Emmy-award winning comedian, Wyatt Cenac has a number accomplishments under his belt. He has released several stand-up albums, has written for and contributed to The Daily Show and has done a number of late-night TV appearances. Now, Wyatt is gearing up to premiere his very own televised stand-up show, “Night Train” on NBC’s streaming service, Seeso. Comedy Hype caught up with Wyatt to talk about his love for stand-up, his latest album and his new show, “Night Train”.
By Corey Tate
CH: Anyone who’s familiar with the New York City comedy scene, is familiar with your show, “Night Train”. It’s a very well-known show in New York City. Now, the show is coming to NBC’s streaming service, Seeso, which will provide national exposure. How does it feel to know that your show has progressed to this level?
WC: It’s really cool. When we started the show, there weren’t really any expectations besides making a fun show. We wanted to create a show where audiences could come every week and enjoy a diverse lineup of comedians. Consisting of comedians they may be familiar with and some they may not be familiar with. The fact that we’ve had the opportunity to shoot 6 episodes for Seeso is amazing. It’s a nice testament to all the hard work that we’ve done. Everyone from myself, to producer of the show, Marianne Ways, to all the people at our venue, Littlefield. It feels good to have our show picked up.
CH: What’s the origin of the name, “Night Train”?
WC: Originally, there was a show in the same time slot called, “Hot Tub” hosted by comedians Kristen Schaal and Kurt Braunohler. When the two of them moved to Los Angeles, they asked me to take over. I didn’t want to use the name “Hot Tub”, because that was the name of their show. So I started toying around with the name, “Night Train”. It was a fun name and it also sounds like something Fred Sanford would drink. Thankfully, I didn’t call the show, “Ripple” or “Thunderbird”.
CH: You’ve been hosting “Night Train” for a while now. Obviously you care about stand-up comedy. Why is stand-up comedy so important to you and what makes you love it so much?
WC: As a kid, stand-up was the first time I saw brown performers on television. So it always felt like if you were brown and wanted to be a performer and be funny, you did it through stand up. Also, because I watched people like Eddie Murphy and televised stand up shows like Comic View, Def Comedy Jam, I always appreciated stand up. There’s something really beautiful and cool about being able to go on stage by yourself, engage with an audience and have them relate to your ideas. Also, being able to pull a range of emotions out of your audience is exciting. Whether that’s laughter or shock or whatever emotion it may be. If you go back and watch Richard Pryor’s stand up specials, you can see his audiences conveying a different range of emotions. Even when his audiences were quiet, it wasn’t because they were bored, it was because they were intrigued and curious.
CH: You released your comedy album, “Furry Dumb Fighter” this year. That’s an interesting title. What inspired the name?
WC: The name was inspired by some of the experiences I would have because I was on The Daily Show. People would constantly approach me, wanting to talk about politics and social issues. People would say things to me like, “So-and-so is organizing a sit-in. You’re going to be there, right brother?” [Laughs]. It was this weird thing where people would assume that at all times, I was some sort of Freedom Fighter. I’m not. Yes I have those elements, but also, I get tired of marching [Laughs]. So I look at it as, I’m not really a Freedom Fighter, I’m more of a Furry Dumb Fighter. The title was really just a play on words.
CH: What was your favorite part of making the album, “Furry Dumb Fighter”?
WC: Making this album was a fun challenge, because not only did I want to make the audience laugh, but I wanted to make them feel things. Going back to what I mentioned earlier, I wanted to bring out a range of emotions with certain subjects. Like the fact that, the amount of money the police were paid in overtime for protests, is equivalent to 1 year of Carmelo Anthony’s salary. And I made the conclusion that New York has a problem overpaying dudes that shoot too much.
CH: Now that “Night Train” is on its way to getting national exposure, is there a possibility of taking the show on the road and doing a “Night Train” tour?
WC: We did the show at a music festival once in San Francisco and it was a lot of fun. Myself and Marianne Ways who produces the show, have definitely been talking about doing more road shows. We’d love to produce a road show, where we could have comedians travel with us to different cities and have a mix of the traveling comics and local comics. We’re looking to do that by the end this year or sometime next year.
CH: In recent years, we’ve seen an increase of stand up-shows getting picked up for TV projects. What sets “Night Train” apart from the pack?
WC: “Night Train” is based in New York and most of the comics are New York-based. I think the comics did such a good job of detailing their experiences in New York, that the viewers will feel like they’re in New York, without actually being in New York. Also, 10 years from now, the New York comedy scene will be totally different. It’s always changing. So it’ll be cool to go back and watch this show and see how it used to be. “Night Train” captures a specific time period in New York comedy.
CH: 2016 has been a pretty great year for your career. You had an appearance on Conan, you released an album, and now your show “Night Train” will be streaming on Seeso. Is this how you thought your year would turn out?
WC: I really didn’t have any goals for 2016, besides releasing an album and getting “Night Train” ready to debut for Seeso. Both of those things happened and it feels good. The album was well-received and I’m excited for the television debut of “Night Train”. I’m happy to have accomplished the things I wanted to accomplish this year.
By Corey Tate
Wyatt Cenac’s “Night Train” debuts June 30th, on NBC’s streaming service, Seeso.
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Original article: Wyatt Cenac Tells Comedy Hype About ‘Night Train’ Stand-Up Series, And Newest Comedy Album ‘Furry Dumb Fighter’.
