South Beach Sessions - Dulcé Sloan

Summary

South Beach Sessions – Dulcé Sloan

Podcast: The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Date: April 23, 2026
Guest: Dulcé Sloan (Comedian, Author, Performer, Former Daily Show Correspondent)

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Episode Overview

This episode features a candid, energetic, and deeply personal conversation between Dan Le Batard and comedian Dulcé Sloan. From the Elser Hotel in Downtown Miami, Dulcé walks listeners through her unconventional route to comedy stardom, her early experiences hustling at flea markets, her journey through day jobs, and landing at The Daily Show. The conversation is equal parts funny and poignant, examining race, family, creativity, perseverance, and the sometimes-mundane reality that sits beneath show business success. Dulcé’s authentic perspective—unfiltered and rich with lived experience—makes this episode an insightful window into the realities behind a performer's public persona.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Fake-Out Expectations and Setting the Stage

• Dulcé arrives expecting a sports-themed show, humorously puzzled by the calming, “California-vibe” studio (03:00).
• “This is very California. Yeah, the hexagon. Very natural shape. Very sacred shape, from what I hear. I don't know. I'm a Christian.” – Dulcé Sloan (03:39)
• The episode quickly veers into her life and creative journey, not sports, much to her feigned chagrin (02:16–04:14).

2. Childhood in Miami and Early Hustle

• Dulcé recounts moving frequently as a child (Miami, Oklahoma City, Colorado, Atlanta).
• Talks about working in a Miami flea market with her mother; started her own toy business at age 9 (04:23–05:20).
• “I was always good at getting a job, but I always hated jobs... sitting in some office making some white man's dream come true.” – Dulcé Sloan (05:24)

3. Discovering Performance & the Power of Parental Support

• By age 6, Dulcé “knew” she wanted to perform and shares an anecdote about her tap dancing in a doctor’s waiting room (07:33–08:04).
• Her mother’s refusal to let her be pushed into backstage roles (lighting) in school theater was formative; “She said, you have to decide who you're going to be, not someone else.” (08:04–09:46)

4. Day Jobs, Grittiness, and Bilingual Hustle

• Worked a tremendous variety of jobs post-college (insurance, car sales, power company, trash company, stucco, jewelry business, party planning) (11:05–12:14, 35:17–35:34).
• Experienced sexism and exploitation in the workplace: “One of my bosses told me that he didn’t want to pay me if I wasn’t going to sleep with him…” (12:19)

5. Full Tank Saturdays & Relentless Auditions

• Outlined her approach to breaking in via “Full Tank Saturdays”—maximizing weekend auditions and gigs to build a resume while working day jobs (15:19–17:46).
• Even her early plays and improv troupes were stepping stones built out of necessity, performing mainly “after work” (17:17–17:46).

6. Transition to Stand-up

• Comedy was not her first dream: acting was always the target; stand-up arose from persistent encouragement (“Big Kenny” nudged her into a standup class after two years of convincing) (18:08–21:47).
• Pushed by her mother’s dream: “She had a dream the whole world was laughing at me. As a black person and as a Southerner, if your mama tells you she had a dream about something, now you have to do it.” (20:41)

7. Stand-Up: The Scary Truth of Self-Performance

• Stand-up is fundamentally different (“You’re no longer a vessel… you are now writing down your own thoughts and bringing them to an audience.”) (22:44–22:56)
• “Find your light, be still”—on learning stagecraft and presence from theater, advantage over comics with less stage background (24:54–25:28).

8. Not the Class Clown, and Defining ‘Funny’

• Never identified as the “class clown”; in fact, found them annoying. Her humor emerged as authentic storytelling, not attention-seeking (26:16–27:28).
• Early confidence from theater and debate—stage presence was never the problem, only stand-up’s vulnerability was (27:59–28:50).

9. Breaks, Hustle, and Luck in Comedy Careers

• Candidly describes the realities of “opportunity”: “Comedy was always a way that allowed me to perform. And so I was never competitive with other comics.” (30:57–34:11)
• Acting carried the dreams of “Emmy, Oscar, Golden Globe”; comedy was means to keep those ambitions alive.

10. Life on the Road & The Daily Show Reality

• Recounts near-misses driving through mountains doing road gigs (“Almost died five times in Pennsylvania!” 43:44).
• Getting The Daily Show was a blessing—but it’s another office job: “I worked so hard to get out of an office, and then I hard worked myself back into her office. I don't even have a window.” (44:13–45:03)
• The creative environment is still bound by hierarchy, bureaucracy, and uncertainty: “Every day you don’t know if you’re on the show… you get inserted into a machine that's already working.” (55:03)

11. The Unique Perspective of Black Performers

• Dulcé discusses how talking frankly about her life—a black woman’s experience—became interpreted as “political,” even when that wasn’t the intent (37:06–38:34).
• Her famous bit unpacking the nuances of police violence, black womanhood, and Atlanta culture is dissected as comedy-as-therapy, built from lived trauma: “It took me a year to figure out this bit… all this joke was, was me just presenting information and going, ‘Hey, did you know that the police have been killing black women the entire time?’” (41:39–43:06)

12. Mentorship, Community, and Paying It Forward

• Acknowledges many people “pushed” her—Big Kenny, comics who insisted she take opportunities, friends who lent cars and couches (50:25–51:02).
• Notes the difference between today’s “baby comics” wanting to belong versus the imperative to learn and observe (51:26–52:27).

13. Navigating Success, Selling Yourself, and the Black Performer’s Double Bind

• Sharp observations on industry: “You are cornflakes. You are a product that is bought and sold. That is the nature… That’s why we have a union.” (57:57)
• Importance, complexity, and potential loneliness of being “the voice” within a well-known institution, and always advocating for your own perspective (60:35).

14. Making Joy From the Mundane

• When asked about her greatest joy at the Daily Show, Dulcé’s answer is prosaic but meaningful: “Buying my house… The goal was to work hard because you think you supposed to work hard and you save money and you buy a house.” (56:26)

15. Industry Inertia and The Burden of Representation

• Explores the frustration of being pressured to feel perpetually grateful as a black woman in high-profile roles, rather than being allowed to be honest about challenges (57:44–62:29).
• Tells a story on BBC’s BAFTA’s N-word broadcast slip, the inadequacy of institutional responses, and the complications of turning racial trauma into “comedy” for general audiences (62:34–65:09).
• “My responsibility is to tell jokes. It is not my responsibility to make you feel better. My responsibility is to do my job.” – paraphrasing Kosta (65:09)

16. Closing: Reflections on Audience, Intention, and Absurdity

• Dulcé, with typical humor, calls out the male-dominated, perhaps inattentive audience of the podcast, joking that “If there's a man listening to this, he's pushing a stroller. How very dare you.” (68:36)
• She and the hosts cap off the episode with banter about expectations, miscommunication, and the reality that her story refuses to be neatly summarized.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "That's what every job is, sitting in an office making some white man's dream come true." – Dulcé Sloan (05:24)
• “As a black person and as a Southerner, if your mama tells you she had a dream about something, now you have to do it.” – Dulcé Sloan (20:41)
• “In comedy, you perform by yourself. There’s no ensemble. But all your first opportunities...is other comedians.” – Dulcé Sloan (34:11)
• “You are cornflakes. You are a product that is bought and sold.” – Dulcé Sloan (57:57)
• “My responsibility is to tell jokes. It is not my responsibility to make you feel better.” – paraphrasing Kosta (65:09)
• “Comedy was such a surprise to me...every opportunity is a great opportunity. If I get Conan, if I never get Conan, that’s fine. Because comedy was always a way that allowed me to perform. And so I was never competitive with other comics.” – Dulcé Sloan (30:57)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 03:00 – Dulcé’s confusion about podcast format, sets playful tone
• 04:23–05:20 – Flea market business as a child
• 12:14–12:19 – Sexism and workplace exploitation in early jobs
• 15:19–17:46 – “Full Tank Saturdays,” audition hustle
• 18:08–21:47 – Getting nudged into stand-up, mother’s dream prophecy
• 22:44–27:59 – Stand-up versus acting, finding her creative identity
• 34:11–35:34 – The gift economy and mentorship among comics
• 41:39–43:06 – Bit about learning of police violence against Black women, using comedy to process trauma
• 44:13–45:03 – Arriving at The Daily Show, surprise at office culture
• 55:03–56:26 – The unpredictable, unstable reality of working on The Daily Show
• 57:57–60:35 – Being a product, the reality of “selling yourself” as a black performer
• 62:34–65:09 – The BAFTA controversy, burden of having to “make things funny”
• 68:36 – Lighthearted riff on podcast audience being “men pushing strollers”

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Closing Tone

Constantly witty, honest, and fast-moving, this episode is Dulcé Sloan at her best: blending comedy with real-life grit, calling out the absurdities of her own industries, and spotlighting the complexity of black womanhood in entertainment. Listeners leave with a truer sense of what professionalism, perseverance, and joy look like beneath the surface of “success”—as well as a deep appreciation for both the humor and heart Dulcé pours into her work.

Transcript

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[Interviewer]

It's actually something new that I've been trying as an organic intro because I have found my introductions to be starched and stiff.

[Dulce Sloan]

So you want me to do it?

[Interviewer]

I would actually. I would like to do it.

[Dulce Sloan]

Let me see.

[Interviewer]

I would like you to introduce. Dulceaysloan.com is where you get the tickets. She's a former Daily show correspondent, but I will let you do it. Go ahead. You do it.

[Dulce Sloan]

Hello, friends. Welcome to the Dan LeBatard Show. And I'm the guest for today, Dulce Sloan, a former Daily show correspondent and host, an author and podcast host, a truly hilarious standup, and you can see me on tour [e-mail] tour. I also have a lip gloss company with comedian Lace Larrabee. Gigglegloss.com and I have started a ministry to let people know that you do not have to suffer through broke men the way I have suffered. @nomorebrokedick.com we have pillow covers, mirrors, pouches, all the motivational things that you need to make sure. Stickers, magnets to make sure that there won't be a broke man in. In your home. Now, I'm on the show today. I heard this was a sports thing.

[Interviewer]

Well, it's not a sports thing. It's meant to be biographical and tell people about your life. Show them insight into funny people, creative people. Show them how it is that you became creative. What are the roots of that creativity? How you got your funny man.

[Dulce Sloan]

That's why I came dressed as Field Pitch, because I thought that this is a sports podcast so I'd come on and learn about sports and find a nice man.

[Co-host or Guest]

But now we're in the biographical room. I ain't seen no Jersey. I walked in, I was like, ain't now Jersey in here? There's no dirty microphones.

You thought you were doing a sports show. It was sports. You thought you were coming in here. You came in here with no understanding of what it is you're doing.

[Dulce Sloan]

No, no, no. I looked it up and I kept seeing a lot of sports stuff. So I was like, sports stuff?

[Co-host or Guest]

And then I walked in.

[Dulce Sloan]

I'm just like, oh, man, this is very deep thinking. This is very. So let's talk about you.

[Interviewer]

What did Roy tell you? Did you get some.

[Co-host or Guest]

You got some crib notes from Roy?

[Dulce Sloan]

And Roy was like, it's sports and pop culture, but this isn't giving.

[Interviewer]

No, it's not.

[Co-host or Guest]

Okay, we'll work on the decor.

[Interviewer]

You're right.

[Co-host or Guest]

It's not giving sports.

No, it's not giving sports or pop culture.

[Dulce Sloan]

This is like. So tell me.

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah, that is.

[Interviewer]

You know what?

[Co-host or Guest]

This will give you some.

[Interviewer]

So tell me, though.

[Co-host or Guest]

I do do something. You know what?

[Dulce Sloan]

There's so many natural colors in here.

[Interviewer]

I was just complaining to the producer of South Beach Sessions. I was just saying that it's my fault that these don't have range that I should. Because I talk to the comedians, and then we go into the pain, we go into the grief, we go into some of the places that are. So tell me. And so you.

[Dulce Sloan]

Oh, this is the Southeast Sessions.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, But I think this. I think that this. You're right. That it's the environment that I need some more things in here to make

[Dulce Sloan]

it more playful, beachy. As someone who was born in Miami and we lived there for a time, this is very California. Yeah, the hexagon. Very natural shape. Very sacred shape, from what I hear. I don't know. I'm a Christian. Um, but, yeah, it's giving very. We're gonna. We're gonna figure this. Everything's natural tones, everything's calming tones, which is. Like I said, I thought I was gonna be dressed like the green of a football field or baseball field. Or field.

[Interviewer]

Or a putting green.

[Dulce Sloan]

Or a putting green.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Dulce Sloan]

Or a baseball field.

[Co-host or Guest]

Honestly, to pull a baseball player.

[Dulce Sloan]

Smart. They get the least amount of head injuries, and they have the best union.

[Interviewer]

Tell me about the Miami flea market days. Let's go back to the beginning. So tell me.

[Dulce Sloan]

So, basically, so I was born in Miami. Me and my mom were born in Miami in the same hospital. And then my father and my brother were born in Oklahoma City. They split. We moved to Colorado, and then we moved to Atlanta. And all of this happened before I started kindergarten. And then we moved back to Miami, and my grandpa got sick, and so we were working. My mom is starting a clothing company. Well, she started a clothing company in Atlanta. She made little girls clothes. I was kind of the model and stuff. And so in Miami, we worked in this flea market in Florida City, and she Sold clothes and she sold hair. And then I started selling toys. Cause I would see grown men selling toys. And sometimes he would ask me to help him, and I'm like, hmm, he does very well when I'm standing here and he. My own company. And so my mother took me to a wholesale toy place, got me some inventory, and so I was selling toys. And then when my grandpa passed away, we moved back to Atlanta. And I stayed in Atlanta until I moved to LA, until 2016.

[Interviewer]

What were you good at?

[Dulce Sloan]

We've always had a lot of jobs. I've always worked because I've been working since I was 9. I was always good at getting a job, but I always hated jobs because I was like, I'm not supposed to be here. I'm not supposed to be sitting in some office making some white man's dream come true. That's what every job is, is sitting in an office making some white man's dream come true. So I was like, I gotta get outta here, make my own dreams come true. And then I started doing stand up in 2009, and I didn't expect to be doing it. And this year, in May, it'll be 17 years that I've been doing Stand Up.

[Interviewer]

So when you said make your own dreams, though, what did those look like back then?

[Dulce Sloan]

Why I wanted to be an actor. I mean, I am an actor, but I'm more a performer. Cause the goal was always to make a living as a performer. I never wanted to, like, sit in an office. All, like, sitting in, like, just sitting in office all day. Just felt like it's factory work. It's just a different kind of factory. Instead of putting windshields and Buicks, you're pushing paper or sending an email. It's still like, repetitive work. And even as a comic, like, you're still, like. You get your jokes down and you tell those jokes, you tell those jokes, and then you sell those jokes, and then you have to come up with more jokes. So work in work, by definition, is repetitive. And so as someone who doesn't enjoy repetitive things, the travel behind Stand up gets me to break that monotony. Because every show is different. Even though you're telling the same jokes, how you tell the jokes is different, always based on how the audience interprets them. So as much as it's the same, it's different. But sometimes you get tired of doing your sets. You're just like, all right, me and my homeboy went to the Mustard Museum. You want to hear about it? And then have first out of yourself is you and your friend at the Mustard Museum because you're in Madison, Wisconsin. Why not?

[Interviewer]

So you were always creative, though. So you knew that, you're saying a performer, but you knew at nine years old, six. Okay. So you know at six that you're going to be somebody who's going to be in front of people and going to have the confidence of her performance to carry her.

[Co-host or Guest]

Mm.

[Dulce Sloan]

Because my mother told me a story, she said. And I was like, you told me when I was a kid. I don't remember doing this. I was like 4 years old. I think we were in. Where we were living, maybe when we live in Colorado, and we're at the doctor's office, and I'm going around the top doctor's office pretending I could tap dance. I guess I'd see. She said, I'd seen somebody tap dance on tv. I guess I wanted to learn. And I was on, like, four, and I'm, like, clicking and clacking on these doctor's office with sandals on. And this lady, she said, this lady looked at. Over at me, she goes, oh, my goodness. You tap dance? I said, yeah. She said, you're very good. And my mom said. I looked at her and said, and

[Co-host or Guest]

I never had had a lesson.

[Dulce Sloan]

And I'm just like. And she went, okay, this is what I got. But I remember, like, I remember auditioning. So we moved back to Miami, went to magnet school, and I was auditioning for the theater program because I wanted to be. Because it was decided when I was six, I was going to be an actor. And I auditioned for the theater program, and the lady running the theater department was just a little bit racist. And she. I came home and I told my mom that they had put me in the lighting. I was gonna be doing the lighting stuff for the theater. And my mother was like, you're not gonna join the theater program. And I was like, what? She said, you're not supposed to be doing the lights. You're supposed to be performing. And my mom at the time worked at the school, so she was like, no, you're not doing it. And I was like, huh? And so one. I could see that my mother was very supportive of me, but it was also her defining for me. You have to decide who you're going to be, not someone else. So since this lady just didn't want me to be. Cause I had my audition went well. And she said it went well. And then she put me in the lighting department also. It was a theater. The school had been destroyed by Hurricane Andrew. So the Theater was inside of. It was going to be in the cafeteria, the caf. You know, cafetorium that they put in elementary schools. What lights was I supposed to be running? I'm 11. I'm not climbing up to the ceiling and adjusting lights. So what was I actually going to be doing? Nothing. And so my mother was like, no, you're not doing it. And that was helpful to me because it was just like, oh. She's like, this is not what you're supposed to be doing, so you're not going to do it.

[Interviewer]

And so later in life, you end up in a bunch of jobs and you're crawling around in your skin because you know they're not for you. Like, they just don't feel right. They're not.

[Dulce Sloan]

Yeah. Because it's like when I was in. So I get to middle school, I was in the theater. High school, I did all the plays. College. I got a theater degree. And my college professor, whatever. Wasn't as supportive as he needed to be as a teacher. And I'll leave it at that. Cause I don't.

[Interviewer]

We don't need to swipe some college professor who wronged you because he was a bad professor.

[Dulce Sloan]

No, no, no. He didn't wrong me. He wronged generations of kids.

[Interviewer]

Okay. There was a lot in that. Whatever. I felt it in that whatever.

[Co-host or Guest]

The generation of kids.

[Dulce Sloan]

Your whatever covered 30 years of, you know, breaking children. And I talked about it in a book, but it's like, it doesn't need airtime because that would only make him feel better. But let's just say I'm the most successful graduate of the theater department and nobody knew I'm gonna. And he didn't talk about that because he couldn't take credit for me. So you would let your ego supersede the success of the other aspects of the department. You see what I'm saying?

[Interviewer]

I felt all of that in the. Whatever you covered it. The whatever was said with such. With such disdain that I felt all of that.

[Dulce Sloan]

It's not necessary. And so. But when you get out of. In college, I had jobs. Out of college, I had jobs. And you have to work to live. And so I had a lot of different day jobs. I remember a homeboy I had grown up. He said, why are you calling day jobs? I said, because they're just jobs that you do until you do what you actually. Until you can make a living at what you want to do. And I am very blessed and very fortunate to be making a living what I want to do. And a lot of things have Changed. It's very difficult, but I was able to get jobs quickly because I do speak Spanish. Because when we were in. I was in elementary school in Miami. I started learning when I was 9. So I was in the fourth grade, and it was every day from about fourth grade to sixth grade. And so I learned it so little that I was able to pick up very fast. So by the time I got to. It was my minor in college, and I took it in high school. And then. So by the time I got out of out into the workforce, I was able to sell cars, work on a car lot, insurance company, power company, trash company, stucco supply. I worked a lot of different.

[Interviewer]

What was the worst of them?

[Dulce Sloan]

All of them?

[Interviewer]

Well, same monotony.

[Co-host or Guest]

It's.

[Dulce Sloan]

I guess the worst was the car lot because I didn't realize how scammy it was. And I was, I say, fresh out of college. I'm talking about like two months. And one of my bosses told me that he didn't want to pay me if I wasn't going to sleep with him. And I looked him in the face. I was like, sir, I just got a college degree. That's not going to work. That's not going to work. I have a college degree in a bilingual. This is not going to work. And I don't have. Now another girl that was there, her mom had just kicked her out. She barely graduated from high school. She was on her own. She was like, well, you know, you got to do what you got to do. I say, you got to do what you got to do. I'm finna go get another job. We ain't got to do the same stuff.

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[Interviewer]

did your dreams look like then though, and how far did you feel from them?

[Dulce Sloan]

Well, since I just got out of school, I'm like, oh, there's so many opportunities. Because I was 22, I just got out of school, so I would do something I called Full Tank Saturdays where there used to be a lot of websites where you could look at different like non union auditions in Atlanta. So on Saturdays I would go to as many auditions as I could go to. And so I did like small film projects. I did community theater. So I was in production of Raisin in the Sun. I played Beneatha. I was in two plays from a local playwright. One of them, interesting enough is I was playing my mom and I didn't know it because my characters like had like a story that was something that overlapped, you know, something that happened in my mom's life when she was younger. So I would do plays and then I was in an improv troupe for two years. So even though I was working during the day, I was still doing other stuff to go. This is going to help me in the long run because I know this is what I'm supposed to be doing.

[Interviewer]

Full tank Saturdays. So you're just driving?

[Dulce Sloan]

I'm driving. Audition, audition, audition. I worked at Stone Mountain park at the VeggieTales show I did.

[Interviewer]

Which of the veggies were you?

[Dulce Sloan]

Oh, I just taught the kids the song. I did not hop in the suit because you had. I wasn't tall enough for one and I was two. I think I was too tall for the other one because I couldn't be Larry or the other one. But I would teach the kids all the veggietale songs at Stone Mountain Park. Funny enough, owned by the same people who owned Dollywood. So when they made me, my homegirl went to Dollywood just randomly, because I can go for free. And so, yeah, I did. I would audition, do as many different auditions I could on a Saturday so I could be able to function and just go. Like, I'm sitting in this office doing payroll deduction, you know, helping people buy computers through their job.

[Interviewer]

Oh, you're just dying to get to Saturdays. Like, your dreams are on Saturday. Like, you're gonna go find.

[Dulce Sloan]

Well, the dream's after work. So the dream is like, after. Like after work because you're sitting in your office all day to be able to afford to be in this play that's paying you not for any of the rehearsals, but just for the production. So you get out of work, and so you have rehearsal after work, or you have the shows on the weekends. So you work during the day to be able to do what you want to do at night.

[Interviewer]

You knew exactly what you were chasing, though, right? Like, so now you're out of school and on the weekends, because of the nature of the options, you're chasing performance. There's no question about what it is you're gonna do. But I'll ask you again, what does the dream look like from there? Because surely it doesn't have all this in it, right? Like, it's not through a political or journalism path, through a comedy show. It's not through any of that stuff.

[Dulce Sloan]

It was. The goal is. I just knew that I wanted to move to LA and be an actor full time. I did not know that getting to LA would require me to become a comedian. So when I started, because a friend of mine worked the door of a comedy club in Atlanta. And so I was in this improv troupe. And she was like, my little sister's from college. She's like, hey, I work the door at this comedy club. I'll let you in for free. Come hang out. I'm like, all right, so go and hang out with her. And then sometimes I can't be hovering around her because she's running the door, right? She's taking tickets, she's selling tickets, whatever. So that's how I meet some of the comedians. And one of the comedians, Big Kenny, just from talking to him. Because I would go up there all the time. If I didn't have an improv thing or if I wasn't in a play or just had free time, I'd go hang out with her. And I met some of the comics and like, you should start doing stand up. You're funny. And I'm like, nah, I'm not. That's not. I'm not a stand up. And stand up scared me because I'd never been on stage and been saying my own words and being myself. I was always playing a character. And so it took Big Kenny two years to convince me to take a stand up class. And I was on unemployment because I had gotten laid off from a car insurance company. They got bought out and they did layoffs. And me and my homegirl who worked there, we were the youngest ones and we were the last ones hired. So you're the first ones fired. And so one week of my unemployment check was, how much does comedy class cost? And I was like. And for after two years, he was inviting me and my mom to shows. Come hang out. He's like, I'm not doing anything untoward. I'm married. I have kids. Come to this show. Bring your mom. He's like, I know you're supposed to be doing this. He's like, you're funny. You know it's funny. You know what a punchline is, the conversation. You just don't know how to write a joke. And I was like, nope. And two years later, he. It's like 2009, he's doing another standup class. And I had taken a sketch writing class in this place called Sketchworks in Atlanta. And so it was either take the next round of the sketch comedy class, and then Big Candy called me and was like, or take the stand up class. Both cost 300 bucks. I really didn't have it because it was my whole unemployment check. And I had bills to pay. I'd pay rent. And Big Kenny goes, you're supposed to be doing this. You're not gonna Pay for the class.

[Interviewer]

And I was like, he's got your boxed in.

[Dulce Sloan]

And then I told my mom, and she goes, you should take the class. I was like, mama, I don't know. She said, no. She said she had a dream that the whole world was laughing at me. And as a black person and as a Southerner, if your mama tells you she had a dream about something, now you have to do it. And it's, you know, in the same. You know, it's like, of all communities of color, if your mama has a dream about something, you got to do it. So it doesn't matter where your mom is from, regardless of religion, whatever.

[Co-host or Guest]

I think you're speaking a universal truth, right?

[Dulce Sloan]

If you got a nod, I know

[Interviewer]

that's Latin women, too, right?

[Dulce Sloan]

Your mother call you mija?

[Co-host or Guest]

I don't know. Swaying. Yeah.

[Dulce Sloan]

I told you.

[Co-host or Guest]

I'm trying to tell you, don't talk to that boy.

[Dulce Sloan]

So it's like, I had a dream you're pregnant or you got that job, or da, da, da, da.

[Co-host or Guest]

You gotta get a new car.

[Dulce Sloan]

Something like that. If your mom calls you and says you had a dream, your grandma, your auntie, whatever they call you, say you had a dream, you gotta. You have to do the thing, right? And so I was like, all right, well, big candy to the class is free. My mom had a dream, so I have to do it. And so now, 17 years later, I live in LA and my family. And I move my family out.

[Interviewer]

Okay, hold on a second, though, before we get to that portion of it. So take me back to. You're taking this class against your will, and it's just dawning on you at any point. Oh, I've been in the parts of the performance that are wearing a mask I like.

[Dulce Sloan]

Is that a mask?

[Interviewer]

Well, it's somebody else. You're being someone else.

[Dulce Sloan]

So what? It is. And that's why I always hate when people say that whenever somebody's like, oh, I'm a good actor because I'm a good liar. You're not a good actor because you're a good liar. Acting is being truthful in an imaginary situation. Because if you're lying as an actor, you're not being truthful to the character. You're not being truthful to the situation. So it's. You have to be as true to this character and as true to this person. Because you're breathing life, you're pulling somebody off a page. You're birthing a thing, you're birthing a person, and so you have to be truthful. In this. And so other people have different methods just to just how I see it, I believe it.

[Interviewer]

Well, but you just said something interesting though, when you said that the part of standup that you feared is that it's my words, my life. Like, it's not the performance of the standup. It's not the expectation.

[Dulce Sloan]

Because all I've ever done is given is breathe life into a. Into another person. All I've ever done was present. So it's like this person was on a page. And then my job is to create the most truthful and believable depiction of this person on a page. So with Stand up, it's. I'm not. I am the. There's no page. You see what I'm saying? So it's not someone else's words. So there wasn't a playwright creating a person. So I am no longer a vessel for someone else. I am now writing down my own thoughts and bringing them to an audience. And so, like, if you're in a play that's bad. The play was badly written. The play was badly written. You have no control over that. You're just in a play if you're. If someone's characterization is bad. Like, I've been in plays with people who are not good actors at all. Actors are very loose term when it came to whatever that person was doing, because I wouldn't call it acting. They were outside saying words, and so their way of saying words was not great. We were all doing a great job. I don't know what the hell was happening on stage. Right. And so again, there's someone else's words, but your portrayal, you didn't bring the person to life in a truthful way. Stand up was me just being me. But then as you progress as a comic, you realize that you're still creating because it's just you on stage. Because the advantage that I have when I started standup is because I'd been performing my entire life. So the learning curve when people start doing standup is a lot of them had never. For comics who had never been on stage before, it's. You're learning how to be on stage and you're learning how to write a joke and you're learning how to find out what's funny, and you're learning what you find is funny. For me, it was. I already knew what I knew was funny.

[Interviewer]

You had a shortcut.

[Dulce Sloan]

I had a shortcut because I'd been acting since I was a kid. So the basics, people are like, well, what is one of the things you would like to tell comics when they start. Be still. Find your light. You are not Chris Rock. You don't need to do premise, premise, setup, setup, punchline. Because if you notice Chris Rock, he walks, walks, punchline. Walks, walks, punchline. But he worked for years as a comic to find out that that's what his delivery should be. Also, he's performing at Madison Square Garden. He has to fill up the stage. You were on four pallets at a brewery.

[Co-host or Guest]

Be still.

[Dulce Sloan]

You're under a spotlight that they strapped to a pole in a warehouse. Be still, be still. Find your light. Don't stop performing in the. Get in the middle where the light is, plant your feet, talk directly to the audience or talk to the back wall. And I already had that experience and already had that advantage. So when I started, all I had to. And I knew. And I knew enough about myself because I'd also been in, like, my college is a pageant with a freshman, so it's called Miss Bernal Pageant. So, like, I did like, oratorical contests and different things, like then speaking contests. And I was in a. Like, I think I was on the debate team for like a second. So, like, I'd gotten up and spoken in front of people before and been myself, but it's still nerve wracking.

[Interviewer]

But you didn't think you were funny though, either, did you?

[Dulce Sloan]

Like, no, I didn't think because. And I'll get messages from people.

[Co-host or Guest]

Oh, my God, I always thought you were funny.

[Dulce Sloan]

What? What do you mean? I just said, what's going on?

[Co-host or Guest]

Because that class clown kid, I hated

[Dulce Sloan]

that class clown kid. I was like, I don't know what's going on at his house, but he needs his attention. I looked at one dude, I was, I was like, please take the theater class. He's like, why? I said, you need somebody to look at you, please. And I had to be like, 14. Please go. Please go to theater or chorus or something because you're interrupting my education. I don't. I don't understand this math at all. And you trying to be funny is not fucking helpful. Open, please, please go take a theater class. Otherwise you're gonna keep getting in trouble and getting kicked out of school, and I'm not gonna be able to learn this algebra. You're fucking up everybody's day.

[Interviewer]

So when did you figure out that you were funny? Like, how long were you. Were you bad at it for a while or.

[Dulce Sloan]

I would. Well, I. When I started doing standup, I took that six week standup class. And so at the Graduation. Cause here was the thing. I knew how to tell a funny story, so I knew what a punchline was. And I kind of understand what this premise of a setup was.

[Interviewer]

And your. Your personality is organically. I mean, it's. It's energetic, it's right.

[Dulce Sloan]

So I was able to use that to my advantage. And then so I already had, like a presence on stage, just in general, so I don't have to say anything, but I can fill up a stage. So no matter how big it was, because it was like, we would do, like, we weren't mic'd when I was in college. Like, the stage was mic'd somewhere, but we personally weren't mic'd. So I had to sing to the back of a room in a 900 seat or whatever, or be on stage and deliver a monologue. So I knew I had to fill up a space. I knew how to be in a, you know, a small comedy club and have my whole presence go to the back of the room. I knew how to do that.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. And the confidence of the performer there, of you having trained the skills to, like, that, it almost. Yes, the words are important, and obviously you need to be funny, but the shell that's walking up there of learning is already a confident performing being, knows how to perform. Isn't going to be self conscious about. About performing or. Or too nervous in a way that people could see from an amateur.

[Dulce Sloan]

Right. And so. But it's still. But I still get nervous even. I was at the Laugh Factory two weeks ago, and they were like, okay, this person's running late. Can you go up? And I was like, shit. Because I was just hanging out, and I was like, let me think of something. So at the beginning, it was like me being not nervous about performing, and I'm like, I didn't have what I was gonna say planned out. And then it was just like, you kind of just have to go, all right, let me scoop some stuff. It was like. Because I didn't. I had, like. I knew in four minutes I was going up and so.

[Interviewer]

And you have no material. You're unprepared. You know, anybody would be nervous in that spot, anything.

[Dulce Sloan]

Well, here's the thing. I was like, okay, I know what I'm working on. But also it's like, I didn't know how much time I was doing. So, like, you know, you're like, all right, I got my 10 minute, I got my 12, I got my 15, I got my 30. Whatever it was. I was just gonna go until they gave me the Light until. Until whoever it was that was late showed up. So now it was. I'm trying to plan in real time. Okay, what am I going to talk about? Because I actually don't know how long I'm going to be on stage. So in that situation, it's like, I'm just gonna talk until I get a light. And so at first you're like. And then you're like, all right. But it's like, it's. You're always prepared because you always know there's something you can say. But it's just like the beginning of it where you're like, okay, yes. And so sometimes the audience sees that, but most of the time you don't want them to, because if the audience is not confident that you are confident, you're going to lose them, and it's going to be very hard to get them back. And so I had the advantage from doing theater. And I was in a play for. There was a play that I was doing for, like, a year and some change. And sometimes their house was full, Sometimes the house was very small. And so I'd already had the experience of performing in front of 10 people or 900 people. And I knew how a crowd felt. That was the other advantage that I had when I started standup over other comics, was that I knew how an audience felt. I knew how to move them the way I wanted to move them and get them to react the way that I wanted to react. Because sometimes is with a joke, it's just sometimes it's your body, it's your face. You can't rely on that. You can't rely on that body. Shout out to Michelle, massage. But it's one of the hardest things with comic starters also. They don't know what a room full of people feels like. And sometimes you'll watch comics like, oh, it's a bad crowd. And then the next comic kills. And like, no, that's you. And then sometimes you're on a show and everybody has a bad set, and you're like, these people. Every single comic that comes off is going, these people.

[Co-host or Guest]

These people. Oh, my God.

[Dulce Sloan]

And then there's other times that it's like, you can't do anything. Anything wrong. You can't say anything wrong. They're having a great time, and they love it. So it's like, there wasn't ever a time. Here was a difference with me. The other comics that started comedy was such a surprise to me. So, like, when I got Conan the first time, one of the comics was like, oh, My God, you just must be so excited. Like, yeah, it's a great opportunity. You know, it's my first late night set, you know, about 2016, 2016. And I'd only been a full time comic for a year and I was doing colleges. No, no, no, no. It wasn't a year. I quit my day job in November of 2015, and then I got Conan and I performed on Conan in February of 2016 when I moved here. And so when I moved to LA and remember some comic being like, oh, my God, it must have just a big goal of yours to do Conan. I was like, no, it's like, what do you mean? I said my goal is to do anything. When it came to stand up, I didn't like for acting. It's like, I want to win an Emmy. I want to win an Oscar. I want to win a Golden Globe. I want to win. I want to be in these. I want to have deep roles, I want to have intense roles. I want to do voiceover. I had all of these goals for acting because the goal had always been, remember as a kid, I was like, by the 60th Emmy, I'm going to be there. By the, by the 75th Emmys, I'm going to be there. I don't know what number we're on now. I mean, the oscars, like the 50s, the 70th Oscars, like, I'm going to be there. I'm going to be there. I never thought about stand up that way because I was never a goal for me to be a stand up comedian. And then when I started doing comedy, it was every opportunity is a great opportunity. If I get Conan, if I never get Conan, that's fine. If I get the Tonight show or if I never get the Tonight show, that's fine. Because comedy was always a way that allowed me to perform. And so it was always a thing that took care of the performer because acting was the goal and comedy is the thing that allows me to perform. And so I was never competitive with other comics. I never was looking at anybody else's paper because once I started, I was like, oh, this is a solo sport. But it's not. You perform by yourself. There's no ensemble. Right. You perform by yourself. But all of your first opportunities and most of your opportunities for a long time in your standup career is other comedians. I got a festival because other comedians recommended me. I got most of the stuff you actually get in your career as an entertainer. Somebody goes, oh, I work with this person. Go with this. Oh, I Did this. I worked with this producer. A lot of it is word of mouth. And so. But there's a way that comics can give people opportunities that actors can't. So a comic can go, oh, hey, I had somebody drop out. Can you hop on the show? Hey, somebody is late. Can you hop on this show? It's not, hey, somebody can't do this play tonight. Can you come?

[Interviewer]

Right?

[Dulce Sloan]

Can you come do this? Because I can do. I've done four shows. I've seen comics do five, especially in New York. Five, six shows in a night. You can't do five plays in a night. You see what I'm saying? Yeah, can't do five plays in a week. And so I did summer stock theater years ago in Quakertown, Pennsylvania. We were there for 12 weeks. We did four musicals, 12 children's shows and a children's theater camp. And I was in nine of those children's shows, and five of them I was a bird. So. And my best performance was when I played the goose that laid the golden egg. And I had to convey all of my emotions through squawking. And I had. And it's a 45 minute show because kids shows are short a starring role.

[Interviewer]

For you, though, the golden. I mean, everybody wants the golden egg. Everybody wants to be the goose that

[Co-host or Guest]

lays the golden egg. Who doesn't want to be that?

[Dulce Sloan]

And Jack comes to steal me. And I have to tell the kids, like I'm squawking to tell the kids to wake the giant up. And the giant's being played by, I think, our shortest friend. So it's. I've done a lot. I've had a lot. It's like, I remember being at Daily show one day I was like. And I said something about a job, and then a couple days later, I said something about a job. And either one of my friends said to me the other day, how many

[Co-host or Guest]

jobs have you had?

[Dulce Sloan]

And I was like, I think one year I had 11 W2s because I was. I'm all. Because I used to have a jewelry business. I used to do crafts and scavenger hunts, kids birthday parties. Like, I've always worked all of it,

[Interviewer]

though, to build the nest egg so that your dreams could become. Not exactly this. Right, you're living them, but this. You had no access to the idea of, I'm gonna be on a political comedy show. I'm gonna be in a television studio.

[Dulce Sloan]

No, the difference with Daily show is that Daily show is an office with a TV show in it. And nobody told you that because I was working at offices forever. And then I remember. And then I was on the road for like a year and a half, two years doing colleges. Almost died in the state of Pennsylvania five times, promise you. And I was so happy to be working full time. And it was hard being on the road. And I started taking my homeboy with me. And then one time we did a stretch of colleges and I did 13 shows in 14 days in six different states, or you would do different block bookings and stuff like that. And so I went from working in an office and then driving all over the east coast and the Midwest doing colleges, to being at Daily show. And they asked me to audition. And I think I'd done. I did Conan in 2016, and then I'd done like New Faces. And I won Stand up for Diversity. And then I won. That was a comedy competition. I won Big sky, which is a comedy competition. I was a new face in 2015 for JFL and I was doing all of these festivals and I was like 33 or something. And the audition for Daily show came in and I didn't want to do it because I didn't want to move to New York. It was the main reason I didn't want to move to New York. I didn't really watch the show and I was like, I don't know if I can do a political show. And then somebody was like, well, you kind of do political standup. And I was like, no, I just talk about my experiences being a black lady. And because I'm talking about my experiences of being a black woman in America, it was like seen as inherently political. And that wasn't what my goal was because when I started doing comedy, I was a year and a half in. And Big Kenny said, when you. Because I was doing what everyone else was doing, it's like, ah, self checkout is trash. Oh, this is da da da, da da. And so Big Kenny said, when you start talking about yourself, that's when your standup's really going to change. And one day I was at a show and I was doing my regular set and I was like, I want to say these words. And then just started going off the top of my head just things I had been thinking about. And I actually recorded it on my phone. I ended up with a new like 11 minute set because I think somebody was late and I was just feeling a bus ring till somebody showed up. But then I ended up with a whole new like seven, ten minute set. And that was how I got Conan. That was, you know, I Was using something. And so from. Because I was able to start talking about myself and being very honest about what was happening in my life.

[Interviewer]

You were just being a black woman. You were just talking about your life experience. You were not. You had no political interests.

[Dulce Sloan]

I'm just telling you what's going on. But it's like, I remember, like, the joke that I have about when Black Lives Matter started and talking about when Sandra Bland got killed. And it took me a year to figure out this bit, because not only as a black woman, but a black woman living in Atlanta, I was accustomed seeing black people all the time. I saw black cops all the time. So I knew the cops would kill me. But I knew a black cop wasn't going to kill me. I knew a white cop was going to kill me. But you would see black police so often, like, you don't. They're still the police, still 12. They're still the people. But if I get pulled over by a black cop and I'm late to work, it's, hey, hurry up.

[Co-host or Guest]

Give me my ticket.

[Dulce Sloan]

You know I pulled you over.

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah, illegal name change, nigga. I'm late. Give me my ticket. I've yelled at cops because I know

[Dulce Sloan]

he's not gonna kill me.

[Co-host or Guest]

And he's like, damn, I'm gonna give you the ticket. I said, hurry up. So now I'm talking to him like I know him. Then there was another time. We were outside the club, Me and

[Dulce Sloan]

my homegirls were leaving, and this APD pulls up and was like, what y' all doing? Like, hey, man, come on, dog. He's like, so like, can I get your number? And this girl, she's trying to park to get in the club, and she looks at this cop and goes, hey, move your car. She's talking about a cop car blocking traffic.

[Co-host or Guest]

And he goes, man, can't talk to me like that. He's like, I can't believe she ain't talking to you like that. She go, man, don't nobody care you the police. Move your car. And he goes, what should I do?

[Dulce Sloan]

He's like, I think you should move the car.

[Co-host or Guest]

And so she got. He got in and moved the cop car. She was like, oh, damn, you in the way.

[Dulce Sloan]

And so she parked.

[Co-host or Guest]

He was like, yelling at me. She's like, anybody think about you? She's yelling at the police.

[Dulce Sloan]

And he goes, what do you. I mean, really? Ain't nobody think about you. And I don't want no cops number. So I have a nice night.

[Co-host or Guest]

So he got yelled at by her.

[Dulce Sloan]

And then get our number.

[Co-host or Guest]

But I'm not thinking about this.

[Dulce Sloan]

You see what I'm saying? Because it's a wreck. It's. This is Atlanta police, right? But so now I'm trying to reconcile. Because no one tells us that the cops are killing black women. We only talk about black men, right? It's the whole point of the joke was me processing, getting that information in my early 30s. And so it's me being like, whenever you're in a relationship with a black man, you're in a struggle, competition. Because you can say to him, man, I gotta tell you about this racist shit I'm saying Karen said to me at work. And he's like, man, you know what it's like to be a black man in America? I get killed by the police. And you're like, well, shit, I can't say nothing else now. I can't say nothing else now.

[Co-host or Guest]

You don't hit me with the kill by the police. Ain't I can say to this man now? And I'm like, well, damn, you hungry?

It's a real trump card.

[Dulce Sloan]

It's a real.

[Co-host or Guest]

Just to use the term, it is a trump card, right? He done threw the big joker out. I can't do nothing about this.

[Dulce Sloan]

This is domino.

[Co-host or Guest]

I can't. This is uno.

[Dulce Sloan]

This is everything.

[Co-host or Guest]

My girlfriend just told the cop to move his car, right?

Right. So I can yell at a black cop.

[Dulce Sloan]

I can't hear nothing about these white cops, right?

[Co-host or Guest]

You see what I'm saying?

[Dulce Sloan]

So unless you got some cool white

[Co-host or Guest]

cop trying to play basketball with the kids, you can die tonight, right?

[Dulce Sloan]

So this is, you know, this is uno. This is what?

[Co-host or Guest]

I can't.

[Dulce Sloan]

I can't. There's nothing. This is Bingo. There's nothing supersedes. I can get killed by the police, right? And then Sandra Bland happens, and I was like, oh, the cops are killing black women. Then all these other stories come out, and you're like, oh, the cops have been killing black women the entire time, but nobody's been talking about it. And so for me now, it's. Well, you know what it's like to be killed by the police. You know what it's like to be a black man in America? I can get killed by the police.

[Co-host or Guest]

I'm like, yeah, so they killing black women, too. So sit your ass down.

[Dulce Sloan]

We talk about this. Care. So now that I know, you can't keep throwing this in my face, but it took me a year to come up with how to the punchline on this joke, because I had to Process. Oh, I'm in a new kind of danger that I didn't know that I was in because we didn't talk about it. Like, I knew the cops could assault me, all this other stuff, but we never talked about the police also killing me as an option. And it's like, well, shit, I got

[Co-host or Guest]

all this other stuff I got to worry about now, and the cops can kill me. Oh, okay, fine.

[Dulce Sloan]

Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. Thank you so much, America. And so that. But people saw that. But all this was, was me processing a new trauma. All this joke was, was me just presenting information and going, oh, hey, did you know that the police have been killing black women the entire time, but we haven't been talking about it at

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[Interviewer]

Well, you mentioned I have a number of follow ups on everywhere. You just went there, but we skipped past, almost died five times in Pennsylvania.

[Dulce Sloan]

Oh, just dropped driving. Because I've driven through the Allegheny Mountains, the Shenandoah Mountains. I've driven in the snow too many times. So, yeah, just, you know, almost driving off a mountain.

[Interviewer]

And it's the dream, though, right? You're pursuing the dream this entire time. You're hungry to get tour dates because you are just.

[Dulce Sloan]

I'm just glad to not be selling stucco.

[Interviewer]

Okay, you're happy to not be selling stucco, but nobody told you that the Daily show is another office job, that there's creativity in all the offices. But it's another office job.

[Dulce Sloan]

Somebody's worried about their lunch being eaten. No one told me, and so I told my mom.

[Interviewer]

You thought it was a playground. You thought it was a theater production?

[Dulce Sloan]

No, I thought it was a TV show. And so TV shows, when you work on a TV show, you come to set with a script. No one. You don't. You have your tray, you have your, you know, your dressing room or whatever. But this was a office job. And so I called my mom my first week of work and I was like, mommy, I said, I worked Hard to get out of an office. She said, okay, I said. And then I hard worked myself back into her office. I don't even have a window. The window that I have is too high to look through and it's to another office that they also can't see.

[Co-host or Guest]

Who.

[Dulce Sloan]

Why do I need a window eight feet up?

[Co-host or Guest]

Who the fuck is looking through what? Who is this for?

[Interviewer]

And now you're in New York and you're living in another office and you're the feet.

[Co-host or Guest]

The first feelings. Regret.

[Dulce Sloan]

Like, yeah, absolutely, because I'm in office. Because this was not the goal. The goal was not to work in another office. The goal was never to live in New York. The dream was to live in la.

[Interviewer]

So I've made a horrible mistake.

[Dulce Sloan]

No, I made a decision that I had to make for my career. So I was living out here when I got Daily Show. I was living out here when I was doing colleges on the East Coast. But I was like, I'm living in LA and I'm auditioning. Because when I moved out here, I had a holding deal with NBC. That's the main reason I moved out here the first time was I won Stand up for diversity and you get a holding deal with NBC. And so I had to be in LA so I could audition and I could take meetings. But also my manager and shout out to my manager, he said, he said, you were going to audition and you were going to take meetings. Like, you do not have that holding meal. And so I booked a pilot, my first pilot season through NBC. Amy Poehler was doing this show called Dumb Princes. And then I booked something else that I couldn't do because of the holding deal. And then I was like starting to get stuff and my mentor was like, y' all gave her one thing. It didn't happen, so y' all need to let her work. And, you know, all of 2016, I was still on the road doing colleges. And then during the summer I was doing festivals. And this was like when festivals, comedy festivals were popping off, we were outside and 2017. Cause my first couple months here, I was just bouncing around, staying with people, but I was on the road so much, I didn't get an apartment. So I didn't get an apartment until September of 2016.

[Interviewer]

Oh, so you're legitimately homeless. Like, you don't have your own place.

[Dulce Sloan]

I was staying with friends. But so many comics are vagabonds. When you first, like, move out here, move to, like. I wasn't homeless. It was. I had friends that I was staying with. So I want. One of my friends was like, you can stay with me for a month. And then you'd be on the road and you'd be staying with other people.

[Interviewer]

It may sound like semantics, but you came out here and you did not have a home.

[Co-host or Guest]

No, I had.

[Dulce Sloan]

I was. I'll say this. It was. I didn't come out here with absolutely no plan. It was, I'm gonna be out here. I'm staying with this friend in February and this friend in March. And then I went back to Atlanta for a little while and then. But I was on the road so much that for me, it didn't make sense to pay rent because it was like, okay, I'm in. I'm in Pennsylvania for two weeks doing shows, and then I pop back over here and I'm staying with a friend because there was a girl that. She was like. She's like, yeah, you didn't stay with me for very long, maybe one or two weeks. I said, I live with you for four months. But I was gone so often, she didn't know I was living with her for four months. So for me, I was traveling so much that it didn't make sense to get an apartment. And then at one point, my manager was like, get an apartment. Put your stuff somewhere. And he was right, because I would sometimes be, like, stressed because you're in somebody else's space. And so. But it was also, like, fun, you know, and, like, if my friends needed anything, it's like I wasn't being a complete mooch. But the funniest thing that happened in all of this is one day, the comedian Sierra Tiana, she was doing the Melbourne Comedy Festival, and she. And I ran into her at the Improv. She's also. I got my first spot at the Comedy Store because she told the booker that I was running my Conan set and to give me a spot, which was amazing. And I'd been in LA for 48 hours at that. I'd moved out here. 48 hours in Sierra. So shout out to Sarah Siana. I saw her at the Improv, and she was like, oh, I'm going to the Melbourne Comedy Festival. I'm gonna be gone for, like, two weeks. You want to borrow my car? And I was like. And I was always bombing. We were always borrowing each other's cars or saying each other's places. People at apartment swap, all kinds of stuff. And I was like, oh, what kind of car do you have? She's like an Audi Q6. And I was like, no, no, I've seen Other people drive out here. I don't want to be responsible something happens to your car. Absolutely not. And I used to open for Sarah's. You know, Sarah's from Georgia, and I used to open for her when she came to Atlanta. And she big sistered the hell out of me because I was like, no, I'm good. And then two weeks later, she called me and she said, come get my car. And I was like, well. And she said, come get my car. And I was like. Because not only she big sistered me, but she Southern big sistered me. And so I'm just like, all right. And so I had to go pick up her car, and I had to take her to the airport, pick up her car. And I had her car for two weeks. And this is what I found about street sweeping and having to get up and move your car.

[Co-host or Guest]

And I was like, this isn't even my car.

[Dulce Sloan]

So half the time I couldn't get any sleep because I didn't move her car at 5am because whoever I was staying with lived near her school. But it was like. So I remember going to a meeting at NBC with my manager, and he goes, you bought an Audi? I was like, no, no.

[Co-host or Guest]

You know how much money I make? You know, I can't afford an Audi Q6. What are you talking about?

[Dulce Sloan]

He was like, okay, I was just wondering. I said, yeah, I'm not insane. Too much money to me. Maniac. So. But, yeah, it was like, stuff like that. I always had somebody. It was always like, somebody let me borrow their car. Or somebody needed you to take their car because they were going to be on the road. So my friend Peggy was out here. I had her car, and the car got towed because there was a movie production in the area.

[Interviewer]

Sounds like you got a whole lot of people, though, telling you against your will the correct, correct thing to do.

[Dulce Sloan]

It's just like.

[Co-host or Guest]

It's just. It just.

[Dulce Sloan]

It's just help. Because I was staying with somebody because, like, where I was staying wasn't good because somebody was. It was staying with. I was like, oh, I. I shouldn't stay here anymore. And then I understand. With somebody else and at their car. And then my mother was like, how are you driving all these white people's cars? I said, girl, they just be giving people their car. It's crazy. They ain't got down. It's like they never heard of insurance. It's insane.

[Co-host or Guest]

She's like, every time I tell you you got some white person's car, I said, girl, I don't Know, they just be trusting me. It's insane.

[Dulce Sloan]

Always driving some white person's car.

[Co-host or Guest]

Peggy car, another person's car.

[Dulce Sloan]

Always drives a white person's car. And so. But it's like you're. Everybody was crashing. We're all in that part in our careers. We're just like, you're staying here or you're in San Francisco staying with these people. You're doing shows. So we were all in this part of our. Like me and all of my friends. We were always bouncing around and running around.

[Interviewer]

I wasn't just talking about them, though. I was talking about also big. You mentioned Big Kenny a couple of times now. Like, sounds like you were sort of being pushed into, go do this already.

[Co-host or Guest]

What are you doing?

[Dulce Sloan]

And it was a lot of. Of. It's a lot of people being like, do this thing, do this thing. And I think because people were like, loving but forceful and just like, hey, ma', am, you need to do this. I think sometimes when comics will ask me for advice, it's just like, hey. Because that's how we used to be talked to. That's why we were accustomed to being talked to. And so now when you talk to a baby comic like that, well, I don't know why you're so upset.

[Co-host or Guest]

Nobody's upset.

[Dulce Sloan]

I'm talking to you like a grown up. I didn't know I was talking to a grownup, but this was that. Well, we were talked to. It was like, hey, get out of the green room. There's no reason for you to be back here. You're. You're in doing stand up. Go watch comedy. We are not your friends. We are not your peers. Go learn. Get out of here. Stop trying to talk to me. Go watch comedy. Go learn something. And now it seems like the comics that start now, they don't want to learn. They want to be comics. And that's not the same thing.

[Interviewer]

Oh, wow, you're talking like a veteran right now. You're talking about the yet. You're talking about young comics a generation removed from the 17 years you've put in.

[Co-host or Guest]

Yeah.

[Dulce Sloan]

And it doesn't feel like I've been doing it that long, but it's just like. But I remember the shift and I was only like five years in, and then the younger comics just wanted to hang out with, and I was only five years in, so I knew I was still a baby because I'm taught, I'm at shows talking to, you know, you're seeing. Because the crazy thing about comedy is that you're very close to veterans very quickly. As in, like, I met Margaret Cho when I was four or five years into comedy, which was crazy for me because she's the first comedian I remember seeing was Margaret Cho. So the first comedian ever saw was a woman of color was a queer. Woman of Color was the first comic I remember watching. And so I remember when she. She introduced herself to me, I was just sitting in the green room like, hello.

[Co-host or Guest]

And then she walked out.

[Dulce Sloan]

I was like. Because I saw her the next. Because she was doing Drop Dead Divas at the time in Atlanta. And like, she saw me a couple days later. She was at, you know, the comedy club. And she goes, hi, D. I was like, hello. And I went in the bathroom. I was like,

[Co-host or Guest]

but you can't be a complete jackass, right?

[Dulce Sloan]

In person. In person, you have to go, hello, Margaret Cho, Nice to meet you. I am Dulce Sloan. But in your head, it's, I'm the Tasmanian devil spinning around screaming. But you have to be like, I

[Co-host or Guest]

also do comedy jokes.

[Dulce Sloan]

And then you shut up. And it's. And I mean, at the time, there were comics who were always. There's always people doing too much. But yeah. So like I said, it was an office job, and then it's back to work in an office. And I just had to adapt. Once I realized that that job was a lot of people's dream jobs, then you get a lot of questions from the perspective of someone else wanting you to fulfill the idea of what they had of their dream. And so for me, it was a job and trying to understand a job, because when you start that job, there's no manual. Like, every other job I had was like, here's a computer works. How's your hood? And put to the system. Here's how the Spanish line works. You put your notes in English because we don't read Spanish. And so every job I've ever had, it was, here's a manual. This is a completely different job. So no one handed me a book. There was no training class. I didn't know how. You know, it's like, it wasn't like, here's how the phones work. It was like, like, here's your email address. Here's your office. Come to this meeting. Come to this meeting. Come to this meeting. And you're finding everything out in real time. And so you are. You get inserted into a machine that's already working. And so you're just trying to make sure that you don't jam up this machine. And so you are there every day waiting for something to happen. Because some days, you know when you're gonna be on. Some day, I've been sitting in my office looking at an email or trying to figure out, okay, you know, what's going on in the news today. Just because I know what's going on. And then you get a phone call or a text or someone walks in your office and go, hey, we thought of a sketch. Go to hair and makeup right now. You're going to be shooting. Oh, and you're in the show today. I worked in here at 9 o', clock, 10 o', clock, 11 o', clock, depending, you know, because they had moved it, whatever. So you come in because you see, have the writing meetings at 9, they moved it to 10, whatever. And then I just would go to the other meeting at 11. And so you come in most days and you don't know what's going to happen that day. And somebody will pop in and go, oh, we pitched something for you. Can you go to this meeting? Oh, we're doing something for this. Can you go to this meeting? Actually, we have an idea for this. You want to be in this sketch. So every day you're just like, I don't know if I'm on the show today. And every day you don't know on the show, you're on the show that day. Every single day you come into work. And so. But sometimes it's like, hey, we did this. So it's, hey, you got to travel to this field piece. And the field piece could. Cause there was a field piece Desi did that didn't air for two years because it was an evergreen piece, right? And so sometimes you would shoot stuff and it doesn't air or it does air, or we do a sketch and something changes in the news and we don't use it.

[Interviewer]

What is the greatest joy that we can point to in doing the Daily Show?

[Dulce Sloan]

Buying my house because I always wanted to move back to la, and so the goal was to work hard because you think you supposed to work hard and you save money and you buy a house. And so I did that. And so to be able to be blessed, to have the opportunity to work during the pandemic. We were the first show to come back during the pandemic. Daily show was. We were down for three weeks and they sent all this stuff to the house and we figured it out. And I shot the show on the phone and everything. But, yeah, it was. Living in New York was hard. And I always felt like there were very few days where I felt like I did well, there were more days where I felt like I didn't do what I was supposed to do or I didn't do. I always felt like I didn't do enough, but I always feel like I don't know enough.

[Interviewer]

Oh, that's an always thing most of the time.

[Dulce Sloan]

But it's like. But it was a lot of.

[Interviewer]

But this particular structure, the system of it could also make you feel like that. Like, the things you're describing might make anyone feel like that, even if you weren't being predisposed to it.

[Dulce Sloan]

Right. And so then when you get out of that environment, you're like, okay, well, then what am I supposed to be doing? And so especially with where the industry is now, you still feel like that you're not doing enough, but then it's just like, but there's not enough. We have the same amount of actors. We have way less work than we used to. And so it was always hard, but I'm always hard on. Not hard on myself, but I want to feel like that I did well, and I didn't always feel that way. And I could, because I can always see the thing that I needed to fix. But there was. Because here's the thing that people have to remember that's gonna. That's gonna bother me. One, I've never talked about the show this much, and you can't talk about it, because if you as a black person have a job like that and you are not Grace and you are not 100% grateful and in tears that you got the opportunity, people are gonna think you were ungrateful and you didn't deserve it. But what I want to do is talk about the realities of a situation that when you work in a creative space, you are still working a job. I just tell one of my friends, she was talking about acting this and acting that. I was like, you have to understand as a performer, you are cornflakes. You are a product that is bought and sold. That is the nature. That's why we have a union. That's why most professions like this, that's why writers have a union. Writers produce a product. That's why actors have a union. We are the product. And so when I first went with my reps that I still have now, I left and came back, walked into the meeting, and I said, listen, I'm a product that is bought and sold. Are y' all the ones that can sell me the best? And my agent, who's been an agent now for 30 years, he said, she gets it. So when one of My agents calls me and told me about something. He's like, oh, you should audition for this is going to make you a star. I called my manager and said, tell him to watch how he talks to me because you cannot pimp my dream. To me, you sound crazy. It's going to make you a star. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You have to maintain being a star. People pop and come down all of the time. This is not going to make me a star. It's going to be good for my career. This is a marathon I took. I auditioned. I didn't want to move to New York and I didn't want to. And I didn't know if I could do that job. I didn't want that job. I just, I didn't know enough about politics to do this job. For me, it almost didn't make sense. And then when I auditioned for it and got there, it was. Trevor told me how much it made sense for me to be there because he needed me to be there because he needed my perspective and the show needed my perspective. And so now it's, ah, fuck, we need my perspective. Okay, now we've hit a different level of this. So now I'm making sure that whoever I work with can help me present my perspective. Now I have to make sure that whatever we're doing on the show makes sense. And if it doesn't make sense, I have to make sure that I say something. But whenever you're dealing in a creative space and it's a collaborative effort, it is sometimes hard to get your voice heard, even though you're trying to present your own perspective. And so that was the part that was always hard. And that's the part that's always hard because I am trying to get people that don't look like me to understand information that they want to hear about. But when you're doing anything as a black person, regardless of where you live in the world other than in one of the 54 countries on the continent of Africa, you are going through the lens of someone else. And so that's why you have situations like what happened at the baftas.

[Interviewer]

And on that note, you want to tell us that story before we get out of here or.

[Dulce Sloan]

Well, apparently how it was presented on the social medias is that the Michael B. Jordan and Derry Lindo were on stage and a gentleman who has Tourette's said the N word while they were on stage. And there is a two hour tape delay of the BAFTAs. And so someone did an acceptance speech and they mentioned Palestine. And they were able to cut that out. But BBC one decided not to cut out a racial slur being yelled at at two fine actors from a critically acclaimed, award winning movie. And so I just saw Gina Yashere on her Instagram today and she said people were calling her ableist for talking about this situation. We're not. The issue is that the BBC did not find the need to cut that out of the broadcast. And everyone's talking about Tourette's. That is the Tourette's is not the issue. It is the BBC not cutting it out of the broadcast. And then deadline today said that Warner Brothers said to the BBC this should be cut out. And they're like, oh, we'll handle it. Don't worry love, we've got it. And then mt drinking jokers then cut it out. So what did you handle? Because it sounds like you delved out disrespectful. So we're. And so people were apologizing about the man and talking about his disability, but we weren't apologizing to two grown men being disrespected while they're on stage at a road show. So we're explaining what happens but not apologizing to two grown men who were disrespected. And I'm not understanding. And so this. So this would be something we would have on the show and then we would have to figure out, is this gonna be a sketch? And now the writers are trying to figure out, well, who's gonna yell the N word? And then we have to go, nobody's going to do that.

[Co-host or Guest]

Your perspective was important. Is important. Trevor's. Trevor is right. Trevor is right.

Needs to do that part. That's not the issue here.

[Dulce Sloan]

It's been explained.

[Co-host or Guest]

The man had a whole documentary about him having this problem. We got it. We know what happened, we know the situation.

[Dulce Sloan]

But if you're someone that has happened to before, it's. It's every. It's a tick for everybody, I guess. So in that particular situation, how do we present this to a general public that is comedic in some form or fashion? And that is the job all of the time. Because then you look at some stuff, you're just like, how do you make this funny? Because I'll tell you the hardest part about working there was people asking you how easy it is to work there because of who the president was at the time. And people kept going or this question. We were doing an interview one day and Kosta gave the best answer. We were doing. It was all of us Doing an interview. And this woman goes, in the age of Trump, what do you think your responsibility is as a stand up comedian? He said, my responsibility is to tell jokes. It is not my responsibility to make you feel better. My responsibility is to do my job. And I was like, thank you. We want a zoom call. And I think I had to cut off my camera because I was like running around my house.

[Interviewer]

Oh, really? A victory laugh?

[Co-host or Guest]

Yes. Because I was like, fucking thank you.

[Dulce Sloan]

This is the wildest question. This is not my job. You have to cope. Every. Everyone is starting. Everyone, especially now. Everybody has to cope. But people think that because this is so ridiculous, this is fodder for comedy.

[Co-host or Guest]

This is not funny. This is not funny. It wasn't funny the first time. It's less fucking funny this time.

[Dulce Sloan]

I have to worry about family members being deported.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Dulce Sloan]

I have to worry about if my sister is going to lose her status because she's naturalized. And then one of my. And then because I have Mexican family. So is my sister going to lose her naturalization? Is one of my friends who is married gonna lose the right to vote because her last name is her husband's

[Co-host or Guest]

nat name and not the name of

[Dulce Sloan]

her birth certificate because her parents weren't fucking psychic. Also now I have to worry about the fact that I'm gonna get to

[Co-host or Guest]

vote because I don't have a married last name. So I don't even have to have this problem because my name matches.

[Dulce Sloan]

You see what I'm saying? So it's like. But that's the kind of joke that I would make. You see what I'm saying? So, yeah, sorry, I rambled.

[Co-host or Guest]

Dulce Sloan.com is where you go if

[Interviewer]

you want her perspective on things.

[Dulce Sloan]

Because the reason I was here is I thought I was going to be here to be talking about sports.

[Co-host or Guest]

You were here to meet a man.

I was here to get on this camera and go, how? Not sports man.

Wait a minute. What did we just. What did we just do then?

I said that at the very beginning I came here to talk about sports and meet a man. And then you wanted to ask me about my dreams. That's not what I came here for.

Tell me this.

I absolutely want to be a dating app. No, I said do this with a dating app.

[Dulce Sloan]

You said at the very beginning I

[Co-host or Guest]

came here to talk about sports and meet a nice man. And you want to talk about Daily show for an hour and fucking half.

Have.

That's not why I came here. So then when I saw the moss on the wall and the wood, hexagons I'm like, oh, over here with these candles. And now I know.

[Dulce Sloan]

Great.

[Co-host or Guest]

We have to talk about my accomplishments, Right?

Well, my audience is a lot of men. A lot of men.

A lot of married men. No. Regular ass. Single minute. Single men ain't listening to this podcast. They want to hear about. They on Instagram.

[Dulce Sloan]

Instagram looking at butt models.

[Co-host or Guest]

Single men ain't listening to your podcast. Somebody's walking around with this podcast with.

[Dulce Sloan]

If there's a man listening to this, he's pushing a stroller. How very dare you.

[Co-host or Guest]

I should have came in this in

[Dulce Sloan]

a loose T shirt.

[Co-host or Guest]

But you wanted to talk about my dreams.

[Dulce Sloan]

Every question you were like, so. Yeah, you. So you worked in a flea market.

[Co-host or Guest]

What about Daily Show? That's the only thing you wanted to talk about.

That's not how that happened here. I did not. That is not what happened here. That is a mischaracterization that you've. That's what it looks.

You have.

You have misrepresented me.

Sure.

Wildly unfair. I did not go that immediately without segue in from. From flea market to tell me about

[Dulce Sloan]

the Daily Show, Drag Race, Emmy book. You had so many. You didn't ask me any of these questions.

[Co-host or Guest]

We gotta go.

Who does bird watching? I don't do no damn bird watching.

It's a previous interview.

Oh, okay.

Tig. That's not you.

Oh, Tig. Atar. A very nice person.

[Dulce Sloan]

Selling toys. Yeah.

[Co-host or Guest]

Activism. What activism did I do?

You just did a whole bunch of activism right now. You just did a bunch.

I'm trying to be.

[Dulce Sloan]

Yes. A mother and a family. Absolutely. Spoken about it very openly. I do speak Spanish. Gracias. Yeah.

[Co-host or Guest]

Come see me.

I'm going to leave right now.

How very dare you.

[Dulce Sloan]

This is your.

[Co-host or Guest]

Sit down. This is your show.

Got to go. That's very vulnerable for me.