Amber Ruffin of “The Amber Ruffin Show” (www.peacocktv.com) is butter.
Each week “The Amber Ruffin Show” showcases Amber’s signature smart and silly take on the week’s news. No matter what’s happening in the world, Amber responds to it with a charming mix of seriousness, nonsense and evening gowns. The show is a topical late-night show with just the good parts––the comedy. Amber Ruffin, Jenny Hagel, Seth Meyers and Mike Shoemaker serve as executive producers for the series, which is produced by Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group and Sethmaker Shoemeyers Productions.
The Nebraska native started in improv, and through hard work is now living her dream. I find her story inspirational. Besides holding it down in the late-night talk show space, she’s co-written a Broadway musical version of “Some Like It Hot” and recently released her first book, “You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories About Racism,” with sister Lacey Lamar.
This young powerhouse could never be accused of being lazy, because she continues writing and appearing on NBC’s “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (when she joined in 2014, she was the first Black woman to write for a late-night talk show). She is also an Emmy- and WGA Award-nominated writer and performer on the show, and the first African American female to write for a late-night network talk show in the U.S.
She wrote and performed on Comedy Central’s “Detroiters” and was a regular narrator on the cabler’s “Drunk History.” Ruffin was previously a performer at Boom Chicago in Amsterdam, the iO Theater and the Second City in Chicago. In addition, she was a writer/performer for the 2018 and 2019 Golden Globe Awards and has written for the series “A Black Lady Sketch Show.”
Here is what Amber Ruffin of the “The Amber Ruffin Show” (https://www.peacocktv.com) had to say about living her best life.
NEW YORK AMSTERDAM NEWS: Your show, “The Amber Ruffin Show,” is butter. I laugh and I think: you are a very bright woman.
AMBER RUFFIN: (laughing) Thank you.
AMN: Is making your late-night show fun or stressful? I think it’s fun.
AR: It. Is. Very. FUN. I mean it’s really the dumbest fun you can have. When I don’t feel like having all this fun then I can write a show that was less fun and no one could tell me to cut it out—see what I’m saying?
AMN: Do you write your monologues?
AR: Oh no. I have a team of writers. Our head writer is Jenny Hagel (@jennyhagel), she also writes for the “Late Night with Seth Meyers.” We also now have, writing the monologue, Ashely Nicole Black (@ashleyn1cole) from “Full Frontal” and “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” Demi Adejuyigbe and Evan Morgan, he’s also a writer from “Late Night with Seth Meyers.” So the four of them almost always write the monologue. I almost never squeeze out a monologue joke.
AMN: Before I let you go, can we talk about your very handsome side-kick, Tarik Davis. I mean, Amber, he’s so very easy on the eyes.
AR: You know, Tarik has been my friend since 2003. We got cast together and worked at a theater in Amsterdam. I honestly forget that he’s so handsome.
AMN: So you experience temporary blindness. Sorry. Please, continue.
AR: I’ve just known him so long, that I am used to the way he looks. But then when you see him on screen, I’m like ‘Oh, wow, yes. He’s a whole supermodel.’
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxej9nPf6TqFyfsiez1_P3w https://www.peacocktv.com/stream-tv/the-amber-ruffin-show Social media: @amberruffin @peacocktv