthy is, which is hysterically funny. I thought I was going to laugh. And about 10 minutes in, I was like, oh, no, this is something different. So how do you describe the movie? Because it is different than what your audiences have seen from you?

[Tiffany Haddish]

I would describe it as a real mobster movie.

[Willie Geist]

Yep.

[Tiffany Haddish]

A gangster movie. I mean, what's the difference between mobster and gangster? Like, what's the mob and a gang? What's the difference?

[Willie Geist]

I don't know. I think gangster's more old school, like 20s, like Al Capone. Mob might be like 70s and 80s. I'm gonna just throw that out there.

[Tiffany Haddish]

That's what gonna throw at.

[Willie Geist]

That's all I got.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yeah. I don't know. I'm trying to figure it out. Maybe it's suits versus jeans.

[Willie Geist]

Oh, okay. Yes.

[Tiffany Haddish]

I don't know.

[Willie Geist]

And this is more jeans.

[Tiffany Haddish]

This is more jeans, suits. I mean, it's the 70s.

[Willie Geist]

Yeah.

[Tiffany Haddish]

So. So it's three wives, right. All married to Italian mobsters. Not Italian, Irish mobsters. All married to Irish mobsters. And their husbands go to jail. And they decide that they're going to take over the business because they're struggling financially. And they get in cahoots with the Italian mob. And they develop this really awesome system and do better at gangster stuff or mobster business than their own husbands did. And when their husbands come out of jail, it's an issue because, you know, it's the 70s and men, you know.

[Willie Geist]

Right.

[Tiffany Haddish]

I don't know. They're nothing like the men today.

[Willie Geist]

Because before they went to jail, you all were not treated well at all.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Right? Not treated well. And then we earned our respect and we were being treated well. And then the men came home thinking, oh, they could do the same thing. That's not allowed.

[Willie Geist]

Right?

[Tiffany Haddish]

It's not allowed no more. We different now. We're running things now. We've evolved, right? It's about the evolution. See? And so, yeah, some really crazy gangster stuff happens. And I enjoyed watching it. I must say, the first time I saw the movie, I had to get up in the middle and walk out for a second and pull myself together.

[Willie Geist]

Really.

[Tiffany Haddish]

And then come back in and I finished watching it. Cause I was having a hard time when we were shooting it. I was Having a hard time looking at myself in the mirror because I looked so much like my mom when I was a little girl. And then I realized, oh, I got some mommy issues I need to work out, right? And I thought, oh, it'll pass. Once I finish this movie, I'm just. That's the way I look. Then when I saw the movie and I saw my mama on screen, like, I just was looking. I'm like, I'm looking at my mother. And I walked out of the theater crying at the end. And my mom, she was behind me. She's crying, too. And I'm like, why are you crying? What's wrong with you? She was like, you stole my look.

[Willie Geist]

She was singing the same thing.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yeah, she was singing the same thing. And I was like, we probably need to go to counseling, Mom. There's things that need to be said. And. And we good now. I just bought her a house.

[Willie Geist]

Well, that's a good way to pay her back for that. So you were. This was at the premiere because you brought your mom to the premiere.

[Tiffany Haddish]

I brought my mom to the first screening.

[Willie Geist]

The first screening. Okay. Okay.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yeah, yeah.

[Willie Geist]

And that's when it hit you.

[Tiffany Haddish]

And it's so much. It's so funny how movies evolved. Cause it's definitely changed since that first screening.

[Willie Geist]

Oh, okay.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yeah. So.

[Willie Geist]

So was this something you were looking for, Tiffany? Because you've done so many comedies, you've been on this run of hit comedies. Did you say to yourself, in terms of your career, I want to do something a little different this time?

[Tiffany Haddish]

No. What happened was. What had happened was, right? The script had came across my manager's desk, and my manager was looking for predominantly comedies, right? And his assistant read the script and was like, this would be great for Tiffany. And it's like, nah, nah, we don't think so. Then she called me. She was like, tiffany, I got this thing, but don't tell nobody, okay? I was like, okay, I'm telling now, girl. Sorry. So I read it, and, you know, before I read it, she's like, I think this will be really good for you. I read it. I was like, what is this based off of? She was like, a comic book. I was like, what? Got the comic book. Read the book. Read the script again. I was like, this is my thing. Like, link me up with this director. How do I meet the director? Like, the person that wrote this is so smart. I want to meet the director. She's like, the director is the writer. I was like, bet. Link me up with them. Link me up. Who Got this part. Who going to be this? And I was like, they haven't cast anybody yet. So I was like, well, give me Andrea. Give me Andrea Berloff. Bring her to me, right? And she was, like, trying to set up the meeting. It was hard for them to set up the meeting. And then at that time, you know, girls trip had came out, all the different agencies was on me. And I was like, if y' all want me, bring me Andrea Burloff.

[Willie Geist]

Really? So you use that as leverage, right?

[Tiffany Haddish]

Gangster mode.

[Willie Geist]

That is gangster mode.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Then I had to meet the producers first. Then I got to meet Andrea, and then I convinced her why I'd be right. She was like, you were always right. And I'm like, nah. She wasn't sure at first. Cause she thinks of me as a straight comedian, right? But once she had a conversation with me, she realized, oh, she a boss bitch.

[Willie Geist]

There's no question about that. No one would ever doubt that. So was it fun for you then? I mean, you didn't have this in mind, but once you saw it, you knew you wanted it. Was it fun for you to play this kind of character?

[Tiffany Haddish]

Once I saw it, I knew this was. Was, like, right in my wheelhouse, because I've grown up around that type of environment. I know what that environment is. I know how you have to move around those type of men, how you need to communicate with them in order to demonstrate some sort of power or let them think they have all the power while you just, you know, moving things around. So I knew that, oh, I'm gonna have a good time doing this. And when I found out Melissa was on and then Elizabeth Moss was on, I'm like, oh, oh, this is about to be. This is about to be super fun. Now, mind you, I didn't know neither one of them, and I. There was a small part of me that was like, what if they're like divas? What if they're like super Hollywood chicks? Like, I know how to deal with those. I'm gonna be like, okay. And then get out their face, right? And what were you gonna be like? Okay, hey. And then get out of here. You know? You know, you don't talk to those people too long. You just, hey, hey, go get your man. Saying, okay, bye. Like, get the hell out. Get the hell out, cheesy and get out.

[Willie Geist]

But you didn't have to do that with them.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Didn't have to do that with them at all. Turns out they weirdos just like me. So we laughed a lot. We did a lot of online Shopping. I got them to try things they never had before, like pickles dipped in Kool Aid powder.

[Willie Geist]

Wait a minute. Pickles and Kool Aid powder?

[Tiffany Haddish]

Oh, my gosh. Have you not had this?

[Willie Geist]

No.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Okay. They said it was nasty, but that's because they don't have the palate. Gotta have the right palate for sweet.

[Willie Geist]

And sour, acquired taste.

[Tiffany Haddish]

It's delicious. Sometimes you put nine layers in the middle of the pickle and let that dissolve through the pickle. Then it's like, oh, delicious. It's so good. It's good for your skin, too. Or you put a peppermint in the middle of it. You gotta get that whole pickle tooth, one of them pickles like this. And you put it right in the middle. Boop. And it's good.

[Willie Geist]

Did you say it's good for your skin?

[Tiffany Haddish]

It is good. What do you mean pickles is good for your skin?

[Willie Geist]

Just eating pickles.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Eating pickles is good for your skin because it's cucumber.

[Willie Geist]

Gosh, you are. Did you invent the pickles in the Kool Aid powder?

[Tiffany Haddish]

No, that's a hood thing that's been happening. That's some gangster stuff that's been happening. You get the Kool Aid. You ever remember fun dip?

[Willie Geist]

Of course. Fun dip.

[Tiffany Haddish]

So you.

[Willie Geist]

Same idea.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Dipping the candy stick. You dip a pickle in it. Bam.

[Willie Geist]

Right, Right.

[Tiffany Haddish]

That's some gangster stuff you don't know about. You probably ain't have ice cream trucks.

[Willie Geist]

Oh, we had ice cream.

[Tiffany Haddish]

And you have ice cream trucks. Of course.

[Willie Geist]

That's where you get to find it.

[Tiffany Haddish]

I'm not talking about this ice cream truck. I'm talking about.

[Willie Geist]

No, no. You know, ringing the bell, pulling up on the loudspeaker.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Oh, yes.

[Willie Geist]

Rocket pops. Oh, yeah.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Hey. Hey.

[Willie Geist]

See, I think you should come up with your own line of food. Like the Tiffany Haddish line, which is pickles.

[Tiffany Haddish]

She ready line. She ready line. So I already. Already got it trademarked. Things will slowly be releasing.

[Willie Geist]

First, pickles and Kool Aid powder.

[Tiffany Haddish]

No, no, that's not gonna be the first thing. That's not gonna be the first thing. That's gonna be like probably the fifth or sixth.

[Willie Geist]

But it will come.

[Tiffany Haddish]

It will be here.

[Willie Geist]

I was thinking about you mentioned girls trip. It's only been two years since that movie came out. It was about this time two years ago. It was late July of 2017. Yeah, two years ago. So this run you've been on since then.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Several movies. Over a hundred million dollars.

[Willie Geist]

Yeah. Go ahead, get it. Okay. I saw that hosting SNL and now this move, which a lot of people view as, like, a move to even a different level for you. Cause it's dramatic acting. We were talking earlier. You haven't even had time to stop and think about it. Do you ever stop and go, wow, the last two years have been insane for me?

[Tiffany Haddish]

Well, every morning when I wake up, I'm, like, praying, and I'm thankful and grateful, and I do review, like, what happened yesterday or what happened last month, and I'm like, great. The things that I'm grateful for. And then I move forward with the rest of the day and, like, try to figure out what can I be grateful for, what's going to happen super awesome today that I can be grateful for. So I always try to find the good in everything, because some days suck. Like, I mean, I'm tired as hell right now, but I look good.

[Willie Geist]

That's natural. That just comes out.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yeah.

[Willie Geist]

But it is a grind. People don't realize it's a lot of work.

[Tiffany Haddish]

You know, I've heard Kevin say it. I've heard a lot of celebrities say, you know, everybody wants to be famous. Nobody wants to do the work. Everybody wants the success and the power and the money, but nobody wants to put in the work. And then that just reminds me of that mother hen who's like, who's gonna help me make the. Who's gonna help me cut the wheat? Who's gonna help me grind the wheat? Who gonna help me stir the dough? Who gonna help me put the yeast? Who gonna help me? Like, who gonna help me make this right? You know? And then everybody's like, not me, not me, not me. But once it's done, it's like, let me get some. And so that's why I cut my family off. That wasn't even a part of the question. But I just want to let my family know. Y' all cut off.

[Willie Geist]

That's it. This is an announcement right now. It's over.

[Tiffany Haddish]

I'm done. You didn't help me make the bread, but everybody wants some of the reparations. You know what I'm saying? They didn't put the work in.

[Willie Geist]

They all want to bite. They all want to bite.

[Tiffany Haddish]

They all want to nibble.

[Willie Geist]

Is it. You've worked so hard. People don't realize how many years of work you put in as a comedian before. Two years ago.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yeah. You were out there doing it stand up in 1997.

[Willie Geist]

Right, right. So you did 20 years before you had this.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yeah, I might have took a couple of years off. Let's Be honest. I probably took, like, two or three years off because I was homeless, but that's a whole nother situation.

[Willie Geist]

But does that make this all the sweeter when you have all these successes, knowing how hard you've worked to get here?

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yeah. I mean, it's like, you know, you do the work, you plant the seeds. It might not grow, like, tomorrow or today, but it will grow if you keep watering and nurturing. Like, I think of everything, like gardening and food. I love food.

[Willie Geist]

You're a big gardener, right?

[Tiffany Haddish]

I'm a huge gardener.

[Willie Geist]

Yeah.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yeah. I mean, I got a small garden, though, but I love to do it.

[Willie Geist]

It's getting bigger, though. You're doing well, I'm sure.

[Tiffany Haddish]

That's my biggest garden is growing my. You know, I might mess around and have a plantation.

[Willie Geist]

Have your own. Have your own place. So when you put together, I mentioned snl and we were talking about how I think that was a big moment for you, and maybe you feel the same way, which is that a lot of people who maybe didn't see all your movies in the years ahead said, oh, my gosh, she's standing on that stage. She killed her monologue.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Then she was Boo.

[Willie Geist]

Boo Jeffries. All these sketches, Black Unicorn. That you won an Emmy for it. And people were like, okay, she is a superstar. Did that feel like a big night to you? The SNL night?

[Tiffany Haddish]

That SNL night was a huge night. It was huge. First off, leading up to it, the fact that they even asked me to host was like, well, that's a dream come true. Really? I wanted to work on that show. I auditioned for it several times. Did not get hired. And then once I came to host and saw, like, what they go through every week, I'm like, oh, thank you. Thank you for not hiring me. I understand now. I mean, I lost ten pounds in that week.

[Willie Geist]

Come on.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yes, I lost ten pounds that week. Yeah. Cause that's how stressed out I was. That's how much, like, I realized that, you know, it's a machine. What I learned. I learned so much from that, that it was a machine that's been operating for a long time. And here I am just. I'm just a little oil to keep it. To keep it going, you know, so I don't need to. I wanted to contribute so much. I had came with, like, this notebook. Like, okay, these are the jokes, guys. This what I want to do. And they're like, no, it don't work like that, baby girl. It don't work like that. Thank you for being Prepared. Yeah, but you just focus on your monologue. We got these things. We didn't get to know you. And I was like, oh, but no, I would say this. I want to do this. And I realized, okay, I don't have to fight every fight. You know, I have to fight for everything and sometimes just go with the flow. And so them last, like, two days, I realized, okay, I'm going to just focus on the monologue. And whatever lines they got for me, that's what they got for me. And I'm going to just deliver it to the best of my capability and relax. And then I was able to eat again. But that night was absolutely magical. And wow, once it was all done, I was just like, okay, I made that history. I did that because that was history. I mean, I was the first African American female standup comedian to ever host, which I thought was crazy. Cause I just knew Whoopi Goldberg did it, but she just appeared in some sketches.

[Willie Geist]

She's never hosted.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Never hosted.

[Willie Geist]

I didn't realize that.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Never hosted. I thought Wanda Sykes did it. I told her. I mean, I caught all the legends, everybody that I was like, the greatest, the best of the best has had to have done this. I'm like, nope. And then I was like, googling. And then I went through all the archives. We looked at every episode. I'm like, oh, I'm literally about to make history. I always wanted to be the first black woman to do something. Booyah.

[Willie Geist]

Did you know that going in? Did that add pressure to it?

[Tiffany Haddish]

On the first day? I asked them. They were doing the research too, and they're like, yeah. Could you not say anything about it? I was like, oh, no. I'm saying I love about this. I'm gonna say something about this because it's huge, especially for a female in comedy. A black woman in comedy. It's so. It's. I feel like it's 10 times harder than it is for a black man or a white woman or any other kind of nationality. Coming up in comedy, that's for a black woman. It's hard because everybody think you the angry black woman.

[Willie Geist]

Well, you don't. I don't. No one thinks that about you. I don't think.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Oh, some people say, just a funny woman. Yeah, yeah, she's loud. Which they don't know that I'm partially deaf. But what happens.

[Willie Geist]

No. Is that true or no?

[Tiffany Haddish]

No.

[Willie Geist]

Okay. I didn't think so. I'm getting to know you well enough. I knew that wasn't true. So was that the kind of Night, then Tiffany, where you feel like Monday morning the earth shift underneath you. Is your life different right away? Is the phone ringing more?

[Tiffany Haddish]

The life was not different at all. Cause I was already busy leading up to that, so. But I real, like. And I just, you know, appreciated the moment and everything. I didn't realize that it had that kind of an impact, though, until I was, like, flying in the airport and old white men knew who I was. I was like, oh, you are pretty. Pretty great. You're funny. I like the white dress. The white dress. The white dress.

[Willie Geist]

I think that was me, by the way.

[Tiffany Haddish]

That was not you.

[Willie Geist]

Okay.

[Tiffany Haddish]

That was not you. I mean, they were old. They look like, hello, my darling. Hello.

[Willie Geist]

Were they doing the Rihanna? Rihanna, Your Boo Boo Jeffries routine? Okay, good.

[Tiffany Haddish]

No, but a lot of kids were doing that. They come up to me. Rihanna.

[Willie Geist]

Yeah, that's it.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Like, yeah. Which I think is hilarious.

[Willie Geist]

You were telling me something interesting before, which is that kids have always liked you. My kids love you. Based off SNL and then watching all your movies afterward. What do you think that is? Why is that?

[Tiffany Haddish]

Maybe because I talk to kids like they're adults also. I probably give off, like, a childlike energy, maybe. I don't know. But kids love me. They be knowing all my jokes. I'm like, hey, hey. How do you know this joke? This is an adult joke. Why do you notice? And I mean, that's going back to when I was, like, in my teens. You know, like when I was 17, 18 years old, kids knew my jokes. I wasn't even on tv. We didn't even have it popping like that. But I did do, like, a lot of bar mitzvahs, and I would do stand up at those mitzvahs and, like, energy. My title is energy producer.

[Willie Geist]

Producer. I love that.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yeah, I produce energy. So whenever I come into a space and I start to talk, I usually shift the energy. It's usually a pretty positive thing.

[Willie Geist]

And that's going back to high school, right? Or even before.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yeah, probably junior high. Really? All the way back to junior high. But I started working as an energy producer in high school.

[Willie Geist]

And so what did that mean when you were energy producer? Somebody pay 50, 100 bucks to go to the party and just.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yeah, started off. It started out that long. We didn't end up. But, yeah, they pay me to, like, come to a bar mitzvah, a wedding, an executive party, and, like, mc or just dance. Just be there to get people dancing, encouraging to party, to bring that positivity throughout the room. Because you Know, especially, like, you know, 12 year olds, 13 year olds. It's like, all the boys over here, all the girls over there. I don't want to dance. I don't know if it's cool. And then you get somebody who's like, come on, let's have some fun. And you get, like, two or three of the cool kids out there, and all the kids come, and all the adults come, and. Yeah.

[Willie Geist]

So you're like 15, 16 years old doing this.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yeah.

[Willie Geist]

So how do you even get a reputation as having that much energy, being that funny and that charming that people will pay you as a teenager to come to their parties?

[Tiffany Haddish]

Well, I started doing. I really started energy producing, doing the football games. Cause I was trying to get to that boy. Adi. It's all in my book. I was mascot in the football games, right? And I was like, the only talking mascot in all of the Valley, probably in all of LA Unified School District. And then, you know, I started doing the. The bar mitzvahs. And it's word of mouth.

[Willie Geist]

Yeah.

[Tiffany Haddish]

You know, word of mouth. And then it just evolved into a big old.

[Willie Geist]

So what does a talking mascot do? You have the megaphone.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Like, I had a megaphone. And I went to El Camino Real High School. So I'd be like, elko. What? And everybody be like, me? No, Elka. What? Me? Now who know? We know. Who know? We know, baby. Yeah. And we won the 3A championship. We was killing it. I was like, you know, I had the energy popping. I quit for a little bit because I had finally got a boyfriend. And then he said he broke up with me because everybody was calling him the assistant mascot. Oh. And then I was like, oh, I need a boyfriend. I can't be the mascot no more if I can't have no boyfriend. So I quit thinking I could get him back, but he was. Was gone already. And then so the dean's like, what's gonna take to get you back on the field? I was like, a boyfriend was like, I can't get you a boyfriend. I was like, well, if you give me some money to get my nails and hair done, then maybe I could get a boyfriend. So you gotta pay me. He was like, pay you? I can't pay you. I was like, yeah, a hundred dollars. That should get it. And then he was like, nope, can't do that. Can't do that. But what I can do is give you $50 for the candy that you. Because I would throw out candy, right? And I was like, okay, $50 for the candy. Cool. But the candy, see, I was getting that for free from my homegirl who worked at the store that owed me a favor for babysitting for. So then I got the candy for free, and then she had the receipts at her store, too. So then I got the receipts, turned that in, got to see Hustle.

[Willie Geist]

You were hustling as a teenager in the mascot costume.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yep.

[Willie Geist]

And it continues today.

[Tiffany Haddish]

And it still continues today.

[Willie Geist]

Much has been made, and it got a lot of attention of how difficult your life has been growing up. So where does this shine come from? How were you able to be so full of energy and laughter and light when you had so much trouble?

[Tiffany Haddish]

Because I escape from the trouble.

[Willie Geist]

Is that what it was?

[Tiffany Haddish]

Escape from the trouble? And. And you know what I said? To get rid of the darkness, you got to turn on the light, you know, And I feel like I am the light. Like, I'm. I'm a little. I'm like, well, I remember my grandma saying, you know, we all just big balls of energy. That's what we are. Are you gonna be positive energy or negative energy? What kind of energy are you? You know, are people gonna want you around? Are people gonna want you to go away? What do you. What do you wanna be? And then. So that was always confusing as hell. And then my mama would say. My mama would say, crazy. They had great analogies, but I didn't understand until I got older. My mom, like, you on this earth to make it better. How you making it better? And I would be like, I don't know. Go do the dishes. That's how you gonna make it better. Wash the damn dishes. Like. So I'm like. Like, everybody's here for a reason. Everybody has a purpose. And so I think I figured out what my purpose is, and that is to bring some joy and happiness. It's what makes me happy. It makes me feel good when I see people smiling and laughing and enjoying themselves or entertained by something. So why not be the person that administers that?

[Willie Geist]

I've heard a lot of comedians who've had difficult childhoods say they were doing it to make other people happy. They know other people were in pain. The life was difficult. Did you feel like you were the person in the family who had to provide that for everybody?

[Tiffany Haddish]

Well, I guess not for everybody, but definitely I would try to make my mom laugh and try to make her cool, because if she was laughing, she wasn't hitting. If I can make her laugh, I won't get punched. You know, she might forget that she said she was gonna. Whoop me. Or she might forget that she said, we not allowed to do no TV or go outside and play. So I was always trying to figure out how to change her mood. I mean, she had that car accident and that. That brain injury really affected her communication skills, her ability to express her emotions and feelings. And a lot of times she would get frustrated, and it would come out in violence. So how do I transmute that? How do I fix that? How do I make her forget that? She's angry right now because she can't say communicate. Cause she can't say certain. It was like words she couldn't say. She was like a linguist, a very accomplished businesswoman who now her vocabulary is damaged.

[Willie Geist]

That's a lot to put on a young kid.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yeah, and now I'm taking care of these other kids. So I'm at home with mom, but at school I'm like, ah, da, da.

[Willie Geist]

Da, da, da, da, da.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Let me get down to some good times, guys. Let's laugh.

[Willie Geist]

Did that ever get exhausting, though? You always have to be the one who's on.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yeah, but I wasn't always on. Like, I would sleep on a school bus. I sleep in homeroom, you know, I was on in the hallways, lunchtime nutrition, you know, pe. I try to be cool in some classes. Some classes I turn up, you know, it just depends who else is in the class, who's around, you know?

[Willie Geist]

So with everything that was going on in your childhood, how did you see over the horizon? What was the hope? What was the light? What did you want to do? What was your way out? Had you started to think about that as a kid?

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yeah, I had always thought, like my grandma said, if you do what you love, it's like you never work in a day in your life if you always doing what you love. Which is true, but not true. It's true, but it's not true. It's like, well, I do love doing this, and this is fun, but I am sleepy. So this is kind of work, but I'm enjoying it still. So. But I. I always was looking for the things that I love. Love, Right. So at first, I wanted to be like, I wanted to. I called it horse farming. I just wanted to raise horses because I loved horses. So. And then. So when people like what you want to be, I'm like, I want to be a horse farmer. What?

[Willie Geist]

Where'd you even get that idea? In South Central la.

[Tiffany Haddish]

They used to have. Okay, there used to be these grocery stores called ABC grocery stores in the front of the grocery store in A parking lot. They would have these ponies and big horses and they would walk around in a circle and. And you could ride the horses and it like, be like a black cowboy, which I thought was so cool. And they would like, you get on there for a dollar and you ride the pony around in a circle, or you ride the bigger horse, you pay $2 and you ride around.

[Willie Geist]

Right.

[Tiffany Haddish]

And I thought, I could do this for a living. This is fun. You see all the kids smiling and happy and stuff and begging their moms, please, please, let me get on. Please, please, please. I think that's. That was like, I would do that today if I could do a pop up pony ride in the parking lot. Like, I would do that.

[Willie Geist]

We got the line of food and the pop up pony rides.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yeah. First I need to do a wild western movie or something. A spaghetti western type of movie. Then it makes sense for me to do it. Otherwise it's just like, why is she doing that?

[Willie Geist]

This is how we build an empire.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yeah. You have to make it make sense.

[Willie Geist]

One brick at a time.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yes. I need to ride a horse in a movie and then I do the go around.

[Willie Geist]

I can't wait to see your next movie. Just out of nowhere, you're on a horse. And I'll be the only one who understands why.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Right. You and everyone are watching this. And I'm doing a movie about Amelia Bassano, the first woman to ever publish a book in Europe. And she's a black woman at that. Don't get me started. Because that's Shakespeare's ghostwriter.

[Willie Geist]

I mean, well, this is. So that leads me to like, you're really broadening out, right? This, the kitchen is one. That's one I know about. Well, no, but you're people. You're a comedian, you're a stand up comedian, you're funny. But there's all these other layers that you're now able to show when you've put yourself in that position to be able to do it.

[Tiffany Haddish]

I have shown, like, if you watch. I've been in Lifetime movies where I was a drug addict and very serious and narrow. I've done some stuff, man.

[Willie Geist]

Done a lot of stuff.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yeah, you gotta dig for it.

[Willie Geist]

So what was the first time you were rewarded for being funny? Not necessarily professionally, but I know when you were in foster care, it was recommended that you go to the Laugh Factory, right?

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yeah, yeah. My social worker was like, you need to go. She was like, you got two choices this summer. You can either go to the Laugh Factory comedy camp or you can Go to psychiatric therapy. Cause something is wrong with your child.

[Willie Geist]

Easy choice.

[Tiffany Haddish]

And I was like, which one got drugs? She said, you'd definitely be on drugs if you go to therapy. So, boom, I go to the comedy camp. And here I am Today, you know, 20 some years later, on drugs, telling jokes, starring in movies.

[Willie Geist]

And you hung in there because as you said a minute ago, you had times where you were sleeping in your car, you were homeless. What gave you the hope that you could do it?

[Tiffany Haddish]

The thing when you said rewarded for being funny, because being in a comedy camp wasn't necessarily a reward for being funny. But before I went to the comedy camp, I used to be in drama. Right. And I used to be in these drama festivals. And that was all to get to that same boy that played football again. It all goes back around to boys. So I love boys.

[Willie Geist]

Where is he now, by the way? We should find him.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Oh, I saw him. He came to my show at the Microsoft Theater. I hadn't seen him so since we graduated from high school too. And I talked about him in my book. And he showed up with his wife at my show at the Microsoft in Los Angeles, which was like, sold out shows huge. And he was like, I always knew you were funny, but I didn't realize you were really gonna do this. You used to say this when we were kids, but I didn't realize you were gonna do it. And he still looks exactly the same, except he got new teeth because probably. Cause I bought him candy every week. But that's a whole nother. That's a whole nother situation.

[Willie Geist]

He never should have broken up with the mascot.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Oh, no, I never dated him.

[Willie Geist]

Oh, you never dated at all? Oh, you were just trying to get to him.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Adi was where I've been trying to get to since seventh grade. Yeah. But never, never accomplished that goal. So it is what it is. You know, his wife is sweet, she's really nice, and he's doing really good in real estate or something like that.

[Willie Geist]

All right, so it worked out for both of you.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yeah, it worked out for both of you.

[Willie Geist]

Everybody's good.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yeah. He got a family, and I got my family.

[Willie Geist]

You got this. Yeah.

[Tiffany Haddish]

And I ain't got no kids, but that's okay. I don't need them. That's good. But the thing, the first reward for my confidence, you see, because you were asking a reward for the comedy is when I was in this drama festival, and it was a Shakespearean drama festival, and I did Midsummer Night's Dream as a monologue, and I did all the characters in five minutes. And I won first place. I beat out 370some kids, and I got a trophy. And I got to perform at Paramount Studios for all these executives and stuff. And there is video footage of me doing that. And I thought, like, when I saw the video for the first time, I was like, wow, I'mma make it. I'mma make it. Well, I didn't know what I was going to make it as. I thought I would be the funniest horse farmer ever, to be honest.

[Willie Geist]

When is this? How old are you?

[Tiffany Haddish]

I was 14.

[Willie Geist]

Right in there.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yeah, I was like 14. 15. I was 15. Yeah, 15. It was 1996. 95. 96.

[Willie Geist]

And so here you are, back to drama. It actually started with drama.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yeah, it all started with drama. Watch. I'm gonna end up doing it. I'm gonna do a period piece, 1500s. I'm playing Amelia Bassano. And you're gonna be like, full circle. I'll be speaking Italian and French. Yes, yes, and Hebrew. I'm gonna blow your mind.

[Willie Geist]

I believe you. I believe you can do anything you want to do. Look at this. I have no idea what you just said.

[Tiffany Haddish]

I just asked you if you speak Japanese.

[Willie Geist]

No, I don't. Sorry. I mean, I don't have nothing to come back to you with. I'm sorry.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Do you speak any languages?

[Willie Geist]

I speak a little French. Not enough French, but a little French.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Just a little.

[Willie Geist]

Enough to do enough to get by. Have a little conversation at a bar, you know what I mean? You read too much into that. You read too much into that. There you go.

[Tiffany Haddish]

You take all your friends money fee.

[Willie Geist]

Lady Marmalade, don't you?

[Tiffany Haddish]

No, that's Patti LaBelle. That's Patti LaBelle.

[Willie Geist]

There you go.

[Tiffany Haddish]

That's Patti LaBelLE. Yeah.

[Willie Geist]

Oh, that's right.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yeah, of course.

[Willie Geist]

I interviewed Kevin Hart late last year, who obviously loves you.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yeah, I love him. So that's my brother.

[Willie Geist]

The story true that when you were living in your car, you knew Kevin a little bit? He started talking to you, what's going on in your life, and helped you get back on your feet.

[Tiffany Haddish]

That's a true story.

[Willie Geist]

It is, yeah. So how did that happen? What was the scenario?

[Tiffany Haddish]

We both performed every Wednesday night at the Laugh Factory, doing a show called Comedy Playground, where we did sketches and, like, improv stuff, and comics would do their stand up and he would host sometimes, and I would do all these sketches. I had this one sketch called Ask a Black Woman, and my name was Tiffnicity. Ask me anything. All you white people Ask anything you want to. Don't be afraid. This is the time where you can ask any question you ever wanted to ask somebody black. Nobody will get mad. Nobody will think you racist. And then people would ask these questions, and it would be like, wow. Like, it would be so crazy. But we never got mad. Never got like.

[Willie Geist]

So people actually took that opportunity to ask some stuff.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yeah, it would be like 10 minutes spot. And people would ask some of the craziest stuff, like, why does your hair curl? And then I had to break it down. See, our hair follicles has really tight. When your hair follicles pinch like this, your hair comes out in a curl. And when your hair follicles are perfect circle, it comes out straight. But you didn't even know that, huh?

[Willie Geist]

I mean, I knew about the tight curl, but I didn't know.

[Tiffany Haddish]

You didn't know why the hair takes a curl tight. It's because of the way the. Oh, it's the way that the. The poor is shaped.

[Willie Geist]

See, I'm learning coming out of. I'm learning from it.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yeah.

[Willie Geist]

And so he was working those same.

[Tiffany Haddish]

That same club, the same club we working there. And I would always pull up, like, maybe five or ten minutes late so nobody could see my car. Cause I had all my clothes, everything, suitcases, all in the car. So one day I pull up a little late, and he was there, like, the same exact time. He's like, what the hell going on in here? What's all this? You live in your car? I was like, no, none of your business. I'm in between places. Leave me alone. Like, he's like, we don't have to have a conversation after this. You got an attitude problem. So, like, we need to talk. I don't need to talk to you. He's like, oh, no, we're going to talk. And so after the show, he, like, pulled me to the side, had a conversation with me, and I told him what was up. And he was like, look, you are a pretty girl. You should not be sleeping in your car. You are too pretty for that. I'm sure there's some guy out here that would let you sleep in their house. And I'm like, look, I don't sleep with people for roofs over my head. I sleep with people to heal them. Okay? So I'm not about to be out here just doing whatever, just so I can have a roof over my head. And I got a car that's paid for. I'll sleep in there. I got my own roof. And he was like, well, you can't be sleeping in a car in the streets. I'm like, what? I live in Beverly Hills. I sleep in Beverly Hills. I'm doing just fine. The police wake me up every morning. Okay. So he was like, tiffany, no, no. He gave me 300 bucks, said, find yourself a place for the week, and then write out a list of goals of what you want to do and start accomplishing those goals, start tackling those things. So I'm like, I don't know how, where I'm gonna get a place to stay for a week in LA for 300 bucks, right? That's, like, impossible.

[Willie Geist]

Yeah.

[Tiffany Haddish]

So I got me one of the. Like, I went to the little Momo. You can get about an hour. Went. They got about three hours, Washed my ass, you know, took a little nap and wrote out my list or whatever, what I want, you know? And then I started attacking those ghosts, and here I am today. And the list keeps expanding because I keep accomplishing things over and over. So.

[Willie Geist]

Yeah, right. So now what's on the list now?

[Tiffany Haddish]

Now I want to play Amelia Bassano. Cause I want women to know that we've been writing for a long time. Even when women weren't allowed to read or write, there were courtesans that were in the court of Queen Elizabeth that were writing all kind of cool stuff. And even though women weren't allowed to be in plays, we were writing them anonymously or giving them to certain major playwrights and making a huge mark on our art, on our history, history of the world. And I think people should know about that. And I want to open my own studio. And, like, you know, much like Tyler Perry, who's a friend of mine, and he's been teaching me how to do that because Lucille Ball was able to do that. So why can't I, right? You know, I should be able to do that, too.

[Willie Geist]

Own it all.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Well, I don't have to own it all, but I definitely want to open it. And maybe I have partners, maybe not. Maybe I'm the boss, maybe I run. Maybe, you know, I'm open to whatever the universe has for me. I'm not going to say I own everything, because that's stressful. And then I want to also, you know, I'm on my way to my 50 movies. I want to make 50 movies by the time I'm 50. And I'm on my way there, you know, almost at the halfway point.

[Willie Geist]

You got that right. You still got a decade to do that. Yeah, you're good.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yeah, I'm gonna do that. And Then what else? And I wanna produce my own TV show, be the lead executive producer on that, which is coming up. I can feel it in my bones. And, you know, buy island, change the world. Maybe open up some studios in Africa. Open some movie theaters up in Africa. You know, since people be saying go back. Go back home. Which home is South Central la. But my roots is over there, so I can go there, too.

[Willie Geist]

Big dreams.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Big dreams. Yeah, big dreams. A lot of them. That's not even the whole. You want to hear the whole list?

[Willie Geist]

Yeah, I want all of it.

[Tiffany Haddish]

You want it all?

[Willie Geist]

I think we got there, right?

[Tiffany Haddish]

Do we have enough time? Yeah, because this list is long.

[Willie Geist]

Okay, let's go.

[Tiffany Haddish]

It's a scroll.

[Willie Geist]

Let's do it.

[Tiffany Haddish]

All right, so I also want to grow my own hair all the way to my booty. But first I want to cut all my hair off.

[Willie Geist]

Okay.

[Tiffany Haddish]

I want to see what my scalp look like. I've never seen my scalp before.

[Willie Geist]

All the way down?

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yeah, all the way down. Just like a straight buzz cut. Then I can see if my head is lopsided or if there's moles on my head because I want to know. I know every other part of my body. That's true. But I don't know my scalp.

[Willie Geist]

I don't know either.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Okay, then I would like. What else? And then I want to grow my hair all the way to my booty.

[Willie Geist]

How long is that going to take? From bald to the booty? That's a process.

[Tiffany Haddish]

I feel like if I take prenatal vitamins, it should. Should take two years, maybe three. I just started taking them. That's when my mustache start getting thick. So we'll see. I'm not even pregnant, but I read. Actually, I saw two YouTube videos that said prenatal vitamins make your hair and nails grow.

[Willie Geist]

Is that true?

[Maggie Law]

Okay.

[Tiffany Haddish]

I don't know. I saw it on YouTube. I'm a scientist. I'm gonna probably cure cancer. Okay. Because I'm a scientist, and I'm gonna do it, you know, the holistic botanical way. I got a microscope and so.

[Willie Geist]

Oh, you got.

[Tiffany Haddish]

I do. I do. I got a micro $300 microscope. That's the first thing I bought when I got a big check. I bought a microscope.

[Willie Geist]

Is that true?

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yeah. And I stayed there for, like, three days staring at germs. Really? From all kinds of places.

[Willie Geist]

Now, why is that? You're interested in being a doctor? Yeah.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Not a doctor, a scientist.

[Willie Geist]

Okay.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Is a scientist a doctor? Kind of.

[Willie Geist]

Maybe. Yeah.

[Tiffany Haddish]

I don't know.

[Willie Geist]

Well, you don't have to go to med school. So just be a scientist.

[Tiffany Haddish]

People do call me Dr. Haddish, who does? Like, my friends and stuff because, like, they might have a rash or eczema or something. I'm like, oh, I know how to get rid of that. What you need to do is blah, blah, blah, blah. And I give them the cure and they like, Dr. Haddish, my one friend. I'm allergic to my dog. I'm taking this rescue dog. I'm allergic to the dog. I'm like, just get some water and some, some apple cider vinegar or even white vinegar, mix it together and spray the dog down. Your allergies will go away.

[Willie Geist]

How'd you know that? You too?

[Tiffany Haddish]

No, that's just knowledge, okay? That's just knowledge. Cause normally if you're allergic to an animal, it's probably because the animal has parasites. What kills parasites in a natural, holistic way that won't kill the dog? Apple cider vinegar. Vinegar. That's God's bleach. Also lemon juice too. Wow.

[Willie Geist]

What don't you know?

[Tiffany Haddish]

I know a lot of random.

[Willie Geist]

Stick around to hear more from Tiffany Hadish on the Sunday sit down podcast, including why she taught herself to speak Japanese and how she did it.

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[Willie Geist]

Welcome back. I'm Willie Geiss. Now for more of my conversation with Tiffany Haddish on the Sunday Sit down podcast. Where did you just were dropping some Japanese on me? Where did you pick that up?

[Tiffany Haddish]

Well, I went to Japan to do comedy for the troops. Right. For the US Troops, not the Japanese troops. And when I was there, I started watching Japanese television and I was like, man, this is. This is pretty entertaining, especially the soap operas. And this is before I was the first African American female standup comedian to host snl. And I thought to myself, dang, I want to be the first to do something. And I didn't see any black people on the soap operas. And I thought, oh, what if I'm the first African American to be on a Japanese soap opera? That would be dope as hell. And I probably would be even more famous and more powerful because there's a lot of people in Japan and a lot of people that speak Japanese. So when I came back to the States, I went straight to the library and I got Pinsla's Japanese One on One. And I started playing those discs in the car when I'm sitting in traffic. You know, LA traffic. You sit in the car for two, three hours at a time. And I would just play those CDs over and over and over and over and practice while sitting in traffic. And that kept me from having road rage. And now I could communicate with basically anybody that speaks Japanese.

[Willie Geist]

So what happened to the Japanese soap opera idea?

[Tiffany Haddish]

I'm just waiting for a call.

[Willie Geist]

Oh, so it's still out there.

[Tiffany Haddish]

It's still out there.

[Willie Geist]

That would be amazing.

[Tiffany Haddish]

I don't know how to audition for one or how to get that going, so. Yeah, but it's going to happen.

[Willie Geist]

We go get that director. Just like you got the director of the Kitchen.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yeah. I got to figure out who's directing. And this the other problem, though. I can't read Japanese. I can only speak Japanese.

[Willie Geist]

We can get around that.

[Tiffany Haddish]

So, yeah, we can get somebody to tell me what the papers say, and then I'll just do it.

[Willie Geist]

Exactly. We need to make this happen.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Yeah. Because there's a lot of people that are actors now that can't read, but they getting trophies. They are. They winning. They not getting them. They buying them.

[Willie Geist]

This is so much fun. Thank you. Tiffany, congratulations.

[Tiffany Haddish]

Thank you. Appreciate you.

[Willie Geist]

My thanks again to Tiffany for just a great conversation. She is too much fun. Her new movie, the Kitchen, and is in theaters now. Maggie, I don't know about you. My takeaway is I'm running out to stop and shop to buy pickles and Kool Aid powder.

[Maggie Law]

I was gonna say the one thing I learned I have to go try is pickles dipped in Kool Aid powder or Fun Dip even. Yes. Yeah, wasn't expecting that one.

[Willie Geist]

And also she said you can stick a Jolly Rancher in it if you really want to punch it up.

[Maggie Law]

I really want it. I love it. I can't wait for that Tiffany Haddish food line coming out soon.

[Willie Geist]

She is just the best. My thanks to you as well all of you for tuning in this this week. If you want to hear more of the full length conversations with my guests every week, be sure to click subscribe so you never miss an episode. And don't forget to tune in on television to Sunday Today every weekend on NBC. I'm Willie Geist. We'll see you right back here next week on the Sunday Sit Down Podcast.

[Dr. Horton Advertiser]

Your new home is now ready. Dr. Horton, America's Builder has new homes that are ready today with new construction communities in Ellensburg and throughout the Greater Seattle area. Dr. Horton has the right home home for you. At Dr. Horton, we're still building with flexible living spaces, smart home technology and two and three car garages. More communities and more homes available every day. Find your new home in Ellensburg now [e-mail]. Dr. Horton, America's builder and equal Housing Opportunity Builder.