美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Insecure' Star Amanda Seales Takes The Stand-Up Stage In HBO's 'I Be Knowin＂

 

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Finally today, let us meet a modern renaissance¹ woman. You might know actress and comedian² Amanda Seales from her role as Tiffany in the hit HBO show "Insecure." But over the years, you might have caught her on MTV as the host known as Amanda Diva. She briefly³ toured with the R&B group Floetry. You might have caught her on college campuses with her show "Smart Funny & Black." And then there's her podcast, Small Doses, her workshops on stopping street harassment⁴, not to mention her wildly popular Instagram and Twitter pages. So yes, she is busy. And now she has a new standup special premiering tonight on HBO. It's called "I Be Knowin'." And Amanda Seales is with us now from NPR West in Culver City, Calif. Amanda, thank you so much for joining us.

AMANDA SEALES: Thank you for having me.

MARTIN: Congratulations on everything.

SEALES: Thank you so much.

MARTIN: Yeah. But I'm wondering with everything I just mentioned - your stint⁵ on MTV, your time touring, the, you know, the years you spent putting in work on "Smart Funny & Black," what does it mean to you to have this special on HBO? Does it stand for something? Does it seem like a milestone⁶ in some way?

SEALES: It's absolutely a milestone. I'm having a private screening event that is essentially⁷ my wedding reception. Like, we literally⁸ have a wedding cake with a topper because this is my wedding. Like, I'm marrying my future as somebody who is hopefully a comedic voice and a trusted and thoughtful comedic voice. That's what I want to go down as. And so yes, as far as a milestone, this cements that.

MARTIN: There's a hilarious⁹ opening scene in your HBO special where you talk about everybody the special is not for. Let me play a bit of that clip. Here it is.

(SOUNDBITE OF COMEDY SPECIAL, "I BE KNOWIN'")

SEALES: Everybody except for racists, rapists, sexists, misogynists¹⁰, narcissists, you know, folks that are calling the cops on black folks just living our lives. Yeah, it ain't for you. It ain't for Trump¹¹ voters or coons or people who don't believe that white men can be terrorists. It ain't for bullies¹². It ain't for poachers. It ain't for abusers and even people who keep asking me, Amanda, can I pick your brain? No. God. It also is not for people who don't take care of their kids and even people who take their shoes and socks off on planes. Who raised you?

(LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: OK. So that's a list. That's a long list.

SEALES: (Laughter).

MARTIN: Who is the show for then?

SEALES: Well, I wrote this and I perform this specifically to connect with black women. Anybody else who enjoys it, I mean, feel free. But as part of a cultural base that honestly is very far too often not spoken on behalf of, spoken for or spoken to, I wanted to give us something to add to our own canon of representation.

MARTIN: One of the things that I noticed, though, about it is that unlike some of the other African-American women that - working in comedy that that people might know - and I'm not going to...

SEALES: Yeah.

MARTIN: I'm not going to embarrass you by naming them. But I'll just simply say that - who a lot of whose acts seem to be focused on sex or wanting to have sex or not getting enough sex, a lot of your humor focuses on things that happen to people at work - right? - or people who work in offices or people who, you know what I mean? Everything from street harassment to being ignored in public to being misunderstood at work. And I'm going to play a short clip from - I can't play the whole conversation because you have to let it unfold. But I'll just play a little bit, and then we can talk a little bit more. Here it is.

(SOUNDBITE OF COMEDY SPECIAL, "I BE KNOWIN'")

SEALES: When you a black person in any office, you stay ready 'cause you're always wondering, how black am I going to have to get? And what that really means is you're going through a series of checkpoints on how you gon' (ph) check somebody on a scale of Stacey Dash to Nat Turner.

MARTIN: OK. So what really fascinated me about this - again, like, this whole bit is a lot longer than here - but what really got me is how people in the audience, like, they jumped up and cheered. Like, they were jumping up. It was like if - you get a car, and you get a car. But it was almost as if saying, I'm going to bring a customer service orientation¹³ to everyone. You know what I mean? It was like this really mundane¹⁴ thing about respect and being - having to be respected and being...

SEALES: Microaggressions.

MARTIN: And yet people were jumping up wildly applauding and...

SEALES: Because it never gets addressed. It never gets addressed. You know, like, black women are in the workforce¹⁵, like, toiling¹⁶, you know, managing so many methods of racism¹⁷, sexism, misogyny, chauvinism, eliteism, all the isms just to continue to aspire¹⁸ to excellence¹⁹. And it just doesn't get talked about.

MARTIN: But it's also a lot of joy there. There's a lot of joy there.

SEALES: Oh. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

MARTIN: One of my favorites was about how black women are particularly good at compliments.

(SOUNDBITE OF COMEDY SPECIAL, "I BE KNOWIN'")

SEALES: We have taken compliments down to a precise science of conciseness²⁰ where we don't even say a full sentence. We just say at you what we're looking at on you. OK, polka dots.

(LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: That's all you needed to say. Everybody around here just was howling. Do you - I was wondering how much you think your master's degree in African-American studies from Columbia - congratulations on that as well.

SEALES: Thank you very much.

MARTIN: Is there any way in which you think that experience informs your comedy?

SEALES: Well, I think it's less about that experience in terms of like doing the master's as much as it is the information I gained. And that has become an integral part of just like my voice and my comedic voice because I reference a lot of history as tools to discuss the present and to conceptualize a better future. I mean, there's a reason why I do a whole Harriet Tubman bit.

And I think on the surface, some people might think, oh, she's just, you know, like, she knows the history of Harriet Tubman. But really what that's about is acknowledging that, like, black women have been in these positions of having to be in full struggle and full greatness all at the same time. And I think like we've been learning about Harriet Tubman for so long as this picture on a wall, but she was a human. She was a person. She had to deal with, like, customer service issues while helping²¹ to bring slaves to freedom. And I just found that concept, like, so fascinating.

MARTIN: There are people who work in comedy who are complaining that the environment has become too restrictive. I mean, there are some comedians²² who have said that they won't work on college campuses, for example, because people are so easily offended. And I wonder - and, you know, that's a whole other conversation. I'm not going to mediate²³ that. But I was going to ask you for your take on that because you do still work on campuses.

SEALES: I do. And I make a point of, like, letting them know what's up, you know, because I think the reality is that we - the college campuses have a different vibe than we had when I was in college. You know, like, professors have to provide trigger warnings. Like, there's just a different conversation that's happening on these campuses around conversation. So for instance, like, I have a joke in my special where I say I'm trans thug. I was born in this body, but within me lives Suge Knight²⁴. And I remember doing a show. And there was a trans person in the audience who felt offended by that statement. And they were offended by me saying trans and not referring to trans people. And it was clear that my intent was not to offend and not to distract from and not to demean.

So, you know, at that point, as a comedian, you're just like, well, I can't account for the things that are going to offend everybody. Right? Once you start adjusting to like every individual, you're killing²⁵ yourself.

MARTIN: Well, what's next for you?

SEALES: What's next for me is a tour. So we're announcing tour dates on Monday. It's really exciting to just see this milestone turn into more milestones²⁶.

MARTIN: That's Amanda Seales. She is an actress, a comedian, a television personality, a podcast host. Her new comedy special "I Be Knowin'" premieres on HBO tonight. Amanda Seales, thank you so much for talking to us.

SEALES: Thank you.

1 renaissance   

n.复活，复兴，文艺复兴

参考例句：

• The Renaissance was an epoch of unparalleled cultural achievement.文艺复兴是一个文化上取得空前成就的时代。
• The theme of the conference is renaissance Europe.大会的主题是文艺复兴时期的欧洲。

2 comedian   

n.喜剧演员；滑稽演员

参考例句：

• The comedian tickled the crowd with his jokes.喜剧演员的笑话把人们逗乐了。
• The comedian enjoyed great popularity during the 30's.那位喜剧演员在三十年代非常走红。

3 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

4 harassment   

n.骚扰，扰乱，烦恼，烦乱

参考例句：

• She often got telephone harassment at night these days.这些天她经常在夜晚受到电话骚扰。
• The company prohibits any form of harassment.公司禁止任何形式的骚扰行为。

5 stint   

v.节省，限制，停止；n.舍不得化，节约，限制；连续不断的一段时间从事某件事

参考例句：

• He lavished money on his children without stint.他在孩子们身上花钱毫不吝惜。
• We hope that you will not stint your criticism.我们希望您不吝指教。

6 milestone   

n.里程碑；划时代的事件

参考例句：

• The film proved to be a milestone in the history of cinema.事实证明这部影片是电影史上的一个里程碑。
• I think this is a very important milestone in the relations between our two countries.我认为这是我们两国关系中一个十分重要的里程碑。

7 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

8 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

9 hilarious   

adj.充满笑声的，欢闹的；[反]depressed

参考例句：

• The party got quite hilarious after they brought more wine.在他们又拿来更多的酒之后，派对变得更加热闹起来。
• We stop laughing because the show was so hilarious.我们笑个不停，因为那个节目太搞笑了。

10 misogynists   

n.厌恶女人的人( misogynist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

11 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

12 bullies   

n.欺凌弱小者, 开球 vt.恐吓, 威胁, 欺负

参考例句：

• Standing up to bullies takes plenty of backbone. 勇敢地对付暴徒需有大无畏精神。
• Bullies can make your life hell. 恃强欺弱者能让你的日子像活地狱。

13 orientation   

n.方向，目标；熟悉，适应，情况介绍

参考例句：

• Children need some orientation when they go to school.小孩子上学时需要适应。
• The traveller found his orientation with the aid of a good map.旅行者借助一幅好地图得知自己的方向。

14 mundane   

adj.平凡的；尘世的；宇宙的

参考例句：

• I hope I can get an interesting job and not something mundane.我希望我可以得到的是一份有趣的工作，而不是一份平凡无奇的。
• I find it humorous sometimes that even the most mundane occurrences can have an impact on our awareness.我发现生活有时挺诙谐的，即使是最平凡的事情也能影响我们的感知。

15 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

16 toiling   

长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的现在分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉

参考例句：

• The fiery orator contrasted the idle rich with the toiling working classes. 这位激昂的演说家把无所事事的富人同终日辛劳的工人阶级进行了对比。
• She felt like a beetle toiling in the dust. She was filled with repulsion. 她觉得自己像只甲虫在地里挣扎，心中涌满愤恨。

17 racism   

n.民族主义；种族歧视(意识)

参考例句：

• He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
• Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。

18 aspire   

vi.(to，after)渴望，追求，有志于

参考例句：

• Living together with you is what I aspire toward in my life.和你一起生活是我一生最大的愿望。
• I aspire to be an innovator not a follower.我迫切希望能变成个开创者而不是跟随者。

19 excellence   

n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德

参考例句：

• His art has reached a high degree of excellence.他的艺术已达到炉火纯青的地步。
• My performance is far below excellence.我的表演离优秀还差得远呢。

20 conciseness   

n.简洁，简短

参考例句：

• Conciseness is served when the sentence is so corrected. 句子这样一改就简洁了。
• The topics of Diction section include Conciseness, Repetition Simple Words, and etc. 字法单元的主题包括简洁、重复、简单的字等等。

21 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

22 comedians   

n.喜剧演员，丑角( comedian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The voice was rich, lordly, Harvardish, like all the boring radio comedians'imitations. 声音浑厚、威严，俨然是哈佛出身的气派，就跟无线电里所有的滑稽演员叫人已经听腻的模仿完全一样。 来自辞典例句
• He distracted them by joking and imitating movie and radio comedians. 他用开玩笑的方法或者模仿电影及广播中的滑稽演员来对付他们。 来自辞典例句

23 mediate   

vi.调解，斡旋；vt.经调解解决；经斡旋促成

参考例句：

• The state must mediate the struggle for water resources.政府必须通过调解来解决对水资源的争夺。
• They may be able to mediate between parties with different interests.他们也许能在不同利益政党之间进行斡旋。

24 knight   

n.骑士，武士；爵士

参考例句：

• He was made an honourary knight.他被授予荣誉爵士称号。
• A knight rode on his richly caparisoned steed.一个骑士骑在装饰华丽的马上。

25 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

26 milestones   

n.重要事件( milestone的名词复数 )；重要阶段；转折点；里程碑

参考例句：

• Several important milestones in foreign policy have been passed by this Congress and they can be chalked up as major accomplishments. 这次代表大会通过了对外政策中几起划时代的事件，并且它们可作为主要成就记录下来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Dale: I really envy your milestones over the last few years, Don. 我真的很羡慕你在过去几年中所建立的丰功伟绩。 来自互联网