Two decades ago, while Daily Show Senior Correspondent Dulcé Sloan was doing summer shows at a community theater in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, the library was her main hangout spot.
In the small town of 9,000 people, it was a place to gather with other young actors—and the only place with internet access.
“‘Okay, let me check my email,’” she recalls. “’Let me check my bank balance; yep, it’s still low.’”
Sloan says library staff were “very confused” about what was happening: “Why are 10 college kids in here?”
The comedian, who also appears on Fox’s animated series The Great North and as a panelist on National Public Radio’s Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!, is now a published author. Hello, Friends! Stories of Dating, Destiny, and Day Jobs (Andscape Books) was released in February.
American Libraries spoke with Sloan before her closing session at the Public Library Association 2024 Conference in Columbus, Ohio, about her new book, her journey in stand-up comedy, and her memories of libraries.
You’ve said that you don’t want to call this book a memoir. What would you call it?
What I wanted to call the book was Don’t Call It a Memoir, I’m Only 39. And the publisher was like, “Well, let’s not tell people what it’s not.” It’s a collection of stories [about things] people want to know about, like The Daily Show and what went on in my childhood.
Are there any particular stories in the book that you’re nervous to share with people for the first time?
I wasn’t sure about telling how I got into stand-up. I became a comic because another comic told me I was a comic. So there’s a tendency [for that] to piss comics off, because it’s like, “She didn’t even want to do this.”
Some things are just ridiculous, like me almost having to rob two of my bosses. They didn’t want to pay me because I didn’t want to sleep with them. You don’t want to incriminate yourself, but technically, I did not commit a crime.
What was your reaction to hearing from another comic that you should pursue stand-up?
It was very confusing information. One of my [friends] from school was working the door to a comedy club, so I started hanging out with these comics. [Atlanta comedian] Big Kenny said, “Well, you know how to tell a story. You just need to get the refinement of it.” I was like, “No thanks,” because stand-up scared me.
I’d been performing since I was a child and done all kinds of musicals and children’s shows. But stand-up, I didn’t know how to write like that.
Eventually in 2009, he is teaching a new class. The class was $300. My unemployment check was $350 or $380. He’s like, “You’re supposed to do this. I’m not going charge you for the class.” I’m like, “All right, Jesus, I hear you.” Come May 12, it’ll be 15 years.
In 2023, you guest-hosted The Daily Show twice. One of your episodes, in which you interviewed trans drag performer and RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Sasha Colby, was nominated for a GLAAD media award. Tell us about that experience.
I am now a daughter of the House of Colby [drag house], per Sasha Colby. She’s my mother.
The fact that I’m GLAAD-nominated is amazing, and I never expected that. It’s really a blessing to facilitate what Colby wanted the world to know about happy trans people. The significance of it for me is that I know what it’s like to live in a body that people hate, for absolutely no reason, and to be in the same kind of classification of a marginalized group where people want to just see the trauma of our experience and expect us to be sad all the time. To be able to help her show her experience and [tell] the world to see her as a whole person, and to see trans people and trans people of color as whole people, is something I was glad to showcase on the show.
It was interesting to see how much of what the host wants in the show gets into the show. It’s still a point of view of the show, but it’s through your eyes. That was really eye-opening for me, to have full creative control.
What role have libraries played in your life?
I worked in the library in college, in the language lab. I was a Spanish tutor for three years. I only tutored one person, God bless.
As a kid, my mom would take us to the library all the time. I remember in middle school, we’d go to Gwinnett County (Ga.) Public Library, go get all the Fear Street books, read them in a weekend, send them back, [and then] go get A Wrinkle in Time.
Honestly, I loved the card catalog. When I found out they got rid of them, I was kind of sad. It was always like an adventure. And it was always so cool to read the names on the cards [in the front of the books]. Because sometimes, if it was a research book, the last time somebody checked this book out was 20 years ago. Like, I guess I’m the next person to write a report on the Congo.
