WEBVTT - QLS Classic: David Alan Grier 0:00:00.400 --> 0:00:00.720 Of Course. 0:00:00.800 --> 0:00:04.760 Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic episode 0:00:04.800 --> 0:00:07.040 was produced by the team at Pandora. 0:00:10.080 --> 0:00:13.960 What up, y'all, it's Layah and this week's QLs classic. 0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:18.599 It's a good one. I'm talking about David Alan Grier. 0:00:18.760 --> 0:00:18.920 Yo. 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:22.280 This episode, he goes all the way back to his 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:25.720 days at Yale Drama when he was Angela Bassett's old 0:00:25.760 --> 0:00:28.080 head and all the greatness that came out of that school, 0:00:28.360 --> 0:00:31.800 to talking about his days on Broadway. You got about that, 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:34.320 and of course he dished into some in living color. 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:35.559 You don't want to miss this. 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:38.159 You think you know David Allen Greer, you don't, So 0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:43.000 listen and find out. This episode was originally released November fourteenth, 0:00:43.200 --> 0:00:44.280 twenty eighteen. 0:00:44.680 --> 0:00:59.520 Enjoy Suprema Sun Suck Supremo role called Suprema Suck Suck 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:07.840 Primo roll call Supremo su su Supremo role called Suprema sunk. 0:01:08.000 --> 0:01:11.480 Here a roll call, I'm skilled quest the three and 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:14.080 if he starts with my jam, yeah, I had a verse. 0:01:14.160 --> 0:01:15.160 I'm fresh Sugar. 0:01:17.640 --> 0:01:23.080 Supremo Sun Supremo role called Suprema son. 0:01:23.000 --> 0:01:24.880 So Supremo role call. 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:28.759 My name is fante, Yeah, I stay so fly Yeah, 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:37.000 so I'm in this verse. Yeah, Supremo Supremo role call, 0:01:37.480 --> 0:01:40.840 Supremo su s Supremo role call. 0:01:41.000 --> 0:01:44.000 My name is Sugar. Yeah, now listen here. 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:48.280 Yeah my favorite comedian, yeah is a mirror. 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:57.680 U Supremo roll call Subremo Sun Sun Supremo role calls. 0:01:57.720 --> 0:01:59.919 Favorite Yeah, record to listen. 0:02:00.440 --> 0:02:02.400 Yeah, that classic platter. 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:08.000 From h No, So Simmons, whoa Supremo sock sup. 0:02:09.360 --> 0:02:12.880 Suprema So Supremo roll call. 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:15.880 It's lie Yeah, yeah, oh my god. 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:16.600 Yeah. 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:19.679 Thirty years later, Yeah, you would have all picked. 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:20.079 Your run. 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:30.320 Smo Suprema see it Sepremire. My name is Dave v J. 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:31.840 Y'all know me. 0:02:32.800 --> 0:02:39.320 I'm up in this mo we on the top tail three. 0:02:38.840 --> 0:02:50.680 Supremo roll call, Supremo Supremo, Supremo Supremo roll call Suprema. 0:02:51.240 --> 0:02:58.080 Supremo roll call, Ladies, Man, I might not make it. 0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:06.760 Let's just cut to the chase. Ladies, John, we have David. 0:03:07.840 --> 0:03:10.359 That was probably your best road call. 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:13.480 In means a lot to me. I worked on my 0:03:13.560 --> 0:03:15.560 had like three alternates. You've done a lot, mister Christ 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:16.359 for Dome. 0:03:16.440 --> 0:03:17.480 You know, dint write nothing down. 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:19.200 Okay, you didn't have to do that to me he was. 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:25.920 Getting from an iPhone. I don't that's not him, that 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:30.080 is not really that's nerd. You can't be like, can 0:03:30.120 --> 0:03:33.200 you try the lights up place this? Can you roll 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:34.360 it back? Can you roll the back place? 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:37.440 Damn? 0:03:38.320 --> 0:03:39.400 I owe to you, you know. 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:42.360 Oh sorry you tried to hug me, but I'm not. 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:44.640 I'm not. You know, there's too many hugs. Hugs have 0:03:44.720 --> 0:03:49.720 been diminished because everybody wants a damn hug. Used to 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:52.840 be for your grandma, you know, your sick mama, when 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:57.240 you're leaving home. Now it's just every woman. Every everybody 0:03:57.280 --> 0:03:59.800 wants a damn hug. And it's too intimate. I don't 0:03:59.800 --> 0:04:03.440 want to hug strangers. You know, he's got to mean something. 0:04:03.560 --> 0:04:04.920 How long it takes for me to give him on? 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:07.960 Months? 0:04:08.400 --> 0:04:09.720 Months to trusted? 0:04:09.920 --> 0:04:12.920 Jesus am the only one. It used to be a handshake. 0:04:13.480 --> 0:04:15.480 You can't shake a look person in the eye. Oh 0:04:15.560 --> 0:04:18.920 your questions, Nice to meet you. Now, I'm like, see 0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:21.960 that's even worse. That's even worse. He's trying to not 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:23.400 catch America. 0:04:23.720 --> 0:04:25.320 We need to love. I think that's what it is. 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:29.800 Please, I ain't trying to lose my job, man, Kanye. 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:36.720 Kanye apologized today. Yes that sorry, I just tweeted. Apology accepted. 0:04:36.800 --> 0:04:42.000 Let's move on to talk about this. Yeah, talking about right, 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:49.240 we're gonna pray for him, any let's let it out. 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:54.040 I was just saying I was saving my prayers something. 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:57.400 Just like that, going. 0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:00.240 I'm not gonna say no, no, no, it' still times. 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:04.279 Time him and Tiger Tiger Woods and King and up 0:05:06.160 --> 0:05:09.680 name some other questionable black folks. Always like, I know 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:16.559 we all got a family member. That's like exactly my mother, 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:20.159 May she rest in peace. I said. She was like, 0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:23.080 what are you gonna say Republican? I mean, if you 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:24.840 want to say we're going to vote it, why would 0:05:24.839 --> 0:05:26.800 you even say the word. I was like, my mom, 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:30.080 come relaxed, I'm not even I just said Republicans. She's like, 0:05:30.320 --> 0:05:32.320 but no, she. 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:36.799 Where your mama fromd Well. 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:41.679 My mother was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, from Michigan. 0:05:42.279 --> 0:05:44.479 She was light skinned. Did you know she said she 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:46.680 was freeman. I'm just telling you the family she said, 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:49.279 we weren't slaves, we were freedman. I'm like, okay, the 0:05:49.279 --> 0:05:56.000 whole time. My father's side field workers, field workers, So 0:05:56.960 --> 0:06:00.159 make no doubt about it, that can happen you know 0:06:00.200 --> 0:06:03.320 what they did the history of local Jay's family. 0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:07.960 None of his family members had to go through slavery 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:11.720 when it came to the United States. Were immigrants they 0:06:11.720 --> 0:06:15.440 got no, they were African American. For some strange reason, 0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:17.600 they they came immediately to. 0:06:17.720 --> 0:06:23.159 Ohio and something. Luckily, I don't know what the story was, 0:06:23.200 --> 0:06:26.000 but it's on finding your roots with Skip Gates on PBS, 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:26.600 which you did. 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:29.720 Yeah, but you did it, Yeah, I did. It was 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:31.279 there when my grandfather. 0:06:30.920 --> 0:06:33.680 Was the last my great great great grandfather was the 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:34.440 last slave. 0:06:35.120 --> 0:06:42.440 Did you read this book that was recently published? Come on, 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:43.240 you looked at me. 0:06:43.680 --> 0:06:44.320 Thank you. 0:06:44.400 --> 0:06:46.720 What's it called? I just got to reading it. I'm 0:06:47.080 --> 0:06:56.960 foggy right now, sorry watching God. You know. Yes, Well, well, 0:06:57.400 --> 0:07:00.600 I'm mentioning this because this guy in the book, his testimonial, 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:04.839 he was on one of the last slaves, Clotilda. Yeah, 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:08.800 my grandfather Clotilda. You know that's some evil ship right there, 0:07:09.360 --> 0:07:16.800 the clitoral bondage over in this blasphemous name. 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:20.000 Yeah, it was a it was a bet. It was 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:24.360 a flip. Slavery was over. They flipped the coin and 0:07:24.440 --> 0:07:27.120 the bet was whether or not he could get a 0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:31.280 hook up. Uh, and and over in Nigeria to bring 0:07:31.320 --> 0:07:33.880 some back on the sneak tip because it was it 0:07:33.920 --> 0:07:35.040 was what this book was. 0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:37.800 Basically, it's the same deal. It was technically over, but 0:07:37.880 --> 0:07:42.240 they snuck this ship in and contraband cargo. 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:44.200 And all that, you know, exactly, like slaves were like 0:07:44.240 --> 0:07:47.000 having cocaine on you like, you know, the British were like, wow, 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:48.960 what you got in the trunk? Oh, you got some. 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:51.600 They were the biggest culprits. 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:55.440 But then all the all the what I'm trying to say, 0:07:55.480 --> 0:07:57.680 all the European moneyed families, you know, these people who 0:07:57.760 --> 0:08:00.920 quote unquote built this nation. Nobody had as slave trader 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:04.000 on there because that was removed long time ago, because 0:08:04.040 --> 0:08:06.120 that's not kosher. Nobody wants to be known as that. 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:12.800 They're like, well we sold tobacco, yeah, were probably, yeah, 0:08:12.840 --> 0:08:14.600 so they got here. And then if they owned a 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:18.800 farm in the eighteen hundreds, yeah, yeah, exactly, tractor. I 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:25.600 don't think, no, not yet, So can we move on. 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:27.080 I'm not allowed to laugh at the slave. 0:08:28.680 --> 0:08:34.800 Can't nobody see you? But dig Man I did twenty 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:37.040 three and me and there were no surprises. It was 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:44.719 just okay, black black Irish Scottish. Okay, well Western though, 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:49.720 Uh well it's I don't know everybody here in this 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:53.079 room has greater or lesser knowledge of their family. I 0:08:53.080 --> 0:08:57.000 would assume, you know, uh, their lineage, and I have 0:08:57.160 --> 0:09:00.520 some knowledge. I mean in uh, there just was no 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:03.320 crazy story. You know. It wasn't like you know, you're 0:09:03.760 --> 0:09:06.920 one third tie. No, it was none of that. It 0:09:06.960 --> 0:09:10.600 was a straight slave ship plantation Detroit. 0:09:10.720 --> 0:09:14.520 Here we are. So yeah, well I did that initially, 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:16.960 and they tried to tell me that was from Sierra Leone. 0:09:17.800 --> 0:09:21.640 And when Skip Gates got to me, he was like, no, 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:23.680 I'm gonna do a thorough DNA search, and you know, 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:25.199 he had the receipts and all that stuff. 0:09:25.200 --> 0:09:28.120 That's what I need. Man. Yeah, I got the thirty dollars. 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:28.880 I was about to. 0:09:28.840 --> 0:09:30.920 Say, you're not scared, because I was all for this 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:33.120 until like recently they really want us to do this 0:09:33.240 --> 0:09:35.760 real bad and they're doing crazy things with your DNA. 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:40.840 In that moment, what are they doing with Listen, they're 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:42.720 finding criminals with the DNA. 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:44.680 You know, it's just the beginning. 0:09:44.840 --> 0:09:46.240 Did you do anything criminal? 0:09:46.960 --> 0:09:49.800 And they're finding it in your family, like in your lineage. 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:51.600 You're like, so you're related so and so. Oh, that's 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:53.040 how we can get so and so in the system. 0:09:53.080 --> 0:09:58.280 Like, yeah, it's I never even thought about that. That's happened. 0:09:58.360 --> 0:10:02.679 It means a relative of yours did something and they 0:10:02.679 --> 0:10:06.000 can they can trace it. Also, our DNA information is 0:10:06.000 --> 0:10:08.400 not secured twenty three. Once you do that, once you 0:10:08.520 --> 0:10:11.800 enter that database, it's not like you can I don't 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:13.800 know where that is. I spit in the test tube, 0:10:13.800 --> 0:10:14.760 I send it off in the mail? 0:10:14.960 --> 0:10:15.959 Right, did they sell it? 0:10:16.000 --> 0:10:20.040 What they do exactly? Something modify what it's like posting 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:22.200 a picture on Instagram. You don't know. 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:27.280 But you're good. You did George with skip seeing so 0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:28.360 that's right, you say. 0:10:28.480 --> 0:10:29.640 Skip is good for now. 0:10:30.960 --> 0:10:33.240 My homie did a sketch about that on the on 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:35.520 the show Random Acts of Flying It, so he's real. 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:39.880 It's it's super true. So it is a sketch where 0:10:40.040 --> 0:10:43.640 it's a reparations Yeah, turns he did. It's a reparation 0:10:43.760 --> 0:10:46.520 sketch where there's an app where you give your DNA 0:10:47.040 --> 0:10:50.680 and they're able to trace who are the family, who's 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:54.040 the white family that owned you? 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:57.320 And this is where it is where you're getting your reparation. 0:10:57.400 --> 0:10:59.240 This is where you get your reparations from and like, 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:02.199 and they like, and I also takes into account things 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:04.240 such as redlining and like all like it. 0:11:04.440 --> 0:11:07.200 It's funny as hell, but it's oh sketch oh. In 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:08.559 my mind, I was like word. 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:11.800 That was. 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:14.880 But you know what, we did something when I did 0:11:14.960 --> 0:11:16.880 Chocolate News. But it was based on the thing where 0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:19.760 Skip gates. You never all all of your relatives are 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:22.640 always wonderful. With Skip. I never seen him say, hey, dog, 0:11:22.679 --> 0:11:31.800 you'll people ain't ship you know, white people. Doctor Phil 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:32.319 got it. 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:39.760 He tried to said let's not let's get the show. 0:11:38.960 --> 0:11:42.960 Can take musht off gave him that bottle of hooch 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:48.000 and said go sit over there, brother, get your life together. 0:11:49.400 --> 0:11:49.640 Yeah. 0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:54.280 So Michigan, Sir, Detroit, Michigan, east Side of west Side, 0:11:54.920 --> 0:11:57.160 west Side, barely. I grew up in one house. My 0:11:57.200 --> 0:12:00.160 parents bought this house two days before I was one. 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:03.320 I'm the youngest of three, nineteen fifty six, sixty two 0:12:03.440 --> 0:12:07.199 years old. And that's the one house I grew up in. 0:12:07.480 --> 0:12:11.160 And I left at eighteen and my mom sold the house, 0:12:11.800 --> 0:12:14.680 you know, when she got remarried and college. But that's 0:12:14.800 --> 0:12:17.000 just one house because but it was I'm sorry, to 0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:20.000 answer your question, it was four blocks west of Woodward, 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:22.960 which is the dividing line between east and west, so 0:12:23.000 --> 0:12:23.880 it's barely west. 0:12:24.000 --> 0:12:28.800 Yeah, because I often hear stories of people that are 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:30.880 from the west side of the Detroit that will lie 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:33.640 and say they're from the east side of Detroit for credibility, 0:12:33.920 --> 0:12:35.960 Like its seemed that the west side is the bougy 0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:38.600 side and the east side's supposed to be in the 0:12:38.640 --> 0:12:39.240 real side. 0:12:39.520 --> 0:12:45.079 And have you been to Detroit, Yeah, it's all real, 0:12:45.760 --> 0:12:50.280 Like just man, please, Detroit is so black. 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:52.760 Is on to come up now though it is always. 0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:54.600 A different vibe. I mean once they settled. I met 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:57.080 this twenty five year old white girl and I was 0:12:57.120 --> 0:12:59.520 performing in a club and she was there like as 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:03.040 a as an intern because she wanted to go back 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:05.959 to Detroit and open a club in downtown Detroit. And 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:08.160 you know that's what you need, you need the folly 0:13:08.200 --> 0:13:10.280 of youth. I was like what She was like, Yeah, 0:13:10.320 --> 0:13:11.719 it's gonna be great and I'm gonna do it and 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:16.160 we're all going to succeed. I was like, how you gonna, 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:18.280 I'm just gonna do it. You know it can happen. 0:13:18.640 --> 0:13:21.680 So I was like, oh, that's what you need, not me, 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:23.440 bro start up capital. 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:25.320 You never want to go back to Detroit. 0:13:25.480 --> 0:13:27.360 I do. I go back all the time. I mean 0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:29.760 I've gone back to my high school. I did a 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:32.320 master class with the kids there at cast Tech. I 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:35.160 go back to my university. I went to University of Michigan. 0:13:37.000 --> 0:13:41.560 So I try to go back. I went for It's weird. 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:46.040 I was like inducted into the Detroit Hall of Fame. 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:49.920 It was me Ben Carson that you didn't show up. 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:51.559 I was there with popcorn. I was like, did he 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:57.199 get in? I'm called in sick. So he didn't show up. 0:13:57.240 --> 0:14:02.120 But he's a doctor. He's a brain surgeon. Knucklehead too. 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:05.760 It's like damn Chris. But yeah, yeah, yeah. So I 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:07.160 try to do that. I mean I try to do 0:14:07.200 --> 0:14:10.280 it when it's like I said, applicable and I have time. 0:14:10.360 --> 0:14:15.000 It's mostly with kids. Like when I went back, you know, 0:14:15.040 --> 0:14:17.199 to work with actors, young actors and stuff, because I 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:20.240 know when I was a student, anybody who had any 0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:28.440 connection to professional professional art community, we thirsted for that 0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:30.240 because you know, you really, you know, when you're a kid, 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:33.400 you have like teachers, you know they're not really they're 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:37.040 they're pedagogs, you know, so anybody who could bring that 0:14:37.040 --> 0:14:39.600 that fresh knowledge and we just ate it up. 0:14:39.720 --> 0:14:43.960 So, yeah, did you always have aspirations to be an 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:46.120 actor first or or comedian first? 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:50.160 I didn't want I wanted to be a musician. Yeah, 0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:53.920 I'm enjoy Yeah, yeah, I'm a very marginal guitar player. 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:58.960 But I just remember the first time me and my 0:14:59.040 --> 0:15:02.920 best friend we discovered alternative radio. And our alternative radio 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:09.480 station was WABX, so you figure I was eleven or twelve, 0:15:10.080 --> 0:15:12.320 and the first time we heard Jimmy Hendrix is like 0:15:12.400 --> 0:15:16.080 our minds exploded. Man, it was like, oh my god, 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:20.240 who is this? So we just ate all of that up, 0:15:20.360 --> 0:15:23.440 you know, all that hippie music and you know, our parents. 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:27.840 It was wild. Yeah, it makes sense because now it 0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:32.160 just hit me that you were actually playing guitar as 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:32.920 Calhoun Tubs. 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:36.080 Oh yeah, yeah, Well Calhoun Tubes was based on a guy. 0:15:36.120 --> 0:15:38.480 I went to the University of Michigan in ann Arbor, 0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:41.520 and there was this guy's campus mascot, this old black 0:15:41.520 --> 0:15:45.880 guy named Shaky Jake. He couldn't play, he couldn't say 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:51.040 Shaky Jake, and you just that's basically how he sounded. 0:15:51.400 --> 0:15:53.400 So that was kind of the impetus and you know 0:15:53.440 --> 0:15:56.520 what that well, I was eighteen then, but you'd always 0:15:56.520 --> 0:15:58.600 see a blues dude. There was another dude named One 0:15:58.640 --> 0:16:06.240 String Sam and I'm not making this, but this guy 0:16:06.320 --> 0:16:09.120 he he recorded to like in the fifties, but he 0:16:09.160 --> 0:16:11.520 had a He took two liquor bottles, a two by 0:16:11.640 --> 0:16:14.840 four and a string and it was one string and 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:16.960 he had a hit. It was like, all, I need 0:16:18.000 --> 0:16:22.480 one hundred dollars? Why do I need one hundred dollars? 0:16:22.680 --> 0:16:25.160 So I saw him, and I mean, you know, once 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:27.240 I got into the blues, I was like, do you 0:16:27.320 --> 0:16:28.640 know Robert Johnson? 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:28.880 Sir? 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:32.520 Yeah, I know, yeah, I know, you know that kind 0:16:32.560 --> 0:16:36.040 of stuff, and uh so I was. I was into it. Yeah, 0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:39.920 you guitar or I did. I mean it was mostly 0:16:39.960 --> 0:16:43.000 self taught. Back in the day. It was you had 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:45.640 to just wear the grooves out the record. You could 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:47.840 take we could take a thirty three and a third. 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:50.840 We'd put it down to sixteen r rpm so it'll 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:54.200 be slow record, but then it wasn't in the right tune. 0:16:54.480 --> 0:16:56.840 And so it was all about or when we got 0:16:56.840 --> 0:17:01.120 a little portable cassette recorders and we just tape it 0:17:01.200 --> 0:17:04.480 and go over and over and over and over. No 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:12.040 YouTube cheat sheet. The whole open tuning thing was just 0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:14.360 that you had to look on the back of an 0:17:14.480 --> 0:17:17.679 album and try and match it to the recording. So 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:18.800 that's how we did. 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:21.640 What were you in school for at the time, Uh, 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:23.600 you mean college? 0:17:24.280 --> 0:17:27.160 Well, I went to college. Yeah, by you know, when 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:29.119 I went to college, you know, my mother told me, 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:31.120 she said, look, I will not pay for an education 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:34.760 for acting, you know. And I wasn't really into acting 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:37.520 then no music, you know, and by then I really 0:17:37.560 --> 0:17:40.199 still wanted to do music. She would not let me 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:41.720 play in a band because that meant you had to 0:17:41.760 --> 0:17:44.320 go out at night, and she's trying to keep me 0:17:44.359 --> 0:17:46.359 off the streets, you know. But I had a good 0:17:46.400 --> 0:17:49.760 friend whose father owned a recording studio on Grand River, 0:17:49.800 --> 0:17:51.680 and I would hang out there all day and night. 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:54.600 You know. They were not Motown. 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:54.760 By the way. 0:17:54.920 --> 0:17:59.240 They were not. He had a record label. It's called 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:03.760 Sound Detroit Sound something like that. They put out some singles, 0:18:03.760 --> 0:18:06.840 but mostly we just hang out in the studio. 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:09.840 And just so, who did your mother what does she 0:18:10.000 --> 0:18:11.360 What were her designs for you? 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:19.080 When I was in Jack and Jill. Yeah, like this, 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:21.800 I went back. I think I didn't remember Jack and 0:18:22.040 --> 0:18:25.880 Jill being that niggers, but it was like. 0:18:26.560 --> 0:18:29.199 We should explain what Jack and Jill is people outside 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:30.159 the community. 0:18:30.960 --> 0:18:35.520 Outside the community to do that, you dominate you. 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:39.800 Jack and Jill is basically a nationwide organization for people 0:18:39.880 --> 0:18:42.840 who want who want their children to be in like minded, 0:18:43.240 --> 0:18:44.480 bougie ass situations. 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:47.920 Doctors, lawyers, dennis. 0:18:47.520 --> 0:18:50.439 Yes, the middle class, upper black people who want their 0:18:50.520 --> 0:18:53.040 kids to be around like minded kids and families. 0:18:53.280 --> 0:18:55.679 So these chapters are in every different city. 0:18:55.760 --> 0:18:59.000 But like a girl version was like a lot of colorism, right, 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:03.119 because I had aunts that were or like people of 0:19:03.200 --> 0:19:06.119 that age in the seventies that were they kind of 0:19:06.200 --> 0:19:08.800 used the paperback test, like oh yeah, if you were 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:11.600 lighter than a paper bag, then you got treated certain ways. 0:19:11.720 --> 0:19:15.320 Christ Yeah, Well, like I said, my father was you know, 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:19.920 deep dark, semi sweet chocolate e brown. Moms was kind 0:19:19.920 --> 0:19:23.120 of you know, beige, and they got together. But we 0:19:23.119 --> 0:19:25.560 were in Uh That's how I was raised, and so 0:19:25.640 --> 0:19:27.479 the Huxtables, that's pretty much how I was. You know, 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:29.680 my doctor was a lawyer, I mean a doctor. He's 0:19:30.240 --> 0:19:33.920 my dad was a doctor. He's a psychiatrist and as 0:19:33.960 --> 0:19:36.960 a young kid in our neighborhood. We lived in this 0:19:37.000 --> 0:19:41.680 neighborhood that was kind of like Hancock Park, big old 0:19:41.760 --> 0:19:45.560 houses in a certain part Boston medicine area, and most 0:19:45.600 --> 0:19:48.720 of the kids I played with were, you know, doctors 0:19:49.080 --> 0:19:52.320 and dentists and that kind of professional folks. 0:19:52.760 --> 0:19:56.600 Can I ask, did your father did you know if 0:19:56.600 --> 0:20:00.520 he had black clientele only because for me, a lot 0:20:00.560 --> 0:20:04.760 of here's the thing for where I come from, like 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:09.439 black people in therapy. It's like they were like, oh, 0:20:09.440 --> 0:20:11.760 I rather go to my preacher, my pastor, you know, 0:20:11.840 --> 0:20:14.120 like that's for crazy white people. Depression away. 0:20:14.280 --> 0:20:17.800 Take it to guy my dad. He yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:19.920 He told me a great story. He said, this one 0:20:20.000 --> 0:20:23.719 guy came in. This dude came from the autoplant, you know, 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:26.239 and friends brought him in. He was all fucked up. 0:20:26.280 --> 0:20:29.400 He said, Doc, you gotta help me. This woman put 0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:32.400 a mojo on me. And at first my father did 0:20:32.440 --> 0:20:35.080 not know how to deal with it because he said, 0:20:35.119 --> 0:20:37.600 I can't help you. Doesn't Yeah, you do. Stude believed 0:20:37.600 --> 0:20:40.560 in me. Said I need you to She put a 0:20:40.560 --> 0:20:44.000 hand on me, and I need you to release this hand. 0:20:44.520 --> 0:20:46.480 So he said he had to go and get in 0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:49.440 this dude's mindset. At first he said, I can't you know, 0:20:49.440 --> 0:20:53.240 I'm a psychiatrist. So finally he said, okay, you got 0:20:53.280 --> 0:20:55.560 to talk on that level. So he said, well, okay, 0:20:55.920 --> 0:20:58.240 we're gonna work with this, get this evil off you. 0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:02.200 And he worked with them and came up with some bullshit. 0:21:02.359 --> 0:21:07.400 The dude around three times and say on a monopa 0:21:07.480 --> 0:21:12.800 backwards and exactly. He had to make some stuff up, 0:21:12.880 --> 0:21:15.639 you understand. So, no, he had black clients, He had 0:21:15.680 --> 0:21:18.040 black clients. He had a real cute white secretary though 0:21:18.080 --> 0:21:22.600 at one point, which was my parents had passed away, 0:21:22.600 --> 0:21:28.200 so I can tell you all this ship now. Yeah, yeah, 0:21:28.240 --> 0:21:30.480 it's funny you asked that. I don't you know, I 0:21:30.480 --> 0:21:33.919 couldn't tell you if every patient was black or white. 0:21:34.040 --> 0:21:36.280 I'm sure the vast majority were black. You have to 0:21:36.359 --> 0:21:39.960 understand Detroit at that time, you know, the forties and 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:44.280 fifties and sixties, had a lot of moneyed black people. 0:21:44.640 --> 0:21:48.919 It had a professional, upper middle class, large black community. 0:21:49.240 --> 0:21:51.879 Even I mean just working at the car plan you know, 0:21:51.960 --> 0:21:54.360 back in the day, you can make a good living, exactly, 0:21:54.520 --> 0:21:57.560 make very good living, you know, and so so so 0:21:57.680 --> 0:22:03.920 there was a large unity Detroit, Chicago where else Philly, 0:22:04.119 --> 0:22:08.480 you know, New York. So so yeah, he was good. 0:22:11.119 --> 0:22:14.800 Did you did you have any interaction with any other 0:22:14.920 --> 0:22:18.600 notable figures from Detroit and you're growing up like a. 0:22:20.480 --> 0:22:23.880 Church Well, you know, my dad when my parents broke up, 0:22:24.080 --> 0:22:28.119 my dad moved to San Francisco in nineteen sixty seven, 0:22:28.320 --> 0:22:30.600 and it started in sixty six sixty seven. So he 0:22:30.680 --> 0:22:34.119 came out there into the Summer of Love and we 0:22:34.200 --> 0:22:37.080 went to visit him, and he was working on a book. 0:22:37.200 --> 0:22:43.680 So I met Alex Haley Claude Brown junior. He would 0:22:43.720 --> 0:22:45.840 introduce me to all these people, man, and I'd just 0:22:45.880 --> 0:22:48.600 be like, hey, what's up, man? Can I get a 0:22:48.640 --> 0:22:51.119 mini bike? You know? He was like, no, you know, 0:22:51.200 --> 0:22:54.600 we marched. I marched with Martin Luther King Junior in 0:22:54.640 --> 0:22:59.200 Detroit in sixty three. Yeah, our family did. And so 0:22:59.520 --> 0:23:05.160 it was it was you know, cl Franklin. Franklin's dad 0:23:05.880 --> 0:23:07.960 was a prominent minister in Detroit, so he was he 0:23:08.119 --> 0:23:12.080 was instrumental in bringing doctor King to Detroit. And that 0:23:12.280 --> 0:23:16.760 was the summer of the March on Washington, you understand. 0:23:16.760 --> 0:23:19.600 And so in Detroit he actually did the I Have 0:23:19.680 --> 0:23:24.240 a Dream speech. Uh, it was an earlier version practice 0:23:24.680 --> 0:23:27.560 exactly this typical Detroit. We got the we got the 0:23:27.640 --> 0:23:35.119 last run through. Yeah, so uh and you know, just 0:23:35.160 --> 0:23:38.879 a sidebar. You know, Aretha Franklin, she reached out to 0:23:38.920 --> 0:23:43.440 me several times, you know, just as well. I remember 0:23:43.520 --> 0:23:46.159 Damon and I Damon Waynams and I reperformed at the 0:23:46.200 --> 0:23:48.800 Fox Theater, you know, in downtown Detroit, and I came 0:23:48.840 --> 0:23:52.800 in my dress room. I mean this big, big, big, 0:23:52.880 --> 0:23:56.200 huge bouquet of flowers and it was from Aretha Franklin. 0:23:56.240 --> 0:23:58.320 She said, David, You've always been one of my favorites. 0:23:58.359 --> 0:24:01.760 I have something special for you. Call me. And I 0:24:01.840 --> 0:24:04.120 was so tripped out by the note. I never called 0:24:04.119 --> 0:24:14.440 her because I was like trying to holler. I mean, 0:24:14.440 --> 0:24:17.080 you know, she was good, but I mean I think 0:24:17.119 --> 0:24:21.879 that she because I'm from Detroit. She always whenever I 0:24:21.920 --> 0:24:25.280 came in town, or like, because we finally hooked up, 0:24:25.359 --> 0:24:28.600 she came to see Porgy and Bess where her husband 0:24:28.640 --> 0:24:31.159 they came and we hung out afterwards. There was this 0:24:31.240 --> 0:24:36.480 thing at I forget that, this armory. It was like 0:24:36.800 --> 0:24:39.800 to Honor and Living Color and Radio City Music Hall 0:24:39.880 --> 0:24:42.800 all in that time. And we talked and she was 0:24:42.880 --> 0:24:45.760 real cool, I mean just real friendly and real nice 0:24:45.800 --> 0:24:49.440 and reached out, meaning, here's my number. Let's keep in touch, 0:24:49.720 --> 0:24:52.000 you know, let's let's kick it. I mean it was nice. 0:24:52.000 --> 0:24:52.480 She was cool. 0:24:53.119 --> 0:24:54.639 Yeah, yeah, she was nice to you. 0:24:56.720 --> 0:25:09.439 Too soon soon anybody have any Lauren Hill? Because you 0:25:09.480 --> 0:25:14.320 know she she she clapped back, clap. 0:25:14.040 --> 0:25:17.280 Back to me. Was too much, plea copping. It's too much. 0:25:17.440 --> 0:25:19.480 It was a whole bunch of word salad, a lot 0:25:19.480 --> 0:25:19.800 of words. 0:25:19.840 --> 0:25:21.480 It wasn't even about what she said. It was about 0:25:21.520 --> 0:25:26.439 the comments. Yeah, yes, you know, you can make it 0:25:26.480 --> 0:25:30.800 on Twitter on time, but not to your concert. That's 0:25:30.800 --> 0:25:34.720 all I'm saying. Waited two hours. Okay, clap right back 0:25:34.760 --> 0:25:39.360 on Twitter. In the comments. I looked at the comments 0:25:39.560 --> 0:25:42.280 for one time. They were actually worth reading, really hilarious. 0:25:42.720 --> 0:25:45.920 You know, I can't say, I can't believe I'm about 0:25:45.920 --> 0:25:49.320 to say this. Okay, So I read the whole whole thing. 0:25:51.920 --> 0:25:58.400 I read it, but part of me was legit proud 0:26:00.200 --> 0:26:06.240 that she knew what emojis were. Yeah, right, there tells 0:26:06.240 --> 0:26:09.040 you the message failed when you the mojis. 0:26:10.520 --> 0:26:15.040 E emojis to make your point. She got kids. That 0:26:15.160 --> 0:26:18.639 That's I spent at least ten minutes trying to analyze like, 0:26:18.760 --> 0:26:22.920 imagine Laurence Hill knowing what that that skeptical, the cynic 0:26:24.000 --> 0:26:29.160 on your chin with the eyebrow. 0:26:27.520 --> 0:26:33.600 But it was it was like got co writers on that. No, 0:26:33.880 --> 0:26:35.040 I don't want the sister to come give me. 0:26:35.119 --> 0:26:37.760 But I was like, who wrote this? Because I can't 0:26:37.800 --> 0:26:41.560 imagine her. I think I think she actually wrote the 0:26:41.640 --> 0:26:44.879 opening paragraph. Was like, it's mighty presumptuous for you to 0:26:44.960 --> 0:26:55.120 think that I would presume assumptions worthwith real Oswald Banks. 0:26:56.880 --> 0:26:57.200 Answer? 0:26:57.240 --> 0:27:01.040 This is medium a blog? Or is it it's a site. 0:27:00.840 --> 0:27:04.199 Where anybody can post anything? Oh? Because I was like, 0:27:04.240 --> 0:27:06.679 why aren't the medium people spell checking and all that stuff? 0:27:06.680 --> 0:27:08.879 Now it's just you can type that shit on your phone. 0:27:08.600 --> 0:27:10.240 And they want they want you real. 0:27:10.400 --> 0:27:11.280 Oh I didn't know that. 0:27:12.280 --> 0:27:14.439 A big fan of Lauren Hills. 0:27:14.400 --> 0:27:18.520 Yeah, I love breakfast. I'm a punishment actually. 0:27:18.680 --> 0:27:21.080 First of all, you know some whoopez has come to 0:27:21.080 --> 0:27:23.520 anybody quest love real quick? A big fan, by the way, 0:27:23.560 --> 0:27:29.640 big fant, you should run then, don't wait anything that's 0:27:29.680 --> 0:27:32.480 out A big fan, brother? Can I ask you some please? No? 0:27:33.280 --> 0:27:36.840 Yeah? I was proud that she not since Okay, when 0:27:37.160 --> 0:27:42.200 I graduated high school, LL's walking with a panther came out. Wow, 0:27:42.640 --> 0:27:47.240 And my big surprise was okay, because again LL's from 0:27:47.240 --> 0:27:50.600 like the eighty five era, so I was trying to 0:27:50.600 --> 0:27:54.880 imagine LL over modern breakbeats and to hear him over 0:27:55.520 --> 0:27:59.280 modern hip hop of eighty nine was like a shocker, like, oh, okay, 0:27:59.440 --> 0:28:02.359 LL's new man. That's how I felt about Lauren, Like 0:28:03.040 --> 0:28:05.760 she knew what a hashtag was in an emoji, Like 0:28:05.840 --> 0:28:07.240 I was legit proud. 0:28:09.359 --> 0:28:12.280 Because I mean it's been around for like fifteen years now. 0:28:12.800 --> 0:28:20.119 Well, he was actually taking a selfie and remember when 0:28:20.160 --> 0:28:22.760 Prince took that selfie and Princess selfie, it was awesome. Yeah, 0:28:23.520 --> 0:28:24.800 but I think he did it on purpose. 0:28:24.800 --> 0:28:30.080 So I think the greatest selfie was Reverend Al selfie. 0:28:34.320 --> 0:28:36.879 Had to show you the whole fish. Yeah, like I 0:28:36.920 --> 0:28:37.679 got to see all this. 0:28:38.000 --> 0:28:41.240 He's a man. I just saw him. I was in 0:28:41.320 --> 0:28:42.720 Brooklyn last Yeah. 0:28:42.960 --> 0:28:45.760 Yeah, he was at the Spike Lee has a Michael 0:28:45.800 --> 0:28:47.760 Jackson party he does every year. 0:28:48.440 --> 0:28:52.400 Al was at there dancing. I saw a video he was. Yeah, 0:28:54.560 --> 0:28:57.720 I kicked it with man. He was chasing me down 0:28:57.720 --> 0:28:59.560 for years, like Reven would like to talk to you. 0:29:00.040 --> 0:29:00.680 I'm going. 0:29:02.040 --> 0:29:07.600 Finally we finally we touched the base and he's good. Man. No, 0:29:07.640 --> 0:29:09.280 it was back, you know, in the nineties. One Living 0:29:09.320 --> 0:29:11.960 Color was on and I was just trying. I'm trying 0:29:12.320 --> 0:29:15.479 feather Man sterile at that point, you know, I mean, 0:29:15.600 --> 0:29:17.560 I was trying. But anyway, are you one of. 0:29:17.560 --> 0:29:21.720 Those people that you're literally on meeting your idols or 0:29:22.040 --> 0:29:27.600 or have you ever had a situation in which you 0:29:27.720 --> 0:29:30.720 met someone and they disappointed you because they weren't like. 0:29:31.320 --> 0:29:33.360 I'll tell you one, but I mean, I didn't hate 0:29:33.360 --> 0:29:35.160 on him. I'm just telling you how it happened. Like 0:29:35.200 --> 0:29:39.080 I was doing this award show and Cab Calloway was 0:29:39.120 --> 0:29:42.840 the Cab Calloway as a kid. You know, he wrote 0:29:42.840 --> 0:29:47.200 his memoir. I forget what it was called, but it 0:29:47.400 --> 0:29:50.520 was beautiful. Man. I'll tell you a quick story from 0:29:50.520 --> 0:29:53.200 his memoir, Like when Cab Calloway had his band, Disney 0:29:53.200 --> 0:29:56.160 Gillespie played in it, and Disney Gillespie and them, when 0:29:56.160 --> 0:29:59.239 they're on the bandstand, they used to shoot spitballs at 0:29:59.240 --> 0:30:02.680 each other, and Cab Callaway hated that shit, you know, 0:30:02.720 --> 0:30:04.640 because she would get wild when they're gig in and 0:30:04.840 --> 0:30:07.800 one or two spit balls will hit hit him. So 0:30:08.160 --> 0:30:10.720 he and Dizzy had it out. Now The story is, 0:30:11.120 --> 0:30:14.080 you know, he always wore a white tuxedo, and so 0:30:14.120 --> 0:30:16.480 he got in a fight with Dizzey Gillespie and they 0:30:16.520 --> 0:30:19.040 said he went past the room and he came by 0:30:19.080 --> 0:30:22.680 the white tuxedo was blood on it. He said, I 0:30:22.720 --> 0:30:28.960 guess y'all heard. I had to fire the nigga. Cap 0:30:29.040 --> 0:30:30.960 tried to swing on him, and Dizzy pulled out a 0:30:31.040 --> 0:30:32.000 knife and stuck it. 0:30:34.720 --> 0:30:35.640 Now, I got to cut it. 0:30:37.560 --> 0:30:40.920 Real black, and forgive me if I get the story slightly. 0:30:41.120 --> 0:30:43.600 This was many years ago. But anyway, I see Cap 0:30:43.680 --> 0:30:46.400 Callaway and I just totally fanned out. I was like, 0:30:46.520 --> 0:30:50.080 oh my god. You know, he was talking to another 0:30:50.360 --> 0:30:52.560 dude I knew who was like, you know, stage managing 0:30:52.560 --> 0:30:55.040 the whole thing. I was like, oh my god, mister Calloway, 0:30:55.120 --> 0:30:59.240 you are my hero, You're my idol. I've been watching 0:30:59.280 --> 0:31:02.120 you since my whole life. I've read every anything, I 0:31:02.160 --> 0:31:06.800 have posters of him. And he just went, that's beautiful. Anyway, 0:31:08.520 --> 0:31:10.680 I understood there. I was like, oh man, I heard 0:31:10.960 --> 0:31:14.800 flowing off, blown off by Camp CALLI, but it's all good. 0:31:14.840 --> 0:31:16.760 He didn't know who I was. You know, it was 0:31:16.800 --> 0:31:19.640 all good, So that's not you know it wasn't. Yeah, 0:31:19.640 --> 0:31:21.640 I would like to talk to him longer, but he didn't. 0:31:21.680 --> 0:31:23.680 I didn't go home, like I hate you, man. 0:31:23.600 --> 0:31:28.280 You just WoT Cuba Cuba. Gooding Senior did that to 0:31:28.320 --> 0:31:31.360 me once, Like he was sitting there. Yeah, he was 0:31:31.360 --> 0:31:35.920 sitting We were at uh uh the movie that Junior 0:31:35.960 --> 0:31:41.440 was in with Denzel Washington Drug Frank White. Uh. Yeah. 0:31:41.480 --> 0:31:44.160 We were at like an after party and Cuba scene. 0:31:44.160 --> 0:31:46.840 He was sitting alone, like isolated, and I was just 0:31:46.920 --> 0:31:49.800 like yo, like, dude, you're my hero main ingredient. I 0:31:49.880 --> 0:31:53.840 love all your music, YadA YadA, YadA, and instantly like 0:31:53.880 --> 0:31:56.720 he shook my hand, but then he saw iced tea 0:31:56.760 --> 0:31:59.640 and Cocoa walked in and he just pushed me out 0:31:59.680 --> 0:32:03.600 the way I grew up on mean ingredients. D d 0:32:03.800 --> 0:32:04.240 da da dada. 0:32:04.320 --> 0:32:08.000 Oh my god boy, how did you feel? I mean, 0:32:08.040 --> 0:32:11.280 people are human beings, Coco. 0:32:11.040 --> 0:32:13.120 So I got curd of Coco. I guess I kind 0:32:13.120 --> 0:32:13.560 of got it. 0:32:13.680 --> 0:32:17.120 But I mean, I'm sure people would tell you, you know, 0:32:17.360 --> 0:32:19.440 I curbed them. It depends if you roll upon me 0:32:19.480 --> 0:32:22.080 at five forty five at the airport and want to 0:32:22.120 --> 0:32:24.640 take a selfie. If you roll up on me in 0:32:24.680 --> 0:32:27.440 a nightclub with a you know, cell phone, talk to 0:32:27.480 --> 0:32:28.080 my nephew. 0:32:28.720 --> 0:32:29.560 You might get curved. 0:32:29.920 --> 0:32:32.480 Okay, I'm not gonna FaceTime with your mama. Yeah I 0:32:32.520 --> 0:32:34.520 don't know you. I mean with your mom. I would 0:32:34.560 --> 0:32:36.000 because I know you. But you know what I mean, 0:32:36.240 --> 0:32:37.960 sometimes you have to be like now, you have. 0:32:37.920 --> 0:32:38.920 To put up those boundaries. 0:32:38.920 --> 0:32:39.040 Man. 0:32:39.240 --> 0:32:41.920 Yeah, dude, like that is longer, but thank you for 0:32:41.960 --> 0:32:42.560 the short of it. 0:32:42.760 --> 0:32:45.080 Yeah, but you know sometimes and it's just that way. 0:32:45.240 --> 0:32:49.480 So I give people. I give people latitude as long 0:32:49.520 --> 0:32:52.320 as it's not too foul. I mean, you know, nobody's 0:32:52.320 --> 0:32:54.280 ever like swung on me like that. 0:32:54.680 --> 0:32:55.240 Established. 0:32:56.880 --> 0:32:59.360 I don't want to be stabbed. Nobody wants to get 0:32:59.400 --> 0:33:16.960 stabs right right. Evant is gonna be my new You 0:33:17.000 --> 0:33:20.440 can use it because people they won't even know, they 0:33:20.480 --> 0:33:20.920 won't know. 0:33:22.440 --> 0:33:22.960 No good. 0:33:23.360 --> 0:33:25.160 Well, I wanted to tell you my sl Stone. You 0:33:25.160 --> 0:33:29.120 guys are talking. Yeah, First of all, sly Stone, sling 0:33:29.120 --> 0:33:33.719 of family Stone where there was a record store on 0:33:33.880 --> 0:33:36.720 twelfth Street. Twelve Street in Detroit is the Black Street. 0:33:37.320 --> 0:33:38.840 We had to walk a few blocks to get to 0:33:38.920 --> 0:33:41.000 twelve Street, twelve Street. There's a store in there called 0:33:41.000 --> 0:33:43.440 Being Bob's and that's where me and my friend we 0:33:43.560 --> 0:33:45.400 go and get our singles. You know, it was like 0:33:46.000 --> 0:33:56.160 so the Soda Shop records, uh palmade you know, m yes, exactly, 0:33:56.240 --> 0:33:59.720 Murray by the way, Detroit Company, look on the ten 0:34:02.920 --> 0:34:07.160 New Nile, New Nile. But so we heard dance to 0:34:07.200 --> 0:34:12.160 the music again on the local radio station. Sly's music 0:34:12.400 --> 0:34:16.840 was so different, so new. I had never heard no 0:34:17.080 --> 0:34:20.040 kind of ship like that, you know what I mean. 0:34:20.120 --> 0:34:25.360 I was like, damn, you know, boom boom boom, boom boom. 0:34:25.400 --> 0:34:27.040 We're like, oh my god, I got to get some 0:34:27.120 --> 0:34:29.239 of this. So we went and that's where I got 0:34:29.280 --> 0:34:32.359 that first single. And watching him back then, there was 0:34:32.400 --> 0:34:37.440 no all it was was Ed Sullivan and what Hollywood 0:34:37.560 --> 0:34:41.040 Palace you know. Uh so you had to just wait 0:34:42.160 --> 0:34:46.799 American band stand. Yeah yeah yeah. But watching size, seeing Sly, 0:34:47.719 --> 0:34:51.440 his style was so different and fresh, the way he 0:34:51.560 --> 0:34:55.839 combined gospel. He was an inventor of funk, I mean 0:34:55.880 --> 0:34:59.239 he really was. And his drum patterns, I mean he 0:34:59.360 --> 0:35:03.399 had the fun honest drummers I've ever heard. I mean 0:35:03.880 --> 0:35:08.040 his bass player, his bass player, man Mary Graham, invented 0:35:08.160 --> 0:35:11.920 a whole style that changed bass playing. So all that 0:35:12.040 --> 0:35:16.400 in one group. So I saw him at Olympia at 0:35:16.400 --> 0:35:21.120 the Olympia Auditorium that was the hockey ring in Detroit. 0:35:21.560 --> 0:35:24.799 I had to be fifteen, okay. So this was the 0:35:24.800 --> 0:35:28.320 first time we talked, me and my crew. We talked 0:35:28.760 --> 0:35:31.279 one of the moms into dropping us off then they 0:35:31.280 --> 0:35:36.320 would pick us up. It's got to be seventy one, okay, seventy. 0:35:35.920 --> 0:35:39.799 One right, all right, So he would get there. 0:35:39.880 --> 0:35:42.680 Everybody was there, all all the crew from school, you know, 0:35:42.719 --> 0:35:45.440 we all piling there, and we were well, we take 0:35:45.480 --> 0:35:48.279 the cheapest tickets and then just bum rush, That's what 0:35:48.320 --> 0:35:51.560 we did. So as soon as the lights went down, 0:35:52.280 --> 0:35:55.240 Slide came out and you know, it's all white on stage. 0:35:55.280 --> 0:35:58.520 He had those tufted custom amps. And by the way, 0:35:58.560 --> 0:36:01.680 we're always you know, equipment heads. We just look what 0:36:01.800 --> 0:36:04.120 is he playing? What is what is that? What is 0:36:04.160 --> 0:36:07.120 the gear? What is the chord? The guitars? All that 0:36:07.400 --> 0:36:11.080 far fiesia organ. So he comes out and he starts jamming, 0:36:11.160 --> 0:36:13.920 and it was like as soon as he hit that 0:36:14.000 --> 0:36:17.480 first note, people turned and started whooping. Ass They just 0:36:17.719 --> 0:36:21.799 it was a riot immediately. So Slide stopped and he said, 0:36:21.800 --> 0:36:23.840 look man, he said, look man, if you if you 0:36:23.880 --> 0:36:26.319 all gonna stop beating these kids. We're gonna we're gonna go. 0:36:26.800 --> 0:36:29.160 We're gonna go, man, And so it was like no, no, no, 0:36:29.160 --> 0:36:31.680 don't go. Everybody's calm down. He started up again. It 0:36:31.719 --> 0:36:36.040 was like robots bam. We just started swinging. And so 0:36:36.160 --> 0:36:38.440 that went on and on. So we got about twenty 0:36:38.480 --> 0:36:40.680 minutes of music. So he got to I want to 0:36:40.800 --> 0:36:44.600 take it, and I'm out fucking it was quite as 0:36:44.600 --> 0:36:48.239 interrupt just like a motherfucker. And so then he went 0:36:48.280 --> 0:36:50.879 on the news and he apologized and he said I'm 0:36:50.880 --> 0:36:53.480 coming back. You know, he had the knit hat, the 0:36:53.719 --> 0:36:57.160 gass boots. We fucking loved the slide. There was a 0:36:57.239 --> 0:36:59.880 dude I went to school with who dressed like Slice 0:37:00.080 --> 0:37:04.400 do every single day summer went. He had the fuzzy boots, 0:37:04.880 --> 0:37:08.040 he had those you know, knit hats, all that stuff. 0:37:08.080 --> 0:37:13.080 So sly Stone was he was huge, huge, huge. I 0:37:13.120 --> 0:37:15.000 loved him. I saw him then, and then I saw 0:37:15.040 --> 0:37:17.839 him another time at the Fisher Theater. This has got 0:37:17.840 --> 0:37:21.880 to be seventy four or five. And again this was 0:37:21.920 --> 0:37:24.920 at twelve noon. He had skipped out on another concert 0:37:24.960 --> 0:37:27.719 and I just happened to have a ticket, like I'd 0:37:27.760 --> 0:37:30.120 been in town home from school, and I heard he 0:37:30.200 --> 0:37:32.080 was there and I just went it was a half 0:37:32.120 --> 0:37:36.000 full house, but that was that drummer there. I don't 0:37:36.000 --> 0:37:39.480 know who this dude was, but he on one handed. 0:37:39.600 --> 0:37:41.800 Was not Greg Rico. 0:37:41.880 --> 0:37:45.719 But no, it was not gregor Rico because Greg and I. 0:37:45.719 --> 0:37:48.360 Gotta look him up. Yeah, I know you're talking about 0:37:48.360 --> 0:37:48.640 who was. 0:37:48.680 --> 0:37:52.000 Sugarfoot with somebody else, but I'm just telling you it 0:37:52.080 --> 0:37:54.719 was still. It was just I just loved Slot Sly. 0:37:54.960 --> 0:37:57.680 I mean I would go see him anywhere. 0:37:57.880 --> 0:38:00.600 He wasn't late because I know, like he was the 0:38:00.640 --> 0:38:03.920 original original Lauren Hill. 0:38:05.280 --> 0:38:13.239 Out Lauren, Lauren Hill, you out Lauren Well to go back. 0:38:14.840 --> 0:38:17.440 But I loved him, okay, so to tie in, not 0:38:17.520 --> 0:38:21.520 to take him to and okay, So I was looking 0:38:21.520 --> 0:38:23.480 at guitars and stuff because soon as I got flushed, 0:38:23.480 --> 0:38:24.759 you know, as soon as I got a TV show, 0:38:24.800 --> 0:38:26.080 I just start buying guitars. 0:38:26.160 --> 0:38:26.359 You know. 0:38:26.680 --> 0:38:30.319 They were like, we'll play I get it, I'll take it, 0:38:30.360 --> 0:38:33.000 give me the go play it straight. I'll take it. 0:38:33.239 --> 0:38:36.120 So I met a dude, when I met a dude 0:38:36.360 --> 0:38:38.799 who is just the equipment guy, and he said that 0:38:38.840 --> 0:38:41.640 he got a call one day to take up all 0:38:41.719 --> 0:38:45.480 this equipment had been ordered from their music store here 0:38:45.480 --> 0:38:47.920 in LA and take it up to this house. And 0:38:47.920 --> 0:38:50.560 and when he took it to deliver it, Slye was there. 0:38:50.600 --> 0:38:52.600 It was sly Stone and I was like, what is 0:38:52.680 --> 0:38:55.359 going on? So this in the nineties. He said, Man, 0:38:55.680 --> 0:38:58.359 this young dude, he said, sly brought him in and 0:38:58.400 --> 0:39:00.799 he played him some of the music he was working on, 0:39:01.280 --> 0:39:04.240 and he said, he said, he just start crying because 0:39:04.280 --> 0:39:08.400 it was just so beautiful and so amazing. And I 0:39:08.480 --> 0:39:13.360 was like, oh my god, never heard never heard anything. 0:39:13.760 --> 0:39:19.719 One we know has a gazillion I went to here. 0:39:20.000 --> 0:39:23.120 Yeah, wait he released I went on itune. Yeah, he 0:39:23.160 --> 0:39:25.560 did a cover covered his own stuff and released that 0:39:25.640 --> 0:39:26.359 a few years back. 0:39:26.600 --> 0:39:27.719 It was weird. 0:39:28.680 --> 0:39:31.400 Well, you know, Jesse Johnson was able to get you know, 0:39:32.160 --> 0:39:35.479 get that one tune out. It's funny. Yeah, yeah, when 0:39:35.880 --> 0:39:37.800 you got it. If you ever talked to him, Jesse Johnson, 0:39:37.800 --> 0:39:39.799 I love his guitar playing, man, love him. 0:39:40.000 --> 0:39:40.520 Talked to him. 0:39:41.280 --> 0:39:47.000 Yeah, but dig so like when Lenny Kravic's first like broke, 0:39:47.600 --> 0:39:49.960 you know, there was that whole young heads who were like, oh, 0:39:50.160 --> 0:39:53.440 we want to sound like dirty like the seventies. That's 0:39:53.440 --> 0:39:56.200 something like there's a riot going on. But what really happened. 0:39:56.239 --> 0:39:58.120 I mean what I remember back in the day is 0:39:58.400 --> 0:40:00.520 like you know, by then, the drugs and everything and 0:40:00.600 --> 0:40:05.120 taken hold and they were doing so many takes retakes. 0:40:05.160 --> 0:40:07.520 It wasn't that they wore the tape out. That's why 0:40:07.560 --> 0:40:13.239 it sounds so funky, That's what. That's what, Like, what's 0:40:13.239 --> 0:40:16.279 the dude, brown Sugar, come on the Angelo? You know 0:40:16.600 --> 0:40:20.480 that's what they were going for. Whoever that is? Man, 0:40:20.880 --> 0:40:23.719 But you did, you know what I'm saying. But I 0:40:23.800 --> 0:40:25.840 was there. I remember that ship. That's why, because it 0:40:25.920 --> 0:40:29.040 was like they owed this album. They had done eight 0:40:29.120 --> 0:40:32.360 hundred over dubs and at one point I think Slide 0:40:32.440 --> 0:40:36.239 was recording on a boat in like Sosolito. That was 0:40:36.239 --> 0:40:40.360 the story, you know whatever. Sixteen thirty two tracks and 0:40:40.480 --> 0:40:43.200 just taping over, taping over, taping over. It's not good. 0:40:45.280 --> 0:40:48.200 Yeah, but that's what they tell you you should not be. 0:40:48.480 --> 0:40:51.960 You shouldn't print over anything, just in case any remnants 0:40:51.960 --> 0:40:55.239 remain of the of the earlier takes. But maybe you 0:40:55.400 --> 0:40:57.279 just wear the ship out. You get a certain sound 0:40:57.320 --> 0:40:58.200 that way. Listen to it. 0:40:58.520 --> 0:41:02.200 Listen to it. You can hear like like damn. But anyway, 0:41:02.239 --> 0:41:03.280 I love Slide lovel. 0:41:04.320 --> 0:41:07.480 There's a story of that. George Clinton always tells a sly. 0:41:10.680 --> 0:41:14.640 The premise starts with Slide, David Ruffin and George Clinton. 0:41:16.920 --> 0:41:22.839 Yeah the story and this story is great. The story 0:41:22.880 --> 0:41:26.680 the way long story short is basically, uh, they found 0:41:26.800 --> 0:41:30.279 uh a dealer guy, uh to hook him up with 0:41:30.320 --> 0:41:36.080 stuff and pretty much uh sly new slacker charm. The 0:41:36.560 --> 0:41:38.080 I mean, he can tell you the Brooklyn Bridge if 0:41:38.080 --> 0:41:40.040 he wanted to. That's the kind of charm he had. 0:41:40.200 --> 0:41:43.640 So Slide told the the dealer guy who was such 0:41:43.640 --> 0:41:47.840 a massive Slide and Family Stone fan, you know, I 0:41:47.880 --> 0:41:49.560 don't have the money on me, but this is what 0:41:49.560 --> 0:41:53.640 I'm gonna do. I'm gonna give you. I'm gonna give 0:41:53.640 --> 0:41:57.640 you the new unreleased Slide the Family Stone Masters. 0:41:58.400 --> 0:41:58.720 Wow. 0:41:59.080 --> 0:42:03.200 And he had ten masters. Everything's drawn out like song 0:42:03.320 --> 0:42:07.600 titles and the tracking and the dB levels and all 0:42:07.600 --> 0:42:10.760 the eqs. And he gave it to this guy and 0:42:11.040 --> 0:42:16.120 something told George. Something told George Clinton to just level 0:42:16.160 --> 0:42:18.000 with the guy and tell him. George went up to him, 0:42:18.040 --> 0:42:21.960 was like, look, man, what I don't want is, you know, 0:42:22.120 --> 0:42:26.520 to get unnecessarily shot over some So I just want 0:42:26.560 --> 0:42:29.640 you to know that these things are blank. 0:42:29.800 --> 0:42:33.160 I was gonna say, was anything like, He's like, no, 0:42:33.360 --> 0:42:35.600 these these are blank. Well I'm gonna I'm gonna pay 0:42:35.600 --> 0:42:38.279 your money. Just give me a second. Well dig when 0:42:38.280 --> 0:42:41.239 we did live in Color we did a sketch. It 0:42:41.320 --> 0:42:47.600 was Kim Wayne to and I. It was you don't 0:42:47.640 --> 0:42:53.720 know that. Wait, No, here's the deal. Listen. My sister 0:42:54.480 --> 0:42:56.640 was one of the was one of the gospel was 0:42:56.680 --> 0:42:57.680 one of the gospel. 0:42:57.360 --> 0:42:59.600 Sayings, Cynthia Rose or the younger one. 0:43:00.480 --> 0:43:03.120 I don't please, I don't remember. It was one of them, 0:43:03.520 --> 0:43:05.719 Cynthia one of them. Because I talked to her and 0:43:05.760 --> 0:43:07.840 I said, oh my god, Slie's her face dropped and 0:43:07.920 --> 0:43:10.640 went no, no, no, no, because I don't have any bad stories. 0:43:10.680 --> 0:43:12.879 It's all about Slot. I love them. I just wanted 0:43:12.880 --> 0:43:14.520 to say, I'm a big fan. I'm honored that you're 0:43:14.520 --> 0:43:17.000 even here. I was. I couldn't believe it, man, I 0:43:17.040 --> 0:43:17.560 couldn't believe. 0:43:17.600 --> 0:43:17.799 Yeah. 0:43:17.800 --> 0:43:19.400 But she was one of the gospel singers. 0:43:19.480 --> 0:43:22.600 Yeah, either Bellstone or or Roadstone. 0:43:23.040 --> 0:43:25.080 Yeah, I forget now it was a million years ago. 0:43:25.120 --> 0:43:28.280 But yeah, so that was a whole big circle love slide. 0:43:28.920 --> 0:43:32.800 So you're you're like when you went to college, you 0:43:32.800 --> 0:43:34.120 you Yale, right. 0:43:34.360 --> 0:43:36.920 I did, but I did. My undergrad was at University 0:43:36.920 --> 0:43:39.760 of Mission where years ago Yale. I went to Yale 0:43:39.800 --> 0:43:46.040 from seventy six to eighty one. I went from well, 0:43:46.440 --> 0:43:49.560 seventy eight, seventy eight to eighty one. I went to 0:43:49.640 --> 0:43:51.799 Michigan from seventy four to seventy eight. 0:43:52.719 --> 0:43:55.399 So my Angela Bassett maybe, oh. 0:43:55.320 --> 0:43:56.920 Angela was there the whole year. She's one of the 0:43:56.960 --> 0:43:59.680 first people I met at Yale. And when I tell 0:43:59.719 --> 0:44:03.840 you I was there, Reggie Cathy, he and I were 0:44:03.920 --> 0:44:09.279 college college roommates Michigan. We're college roommates of Michigan. He 0:44:09.360 --> 0:44:11.799 was a Detroit guy too. He was from you know, 0:44:11.840 --> 0:44:16.280 he was from Huntsville, Alabama. But I met him as actors, 0:44:16.320 --> 0:44:18.520 you know, University of Michigan. So we were roommates there. 0:44:18.719 --> 0:44:21.800 I applied to Yelle. I told Reggie I was applying, 0:44:21.800 --> 0:44:24.359 he applied to. We both got in. So that's how 0:44:24.400 --> 0:44:25.480 we rolled up such. 0:44:25.360 --> 0:44:26.440 An amazing voice. 0:44:26.520 --> 0:44:29.279 Yeah, he always said that he always had the voice. 0:44:29.280 --> 0:44:33.080 But the problem was he was real skinny, dorky looking kid, 0:44:33.280 --> 0:44:37.080 and he sounded like James Earl Jones. So we all knew, like, yeah, man, 0:44:37.120 --> 0:44:41.960 come thirty two years brother, you just wait thirty two 0:44:42.040 --> 0:44:49.680 years though. Yeah, he smoked. He always smoked, like forever, 0:44:50.480 --> 0:44:54.759 all day and night. So yeahs So. 0:44:54.760 --> 0:44:56.600 From the time you were at Yale, were you involved 0:44:56.600 --> 0:44:58.480 in any like what you're doing theater? 0:44:58.680 --> 0:45:00.359 Like how did you kind of get you went there? 0:45:00.400 --> 0:45:01.680 I went to the acting school. 0:45:01.680 --> 0:45:02.480 He was in school. 0:45:02.600 --> 0:45:05.960 Yeah, so, but but you know, Angela was undergraduate. So 0:45:06.040 --> 0:45:09.080 we would do our little productions and like we did 0:45:09.120 --> 0:45:13.120 this play a series of one acts about Lester Young 0:45:13.600 --> 0:45:15.759 and Angela as an undergrad, we tapped her and she 0:45:15.760 --> 0:45:18.960 would come and act with us. Charles Dutton came like 0:45:19.120 --> 0:45:22.160 when I was in a sophomore I mean or like 0:45:22.239 --> 0:45:24.919 my second year because his graduate school he was there, 0:45:25.239 --> 0:45:28.480 and so we all worked and stuff, and yeah, Angela, 0:45:28.640 --> 0:45:31.920 I just saw her. Man, we're doing press. She's a 0:45:32.080 --> 0:45:34.279 nine nine one one and I'm doing this other show. 0:45:34.320 --> 0:45:38.880 But yeah, She's what I'm saying is Angela was Angela 0:45:39.000 --> 0:45:42.960 back then. I remember sitting backstage in this little funky 0:45:43.000 --> 0:45:44.600 theater and I was like, so, what are you gonna do? 0:45:44.640 --> 0:45:47.200 And She's like I don't know, And I'm like, you 0:45:47.239 --> 0:45:51.880 don't know, like maybe you should be an actress. But 0:45:51.920 --> 0:45:54.359 she had already been at Yale for four years, so 0:45:54.400 --> 0:45:59.000 for her to stay another three, that's seven years she did, 0:45:59.320 --> 0:46:04.520 which was its great because well Courtney was after I left, 0:46:04.560 --> 0:46:08.440 after she left, but so uh I saw her do 0:46:08.560 --> 0:46:12.359 antigony as a student and when they could have gave 0:46:12.400 --> 0:46:16.200 her oscar then, I mean she just ripped it up. 0:46:16.480 --> 0:46:19.360 I was like, damn, what was what was the Ivy 0:46:19.440 --> 0:46:23.880 League experience like back then? Because I mean now it 0:46:23.960 --> 0:46:27.200 seems like there's an adjustment. Like I went to Harvard 0:46:27.239 --> 0:46:30.040 like a year and a half ago, and the students 0:46:30.080 --> 0:46:34.840 seemed well adjusted and you know, like themselves funny. 0:46:35.080 --> 0:46:37.120 You know it's funny. Yeah. Reggie and I when we 0:46:37.160 --> 0:46:40.759 got there, we just I felt like and you know, 0:46:41.160 --> 0:46:44.359 I felt like just a kid in a candy store, like, 0:46:44.560 --> 0:46:48.640 you know, we're gonna run this motherfucker because we just 0:46:48.680 --> 0:46:50.759 did what we wanted to do. I mean, we were 0:46:50.800 --> 0:46:53.080 just running out there. But it was different for me 0:46:53.760 --> 0:46:57.360 and my class as an actor, as a black actor. People, 0:46:57.760 --> 0:47:00.799 black kids, students who were in the acting who came 0:47:00.880 --> 0:47:04.200 to see us told us, you know when they were there, 0:47:04.960 --> 0:47:07.319 they played butler's and maids. You know, that's it. 0:47:07.600 --> 0:47:08.040 That's it. 0:47:08.560 --> 0:47:10.960 That's it, that's it. That was it, you know. And 0:47:11.000 --> 0:47:13.480 by the time we got there, we were doing everything. 0:47:13.600 --> 0:47:15.239 I mean, because we were just like, no, give me 0:47:15.320 --> 0:47:18.400 that said, now give me that, I'm gonna have a 0:47:18.440 --> 0:47:21.040 piece of yo steak. I'm gonna take some of your fries. 0:47:21.280 --> 0:47:23.799 We just did it. So that was a change over 0:47:23.880 --> 0:47:26.799 this That's the only thing we knew and that's how 0:47:26.840 --> 0:47:30.680 we moved in the world. But those older students who 0:47:30.680 --> 0:47:32.560 had been there before us came back and they told us, 0:47:32.600 --> 0:47:34.640 they were like, oh man, you all are living good. 0:47:34.680 --> 0:47:37.560 This place has changed, and we just happened to come 0:47:37.600 --> 0:47:41.400 in in that new wave and energy. 0:47:41.480 --> 0:47:41.640 You know. 0:47:41.719 --> 0:47:46.440 After that, then, black kids, it's still not as diverse. 0:47:46.520 --> 0:47:50.000 It wasn't as diverse back then as it could have been. No, 0:47:50.560 --> 0:47:54.480 I don't remember. There were Asian students, but not really actors, 0:47:54.680 --> 0:47:58.279 you know, not that I remember of brown, Hispanic, not 0:47:58.400 --> 0:48:01.239 none of that, I think, But you know, a couple 0:48:01.239 --> 0:48:01.880 of black kids. 0:48:01.960 --> 0:48:06.360 What was Charles that's done like back then? My favorite man. 0:48:06.280 --> 0:48:08.320 Well, there was a woman that was in my classroom 0:48:08.360 --> 0:48:11.160 name is Eazy Monk, and she knew Charles because they 0:48:11.160 --> 0:48:15.440 went to Towson State. Yeah, Charles came in, Rock came in, 0:48:15.680 --> 0:48:18.520 and we just yeah, we kicked it real hard. And 0:48:18.880 --> 0:48:20.560 he was just a beautiful dude. 0:48:20.600 --> 0:48:20.759 Man. 0:48:20.800 --> 0:48:22.440 I mean he still is. I haven't talked to him 0:48:22.440 --> 0:48:28.000 in a while, but he came in with such a 0:48:28.440 --> 0:48:33.120 force of nature, you know. I mean if you if 0:48:33.120 --> 0:48:36.040 you ever got to see him on stage, he would 0:48:36.080 --> 0:48:42.280 just rip it up. But he really was a great guy. 0:48:42.480 --> 0:48:46.680 I mean, like, if you befriended him, that's a friend 0:48:46.719 --> 0:48:49.479 for life. I mean, he came from some real ship. 0:48:50.120 --> 0:48:52.839 I'm not really gonna tell his stories because that's for 0:48:52.920 --> 0:48:56.000 him to tell that, but I mean yeah, but I 0:48:56.000 --> 0:48:57.000 mean he's written about it. 0:48:58.560 --> 0:49:00.680 Before he went to prison or was it it was after? 0:49:00.760 --> 0:49:03.799 It after? It was after? But see, the story was 0:49:03.880 --> 0:49:05.680 like when I first met Rock, I was like, that's 0:49:05.800 --> 0:49:07.879 meeting me and Reggie. So what's up man? What they 0:49:07.880 --> 0:49:10.120 put you in there for? Now? The story told us 0:49:10.200 --> 0:49:12.719 at the time. He said, well, I got busted for 0:49:12.800 --> 0:49:16.400 possession of bank paraphernalia and we were like, yeah, so 0:49:16.440 --> 0:49:19.719 the police caught him and you know that means like 0:49:20.200 --> 0:49:26.960 bank money and the accouterments of robbery, you know, and 0:49:27.000 --> 0:49:29.840 that they put him in jail for that. So that 0:49:30.000 --> 0:49:33.279 was the story that we got. And uh, you know, 0:49:33.400 --> 0:49:35.760 if Rock's talking to you, you will accept that story. 0:49:35.840 --> 0:49:38.040 I mean, you're not gonna be like I object question, 0:49:39.440 --> 0:49:41.560 you know. And later we found out, you know, after 0:49:41.600 --> 0:49:44.759 he came out and he did My Rainey's Black Bottom, 0:49:45.040 --> 0:49:49.520 the story was I think maybe a tabloid was threatening 0:49:49.600 --> 0:49:53.440 to expose him, you know, about what he really did, 0:49:53.800 --> 0:49:57.480 and Rock just gave an interview and just you know, 0:49:58.080 --> 0:49:59.640 his own story. Yeah, got in front of it. So 0:49:59.640 --> 0:50:01.840 that that's when I really heard the other half of it. 0:50:01.880 --> 0:50:03.960 And I was like, damn at that. 0:50:04.960 --> 0:50:07.120 Just at the time for you, when you were at Yale, 0:50:07.160 --> 0:50:10.120 what was really floating your boat and moving your passion 0:50:10.160 --> 0:50:14.240 because you're such a multifaceted actor, funny person, in music 0:50:14.239 --> 0:50:15.520 person as well as kind of like. 0:50:15.520 --> 0:50:19.600 Well at that point, I mean, I was my passion 0:50:21.000 --> 0:50:27.600 was acting and what I always did from Michigan. Again, 0:50:27.800 --> 0:50:30.280 when I started acting at Michigan, they had the Black 0:50:30.360 --> 0:50:33.840 Kids and we had this one it was called Black Theater, 0:50:34.400 --> 0:50:36.640 and you know, it's very much an extension of the 0:50:36.719 --> 0:50:43.800 sixties that black arts movement, studying black playwrights and putting 0:50:43.840 --> 0:50:46.319 on these plays. But the culture at Michigan was such 0:50:46.400 --> 0:50:50.680 that they did one black production a year, and all 0:50:50.680 --> 0:50:52.960 the Black kids would wait for that production. Well, soon 0:50:53.000 --> 0:50:55.000 as I hit the ground, I was auditioned for everything 0:50:55.160 --> 0:51:03.000 Jacobean tragedies, Uh, you know, parlor mysteries. I mean, Lady 0:51:03.000 --> 0:51:05.480 Olivia Man. I approached it, you know what I mean, 0:51:09.040 --> 0:51:12.279 Thanks for coming in, buddy. But my thing was like, 0:51:12.280 --> 0:51:14.799 I'm gonna keep auditioning. Man, You're not gonna you know, 0:51:14.800 --> 0:51:17.400 you're not gonna deny me forever. And I auditioned for everything. 0:51:19.040 --> 0:51:22.879 Uh it was Othello, it was and my professor, Vaughan 0:51:23.160 --> 0:51:27.960 Washington played Othello, but me Reggie was in it, and 0:51:28.080 --> 0:51:29.520 uh so we were in there. I'll tell you a 0:51:29.520 --> 0:51:32.759 funny story. So every night, you know, at the very 0:51:32.960 --> 0:51:35.759 end of Otello, you know, the whole company comes in. 0:51:35.800 --> 0:51:38.800 It's a fellow's death scene. But soft you a word 0:51:39.000 --> 0:51:42.040 before you go. I've done the state some service. 0:51:42.080 --> 0:51:42.200 You know. 0:51:42.239 --> 0:51:44.520 It goes on and on. Now. Usually we'd be standing 0:51:44.520 --> 0:51:47.000 on the stairs because me and Reggie we had like 0:51:47.040 --> 0:51:50.560 three lines. I remember my life a messenger from the galleys. 0:51:53.560 --> 0:51:58.000 Here's more news. Reggie had some ship. So we would 0:51:58.040 --> 0:52:00.279 be fucking around and we'd be like, were we gonna 0:52:00.320 --> 0:52:02.160 hang out tonight? Man, We're going to pizza Hud or 0:52:02.160 --> 0:52:04.879 bloody bloody blue. So every night we'd be kicking it, like, yeah, 0:52:04.880 --> 0:52:06.839 what we're gonna do, man, whatever? And so I look 0:52:06.880 --> 0:52:09.480 over and see Reggie and I'm like, I'm asking, man, 0:52:09.480 --> 0:52:11.520 what's up, what we're gonna do tonight? And he wouldn't answer, 0:52:11.520 --> 0:52:14.400 and I look at him and he's just blubberd crying. 0:52:14.480 --> 0:52:17.520 I'm like, what the fuck is going on? Man? He 0:52:17.600 --> 0:52:26.719 looked at me and he said, the motherfucker got to me, man, going, 0:52:27.840 --> 0:52:29.359 I know all of you. You know, you know, I 0:52:29.400 --> 0:52:31.239 know you, you know you know. He gives this big 0:52:31.280 --> 0:52:36.359 monologue in it cracked me the fuck up. I can't 0:52:36.400 --> 0:52:44.080 help you, man, some words on my ship's fucking me up. Man. 0:52:45.560 --> 0:52:48.440 From the time that you after, like othello and your 0:52:48.480 --> 0:52:50.600 time at Yale, how did you what was kind of 0:52:50.600 --> 0:52:52.440 one of your first breaks or you know, what did 0:52:52.480 --> 0:52:53.400 you do in between them? 0:52:53.480 --> 0:52:57.840 Well, my first job I played Jackie Robinson on Broadway. 0:52:58.000 --> 0:52:59.759 It was in a musical called The First. That was 0:52:59.800 --> 0:53:05.120 my first professional job. I started auditioning while I was 0:53:05.160 --> 0:53:08.680 still in my final year at Yale because the casting 0:53:09.640 --> 0:53:14.560 directors for the First were the same people who cast 0:53:14.840 --> 0:53:18.920 the repertory theater there, and they said they came to 0:53:18.960 --> 0:53:20.200 me and they said, well, do you mind if we 0:53:20.200 --> 0:53:23.480 submit you. I was like, fuck you guy. So it 0:53:23.560 --> 0:53:25.680 was over months and months, and as a matter of fact, 0:53:25.800 --> 0:53:30.000 the guy who wrote the lyrics and directed Annie the 0:53:30.120 --> 0:53:37.560 music O, Martin Sharnan, was directing and co writing the 0:53:37.600 --> 0:53:42.040 first with Joel Siegel. Martin Sharton, he's eighty five. I 0:53:42.160 --> 0:53:46.359 just did Daddy Warbucks at the Hollywood Bowl. Martin came 0:53:46.400 --> 0:53:50.520 to see me, and you know, Alan Johnson passed away. 0:53:50.560 --> 0:53:53.279 These people are dropping like flies. So here's what I did. 0:53:53.800 --> 0:53:55.839 I got Martin in my dressing room, my closes door. 0:53:55.840 --> 0:53:59.160 I said, listen, man, I'm not gonna post on Facebook. Okay, 0:53:59.320 --> 0:54:01.279 I'm not gonna wait to you dead. I just want 0:54:01.280 --> 0:54:04.960 to tell you now I love you. You started my career. 0:54:05.120 --> 0:54:08.560 He really pulled me out of school, and you gave 0:54:08.600 --> 0:54:11.480 me my first break, you know, and I appreciate you 0:54:11.520 --> 0:54:13.160 and I love you. Let's get this pound in now 0:54:13.239 --> 0:54:16.160 while we're alive and breathing. So that was fun. That 0:54:16.280 --> 0:54:19.000 was good to know. Yeah, so that was my first job. 0:54:19.440 --> 0:54:22.480 We ran like three weeks. But what year was this, 0:54:22.880 --> 0:54:24.240 nineteen eighty one? Oh wow? 0:54:24.480 --> 0:54:24.680 Yeah? 0:54:24.800 --> 0:54:27.840 Dream Girls had come in. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember 0:54:27.880 --> 0:54:29.600 sitting in there. We used to hang out this place 0:54:29.640 --> 0:54:32.719 called Corumbas, and these three finance black girls come in. 0:54:32.760 --> 0:54:36.759 They're like the dreamers. That's going to be a hit. 0:54:37.200 --> 0:54:44.760 And there was Loretta Divine, Kelly Ralph, Jennifer All, Jennifer Yeah, 0:54:44.840 --> 0:54:47.560 Jennifer Lewis. Jennifer Lewis was in it too. Yeah she 0:54:47.800 --> 0:54:50.200 not not when I was in there, but Jennifer Lewis 0:54:50.400 --> 0:54:53.319 was again. Jennifer Lewis was Jennifer Lewis back in eighty one. 0:54:53.360 --> 0:54:55.359 She's one of the first. Yeah. Yeah. 0:54:55.880 --> 0:54:59.160 She worked with Workshop the World of and then yeah, 0:54:59.200 --> 0:55:02.120 oh yeah, and they worked off for like three years. 0:55:02.239 --> 0:55:04.600 I mean it was long. And so by the time 0:55:04.719 --> 0:55:08.000 I came in and took over for Cleveant Dereks while 0:55:08.000 --> 0:55:10.840 he was on vacation. And then I stayed and stood 0:55:10.880 --> 0:55:14.280 by and you know, making that money man, that Broadway money. 0:55:14.280 --> 0:55:18.359 But that's how I brought good money to me back then. 0:55:18.400 --> 0:55:21.719 And eighty one college my college a couple of grand. 0:55:22.360 --> 0:55:24.080 It was a couple of grand a week. Man. Please, 0:55:24.480 --> 0:55:26.200 I was big. I thought I was rich. I had 0:55:26.719 --> 0:55:28.960 I had a nineteen and sony train. How dare you 0:55:32.280 --> 0:55:34.560 looking up and down? Looking up and down. Man. I 0:55:34.600 --> 0:55:38.400 had this jay. I had this green and blue Nike 0:55:38.719 --> 0:55:41.200 tracksuit that I bought on one hundred and twenty fifth Street. 0:55:41.600 --> 0:55:45.640 This ship was fly baby. I would that I'd like. 0:55:47.520 --> 0:55:47.839 It was. 0:55:48.360 --> 0:55:51.080 It was hell. Yeah, I thought I was Flushing living 0:55:51.200 --> 0:55:53.759 in the city I lived, you know, I lived in 0:55:53.800 --> 0:55:57.960 like a little apartment up on one hundred and third, 0:55:58.120 --> 0:56:01.080 one hundred and seventh and Broadway, and then I moved 0:56:01.120 --> 0:56:04.080 to my own joint and like this is duplex, but 0:56:04.120 --> 0:56:06.879 it really was an apartment. They cut a hole in it, 0:56:07.480 --> 0:56:11.279 and yeah, I was right next to the furnace, you know, 0:56:11.400 --> 0:56:14.960 like it used to be coal. So I actually my 0:56:14.960 --> 0:56:18.080 my bedroom was the old coal bind whatever you call that. 0:56:18.400 --> 0:56:23.000 But but again I was like Upper east Side Ni duplex. Man. 0:56:24.360 --> 0:56:26.600 The thing is is that I and I've heard in 0:56:26.680 --> 0:56:29.279 past interviews where you're like, you know, I started out 0:56:29.280 --> 0:56:36.120 a serious actor and everything, but where do you is it? 0:56:36.200 --> 0:56:40.680 Your theory that comedy really depends on how good your 0:56:40.719 --> 0:56:43.759 timing is, because I would have if had I not 0:56:43.880 --> 0:56:48.600 known your serious back background and acting, I would have 0:56:48.640 --> 0:56:51.440 thought that, you know, you were in a like a 0:56:51.480 --> 0:56:54.279 groundlings or a way I. 0:56:54.440 --> 0:56:56.080 Was, you know, I started doing I mean we did 0:56:56.080 --> 0:57:00.520 a stand up show at Yale, and clearly I was 0:57:00.680 --> 0:57:04.000 enamored with comedy. When we were doing Porgy and Best, 0:57:04.600 --> 0:57:08.640 a woman came and gave me the playbill from the 0:57:08.719 --> 0:57:12.359 first and when I looked at my bio, I had 0:57:12.440 --> 0:57:14.920 no credits. This is my first professional job. But what 0:57:15.040 --> 0:57:18.120 I put down there is David has appeared in comedy 0:57:18.120 --> 0:57:24.360 clubs across the nation. And you know so clearly spot 0:57:26.360 --> 0:57:30.400 because you gotta figure Eddie Murphy had just it was 0:57:30.520 --> 0:57:34.280 just about to come on. All the energy was in comedy. 0:57:34.720 --> 0:57:39.400 I snuck down and performed like open mics a couple 0:57:39.520 --> 0:57:44.520 times at the Improv in Manhattan and I met Keenan there. 0:57:44.600 --> 0:57:47.840 That's actually the first place I met him. This gotta 0:57:47.880 --> 0:57:51.000 be eighty wow, seventy nine or eighty yeah. And I 0:57:51.040 --> 0:57:54.560 waited in line and he was the only regular that 0:57:54.600 --> 0:57:57.400 would talk to me. And I was like, dude, what 0:57:57.720 --> 0:57:59.360 should I do? And he said, okay, well I'll watch. 0:57:59.440 --> 0:58:01.520 You know. I went on like two in the morning. 0:58:02.080 --> 0:58:04.160 Basically you get three minutes. So I just yelled and 0:58:04.200 --> 0:58:08.560 scream did some car wheels and Keen was like, okay, 0:58:08.600 --> 0:58:09.440 will you have energy? 0:58:11.560 --> 0:58:13.280 And Keene he was a coming. He would go up 0:58:13.320 --> 0:58:14.360 then he was. He was working up. 0:58:15.080 --> 0:58:17.960 Man, he was already I mean he was. When I 0:58:18.000 --> 0:58:22.080 say he was a regular, that means you know, you passed, well, 0:58:22.120 --> 0:58:25.240 you passed this audition and so you were able to 0:58:25.280 --> 0:58:26.920 do spots. That's how the old system. 0:58:27.440 --> 0:58:28.160 He was just a regular. 0:58:28.440 --> 0:58:31.280 No no, no, no. A regular means he stood in line until 0:58:31.320 --> 0:58:34.120 the owner goes, okay, you are pasted. That means you 0:58:34.160 --> 0:58:37.200 get spots and all that. The rest of us were 0:58:37.280 --> 0:58:41.840 just out there. So uh yeah, man, So clearly, to 0:58:42.000 --> 0:58:45.520 answer your question, I've always been a class clown. I've 0:58:45.560 --> 0:58:48.040 always been this dude. But I was just trying to 0:58:48.080 --> 0:58:50.120 be like, you know, like because back then I wanted 0:58:50.160 --> 0:58:52.960 to be like the black doctor or lawyer. So when 0:58:53.000 --> 0:58:57.440 Denzel got Saint elsewhere, we all auditioned. I auditioned everybody. 0:58:58.560 --> 0:59:03.960 Man scuple please, she needs to have her appendix taken out. 0:59:04.200 --> 0:59:06.480 You know, he got it. But we all auditioned, and 0:59:06.520 --> 0:59:11.280 then you know, I did Soldiers play the Man. This 0:59:11.360 --> 0:59:14.040 was after the first and that's where I met Adel Caesar, 0:59:14.120 --> 0:59:17.960 Sam Jackson, Sam. Let me tell you about Sam. Oh 0:59:18.000 --> 0:59:20.880 my god. We had all the dudes wet. We shared 0:59:20.920 --> 0:59:24.200 one big room and there was this twelve inch TV 0:59:24.320 --> 0:59:26.560 black and white TV that was in the corner and 0:59:26.600 --> 0:59:31.680 they watched Family Feud every day and Sam Jackson ruled 0:59:32.080 --> 0:59:38.600 that dressing room talked about comment y, I will save 0:59:38.720 --> 0:59:43.120 this actor's name. But one time understudy went on and 0:59:43.240 --> 0:59:49.160 Sam was just rare. It's like, motherfucker, what was you doing? Nigga? 0:59:49.200 --> 0:59:51.160 What the fuck was that? And you know he kept 0:59:51.200 --> 0:59:54.360 going at him and to douing, fuck you, Sam, and Sam, 0:59:54.360 --> 0:59:56.160 we're not missing a be said, fore you put your 0:59:56.160 --> 0:59:58.440 dick in me. You need to put your dick in 0:59:58.520 --> 0:59:59.240 the second act. 0:59:59.520 --> 1:00:01.400 Man, listen to me. 1:00:02.200 --> 1:00:07.040 I ran out the bill ding, I ran out the building. 1:00:08.000 --> 1:00:11.480 Adolph Caesar, he was, yeah, he's putting this makeup with. 1:00:11.520 --> 1:00:13.520 Sam was in the corners like, man, what the fuck 1:00:13.600 --> 1:00:18.200 is you doing with this old kabookie makeup? ONDI motherfucker he' here. 1:00:18.280 --> 1:00:21.040 But yeah, the rest of us were sweaty, funky. We'd 1:00:21.120 --> 1:00:28.600 just be like, I'm ready. What was Adolf like? As 1:00:28.640 --> 1:00:29.120 a as an? 1:00:29.120 --> 1:00:29.520 That guy? 1:00:29.760 --> 1:00:33.360 My god, we loved Adolf. Adolph Caesar, man, please, he 1:00:33.520 --> 1:00:36.919 was first of all, a little short, light skinned dude 1:00:37.080 --> 1:00:41.120 grew up in Harlem named Adolph Caesar. Yeah, what parent 1:00:41.280 --> 1:00:43.560 would name Adolph. 1:00:43.200 --> 1:00:45.680 Caesar in the early nine Yeah. 1:00:45.720 --> 1:00:47.880 Man, but Adolph had great sorges. I mean I talked 1:00:47.880 --> 1:00:50.240 to him. I remember he said, you know, he was 1:00:50.320 --> 1:00:54.200 caught in a trick bag, whereas he was not black 1:00:54.360 --> 1:00:59.880 enough in Hugh, because when you know black consciousness the sixties, 1:00:59.880 --> 1:01:02.800 all that big ass afros, chocolate brown skin. He didn't 1:01:02.800 --> 1:01:05.520 fit in that mold. Yet he wasn't white enough. He 1:01:05.560 --> 1:01:08.920 described going to the Guthrie as a young actor and 1:01:09.520 --> 1:01:12.360 Tyrone Guthrie and white. They sent him home. They said, Adolf, 1:01:12.440 --> 1:01:15.120 we really we don't have anything for you. So you 1:01:15.200 --> 1:01:17.240 need to go back to New York, you know, because 1:01:17.240 --> 1:01:20.440 we can't really help you. And uh so that was 1:01:20.560 --> 1:01:24.960 really a poignant story. And when he came in he 1:01:25.000 --> 1:01:28.480 had been on a roll. But Sergeant Waters listen. 1:01:28.200 --> 1:01:31.120 Man, Okay, so who was because a soldier story? Like 1:01:31.280 --> 1:01:33.680 that's one of my favorite movies. I used to watch 1:01:33.760 --> 1:01:36.720 that coming home from school, like that was like my 1:01:36.800 --> 1:01:37.800 babysitter and I. 1:01:37.800 --> 1:01:40.160 Didn't think we'd get into it. Sam didn't get in 1:01:40.600 --> 1:01:42.200 Oh yeah I was, I say, because yeah, who was Sam? 1:01:42.480 --> 1:01:45.120 Who was Sam? You know Sam? I think they, as 1:01:45.120 --> 1:01:48.720 I remember, they wrote his character out like he was 1:01:48.760 --> 1:01:51.360 good because his character would always read all his love letters, 1:01:51.400 --> 1:01:53.840 you know, from all his girlfriends. That wasn't in the movie, 1:01:55.240 --> 1:01:58.840 but to watch it. Okay, So Reggie Cathy, he called 1:01:58.880 --> 1:02:01.440 me up. He said, look, man, there's a part for 1:02:01.480 --> 1:02:06.440 you in Soldier Story because Soldiers play. Yeah, Larry Riley 1:02:06.960 --> 1:02:11.160 who played he played play guitar, played slide. You know, 1:02:11.240 --> 1:02:13.120 everybody knew I played guitar. And he's like, man, you 1:02:13.160 --> 1:02:15.440 could kill this. So I went over there and I 1:02:15.480 --> 1:02:20.120 got the part immediately in the play. Yes, first, the 1:02:20.760 --> 1:02:24.280 first first play. The play came first, so you know 1:02:24.400 --> 1:02:27.160 people would come. But you know, at that time, I 1:02:27.160 --> 1:02:29.560 didn't think any of us would get in to the 1:02:29.600 --> 1:02:33.240 movie because I just thought they would use Hollywood actors 1:02:33.560 --> 1:02:37.560 and but Norman Jewison auditioned all of us and he 1:02:37.640 --> 1:02:39.360 put us in there. Man. 1:02:39.440 --> 1:02:42.040 Yeah, so what was that experience? Like? 1:02:42.080 --> 1:02:45.160 Man, like working with great Howard Rollins, I mean that 1:02:45.320 --> 1:02:47.760 was yeah, it was, man. 1:02:47.760 --> 1:02:52.960 You know Howard most of it was. You know, that 1:02:53.080 --> 1:02:56.960 was a six million dollar movie and that the vibe 1:02:57.000 --> 1:02:58.840 around it, you know, everybody was like, don't fuck up. 1:02:59.160 --> 1:03:01.280 You know, this is your big not since Bingle Long 1:03:01.360 --> 1:03:02.680 and the Traveling All Stars. 1:03:03.200 --> 1:03:03.640 You know, this. 1:03:05.240 --> 1:03:08.720 Is gonna be Black Panther, you know, nineteen eighty one 1:03:08.840 --> 1:03:10.560 version saw. 1:03:10.440 --> 1:03:14.880 It watching but it was just like you're gonna watch 1:03:14.920 --> 1:03:15.360 this movie. 1:03:15.400 --> 1:03:19.280 No, we hung out. I mean it was a brotherhood, man, Denzel. 1:03:19.720 --> 1:03:21.880 Everybody was putting in work. But the story one to 1:03:21.880 --> 1:03:25.240 tell you. When I finally met Eddie Murphy, Eddie said, 1:03:25.320 --> 1:03:27.920 the first time you ever saw me was in a 1:03:27.920 --> 1:03:30.440 soldier story. And he didn't know me, He didn't know 1:03:30.440 --> 1:03:34.080 who I was. He said, Dude, when you came on, 1:03:34.800 --> 1:03:40.480 he said, who the fuck is this country ass? Dude? 1:03:40.600 --> 1:03:42.960 Where the fuck did they get him from? You know, 1:03:42.960 --> 1:03:44.960 because we're all doing the Southern accents, which was a 1:03:45.000 --> 1:03:47.840 great compliment. But it was funny. Yeah, ce j don't 1:03:47.880 --> 1:03:53.920 talk quick talking. Yeah, No, we had big fun and 1:03:54.080 --> 1:03:57.560 Norman Judson was beautiful man. Yeah, man, it was. 1:03:57.640 --> 1:04:00.680 Nice second movie to my son's did I mean, I 1:04:00.720 --> 1:04:03.040 used to watch it as a kid, but it didn't 1:04:03.040 --> 1:04:06.200 really resonate until you know, I got older and really understood. 1:04:06.280 --> 1:04:08.560 But yeah, that that was a class. That's one of 1:04:08.600 --> 1:04:09.040 my favorite. 1:04:09.040 --> 1:04:12.840 It was big fun, man, big fun. We went fishing, 1:04:13.040 --> 1:04:17.080 We did everything man in that little ass, funky fucking 1:04:17.880 --> 1:04:22.640 Arkansas man. Yeah, oh damn fort Smith, Arkansas. One location 1:04:22.720 --> 1:04:25.720 for Smith, Arkansas. You have three months, So what was it? 1:04:26.520 --> 1:04:30.040 Oh? I was going to ask, what, uh, what was 1:04:30.080 --> 1:04:32.919 the first television thing that you did? 1:04:33.000 --> 1:04:35.800 As far as the first television thing I did is 1:04:35.960 --> 1:04:40.160 I did a presentation, a pilot presentation that's like a 1:04:40.200 --> 1:04:45.000 fifteen minute presentation, and it was me and two white guys. 1:04:45.360 --> 1:04:50.800 David Steinberg directed it, and it was for CBS, and 1:04:51.640 --> 1:04:55.760 you know, it was just some innocuous comedy. But I 1:04:55.800 --> 1:04:59.040 remember I would call CBS every day and there's this 1:04:59.120 --> 1:05:02.480 cute Puerto Rican two who worked at the reception. I'd 1:05:02.480 --> 1:05:03.840 be like, because I wanted to know if a show 1:05:03.880 --> 1:05:06.240 got picked up. I had a pad and pencil I 1:05:06.280 --> 1:05:08.160 was at calculating. I said, shit, if this bad WI 1:05:08.240 --> 1:05:10.919 gets picked up, you know, fifteen thousand a week, I'll 1:05:10.920 --> 1:05:16.440 be a thousand ares lush. Yeah. It didn't get picked up. 1:05:16.480 --> 1:05:18.200 So that was the first thing I did, you know. 1:05:19.520 --> 1:05:22.680 But the first show I did was called All This Forgiven. 1:05:22.800 --> 1:05:25.680 That was in nineteen eighty six, and it was the 1:05:25.800 --> 1:05:29.360 Charles Brothers who did Cheers. That was their first show 1:05:29.440 --> 1:05:32.800 after that. So again I was like, well I was 1:05:32.840 --> 1:05:40.400 at the Ferrari dealership. Well yeah, notoriously. I had a calculator. 1:05:40.440 --> 1:05:43.360 I'm like in two and a half years, you know. 1:05:43.840 --> 1:05:46.560 So that's what we did, and we got an order 1:05:46.600 --> 1:05:48.960 for thirteen and Dick I was telling people when I 1:05:49.040 --> 1:05:53.520 was on The Carmichael Show, talk about ratings, and we 1:05:53.560 --> 1:05:58.440 looked it up. We followed cheers. So our premiere week 1:05:58.760 --> 1:06:02.160 we pulled in twenty million viewers and at that time 1:06:02.240 --> 1:06:08.440 the network was like what yeah, because and at that 1:06:08.480 --> 1:06:11.800 time it's like you held it, but yeah, and when 1:06:11.800 --> 1:06:16.560 they canceled us, we were pulling in like eighteen million. Yeah, 1:06:16.280 --> 1:06:20.040 we had an order for thirteen. We did nine episodes, 1:06:20.960 --> 1:06:22.920 and you know, then they took it. They had a 1:06:22.920 --> 1:06:25.760 big meeting and they said, listen, we're so good. We're 1:06:25.760 --> 1:06:27.320 not going to do the rest of our order because 1:06:27.320 --> 1:06:30.200 we don't need it. And I was like, wow, nigga. 1:06:30.200 --> 1:06:33.200 I was on the phone immediately the ship is sinking. 1:06:35.840 --> 1:06:38.320 That was like going, hey, dog, we're gonna record this album. 1:06:38.320 --> 1:06:41.000 We're not gonna release it because it's so good. People 1:06:41.000 --> 1:06:43.640 will find it. And you're like, no, man, like a 1:06:43.640 --> 1:06:50.840 Perroro remix album, box it okay, everything. 1:06:50.440 --> 1:06:53.920 Whatever, How did you So from the time from the Soldier. 1:06:53.680 --> 1:06:57.000 Story, I was just laughing at it was fast. 1:06:57.240 --> 1:06:59.720 Oh no, from the time of a Soldier story to 1:07:00.080 --> 1:07:02.080 you know, you're doing the positive how are you supporting yourself? 1:07:02.080 --> 1:07:03.080 Were you still just doing theater? 1:07:03.920 --> 1:07:08.280 I always worked, I mean I never I only did theater. 1:07:08.400 --> 1:07:10.840 I mean, I mean I only did acting. So I 1:07:10.880 --> 1:07:19.240 was doing everything in my whole But but my parents 1:07:19.240 --> 1:07:20.920 never helped me. It was just money. 1:07:21.080 --> 1:07:21.440 Wow. 1:07:21.680 --> 1:07:25.280 Well I was single, costly just gig that gig, that gig, 1:07:25.320 --> 1:07:28.240 that gig. I mean, that was my reality as you 1:07:28.280 --> 1:07:31.000 know older, like you know, there are people would mentor me. 1:07:31.040 --> 1:07:34.800 I remember Anna Marie Horsford had a sister who was 1:07:35.240 --> 1:07:39.440 like at Columbia, and Columbia did Soldier story and I 1:07:39.480 --> 1:07:41.760 remember I was eating, you know, at her house. She 1:07:41.800 --> 1:07:45.440 had this really nice apartment West End Avenue, and they 1:07:45.440 --> 1:07:48.160 were asking me back then, They're like, you know, well 1:07:48.200 --> 1:07:49.640 you'll know when you're out of work. And I was like, 1:07:49.640 --> 1:07:51.840 I've never been out of work, and they're like, oh 1:07:51.880 --> 1:07:56.080 my god, this is motherfucker. I'm not saying I was 1:07:56.120 --> 1:07:59.480 doing like you know, I just was working. We're doing 1:07:59.520 --> 1:08:03.800 everything we do, voistovers, commercial, you know anything. 1:08:03.840 --> 1:08:06.080 Man, how did you get how did you get hooked 1:08:06.120 --> 1:08:08.440 up with Hollywood Shuffle. 1:08:08.480 --> 1:08:09.040 How did you get that? 1:08:09.320 --> 1:08:15.720 Well, Robert Townsend. I met Robert Townsend on Soldiers Play Soldier. 1:08:19.120 --> 1:08:23.320 We shared that honey We shared a honey wagon. So 1:08:23.520 --> 1:08:25.519 I will tell you like I thought, Robert was the 1:08:25.520 --> 1:08:28.360 funniest dude I ever in the world. Like he was 1:08:28.360 --> 1:08:31.320 doing everybody's material, you know, like he was doing he said, yeah, 1:08:31.439 --> 1:08:33.559 it's my boy, Damon, and he did all the more 1:08:33.600 --> 1:08:35.960 money ship and I'd be like crying, like, who the 1:08:35.960 --> 1:08:38.599 fuck me and him? Him and Denzel were always already 1:08:38.640 --> 1:08:44.080 tight and just crying. I'm talking about fifteen hours a day, 1:08:44.280 --> 1:08:47.640 you know, when you're young. We couldn't get enough. We 1:08:47.640 --> 1:08:50.639 would make each other laugh until we just passed our sleep. 1:08:51.000 --> 1:08:53.760 I remember sitting on the bed in I think it 1:08:53.800 --> 1:08:58.640 was Denzel's room and watching Keenan on Soul Train, you know, 1:08:59.040 --> 1:09:01.760 do and on the Night Show when he did his 1:09:01.800 --> 1:09:05.800 first spot. He was in the centerfold of Right On Magazine, 1:09:05.960 --> 1:09:09.120 you know. But Robert broke it down to me in 1:09:09.160 --> 1:09:10.960 our little trail. He said, look, man, we're gonna have 1:09:10.960 --> 1:09:13.959 a film company, him and Keenan. We're doing these movies 1:09:14.840 --> 1:09:17.840 we're doing. So he broke it all down there. He said, man, 1:09:17.840 --> 1:09:19.320 if you down, don't want you to do this, you know, 1:09:19.320 --> 1:09:22.720 Hollywood Shuffle and all that stuff. So I heard about it, 1:09:22.760 --> 1:09:25.960 and when I came out for to do my pilot 1:09:25.960 --> 1:09:29.760 season that following year, I stayed with Robert and he 1:09:29.840 --> 1:09:34.639 introduced me to Keenan Damon, who Damon was the size 1:09:34.680 --> 1:09:39.000 of like Marlin, like like one, and Damon always had 1:09:39.080 --> 1:09:43.040 kids like he had kids. From the first time I 1:09:43.080 --> 1:09:52.000 met him, I was like, damn, yeah, yeah, so dig 1:09:52.080 --> 1:09:53.600 So that led to I'm gonna show you how I 1:09:53.600 --> 1:09:56.040 get to got to live in color So Keenan, all 1:09:56.040 --> 1:09:58.200 those guys knew me just from hanging out. So I 1:09:58.200 --> 1:10:00.840 would hang out with them every and go to these 1:10:00.840 --> 1:10:04.040 comedy clubs. I didn't do comedy until Robert and those 1:10:04.040 --> 1:10:06.160 guys just shamed me into it. They were like, look, man, 1:10:06.200 --> 1:10:09.000 you can't be just rolling with us. You gotta do spots. 1:10:09.080 --> 1:10:13.360 So I started doing spots just for fun and uh 1:10:13.479 --> 1:10:16.320 so through that, Keenan knew me, you know. So when 1:10:16.880 --> 1:10:21.519 we did I'm Gonna get you, sucker, and that broke 1:10:22.400 --> 1:10:24.439 Keenan was like, look, I know how funny you are. 1:10:24.600 --> 1:10:27.559 Wait what did you do? I'm trying to play the 1:10:27.600 --> 1:10:30.360 news again. 1:10:30.439 --> 1:10:31.560 That was basically. 1:10:34.360 --> 1:10:37.680 He was the one that was in the Springsteen I. 1:10:41.240 --> 1:10:41.320 Was. 1:10:41.360 --> 1:10:44.639 I was like, bre Springsteen is amazing. You guys heard 1:10:44.720 --> 1:10:49.240 him because he's really good. Yeah, so so they Basically 1:10:49.439 --> 1:10:51.920 Keena just said do you think so? So he goes, 1:10:51.960 --> 1:10:55.519 look look man, I'm doing this show. You know, this 1:10:55.920 --> 1:10:57.960 sketch show, black sketch show. I want you to be 1:10:58.040 --> 1:11:01.759 on it. Now. Robert already we had been talking about 1:11:01.760 --> 1:11:04.680 The Five Heartbeats. Now the original cast was supposed to 1:11:04.720 --> 1:11:12.080 be me, Denzel, I think, Damon, No, Keenan, and Robert. 1:11:12.479 --> 1:11:16.679 So I got in long story short, I got in 1:11:16.680 --> 1:11:19.120 in living color. And then Robert called and said, man, 1:11:19.160 --> 1:11:21.920 I got the money. We're doing the Five Heartbeats. I'm 1:11:21.960 --> 1:11:24.760 like what. I was like, shit, I gotta get out 1:11:24.760 --> 1:11:26.479 this deal. He said, man, what the fuck? Why'd you 1:11:26.479 --> 1:11:27.080 sign the deal? 1:11:27.320 --> 1:11:27.479 You know? 1:11:27.560 --> 1:11:30.320 And I called Keenan. I was like, Keenan, I need 1:11:30.320 --> 1:11:35.160 to talk to you because I'm very unhappy about this contract. 1:11:35.160 --> 1:11:36.800 I need to be let go to do this movie. 1:11:36.840 --> 1:11:39.080 He was like, dude, I can't. I mean, you signed 1:11:39.080 --> 1:11:41.400 a contract. It's not me. I mean Fox will sue, 1:11:41.439 --> 1:11:43.640 you know, saying I don't think you want me in 1:11:43.680 --> 1:11:49.439 your show I'm going to be very angry. Was like, Dave, look, 1:11:50.800 --> 1:11:52.559 shake it off. I mean I wish I could help you, 1:11:52.600 --> 1:11:55.840 but I could. I mean, I was just it was 1:11:55.840 --> 1:11:58.120 one of those things. So I didn't do it. Keenan 1:11:58.280 --> 1:11:59.760 couldn't do it, Damon didn't do it. 1:12:00.160 --> 1:12:01.400 Who were you supposed to be? 1:12:01.680 --> 1:12:03.599 I forgot, I honestly forget which. 1:12:05.320 --> 1:12:09.639 One of those dudes. But yeah, who's the original lineup again? 1:12:10.200 --> 1:12:17.080 Me by you know, Robert Townsend, Damon, Keenan, Denzel, who 1:12:17.160 --> 1:12:23.600 who would have been? I mean, well, there's a documentary 1:12:24.280 --> 1:12:25.280 that I haven't seen. 1:12:25.240 --> 1:12:26.840 Yet but were working. 1:12:27.000 --> 1:12:30.240 Yeah, maybe maybe it's in there. But yeah, so all 1:12:30.360 --> 1:12:33.719 that and like, uh yeah it was Wold. 1:12:34.360 --> 1:12:36.920 So when ahead, no, I was just going to say, 1:12:36.920 --> 1:12:39.080 it's it's deep because you worked with so many like 1:12:39.280 --> 1:12:43.640 dope ensemble casts that I just I was going to 1:12:43.680 --> 1:12:45.880 ask you, like, what who has challenged you the most 1:12:45.920 --> 1:12:46.799 and the best ways? 1:12:47.479 --> 1:12:48.200 Is that obvious? 1:12:48.280 --> 1:12:51.000 It was because you know, coming in doing Living Color, 1:12:51.800 --> 1:12:57.759 I did not have a comedy background. I mean, you know, Keenan, Damon, 1:12:58.080 --> 1:13:00.200 all those guys were in the trenches. They can came 1:13:00.240 --> 1:13:03.240 in with their pockets full. I didn't any characters. Damon 1:13:03.280 --> 1:13:06.559 actually came to me. That's how Calhoun Tubbs was written. 1:13:06.560 --> 1:13:09.280 He said, look, man, you gotta have some characters to 1:13:09.400 --> 1:13:11.080 think of something, you know. I was like, well, there's 1:13:11.080 --> 1:13:13.160 this blues dude, and he said, let's write it down. 1:13:13.400 --> 1:13:16.240 So we came up with that. Then we did men On, 1:13:17.080 --> 1:13:18.880 so it just kind of built. Yeah, it kind of built. 1:13:18.960 --> 1:13:24.800 I forgot, But originally that was Keenanan Damon, and they 1:13:24.880 --> 1:13:27.200 were supposed to be Dicky and somebody their brothers, you know, 1:13:27.240 --> 1:13:31.439 and they're gonna be and then Stephens and REESI was listen, 1:13:31.760 --> 1:13:33.639 wait a minute, who was it? It was the dudes 1:13:33.640 --> 1:13:38.160 from Motown, the writers, So that was what it was 1:13:38.160 --> 1:13:39.840 based on, but a ghetto ass version of it. 1:13:40.560 --> 1:13:42.280 And Howard tis the third based on. 1:13:42.640 --> 1:13:45.760 Real people because when when Little Color first popped, I mean, 1:13:45.880 --> 1:13:48.160 dudes would just hang out and I remember sitting in 1:13:48.200 --> 1:13:52.080 the makeup room and dudes would just roll in be like, 1:13:52.120 --> 1:13:55.400 oh look here, brother, can you give this card to Damien? 1:13:55.960 --> 1:13:58.639 And then you know, you know, you know how black 1:13:58.640 --> 1:14:01.240 folks do a lot of it. There was a table 1:14:01.439 --> 1:14:04.400 that was in our rehearsal studio and we would have 1:14:04.439 --> 1:14:07.360 breakfast and then we start our day and most of 1:14:07.360 --> 1:14:11.040 those characters started. We were just ragging on each other, 1:14:11.280 --> 1:14:13.320 you know, And that was one of those things where me, 1:14:13.560 --> 1:14:15.719 everybody would do it because we all saw those guys 1:14:15.840 --> 1:14:18.519 until finally, after a few days, you'd be like, yo, man, 1:14:18.520 --> 1:14:20.160 that shit is funny. You need to put that on 1:14:20.200 --> 1:14:22.680 the show. So that's kind of how it evolved. And 1:14:22.680 --> 1:14:23.759 then it was me and Tommy. 1:14:24.000 --> 1:14:25.800 Man, how often did y'all crack up? 1:14:25.800 --> 1:14:28.920 Because like some of my funniest times watching even Color 1:14:29.040 --> 1:14:31.639 was watching y'all about to last suck up. 1:14:31.960 --> 1:14:33.400 Dude, that shit was so funny. 1:14:33.479 --> 1:14:36.599 There's a sketch who I saw a while ago because 1:14:36.600 --> 1:14:38.599 I remember we were doing it and I was tired. 1:14:38.600 --> 1:14:40.840 It was late. I'm like, man, they ain't gonna tape 1:14:40.840 --> 1:14:45.080 this shit, and Terry the director goes got it and 1:14:45.120 --> 1:14:48.320 I'm like, what I told you, We were taping it. 1:14:48.360 --> 1:14:50.800 So I was watching what is sitch? You see me 1:14:50.840 --> 1:14:56.040 in there? Like because I thought we were rehearsing. Man, 1:14:56.080 --> 1:14:58.000 I was like, oh shit, she was right. 1:14:58.120 --> 1:15:04.840 Where did prison tiny come from? I did? 1:15:04.960 --> 1:15:07.400 I wrote that with Like I went to college with 1:15:07.439 --> 1:15:11.080 this guy fax Bar and he was white dude, and 1:15:11.120 --> 1:15:13.640 he was in our theater company. Like way back we 1:15:13.680 --> 1:15:16.040 did short eyes and stuff. So I brought him and 1:15:16.080 --> 1:15:19.479 his writing partner onto the show and he me and 1:15:19.600 --> 1:15:22.400 him and Adam Small we all wrote the prison Cable 1:15:22.439 --> 1:15:24.960 Channel Networks. And the reason why it was so much 1:15:25.000 --> 1:15:28.400 fun is because if you look back the first one, especially, 1:15:28.479 --> 1:15:30.960 everybody was in it. He didn't really didn't. He would, 1:15:30.960 --> 1:15:33.599 he would do stuff, but he was in it. Jim 1:15:33.720 --> 1:15:36.519 was in it, everybody all together, and that's what made 1:15:36.520 --> 1:15:38.519 it so fun because usually it would be like, you know, 1:15:38.600 --> 1:15:41.760 this is your sketch. You know, I don't know microphone man, 1:15:41.840 --> 1:15:44.400 and we do smaller stuff and support you and go on. 1:15:44.479 --> 1:15:47.640 But to get everybody down and that was what was 1:15:47.680 --> 1:15:48.320 fun about it. 1:15:48.560 --> 1:15:53.639 How did because of the kind of the rapid level 1:15:53.720 --> 1:16:02.200 of how that show just exploded across America? How different 1:16:02.520 --> 1:16:06.439 was your life after season one? 1:16:07.120 --> 1:16:11.120 Well, I'll give you an example. I auditioned for a 1:16:11.160 --> 1:16:14.439 Living Color with Chris Rock. We did our final like 1:16:14.479 --> 1:16:19.160 this improvs me and him and Susie Esmond. Susie Susie 1:16:19.160 --> 1:16:20.840 didn't really want to do this, so she's like, you guys, 1:16:20.840 --> 1:16:22.600 do it. I don't really want to do No. She 1:16:22.640 --> 1:16:25.000 wanted to stay. She was I'm not moving to l A. 1:16:25.080 --> 1:16:28.479 I want to who watch the audition for the show. 1:16:28.600 --> 1:16:32.280 Martin, Martin, Martin, Lawrence Audi. I auditioned with Martin. Me 1:16:32.320 --> 1:16:34.960 and him were friends from way back, and he didn't 1:16:34.960 --> 1:16:37.559 get it, so he would come in. No, he didn't 1:16:37.560 --> 1:16:37.840 get it. 1:16:37.880 --> 1:16:41.000 So wait, other people auditioned for this. I felt like 1:16:41.479 --> 1:16:44.000 you eleven were specifically chosen. 1:16:44.400 --> 1:16:47.040 Well, we were, but still there was an audition process. 1:16:47.080 --> 1:16:49.880 Martin auditioned and. 1:16:49.880 --> 1:16:51.960 Everybody from the Comedy Act Theory. 1:16:51.840 --> 1:16:54.679 No, not everybody. 1:16:55.280 --> 1:16:58.840 Robin Harrison he was on. At one point, I feel like, no, no, no, no, no, 1:16:58.840 --> 1:16:59.080 no no. 1:16:59.800 --> 1:17:03.799 But but I went to the Comediac Theater a million times. 1:17:03.880 --> 1:17:08.120 I performed there a million times. I saw Robin, you know, 1:17:08.280 --> 1:17:10.439 a trillion times. No, as I remember, he was not 1:17:10.520 --> 1:17:12.599 on it. But I just I'm telling you. I auditioned 1:17:12.600 --> 1:17:18.960 with Martin. I auditioned with Chris Rock. Chris did Saturday 1:17:19.000 --> 1:17:22.439 Night Live. So I went to visit Chris. And that's 1:17:22.439 --> 1:17:25.200 when I really thought, well, damn shit, I guess I'm 1:17:25.240 --> 1:17:27.599 doing something, because you know, everybody at Saturday Night treated 1:17:27.600 --> 1:17:30.360 me like I was famous. You know, Lauren Michael's they 1:17:30.360 --> 1:17:32.920 were like, oh my god, you know, the whole cast, 1:17:34.160 --> 1:17:36.800 they were like, dude, well, you know, they're treated me 1:17:36.840 --> 1:17:38.600 like I was about some shit. And I was like, 1:17:38.680 --> 1:17:41.120 damn man, because you know when we did a living color, 1:17:41.280 --> 1:17:44.559 we would you know, we would do our work, then 1:17:44.600 --> 1:17:47.720 we would go have Thai food or go hang out 1:17:47.720 --> 1:17:50.600 at Cate Mantalini's. That was a big joint on Wheelshire. 1:17:51.200 --> 1:17:54.800 It's closed now, but and then we go home. It 1:17:54.880 --> 1:17:57.200 wasn't you know when you go to Saturday Night Live, 1:17:57.280 --> 1:18:02.240 they got limos after party Hopper Rozzi. Nah, man, I 1:18:02.280 --> 1:18:04.240 got my little I forget what I had. My father 1:18:04.280 --> 1:18:10.919 gave me a chocolate brown nineteen eighty one Coop Deville. Wow, 1:18:11.000 --> 1:18:16.400 and you could outrun that motherfucker. Yeah, it was not 1:18:16.560 --> 1:18:19.240 like that, you know. So so coming to visit Chris 1:18:19.240 --> 1:18:21.240 and I was like, Chris, is it like this all 1:18:21.280 --> 1:18:24.360 the time? He said, yeah, man, yeah, So Chris came 1:18:25.040 --> 1:18:29.240 on after that, he came Lady, Yeah, he came later. 1:18:29.520 --> 1:18:35.680 But Chris. I knew Chris since probably nineteen fuck, I 1:18:35.720 --> 1:18:36.800 don't know eighty something. 1:18:37.160 --> 1:18:39.479 Where did y'all come up with the little Miss Magic? 1:18:40.320 --> 1:18:45.400 It was a picture walking in Little Magic. It was 1:18:45.439 --> 1:18:46.160 at the back of it. 1:18:46.320 --> 1:18:47.400 It was given kim right. 1:18:47.400 --> 1:18:50.720 It was, yeah, the back of a Jet magazine. We 1:18:50.800 --> 1:18:52.640 found this picture of this little black girl. It was 1:18:52.680 --> 1:18:56.920 so obnoxious because she was like, we just started riffing. 1:18:57.120 --> 1:18:59.080 We just I forget who named it a little magic, 1:18:59.080 --> 1:19:02.599 but it was Kim And I didn't want to play 1:19:02.600 --> 1:19:04.120 the mom because I was like, why are you putting 1:19:04.120 --> 1:19:08.439 on this drag ship? And then listen, motherfucker, I have 1:19:08.520 --> 1:19:12.040 the dress on. Okay, it's like, well ship, let me 1:19:12.080 --> 1:19:13.840 just gonna do it. Because we would play around the stuff. 1:19:13.960 --> 1:19:16.200 So that's how that happened. I mean, it's just a 1:19:16.280 --> 1:19:19.400 lot of it's very organic. You know, if we made 1:19:19.400 --> 1:19:21.880 each other laugh, then it was obvious you got to 1:19:21.960 --> 1:19:23.760 do that. You got to make a sketch out of that. 1:19:24.560 --> 1:19:27.080 So all right, so here's something I always wanted to know. 1:19:27.760 --> 1:19:29.439 That's what I was what happened to her. 1:19:31.040 --> 1:19:32.320 I was trying to get married. 1:19:32.439 --> 1:19:37.000 She acted, she was like the first many seasons she was. 1:19:37.000 --> 1:19:39.200 The wasn't she the whole show? I mean she mean 1:19:40.000 --> 1:19:49.080 because Alexandra, well Kelly was there from the beginning, hilarious, 1:19:49.280 --> 1:19:51.479 Well she want. I mean, it's like anything. I mean, 1:19:51.560 --> 1:19:54.400 Keenan said something really funny, like when it first popped off, 1:19:54.800 --> 1:19:56.519 he said, look, I'm gonna tell you what's gonna happen. 1:19:56.560 --> 1:19:59.880 Somebody's gonna cheat on their wife, somebody's gonna fuck, somebody's 1:19:59.880 --> 1:20:03.800 go girlfriend, somebody's gonna have a drug problem, somebody's gonna 1:20:03.800 --> 1:20:05.960 come out the closets, and you know all that stuff. 1:20:06.000 --> 1:20:10.680 It's what happens in every group basically. And basically that's 1:20:10.720 --> 1:20:12.320 what happened. I mean, you know, you you you, you 1:20:12.360 --> 1:20:15.320 get a groove going, it's really famous, and then you 1:20:15.360 --> 1:20:17.559 know people want more. You have more lines than me. 1:20:17.840 --> 1:20:20.240 You know, that's the kind of stuff. So that's basically 1:20:20.280 --> 1:20:25.240 what happened. And it just once Keenan left. He left 1:20:25.280 --> 1:20:26.320 after the second year. 1:20:28.160 --> 1:20:30.920 Yeah, I just felt like he was there longer. 1:20:30.920 --> 1:20:32.760 But no, you're right, no, but but what we all 1:20:32.840 --> 1:20:37.920 stayed and then the Waiyans gradually, I think Damon left 1:20:38.160 --> 1:20:43.120 and then so it was Kim and Sean and you 1:20:43.200 --> 1:20:46.000 know so and it just kind of dissipated after that. 1:20:50.720 --> 1:20:53.400 What I want to do is, Okay, so when you 1:20:53.439 --> 1:20:56.519 were in your your bag and in your zone with 1:20:56.720 --> 1:21:01.000 doing like Broadway and occasional movies whatever, and you had 1:21:02.200 --> 1:21:04.600 you said like you weren't super broken, you didn't have 1:21:04.600 --> 1:21:07.320 to get a regular job. You made a modest living. 1:21:08.320 --> 1:21:14.000 But okay, so when you're on a cultural phenomenon like 1:21:14.080 --> 1:21:19.120 Living Color and you're in LA and you make that 1:21:19.200 --> 1:21:23.599 decision to jump into the river, which is like, Okay, 1:21:23.680 --> 1:21:28.559 you're making good money and the show looks like it's 1:21:28.600 --> 1:21:30.840 going to be a hit, so you're probably saying to yourself, Okay, 1:21:31.680 --> 1:21:33.439 this should be no reason why we're not on the 1:21:33.479 --> 1:21:39.120 air for at least seven years or whatever. So how 1:21:39.200 --> 1:21:44.560 risky is it to really lay down roots in Los Angeles? 1:21:44.600 --> 1:21:47.599 As in, I'm going to hit show? Do I get 1:21:47.600 --> 1:21:50.200 the ball out the car? Do I do I get 1:21:50.240 --> 1:21:54.479 the you know, I'm giving an example I'm given is that, Okay, 1:21:54.520 --> 1:21:57.519 when Ugly Betty was on the air and it was 1:21:57.520 --> 1:22:00.280 such a hit and all that stuff, a mayor could 1:22:00.960 --> 1:22:03.920 purchase this house and everything, and then like it got 1:22:03.920 --> 1:22:06.800 canceled in three years and she couldn't sell that house 1:22:06.840 --> 1:22:09.080 for shit, it took nine years. Again. 1:22:09.120 --> 1:22:11.840 That never happened to me, But well, just in. 1:22:11.720 --> 1:22:15.280 General, like once you decide to not be meager, and. 1:22:15.720 --> 1:22:18.519 We'll tell you what that happened. That happened, Like I 1:22:18.680 --> 1:22:23.879 was doing. I started auditioning for this Bob Fosse musical, 1:22:24.880 --> 1:22:27.240 and I went to England to visit a friend of 1:22:27.240 --> 1:22:30.720 my Matthew Modine, who is doing Full Metal g and 1:22:30.760 --> 1:22:33.080 I remember my agents called and they said, David, if 1:22:33.080 --> 1:22:36.960 you come back, we know you're going to get this musical. 1:22:37.200 --> 1:22:40.759 And at that point, you know, I had done dream 1:22:40.800 --> 1:22:44.200 Girls on and off. I was really getting tired of 1:22:44.400 --> 1:22:47.920 New York. That scene, I really wanted to buy a car. 1:22:48.439 --> 1:22:53.719 I wanted to buy a drop top Mustang GT five 1:22:53.760 --> 1:22:56.280 point zero. That was my dream car. And I said, 1:22:56.320 --> 1:22:58.639 I'm not gonna get this man in New York. That's 1:22:58.680 --> 1:23:03.639 when I really emotion said I'm going to La Okay. 1:23:03.840 --> 1:23:06.200 So I didn't go back. I didn't go back to 1:23:07.120 --> 1:23:10.479 do that final call for the Bob Fosse musical. I 1:23:10.560 --> 1:23:14.800 went out to La that for that pilot season and 1:23:14.840 --> 1:23:18.519 I booked my first pilot. So basically from that I 1:23:18.600 --> 1:23:22.599 would move back. I came back once after we did 1:23:22.600 --> 1:23:25.080 the pilot of in Living Color, because once we did 1:23:25.160 --> 1:23:27.880 the pilot, it took over a year for them to 1:23:27.920 --> 1:23:30.360 pick it up. You know, when I would go and 1:23:30.400 --> 1:23:35.040 do guest I did this guest spot on alf but 1:23:35.160 --> 1:23:37.960 wherever I would go, right wherever I would go, all 1:23:38.040 --> 1:23:40.880 the crew had seen. We did an hour pilot of 1:23:40.920 --> 1:23:44.120 in Living Color. It became like a bootleg. Hey, and 1:23:44.200 --> 1:23:46.160 these dudes on the crew be like, yo, man, that 1:23:46.280 --> 1:23:48.960 was the funniest shit. What are they going to do 1:23:49.040 --> 1:23:50.840 with it? And I was like, I don't know. It 1:23:50.920 --> 1:23:55.240 got so bad that Vanity Fair printed an article about 1:23:55.280 --> 1:23:57.720 in Living Color, you know, something like this is the 1:23:57.760 --> 1:24:01.080 hottest underground tape. You know, it's like a black Saturday 1:24:01.120 --> 1:24:03.439 Night Live. Everybody had seen it. Yeah, it was over. 1:24:03.520 --> 1:24:06.120 What took long? What took so long to iron it? Well? 1:24:06.120 --> 1:24:09.320 See, you know the concept of a living colored Eddie 1:24:09.400 --> 1:24:12.919 Murphy had it, that idea to do a black SNL, 1:24:13.439 --> 1:24:17.160 a black sketch show. Everybody had that idea, but Keenan 1:24:17.240 --> 1:24:20.400 is the one who actually did it. Yeah, I don't know. 1:24:20.560 --> 1:24:22.560 I mean it was Barry Diller was running. 1:24:22.320 --> 1:24:25.600 Fox and they didn't see this SEO, it's gonna be 1:24:25.680 --> 1:24:26.120 instant hit. 1:24:27.120 --> 1:24:29.320 I'm just telling you, man. It took a while. Finally 1:24:29.400 --> 1:24:33.880 we got picked up, and that's what I went And 1:24:33.920 --> 1:24:37.040 I said no three times. You know, I said no because, 1:24:37.080 --> 1:24:39.240 like I told you, I'm not that's not my thing. 1:24:39.320 --> 1:24:41.599 You know, I don't really I don't have a bunch 1:24:41.600 --> 1:24:45.360 of characters. I'm not deep in this improv thing. But 1:24:45.760 --> 1:24:48.680 Kim Wayans I moved back to New York. And when 1:24:48.720 --> 1:24:51.519 I moved back after being in LA, I realized that 1:24:51.640 --> 1:24:53.320 was the wrong thing, because the next day I was 1:24:53.360 --> 1:24:56.080 back in the same call, same two dudes. Hey Man, 1:24:56.120 --> 1:24:58.840 what's up? Where you been? Man? I was like, oh 1:24:58.920 --> 1:25:01.560 my god, yeah, And she said, David, trust me, this 1:25:01.600 --> 1:25:05.200 is the right decision. So I trusted her. And because 1:25:05.280 --> 1:25:09.320 out of all the shit I auditioned for, it was 1:25:09.360 --> 1:25:11.719 at a time where I must audition for thirty pilots, 1:25:12.120 --> 1:25:14.840 I was the dude or like, well, I don't know, 1:25:14.920 --> 1:25:18.240 maybe we'll go black, David, Yeah, you know, so I 1:25:18.240 --> 1:25:20.360 would read I didn't get it, but I always knew 1:25:20.360 --> 1:25:23.000 that Living Color would be the most fun. It wasn't 1:25:23.000 --> 1:25:25.559 the most money. But finally I just told my agents. 1:25:25.560 --> 1:25:27.839 I was like, I'm just going to do this because 1:25:27.920 --> 1:25:30.760 I'm tired of, you know, audition for stuff. I didn't 1:25:30.760 --> 1:25:33.840 really care because you on it to the very end, right, Yeah, Yeah, 1:25:33.800 --> 1:25:36.519 I was, Yeah, yeah I was. And so once I 1:25:36.560 --> 1:25:39.920 got in there, dude, we did the pilot, we did 1:25:40.000 --> 1:25:42.120 men on and I remember my agent call the next 1:25:42.160 --> 1:25:44.720 day and she said, they're doing snaps over at Tom 1:25:45.000 --> 1:25:50.160 MGM David. They're doing snapsid Columbia. People are snapping all 1:25:50.160 --> 1:25:54.800 over the city and I was like, damn. And this 1:25:54.880 --> 1:25:57.160 was for the first time, for the first time in 1:25:57.160 --> 1:26:00.799 my life, everybody was in like our green room. Everybody, 1:26:00.840 --> 1:26:04.240 all the biggest stars, you know, everybody wanted to come 1:26:04.520 --> 1:26:06.639 and hang out with us. And I was like, damn, 1:26:06.680 --> 1:26:09.240 for one, for once in my life, I was on 1:26:09.280 --> 1:26:14.120 the coolest show. I went, I got my burglar alarm installed, 1:26:14.160 --> 1:26:18.360 and the white dude he said, he was like, oh, 1:26:18.479 --> 1:26:21.280 he just went crazy. He was like, oh my god. 1:26:21.080 --> 1:26:24.080 The cab driver. I was like, damn, this supposed to 1:26:24.080 --> 1:26:24.960 be what it feels like. 1:26:25.200 --> 1:26:27.639 No, it's It's funny you say that characters were your thing, 1:26:27.680 --> 1:26:31.040 because you created some of my favorite characters like Stevens 1:26:31.040 --> 1:26:31.800 and REESI. 1:26:32.120 --> 1:26:34.320 Like, I mean, I got into it. I'm just saying 1:26:34.320 --> 1:26:38.320 that as an actor, as an artist, we all are apprehensive. 1:26:38.400 --> 1:26:42.680 I mean, I just everybody has insecurity. I mean I 1:26:42.800 --> 1:26:45.760 just heard a story that like what'sy Jones talked about it. 1:26:45.960 --> 1:26:47.880 He talked about like he was supposed to jam with 1:26:47.880 --> 1:26:50.920 Hendrix a bunch of times, but he said Hendricks never 1:26:50.960 --> 1:26:54.559 showed up because he said he felt like he knew 1:26:54.600 --> 1:26:57.840 he was intimidated by these jazz musicians. You know, he 1:26:58.120 --> 1:27:01.080 didn't have his knowledge was different, you know, him and 1:27:01.120 --> 1:27:03.640 Miles Davis kicked it. They were supposed to record a 1:27:03.640 --> 1:27:06.520 bunch of shit, but it just never got together. Everybody 1:27:06.640 --> 1:27:10.080 has an insecurity, even the most brilliant people. They do. 1:27:10.240 --> 1:27:12.920 Every artist, you know, ship where they I'm not ready, 1:27:13.120 --> 1:27:14.519 you know this kind of thing, but you know I 1:27:14.600 --> 1:27:16.160 jumped in. I said fuck it. You know, so it 1:27:16.200 --> 1:27:16.759 all worked. 1:27:16.600 --> 1:27:19.720 Out after the Living Color? What were your Where did 1:27:19.760 --> 1:27:20.400 you go from there? 1:27:20.760 --> 1:27:23.080 I'll tell you know. After in Living Color, I figured 1:27:23.200 --> 1:27:26.120 because I was doing stand up and stuff, I said, well, 1:27:26.120 --> 1:27:29.920 I probably can headline for about eighteen months. You know, 1:27:29.960 --> 1:27:32.240 there's no YouTube, there's no nothing. 1:27:33.040 --> 1:27:35.599 How long did they announce to you that the season 1:27:35.640 --> 1:27:37.880 five is our last one? Was it just like last ten? 1:27:38.120 --> 1:27:38.559 It happened. 1:27:38.560 --> 1:27:39.160 Here's the cake. 1:27:39.360 --> 1:27:41.880 I was in New York. I was doing Shakespeare in 1:27:41.960 --> 1:27:45.439 the Park. And now after that, you know, Jim Carrey 1:27:45.439 --> 1:27:49.840 had always already blown up with Yes, was that the 1:27:49.840 --> 1:27:57.040 first one was his first movie? Which I turned that down? 1:27:57.040 --> 1:27:59.479 Everybody it was. It was a script that was passed around, 1:27:59.479 --> 1:28:02.639 but Jim it because he said, look, I'll take this, 1:28:02.720 --> 1:28:04.880 but you gotta let me do my thing. So they 1:28:04.920 --> 1:28:06.880 gave him all the power and he said, fuck it. 1:28:07.120 --> 1:28:10.160 You know, so now I can tell you another story. 1:28:10.200 --> 1:28:14.960 So we went to the opening of ace Ventura and 1:28:15.000 --> 1:28:17.360 so the press check goes, Oh, I got an excitement. 1:28:17.479 --> 1:28:19.599 You know, I have exciting news. I've sat you next 1:28:19.640 --> 1:28:23.599 to Jim and you know yet Jim Carrey, and Jim 1:28:23.680 --> 1:28:26.360 was so nervous. He literally was climbing out of his skin. 1:28:26.800 --> 1:28:28.880 So I'm sitting right there and I want to I'm 1:28:28.880 --> 1:28:31.360 gonna laugh because it's my boy. Whatever, I'm gonna laugh. 1:28:31.400 --> 1:28:36.439 And I laughed myself dizzy sick. Now I'm watching it 1:28:36.479 --> 1:28:39.720 and I'm like, Jim is too crazy, man, Jim, Jim, Jim. 1:28:39.760 --> 1:28:42.000 He did that movie like they gave him six months 1:28:42.000 --> 1:28:45.920 to live. So he was just telling every joke, every joke. 1:28:45.960 --> 1:28:47.920 He just worked it. And so I come out in 1:28:47.920 --> 1:28:49.960 the lobby. I see Chris and I was like, Chris, 1:28:50.000 --> 1:28:52.400 what's up. He goes, Nobody's gonna see this movie, and 1:28:52.439 --> 1:28:53.960 I was like, no, because it was too crazy. I 1:28:54.040 --> 1:28:57.599 just thought America's not ready. We used to joke with Jim. 1:28:57.840 --> 1:29:00.320 I said, look, man, if I won the lottery. I 1:29:00.400 --> 1:29:02.720 wanted to give Jim five million dollars just to do 1:29:02.800 --> 1:29:05.639 his movie. He used to do this thing called Colon Man. 1:29:06.880 --> 1:29:07.080 No. 1:29:07.240 --> 1:29:10.559 He would whip out, you know, his three twenty five 1:29:10.600 --> 1:29:13.200 feet of colon and he would last suit people and 1:29:13.320 --> 1:29:16.920 suck him in his ass. This is the kind of 1:29:16.960 --> 1:29:19.360 shit we would do. This is the kind of shit 1:29:19.400 --> 1:29:22.679 we we're we're comedian. We'd just do. Dude. I was crying. 1:29:22.760 --> 1:29:25.280 I was like, Jim, please please, I'm gonna give you 1:29:25.280 --> 1:29:27.160 some money. I want you to do Colon Man. He 1:29:27.280 --> 1:29:29.559 was like, yeah, So we would just be messing around, 1:29:29.880 --> 1:29:32.720 making each other laugh. But what I'm saying is I 1:29:32.760 --> 1:29:35.479 didn't think. I just saw. You know, in a couple 1:29:35.520 --> 1:29:38.320 of years, people forget about the show. I go back to, 1:29:38.400 --> 1:29:39.720 you know, I do what I really want to do, 1:29:39.760 --> 1:29:41.519 which is I want to do like a sitcom like 1:29:41.840 --> 1:29:44.920 The Black Seinfeld, you know, and I just that's where 1:29:44.960 --> 1:29:49.360 my head was at. I did not see the legacy 1:29:49.760 --> 1:29:51.519 of In Living Color. And I'll tell you who did 1:29:51.640 --> 1:29:54.040 was Jim Carrey. I mean from the very beginning, we'd 1:29:54.040 --> 1:29:55.519 be sitting in the dress room. He said, Man, this 1:29:55.600 --> 1:29:59.320 is history. This is I was like, man, please, it's like, really, 1:30:00.000 --> 1:30:02.240 I didn't know because I just didn't. I just did 1:30:02.280 --> 1:30:03.639 not see, like. 1:30:03.960 --> 1:30:08.760 You didn't read your own pressions were in Time magazine, 1:30:08.920 --> 1:30:09.240 I know. 1:30:09.240 --> 1:30:12.640 But I didn't. My son's watching in color, Yeah, but 1:30:12.680 --> 1:30:14.280 I also didn't. I'm gonna put it like this, what 1:30:14.400 --> 1:30:17.439 I did. I remember I did this play and they 1:30:17.479 --> 1:30:19.559 had the men's dressing room the women's dressing room at 1:30:19.600 --> 1:30:21.639 this point. You know, this is like two thousand and six. 1:30:22.040 --> 1:30:26.120 So everybody had their laptop all laid up, and all 1:30:26.200 --> 1:30:31.120 these dudes had catalog their favorite in living color sketches. 1:30:31.680 --> 1:30:33.479 They could press a button dial it in. You know, 1:30:33.479 --> 1:30:37.400 that technology wasn't there when we did in Living Color 1:30:37.439 --> 1:30:41.520 in ninety one to ninety four. I didn't anticipate that longevity. 1:30:41.600 --> 1:30:45.120 As I toured the country, I started performing for guys 1:30:45.120 --> 1:30:47.599 who were kids, say ten or eleven or twelve, who 1:30:47.720 --> 1:30:51.680 snuck and watched the show. Now they're teenagers, you know 1:30:51.720 --> 1:30:55.120 what I mean. Now they're teenagers. And from there the 1:30:55.200 --> 1:30:58.519 people who saw the next generation under them, who saw 1:30:58.560 --> 1:31:01.720 it on be e T or whatever you know on 1:31:02.720 --> 1:31:03.400 I forgot what. 1:31:03.400 --> 1:31:04.599 It's It's on a bunch of channels. 1:31:04.720 --> 1:31:06.320 Yeah, there was a point where it was on every day. 1:31:06.400 --> 1:31:08.920 I mean it was somewhere every day, right, I mean, 1:31:08.960 --> 1:31:11.639 I just I didn't see all that. I didn't see YouTube. 1:31:11.720 --> 1:31:12.920 Come on, man, I didn't see it. 1:31:12.960 --> 1:31:13.160 Man. 1:31:14.040 --> 1:31:15.519 I was going to I was gonna ask was was 1:31:15.520 --> 1:31:17.720 boom I felt like Boomerang was closer than Living Color 1:31:17.760 --> 1:31:18.040 than that. 1:31:18.280 --> 1:31:21.439 Boomerang was during in Living Color. And what I didn't 1:31:21.479 --> 1:31:25.559 know is so I get Boomerang and Keenan said go 1:31:25.600 --> 1:31:27.800 ahead and do it, and I figured he I was 1:31:27.800 --> 1:31:32.360 cleared by Fox. But Keenan never told Fox. He just 1:31:32.479 --> 1:31:35.519 told me he went to the Hudling Brothers and he said, 1:31:35.880 --> 1:31:39.719 make sure you have David back on tape day. 1:31:41.040 --> 1:31:43.360 So with that the make up for the Robert Townson Joe. 1:31:43.520 --> 1:31:48.200 No, but I'm talking about you talk about doing someone 1:31:48.320 --> 1:31:49.360 a solid. 1:31:49.160 --> 1:31:51.360 Ranting himself out there. 1:31:51.400 --> 1:31:54.559 And I didn't find out till many years later. I 1:31:54.600 --> 1:31:57.719 was like what, and he goes, yeah, what. 1:31:57.600 --> 1:32:00.000 Was that scene? Do the table scene? 1:32:02.520 --> 1:32:06.120 Well, there's what happened. We were doing. We were doing 1:32:06.160 --> 1:32:08.640 the scene and I'm sitting there and I go, what 1:32:08.720 --> 1:32:12.240 is the most embarrassing thing that could happen? Your parents? 1:32:12.320 --> 1:32:17.360 Fucking So We're at the table and I'm sitting next 1:32:17.360 --> 1:32:21.920 to Eddie so I whispered Eddie, and Eddie fell out laughing. 1:32:22.439 --> 1:32:24.719 So I see him get up and go around, because 1:32:24.720 --> 1:32:26.559 we were shooting in this big loft. He goes around 1:32:26.560 --> 1:32:29.760 and he tells Warrington, who's a producer, and it's all 1:32:29.800 --> 1:32:33.200 in pantomime. I see Warrington just fall out laughing. He 1:32:33.320 --> 1:32:35.760 goes and tells Reggie, the director, who's on the other 1:32:35.840 --> 1:32:38.960 side behind the monitor. He falls out laughing. So at 1:32:38.960 --> 1:32:41.639 the very end of the day, Eddie says, we're gonna 1:32:41.640 --> 1:32:43.920 film it. So every time we tried to do the 1:32:43.920 --> 1:32:46.920 scene you know where John and them come out and 1:32:47.080 --> 1:32:50.200 Eddie's looking at me. Eddie never kept a straight face, 1:32:50.840 --> 1:32:54.200 so I always thought, well, we can't use it because 1:32:54.240 --> 1:32:56.519 we didn't get a good take. So that's why I 1:32:56.560 --> 1:33:00.559 went away from it. The brilliance of Eddie Murphy again 1:33:00.880 --> 1:33:05.040 is that he allowed that in the moment we got 1:33:05.080 --> 1:33:07.120 to put this on film, and it was became one 1:33:07.120 --> 1:33:09.519 of the funniest you know, my character was just the 1:33:09.560 --> 1:33:12.000 best friend. You know. When I read the script, I 1:33:12.439 --> 1:33:14.759 kind of was like, well, I'm in an Eddie Murphy movie, 1:33:14.800 --> 1:33:18.280 but what am I doing? But the brilliant thing is 1:33:18.320 --> 1:33:24.160 we rehearsed for three weeks and rehearsed, well, we actually improvised. 1:33:24.320 --> 1:33:28.120 It was controlled improvisation, so all of like the scenes 1:33:28.240 --> 1:33:34.120 with me, Martin and Eddie mostly like we we improved it, 1:33:34.160 --> 1:33:36.800 you know. So so Reggie would go, look, you know, 1:33:36.840 --> 1:33:38.960 you guys are working out. Just go and we would 1:33:39.000 --> 1:33:41.880 start improvising. There was a well, there was a woman 1:33:41.960 --> 1:33:45.280 there taking notes and when I say guided, he would go, okay, stop, 1:33:45.320 --> 1:33:47.680 stay in that area, stay in that area. So he 1:33:47.720 --> 1:33:50.679 would guide it. All the best bits they wrote them down, 1:33:50.720 --> 1:33:53.080 and that's how the script was rewritten. That's how it 1:33:53.120 --> 1:34:05.280 really became ours. That's funny. That's funny. That's fine. I 1:34:05.320 --> 1:34:07.080 mean it was guy. 1:34:06.560 --> 1:34:11.320 So that was rehearsed well, it was like a table read. 1:34:11.479 --> 1:34:15.360 And then we would Eddie was living Eddie life like 1:34:15.439 --> 1:34:19.040 he was in Washington. Then they would fly us to Washington. 1:34:19.360 --> 1:34:22.200 I think it was for I don't know something, you no, 1:34:22.400 --> 1:34:24.880 he was just there hanging out in DC. And we 1:34:24.960 --> 1:34:27.080 hung out at the Four Seasons for a few days 1:34:27.080 --> 1:34:31.400 and we rehearsed there. There was improvisation that happened on 1:34:31.439 --> 1:34:36.639 the set, but it was already formed and for us 1:34:36.920 --> 1:34:40.000 to succeed, and also what that did, I didn't know 1:34:40.120 --> 1:34:41.800 Eddie at all. I kind of knew Martin, you know, 1:34:41.880 --> 1:34:44.519 like I said, me and him were boys, but it 1:34:44.640 --> 1:34:47.519 bonded us because we're supposed to be best friends. So 1:34:47.560 --> 1:34:49.559 it was really that's the only time I've ever done 1:34:49.640 --> 1:34:51.519 that on a film, and I think that's the only 1:34:51.600 --> 1:34:54.680 time I heard Eddie did. It worked like that, But 1:34:54.760 --> 1:34:57.439 that's what made that film so good. 1:34:57.640 --> 1:34:59.880 So that's not standard, right telling. 1:35:00.040 --> 1:35:01.880 You know, I've been acting for thirty five years. I've 1:35:01.960 --> 1:35:06.839 never had a month long rehearsal period before we start filming. 1:35:07.000 --> 1:35:08.960 What if something was so magical and there was no 1:35:09.000 --> 1:35:12.640 camera to capture it just lost? I mean because as 1:35:12.680 --> 1:35:16.240 I were things that happened in rehearsal that was like, 1:35:16.320 --> 1:35:19.120 damn that shit is. You know, I will never would 1:35:19.160 --> 1:35:20.400 never get that magic again. 1:35:20.520 --> 1:35:22.920 You got you got the good ship, trust me. Okay, 1:35:22.960 --> 1:35:25.599 I'll give you one thing that happened when I left 1:35:25.840 --> 1:35:30.000 the loft. You know, after my parents fucked, we did 1:35:30.000 --> 1:35:34.439 an improv all the way down the stairs, all the 1:35:34.439 --> 1:35:37.040 way out in the street. So they said cup, but 1:35:37.160 --> 1:35:40.000 me and John we kept going, how could you do this? 1:35:41.680 --> 1:35:44.400 I'm trying to do my thing. I was like, man, what, Daddy, why? 1:35:44.720 --> 1:35:47.960 And we kept going, We kept going. All that was lost, 1:35:48.000 --> 1:35:49.800 but we were so in it. It was so much fun. 1:35:49.920 --> 1:35:52.680 Is with mom, Mom, Mom, this is why could you do? 1:35:52.760 --> 1:35:52.920 You know? 1:35:52.960 --> 1:35:55.439 We kept going back and forth and you know, so 1:35:55.520 --> 1:35:57.200 that kind of stuff was lost, but it just but 1:35:57.360 --> 1:36:00.439 we I don't you know, they didn't videotape it. They 1:36:00.439 --> 1:36:02.080 may have recorded it, but I don't think so. 1:36:02.240 --> 1:36:04.679 I just so in contrast with the halle Berry scenes, 1:36:04.720 --> 1:36:08.320 that was completely like off on book No. 1:36:08.880 --> 1:36:10.800 Because I'll tell you what, because because like I'll give 1:36:10.840 --> 1:36:13.639 you an example, when halle Berry go when Halle goes, 1:36:15.120 --> 1:36:17.479 that was me. That was then improv I did, but 1:36:17.520 --> 1:36:19.080 it didn't make sense that I would do that, you know, 1:36:19.120 --> 1:36:20.559 in the kind of the scene. So I gave that 1:36:20.600 --> 1:36:22.960 to her. But you just and that was in the moment. 1:36:23.080 --> 1:36:25.160 That was in the moment. So so they encourage that. 1:36:25.800 --> 1:36:28.720 And how did the shooting go on? 1:36:28.840 --> 1:36:41.040 Martin told me he just let me go. But me 1:36:41.120 --> 1:36:43.880 and Martin, I love Martin man. I met him like 1:36:44.720 --> 1:36:47.880 from way back, you know, and Martin was always Martin, 1:36:48.200 --> 1:36:50.080 like he told me from way back when this like 1:36:50.120 --> 1:36:55.040 white lady owned the clubs, like sit down, you can't 1:36:55.560 --> 1:37:00.479 do what you're doing. It's foul. You know, you can't 1:37:00.520 --> 1:37:03.720 be talking like that. Martin was always like, this is 1:37:03.760 --> 1:37:08.559 what I'm gonna do. Fuck it you. So yeah, yeah, 1:37:08.600 --> 1:37:13.080 So when Martin did his show, uh, he brought me on. 1:37:13.560 --> 1:37:17.320 And the only thing I remember, there's a guy named 1:37:17.360 --> 1:37:19.760 John Bowman who used to be on The Living Color. 1:37:19.840 --> 1:37:22.000 Then he went over and was working with Martin, and 1:37:22.160 --> 1:37:23.960 I just said, I want to play a preacher. I 1:37:24.000 --> 1:37:26.719 just want to play okay, because they they were saying, 1:37:26.880 --> 1:37:28.320 we want you to come on. Martin wants you to 1:37:28.320 --> 1:37:29.960 come on. What do you want to play? And I said, 1:37:30.640 --> 1:37:33.040 let me play a preacher. And from there it just 1:37:34.320 --> 1:37:36.040 and I did it a bunch of times. That's one 1:37:36.040 --> 1:37:39.080 of my favorite characters of yours, dude, and the way 1:37:39.400 --> 1:37:53.080 he scooped back to school. Don't let the death for you. 1:37:54.640 --> 1:37:55.120 He's here. 1:37:55.600 --> 1:37:58.559 It's a spare, even spar saying there. So that's why 1:37:58.560 --> 1:37:59.840 I spot get your buyer. 1:38:02.080 --> 1:38:03.320 Tell us about blank Man. 1:38:03.720 --> 1:38:11.800 Oh yeah, damon, here's here's a story before you start. 1:38:11.880 --> 1:38:14.760 When everybody was out watching Black Panthers when that came out, 1:38:14.840 --> 1:38:20.240 I was at home watching Blank Man, the only one 1:38:20.240 --> 1:38:22.599 because I saw Black Panther on the film. Going to England, 1:38:22.600 --> 1:38:26.000 I was like, I was crying. 1:38:25.880 --> 1:38:27.320 I want to jump the. 1:38:29.840 --> 1:38:32.360 Panthers. You still haven't seen I haven't seen it. 1:38:34.760 --> 1:38:36.720 Out of the club until you come. 1:38:36.920 --> 1:38:37.080 Wait. 1:38:37.800 --> 1:38:41.080 I'm not a Marvel person, so this is a real 1:38:41.160 --> 1:38:46.479 black nerve, like a Marvel person all clothed the orgy. 1:38:46.800 --> 1:38:54.200 I don't told shoes, you don't, man, Black Panthers is 1:38:54.360 --> 1:38:58.679 not true. I went to the movies with this girl 1:38:58.720 --> 1:39:01.360 and this is when the first weekend at Black Panther open. 1:39:01.760 --> 1:39:04.840 I saw this one brother. It was at the what 1:39:04.920 --> 1:39:08.160 was it at the arc Light. He had his young 1:39:08.160 --> 1:39:11.080 but it was too small and he was waiting around 1:39:11.080 --> 1:39:12.840 and he got stood up and they were like, sir, 1:39:12.960 --> 1:39:16.320 the movie starting, and he was like I didn't want 1:39:16.320 --> 1:39:17.880 to be that dude. So I was like, I'm gonna 1:39:17.880 --> 1:39:20.640 wait until people stopped dressing up and I can just 1:39:20.680 --> 1:39:21.120 go see. 1:39:21.120 --> 1:39:24.760 It was turned up. Everybody tell you something the wrong 1:39:24.800 --> 1:39:26.599 Black Panthers. A lot of you know, Callie Didy get 1:39:26.600 --> 1:39:28.040 it wrong. It was a lot of leather jackets. 1:39:28.479 --> 1:39:32.080 Well we try, we try, but no Black Panther was beautiful. Man. 1:39:32.120 --> 1:39:32.880 I love this ship. 1:39:33.479 --> 1:39:38.240 Eventually, yeah, what was that? Like? 1:39:38.400 --> 1:39:40.439 You and Damon Damian told me he was doing this 1:39:40.479 --> 1:39:42.240 thing you know again. We were on the Living Color 1:39:42.800 --> 1:39:46.080 and uh, he said, you know, I want you to 1:39:46.120 --> 1:39:50.480 do this. I said, cool, man, let's do it. Robin Gibbons, 1:39:51.560 --> 1:39:54.160 I don't think I had met her. Everybody heard about her, 1:39:54.200 --> 1:39:56.200 you know, she was just that girl. 1:39:56.680 --> 1:40:00.280 You didn't meet her on the they didn't do it. Yeah, 1:40:00.280 --> 1:40:02.680 I don't think they had anything to No. 1:40:02.720 --> 1:40:06.479 I met her. I met at the party. I met her. 1:40:06.560 --> 1:40:08.800 I met her. I mean we I knew her as 1:40:09.000 --> 1:40:12.519 a friend, you know, like that, and loved her. She's cool. 1:40:13.400 --> 1:40:14.880 We just did it. I mean it was great. It 1:40:14.920 --> 1:40:18.559 was a beautiful thing. And uh but I you know, 1:40:18.760 --> 1:40:21.640 when we were doing Black Man, like, I don't know 1:40:21.680 --> 1:40:25.280 if meteor Man came out first, but I know they're 1:40:25.360 --> 1:40:28.000 kind of competing. But you know, back then there were 1:40:28.040 --> 1:40:31.280 two things. There are a couple uh scenarios for black 1:40:31.320 --> 1:40:34.320 comedians reformers. Wouldn't it be great if there were a 1:40:34.360 --> 1:40:40.880 black superhero? Every black comedian talked about the possibility of 1:40:40.920 --> 1:40:43.880 a black president. That was in everybody's We all did, 1:40:43.960 --> 1:40:45.599 We all talked, we all had some riff on that, 1:40:46.120 --> 1:40:48.360 you know, those kinds of things, and to live and 1:40:48.439 --> 1:40:52.120 see all this shit, that's what makes it amazing. But 1:40:52.439 --> 1:40:54.759 I never got to meet Obama, but because I always 1:40:54.800 --> 1:40:57.240 wanted to meet him in the White House. But I 1:40:57.240 --> 1:40:58.960 didn't want to have to like donate money. I just 1:40:59.000 --> 1:41:01.960 wanted to be like no, I wanted it to be organic. 1:41:02.040 --> 1:41:08.200 I wanted it to be like David this Brock and Michelle, 1:41:08.280 --> 1:41:10.400 not like you to come to the house, you know, 1:41:10.479 --> 1:41:15.800 like that. I know you met. And then at the 1:41:15.920 --> 1:41:17.800 end when it was like they started throwing parties, it 1:41:17.880 --> 1:41:22.320 was like DJ Scribble, you know everybody. I was like, man, 1:41:22.840 --> 1:41:27.280 I'm good, I'm good. I met Michelle. I'll meet him eventually. 1:41:27.320 --> 1:41:29.240 But I did want to meet him while he was 1:41:29.240 --> 1:41:29.839 in office. 1:41:30.400 --> 1:41:35.240 You know, trust me, he's still president. 1:41:40.280 --> 1:41:43.120 Would you ever do it? Or have you done a special? 1:41:43.680 --> 1:41:44.320 Yeah? I did one. 1:41:44.439 --> 1:41:48.720 I did a stand up special while ago. Would I 1:41:48.760 --> 1:41:49.639 do another one? 1:41:50.600 --> 1:41:51.880 It's a Netflix world, so. 1:41:52.120 --> 1:41:56.120 It's beyond that now. I mean, Jerrod just directed a 1:41:56.200 --> 1:42:01.160 special where there's no laughter. I'm like that. No, he 1:42:01.280 --> 1:42:03.559 directed this white dude where there's no audience. 1:42:04.200 --> 1:42:07.640 It's just him talking to I don't understand what it was, 1:42:07.680 --> 1:42:09.160 but I saw his name and I saw what he 1:42:09.200 --> 1:42:09.760 directed it. 1:42:09.840 --> 1:42:15.479 Like I said, okay, now, y'all are given lectures, no audience, 1:42:16.080 --> 1:42:19.880 call me old school, but tell us about chocolate news, 1:42:20.040 --> 1:42:22.320 and like, well, chocolate news. 1:42:22.520 --> 1:42:22.760 You know. 1:42:22.840 --> 1:42:26.720 This was happening after the Chappelle Show. Everybody I heard 1:42:26.720 --> 1:42:29.200 everybody was pitching to Comedy Central. They wanted to be 1:42:29.240 --> 1:42:31.920 the next Chapelle. So I just looked at that, and 1:42:32.760 --> 1:42:37.479 from what I heard was all of the next Chapelle 1:42:37.479 --> 1:42:40.519 stuff was a trap. Nobody could be the next Dave Chappelle. 1:42:40.560 --> 1:42:44.519 So I avoided that. And then it was the like 1:42:44.560 --> 1:42:46.639 I wanted to do like the Black Daily Show kind 1:42:46.680 --> 1:42:50.120 of but in a sketch scenario, meaning everything was written. 1:42:50.600 --> 1:42:53.880 It wasn't based on real news. It was all fake. 1:42:54.600 --> 1:42:56.960 So I just you went in there and I talked 1:42:57.000 --> 1:43:01.439 to them and used the template of real sports, because 1:43:01.479 --> 1:43:04.200 if you mentioned Chappelle, they'd be like, now we've done that. 1:43:04.280 --> 1:43:06.439 It's always failed. Oh I want to do the Daily 1:43:06.479 --> 1:43:08.800 As soon as you say the Daily Show, that's John 1:43:08.960 --> 1:43:11.080 Stewart's territory. You got to go through him. No, we 1:43:11.120 --> 1:43:13.439 won't do that. So I purposely never said that, and 1:43:13.479 --> 1:43:16.360 they were like, wow, okay, so they bought it, and 1:43:17.600 --> 1:43:20.160 I was only on for one year or one season. 1:43:20.160 --> 1:43:25.920 It was ten episodes, but that's the purest me, unfiltered 1:43:26.640 --> 1:43:31.439 from my own hand written performed that you're gonna get. 1:43:31.680 --> 1:43:34.880 So I just I just did everything I wanted to do. 1:43:34.920 --> 1:43:39.400 I mean they gave me pretty much free rain. Probably 1:43:39.400 --> 1:43:42.400 the one idea we wanted to do a Kwanza special 1:43:42.880 --> 1:43:45.599 and they said no, and we wanted to do the 1:43:45.640 --> 1:43:51.800 origin story of Kwanza. But inclamation people, there's a whole 1:43:52.280 --> 1:43:57.559 we don't get it. So short of that, I did 1:43:57.600 --> 1:44:00.519 everything I wanted to do. Man, they just so that 1:44:00.640 --> 1:44:01.840 was cool, even if it was just. 1:44:01.840 --> 1:44:05.160 Yeah, I think a couple we have our homies, was it? 1:44:05.200 --> 1:44:10.200 I think he right? That was their first job? What 1:44:10.200 --> 1:44:11.639 were they then? Working with them? 1:44:11.760 --> 1:44:14.360 They were hungry, man. I mean I dug them because 1:44:14.360 --> 1:44:18.800 they were intelligent and just smart. I mean I was 1:44:18.800 --> 1:44:24.240 in there every day writing with the writers, and I 1:44:24.360 --> 1:44:28.160 just wanted people who were as excited as me to 1:44:28.320 --> 1:44:32.280 be there. I mean what I didn't want is you know, 1:44:32.400 --> 1:44:35.000 like as a musician, you know you want the people 1:44:35.000 --> 1:44:38.360 that have a passion for your project. Okay, there's a 1:44:38.520 --> 1:44:42.000 there's a lot of really great musicians are great artists. 1:44:42.000 --> 1:44:44.400 But you know, if you're not down with what I'm doing, 1:44:44.439 --> 1:44:46.479 that's good. But it's not gonna help me, you know 1:44:46.479 --> 1:44:47.840 what I mean. So so I was just trying to 1:44:47.840 --> 1:44:51.559 find people that were hungry and saw the vision and 1:44:51.600 --> 1:44:54.400 we did. We had fun, man. I remember we were 1:44:54.439 --> 1:44:56.280 talking about I just talked about the other day. I 1:44:56.320 --> 1:45:00.880 was talking to facts. So we were planning the inaugurate festivities. 1:45:00.880 --> 1:45:05.120 That Lunelle came in. I've been watching Binge watching My 1:45:05.560 --> 1:45:08.639 Super sixteen, you know, because that was really popular. So 1:45:08.680 --> 1:45:10.280 we just did the ghetto version. It was like she 1:45:10.400 --> 1:45:13.040 was the party planner for the It's going to be 1:45:13.080 --> 1:45:16.519 real class y. Barrock is gonna be carried in on 1:45:16.560 --> 1:45:20.719 the throne and Michelle will be his lady and waiting, 1:45:20.880 --> 1:45:23.120 and so he just plotted out like it's a super 1:45:23.120 --> 1:45:25.880 sweet sixteen. So it was funny. I mean, it was 1:45:26.080 --> 1:45:28.280 really fun. I mean it was fun to plan all 1:45:28.320 --> 1:45:31.320 that stuff. It was exhausting at the end. I was 1:45:31.400 --> 1:45:35.320 just woo the fuck out. But that the night that 1:45:35.400 --> 1:45:39.080 Barack Obama was elected, I went and I was to 1:45:39.240 --> 1:45:43.680 host the Democratic election party in Century City. So by 1:45:43.720 --> 1:45:45.759 the time I got there after working at the studio, 1:45:45.760 --> 1:45:49.760 it was like seven o'clock and the party was almost 1:45:50.240 --> 1:45:52.360 it was that capacity. Okay, the police were going to 1:45:52.400 --> 1:45:54.880 shut it down. So I go on stage and I'm 1:45:54.960 --> 1:45:59.160 watching as it's official. You know, it says like Barack 1:45:59.160 --> 1:46:02.240 Obama's a president. I remember standing there because I wanted 1:46:02.280 --> 1:46:06.719 to make sure, so I kept watching them. I kept watching, dude, 1:46:06.720 --> 1:46:10.719 the emotion that night. I remember this white lady fell 1:46:10.760 --> 1:46:13.599 out on the stage. Her dress just went over her head, 1:46:13.720 --> 1:46:18.280 just crying. This grown ass photographer who was on stage, 1:46:18.320 --> 1:46:23.200 he's just weeping, and I started crying. I start. You know, 1:46:23.240 --> 1:46:27.120 my grandmother was born in nineteen hundred, and I was like, 1:46:27.720 --> 1:46:30.479 oh my god, if my grandmother could see this, you know. 1:46:31.040 --> 1:46:34.679 And I remember as a kid listening to all these stories. 1:46:34.720 --> 1:46:38.360 I could tell you stories man. My aunt, my aunt 1:46:38.439 --> 1:46:42.240 ethel in Alabama. She was traveling to see her friend 1:46:42.280 --> 1:46:45.880 on the Trailway's bus and they didn't have enough seats 1:46:46.200 --> 1:46:48.720 for the white folks. And the bus driver she said, 1:46:48.760 --> 1:46:52.160 they're in the middle of the country. He said, look, nigga, 1:46:52.200 --> 1:46:54.400 you can either get off the bus or you get 1:46:54.479 --> 1:46:57.679 under the bus and ride with the baggage. And she said, 1:46:57.720 --> 1:46:59.760 you know, she had her best dress on, her hair 1:46:59.800 --> 1:47:01.760 was done because she was going to see her friend. 1:47:02.000 --> 1:47:04.479 She got under that bus and she had to ride 1:47:04.520 --> 1:47:07.280 the rest of the way under the bus with the baggage. 1:47:07.520 --> 1:47:09.719 And she said, when they got to where she was going, 1:47:09.800 --> 1:47:13.000 they left her there. And she said she because she 1:47:13.120 --> 1:47:15.599 had claust her phobia and she's banging. And she said, 1:47:16.320 --> 1:47:18.360 but you know, as a little child, when she told 1:47:18.439 --> 1:47:21.240 me this, we would laugh because she told it and laughed. 1:47:21.240 --> 1:47:23.640 She said, Oh, my hair was all messed up, I 1:47:23.720 --> 1:47:26.040 was all sweating, my dress was all made. We would laugh, 1:47:26.360 --> 1:47:28.160 and I would tell her. But as I grew older, 1:47:28.840 --> 1:47:31.800 and she would retell that story because I would make 1:47:31.800 --> 1:47:35.559 her and it was no longer funny. And and I 1:47:35.640 --> 1:47:39.840 realized all that I thought about, all that stuff, man, 1:47:40.200 --> 1:47:42.360 and this is where we're at. You know, this is this, 1:47:42.479 --> 1:47:45.400 This is what I'm witnessing. That's how big that moment was. 1:47:45.560 --> 1:47:48.479 That was for not just me, this is my point 1:47:48.520 --> 1:47:50.720 of view, but for everybody in this room. Man. 1:47:50.800 --> 1:47:55.840 Come on, and now I can't even yeah, but let. 1:47:55.760 --> 1:47:57.880 Me tell you something. Even when people to this day, 1:47:57.880 --> 1:48:00.760 when they go, you know, well, Barack didn't do enough 1:48:00.800 --> 1:48:02.960 for black people, I'm like, didn't do do you know 1:48:03.040 --> 1:48:05.800 what he was going through? They said everything, but call 1:48:05.920 --> 1:48:07.840 him a nigga every. 1:48:07.680 --> 1:48:13.640 Day, every day, every day they cock blocked everything he 1:48:13.720 --> 1:48:15.160 wanted to do, said. 1:48:15.000 --> 1:48:16.639 It loud and proud, we ain't supporting ship. 1:48:16.800 --> 1:48:20.639 Now you this is it. So I'm not for it. 1:48:20.720 --> 1:48:22.760 I don't want to hear I don't want to hear it, 1:48:23.240 --> 1:48:25.600 you know. And and you see what's happening anything but 1:48:25.680 --> 1:48:29.240 a nigga anything, I'm idiot. 1:48:29.320 --> 1:48:30.440 They got the opposite. 1:48:30.640 --> 1:48:34.479 Yeah, man, So I'm just you were talking politics. I 1:48:34.479 --> 1:48:37.840 don't know what's going to happen. I really don't. I 1:48:37.880 --> 1:48:38.439 want to know. 1:48:39.600 --> 1:48:44.160 Like, were you guys fine with the Carmichael Show just 1:48:44.439 --> 1:48:45.519 being three seasons? 1:48:45.720 --> 1:48:47.920 No, it was such a revolution to me. I thought 1:48:47.920 --> 1:48:51.360 it was just finding his but no, no, no, no, no. 1:48:51.120 --> 1:48:55.200 Listen. First of all, it wasn't even a season because 1:48:55.200 --> 1:48:57.680 you know, we came on around with Blackish. I think 1:48:57.760 --> 1:49:04.720 we did about thirty episode and they had done like 1:49:05.120 --> 1:49:08.720 sixty seventy because you know, they would pick the Carmichaels 1:49:08.800 --> 1:49:11.880 up for like six shows, ten shows, and you know 1:49:11.960 --> 1:49:14.200 when we got there, you know, after we were on 1:49:14.240 --> 1:49:16.880 the air and I'd sign the contract there, you know, 1:49:18.160 --> 1:49:22.519 Jeff Greenblat, Robert Bob Greenblat rather the head of NBC, 1:49:22.680 --> 1:49:24.400 was going, well, we want to do this, like a 1:49:24.400 --> 1:49:27.040 specialty show. I didn't know nothing about that. They didn't 1:49:27.080 --> 1:49:29.479 tell me when audition, we may only pick you up 1:49:29.520 --> 1:49:34.000 for six episodes, ten episodes. Have you locked down for 1:49:34.120 --> 1:49:36.599 five years because that's the contract, you know. I thought 1:49:36.600 --> 1:49:40.200 we were doing a regular show, you know, twenty episodes 1:49:40.200 --> 1:49:42.439 a season. We never got that. They only put us 1:49:42.479 --> 1:49:44.439 on in the summer. That's the summer dump. We were 1:49:44.479 --> 1:49:47.360 never on the fall schedule, you know. So, But the 1:49:48.040 --> 1:49:54.040 flip side is you trade that with Gerard got to 1:49:54.120 --> 1:49:57.240 do the show he wanted to do, so I would 1:49:57.360 --> 1:50:03.920 rather do thirty good episodes than seventy bullshit episode, so 1:50:04.680 --> 1:50:07.400 that is it. But no, we were never down with that. 1:50:07.479 --> 1:50:10.000 I was no. We always and I can speak for 1:50:10.080 --> 1:50:13.559 Gerard on this. We all wanted to be not the 1:50:13.600 --> 1:50:16.640 step child, but the child. You know. Put us on 1:50:16.760 --> 1:50:19.800 in the fall, give us a full order, you know. 1:50:19.880 --> 1:50:21.760 But were they too afraid to say that, we are 1:50:21.800 --> 1:50:24.160 afraid of the show, And now. 1:50:24.040 --> 1:50:26.200 They yes they were, because they were like, you know. 1:50:26.320 --> 1:50:29.240 On surface, they seemed like, hey, we supported, but you 1:50:29.280 --> 1:50:30.280 could not go. 1:50:30.160 --> 1:50:33.559 Back and read what the critics said. There's no other 1:50:33.680 --> 1:50:36.960 show at that at the network that was getting the criticism. 1:50:37.120 --> 1:50:39.519 The critics fucking loved us. No, they would say you're 1:50:39.520 --> 1:50:43.040 hard to program around. You know. That's you know, they 1:50:43.080 --> 1:50:49.040 always tell you you're unique. Well, you're an acquired taste. 1:50:49.080 --> 1:50:50.320 You know, you got all that bullshit. 1:50:50.439 --> 1:50:53.200 I was, man, I love that show. I really like 1:50:53.200 --> 1:50:57.320 like this the episode where the mom kills herself. I 1:50:57.360 --> 1:50:59.840 was gonna bring that one up, like that ship was. 1:51:00.040 --> 1:51:01.639 I mean, that's never been don't tell. 1:51:01.520 --> 1:51:03.879 You you should have been there. Man, black folks in the audience. 1:51:04.040 --> 1:51:05.679 I don't mean to cut you off, but we got 1:51:05.720 --> 1:51:07.439 to it like that part, and I was like telling 1:51:07.560 --> 1:51:10.360 your you know, my character, Yeah, your grandma wants to 1:51:10.400 --> 1:51:12.439 kill usself in the audience, don't do it. 1:51:17.200 --> 1:51:21.920 No, no, yeah, I was like we were like trying 1:51:22.000 --> 1:51:26.800 not to. Oh there's a good well not good time. 1:51:26.960 --> 1:51:30.360 These were Christian people first offp like in good times 1:51:30.360 --> 1:51:34.760 in the audience, like they would have those outbursts. 1:51:33.800 --> 1:51:38.000 Quest questions you know, Oh yeah they were they were 1:51:38.000 --> 1:51:40.320 they were like so wait. 1:51:40.040 --> 1:51:44.240 Then the Bill Cosby episode, Oh, because that was. 1:51:44.200 --> 1:51:46.679 I mean, not for nothing, that was it was brave. 1:51:46.840 --> 1:51:48.000 It was was on NBC. 1:51:48.320 --> 1:51:52.160 Yeah, but NBC gave you both. It was perfection to 1:51:52.200 --> 1:51:52.679 be honest. 1:51:52.960 --> 1:51:55.040 You know, a lot of times. It was an experiment, 1:51:55.240 --> 1:51:58.360 like when I say that, like we would read the stuff, 1:51:58.400 --> 1:52:00.400 but frankly, I didn't know how we we're going to 1:52:00.479 --> 1:52:03.600 do it until we actually did it like that. You know, 1:52:04.479 --> 1:52:07.320 you know this was from Grohid's mind. I don't. I 1:52:07.360 --> 1:52:09.640 didn't know, you know, how we're going to get out 1:52:09.680 --> 1:52:13.120 of this, you know, and people get it confused. I mean, 1:52:13.439 --> 1:52:16.080 you know, my character voted for Trump. I mean, and 1:52:16.640 --> 1:52:18.960 you know the whole thing about Bill Cosby and stuff. 1:52:19.040 --> 1:52:22.160 These are characters, not me, these characters. But how are 1:52:22.160 --> 1:52:23.400 we going to get out of it? You know that 1:52:23.520 --> 1:52:26.400 until that very last thing, you know, that last line 1:52:26.400 --> 1:52:28.559 when Dryid goes, it's shame what he did to those women. 1:52:29.080 --> 1:52:31.680 It was fun to play with that. But but what 1:52:31.760 --> 1:52:35.840 became exhausting is for white journalists, that's all they wanted 1:52:35.840 --> 1:52:38.439 to talk about, you know, because it's it's I call 1:52:38.479 --> 1:52:41.599 it the nigga lit litmus test. You know, Ques, what 1:52:41.600 --> 1:52:46.080 do you think about Kanye? I love all your app 1:52:46.520 --> 1:52:49.160 Can we talk about Kanye? You know? It's like you know, 1:52:49.240 --> 1:52:52.920 it's like okay, you know, yeah, well can I say 1:52:52.920 --> 1:52:56.479 that when when I found out that it's this is 1:52:56.520 --> 1:53:00.760 a person who didn't see black panther, go ahead, your card 1:53:00.800 --> 1:53:02.080 has been biscated. 1:53:02.400 --> 1:53:02.879 Revote. 1:53:04.280 --> 1:53:05.680 I want to say that when I found out that 1:53:05.720 --> 1:53:08.360 you were playing opposite Loretta Divine, I was like, I'm in, 1:53:08.960 --> 1:53:09.280 I'm in. 1:53:09.520 --> 1:53:12.000 That was just perfect casting, Like I wanted to. 1:53:12.760 --> 1:53:14.679 I wanted to see the way you tube played against 1:53:14.720 --> 1:53:18.479 each other, and you guys did not disappoint. Yeah. Yeah, 1:53:18.479 --> 1:53:20.439 like the comparents, you know, they were still getting it in. 1:53:20.640 --> 1:53:20.880 Yeah. 1:53:20.920 --> 1:53:24.120 Yeah. When I auditioned, you know, I met Gerard and Rel. 1:53:24.439 --> 1:53:27.400 I met Rell on like Twitter, and you know, we 1:53:27.560 --> 1:53:29.160 go back and forth to say, yea, I'm a big fan. 1:53:29.280 --> 1:53:31.479 I hope we get to work together. I'm like, yeah, cool, whatever. 1:53:32.000 --> 1:53:35.400 So then I saw Gerard and I was hosting this 1:53:37.439 --> 1:53:41.400 evening of stand up as part of the Montreal Comedy 1:53:41.439 --> 1:53:44.800 Festivals in twenty ten. I think, and if you've ever 1:53:44.840 --> 1:53:50.200 seen Gerard's comedy, well immediately he has an original voice. 1:53:50.400 --> 1:53:53.439 He's different from everybody else. So I always dug him 1:53:53.640 --> 1:53:57.519 as a comedian and so that that year, when I 1:53:57.600 --> 1:54:00.439 heard he was doing a show, I was like, do this. 1:54:00.640 --> 1:54:02.880 So I went in and I saw Loretta coming out 1:54:03.000 --> 1:54:05.040 of the building. I was like, Hey, what's up, Loretta, 1:54:05.040 --> 1:54:08.040 what's going on. We known each other for over thirty years, 1:54:08.120 --> 1:54:12.280 and she said, oh, they like you, David, everybody like him. 1:54:16.680 --> 1:54:17.200 Oh man. 1:54:17.200 --> 1:54:19.280 So I went in there and uh, it was just 1:54:19.400 --> 1:54:19.960 butter Man. 1:54:20.040 --> 1:54:22.640 You know, did you do any kind of outdoor like 1:54:22.760 --> 1:54:25.280 research or whatever, because me and Gerro grew up probably 1:54:25.280 --> 1:54:27.200 like thirty minute he grew up and say, I grew 1:54:27.280 --> 1:54:30.479 up in Greensborough And I'm telling you, man, your character, 1:54:30.560 --> 1:54:34.040 the way you played like, dude, that's like my uncle's. 1:54:34.400 --> 1:54:35.480 That was my family too. 1:54:35.560 --> 1:54:39.000 Though. The thing I loved about loved about the Carmichaels 1:54:39.360 --> 1:54:42.960 it was very much any real black family. Yeah, everybody 1:54:42.960 --> 1:54:45.120 got a hair. They say, like they could have been 1:54:45.160 --> 1:54:51.800 talking about the Canadian trade agreement. Everybody's gonna have they sit. 1:54:52.480 --> 1:54:54.000 Most of the people didn't read, they didn't know what 1:54:54.920 --> 1:54:57.920 informed they gonna say what they're gonna say. So yeah, 1:54:57.920 --> 1:55:00.040 I like that. I mean, I I really I I 1:55:00.120 --> 1:55:05.600 knew that character. I knew that black man. You understand. Uh, 1:55:05.800 --> 1:55:09.160 his kingdom was that barca lounger and that changer and 1:55:09.200 --> 1:55:11.640 that was about it. But he ruled it right there. 1:55:11.680 --> 1:55:15.960 So yeah, yeah, man, I really felt like also, I 1:55:16.000 --> 1:55:18.360 felt like I had earned the right to play it 1:55:18.400 --> 1:55:22.320 in terms of age and experience, and just I didn't 1:55:22.360 --> 1:55:24.440 really have to act. I mean I knew that. And 1:55:24.600 --> 1:55:28.560 the thing I loved about the Carmichaels is from comedy 1:55:28.560 --> 1:55:30.920 to Tears. I mean I feel like, out of all 1:55:30.960 --> 1:55:34.920 the rules I've done, that encompassed everything. I mean, I 1:55:35.000 --> 1:55:40.200 was able to go you know plan is emotionally. 1:55:40.440 --> 1:55:44.160 Yeah, the scene where the episode where he has to 1:55:44.200 --> 1:55:46.560 confess to the wife that he had a kid. 1:55:49.320 --> 1:55:53.160 Every scene, like with the Porno episode, would take you look, man, 1:55:53.240 --> 1:55:57.240 come on and go, oh, actually, David, I did find 1:55:57.280 --> 1:56:02.480 my parents porno stas okay, whatever. And then when he said, 1:56:02.640 --> 1:56:05.600 you know, with the kid, he said this happened in 1:56:05.600 --> 1:56:08.520 his family. So after that I just stopped questioning him. 1:56:08.640 --> 1:56:12.080 I mean, whatever the script was, Jara would be like, hey, man, 1:56:12.120 --> 1:56:14.320 I'm trying to tell you, and his parents, everybody his 1:56:14.400 --> 1:56:16.880 family would come and hang out and watch. 1:56:17.480 --> 1:56:17.760 Yeah. 1:56:17.800 --> 1:56:22.120 I really felt blessed. Man. I remember, I'll tell you 1:56:22.160 --> 1:56:26.640 a good story. So Tiffany, I saw the trailer for 1:56:27.400 --> 1:56:31.440 A Girl's Trip. I had not seen the movie, just 1:56:31.480 --> 1:56:34.080 saw the trailer in the theater and I came back 1:56:34.080 --> 1:56:35.880 and Tiffany was begging me at that but David, can 1:56:35.880 --> 1:56:38.080 I open for you? I was like, can you wait 1:56:38.840 --> 1:56:41.680 like a month, I'm gonna be opening for you. She 1:56:41.800 --> 1:56:44.560 was like, yeah, but I want to. I was like, Tiffany, 1:56:44.600 --> 1:56:48.360 do you realize what is about to happen? Well? 1:56:48.600 --> 1:56:49.000 I know. 1:56:49.280 --> 1:56:51.720 I was like, you have to listen to me and 1:56:51.800 --> 1:56:55.240 everything it was right there, man, please her shit blew 1:56:55.360 --> 1:56:58.520 all the fuck the way up. And it was again 1:56:59.440 --> 1:57:02.400 she was I mean all the crazy stories that you 1:57:02.440 --> 1:57:05.320 hear her say. I heard that ship every day, and 1:57:05.360 --> 1:57:07.240 she has she has a cure for cancer. 1:57:08.200 --> 1:57:10.000 She has a cure. Tiffany had it has a cure 1:57:10.040 --> 1:57:13.760 for cancer. I'm not bullshitting you, man, Can you share? 1:57:13.920 --> 1:57:14.280 I don't. 1:57:14.440 --> 1:57:16.440 I went to at that point, I would just go 1:57:16.520 --> 1:57:21.560 to my dressing room. Why David disappear? I was like, Tiffany, 1:57:21.600 --> 1:57:22.280 I just gotta go. 1:57:22.640 --> 1:57:28.280 Now are you Are you allowed to talk about what 1:57:28.320 --> 1:57:30.960 your character on Little rail show is going to be? 1:57:31.160 --> 1:57:33.600 I'm not on a Little Rel's show. I'm on the 1:57:33.640 --> 1:57:38.880 Cool Kids, but somehow online they think I'm in his show, 1:57:39.000 --> 1:57:39.520 but I'm not. 1:57:40.080 --> 1:57:44.640 It is I did see some advertising. Everything was the movie. 1:57:45.960 --> 1:57:49.480 It is my show that I'm doing with Vicky Lawrence 1:57:49.520 --> 1:57:51.800 and Martin Mall and Vicky Lawrence. 1:57:51.560 --> 1:57:56.080 From and the last person who else is the fourth. 1:57:55.960 --> 1:57:59.640 Leslie Jordan's he's like a four Footje's the gayest man 1:57:59.680 --> 1:58:06.360 I've been in a senior citizen facility. But I saw 1:58:06.400 --> 1:58:10.760 this thing on Instagram where I don't I think someone 1:58:10.840 --> 1:58:13.000 had to put that together honestly, because it's not. 1:58:14.920 --> 1:58:15.440 Advertising. 1:58:15.960 --> 1:58:18.880 It's not And again just go to the comments. I'm in. 1:58:23.520 --> 1:58:26.120 I didn't have the heart because you know in the 1:58:26.200 --> 1:58:28.040 comments they don't they don't care. 1:58:28.400 --> 1:58:30.240 Accuracy doesn't No, they don't care. 1:58:30.440 --> 1:58:32.800 They were like going all I mean, you know the people, 1:58:32.800 --> 1:58:35.320 they got an alternate universe. Oh oh, I see what's 1:58:35.320 --> 1:58:37.160 going on. They're trying to keep it on the double 1:58:37.240 --> 1:58:39.879 down low. They make us a super surprise. 1:58:40.400 --> 1:58:40.600 You know. 1:58:41.000 --> 1:58:43.000 I didn't even get involved. But no, I saw it 1:58:43.120 --> 1:58:43.720 was looking. 1:58:43.480 --> 1:58:45.360 For like you syd bed and. 1:58:45.440 --> 1:58:49.800 No I'm Lawrence because I ain't seen Lauren. 1:58:51.840 --> 1:58:53.720 She's putting it down. But that's my show. I'm doing 1:58:53.720 --> 1:58:56.440 Cool Kids on Fox. Rail is on Fox. And as 1:58:56.480 --> 1:58:59.360 matter of fact, we're right next door to each other. 1:58:59.360 --> 1:59:06.320 Our sounds age. Wait before I go, we got to 1:59:06.360 --> 1:59:09.560 talk music. Yes, I need to tell you we didn't 1:59:09.560 --> 1:59:14.600 even talk whiz we could talk about are we out 1:59:14.600 --> 1:59:19.640 of times? No, the Whiz was the one. The Whiz 1:59:19.760 --> 1:59:20.360 was the one man. 1:59:20.360 --> 1:59:22.040 Thank you for saying that. I just wanted to be fair. 1:59:22.160 --> 1:59:26.960 I mean again. Okay. When me and Reggie Kathy, we 1:59:26.960 --> 1:59:30.440 we drove with a bunch of friends across country to 1:59:30.480 --> 1:59:33.200 come to New York for the first time or during 1:59:33.240 --> 1:59:36.640 spring break, and we to go see some Broadway shows 1:59:36.920 --> 1:59:39.560 and we went to see The Whiz. We bought the 1:59:39.680 --> 1:59:43.640 second to the last row Majestic Theater six dollars tickets 1:59:43.920 --> 1:59:48.120 half price, and after the matinee, I went in with 1:59:48.160 --> 1:59:50.600 my eight by ten to the stage door and I 1:59:50.680 --> 1:59:54.680 wanted to give him my picture. In the door goes, 1:59:55.000 --> 1:59:56.960 you want to what I said? I want to be 1:59:57.000 --> 1:59:59.960 on Broadway. He busted out laughing. So he got a 2:00:00.080 --> 2:00:01.640 the pia he said, a man, come up in here, 2:00:02.080 --> 2:00:05.840 please any any any cast They came up tell him 2:00:05.840 --> 2:00:08.600 what you just told me. And I was like, I'm 2:00:08.600 --> 2:00:11.640 gonna act. I'm from I'm from Michigan and here's my 2:00:12.080 --> 2:00:14.920 but I want to be bro the stop. They laughed 2:00:14.920 --> 2:00:17.600 in my face and I was like, can I leave it? 2:00:19.200 --> 2:00:23.640 The clown me so hard. Yeah, I know, but they 2:00:23.680 --> 2:00:27.120 clown me so I'm telling you so to do the Wiz. 2:00:27.320 --> 2:00:31.480 I mean, and I had done this crazy version of 2:00:31.520 --> 2:00:35.120 the Wiz. Des Mackanov directed it at the La Joya 2:00:35.200 --> 2:00:40.280 Playhouse and I was in it, Nikki James, Titus Uhus. 2:00:42.840 --> 2:00:44.960 First of all, you all don't even know Titus has 2:00:45.000 --> 2:00:50.760 the voice. So he did the lion and they raised 2:00:50.760 --> 2:00:55.640 the keys. I mean, he would do just crazy stuff. 2:00:55.720 --> 2:01:00.000 So he was in it, and Michael Benjamin Washing, Michael Washington, 2:01:00.240 --> 2:01:01.600 Michael Benjamin He's gonna kill me. 2:01:01.600 --> 2:01:02.120 But whatever. 2:01:02.520 --> 2:01:06.560 Anyway, so that never made it. That never made it 2:01:06.600 --> 2:01:11.960 to Broadway. I knew Kenny Leon and when it was announced, 2:01:12.080 --> 2:01:13.880 I texted Kenny. I said, hey, man, I want to 2:01:13.880 --> 2:01:15.360 do the Wiz. And I played the Whiz in this 2:01:15.440 --> 2:01:17.880 production of some point I was trying to make and 2:01:17.960 --> 2:01:19.760 Kenny kind of hit me back. He say like, man, 2:01:19.800 --> 2:01:21.560 I don't even know what I'm doing. I mean, let 2:01:21.560 --> 2:01:23.720 me just hit you when I you know, when I 2:01:23.760 --> 2:01:25.520 meet with the network and figure out what we're going 2:01:25.600 --> 2:01:29.480 to do. So I was performing at Carolines a few 2:01:29.840 --> 2:01:32.880 A couple weeks later, he came with his assistant. But 2:01:32.960 --> 2:01:35.280 I was pushing the Wiz because that's what I played 2:01:35.320 --> 2:01:37.960 before I figured, you know, from the movie, that's kind 2:01:37.960 --> 2:01:40.560 of like Richard Pryor did it, so maybe I could 2:01:40.600 --> 2:01:44.960 get in here. And he goes, so what other what 2:01:45.080 --> 2:01:46.360 charat do you want to play as the Wiz? And 2:01:46.360 --> 2:01:48.800 he goes, okay, anything else? I mean, would you do 2:01:48.840 --> 2:01:53.440 another part? And I'm like inside, I'm like, shit, yeah, sure, 2:01:53.480 --> 2:01:55.880 I just want to be a part of it. So 2:01:56.000 --> 2:01:58.280 he said, what about the Lion. I was like, oh fuck, 2:01:58.400 --> 2:02:04.760 I said, yeah, yeah, so from the un yeah, you know, 2:02:05.320 --> 2:02:08.400 you know, but but the Whiz was the stuff, so 2:02:08.680 --> 2:02:13.560 long story shark, we do this thing and Kenny all along. 2:02:14.080 --> 2:02:16.720 It was like the way he directs us, Now this 2:02:16.720 --> 2:02:23.600 is motherfuckers, y'all got one shut shut you fuck this up? 2:02:24.280 --> 2:02:26.840 You know. He kept going and kept going, and so 2:02:26.920 --> 2:02:29.480 I turned my phone off, and I can feel, like, 2:02:29.680 --> 2:02:31.440 you know, people online, black folks were like, you know, 2:02:31.440 --> 2:02:34.520 they better not fucked us up, and they got real hot. 2:02:34.560 --> 2:02:36.200 So I was like, damn, well, let me just do 2:02:36.240 --> 2:02:39.000 my litt lunch. So I went to my trailer. They 2:02:39.000 --> 2:02:42.120 gave these big ass busses. After it was all done, 2:02:43.560 --> 2:02:47.440 it was good. I mean, you guys got the best version. Okay, 2:02:47.480 --> 2:02:50.600 So I turned my phone on and I was not 2:02:50.680 --> 2:02:58.200 expecting the response. I got emails, I got texts, messages, letters, 2:02:58.280 --> 2:03:01.600 I mean, from people I hadn't heard from in twenty years. 2:03:01.920 --> 2:03:03.760 A lot of them would start, David, is this still 2:03:03.840 --> 2:03:08.800 your email? Black women? And they were saying, I'm sitting 2:03:08.920 --> 2:03:12.600 on my bed with my daughter, I'm watching with my 2:03:12.760 --> 2:03:16.600 nieces and nephews. I'm crying, I'm dancing. It was just 2:03:17.120 --> 2:03:20.360 such a flood of love because I was like, I'm 2:03:20.400 --> 2:03:23.280 sure we're gonna get some bullshit. So no, it was. 2:03:23.440 --> 2:03:27.800 The response was so great, was so amazing that that's 2:03:27.800 --> 2:03:30.000 what was humbling about it. It was really great. It 2:03:30.040 --> 2:03:33.760 was such a great experience man, to be involved in that. 2:03:33.880 --> 2:03:34.560 I brought it back. 2:03:35.200 --> 2:03:37.880 That should always be a part of a black child's life. 2:03:38.160 --> 2:03:39.400 You should always know about the way. 2:03:39.480 --> 2:03:40.720 It was such a joy to watch that. 2:03:41.080 --> 2:03:42.000 I'll tell you real quick. 2:03:42.040 --> 2:03:42.400 You don't know. 2:03:43.280 --> 2:03:47.920 No, he didn't, man, you counterfit man stops. My daughter's ten. 2:03:49.320 --> 2:03:53.240 She was about seven and her mom showed her the 2:03:53.320 --> 2:03:54.080 movie first. 2:03:54.760 --> 2:03:56.200 Oh, she was scared. 2:03:56.960 --> 2:03:59.600 No, when I came, When Lulu came to visit me, 2:04:00.200 --> 2:04:02.360 I showed her The Wizard of Oz. So she was 2:04:02.400 --> 2:04:05.800 about five then, and she kept looking at it. She 2:04:05.840 --> 2:04:08.480 saw like seven times in one weekend because for me, 2:04:08.960 --> 2:04:10.640 we only got to see it once a year. So 2:04:10.720 --> 2:04:12.560 I had the DVD. I was like, you can watch 2:04:12.560 --> 2:04:14.720 this shit all day. So she would get up watching 2:04:14.800 --> 2:04:18.040 She's going, Daddy. I think they they took this from 2:04:18.040 --> 2:04:21.440 Michael Jackson's movie. I said, you think so, yeah, because 2:04:21.440 --> 2:04:23.280 you know kids at that age whatever they see first. 2:04:23.440 --> 2:04:25.160 When it came to I said, but you know this 2:04:25.320 --> 2:04:29.240 is an older movie, and she goes, Michael Jackson did 2:04:29.280 --> 2:04:32.160 this movie because it's real similar, don't you think? And 2:04:32.200 --> 2:04:36.160 I was like, she was like going, I said, which 2:04:36.160 --> 2:04:37.640 one do you like? She goes, I think I like 2:04:37.720 --> 2:04:40.920 the Michael Jackson one better. Yea. So it was so 2:04:41.000 --> 2:04:42.880 it was fun. It was fun. But people didn't know 2:04:42.920 --> 2:04:46.360 that we did the Broadway version. We never had the 2:04:46.440 --> 2:04:49.680 rights to the film because that was a whole different thing. 2:04:49.760 --> 2:04:52.920 That was a whole different money. And it was beautiful. Man, 2:04:52.920 --> 2:04:55.120 it was a beautiful experience. It was really fun. I've 2:04:55.120 --> 2:04:58.400 never done anything where you do one performance, you know, 2:04:58.440 --> 2:05:02.240 we rehearsed for two months. Man, Yeah, man, you did 2:05:02.280 --> 2:05:07.000 it again. But that lion outfit, the lion outfit, it was, 2:05:07.080 --> 2:05:10.440 oh my god, this thing when we started, we did 2:05:10.480 --> 2:05:14.760 our text the dancers like there's there's water on the stage, 2:05:15.720 --> 2:05:17.600 you know, this at the very end, and this after 2:05:19.080 --> 2:05:22.400 what's the Eviline comes in and it's you know, everybody rejoiced. 2:05:22.840 --> 2:05:24.640 And finally I put my hand up. I said, that's 2:05:24.720 --> 2:05:27.120 me sweating, and everybody said, oh, David, he's so crazy 2:05:27.400 --> 2:05:31.240 that lion outfit. Because it was TV, it had no ventilation. 2:05:31.760 --> 2:05:34.520 So by the time I got to that point, all 2:05:34.640 --> 2:05:37.640 the water, my sweat was puddled in my hands, in 2:05:37.720 --> 2:05:40.280 my feet, and it just started dripping out and it 2:05:40.320 --> 2:05:45.840 would be on the stage and they were slipping, slip. Yeah, 2:05:45.880 --> 2:05:49.360 it was It was wild. We survived. We survived one wow. 2:05:50.320 --> 2:05:53.440 But wait quick, can I give you okay? Now, these 2:05:53.440 --> 2:05:57.440 are the greatest concerts I went to. In nineteen seventy two, 2:05:58.120 --> 2:06:01.600 I saw the Rolling Stones in Kobo Hall in Detroit. 2:06:02.240 --> 2:06:06.160 The opening act was Stevie Wonder Now seventy two. This 2:06:06.200 --> 2:06:10.160 is intervision. This is when Stevie had changed his background. 2:06:10.240 --> 2:06:14.040 Singers were Martha and the Vandellas. Oh wow, so dude, 2:06:14.360 --> 2:06:19.240 they rocked the house. The Stones come on, they played, 2:06:19.480 --> 2:06:24.040 and then they brought the entire Motown band Stevie Wonder, 2:06:24.200 --> 2:06:27.520 Martha and the Vandel's and they all did Uptight. Yeah, 2:06:27.560 --> 2:06:29.800 they did Uptight and something else. I can't get no 2:06:29.840 --> 2:06:34.920 st it was just that was probably probably one of 2:06:34.920 --> 2:06:37.800 the greatest conscience. Of course, I saw the Motown Review 2:06:37.960 --> 2:06:41.360 as a kid, and back in the day, you go 2:06:41.800 --> 2:06:43.920 they had an early show where they'd showed a movie, 2:06:44.800 --> 2:06:47.160 then the band would be behind the screen and they 2:06:47.200 --> 2:06:49.280 pulled the screen up and then you did a Motown review. 2:06:49.360 --> 2:06:50.520 So I remember that. 2:06:50.640 --> 2:06:53.320 We were they Okay, I'm glad you you. I went 2:06:53.360 --> 2:06:55.080 thisess did this because I always wanted to know, because 2:06:55.200 --> 2:06:57.480 they would do at the Apollo, like five of those 2:06:57.480 --> 2:06:59.960 a day, and people tell me, like, you know, you 2:07:00.120 --> 2:07:02.760 go there, what did? They would show a cartoon first, 2:07:02.760 --> 2:07:04.080 then a movie, then a comedian. 2:07:04.240 --> 2:07:06.960 Then well, as I remember, they showed the movie and 2:07:07.000 --> 2:07:10.000 this was early because we were kids and it was wintertime. 2:07:10.120 --> 2:07:15.600 So we went and Willie Tyler and Lester were there. 2:07:16.000 --> 2:07:16.800 Oh wow. 2:07:17.240 --> 2:07:20.400 And then they had what was the name of this 2:07:20.440 --> 2:07:24.440 group it was, you know they did it was all 2:07:24.480 --> 2:07:30.360 white group and they did Cloud nine, Rare Earth, Rare Earth. 2:07:31.200 --> 2:07:33.320 Willie Tyrann and Lester were really big. But you know, 2:07:33.360 --> 2:07:36.480 Stevie Wonder played. The Supremes were gone by then, so 2:07:36.520 --> 2:07:41.840 this has gotta be sixty six. Okay, sixty probably nineteen 2:07:41.880 --> 2:07:44.960 sixty six, because after the riot everything was fucked up. 2:07:44.960 --> 2:07:46.640 So I'm pretty sure it's probably sixty six. 2:07:47.600 --> 2:07:49.520 Were you there in Detroit for those rights? 2:07:49.680 --> 2:07:52.440 Of course, as a matter of fact, the movie Detroit 2:07:52.480 --> 2:07:55.560 that's five blocks from my house. That's five blocks from 2:07:55.600 --> 2:07:58.680 my house, and so to watch that movie and that 2:07:59.000 --> 2:08:01.880 Algiers Motel, we used to drive bass there all the time. 2:08:03.280 --> 2:08:10.600 That movie. It's just no uh uh uh film. It 2:08:10.720 --> 2:08:14.440 was so big, it was so much bigger that city 2:08:14.720 --> 2:08:19.040 never recovered it never ever. Detroit never came back. It 2:08:19.160 --> 2:08:23.040 was so much bigger. It was funny. I talked to 2:08:23.640 --> 2:08:27.680 Eric Dyson about Detroit. He loved it. I didn't this because. 2:08:28.360 --> 2:08:31.640 Most black people Okay, I worked on the film scoring, 2:08:31.720 --> 2:08:35.880 but I most black people I know told me that 2:08:37.280 --> 2:08:41.200 it was hard for them to watch it because literally 2:08:41.200 --> 2:08:44.000 it was a snuff film. Yeah, and you know it 2:08:44.040 --> 2:08:46.360 was in twenty. 2:08:45.880 --> 2:08:48.840 Sixteen when we were watching actual stuff film. Yeah, fucking 2:08:48.880 --> 2:08:50.080 Twitter and Facebook. 2:08:50.560 --> 2:08:53.040 I'm just telling you, man, it was. It was much 2:08:53.200 --> 2:08:57.800 bigger than that movie. I mean, you know, the acting 2:08:57.880 --> 2:08:58.320 was awesome. 2:08:58.400 --> 2:09:03.000 I like she just wanted to tell one story, and 2:09:03.320 --> 2:09:05.839 you know the story of the dramatics really. 2:09:05.680 --> 2:09:10.320 Just yeah, yeah, I understand. There's a website that I 2:09:10.480 --> 2:09:16.560 found that someone put up, and this person researched as 2:09:16.600 --> 2:09:21.360 much as they could each fatality that happened during the riot, 2:09:21.600 --> 2:09:24.600 and so they try to do a background of the 2:09:24.640 --> 2:09:28.480 person and how they actually were killed. It's really creepy 2:09:28.560 --> 2:09:35.160 and spooky and weird. There is a film there. It's 2:09:35.280 --> 2:09:39.960 just also that's like the movie Ali, you know, living 2:09:40.040 --> 2:09:44.960 through Ali, the real person as a kid, to see 2:09:44.960 --> 2:09:48.000 it fictionalized. I was too close to that material. So 2:09:48.040 --> 2:09:50.879 that's what I'm saying. Be born and raised in Detroit, 2:09:51.120 --> 2:09:54.880 a few blocks from the im just too close to 2:09:55.000 --> 2:09:57.720 get some distance and really talk about it. 2:09:58.200 --> 2:10:01.000 But we're just starting to experience that now. And people 2:10:01.000 --> 2:10:11.760 said that, but like Biggie Movies and Tupac. 2:10:07.120 --> 2:10:09.960 Used to hang out at the at the set when 2:10:10.000 --> 2:10:13.880 we did in Living Color, I Wake Up Down was 2:10:14.680 --> 2:10:17.440 the living driver. Well, dig So the story was when 2:10:17.440 --> 2:10:19.880 I woke up, I see all these policemen. You know, 2:10:20.320 --> 2:10:23.120 I've been sleeping in my dressing room, like they got 2:10:23.120 --> 2:10:25.800 a fucking corral. These extras, man, they're all over the 2:10:25.840 --> 2:10:29.040 place and they were real policemen. So Tupac was there, 2:10:29.680 --> 2:10:34.800 and the story was he claimed that the limo driver 2:10:35.480 --> 2:10:38.840 had a gun. Now, the limo driver called the police. 2:10:38.880 --> 2:10:42.040 This is the story I heard, and they claimed Tupac 2:10:42.160 --> 2:10:44.880 had the gun. Gun, So they came and they took Tupac. 2:10:45.320 --> 2:10:49.320 But the next day they found a gun in the bushes. 2:10:49.520 --> 2:10:54.320 Like Tupac wasn't lying. Motherfucker had a gun. That was real. 2:10:54.400 --> 2:10:56.200 That was regular day. That was a regular day, a 2:10:56.280 --> 2:10:59.520 living color man. Tupac was little too. He was a 2:10:59.520 --> 2:11:04.680 little guy physically. All that voice, all that shit, man, 2:11:04.720 --> 2:11:08.040 it was deep man. Anyways, that's about it. I'll tell 2:11:08.040 --> 2:11:14.800 you one last music story. The craziest lineup. I saw Santana, 2:11:15.880 --> 2:11:20.240 Leonard Skinner, and Bobby Womack. It was all in the 2:11:20.280 --> 2:11:23.840 same bill. It was Bobby Womack first and it was 2:11:24.080 --> 2:11:28.120 Santana was headlining. Leonard Skinner came on second, and they 2:11:28.200 --> 2:11:30.680 gave us the finger and spit at the crowd, you know, 2:11:30.720 --> 2:11:33.240 because it was like people wasn't there to see them. 2:11:33.240 --> 2:11:35.840 And it was during Caravan Sarai. So this is after 2:11:35.880 --> 2:11:40.480 Santana had gotten knowledge, you know, Coltrane and all that stuff. 2:11:40.560 --> 2:11:43.600 But that, you know as a kid, because that's all 2:11:43.640 --> 2:11:46.320 we did is go to concerts. For me, that's I 2:11:46.400 --> 2:11:49.080 wasn't into sports. All we did is get high and 2:11:49.120 --> 2:11:50.200 go to concerts. 2:11:50.560 --> 2:11:57.080 Yes, do you miss that feeling now? Like? What? What? 2:11:57.520 --> 2:11:58.080 Well? I miss? 2:11:59.120 --> 2:12:02.520 That's still exciting. Maybe basketball is exciting. Like to see yeah, 2:12:02.680 --> 2:12:05.839 I mean someone genuine performing their craft. 2:12:05.920 --> 2:12:09.520 I would go see Moses Sumny Okay, yeah, he's a cat. 2:12:09.560 --> 2:12:11.880 I really like. I like him, but to get me 2:12:11.920 --> 2:12:14.440 out the house to see music. It's been a while. 2:12:14.720 --> 2:12:17.400 I went to see Charles Lloyd one time with my 2:12:17.520 --> 2:12:21.640 girlfriend here in LA and it was back in the 2:12:21.760 --> 2:12:23.680 nineties when he did you know, notes from Big sur 2:12:23.840 --> 2:12:29.320 and stuff. And he's playing and listen to me, man, 2:12:30.280 --> 2:12:34.480 it was so deep. It's like he levitated from the stage. 2:12:35.000 --> 2:12:38.400 He was hovering in space. He took me there, you know, 2:12:38.520 --> 2:12:42.240 and I'm sitting there going, oh my god, this is 2:12:42.560 --> 2:12:44.480 killing me. So I get in the car and I'm 2:12:44.560 --> 2:12:47.200 driving home and I asked my girlfriend call if I 2:12:47.240 --> 2:12:49.800 tell you something. We promised not to laugh. She goes, yeah, 2:12:49.800 --> 2:12:52.480 what what's up? Okay. I was listening to Charles Lloyd 2:12:53.200 --> 2:12:54.600 and all of a sudden, he just was floating in 2:12:54.680 --> 2:12:56.840 space right in front of me. It was like we 2:12:56.840 --> 2:12:58.919 weren't even in that I think it was the Catalena 2:12:58.920 --> 2:13:01.120 barn girl. We weren't even in that space. We were 2:13:01.160 --> 2:13:04.440 just in the universe. And she went, yeah, I saw 2:13:04.480 --> 2:13:09.720 that too, That's what I'm talking about. Man, take me out. 2:13:09.920 --> 2:13:13.680 It was like so amazing, Like, oh my god, yeah, 2:13:13.840 --> 2:13:19.160 I want to be taken away. Yeah, now it sounds crazy, 2:13:19.240 --> 2:13:21.640 I'm not. I'm just do you can somebody in the 2:13:23.440 --> 2:13:25.600 next question when you get in the zone, come on, 2:13:25.680 --> 2:13:26.960 now you're gonna back me up? 2:13:27.040 --> 2:13:30.720 Or no, there's some moment. I mean, you know, it's 2:13:30.800 --> 2:13:33.160 it's as far and few between, of course. I mean 2:13:33.160 --> 2:13:36.160 there's some rock shows. I mean, like I still when 2:13:36.200 --> 2:13:39.520 I see Radiohead, I'm still I still feel that way. 2:13:39.560 --> 2:13:41.560 But it's like you really got to widen your palate. 2:13:41.640 --> 2:13:45.720 But I mean just for the days were like it's weird, 2:13:45.800 --> 2:13:49.160 like watching blow like I have to play with Blao 2:13:49.360 --> 2:13:52.200 in order to get that joy. So sometimes I have 2:13:52.280 --> 2:13:54.120 an out of by experience when he has a good 2:13:54.240 --> 2:13:55.800 night and improvising. 2:13:55.880 --> 2:13:58.520 It's rare. This was that I feel over ten years ago. 2:13:58.800 --> 2:14:01.920 I mean, yeah, I had great experiences. I saw David 2:14:01.920 --> 2:14:06.840 Bowie the Ziggy Starters tour. That changed everything. I mean, 2:14:07.040 --> 2:14:10.240 I was like sixteen, I've never seen no shit like that. 2:14:10.840 --> 2:14:15.280 I was like, damn, you know, what the fuck is this? Prince? 2:14:16.760 --> 2:14:20.360 I met Prince, but I could it was too much. 2:14:20.680 --> 2:14:23.920 We actually in the studio where Prince, oh yeah, I 2:14:24.000 --> 2:14:27.760 forgot to note that we are literally and we finally, 2:14:27.840 --> 2:14:30.280 ladies and gentlemen, we made it to Studio three. 2:14:30.640 --> 2:14:33.160 As many times we tried, This is Studio three where 2:14:34.000 --> 2:14:37.800 most of nineteen ninety nine was created. Purple Rain, all 2:14:37.840 --> 2:14:40.640 the B sides of Purple Raine, around the World in Today, 2:14:40.880 --> 2:14:44.600 and the Parade album and parts of Sign at the time. 2:14:44.640 --> 2:14:46.240 All right, I'll tell you a quick Prince story then 2:14:46.560 --> 2:14:49.040 I'll shut up. But I went to I performed at 2:14:49.080 --> 2:14:51.840 the All Star Game when it was in Minneapolis, and 2:14:51.920 --> 2:14:54.920 I performed at the Avenue Avenue Club or the First 2:14:55.200 --> 2:14:58.680 Avenue Club, and I took the whole gig because I'm yeah, 2:14:58.720 --> 2:15:00.880 because they booked me to do comedy. But the only 2:15:00.920 --> 2:15:03.160 reason I went is to meet Prince. So I go 2:15:03.160 --> 2:15:04.880 all the way there and they said, well, Princes in here. 2:15:04.960 --> 2:15:08.360 But his road manager took me to Paisley Park, you know, 2:15:08.360 --> 2:15:09.960 And at that time, it's got to be ninety five 2:15:10.000 --> 2:15:13.320 or ninety six Paisley Park. That was farmland out there, 2:15:13.440 --> 2:15:15.640 like we drove out, but it was all there. You 2:15:15.640 --> 2:15:18.720 could have done in living color at Paisley Park. I mean, 2:15:18.840 --> 2:15:21.520 they took me all through it, everything, And so he 2:15:21.600 --> 2:15:23.680 told me this story. He said, well, Nero on tour. 2:15:24.680 --> 2:15:27.800 It was about three three in the morning. He gets 2:15:27.840 --> 2:15:30.640 a call from Prince and he picks up the phone 2:15:30.680 --> 2:15:34.520 and Princess motherfucker is motherfucker's call. I get motherfucker voices 2:15:34.560 --> 2:15:38.320 coming from the motherfucking walls. And he's like, Princess three said, motherfucker, 2:15:38.800 --> 2:15:42.680 I'm hearing motherfucking voices coming from the motherfucking walls. And 2:15:42.720 --> 2:15:45.680 so he goes to Prince's room, knocks on the door 2:15:45.680 --> 2:15:50.840 of Prince answers and he has white satin pajamas, perm tight, 2:15:51.880 --> 2:15:55.600 white satin do rag, full makeup, and white satin high 2:15:55.640 --> 2:15:59.360 heeled boots and he says, dude, what's going on? He said, motherfucker, 2:15:59.360 --> 2:16:01.680 I told you here, and motherfucking voices coming from the 2:16:01.720 --> 2:16:04.560 motherfucking walls. So they come in like Princy tripping, and 2:16:04.600 --> 2:16:07.840 they go in there and they hear this voice. So 2:16:07.880 --> 2:16:11.800 they called the hotel security. They come in, they do 2:16:11.840 --> 2:16:14.120 a whole sweep of the floor, and they find a 2:16:14.200 --> 2:16:18.800 crawl space behind his bed, and they go into crawl 2:16:18.840 --> 2:16:22.520 space and they find this girl in there with a flashlight. 2:16:22.600 --> 2:16:26.920 Listen to me with a flashlight and a bible who 2:16:26.920 --> 2:16:30.360 has been reading verses? And the dude said as they 2:16:30.400 --> 2:16:33.360 took the woman out the police. Prince said at his 2:16:33.480 --> 2:16:36.320 coffee table with his legs crossed like this went. I 2:16:36.360 --> 2:16:43.640 told y'all motherfucker's walls. But y'all motherfuckers didn't believe. I 2:16:43.800 --> 2:16:49.000 fell out left. It was just like that. 2:16:49.120 --> 2:16:56.480 I was like, wow, thank you, thank. 2:16:56.280 --> 2:16:59.520 You, We love we appreciate you so much everything. 2:17:00.200 --> 2:17:04.080 Yes, I know Dave Chappelle. He was I think he 2:17:04.160 --> 2:17:06.320 was eighteen when he middled for me the first time 2:17:06.320 --> 2:17:09.000 I met him in New York. Really kill it, Yeah, Caroline. 2:17:09.040 --> 2:17:11.039 People will come in and go great sat Day. Who 2:17:11.120 --> 2:17:14.080 is that kid that went on before you? It was amazing. 2:17:14.560 --> 2:17:19.080 It's like ghetto's Dave Man, get him to stop by. 2:17:19.920 --> 2:17:21.119 He won't sign the release. 2:17:24.480 --> 2:17:27.680 One for the records anyway. On behalf of a team 2:17:27.760 --> 2:17:31.960 Supreme uh Layah and f Tickeelo and Boston Bill and 2:17:32.000 --> 2:17:34.640 I'm paid Bill and Sugar Stef you cool Sugar Steve. 2:17:34.760 --> 2:17:39.279 Yeah, man, just after Sugar Network and continuing my work there. 2:17:39.200 --> 2:17:48.320 Is sweet see what I did sweet Ghost David very 2:17:48.400 --> 2:17:49.360 much for doing our show. 2:17:49.480 --> 2:17:51.840 Yeah, man, I love it. I can't wait to see 2:17:51.840 --> 2:17:56.360 you hi, because remember we met at the toy party. 2:17:56.520 --> 2:17:59.040 Damn Yes, your memories awesome. 2:17:59.080 --> 2:18:01.720 Your mom was right there. Yeah, yeah, you gave me, 2:18:01.760 --> 2:18:03.920 you gave me. What's up man? Moms was like, I'm 2:18:03.920 --> 2:18:05.400 a very big fan. She was eating. 2:18:05.920 --> 2:18:10.560 Yeah. He remembers everything. Yo. This ist Love Cours Love 2:18:10.600 --> 2:18:12.840 Supreme only on Pandora. We will see you on the 2:18:12.840 --> 2:18:14.240 next go round. Thank you. 2:18:23.480 --> 2:18:23.680 Couest. 2:18:23.760 --> 2:18:27.680 Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic episode 2:18:27.800 --> 2:18:35.039 was produced by the team at Pandora. For more podcasts 2:18:35.080 --> 2:18:38.680 from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 2:18:39.080 --> 2:18:40.800 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.