Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: So Close to Being the Sh**, Y’all Don’t Even Know
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S): Sirleaf, Retta; Retta
BIRTHDATE: 4/12/1970
WEBSITE:
CITY:
STATE: CA
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born April 12, 1970, in Newark, NJ.
EDUCATION:Graduated from Duke University, 1992.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Actor and stand-up comedian. GlaxoSmithKline, Raleigh, NC, pharmaceutical chemist; actor in NBC and Bravo television shows.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Actor and stand-up comedian Marietta Sangai Sirleaf, better known as Retta, is known for her long-running portrayal of beloved office worker Donna Meagle on the seven seasons of NBC’s critically acclaimed comedy Parks and Recreation, and as Barbara on the Bravo series Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce. She has also performed in Comedy Central’s Premium Blend. Sirleaf was born in Newark, New Jersey, and her family comes from Liberia. She is the niece of the former Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011. Retta holds a degree in pre-med and sociology from Duke University and once worked as a pharmaceutical chemist for GlaxoSmithKline.
In 2018, Sirleaf published a book of essays, So Close to Being the Sh**, Y’all Don’t Even Know, about her life, family, and career working on various television comedy shows. She chronicles the lives of her Liberian parents and famous aunt, her college years studying pre-med, working as a chemist for a pharmaceutical company, and her decision to pursue comedy and acting. With inspiration from comedy greats like Lucille Ball and Drew Carey, she decided to leave big pharma and move to Los Angeles to be a comedian. She explains how fearful she felt before performing stand-up routines, her fear of success in television, and how she had to fend off racists. She also writes about the fun times stalking the cast of Hamilton, how hard she has worked for her career, and how she gained a million Twitter followers. In a review in Booklist, Annie Bostrom observed: “As books like this one go, hers is as honest, funny, and fun to read as they come.”
Discussing her unusual career path considering her illustrious family, Sirleaf told Hanna Sparks in an interview on line at New York Post: “I always had in my head that one day, when I had nothing else to do, I would write a book.” Speaking with D. Watkins in an interview on the Salon website, Sirleaf explained how she came up with the title for the book. Two examples showed how special she thought she was becoming. One was getting special treatment as a popular actor by getting tickets to the Hamilton play. Another was when her agent gave her a list of possible stories to tell in her book, Sirleaf remembered: “I would go through and decide what stories I wanted to tell and pull from her list. Then once I had made a compilation of all the stories I wanted to tell that’s when I was like, ‘Oh, this story is telling how close to being the shit I am.’”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, April 15, 2018, Annie Bostrom, review of So Close to Being the Sh*t, Y’all Don’t Even Know, p. 12.
ONLINE
New York Post Online, https://nypost.com/ (May 25, 2018), Hannah Sparks, author interview.
Salon.com, https://www.salon.com/ (June 3, 2018), D. Watkins, author interview.
Retta
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Retta
Retta in 2012
Born
Marietta Sangai Sirleaf
April 12, 1970 (age 48)
Newark, New Jersey U.S.
Alma mater
Duke University
Occupation
Actress, stand-up comedian
Years active
1998-present
Known for
Parks and Recreation
Relatives
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (aunt)
Marietta Sangai Sirleaf[1] (born April 12, 1970), better known as Retta, is an American stand-up comedian and actress. She is best known for her role as Donna Meagle on NBC's Parks and Recreation. She has appeared in several films and television shows, and has performed stand-up on Comedy Central's Premium Blend. She stars as Ruby Hill in NBC's Good Girls.[2]
Contents [hide]
1
Early life and education
2
Career
3
Personal life
4
Filmography
4.1
Television credits
5
Works and publications
6
References
7
External links
Early life and education[edit]
Retta was born in Newark, New Jersey. She grew up in Edison and Cliffwood Beach, New Jersey.[3] Her family is from Liberia.[4]
In 1988, Retta graduated from Matawan Regional High School in Aberdeen Township, New Jersey.[3][5] In 1992, Retta graduated from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina where she was pre-med and graduated with a degree in sociology.[3][6][7]
Career[edit]
After graduating from Duke, Retta worked as a chemist. In her spare time, she did stand-up at Charlie Goodnights Comedy Club in Raleigh, North Carolina.[8] Eventually she moved to Los Angeles, California, to pursue a career in comedy.[9]
Retta started performing stand-up comedy in 1996, although she said she did not start "earning money" until 1998, when she began touring on the college circuit. Retta said she used to get "really nauseated" before a performance, but that the feeling passed with experience.[10] Retta has said her stand-up material tends to be slightly embellished stories from her regular everyday life, family, and friends.[9][11] Retta has stated she would give up stand-up comedy for a full-time acting career if possible: "I'm not married to stand-up, just because it's a road thing. It's very lonely with all the traveling."[12]
Retta has served as the opening act for such comedians as Shirley Hemphill and Bobby Collins.[10] She has made television appearances on Bravo's Welcome to the Parker, E! Entertainment Television's The Soup,[11] Freddie, Moesha, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia,[12] the "Comedy Divas Showcase" segment of The Jenny Jones Show,[13] Retta has performed on Premium Blend, a Comedy Central show featuring up-and-coming comedians.[10]
In 2009, Retta started making regular guest appearances on the NBC comedy series Parks and Recreation as Donna Meagle, an employee in the Parks Department of the fictional town, Pawnee, Indiana. During a stand-up performance at the University of Illinois at Springfield, Retta said the acting job on the show was stressful because it was unclear how long the show would stay on the air, due to the poor reviews it received during the first season.[11] Alan Sepinwall, a television columnist with The Star-Ledger, said season 2 episodes of Parks and Recreation afforded more personality and funnier jokes to Donna and other minor characters.[14] She was upgraded to a full-time regular cast member in the third season.[15]
Retta also hosted the 3rd Critics' Choice Television Awards in 2013.[16] In 2014, she appeared on Hollywood Game Night as a contestant along with the other celebrities Paget Brewster, Michael Chiklis, Mario Lopez, Thomas Lennon, and Alyssa Milano.[17]
In 2015, Retta was one of the audiobook narrators for Welcome to Night Vale, a novel tie-in to the eponymous podcast series in which she is the voice of Old Woman Josie.[15] The same year she appeared in season 2 of Bravo's Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce.[15]
In 2018, Retta co-starred in the NBC series, Good Girls, opposite Christina Hendricks and Mae Whitman.[2]
In 2018, Retta published a series of essays in a book called So Close to Being the Sh*T, Y'all Don't Even Know.[18]
Personal life[edit]
Retta is the niece of the former Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.[4]
Retta is an avid fan of the Los Angeles Kings hockey team, and presented awards at the NHL award ceremonies in Las Vegas, in 2014 and 2015.[19][20][21][22][23]
Filmography[edit]
Year
Title
Role
Notes
1998
Ringmaster
Additional voices
2002
Slackers
Bruna
2003
Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star
Sad Eye Sadie
2007
Fracture
Evidence Room Cop
2007
Sex and Death 101
Ethel
2008
First Sunday
Roberta
2014
Sex Ed
Sydney
2015
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip
Party Planner
2016
Other People
Nina
2016
Operator
Pauline 'Roger' Rogers
2016
Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life
Ida Stricker
2017
To the Bone
Lobo
2017
Band Aid
Carol
2017
The LEGO Ninjago Movie
Maggie the Cheerleader (voice)
2017
Where's the Money
Roberta
2017
Father Figures
Annie
Television credits[edit]
Year
Title
Role
Notes
2004
$5.15/Hr
Joy
HBO
2005
Freddie
Joan
Episode: "Rich Man, Poor Girl"
2006
Rodney
Tanya Evans
Episode: "When Rodney Comes Marching Home"
2008
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Hardware Store Clerk
Episode: "The Gang Gets Extreme: Home Makeover Edition"
2009–15
Parks and Recreation
Donna Meagle
120 episodes
2009
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Heckler
Episode: "#7.46"
2014
Kroll Show
TSA #1
Episode: "Krolling Around with Nick Klown"
2014
Drunk History
Sylvia Robinson
Episode: "American Music"
2014
Key & Peele
The Woman
Episode: "Sex Addict Wendell"
2015–present
Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce
Barbara
16 episodes
2015
Kroll Show
Lara
Episode: "Body Bouncers"
2018
Good Girls
Ruby Hill
Works and publications[edit]
Retta (2018). So Close to Being the Sh*T, Y'all Don't Even Know. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-1-250-10934-7. OCLC 1001333805.
Retta was a chemist before she went Hollywood
By Hannah Sparks
May 25, 2018 | 11:49am | Updated
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NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
In another life, she’d have been Dr. Marietta Sangai Sirleaf. Lucky for TV viewers, she chose a much funnier path.
The actress and comedian known simply as Retta broke out with her starring role as the sassy, man-eating Donna Meagle on NBC’s “Parks and Recreation.” Three seasons of regular appearances on Bravo’s “Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce” followed. Now there’s the crime dramedy “Good Girls,” in which she, Christina Hendricks and Mae Whitman play loving, suburban moms who rob a grocery store. Mayhem ensues.
And Retta’s become an author, too, with a book of essays, “So Close to Being the Sh*t, Y’all Don’t Even Know” (St. Martin’s Press), that comes out Tuesday. It was not the kind of book she ever saw herself writing.
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“I always had in my head that one day, when I had nothing else to do, I would write a book,” Retta tells The Post over the phone from her publisher’s office in New York. “Romance! A steamy . . .” She cuts herself off, laughing.
A daughter of immigrants from Liberia, the 48-year-old grew up in Edison and Cliffwood Beach, NJ. Back then, she wasn’t dreaming of her name in lights; on the pre-med track at Duke University, she saw her name followed by the initials “MD.”
After graduation, she worked as a pharmaceutical chemist at GlaxoSmithKline in Raleigh, NC, for about a year before she had an epiphany.
“TV was my [only] roommate, so it was being alone with my TV that I decided I want to be on it,” says Retta. She says she envisioned herself doing the same kinds of eponymous, comedian-led shows she loved watching — shows like “The Drew Carey Show,” “Roseanne” or “Martin.” She thought, Why not “Retta”?
From that moment it was clear: “I just assumed I gotta get onstage if I want my own sitcom.”
She moonlighted as a comic in North Carolina before finally ditching big pharma for good and moving to Los Angeles. Then she began doing stand-up on the college circuit.
For Retta, college gigs could be unpredictable. At one Southern school, students took her stand-up bit about Kentucky Fried Chicken a little too far.
“They had gone to KFC and got a bunch of empty buckets, then had copied my head shot and had my head popping out of a chicken bucket,” says Retta, who could only think of her parents’ embarrassment if they ever heard about it. “My mother is going to be mortified that her black child’s head is popping out a chicken bucket and they’re serving fried chicken at the show.”
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Retta, (from left) Christina Hendricks and Mae Whitman in “Good Girls”
Danielle Levitt/NBC
Those college stand-up days are long gone. After eight seasons on “Parks and Rec,” a show she remembers fondly, she loves being on “Good Girls,” and says she and her co-stars had sleepovers when they were filming.
Speaking about her unsmooth criminal character, Ruby Hill, on “Good Girls,” Retta reveals her own short stint as an outlaw.
“When I was very young, I shoplifted a puzzle,” she admits. “My godmother made me take it back and buy it.”
Her family members, it seems, keep her grounded, thanks to successes of their own. Her aunt, Ellen Sirleaf Johnson, was president of Liberia and a winner of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize. When she heard of the honor, Retta quipped, “Now I gotta go find some drowning babies to save before the next family reunion.”
Until that happens, she can at least boast that “Good Girls” has been renewed for a second season. There may even be an Emmy — if not an MD — in her future.
Actress and comedian RETTA has delighted audiences with her performance aptitude and comedy precision and has established herself as a consistent first pick for Hollywood. Retta currently stars as Barbara on the Bravo hit series Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce. Previously Retta spent seven seasons playing the uber beloved office mate Donna Meagle on NBC's critically acclaimed comedy Parks and Recreation.
Chatting With "Parks and Recreation's" Retta Sirleaf '92
Writer:
Staff
Images:
Anne Fishbein
September 25, 2014
As NBC’s Parks and Recreation comes to an end, we asked the comedian, actress, and renowned Tweeter @unfoRETTAble to fill in our blanks.
When I first arrived at Duke, I was…
Naïve and immature. I think I was still a little naïve when I left, but not as naïve. I definitely got a little more hip to the world because the campus is a microcosm of the world, and from running into things like racism, which I never experienced before, and binding friendships. I think I matured as a result of it.
The course I took that stuck with me is…
I can’t remember the name of the sociology class, but we had to volunteer in the children’s ward in the hospital. Because of that class, I worked with these terminally ill children, and I think that stuck with me: seeing children be children, even though they’re going through chemo, and they’re walking around having to hold these IVs but still finding things humorous and really enjoying their good days. Then you know you don’t have it that bad.
My favorite Duke memory is the time I…
I’m going to admit to something—I played library tag. We stayed in the library after it was closed and played hide-and-seek in the dark. And then, security came and chased us out.
Duke prepared me for a life in comedy because…
I went to college with a bunch of clowns, and it allowed me to be constantly around humor. My girlfriends from college, we still crack up each other. One of my best friends, we’re on the phone, and we will laugh so—and I’m like, “How are we still seventeen years old?” We laugh like we did when we first met.
My comedy idols are…
Chris Rock, Bill Cosby, Jim Carrey, for different reasons. Chris Rock had come out with an HBO special when I started doing comedy, and so much of my comedy, or at least much of my stage persona or performance, came from watching him. Bill Cosby—I don’t understand how he has the energy. He’ll do two-hour shows—someone kill me if I’m on stage for more than an hour and ten minutes. And then Jim Carrey, he went from standup to making funny faces on In Living Color, to doing Man on the Moon and The Truman Show—just such a vast body of work that I still find amazing.
When I need material for my standup act, I…
I just walk outside and watch people. It’s mostly my interactions with people I run into. The thing that never fails to make me laugh is… Will & Grace. I love Jack and Karen.
My weirdest Parks and Rec memory is…
The first day Rob Lowe was on. It was his first scene with the group—his first time doing a scene with me. And he stands in the bullpen giving a speech, and I’m sitting at my desk, and our [director of photography] loved me, and on our set, the lighting is really bad. It’s particularly bad for black skin, so I look very sallow under the lights we had there, so he would specifically light me. He would give me special lights so I didn’t look like I was, you know, suffering from a terminal illness. Rob came in to do the speech, and he looked at my desk, and he said, “Do you have your own lighting?” You know, Rob Lowe, who was like, “Who are you? How do you have your own lighting?” And I was like, “Yeah, I do.” And I felt really good about it. Particularly because I still have a picture I sketched of Rob Lowe when I was in high school on my wall at my parents’ house.
What I like most about my character, Donna Meagle, is…
She does what she wants, she knows what she wants. I feel like I kind of know what I want, but I’m not sure exactly how to go about it, and I feel like she’s like, “Oh, I want to do this, so I’m going to do this.” She knows the path, she’s certain it’s going to work, and she has no qualms about doing whatever it is that she wants to get to where she needs to be.
My personal philosophy is…
Enjoy every day. Know where you want to get to, but enjoy—you know, they say enjoy the journey. For me, it’s have a good time, surround yourself with good people, so that even though you have struggles, you still have happiness day to day. It’s too stressful to be so worried about the end. Enjoy the position you’re in, and as you move on, you can realize, “I still have a good time, and now I’m even further than I started.”
7 Reasons You Should Know Parks and Recreation Star, Retta
Th comedienne is one of the funniest actresses on network TV. Here are 7 reasons we think you should know her.
Yolanda Sangweni Sep, 20, 2012
There’s little not to love about Parks and Recreation star Retta. The actress and stand-up comedienne is beloved for her role as Donna Meagle on the NBC sitcom and her off-duty career as one of the snarkiest (and funniest) Twitter commentators ever. When she’s not confessing her love for Joe Manganiello, you’ll find her tweeting about her favorite TV shows — from Smash to True Blood — and even beefing with Octavia Spencer and Yvette Nicole Brown. Here are seven reasons we think you should know one of the funniest stars on network television.
She only goes by one name: Retta
“That was me just being lazy,” says the former opera singer and Duke University alum. “I remember doing stand-up at an open mic a long time ago and the MC was like ‘Who’s next?’ I said, Marietta Sirleaf and he was like ‘What?’ And I was like, ‘Ugh, okay, just Retta.’ It stuck with me ever since.”
She a prolific tweeter
Her Twitter timeline is full of witty and always entertaining, commentary on her favorite TV shows. Jezebel crowned her the Best TV Recapper on the Internet. “Twitter makes me feel like I have friends over,” says Retta. “I realize that if I talk about television someone will respond. I’ve always been co-dependent in that fashion, and Twitter has fed my sickness.”
She’s got a thing for vampires
“Funny enough I don’t like vampires,” says the actress who recently bought a collector’s edition of the entire Buffy the Vampire Slayer series. “First of all, True Blood is pure comedy to me. There are some cute boys on it and it’s funny as ever. Lafayette (played by actor Nelsan Ellis) breathes life into my day. I only watched The Vampire Diaries because my friends who loves vampires was like, ‘Just watch it.’ I was like, ‘No, I don’t want to watch Gossip Girls with teeth.’ But I have to say the writers are doing a great job.”
She loves Joe Manganiello as much as we do
“He’s just so manly,” says Retta. “I’m a big girl so I want somebody that’s going to make me look a little bit smaller. I remember being at a party with him but couldn’t work up the nerve to say hello. So I thought, ‘you know what, I’ll just proclaim my love to Alcide (Manganiello’s character on True Blood) on Twitter.’ I loved that people made him aware of all my tweets. When he responded I was like, ‘Yeah, he’s my fake boyfriend,’ b****es.’
She recently got into a faux Twitter beef with Octavia Spencer and Yvette Nicole Brown over the hunky True Blood star.
“I feel like Yvette is still holding on to something,” jokes Retta. “Octavia has given in. She’s willing to laugh about how much I love [Joe]. Yvette on the other hand, is like, ‘He’s not yours.’”
She’s a lot like her Parks and Recreation character Donna
I have a lot of Donna in me in that I take on a lot of my own idiosyncrasies much like she does. The writers on Parks and Rec though, decide what’s going to happen to her. We get to know the writers and they see your personality and sprinkle it on your character. Donna recently got her own Twitter account.
She’s always known she was funny
“I was always silly in high school,” says Retta. “I used to always get in trouble because I was laughing. I’ve always thought I was funny but never thought I could use it to make money. In 1996 I decided I was going to use my humor to get on TV to make money. All the people I looked up to—Roseanne, Tim Allen, and Jerry Seinfeld—were stand-up comedians who used humor to get TV shows. I’m on TV now, and I’m working towards getting my own show.
Season five of Parks and Recreation premieres tonight at 9:30 p.m. on NBC.
Retta on why she’s “So Close to Being the S**t, Y’all Don’t Even Know”
The “Parks and Rec” star sits down with “Salon Talks” to discuss how she built her career and her new memoir
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D. Watkins
June 3, 2018 10:30pm (UTC)
Retta, who played Donna on “Parks and Recreation” and currently stars in "Good Girls," sat down with me for a recent episode of "Salon Talks" to share her hilarious journey to Hollywood and stories from her new memoir “So Close to Being the Sh*t, Y'all Don't Even Know.”
Retta tells me about why she abandoned her medical school plans and chased her dream of starring in her own sitcom instead. Plus, she opens up about race and finding her own voice in the industry. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
How did the book come about?
I got a call one day from someone who claimed to be my lit agent. I was like, “I’ve never written a book. How do I have a lit agent?”
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It was the department within my agency. And she said there’s an editor who thinks you should write a book, let’s set up a meeting. So we set up the meeting, we talked about a bunch of different things and then I left. And she said you have to do a book proposal. And I was like, “Oh.” I was heading back to Vancouver to go shoot "Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce" and while I was there I was so frustrated. It was a lot of work to do a book proposal. It stressed me out.
It’s a lot of work! You need comp titles, you need an overview of what the book is going to be about . . .
The first chapter, the last chapter. And I said, “I can’t do this. I don’t have the energy or the patience.” She was like, “All right, well I’ll go back to them and tell them and we’ll resurface at another date.” Then she said, “What if they offered you money to do the book?” I said, “Well if they pay me I’ll do the job.”
They offered me money and I was like, “OK.” That’s how it happened. They were like, “Here’s some money go write this book.” So I wrote the book and took the money.
Watch our full conversation with Retta
The "Parks & Rec" and "Good Girls" star talks about her career and new book
Retta of "Parks and Recreation"
Retta, who played Donna on “Parks and Recreation,” joined Salon’s D. Watkins to share her hilarious journey to Hollywood and stories from her new memoir “So Close to Being the Sh*t, Y'all Don't Even Know.” On “Salon Talks,” Retta talks about why she abandoned her medical school plans and chased her dream of starring in her own sitcom instead. Plus, she opens up about race and finding her own voice in the industry. “I used to fear the black audience early on in my stand-up career, then I did a show with Cheryl Underwood. This was a college gig and the audience was mostly white and I opened for Cheryl at the time,” Retta told Salon. “I remember watching Cheryl just be herself and killing in this room and I was like oh, you should just be yourself. I saw it, where I done black rooms where I didn’t feel urban enough for this room and I’d watch white comics get up and decimate a room and I was like ‘that person is just being themselves.’” Watch the video above to hear about Retta’s new project and how she was almost casted to play Effe in “Dreamgirls.” Tune in for SalonTV's live shows, "Salon Talks" and "Salon Stage", daily at noon ET / 9 a.m. PT and 4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT, streaming live on Salon, Facebook and Periscope.
At that moment did you feel like it was something that you really needed to say when you got the opportunity, or did it just come gradually over time?
Well, when I was writing the original book proposal — that never got finished — that’s when I thought about what should be in this book, what this should be. But because I was having so many struggles with it, I let it go. Once they said, “OK, here’s the money, do the book,” I really had to sit down. Dibs Baer would interview me. She had originally sent me this long list of topics of things that happen in someone’s life: mom, dad, brothers, and sisters, just words and lists, and I would go through and decide what stories I wanted to tell and pull from her list. Then once I had made a compilation of all the stories I wanted to tell that’s when I was like, “Oh, this story is telling how close to being the shit I am.”
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So that’s what I wanted to get into. How did you come up with that title? Because I think it’s so important.
The book was done before I did the title. Once it was done I felt like that’s what this book is saying, talking about how cool is my life. I’m not on top of the list of actors that they’re going to for these big movies but I’ve hustled enough that my name is known and I get to do cool things. I get to go to the Golden Globes. One of the chapters in the book is how I’ve gotten to go to "Hamilton" as a result of being on shows that people like and that’s why they know me. It was after I’d written the book that I was like, this book basically is talking about how close I am to being the shit.
You actually are really popular and successful and have a great career. So from the perspective of a lot of people trying to get into the industry, they’re saying, “Retta is the shit.”
When you’re in it you realize how much you’re not the shit. You realize . . .
You’re not ordering bald eagle meat with like a side of lobster.
So there’s no toilet in my trailer? No? OK, all right. [Laughs.]
People on the outside of the industry assume certain things. They see you on TV, they think you’re rich. I’m like, oh no, I have to hustle. I’m in between seasons. I am not earning money. I get a few residual checks for certain things but I’m not earning money. I came home from Atlanta after we finished the season and I told my agent and my publicist and my manager, I was like, “We’ve got to find me work until I go back to work.”
That happened to me before. I was on CNN twice and then I was back in my projects and it was like, “Shouldn’t you be in the Hamptons?” I was like, “Isn't it winter?” Then I was like, “No.” They didn’t even pay for that at that particular time.
Right, exactly.
So knowing those levels and understanding those levels of success, does that motivate you and make you work extra hard?
One hundred percent. Chris Rock said he bought his house and that forced him to hustle because he had to pay for the house. It’s one of those things where I want to work but I have a lot of responsibilities now. So my thing is, “Hey Holly, we need to find me some work before I go back shooting in August,” because I have responsibilities. I have parents and things to take care of.
Now you have the confidence to be able to get out there and do the work. When you started out you read about this opportunity you had to be in "Dreamgirls," to play Effie —
To audition.
— to audition for that role, but you psyched yourself out of that. Tell us about that experience.
I’d never understood the phrase "a fear of success." I never got it. And then I was at a point where I was actually getting auditions and my manager had said, “There’s a big audition coming up; it’s for 'Dreamgirls,' the role of Effie.” I knew the story. I knew I would have to sing and dance. I would have to be dressed like the two other girls in the group. In my head, I have a bad ankle so I’m like, “Those girls wear heels. There’s no way I’m going to wear heels. Then I’m so much bigger than the other girls, how are they going to find clothes and we’re wearing matching outfits.” I was so green I didn’t know that they made the clothes for you to wear on the show.
So you thought they went to Nordstrom to go get them?
I thought they were going to have to go to Nordstrom and find a line that has a size 26 and a size 2 — as if — but I just didn’t know. In my head, I was like, there’s no way. I don’t want to be the problem. I’ve got this bad ankle, and dancing is going to be hard and I certainly can’t wear heels. So are they going to shoot me from the knees up?
All these things are running through my head and because of these things I didn’t go to the audition. I kept putting it off. They kept asking, “When can you go in?” I was like, “Oh, I have a scene next week.” In that time they had a show to cast, they had a movie to cast and so they cast it with Jennifer Hudson. So I never went in for the audition.
What do you think was the root of that fear?
A fear of being the problem. I don’t want to be seen as the problem on set. Not that they would see me as a diva — certainly not, because nobody knew who I was — but I didn’t want to be the person that they had to stop rehearsals for because I had to ice my ankle.
Because you can’t get the two-step right.
No, I could get the two-step right.
OK.
Being on my feet for a long time. I can dance, OK.
So do you feel like that could ever happen to you again or now you’re in 100 percent control of that?
I’m sure I’ll have moments of fear, but in my head now it’s like, you came to this city for a reason and the process is auditioning. I’d love to get to the place where I don’t have to audition anymore, because I don’t like auditioning, but I know that I have to do it and so I’m just going to do it. I’m not going to sit in the corner with a stomach ache like “urgh” because you’re sick that you have to do it, but you’re sick that you’re not doing it, so you might as well do it and live with that sickness.
Did you ever audition for a role that you thought that you weren’t going to get and ended up getting it?
Yes, once, and it was a small role. The audition was in Santa Monica, parking was bad and I was like, parking is the worst in this area and I’m not looking to get a ticket. So I kept saying I can’t go in, I can’t go in, and it was right after I had injured my ankle so I was in a boot. I was like, “I’m in this cast. I can’t go in.” And they are like, “That might work for the role.” Anyway, I went in. I parked on the street and I ran in and I was like, “Hey, I’m parked illegally. I can only stay here for a few minutes. So if I can get in that would be great -- otherwise I’m going to have to leave.”
Did they know you?
Mm-mm. They put me in really quick, and it was a small part — it wasn’t for a major lead — and I ended up booking it. I knew for sure that I wasn’t going to get it because I was like, I don’t want a ticket. I’m broke and I can’t afford tickets in Santa Monica.
Hollywood has a history of being racist, [of] typecasting black people. Do you feel like with all these different movements [for diversity] that it’s getting better?
For me, it’s better. I don’t know that it’s better for everybody. But I’ve been lucky enough. My last three gigs have been headed by writers who haven’t chosen to put me into that small box. I used to go out for the same audition: the same nurse, the same secretary, the same meter maid, the sassy black girl who’s funny. I did that for a long, long time. And then my last three big jobs have been for writers — Mike Shaw, Marti Noxon and Jenna Bans — who saw me as a whole person and not adjectives.
One of the things that you talked about that I really think is informative and invaluable is this idea of you learning that you being yourself is the best thing you can do on stage. You don’t have to pander to a black audience because you think that’s what they want. You don’t have to pander to a white audience because you think that’s what they want. Retta just has to be Retta. At what moment did you discover that?
I used to fear the black audience, and this was earlier on in my stand-up career. I did a show with — it might have been Sheryl Underwood.
This was a college gig and the audience was mostly white and I opened for Sheryl at the time. I remember watching Sheryl just be herself and killing in this room. I was like, “Oh, you should just be yourself.” I’ve seen it where I’ve done black rooms where I was like, “I don’t know if I’m urban enough for this room.” Then I’d watch white comics get up and decimate a room. I was like, “That person is just being themselves.”
That’s how I feel with your book, too. A lot of the writing is just straightforward and it feels like we’re having a conversation with you.
That was very important to me. I wanted it to sound like myself, and so — I’m like “yessssss” and “yessssss biiiiiiitch” — I put a lot of i's in "biiiiiiitch" when I type it, about six or seven.
Unless it’s not too intense, then it’s just four. I’m like, “biiiitch.”
It was very important to me to sound like myself because I fell like sometimes you won’t get it unless it sounds like me. You don’t get the personality, and I feel the personality is as important as the story.
So that was a game changer for you?
Yes, but I feel I decided that a long time ago. I feel I decided that when I joined Twitter. I made a conscious decision to be myself on Twitter even though I worked for a network TV show and I didn’t know if they’d want me cursing so much, but I curse. I know that’s what I do.
They say Facebook is the place where you lie to your friends and Twitter is the place where you tell the truth to complete strangers.
Right, yes. That’s exactly what I do.
Now you have these experiences and you’ve traveled to these places and you’ve paid a lot of dues. What type of advice would you give to a person who was on the verge of giving up if you had to talk to them based on your own experiences?
The thing that got me through getting to where I am is belief. I feel like you have to just know it’s going to happen. You have to accept it in your skin. I didn’t know when I would get to where I wanted to be. I just knew it was going to happen and I knew I was going to have to hustle. When I was sleeping on a friend’s floor and eating ramen noodles with American cheese —
Ramen noodles is the official food of the oppressed. I’ve never met a person with a come-up story that didn’t have —
Ten packs for a dollar.
I like hot sauce sauce in mine. I might be bougie. When I get paid, I throw eight shrimps in there. Not the little hard frozen ones — what do you call that, when you suck all the juice out of something?
Dehydrated.
Little dehydrated shrimps. That can’t be shrimp.
I don’t even remember. I was going to say I don’t even remember that.
Maybe that's like an East Baltimore thing.
It’s strictly American cheese.
I think because I always believed it that the struggle portion of it wasn’t that hard. I was like, this is what it is -- you’re supposed to struggle. You rarely hear that someone stepped off a plane and got put in "Jurassic Park." It’s work.
I knew that I had to go through some things. I didn’t know exactly what, but I knew in my head this is supposed to be hard. So as long as you know it’s going to happen, it makes the hard part bearable. When you’re feeling like you’re on the verge of going home you have to take an inventory of is it really what you want? Because if it is you’re not going to leave.
Does that struggle become obsolete once you actually have some success, or do you have days where you’re like, I used to sleep on the floor and eat filthy noodles?
It comes up when I’m in situations where we get a restaurant bill and everybody owes $150 and I’m like, “Daaamn, remember the ramen?” I do remember it for sure. But I don’t look on it as a bad time, because I had fun. That was another thing — I always needed to have fun. So I was around people that I enjoyed being around. I would go to bars that my friends worked at because I knew I could get a hook-up on my bill, that kind of thing.
It’s good to have friends who work at bars.
For sure. I recommend it.
D. Watkins
D. Watkins is an Editor at Large for Salon. He is also a professor at the University of Baltimore and founder of the BMORE Writers Project. Watkins is the author of the New York Times best-sellers “The Beast Side: Living (and Dying) While Black in America” and "The Cook Up: A Crack Rock Memoir."
MORE FROM D. Watkins • FOLLOW @dwatkinsworld
< Not My Job: 3 Questions For 'Good Girls' Star Retta About Good Boys May 26, 20187:17 AM ET Listen· 9:08 9:08 Queue Download Embed Facebook Twitter Flipboard Email HELEN HONG, HOST: And now the game where we ask talented people to do something that requires no skill whatsoever. It's called Not My Job. The comedian and actor Retta is best known for her role as Donna on the hit comedy "Parks And Recreation." She currently stars on NBC's new series "Good Girls" and she has a book out next week called, "So Close To Being The [expletive], Y'all Don't Even Know." Retta, welcome to WAIT WAIT... DON'T TELL ME. RETTA: Thank you. (APPLAUSE) HONG: So the title of your book actually has a not-safe-for-work word in it, which is why I had to go boop. Be honest, did you call it that just to watch interviewers squirm when they had to say it on the air? RETTA: Little bit, little bit. (LAUGHTER) HONG: 'Cause you're not the one that actually has to say the title, right? Other people have to say it. RETTA: Yeah, generally I don't, but I do like saying it. HONG: What's the most creative any interviewer has come up with to say the title? RETTA: Usually they say so close to being the blank. But Kelly Ripa said so close to being the S. HONG: Oh, the S. That Kelly, she's clever. (LAUGHTER) HONG: She's a clever girl. Now, I know your real name is Marietta Sirleaf, which sounds so noble I feel like I should bow when I'm saying it. RETTA: You should. (LAUGHTER) HONG: I just did, Marietta Sirleaf. Now why do you just go by one name, Retta? RETTA: When I was in college, I hooked up with this guy from Georgia, and they pronounce Marietta, Ga., May-retta (ph). And he started calling me Retta as if I allowed it and my friends thought it was hilarious and so they insisted on calling me that. HONG: No. RETTA: And then so when I first started doing stand-up, I was doing an open mic and the emcee came out and said, who's next? I was like me. He's like what's your name? Marietta Sirleaf. What? I was like just Retta, and that's how I got Retta. (LAUGHTER) HONG: What? PAULA POUNDSTONE: Because you didn't have the patience to go over your actual name with him. (LAUGHTER) RETTA: No, I was like if this is too challenging, let's stick to the easy stuff. HONG: But now you're like a one-namer, which I think is boss. RETTA: Yeah, me, Cher, Bono - living that life. HONG: I heard you were about to pursue medicine before moving to LA to become a comedian. How did that work? RETTA: I was pre-med. I was all about the books growing up, and I was taking a year off after college, which was the first time I ever lived alone. And so I wanted a break just before I went into medical school. And I used to - and I was living by myself so my TV was my roommate and after a while I would be like, I can do this, I can do this. HONG: What? RETTA: But I decided that I wanted to have my own sitcom, which is why I started doing stand-up because I saw that so many sitcoms were headed by stand-up comedians, so I went into stand-up. HONG: Yeah, I'm a stand-up comedian and I still haven't gotten one so. (LAUGHTER) HONG: We're working on it. ADAM FELBER: Oh, awkward. HONG: How - don't you come from... (LAUGHTER) HONG: Don't you come from an immigrant family, Retta? RETTA: I do. My parents are Liberian. HONG: And how do - how does your immigrant - myself coming from an immigrant family, when I told them I was going to become a stand-up comedian, they were like, what? So how did yours - because you were actually like on your way to medical school. How did they take that? RETTA: They were actually pretty good about it. My mother said, you know, you're carrying around your father's last name, which is why I don't use my last name. (LAUGHTER) RETTA: My dad's big thing was like, just get health insurance. (LAUGHTER) RETTA: He's like if something happens to you, we can't take care of you. HONG: Now speaking of your dad's last name, I heard that you're actually the niece of a Liberian former president. RETTA: Yeah, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was married to my dad's cousin. HONG: So you come from not only an immigrant family but an immigrant family with like - that was really high up. RETTA: Yeah, I guess our version of royalty over there. HONG: Seriously, because she won a Nobel Peace Prize, right? RETTA: And she met Oprah, homie. HONG: What? (LAUGHTER) HONG: Better than a Nobel Peace Prize. RETTA: That one was even cooler because I got more calls about her being on Oprah than her winning the Nobel Prize. (LAUGHTER) HONG: Your biggest role was as Donna on "Parks And Recreation." RETTA: Yeah. HONG: And are you - so I - can I just tell you I was a guest star on one episode of "Parks And Recreation" for literally 42 seconds, and I have had people accost me on the street. So I can't imagine what you must be dealing with having been on - like a series regular on the whole show. RETTA: Oh, yeah, there's not a day that I walk out of the house and don't hear treat yourself, but it's fine. (CHEERING) HONG: Oh see, we've opened the floodgates here. RETTA: Exactly. HONG: All right. Retta we have invited you here to play a game we're calling... BILL KURTIS: Good boy, that's a good boy. HONG: You are currently starring on a show called "Good Girls." So naturally we want to ask you about good boys, as in doggies. RETTA: OK. HONG: We're talking about doggies. We're going to ask you three questions about dogs who have been very good boys. Get two of them right and you'll win a prize for one of our listeners - any voice from our show on their voicemail. Bill, who is Retta playing for? KURTIS: Donyal Emami of Houston, Texas. HONG: Retta, are you ready? RETTA: Yes. HONG: OK. Here's your first question. A dog in England has been on a tighter leash since its owner discovered it had been doing what? A, licking all the freshly washed dishes in the house; B, traveling by bus twice a week to a local pub where he was fed sausages; or C, attempting to mate with the neighbor's cat, which it must be said was a very doggish-looking cat. RETTA: Well, I - I'm going to go with C. HONG: C? RETTA: Humping on the other - humping on a cat. HONG: Humping on a cat? RETTA: Yeah. HONG: Yeah? OK. I'm sorry, the answer was B, traveling by bus twice a week to the local pub where he was fed sausages. RETTA: No. (APPLAUSE) HONG: The funniest part is apparently he could catch the bus there but like couldn't catch the bus back so he always had to be driven home - hilarious. (LAUGHTER) HONG: All right. Retta, here's your next question. It's OK. You have two more guesses left, so here's your next question. After being robbed several times, a tire shop in Texas decided to enlist the help of a guard dog. What happened next? A, the owners returned to discover the dog had chewed up every single one of their tires; B, the dog distracted a gang of robbers by humping their legs until the cops came; C, the next time thieves broke in, they stole the dog and some more tires. RETTA: Oh, gosh, I'm gonna - I'm going to go with C. HONG: Yes, that is correct. (APPLAUSE) HONG: Actually, they stole the guard dog on top of stealing the tires. The thieves must have had treats or he must have flunked guard dog school. All right, Retta, you are doing great. You got one right. Here is your last question. We like to give our dogs what they need. Which of these was created just for dogs? A, a new dating website called Fetch Me, helps your pup find true love by displaying photos and barks of the dogs registered with it. KURTIS: That's brilliant. HONG: B, Spotify launched Adoptify, a music service that helps you find a dog that shares your tastes in music; or C, Petco created a new line of dog beds that you can custom order to smell like your dog's favorite butt. (LAUGHTER) RETTA: Well, I'm going to go with B. HONG: Spotify? Yes, that is correct. (APPLAUSE) HONG: Yes. You can find a dog that loves the kind of weird emo music that you're into. And I say no matter how cute the dog is, if that dog is into Red Hot Chili Peppers, keep it moving, dog. Bill, how did Retta do? KURTIS: You know, Retta is a winner in our books. HONG: Yes. (APPLAUSE) HONG: Retta stars in the series "Good Girls" which was just renewed for a second season on NBC. Her new book, "So Close To Being The [expletive], Y'all Don't Even Know" is out next week. Retta, thank you so much for joining us on WAIT WAIT... DON'T TELL ME. POUNDSTONE: Bye, Retta, thanks. RETTA: Thank you. (SOUNDBITE OF "PARKS AND RECREATION" THEME) HONG: In just a minute, Bill visits the wiener circle in our Listener Limerick Challenge game. Call 1-888-WAIT-WAIT to join us on the air. We'll be back in just a minute with more of WAIT WAIT... DON'T TELL ME from NPR.
So Close to Being the Sh*t, Y'all Don't Even Know
Annie Bostrom
Booklist. 114.16 (Apr. 15, 2018): p12.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
So Close to Being the Sh*t, Y'all Don't Even Know.
By Retta.
May 2018. 272p. St. Martin's, $26.99 (9781250109347); e-book, $12.99 (9781250109354). 791.4502.
Whether recalling her early years doing stand-up on the college circuit, expounding on the ways TV shows reflect us, or fangirling hard for the musical Hamilton, comedian and actor Retta spins entertaining tales and hilarious phrases. Born Marietta Sirleaf in New Jersey, to parents who emigrated from Liberia, Retta graduated premed from Duke before getting bit by the comedy bug. She's open about where she's from, how hard she's worked, and the people who helped her along the way, and she doesn't think that any of her past success guarantees a successful future. And no, she's not mad that she'll never escape "Treat yo self," the Parks and Recreation catchphrase that fans quote back to her endlessly. Appropriately for an author with nearly a million Twitter followers, she includes Tweets and other social-media stories, along with copious footnotes and lists (and footnotes about how she was told lists were obligatory in essay books like this one). As books like this one go, hers is as honest, funny, and fun to read as they come.--Annie Bostrom
HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Lots of fan-fare, including a 100,000-copy print run and a marketing campaign to match, will introduce the first book from the one-named star whose latest show, Good Girls, just debuted.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Bostrom, Annie. "So Close to Being the Sh*t, Y'all Don't Even Know." Booklist, 15 Apr. 2018, p. 12. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A537268004/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=cb77e126. Accessed 30 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A537268004
Tuesday, June 19, 2018
Book Review: So Close to Being the Sh*t, Y’all Don’t Even Know by Retta
Like an awful lot of celebrities, especially ones in the performing arts, Retta didn't start out fabulous. But I was surprised by her background. Her parents are immigrants from Africa, and she's a first-generation American. She grew up in Northern New Jersey, not far from where I live now. And she worked very hard in school, and despite things being strict at home (and despite there being at times a LOT of relatives there), she was pretty well-liked, well-rounded (she was a cheerleader and did shot-put), and she was certain she was going to be a surgeon one day. Many people were skeptical of her choosing to go to Duke, as it was far away and in the South, but she was pretty happy there. So happy in fact, that she decided to try stand-up one night. After all, everyone said she was funny. And it went great. And she did it again. And eventually she was hosting the open-mic night at the comedy club. And she never went to medical school.
She took risks, she moved away with pretty much just what she had in her car (which was then repossessed!), she pursued a career that no one in her family understood, and she is a bigger African-American woman, so there were a lot of obstacles in her path. At one point, an HBO developer wrote a role for her on a series, but then she had to audition for it which was weird, and then SHE DIDN'T GET IT AND THEY WANTED TO STILL KEEP THE CHARACTER'S NAME "RETTA." (eventually they did change it and the show never got picked up anyway.) But seriously, not getting a role that is written for you and based on you, is a real blow. So when she got the part of Donna on Parks and Recreation, everything seemed pretty hunky-dory. And it pretty much was, although more than once Amy Poehler had to go to bat for her and Jim O'Heir (Jerry), who weren't considered "regulars" until Season 3. Even then, Amy really had to pull weight to get them included on an Entertainment Weekly cover with all the rest of the cast (and Jim was obscured by the title). Still, it was a great thing overall. But you get the feeling that great things are still very much in Retta's future. While it was awesome portraying an African-American woman who flew in the face of many stereotypes, Donna was still a minor character. Retta is a leading lady. You can feel it radiating off every page. Her confidence and insouciance and her just plain old hilarity are screaming for their own sitcom. C'mon Hollywood, you can do it. In the meantime, we can read her quite funny book including amusing footnotes and lists (which she says her publisher insisted she had to include) about her purse addiction and how she's clawed her way up, but never forgot who she is or where she's from.
This book is published by St. Martin's Press, a division of Macmillan, my employer.
Posted by Carin Siegfried
at 1:25 AM
Review: So Close to Being the Sh*t, Y’all Don’t Even Know, by Retta
May 31, 2018
~ Tracy Rowan
When I saw that Retta had written an autobiography, and that she was narrating it on an audiobook, I thought (predictably enough) “Treat yo’self!” I loved her as Donna Meagle in Parks and Recreation, and am enjoying the heck out of her semi-dramatic turn on Good Girls where she’s breaking my heart as well as making me laugh. But I knew absolutely nothing about Retta, and I wanted to.
Turns out, she is the daughter of Liberian immigrants, a Jersey girl, and one of the most down-to-earth celebs imaginable. She is brutally honest about herself — Chapter 8 in which she describes at length how lazy she is is both hilarious and reassuring because so much of it describes me too. I loved listening to her talk about her passionate love for “dark magic” (coffee) and the day she (unknowingly) was flirted with by Michael Fassbender. I love how much she loves John Hamm and her Parks and Rec co-stars, how much she loves her family, but doesn’t spare them from her cutting sense of humor, and how much she loves her designer handbags. Because she’s a big girl, and handbags always fit.
I love that she refuses to apologize for who she is unless she knows she’s somehow in the wrong. I love that she can call out both racism and body-shaming with a sense of humor. I love that she can fangirl Lin Manuel Miranda, and that she never seems blase about meeting the likes of Idris Elba or Robert Redford. Retta knows who she is and that is no mean feat in Hollywood.
I love listening to her. Just flat out love it.
I devoured this audiobook in less than a day and wish there was more. Maybe one day there will be. Maybe one day we’ll get the continuing adventures of Retta in H’wood, or even Dr. Retta, neurosurgeon (She was pre-med before she went into show business.) No matter what she wants to talk about, I’m there.