1
00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:01,880
Speaker 1: I just announced all my tour dates. It's called the

2
00:00:02,080 --> 00:00:12,040
Speaker 1: High and Mighty Tour. I'm coming to Washington, d c Norfolk, Virginia, Madison, Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Detroit, Michigan, Cleveland, Columbus,

3
00:00:12,080 --> 00:00:19,680
Speaker 1: and Cincinnati, Ohio, Denver, Colorado, Portland, Maine, Providence, Rhode Island, Springfield, Massachusetts, Chicago,

4
00:00:19,800 --> 00:00:27,000
Speaker 1: of Course, Indianapolis, Indiana, Louisville, Kentucky, Albuquerque, Masa, Arizona, Kansas City, Missouri,

5
00:00:27,360 --> 00:00:34,080
Speaker 1: Saint Louis, Missouri, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Nashville, Tennessee, Charlotte, North Carolina, Durham,

6
00:00:34,080 --> 00:00:40,519
Speaker 1: North of Carolina, Saratoga, California, Monterey, California, Modeesto, California, and

7
00:00:40,720 --> 00:00:47,599
Speaker 1: port Chester, New York, Boston, Massachusetts, Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington.

8
00:00:48,120 --> 00:00:51,960
Speaker 1: I will be touring from February through June, So go

9
00:00:52,040 --> 00:00:54,000
Speaker 1: get your tickets now. If you want to come see

10
00:00:54,040 --> 00:00:57,080
Speaker 1: me perform, I will be on the High and Mighty Tour.

11
00:00:58,240 --> 00:01:00,920
Speaker 2: Hi Catherine, Hi, Chelsea. How are you.

12
00:01:01,480 --> 00:01:03,800
Speaker 3: I'm wonderful and you're in.

13
00:01:03,560 --> 00:01:06,320
Speaker 2: An Arctico right now. I am in the Southern Hemisphere

14
00:01:06,440 --> 00:01:06,919
Speaker 2: right now.

15
00:01:07,200 --> 00:01:11,320
Speaker 1: I am hiding in a closet recording this introduction to you.

16
00:01:11,959 --> 00:01:13,959
Speaker 1: I can't tell you what's going on yet because I'm

17
00:01:13,959 --> 00:01:17,080
Speaker 1: going to download everyone when I get back. So it

18
00:01:17,120 --> 00:01:19,080
Speaker 1: has been transcendental.

19
00:01:20,560 --> 00:01:23,800
Speaker 3: Well, since everybody is dealing with Thanksgiving stuff, we'll get

20
00:01:23,840 --> 00:01:24,360
Speaker 3: right into it.

21
00:01:24,400 --> 00:01:26,880
Speaker 2: But our guests today had a great book. I really

22
00:01:26,959 --> 00:01:27,360
Speaker 2: loved it.

23
00:01:27,560 --> 00:01:30,080
Speaker 1: You know, our guests today from The Daily Show and CNNs.

24
00:01:30,200 --> 00:01:32,560
Speaker 1: Have I got news for you. He is here to

25
00:01:32,600 --> 00:01:35,520
Speaker 1: talk about his new book, The Man of Many Fathers,

26
00:01:35,920 --> 00:01:39,800
Speaker 1: Life Lessons disguised as a memoir. You're listening to Roy

27
00:01:39,840 --> 00:01:42,520
Speaker 1: Wood Junior on this episode of Dear Chelsea, and I

28
00:01:42,560 --> 00:01:44,480
Speaker 1: have to say, let me tell you something, Roy.

29
00:01:44,840 --> 00:01:47,200
Speaker 2: From a woman to a straight man, it is.

30
00:01:47,200 --> 00:01:50,400
Speaker 1: So refreshing, Catherine, I think you would agree to read

31
00:01:50,560 --> 00:01:54,120
Speaker 1: a book by a straight man that is so reflective

32
00:01:54,680 --> 00:02:00,760
Speaker 1: and self aware, and it was really just such a

33
00:02:00,800 --> 00:02:04,640
Speaker 1: great book, like thank you for women to read and

34
00:02:04,720 --> 00:02:08,920
Speaker 1: for mothers to read about how to raise a good man.

35
00:02:09,600 --> 00:02:12,160
Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of stuff in here about

36
00:02:12,560 --> 00:02:16,040
Speaker 1: that and your relationship with your mother more specifically, and

37
00:02:16,120 --> 00:02:19,080
Speaker 1: your relationship with your father. So let's start there with

38
00:02:19,120 --> 00:02:22,600
Speaker 1: your relationship with your father, because you didn't really start

39
00:02:22,600 --> 00:02:25,600
Speaker 1: out living with your father. Your mom and you you

40
00:02:25,639 --> 00:02:28,320
Speaker 1: guys lived alone for a while, and then you started

41
00:02:28,360 --> 00:02:30,320
Speaker 1: to get into a little bit of trouble, and she

42
00:02:30,480 --> 00:02:33,440
Speaker 1: decided to move so that you could be close to

43
00:02:33,480 --> 00:02:36,400
Speaker 1: your father. So she essentially got back together with your

44
00:02:36,440 --> 00:02:41,520
Speaker 1: father in a kind of open relationship because you started

45
00:02:41,560 --> 00:02:42,160
Speaker 1: to act up.

46
00:02:42,360 --> 00:02:45,760
Speaker 4: Yeah, now that I'm older, I can say I don't

47
00:02:45,760 --> 00:02:47,720
Speaker 4: think she ever got back with him. She moved in.

48
00:02:48,560 --> 00:02:51,160
Speaker 4: We moved back in with them, which is a different

49
00:02:51,240 --> 00:02:53,760
Speaker 4: dynamic because they never slept in the same bedroom like

50
00:02:53,840 --> 00:02:58,120
Speaker 4: my parents, never as far as I know, ever had

51
00:02:58,200 --> 00:03:02,880
Speaker 4: sex again. But the idea of I'm a single mom,

52
00:03:03,160 --> 00:03:05,880
Speaker 4: I work all day, I'm in grad school all night.

53
00:03:05,960 --> 00:03:08,200
Speaker 4: I cannot keep an eye on him. I will lose

54
00:03:08,280 --> 00:03:10,679
Speaker 4: him to the streets if I don't make this choice.

55
00:03:10,720 --> 00:03:14,320
Speaker 4: So in a lot of ways, I think that my

56
00:03:14,440 --> 00:03:19,440
Speaker 4: mother sacrificed her own happiness and comfort in a way

57
00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:23,440
Speaker 4: to ensure that I had some degree of upbringing having

58
00:03:23,440 --> 00:03:24,440
Speaker 4: a male in the house.

59
00:03:24,760 --> 00:03:28,200
Speaker 1: So you guys moved to Birmingham right when you moved

60
00:03:28,200 --> 00:03:29,160
Speaker 1: back in with your father.

61
00:03:29,600 --> 00:03:30,959
Speaker 4: Okay, correct, they're great.

62
00:03:31,440 --> 00:03:33,080
Speaker 2: So but you talk in the book.

63
00:03:33,120 --> 00:03:34,800
Speaker 1: We're going to jump around a little bit because in

64
00:03:34,840 --> 00:03:36,960
Speaker 1: the book, since you just brought it up in the book.

65
00:03:37,360 --> 00:03:40,120
Speaker 1: You talk about your dad's other you know, he had

66
00:03:40,200 --> 00:03:42,560
Speaker 1: children with another woman, He had two young sons with

67
00:03:42,600 --> 00:03:44,960
Speaker 1: another woman, and you talk about her coming over to

68
00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:48,600
Speaker 1: your mom's house or your parents' house, and your mom

69
00:03:48,720 --> 00:03:50,960
Speaker 1: flipping out and being like, as long as I don't

70
00:03:50,960 --> 00:03:53,040
Speaker 1: see any of these women, it's okay, but don't bring

71
00:03:53,080 --> 00:03:55,720
Speaker 1: them around here, which implies that they were in some

72
00:03:55,760 --> 00:03:57,360
Speaker 1: sort of romantic relationship.

73
00:03:57,440 --> 00:04:01,440
Speaker 4: No, yeah, I guess some sort of open relationship, or

74
00:04:01,560 --> 00:04:05,160
Speaker 4: you're disrespecting me because I'm your wife, but you have kids,

75
00:04:05,480 --> 00:04:08,240
Speaker 4: and you take this woman out all over town to

76
00:04:08,320 --> 00:04:11,200
Speaker 4: the point where people thought that was my mom, Like

77
00:04:11,280 --> 00:04:14,600
Speaker 4: anytime I Pop stepped out, it was with her, And

78
00:04:14,640 --> 00:04:18,200
Speaker 4: so for my mom, I think it was I know

79
00:04:18,279 --> 00:04:20,719
Speaker 4: what's happening, but I'm gonna keep my head down. The

80
00:04:20,760 --> 00:04:23,640
Speaker 4: money I'm saving on rent, I'm pouring into law school,

81
00:04:23,839 --> 00:04:26,920
Speaker 4: and then I'm gonna fucking leave you. In the meantime.

82
00:04:27,600 --> 00:04:29,520
Speaker 4: These women are not gonna be so blatant with the

83
00:04:29,520 --> 00:04:31,479
Speaker 4: disrespect that they think that they can just come over

84
00:04:31,520 --> 00:04:34,120
Speaker 4: to your house and say hello to you or check

85
00:04:34,160 --> 00:04:37,520
Speaker 4: in with you and things like that. And so that's

86
00:04:37,560 --> 00:04:40,120
Speaker 4: where my mom drew the line. My mom is very

87
00:04:40,160 --> 00:04:43,279
Speaker 4: gangster man like, I just think that it's not a

88
00:04:43,320 --> 00:04:46,600
Speaker 4: part of herself that she likes to access. I mean,

89
00:04:46,600 --> 00:04:48,839
Speaker 4: she went toe to toe Jim Crow in Mississippi in

90
00:04:48,839 --> 00:04:51,560
Speaker 4: the sixties. She was the first wave of students to

91
00:04:51,600 --> 00:04:56,720
Speaker 4: integrate Delta State University, a university that, as of recent

92
00:04:56,920 --> 00:04:59,880
Speaker 4: is in the news because of two black people Bey

93
00:05:00,200 --> 00:05:04,240
Speaker 4: found hunged. So she's talked a lot of shit to

94
00:05:04,360 --> 00:05:06,680
Speaker 4: a lot of people in strange places and could have

95
00:05:06,720 --> 00:05:09,640
Speaker 4: paid a much larger price. So no, she's not gonna

96
00:05:09,680 --> 00:05:12,360
Speaker 4: be scared of some random woman coming to the house

97
00:05:12,360 --> 00:05:14,960
Speaker 4: trying to cuss my daddy out. You gonna get You're

98
00:05:14,960 --> 00:05:15,920
Speaker 4: gonna get slapped up.

99
00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:18,160
Speaker 2: Well, she's gonna come back with a bat, is what

100
00:05:18,240 --> 00:05:19,080
Speaker 2: happens in the book.

101
00:05:21,279 --> 00:05:23,839
Speaker 4: Yeah, my bat and I couldn't even use it anymore.

102
00:05:23,839 --> 00:05:26,560
Speaker 4: And littlely after that because the glass ended. That's a

103
00:05:26,600 --> 00:05:27,440
Speaker 4: separate conversation.

104
00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:30,600
Speaker 2: Well yeah, yeah, you can read about it in the book. Everybody.

105
00:05:30,839 --> 00:05:33,960
Speaker 4: My mom was just very no nonsense, And I don't

106
00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:38,040
Speaker 4: know how that changed my look on relationships. I definitely

107
00:05:38,040 --> 00:05:41,039
Speaker 4: know how it changed my look on marriage for sure.

108
00:05:41,920 --> 00:05:45,200
Speaker 4: Like I don't have an idealistic view of marriage I'm

109
00:05:46,240 --> 00:05:49,520
Speaker 4: not anti marriage, but you're not gonna tell me everybody

110
00:05:49,520 --> 00:05:53,640
Speaker 4: that is married is successful and truly happy. So don't

111
00:05:53,680 --> 00:05:56,679
Speaker 4: throw these thirty year forty year relationships in my face

112
00:05:56,760 --> 00:05:59,960
Speaker 4: as an example of what could be. You know, forty years,

113
00:06:00,160 --> 00:06:03,080
Speaker 4: how many happy mm hmm. And that's the question Mary,

114
00:06:03,120 --> 00:06:05,320
Speaker 4: people never answer, right.

115
00:06:05,320 --> 00:06:06,080
Speaker 2: Right exactly.

116
00:06:06,200 --> 00:06:08,880
Speaker 1: It's kind of like when you talk about raising a child.

117
00:06:09,080 --> 00:06:11,599
Speaker 1: I mean I find it analogous to that only because

118
00:06:11,600 --> 00:06:14,160
Speaker 1: I've done neither of those things. When you think about

119
00:06:14,200 --> 00:06:16,840
Speaker 1: raising a child and all the things that come along

120
00:06:16,920 --> 00:06:20,279
Speaker 1: with it, it's like, how many moments of bliss are there?

121
00:06:20,360 --> 00:06:21,320
Speaker 2: Obviously you love.

122
00:06:21,240 --> 00:06:23,320
Speaker 1: This person more than anything else in the world, But

123
00:06:23,680 --> 00:06:26,039
Speaker 1: how many moments of bliss compared to the moments of

124
00:06:26,040 --> 00:06:28,520
Speaker 1: stress and agony and all of the other things that

125
00:06:28,560 --> 00:06:31,080
Speaker 1: come with it? And how how do those moments of

126
00:06:31,120 --> 00:06:34,440
Speaker 1: bliss just overpower all of the other stuff? You know,

127
00:06:34,560 --> 00:06:37,279
Speaker 1: it's kind of similar to marriage, like it can't be.

128
00:06:37,720 --> 00:06:39,800
Speaker 1: I guess it has to be more good than bad.

129
00:06:40,360 --> 00:06:42,640
Speaker 1: But raising a kid, you know, if you get an

130
00:06:42,680 --> 00:06:46,160
Speaker 1: if you get an off one or one that's not cooperative,

131
00:06:46,720 --> 00:06:48,080
Speaker 1: that's fucking stress.

132
00:06:47,880 --> 00:06:48,880
Speaker 3: Or really unload on me either.

133
00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:52,960
Speaker 4: Yeah, nobody wants to raise the murderer. No, and I'm

134
00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:55,560
Speaker 4: sure they didn't set out to do things that made

135
00:06:55,560 --> 00:07:00,240
Speaker 4: their child commit crimes. But with my son, I'll say this,

136
00:07:01,360 --> 00:07:06,039
Speaker 4: it feels like an opportunity for me to create the

137
00:07:06,160 --> 00:07:09,440
Speaker 4: version of myself that I wish I had been, and

138
00:07:09,480 --> 00:07:12,200
Speaker 4: then to set that out into the world to better

139
00:07:12,320 --> 00:07:15,400
Speaker 4: the world, if you will, that idea of it. You know,

140
00:07:15,720 --> 00:07:18,960
Speaker 4: I'm not really caught up in legacy or not. Like

141
00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:20,880
Speaker 4: I didn't name him Roy Wood the third.

142
00:07:21,200 --> 00:07:24,800
Speaker 1: I wouldn't dare that would be really embarrassing. It's also

143
00:07:24,840 --> 00:07:27,360
Speaker 1: a love letter to your son in a way. It's

144
00:07:27,760 --> 00:07:31,000
Speaker 1: telling your son what you missed. And I think what

145
00:07:31,040 --> 00:07:34,720
Speaker 1: you're saying is also it's really powerful for fathers to

146
00:07:34,800 --> 00:07:37,520
Speaker 1: talk to their sons in this way, especially you know,

147
00:07:37,680 --> 00:07:41,160
Speaker 1: as men, because the language, you know, the softer the

148
00:07:41,240 --> 00:07:45,360
Speaker 1: language becomes, and the more insightful it becomes, the less

149
00:07:45,440 --> 00:07:46,840
Speaker 1: violent the world becomes.

150
00:07:46,880 --> 00:07:48,520
Speaker 2: You know, raising a guy is tricky.

151
00:07:48,800 --> 00:07:51,240
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's talk a little bit about your relationship with

152
00:07:51,320 --> 00:07:51,840
Speaker 1: your father.

153
00:07:52,440 --> 00:07:55,080
Speaker 2: This guy was like a major communicator.

154
00:07:55,280 --> 00:07:57,640
Speaker 1: You say some very funny things about him, but he

155
00:07:57,760 --> 00:08:01,520
Speaker 1: was very influential. He was on the radio, he was

156
00:08:01,880 --> 00:08:04,520
Speaker 1: part of the civil rights movement, right.

157
00:08:04,720 --> 00:08:07,559
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I'd say a civil rights journalist is probably

158
00:08:07,600 --> 00:08:11,080
Speaker 4: the best way to somebmate. Like he's just a journalist

159
00:08:11,120 --> 00:08:15,520
Speaker 4: who focused solely on struggling conflict on issues affecting black

160
00:08:15,560 --> 00:08:16,320
Speaker 4: people globally.

161
00:08:16,920 --> 00:08:19,160
Speaker 1: And when you expect time with him, like in the book,

162
00:08:19,200 --> 00:08:21,840
Speaker 1: it sounds like you were kind of like he just

163
00:08:21,960 --> 00:08:24,600
Speaker 1: kind of took you wherever he went. You were kind

164
00:08:24,600 --> 00:08:27,920
Speaker 1: of his little sidekick, right like, and he wanted to

165
00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:30,560
Speaker 1: keep you occupied. He didn't want you out on the streets.

166
00:08:30,640 --> 00:08:32,640
Speaker 1: He wanted you to either be in class. I mean,

167
00:08:32,720 --> 00:08:36,040
Speaker 1: in one instance, he enrolled you back in school after

168
00:08:36,080 --> 00:08:38,880
Speaker 1: you've had already finished your school year because he didn't

169
00:08:38,880 --> 00:08:41,800
Speaker 1: want you hanging around the house, which I think is

170
00:08:41,840 --> 00:08:42,560
Speaker 1: a clutch move.

171
00:08:42,720 --> 00:08:46,440
Speaker 4: Actually, he didn't even enroll me. He just took me

172
00:08:46,520 --> 00:08:49,319
Speaker 4: to the school because I would spend the first when

173
00:08:49,360 --> 00:08:52,679
Speaker 4: Memphis City schools ended, I get sent to Birmingham. First

174
00:08:52,800 --> 00:08:56,120
Speaker 4: month in Birmingham, Birmingham City Schools are still in session,

175
00:08:56,200 --> 00:08:59,160
Speaker 4: So rather than get a babysitter, he just dropped me

176
00:08:59,200 --> 00:09:01,600
Speaker 4: off at it. Knowing what I know now, it's probably

177
00:09:01,640 --> 00:09:05,800
Speaker 4: some teacher he was fucking and like damn, you know

178
00:09:05,840 --> 00:09:08,480
Speaker 4: how good. Your dick games got to be to just hey,

179
00:09:08,880 --> 00:09:11,000
Speaker 4: put my son in your class and teach him shit,

180
00:09:11,400 --> 00:09:14,360
Speaker 4: I'll be back at three. And that's what he would do. Man,

181
00:09:14,400 --> 00:09:17,760
Speaker 4: My pops would take me around with him and I

182
00:09:17,840 --> 00:09:20,720
Speaker 4: never got to go do put or have a fun

183
00:09:20,840 --> 00:09:25,360
Speaker 4: cool father. It's literally, hey, man, Jesse Jackson's in town

184
00:09:25,440 --> 00:09:29,280
Speaker 4: for the Democratic National Convention. I'm gonna go interview him.

185
00:09:29,840 --> 00:09:33,000
Speaker 4: You're coming, bring a snack, and that was it.

186
00:09:33,960 --> 00:09:36,040
Speaker 2: And if you could pay for it yourself, even better.

187
00:09:36,160 --> 00:09:39,199
Speaker 1: Because his dad was hugely penurious, didn't want him to

188
00:09:39,240 --> 00:09:43,000
Speaker 1: spend any money. So Roy, like myself, was very resourceful

189
00:09:43,040 --> 00:09:46,560
Speaker 1: as a young person, creating his own business raking leaves,

190
00:09:46,960 --> 00:09:49,880
Speaker 1: drumming up a lot of business. Also, we have something

191
00:09:49,920 --> 00:09:52,080
Speaker 1: in common, which I texted you about last week, is

192
00:09:52,120 --> 00:09:54,520
Speaker 1: in the book he tells. One of my favorite stories,

193
00:09:54,679 --> 00:09:57,280
Speaker 1: or the one that resonated with me the most, because

194
00:09:57,280 --> 00:10:00,440
Speaker 1: there's actually a lot of similarities between our childhoods, is

195
00:10:00,480 --> 00:10:02,840
Speaker 1: that your parents forgot to pick you up from school

196
00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:05,200
Speaker 1: and you walked home in the freezing cold.

197
00:10:05,720 --> 00:10:08,120
Speaker 2: How long did it take you before you got a

198
00:10:08,200 --> 00:10:09,880
Speaker 2: ride from that guy at the convenience store.

199
00:10:10,640 --> 00:10:13,400
Speaker 4: It was a liquor store. It's way worse than you wish.

200
00:10:13,400 --> 00:10:17,640
Speaker 4: It was a convenience store. I was walking forty minutes

201
00:10:18,440 --> 00:10:21,360
Speaker 4: before I got to the liquor store, and I still

202
00:10:21,400 --> 00:10:23,760
Speaker 4: had about another hour to go to get home.

203
00:10:23,880 --> 00:10:26,240
Speaker 2: And what was the temperature it was?

204
00:10:26,440 --> 00:10:30,880
Speaker 4: It was about fifteen degrees maybe twenty. It's Birmingham in January.

205
00:10:31,320 --> 00:10:34,960
Speaker 4: Baseball season starts late January. Both my parents thought the

206
00:10:34,960 --> 00:10:37,160
Speaker 4: other one was going to get me from practice. I

207
00:10:37,200 --> 00:10:42,400
Speaker 4: get home and they're fucking watching Jeopardy, just chilling like

208
00:10:42,640 --> 00:10:46,360
Speaker 4: life is sweet. And I get into the liquor store

209
00:10:46,720 --> 00:10:48,840
Speaker 4: and there was just a drunk dude in there, and

210
00:10:48,880 --> 00:10:52,160
Speaker 4: I'm like, hey, man, just will you give me a ride?

211
00:10:52,480 --> 00:10:54,840
Speaker 4: Like he offered the ride, and I'm you know how

212
00:10:54,840 --> 00:10:57,400
Speaker 4: you like you talk those in that era in the nineties,

213
00:10:57,679 --> 00:11:01,640
Speaker 4: don't take a ride from a stranger. I'm like, fuck it, bro,

214
00:11:02,400 --> 00:11:04,760
Speaker 4: even if you're gonna molest me, I bet you got

215
00:11:04,760 --> 00:11:09,840
Speaker 4: a heater, so let's do it. And the guy, God

216
00:11:09,920 --> 00:11:13,480
Speaker 4: bless him, was a drunk, but he cared enough to

217
00:11:13,640 --> 00:11:15,880
Speaker 4: cap the liquor and not drink and drive while he

218
00:11:15,960 --> 00:11:16,520
Speaker 4: took me home.

219
00:11:16,640 --> 00:11:19,959
Speaker 1: I know that was a very nice touch to that story.

220
00:11:20,480 --> 00:11:22,240
Speaker 2: You think it's almost a misdirec.

221
00:11:22,320 --> 00:11:23,920
Speaker 1: You think he is going to molest you, and instead

222
00:11:23,960 --> 00:11:25,360
Speaker 1: he's like, you know what, I'll save my drink.

223
00:11:25,360 --> 00:11:26,720
Speaker 2: It's a laughter. I get this kid home.

224
00:11:27,080 --> 00:11:29,840
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's like, I'm a drunk, I'm not a pervert.

225
00:11:29,880 --> 00:11:32,640
Speaker 4: I was like, I respect that, bro. Yeah, I appreciate that.

226
00:11:32,920 --> 00:11:35,200
Speaker 4: But that's the kind of community Birmingham was. Man, It's

227
00:11:35,200 --> 00:11:38,400
Speaker 4: just strangers would still look out. There was still Southern hospitality.

228
00:11:38,440 --> 00:11:41,560
Speaker 4: It's just it's a fifteen year old kid shivering to

229
00:11:41,640 --> 00:11:44,000
Speaker 4: his bones. Give him a ride.

230
00:11:44,120 --> 00:11:45,960
Speaker 1: I told you my parents once did that to me.

231
00:11:46,040 --> 00:11:47,920
Speaker 1: They forgot to pick me up from Hebrew School. And

232
00:11:47,960 --> 00:11:50,480
Speaker 1: I walked home two and a half miles in a snowstorm,

233
00:11:50,840 --> 00:11:53,800
Speaker 1: and I immediately I was conn I just walked in.

234
00:11:53,880 --> 00:11:55,920
Speaker 1: I saw them the same thing. They're sitting at the

235
00:11:55,960 --> 00:11:59,000
Speaker 1: fucking kitchen table. I was the youngest of six kids, though,

236
00:11:59,040 --> 00:12:02,520
Speaker 1: so like my parents, both of them together had six children,

237
00:12:02,960 --> 00:12:05,520
Speaker 1: and so I guess that's some sort of excuse of

238
00:12:05,600 --> 00:12:09,679
Speaker 1: being just fucking too many, bankrupt of you know, time, emotion,

239
00:12:09,920 --> 00:12:13,160
Speaker 1: or any sort of logistical planning. But yeah, I walked

240
00:12:13,160 --> 00:12:15,640
Speaker 1: in pissed and I was like, fuck both of you

241
00:12:16,200 --> 00:12:18,120
Speaker 1: and Roy when I texted Roy this. I was like,

242
00:12:18,200 --> 00:12:20,240
Speaker 1: I also got left at school, and he said, did

243
00:12:20,240 --> 00:12:21,200
Speaker 1: you call the cops on them?

244
00:12:21,240 --> 00:12:22,680
Speaker 2: I'm like, yeah, as soon as I got home, I

245
00:12:22,720 --> 00:12:23,400
Speaker 2: called the police.

246
00:12:23,880 --> 00:12:27,000
Speaker 4: I was the only child in that house with my parents.

247
00:12:27,400 --> 00:12:30,000
Speaker 4: How y'all not notice that I'm not here yet?

248
00:12:30,320 --> 00:12:32,400
Speaker 3: Now, the fact that they both each thought the other

249
00:12:32,520 --> 00:12:34,240
Speaker 3: was going to get you, but neither of them looked

250
00:12:34,280 --> 00:12:36,600
Speaker 3: at each other and was like, where's Roy when they

251
00:12:36,600 --> 00:12:37,080
Speaker 3: got home.

252
00:12:37,280 --> 00:12:39,840
Speaker 4: Yeah. But see, that's the thing. My parents didn't really

253
00:12:39,880 --> 00:12:42,120
Speaker 4: like completely like rock with each other like that, So

254
00:12:42,160 --> 00:12:44,559
Speaker 4: if they were in the same room watching TV, they

255
00:12:44,679 --> 00:12:46,720
Speaker 4: just had to enjoy that moment of peace. I could

256
00:12:46,800 --> 00:12:49,280
Speaker 4: understand my mom not looking at him and going, hey,

257
00:12:49,320 --> 00:12:53,000
Speaker 4: don't forget responsibilities, and then my dad snapping on her

258
00:12:53,000 --> 00:12:53,640
Speaker 4: about something.

259
00:12:53,920 --> 00:12:56,600
Speaker 1: You tell a story about being a kid and getting

260
00:12:56,640 --> 00:12:59,200
Speaker 1: in an argument with your mom over a toy that

261
00:12:59,240 --> 00:13:01,280
Speaker 1: you wanted at the moment, and then your mom was

262
00:13:01,320 --> 00:13:03,640
Speaker 1: like you started to kind of throw a tantrum, and your.

263
00:13:03,559 --> 00:13:05,320
Speaker 2: Mom just walked out and left you there.

264
00:13:05,679 --> 00:13:09,400
Speaker 1: And then a white woman got involved, somebody who was

265
00:13:10,080 --> 00:13:12,840
Speaker 1: scared for your safety. So I want to know in

266
00:13:12,880 --> 00:13:16,600
Speaker 1: what other ways have trifling white women impacted your life.

267
00:13:16,800 --> 00:13:22,160
Speaker 4: Roy, you know what, that white lady was trying to help,

268
00:13:22,240 --> 00:13:25,880
Speaker 4: but she didn't know she was interrupting an important lesson

269
00:13:25,920 --> 00:13:28,760
Speaker 4: about discipline, because my mama was one of the ones

270
00:13:28,800 --> 00:13:31,240
Speaker 4: where I'll just leave you. I'm not going to argue

271
00:13:31,240 --> 00:13:32,920
Speaker 4: with you if you want to have a temper tantrum

272
00:13:32,960 --> 00:13:36,600
Speaker 4: about a fucking voltron lion, I'm just gonna leave you

273
00:13:36,640 --> 00:13:39,360
Speaker 4: in the mall. And my mom walked off from the

274
00:13:39,400 --> 00:13:44,720
Speaker 4: poor little white lady. Miss you left your son, miss

275
00:13:45,280 --> 00:13:48,640
Speaker 4: like she knows that was the whole point of it.

276
00:13:49,040 --> 00:13:51,440
Speaker 4: I remember one time getting separated from my mom in

277
00:13:51,480 --> 00:13:54,239
Speaker 4: the fifth grade and having a panic attack in Macy's

278
00:13:54,760 --> 00:14:00,319
Speaker 4: in the galleria and a white lady comes over and sir,

279
00:14:00,840 --> 00:14:03,920
Speaker 4: what's going on? And I'm gonna I'm gonna help you,

280
00:14:04,040 --> 00:14:07,000
Speaker 4: And what's going on? Baby? What's your mother's name? George?

281
00:14:07,200 --> 00:14:11,160
Speaker 4: Come over here? And this fucking white cashier, Chelsea, pulls

282
00:14:11,240 --> 00:14:14,840
Speaker 4: up the PA system in Macy's and hands it to me.

283
00:14:15,000 --> 00:14:17,720
Speaker 4: And then I'm just on the my mama, where are you?

284
00:14:18,840 --> 00:14:25,640
Speaker 4: I'm the women's stockings this Roy click and my mom

285
00:14:25,760 --> 00:14:29,920
Speaker 4: comes over furious, cusses out the white lady. My mom

286
00:14:30,040 --> 00:14:32,160
Speaker 4: is one thousand percent in the wrong. But my mom

287
00:14:32,240 --> 00:14:34,720
Speaker 4: is framing it under some sort of I knew where

288
00:14:34,760 --> 00:14:37,160
Speaker 4: he was, he knew to stay there, you need to

289
00:14:37,160 --> 00:14:39,480
Speaker 4: mind your business. But because in my mom's mind, it's

290
00:14:39,560 --> 00:14:40,800
Speaker 4: they're going to take you from me.

291
00:14:41,760 --> 00:14:42,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, that's all.

292
00:14:43,040 --> 00:14:46,680
Speaker 4: That's all her thoughts were was that you called the police.

293
00:14:46,840 --> 00:14:51,400
Speaker 4: You called you have involved an employee, who will involve management,

294
00:14:51,400 --> 00:14:54,560
Speaker 4: who will involve the police. So my mom had to

295
00:14:54,560 --> 00:14:58,800
Speaker 4: come in on the offensive and just immediately like cuss

296
00:14:58,800 --> 00:15:01,800
Speaker 4: her out like that. That's that's really the most really

297
00:15:01,840 --> 00:15:05,760
Speaker 4: weird white women that there was a semi racist incident

298
00:15:05,800 --> 00:15:10,240
Speaker 4: in Tallahassee with a partner in mind, But like, is

299
00:15:10,280 --> 00:15:11,560
Speaker 4: it racism? If they're right?

300
00:15:13,560 --> 00:15:16,240
Speaker 2: What's which a partner here? What do you mean a partner?

301
00:15:16,720 --> 00:15:17,040
Speaker 4: Ask you?

302
00:15:17,720 --> 00:15:19,480
Speaker 1: Well, I'm not the one to answer that, roy as

303
00:15:19,520 --> 00:15:24,720
Speaker 1: you know, but what was the other experience?

304
00:15:25,200 --> 00:15:27,360
Speaker 4: So in college, me and a partner we went to

305
00:15:27,800 --> 00:15:31,520
Speaker 4: the mall. We're like seventeen years old, maybe eighteen, and

306
00:15:31,600 --> 00:15:34,760
Speaker 4: we walk into Wilson's the Leather Experts. You have to

307
00:15:34,760 --> 00:15:37,760
Speaker 4: say the full name of this store. We go into

308
00:15:37,800 --> 00:15:41,800
Speaker 4: Wilson's and we're just looking at leather jackets. White woman's

309
00:15:41,800 --> 00:15:45,160
Speaker 4: sales rep comes over. She goes, we don't have Layo Way.

310
00:15:46,320 --> 00:15:48,960
Speaker 4: We haven't said shit, She hasn't said hello, how you

311
00:15:49,160 --> 00:15:52,640
Speaker 4: doing shit? Can I help you? My name is whatever,

312
00:15:53,560 --> 00:15:55,560
Speaker 4: And we go we don't need Leo Way, and we

313
00:15:55,960 --> 00:15:58,200
Speaker 4: snapped back at her real fast, and she walks off.

314
00:15:58,440 --> 00:16:00,640
Speaker 4: And then we looked at the price of it jackets

315
00:16:00,640 --> 00:16:04,640
Speaker 4: and fucking we need it. Layaway them shits. It's like

316
00:16:04,760 --> 00:16:07,280
Speaker 4: a it's a level jacket. It's just like starts at

317
00:16:07,280 --> 00:16:09,440
Speaker 4: one thousand dollars. We thought this would be one hundred

318
00:16:09,440 --> 00:16:13,400
Speaker 4: and fifty dollars, like fucking starter jacket, like some NBA

319
00:16:14,000 --> 00:16:16,960
Speaker 4: Jordan Chalcolne. It was one thousand dollars. So me and

320
00:16:17,040 --> 00:16:20,800
Speaker 4: Barrett spend the next thirty minutes in the store pretending

321
00:16:20,920 --> 00:16:23,400
Speaker 4: we have money because we don't want her to think

322
00:16:23,440 --> 00:16:26,400
Speaker 4: we don't have money, because that's how you fight racism.

323
00:16:26,480 --> 00:16:32,880
Speaker 4: It's just aggressive browsing. So's just kept trying on shit.

324
00:16:33,800 --> 00:16:35,200
Speaker 2: Let's circle back to your dad.

325
00:16:35,240 --> 00:16:37,400
Speaker 1: So how do you look at your relationship with your

326
00:16:37,480 --> 00:16:40,880
Speaker 1: dad now that you're an adult man with a son, Like,

327
00:16:40,920 --> 00:16:42,880
Speaker 1: how do you frame it and how do you feel

328
00:16:42,920 --> 00:16:43,360
Speaker 1: about it?

329
00:16:43,960 --> 00:16:47,800
Speaker 4: I think forgiveness without forgetting it's probably the best bucket

330
00:16:47,800 --> 00:16:51,160
Speaker 4: to put it in for however, our parents failed us,

331
00:16:51,640 --> 00:16:54,280
Speaker 4: be it mom or Dad. You get older and you

332
00:16:54,320 --> 00:16:58,200
Speaker 4: start looking at some of them and I can draw

333
00:16:58,280 --> 00:17:02,000
Speaker 4: lines to go ahe that's why you did that, That's

334
00:17:02,040 --> 00:17:06,720
Speaker 4: why you behave like that. That sucks, but at least

335
00:17:06,760 --> 00:17:09,080
Speaker 4: I understand now. One of the biggest blessings for me

336
00:17:09,600 --> 00:17:15,159
Speaker 4: was doing finding your roots, and I did that, you know,

337
00:17:15,240 --> 00:17:18,800
Speaker 4: the DNA show or whatever, and they find out all

338
00:17:18,800 --> 00:17:20,840
Speaker 4: of this history about my dad's side of the family

339
00:17:20,880 --> 00:17:22,800
Speaker 4: that I never knew was my dad never brought me

340
00:17:22,840 --> 00:17:26,400
Speaker 4: around his side of the family, only like family reunions,

341
00:17:26,440 --> 00:17:29,159
Speaker 4: and I know my half said, I know all my

342
00:17:29,359 --> 00:17:33,920
Speaker 4: half siblings, but his extended family tree never met him.

343
00:17:34,400 --> 00:17:37,920
Speaker 4: So I found out that my grandfather was killed when

344
00:17:37,960 --> 00:17:40,560
Speaker 4: my dad was four what he disappeared in the night

345
00:17:41,480 --> 00:17:45,239
Speaker 4: without a trace in Georgia in the nineteen thirties, so

346
00:17:46,080 --> 00:17:50,240
Speaker 4: we know what that is. The census data that PBS

347
00:17:50,280 --> 00:17:53,879
Speaker 4: found showed that my father did not have another male

348
00:17:53,960 --> 00:17:57,879
Speaker 4: head of household the rest of his life. So for

349
00:17:57,960 --> 00:18:00,399
Speaker 4: all I know, he didn't have a version of what

350
00:18:00,520 --> 00:18:03,199
Speaker 4: I had growing up, just somebody there to check his

351
00:18:03,280 --> 00:18:07,800
Speaker 4: ass and he also was hit by a car when

352
00:18:07,840 --> 00:18:11,520
Speaker 4: he was sixteen and crippled permanently while running after a

353
00:18:11,600 --> 00:18:13,639
Speaker 4: woman that had just broken up a girl, because he

354
00:18:13,640 --> 00:18:16,320
Speaker 4: was sixteen running after a girl who had just broken

355
00:18:16,400 --> 00:18:19,280
Speaker 4: up with him. So how do you think that informed

356
00:18:19,320 --> 00:18:23,160
Speaker 4: his idea and opinions about women and dating and who

357
00:18:23,240 --> 00:18:25,840
Speaker 4: was there to give him any type of game on manhood?

358
00:18:26,720 --> 00:18:31,160
Speaker 4: Truth be told, I walked away from that television show

359
00:18:31,960 --> 00:18:35,040
Speaker 4: that day just understanding that my pops was pretty much

360
00:18:35,119 --> 00:18:38,840
Speaker 4: fucked from age four and was solidified at age sixteen.

361
00:18:39,760 --> 00:18:43,520
Speaker 4: And anything else he became, he became as a byproduct

362
00:18:43,720 --> 00:18:47,359
Speaker 4: of trying to get past whatever traumas he was still

363
00:18:47,400 --> 00:18:52,000
Speaker 4: dealing with. So you comfort yourself and women, I guess,

364
00:18:52,440 --> 00:18:55,359
Speaker 4: but you comfort yourself and the people you know that

365
00:18:55,560 --> 00:19:00,000
Speaker 4: praised you and adore you. You know, he was loved

366
00:19:00,320 --> 00:19:05,040
Speaker 4: for his voice because he couldn't be athletic anymore, and

367
00:19:05,160 --> 00:19:07,000
Speaker 4: you know, he changed a lot of people's lives. I

368
00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:10,399
Speaker 4: think that's the part that's like so weird when you

369
00:19:10,480 --> 00:19:14,320
Speaker 4: have a parent that was different for you than what

370
00:19:14,359 --> 00:19:17,600
Speaker 4: everybody else got. Because you know, my Pops dies when

371
00:19:17,640 --> 00:19:21,200
Speaker 4: I'm sixteen, and then you start hearing all these cool

372
00:19:21,320 --> 00:19:25,960
Speaker 4: stories and great stories about him, and I didn't get that.

373
00:19:26,280 --> 00:19:30,080
Speaker 4: I never saw or experience that. One of the hardest

374
00:19:30,080 --> 00:19:33,480
Speaker 4: things for me to do is I follow my two

375
00:19:33,640 --> 00:19:37,960
Speaker 4: younger siblings. My two young I'm closest to them because

376
00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:41,080
Speaker 4: we're closest in age, and with me and the older

377
00:19:41,119 --> 00:19:45,800
Speaker 4: halfs it's a twenty year age gap up. So like

378
00:19:45,880 --> 00:19:48,000
Speaker 4: with the younger ones, one of the hardest things is

379
00:19:48,040 --> 00:19:51,639
Speaker 4: following them on social media because they'll post pictures with

380
00:19:51,720 --> 00:19:55,200
Speaker 4: them and Pops and they got the old school polaroid

381
00:19:55,280 --> 00:19:58,280
Speaker 4: Kodak joints to have the date printed on the photo,

382
00:19:59,160 --> 00:20:01,719
Speaker 4: and I can look at the photo and look at

383
00:20:01,760 --> 00:20:03,760
Speaker 4: the date and tell you whether or not the lights

384
00:20:03,800 --> 00:20:08,800
Speaker 4: were on at our house or they're at disney World

385
00:20:08,960 --> 00:20:13,640
Speaker 4: or they're at damn six Flags. My little brother post

386
00:20:13,680 --> 00:20:16,960
Speaker 4: a picture me and Daddy that summer when we went

387
00:20:17,040 --> 00:20:20,040
Speaker 4: to the thing and we had a good time, and

388
00:20:20,119 --> 00:20:22,119
Speaker 4: I'm like, I had to fucking sit and watch you

389
00:20:22,160 --> 00:20:27,520
Speaker 4: interview Michael Ducaccus in eighty four, like I didn't get

390
00:20:27,560 --> 00:20:29,639
Speaker 4: to go to nothing fun. And then on top of that,

391
00:20:29,680 --> 00:20:33,320
Speaker 4: you're beefing with my mom at the time, but you're

392
00:20:33,400 --> 00:20:38,359
Speaker 4: living the normal life over there. And after a while

393
00:20:38,400 --> 00:20:41,120
Speaker 4: you just got to respect it, Chelsea, like, it's not ideal,

394
00:20:41,200 --> 00:20:43,919
Speaker 4: it wasn't cool. But as I got older and I

395
00:20:43,960 --> 00:20:46,040
Speaker 4: had a son, and I started thinking about the idea

396
00:20:46,040 --> 00:20:49,320
Speaker 4: of showing him love and what does love look like?

397
00:20:49,440 --> 00:20:51,920
Speaker 4: And well, what were the examples I had of love?

398
00:20:53,119 --> 00:20:55,879
Speaker 4: I have to look to my dad and the other woman.

399
00:20:57,400 --> 00:21:00,000
Speaker 4: I have to and I have to unpack that if

400
00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:02,600
Speaker 4: if I want to have any shot of understanding how I

401
00:21:02,640 --> 00:21:06,240
Speaker 4: would show up in love with a woman, I need

402
00:21:06,280 --> 00:21:08,960
Speaker 4: to look at how my dad showed up, so I

403
00:21:09,040 --> 00:21:13,120
Speaker 4: have something to compare and contrast my behaviors to. And

404
00:21:14,000 --> 00:21:17,840
Speaker 4: that was ie opening because I mean, you know my

405
00:21:17,880 --> 00:21:19,840
Speaker 4: stand up, I don't talk about my life. I don't

406
00:21:19,840 --> 00:21:22,119
Speaker 4: talk about but because it was just so weird, it

407
00:21:22,160 --> 00:21:24,840
Speaker 4: was so complicated, it was easier for me to just

408
00:21:24,880 --> 00:21:30,000
Speaker 4: talk about the world. But you know, I look at

409
00:21:30,080 --> 00:21:32,919
Speaker 4: the choices he made, and I really feel like my

410
00:21:33,040 --> 00:21:38,880
Speaker 4: pops didn't understand how to get love right until the end,

411
00:21:39,200 --> 00:21:41,959
Speaker 4: until like the last ten years of his life. So

412
00:21:42,240 --> 00:21:44,560
Speaker 4: you go around, I'm the ninth of eleven kids by

413
00:21:44,600 --> 00:21:48,879
Speaker 4: five different women. Just for perspective, so you spend a

414
00:21:48,960 --> 00:21:54,320
Speaker 4: front half of your life and career dedicated to the

415
00:21:54,480 --> 00:21:59,440
Speaker 4: job that you love, but also running from this commitment

416
00:21:59,480 --> 00:22:03,240
Speaker 4: and your responsibly just you know, having kids all over

417
00:22:03,280 --> 00:22:07,240
Speaker 4: the place, and I start unpacking that, and I look

418
00:22:07,280 --> 00:22:11,080
Speaker 4: at it to a degree, and it feels eerily similar

419
00:22:11,760 --> 00:22:14,240
Speaker 4: to my pattern. Separate. I mean, I don't have a

420
00:22:14,240 --> 00:22:15,520
Speaker 4: bunch of kids all over the place.

421
00:22:15,920 --> 00:22:19,040
Speaker 1: But and you don't have two partners. I mean, I

422
00:22:19,040 --> 00:22:22,000
Speaker 1: bet you wish you did, but you don't, not that

423
00:22:22,119 --> 00:22:22,600
Speaker 1: I know of.

424
00:22:22,760 --> 00:22:24,520
Speaker 2: Do you have two partners? I tried to set you

425
00:22:24,600 --> 00:22:26,520
Speaker 2: up sexually a couple of months ago, but I don't

426
00:22:26,520 --> 00:22:27,719
Speaker 2: know if that panned out or not.

427
00:22:28,640 --> 00:22:32,840
Speaker 4: That person would not want two partners either, Just so

428
00:22:33,080 --> 00:22:38,399
Speaker 4: you know that. No, I have one child that I

429
00:22:38,480 --> 00:22:42,800
Speaker 4: co parent with with his mom, and that's that's great.

430
00:22:43,480 --> 00:22:46,680
Speaker 4: I've I love what I do, and I think part

431
00:22:46,680 --> 00:22:49,200
Speaker 4: of it where I feel like there's similarities between me

432
00:22:49,240 --> 00:22:52,000
Speaker 4: and my dad is comedy is the one place that

433
00:22:52,119 --> 00:22:57,160
Speaker 4: makes me feel alive. Entertaining and writing and creating. Everything

434
00:22:57,240 --> 00:23:00,760
Speaker 4: else fall second. So when there are huge respect abilities

435
00:23:00,760 --> 00:23:02,480
Speaker 4: and big things that I have to take care of,

436
00:23:04,160 --> 00:23:07,760
Speaker 4: I might all runs not the right word, but I'm

437
00:23:07,840 --> 00:23:10,480
Speaker 4: anxious avoiding that shit to the end of the day

438
00:23:11,119 --> 00:23:12,600
Speaker 4: or the end of the week or the end of

439
00:23:12,600 --> 00:23:17,080
Speaker 4: the month if I have to. So, you know, comedy

440
00:23:17,160 --> 00:23:21,159
Speaker 4: as an escape from something you know, or does it

441
00:23:21,200 --> 00:23:23,119
Speaker 4: fulfill you. I don't know what the difference is, but

442
00:23:23,160 --> 00:23:26,280
Speaker 4: I feel like Radio meant that to him, which is

443
00:23:26,280 --> 00:23:28,359
Speaker 4: why he was so superb at it, which is why

444
00:23:28,600 --> 00:23:31,760
Speaker 4: he helped so many people while he was doing it.

445
00:23:32,400 --> 00:23:36,280
Speaker 4: I did the White House Correspondence dinner and afterwards, just

446
00:23:36,480 --> 00:23:39,560
Speaker 4: random black people are come, yeah, you're dad. In nineteen

447
00:23:39,640 --> 00:23:42,159
Speaker 4: seventy one got me in my first Pepper Bard and

448
00:23:42,240 --> 00:23:44,960
Speaker 4: I remember I needed a tape recorder and we was

449
00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:47,320
Speaker 4: at the Presca and your daddy loan meet his audio

450
00:23:47,440 --> 00:23:52,320
Speaker 4: and like, it's just these He loved what he did.

451
00:23:52,400 --> 00:23:55,960
Speaker 4: And also, I think to a degree, just ran from

452
00:23:56,000 --> 00:23:59,359
Speaker 4: everything else. So you know, you have to unpack with

453
00:23:59,440 --> 00:24:01,200
Speaker 4: your parents or if you're going to figure out who

454
00:24:01,240 --> 00:24:04,200
Speaker 4: you are and what the best parts of them are

455
00:24:04,760 --> 00:24:06,600
Speaker 4: so that you can take that and pass that on

456
00:24:06,680 --> 00:24:07,440
Speaker 4: to your children.

457
00:24:07,920 --> 00:24:10,040
Speaker 1: You open the book by saying, trying to raise a

458
00:24:10,119 --> 00:24:14,520
Speaker 1: child before healing your inner child is a motherfucker. So

459
00:24:14,920 --> 00:24:18,520
Speaker 1: where what do you feel like you've healed your inner child?

460
00:24:19,760 --> 00:24:23,760
Speaker 4: Getting there? Oh? Guess what I bought About a month ago,

461
00:24:24,359 --> 00:24:27,719
Speaker 4: I bought that same black Voltron lion that I was

462
00:24:27,760 --> 00:24:30,560
Speaker 4: crying to my mom about in Memphis in the eighties,

463
00:24:31,560 --> 00:24:34,800
Speaker 4: and I saw it. I saw it at like a

464
00:24:34,840 --> 00:24:36,800
Speaker 4: collectible story. I was like, yeah, I might, I'm gonna

465
00:24:36,800 --> 00:24:42,560
Speaker 4: get that fucking lion. Now I don't. I don't have it.

466
00:24:42,600 --> 00:24:44,760
Speaker 4: On one of these days, it'll it'll make it to

467
00:24:44,800 --> 00:24:49,840
Speaker 4: this shelf. But the idea of you know, I have

468
00:24:49,880 --> 00:24:51,840
Speaker 4: a responsibility to my son, so I'm not here to

469
00:24:51,880 --> 00:24:54,520
Speaker 4: play video games and watch baseball all day. But I

470
00:24:54,560 --> 00:24:56,959
Speaker 4: do feel like there's a degree of joy and fun

471
00:24:57,680 --> 00:25:00,520
Speaker 4: that I lost because I had to worry. I had

472
00:25:00,560 --> 00:25:02,720
Speaker 4: to rake leaves, I had to cut deals in the

473
00:25:02,760 --> 00:25:05,919
Speaker 4: neighborhood because I didn't know when the next argument was

474
00:25:05,960 --> 00:25:07,639
Speaker 4: going to happen between the two of them, and he

475
00:25:07,680 --> 00:25:10,560
Speaker 4: wasn't going to pay a bill, and then the gas

476
00:25:10,640 --> 00:25:15,040
Speaker 4: is off or the heat is off, you know, the electricity.

477
00:25:15,160 --> 00:25:17,280
Speaker 4: You know, my mom was working her ass off to

478
00:25:17,520 --> 00:25:20,439
Speaker 4: jobs in night school and law school and grad school.

479
00:25:21,040 --> 00:25:24,440
Speaker 4: I don't want to bother her with needing fifty dollars

480
00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:27,639
Speaker 4: for the sneakers or the field trip. So I'm gonna hustle.

481
00:25:27,840 --> 00:25:30,919
Speaker 4: So yeah, I missed out on a lot of things. Yeah,

482
00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:33,040
Speaker 4: I missed out. I missed out on a lot of

483
00:25:33,119 --> 00:25:39,320
Speaker 4: things because because I had to grow up a little faster.

484
00:25:39,680 --> 00:25:40,320
Speaker 2: Right you know.

485
00:25:41,240 --> 00:25:44,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, being a latchkey kid when you were growing up

486
00:25:44,240 --> 00:25:47,120
Speaker 1: is probably, well not probably, it's a lot different than

487
00:25:47,119 --> 00:25:47,720
Speaker 1: it is today.

488
00:25:47,760 --> 00:25:48,840
Speaker 2: And what it means today.

489
00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:51,800
Speaker 4: Oh, it's illegal. Not what we were doing. Oh, they

490
00:25:51,800 --> 00:25:56,399
Speaker 4: would have taken me away from my mom in her heartbeat.

491
00:25:56,760 --> 00:25:58,919
Speaker 1: First of all, let's talk about your almost threesome that

492
00:25:59,000 --> 00:26:00,440
Speaker 1: you had getting a home.

493
00:26:01,840 --> 00:26:03,040
Speaker 4: Is that how you're classified?

494
00:26:03,080 --> 00:26:05,240
Speaker 2: That's how I classified it. Yeah, why don't you tell

495
00:26:05,320 --> 00:26:06,120
Speaker 2: us that story.

496
00:26:06,760 --> 00:26:09,199
Speaker 4: It's one of those things though, where like here's the

497
00:26:09,240 --> 00:26:14,440
Speaker 4: thing they tell kids, Hey, be careful, don't let nobody

498
00:26:14,520 --> 00:26:18,360
Speaker 4: touch you in your area, right, like make sure no

499
00:26:18,400 --> 00:26:23,240
Speaker 4: one touches your breast. They never tell you how pervert

500
00:26:23,320 --> 00:26:26,760
Speaker 4: spit gain? Is that? Is that a better way of

501
00:26:26,760 --> 00:26:27,119
Speaker 4: putting it?

502
00:26:27,320 --> 00:26:30,679
Speaker 1: Like the groom, Basically, you say, when somebody really wants

503
00:26:30,720 --> 00:26:32,959
Speaker 1: to go out of their way for you or do

504
00:26:33,080 --> 00:26:35,240
Speaker 1: you a favor and they're too eager to do it,

505
00:26:35,320 --> 00:26:37,080
Speaker 1: watch out.

506
00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:39,200
Speaker 4: Don't trust them. And I'm like that to this day.

507
00:26:39,800 --> 00:26:42,679
Speaker 4: I don't trust anybody. That's anxious to help me. What

508
00:26:42,760 --> 00:26:45,080
Speaker 4: do you want? What do you need? It's not all

509
00:26:45,200 --> 00:26:50,399
Speaker 4: molestation now, it's it's more industry angling. What's your angle?

510
00:26:50,480 --> 00:26:52,040
Speaker 4: What are you trying to do. It's like when women

511
00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:54,800
Speaker 4: are nice to me and then like two days in

512
00:26:54,920 --> 00:26:58,760
Speaker 4: they go, hey, is Trevor Noahs single? I'm like, ah,

513
00:26:58,960 --> 00:27:02,320
Speaker 4: you motherfucker. I knew that's what it was. So the

514
00:27:02,359 --> 00:27:04,400
Speaker 4: reason why I told that story in the book is that.

515
00:27:05,359 --> 00:27:08,240
Speaker 1: Can give us the story, give our listeners a little

516
00:27:08,320 --> 00:27:10,440
Speaker 1: version or the abridged version of that story.

517
00:27:10,720 --> 00:27:14,840
Speaker 4: I worked at a hospital in the cafeteria and my

518
00:27:14,920 --> 00:27:17,600
Speaker 4: supervisor used to give me rides home from work if

519
00:27:17,600 --> 00:27:20,040
Speaker 4: my car was broken down that week. At a supervisor

520
00:27:20,320 --> 00:27:23,200
Speaker 4: who did not live on my side of town, there

521
00:27:23,240 --> 00:27:25,719
Speaker 4: were coworkers who lived on that side of town who

522
00:27:25,760 --> 00:27:28,680
Speaker 4: would take me. And my supervisor would go, no, I'm

523
00:27:28,720 --> 00:27:32,080
Speaker 4: taking Roy. Y'all go ahead and go home. I'm taking

524
00:27:32,160 --> 00:27:34,680
Speaker 4: Roy home. And we would ride home and he would

525
00:27:34,720 --> 00:27:37,800
Speaker 4: ask me a million questions about my life and what

526
00:27:37,840 --> 00:27:41,280
Speaker 4: you're doing, and talk about girls. I'm sixteen. For context,

527
00:27:41,600 --> 00:27:44,600
Speaker 4: this it's like a thirty thirty five year old man

528
00:27:45,040 --> 00:27:47,800
Speaker 4: and what you're doing, what you're up to take you

529
00:27:47,880 --> 00:27:50,760
Speaker 4: to the gas station, get your candy, to the point

530
00:27:50,800 --> 00:27:54,840
Speaker 4: where after a while my favorite candies were already in

531
00:27:54,960 --> 00:27:58,840
Speaker 4: the car, and I'm just I'm thinking that's odd, but

532
00:27:58,880 --> 00:28:01,480
Speaker 4: I'm like, oh, this is my this is cool. Also,

533
00:28:02,200 --> 00:28:05,040
Speaker 4: I'm sixteen. At that point, I think I'm out of

534
00:28:05,040 --> 00:28:09,159
Speaker 4: the molestation window, because they make you believe that, Like

535
00:28:09,240 --> 00:28:11,399
Speaker 4: for all the back to school specials and all the

536
00:28:11,400 --> 00:28:14,120
Speaker 4: stuff they talk about with child kidnap and all of that,

537
00:28:14,359 --> 00:28:16,720
Speaker 4: they made it seem like middle school was the cutoff

538
00:28:16,800 --> 00:28:21,960
Speaker 4: for attractiveness the pedophiles and perverts. And so my guard

539
00:28:22,119 --> 00:28:24,080
Speaker 4: was down. It was very much down. And so one

540
00:28:24,160 --> 00:28:26,000
Speaker 4: day he gives me a ride home and he goes, hey,

541
00:28:26,040 --> 00:28:27,840
Speaker 4: I need to stop at a friend's house real quick.

542
00:28:27,920 --> 00:28:29,520
Speaker 4: You know, I gotta get ready. I'm going to this

543
00:28:29,560 --> 00:28:32,679
Speaker 4: thing to night. I'm go, okay, cool, I'm waiting in

544
00:28:32,720 --> 00:28:35,800
Speaker 4: the car. It's a pretty rough neighborhood. And he goes,

545
00:28:35,840 --> 00:28:39,760
Speaker 4: you shouldn't wait in the car. You know, GDS out here,

546
00:28:39,960 --> 00:28:43,120
Speaker 4: Gangster Disciples, they out here, the GDS or get you whatever,

547
00:28:43,200 --> 00:28:45,720
Speaker 4: Come on in the house. I get in the house,

548
00:28:45,880 --> 00:28:49,560
Speaker 4: I sit on the couch. Ten minutes later, the cook

549
00:28:49,880 --> 00:28:54,280
Speaker 4: from the hospital, he walks into the living room. He's naked.

550
00:28:54,720 --> 00:28:58,400
Speaker 4: He's got a towel on, but he's to me, you're naked,

551
00:28:58,560 --> 00:29:00,920
Speaker 4: You got on none but a towel. You naked. You

552
00:29:00,960 --> 00:29:03,800
Speaker 4: shouldn't be in another room with another man, like your

553
00:29:03,880 --> 00:29:06,080
Speaker 4: dick should never be flapping. It's what my uncle Derek

554
00:29:06,160 --> 00:29:08,680
Speaker 4: told me. It's like, if your dick's flapping, you don't

555
00:29:08,720 --> 00:29:12,400
Speaker 4: have enough clothes, go back, put some drawers on. And

556
00:29:14,360 --> 00:29:16,680
Speaker 4: he comes in and he sits on the couch and

557
00:29:16,680 --> 00:29:20,400
Speaker 4: starts making small talk with me, and then my supervisor

558
00:29:21,760 --> 00:29:22,920
Speaker 4: he comes out from the back.

559
00:29:23,440 --> 00:29:25,760
Speaker 1: This is called a power dynamic, everybody, this is a

560
00:29:25,800 --> 00:29:28,080
Speaker 1: power dynamic from the hospital cafeteria.

561
00:29:28,600 --> 00:29:33,720
Speaker 4: He's in nothing but a towel, freshly showered, both of them,

562
00:29:33,800 --> 00:29:36,600
Speaker 4: still got well, ain't even dried off. Up top, two

563
00:29:36,640 --> 00:29:39,800
Speaker 4: shirtless men in bath towel sitting next to me, and

564
00:29:39,800 --> 00:29:43,640
Speaker 4: they start trying to make chit chat. And that's when

565
00:29:43,680 --> 00:29:46,240
Speaker 4: it clicked, and took it took a while, but that's

566
00:29:46,240 --> 00:29:50,200
Speaker 4: when it clicked. And I'm like, hey, my mom is

567
00:29:50,240 --> 00:29:53,960
Speaker 4: waiting for me, and she's going to be looking for me.

568
00:29:55,040 --> 00:29:57,080
Speaker 4: And that was the one thing. But that was the

569
00:29:57,080 --> 00:29:59,719
Speaker 4: one thing I remember that somebody had taught me at

570
00:29:59,720 --> 00:30:03,000
Speaker 4: the boy club was that if somebody's harassing you you

571
00:30:03,040 --> 00:30:06,200
Speaker 4: feel like you're gonna get kidnapped, let them know that,

572
00:30:06,440 --> 00:30:09,960
Speaker 4: you know, somebody going to the search will begin shortly

573
00:30:10,080 --> 00:30:13,240
Speaker 4: after you snatch me. Like, I don't know what y'all

574
00:30:13,240 --> 00:30:15,320
Speaker 4: trying to do, but whatever it is, we're not gonna

575
00:30:15,360 --> 00:30:19,560
Speaker 4: do that shit today. Bro. My mama waiting on me,

576
00:30:19,840 --> 00:30:22,240
Speaker 4: and you can see them kind of both looking at you,

577
00:30:22,320 --> 00:30:26,600
Speaker 4: and they're like asking me, like very like non hospital

578
00:30:26,680 --> 00:30:29,640
Speaker 4: questions about you know, do you when the last time

579
00:30:29,680 --> 00:30:33,360
Speaker 4: you had sex? Do you like blow jobs? Do the

580
00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:36,880
Speaker 4: girls give you blowjob? Like? It was just very very

581
00:30:37,560 --> 00:30:40,680
Speaker 4: on the nose, y'all trying to y'all trying to do

582
00:30:40,800 --> 00:30:42,560
Speaker 4: some shit. And I say, we gotta get the fuck

583
00:30:42,640 --> 00:30:46,040
Speaker 4: up out of here, man, and and they agreed, and

584
00:30:46,240 --> 00:30:48,680
Speaker 4: they got dressed, and they took me home, and my

585
00:30:48,720 --> 00:30:51,640
Speaker 4: supervisor never talked to me again at work, no more

586
00:30:51,720 --> 00:30:52,600
Speaker 4: rides home either.

587
00:30:52,880 --> 00:30:53,200
Speaker 2: Yeah.

588
00:30:53,320 --> 00:30:57,760
Speaker 1: I would think that confirmed, you know, in case you're mistaken.

589
00:30:58,920 --> 00:30:59,960
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's confirmed.

590
00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:01,680
Speaker 2: When they came out in bathtowels.

591
00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:04,760
Speaker 4: I mean, but you compare that to a manager I had.

592
00:31:04,920 --> 00:31:08,160
Speaker 4: I had a manager at Baskin Robbins hate it taking

593
00:31:08,160 --> 00:31:11,800
Speaker 4: me home made it known that he didn't want to

594
00:31:12,280 --> 00:31:16,720
Speaker 4: but would, but hated it. We're still cool to this day,

595
00:31:17,080 --> 00:31:22,480
Speaker 4: are you. Yeah, because that's honesty, true benevolence. I don't

596
00:31:22,480 --> 00:31:27,000
Speaker 4: think real benevolence comes with excitement. People would rather be

597
00:31:27,040 --> 00:31:30,080
Speaker 4: doing something else, but they do it for you out

598
00:31:30,120 --> 00:31:33,200
Speaker 4: of some love or respect or whatever, but or out of.

599
00:31:33,120 --> 00:31:35,040
Speaker 2: Some moral ups to do the right thing.

600
00:31:35,160 --> 00:31:37,320
Speaker 4: Ye yeah, or they just trying to fuck on the.

601
00:31:37,280 --> 00:31:38,480
Speaker 2: Couch right right.

602
00:31:38,840 --> 00:31:41,880
Speaker 1: Another similarity we have you and I is I had

603
00:31:41,920 --> 00:31:44,800
Speaker 1: a big bomb at the Montreal Comedy Festival when I

604
00:31:44,880 --> 00:31:49,040
Speaker 1: write before I got very successful, and you talk about

605
00:31:49,040 --> 00:31:51,920
Speaker 1: being booed out of the Apollo and this.

606
00:31:51,800 --> 00:31:54,960
Speaker 2: Was supposed to be your life changing moment, and.

607
00:31:54,920 --> 00:31:56,640
Speaker 1: So what I want to talk I want you to

608
00:31:56,680 --> 00:31:59,160
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about when your life changing moment

609
00:31:59,280 --> 00:32:01,800
Speaker 1: doesn't become the moment that you wanted.

610
00:32:01,520 --> 00:32:01,880
Speaker 2: It to be.

611
00:32:02,760 --> 00:32:06,120
Speaker 4: How did you stay at the festival after you got booed?

612
00:32:06,480 --> 00:32:07,800
Speaker 2: It was so I didn't get booed.

613
00:32:07,880 --> 00:32:11,120
Speaker 1: I bombed, but I known booby But I mean it

614
00:32:11,160 --> 00:32:13,640
Speaker 1: was a loud enough for me to understand that I bombed,

615
00:32:13,680 --> 00:32:15,800
Speaker 1: And then I had a show the next night, and

616
00:32:15,880 --> 00:32:18,280
Speaker 1: then I left and I remember being on the plane

617
00:32:18,440 --> 00:32:22,000
Speaker 1: seeing all of these executives who were there to see me,

618
00:32:22,280 --> 00:32:26,120
Speaker 1: and ah, it's sickening. It was sickening. I was so

619
00:32:26,440 --> 00:32:28,440
Speaker 1: mortified at my own existence.

620
00:32:29,880 --> 00:32:33,360
Speaker 4: I went, It's one of those things where as soon

621
00:32:33,400 --> 00:32:35,040
Speaker 4: as I walked on stage, I knew I picked the

622
00:32:35,040 --> 00:32:38,080
Speaker 4: wrong jokes. I had a joke that could have won

623
00:32:38,200 --> 00:32:41,080
Speaker 4: me that round, and I saved it, thinking well, when

624
00:32:41,120 --> 00:32:43,360
Speaker 4: I get to round two, that's when I'm gonna really

625
00:32:43,440 --> 00:32:47,200
Speaker 4: hit them with the good jokes wrong. And I had

626
00:32:47,320 --> 00:32:51,360
Speaker 4: already had in my head like how it was going

627
00:32:51,440 --> 00:32:54,600
Speaker 4: to play out, because Apollo, this is my first ever

628
00:32:54,680 --> 00:32:57,760
Speaker 4: TV gig, this is O two. I know if I

629
00:32:57,880 --> 00:33:02,120
Speaker 4: do well here and I come back next week, I

630
00:33:02,160 --> 00:33:05,840
Speaker 4: can get like literally, this sounds stupid, but my goal

631
00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:09,239
Speaker 4: was to get in an ice Cube movie. That was

632
00:33:09,360 --> 00:33:15,440
Speaker 4: the It was the ice Cube to like Hollywood start

633
00:33:15,480 --> 00:33:19,840
Speaker 4: them Pipeline. Because Chris Tucker did well on Deaf Jam

634
00:33:20,200 --> 00:33:23,640
Speaker 4: ice Cube song put him in movies. Mike Epps did

635
00:33:23,680 --> 00:33:27,640
Speaker 4: well ice Cube, soam put him in movies. Kat Williams,

636
00:33:27,920 --> 00:33:31,480
Speaker 4: Don d c. Curry some more. Like there's so many

637
00:33:31,520 --> 00:33:35,160
Speaker 4: black comics that ice Cube was just like yeah, you

638
00:33:35,160 --> 00:33:38,920
Speaker 4: you're famous now. And I was like, this is gonna

639
00:33:38,920 --> 00:33:40,640
Speaker 4: be my moment. And I went out there and I

640
00:33:40,840 --> 00:33:42,800
Speaker 4: ate shit. Not only did I eat shit. I was

641
00:33:42,800 --> 00:33:45,960
Speaker 4: supposed to do three minutes. I came off stage at

642
00:33:46,040 --> 00:33:49,760
Speaker 4: two fifteen. Two minutes fourteen fifteen, so I had one

643
00:33:49,800 --> 00:33:51,520
Speaker 4: more joke left. I go, they're not gonna let me

644
00:33:51,560 --> 00:33:54,400
Speaker 4: do it. I know they're not gonna let me finish

645
00:33:54,440 --> 00:33:57,240
Speaker 4: the next joke. I should leave now so that I

646
00:33:57,280 --> 00:33:59,520
Speaker 4: don't get booed, and I said, good night. I walk

647
00:33:59,560 --> 00:34:03,240
Speaker 4: off stage. But here's the joke on me. You walked

648
00:34:03,280 --> 00:34:05,040
Speaker 4: off stage. That means you got to go back out

649
00:34:05,040 --> 00:34:07,560
Speaker 4: and get Kiki Shepherd it where she you know, they

650
00:34:07,560 --> 00:34:10,239
Speaker 4: put the hand over your head to judge and like,

651
00:34:10,280 --> 00:34:13,080
Speaker 4: give it up for the first comedian, Yeah, give it

652
00:34:13,120 --> 00:34:16,920
Speaker 4: up for Roy but Jr. And the boo was louder

653
00:34:16,960 --> 00:34:19,600
Speaker 4: than what would have been if I'd have just taken

654
00:34:19,640 --> 00:34:25,040
Speaker 4: the original boo. And the ride back to the hotel

655
00:34:25,160 --> 00:34:30,040
Speaker 4: that night was just like so fucking like, it's it's everything.

656
00:34:30,680 --> 00:34:35,480
Speaker 4: You know, you're on a high and then immediately you're

657
00:34:35,520 --> 00:34:39,280
Speaker 4: at your low as low and it's gone. Now rip

658
00:34:39,520 --> 00:34:43,520
Speaker 4: to the forty second Street McDonald's and Times Square, but

659
00:34:43,600 --> 00:34:45,879
Speaker 4: I went there and had a big macmeal, I see

660
00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:49,840
Speaker 4: orange to lick the wounds, and just sat there. It

661
00:34:49,880 --> 00:34:51,520
Speaker 4: was one of those nights where you're sitting there sad,

662
00:34:51,560 --> 00:34:54,360
Speaker 4: and then you can see your reflection in the window

663
00:34:55,640 --> 00:35:00,040
Speaker 4: and you're just like all this happiness streaking by and

664
00:35:00,080 --> 00:35:02,919
Speaker 4: you're sitting there. It's just I don't know what's next.

665
00:35:03,239 --> 00:35:09,319
Speaker 4: This was the way out and there's nothing I can

666
00:35:09,360 --> 00:35:13,200
Speaker 4: do now to change this. And I get back to

667
00:35:13,320 --> 00:35:16,480
Speaker 4: the hotel we were staying. I was bunking with another guy,

668
00:35:16,520 --> 00:35:20,799
Speaker 4: Henry Coleman, great comic out of Memphis, and Henry and

669
00:35:20,840 --> 00:35:25,000
Speaker 4: I were sharing a hotel room and Henry don Apollo

670
00:35:25,160 --> 00:35:29,239
Speaker 4: same day got booed. And we get back to the

671
00:35:29,239 --> 00:35:32,680
Speaker 4: hotel we're staying at the Night's End in Elizabeth, New Jersey,

672
00:35:33,200 --> 00:35:36,960
Speaker 4: and it's all open air prostitution and drugs, like the

673
00:35:37,040 --> 00:35:39,920
Speaker 4: whole street. Like, I don't know what it is now.

674
00:35:40,600 --> 00:35:43,000
Speaker 4: I know that Night's In is still there, number one,

675
00:35:43,680 --> 00:35:45,719
Speaker 4: but I don't know what it is. I don't know

676
00:35:45,760 --> 00:35:49,600
Speaker 4: what that neighborhood is now. We get back and the

677
00:35:49,680 --> 00:35:52,560
Speaker 4: sex workers and the pimps and the dope boys that

678
00:35:52,600 --> 00:35:55,080
Speaker 4: are out there. They give us a round of applause,

679
00:35:56,400 --> 00:35:59,759
Speaker 4: and it was one of the most meaningful moments of

680
00:35:59,840 --> 00:36:04,640
Speaker 4: just it's like community upliftment because they knew we were

681
00:36:04,640 --> 00:36:06,719
Speaker 4: there in town to do kind like we've been there

682
00:36:06,719 --> 00:36:08,600
Speaker 4: a couple of days, and we talked a little bit

683
00:36:08,640 --> 00:36:12,120
Speaker 4: in the parking lot. They didn't know before we get

684
00:36:12,120 --> 00:36:13,360
Speaker 4: out the car. They didn't know whether or not we

685
00:36:13,400 --> 00:36:16,239
Speaker 4: got booed or not. They didn't know shit. And it

686
00:36:16,320 --> 00:36:19,759
Speaker 4: was like, to this day, I'm still touching. Almost paid

687
00:36:19,760 --> 00:36:21,360
Speaker 4: for some sex that night out of respect?

688
00:36:21,880 --> 00:36:23,239
Speaker 2: Have you ever paid for sex? Roy?

689
00:36:24,360 --> 00:36:29,239
Speaker 4: Not outright, but right in theory all men have like

690
00:36:29,320 --> 00:36:34,520
Speaker 4: not like give me a Venmo, thanks a lot, not

691
00:36:34,680 --> 00:36:35,080
Speaker 4: like that.

692
00:36:35,280 --> 00:36:39,000
Speaker 1: Let's talk about walking away from jobs, another element that

693
00:36:39,040 --> 00:36:42,760
Speaker 1: you and I have in common. What was your final

694
00:36:42,800 --> 00:36:46,000
Speaker 1: decision in walking away from the like quitting the Daily Show?

695
00:36:46,239 --> 00:36:49,280
Speaker 1: Did you have the CNN opportunity for your show on CNN,

696
00:36:49,320 --> 00:36:52,320
Speaker 1: which is called Have I Got News for You? No,

697
00:36:52,640 --> 00:36:54,200
Speaker 1: you didn't have that job lined up.

698
00:36:54,880 --> 00:37:00,319
Speaker 4: No, that wasn't even rumored yet. I left Daily Show

699
00:37:00,440 --> 00:37:04,520
Speaker 4: October twenty two. The CNN conversation happened that following July.

700
00:37:05,400 --> 00:37:07,719
Speaker 4: But I don't get the CNN opportunity if I don't

701
00:37:07,760 --> 00:37:10,440
Speaker 4: quit Daily Show. It just didn't feel like a place

702
00:37:10,480 --> 00:37:16,400
Speaker 4: anymore where there was a solid plan for who the

703
00:37:16,440 --> 00:37:19,640
Speaker 4: next host would be. And then and I talked about

704
00:37:19,680 --> 00:37:23,560
Speaker 4: it a little bit in the book about Also, I

705
00:37:23,600 --> 00:37:25,719
Speaker 4: don't know, I just had ideas, Chelseay, I just had

706
00:37:25,719 --> 00:37:27,400
Speaker 4: other shit I wanted to do that I know I

707
00:37:27,400 --> 00:37:30,440
Speaker 4: couldn't do there. I tried to do some of it there,

708
00:37:30,640 --> 00:37:33,440
Speaker 4: it never got green. Look like, I don't want to

709
00:37:33,440 --> 00:37:36,279
Speaker 4: sound like somebody from SNL whining because I didn't get

710
00:37:36,360 --> 00:37:39,440
Speaker 4: enough sketches on. I got to do a ton of stuff.

711
00:37:39,920 --> 00:37:44,160
Speaker 4: But you start evolving and changing. I'm like, well, Also,

712
00:37:44,440 --> 00:37:46,920
Speaker 4: there was the paranoid of the merger. I was, look,

713
00:37:46,960 --> 00:37:49,400
Speaker 4: I don't know how you felt at the time, with

714
00:37:49,520 --> 00:37:51,840
Speaker 4: all the guests hosting and your name being in the hat.

715
00:37:52,040 --> 00:37:58,400
Speaker 4: I was hyper paranoid about the merger. Way depending paramount

716
00:37:58,440 --> 00:38:03,160
Speaker 4: sky Dance, which finally happened. Now that was cooking back then.

717
00:38:03,280 --> 00:38:06,080
Speaker 2: No I know, But why why did that worry you?

718
00:38:06,719 --> 00:38:10,600
Speaker 4: Because the first thing you do is cut You cut salary,

719
00:38:10,680 --> 00:38:14,560
Speaker 4: you cut weight, when you merge a company, you cut things.

720
00:38:14,880 --> 00:38:18,920
Speaker 4: So whatever it is that's happened to Colbert. If we

721
00:38:19,040 --> 00:38:22,120
Speaker 4: really want to believe it was solely budget I thought

722
00:38:22,200 --> 00:38:24,680
Speaker 4: that to be the Daily Show's fate with no host.

723
00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:27,400
Speaker 1: Well, it's the same people, right, right, right right, the

724
00:38:27,440 --> 00:38:31,000
Speaker 1: same people run Colbert did run the Daily Show.

725
00:38:31,440 --> 00:38:34,320
Speaker 4: Okay, so now you're coming off of the writer strike,

726
00:38:34,360 --> 00:38:36,319
Speaker 4: you you're a call from Comedy Central and they go,

727
00:38:36,400 --> 00:38:38,520
Speaker 4: what's up? You're coming back to work or not? And

728
00:38:38,560 --> 00:38:41,000
Speaker 4: then I go, y'all got a host? They go, no,

729
00:38:41,719 --> 00:38:45,280
Speaker 4: y'all got a plan for how you're gonna find a host? Nope?

730
00:38:45,920 --> 00:38:48,200
Speaker 4: Well I know right there, I'm not on your short list.

731
00:38:48,600 --> 00:38:52,959
Speaker 4: Number two. I know that if I stay, I don't

732
00:38:52,960 --> 00:38:54,840
Speaker 4: know what I'm agreeing to stay to be a part of.

733
00:38:55,080 --> 00:38:58,000
Speaker 4: And I don't know how bulletproof this new configuration of

734
00:38:58,040 --> 00:39:02,040
Speaker 4: the show will be. Well, this be recession proof and

735
00:39:02,120 --> 00:39:04,840
Speaker 4: merger proof. John Stewart was also not in the cards

736
00:39:04,880 --> 00:39:06,640
Speaker 4: at the time when I left the show. That's an

737
00:39:06,640 --> 00:39:09,880
Speaker 4: important detail because if John's coming back, all right, I

738
00:39:09,920 --> 00:39:13,720
Speaker 4: stay another year and ride it out through the presidential election.

739
00:39:13,840 --> 00:39:16,920
Speaker 4: But if John's not, and if we're gonna cut costs,

740
00:39:17,200 --> 00:39:19,600
Speaker 4: because even if you merge, right, let's just say they

741
00:39:19,640 --> 00:39:23,640
Speaker 4: cut the Daily Show to a week. Hey, we don't

742
00:39:23,640 --> 00:39:26,560
Speaker 4: need to do this every night, Let's do it weekly. Well,

743
00:39:26,600 --> 00:39:28,200
Speaker 4: if you're gonna do it every week, I bet you

744
00:39:28,200 --> 00:39:31,239
Speaker 4: don't need all these correspondents. And if you're gonna cut correspondents,

745
00:39:31,320 --> 00:39:34,400
Speaker 4: I bet you cut from the top, from the highest salary,

746
00:39:34,480 --> 00:39:37,640
Speaker 4: longest tenure people. This is just where my doom'sday brain

747
00:39:37,840 --> 00:39:42,040
Speaker 4: is going at the time. Right So they're gonna keep

748
00:39:42,080 --> 00:39:44,880
Speaker 4: guest hosting. The merger's gonna happen. They're gonna trim fat.

749
00:39:44,920 --> 00:39:46,440
Speaker 4: I might be some of the fat they trim, and

750
00:39:46,480 --> 00:39:48,680
Speaker 4: by the time they decide that they don't want me,

751
00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:50,960
Speaker 4: or I decide I don't want to be here anymore,

752
00:39:51,280 --> 00:39:54,480
Speaker 4: it's gonna be after the presidential election and the window

753
00:39:54,480 --> 00:39:59,040
Speaker 4: of opportunity to do anything new in late night political

754
00:39:59,080 --> 00:40:03,600
Speaker 4: satire will be gone. This is the window right now,

755
00:40:04,160 --> 00:40:05,960
Speaker 4: This is the window if you ever want to do

756
00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:08,640
Speaker 4: anything different? Are you willing to Are you willing to

757
00:40:08,680 --> 00:40:12,480
Speaker 4: stay here for another year? And bet? Not having anywhere

758
00:40:12,480 --> 00:40:14,640
Speaker 4: else to go, not knowing how the merger is gonna go,

759
00:40:14,719 --> 00:40:16,520
Speaker 4: not knowing how the Daily Show it's going to be

760
00:40:16,560 --> 00:40:19,560
Speaker 4: handled in the merger, or do you leave right now

761
00:40:20,320 --> 00:40:23,239
Speaker 4: and figure it out the same as you always have.

762
00:40:23,600 --> 00:40:26,520
Speaker 4: Same as when the sitcom got canceled on TBS, same

763
00:40:26,560 --> 00:40:30,040
Speaker 4: as when you got fired from the radio station. Same

764
00:40:30,080 --> 00:40:33,440
Speaker 4: as when you had the Whoopie the Whoopi Goldberg sitcom

765
00:40:33,520 --> 00:40:38,520
Speaker 4: on lock and then it didn't happen. So go back

766
00:40:38,560 --> 00:40:40,640
Speaker 4: out into what you know, which is the unknown. It's

767
00:40:40,640 --> 00:40:44,480
Speaker 4: the most familiar feeling I have is not knowing what

768
00:40:44,600 --> 00:40:47,640
Speaker 4: the hell is next. Like everybody looked at it as

769
00:40:47,640 --> 00:40:49,759
Speaker 4: some sort of courageous choice, but it's just like, no,

770
00:40:50,840 --> 00:40:54,000
Speaker 4: if there's a new show to be made, it'll happen

771
00:40:54,080 --> 00:40:57,360
Speaker 4: this year. I want to be in line for another show.

772
00:40:57,680 --> 00:40:59,240
Speaker 2: Prescient, very prescient.

773
00:40:59,360 --> 00:41:02,799
Speaker 1: Yes, a lot of people call into this podcast Roy

774
00:41:03,120 --> 00:41:06,120
Speaker 1: talking about this very thing. I mean, you know, in

775
00:41:06,200 --> 00:41:09,960
Speaker 1: different mediums and careers and professions, but when to take

776
00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:12,759
Speaker 1: a jump or a leap of faith and having you know,

777
00:41:12,920 --> 00:41:16,000
Speaker 1: not having the confidence to do that, and you talking

778
00:41:16,040 --> 00:41:19,360
Speaker 1: about it and knowing that you're going to be okay,

779
00:41:19,680 --> 00:41:21,880
Speaker 1: you know, because you've always been okay because of your

780
00:41:21,920 --> 00:41:24,359
Speaker 1: work ethic and because of your hustle. Like I think

781
00:41:24,400 --> 00:41:27,960
Speaker 1: that's very powerful for people to hear and to know that, Like,

782
00:41:28,120 --> 00:41:30,000
Speaker 1: you know, when you say no to something, you're saying

783
00:41:30,080 --> 00:41:33,399
Speaker 1: yes to a whole bunch of other opportunities that may

784
00:41:33,440 --> 00:41:35,920
Speaker 1: not have revealed themselves yet.

785
00:41:35,840 --> 00:41:39,400
Speaker 4: Trust yourself because they won't reveal themselves. Ceing inn. I

786
00:41:39,400 --> 00:41:41,439
Speaker 4: wouldn't have if I was under contract with Daily Show

787
00:41:41,480 --> 00:41:44,479
Speaker 4: for another year. The CNN wouldn't even call because Central.

788
00:41:44,520 --> 00:41:45,920
Speaker 4: There's no way they're going to let me out of

789
00:41:45,960 --> 00:41:50,080
Speaker 4: my deal to go do another show and essentially compete

790
00:41:50,080 --> 00:41:54,000
Speaker 4: against them during the presidential election year. Not gonna happen, bro,

791
00:41:54,280 --> 00:41:56,839
Speaker 4: So they were never going to do that. And then

792
00:41:57,000 --> 00:42:00,760
Speaker 4: true true to form, there were two things that happened

793
00:42:00,760 --> 00:42:03,040
Speaker 4: after that. There were only two shows that came out

794
00:42:03,200 --> 00:42:06,840
Speaker 4: that year. It was The CNN Show and After Midnight

795
00:42:07,760 --> 00:42:10,600
Speaker 4: with Taylor Tomlinson. Those were the only two, and both

796
00:42:10,640 --> 00:42:14,920
Speaker 4: of those shows are old ip that are remakes. So

797
00:42:15,520 --> 00:42:18,160
Speaker 4: it was even skinnier than I thought it was because

798
00:42:18,160 --> 00:42:20,400
Speaker 4: I thought there was still room for a new show

799
00:42:20,520 --> 00:42:24,080
Speaker 4: or a new idea. There was not. So, you know,

800
00:42:24,160 --> 00:42:25,840
Speaker 4: I'm not going to say I lucked out, but I

801
00:42:26,000 --> 00:42:28,640
Speaker 4: definitely had to leave to put myself in a position

802
00:42:29,239 --> 00:42:32,680
Speaker 4: to advance and do anything else different, you know, and

803
00:42:33,000 --> 00:42:38,319
Speaker 4: that it worked out, you know, But it just my

804
00:42:38,400 --> 00:42:42,720
Speaker 4: advice to your listeners would be whatever emotion or fear

805
00:42:42,920 --> 00:42:47,400
Speaker 4: you have, you've felt it before. I think the gift

806
00:42:47,560 --> 00:42:51,840
Speaker 4: is that you learn how to deal with that pressure

807
00:42:52,000 --> 00:42:54,680
Speaker 4: or that fear and manage it in a way that

808
00:42:54,800 --> 00:42:58,640
Speaker 4: makes sense. Okay, if I leave this show and nothing

809
00:42:58,680 --> 00:43:02,080
Speaker 4: else happens, what can I do? Okay? Oh, I never

810
00:43:02,120 --> 00:43:05,320
Speaker 4: got around to writing that book. I should write that

811
00:43:05,360 --> 00:43:07,440
Speaker 4: book about all the dad shit. Okay, I do that,

812
00:43:07,560 --> 00:43:10,200
Speaker 4: and I can sell that script. Maybe I could sell

813
00:43:10,200 --> 00:43:13,160
Speaker 4: the script. Yeah, I mean, you quit the Daily Show,

814
00:43:13,200 --> 00:43:16,680
Speaker 4: You'll be hot for at least two months. That's you

815
00:43:16,719 --> 00:43:19,319
Speaker 4: know that. I mean that's literally how my brain is

816
00:43:19,520 --> 00:43:22,880
Speaker 4: processing everything at the time. So I'm just like, there's

817
00:43:23,000 --> 00:43:25,880
Speaker 4: other ways, and I think something else will present itself

818
00:43:26,680 --> 00:43:29,640
Speaker 4: if I'm focused. It's like the space shuttle where you

819
00:43:29,760 --> 00:43:32,279
Speaker 4: keep coming around to Earth. You got two windows of

820
00:43:32,320 --> 00:43:35,280
Speaker 4: re entry. You missed this re entry. You gotta circle

821
00:43:35,360 --> 00:43:37,960
Speaker 4: all the way back around and run out again. Like no,

822
00:43:38,160 --> 00:43:41,840
Speaker 4: I'll just I'll jump now. At least this way, I

823
00:43:41,920 --> 00:43:44,520
Speaker 4: have control over when I jump and I'm not pushed.

824
00:43:44,680 --> 00:43:46,239
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, exactly.

825
00:43:46,320 --> 00:43:48,279
Speaker 1: I love that We're going to take a break and

826
00:43:48,280 --> 00:43:50,560
Speaker 1: we'll be right back with roy Wood Junior.

827
00:43:54,480 --> 00:43:57,720
Speaker 2: And We're back with roy Wood Junior.

828
00:43:58,400 --> 00:44:01,640
Speaker 3: We we'll start with a collar to Our first caller

829
00:44:01,760 --> 00:44:05,880
Speaker 3: is Danielle. She says, Dear Chelsea, I'm an actor, comic,

830
00:44:05,960 --> 00:44:08,680
Speaker 3: and now an associate marriage and family therapist, and I

831
00:44:08,719 --> 00:44:11,840
Speaker 3: love your advice. I started stand Up in twenty twelve.

832
00:44:11,960 --> 00:44:13,920
Speaker 3: I've quit a couple of times over the years, but

833
00:44:13,960 --> 00:44:16,520
Speaker 3: every time I leave, I can't stop thinking about it, and.

834
00:44:16,480 --> 00:44:17,520
Speaker 2: I always come back.

835
00:44:18,000 --> 00:44:20,480
Speaker 3: I restarted again in twenty twenty three, and this time

836
00:44:20,560 --> 00:44:23,160
Speaker 3: I'm determined not to quit. Right now, I'm hosting a

837
00:44:23,200 --> 00:44:26,080
Speaker 3: weekly mic at Westside Comedy and I love it. I'm

838
00:44:26,080 --> 00:44:29,120
Speaker 3: forty two, with an MFA and acting from USC. Over

839
00:44:29,120 --> 00:44:31,000
Speaker 3: the years, I've booked some great roles, and I just

840
00:44:31,120 --> 00:44:33,560
Speaker 3: finished filming a recurring role on a Netflix show coming

841
00:44:33,600 --> 00:44:36,080
Speaker 3: out in twenty twenty six. An agent once told me,

842
00:44:36,200 --> 00:44:38,480
Speaker 3: you're over forty and haven't been a series regular, so

843
00:44:38,520 --> 00:44:40,640
Speaker 3: your only hope is stand Up. But clearly that hasn't

844
00:44:40,680 --> 00:44:43,440
Speaker 3: been entirely true. At the same time, I'm now building

845
00:44:43,480 --> 00:44:45,480
Speaker 3: a career as a therapist. After earning my MA in

846
00:44:45,480 --> 00:44:48,800
Speaker 3: clinical psychology, I graduated and finished a year long internship

847
00:44:48,800 --> 00:44:49,400
Speaker 3: in June.

848
00:44:49,760 --> 00:44:50,600
Speaker 2: Here's my struggle.

849
00:44:50,760 --> 00:44:54,360
Speaker 3: I constantly compare myself to younger comics who seem miles ahead.

850
00:44:54,640 --> 00:44:57,040
Speaker 3: The voice in my head says, why bother? You'll never

851
00:44:57,080 --> 00:44:58,880
Speaker 3: get on late night, you'll never get your name on

852
00:44:58,920 --> 00:45:00,640
Speaker 3: the wall at the comedy store, and you'll never be

853
00:45:00,680 --> 00:45:04,480
Speaker 3: a real comic. I bomb Hard hosting four casino shows recently,

854
00:45:04,560 --> 00:45:07,080
Speaker 3: which left me wondering. Do I grind away and write

855
00:45:07,080 --> 00:45:09,800
Speaker 3: material for any crowd or should I focus on shaping

856
00:45:09,800 --> 00:45:13,320
Speaker 3: comedy that really reflects who I am? Psychology based material?

857
00:45:13,600 --> 00:45:16,120
Speaker 3: Should I be aimed at therapists, mental health professionals and

858
00:45:16,160 --> 00:45:18,160
Speaker 3: maybe try to get gigs at mental health conferences?

859
00:45:18,400 --> 00:45:18,480
Speaker 4: No?

860
00:45:19,280 --> 00:45:21,680
Speaker 3: How do I keep moving forward without abandoning myself to

861
00:45:21,719 --> 00:45:23,120
Speaker 3: comparison or self doubt?

862
00:45:23,400 --> 00:45:26,480
Speaker 2: Danielle Well? First of all, Hi Danielle, how are you?

863
00:45:27,280 --> 00:45:27,480
Speaker 4: Hi?

864
00:45:27,640 --> 00:45:29,479
Speaker 2: I'm so good, Thank you for having me.

865
00:45:29,560 --> 00:45:32,959
Speaker 1: This is our special guest, Roy Wood Junior. Two comedians

866
00:45:32,960 --> 00:45:34,160
Speaker 1: that you could talk to right now.

867
00:45:34,360 --> 00:45:37,360
Speaker 4: Hi, daniel One time for the West Side with the

868
00:45:37,360 --> 00:45:39,520
Speaker 4: good Mexican food upstairs.

869
00:45:39,480 --> 00:45:39,839
Speaker 2: Right on.

870
00:45:41,000 --> 00:45:46,160
Speaker 1: First of all, don't gear your casinos suck? Okay, just

871
00:45:46,200 --> 00:45:48,759
Speaker 1: so you know, I'm saying, I mean, you know, because

872
00:45:48,880 --> 00:45:51,160
Speaker 1: most casinos suck. I have a residency at a casino

873
00:45:51,160 --> 00:45:53,399
Speaker 1: that does not suck, but a lot of casinos do suck.

874
00:45:53,680 --> 00:45:57,279
Speaker 1: Especially you know that's not your target crowd, so don't

875
00:45:57,360 --> 00:46:01,279
Speaker 1: let that. That's part of the process. Also, bombing is

876
00:46:01,360 --> 00:46:05,040
Speaker 1: part of the process. It doesn't feel good when it's happening, obviously,

877
00:46:05,160 --> 00:46:06,760
Speaker 1: but it makes you a stronger comic.

878
00:46:07,160 --> 00:46:08,520
Speaker 2: Roy would you agree.

879
00:46:08,200 --> 00:46:12,200
Speaker 4: With that, absolutely, it's the repetition of it all. Also,

880
00:46:12,280 --> 00:46:14,200
Speaker 4: you're still stuck on you at twenty twelve, so you're

881
00:46:14,200 --> 00:46:17,279
Speaker 4: measuring yourself in progress from twenty twelve. I feel like

882
00:46:17,360 --> 00:46:22,399
Speaker 4: if you start comedy and stop, you essentially start back

883
00:46:22,400 --> 00:46:26,279
Speaker 4: at zero again whenever you come back in, because you're

884
00:46:26,280 --> 00:46:28,920
Speaker 4: a different person. You can't even do those old jokes anymore.

885
00:46:29,560 --> 00:46:32,200
Speaker 4: You can't compare yourself to the young And it's a

886
00:46:32,280 --> 00:46:36,600
Speaker 4: leap frog game. Some start late, some start early, Some

887
00:46:36,719 --> 00:46:40,360
Speaker 4: leapfrog and then fizzle out, some figure it out later.

888
00:46:41,080 --> 00:46:43,960
Speaker 4: I think that that part of it. I think the

889
00:46:44,120 --> 00:46:46,239
Speaker 4: name of the game. The advantage you have over any

890
00:46:46,360 --> 00:46:49,480
Speaker 4: actor is that you can build an audience. And if

891
00:46:49,520 --> 00:46:52,080
Speaker 4: you have an audience, then you have control, which means

892
00:46:52,080 --> 00:46:54,560
Speaker 4: you can write your own thing, you can create your

893
00:46:54,600 --> 00:46:58,720
Speaker 4: own thing, and you're a comic with the real world experience,

894
00:46:59,440 --> 00:47:02,200
Speaker 4: like you didn't just do this forever, like you've had

895
00:47:02,480 --> 00:47:06,600
Speaker 4: regular jobs and shit, you've had an experience. I think

896
00:47:06,640 --> 00:47:09,759
Speaker 4: that you lean into the material that will get you

897
00:47:09,840 --> 00:47:11,880
Speaker 4: rebooked at you know, some of these club spots and

898
00:47:11,920 --> 00:47:14,040
Speaker 4: stuff like that. But if you can find your own

899
00:47:14,080 --> 00:47:16,960
Speaker 4: audience online. If it was ten years ago, I'd have

900
00:47:17,000 --> 00:47:19,920
Speaker 4: told you be broad, pray for a Jimmy Fallon Late

901
00:47:20,000 --> 00:47:22,399
Speaker 4: Night set, and then maybe that'll be the thing that

902
00:47:22,480 --> 00:47:27,600
Speaker 4: gets you to the Montreal Showcase. Now, if you become

903
00:47:27,840 --> 00:47:31,759
Speaker 4: the person that has a sandbox that works exclusively in

904
00:47:31,840 --> 00:47:35,160
Speaker 4: a thing, you can grow and build from that and

905
00:47:35,280 --> 00:47:37,960
Speaker 4: have a very viable audience. You know, when I think

906
00:47:38,000 --> 00:47:41,880
Speaker 4: about like the guys We Fucked podcasts, or if you

907
00:47:41,960 --> 00:47:45,640
Speaker 4: think about, say, I'm trying to think of like some

908
00:47:45,680 --> 00:47:48,680
Speaker 4: of the other stand ups that just went off and

909
00:47:48,719 --> 00:47:50,719
Speaker 4: did their own thing. I'm just over here doing the part.

910
00:47:51,000 --> 00:47:53,480
Speaker 4: Mark Maron's a great example where it's just I'm just

911
00:47:53,560 --> 00:47:55,120
Speaker 4: gonna talk about the things that matter to me, and

912
00:47:55,120 --> 00:47:56,920
Speaker 4: the people who find me are the people who will

913
00:47:57,000 --> 00:48:00,799
Speaker 4: cherish it honestly. To pay bills and so you tell

914
00:48:00,840 --> 00:48:03,600
Speaker 4: me if I'm right or wrong on this. To pay bills.

915
00:48:04,640 --> 00:48:09,680
Speaker 4: Even in New York, you only need twenty cities where

916
00:48:09,719 --> 00:48:14,200
Speaker 4: you can sell about four hundred tickets. Maybe let's just

917
00:48:14,280 --> 00:48:16,560
Speaker 4: let's say a thousand tickets. If you do four nights,

918
00:48:16,600 --> 00:48:21,040
Speaker 4: two fifty a show, you could pay bills just on

919
00:48:21,360 --> 00:48:24,880
Speaker 4: twenty cities. Now, will you be big? Will you be huge?

920
00:48:24,920 --> 00:48:28,719
Speaker 4: Will you be everywhere? I don't know that's debatable, but

921
00:48:28,840 --> 00:48:32,520
Speaker 4: I really do think that the idea of success versus

922
00:48:32,560 --> 00:48:36,440
Speaker 4: stardom is something that's blurred. And I think that comedians

923
00:48:37,040 --> 00:48:38,760
Speaker 4: who are on, who feel like they're on the outside

924
00:48:38,760 --> 00:48:43,359
Speaker 4: looking in, look at stardom as the only form of success.

925
00:48:44,040 --> 00:48:45,719
Speaker 4: You can go do those corporate I bet you one

926
00:48:45,760 --> 00:48:48,560
Speaker 4: of them therapy conferences will pay your ass twenty five

927
00:48:48,680 --> 00:48:51,600
Speaker 4: K to one hundred k to Aventure. I remember there

928
00:48:51,680 --> 00:48:55,719
Speaker 4: was a guy I opened for. I think his name

929
00:48:55,760 --> 00:48:58,960
Speaker 4: is Mark Klein. If I'm not mistaken, Mark Klein used

930
00:48:58,960 --> 00:49:02,960
Speaker 4: to call himself the core corp, the corp gesture he

931
00:49:03,280 --> 00:49:07,080
Speaker 4: only did corporates. I don't think in my and I'm

932
00:49:07,080 --> 00:49:08,920
Speaker 4: not saying it's to shit on Mark Klein if he's

933
00:49:08,920 --> 00:49:10,960
Speaker 4: still out there doing stand up. I don't think he

934
00:49:11,080 --> 00:49:16,880
Speaker 4: had a television credit in the two thousands and was

935
00:49:16,960 --> 00:49:20,120
Speaker 4: living comfortably and great. So it's all about what your

936
00:49:20,239 --> 00:49:23,399
Speaker 4: idea of success is as well, because if you could

937
00:49:23,400 --> 00:49:26,640
Speaker 4: bring humor to the MFA world, there's not a lot

938
00:49:26,719 --> 00:49:29,520
Speaker 4: of people qualified to even tackle into that, so you

939
00:49:29,560 --> 00:49:30,480
Speaker 4: could be the beachhead.

940
00:49:30,840 --> 00:49:33,640
Speaker 2: Also, look at Leanne Morgan. I mean, she just hit it.

941
00:49:34,040 --> 00:49:36,600
Speaker 2: She's older than everybody here. You know, she just hit

942
00:49:36,680 --> 00:49:37,960
Speaker 2: it the last few years.

943
00:49:38,040 --> 00:49:41,040
Speaker 1: So you don't know when you know your success or

944
00:49:41,080 --> 00:49:43,920
Speaker 1: your version of success is going to happen. But you know,

945
00:49:43,960 --> 00:49:47,799
Speaker 1: comparing yourself to others is not uncommon. Everybody is doing

946
00:49:47,800 --> 00:49:50,560
Speaker 1: that because of social media. But it's not a great habit.

947
00:49:50,600 --> 00:49:52,359
Speaker 1: It doesn't bring out the best in any of us

948
00:49:52,640 --> 00:49:54,760
Speaker 1: to sit there and look at what other people are doing.

949
00:49:54,800 --> 00:49:56,440
Speaker 1: You have to be confident in the fact that you

950
00:49:56,520 --> 00:49:58,319
Speaker 1: have your own path and that you're going to go

951
00:49:58,360 --> 00:50:00,480
Speaker 1: down the road that you're going down, that the road

952
00:50:00,520 --> 00:50:03,160
Speaker 1: that is curated for you by you, you know what

953
00:50:03,160 --> 00:50:05,720
Speaker 1: I mean. You're the one who's making decisions around yourself

954
00:50:05,760 --> 00:50:08,040
Speaker 1: and around your career and what you're going to do,

955
00:50:08,120 --> 00:50:10,640
Speaker 1: and you have to have confidence in that in and

956
00:50:10,680 --> 00:50:13,879
Speaker 1: of itself, that's what you're doing something how many other

957
00:50:13,920 --> 00:50:16,960
Speaker 1: people are doing what you're doing not, you know, probably

958
00:50:17,000 --> 00:50:21,239
Speaker 1: not very many who have a degree an MFAA. Do

959
00:50:21,320 --> 00:50:24,960
Speaker 1: you have a marriage, Family, Child Counseling MFCC and your

960
00:50:25,000 --> 00:50:28,200
Speaker 1: other Bachelor of Fine Arts? Did you also say that

961
00:50:28,200 --> 00:50:32,680
Speaker 1: you had one of those MFA from USC acting MFA. Sorry, okay,

962
00:50:32,719 --> 00:50:36,320
Speaker 1: so they're a Master of Fine Arts. So that's already original.

963
00:50:36,520 --> 00:50:38,800
Speaker 1: You know, that's stuff you can use. And I wouldn't

964
00:50:39,000 --> 00:50:41,320
Speaker 1: curtail your material to different people.

965
00:50:41,400 --> 00:50:43,920
Speaker 2: It's like you kind of like, I feel this way.

966
00:50:43,920 --> 00:50:45,920
Speaker 1: I don't know, Roy, you tell me, I do my

967
00:50:46,040 --> 00:50:49,879
Speaker 1: thing wherever I am, Like, I don't ever adjust it

968
00:50:50,000 --> 00:50:53,880
Speaker 1: for people, because I just feel like you have to

969
00:50:54,040 --> 00:50:57,400
Speaker 1: really know what you're doing on stage and be completely

970
00:50:57,440 --> 00:51:01,480
Speaker 1: committed to that material because if you're or not, that's

971
00:51:01,640 --> 00:51:04,560
Speaker 1: when you have a bad experience or a week set

972
00:51:04,719 --> 00:51:07,200
Speaker 1: or you get or you feel like you bombed. Is

973
00:51:07,200 --> 00:51:11,120
Speaker 1: when you're not confident, you know, because you can.

974
00:51:11,000 --> 00:51:14,040
Speaker 4: Smell t to be something you weren't for an audience

975
00:51:14,080 --> 00:51:16,920
Speaker 4: that was never going to appreciate the truest version of you.

976
00:51:17,040 --> 00:51:19,640
Speaker 4: So now you're just it's like, you know, if you

977
00:51:20,160 --> 00:51:22,920
Speaker 4: think of comedy as a relationship and you on stage

978
00:51:23,000 --> 00:51:25,759
Speaker 4: is the first date. How much are you going to

979
00:51:25,800 --> 00:51:30,240
Speaker 4: pretend to be something just so that that particular date

980
00:51:30,719 --> 00:51:32,680
Speaker 4: likes you? Well, then who the who the fuck are you?

981
00:51:33,040 --> 00:51:36,759
Speaker 4: It's a great analogy. It's just likability and trying to

982
00:51:36,800 --> 00:51:39,799
Speaker 4: get people to like you enough to go on a

983
00:51:39,920 --> 00:51:44,200
Speaker 4: journey with you, and some people might not. I do

984
00:51:44,320 --> 00:51:47,359
Speaker 4: think one thing that, And I don't know what your

985
00:51:47,400 --> 00:51:53,719
Speaker 4: writing habits are, but critique yourself often and try to

986
00:51:53,880 --> 00:51:58,840
Speaker 4: find and squeeze an extra line of laugh out of material.

987
00:51:59,480 --> 00:52:02,719
Speaker 4: I'm not gonna like I write the tightest for laugh

988
00:52:02,880 --> 00:52:06,920
Speaker 4: per minute type sets, but I think a lot of people,

989
00:52:07,080 --> 00:52:10,840
Speaker 4: especially in New York, a lot of the newer comics,

990
00:52:10,840 --> 00:52:13,520
Speaker 4: in my opinion, they get very comfortable once the joke

991
00:52:13,600 --> 00:52:15,440
Speaker 4: gets a laugh or two and they go, Okay, that

992
00:52:15,560 --> 00:52:20,200
Speaker 4: joke's done. Like, no, it might not be. Think of it.

993
00:52:20,320 --> 00:52:22,360
Speaker 4: Listen to it a couple of different ways, Like just

994
00:52:23,280 --> 00:52:25,560
Speaker 4: you can message me offline and I can give you

995
00:52:25,640 --> 00:52:29,080
Speaker 4: what my approach has always been. It's just what happens

996
00:52:29,080 --> 00:52:32,560
Speaker 4: if I tell this joke louder, faster, or a different octave.

997
00:52:33,160 --> 00:52:36,080
Speaker 4: You could take words that aren't even funny and make

998
00:52:36,160 --> 00:52:40,240
Speaker 4: them funny. Like there's ways to just juice another laugh

999
00:52:40,280 --> 00:52:45,200
Speaker 4: out of stuff, and be comfortable with hating yourself, because

1000
00:52:45,480 --> 00:52:48,359
Speaker 4: sometimes I listen to audio of myself and I watch

1001
00:52:48,360 --> 00:52:50,799
Speaker 4: it as a hater, like listen to it as he

1002
00:52:51,320 --> 00:52:53,440
Speaker 4: and then I give tags like well what he should

1003
00:52:53,440 --> 00:52:56,040
Speaker 4: have said was this? Oh, well i'm him. Well I

1004
00:52:56,160 --> 00:52:58,680
Speaker 4: just tag my own shit just by listening to it.

1005
00:52:58,719 --> 00:53:02,560
Speaker 4: It's a free joke, so you know that part of it.

1006
00:53:02,600 --> 00:53:04,879
Speaker 4: Don't run away from it. But I really do think

1007
00:53:04,920 --> 00:53:10,719
Speaker 4: that the idea of just performing and waiting for you know,

1008
00:53:11,560 --> 00:53:13,880
Speaker 4: comedy Jesus to find us in the back of the

1009
00:53:13,920 --> 00:53:18,839
Speaker 4: comedy clubs, I think those days are gone. I think

1010
00:53:18,880 --> 00:53:24,120
Speaker 4: it's all about being yourself consistently enough and then growing

1011
00:53:24,160 --> 00:53:27,319
Speaker 4: from there. I stop short of telling comedians to put

1012
00:53:27,360 --> 00:53:30,480
Speaker 4: clips out every week or every month or whatever, but

1013
00:53:30,680 --> 00:53:34,160
Speaker 4: find a pace that makes sense for you, or be

1014
00:53:34,320 --> 00:53:40,080
Speaker 4: the comic that's responsive to a particular issue on a

1015
00:53:40,120 --> 00:53:44,160
Speaker 4: regular basis. And maybe that's your thing, or maybe it's

1016
00:53:44,239 --> 00:53:47,319
Speaker 4: the Hey, this current event happened. Let me show you

1017
00:53:47,400 --> 00:53:52,960
Speaker 4: how this fits into the world of therapy. Yeah, here's too.

1018
00:53:53,120 --> 00:53:54,000
Speaker 2: You know that's interesting.

1019
00:53:54,160 --> 00:53:57,399
Speaker 1: I'm mentioning on like world events, pop culture, whatever, you're

1020
00:53:57,480 --> 00:54:00,920
Speaker 1: the most passionate about through the lens of with that.

1021
00:54:01,000 --> 00:54:03,400
Speaker 3: Bet Well, I think mental health and therapy stuff like

1022
00:54:03,480 --> 00:54:06,640
Speaker 3: does play more broadly nowadays, Like we all have that language.

1023
00:54:06,640 --> 00:54:09,880
Speaker 3: It's become Dear Weger, I also want to say that

1024
00:54:10,040 --> 00:54:12,839
Speaker 3: Corpjester dot com is alive and well, so Mark Klein

1025
00:54:12,920 --> 00:54:15,200
Speaker 3: is out there, danns Wow.

1026
00:54:18,000 --> 00:54:21,839
Speaker 2: Awesome. Okay, Well, I hope that was helpful. Danielle very

1027
00:54:21,920 --> 00:54:24,879
Speaker 2: I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for the time. Sure,

1028
00:54:24,960 --> 00:54:27,160
Speaker 2: nice to meet you both. Nice to meet you, Danielle.

1029
00:54:27,480 --> 00:54:28,920
Speaker 2: Nice to see you, Catherine. Thank you.

1030
00:54:28,960 --> 00:54:29,280
Speaker 4: Guys.

1031
00:54:29,840 --> 00:54:31,319
Speaker 1: We're going to take a quick break and we'll be

1032
00:54:31,400 --> 00:54:32,840
Speaker 1: right back with roy Wood.

1033
00:54:37,040 --> 00:54:39,880
Speaker 2: And we're back with roy Wood Junior and Senior.

1034
00:54:40,719 --> 00:54:44,080
Speaker 3: Okay, so our last question comes from Carrie. This one

1035
00:54:44,160 --> 00:54:47,480
Speaker 3: was just an email, she says, Dear Chelsea, I'm not

1036
00:54:47,560 --> 00:54:50,440
Speaker 3: a stand up comedian, comedian or frontline act i E.

1037
00:54:50,640 --> 00:54:51,160
Speaker 4: Entertainer.

1038
00:54:51,440 --> 00:54:54,319
Speaker 3: However, I'm in the entertainment business and understand how it

1039
00:54:54,320 --> 00:54:57,319
Speaker 3: all works. I'm heavily involved in the music SNL thirty

1040
00:54:57,400 --> 00:55:00,680
Speaker 3: rock comedy scene on the business end. Years ago, I

1041
00:55:00,719 --> 00:55:03,440
Speaker 3: pursued a guy who's involved with a comedy podcasting and

1042
00:55:03,480 --> 00:55:06,680
Speaker 3: he didn't show reciprocated feelings. Now, two years later, I'm

1043
00:55:06,680 --> 00:55:09,120
Speaker 3: really interested in another comedian, but I'm scared to be

1044
00:55:09,200 --> 00:55:12,040
Speaker 3: labeled as a chuckle fucker. I feel like only women

1045
00:55:12,080 --> 00:55:14,400
Speaker 3: get these labels, and I'm not sure how to navigate it.

1046
00:55:14,480 --> 00:55:16,080
Speaker 3: Do I just say fuck it and shoot my shot?

1047
00:55:16,160 --> 00:55:17,240
Speaker 3: Or should I look elsewhere?

1048
00:55:17,360 --> 00:55:19,480
Speaker 2: Carrie? Yeah, fuck it? What do you care what?

1049
00:55:19,960 --> 00:55:23,120
Speaker 1: It's a chuckle fucker anyway, I mean, who gives a

1050
00:55:23,160 --> 00:55:24,240
Speaker 1: shit what anyone thinks.

1051
00:55:24,239 --> 00:55:26,279
Speaker 2: If you like funny men, you like funny men.

1052
00:55:26,800 --> 00:55:30,640
Speaker 4: Also, chuckle fucker's reserved for people not in the business.

1053
00:55:30,719 --> 00:55:32,520
Speaker 4: And this is as a guy who's fucked a couple

1054
00:55:32,600 --> 00:55:36,719
Speaker 4: chuckle fuckers. Chuckle Fuckers are not people that are within

1055
00:55:36,760 --> 00:55:39,759
Speaker 4: the industry. You're just somebody in the industry dating people

1056
00:55:39,760 --> 00:55:43,160
Speaker 4: in the industry. Cops fuck cops, sometimes they fuck firefighters.

1057
00:55:44,160 --> 00:55:46,840
Speaker 4: I think you shoot your shot. I do think that

1058
00:55:47,000 --> 00:55:49,080
Speaker 4: I would be very discreet about it. I wouldn't put

1059
00:55:49,080 --> 00:55:51,719
Speaker 4: a lot of public appearance on that. Just know that

1060
00:55:51,760 --> 00:55:54,319
Speaker 4: if it's taking off at some point, he's gonna tell

1061
00:55:54,320 --> 00:55:57,359
Speaker 4: a friend or a buddy or whatever. But you know,

1062
00:55:57,480 --> 00:56:00,239
Speaker 4: why not fill it out and just say hello, oh,

1063
00:56:00,640 --> 00:56:01,480
Speaker 4: just you know.

1064
00:56:01,520 --> 00:56:02,280
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.

1065
00:56:02,719 --> 00:56:06,319
Speaker 1: I wouldn't worry about your label being labeled anything you're in.

1066
00:56:06,520 --> 00:56:09,000
Speaker 1: You know you're in the business. You're in the business.

1067
00:56:09,120 --> 00:56:10,920
Speaker 1: Just because you're not a comedian doesn't mean you're not.

1068
00:56:10,880 --> 00:56:13,960
Speaker 2: In the business. It's all related and who cares.

1069
00:56:14,280 --> 00:56:17,000
Speaker 1: My god, we're all gonna die soon anyway, it doesn't

1070
00:56:17,040 --> 00:56:17,680
Speaker 1: fucking matter.

1071
00:56:18,280 --> 00:56:19,840
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't know how old that person is, but

1072
00:56:19,880 --> 00:56:21,800
Speaker 4: once they get into the thirties, you're going to realize

1073
00:56:21,800 --> 00:56:24,560
Speaker 4: that there's a couple of comics that have all cross

1074
00:56:24,920 --> 00:56:28,560
Speaker 4: pollinated and you know, never openly dated one not is

1075
00:56:28,600 --> 00:56:31,480
Speaker 4: it like a title of girlfriend, but I've dated like

1076
00:56:31,560 --> 00:56:32,920
Speaker 4: two or three comedians.

1077
00:56:33,080 --> 00:56:36,319
Speaker 2: Well, I think you and Yaminika should start dating. That's

1078
00:56:36,360 --> 00:56:37,320
Speaker 2: my start.

1079
00:56:37,400 --> 00:56:38,839
Speaker 4: Rumors stn't start.

1080
00:56:39,040 --> 00:56:41,440
Speaker 1: You know, she's looking for someone, she's looking for someone

1081
00:56:41,480 --> 00:56:44,200
Speaker 1: to land on, and it might just be you.

1082
00:56:44,480 --> 00:56:46,799
Speaker 4: It might just be you, and I've told her a

1083
00:56:46,840 --> 00:56:48,680
Speaker 4: long time ago. I don't know if you step mo

1084
00:56:48,840 --> 00:56:51,080
Speaker 4: material I got a nine year old, you might try

1085
00:56:51,120 --> 00:56:55,680
Speaker 4: and cuss out my baby and then his mam would

1086
00:56:55,680 --> 00:56:58,320
Speaker 4: be over. Let me stop.

1087
00:56:58,120 --> 00:56:59,799
Speaker 2: Talking before we let you go.

1088
00:57:00,239 --> 00:57:01,880
Speaker 1: I just want to know, since you have a political

1089
00:57:01,920 --> 00:57:04,520
Speaker 1: show and you're a political commentator, Well, how do you

1090
00:57:04,600 --> 00:57:08,400
Speaker 1: see what's your view or long lens of our current

1091
00:57:08,600 --> 00:57:09,680
Speaker 1: political situation.

1092
00:57:09,800 --> 00:57:11,080
Speaker 2: How do you see things?

1093
00:57:11,480 --> 00:57:14,759
Speaker 4: I think that we are into an administration that, if

1094
00:57:14,800 --> 00:57:17,120
Speaker 4: we are not careful, is going to be controlling the

1095
00:57:17,160 --> 00:57:20,880
Speaker 4: messaging through all of the media, through lawsuits and intimidations

1096
00:57:20,960 --> 00:57:27,440
Speaker 4: and leveraging money as a way to silence voices. And

1097
00:57:27,640 --> 00:57:31,920
Speaker 4: I don't think that's something that's exclusive to liberals. If

1098
00:57:31,920 --> 00:57:33,960
Speaker 4: you want to get you know, get into the weeds

1099
00:57:33,960 --> 00:57:37,720
Speaker 4: of freedom of speech and stuff like that. Like that part,

1100
00:57:38,600 --> 00:57:41,120
Speaker 4: you know, scares me for sure, Like that's real cancel

1101
00:57:41,160 --> 00:57:45,640
Speaker 4: culture when you can't even vocalize or verbalize anything, or

1102
00:57:45,720 --> 00:57:48,640
Speaker 4: someone controls all the airways so you can't even get

1103
00:57:48,640 --> 00:57:52,360
Speaker 4: equal time to spit your opinions and perspectives. That makes

1104
00:57:52,400 --> 00:57:56,920
Speaker 4: me nervous. But it was nice to see what I

1105
00:57:57,080 --> 00:58:02,040
Speaker 4: perceived to be the comedy community together on the Jimmy

1106
00:58:02,080 --> 00:58:05,480
Speaker 4: Kimmel joint and all saying well, wait, you can't do that.

1107
00:58:07,000 --> 00:58:10,400
Speaker 4: And that gives me hope because comedians are still the

1108
00:58:10,480 --> 00:58:13,800
Speaker 4: tip of the spear. If anything's going to change, I

1109
00:58:13,840 --> 00:58:18,040
Speaker 4: think it starts with comedians and also strippers, because the

1110
00:58:18,080 --> 00:58:20,920
Speaker 4: strippers be dancing for the politicians and.

1111
00:58:20,840 --> 00:58:24,080
Speaker 1: Thank you very much for that sentiment. Thank you, Roy

1112
00:58:24,120 --> 00:58:27,760
Speaker 1: Wood Junior. You can catch him on CNN. His show

1113
00:58:27,840 --> 00:58:30,640
Speaker 1: is called Have I Got News for You? His new

1114
00:58:30,640 --> 00:58:33,560
Speaker 1: book is called The Man of Many Fathers. It's an

1115
00:58:33,640 --> 00:58:38,320
Speaker 1: incredible book. I recommend every mother getting this and reading it,

1116
00:58:38,800 --> 00:58:41,560
Speaker 1: and any straight men that are listening to this you should.

1117
00:58:41,280 --> 00:58:41,800
Speaker 2: Read it too.

1118
00:58:42,400 --> 00:58:44,080
Speaker 1: But I doubt there are a lot of straight men

1119
00:58:44,120 --> 00:58:47,960
Speaker 1: listening to this podcast, and women read more than men,

1120
00:58:48,160 --> 00:58:49,080
Speaker 1: So there we go.

1121
00:58:50,080 --> 00:58:51,160
Speaker 2: I'm glad to be a woman.

1122
00:58:51,280 --> 00:58:55,280
Speaker 1: I'm proud of our female listener readers, and who needs

1123
00:58:55,440 --> 00:58:56,480
Speaker 1: straight men anyway?

1124
00:58:57,920 --> 00:59:00,000
Speaker 2: Thank you Roy Wait for a minute now.

1125
00:59:01,840 --> 00:59:06,040
Speaker 1: Congratulations, right, We love you, Thank you for coming on.

1126
00:59:07,280 --> 00:59:12,320
Speaker 5: The word of the week is penurious, adjective given to

1127
00:59:12,680 --> 00:59:20,480
Speaker 5: or marked by extreme frugality. Penurious, the penurious miser declined

1128
00:59:20,600 --> 00:59:23,480
Speaker 5: to put a coin in the Salvation army bucket.

1129
00:59:24,040 --> 00:59:24,680
Speaker 2: Penurious.

1130
00:59:27,800 --> 00:59:29,680
Speaker 1: I just announced all my tour dates. It's called the

1131
00:59:29,880 --> 00:59:31,120
Speaker 1: High and Mighty Tour.

1132
00:59:31,720 --> 00:59:33,400
Speaker 2: I will be touring.

1133
00:59:33,080 --> 00:59:36,520
Speaker 1: From February through June, So go get your tickets now

1134
00:59:36,680 --> 00:59:38,680
Speaker 1: if you want good seats and you want to come

1135
00:59:38,760 --> 00:59:41,200
Speaker 1: see me perform, I will be on the High and

1136
00:59:41,400 --> 00:59:42,040
Speaker 1: Mighty Tour.

1137
00:59:42,600 --> 00:59:43,320
Speaker 2: Do you want advice?

1138
00:59:43,320 --> 00:59:47,000
Speaker 3: From Chelsea right into Dear Chelsea Podcast at gmail dot com.

1139
00:59:47,360 --> 00:59:50,440
Speaker 3: Find full video episodes of Dear Chelsea on YouTube by

1140
00:59:50,440 --> 00:59:54,000
Speaker 3: searching at Dear Chelsea Pod. Dear Chelsea is edited and

1141
00:59:54,080 --> 00:59:58,200
Speaker 3: engineered by Brad Dickert executive producer Catherine Law and be

1142
00:59:58,240 --> 01:00:00,160
Speaker 3: sure to check out our merch at Chelsea ham Dour

1143
01:00:00,200 --> 01:00:05,960
Speaker 3: dot com m