Amber Ruffin has convinced multiple people to get matching tattoos with her: fellow performers at Boom Chicago, one of her improv alma maters; her high school crew; the Olympic gymnast Laurie Hernandez; Ms. Ruffin’s best friend.
“I like being a part of a little club,” Ms. Ruffin said.
When friendship tattoos aren’t in the cards, Ms. Ruffin turns to rings. They’re not as permanent, perhaps, but they represent bonding nonetheless, and according to Ms. Ruffin, a “Late Night With Seth Meyers” writer and performer, Team Captain of CNN’s “Have I Got News for You,” a New York Times best-selling author and a Tony-nominated Broadway musical writer, they can be just as addictive. In an interview that has been edited and condensed, Ms. Ruffin described one of those rings.
Talk to me about your ring.
This is a gold name ring from the seventies, but instead of “Theresa” it says “The Wiz.” My mom used to have one when I was little that said “Theresa” on it and I was just like, oh man, that’s the coolest thing I ever saw.
I rewrote the book for “The Wiz” for Broadway, and I was fretting about what to get the creative team as a gift. We were in the audience fretting and rewriting, so I was like, what we should have is a tattoo, but not everyone is willing to get spur of the moment tattoos with me. So I got this little ring for us. “The Wiz,” when we all put it up, it was just so Black. It’s the Blackest show. So I thought, this gift has to be extremely Black, and this took a long time to think of, but I was like, ah, yes, of course. Something that fits in with “The Wiz.”
Do you wear it every day?
I feel like, honestly, I came out two years ago and I was like, I need an indicator that I am gay. So then I just started wearing a thousand rings at once. What I’ll do is I’ll buy cheap rings, but I won’t take off my rings to wash my hands. Then I just wear them until they turn green and then I throw them out. So I had to make sure “The Wiz” ring could survive my treatment. I wear this thing for days on end. It doesn’t turn my fingies green and every other finger will be green, but “The Wiz” finger, nice and brown.
Since you wear so many at once, what’s your ring styling process?
Most of the rings fit the ring finger. So then I have to really stack them in such a way that the smallest one is on the top. I am getting to the point where there’s not enough rings and I need more and more and more rings. Rings are like tattoos like that. Get a little and you want a little more.
I have to step my ring game up, but my cheap ass is always like, whoa, ten rings for five dollars. I will never stop buying cheap jewelry.
What made you want to focus on this ring?
It has such a history in my little heart. I started out in comedy and improv and we didn’t really write anything but sketches. And then I started writing musicals and I wrote a book and then I wrote another Broadway show called “Some Like It Hot,” and I realized, I can really write and I should get a reminder of that. So the ring acts as a reminder that it took years to create “The Wiz” and we stuck with it and we saw it through and it was hard and fun and ultimately we did a good job.
Who do you want to pass it down to someday, if anyone?
Best thing I could do is, when I get old, go see a production of “The Wiz” and then give it to whoever I enjoyed in the show. Wouldn’t that be fun to show up at “The Wiz,” old and raggedy, and be like, “When I was your age, I rewrote the show. Let me tell you a tale.” And then they have to listen to me talk for a half of an hour, which I enjoy because I’m old and lonely. And then at the end they get a ring.
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