Anyone who has seen comedian Dulcé Sloan on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” knows she doesn’t hold anything back.
The standup has made a name for herself onstage and on TV for not pulling any punches, and landing absolutely scathing punchlines all as part of her natural storytelling style.
So when Revue caught up with her via phone ahead of her run at Dr. Grins Comedy Club later this month (Nov. 30 – Dec. 3) it was surprising to hear how much she’s actually left unsaid.
Thankfully, she’s got a book coming out on Feb. 6, 2024, titled Hello, Friends!, where she candidly lays out all of her comedic journey.
Just don’t call it a memoir.
“It’s not a memoir,” Sloan said. “I just turned 40. How dare I write a memoir? I mean, I really wanted to call the book, Don’t Call This A Memoir, I’m Only 39. But yeah, it’s a collection of stories that I didn’t get a chance to tell on stage, or some of them are too long to tell on stage.”
Beginning with her childhood growing up between Miami and Atlanta, being a black kid at a predominantly white school, to taking on comedy clubs, and breaking into television with her work on “The Daily Show,” her stories cut to the heart of the truth with her razor-sharp wit.
Her favorite and most frequent targets: her dating life and her job history. But as far as which is worse, she’s got a clear winner. Or loser.
“Dating is way worse because I can always get another job, but I don’t have a husband,” Sloan said. “It’s much easier to get a job. I can tell you that damn much.”
Sloan just resumed work on her job as a correspondent on “The Daily Show,” following the resolution of the WGA strike earlier this fall. However due to the SAG-AFTRA strike ongoing as of the time of our interview, she couldn’t talk much about that, or her popular official “Daily Show” podcast “Hold Up,” with writer Josh Johnson, which is also on hiatus.
“I mean, my life has always been at the mercy of white men,” Sloan said about the strike stopping two of her projects. “So this is just truly par for the course. Things always change after a strike for the better or for the worse. You don’t know what opportunities are going to come back. You don’t know what they’re going to decide.”
Sloan’s career got hit particularly hard when the WGA strike started back in May. She had just hosted what was intended to be the first show in her week as guest host of “The Daily Show,” and 30 minutes after it aired the strike shut down everything.
But that didn’t stop her, as Sloan had already started hosting “The Great American Joke Off” on The CW, which began airing in March. A panel comedy show, “The Great American Joke Off” pits two teams of three comedians against each other, with Sloan declaring the winner at the end of every episode.
“It was a lot of fun,” Sloan said. “We filmed it in England, which was interesting because it was ‘The Great American Joke Off,’ so the audience was confused. We were confused. But it’s the same people who do ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway?’ So since they have such a great format for that show, it was really fun to be able to come into that format.
“Also, to be able to host that show and not be a contestant on that show was really great, because we were taping one day and I was just like, ‘Man, I’m so glad I didn’t have to write all these jokes. This is really difficult. I’m so glad I don’t have to do this…’ But it was a really fun experience. (As) the host, you’re coordinating everything because you’re coordinating with the onstage talent, and coordinating with production. So you’re really conducting the whole symphony.”
A trained singer and actor, Sloan has a growing list of those credits in her resume as well, including voicing the character of Honeybee, on FOX’s animated series “The Great North.”
“I helped design her character,” Sloan said. “I’m the one who said, give her an afro. And the reason there is a flower in her hair is because there’s a flower in my hair on my headshot.”
Her signature style plays a big part in her latest endeavor as well, as she and fellow comedian Lace Larrabee have launched their own lip gloss company Giggle Gloss.
“Every comic likes to sell merch on the road,” Sloan said. “It just helps supplement things. And so this was my mom’s idea because selling T-shirts is too much. I’m not that person. I’m not checking the bag. I get to the airport soon enough.
Launched on April Fool’s Day this year, Sloan said Giggle Gloss are getting their fall collection together, and hope to partner with other comics in the future.
“It’s been really great to not only have merch that’s self-sufficient and to be able to have something that’s fun, but also the names of the colors are all jokes,” she said. “So our top selling colors are ‘No More Broke Dick,’ ‘Purse Vodka,’ and ‘Laughia Majora,’ are our top-selling colors. So all the colors are jokes that we’ve come up. But it’s been really great because anybody can sell T-shirts and cozies, but to be able to start your own business that’s female-owned, minority-owned, it’s so amazing.”
Dulcé Sloan
Dr. Grins Comedy Club
20 Monroe Ave. NW, Grand Rapids
Nov. 30 – Dec. 2
grinstix.com, dulcesloan.com
