Amber Riley Roasts ASMR, Talks Glee & Gets Candid on “Outlaws with TS Madison”

Amber Riley came to ban ASMR — and somehow gave us a Kitchen 24 flashback

Catch one of our favorite Glee alumni, Amber Riley, sitting down with TS Madison for a wonderfully loose episode of Outlaws that somehow gets us from career wins and dating standards to ASMR requiring therapy, prayer, a hug and possibly an exorcism.

And before we even get into all that: INYIM has a little Amber history of our own. During our Kitchen 24 days in Hollywood back in the beautifully chaotic 2010s, Riley was a regular — and she loved our wings.

For those who were not around for that particular piece of Hollywood nightlife history, Kitchen 24 was a 24-hour Hollywood restaurant and late-night hangout. It was owned by a nightclub owner, which meant when the clubs emptied out, a very interesting portion of Los Angeles frequently emptied right into the restaurant with them.

We worked the overnight shift, so celebrities, performers, club kids, industry people and whatever wonderfully strange characters Hollywood had produced that night would all eventually wander through. The stories! Amber was one of the familiar faces — and yes, again, those wings had a fan.

TS Madison tells Amber Riley to run the résumé — and she does

Early in the conversation, Madison puts Riley through the show’s “Talk Your…” segment and essentially tells her to stop being humble and list the credentials.

Riley obliges. She reminds everybody that she spent six seasons on Glee, played Effie White in the West End revival of Dreamgirls, won an Olivier Award and Evening Standard Theatre Award, earned Grammy and Emmy nominations, became a SAG Award winner and Golden Globe nominee, and won both Dancing with the Stars and The Masked Singer.

Her own conclusion? Pretty much any competition show she touches goes her way because, as Riley puts it, she is a winner. We support this level of résumé recitation.

Before Glee, Amber Riley was preparing to go back to IKEA

One of the better stories in the interview comes when Riley explains just how close her pre-Glee life came to taking a very different turn.

She had been working at IKEA, took a year away to pursue singing and acting, and was preparing to return when a friend called about an audition looking for a plus-size Black woman who could sing.

Riley says she did not even know exactly what she was auditioning for. She arrived without a traditional headshot or résumé and told the receptionist she had pictures on MySpace they could print. Very 2000s. Very real.

She initially thought it might be something closer to a reality singing show. Instead, it became Mercedes Jones and six seasons of Glee.

Glee also changed how Amber Riley saw people outside her upbringing

The conversation gets more reflective when Madison asks Riley about her longtime connection to LGBTQ audiences. Riley points back to Glee, saying that growing up in a religious environment had given her one frame of reference, while working closely with people from different walks of life made those lives human and immediate rather than abstract.

That is part of what makes this episode work. Madison and Riley already have an actual friendship, so the conversation can move from career history into relationships, allyship, safety, body talk and complete foolishness without sounding like a publicist supplied the questions five minutes before taping.

And no, Amber Riley is not saying she needs an exorcism

Here is the important — and much funnier — context behind the episode hook.

Near the end of the show, Riley is asked what she would ban. Her answer is ASMR.

She absolutely goes in on whispering, chewing, smacking, microphone tapping and people who enjoy listening to other people eat. According to Riley’s wonderfully dramatic ruling, ASMR devotees need therapy, a hug, some prayer and probably an exorcism.

She calls herself a “professional hater,” demands ASMR be banned for life and closes the whole thing like a tiny anti-whispering sermon. TS Madison, naturally, responds that she feels personally attacked because she likes exactly the stuff Riley cannot stand.

From Kitchen 24 wings to Outlaws, Amber still feels familiar to us

There is something especially funny about watching Riley and Madison talk restaurants, relationships and old stories when our own memory of Amber comes from that same late-night Los Angeles ecosystem.

Kitchen 24 was one of those places where the night did not really end when the club closed. It just changed rooms. Working overnight meant seeing Hollywood after the velvet ropes came down — hungry, tired, dressed up, occasionally chaotic and suddenly wanting breakfast food or wings at an hour when reasonable people were asleep.

So when we say we have followed Amber Riley for quite a while, we mean it. Long before this Outlaws episode, she was already part of our own strange little Hollywood memory bank.

Watch Amber Riley on Outlaws with TS Madison

Amber Riley joins TS Madison for a roughly 40-minute conversation spanning Glee, her career wins, acting, relationships, friendship and one extremely committed campaign against ASMR.

Sources: Outlaws with TS Madison; iHeartPodcasts.