Liz DeLillo
Staff Writer
Comedian Jeff Stilson only has positive things to say about Roy Wood Jr.
“To see Roy Wood Jr., who is a comic at the top of his game — that’s always a special treat,” Stilson said.
At 8:15 p.m. tonight in the Amphitheater, Wood and opener Stilson will take the stage for a night of laughs.
Wood is an award-winning comedian, writer and producer who is well-known for his work in “The Daily Show,” “This Is Not Happening,” CNN’s “Have I Got News For You” and “Confess, Fletch.” He has released four stand-up comedy specials, the most recent of which — “Roy Wood Jr.: Lonely Flowers” — premiered earlier this year. He also headlined the 2023 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, produced the Emmy-nominated documentary “The Neutral Ground” and authored The Man of Many Fathers: A Memoir coming out in October 2025. He has received nominations for the Image Awards, Emmy Awards and the Writers Guild of America Awards.
In an interview earlier this year, with the online humor magazine Cracked, Wood elaborated on his process and some of his intentions with respect to his more recent endeavors.
“Playing with the idea of using different emotions as an entry point to get to a punchline definitely intrigued me this go-around,” Wood said.
He particularly admires how comedians Ali Siddiq and Josh Johnson can lean into emotion to evoke laughter over “something that we’re still raw about collectively,” he said in the Cracked interview. Regarding a particular joke with a dark punchline, he explained how integral emotion can be to comedy.
“What I figured out was that the more sincere I played the front half of that joke, the darker I was allowed to be on the back half,” he said in Cracked. “Because the audience knew my heart, they know I don’t mean what I’m joking about. Having emotion gave me some equity to be a little silly on the back side.”
Wood’s most recent comedy special “Lonely Flowers” centers loneliness and connection — a seeming shift from the political material audiences may know from Wood, like that of “The Daily Show.”
“I don’t want to just be seen as the political guy,” he told Cracked.
Because “Lonely Flowers” was released through Hulu, a larger platform than the ones on which Wood’s previous comedy specials debuted, he considered that the special may serve as an introduction to his comedy for many people. That consideration factored into his decision to focus on connection and forego political material.
“Politics is changing too fast — the country, the tone of things, it’s moving too fast,” he said in that interview. “But loneliness? That’s been around a while — I think we can sit in this (subject) for a while.”
He has political comedy elsewhere, he said, and he prefers to treat his material differently than what political material often demands.
“I have other outlets to do that type of stuff, whereas talking about connection — What are we as a people now? — felt like a fun road to go down,” Wood said. “… I’m having more fun if I’m doing a stand-up show that’s a bit of a dissertation.”
Jeff Stilson is a comedian, writer and producer best known for his work on “The Chris Rock Show,” “The Osbournes” and “Good Hair.” He has won two Emmy Awards and received nominations for many more.
Regarding how the role of comedy influences popular styles, Stilson speculated that the relationship between comedy’s style and significance “seems very cyclical.” Drawing similarities between popular styles now with that of the 1980s, he explained how the comedic pendulum swings.
“There was almost this notion (in the 80s) that … you shouldn’t have jokes so much as you should have stories and commentaries, and now it feels as if we’re back to the 1980s,” he said.
Unlike when stand-up comedians typically brought notebooks on stage, which Stilson referred to as “the notebook era,” this style of comedy saw more covert punchlines and felt like more of a story or commentary.
“You’ve got just a lot of really funny comics out there who were up there just telling jokes — and I don’t mean jokes in the sense of ‘three guys walking into a bar,’ but just really solid material,” he said.
Stilson moderated “The Daily Show” panel for Tuesday’s morning lecture and is looking forward to opening for Wood tonight. He has always admired Wood’s work and is excited for the show.
“He’s just a brilliant comic — hilarious,” Stilson said. “Folks are in for a special performance.”
Over the past few days, Stilson has thoroughly enjoyed both presenting and attending programming for Chautauqua Lecture Series’ Week Two theme “Comedy Now: A Week Curated with Lewis Black.”
“It’s a great week so far,” he said. “I think the Comedy Center has done just a great job, and this is just a perfect place for it.”
