![]() “I would always write the joke that everyone would laugh at and then be like, ‘We can’t do that.’ It was probably too mean or too weird or gross. So I just wanted to come in and be like, ‘These are all jokes. “And there’s plenty of shows that are doing that, and they’re all doing a great job. “I feel like right now comedy’s kind of doing the heavy lifting in the news department,” Wolf observes. To viewers who first became aware of Wolf after she made headlines for either desecrating a hallowed Washington institution or speaking truth to power, depending on whom you ask, it might come as a surprise to learn that the founding vision for The Break doesn’t include taking on the White House week after week. “Literally what I pitched is very similar to what we’re doing,” Wolf explains. ![]() Which is crazy,” Wolf adds, letting just a hint of awe slip into her voice.įor the most part, however, Wolf comes across as remarkably calm in the lead-up to a brand-new, still-unfinished show. The following Thursday, Wolf will record the in-studio portions of the inaugural episode, allowing a couple of days for “whatever magic Netflix has to put on it to make it available in 190 countries. ![]() Between interviews, Wolf and her producers are coordinating the release of The Break’s latest official trailer. Construction materials crowd the entrance to the studio next door, where Wolf had taped a test show the day before. It’s about two weeks before The Break’s first episode goes live, and there’s a palpable atmosphere of sprinting to the finish line. I speak with Wolf in mid-May at The Break’s headquarters in Hell’s Kitchen, a Manhattan production space with a storied history: Over the past couple of decades, it’s also been home to The Colbert Report, The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore, and Wolf’s former workplace, The Daily Show, back in its Jon Stewart era. Instead, Wolf threw herself into The Break, which launched on Sunday with an episode that combined some elements expected of a late-night franchise (a topical monologue, a pre-released sketch) and some that are decidedly not (a riff about deciding not to have kids, a parody commercial about an Amazon Echo that demands lunch meat for no apparent reason). Wolf is certainly aware of the backlash that followed her April speech, but she also didn’t have time to engage with all the political hand-wringing. “But now, I’m not going to pull any punches, because they’re certainly not.” “It used to be a dinner where everyone pokes fun at each other, but it was also in a much … light-heartier time? I don’t know what word I wanna use there,” Wolf reflects. Then, Wolf became the latest in a long line of comedians to emcee the White House Correspondents’ Dinner-and the first to thoroughly puncture the dinner’s chummy collegiality between journalists and their subjects. First, Netflix ordered the new weekly series The Break With Michelle Wolf, tasking Wolf with breaking into the crowded ecosystem of late-night comedy while also figuring out how to make an old-school format work on a 21st-century platform. “Hit with a bus” is as fitting an analogy as any for landing two of the toughest jobs in entertainment at the same time-three, if you count the additional burden of splitting your time between them. “I was on tour with Chris Rock in England, going to all these crazy places”-including Rock’s first Israeli show in Tel Aviv, or as Wolf told the crowd, “Miami’s much older sister.” “Then I get back,” Wolf says, “and in February I got hit with a bus.” “It started off so nice and easy!” the comedian Michelle Wolf says, reflecting on her 2018 thus far.
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