BlackWomenWork

Hey, Vanetta! I’m so glad we’re able to do this. Can you share more on your entertainment company, Funny Hunnyz?

I was already producing comedy shows and it was my birthday, and so I wanted to do a show with all women. I wanted it to be cute, so I was like, I’m going to call it Funny Hunnyz. Plus, all the dudes will come out if I have an all-female lineup on my show. (laughs) That was how I started it. It felt really good to put on, everybody was funny, there were good vibes. I felt empowered doing it, and the women who were on the lineup felt empowered by being a part of it. I loved that. So it was kind of an accident that it turned into what it did, but it went well so I just kept doing it. At one point, I thought, I’m spending a lot on this. Maybe I should do something to ensure I get some money back. So I LLC’d it because I was spending so much money and time on it, and it felt like I should build it up. It became a passion for me. Eventually I started to focus on content and not just shows, so I started a podcast. I was doing a lot and failing fast to get Funny Hunnyz to a place where it could be successful and what I envisioned. It’s like if Comedy Central and Lifetime had a baby, but a ratchet baby. (laughs) It’s just a funny way to tell women's stories because every woman is different.

That's so dope. You said you were failing fast to make Funny Hunnyz successful, which I find interesting. What lessons did you learn that allowed you to adjust, and to improve?

Well, it depends on which failure you want to focus on. (laughs) I made the failure of thinking I had to spend a lot of money or have a lot of connections to do what I wanted. But ultimately, it takes hard work and dedication. You can’t cheat the process for something you want to build organically. You have to come into the process every day with an open mind, and be positive. You can read a lot of sh*t, but it won’t help with your unique experiences. It just won't prepare you. I’m not trying to say that reading isn’t helpful, but you have to be willing to keep an open mind, and be ready to learn and receive lessons from wherever.

We met in college, and I was surprised when I saw you had started your comedy career. I’m interested to know how you transitioned into comedy, from what you may have had in mind back when we were in school.

I think it ties back into failing fast. I used to look at a lot of the things I did before comedy as failures. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted to help people. In college, I wasn’t interested in the classroom. I was the most active bitch I knew. (laughs) I was in every club, and super active in the community, but I hated class. In my senior year, I found out that I had a learning disability and it really messed with me. I was waitressing at the time, and I thought, I’ve always been great with people. So I moved to Greensboro and that’s when I got into entertainment. I kept waitressing, but I also went into sales, radio...the common denominator was always people.

I have really been enterprising my people skills in different ways and in different areas. I realized that I wanted to be myself and get paid to be myself. I always just wanted to be me — never anybody else. That’s worth fighting for, but it has been a very interesting journey. Everything I've done has prepared me to run Funny Hunnyz. Even though I didn’t finish school, I’ve gotten a degree in me, and being the best I can be. I think of stand-up and all that I’ve done while in New York City as like my college experience, because I’ve done everything. I have done a lot of courses in comedy itself, voice acting, stage acting, producing, being on the stage and behind the scenes...I can do everything. I’ve gotten a studio certification and did everything I’d need to do to run a studio. Now I’ve been working on managing clients, and making managing comedians a greater focus of my business. It’s been a wide range of study, I guess. (laughs)

It’s incredible that you have so many technical skills that build into your overarching vision. That’s super impressive! So, given all that you’ve done and can do, how would you define yourself and your work?

It’s really difficult actually. It’s been hard. Many people told me to stick to stand-up. A lot of stand-ups — they’re haters. (laughs) They’d tell me to just stick to stand-up, and that all of my other projects and interests were distracting me from getting better at stand-up. My impression was like, OK, so you see me as a threat to you because I can do more than you. But the way I look at it is that I can help them. I like helping comedians a lot more than I like doing my own stand-up. I’m grateful for my experience with stand-up, though, because it has allowed me to better understand my clients and the people I work with.

I read [author Robert T. Kiyosaki’s 1997 book] Rich Dad Poor Dad. It has changed the way I view life and what I’m meant to do. In one story, the author writes that he advised a woman who wanted to be a best-selling author to take a sales course. She said to him “I have two degrees, why would I need a sales course?” His response is to hold up his book, which is a bestseller, and he says something to the effect of, “It says best-selling author, not best-writing author — I know how to sell.” So that changed the way I understood my role in things. I would like to be a little bit of an Olivia Pope and a little bit of Shonda Rhimes for women in comedy and entertainment.

You’ve mentioned a few times that you feel best when you’re helping people, and how you’ve made helping others a focus in your career. When did you come to this realization?

It’s funny because I’ve been on some therapy and self-healing, so I actually have the answer for this. (laughs) I think it stems from not being helped when I needed it, although I’m healing now. A lot of my initial desire to help came from, you know, that a lot of people have to work through trauma. For me, it was like a high to help them reach and be their best selves. And then you’re like, how couldn’t you love me, I’m the best, see? I’ve helped you! I think that’s where it started, and then I just realized I was good at it. And it’s fulfilling. But that’s where it comes from.

In comedy, being a woman, you know...there’s no HR in this sh*t. (laughs) Our office is a club. Our co-workers are mostly dudes. Right now, me sitting with you at 11 a.m. with my glasses on is more professional than any other comedian you probably know, because most of them are still in bed, hung over. (laughs) They don't have a business sense in the way they handle themselves. So I’m like, I can help them. And, of course, I just hate how women are treated in society. I loved my sexuality studies courses in college, and I’m really passionate about the treatment of women, how little women are helped or offered support in our world. And, you know, women are used and abused in entertainment. So all of that is happening around me, too. With Funny Hunnyz, I feel like I can do something about it. I’m not just going out to march with a sign. And so that is also where I think my desire to help comes into play.

How do you feel you’ve worked that equity-oriented perspective into the way you create content, or produce material and shows?

I’m in the process of rebranding. I’m putting more thought into how Funny Hunnyz does comedy distinctively, and how our perspectives as women are incorporated into our jokes. I’m one woman, and my personal point of view isn’t necessarily the point of view that I want to represent Funny Hunnyz. So I circumvent that by booking all women so every show has a variety of content, and I pay every woman I work with. A lot of women don't get paid in general. Even if they’re on with a big comedian, the woman is typically opening for them. So I make sure everyone gets paid, I only book female headliners, and about 85 percent of all staff — the photographer, the director, everyone — are women. I love that. I will say, women DJs are expensive! (laughs) They charge twice as much as male DJs. When you book a guy, they’ll be like “GIve me whatever.” Women DJs are like, “That’ll be $225...an hour.” (laughs) So, you know, balance.

You’re so savvy. How did you get to this point? How did you learn the business so well?

I stalk everyone on Instagram. (laughs) Everyone who knows me well tells me that I should be an FBI investigator because I’m so good. (laughs) But I do stalk people and I learn about them, and check out what they’re doing, how they’re doing it. I wasn’t even active on Twitter, but I got back on once I got to New York. One night, it was probably two o'clock in the morning, and I’m on Twitter. I see that Amanda Seales tweets that she’s moving to Los Angeles, and she’s selling this painting. I saw it, and it spoke to me. I think it was fifty dollars, and I’m like, it’s Amanda Seales! She’s a creator, a comedian, she does music — she does it all. I felt like it would be dope to have a piece of art by her.

When I got to her apartment, she handed me the painting, and a flyer for her comedy show, and told me about how she’s moving to be part of a web series. We had the same sketch teacher, Brandon Bassham, and we talked about that a bit, and finally I’m like, “Hey, I would love to be a writer for you.” She’s like “well…” But I’m persistent, and it’s Amanda Seales! I’m in her apartment! Picking up a painting! Of course I had to be like, what’s up? Let me come to LA! (laughs) Finally she’s like “Sis, start your own sh*t. Do your own thing. Be empowered.” That was the last thing she said to me, and it stuck with me. And from then, anybody I met at comedy shows, literally anybody, I would network with them. Anybody where it felt like I could work with them, or under them, or we could collaborate. You can take something from anybody around you, and so I just tried to learn from everyone I met and worked with. You have to really look out for yourself, because nobody is going to help you. When they’re looking out for themselves, they’re not looking out for you. I realized I had to look out for me, and find or create opportunities to grow and get smarter.

That’s a great story. So, in short, Amanda Seales told you to get your stuff together and go do you. (laughs)

Basically Amanda Seales sonned the f*ck out of me. (laughs) No, but it’s all love. I can't wait to see her at the Oscars to tell her, “You told me to start my own thing, sis — I did it!”

I love that you still have her painting.

I do! And I’ve had seven moves since I’ve been in New York. (laughs)

Do you feel as though you’ve found your groove? What else do you think you want to do? What’s next?

I feel good in the space I'm in. I know that I’m building Funny Hunnyz the way I want to build it, that it’s in my vision, and I know where the brand is going. I know where it’s going, and I’ve been particular about who is associated with it. The way I’ve evolved, I’ve really made myself step up. I’ve become a better woman in order to run my brand in the best way. I know we’ll be a female, black-owned studio. And I know that with the way I work, and how efficient I am, my whole team is going to be the same way. We’re going to be able to make a movie in a week. (laughs)

I’m ready. I’m ready to showcase what black women can do in the entertainment industry. I follow in the footsteps of amazing black women and black brands. I want to work with them, and I’ve reached out, but it hasn’t happened yet. I know I have to work to get the Funny Hunnyz brand up to their standards. It’s been difficult to get in with them, though. I hate to say it, and I’m not trying to diss black women at all, but white women have been super willing to help and collaborate. When I sent out calls to create content around the quarantine, no black women were interested, but white women were available. Given what I want Funny Hunnyz to look like, that’s problematic, because I’m trying to get us to make these videos like, “C’mon sis!” It shouldn’t feel like pulling teeth, but I do think that when you have a vision and it’s early on, it’s hard for people to see that vision as clearly as you do. Sometimes I think that until I get onto BET or Refinery29, people won’t quite understand what I’m trying to do. I hope it won’t take that long, but I’m betting on me. But that’s what it is to be an entrepreneur. I have to do everything I can, and remain at the forefront, and keep creating, until they see it.

Please share this post with a friend, and follow us at @BlackWomenWorkIG!