Speaking with Ms. Pat is like sitting down with your brutally honest, refreshingly real bestie and really getting into the good tea. The Atlanta-born comedian and actress Patricia "Pat" Williams, best known for her based-on-real-life BET+ sitcom The Ms. Pat Show, makes a stop in South Florida this Friday, October 4 as part of her Hot and Flashy standup tour.
Ahead of the show at The Parker in Fort Lauderdale, we got the chance to catch up with the star one-on-one. Our biggest takeaway: The real Ms. Pat is just as hilarious as her stage persona. Our second-biggest takeaway: This show might get a little hot—but not to worry, fans will be on hand should you need cooling down.
“I know what pisses people off,” Ms. Pat says. “I know what it is to not have your bills paid; I still talk to these people on a daily basis” That realness, whether it’s shopping at TJ Maxx, struggling to make rent or selling drugs to make ends meet, is all fair game for Ms. Pat’s comedy. Her bold authenticity is a huge part of how she connects, aiming not just to entertain but to give a voice to people like her who have been through tough times.
“I don’t know how to change,” says the comic, who overcame sexual abuse and a stint in prison before rising to fame. “They always say you get to Hollywood and you go Hollywood. I don't know no Hollywood, all I know is how to be me. I'm not ashamed about anything I've been through in life.”
Ms. Pat credits her caseworker with encouraging her to get into comedy. She performed her first standup set in 2002 and hasn’t looked back since, working her way up through the standup circuit. In 2022, when she was nearly 50, Netflix released Ms. Pat's hour-long comedy special and in 2023, BET launched Ms. Pat Settles It, an arbitration-based reality court comedy show running through its second season.
Resolving disputes with her outrageous sensibility, Ms. Pat describes herself as an auntie at a family reunion. “You get to fight, I'll sit both y’all down and we're gonna settle this once and for all, and we’re gonna be family,” she says.
Meanwhile, The Ms. Pat Show is currently in its fourth season with an impressive third Emmy nomination. Styled after a ’90s sitcom, The Ms. Pat Show is comical, touching, heartfelt and irreverent. “I live an everyday life and the show is 95% based off of my real life,” she says. “I deal with real people every day, so that show can always stay real, because I can always bring that into the show.”
Ms. Pat: The Hot and Flashy Tour takes place Friday, October 4 at 7pm at The Parker in Fort Lauderdale. Tickets are currently available starting at $35.