WEBVTT - Bob Sumner Full Interview 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.840 My next guest is the executive producer Laugh Mob Laugh Tracks, 0:00:03.880 --> 0:00:06.920 which is in the second season on True TV. But 0:00:07.360 --> 0:00:10.520 let's go back. Let's go back. This is with me 0:00:10.600 --> 0:00:13.520 and him, you know, step into the world. Because he's 0:00:13.560 --> 0:00:19.200 also co created with Russell Simmons the HBO Death Comedy Jam. 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:23.120 He was working behind the scenes recruiting the best, unrecognized, 0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:26.480 unknown or just starting out comedians in the world as 0:00:26.480 --> 0:00:30.120 a producer, a talent scout, a good friend, many industry 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:34.120 influences considering him a career maker because he hitped my career. 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:36.959 I would not be sitting here if he had not 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:39.159 chosen me to be on Death Comedy Jam. We'll talk 0:00:39.200 --> 0:00:41.920 about that during the interview. He surely can be credited 0:00:41.920 --> 0:00:45.320 with discovering Bernie Mack, Dave Chappelle. I did Dave Chappelle 0:00:45.320 --> 0:00:47.960 here and I did Death Comedy Jam together. Chris Tucker, 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:50.360 Bill Bellaman, that's my board, got him on my Speed 0:00:50.360 --> 0:00:53.360 Died Secondly Entertainment. He's done my show Money Make Conversation 0:00:53.400 --> 0:00:56.400 many times. Mike ELPs, that's a fool. Did the movie 0:00:56.440 --> 0:01:00.440 with where Steve did it with be and say we 0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:03.280 did that movie together. Monique, Monique, I did our TV 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:06.800 show The Parkers, Tracy Morgan that food know about him, 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:09.479 did a comedy concert that the Houston Arena and Houston, 0:01:09.520 --> 0:01:12.120 Texas with and a multitude of other comedians. I'm just 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:14.480 letting you know what he's done. He's allowed me to 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:18.480 have a lane of participation. Please welcome to money making conversations, 0:01:18.760 --> 0:01:28.680 my man, Bob Sumner. Right now. Man, I'm so proud 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:32.520 of you. I don't know what you got that long? 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:42.880 I said, you still got that long more? Absolutely, absolutely, 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:45.920 I'm telling something. Let's let's go back, man, because you 0:01:46.000 --> 0:01:48.160 know we're gonna talk about laugh Mark, which is a 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:52.040 really it's it's you know, I've watched several episodes. I'm 0:01:52.040 --> 0:01:54.480 a fan of it because it's like a sketch comedy 0:01:54.600 --> 0:01:58.320 show tied into a stand up comedy show, which is 0:01:58.400 --> 0:02:02.440 really fascinating from a creative standpoint, because you know, I'm 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:05.280 watching that show and because of the way they produced 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:07.960 and the stand up coming, I've already done with it. 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:09.840 That's excited about because I do want to talk about 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:12.760 our journey together and the comics and comedians lives. You 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:15.359 change and the facts changed the way we we look 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:19.640 at comedy today. From Steve Harvey to Eccentric Entertainment. Who's 0:02:19.680 --> 0:02:22.919 on CBS right now, Dio hugually has a syndicated a 0:02:23.040 --> 0:02:25.960 nationally syndicated show. And of course Bernie Mack, who would 0:02:26.000 --> 0:02:29.480 always be legendary and what he did. Unfortunately health reasons 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:31.880 took him away. But there are other comics out there 0:02:31.919 --> 0:02:34.839 who walked on that stage, who was established, who still 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:37.320 came on that stage and you know, built their brand out. 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:39.680 And we're talking like the you know, the Chris Tucker 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:44.160 did five minutes and then became an international star five 0:02:44.240 --> 0:02:52.000 minutes on Death Comedy. You know, you know Andy Grifford, 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:56.120 he did Michael Jackson and become a superstar, saying wow, man, 0:02:56.440 --> 0:02:58.880 let me, can I just think before we go into 0:02:59.040 --> 0:03:01.720 all of that, you had something already that you pretty 0:03:01.760 --> 0:03:06.359 much hit the nail on the head man Um in 0:03:06.560 --> 0:03:11.280 terms of why why this show um was created, Laugh minds, 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:16.400 laugh tracks was really based on America. Really didn't know 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:20.480 how Death Comedy jam was built? You do? You do? 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:23.400 You know everybody always see the faces? Do you know 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:27.080 the big names? Definite? Like everybody thinks that Diana Ross 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:30.400 discovered the Jackson fives, and really it was Bobby Tella 0:03:30.840 --> 0:03:35.040 from the Vancouver's. You know, people don't know that that part. 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:39.960 But um, what happened with me was I watched the 0:03:40.200 --> 0:03:44.040 landscape of where comedy had gone out of the nineties, 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:46.680 you know, out of the nineties. Man, everybody was getting 0:03:46.680 --> 0:03:50.720 the sitcoms. People was meeting people said, didn't know Steve, 0:03:51.280 --> 0:03:53.800 but they came to Death Comedy Jam and got a 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:58.080 TV show. Tracy Morgan didn't know Martin, but he did 0:03:58.160 --> 0:04:00.120 what he did and then he got on the right 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:03.040 and show so many things like that, including you know, 0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:06.080 I brought Dolomite to Deaf Comedy Jam. I bought while 0:04:06.200 --> 0:04:09.440 man Steve the Deaf Comedy Jam to mix the new 0:04:09.600 --> 0:04:14.000 with the old. And what happened is when Deaf Comedy 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:17.560 Jam went off the air, and then the HBO brought 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:21.000 the Chris Rocks Show into light and things of that nature. 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:25.719 People don't understand that. And you know for a fact, 0:04:25.839 --> 0:04:28.800 I was going all over the country finding these comedians 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:31.720 in little hole in the walls and this, that and 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:35.200 the other, and it just became magical after a while. 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:39.160 But then all of that stopped and I kept the 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:42.320 show going on the road where Kevin Hart won a 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:45.520 contest for me Cocobe Brown wont to contest for me 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:49.080 se Ray Davis. So the talent was still there, but 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:53.440 we didn't really have a vehicle to for them. So 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:58.400 with that being said, you know, the two thousand and 0:04:58.480 --> 0:05:01.960 two thousand and ten, some of these people started coming on, 0:05:02.640 --> 0:05:05.440 but I knew that there was the next generation. Just 0:05:05.680 --> 0:05:09.799 like after Michael Jordan's you had Kobe Bryant doing Lebron James, 0:05:10.279 --> 0:05:13.520 the same thing goes with comedy. So I decided to 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:16.960 go to l A and trying to build the brand. Okay, 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:21.279 my own brand and and and laugh Mob is nothing 0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:23.720 more than the affter them. For MOB is more of 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:27.680 Bob's best. So what I would do is I would 0:05:27.720 --> 0:05:31.440 go into these these big offices and talk to these people. 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:34.440 But nobody really knew that it was Bob something that 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:37.520 did this. And I'm trying to bring them a sketch 0:05:37.560 --> 0:05:42.000 show as possible so more fresh stand up. Nobody's hearing me. 0:05:42.440 --> 0:05:45.400 So you know what happened. I said, I'll just do 0:05:45.600 --> 0:05:49.279 it myself and do it in a certain way where 0:05:49.600 --> 0:05:53.200 I can take all these stand up comedians who don't 0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:56.960 have great tapes. You know, after the show, they're trying 0:05:57.000 --> 0:05:59.760 to pedal their tapes, but you get the tape and 0:06:00.200 --> 0:06:04.080 like um video from shows, comic view or whatever that 0:06:04.160 --> 0:06:06.880 they've been or nobody wants that. They want something fresh. 0:06:07.520 --> 0:06:10.040 So also you could take a fresh tape. If I 0:06:10.160 --> 0:06:14.760 identify who deserves a half hour or hour special, I'll 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:17.800 shoot it myself and then try to sell it to 0:06:17.880 --> 0:06:21.240 a showtime or HBO, which it actually worked. But I 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:24.320 took all of the sixteen hours of material that I 0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:27.440 had the audio, and I treated it just like a 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:32.000 Thanksgiving turkey. Okay, you take that material and just like 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:35.440 you take a turkey and you and you have the turkey, 0:06:35.760 --> 0:06:40.240 then you turn it into uh um, a turkey sandwich, 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:44.479 U turkey, catch a roll um, you turn it into 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:47.680 turkey hash. You turn it into turkey. You know, you 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:49.520 just do that. And that's what I did with the 0:06:49.880 --> 0:06:53.560 stand up. And we took the audio that had stories, 0:06:53.680 --> 0:06:56.880 the comedians that had stories to tell, and some guys 0:06:56.960 --> 0:06:59.440 out of my office decided that they're going to try 0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:03.200 to take and turn them into comedy videos and we 0:07:03.279 --> 0:07:06.960 put them on YouTube. We started getting sixty seventy million views. 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:09.800 Before you know it, it comes to networks trying to 0:07:10.240 --> 0:07:11.840 you know, how can we be a part of this 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:14.520 right here we are all. You know, first of all, 0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:17.680 let's let's really if you watch the shows. If you 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:20.120 watch the show, I'm telling the stand up comic is 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:23.560 on stage, okay, during his routine, and then they will 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:27.320 seamlessly transition into a video that they're referencing their stand 0:07:27.360 --> 0:07:30.280 up comic, and you're seeing. This is the cool thing 0:07:30.320 --> 0:07:34.400 about it. The actor or actors that they've chosen are 0:07:34.560 --> 0:07:39.640 lip sinking the dialogue from the comedian. I mean, dead on, 0:07:40.080 --> 0:07:42.960 dead on. That's what I really loved about it because 0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:45.320 I was like, wow, I mean, so whether it's a 0:07:45.440 --> 0:07:48.360 child actor or an adult actor, they are matching it. 0:07:48.560 --> 0:07:51.080 You know, male, female, it doesn't matter. And that to 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:55.080 me is a female comedian or male comedian. That's what 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:58.440 I really really loved about the show. Was like, wow, 0:07:58.640 --> 0:08:01.160 this is really slick. You know, I got the re 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:04.520 enactment of the comedy routine, but to be able to 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:08.600 have the comic on stage and then to take give 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:10.880 you the visual of their joke. That's what you're doing, 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:13.840 the visual of their joke while they're doing the routine. 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:17.480 It's pretty impressive. Ball that's pretty pretty that's pretty pretty creative. Brother, 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:23.320 Thanks man, thanks, but again, Jim, Jim, Marv, this kid, 0:08:23.440 --> 0:08:26.240 jimmal and carlos Man. You know, we would just be 0:08:26.360 --> 0:08:29.520 hanging out and be talking about different ideas and stuff. 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:32.599 And they sent me that first one on YouTube and 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:36.080 Led Grant with the kid with Tony Baker playing Red 0:08:36.240 --> 0:08:39.760 Glant and it was to the kid. The father didn't 0:08:39.800 --> 0:08:43.040 want the kid, right, you know. And then I had 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:48.800 with g and you know, this is long before the phenomenon, 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:52.480 you know, but that's the beat of you. You have 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:54.319 an eye for talent. When we come back, gonna talk 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:57.880 about you. How he discovered Rushawan McDonald as he told 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:00.200 me no, and then I had to do some work 0:09:00.280 --> 0:09:02.560 to get on death Comedy. Jab. This is our relationship 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:05.800 really started. Bob Something that brother, I'm so happy. I'm 0:09:05.880 --> 0:09:08.199 so proud of you. Just hearing your voice. I love 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:10.360 that little grabbling voice to yours. Bad. I know I'm 0:09:10.400 --> 0:09:13.599 talking to my man, Bom Something. He created it. He 0:09:13.679 --> 0:09:16.319 made us all man. He opened a gateway of success 0:09:16.400 --> 0:09:20.040 for African American comedians in a very general market world. 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:23.800 We'll be back with more money making conversations. I just 0:09:23.840 --> 0:09:26.520 with Sean McDonald and you're listening to money making conversations. 0:09:26.679 --> 0:09:28.800 He's on the show. When I said he's on the show, 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:31.120 is that the executive producer of Laugh made that's m 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:34.160 O B B Laugh Tracks, which is in its second 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:36.840 season on True TV. But the heart of our conversation 0:09:37.000 --> 0:09:40.839 is relationships. Uh, you know, how do you extend a 0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:43.760 body of work over years, over decades? How do you 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:48.360 how do you allow comedy? Like some people said, comedy 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:52.360 can be uh, throwback comedy can be current comedy, especially 0:09:52.400 --> 0:09:56.120 nowadays when comedy is being a PC me too. You know, 0:09:56.160 --> 0:09:58.120 you can't do the jokes that you did in the naties. 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:00.760 You know, in fact, some people comed who done jokes 0:10:00.800 --> 0:10:03.400 in the nanties have gotten in trouble because of the 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:06.480 people went back and found it on on social media, 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:08.959 founding on an old comedy special. So when I look 0:10:09.000 --> 0:10:11.360 at your show that you're doing now, Bob, you know 0:10:11.440 --> 0:10:13.840 what I'm talking about. You know, in Death Death Comedy 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:16.240 Jam came out. You know I did, I taped in 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:20.079 the N two. How how's your how's your view on 0:10:20.160 --> 0:10:23.079 stand up comedy today? With the rules being changed so much? 0:10:25.320 --> 0:10:29.520 You know, it's really interesting how the rules have changed. 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:32.959 Where you know, I I go back to the days 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:38.040 when you could smoke cigarette, you had cigarette commercials. You know, 0:10:38.400 --> 0:10:41.360 I go, I go back to the days when you 0:10:41.440 --> 0:10:46.280 couldn't watch Elvis from the waist down, you know, and 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:51.920 it was back then, and now you have comedy. The 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:55.800 comedians can't be politically you know, they have to be 0:10:55.920 --> 0:11:00.640 politically correct and everything. Yet on your smartphone you can 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:05.160 watch porny. Like I don't, I don't understand what what's 0:11:05.240 --> 0:11:09.360 going on in terms of I I was always told 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:13.760 that it was a thing called freedom of speech, right, 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:17.400 but now it doesn't seem like it's it's flowing that way, 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:20.800 and I don't know. I don't know what to say 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:25.040 or do about it. But I also think that part 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:28.520 of the reason why. And I have this term called 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:33.640 social medias, okay, and those are those comedians that you 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:39.400 see on YouTube for three minutes being like silly. Those 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:42.280 are the people that are getting booked now because they're 0:11:42.360 --> 0:11:47.160 not saying anything, you know, they're not saying anything relevant 0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:50.400 to how people are living. And that's what stand up 0:11:50.480 --> 0:11:53.440 for me was stand up was an art, not a hustle, 0:11:54.200 --> 0:11:57.880 right right. So so I'm kind of like, I'm kind 0:11:57.920 --> 0:12:00.480 of like toring. Even when I look at David, you 0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:05.319 know the six stays. You know, he's the same stand 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:08.120 up commuting that he was when I met him when 0:12:08.160 --> 0:12:10.559 he was eighteen years or you know what I mean. 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:13.800 It's just that the things that he was saying then 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:17.360 nobody was really paying attention to. But now since he's 0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:22.040 become a star, people are dissecting everything he says. But 0:12:22.240 --> 0:12:28.280 everything he says is real life stuff, right, So I 0:12:28.360 --> 0:12:31.120 don't know, I don't I don't know how to take it. Yeah, well, 0:12:31.160 --> 0:12:34.040 I know that that as a as a stand up 0:12:34.040 --> 0:12:35.559 I'm gonna be stand up till I die, you know, 0:12:35.600 --> 0:12:38.120 because I'm naturally funny. I don't go out there and 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:41.439 do set routines. But I know. And when Death Comedy 0:12:41.520 --> 0:12:46.319 Jam came out on HBO, uh, you had to audition 0:12:46.880 --> 0:12:49.920 live or you could send a tape to Mr Bob something. 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:55.120 Well Roa McDonald but got his best tape since the Barb, 0:12:55.160 --> 0:12:57.679 and Barb was frank. He said, Rashan, look listen to Rashan. 0:12:58.200 --> 0:13:02.160 You are funny, but all your performances are in front 0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:04.880 of white audiences, he said. He said, I don't know 0:13:05.800 --> 0:13:09.040 if your comedy will translate like that. He said, do 0:13:09.280 --> 0:13:10.960 you have to go and show me what you can 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:14.640 do in front of an audience that their favorites with 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:17.640 death comedy Jam does No. He was just protecting me. 0:13:18.000 --> 0:13:19.840 But Bob didn't want to do was just he wouldn't. 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:22.000 He wasn't putting people out there just be booking him. 0:13:22.240 --> 0:13:24.280 He had an eye for the understanding. This is the 0:13:24.320 --> 0:13:26.719 market we're going after. What you're doing over there, you 0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:29.520 kill it, you kill it, but it may not translate. 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:32.199 And until you can show me that it will translate, 0:13:32.480 --> 0:13:35.040 I gotta hold off on the opportunity with death comedy Jam. 0:13:35.679 --> 0:13:38.040 So so what I had to do. I had to 0:13:38.120 --> 0:13:41.080 go to Oakland Ball. Bob said, Hey, I said, Bob, 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:43.680 they have an Oakly Comedy competition. He has the right 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:45.760 place to go with shall that's the right place to go. 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:49.800 And I went out there. I went out there and 0:13:49.920 --> 0:13:52.599 I killed. I made the finals of the competition, and 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:55.720 Bob said, you know something, you can do death comedition 0:13:55.760 --> 0:13:58.280 and he booked me. But I had to work. I 0:13:58.360 --> 0:14:00.520 had to work, you know. I. You know the thing 0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:02.280 about it, The reason I tell people that story is 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:05.920 that it shows you that you had rules I could have. 0:14:06.160 --> 0:14:08.200 I could have powered it. I could have bad mouth 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:09.680 box on it. But he should look at it, Bro, 0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:13.599 You're funny because I'm not in the business of embarrassing you. 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:16.680 A book and a show with comics, you don't deliver 0:14:16.800 --> 0:14:20.320 results on the show, I lose my job too. Yeah. 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:23.040 The funny thing about that, though, is, you know, the 0:14:23.120 --> 0:14:26.600 Bay Area Comedy Competition is finally coming back after this 0:14:26.800 --> 0:14:30.480 long high. Edita also, I think that that that was 0:14:30.680 --> 0:14:33.920 very important for a stand up comedian to see if 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:37.280 they really had the chops and not that really differentiated 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:42.560 the real comedians with the comics, and see you as 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:45.600 a real comedian and you was able to take it. 0:14:46.280 --> 0:14:48.680 He was able to take what I had said to 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:51.520 you and work on it, and then you came out 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:55.320 there and it was like yes, and Bob was right. 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:57.760 I just shifted up a little bit. Now, I just 0:14:57.880 --> 0:15:01.600 shifted up a little bit because if I just walked 0:15:01.640 --> 0:15:05.560 out that, you know, that's a beauty. And in our relationship, 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:07.640 you know, open a very popular comedy club called the 0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:10.400 Hip Hop Comedy Stuff. He came down to Houston audition 0:15:10.480 --> 0:15:13.040 and comedians there. So that's what we're talking about relationship. 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:15.520 It was not only from a standpoint he and I 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:20.280 shared the same love giving people opportunities, finding fresh talent 0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:22.920 and exposed them to a bigger model. And that's what 0:15:23.040 --> 0:15:26.040 your show doing right now with with Laugh Mall Laugh Tracks, 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:28.640 which is in the second season on True TV. Now 0:15:29.320 --> 0:15:30.920 you know the other part to it, though, I just 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:34.840 wanted to add and is you didn't have to. It 0:15:34.960 --> 0:15:37.160 didn't just because that Cham didn't mean to go out 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:40.360 there and just be runchy. But it's such about where 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:43.120 you are with with your stand up you know what 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:46.920 I mean. It's just about being funny. You was never runchy, 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:50.240 but you was able just to be like funny with it. 0:15:50.400 --> 0:15:54.320 And what happens with last Mob Laugh Tracks is I'm 0:15:54.440 --> 0:16:00.680 thinking stand up comedy, the jokes that you could paint 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:03.680 the picture of the story that you're telling. It ain't 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:06.920 a one minute on and off. It's a three minute 0:16:07.040 --> 0:16:10.880 story with the beginning, a middle, and an end. You know. 0:16:11.360 --> 0:16:13.680 So I think that what we're doing this last on 0:16:13.800 --> 0:16:17.320 our Lab Tractors, they're bringing stand up comedy back to 0:16:17.440 --> 0:16:20.120 the part form that it was so you can see 0:16:20.280 --> 0:16:23.600 more of African Americans and you know, just people with 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:28.560 flavor even have stands, um have sitcoms because you know, 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:33.280 from Ray Romano to d l Too to Berney. Their 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:37.080 sitcoms was based off of their stand up. You know, 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:40.880 that's where it is. Yeah, you know, it's really funny 0:16:40.880 --> 0:16:42.360 because you know what I was looking at. I was going, like, 0:16:42.440 --> 0:16:44.680 my routine I should do on snoring. How's it the 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:47.800 people who fall asleep? Who snore managed to fall asleep first? 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:51.320 You know that we are a perfect routine for what 0:16:51.440 --> 0:16:53.480 you're doing, because that whole time, while I'm doing a routine, 0:16:53.760 --> 0:16:55.760 you see a guy in the bed, he's snowing, his 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:58.280 wife looking at him going sounded like a fog horn 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:00.920 over there. All that are out of the house. You know, 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:04.800 you know we're doing a little So that's so I was. 0:17:04.880 --> 0:17:07.000 I was, I was, I was having so much fun 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:09.800 looking at the creative side of it. But I'm gonna 0:17:09.840 --> 0:17:11.600 just tell you what sold me on. It was the 0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:15.720 lip sync being able to match up the dialogue of 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:19.200 what the actors were saying with what the comedian was saying. 0:17:19.520 --> 0:17:21.720 That was, I'm gonna tell you some man that is 0:17:21.880 --> 0:17:25.680 dead on from a comedic standpoint, Dude, I participate in 0:17:25.800 --> 0:17:26.920 be a part of the end of day of the 0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:30.560 week because you're not. You're not. Because I remember a 0:17:30.600 --> 0:17:33.399 long time ago, you know, when they had BT comic view, 0:17:33.440 --> 0:17:36.119 they tried to do something like this, but they did it. 0:17:36.240 --> 0:17:39.640 So but if the comics came across in a negative light, 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:43.680 and so this right here is so positive. Plus, man, 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:46.080 you can just drop those videos on social media, go 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:49.160 viral because you're telling the story because, like you said, 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:52.520 it really is on a bigger perspective. Whether it's Tim 0:17:52.600 --> 0:17:55.439 Allen you know what I'm saying, or like s Ray Romano, 0:17:55.960 --> 0:17:59.600 Uh Seinfeld, Steve Harvey. All these people are doing are 0:17:59.640 --> 0:18:02.840 taking license of their comedic life and putting it too 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:05.320 a half hour sitcom. That's what you're doing with multiple 0:18:05.359 --> 0:18:08.200 community is the other part to it. Though the other 0:18:08.359 --> 0:18:12.080 part too, it is okay, you take a song, all right, 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:14.359 No different than and when you talk about the lip 0:18:14.480 --> 0:18:17.639 syncing and stuff, people would go to soul training and 0:18:17.760 --> 0:18:22.600 take your lips and soul. Right did you take this? 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:26.240 You take a joke like you teat to the joke 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:30.320 like it's your soone, okay. Instead of making a music 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:34.399 video now you're making in comedy video base once of 0:18:34.520 --> 0:18:38.440 your three minutes. Yes, so now what happens is you 0:18:38.640 --> 0:18:41.240 own that thing. So when other people were out of 0:18:41.280 --> 0:18:43.040 here like it was this thing and people could have 0:18:43.160 --> 0:18:46.600 the same premise, but how do you present it? This 0:18:46.800 --> 0:18:49.760 is the way you present that you're my love is Free, 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:52.719 And somebody else might have the same song my Love 0:18:52.960 --> 0:18:55.480 is Free, but it's done a different way. You know 0:18:55.560 --> 0:18:58.240 what I mean. But it's your, it's your song, it's 0:18:58.280 --> 0:19:00.840 your it's your joke. I'll tell this is talking to 0:19:00.880 --> 0:19:04.320 Bob Sumner. He's the executive producer of Laugh Mall Laugh Tracks, 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:06.800 which is in the second season on True TV, and 0:19:06.880 --> 0:19:10.000 incredible founder of Comedians. He's an impact of careers, not 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:12.880 only in my careers, but careers like Cedric the entertainer 0:19:13.000 --> 0:19:16.040 of course, Bernie mc monique. The list goes on, Chris Tucker, 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:18.120 The list goes on and on, people who have changed 0:19:18.160 --> 0:19:20.639 the landscape. You know, I look at you like a 0:19:20.720 --> 0:19:23.879 grandfather of all of us because of the fact that you, 0:19:24.280 --> 0:19:26.240 you know, you touched us in such a cool way. 0:19:26.480 --> 0:19:28.960 Ball when you look at you know, like when I 0:19:29.000 --> 0:19:30.560 looked at the fact of what Steve and I did 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:33.880 for daytime television, you know, family, if you talk show, 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:36.440 and I look at Cedric when I was interviewing Cedric said, 0:19:36.480 --> 0:19:38.680 that's et Cedric seeing you on CVS, I said, I 0:19:38.760 --> 0:19:40.800 know you did the w B. I know you did 0:19:40.840 --> 0:19:43.200 the but you on CBS now and he went, You're 0:19:43.280 --> 0:19:46.359 right with Shawn, that's a big difference. You know, I 0:19:46.480 --> 0:19:48.440 look at that man, you know, I look at I. 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:51.560 I just I just marvel man at the uh at 0:19:51.600 --> 0:19:55.359 what what what's being accomplished across the board? Well? What 0:19:55.600 --> 0:19:57.520 what is your take on all that? Man? Because because 0:19:57.560 --> 0:20:00.639 all you were doing was just looking for known talent 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:03.000 or some talent that was known and putting on a show. 0:20:03.200 --> 0:20:06.560 HBO green lit the show and and it turned into 0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:11.639 a phenomenon, man selling out arenas. Wow, Well my thing 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:14.760 is this man? And in my lane, nobody was really 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:17.800 doing a lot of things I was doing, Like, for one, 0:20:18.000 --> 0:20:20.040 you know, I started out in the music industry and 0:20:20.119 --> 0:20:24.000 I was a DJ, and I bought the DJ constant 0:20:24.280 --> 0:20:27.960 to commity. You know, That's why I had plead the 0:20:28.080 --> 0:20:30.760 d jay on the Comedy Game, because I was doing 0:20:30.880 --> 0:20:34.600 that in my little rooms that I had, And you 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:37.840 know I always did that. Um Berry Gordy and what 0:20:38.000 --> 0:20:42.720 he did with um taking all these young talented artists 0:20:42.760 --> 0:20:44.760 out of the boost the projects and what have you 0:20:45.320 --> 0:20:48.800 and churched them into superstars and music I pretty much 0:20:48.880 --> 0:20:52.119 wanted to do that same thing this comedy, and a 0:20:52.200 --> 0:20:55.480 couple of a couple of quotes that happened recently that 0:20:55.640 --> 0:20:58.520 I saw that was kind of interesting. Mike Epps in 0:20:58.640 --> 0:21:02.800 Every magazine stated that I was like the Yoda or 0:21:02.960 --> 0:21:08.960 Mozart of And it was crazy because just Um recently 0:21:09.040 --> 0:21:12.280 Academy Award winner who's one of my best friends, Regina King, 0:21:12.880 --> 0:21:15.280 we was on the teleconference and she was trying to 0:21:15.480 --> 0:21:19.200 explain to the people who I was, and she said, 0:21:19.280 --> 0:21:24.680 if anybody saw Reggie Hudland's Um Black Godfather, The Story 0:21:24.760 --> 0:21:28.800 of Clarence Ablon, the documentary, she said, well, if Clarence 0:21:28.880 --> 0:21:32.640 Aberhood was you know who he is. To the music industry. 0:21:33.119 --> 0:21:36.880 She said that I'm the black guy from the comedy. 0:21:37.520 --> 0:21:40.040 And when you look at it, when it goes back 0:21:40.320 --> 0:21:44.920 to the continent, you know, there's there's only a few 0:21:45.840 --> 0:21:49.840 comedians who I haven't had an imprint on that are 0:21:49.880 --> 0:21:53.359 doing big things right now. And one of them, like 0:21:53.520 --> 0:21:56.080 when we talked about you know, your your career, and 0:21:56.240 --> 0:21:58.920 how I had said to you you needed to like 0:21:59.080 --> 0:22:02.080 try to find you know, what you're doing, so you 0:22:02.119 --> 0:22:05.120 could come over to you know, the urban side of things. 0:22:05.560 --> 0:22:07.520 The same thing happened with a young lady by the 0:22:07.560 --> 0:22:11.600 name of one to site. Okay, I'm so happy to 0:22:11.760 --> 0:22:16.080 see Wanda in her career, but she fell in right 0:22:16.200 --> 0:22:20.119 when Deaf Jim was moving out, and and and and 0:22:20.240 --> 0:22:23.119 the trip is. Wanda used to be my go to, 0:22:23.359 --> 0:22:26.200 like you as my Houston go to. One of the 0:22:26.760 --> 0:22:28.920 Wanda would be the one who would set up my 0:22:29.040 --> 0:22:33.879 showcases in the d c A. But she never once said, Bob, 0:22:34.200 --> 0:22:36.400 I'm doing this for you put me on the show 0:22:36.960 --> 0:22:39.520