‘Confess, Fletch’ star Roy Wood Jr. says ‘The Daily Show’ changed his comedy

Since 2015, when Roy Wood Jr. became a correspondent for “The Daily Show,” he has made a name for himself with offbeat but sharply observed political and social commentary, both on the show and in his specials, “Father Figure, “No One Loves You” and “Imperfect Messenger.” 

But now Wood is moving in a different direction, or rather, he’s moving in several different directions at once. While he’s still reporting on the state of the nation for “The Daily Show,” he is moving increasingly into acting. 

Wood, who started out in standup and radio, had his first acting break on the sitcom “Sullivan & Son” before landing “The Daily Show.” He says the chaos of the Donald Trump years left little time for outside projects. But since 2020 he has had small parts on “Better Call Saul,” “Space Force,” “Only Murders in the Building” and “Flatbush Misdemeanors” and he’s now taking the leap to movies with a larger role in “Confess, Fletch” as a detective fixated on Jon Hamm’s protagonist as a possible murder suspect. 

He’s also developing a comedy with Denis Leary for Fox about the National Guard, which he’ll star in; and he’s executive producing a medical drama for NBC about a Black woman doctor coming back to Harlem to take over her family’s practice. “She’s an extremely skilled doctor in an underfunded local clinic,” he says, “if you put House in the hood, with none of the resources, how would he help people?”

Wood is also taking his live act down new paths — this summer he hosted a show called “Tribulations,” which invited audience members to anonymously share their troubles. He and other comedians would riff about those issues but Wood also brought a therapist onstage to discuss the topics in a serious way. 

Recently, Wood spoke by phone about his stand-up, his acting and his own tribulations.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q. How much influence did your parents have on your worldview and career path?

My father was a big-time civil rights journalist — everything that happened during the movement he was there with a tape recorder, trying to get the truth. My mother took part in a lot of protests and was in the first integrating class at Delta State University in Mississippi and got arrested for doing so. She also spent 40 years of her life working in higher education, 30 years at a Black college. Their care and concern about the next generation of young Black people, that’s where I’m from. 

I definitely want the truth but I’m just seeking funnier ways to do it than embedding myself with Black platoons in Vietnam like my Dad. 

Q. How much were you shaped by years on the road doing stand-up in small towns and cities, especially considering the racism you often faced out there? 

A road comedian has an advantage over a New York and L.A. comedian because you see who it is that your product will eventually reach — you’re closer to your constituency and it gives you an idea of their sensibility and why they feel what they feel and think what they think. It made me a more well-rounded comic when I got to the coast. In all of those weird outposts and armpits, I still found good, decent people. It gave me an opportunity to see the chances for redemption in these places

Q. In “Confess, Fletch,” Jon Hamm does a lot of mugging, there’s a surfeit of wacky and quirky characters and Eugene Mirman gets to do comedic riffs, but you’re playing a fairly grounded, normal character. Were you specifically seeking that kind of role?

I’m seeking any opportunities that are different than my normal self. That’s what I enjoy. You get offers for roles that are essentially just yourself and you have to be bold enough to say no, which is very difficult because no one wants to say no to opportunity and money. But you wait for the good stuff to come along and that will show you have the ability to do more.

On “Space Force,” I played someone who was very upright but I didn’t know what the hell he was doing. Playing a Boston cop in “Confess, Fletch” was perfect – my character is sleepy and lazy and completely laid back. That’s completely the opposite of who I am. Roy in real life has way more energy. 

In acting, your job is to connect to whatever the character is feeling so the more connected you are in real life, the deeper the reservoir of emotions you have to pour from. I’m anxious and very excited to get into that part of my career. 

Q. You even turned up in a small part on “Better Call Saul.” Was that because you wanted to try your hand at drama or were you simply a fan of show? 

That was 100 percent that I didn’t care what they asked me to do I just wanted to be part of that show, period. “Saul” also became an odd rite of passage for comedians — Bill Burr, Lavell Crawford, the Sklar brothers — and so getting on there was definitely a good thing.

Q. How has “The Daily Show” influenced your stand-up?

Oh, dude, “The Daily Show” really changed my comedy. I had jokes before that were observations. But now I have observations plus solutions. They may be wacky solutions but they’re solutions. The world’s approach to a problem is often A or B — you stand for the anthem or you kneel for the anthem. That’s it. But “The Daily Show” approach under Trevor [Noah] has always been about the other ways we can analyze this issue. 

So my stand-up became deeper and more layered because that thought process was necessitated at work. The angle in my joke in my stand-up became, “Why does that song have to be the anthem.” The song sucks. Maybe if there was a better song people would stand for it. 

[Wood’s riff notes that the anthem is actually lifted from a British song: “You’re telling stolen people in a stolen land that they should stand for a stolen song?!?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cXubvddXtI]

Q. Your “Tribulations” shows this summer were very different from the political and social commentary in your stand-up. Is this part of a shift for you?

Yes, the next journey is inward. I’m becoming more in tune with the things that make us human. “Tribulations” is me starting to tune in to that part of myself while inviting the audience along for the ride. It’s an opportunity to have comedic communal sadness. 

I didn’t tour this year except for Covid makeup dates and Hawaii, which was like a paid vacation. I deliberately did not go on the road because I wanted more introspection into myself and who I am as a father. Through that exploration, I found myself more obsessed with the darker sides of my own realities and I thought, “I can’t be the only person going through stuff so let’s do this on stage” and that grew into “Tribulations.” 

The plan is to bring it back either televised or live or take it back to the 1950s and do a live audio show.

Q. Will that seep into your stand-up shows, too?

I’ve already done a trilogy of specials talking about the world and its problems — gun control and police reform and women’s rights and civil rights. It’s easy to talk about the world because you don’t have to do any work answering questions about yourself. 

My next two specials will be about my relationship with my father and my relationship with the men who kind of filled in for my father since his death when I was 16. Those are the next two big mountains I’m going to climb on stage. The third one is a more introspective journey into my thoughts and emotions. 

That’s the stuff that will be the most meaningful — it’s this next trilogy of specials I’ll want my son to watch years from now.