When 26-year-old comedian Yedoye Travis tweeted last June about being the next host on Nickelodeon's "Blue's Clues" revamp, he didn't think anyone would take him seriously.
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“They said if I get enough retweets they will bring back Blue's Clues and I can be Steve,” he captioned a photo of him sitting in the famous “Blue’s Clues” chair at Viacom studios in New York, where Travis was shooting a separate project for Comedy Central. The tweet went viral.
“I assumed everyone would get it’s a joke,” Travis, who hails from Stone Mountain, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “But no one did.”
After producing his debut comedy album, "OK" in January, Travis heard from some friends in the industry that Nickelodeon would really be holding an open casting call for the next host. He went for it — and earned a callback.
The company announced the 20-episode reboot of the popular children’s show last month. Auditions were held on April 14.
Travis took to Twitter to share the news, hoping Twitter queen Chrissy Teigen would somehow acknowledge it. She did.
"I was hosting a show when I found out so I told a room of about 200 people about it with no context at all," Travis told Blavity. "And I mostly just think she's hilarious and it's dope to be on her radar, but also Twitter is mostly about her."
If he does end up landing the role, Travis said he can’t imagine not taking advantage of the opportunity.
But even if he doesn’t, he hopes to see any person of color play the next Steve, emphasizing the importance of kids, especially those of color, seeing brown people as a point of contact in front of the television.
The long-term dream, however, is still to sell out theaters and get people excited to come to one of his comedy shows, Travis said.
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A stand-up fan since childhood, Travis is a comic at heart who often incorporates “little vignettes of what it’s like to be a black person” into his work, but admits he has to be careful when presenting certain issues in front of non-black audiences.
“There are certain things you can talk about a certain way with black people. With other groups, they’re taken out of context,” he said. “But I always love it when people tell me it’s nice to see blackness portrayed positively on stage.”
Since launching his comic career, Travis has opened for W. Kamau Bell, taped for Kevin Hart’s LOL Network, appeared on “Search Party” and on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
Learn more about Travis, his debut album and upcoming shows at yedoyetravis.com.
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