WEBVTT - QLS Celebrates Black History Month Part 2 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:03.080 Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:09.680 --> 0:00:11.799 Good People. What's Up is Questlove? 0:00:12.039 --> 0:00:15.400 And this is part two of qls's Black History Month celebration. 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:20.040 All right, this particular episode, we're focused on the media. 0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:24.520 We got pioneers and innovators from radio, television, and theater. 0:00:25.360 --> 0:00:29.320 Last season, we had two episodes that really touched on Black. 0:00:29.200 --> 0:00:31.320 History from a media perspective. 0:00:32.360 --> 0:00:36.040 In the first, you'll hear Erica Alexander speak about the 0:00:36.120 --> 0:00:40.680 Freedom Theater in my hometown of Philadelphia, where she spent 0:00:40.760 --> 0:00:44.920 time growing up, and I missed it so much. Shout 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:48.919 out to Dice Fral who's now one of the chair 0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:52.520 people at the Freedom Theater. All right, here's Erica Alexander. 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:55.520 What part of Philadelphia? Where are you from? 0:00:55.960 --> 0:00:57.240 Mound Area? Oh? 0:00:57.360 --> 0:00:57.600 Nice? 0:00:57.640 --> 0:00:59.760 He was nice part of town. 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:03.880 See, when you're from West Philly, I just think anything 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:06.319 that's north of City Hall is just n o RF 0:01:08.120 --> 0:01:11.720 North Philly, even if it's Mount Area. So what was 0:01:11.800 --> 0:01:15.440 your beginnings in the world of acting? Like, were you 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:19.040 a Freedom Theater kid? Or was this stuff in your school? 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:22.440 Did you not want to go to creative and performing arts. 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:25.160 Or well, you know, I think we had a conversation 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:26.800 in Mire and I know you've had plenty of them, 0:01:26.800 --> 0:01:31.160 But you went to school with my little sister Charlanda. Yes, 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:33.880 he's the one who went to the School of the 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:37.560 Artists that you did. But I was discovered when I 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:41.000 was fourteen in the basement theater called new Freedom Theater. 0:01:42.520 --> 0:01:45.520 The Freedom Theater closed. I talked to the council in 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:46.080 the other day. 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:47.560 We got to get that back. 0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:48.680 That theater is beautiful. 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:51.520 It's beautiful, but it's stuffed in the middle of Temple 0:01:51.640 --> 0:01:55.920 University and surrounded by I don't think people who understand 0:01:56.080 --> 0:01:56.760 what it's. 0:01:57.160 --> 0:01:59.720 Significant gentrification, what's going on with Howard University. I can 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:03.880 Roger that Roger that so discovered. 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:06.400 In the basement theater by a movie company, merch should 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:09.679 Ivory Film Independent Film came to Philadelphia. They were looking 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:13.720 for Little Girls Back and Brown to audition for this movie. 0:02:13.800 --> 0:02:21.240 And after nearly twelve to thirteen auditions. 0:02:20.440 --> 0:02:23.760 And for screen screen tests, screen. 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:25.799 Tests, yeah, I was the one they chose. When this 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:28.200 is both cleared, Wow, Okay. 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:30.080 What happened at Freedom Theater? 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:34.000 Like because that was one of the places where I 0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:37.480 wanted to go, but instead my parents put me in 0:02:37.520 --> 0:02:41.679 Settlement Music School and my sister went to Freedom Theater. 0:02:42.360 --> 0:02:43.720 Like it was like, Okay, we're going to have her 0:02:43.800 --> 0:02:47.040 act and he's going to do music. But we would 0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:49.520 only pick her up afterwards. But I never knew like 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:52.200 what happened in there, Like what was what would they 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:52.760 teach you there? 0:02:53.800 --> 0:02:59.520 Well, Johnny Allen Junior and his partner, they started it. 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:00.799 They started in the sixties. 0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:05.200 Sixties famously were starting to try to train black children 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:08.280 the way the Black Panthers did. That they knew that 0:03:08.360 --> 0:03:12.000 the schools that were primarily white weren't giving them any 0:03:12.040 --> 0:03:16.120 sense of themselves. And you had people like the Great 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:19.600 Meanness Simone talking about young gifted in Black so that 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:21.560 that's really what was going on. There was some sort 0:03:21.600 --> 0:03:26.960 of idea that if you infused a child with the 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:32.560 strong sense of themselves and you also gave them creative outlets, 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:37.800 got them in touch with their body, discipline, voice, sound, body, 0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:43.000 all of those things, performance, speech, communication, that you could 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:46.400 influence the rest of their life. And they proved their point, 0:03:46.720 --> 0:03:49.600 like a lot of the schools that were going around 0:03:49.600 --> 0:03:51.800 the country at the time and new Freedom Theaters of 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:53.200 that kind of tradition. 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:56.560 How old were you when you started Freedom Theater, Like 0:03:56.600 --> 0:03:58.600 at what age did you start? 0:03:58.640 --> 0:03:59.080 Fourteen? 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:03.480 I only went there for the sixth week program, and 0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:08.120 then I also did like two summers of a play 0:04:08.840 --> 0:04:14.000 called under Pressure, which was their residents production that they 0:04:14.000 --> 0:04:16.080 put on every year every summer. 0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:18.440 Is the Hope where I guess the goal of the 0:04:18.480 --> 0:04:22.440 school to draw people, notable people to see the kids 0:04:22.480 --> 0:04:25.479 and have them work with someone notable or or is 0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:27.279 it just like we teach you the craft of acting 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:29.360 and then you're out there in the world, like, are 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:32.080 they like this how you get an agent? 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:33.840 Or this is how you you know this? 0:04:34.080 --> 0:04:37.760 This this commercial casting directors come into our thing tonight, 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:41.120 Like is it any of those things involved? No? 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:43.159 Not. When I was going it might have changed. 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:48.400 It really was about self love, self reverence, power, black power, 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:51.680 young gifted in black, A sense of yourself inside of 0:04:51.680 --> 0:04:52.440 a white world. 0:04:52.600 --> 0:04:55.679 How can you move through it? How do you stand? 0:04:56.400 --> 0:05:00.760 Lifting your head, your skins, making the children go home 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:03.640 and get undressed and look at themselves in a mirror, 0:05:04.040 --> 0:05:07.640 all parts of themselves, the lower parts of themselves, having 0:05:07.720 --> 0:05:11.719 some kind of regard and respect for hygiene. The way 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:15.440 you spoke, the way you stepped up rammar, all of 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:18.080 those things. It was really more like a boot camp 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:20.680 for life for black kids. 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:25.400 Did you realize that immediately or is this like in hindsight, 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:29.320 like I hated going to Okay, I'm sorry. I did 0:05:29.320 --> 0:05:32.359 not hate going to Settlement music school, but I hated 0:05:32.400 --> 0:05:36.440 the homework assignments. However, I now realized, thank god, I 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:38.400 went to sell them in music school. That saved my life. 0:05:38.400 --> 0:05:40.760 But you realize that stuff like when you're way older. 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:44.520 Did you realize that at the time, or because even 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:48.960 when we were doing those types of exercises at performing 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:51.919 art school whatever, like we'd be in the back laughing, 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:55.640 like you know, they want us to learn Elizabethan and 0:05:56.600 --> 0:05:58.680 project with your voice, and you know. 0:05:59.200 --> 0:06:00.760 We're just like that. 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:03.560 Settlement wasn't as black as freedom in that way though, 0:06:03.680 --> 0:06:05.880 that's like a different experience, right right, that's true. 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:08.400 I think my sister went to Settlement to my baby's sister. 0:06:08.800 --> 0:06:10.080 How many siblings do you have. 0:06:10.120 --> 0:06:12.440 I'm one of six, and fourth there's too younger than me. 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:15.560 There's Charmanda, who you know, and then there's Mayesha, and 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:17.120 I think she went to Settlement. 0:06:17.680 --> 0:06:20.599 And all of you have dabbled in the arts. 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:26.680 Yes, in some way. Although my sister, he was a 0:06:26.720 --> 0:06:30.279 social worker, there in Philadelphia, and my brother's a Philly. 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:33.040 Copp Oh, so your family really stayed in Philadelphia? 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:35.720 They did, did we? 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:38.360 Both My parents were orphans, so we didn't necessarily have 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:42.840 a place to be. Wherever we were was where we 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:48.120 were at. But I think you were talking about did 0:06:48.120 --> 0:06:50.480 I recognize what it was doing? 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:50.719 Then? 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:54.279 Yes, they were very over. They kept it was like 0:06:54.320 --> 0:06:56.440 a boot camp. It was like an officer and a gentleman. 0:06:56.920 --> 0:07:00.159 They were going to make you understand the power of 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:03.800 being black and blackness, and more importantly, the power of 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:07.960 self love. And we needed that because at the time 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:11.200 I was going in there, the streets were a battleground. 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:18.000 It was crack incarceration, Young women were getting pregnant. It 0:07:18.040 --> 0:07:22.680 was really like some kind of weird pathology movie. And 0:07:23.200 --> 0:07:25.480 I think they couldn't be soft about it. They had 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:28.480 to be over. They didn't have the privilege to set 0:07:28.520 --> 0:07:29.840 back and not act like they were trying to do. 0:07:29.880 --> 0:07:32.600 They were trying to radicalize you, and I think that. 0:07:32.600 --> 0:07:33.920 It worked well. 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:36.200 When you said offers and a gentleman, I'm like, wait 0:07:36.240 --> 0:07:39.120 a minute. I remember Lewis Gossig making it. 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:43.160 Cry in the right in the rain. I'm like, wait 0:07:43.200 --> 0:07:43.760 a minute. 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:47.400 So yeah, a lot of people cried, but they were 0:07:47.440 --> 0:07:50.720 crying because it was like church. You got in there 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:56.920 and you had real awakenings and you reckoned with even 0:07:56.960 --> 0:07:58.840 though you might have thought a lot of people had 0:07:58.840 --> 0:08:03.480 to confide events and didn't have. I guess the fears 0:08:03.520 --> 0:08:05.880 that some children had, they all had that we weren't 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:09.120 allowed to be children. And there I think that they 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:12.680 knew they were different type of child and that they 0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:15.600 needed to break us down so we could be vulnerable, 0:08:16.240 --> 0:08:18.200 all right. Not me though, by the way, I'm a 0:08:18.200 --> 0:08:21.280 preacher's daughter. I came in already vulnerable. I was scared 0:08:21.280 --> 0:08:26.400 of Philadelphia and students and I wait, your dad was 0:08:26.440 --> 0:08:27.400 a pretty different student. 0:08:27.480 --> 0:08:30.280 Yeah, Church of God in Christ, baby, what's. 0:08:30.120 --> 0:08:35.360 All a kojak kojak? Sure? Where where was the church? 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:39.599 Well, my parents are coming out of New Mexico, Carlsbad, 0:08:39.760 --> 0:08:43.120 Las Cruses. They were Bible students. They traveled around in 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:45.559 the car, and that's why I spent the first eleven 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:48.080 years of my life in a hotel called Starlight off 0:08:48.080 --> 0:08:49.120 a Root sixty six. 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:52.280 Wow, that was where you lived? 0:08:52.720 --> 0:08:58.040 Yeah, all right, that was Erica Alexander h Part one. 0:08:58.400 --> 0:09:01.600 Next up, we're gonna hear from Wayne Brady. In part 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:04.800 two of his interview, Wayne told the story of him 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:09.600 getting down with Chappelle's show, but not after his feelings 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:13.559 were hurt and something that have shaped his journey. So 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:16.960 my version of the story was when I was a 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:19.400 staff member of the Chappelle Show. 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:22.800 Sorry, I mean sorry sounds yeah, I don't want to 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:23.440 hear here. 0:09:23.480 --> 0:09:24.280 What's your version is? 0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:27.439 Okay, So I'm a staff member of Chappelle, I wouldn't 0:09:27.480 --> 0:09:29.240 go on location with those guys. I did all the 0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:33.120 music for season two, and so the roots just happened 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:36.000 to be in La at the time when we were 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:40.880 shooting a lot of the La Chappelle things. And what 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:44.520 you have to understand is that most shows are like 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:45.840 planned week in events. 0:09:45.960 --> 0:09:47.480 They have a writing staff. 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:52.680 The genius of season two was the fact that Neil 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:56.880 Brennan and Dave Chappelle were pretty much just flying off 0:09:56.920 --> 0:10:00.199 the seat of their pants, knowing that on there is 0:10:00.280 --> 0:10:04.840 day night they had to turn in that tape the comedy. 0:10:05.040 --> 0:10:07.840 Really you're supposed to turn in like the Tuesday before, 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:11.040 like days before. I mean there would be times where 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:15.720 like maybe a half hour before the show's on the air, 0:10:15.800 --> 0:10:18.599 like the Sesame Street Q tip. 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:20.080 Thing, that snoop thing. 0:10:20.640 --> 0:10:23.720 I happen to know that they finished the edit maybe 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:28.360 a half hour before airtime. Yeah, before airtime, like Comedy 0:10:28.400 --> 0:10:32.120 Central has to like approve things were standings, like we 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:34.920 went down to the wire. So I do know that 0:10:35.960 --> 0:10:39.760 we had went out to the Four Seasons because we 0:10:39.800 --> 0:10:42.760 wanted to get our Sinio to do the whole cheese things. 0:10:42.920 --> 0:10:44.679 Why don't you tell me the cheese was good, good. 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:48.520 Right, that whole thing, and also got Anthony Anderson to 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:50.160 do the Ashy. 0:10:49.960 --> 0:10:52.400 Larry You remember the dream? 0:10:54.120 --> 0:10:58.680 Yeah, what I remember was we have met Anthony Aji 0:10:59.760 --> 0:11:04.520 and the hotel lobby, Anthony Jay the bar wash. He's 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:07.840 also the father Maya Rudolph's Fire and Bridesmaids and. 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:08.920 He's legendary comic. 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:16.480 We had spent so much time talking to him, and 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:20.080 our Senio was there like just comedian war stories from 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:21.880 the seventies or whatever. That I had to go so 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:25.520 I can go to the airport. So what Neil will 0:11:25.520 --> 0:11:28.640 tell me when I landed? He says, dude, we just 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:32.640 created a masterpiece. Like the way they were describing how 0:11:32.679 --> 0:11:36.360 the night was was like they had made Purple Rain 0:11:36.520 --> 0:11:40.160 and thriller at once, and I'm thinking, like, wait, from 0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:40.760 the whole. 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:42.760 From that sketch. 0:11:43.040 --> 0:11:45.560 He says, no, man, He's like, so when you were 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:48.760 leaving and checking out at the last minute, guess who 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:50.559 we saw in the lobby. I was like, who it's 0:11:50.600 --> 0:11:54.040 a dog. We saw Wayne Brady and I said, oh 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:57.960 my god, what happened? Because I instantly went back, Mooney, 0:11:58.240 --> 0:12:00.800 ipect this is going to be like even broccoli. 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:03.520 I said, well, went down? What went down? He said, nah, man, 0:12:03.760 --> 0:12:04.600 we shot something. 0:12:05.320 --> 0:12:08.360 And so I'm under the belief that it was off 0:12:08.400 --> 0:12:08.880 the cuff. 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:10.720 You just happened to be in the lobby. 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:12.959 You and Dave. 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:16.560 Had a meacopa kind of understanding moment thing, and then 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:17.640 it was like, so what are you doing? 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:18.720 Do you want to shoot something? 0:12:19.440 --> 0:12:21.800 And it was very off the cuff, and I was 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:24.720 not prepared for any of those things. 0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:26.640 Like oh no, no, no, no, no no. It was 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:27.760 so much different for you. 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:29.200 All Right, So what's your version of it? 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:32.080 Well, well, my version is, well, just going back to 0:12:32.160 --> 0:12:34.880 when the sketch aired, and I'll do it really really fast. 0:12:35.480 --> 0:12:37.640 And this isn't me complaining because I've said this before, 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:40.040 like on the Breakfast Club, and there's always an asshole 0:12:40.080 --> 0:12:42.280 in the comments like like, well, you shouldn't have the 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:44.559 reason that the sketch bothered me. And I'll just say 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:47.200 it in the nutshell. Jokes are jokes. I do comedy. 0:12:47.240 --> 0:12:49.640 Everything jokes. A joke's fine. I just happened to come 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:51.640 from a very, very particular place. And you can't tell 0:12:51.640 --> 0:12:55.120 me what I can and can't feel. I feel Paul Mooney. 0:12:55.160 --> 0:12:58.079 I worshiped at the shrine of Paul Mooney. I never 0:12:58.120 --> 0:13:01.000 said that Paul Mooney wasn't funny or home. Mooney was 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:03.760 in a genius and a writer. I love Paul Mooney. 0:13:03.800 --> 0:13:07.280 I love Dave. So imagine my shock. I'm sitting at home, 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:12.200 I'm getting my barber. Came over to my spot. He's 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:15.000 doing Da Da Da Da, and the Chappelle shows on. 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:18.959 I'm excited. I was like, okay, we can get through 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:21.520 the whole thing. And then and then boom, Negro was 0:13:22.400 --> 0:13:27.560 Wayne Brady looked like him. I went, oh, oh, okay. 0:13:27.840 --> 0:13:29.679 I didn't laugh at it, not because I was like, 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:32.840 I'm above being made fun of. If your joke is funny, 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:35.160 please make fun of me. That's what we do. But 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:37.920 to me, and now, because you saw me talk to 0:13:37.960 --> 0:13:43.400 my bullies. Oh, also Kendra and Nicole and Nicole come 0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:52.000 on now, it's Adams Jones, Johns Harris. Race has always 0:13:52.080 --> 0:13:54.640 been a subject that has played because what does it 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:57.560 mean to be black? You know, the kid that grew 0:13:57.640 --> 0:14:00.600 up watching certain things, doing certain things, like making certain 0:14:00.600 --> 0:14:03.319 things that have died, so those things form you. So 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:05.400 I've always had that in the back of my mind 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:07.480 as a as a thing. So when I see that, 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:10.320 I'm like, the joke isn't funny to me, It doesn't 0:14:10.360 --> 0:14:17.080 even scan because you're now making fun of Brian Gumbel, who, like, 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:20.160 say what you want to say. But Brian gumble this 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:23.240 incredibly successful man in his own right, doing this thing. 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:27.040 So now you're gonna use me to take down him 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:29.120 or him to meet And then that means that I'm 0:14:29.120 --> 0:14:30.920 not black enough? And so does that mean that one 0:14:30.920 --> 0:14:33.920 of my comedic heroes, Dave Chappelle, who I've rocked with 0:14:34.200 --> 0:14:37.080 since Robin Hood Men in tights and watching him at 0:14:37.120 --> 0:14:40.120 evenings at the Improv before he blew up, This dude 0:14:40.160 --> 0:14:42.280 really knows who I am. Oh, that's awesome, but nothing 0:14:42.280 --> 0:14:44.240 gonna shit on me. And Paul Mooney, who I love. 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:48.280 He doesn't think I'm black enough. That's really wow. That shakes, 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:51.000 which is why Wayne doesn't go out and talk to people, 0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:54.080 because I don't want to deal with that shit sometimes. 0:14:54.320 --> 0:14:56.600 So I was already in my feelings about it from 0:14:56.680 --> 0:14:58.720 a race place and just from a joke point. 0:14:58.920 --> 0:15:00.720 I didn't feel that it was a good joke. I 0:15:00.720 --> 0:15:03.920 thought it was too easy, so blah blah blah blah blah. 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:09.120 So fuck those guys immediately, and I'm like, I don't 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:11.360 give sex second and third chances. I am a I'm 0:15:11.400 --> 0:15:14.520 a very petty, angry person inside sometimes when it comes 0:15:14.560 --> 0:15:16.280 to certain things. So I was already like, well, I 0:15:16.280 --> 0:15:19.280 guess I can watch a Chappelle show. Click, I can't 0:15:19.400 --> 0:15:22.040 enjoy the genius that is Dave Chappelle. Fast forward to 0:15:22.160 --> 0:15:25.040 I forget what the show was. It was an award show. 0:15:25.040 --> 0:15:28.560 It might have been the Hoodies Steve Steve Harvey's Hoodies 0:15:28.840 --> 0:15:34.480 or something. But Donnelle was in the lobby bar. We 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:37.880 were in the bar. Donnelle was with somebody else, and 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:40.400 I recognize them immediately because I like the show. Oh 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:48.040 it's ashe laire, but you gonna drink my drink. He 0:15:48.160 --> 0:15:54.160 comes over so wonderful and gracious, Wayne, Hey, I'm Donelle. 0:15:53.960 --> 0:15:54.640 I play. 0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:59.680 Actually I know who you are. I've seen your little 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:03.840 play all right, just just through the energy. And he 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:06.400 was so sweet. He was waiting blah blah blah. I said, oh, yeah, 0:16:06.400 --> 0:16:10.520 that's great. I love the show up until that whack 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:12.400 ass joke by Paul Mooney. 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:13.600 Blah dah da da da. But thanks. 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:16.720 He goes, Oh my god, I mean we you know, 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:18.160 we have love for you. I was like, I was like, 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:21.120 to be honest, I don't know. And I have to 0:16:21.120 --> 0:16:24.680 preface it. I had been drinking. I had been drinking, 0:16:24.800 --> 0:16:27.480 so I was like, really, was that how you love me? 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:28.200 Black man? 0:16:28.600 --> 0:16:29.280 Is that really? 0:16:29.560 --> 0:16:32.760 And so just going about my day, cut to the 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:33.480 next day. 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:35.040 This is how fast the shit did happen. 0:16:35.080 --> 0:16:36.640 So I don't know the timeline that you're talking about 0:16:36.640 --> 0:16:38.560 in terms of when you came out to LA, but 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:39.320 it happened where well. 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:40.920 I was at the fourth season hotel, so. 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:43.840 Okay, so that might have been so so whenever I 0:16:43.920 --> 0:16:47.080 saw him. Then the next day I was doing my 0:16:47.160 --> 0:16:51.280 talk show. I get my assistant comes as I'm in 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:51.960 the writer's room. 0:16:52.360 --> 0:16:56.840 Wait, wait, got phone call, who take Chapelle? I was like, 0:16:57.600 --> 0:17:00.120 why no, you're lying Tay Shamelle. 0:17:00.480 --> 0:17:06.440 Okay, hello, hey man, it's Dave oh Man, just so 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:08.640 sweet as like, look, I didn't write that joke. 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:10.320 Mooney came up with it. 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:12.879 I really didn't like the shit either, but you know, 0:17:13.240 --> 0:17:15.800 I like the character and da da da, no offense 0:17:15.960 --> 0:17:18.199 was meant now the fact that and now we live 0:17:18.240 --> 0:17:20.119 in a day and age, no one's gonna backtrack on 0:17:20.160 --> 0:17:22.080 a joke for folks like I said what I said, 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:24.200 and I said it like like I said, Dave was 0:17:24.200 --> 0:17:27.159 one of my guy He's one of my heroes. So 0:17:27.480 --> 0:17:29.680 that itself, we could have just stopped it there. It 0:17:29.680 --> 0:17:32.960 couldn't have gone any furthers like thank you, and I 0:17:32.960 --> 0:17:36.240 mean you didn't. Thanks, It's fine, it's cool. He goes, Hey, 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:38.480 would you ever want to be on the show? Said, 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:41.280 are you kidding me? It would be a dream of it. Well, then, 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:44.359 what are you doing doing this weekend? Or if this 0:17:44.440 --> 0:17:46.960 was a Friday or something. So I flew out. I said, 0:17:47.840 --> 0:17:50.520 I'll come to New York immediately. Great, I'm gonna puts 0:17:50.520 --> 0:17:52.280 you in touch with Neil and you guys decide what 0:17:52.320 --> 0:17:53.720 we're gonna do, and we're gonna do something great with that. 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:55.000 Great. Thanks Dave. 0:17:55.160 --> 0:17:57.720 I was on cloud nine, so I immediately started thinking 0:17:57.720 --> 0:17:59.920 of ideas. And this is where it is so cool. 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:03.680 So I so I'm writing stuff on the plane. Neil 0:18:03.720 --> 0:18:05.400 had already worked out some stuff. So when I get 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:07.760 to New York, it all happens like this. I get 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:09.760 off the plane, we go to where you guys shot 0:18:09.760 --> 0:18:11.320 a think in Brooklyn or someplace whatever. 0:18:11.760 --> 0:18:13.160 We get up. As soon as soon as I. 0:18:13.080 --> 0:18:15.960 Get in, I go. Neil's waiting for me. He's like, so, 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:17.320 what do you want to do? Blah blah blah blah. 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:20.680 He goes, We've got this idea of like doing this 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:24.159 training day thing, because you know, like you do your 0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:26.520 talk show. Oh and at this time, this is when 0:18:26.600 --> 0:18:28.400 I was leaving my talk show because I found out 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:31.360 that because I told somebody off at Disney that they 0:18:31.400 --> 0:18:34.119 that they threatened me and said said, oh, you know, 0:18:34.160 --> 0:18:36.359 if you don't do this particular thing, we always can 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:37.639 find someone to do your show. And I said, oh, 0:18:37.640 --> 0:18:39.359 if you can find another Wayne Brady to do the 0:18:39.400 --> 0:18:41.120 Wayne Brady Show, please be my guest. 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:43.240 I come back in. Tony Danza's name is in the papers. 0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:45.720 But that's cool. I was like, great, I'm out. 0:18:45.520 --> 0:18:47.320 Of this bask the wrong goddamn question. 0:18:47.520 --> 0:18:51.120 I'm handling all the black people because they they they 0:18:51.160 --> 0:18:53.640 had a band, not a band, because they were gonna 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:55.919 say we never said that. Certain guests that I'd bring up, 0:18:55.960 --> 0:18:57.440 they'd go, oh, no, you can't do that, blah blah 0:18:57.440 --> 0:18:59.200 blah blah blah blah blah. So I was like, really, 0:18:59.320 --> 0:19:02.399 I had Missy Elliot bust the rhymes if you were black, 0:19:02.440 --> 0:19:04.720 and my favorite rapper. You were on that show you 0:19:04.840 --> 0:19:07.119 show at that time, so this was great. I was 0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:09.159 like yes. So in my mind, I was like, we 0:19:09.240 --> 0:19:12.080 need to do something that will burn burn the house down. 0:19:12.240 --> 0:19:15.359 Fuck it, let's go. So Neil's idea was the training 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:18.600 day thing, and I said, well, if we're doing training 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:22.160 day where I'm showing Dave through the neighborhood and doing shit, 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:24.439 then we really need to lean into the fact of 0:19:24.520 --> 0:19:26.879 when folks are like, oh, Wayne, I love you because 0:19:26.880 --> 0:19:29.080 I see your talk show where you're this you're everybody's 0:19:29.119 --> 0:19:31.359 favorite black guy. Blah bah blah blah. I said, I 0:19:31.440 --> 0:19:33.240 want to do a thing where a cop stops me. 0:19:33.600 --> 0:19:35.520 And he started singing my jingle and I wrote that 0:19:35.680 --> 0:19:37.760 and then I'm gonna go, but be behind him. 0:19:37.760 --> 0:19:40.040 And I'm gonna kill him and that'll freak. 0:19:43.080 --> 0:19:43.840 That'll rereak out. 0:19:43.920 --> 0:19:46.679 Dave and I want a microphone to come down and go, great, well, 0:19:46.760 --> 0:19:48.680 let's do that and then we'll do the other thing 0:19:48.760 --> 0:19:50.720 with an ATM and you'll get your money. So like, 0:19:50.720 --> 0:19:52.960 we'll follow the beats. I said, great, So we came 0:19:53.040 --> 0:19:55.320 up with it. So we had these two ideas and 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:58.960 mushed them together. We shot it all night. We wrapped 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:00.680 like six in the morning. I had to get back 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:03.440 on a plane to go back to shoot and then 0:20:03.960 --> 0:20:09.000 I get a call like Monday. He's like, dude, this 0:20:09.119 --> 0:20:12.000