From her hilarious standup to co-writing “White Chicks” to panelist stardom on “Chelsea Lately” (and “Drag Race!”) and now her wildly popular, long-running podcast “Juicy Scoop,” Heather McDonald leads a comedy and gossip empire. And in August, she’s bringing a taste of it to the Tri-State!
Thotyssey: Thanks so much for sparing a momet of your time with us, Heather! I just watched the latest episode of your podcast Juicy Scoop on YouTube, and I’ve always been in awe of how much you do. You put out several episodes a week that comment on up-to-date entertainment news, TV gossip and “juicy” true crime, and each is so heavy with content. What on Earth is your work week like?
Heather McDonald: I mean, I treat the show like what I did on Chelsea Lately… but without 60 people. It’s basically, like, two and a half people. We have our own office space, our own studio; I’m not beholden to any timeline or whatever. And I’m just on my phone all the time, reading articles and gathering the information. It’s really a full-time job. Definitely Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday are full days, probably more than eight hours, where I’m just constantly like, “Oh, let me text this person. Let me DM this person,” trying to book [guests for the show]. And then I do the Patreons too, which would be extra juicy subscription-based stuff. So I really do four shows a week. The Patreon ones are really important too, because that’s the extra juicy. So I’m kind of like, “Oh, I should save that for that. Oh, I should save this for standup. Oh, I should save this for a live Juicy Scoop. Oh, this is the top-tier juicy, Juicy Scoop.”
You have so many platforms for jokes and material these days! Besides the podcast, you also tour across the country with standup, and with live editions of Juicy Scoop. Your fans want their Heather fix however they can get it!
I’m really lucky to have such a fabulous, loyal audience–and they’re recruiting people every day. The amount of people that come up to me and say, “I’ve been listening to you for seven years, but I turned on my friend who’s here with me this weekend to you two years ago.” That was one thing that was said to me at a meet and greet; the one that got “recruited” was like, “I told her that was the best gift you ever gave me.” And I love that!. I love that it has become part of someone’s weekly routine.
The other cute thing people tell me is that their babies listen to me–while they’re pregnant, their babies will recognize my voice. And also, dogs will recognize, “Hello, and welcome to Juicy Scoop,” and start jumping around knowing they’re going to go for a walk. And that is the most flattering thing; I really appreciate it.
That just means so much to me, that I’m giving someone that thing to look forward to–and that rest from whatever they need to break from, or the motivation to clean the house or go for the walk or be excited for a long drive–because I have that need, too. I listen to other people’s podcasts as well, and it’s really nice to find one that you are excited about. And so I appreciate that.
Were you concerned at all when Carrie Bradshaw was told that podcasts are over now in that recent episode?
I’m so glad you brought it up because obviously, I’m obsessed with And Just Like That. There are some writers on that show that clearly listen to Juicy Scoop. But also, there are writers–especially with the Writers Guild strike and stuff–that are jealous. I have friends that were with me at Chelsea Lately who went along with Chelsea to follow Netflix, and then had a couple other TV shows. And even prior to the strikes, it’s dried up for them; and they’re like, “God, I wish I would have been like you and pursued my own thing. I wish I would have pursued standup and podcasting, because I’m dependent on someone hiring me.”
But yeah, there’s been tons of jokes in TV shows where they’re shitting on podcasts. Where does that joke come from? A writer who’s writing on TV.
I love what you’ve said about the Che character on the show, and I’m totally on the same page as you. The character was so corny and poorly written on the first season, but the writing for them has gotten much better this time. And Sara Ramirez is doing great in the role. Their the best character on the show, maybe! Their storyline about the failure of a sitcom they were supposed to star in, and trying to explain to Miranda that her optimism about it working out was dumb, seemed really realistic.
They’re just like, “It doesn’t work like that, Miranda. You’re so annoying. Stop being a cheerleader, and I need some time alone.” I think that’s when all of the people watching it were like, “Oh, my God. We agree with you. Miranda is annoying.”
There was another funny And Just Like That scene recently where Carrie is doing a Zoom interview about her new book with an influencer, and the girl she’s talking to is super vapid and clearly didn’t read her book. As both an interviewer of authors and an author yourself, did that hit home?
I thought that was a great scene. As someone who has two books and then did interviews, yeah, I was aware that [my interviewers] were not reading the book. However, a lot of people I interview now, I do read the book, or at least part of it. But sometimes when I get a podcast interview request, I thought it was like coming from them, and they were excited to talk to me.. But really, it was just somebody going, “Okay, today you have three interviews, and here’s the one: Heather McDonald.”
And on the other end of things, when someone wants to be a guest on your show to promote their own book or whatever, some of them are your fans who get your whole vibe and others are just people who want to be on as many popular platforms as possible.
[Sometimes a guest is] like, “Well, I want to come to you, but I’m just being honest. I’m getting all these requests to do other people’s shows.” And I’m like, “Listen, go do Howard Stern, but you don’t need to do every other pop culture podcast… because you’re not going to gain any more audience from it, and you’re going to look thirsty.”
So I’m a relatively new fan of you–it’s been about a year and change. I first found you on YouTube after the Chris Rock Oscar slap; I was looking for hot takes to make sense of that. I found your episode discussing it, and I appreciated your point of view as a standup comic and general entertainment expert regarding the incident. Other commenters had some really…. unique perspectives on the slap.
Fast forward to now, you see all these performers on stage getting bum-rushed by knife-wielders, getting drinks and phones and human remains thrown at them, getting pulled off the stage. Do you think all the hype that the Oscars incident got in the media might have inspired this wave of attention-seeking, bizarre and violent audience behavior?
I definitely think it’s part of it, whether the person is consciously thinking about that or not; everybody just wants to be famous. But there was a time in the ’70s where all these people would streak and go naked; I just thought of that right now. So yeah, this type of behavior has been happening for a long time. It’s just escalated because everything is on camera.
And yeah, I mean, there’s been hecklers and people that throw things. And it is dangerous to perform now. As a standup, most of us travel alone. We don’t have private security, because we’re not Dave Chappelle. So yeah, I am lucky that my audience is really smart, intelligent women and men that are respectful and are happy to be there. And the few people that hate me, I don’t think have the energy to buy a ticket and show up.
One scary thing did happen to you onstage that got a lot of attention: you fainted! Recently, footage of that showed up in an anti-vax “documentary.” That must have been such an odd thing to see happen.
I think it honestly hurt my reputation because it’s the most controversial topic of the last three years: “where did you stand on Covid?” And here I went and got my vaccines, but I also was fine if someone didn’t want to get a vaccine. I was extremely moderate about it. But if I’m going on a plane and I’m meeting people… I’m getting [the vaccine]. I chose to get it. It made me sleep better at night knowing I had it. That’s me, personal, whatever.
So I go out there onstage and I joke about it just to make everyone feel at ease, and also I was going to get into some funny Covid jokes–everyone had them. And then I fainted, and that went viral. So the first round was like, “We think it’s because of the vaccine.” Then, it kind of went away, but then it went viral again–and it’s like the antivaxxer people used it to say: “look at all these people that are fainting that are for the vaccine!” And the pro-vaccine side or liberal side or whatever you want to call it saw me as problematic, and that somehow I’m on that other side of it. And so then, they were against me too. All of a sudden, my Tik Toks and stuff would not be getting views… and I don’t know if it’s correlation, but it seemed like it was.
Then the really Right side called me a libtard and everything for getting vaccinated. And the super Christians thought I wasn’t Christian enough, because I had joked about Jesus loving me the most [in that clip before I fainted]. So I literally didn’t gain one fan. I just pissed off people on either side for doing nothing wrong.
It seems like such a strange and stressful reality that celebrities and content creators have to deal with these days: these intense tidal waves of reactions and overreactions to everything you do or say, or anything that happens to you.
I’m learning every day, just like everybody else. And there have been times when things have happened, and they’re like, “You need to address why your assistant [on Juicy Scoop] doesn’t work for you anymore.” And I’m like, “Listen, there isn’t some juicy story.” And sometimes I do address it. I’m like, “She told me she was looking for another job for three months. One day she said she got it. I said, ‘Great.’ She left.” And they are like, “Why? Why?” So now I’m like, “You know what? I don’t need to address it. I don’t need to. I share plenty.”
A few years ago, you appeared on RuPaul’s Drag Race as a “Snatch Game” guest panelist. That was Season 6, when Bianca Del Rio was Judge Judy!
That was so much fun, because that’s where I feel like the real talent is: the drag queens who do the impressions and stuff. So fucking funny. I think it’s been wonderful how that show has helped drive that whole industry of entertainers. It’s really great.
It’s still hard to believe that these attempted drag bans really are thing.
Yeah. I mean, I just think it’ kind of grasping at straws, trying to get people riled up about something that isn’t really true. I just want everybody to be able to work and entertain. I agree with 99% of the drag queens: it’s an adult show. And what does it matter–then don’t bring your kids! If there is something happening and you don’t want your kid there, why don’t you just not bring them?
Is it weird when you see kids at your standup shows, if that ever happens?
I’ve never seen anybody that young; a comedy club is pretty much 21. And my kids didn’t see me until my one son saw me for the first time at 16, and my other just saw me the first time and he’s 17. It was funny–we were in the car once, I’m listening to my son’s music with bad words, and I’m not used to that. And I’m like, “Oh, my God. Oh, my God!” And he goes, “Mom, you talk about me coming out of your vagina and smiling on stage. I don’t really think that this guy talking about these bitches is that bad.” And I go, “All right, good point.”
I knew you were a writer on the Wayans’ Brothers’ comedy hit White Chicks from 2004, but I didn’t realize until a recent re-watch that you were in the dressing room scene. You were great in that! You did get your start with The Groundlings, after all. Would you still be up for an acting role if a good one came along?
I mean, of course I would; it’s so fun being on set. I wrote that scene; I came up with the shopping scene. And I had already worked on a couple of other things with [the Wayanses], so I thought I was actually working on another movie that they ended up shelving. And I was in the office waiting, and I saw the deadline article that they had sold this movie that was kind of based on Nicky and Paris Hilton at the time called White Chicks. And so I went right to the producer that was helping write this other movie that we’d shelved, and I said, “When are you working on this movie? Don’t you need literally a ‘white chick’ consultant? That’s me. I’m the only girl writing on these movies. And I’m the only white woman.” And so they were like, “Yeah, maybe.” It was almost like they had the concept–they had the main beats–And then I helped with all the character development, and helped with scenes and dialog.
What inspired that scene?
I was at Keenen’s house, and he and his sister came over and she had on these pants. And I go, “Oh, those are the best pants ever. Did you buy them at the store?” “Yes.” “Isn’t that girl so annoying at that store?” And we started to joke and talk about it. And Keenen goes, “We need that in the movie. We need a dressing room scene.” And so then I wrote a dressing room scene with the annoying person that keeps coming back and being obnoxious and you’re just like, “Give me a minute.” And they just go, “How are you doing in there?”
I think White Chicks is more popular than ever now.
And to think, people thought it was somehow controversial or that it would be more controversial today, and it’s the exact opposite. The Gen Z’ers love it. And there isn’t a white woman in this world that was offended by one joke, because a white woman wrote the jokes, and it was all funny. It was a genre of movie that we studied–Tootsie, Some Like It Hot–movies with men having to dress like women to pull one over on somebody.
Now, when people say, “Could we redo it today with everything that’s going on?” I do think it’s way more of a challenge. The way to redo this movie is that there has to be a Real Housewives storyline–like, if they were FBI agents and they were trying to figure out what happened in the Hamptons. It has to be a “Real Housewife did a major crime, and they are going to infiltrate the cast.”
That would be amazing!
Yeah. But [scripted movies] are really, really hard to actually get going. That’s why there’s been talk about it for years, and then it gets shelved.
That’s why I do love the immediacy of standup. And even with the podcast–I record the podcast, and then I wake up on Thursday at 6:30am and I immediately go to YouTube, and I get the immediate reception right then. Like, “this part is funny,” or “sometimes I don’t agree with Heather,” whatever. But I get the reaction right away, and when you’re doing a TV show or a movie it’s just so long between the first time you wrote the joke to the time that you see the scene. But, that’s also a beautiful thing that lives on. So it’s just a whole different thing.
And of course Chelsea Lately, the hit comedy / celebrity gossip show hosted by Chelsea Handler that ran from 2007 to 2014 on E! which you co-wrote and frequently appeared on, could never be on TV today as it was then. That humor was edgy and un-PC even then.
Yeah. Well, I think that show was perfect for that time in pop culture and in television– pre-podcasts, pre-internet. Essentially that’s kind of what I’m doing and what a lot of people are doing now, but with smaller audiences. Those were not hard-hitting jokes. And when I started Juicy Scoop eight years ago, I said to the guy at the first podcast company “I want to be funny, but if something’s going on, I want to be able to go deeper and talk about it without a punchline.”
Like this Carlee Russell girl, who lied about her kidnapping. If I was on Chelsea Lately and that was the topic, it would have to just be a “hard-hitting” joke about her losing her wig. I like to talk longer about it, but still have funny moments.
I’m really grateful that I am able to have this show, because it’s like everything I loved growing up: it’s a little Oprah, it’s a little SNL. It’s talking on the phone, which is what I’ve always done. It’s basically why I’m a good talker, because I would always talk on the phone. My generation talked on the phone more than they do today. So, yeah, it’s been fun.
Folks are going to have a chance to join in on the fun live and in person! You’re going to be at the Count Basie Center in the Hackensack Meridian Health Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey, on August 10th, and then you’re going to be in Huntington, Long Island on August 12th at the Paramount. On both shows you’ll be joined by Chris Franjola, a fan favorite Juicy Scoop guest and host of his own podcast, Cover to Cover. Tell us what those shows are gonna be like, if you will!
Well, Chris comes out first, and he’s super funny–but totally kind of different material, too. It’s edgy, but it’s not too dirty. You can take your mother, you can take your husband. Like I said, I would take a kid that’s at least 17. And [my set] is about my personal life, but then also on the top of the show there will hot topics and all of that. Nothing is too offensive–not political, not male-bashing or anything like that. You’re going to laugh your ass off!
I definitely think Thotyssey readers would enjoy your shows, as well as you’re two books My Inappropriate Life and You’ll Never Blue Ball in This Town Again. Anything else the kids should be reading, seeing or doing?
Just follow me! And if you want more hot things, the juiciest of juicy, join my Patreon. I’ve had that for many years, and people really love it. It’s a show every Friday. It’s $5 a month as initial payment where you get the show commercial free.
Amazing! One last question: what show would you rather be on, Dancing with the Stars or The Masked Singer?
Wow, that’s so hard! I kind of feel like Masked Singer is a little more happening,; I also think it’s less of a time commitment, and I think I’ve gotten a little more lazy. I used to want to do the dancing to make my body so sick, for like a minute. But I do think it seems really exhausting, and to have to learn a routine to me is harder than learning a song. Yeah, I would say The Masked Singer.
We’re putting it out there in the universe. Thanks, Heather!
Check Thotyssey’s calendar for Heather McDonald’s upcoming area appearances, and follow her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok and Patreon. Also check out her website, and stream her podcast “Juicy Scoop” on all available platforms.
Thotyssey 