Chris Redd on Cars, Creativity, and Giving Back

Justin Mastine-Frost August 12, 2024

Whether you first caught Chris Redd at a comedy festival, in one of his numerous prime-time TV appearances, or during his nearly 100 episode run on the cast of Saturday Night Live, you’re likely to remember the same details. Redd is bright, charismatic, full of energy, and somehow always smiling despite the gravity of the topics in his material.

Recently, Netflix revealed a surprising reboot to a franchise that was equal parts absurd, controversial, and somehow still heartwarming; Resurrected Rides was coming to Netflix as the spiritual successor to MTV’s early ’00s hit, Pimp My Ride, with Redd as its host. We sat down with Redd a couple of weeks ago to talk about this new endeavour, his interest in the car space, and what comes next.

How did you go from rap to improv comedy to hosting a show like Resurrected Rides — how did you get roped into that? 

Well, they — none of them were connected, directly, but they all have a sense of ‘coming off the top.’ I’ve always loved to create off the top of the dome. When I was rapping, and when I was learning to rap freestyle, it was really important to me.  

So, when I got into comedy, I was just looking for things that I thought I might have a leg up in, ‘cause there was so much about comedy that I was learning for the first time. 

I was like, ‘Well, what can transfer over?’ although you can’t see these pieces like a regular job, that’s how I’ve always approached creation. I have to put them in a framework that makes sense to me. For me, improv and freestyling are literally the same thing — you’re just utilizing different elements, and sometimes there’s no beat. When I framed it like that, it really helped me get into it — at least enough to learn the ropes — and I just fell in love. It was like learning another way to use this muscle that I’ve trained for so long. Things just started clicking.  

So, when they when they said that they want me to host this Pimp My Ride reboot, I was like, ‘Alright, but look: there were a lot of lawsuits, and your boy can’t get sued out here — I ain’t got that money, man!’ 

“…it’s the same kind of heart [as Pimp My Ride]. We’re helping out families and we’re helping out people, real people, who couldn’t really do this without us.”

Chris Redd on the vision of ‘Resurrected Rides’

But they were really cool; Michael O’dair and all the producers over there at Netflix. Everybody was super dope about making this show [with] my style of humor and bringing humor to the forefront of it, and [about] us doing cool last things to the cars that can actually last past the show. 

There’s no fish tanks, you know, the fish community can chill. There’s not gonna be any fish tanks, man. But we did do some really dope things in some of the cars, and to help some of those families out was super dope too. 

Are you much of a car guy yourself, or is that not really your thing? 

Yeah, I’m a car guy in training, my dude! Like, I f*ck with cars now, you know, I just can’t build one. I want to get there one day though! I wanna be old, come out to my driveway, and just be building a ‘69 that I’ve had for 15 years or some shit. Right now I can do basics, you know? If the tire’s flat, I could change the tire. I could do all the basic, ‘survival’ shit. 

I learned a bit more on the show, and that’s a part of it too. We really leaned into that, ‘cause I’m the ‘car guy’ that knows the least about cars out of all the people on the show — and I should, you know? I got a lot of shit going on, man. I’ve got friends now that work in the garage, so I don’t need to be in there. 

Hey, sometimes it’s nice to be able to pay someone to do the work for you.  

Oh, it’s so nice to be able to pay for a service and then be like, *British accent* oh thank you very much. I love it. 

Now, Ressurected Rides — obviously there’s humour to it, with you involved — but it’s a pretty big departure from the old show with Exhibit? 

Yeah, I mean, I get a little bit more hands on in the garage, which is fun. We do some pranks — I roast the hell out of these cars, because they are in terrible shape — but then we help these folks. We get to know everybody in a real, cool way; we do these ride-arounds where I get to, basically, interview this person. That’s the way that I come up with some ideas that would be fun for their truck or their car. Then, I share that with the mechanics, and they put their genius together and make some super cool shit.  

So, I mean, it’s the same kind of heart [as Pimp My Ride]. We’re helping out families and we’re helping out people, real people, who couldn’t really do this without us. That’s what really drew me to the show, more than anything. 

“It just sounded like we were in an echo chamber of Trump, because everybody was doing Trump, everybody had a take on Trump. Trump was everywhere. It was just like a lot, bro — it felt like I was inside of a red hat.”

Chris Redd on ‘SNL’ during the Trump presidency

I love the feeling of what that could mean, ‘cause I had an old ass car, and I still haven’t had a new car yet, you know what I mean? Like, I’ve only had ‘99s and under. So, to see people get cars that mean a lot to them, like, remixed and glossed up, was really nice. It’s just super cool.  

Without revealing too much: if there’s one car in the series that you had to take on a road trip across the country, what car would it be and why? You don’t need to tell me what’s been done to it, just if there was a project that made you think ‘yeah, I’d cruise in this.’ 

Yo, okay, so… I don’t like vans — like big vans — but there are a couple vans on this I’d be in between, just because of how awesome they turned out. I’ll tell you, I was like, ‘Gross, who would drive this new?’ And then, after they were done, I was like, ‘Oh.. I don’t know if I can give this back to you! They can find another van, I think.’ 

It just had me thinking about road trips. I grew up on road trips, you know? It’s not just about, like, how the car drives. It’s about what it can do, how it can satisfy your trip — and your life — along the way. 

Let’s add to that. Any past co-star — which one are you forcing to go on a cross-country road trip with you?

Any past cost co-star? Laughs. Oh man… I don’t know if it counts as a co-star or not, but man — Will Ferrell would be crazy. Like, ‘cause he did the show and that would be funny as hell, ‘cause I want to see when the funny stops; I want to see who’s under there. 

It’ll either be great or it’ll be terrifying. 

Yeah. Either way, I’m walking away with a story or a signed NDA, either way. No, Will is the absolute best, man. That’s the first person that came to mind. 

Let’s talk SNL for a second. You were there at a pivotal time in American culture, and a time that’s equally relevant today with the election coming in November. What was it like working through that first round of Trump? 

It was interesting, man, you know? I mean, I feel like now, we’re in a time where we have to hear everybody’s opinion about every single thing, all the time. But when you’re on television — on a show that’s known for skewing this sort of thing, and also known to bring in a certain amount of hate, a certain amount of conversation — it just amplifies all of that. 

I just remember traveling and getting into with it white people overseas about Trump, and I’d be like, ‘I don’t like him either!’ And they were just mad at me, and it was just such a weird time. It just felt so intense because there were so many intense things happening. 

On the other side of it, he’s hilarious. So, there’s a plethora of stuff. It just sounded like we were in an echo chamber of Trump, because everybody was doing Trump, everybody had a take on Trump. Trump was everywhere. It was just like a lot, bro — it felt like I was inside of a red hat. 

At the same time, it was all so surreal. Every time we’d crack jokes, he would respond, and it was like, ‘I feel like the President of the United States should not respond to shit like this.’ 

Did he actually comment, like, ‘On SNL, they said or did…?’ 

Yeah, he used to comment a lot, and it was just a very surreal thing. I’m like, ‘damn, dog!’ That’s like if somebody was in the middle of a brawl and just texted you back real quick. Like, no — finish the job! Do your job first. 

What else have you been working on these days? Is music still in the cards for you at all, or — now that you’re doing so much stand up — is that no longer a thing?

OK, good questions. Yes, I’m still doing music — just for the record, I do all of this stuff, all of the time. [I] just shift when things are at the forefront. I’m always making music, even if you’re not hearing it. On the music front, I’m just trying to figure out what I want to make in that way. 

I’m also working on some comedy music that I’m really having fun with. It’s for an Audible project I’ve been working on with Will Steven. He and I did a lot of the work up at SNL together, on the music side of things. So, I’m really excited about that. 

I’m working on another project right now, that I’m really excited about, with Phil Augusta and some folks. It’s good, it’s super cool. I don’t know how much I can say on it yet, but… it’s everything I’ve wanted to make. If anybody saw me on SNL, and the non-music stuff that I make — like the pre-taped stuff — I’m kind of going in that direction. I can’t wait to talk about it more.  I just can’t jinx it. 

What’s day-to-day like for you? 

But my day-to-day is the same as it’s always been, man: I write every single day; I’m always creating; I’m always doing stand-up; I’m working on these projects and writing some new stuff. I’m trying to figure out this Internet shit like I’m some old man. I just keep throwing content in the algorithm. 

Resurrected Rides is now streaming on Netflix.