Airing immediately after The Daily Show, The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore premiered on Comedy Central on Monday, January 19, 2015 at 11:30pm ET/PT. Wilmore’s no stranger to nightly talk shows after having been a part of The Daily Show, and he’s also a well-respected writer and producer which has prepared him to tackle the hosting gig. And fortunately, at the winter Television Critics Association event Wilmore had time to sit down with a few journalists to discuss his new project and what he’s hoping his show will deliver to audiences.
Interview with Larry Wilmore
Is there added pressure on you because there have been so few minorities in this position?
Larry Wilmore: [Laughing] “There’s so much pressure! You know what? I don’t really look at it that much. I appreciate when people say that, but there’s already enough pressure doing the show that I’d never be able to get it done if I started thinking about all those things. And you’re so busy you really don’t have time to think about a lot of things, to be honest with you.”
Do you have any theories as to why it’s mostly white males who’ve dominated the format?
Larry Wilmore: “I have no theories on that. I don’t have any theories, it’s just the reality of it. But I do feel like it’s being broken up, but we need some women out there.”
Did Jon Stewart give you any advice?
Larry Wilmore: “Sure, absolutely. He said get out while you can. No, he did make jokes like that. He said, ‘Okay, we’ll see how you are in a month.’
He actually told me to just take some time in the middle of the afternoon to just prepare yourself for the performing part of it. ‘You’ve been doing the producing part of it all day, now you have to make that transition.’ That was really good advice.”
What are your thoughts on Letterman and his legacy?
Larry Wilmore: “Letterman created a whole different space for himself and for comedy. […] He kind of brought in the whole ironic distance movement. Letterman is a hero to a lot of that next generation, so it’s kind of a legacy that’s leaving. I think we won’t see anybody like that again. It’s kind of emotional to a lot of those guys in the comedy business to see Letterman leave.”
Where do you get your news?
Larry Wilmore: “I get it in a lot of different places. I kind of scan the morning shows in the morning. Now I have to really schedule it tightly. I scan the morning shows, read the paper, look online – I’m kind of scatterbrained so I’m doing a lot of those things at once. I kind of get a little taste of everything, I guess.”
How are you approaching the show?
Larry Wilmore: “I’ve been in this business long enough.. some things take time, some things you figure out sooner than others. Whenever you’re doing a show like this, there’s a natural evolution that happens in front of the audience where you have to start with something that’s very clear and pretty well-cooked from the beginning and then there’s an evolution of fine-tuning that. But I’m excited for that process to happen.
I like the discovery of finding things out, figuring things out. You make some of your mistakes on the air, but that’s okay. If you have a good relationship with the audience, I think they forgive you those things, as long as you’re having fun with it. I never want to take this show or myself too seriously. I always want to have fun, even when we’re talking about provocative things. As provocative as certain things are, I think you have to approach it with a certain amount of fun and some levity because we’re doing a comedy show at the end of the day.”
Are there any taboo subjects?
Larry Wilmore: “Well in my mind there are never taboo subjects, but you have to be respectful of certain things that may be tough to talk about in how you talk about them. But I don’t necessarily have what I would consider taboo subjects.
I think you always have to approach things carefully and you have to figure out the way to make them entertaining. So it’s not the subject itself that would be off-limits, it would be the way we talk about it. Some things require time in order to be able to talk about it.”
Is it going to be a challenge to integrate comedy with serious news?
Larry Wilmore: “I’m very compartmentalized – I’m not always a comic so I don’t always speak in a joke form, but I’m not afraid of not having to be glib all the time. Some things don’t require glibness. If you’re talking about a tough issue, glib isn’t going to serve you right now. You’ve got to keep it real. If we’re talking about Ferguson, I might make a joke about it but in the next segment I might say, ‘Hey man, there’s some sh*t going on here that I don’t like.’ I’m going to be dead serious. That’s the kind of relationship that I want to build with the audience and that’s how they’ll get to know me.”
