The Amber Ruffin Show has stood the test of time from the dark early days of the pandemic to the slow recalibration to new normals. With the show now closing out its third season, host Amber Ruffin has adjusted to the pivot.
“Having a live audience means you get instant satisfaction or instant regret the second it leaves your mouth, whether or not a joke was good, Ruffin tells ESSENCE. Starting out in September 2020, with uncertainty still prevalent and a studio empty aside of staff members and camera men, Ruffin’s show has exploded in popularity as full audiences have been let into the studio chairs.
“Whereas if you don’t have an audience, you can just think that they were all good. You’ll never frigging know. In my heart, they’re all winners. But an audience will snatch a joke out of your heart like that.”
But with the raucous laughter and constant applause we witnessed during Ruffin’s mid-November taping, there’s no sign of joke snatching going on here. Ruffin’s brand of informative, socially aware, racially conscious comedy has become wildly popular, partially for its comedic deep-dives on tough political and social issues.
“Our country is always trying to pull some sh*t, so it’s always timely,” Ruffin observes about her social media shareable ‘How Did We Get Here?’ segment. The show has become so popular in fact, that the comedienne herself is enjoying a heightened state of celebrity. But as Ruffin tells it, she’s still banking on blending in.
“When left to my own devices, I’m the raggedest dude you will ever meet,” Ruffin laughs. “I’m exactly a 14-year-old boy. I don’t dress nicely. I’m not putting on makeup. I get my hair just to where society won’t look twice at me. So a lot of times, someone will be like, ‘Is that Amber Ruffin?’ and then their friend will be like, ‘No.’ Whenever that happens, I laugh so hard.”
Ruffin’s personal style is a far cry from her well-appointed professional look. A Black girl magic twist on the traditional suited-up late-night talk show host uniform established since the mid-20th century, Ruffin’s signature show style finds her in perfectly-fit patterned blazers, tailored trousers, jeweled accents, and a crown of natural hair.
“Well, when we started The Amber Ruffin Show, no one was wearing a suit because it was in the pandemic,” Ruffin says of her signature look. “People were at home just looking like ragamuffins and I was like, ‘I’m not doing that.’ And honestly – sadly – I thought, ‘white men can afford that. I cannot afford to do that.’ I have to come correct. I don’t want to dress like they dress, I want to dress better than they dress because I’m coming at this at a deficit because I’m a Black woman in America. So let me just go ahead and dot every I and cross every T and then maybe my stuff will get to live on its own merit.”
That merit, cultivated through a role as a writer on Late Night with Seth Meyers since 2014, has pushed Ruffin into not only her own highly popular late night show but also a New York Times Bestselling book in 2021, with a continuation on stands now.
You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories about Racism, a comedic collection of stories about racialized and discriminatory encounters her older sister Lacey Lamar has experienced while living in Omaha, Nebraska. Now, its successor The World Record Book of Racist Stories (released November 22, 2022) is expanding the firsthand accounts of racism so absurd you can’t do anything but laugh at it.
“We expanded it from just Lacey to our whole family. It’s still a majority [about] Lacey, but we also included racist stories from the entire family. And some of them are funny, but you know, Mom and Dad, they
ain’t laughing.”
On top of her newest book, Ruffin co-wrote the Broadway musical rendition of Some Like It Hot, co-produced by Mariah Carey, opening in opening December 11th at The Shubert Theater in NYC.
Of course, unapologetically calling out racism and putting governmental policy at the forefront of scrutiny doesn’t make Ruffin the most popular in every corner of the internet. As a “woke” comedian taking on social topics, there’s always some commenter waiting in the wings with negativity. But Ruffin says she doesn’t even see it.
“I don’t pay any attention to online anything and I just don’t read it. That’s not for me. Like, people could cuss me up one side and down the other. You ain’t never catching me replying to shit. People can hate my guts. That’s fine. That’s not my business. That’s their business.”
The Amber Ruffin Show season 3 finale airs on December 16th.