Speaker 1: Of Course Love Supreme is a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: This classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora.
Speaker 1: What Up, y'all, It's like yeah, And this week's q
Speaker 1: l S classic guests is actor, writer, and comedian Dion Cole.
Speaker 1: Listen as he talks about black is, the art of
Speaker 1: the Stolen joke and his time writing for Conan and
Speaker 1: a Tonight Show. You don't want to miss this one.
Speaker 1: Oh that's right, you already did, so catch up. This
Speaker 1: episode originally released September twentie s. Roll Call Supremo, roll
Speaker 1: Call sum roll Call roll is here. Yeah, I won't
Speaker 1: steer you wrong. Yeah. When you cook my right some beans? Yeah,
Speaker 1: the radio better be on. Frema roll call, Frima Prima
Speaker 1: roll Call. My name is Fonte. Watch how I kick it? Yeah? Hey,
Speaker 1: what's up? White girl? Yeah? I got your mere ticket
Speaker 1: Roma Frema roll my name is Sugar. Yeah with the uncle. Yeah,
Speaker 1: full disclosure. Yeah, just smoked a big boy rolla roll call.
Speaker 1: I'm unpaid bill. Yeah, and times is tough. Yeah, what
Speaker 1: has a big dick? Yeah? And hangs up. Roll Call
Speaker 1: Sua Suprema roll Call. It's like with the plan, better
Speaker 1: watch out, Dion. Yeah, I love me some Diane call.
Speaker 1: My name is de yeah, and I'm with y'all. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't rhyme much. Yeah, but who knows that? So
Speaker 1: roll call roll hold it, Ladies and gentlemen, check out
Speaker 1: unpaid Bill trying to flex on us. Like of all
Speaker 1: your roll call versus, I thought that was so perfect.
Speaker 1: It was that I felt like you were doing it
Speaker 1: despite us, because you know that we always judge you
Speaker 1: for not being on subject whoever the guest is. But
Speaker 1: I was on subject today. That's amazing, Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 1: This is Love Supreme only on Pandora. Welcoming you guys.
Speaker 1: I'm here with teams Supreme, Sigo, Sugar, Steve Equal. It's
Speaker 1: gonna fall out this one over here. Let's just finished
Speaker 1: right now and played through the pain. Okay, but I'm
Speaker 1: paid Bill with his relevant verses, so relevant, and it's
Speaker 1: like you name, it's we found it. It's not it's version.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like my name. We're saying your new
Speaker 1: name on the show is n you know what's funny.
Speaker 1: I wasn't like, I'll take it. It's a upgrade. No,
Speaker 1: it's like a right, Yeah, I try that once would
Speaker 1: come on from the roots. It was gonna be It's Jimmy,
Speaker 1: but then he became fake Muslims, so then you know
Speaker 1: they were Yeah, that was just name James. Great anyway,
Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen, Uh, we are honored today to have
Speaker 1: our guests. I have to say that full disclosure. Uh,
Speaker 1: this is this was a surprise. Uh for a lot
Speaker 1: of us. Happy is a welcome surprise. But we're very
Speaker 1: welcome surprise. Because I wanted to let you know that
Speaker 1: your your your Netflix half hour special on the Stand
Speaker 1: Ups is one of my favorite things ever. Your your
Speaker 1: history with Conan. I'm a Conan fan, and you know
Speaker 1: all the things you you were actually writing on the
Speaker 1: tonight show. We were in there. But ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 1: please from Blackish, from Angie Tribeca. Uh, one of my
Speaker 1: favorite comedians. This is Dion Cole right now, blown away
Speaker 1: right now. We're fans were great man, fans of OD.
Speaker 1: This is great man. I thought Dean Sanders was coming.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, part of me was going to
Speaker 1: is he gonna do it? Must be the money reference.
Speaker 1: I gotta I gotta let him know, man school, you
Speaker 1: know it's yeah, sorry for doing how you doing today. Man,
Speaker 1: I'm man, I'm good man. Just got off works. Was
Speaker 1: about to say, you literally came from the set. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're shooting Black its man. This is season four, Yeah,
Speaker 1: the season four. Yeah, so I just left to say,
Speaker 1: come on, came on over here, man, you're shooting the
Speaker 1: first episode of the season. We're actually on episode four. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: studying five. We just got the disclosure were I believe
Speaker 1: that the roots are involved in the premier episode, slavery.
Speaker 1: It's us Yeah, to say that with such alacrity clarity,
Speaker 1: you know, slavery sitting on the porch. You know that
Speaker 1: makes sense. Okay, yeah, we once words. Thank you. It's
Speaker 1: it's drade. Everybody celebrate. Yea. So what is well? I
Speaker 1: want to know about your your your routine with Black
Speaker 1: is which you know I feel? Is it almost blasphemous
Speaker 1: for me to say that I feel that this is
Speaker 1: the show is just as important? Uh cosby show go ahead?
Speaker 1: Can I say that? I think you can. I would
Speaker 1: even say it's more no no, no no, no, no no, that
Speaker 1: we only got deep with like the joint episode. It
Speaker 1: was a different no, it was a different time and
Speaker 1: and cos was important. But I think the thing with Cosby.
Speaker 1: The different between Cosby and Blackish, and that I see
Speaker 1: is that Cosby Show was a show that could have
Speaker 1: been about any family, you know what I'm saying. They
Speaker 1: could have been white, they could have been whatever. But
Speaker 1: Blackish is specifically about a black family, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. And to me, that makes a huge difference.
Speaker 1: And I see it in the characters. I mean, my
Speaker 1: kids watch the show and they love it, and they
Speaker 1: can it's it's very different. It's very different. Well, I
Speaker 1: love it, you know, and I was afraid to say that.
Speaker 1: I've felt that it was not only as important, but
Speaker 1: probably more important, more relevant to this generation than way
Speaker 1: more relevant y'all say, more free. So that's a great advantage, think, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think you know this day and time.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think with the Cosby Show, it was
Speaker 1: the fact that we had a black family with good jobs,
Speaker 1: whole family like that was important to see that, like
Speaker 1: I think, and for that to be a pioneer show
Speaker 1: like that, that's what made that great, I mean important.
Speaker 1: I guess you could say we're following the same footsteps,
Speaker 1: but I think we tackle harder issues and more relevant
Speaker 1: issues that apply to everybody today. Y'all talked to the audience.
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, y'all like the whole the scene with
Speaker 1: Anthony would Um the Obama where he talked about, you know,
Speaker 1: seeing Obama and everybody was every black person was nervous,
Speaker 1: Like that was real, this conversation at work. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1: But it's important to show both sides too, you know,
Speaker 1: not just short from my perspective, that's I think that's
Speaker 1: important with what we do to we also show, you know,
Speaker 1: a chick who voted for Trump and why she voted
Speaker 1: for him, you know, in order for people to get
Speaker 1: clarity on you know why, you know, people feel as
Speaker 1: though that was the way to go, you know, as
Speaker 1: far as voting this concern. So how long have you
Speaker 1: been doing comedy about this? October would be twenty four,
Speaker 1: twenty five years. What, Yeah, she started back like nine.
Speaker 1: Where were you born? Chicago? I'm from Chico. Still stay there, yeah,
Speaker 1: still yeah. When I ain't filming, I'm always back home.
Speaker 1: I just left home. I just left home last weekend.
Speaker 1: We did a big benefit with Chance. He did like
Speaker 1: thirty thousand backpacks with supplies to kids and you know, right,
Speaker 1: yeah getting there. So yeah, I'm always there. Man, I
Speaker 1: was trying to be as active as posible. So I
Speaker 1: know that Chicago is, uh, it is a big city
Speaker 1: for comedy because I know that at least of the
Speaker 1: SNL alumni or whatnot comes through I guess the Second
Speaker 1: City out there absolutely, So did you have to get
Speaker 1: into that fraternity too? Well? Now, because it different for
Speaker 1: black comedians because I don't hear much of black comedians
Speaker 1: going through the Groundlings or no they don't. I mean
Speaker 1: because it's it's a it's a north Side thing in
Speaker 1: the south Side thing. That's that's more like north Side.
Speaker 1: A lot of South Side comics. They come up the
Speaker 1: ranks just doing bars and whatever clubs that they can
Speaker 1: or whatever. But we fortunately had the opportunity to go
Speaker 1: through Second City. But we created our own skets troop
Speaker 1: call Forgotten City, and we used to perform. Yeah, basically
Speaker 1: because is there a politic game going on in there?
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm well, honestly, to be real with you,
Speaker 1: I think it's just a lot of cats couldn't afford
Speaker 1: those classes and they couldn't afford to get in there.
Speaker 1: So that's a school. Yeah, at the PA, all of
Speaker 1: those kind of places out of those classes running like,
Speaker 1: what's I can tell you because I'm broken I paid
Speaker 1: for Yes, I've done like that's why she's so funny. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like it like a good three hundred dollars or something
Speaker 1: like that. You see what's it called out here? You? Yeah? Wait,
Speaker 1: this is a muppet newsplash. I'm not saying that studios.
Speaker 1: So you really fit Philly improv? Really? I mean how
Speaker 1: long it was? It's a program, so it was like
Speaker 1: two months. I'm kind of improv theater group too. We
Speaker 1: performed at Relish out in Philly at the eating place.
Speaker 1: Yet still to baking. I'm not doing when I'm not
Speaker 1: doing question Love Sapareme, I'm working on comedy and writing. Yes,
Speaker 1: I did not know this. It's dope. Yeah, I posted
Speaker 1: all the time. Well I don't be reading talking at you. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't read question. Yeah, I don't be reading. However,
Speaker 1: this is one of the first shows of our second season,
Speaker 1: and I'm shocked that you haven't said that to you. Well, no,
Speaker 1: I haven't really pimped that fact. With all the comedians
Speaker 1: that we had on Funny, I think what we had
Speaker 1: we had Gerard Carmichael on it, who was the other
Speaker 1: comedian that we had Chris Rock. I made a couple
Speaker 1: of references and y'all shot me down real fast. I didn't.
Speaker 1: I was very serious, and I was like, oh, I
Speaker 1: started sweating and getting nervous, like, oh shit, he just
Speaker 1: shot down my whole dream. I'm out here taking classes
Speaker 1: doing flappers and ship Okay. So as a person that's
Speaker 1: that's been in the system. So as a person that's
Speaker 1: been in the system, and you know, I don't I
Speaker 1: don't know if you consider it thriving or just a
Speaker 1: continuing journey. But I mean you you've been on Conan's
Speaker 1: writing staff and that sort of thing, so you utilize
Speaker 1: the education that you got to get to that position.
Speaker 1: And like, as a person searching, so what is the
Speaker 1: how does one even get into that world? Okay? First
Speaker 1: of you gotta pay. Do they accept anyone well me?
Speaker 1: Well me personally? When it came to us with Second City,
Speaker 1: that was something that we did. We were on our
Speaker 1: own sketches and we did our own shows. So people
Speaker 1: from Second City came and saw us and gave us
Speaker 1: a night at their facility to perform our sketches, and
Speaker 1: then we used to have people come there and we
Speaker 1: did that for a while after the group broke up.
Speaker 1: Many people were in the truth, it was like nine
Speaker 1: of us. Were you the most prominent member? Like, were
Speaker 1: there other people there? It was some other Yeah, we
Speaker 1: were all equally around across the board as far as
Speaker 1: like writing this concern, as far as perform and we
Speaker 1: were all equal, I mean the performance wise creatively and
Speaker 1: all of that themselves down today that were I mean,
Speaker 1: they're still rocking or whatever, but you know, I don't
Speaker 1: don't know as far as like mainstream wise, but they're
Speaker 1: still getting down or whatever. But we broke up on
Speaker 1: some true Hollywood ship and what happened it was nine
Speaker 1: of you. Yeah, yeah, I was what happened. Man. We
Speaker 1: came out to l A. We showcase for Puffy, and
Speaker 1: we showcase for brill Stein and Gray. We did what
Speaker 1: was that? My bad? That was you. I didn't realize
Speaker 1: that I was actually watching your was just a weird. Sorry.
Speaker 1: So so yes, came out around here, we showcase and
Speaker 1: then they signed us and gave us some money. At
Speaker 1: think of game. It's like eighties Stacks and our manager
Speaker 1: when the rent limos and had bitches and a kind
Speaker 1: of ship. Man. Yeah, it blew our whole fucking thing
Speaker 1: man and then we all broke up after that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was crazy. So I was already out here at
Speaker 1: that point. No, we just came out here the showcase
Speaker 1: and went back to Chicago. But then I had I
Speaker 1: had went through this other showcase called Aspen and ended
Speaker 1: up meeting this guy who worked for Conan, and he
Speaker 1: asked me to come on the show and perform as
Speaker 1: a guest, and I went on. As soon as I
Speaker 1: got off stage, Conan asked me to write for him,
Speaker 1: like like like two weeks later. I didn't have to
Speaker 1: submit nothing to nothing And what was the time in between?
Speaker 1: How much time in between y'all and that l a
Speaker 1: trip and then the Aspen situation that took him, No,
Speaker 1: I took about probably about probably about two years after that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then I rock with Corner. Anything I have auditioned
Speaker 1: for and I never got even to this day, Like
Speaker 1: with Conan, I've always fun with people, all vibes. People
Speaker 1: always been like, Yo, you're a cool motherfucker, let's rock,
Speaker 1: or you're smart, motherfucker, let's rock. And it's always been
Speaker 1: like that, and they've never been like audition for something.
Speaker 1: And I get like with Conan, he just liked me
Speaker 1: and told me to show up and I ended up
Speaker 1: writing for him, Like I submitted nothing nothing Blackish. I
Speaker 1: went over there or right, and the guy that well,
Speaker 1: actually it was Charlie Murphy was supposed to be playing
Speaker 1: a character that I play on Blackish, and yeah, he
Speaker 1: didn't want to do it. That's why my name Charlie
Speaker 1: on the show. And he didn't. He didn't want to
Speaker 1: do it. So I ended up since I was writing
Speaker 1: for the character, I knew how the character was gonna
Speaker 1: be and what's and so they had me play that
Speaker 1: character once and I ended up getting it. Then I
Speaker 1: got this other show, car and Tribeca with Stephen Correll,
Speaker 1: and I was supposed to be the lieutenant on there,
Speaker 1: and Steve didn't want me to be, uh the same,
Speaker 1: a black, screaming lieutenant, a cliche lieutenant, so he wrote
Speaker 1: a character for me. I wasn't even in that show
Speaker 1: and he just wrote a character for me. So this
Speaker 1: has been going on and on my whole career, where
Speaker 1: it's just never Yeah, it's never been like anything because
Speaker 1: I think when you audition for ship, they're looking for
Speaker 1: a certain type in their head and you just don't
Speaker 1: match what they're looking for. I think because you probably
Speaker 1: saw original so different, they really can't pinpoint you and
Speaker 1: ship you know, sou but they but that you dope,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, And they all remember you
Speaker 1: laid on for some other ship. But so how do
Speaker 1: you make because I mean, of all the the the
Speaker 1: arts that you can be, be acting, musician, chef, I
Speaker 1: feel like comedy is one of the hardest things. Like,
Speaker 1: at what point are you saying to yourself, I want
Speaker 1: to make it as a comedian or are you even
Speaker 1: saying that? Well, me, you originally got into comedy. Someone
Speaker 1: bet you fifty bucks. Yeah, I read that on wiki somewhere.
Speaker 1: Do But because I never was like, no, no funny motherfucker,
Speaker 1: Like I never was like that, Like I never was.
Speaker 1: I always was quiet and kind of have my own
Speaker 1: thoughts whatever. I overthought everything though, and I think people
Speaker 1: thought that was hilarious and my boy bet meeting on
Speaker 1: stage and I went on there and did it or whatever.
Speaker 1: But how many minutes you what was your first joke?
Speaker 1: Like four minutes I did joke about Sunny Delight. What
Speaker 1: I just talked about how that motherfucker they was playing
Speaker 1: soccer and they all rushed his refrigerator and everybody was
Speaker 1: in his ship, grabbing ship. And I was like that
Speaker 1: that couldn't been a black household. And yeah, like Nick's
Speaker 1: had to grout of water holes absolutely, because I said
Speaker 1: that was my first joke ever, and I did that
Speaker 1: ship repeatedly ever ever, for like two years straight. You
Speaker 1: just like kept it to the point where mother fuckers
Speaker 1: was saying it with me because everybody said the punchline
Speaker 1: with me. That's a funny joke when you people know
Speaker 1: the joke and they still want to be Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but but it was hard commercial commercial. Yeah, so is
Speaker 1: it comedy is high? Yeah? I was gonna say, because
Speaker 1: you you have to speak two languages. Yeah, Like now,
Speaker 1: is it to the point where that you're juggling, uh
Speaker 1: acting you're no with your black audience and also the
Speaker 1: white audiences that come in or did you just immediately
Speaker 1: integrate with Uh? What's what's the what's the comedy spot
Speaker 1: that's named after the guy Harry? I don't know if
Speaker 1: it's Harry carry spot in Chicago. Um, Uh, it's not
Speaker 1: like Danger Fields, it's it's it's a comedy club and
Speaker 1: his face, this guy's faces the logos, but it's like glasses. Hilarious, hilarious.
Speaker 1: In Chicago, there is there's a famous comedy club that
Speaker 1: in Chicago. Yeah, it's you're talking about all jokes aside. No,
Speaker 1: it's I was about to say that's back in the
Speaker 1: day that was closed. I'm trying to chuck Harry, is
Speaker 1: it not Harry, Harry carry ain't opened up. No, goddamn,
Speaker 1: all right, this is like bust left breaking news. There's
Speaker 1: no place like Okay, whatever, I just he'll come to
Speaker 1: you when it was all over. Yeah, I had a
Speaker 1: bolt two days later. Hilarious. So what was your household like?
Speaker 1: Growing up? Man? Blackest ship only the only child find
Speaker 1: out how to half sister later on out a place
Speaker 1: that growing up she had passed. But I grew up
Speaker 1: in South Southe Chicago, gang infested all that ship. My
Speaker 1: mother moved me. My mother moved me to the suburbs
Speaker 1: because she didn't want me to get caught up in
Speaker 1: the games, because my cousins and ship, they was all affiliated.
Speaker 1: So she moved me to the suburbs, which became almost
Speaker 1: a culture shot because I ended up fighting more in
Speaker 1: the suburbs than in the city, and I was fighting
Speaker 1: the one person as the only black person, so I
Speaker 1: stopped fighting the whole integration. Yeah, I got out there.
Speaker 1: They used to pull their cars on our lawn, spinning tires,
Speaker 1: funk out and I was fucked up. And it was
Speaker 1: this family called the Gabarziks and ship they used to
Speaker 1: throw like batteries like Gabarziks used to Yeah, it used
Speaker 1: to be real mess stuff. But I wouldn't have had
Speaker 1: it no other way because when I moved out there,
Speaker 1: I stopped this this dude name Rich and he used
Speaker 1: to turn me on like Zeppelin and like a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of cool ass rock ship, like like like like
Speaker 1: your Floyd and Stones and just and I used to
Speaker 1: teach him. I used to play hip hop for him.
Speaker 1: He ain't know ship about hip hop. So me and
Speaker 1: him became like real tight because I just hang't out
Speaker 1: with him every day on some cool ship and just
Speaker 1: vibe out with him. And you know, I just learned
Speaker 1: a lot and learned how to be you know, like
Speaker 1: in a way not biased, but understand. Me and him
Speaker 1: had to understanding that I wish everyone else had, you
Speaker 1: know what that Yeah, and it was and he wasn't
Speaker 1: trying to be black, and I wasn't trying to be right,
Speaker 1: It was just y'all. We were very much interested into
Speaker 1: each other's culture. Yeah, so I guess that formed us
Speaker 1: to who we are. You know today, you know what,
Speaker 1: I haven't seen Rich and I don't know how long
Speaker 1: or whatever. But back then we used to be trying
Speaker 1: to twitter you like, remember, I don't know where Rich
Speaker 1: is a bullshit? I wish I did, though, So did
Speaker 1: that play kind of a role in developing your comedy? Like? Yeah,
Speaker 1: because when they came to write, and I didn't want
Speaker 1: to write just black Ship, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: I wanted to write that was like for everybody because
Speaker 1: I felt like I would have to do it anyway,
Speaker 1: So why would I just why would I bullshit? And
Speaker 1: right all black Ship? Now I could just take my time,
Speaker 1: focus and write for everybody right now, right that joke
Speaker 1: for everyone. If it don't work, make that motherfucker work.
Speaker 1: And if it don't leave it alone. Yeah, Well, who's
Speaker 1: mentoring you by this sport? Like who's teaching you as
Speaker 1: far as coming after the bet? And you're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I could do this for real? George l Borne, Deal Givings,
Speaker 1: Bernie MacKenny, how Tony Schofield. These are the people that
Speaker 1: that I that mentored me coming up. Steve Harvey used
Speaker 1: to come to Chicago all the time and he used
Speaker 1: to always be there and you know, take me under
Speaker 1: this wing or whatever. But it was it was. It
Speaker 1: was George will Borne and A Dell and like I said, Bernie,
Speaker 1: Bernie had like tough love, but he used to really
Speaker 1: look out for us and like he used to be
Speaker 1: like this used to have this place called the Cotton
Speaker 1: Club in Chicago. In order for you to follow Bernie,
Speaker 1: I mean, the only way you can get on stage
Speaker 1: is if you can follow Bernie, and Bernie would dismantle
Speaker 1: that motherfucker. You would have to go up at them.
Speaker 1: And if you couldn't do it, you would never play
Speaker 1: that motherfucker again or whatever. But they or they just
Speaker 1: be silent. Now they'll be sometimes booze, sometimes silent, whatever.
Speaker 1: But if you was horrible, you just had to get
Speaker 1: the funk up out of that whatever. But it so great,
Speaker 1: you know, because he used to have a lot of
Speaker 1: people that came there and his night was so great.
Speaker 1: It ended up being a television show called Midnight Mac.
Speaker 1: It used to be coming on HBO. Remember that it
Speaker 1: used to be so great. He used to placed a
Speaker 1: place called Miltreineers where he had the dancers and the
Speaker 1: mac dancers dances and the band and yeah, he used
Speaker 1: to have an old show. It came on HBO because
Speaker 1: of the room that we used to do. Phillis himI
Speaker 1: used to come in there. Used to be crazy, She's
Speaker 1: come on stage and just be like, why are you
Speaker 1: in the middle of your set? Should just come grab
Speaker 1: the mic and be like, oh, we need to wait
Speaker 1: yourselver here? Where's this bitch? And didn't get the mic
Speaker 1: back back down, like like you'll be like, who the
Speaker 1: hell are you? Like a lot of people didn't know
Speaker 1: who she was and should be like she'd come up
Speaker 1: there like motherfucker's on fire too? Was was? Was Robin
Speaker 1: Harris still around that time? Was just trying to get
Speaker 1: Robin was around at that time too, but he wasn't
Speaker 1: like at the club out there. He was like more
Speaker 1: in l A. He was in l A around that time.
Speaker 1: Did you ever get a chance to see him in
Speaker 1: the city or see some of his Harris I never
Speaker 1: even ran in the robbing Harris. I hope never know.
Speaker 1: So Bernie was the main about it when you came on,
Speaker 1: Bernie was yeah, Bernie was yeah, that was that was
Speaker 1: motherfucker forever Bernie. Yeah. I wanted a deal to be
Speaker 1: like that. I just wanted her was fired too, man,
Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying. I always wanted her to be bigger.
Speaker 1: From Death Comedy Jam three times was fire. Kenny how
Speaker 1: I was fired too. Kenny was a monster on the road.
Speaker 1: A lot of people don't didn't want to follow Kenny
Speaker 1: how To. He was he was a beast. So so
Speaker 1: back then, I mean, was your aspiration two Eventually, like
Speaker 1: one day I'll get on Death cham or I mean
Speaker 1: Death Death Comedy Jam or um. Like I'm sure earlier
Speaker 1: you had to choose what circuit you were going to do.
Speaker 1: And I don't know what the chipling circuit is for
Speaker 1: black comics versus mainstream comics. You know where It's like
Speaker 1: in New York. If you start working out at Boston
Speaker 1: Comedy Club or catch a rising star, chances are you
Speaker 1: might hit that mainstream you know lane. But there's also
Speaker 1: the danger being stuck in the kind of the black
Speaker 1: lane that doesn't allow you to go outside of Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: you can get you can get caught on the South
Speaker 1: side of Chicago doing bar at the bar, at the bar,
Speaker 1: and then next thing, you know, all your material is
Speaker 1: is geared towards who's the next bit walking in the door,
Speaker 1: and that would be your whole set. But also do this.
Speaker 1: But then you had to take your own initiative and go.
Speaker 1: Like I said in the get Go, if you're gonna
Speaker 1: write a joke and you're thinking about being around for
Speaker 1: a while, you're gonna write a joke that's for everybody
Speaker 1: at that time. So it was important for me to
Speaker 1: hang out up north and do stuff up North and
Speaker 1: north side of Chicago. It was predominantly white or whatever,
Speaker 1: and I mean where it was white and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: keep your chops up like that or whatever, because yeah,
Speaker 1: it would be hard to get I mean, it would
Speaker 1: be easy for you to get caught up into that
Speaker 1: chipless So for your creative process, um, how do you developed?
Speaker 1: How do you develop or protect a joke or an idea?
Speaker 1: So say like ninety four, what was popping? Okay, it's
Speaker 1: o J time, and so I'm certain that there's seven
Speaker 1: of you at your particular spot that are like trying
Speaker 1: to figure out what your angle it's going to be
Speaker 1: on O J. R Now, I'm always certain that like Chappelle,
Speaker 1: for instance, mainly works at like five secret spots that
Speaker 1: he knows that Hollywood writers won't be at like he
Speaker 1: won't do no l A spots because he's afraid that.
Speaker 1: He said that some of his jokes mild le one
Speaker 1: Family Guy, Yeah, mine too. I had a joke called
Speaker 1: balls Date that I used to do that the Cleveland show.
Speaker 1: Balls Date to have a joke. You can look at
Speaker 1: it on the internet. While talk about I'll talk about
Speaker 1: Wesley Pipes the poem. He talk about how he'd be
Speaker 1: talking when he'd be fucking how he'd just he's a
Speaker 1: real person, Yeah, he got his but he'd be talking
Speaker 1: to women crazy, when he'd be hitting touching me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he'd be like, come on, don't make me look bad,
Speaker 1: bit doing like may He'd be saying outland this ship.
Speaker 1: And so I was talking about how he was talking
Speaker 1: a woman to go balls deep or whatever. And next
Speaker 1: thing I know, I said a few years later, she
Speaker 1: was on Family Guy a whole song about it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because when Tyre when Tyra Banks came on our show,
Speaker 1: we did balls Deep as her walk on because Junior
Speaker 1: sing that's so Then I have a whole skin about
Speaker 1: balls deep and I used to do that ship all
Speaker 1: the time. So how do you protect that? How do
Speaker 1: you There's really no way to protect it. Basically, you
Speaker 1: you have to I mean, like, that's why I don't
Speaker 1: like to cliche ship, you know what I mean? Because
Speaker 1: I know if I think of something that easy is
Speaker 1: seventeen million other casts that's gonna be thinking the same thing.
Speaker 1: So I try to stay away from ship like that
Speaker 1: unless I have a very unique perspective on it or whatever.
Speaker 1: Other than that. The way that I think, in the
Speaker 1: way my delivery is I try to make it where
Speaker 1: you can't even you can't even twist that joke. You
Speaker 1: can't even make it yours in the sense you know,
Speaker 1: you could probably take it and do a rendition of it,
Speaker 1: but you will never deliver it with my cadence or whatever.
Speaker 1: You know, but you can take it and you can
Speaker 1: get another idea from it, like and make a song.
Speaker 1: Yes she can so, because I didn't think to write
Speaker 1: a song. So how do you feel, I mean, do
Speaker 1: you just like saying well to the to the other
Speaker 1: writers who did do that. Basically you just look at it,
Speaker 1: like you know, you believe in yourself and gold for
Speaker 1: those who stole you know, I'll make up some more. So,
Speaker 1: I mean, how do you confront Is there a confrontation
Speaker 1: method or whatever? Like if you hear your joke, you
Speaker 1: just have to approach that person if you hear him
Speaker 1: say it. If you had a situation where it's like yeah,
Speaker 1: at what time, I was in St. Louis with Kenny
Speaker 1: How and Kenny had like nine dudes with him and
Speaker 1: I ain't know nothing them. I just knew Kenny and
Speaker 1: we walked in this comedy club and this dude was
Speaker 1: actually doing my balls deep joke for line for line,
Speaker 1: and when he got off stage, like confront of them,
Speaker 1: like why would you do that? Like that's taking money
Speaker 1: on my pocket. Now about if I come down here
Speaker 1: and I have to do that joke, everybody gonna think
Speaker 1: that I instill Joe ship when you're steal in mind
Speaker 1: and he's sitting up like, yo, man, I ain't still
Speaker 1: your joke, and I'm like you did, Like I'm like
Speaker 1: I'm gready like put hands on this mother. They talked
Speaker 1: about this on how we'd string all the time, about
Speaker 1: all the time, and how Bill Man was my man
Speaker 1: building died the comedian and everybody's like one of them, dude.
Speaker 1: It's it's a lot of it's a lot of motherfucker's
Speaker 1: out here. Some of your favorite comedians to be out
Speaker 1: motherfucker's jokes because they know that the last dream. Yeah,
Speaker 1: ain't nobody gonna tellt them. Then people don't think that
Speaker 1: you're jokes. That's why I member, I did another joke
Speaker 1: on my special when somebody was telling me somebody it
Speaker 1: was somebody else joke, and I'm like, no, motherfucker, you
Speaker 1: don't know who did it first, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: I did that ship first, you know. So it's that
Speaker 1: kind of the danger of working and stuff out in
Speaker 1: clubs and stuff like that. It is the thing because
Speaker 1: sometimes you'll show up and there'll be nine comics in
Speaker 1: the back of the room just sitting there, you know,
Speaker 1: and they'll be watching you work out. Some of them
Speaker 1: will come up to you and be like, yo, I
Speaker 1: gotta tag for you. Let me help you and give
Speaker 1: you a bit of something, and that be cool when
Speaker 1: they do that ship, but the other ones they just
Speaker 1: be mad quiet, go home and write something similar to
Speaker 1: that ship or you know whatever, and now they got
Speaker 1: a hot fucking twenty minutes and ship you ain't never
Speaker 1: you never see them work out needed. So when you
Speaker 1: say attack, what does that mean in comedy terms? I
Speaker 1: mean like if I if I do a joke and
Speaker 1: it's okay, but you thought of something clever, you can
Speaker 1: come up to me and be like, Yo, that was funny,
Speaker 1: but at this on that and oh yeah great, you
Speaker 1: know what does Brennan Brennan Brennan is the king of
Speaker 1: walking up to since, Yo, why don't you and say
Speaker 1: it like that? And then I'll see that happen. Neil
Speaker 1: is my dude when it comes to right. And Neil
Speaker 1: had a room here on Sunday nights. Man, when we'll
Speaker 1: go up in there and work out on ship and
Speaker 1: always constantly having fresh ship, always working our ship. Well,
Speaker 1: come up to you on a heartbeat. He'll do it
Speaker 1: before he even go on. Like if you before him
Speaker 1: and you get all stage and heat next he'll tell
Speaker 1: your tag on your ship and then go do his ship.
Speaker 1: You know, like that's wanted to coach, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? Like, yeah, Neil is the monster with that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: shout out to Meil. So how long did you stay
Speaker 1: in Chicago before you broke out? I don't know to
Speaker 1: New York or l A, like we're you and I
Speaker 1: when I came out here, like in two thousand and seven,
Speaker 1: it's been like ten years. But when I first came
Speaker 1: out here, it was I used to like hate it,
Speaker 1: Like was it like starting over again or no, because
Speaker 1: everybody knew in the comedy world. They knew as far
Speaker 1: as black comics. They knew exactly who I was, and
Speaker 1: they and they gave me, you know, the proper do
Speaker 1: or whatever. But it just was so lame out here.
Speaker 1: To me. I was just like these my lame this ship,
Speaker 1: lame fuck this ship. This is then like Chicago, and
Speaker 1: I always be hauling at Chicago ship. And then one
Speaker 1: day this comedian they Dominique, saw me in front of
Speaker 1: the Comedy Still and I was like, these lame motherfucker's
Speaker 1: out here, fun this ship, this they like Chicago. She
Speaker 1: was like, we'll go home, nigger yeah. And I was like, well,
Speaker 1: she was like that's all I have here here. You
Speaker 1: talk about the Chicago this and that in hw l A,
Speaker 1: this this. She was like, l A was this way
Speaker 1: before you came out here, It's gonna be this way
Speaker 1: when you leave. She was like, you either play the
Speaker 1: I ain't gonna take you. That's all, motherfucker. I don't
Speaker 1: know why that stuck with me, but that was that
Speaker 1: big that my career shifted. I think a month two
Speaker 1: months after that, I got Coner. Yea, so all right,
Speaker 1: and I'm glad you're here. I want to have the
Speaker 1: l A rabbit hole discussion. I mean, I'm always hearing
Speaker 1: people like, man, I can't you know Ellie's mad phone email,
Speaker 1: Eli's you know what? Am I missing the memo? Like?
Speaker 1: Am I the only one that enjoys Los Angeles? Now?
Speaker 1: Your experience different than the average? No, but here it
Speaker 1: is Los Angeles to me. Like I said, now, I
Speaker 1: enjoyed Los Angeles. At that time, I was comparing apples
Speaker 1: to oranges in a sense. And as far as my
Speaker 1: career is concerned, once I switched, my mind stayed around,
Speaker 1: understood exactly what I needed to do and to do it.
Speaker 1: Then after that everything became easy and it became something
Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, I get it. This is just
Speaker 1: another planet out here, just like New York is another
Speaker 1: planet to me. But are you are you judging from
Speaker 1: a perspective? Okay, so from a musical perspective, like I
Speaker 1: know that um. In the jazz world, New York jazz
Speaker 1: musicians used to always look down on the l A
Speaker 1: jazz musicians and actually music New York session musicians used
Speaker 1: to always look down on l A session musicians because
Speaker 1: it was just a different type. They were more easy going,
Speaker 1: like a lot of that yacht rocky here, like the
Speaker 1: sound of Toto, that's smooth, Michael McDonald's stuff. It's you know,
Speaker 1: it's like and it represents what l A is about,
Speaker 1: a breezy, sunshine sort of state of mind, which is
Speaker 1: less gritty and roll than what what's on the East Coast.
Speaker 1: So you're saying that is it the level of comedy
Speaker 1: out here or just but a comedy. I'm from the Midwest,
Speaker 1: where what we talked about is real blue collar ship,
Speaker 1: and this is what it is when you're going to
Speaker 1: the East coast. East Coast comics talk about different stuff,
Speaker 1: and I'm talking about the majority. Ain't saying all of them,
Speaker 1: but they would do more Haitian jokes. So they'll do
Speaker 1: jokes about doms, Domnicans or some ship you know, each
Speaker 1: comic or go on stags and they'll have their Dominican
Speaker 1: or Chinese man or Puerto Rican ship. You come to
Speaker 1: l A. Everybody had a you know, audition joke, how
Speaker 1: the women are the cars of the weed. It's always that,
Speaker 1: you know, And where I was from, we would look
Speaker 1: at all of that and we would we had all
Speaker 1: of that, so we were more well rounded, I think,
Speaker 1: you know, as far as our experiences and our environment
Speaker 1: or whatever. So I think that's why, Um, when I
Speaker 1: came out here, I was more disappointed at the time,
Speaker 1: but then I realized that that's what know. They only
Speaker 1: know what they know, and I started embracing what they
Speaker 1: knew and started liking what they was doing, and then
Speaker 1: started incorporating some of these stories in the mind's situation.
Speaker 1: It's by being a fish out of water, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? And how did you know when it
Speaker 1: was I didn't know it was time you tried. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: But it's cool though. I mean, you know, sometimes I
Speaker 1: put myself in tripped out situations in order to write
Speaker 1: because it is such a difference. Like I'm from d C.
Speaker 1: So it is like a culture coming. I'll go to
Speaker 1: a dog race and just sit there just the right
Speaker 1: The only nick is sitting in there, just looking around.
Speaker 1: The dumb and ship ever, but I got a hot
Speaker 1: for team when I leave it. So all right, your
Speaker 1: een a dog right in your mind? In your mind
Speaker 1: is having a hot twenty? Is there a pressure to
Speaker 1: refurbish it every month? Oh? Absolutely you have to. I
Speaker 1: I try to refresh your refreshing every year. But I
Speaker 1: tried to move out. And how hard is it to
Speaker 1: let go of your gym? Oh my god? Because like,
Speaker 1: and again, I'm not a comedian, but I know that
Speaker 1: as a DJ, I know that these three songs they're
Speaker 1: gonna work, like you know, but then it's like yeah,
Speaker 1: but then it's like one I made like my ninth appearance,
Speaker 1: and people know, like, oh, he's about to play poison,
Speaker 1: Like they know what I'm gonna do, and it's and
Speaker 1: it's so one of the hardest things for me to do.
Speaker 1: In December, I always take like my most popular joints
Speaker 1: and just raise them out to set and I gotta
Speaker 1: start all over again. So how do you how you
Speaker 1: know it's the same way, like you you it's so
Speaker 1: hard to get rid of those gems. But then again,
Speaker 1: it goes back to trusting yourself. You have to like
Speaker 1: when people steal your jokes, you have to go all right. Well,
Speaker 1: you know I'm gonna write another. You know, somebody asked
Speaker 1: me one time in the interview that was like, what's
Speaker 1: your favorite joke? And I was like, I ain't wrote
Speaker 1: it yet. I really don't figure that. I'd always keep
Speaker 1: that in mind. I haven't wrote that motherfucker yet. And
Speaker 1: so I constantly am in mode of being a sponge.
Speaker 1: I'm not no silly dude like that, but I'm always
Speaker 1: paying attention to anything and everything that happened in order
Speaker 1: for me to constantly have that kind of material. So
Speaker 1: the times that we live in right now, in two
Speaker 1: and which um news is constantly changing, we're living we're
Speaker 1: living in a time period in which you literally won't
Speaker 1: be all that surprise if you're going to be told
Speaker 1: we're about to have a nuclear war. Yes, um, it's
Speaker 1: now to the point that if a riot breaks out
Speaker 1: in a certain place, you're not all that surprise if wait, wait,
Speaker 1: wait it's a riot breaking down, Yes there is right now,
Speaker 1: and where he pointed to, when let's roll, that's glad
Speaker 1: we did this practice run. Now we know I'm about
Speaker 1: to say, like, I don't know what your your partner
Speaker 1: in case goes down like he's a guy's signal that man,
Speaker 1: let's let's go. I grabbed because after your sheat screamed. Anyway,
Speaker 1: my my point is that, um it's like, my point
Speaker 1: is that I've been spending like the last month or
Speaker 1: so observing all the comics that have been coming through
Speaker 1: um Chappelle's residency at Radio City. Now some of them
Speaker 1: have been complaining. You know. The thing is like, when
Speaker 1: you're at Radio City, you want to put your best
Speaker 1: foot forward, you know, because Dave has hot lineups and
Speaker 1: you know all the celebrities in there, and so you
Speaker 1: want to put your best foot for it. But then
Speaker 1: like a lot of them are getting mysed because it's
Speaker 1: like damn Trump changing the news again, making this joke irrelevant. Now,
Speaker 1: I gotta I gotta scrap my my thirty minutes set
Speaker 1: and reset it for exactly And it's not so I'm
Speaker 1: saying that, you know, I know that in bad times,
Speaker 1: the worst that times are, the better is for comedians
Speaker 1: at least have subject mattered to to make fun of it.
Speaker 1: But because the times we live in so unprecedented, unprecedented
Speaker 1: with with constantly changing news, how does that affect you
Speaker 1: as that hot twenty Like I said, before. I can't
Speaker 1: write a lot of just ship this in your face
Speaker 1: because it's too easy and it's too easy, and I
Speaker 1: think everybody else is gonna write something that easy. So
Speaker 1: I don't have a lot of current topical material. Like,
Speaker 1: so you don't do much crowd work, That's what I mean.
Speaker 1: I do sometimes, but I'm not, I'm not. I'm not
Speaker 1: based on that. I don't like to get an audience
Speaker 1: what they want. I'm a type of comic where you
Speaker 1: have to you have to come into my world, you know,
Speaker 1: And once you in my world, then I can go
Speaker 1: wherever with you. But if I keep giving you what
Speaker 1: you want, then I'm a slave to you, and then
Speaker 1: you're they're getting fed what you eat and what you expect.
Speaker 1: The way you describe the r like the kind of
Speaker 1: way you talk about the comedy is the same way
Speaker 1: I think about rhymen. You know what I'm saying. Because
Speaker 1: it's like you can't almost yeah, Like you can't write
Speaker 1: like if you try to write about, okay, what happened
Speaker 1: on love and hip hop this week, and you try
Speaker 1: to put that and make that a punch line or whatever,
Speaker 1: that ship is old. So you have to write about
Speaker 1: like things that are universal, like things that are timeless
Speaker 1: balls deepest universal balls. So let me ask, because, Um,
Speaker 1: when I watched the Netflix special, I was so happy
Speaker 1: because one of my I hate this moment. It's like,
Speaker 1: like you ever hate, like when someone wants to tell
Speaker 1: you who they you remind them of, like no one wanted,
Speaker 1: no one weren't, Like I mean, is the king of
Speaker 1: letting you know who you look like and you don't
Speaker 1: look like her like at all, as long as they
Speaker 1: like legendary or something. The reason why I loved your
Speaker 1: Netflix special was that you kind of you kind of
Speaker 1: did this this this random, non secretive thing that one
Speaker 1: of my favorite comedians, Mitch Hedberg, was the king of
Speaker 1: where you just had all these random asides that weren't
Speaker 1: you know, it weren't. It wasn't of a time p
Speaker 1: it it was about you. But it's just you just
Speaker 1: going through a list of things. And you know, since
Speaker 1: Mitch Hedberg has has passed away, Stephen what's his name,
Speaker 1: Stephen right, Stephen Wright was sort of in that lane
Speaker 1: where like he would just let time go by, yeah
Speaker 1: and then say something, And I was like, I always
Speaker 1: wanted to know, Like I cannot wait for a black
Speaker 1: comedian to take that lean. You took that lean, so
Speaker 1: thank you. I think I think I think it's I
Speaker 1: think the rhythm is no rhythm, you know, And and
Speaker 1: that's that's the way that I leoked at it as
Speaker 1: far as approaching and I felt the lack of rhythm,
Speaker 1: it is groovy, you know what I mean? It was
Speaker 1: like silence is good too, because a lot of people
Speaker 1: don't trust silence, and let like, how do you? How
Speaker 1: do you do? That is just as great as applause
Speaker 1: because it lets you know that you have them and
Speaker 1: unless them, let you know that they're paying attention. And
Speaker 1: then and then also you can guide them wherever you want.
Speaker 1: You can make a left of right, you can bag
Speaker 1: up whatever you want to do at that moment. And
Speaker 1: you need to test that throughout your sets that you
Speaker 1: need to be quiet sometime just to see where they're
Speaker 1: at and then also to get your your thoughts together.
Speaker 1: Well you know, but but in experimenting, how do you
Speaker 1: what happens if you get turbulence in your set and
Speaker 1: you knew that didn't work, but you don't want to
Speaker 1: give it away that there have that joke didn't work
Speaker 1: you just like for me, personally, anytime I do a
Speaker 1: joke that don't work, I purposely do it in front
Speaker 1: of a joke that I know it's gonna work. So
Speaker 1: I'll do this, but I know I got this fire
Speaker 1: one coming next, or I'll do a fire one first,
Speaker 1: or I'll put it in between two. Yeah, I sound
Speaker 1: with you, between two in order to give it the
Speaker 1: legs that it need at just in case it doesn't work.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm gonna put that right between two great ass jokes,
Speaker 1: you know. So it's an example for you of a
Speaker 1: joke that you were unsure of or something that for
Speaker 1: you that it's something that you had to joke. I
Speaker 1: had this joke that I and me. Also, another thing
Speaker 1: that I do is funny. It's funny regardless. And I
Speaker 1: learned this from Conan that you know, every moment can't
Speaker 1: be magical. If it was, then we wouldn't have magical moments.
Speaker 1: So I would think that I would take jokes that
Speaker 1: purposely wouldn't work, just to set up the next one.
Speaker 1: But that would be funny to have a joke that
Speaker 1: didn't work, Yeah, like a dead moment. Yes, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: purposely do that. I had a joke, Yeah, Yeah, because
Speaker 1: I think that that, you know, because that's a that's
Speaker 1: a moment of honesty, that that that's a moment of
Speaker 1: vulnerability that I showed the audience that I'm not as
Speaker 1: together as you think I am. I had this joke
Speaker 1: that I used to always do. I used to be
Speaker 1: like Tiger Woods doesn't want to say he's black, but
Speaker 1: his father's black and his mother's tie. I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: call him a formal nigger. No, that would never get
Speaker 1: a laugh. I don't know why, YO knew. No one laughed,
Speaker 1: But I would purposely do that joke every time, just
Speaker 1: just and then I would sit there and would not
Speaker 1: move until people like it made it funnier because people
Speaker 1: were like what, like, what is he talking about? But
Speaker 1: that that was what I used to do, you know,
Speaker 1: back in the day. I'll walk on stage this when
Speaker 1: I first started, I'll walk on stage with like a saxophone.
Speaker 1: I would never play. I'll do fifteen minutes old and
Speaker 1: and then just leave. I didn't even play this, they're
Speaker 1: gonna play. He forgot the play. I'll bring like a flute,
Speaker 1: uh uh, I mean like hamonica, and would never play
Speaker 1: that ship just just you know, just twist it up. Dude,
Speaker 1: you gotta do that the next special, just wear a sexphone. Right.
Speaker 1: You remember explained about the whole polarization thing. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So Chappelle does his trick where he polarized his audience
Speaker 1: by you know, when you see him perform milk take
Speaker 1: a cigarette and then he'll he won't puffe it. He'll
Speaker 1: light the cigarette and won't puff it. And he and
Speaker 1: he knocks this thing with his knee. Yeah, every time
Speaker 1: he hits his knee with the after the punch, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: like that to me, you know, you with the saxophone
Speaker 1: and never use it. Used to I used to do
Speaker 1: that a lot. I first started just to keep people going,
Speaker 1: what what so? What was it like? Um in the
Speaker 1: the Conan camp because I know that his particular brand
Speaker 1: of of of writers, at least from my perspective, um,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean it was it seemed like it
Speaker 1: was part national lampoons, like you know, like college uh
Speaker 1: ivy League level humor some and you know like there
Speaker 1: was the master baiting bear like kind of like Conan humor. Um.
Speaker 1: How first of all, were you quote the only guy
Speaker 1: in the room? And I think you know what I
Speaker 1: mean by quote? Got like the rest. So I was
Speaker 1: I was the very first and only to this day
Speaker 1: black rider that Couner has ever had. Yes and yikes,
Speaker 1: yeah wait, not even what's his name? I thought what's
Speaker 1: his name? Was on the show for a second um
Speaker 1: cribe enthusiasm. He was Jooth was not a Coning writer
Speaker 1: at one point, j did you have any parameters or
Speaker 1: did he just say go for it? Well? When I
Speaker 1: first started, I was with all these Emmy Award winning
Speaker 1: writers that went to Brown University, and I tried to
Speaker 1: write like that. When I first started, how do you
Speaker 1: find your tribe in your I just was trying to
Speaker 1: write like them, and like none of that was working. No,
Speaker 1: I was working. And one day they were writing this
Speaker 1: bit about Andy Rector, uh going to october Fest and
Speaker 1: I didn't know what that was and I was like,
Speaker 1: what's that? It was like it's a German drinking day
Speaker 1: and I was just like, why everybody got drinking day
Speaker 1: with black people? And Coning at that day was like
Speaker 1: once you write that up, and I was like, uh,
Speaker 1: I was like really He was like yeah, So I
Speaker 1: wrote it up and he was like, and I want
Speaker 1: you to come out on the show and explain that,
Speaker 1: and I was like okay, and I went out and
Speaker 1: explained it. It blew up. Then I think something else
Speaker 1: came up where I was like they were they were
Speaker 1: they were talking about a hunting house or something, and
Speaker 1: I was like that ship ain't scary to black people.
Speaker 1: This scary to black people, and they just like write
Speaker 1: that up. So it became this thing where it was
Speaker 1: like my world with Conan's world colliding. It was like yes,
Speaker 1: So it was this dynamic that we had that well,
Speaker 1: it's funny. So it led to me writing my way
Speaker 1: okay that they couldn't right now, Yeah, you needed your
Speaker 1: voice like became my became my my voice in my
Speaker 1: perspective that they couldn't write. So then they led me
Speaker 1: to have my own lane, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: and doing my own thing or whatever. But yeah, and
Speaker 1: that to just this black dude from the South side
Speaker 1: of Chicago kicking there with this super white dude Harvard
Speaker 1: graduated from Boston and US collide and but being like damn,
Speaker 1: they're best friends, you know. So it worked. So assuming
Speaker 1: that no NDA was signed, Um, both you and I
Speaker 1: have something in common. Uh, we both at one point
Speaker 1: and I still do work for the Tonight show. Yes,
Speaker 1: now that was a really weird preference. The thing is is,
Speaker 1: what what was the writer's room like when word first
Speaker 1: got out that oh, we might not be on the
Speaker 1: show anymore. Because the thing is like, once you get Tonight,
Speaker 1: it's such a legacy that everyone thinks like, oh, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be a thirty year run, you know, Johnny Carson,
Speaker 1: thirty years. They years, and that's what we thought. And
Speaker 1: when you yeah, you guys got to your second year
Speaker 1: and it's like, wait a minute, what's going on here? Yeah,
Speaker 1: like the writer's room was like and you all moved
Speaker 1: to Los Angeles, but for that, like did you come
Speaker 1: to New York at all? For any of them? Remember,
Speaker 1: like they moved from New York and came here for
Speaker 1: the show. I came on as a guest. I wasn't
Speaker 1: even a part of the camp when it came. And
Speaker 1: then after the they were there for like four months,
Speaker 1: and then that's when then you were and then and
Speaker 1: then and then I got hired or whatever. But when
Speaker 1: we when they wouldn't move that time slot, and Conan
Speaker 1: was like, yo, I'm leaving it. Just I was still
Speaker 1: kind of like not knowing that history was be amazed
Speaker 1: fast television, right sir. And like I was, I was
Speaker 1: still like, yo, this banking sketches out and whatever. Like
Speaker 1: everybody else was like, we moved from New York to here.
Speaker 1: They just sold their houses and York you know, the
Speaker 1: move that because they think and it was gonna be
Speaker 1: a thirty year there. I was. I was there for
Speaker 1: their last days. It was crushing, right, but we we
Speaker 1: we went, we went ham We was like, okay, well,
Speaker 1: let's just spend all of their money. You were never
Speaker 1: that last episode, Yeah, okay, we had the roll we
Speaker 1: we had the Rolling Stones song. Yeah play, yes, we
Speaker 1: played repeatedly during the show, so we had to pay
Speaker 1: for the licenses for that. I almost got in trouble. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: when I watched that last episode, Uh, they had also
Speaker 1: played Julia by the Beatles four times. There's five songs
Speaker 1: by the Beatles are like untouchable and it's near like
Speaker 1: seven hundred thousand dollars per uth and I had tweeted
Speaker 1: that out and that was the first time that the
Speaker 1: Comcast people or you know, like called called my manager
Speaker 1: like can we control mirrors account? Because I can say like, oh, ship,
Speaker 1: see about to pay They're like, can you get tweet?
Speaker 1: We don't want our bosses to know how much money
Speaker 1: were wasting. Hilarious. Yeah, but how much did that last
Speaker 1: episode costs? Because y'all did like y'all destroyed a very
Speaker 1: expensive card. They destroy they some of the horse we had,
Speaker 1: like this thorough bred horse that costs like millions, and
Speaker 1: we was like, oh yeah, we was it, like you know,
Speaker 1: and they didn't want us to do that. We had
Speaker 1: these ancient bones flew in, these uh dinosaur bones flew
Speaker 1: in some contexts into this because yeah, give me some
Speaker 1: context to the Late Night Wars or whatever. So Conan,
Speaker 1: you were writer for Conan and then what happened The
Speaker 1: show just got canceled, like Jay Leno gave him the
Speaker 1: show and then we had the show, and then they
Speaker 1: wanted to move the Tonight Show from eleven thirty to twelve.
Speaker 1: Conan was like, it's been eleven thirty since the beginning
Speaker 1: of it Tonight Show, how dare you move the time slides?
Speaker 1: And they was like, we want to move it and
Speaker 1: so Jay can have the So Jay can have the
Speaker 1: eleven thirty spot, and it was like he was like,
Speaker 1: he wasn't he wasn't gonna do it. He wasn't gonna,
Speaker 1: you know, go against the integrity of the show. Connor
Speaker 1: was like, oh I'm out, and they gave him forty
Speaker 1: five million to leave and he left. Yeah, it was
Speaker 1: it was crazy, you know. But we went on tour
Speaker 1: after that because he couldn't be on TV or radio
Speaker 1: or nothing like that. So we toured for like three months.
Speaker 1: So you were you yeah, I closed. I'd like I
Speaker 1: went second to last doing stand up. I was doing
Speaker 1: like ten fifteen minutes to stand up every night. We
Speaker 1: was doing like between two thousand and fifteen thousand seats.
Speaker 1: It was like that was like some rolling Stone ship
Speaker 1: because it was a movement because everybody loved Conan at
Speaker 1: that time and they knew that they did them wrong.
Speaker 1: So everywhere we went it was like crazy. And like
Speaker 1: every city we went to, whoever the celebrity was, I
Speaker 1: was known in that city, they would come out on
Speaker 1: stage with Conan. So we was with like Neil Diamond
Speaker 1: and Eddie Vetter and like all these people that I like,
Speaker 1: beyond my comprehensiveive meeting, like hanging out with him. It
Speaker 1: was crazy. Like I remember when we finished the tour,
Speaker 1: I got to my apartment and called my Renos plays
Speaker 1: asking for chicken fingers and ship fadus rand I was gone, boy,
Speaker 1: we did Bonaru. We did like because you know, Cone
Speaker 1: is a musical guy too. You know. They played the
Speaker 1: guitar and ship, you know, so we caught it. Cut
Speaker 1: an album with Jack White was in Nashville. It was
Speaker 1: crazy y'all album, Like it was crazy. Are you and
Speaker 1: Cony y'all still cool? Now? Y'all still work? How many
Speaker 1: years did you do on the TBS show before you
Speaker 1: left my show? No No for Cony? Did you go
Speaker 1: with Conan into TV? Yeah? Yeah, I went over there.
Speaker 1: I was over there like six years, six years. Then
Speaker 1: I had my own show called black Box, and then
Speaker 1: at the Black Box. That's when I left and went
Speaker 1: to black That was a sleeper black. They didn't they
Speaker 1: didn't get behind me at all. They was trying to
Speaker 1: promote it like it was some kicking the nuts that
Speaker 1: show and ship, you know, but we was doing We
Speaker 1: was doing topical ship, were talking about what was in
Speaker 1: the news. But they was promoting us as if we
Speaker 1: were showing yeah, like some toss ship and it went't
Speaker 1: like that. We were talking about a Manda Binds and
Speaker 1: all kinds of ship that anything that was in the news,
Speaker 1: you know, but it was it was a great show,
Speaker 1: but it was all white network at the time. And
Speaker 1: you know, TBS used to be a network for baseball,
Speaker 1: and so all these shows used to cater to the
Speaker 1: white American baseball guy. And then I come along. They're like,
Speaker 1: what those two guys, I know, you'll talk about them
Speaker 1: all the time on Vice. They're like a kind of
Speaker 1: like they might have been inspired by. Yeah, how did
Speaker 1: you come across Kenya? Uh? It was agent by the
Speaker 1: name of tam Are going. She was talking to Kenya.
Speaker 1: Kenya was talking to her about some writers that she needed,
Speaker 1: and she was like, yo, Dion just finished up on Conan,
Speaker 1: you should go. You should have them come over. And
Speaker 1: he was like all right, But Kenya had knew my
Speaker 1: work and I knew a Kenya too, and so I
Speaker 1: went over there for an interview and talked to him,
Speaker 1: like I said, that's when we met about talking about
Speaker 1: this Charlie character and all of that, and then um man,
Speaker 1: it just at the uh Charlie didn't want to do it.
Speaker 1: It just what it did. So did I hear you? Right?
Speaker 1: You right for yourself for that character? No, I don't
Speaker 1: now at that time, No, I never did. I was
Speaker 1: just writing for I was I was going to write
Speaker 1: for that character. But the way that I envisioned the
Speaker 1: character of being me and Kenya only knew how that
Speaker 1: character should be. So when Charlie didn't want to do it,
Speaker 1: Keny was like, well, I want to find nobody else
Speaker 1: and try to show them how to do. Want you
Speaker 1: to just be that character from me? And how did
Speaker 1: he describe that character to you? Like, what was he
Speaker 1: to be? Well, he just told me that it was
Speaker 1: this guy that works with Anthony and he uh, he's
Speaker 1: just a friend that that comes that came into the
Speaker 1: office and that you know, just chops it up with Anthony.
Speaker 1: And I was more and you know, actually the character
Speaker 1: is mainly based off of Kenya. Kenya. Is that guy
Speaker 1: he Anthony? Your characters Kenya Kenya, Yeah, Kenya. It's like
Speaker 1: it's like a split personality thing with Kenya. Kenya. Kenya
Speaker 1: is that awkward guy in the office. Yeah, Kenya was
Speaker 1: that guy with his family situation, you know, And that's
Speaker 1: what irresponsible. That's the great thing about Anthony's character on
Speaker 1: the show for those that watch it. When Anthony is
Speaker 1: at home, he's an idiot. When he's in the office,
Speaker 1: he's brilliant. Yeah, and he just he he plays this.
Speaker 1: He played he flip flops. This character that's you know,
Speaker 1: crazy to see him. So is that typical to have
Speaker 1: one person right for one character, because I know that
Speaker 1: in the case the thirty Rock um, Donald Glover's job
Speaker 1: was to write and be the voice of Tracy Morgan's
Speaker 1: character on thirty Rocks and just right for him. So
Speaker 1: you know, like when you're getting this job, before you
Speaker 1: were on the show, your job wasn't to contribute an
Speaker 1: ideal line for the for the story, for the plot
Speaker 1: or anything. It was like, what would this character said? Well,
Speaker 1: I don't know, because I didn't. I didn't get that far.
Speaker 1: All the furthest I got was, hey, it's this guy,
Speaker 1: ain't childie. And I never wrote on a sick I
Speaker 1: never only wrote for late night and yeah, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: totally late late night, it's current. Late night is fast paced.
Speaker 1: Next thing you know, twelve hours is gone buy and
Speaker 1: you're like, god damn, yeah, yeah, you gotta do it
Speaker 1: all over again. The next day you're in the news,
Speaker 1: you're getting premises sent that you you gotta write descript.
Speaker 1: It's like that with television. You know, you got months
Speaker 1: to prep beforehand, and then you get the skirts easier.
Speaker 1: I mean yeah, because yeah, yeah, yeah, because you got
Speaker 1: you got to be funny, funny within minutes, Like every
Speaker 1: second has got to be funny. On late night a monologue,
Speaker 1: set up punchline, set up punch line, and you got it.
Speaker 1: And then after that you got like just a few
Speaker 1: minutes and before you know, the guests come out, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. So you gotta you gotta hit it,
Speaker 1: like like tonight show now that y'all want, like it's
Speaker 1: gotta be snappy, you know. But television, yeah, you got
Speaker 1: time to prep and write, you know, get it together,
Speaker 1: did you? Was it a transition for you going from
Speaker 1: writing to like now having to add you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Like now, like but I was always like
Speaker 1: loving acting, you know what I'm saying? Writing writing was
Speaker 1: writing was more stressful to me than acting, because yeah,
Speaker 1: because you have to be funny. You have to like
Speaker 1: constantly come up with stuff, will constantly be funny and
Speaker 1: not be funny to yourself. You gotta be funny to
Speaker 1: the world, like it's gotta it's gotta old, young black
Speaker 1: white man women. So are you trying to pander to
Speaker 1: the room knowing that culturally their brand of humor is
Speaker 1: a little bit different than yours, Like, do you have
Speaker 1: to skewer the degrees a little bit so that you're like, okay,
Speaker 1: if it hits these I'm assuming you have ten, eleven,
Speaker 1: twelve writers in Conan's room. Are you in your mind saying, okay,
Speaker 1: I got just okay, that's good. I have to adjust
Speaker 1: to them or they don't know what funny is. Let
Speaker 1: me just know it's No, it's you think can demographically
Speaker 1: and you also thinking about Conan. You're thinking about how
Speaker 1: his humor is, and then you're thinking about your demographic
Speaker 1: that's listening to this, and you have to make sure
Speaker 1: that your material. So if he thinks it's funny, then
Speaker 1: you're like, I'm cool because I care about the writers
Speaker 1: or your head writer and that sort of thing. No,
Speaker 1: because you're already thinking what Conan might think. You're thinking
Speaker 1: what the head writer would think too. But your your
Speaker 1: your main purpose is what Conan thinks. It's not even
Speaker 1: the demographic, because you can have something edgy and Conan
Speaker 1: might let it slide through and go oh, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I like that, but you you ain't even thinking about
Speaker 1: because it's been many times where I hadn't wrote sketches
Speaker 1: and I thought they were brilliant and Conan like nope.
Speaker 1: You know, like one time I had this thing where
Speaker 1: I had like fifty suit coats come in where Conan
Speaker 1: had to try on fifty Steve Harvey suit coats that
Speaker 1: I was that I want him to do. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: like Steve never been just like it. He got it.
Speaker 1: He just was like nah, And then I had to
Speaker 1: get all fifty in them suits sent back. Because when
Speaker 1: when you first think of it, when when you get
Speaker 1: to work at like nine in the morning, you're looking
Speaker 1: at two D premises and then at the premises you
Speaker 1: write up a couple of jokes to pitch it to
Speaker 1: the head right, and he go, that's funny. At that moment,
Speaker 1: you gotta write a script and send her heads up
Speaker 1: to the whole department which is casting props, uh, electrical whatever,
Speaker 1: and they look at your script. Everybody's building casting everything,
Speaker 1: shopping all wire. You writing the script, lunch, come, you
Speaker 1: go downstairs and you rehearse that ship. Everything got to
Speaker 1: be in order. And that's just one bite bite and
Speaker 1: don't want me tell you something? Can it come out?
Speaker 1: And he looked at that ship and if it ain't funny,
Speaker 1: send all that ship back. Let me tell you something,
Speaker 1: all right, Steve, And I can relate to this what
Speaker 1: he just described, because nothing is more painful then when
Speaker 1: a sketch, especially when music is involved on the Tonight
Speaker 1: Show and the writer makes you slave over a mix
Speaker 1: and you put four or five hours behind this ship
Speaker 1: and then you realize, like by the fifth hour that
Speaker 1: you're just doing a demo that's going to be submitted
Speaker 1: to Jimmy to see to see and it doesn't make
Speaker 1: And then just like they struggle, like, Okay, it's fine,
Speaker 1: and I'm like that, I know that, I know that
Speaker 1: payment arranging melodies. But it's weird though that because even
Speaker 1: as you say that, I'm like, yo, doesn't cone and
Speaker 1: realized the viral gold of seeing him in the Steve
Speaker 1: Harvey suit that that will last on the internet forever,
Speaker 1: all the memes and all the jifts that will be made.
Speaker 1: But like, were they even thinking that far ahead into
Speaker 1: the future, because like the stuff we do now, it's
Speaker 1: it's you're you're thinking in so many compartments of like Okay,
Speaker 1: is the sketch genuinely funny? Well? This will they change
Speaker 1: the channel after this thing? But then it's beyond. That's beyond.
Speaker 1: Are they going to watch it in the morning on
Speaker 1: their iPhone in the gym? Is it? Is there something
Speaker 1: visually funny that we can freeze it and then it
Speaker 1: will be made a jeft into you know, there's so
Speaker 1: many levels of marketing. Yeah, yeah, making the way people
Speaker 1: consume it's so different now, like it you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, Like I was, I want to ask you, like,
Speaker 1: does that how does that inform comedy? Because I mean
Speaker 1: it's like I was saying, it's it's no longer comedy
Speaker 1: now is no longer I go to one spot and
Speaker 1: I see a guy on stage, or I'll sit at
Speaker 1: home and I watched body. It can be a snapchat everybody.
Speaker 1: Everybody's funny Right now, there's like a little tension with
Speaker 1: comics and a lot of Instagram people who come out,
Speaker 1: they do a video and then all of a sudden
Speaker 1: it's viral. On Now this person is booked in the
Speaker 1: club and people coming to see them do what like
Speaker 1: I don't know, And it's like taking it takes it
Speaker 1: takes food out of I guess comics who can honestly
Speaker 1: do stand up and really deserve to be there. It
Speaker 1: takes food out their pocket. I guess it's similar to
Speaker 1: models versus Instagram models. What were your feelings like four
Speaker 1: like those buying stars like because there's at least eight
Speaker 1: or nine or ten of them that could if there's
Speaker 1: one in particular that's like extremely popular that uh, when
Speaker 1: this particular person took a meeting with developing our own show,
Speaker 1: like I guess like HBO had called them into develop something. Um,
Speaker 1: it was like a fish out of water situation because
Speaker 1: it's like this person is hilarious and a seven seven
Speaker 1: second vine scenario, but I couldn't adjust at all in
Speaker 1: the real world of the half hour. That's a different thing.
Speaker 1: That's a different Yeah, that's that's two different skills, two
Speaker 1: different things. But they just think, Hey, he's got followers,
Speaker 1: he's got this, then y'all, let's let's throw him some money.
Speaker 1: Let's get his followers. And we can't get his followers,
Speaker 1: then you know, we can add those followers follow us
Speaker 1: to what we got going on, you know. And I
Speaker 1: think that's what it basically is. I think they just
Speaker 1: get them for that, I think, you know, but when
Speaker 1: that vine ship was popping off, I ain't even I wasn't.
Speaker 1: I didn't even realize how big that was when it
Speaker 1: was going on because I wasn't like on it like
Speaker 1: that because I didn't know. I didn't know the magnitude
Speaker 1: that we're doing real comedy out on stage. But you
Speaker 1: take advantage of like social because I follow you on
Speaker 1: yeah around that. Yeah, definitely I messed around. But that's
Speaker 1: just my world and ship, you know what I mean, Like,
Speaker 1: I don't be like you know, and people that I like,
Speaker 1: I followed them and look at the stuff that they
Speaker 1: did or whatever, but put real jokes up in there. No,
Speaker 1: I would not do that. A good buddy of mine
Speaker 1: in Chicago, Um, I have a lot of I don't
Speaker 1: know what it is, like a lot of my comedy
Speaker 1: homies in Chicago Dave ellum, uh yeah Dave and shout
Speaker 1: out the nefertory to she put shout out, um, how
Speaker 1: do you know? They wanted me to ask, how do
Speaker 1: you know as a comedian winning time to move from
Speaker 1: another city? Move leave Chicago and maybe go l A
Speaker 1: or New York, Like, how did you know in your
Speaker 1: journey it's like okay, now signed for me to move. Well,
Speaker 1: I wasn't one of them, my fingers that believed in myself.
Speaker 1: I waited till it came to me to it made
Speaker 1: me go, yo, let's go. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I wasn't gonna just go. You know what, I believe
Speaker 1: in myself, let me pack up me and my dreams.
Speaker 1: And now that now that, I was like, yo, it
Speaker 1: has to like come get me and go yo, come
Speaker 1: out here and come do this. Which yes, and that's
Speaker 1: exactly what happened. You know. It came and got me
Speaker 1: and was like okay, you need to come out here
Speaker 1: and do this. And I was like all right, and
Speaker 1: so that's what I did. But as far as just
Speaker 1: jumping up myself now and and and I ain't knocking
Speaker 1: nobody who do that, but I just I wasn't that
Speaker 1: secure with my with myself like that, you know, because
Speaker 1: it wasn't like this was something that I had, you know,
Speaker 1: from a kid. I was like, I want to be
Speaker 1: a kind like someone better me I did. It was
Speaker 1: like whoa yeh, so what did your what did your
Speaker 1: folks do? Like what was their uh what they supported? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I was on television, jumping out of limos, walking right
Speaker 1: in my mama house and taking the garbage out, mopping
Speaker 1: the floor. She had no idea what was going on.
Speaker 1: My mother a Christian, you know, she went the church
Speaker 1: three times a week. She had no idea what was
Speaker 1: going on? Like nothing. All she knew was her baby
Speaker 1: boy didn't work. He woke up at one o'clock every day,
Speaker 1: but he had money to put on the rent in
Speaker 1: the bills. And she was just like, yo, you better
Speaker 1: not be selling drugs. And I don't know how you
Speaker 1: getting your money. And I used telling I was doing comedy.
Speaker 1: She like, you can call it whatever. Parents never believe, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, talk, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I can't
Speaker 1: keep off the phone. So when during the period in
Speaker 1: which you took your last quote last day on black Is,
Speaker 1: because Andrew Tribeca was around the corner um, then you
Speaker 1: came back to thank God black Is, Like how did
Speaker 1: that work out? So? Black Ish was always in second position.
Speaker 1: Andrew Tribeca was the show I had first. The only
Speaker 1: reason why I went over the blackest two rights because
Speaker 1: I was waiting on a yes. So I allowed that
Speaker 1: they allowed you to sow the character I play on
Speaker 1: Blackest wasn't even supposed to be like always. It was
Speaker 1: supposed to be like a one time or dale. But
Speaker 1: the character blew up that they kept I kept going back.
Speaker 1: I left was like a one or two. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: left for about eight episodes kids. Yeah, but when I
Speaker 1: when I when I left, I had to go do
Speaker 1: ant try back, and it kind of like went went
Speaker 1: crazy a little bit. And so it got to the
Speaker 1: point where they had to like work with each other
Speaker 1: where they didn't have to. They just made it work.
Speaker 1: TVs was kind enough to go, Okay, we'll let y'all
Speaker 1: use him for this long and so that's just what happened,
Speaker 1: you know. And they went back and forth every season
Speaker 1: with how many episodes I can do and can't do,
Speaker 1: and then it just balanced itself out at the world.
Speaker 1: I don't seem like it's any a lot of actors
Speaker 1: in Hollywood that have that privilege. No, it was unheard
Speaker 1: of a lot of I think a lot of cats.
Speaker 1: Now I started to get it or whatever. I remember
Speaker 1: I was talking to uh uh, Tiffany Hattis, I see.
Speaker 1: It was like, you know, I'm trying to get that
Speaker 1: d white hot, right since we want black is joke
Speaker 1: can I ask you, like, so, as far as shooting scenes,
Speaker 1: do you have like a favorite actor that you like
Speaker 1: to shoot scenes? But of course people love the Diane moments. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but is there like somebody who you really like this man,
Speaker 1: my my office buddies, Peter mackenzie and stuff like Yo
Speaker 1: and Nelson We and Anthony. Those office scenes, man, they're
Speaker 1: so crazy because those guys are just as racist as
Speaker 1: funny as Yeah, but it'd be real ship that will
Speaker 1: be you know what I'm saying. And so man working
Speaker 1: with them guys, man, it's fun to say I love
Speaker 1: playing playing that character as far as like with those guys. Man, Yeah,
Speaker 1: how much stuff gets made up on setting? How much
Speaker 1: stuff is written? Stuff like that, and be honest with you,
Speaker 1: all of its written. Like the scrip. The writers are
Speaker 1: like incredible. They're so brilliant, man, And like after certain
Speaker 1: takes they'll go, Yo, you can freestyle a little bit now,
Speaker 1: let us go. I mean they really open to us
Speaker 1: freestyle or whatever. They'll give us all moments where we
Speaker 1: can add live and throw some stuff in there. Definitely,
Speaker 1: but the scrubby so tight sometime that we don't even
Speaker 1: literally have to you know, because sometimes you can kill
Speaker 1: a joke with a joke. What's the episode you're most
Speaker 1: proud of. I love the Lemonade episode, which is the
Speaker 1: one about Trump being voted on. And another episode I
Speaker 1: really like is the one where I had to babysit. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I was like, I would have loved that was killing Anthony.
Speaker 1: I remember my showed up to work. That's seen her.
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, you'd be on time over that month,
Speaker 1: showed up and seen how I just I was like,
Speaker 1: can you kind of talk to you? I was like,
Speaker 1: what is she doing? It? Like that's gonna be I
Speaker 1: was like, what, So you didn't know until you got
Speaker 1: on se No, I did that Kenya. They do that ship.
Speaker 1: They're surprised you ship like he wanted your genuine reactions. Man,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I was so nervous too. I was nervous.
Speaker 1: She was fine. I tell you, I'm like, man, TV TV.
Speaker 1: She looked nice on TV and then that, but seeing
Speaker 1: personal life, like you can look you look at her
Speaker 1: and go I get it. Yeah, I get it. I
Speaker 1: get why. I get it. I get it. I get
Speaker 1: why all these niggas is doing and she nicest ship man,
Speaker 1: finest fun. Yeah, you're from cal You ain't from Philly? What? No,
Speaker 1: I'm from DC. I can't get called. Yeah, who do
Speaker 1: you like? Who? Don't want to ask you? Who do
Speaker 1: you like? Down? Like? Who's your like? Cats? Did you
Speaker 1: come out of the house? Yeah? You have comedians that
Speaker 1: you like that that that I go see or I
Speaker 1: mean we'll just cats that you did? Man, Man, it's
Speaker 1: so man. I like Harlan Williams. You ever go see
Speaker 1: Harlan Williams. Like I know who Harlan Williams is hilarious? Man?
Speaker 1: I like J J from Mississippi. Uh, he's hilarious. Um My, man,
Speaker 1: Tony Scofield it's funny and Tony is It's hilarious. And yeah,
Speaker 1: those are get like comics that I look at and
Speaker 1: get inspired by watching. Chris Specter it's funny as hell.
Speaker 1: Is he still doing Is he going out and still doing? Clear?
Speaker 1: He still do shows and stuff. Yeah, he's actually now
Speaker 1: writing on um my other show, Grownish, that we start
Speaker 1: shooting in September. Grownish, it's spin off from Black It's
Speaker 1: too hold because this is it's not called college, It's
Speaker 1: called Grownish. It's gonna be your different world. Yeah, Charlie's
Speaker 1: gonna be on it. Yeah, he played as a JUX
Speaker 1: professor at night and man, yeah it's crazy. He got
Speaker 1: like a prostitutes nothing fetterman trying to get their life together.
Speaker 1: But black does that mean you double up again? Are
Speaker 1: you tripling? Na? Now I do both the studios right
Speaker 1: next to each other, are all right? So what's your like,
Speaker 1: who's your lawyer? What is it? What is your itinerary?
Speaker 1: Then like what time you to be up? So right now,
Speaker 1: like right now, I'm doing Blackish, and then like the
Speaker 1: days that I have off, if I can, I go
Speaker 1: over the coning and might do it better or whatever.
Speaker 1: And then in September still I do bits. I do bits. Ye,
Speaker 1: I do bits, like if something in the news or
Speaker 1: if they call me and be like, yo, can you
Speaker 1: do this, I'd be like, yeah, I come through and
Speaker 1: do it. Or if it's something that I think it's funny,
Speaker 1: I'd be like, man, I think we should do this
Speaker 1: real quick. And then when they go all right, find cool.
Speaker 1: So I'll go over there if I can, if I
Speaker 1: got the time going, then do a bit. But I'll
Speaker 1: do Blackish now, and then September I start Grownish and
Speaker 1: I'll be doing Blackish and Grownish at the same time
Speaker 1: until December, and then December and you try back to start,
Speaker 1: and then I do Angie and Blackish all the way
Speaker 1: into the spring, and then I got my other show
Speaker 1: face Value BT with Want of the Sykes and Tiffany
Speaker 1: hat this that starts September. We shot. We shot twenty
Speaker 1: four episodes already at that. It's it's a it's a
Speaker 1: game show man, It's it's funny. It's it's just we're
Speaker 1: paying people to profile people. That's it pretty much. What's
Speaker 1: like what it is man, it's it's it's it's funny, though,
Speaker 1: it's like you We get these people and Tiffany interviews
Speaker 1: them off the Vegas strip and before they can answer
Speaker 1: the question that she asked them, we asked people on
Speaker 1: the audience. I mean, these contestants whether they think and
Speaker 1: if they guess what they think they might say. Then
Speaker 1: they get okay, yeah, I've saw I've seen the yeas,
Speaker 1: what would you do? Yeah, it's like and then we
Speaker 1: break well. The whole shows you getting to know these characters,
Speaker 1: and then the next act we will say something that
Speaker 1: somebody did and you gotta guess who. And then the
Speaker 1: third act it's like you know who said this. And
Speaker 1: then at the end, whoever wins those three rounds they
Speaker 1: go to the bonus round and then they get to
Speaker 1: choose who they think they know the best and answer
Speaker 1: as many questions possible. Then they win ten thousands. It's
Speaker 1: a derivative of Black White. It's a radio game where
Speaker 1: you play us and you tell somebody scenario and you
Speaker 1: have to guess what they are. Well, it's it's Indians.
Speaker 1: And she said, we all feel that that form. Come on,
Speaker 1: I can't even I can't even ask what's in your
Speaker 1: future because you have six jobs. While you wait a minute,
Speaker 1: I'm the only one who telling job. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm just chilling. You know, okay, you're dating. I'm just chilling,
Speaker 1: just chilling me like I know what it means, trying
Speaker 1: to figure It's like we just figure out the world.
Speaker 1: I got my dreams in the suitcase. I asked no questions.
Speaker 1: You got babies. I have a son, Okay, you don't
Speaker 1: treat them like you treat them. He'll be fifteen and September.
Speaker 1: You just started high schools the first year. I just
Speaker 1: took him to school last Wednesday started you know how?
Speaker 1: So yes, I want to ask, so how do you
Speaker 1: go because you still I mean Chicago still? Yeah, So
Speaker 1: how do you balance it between here? Like how long
Speaker 1: you out here? Come he come out here? I go there?
Speaker 1: Or like my mother, I'm booking a flight soon as
Speaker 1: I leave here and bring her out here. And and
Speaker 1: you know when we had these moments where like they
Speaker 1: can come out here during the week or I'll go there,
Speaker 1: you know, just you know, just it's spurred a moment
Speaker 1: all the time. You know, it's nothing like you know,
Speaker 1: we're playing months in advance because we can't do that.
Speaker 1: So how often what's your timeline? Like uh, in terms
Speaker 1: of your shooting schedule being out here and then you say, okay,
Speaker 1: well I gotta break, I can go home, Like how
Speaker 1: long are you out here for? Well, no, I'm I
Speaker 1: stay out here until like I'm done, like right now.
Speaker 1: I'll be out here until like the spring, but I'll
Speaker 1: go home like like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and then whatever little
Speaker 1: moments that I can't get home, then I'll do it
Speaker 1: like a weekend or a couple of days during the
Speaker 1: week if if that can happen, but that that win,
Speaker 1: dude to happen, for that to happen, is right, now
Speaker 1: until like September, until when September here and I started
Speaker 1: doing like both shows and yeah it's gonna be really
Speaker 1: toughugh and then still doing stand up on Saturday. You know, alright,
Speaker 1: I take that. Yeah, I know, I'm like I'm predicting me.
Speaker 1: Uh uh, Dion, Little Real, Antiffany Hattish are all going
Speaker 1: to simultaneously host the BT words. That would be great.
Speaker 1: That would be yo, man, that would be crazy. You literally, yeah, dog,
Speaker 1: I that exhausted me. Just just a dollar shot your
Speaker 1: sons starting high school with in Chicago in the burbs. Yeah,
Speaker 1: how do you feel? Because I have Chicago Tribune updates
Speaker 1: and it's almost like their method of informing you. Usually
Speaker 1: on Sundays they take a grand It's almost like Jerry's kids.
Speaker 1: It's almost a fetish level. Sixty three people shots this weekend,
Speaker 1: Like how do you do you sleep easy at night?
Speaker 1: Like knowing that damn, I don't know. I don't never
Speaker 1: sleep easy, you know, knowing that I got a kid
Speaker 1: that's out that way, you know, But I stayed in
Speaker 1: his life, you know. Fully, I'm always into everything that
Speaker 1: he does. Talk to him every day. You know. His
Speaker 1: mother is the same way. She keep keep keep her
Speaker 1: foot on him, which is great, keep his keep his mind,
Speaker 1: keep his mind, you know, involved in great things. He's
Speaker 1: a great kid, you know. And just keeping busy, you know,
Speaker 1: and and and showing them the proper love, because I
Speaker 1: think that's the problem nowadays with all the gangs in
Speaker 1: Chicago and all around I mean around the country period.
Speaker 1: I mean they're bringing in all the National Guards and
Speaker 1: all these people to protect people in Chicago from all
Speaker 1: the gangs. But I've said it before, Uh, there will
Speaker 1: always be gangs as long as there's no love in
Speaker 1: the household, because they would they're gonna find that love
Speaker 1: within the gang. So if we don't provide them with
Speaker 1: proper love, then you can bring in as many National
Speaker 1: Guards as you want to. You know, they're gonna love
Speaker 1: in that gang. Don't make a difference. So you know,
Speaker 1: we're provide them with that. And so you know, I arrest,
Speaker 1: I arrest, okay with that, you know. But still it's
Speaker 1: always a job being the dad man. You ain't never
Speaker 1: leave about you know what I mean? Or I guess
Speaker 1: last stuff like or do you have any movies in
Speaker 1: the future that you're going to work? Just finished the
Speaker 1: movie with h Nicole Parker and Kimberly Lee and Loretta
Speaker 1: Divine called hair Shot. We just shot that. And I
Speaker 1: did a movie with uh Whitney Cummings called um the
Speaker 1: Female Brain. Yeah, so we're waiting on that to come
Speaker 1: out too, so yeah cool, yeah we shoot those, shout
Speaker 1: those and just then and Cannon waiting to come out
Speaker 1: cool a podcast and uh no podcast? What do you want?
Speaker 1: When did your mixtape coming out? Like, I mean, we
Speaker 1: need the whole package. Let's go all the way with it.
Speaker 1: I am sports, I am on vix album. Shout out
Speaker 1: to vic Man. Yeah go check it out your face.
Speaker 1: You got me man, Dion, thank you for making me
Speaker 1: feel lazy. No, I need more jobs in my life.
Speaker 1: Thank out for having men. Shout out enough now so
Speaker 1: I'm paid built. What What have we learned today? That
Speaker 1: Dion do a lot of ship, do not do a
Speaker 1: lot of dudes. Don't claiming all your seven thousand jobs job.
Speaker 1: He stays stayed doing. What did you learn today? He does?
Speaker 1: I know, you know, you know. And if you watch
Speaker 1: the way that the Netflix special is lit is so
Speaker 1: f funny, but way about the same way that I
Speaker 1: feel that if Leslie Jones makes a move in four
Speaker 1: years to play Nina, right. I believe that he and
Speaker 1: he got a story. Everybody maybe thinking that. I mean,
Speaker 1: one time I was checking in this hotel. This is
Speaker 1: the white girl Rana. To me, it's like, oh my god.
Speaker 1: Hoograph was like alright, cool signing autograph and she goes,
Speaker 1: I love your daughter, and I was like, ship, like
Speaker 1: three different shades different. Watch the Netflix special, it's a
Speaker 1: little bit different. I'm sure there was powder. He looks
Speaker 1: like Richie, no joke, I'll see it, but everybody else do.
Speaker 1: I damn so much. I learned that Dion cos problem
Speaker 1: my hero. Especially that Late Night Ship just amazed me
Speaker 1: because I always had like a hidden thing of like
Speaker 1: writing more questions and ship like that. So you got
Speaker 1: a mentee, a mental That's what I just think. I
Speaker 1: know what that was. You know, it's not a hold up.
Speaker 1: You got the it's a whole fucking word, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, just the way that it's a whole word.
Speaker 1: I want the job word. We can say that after
Speaker 1: the show. Shoot, thank you, thank you. Learned that we
Speaker 1: want to hold you back all the time. I learned
Speaker 1: that Dion is actually different than the character Charlie because
Speaker 1: it's like you play it so well. I'm like, yo,
Speaker 1: is this really how to do this? But if you're
Speaker 1: lighting day from him and like you're like really a
Speaker 1: spark cat like this, I mean this is the first
Speaker 1: time we've met, but like you played just like you
Speaker 1: played idiot so well. Well. Thank you brother, a lot
Speaker 1: of experience, a lot of I'm a super fan brother,
Speaker 1: Thank you man. This has been an honor man. Thank
Speaker 1: you all so much. Man, this is great. Thank you well.
Speaker 1: On behalf of Unpaid Bill, Uh Boss? What's the other
Speaker 1: bill name? Vacation Bill German, German Bill, October Bill Sugar,
Speaker 1: Steve Tilo and it's La need a job trying to
Speaker 1: get off. Okay, I've learned that I need more jobs
Speaker 1: in my life. This Quest Love on behalf of Quest
Speaker 1: Love Supreme in Team Supreme. Thank you very much. We'll
Speaker 1: talk to you in the nets. Go Around Only on Course.
Speaker 1: Love Supreme is a production of I Heart Radio. This
Speaker 1: classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora. For
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Speaker 1: favorite shows.