Ziwe is unstoppable — and YouTube is letting her stay gloriously unpredictable.
Ziwe chit chats her hit YouTube series You’d Be an Iconic Guest with Ankler Studios at TIFF — and, naturally, the conversation gets into what happens when you stop waiting for traditional television to tell you when you’re allowed to make something.
At a YouTube-hosted TIFF event, Ziwe debuted two episodes and a new trailer for the upcoming season. The trailer labels her with one word: “Unstoppable.” Her response? She agrees.
“I feel unstoppable.”
For Ziwe, that does not mean the creative road suddenly gets easy. It means the obstacles do not get final say. She tells The Ankler that she is committed to making the work whether it lives on traditional television or YouTube — and says the latter gives her the freedom to simply put the show out into the world.
ZIWE x TIFF
Ziwe is making the show whether television asks for it or not
You’d Be an Iconic Guest keeps moving on YouTube, where Ziwe says the freedom to publish directly lets the chaos — and the guests — stay alive.
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That freedom also feeds the thing Ziwe’s interviews are built around: real reactions instead of rehearsed answers. She says the interview starts to die whenever she feels a guest is giving her exactly what they think she wants to hear. The fun is leaving enough room for somebody to be wild — even when that means the conversation becomes awkward, unpredictable or, apparently, ends with somebody getting up and leaving.
The upcoming season trailer actually teases an anonymous guest walking off the set. Ziwe is not naming names yet, but her larger point is more interesting anyway: she does not want total control while the interview is happening. The control comes later, in the edit, when she takes what happened and whittles it down to what she calls its most potent parts.
“I like the chaos. I think that’s what makes it sticky. That’s why you feel life coming from the screen.”
And that pretty much sums up why You’d Be an Iconic Guest works. The tension is not decoration around the interview — it is the interview. Ziwe gives guests enough room to reveal themselves, then knows exactly where to cut.
Click play on all the realness and inspo right below!
Ziwe on YouTube, ‘You’d Be an Iconic Guest’ and Staying Unstoppable at TIFF
Ziwe sits down with Ankler Studios at TIFF to talk about taking You’d Be an Iconic Guest directly to YouTube, giving guests room to react authentically and why she likes a little chaos in the interview.
Source: The Ankler / Ankler Studios at TIFF.
