Gwen Madiba:
Welcome to you uOttaKnow, a podcast that illuminates, inspires and entertains produced by the University of Ottawa.
Hello, I'm Gwen Madiba host of uOttaKnow and a proud two-time graduate of the Faculty of Social Science. I'm also the president of the Equal Chance Foundation, a non-for-profit organization that empowers women and black communities across Canada.
uOttaKnow puts you in touch with uOttawa alumni and researchers around the globe at the cutting edge of their fields. Listen in for thought provoking conversations on today's trending topics.
Welcome to season three of uOttaKnow. This season we'll be focusing on the entertainment industry with conversations on film, music, reality TV, tech trends and more. We'll be talking to alumni at the heart of showbiz, from Montreal to Toronto, to New York and beyond.
Our guest on today's episode of uOttaKnow, is alumna Samantha Bee, a comedian, writer, host and producer. She made a name for herself as the longest serving regular correspondent on Comedy Central's Daily Show. She has since gone on to host her very own late-night show Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, establishing herself as one of the most unique and sharp comedic voices on television. The show which offers a satirical take on weekly news, as well as exploring in depth stories often overlooked by traditional media, is now in its sixth season on TBS and has been picked up for a seventh.
She and her husband Jason Jones also co-created the half hour comedy series, The Detour, which ran for four seasons on TBS. She is the co founder of the production company Swimsuit Competition with Full Frontal producer Kristin Everman that aims to create inclusive narrative and documentary television.
Samantha, thank you for joining us today from New York.
Samantha Bee:
Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.
Gwen Madiba:
Thank you. So, to start off our conversation, we are asking all our guests this season, a somewhat philosophical question: what does entertainment mean to you?
Samantha Bee:
Oh, oh, that's interesting. I guess I never thought about before. I feel like it just is. Like for me, it's something that takes me, you know, things that entertain me, show me a world that I'm normally unfamiliar with, like, I'm not really generally entertained by things that exist in the world that I know. So I never want to watch stuff that's like, on the subject of late night shows. I'm just like not as interested. I'm like, show me a world where you were on a train and zombies take over the train and kill everybody. Haha, I don't want to be in my real life. I guess I’m looking for something that transports me. Does that make sense?
Gwen Madiba:
It does. It makes a lot of sense. Thank you!
Now I'd like to travel back to your time at the University of Ottawa studying English and Theatre at the Faculty of Arts. Here you were in Canada's national capital, on a campus that is walking distance to Parliament Hill and studying theatre. In some ways, it nearly seems foretelling of what was to come for you as a performer and political commentator. Do you feel like this time influenced or had an impact on your path?
Samantha Bee:
Well, certainly, I mean, it did. I don't know if it was the converging worlds of being in the capital and doing theater. But certainly, Ottawa U is transformative in the sense that I mean, I really took a theater class at Ottawa U just as like on a lark. I had no aspirations whatsoever of being a performer or entering that world in any way. And I just, almost instantly figured out that it was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, and so I pivoted everything.
I pivoted every goal that I ever had in like one semester of like taking a… I can't remember what the class was called but it was like a kind of a general study of theater. And we had these opportunities to audition for stuff. And we actually had to audit…not that we had to audition, but we had to participate in a production. So, I auditioned for a role, and I got a part in something and I was like: “What the hell is going on?” And then I started doing the part and I was like, oh, I'll just do this. This is what I like. I figured it out! I got it! So, it certainly was totally influential.
And, I always was kind of a news person, I always followed the news and cared deeply about it. So that came much later.
Gwen Madiba:
That's great. It's great to hear how your path kind of shifted once you discovered your passion. It's beautiful. I'm sure that it will inspire other people as well.
Now in 2016, your late-night show Full Frontal with Samantha Bee launched, you brought such a wealth of experience after 12 years as the longest serving regular correspondent on The Daily Show, and now had an opportunity to take on the role as a late-night host. What has surprised you the most about having your own show? And what is continuing to make you excited six years in?
Samantha Bee:
Um, well, you know, what keeps me excited is that there's no single day is the same as the day before, like every day is kind of just remaking the world all over again, so that is exciting!
It's also, you know, it's kind of one of the difficult parts of it, that you're always just scrambling to keep up with what is happening in the world, I guess. But it's not the type of show where you can really get comfortable in what you're doing or in the material, because the material always changes, so there's a constant refresh of the type of material that you're working with, which is
the joy and the challenge. And there's also the joy of learning from me, because I'm, you know, when we are doing research in these different areas, I'm also learning at the same time, and I always love to go on a voyage of learning.
And I think the biggest challenge really, for me has been managing people. I just do a lot of stuff that I'm not trained to do. I end up being feeling very responsible for people in a way that is…was actually very surprising to me.
Gwen Madiba:
If I may ask, how do you tackle some of these challenges?
Samantha Bee:
I mean, I am Canadian. So, there is…we do have kind of a, we are kind of pragmatic by nature. And so, I think I bring a very Canadian perspective to processing these challenges. Like I am definitely, I’m always putting one foot ahead of the other. It's very difficult. I try to go through the challenge versus going around the challenge. And you know, and sometimes it's very difficult, but you kind of have to lean into the difficulty of it, which is hard because it's much nicer if you're on an easy path!
Gwen Madiba:
One of the core principles of uOttawa’s Strategic Plan Transformation 2030 is to become more sustainable, acknowledging that our future literally depends on our ability to design, implement, and promote sustainable practices for our planet. I bring this up as I wanted to touch on an initiative you were involved in related to environmental sustainability.
This fall, late night talk show hosts such as Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah, Seth Meyers and you put a joint focus on climate change on your shows, as part of a climate week initiative timed to a UN General Assembly meeting in New York.
I would love to hear how this came together, and if there are any more plans in the future to draw attention altogether to this critical issue, not to mention how your segment ended up dealing with the issue of sewage!
Samantha Bee:
Not something you naturally think of when you think about, like attacking climate change, but it's a huge issue, our crumbling infrastructure and how we treat our waste is like, it's critical.
Well, we got asked to join the initiative, it actually was there was an organization and I'm sorry, the name escapes me at this moment, but a bunch of us at Full Frontal know the person who was pulling together this initiative, and one of their ideas was to bring attention to what was happening in New York by bringing together all the late-night shows for one day. And immediately, of course, we signed on, but we had already planned to do that segment that week anyway, as we try to turn our focus to climate change as much as possible.
So, it was the perfect kind of merging of our goals and their goals worked very organically. I mean, you could do an entire news based, like a topical comedy show, and, investigate environmental issues every day of the week if you wanted to. I don’t know if it would be really funny. I don't know, we could try. There's so much to talk about.
We also recently did a big segment on food waste and that was… that was… I learned a lot. I learned a lot working on that segment, which is always you know, a place of joy but I've been very… I've put a lot of focus on it in my own life actually following that segment.
Gwen Madiba:
Now each week on Full Frontal you give us a satirical and pointed take on weekly news stories in the United States. You also explore other important stories in depth, both national and global in nature that have been largely overlooked by more traditional media outlets. Could you talk more about the decision to make space for this in your show, and any stories or topics in particular that you're proud of having shone light on?
Samantha Bee:
I'm proud of the work that we've done, I have to confess that I'm always thinking about what is coming up on the show versus what we've done in the past. But we've, you know, we've brought attention to, we're constantly talking about reproductive rights, and we've done great segments on rape kits and closing boyfriend loopholes and gun issues. And a lot of immigration issues have been a big focus of the show as well.
You know, it's my pleasure, because… well, because the way my two favorite things professionally, or I guess my two favorite things really are news based comedy, which I love. And I always have loved kind of topical comedy. And I also love the news. So, it really is kind of the only job I can imagine myself doing. I don't know. I don't know that there's I don't know that there's any other career out there that checks my boxes in exactly the same way.
Gwen Madiba:
Well, we have a spotlight question for you today from a fellow uOttawa alumna, Dr. Elizabeth Dubois. Dr. Dubois is now an associate professor in the Faculty of Arts, Communication Department. Her research examines political uses of digital media, including media manipulation, citizen engagement, and artificial intelligence.
Dr. Elizabeth Dubois:
Alright, hi Samantha. I am so excited to be here asking you this question. Thank you for your time.
Samantha Bee:
Oh, my God, I'm so excited to answer your question. Certainly, nice to meet you. Okay. I'm ready.
Dr. Elizabeth Dubois:
All right! So, I host another podcast, it's called Wonks and War Rooms. And in this podcast, I introduce a theory from political communication research, which is my specialty. And I introduce it to a practitioner, like you, who is out in the world of politics, and we figure out whether or not it actually makes much sense. And so, I thought it'd be fun to do a quick little speed round with you. Is that cool?
Samantha Bee:
Sure. Sure. Okay.
Dr. Elizabeth Dubois:
All right. So, I'm political nerd, the wonk and you're the war room. First off, we're going to talk about agenda setting. So, this is a political communication theory, where we basically say news media are really good at telling people what to think, but not so good at telling them what to think about. Right? So, it's like, it tells you what should be top of mind, but not how you should feel about it.
Samantha Bee:
Okay…
Dr. Elizabeth Dubois:
So, the idea here is that news media do this. But then late-night shows, comedy satire, they come in and sort of muddy the water. And we aren't really sure in academic research, whether or not these kinds of shows like what you do are agenda setters, or are they more like, activists and mobilizers? Right? Is it more about telling people what to think about? Or is it more about getting people to act on the information and kind of drive towards political engagement?
Samantha Bee:
Interesting! I don't know that I can totally answer this question. But it is like, I could understand why that would be. That's a lot of… it's a lot to think about.
Okay. So, from my own perspective, I definitely think that we're not setting the… my shows are not setting an agenda. Like we are being responsive to journalism that exists. Like my show cannot exist without other people doing the difficult work of journalism.
And all of our shows are the same way. You know, each show has their own way of putting together research packets for the information that we are going to talk about on the show. But we are all are reliant, like we are watching Frontline and reading PBS transcripts. So, our work vampires off of other people's hard work.
Dr. Elizabeth Dubois:
Vampires, I love that! We should add that to our academic descriptions!
Samantha Bee:
We definitely drain the life energy from really great journalism. And we couldn't exist without it, because we're not out there. Generally speaking, doing our own research, like we're not out there doing journalism, per se. We're amalgamating and learning from it, and that is incredible.
I don't think of my show as agenda setting because I do think that the agenda is already kind of set, and also the US new system is a little different from the Canadian news system. And the news here does tell you what to think a lot more. It's not… it's not super objective, and it's actually more difficult. You have to search a little harder for places that aren't trying to make the entire conversation happen for you and tell you what to think. That's a lot of what we consume in the United States. That is for sure.
I do think that we're more about filtering information at shows like Full Frontal, we're more about a just a different perspective on the news that we already like. I don't think you can enjoy Full Frontal, if you don't have an understanding of like a general understanding of the issue. You're not going to laugh at any of the jokes on Full Frontal and you're like, what is the show about? I don't understand! What… what is this? Is this a joke? I didn't get it. Is this real? Is this real?
I think like, you know, a general understanding of the news of the day is very helpful when you're watching a show like Full Frontal or John Oliver's show. Like it actually gives you a background and a launch point. It's a way to distill the news differently.
And then, I do try to be a place of activation, so I would say, responding more directly to your question, that I think of the show as more of an activation, than something that sets the agenda. We're always trying in each story that we bring forth, trying to think about like, what…what are we leaving people with? Does this different perspective, give them cause to act or think differently in the world? And what will be the result of this? Like, you know, will people write a letter a strong a tersely worded letter to the government, perhaps? Like, maybe…maybe not, but maybe they will and that's very good. And so, I'm a little bit more, more on the activation side, in general, but I use a lot of words to say activation. But that's, I do think I needed to work it out in my head.
Dr. Elizabeth Dubois:
I love that! And what you've described is like, this complex media environment, which is exactly what we've got, we have all these different sources of information and each of them bring different bits to our existence as a hopefully politically engaged citizen.
Samantha Bee:
We’re extremely siloed. So, it's not like I think that at Full Frontal, we're going to change somebody's mind out in the world who didn't previously, you know, each show is kind of preaching to the choir a little bit, and so you're kind of hoping that people will walk away with a different impression of it, or just receive the material differently so that they'll then go out in the world and enact and hopefully, vote. That's been just kind of the main message of the show for so long. And people are so tired of hearing that message, but they really have to.
Dr. Elizabeth Dubois:
I mean, it's a pretty important message! So, thank you for continually putting it out there.
Samantha Bee:
Well, thank you, for your work!
Gwen Madiba:
Thank you, Samantha, for taking that question from Dr. Dubois. Now, I'd like to end today's conversation with something we'll be asking all our guests this season. What is entertaining you right now?
Samantha Bee:
What is entertaining me right now? Let's see… well, I've been watching Succession. It's always great. I'm trying to read more. I'm reading the new Jonathan Franzen book, and it's very good! Even though people don't want to like it! It's very good.
And what is entertaining me precisely? I tend to as I said, at the beginning of this interview, I tend to watch things that are outside of my world. Succession is sort of a world that I think I understand a little bit more than average, and so that's an outlier.
But I love to watch shows like, I don't know if you've heard of Gomorrah, but it's an Italian crime show about a crime family in Naples, and it’s very dark, like, very dark! Like, if The Sopranos was like, just, you can barely watch it, it's so dark, you, you sometimes I have to turn it off, I guess sometimes I have to turn it off and take a break. And I just actually have to go like, I cannot do this again, I need a break. It's too much! It's too sad! But that's the diversion I really like to watch! Oh my God, how crazy is that? It's just because it's again, it's like a world that I don't know anything about, and I feel very transported, unfortunately, in the case of Gomorrah to a place I don't want to go, but that has value to me. Because it takes me out of my head. It takes a lot to like pry me out of my own brain. And so, I need… I need someone to, like, hold my hand and yank me into a world. Gomorrah truly does that. I’m about to start up Dexter again, I missed Dexter. And I think it's like it's back now. It's back for another season. So, I'm like, I'm pretty excited about that.
Gwen Madiba:
Well, thank you for sharing that with us and our listeners. Could you also let our listeners know where they can find you online?
Samantha Bee:
Oh, actually don't know. That's hilarious. I have no idea. How crazy is that? Well, we can be found on linear television on CTV at 10:30 on Wednesday nights, which is great! And we are on Twitter and Instagram, I think at Full Frontal. And we're on the tbs.com website and the Full Frontal website. You could just Google us. You'll find us. We're everywhere! Haha!
Gwen Madiba:
Awesome! Thank you so much, Samantha for joining us on uOttaKnow, and I look forward to watching upcoming episodes of Full Frontal.
Samantha Bee:
Thank you! Thank you! My time at OttawaU was just some of the best years of my life. I really, I miss Ottawa, and I miss OttawaU. And so I'm very, very pleased to be here today. Thank you for having me.
Gwen Madiba:
uOttaknow is brought to you by the University of Ottawa’s Alumni relations team. It is produced by Rhea Laube with theme music by alumnus Idris Lawal. This episode was recorded with the support of Pop-up broadcasting in Ottawa, Ontario. We pay respect to the Algonquin people who are the traditional guardians of this land. We acknowledge their long-standing relationship with this territory, which remains unceded. For a transcript of this episode in English and French, or to find out more about uOttaKnow, please refer to the description of this episode.