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As the executive director of a butterfly sanctuary, one might think that Marianna Trevino-Wright’s days are filled with peace and tranquility. And perhaps that was the case until she made an enemy of Donald Trump when she protested the former administration’s plans to bulldoze right through her property with their long-promised border wall. Now, dealing with MAGA die-hards and QAnon-like conspiracy theorists is all in a day’s work.

As the Daily Beast reports, Wright is the executive director of the National Butterfly Center in the border city of Mission, Texas. Though firmly planted in the United States, this wildlife sanctuary became the topic of much debate during Trump’s days in office, as his proposed border wall would have bisected the 100-acre property. After filing a restraining order against the project in 2019, Wright and the Butterfly Center have become a favorite target for harassment by far-right groups like Brian Kolfage’s “We Build the Wall” campaign. Though Kolfage was permanently suspended from Twitter a while back, he at one point sent more than two dozen tweets disparaging the sanctuary, which he claimed “openly supports illegal immigration and sex trafficking of women and children.”

In the years since, Wright has unfortunately grown accustomed to unwanted visits from people like Kimberly Lowe, a conspiracy theory-abiding congressional candidate from Virginia, who the Daily Beast reports showed attempted to push her way onto Wright’s private property last week so that she and a woman identified only as “Michelle” could go see the “illegals crossing on rafts.”

The women tried to bypass Wright’s son to force their way onto the property, which is when Wright got a call about the visitors. When Wright herself confronted the women, telling them that “You are here to promote your agenda, and your agenda is not welcome here,” what transpired was… bizarre.

Lowe, who had been broadcasting their visit to the facility in now-deleted Facebook Live videos, asked Wright: “So you’re not for helping all these poor people in the humanitarian crisis? You’re OK with children being sex trafficked and raped and murdered.” When Wright again informed the pair that they were trespassing on private property and asked them to leave, “Michelle”—like something out of a terrible Bond spec script no one asked for—tells Wright that “I’m federal—I work for Secret Service, so nothing is off-limit for me.”

Wright could not help but laugh at this, and who can blame her?

The Daily Beast obtained a copy of the increasingly unhinged audio, which you can listen to here.

Meanwhile, Wright and her colleagues have decided to close the Butterfly Center from today through Sunday due to a credible threat against the center because of a We Stand America event that is intent on taking a field trip to the border. Wright was advised that “she should be armed at all times or out of town” as the events on the group’s agenda include “a ‘Trump Train’-style caravan to the border.”

Butterfly sanctuaries are the new pizza parlors.

(Via Daily Beast)

What do you think the biggest, richest rappers on the planet do with their spare time? For Drake, this past Thursday was video roulette night. Doesn’t sound all that exciting, right? Well, maybe if you were putting down over $200,000 on a single spin, then it could be really exciting. That’s exactly what Drake did and he took video of himself winning a very improbable bet.

With a $215,000 bet down (to be exact), Drake was sitting at his kitchen table, hookah by his side. The man loves roulette and even has a $620,000 roulette watch. “I guarantee you it’s a repeat eight,” he says while staring at the live Roulette app on his screen. “I guarantee it. I feel it.” The ball goes around and sure enough, it lands on the eight. Drake flies up from his seat yelling “What did I say?! What did I f*cking say?!” And then promptly sits back down to play again. What a life.

But how much did he really win? A single bet of $215,000 on the eight would pay out 35 to 1. $7.525 million would be the payout there. But that’s not how anyone plays roulette. Not even Drake. You spread the odds and put smaller amounts on single numbers and groups of numbers to balance out your winnings and limit your potential losses. A popular way to bet is to put the bulk of your chips on either red or black, which gives you close to a 50/50 split on wherever the ball lands. (“Always bet on Black,” Wesley Snipes famously said in Passenger 57.)

For context, another clip on Twitter shows Drake placing another $215,000 bet (gotta be his go-to figure) where, despite not hitting the single number he called out, the screen flashes with “you win $354,000,” as “PAMI” by DJ Tunez, WizKid, Adekunle Gold, and Omah Lay blasts in the background.

Whatever the payout on the “repeat eight” bet was, Drake’s screen also shows that he had over $2.8 million in the bank at that point in the evening. So this second spin probably came after hitting the eight. Again, what a life.

The New York Liberty faced pressure from the moment the franchise won the WNBA Draft Lottery in 2019. Finally out from under the weight of James Dolan’s ownership after being purchased by Nets governor Joe Tsai, the ping-pong balls determined that the Liberty would have the chance to draft Sabrina Ionescu, one of the most famous and exciting prospects ever to come out of college, the following spring. A new era had begun.

Ionescu represented hope for a franchise that Dolan had publicly complained about owning, then moved out of the five boroughs. Before she even played a WNBA game, Ionescu was one of the most famous basketball players on the planet, a voice for the sport, and a thrilling talent.

Unfortunately, Ionescu suffered an ankle injury three games into the WNBA Bubble season, creating something of a lost year for both her and the Liberty, which went 2-20 in Bradenton. Still, New York pushed ahead in its quick rebuild, adding star free agents Betnijah Laney and Natasha Howard ahead of the 2021 campaign. This allowed them to sneak into the playoffs for the first time since 2017 despite Ionescu still acclimating to the WNBA for much of the season.

Laney turned in her first All-Star season and became the top option on the team with a physical, slashing style that made her difficult to contain with one defender. At the same time, Howard made good on the claims she made when she was signed by New York, upping her scoring production while remaining efficient before getting injured midway through the year.

Ionescu was tied for third on the team in scoring behind Laney and Howard, posted a subpar 47.0 effective field goal percentage, and turned the ball over on nearly a quarter of her possessions. New York’s offensive rating was one of the worst in the WNBA and was only slightly better when Ionescu was on the court. Late in the season, however, Ionescu started to come on, becoming an engine for New York in tight games as the Liberty powered to a 9-8 record in games that were within five points in the final five minutes. Ionescu closed the season with 11 straight double-digit scoring games, including 22 points and nine assists in a must-win matchup with Washington in the final game.

In a one-point loss to Phoenix in the first round, Ionescu put up 14 points, 11 assists, and five rebounds while Laney went off for 25 points while playing nearly every minute of the game. Howard was back and healthy in time for the game as well, pitching in a double-double with an assist and a block, and the promise of the Liberty core showed itself again. Fully healthy, their stars rose to the occasion and nearly knocked off a Phoenix team that would end up in the WNBA Finals.

All that does is add to the pressure coming into 2022. Entering her third season, Ionescu has yet to fully make good on the promise she had coming out of Oregon, when Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb called her a “generational player” and Oregon head coach Kelly Graves called her a “transcendent basketball player.” Ionescu was a nightly triple-double threat in the Pac-12. As a pro, she has been mistake-prone and inconsistent. Even in 2021, with star talent around her like she had in Eugene, Ionescu did not consistently raise the level of her teammates or control games like she was expected to do when she was the No. 1 overall pick in 2020.

There are reasons for Ionescu’s rather slow start to her WNBA career. After playing 35-plus games per season at Oregon, Ionescu has played just 33 total since being drafted in April 2020. She also has not yet traveled overseas to play during the WNBA offseason nor has she yet been invited to join Team USA for international competition, creating a vacuum of competitive basketball for Ionescu outside of the WNBA summer. The Grade 3 ankle sprain in the Wubble ended up requiring surgery in November 2020, and Ionescu was still rehabbing the injury into the start of 2021, both taking away the experience of her rookie year and her first full offseason to put in work.

Other recent top picks hailed as generational such as A’ja Wilson or Breanna Stewart had made Finals appearances and won MVPs by the end of their rookie contracts. The WNBA is unrelenting. The league’s limited size, increased player movement, and short season creates a huge gap between contenders and lower-level playoff teams. Eight of 12 teams make the postseason, which means a playoff appearance can have the dual effect of inflating the achievements of teams and players but also intensify the pressure on them to make a deeper run the next season.

That pressure has seemed to drive decisions this offseason for New York. They moved on from head coach Walt Hopkins after two seasons as his five-out system failed to generate elite offense, hiring Sandy Brondello — one of the most accomplished coaches in WNBA history — away from Phoenix. And already, they have reportedly met with two-time Finals MVP Stewart and reigning WNBA champion Stefanie Dolson to fill out the frontcourt and take the team over the top. The Liberty are +2200 to win the title, and Ionescu is +2000 to win MVP, but New York is handling its business like a team ready to make a big leap.

Unless they land a Hall of Fame talent like Stewart (which would require some salary cap creativity), the Liberty will likely go as far as Ionescu can take them. The rest of the roster met or exceeded expectations in 2021, and still they were several games below .500. A big guard who can rain in pull-up threes, create consistently out of the pick and roll, and handle multiple assignments on defense is theoretically a game-breaker in today’s WNBA. Ionescu has rarely been that across two WNBA seasons, but getting a full offseason while healthy after finally seeing what WNBA basketball is like on a nightly basis will give her a chance to build on last year.

Elite players usually find a way to rise to the top. New York drafted Ionescu to be one, and built a team under the assumption that she is an All-WNBA level offensive engine. With an accomplished new coach, a deeper set of teammates, and a clear hunger for more from ownership in free agency, the table is set for Ionescu to make 2022 her breakout year.

If she does, the Liberty could indeed make the leap from an outside playoff team to a true contender. New York could finally return to the sustained excellence it enjoyed under Teresa Weatherspoon, Becky Hammon, and Tina Charles throughout franchise history. Under Tsai, the team’s investment, visibility, and star power have been among the best in the WNBA. Now’s the time for the winning to follow, and Ionescu will be expected to take on that pressure and make good on the promise of her college superstardom.

Miami isn’t a hidden gem or secret travel hub. It’s one of the best-known, most populous party cities in the United States. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go. Miami is awesome. Go a lot. Go bi-monthly. Move there.

Charly Jordan — DJ, model, and style entrepreneur — is a Miami regular who’s learned the ins and outs of the city’s scene. She’s DJed at Miami’s hottest nightclubs and most exclusive events (including Scott Disick’s “Boat To Basel” party during Art Basel 2021) and had more than enough adventures to call herself a Miami expert. In preparation for her new single, “Innerbloom,” (debuting today, January 28th, on Spotify and Apple Music) Jordan has been playing the city often and cultivating a vibe in the rooms she plays.

“My goal is to influence positive change in the way people perceive mental health and success,” says Jordan. “I believe success is not just being monetarily successful, but living a rich and full life as well while helping others around you. Be the energy that fills a room, not takes away from it.”

The DJ — a longtime friend of Uproxx — certainly brings energy to the room when she hits the stage in Miami. So we asked her to share a guide to the best places to explore and party in from South Beach to the Keys to Wynwood.

WHY MIAMI?

I’ve had the pleasure of playing many shows in Miami over the past year and I’ve really grown to love it. It can be a bit difficult to enter the city if it’s your first time not knowing anybody, but as soon as you find your niche and your crowd there are endless possibilities. I’ve never seen boat life quite as active as I’ve seen in Miami. There are full-blown yacht parties, speed boats, deep-sea fishing, and the late-night boat rides through the Miami River are pretty magical.

What’s one thing that every first-time visitor should see or do in Miami?

If you’re a first-time visitor in Miami and you love food, which who doesn’t, Mila is one of the best dinner spots to go to. As well as taking a stroll along ocean drive in South Beach during the day, where you’ll see endless restaurants and stores right next to the white sand beach.

Miami Beach is a classic, but I also love hotel hopping in South Beach and hitting the different restaurants and bars that overlook the water.

Best way to take in the iconic art scene of Miami?

The best way to take in the art scene in Miami is honestly just by paying attention because I feel like the art is everywhere. Obviously, there are more specific areas that are filled with art like Wynwood, where you can hardly turn a corner without seeing graffiti on the wall neighboring a hole-in-the-wall restaurant. But you’ll see sculptures all throughout Miami, even in many of the apartment buildings.

Best nightclub for a late night out in the city?

Since I DJ, I would consider myself a sort of connoisseur of nightclubs, given that I’ve been to so many. You won’t really experience anything better than E11even Miami. One of the only of its kind, a hybrid nightclub and strip club that serves food and also has massive artists perform like Migos, Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion, and many more (including myself lol). I’ve performed at E11even a couple of times, so not only is it one of my favorite clubs to go to but they’ve become a family to me.

Make sure if you go to E11even you order the chicken sandwiches because there’s nothing that beats them.

Coolest hotel or place to stay in Miami?

I like hotels that have a lot of amenities and typically when I go to Miami my personal favorite hotel to stay at is the Mondrian. It has the perfect view of the ocean, it’s in the city, has a perfect assortment of food at their downstairs restaurant, and a great bar as well.

If you’re looking for more of a family resort vibe, Loews Miami Beach Hotel is perfect.

Best time of year to visit Miami?

The best time of year to visit Miami is definitely during the summer, but the weather doesn’t change that much there honestly so it’s pretty much a good time to go year-round. Basically what I’m saying is there’s no excuse to not go to Miami.

Anything else you’d like to add about Miami:

10/10 would recommend taking a boat out into the keys or even to the Bahamas since it’s so close to Miami. There are many sunken ships, planes, and underwater statues with an abundance of wildlife like dolphins, huge schools of various fish, jellyfish, and sharks. Miami’s endless, as long as you know the right people and know where to go. I typically play at E11even Miami and Daer in Fort Lauderdale so if you’re ever out there make sure you catch me at a show or check out my upcoming tour with Cheat Codes.

You can cross the Sacramento Kings off of the list of teams that are trying to bring Ben Simmons on board before the NBA trade deadline. According to a report by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Sacramento has made the decision to stop its pursuit of Simmons for now and turn its attention to trying to find a deal elsewhere in the trade market.

The hang up, Wojnarowski reports, is that the Kings simply do not believe that the Sixers have an asking price in a Simmons deal that they can meet.

Sacramento has been mentioned as a potential landing spot for Simmons for some time, with previous reports indicating that the teams held very preliminary talks regarding a move that would send De’Aaron Fox to Philly. That, however, never really got off the ground, and while he recently admitted that he could see a path forward that would involve a deal with the Kings, Sixers executive Daryl Morey made clear that it’s more unlikely than likely that Simmons isn’t moved by the trade deadline on Feb. 10.

Despite this, it does not sound like Sacramento — which sits 18-32, 13th place in the Western Conference, and needs to make up a three-game gap to get the 10-seed and a berth in the play-in tournament — is willing to sit back and roll into the second half of the season with this group. According to Wojnarowski, the team’s front office is “determined to reshape their roster and remain engaged on several other fronts.”

Dry January is almost over. That begs the question: Which cocktail are you going to drink to break the streak? I have an answer: The Amaretto sour. It’s the sweet and nutty, bourbon-filled citrus bomb with a silky mouthfeel that’ll help you ease back into cocktails again (if you’ve actually taken part in Dry January, that is).

Just to be clear, I’m not talking about a low-alcohol cocktail here. The Amaretto sour is a full-on shaker that’s full of almond liqueur and high-proof bourbon. This has a good kick hidden underneath layers of egg white and citrus with a touch of sweetness. All of those layers make this both complex and easy to sip, while still holding onto a wintry vibe (mostly thanks to Amaretto having a marzipan feel to it).

Moreover, perfecting this cocktail will give you a chance to dial in those shaking skills. You’re going to need to give this a dry shake before you add ice. You also need to pour this out well, so that the layer of citrus-infused egg white foam builds on the top of this cocktail. But don’t worry, it’s still fast, fun, and easy to make.

Let’s get shaking!

Also Read: The Top Five Cocktail Recipes of 2021

• The Long Island Iced Tea Is Our Official Cocktail Of Summer 2021 — Here’s A Classic Recipe
• The Whiskey Smash Is A Summertime Dream — Here’s How To Make It
• It’s Time You Learn To Make A Real Old Fashioned — Here’s Our Recipe
• Here’s The Iconic Sazerac Recipe From Mads Mikkelsen’s Oscar-Winning ‘Another Round’
• The Black Manhattan Is Our 2021 Thanksgiving Cocktail, Here’s The Recipe

Amaretto Sour

Ingredients:

• 1.5 oz. Amaretto
• 1 oz. high-proof bourbon
• 1 oz. fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 barspoon simple syrup
• 1 medium egg white
• Lemon peel
• Amarena cherries
• Ice

There’s no getting around the Amaretto in this cocktail. The Italian liqueur — made from almonds and apricot pits — is readily available in any liquor store, with Disaronno being the most recognizable brand.

As for the high-proof bourbon, I’m using one of my favorite cocktail bases, Elijah Craig Barrel Proof (at over 60 percent ABV). This bourbon really stands up well to everything that’s going on in the cocktail from lemon to the almond.

The rest is pretty easily to find at a grocery store. Just make sure your lemons and eggs are fresh.

What You’ll Need:

• Rocks glass
• Cocktail shaker
• Cocktail strainer
• Pairing knife
• Barspoon
• Jigger
• Cocktail stick

Method:

• Fill the rocks glass with ice, set aside.
• Add the Amaretto, bourbon, lemon juice, simple, and egg white to a cocktail shaker. Affix the lid and shake without ice for 15 seconds.
• Pop the lid and add fresh ice to the shaker (filling it about 1/2 way), reaffix the lid, and shake for another 15 seconds or until the shaker is frosted over and ice-cold to touch. Don’t go easy while shaking, you really want to build up that foam.
• Pop the lid and strain the cocktail into the waiting rocks glass with fresh ice. You’ll need to really shake out the foam as you strain. So take your time and make sure you get out as much as you can.
• Peel a thin stripe of lemon peel and twist it over the cocktail, making a twirled pigtail.
• Spear two cherries and garnish the glass with the cherries and lemon peel. Serve.

Bottom Line:

I sighed when I took a sip of this. It’s just great — so refreshing while still having serious depth.

I’m also a sucker for rich and decadent marzipan (Niedderegger is my go-to), so this really hit me in the feels. The bourbon shined through and created a nice whiskey sour base that’s bolstered by the Amaretto’s almond.

The soft silkiness of the egg white is what really helps this cocktail rise to the top, though — it’s like drinking velvet. In fact, I might have to shake up one more of these tonight.

By this time next week, Jackass Forever will finally — FINALLY — be in movie theaters, and all will be right in the world. Well, maybe not “all,” but it’s undeniable that the world is a better place with more Jackass in it. Go ahead, try to deny it. See? You can’t.

Ahead of the release of the fourth film in the Oscar-snubbed series, Johnny Knoxville & Co. sat down with MTV to discuss the classic Jackass stunt, “The Goldfish.” In case you’re unfamiliar, it involves Steve-O swallowing a goldfish and puking it back into a bowl (the little guy survived). Steve-O called it “an idea that I saved for a special occasion. I thought it was going to be a real banger.” He wasn’t wrong: “I’ll never forget after this,” Knoxville said, ‘Well Steve-O, if you’re not already famous, you’re gonna be now.’”

MTV should release All-22 versions of old Jackass episodes. It’s the only way to appreciate the attention to detail that goes into Steve-O vomiting a fish.

Jackass Forever, which stars Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Dave England, Wee Man, Danger Ehren, and Preston Lacy, as well as newcomers Sean “Poopies” McInerney, Zach Holmes, Eric Manaka, Jasper, and Rachel Wolfson, opens on Feb. 4.

Not only is Rihanna is a talented singer, humanitarian, and a national hero in her native Barbados, she’s also an incredibly savvy entrepreneur who has just raised a lot more money for one of her ventures. Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty lingerie brand — which emphasizes inclusivity, body positivity, and confidence — just raised $125 million in their Series C round of investing.

This comes shortly after Savage X Fenty opened its first retail location this month, at the Fashion Show Mall on the Las Vegas strip. As Forbes reports, opening physical locations is the big push in 2022 for the surging company, which plans to open four more stores in the first quarter of 2022, “in Culver City in Los Angeles (where the company is based), followed by the Galleria Mall in Houston, the King of Prussia Mall outside Philadelphia and Pentagon City’s Fashion Centre in Arlington, Virginia.”

This new round of funding was led by Neuberger Berman, but there were a number of other private investors in the mix as well, including Jay-Z’s Marcy Venture Partners VC firm. Savage X Fenty has now raised a total of $310 million in capital. Rihanna, meanwhile, has a reported net worth of over $1.7 billion (well over $1 billion of which comes from here Fenty Beauty cosmetics line), second only to Oprah as the wealthiest female in the entertainment industry.

“Let’s talk about the good stuff while really confronting the bad stuff,” says W. Kamau Bell at the start of a long conversation about his new docuseries, We Need To Talk About Cosby (which premieres Sunday on Showtime). He’s speaking to his approach on the series in response to me telling him about my initial hesitancy to watch and cover such heavy and upsetting subject matter. It’s an unusual lead-in for an interview, but an honest feeling that Bell knows a lot of people may have. It’s something he needed to confront going into this project – the need to bring in a broader audience that might not always watch something like this.

It’s fair to say that if you’re reading this, you know that former TV icon and “America’s Dad” Bill Cosby was accused of sexual assault by more than 60 women and convicted on three counts of aggravated indecent assault in 2018. You also know that that conviction was overturned on a procedural matter and that Cosby is out of jail now (and criticizing Bell’s docuseries). That was the self-imposed limit of my understanding of all of this going in, but stopping at the basics can undercut the impact. In the theater of public opinion, it turns these women into a kind of monolith and it simplifies Cosby’s heel turn for mass consumption; especially to a younger generation that didn’t experience him at the height of his fame and influence.

To counter that thought, you might say that we as a society spend too much exploring the nuances of our villains and monsters thanks to cable news and flowery profiles of Nazis and anti-vax profiteers. But this isn’t that. Sure, we see come of Cosby’s good deeds with regard to representation on-screen and behind the scenes from earlier in his life, but that’s a part of an overall package that, if I can editorialize, pushes back on our latent need for hero worship while serving as an important reminder that villains and monsters don’t always put up billboards heralding their bad intentions or let you in on their darkest secrets. Most importantly, however, this is a series that makes a concerted effort to have victims be heard, and not just with regard to where their lives and dreams collided with Bill Cosby.

Uproxx spoke with Bell about all of this, the wall of silence in comedy culture, the difference between consequences and cancellation, and whether Bell would watch a Cosby comedy special again.

What was your own relationship to Bill Cosby’s works prior to the allegations and everything that followed?

I feel like I was like many Black kids in America. Because I was born in the early ’70s, I grew up [with] Fat Albert And The Cosby Kids as just another Saturday morning cartoon. But it was the one that had Black people on it and it was majorly Black. So that was right up there to me with Super Friends. [Laughs] Bill Cosby was just the host of the show, I had no idea it was his show, I had no idea he did so many of the voices. But that show was the Trojan horse that said, “Bill Cosby is somebody you should pay attention to.” And that show was filled with moral messages, so my mom of course supported it and she also knew Cosby from I Spy and the comedy albums.

When I was a young kid who was starting to like standup comedy and I saw Bill Cosby himself, I was like, “This is better than the other standup comedy I’ve seen. This is a step ahead of that stuff.” Just by the nature of the fact that he was sitting down and nobody else was sitting down. Then The Cosby Show hit. So I would have been president of the Bill Cosby Fan Club at 11-years-old if that was a thing. That show, as we talk about in the docuseries, I don’t think we had the words at the time, but for Black folks, it was a half-hour break from the horrors of America that also celebrated Black excellence before we had really coined that phrase. Black excellence. Also, the fact that White people liked it just made it easier for us to watch it. [Laughs] So it didn’t feel like something we couldn’t discuss or couldn’t talk about. It was like, “Oh, he’s America’s Dad, sure. He’s America’s Dad, but he’s ours.”

What was the biggest surprise for you going through this process?

I knew this was a thorny conversation, but it was only after we started asking people and so many people said no that I started to realize how thorny the conversation was. It occurred to me, “Oh, I may have made a mistake. I may have made a mistake in getting involved in this.”

When people are saying no to you do you perceive that to be column A, they just don’t want to talk about it, or column B, they’re still afraid of the influence and power he has in general, even from prison at that time?

I think there’s a column A, a column B, a column C, a column D, a column E, there are so many reasons that people can name for reasons why not to do it. One, there is, “even if I’ve been public about my belief, my support for these women, there’s no percentage in being public about it again, because it just stirs up a hornet’s nest with my own fandom.” So it’s like no reason to turn to kick this log over again. Because at the time, Cosby was in prison, so it felt like, “He’s done, why would I kick this log over?”

For many people, I think, I’m not known to be a documentary filmmaker, so maybe they’re like, “I don’t know that you would do a good job with this.” I think there’s also the side of it that is like, “I’ve said my piece and I really don’t want to have to fight the masses if I say my piece again.” Then there is a sense of, like we say in the film, especially people said no before he got out of prison, and then I think when he got out of prison they were like, “Oh, thank God I said no.” Because now it feels like this is active again, he’s talking about going on tour. He is such a divisive figure, specifically in the Black community still, that if you can just avoid talking about it, why not just avoid talking about it?

Jumping back, in terms of surprises, what was the biggest surprise you encountered in going through this and in talking to people? Not just what people were revealing, but how it impacted you.

I believed the survivors before I started this work, but to really sit down and talk with them, and these conversations, many of them were more than two hours… and to hear their whole stories outside of even their relationship, outside to whatever happened in their relationship or that night with Bill Cosby for some of them, or that event with Bill Cosby… to sit down and talk, I was nervous the first time I sat down and talked with them. Victoria Valentino was the first survivor I talked to. And she was so full of light and love and joy and so happy to be there. I found out so many of the survivors knew my work, which is why they came, because they were like, “I trust you to handle this.”

I think we have an image of this as being, and I don’t use this word regularly, but I’m saying I think there are people who have an image of this, even people who maybe believe them, as 60 groupies who were waiting backstage after the show to meet Bill Cosby. So in some sense, [these people are saying] even if it’s bad that he assaulted or raped them, that that’s what they were there for. When you sit down with these women and hear their life stories, which I did for most of them, you realize that so many of these women were living their lives, going about their business and he stepped in front of them and said, “Come with me.”

One thing that I found most shocking was just how many times throughout the course of the last 40 years, 50 years, he told on himself… with the barbecue sauce thing and the Cosby Show or the Larry King interview. I’m sorry, this is a long-winded question, but then we get to a point with Hannibal on stage and everything breaks out, but there were whispers for a while. In your opinion, why did it take so long for the light to flash?

I think this is what we were really trying to make clear with the series is that this is all bigger than Bill Cosby. So America, and I think I say something to this effect, America has a history and a present, but let’s focus on the history of not taking women’s stories of being sexually assaulted and raped seriously.

And dismissing them in every way, trying to find ways, like you were saying before, they get put into a box, all his “groupies,” that’s what the culture does and it’s astonishing.

Yeah, and it’s pervasive through the culture throughout the history of this country, so it’s not like we ever did a better job of it in history, we’ve only done slightly better jobs maybe as we’ve moved along. So I think Bill Cosby’s operating within that, Mo Ryan says that, he’s operating in this blind spot where women come forward, get blamed and shamed, as Lili Bernard says, and then other women see that happen to a woman, then they don’t come forward and then we blame them for not coming forward.

In 2004, when Andrea Constand’s case is happening, there’s no social media, the internet is a thing but it’s nowhere near what it is now. So Bill Cosby’s able to have siloed information. If you’re not watching the evening news about Andrea Constand, you don’t know that story. If you only are watching late-night talk shows and you see him come on to promote something, you’re just like, “Yay, Bill Cosby.” We didn’t all have easy access to the same information, whereas now we have access to more information than you want. Now, all the streams are crossing, and then you have somebody like Hannibal Buress, who very much accidentally forced us to reckon with this.

Did you reach out to Hannibal to be in the doc?

Yes, yes, I did. I don’t blame… I want to be clear, Hannibal’s a friend of mine and I hope he feels that we did okay by him in this because I really worked on that section hard, but that wasn’t a plan he executed. I think some people think it was a plan he executed… [Laughs] Like, “I’m going to go to Philadelphia, I’m going to do a joke that is half-written, I’m going to set somebody in the back with a really bad cellphone camera…” If you know Hannibal’s life and career, he had no interest in being a part of that. I can’t speak for him, but I just know that… So I think he’s had to reckon with it, and I hope he doesn’t feel like he has to reckon with it unnecessarily here, but it is a thing that I don’t think he feels like, “This is not something I was trying to do.” I think the other thing, he’s not trying to make a name off of this, which I think some performers might.

That is a question though, in general, the idea of reckoning with it, the idea of comedy culture in general and whether there’s a wall of silence with some of this stuff. Thoughts on that?

In my years as a touring standup comic, here’s what has never happened. “Welcome to the club, before you come inside, you need to sign this paperwork about sexual assault and harassment. Also, the HR department is over here, so if you have any problems, you can go over there. Also, just so you know, that’s where the other people will go and they can tell stories or have anonymous tips about things that are going wrong here.” There’s no HR department in standup comedy clubs, not in the time I was in one. The fact is that, I’m a part of this too, the reason why we get into it is because we like to stay up late and have a good time, and sometimes that involves substances, alcohol, legal and illegal substances. So it creates a clubhouse playground mentality that is not conducive to lots of good things. It’s conducive to good comedy maybe, but it’s not conducive to safety. Yeah, I’ll just leave it at that. It’s not conducive to safety. And show business is the same. There’s more money on the table, but showbiz, when they built showbiz back in the day, when they built Hollywood, they didn’t start with the HR department. The HR department came a lot later and still, it is not something that is clear enough about, “Here’s what we’re here to do and here’s what here not to do.” In my opinion.

You mentioned Cosby getting out of prison and feeling like it’s an active situation again. Cancel Culture is the label that gets used so, so much. Thoughts on that? Because I’ll preface this by saying Louis CK just got a Grammy nomination, people who get “canceled” complain about being canceled to their three million followers on Twitter or in a special.

I think we’ve seen it happen, whatever this thing called Cancel Culture is, it has become a career move for people. [Laughs] It has become a thing where if you get canceled, you’ll get a new audience. If you get canceled, you’ll be able to move to a new platform where they want the canceled people. Cancel culture is just another tool in people’s, “How do I get an audience?” arsenal. Well, you need a graphic designer and you need a good website and you need to get canceled. So I think there are certainly people who have… I just saw yesterday, I was reading an article about Kathy Griffin, and that’s an example of like, she’s materially been affected by the things she did — that’s 100% true — but I think sometimes, and I’m not really commenting on the Kathy Griffin situation, but we’re really getting confused between cancel culture and consequences sometimes. And also, how you recover from the consequences. And certainly, Kathy Griffin as a woman is in a very different position than a lot of male performers who are doing things that are way worse than what she did but manage to somehow come back.

If Bill Cosby did a standup special, would you watch it?

[Laughs] I just froze like a computer. Here’s the thing, I regularly watch things I don’t agree with, just to know what’s going on. So I regularly engage with material, and this is part of my job too, I have to. But I regularly go, “I just want to see what’s happening.” Also, I think I would have to watch it because I would be asked about it. Now, am I going to support his tour? Am I buying the T-shirt? No, I’m not doing any of that stuff, but I do think that a part of this thing for me is actually investigation and reckoning and also being able to have the conversation. But saying all that, I don’t begrudge anybody. I think I’m watching it for different reasons. I’m not sitting down to watch that special to go, “Ah, new comedy from Bill Cosby.” I’m sitting down to watch it and go, “What is he doing?”

I can’t even imagine the moral panic it would set off if I was watching a Bill Cosby special and he said something that caught me and I laughed. I can’t even imagine.

I mean, through this whole process, we had these Zooms, again because of COVID, and we had producers and editors and associate editors say, “I watched this stuff, I watched this or I listened to his standup and I find myself laughing and then I catch myself, why am I laughing?” That’s where the whole conversation is for me, how do we reckon with this? Because some people can, but you can’t just turn off what makes you laugh. If it makes you laugh, it makes you laugh. But then you can go, “Why am I laughing? What does it mean about me that I’m laughing? Is it okay that I’m laughing?” These are all the kinds of questions I feel like a lot of people don’t want to ask.

‘We Need To Talk About Cosby’ premieres Sunday on Showtime

Polo G’s Hall Of Fame is nearly nine months in the rearview, but that hasn’t stopped the Chicago product from continuing to release new content in support of the album. The latest is the video for the Moneybagg Yo collaboration “Start Up Again,” which finds the two rappers posted up in a gentlemen’s club hosting an NSFW twerk-off under the black lights as they throw cash and boast their prowess in both reciting their raps and getting derrieres to clap.

Polo’s nonstop support of his 2021 album has included videos for “Unapologetic,” “Heating Up,” “Fortnight,” and “Young N Dumb,” which all appeared on the updated deluxe edition of the album, Hall Of Fame 2.0. Polo’s relentless promotion paid off early as the original version debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, becoming his first album to do so. The deluxe edition, which was released in October, featured 14 new songs, including collaborations with Lil Baby, Lil Tjay, and NLE Choppa.

Meanwhile, Moneybagg Yo had a similarly successful 2021, dropping his own No.1 album, A Gangsta’s Pain. Moneybagg’s chart-topper was so successful that it actually returned to the top spot, producing a hit record with “Wockesha” and earning him a spot on Kanye’s upcoming Donda 2.

Watch the video for “Start Up Again” above.