Speaker 1: He shot, he shoot, he shot. Laugh. If you watch
Speaker 1: Coffee Time the Baby, you know the name Flame, my
Speaker 1: role also known as my role Flame. Come in with
Speaker 1: last and come in with Don love Lunds. Baby, you
Speaker 1: better catch it when you can't drop a knowledge from
Speaker 1: Fatherhood of politics, shouting now comics just paying homics. What's up? Tip?
Speaker 1: Yeah you know she raped shot Towns on speaking to
Speaker 1: the grown a second. We're gonna last cut of the
Speaker 1: kicking and at the end we leave, which is a
Speaker 1: lift dispirite like you want to revisit. So your first
Speaker 1: like a listen to Jill. Folks like you slip all
Speaker 1: folks that we take this. Do what you do, do
Speaker 1: what you do, do what I do. Hey, Hey, Hey,
Speaker 1: this is comedian Flame Monroe and welcome to this week's
Speaker 1: episode of Laugh and Learn. This is a special episode
Speaker 1: because I'm just coming through the whole last week and
Speaker 1: it's I'm going to talk about some other topics. I
Speaker 1: have a very special guest this week. But I want
Speaker 1: to do I do want to embark on um the
Speaker 1: fact that of uh uh god, my man just went blank.
Speaker 1: Uh Terry Nichols in Memphis, Tennessee. I applaud the black
Speaker 1: female um police chief there in Memphis, Tennessee, for making
Speaker 1: such swift and quick actions on arresting the culprits. The
Speaker 1: murderers is what I'm going to call them. And now
Speaker 1: the story is unfolding more and more that the story.
Speaker 1: It was personal with one of the officers. So as
Speaker 1: this story unfolds, we will talk about that later on
Speaker 1: the next episode of Left Learned, But that's not what
Speaker 1: this episode is about. Thank you guys for joining me
Speaker 1: in Hello, this is flaiming Roy y'all remember y'all being
Speaker 1: Yonkers New York made four through six Sinkle to my
Speaker 1: O Weekend. Get your tickets at Yonker's Comedy Club website
Speaker 1: and March thirty one two April. First, I would be
Speaker 1: at Tommy Teeth in Pleasanton, California. And every Monday night,
Speaker 1: each and every I am at the world famous Laugh
Speaker 1: Factory on Sunset Boulevard for free voices. And we have
Speaker 1: the absolute best energy and best show in Southern California.
Speaker 1: And if you don't believe me, I got a witness
Speaker 1: that's gonna come on in a minute and tell y'all
Speaker 1: Hi host. Now I got a co host. His name
Speaker 1: is Mr Memphis. Will we have a great banger. He's
Speaker 1: a good guy. It's just a great energy. If you
Speaker 1: come to have a great time, you will have a
Speaker 1: great time. If you come so you won't leave sal
Speaker 1: you'll leave a little sweeter and then you can just
Speaker 1: be sold when you get back outside. Allowed so around me.
Speaker 1: But other than that, if you want to hear my
Speaker 1: voice all the time, I did last So last year
Speaker 1: I had the experience of working with this young man
Speaker 1: and it was my very first time of doing an
Speaker 1: honorable book an audio And the name of the book
Speaker 1: is didn't nobody to give a ship about what what
Speaker 1: happened to Carolina? Get what happened to call? That's James
Speaker 1: in the background. He always corrects red leather, yellow leather.
Speaker 1: So and it was my first time actually doing an
Speaker 1: audible book. And so he saw me on Tiffoty Hattish
Speaker 1: as they written and he was like, I just knew
Speaker 1: that you were Colada. We're gonna get into this. So
Speaker 1: before we go any further, I want to introduce my friend,
Speaker 1: a wonderful author. He is a creative writer. He's a
Speaker 1: creative writing philosopher, a professor. Professor. You know my worries
Speaker 1: is off right, Um, I could be a philosopher too
Speaker 1: if you want. Just the wonderful man. And he was
Speaker 1: patient with me and kind, and we have a book
Speaker 1: out and I did audible, but he's the author, and
Speaker 1: all the other voices that you hear in the audible
Speaker 1: outside of Calatio Mercedes is the talented Mr James Hannahan. So,
Speaker 1: without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the
Speaker 1: show here at Laughlan my very special guest, Mr James Hannahan,
Speaker 1: high Flame. Thank you so much for inviting me to
Speaker 1: this um little party, this little private party. Um, it's
Speaker 1: uh terrific to be here. It's terrific to see you
Speaker 1: on stage for the first time last night, and there
Speaker 1: was a lot of flame, which I was really happy.
Speaker 1: I was like, is flame just gonna do like a
Speaker 1: ten in that thing? And go? I was overjoy of it.
Speaker 1: It was like your jam and you were hosting and
Speaker 1: and also doing your stand up. It was just really
Speaker 1: really fun. And I mean, I think almost anything that
Speaker 1: comes out of your mouth it's hilarious. He let's know
Speaker 1: that already, but oh don't, because when we were making
Speaker 1: the book that first that you didn't think. So, so
Speaker 1: let me tell you all tout because I told the
Speaker 1: flame best is I don't laugh on my on my
Speaker 1: coffee time, I say, oh my god. It was a
Speaker 1: hard experience because it was new for me. But James,
Speaker 1: you was so patient and you work with me. But
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you all the truth. James was sad
Speaker 1: and the hell out of me because y'all know we
Speaker 1: was in like a fat back. They stuck together the time,
Speaker 1: and he was like, bitch, if you don't get it right,
Speaker 1: I'm going to I want to say it. But I
Speaker 1: was so determined too, because I all the look on
Speaker 1: James's face, and there was one time, James, you looked
Speaker 1: at me and you were so frustrated, and I'm telling
Speaker 1: you in my head, I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I'm the right person for this.
Speaker 1: But when I drove home after the first day, I
Speaker 1: was like, I got to get better. And the next
Speaker 1: morning I started off as ragging as I did the
Speaker 1: first day, but a couple of hours in we just
Speaker 1: got some kind of rhythm. I think it was when
Speaker 1: you told me, James, like, let's go to the person
Speaker 1: who's on stage now. The only thing that's hard about
Speaker 1: that is that because you saw me last night. I'm
Speaker 1: so used to moving around and my hand movements and
Speaker 1: and you know you can't do that when you do audible.
Speaker 1: But you that right there, whatever you said to me
Speaker 1: on that, when you said that to me, it made
Speaker 1: me go into a space of like, Okay, bitch, your
Speaker 1: own stage, deliver right, because I mean, even though you
Speaker 1: can't see the audience, they're they're they're out there, They're
Speaker 1: just you just can't. You just don't know exactly how
Speaker 1: they're going to react to every last thing. Um, But
Speaker 1: I'm a cover audience, so you know, you have it
Speaker 1: easy with them. You don't have it easy with me.
Speaker 1: But I mean, you you keep saying this, but there
Speaker 1: really wasn't anybody who was any better. It was like,
Speaker 1: you know, they were it was gonna be you or
Speaker 1: I was going to do the whole thing. And I
Speaker 1: really didn't want to do the whole thing because I
Speaker 1: kind of no I kind of could have done it.
Speaker 1: I could have spoken in the words of Carlatta, but
Speaker 1: what I really wanted was to do, like, you know,
Speaker 1: a dialogue between myself and someone who is part of
Speaker 1: the trans community. It was just really important to me,
Speaker 1: and like My publisher was sort of a little pushing
Speaker 1: back about that, UM, but I was like, I think
Speaker 1: it's really important, um too for people to understand that
Speaker 1: not only is this a book that I wrote, it's
Speaker 1: a role that someone can play that can be you know,
Speaker 1: helpful in terms of advocacy and entertainment and also you know,
Speaker 1: just to like center the life of somebody who is
Speaker 1: trans um in a context in which it doesn't happen
Speaker 1: often enough. Let me ask you a question, James, So
Speaker 1: where did Carlotta come from? Was there was this a
Speaker 1: character you hear? It was just someone who you grew
Speaker 1: up with. I mean, because it comes from somewhere. It's
Speaker 1: it's hard to really say. I think, you know, I
Speaker 1: spent a lot of time in the nineties like going
Speaker 1: out to shows a gay bars and stuff, and at
Speaker 1: the time there was much more of a like gray
Speaker 1: area between who was trans and who was a drag queen,
Speaker 1: and everybody was on stage and everybody, you know, was
Speaker 1: being frank about all kinds of things, and I, you know,
Speaker 1: I just I have a good ear for a language, um,
Speaker 1: and so I picked up a lot of that kind
Speaker 1: of thing, and it's it's sort of you know, and
Speaker 1: I would kind of do it myself sometimes when the
Speaker 1: when the the feeling struck, and I mean, I guess
Speaker 1: it's just it was just kind of there. I mean,
Speaker 1: Carlotta just kind of jumped out of my head at
Speaker 1: a certain point. Um. Years ago, I wrote a story
Speaker 1: that was kind of in a similar sort of voice.
Speaker 1: It was about UM. I had seen I had seen
Speaker 1: this episode. I think it was a Mari Povich and
Speaker 1: there were these um trans girls, um who. It was
Speaker 1: one of those episodes where they were trying to exploit
Speaker 1: the shock value of like, you know, the realness, you know,
Speaker 1: girls who were like not colockable um coming out on
Speaker 1: national television to like really straight, doggy type dudes. And
Speaker 1: they did that and they there was a riot on stage.
Speaker 1: It was like baits through everything everywhere, And you do
Speaker 1: you don't remember this? Said, you didn't see this episode?
Speaker 1: It was nuts or is it a man or a woman?
Speaker 1: His whole entire career was or you a man or woman?
Speaker 1: So I couldn't tell you which one it was because
Speaker 1: it was I know, but these were black girls, So
Speaker 1: I was particularly interested UM. And so I wrote this
Speaker 1: story that was like Michael things always was, how these
Speaker 1: men say that they didn't know this woman with trans
Speaker 1: that they slept with him. Stevie wanted to get thirteen
Speaker 1: keys and man, baby mamas. He ain't never seen a vagina,
Speaker 1: but he never made that mistake either, Good blood Jesus. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I wrote the story that was. It was in the
Speaker 1: form of an apology letter written by somebody who had
Speaker 1: been involved in that, just saying, oh, I'm so sorry
Speaker 1: that those men lost their minds over this um and
Speaker 1: it's kind of ana. But I knew I was. I
Speaker 1: always kind of knew that I was going to come
Speaker 1: back to it at some point. Oh sent me the script, James,
Speaker 1: because James the Carlott is the character originally had a
Speaker 1: Brooklyn dialect. So James sent me the manuscript and paper
Speaker 1: I printed out out in paper form. So I thought
Speaker 1: that there were a bunch of typos in this. So
Speaker 1: I went through with my thing, and I did all
Speaker 1: the type of right what I had with typos. Where
Speaker 1: was actually the dialect? Oh my god, it was. It
Speaker 1: was UNI called African American um vernacular English. Oh they yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I you speak correctly. And I still go back to
Speaker 1: what I want to talk about, how I want to talk.
Speaker 1: But when carlt is when I read the story and
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god, this woman has so
Speaker 1: many similarities, so many parallels to my actual life. You know,
Speaker 1: I had no idea until we met and you told me, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I only saw your stand up and I
Speaker 1: was like, that is the sensibility that that car Lot.
Speaker 1: That's exactly the sensibility that car Lotta has, just to
Speaker 1: kind of like, you know, no Fox left, you know,
Speaker 1: funny as how um survivor. And I said, you know,
Speaker 1: I want this person. I want this we to to
Speaker 1: be the voice of Carlotta um come come, hell or
Speaker 1: high water. It was a wonderful opportunity. It kicked my
Speaker 1: but but I'm telling you the payoff now is that
Speaker 1: it's doing so well. And I'm so happy that it's
Speaker 1: doing so well for you, James, because in my head,
Speaker 1: in my heart, I am such a bit. But when
Speaker 1: I work for somebody and they believe in me, in
Speaker 1: my head, all I could think about is I must
Speaker 1: do a good job for this person because they hired
Speaker 1: me to do this project. That's how I thought. What
Speaker 1: they ready. But that's how I think, well anything when
Speaker 1: somebody gives me an opportunity and say I don't want
Speaker 1: anybody else to do this, but you, I really want you.
Speaker 1: So then I get in my head to say beat you,
Speaker 1: gotta kill you, got to kill it so great and
Speaker 1: come and and so when James and I were talking,
Speaker 1: because Carlado originally was supposed to have been a Brooklyn dialect,
Speaker 1: we know, I mean she does, she still does. It's
Speaker 1: just you know, you you're from Arkansas. And there were
Speaker 1: moments at which Arkansas me into the mix a little
Speaker 1: bit too much, and I had to say, let's bring
Speaker 1: it to New York. But nobody, you know, nobody. There's
Speaker 1: there's a lot of overlap between you know, Black English
Speaker 1: all over the country. UM. And you know, the Great
Speaker 1: Migration brought so many black folks from the South to
Speaker 1: the North. Um. You know my parents generation included, UM.
Speaker 1: And so you know there's there. There doesn't have to
Speaker 1: be that. I don't think anybody's gonna split hairs about
Speaker 1: that except me. And not that much. Wasn't Jeff Forest book?
Speaker 1: What was? What was your other books? Jaye? My first
Speaker 1: book is called God Says No, and it's about uh,
Speaker 1: a fat closet case from South Carolina black man who
Speaker 1: is does a lot of really ridiculous things to try
Speaker 1: to cure himself of his homosexuality. It's a little comical
Speaker 1: but also kind of you know, sad um. And my
Speaker 1: second book is called Delicious Foods and the short answer
Speaker 1: about what it's about is human trafficking, but human trafficking
Speaker 1: in the United States among black people in the South
Speaker 1: in the nineties. Right. So I found out reading this
Speaker 1: book that was like true stories about labor abuse around
Speaker 1: the world, and there was in it. In it there
Speaker 1: was a story of this woman who was enflaved pretty much,
Speaker 1: although they didn't call it that, right, So they just
Speaker 1: you know, held you against your will and didn't pay
Speaker 1: you at this farm in Florida in and I lost
Speaker 1: my mind. I was like, I have been looking around for,
Speaker 1: you know, some way to address the legacy of slavery
Speaker 1: in fiction, right, And I thought one of the problems
Speaker 1: that a lot of people run into is that, you know,
Speaker 1: if you write something that's literally about antibellum slavery, um,
Speaker 1: you run the risk of people thinking that it's just
Speaker 1: about the past and like, you know, they don't have
Speaker 1: to worry about it anymore, and you know, people are
Speaker 1: over it. But When I found out about that story,
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, ship, it doesn't have to be
Speaker 1: a period piece. This ship is still going on. Black
Speaker 1: people are still being enslaved in bus South in our
Speaker 1: contemporary world. Yeah, is that called indentured? Servit too? I'm, I'm,
Speaker 1: I'm and I'm it's no, it's modern slavery is what
Speaker 1: it's called. Yes, I know, right, you know what I
Speaker 1: was like, No, no, no, no, no no no no
Speaker 1: no no no, not that saying that the joke made.
Speaker 1: It takes me back to Alex Thomas's joke last night
Speaker 1: when he was talking about I was trying to bring
Speaker 1: back Peek and Cutton for a hundred I wouldn't give
Speaker 1: a damn if it was bad million. I'm not picking up.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, I would do it for like
Speaker 1: a month or like, I don't know, a little while,
Speaker 1: just to get the money and then give the money
Speaker 1: to some charity. You know that's against labor abuse like that.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, it's dangerous to even entertain as
Speaker 1: a thought experiment, like, you know, an idea like that,
Speaker 1: especially under Trump. I can't even imagine. I fine, I
Speaker 1: can only I can only imagine if there's like a
Speaker 1: parallel in some you know some you know, a foreign country,
Speaker 1: um where where people are just under the thumb of
Speaker 1: some dictator. Like that's the only way I can imagine that.
Speaker 1: And James, well, you were a world traveler and Jame
Speaker 1: is a food kind of so let me tell you
Speaker 1: they uh but and he's they what what I'm trying
Speaker 1: to remember exactly what you tell me? What you were
Speaker 1: about water? What was your your philosophy about water? Oh,
Speaker 1: my husband says, I'm a I'm a snob about water. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: you called it something else. You are a water critic
Speaker 1: or you are No, I didn't say critic. What did
Speaker 1: you say? I don't I don't remember. I just sometimes
Speaker 1: I just use words and people are like, what was
Speaker 1: that word? Different? Like I just used it. I don't
Speaker 1: know what you mean. Just use words. Filming and you
Speaker 1: uh at taping and you said I'm a water connoisseur
Speaker 1: waters was that might have been it? Yeah, it was
Speaker 1: something like that because you drink and so James says,
Speaker 1: traveled the world. So, James, what's your what is your
Speaker 1: favorite place to go and eat? Where is your favorite place?
Speaker 1: I'm sorry you're go and eat? Um Legacy did well.
Speaker 1: In December, I was in Indonesia, UM, and Indonesia. Indonesia
Speaker 1: prood is actually one of my favorites um and one
Speaker 1: of the group. And it's kind of hard to get
Speaker 1: in New York. Um, it's possible, but it's like it's
Speaker 1: not like it's not as ubiquitous as like high restaurants
Speaker 1: or whatever. Um, but there was there was always like
Speaker 1: some Indonesian food on whatever menu. UM. Even if you
Speaker 1: were at like a hotel, there would always be like
Speaker 1: off to the side or like in in with the
Speaker 1: rest of the restaurants. And it's it's just like really
Speaker 1: spicy and UM. They do noodles and they do like
Speaker 1: grilled meat stuff and it's just it's a really delicious
Speaker 1: um set of of um cuisine things what I mean. Um, yeah, So,
Speaker 1: I mean I really love that we ate really well
Speaker 1: in Mexico too. I feel like we did not have
Speaker 1: a bad meal in Mexico. Yeah yeah, yeah, but just
Speaker 1: don't drink that water at least that at the well.
Speaker 1: I mean maybe if you're having you know, issues, it's
Speaker 1: a good thing. Clean it all out. No, I don't
Speaker 1: think it's a good it's like, you know, one of
Speaker 1: the micro rooms. That's really the problem. It's nothing, you know,
Speaker 1: it was just a laxidents that would be fine, Oh
Speaker 1: my god, but it's not particularly slam right now. So
Speaker 1: I'm good on purpose. James, I am. I am over
Speaker 1: the moon with how many people I get inboxes from that,
Speaker 1: because I told you when we would take it, I said, oh, Jame,
Speaker 1: if you want my voice, my voice is so weird
Speaker 1: to me. But I get so many in boxes from
Speaker 1: so many people saying, oh my god, I love the
Speaker 1: calmness of your voice while you would tell the story.
Speaker 1: And I always say, I promise you that wasn't me.
Speaker 1: James put me had a baby so comfortable that I
Speaker 1: could do this because I was nervous as hey, let
Speaker 1: me just be very honest. I was very It was
Speaker 1: my first time I was a virgin. You took my virginity. Jane.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm blushing. Um, I know you can't tell, but
Speaker 1: I am, uh yeah. I mean, I've worked with actors before,
Speaker 1: and I've worked with people who have not had training,
Speaker 1: you know, in acting, which is fine, you know, as
Speaker 1: long as and you're I mean, you're one of the
Speaker 1: only actors I've ever heard begging for line readings. You know,
Speaker 1: line reading is like you know, when somebody tells you
Speaker 1: exactly how to say the line, and most actors despise
Speaker 1: that they will like stab you in the neck if
Speaker 1: you give them line reading. When you're like, give me
Speaker 1: the line readings, give me the line I want them.
Speaker 1: I wanted. So I was like, Okay, here we go.
Speaker 1: Let's just you know, bath this out. Let's let's you know,
Speaker 1: I you know, I had faith that you could do it,
Speaker 1: and I could see how badly you wanted to do it,
Speaker 1: and I knew that from my perspective, like I didn't
Speaker 1: want to have come all the way across the country
Speaker 1: and you know, convinced my publisher to let me do
Speaker 1: this and have it not work out, Like that was
Speaker 1: not an option. So I was like, you're the best
Speaker 1: week we found. You're you know, perfect for the role.
Speaker 1: Let's go. But and I was having a good time
Speaker 1: with you too, don't you know that That is also
Speaker 1: that's also also I mean, that's one of the things
Speaker 1: that really makes me think that a collaboration is going
Speaker 1: to work out if like I'm having a good time
Speaker 1: with the person, Like I don't want to be fighting
Speaker 1: with somebody and trying to make work. Um, unless the
Speaker 1: fighting is like about the work and not about like
Speaker 1: our personal whatever. Right, Um, so I was having a
Speaker 1: great time. You were getting it. I mean we you know,
Speaker 1: when we went back and listened to that first day,
Speaker 1: we were like, oh, this wasn't that bad. Really, No, seriously,
Speaker 1: I think some of the some of that first day
Speaker 1: is like in the you know, is what they used it?
Speaker 1: I don't, you know, it's hard to know after like
Speaker 1: after you do record an audiobook, you just give it
Speaker 1: away and and then the eddit people who edit it
Speaker 1: do all the choices about like which take and all
Speaker 1: that stuff. So, I mean, I don't know exactly how
Speaker 1: much they took from each day we did it, but
Speaker 1: like we went back and redid some of the first day,
Speaker 1: but I think they actually ended up using some of
Speaker 1: what we did on the first day. Anyway, Yeah, it
Speaker 1: was fine. Are you a professor at at what at
Speaker 1: which university institute? It's an art school in Brooklyn, Okay?
Speaker 1: And you do you create a writing right? Yes? Are
Speaker 1: you as patient with your students as you were with me?
Speaker 1: Or no? I have to say I probably would be
Speaker 1: in a situation in a similar kind of situation. Um,
Speaker 1: but there's a little bit of you know, it's more
Speaker 1: self selecting. By the time the students get to me,
Speaker 1: like they're already saying, like, I have written these things.
Speaker 1: I want to be a ruiner. This is what I'm doing.
Speaker 1: If it isn't just like I'm gonna try this new
Speaker 1: thing writing and it's gonna you know, hopefully it's gonna work. Um, Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: I mean if I couldn't, okay, I I could deal with,
Speaker 1: you know, helping you figure this out right, I probably
Speaker 1: couldn't deal with a whole class a flame Monrose doing
Speaker 1: like people struggling in the same way. No, I would
Speaker 1: have I would have me times Tan James. No, I
Speaker 1: mean there is only one I can. I can tell that.
Speaker 1: But you know what, James, So let me ask you
Speaker 1: a question, James, when when you so if somebody's in
Speaker 1: the audience listening, and they because I would love to
Speaker 1: write a book. I want to do my life story.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about I do a children's book.
Speaker 1: But how would I even go? I have a million
Speaker 1: ideas in my head, but I wouldn't know where to
Speaker 1: start by saying this is where I started. What would
Speaker 1: be the first thing I say, so, how would you
Speaker 1: help someone to segue to put all them stories into
Speaker 1: a book? But you've got to start. It's but it's
Speaker 1: the first step that's the hardest step, isn't it. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean when you should really just do is right.
Speaker 1: Whenever boot and whenever anybody says like how do I
Speaker 1: go start, I'm just like, just start. Don't even worry
Speaker 1: about that part, because by the time you finish, it's
Speaker 1: going to be completely different than the way you started. Um,
Speaker 1: And you know, so much is going to change about
Speaker 1: It's not like writers regertitate books or you know, ship
Speaker 1: books and like there it is. You know, I think
Speaker 1: there's a weird misconception that like writing is you know,
Speaker 1: not among writers at all, but like among people readers
Speaker 1: sometimes and people who just like show up in readings
Speaker 1: and haven't read stuff. They're just like they think that
Speaker 1: you just what they read is like a first draft
Speaker 1: of what you what you put out on the page,
Speaker 1: when in fact it's sometimes like, you know, my first
Speaker 1: book went through twenty nine drafts. Um. Some of them
Speaker 1: were more intense than others, but like you know, and
Speaker 1: I just got used to the idea that that was
Speaker 1: about how many it was going to take before the
Speaker 1: thing was even you know, showable to anybody. Um, you
Speaker 1: know why he confuses to me, James, because my David Copperfield.
Speaker 1: The first line in David Copperfield is I'm born, So
Speaker 1: I always the very first moment that I have conception, like,
Speaker 1: you know, because that's one of my favorite stories. But
Speaker 1: I'm like, well, I don't want to start off and
Speaker 1: say I'm boring. I don't remember that day. Well someone's
Speaker 1: already done it. So yeah, so you definitely don't want
Speaker 1: to do unless unless you're retelling your own story in
Speaker 1: a way that he is supposed to reference David Copperfield.
Speaker 1: That sounds like a funny project. Um, but you want
Speaker 1: to be you. I don't think you want to be
Speaker 1: Charles Dickens. I don't know who'se Dickens. You want Else's Dickens.
Speaker 1: I got my own. I was setting you up, And
Speaker 1: so James came to the show that it's not identity
Speaker 1: Aledge James. We had such a good time. It's such
Speaker 1: a good energy. I love that I have such a
Speaker 1: diverse crowd and we this is only our second week
Speaker 1: and they're really going to try to blow it out.
Speaker 1: They called me this morning, say they're gonna just advertise crazy.
Speaker 1: I love that I have such a diverse group of
Speaker 1: people Jane and we have from and I was glad
Speaker 1: that you were able to see that. Blame my role
Speaker 1: because when I was coming to work every day, good god,
Speaker 1: I look like a homeless person. I didn't say it,
Speaker 1: I did it. I'm but I cleaned out well, Mr Hannahan,
Speaker 1: when it's so true. I knew that as well. So
Speaker 1: I never said to you, let's take a sealthy because
Speaker 1: I knew you would be like, get the hell out
Speaker 1: of my face with that camera. I would I didn't
Speaker 1: sweatpants and drinking throat coat toils. Yeah it was. It
Speaker 1: was such an overwhelming experience for me, but I complained,
Speaker 1: like the first four days, I was like, I don't
Speaker 1: want to do this ship. It's driving me crazy. And
Speaker 1: I don't know whether it was the repeating the words
Speaker 1: or the traffic. But there was one land that I
Speaker 1: cannot remember, James, that you made me do maybe like
Speaker 1: forty two hands because I couldn't Southern accent, like about
Speaker 1: five words, but for some strange reason, they kicked my blood.
Speaker 1: I think we might have did that about thirty times
Speaker 1: you you have well a couple of times you said, oh,
Speaker 1: that's good enough, and I kept saying, no, good enough,
Speaker 1: isn't good enough. I'll do it until I get it right.
Speaker 1: I think that's what made you fall in love with me,
Speaker 1: because I was determined that. UM. I think it was
Speaker 1: probably some line with the word pig in it. Oh
Speaker 1: my god, you kept saying pig and I was like,
Speaker 1: that's Arkansas, that's not peg. Every time, every time I
Speaker 1: where's James wanted me to nothing that young ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 1: I heard red leather, yellow left. Well, that's a that's
Speaker 1: a warm up. It's like a theater kids sort of
Speaker 1: warm up. Uh phrase jays Let me now, do you
Speaker 1: do you teach the youth as well? Or you only
Speaker 1: teach on that level? UM? Do you do you mean
Speaker 1: like younger kids? Yes? I have done. I have done
Speaker 1: like workshops surprise school exactly. That's what I started. The
Speaker 1: very first thing I did that was anything like teaching
Speaker 1: was at an organization called Teachers and Writers Collaborative UM.
Speaker 1: It's an organization that is now called UM Urban Word
Speaker 1: I think, and we were doing after school workshops for
Speaker 1: UM uh New York City high school students. They were
Speaker 1: like free and they would just chill up and we
Speaker 1: would like talk about their writing and hang out with them,
Speaker 1: and it was really it was really fun. And that
Speaker 1: was part of what made me think I had you know,
Speaker 1: it was in the I mean I knew it was
Speaker 1: in the lot. I have a lot of like teachers
Speaker 1: and ministers in my family background, on both sides of
Speaker 1: my family. UM, but I didn't know, but I'd never
Speaker 1: actually sort of gone in the room and like tried
Speaker 1: to do that. Um so, and it was so much
Speaker 1: fun and it was so you know, I opening in
Speaker 1: a lot of ways that Um, I kept at it
Speaker 1: and here and now I'm a professor, yes, And which
Speaker 1: which was more rewarding for you, Jane, the college level
Speaker 1: or those those high schools, because when in high school
Speaker 1: you get a chance over their money, you also get
Speaker 1: a chance to do it in college. I'm teaching um
Speaker 1: first year students too, um right now anyway, UM So
Speaker 1: it's not that far removed from you know, they're just
Speaker 1: they've just gotten out of high school. A lot a
Speaker 1: lot of maybe some of them have had a gap year,
Speaker 1: but the majority of them are are right out of
Speaker 1: high school. And they're also there. I mean they're kind
Speaker 1: of at this school, kind of like alternative kids already,
Speaker 1: Like there's only a certain kind of kid who wants
Speaker 1: to learn how to write. At an art school, it's
Speaker 1: somebody who's who's already got like a little bit of
Speaker 1: art in the brain, and they've recognized that writing is
Speaker 1: an art. And it's not just like, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna write, um, a best seller or a romance novel,
Speaker 1: although there are some students who were into that kind
Speaker 1: of thing. Um, there's there's already there's a lot of
Speaker 1: work that I don't have to do with them about
Speaker 1: I never I almost never have to say anything stop
Speaker 1: writing about puppies and Jesus Like they're already like way
Speaker 1: into their trauma sometimes and you know, I sometimes have
Speaker 1: to talk them out of, you know, stuff that's like
Speaker 1: too harshly depressing. James, let me ask you a question,
Speaker 1: do you have do you ever have that eye or
Speaker 1: that do you ever see a student and you see
Speaker 1: you in it or you see brilliance in this key
Speaker 1: and you like, God, this kid is brilliant and and
Speaker 1: and they don't recognize their brilliance because a lot of
Speaker 1: times people see things in you that you don't see
Speaker 1: in yourself. I would have never gotten on the microphone
Speaker 1: had it not been for a guy named Mark. I
Speaker 1: was that I was terrified to talk to people publicly.
Speaker 1: Could you believe at the last night? No, I cannot
Speaker 1: believe that, although I could. But you know what I
Speaker 1: could believe is that you were terrified because you knew
Speaker 1: what you were gonna say. You were gonna say some
Speaker 1: rude hit for a woman in the room. There was
Speaker 1: another woman that was way more rude. Oh that is true,
Speaker 1: But no, I'm talking about before you ever got on stage,
Speaker 1: you might have been like, yeah, I think this is
Speaker 1: a little bit what it's like for me. Like there's
Speaker 1: all this rude ship that I you know, and some
Speaker 1: of it's funny. And maybe that's part of where Carlotta
Speaker 1: comes from. Right, It's like there's a lot that I
Speaker 1: might want to say, and some of it is pretty
Speaker 1: rude and sunny. Um, And I don't know what I'm
Speaker 1: really comfortable people. I might say some of it, but
Speaker 1: like Carlotta was a way of like being able to
Speaker 1: just let it rip. Um. So yeah, of course, I
Speaker 1: mean there's always like a lot of students have a
Speaker 1: lot of even if they're even if they don't realize
Speaker 1: what they're doing yet, sometimes they make really interesting choices
Speaker 1: that it once they developed some you know, sort of
Speaker 1: perspective and control over what they're doing, they'll be like, oh,
Speaker 1: that was actually kind of great, and they'll spend a
Speaker 1: lot of time like trying to get back to that. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I've had a lot of I mean, I've been
Speaker 1: teaching a lot of time. UM. The thing is, though,
Speaker 1: like there are not you'd be surprised how that the
Speaker 1: percentage of students who go on to do literally what
Speaker 1: I'm doing, um, writing fiction, um, is pretty low. So
Speaker 1: I don't I never assume that, you know, I never
Speaker 1: make assumptions about who I'm teaching. UM. I never think
Speaker 1: that you know a student because they're not, you know,
Speaker 1: writing brilliant fiction or poetry. I never assume that they
Speaker 1: won't have a breakthrough later or that there's something they're
Speaker 1: doing that I don't understand. This is there's this colleague
Speaker 1: of mind who hasn't a clause that she keeps in
Speaker 1: the back of her mind which she deals with students
Speaker 1: because she's from Denton, Texas. Mandy Obadiki is obdk is
Speaker 1: her name. Um. She she's from Denton, Texas. And in
Speaker 1: their town, there used to be this band that every
Speaker 1: who was playing in basements all over town and everybody
Speaker 1: was talking about how terrible they were and how much
Speaker 1: they sucked. Um, I think the parents were anyway. That
Speaker 1: was fly Stone, fly we Stone. And he's like, well,
Speaker 1: maybe you know it's the sly stone, you know, the
Speaker 1: fly Stone defense is Uh, maybe it's there's brilliance there,
Speaker 1: but you just can't see it because you're too old
Speaker 1: for you, you know. So Um, each and along, how
Speaker 1: how have you seen they change with writing? Because back
Speaker 1: probably back when you started, there were no apparatus is,
Speaker 1: no computers. And I'm not saying you that, Oh I'm
Speaker 1: as old as h It was different because you had
Speaker 1: to keep notebooks and journals and but now everything you
Speaker 1: can do on a computer, on your database and all
Speaker 1: of that. Is that easier or do you find that
Speaker 1: it was easier when you just had to write it
Speaker 1: out on paper and go through your journals? Because to
Speaker 1: me as a person, when I have to research things,
Speaker 1: of course you can go to Google, but I'm old school.
Speaker 1: We used to go to the encyclopedia. I would read
Speaker 1: the encyclopedies and it made me, it challenged me to
Speaker 1: find research more. Now is that by finker tips. I'm
Speaker 1: lazy as hell. So how has it in the game?
Speaker 1: How is a technology? Well? Lately? Um, one of my
Speaker 1: favorite Google documents as one of my favorite things to use.
Speaker 1: Like I rape my syllabus and it's a Google doc
Speaker 1: so that you know, everybody just refers to it. Okay,
Speaker 1: in the old days, when it was paper, you have
Speaker 1: to hand out a paper syllabus, you have to photocopy
Speaker 1: it for everybody, and it was like set and if
Speaker 1: you wanted to change anything, you had to make sure
Speaker 1: that everybody in the class knew that it had been
Speaker 1: changed and that there were new rules, right like, But
Speaker 1: with a Google document, you can change things like the
Speaker 1: day of and you know everybody knows. There's no one document.
Speaker 1: There's no like, you know, twenty paper documents that you
Speaker 1: have to kind of treat, chase down and and revise. Um.
Speaker 1: So I use that a lot, and it's allowed for
Speaker 1: a lot more kind of spontaneity, UM, because sometimes they'll
Speaker 1: be I'll have a conversation with students in the classroom
Speaker 1: and you know, something will come up like, you know,
Speaker 1: David Copperfield will come up and I'll be like, oh,
Speaker 1: let's read the first ten pages of David Copperfield, and
Speaker 1: I'll just drop them into the syllabus. Um For me, though,
Speaker 1: I feel like I might not be a writer if
Speaker 1: it weren't for word processing. I've really um, I have
Speaker 1: written some things, Longhand, but not for a long time.
Speaker 1: I really like the feeling of sort of being able
Speaker 1: to tinker around with sentences and words and you know,
Speaker 1: all of that stuff for a long time before actually
Speaker 1: making a decision about which thing is the one I want.
Speaker 1: Um So, and I also, you know, I started as
Speaker 1: a graphic designer, so I'm really into like you know,
Speaker 1: one of the ways that I like to waste time
Speaker 1: when I'm writing is to like change the font, like
Speaker 1: mess around with the you know, the typography and the
Speaker 1: margins and all that kind of stuff. And that does
Speaker 1: actually start to show up in the work too, um
Speaker 1: and make the writing more interesting for you, because I'm
Speaker 1: sure at the writing a and now I will say
Speaker 1: you in chapter teen you're probably like, Okay, I'm burned out.
Speaker 1: Let me do something different, pitch it up to get
Speaker 1: it back exciting for me, well, I think by the
Speaker 1: time I'm at chapter ten, I probably have a lot
Speaker 1: of um safeguards in place. Um. There's this thing that
Speaker 1: happens that I call the fifty page demon. And the
Speaker 1: fifty page demon visits you when you have fifty pages
Speaker 1: of material that you're kind of okay with, and he says,
Speaker 1: you know you could stop right now and you wouldn't
Speaker 1: lose that much, so you know, you know you could
Speaker 1: just quit. You know, it's not no skin off your ass,
Speaker 1: just quit age. Damon? Or is that doubt? Is that?
Speaker 1: Is it a fifty page damon or is it doubts?
Speaker 1: Because we all still have doubt. I still have doubt.
Speaker 1: It's confident design. Well, I like to personify it a
Speaker 1: little bit so that it's funny. Um. But you know,
Speaker 1: doubts will probably play you throughout the whole process. And
Speaker 1: this is a particular moment at which the doubt seems
Speaker 1: really convincing because you don't have that much that you
Speaker 1: couldn't quit, but you don't have enough to make you
Speaker 1: feel like you you know, you're looking over and you're
Speaker 1: looking at that gigantic mountain of work basically, and you're like,
Speaker 1: I don't know twelve steps up up the mountain and saying,
Speaker 1: maybe I'll just go back home. UM, but I I
Speaker 1: feel like one of the early steps is to figure
Speaker 1: out what kinds of things you're obsessed with and that
Speaker 1: you think other people don't know about that are going
Speaker 1: to make it UM more important for you to keep working, right,
Speaker 1: just keep I mean, that was what happened with Delicious Foods.
Speaker 1: I was like, shit, nobody really has been dealing with this,
Speaker 1: nobody really even wants to deal with this. But if
Speaker 1: we don't look at it, I don't know what is
Speaker 1: going to be. You know, I don't know where we're
Speaker 1: gonna be if we can't notice that this is happening
Speaker 1: and you know, start to do something. But I mean,
Speaker 1: there are lots of UM, there are lots of NGOs,
Speaker 1: There are lots of nonprofit organizations UM that are are
Speaker 1: working on human trafficking and stopping human trafficking. UM, it's bad.
Speaker 1: It is I who survived it, and she told me
Speaker 1: some of the stories, ain't they were unbelievable. It was
Speaker 1: unbelievable that what she survived. Let me just say that
Speaker 1: what she survived, I don't even know if I would
Speaker 1: have survived and I think I'm a strong person, but
Speaker 1: I don't know if I would have survived what she
Speaker 1: went through or Carlotta, right, you know, being trans in
Speaker 1: a in a men's facility for years and years, being
Speaker 1: in solitary confinement for such a long time, you know,
Speaker 1: dealing with sexual assault from UH correctional officers whom you
Speaker 1: complain about. It's just you know, So, I mean, the
Speaker 1: kinds of things that happened to Carlotta are not like
Speaker 1: unreal things that I made up. They're like real if
Speaker 1: using questions that um, trans people have to deal with
Speaker 1: when they're incarcerated at the top of all of the
Speaker 1: rest of it. Like I said, Carlotta parallels me so much,
Speaker 1: not just trans people, not even just gay people. Some
Speaker 1: men they go to prison, or some gay people they
Speaker 1: go to prison, may not even go in to go
Speaker 1: in on the sexual whatever, but it's taken. I have
Speaker 1: watched me and straight men be taken by other men
Speaker 1: because they were not just because they were pretty, or
Speaker 1: because they were weak or whatever, just because they were
Speaker 1: fresh and new on the yard and for which But
Speaker 1: fortunately I don't have Carlotta's the same experience. First of all,
Speaker 1: I was only in there for forty eight days because
Speaker 1: it was not I was young and read with brand
Speaker 1: new TVs. There was no place, and they kicked me out.
Speaker 1: What I was the I was like a real woman
Speaker 1: in a mean and spread of injury. So they like,
Speaker 1: get the hell out of here. We got a place
Speaker 1: for you. But had that been Jeff, maybe ten years later,
Speaker 1: I would still be in there because the but then
Speaker 1: they had created wings for trans people, so they had
Speaker 1: a whole wing of gay and trans people together, which
Speaker 1: came furious because there are a lot of those, though
Speaker 1: usually usually trans uh trans women are are left in
Speaker 1: general population and have to fend for themselves. Sometimes they
Speaker 1: get like Carlotta, taken out of general population and put
Speaker 1: into solitary in a and they say that it's for
Speaker 1: their own protection, but you know, solitary is hardly up
Speaker 1: protection in the long ruin right. It's like you're isolated,
Speaker 1: you go nuts. It's you know, frustrating, it's I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just as bad, um, if not worse than being
Speaker 1: a general and population now here. Now Here wasn't kid
Speaker 1: of James. Because I have such a smooth mouthpiece. Let
Speaker 1: me say this honestly, because I can talk my way
Speaker 1: into and almost out of anything. I did not allow
Speaker 1: them to put me in solitary confinement, because that is
Speaker 1: the argument they tell you when you're in prison, if
Speaker 1: we put you in here and you can be protected.
Speaker 1: But I don't want to be alone. A I don't
Speaker 1: want to and be I knew how to defend for
Speaker 1: myself and not with just my fists, but I knew
Speaker 1: how to talk to people because I was from the streets.
Speaker 1: I was my uncle's were all gangsters and stones, and
Speaker 1: I I knew all the link go and so wait.
Speaker 1: And unfortunately, in Carlotta's experience, wasn't like that. She was
Speaker 1: just an annocent young kid who was at the wrong
Speaker 1: place at the wrong time. And if you guys have
Speaker 1: not downloaded the audio or purchased a book to read,
Speaker 1: it is the greatest read at such a roller coaster
Speaker 1: of emotions. I think, James, you impressed me the most
Speaker 1: with Carlotta's character because Carlotta had a has a son
Speaker 1: in the in the book, and I have a son,
Speaker 1: and James was like, you gave a lot of heart.
Speaker 1: I was like, because I can only imagine how being
Speaker 1: away from my side for twenty two years would have
Speaker 1: done me, and Yeah, that was a really wonderful thing
Speaker 1: to realize. UM. And that was several days in right, yeah,
Speaker 1: like but yeah, I mean there was there were You
Speaker 1: brought a lot to the to the role that I
Speaker 1: felt like I wouldn't have gotten to necessarily. Um. There
Speaker 1: are just a lot of really warm, funny moments that
Speaker 1: I think you're you bringing your own experience UM into
Speaker 1: the room. Uh really made them work in a way
Speaker 1: that they wouldn't have if it had just been me. Well,
Speaker 1: I had The reason I brought a lot to the
Speaker 1: table was because you brought it out of me, James,
Speaker 1: you are a master at spoken the bear and the
Speaker 1: spot to make it was because I'm telling you, James,
Speaker 1: I felt defeated after the first day. I also felt
Speaker 1: like I was challenging myself, but I didn't think that
Speaker 1: I had. I'm telling up that you saw that in me,
Speaker 1: pushed me. I thank you for that. I appreciate that
Speaker 1: because I would have been I ain't never doing this
Speaker 1: ship again, I ain't never doing audio. Well. Great experience
Speaker 1: and it's a great way. I want you guys to
Speaker 1: get the book, and I want you to get James
Speaker 1: as other books, which is what is it what's the
Speaker 1: first what's the first one? The first one is called
Speaker 1: God says No, God says, oh, James, how many people
Speaker 1: do you think when I'm going back to that again,
Speaker 1: the heavy set man that was not just black. It's
Speaker 1: a lot of heavy death, gay feeling love, They feel
Speaker 1: a shame. But here's here's my thing, James. I love
Speaker 1: what you said about sometimes that the church will lead
Speaker 1: you to to drugs or hate yourself. God will bring
Speaker 1: you back. I believe that. I believe that church has
Speaker 1: been so health for in the Black community and such
Speaker 1: a hindrance at the same time. And it's so tricky
Speaker 1: because you need to know who you are before you
Speaker 1: go into somebody else's in somebody's church, to say this
Speaker 1: person is going to control my life. Because in the
Speaker 1: scripture in the Bible, according to the Bible, it says
Speaker 1: that God does not even show up to man made temple.
Speaker 1: God is wherever you are. God was on that stage
Speaker 1: last night with that black dress, yell. But he's not
Speaker 1: in man made temples. And because God is in you,
Speaker 1: it's his spirit, his joy, his love is supposed to
Speaker 1: be within you. Building for so many people, especially with
Speaker 1: the Black Church, I can't speak for no other experience,
Speaker 1: because I'm only experienced with the Black Church, the Black
Speaker 1: Church and religion since so tells so many people you're wrong.
Speaker 1: You should be gay, you should be fed, you shouldn't
Speaker 1: have sex outside of marriage. So many you shouldn't, but
Speaker 1: they never encourage you to say you can or you
Speaker 1: are good enough. And I think it's disheartening, But I'm
Speaker 1: glad that my grandmother instilled in me, you are the
Speaker 1: coldest bitch on the planet. She took me six years old.
Speaker 1: I believed all the way into this age. I still believe,
Speaker 1: but you're not. I mean, I've known plenty of much
Speaker 1: colder bitches, cold like that she meant cold and getting
Speaker 1: in Black people's terms like I'm bad, cold in the bag, pastic.
Speaker 1: You know, we we have our own language, you know.
Speaker 1: That always made me feel like somebody in my family
Speaker 1: my life supported me from such a young so it
Speaker 1: made me stand on two feet to say I can,
Speaker 1: I can, as opposed to I can't. Right, I mean,
Speaker 1: there's plenty outside that's gonna tell you you can't do things.
Speaker 1: I mean, certainly if you're black, certainly, if you're queer,
Speaker 1: or along the many alphabet letters of queerness. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, the any excuse to tell you people they
Speaker 1: can't do stuff, Um, James, And I'm gonna plan to
Speaker 1: see that you here before we in this show. I
Speaker 1: want to plan to see I want you to see
Speaker 1: what I'm up against against my own community and the
Speaker 1: interaction I had with the heterosexual crowd last night because
Speaker 1: they didn't respect me. Because I came in kicking open
Speaker 1: the door. I allowed that audience to work with me.
Speaker 1: I had to crack the egg too, because they were
Speaker 1: tighter to beginning, and after that first act I had
Speaker 1: to bring them back us. He took them somewhere and
Speaker 1: dropped them off. I had to go back and get them.
Speaker 1: But I want my community to see that it is
Speaker 1: not a fight. If you take the time and let
Speaker 1: it organically happen. More people are willing to see you
Speaker 1: for who you are if you allow them the time
Speaker 1: that it takes for them to see you. It ain't
Speaker 1: gonna It's not gonna always happen overnight. And I have
Speaker 1: a different story, but you know, the basics are kind
Speaker 1: of similar. You know. Um, you know, people look at me,
Speaker 1: I'm a large black man that I think they seem
Speaker 1: to think they need to be afraid of. Sometimes they
Speaker 1: don't understand. I think I've recently started wearing glasses and
Speaker 1: now I think people understand a little bit more that
Speaker 1: there's a giant brain behind. But you know, if just
Speaker 1: you know, I think I'd give people a lot of
Speaker 1: what they're not expecting to find from somebody who has
Speaker 1: my physical characteristics. But you know, my I get a
Speaker 1: lot of strength from my late mom um. I got
Speaker 1: a lot of strength from her. Watching was love too, obviously,
Speaker 1: But you know when somebody would tell my mother that
Speaker 1: she couldn't do something, do you know what her response was,
Speaker 1: I watched me right right the challenge. I'm telling you
Speaker 1: something about us being challenge and we're like, don't tell
Speaker 1: me what I can do. Let me show you that
Speaker 1: I can't. And what I've found out in my so
Speaker 1: many years of working in the industry is because I
Speaker 1: was so strong in my presence and I was comfortable
Speaker 1: with being me and my style of dress, that a
Speaker 1: lot of times people don't know what they want until
Speaker 1: you show it to him. So I believe in showing
Speaker 1: it to him. So this is what you missing. I
Speaker 1: am very much from the Gianna Reland school of uh,
Speaker 1: philosophy about entertainment, right, do you know, Gianna Freeland, I'm
Speaker 1: waiting to move boom waiting on YouTube, explain it to me.
Speaker 1: Editor of Volk. She was kind of eccentric and she
Speaker 1: wrote all these books that are they're like really loopy
Speaker 1: um or she would say something like we need these
Speaker 1: girls with small heads in the back of the book,
Speaker 1: just like really crazy stuff. She's hilarious. But one of
Speaker 1: the things she would say most often was give the
Speaker 1: people what they never knew they want. And I've always
Speaker 1: thought that that was a wonderful way of stink to
Speaker 1: you about you know, art and commerce. Well, I just
Speaker 1: want to applaud you, Mr Hannah Hand for um being
Speaker 1: such a wonderful person teaching people, helping people. I think, James,
Speaker 1: that you will also be a bridge in the gap
Speaker 1: of us and them to make us all one, because
Speaker 1: you're so well rounded, you so versed with Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I believe that you're smooth. I watched you with the
Speaker 1: men that we worked with at that studio. Those guys
Speaker 1: I might have been a little extreme for them, but
Speaker 1: they were so even killed with you, and they came
Speaker 1: around I think that like two days they got used
Speaker 1: to me it took, but they were. I mean, I
Speaker 1: just I treat everybody as you know, equally until such
Speaker 1: time as, you know, something happens. I'm not really artically
Speaker 1: hitting this ball, but you know, like I tried to,
Speaker 1: I try to, you know, treat everybody the same um
Speaker 1: and and I expect you know, that same kind of
Speaker 1: respect back from people. And if I'm not getting it,
Speaker 1: you know, either you know, leave the scene or I
Speaker 1: make a demand at some point, and not necessarily a demand.
Speaker 1: That's just like you know, my fifth banging on a table.
Speaker 1: But just like I just don't budge from my position. Um. Yes,
Speaker 1: I don't get violent until anger out of you. I
Speaker 1: don't even James, let me ask you a person question.
Speaker 1: Have you haven't even had ever had a physical fist fight,
Speaker 1: nothing like junior high school? But yeah I have. I
Speaker 1: don't even get that from you. I mean yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I just I'm a lover, not a fighter. Is Can
Speaker 1: I say that that's Michael Jackson? I don't know if
Speaker 1: I can say that. I will don't. Can we can
Speaker 1: we talk about can we say? I mean, at last night,
Speaker 1: I'm surprised there were like a ton of Michael Jackson jokes.
Speaker 1: There were enough Bill Cosby jokes. Uh for I cannot
Speaker 1: make Michael Jackson jokes. At first of all, I love
Speaker 1: Michael Jackson. I he was the greatest entertainer of my lifetime.
Speaker 1: And our friends with his son friends. Ah, so okay,
Speaker 1: we can take we can take that out. No, but
Speaker 1: I was actually I actually was not um this I
Speaker 1: feel listening to Michael's I grew up on Michael's music.
Speaker 1: Was alright, I'm not gonna make any jokes. No you're not.
Speaker 1: I'm going to push It's fine with you, James, No, Dukes.
Speaker 1: I've applaud you. I appreciate you. Ladies and gentlemen, if
Speaker 1: you have not gotten the book. Didn't nobody to give
Speaker 1: a ship about what happened to carl It's not it's
Speaker 1: not about what happen to cos know about. It's just
Speaker 1: didn't nobody give a ship what happened to Carlina? To
Speaker 1: give a ship what happened took a lot of you
Speaker 1: would think they're saying all kinds of ways to Didn't
Speaker 1: nobody give a ship what happened to Carlata. Didn't nobody
Speaker 1: give us ship what happened to Carlina? You can emphasize
Speaker 1: each of the words in a different way and it
Speaker 1: still has the same meeting. Yes, and it is. It
Speaker 1: is a roller coast, a right of emotions. It is
Speaker 1: real life. It is a struggle, hustle, a survival, but
Speaker 1: it is a heart but all of that. And I
Speaker 1: want you guys to listen to this story or either
Speaker 1: go read the book because it is fantastic and I
Speaker 1: would have never known how great it was had Mr
Speaker 1: James Hannahan that reached out to me for the next book. James,
Speaker 1: that's a lat car latta two at the movie rights
Speaker 1: get picked up for these, James. I can see this
Speaker 1: being a great, great movie. I really see you could
Speaker 1: see this has been a great movie. I think all
Speaker 1: I can see right now is there has been some interest. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I may be able to announce something at some point
Speaker 1: A lot of in the movie. And I don't have
Speaker 1: a but I could damn shall be her best girlfriend
Speaker 1: in prison. I don't think I haven't thought about that. Da.
Speaker 1: It has been a wonderful experience. Mr Hannah Ham, thank
Speaker 1: you for coming on and talking with me here at
Speaker 1: laughing man and ladies and gentlemen, thank you too. Miss
Speaker 1: Flamed well well that's the best, Mr Hannaham and I'm no, No,
Speaker 1: you are the best. Are you leaving tomorrow? Yes, doctor
Speaker 1: in New York. But I would say I would come
Speaker 1: and have breakfast with you, but yet no, it would
Speaker 1: have to be like six in the morning, me and
Speaker 1: Earl at six in the morning, I might be up,
Speaker 1: but only part. The other part is still asleep. Oh,
Speaker 1: I love you, James Hannah Ham, thank you. Say make
Speaker 1: sure you welcome. Give me your social media handle? Oh
Speaker 1: me uh on Instagram the spectacle is real? And on Twitter,
Speaker 1: I'm just my name, James hannahm Lying teacher playing teacher.
Speaker 1: That's an old song from the eighties. Really nobody remembers it.
Speaker 1: It was by a group called Wide Boy Awake. You
Speaker 1: make sure you get the book. Did nobody give a ship?
Speaker 1: What happened to Carlata? It is with James Hannahan the author,
Speaker 1: and it is audible. The audible is them but us truly.
Speaker 1: But all the other voices that James, all the other
Speaker 1: voices that does not sound like this man great voice
Speaker 1: over character acts. So all those other voices, girl and
Speaker 1: boy is James. A lot of it is me. You
Speaker 1: can tell the same boys. You go up and down
Speaker 1: and get deep. Hey, wonderful James HANNAHM. I appreciate you, sir.
Speaker 1: Thank you likewise blame man. Y'all can follow me here
Speaker 1: on Instagram. Remember I will be in pleasant in, uh, California,
Speaker 1: March thirty one to April one. Yaker's me because I'm
Speaker 1: looking forward to meeting you and your your your step
Speaker 1: your father in law and your and Yonker. I'm looking best.
Speaker 1: That's gonna wake him up. I'm ana wake up. Uh.
Speaker 1: It's your tickets there and get your things at the
Speaker 1: box off. But each of everybody we are at free
Speaker 1: voices at the world famous Hollywood Laugh Factory on sunset
Speaker 1: from seven thirty to teen. And I don't have to
Speaker 1: tell you guys how much fun it is, James, you
Speaker 1: tell him how much? What? What was the experience like,
Speaker 1: honest because that was your first time see me on stage.
Speaker 1: It was it was outrageous, insane, but it was also
Speaker 1: you know, diverse and crazy, um and inclusive and offensive
Speaker 1: and just really funny. I laughed my face off, but
Speaker 1: that's what we want. Thank you, James. I appreciate you, James,
Speaker 1: and I will see you soon, sir. Okay, and with
Speaker 1: my model here, here, at laughing. We are not trying
Speaker 1: to get you to change your mind. We are only
Speaker 1: trying to get you to use your mind. But in
Speaker 1: order to use your mind, you have to have a man.
Speaker 1: Because the mind is the chair with following the will
Speaker 1: never get you to the target that you gat you
Speaker 1: to somebody else. Patient this don't miss an episode of
Speaker 1: Laugh and Learn. Listen and subscribe on the Black Effect
Speaker 1: Podcast Network, I Heart Radio, app or wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts. Laugh and Learned podcast is a production of
Speaker 1: the Black Effect Podcast Network and I Heart Radio. Our
Speaker 1: Ejecutive producer is Tiffany Hattish. Our theme music is by
Speaker 1: the one and only Christie Payne. Thank you guys. This
Speaker 1: is Flaming Row. Don't forget to laugh, Listen and Learn