Loni Love Wants Her Own Late-Night Talk Show
/I met Loni Love for the first time on the red carpet of The Bodyguard Musical back in May. It was great interviewing this funny lady about 'The Real,' The K michelle Twitter beef, Tamar Braxton and how great Deborah Cox would represent Whitney in the show. I had no idea at the time that although Loni Loves 'The Real' she's been itching for her own Late Night Talk Show. According to The Grio, during an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Loni Love opened up about what it’s like to be a black woman in the world of comedy and spoke on her own career goal of getting a late-night talk show.
She explained that when she first started out, she was getting the roles typical of black women, the ones that required “sass." “For a long time, black women in comedy had to always be sassy. Do the neck, the eye roll. I did a guest spot on one show and I did this one little sassy moment and they made me a regular. It was one line and they were like ‘We need that sass!'” she recalled.
She then added, “That’s why you only ever saw one black girl, and you knew she was bringing the sass. And then, when you look at me and my physical, I’ve always been a big girl and loud. But there’s a lot of loud big girls that ain’t funny. For me, I had to break out of that — I wanted to be funny.”
Now, she is looking to expand her horizons, and she has her sights set on late-night hosting.
“I’m trying to keep tackling hosting. In daytime, women have always traditionally hosted. But in late-night, it’s always been a challenge. I want to tackle a late-night gig. And I kind of have to toot my own horn — I don’t care what she says — I helped Chelsea [Handler] with her show,” she said, laughing. “But she encouraged me because when we did ‘Chelsea Lately,’ we did seven seasons of that show and started out with guests from like ‘Survivor 15,’ but she worked herself up. That’s where I’m going next, tackling late-night in the prime-time space.”
You can check out the full interview here. Check out my interview with Loni Love below. We had some mic problems so warning the audio is low.