Ayo Edebiri Doesn’t Know How to Play the Autoharp

Thanks to the coronavirus, comedians are now trapped at home like the rest of us, so we decided that while we’re all self-quarantining, we’d do something a little different from our usual “Follow Friday� column. Instead of interviewing up-and-coming comedians we love on Twitter, we’re going live on Instagram every week to check in on some of our favorite people in comedy to get a firsthand look into how they’re handling the pandemic. So welcome to our new version of the column, now titled “Follow (From a Safe Distance) Friday.�

This week, I forced Ayo Edebiri (Big Mouth, Comedy Central, every Brooklyn stand-up show in early 2019) to wake up West Coast early and talk to me about how she’s holding up in quarantine. She shared her insight on what the future of fashion will look like (hint: big pants, micro shoes), gave some sound advice on staying creative (or not!) while you’re stuck in the house, and detailed the dramatic saga of how she ended up with an unusual instrument that she can’t play: “When I had my breakdown, week two, I bought an autoharp in eBay. It came to my house, I tried to tune it, I gave up. It’s been sitting. It’s been sitting in its case.�

You can find Ayo on Instagram and Twitter at @ayoedebiri.