“What can cake teach you about life? That practice makes perfect, and if you try something once, it probably won’t be perfect, and you have to keep working on it if you want to be good at it.”
― Nicole Byer
“Putting a wig on and a costume and doing a wacky character is always fun.”
― Nicole Byer
“Let’s just let funny people be funny.”
― Nicole Byer
“Improv is so freeing because there are no bounds; there’s no safety net. You just say something and get an instant response.”
― Nicole Byer
“I was a server for a while, and I was a very bad one. So when people tipped me well, I felt like it was like, ‘Let’s get her out of here so she can get a new job.’”
― Nicole Byer
“My style is like, if I were to time travel to the ’80s or ’90s, I would fit in, but they would be like, ‘Something’s off about her.’”
― Nicole Byer
“My favorite thing from Dairy Queen is a Peanut Buster Parfait, which is: fudge at the bottom, vanilla ice cream, some peanuts, fudge, peanuts, ice cream, fudge, and it’s layered. But I also really like peanut butter cups, so I’ll put peanut butter cups in there.”
― Nicole Byer
“I don’t know if there is too much bacon! I used to have bacon parties. That’s how much I love bacon.”
― Nicole Byer
“It’s not a weakness to admit that you’re wrong.”
― Nicole Byer
“The way I toe the line with comedy is I run jokes past people.”
― Nicole Byer
“I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again because you can’t say it enough: Your skin is beautiful – dark, light, in the middle, whatever. Brown is beautiful. Your hair is beautiful. If you wear a weave, it’s beautiful. If you choose to be natural, that’s beautiful. Also, you are enough.”
― Nicole Byer
“Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would look people in the face and be like, ‘Your snake cake’s not good.’”
― Nicole Byer
“When I was little, I used to love eating peanut butter sandwiches with tomatoes, and they would have to be on potato bread. I loved them. It’s so weird, and I can’t imagine eating it now, but I used to love eating them. It’s a lot of flavors.”
― Nicole Byer
“I just woke up one day was like, ‘People know you’re fat whether you have a cardigan on or your arms are out, so why not just let your arms be out because you’re hot.’”
― Nicole Byer
“If someone is going to say something nasty to me about my body, that means my body is powerful. If you really stopped your day because you needed to say something to me, that’s power.”
― Nicole Byer
“If you want to change your body, that’s well within your means to do that, but if you don’t want to change your body, you need to accept it and embrace it.”
― Nicole Byer
“Be comfortable in your skin.”
― Nicole Byer
“I had a casting director tell me to be blacker.”
― Nicole Byer
“If someone goes, ‘Can you be sassier?’ I go, ‘I can be my kind of sassier. I’m not gonna put a voice on. The voice I have is my voice.’”
― Nicole Byer
“I am an archetype. There’s the fat, sassy, black friend, you know? That’s an archetype that exists, but that’s not truly me.”
― Nicole Byer
“What I needed to do was carve out parts for me, roles for me that weren’t just the sidekick, where I got to be the lead, because that’s breaking through.”
― Nicole Byer
“I’ve always been a mediocre student, so I never won an award in school. I’m not very athletic, so I’ve never won a sports award. So, I’m a mediocre person.”
― Nicole Byer
“Dogs are very strange, but they’re wonderful and they love to cuddle, and their breath is so stinky!”
― Nicole Byer
“I was in a Rite Aid… and fell into a Christmas tree display. None other than Shia LaBeouf helped me out of it.”
― Nicole Byer
“I’m not sassy all day every day. I have levels and feelings.”
― Nicole Byer
“I think I saw ‘Ghost’ at, like, 6 or 7 – like, a little too early to see ‘Ghost’ – but I would watch Whoopi over any kids’ thing. Everything she did was so funny, and all of her scenes are almost like sketches.”
― Nicole Byer
“You don’t need someone to complete you.”
― Nicole Byer
“I get it – there are very few black female actresses who have been given chances.”
― Nicole Byer
“Commercial auditions can be pretty humiliating.”
― Nicole Byer
“I hate that there’s such an emphasis on women in comedy. Are women OK? Are they just as funny as men? Yes!”
― Nicole Byer
“I’ve lived an interesting life.”
― Nicole Byer
“During my 20s, I truly said ‘yes’ to everything, whether it was a good idea or not.”
― Nicole Byer
“L.A. may be easy for the beautiful because it’s the land of the beautiful.”
― Nicole Byer
“My mom was like, ‘You talk so much. You have too much energy. Why don’t you just join the play or something?’ It was a comedy, and I got laughs in rehearsal, but onstage, in front of a whole audience, I got a lot of laughs.”
― Nicole Byer
“Talking-head shows are just a camera, a sound guy, and then a PA writing down what you say and a producer asking you questions. And you’re just supposed to rephrase the question and add a joke to it. Figuring out how to do that was super hard.”
― Nicole Byer
“In school, no one teaches you to look for things that are right for you.”
― Nicole Byer
“It’s easier to cast yourself in something you’ve written because you know your voice.”
― Nicole Byer
“I really like Beyonce. She’s a perfectionist who works really hard on each and every performance.”
― Nicole Byer
“I don’t preach body positivity – I’m just okay with the body I’m in and say, ‘I love me, so you should love you.’”
― Nicole Byer
“I wear a lot of vintage, thrifted stuff.”
― Nicole Byer
“People don’t listen to each other anymore, and I think that’s why people get offended or their feelings get hurt: because you’re not actually listening to the person that’s giving you signals they’re upset.”
― Nicole Byer
“I’m just – I’m a child.”
― Nicole Byer
“I’m very silly.”
― Nicole Byer
“Comedy is subjective, so if you don’t like it, that’s fine.”
― Nicole Byer
“I don’t have any plans to ever diet again, but exercising does help with life. Endorphins are real, and it’s annoying because I don’t like to exercise. I hate running, but I started weightlifting, like, 150 pounds, and it’s fun, and it makes me feel accomplished.”
― Nicole Byer
“I search my name on Twitter because I don’t want to miss the compliments, and I favorite the nice things people say about me so they know I saw it. People are more positive than they are negative, and I try not to harp on the negative.”
― Nicole Byer
“I don’t get dressed for other people. I get dressed for what I see in the mirror. My body isn’t for other people’s consumption. If I smile when I look in the mirror, then great. Let’s start the day.”
― Nicole Byer
“Comedy can do so much more than make you laugh.”
― Nicole Byer
“I moved to New York and went to a performing arts college, but it wasn’t until UCB that I started performing on the regular, figuring out how I’m funny, why I’m funny, and how to play with an audience.”
― Nicole Byer
“Feeling supported when you are doing comedy is the best way to make comedy – at least, that’s how I think.”
― Nicole Byer
“On ’90 Day Bae,’ Marcy Jarreau and I recap ’90 Day Fiancee’ because it’s just the most insane, funniest show on television.”
― Nicole Byer
“In my comedy, I’m not always trying to say something, but when I’m playing a creepy dude, you’re laughing because you know that creepy dude. You’ve heard that dude say something awful, and I’m just putting a little creative spin on it.”
― Nicole Byer
“People like me as a host.”
― Nicole Byer
“I’m very, very comfortable with who I am.”
― Nicole Byer
“I think we go through the world feeling alone and singular, and you forget that your one story is probably the same as millions of people’s stories. Maybe with different specifics. But a lot of people experience the same things.”
― Nicole Byer
“To see another fat girl on television, I think, is really powerful. I’m happy to open the doors for a younger generation of fat, black women to be visible, to be seen, to be heard.”
― Nicole Byer
“It’s so hard for me to insult people.”
― Nicole Byer
“I’m not mean. I can’t do a roast.”
― Nicole Byer
“I love therapy. I talk about it a lot because I feel like, especially among black people, it’s stigmatized.”
― Nicole Byer
“I love pigs. I think they’re very cute. I really want a pet pig, but those micro pigs, they don’t stay micro.”
― Nicole Byer
“I love potato bread. It’s so good.”
― Nicole Byer
“No, I was not into cake fails before hosting ‘Nailed It.’”
― Nicole Byer
“I’m not heavily into baking.”
― Nicole Byer
“I’ve done a handful of voiceover and on-camera jobs where I’ve been asked to ‘be blacker.’ That’s code for sassier, more ghetto, more neck rolls and snaps.”
― Nicole Byer
“Typecasting is a thing, but when it involves race, it narrows the roles available to an almost comically small amount.”
― Nicole Byer
“I perform at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, where my race and gender are rarely pointed out.”
― Nicole Byer
“I want to bring my color and background to the table because it makes life – and entertainment – more interesting.”
― Nicole Byer
“I know Jonathan Van Ness from comedy, and he’s got this wonderful show on Funny or Die called ‘Gay of Thrones.’”
― Nicole Byer
“I’m generally a positive person.”
― Nicole Byer
“My mom was a really positive, jovial person, so I try to keep it upbeat like that.”
― Nicole Byer
“I would say I have more in common with drag queens than I do with most people.”
― Nicole Byer
“I like sweet-and-salty things.”
― Nicole Byer
“Red Lobster reminds me of my dad because he would always get coupons and be like, ‘We’re going to treat ourselves.’”
― Nicole Byer
“I’m not a baker, and I don’t know anything about baking, and I don’t claim to.”
― Nicole Byer
“I don’t think anyone gets into comedy to host a baking show.”
― Nicole Byer
“Making food is a labor of love – it’s a nice thing to do for your loved ones to show you care about them, that you took the time to make them something. But for me, I don’t cook. I would much rather hop in my car and go to a restaurant.”
― Nicole Byer
“I love UCB Chelsea. There is, to me, no stage like it.”
― Nicole Byer
“I am surprisingly very sensitive.”
― Nicole Byer
“I’m not conventionally beautiful, but what is beauty? Beauty is whatever you want it to be.”
― Nicole Byer
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