My mom is from Ghana, and my dad is from the States, so even in my family when I was growing up, my mom said I was the American one, and my dad said I was the weird African one.Collection: Mom
When you grow up with siblings, you can be like, 'Isn't this weird? Isn't this funny? Do we agree on this, or do we disagree?' You have some point of reference, some touchstone. When you grow up an only child, everything is internalized.Collection: Funny
The nature of improvisation is you don't know what's going to happen.
I went to an all-boys high school, and I didn't realize I was going to a Catholic all-boys school until right before I got there. I was so bummed that it was all boys.
As far as magazines, I'll read 'GQ' to see where men's fashion is, but that's really kind of it.
Performing in Detroit or performing in Chicago, you're on your own turf, but when you tour a show, the audiences change. You're in a completely different space; sensibilities change. I think I learned a lot from doing that - how written material works in different places, learning to have confidence, learning the idea of how to be adaptable.
My mom is from Ghana, and my dad is from Detroit, so I would go back and forth to Africa a lot.
I'm really the only artist in my family. I have one cousin who is a painter. I think I developed all of that from television and books - from being, essentially, an only child. I'm my mom's only child and my dad's fourth child, but separated by 14 years.
I use Postmates more than I use the actual telephone app on my phone.
I try to tweet, but I still haven't gotten into the rhythm as much as some people who have, like, 20,000 tweets. There are some great comedians on there, so you get some pretty funny hot takes and bits.
I really enjoy 'Baskets.' I'm a big fan of 'Archer' and 'Mr. Robot.'
What I find funny are peoples' blind spots. That's the funniest thing about anybody - when they just don't realize who they are. What's funny about seeing a hippo do ballet is it thinks it's a swan.
On 'Veep,' people are connecting with each other, even if they're making backhanded comments about somebody behind someone else's back.
I grew up between Detroit and Ghana, and I had to make friends in an instant. It sharpened my wit, and also, just for my own sanity's sake, I felt like I wanted to entertain myself. So I'm going through all these experiences, and I ask myself, 'Is this crazy? Is it? Wait, what's so funny about this?'
I've never seen 'E.T.'
I do think there's something funny about being over-optimistic.
With Richard Splett, he's like the only character on 'Veep' that has no angle. He's guileless. He also believes in the power of government.
At Second City and improvising at iO, you're creating a character in an instant. All of a sudden, you're creating this history and this past for your character, and you're discovering it while you're doing it, and that's part of the fun of it.
The movie I've seen the most is 'Ghostbusters' or 'Ghostbusters II.' I used to watch those movies nonstop.
Like a real dumb idiot, I believed that to avoid a grenade that drops in the water, you could just jump in the water, and you'd be fine.
I've never done stand-up in my life. I don't know if that's entirely interesting, but I came up in improv.
I've eaten part of my tooth. I had a weird cavity that broke apart in my teeth - this is a bad story. I was eating and thought, 'It's like I'm swallowing rocks,' and then I checked and part of my tooth is missing. I ate it.
The most interesting thing about characters are their blind spots. They miss the periphery.
I can do so many accents that I'll never be able to use. There aren't casting calls for a black guy to play a Scottish highlander. I can hope. I've got my brogue ready. I just need the opportunity!
I'm an audiophile and have been collecting records for as long as I can remember.
A record is kind of a piece of art itself, and it's such a tangible experience playing an LP end to end.
Sam Duvet is like me but turned up: more vain and dumber.
My cousin Dwayne was really the first person who was like, 'You're funny, man!' I was like, 'OK, sure.'
I think everybody, from whatever town they're from, knows their hometown commercials.
Being on 'Veep,' it's so much fun, and I get to put so much creative input in there, but at the end of the day, what they say, I do.
There's no place I love more than Detroit.
I left Detroit in 2007, worked on a cruise ship for a year, moved to Chicago in '08, then moved to L.A. in February 2012.
I feel that, a lot of times, Detroiters have an aversion to seeing nice new things come into Detroit. But I'm like, 'What's wrong with that? Everywhere else has it! Why can't we?'
I grew up watching 'Ghostbusters.' I loved that movie before I knew it was a comedy! As a kid, I lived between Ghana and Detroit and in Ghana for, like, first and second grade. And I had a VHS tape of that, and I would watch it every day. It's kind of like why I got into comedy.
I want to play my Joker. Not the Joker, but my Joker. Somebody who can have fun doing wrong.
I was a shy kid up until the sixth grade, and then I started to let loose.
I would love to carry on with Second City and see where that takes me, but it's always been a dream to work on 'Saturday Night Live' and do films.
I've worked on shows where the set was very morose and boring, kind of like nobody wanted to be there. I felt that affects the work.
I've worked on shows where it's fun; you want to hang out. If you're enjoying it, that's how you take ownership of it. You want to give to be a part of this thing. I feel that's the mood on the set of 'Detroiters.'
There are people there who live, work, and have lives. Not everybody who lives in Detroit is a gangsta.
If you want to land a punchline for how bad something is, you say 'Detroit,' even, like, in conversation. 'Oh, well, things could be worse. You could be in Detroit.' It makes me so mad.
I think Detroit deserves a comedy that's not about suffering.
It's hard to not act like a fan when you're in these scenes with your heroes, but you can't do that because you respect everybody so much.
When you consume a half hour or an hour of television, you can talk about what happened as opposed to consuming ten hours of content, and then you don't remember everything you want to talk about.