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Speaker 1: Question. Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. Let's Go Kids.

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Speaker 2: Supremo su su Supremo Role called Suprema su su Supremo

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Speaker 2: roll Call, Subprema Supremo Role, Suprema su.

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Speaker 3: Supremo Role, my team Suprema Yeah, ain't no hash Steppie Yeah,

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Speaker 3: Robert Townsend Yeah, ain't you got no weapon?

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Speaker 2: Suprema Supreme roll Suprema Suprema rode.

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Speaker 1: My name is Fante Yeah, and I'm feeling cool. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I finally graduated, Yeah from Black Acting school.

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Speaker 2: Supremo Suprema Role, Suprema su su Supremo roll Call.

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Speaker 1: My name is Sugar.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Back on the hash. Wait wait wait wait wait yeah,

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Speaker 1: did I see you on mash because some brea su.

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Speaker 4: Brevo roll It's like, yeah, I don't need no BIB yeah.

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Speaker 4: Robert Townson, Yeah, can I.

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Speaker 1: Get one rim.

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Speaker 2: Supremo rolls Upremo Supremo roll came.

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Speaker 5: My name is Robert Yeah, I'm in town yeah and

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Speaker 5: getting down with this crew in town. Up the host clown.

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Speaker 2: Supremo Suprema Supremo roll So.

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Speaker 5: I messed up?

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Speaker 6: Yeah and.

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Speaker 1: Yeah and someone tell me, yeah, where is unpaid bill?

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Speaker 2: Supremo Roll call signs up, Breva supremo, broun supremo, Roll.

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Speaker 1: Up, Supreme roll Sorry about that the wrong version you

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Speaker 1: keep taking two?

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Speaker 3: Well you know I forgot that Bill's not here, so

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Speaker 3: I should have did it for five people, but instead Wow.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, so way too many references.

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Speaker 1: This is the pressure. I'm like, I want to put

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Speaker 1: the ball in the black and the beautiful.

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Speaker 5: It was just too many, it was too much.

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Speaker 1: Okay, can we can we I'm right about the mash thing, right, yes.

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Speaker 5: Yes, you are, yes, you are just checking because all right, so.

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Speaker 3: Can we just collectively have a meeting? Okay, Okay, let's

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Speaker 3: go because we have a tendency.

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Speaker 1: We're not gonna embarrass you. Yeah, to sing people's songs

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Speaker 1: and act out. I can't promise you that's not gonna happen.

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Speaker 1: I'm just making you know. I feel moved to see

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Speaker 1: the heart of the house.

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Speaker 5: For love that brain drops But.

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Speaker 1: All right, is falling on the table for or did

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Speaker 1: you just fall off?

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Speaker 4: And I'm so sober? I'm sorry, I'm excited.

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Speaker 1: All right, all right, we have questions I've been wanting

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Speaker 1: to ask you since I was eight years old.

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Speaker 3: You don't understand, like straight up, let me let me

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Speaker 3: introduce our guests first, Yeah, we know, all right, So,

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Speaker 3: ladies and gentlemen, in case you don't know where you landed,

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Speaker 3: this is called Quest Love Supreme. I'm your host, Quest

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Speaker 3: Love and Team Supreme of course is strong fo how

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Speaker 3: are you, brother?

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Speaker 6: I'm with Robert Towns. That's automatics. Let's talk about him, Steve.

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Speaker 5: Al right.

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Speaker 3: Look, ladies and gentlemen, look, I will just say that

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Speaker 3: maybe or maybe not, Emma Thompson household Times weren't that happy.

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Speaker 3: I will say that this gentleman dingle handedly alone probably

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Speaker 3: provided eighty five percent of all joy and happiness that

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Speaker 3: happened at I can't say my old address right because

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Speaker 3: there's somebody there's.

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Speaker 1: Oh Stage Avenue in West Philadelphia.

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Speaker 3: I've I've probably, you know, probably second to coming to America.

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Speaker 3: I've never quoted a film more than our guest and

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Speaker 3: his debut movie as a director, Hollywood Shuffle. All of

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Speaker 3: his films have touched our lives. Fonte's looking at me

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Speaker 3: like if you just don't say his name, plady and gentleman,

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Speaker 3: Robert Townsend is on West Love Supreme.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for coming on our show.

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Speaker 5: Thank you guys for having me. Thank you, thank you

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Speaker 5: so much.

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Speaker 3: Okay, and we should also know Robin last night reminded

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Speaker 3: me forty two times she said, you're welcome, You're welcome,

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Speaker 3: You're welcome.

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Speaker 1: Robin Feedee wants to you know up, yes.

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Speaker 5: Yes, yes, because of my daughter Scott.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so every twelve seconds, Robin wanted to come up

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Speaker 3: to let me know that, thank you, thank you and

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Speaker 3: all the writers, Robin congrassling, the.

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Speaker 1: Writers getting the getting their money.

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Speaker 5: Yes. Real.

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Speaker 1: So I'm at a loss for words right now.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm thank you for having me. Just thank you

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Speaker 5: for having me, guys, because I wanted to start crying

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Speaker 5: on and I feel emotional.

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Speaker 1: Come on, man, you got a podcast to do. Let's

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Speaker 1: go all together. You aint direct line.

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Speaker 6: To like our childhoods man, and like you know what

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Speaker 6: I was saying in our memories, Yeah, memories like you

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Speaker 6: know HBO, like the Partners in Crime episodes, Like dude,

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Speaker 6: like that was an event, like that was something like that.

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Speaker 1: Come on me and our family. We be on the floor,

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Speaker 1: Like I'm on the floor watching and like all of that.

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Speaker 1: Are you wiping your tears with the script?

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Speaker 5: I don't know.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm sorry, Yeah, because he's right, I'm listening to

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Speaker 4: and I'm like, yeah, that's showing itself.

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Speaker 1: That changed, yeh changed, that changed, That changed us.

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Speaker 6: We had Patrice Russian on the show like a couple

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Speaker 6: of years ago, and like we talked to her about

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Speaker 6: you know, musical director, musical direction.

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Speaker 4: Man.

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Speaker 1: It was really just pioneering in so many ways and hilarious.

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Speaker 1: All right, let's get the initial stuff out the way.

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Speaker 1: Where were you born?

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Speaker 5: I was born in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, on the West

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Speaker 5: Side of Chicago.

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Speaker 1: Why do become interview Chicago people show?

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Speaker 3: We had Sally Richards, So why has Chicago been chosen

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Speaker 3: as the epicenter of comedy even for like sketch shows,

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Speaker 3: for writers, for acting, for comedy workshops?

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Speaker 1: Chicago is where that starts? Is that just an SNL

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Speaker 1: thing where you know?

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Speaker 5: As a kid, I just remember West Side of Chicago,

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Speaker 5: you know, black folks. We always been funny, funny, funny.

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Speaker 5: But then I started. I studied at Second City when

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Speaker 5: I was like fourteen, fifteen years old. I started when

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Speaker 5: the Second City start. It's been around since the sixties,

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Speaker 5: and Second City was like, a no, it's been around

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Speaker 5: a long time. They had because back then my teacher

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Speaker 5: was Joe Forrestburg, but Dale Close was like Jim Belushi

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Speaker 5: and all those guys. Everybody came out in that class. No,

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Speaker 5: I wasn't in that class. I wasn't in Dale's class.

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Speaker 5: I was in the other class. Okay, yeah, But I

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Speaker 5: started at Second City. I started doing Emperor, but I

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Speaker 5: started in theater. I was like the youngest member of

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Speaker 5: x BAG Experimental Black Actors GIL and it was like,

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Speaker 5: you know, one of the actresses that came out, Mary Alice,

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Speaker 5: who was inspired. She came out of there, and a

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Speaker 5: guy named Felton Perry was one of the writers. But

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Speaker 5: my first mentor so I started when I was fourteen fifteen,

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Speaker 5: So that's when I started, and I did my first movie.

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Speaker 5: I was in Cooley High. I had two lines. I

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Speaker 5: was doing a play at x BAG and Laurence Hilton

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Speaker 5: Jacob's Michael Schultze director and Glenn Turman came to see

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Speaker 5: me in the show and I got a few So

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Speaker 5: that's when I started. And then I was an extra

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Speaker 5: in Mahogany with Billy Dan Dinah Ross. So I've been

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Speaker 5: like as a baby. I started, you know, back in

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Speaker 5: the game. But in terms of comedy, there was always

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Speaker 5: comedy going around. But then I discovered like Rush Street

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Speaker 5: had all the comedy clubs. I started performing, like when

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Speaker 5: I was sixteen doing stand up seventeen.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, what's your domestic situation into in your childhood? Your parents,

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Speaker 3: your siblings?

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Speaker 5: You know, here's the thing. I have four there's four

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Speaker 5: of us. I have two sisters, one brother, and my

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Speaker 5: mother raised four kids on her own. My father wasn't there.

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Speaker 5: He was in our lives, but he was in and out.

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Speaker 5: Right were you the baby or I'm the second oldest? Oh?

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Speaker 1: Okay? Like what are the aspirations of your life in

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Speaker 1: your childhood? Are you?

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Speaker 5: I want to be a basketball player?

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Speaker 1: Okay?

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Speaker 5: I mean like I just went back to Chicago recently

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Speaker 5: and all my boys were still friends, but we were

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Speaker 5: all like my nickname back then was Left because I

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Speaker 5: got a sweet left hand jump shot. And so then

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Speaker 5: my other friend, his name was Ape because he had

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Speaker 5: long arms and we used to call him Ape. And

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Speaker 5: then you had Brown Chris he had he has two

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Speaker 5: sons that were in the NBA. Shannon that's his dad,

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Speaker 5: and so we were all like little kids loving basketball

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Speaker 5: and Dennis Olive. We were all like just kids and

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Speaker 5: we used to go.

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Speaker 1: To the stock Stadius with the friends from your childhood.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, oh yeah, that is rare, and how does

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Speaker 1: that happen?

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Speaker 5: Let me say this, through the years, we always stayed

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Speaker 5: in contact. And then let me say this. When you

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Speaker 5: have a dream as a kid on welfare on the

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Speaker 5: West Side of Chicago and you just want to do

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Speaker 5: something with your life, you need to have a circle

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Speaker 5: of people that believe in you. And back then, even

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Speaker 5: though my nickname was left, they were like, you know,

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Speaker 5: I said I could I got you know, I could

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Speaker 5: do voices and characters when I was really young. And

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Speaker 5: so they were like, left, you got something, you got

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Speaker 5: something left, And they always believed in me, and we

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Speaker 5: just stayed We just stayed in touch. And so and

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Speaker 5: then and Carl eight you know, his name is Carl Brentson.

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Speaker 5: He's the president of the West Side INNAACP. And so

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Speaker 5: we were always we always had like a righteous mindset.

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Speaker 5: We got to do something, we got to take action.

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Speaker 4: You know.

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Speaker 5: So, so you were just neighborhood friends or were you

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Speaker 5: connected through some well, I mean it was just basketball.

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Speaker 5: It was basketball. Everything was basketball, and we met on

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Speaker 5: like or no, no, I mean.

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Speaker 1: Right, well, no, I'm just meaning like some sort of

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Speaker 1: you could be church circles.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, but it was basketball. We would play on

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Speaker 5: the basketball court and we played at all the different

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Speaker 5: tournaments and stuff. And then uh, I played in high

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Speaker 5: school on different teams. I went to three different high schools.

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Speaker 5: So I played at Weber Catholic, then Proserificational, and then

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Speaker 5: I graduated from Austin.

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Speaker 3: For me, like oftentimes, especially with with with black success

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Speaker 3: and black stories, once you transition to another platform, the

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Speaker 3: temptation to try to take everyone with you, right, I

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Speaker 3: mean we can give an example like maybe an Alan

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Speaker 3: and Iverson or whatever, like try to take everyone with

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Speaker 3: you is a hard thing to do, and sometimes you

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Speaker 3: can't go to these places and maintain what was beforehand.

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Speaker 3: So well it was for you know, oftentimes you're people

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Speaker 3: might see your success as their success, and.

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Speaker 1: That's hard. So I'm really I'm really impressed that you

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Speaker 1: still maintain childhood friendships.

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Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, no, but they were real friends. There were

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Speaker 5: a lot of people you know that are not in

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Speaker 5: my life that they are, you know, because there's certain

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Speaker 5: you know, I have frenemies that are friends and a

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Speaker 5: part enemy and you just learn eventually to clean house

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Speaker 5: and you surround yourself with the right people, and so

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Speaker 5: I've been blessed.

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Speaker 1: That's what's up.

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Speaker 3: Did you know it was acting or were you just

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Speaker 3: a thing where like I'm a fan of television and

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Speaker 3: I can imitate these people, or how do you know

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Speaker 3: acting is what your true calling is?

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Speaker 5: If so, let me give you the story. So I

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Speaker 5: am ten years old. I live on the West Side

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Speaker 5: of Chicago. Neighborhood is surrounded by gangs, the vice Lords,

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Speaker 5: the Executioners, the Disciples, the Senator six. And my mother

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Speaker 5: is afraid at ten that I'm going to get recruited

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Speaker 5: by one of the gangs. And so she goes, when

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Speaker 5: you get out of school, run straight in the house.

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Speaker 5: I run straight in the house. And all I do

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Speaker 5: is watch television. I watched so much TV they nicknamed

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Speaker 5: me TV Guide. Now like TV Guy was on the

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Speaker 5: night and I go, like, NBC they got a really

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Speaker 5: good lineup. And then at ABC, I think kind of cool.

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Speaker 5: I think so and so and so and so. And

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Speaker 5: then we were on welfare and it's like, when you're

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Speaker 5: on welfare, you can't you can't buy soap because it's

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Speaker 5: not food, it's food stamps. And so you always had

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Speaker 5: that problem and so I would always try to make

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Speaker 5: my mother laugh. And so then I discovered that God

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Speaker 5: had given me a gift to do the shows because

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Speaker 5: there was a time for the youngsters. There was a

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Speaker 5: time the television went off, right, and when television went off, you.

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Speaker 1: Know, we're all of aging here, you know, you don't

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Speaker 1: know about okay, And.

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Speaker 5: Television went off, and so if you missed the show,

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Speaker 5: you missed a show. And so I discovered that I

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Speaker 5: could do every show on television. So back when I

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Speaker 5: was ten twelve, I could do voices and characters, and

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Speaker 5: like if I saw a movie from you know, French film,

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Speaker 5: showed that the levision and I'd walk around the house

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Speaker 5: my brothers and sisters love the Wizard of Oz. I

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Speaker 5: would do all the characters I had never got in

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Speaker 5: my brains. If it Wolson for you what the square

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Speaker 5: root of Walton, I would do Alfred Hitchcock, Good Evening

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Speaker 5: they found the body in the alley Way. I would

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Speaker 5: do the Westerns. No Brandish fixed you got to be

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Speaker 5: out of town by Shindim. I was so good. I

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Speaker 5: could do Lassie Timmy's in the Hood, Timmy. Here's a

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Speaker 5: story I got discovered in the fifth grade. There was

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Speaker 5: a teacher. His name was James Red tall, white dude,

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Speaker 5: you know, big nose, and he was just this beautiful

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Speaker 5: man and he wanted these little kids in the hood

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Speaker 5: to learn about Shakespeare, and so he gave us three

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Speaker 5: pages to read. And I just remember I got so

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Speaker 5: nervous because it was like me, thinks and thou and

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Speaker 5: thou and thus it was so yeah. And so I

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Speaker 5: went to the library and I stole all the Shakespeare

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Speaker 5: records because I wanted to get an a and I

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Speaker 5: listened to him on our stereo at home, like Richard

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Speaker 5: the Third, and I was like a horse, a horse,

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Speaker 5: my kingdom for a horse. All he wants is a horse.

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Speaker 5: And then like oh, othello, and then I listened to

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Speaker 5: all of them. And we had to read in class,

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Speaker 5: and that's how I got discovered, because we had to

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Speaker 5: read a scene from Oedipus, and I remember he was like,

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Speaker 5: Deborah Jenkins, you'll be Ophelia, Willie King, you'll be Oedipus,

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Speaker 5: and Robert Townsend, you'll be terse As the blind Prophet.

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Speaker 5: Le read and they read like kids. Deborah read like

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Speaker 5: a kid in the hood.

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Speaker 1: It up pissed you will married I mother a kid

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Speaker 1: if that father.

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Speaker 5: And I had been seeing shit. You know, I was

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Speaker 5: listening to the Royal Shakespeare Company. So I was like

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Speaker 5: there to piss. I played off the rage upon night

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Speaker 5: Sari to be creatures. He knaught and so I went

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Speaker 5: deep and the kids was like, who your ass is crazy.

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Speaker 5: But the teacher after it was over, he was like,

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Speaker 5: where did you learn that? Come here, Robert Towns. Where

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Speaker 5: did you learn that? And I said, what is these records?

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Speaker 5: You know they was in the library, but not he

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Speaker 5: in my house. But that's how they do it in

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Speaker 5: England at the Royal Shakespeare Company. And that teacher took

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Speaker 5: me under his wing, and he was the one who

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Speaker 5: was the first one to say you could be somebody.

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Speaker 5: And I was like a little boy and I was

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Speaker 5: like be somebody and he was like, you could be somebody.

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Speaker 5: So my journey started there.

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Speaker 1: He planned the seed in you.

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Speaker 5: He planted the seed and he came, it's like to you,

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Speaker 5: I won my first award in nineteen sixty eight, so

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Speaker 5: it was like the you know, like I remember doing

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Speaker 5: the news for my mother when Martin Luther King got killed.

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Speaker 5: I was that, you know, she says, what happened again?

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Speaker 5: What happened again. At twelve forty two, Martin Luther King

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Speaker 5: was leaving and then Martin Luther King said, Mama, Martin

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Speaker 5: Luther King said, we have been to the mountaintop free

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Speaker 5: of blast, free of blass, and I would do all

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Speaker 5: the I was a look a little magical kid.

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Speaker 4: And did you realize in that moment too, that, like

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Speaker 4: although the town, the amazing part was, yes, that you

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Speaker 4: found these records and that you also mimicked these records.

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Speaker 4: But the also amazing part was that you knew, unlike

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Speaker 4: all your other classmates, that there were these records at

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Speaker 4: the library. And to even do that because most kids.

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Speaker 1: I didn't even know that.

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Speaker 5: I'm just saying even that part to know.

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Speaker 3: All right, so I'm a library kid. Same thing, not

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Speaker 3: necessarily games where I grew up in the crack eighties,

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Speaker 3: so really I wasn't It wasn't favorable for me to

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Speaker 3: go out. So thus I always stayed indoors, right, And

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Speaker 3: we had a gazillion records, So that's how I ingested

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Speaker 3: all the music. And I knew four blocks away on

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Speaker 3: Chestnut Street in Philly, there was a library and I

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Speaker 3: would just go there listen to all the records. Read

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Speaker 3: all the Rolling Stones, all the you know, music books

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Speaker 3: and whatnot. So I too would do that as well.

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Speaker 3: And like, the local library is one of my favorite spots.

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Speaker 3: So was that like a destination for you if you

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Speaker 3: weren't allowed to go out or no?

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Speaker 5: You know, you know, The truth was that I don't know.

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Speaker 5: I was because of television. I was always curious about

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Speaker 5: stuff because it was kind of deep. Outside the house

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Speaker 5: was like pimps and gangs and drug dealers. And then

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Speaker 5: I'm watching Leave It to Beaver, and so then I've

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Speaker 5: got this world and I'm watching the Andy Griffiths show.

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Speaker 5: And then outside it's like if you don't have my money,

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Speaker 5: I'll knock your motherfucker. And I'm like, oh oh, And

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Speaker 5: then I was like, what is the reality. So when

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Speaker 5: I would go to the library, I would just look

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Speaker 5: through all the aisles at all the different things, and

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Speaker 5: I saw those Shakespeare records and I was like, oh,

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Speaker 5: that's interesting, and it was just I just remember listening

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Speaker 5: to it on our little stereo, and we had the

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Speaker 5: little stereo that had the blinking line yes that you know,

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Speaker 5: had all the disco music kind of things on it,

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Speaker 5: and everybody wanted to listen to the Temptations are Gladys

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Speaker 5: Night and stuff like that, And then I was like, no,

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Speaker 5: this is my homework and everybody's around the house listening

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Speaker 5: to me, listen to Othello, and I understood it. I'm

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Speaker 5: just mad I didn't think of that as a kid.

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Speaker 4: I would have understood Shakespeare even more if I even

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Speaker 4: thought that there were albums that I could just listen

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Speaker 4: to instead of reading the work, like.

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Speaker 3: Even in Crazier Full Circle, because even in that like

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Speaker 3: twenty second scene in Hollywood Shuffle.

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Speaker 1: Where you guys are recreating was it Macbeth or or

355
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Speaker 1: was that a fellow?

356
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Speaker 5: It was King Lear.

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Speaker 3: At that point that movie was such a revelation to

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Speaker 3: me that when you got to there half the time,

359
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Speaker 3: I was like, well, I don't know if we will

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Speaker 3: ever do that sort of thing.

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Speaker 1: But then I thought about it, like, wait, what would.

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Speaker 5: Black Shakespeare look like?

363
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Speaker 3: So that one scene in particular, like everything else, was

364
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Speaker 3: for humorous, yes, yes, you know, like and I took

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Speaker 3: it as humor.

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Speaker 1: But that was like one of my rare moments where

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Speaker 1: I was like, hmmm, like I wonder what that life

368
00:19:03,160 --> 00:19:03,639
Speaker 1: would look like.

369
00:19:03,840 --> 00:19:07,600
Speaker 3: In other words, like opening the palette and expanding my

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Speaker 3: brains accept the fact that we can do anything.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, that's that's.

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Speaker 3: A weird full circle moment because even me watching Hollywood

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Speaker 3: Shuffle based on your life experience, that even planning to see.

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Speaker 1: For me like, oh we can we could do much

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Speaker 1: more than what we're doing now.

376
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Speaker 5: Yes, sure, yes, sure, yeah. So that's amazing.

377
00:19:28,560 --> 00:19:30,720
Speaker 1: So what are your next steps? How did you know

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00:19:31,040 --> 00:19:32,240
Speaker 1: about a second city?

379
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Speaker 2: Uh?

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00:19:33,680 --> 00:19:38,159
Speaker 5: So I'm in theater. So I'm at x BAG and

381
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Speaker 5: then I went to the Lamont Zeno Theater on the

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Speaker 5: West side of Chicago.

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Speaker 1: This is high school.

384
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Speaker 5: Was this college years? This is high school? Okay, And

385
00:19:44,960 --> 00:19:47,880
Speaker 5: so I find my way to theater. And so then

386
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Speaker 5: my first director, Paymun Rami, who's in Chicago now, is

387
00:19:51,960 --> 00:19:55,040
Speaker 5: a powerful brother. Him and his wife, Masi Kwon Meyers.

388
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Speaker 5: They were my first mentors. And so when you're around

389
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Speaker 5: actors and people, and he was a casting director, so

390
00:20:01,800 --> 00:20:04,199
Speaker 5: he cast me in Cooley High. He did the extras

391
00:20:04,240 --> 00:20:07,719
Speaker 5: casting for Mahogany. And so you're constantly around like, oh,

392
00:20:07,800 --> 00:20:09,440
Speaker 5: that's an agent over there. Oh that's what you know.

393
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Speaker 5: And you get this information and when you're hungry, like

394
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Speaker 5: you know, music for you, you're a sponge and so

395
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Speaker 5: I would just kind of, you know, like, okay, you

396
00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:22,000
Speaker 5: know what's an agent? Okay? Where acting class? Okay, I'm

397
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Speaker 5: going to take an acting class. I'm gonna take another

398
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Speaker 5: acting class. Okay, how do I do a movie? If

399
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Speaker 5: I could just say one line in the movie? And

400
00:20:27,680 --> 00:20:30,760
Speaker 5: so I was just hungry, hungry, and I wasn't going

401
00:20:30,800 --> 00:20:33,480
Speaker 5: to have anything stop me. I have to tell you

402
00:20:33,600 --> 00:20:38,240
Speaker 5: this story. I really wouldn't be in show business. I went.

403
00:20:38,359 --> 00:20:41,119
Speaker 5: I was going to college at Illinois State University in

404
00:20:41,200 --> 00:20:45,760
Speaker 5: normal Bloomington, and I was in the theater department and

405
00:20:46,160 --> 00:20:49,960
Speaker 5: I love theater. And then I'm down there and on

406
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Speaker 5: one side of the theater it's John Malkovich and what's

407
00:20:54,080 --> 00:20:57,680
Speaker 5: her name, Lorie Metcalf. They were on the other those

408
00:20:57,800 --> 00:21:00,639
Speaker 5: those are the actors. But for the black actors of

409
00:21:00,760 --> 00:21:03,480
Speaker 5: the school, we had like little small parts. And so

410
00:21:03,600 --> 00:21:05,720
Speaker 5: then I was like, oh, there's nothing. So there was

411
00:21:05,760 --> 00:21:10,960
Speaker 5: this one teacher who you know, cause I was fascinated

412
00:21:11,000 --> 00:21:12,119
Speaker 5: with New York, and I was like, what are the

413
00:21:12,160 --> 00:21:14,359
Speaker 5: actors like in New York? I mean, all the best

414
00:21:14,480 --> 00:21:16,719
Speaker 5: actors come out of New York. Even as a kid,

415
00:21:16,800 --> 00:21:18,840
Speaker 5: I was like, oh, James Earl Jones is there Cecily

416
00:21:18,920 --> 00:21:21,480
Speaker 5: Tyson is there, Sidney Poitier. They all come out of

417
00:21:21,560 --> 00:21:23,919
Speaker 5: New York. And I was asking her questions about New

418
00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:25,520
Speaker 5: York this one day and I was like, well, tell

419
00:21:25,520 --> 00:21:27,360
Speaker 5: me about New York. You know the actors in New York.

420
00:21:27,720 --> 00:21:30,120
Speaker 5: And she looked at me and she says, stop asking

421
00:21:30,160 --> 00:21:32,399
Speaker 5: about New York. You don't have what it takes to

422
00:21:32,480 --> 00:21:35,840
Speaker 5: make it in this industry. You won't make it. You

423
00:21:35,920 --> 00:21:38,080
Speaker 5: don't have it. Are you done? Are you through? An

424
00:21:38,080 --> 00:21:41,040
Speaker 5: actual adults said that teacher? Yes, and the way she

425
00:21:41,119 --> 00:21:42,880
Speaker 5: said it to me, but let me explain something.

426
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Speaker 1: No.

427
00:21:43,720 --> 00:21:46,520
Speaker 5: She hit me so hard I left out of that

428
00:21:47,480 --> 00:21:50,120
Speaker 5: out of her office numb, and I was like, I'm

429
00:21:50,160 --> 00:21:51,920
Speaker 5: not going to make it. And I wondered the camp

430
00:21:52,040 --> 00:21:53,760
Speaker 5: is just like lost, and I was like, you know,

431
00:21:53,840 --> 00:21:56,000
Speaker 5: when an adult said something like that to you, it's

432
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Speaker 5: an adult going like, you don't have it. You're not

433
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Speaker 5: going to make it. And I was wondering in around

434
00:22:00,560 --> 00:22:03,040
Speaker 5: the campus like what the what? Oh man, I'm not

435
00:22:03,119 --> 00:22:06,639
Speaker 5: gonna make it. And then I had a moment, and

436
00:22:06,720 --> 00:22:09,520
Speaker 5: I had this moment where I go, she doesn't know me,

437
00:22:10,160 --> 00:22:11,960
Speaker 5: she doesn't know who I am, she doesn't know what

438
00:22:12,160 --> 00:22:14,680
Speaker 5: my talent is what's inside of me. And I shook

439
00:22:14,720 --> 00:22:16,640
Speaker 5: it off, and I said, I got to see for myself.

440
00:22:17,160 --> 00:22:20,639
Speaker 5: So I was so lost wondering the campus. I didn't

441
00:22:20,640 --> 00:22:21,880
Speaker 5: even know where I was. I was just like, I'm

442
00:22:21,920 --> 00:22:24,160
Speaker 5: not gonna make it my dreams. And then I stopped.

443
00:22:24,160 --> 00:22:26,000
Speaker 5: And when I shook it off, I looked up and

444
00:22:26,119 --> 00:22:29,920
Speaker 5: there was a sign that says transferred to exchange with

445
00:22:30,040 --> 00:22:35,440
Speaker 5: any student in the country Exchange program. And I was like,

446
00:22:35,640 --> 00:22:37,159
Speaker 5: I went in that office, and I want to exchange

447
00:22:37,200 --> 00:22:40,200
Speaker 5: with a student in New York. And when I have

448
00:22:40,200 --> 00:22:41,520
Speaker 5: a school in New York, we have a school in

449
00:22:41,600 --> 00:22:43,960
Speaker 5: New Jersey. I said, I'll take it. And I transferred

450
00:22:43,960 --> 00:22:47,920
Speaker 5: to Wayne Patterson College in Patterson, New Jersey, close enough,

451
00:22:47,960 --> 00:22:49,880
Speaker 5: and so I would get on a bus from Port

452
00:22:49,920 --> 00:22:53,480
Speaker 5: Authority and go to Manhattan on the weekends after I

453
00:22:53,600 --> 00:22:56,399
Speaker 5: left school. And you know, but that teacher, if I

454
00:22:56,480 --> 00:23:02,800
Speaker 5: saw this, this is seventy six, New York, New York,

455
00:23:02,960 --> 00:23:05,880
Speaker 5: New York, New York. And so that's when I met Denzel.

456
00:23:06,480 --> 00:23:09,600
Speaker 5: You know, it's like, but did you see that teacher again?

457
00:23:10,440 --> 00:23:12,200
Speaker 5: But see, here's the thing. If I saw that teacher,

458
00:23:12,240 --> 00:23:14,440
Speaker 5: I'd give her the biggest hug I'd give her the

459
00:23:14,480 --> 00:23:17,200
Speaker 5: biggest hug because like a lot of my friends, never

460
00:23:17,280 --> 00:23:21,480
Speaker 5: left Chicago. And she broke me down so hard that

461
00:23:21,680 --> 00:23:25,400
Speaker 5: day that I, you know, like the part of Robert Townsend.

462
00:23:25,440 --> 00:23:27,760
Speaker 5: It goes like, wait a minute, now, who am I?

463
00:23:28,480 --> 00:23:31,879
Speaker 5: What am I? And she at that point she I

464
00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:33,760
Speaker 5: called my mother right away. I said, I'm leaving the school.

465
00:23:33,920 --> 00:23:35,920
Speaker 5: I'm going to New York. I'm gonna be in New Jersey.

466
00:23:36,119 --> 00:23:38,000
Speaker 5: But I got to get out of here now. But

467
00:23:38,160 --> 00:23:40,120
Speaker 5: if she hadn't said that, I probably would have still

468
00:23:40,119 --> 00:23:42,840
Speaker 5: been there, and I wouldn't I wouldn't be Robert Townsend.

469
00:23:43,240 --> 00:23:46,080
Speaker 5: It was that one defining moment that she pushed me

470
00:23:46,200 --> 00:23:48,920
Speaker 5: so hard that I was like, what am I going

471
00:23:49,040 --> 00:23:51,400
Speaker 5: to do? And then I said, well, maybe I don't

472
00:23:51,400 --> 00:23:53,120
Speaker 5: have it? And I said, well, you know what, I'm

473
00:23:53,160 --> 00:23:57,000
Speaker 5: going to see for myself, So I'm going to bet

474
00:23:57,080 --> 00:23:59,440
Speaker 5: on me and I you know, and I was like,

475
00:23:59,600 --> 00:24:01,119
Speaker 5: And then I was in New York and I was

476
00:24:01,119 --> 00:24:04,520
Speaker 5: studying with Marlon Brandell's acting teacher, Stella Adler. So I

477
00:24:04,600 --> 00:24:07,400
Speaker 5: started studying with her. I started studying at the Negro

478
00:24:07,480 --> 00:24:12,119
Speaker 5: Ensemble Company. And how quickly did these things happen? Because well,

479
00:24:12,200 --> 00:24:15,280
Speaker 5: once she said that to me. I was only at

480
00:24:15,520 --> 00:24:18,200
Speaker 5: USC for one semester. Once she said that to me,

481
00:24:18,280 --> 00:24:20,680
Speaker 5: I got out because I was in the theater department

482
00:24:20,720 --> 00:24:23,080
Speaker 5: and I was enjoying myself. But when she had that conversation,

483
00:24:23,119 --> 00:24:26,359
Speaker 5: because it's like, I'm a kid, and so if somebody

484
00:24:26,400 --> 00:24:28,359
Speaker 5: says that to you and you like, you hurt my feeling.

485
00:24:30,600 --> 00:24:32,000
Speaker 5: I felt it, and so then I was like, I

486
00:24:32,080 --> 00:24:34,359
Speaker 5: got to get out of here. So then I was gone.

487
00:24:34,600 --> 00:24:37,159
Speaker 5: But then the Stella Adler Park, like so once I

488
00:24:37,240 --> 00:24:38,879
Speaker 5: got to New York, it's kind of like, you know,

489
00:24:38,920 --> 00:24:40,800
Speaker 5: I say this to artists all the time, you got

490
00:24:40,880 --> 00:24:43,920
Speaker 5: to have a blueprint. And so I was like, Okay,

491
00:24:44,040 --> 00:24:46,280
Speaker 5: to get to the next level, I want to study

492
00:24:46,359 --> 00:24:49,359
Speaker 5: with the best. Stella Adler's Marlon Brandle one of my

493
00:24:49,480 --> 00:24:52,240
Speaker 5: favorite actors. I would watch all of his movies, you know,

494
00:24:52,280 --> 00:24:54,680
Speaker 5: when I was that little boy TV guide. So then

495
00:24:54,840 --> 00:24:57,199
Speaker 5: I'm studying with her and then I go, wait, but.

496
00:24:57,240 --> 00:24:59,080
Speaker 1: How did you know to go to the top?

497
00:25:00,400 --> 00:25:01,760
Speaker 5: How she take you? Like she took you?

498
00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:03,879
Speaker 1: She took me like like you said, I need the

499
00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:05,879
Speaker 1: best acting teacher ever? Where is she?

500
00:25:06,160 --> 00:25:06,280
Speaker 5: Oh?

501
00:25:06,920 --> 00:25:07,560
Speaker 1: How did you even?

502
00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:07,760
Speaker 2: Well?

503
00:25:08,280 --> 00:25:09,919
Speaker 5: So so let me say this, you know cause it's

504
00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:11,920
Speaker 5: kind of like if you're hungry for it, if you

505
00:25:12,040 --> 00:25:14,840
Speaker 5: really want it, then if you go like I really

506
00:25:14,880 --> 00:25:16,680
Speaker 5: want to be an actor. I want to be an actor.

507
00:25:17,960 --> 00:25:20,440
Speaker 5: You know, who's the best acting teacher? Then you know

508
00:25:21,040 --> 00:25:23,840
Speaker 5: Marl you know, so like you know, a small and

509
00:25:23,880 --> 00:25:27,359
Speaker 5: brand though, and so I'm like that guy, and so

510
00:25:27,880 --> 00:25:30,080
Speaker 5: I just started and then I you know, you ask

511
00:25:30,160 --> 00:25:32,359
Speaker 5: actors in New York who's the best acting teacher? Oh man,

512
00:25:32,400 --> 00:25:33,600
Speaker 5: so on. So it's like if you went on the

513
00:25:33,600 --> 00:25:35,880
Speaker 5: street right now and went on Hollywood Boulevard and he says,

514
00:25:35,880 --> 00:25:37,600
Speaker 5: who are the actually just then somebody would say, I

515
00:25:37,640 --> 00:25:39,320
Speaker 5: found a Chubbick is really good and so on. So

516
00:25:39,720 --> 00:25:42,119
Speaker 5: fine is good? So I asked. And then you got

517
00:25:42,240 --> 00:25:45,200
Speaker 5: to audition to get in. And so when I auditioned

518
00:25:45,280 --> 00:25:47,879
Speaker 5: to get in, I just did characters for you just

519
00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:50,560
Speaker 5: and I wasn't even thinking about doing characters today. Back

520
00:25:50,680 --> 00:25:53,760
Speaker 5: then when I was really in character boy mode where

521
00:25:53,800 --> 00:25:57,200
Speaker 5: I would perform, you know, I would go in you know,

522
00:25:57,240 --> 00:25:59,280
Speaker 5: I made a living doing dog food commercials because I

523
00:25:59,280 --> 00:26:01,359
Speaker 5: could do that in visible dog. They would bring me

524
00:26:01,440 --> 00:26:03,360
Speaker 5: in and they say, okay, a little a little chiw

525
00:26:03,400 --> 00:26:13,560
Speaker 5: wowow a big dog he's excited to see her, and

526
00:26:13,800 --> 00:26:15,840
Speaker 5: I made money being the dog.

527
00:26:16,200 --> 00:26:20,040
Speaker 1: This is the greatest episode of all time. So anyway,

528
00:26:20,119 --> 00:26:20,960
Speaker 1: SR Jimmy m.

529
00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:25,280
Speaker 5: So, anyway, when you say, when you say the whole

530
00:26:25,359 --> 00:26:28,399
Speaker 5: thing of that teacher, I would hug her because in

531
00:26:28,560 --> 00:26:33,600
Speaker 5: that moment she challenged me so hard that I was like, no,

532
00:26:34,200 --> 00:26:36,240
Speaker 5: I gotta see for me. Rather than like you're right,

533
00:26:36,320 --> 00:26:38,240
Speaker 5: I'm nothing, I was like no, no, no, no. And

534
00:26:38,400 --> 00:26:40,960
Speaker 5: I think a lot of people get squashed like that

535
00:26:41,320 --> 00:26:44,600
Speaker 5: all the time, and so that was your teacher.

536
00:26:44,600 --> 00:26:47,440
Speaker 3: Imagine if some of your family remember saying that to you. Yeah, yeah,

537
00:26:47,840 --> 00:26:49,040
Speaker 3: I know that squash feeling.

538
00:26:49,160 --> 00:26:52,840
Speaker 4: So Jesus, can you answer the question now, what's what's

539
00:26:52,840 --> 00:26:54,120
Speaker 4: the difference with the New York actor?

540
00:26:55,160 --> 00:26:56,840
Speaker 5: What are they like? You know? What it is is

541
00:26:56,880 --> 00:26:59,040
Speaker 5: that it's not a New York actor. What it is

542
00:26:59,240 --> 00:27:02,439
Speaker 5: is that actors from all of the country that are

543
00:27:02,520 --> 00:27:05,440
Speaker 5: really hungry go for the dream. They don't sit in

544
00:27:05,760 --> 00:27:08,800
Speaker 5: like I'm in little small town in Iowa. They go like,

545
00:27:09,040 --> 00:27:11,560
Speaker 5: I want it, and they're all hungry, and so they

546
00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:14,119
Speaker 5: all have that same DNA of we want it. So

547
00:27:14,240 --> 00:27:16,240
Speaker 5: like when you see people, it's like a bunch of

548
00:27:16,320 --> 00:27:19,040
Speaker 5: eagles all come together, and you've left all the pigeons,

549
00:27:19,640 --> 00:27:21,560
Speaker 5: and so all the eagles are standing there and it's like, hey, man,

550
00:27:22,080 --> 00:27:24,440
Speaker 5: you want this. I want this too. You want it too? Yeah,

551
00:27:24,440 --> 00:27:26,399
Speaker 5: I want it too. And so then all the eagles

552
00:27:26,480 --> 00:27:28,480
Speaker 5: are together like this. So when I you know, like

553
00:27:28,560 --> 00:27:31,080
Speaker 5: when I all the people that I met, like I remember,

554
00:27:31,560 --> 00:27:34,240
Speaker 5: you know when you talk about half the talent in Hollywood,

555
00:27:34,240 --> 00:27:36,800
Speaker 5: they all had that eagle eye. They weren't sleeping or

556
00:27:36,960 --> 00:27:38,880
Speaker 5: they were up, you know, like we wanted how bad

557
00:27:38,920 --> 00:27:41,840
Speaker 5: do you want? Like today, I'm coming to talk, but

558
00:27:42,160 --> 00:27:44,680
Speaker 5: I really you know, I like you and I'm meeting

559
00:27:44,760 --> 00:27:47,880
Speaker 5: you today and I'm like, oh this brother, Like you're

560
00:27:47,920 --> 00:27:51,000
Speaker 5: about something. So I don't do podcasts. You know you're

561
00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:53,280
Speaker 5: about something. And so when I see it's kind of

562
00:27:53,320 --> 00:27:57,040
Speaker 5: like when you talk about people's work, it's like millions

563
00:27:57,080 --> 00:28:00,280
Speaker 5: of people can hear this. You can plant see like

564
00:28:00,560 --> 00:28:02,480
Speaker 5: I've been in everybody's house, but I wasn't really in

565
00:28:02,600 --> 00:28:05,000
Speaker 5: your house, but I was in your house and I

566
00:28:05,160 --> 00:28:08,480
Speaker 5: was planning seeds of like okay, if you see you know,

567
00:28:08,600 --> 00:28:11,920
Speaker 5: like say a man me and Howard Hewett, if I

568
00:28:12,320 --> 00:28:13,960
Speaker 5: believe in God, I have faith, And so I said,

569
00:28:14,040 --> 00:28:16,360
Speaker 5: let me plant the seed. Boom, it's a variety show.

570
00:28:16,480 --> 00:28:18,360
Speaker 5: Let me plant the seed. Hey, you know what, I'm

571
00:28:18,359 --> 00:28:20,359
Speaker 5: going to put a mixture of stuff in here. Okay,

572
00:28:20,480 --> 00:28:22,560
Speaker 5: I'm going to do the bowl of black to beautiful.

573
00:28:22,600 --> 00:28:25,480
Speaker 5: We've never seen black people dressed up, and I said,

574
00:28:25,520 --> 00:28:27,960
Speaker 5: you know, the trojan horse here is going to be

575
00:28:28,720 --> 00:28:32,000
Speaker 5: that we're going to see black people being funny and everything,

576
00:28:32,160 --> 00:28:34,160
Speaker 5: but we're going to see them in the best clothes

577
00:28:34,320 --> 00:28:36,880
Speaker 5: and the whole thing. And so there was always an agenda,

578
00:28:37,160 --> 00:28:38,880
Speaker 5: you know what I mean, Like everything is you know,

579
00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:41,600
Speaker 5: you're planning seeds, there's always an agenda behind it.

580
00:28:41,720 --> 00:28:44,680
Speaker 1: Do you want some tissues? Like, I'm sorry, I need.

581
00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:47,400
Speaker 5: So sorry.

582
00:28:47,400 --> 00:28:51,480
Speaker 4: I'm having a real a lot because everything you're saying

583
00:28:51,560 --> 00:28:52,400
Speaker 4: is everything that we feel.

584
00:28:52,440 --> 00:28:53,320
Speaker 5: But you articulated that.

585
00:28:53,360 --> 00:28:55,120
Speaker 3: All right, let's get some tissues and we'll take a

586
00:28:55,200 --> 00:28:58,000
Speaker 3: break and then we'll come back down on Coutlov Supreme.

587
00:29:02,960 --> 00:29:06,400
Speaker 3: All right, So we are back at Questlove Supreme with

588
00:29:06,520 --> 00:29:11,320
Speaker 3: the Man with the Master Teacher, Robert Townsend. Okay, so

589
00:29:11,440 --> 00:29:14,360
Speaker 3: I have a theory about why New York because you

590
00:29:14,480 --> 00:29:17,160
Speaker 3: raised a question like what was it about New York actors?

591
00:29:17,760 --> 00:29:20,480
Speaker 1: Is it simply because in the.

592
00:29:20,720 --> 00:29:23,440
Speaker 3: Acting world like the ma athletes or the snob actors

593
00:29:23,640 --> 00:29:27,960
Speaker 3: are their their trial by fire is the Broadway stage. Like,

594
00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:31,920
Speaker 3: you know, I'm an actor and I've done Broadway. So

595
00:29:32,480 --> 00:29:36,400
Speaker 3: is that kind of well not the good version of

596
00:29:36,480 --> 00:29:39,840
Speaker 3: the scarlet letter, but a badge of honor as opposed

597
00:29:39,880 --> 00:29:42,800
Speaker 3: to just going straight to Like what was it about

598
00:29:43,080 --> 00:29:45,360
Speaker 3: La that didn't call.

599
00:29:45,280 --> 00:29:47,320
Speaker 1: To you that New York was calling to you?

600
00:29:47,520 --> 00:29:51,000
Speaker 5: Well, you know what it is is that New York

601
00:29:51,240 --> 00:29:54,400
Speaker 5: is about craft, like to get on stage. Like when

602
00:29:54,440 --> 00:29:58,040
Speaker 5: you're on stage, it's just you and the stage and

603
00:29:58,360 --> 00:30:00,640
Speaker 5: you don't get to go cut, you know, know, Like

604
00:30:01,160 --> 00:30:04,680
Speaker 5: for me what I love when I do, you know,

605
00:30:05,120 --> 00:30:08,200
Speaker 5: perform or go in. I love theater like when I

606
00:30:08,280 --> 00:30:09,920
Speaker 5: was doing stand up and all of that. There's something

607
00:30:10,080 --> 00:30:12,200
Speaker 5: magical like so when I see the actors in New York,

608
00:30:13,640 --> 00:30:17,640
Speaker 5: they live it, they eat it, and where actors like

609
00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:20,160
Speaker 5: I work with some actors when I'm directing that you know,

610
00:30:20,280 --> 00:30:22,200
Speaker 5: like you got two takes, you got three takes, that

611
00:30:22,240 --> 00:30:25,440
Speaker 5: said Robert four takes, and the really great actors they go,

612
00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:28,080
Speaker 5: how many more you want? You want to do? Fifteen?

613
00:30:28,320 --> 00:30:29,880
Speaker 5: Let's go again, rob Let's go gain and rob Let's

614
00:30:29,880 --> 00:30:31,880
Speaker 5: go again. Let's go again. Now I love those actors.

615
00:30:32,120 --> 00:30:33,880
Speaker 5: Now when I have actors, you have it, Robert, I

616
00:30:33,960 --> 00:30:36,480
Speaker 5: think you have it. And I was like, uh no,

617
00:30:36,960 --> 00:30:38,480
Speaker 5: I mean I fought with the you know, don't get

618
00:30:38,520 --> 00:30:41,560
Speaker 5: me started, because because because the thing is that you know,

619
00:30:41,880 --> 00:30:44,400
Speaker 5: so let me let me say this, you know, like, okay,

620
00:30:44,480 --> 00:30:46,720
Speaker 5: coming into this room today, all this love, So first,

621
00:30:46,800 --> 00:30:48,360
Speaker 5: let me just say thank you for all the love.

622
00:30:48,760 --> 00:30:48,920
Speaker 4: You know.

623
00:30:49,560 --> 00:30:52,600
Speaker 5: I create what I create because at the end of

624
00:30:52,680 --> 00:30:55,800
Speaker 5: the day, if we get a shot to create something special,

625
00:30:56,480 --> 00:31:00,680
Speaker 5: why not strive for a classic? Why not drive for

626
00:31:00,840 --> 00:31:03,960
Speaker 5: a hit? Why not strive? And it's not an ego thing,

627
00:31:04,280 --> 00:31:04,920
Speaker 5: but it's kind of.

628
00:31:05,000 --> 00:31:07,120
Speaker 1: Like when the full advantage of the opportunity that you have,

629
00:31:08,280 --> 00:31:08,960
Speaker 1: that's all, you know.

630
00:31:09,360 --> 00:31:11,080
Speaker 5: The thing for me is that I love what I do.

631
00:31:11,400 --> 00:31:15,240
Speaker 5: I really I love what I do. So so part

632
00:31:15,280 --> 00:31:17,520
Speaker 5: of the thing for me is that I have to

633
00:31:18,120 --> 00:31:21,520
Speaker 5: give it my all. And I think with New York actors,

634
00:31:22,520 --> 00:31:24,600
Speaker 5: you know, and it's not all of them. There there's

635
00:31:24,640 --> 00:31:27,760
Speaker 5: a select group that they focus on the craft like

636
00:31:27,840 --> 00:31:30,760
Speaker 5: nobody's business. And I think it's like with comedians the

637
00:31:30,800 --> 00:31:33,520
Speaker 5: same thing. There are certain artists that just focus in

638
00:31:33,600 --> 00:31:36,520
Speaker 5: it like Richard Pryor would focus as all the demons

639
00:31:36,560 --> 00:31:39,280
Speaker 5: he had, he would always raise that bar in terms

640
00:31:39,320 --> 00:31:42,600
Speaker 5: of comedy. And so I think anytime I, you know,

641
00:31:43,000 --> 00:31:45,040
Speaker 5: I try to put you know, put my heart and

642
00:31:45,120 --> 00:31:47,560
Speaker 5: soul into my work, that people would want to watch

643
00:31:47,600 --> 00:31:49,800
Speaker 5: it again, people would want to remember the lines. You know.

644
00:31:50,120 --> 00:31:51,880
Speaker 4: My Soldier story was a good example of that, right,

645
00:31:51,920 --> 00:31:53,520
Speaker 4: because that was a lot of New York actors.

646
00:31:53,600 --> 00:31:55,480
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, that was a c that was all of

647
00:31:55,640 --> 00:31:58,360
Speaker 5: you know. It's so funny because that was all of

648
00:31:58,480 --> 00:32:03,040
Speaker 5: us from New York coming together because uh, Denzel, you know,

649
00:32:03,640 --> 00:32:06,239
Speaker 5: we were talking, you know the other day. We were

650
00:32:06,400 --> 00:32:08,920
Speaker 5: we would be at the unemployment office together, and we

651
00:32:08,960 --> 00:32:13,840
Speaker 5: would be at the actors lounge together, Actors Equity Lounge,

652
00:32:13,920 --> 00:32:17,320
Speaker 5: and so we were all like, Norman, you know, Norman

653
00:32:17,400 --> 00:32:21,440
Speaker 5: dwisn uh you know, directed it. But Ruben Cannon cast it,

654
00:32:21,800 --> 00:32:24,360
Speaker 5: and he was like, I want the best purple. He

655
00:32:24,480 --> 00:32:26,480
Speaker 5: did the color purple as well, and and he just

656
00:32:26,600 --> 00:32:28,680
Speaker 5: wanted the best actors that he thought for the part.

657
00:32:28,720 --> 00:32:31,200
Speaker 5: Because Hollywood would go, hey, we're going to cast so

658
00:32:31,280 --> 00:32:32,560
Speaker 5: and so in this part and so and so on

659
00:32:32,680 --> 00:32:35,200
Speaker 5: the casting could be all wrong, and he was like, no, no, no,

660
00:32:35,400 --> 00:32:38,320
Speaker 5: I want David Allen Grad to play this part. Adolf

661
00:32:38,360 --> 00:32:41,640
Speaker 5: Caesar is going to play this part. Howards, What was

662
00:32:41,680 --> 00:32:44,040
Speaker 5: it like like before you asked that?

663
00:32:44,160 --> 00:32:46,760
Speaker 1: Did he cast you in the color purple? Ruben Cannon

664
00:32:48,880 --> 00:32:49,920
Speaker 1: was next in the color purple?

665
00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:50,280
Speaker 5: Okay?

666
00:32:50,320 --> 00:32:52,280
Speaker 6: I was like, I mean I was a kid for six,

667
00:32:52,360 --> 00:32:53,920
Speaker 6: you know what I mean? But yeah, I had to

668
00:32:54,360 --> 00:32:57,960
Speaker 6: audition in front of him, and so I got cast

669
00:32:58,000 --> 00:32:58,800
Speaker 6: as a as an extra.

670
00:32:58,880 --> 00:32:59,320
Speaker 5: I was a kid.

671
00:32:59,360 --> 00:33:01,600
Speaker 6: They shot it in Calina, that's my home, and so

672
00:33:02,480 --> 00:33:05,520
Speaker 6: I went and auditioned and he was there and I

673
00:33:05,600 --> 00:33:08,440
Speaker 6: had to read what I wasn't reading. But the scene

674
00:33:08,480 --> 00:33:09,960
Speaker 6: they gave us was we had to act like you

675
00:33:10,040 --> 00:33:12,400
Speaker 6: were hungry and that you were angry. So it was like,

676
00:33:12,480 --> 00:33:14,200
Speaker 6: give me some jam, I'm hungry, like you were telling

677
00:33:14,240 --> 00:33:16,920
Speaker 6: the parent And I'm like six years old. And so

678
00:33:17,080 --> 00:33:19,160
Speaker 6: the girl I was going up against, she was nine,

679
00:33:19,240 --> 00:33:22,320
Speaker 6: and she was bigger, and she was like really angry.

680
00:33:22,400 --> 00:33:24,440
Speaker 6: I was like shit, she said hungry for real, you know,

681
00:33:26,560 --> 00:33:28,160
Speaker 6: like she played it up so fucking big.

682
00:33:28,240 --> 00:33:30,360
Speaker 1: I was like, what the fuck? And so I came

683
00:33:30,400 --> 00:33:33,080
Speaker 1: out the audition and again, I'm six years old. I

684
00:33:33,160 --> 00:33:33,880
Speaker 1: have no idea.

685
00:33:33,920 --> 00:33:35,600
Speaker 6: What the fuck any of this shit is like, no

686
00:33:35,720 --> 00:33:37,960
Speaker 6: one has told me anything, And so I came out

687
00:33:38,120 --> 00:33:40,400
Speaker 6: and like, you know, I'm thinking I failed.

688
00:33:40,560 --> 00:33:41,560
Speaker 1: I'm like, Okay, I don't know.

689
00:33:41,600 --> 00:33:43,040
Speaker 6: What this is, but I feel like I did a

690
00:33:43,120 --> 00:33:45,160
Speaker 6: very bad job at it because I wasn't as animated

691
00:33:45,200 --> 00:33:47,800
Speaker 6: as her. But I got it, and I'm looking back

692
00:33:47,840 --> 00:33:49,840
Speaker 6: on it, I think what it was was that I

693
00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:53,920
Speaker 6: was so young and my fear was like kind of palpable.

694
00:33:54,160 --> 00:33:57,720
Speaker 6: So being one of Mister's kids, this big Danny Glove

695
00:33:57,840 --> 00:34:00,600
Speaker 6: just run around beating the shit out of everybody that

696
00:34:00,840 --> 00:34:02,640
Speaker 6: worked in my advantage because I was so young and

697
00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:04,600
Speaker 6: I was so small and actually scared. So I ended

698
00:34:04,680 --> 00:34:07,040
Speaker 6: up getting the part as an extra foc But I

699
00:34:07,120 --> 00:34:09,560
Speaker 6: remember Ruven Cannon Maan, I had audition for him.

700
00:34:09,560 --> 00:34:10,839
Speaker 5: Good Man, good man man.

701
00:34:11,520 --> 00:34:16,520
Speaker 3: I know that your experiences in trying to get to

702
00:34:16,760 --> 00:34:23,080
Speaker 3: a particular platform led you to document and sort of

703
00:34:23,200 --> 00:34:27,040
Speaker 3: hone it into a script that will eventually become Hollywood Shuffle.

704
00:34:27,160 --> 00:34:31,000
Speaker 1: Yes, sir, can you talk about it? It's still relevant today, right.

705
00:34:31,960 --> 00:34:36,239
Speaker 3: Can you talk about the experiences you had as an

706
00:34:36,360 --> 00:34:40,440
Speaker 3: actor during the shuffle, the audition shuffle, the trying to

707
00:34:40,480 --> 00:34:42,399
Speaker 3: figure out where you fit in and all those things.

708
00:34:42,640 --> 00:34:47,800
Speaker 5: Well, you know, so so back then I'm living Keenan

709
00:34:47,960 --> 00:34:52,600
Speaker 5: Ivory WANs. Keenan moved to la first, and then Keenan says, hey, Rob,

710
00:34:52,880 --> 00:34:55,279
Speaker 5: these people are moving slow. I'm living in New York

711
00:34:55,280 --> 00:34:57,399
Speaker 5: at the time. How did you two meet. We were

712
00:34:57,520 --> 00:35:01,200
Speaker 5: both at the both comedians at the Improv in Manhattan.

713
00:35:01,239 --> 00:35:05,080
Speaker 5: We were auditioning. We were online to audition and we

714
00:35:05,200 --> 00:35:08,480
Speaker 5: were the only two brothers online. And Keenan was coming

715
00:35:08,640 --> 00:35:12,880
Speaker 5: home from Tuskegee because he was in college at Tuskegee,

716
00:35:13,320 --> 00:35:17,560
Speaker 5: and so we were auditioning and he was there that summer,

717
00:35:17,920 --> 00:35:19,719
Speaker 5: and then we were hanging out like, yeah, bro, I'm

718
00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:21,879
Speaker 5: trying to do it. I'm trying to do it too, man. Yeah,

719
00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:23,960
Speaker 5: you know. And then Keenan was like, he goes, I

720
00:35:23,960 --> 00:35:25,440
Speaker 5: got to do this for my family. And then he

721
00:35:25,520 --> 00:35:29,920
Speaker 5: took me into the Chelsea Projects one time, and I

722
00:35:30,040 --> 00:35:31,960
Speaker 5: go in there and it's like it's a four bedroom

723
00:35:32,120 --> 00:35:34,600
Speaker 5: house and it's like all these kids and I see Marlon,

724
00:35:34,680 --> 00:35:36,600
Speaker 5: I see Sean, I see Kim and they're all like

725
00:35:36,680 --> 00:35:41,600
Speaker 5: these babies. And we used to walk from forty fifth

726
00:35:41,719 --> 00:35:44,920
Speaker 5: and ninth Avenue the Improv to Pearl's place on ninety

727
00:35:45,040 --> 00:35:48,560
Speaker 5: six on the East Side and walk and we would

728
00:35:48,600 --> 00:35:50,520
Speaker 5: be talking about our dreams and it's like, man, and

729
00:35:50,560 --> 00:35:52,359
Speaker 5: then one day I'm gonna be on the Tonight Show. Man,

730
00:35:52,400 --> 00:35:54,120
Speaker 5: We're gonna make movies, says I'm gonna get my family,

731
00:35:54,239 --> 00:35:56,320
Speaker 5: my whole family out of there. And it was like,

732
00:35:58,760 --> 00:36:01,520
Speaker 5: you know, So that's how we met. So we had

733
00:36:01,560 --> 00:36:05,320
Speaker 5: this thing about family and just success and winning.

734
00:36:05,800 --> 00:36:10,799
Speaker 6: Winky Dinky dogs. Right, man, So you made that first

735
00:36:10,960 --> 00:36:13,160
Speaker 6: movie shovel credit Cards.

736
00:36:13,040 --> 00:36:15,360
Speaker 5: Yes, sir, ight, talk about it. Man, So let me

737
00:36:15,400 --> 00:36:16,399
Speaker 5: explain the route there.

738
00:36:16,600 --> 00:36:18,239
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, I want to know the route too.

739
00:36:18,719 --> 00:36:22,560
Speaker 5: So I'm a young actor in New York. Now I'm

740
00:36:22,640 --> 00:36:25,759
Speaker 5: doing dog food commercials making money. I'm doing extra work.

741
00:36:25,920 --> 00:36:28,640
Speaker 5: I was in the Warriors, I was in the Whiz

742
00:36:28,760 --> 00:36:30,839
Speaker 5: as an extra, one of the citizens of Emerald City.

743
00:36:32,320 --> 00:36:34,120
Speaker 5: You're gonna come back to that, you know, And so

744
00:36:34,800 --> 00:36:38,160
Speaker 5: you know, I'm having these experiences and I'm like an extra.

745
00:36:38,320 --> 00:36:40,080
Speaker 1: And then do you have an agent?

746
00:36:40,320 --> 00:36:43,200
Speaker 3: I hate to interrupt you, I'm sorry, but you're dropping

747
00:36:43,239 --> 00:36:43,840
Speaker 3: so many gyms.

748
00:36:44,040 --> 00:36:44,680
Speaker 5: Do you have an agent?

749
00:36:44,800 --> 00:36:45,399
Speaker 1: By this point?

750
00:36:45,560 --> 00:36:45,640
Speaker 4: Oh?

751
00:36:45,760 --> 00:36:48,239
Speaker 5: Yeah, Well, see in New York back then, you could

752
00:36:48,280 --> 00:36:50,959
Speaker 5: have many agents because whoever got you the job first?

753
00:36:52,200 --> 00:36:54,440
Speaker 5: Whoever got you the job first, so you'd be registered

754
00:36:54,480 --> 00:36:56,400
Speaker 5: with this agent, that agent, that agent, that is agent,

755
00:36:56,640 --> 00:36:58,840
Speaker 5: and then whatever the job came in, whoever got to

756
00:36:58,880 --> 00:37:01,360
Speaker 5: you first, cause they didn't want to sign people like

757
00:37:01,520 --> 00:37:05,080
Speaker 5: you're signed exclusively, so they'd go, like you could freelancer.

758
00:37:05,160 --> 00:37:08,080
Speaker 5: So you've got nine agents or seven, six of the

759
00:37:08,160 --> 00:37:12,520
Speaker 5: top people and commercial theater, film, television, whoever got to you?

760
00:37:12,840 --> 00:37:15,040
Speaker 3: What is it like showing up on the because you're

761
00:37:15,040 --> 00:37:17,800
Speaker 3: talking about like Mahogany and Cooley High and the Whiz

762
00:37:17,840 --> 00:37:18,479
Speaker 3: and all these things.

763
00:37:18,920 --> 00:37:19,960
Speaker 1: What's going through your mind?

764
00:37:20,080 --> 00:37:22,200
Speaker 3: Like your first day on the set, like looking at

765
00:37:23,040 --> 00:37:25,640
Speaker 3: are you I remember talking to the actors?

766
00:37:25,800 --> 00:37:27,719
Speaker 5: Or I just remember the first day, Like when you

767
00:37:27,760 --> 00:37:31,040
Speaker 5: talk about Mahogany, that was in Chicago. We were in

768
00:37:31,120 --> 00:37:33,600
Speaker 5: the Cole and it was Billy D doing this speech

769
00:37:33,880 --> 00:37:35,880
Speaker 5: and then I was behind and then and that was

770
00:37:35,920 --> 00:37:38,480
Speaker 5: in another scene behind Diana Ross in the welfare line.

771
00:37:38,520 --> 00:37:40,279
Speaker 5: She's like I want to get my old man back.

772
00:37:40,719 --> 00:37:42,880
Speaker 5: And then but I just remember being out there, and

773
00:37:42,960 --> 00:37:44,440
Speaker 5: it's like you talk about being it, you know, like

774
00:37:45,520 --> 00:37:49,000
Speaker 5: like like my impressionist skills kick in because I was

775
00:37:49,120 --> 00:37:51,840
Speaker 5: watching Billy D and it was like he was like

776
00:37:51,920 --> 00:37:53,320
Speaker 5: I was watching his mouth and then I was just

777
00:37:53,360 --> 00:37:55,520
Speaker 5: studying him, and it's like, you know, the polls say

778
00:37:55,560 --> 00:37:59,320
Speaker 5: we're way behind. You know, the polls say we're way behind.

779
00:37:59,480 --> 00:38:01,279
Speaker 5: And then it's like you on my arm to fall off.

780
00:38:01,400 --> 00:38:03,040
Speaker 5: You know. It was like the way he talked with

781
00:38:03,120 --> 00:38:04,239
Speaker 5: his mouth, and so.

782
00:38:04,400 --> 00:38:05,560
Speaker 1: I channel someone.

783
00:38:06,040 --> 00:38:10,279
Speaker 3: How long does it take before you actually nail them? Like,

784
00:38:10,360 --> 00:38:11,840
Speaker 3: cause that's that's a gift where you.

785
00:38:12,160 --> 00:38:14,200
Speaker 5: It's not you know, you know, you know it's so funny.

786
00:38:14,320 --> 00:38:17,479
Speaker 5: It's like I can watch and listen and then there's

787
00:38:17,520 --> 00:38:19,560
Speaker 5: a certain like if I really study, like I haven't

788
00:38:19,560 --> 00:38:23,080
Speaker 5: done it in years, but back then, you know, it's

789
00:38:23,200 --> 00:38:26,760
Speaker 5: kind of like like Jeffrey Stoart there's a certain sound

790
00:38:26,840 --> 00:38:30,640
Speaker 5: in his voice or Bill Cosby, because you see there's

791
00:38:30,680 --> 00:38:33,759
Speaker 5: a sound, there's a sound, and so I would hear

792
00:38:35,640 --> 00:38:38,319
Speaker 5: different things. And so when I watched, I was out

793
00:38:38,320 --> 00:38:40,239
Speaker 5: there in Nicole watching him, and I just remember that

794
00:38:40,320 --> 00:38:41,960
Speaker 5: whole speech, and I would just do it and then

795
00:38:42,120 --> 00:38:44,160
Speaker 5: when I got home, you know, I would do it

796
00:38:44,239 --> 00:38:47,160
Speaker 5: like James Earl Jones, you know, like you see the

797
00:38:47,239 --> 00:38:50,440
Speaker 5: daddy gotta beat the breadwind the claud the way of

798
00:38:50,600 --> 00:38:53,080
Speaker 5: faw and the hip down frown.

799
00:38:54,160 --> 00:38:57,920
Speaker 1: Wait what is stopping you from being just black rich little?

800
00:38:58,960 --> 00:39:00,319
Speaker 1: Because I was the thing.

801
00:39:02,160 --> 00:39:04,560
Speaker 5: I was a voice, like you know, you know, here's

802
00:39:04,600 --> 00:39:08,880
Speaker 5: the thing I enjoyed. So let me say this. I've

803
00:39:08,920 --> 00:39:10,600
Speaker 5: been working on a one man show about my life

804
00:39:11,120 --> 00:39:13,719
Speaker 5: and I think it's it's it's I did it. I

805
00:39:13,800 --> 00:39:16,239
Speaker 5: did it in Berkeley, you know, because of Richard Pryor.

806
00:39:16,239 --> 00:39:19,080
Speaker 5: Because Richard Pryor broke away and went to Berkeley. And

807
00:39:19,480 --> 00:39:21,600
Speaker 5: my friend Don Reid was like, you know, Rob, there's

808
00:39:21,600 --> 00:39:23,680
Speaker 5: a theater up here in Berkeley. So I was working

809
00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:26,440
Speaker 5: the show up there, and then now I'm going to

810
00:39:26,480 --> 00:39:28,640
Speaker 5: take the show, you know, and workshopping in New York,

811
00:39:28,960 --> 00:39:32,200
Speaker 5: you know, at the Public Jesus Christ. So so I'm

812
00:39:32,239 --> 00:39:34,360
Speaker 5: in the middle of that. I will follow, Okay, you

813
00:39:34,400 --> 00:39:35,920
Speaker 5: know what I mean. So anyway, it's all the stories

814
00:39:35,920 --> 00:39:39,759
Speaker 5: about my life. But I was, you know, I'll just

815
00:39:39,760 --> 00:39:41,319
Speaker 5: say like this, God has blessed me with a lot

816
00:39:41,360 --> 00:39:43,080
Speaker 5: of talent, so I can write, I can direct, I

817
00:39:43,120 --> 00:39:46,080
Speaker 5: can produce, and I'm a performer. But when I was

818
00:39:46,200 --> 00:39:49,359
Speaker 5: doing the stand up, you know, when I was doing

819
00:39:49,400 --> 00:39:51,000
Speaker 5: all of that, then I started doing movies and I

820
00:39:51,040 --> 00:39:54,000
Speaker 5: started you know. So then Hollywood Shuffle came out of that.

821
00:39:54,280 --> 00:39:58,800
Speaker 3: How good is a living being in the extra in

822
00:39:58,920 --> 00:40:03,520
Speaker 3: the seventies in the eighties, like as far as survivals concerned,

823
00:40:03,840 --> 00:40:06,640
Speaker 3: like what is is the pay good enough for you

824
00:40:06,840 --> 00:40:08,600
Speaker 3: to say okay?

825
00:40:10,120 --> 00:40:13,840
Speaker 1: Or do you also have to like working a bolub

826
00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:14,360
Speaker 1: or you know?

827
00:40:14,520 --> 00:40:17,000
Speaker 5: Well, see, I was, I was hustling. I was such

828
00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:19,279
Speaker 5: a hustler back then. I still am, but it was

829
00:40:19,360 --> 00:40:21,600
Speaker 5: like back then, I was like hustling really hard. So

830
00:40:21,960 --> 00:40:25,440
Speaker 5: I did my extra work. I did television commercials because

831
00:40:25,440 --> 00:40:28,000
Speaker 5: I would always say I could have dignity in sixty seconds,

832
00:40:28,600 --> 00:40:31,960
Speaker 5: so I I could, you know, like they're one of

833
00:40:32,000 --> 00:40:34,759
Speaker 5: my commercials. Somebody just put on social media and it

834
00:40:34,920 --> 00:40:36,839
Speaker 5: was like, this is Eddie. Eddie's trying to get a job.

835
00:40:36,960 --> 00:40:39,719
Speaker 5: Eddie's trying to get an education, He's working hard. That's

836
00:40:39,760 --> 00:40:41,920
Speaker 5: why we're working with Eddie, you know. And and I

837
00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:43,799
Speaker 5: was playing I was Eddie, you know, And so it's

838
00:40:43,840 --> 00:40:46,320
Speaker 5: just it's just somebody just posted it like two days ago.

839
00:40:46,560 --> 00:40:56,120
Speaker 1: Origin like what are our expectations? He's working at McDonald's.

840
00:40:57,080 --> 00:40:59,359
Speaker 5: I was, I was the original Calvin. So I did

841
00:40:59,440 --> 00:41:02,560
Speaker 5: TV commercials, I would do theater every now and then,

842
00:41:03,280 --> 00:41:06,040
Speaker 5: and like I said, my dog few commercials and then

843
00:41:06,080 --> 00:41:07,840
Speaker 5: I was doing you know, I was I would do

844
00:41:07,920 --> 00:41:10,480
Speaker 5: the demos for for Bill Cosby for the Ford back then,

845
00:41:10,600 --> 00:41:12,600
Speaker 5: so I would They would say Bill Cosby's not coming in,

846
00:41:12,840 --> 00:41:14,840
Speaker 5: can you do the voice? And it's like there's something

847
00:41:14,920 --> 00:41:17,719
Speaker 5: about Ford motors that I like, you know, And I

848
00:41:17,760 --> 00:41:20,279
Speaker 5: would do all the voices. So I was like doing

849
00:41:20,400 --> 00:41:24,120
Speaker 5: different things and auditioning for the movies. And then I

850
00:41:24,680 --> 00:41:26,839
Speaker 5: and I was auditioning for all that stuff. So yeah,

851
00:41:26,880 --> 00:41:30,799
Speaker 5: I was the extra work didn't pay. But I got

852
00:41:30,920 --> 00:41:33,080
Speaker 5: to tell you, Okay, this is one story is that

853
00:41:33,239 --> 00:41:37,080
Speaker 5: when I was doing the film called The Warriors, Warriers

854
00:41:37,160 --> 00:41:40,279
Speaker 5: come out and playa I was in the Riffs. So

855
00:41:40,320 --> 00:41:42,560
Speaker 5: if you don't know the movie, there's a gang someming

856
00:41:42,600 --> 00:41:44,800
Speaker 5: in New York City. All the gangs come together and

857
00:41:45,040 --> 00:41:48,000
Speaker 5: then the leader of the gang, Cyrus, is shot, and

858
00:41:48,080 --> 00:41:49,800
Speaker 5: then they go who did it? The Warriors and the

859
00:41:49,840 --> 00:41:53,040
Speaker 5: whole movies about the Warriors trying to get home. So anyway,

860
00:41:53,120 --> 00:41:57,560
Speaker 5: I was in his gang, Cyrus's gang. So we were

861
00:41:57,840 --> 00:42:01,120
Speaker 5: in Central Park shooting for five days in Central Park

862
00:42:01,280 --> 00:42:03,520
Speaker 5: in the middle of the night. Now here's the thing.

863
00:42:03,640 --> 00:42:06,120
Speaker 5: They had like seven hundred and eight hundred people out there.

864
00:42:06,680 --> 00:42:10,320
Speaker 5: Now there was there were probably one hundred actors and

865
00:42:10,440 --> 00:42:13,919
Speaker 5: the rest were real gang members. Oh and so here's

866
00:42:14,000 --> 00:42:16,560
Speaker 5: how here's how I changed my life in one night.

867
00:42:16,760 --> 00:42:19,760
Speaker 5: So anyways, they've got all the gang members and everything,

868
00:42:20,120 --> 00:42:23,960
Speaker 5: and the prop department hands out chains, bottles, sticks and

869
00:42:24,120 --> 00:42:27,520
Speaker 5: all this stuff. And so then you heard the first

870
00:42:27,600 --> 00:42:32,160
Speaker 5: ad goes, when you hear the gunshot, then start running

871
00:42:32,200 --> 00:42:35,520
Speaker 5: and use your weapons. And people were getting hurt, you know,

872
00:42:35,640 --> 00:42:38,360
Speaker 5: people like where is the sag rep where is the saga?

873
00:42:39,760 --> 00:42:42,520
Speaker 5: And I was seeing people get hurt, and the gang

874
00:42:42,600 --> 00:42:44,239
Speaker 5: members they was loving. It's like, I'm gonna hear somebody

875
00:42:44,239 --> 00:42:46,279
Speaker 5: else with this change next day, I want.

876
00:42:46,160 --> 00:42:47,680
Speaker 1: To knock somebody out with this chain.

877
00:42:48,120 --> 00:42:50,600
Speaker 5: And so then I was like, oh man, I don't

878
00:42:50,600 --> 00:42:52,840
Speaker 5: want to get hurt. So then this is where the

879
00:42:52,960 --> 00:42:58,120
Speaker 5: writer director Robert Townsend was born. Cyrus's body fell over there,

880
00:42:58,800 --> 00:43:01,160
Speaker 5: and so I was like, you know what, I'm gonna

881
00:43:01,160 --> 00:43:04,279
Speaker 5: be the one soldier that won't run. I'll just run

882
00:43:04,360 --> 00:43:06,360
Speaker 5: to the body and protect the body. So then that

883
00:43:06,440 --> 00:43:09,600
Speaker 5: way I won't get hit by nothing. So then they

884
00:43:09,640 --> 00:43:13,120
Speaker 5: go at camera a camera b comera see and action,

885
00:43:13,880 --> 00:43:16,359
Speaker 5: and everybody starts running chaos, and I run to the body,

886
00:43:16,400 --> 00:43:17,680
Speaker 5: and I stay near the body, and I stand in

887
00:43:17,800 --> 00:43:19,560
Speaker 5: the body, and I'm standing near the body, and then

888
00:43:19,600 --> 00:43:21,719
Speaker 5: all of a sudden, I hear over the speaker the

889
00:43:21,800 --> 00:43:24,080
Speaker 5: first a d goes the guy near the body, stay

890
00:43:24,120 --> 00:43:31,759
Speaker 5: near the body, and so then they go cut. First

891
00:43:31,800 --> 00:43:33,600
Speaker 5: ad runs over to me, says, what's your name? I go,

892
00:43:33,920 --> 00:43:36,160
Speaker 5: Robert Townsend. He goes, the director love what you did.

893
00:43:36,239 --> 00:43:38,759
Speaker 5: You just got upgraded. Now I was supposed to make

894
00:43:38,840 --> 00:43:41,200
Speaker 5: sixty six dollars. Then I made two hundred and sixty

895
00:43:41,800 --> 00:43:44,279
Speaker 5: stretch back. Then that was rich. And so then the

896
00:43:44,360 --> 00:43:46,520
Speaker 5: other actors are coming over like why didn't you run?

897
00:43:46,920 --> 00:43:50,680
Speaker 5: Like everybody else is to run, And so then something

898
00:43:50,800 --> 00:43:53,279
Speaker 5: strange happened. Then all of a sudden, we took a

899
00:43:54,400 --> 00:44:00,600
Speaker 5: twenty minute break, and then they go, okay, we're coming back.

900
00:44:00,760 --> 00:44:03,960
Speaker 5: And then when I came back, I was standing where

901
00:44:04,000 --> 00:44:06,920
Speaker 5: I was standing, and then they had everybody standing around

902
00:44:07,000 --> 00:44:11,120
Speaker 5: me because the Walter Hill, the director, loved what I did.

903
00:44:11,360 --> 00:44:13,040
Speaker 5: And then all of a sudden he goes, oh, wait

904
00:44:13,080 --> 00:44:15,000
Speaker 5: a minute, that's right. There would be somebody that would

905
00:44:15,000 --> 00:44:17,560
Speaker 5: stay with the body, not everybody would run. Away and

906
00:44:17,640 --> 00:44:20,560
Speaker 5: then it looks like, you know, it's not in the film,

907
00:44:20,840 --> 00:44:22,480
Speaker 5: but it you know. But I got stills from it

908
00:44:22,520 --> 00:44:28,200
Speaker 5: because I pretended to be my own business manager. I'm

909
00:44:28,200 --> 00:44:30,120
Speaker 5: not sure Childlen would like to get some stills. He

910
00:44:30,719 --> 00:44:32,120
Speaker 5: was in the film and they cut his part out,

911
00:44:32,120 --> 00:44:33,839
Speaker 5: but he'd like to can we come over. I'm gonna

912
00:44:33,840 --> 00:44:35,440
Speaker 5: send a young black guy over there to take a

913
00:44:35,480 --> 00:44:38,360
Speaker 5: look at it, pretend to be myself, you know. And

914
00:44:38,440 --> 00:44:39,800
Speaker 5: so I went over and I got photos of it.

915
00:44:40,160 --> 00:44:44,760
Speaker 5: But that day I was like, I changed the scene.

916
00:44:45,239 --> 00:44:47,600
Speaker 5: I said, I changed the scene. And so then it

917
00:44:47,719 --> 00:44:50,000
Speaker 5: was like the seed of being a director was planned

918
00:44:50,080 --> 00:44:52,800
Speaker 5: because and he says, you get upgraded, and then I

919
00:44:52,920 --> 00:44:54,720
Speaker 5: was like upgraded and he was like, yeah, you're gonna

920
00:44:54,719 --> 00:44:56,719
Speaker 5: make and I was like a silent bit and I

921
00:44:56,840 --> 00:44:58,239
Speaker 5: was like and so then every time I walked on

922
00:44:58,320 --> 00:45:00,360
Speaker 5: the set, even though I was an extra on like

923
00:45:00,400 --> 00:45:03,239
Speaker 5: I was a director. What are we shooting today? What's

924
00:45:03,320 --> 00:45:03,919
Speaker 5: the first shot?

925
00:45:09,320 --> 00:45:09,600
Speaker 1: Okay?

926
00:45:09,920 --> 00:45:12,040
Speaker 3: I got to ask, since you're in New York and

927
00:45:12,520 --> 00:45:17,400
Speaker 3: you're sort of a degree of common well, that's the thing, like,

928
00:45:17,480 --> 00:45:19,319
Speaker 3: because you're also talking about stand up, which I think

929
00:45:19,400 --> 00:45:20,839
Speaker 3: is a whole nother animal.

930
00:45:20,600 --> 00:45:22,920
Speaker 1: Besides theater acting or acting acting.

931
00:45:23,440 --> 00:45:28,080
Speaker 3: At this point, is what's happening at thirty rock in

932
00:45:28,480 --> 00:45:31,120
Speaker 3: in your radar at all with Saturday Night Live? Like

933
00:45:31,360 --> 00:45:35,879
Speaker 3: by this point, I'm assuming it's the late seventies early eighties, Like, yeah,

934
00:45:36,440 --> 00:45:37,920
Speaker 3: you know that Saturday Night Live is a thing.

935
00:45:38,080 --> 00:45:39,600
Speaker 5: And I auditioned for Saturday Night Live?

936
00:45:40,160 --> 00:45:40,600
Speaker 2: What year?

937
00:45:41,440 --> 00:45:45,520
Speaker 5: So you don't know the history, Okay, So here's the history.

938
00:45:46,280 --> 00:45:49,640
Speaker 5: I am at the improvisation and back then, Jay Lennol's

939
00:45:49,680 --> 00:45:52,400
Speaker 5: the host, you got Billy Crystal, you got Rodney danger Phield,

940
00:45:52,400 --> 00:45:56,880
Speaker 5: you got Robin Williams. Everybody's there, and I'm one of

941
00:45:56,960 --> 00:45:59,640
Speaker 5: the few brothers there. And I do my characters and

942
00:45:59,719 --> 00:46:03,440
Speaker 5: still Friedman, who just recently passed. She got the club

943
00:46:03,600 --> 00:46:06,120
Speaker 5: from Bud Freeman in the divorce, and so she runs

944
00:46:06,160 --> 00:46:09,360
Speaker 5: the club and I am doing my stand up and

945
00:46:09,480 --> 00:46:11,800
Speaker 5: doing it. So Saturday Night Live is looking for somebody

946
00:46:11,920 --> 00:46:14,720
Speaker 5: to be on the show, and so I put together

947
00:46:14,840 --> 00:46:18,120
Speaker 5: all my characters and they go, you got to have

948
00:46:18,160 --> 00:46:21,319
Speaker 5: an audition. And I go into the audition and I'm

949
00:46:21,480 --> 00:46:24,279
Speaker 5: just like like today you're you're feeling my characters and

950
00:46:24,320 --> 00:46:26,239
Speaker 5: what I do. But then you know, like I'm a

951
00:46:26,360 --> 00:46:31,319
Speaker 5: kid and I'm like, po po. And so I get

952
00:46:31,520 --> 00:46:35,120
Speaker 5: done with the audition and I'm like, I think I

953
00:46:35,239 --> 00:46:37,480
Speaker 5: smoked it. I think I really smoked it. And so

954
00:46:37,760 --> 00:46:41,640
Speaker 5: then they go, you didn't get it. My agent calls

955
00:46:41,680 --> 00:46:43,840
Speaker 5: and says, you didn't get it. I said, but you know,

956
00:46:43,920 --> 00:46:45,919
Speaker 5: I said, it felt good in my spirit. I felt

957
00:46:45,960 --> 00:46:48,080
Speaker 5: like I was doing it. And they go like, well,

958
00:46:48,680 --> 00:46:51,480
Speaker 5: they're going to go with this guy named Eddie Murphy,

959
00:46:53,719 --> 00:46:56,480
Speaker 5: and so Keenan knows him from Long Island and from

960
00:46:56,640 --> 00:46:59,440
Speaker 5: Roosevelt Island, and he goes, you know, like, Eddie's really good,

961
00:46:59,480 --> 00:47:01,600
Speaker 5: and I said, oh, okay, okay, okay, I said, I guess.

962
00:47:02,360 --> 00:47:06,320
Speaker 5: So then cut to a book comes out about Saturday

963
00:47:06,440 --> 00:47:10,799
Speaker 5: Night Live and so Gene Dominion or I think her

964
00:47:10,920 --> 00:47:15,400
Speaker 5: name is, she's so she I think she wrote a

965
00:47:15,400 --> 00:47:17,960
Speaker 5: book or something. So then I started seeing all this

966
00:47:17,960 --> 00:47:20,080
Speaker 5: stuff on social media like Rabbert Town's supposed to be

967
00:47:20,120 --> 00:47:22,120
Speaker 5: on Saturday Live, Robert Town's supposed to be he lost

968
00:47:22,120 --> 00:47:23,640
Speaker 5: out to Eddie Murphy. And I was like, what what what?

969
00:47:23,800 --> 00:47:27,239
Speaker 5: What is this end of the book. I guess I

970
00:47:27,400 --> 00:47:30,920
Speaker 5: really did give a great audition, and they were there

971
00:47:31,040 --> 00:47:34,040
Speaker 5: was a big war in the room because they were like, no,

972
00:47:34,520 --> 00:47:36,600
Speaker 5: he can do the voices and the characters and dah

973
00:47:36,640 --> 00:47:38,160
Speaker 5: da da da da da dah you know, but I mean,

974
00:47:38,200 --> 00:47:39,960
Speaker 5: here's the thing. Only be one. No, we can only

975
00:47:40,000 --> 00:47:42,279
Speaker 5: pick one. We can only pick one. So so so

976
00:47:43,440 --> 00:47:45,680
Speaker 5: so in the book it came out that that's really

977
00:47:45,920 --> 00:47:47,719
Speaker 5: that that I was up for it. And then in

978
00:47:47,800 --> 00:47:50,400
Speaker 5: the ninth hour, I guess this guy Neil said no

979
00:47:50,600 --> 00:47:52,560
Speaker 5: we should go. I mean, but here's the everything worked out.

980
00:47:52,600 --> 00:47:54,400
Speaker 5: But it was just, you know, like how you have

981
00:47:54,520 --> 00:47:56,200
Speaker 5: something and you go like, I think I really did

982
00:47:56,280 --> 00:47:58,120
Speaker 5: good in there. And then later on when the book

983
00:47:58,120 --> 00:47:59,680
Speaker 5: came out, they says like they were debating on this

984
00:48:00,520 --> 00:48:01,960
Speaker 5: new comedian named Robert Townsend.

985
00:48:02,000 --> 00:48:04,960
Speaker 1: So you found out how close you would have came. Yeah,

986
00:48:05,040 --> 00:48:07,680
Speaker 1: that's crazy. All right, So I totally interrupted your story

987
00:48:07,760 --> 00:48:12,759
Speaker 1: from hallywid shuffle, yes, making making that Now what's one?

988
00:48:12,840 --> 00:48:14,359
Speaker 1: I was like, what's the straw?

989
00:48:14,480 --> 00:48:17,640
Speaker 3: What's the straw that breaks the camel's back that leads

990
00:48:17,719 --> 00:48:20,160
Speaker 3: to all right, I gotta do this.

991
00:48:20,320 --> 00:48:23,000
Speaker 1: Is this a string of close but no cigar like

992
00:48:23,160 --> 00:48:24,080
Speaker 1: lost Rolls.

993
00:48:23,920 --> 00:48:26,640
Speaker 5: Or that sort of thing, or no, it is the

994
00:48:26,840 --> 00:48:31,200
Speaker 5: day I have the uh, the worst audition of my life.

995
00:48:31,480 --> 00:48:37,120
Speaker 5: And so there is a director from England. He's doing

996
00:48:37,360 --> 00:48:40,800
Speaker 5: a movie about pimps and hustlers. And so I go

997
00:48:41,040 --> 00:48:46,880
Speaker 5: into audition and uh, I'm depressed already. And so anyway

998
00:48:47,960 --> 00:48:51,960
Speaker 5: he humiliates me. He goes, no, no, no, no, you

999
00:48:52,000 --> 00:48:54,160
Speaker 5: get out of the cadillac. He's a bad mofo.

1000
00:48:54,400 --> 00:48:57,440
Speaker 7: You know you seond I know you're holding out on

1001
00:48:57,560 --> 00:48:59,520
Speaker 7: me how And then I want you to say b

1002
00:48:59,719 --> 00:49:05,239
Speaker 7: uch be oach be and uh do it again this

1003
00:49:05,320 --> 00:49:07,000
Speaker 7: time and this time you stick your ass out? Can

1004
00:49:07,040 --> 00:49:09,240
Speaker 7: you stick your ass out? You black guys have big asses?

1005
00:49:09,560 --> 00:49:11,200
Speaker 7: Can you move your big ass around?

1006
00:49:12,239 --> 00:49:13,799
Speaker 5: You know? Okay, okay, you're me to do it. Okay,

1007
00:49:14,040 --> 00:49:15,080
Speaker 5: hold your cock? Do you call?

1008
00:49:15,360 --> 00:49:15,839
Speaker 1: Do you say dick?

1009
00:49:15,960 --> 00:49:17,680
Speaker 5: Cock cock dick? Hold your cock?

1010
00:49:18,239 --> 00:49:18,560
Speaker 1: Answer?

1011
00:49:19,200 --> 00:49:19,839
Speaker 5: This is real?

1012
00:49:20,440 --> 00:49:23,760
Speaker 1: And so then what is this director? Director?

1013
00:49:23,800 --> 00:49:26,040
Speaker 5: Before? I didn't I didn't know. I was just young.

1014
00:49:26,160 --> 00:49:30,520
Speaker 5: So anyway, I finished the audition and I'm outside the

1015
00:49:30,680 --> 00:49:34,000
Speaker 5: room and I'm you know, like you're it's like you're

1016
00:49:34,200 --> 00:49:35,840
Speaker 5: a cell out at that point. You just want the

1017
00:49:35,960 --> 00:49:37,920
Speaker 5: job and you're selling your soul and I and I

1018
00:49:37,960 --> 00:49:39,399
Speaker 5: had sold my because I was like, you know, would

1019
00:49:39,400 --> 00:49:41,080
Speaker 5: you know, would you like see a dick adjustment? You

1020
00:49:41,120 --> 00:49:43,279
Speaker 5: know anything you can, I could do differently, you know.

1021
00:49:43,520 --> 00:49:45,560
Speaker 5: I was like selling, and he was like, no, no, no,

1022
00:49:45,640 --> 00:49:48,200
Speaker 5: it's fine, it's fine. No, no, no, don't apologize. Don't apologize,

1023
00:49:48,280 --> 00:49:52,520
Speaker 5: don't apologize. And so I walk out and the door

1024
00:49:52,640 --> 00:49:57,200
Speaker 5: is cracked open and I can hear him talking and

1025
00:49:57,360 --> 00:50:00,840
Speaker 5: he goes, he's all wrong, he's all wrong. I I

1026
00:50:01,040 --> 00:50:05,200
Speaker 5: need a nigga wow. And he's just screaming and so

1027
00:50:06,440 --> 00:50:11,360
Speaker 5: and so I leave and I'm like, damn, that's what

1028
00:50:11,440 --> 00:50:14,880
Speaker 5: they think of me. Damn. So then I go to

1029
00:50:15,000 --> 00:50:19,560
Speaker 5: Keenan's house and you know, and uh, Keenan sees a

1030
00:50:19,600 --> 00:50:21,959
Speaker 5: look on my face. And you know, Keenan Keenan because

1031
00:50:21,960 --> 00:50:24,000
Speaker 5: he has ten brothers and sisters. He would always cook

1032
00:50:24,000 --> 00:50:25,719
Speaker 5: and he could cook his butt off. So keen is

1033
00:50:25,719 --> 00:50:29,439
Speaker 5: in there cooking and he goes and he goes cockballs

1034
00:50:32,400 --> 00:50:36,040
Speaker 5: and I was like so mad. I was like, Keenan, this,

1035
00:50:36,360 --> 00:50:39,640
Speaker 5: We're gonna die doing this bullshit. Man. I said, fuck this, man,

1036
00:50:39,680 --> 00:50:42,440
Speaker 5: we gotta do something. And then that thing came out

1037
00:50:42,480 --> 00:50:44,440
Speaker 5: of my spirit and I was like, we got to

1038
00:50:44,480 --> 00:50:45,360
Speaker 5: make our own movies.

1039
00:50:46,400 --> 00:50:48,840
Speaker 1: And what year is this in which you declare that

1040
00:50:49,040 --> 00:50:51,200
Speaker 1: this is uh eighty.

1041
00:50:53,040 --> 00:50:57,520
Speaker 5: Three Wow, this is eighty three, and so Keene goes,

1042
00:50:58,200 --> 00:51:01,080
Speaker 5: Rob you never directed anything, never made a short film.

1043
00:51:01,160 --> 00:51:02,800
Speaker 5: You know, you're talking about making a movie. And I

1044
00:51:02,920 --> 00:51:04,680
Speaker 5: was like, if we don't do this, we're gonna die.

1045
00:51:04,840 --> 00:51:06,960
Speaker 5: We'll figure it out. Let's make a movie. And I

1046
00:51:07,080 --> 00:51:08,680
Speaker 5: had done you know, I was making money on my

1047
00:51:08,719 --> 00:51:11,560
Speaker 5: dogful commercials, so I'd make a lot of money. And

1048
00:51:11,640 --> 00:51:14,120
Speaker 5: I had just done a soldier story with Denzel and

1049
00:51:14,239 --> 00:51:16,839
Speaker 5: so I had like sixty thousand dollars saved in the bank.

1050
00:51:17,600 --> 00:51:19,320
Speaker 5: And I was like, you know, and everybody was like,

1051
00:51:19,520 --> 00:51:20,880
Speaker 5: you know, you're gonna get a Porsche, You'll get a

1052
00:51:20,960 --> 00:51:22,560
Speaker 5: jag What you gonna do with that money? And I

1053
00:51:22,760 --> 00:51:25,520
Speaker 5: was like, let's make a movie. And it was like,

1054
00:51:25,640 --> 00:51:27,239
Speaker 5: but you never did it before, And I said, that

1055
00:51:27,320 --> 00:51:29,280
Speaker 5: doesn't it doesn't look hard. I've been on enough sets

1056
00:51:29,560 --> 00:51:31,600
Speaker 5: I could do we could do this. We could do this.

1057
00:51:31,920 --> 00:51:34,799
Speaker 5: And I basically taught myself how to make a film,

1058
00:51:34,920 --> 00:51:39,120
Speaker 5: and we everything we did. The film was shot in

1059
00:51:39,200 --> 00:51:42,799
Speaker 5: twelve days, The whole film twelve of the hardest days

1060
00:51:42,840 --> 00:51:45,279
Speaker 5: of my life. I'm co writing with Keene.

1061
00:51:46,120 --> 00:51:50,520
Speaker 1: I mean all the things from soup and nuts, like, so.

1062
00:51:52,280 --> 00:51:54,440
Speaker 5: I have sixty thousand in the bank, right, And so

1063
00:51:54,640 --> 00:51:58,320
Speaker 5: then I go, let's just make Keenan and I, you know,

1064
00:51:58,400 --> 00:52:00,239
Speaker 5: we started writing and we're like, lit's is make a

1065
00:52:00,320 --> 00:52:02,320
Speaker 5: movie about our lives, and like people say, write what

1066
00:52:02,440 --> 00:52:04,600
Speaker 5: you know, let's just start writing. It's like, let's do

1067
00:52:04,719 --> 00:52:07,120
Speaker 5: that audition, let's do that part. Okay, hey, you know,

1068
00:52:07,239 --> 00:52:08,640
Speaker 5: and you know what, and let's show them what we

1069
00:52:08,760 --> 00:52:10,640
Speaker 5: who we are. So I says I want to always

1070
00:52:10,640 --> 00:52:12,440
Speaker 5: play a detective, and he goes, yeah, we could play

1071
00:52:12,480 --> 00:52:14,399
Speaker 5: a detective and then I could play the bad guy.

1072
00:52:14,840 --> 00:52:17,960
Speaker 5: Why don't we call him Jerry Dude, that'll be perfect.

1073
00:52:18,040 --> 00:52:20,680
Speaker 5: So then I'll be Sam a'ce like Humphrey Bogard wants

1074
00:52:20,719 --> 00:52:23,279
Speaker 5: in the movies and stead and Hmry Boguard, I'm Sam

1075
00:52:23,360 --> 00:52:25,120
Speaker 5: Ace and I'll be cool like saying, and we do

1076
00:52:25,200 --> 00:52:26,799
Speaker 5: it in black and white, yeah, yea yeah yeah.

1077
00:52:27,120 --> 00:52:29,640
Speaker 1: And then it's like there's no point and what you're

1078
00:52:29,800 --> 00:52:32,520
Speaker 1: just like we're in over our heads.

1079
00:52:32,560 --> 00:52:35,880
Speaker 5: Who we kidding? Like, you know, because because you know,

1080
00:52:36,040 --> 00:52:39,440
Speaker 5: I call it the salami theory. A salami is a

1081
00:52:39,480 --> 00:52:41,080
Speaker 5: piece of meat like this, and you just cut off

1082
00:52:41,120 --> 00:52:43,560
Speaker 5: one little piece, one little piece, And so I just

1083
00:52:43,600 --> 00:52:45,279
Speaker 5: knew to cut off one little piece at a time.

1084
00:52:45,719 --> 00:52:48,520
Speaker 5: I wasn't trying to go like ah. I was like, okay,

1085
00:52:49,400 --> 00:52:51,680
Speaker 5: this is how much I have for my rent and

1086
00:52:52,040 --> 00:52:55,440
Speaker 5: my gas and my car. We can't touch that, so

1087
00:52:55,560 --> 00:52:57,640
Speaker 5: we don't take everything else and put it on the table.

1088
00:52:58,000 --> 00:53:01,560
Speaker 5: So then how much does it cost to make to catering?

1089
00:53:01,880 --> 00:53:03,680
Speaker 5: We could do pasta, we could do chicken, We could

1090
00:53:03,680 --> 00:53:04,920
Speaker 5: do so and so on and get it. You know,

1091
00:53:05,000 --> 00:53:06,680
Speaker 5: da da da da. We could get the pastries and

1092
00:53:06,719 --> 00:53:09,399
Speaker 5: blah blah blah blah blah. So craft service taken care

1093
00:53:09,440 --> 00:53:13,360
Speaker 5: of hey. Back then, you could rent the camera on

1094
00:53:13,680 --> 00:53:16,800
Speaker 5: a Thursday, say you're gonna shoot for one day, and

1095
00:53:16,880 --> 00:53:19,080
Speaker 5: then you go like I missed the deadline. I'll bring

1096
00:53:19,200 --> 00:53:22,799
Speaker 5: it back on Monday. So then you shoot for your

1097
00:53:22,840 --> 00:53:25,719
Speaker 5: whole weekend, and then you shot with short ends. So

1098
00:53:25,840 --> 00:53:30,160
Speaker 5: I called Norman Jewison from a Soldier story and Ron Swore,

1099
00:53:30,600 --> 00:53:32,719
Speaker 5: the producer, and I said, I'm gonna make a movie.

1100
00:53:32,760 --> 00:53:34,719
Speaker 5: Can I have the leftover film from a soldier store?

1101
00:53:34,719 --> 00:53:36,360
Speaker 5: And he goes, you know, they call me Bob, Bobby,

1102
00:53:36,400 --> 00:53:37,880
Speaker 5: take it all, Bobby, take it all, take it all.

1103
00:53:38,160 --> 00:53:40,719
Speaker 5: So then I get the leftover film. And for those

1104
00:53:40,760 --> 00:53:43,719
Speaker 5: of you don't know short ends. Okay, a short end.

1105
00:53:44,080 --> 00:53:46,000
Speaker 5: So the concept of short ends, for those of you

1106
00:53:46,320 --> 00:53:50,160
Speaker 5: understand film, is that a magazine to shoot to load

1107
00:53:50,239 --> 00:53:54,200
Speaker 5: on the old school cameras was ten minutes long. If

1108
00:53:54,280 --> 00:53:57,560
Speaker 5: the scene is seven minutes, you have three minutes of

1109
00:53:57,680 --> 00:54:00,279
Speaker 5: them left over. You can't do the whole take again,

1110
00:54:00,360 --> 00:54:01,959
Speaker 5: so you just have three minutes to go get another

1111
00:54:02,080 --> 00:54:04,680
Speaker 5: mag so that three minutes of film. Nobody can really

1112
00:54:04,719 --> 00:54:07,239
Speaker 5: shoot anything with three minutes. I go give it to me.

1113
00:54:07,640 --> 00:54:09,279
Speaker 5: So if I've got to do one scene and go

1114
00:54:09,440 --> 00:54:10,960
Speaker 5: like sometimes I only had like a minute of film

1115
00:54:11,000 --> 00:54:13,000
Speaker 5: and I just say just say winki nicky dog, and

1116
00:54:13,080 --> 00:54:14,560
Speaker 5: it's like wiki, Dicky Dog. We got it. It is

1117
00:54:14,600 --> 00:54:17,680
Speaker 5: rolled out. Okay, let's go moving on and so reload, reload, reload,

1118
00:54:17,719 --> 00:54:20,040
Speaker 5: And so it would just be going that fast and

1119
00:54:20,120 --> 00:54:24,280
Speaker 5: that quick and short end short ends we couldn't afford

1120
00:54:24,440 --> 00:54:28,759
Speaker 5: the high editing places. So Keenan is always like, this

1121
00:54:28,840 --> 00:54:30,839
Speaker 5: is where we got into that brain thing. Because Keenan

1122
00:54:30,960 --> 00:54:34,440
Speaker 5: was like, he says, Rob, where do they edit pornos at?

1123
00:54:34,800 --> 00:54:37,359
Speaker 5: Because if we go to a porno place, we can

1124
00:54:37,440 --> 00:54:39,560
Speaker 5: really edit over there. And so they said, I hear

1125
00:54:39,600 --> 00:54:42,560
Speaker 5: in Chadsworth they got porno places, so we went there initially,

1126
00:54:42,920 --> 00:54:45,480
Speaker 5: what got a deal to edit porno? It's me and

1127
00:54:45,640 --> 00:54:49,920
Speaker 5: sixteen porn editors. And I had never heard anybody. I

1128
00:54:49,960 --> 00:54:52,040
Speaker 5: had never heard anybody direct porn. So then you hear like,

1129
00:54:52,080 --> 00:54:53,960
Speaker 5: You're like, I'm walking down the hall waiting on my cut,

1130
00:54:54,239 --> 00:54:55,920
Speaker 5: and then I can look in other people's room. I

1131
00:54:55,960 --> 00:54:57,879
Speaker 5: look in the room and then you see the editor

1132
00:54:57,960 --> 00:54:59,960
Speaker 5: there and he are cigarette and he's editing, and he's

1133
00:55:00,000 --> 00:55:01,719
Speaker 5: doing the whole thing. And you can hear the extor's voice.

1134
00:55:02,640 --> 00:55:04,640
Speaker 5: Put your leg down, put your leg down, enjoy it,

1135
00:55:04,840 --> 00:55:06,440
Speaker 5: enjoy it. Put your head back, put your head back,

1136
00:55:06,480 --> 00:55:08,160
Speaker 5: put your leg down, put your head back. Look, and

1137
00:55:08,400 --> 00:55:13,640
Speaker 5: I'm like, and they're just yeah, cockballs, right. And so

1138
00:55:14,560 --> 00:55:18,759
Speaker 5: the actors, you know, my whole thing was, look, i'm

1139
00:55:18,800 --> 00:55:21,640
Speaker 5: gonna make this movie, and I'm gonna take you through

1140
00:55:21,680 --> 00:55:23,400
Speaker 5: boot camp because I started in theater when I was

1141
00:55:23,440 --> 00:55:25,400
Speaker 5: a kid. So I said, we're gonna do acting exercises,

1142
00:55:26,719 --> 00:55:29,440
Speaker 5: and we did we actor exercises, warm ups and all

1143
00:55:29,480 --> 00:55:30,800
Speaker 5: of that, rehearsing, rehearsing.

1144
00:55:30,920 --> 00:55:35,600
Speaker 3: Wait, how did you even rally the troops? Everybody wasn't

1145
00:55:35,640 --> 00:55:37,719
Speaker 3: a Marie Johnson sort of established.

1146
00:55:38,000 --> 00:55:39,360
Speaker 5: No, nobody was established.

1147
00:55:39,920 --> 00:55:42,840
Speaker 3: I've seen her on extras and no, not that. The

1148
00:55:42,920 --> 00:55:45,120
Speaker 3: first time I've ever seen her was Hollywood Shuffle.

1149
00:55:45,160 --> 00:55:47,160
Speaker 5: I mean she had done little things, but not really

1150
00:55:47,400 --> 00:55:48,280
Speaker 5: like popping.

1151
00:55:48,760 --> 00:55:50,759
Speaker 1: Okay, but even like John Witherspoon, and.

1152
00:55:50,920 --> 00:55:53,000
Speaker 5: You know John hadn't really John had done stuff, but

1153
00:55:53,160 --> 00:55:54,840
Speaker 5: it was you know, it was like there was a

1154
00:55:54,960 --> 00:55:57,680
Speaker 5: time when it was like the Black Exploitation, which was

1155
00:55:57,760 --> 00:56:00,560
Speaker 5: not exploitation, it was just movies where we with the leads.

1156
00:56:00,880 --> 00:56:04,359
Speaker 5: You had that period with Melvin Van Peebles and all

1157
00:56:04,440 --> 00:56:07,600
Speaker 5: of them's and Michael Schultz and Cooley High and then

1158
00:56:07,640 --> 00:56:09,640
Speaker 5: there was like a little bit of pause where there

1159
00:56:09,680 --> 00:56:12,680
Speaker 5: were no movies like where we were. And then Spike

1160
00:56:12,840 --> 00:56:14,640
Speaker 5: was in New York doing She's Got to Have It,

1161
00:56:14,760 --> 00:56:18,080
Speaker 5: while I was in LA working on Hollywood Shuffle. Okay,

1162
00:56:18,160 --> 00:56:20,280
Speaker 5: So that was that time. And so there were actors

1163
00:56:20,320 --> 00:56:22,560
Speaker 5: that were working, but the work at work wasn't consistent.

1164
00:56:23,000 --> 00:56:26,279
Speaker 5: So then the thing for me was to say, look,

1165
00:56:26,320 --> 00:56:29,000
Speaker 5: I don't have any money to pay you, but when

1166
00:56:30,320 --> 00:56:32,080
Speaker 5: you're gonna have a great time, we're gonna make a movie.

1167
00:56:32,120 --> 00:56:35,239
Speaker 5: We're gonna make history, you know, And we're kicking over

1168
00:56:35,280 --> 00:56:38,799
Speaker 5: here at the craft services. That was right, that was right.

1169
00:56:38,880 --> 00:56:40,920
Speaker 5: And so they were like, he's gonna feed us, and

1170
00:56:41,040 --> 00:56:44,279
Speaker 5: he's gonna do this and so and I will have

1171
00:56:44,400 --> 00:56:47,400
Speaker 5: respect for your time. I will all have day jobs, right,

1172
00:56:47,520 --> 00:56:49,840
Speaker 5: all have day jobs. And so we shoot on the weekends.

1173
00:56:50,239 --> 00:56:52,120
Speaker 5: So I will get you in and get you out.

1174
00:56:52,160 --> 00:56:54,360
Speaker 5: And so the one thing I learned early on was

1175
00:56:54,960 --> 00:56:57,480
Speaker 5: I know how to plan. And so I was I

1176
00:56:57,560 --> 00:57:00,480
Speaker 5: did the call sheets, and I knew we had to

1177
00:57:00,520 --> 00:57:03,200
Speaker 5: be invisible so that people wouldn't break shut us down.

1178
00:57:03,239 --> 00:57:05,080
Speaker 5: So I go, We're gonna shoot at this house, but

1179
00:57:05,200 --> 00:57:07,719
Speaker 5: park three blocks away, and here's where you can park,

1180
00:57:07,920 --> 00:57:10,200
Speaker 5: and then walk over. And hey, don't hang out in

1181
00:57:10,239 --> 00:57:12,760
Speaker 5: front of the house, hang in the back. Please be quiet,

1182
00:57:12,920 --> 00:57:15,359
Speaker 5: so that we could shoot, shoot, shoot, and then we're gone.

1183
00:57:15,480 --> 00:57:17,240
Speaker 5: And then by the time we shot all of our

1184
00:57:17,280 --> 00:57:21,080
Speaker 5: outdoor stuff like the Black Acting School, Sunday morning. Sunday morning,

1185
00:57:21,120 --> 00:57:23,000
Speaker 5: people met at my house at five o'clock. We went

1186
00:57:23,000 --> 00:57:27,680
Speaker 5: to Nicholas Canyon, Nichols Canyon and laid everything out.

1187
00:57:27,680 --> 00:57:28,560
Speaker 1: Jumped into the mountain.

1188
00:57:28,920 --> 00:57:33,640
Speaker 5: Yeah where we go, you know? Yeah? So and so

1189
00:57:34,080 --> 00:57:35,160
Speaker 5: by the time, well, what.

1190
00:57:35,240 --> 00:57:39,040
Speaker 1: About like the beauty shop where Amerby Johnson worked at.

1191
00:57:39,080 --> 00:57:42,880
Speaker 5: Like that was in We made a deal where we said, hey,

1192
00:57:43,200 --> 00:57:46,640
Speaker 5: we will pay one hundred dollars plus clean up, you know,

1193
00:57:47,000 --> 00:57:48,920
Speaker 5: for a couple of weeks if you let us shoot.

1194
00:57:48,920 --> 00:57:51,360
Speaker 5: And that was like on Crenshaw. So we just you know,

1195
00:57:51,640 --> 00:57:52,439
Speaker 5: for the movie theater.

1196
00:57:52,760 --> 00:57:53,160
Speaker 1: I'm sorry.

1197
00:57:53,200 --> 00:57:56,960
Speaker 5: The movie theater was the old Baldwin Theater that's not

1198
00:57:57,120 --> 00:57:59,920
Speaker 5: there anymore, and it was owned by these two brothers

1199
00:58:00,240 --> 00:58:03,480
Speaker 5: and basically we just said, you know, hey, we don't

1200
00:58:03,520 --> 00:58:05,840
Speaker 5: have a lot of money to pay you, you know,

1201
00:58:06,080 --> 00:58:08,640
Speaker 5: but we'll clean up. We'll mop the floors. And I

1202
00:58:08,720 --> 00:58:11,120
Speaker 5: think I mopped that theater for about a couple of

1203
00:58:11,160 --> 00:58:14,000
Speaker 5: weeks after it was done. And they said, hey, you

1204
00:58:14,080 --> 00:58:15,760
Speaker 5: can shoot, but you got to be out before the

1205
00:58:15,800 --> 00:58:17,120
Speaker 5: movie starts at eleven o'clock.

1206
00:58:17,640 --> 00:58:20,360
Speaker 1: It was an active movie theater, and you guys would

1207
00:58:20,960 --> 00:58:22,160
Speaker 1: shoot on the off hours.

1208
00:58:22,480 --> 00:58:25,600
Speaker 5: What we shot before the movie started, like back then

1209
00:58:25,720 --> 00:58:27,560
Speaker 5: the morning in the morning. We shot in the morning

1210
00:58:27,640 --> 00:58:29,360
Speaker 5: so we'd get there. I think we got there like

1211
00:58:29,480 --> 00:58:33,520
Speaker 5: a four o'clock set up, started shooting. We had to

1212
00:58:33,560 --> 00:58:36,080
Speaker 5: wrap out by ten thirty and then the movie started

1213
00:58:36,160 --> 00:58:37,480
Speaker 5: at eleven.

1214
00:58:37,880 --> 00:58:40,800
Speaker 3: Dude, the same way that The Disaster Artist was made

1215
00:58:41,200 --> 00:58:44,280
Speaker 3: about the room. Oh yeah, I need a movie made

1216
00:58:44,480 --> 00:58:47,840
Speaker 3: about how this movie got made. First met a movie

1217
00:58:47,880 --> 00:58:50,920
Speaker 3: about making a movie about a movie about someone that

1218
00:58:51,080 --> 00:58:52,160
Speaker 3: didn't get to make movies.

1219
00:58:52,480 --> 00:58:53,160
Speaker 1: So continue.

1220
00:58:53,360 --> 00:58:56,240
Speaker 5: So everybody that I had ever auditioned against, you know,

1221
00:58:56,720 --> 00:58:58,760
Speaker 5: because the other thing is that you go like, oh

1222
00:58:58,800 --> 00:59:00,920
Speaker 5: that guy is really a good actor, or oh I've

1223
00:59:00,960 --> 00:59:03,000
Speaker 5: seen her and stuff before, she's really good. And so

1224
00:59:03,200 --> 00:59:05,040
Speaker 5: everybody I ever auditioned again and said, Hey, I'm trying

1225
00:59:05,040 --> 00:59:06,960
Speaker 5: to do this movie. Do you mind being in the

1226
00:59:07,040 --> 00:59:09,640
Speaker 5: movie with me? And they were like, sure, have you

1227
00:59:09,680 --> 00:59:11,320
Speaker 5: ever directed us? Says no, you know, I said, but

1228
00:59:11,720 --> 00:59:13,920
Speaker 5: they knew coming out of the theater. I knew what

1229
00:59:13,960 --> 00:59:16,800
Speaker 5: I was talking about because I had been in theater.

1230
00:59:17,320 --> 00:59:21,240
Speaker 5: So everybody said yes, and and I said, you know,

1231
00:59:21,520 --> 00:59:23,520
Speaker 5: I won't take my money first. Your money will be

1232
00:59:23,560 --> 00:59:25,000
Speaker 5: the first money. As soon as the money comes in,

1233
00:59:25,120 --> 00:59:28,000
Speaker 5: you're you will get paid first. And so that was

1234
00:59:28,040 --> 00:59:28,640
Speaker 5: the best day of it.

1235
00:59:28,800 --> 00:59:31,240
Speaker 1: I made a spect deal like if this goes to

1236
00:59:31,360 --> 00:59:33,240
Speaker 1: the theater and makes money and whatnot.

1237
00:59:33,960 --> 00:59:36,120
Speaker 5: There was no deal. It was my word. It was

1238
00:59:36,160 --> 00:59:38,000
Speaker 5: my word because I we didn't have a lawyer or anything,

1239
00:59:38,080 --> 00:59:39,720
Speaker 5: so it was just my word, like I go, you

1240
00:59:39,840 --> 00:59:45,480
Speaker 5: have my word. If there's nothing on paper, you know

1241
00:59:45,760 --> 00:59:49,200
Speaker 5: so so so basically, so here's here's the deal. So

1242
00:59:50,120 --> 00:59:52,440
Speaker 5: that was the happiest day of my life because when

1243
00:59:52,480 --> 00:59:54,080
Speaker 5: the film is done, I'm just going to jump ahead

1244
00:59:54,120 --> 00:59:55,720
Speaker 5: a little bit and come back. But when the film

1245
00:59:55,840 --> 00:59:58,760
Speaker 5: is done, I say to the Samuel Gowan Company, Sam

1246
00:59:58,880 --> 01:00:00,960
Speaker 5: Gohan says, I love this. I want to distribute it.

1247
01:00:01,280 --> 01:00:03,280
Speaker 5: And so then I say, hey, can I get my

1248
01:00:03,400 --> 01:00:05,160
Speaker 5: check like now? And he goes like, well, you know

1249
01:00:05,200 --> 01:00:07,040
Speaker 5: why you like you need it? He says, I said, well,

1250
01:00:07,840 --> 01:00:09,520
Speaker 5: I charged the rest of the movie on credit cards.

1251
01:00:09,640 --> 01:00:11,760
Speaker 5: And he was like, you charge your film on credit cards?

1252
01:00:11,800 --> 01:00:14,440
Speaker 5: And I was like yeah, And so then I go

1253
01:00:14,520 --> 01:00:16,560
Speaker 5: it's like forty thousand dollars and I need that money

1254
01:00:16,680 --> 01:00:18,960
Speaker 5: like now. And he was like, you did, and he says,

1255
01:00:19,040 --> 01:00:21,880
Speaker 5: this is the best story ever. And I told him,

1256
01:00:21,880 --> 01:00:24,600
Speaker 5: I said, hey, I couldn't pay for you know, food,

1257
01:00:24,840 --> 01:00:26,880
Speaker 5: but I could charge it. I said, I couldn't put

1258
01:00:26,920 --> 01:00:29,080
Speaker 5: you know. So I went through how I did all this,

1259
01:00:29,240 --> 01:00:33,000
Speaker 5: the charging. So then he goes, he goes, we'll do

1260
01:00:33,080 --> 01:00:34,400
Speaker 5: that and we'll take care everything I said. But the

1261
01:00:34,440 --> 01:00:35,920
Speaker 5: first thing is that I got to pay all these

1262
01:00:35,960 --> 01:00:39,640
Speaker 5: actors because I said, I told him, and so he says, okay.

1263
01:00:39,680 --> 01:00:40,920
Speaker 5: He says, how soon do you want to do it?

1264
01:00:40,960 --> 01:00:43,480
Speaker 5: We're going to sign a deal. And I said, how

1265
01:00:43,560 --> 01:00:44,840
Speaker 5: soon can you do it? And he goes, you know,

1266
01:00:45,040 --> 01:00:47,280
Speaker 5: it's it's Thursday. He says, it's going to take me

1267
01:00:47,280 --> 01:00:48,760
Speaker 5: some time to get it together for Friday. I said,

1268
01:00:48,760 --> 01:00:50,800
Speaker 5: can we do it Sunday at my house? And so

1269
01:00:51,080 --> 01:00:55,400
Speaker 5: Sunday at my house. I was living on Orange Drive

1270
01:00:56,320 --> 01:00:59,560
Speaker 5: and right off a mail Rose and I said, tall,

1271
01:01:00,120 --> 01:01:02,480
Speaker 5: just meet meet at my house at this time. The

1272
01:01:02,560 --> 01:01:04,680
Speaker 5: accountant from the Golden Company is going to be there.

1273
01:01:04,720 --> 01:01:06,720
Speaker 5: I have a one bedroom. You'll meet, you'll sign your

1274
01:01:06,760 --> 01:01:09,120
Speaker 5: contract in the bedroom. You'll wait in the living room.

1275
01:01:09,200 --> 01:01:12,160
Speaker 5: I have drinks and food and everything. And they got

1276
01:01:12,200 --> 01:01:14,640
Speaker 5: their checks before I got mine, and they all did

1277
01:01:14,680 --> 01:01:16,200
Speaker 5: it and came in my bedroom and they signed their

1278
01:01:16,240 --> 01:01:19,400
Speaker 5: contracts and that was the happiest day, you know, my life.

1279
01:01:22,760 --> 01:01:25,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, what act specific? We want to ask you about

1280
01:01:25,400 --> 01:01:33,920
Speaker 1: Loudi Washington, Yes, sir, what dogs we played? Don Michael Jackson's.

1281
01:01:35,600 --> 01:01:35,720
Speaker 4: Right?

1282
01:01:36,880 --> 01:01:40,320
Speaker 1: That did Gregory right? He's he's just one of them actors.

1283
01:01:40,040 --> 01:01:42,479
Speaker 5: That Livy showed up, you know, because there were certain

1284
01:01:42,520 --> 01:01:46,840
Speaker 5: people that Uh, Jackie Brown was the casting director because

1285
01:01:46,840 --> 01:01:49,240
Speaker 5: there were certain people that we knew and people that

1286
01:01:49,320 --> 01:01:51,520
Speaker 5: we didn't know, and Loudy showed up and just and

1287
01:01:51,680 --> 01:01:52,400
Speaker 5: and here's the thing.

1288
01:01:53,320 --> 01:01:53,440
Speaker 4: Uh.

1289
01:01:55,000 --> 01:01:56,920
Speaker 5: I worked at a place called Yankee Doodle Dandy in

1290
01:01:57,000 --> 01:02:00,120
Speaker 5: Chicago and Keenan worked at McDonald's in New York, and

1291
01:02:00,200 --> 01:02:02,840
Speaker 5: so we both combined our experiences and so Ludi was

1292
01:02:02,880 --> 01:02:04,840
Speaker 5: one of the cats that we they we used to

1293
01:02:04,880 --> 01:02:05,120
Speaker 5: work with.

1294
01:02:05,200 --> 01:02:08,480
Speaker 1: It was like yeah, yah, yeah, yeah, whose idea was

1295
01:02:08,520 --> 01:02:10,120
Speaker 1: it about hoe cakes?

1296
01:02:10,200 --> 01:02:13,600
Speaker 3: Because the only person I ever heard mentioned hoe cakes

1297
01:02:13,880 --> 01:02:17,480
Speaker 3: was James Brown on Live of the Power Volume three

1298
01:02:17,640 --> 01:02:18,800
Speaker 3: where he talks about.

1299
01:02:18,600 --> 01:02:22,760
Speaker 5: That was John Weatherspoon. Spoon was improvising Spoon. Here's the

1300
01:02:22,880 --> 01:02:25,760
Speaker 5: thing again, when you ask these people say, hey, I'm

1301
01:02:25,760 --> 01:02:27,000
Speaker 5: going to do a movie, and you haven't done a

1302
01:02:27,080 --> 01:02:30,360
Speaker 5: movie before, and they were like, what is the hell

1303
01:02:30,400 --> 01:02:30,960
Speaker 5: are you? Who do you?

1304
01:02:31,120 --> 01:02:31,280
Speaker 4: You know?

1305
01:02:31,400 --> 01:02:33,520
Speaker 5: And so he was like, man, whatever you want me

1306
01:02:33,600 --> 01:02:37,440
Speaker 5: to do, and John Weatherspoon was like, he would just

1307
01:02:37,480 --> 01:02:39,760
Speaker 5: give you the world. And so when I said, okay,

1308
01:02:40,320 --> 01:02:42,480
Speaker 5: this is a flashback now, he's down and out and

1309
01:02:42,520 --> 01:02:44,320
Speaker 5: so and so on and so on and so then

1310
01:02:44,800 --> 01:02:46,800
Speaker 5: and John just started going off and I had never

1311
01:02:46,880 --> 01:02:48,680
Speaker 5: heard Hoe Cakes either, and I just thought it was

1312
01:02:48,760 --> 01:02:49,280
Speaker 5: just brilliant.

1313
01:02:49,760 --> 01:02:52,360
Speaker 1: At that point, did you know who.

1314
01:02:53,840 --> 01:02:56,320
Speaker 3: Melvin Van Peeples was and that that was his exact

1315
01:02:56,400 --> 01:02:58,760
Speaker 3: experience making Sweet Sweetbacks?

1316
01:02:59,080 --> 01:03:03,800
Speaker 5: Badass? You know, I didn't know anything because I you know,

1317
01:03:03,920 --> 01:03:07,160
Speaker 5: I kind of knew some directors, but I didn't know

1318
01:03:07,400 --> 01:03:11,120
Speaker 5: because I wasn't like I'm going to be an independent filmmaker.

1319
01:03:11,240 --> 01:03:13,440
Speaker 5: I was just so fed up that I just go,

1320
01:03:13,960 --> 01:03:16,480
Speaker 5: I'm not going to complain. I never complained. It's like,

1321
01:03:16,600 --> 01:03:18,360
Speaker 5: let me just do something about it. Let's take action.

1322
01:03:18,840 --> 01:03:21,320
Speaker 5: So then later on I discovered who he was in

1323
01:03:21,400 --> 01:03:22,520
Speaker 5: his films, Well.

1324
01:03:22,360 --> 01:03:28,880
Speaker 3: Probably the most established person of that ensembles maybe Patrese Russian,

1325
01:03:29,000 --> 01:03:32,760
Speaker 3: who by then was a platinum selling yes artist. So

1326
01:03:33,480 --> 01:03:36,120
Speaker 3: how did you get her involved in the scoring of

1327
01:03:36,160 --> 01:03:37,280
Speaker 3: the film and all that stuff?

1328
01:03:37,680 --> 01:03:40,840
Speaker 5: Well, you know what it was was that because I

1329
01:03:40,920 --> 01:03:44,520
Speaker 5: love movies, I know that music is really important, and

1330
01:03:44,800 --> 01:03:48,760
Speaker 5: so I was looking for different people and then sending

1331
01:03:48,800 --> 01:03:52,080
Speaker 5: stuff to different people's agents, you know, because even though

1332
01:03:52,160 --> 01:03:54,920
Speaker 5: we were small, it was like it's a small film,

1333
01:03:55,040 --> 01:03:56,960
Speaker 5: but you know, at that point, we had something in

1334
01:03:57,040 --> 01:04:01,840
Speaker 5: the can that people could look at. So her agent

1335
01:04:02,520 --> 01:04:06,280
Speaker 5: reached out and sent us a thing her real because

1336
01:04:06,320 --> 01:04:09,840
Speaker 5: she had never really composed. She had done you know, music,

1337
01:04:09,880 --> 01:04:11,400
Speaker 5: but then it's like you know how people go like

1338
01:04:11,520 --> 01:04:13,680
Speaker 5: you know and even Sam going, you know, they were

1339
01:04:13,800 --> 01:04:16,120
Speaker 5: like and like, wait, you know you got an artist.

1340
01:04:16,200 --> 01:04:18,080
Speaker 5: Maybe they can't compose. Maybe they you know what I mean,

1341
01:04:19,280 --> 01:04:24,840
Speaker 5: two different skills like songwriter versus a So, so I

1342
01:04:25,000 --> 01:04:27,680
Speaker 5: met with her and she was like, I'd love to

1343
01:04:27,800 --> 01:04:29,960
Speaker 5: do it, and you know, it's just kind of like

1344
01:04:30,080 --> 01:04:33,640
Speaker 5: for me, there aren't a whole back then. They might

1345
01:04:33,640 --> 01:04:35,400
Speaker 5: be a little bit more now, but there weren't a

1346
01:04:35,520 --> 01:04:41,560
Speaker 5: lot of black women composers or black women musical directors.

1347
01:04:41,920 --> 01:04:45,280
Speaker 5: So when she said, hey, I want to do it,

1348
01:04:45,520 --> 01:04:47,320
Speaker 5: you know, I knew her music, but then I saw

1349
01:04:47,400 --> 01:04:49,400
Speaker 5: her passion to like I can give you some music

1350
01:04:49,480 --> 01:04:51,040
Speaker 5: underneath here and I can do this and I can

1351
01:04:51,080 --> 01:04:52,959
Speaker 5: do this. And then when I did Partners in Crime,

1352
01:04:53,000 --> 01:04:55,080
Speaker 5: I said, you could be my musical director and come up,

1353
01:04:55,120 --> 01:04:56,880
Speaker 5: you know, it could be the play ons, playoffs and

1354
01:04:57,040 --> 01:04:59,040
Speaker 5: so and then she went on to do the you know,

1355
01:04:59,160 --> 01:05:01,520
Speaker 5: the Emmys and every thing. So you know, it's just

1356
01:05:01,640 --> 01:05:04,200
Speaker 5: like but it's just seeing it, just seeing it.

1357
01:05:04,400 --> 01:05:07,240
Speaker 1: So what's is there a moment of for you, like

1358
01:05:10,080 --> 01:05:10,920
Speaker 1: like completion.

1359
01:05:12,000 --> 01:05:15,320
Speaker 3: Is it after the first screening of it at whatever?

1360
01:05:15,560 --> 01:05:17,160
Speaker 3: I don't know if you guys did a premiere or not.

1361
01:05:17,920 --> 01:05:21,880
Speaker 3: Is it when Eddie Murphy hears about this and rents

1362
01:05:21,920 --> 01:05:25,439
Speaker 3: out the theater to see it, Like, at what point

1363
01:05:25,480 --> 01:05:28,280
Speaker 3: do you realize that, holy shit, this is going to

1364
01:05:28,360 --> 01:05:30,200
Speaker 3: be a thing.

1365
01:05:31,200 --> 01:05:31,360
Speaker 6: You know?

1366
01:05:32,040 --> 01:05:35,800
Speaker 5: Let me say this, when we were putting it together,

1367
01:05:36,000 --> 01:05:39,120
Speaker 5: editing and doing the whole thing, you know, Keenan and

1368
01:05:39,200 --> 01:05:42,600
Speaker 5: I we it made us laugh. We don't it's like

1369
01:05:42,760 --> 01:05:45,400
Speaker 5: if we really laugh, like on this Jerry Curl stuff.

1370
01:05:45,520 --> 01:05:48,920
Speaker 5: We were laughing and it was just us right laughing,

1371
01:05:49,200 --> 01:05:52,480
Speaker 5: having a good time. So I wasn't really like everyone's

1372
01:05:52,520 --> 01:05:53,800
Speaker 5: gonna love this. It really doesn't.

1373
01:05:53,920 --> 01:05:54,080
Speaker 4: You know.

1374
01:05:54,360 --> 01:05:56,360
Speaker 5: There's a part that you want to be loved, and

1375
01:05:56,400 --> 01:05:58,600
Speaker 5: then there's another part like I just want to do

1376
01:05:58,800 --> 01:06:02,040
Speaker 5: what makes me happy. I just period, And I think

1377
01:06:02,240 --> 01:06:03,760
Speaker 5: we were being true to that.

1378
01:06:06,080 --> 01:06:09,000
Speaker 4: Okay, QLs fam, this is where we're stopping part one.

1379
01:06:09,440 --> 01:06:10,960
Speaker 4: And I know you heard a mirror say it during

1380
01:06:11,000 --> 01:06:14,760
Speaker 4: the episode, but I have got to reiterate this Yere

1381
01:06:14,840 --> 01:06:19,880
Speaker 4: episode is top ten Quest Love Supreme episodes of all time. Okay,

1382
01:06:20,240 --> 01:06:23,200
Speaker 4: And you know, every year, Quest Love Supreme celebrates Black

1383
01:06:23,280 --> 01:06:25,400
Speaker 4: History Month. You know I do it every day, but anyway,

1384
01:06:25,880 --> 01:06:28,240
Speaker 4: Robert Townsend is Black history, which means.

1385
01:06:28,080 --> 01:06:30,440
Speaker 5: What class He's American history.

1386
01:06:31,040 --> 01:06:33,640
Speaker 4: So make sure you come back for part two next

1387
01:06:33,720 --> 01:06:36,720
Speaker 4: week or check out the podcast. In the second part

1388
01:06:36,760 --> 01:06:38,840
Speaker 4: of this conversation, he speaks about.

1389
01:06:38,720 --> 01:06:43,080
Speaker 5: Meteor Man and his talent and now Emmy Award winning daughters,

1390
01:06:43,200 --> 01:06:44,480
Speaker 5: Guy and so much more.

1391
01:06:44,960 --> 01:06:47,320
Speaker 4: Okay, can y'all tell I really love this conversation.

1392
01:06:47,640 --> 01:06:48,640
Speaker 5: Make sure you come back.

1393
01:06:55,560 --> 01:07:02,240
Speaker 1: West Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. For more

1394
01:07:02,320 --> 01:07:06,800
Speaker 1: podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

1395
01:07:06,800 --> 01:07:08,440
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.