Phoebe Robinson talks the origins of ‘2 Dope Queens,’ ‘Sooo Many White Guys’

Comedian Phoebe Robinson often found herself at work surrounded by Sooo Many White Guys — until she decided to do something about it.

“It was just like, they tend to keep black comics apart, black lady comics apart,” Robinson explained to John Fugelsang on Thursday. “That’s how bookers act, and so I was like ‘I want to do shows with women, people of color, queer people.'”

During a job working in the background on The Daily Show, Robinson met Jessica Williams, who felt the same way about the industry.

The duo booked their first live show together at Upright Citizens Brigade East in New York City — but their plans to showcase pre-produced videos fell to the wayside due to busy schedules.

“We didn’t see each other until 15 minutes before the show, and was like ‘what are three things that happened to you, what are three things that happened to you, and we’ll just talk about it.’ Because we both have an improv background, so we just kind of figured ‘it’ll be fine,'” Robinson recalled. “And then when we got on stage, we were like ‘yo, this is, like, really working insanely well.'”

And from there, 2 Dope Queens was born.

“We just started it as a live show just because we liked to work together and talk about hot dudes and black hair,” Robinson said of the origins of her and Williams’ show. “And then, we were like ‘yeah, maybe we’ll turn this into a podcast.'”

WNYC Studios helped the podcast thrive, building a devoted audience that spans across the globe. And just recently, 2 Dope Queens and Robinson’s solo podcast Sooo Many White Guys joined the SiriusXM Insight line up.

“I think I always wanted to do radio just because I love to gab, but I didn’t think it was going to be like 2 Dope Queens,” Robinson added. “I didn’t think it was going to have that big of a reach.”

“I’m really pumped,” Robinson said about joining SiriusXM. “I hope people like the show.”

Tell Me Everything with John Fugelsang airs weekdays at 2 pm ET on SiriusXM Insight

2 Dope Queens airs Wednesdays at 9 pm ET & Sundays at 8 pm ET on SiriusXM Insight

Sooo Many White Guys airs Sundays at 9 pm ET on SiriusXM Insight

For a free 30-day trial, check out siriusxm.com/freetrial/blog