WEBVTT - VAN LATHAN - Angola State Grilled Cheese Part 1 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:03.560 Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke. 0:00:03.680 --> 0:00:06.600 We are not in La today. We are over here 0:00:06.640 --> 0:00:11.360 at eighty five South Studios with the special guests of 0:00:11.440 --> 0:00:14.920 the day. Van Lengthen is in the building. You guys 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:21.000 may know him as podcaster, Academy Award winning executive producer. 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:25.799 You know, but I like to acknowledge you as the 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:28.600 man that stood up to Kanye West in the TMZ 0:00:28.840 --> 0:00:32.320 office commissioner of the Commissioner. And we're gonna leave the 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:37.280 Commissioner of the BBI off. But Van, before we get 0:00:37.280 --> 0:00:40.480 into where you're at today, I want you to take 0:00:40.520 --> 0:00:42.920 me back to where you were when you were broke. 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:46.560 What dish you're gonna have cook for us to eat today? 0:00:47.560 --> 0:01:06.880 So you can start with that, eat my throat. 0:01:12.200 --> 0:01:15.840 So I get out of college around I would say 0:01:16.440 --> 0:01:18.800 two thousand and three, two thousand and three, I get 0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:22.240 out of college, and there's this like transitional period in 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:28.920 my life because I was always interested in people's stories, 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:34.160 and everybody's story seems so linear. Every story seems linear 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:38.440 when you're at the end of it. Everybody has a 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:41.040 moment that something happened for them. Everybody has a moment 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:43.000 that they realize something, But when you're in the middle 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:45.240 of it, you don't know. You'll know when it's going 0:01:45.319 --> 0:01:46.600 to happen for you, you'll know how it's going to 0:01:46.640 --> 0:01:49.680 happen for you. Certain people have more certainty than other 0:01:49.720 --> 0:01:52.360 people do. But all you can do is work and try. 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:54.400 And I get to this point, and it's this weird, 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:58.280 odd point to where I'm like, nothing that I thought 0:01:59.280 --> 0:02:02.200 was going to happen and or no way that I 0:02:02.240 --> 0:02:04.720 wanted to go is the way that I wanted to go. 0:02:05.560 --> 0:02:09.160 So you're graduated, we're taking back to when you graduated. 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:12.400 Right, And so I'm working at best Buy And this 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:14.320 is the same time that The College Dropout has come 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:16.760 out around that same time Conye's first album, and he's 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:21.360 talking about great album. He's talking about disillusioned high school 0:02:21.440 --> 0:02:25.240 graduates who now have to realize that they're not going 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:27.760 to conquer the world, that what they're going to do 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:35.200 is enter into the American workforce and they're going to 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:37.400 be a part of something, and everything that they did 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:40.280 it's not just not as meaningful as they thought it 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:44.000 was going to be. In a way, it's spiritually debilitating. 0:02:44.600 --> 0:02:48.120 And the song is the whole album is about breaking 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:52.720 free of that. Really it's about saying, hey, like I 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:57.000 dropped out, but I dropped out. I took a path 0:02:57.120 --> 0:03:03.160 that is, let's admire, but in a way drowned upon 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:07.480 in order to be more alive, Like I'm not killing myself, 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:08.840 and so I'm to the point to where I'm like 0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:11.080 having an existential crisis. I'm like, yo, I'm killing myself. 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:13.200 It's not it's not working. And so many things happen 0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:16.359 within this two year period. My parents divorced. My mom 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:21.000 leaves the house, and that was very transformative for me, because, 0:03:21.080 --> 0:03:25.239 like when a woman leaves a home right away, everything 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:27.400 gets less. 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:31.480 What you were you were talking about after college though? 0:03:31.480 --> 0:03:32.959 Were you living at home with your parents? 0:03:33.000 --> 0:03:33.360 Sure? 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:35.240 Oh you were. During college. 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:37.280 I went to Southern University and Van Ruge had gone 0:03:37.320 --> 0:03:40.360 away to school, and then I came back and I 0:03:40.360 --> 0:03:42.600 went to Southern University because I wanted to be around 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:44.040 all of my friends. So I was still living at home. 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:48.240 The school was about ten minutes away from where we lived. 0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:50.600 Okay, So how old were you when your parents. 0:03:50.440 --> 0:03:52.680 Were like twenty two or twenty three. 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:54.160 And so you actually got to see it. 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:55.920 I got to see it, right, I got to see 0:03:55.920 --> 0:03:58.600 it there's two people divorcing and not mommy and daddy divorcing. 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:00.040 And I also got to see, just. 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:02.080 What do you mean they're not mommy and daddy divorcing. 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:05.000 It wasn't mommy and daddy divorcing when you're ten and 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:07.960 your parents break up, you're thirteen, fourteen, Mommy and daddy 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:11.600 are divorcing. In my life, Crystal and Terry got a 0:04:11.640 --> 0:04:15.680 divorce because I had enough of a frame of mind, 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:17.720 or a frame of reference, should I say, for these 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:19.360 people to know who they kind of really were at 0:04:19.360 --> 0:04:22.720 that point. So I knew the anger that my father had, 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:26.599 I knew the paranoia that my mother had. I knew 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:30.280 that these were two people that were on diverging spiritual 0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:34.880 growth the journey, should I say, and that they were 0:04:34.920 --> 0:04:38.280 no longer compatible, and like what that means, Like when 0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:39.840 you're a kid, it's like, oh, you guys gonna get 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:41.359 split up? Okay, who am I going to live with? 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:43.400 It's not the concern for me. The concern for me 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:46.200 is do these people still get to live the version 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:48.039 of their life that they want to live now that 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:50.720 they're no longer together? And so when I saw that, 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:52.920 you know, my mom, I was actually happy for them 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:55.240 that they had made the decision. I was happy for 0:04:55.320 --> 0:04:57.320 them that my mother I thought, Okay, this is a 0:04:57.320 --> 0:05:01.000 new life for her. She had felt beaten down by 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:03.560 a lot of things emotionally, she had felt unsupported by 0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:06.039 a lot of things emotionally, and obviously, with my father 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:07.919 doing some of the things that he was doing, he 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:10.080 must have been unhappy too. So maybe this is a 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:12.400 new life for them. I'm young enough to think at 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:16.560 that point that severing that type of relationship in some 0:05:16.600 --> 0:05:19.040 way could be a positive for those two people as 0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:20.880 much as they loved each other, and loved each other 0:05:21.000 --> 0:05:24.479 until my father passed away. But immediately she left the 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:27.400 house and it was two niggas living in the house 0:05:27.440 --> 0:05:30.120 that didn't know how to do shit, Like the house 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:34.640 just became It's like, it's just like, I remember. 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:37.400 Were you young, the youngest to or something? Who are 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:39.159 you the youngest in your family? Because you said it 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:39.560 was just the. 0:05:39.520 --> 0:05:41.640 Two, Yeah I was. I was the youngest in the family. 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:43.680 I was the only one still around. My sister had gone. 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:46.760 You know, my dad had other kids, but they were gone. 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:48.560 But like, so it's just me and him living. 0:05:48.760 --> 0:05:51.039 Your dad had other kids, Yeah, what do. 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:53.480 You mean he had other kids, nigga, you know what 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:59.960 I mean A lot. Yeah, yeah, that's what I'm saying. 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:04.680 So so it was, it was that's another reason why 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:08.200 you're happy for her to go and have a chance 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:13.400 at a life that is for her. Yeah right, And 0:06:13.440 --> 0:06:14.800 so you know, me and him are there and it's 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:22.920 like she she's your mom, but she's also like a 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:29.280 genius in creating. She's a genius in keeping things running. 0:06:29.960 --> 0:06:33.719 She you get taught this lesson of misogyny, and the 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:36.599 lesson is that somebody leaves the house and they gonna 0:06:36.600 --> 0:06:38.159 make a whole bunch of money. And my mother worked 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:40.000 too and made a lot of money. But somebody leaves 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:41.320 the house and gonna makes a lot of money, and 0:06:41.360 --> 0:06:43.359 then they come back into a castle and everything that 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:45.560 they touch inside the house turns to go. But you 0:06:45.560 --> 0:06:48.680 don't realize that there's somebody who's keeping your life beautiful. 0:06:49.800 --> 0:06:53.400 There's someone who's who's attention to detail, somebody whose ability 0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:58.120 to multitask, somebody who who looks out for things. Somebody 0:06:58.120 --> 0:07:00.440 who when something's broke, they go, Okay, you gotta fix that. 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:03.880 Somebody who when something doesn't work, they okay, we gotta 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:06.920 get it. Working, and the moment that she left, it 0:07:07.120 --> 0:07:10.760 was the house crumbled. It fell apart, like the turn 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:13.560 on the stove. Pop pop, then let's just pop. And 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:14.840 I look at him and he looks at me, and 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:19.440 I'm like, right, she gets that fixed. That motherfucker popped 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:21.400 till we got out of the house with him. Never 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:25.320 fixed it, right, The washing machine broke, never got fixed, 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:27.679 you know what I mean. It's just just like little 0:07:27.720 --> 0:07:30.080 stuff like that. Like my mother used to come out. 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:33.000 This was a big, beautiful home on about sixty acres 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:34.760 that we had had. She would come out and she 0:07:34.800 --> 0:07:39.120 would spray paint, like like power washed the outside of 0:07:39.120 --> 0:07:42.400 the house to where everything, like just me and him 0:07:42.400 --> 0:07:45.040 were just too focused on the individual things that we 0:07:45.040 --> 0:07:47.760 were doing to care about all of that. The place 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:49.680 was just less beautiful because the woman of the house 0:07:49.720 --> 0:07:52.800 had gone wow. And so during that whole time, I'm 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:56.200 also broke. I'm also broke. I'm I'm I'm working at 0:07:56.240 --> 0:08:01.560 best Buy. I'm like I'm treading water. I don't know 0:08:01.600 --> 0:08:03.840 what I want to do. And then Hurricane Katrina comes. 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:09.720 And so when Hurricane Katrina comes, this is like a 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:13.280 weird two year period of my life, like everything changes 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:21.200 like society crumbles. Everybody's strapped for cash because you've taken 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:23.400 on so much more. You got relatives living with you 0:08:23.440 --> 0:08:25.800 that come down from down in the city. Everything's different, 0:08:26.480 --> 0:08:29.880 and now everyone's trying to stretch that dollar. You're eating different, 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:33.840 you're feeling different, and it just doesn't feel like there's 0:08:33.880 --> 0:08:36.079 any abundance. It didn't feel like that in my life. 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:40.600 And so that's when that was the most. That was 0:08:40.640 --> 0:08:44.440 the point, honestly, from two thousand and three to two 0:08:44.440 --> 0:08:47.160 thousand and five, that was the point where I figured 0:08:47.200 --> 0:08:50.680 out myself. I moved to LA in two thousand and six. 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:53.720 By the time I got to LA, I could fucking 0:08:53.760 --> 0:08:58.280 handle anything. I could handle anything. I had buried homeboys, 0:08:58.880 --> 0:09:02.560 I had put relation in the ground. There was nothing 0:09:02.720 --> 0:09:07.880 the world had showed me like some really ill shit. 0:09:08.040 --> 0:09:09.880 And so when I got out there and was dealing 0:09:09.920 --> 0:09:11.880 with LA, it was a piece of cake. 0:09:12.120 --> 0:09:17.720 So you also navigated, So what this are you going 0:09:17.800 --> 0:09:22.120 to have us eat today? Real cheese, grilled cheese. It's 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:26.600 at the staple and the most simplastic and delicious meal. 0:09:27.000 --> 0:09:29.480 Did you have to add any tomato, soup or anything? 0:09:29.559 --> 0:09:31.680 Or you just didn't? The legendary fuck all that. 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:39.640 Butter bread cheese. Shout out to my uncle David, resting piece. 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:42.960 Shout out to my uncle Mark, rest in peace. These 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:46.599 guys taught me the beauty the grilled cheese. You know 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:51.079 where they learned it at? Where? So you think? Nah, 0:09:51.120 --> 0:09:53.760 where you think they learned the grilled cheese at these 0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:55.120 two uncles? What do you think? 0:09:55.360 --> 0:09:59.560 Someone scream? Somebody say it jail, jail. 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:02.400 I could tell what y'all you've been. I can tell 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:04.880 what kind of life you have been living. They they 0:10:05.040 --> 0:10:07.640 they learned the grilled cheese in jail. They were grilled 0:10:07.720 --> 0:10:09.240 cheese mechanics. 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:09.880 Okay. 0:10:10.520 --> 0:10:11.240 They came back in. 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:12.839 Here and they was like, I don't know it was 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:16.120 jail because they because because what. 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:20.120 Because yeah, because because we know right there was grilled 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:21.400 cheese mechanics. 0:10:21.440 --> 0:10:23.600 Okay, well, let's see, let's judge your grilled cheese. 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:25.000 I haven't made it in a long time, because the 0:10:25.080 --> 0:10:26.440 nigga is not broke no more. 0:10:28.160 --> 0:10:30.280 You know what I've been doing this show for. This 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:32.280 will be our this is our third season. We're taping 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:35.520 right now. And some of the dishes are so good 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:37.720 on this show that I go home and I'll make it. 0:10:37.800 --> 0:10:39.680 Broken, not Bronna make it. 0:10:39.679 --> 0:10:40.120 They're good. 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:43.560 Butter is a very it's very sensual. Look at butter 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:49.480 washes washess washes? Oh daddy, you hear that? Look at 0:10:49.480 --> 0:10:53.920 the butter go. Oh my god, butter is like delectable. 0:10:54.000 --> 0:10:57.320 Right, Oh yeah, I used butter on my cooking. 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:00.720 Really, what's that? What's that? What's blood pressure? Like? 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:05.559 I don't know, but I'm really healthy. We're really healthy. 0:11:05.679 --> 0:11:07.960 Like what you get a church, Well, I don't know if. 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:09.400 You could do a good grilled cheese. I'm watching the 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:10.200 way you're making. 0:11:09.960 --> 0:11:12.160 This, girl, It's not gonna be good. 0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:15.920 I'm concerned. I'm concerned because I feel like you are 0:11:16.000 --> 0:11:17.440 gonna butcher this grilled cheese. 0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:19.719 It's it's not gonna be good. I can already tell 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:21.280 you it's not gonna be good. You know what I'm saying. 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:24.559 I mean, yeah, because these jail birds, they definitely jail 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:28.080 the right way. How much cheese is gonna put on 0:11:28.080 --> 0:11:32.360 this grilled cheese? This is how you did it, broke? Yeah, man, 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:36.760 you put three pieces of cheese on your broke grilled cheese. 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:38.319 I don't know if you know this, but like I'm 0:11:38.320 --> 0:11:39.160 a big ass nigga. 0:11:40.440 --> 0:11:44.120 Yeah nah, bro you're being judged, and right now this 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:47.120 grilled cheese is looking like it's not cool. We're gonna see. 0:11:47.000 --> 0:11:48.960 We'll see well, I mean, we'll see what happens. Cash. 0:11:48.960 --> 0:11:52.160 Your question is this show to judge people? Is to 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:52.800 get inspired? 0:11:53.559 --> 0:11:55.920 You know what? The first the first season and a half, 0:11:55.960 --> 0:11:59.320 I was very nice with people's feelings, and then I 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:04.480 had someone make tuna castro. They motherfucker, it was terrible. Well, 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:08.440 we tape in LA. Usually like eighty five did this 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:12.160 whole thing for us. Shout outs to eighty five. They 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:15.040 did the whole cooktop and whole build this whole kitchen. 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:16.439 I'm in love with it. Now I'm gonna have to 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:20.079 come to Atlanta more like Atlanta. But yeah, I like it. 0:12:20.080 --> 0:12:20.559 It's cool. 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:23.040 I haven't seen much out here yet. 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:24.920 Where do you travel to? Where do you go? 0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:26.840 What do you mean? Where do I go? 0:12:27.040 --> 0:12:27.640 Where do you be at? 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:29.440 I'll be I'll be at LA, New. 0:12:29.400 --> 0:12:32.439 York, La? New York is okay New York, Okay, La 0:12:32.480 --> 0:12:32.880 New York. 0:12:33.120 --> 0:12:35.679 I'm from there. You know. Let's focus on y'all story 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:39.960 for sure. Okay, So you graduate, you moved to LA, Yeah, 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:42.680 and you graduate with what degree? 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:47.520 I have a political science and English. 0:12:47.120 --> 0:12:52.400 Degree, okay. And your goal in life before you left 0:12:52.400 --> 0:12:55.880 college was to be an attorney okay, and then you 0:12:55.920 --> 0:12:56.680 got to La. 0:12:56.640 --> 0:12:59.560 To be uh in the movie game? 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:03.560 Okay? What happened in between those times to make you 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:04.360 change your career? 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:06.600 I spoke to a lot of attorneys. 0:13:08.040 --> 0:13:09.600 You found out they don't like their jobs. 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:12.640 What I found out. So, my brother Jabriel is one 0:13:12.679 --> 0:13:15.600 of the most brilliant people I've ever known. Super brilliant, 0:13:15.600 --> 0:13:19.320 like ridiculously smart, right smart in a way that's almost inaccessible. 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:23.320 And he went to Morehouse here in Atlanta, and then 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:26.760 he went to Stanford, one of the greatest law schools 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:33.440 in the world. And he didn't have a specific love 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:36.760 for the law, if you ask me, but he is 0:13:37.120 --> 0:13:40.720 just an incredibly successful person. And it didn't seem like 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:42.520 to me like that was going to be a fulfilling life. 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:48.680 What I like to do is commiserate, talk, create. Obviously 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:51.240 I like to go back and forth on all of 0:13:51.240 --> 0:13:56.280 that stuff, But more than anything, I want to create 0:13:56.320 --> 0:13:59.040 things that made people think and discuss. And I don't 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:01.000 think that that was going to be something that was 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:02.199 possible as an attorney. 0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:06.160 Okay. Now, a little backstory. So did all your siblings 0:14:06.200 --> 0:14:11.600 graduate college no, okay, or any any of them similar 0:14:11.640 --> 0:14:13.360 to yours, shows similar to your path. 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:16.840 My sister's a poet, Okay, She's one of the greatest 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:19.360 poets in the world, really, I think. 0:14:19.400 --> 0:14:20.520 So she made money on it. 0:14:21.960 --> 0:14:25.800 She made no money on it, but she is ridiculously talented. 0:14:26.240 --> 0:14:29.280 And I'm inspired by her every single day because she 0:14:29.440 --> 0:14:35.640 creates no matter what the circumstance is, Okay, And that, 0:14:35.800 --> 0:14:41.200 to me is more impressive than somebody who gets flown 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:45.000 all over the world to create. She creates because she 0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:49.800 must create, and not because it's incredibly lucrative for her 0:14:49.840 --> 0:14:52.040 to create. So it's in her. 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:54.040 It's in her, and that makes. 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:54.480 Me feel good. 0:15:10.320 --> 0:15:13.400 So you get to LA. What's the next step. 0:15:13.640 --> 0:15:16.320 I work for a place called Capricorn Programs for a while. 0:15:16.680 --> 0:15:17.400 What do you do there? 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:21.880 I produce a show called Cybernet. It's a video game show. 0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:24.440 So when I first get out to LA, I am 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:27.000 playing video games for a living and then reporting on 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:29.320 those video games on this show Cybernet, and writing for 0:15:29.360 --> 0:15:34.520 the show, okay, and then then something happens. 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:36.600 What happens. 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:45.280 That company goes belly up financial crisis. So when that 0:15:45.320 --> 0:15:48.480 company goes belly up. Guess what I get to do 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:50.440 live on unemployment? 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:53.240 Hell yeah, I love unemployment. 0:15:53.400 --> 0:15:55.840 Yep, and I become one of the world's foremost pick 0:15:55.920 --> 0:15:59.280 up basketball players. Every gym in La you see me, 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:00.880 twenty four hour fitness, you see me. 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:02.960 Oh you didn't try to hustle on top of the unemployment. 0:16:03.000 --> 0:16:06.920 I definitely did. But the most thing that I did 0:16:07.080 --> 0:16:10.080 was just play ball and vibe and right. I wrote 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:13.280 so much. I wrote so much, so much stuff. 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:15.000 But how long were you on unemployment? A year? 0:16:15.920 --> 0:16:16.240 Two? 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:18.680 You can be on unemployment two years. 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:21.080 You have to remember that at this time it was 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:24.400 the financial crisis, so they were extending benefits to meet 0:16:24.400 --> 0:16:25.200 people's years. 0:16:25.240 --> 0:16:32.000 It's two eighty and then it's like going into twenty 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:34.960 ten basics, and let me tell you what happens. 0:16:35.120 --> 0:16:37.520 This is a true story. So I'm on unemployment, I'm 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:41.560 doing my thing. I'm walking into the gym LA Fitness, Hollywood. 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:44.640 Everybody there knows me. Okay, I'm walking into the gym. 0:16:44.880 --> 0:16:46.880 I'm walking into the gym. And as I'm walking into 0:16:46.880 --> 0:16:49.920 the gym, a lady outside the gym says, hey, you 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:51.120 want to take place in the cirt. You want to 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:53.680 take part in the survey. Like, yeah, sure, no problem. 0:16:53.760 --> 0:16:56.840 She's like, you take part in the survey, and we 0:16:56.920 --> 0:16:58.680 like what you say, will give you five hundred dollars. 0:16:58.920 --> 0:16:59.440 Oh shit. 0:16:59.520 --> 0:17:02.960 And I was like, hell yeah, okay, So I do 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:04.760 the whole thing. I do my whole little stick. I'm 0:17:04.760 --> 0:17:07.840 on a little small camera that she has, and she goes, 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:11.600 we like you, we want you to come out to 0:17:11.640 --> 0:17:16.960 this place, do even more stuff, right and take place 0:17:17.000 --> 0:17:20.320 in this gigantic, bigger survey. Well, it's not a big deal. 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:23.760 We're gonna have you try out these products. And when 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:25.240 you try these products, we're just gonna ask you what 0:17:25.240 --> 0:17:28.080 you think about them. I'm like, cool, no problem, all right. 0:17:28.480 --> 0:17:30.760 So I decide to go to this thing. We cheese 0:17:30.800 --> 0:17:31.639 it up right now. 0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:35.479 It actually looks really good. Impressed. 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:39.480 And so I go to this thing into Van Eys, 0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:42.920 you know where van So I go in there and 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:45.760 I'm into the little deal or whatever, and a guy goes, Okay, 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:49.240 this is what you're gonna do. I want you to 0:17:49.800 --> 0:17:53.120 go in here, take a shower and use this shampoo 0:17:53.880 --> 0:17:57.360 because they're doing product testing. Take a shower, use this shampoo. 0:17:58.200 --> 0:17:59.960 Right when you get out of there, brush your tea. 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:03.840 Use this toothbrush and this toothpaste. Cool. It's like, don't 0:18:03.840 --> 0:18:05.840 do this, don't do that stuff. We took those products 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:07.200 off the list. And then when you come in here, 0:18:07.200 --> 0:18:08.920 we want you to shave with this razor. And I'm like, well, 0:18:08.920 --> 0:18:10.680 I'm not shaving my beerd He goes, YEA, well you 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:12.280 can just shave at the top and on the and 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:14.359 right here. Just tell us what you think about it. 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:17.159 I'm like, cool, no problem. So after that, cool, I 0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:19.160 do all this stuff. I get into this little room 0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:21.000 and inside this room is two other guys in the 0:18:21.080 --> 0:18:24.600 room and they got toiles on and I'm looking around. 0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:26.800 I'm like, yo, what's going on here? What is this? 0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:29.960 I try to weigh myself on the scale. Scale doesn't work. 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:33.400 I'm looking in the room. The room looks like a gym, 0:18:33.520 --> 0:18:35.520 except I know that we're not in a gym, Like, 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:40.600 what's going on? So I start using the the the razor, 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:43.080 doing like this. And when I start using the razor, 0:18:43.200 --> 0:18:45.480 somebody jumps out with a camera and they say, hey, 0:18:45.480 --> 0:18:48.200 are you ready for the Gilet Fusion pro Glide Challenge. 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:52.960 It's a commercial. Oh my gosh, And I'm like, oh shit. 0:18:53.240 --> 0:18:55.040 And so I'm using the thing. I'm doing the whole thing. 0:18:55.080 --> 0:18:56.879 I'm going back and forth to God, I'm having fun. 0:18:57.080 --> 0:19:00.159 After the thing is over, I walk in there and 0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:03.159 everybody's clapping, like, hey, why how are you doing? You 0:19:03.160 --> 0:19:05.359 got did a great job. You're in a commercial boom boom, 0:19:05.359 --> 0:19:08.520 So don't make five hundred dollars. I make three thousand dollars. 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:12.040 Yet the freaking out so high because it's. 0:19:11.840 --> 0:19:14.200 A uh, we're done, baby special. 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:17.840 That's a really good looking grilled cheese. Look at that. 0:19:17.880 --> 0:19:19.800 The cheese is bubbling, guys. 0:19:19.560 --> 0:19:22.240 It's bubbling over and it's a little buttered in. 0:19:23.600 --> 0:19:25.840 I just learned a trick and making grilled cheese. What 0:19:25.960 --> 0:19:28.280 is it to stack a lot of cheese in the middle. 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:34.919 I mean, cheese is actually a pretty staple ingredient to 0:19:34.960 --> 0:19:35.960 the grilled cheese, I. 0:19:35.960 --> 0:19:38.000 Know, but I usually just put like one or two 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:40.440 Yours is like, first of all, you did it really impressed. 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:42.080 I tell you, I tell you, I tell you why though, 0:19:42.160 --> 0:19:44.480 that's why you're healthy. Though you said you were healthy before. 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:47.920 Look at the like the even colored color. I don't 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:50.480 know if it's you did a really impressive grilled cheese. 0:19:50.520 --> 0:19:54.919 Okay, yeah, just slow and slow. Okay. So look, so 0:19:55.000 --> 0:19:57.439 I'm there and they're like, okay, so it's Saturday, so 0:19:57.560 --> 0:19:59.760 the five hundred bucks that you were promised you get 0:19:59.800 --> 0:20:02.960 that it's Saturday, so you get double the session fee 0:20:03.680 --> 0:20:06.879 on that, plus like whatever you get like a holding 0:20:06.880 --> 0:20:08.000 fee and all of that stuff. So I ended up 0:20:08.040 --> 0:20:09.760 making like three thousand dollars for this commercial. Let me 0:20:09.760 --> 0:20:12.880 tell you what kind of American I am. I come 0:20:12.960 --> 0:20:17.320 home and I'm doing my unemployment and it asked if 0:20:17.320 --> 0:20:21.800 you made any money? Yep, Why I put the money 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:22.160 on there? 0:20:22.359 --> 0:20:22.719 Why? 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:25.240 I don't know. I've seen niggas get the death penalty 0:20:25.280 --> 0:20:27.919 for less, so so I put so, I put the 0:20:27.960 --> 0:20:30.639 money on there. I put the money on there, and 0:20:30.680 --> 0:20:36.720 this is what happens. They then readjust my unemployment quarterly. 0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:40.639 Like me, yeah, I told you not to do that. 0:20:40.840 --> 0:20:44.240 So quarterly. So it goes from being I go from 0:20:44.359 --> 0:20:48.800 getting five hundred dollars a week in unemployment to seventy 0:20:48.800 --> 0:20:51.240 five dollars a week in unemployment. So I go, Okay, 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:53.119 this is the deal. It's not. Obviously they don't think 0:20:53.119 --> 0:20:55.520