Tacarra Williams is currently on the road with comedian Katt Williams for his “Dark Matter Tour.” She is also the host of the upcoming CW clip show, “Totally Funny Kids,” premiering Feb. 16.
Williams says she is super excited to be hosting “Totally Funny Kids” and says shooting five episodes every day over the course of six days was exhausting.
“I’m super grateful, and the team was amazing,” said Williams. “Totally Funny Kids” is a clip show like ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos’ with Bob Saget, rest in peace, but strictly about kids,” said Williams.
“I’m the Bob Saget of the show,” she added.
Williams says the show is family-friendly and a show that her own kids can watch. She also says hosting a nationally broadcast primetime TV show expands her reach to a new audience, especially in flyover states.
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Landing “Kids,” she said, was a “reckoning from God.”
“I had the opportunity to do another show airing on another network, and at the very last minute, they pulled me off the show, and they didn’t explain why, and they weren’t empathetic,” said Williams.
She says she only let the incident temporarily upset her, then thought, “That didn’t belong to me.”
“Within forty-eight hours, I got a call for this (“Totally Funny Kids”), and I said, ‘Maybe this is mine,’ and I went into the audition. They loved my look, and they said, ‘We already know who you are… we just want you to read,’” said Williams.
Williams says she didn’t know there was a skill to reading a teleprompter, and this revelation made her wonder, “Can I read? All this time, I’ve been reading, and now I’m questioning if I can read,” she recalled.
After several auditions, Williams says she was offered the show, not knowing the full magnitude of this break.
“This was a much better opportunity than the one that was previously offered to me,” she said.
The Bronx, New York-born comedienne remembers the importance of having a sense of humor growing up with a large family in the projects. She is the third oldest of eight children and she is also a twin.
“Either you’re going to laugh all the time or cry all the time. I think I did a healthy amount of both, but it was always a good time,” she said. “We did a lot of “Ya Mama” jokes. I grew up in the eighties, and just a lot of going back and forth ‘jonesing’ on each other.”
Williams says standup was something she never saw herself doing and it was something prompted by a bad breakup.
“When we’re in a relationship for a long time, and it doesn’t work out, we find ourselves in a space of — I’ve got to go find myself,” said Williams.
Williams says she always wanted to be an actor, but she had no background in acting.
She remembers going to an audition for a dramatic role without knowing it was a serious character, and she made it comical.
“The casting directors said, ‘You should be doing standup,’” she recollected. “They set up a comedy night for me in Harlem. They said, ‘Talk about your breakup,’ because it was a really funny story.”
Williams continued, “That night I went on stage… I was supposed to do three minutes; I stayed on for eight minutes, and I did an amazing job!”
She says it was a therapeutic moment because it helped her to heal from the pain of the breakup. That was 13 years ago and she has not stopped since.
Williams says she later moved to California because she thought it would present more opportunities in comedy, which turned out to be true.
In addition to the Katt Williams tour and her new CW show, Tacarra Williams is the first female host of the legendary Chocolate Sundaes Comedy Show at The Improv nightclub.
Like many successful comics before her, Williams says she is developing a TV show based on her kids and family.
“We are working on a ‘Tacarra Williams Show’ and hopefully it will be out sooner than later. And we’re talking to some networks and shopping some pilots,” said Williams.
Williams says that she often speaks of her family on stage, which she believes leaves her audiences wanting to know more about her family.
“Because I’m so open and transparent about my kids and about my life and my family, people [will] want to watch [the show in development],” said Williams.
For more information on Tacarra Williams, the Katt Williams’ “Dark Matter Tour,” and the upcoming CW clip series “Totally Funny Kids,” visit www.tacarra.com.
