Speaker 1: Quest Love Show is a production of iHeartRadio. Hey whateup, y'all.
Speaker 2: This is Quest Love And in late twenty twenty three,
Speaker 2: Quest Love Supreme had Cedric be entertainer on and this
Speaker 2: was like the prime zoom days of Qlsson said was
Speaker 2: chilling in his car waiting for his wife at the
Speaker 2: Salon Classic setup, but he still gave us some jewels
Speaker 2: about his journey into comedy, the lessons that he learned
Speaker 2: and delving into his first novel, Flipping Box Cards. And
Speaker 2: I always loved talking to comedians and Team Supreme and
Speaker 2: I had a blast with this, so it became one
Speaker 2: of our top performing episodes of that year. So I
Speaker 2: want you to enjoy it.
Speaker 3: Word word, What's up? Right? Up?
Speaker 1: What's going on? What's going on?
Speaker 3: Hey? Good good? And saw you guys the other night
Speaker 3: that was lit You was there, Yeah, yeah, in l A.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was our Okay. It was my first time
Speaker 1: at the former and I enjoyed that.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, I did it. Uh, I did it in
Speaker 3: May with the tour we was on. That was I
Speaker 3: had been.
Speaker 4: I had actually did it one other time with me
Speaker 4: and Georgia and all that. But it's a great performance venue.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's ready to be in a venue which there's
Speaker 2: not bouncing sounding on us.
Speaker 3: Yeah, specific exactly.
Speaker 5: We cann introduce ourselves to say, I'm like, yeah, how
Speaker 5: you doing.
Speaker 4: Like yeah, yeah, I was working worked them out.
Speaker 5: Yeah there, get all of them. It's a live.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 6: We met a few times. H.
Speaker 7: I think I brought my family backstage and you guys
Speaker 7: were in Raleigh. This was a couple of years ago
Speaker 7: when you and Eddie and George I was doing your tour.
Speaker 6: And youre telling I think you went food y'all played.
Speaker 7: I think you and Pool was doing just do something
Speaker 7: with sports together, something from the Pool had pool.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. We had one of.
Speaker 4: Those football things together. We was all in yeah, like
Speaker 4: ship and Steve just rolled the joint though, what.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, I just rolled ten joints.
Speaker 5: It's his birthday.
Speaker 3: Say let's go, Steve.
Speaker 8: Let's got nice to me, yes, sir.
Speaker 9: Congratulations on your book, man, It's nice to see all
Speaker 9: these Saint Louis references in here.
Speaker 5: I got a mama from there.
Speaker 3: Our word okay, yeah yeah really yeah.
Speaker 4: Really happy with the way it turned down and everything,
Speaker 4: so super excited about it.
Speaker 9: It looked like it's going to be on somebody's stage
Speaker 9: or screen and it's a couple of years.
Speaker 6: Maybe.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Yeah, it's got definitely got all the elements of
Speaker 4: being a great story.
Speaker 3: Actually that's kind of where I started it.
Speaker 4: I started writing the writing a TV show idea, and
Speaker 4: then it and then the book Opportunity came.
Speaker 2: So, so all right, ladies and gentlemen, the summer is over.
Speaker 1: I hope you guys thrived and uh and did well. Uh.
Speaker 2: There is another episode of Quest Love Supreme from hers
Speaker 2: Quest Love. We have our team Supreme's with us. Take
Speaker 2: a little bro, what's uping a working man?
Speaker 1: Working? How is your summer? My summer was?
Speaker 3: It was hot?
Speaker 7: I think I realized this summer. My favorite season really
Speaker 7: is fall. I think I only like summer as a
Speaker 7: kid because there was no school. Summer as an adult,
Speaker 7: it's fucking hot. I had this ship cuzow over Fall
Speaker 7: got But I mean, but the summer it was cool.
Speaker 7: I didn't get the cook as much as I wanted
Speaker 7: to be. It was just it was just that hot.
Speaker 7: It was too crazy. But uh but noah, we had
Speaker 7: a good time man and the family too.
Speaker 1: You have an outdoor set up and you prip oh yeah, Oh.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I got my got my the big green egg.
Speaker 7: I do it on that and you know that's fumbly
Speaker 7: where I do all my all my cooking outside my grilling.
Speaker 6: But uh, you.
Speaker 5: Ain't a real grilling. You ain't got that egg. I
Speaker 5: heard that's like a thing.
Speaker 3: No, I mean it's it's official.
Speaker 7: But I mean, listen, I hadn't seen dudes get busy
Speaker 7: in a file cabinet before, so you know what I mean, if.
Speaker 6: You got the skill to do it, you know what
Speaker 6: I mean. I wanted to talk barbecue.
Speaker 7: We will get into I want to talk barbecue to
Speaker 7: see because I know you and Anthony y'all got your
Speaker 7: thing too.
Speaker 6: So but yeah, man, yeah, someone was cool.
Speaker 1: Someone was cool. Word up, that's right, Steve.
Speaker 2: You remember we used to put out the deluxe George
Speaker 2: Foreman grill on the patio.
Speaker 8: No, we had a real barbecue, but Foreman was handy,
Speaker 8: definitely andy.
Speaker 1: I missed my former grill.
Speaker 2: Man, it's probably still on that patio. I've left the
Speaker 2: house like sixteen years ago. I bet you're still out there.
Speaker 2: I was just talking to Steve. What's going on?
Speaker 1: Bro Man?
Speaker 8: Just like Fonta's a lot, a lot of work, a
Speaker 8: lot of projects, got the record label NonStop or just
Speaker 8: did our twenty third record on JMI and uh twenty
Speaker 8: three records, twenty three records, Yeah, man six six label Realuz,
Speaker 8: you guys remember when it started, right around the time
Speaker 8: Quest of Supreme started.
Speaker 6: Yeah, Ray, every one was the first one, wasn't it?
Speaker 1: Was that a second second one?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 5: It's like ten really angry albums later.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 8: Well our he's our flagship artist for sure, Okay, and
Speaker 8: a lot of good stuff coming out.
Speaker 1: Yeah cool. How goes it?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 5: It goes well? Much like Fante.
Speaker 9: It was a hot summer, especially because it was my
Speaker 9: first Parry summer, so that was an experience.
Speaker 5: Oh fellas, So let me never tell you.
Speaker 9: Perimenopause is the theft that happens before menopause.
Speaker 5: It could pop off.
Speaker 9: At like, you know, thirty five, starting the age of
Speaker 9: thirty five. Mine happened a little later. And that's just
Speaker 9: when you get all the heats from the menopause. All
Speaker 9: your things are still rolling. You know, your body's still
Speaker 9: doing things, maybe not as often, you know, I'd be
Speaker 9: partying for fifty days without a situation.
Speaker 5: But yeah, if you look at me now, there's a glow.
Speaker 1: Saying every day summer for you, every day.
Speaker 5: Summer, every day.
Speaker 9: Shout out to your bandmate Kamal, who wanted to make
Speaker 9: that known to everyone yesterday.
Speaker 5: I'm still gonna kick his ass.
Speaker 3: What did he do?
Speaker 9: Oh no, he just didn't announce that I had my
Speaker 9: menopause fan in my hand, and I was like, it is,
Speaker 9: but let me tell my story.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no he only knews that because I
Speaker 2: can attest that Kamal Tarique and maybe two other routes
Speaker 2: also had their fans in there. There's a thing that
Speaker 2: you plug into your iPhone and yeah it cools you off.
Speaker 1: And yeah we're up there.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 2: This this, this is the summer in which I felt
Speaker 2: whatever the equivalent of preschool is to being a senior citizen.
Speaker 1: That was the summer the force. No, this was not
Speaker 1: a music tour.
Speaker 2: This was this was camp cool j This is literally
Speaker 2: g I Jane.
Speaker 5: Oh, please tell us something to mir or just tell
Speaker 5: us something.
Speaker 2: No like Ella wasn't having it like we've been. I
Speaker 2: probably lost an additional fifteen pounds like he has working
Speaker 2: out lifting weights, like getting cupping every night and similar
Speaker 2: to the spot to get yo. I need you all
Speaker 2: relax man getting drips oxygen tinks like llo is I
Speaker 2: mean not like major pain level of drill, sergeant, but
Speaker 2: like you don't take that.
Speaker 9: You he looks phenomenal, So you know that it's got
Speaker 9: to be a lot to make that happen.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, it's it's definitely an osmosis effect that's been happening.
Speaker 1: So you know, four more gigs left.
Speaker 2: But I will say this is one of the hardest
Speaker 2: summers of my life. Like and I had to do
Speaker 2: no running, none of that stuff. Like, I mean, you've
Speaker 2: seen this sh like the it's had the You've seen
Speaker 2: us injured, like you saw fattyus jumping with one leg
Speaker 2: and they.
Speaker 9: And it was the wettest I ever seen you. You got
Speaker 9: off stage, you was like soaked. I was like, that's
Speaker 9: not like you. You do this like it's nothing.
Speaker 2: Three and a half hours. Well you saw short Hill.
Speaker 2: That was just like three hours on the news. But
Speaker 2: normally it's like three and a half hours back where
Speaker 2: I belong, sitting in the chair, talking and not moving
Speaker 2: is where I'm the happiest. So again, I will say
Speaker 2: that longtime listeners of the show should know how much
Speaker 2: we love focusing on career pivots. All of us have
Speaker 2: reached our pivot where we were one thing when the
Speaker 2: show for started, now where you know, multi hyphenated doing
Speaker 2: other things. And I will say that our guests this
Speaker 2: week is absolutely all about that. You know as probably
Speaker 2: one of the biggest stand ups in all of comedy,
Speaker 2: and he has pivot to become a fixture on he's television, film,
Speaker 2: actor stage. We know him first for comedy and then
Speaker 2: you know, if you if you're fans with Comic View
Speaker 2: and def Comedy Jam and even the Primetime Emmy Awards,
Speaker 2: you know our guests, but you know he's also executive
Speaker 2: produced shows and created opportunities for so many other comedians
Speaker 2: and actors in his wake. But also I will say
Speaker 2: that our guest tonight he's sort of expanding his palace
Speaker 2: a little bit. And he is a novelist and his
Speaker 2: first novel, Flipping Box Cars, is currently out and he's
Speaker 2: joined us to talk about his life, his career and
Speaker 2: his many pivots. Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for
Speaker 2: the one and only.
Speaker 10: For your next Black people have.
Speaker 3: Wait.
Speaker 1: So this is what you don't know.
Speaker 2: Said Okay, So I without alienating my position with one
Speaker 2: of my jobs with the Roots now fifteen years at
Speaker 2: that job. We kind of have a short list of
Speaker 2: the types of guests that get to the couch, but
Speaker 2: we have a top five list of people who are
Speaker 2: a snooze city, like like give it along, like when
Speaker 2: you see it on television, it's perfectly edit it.
Speaker 1: It's nice.
Speaker 2: But these are like eighteen minute story like the equivalent
Speaker 2: of me in real life on the show. It's to
Speaker 2: the point now where all three of your ad libs,
Speaker 2: like literally your ad libs are triggered on my computer
Speaker 2: to the right. And that's what I used to sometimes
Speaker 2: make fun of guests on the show. So you know,
Speaker 2: if you happen to see us laughing from the couch,
Speaker 2: you didn't say anything funny.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, fuck no.
Speaker 1: That's one of my favorite bits.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 4: How are you doing, bro, I'm good, brother, I do it.
Speaker 4: Everything is well, man, it's good.
Speaker 1: Wait are you in the car right now?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Man, I was actually out with my wife.
Speaker 2: What's up with every black guest that we have? Hey
Speaker 2: do their interview portion in the car is where it's
Speaker 2: uh soundproof and whatnot?
Speaker 1: Where are you calling us from?
Speaker 3: I'm in I'm actually at the nail shop.
Speaker 4: So my wife wanted me to come to come to
Speaker 4: the nail shop with her, and then I was like, oh,
Speaker 4: I was like, our anniversary was Sunday, so I've been
Speaker 4: like just anniversarying it up with her, like so each
Speaker 4: day whatever she wants to do. And I, you know,
Speaker 4: I was like, babe, I got this interview and she
Speaker 4: was like, come, it's gonna be fast.
Speaker 3: And of course it's not.
Speaker 4: She and they're getting jailed toes and dips they dipping it.
Speaker 3: It's all kind. I say, I gotta go to the
Speaker 3: car and do this interview.
Speaker 1: So it's long enough for you to do a podcast.
Speaker 9: Yeah, if she getting jail on the toes and the hands, yes, yeah, no, wait.
Speaker 1: Yeah can I can I ask you guys for advice?
Speaker 2: So, at what point in the relationship do you realize
Speaker 2: that you shouldn't do too much at the beginning because
Speaker 2: then you'll have to maintain that level of excellence throughout
Speaker 2: the entire relationship, Like when February is looking around? Yeah,
Speaker 2: do y'all feel like the pressure of God gotta Yeah.
Speaker 4: You can easily put yourself in to your point, you
Speaker 4: can put yourself in bad situations and it depending on
Speaker 4: the person you you're dating.
Speaker 3: Right, My wife is not really big on.
Speaker 4: Her birthday, but her anniversary that means that means much
Speaker 4: to her. So anniversaries are things that I gotta.
Speaker 3: Go hard on.
Speaker 4: Valentine's Day is something that she's as long as I
Speaker 4: pay attention and don't forget.
Speaker 3: Were good.
Speaker 4: But like you know, but like Thanksgiving, Chris, anything to
Speaker 4: do with the kids, Like the kids gotta be like
Speaker 4: their birthdays and what we do to celebrate them or
Speaker 4: I need to be very concerned about that as a man,
Speaker 4: which is you know, in most cases I am not.
Speaker 3: I'd be like, yo, when when was these little kids born?
Speaker 7: Again?
Speaker 4: Like I don't know, Okay, they're all old and stuff.
Speaker 4: Now I'm looking at them like I don't know who
Speaker 4: your birthday is?
Speaker 3: Bro.
Speaker 2: Okay, I was about to say, after after twenty three,
Speaker 2: my dad stopped acknowledging my birthday.
Speaker 3: So yeah, yeah it's right, bro, Like come on, man,
Speaker 3: come on down like the slew Oh yeah, give me.
Speaker 3: I'll be doing my son like that, my man every birthday. Bro,
Speaker 3: Like that's it. You know, you're.
Speaker 4: No longer a little dude where I got to get
Speaker 4: the cake and throw the Lakers birthday party for you
Speaker 4: and all that stuff, you.
Speaker 6: Know, like, you know, how old are your kids now?
Speaker 3: Man?
Speaker 4: Yeah, my son's going to be twenty three in the
Speaker 4: end of September, and my daughter will be twenty in November.
Speaker 4: And I got an older daughter that's thirty four and
Speaker 4: a granddaughter that's seven.
Speaker 6: Wow. So yeah, and you and your wife y'all got
Speaker 6: twenty years and is it's twenty fail?
Speaker 3: I long, Yeah, twenty four, twenty four, twenty fourth. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that's beautiful.
Speaker 2: Congratulations. What's what's your seeing? And I'm always looking for advice?
Speaker 2: What's what's the secret to keep me in the life?
Speaker 3: I mean, I mean, I mean we really enjoy each other.
Speaker 4: I think that was the main thing, is to really
Speaker 4: kind of keep your wife your girlfriend, you know, try
Speaker 4: to keep that part of it alive, you know, so
Speaker 4: that you don't get into playing those kind of traditional
Speaker 4: roles and get you know, everybody just kind of like
Speaker 4: playing the game of marriage. So we still like date
Speaker 4: a lot and have fun together and laugh a lot
Speaker 4: and have our own inside stuff. And it's important even
Speaker 4: when we was raising the kids, we still like, you know,
Speaker 4: made it, you know, made our relationship about us, and
Speaker 4: you know, the parenting part of it was again a
Speaker 4: part of the overall system, but never was it all
Speaker 4: about like, oh, you know, we just gonna be mama
Speaker 4: and daddy and not you ain't gonna.
Speaker 3: Be my girl. You know what I'm saying. You got
Speaker 3: to be my girl too. So I think that's the key.
Speaker 1: That's what's up.
Speaker 2: I've never had an in depth conversation with any of
Speaker 2: the kings of comedy. And you know, I've seen many,
Speaker 2: you know, like a documentary on like the comedy act
Speaker 2: theory and all those things. But I know that a
Speaker 2: lot of you've gotten your start out I'm assuming like
Speaker 2: in the Midwest, then make that way out west. So
Speaker 2: just in general, I want to know, like where does
Speaker 2: your where does humor play in your life? Like were
Speaker 2: you always the class clown? Were you always making people laugh?
Speaker 2: Like how remember you at what point on the timeline
Speaker 2: where you mark where your journey starts with comedy.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna say you know probably that you know that
Speaker 4: that seventh seventh grade lunch room cafeterias area where we
Speaker 4: all kind of start to identify ourselves as a you know,
Speaker 4: like your own personality. But you know you also got
Speaker 4: to stand up against you know, the uh, the larger group, right,
Speaker 4: And I came from a small town at that time.
Speaker 4: I used to live in a little small town called Ruthersville, Missouri,
Speaker 4: and moved to Saint Louis. So I was like the
Speaker 4: the kind of the new kid. But you know, I
Speaker 4: lived in.
Speaker 3: The household, my single parent household, me and my mom.
Speaker 4: But like my uncle was and my cousins, they was funny,
Speaker 4: Like I got like one uncle thats just was one
Speaker 4: of these funny personalities just always say it funny things.
Speaker 4: And I think that that was you know, that place
Speaker 4: where you see it, you see it that environment where
Speaker 4: you like, you know somebody that's always gonna walk in
Speaker 4: the room and everybody can't wait till he get there
Speaker 4: because he's gonna say something crazy.
Speaker 3: And he had a hundred of them.
Speaker 4: And so I think that even my style of comedy
Speaker 4: is more like you know, somebody, you know, like somebody
Speaker 4: like more conversational in in my delivery.
Speaker 3: More like an uncle or a cousin.
Speaker 4: And then I had to learn how to put it
Speaker 4: on stage, you know, you know, you know, in a
Speaker 4: formulated pattern way. But but I still still more or
Speaker 4: less write jokes and come with my jokes from a
Speaker 4: point of view of like slice of life, Like what
Speaker 4: I would say in a circumstance at this point in
Speaker 4: your career, how do you work stuff out?
Speaker 7: I mean because you you know, you've done stadiums and stuff,
Speaker 7: so yeah, you go to just kind of you know,
Speaker 7: when you need to work your ideas out.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I got a couple of comedy clubs I like
Speaker 4: to work out, usually up north, Like, uh, I'll go
Speaker 4: up to you know, like Sacramento, you know that kind
Speaker 4: of area, or it's a little club outside of Oakland.
Speaker 4: That's one of my favorite clubs to go work out
Speaker 4: is in Pleasanton, California. So I would go there and
Speaker 4: just you know, do multiple shows. And that's usually where
Speaker 4: I'm trying to like write jokes and try new things out.
Speaker 3: But I'll also do it on the big stage. You know.
Speaker 3: I've kind of gotten to the point to where if I.
Speaker 4: Think I know what the joke is, I'll just do
Speaker 4: it like right there in front of people, like just
Speaker 4: try it.
Speaker 2: Okay, answer this question to me about or how they
Speaker 2: would at least, so you're about maybe the sixth or
Speaker 2: seventh comedian that I've heard that will mention a place
Speaker 2: outside of Los Angeles is yeah.
Speaker 3: So.
Speaker 2: But the thing is is that when I'm on so
Speaker 2: I'm currently right now in on Sunset Boulevard, you know,
Speaker 2: the comedy store is always crowded, and all the comedy
Speaker 2: clubs up here, who's working out there? If none of
Speaker 2: the heavy hitters that I know are working out in
Speaker 2: Los Angeles, like I always hear like, oh there's like
Speaker 2: an out the way comedy club, like yeah, one hundred
Speaker 2: miles away. Is it that there's a fear that a
Speaker 2: writer or somebody's gonna take your joke or whatever, or.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's that. That's one thing in in La is
Speaker 3: it's a lot of.
Speaker 4: Comedians here trying to find themselves, get put on of course,
Speaker 4: looking for discovery, and so that's where they kind of
Speaker 4: work out, you know, all the kind of guys that's trying.
Speaker 3: To make it happen.
Speaker 4: And there's some people who you know, definitely have you know,
Speaker 4: like their brands already, you know, say like a Dray
Speaker 4: or somebody like that. They they work out here and
Speaker 4: they have their own rooms and that works.
Speaker 3: You know for them.
Speaker 4: But you know, most comedians we try not to be
Speaker 4: inside that one. I try not even hear other people's
Speaker 4: material so that I don't even you know.
Speaker 3: I'm not get influenced by nothing.
Speaker 4: So I'll try to go like you know, outside of
Speaker 4: LA and it's usually just better. The audiences are, you know,
Speaker 4: a little more regular people with jobs, you know, and
Speaker 4: it's kind of like the to your point, is that
Speaker 4: that middle of America audience that you're looking for.
Speaker 3: But in California where.
Speaker 4: It's close to go to work, when when you go
Speaker 4: to Hollywood, you got you know, you got the people
Speaker 4: that want to be seen trying to be seen, and
Speaker 4: it's that vibe, you know. So it's it's like, you know,
Speaker 4: you you gotta almost wear a full basachi outfit to
Speaker 4: go and do shows there, like you know, you gotta
Speaker 4: be just as shops everybody who's coming out, you know,
Speaker 4: like it's a whole day look at this drill.
Speaker 2: So how how is how is UH lost or Hollywood divided?
Speaker 2: Like I know how New York is where a lot
Speaker 2: of the alternative comedians are either Brooklyn only or maybe
Speaker 2: part of the village. And then kind of the more
Speaker 2: uh established ones, you know, they'll go to the comedy
Speaker 2: seller in the West Village and kind of work there.
Speaker 2: Way up in midtown Manhattan, and usually like the Vegas
Speaker 2: level comedians or whatever are just like kind of midtown
Speaker 2: to uptown.
Speaker 1: And then I mean, at one point I knew that
Speaker 1: there was a.
Speaker 2: Place where black comedians to work out way uptown. I
Speaker 2: don't know if it's still that way now, but for
Speaker 2: those that are of the comedy act theater set, like, yeah,
Speaker 2: they work out because I'd never see you guys at like.
Speaker 1: It's still kind of an apartheid in terms.
Speaker 3: Of yeah, a little bit.
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, it's definitely you know, like Chocolate Sundays,
Speaker 4: which is at you know, the laugh Factory, and that's
Speaker 4: a Sunday night kind of thing. That's where the black
Speaker 4: comics go to workout in Hollywood at the at the
Speaker 4: Laugh Factory on Sunday nights. Comedy Store usually all have
Speaker 4: a night or two where everybody kind of.
Speaker 3: Goes up in there and pop. So almost all the.
Speaker 4: Clubs got like a night where a black black night
Speaker 4: night where you know, and if you want to work
Speaker 4: out with your people, is that's where you go. And
Speaker 4: then you know, and then it's a it's a few
Speaker 4: like in La like it's you know, it used to
Speaker 4: be one down like on Peco near that Rosco's down there.
Speaker 3: I can't think of the name of it right now.
Speaker 3: I don't even know.
Speaker 4: It's hard for me to survive after COVID too, like
Speaker 4: you know it was. You know, that's one of the
Speaker 4: things because to your point, even the bigger comedians where
Speaker 4: people can draw a name and you know, and and
Speaker 4: these these these kind of locations can do well they
Speaker 4: have them, they find themselves struggling just to keep it packed,
Speaker 4: you know. But you know it's again, there's a lot
Speaker 4: of comedians so and there's a lot of comedians that
Speaker 4: you know, want to get on stage and work that
Speaker 4: that are dope, you know. So I think that, you know,
Speaker 4: those are the kind of those are the kind of
Speaker 4: spots that still.
Speaker 3: Need a lot of love and support, uh you know,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 4: And usually I'll go by when somebody like like you know,
Speaker 4: where a friend of mine want me to really come
Speaker 4: through like it something like that. I might pop up,
Speaker 4: say alright, cool marble stage for a few minutes. But
Speaker 4: I don't really work out like that much that like
Speaker 4: when I'm in LA because between the TV show and
Speaker 4: being a family man, when I go I don't really
Speaker 4: want to just hang out and be like, you know,
Speaker 4: do it the old school way. I'll be wanting to
Speaker 4: go in, do my business and break out.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 5: So is j Effany Brown's place still open? I've been
Speaker 5: meaning to check on that place.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't know, Like yeah again that was the
Speaker 4: spot that was again had a lot of love, a
Speaker 4: lot of residents. I would think so, but I hadn't heard.
Speaker 4: I saw Jay not too long ago, and I didn't
Speaker 4: even ask him.
Speaker 3: About the club.
Speaker 4: But but it seems as though it's still alive because
Speaker 4: it's right near Soup Snoop Dogg's kind of big everybody
Speaker 4: go and hang out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So.
Speaker 5: Can I go back real quick?
Speaker 9: Because MEA talked about Saint Louis, But I just I
Speaker 9: really want to get into Saint Louis a little bit
Speaker 9: because you said you're from.
Speaker 5: How do you pronounce it in Carthur? I couldn't say
Speaker 5: it in the Brothersville?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Correct.
Speaker 9: So can you break down what's the different what's the
Speaker 9: distance between Carruthersville and Saint Louis And the difference is.
Speaker 4: So Grutsville is like a super small town. It's like
Speaker 4: and it's it's probably four hours, it's three and a
Speaker 4: half hours from Saint Louis and probably an hour and
Speaker 4: ten minutes from Memphis.
Speaker 3: So it's like going south, like.
Speaker 4: So we go, you go down south from Saint Louis
Speaker 4: and you go towards Arkansas and Tennessee and it's right
Speaker 4: in a boothill so and it's a small town, probably
Speaker 4: three thousand people, three thirty Yeah, yeah, you're very different,
Speaker 4: very segregated, you know, uh, you know, And but it's
Speaker 4: on the river. It's on the Mississippi River. So where
Speaker 4: you know where I prayed the when I framed the book.
Speaker 4: In the forties, the river the riverboat cities were very
Speaker 4: thriving because people traveled on the river a lot and
Speaker 4: they were stopping.
Speaker 3: They would eat and come and hang out.
Speaker 4: And so these were like really kind of bustling little
Speaker 4: small towns and so uh you know, with a thriving downtown.
Speaker 3: Restaurants all that stuff.
Speaker 4: So uh so that's where I kind of, you know,
Speaker 4: tell that story around when my grandparents lived there, but
Speaker 4: you know, I grew up there as well.
Speaker 2: What was what was the impetus of starting or for
Speaker 2: you to go into storytelling and writing your first novel?
Speaker 4: Well, you know, for me, it really kind of stems
Speaker 4: from the idea that I was I was trying to
Speaker 4: I was first of all, I was trying to like
Speaker 4: just kind of have this connection to my my family. Right,
Speaker 4: Like I grew up. My mother was a single parent.
Speaker 4: She raised me and my sister, and so I didn't
Speaker 4: really have my male figures around. I knew my dad,
Speaker 4: but he wasn't really in our life, and so oftentimes,
Speaker 4: you know, my mom will say, you, you know, that's
Speaker 4: like my daddy would do that. My daddy would have
Speaker 4: done this, and he had passed before I was ever born, so,
Speaker 4: you know, and listening to stories about him, I started
Speaker 4: to wonder, like, like what was my connection to somebody
Speaker 4: I never met before?
Speaker 3: Like what was that DNA?
Speaker 4: That kind of led to me being very entrepreneurial, uh,
Speaker 4: kind of a person that didn't want to work inside
Speaker 4: the lines like I even though I had my degree,
Speaker 4: I never wanted to have a job. Like my mom
Speaker 4: used to be like, why don't you just work at
Speaker 4: that company?
Speaker 3: I was like, I don't. I don't want to go
Speaker 3: to work every day. That's not who I am.
Speaker 4: She was like that my dad, that was like my dad,
Speaker 4: you know, so you know, it was that kind of
Speaker 4: thought process.
Speaker 3: So I started to create the character based.
Speaker 4: Off me having these machinations of who he was. And
Speaker 4: then and then you know, I started to write a
Speaker 4: TV story about it. Uh that kind of felt like
Speaker 4: Boardwalk Empire. Always kind of loved that, uh, that character
Speaker 4: Chalky White, because in a way, the way way yeah way,
Speaker 4: my uh way my mom would describe it, he was
Speaker 4: kind of the the the the de facto mayor of
Speaker 4: the black side of town. He was the guy that
Speaker 4: you call to get things done and all that stuff.
Speaker 3: He was plugged in with the sheriff. And so I
Speaker 3: basically put all.
Speaker 4: That kind of stuff in the book and then told
Speaker 4: this fictional tale about who he is to.
Speaker 1: The seat of the start for you in the Pandemic.
Speaker 3: No, you know, actually it was a little bit before that.
Speaker 4: It was so interesting that, you know, because it was
Speaker 4: it was times when I was kind of transitioning from
Speaker 4: you know, like you know, movies. I was doing a
Speaker 4: lot of movies in the early two thousands, you know,
Speaker 4: and then my kids started to get to get older
Speaker 4: where they couldn't travel and they couldn't come with us
Speaker 4: because most of the movies weren't doing them in La anymore.
Speaker 3: And so they were younger, they could come with me. Well,
Speaker 3: we would shooting movies.
Speaker 4: In Toronto and you know, and in Vancouver and then Hireland,
Speaker 4: and you know, when when they were younger, my family
Speaker 4: could come with me. Then they started to get their
Speaker 4: own schedules. And so I was trying to figure out how,
Speaker 4: like how I could still be a part of the
Speaker 4: family structure and be a part of lifely without giving
Speaker 4: it up. So I decided to do television. And that
Speaker 4: was when it was like, you know, it was kind
Speaker 4: of like, you know, considered a fallback. If you do television,
Speaker 4: you was you weren't as hot as a movie star.
Speaker 4: So and it instantly with streaming this up that everybody
Speaker 4: had change. You got Yellowstone, you got movie stars coming
Speaker 4: to TV now, so you know, but but it's like
Speaker 4: but at that time, it was like a real, you know,
Speaker 4: real hard move. And I had to make that kind
Speaker 4: of strategy. And I started to think about like stuff
Speaker 4: that my will pop in my head, like what would
Speaker 4: my grandfather do in this situation, And so I start
Speaker 4: writing the ideas down back then, and then you know,
Speaker 4: the book kind of came uh as I was trying
Speaker 4: to you know, kind of shape the show. Then the
Speaker 4: opportunity for me to do the book because you know,
Speaker 4: you know, the neighborhood was doing well, and so then
Speaker 4: everybody started offering you all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 3: Then they're like, yea, you want to do a book.
Speaker 4: And I was like, I was like, yeah, but not
Speaker 4: no book about me being a stand up and telling
Speaker 4: you my kind.
Speaker 3: Of doctor doc story.
Speaker 4: I got a whole another idea and when I pitched it,
Speaker 4: they loved it, and that was it. So I was
Speaker 4: glad that it took. It took it like a year
Speaker 4: and a half to really kind of shape it up.
Speaker 3: Though.
Speaker 2: So let me ask, because you know, one, we had
Speaker 2: a pandemic, but what we're kind of going through right
Speaker 2: now as we speak is kind of pandemic two point
Speaker 2: zero for anybody that's kind of a professional in the industry.
Speaker 1: So let me ask you, is there ever okay? So
Speaker 1: let me let me phrase it. America Ferrara.
Speaker 2: When she started her Ugly Betty series, she told me
Speaker 2: that she waited. You know, it was an instant hit
Speaker 2: out the box, and she told me that she wanted
Speaker 2: to wait till the third season before she felt safe
Speaker 2: enough to like put down on that house and really,
Speaker 2: you know, for there's a point where you go from
Speaker 2: like living in that little apartment that you lived in
Speaker 2: until you find that hit sitcom and then you really
Speaker 2: want to make sure that you're contracting your money's writing
Speaker 2: all that stuff. So she said, Okay, I'm gonna wait
Speaker 2: until my third season, and you know, she nominated for Emmy.
Speaker 2: So it just seemed like, okay, Plamo instant hit. And
Speaker 2: then after season three they were like, all right, well
Speaker 2: that's it. You're done knowing what you've been through, and
Speaker 2: you know you're you're famous for the joke of you
Speaker 2: guys not getting the cake.
Speaker 1: You know, other shows you've been on that got canceled
Speaker 1: without warning.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, no cake or anything.
Speaker 2: So now that you're on like an established network comedy show, like,
Speaker 2: do you always feel safer? Is there a part of
Speaker 2: you that's always like, nope, let me have my plan
Speaker 2: BC and D like.
Speaker 1: Just in case you never know?
Speaker 4: Definitely mean, I learned that a long time ago, because
Speaker 4: it's such a fickle business, Like none of us really
Speaker 4: saw like this strike coming, if you will, but you
Speaker 4: do recognize that, you know, ratings or what's hot or
Speaker 4: something new comes along this town. Just really fickle like that,
Speaker 4: Like you know, so whatever the latest craze is, they'll
Speaker 4: just figure out like, oh, we're gonna change to that now,
Speaker 4: and you'll be like what happened?
Speaker 3: You know? So I definitely I'm definitely far more cautious.
Speaker 4: About you know, like just being you know, being super
Speaker 4: confident that whatever I'm working, even though it is working,
Speaker 4: that it's gonna always work.
Speaker 3: You know. I mean, we we we We've.
Speaker 4: Been ordered for the sixth season. So that's a real blessing. Theoretically, Yeah,
Speaker 4: for the neighborhood. Theoretically, I like to go to eight,
Speaker 4: you know. I like to go and be like yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: but you know, like shows like Blackish and you know,
Speaker 4: other kind of black shows of that, I feel like
Speaker 4: our hell competitivegree that's been on like major network should
Speaker 4: have the opportunity to run all the way out, like
Speaker 4: tell your full story, you know, and so you know,
Speaker 4: and then you know, but also like now as a producer,
Speaker 4: I'm creating uh, you know, spin offs and other versions,
Speaker 4: so again that you have the show live beyond it's
Speaker 4: it's it's years and so these are the things that
Speaker 4: I try to like even negotiate for while I know
Speaker 4: that my show is doing well, I'm like, hey, give
Speaker 4: me the spin off so that I can turn my
Speaker 4: show into another show that could run another you know,
Speaker 4: you know five six years that you know I can
Speaker 4: be eating off of and do something else too.
Speaker 5: I should see that with your sons, the sons.
Speaker 2: So for me, there's there's a myth in the music
Speaker 2: business where they say, like all it takes is one
Speaker 2: hit and your set for life, which is kind of
Speaker 2: a truth and a lie.
Speaker 1: I mean, in other words, like uh.
Speaker 2: Eighty eight, it ain't true today, right, yeah, yeah, but
Speaker 2: you know, I'll say hip hop has definitely changed everyone's
Speaker 2: lifestyle goals. So in other words, if I were the writer, Okay,
Speaker 2: so if I was one of the writers of Queen's
Speaker 2: under Pressure at the time when Vanilla I sampled it
Speaker 2: and you know, sold ten billion copies, you know, that's
Speaker 2: a nice check that I'm gonna get every year. And
Speaker 2: if I maintained my lifestyle. But if you know, if
Speaker 2: I'm pursuing a five million dollar lifestyle and I'm only
Speaker 2: getting a million dollar.
Speaker 1: Check, then like you're asked out.
Speaker 2: But the equivalent of that in the television world is
Speaker 2: when your show gets syndicated, is that the goal, like
Speaker 2: can one actually like for.
Speaker 1: Now, like for any act or any.
Speaker 2: Actor actress that is on a show that's syndicated and
Speaker 2: currently running right now, I'm certain that those checks are
Speaker 2: helping a lot. While your current shows not only but
Speaker 2: is syndicated money.
Speaker 3: Still good, No, not anymore. It's very much, very parallel
Speaker 3: to like you said, the music business. I mean it
Speaker 3: used to be and probably and to some degree.
Speaker 4: One of the big reasons why we're striking too is
Speaker 4: that you know, new forms of media streaming, all these
Speaker 4: all these companies kind of being yeah, being mixed in together.
Speaker 4: They they protect themselves, you know, like I mean, CBS
Speaker 4: is a part of.
Speaker 3: Param my Paramount plus uh.
Speaker 4: And then of course the whole what used to be
Speaker 4: Viacom all their channels, so they will syndicate to yeh,
Speaker 4: they syndicate to themselves, and and of course that will
Speaker 4: ruin the ruin the money that used to be available,
Speaker 4: right And it's internal and it's internal business. And and
Speaker 4: they basically tell you that these are these are internal numbers.
Speaker 3: This is what we're doing to protect our assets.
Speaker 5: So that's that's the scary part.
Speaker 9: Said I had just listened about that, and I was
Speaker 9: we were just talking about this before you came on,
Speaker 9: and we were talking about how like so if you're
Speaker 9: on TV and you do syndication, because I think a
Speaker 9: lot of times we need to explain this to the
Speaker 9: people who actually watch TV.
Speaker 5: They don't know the intricacies of this language a lot
Speaker 5: of times.
Speaker 9: And so the TV verse says, I was just watching
Speaker 9: the actor from Breaking Bad saying that, like he's on
Speaker 9: Netflix and Breaking Bads on Netflix, and that is zero
Speaker 9: money that he receives from that, versus maybe if it
Speaker 9: was on an actual network on TV, it would.
Speaker 4: Be a more yeah, yeah, Like I mean the opportunities,
Speaker 4: you know, we used to have this thing like where
Speaker 4: you go like and I say, most people would understand,
Speaker 4: like the Channel nines or Channel thirteens in your local
Speaker 4: city and you see something that.
Speaker 3: Come on after the evening news.
Speaker 4: You get to watch everybody Love Raymond or Friends or
Speaker 4: all this. That's where the money is because you got
Speaker 4: to think it's one of those in every little town
Speaker 4: and they all got to buy it in a way
Speaker 4: as a part of a group or individual. And so
Speaker 4: it's being sold that many times, right every episode, and
Speaker 4: so so that's when they're buying it. But like a
Speaker 4: Netflix will just take it and then they they're a
Speaker 4: technology company, so they're not a broadcast company, so they
Speaker 4: don't have to even rea reveal what numbers they Yeah,
Speaker 4: it's like it's technology. I don't know, Like I don't know,
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 2: It's one of the striking points to finally reveal that.
Speaker 4: That's that's that's one of the real gets to put
Speaker 4: to push towards it because really what happened is not
Speaker 4: even that we didn't know, is that we need to
Speaker 4: be able to have the kind of uh, you know,
Speaker 4: transparency because what they did is now is they kind
Speaker 4: of take your intellectual property by not revealing it because
Speaker 4: they do do original programming, because they do have people
Speaker 4: create things for them. And then you don't have to
Speaker 4: basically tell me what it is, right I can I
Speaker 4: can pay you one time and and you can have
Speaker 4: a hot show and I don't have to really ever
Speaker 4: reveal to you how hot that show was, Like I
Speaker 4: don't have to ever say it was, but I paid you,
Speaker 4: and you know, and their thing is that usually they
Speaker 4: paid more than what people used to get paid. So
Speaker 4: that's how one for so many years because they would
Speaker 4: pay you a larger premium. So to be on Netflix
Speaker 4: was that good bag, right, it was that fat bag
Speaker 4: and nobody really cared.
Speaker 3: Like, you know, if I would get thirty.
Speaker 4: Thousand on a regular show, Netflix might give me one
Speaker 4: hundred and fifty and you'd be like, give me that.
Speaker 5: Right, but they might have made two million, and yeah.
Speaker 3: You never know.
Speaker 4: You never bothered the ass, and it didn't really get
Speaker 4: you know, it didn't get important until shows got bigger
Speaker 4: and bigger and you start to realize, like, oh, that's
Speaker 4: really all we watching is Netflix a lot now, you know,
Speaker 4: and and Prime and Hulu.
Speaker 3: We only watching these shows. Now, where's the money.
Speaker 9: So that's why I said, your pivot is more brilliant
Speaker 9: than it looks, right, because not for nothing, do you
Speaker 9: feel like your business is changing in a major way?
Speaker 9: I tell them, I said to music people, I was like,
Speaker 9: we used to be like, wait till I get to
Speaker 9: TV and film. That's what the big money is.
Speaker 3: Every day you've become in the music business. Now yeah,
Speaker 3: the movie is No, it's so true.
Speaker 7: I was gonna say, it looked like it's like every
Speaker 7: business looked at the music industry and was like Yo,
Speaker 7: they don't pay nobody watching we.
Speaker 3: Exactly, and that's it. And you think it was the
Speaker 3: digital the digital.
Speaker 4: Platform that really changed the music business, when you know
Speaker 4: when Sam came and the napster of it all and
Speaker 4: people started to be and that changed the whole model
Speaker 4: in that in that Netflix and Amazon basically changed the
Speaker 4: model for us. Like once they got really hot and
Speaker 4: locked in and then was able to create and become
Speaker 4: the it, then everybody else wanted to be them. So
Speaker 4: you think about it, Disney became Disney plus, Paramount became
Speaker 4: Paramount plus the Peacock on NBC. Everybody took streamers so
Speaker 4: that they can do their model. They don't want to
Speaker 4: have to pay the individuals.
Speaker 9: I was just gonna say, I just get really sad
Speaker 9: about watching it because I come from a business that
Speaker 9: used to be called black radio and nobody noticed when
Speaker 9: we kind of got eaten up by a thing called podcast.
Speaker 5: So I watched y'all.
Speaker 9: Industry, and I'm like, oh, I mean, I watched hour
Speaker 9: because this is something that I wanted to participate in
Speaker 9: as well.
Speaker 5: But it's scary. It's a little scary. I'm glad that
Speaker 5: you have made this pivot to the novel.
Speaker 2: That's literally yeah, because you are on a hit show
Speaker 2: and I've seen a few people in the comedy world.
Speaker 2: I'm bringing it back to clubbing and working out that
Speaker 2: you know, you want to work out in the gym
Speaker 2: and work out new material. But the more you're established
Speaker 2: on your comedy show, it's like, the less that you
Speaker 2: are working out your material on stage, does that worry
Speaker 2: you a little bit? Like I mean, assuming that stand
Speaker 2: up is your first love even though you're doing these
Speaker 2: other things. But I mean, if it were all up
Speaker 2: to you to choose one medium, would you just choose
Speaker 2: acting or stand up or.
Speaker 3: You know that's interesting. I mean, I think stand up
Speaker 3: is the freest.
Speaker 4: You know, I always say that, you know, I just
Speaker 4: I did some shows this weekend.
Speaker 3: I went and did a casino in Oklahoma.
Speaker 4: And that's the really great thing about being a live
Speaker 4: performer is that we have have so many like different space.
Speaker 4: You've got comedy clubs, you got all these casinos across
Speaker 4: the country. Now you know the whole Indian casino run.
Speaker 4: You got the big casinos, you got you know, big venues.
Speaker 4: You know, if we if I decided to do it
Speaker 4: like a larger tour with some of our friends. Like
Speaker 4: we did this summer with like uh straight jokes, no
Speaker 4: chases with me and Mike Ebson, d L and DC
Speaker 4: Young Fly. We was able to go and do arenas
Speaker 4: and it was fun and we rocked that all the
Speaker 4: way to May and then went on a break because music,
Speaker 4: mainly the music acts, killed the summer. We you know,
Speaker 4: we learned a long time if you stand up, don't
Speaker 4: you go out there against me? You can't win against
Speaker 4: and the festivals.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you don't.
Speaker 4: So we we stopped out tour in May and we'll
Speaker 4: pick it back up in October, late October, November. So
Speaker 4: I mean, but that's kind of what we've learned as
Speaker 4: stand ups over the years, is like get out the
Speaker 4: way of them, the big music acts. They're gonna murder
Speaker 4: you and murder every ticket in the area and so
Speaker 4: and so.
Speaker 3: You so you're like all right.
Speaker 4: Cool, but uh but you know again, I was able
Speaker 4: to go and do a casino because it's kind of
Speaker 4: an enclosed audience. You know, you can go and order
Speaker 4: the casino gonna market to their people and they gonna say, hey,
Speaker 4: said come in.
Speaker 3: And I'm able to go and.
Speaker 4: Do two thousand and three thousand seats, you know, two
Speaker 4: nights in a row on my own. Like, so that's
Speaker 4: that's a beautiful thing, right, So I respect to stand
Speaker 4: up and I stay with it.
Speaker 3: You know, I've been my whole career. I've never really
Speaker 3: ever given it up.
Speaker 4: You know, I've known I known comedians that you know,
Speaker 4: you make it on television or you start making it
Speaker 4: into movies and you kind of give up on it,
Speaker 4: or you feel like you don't have to do it anymore.
Speaker 4: But it is the it's the dojo. It's the place
Speaker 4: where even if I'm gonna write a movie or be
Speaker 4: in a movie, I like to go do stand up
Speaker 4: before I just start the movie because it helps you.
Speaker 4: It helps you kind of start your engine on your
Speaker 4: comedy vibration. Like I got a character or something I'm
Speaker 4: trying to do, I'd rather just go do some stand
Speaker 4: up in a small place for a little bit just
Speaker 4: to get my energy going. So like, all right, cool,
Speaker 4: when I come to set, I'm gonna be funny as
Speaker 4: this character.
Speaker 2: Like I know, there's the hot ten and sometimes there's
Speaker 2: the hot twenty.
Speaker 1: If Chappelle asks you to do something or whatever.
Speaker 2: But when you are like are you the type of
Speaker 2: person that has to ramp your way up to you know,
Speaker 2: seventy five ninety or whatever the time is for like
Speaker 2: Netflix specials or HBO specials and whatnot.
Speaker 1: Is it? Yeah, how hard is it ramping up to that?
Speaker 2: Especially with I guess I'm asking you if are you
Speaker 2: operating in the same way that an MC operates, like,
Speaker 2: you know, like obviously you can take Fonte or even
Speaker 2: Tariq from the roots, those both, you know, very.
Speaker 1: Capable, excellent MC.
Speaker 2: But this is kind of a new battleground if you will,
Speaker 2: with new rules and MC's today don't relate to the
Speaker 2: you know, or do that the same process as yesterday's
Speaker 2: to see is it that way for the for the
Speaker 2: comedy world or is it still about for you a punchline?
Speaker 2: Chris Rock told me that he doesn't believe in a
Speaker 2: punchline anymore, which kind of shocked me.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I mean, you know it is it is
Speaker 3: a little different.
Speaker 4: I definitely think that new comedy has kind of removed
Speaker 4: the idea of punchlines, you know, like people are more
Speaker 4: like into like trying to deliver, you know. I think
Speaker 4: I think after Chappelle hit, everybody just want to be
Speaker 4: prolific man, like everybody want to like try to deliver
Speaker 4: like they you know, these brilliant sware people, and that's
Speaker 4: just him, like he he got a totally different brand
Speaker 4: than everybody.
Speaker 3: Right, So you read, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: a lot of people a.
Speaker 4: Lot of people don't read, and then they want to
Speaker 4: be out they talk about they saying smart stuff.
Speaker 3: But you know, like you like, bro, where do you
Speaker 3: get that from? So?
Speaker 4: But I think that for you know, for me, like
Speaker 4: the idea of like even thinking about delivering a special,
Speaker 4: like I really I'm probably one of the one comics
Speaker 4: that take a lot of time between my specials because
Speaker 4: I have material that I feel like makes it special.
Speaker 4: But you know, I'm also not a person that's very
Speaker 4: interested in just kind of throwing stuff out there.
Speaker 3: You know. I think people use it for a number
Speaker 3: of different reasons.
Speaker 4: One, you know, you might have the deal on the table, right,
Speaker 4: they might say, all right, cool, were throwing a bag
Speaker 4: at you put this special out, And you'll see people
Speaker 4: go do it just just so they could get the money, right,
Speaker 4: And then and then you have people that really feel
Speaker 4: like they got something to say right now, and then
Speaker 4: you know, and they'll put those specials out. But I
Speaker 4: think in the last couple of years, you know, for me,
Speaker 4: it's all about like just making sure that my my material,
Speaker 4: my personality, what it is that I want to say
Speaker 4: is all in tune with the brand I built over
Speaker 4: thirty years. So I'm not gonna just go out there
Speaker 4: and just take like little chance. I think y'all like
Speaker 4: that too, as far as the roots go, as far
Speaker 4: as my opinion, like y'all, y'all, y'all are curators of y'all,
Speaker 4: of y'all brand, Like in a real way we were.
Speaker 4: When we was watching on stage the other night, me
Speaker 4: and my wife were saying the same things, like nobody
Speaker 4: has the.
Speaker 3: Abillity that to entertain like they do.
Speaker 4: Like you know, you'll see the new people like that,
Speaker 4: you know, kind of come out and maybe have a
Speaker 4: band on stage with them. But it's like the combination
Speaker 4: of musicality, real professionalism and uh and something you know
Speaker 4: you gonna get when you spend your money, right, I
Speaker 4: know it's gonna be lit.
Speaker 3: I got it right now.
Speaker 4: I know, like going to mastros or or a quality
Speaker 4: restaurant where you know is gonna be good.
Speaker 3: I don't have to worry about it like it's good.
Speaker 3: So that's what I try to.
Speaker 4: Deliver when I'm when i'm you know, and i'm doing
Speaker 4: specials or anything.
Speaker 3: So I've done. I'm never in a big hurry to
Speaker 3: just throw out anything.
Speaker 1: You're not putting any pressure on me whatsoever for my
Speaker 1: future in music.
Speaker 5: He's saying, do what you continue to do, Do what
Speaker 5: you continue to do.
Speaker 2: I'm really just shocked that no one's really done a
Speaker 2: concentrated study on how you your whole clique and Walter
Speaker 2: Lathan kind of, yeah, built the brand and built you
Speaker 2: guys up.
Speaker 1: So can you just talk about that that that.
Speaker 2: Initial period of Yeah, matter of fact, is Walter still
Speaker 2: active in terms of throwing shows or.
Speaker 3: Not that I know of that. He tried to do
Speaker 3: some stuff on the internet not.
Speaker 4: Too long ago, or try to like create some brand
Speaker 4: where he was like taking you know, using like young
Speaker 4: comedians and kind of using his kings of comedy, uh,
Speaker 4: you know, pedigree to do things for people.
Speaker 3: But I think it all kind of burnt out, for
Speaker 3: my opinion.
Speaker 4: But you know, he was he was just he was
Speaker 4: a he was a young creative uh you know, show
Speaker 4: promoter at the time, and he was he was just
Speaker 4: one of these guys that had, like, you know, he
Speaker 4: was aggressive and young and had good ideas and a
Speaker 4: lot of heart, and so he he he would do
Speaker 4: all of us individually. He d Steve, you know, and
Speaker 4: you know, these would be theater shows, you know, small theaters,
Speaker 4: And he did Steve, and then he did Bernie. Then
Speaker 4: he did Steven Bernie. One time he would do d
Speaker 4: L and I together. He was the one when when
Speaker 4: I became the host of Comic View, DL used to
Speaker 4: be the host, and he put us together and called it,
Speaker 4: you know, the host of the host of BT or
Speaker 4: something like that, and put us together and we were
Speaker 4: able to go out together and.
Speaker 3: Do these tours.
Speaker 4: So I think it's inside of that space where he
Speaker 4: looked at his numbers and saw, like, all these guys
Speaker 4: were doing these numbers in these individual situations. What if
Speaker 4: I put them all together, I probably could.
Speaker 3: Do an arena.
Speaker 4: And so that's really how the Kings of Comedy came about.
Speaker 4: He it was it was his idea. He kind of
Speaker 4: called us, put us together, put the tour together. But
Speaker 4: I do think that in the process of that, he
Speaker 4: started to think he was the other king of comedy.
Speaker 4: And so it's like his own hubrist kind of got
Speaker 4: in the way. And then you know, it was it
Speaker 4: was after the show and the movie came out that
Speaker 4: you know, it was so many little things that he
Speaker 4: just was. Nobody wanted to be in business with him,
Speaker 4: no more.
Speaker 3: So that was it.
Speaker 5: But he you know, he didn't do the Queen, he
Speaker 5: didn't do the Queens.
Speaker 3: He didn't do the Queens. You know, the Kings, the Kings. Yeah,
Speaker 3: the Kings and Queens. But he he had that Kings.
Speaker 4: And Queen's title and uh, and then he did a
Speaker 4: few other ones. He did a couple of tours after,
Speaker 4: but nothing to the magnitude of the Kings of Comedy
Speaker 4: and the Queens of Comedy.
Speaker 5: Is that is that the original roster? I just wanted
Speaker 5: to know. I always wanted to know, But the Kings
Speaker 5: of Comedy?
Speaker 9: Was there ever somebody that was wanted it originally or
Speaker 9: that got dropped off of the list?
Speaker 3: No, deal was in an addition, it started out just me,
Speaker 3: Steven Bernie.
Speaker 4: And then then they added d L and then that
Speaker 4: that became the one that you know that really toured
Speaker 4: around and got hot.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So yeah, we started out just the three of us.
Speaker 4: We got Tori got Toy with m C and uh
Speaker 4: and and had a night popping got.
Speaker 2: When you're doing that, like who's determining like the order
Speaker 2: things and who's the the or at least the curation
Speaker 2: of it all, it would be it's it's usually the comedians.
Speaker 4: I mean on a tour like that, we decide and
Speaker 4: it's and it's usually you know, usually an honor or
Speaker 4: respect thing, you know, depending on you know, who's on
Speaker 4: the tour. Like usually people just kind of you know,
Speaker 4: give props to you know, whoever the og is and
Speaker 4: be like, yo, you go last if you want to.
Speaker 4: But on our tour, I remember like Bernie was the
Speaker 4: it dude, Like Bernie was the dude. But Bernie wanted
Speaker 4: he called it the hammock. He didn't want to he
Speaker 4: didn't want to go first, and he didn't want to
Speaker 4: go last. He wanted to lay in the hammy.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so last and first is the penultimate, right before last.
Speaker 1: That's the sweet spot.
Speaker 3: Yeah exactly.
Speaker 4: So so you know, even on the special it looked
Speaker 4: like Bernie go last, but when we actually shot it,
Speaker 4: he was.
Speaker 3: He was in the hammock. He did not go last night.
Speaker 4: It was the I went last, and he would, but
Speaker 4: on the special, the way the edit work, it was
Speaker 4: better for him to go last for the movie of
Speaker 4: it all. But he performed in his hammock. That's that's
Speaker 4: what he liked. Was like, that's where I want to be.
Speaker 4: And he had been out, you know, I got it.
Speaker 4: He had been out like Bernie got Hot before the
Speaker 4: rest of us, and he had did like big tours
Speaker 4: on his own, and so when he decided to do
Speaker 4: the Kings, he was just like, look, man, I already
Speaker 4: been out like as a big star.
Speaker 3: Already touring.
Speaker 4: I like the idea of this, but you know again,
Speaker 4: we're doing thirty forty minute sets.
Speaker 3: Me let me ride easy.
Speaker 4: So I got it. And so that became. That became
Speaker 4: a thing that a lot of comics like to do
Speaker 4: to this day. Like you said me, like we all
Speaker 4: like to We like to go in that spot right
Speaker 4: before last. It's just less pressure. You could kill it
Speaker 4: and you could be gone, be like yo, dude somehow
Speaker 4: like and and if and if you don't kill it,
Speaker 4: then you know somebody else coming behind you, and everybody
Speaker 4: can have a good time and they ain't gonna blame you. Yeah,
Speaker 4: they're gonna blame you that the show was bomb ass
Speaker 4: or whatever. But so you know you so but uh
Speaker 4: but it's usually a respect things, usually the comics deciding
Speaker 4: where everybody want to go according to who we feel,
Speaker 4: you know deep deserves that that reverence or whatever.
Speaker 7: You know, how involved were you guys working with Spike
Speaker 7: and filming that was he kind of hands on with
Speaker 7: you guys, or he just let you no.
Speaker 3: It was a it was a you know, it was
Speaker 3: a one.
Speaker 4: We all made a choice that you know, because we
Speaker 4: were trying to find somebody to direct the movie we had.
Speaker 3: It was it was our choice.
Speaker 4: We were all partners on the movie, and Spike you know,
Speaker 4: came up of course presented the idea that he wanted
Speaker 4: to do it, and I mean he was the most
Speaker 4: expensive one to make our partner, but we also knew
Speaker 4: that it was the best move to get a movie.
Speaker 4: It's you know, the kind of create the kind of
Speaker 4: cred that we wanted. And and then you know, he
Speaker 4: Spike Lee. He really loved comedy, He loved he loved
Speaker 4: the idea of being He came, I think we did
Speaker 4: Radio City Music Hall. He came and watched this, came backstage,
Speaker 4: talked about it. He just super hyped, and we was like, yeah,
Speaker 4: this will be crazy, this Spike does this movie, so
Speaker 4: you know, and it just ended up being the right
Speaker 4: move for us. And again, you know, we knew that
Speaker 4: when you bring Spike on, you know, he gonna cut
Speaker 4: into the money, like all the money that we could
Speaker 4: have gotten.
Speaker 3: For us it. You know, you could have used Billy
Speaker 3: Woodrow for somebody, you know.
Speaker 9: That guy, right, Hey, Wake, I gotta ask you because
Speaker 9: from a fan perspective, for y'all, those fellas two questions.
Speaker 5: Number one, I just got to know how you preserve Bernie.
Speaker 9: In your heart and also like the relationship with you
Speaker 9: and and these men, like how do y'all make sure
Speaker 9: that y'all continue to nurture it?
Speaker 3: Oh dah, Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, I just did my golf tournament,
Speaker 4: my celebrity tournament, charity tournament last year. Both Steve and
Speaker 4: d L came.
Speaker 3: You know. Of course me and.
Speaker 4: DL we probably we see each other most because our
Speaker 4: wives are friends, like real friends, So we see each
Speaker 4: other a lot, you know, go to dinner and hang out,
Speaker 4: you know, and then we tour a lot of much
Speaker 4: a lot too, like all the kind of big arena
Speaker 4: tours I've been on DL been a part of them,
Speaker 4: so you know, we got that kind of brotherhood and
Speaker 4: then be back in just one of these guys man
Speaker 4: that you know, whenever we you know, we always related
Speaker 4: to the kings of comedy, and so you know almost
Speaker 4: in any interview, every situation, he's gonna come he's gonna
Speaker 4: come up and be a part of it.
Speaker 3: But he you know, kind of like.
Speaker 4: What Quest was saying about, like certain jokes or cert
Speaker 4: he just got so many cash phrases that all of
Speaker 4: us that that day I go to for regular regular life.
Speaker 4: You know, if somebody say something off you know, off
Speaker 4: kill too, then we you know, we're gonna pull out.
Speaker 4: As you know, it's like they're just a part of
Speaker 4: like the part of like how we made up, especially
Speaker 4: by being with him so much on the tour. You know,
Speaker 4: like he would he just have a hundred you don't
Speaker 4: want to fifty yard line, but it's first and goal.
Speaker 4: You know, you'd be like what, you know what I'm
Speaker 4: so that means, that means that's wherever I am in life.
Speaker 4: I'm out here trying to win, and I believe I
Speaker 4: could win. At this point, I'm on the fifty yard
Speaker 4: line for him. It's first in gold and I was like, Dicky,
Speaker 4: I love that one right there, Like so you know,
Speaker 4: let's let's be back.
Speaker 3: That is kind of language.
Speaker 7: I wanted to ask you about two of my most
Speaker 7: favorite roles that you have done, Gus.
Speaker 6: Pitch and Jazzy D.
Speaker 11: Yeah, Gus Pitch was tor and uh, jazz D was
Speaker 11: top five, top this rock movie.
Speaker 3: Both of both of them was like these sleeper movies.
Speaker 4: Man, that I was always really really good, you know,
Speaker 4: really blessed to be a part of these.
Speaker 3: Life was like one.
Speaker 4: Gus Petch was like just a fun character because it
Speaker 4: was like, yo, you get to be in a movie
Speaker 4: with George Clooney and Kepta Zada Jones and uh, you
Speaker 4: know just.
Speaker 3: The character you did. You did Detective and it was
Speaker 3: the Coen Brothers.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yes, please, because that was really it was an
Speaker 7: unconventional film for what they normally kind of do, you know, like.
Speaker 4: They you know, they're you know, they're super artists, so
Speaker 4: you know, and they're very eclectic and different. Of course,
Speaker 4: you know, Joel is you know, probably a little bit
Speaker 4: more talkative, and then Ethan is kind of like, you know,
Speaker 4: laid back and so but they were both like they
Speaker 4: both like really enjoyed what I was bringing to the character.
Speaker 4: So like once they kind of recognized like what I
Speaker 4: was gonna do and what I was doing as a character,
Speaker 4: then it was like really fun. They just kind of
Speaker 4: embraced so many things that like choices that I kind
Speaker 4: of wanted to make as the guy. But I think
Speaker 4: you had to kind of earn it with them, like,
Speaker 4: you know, because they are very specific to their vision,
Speaker 4: you know.
Speaker 3: That was the one thing and I think that.
Speaker 4: With that particular movie, to your point, it was a
Speaker 4: little outside their normal thing of what they was, what
Speaker 4: they kind of normally do, so they they kind of
Speaker 4: trusted you know. I was thinking about even like what
Speaker 4: Jeffrey Rush did in that movie and all those kind
Speaker 4: of things and Billy Bob, Billy Bob, you.
Speaker 3: Know, like all these kind of things. They people did
Speaker 3: different little you know, character choices, and I think they
Speaker 3: they kind.
Speaker 4: Of opened up and like, yeah, you know what, all right,
Speaker 4: try it, you know, so I think you and then uh,
Speaker 4: and then with Top five, you know that was Chris
Speaker 4: Rock he was directing, he had ridden the movie, he
Speaker 4: was he had you know, he was directing the film
Speaker 4: and he you know, he a brother, right, you know,
Speaker 4: you know he my comedic brother. So we we've been
Speaker 4: knowing each other many years and toured been on dates together.
Speaker 4: And when he told me what the character was, I
Speaker 4: was like, say less man Like he was like, you know,
Speaker 4: it's the dude that you know that when we when
Speaker 4: we start coming up, the dude that it promised you
Speaker 4: all this stuff.
Speaker 3: And you know I'm in the limo for you. Don't
Speaker 3: worry about it. I got you in the dope hotel.
Speaker 3: You could this, I do it. Trust me. I'm the
Speaker 3: man in Houston.
Speaker 4: And I was like, oh, say less if I if
Speaker 4: I ain't met this dude one hundred and thirty times
Speaker 4: exactly who he is.
Speaker 9: That whole scene came back to me Cary Red and
Speaker 9: all the stuff.
Speaker 5: Yes, yes, so.
Speaker 1: Now that person still beat me.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Me getting them hangers, that was like, that's like the
Speaker 4: real thing because you realize, like people always still in
Speaker 4: the wooden angers from the hotels, and they got good
Speaker 4: wooden angers.
Speaker 3: You're like, oh man, they got the lock on them. Yeah,
Speaker 3: they got the lock on me.
Speaker 5: Are you the hangers are two piece?
Speaker 1: Now a mire? Oh dog?
Speaker 2: I thought it was the only person that that did that.
Speaker 2: All my good hangers at home? Yeah, man, the world boy.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah man, yeah, the good the good Angers. You
Speaker 3: go to the hotel, they got the good Angers. You're
Speaker 3: like they got they about to get got.
Speaker 1: That's a rap.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was gonna well, I'm gonna add it on
Speaker 2: to what they said. You get character actor roles, but
Speaker 2: you are not a character actor.
Speaker 1: Like everyone knows who you are.
Speaker 2: So how did you how did you nuance that in
Speaker 2: starting Your first movie was Ride?
Speaker 1: Was it not?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, first movie was Ride?
Speaker 4: Uh you know, and I think you know that was
Speaker 4: that was the one thing I think like even my
Speaker 4: stand up early on, I used to I used to do.
Speaker 3: A lot of characters on stage, like you know.
Speaker 4: Like act out things fully. So in my mind I
Speaker 4: just kind of transitioned the idea that, you know, where
Speaker 4: I would write a joke, I would try to develop
Speaker 4: a character, so you know, like he like the like
Speaker 4: the old man in the barbershop. They was a choice,
Speaker 4: like Eddie was a choice. Like they wanted me to
Speaker 4: play a different role, and I was like, no, I
Speaker 4: want to be the old man. And I remember everybody
Speaker 4: was like, well, we want to cast a real old man,
Speaker 4: and I was like, well, just let me, let me
Speaker 4: read it, let me just show you what I'm gonna
Speaker 4: do with it.
Speaker 3: But I had this guy like that.
Speaker 4: There was a combination of a dude at my mom's
Speaker 4: church and somebody else, and it was this whole beat
Speaker 4: of like who this dude was.
Speaker 3: I knew exactly who he was.
Speaker 4: And so I got to the point I could do Eddie.
Speaker 4: I didn't even need dialogue, like you just give me
Speaker 4: your circumstances and Eddie just gonna come out of me,
Speaker 4: like I know the stuff people say, and it was
Speaker 4: just that. And so the directors started seeing that and
Speaker 4: they was like, all right, cool, No, that was before
Speaker 4: we even shot. So when they gave me the character
Speaker 4: that was, that was great for me. And that was
Speaker 4: really one of those transitional spots because that kind of
Speaker 4: like you know, really like changed me from being just
Speaker 4: a character actor in the movie that people saying, all right, cool,
Speaker 4: you can lead a movie. And so I started to
Speaker 4: get other little movie rolls Johnson Family and Honeymooners and
Speaker 4: little things.
Speaker 3: But I loved doing to your question quests.
Speaker 4: I loved like getting like just great little character roles
Speaker 4: that like show up in the movie with the with
Speaker 4: the right people and you know, and where you can
Speaker 4: just come in and steal scenes and.
Speaker 3: And and then and this burnout like those are fun
Speaker 3: to me.
Speaker 4: I think I always loved like like when Don Cheeto
Speaker 4: did Devil in a Blue Dress, like you know, we
Speaker 4: had Yeah, we loved, we loved to Zel, but Mouse
Speaker 4: was our he was just he wasn't all through the movie,
Speaker 4: but he was like where Mouse, ad give me more Mouse.
Speaker 3: I wanted to say that character.
Speaker 9: There has never been a moment said when you walked
Speaker 9: on the set and felt intimidated in that way.
Speaker 3: No, I mean you know, like uh you know, like
Speaker 3: with that that that the first scene in Tarborough Cruelty.
Speaker 4: I had to do a scene with George Clooney like
Speaker 4: the first day I got there, and you know, it
Speaker 4: was one of those things and knowing like he was
Speaker 4: Cloney at the time, and you know, and you just
Speaker 4: kind of want to do the right thing and you
Speaker 4: just you know, so But I never I never really
Speaker 4: got small. I just was very careful, right, like you're
Speaker 4: kind of like more careful, like making sure you know,
Speaker 4: you know, And I knew the Cohen Brothers was a
Speaker 4: big deal and it's all these things where you just
Speaker 4: want to be like, I don't want to be this
Speaker 4: guy to come in and act like these people not
Speaker 4: a big deal, and then you find out like, oh
Speaker 4: that was offensive or whatever. So that's the that's the
Speaker 4: young virgin. But you know, I always kind of was
Speaker 4: confident in who I was and what I was coming
Speaker 4: there to do, so I just leaned into that more
Speaker 4: than anything.
Speaker 5: Did they know who because as your fans, did they
Speaker 5: know who you were? I just always been curious.
Speaker 9: About that, like you step on that Coin Brothers that
Speaker 9: George Clooney know like I'm a cane.
Speaker 3: Clooney did, But the Cohen Brothers really knew. I think
Speaker 3: they knew like after once they kind of got into.
Speaker 4: Casting and I had to kind of go there a
Speaker 4: couple of times, and then they you know, and a rehearsal,
Speaker 4: then they kind of realized like, oh, oh you like
Speaker 4: really that dude, but like people.
Speaker 5: Will come see this movie for you like that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, But I don't think they knew that
Speaker 3: right away.
Speaker 2: Are you still in the occasional audition phase or is
Speaker 2: it I once set the entertainer and you don't here's
Speaker 2: the script tell me or not?
Speaker 3: No, I will.
Speaker 4: I will always you know, I tell teens that sometimes
Speaker 4: people don't they don't see me or you know, see
Speaker 4: me in a certain role. So if I must audition,
Speaker 4: if it's something I like and I want to do
Speaker 4: and I must audition, I will. I definitely prefer to
Speaker 4: be offered you know what I mean, you know, but
Speaker 4: it's certain roles, Like it was a role that came up.
Speaker 4: I don't even know if they ever shot this project,
Speaker 4: but it was a role that came up, and it
Speaker 4: was a cool like you know, Apple TV series, and
Speaker 4: it was it was something that I wanted to do.
Speaker 4: It's very liking it to the character in my book,
Speaker 4: and I don't think anybody would have saw me as
Speaker 4: this character. But I was already kind of on this
Speaker 4: journey and when I saw the breakdown, I was like, YO,
Speaker 4: give me an audition.
Speaker 3: Like I want to go in. And I had a
Speaker 3: long you know.
Speaker 4: Because of that, I was able to go a long
Speaker 4: way with the directors and the producers. But I'm not
Speaker 4: sure what direction it would. I've never seen the project
Speaker 4: come out, so but I know I ain't get the role,
Speaker 4: but I did. I did open the conversation up once
Speaker 4: they all like what.
Speaker 3: I could do.
Speaker 4: Then people started to be like it became a little
Speaker 4: more real and you know, by doing.
Speaker 3: The audition, So I wasn't afraid for that. Like those
Speaker 3: kind of things make sense.
Speaker 2: Was there a role that you passed up that you
Speaker 2: later had a regret about doing?
Speaker 3: I e.
Speaker 1: Will Smith passing up on the Matrix Matrix.
Speaker 4: Man, let me see, not necessarely. I know that I
Speaker 4: had the opportunity to do like Mike, uh that movie
Speaker 4: like Mike, But it was also at the same time
Speaker 4: that I could do Barbershop and I felt like I
Speaker 4: made the But I just remember one was a bigger
Speaker 4: money play and you know, and my team was like, Yo,
Speaker 4: you're gonna get paid over here. This's a big movie.
Speaker 4: And then the other one was a small movie and
Speaker 4: I was like.
Speaker 5: That became a franchise.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, exactly of move. So I was trying to
Speaker 3: think of like ones where I didn't where I kind
Speaker 3: of passed up that I didn't get. Uh, nothing really
Speaker 3: comes to mind that. I was like, Yo, I'm you know,
Speaker 3: I kind of regret I didn't get that one.
Speaker 7: Man talk about threats the jay Z tract, like like, yeah.
Speaker 2: You two have something in common, sort of uh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: a six degree the separation way with the threats studio.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah.
Speaker 4: So uh yeah, I was, uh, you know, I'd seen
Speaker 4: Jay like, you know, throughout my careers many times, and
Speaker 4: so I just told him one time.
Speaker 3: I was like, yo, but everyone in New York I
Speaker 3: want to see you work. And I come to the studio.
Speaker 4: Everybody told me about, you know, the rain Man thing
Speaker 4: he does and how he just kind of ride to
Speaker 4: move and I just asked him could I come to
Speaker 4: the studio and he was like, yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 3: So I go. One time.
Speaker 4: He's there, We in the studio and everybody just kind
Speaker 4: of hanging out and he's like, I gotta leave. I
Speaker 4: gotta go and run some Aaron, but I'm working on
Speaker 4: this this threat situation. I'm working on this thing. And
Speaker 4: he was like, it's on the it's on like some
Speaker 4: Mad the Rapper type stuff. You can just throw something
Speaker 4: out there, let me know, you know, And so he
Speaker 4: literally left. I think it was ninth and uh it
Speaker 4: was ninth and Guru was there and I just kind
Speaker 4: of like went in and just started freestyling it and
Speaker 4: then he called me maybe a few months later.
Speaker 3: It was like, hey, man, you made the album.
Speaker 4: I was like what he was like, Yo, he made
Speaker 4: the album. I was like, oh man, that was crazy.
Speaker 4: It was the black album. So it made you feel like, yo,
Speaker 4: it won you just a part of like, you know, superhistory,
Speaker 4: and so I was I was really happy to be
Speaker 4: a part of that.
Speaker 3: You know. It's kind of the same thing on the.
Speaker 4: Nellyville on Country Grammar that was d Ray doing Bernie.
Speaker 1: Damn. I did not know that was d Ray.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that is d Ray doing.
Speaker 1: Oh that wasn't Bernie mac all right?
Speaker 5: Talented? I ain't know.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Seeing you at at this stage of your life, is
Speaker 1: there any is there anything that you have yet to.
Speaker 2: Achieve that you have like as a bucket list, do
Speaker 2: you feel like now's the time for you to just
Speaker 2: get your bucket list storing and and start greenlighting your
Speaker 2: own projects or whatnot?
Speaker 1: Like what do you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's kind of really the space I'm in now,
Speaker 4: you know, of course, like the strike really really teaches
Speaker 4: you that too, Like you can't always kind of like
Speaker 4: you know, expect that you will have time or that
Speaker 4: everything that you want to do will just show up
Speaker 4: when when you need to, and so, uh, you know,
Speaker 4: I feel like, you know, I definitely want to get
Speaker 4: back into the movie space like in the starring role Pards.
Speaker 4: You know, like you're looking for those. So I started
Speaker 4: to write movies that you know that I feel like
Speaker 4: makes sense for me.
Speaker 3: Uh And then yeah, exactly, I think that too.
Speaker 4: More so to your question question, is that it is
Speaker 4: dramas that I you know, like people hadn't necessarily seeing
Speaker 4: really stick my foot in something, right, you know I did.
Speaker 4: I did that first Reformed with Ethan Hogg that was
Speaker 4: out last year, really you know, really moved with Paul Schrader,
Speaker 4: great director, you know, and Ethan hagg A man. The
Speaker 4: Safe Free a small kind of an artsy film, it was.
Speaker 4: It was a dramatic role. We got some nominations, we
Speaker 4: got some looks, you know, but again it wouldn't be
Speaker 4: something that black people would go see, I don't think
Speaker 4: right away.
Speaker 3: Uh so and get certain times.
Speaker 5: Of black people said they're not a mona.
Speaker 3: Less exactly, it gets so true. I'm gonna throw that
Speaker 3: out there.
Speaker 4: Yes, that's our question goes maybe you know, yeah, yeah, no,
Speaker 4: and it gives it it's a.
Speaker 3: Great film because again, dynamic actors in there.
Speaker 4: Uh and it's still, you know, kind of uniquely done,
Speaker 4: very quiet movie.
Speaker 3: You know, not a lot of you know, all about
Speaker 3: the words, all about the emotion, uh the go. That's
Speaker 3: a style.
Speaker 4: It's called like transcendental or something like that. Some a
Speaker 4: it's a style of movie shooting.
Speaker 3: But you know, that's that. That's pretty much what I
Speaker 3: would say bucket list.
Speaker 4: I'm looking for a character or a series or something
Speaker 4: I could stick my teeth into where people could see
Speaker 4: me be a little.
Speaker 3: More dramatic in in my in my play. You know, I.
Speaker 2: Can't believe my very first question to you that I
Speaker 2: didn't ask, and it looks like it is going to
Speaker 2: be my last question to you. How did you come
Speaker 2: up with your moniker? I do not know the story
Speaker 2: of how you became Cedric the entertainer.
Speaker 3: Oh oh wow, Oh yeah, that's a that's a that's
Speaker 3: a crazy story that that story really kind of really
Speaker 3: kind of came from.
Speaker 4: I always say it was me trying to it's fairly
Speaker 4: certain diputies. It was the idea that I didn't want
Speaker 4: to be. I got very popular in Saint Louis, right,
Speaker 4: A lot of people I was doing comedy, people knew me.
Speaker 4: I would call into the radio. I would get booked,
Speaker 4: but I didn't have a lot of jokes. I would,
Speaker 4: you know, I had, you know, ten minutes work for jokes.
Speaker 4: And then so to get really paid, you have to
Speaker 4: do at least thirty minutes forty minutes on stage. So
Speaker 4: I would sing, I sing a whole Luther song, I'd
Speaker 4: do a poem, I'd.
Speaker 3: Do a dance routine.
Speaker 4: I do a whole bit about being on Soul Train,
Speaker 4: and I play like nine songs so I could do
Speaker 4: the different dances. I would fill up my time. And
Speaker 4: so one night it was a guy, you know, just
Speaker 4: kind of introducing everybody. He kept saying, this next comedian,
Speaker 4: this next comedian. And I was like, don't call me
Speaker 4: a comedian, because I don't have enough jokes to be
Speaker 4: called a comedian. Call me an entertainer. And he called
Speaker 4: me Cedric be entertainer. I went up, I rocked it,
Speaker 4: and then and when I came off, I had a
Speaker 4: standovation and he called me Cedric be entertainer again, and
Speaker 4: I just kept it.
Speaker 3: I was like, that's the name.
Speaker 1: Nice as a comedian. I've seen you do CrowdWork before.
Speaker 2: Do you like doing crowd work or is it too
Speaker 2: much pressure to think that fast.
Speaker 3: I'm not that fast, man. I mean, I could do
Speaker 3: it if it happens to be the situations, which yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: when you're hosting, you gotta you gotta be like yo,
Speaker 3: like just kind of let the room like kind of
Speaker 3: come to you.
Speaker 4: But it's not a thing that I'm very comfortable with
Speaker 4: because it promotes people talking back, you know, it promotes
Speaker 4: and I am more of a I am more of
Speaker 4: a stake.
Speaker 1: You don't have like five quips for a heckler just
Speaker 1: in case they want.
Speaker 3: To for sure, you know, I'm ready now, like I
Speaker 3: keep I keep it locked.
Speaker 4: But but the thing is is that you know, I
Speaker 4: much rather when I'm on stage, I much rather come
Speaker 4: there for the performance. So actually some of my opening
Speaker 4: acts I would hire opening acts.
Speaker 3: That are shooters.
Speaker 4: I call them shooters because they go out and make
Speaker 4: sure that audience is tightened up and in they place
Speaker 4: and go on no.
Speaker 2: Smoke yop yeah assassiny and he.
Speaker 3: Would be man.
Speaker 4: I got a dude named Malik asked from Florida. He
Speaker 4: you know, you'll no smoke with this dude. He come
Speaker 4: out there, he is, he fast, and he's funny and
Speaker 4: he raw and he's gonna be.
Speaker 3: People be like, yeah, I'm good man, never mind.
Speaker 4: And so by the time I come on stage, everybody
Speaker 4: is pretty much there to understand that I'm here to
Speaker 4: tell you some jokes and perform for you like a
Speaker 4: grown up, and you're gonna sit in your chair, you're
Speaker 4: gonna be quiet.
Speaker 5: That that's a flipping box cars question.
Speaker 9: I just I wanted to know because it is a
Speaker 9: fictional story, and you said it was interesting to listen
Speaker 9: to you earlier in this conversation talk about the lack
Speaker 9: of men in your life. So number one, I was
Speaker 9: curious because even though it's fictional, it seems like it
Speaker 9: is a lot of your grandfather and baby boys, right, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 9: And I was just curious how you got all of
Speaker 9: that because you didn't know him, and it was it's
Speaker 9: really from your mother. And then also since you and
Speaker 9: answer this for me too, as a man who was
Speaker 9: the man in your life, because said, when we look
Speaker 9: at you when we talk to you, you sound like
Speaker 9: such a well rounded man in so many ways.
Speaker 5: To have so many women in your life, you.
Speaker 3: Know, Yeah, yeah, you know, I think that that's really
Speaker 3: the thing.
Speaker 4: I kind of really feel it was a lot of
Speaker 4: kind of osmosis in a number of ways. You know,
Speaker 4: you know, because my my my mother and my uncle
Speaker 4: would tell me the stories of my grandfather and then
Speaker 4: you start to emulate I think, you know, other people's
Speaker 4: fathers and the neighborhood.
Speaker 3: You know, we were just kind of talking about that.
Speaker 4: When you see these young folks out here that kind
Speaker 4: of grow up and everybody kind of like you know,
Speaker 4: on the Draco's and everybody got they passed down and
Speaker 4: they want to be gangsters. You know, you kind of
Speaker 4: see that when we grew up, our men in our
Speaker 4: neighborhood was people that was fathers. They were the ones
Speaker 4: that was there. They was like taking kids to the.
Speaker 3: Baseball field and you had to say yes, sir to.
Speaker 4: Him, and you know you didn't call you ain't call
Speaker 4: your daddy by your daddy friend by his first name.
Speaker 3: Like is they know people about Donell now you know
Speaker 3: what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: They don't even they don't call it man mister Norton,
Speaker 4: and they you know, you you literally believe in the
Speaker 4: world where these kind of these kind of uh you know,
Speaker 4: archaetypes don't really exist. So for me, I think that
Speaker 4: that's really you know, one of the things that I
Speaker 4: was kind of like, you know, kind of like spinning
Speaker 4: the story from is like this idea that I like
Speaker 4: to wear suits, this idea that I like to be
Speaker 4: respected and treat people with respect, that I do think
Speaker 4: that I got a responsibility to others, you know, like
Speaker 4: I recognize that, and somehow, you know, my mother would say,
Speaker 4: that's who my grandfather was, Like he would do all
Speaker 4: these things. He makes sure that even though he was
Speaker 4: you know, in the underworld and he was a gambler
Speaker 4: and a hustler and a bootlegger, but he kind of
Speaker 4: did all these things because that was really what was
Speaker 4: available to him.
Speaker 3: You know at the time, you know, it's not.
Speaker 5: True, Like wait a minute, what's not true about baby boys,
Speaker 5: because that's.
Speaker 3: All us all that stuff is in there.
Speaker 4: The restaurant owner, he had the restaurant, he'd go and
Speaker 4: take care of the people out in the field.
Speaker 3: I say he was the first dude with a food
Speaker 3: truck that.
Speaker 4: Would be in my mind, like because he would he
Speaker 4: would take his restaurant, he'd make sandwiches and he'd go
Speaker 4: out to the fields and then people would pay a
Speaker 4: quarter for a sandwich and some water and he'd like
Speaker 4: make sure he eat and he he burned back out.
Speaker 4: That was that was all cash moves that he would do,
Speaker 4: like his and you know those kind of things, and
Speaker 4: so uh, you know, but he was also like a
Speaker 4: you know, extreme risk taker, which you know in the
Speaker 4: book you find out like he took big risks and
Speaker 4: you know these sometimes they don't go your way, you know,
Speaker 4: But that's that's the that's the life of any any
Speaker 4: of us that you try to go out and you
Speaker 4: stick stick your neck out for your own ideology, right,
Speaker 4: you recognize that at some point in time he might
Speaker 4: not go the way you think, and then you gotta
Speaker 4: you gotta deal with that.
Speaker 3: Those circumstances consequences.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 7: I want to ask you mentioned in earlier some conversations
Speaker 7: about your team and kind of deciding which projects to
Speaker 7: pick the team that you have.
Speaker 6: Now, how long did it take to assemble them?
Speaker 7: I guess, and like who are who are like kind
Speaker 7: of your core people, you know, your manager.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I been really blessed. I've been really blessed man.
Speaker 4: I mean my core group of people with my guys
Speaker 4: that I met in college, man, like my my my
Speaker 4: manager and my partner, you know, my Command production company
Speaker 4: is called A Bird and a Bear. That's me and
Speaker 4: my partner, Eric Rohan. He's my manager and my business partner.
Speaker 4: We called him Swanny Swan you know from the Warriors
Speaker 4: from back into the La So yeah, we called him
Speaker 4: Swan back in the day. And so and I'm SETI Bear.
Speaker 4: So we're Bird and a Bear. So that's the name
Speaker 4: of O production company. But we've been together since again
Speaker 4: my college days. My tour manager and you know, creative
Speaker 4: tour consultant he was, he was I went to junior
Speaker 4: high school with him.
Speaker 3: That's Kelvin Bland. So he a guy that been with.
Speaker 4: Me my whole career like me, like kind of come
Speaker 4: up and just you know, and he started to learn
Speaker 4: how to do lighting and learn how to make my
Speaker 4: shows more interesting and and you know, and those were
Speaker 4: the kind of things he got interested in and booking
Speaker 4: me and and so, uh that's it. And then I've
Speaker 4: been you know with my agency and my lawyers were
Speaker 4: probably a long time too, like from early on when
Speaker 4: I got my first deals. Uh you know, so I'm
Speaker 4: starting to make some changes there.
Speaker 3: But well then you know, for the most part, my
Speaker 3: team is.
Speaker 4: Solid and I got a new publicist, not too maybe
Speaker 4: about three years ago. So but they've been great too.
Speaker 4: But I know they came through a great recommendation and
Speaker 4: so it's the same the same guy that does Eddie Murphy.
Speaker 3: He's my guy right now. So he's dope though.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I was an avid watcher of your
Speaker 2: your Millionaire days? Is game show hosting? Like is that
Speaker 2: as fun as it seems? Or like do you have
Speaker 2: any other future plans for you know, I actually enjoyed it.
Speaker 4: You know, there was a thing about doing you know
Speaker 4: a millionaire where you you are. You know that people
Speaker 4: were coming on here and they they love these game
Speaker 4: shows and they really want to win, and it's a
Speaker 4: lot of fun to them.
Speaker 3: It's very arduous.
Speaker 4: Because you have to do you know, maybe you know,
Speaker 4: five to six shows in a day, like you shoot
Speaker 4: a lot, you know. We it's a very aggressive you
Speaker 4: know because we and that was the biggest thing about it.
Speaker 3: But for me, it allowed me to live in New.
Speaker 4: York for like three months. So it was great because
Speaker 4: it was a totally different experience. I you know, I
Speaker 4: was able to come and live in the city and
Speaker 4: be there. So the only reason I didn't come back
Speaker 4: and do the second season is that they the next
Speaker 4: season is that they moved it to Connecticut, way up
Speaker 4: in Connecticut.
Speaker 3: And I was like, that's that's not for me. Guys.
Speaker 3: It was like they was near Connecticut.
Speaker 4: They moved it to Connecticut. They don't know to cut
Speaker 4: the budget or make it a little.
Speaker 5: Like Maury was there, Jerry was there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I knew for a second.
Speaker 2: Tyler was there for a second, like he had a
Speaker 2: ESPN ESPN.
Speaker 3: But yeah, it was like that.
Speaker 4: And it was very you know, very small town field,
Speaker 4: very outside the loop, you know. And you had to
Speaker 4: be there three to four months. And I was just like, nah,
Speaker 4: you know, no, no, no. If you living in New
Speaker 4: York doing that, then that's fun because you in the city,
Speaker 4: you get to pop off. You you finish your day
Speaker 4: and then you go and and we would shoot like
Speaker 4: Monday through Thursday, so I would have Friday's awful lot
Speaker 4: of Time game show. Yeah, I'm not gonna be stuck
Speaker 4: in Bristol. You know, it's not gonna be my move.
Speaker 7: Like I want to before we go with your barbecue man,
Speaker 7: you and Anthony Anderson, Yeah, what do you do?
Speaker 6: You like cook a lot?
Speaker 3: What's just no, we just got the rubs right now.
Speaker 3: So we the sauces are coming though, and we we
Speaker 3: will because you know, Anthony's diabetic, so we got and
Speaker 3: make sure we're not gonna be.
Speaker 4: Over over the top with all our you know, sugars
Speaker 4: and all that stuff.
Speaker 3: But the idea really came from us. You know.
Speaker 4: We we all golf together, meet Anthony, George Lopez, Don Cheeto.
Speaker 3: Chris Spencer, Jesus Christ group.
Speaker 4: We all travel d l and we'll travel and go
Speaker 4: and then Anthony and I would often be the ones
Speaker 4: doing the cooking, grilling, you know, cooking and making the
Speaker 4: fool for everybody because we rent a house and hanging
Speaker 4: be a fun time man.
Speaker 3: So but you know, I grill a little bit and
Speaker 3: cook a little bit.
Speaker 4: But what we really loved about this space is that
Speaker 4: everybody was, you know, trying to do liquors and tequilas
Speaker 4: and all that, and what we wanted to do was
Speaker 4: use our celebrity for something we thought that really was
Speaker 4: like uplifting for the community and really authentic to who
Speaker 4: we were in the sense that barbecuing and grilling and
Speaker 4: getting together is just as black as they come, and
Speaker 4: even more so American as it comes. Like it's a
Speaker 4: this is where people fellowship. We I throw the meat
Speaker 4: on you bring the tato salad. You somebody bring the
Speaker 4: mac and chee, and.
Speaker 3: We got a meal and we're gonna play cards.
Speaker 4: And we're gonna laugh, Drake, and we was like, yo,
Speaker 4: we can capture this as a brand. If we can
Speaker 4: capture that essence, that's what we really want to do.
Speaker 4: And that's what AC Barbecue about more than anything. We
Speaker 4: we actually feature more pit masters than we grill ourselves.
Speaker 4: So we really go around and find like people that
Speaker 4: really like we're like, pull up, like that's the kind
Speaker 4: of thing. We love the fact that you you really
Speaker 4: love it, like you know, like you throw a cool
Speaker 4: barbecue at your crib or got a season, you know,
Speaker 4: and that's it. We come through pull up and like,
Speaker 4: let's talk about what you're cooking. Let's talk about the
Speaker 4: you know, the relationship you have to why you start
Speaker 4: cooking and in the stories.
Speaker 3: And then that's what we do. And then we you know,
Speaker 3: as AC Barbecue.
Speaker 4: We out telling that story along with you know, introducing
Speaker 4: our products and uh, you know, we got in like
Speaker 4: twenty seven hundred walmarts right now, we got lows coming,
Speaker 4: we got home depot coming. We're doing tools and we
Speaker 4: got spachelors.
Speaker 3: And tongs and all that coming. We got, we got
Speaker 3: restaurants coming. We are here. We are here doing it.
Speaker 4: So we actually got the opportunity to do some restaurants
Speaker 4: on college campuses. So these are things that we all
Speaker 4: got in development. So we're working hard at making sure
Speaker 4: that we out here you know, talking about you know,
Speaker 4: something that really started from you know, our culture really
Speaker 4: is that that idea of taking whatever we got and
Speaker 4: throwing on some hot coals and making a meal out
Speaker 4: of it that goes as far back as slavery and
Speaker 4: beyond on the way the cook so you know, but
Speaker 4: it definitely culturally a thing. But we we we love
Speaker 4: and we know that barbecue is different in different regions.
Speaker 4: And that's why we didn't want to be like, you know,
Speaker 4: you gotta do it our way. We like, we love
Speaker 4: the way you do it. We're gonna come and show
Speaker 4: and get that love. And so that's what our show
Speaker 4: is all about too.
Speaker 2: So man, so uh, mister Kyle's I thank you for
Speaker 2: coming on our show.
Speaker 1: Man talking to us.
Speaker 2: Uh about time, Like we we've been here almost what
Speaker 2: are we six years now?
Speaker 5: Almost seven we're not remembering. Yeah, we're not. We're not
Speaker 5: gonna seven.
Speaker 3: Because because you don't love that's a blessing.
Speaker 5: Man and podcast land, you're damn right, we're old and
Speaker 5: podcast like.
Speaker 9: Yeah, thank you, O G. Thank you for everything you're
Speaker 9: doing for race, race relations with the neighborhood. Since I
Speaker 9: want to say that, because you're doing some introducing, some things,
Speaker 9: letting people know and stuff.
Speaker 3: I appreciate that we use.
Speaker 9: Yes, that's my favorite said, that's what I always talk about.
Speaker 5: That's a big deal.
Speaker 3: It's so true.
Speaker 5: You're talking about the town joke.
Speaker 3: Y'all.
Speaker 5: Y'all know, we just we're just people. Don't use washingws
Speaker 5: your wash class wash class.
Speaker 8: Watch watch, thank you, any comment, Thank you, che I
Speaker 8: love all the stuff you do.
Speaker 4: Thank you, brother, many birthday man, thank you, thank you,
Speaker 4: m thank you for everything.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 7: You one of my favorite comedians and just one of
Speaker 7: you know, my favorite entertainers period.
Speaker 6: And uh he's got teased.
Speaker 7: In high school and everybody told me, I look like you.
Speaker 1: You have this humor.
Speaker 3: He's funny like that.
Speaker 9: Yes, oh my god, showcase check it out.
Speaker 3: A fan.
Speaker 6: Brother, Just love love everything you do.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 2: All right, well we be half of laya pay bill
Speaker 2: and Birthday Steve and h F Tielo and shout out
Speaker 2: to Fritt and Jake.
Speaker 1: Yeah and in the entire family at I Heeart.
Speaker 2: This is another quest Love Supreme extravagans. We'll see you
Speaker 2: on the next program, all right, thank you.
Speaker 12: Man Must Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio.
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