Two women are breaking the unspoken "no girls allowed" rule of comedy podcasts.
While the comedy podcast scene is slightly more diverse than our list of presidents, white male comedians like Chris Hardwick, Marc Maron, Joe Rogan, and Bill Burr still dominate the medium. "2 Dope Queens," produced by WNYC Studios, is about to change that.
The "2 Dope Queens" podcast stars Jessica Williams of "The Daily Show" along with Phoebe Robinson, a columnist for Vanity Fair and consultant for "Broad City." The jokes are rapid fire as the two women discuss pop culture, embarrassing sex adventures, their favorite lotions, and the poetic justice of riding with a racist cab driver.
In a clip from the first episode, Williams recalls leaving a party in New York a few steps ahead of her boyfriend. When she tries to hail a cab, the driver slowly approaches her before driving down the block where her boyfriend was standing and picking him up instead, leaving her standing on the corner. Williams' boyfriend is white.
"So I like grab my bag and my sandals ... [and] I get in the cab and I'm like 'surprise, motherf-----!'" Williams shouts to applause.
The series debuted April 5, with new episodes coming every Tuesday. The episodes are recorded in front of a live audience at Union Hall in Brooklyn.
At a recent press roundtable, Williams revealed that the key to coming up with material for the podcast is engaging with the difficulties of her own life. "It can feel scary and overwhelming, and so I learned while doing ["The Daily Show"] that the things that bother me and the things that in my day to day affect me is where good art and good material comes from it. Sort of just comes with the process of living," she says.
In addition to banter between Williams and Robinson, each episode features short stand-up sets from comedians around New York City, like Michelle Buteau, Janeane Garafolo, and Aparna Nancherla.
The podcast hosts said they chose to spotlight diverse comedians who don't get a fair chance in the comedy scene. "There's so many talented people in the city that don't get an opportunity to perform," Robinson says. "We just always made it a thing that we're going to represent the full scope of New York comedians."
Robinson believes that people of color are rarely allowed to tell their own stories about the mundane aspects of life. The podcast is an attempt to change that. "I loved, like, 90s TV. It was a great time for people of color...'Living Single,' 'Moesha,' 'Martin,' all that stuff where you saw just people of color being seen as people. You just saw these characters [and] they were just living."
"2 Dope Girls" gets back to narratives that, while starring people of color, focus on the joys and missteps of day to day life.
"I feel like those shows that represent a different kind of blackness are things that I like," she says.
Williams' sunny charisma and Robinson's dry observations are a match made in comedy heaven. And audiences seem to agree. "2 Dope Queens" became the #1 comedy podcast on iTunes within hours of its release.
The podcast is out now on iTunes and the first episode is below:
