Tiffany Haddish made her appearance on Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show following the Super Bowl.
The comedian appeared on the show as the host of Verizon’s Big Concert for Small Business. The charitable event featured performances by Miley Cyrus, Luke Bryan, Jazmine Sullivan, H.E.R, Eric Church, Christina Aguilera, Brittany Howard, Brandi Carlile, and Alicia Keys.
She dazzled opposite Colbert, singing some verses of the children’s song, “Skinny Marinky Dinky Dink,” but the hosting outing for the telecommunications company was teeming with a few surprises. Due to the production delays, Haddish was forced to stop, and that’s when one segment went off the rails.
“Our next performer has a career I have been following from the beginning. When I saw her kill it on the BET Awards,” Haddish said while reading an introduction for H.E.R. from a teleprompter before she paused to ask, “What the f**k does vamp mean?” It seemed she was getting direction from an earpiece — common for hosts during live productions — while off-camera, a voice can be heard saying, “Stall.”
“Now they asked me to vamp. I don’t know what vamp means. To me, vamp means be a vampire and/or vampirate like slowly disappear and/or elaborate. Maybe that’s the word they should’ve used? Elaborate. But let’s continue on guys.” she said while reading the monitor.
tiffany haddish hosting this verizon small business benefit concert is quite something pic.twitter.com/8upU0uWWzg
— bev francis (@bagelspride) February 8, 2021
Viewers took to Twitter to figure out what was going on. “Who keeps messing up?” one user wrote tagging Verizon. “Tiffany Haddish is a national treasure,” the company replied.
The show was curated and produced by Roc Nation and was designed to bring small businesses into the spotlight as part of Verizon’s multi-year commitment to help one million small business owners to make a major comeback in the digital economy by 2030. Big Concert for Small Business streamed on MTV Live, CMT, MTV2, CBS Sports Network, BET, TikTok, YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, Fios, as well as Yahoo, featuring several small business owners.
The response it garnered online was mixed, and Verizon disabled comments on its YouTube page. An accomplished producer, host, and actress, managed to finish strong and took the whole thing in stride.
“This has not been the smoothest running situation,” Haddish said with about 30 minutes left in the show. “Every time an act leaves the stage, they have to clean the whole stage, get all-new microphones, all new everything you have to keep in mind that some of these acts haven’t performed for nobody. … Me personally, I’m in a studio alone, it’s cold, and I’m ready to bring the heat. But it’s cold.”
As Big Concert for Small Business came to an end, Haddish shared a tweet to thank Verizon for giving her this opportunity, while acknowledging it was an arduous task. “I just want to say that was one of the funnest hardest things I have ever done,” she posted after 10 p.m. “Thank you Verizon for letting me be apart of something so great. I am always supportive of the small businesses in my community.”
“Thank YOU for sharing our passion and commitment to support small busineses across the country,” Verizon replied. Watch this space for the latest celebrity news.
I just want to say that was one of the funnest hardest things I have ever done. Thank you @Verizon for letting me be apart of something so Great #BigConcertSmallBiz I am always supportive of the small businesses in my community!
— Tiffany Haddish (@TiffanyHaddish) February 8, 2021