Nicole Byer on the reality of competition shows and how ADHD can help your comedy
The comedian joins Q’s Tom Power ahead of her Just For Laughs show in Toronto
Nicole Byer has been the host of the bizarre amateur baking show Nailed It! for eight seasons, earning six Emmy nominations along the way. But the series is just one of the many projects she has on the go.
Byer also hosts four podcasts and the reality show Wipeout with John Cena, she released a book, titled #VERYFAT #VERYBRAVE: The Fat Girl's Guide to Being #Brave and Not a Dejected, Melancholy, Down-in-the-Dumps Weeping Fat Girl in a Bikini, and she has a comedy special on Netflix. Somehow, the comedian has also found the time to take her stand-up on the road.
Ahead of her Just For Laughs show in Toronto, Byer joins Q's Tom Power to talk about her various projects, growing up as a hyperactive kid and how having ADHD has helped her comedy career.
"I have ADHD," says Byer. "Like I changed my special up until I recorded it. I added a new joke the day of, or the night before…. The book was a thing that was like super, super ongoing — I changed it till the day it was like you can't change it anymore. So I think my ADHD helps me just because you hyper-focus on one thing and you hyper-focus on another thing….
"I also thought it was going to take away my funny, but it hasn't! It's made it a little bit more streamlined. I usually run jokes past people because the way my brain works, it won't quite make sense — it makes sense to me, but not to other people. And it's gotten easier to write jokes that make sense to people."
The full interview with Nicole Byer is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview with Nicole Byer produced by Catherine Stockhausen.