Sam Morril and Mark Normand ask the question we all ask ourselves after good conversation makes you lose track of how many drinks you have had. We Might Be Drunk Podcast is two empire state comedians telling stories and talking life, New York City, intoxicating stories, and of course the past and present state of comedy.
In this week’s episode, comedian Ms. Pat joins the show to discuss her comedic journey, her rise to fame and why she always remained the same, and The Ms. Pat Show.
Sam Morril: Sam Morril is one of the fastest-rising stand-up comics in New York City and one of the best joke writers in the scene today. He is a regular on Comedy Central’s This Week at the Comedy Cellar, where he appears frequently when not touring cities across the nation. He was named one of Comedy Central’s Comics to Watch in 2011 and has performed multiple stand-up sets on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Late, Late Show with James Corden, and Conan. He’s also had stints on Last Comic Standing, America’s Got Talent, @midnight with Chris Hardwick, and Inside Amy Schumer. Recently detailed the re-opening of New York City comedy scene post-global pandemic in the 2021 documentary Sam Morril: Full Capacity.
Mark Normand: So far, Mark Normand has done a One-Hour Comedy Central special “Don’t Be Yourself”, a Comedy Central HALF HOUR special, has appeared on TBS’s CONAN 6 times, Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Showtime’s “Live at SXSW”, INSIDE AMY SCHUMER, TruTv, Best Week Ever, MTv, Last Comic Standing, @Midnight and released an album with Comedy Central records titled “Still Got It” (it’s not bad). This year, Mark took first place at the Great American Comedy Festival competition. In 2013 won Caroline’s March Madness competition, beating out 63 other comedians. And this is a real shocker for all of us, but he was also voted Village Voice’s “Best Comedian of 2013”, I know, right? In 2012, Mark appeared on “John Oliver’s New York Standup Show” on Comedy Central, and in 2011 was picked as one of Comedy Central’s “Comics to Watch.”
Mark was born and raised in New Orleans, LA surprisingly to two normal parents. As a kid he spent most of his time shooting short films and wetting the bed. He started doing comedy right after college and quickly moved to New York. Mark now does comedy clubs and colleges across the country and has been involved in many festivals including Portland, Seattle, DC, Boston, Vancouver, Melbourne and in 2013 was featured as a New Face at the Montreal Comedy Festival.
Mark was named one of Comedy Central’s Comics To Watch for the 2011 New York Comedy Festival. Mark was also named Esquire’s “Best New Comedians 2012”, Splitsider’s “Top 10 Up and Coming Comedians on Each Coast”, and Time Out New York’s “21 New York Comedy Scene Linchpins”.
This Week’s Special Guest:
Ms. Pat: Declared by The Washington Post as “unforgiving and darkly hilarious,” and The New York Times as “brutally honest and outrageous,” Patricia Williams (aka Ms. Pat) is a comedian, author, radio host, podcaster, and actress who brings a raw, in your face, and hilarious perspective to her work. With an Emmy-nominated multi-cam series based on her own life, an overall deal with BET/Paramount Global, her popular first Netflix hour streaming, and sold-out standup shows nationwide, Ms. Pat is headed for comedy superstardom.
On August 11, 2022, Pat’s multi-cam sitcom The Ms. Pat Show premiered its second season on BET+, with a third season already ordered. Season 1 of the series garnered a 2022 Emmy nomination in the “Outstanding Direction For A Comedy Series” category for the episode where Pat confronts the man who sexually and domestically abused her as a teenager. The premiere of the series shattered records for viewing and audience engagement on the BET+ platform and almost crashed the app. Decider raved “The Ms. Pat Show is bound to be one of the year’s notable new comedies” and Essence Magazine gushed “Ms. Pat is headed for the comedy stratosphere.” Hollywood legends Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment are producing the series along with powerhouse producer Lee Daniels. Based on her own life, the show tells the story of a former convicted felon turned suburban mom (Ms. Pat), whose hustle and resilient spirit was forged on the streets of Atlanta. To much reserve, she and her family now find themselves in conservative middle America. Iconic TV producer Norman Lear loved the pilot episode so much that he reached out to Pat personally to meet with her.
BET/Paramount Global also just signed Pat to a multi-genre overall deal under which she will produce, write and perform in new series and other projects—both scripted and unscripted— across BET linear, BET+, and Paramount Global platforms. Via her namesake production banner, Williams aims to create content both on-screen and behind the camera that inspires conversation through humor and raw honesty.
In September 2021, Pat returned to her hometown of Atlanta to tape her first hour standup special, Y’All Wanna Hear Something Crazy?, which premiered on Netflix February 8th, 2022. She also currently serves co-host of the long-running popular morning radio show The Morning Culture with Big Tigger on V103.5 in Atlanta, GA. In 2017, she published her memoir Rabbit with Harper Collins. The book chronicled her incredible and moving story: by the age of 15, and known by her street name “Rabbit,” Pat was a single mother of two selling crack in the inner city of Atlanta. At 19, with two toddlers and a new husband, she was handed 4 more young children from her sister who was struggling with drug addiction. With her husband’s help and encouragement, she finally decided to get on the straight and narrow, and on the encouragement of her case-worker, she went to her first open-mic. From the moment she stepped on stage she knew she had found her place. Rabbit was nominated for an NAACP Award for Outstanding Literary Work and Rotten Tomatoes included it on their list of “Books Becoming TV Series We Cannot Wait to See.” Publishers Weekly raved “Williams displays self-deprecating humor in her book’s dramatic moments, and she bares her soul throughout this inspiring, page-turning narrative” while USA Today gushed “Somehow she’s managed to pull hilarity out of heartache. And when you are done laughing, you rejoice, her final words ringing in your ears.”
In addition to her other projects, Ms. Pat has long been a favorite with standup critics and fans. In 2019 she was hailed by Variety as a “Top 10 Comic to Watch.” She has appeared on Netflix’s The Degenerates and Larry Charles’ Dangerous World of Comedy, Comedy Central’s This Is Not Happening, NBC’s Last Comic Standing, and Nickelodeon’s Mom’s Night Out.
In addition to her standup and TV projects, Pat currently serves as co-host of the long-running beloved morning radio show The Morning Culture with Big Tigger on V103.5 in Atlanta, GA. She also hosts her own popular podcast The Patdown. Pat is a regular on iHeart Radio’s wildly popular national morning show The Breakfast Club, and she has become a podcast celebrity with multiple appearances on WTF with Marc Maron, The Joe Rogan Experience, and The Bertcast with Bert Kreischer.
