美国国家公共电台 NPR No, 'You Can't Touch My Hair' And Other Lessons From Comic Phoebe Robinson

No, 'You Can't Touch My Hair' And Other Lessons From Comic Phoebe Robinson

play pause stop mute unmute max volume 00:0006:11repeat repeat off Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser 1 to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. PHOEBE ROBINSON: (Reading) I don't wake up every day going, oh, time to break down institutional racism 2 to people before Kathie Lee and Hoda drink their body weight in Franzia and host the fourth hour of "The Today Show."

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: 

That's Phoebe Robinson, reading from her new book titled "You Can't Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have To Explain."

ROBINSON: (Reading) So because I, like many of my friends and family, am on the receiving end of racism and I, unlike many of my friends and family, have a platform - stand-up comedy and writing - it only makes sense to use it to effect some positive change when it comes to racism and eventually one day be right alongside Kathie Lee and Hoda, day drunk out of my mind and ordering sensible cardigans from Net-a-Porter.

(LAUGHTER)

ROBINSON: And that's my - that's, like, my literal dream. I know I wrote it as a joke, but I'm like - I love Kathie Lee and Hoda.

MARTIN: You're like - actually - I know. I know.

ROBINSON: Yeah.

MARTIN: Phoebe Robinson, stand-up comic and co-host of the WNYC podcast 2 Dope Queens. She joins me now from our studios at NPR West. So I want to talk about your conflicted relationship with stand-up comedy because you're real funny.

ROBINSON: Thank you.

MARTIN: And you do stand-up comedy, but you weren't always so into that idea. In fact - and I'm quoting you here.

ROBINSON: Oh, gosh.

MARTIN: You thought stand-up was dumb.

ROBINSON: I did. I did. I mean, I was a funny kid growing up, and I did improv in college. I went to Pratt Institute. But I did it very informally. It was just me and some of my friends just, you know, sort of goofing 3 around on campus, but, yeah, I never really thought of comedy as a career. Like, my goal was when I moved to New York, I was going to write serious films. Like, I was - I was - I'm a huge movie buff. And so I was like, I'm going to write my "American Beauty." Like, I'm going to write something, like, earth-shattering and, like, write about...

MARTIN: Not movies, films - films.

ROBINSON: Yeah, films.

MARTIN: You're going to do films. Yeah.

ROBINSON: Films - and I'm going to marry Robert De Niro, and that was the plan, you know?

(LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: Really, Robert DeNiro?

ROBINSON: Yeah, I know. He's so talented. He's so cute. I'm like, hey, boo.

MARTIN: If anyone has listened to the podcast or knows you and your voice, what's cool about this book is it's just you talking. Did you have to work to figure out what your voice was? People talk about that all the time. Like, as a performer, oh, you've really you found your voice. Like, you, black woman who grew up in the '90s - like, you've channeled your authentic 4 voice.

ROBINSON: Yeah. So I - as a kid, I used to always write these stories. Like, my parents have books that I used to write. And some of them were, like, really cute. Some of them were, like, kind of crazy. Like, I have is one book that I wrote as a kid. I had a giant crush on my gym teacher. I was, like, in grade school. And I just was like, oh, he's cute. He's older. I'm like - I guess I'm into older dudes since forever.

MARTIN: (Laughter).

ROBINSON: And so I, like, wrote this story about how I'm a princess and a scientist and all these things, and my brother gets kidnapped. And my gym teacher's, like, this prince from this other town. He comes over and, like, saves the day. And I - and the last page -, like I got married to the gym teacher. And we're just like chilling in bed, looking through, like, a magazine. And I won an award for that, which is, like - the '90s were wild because someone should have been like, hey, what's going on here?

(LAUGHTER)

ROBINSON: There was a great narrative 5. This is awesome 6. And so I think I kind of always took to writing, and I studied writing at Pratt, so it's been 14 years.

MARTIN: In the book, you write that, quote, there's a predator-like mental scan that black women have to do before speaking. And then you go on to tell the story of being in a writing class in college. Can you recount that for me?

ROBINSON: There's this whole notion of black women are angry, or black women are sassy or at it or, like, have bad attitudes. And so you always want to be in a space where you - at least, I was for a while - where I was like, oh, I want to be likable. I don't want people to think that I have resting bitch face or whatever, which is something that no guys ever - you know, do you think, like, Vladimir Putin is like, I hope I don't have resting bitch face in this interview?

MARTIN: (Laughter).

ROBINSON: He's, like, not concerned with that, which is so freeing. And so this was our senior year. This is our thesis class, and we were all writing, like, plays and screenplays and short story collections and poetry collections. And this one girl in my class - she's very sweet, but she just recently discovered that she was a lesbian, which I was like, yes, that's amazing that you found yourself.

So she wrote this play that I think she was - I think it was coming from a good place. It really was. But she wrote this play about slavery. I'm the only black person in this writing class, just to preface this. And basically, the slave had a chance to get her freedom, but she turned it down to stay being a slave at that plantation 7 or whatever because her and the slave master's daughter were, like, having an affair or whatever. And it just was very bizarre. And I kind of had to speak up and be like, you know, I don't think any slave would be like - hard pass on freedom.

(LAUGHTER)

ROBINSON: I'm going to keep picking cotton so I can, like, hook up with this chick twice a week. Like, you know what I mean? It was just really - it was tough 'cause I was the only black person in the room, so everyone was looking at me as soon as it was like a slavery thing. And I was like, should I say something? Should I not say something? I was really going back and forth 8 about it. I was like, I can't - like, if you want to write a story about slavery, like, by all means, do it, but it has to come from a place that's respecting the past and respecting the people in it. And so I just told myself I can't not speak up or stand up for myself because I'm afraid that people are not going to like me because I'm a black woman who has an opinion.

MARTIN: Phoebe Robinson - her new book is "You Can't Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have To Explain." Thanks so much, Phoebe.

ROBINSON: Thank you so much. Have a great day.