On Saturday, November 14, The Paley Center for Media hosted the acclaimed cast of “The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore” for one of their PaleyLive talks.
Moderated by legendary astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson, the cast of the show talked about a range of topics such as having an outlet to talk about race relations around the world, to the making of the show, to having celebrities share their point of view on the show. The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore has received great reviews and getting to hear about the process of making a single episode was interesting.
Apparently, material for the episode that they are going to tape for that day is never finalized until moments before the taping is scheduled, although that’s mainly because everyone in the writers’ room loves to joke around and get distracted. According to Larry, he just sits and waits until everyone stops talking and getting distracted so they can talk about the show, but everyone in that room will not stop talking unless someone tells them to stop.
Just based off of the main cast and writing crew, this show has a lot of big personalities and has a lot of different points of view. According to Larry and one of the main writers, Robin Thede, The Nightly Show hired people not solely because they were funny but more because they had a certain point of view or came from a certain background that they thought would bring a new perspective to the show. Larry, during the panel, talked about wanting a diverse cast to work with and that is just what they went for.
Another interesting tidbit was how initially the show wanted to call itself The Minority Report, which is relevant because a lot of what the show talks about is race relations and the minority experience, but sadly FOX took that name so they were left with The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, a somewhat less catchy name arguably.
The talk itself was a lot of fun. Having an array of comedians sit down at one time will always come with a few, but in this case a lot, of laughs and throughout the whole talk jokes were thrown around which led to a great experience for people tuning in. Overall, the panel was a huge success. Read our red carpet interviews below:
Robin Thede:
Q: Being 100+ episodes into the show, can you talk about getting to the place you are now and finding the show’s voice and direction?
A: When you do a show day in and day out you really find your voice and we are still finding ours but definitely 100+ in we are definitely more comfortable and know what the “keepin’ it 100” spirit is all about. The news cycle has helped shaped the show, a lot of stuff has happened this year that we have been able to respond to and it is so awesome to have the opportunity to do that.
Holly Walker:
Q: Can you talk about what it’s like being a part of this show?
A: Being a part has been wonderful for me. It has thrown me into a world of chaos in many different ways. I love it and I hate it at the same time because –I hate it because I am more informed about the horrible atrocities that are happening in the world as far as racism, discrimination, terrorism, those kinds of things. But I love it because we are an outlet for people to start talking about it and for people to laugh about the dumbness that happens in the world. The sooner we get to talk about things, the sooner we can hopefully arrive at a solution. So I love it and hate it at the same time.
Neil deGrasse Tyson:
Q: Being a guest on this show a few times, can you talk about your experiences on the show?
A: I have only been on twice and I am a huge fan of anything that blends comedy with some other branch of what it is to be alive, be it politics or science. A good comedian can find material in anything, but when you can shape it not as ‘I was in LA….” If you embed it in meaningful pop culture story lines then it greatly enhances the viewer’s appreciation of life in society and you get to laugh at the same time. So for me to participate in that and bring science into the mix is a great honor.
