Q&A with comedian Alonzo Bodden

Stick with the Winners! –

A regular panel member on NPR’s Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me, Alonzo Bodden has been making audiences around the country laugh for more than 20 years. In his stand-up special, Heavy Lightweight, which streams on Amazon Prime Video this summer, he goes from heavy topics like slavery, politics, and the #MeToo movement, to lightweight topics such as millennials, yoga pants and Taco Bell. some topics you cant categorize like Kanye West. As he says, “he likes to mix it up and hopes that audiences will join him for a laugh and a think, or two.”

His first big comedy break came when he was on the “New Faces of Comedy” showcase at the Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal, but it was as the season three winner of NBCʼs Last Comic Standing, where Alonzo was first introduced to America. Since then, he has starred in two comedy specials for Showtime: Historically Incorrect and Who’s Paying Attention. He’s also made appearances on ABC’s Dr. Ken and Fresh Off the Boat, Dr. Phil, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Comedy Central’s The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore and Californication.

Q. If you are in recovery, what was your Drug of Choice? and when did you stop using?
A. Mainly Cocaine, but I drank and smoked weed. I never turned down a drink because I wanted some coke.

Q. Have you ever been arrested and if so, for what?
A. Once for possession of crack cocaine. It was my bottom.

Q. Do you think addiction is an illness, disease, a choice or a wicked twist of fate.
A. I’d say disease or illness but as the book says I don’t think science has figured it out yet. I don’t think it’s a choice, I guess having the addict gene could be a wicked twist of fate if you believe in wicked twists and such.