Michelle Wolf takes the stage of Washington D.C.’s historic Lincoln Theatre for her new Netflix special The Well, which premieres October 21. The Emmy-nominated comedian was a new mom at the time of filming two years ago (she has now had a second child). She pulled from this experience for the show, as well as giving her razor-sharp takes on societal and political topics, and much more.
Her latest hour-long for the streamer follows Joke Show and It’s Great to be Here. Wolf gained a large following through her work for Late Night with Seth Meyers, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and starring role at the 2018 White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
We chatted with Wolf about the new special, comedy in today’s often volatile television landscape, and what she wants to do next.
You talk in your upcoming special about having your first child. This comes out as you have your second one. The timing of it all.
Michelle Wolf: It’s very interesting. The second kid, for me anyway, is a much more relaxed experience. It’s a very different feeling. Having the first kid and the special and being able to look back on it and what I was thinking then with what I’m thinking now. Even the fact I was able to tour and write the special and tape it within nine or 10 months of my first kid. I’m like :”Wow, I did a lot after having a baby.” It has a special place in my heart. It was really great to get back on stage after having a baby and seeing I was still functioning.
I can imagine how challenging it is to write a show with the hope it still resonates when it does come out.
Honestly, that was my biggest fear putting it out now. It’s two years ago. Two years in today’s media landscape may as well be a hundred because you never know. In a 24-hour news cycle, so much happens. I think a lot of the issues are still issues. Then motherhood is a timeless experience, whether it’s good or bad.
Photo: William Gray
What went into your decision for the venue?
I love doing shows in D.C. I think it’s a great comedy city because a lot of people are in the government and a little bit corrupt. So not sitting too high on a moral horse. It was a really beautiful theater. A lot of great specials have been shot there. I think shortly before that Dave Chappelle had shot a special there. It’s a very cool venue. I still have the mug they gave me.
It has been more than 10 years since you made your late night debut for Seth Meyers. How do you look back on that experience, and what it did for your career?
Late Night was a special experience for me because not only was it my first time doing stand-up on television. I was also working at Late Night at the time as well. So it was like doing stand-up for your family. Obviously, it was also this feeling that I needed to do well because I couldn’t show up to work on Monday after having completely eaten it onstage. It was a little bit of added pressure. I think the five-minute set on late night TV has been a little bit of a standard. Obviously, there are all these social media platforms and various ways to get yourself out there. It is still nice to see a really good five-minute set. I think we lost a little bit of that. You can show a lot from somebody within five minutes.
Matt Wilson/Comedy Central’s The Daily Show
What was your reaction when you found out The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was getting canceled and then Jimmy Kimmel yanked off the air for that bit of time? Colleagues really banded together.
Late night has been a tough landscape for a while now because nobody is watching TV like that anymore. A part of me is not surprised if the purse strings are a bit tighter or ratings are as high as they used to be. I do think you can’t cancel someone because the government wants you to. It’s one thing to cancel a show because the ratings aren’t good and the budget is not there, but if someone from the government specifically says they don’t want them on TV anymore. I think that is the time everybody, regardless if you agree with them politically or not, should be like, “that’s unacceptable.” It’s a really scary place to be. That was one of the things I thought if [Donald] Trump got elected, he is not going to let people make fun of him. At some point in his presidency he is going to say, “you’re not allowed to make fun of me anymore.” That’s a real quick downhill from there.
You were in the spotlight for the Correspondents’ Dinner. How do you think that would play out today?
If I got the opportunity to do it again, I would go even harder than I went. I thought my jokes were actually pretty tame. I would definitely go harder at both the government and the media. I think a lot of it was talking about whatever articles. I feel like now it’s at a point where you could get really threatened by the government. You hire a comedian to tell some roast jokes, and you do exactly that, and that could put you in some political trouble right now. It’s a pretty precarious position we find ourselves in.
Does your approach to the material change with this in mind and being a parent as well?
I think in general the best thing you can do as a comic is be from your point-of-view and obviously try to make it funny as possible. I’m the type of person that if I’m told I’m not able to say these kinds of things or talk about these types of things, then I’m definitely going to talk about them because why not? If you don’t want me to talk about them, there is obviously something to say. There are some comics who won’t touch anything political. That’s definitely a style, but right now it’s like if you’re shying away, you may need to reevaluate who you are and what you really believe in.
How important was it for you to have a balance in your set that might resonate with varying audiences?
What I do in comedy is not think about the audience too much. I tell the jokes I want to tell and hope the audience likes them and wants to come with me on this little trip. I’m not doing it specifically to please the audience. I just hope the audience likes it. I think becoming a parent made me much more able to talk about my personal life a bit more. As soon as you become a parent, your life is a bit more vulnerable. I feel like I was able to open up about that more than I have in the past. The political and societal issues are important to me and interesting to me and fun for me to talk about. It’s a mix of where my head was at during that time. Hopefully, it’s still pretty relevant.
Have you set some other career goals for yourself? Is it to say host an Emmy Awards ceremony or venue you want to work?
Some day I’d really love to do Red Rocks out in Colorado. I think that would be really cool, especially because some great people have performed there. I’m also a very outdoorsy person. So, it combines all the things I love. I want to get into some writing. I want to do some scripted things. I don’t have any desire to host any awards shows just because I don’t think I’m the favorite person. Look, if they asked me to do it, I’d be like these are the kind of jokes you’re going to get. The last time I hosted something was the Correspondence Dinner, and they were like we weren’t expecting that. I’d like to just let you know what you’re getting because that is what I’m going to give you. I’m not necessarily going to give you a song or dance, but I will tell you what I think about it. There are some shows I want to write, and hopefully I’ll get to do those in the near future.
What do you want to say to viewers before they check out the special?
Just watch it, enjoy it. Even if you don’t like me or my comedy, put it on for your dog. Let the dog watch it and let those views rack up. I’d appreciate that.
Michelle Wolf: The Well, October 21, Netflix