Speaker 1: We gotta do a countdown check the mic.
Speaker 2: Everything good, Kevin Set one, Sex, five, ten nine.
Speaker 1: Kevin Hart, You listen. Before I do these out of
Speaker 1: context conversations, I like to set my intention. So my
Speaker 1: intention for this combo is to properly shine the light
Speaker 1: on the historic career of Kevin Hart, the entertainer, the mogul.
Speaker 1: I want to put who you are and what you
Speaker 1: have done in its proper context for people.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 1: Okay. Now, you once said in an interview, you said
Speaker 1: life is a book, and you determine how it ends.
Speaker 1: What would you title this chapter of your life.
Speaker 2: Understanding? I would say understanding forty five years old, and
Speaker 2: I understand the purpose, I understand the value, I understand.
Speaker 3: The real reward.
Speaker 2: So I think, yeah, this is about this is about clarity.
Speaker 2: This is about having a bigger and better vision based
Speaker 2: off of my now understanding.
Speaker 1: Twenty years ago, when you was twenty five, how would
Speaker 1: you define success?
Speaker 3: What did it look like to you success at twenty five?
Speaker 1: Well, just when you were twenty five, Yeah, what did
Speaker 1: success look like to you?
Speaker 3: Success at twenty five was.
Speaker 2: No free weekends because you were booked, whether it was
Speaker 2: comedy clubs or colleges, the stand up calendar was full.
Speaker 2: The only thought was comedy, right, and I think you
Speaker 2: know the opportunities for acting that came and sprinkled in
Speaker 2: here and there. It was cool moments, but the stand
Speaker 2: up and being a headliner in state end up, nothing
Speaker 2: was bigger and better than that. So how do I
Speaker 2: get a full calendar?
Speaker 1: How has achieving the success you've achieved reshaped your definition
Speaker 1: of what you thought success was twenty years ago?
Speaker 3: I mean it's completely different. You know the success success
Speaker 3: is like.
Speaker 2: It's layered because you think it's financial, and then after
Speaker 2: that you think it's material once you get financial, and
Speaker 2: then it makes a weird shift where it turns into
Speaker 2: like happy, right, And what level of success do you
Speaker 2: have to reach for you to understand that happy is
Speaker 2: always it should always be the first thing. And how
Speaker 2: do you get that? How do you get to that?
Speaker 2: The success is like it's a journey. It's a journey
Speaker 2: that you embark on and go through all this stuff
Speaker 2: to get there and go, I was I was this then?
Speaker 2: Like I was I was happy and I was vibrant
Speaker 2: and that was fun. And as you obtain more your workload,
Speaker 2: your stress, you want your need, Like everything starts to
Speaker 2: come into play a little differently, So it boils down
Speaker 2: to how do you get to the role of happy
Speaker 2: and understanding the value of a circle, your friends, your family,
Speaker 2: et cetera. Like that's that's where your thought process starts
Speaker 2: to drive more towards as you get older. So the
Speaker 2: biggest thing is happiness. Man, at the end of the day, like, are.
Speaker 3: You doing what you love?
Speaker 2: Do you do you absolutely find joy and that thing
Speaker 2: that you're dedicating yourself to on a day to day basis,
Speaker 2: And does it make you better? Does it bring the
Speaker 2: best out of you? Does it bring the worst out
Speaker 2: of you? Like you gotta you gotta start to do that.
Speaker 2: So my joy now comes in helping and creating opportunities
Speaker 2: to see other people get to the place or.
Speaker 3: To help position of the people.
Speaker 2: Correctly to do the thing that they want to do,
Speaker 2: or to find the happiness and a thing that they
Speaker 2: are thriving towards.
Speaker 3: That's my new that's my new happy.
Speaker 1: Have you have you always been happy through through every
Speaker 1: stage of this business and this career of yours? Have
Speaker 1: you always been happy because you always present very happy? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I'm not a I'm not an unhappy person, right like,
Speaker 2: I'm I'm a good person, good energy behind me, But
Speaker 2: my patience isn't you know, my patient. My patience isn't
Speaker 2: as long as it should be. My patience is extremely thin,
Speaker 2: because you know, the the more work you take on,
Speaker 2: the more you're dealing with it on day to day.
Speaker 2: So I think I've definitely been spread thin. And in
Speaker 2: being spread thin, you because of your your your training,
Speaker 2: you got one track that you're on in the the
Speaker 2: only thing is this everything else in the way that
Speaker 2: kind of has to be pushed to the side. So
Speaker 2: my happiness at one point was coming on just trying
Speaker 2: to achieve the goals. And I think during that time
Speaker 2: I probably overlooked a lot of things that were real
Speaker 2: definitions of true joy and true happiness. But because I
Speaker 2: had the tunnel vision, I was focused on this thing.
Speaker 2: So I don't think I don't think I've never not
Speaker 2: been happy. I think that i've I think I've definitely
Speaker 2: been absent minded at times.
Speaker 1: I don't think people realize that you always haven't had success,
Speaker 1: right like when you think about twenty years ago, you
Speaker 1: got a shot in the industry, you had to sitcom
Speaker 1: on ABC, the Big House, major motion picture Soul Plane,
Speaker 1: And it was once said that you already had those
Speaker 1: deals when you came to LA, and no one had
Speaker 1: ever heard of a comedian who came to LA and
Speaker 1: his first year in LA had all of that. People
Speaker 1: never heard of that before you are since you. So
Speaker 1: my question is, how did you achieve all of that? keV?
Speaker 2: I mean, that's nuts. It's just it's insane to assume
Speaker 2: that somebody came and was given anything, like I think
Speaker 2: for those people to really follow my career and then no,
Speaker 2: like I don't. I don't think there's bigger definitions of
Speaker 2: hardship and work and success and takeaway. Right, So, early
Speaker 2: stages of my career, doing the comedy festival, just for
Speaker 2: last comedy festival, Oh my god, went there, killed it.
Speaker 2: Holy shit, this is this is it. This is where
Speaker 2: everything's going to come. Getting a deal at that point
Speaker 2: in time was a big deal. I think there was
Speaker 2: like two hundred thousand dollars. I got a dealtval Well.
Speaker 2: I got a deal coming out of the festival because
Speaker 2: basically I met with studios, Networks, et cetera, and they
Speaker 2: said we're gonna do a development deal with you.
Speaker 1: People forgot about those.
Speaker 2: Development deals don't exist. No more talent development deals. This
Speaker 2: is when comedians and the prime of their career got
Speaker 2: opportunities coming out of these comedy festivals. And the Just
Speaker 2: for Last Festival was like the biggest, the new faces.
Speaker 1: It's like a showcase.
Speaker 2: Yes, so agents, studios, et cetera were all there.
Speaker 3: I get this deal.
Speaker 2: I believe it might have been with NBC, NBC or
Speaker 2: ABC at the time, and you know, this is it.
Speaker 2: I got the money, life change. I can do some
Speaker 2: stuff for my family. Whatever money goes, nothing comes out
Speaker 2: of the deal. Nothing. Well that was short lived. Later
Speaker 2: I get the opportunity to develop a series, create a series.
Speaker 2: This is the Big House. And the opportunity came for
Speaker 2: me learning how people were developing, writing and pitching. So
Speaker 2: I was like, I can go back and the same
Speaker 2: people I met with with my deal, I can start
Speaker 2: pitching too. I want to pitch shows or pitch ideas
Speaker 2: and doing that, we pitched a Big House. Big House
Speaker 2: gets picked up. Finally I got a sitcom. This is
Speaker 2: gonna be great. We shoot, we shoot the Big House,
Speaker 2: We shoot the pilot. Pilot gets picked up. Time for
Speaker 2: me to go to New York do the upfronts announce it.
Speaker 2: Before I take the stage to announce my show is
Speaker 2: going to be on ABC and this is the biggest
Speaker 2: thing ever. They pulled me back and they said they're
Speaker 2: deciding not to pick up your show. Wow, get right there.
Speaker 2: Uh are you serious? I'm here like I flew the
Speaker 2: cast in we all this is exciting time. Yeah, no,
Speaker 2: we're not. They're not gonna do it. Can't stand over
Speaker 2: there that fast. It's over.
Speaker 3: I gotta go home. I'm on a plane.
Speaker 2: No show. I get a call probably six months later,
Speaker 2: we're gonna pick it up mid season. Oh my god,
Speaker 2: the joy. Finally it came around. They air one episode,
Speaker 2: maybe maybe two episodes, not even that many, maybe three,
Speaker 2: I don't know, maybe two or three. Pulled it, canceled it.
Speaker 2: No sitcom. Okay shit, I'm back back on the grid,
Speaker 2: back on the grind.
Speaker 3: I'm in the world of auditioning.
Speaker 2: Nothing's coming out of ith. Soul Playing came. Holy shit,
Speaker 2: got another opportunity, booked the audition. Tons of people audition
Speaker 2: with Soul Plan. Jessice Terrero was like, that's my guy.
Speaker 2: I want him.
Speaker 3: Soul Plane his bootleg, biggest boot leg ever.
Speaker 2: My success came from the bootleg and give soul playing
Speaker 2: because people started to remember me and my success came
Speaker 2: from Paper Soldiers and that underground movie and in the
Speaker 2: bootleg circuit up so the memorable, the memorable side of understanding.
Speaker 2: Oh that's the guy from Oh shit, that's the comedian from.
Speaker 3: I just started doing comedy clubs.
Speaker 2: So I said, all right, fuck the acting stuff.
Speaker 3: I'm just gonna go focus on the comedy.
Speaker 2: So I went, I just did a comedy grind like
Speaker 2: nobody's business.
Speaker 1: It was a little Wayne Mixtape level comedy ground.
Speaker 2: I went. I went. I remember so when I tell you,
Speaker 2: I was so adamant about the comedy clubs. Stand up
Speaker 2: any stage, any room, New York. Get the people, get
Speaker 2: the fans, Go get the emails, go back, tell them
Speaker 2: I'm coming back to the city again.
Speaker 3: City Chicago's Cleveland.
Speaker 2: Since then, you name it. I did that ship for
Speaker 2: about I want to say I probably put in like
Speaker 2: five years of non stop comedy club work, and over
Speaker 2: that five years gathered the audience, gathered the nice amount
Speaker 2: of emails.
Speaker 3: This is when.
Speaker 1: Speak speed by that because you were in these comedy clubs. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I remember this. You were you were getting everybody's.
Speaker 2: Email email and you had a newsletter that you yes, yeah,
Speaker 2: I would, I would. I literally got Dang Cook is
Speaker 2: one of the first people to like really embrace his
Speaker 2: fans in the development of the relationship with the fans, right.
Speaker 2: Dang Cook was one of the early early people that
Speaker 2: I heard talk about this. And at this time, Dang
Speaker 2: Cook was like, boom, I mean HEU. So I'm like,
Speaker 2: I gotta get emails and I got to talk to
Speaker 2: the people. So I would do these newsletters for the
Speaker 2: cities and I would, I would send them. I was
Speaker 2: sent them out as a blast Like MySpace had a
Speaker 2: feature at the time where you could basically like geotag
Speaker 2: I'm coming to Cincinnati, and on your midspace you can
Speaker 2: look for the people in Cincinnati. And I would personally
Speaker 2: send out messages I'm coming to the Cincinnati I'm performing,
Speaker 2: Come see me perform. I mean you're copying, pasting the
Speaker 2: same messages over and over again. Some people came, some
Speaker 2: people didn't. But at the end of the shows, I
Speaker 2: would know who came, and I would know the result
Speaker 2: of me individually telling people to come out because I
Speaker 2: would be able to match the emails addresses help with
Speaker 2: things that I saw on the MySpace paids, So I
Speaker 2: was like, between these things, if I stay true to it,
Speaker 2: it'll work. So me and my guys, the Plastic Cupboys,
Speaker 2: we would go to the city land, go to a mall,
Speaker 2: pass out flyers, tell people about the show, get emails.
Speaker 2: Then we would go to the show perform as people
Speaker 2: were walking out getting emails. I used to have cards
Speaker 2: and I would have cards on the table. People would
Speaker 2: fill out the cards. I would take them. So then
Speaker 2: at the end of the weekend, everybody that came, hey guys,
Speaker 2: when I come back, I'm gonna make sure you all
Speaker 2: know thanks for coming out. I built the rapport for
Speaker 2: five years maybe more. I was very consistent with that
Speaker 2: raport colleges. I was performing at showcases for colleges and
Speaker 2: gathering that personnel. I didn't give a fuck where people were.
Speaker 2: If it was people there, I was going to go
Speaker 2: and I was going to personally make sure you knew
Speaker 2: who I was and that I knew who you were.
Speaker 2: So when I did Shacks All Star Comedy Jam that
Speaker 2: that dropped. After I did Grown Little Man and I
Speaker 2: was about to do seriously funny, I forgot the order
Speaker 2: of it. But I was doing these comedy specials, and
Speaker 2: it was for Comedy Central. It's gonna be my specials,
Speaker 2: all right. It was like a little bit of knowledge,
Speaker 2: a little bit of a little bit of steam off
Speaker 2: of them.
Speaker 3: The comedy club is getting a little full.
Speaker 2: After the Shacks All Star Comedy Jam, I don't know
Speaker 2: what happened, but that shit, that shit hit harder than anything.
Speaker 2: And then I did Seriously Funny, so people were like,
Speaker 2: whoa Shacks Star Star Comedy Jam? And then I did
Speaker 2: different material, seriously funny, Okay, after seriously funny. Well that's
Speaker 2: when it was it was okay, shit, this guy's like
Speaker 2: the real deal. So it went from comedy clubs to
Speaker 2: theaters real fast. I mean, right now, you're witnessing it
Speaker 2: with Matt Rife, Like I remember that, like Matt Rife.
Speaker 2: It's a weird thing that happened where Matt was in
Speaker 2: comedy clubs and he was doing his like little things,
Speaker 2: and the TikTok thing hit for him, and all of
Speaker 2: a sudden, Matt Rife is doing shows. It arenas Matt
Speaker 2: Rife sold out and he's It happened so fucking fast.
Speaker 2: So when that happened, I said, well, I don't want
Speaker 2: to run away from the thing that I was doing.
Speaker 2: I got to tell people, I am now going to
Speaker 2: the theaters, right, the theaters. I'm gonna be at the theater,
Speaker 2: not the comedy club. Well, theater's selling out so fucking fast.
Speaker 2: So now I don't have to do the email ship
Speaker 2: no more.
Speaker 1: I don't have to turn the social media too.
Speaker 2: This when social media just started, right, this is when
Speaker 2: all of the ship look out of the time was
Speaker 2: getting past. Oh man, the tickets are selling, so we're good.
Speaker 2: I don't I don't have to do this like I
Speaker 2: once did. Twitter.
Speaker 3: Twitter is now so now Twitter I learned.
Speaker 2: What that is, and I'm like, oh wait, I can
Speaker 2: talk directly to my like to the people that follow me.
Speaker 2: Go back to the world of emails. I'm on Twitter.
Speaker 2: Here's my act name. Make sure y'all follow me.
Speaker 1: I remember all of it.
Speaker 2: So all the people that I gathered from all of
Speaker 2: these cities. Name of city during that time, Detroit name
Speaker 2: A fuck, I don't give it. Every city. I don't
Speaker 2: care if it's an A market, B market, C market.
Speaker 2: I went everywhere. Once I said follow me on Twitter,
Speaker 2: all right, well I'm out the gate. I had like
Speaker 2: three hundred some thousand followers.
Speaker 1: I'm like, you were the first person we knew what
Speaker 1: a million followers. I was like, oh shit, you got
Speaker 1: a million followers.
Speaker 2: I said, I gotta talk to them. So now the
Speaker 2: emails that I was sending that people were on privy
Speaker 2: to are now a person of person conversations. Now the
Speaker 2: shows are getting bigger, the theaters are getting bigger. We're
Speaker 2: adding shows. We're going from two thousand seaters to five
Speaker 2: thousand seaters. And just like that, as a headliner, I changed.
Speaker 2: I changed the way I looked at how I developed comedy.
Speaker 2: I said, I need to have a system in place
Speaker 2: that allows me to stay on the road and come
Speaker 2: off the road. I shot two specials as The Grown
Speaker 2: Little Man that is seriously funny. The Shocks All Star
Speaker 2: thing was like a favor. I was like, Shacks said, keV,
Speaker 2: you want to do this thing. Jeff Clanning Kingo's my partner, especially,
Speaker 2: was a favor. All these things hit. I was like,
Speaker 2: all right, well, I can't fuck this up. So now
Speaker 2: I said, I'm going to go and I'll do a tour.
Speaker 2: My tour should always last a year and a half
Speaker 2: and I'll end my tour with the filming of a
Speaker 2: comedy special and then I'll develop another set through the
Speaker 2: course of a year and a half to maybe maybe
Speaker 2: close to two. So I had an own season offseason,
Speaker 2: but it always gave a two year gap in between
Speaker 2: stand up, so I never oversaturated myself in the market.
Speaker 2: So toil this date, there's always a two year window
Speaker 2: in between my specials. But during that off year, I'm
Speaker 2: developing the new material. So when I come back and
Speaker 2: announce a tour, while I'm coming back with new material
Speaker 2: in the new road, and by the time I filmed
Speaker 2: the next special, It'll be two years past before the
Speaker 2: last one step repeats that repeat. So I built the
Speaker 2: process based off of hard work, understanding, and commitment, and
Speaker 2: that commitment came from the failed opportunities in Hollywood. They
Speaker 2: threw my TV show back at me, the movies that
Speaker 2: I had the opportunities to start and did not work
Speaker 2: in a successful template of working in the business. Paper
Speaker 2: Soldiers wasn't a box office success, it wasn't a theater released,
Speaker 2: it was a straight to DVD. Soul Plain was supposed
Speaker 2: to be a box office success, got bootleg basically another
Speaker 2: straight to DVD if you ask me so, because I
Speaker 2: mean the rest part from you talking about we got two,
Speaker 2: you got something like a business, and you got thirty five. Right,
Speaker 2: So these are all of mine, These are my big opportunities.
Speaker 2: At that time, none of this shit was huge successful.
Speaker 2: This was all These are all culture culture like cultural
Speaker 2: fucking pieces of IP that we grabbed on two and
Speaker 2: supported and loved. So because of that, the fan base
Speaker 2: got better with stand up. But I went back to
Speaker 2: stand up. I was like, I'm out this la shit.
Speaker 2: I'm sitting here waiting by the phone. I'm out. I
Speaker 2: went back and hustled stand up and was just in
Speaker 2: the grind of stand up specials until.
Speaker 3: Will Packer came to me.
Speaker 2: This was after laughing my pants is I want to say,
Speaker 2: I don't know, maybe my third or fourth special And
Speaker 2: Will came over and think, like a man, we're talking
Speaker 2: in two thousand and nine, I don't know, maybe third
Speaker 2: or fourth.
Speaker 1: The reason I'm glad you're having this conversation when you
Speaker 1: think about all of these opportunities you had, I see
Speaker 1: you doing that for other black creatives. Now, so when
Speaker 1: Rush Paul had the opportunity he puts you in something
Speaker 1: names had the opportunity he put you in something. Will Packer,
Speaker 1: he puts you something, Shack, he put you in something.
Speaker 1: You're doing the same exact thing for people. Now.
Speaker 2: You know. The realization though, man, is like the people
Speaker 2: are putting you in something because they have something to
Speaker 2: put you in. Right right, We're in a time now
Speaker 2: where it changes because the expectation of what you're supposed
Speaker 2: to do doesn't match the energy of what you're actually doing.
Speaker 2: And I think you know that line has blurred a
Speaker 2: little bit. Like Shack called me, Jeff called me. I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 2: of course, it just so happened that that was the thing.
Speaker 2: But they were doing a thing at the same time.
Speaker 3: It matched up.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to create more things that can hopefully be
Speaker 2: the thing.
Speaker 3: For someone else. Now, you don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't have it. I don't have a strong grasp
Speaker 2: on the business to go. This is gonna launch you.
Speaker 3: You can be a star. Get ready, here it come.
Speaker 2: I just know, like, hey, man, I got some dope.
Speaker 2: IP I want to create some movies or mine. Some aren't,
Speaker 2: but hey, here's opportunities. Here's a blender of opportunities that
Speaker 2: I can put people in and continue it and grow
Speaker 2: within it. I mean, when you look at just what
Speaker 2: we're doing at Heartbeat in the scripted and unscripted space.
Speaker 2: It's all based off of the new version of our
Speaker 2: generation acting, comedians, writers, directors, etc. I'm saying, if I
Speaker 2: can do three to four projects a year and we
Speaker 2: got new faces in them, I'm doing my part. If
Speaker 2: I can say, hey, man, we're gonna shoot forty comedy
Speaker 2: specials and we're gonna have those comedy specials on our
Speaker 2: fast channel and on this distribution platform, I'm not only
Speaker 2: giving them a stage, but I'm also giving them visibility.
Speaker 2: I'm doing my part, right Like, at this point, what
Speaker 2: is my part?
Speaker 3: Where is my.
Speaker 2: Value best served? And I feel like it's best served
Speaker 2: in creating the opportunities for others. And you know, if
Speaker 2: somebody pops off of something that I put to the table, man,
Speaker 2: I think that's the dopest story ever. To just be
Speaker 2: a part of the early stages of the next person's
Speaker 2: the next person's journey, I would be fucking beyond blessed.
Speaker 1: How does it feel knowing that you have achieved so
Speaker 1: much success that people think you're an industry plan.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's the biggest compliment ever, right you when
Speaker 2: you hear things like that. You just you got to
Speaker 2: give a nod to common sense versus lack thereof. You know,
Speaker 2: I had a conversation with my daughter one day and
Speaker 2: she was asking a question and like debating off of
Speaker 2: the hype emthetical of if something was real versus not,
Speaker 2: And I said, you know, everything is researchable if you
Speaker 2: really want to know it, if people really care, you
Speaker 2: really want to know things, it's very easy to go
Speaker 2: do some research. And actually beyond easy, it's like it's
Speaker 2: dumb proof today, like Google has. It's so dumb proof
Speaker 2: that you can actually type in the dumbest version of
Speaker 2: a question and Google will correct your question and give
Speaker 2: you the right side of your question with the options
Speaker 2: for you to go find the thing that you're looking for.
Speaker 3: So if you really give a shit, you can go
Speaker 3: and see.
Speaker 2: I mean, the industry plant conversation is what is it?
Speaker 2: What does that mean? Like when you when you really
Speaker 2: break that down, it means.
Speaker 1: It means that's why I want you to tell you
Speaker 1: a story, And I'm glad it's the story, Like you said,
Speaker 1: the stories out there people want to know. It means
Speaker 1: that somebody puts you in this position. Yeah, and press
Speaker 1: the button yeah, and that's the god.
Speaker 2: So when I say, what does that mean? Like, what
Speaker 2: are we talking about? So if that's the case of success,
Speaker 2: is that easy? How many different versions of that would
Speaker 2: you see to day? And by the way, wouldn't those
Speaker 2: be the stories that were highlighting because they're all false?
Speaker 2: Like if that's the case, I mean, some things get
Speaker 2: so ridiculous that catch on.
Speaker 3: It's just.
Speaker 2: It's astronomically insane to process. No, I could give two
Speaker 2: ships like I mean, that's why you don't hear me
Speaker 2: address shit or fire bag of shit. It's like you
Speaker 2: got time to address and talk and come back at
Speaker 2: people when you have time. I don't. I don't have
Speaker 2: the time like I and not because yeah, not because
Speaker 2: I'm an asshole, but I'm actually I don't. I don't
Speaker 2: have the time. I don't have the time to give
Speaker 2: a rebubble that or the energy to give that any
Speaker 2: type of outside thought. And like I said, if it's
Speaker 2: if it's something that people are really curious about or
Speaker 2: people really wanted to know, it's great researching.
Speaker 1: I got a list of things that are taking up
Speaker 1: your time. Correct me if any of these things have changed.
Speaker 1: One people think you're in the Illuminati, because you're not
Speaker 1: just a comedian, you're a businessman. Yeah, let's just listen
Speaker 1: to these things. Heartbeat Productions, Lol Network, We're serious, Grand
Speaker 1: Carmino Tequila, SPH Productions, which is our audience company, Fabletics
Speaker 1: Active Where, Heavenly Heart, which is a health and wellness
Speaker 1: brand named after your daughter, Harthouse, your plant based food chain.
Speaker 1: You partnered with brands like Chase Bank, Nike. I was
Speaker 1: told you invested in draft Kings and you're invested in
Speaker 1: Hydro which is a rowing machine company. There are plenty
Speaker 1: of comedians who are just comedians. You are a businessman
Speaker 1: who are what contributed to that business actimen.
Speaker 2: Early stages of growth Jeff Clan again, Jeff Clan again.
Speaker 2: I want to say, is an asset that sparked my
Speaker 2: entrepreneur side of thinking and just from him saying or suggesting,
Speaker 2: hey man, instead of us going this way, why don't
Speaker 2: we do this ourselves? So taking the money from tour
Speaker 2: and using that money to fund I stand up Special
Speaker 2: and then taking my stand up Special and distributing it
Speaker 2: through a AMC. And when we did that the big win.
Speaker 2: It just made me understand investment and return right or
Speaker 2: all out the return on your investment. We took seven
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty grand shot our comedy special, released it theatrically.
Speaker 2: It did like nine million theatrically. Theaters take their cut.
Speaker 2: After the theaters take their cut, we get back. I pie.
Speaker 2: I walked away with like close to two and a
Speaker 2: half three million dollars. Right, Oh shit, seven point fifty
Speaker 2: turned into three.
Speaker 3: That's investing. So like, how does that work?
Speaker 2: How do you grow businesses in a manner where you
Speaker 2: can invest and then ultimately see a return. Well, you
Speaker 2: got to have businesses, You have to have ideas. More importantly,
Speaker 2: you got to own shit. I started to understand the
Speaker 2: importance of owning shit. I realized that how many people
Speaker 2: that do the same thing that I do that don't
Speaker 2: own shit. There's no shot to any of them. But
Speaker 2: once we're done, right, once we once we say good night,
Speaker 2: and we're done doing the job that we've chosen to
Speaker 2: do forever, you got to look back. And when you
Speaker 2: look back, what do you see? Early on, I saw
Speaker 2: that studios had these amazing catalogs. These catalogs are so dope,
Speaker 2: they're great, And the value of these catalogs for studios
Speaker 2: is significant because it's the talent attached to them. Allow
Speaker 2: some studios to leverage that talent that IP to go
Speaker 2: out get more money so that they can go out
Speaker 2: shoot develop more IP of the same ultimately to build
Speaker 2: that catalog so that that catalog is a definition of
Speaker 2: representation of their value. Their value continues to grow and
Speaker 2: jump based off of star power and work for hires
Speaker 2: that are fined with receiving the dollar at the early
Speaker 2: stage but not being a part of it at the back.
Speaker 2: All right, So how do I fix that or be
Speaker 2: different in that regard? Well, I'm gonna own the one
Speaker 2: thing that I can at the early stage that I control.
Speaker 3: I own.
Speaker 2: I own my live entertainment business for myself. If I
Speaker 2: decide to do comedy, I own this entity of comedy.
Speaker 2: That entity shoots a comedy special, I'm gonna own it,
Speaker 2: and then I'm gonna license it, step repeat, Okay, Well
Speaker 2: I can do this with other IP. I got to
Speaker 2: create the companies Heartbeat, laugh out Loud, Okay, the studios
Speaker 2: are partners, but make sure that we own a piece
Speaker 2: of the company with the studio.
Speaker 3: Well, we can't do that.
Speaker 2: Why not have we ever asked? Have we ever asked
Speaker 2: for an unconventional deal. If we do ask for that
Speaker 2: unconventional deal, let's see what the return is. Let's see
Speaker 2: if they jump up and say okay, because you're a
Speaker 2: good partner. We actually had some good partnerships in the
Speaker 2: early stages that weren't afraid to take those jumps. Lionsgate
Speaker 2: was a great partner with laugh out Loud. We did
Speaker 2: great business. Lionsgate then allowed me to buy lef out
Speaker 2: Loud back and full when they didn't want it, I
Speaker 2: took laugh out Loud merged it with Heartbeat.
Speaker 3: All right, I got one big entity. Now wow, So
Speaker 3: now let me.
Speaker 2: Start to push things under the machine. I want to
Speaker 2: push and shovel anything I do under the machine. It
Speaker 2: all has to come through Heartbeat, and through that, Let's
Speaker 2: see how much I can own versus what I can so. Now,
Speaker 2: any deal, any unconventional deal, it has to come through
Speaker 2: my pipeline and the relationships of others. Now, respect the pipeline.
Speaker 2: So let me hire the people. Let me get the
Speaker 2: right team, right execs, right presidents, right coos, CFOs, heads
Speaker 2: of SVP's EPs. Well, now I got the money to
Speaker 2: pay them, because I'm taking the money from all his
Speaker 2: lives entertainment, and I'm just going to bring it over here.
Speaker 2: So until I get a return, I'm a funding machine,
Speaker 2: because that's an investment. I'm investing in this personnel, I'm
Speaker 2: investing in these works for hire. I'm investing in the
Speaker 2: idea of this company.
Speaker 1: When you were in these comedy clubs, did you ever
Speaker 1: think stand up comedy would lead you to these opportunities
Speaker 1: that have created all these other companies and got you
Speaker 1: at a network of four hundred and fifty million dollars.
Speaker 2: No, but that's the fucked up part, right like you,
Speaker 2: stand up comedy is the gateway into everything, and entertainment,
Speaker 2: entertainment in general, is the gateway into everything. And you
Speaker 2: don't have to do it right. You don't have to
Speaker 2: knock it out the park and fucking walk away with
Speaker 2: the biggest bang, with the biggest win. The closer you
Speaker 2: get is best and better for the people that are
Speaker 2: gonna come and do the same things behind you. So
Speaker 2: there were a lot of peoples that didn't necessarily do
Speaker 2: it right, but they cracked the door enough for me
Speaker 2: to go through that door and get a little further
Speaker 2: than what they did. Understand that the likeness that I
Speaker 2: had can bring the value of private equity partners or
Speaker 2: investors or companies or bandwidth. I bring value to different operations,
Speaker 2: so in return, you're giving me something for my value.
Speaker 2: So stand up comedy was the asset and still is
Speaker 2: the asset that acts as the gold nugget to fucking
Speaker 2: greatness because the meetings that you're able to obtain, the
Speaker 2: rooms that you're now able to be in, is all
Speaker 2: based off of Man, that got so funny and so cool.
Speaker 2: So don't downplay the fun an early thing. The early
Speaker 2: thing is the most valuable thing. Oh man, I want
Speaker 2: you to go see that guy. He was funny and shit.
Speaker 2: Then after the show it was nice. You gotta meet Doug.
Speaker 2: Doug works over at Amazon. He does X, Y and Z.
Speaker 2: I don't know if there's a partnership here, man, but
Speaker 2: you should meet him. A lot of people don't have time.
Speaker 2: I don't mean no fucking weird weird ass dude named Doug.
Speaker 2: I'm good. Well why not? Doug just so happens to
Speaker 2: be in front of content and creative. So meeting Doug,
Speaker 2: you done put yourself in a situation to get some
Speaker 2: knowledge and information, and you tell Doug I'm gonna come back,
Speaker 2: we should meet again, speak.
Speaker 1: To that more. Does your humility play a role in
Speaker 1: how far you've been able to go?
Speaker 2: Absolutely? I did not. I did not put myself on
Speaker 2: a on this crazy pedestal of expectation of how you
Speaker 2: should perceive me. Right, I think really having an even
Speaker 2: kill and understanding of like level set at all times.
Speaker 2: Like businesses, business partnerships are partnerships, opportunities opportunity And if
Speaker 2: you shake your hand, it's two sides to a handshake.
Speaker 2: So if you shake my hand and I'm shakier's back,
Speaker 2: that means that we should both get something from whatever
Speaker 2: we're deciding to do together. It shouldn't just be about me,
Speaker 2: so it shouldn't just be about you. And I think
Speaker 2: to date, my relationships with my studio partners, the representations
Speaker 2: of that, you know, I've never tried to kill them.
Speaker 2: I've never came in and front loaded any of my deals.
Speaker 2: And this is my partner's are universal to Netflix, Apple, Amazon,
Speaker 2: I mean I can go warners, I can go down
Speaker 2: the list of them all.
Speaker 3: What do you need for this.
Speaker 2: To be a win for you? All right? So I'm
Speaker 2: gonna do this on my side. I'll take this and
Speaker 2: I'll play with you on the back half. So in success,
Speaker 2: we all have success. And as a partner throughout the years, well,
Speaker 2: my work has been consistent because they value me as
Speaker 2: a guy that's coming to the table at all times
Speaker 2: with the best interests of this and myself. I've never
Speaker 2: been to give me all mine now and y'all figure
Speaker 2: it out. If you lose, I should lose too. And
Speaker 2: that's that's that's a real like, that's a real thought
Speaker 2: that I have in any in any aspect right. And
Speaker 2: the best partnerships that I have, like in Fabletics, Fathletics,
Speaker 2: and I decided to do business because I was with
Speaker 2: Nike and I get with great partners. We developed the
Speaker 2: sneakers together, we were doing great activations. I mean some
Speaker 2: of the best relationships came out of Nike of just
Speaker 2: personnel and understanding that business. I had an opportunity of
Speaker 2: Fathletics to help grow a brand and be responsible for
Speaker 2: men's They said, Kevin, we don't want you to come
Speaker 2: in and just like do it and just be a phase.
Speaker 2: We want you to develop it with us.
Speaker 3: We want you to be a real partner. We want
Speaker 3: you to be creative.
Speaker 2: So I had an opportunity to go and create a
Speaker 2: man's line with a brand that didn't have it yet,
Speaker 2: be responsible for elevating, amplifying. I'm the business now that
Speaker 2: didn't exist that does well, I'm gonna do that because
Speaker 2: if I do it right, all of my partnerships that
Speaker 2: I do Afterwards, I now got a resume with a receipt.
Speaker 2: A receipt says Kevin Hart can do this for a company,
Speaker 2: for a brand, for a entity. Kevin Hart did this.
Speaker 2: So I took that ran with that. And now when
Speaker 2: you talk about the other partnerships that have come to
Speaker 2: the table, well, here's what I am as an incubator,
Speaker 2: Here's what I am as an amplifier. And the words
Speaker 2: that I'm able to use now, I didn't know these
Speaker 2: fucking words.
Speaker 1: You know, how much do sales shoot up when you're
Speaker 1: putting juice skin coys and not in the fabletics?
Speaker 2: H you know, it's crazy? Like that was such a genuine,
Speaker 2: authentic moment. So they had just they had just sent me,
Speaker 2: uh like we got we we have new product and
Speaker 2: always get stuff first. And Kyle was joking around like
Speaker 2: the sleepover man, you know we gonna be late. I
Speaker 2: didn't know what to expect, so I still had the box.
Speaker 2: I had the box with me with the fact that
Speaker 2: lot of stuff. So just in genuine authentic moment during
Speaker 2: that loud stream, I'm like, I got you a gift, Kai,
Speaker 2: and I didn't have a gift.
Speaker 3: I just gave you one of my sweatsuits, me the
Speaker 3: same size.
Speaker 1: You want me to believe that you had Drew Sky size.
Speaker 2: That's the second one, me and Kai.
Speaker 3: That first one.
Speaker 2: I just gave Kai the gift like as a sweatsuit.
Speaker 2: So Kai, we put along. We're just playing around. It
Speaker 2: was my sweatsuit coming back. I go, oh shit, that's
Speaker 2: dope as fuck.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 2: It's dope because it's just good energy and it's a
Speaker 2: real reaction.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna come back.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna do the same thing because the Kai and
Speaker 2: the juice give it all. Well, it's really about me
Speaker 2: and powering them. I went to their world. I didn't
Speaker 2: change that world to fit me. I want nothing to
Speaker 2: do with your world.
Speaker 3: I want to fucking be.
Speaker 2: A part of your world by showing how dope you are.
Speaker 2: So I didn't come there as Kevin Hart to start.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about all my shit I got going on.
Speaker 2: I came in and said, well, what does it mean
Speaker 2: when you do all this shit?
Speaker 1: What we do?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 3: What?
Speaker 2: What I gotta do? Money train, hype train? What?
Speaker 1: What?
Speaker 2: The business has ignored the fact that these guys are
Speaker 2: the new business?
Speaker 1: What it fits you though? Because your brand is fun,
Speaker 1: his brand is fun. It's easy.
Speaker 2: It's an easy, seamless fit. But what I'm trying my
Speaker 2: best to do is show show the business, the studio business,
Speaker 2: that the opportunities for them that we should be thinking
Speaker 2: about exists where they're already succeeding. You.
Speaker 3: Don't try to break and create a new model.
Speaker 2: Try to figure out what they want to do and say, okay,
Speaker 2: well how can I help you? How going to be.
Speaker 3: Accessible for you and to you?
Speaker 2: So for Kyle Drewski just because of the love the
Speaker 2: sweatsuits and all this is funny. Well, I didn't ask
Speaker 2: Kyle what you make from this and how you get
Speaker 2: your money?
Speaker 3: I want none of it, dude.
Speaker 2: I liked it. I came and fucked with y'all. Did
Speaker 2: you have some success?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: More people came agree with your ship, Jusky. I love
Speaker 2: that people know how funny you are. Man, you too,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna fuck with y'all more, We're gonna figure it out.
Speaker 1: You was EP and the show for Juski before this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm trying to develop the Juice shovel Juski for
Speaker 2: a minute.
Speaker 3: Still are still are like Juicy.
Speaker 2: I think Jew is a star. I think Kai is
Speaker 2: a star. I think you know when you look at
Speaker 2: Mr Beese and what he's doing, like you're looking at
Speaker 2: people that are creative minds and have figured out another
Speaker 2: route to economic success. They have They have found a
Speaker 2: way to say I'm going here, and I'm going here.
Speaker 2: Mister Beaese's whole business is not just content but product commerce.
Speaker 3: Like, are you fucking kidding me?
Speaker 2: You're talking about a talent that has figured out how
Speaker 2: to bring commerce to his audience through a platform. That
Speaker 2: guy's doing the right. Guess what I'm gonna do. Guess
Speaker 2: what I'm gonna do. Hey Jimmy, I need to talk
Speaker 2: to you. I don't want to control. I want to
Speaker 2: know and I want to learn, but more poorly, I
Speaker 2: want to partner.
Speaker 3: How do we sit? How do we talk?
Speaker 2: Hey Kyle, Hey Juice, how do we sit? How do
Speaker 2: we talk? Collaboration is the best form of success. You
Speaker 2: can't collaborate. It's a it's a real lonely world, man,
Speaker 2: And that whole fathletics thing and just me doing started
Speaker 2: off as just a fucking real, easy, genuine thing because
Speaker 2: I had it juice skin Kai came back.
Speaker 3: Hey man, we're going to throw these on again.
Speaker 2: Got you?
Speaker 3: keV is love. It's nothing forced.
Speaker 2: It was a it was a thing that worked because
Speaker 2: of the authenticity and the brand.
Speaker 3: Of course was happy.
Speaker 2: But as a guy that controls the brand and operates
Speaker 2: on this behalf, people associate me with the product seamlessly,
Speaker 2: so it's never forced.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to I want to talk to you
Speaker 1: about fatherhood. Right as a father, I'm sure your family
Speaker 1: motivates you to keep working and do more, but you
Speaker 1: also want to prioritize being present. So how often do
Speaker 1: you face the conflict of choosing between work and family
Speaker 1: and how do you maintain the balance?
Speaker 2: I got a lot better. I've got a lot better, man.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: I think the engine in the early stages is an
Speaker 2: engine dedicated to I'm doing all this so that they
Speaker 2: don't have to, right Like, I'm thousand miles per hour
Speaker 2: because I want to have this or that they can
Speaker 2: have this or that we can do this. But then
Speaker 2: you start to realize that that time can't get that
Speaker 2: time back, and you start to miss real shit, real
Speaker 2: shit the matters. Kids get older, they drop some shit
Speaker 2: on you about what they wish you were at that
Speaker 2: you wasn't, but it's okay, and you want to make
Speaker 2: those changes. So I think because I've had such an
Speaker 2: open relationship with my kids, a comfortable one where we
Speaker 2: can talk and be transparent, I've been able to adjust
Speaker 2: in real time and make things better. So I think
Speaker 2: today I'm way more present than what I was in
Speaker 2: two thousand and nine, two thousand and eight, twenty twelve.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm a good dad, Like I'm I'm, I'm there,
Speaker 2: and I make sure I'm there cause you I'm breaking
Speaker 2: the ground in what fatherhood looks like from my family,
Speaker 2: like me and my brother, our dad wasn't theirs, so
Speaker 2: it was it was cool, but it was hit and
Speaker 2: miss in and out. So me and my brother prioritize
Speaker 2: how active we are with those kids, like it takes
Speaker 2: the village. Like literally, my brother is the best asset
Speaker 2: that I have outside of my wife. Like, hey man,
Speaker 2: I gotta go on a road and I'm gonna be
Speaker 2: going for set time.
Speaker 3: Go and make sure the kids are good.
Speaker 2: Pop in with them for like four days, give them
Speaker 2: some activities, some stuff to do. I know they got classes,
Speaker 2: blah blah blah. You're you're. We have a very nice
Speaker 2: rapport of how we operate, and the kids love it.
Speaker 2: They they see the efforts. They respect it. I think
Speaker 2: they also see how I kill myself to get back
Speaker 2: to them, you know what I mean, Like I'm I'm
Speaker 2: out on tour buses, I'm back and forth, back and forth,
Speaker 2: laying two days. All right, I leave one day, come
Speaker 2: back to night. Like it's it's a lot, but it's
Speaker 2: worth it.
Speaker 1: What is what is losing? Both your parents taught you
Speaker 1: about parently, it's very.
Speaker 2: Important to to understand, like this ship is a gift.
Speaker 2: This this this game of life is a luxury and
Speaker 2: you you don't have to be a part of that
Speaker 2: luxury loan.
Speaker 3: Scary thing about death is the next day.
Speaker 2: Life still goes on right, Like you lose people that
Speaker 2: you love, but the next day you still have to operate.
Speaker 2: You still have to figure out this thing. You still
Speaker 2: have to pay the bill, you still have to do
Speaker 2: the work. You still have to figure out. You still
Speaker 2: have to raise the kids. You still have to like
Speaker 2: it doesn't stop because of your moment of mourn. So
Speaker 2: what I what I definitely have been an example of
Speaker 2: is strength. You know, when my mom and my dad passed,
Speaker 2: I think my kids seeing how I handled both of
Speaker 2: it from a realistic standpoint, is it's something that was
Speaker 2: a value to them, right because rather than feeling the
Speaker 2: death at the saddest level, I celebrated the life at
Speaker 2: the highest and that was a I think that was
Speaker 2: a thing that that they both kind of my two
Speaker 2: older kids, my younger ones were a little my dad
Speaker 2: passed away, it was sad, but my two older ones
Speaker 2: kind of like understood my way of thinking and my
Speaker 2: reason for why. And you know, I was like, It's
Speaker 2: okay to be sad, but I'm making a conscious choice
Speaker 2: in this moment to just think about the celebration, the
Speaker 2: life that they lived, what they did, the great things,
Speaker 2: And it was more about the storytelling on that side
Speaker 2: of it than it was about the crime.
Speaker 1: How did you have to adjust your last stand up?
Speaker 1: Because I told you I saw you with the garden
Speaker 1: when you it was what became reality check, And I
Speaker 1: told you, I feel like that was your best at right,
Speaker 1: and you had a lot of you know material in
Speaker 1: there about your father being sick. But by the time
Speaker 1: the special came out, passed had passed. So how did
Speaker 1: you have to adjust?
Speaker 2: I mean I went your you put it in the
Speaker 2: past tense, right, like, you know, when my dad was
Speaker 2: I think one of the biggest memories was my dad
Speaker 2: would or you know, I mean, it's crazy that my
Speaker 2: dad's not here because these thoughts like that I'm having
Speaker 2: are all based from my dad. Like everything. I kind
Speaker 2: of just put it in in the past moment and
Speaker 2: the set became more of a dedication to my father
Speaker 2: than than what it was in the in the beginning stages.
Speaker 2: But my dad passed away in the middle of that tour,
Speaker 2: know that tour, so I had to finish that set. Actually,
Speaker 2: you know, it's crazy. Where were we at he just
Speaker 2: passed away? He had just passed away. We were doing
Speaker 2: the Uh I was doing the set when I'm thinking
Speaker 2: about it, like, I'm like, yeah, my dad, and it
Speaker 2: hit me on stage. Damn, that's the first time I
Speaker 2: felt that, Okay, that's it's in there. At some point
Speaker 2: it's gonna come out. Like I've just told you. My
Speaker 2: way of handling it was celebrating the life or whatever.
Speaker 2: And during that set, that's why I felt like a
Speaker 2: little I felt the thing, that emotional thing and talking
Speaker 2: about him as if he were still here and knowing
Speaker 2: that he wasn't. And at the end of that show,
Speaker 2: I told the audience my dad passed away. Wow. And
Speaker 2: that's where it hit me.
Speaker 1: I little.
Speaker 2: I had to get off stage at I mean, grief
Speaker 2: is okay. And I'm not saying you don't have it
Speaker 2: when you shouldn't have it. I'm saying it hit me
Speaker 2: in that moment. And to date, I don't think that
Speaker 2: I've I still probably haven't grieved correctly over my mom
Speaker 2: like I think I I accepted it. I knew what
Speaker 2: it was because I knew it was coming. But I've
Speaker 2: never had like a thing like a spiral fallout of thing.
Speaker 1: You know, they say staying busy is a response to trauma.
Speaker 1: So you stay busy so you don't have to the
Speaker 1: the boy dealing with what you probably should be dealing with.
Speaker 2: So that's kids, I'm probably dealing with a lot.
Speaker 1: Yeah I don't know that.
Speaker 2: Yeah I'm not going to fight that because I don't
Speaker 2: know that. But if there was something to deal with,
Speaker 2: it could step from that. But I'm also addicted to work,
Speaker 2: like that's a work as a drug for me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I remember you tweeting back in twenty thirteen, you said,
Speaker 1: if you are afraid of failure, you don't deserve to
Speaker 1: be successful. I think he was quoting Charles Barkley or somebody.
Speaker 1: When I hear you say you're addicted to work, and
Speaker 1: we watch it, we watch you, Are you afraid to fail?
Speaker 2: No? No, because I fail all the time.
Speaker 3: But at this point, I mean, what what is failure?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: Like, right now I can go belly up the money,
Speaker 2: the money could go away whatever, Like I'm never not
Speaker 2: going to be okay.
Speaker 3: I know how to get to the money.
Speaker 2: My confidence on my ability to get to the money, I'm.
Speaker 3: Going to be okay.
Speaker 2: Like there's like in the beginning stages of life, the hood,
Speaker 2: et cetera, like there's a there's a real fear of uh,
Speaker 2: I don't know where I ain't gonna be able to
Speaker 2: fuck you, I don't know, Like there's there's a real
Speaker 2: fear there because you're at the bottom right when you've
Speaker 2: been when you've been to the top, And is it
Speaker 2: really a fair at that point, like, Okay, you're saying
Speaker 2: I had it all and I lost it, so now
Speaker 2: my journey is getting some of it back.
Speaker 3: Like, it's not a fear, that's it's a moment.
Speaker 2: And in business and entrepreneurship, things don't always go the
Speaker 2: way you want. So if an investment didn't work and
Speaker 2: I over committed, or if this went belly up and
Speaker 2: I didn't have like, it's that stuff is very much possible.
Speaker 2: I think for me, the lack of success or moment
Speaker 2: where unsuccess like presents itself, that's dope because there's so
Speaker 2: much information in that. There's so much information you gained
Speaker 2: from the thing that didn't work, the thing that flopped,
Speaker 2: the thing that fucking was supposed to Like, there's information
Speaker 2: value in that. So it's about how you It's about
Speaker 2: how you take it. I don't. I don't take it.
Speaker 2: I don't take it with it like a negative grain
Speaker 2: of salt. I'm I'm pretty well with receiving that. I
Speaker 2: just think I need to be committed to something me
Speaker 2: to make my life feel like it has a driving
Speaker 2: source of energy that won't die.
Speaker 1: Like I like this because it keeps you from being petty.
Speaker 1: But you're still a cancer KIV. Yeah, I'm a cancer
Speaker 1: is a cancer. We're all busy people. We still find
Speaker 1: he's different. If you find a little time to be
Speaker 1: petty with the people that throw shots, that you different.
Speaker 1: You don't never what's the most pettiest thing you've thought
Speaker 1: about doing.
Speaker 2: I've done it, just people would never know, like like
Speaker 2: people would never know it like I don't. It's like,
Speaker 2: you know, people like the public here, Okay, this is
Speaker 2: something I said. I was talking to somebody man, And
Speaker 2: you know, it's really not hard if you have if
Speaker 2: you have real problems with people, and your problems are
Speaker 2: like serious, it's not hard to ever get to a
Speaker 2: person and really like address the problem.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: The problems that people have of me, they aren't my problems.
Speaker 2: So the idea of being petty or going back and forth,
Speaker 2: it's so beneath me because I don't have the problem,
Speaker 2: and I feel like if I engage, it makes it
Speaker 2: look like I got a problem. I don't.
Speaker 1: All Well, things get taken out of context too, though,
Speaker 1: because even when you think about Cat Williams on Club Sha,
Speaker 1: a lot of people thought you threw shots at him first,
Speaker 1: and he was replying.
Speaker 2: Back there's I think there's probably one moment where I've
Speaker 2: actually talked about Kat publicly, and this was when Timmy
Speaker 2: and this was like we were we were promoting night
Speaker 2: School and Tiffany was affected by some of the things
Speaker 2: he said, and it was more of a like support
Speaker 2: for her in that moment and like some shots at him.
Speaker 1: Do you regret that?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I shouldn't even God, I should never address him
Speaker 2: at all. I don't have to, Like why what will
Speaker 2: it do for me? What will I gain?
Speaker 3: There's no gain.
Speaker 2: So I look at everything from a business and economic standpoint,
Speaker 2: like if I'm investing in something, well, what is my return?
Speaker 2: What's the return on my investment? What's the return on
Speaker 2: my time? Was the return on my energy? Was the
Speaker 2: return on my investment? So that investment of self words
Speaker 2: dialogue brings me what what? What? What? And if I
Speaker 2: can't answer that question, or if people around me can't
Speaker 2: answer that question, then it doesn't get an in an
Speaker 2: inklet of energy. So it has nothing to do with
Speaker 2: people feeling like they're above, people feeling like they're better. Oh,
Speaker 2: it has to do with a strong understanding of you
Speaker 2: and like yourself level of awareness, like I'm i can
Speaker 2: check all these boxes, but to some they want to
Speaker 2: take it or misconstrued or twist it as it's not.
Speaker 2: It's not my problem, it doesn't become my problem.
Speaker 1: Is that a part of acting my age, acting my
Speaker 1: agees is so dope and you can have I know
Speaker 1: you said fifteen, you have more of you want you
Speaker 1: can do'n like twenty thirty.
Speaker 2: I want make sure you get your shit.
Speaker 3: Oh great, I'll say.
Speaker 2: The better side of acting my age and the understanding
Speaker 2: of what this special is is like, it's so dope
Speaker 2: to understand what the idea of old age is. It
Speaker 2: should be older, older, should be wiser, it should mean
Speaker 2: like fucking wisdom. It's life lived. The older you get
Speaker 2: your representation of life lived. And if you're lucky enough
Speaker 2: to make it to fifty sixty seventy, that means you
Speaker 2: were one of the few fortunate people and not only
Speaker 2: made it to the other side of life, but got
Speaker 2: to see other lives make it there as well. Grandkids, kids,
Speaker 2: have kids, homes, families, whatever it is, neighborhoods change, fucking
Speaker 2: the inclusion of the merge between. If you're a person
Speaker 2: that got to witness and was around and I remember
Speaker 2: when man, what's better? I just worked with Samuel Jackson
Speaker 2: and dopes thinking about Samuel Jackson when we do a
Speaker 2: fight night as every day, Sam had a story about
Speaker 2: the shit that happened during that time because he was there.
Speaker 2: He was there. Oh man, right here, y'all see this
Speaker 2: right here. This wasn't this spot. This used to be
Speaker 2: raise and what they would do here? You just sitting
Speaker 2: listen the joy that Sam found and telling us the
Speaker 2: moments of life that he lived that none of us
Speaker 2: could fucking relate to because.
Speaker 3: None of us were around.
Speaker 2: Sam was the one lucky, the one lucky individual from
Speaker 2: this time that can still talk about it. Some other
Speaker 2: people might not be here, other friends from that time
Speaker 2: may be there, may not. But he was so happy
Speaker 2: at telling the stories. That's joy. That's fucking great. So
Speaker 2: the age forty five, I'm embracing the concept of getting
Speaker 2: older and being the thing that you're becoming instead of
Speaker 2: running away from it. Everybody's running this way. Everybody's trying
Speaker 2: to get younger, pulling the skin back and taking this
Speaker 2: all for doing that.
Speaker 1: But what does aging look like in a realm where
Speaker 1: the goal is to remain relevant? That's why everybody's doing
Speaker 1: this skin stuff, the tucks and whatever else the Olympic.
Speaker 2: Like I don't I don't know what other people are
Speaker 2: going through, So I would never speak on.
Speaker 3: Another person's behalf. I would say that.
Speaker 2: If more, if we saw more people celebrate the cool
Speaker 2: shit about ages ages, I think that aging would be
Speaker 2: highlighted differently, right, I think the conversations attached to it
Speaker 2: or one side that you hear, we only hear one
Speaker 2: side of it. And when you're talking about saying relevant,
Speaker 2: it's it's it's all subjective. You just said you had
Speaker 2: L L L here.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: Elle's dropping the album been doing it for forty years.
Speaker 2: Is he dropping the album to be relevant or is
Speaker 2: he dropping an album because he's like, hey man, I'm
Speaker 2: mis rapping. I'm about to just rap. Yeah, I want
Speaker 2: to rap and just rap. Show my fuckers I still
Speaker 2: can rap.
Speaker 1: Oh, Lebron Lebron twenty one years in?
Speaker 2: Is he playing because he's trying to be still relevant?
Speaker 2: Or does he just love the game of basketball? Like what,
Speaker 2: it's subjective as as to how you want to view it,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean? Like, there was a there
Speaker 2: was a time where before all the ship had happened,
Speaker 2: when I was in Uh, I was in Montreal and
Speaker 2: Bill Cosby was performing, sitting on the stool performance. It's like,
Speaker 2: you still love comedy, granted, like I said, it's before
Speaker 2: all the shit. It's like if you love something and
Speaker 2: you just want.
Speaker 4: To be old and do the thing you love cool,
Speaker 4: It's I think it's subjective as to how you view it,
Speaker 4: and I think you can find so much joy and
Speaker 4: happy and being what you are, doing what you love
Speaker 4: and getting older while doing it and embracing the younger
Speaker 4: environment of people that are doing it.
Speaker 2: Well, absolutely embracing the younger generation. Like I have nothing
Speaker 2: but love for this dope ass new wave of comedic
Speaker 2: talent that we're witnessing today.
Speaker 3: Like there's no competition.
Speaker 2: You home to me, like there's no competition, Like when
Speaker 2: when I see the Drew Skis, the KUIs, the the
Speaker 2: Desi Banks, the b Simons, the just hilarious, uh, the
Speaker 2: pretty v fuck Man, Carlos eighty five, all these guys
Speaker 2: and there's so many to name. Matt Rife, who.
Speaker 3: I just talked about as well.
Speaker 2: I mean, I can I can go down a crazy list. Uh,
Speaker 2: Mulaney who's doing great, Ryan Davis another funny one like
Speaker 2: there's so many funny people out out there, and the
Speaker 2: world of stand up comedy has gotten so big Andrew crushing.
Speaker 2: It's dope as fuck to watch people crush. It's dope
Speaker 2: as fuck to watch people find success, and guess what,
Speaker 2: it does nothing to mine.
Speaker 3: It doesn't hinder.
Speaker 2: My level of success in any way, shape or form.
Speaker 2: And I think like people have a hard time realizing that.
Speaker 2: Right you don't ever see me Chris and Dave fight.
Speaker 2: Let's see his are you right? Me and Chris and
Speaker 2: Dave are actually so fucking close. Chris wal call me
Speaker 2: and go, keV you going on tour and I'll go, ah,
Speaker 2: not yet. He's like, don't lie, bitch, because I'm about
Speaker 2: to put these dates up and don't you announce it? And
Speaker 2: then we know, Chris, I would never. Okay, I got you,
Speaker 2: see what you're saying. Chris will always make sure it's this, Dave,
Speaker 2: what you're doing. I'm working on some shit. I ain't
Speaker 2: got nothing yet, but I will. All right, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: go up around this time. We make sure we communicate,
Speaker 2: We we coexist because we're not against one another, like
Speaker 2: we want to see each other flourish.
Speaker 1: That's why it should be people at the topic, collaborating,
Speaker 1: people at the bottom of compete.
Speaker 2: It's and by the way, when we go and we're
Speaker 2: down here with the younger generation, it should be nothing
Speaker 2: but embracing.
Speaker 1: You said you wanted Kay to play you in a movie. Ye,
Speaker 1: Are you were any of your son's pissed off about that? No?
Speaker 2: No, although my son, my son is in uh this
Speaker 2: next fathletic spot that it did, he's showing his acting chops.
Speaker 2: I'm put him in a fat letic spot. I told
Speaker 2: Kyle that because everybody says like Ky and I have
Speaker 2: the same energy, and you know, Kyle wants to Kyle
Speaker 2: wants to act. He's saying like, at some point he
Speaker 2: wants to get into it. And I love that. I
Speaker 2: love that he's already looking at bigger pictures. I love
Speaker 2: that he's making his money. I love that he has
Speaker 2: his thing, and you know, I'm gonna figure out ways
Speaker 2: to do that thing with him. And you know, even
Speaker 2: even when I talk about comics, right like the Plastic coupleoys,
Speaker 2: when I talk about Spank, I talk about Naim, I
Speaker 2: want to talk about Joey, Like these guys have been
Speaker 2: headlining for a long time and being established in comedy.
Speaker 2: That's a very hard thing. It's a very hard thing
Speaker 2: to be established in stand up comedy like this is
Speaker 2: you're talking about uh a contractor like mentality at work.
Speaker 2: It's you know, you gotta eat what you killed. So
Speaker 2: without audiences, you got no got no revenue. You got
Speaker 2: to figure out where to go and where to hustle
Speaker 2: up to get the money. We're talking about a bunch
Speaker 2: of people who have figured it out. I applauded that
Speaker 2: at the highest level.
Speaker 1: Speaking of eating right, it's fight night. Was the strange
Speaker 1: doing that sex scene with Trog and was baby Boy
Speaker 1: in any inspiration behind it? No, it was what I
Speaker 1: did you study Tyres and baby Boy when he did that?
Speaker 2: No, they really they really didn't sex scene. They really
Speaker 2: like Tyrense and t really did a sex scene. Like
Speaker 2: they had a lot of ship to do in that scene.
Speaker 2: The story of that scene told so much. You had
Speaker 2: flashbacks that she had to go through. It was a lot.
Speaker 3: There was a lot that went into that. I mean,
Speaker 3: tease my sister.
Speaker 2: So I minimalized it to where you know, we don't
Speaker 2: we don't have to get that active and we don't
Speaker 2: have to do that much and I think you know.
Speaker 2: And in any project, it's all about the story that
Speaker 2: you're trying to tell. And if men Taraji had to
Speaker 2: tell a different side of a story for the purpose
Speaker 2: of the the IP and and to set up the
Speaker 2: future thing that's gonna happen, Okay, yeah, you can go there.
Speaker 2: But the relationship between Viv and Chicken Man is one
Speaker 2: of her being this down ass chick and has rolled
Speaker 2: with him and will ride with him for anything. Our
Speaker 2: sexual relationship isn't the highlight. It isn't stronger than you
Speaker 2: saying I got him and I know he got me.
Speaker 2: So how do we how do we make sure we
Speaker 2: told that line?
Speaker 3: And that's also within.
Speaker 2: The creative I haven't had to do anything crazy like
Speaker 2: that and any project that I've done to date, And
Speaker 2: if you don't have to, you don't. You don't need to,
Speaker 2: right It's like, once again, I'm the creator. I'm on
Speaker 2: the side with the writers and the stuff, and they.
Speaker 3: Do have something in there. If they're seeing keV this.
Speaker 2: When you got to eat eat ass, why you don't
Speaker 2: have to Anyways?
Speaker 1: I love the Chicken Man character. Is it fair to
Speaker 1: label the Chicken Man character a bad guy? Or is
Speaker 1: he just a product of his environment.
Speaker 2: He's not only a product of his environment. He's a
Speaker 2: he's a definition of a real entrepreneur. And sometimes as
Speaker 2: an entrepreneur, your vision as a visionary can't be seen
Speaker 2: by everybody is everybody doesn't do what you do. So
Speaker 2: Chicken Man can be seen as a guy that makes
Speaker 2: bad decisions. But the people that are part of all
Speaker 2: of his decisions know it's hard. They know they know
Speaker 2: his won they know it's real, his real initiative and
Speaker 2: what he's willing to do to get there, and why
Speaker 2: some can be a part of it and some can't,
Speaker 2: And why some can know this and some can't. Like
Speaker 2: if you know him, you're gonna love him.
Speaker 3: If you don't know me.
Speaker 2: You hear about him, you're intrigued to know what it
Speaker 2: is and why he's been Like, I found a lot
Speaker 2: of similarities with Chicken Man, which is why I wanted
Speaker 2: to do it.
Speaker 3: The road to greatness is the road that everybody can't
Speaker 3: be on.
Speaker 2: And a lot of people got left behind on Chicken
Speaker 2: Man's road, and those that fucking stayed and made it
Speaker 2: through the storm, they all saw the value at the
Speaker 2: end of it.
Speaker 1: Did Terrence, how will try to explain any of his
Speaker 1: math to you.
Speaker 2: I told Terrence, I love them, but I'm not I'm
Speaker 2: not your customer. I love it.
Speaker 3: I love terror.
Speaker 2: I think there's one of the most talented people to
Speaker 2: ever goddamn touch that acting stage like he is a
Speaker 2: bad mother when it comes to action and cut Terrence
Speaker 2: will do whatever it is that you needed to be done.
Speaker 1: Uh stand character. Yeah, we know why he was wearing.
Speaker 2: To win everybody else. Yeah, but you know when he
Speaker 2: when he starts to talk about the stuff, he's really
Speaker 2: into that ship like that's his that's his ship. But
Speaker 2: you have to You just gotta be honest with people
Speaker 2: right out the gate. And I'm I'm not just customer.
Speaker 2: I'm not going to retain this.
Speaker 1: So what are you say. I'm not trying to tell
Speaker 1: you nothing. I'm just trying to explain it.
Speaker 2: He said, Kevin, you're still gonna listen. I just had
Speaker 2: to sit there and then when he got done, I
Speaker 2: was like, yeah, I see what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Last question, do you think you were born already destined
Speaker 1: to be who you are today or was this version
Speaker 1: of you molded and crafted along this amazing journey.
Speaker 2: You molded crafted?
Speaker 3: I would love to to.
Speaker 2: Sit the fairy tale and.
Speaker 3: Do the traditional live absolutely Scott's I think.
Speaker 2: I think I'm beyond blessed to have the support and
Speaker 2: family that I had in coming up, the mother that
Speaker 2: I had, and the support came from like me not knowing.
Speaker 2: A lot of people, a lot of people come down
Speaker 2: on that younger child that don't know. I don't know, man,
Speaker 2: school ain't for me.
Speaker 1: What you gonna do.
Speaker 2: A lot of people call it that guy or that
Speaker 2: girl loser, or you know, you ain't doing it right.
Speaker 2: You ain't taking life serious, you ain't thinking everybody has.
Speaker 2: Everybody has a different legenda when it comes to time
Speaker 2: and when things click versus when they don't. If you
Speaker 2: take my mom's level of support away from me not knowing,
Speaker 2: I would have never discovered the thing that I fell
Speaker 2: in love with. Like I didn't go to school with
Speaker 2: the purposely say I'm stopping because I'm about to start comedy.
Speaker 2: I discovered it. It was it was an accident, it
Speaker 2: wasn't on purpose. In conversation, care you should do it,
Speaker 2: should try to amate you to night. Okay, the discovery
Speaker 2: I fell in love with the new idea of the
Speaker 2: thing that I could do I love this thing. I
Speaker 2: love this feeling. Now that I'm excited, all of the
Speaker 2: energy and effort that I have it can go into
Speaker 2: something that I actually am excited about. Without that excitement,
Speaker 2: without that light bulb, A lot of people struggle with
Speaker 2: the first step. It wasn't until I got my light bulb.
Speaker 2: I hit the ground running. And then after that and
Speaker 2: seeing your result of hard work pay off, well, you
Speaker 2: attach that same effort and energy because you know what
Speaker 2: it feels like to put one hundred percent into something
Speaker 2: and then see it work. So what I am and
Speaker 2: who I am today and where I'm at absolutely not.
Speaker 2: But now that I am here, I do feel like
Speaker 2: it's my job to be as best of an example
Speaker 2: as I can be for the next generation to do
Speaker 2: more and surpass right.
Speaker 1: Like.
Speaker 3: This shouldn't be it for who's to.
Speaker 2: Come and what's to come next. I'm just a version
Speaker 2: of new I was able to do. Like, here's what
Speaker 2: I was able to do. But when I'm fucking fifty five,
Speaker 2: god willing in sixty, I would love to see the
Speaker 2: next version in position to do more or prepared to
Speaker 2: do more.
Speaker 1: Well, you're making it easier for the next generation.
Speaker 3: Kevi, I appreciate you man.
Speaker 1: Keep growing my brother.
Speaker 3: Great talk, great great dialogue.
Speaker 1: Yea