Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central.
Speaker 2: My guest tonight is actor, producer, and author and he
Speaker 2: just so happens to be my best friend in the world.
Speaker 1: His new book is called Nubia the Awakening. Please welcome
Speaker 1: my brother, Omar Epps. Oh ma, I'm looking at it, Omar.
Speaker 1: You know, looking good, brother.
Speaker 3: I mean it's a little weird because we grew up together.
Speaker 1: I know Omar high school. I known him since high school.
Speaker 1: And when we first met Omar in high school, he's
Speaker 1: carry around this little blue ball.
Speaker 2: He was skinny and a big as his head and shoulders,
Speaker 2: but it looked like an arrow, but you could just
Speaker 2: put them in the things and sling a minute. He's
Speaker 2: had a big ass head and he had this.
Speaker 1: Little blue ball and he would just bounce it all around.
Speaker 1: And all I could think was I want to kick
Speaker 1: his ass for.
Speaker 3: No good reason.
Speaker 4: Because the thing was remember on Rocky, like the first movies,
Speaker 4: he had the blue ball, So that was my thing.
Speaker 1: I was like drinking raw eggs.
Speaker 4: And bouncing the blue ball like Rocky, and so I
Speaker 4: throwing up to kick somebody's ass. And plus in the cafeteria,
Speaker 4: I used to chill with all the girls.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying. And so Marla was jealous.
Speaker 1: I wasn't jealous. I wasn't jealous. Well, I just thought
Speaker 1: you he thought I was gags. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: You get a little blue ball. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: He double dutch and I'm like, something up. But then
Speaker 1: I found out that you had a devious player. Your
Speaker 1: plot was.
Speaker 2: To hang around the girls and be the friendly guy
Speaker 2: and you'd be friends over.
Speaker 1: Time and wear them down. You ain't shit, man.
Speaker 4: You know, hey, persistence, you know, we gotta have resilience.
Speaker 2: We actually didn't like each other until we almost fought
Speaker 2: and we was in the lock one and then uh,
Speaker 2: we got each other in the headlock.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we got to the stalemate.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we were stuck. We know, because we had
Speaker 1: the same technique.
Speaker 2: I remember, I had you like this and you was
Speaker 2: digging this part of your wrists into my.
Speaker 1: Jaw and I was digging that into your head. And
Speaker 1: he was like, yo, we got the same technique. We
Speaker 1: should join forces.
Speaker 3: It's you know what's funny is it's the truth. That's
Speaker 3: what makes it funny.
Speaker 4: We literally got stuck and then we got cool after that,
Speaker 4: and uh, we've been thinking thieves ever since then.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm glad. I'm glad we.
Speaker 2: Had some Well, people don't know about Omar is like,
Speaker 2: you're a really funny dude. You're actually one of the
Speaker 2: funniest dudes I know. I mean, you ain't never did
Speaker 2: the comedy. I want you to do more comedy. But
Speaker 2: what they don't know about me is that I can act.
Speaker 2: So we both have the same skill set, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. Yeah, yeah, but see almost not.
Speaker 1: A comedian, so they're expect it from you. So you know,
Speaker 1: I could say anything, you say the same thing. You
Speaker 1: get slack.
Speaker 4: Because we've been going through business high school. We both
Speaker 4: say the same thing. People get offended.
Speaker 1: When I say it. I'm like, what, he just had
Speaker 1: the same so you go, oh, he's a different color black.
Speaker 2: What's like your most monumental moment in our friendship?
Speaker 4: In our friendship, yeah, like what do you remember? Like,
Speaker 4: Man's honestly, there have been so many. I mean, the
Speaker 4: birth of your kids and you know, obviously God bless Mama,
Speaker 4: Love's passion and just just us growing up man, just
Speaker 4: being innocent kids in the city. I remember we used
Speaker 4: to be like, all right, let's not take the true
Speaker 4: ain't of the bus. Let's walk, you know, down from
Speaker 4: sixty six in amsonam and walked for forty blocks and
Speaker 4: you know, maybe meet a girl, get a number, get
Speaker 4: a slice of pizza.
Speaker 1: Really sweet memories.
Speaker 2: All my memories is like, I remember when you fell
Speaker 2: asleep and almost sleeping, his eyes open like that, Yeah,
Speaker 2: and me and him and Tupac's your cord was hanging
Speaker 2: out because y'all did juice together.
Speaker 1: And what people don't know about pockets Pocket is like
Speaker 1: he was a funny dude.
Speaker 2: I'm sleeping like that, and Omar and Pap went and
Speaker 2: took his balls and put him out and put him
Speaker 2: right in there Omar's mouth.
Speaker 1: So I looked like, Omar's like that. I remember one time.
Speaker 3: Let's just do that.
Speaker 1: I don't know you're talking about all these sad memis.
Speaker 1: Mama love passing it, you know.
Speaker 2: I remember the baby's born and now the umbilical cord
Speaker 2: in the shape of it, that's a nigga.
Speaker 1: Where's the joe?
Speaker 3: Come on?
Speaker 5: Now?
Speaker 1: We we had some good times. I was mad at
Speaker 1: park for that though.
Speaker 3: I was super mad.
Speaker 1: Like, yo, Son, you're really gonna do that? Yeah, But
Speaker 1: you always get mad. You ain't gotta you gotta work
Speaker 1: on that.
Speaker 2: You got anger issues, man, I don't money.
Speaker 4: Take their nuts out next to your mouth while you
Speaker 4: sleep like that. That can that would have went viral
Speaker 4: right now. This is one we used to take polaroids like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but see who should have to walk up like
Speaker 2: that bot? We just hit him on times I was
Speaker 2: and it was just like this, like a like a
Speaker 2: like a speedback.
Speaker 1: The funny thing. You know, kids, you get mad a lot.
Speaker 2: Remember one time okay, we uh.
Speaker 3: I don't even know what's gonna happen right now.
Speaker 1: Okay, one time, like we was in the remember you
Speaker 1: got caught stealing the armstrung goodness? Are you still okay?
Speaker 1: Go ahead, go to the supermarket. O mall was a
Speaker 1: shoplift and I didn't know this. I found out he
Speaker 1: was shop mister, and we went to this. We went
Speaker 1: in the stare.
Speaker 4: It was a store on forty second Street, me, you
Speaker 4: and Mitch went and you know, I felt like I
Speaker 4: should be you.
Speaker 6: Know, uh uh you know this was at the time
Speaker 6: when do the right thing was out and the man said,
Speaker 6: we get to the counter and omars and I go
Speaker 6: pay for my chips and Omar's at the counter and
Speaker 6: the guy goes, what about the juice in your pocket?
Speaker 1: And I said, what juice? And the guy goes to
Speaker 1: the juice right in there, goes, yeah, what juice.
Speaker 7: They turned it to do the right thing. We was like,
Speaker 7: you're doing it till we black. Yeah, you doing it
Speaker 7: because he's dark skinned. You ain't nothing with me, because
Speaker 7: I'm light scared dark skin brother. Because he's a different colored,
Speaker 7: dark black, you're gonna blame him. And then the guy's
Speaker 7: gonna be right because I got the juice in my
Speaker 7: pocket and oh, I'm gonna go over in his pocket.
Speaker 1: He don't pull out a juice. It wasn't like a
Speaker 1: little juice. He pulled out like a ninety six ounce
Speaker 1: bottle of juice.
Speaker 2: And I saw this and I immediately would, oh my god,
Speaker 2: I'm telling everybody.
Speaker 3: I left the store.
Speaker 1: The next day Omar came to school. I laughed so hard.
Speaker 2: The next day, Omar came to school and then everybody
Speaker 2: kept walking up to him.
Speaker 1: It was like a crack. He was on the he
Speaker 1: was on the.
Speaker 2: Escalator and all he heard Mark got called steel Lynn,
Speaker 2: Oh my god, Oh my god, already show juice.
Speaker 1: You were so mad. You were so mad. Yeah, my god,
Speaker 1: that actually happened.
Speaker 2: We want to perform an our shout out to LaGuardia
Speaker 2: High School.
Speaker 3: Shout out. Shout out?
Speaker 1: What was your favorite role of all of them?
Speaker 2: Because you've done a lot of a lot of great work,
Speaker 2: Like I remember, like your whole career. I remember, like, man,
Speaker 2: there was this one role you did higher learning.
Speaker 1: I remember I watched that that movie, and your ending
Speaker 1: scene was so powerful. I was sitting there in awe.
Speaker 3: I was speechless.
Speaker 2: And at the end of the movie, he's just walking away,
Speaker 2: and I said, in my head, I said, bro, you
Speaker 2: walking toward a million dollars right now.
Speaker 1: I remember saying I got a million dollars for your
Speaker 1: next movie.
Speaker 2: And I was just so proud because I was like, damn,
Speaker 2: I ain't treating.
Speaker 1: For shit no more.
Speaker 3: Thank you?
Speaker 1: What was your favorite role? You know what, yo? I
Speaker 1: always look at it like, I feel like.
Speaker 4: Each role is a piece of a mosaic that's a
Speaker 4: bigger thing that will be done once it's said and done,
Speaker 4: for once my time on this earth is done. So
Speaker 4: I don't have a favorite role. I pour the same
Speaker 4: amount into every role that I pour into the next one,
Speaker 4: and for me. But as you know, there's nothing like
Speaker 4: the first you know, that first yeah, that first role
Speaker 4: is just like, oh, you.
Speaker 1: Know what's crazy.
Speaker 2: As you was telling me that, I was sitting there going,
Speaker 2: what did you learn the word mosaic?
Speaker 1: What are you talking around? No?
Speaker 2: But you're an author now, Man, this this made me
Speaker 2: so proud of you.
Speaker 1: This book. I was like, this is the dude that
Speaker 1: cut every class. It's writing books.
Speaker 2: I couldn't even read your notes that you passed to
Speaker 2: me in class. There was in some graffiti or weird language.
Speaker 2: But man, I'm so proud of you. What inspired you
Speaker 2: to write this book?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 4: I just it's a coming of age book about these
Speaker 4: three teens. It takes place in twenty ninety eight, and
Speaker 4: I just was imagining, what's the world going to look
Speaker 4: like like, what society are going to look like, and
Speaker 4: more importantly like for me, because we're born and raised
Speaker 4: in New York, what's New York going to look like,
Speaker 4: you know, to those kids? And I just started dissecting,
Speaker 4: dissecting it and breaking it down and really trying to
Speaker 4: look through the eyes of a budding mind, you know,
Speaker 4: because I'm really you know, my mother was an educator,
Speaker 4: so I'm really into speaking to kids at different schools
Speaker 4: and things of that nature and offer what I can.
Speaker 4: And this is my offering in that way of Hey,
Speaker 4: climate changes happen. It's about classism, it's about sexism. It's
Speaker 4: obviously it's about you know, racism is still in there,
Speaker 4: all the isms, and then how do we, you know,
Speaker 4: spend that on its head, because it's really about these
Speaker 4: kids who are like trying to figure themselves out. Because
Speaker 4: you know that fourteen fifteen year old stage is an
Speaker 4: awkwar part of life, like just for anyone. So it
Speaker 4: doesn't matter where you come from. You could be from Arkansas, Nebraska,
Speaker 4: or you could be from an urban space like Chicago
Speaker 4: or New York or Atlanta or whatever. And I believe
Speaker 4: that there's something in there for every kid to take away.
Speaker 4: It's also about escapism, to give them something to like
Speaker 4: get them through the next day.
Speaker 2: You know, I read the book and it's amazing, and
Speaker 2: I'm very proud of you. I swear it wasn't to
Speaker 2: you that explanation you just gave me. I thought you
Speaker 2: cheated on somebody to write this book, but now no, you.
Speaker 1: Know those big words. I love you, my brother. You guys, go.
Speaker 2: Get the book that's on Amazon right now on Amazon,
Speaker 2: give it up for my brother.
Speaker 1: Oh my apps omar book. They're working and now vailable.
Speaker 8: My guest Tonight is an actor and a producer and
Speaker 8: you know him from Boys in the Hood and The
Speaker 8: Best Man franchise. He's here to talk about the new
Speaker 8: limited series The Best Man The Final Chapters, which is
Speaker 8: streaming right now on Peacock.
Speaker 1: Please welcome, my rest chaster.
Speaker 3: All right, let me jot show.
Speaker 5: I'm going to Leslie Jones show.
Speaker 3: Thank you, guys, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, you are the epitome of Blackdom.
Speaker 5: Crack bro' you're beauty. Let me just say though, first
Speaker 5: of all, you were You were so kind and generous
Speaker 5: from the whole cast and the whole production. Thank you
Speaker 5: for all the posts that you did for us when
Speaker 5: the streaming showcase. We truly we appreciate you.
Speaker 8: Yeah, and the truth it is one of the best
Speaker 8: things I've watched and alone time.
Speaker 5: Thank you, Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 8: I knew it was gonna be good because you guys
Speaker 8: have great actors, y'all already good actors.
Speaker 1: It's a great black you have a great director.
Speaker 3: Yes, and you.
Speaker 1: Spend time on everything.
Speaker 3: It's just so appreciated.
Speaker 5: Thank you so much, and thank you for watching. Think
Speaker 5: all you guys are watching. Everybody out there is TV.
Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you. Now I'll talk to you this
Speaker 3: about earlier.
Speaker 8: I know every time somebody meets you, I know, I said,
Speaker 8: if I ever meet More's chestnut, the first thing that's
Speaker 8: going to come out my mind my mouth is why didn't.
Speaker 1: You zig that?
Speaker 3: I get that all the time. I get that all
Speaker 3: the time.
Speaker 1: I cried every time on that part. Do you ever
Speaker 1: read time?
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 5: You know now, I mean I've cried too, because I
Speaker 5: can't be in the sequel, right, I can't.
Speaker 1: Be in the sequel because I'll tell you, especially when
Speaker 1: your mama was looking at that.
Speaker 2: Car and.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, it's so yeah. Thank you man.
Speaker 1: Okay, so this is what I want to know. Most
Speaker 1: people stick.
Speaker 8: Around, you know, a long time in this business, and
Speaker 8: they don't look as good as you.
Speaker 3: How you keep it? So? Thank you, thank you. You know.
Speaker 5: I just try to live right, eat right, and exercise
Speaker 5: and drink a lot of water and all that time.
Speaker 8: Are you like a heavy exercise person like you work
Speaker 8: out every day?
Speaker 3: You have a trainer or I work out a lot.
Speaker 5: Yes, I'm always at the gym, like probably six seven
Speaker 5: days a week at least.
Speaker 1: Really, how many more days is in.
Speaker 5: The well, you know what I mean, for the most part,
Speaker 5: when i'm when i'm when i'm I'm really always at
Speaker 5: the gym. But that's like my outing. I mean, I
Speaker 5: don't I don't stay out late. I mean my outing
Speaker 5: for the day is going to the gym. That's kind
Speaker 5: of like my social activity. I go to the gym
Speaker 5: and go home.
Speaker 8: Wow, here a good man, Savannah. So when you started
Speaker 8: doing this movie was a series best man series? How
Speaker 8: many people ask you to be their best man? I mean,
Speaker 8: how many beast of parts have you?
Speaker 1: A ranging no?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 5: Judging by what what I did to the Tate Digg's
Speaker 5: character in the first movie. Yeah, I don't get too
Speaker 5: many invites to be a to be a no too many.
Speaker 3: Listen.
Speaker 5: I mean, you know a lot of people, they do
Speaker 5: enjoy the movie. They do have a lot of questions
Speaker 5: and they always say to me sometimes, well, you know,
Speaker 5: I want to make sure my best man in sleep
Speaker 5: with my girls and all that type of stuff.
Speaker 8: But yeah, okay, so you get a lot of that.
Speaker 3: I get a lot of that.
Speaker 8: Now the story is about, you know, navigating several friendships
Speaker 8: and a lot of drama and stuff.
Speaker 3: Now, do you have a lot of drama.
Speaker 8: In your actual life?
Speaker 5: I don't, Actually I don't. I have listened, so I have.
Speaker 5: I do have a close knit friend group. I have,
Speaker 5: you know, friends that I've been friends with since you know,
Speaker 5: second grade, and you know a lot of friends I've
Speaker 5: been friends with a long time. Only dramas when it
Speaker 5: comes to sports, and you know, when my team loses,
Speaker 5: I got to hear a lot of mess.
Speaker 3: But luckily, I'm an Eagles fan and the Eagles fans
Speaker 3: in the house, so we're doing all right this year.
Speaker 5: So I've been delivering a lot of I've been delivering
Speaker 5: a lot of drama to some people in my in
Speaker 5: my friend group.
Speaker 8: Morris, it's about the giants here, okay.
Speaker 5: Say.
Speaker 3: Wow, Okay, you're right, You're right. Hey, it's gonna be
Speaker 3: a good game. Though, it's gonna it's gonna be a
Speaker 3: good game.
Speaker 8: We're gonna win.
Speaker 5: My condolences to you guys, really though, my condolences to
Speaker 5: you to your giants.
Speaker 1: Ego, Giants eat Eagles.
Speaker 5: That's what's happening. Okay, I'm hey, I'm I'm gonna get
Speaker 5: on social media after the game. Now, let's let's to
Speaker 5: Shange's with me.
Speaker 3: Baby. Oh no, no, I can't do that. I've learned.
Speaker 3: Never talks back with a comedian.
Speaker 1: I didn't.
Speaker 5: I'm in A long time ago I did a movie
Speaker 5: with Bill Bellamy and D. L. Hughley, and I just
Speaker 5: when I did that movie, I realized to never say
Speaker 5: anything because I know you can't because comedians, you guys
Speaker 5: are so perceptive, and you guys see everything, you hear everything.
Speaker 3: So I will not talk back to you. That's okay,
Speaker 3: not at all.
Speaker 1: It's okay, Morris, you can talk smack now.
Speaker 8: The one thing I appreciate about the franchise is how
Speaker 8: they have black men being friends and being real. How
Speaker 8: do you think how important it is? Do you think
Speaker 8: the portrayal of friendships and relationships between black men is
Speaker 8: is portrayed on TV.
Speaker 5: I think I think it was very important for our movie,
Speaker 5: just for the because listen, this life that happens, There
Speaker 5: is drama that happens, and you know you're friends with
Speaker 5: somebody long enough, there's bound to be some type of
Speaker 5: disagreements and arguments and all that type of that type
Speaker 5: of situation. However, with our film, it shows that we
Speaker 5: can overcome that. It's like, no matter what your differences are,
Speaker 5: no matter what type of arguments or disagreements you get
Speaker 5: into as a brotherhood, you can still come together and
Speaker 5: be there for your brother. So I think that's one
Speaker 5: of the things that that's helped this this series, you know,
Speaker 5: prevail throughout the years.
Speaker 8: Yeah, you know, I think, yes, definitely.
Speaker 1: One of my favorite one of.
Speaker 8: My favorite scenes is when he's going through the divorce
Speaker 8: and you guys came over and just started setting up
Speaker 8: the table.
Speaker 3: Like we about to play cards.
Speaker 1: Food got a doubt play cards.
Speaker 8: That just made my heart. But I'm gonna tell you
Speaker 8: my favorite party. The way you dealt with your son.
Speaker 3: Oh yes, it was.
Speaker 8: It was so good every everything, because every time you
Speaker 8: would pray, I would be like, you have the wrong prayers, bro,
Speaker 8: you got the wrong prayer. He was like, make God
Speaker 8: change and make God change it. But when you finally
Speaker 8: said God change.
Speaker 5: Change me, right, bald o, thank you, thank you, thank you,
Speaker 5: thank you. Was that that storyline was was was tough
Speaker 5: for me because it was so new. The pronouns and
Speaker 5: there's something that really hasn't been explored too much special blam,
Speaker 5: especially in the black community. And and I was like,
Speaker 5: I was, I was on the fence because I was like,
Speaker 5: they don't really know why my character feels the way
Speaker 5: that he feels. I mean, people can come to their
Speaker 5: own conclusion. So it was it was a tough storyline
Speaker 5: for me. Eric was a great actor that played my
Speaker 5: son and in the way that it was written was
Speaker 5: was so beautiful.
Speaker 3: So thank you for thank you for enjoying that beautiful.
Speaker 8: And I have to give you recognition. You got your
Speaker 8: Hall of Fame walkers. I think I'm saying that right,
Speaker 8: Tollywood Walk of Fame.
Speaker 5: Yes, yes, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you
Speaker 5: so much.
Speaker 3: Thank you. That's me. Yeah, thank you, thank you, thank you,
Speaker 3: thank you.
Speaker 8: Oh my god, mass thank you so much for coming
Speaker 8: on my first.
Speaker 3: Thy listen, thank you for having me, and thank you
Speaker 3: for having me.
Speaker 1: And you're killing it.
Speaker 3: You're killing out here. Congratulation. Okay, I'm not doing good,
Speaker 3: you're doing great. You're chilling.
Speaker 1: You're killing killing right to kill you.
Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you for having me so much.
Speaker 2: Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by
Speaker 2: searching the Daily Show wherever you.
Speaker 3: Get your podcast.
Speaker 7: Watch the Daily Show week nights at eleven ten Central
Speaker 7: on Comedy Central, and stream full episodes anytime on Fairmount Plus.
Speaker 3: This has been a Comedy Central podcast