Speaker 1: What do you do when life doesn't go according to
Speaker 1: plan that moment you lose a job, or a loved one,
Speaker 1: or even a piece of yourself. I'm Brookshields and this
Speaker 1: is now What a podcast about pivotal moments as told
Speaker 1: by people who lived them. Each week, I sit down
Speaker 1: with a guest to talk about the times they were
Speaker 1: knocked off course and what they did to move forward.
Speaker 1: Some stories are funny, others are gut wrenching, but all
Speaker 1: are unapologetically human and remind us that every success and
Speaker 1: every setback is accompanied by a choice.
Speaker 2: And that choice answers one question. Now what.
Speaker 1: I'm loving your book flipping box cars? Now, can you
Speaker 1: tell the audience what that means?
Speaker 2: Because in my.
Speaker 1: World it was actually flipping box cars with your middle finger.
Speaker 2: That was something.
Speaker 1: My mom is from Newark, New Jersey, and that was
Speaker 1: what I thought it was.
Speaker 3: But you know, my grandfather was a dice roll of
Speaker 3: famous dice player. And again in the forties, dice players
Speaker 3: were like akin to the poker players that we know today.
Speaker 3: You know how we today poker players are famous and
Speaker 3: you know who they are. You can name different ones.
Speaker 3: And so my grandfather was one of those guys. And
Speaker 3: the box cars is two sixes and it's a rare thing.
Speaker 3: I think it's it paid something crazy like thirty to
Speaker 3: one or something like. It's a big it's a big
Speaker 3: payoff if you hit it and you call it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you call, we have got a call it
Speaker 2: that I do know.
Speaker 1: But then would you have to have other people hold
Speaker 1: them to make sure they're not weighted?
Speaker 3: This ramblers there like they will get somebody's cheating, right,
Speaker 3: because it's all about this this feel and this kind
Speaker 3: of you know, luck being with you and all this
Speaker 3: kind of idea that people in you know, believe that
Speaker 3: they had least power over the dice to make them
Speaker 3: do what they want them to do.
Speaker 2: My guest today is a game changer.
Speaker 1: Cedric Kyles, better known as Cedric the Entertainer. He's a comedian, actor,
Speaker 1: game show host, and much much more. He got a
Speaker 1: start and stand up then became a household name as
Speaker 1: one of the original kings of comedy and also for
Speaker 1: his work in blockbuster franchises like Barbershop and Madagascar. Since
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, he starred in CBS's The Neighborhood. But it's
Speaker 1: his latest venture as an author that has my attention.
Speaker 1: His new book, Flipping Boxcars was a thrill to read,
Speaker 1: and I loved talking to Cedric about the real life inspiration.
Speaker 2: Behind the story.
Speaker 1: He's someone I greatly admire and I can't wait for
Speaker 1: you to get to know him too.
Speaker 2: Here is Cedric the Entertainer.
Speaker 1: I'm loving the book. I just I want to know
Speaker 1: everybody that that's in it. Why did you decide to
Speaker 1: write this book about your grandfather?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 3: You know, it was interesting. It was this kind of thing.
Speaker 3: I grew up in a single parent household, so my mom,
Speaker 3: it was just me, my mom, and my little sister,
Speaker 3: and so you know the ideas of some of the
Speaker 3: behavior I have as a man. I was wondering where
Speaker 3: it came from. And you know, I've never met my grandfather.
Speaker 3: He had passed before I was born, but my mom
Speaker 3: would say I would just do certain things just like him.
Speaker 3: So it's like a DNA thing, right where the connected
Speaker 3: through someone through just osmosis, So if you will. And
Speaker 3: so the fact that I had these few little stories
Speaker 3: about him, and you know who he was as a person.
Speaker 1: How much of the book is real? I mean, is it?
Speaker 1: Did you have to really balance?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: It was?
Speaker 2: Was there anybody alive who knew him, Oh, for sure.
Speaker 3: Again, it was a few people that we spoke to
Speaker 3: that knew him as a friend. Of course. Then my
Speaker 3: my mom's brother, the older uncle, who kind of grew
Speaker 3: up and was a teenager being pulled in to some
Speaker 3: of his father shenanigans at the time. So my uncle
Speaker 3: had great stories and so he was the one that
Speaker 3: kind of told me a lot of these things that
Speaker 3: kind of set up the world, helped me really set
Speaker 3: up the world. And then we took the you know,
Speaker 3: the kind of creative liberty to tell this tale around
Speaker 3: these three four days around fourth of July in nineteen
Speaker 3: forty eight. So that's where the kind of fictional tale
Speaker 3: comes in. Some of the people and the relationships. I
Speaker 3: changed some names to protect certain people I have, you know,
Speaker 3: real relatives that they needed to be more of a hero,
Speaker 3: So I just changed them completely and like it made
Speaker 3: up like they will totally different personality.
Speaker 1: I can totally see this as a Broadway like a
Speaker 1: one man show. I love that it's so interesting because
Speaker 1: it takes place in the forties. Yes, so much of
Speaker 1: your style that I've known you as that era, I mean,
Speaker 1: just the you're the clothing. There's this dapper, wonderful were
Speaker 1: you What were you like as a little kid?
Speaker 2: Can you imagine?
Speaker 1: We were just like that little boy with the fedora
Speaker 1: and spats, and I could see you a little zuit suit,
Speaker 1: a little little boy in.
Speaker 2: A little suit suit.
Speaker 3: Hello, sir? Are you hello?
Speaker 2: How is it your funding your day today? No?
Speaker 3: How you sir? Yeah? Now I was a pretty dapper
Speaker 3: little kid, to be honest though. That was funny that,
Speaker 3: you know, because we lived in this little town that's
Speaker 3: in the book, Corrounsville, Missouri, until I was about, you know,
Speaker 3: maybe about ten years old before we moved to Saint Louis.
Speaker 3: And then but my mom was she went away to
Speaker 3: college and she was one of those people that, you know,
Speaker 3: before online clothing, basically knew how to order out of
Speaker 3: catalogs all around the world. Is so I was known
Speaker 3: to be a very sharp dresser as a kid. I
Speaker 3: can remember like my teachers complimenting me on my clothes,
Speaker 3: and kids thought we were rich because I would always
Speaker 3: have on these little nice outfits. But it was mainly
Speaker 3: because my mom, could, you know, knew how to kind
Speaker 3: of order and not get everything from the local store.
Speaker 3: And so she things delivered, and I would have these
Speaker 3: cool little outfits. Everybody loved the way that. Trust me
Speaker 3: and my sisters.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 1: My mother would buy only from thrift shops. And then
Speaker 1: my first day of third grade, she took me to
Speaker 1: the store and I she bought me gut shows nice.
Speaker 2: But I looked I looked like I was auditioning for newsies.
Speaker 1: Like it was so bad because I got into this
Speaker 1: school and all of a sudden, these kids are in
Speaker 1: ripped jeans and like rock and roll t shirts. And
Speaker 1: I was like extra extrae, you know, like this little,
Speaker 1: this little weirdo who did not help my social life,
Speaker 1: but to be dapper is amazing. So the book is
Speaker 1: touching in so many ways. In writing it, did you
Speaker 1: discover something about yourself even more in the similarities between
Speaker 1: you and your grandfather?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I think, you know, one of one of the
Speaker 3: key things I thought was really that I, you know,
Speaker 3: had fun of discovering, was this kind of I don't
Speaker 3: even know is a driving spirit, a renegating spirit to
Speaker 3: want to be more, to be different than the status quo, right,
Speaker 3: And I kind of always had that, you know. I
Speaker 3: remember my mother used to say I was always skimming
Speaker 3: up a dream. I was always trying to figure out
Speaker 3: how like I didn't you know, my mother was an educator,
Speaker 3: so going to school, going to college, that was all
Speaker 3: a part of our upbringing far as my sister and
Speaker 3: I was concerned. But who's a professor now? She teaches
Speaker 3: at Pepperdine. Like so, like casion was what everybody was
Speaker 3: doing except for me. I did not want him. I
Speaker 3: had this kind of you know, wild mustang, you know horse,
Speaker 3: you know where I just need to run free. And so,
Speaker 3: you know, I found my grandfather was a lot like
Speaker 3: that in discovering like his aspirations, his ideas. I say,
Speaker 3: he was one of the first people to have a
Speaker 3: food truck when you think about it, because he would
Speaker 3: make his meals and then take him out to the
Speaker 3: field workers and charge them, you know, like a quarter
Speaker 3: or nickel to eat and they would grab the sandwiches
Speaker 3: from him and drinks and that was his business. That
Speaker 3: was another little business he had. He just had his
Speaker 3: hands and a lot of little things. And so I
Speaker 3: kind of discovered like that spirit of wanting to be
Speaker 3: more of that spirit of like, you know, I just
Speaker 3: don't want to be a comedian. I want to be
Speaker 3: an actor. I don't want to be an actor. I
Speaker 3: want to write books. I don't want to just write books.
Speaker 3: I want to sing songs like I just all these
Speaker 3: things were like I believe kind of came from his spirit,
Speaker 3: if you will.
Speaker 1: I love thinking about where people are when they were
Speaker 1: younger and then where they are after a full career.
Speaker 1: And was there a formative moment or time in your
Speaker 1: life as a as a kid that sticks out to
Speaker 1: you when you think back.
Speaker 3: Yeah? Probably, you know, I think that once we moved
Speaker 3: from Corrusville to Saint Louis, if there was this idea
Speaker 3: that the world was so much bigger when you lived
Speaker 3: like in a small town, and you know, you can
Speaker 3: be a bit of a big fish in this small town,
Speaker 3: mainly mainly because I had cool clothes, right, But but
Speaker 3: I think that you know when you go We actually
Speaker 3: moved to Chicago first for a minute, and it was
Speaker 3: a little overwhelming for my mother, But as a kid,
Speaker 3: it was definitely something I saw, like, yo, I need
Speaker 3: to be in the big I need to be out here,
Speaker 3: I need I need this is me like And so
Speaker 3: once I got to Junior High Scho School in Saint Louis,
Speaker 3: you know. It was the It was this you know,
Speaker 3: this mixing in with the kids, these these urban kids,
Speaker 3: the idea that I can be funny around them, that
Speaker 3: I had a funny personality. It was the first time
Speaker 3: I used to go It was the first time I
Speaker 3: changed my name. I used to go by my family
Speaker 3: name is Tony, and so all my life I went
Speaker 3: by Tony. And when I got to Saint Louis, a
Speaker 3: teacher called my whole name, my name is Cedric Antonio Kyle's.
Speaker 3: And so when she said Cedric Antonio Kyle's, do you
Speaker 3: go buy anything else? I said no, and I go
Speaker 3: by Cedric. And from this point I just that was.
Speaker 3: That was moments where you decide, like I'm this guy,
Speaker 3: I'm not that guy.
Speaker 1: Did you do impressions like even as a kid, for like,
Speaker 1: were you that guy to your friends?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I could do like of course, like the teachers
Speaker 3: or versions of people, not like dead on impressions, Like
Speaker 3: I couldn't really like mimic folks, but I could do
Speaker 3: a version of someone you know that would be funny, uh,
Speaker 3: you know, or a teacher or a preacher or somebody
Speaker 3: like that, somebody that we all kind of identified with
Speaker 3: and so those are my things. But then we used
Speaker 3: to do the dozens or they called it jones joning
Speaker 3: in Saint Louis, they called it joning. So we would,
Speaker 3: you know, you go in the lunch room, you talk
Speaker 3: about somebody's outfit or or you know what they you know,
Speaker 3: like how they're they're not smart or whatever. You know,
Speaker 3: that was the whole move. And I was the king
Speaker 3: of the lunch room. So people used to just wait.
Speaker 3: All my friends be like, wait till say it show up.
Speaker 3: You don't want no, say it show up?
Speaker 2: And were you You were a theater kid too.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, I did theater, but mainly as a minor. Again,
Speaker 3: I never like kind of jumped into it as my
Speaker 3: main thing. Both in high school and in college. I
Speaker 3: minored in theater, but never really you know, I studied
Speaker 3: broadcasts and communications in in college and minored in theater.
Speaker 3: I mean, but I did plays and I was, you
Speaker 3: know constantly, you know, part of the the inter scene.
Speaker 1: But it's so interesting when you then you had a
Speaker 1: bunch of odd different jobs, I mean, very variety.
Speaker 2: Anyone stand out for and protect you worked for? What state?
Speaker 3: State farm? Was adjuster you.
Speaker 2: Know claims adjuster I like that Jake.
Speaker 3: From State Farm. Baby listen.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, yeah, I said, he'll adjusted, He'll adjust.
Speaker 3: It was at fault here.
Speaker 2: Oh that's a role too.
Speaker 1: When did you first really realize that comedy professionally was
Speaker 1: an option for you?
Speaker 3: You know, it was it was after I was working
Speaker 3: at State Farm, you know, and somebody entered me into
Speaker 3: a comedy competition and the first time I did it,
Speaker 3: I won five hundred dollars and that was it. That
Speaker 3: was like Willy the Hook because it was one of
Speaker 3: these things of knowing like it's money to be made,
Speaker 3: and it was a guy that I knew that was
Speaker 3: a professional comedian that would go and he would come
Speaker 3: and be like, yoh, I made fourteen hundred this week.
Speaker 3: I made eleven hundred that week. When I'm thinking, man,
Speaker 3: this dude is making more money doing that than I
Speaker 3: do with my job. And so, you know, once I
Speaker 3: kind of recognized, like it was lanes where people can
Speaker 3: go and they didn't have to be famous already. And
Speaker 3: he was just kind of explaining that he would travel
Speaker 3: around to do these comedy clubs all around the country.
Speaker 3: He had gotten a part of this circuit, and you know,
Speaker 3: once he explained it to me that that was actually
Speaker 3: a route. You know, I had to convince my mother
Speaker 3: that I didn't want to work in corporate America anymore.
Speaker 3: But but you know I sat on the path to
Speaker 3: do that too, like all right, I'm getting out of here.
Speaker 3: I want to be a stand up. So it took
Speaker 3: a couple of years. But you know I did it
Speaker 3: with strategy.
Speaker 1: Though, and not knowing the strategy. Was there anybody that
Speaker 1: was helping you or you're just learning on the.
Speaker 3: Job a little bit of both. Like again, like I said,
Speaker 3: I knew a comedian who knew how to do it.
Speaker 3: He had done it before, he was doing it as
Speaker 3: a professional. I was very popular in the city. It
Speaker 3: was all I saw an opportunity for in Saint Louis,
Speaker 3: where you know, going on the radio in the morning,
Speaker 3: calling in being a regular person, you can get like
Speaker 3: little Pops when you go on the radio and people
Speaker 3: will say, oh, man, I like when that dude calls in.
Speaker 3: Then I would do a comedy night and sell it out.
Speaker 3: And so you started to get a lot more confidence
Speaker 3: in yourself and believing. And then that that really became
Speaker 3: the choice right in there where you kind of hit
Speaker 3: that tipping point where you believe you can do this.
Speaker 3: And I was making enough money on the side, not
Speaker 3: like really replacing my job, but enough money to where
Speaker 3: I was like confident that I could pay my bills.
Speaker 1: So do you have any like video where you able
Speaker 1: to find any video of any of your of your
Speaker 1: stand ups that you can look back at?
Speaker 3: You know, I'm not really, I'm really I saw this
Speaker 3: special on Joan Rivers and really felt bad that I'm
Speaker 3: not as kind of archiveal as she is, you know,
Speaker 3: like Jones like had like every all her jokes and
Speaker 3: files and had everything kind of organized. And you know,
Speaker 3: I definitely have some great, great moments on stage that
Speaker 3: have been recorded that I have no idea where they are.
Speaker 1: I'm surprised they haven't surfaced, you know, because people find
Speaker 1: each other, especially in this age of digital. When you
Speaker 1: think about your stand up, how much of it for
Speaker 1: you is a character versus the real said, It's like.
Speaker 3: A it's very very close. Inmost stage, I really allow
Speaker 3: a lot of yourself to be exposed. And so now
Speaker 3: I'm actually more probably more cerebral, more business like in
Speaker 3: normal life than i am when I'm on stage, like
Speaker 3: where everything is kind of coming out as a joke,
Speaker 3: like I don't think in jokes, which is what people
Speaker 3: are quite surprised, like, I'm not a I'm not like
Speaker 3: a super jokey joke personally, Like when you see me,
Speaker 3: go like, oh, I know you're gonna say something funny,
Speaker 3: like I usually have to be an environment when you
Speaker 3: know where the energy is flowing, and then my natural
Speaker 3: personality will come out and I'll start saying a bunch
Speaker 3: of funny things like back to back. But I wouldn't.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't really sit up in conversation with someone and
Speaker 3: try to be the funniest person there. That's not like
Speaker 3: how I think.
Speaker 1: Do you think comedy has really dramatically changed since you started?
Speaker 3: Well, no, only the addition of you know, kind of
Speaker 3: the you know, viral comedy that's on YouTube or tiktoks,
Speaker 3: I think, which is great, you know, but I think,
Speaker 3: you know, from the days when it had to be
Speaker 3: stand up and you had to kind of construct a
Speaker 3: joke from the setup and then kind of delivering a
Speaker 3: great punchline while taking someone on a journey to get
Speaker 3: to get them to laugh at the end. But nowadays
Speaker 3: because people can like just shoot it, create a character
Speaker 3: do something right in front of you these I think
Speaker 3: that that's changed, you know, the expectations a lot of
Speaker 3: times when people come to comedy clubs.
Speaker 1: When I see a show like The Original Kings of Comedy,
Speaker 1: I see that as kind of quite a renaissance for
Speaker 1: the industry because you know, it was a it was
Speaker 1: a huge phenomenon. Also, there was a mainstream focus on
Speaker 1: non white audiences, and that was you were at the
Speaker 1: forefront of that, which was so for me, you know,
Speaker 1: because we're the same age and all of the people
Speaker 1: that shows that you loved are all the people that
Speaker 1: I loved. But when you see a show like your show,
Speaker 1: that there's a whole world that had not been fully
Speaker 1: fully accessible until then.
Speaker 3: I think that's what really made is so unique and great,
Speaker 3: you know. And for us, it was like, you know,
Speaker 3: in the early nineties, you know, like I said, I
Speaker 3: started in the eighties and eighties comedy was definitely different,
Speaker 3: Like it was all about white comedy clubs. You had
Speaker 3: to go in, you had to kind of, you know,
Speaker 3: fit your jokes into a certain kind of box. And
Speaker 3: then the nineties kind of brought about this kind of
Speaker 3: you know, African American, this black comedy scene where you're right,
Speaker 3: the audience just allowed you to do it in shorthand
Speaker 3: you didn't have to fix things for people. You didn't
Speaker 3: have to you know, try to like, you know, say
Speaker 3: it the correct way in order to get to the joke.
Speaker 3: People knew what you were talking about because of the
Speaker 3: overall common experience and so I think that that was
Speaker 3: really great. And then the Kings just came along and
Speaker 3: you know, kind of put it on steroids. And so
Speaker 3: it was just a really fun time to be a
Speaker 3: comedian and a big run and not just on stand
Speaker 3: up because we had shows, you know, you had Martin
Speaker 3: and the Steve Harvey Show and Wayne Brothers. They had
Speaker 3: a lot of sitcoms on. So it was a lot
Speaker 3: of room to be seen and to make money and
Speaker 3: be great and great notoriety and uh, that was a
Speaker 3: really interesting time in this in this city and in
Speaker 3: the world.
Speaker 1: And then immersion really, you know, do you think that
Speaker 1: that space kind of let you grow in a way
Speaker 1: that you hadn't before.
Speaker 3: Oh for sure, because now whilst people see you and
Speaker 3: kind of see what your abilities are and you can
Speaker 3: see what you can do. Now you're known for who
Speaker 3: you are, and now you have the ability to kind
Speaker 3: of cross over and do things in a more natural way,
Speaker 3: like you can just let people know like, yeah, you know,
Speaker 3: but I also went to college. I also worked in
Speaker 3: corporate America. So it's not all hood jokes, you know.
Speaker 3: I'm like, you know, every joke I have is not
Speaker 3: gonna be about the hood, Like I had a job,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 1: Like, so it's so amazing how quickly people are produced
Speaker 1: to you know, it's there's this.
Speaker 2: Ability to be more than one thing is such a shock.
Speaker 1: It's a shocker to people, especially in our industry. It's
Speaker 1: like I used to I fell in the I fell
Speaker 1: off a stool in the pilot of Suddenly Susan, And
Speaker 1: I kid you not.
Speaker 2: For the next four years.
Speaker 1: I was falling off of something all the time, and
Speaker 1: I kept saying, please give me more, Please give me
Speaker 1: smarter comedy. I don't always have to fall on my
Speaker 1: face because then it's not as funny.
Speaker 3: It's a good faller.
Speaker 2: Yeah boy, what did you think? Yo? She falls really well.
Speaker 1: But this show is called now What and it's about
Speaker 1: the pivotal moments. Does sound like you've had had very many,
Speaker 1: But if you had to pick one pivotal moment in
Speaker 1: your life, good or bad, where you were really thrown
Speaker 1: and you had to say, okay, now what do I do?
Speaker 2: What one would you choose?
Speaker 3: Man? You know, you know, it was one that I
Speaker 3: thought that, you know, I was kind of talking about
Speaker 3: this the other day, Like in the earlier early two
Speaker 3: thousands or so, I was having a good little movie run,
Speaker 3: and I was having fun doing movies, and of course
Speaker 3: Hollywood was a little tough on the budgets, so movies
Speaker 3: were being shot everywhere, right. I was going from Prague
Speaker 3: to Dublin to Vancouver, Toronto, and you know, it was fun,
Speaker 3: you know, because you get to see the world that way.
Speaker 3: But my kids were young and I could take them
Speaker 3: with me. And then it came a point where they
Speaker 3: had schedules and I started to book movies where I
Speaker 3: was going to be home, i mean, gone like three months,
Speaker 3: four months, and I just realized, like, that's just not that,
Speaker 3: you know, I didn't have a father in my house.
Speaker 3: I didn't want to become this rolling stone dude, and
Speaker 3: so I pivoted to television. And it was one of
Speaker 3: these things that was so hard for like, you know,
Speaker 3: everybody in my group. And this was when television wasn't sexy.
Speaker 3: It wasn't like, hey, get a TV show. A matter
Speaker 3: of fact, I was on TV Land at the time.
Speaker 3: It was like it was not like this, you know,
Speaker 3: in a way, this smart move to do, but it
Speaker 3: worked out. I feel really great that I was able
Speaker 3: to be a part of my kids life and be
Speaker 3: at home and have a schedule where I can go
Speaker 3: to work and come home and do that. And again,
Speaker 3: you kind of lose that shine or that trajectory where
Speaker 3: you're you know, you're this guy that's going to be
Speaker 3: a big you know, box office star or whatever, and
Speaker 3: kind of letting that be your goals. I think that
Speaker 3: was really something I felt like identify me as a
Speaker 3: human being, Like when I just chose to be quiet
Speaker 3: and bring it down and do the right thing for
Speaker 3: being a part of these kids' lives and so in
Speaker 3: my wife.
Speaker 1: And marriage and now you're a proud grandfather, right, Yes,
Speaker 1: that smile.
Speaker 2: You know you have to. It's a hard choice to make.
Speaker 1: But I do think that having that base those children
Speaker 1: knowing they can count on their dad, knowing that there's
Speaker 1: safety in that and consistency and love. I also believe
Speaker 1: gives longevity to a career because you're not going to
Speaker 1: stop working, You're just going to find different ways to
Speaker 1: stay creative, which you have done. I mean American Buffalo
Speaker 1: on Broadway. Yeah yeah, I mean really that is one.
Speaker 1: I'm so sad I didn't get to see you in it,
Speaker 1: because I love I loved I love that play.
Speaker 2: But that's no joke.
Speaker 3: It was no joke. Definitely my hardest thing I ever
Speaker 3: had to do as an actor. You know, I tell
Speaker 3: people that all the time, you know, like I would
Speaker 3: lean on my comedy ability, even the Drew dramatic roles,
Speaker 3: I would lean to my comedy. But to do American Buffalo,
Speaker 3: to do Broadway was the first time that I had
Speaker 3: to understand that Broadway is about the playwright and it's
Speaker 3: not about the actor. The actor is there as a
Speaker 3: vessel for the play.
Speaker 2: So so word perfect.
Speaker 3: Word perfect, right, And so you know, as a comedia,
Speaker 3: you know, you like, you know, if you get it
Speaker 3: stuck in the moment, you know, you used to being
Speaker 3: able to use your wits and just like kill it.
Speaker 3: And so I remember like just how hard that was
Speaker 3: for me to kind of you know, entertain like kind
Speaker 3: of understand like that was a real thing, and so,
Speaker 3: but you know, working with John Leguizamo on there and
Speaker 3: Hayley Jill Asma and John was a you know, a
Speaker 3: Broadway pro. He had done many of his plays and
Speaker 3: he just and he'd actually did the movie Honeymooners with me,
Speaker 3: so we knew each other and it just ended up
Speaker 3: being a great, you know, space for me to you know,
Speaker 3: like really kind of get off and learn about acting,
Speaker 3: like real acting. And it was probably one of my
Speaker 3: greatest experiences where I felt like I stretched and grew
Speaker 3: and became something different.
Speaker 1: And realized what you are really capable of, you know,
Speaker 1: which you just don't know and stretching as a as
Speaker 1: you have to be an athlete. I mean, you're doing
Speaker 1: eight a week and you have to be an athlete, yes,
Speaker 1: and then when something works one night and it doesn't
Speaker 1: work the next, and then you're just trying to milk
Speaker 1: that one one little laugh that's there, or that one whatever,
Speaker 1: and then I would come off stage and you just
Speaker 1: say to the stage manager, don't give me a note
Speaker 1: about that, because I know I was being greedy and
Speaker 1: I will not do it tomorrow. But is there a
Speaker 1: anything that you are most proud of?
Speaker 3: I mean, I think that I really just kind of
Speaker 3: love the fact that I've had this great career that
Speaker 3: that feels like it's always been kind of on an
Speaker 3: up with trajectory. I feel really proud that, you know,
Speaker 3: I've never had any like, you know, crazy, you know
Speaker 3: downfalls that you know that that came with me being
Speaker 3: in the news of being chased by the police in
Speaker 3: the middle of the night. You know, I think there
Speaker 3: was exciting for my true Hollywood story. I might just
Speaker 3: do one, just just just for my true Alleywood stories,
Speaker 3: like just pick a night where I'm just gonna go
Speaker 3: with a wild chase and let people like going a
Speaker 3: drunk victory.
Speaker 1: I used to say, I wonder if I can fake
Speaker 1: check myself into rehab because I would say, it's like
Speaker 1: I didn't have that, So I'm like, what can I
Speaker 1: do where it's really not a downfall, but then I
Speaker 1: at least get a reputation at least.
Speaker 3: To do a whole joke about it. I need it.
Speaker 3: In Hollywood, you need a scandal agent. Yes, you need
Speaker 3: to have your regular agent in and an agent that
Speaker 3: knows how to put you in a scandal so that
Speaker 3: you can become really popular.
Speaker 2: That was Cedric the entertainer.
Speaker 1: If you want to hear more from him, go pick
Speaker 1: up a copy of his new book, Flipping Box Cars,
Speaker 1: available online and at major retailers. I loved it, and
Speaker 1: I hope you do too. That's it for us today.
Speaker 2: Talk to you next week now.
Speaker 1: What with Broke Shields is a production of iHeartRadio. Our
Speaker 1: lead producer and wonderful showrunner is Julia Weaver. Additional research
Speaker 1: and editing by Darby Masters and Abu Zafar. Our executive
Speaker 1: producer is Christina Everett. The show is mixed by Baheed Fraser.