Dulcé Sloan On ‘The Daily Show,’ Her New Memoir, And LA Living

Rephrase my Getty Image/Merle Cooper
At the time of this interview, Dulcé Sloan, the comedian, actress, and correspondent for The Daily Show, was just a couple of days removed from standing next to her Daily Show counterparts as they won the Emmy Award for Best Variety Talk Series; a moment that served as a celebratory close to the era that saw Trevor Noah as host.
On an individual level, Sloan had just been told she was nominated for a GLAAD award for her tenure as a guest host and she was celebrating the publication of her memoir, Hello Friends!: Stories Of Dating, Destiny, And Day Jobs.
All of this success is the result of years of hard work and big dreams, dating back to her time growing up in Miami and Atlanta. But, according to Sloan, the best part is seeing her family benefit as well. Oh, and she’s also pretty happy to finally be out of New York City after buying a home in LA. We spoke about that, the book, and what’s next.
Congratulations on being nominated for a GLAAD Award. How does it feel to hear that news?
Dulcé Sloan: It was great. I got a text from the EP on the show this morning and I was like, ‘Congratulations on what?’ It’s for Outstanding Variety or Talk Show Episode. It was for the first night and for my hosting week, and as you know, I hosted and then the strikes started for six months. So, the fact that I got nominated for an episode I did during my hosting week when I only hosted one night, is amazing.
Are you at liberty to share some of the ideas you may have gotten to during your guest hosting week if you had the opportunity to finish it out?
Well, I did want to interview Marshawn Lynch during my hosting week because I want to touch his hands.
[Laughs] I want to steal the hem of his garment, is really what I was trying to do.
But I was really excited. I wanted to interview Sasha Colby. She made me her daughter in the Haus of Colb; I feel very honored by that. I wanted to focus on things that I really liked and cared about. But I think at one point we were going to have the Muppets on because they had a movie coming out, but because of the strike, nobody could promote anything anymore. And then Vashti Harrison, she got to come on the second night that I hosted back in November because she’s an amazing illustrator. I have been following her on Instagram forever. So she was someone who was booked during my original hosting week and I was glad we were able to bring her back to promote her book, Big.
How would you say that you’ve grown from the time you first started working on the Daily Show up until now at this point in your career when you’ve started branching out doing other things?
Sloan: The show has given me a lot of opportunities that I wouldn’t have normally had. Becoming a stand-up comic gave me opportunities that I wouldn’t have had because I’m a trained actor – I have a theater degree. I’ve literally been acting since I was a kid. And I got so many things because I started doing stand-up a for better SEO.