Speaker 1: Pushkin. This is talk easy.
Speaker 2: I'm setting forgo SOO, welcome to the show. Today we
Speaker 2: return to our conversation with actor, writer, and comedian Quentin Brunson.
Speaker 2: I first sat with Brunson a couple of years back
Speaker 2: around season two of her hit show Abbott Elementary. As
Speaker 2: you may have seen, she recently won an Emmy for
Speaker 2: Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, making her the first
Speaker 2: black woman to do so since nineteen eighty one. When
Speaker 2: she's not making history, she's making Abbott Elementary, which, as
Speaker 2: you also may have seen, just return for season three
Speaker 2: on ABC. Here's a little bit of a preview of
Speaker 2: what's to come in the new season.
Speaker 1: Good day to the fine teachers of Abbit Elementary.
Speaker 3: What no comment about Gregory being FOI n foy.
Speaker 1: No, that is highly inappropriate. I went to Harvard this summer.
Speaker 1: I've learned what it truly takes to do the job
Speaker 1: of a principal.
Speaker 4: Break it up, flagness.
Speaker 1: I got cameras all over this joint. She must be stopped.
Speaker 3: Yeah, trying out cursing, you know see how it goes.
Speaker 1: Oh no, no, no, no, no. Gregory and I are good. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: we're fine. Interesting.
Speaker 5: I cannot stand anymore of this new ava, and.
Speaker 2: You are a very powerful tool.
Speaker 1: All these rules are so hard. Here's a rule.
Speaker 3: Put your arms away, Jeremy Allen Black, You guys missed
Speaker 3: a lot of silent.
Speaker 2: You can watch new episodes of Abbot Elementary every Wednesday
Speaker 2: on ABC. They're also available to stream the next day
Speaker 2: on Hulu. The new season finds Brunson reprising her role
Speaker 2: as Janine Tigue's, a dedicated, wide eyed second grade teacher
Speaker 2: and a predominantly black elementary school in Philadelphia. The character
Speaker 2: was partially inspired by Brunson's mother, who taught kindergarten for
Speaker 2: nearly forty years. We talk about the influence of her
Speaker 2: mother a whole lot in this conversation, but we also
Speaker 2: discuss her winding path and comedy, from making viral videos
Speaker 2: a BuzzFeed to creating Abbot, which many critics have claimed
Speaker 2: has single handedly revived the network sitcom. As someone whose
Speaker 2: father has been teaching at public schools for thirty years now,
Speaker 2: this episode, and really a whole lot of Quinta's recent work,
Speaker 2: means a whole lot to me because Abbott is, above
Speaker 2: all a celebration of teachers, the ones that endlessly fight
Speaker 2: for their students, the ones who work above and beyond
Speaker 2: in under resource districts, the ones that are often underpaid
Speaker 2: and overworked, the ones that show up every day and
Speaker 2: really care. And so with that, Dad, I hope you're listening,
Speaker 2: and I hope you enjoy this conversation. I think he's
Speaker 2: probably heard it at least two to three times already.
Speaker 2: I also want to thank Quinta for coming on a
Speaker 2: couple years back. She has continued to be a supporter
Speaker 2: of our show. I am sorry that Jalen Hurts and
Speaker 2: the Eagles are not playing today. And for those of
Speaker 2: you who have not heard this episode, or for those
Speaker 2: that are listening to it for a second time, thank
Speaker 2: you and I.
Speaker 1: Hope you enjoy it.
Speaker 2: We'll be back next Sunday with a new episode. Until then,
Speaker 2: have a good rest of your weekend. And without further ado,
Speaker 2: this is Quinta Brunson.
Speaker 1: Quina Brunson. How you doing. I'm doing well? Okay, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm good. I'm here. Should we stop now? No, I'm
Speaker 1: doing well.
Speaker 2: Honestly, you don't traditionally like doing podcasts very much.
Speaker 1: Is that true?
Speaker 2: This is true, and you've made the exception for us.
Speaker 3: Yes, I've heard so many good friends speak so highly
Speaker 3: of this podcast. I don't listen to podcasts, so I
Speaker 3: have never listened to it myself. I find them a
Speaker 3: little intimidating. Do you talking too much scares me?
Speaker 2: So yeah, if you just want to stop talking and
Speaker 2: have me talk, okay, I'll jump right in.
Speaker 1: All right, cool, Okay.
Speaker 2: So, going into the first season of Abbot Elementary, you
Speaker 2: talked about how you wanted to provide respite from a
Speaker 2: global pandemic, a fragile democracy, an escalating climate crisis, the
Speaker 2: list goes on. You said, the world isn't a crazy place.
Speaker 2: We just wanted to make a feel good sitcom that
Speaker 2: was twenty two minutes long that families can watch together,
Speaker 2: but wasn't corny and could still be for everyone. Now
Speaker 2: that the world is basically fixed and the problems I
Speaker 2: mentioned no longer exist, what's the driving force of season two.
Speaker 3: I think the driving force now is I enjoy making it.
Speaker 3: As you said, the whole world is fixed now, so
Speaker 3: I still want people to be happy though. I think
Speaker 3: there's something really beautiful about people just enjoying something sweet
Speaker 3: In short, and I think our show doesn't require much
Speaker 3: like brain power.
Speaker 2: Well, it doesn't hurt to have brand power.
Speaker 3: It doesn't hurt. Everyone's going to have fun. But there
Speaker 3: are a lot of television programs that I think require
Speaker 3: a lot of mental gymnastics. Like everyone's watching the Doahmer
Speaker 3: series right now, and I feel like everyone is crushed
Speaker 3: with the weight of watching the Dohmer series. It just
Speaker 3: feels like a weighted thing for people to watch, and
Speaker 3: I feel like Abbott doesn't feel that weighted. Granted, people
Speaker 3: think about the state of American public schools, but that's
Speaker 3: not my intention. I think that's just inherent to the
Speaker 3: creation of a show about a public school. Sometimes people
Speaker 3: take away, man, I'm having fun watching Abbot. I'm really
Speaker 3: enjoying myself, but man, the public school system is fucked up.
Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, you.
Speaker 3: Should know that also, and I hope you're moved to
Speaker 3: action by that, but ultimately, really just still enjoy making
Speaker 3: a show that people enjoy.
Speaker 2: You're almost making it sound like the show is weightless.
Speaker 2: I think you're under selling the show. Yeah a little bit.
Speaker 3: Maybe I don't think it's weightless. I think it's just
Speaker 3: not as heavy as.
Speaker 2: Some others, as heavy as Dahmer.
Speaker 1: Not as heavy as Dahmer. You should put that on
Speaker 1: the poster of season two. Abbit Elementary not Dahmer. You
Speaker 1: have this quote.
Speaker 2: If I go back home to my family in Philadelphia
Speaker 2: and I asked my mother, cousin, uncle nice, if they're
Speaker 2: watching Succession, They're going to say no. Yet, Succession is
Speaker 2: hip cool. Everyone writes about it. But the hipp is
Speaker 2: coolest thing isn't always for everyone, and that's okay. Network
Speaker 2: TV is inherently made for the people. Abbot is in
Speaker 2: this middle space between the two bars.
Speaker 1: See, this is why it get scared. I just be talking.
Speaker 3: I don't have any recollection of when I said that,
Speaker 3: and that's crazy to me.
Speaker 1: That's why it's scary.
Speaker 2: But here we are going into the second season. What
Speaker 2: was your frame of mind?
Speaker 3: I think it allowed me to trust myself even more.
Speaker 3: The first season felt very intention but like with any art,
Speaker 3: you know you're making something and you can't control how
Speaker 3: it's received. You hope that your art is received in
Speaker 3: the way you intended it to be. And it was
Speaker 3: and it caused conversation. It did stuff that I didn't
Speaker 3: necessarily intend for it to do, but it still added
Speaker 3: to it being I think a great cultural piece.
Speaker 1: What do you mean by that?
Speaker 3: So, for instance, you know, last season there was an
Speaker 3: episode about the Gifted program, and when that episode aired,
Speaker 3: and I think two or three days later, I remember
Speaker 3: online people were having this extensive conversation about the ethics
Speaker 3: of having a gifted program at all. That wasn't necessarily
Speaker 3: a conversation that we were trying to create. So it's
Speaker 3: awesome that people are motivated to have these conversations and
Speaker 3: motivated to reach out to their local public schools and
Speaker 3: donate that all of that is more than we could
Speaker 3: have asked for. And so in the second season it
Speaker 3: felt like we should just do more of the same.
Speaker 3: We really trust ourselves and we just have to do
Speaker 3: more of what we were already doing.
Speaker 2: And the thing you were doing, I think above all
Speaker 2: else is being funny.
Speaker 1: I think so too.
Speaker 2: Why don't we watch a clip from the new season
Speaker 2: of hab It Elementary.
Speaker 1: Watch a clip one of the podcast.
Speaker 3: Ava I see you, I saw you see me make
Speaker 3: free trips.
Speaker 1: You could have helped me.
Speaker 3: I could have that was an option, got Jacob.
Speaker 1: I missed you. Please never go to Peru again. You're
Speaker 1: not having service was the worst. Oh, it's so nice
Speaker 1: to be called Jacob again. After teaching abroad and being
Speaker 1: called El Diablo blanco every day. I really started to
Speaker 1: feel like about sah. Somebody say trash.
Speaker 5: Welcome back dorks and welcome back abbit elementary staff. Let's
Speaker 5: have a great Development Week. I'll see you guys in
Speaker 5: the auditorium at nine.
Speaker 3: Most people think schools start when the kids get here,
Speaker 3: but it actually starts now at Development Week.
Speaker 1: Teachers prep for the year.
Speaker 3: We get ready, get our curriculum, We research, our students,
Speaker 3: make plans.
Speaker 1: It's the calm before the storm. It's very zin.
Speaker 5: Actually, I had a fantastic summer after my cruise to
Speaker 5: Jamaica all inclusive. I worked with AVA to properly appropriate
Speaker 5: the funds that we got from the grant last year,
Speaker 5: and I found out in early July that I would
Speaker 5: be welcoming a student who uses a wheelchair. So I
Speaker 5: was very excited to be able to use part of
Speaker 5: that grant money to get a new ramp installed. My
Speaker 5: next goal is to get that student the appropriate desk
Speaker 5: and follow up on the shoes I lost on the cruise.
Speaker 5: I was very inebriated. Oh see, Barbara is different than
Speaker 5: land Barbara.
Speaker 2: Well, Barbara and I have that in common.
Speaker 1: She just keeps getting funnier.
Speaker 3: I was watching an episode yesterday, a cut of an
Speaker 3: episode which is episode eight, that just text shry I
Speaker 3: was like, how do you keep getting funnier?
Speaker 1: And she's so not aware.
Speaker 3: She just is such a good actress that I don't know, whatever,
Speaker 3: That's not the point.
Speaker 1: Sure it is.
Speaker 2: Even in that scene, you get a sense of these
Speaker 2: teachers that they love this job, but that the job
Speaker 2: is demanding probably too much from them. And over and
Speaker 2: over again, You've talked about this, but I like this
Speaker 2: quote where you said, what if we took the approach
Speaker 2: that teachers are real people instead of heightened stereotypes. Do
Speaker 2: you think that is why people have come to this show,
Speaker 2: because in some ways they can always see a version
Speaker 2: of the teachers they had or are having.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, teachers, everyone has one or everyone was one. Lisa
Speaker 3: and Walter says that on our show, like it's literally
Speaker 3: someone we all have come into contact with one way
Speaker 3: or another. You know, even in past shows about teachers,
Speaker 3: all of which I feel I'm a student of things
Speaker 3: like Welcome Back Carter, Mister Carter, shows with teachers in
Speaker 3: them that were prominent, like Boy Meets World, or even
Speaker 3: like never have I ever, the focus is on the kids.
Speaker 3: But still though the typical funny approach was people hate
Speaker 3: this job they're doing, you know, they hate the students
Speaker 3: and how bad it is. But all the teachers in
Speaker 3: my life, like my mother, they love the job. It's
Speaker 3: really the only reason to do it because it's not
Speaker 3: the pay. My mom is just a teacher to the core.
Speaker 3: Even when she retired, she still keeps teaching. It's just
Speaker 3: who she is. And I think that's so inspiring and
Speaker 3: beautiful and what I tried to bring into Abbitt. There's
Speaker 3: no pulling Barbara away from this job. There's no pulling
Speaker 3: Janine away from it. I think the character Gregory is
Speaker 3: learning that there's no pulling him away from it, like
Speaker 3: this is who you are. But then you still have
Speaker 3: your personal life, you still have bills, you still have
Speaker 3: to deal with the things everyone else deals with. So
Speaker 3: I thought that was also the beauty. And like the
Speaker 3: documentary format, I wanted people to feel like they worked
Speaker 3: at Abbot or went to Abbot two, so that they
Speaker 3: could be immersed in this world and feel the joy
Speaker 3: that these people feel, and the love and the fun
Speaker 3: and the humor. It's so all encompassing. My mom worked
Speaker 3: around the clock to be a good teacher. It's not
Speaker 3: just those you know, hours of eight to three. It's
Speaker 3: so much that goes into it. So I wanted to
Speaker 3: flesh that out for everyone out there who didn't know
Speaker 3: what it was like.
Speaker 2: She was your kindergarten teacher, right, my.
Speaker 1: Mom was my kindergarten teacher. Yes, it was tu It
Speaker 1: was so.
Speaker 2: Normal, my mom teaching me in the kindergarten.
Speaker 1: It wouldn't have worked out.
Speaker 2: No, it wouldn't have worked out.
Speaker 1: Are you kidding? You would have just been a child.
Speaker 1: You wouldn't have known.
Speaker 2: Trust me, My mom would have made her presence known.
Speaker 1: Do you have a good relationship with your mom? Now
Speaker 1: stop recording? Oh my god. Oh not Sam's mom. Yes,
Speaker 1: we have a very good relationship. Okay, good, good, good.
Speaker 1: I think it's all love. It's just that the joke
Speaker 1: was too easy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but your mom is your teacher. She's your teacher
Speaker 2: in kindergarten. Then from first to fifth grade you attend Holly,
Speaker 2: a Learning program on the top floor of Harrody Elementary
Speaker 2: School in West Philadelphia.
Speaker 3: It's now Mastery Charter School, changed into a charter I
Speaker 3: wasn't going to mention that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what did that program teach you about who you
Speaker 2: were and where you came from?
Speaker 3: So A Holly was incredible. It was you were in
Speaker 3: the same program from first to fifth grade. You had
Speaker 3: the same teachers. They just you know, changed the curriculum
Speaker 3: when you, of course changed grades. But I had two teachers,
Speaker 3: Umi and Mongozi, and they were my teachers for all
Speaker 3: five years. Two very different women, two very different women.
Speaker 3: Yes you read the book, yes, And in this program
Speaker 3: it was based in African learning and learning your black
Speaker 3: history first. So a Holly the name means family, and
Speaker 3: that's what it felt like. While we learned everything that
Speaker 3: the other kids were learning. We had multiple lessons on
Speaker 3: black history a day, and they didn't really pull any punches.
Speaker 3: I learned about the slave trade in first grade and
Speaker 3: learned about the Civil Rights era in first grade. And
Speaker 3: I always tell the story because I think it's the
Speaker 3: best way to sum it up, you know. While other
Speaker 3: kids in other second grade classes were watching like Beauty
Speaker 3: and the Beast, we watched Amistade and I was like, hmm,
Speaker 3: that movie's tough to watch now. It's tough to watch period.
Speaker 3: But they really believed in telling us the truth. And
Speaker 3: telling us our history. It was just learning what the
Speaker 3: world was, what the country was for black people at
Speaker 3: an early age. In all honesty, I think it improved
Speaker 3: my life greatly. It made me able to navigate the
Speaker 3: world in a different way.
Speaker 2: Because they were centering blackness in the curriculum.
Speaker 3: Yes, my controversial thought is that I feel that should
Speaker 3: be the case for every person. I think that, like,
Speaker 3: if you are Hispanic American, I think it's so vital
Speaker 3: to learn about your history in this country before going
Speaker 3: out into the world.
Speaker 1: I think the same thing for white American children.
Speaker 3: You should know your full, well rounded history instead of
Speaker 3: you know, being denied it and you find out later
Speaker 3: what your ancestors did and what they were capable of.
Speaker 3: I think it's just helpful to no sooner so you
Speaker 3: can be like, all right, fuck, let's just let's not
Speaker 3: do that again, because I think the lady you find out,
Speaker 3: the more defensive you are one way or another.
Speaker 2: Because you feel you've been deceived.
Speaker 1: Deceived, lied to, betrayed.
Speaker 3: I have a lot of friends Black Americans who didn't
Speaker 3: really find out about the history of black people in
Speaker 3: America until they got to college. And at that point,
Speaker 3: why the fuck did nobody tell you know. It's like, Okay,
Speaker 3: I didn't know this information on purpose. And honestly, maybe
Speaker 3: that's true that so much of our history is missing
Speaker 3: from modern textbooks, or that slavery is like reduced to
Speaker 3: a page in your history book. It'd be helpful to
Speaker 3: know all of that so you have a better center
Speaker 3: of gravity. I think about therapy a lot when people
Speaker 3: have to go to therapy later to sift through their
Speaker 3: childhoods and sift through trauma, and they get in therapy
Speaker 3: this opportunity to unlock repressed feelings, things they didn't know
Speaker 3: about their family, things they didn't get the chance to
Speaker 3: ever reconcile, and now are affecting them poorly in adulthood.
Speaker 3: I think it's something that could help repair the country
Speaker 3: which feels beyond repair.
Speaker 1: But I just feel like we all stopped lying to ourselves.
Speaker 2: I thought we just agreed that we had repaired all
Speaker 2: the problems.
Speaker 3: Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot never mind, forget everything I
Speaker 3: just said.
Speaker 2: I think if that's a controversial opinion, then we got
Speaker 2: more problems than I thought.
Speaker 3: We do have more problems than we thought. All I
Speaker 3: know is like my experience with like a Holly it
Speaker 3: never became up for debate, do you know what I mean?
Speaker 3: And never was a debatable, actionable item that people could
Speaker 3: shut down.
Speaker 1: It just you know, was happening back when you were
Speaker 1: coming in page in the mid nineties. Yes, different world
Speaker 1: back then.
Speaker 2: At that age you said, even though an enormous weight
Speaker 2: was dropped on my back, I felt like I could
Speaker 2: take on the world because I was given a keen
Speaker 2: awareness of how society worked and treated black people. It's
Speaker 2: also around this time, I think, age six or seven,
Speaker 2: that you started, in your words, flirting with comedy. What
Speaker 2: did that flirtation look like.
Speaker 3: It looked like really wanting to make my siblings laugh.
Speaker 1: My siblings were much older than me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, four, I was there a little clown, and I
Speaker 3: started doing stuff like reciting lines from their favorite shows,
Speaker 3: which were in living color in Martin. I love that feeling.
Speaker 3: I loved making these people laugh. I didn't know this
Speaker 3: when I was a little kid, but I came so
Speaker 3: much later that my brother, who was closest to me,
Speaker 3: was like pissed. He was like, I was the baby,
Speaker 3: Where'd she come from? And I wasn't on purpose. I
Speaker 3: was a surprise baby. And my older siblings they seem
Speaker 3: so far away from me, but making them laugh I
Speaker 3: felt that that brought me closer. I thought that was
Speaker 3: the one way to be super close to these people
Speaker 3: was to be able to make them laugh.
Speaker 2: In the book, he wrote, slowly, I began building up
Speaker 2: characters and stories in my head, ones that I knew
Speaker 2: would get people laughing. It felt good to be loved,
Speaker 2: but it felt better to get a laugh. Did you
Speaker 2: believe those two things were mutually exclusive.
Speaker 3: No, I don't think they were, because it wasn't always
Speaker 3: like a laugh per se. It was just entertaining people
Speaker 3: and getting that kind of emotional response from them, Like
Speaker 3: I started out a dancer, my dad really or other
Speaker 3: people be like I just love like watching you dance.
Speaker 3: That to me is so powerful to get an emotional
Speaker 3: response from art. I imagine it's what a painter wants
Speaker 3: when they paint something, just an emotional response, whether they laugh, cry,
Speaker 3: are just experiencing extreme joy. That's something that I really
Speaker 3: enjoyed from a young age.
Speaker 2: In high school. Your mother gives you her Mac laptop.
Speaker 2: On it you start editing videos on iMovie using photo booth.
Speaker 2: Was she supportive of that art that you were talking
Speaker 2: about at that age.
Speaker 3: No, because I didn't really show her what I was doing.
Speaker 3: She got the mac through the Philadelphia public school system.
Speaker 3: One year they gave all the teachers Max, which was
Speaker 3: super cool.
Speaker 1: She didn't even.
Speaker 3: Really know what that was, you know, She's like, what
Speaker 3: is this? And I was like, mom, you have a MacBook.
Speaker 3: This was a big, big deal at the time, and
Speaker 3: so I would be like, can I see it?
Speaker 1: Can I play on it? Can I see it?
Speaker 3: She was like, yeah, fine, whatever, like, just don't break it.
Speaker 3: And I was like, I won't break it. I would
Speaker 3: never break such.
Speaker 1: A beautiful thing. And I was just did you just
Speaker 1: praise the mac laptop.
Speaker 3: You have to remember this was two thousand and six.
Speaker 3: The mac book was game changing, you know, iMovie game changing.
Speaker 3: I started a little talk show called The Rant, and
Speaker 3: that followed me into college where I just interviewed random
Speaker 3: people on my campus, and that started expanding all of
Speaker 3: a sudden. I was like interviewing people in Chicago and
Speaker 3: different college campuses, and it was just fun to make
Speaker 3: that kind of art, which I think the MacBook allowed
Speaker 3: me to do.
Speaker 1: Very grateful for the invention of the MacBook.
Speaker 2: At eighteen nineteen, you started attending Temple University.
Speaker 1: YEP.
Speaker 2: The verdict on whether your mother was supporting your creativity,
Speaker 2: where did we land on that?
Speaker 3: It's really a no. She didn't see the stability and
Speaker 3: the things that I wanted to do. Once she did
Speaker 3: start like finding out as you read the book. I
Speaker 3: wrote about it in my book. When I was just
Speaker 3: like going to improv club, she was like, oh, what
Speaker 3: is this. My mom understood stand up and yes she
Speaker 3: undersot diod TV, but I was starting at ground zero
Speaker 3: of zipzab zop and she was like, this is nonsense
Speaker 3: and we don't have time for nonsense, and why are
Speaker 3: you doing that?
Speaker 2: To be fair, when I first saw the zip zap zop,
Speaker 2: I also thought, what's happened?
Speaker 1: What's happening?
Speaker 3: And that's why I was totally respected my mom's choice
Speaker 3: to not support that the zipab sp completely support that.
Speaker 3: It looks like nonsense.
Speaker 1: It does.
Speaker 3: I watch improvisers do it now and I'm like, God,
Speaker 3: it's so awful, but some of you will go on
Speaker 3: to become some of the greatest comedic minds of our time.
Speaker 2: So when you join this group foul play Yes God
Speaker 2: in college, your mother one night drives you to your
Speaker 2: friend's Scott's house. Yep, Scott, he had an apartment, I
Speaker 2: believe on campus.
Speaker 1: Yep. What happened when you two roll up and park,
Speaker 1: we get in a fight. She's like, why are you
Speaker 1: going into this boy's house? And I'm like, we're just
Speaker 1: hanging out and doing improv, and she's like, I don't
Speaker 1: trust this situation. These are nerds.
Speaker 3: I cannot state enough how these were the most typical nerds.
Speaker 3: They should have been out having sex and they were
Speaker 3: in the house doing improv and listening to uh, what's
Speaker 3: that one singer? They put me on to him? Actually, fuck,
Speaker 3: I could hold you. They put me on a bunch
Speaker 3: of white shit, a bunch of like stuff I never heard.
Speaker 2: Keep looking at me like I'm gonna know, I know,
Speaker 2: you know, you don't know if I know.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure you do. And then you know they
Speaker 1: had ukuleles and guitars. You they likes.
Speaker 3: I'm just saying things that I know are probably in
Speaker 3: your background somewhere orre. You had a friend or a
Speaker 3: friend that partook and stringed instrument behavior. Ray lamont Lamontage,
Speaker 3: That's who they put me. Ontok was always played it.
Speaker 3: So these were just the biggest dorks. Ever, I was like, Mom,
Speaker 3: you really have to chill, like for real, and we
Speaker 3: got into a fight and she told me my earrings
Speaker 3: were too big. It was just a constant pick at
Speaker 3: me and who I was becoming. It was ultimately a
Speaker 3: fear of what all of this could turn into. You know,
Speaker 3: my mom, she left the dance world behind. She's a
Speaker 3: very good dancer, but eventually she had to raise a
Speaker 3: family and focus on being a good mother. The artist's world,
Speaker 3: in being a mother having a sustainable income, they don't
Speaker 3: go hand in hand. And I feel like I don't
Speaker 3: know when I'm going to be able to have a
Speaker 3: child because of my job and because this is where
Speaker 3: my passion lies now. But my mom made her choice,
Speaker 3: and her choice was her family and her kids. So
Speaker 3: I think the arts weren't realistic to her anymore. She
Speaker 3: had her first child at twenty, and here I am
Speaker 3: approaching my twenties and I wasn't shutting the arts down.
Speaker 3: I was going further into them. I didn't know at
Speaker 3: the time what we were really arguing about. It's not
Speaker 3: until you get older you're like, oh man. She wasn't
Speaker 3: trying to criticize me for no reason. She was afraid.
Speaker 3: But my mom and I have since had talks where
Speaker 3: I'm like, you truly raised me so well that there
Speaker 3: was no way I was ever going to turn into
Speaker 3: what you were afraid of.
Speaker 2: Was part of this, as you write in the book
Speaker 2: Some Battle over a Religion.
Speaker 3: Yes, I was raised a Jehovah's witness I was a
Speaker 3: kid growing up in West Philly, pretty rough city. My
Speaker 3: mom just wanted us to have protection in every single way,
Speaker 3: me and the rest of my siblings, and being Jehah's
Speaker 3: witnesses was another layer of that protection. It's a religion
Speaker 3: that keeps you from getting into any trouble, except for
Speaker 3: the trouble that eventually finds its way in a secular
Speaker 3: branch of Christianity. But you know, I didn't want to
Speaker 3: be any one anymore and I was pulling away from it,
Speaker 3: and I think that also scared her, you know, like
Speaker 3: without religion, you're not at the whims of having fear
Speaker 3: of God.
Speaker 1: And I didn't think that was true.
Speaker 3: I was figuring it out at the time, but I
Speaker 3: think always knew, like I can be spiritual without this religion,
Speaker 3: Like I said, was grateful because I think it kept
Speaker 3: me out of so much trouble kept me on the
Speaker 3: straight and narrow path, but eventually I just knew that
Speaker 3: it wasn't going to work out for me.
Speaker 2: You said, it's a pretty strict religion to people who
Speaker 2: aren't in it, But I continue to push the boundaries
Speaker 2: until I eventually pushed my way on of it. I
Speaker 2: just wasn't going to be able to be the person
Speaker 2: I wanted to be well being part of this religion
Speaker 2: at eighteen, nineteen twenty. Who was that person that you
Speaker 2: wanted to be.
Speaker 3: I wanted to go to improv club. I did, and
Speaker 3: I was like, if this is a big deal exactly.
Speaker 3: I was like, I can't be.
Speaker 2: Here, like foul plays out of bounds.
Speaker 3: I wanted to go zip zip zop and that was
Speaker 3: looking really nasty to the Jehobes Witness. I was like, well,
Speaker 3: I can't be here. This is the smallest thing I
Speaker 3: want to do. I was just like, what the fuck.
Speaker 3: It's just like I just want to go do some
Speaker 3: improv and this is a big problem. I didn't want
Speaker 3: anything to be taboo for me. If I wanted to
Speaker 3: talk about sex, I would want to talk about sex.
Speaker 3: If I wanted to curse, because you're not even supposed
Speaker 3: to curse, I would want to curse. You're not supposed
Speaker 3: to watch certain things. I wanted to watch whatever I wanted.
Speaker 1: It was a breakup.
Speaker 3: It was like, it's not you, it's me, and that's
Speaker 3: what I felt it was. I didn't necessarily have a
Speaker 3: bad word to say about the religion, but I just
Speaker 3: knew that it wasn't for me anymore.
Speaker 2: You break up from this person that you were to
Speaker 2: basically pursue comedy and then to eventually experience life outside
Speaker 2: of West Philly. I believe during your freshman year of college,
Speaker 2: you traveled to Chicago to take a second City in
Speaker 2: prov class over on Wells Street. After a week of courses,
Speaker 2: there's like a showcase.
Speaker 1: For the class.
Speaker 2: What do you remember about that performance.
Speaker 3: I remember feeling like I was like at home. I
Speaker 3: felt super aligned with who I was supposed to be.
Speaker 3: I felt at home, at peace. There was no question
Speaker 3: about whether or not this is where I belong. It
Speaker 3: was like, okay, no, I belong here. And I think
Speaker 3: it became very clear to me that this is what
Speaker 3: I want to do for the rest of my life,
Speaker 3: not necessarily being a stage performer, but writing and performing comedy.
Speaker 3: That's when I was like, Okay, this is part of
Speaker 3: my purpose to do this. I still didn't really tell anyone,
Speaker 3: but everything I started doing was all for that. Like
Speaker 3: when I got a job at Apple and Philly, it
Speaker 3: was like so that I could eventually move to cause
Speaker 3: I was like, oh, the Apple store. They'll move you
Speaker 3: to another store and give you like a small relocation
Speaker 3: fee bomb, like not only do I want to work there,
Speaker 3: not only Apple, but eventually I'll be able to move
Speaker 3: to Chicago or LA and still have a job.
Speaker 1: But I didn't tell anyone that. It was like my
Speaker 1: little like my little plan.
Speaker 3: That I don't even think I told the plan to myself,
Speaker 3: if that makes sense.
Speaker 1: Like it was in sight, like in the shower to
Speaker 1: or something.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, no, I think I now I have
Speaker 3: a brain that's functioning here, and then there's something back
Speaker 3: here that's like here's it's just a little feeling that's like,
Speaker 3: here's what we're going to be focusing on for the
Speaker 3: next ten years. But yeah, go ahead, frontal lobe and
Speaker 3: do what you think you're doing. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1: It does?
Speaker 2: Okay, It's like you're in your early twenties, you have
Speaker 2: this plan for yourself, but you almost don't want to
Speaker 2: put it into words because then suddenly it becomes real
Speaker 2: and the wight of something that is real. It's just
Speaker 2: easier if it lives in the imagination.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, it's different for different people. You know, if it
Speaker 3: doesn't come true. I think that can sometimes like fuck
Speaker 3: people up instead of just enjoying the ride. And if
Speaker 3: it happens, it happens.
Speaker 1: I don't know. You never know what is going to happen.
Speaker 3: And if you're just living and just going on for
Speaker 3: the ride of life, it's much easier to never be disappointed.
Speaker 2: Well, we're right back with our guests, the one and
Speaker 2: only Quina Brunson. This right of life, it does take
Speaker 2: you to Los Angeles. It does you get that relocation
Speaker 2: job at Apple over at Century City. You're twenty three,
Speaker 2: leaving West Philly for the first time. You have this quote,
Speaker 2: he said. When I moved to Los Angeles, I stayed
Speaker 2: at a friend of a friend's apartment in Koreatown. I
Speaker 2: was subletting it for three weeks. I was then going
Speaker 2: through their bookshelf and I found a paperback copy of
Speaker 2: You Get So Alone at Times by Charles Bukowski. I
Speaker 2: related I was like twenty three, and at that time
Speaker 2: in my life, there were a lot of people, my parents' friends,
Speaker 2: who thought I was a terrible person for moving away
Speaker 2: from I had this idea, maybe I am terrible because
Speaker 2: this is what I had to do. Did you really
Speaker 2: believe that that that you were terrible for moving.
Speaker 1: I didn't believe I was terrible.
Speaker 3: But when enough people are mad at you, I think
Speaker 3: you start to think, well, maybe I'm unaware.
Speaker 1: You know. I think I felt maybe you're missing something.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was like, I damn, but I was still
Speaker 3: gonna go for the ride. I felt like I like
Speaker 3: I was saying. I was like, well, I'm here, I'm
Speaker 3: still gonna do this. I'm going to pursue it. And
Speaker 3: you know, if I'm wrong, so be it. Maybe I am.
Speaker 3: Maybe I am wrong for this. Maybe my parents right.
Speaker 3: There was a period where I wasn't working at Apple
Speaker 3: yet the job relocation hadn't happened, so I was dead broke.
Speaker 3: I had to find some work, and I was working
Speaker 3: as like a styling assistant and doing these long day.
Speaker 1: Jobs for very little pay.
Speaker 3: And when you are an assistant, you know you can't
Speaker 3: be on the phone and stuff like that. You're you're
Speaker 3: grabbing minuscule things like tights and and keeping track of,
Speaker 3: you know, fifty thousand dollar pieces of joy. It requires
Speaker 3: a lot of focus for not a lot of money.
Speaker 3: And I had a friend who was so mad at
Speaker 3: me at the time that I all of a sudden
Speaker 3: wasn't answering the phone as much, and I wasn't there
Speaker 3: as much. Was a good friend of mine from college,
Speaker 3: and I was like, I don't know what to tell you, Like,
Speaker 3: I have to work, I have to do this now.
Speaker 3: My mom was still very upset that I really was
Speaker 3: going to move out here. It didn't stop me from
Speaker 3: doing it. It just made me wonder if I was
Speaker 3: going to be wrong or not, but it didn't stop
Speaker 3: me from trying to find out. And I think that
Speaker 3: book it's a lot of quick poems about being okay
Speaker 3: with being awful. I think definitely people have mixed feelings
Speaker 3: on Charles Bikowski period, but I didn't know that at
Speaker 3: the time. I just grabbed this book off a shelf
Speaker 3: and started reading it, and it felt peaceful because also
Speaker 3: I was like, I'm not as bad as him, and
Speaker 3: somehow he's okay with himself because he was fucking horrible. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but he was somehow okay with himself in seeing who
Speaker 3: he was supposed to be.
Speaker 2: So you were making peace with being less awful than him.
Speaker 1: I think so.
Speaker 3: I think that moving somewhere, pursuing a career like mine,
Speaker 3: it just requires a period of misunderstanding from people sometimes,
Speaker 3: and I had to be okay with that period that
Speaker 3: everybody was going to jump on board. And I don't
Speaker 3: think I also was good at articulating what I was
Speaker 3: trying to do. I just had this conversation with someone
Speaker 3: else recently. It's hard to articulate to someone that I
Speaker 3: think that one day I'll make a television show on
Speaker 3: ABC and it'll be really good and everyone will love it.
Speaker 3: You don't even know that to articulate it. It's just
Speaker 3: a dream that's in the back of you somewhere.
Speaker 2: I think it's best to not articulate something like that.
Speaker 2: Same it's like the politicians are like, I've been talking about, yes,
Speaker 2: being a politician since I was nine, and you're like,
Speaker 2: and I don't want to ever talk to you.
Speaker 3: Did you know when you were seventeen where you like,
Speaker 3: I'm going to have a show called Talk Easy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I thought I can't wait until Emmy winner
Speaker 2: Quinta Bunsen sits down on that show. Does that period
Speaker 2: of misunderstanding? Does that end? On the day that your
Speaker 2: life changed? You wake up, leave your morning shift at Apple,
Speaker 2: carding your tattered H and M tope bag packed with
Speaker 2: a T shirt, a banana, a joint, and a copy
Speaker 2: of that Bukowsky book because that night you had lined
Speaker 2: up a performance at the comedy store where you plan
Speaker 2: to try out some new dating material. Is that where
Speaker 2: the period of misunderstanding comes to an end?
Speaker 3: No, no, no, no, no, it wasn't because a misunderstanding
Speaker 3: was always coming from other people.
Speaker 2: Did I just misunderstand the period of you being misunderstood?
Speaker 3: Maybe I was never misunderstanding myself. It was other people
Speaker 3: misunderstanding me. This is like a riddle, I know, does
Speaker 3: that make sense?
Speaker 2: I think if we listen to the tape it may.
Speaker 1: Okay, No, I think I said it clearly.
Speaker 3: I felt I was doing the right thing, and so
Speaker 3: that comedy store moment was a big moment of like, okay, no,
Speaker 3: I'm on the right path.
Speaker 1: Everyone else was wrong. Sorry, guys, So what happens?
Speaker 3: We had to put on a little sketch show before
Speaker 3: stand up, so nobody wanted to watch us anyway. No
Speaker 3: one wants to watch sketch comedy at the comedy store.
Speaker 3: They come there for a stand up and I did
Speaker 3: it with some friends, and you know, in spite of everything,
Speaker 3: we did a pretty good job for a crowd that
Speaker 3: really did not want to see some dorks up there
Speaker 3: doing sketch. I think it was like three of my
Speaker 3: white friends already wild to bring to a like a
Speaker 3: black comedy night, and they won them over. My friend
Speaker 3: Kate did this sketch about Annie, but the dog won't
Speaker 3: stop pumping her leg while she's trying to perform. Got
Speaker 3: a good amount of chuckles. My friend Danny did a
Speaker 3: sketch wearing a dashiki that he never should have done,
Speaker 3: so he fell flat on his face.
Speaker 1: I think that was a good lesson for him.
Speaker 3: Kate did this where she's trying to talk to Drake,
Speaker 3: but it's just Drake lyrics. It's just great, God if
Speaker 3: you laughs. And then I did the Girl's Never been
Speaker 3: on a nice date. It wasn't named that, it was
Speaker 3: just a character that I wanted to do of a
Speaker 3: one sided date of this girl who's super impressed by
Speaker 3: her date and this place was howling with laughter, and
Speaker 3: that was important to me to get that when that
Speaker 3: crowd over in that way was like, okay, no, I
Speaker 3: know I have something something special here. And Joe Brown
Speaker 3: was in the audience and he said, you're really funny,
Speaker 3: and I was like, thank you, judge, Joe Brown.
Speaker 1: I've seen on your show that you're a good judge
Speaker 1: of character. Did you deliver it just like that? He
Speaker 1: pretty much said. He was like, you were funny. You
Speaker 1: were a real funny girl, and I was like, wow,
Speaker 1: he's a judge.
Speaker 2: After you performed this bit, you upload it on Instagram.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and remember this was before Instagram had video. It
Speaker 3: wasn't what it is now, you know, and the video
Speaker 3: went super viral. It was crazy that it was sharing
Speaker 3: like that because it wasn't easy to share videos on Instagram.
Speaker 3: It was kind of word of mouth and people coming
Speaker 3: to my page to watch this video. Should we take
Speaker 3: a look, Sure, if you want to.
Speaker 2: This is quin de Brunson from twenty fourteen in the
Speaker 2: sketch the Girl Who's Never been on a Nice date?
Speaker 6: You going to see Book on Wall Street.
Speaker 3: The tickets was thirteen ninety five, but he paid thirteen
Speaker 3: ninety five and thirteen ninety five, He got money.
Speaker 4: I have a good night.
Speaker 6: Dugas with skittles, uh sid dips, recess pieces and a
Speaker 6: large pot for it, a large You.
Speaker 4: Got money, he got money. Get it all warm?
Speaker 2: Those what are good?
Speaker 1: Excuse me, waitress? We all get your water. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: you got money.
Speaker 2: After that video goes viral and you become sort of
Speaker 2: known for this this thing, it sounds like when you're
Speaker 2: looking back on that that you're not all the way
Speaker 2: proud of it.
Speaker 3: I feel a lot of pride over it. I understand
Speaker 3: that my past is interesting, but I'm like more about
Speaker 3: the future, more about what's to come than focusing on
Speaker 3: my past, I guess.
Speaker 2: And so writing this book, which comes on the heels
Speaker 2: of that video, which then leads to you working at BuzzFeed,
Speaker 2: there's a whole bunch of other accomplishments in there. Did
Speaker 2: you not enjoy writing in No.
Speaker 3: It was a little hard for me. It was a
Speaker 3: little tough to put that much about my life in print.
Speaker 3: And even though the researching of it, I just don't
Speaker 3: I don't know exactly well.
Speaker 2: We can talk about the future and second, but there's
Speaker 2: one there is one. There is one thing I do
Speaker 2: want to discuss as you have this great job at
Speaker 2: BuzzFeed and things are going well, You're thriving. They've made
Speaker 2: you a development partner, I think, making you the youngest
Speaker 2: show runner there. But there's one morning in February of
Speaker 2: twenty seventeen where that past that we've been talking about
Speaker 2: and this present that is being a creative person in
Speaker 2: the world, it kind of collides. What do you remember
Speaker 2: about that morning?
Speaker 3: I just remember, you know, being in the middle of
Speaker 3: making a video with my friends and getting a call
Speaker 3: from my sister, which already was weird, but then she
Speaker 3: called me twice, which was extra weird because my sister
Speaker 3: just doesn't call me. She doesn't call me like that
Speaker 3: for no reason. And I knew something was wrong. It's
Speaker 3: almost like you ever, you look at the miscall differently
Speaker 3: when you know something is wrong. It looks different to you.
Speaker 3: It's like screaming at you. And I was like, oh fuck.
Speaker 3: And then my sister had told me that my little
Speaker 3: cousin was shot and killed, and it just shut everything down.
Speaker 3: I continue to work for the rest of the day,
Speaker 3: but mentally I was like, I'm not home, I'm not
Speaker 3: with my family, my little cousin didn't deserve that, which
Speaker 3: was really tough for me to reconcile with. And it's
Speaker 3: not like I hadn't experienced steps before where the person
Speaker 3: didn't deserve it, but it just really bothered me. I
Speaker 3: was like, he's a kid, he was seventeen, seventeen years old.
Speaker 3: It really really pissed me off, and it made me
Speaker 3: mad at the city. It made me mad that I
Speaker 3: had left the city. Not it's that a rational thing
Speaker 3: of like somehow you believe that if you were there,
Speaker 3: that wouldn't have happened. It made me mad at myself
Speaker 3: for being so far away from my family at such
Speaker 3: a critical time. I was sad I was so far
Speaker 3: away from them. I was upset. I was around a
Speaker 3: bunch of people who didn't understand. I wasn't mad at them.
Speaker 3: I was just upset once again at myself for being
Speaker 3: so far away and around a bunch of people who
Speaker 3: couldn't understand the situation. And I didn't want to give
Speaker 3: them an opportunity to which I talk about a lot
Speaker 3: in the book.
Speaker 1: You put a lot on yourself.
Speaker 3: In that moment and being like, I don't want to
Speaker 3: talk about my cousin being shot and killed with people
Speaker 3: who have never had that experience before. I don't want
Speaker 3: to give them room to say anything wrong because I
Speaker 3: don't want these people to say anything wrong to me,
Speaker 3: So I don't want to tell them about it so
Speaker 3: that they have the chance to.
Speaker 2: The thing that struck me that the way you decided
Speaker 2: to get through it was to go back and continue
Speaker 2: making the video that you were making before you got
Speaker 2: that phone call.
Speaker 1: How did you do that? I don't know.
Speaker 3: It could be a fight or flight response, it could
Speaker 3: be a trauma response, but I just did it. I
Speaker 3: was like, I didn't have a choice. It was either
Speaker 3: go home or keep working. And I chose to keep
Speaker 3: working because.
Speaker 1: I like what I do for.
Speaker 3: A living and I find it therapeutic, inspiring, fun. So
Speaker 3: that seemed like the better option at the time, until
Speaker 3: my need was to go home and be by myself.
Speaker 3: And so now I still find myself juggling a similar
Speaker 3: issue right now in Philadelphia. The murder rate is at
Speaker 3: the higahts is everything. It really really affects me, and
Speaker 3: sometimes I want to like post about it and talk
Speaker 3: about it, but then I'm like, Okay, should I talk
Speaker 3: about it or should I not use social media? And
Speaker 3: just use it to promote Abbod And it's like making
Speaker 3: a choice of this thing is really affecting me, it's
Speaker 3: really sad, it's affecting my city, it's breaking my heart.
Speaker 3: But I think my job right now is to put
Speaker 3: more twenty two minute goodness into the world because I'm
Speaker 3: not sure what me talking about this and public is
Speaker 3: going to do. And maybe that's wrong. I probably could
Speaker 3: do more, But the thing is, I've tried to do
Speaker 3: more in the past, and it feels like there's nothing
Speaker 3: for me to do but try to put more abbot
Speaker 3: out because at a certain extence, like, yeah, I can
Speaker 3: talk about it all I want. I've tried this, but
Speaker 3: it's up to policymakers, it's up to politicians. It's up
Speaker 3: to people to like put conflict resolutions into our environments,
Speaker 3: into our neighborhoods. And that's all work I can do
Speaker 3: in the background, and you know, work with counselmen and
Speaker 3: work with groups and stuff like that. But ultimately, I
Speaker 3: think my job is probably to put more abbit out.
Speaker 3: I think that's where I am now. It's the same
Speaker 3: kind of juggling, though you know.
Speaker 2: You're right about that juggling. In the book you said,
Speaker 2: I realized in that moment after my cousin's passing, that
Speaker 2: I had spent my entire life separating my personal life
Speaker 2: from professional, creating invisible barriers between who I was with
Speaker 2: my family and who I was in the world. It
Speaker 2: started in school and it was continuing with my work.
Speaker 2: My job quote unquote was to be relatable, and the
Speaker 2: deeper I got into my family dynamics less relatable. I felt, sure,
Speaker 2: everyone's family is wacky, but there's something so uniquely specific
Speaker 2: about the black experience that it's very hard for the
Speaker 2: white majority demographic of this country to understand. I guess
Speaker 2: I'm wondering in twenty twenty two, that separation between personal
Speaker 2: and professional, between the person you really are and the
Speaker 2: person you present. Do you think Abbot Elementary is your
Speaker 2: way of bridging those two people?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think inadvertently, Yeah, I think so. I think
Speaker 3: Abbot is a lot of what I believe in my ethos,
Speaker 3: my principles, it's a lot of my past. It's so
Speaker 3: much of who I am in something that's a little
Speaker 3: bit more consumable for the public. And I could talk
Speaker 3: all I one, but I think making things to me
Speaker 3: feels more that feels like the best way for me
Speaker 3: to communicate with the rest of the world. I also
Speaker 3: don't feel a need for my personal life to be
Speaker 3: all over the place. I think that it's actually quite
Speaker 3: healthy for me to have things that the rest of
Speaker 3: the world never knows about or never gets in a
Speaker 3: peek into. I think I don't need to give so
Speaker 3: much of myself to the world. I can do that
Speaker 3: through making things. I can decide what I want to
Speaker 3: be out there and put it into a structure I trust. Like,
Speaker 3: even if someone doesn't like Abbott, that's okay. But this
Speaker 3: is the art that I've chosen to put out there
Speaker 3: that I like, and that it's clearer to me than
Speaker 3: me just rambling on like I'm doing now.
Speaker 2: I don't think it's okay. I think if someone doesn't
Speaker 2: like it, send it to me.
Speaker 3: I saw some people always say we have this charter
Speaker 3: school storyline this year that's starting, and it's you know whatever,
Speaker 3: And I did already see that.
Speaker 1: It ruffled some feathers.
Speaker 2: Oh people at charter schools got mad there.
Speaker 1: It wasn't a huge majority.
Speaker 3: I think for the most part, an audience understands this
Speaker 3: is a show we're going to have a storyline.
Speaker 1: It's not like it wouldn't be the first time for
Speaker 1: those schools. It's not.
Speaker 3: It's a show, and these are characters who are relating
Speaker 3: to the experience. I went to charter schools, I went
Speaker 3: to I also went to public schools. It's just an experience.
Speaker 3: But I think what feels good about Abbott is like
Speaker 3: I'm able to stand on my own two feet with it.
Speaker 3: I'm able to be like, thank you for engaging with
Speaker 3: my art. I think that's okay that you don't like it,
Speaker 3: and I think that's fine. And one of my favorite
Speaker 3: things I ever studied in high school was the visual
Speaker 3: arts and studying people like Frieda Callo and Diego Rivera
Speaker 3: and Henriotsowa Tanner, people who were making pieces that upset
Speaker 3: a lot of people, but they also brought so many
Speaker 3: other people joy.
Speaker 1: And you know Freed Collo's work for.
Speaker 3: People who were upset she was naked in it, but
Speaker 3: other people were moved to tears by seeing her imagery.
Speaker 3: And I think that's the beauty of like making something.
Speaker 3: It's like this came from the heart. I don't know
Speaker 3: what to say. If you don't like it, that's okay,
Speaker 3: thank you for engaging, but I don't know, I feel
Speaker 3: much more secure in making things. I find like reality
Speaker 3: starts fascinating because I'm just like that seems like the
Speaker 3: scariest thing on earth to me.
Speaker 2: But in some ways, I mean, you put so much
Speaker 2: of yourself, yeah, into a weekly sitcom.
Speaker 3: True, But one day I hope to not like one day,
Speaker 3: I hope I make something that is nothing like Abbott
Speaker 3: and there's a little less of me in it. I
Speaker 3: think it'll still come from of course, from the heart,
Speaker 3: but I don't you know.
Speaker 2: You know, I don't know well before that happens. Yes,
Speaker 2: you've mentioned a couple times how you like to talk
Speaker 2: about the future. Mm hmm, So why don't we as
Speaker 2: we leave think about what that looks like. In October
Speaker 2: of twenty twenty, you did an interview with Vulture and
Speaker 2: they asked you how has quarantine affected the way you
Speaker 2: approach your comedy and your audience. Here's what you said.
Speaker 2: I motivated the champion the stories of everyday people even
Speaker 2: more now. I always wanted to, But I think it
Speaker 2: was exciting, prior to this pandemic to talk about my cutesy,
Speaker 2: pseudo privileged problems. And I don't think there's anything wrong
Speaker 2: with that. Problems are problems and truth is truth. But
Speaker 2: now I want to help create stories based around people
Speaker 2: who make communities work, teachers, nurses, neighbors, carpenters, bars, people
Speaker 2: who I feel aren't appreciated enough.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because that was before Abbot, before I habit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, now there were in twenty twenty two together, Everything's fixed,
Speaker 2: Everything's Fixed. Season two is here? Yep, thirty four year
Speaker 2: old Quinta two thirty two year old Quinta two more
Speaker 2: years twenty four year old Quinta.
Speaker 1: What do you want?
Speaker 3: I want to keep making a habit. I'm excited about that.
Speaker 3: I also see a world where I make another show.
Speaker 1: I see it.
Speaker 3: Remember I told you about like the little back of
Speaker 3: the you know, something back there just gearing me and
Speaker 3: veering me towards something. I feel it, something feeling. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's going towards another show that I think is going
Speaker 3: to be really good.
Speaker 1: I haven't done anything for it.
Speaker 3: Every now and then I'll meet someone and you know,
Speaker 3: we'll start getting to talk and I'm like, oh man, yeah,
Speaker 3: this idea I have for later will be happening. I
Speaker 3: want to I really want to explore having a family
Speaker 3: I don't know what that looks like right now. I
Speaker 3: don't know which way that's going to go, but having
Speaker 3: the desire for it is going to take it somewhere.
Speaker 3: I met someone recently who has children that they help,
Speaker 3: and I think that that is that person's version of family,
Speaker 3: you know, And I think I'm interested in what that
Speaker 3: looks like for me. I've always just saw myself like
Speaker 3: having a child, but I just don't know what that's
Speaker 3: going to look like for me now.
Speaker 1: So it's one of the biggest thoughts in my head.
Speaker 1: What do you think it will look like? I don't know.
Speaker 1: I really don't know. It's going to be corny.
Speaker 3: But one of the best things that I've learned from
Speaker 3: working at Apple was being comfortable, was being like, I
Speaker 3: don't know, let's find out. And I think it's really
Speaker 3: healthy to just accept and I don't know sometimes so
Speaker 3: I really don't know. There's so many options people have,
Speaker 3: other people carry for them, people work carrying a child
Speaker 3: into their shows. Sometimes people adopt, So I know people
Speaker 3: who are really good aunts. I'm experiencing that with my
Speaker 3: nieces and nephews right now. I took my nephews, my
Speaker 3: nephews and my niece. But I have a nephew who's
Speaker 3: only six to Disney and I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 3: this is the best thing I've ever, ever, ever, ever
Speaker 3: done watching him run around and just scream with little
Speaker 3: grogu ears on. And I want to go to some
Speaker 3: theme parks in other countries. That's the only thing that's like,
Speaker 3: I really want to go to Shanghai. They have a
Speaker 3: Jurassic Park ride that.
Speaker 2: Are you bought the plug? It's a Disney ride.
Speaker 1: No, no, no.
Speaker 3: They have Pirates of the Caribbean ride that I just
Speaker 3: need to get on. They also have a Beauty in
Speaker 3: the Beast ride that is mind blowing. I need to
Speaker 3: see it in person. I love rides, I love theme parks,
Speaker 3: but America is just not doing it like the other girls.
Speaker 3: The closest we have is the Rise of the Resistance,
Speaker 3: which is fucking flames. But what I'm trying to tell
Speaker 3: people is that in other countries they've.
Speaker 1: Been on that.
Speaker 2: I was really with you, and so I could I
Speaker 2: said that until all the rides. I love rides, I
Speaker 2: don't even know what you're talking about.
Speaker 3: You need to play a clip of that forget my videos.
Speaker 3: You need to play the Beauty and the Beast Ride.
Speaker 3: I'm serious. It's really cool. So that's really the only
Speaker 3: couple of things on my to do.
Speaker 2: List, some small things, some big things.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 3: But you know what, I bet my wont to go
Speaker 3: ride that Beauty and the Beast Ride.
Speaker 1: It'll lead to some other beautiful thing, you know, wherever
Speaker 1: it takes you. I don't like your tone.
Speaker 2: I was gonna do something positive, Okay, not my tone.
Speaker 2: What was this Twitter? Have you had a problem with
Speaker 2: my tone?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 1: Not until that moment.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say something really nice, good. Well, no,
Speaker 2: no I'm not.
Speaker 1: I want to hear it.
Speaker 2: Okay, wherever it takes me, wherever the ride takes you,
Speaker 2: literal or metaphorical, I'm excited for you.
Speaker 3: I'm excited to get on the ride. Wow, this is
Speaker 3: really such a full Did you know this? Did you
Speaker 3: create this metaphor did you know? Because no, you didn't know,
Speaker 3: I would tell you about the rides. Wow, this is good.
Speaker 3: This is good podcast. I would listen to this.
Speaker 1: This is a good podcast. It'll be your first podcast.
Speaker 1: You go, this is good TV. This is good material
Speaker 1: right here.
Speaker 2: I guess all we have to do now is check
Speaker 2: back in in ten years and see how it went.
Speaker 1: Maybe? Who knows where I'll be in ten years.
Speaker 2: Compliment, followed by this that feels right. I had a
Speaker 2: really good time, Quinta Bronson anytime bye. We did it,
Speaker 2: We did it. We covered a lot of ground we
Speaker 2: did I think of ten years.
Speaker 4: Maybe, and that's our show.
Speaker 2: If you enjoyed our talk with Quinta, be sure to
Speaker 2: leave us five stars on Spotify, Apple, wherever you do
Speaker 2: your listening. You can also tag us on social media
Speaker 2: when you share this episode at talk easypod. We'd like
Speaker 2: to repost those and see those on Sunday, so thank
Speaker 2: you in advance for that. All of this really does
Speaker 2: help new listeners find the program. I want to give
Speaker 2: a special thanks this week to the teams at Persona
Speaker 2: pr ABC, and of course, our guest, Quinta Brunson. You
Speaker 2: can watch new episodes of Abbott Elementary every Wednesday on
Speaker 2: ABC that are also available to stream on Hulu the
Speaker 2: day after. If you want to learn more about Quinta
Speaker 2: and her work, visit our show notes at talk easypod
Speaker 2: dot com if you'd like to hear other conversations with
Speaker 2: very funny people, and recommend our talks with Bill Hayter,
Speaker 2: Dan Levy and Steven Young. To hear those and more
Speaker 2: Pushkin Podcasts, listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you
Speaker 2: like to listen. Talk Easy is produced by Caroline Reebok.
Speaker 2: Our executive producer is Jeni Si Bravo. Our associate producer
Speaker 2: is Caitlin Dryden. Today's talk was edited by Kitlyn Dryden
Speaker 2: and mixed by Andrew Vastola.
Speaker 1: This episode was taped at.
Speaker 2: Your recording here in Los Angeles, California, Special thanks to
Speaker 2: Tim Moore. Our music is by Dylan Peck. Our illustrations
Speaker 2: are by Trich Shadowy. Photographs are by Julius Chew. Video
Speaker 2: and graphics by Ian Chang, Derek Gaberzac, Ian Jones and
Speaker 2: Ethan Seneca. I also want to thank our team at
Speaker 2: Pushkin Industries. They include Justin Richmond, Julia Barton, John Stars,
Speaker 2: Kerrie Brody, Eric Sandler, Jordan McMillan, Cara Posey, Tara Machado,
Speaker 2: Jason Gambrel, Justine Lang, Malcolm Gladwell, Greta Cohn, and Jacob Weisberg.
Speaker 2: I'm San Fragoso. Thank you for listening to another episode
Speaker 2: of Talk Easy. I'll see you back here next week.
Speaker 2: Until then, stay safe, and so long