Speaker 1: R and B Money.
Speaker 2: We are.
Speaker 1: Take Valanti. We are the authority on all R.
Speaker 3: And Blay in his tank Valentine and this is the
Speaker 3: Army Money podcast on all things R rent B.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get into some real entertainment. Jay Valentine hair
Speaker 1: because partlast an R and B Singapore.
Speaker 4: Whatever you are, you got to be able to intertange
Speaker 4: at a high, high level. I don't want to waste
Speaker 4: a lot of time on the intro because he does
Speaker 4: so many things.
Speaker 2: He's exacting, comedian, comedian, Yeah, basketball player, listen hoop he
Speaker 2: put Hooper on there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, hoopers have to play defense. I don't know. He's
Speaker 1: just a score. He's just a scoring. Listen. I played defense.
Speaker 1: I played you did not listen. I did it all
Speaker 1: in college. At that stage in my life, I'm not
Speaker 1: playing defense.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: In my thirties, I'm done with you. Did you ever
Speaker 1: get a chip in the elague? Uh? No, Man, we
Speaker 1: got close.
Speaker 2: We used to do flex dirty though they would throw flex.
Speaker 2: He would be like, oh, well you got flex, and
Speaker 2: then it would be nobody else.
Speaker 1: I would have it. The one time that I had
Speaker 1: a great team but nobody showed up. It was me,
Speaker 1: justin Timberlake, Ice Cube, Snooper, everybody tours and everybody was
Speaker 1: on tour, everybody. I remember that we were I was
Speaker 1: left with Yes, I was still left with me. And
Speaker 1: then the cousin of nobodce Cube, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: It was the age, but it was terrible. We had
Speaker 1: one We went to one championship at the I think
Speaker 1: it was Staple Center. I believe it Staple Center. And
Speaker 1: that was the closest chance we had, and and and
Speaker 1: yeah we didn't get it. I got there, I got
Speaker 1: three and then yeah, yeah, yeah, but he always manipulated.
Speaker 1: He was always able to nothing. I was able to
Speaker 1: stay with certain teams. Yeah, I didn't was able to
Speaker 1: stay with certain team Dave Brown.
Speaker 4: Guess who I saw the other day, my center, Kenneth Career.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And then I had my three point shooter. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. Good squat Corey, hard corey Corey.
Speaker 1: And then we had playing no defense either, No I
Speaker 1: need to shoot shoot three. That says yeah. Charlie Barrell
Speaker 1: and Marcus Polk, you got we're gonna have people. They
Speaker 1: have people. Yeah, we have the house. Yeah, because you
Speaker 1: had too bigs. Yeah, that had too big. But but
Speaker 1: Roger Roger. He was a big Roger. He was a
Speaker 1: big played. That was his downfall. He should have been
Speaker 1: in that and on the outside. That extended fire and
Speaker 1: extended that. He was league. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. He shooting three.
Speaker 1: He was just like shooting three. One year I had,
Speaker 1: I was with Harvey Mason. Uh, that's all you need
Speaker 1: is Kenny Loughton was, you know, crying, that's my boy.
Speaker 1: But he was like my team because they played together
Speaker 1: and then they took him off my team and got
Speaker 1: them together. So I had it was me. It was
Speaker 1: it was Harvey Mason and Deon Taylor director he balled.
Speaker 1: But then soon as they took Harvey, we was just
Speaker 1: like we just fell apart. It was it was. I
Speaker 1: was telling my son that I was like, yo, we
Speaker 1: felt like every Sunday we was in the league. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean was coming in because I would come in
Speaker 1: with my suit on from church on this it's on
Speaker 1: the table. I always take the angles and the snap away.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. That was that was beautiful. The Travel
Speaker 1: Games was dope to talk about it. Listen, I remember
Speaker 1: when we got to ask by the Chicago s guy.
Speaker 1: I tell that story. We were in the locker room. Right,
Speaker 1: we're in the locker room. Everybody's like, you're gonna go
Speaker 1: out there, you know again, it just just give me
Speaker 1: the ball. And then Brian McKnight he's like here, we
Speaker 1: know we everybody's again, and I'm the other fellas they professional.
Speaker 1: I told you guys know, I was on your team.
Speaker 1: I was on your side. I kept screaming everybody and
Speaker 1: I was telling them to I was like, yo, y'all listen,
Speaker 1: it ain't gonna just be no walking. I mean, they ran.
Speaker 1: They beat us by like forty seven points. It was ridiculous.
Speaker 4: When they filed Michael Clark Duncan got something yes across
Speaker 4: his chest and he fell to the ground like like
Speaker 4: he hit the Yeah. I said, Jesus, yeah, right, what
Speaker 4: have we gotten ourselves?
Speaker 1: I mean it was it was. It was a lesson. Now,
Speaker 1: my highest level was college ball, but pro it goes
Speaker 1: to a different level. And just watching nobody was going
Speaker 1: for shots, they were going to spots. They just constantly moved.
Speaker 1: It's their profession. It was crazy.
Speaker 4: But I called it, like I said, I said at
Speaker 4: one point because the first half they weren't doing that.
Speaker 4: First half, we were just going back and forth twenty.
Speaker 4: But the second half they started talking in a different language,
Speaker 4: different and girls started disappearing and reappearing on the other
Speaker 4: side of the court.
Speaker 1: It was crazy, she's shooting. I'm like, just does he
Speaker 1: know about the night before?
Speaker 2: He doesn't know, since he's your teammate and we should
Speaker 2: we at least give him insight.
Speaker 1: Well, it was his fault. It was whose fun. It
Speaker 1: was all Tank's fault. What was his fault? Because he
Speaker 1: goes to like a day we were at the day bus.
Speaker 1: He was, yeah, I didn't know. He starts challenging them.
Speaker 2: A friend of mine who's a sports agent calls me
Speaker 2: and says, hey, your guy Tank.
Speaker 1: He's like challenging some of my clients and they said
Speaker 1: they're gonna kick his ass tomorrow. I going crazy, and
Speaker 1: I was there.
Speaker 4: I lost the shootout to the I can't remember who
Speaker 4: the little white girl shooter was, but I was like,
Speaker 4: I'm about all about the butt show and she beat
Speaker 4: me about thirty on the shooting game, like that's that's
Speaker 4: that's not gonna happen on the real court.
Speaker 1: Back and I was talking.
Speaker 4: I kept talking, y'all not going y'all don't know what
Speaker 4: to see this grown man business.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was. It was I had twenty one. I mean,
Speaker 1: but see there there and you have it. You have it.
Speaker 2: That's something everything because in the first half and when
Speaker 2: I saw he said, when I saw nothing was working,
Speaker 2: I said, I said, for the team, nah my yo.
Speaker 1: That that was crazy, man, that was that was crazy.
Speaker 1: That was the best it was. It was that reminded
Speaker 1: me of the time. I think it's before you you
Speaker 1: got in the league. We did. Uh. We went and
Speaker 1: we practiced with the dream the Olympic team. Oh wow.
Speaker 1: We got Lisa Leslie, t Spoon, all of them, and
Speaker 1: Van Chancellor was the coach and he set us up. Now, guys,
Speaker 1: I don't want you to go in there and hurt
Speaker 1: my girls. Now we're gonna take it easy. Now we're
Speaker 1: gonna just play. It's gonna be a little little practice
Speaker 1: getting just get him sweating. Man. We go out there,
Speaker 1: same thing, they picking running play like yo, we're like
Speaker 1: all right. We started talking and it didn't end up good,
Speaker 1: not at all. And Lisa Leslie was just I mean
Speaker 1: just it was easy.
Speaker 2: So you're going to against the wh're you only on one?
Speaker 1: I'm proud to say yes. Would never be the WN BBC.
Speaker 1: Remember some of the.
Speaker 4: Do when some of the when they the girls from
Speaker 4: the sparks playing a.
Speaker 1: Man that it's not the same. It's not those are
Speaker 1: the girls that got cut. That's not true. That's not true.
Speaker 1: It don't count.
Speaker 4: Listen, and so what there was another team they lost?
Speaker 4: Flex you are you are I don't even say a
Speaker 4: friend of a friend of the family. You are a
Speaker 4: family of family. You're beyond that. We've been doing this
Speaker 4: for many moons, many and many a Sunday. So first
Speaker 4: of all, thank you for being here. Man. And you know,
Speaker 4: like we're doing this arm and b Bunny podcast, like
Speaker 4: we like to go back to the root of the thing.
Speaker 4: Look at the beginning of the thing. You know what
Speaker 4: I'm saying. Where where does all this start? Where does
Speaker 4: all this start to be?
Speaker 1: It all starts for me. It was a lot of
Speaker 1: people think I'm from Harlem, but I'm actually from the Bronx,
Speaker 1: from the from the South Bronx N seventy fourth and
Speaker 1: Clinton Clinton Towers. And I moved to Harlem. At some
Speaker 1: point I forgot you're I was in Harlem, but I
Speaker 1: lived there my cousin over in Riverton across from Lincoln Projects.
Speaker 1: Worked at Pampaan right, that's where the Alicia Keys shot that.
Speaker 1: You don't know my name video? I worked there, man,
Speaker 1: you worked there? I worked there. I was up there.
Speaker 1: We got a bacon, naggy cheese, Yeah, orange juice, what ice?
Speaker 1: You know? I you know, I was trying to do
Speaker 1: my thing, man, But yeah, started in the bronx, you know,
Speaker 1: came up. You know. Mom's grandmother was the ones in
Speaker 1: the house holding everything down. Moms had like three jobs,
Speaker 1: my brothers. You know, my brother went to the service,
Speaker 1: my other brother was doing his thing, and at eighty
Speaker 1: five when crack hit. You know, it hit my family.
Speaker 1: So you know, I just got to the point where
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, I'm it's not what I want,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. I want to I want
Speaker 1: to get up out of here. And I ended up leaving.
Speaker 1: I lived with my grandmother for a little bit, but
Speaker 1: I had a aunt who was an alcoholic, so I
Speaker 1: hated that. So I just went out on my own.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean. This is after going away
Speaker 1: to school, coming back and just really trying to figure
Speaker 1: out what I was gonna do with my life. I
Speaker 1: knew I always wanted to entertain. I was a hip
Speaker 1: hop dancer. I started dancing in the clubs oh Man seventy.
Speaker 1: I got out in the parks, like I got to
Speaker 1: see everybody in the park. In the Bronx, I got
Speaker 1: to see Grand Master Flash, Melly Mel, I got to
Speaker 1: see the Furious Five. I got to see rock Steady Crew.
Speaker 1: I got to That's in the Bronx. That's in the
Speaker 1: Bronx Man, That's that was the mech birtha me Birth
Speaker 1: and Mecca. I got to see African band by all
Speaker 1: of them up close, you know personal. I mean, you
Speaker 1: know you disco Fever, you had the Latin Quarters, which
Speaker 1: came later, but that was the thing. I was like, Yo,
Speaker 1: hip hop really hip hop molded me. Because of hip hop.
Speaker 1: Everything spawned from hip hop, everything spawned. I ended up
Speaker 1: dancing for Salt and Pepper and choreographing for you know,
Speaker 1: different groups and being in all these videos. And I
Speaker 1: was in one of the Dope his Cruise Ever, the
Speaker 1: Mop Top, my Boys, Stretch, Peter Paul Khleif Link or
Speaker 1: Ramier it was called. It was motivated on performance, uh,
Speaker 1: motivated on precision towards outstanding performance. We all had our
Speaker 1: dreads and those are the brothers that you know who
Speaker 1: did all the Mariah Carey stretch. Would remember the time
Speaker 1: with Fatima, like we had a nice conglomerate, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. So we would break off and go
Speaker 1: choreograph and do different things. But I just this was
Speaker 1: always in me to do stand up and and comedy.
Speaker 1: And from when I was little, I saw Eddie Murphy's
Speaker 1: Delirious and I was like, Yo, that's what I'm going
Speaker 1: to do. My mom was like, okay, baby, if you
Speaker 1: say so. But that right there changed my life seeing Delirious.
Speaker 1: So let's start dancing. Let's start off with dance.
Speaker 4: Yeah, do you ever do you do you start off
Speaker 4: and say I want to dance, Let me go to
Speaker 4: a school where they're teaching dance, or do you just
Speaker 4: immediately take.
Speaker 1: It to the streets. It was streets. It was just
Speaker 1: being out there in the park. You know, Cat's got
Speaker 1: the cardboard out and you just you're getting out there
Speaker 1: with the car cardboard. And if you was if you
Speaker 1: had money, you had so they still it started there.
Speaker 1: That's where it started, man and I and I did.
Speaker 1: At one point, I went to the Lower East Side.
Speaker 1: It was it was a place called the Hemy Street
Speaker 1: Settlement and they had different dance classes, and I took
Speaker 1: modern jazz for a minute. Uh but you know, Fellas
Speaker 1: was laughing at me, all you need to take it
Speaker 1: out of jazz. But I'm glad I did because I
Speaker 1: learned all aspects of a certain techniques that all that stuff. Man.
Speaker 1: But it started in the streets, man, It started right
Speaker 1: there in the school yards and the parks. That's where
Speaker 1: it started for me to dance. Who who was the
Speaker 1: There's always.
Speaker 4: A guy or a girl that you like that was
Speaker 4: like the person that you was like, either stealing the
Speaker 4: moves from or just hopping and just watching to see.
Speaker 1: I think when I started, I tried to mimic a
Speaker 1: lot of the cats on the rock Steady Crew, Kutiaki Buck,
Speaker 1: four Crazy Legs, Mister Wiggles, all those guys, because they
Speaker 1: went on to do Beach Street, the famous battle cry
Speaker 1: joint right there. I mimicked those dudes, like you know,
Speaker 1: I was like, man, I learned how to do a
Speaker 1: head spin, and learned how to do the windmill and
Speaker 1: watching them and then as I went on later, my
Speaker 1: good brother who gave me the name Flex, my boy
Speaker 1: Buddhist Stretch, one of the dopest to ever do it.
Speaker 1: I just copied a lot of what he did. Man,
Speaker 1: he just had such you know, versatility, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. And I was like, yeah, I need that
Speaker 1: in my repertoire. And that's how we clicked. And then
Speaker 1: the whole crew and we just all we mirrored each other,
Speaker 1: but we were still individuals, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So Stretcher probably one of the guys that I looked
Speaker 1: at in the Mount rushmore of dancers. Are you doing
Speaker 1: comedy at the same time? Now, I started comedy in
Speaker 1: eighty nine. Now that came about because of my boy
Speaker 1: Khalif loose Leaf was a dancer as well. I used
Speaker 1: to be able to meet people, do impressions and you know,
Speaker 1: just have cats laughing. And he kept saying, Yo, son, Yo,
Speaker 1: you gotta get on stage and do that joint son.
Speaker 1: I'm like, He's like nah man. So that he dared me,
Speaker 1: I forget what the challenge was. But once he dared me,
Speaker 1: I was like, all right, all right, I'm gonna do it.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do it. But he was the one that
Speaker 1: kind of push me and my cousin Grapevine, who's in
Speaker 1: the group Trends of Culture on Motown back in the day.
Speaker 1: They had a huge song called Off and On then
Speaker 1: him DJ Mowell. They used to come down to the
Speaker 1: Uptown Comedy Club. I mean in the beginning, nobody, you know,
Speaker 1: nobody was coming down there, and they would come support me.
Speaker 1: They would come week after week after week. And I
Speaker 1: just felt like I couldn't do it if they weren't there,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And I went to the
Speaker 1: Uptown Comedy Club and they have a new Jack segment.
Speaker 1: You have three minutes to do your best. I went up.
Speaker 1: I did it. It was laughing. I was like, yo,
Speaker 1: you freestyle it. I did stuff that I would do
Speaker 1: in the house, you know, I had you know, I
Speaker 1: used to do impersonations of Edith Bunker had a bullwinkle
Speaker 1: selling drugs and you know, stupid stuff like that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I would do I would do those Jesse Jackson
Speaker 1: and all that stuff, and I would just be all
Speaker 1: over the place. But people loved it and I got
Speaker 1: the response, and I was like, yo, and it's a
Speaker 1: different kind of high. It's different, you know, from dancing
Speaker 1: because I'm dancing for somebody else, but that I'm like,
Speaker 1: this is me. So then I was working with Salt
Speaker 1: and Pepper. At the time, they would come support up
Speaker 1: to the Uptown Comedy Club.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, you pooring Champagne.
Speaker 4: Pulled something to do, you know, spend.
Speaker 1: When they all came up, man, they support, How.
Speaker 4: Do you let's go back? How do you get that?
Speaker 4: How do you get the Salt and Pepper gigs? We
Speaker 4: you know, we're from the place, we know what that is.
Speaker 1: So what happened was spin shout out Todd call my
Speaker 1: house and I don't know how she got another, but
Speaker 1: she called back with the rotary phone. My grandmother had
Speaker 1: the red rotary phone, so she called me, said he
Speaker 1: no phone call, somebody spin to spend of something. Got
Speaker 1: on the phone.
Speaker 2: As I'm getting older, I realized that they purposely messed
Speaker 2: up to do that.
Speaker 1: Now I'll be doing the same thing.
Speaker 4: I do it, but on purpose, jeffy, everybody I don't know.
Speaker 1: So I get on the phone and she said, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, we're we're looking for another dancer to kind
Speaker 1: of match Pepper's height or whatever. You know, you available,
Speaker 1: you know, do you want to do what? We're about
Speaker 1: to go on tour. We about to go do our
Speaker 1: seneo all this stuff. And I was like, yeah, let
Speaker 1: me check my calendar. I'm available. Yeah, and so what
Speaker 1: did what? But what had you been doing to that
Speaker 1: point to where they I was making the name for myself.
Speaker 1: I was doing videos and you know chorey graph. I
Speaker 1: had done the Crystal Waters video lit out, Yeah, and
Speaker 1: Peter Paul I did that. I got the Power joint
Speaker 1: with Chill rod g Joint. I mean I did uh
Speaker 1: uh Queen Latif for fly Girl and what you call
Speaker 1: it was a dancer in that video. He was in
Speaker 1: a group on myps he probably sorry, I'm just people
Speaker 1: don't talented. Yes, yes, it was in a group. I
Speaker 1: don't know if it's men a vision or something you
Speaker 1: can sing. Yeah, So he we were in that joint
Speaker 1: together and Peter Paul too. So I just started making
Speaker 1: a name for myself and I would end up choreographing
Speaker 1: and or have stretched it something. I would assist him.
Speaker 1: He worked with this goop Caroll Seduction, and I worked
Speaker 1: with them, and I just kept building the name. So
Speaker 1: they just they called and I was like, yeah, I'm down.
Speaker 1: And the first trip was going to come in to
Speaker 1: LA and we did our Senio and we did the
Speaker 1: Marshall Warfield Show back when she had a talk show,
Speaker 1: and we did another show and just did the press circuit.
Speaker 1: They shot a little kind of docu video. This was
Speaker 1: like before people were doing that. And I was just like, man,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I can't believe me. I'm in LA. And
Speaker 1: I was like, this is great. This is your first
Speaker 1: time leaving. This is my first time leaving, well, not
Speaker 1: leaving New York, but coming to California. It was my
Speaker 1: first time. Was I've been to North Carolina I was
Speaker 1: ninety five, yeah, or go down to the family reunion whatever,
Speaker 1: but this was my first time. I'm like, I'm in
Speaker 1: LA and I'm just like, Yo, this is crazy. Was
Speaker 1: just blowing my mind. Man, it was just happening, like
Speaker 1: and I'm sitting there like man, Senior Hall show and
Speaker 1: Salt and Pepper was so They was so amazing with
Speaker 1: including their dancers. You know, because most people, you do
Speaker 1: a show blah blah blah, and then you got scurry
Speaker 1: off and then it's the artist. But when we finished,
Speaker 1: he would come stand out there on the floor and
Speaker 1: you know, they would introduce all of us. Man. It
Speaker 1: just I loved them forever. Man. They supported me. They
Speaker 1: would come up to the comedy club and then they said, hey,
Speaker 1: why don't you open up for us while we're on tour.
Speaker 1: I was like, so I would go out, do thirty
Speaker 1: minutes comedy, go back, change, come out and dance.
Speaker 2: When you went from doing three at the comedy club
Speaker 2: to doing third eighty.
Speaker 1: Minutes, yeah, because by that time I had built up,
Speaker 1: I had built up my comedy and as I was
Speaker 1: gonna get them two checks, you going to dance too? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I was dancing, so I would do the stand up. No,
Speaker 1: actually there's three checks because I would do stand up,
Speaker 1: go back, and change, and all the dances. We were
Speaker 1: their roadies. We would grab their bags. Yeah I was
Speaker 1: getting that brand. Yeah yeah, yeah, fake security everything, man everything.
Speaker 1: But yeah, they used to come up and support. But
Speaker 1: so many people came into the Uptown Comedy Club. Uptown
Speaker 1: Comedy Club was iconic. A Deaf Jam was spawned from
Speaker 1: the Uptown Comedy Club. I'm just gonna go ahead and
Speaker 1: say it. We were the first, really at that time
Speaker 1: to be on the map with with comedians coming up
Speaker 1: there with Chris Rock was everybody. Everybody came up. And
Speaker 1: then we had a television show we shot right out
Speaker 1: of Halem called The Uptown Comedy Club, we had all
Speaker 1: the artists was yeah, oh yeah, yeah, okay, oh yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: And they actually were in talks, I believe Russell and
Speaker 1: you know, my ex managers at the time in the
Speaker 1: in the owners and the creators of that, Kevin and
Speaker 1: I J. Brown, you know about he wanted to bring
Speaker 1: them on and create this thing with death Jam, and
Speaker 1: I don't know what happened. They just ended up saying
Speaker 1: we're gonna stick with ours, and then they went on
Speaker 1: and did death Jam. But if you look at Uptown
Speaker 1: Comedy Club, it's the same setup, the comedians there, everybody surrounding,
Speaker 1: and it was just it was the dopest energy, you know,
Speaker 1: Kevin and andre A mom so they sold Buffalo Wings
Speaker 1: like it was it was hood, but it was so dope, man,
Speaker 1: it was the dopest energy ever. Man. I will never that.
Speaker 1: That was one of the best times in my life
Speaker 1: because I learned, you know, they taught me a lot
Speaker 1: about stand up. So I was just doing impressions and
Speaker 1: I remember doing a show with this one comedian and
Speaker 1: he did the same impressions and I went after him
Speaker 1: and I was stuck, and I said, I'll never let
Speaker 1: that happen so I learned how to write jokes. I
Speaker 1: learned how to talk about life experience and add that
Speaker 1: into and if you want to throw an impression in cool.
Speaker 1: But I just didn't want to make my whole act
Speaker 1: based on that. And I learned a lot. I get
Speaker 1: them all the credit in the world. It was. It
Speaker 1: was the mecca we had, every we had Paul Mooney
Speaker 1: was writer producer on the show. Hearing his stories, man like,
Speaker 1: it was just amazing. Like everybody came up there. When
Speaker 1: you go back and pull up Uptown Comic Club on YouTube,
Speaker 1: you see Wu Tang Clan Luke, you see Tony Terry,
Speaker 1: Every spectrum of artists came and saying and we did comedy.
Speaker 1: And that's where the battle came from. The your Mama jokes,
Speaker 1: the battle that they do on Wild spawned from that.
Speaker 1: And Nick told me himself, he said, you know where
Speaker 1: that came from, Right, Uptown Comic Club was the first
Speaker 1: to bring your Mama jokes to television. That's great, Yes,
Speaker 1: that was part of part of history.
Speaker 2: That's your question. Yeah, I'm something you said in there
Speaker 2: about that about that making that adjustment. As far as
Speaker 2: for comedians, yeah, like I'm pretty sure most of y'all
Speaker 2: have a set, So how do you make that adjustment
Speaker 2: if somebody has similarity to your set and they go
Speaker 2: on before. Yeah, right, because like even with DJ's it's
Speaker 2: like they they give an opening DJ songs you can't
Speaker 2: you can't play right, So I'm sure there's not like
Speaker 2: an opening thing of like, yo, you can't do certain
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: It's it's it really is. Just don't take somebody's joke,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. That's the one rule. That's
Speaker 1: the one rule. Don't everybody follows that.
Speaker 4: Though within the circuit though everybody knows everybody, everybody knows,
Speaker 4: like because I was when I was at the Lave Factory,
Speaker 4: like all the comedians would be there, another comic is
Speaker 4: on stage and somebody would say, do the lawnmar right,
Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying, And they would just go
Speaker 4: into the lawnmower.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, guys know your stuff. There's a certain reference.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, there's people that you know that that's such
Speaker 1: and such a joke. Whatever, Just don't do that. You
Speaker 1: can talk. It's not to say you can't talk about
Speaker 1: a lama because the age old saying is there is
Speaker 1: not one original joke all of them. Are the variations
Speaker 1: are the same thing. So but you know, okay, I'm
Speaker 1: doing Jesse Jackson. This guy comes out, he does Jesse Jackson,
Speaker 1: but he's talking about something different. Is he still in
Speaker 1: the material? No, Jesse Jackson is open fair play, you know.
Speaker 1: I just it just made me say, you know, I
Speaker 1: want to talk about something else. And there's nothing wrong
Speaker 1: with doing impressions, but I just said I want to
Speaker 1: I want to really talk about something. And I broke
Speaker 1: up with this girl at one time, and I just
Speaker 1: started talking about it on stage and it clicked. I
Speaker 1: was like, this is it right here? I said, this
Speaker 1: is it truthful? Because you can't take my life, you know,
Speaker 1: that's you know, my life is my life, So you
Speaker 1: can't come up and talk about what I went through.
Speaker 1: So that's how I made that they transitioned and learned
Speaker 1: and learned how to put jokes together and learn how
Speaker 1: to just add on because there's no rhyme or reason.
Speaker 1: You don't just sit down when they go, okay, it's funny,
Speaker 1: it's little stuff. We could be having a conversation, you know,
Speaker 1: we even having to come in. I say, oh man,
Speaker 1: that that might be funny. When they take that put
Speaker 1: that on. You know, I might be thinking of something
Speaker 1: and I just need a tag. Or in most comedians
Speaker 1: when you go out, they you know, cool dudes, be
Speaker 1: like yo, man, you throw this on the end of
Speaker 1: it and boom boom. Okay cool and it's cool like
Speaker 1: and all my cats. And you know, I got to
Speaker 1: give love to my boy Chris Spencer. He was he
Speaker 1: was I want the guy who who said get your
Speaker 1: ass back on stage because I walked away from stand
Speaker 1: up once I got my TV show and did all that.
Speaker 1: I walked away for probably twelve years because I got
Speaker 1: to LA and I lost the that New York has
Speaker 1: just the energy of I can go through three spots
Speaker 1: to night. I could just go boom boom, boom boom,
Speaker 1: and there you make money. You know, comics in LA
Speaker 1: you don't make money. It's really like I didn't know that.
Speaker 1: You know, they don't you really just being seen, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. You get paid something, but until
Speaker 1: you become like a yeah. But at that time with
Speaker 1: New York, everybody was doing. Everybody was doing. They were
Speaker 1: doing comedy out of bbq's. You know, they had the
Speaker 1: drug dealers joined out in the Queen's Manhattan proper. There
Speaker 1: was popping bottles and like it, like you, I could
Speaker 1: go make five hundred here, fifteen hundred here, you know,
Speaker 1: fifteen hundred here in the night, and I do that
Speaker 1: five days a week, and then on the weekend I'm
Speaker 1: eating I was making bread doing that. So I came
Speaker 1: here and only known there that at that time, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I had no I had done showtime at the Apollo. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I done the Apollo. So I was starting to bubble.
Speaker 1: And this was before my first TV show where I
Speaker 1: lived with my boy Dougie Doug. Remember, Yeah, it was
Speaker 1: before that show. So I was building my name, and
Speaker 1: then once I got that show, it built more and
Speaker 1: I was still doing it. But then once I got to,
Speaker 1: you know, doing my own show, I just I was
Speaker 1: like a go out here and and chase that money
Speaker 1: when I'm making this, like and it's a grind, it's
Speaker 1: a grind. And I just didn't play it right. I
Speaker 1: remember I told DL that, man, I said, I said,
Speaker 1: DM Man. I was like, man, I just I didn't
Speaker 1: want to leave and then come back and my child
Speaker 1: has grown and I've been going all of me and
Speaker 1: he was like, she, excuse get everybody ass a call
Speaker 1: d L that's a hard working dude. Man. I love
Speaker 1: that dude. Man. The sacrifice that thing, yes, yes, And
Speaker 1: I didn't at the time, I didn't you know, get it,
Speaker 1: you know. And and I sacrificed those years in a
Speaker 1: sense I missed an audience that couldn't ride with me.
Speaker 1: And then once I did a show, it was just like, Okay,
Speaker 1: that's what he's doing now, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And brothers like Dyell and said, all of them, Uh,
Speaker 1: they've all just stayed that course. Dave Chappelle like I
Speaker 1: used to hang with day back in the day. He
Speaker 1: used to be a Boston comedy club and and and
Speaker 1: the comedy seller and go to spot to spot and
Speaker 1: I mean just one two in the morning. I remember
Speaker 1: doing Spot to be the comedy seller, performing with Ray
Speaker 1: Romono at like twelve midnight. There's fourteen people in the audience.
Speaker 1: You know, this is before he had a show. He's
Speaker 1: working on his material, you know, and next thing, Stud's
Speaker 1: got a show. It's crazy, but you I think I
Speaker 1: felt more in love with you know, when I was
Speaker 1: doing my show, just the freedom that I had and
Speaker 1: the money that I was making as opposed to I
Speaker 1: got to go out here and grind it out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, it's a different comfort level
Speaker 1: that you can definitely fall in love. Yeah, I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, I'm cool. Mant me, look at my accounts.
Speaker 1: I ain't got to go out and do seven shows
Speaker 1: for you know what I'm saying, which was still when
Speaker 1: I look at it, I was saying, stupid.
Speaker 4: It's just like, you know, perspective or it's just a
Speaker 4: thing where like I remember at the beginning of my
Speaker 4: career in the music side of it, like I didn't
Speaker 4: know ex exactly what you should do when you have
Speaker 4: a hit record that you wrote and produced one hundred
Speaker 4: percent of. I don't know what that meant. I thought,
Speaker 4: So all the alcoholics free.
Speaker 5: We did, Kevin, you mean I can keep my shirt
Speaker 5: off rock all the time?
Speaker 4: No one was No one told me, okay, So this
Speaker 4: is what you can do now now you are. Now
Speaker 4: you can go write and produce for these people. But
Speaker 4: not only that, you can start a publishing company because
Speaker 4: people songwriters and producers now kind of want to be
Speaker 4: you and under you. Now you can get an a
Speaker 4: stall of writers and producers who now you don't have
Speaker 4: to do all the work and and now, and you're
Speaker 4: an artist and you can you know talents, So why
Speaker 4: don't you just start a label?
Speaker 1: And good? Nobody told me this, I know.
Speaker 4: So it's like a thing where like I got to
Speaker 4: this comfortable space where now I'm getting some money. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I'm getting these these performance Yeah.
Speaker 1: What else do I need to do? Exactly? I'm chilling.
Speaker 2: Some people look at it as you lose sight, other
Speaker 2: than you didn't have the the foresight, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean, because people be like, oh, you know, you
Speaker 2: didn't keep the main thing the main thing.
Speaker 1: Well, sometimes you don't know what the main thing actually
Speaker 1: is or.
Speaker 2: What comes along with the main thing being successful and
Speaker 2: all the ancillary things around it that you can now
Speaker 2: build your company and your empire whatever you're trying to
Speaker 2: build out.
Speaker 1: No idea, because at that time, we weren't thinking about
Speaker 1: reiterating what you said. Like now everybody's like, no, my brand,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm building that said brand.
Speaker 2: Exactly, exactly exactly, just because we didn't have the brands. Yes, yes,
Speaker 2: everyone else had brand yes, and we just you know,
Speaker 2: we're consumers of their brand.
Speaker 1: And helped build them. So where was in your opinion,
Speaker 1: what's your big break man? I mean show Uptown Comedy
Speaker 1: Club definitely, because Uptown Comedy Club and Showtime with the
Speaker 1: Apollo were the things that really introduced me to the
Speaker 1: world in a way that it said, Okay, he's his individual,
Speaker 1: I'm not his dancer anymore. This is you know, this,
Speaker 1: this is flex you know. And even still in my
Speaker 1: mind it being on TV, I still was only thinking
Speaker 1: about New York, you know what I mean, Even still
Speaker 1: I was just like, yeah, man, you know, I just
Speaker 1: that's why I didn't even when I started traveling, I
Speaker 1: started seeing like, oh, people watch the show. You what
Speaker 1: I mean? It trips you out, and it still trips
Speaker 1: me out. I've never been one to get flying, but yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's me. I've always been grateful, always still surprised when
Speaker 1: people remember stuff. And I'm thankful because if not that
Speaker 1: I could not have a career. So that for me
Speaker 1: was was a big breaks. Uptown Comedy Club, showed Time
Speaker 1: to Tipolo and then doing Death Jam. I did Death
Speaker 1: Jam when Martin was there, and then I think when
Speaker 1: Ricky Harris got Rest of Soul when he and It's
Speaker 1: funny Ricky Harrison and I we had this thing, man,
Speaker 1: you know, Ricky used to have something with everybody and
Speaker 1: and it's crazy. They were shooting this documentary on comedians
Speaker 1: or death jam or something, and he and I got
Speaker 1: to see each other. It's probably a few months before
Speaker 1: he passed, and we got to see each other man
Speaker 1: and we just laughed. I said, man, brother, I love you, Man,
Speaker 1: I love he said man. We was young and da
Speaker 1: da da, And I'm so glad that we got to
Speaker 1: had a conversation because I was so mad at his ass,
Speaker 1: because he went out and did well before he introduced me.
Speaker 1: He on purpose did one of my closing joke that
Speaker 1: was the killer. He did it before I came out,
Speaker 1: and there He's like, yo, give it up a flesh
Speaker 1: and he came back he was like, yeah, knock it out.
Speaker 1: I was like, this, mother, what's up y'all? It was
Speaker 1: that quick. I had to adjudge. Yeah. You know why
Speaker 1: he did it though, because he was just didn't he
Speaker 1: didn't care at that time. Ricky. Ricky working with a
Speaker 1: lot of people back then, and it was it was young,
Speaker 1: was the nineties. People he had egos. It was yeah,
Speaker 1: he was. He was all against and that was right
Speaker 1: in the height of you know, tat down and all
Speaker 1: that stuff, man, But I'm glad we got to talk
Speaker 1: and you know, we straightened all that out and was
Speaker 1: just man, it was a good brother, you know. And
Speaker 1: you you sit back and you're just like, man, you
Speaker 1: see how you matured and you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: But but those shows, uh yeah, Uptown Comedy Club because
Speaker 1: that's really it was weekly and that's when I was like, man,
Speaker 1: I started making money. I was like whoa. And then
Speaker 1: I did show Time Me to Pollo three times I
Speaker 1: and you do Spot Simbad Malcolm Jamal Warna and Earth
Speaker 1: Kit Okay yeah, yeah yeah. Earth the Kit was like
Speaker 1: he's one of the rising TV styles from how give
Speaker 1: it that all? Flex? I was like, man, my god,
Speaker 1: that was my.
Speaker 4: Were were you purposely trying to get out of dancing
Speaker 4: once the comedy thing started started taking off?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Once the comedy started just taking off. And I remember, uh,
Speaker 1: Cheryl calling me it was just like you and I was
Speaker 1: telling him I got this and she was like, look,
Speaker 1: she said, Flex, just go do your things. She's like this,
Speaker 1: it's time for you. It's time for you to soar.
Speaker 1: And and you know you're not dance no more, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean? Because I was still trying to
Speaker 1: hold on because I loved it that much.
Speaker 2: You know, like you said, you never got fly with
Speaker 2: nobody do that no more.
Speaker 1: I was still trying. I was getting gigged, and I
Speaker 1: was still kind of going, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: and and and people started recognizing me and uh, and
Speaker 1: I still try to hold on. And I remember I
Speaker 1: was up for the movie Juice. It came down to
Speaker 1: myself and Omar's between the We auditioned for like a week,
Speaker 1: and that's where I met Trench. There pop all of them,
Speaker 1: so they were mixing matching actors. So there was another
Speaker 1: friend of mine who read for the role of Steel. Uh,
Speaker 1: the young kid in there. It was it was fighting
Speaker 1: at his house. It was Khalil Kane. It was. It
Speaker 1: was a bunch of us man and so we all read.
Speaker 1: And I remember meeting pak and and I remember in
Speaker 1: the audition I was where I knew he was different,
Speaker 1: and I knew I was inexperienced. I'm in the room
Speaker 1: and Jackie Brown Carmen I was cast and director g
Speaker 1: Rod Brown, Ernest Dickerson. Uh directing Ernest Dickerson. So I'm
Speaker 1: in there. We're doing the scene, a locker scene where
Speaker 1: he closed, and he was like, where you been Q
Speaker 1: And then he sees him and he know, and he's
Speaker 1: telling him, I'm crazy. I don't give it, and we're
Speaker 1: doing the scene and before he was in the movie.
Speaker 1: He walks off, flips his hood up, but he's doing
Speaker 1: the scene with me. He was behind me. He was like, well,
Speaker 1: I don't whatever, I am crazy. It's like pot none.
Speaker 1: He smacked me on the ass and walked off in
Speaker 1: the scene. And I started joking because we were out
Speaker 1: in the hallway joking and laughing, but he was locked in.
Speaker 1: I wasn't locked in, and I was just like I
Speaker 1: look back at that and go like man and Omar
Speaker 1: you know, because he went, Uh went to Good Day
Speaker 1: to performing our school. Uh, not Julie R. But it
Speaker 1: was one of the performing on school, him and Marlin
Speaker 1: uh and all of them went to om Marbles again.
Speaker 1: He was focused, he was you know, they was already
Speaker 1: that that's where I saw, okay, my inexperience and where
Speaker 1: I need to lock in to go to another place.
Speaker 1: And they took us all to dinner. It was like,
Speaker 1: you know, the last supper to see who was gonna
Speaker 1: make it. And then Uh, I didn't get the call
Speaker 1: and and I get the call, so I was I
Speaker 1: didn't get it, and I mean by call Shauff, I
Speaker 1: was like, I ain't get the movie. And I was
Speaker 1: so crush And this was your first audition for anything,
Speaker 1: for anything. They saw me at the Uptown Comedy Club.
Speaker 1: They said, hey, we're doing this little movie called Juice Man,
Speaker 1: we'd like to have you come in. And that's how
Speaker 1: that's how it started. And I remember them calling me.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like a week or so later. Director go, hey, man, man,
Speaker 1: we love you. Man. Sorry it didn't work out, but
Speaker 1: we just want to you know, we want to fit
Speaker 1: you in there somewhere was back and it became this
Speaker 1: class thing class a lot of teeth and a lot
Speaker 1: of teeth. Was like she I knew already from comedy
Speaker 1: and all, and she said, you know, don't make me
Speaker 1: look stupid. I was like, nah, got you say. Can
Speaker 1: We're gonna say this right here. We're gonna boo boom boom,
Speaker 1: just so she has the upper hand and then uh
Speaker 1: and we we we delivered. So y'all created that scene. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: we came out because we didn't know what the scene
Speaker 1: was created. As far as the DJ audition and you know,
Speaker 1: the bad DJ come out. We didn't know what we
Speaker 1: were gonna say, but she knew I was a comedian
Speaker 1: and she didn't want me like really going in, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. So we kind of talked, but
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say this, and then it just and that
Speaker 1: was it lived And I look at it now and
Speaker 1: I see my inexperience because when I'm when I turned,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm like you you might have a chance.
Speaker 1: And then she was so small and then I turned
Speaker 1: with my back to the camera. That's my inexperience. I
Speaker 1: turned and walked up. He turned the other way so
Speaker 1: they see your face. But ever became an iconic scene,
Speaker 1: that little bit. Man, No, it's viral. It's always ral.
Speaker 2: Whenever they're connecting it to somebody being wacked by somebody,
Speaker 2: you always.
Speaker 1: Say that just posted it. Fifty posted it like two
Speaker 1: weeks ago because I guess whatever when he did the
Speaker 1: thing in in uh Street Street somebody's music, Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: about to do I guess they had a little thing
Speaker 1: going back and forth. But he threw that up there
Speaker 1: and just relived again. There's gotta be some residuals attached
Speaker 1: when when you go.
Speaker 4: When it just resurfaces and starts circulating, it's street.
Speaker 1: I wish it keeps you in the like in mind street.
Speaker 1: I like it because that is very valuable for sure.
Speaker 1: That's because people still talk about that and they talk
Speaker 1: about like I started it, and I'm like, man, I
Speaker 1: just had that little part, but I'll feel it. Be
Speaker 1: grateful for that, Grateful for the connections and you know,
Speaker 1: meeting Pok Pok and just being cool with him, and
Speaker 1: you know, every time I saw him, it was just
Speaker 1: always love man, and that right there. I always I
Speaker 1: always cherish that always.
Speaker 4: Okay, So move to l a man, Yeah, lah, yeah,
Speaker 4: come on and bis man, what's the palm trees?
Speaker 1: And that was when I came man man, he said
Speaker 1: that was on the pan. That was the family is
Speaker 1: that you should be here. The crazy thing. The crazy
Speaker 1: thing for me is you know when you came out
Speaker 1: there to work, girls knew what you were working on,
Speaker 1: Like it was crazy. I was like, when you came out, Yeah,
Speaker 1: when I came, yeah, they knew it. Oh you shooting like.
Speaker 2: He was?
Speaker 1: He was you know, he was on the film televisions
Speaker 1: at different and it was ninety one, Yeah, ninety one
Speaker 1: came out here ninety one, we shut we uh shot
Speaker 1: Where I Live ninety two and it aired in ninety three.
Speaker 1: How did you get the show? So the Brown Brothers
Speaker 1: were managing Dougie Doug and yes my ex managers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they were managing. So we were all under that umbrella.
Speaker 1: I mean they had everybody, Tracy Morgan, you know, I
Speaker 1: saw Tracy Morgan walk in the door. JB. Smooth like,
Speaker 1: they had everybody. Man, that's my dude. So they were
Speaker 1: doing a showcase and they did it purposely, did a
Speaker 1: showcase at City College so that the producers could see
Speaker 1: everybody and hopefully, you know, they like somebody. So I
Speaker 1: go up through my thing, you know, Doug finishes, closes
Speaker 1: out whatever, and then they say, hey, man, they like it.
Speaker 1: They want you to read for it. Like I'm like
Speaker 1: all right, cool. So I'm like, okay, I'm ready now
Speaker 1: audition in New York and uh they liked me. And
Speaker 1: then I do it again. They're like, okay, we want
Speaker 1: to fly into LA I'm like, okay, cool, come out here.
Speaker 1: I'm staying at the Universal Hilton and I'm just like,
Speaker 1: oh man, it's I'm like I got predemned. So I'm
Speaker 1: there and then I was only supposed to be there
Speaker 1: for a couple of days. Like, I'm seeing all these
Speaker 1: dudes in the audition that I watched on The Cosby Show,
Speaker 1: and you know, established dudes. But I had that New
Speaker 1: York I was like, I don't care whatever. I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I watched y'all. I was sitting in the Bronx. I
Speaker 1: was like, but I'm going to get this joint. So
Speaker 1: I had no fear. And that's the thing. It's the
Speaker 1: great thing about New York and the flip side of
Speaker 1: the downside to La. The sunshine can put you to sleep,
Speaker 1: and I kind of lost that, you know, that hunger.
Speaker 1: But at that point I was hungry. I was in
Speaker 1: there like doing doing my scenes over and they're like
Speaker 1: the boy. They laughed. I'm like, ah, and it was
Speaker 1: you know, so I was like, I know, I put
Speaker 1: it down. So my former agent, he had the same
Speaker 1: agent as a Robin Harris, God rest his soul. Uh.
Speaker 1: They set up general meetings for me. So I go
Speaker 1: to CBS for a general meeting. So this is a
Speaker 1: few days later. I go and I'm sitting there waiting
Speaker 1: to meet the executive and an interceptionist. Of course, he's
Speaker 1: right here, gets on the place. Name is Bill Gross
Speaker 1: said hey, flex like some good man, saying no you
Speaker 1: still wait run. I'm like yeah, he'said, well yeah, I said, man,
Speaker 1: just unfortunately you can't take that meeting, you know. And
Speaker 1: I was like, wives, because you got the show on ABC.
Speaker 1: I was like what what gave her the phone? And
Speaker 1: I was like, heah, I gotta leave because you know,
Speaker 1: I got the TV show. And I can remember the
Speaker 1: feeling I had. You know, they had to call me
Speaker 1: a cab. Back then, it was Valley Cab. There was
Speaker 1: a red and white company and I had to take
Speaker 1: a cab all the way from CBS all the way
Speaker 1: back to UH Universal and I remember that feeling like, Yo,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be on TV on Channels seven and thinking
Speaker 1: of all the shows I've watched on Channel seven growing up,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, from Happy Days, you know,
Speaker 1: Fantasy all that stuff, and I'm like, I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: a part of that. And I was I called my
Speaker 1: mother my grandmother, and I was just that feeling right there.
Speaker 1: I'll never forget that joint. It was. It was it
Speaker 1: was crazy. It was like the first time I dunked,
Speaker 1: like yo, and we uh we. I had to move
Speaker 1: out here and you know, got a place and we
Speaker 1: started shooting and understanding camera position. All that worked with
Speaker 1: a great producer and Michael Jacobs who did Dinosaurs and
Speaker 1: Boy Meets World, Don Tranovsky and brother Eric Van Lowe,
Speaker 1: and I learned so much. I learned. I learned and
Speaker 1: my boy Sean Baker, you know my other co star
Speaker 1: man we had so in the boy Jason bow Smith
Speaker 1: who was the little bad kid and Friday on the bike.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, j Knocker Doyle like we had in
Speaker 1: Sovan Walker was an amazing actor and Lorraine Tussaint was
Speaker 1: this amazing actor is still killing it. And I just remember, like, yo, man,
Speaker 1: I'm in Hollywood, man, I'm doing TV. Like yo man,
Speaker 1: this is crazy. I'm like, I ain't ever going there.
Speaker 1: And how long did that show last? Unfortunately only lasted
Speaker 1: thirteen episodes. Something happened where I won't go into that
Speaker 1: with between it, you know, started the show and the
Speaker 1: network and it just it didn't go anymore. But then
Speaker 1: I in ninety four after the Northridge earthquake, you know,
Speaker 1: we have one working and north earthquake hit, I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm going back to New York. I'm like, I ain't
Speaker 1: built for this. I come back to New York and
Speaker 1: I get back on my stand up grind. I'm boom
Speaker 1: boom ninety four, ninety five, ninety six, boom that I
Speaker 1: get a call. Hey man, you know this is New
Speaker 1: Network UPN You know they they have a show. They
Speaker 1: will offer you a holding deal. Now this was back
Speaker 1: when you can cake up getting holding deals. I had
Speaker 1: had one at Disney for you know, a few hundred
Speaker 1: thousand and helped me for a year and a half.
Speaker 1: Didn't do nothing, they just paid me. And then this
Speaker 1: came up. So they sent me a bunch of scripts.
Speaker 1: They said, oh, this script right here, they're really high
Speaker 1: on and they gonna probably do this call Homeboys and
Speaker 1: out of Space. So I looked at them. Now I
Speaker 1: was like, Homeboys, not a space. Then I find out
Speaker 1: it's the EP who was working on Where I Live
Speaker 1: to show that I had just done. So he hit
Speaker 1: me up. He said, flax my man, flex second, Hey man,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be fun. It's gonna be And I said, yeah, man,
Speaker 1: but do y'all have to say homeboys? I said, that's
Speaker 1: so old school. He's like, no, man, people are gonna
Speaker 1: love it, and I'm like, all right, cool. So we
Speaker 1: shoot the pilot and Mel Jackson who was the original
Speaker 1: cast member. Mel Jackson was from soul Food. He was
Speaker 1: lem Me Well from soul Food. Shout out to Mel
Speaker 1: and shot the pilot with him, and then and Rona
Speaker 1: Bennett who's in Vogue. Rona Bennett singing sister, she was
Speaker 1: in it. Uh So shot the pilot. So we're waiting. They' say, oh, yes,
Speaker 1: you know, it's picked up. And then I get a
Speaker 1: call from number I don't recognize. I'm like, what was it? What?
Speaker 1: Darryl Bell? Yo, what's up? Man? Daryl Bell from a
Speaker 1: different world say, man, I'm excited we're going to be
Speaker 1: doing this. And I was like, huh what. And they
Speaker 1: replaced Mel and brought in in Darryl Bell. And then
Speaker 1: we went on to shoot the show and we had fun.
Speaker 1: I mean, it ended after twenty two and then it
Speaker 1: went that dark period. It was like what's next? And
Speaker 1: to be honest, I was I was frustrated. I was like,
Speaker 1: are you still in La? I'm still in La living
Speaker 1: just this just this spot Lastancia over, yes, right there,
Speaker 1: living right there and trying to figure it out. Man,
Speaker 1: and I remember, you know, moving in, me and my
Speaker 1: cousin moving in. Off comes the elevator, Shannice, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, you live here. She's like yeah. I'm like, yo,
Speaker 1: I'm moving there. And I knew who she was. I
Speaker 1: didn't know her, but of course I knew she was
Speaker 1: going to see Laurence Hill. And she was like, I'm
Speaker 1: wait for me. Was going to see Lauren Hill. Going
Speaker 1: to see Lauren Hill that night and she was like,
Speaker 1: I'm waiting for my cousin. Blah blah blah blah. Was
Speaker 1: she taking along? And I was like, well, you know,
Speaker 1: give me the number and keep in touch. And it
Speaker 1: wasn't even on like that type of thing. And she
Speaker 1: was like, all right, I'll be back. She went upstairs,
Speaker 1: took like thirty minutes like I'm out, and then you know,
Speaker 1: I see her two weeks later. I said, all right,
Speaker 1: now you ain't give me a number. Four. She gave
Speaker 1: me a number. We just started talking and I remember
Speaker 1: but sharing with her. I was like, yo, I'm out
Speaker 1: of here, like I'm tired. I'm like trying and trying,
Speaker 1: and she said, you got to do your own thing,
Speaker 1: you got to create something for yourself. She said, you're
Speaker 1: too talented. We are you gonna go back to New
Speaker 1: York for She really pumped me up, and I was like,
Speaker 1: do you have any ideas? I said, yeah, idea about
Speaker 1: a single dad. You know. It was buddy of mine
Speaker 1: from Harlem. It was a single dad and you know,
Speaker 1: just watching his life. She was like, there you go.
Speaker 1: And then that spawned, you know, the idea of just like, man, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: this this is something that you know, I should get
Speaker 1: out and pitch, you know, and then this is where
Speaker 1: you start to learn all of the ins and outs
Speaker 1: about about pitching and all that stuff. So I had
Speaker 1: a friend originally from the idea write a script, you know,
Speaker 1: paid them for the script. They turned it down, but
Speaker 1: the ip is still mine, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, Okay, I want to keep going and
Speaker 1: I want to try to pitch this again. Got another deal,
Speaker 1: got a pilot, a script deal from ABC and Disney,
Speaker 1: and I got another writer. They turned that down. So
Speaker 1: again I'm like, well, hey, I still want to go
Speaker 1: out with this, but I want to take it back
Speaker 1: to how I originally envisioned it. Because you get writers
Speaker 1: and they add they had their visions too, which is
Speaker 1: which is fine. So I said I want to I
Speaker 1: want to get back out with it. So my agent
Speaker 1: was like, all right, cool, let's let's let's go back out.
Speaker 1: So we go back out. My agent and my manager
Speaker 1: at the time, we go out pitch it. I pitched
Speaker 1: it to green Black John Lowry, Bob green Black, who
Speaker 1: was had NBC for a while, David John Lowry just
Speaker 1: done so much stuff went in. They had a deal
Speaker 1: at Fox, uh and another executive then Keith Cox. They
Speaker 1: had a deal at Fox. So pitch it like on
Speaker 1: a Tuesday, that Friday call, It's like we want to
Speaker 1: do it. We love it, like like oh this is dope.
Speaker 2: And in a time frame from the idea to now
Speaker 2: out actually doing a deal for how much time is that?
Speaker 1: It's probably about, I say, really a year, year, year
Speaker 1: and a half maybe, which is pretty quick. It was quick.
Speaker 1: It moved pretty quick because it right around after I
Speaker 1: met wife. Yeah, because I met her. My brother passed
Speaker 1: in ninety seven, and then my after my grandmother passed
Speaker 1: in ninety nine, and yeah, so it moved pretty quick.
Speaker 1: So they said they want to do it. It was
Speaker 1: like all right, cool, So I obviously put the deal together.
Speaker 1: I got to find writers, you know, looking for writers.
Speaker 1: I met with like five six writers. Met with his sister.
Speaker 1: You need the boom got wrestled. We'll go over to
Speaker 1: her house and wife and I'm telling her the story, like, hey,
Speaker 1: this boom boom, it's dead. This is this all write
Speaker 1: it down. And then we go to shoot the pilot.
Speaker 1: So I'm doing all the deal stuff and and and
Speaker 1: I said, I created by credit. I'm like, a right,
Speaker 1: cool boom boom boom. Fill all that out. Okay, so
Speaker 1: that's throwing to the side, and now we shoot and
Speaker 1: then we get to I forgot what point it was.
Speaker 1: Oh it was. We shot the pilot and then we
Speaker 1: didn't get picked up. We were it was uh, my wife,
Speaker 1: you were driving and I got the call. They were like, yeah,
Speaker 1: they're not gonna pick it up. And then we pulled over. Dude,
Speaker 1: we start crying because we just got married. I'm like,
Speaker 1: what am I going to do? I was like, And
Speaker 1: we put on Mary and Mary was like, God just
Speaker 1: can't give me. I come to We sit on the
Speaker 1: side of vine and like, O were crying. Man, Jesus,
Speaker 1: I'm figuring. I'm like, what am I gonna do so
Speaker 1: then you know it's just you know, you go through that,
Speaker 1: those emotions. So they cut to a year's past. Sorry
Speaker 1: first year anniversary. We're driving back from Santa Barbara, get
Speaker 1: a call from my ex manager David. He's like, hey, hey, Flex,
Speaker 1: how you doing man. I'm like, I'm good man. He said, hey, so, yeah,
Speaker 1: would you want to still want to do your show?
Speaker 1: And I'm like we talked about I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: Paramount's picking it up and they want to do it.
Speaker 1: I'm like what, I'm like, what amo so? So explain
Speaker 1: how something like that. I still don't know because I've
Speaker 1: never but I've never been a part of a show
Speaker 1: shot a pilot where it didn't get picked up and
Speaker 1: it get picked up later or was it in the
Speaker 1: same place. No, it was different network, every different studio
Speaker 1: exactly same network, network, different studio, different studios. Sell you
Speaker 1: what happened. So there was the head of the network
Speaker 1: at the time. What was his name, It'll come back
Speaker 1: to me, but but the head of the network at
Speaker 1: the time, he called me himself and he was probably
Speaker 1: said hey man, because he used to be over at
Speaker 1: Dean lit Back was his name. He used to be
Speaker 1: over at upm when I was on Homeboys. He was
Speaker 1: at Disney, so he's seen me grow, he's known me,
Speaker 1: and he's just like, man, this kid is great. But
Speaker 1: by he called me and said, hey, man, I'm so sorry.
Speaker 1: We should we should have picked you up. You know
Speaker 1: the first time they had picked up a show called
Speaker 1: The Secret Files of Desmond Pfeifer. It was the show
Speaker 1: with Sean McBride where he was it was the Slave
Speaker 1: of Lincoln and that was the TV show that they made,
Speaker 1: and they had picked that up and he was just like,
Speaker 1: he said, yeah, you know, we shouldn't have done that.
Speaker 1: He's like, but he said, don't worry about it. You
Speaker 1: know we got you. You covered boom And I was like,
Speaker 1: I bet so. So now we're going to shoot. So
Speaker 1: then here comes the subject about the creative buy. So
Speaker 1: the guild recognizes who put pen to paper or a
Speaker 1: finger to keyboard. It ain't about who said, hey I
Speaker 1: I I created it. When I see people young writers
Speaker 1: or people they send something or they put something up
Speaker 1: like yeah, created by means nothing until you go through
Speaker 1: the WGA register it. You do that and then you
Speaker 1: registered through is it the Library of Congress one of
Speaker 1: those other ones out of the register. It there the
Speaker 1: Library of Congress. But it's another form that you can
Speaker 1: copyright it. That is when it's copyright And even then
Speaker 1: I for writer comes in, they're going to add their
Speaker 1: sauce to it. So together or separately you can agree say, okay,
Speaker 1: you brought this in, we've created it together, or listen,
Speaker 1: I created this, Okay, you wrote this off of my creation,
Speaker 1: and it's going to stay my creation. I didn't know
Speaker 1: any of that, and then my attorney at the time
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, you didn't have it registered. I was like,
Speaker 1: I didn't know I had to. I had no idea.
Speaker 1: I just had an idea, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: And that that's the difference of you know, a couple
Speaker 1: of meal on that back end, you know. But Paramount
Speaker 1: tried to make it right and as far as reflecting
Speaker 1: in points, but it was never going to be what
Speaker 1: a creator gets and a creator that just it follows you,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, it can help other other jobs.
Speaker 1: So it was a hurdle we had to get over.
Speaker 1: So if you had to do it over again, would
Speaker 1: you have would you have written the script the pilot yourself?
Speaker 1: At that time, I was not right and I would
Speaker 1: have read, you would have registered it, put it in
Speaker 1: the best form I could into a treatment, you know,
Speaker 1: one sheet or whatever, because at least had I had that,
Speaker 1: they would be like, oh, he already had that there,
Speaker 1: So this is a creation based off that, because back
Speaker 1: then you could still you would get uh created by
Speaker 1: based created based on the concept, based on the concept,
Speaker 1: you know what. They were still doing that, but they've
Speaker 1: killed that credit. I would have done that, and I
Speaker 1: would have had a different conversation with the showrunner that
Speaker 1: I chose because I hired the showrunner. I brought the
Speaker 1: showrunner and I said, this is who I want, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. I would have had a different
Speaker 1: conversation or I would have because at the time, it
Speaker 1: was like we already in motion, wheels in motion, and
Speaker 1: I could either be like, you know, man, you know,
Speaker 1: piss a bitch, and I ain't doing none of this.
Speaker 1: Stop the train from it. You've got a hundred some people,
Speaker 1: you know, depending on you to work, just like, all right, man,
Speaker 1: let's just let's just do it. And but you know,
Speaker 1: that was the only kind of thing that stung. But
Speaker 1: we you know, went on to do great and at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, you know we needed each other,
Speaker 1: you know, showrunner myself, we needed each other. You know,
Speaker 1: I found Kylo. I didn't discover her, but I saw
Speaker 1: her on a commercial, a Nike commercial, and they were
Speaker 1: playing the Little Rascals music. She act like the cute
Speaker 1: little girl and said, oh you Lisa Leslie, Oh you know,
Speaker 1: I'm such a big fan. Can have you autograb And
Speaker 1: she goes, sure, a little girl. She's like, well, you
Speaker 1: need to rebound better. And that's why I saw her.
Speaker 1: I was like, that's gotta be my daughter. And we
Speaker 1: reached out and sat down, had a meeting. We shot
Speaker 1: the pilot pilot. Kyla was I think twelve or thirteen
Speaker 1: man by the time we went to series. I think
Speaker 1: she was fifteen by the time we shot the first
Speaker 1: first season. But yeah, I would That's the only thing
Speaker 1: I would have done different. But you know, I had
Speaker 1: a great time, one of the you know, the best
Speaker 1: times in my life. Seas. We did six one hundred
Speaker 1: something seventeen episodes, so syndication in the whole thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it was really i'd say five and a half
Speaker 1: because you know, they tried, they wanted to go a
Speaker 1: different direction and do some different things and I was like, well, no,
Speaker 1: I don't want to do that. So it was just
Speaker 1: an impasse where Okay, I'll agree to come back and
Speaker 1: do this is my shows, and then you know, and
Speaker 1: then y'all move on. And that's what we did, because
Speaker 1: how does that go and how does that work?
Speaker 2: If it's something that I mean, obviously, you gave us
Speaker 2: the breakdown of the whole creative buy thing. I know
Speaker 2: about the you told us about the money that may
Speaker 2: have been missed or not even made that but that
Speaker 2: was missed out by you not doing it that way.
Speaker 2: But did that ultimately give them the power to restructure
Speaker 2: your show?
Speaker 1: No, they've always had. I mean, listen to the studio
Speaker 1: has the power they give. They're giving them money no
Speaker 1: matter what we like to think.
Speaker 4: You know what I mean.
Speaker 1: If you look at the history of anybody that tried
Speaker 1: to show out and they except that we can't canceling
Speaker 1: the show, you know what I mean. So it's just
Speaker 1: about I wouldn't say playing a game, but just knowing
Speaker 1: when the picket battles and all that stuff. But listen,
Speaker 1: they gave me, afforded me a life that you know,
Speaker 1: ten years prior I didn't have, so I'm grateful for that,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And you're gonna have those
Speaker 1: bumps and you're gonna have those bruises, but all of
Speaker 1: those things that are to teach you, you know the
Speaker 1: next go round that you know better. So now I
Speaker 1: know better. I'm like, I know, before I even pitch anything,
Speaker 1: say anything, I'm going right to guild here boom, regis
Speaker 1: every which way I can, and then we're gonna talk,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Because it gets dicey, and
Speaker 1: people get people get funky. You can see people forget,
Speaker 1: people forget and forget. You can sit and have a conversation, Oh,
Speaker 1: we're gonna do this, oh yeah, and then something happens
Speaker 1: that all changes. Yeah, and you talk to my lawyer.
Speaker 1: Now it's like, oh, oh we had an agreement. It
Speaker 1: all changes. Friends or no friends.
Speaker 2: It is.
Speaker 1: It is. It is one of the one of the
Speaker 1: stickiest places to be when you get into a situation
Speaker 1: like that, especially if it's friends or people that your
Speaker 1: your peers, you know, because it's always about who did what.
Speaker 1: It's like, let's just do it together, like myself, Chris
Speaker 1: and Buddy, we have a project now, Like we get
Speaker 1: it together. You know what I mean, and you know,
Speaker 1: I will always be like, hey man, they're stronger than
Speaker 1: me in this area. I have a strength in this area,
Speaker 1: and we just put it together. But you know, people
Speaker 1: are putting time in it and helping you. That's that's
Speaker 1: that's a different thing, are you.
Speaker 4: I mean I think you're you're probably up financially in
Speaker 4: a good space. When you guys come to this impasse
Speaker 4: and they're like, well, we're going to do something different.
Speaker 4: You know, you're doing pretty well for yourself and now
Speaker 4: you're saying, what's my next move again?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, I am, you know out and you know,
Speaker 1: you take some gigs here and there. You know, I
Speaker 1: chilled a little bit, you know, just home and really
Speaker 1: just trying to trying to trying to figure it out.
Speaker 1: Then I get a call from my agent. It's like,
Speaker 1: hey man, uh, you're not going to believe me. I'm like,
Speaker 1: well what it was like, Yeah, so they're doing this
Speaker 1: Michael Jackson movie. Let me go and get it out.
Speaker 1: It is going to get this out. Get this call
Speaker 1: this Michael Jackson movie. And I'm like, okay, cool, who's
Speaker 1: in it. It's like they want to meet with you.
Speaker 1: I'm like, they said who's in. I'm like, like, what
Speaker 1: they can't they want to beat other pH one, you know,
Speaker 1: Santa Monica. I'm like, I'm like, okay, they want you
Speaker 1: to meet with the director producer. I'm like, okay, cool,
Speaker 1: al right, I'll go take a meeting. Go sit down.
Speaker 1: I don't see nobody else there. It's not like I'm
Speaker 1: not reading nothing. It's like I'm just like sitting there.
Speaker 1: And the director is like, he's very earthy, like we
Speaker 1: want to do you know. This is we're not trying to,
Speaker 1: you know, to fame him. This is you know, we love.
Speaker 1: We want to put energy in. And I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: cools energy cool. They just asked me questions about him,
Speaker 1: how I felt. I was like, come on, I met
Speaker 1: him once. Super cool. I'm like yeah, like and that's it.
Speaker 1: Just had a conversation. I leave. I think about a
Speaker 1: week later they called and they was like, yeah, they
Speaker 1: want to make you offer. I was like, come off
Speaker 1: of that conversation. Just off of that conversation, just off
Speaker 1: of that, I'm like, I was like, come on, man,
Speaker 1: you like they know I'm six four, right, Like I
Speaker 1: can't like how they want to make an offer. And
Speaker 1: I'm like then I find out, I'm like, who else
Speaker 1: were they talking to? This would have even been really funny.
Speaker 1: I think Hill Harper was on their ring. Shout out
Speaker 1: to Hill's go Senator. He may not even know that,
Speaker 1: but I guess they were thinking about him at the time. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: what yes. So I'm like okay, and I'm like, all right,
Speaker 1: well whatever, you know, negotiate whatever. Clearly think we all
Speaker 1: look like yeah. And they came back with the number
Speaker 1: and I was like, yeah, I'll do it, I'll do it.
Speaker 1: Tell us what that never was? Brother, I know you
Speaker 1: can't tell us keep that lock. Yeah, it was good.
Speaker 1: It was enough for him to do it. It was
Speaker 1: a great number. Overlooked everything much what it costs for
Speaker 1: you to play Michael Jackson tap but no. But but
Speaker 1: you know what, you gotta understand. It wasn't now, it's
Speaker 1: not about yeah. But I'm looking and I'm saying, this
Speaker 1: is before so this is and when they pitched the
Speaker 1: story and they're sitting there telling me, once I agree
Speaker 1: to do it, that like we're gonna we have, we
Speaker 1: got the songs, we're gonna be doing big performances, we
Speaker 1: got the rights to the song. I'm like okay. I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: it wasn't just about what you could buy. It wasn't
Speaker 1: about that at that point, it's like you really can
Speaker 1: do something. I'm like, oh, man, we said, we gotta.
Speaker 1: He said, I have this performance. You do a man
Speaker 1: in the mirror. I was like, okay, I'm gonna kill it.
Speaker 1: And they took you back to your day today, all
Speaker 1: of that stuff and the love that I have for Michael,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. I was just like, oh,
Speaker 1: bat boom, So we go do it. I should have
Speaker 1: known first day walking in the makeup trailer and I said,
Speaker 1: I see the rubber nose sitting there, and I'm just like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not putting that on. Like, I'm not doing that.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna make a caricature. Yeah. So I didn't
Speaker 1: put the nose on. But then they came out with
Speaker 1: the dog on the airbrush with the ashy airbrush powder
Speaker 1: and they put it on. I was like, I was like,
Speaker 1: y'all know I look ashy, right, Oh no, to'll be
Speaker 1: fun like all right, and then we start shooting. We're
Speaker 1: shooting with the intent of delivering something really good, which
Speaker 1: at the time for the time because guess this check
Speaker 1: us out. It air on BH one, nobody had nothing
Speaker 1: negative to say. If this air on b ask me
Speaker 1: you were probably younger. You were probably Oh my listen, listen,
Speaker 1: I'm tough dude. It aired, people say, oh man, you
Speaker 1: did a great job. I mean I even even I
Speaker 1: mean sitting with La Toya talking to her and she
Speaker 1: she knew production value was crap, but she was just like,
Speaker 1: we appreciate you really, you know, trying to really channel
Speaker 1: the one thing. People just say, it's like, yo, you
Speaker 1: really you know, channeled him just the kindness and all
Speaker 1: that stuff to make up because make it was horrible.
Speaker 2: But you're gonna because that's my biggest issue.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that was that was bad. It was was
Speaker 1: it chalk. It was some air brush. It was in
Speaker 1: an airbrush. That's all. I know. That every morning one.
Speaker 2: Scene, well you had all all white and he was
Speaker 2: matching your shirt. I know, man, And I said, ain't
Speaker 2: no way, Yeah, it ain't no way.
Speaker 1: It looked like they took me and they rolled me
Speaker 1: and powdered donuts and just like and action. What's the
Speaker 1: time right now? What's the day? Oh my god, listen, man,
Speaker 1: I thought I was safe.
Speaker 4: When did any point during the shooting, At any point
Speaker 4: did you look at yourself?
Speaker 1: There was no points, no point except for the makeup.
Speaker 1: I was like, man, they gotta do this better. But
Speaker 1: at no point did I think because again this was
Speaker 1: before social media, so there was no opinions to base anything.
Speaker 1: I thought. I was clear, they ate this man so
Speaker 1: much money. They ain't no way. You didn't walk by
Speaker 1: that mirror and go oh hell no. I was just
Speaker 1: like yo, man. And then when people hit me up,
Speaker 1: and initially I was like, initially I was getting offended,
Speaker 1: like I got a family, But then I was like,
Speaker 1: you know what where he was getting offended at first
Speaker 1: when it because when social media started, and then when
Speaker 1: people would see it or it would came on, or
Speaker 1: they would hit me. Oh they would hit me. I
Speaker 1: would get tagged. We ain't never gonna forgive you, never forget,
Speaker 1: never forget that you should never oh my god. And
Speaker 1: then I would be going back when and then I
Speaker 1: was like, man, I got to learn to laugh at myself.
Speaker 1: And when I looked at that com I was like
Speaker 1: this was initially, but then I was like, so people
Speaker 1: hit me, I'm like, man, you all right? I was
Speaker 1: asked you I don't know what I was thinking. And
Speaker 1: you know some of our responses. Somebody said something about
Speaker 1: uh uh I posted something and they were like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you need to post uh a piece of that terrible
Speaker 1: Michael Jacks movie there. I said, I'll post the check stuff.
Speaker 1: How about that? You know? But then I was like, no,
Speaker 1: I don't do that, don't do that. But I just
Speaker 1: have fun with it. Now it's it's it's always around
Speaker 1: his birthday. I know yearly when it's coming. So I
Speaker 1: get ready and just sit there and just let me
Speaker 1: take it. And now that they did the movie and
Speaker 1: that's coming out, I know that they're gonna play get
Speaker 1: the movie. They did it, yes, with your Jamaine Son
Speaker 1: and Answer Food Couad directed. It is an amazing they
Speaker 1: that was They did it right. And the thing is
Speaker 1: even in that somebody's gonna have a problem with it.
Speaker 1: Of course, sure of course sure, but it's not gonna
Speaker 1: be what I did. This is how.
Speaker 2: Our friendship is the reason why I've never posted it.
Speaker 2: Oh but now that I know you cool with it,
Speaker 2: I'm listen. You know how many people I know that
Speaker 2: have posted that time?
Speaker 4: I mean, like I get hit here as your friend,
Speaker 4: like you didn't do it.
Speaker 1: What do you mean? I've never seen but it's so funny, man.
Speaker 1: But you know what, I'm like, I can say that's a.
Speaker 4: Great moment in you know, your love for music, your
Speaker 4: love for Michael. Like you're like, how you want to
Speaker 4: turn that down? Like when you ask me like the
Speaker 4: turned down Michael Jackson. I'm in my mind. I'm trying
Speaker 4: to think of all the things I would just need
Speaker 4: to do to get into that character too, and I'm
Speaker 4: gonna try and do them.
Speaker 1: Listen. I came home. I came home and I was
Speaker 1: still in character. We went to eat me and a
Speaker 1: family and I was like, because everything was shaved. I
Speaker 1: got to the house, I forgot the code to the alarm,
Speaker 1: like I really was because I just watched hours hours.
Speaker 1: I'm like, if I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: ahead and do it. And it was I submerged in
Speaker 1: that joint, yo, and it was who Yeah, it tat.
Speaker 1: It taught me a lot, man. I was just like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I really gotta vet this thing out a little little
Speaker 1: a little better. But I mean, again, for my love
Speaker 1: of music, love of him, like I had, I know,
Speaker 1: there was talks of you know, Tyresee doing Teddy Panograss.
Speaker 1: I spoke to Teddy Panegrass years ago about I was
Speaker 1: submitted about playing Teddy Pentagram. This was years ago. Someone
Speaker 1: else had the rights at the time, and I knew them,
Speaker 1: and they called me and they put me on the
Speaker 1: phone with him and saw my picture. It was like, oh,
Speaker 1: Man pictures, great man. He said, yeah, we're gonna keep
Speaker 1: you know, keep going. We're gonna figure this out. And
Speaker 1: you know, obviously he passed. But you know, I've tried
Speaker 1: to get the rights to Sam Cook at one point,
Speaker 1: but the the guy who owned it, who swindled him
Speaker 1: out of his his rights to his music, owns the
Speaker 1: music and won't let anybody. That's what if you notice,
Speaker 1: the only person who ever had the original uh rendition
Speaker 1: of Change Gonna Come is Spike Lee in X nobody
Speaker 1: else and Ali was our Green singing it. They did
Speaker 1: a ready remake of it, but they won't let that
Speaker 1: music go. And I'm like, you can't do a Sam
Speaker 1: Cook movie without the music. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's
Speaker 1: some people I've I've tried, and you know, I just
Speaker 1: I don't know, just they just Michael got me. I
Speaker 1: love Michael Man love. Man, there's such such a it
Speaker 1: was such an amazing it.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: God, just he would come in, introduce himself to everybody
Speaker 1: and everybody's name. Just it's an amazing, amazing, amazing person.
Speaker 1: What does that lead to? After Michael Jackson? Uh? That,
Speaker 1: after that, God, it was, that's when the what do
Speaker 1: you call it? Hit? The two thousand and eight financial
Speaker 1: collapse hit. It was I had had we got property,
Speaker 1: we bought property in Vegas, and you know, I'm stacking up, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I want to pass this down. Bottom fell
Speaker 1: out everything. I should have let it go, but I'm
Speaker 1: pulling from savings trying to keep it. Got to I
Speaker 1: had a twelve unit little building and four single family
Speaker 1: homes and everybody like it was. It was bad. So
Speaker 1: I'm pulling money trying to keep it going because I
Speaker 1: want to pass this down and I should have let
Speaker 1: it go. And that's what led to us, you know,
Speaker 1: doing the show on own talking about it. Yeah, talking
Speaker 1: about what we what we went through. And because I
Speaker 1: didn't want to do reality, and so the only way
Speaker 1: I would do is if we had something to talk about.
Speaker 1: And you know, Wifey, she loves reality. She just want
Speaker 1: to do reality. Show. I wanted to the reality show.
Speaker 1: And then I said, listen, if we're going to do it,
Speaker 1: we got to tell the story because I don't want
Speaker 1: blogs and it's coming out telling our story. We're going
Speaker 1: to tell you know, how everything happened. And we did,
Speaker 1: and for the most part, it was super positive. We
Speaker 1: had so many people who were thankful in this industry,
Speaker 1: and we both know that came to me on the side, Yo, man,
Speaker 1: I was living in my car or Yo, man, I
Speaker 1: don't know how you spoke out, but thank you and
Speaker 1: you know that gave me the confidence and you know,
Speaker 1: and I'm just like, that's the reason, if anything, that
Speaker 1: was the reason to do it for those people. We
Speaker 1: had a couple that reached out and they told us
Speaker 1: that they told my wife that they lost everything, had kids,
Speaker 1: all that, and they were planning to mit suicide and
Speaker 1: they were writing a letter and they were going to
Speaker 1: leave the kids with her parents. They saw our show
Speaker 1: that both were They saw our show and said, hey,
Speaker 1: we saw that you guys can make it, and they
Speaker 1: just didn't do it and turn and turned things around
Speaker 1: and thrive. And I wonder where that couple is now.
Speaker 1: I hope, you know, I know they were still going.
Speaker 1: But that that for me was was everything, you know,
Speaker 1: and that was everything. So going through that, after Michael Jackson,
Speaker 1: after that the financial collapse, everything changed, the business changed,
Speaker 1: and then it just became you know, doing a TV
Speaker 1: movie here or doing to reoccur here, and you know
Speaker 1: I would do Gray's Anatomy I did. I had a
Speaker 1: bunch of stuff. Man, I've done a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: stuff that people forget, you know what I mean. And
Speaker 1: I was able to just continue sustain and then you know,
Speaker 1: Wifey started performing more again, and and we just kept going. Man,
Speaker 1: we just we just kept going. And people think, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you got black Ball, and I'm like, no, I'm still
Speaker 1: working black Ball for playing Michael Jackson, like really, like
Speaker 1: it didn't make no sense, but that just, you know,
Speaker 1: I led into I had another deal, create another show.
Speaker 1: It didn't happen, but I had a deal on the table.
Speaker 1: But I just kept going. I just kept going, kept going.
Speaker 1: That's all I know how to do. You know, even
Speaker 1: in the tough times like right now, you know, so
Speaker 1: many people going through it and still trying to front.
Speaker 1: I'm like, yo, everybody getting hit hard, everyone, and this
Speaker 1: is the time where you just have to shift and
Speaker 1: figure things out do other things as well. I don't
Speaker 1: think it's anything wrong wrong with that. I've been, you know,
Speaker 1: heavy into studying government contracting, and you know, I'm looking
Speaker 1: at the percentages of millionaires that come out of there,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, okay, all right, we're gonna learn that's
Speaker 1: something else, you know what I mean? Because as much
Speaker 1: as I love this, I know I can't sit and wait.
Speaker 1: And even if you reach out to people, those people
Speaker 1: are waiting. You know, they're not in a position to
Speaker 1: do anything. And I'm talking about black, white everything. I
Speaker 1: got a couple of white friends, just producers. They got
Speaker 1: shows packaged with some names, and they can't sell them.
Speaker 1: So that just tells you where we are. I'm like,
Speaker 1: what do they know? Why is everybody on hole right now?
Speaker 1: What do they know? I don't know if it's the election,
Speaker 1: I don't know what it is. But it's a weird time.
Speaker 1: And it's not saying that you can't get things done,
Speaker 1: but I just think it's we're in the time now
Speaker 1: that you have to really dig deep and and and
Speaker 1: and understand that you know, just one way is not
Speaker 1: the way anymore. Like you said earlier, you know, for
Speaker 1: you know, hit record, right, and it's like, okay, publishing company, Okay,
Speaker 1: get some artists, let me do. It's that same thing
Speaker 1: you yes, putting all these numbers, all of that stuff.
Speaker 1: You have to do. It almost like the three card mindset.
Speaker 1: You got to you have to. And that's one thing
Speaker 1: I will never never stop doing, you know, because it's
Speaker 1: just it's just I don't know, man, I love it.
Speaker 1: I'm fell in love with getting on stage again, back
Speaker 1: doing stand up, and I just fell in love with
Speaker 1: it more this time because now I've lived life and
Speaker 1: now I have stuff to talk about, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. The journey is you know, my wife and
Speaker 1: I went through our kids, what we went through, and
Speaker 1: you know, and what she's come through and with this
Speaker 1: cancer thing, and I mean it's all other shit don't
Speaker 1: mean nothing to me. So I don't people can oh
Speaker 1: you did this, it's like okay, cool, it's funny. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but you know, at the end of the day, ma'am
Speaker 1: still here. You know, we're still here, and that for
Speaker 1: me is everything. This is all I ever wanted to do.
Speaker 1: So you know what I mean, this is what it's
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm telling you like this. This is all
Speaker 1: I ever wanted to do. Man. I love it, not
Speaker 1: for the other stuff, but just to when I get
Speaker 1: on stage. Man, I'm telling my story. I got your attention.
Speaker 1: You know, you paid your money to come see me.
Speaker 1: I'm like, yoh, man, it's like you're doing a concert
Speaker 1: and Nadia and you're taking your time on a song
Speaker 1: and they're like, I'll tell you that. You know, you know,
Speaker 1: it's the same feeling, you know. I think when I
Speaker 1: was younger, it was different. When I was younger, I
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, I get that bread. You know, people
Speaker 1: know me. You know, it's still humble. But I think
Speaker 1: now it's the love is kicked in because at fifty
Speaker 1: four is different. Fifty four fifty four, yes, sir, yes, sir,
Speaker 1: it's me. I believe you don't hope no more. I
Speaker 1: see him. I do the same thing to him. I said, Bro,
Speaker 1: you know, no hold with us, no here you text
Speaker 1: me A couple of times, I said, Jay, let me
Speaker 1: just let you know it's not happening. It's not legs, no. No.
Speaker 1: The last time I thunk I was what forty six,
Speaker 1: and then I was doing a celebrity game in Indianapolis
Speaker 1: and next year I went, I went to go up.
Speaker 1: It was just gone, just gone. I say, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm good. Everybody I know my age or in our
Speaker 1: age is popping achilles. I'm like, look, thank you don't
Speaker 1: need that. Don't nobody needs that.
Speaker 4: See super legs over here. He did a meniscus. I
Speaker 4: told a a C and you still that the same leg,
Speaker 4: didn't need surgery, didn't do surgery, just did all.
Speaker 1: Rehab and still going. I love it. I love it.
Speaker 4: I stopped because of that, yes, I said, And then
Speaker 4: I came back like wait, wait where you at to that?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I run No, No, I can't. I can't find
Speaker 1: any enjoyment of anything else the same way. Really, I
Speaker 1: think like within your journey, bro, you know.
Speaker 4: You from a talent standpoint, a gift standpoint, like you've
Speaker 4: accomplished some some really incredible things. But that piece where
Speaker 4: you and your wife share your share your life with
Speaker 4: the world, Yeah, that positive way that is like that
Speaker 4: is the gold Man. And even when I just used
Speaker 4: to used to see y'all two together. You know what
Speaker 4: I'm saying, it's like a it's smiling. It's a different
Speaker 4: kind of energy, like it's like, oh yeah, that's that.
Speaker 4: That's the Lord's work right there. It's like it's like
Speaker 4: seeing two people that like, I don't know, like something
Speaker 4: else comes from that, something more inspirational, something deeper, just
Speaker 4: from y'all standing there together, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: So I'm glad y'all were able to tell that story.
Speaker 4: And I know for a fact you've saved more people
Speaker 4: then you realize. Just your example, man, and just those smiles.
Speaker 4: So y'all walked in and she starts smiling.
Speaker 1: Look at this man, she always smile. You married the
Speaker 1: R and B man. I don't know about saying. In
Speaker 1: my head, I know you are you listen, she will
Speaker 1: tell you. In my mind, I'm singing. And the crazy
Speaker 1: thing is I'm singing all the time. She don't sing
Speaker 1: around the house. I'm the one for your music. Everything
Speaker 1: you listen, you're all kings. You don't sing off case.
Speaker 1: She talked, She's like, I turned about that key. She's
Speaker 1: off my note, off my note, off my note. She'll
Speaker 1: purposely come in. She'll get me a note like no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: off my note. Yeah yeah yeah, your melody.
Speaker 2: Guys, understand that melody. A solo guy, just think tune
Speaker 2: now you know what I mean. Listen a whole nother career. Hey,
Speaker 2: pivot in his whole time.
Speaker 1: You never know, you never know. I was in the group.
Speaker 1: Once I got I got kicked out, but I was
Speaker 1: there for for a minute. It was an R and
Speaker 1: B group. I was a rapp R and B group
Speaker 1: called jim Wait wait what woy wait wait wait before
Speaker 1: you before you go ahead and start playing. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: need to know about shot like like like like French
Speaker 1: for I love you shot him? Okay, hallm I thought
Speaker 1: it was like French timbling both my R and B.
Speaker 1: It was my boy, my boy, Michael Harrison shout out
Speaker 1: to Michael Harrison in Harlem. He was up in this apartment.
Speaker 1: I think that the least things of Spanish. Dude named Jimmy,
Speaker 1: and there was another guy and nobody was French though No, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: she was trying to do something different. So we up
Speaker 1: in there. I mean we harmonizing. And are you really harmonized?
Speaker 1: I thought I was until I got to notice Jimmy's
Speaker 1: until I got to notice, Yeah, you might want to
Speaker 1: go ahead do this dancing thing because you yeah, we're
Speaker 1: not going to be your services. But I knew it though.
Speaker 1: I knew this was something I had come to terms
Speaker 1: with and I knew this is not my calling. And
Speaker 1: look who got to play Michael Jackson look at that
Speaker 1: and not none of yeah would kicked me out.
Speaker 4: For this.
Speaker 1: I think. I think I had two rehearsals and I
Speaker 1: was gone. But that's how much I love music. We
Speaker 1: just went to the fool and fool and love Uh
Speaker 1: festival that they had out by so far, Gladys Knight, Ross,
Speaker 1: line of Richie Santana, the whispers, I mean every I
Speaker 1: loved it. It was. We all went out even know
Speaker 1: that was happening.
Speaker 2: Oh it was.
Speaker 1: It was a little loun organized as far as getting
Speaker 1: in part, but I can a plus on putting together
Speaker 1: a lineup in The stages were like the cross So
Speaker 1: when one artist was performing, artists was over here setting up.
Speaker 1: As soon as they finished, they was on and it
Speaker 1: just went like that.
Speaker 2: It was.
Speaker 1: It was so dope and seeing all of them performing,
Speaker 1: seeing Eddie up this mean and walk to it, and
Speaker 1: people won't get Walter enough credit Walter Walter, Yeah, Walter
Speaker 1: cold blooded. I mean it was. And we left. Lionel
Speaker 1: had started. He just started off man with being alone.
Speaker 1: He started off with Hello. I was like, Yo, how
Speaker 1: are you gonna start with Hello? Catalog? He got that
Speaker 1: many hit speaking of his let's talk about Nle Rogers.
Speaker 1: He got there and I did. I didn't know he
Speaker 1: did his catalog. He said, y'all might know this one.
Speaker 4: I was like like that.
Speaker 1: I'm like what.
Speaker 4: That was?
Speaker 1: If you can get there next year. It was that
Speaker 1: right outside of so far in between and the forum outside.
Speaker 1: It was amazing. That's what I love how much I
Speaker 1: I'm always playing music in my car is the R
Speaker 1: and B and Wifey's car. She's playing and drop it
Speaker 1: like it's hot. She might be playing Sexy Red, she
Speaker 1: might be playing my booty whole Brown. She might be
Speaker 1: playing just know what you think? What you think? She smiling, smile,
Speaker 1: and she is dropping it. I mean she's at the party.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, she she is trade up gangsters need
Speaker 1: to balance with all the Shenanigans. I listening to Awfulish.
Speaker 1: I love it, man. I mean going from shoot Bar
Speaker 1: Skags to you know, Bobby Carwell to you Yeah, everything, man,
Speaker 1: I just love all of it. That is not flex
Speaker 1: is your top five R n B s Okay, So
Speaker 1: what do we say here because again, we've talked about
Speaker 1: We've talked about Michael and I know they said, oh,
Speaker 1: king of Pop, but Mike was so R and B
Speaker 1: and for me, he is definitely there. And Jay listen
Speaker 1: off the walk, man, listen, I can't help it. Come on, okay, Luther,
Speaker 1: come on, get some armies in the French accent. That's okay,
Speaker 1: gotta have Luther. Uh. Oh my gosh, Jeffrey Osborne, come on, jail.
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, putting there. I gotta put Gladys Knight. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and there, gotta put Gladys Knight's incredible voice, my soul. God,
Speaker 1: have to gosh more m you got it, Shaka Khan
Speaker 1: shot check corn. Yeah, I just saw her.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's still out there with the with the fit on,
Speaker 2: with the hair blown hitting all the nose.
Speaker 1: Just saw her. She she it's so hard, because how
Speaker 1: can you forget Whitney? Like it's so hard? Man, come on,
Speaker 1: sing the remix. Okay, so there we go. Okay, we
Speaker 1: got Whitney. So that's what. That's sick. That's sick. That's
Speaker 1: I gotta stop, Okay, I don't. I don't want you
Speaker 1: to veer off of your you know your ahead. Come
Speaker 1: on give us. Oh my gosh, said Whitney. Whitney definitely
Speaker 1: got the voice, the voice always I and I'm partial.
Speaker 1: I have to put my wife in there. I was going,
Speaker 1: I was going to, I'm just trying to you want
Speaker 1: to stab something? Absolutely is the turn up. You're not
Speaker 1: playing them and you talk about someone who's still who
Speaker 1: sounds probably even better now. And I told her this,
Speaker 1: after all you've been through, so you sound better now
Speaker 1: then you did back then, and you sound great, but
Speaker 1: you you've lived life. It's a different type of richness.
Speaker 1: That richness.
Speaker 4: Is.
Speaker 1: It's just different. The last show, she just I was
Speaker 1: just like yo, And of course, as you guys are
Speaker 1: are you sure I didn't? I didn't think I did
Speaker 1: this right? Are you crazy? Yeah? Okay? One more, one more,
Speaker 1: Oldest ready yeah, Old's ready? Yeah? Oh yeah your name?
Speaker 1: He got a song called I Love words can say? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Is that part of the top five RB song? Okay,
Speaker 1: let's go to the top five R and B songs.
Speaker 1: Let's go, Okay, rock with you, Rock with you? Definitely,
Speaker 1: dang that's uh h h. You did the R and
Speaker 1: B Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's one of us. You've been
Speaker 1: watching y Yeah, people may not agree, but that damn
Speaker 1: cry for you by Jo you're talking to. I don't
Speaker 1: agree something cry in joy that I was in there too.
Speaker 1: I was in that group too. We're in the group.
Speaker 1: It's all of us. Yeah, I mean, yes, I was
Speaker 1: there too. Some people ain't gonna agree with you. We
Speaker 1: don't know, but i'mnna smack him. You God damn right,
Speaker 1: cry for you. Okay, so we got we got that.
Speaker 1: Uh gosh, it's not an original, but still that's the original,
Speaker 1: was Dion Warwick. But the house is not at home.
Speaker 1: House is not doommommmmm saving all my love for you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I like you're doing.
Speaker 1: Yeah. The singers in the songs, all of it. Okay,
Speaker 1: one more more, one more, oh gosh mm hmm zoom
Speaker 1: the Commodore's yeah yeah yeah that's a life reflection. Yeah
Speaker 1: maybe just the foodless dreamer. Come on, but I don't
Speaker 1: care what's because I know my happiness is waiting for
Speaker 1: me somewhere, searching for the silver lining. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's it for me. This this man knows.
Speaker 4: This man knows importantly, he knows how to talk to
Speaker 4: a woman. Yeah, m because that's where it starts. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: when you're interested in a woman.
Speaker 1: Back in the day, we used to have slow jam tapes.
Speaker 1: You look for the first tape. Listen, you look for
Speaker 1: the sonic when they came over. You hear play on
Speaker 1: that cassette to convey your message, to relay your instruction.
Speaker 1: This is what I'm saying, this is, this is, this
Speaker 1: is what we're doing. And you know your everything I do.
Speaker 1: Come on that shout out of camber. You are you
Speaker 1: and jealousy? Uh? I would be Casey because I'm just
Speaker 1: all about the who. Yeah, just all about who. Yeah, couple,
Speaker 1: Come on, man, listen, man, listen Casey, Casey Killer. How
Speaker 1: could I not they talk about those dudes, I mean
Speaker 1: case like, just both of them, just the way they
Speaker 1: volley off each other. Man, and people understand the lyrics
Speaker 1: and and a lot of stuff, especially that first album,
Speaker 1: and they're known for the moms or open that's commission,
Speaker 1: That's commission, and just the fact that they threw that
Speaker 1: in there. Come real church board church womember you what
Speaker 1: do you mean in jos I'm a mixture of David
Speaker 1: and Davante. Yeah, I'm Davante. I'm okay. I like what
Speaker 1: you do. You cannot sleep on. Jojo cannot Jojo is
Speaker 1: the is, the is the ultimate utility man. He does
Speaker 1: it all.
Speaker 2: There are two guys that made two of the most
Speaker 2: amazing groups work Jojo Haley Sean Stockman.
Speaker 1: Talk the talk. Wait a minute, those two, those two men,
Speaker 1: those two men want to run dry? What what we
Speaker 1: don't even talk anymore? Talking about? And we don't even
Speaker 1: know what we argue about because that's usually by how
Speaker 1: I go? Don't you know more? Why do we hurt
Speaker 1: each other? Why do we push love away? Let's not
Speaker 1: not wait until the water runs dry? With your tim
Speaker 1: and may get that group out of here. We're talking
Speaker 1: about Jonesy and boys and minute you talking about your
Speaker 1: tem we cunning than champions.
Speaker 4: Think about those words. Let's wait till the water.
Speaker 1: Run Listen lyrics like come on man, I'm on, baby
Speaker 1: face prince? How did I forget? We're not gonna do this?
Speaker 4: Did we get all the songs out?
Speaker 1: Or stop? We stop? Okay?
Speaker 4: You? If they call you to play prints, you got
Speaker 4: to remind them I'm six.
Speaker 1: It's not come out doing this. I'm not I'm not you,
Speaker 1: I am something never COMPREHENDI oh my god, carry your
Speaker 1: bags every day? My God is so much great music.
Speaker 4: Okay, okay, we're gonna make a vowl trying. I'm a
Speaker 4: super R and B artist, super R and B artists,
Speaker 4: and we're gonna take mixtures of all artists from from everywhere.
Speaker 4: I want to know who you're gonna get the vocal from,
Speaker 4: the performance style, the styling, and the heart of the artists,
Speaker 4: the passion of the artist. Who you're gonna get the vocal,
Speaker 4: the one vocal for your super R and B artists.
Speaker 1: I got. I have to put my wife there. Mm hmmm.
Speaker 1: I have to, yeah, yeah, because she's so underrated. I'm
Speaker 1: not going to argue with you. And she's so loo
Speaker 1: you get and was the catalyst for a lot of
Speaker 1: these young girls starting I have. I have her and
Speaker 1: Tamiya in this space that I said. It's like it's
Speaker 1: called vocal. Yes, I mean, come on, you signed a
Speaker 1: deal at eleven and singles their where It's like, okay,
Speaker 1: forget to me. God, it's so mad. She's performance style,
Speaker 1: performance style, performance style, Uh wow, m hm, got it.
Speaker 1: Throw Michael in there, Michael's voice, Michael moves, I lights
Speaker 1: some shop toaster. I want to toast it. Styling, styling
Speaker 1: would have to be like mm hmm, funky because that's thin,
Speaker 1: but then now styling easy. I would say it. I
Speaker 1: mean because in the height Whitney mm hmm Whitney, Yeah, definitely, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: because she could go with the jean and the motorcycle jacket,
Speaker 1: and she could throw the gown, the gown stand flat
Speaker 1: foot off the passion of the artist, the heart. Mm hmmm, Dan,
Speaker 1: can you do a double Michael singing to your gotcha?
Speaker 1: Here's I don't think it was anybody's passionate. He meant it,
Speaker 1: He meant it, and I got I got one more
Speaker 1: for him. You're probably about to say what I'm about
Speaker 1: to say.
Speaker 2: Who's gonna play him in the bio pick? Who's gonna
Speaker 2: play this artist in the bio pick? Definitely not mean,
Speaker 2: I mean, I've had it.
Speaker 1: I can do it. Who's gonna do the choreography for this? Oh?
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah? Oh wow? Travis Pain. Travis Pain, give us some,
Speaker 1: give us some backstory on Travis Pain. Choreographed for Janet,
Speaker 1: for Michael, he was the one, and this is it.
Speaker 1: You saw him a lot? Okay, yeah, ball ahead. Travis
Speaker 1: Pain is is a legend in this business. Wow. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Choreographed for much more than I can remember. But off
Speaker 1: to Travis Pan his not just choreography, staging, what you
Speaker 1: wear all the stuff. Full creative director, full creator. He's
Speaker 1: a creative director for sure.
Speaker 2: We've come to the segment of this show. Will you
Speaker 2: tell us a story? Funny or fucked up? Are funny
Speaker 2: and fucked up?
Speaker 1: And the travels of Flex the things you've seen, the
Speaker 1: things you've experienced. It could be any of those things.
Speaker 1: It's only rule. One rule to the game. One rule
Speaker 1: to the game. What's that You can't say? No names? Okay, okay?
Speaker 1: First one is at a memorial service? Uh meet this
Speaker 1: this this brother? Can I say what they do? A
Speaker 1: rapper entertainer? People love them. Going to the bathroom, sees me,
Speaker 1: Oh man, what's up? Flex? Oh oh fan man? Growing
Speaker 1: up like, oh man, call me too big fan of you?
Speaker 1: That cool? Come out like hey man, hey, let's let's
Speaker 1: get together, you know, lunch with that. I'm like bad man,
Speaker 1: all right, man? I hit you up? Hit him up?
Speaker 1: Mm hmmm, hit him up, mm hmm, hit him up.
Speaker 1: Never heard from that person again. Gave me the fool gaze, Yeah,
Speaker 1: gave me gaz. I have a pet peeve with that
Speaker 1: if you don't mean it, don't do the faking move.
Speaker 1: Don't do that. Yeah, don't leave me on red. Okay,
Speaker 1: after they tell you, after they tell me, hit me up,
Speaker 1: after they pull out phone. Hey, okay, that's one second. One, yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's terrible. Second one was working for this person as
Speaker 1: a dancer, and in rehearsals, I've been doing some things.
Speaker 1: I guess they were not happy with I'm imitating them,
Speaker 1: and uh, they don't know you're a comedian yet. No,
Speaker 1: not at that time. So we have a show, we
Speaker 1: go sound check, I do it again. There was another dancer,
Speaker 1: a little hater I used to dance for Hammer, and
Speaker 1: I guess he goes back and tells said person, I
Speaker 1: am in my hotel room getting ready for show. Blah
Speaker 1: blah blah. Get a knock on the door, pro manager,
Speaker 1: Hey man, yo, got just get your stuff together. So Yo,
Speaker 1: you know, show's not to seven thirty, not for you.
Speaker 1: He's a plane ticket. You've been fired. Yeah. I was
Speaker 1: removed from my hotel room, put on the plane back
Speaker 1: to New York. Missed out of that whole tour. Yeah, imitating?
Speaker 1: Are you doing a bad person? It was just yeah,
Speaker 1: don't do me don't do don't play with me like that. Flex.
Speaker 1: And and they knew I was just a jovial guy.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: It might have been some other stuff. I don't know,
Speaker 1: but yeah, they didn't. They didn't like that. Mm hmmm
Speaker 1: mm hmmm. If you are you almost did the voice.
Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, and it's said person always, you know,
Speaker 1: if I'm at a show that they're doing currently always
Speaker 1: he loves to tell that story. Oh they still tell
Speaker 1: the story. Oh yeah, because but I fired you so
Speaker 1: you could become I thank them. Actually, I say, hey, man,
Speaker 1: thank you because it pushed me because I said, I
Speaker 1: ain't never let nobody fire me again. Yeah, let tell
Speaker 1: you after you because you're doing it. No, we never know. Okay,
Speaker 1: whatever tells, I won't tell. It's always a secret. It's
Speaker 1: a secret.
Speaker 4: Brother flex Uh entertained extraordinary. Uh former hooper, Avid Golfer
Speaker 4: now Avid Golfer. Oh no, he listened because because he
Speaker 4: be golfing with like Michael Jordan and all that. And
Speaker 4: I told him one day, I said, man, anytime y'all
Speaker 4: going through that Michael Jordan things, man just hit me said.
Speaker 1: Okay, he's like that was a little chick like you
Speaker 1: like he didn't give me. That's a little put in
Speaker 1: the word for you. I'm like, it's don't count on it. Man.
Speaker 4: You you you, You're one of my favorite human beings.
Speaker 4: It's like you said, man, you you, you come from
Speaker 4: that place. I think that we all come from.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 4: I think we share that nuance. But we also man,
Speaker 4: we we we are brothers and we've been families.
Speaker 1: Sir for a long time. I'm glad I ran into
Speaker 1: you on that plane.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: I'm just glad that I got to, you know, come
Speaker 1: here and and and just share a little more about,
Speaker 1: you know, my story, because when you do, you don't
Speaker 1: really look back at your career. I know I didn't,
Speaker 1: and really, you know, think to myself and I really
Speaker 1: do anything, you know what I mean, And I look
Speaker 1: and I go, Man, historically, I mean, I was the
Speaker 1: first hip hop dancer to transition from hip hop into
Speaker 1: television and film, before j Lo, before all of them.
Speaker 1: And I'm just like, okay, I did that, you know.
Speaker 1: And I just look at the benchmarks and I just
Speaker 1: thank you for let me just you know, talk about
Speaker 1: a little bit a little bit of it here anytime.
Speaker 4: And the music, yeah, yeah, he tapped back into the
Speaker 4: micro saw that right.
Speaker 1: Every now, everyone there a little bit every now and then. Man,
Speaker 1: it's in my heart. I wanted to hit you in
Speaker 1: the here with a baby pottery man shelling you. You're horrible, Alexander.
Speaker 4: And this is the Everybody Podcast, the authority on all
Speaker 4: things r B.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and man, this is our loved one. This is brother.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Appreciate you, appreciate your brother. Appreciate