0:09

Uh, so,

0:14

thank you JB. Man, you know you're my guy.

0:16

I called you, I don't know randomly last

0:18

minute. I was like, I need you on here because I need to

0:20

know about that moment with JB. And

0:23

uh, thank you for being here, brother, oh

0:25

man, thank.

0:25

You for having me. Man, you already know what it is. Man,

0:27

this is uh. You know, I

0:30

like, I like talking about the journal.

0:31

You know, well, well, a

0:33

lot of people don't hear it. I know that, you know, people

0:36

like you and myself were asked the general questions.

0:38

You know. I'm trying to get a little deeper into

0:40

it. I see you on huge

0:43

billboards now. Of course you've been on many

0:45

seasons of uh, you know, Curb

0:47

and Husband's Hollywood or

0:50

you know, your own shows, you know, and

0:53

I've been on that one. I believe I had the doing

0:55

that show with you and

0:57

so many other things on me voice isn't veriss of

1:00

things.

1:01

I don't.

1:01

I don't think you know a lot of people. I'd be very

1:03

honest, I know a lot of people who are in the comedy

1:05

world. My mother wanted to see Kat Williams,

1:08

and I love Kat Williams, and randomly

1:11

Tommy Davison came out on stage and I was

1:13

like, oh man, he's one of my favorites, you

1:15

know. Yeah, and what's

1:17

the name was there? What's the name

1:19

who? Mister Cooper? Mark

1:23

Curry, Mark Curry right.

1:29

Linnell? Uh, Yeah, yeah,

1:31

yeah, it

1:34

was.

1:34

It was amazing. And I you know,

1:37

season two, I sat, uh, Jeff fox

1:39

really came onto the show to help Mark Barnett

1:41

shar Tank was suffering, you

1:43

know, with Jeff Worthy did Jeff Foxford

1:45

did like smarter than whatever, greater and

1:48

we needed some We needed some We needed some heat.

1:51

We needed some heat. Jeff Foxford then you had

1:53

to you know, he had he had Middle America

1:56

and he sat there and said something to me that there's no stranger

1:58

to you. He said, damn. You know Michael Jackson at the

2:00

time, Michael Jackson was alive. He said, Michael Jackson,

2:02

I think he was a love. He said, Michael Jackson or Madonna

2:05

can do that damn song a thousand

2:07

times. I can't do a joke a thousand times.

2:10

And by the way, everybody that heard that song,

2:12

they heard it prior, so they're coming,

2:14

they're ready to rock out to beat

2:16

it or material. I

2:19

got to earn every goddamn

2:22

joke, every joke, and have they

2:24

heard it before I'm done? All

2:26

right? I don't think a job

2:28

is harder. They say public speaking

2:31

is hard, and it's not. I

2:33

don't think a job is harder than getting up there to a whole bunch

2:35

of strangers who will interpret something

2:38

you're saying different each person,

2:40

and being the last forefront

2:44

of honesty to make fun of ourselves.

2:46

And you get up on stage, you make people forget

2:48

about life and politics and all this even

2:50

though you're talking about it. We take

2:52

a minute to laugh at ourselves

2:56

and you earn every single bit of

2:58

it. How do you do that for thirty

3:02

forty Yeah, I'm gonna get into that right

3:04

now. Man, were

3:07

you a class clown?

3:09

You know what? I was a hallway clown, man. I you

3:11

know, I was a hallway clown, meaning you

3:14

know, I was a.

3:14

Good student, you know, three point zero student,

3:18

you know, art major, engineering,

3:20

drafting major, double major in high

3:22

school.

3:23

So I was a hallway clown man, meaning.

3:26

That in between classes it was

3:28

like it was like the greatest time of our

3:30

lives. Man, I had like a I've

3:32

been just blessed with you know, you

3:35

know, I grewup in the projects, Marvel in New York. But I

3:37

was blessed with meeting amazing

3:40

friends, you know, friends who were funny

3:43

as me, but would never get on stage.

3:45

They weren't that kind of funny, but they

3:47

were hilarious. So for me, I

3:50

was a hallway clown man, straight up all way clown.

3:52

You know.

3:53

It took, and I've clowned so hard,

3:56

you know, with my friends. One time I almost

3:58

got left back, almost got up

4:00

back. In eighth grade, we clowned so much

4:03

that and we were in mar High We were

4:06

the last eighth

4:08

graders because they had to repair the eighth

4:10

grade school and they

4:13

put the eighth graders in the high school

4:15

with the high schools.

4:17

So we had a little wing in the high school

4:19

if the.

4:20

High school where they had the eighth graders at, and

4:22

the rest of the school was ninety nine to twelve, and

4:24

man, we were like animal house.

4:26

It was crazy over there.

4:28

And I clown so much that

4:30

I literally I had all these

4:33

in an F.

4:35

If I had one more f I would

4:37

have been sitting back.

4:38

I'm already in high school and I

4:41

would have been sent back to the

4:43

eighth grade that they just

4:45

fixed. You know how crazy that A bit

4:48

sitting back to the eighth grade school

4:51

that they were fixing that they took me in school,

4:54

they were finished fixing it. But I'm

4:56

going to move back into the eighth grade school that

4:58

they were fixing.

5:00

Crazy. But I got

5:02

out of that and that shocked me.

5:04

That that shook me up a little bit, man, And I

5:07

learned how to control by pall away clownness,

5:10

you know, and I.

5:12

Reeled it in. I real did.

5:14

Yeah, because I see most of the

5:16

comedians I know, or even

5:18

the ones that I've seen, you know, in the hood that we grew

5:21

up with, and maybe they didn't have as successful

5:23

level career, I mean very few of having

5:25

successful career as you. They were the kind

5:27

of person that just couldn't help it.

5:29

I mean they would just be in class like and

5:31

you know, it'd be a small dude

5:34

and the big bully do something and the small

5:36

dude just be like, you

5:38

can't help it. You know, he about to get his ass well,

5:41

but he just can't help

5:43

it.

5:46

So being a being that is

5:49

crazy. Now, now let's

5:51

talk about the first time, the

5:53

first time you realize that moment,

5:56

and I'm talking about the first time you tried it, and I'm

5:58

talking about the first time you

6:01

realize that you're gonna take

6:03

a real shot at it, or you realize that you're

6:06

never going back.

6:08

Oh man, I'm gonna give you two moments.

6:10

I'm gonna give you my moments. At Open State University.

6:13

You know, I met a whole

6:15

new group of friends. You know, I

6:17

still have my mom vern crew, I still hang

6:19

up the scene. I'm still have the same friends from

6:22

eighth grade, seventh grade, I still have the same friends,

6:25

and some of my friends also from fifth grade. I

6:27

still have the same friends.

6:28

Man. So when I went to college and most

6:31

university, it's funny us to.

6:32

Growing up public speaking because

6:34

I took a public speaking class, you

6:37

know, and I remember I.

6:39

Did a something about art.

6:42

And men that great dear standing

6:45

in front of that whole class. Really like

6:48

kicked in this public

6:51

speaking thing, you know, learning

6:53

how to put it in your own put

6:56

your own personality into it,

6:58

which calmed me that you.

7:00

You don't you don't get as nervous when you just being

7:02

yourself.

7:03

It's when you don't trust yourself, you're trying to be robotic

7:05

and you're not fluid with it that makes

7:07

it a mess. When I met those

7:10

those friends, when I took that that

7:12

published picking class and then I

7:14

got into his his what turned the corner park My

7:17

friends, my new friends off from Jersey, you

7:19

know, one from out vernon the resting Jersey.

7:22

They dared me to get into.

7:23

This uh uh

7:26

a bachelor, bachelor bachelorette

7:29

on campus uh contests

7:32

at the student Union building, and I was

7:34

one of the three bachelors and

7:36

it was a you know, a beautiful

7:38

girl she picked, you know, she

7:40

would pick one of us for a date.

7:42

And when I tell you, my friend said, I day, I

7:44

dare to do it. I said, man, don't damn

7:46

you man, you know I'll do it. He dared me to go up

7:48

there and do it. So I became one of the bachelor's

7:51

on stage and made every answer

7:53

I gave was ripping, ripping

7:56

the audience. Many

7:58

started stomping the feet, throwing stuff on stage

8:01

and started going crazy.

8:02

Every answer I gave was killing it.

8:05

Let me tell you something after I did that, you

8:08

know, having already been Richard

8:11

Pryor fan, Eddie Murphy fan, you

8:13

know Bill Coffee fan, Red

8:15

Fox fan, you know George Calling

8:17

fan.

8:17

Big fan of stand up.

8:19

Comedy already, when

8:21

I got on that stage and I was killing like that with

8:23

no rich material. Off the top of

8:25

my head, I said, Yo, I

8:28

think I can do this. But I always wanted

8:30

to be a comedian. But also, you know, I

8:32

mean, I was an artist, so I had my.

8:34

Little art thing going on. Let me tell you something.

8:36

Here in that crowd, and that's to a union

8:38

building rocking like that. The

8:40

girl ended up picking me, right, But

8:44

I'm gontain something. I never

8:46

even took the girl out.

8:48

Yo, Damn.

8:49

I was the man on campus. I

8:51

was the man for months.

8:54

All they talked about was how I

8:57

ripped it at the student union building,

8:59

and every answer I gave that she was

9:02

asking what's killing it? And

9:04

I never We never even went out.

9:07

You know what I say? You know what?

9:09

She picked me, But she picked me.

9:11

I didn't pick up. So what's supposed to happen?

9:13

You're telling me, am I supposed to chase her around campus

9:16

for that day? Or is she supposed to take Hey,

9:18

I picked you? Ready to go out?

9:20

What? What? What do you think.

9:23

She's supposed say? I picked you? No?

9:25

No, No, you're supposed to be yeah,

9:27

you used to be sweating up, you know you're supposed

9:29

to be excited?

9:30

Yeah? Yeah?

9:31

But am I supposed to ask her. Am

9:33

I supposed to say, hey, you picked

9:35

me? We ready to go out? Or

9:38

am I supposed to wait? Because she picked me? She's

9:40

a bacherette, I'm the bachelor. She

9:42

picked me out of three other guys. To

9:45

the gods, what's supposed to happen here?

9:48

Wants to pick you?

9:51

Ready to go? She's supposed to say? Read?

9:53

But but it does never happened anyway.

9:57

It's not that I didn't care, but I was the man

9:59

like care man for three months.

10:02

So that rate there, that turn rate there got

10:04

me.

10:05

You know, understanding that I drive my own

10:07

vehicle, you drive your vehicle

10:10

in my vehicle that I'm driving, I know how to drive.

10:12

But I think that you know, there's a I've been you

10:15

know, you and I have been on stages for years, and it

10:17

took me a long It didn't take me a long time

10:19

because I was old enough to read books on

10:21

it. You were you were at that time,

10:23

like twenty yeah,

10:25

twenty years old? Right. Yeah, you're taking a

10:27

public speaking class in this and you know

10:30

a lot of people don't realize, you know, the information

10:32

that you're going to share on the stage. Everybody

10:34

has it, but people are listening and they want

10:36

to hear your perspective, your

10:39

experience from it. And you understood

10:42

that at a very young age you would

10:44

transition that to you know obviously

10:46

that that that moment. Why

10:49

were you confident enough? Because

10:51

I think even today, when people are

10:54

speaking or wanting to say something,

10:57

they're so busy trying to say, Man,

10:59

I'm not I'm

11:01

not a I'm not a professor, I'm

11:03

not a i'm not a millionaire,

11:06

I'm not of this, and that some young

11:08

kid out there like you're just You're just

11:10

you're accepting who you are. What

11:14

gave you that confidence to feel

11:16

like that?

11:17

I think what I think is you're

11:19

humbold by your existence.

11:21

You're humble by your beginnings. You

11:24

know, like I said, man, I grew up with a private sm We

11:27

ain't have much, you know what I mean? We ain't

11:29

have much, man, You know we we you

11:32

know, we got it. And and I'm

11:34

telling you, man, I lost a lot of friends

11:36

growing up. I lost a lot of friends

11:38

before they even got out of high school. So

11:40

it's like this, Man, if you can find a

11:42

way two live,

11:47

if you can find a way to live and

11:50

find a way to navigate through it, through

11:52

all that stuff, and see and see.

11:54

It for what it is. I'm not

11:56

gonna knock it because it may be who I am.

11:59

So I can and just say that I found

12:01

a way to navigate through all that, Through

12:04

all the troubles and things I've seen.

12:06

You know, I see throw them off

12:08

the roof.

12:09

I've seen a little bit of everything. I

12:11

see people shot, I've seen people throw off a

12:13

building. You know, it's New York, man, this is

12:16

New York City. I've hung in all

12:18

the clubs, man, David,

12:21

I have ran out of probably

12:23

fifty clubs.

12:24

Man. Lets you, that's

12:26

how we started knowing each other. I had no you

12:30

in that industry, hanging in the club when

12:32

I first out of seeing you.

12:33

Look all the joints, rooftop tunnel,

12:37

Bentley's, Red

12:39

Parent, RP.

12:41

You name it.

12:42

You named any club I have hung

12:44

out in it In New York City, Man, the

12:46

Funhouse.

12:47

Don't give me. Don't get me going too far back. The

12:49

funhouse, man, I have seen.

12:51

Everybody, every hip hop artist

12:53

in their humble beginnings, everybody.

12:56

I usually go to Lincoln Projects because

12:58

my buddy used his cousin was

13:00

doing security for Douggie Fresh Back

13:03

in the days, we used to go to see basement

13:05

parties with Masterdon and Barry Beet

13:07

battling on the crossbander and up

13:09

and down. Man, I seen testing.

13:12

I mean I have seen you.

13:14

Name any hip hop moment, I

13:16

know it. I was dead, I was

13:18

dead, damn it. I'm telling you all these

13:20

things are a part of You gotta

13:23

see it. You gotta see it before

13:25

your eyes to understand that anything

13:27

is possible. And that's a part

13:30

of your That's a part of everything. Your

13:32

experiences are always a part of your journey,

13:35

Man, and being a part of

13:37

the exception of hip hop was definitely

13:40

definitely something that inspired me. Man, and we as

13:42

comedians, we gotta be inspired by everything,

13:45

music, life, birds,

13:48

anybody, anything, everything. We gotta

13:51

know how to talk about everything, So we gotta be inspired

13:53

by everything.

13:54

We want to see how we live.

13:56

What inspired you after that to hit the road, because

13:59

what did you have? The Internet wasn't

14:01

out, so you didn't you didn't pick up material

14:03

from you know that you've just seen floating

14:05

around. Of course, you can go and look at books

14:08

or maybe older jokes by Rudy ray Moore

14:10

or whatever the case is. What inspired

14:12

you and what was that moment? Did you first hit the

14:14

stage. How did you go? Did you do Caroline?

14:17

Like?

14:17

Who?

14:17

Where was the first one you said? You know after this I'm

14:19

cool? Did you investigate how to do

14:22

it? Did you just say, Yo, I'm gonna go downtown.

14:24

You go to a local ball what? What was that nest

14:27

thing you did?

14:28

Some of My best material is material

14:30

that wasn't even on stage.

14:32

It was just me being silly with my friends.

14:35

Know, we used to do some of the funniest

14:37

stuff, man, and it would never

14:39

make to It was stuff that couldn't make it to the stage

14:41

because it's just stuff you are, you

14:44

know, improvising in a moment.

14:45

It's spontaneous stuff, you know.

14:48

So for me, it was this.

14:51

You know, when I

14:53

when I ran out of money and offa state

14:55

university.

14:56

I d'n I ran out of money.

14:58

I said, i'mna go home, get a job, I'm work

15:00

and save some money and come back and finish up

15:02

my last year at North of State University.

15:05

So I went home, and

15:08

I think that me being on that stage, man,

15:11

it really stuck with me.

15:13

When I got home.

15:14

You know, the first thing I did was, Man,

15:16

I just went downtown. I heard about

15:19

this comedy club called the Uptown Comedy

15:21

Club in Paul. It was on

15:23

one was it, uh one, twenty

15:25

fifth and fifth Avenue,

15:28

Yeah, fifth and fifth. Man,

15:31

when I tell you, I went down to

15:33

that comedy club, and

15:36

let me tell you, I was blown away.

15:39

It was packed with people.

15:41

The lines were around the block

15:44

to get upstairs to this comedy club.

15:46

Everybody used to come through there.

15:48

Man, I'm talking about all the celebrities

15:50

at that time were comped Uptown Comedy

15:52

Club. I'm gonna tell you it

15:54

was the National Black Theater in Paul.

15:57

But on that night, on every Sunday, it

16:00

was stand up night. And man,

16:02

when I tell you, everybody used

16:04

to be there. Man, you name him, they

16:06

were all there. And that's why I

16:08

started.

16:08

I remember. I went there. I stood in the back of the room.

16:11

It was packed.

16:11

Those seats were aveilable and it was

16:13

seated across. It wasn't even like idiots

16:16

like like cocktail tables. It was

16:18

just like full of all chairs

16:20

lined up row row road rode all the way to the

16:22

back of the room.

16:23

You know what I mean.

16:24

You didn't even sometime I would

16:26

sit there, like how would I get the hell out of here

16:28

if something happened.

16:28

I was looking around like, yeah,

16:31

yeah, it's thick.

16:32

It was that, you know how, you know how it was man, you

16:35

just wanted to be in the building. It was hot, no air

16:37

conditioning.

16:38

But maybe when I tell you, it

16:40

was the most amazing

16:43

experience man, that got me.

16:45

You know. I remember I was there, my friend Rob Stampleton,

16:48

he was on stage.

16:49

And man, I said, Man and

16:51

I met. That's the night I met my friend

16:53

Rob Stampleton and I met every other other comedians.

16:56

Man, tell you that was the most amazing experience

16:58

man, to see something that was ours and

17:01

this was our stage, our our platform.

17:04

But this is early. This

17:07

is before Depth Jail, before

17:09

b a T, before all these

17:11

shows where we got a chance to show

17:14

who we were. Before you know, even

17:16

Apollow had comedy, but not like

17:18

this.

17:19

This was.

17:20

This was raw, straight up

17:22

People in Harlem, Brooklyn,

17:25

Bronx everywhere would come to this

17:27

comedy club. Stead online and

17:29

was saying we were had out free passes to

17:31

get up in there.

17:32

We just wanted to captivating audience. You

17:35

know.

17:36

It was the most amazing thing ever.

17:38

And that's where I hold my skills. That's why

17:40

I got on that movie. We had a workshop

17:42

on on Mondays,

17:45

so we would have a show on Monday, a workshop

17:48

on Monday, the show Sunday

17:50

workshop on Monday, and this

17:52

was this was an amazing part about it.

17:54

This is what made it. Everybody great.

17:57

Everybody had their own style, everybody

17:59

had their own delivery, everybody had

18:01

their own character on stage. And it made

18:04

him and really the Brown brothers,

18:06

Andre and Kevin Brown,

18:09

they they were smart

18:12

in creating shows

18:15

every Sunday that were original

18:18

and different. You could not come to that place

18:21

three weeks in row and see the same stuff because

18:24

they forced our hand to continue

18:26

to write and find out who

18:28

we were as characters. And we written and

18:30

we wrote our jokes that

18:32

fit our character.

18:34

I was very physical, so Michael jokes were

18:36

all physical jokes. I would fall on the.

18:38

Ground and do crazy stuff, you know, take the

18:40

microphone stand and make something out of it. Took the

18:42

curtain to make something out of it. I would take the chair. I

18:44

would do twenty things with a chair. I mean, just

18:47

talk you're talking about. I

18:49

mean, this was this is like the most

18:51

to me. I'm comedy Clubs

18:53

should have had a documentary

18:55

done too, because it was really

18:58

the inception of the last comedy

19:00

at that time. You know, I haven't heard

19:03

rumours that they were supposed to.

19:05

I'm not even sure it's true or not, but I heard things

19:07

like death Jam came down to see

19:09

to work with them, you know, before

19:12

Def Comedy Jam.

19:14

So all this was before this is when everybody's

19:16

on the way up. I remember, I remember we were.

19:18

I remember we were backstage one time. What you

19:20

think of TV back there watching Martin.

19:22

I remember all this stuff that we saw

19:25

us growing as comedians.

19:28

And this is all. This is no social media,

19:30

this is all just streets.

19:32

Streets knew about it, and people were

19:35

lined up around the block, and a matter

19:37

how cold it was, it didn't matter.

19:39

It was like the greatest experience.

19:42

That's my hombo beginnings at the Uptown

19:44

Comedy Club and then being

19:46

in New York.

19:48

You know.

19:48

After that, I did

19:50

what I did DUF Comedy Jam, first

19:53

season, Duff Comedy Jams Martin posted first

19:55

season second taping. So I

19:57

was blessed to be able to do that. I did my own

20:00

audition at your Peepet Lounge in Orange,

20:02

New Jersey. And I'm gonna tell you

20:04

something. That club didn't

20:06

play. It did not play around.

20:08

You go up and there you your

20:11

ass is about to get handed to you if you don't

20:13

bring you what you supposed to bring on that stage.

20:15

And to have an audition for def comedy

20:18

jam there, that's crazy. People

20:20

were going down the flames. Man, it was crazy

20:23

up in there. But it was but if

20:25

you were able to capture the moment

20:28

and let them see you who you are in

20:30

your style. Man, when

20:33

you hit it, it's like when

20:35

you hit it, you

20:37

hit it like you hit

20:39

it. I remember I went like next to last

20:42

or something like that. Twenty five dudes went

20:44

on before me. But I found

20:46

a way to to

20:49

take the energy that was created in the room already

20:51

and use it to my vam, use.

20:52

It to my vama, to my fan.

21:07

Now, all of a sudden, you go from

21:10

that date or that that audition,

21:13

you know whatever, the bathetor being eighty four

21:15

all the way through Uptown Comedy Club airing

21:17

now in the blink of an eye for the most

21:20

time, but it felt like probably forever. You

21:23

probably didn't you didn't go back to school. I'm

21:25

assuming six years

21:27

later and now you're airing on TVs nineteen

21:30

ninety two. I just looked it

21:32

up. The hip hop songs in nineteen ninety two

21:35

were oh oh, we got one from your town

21:37

too, But we gotta jump around House of Pain. We

21:39

jumped criss crossed, but we got Pete

21:42

rock cl Smooth, you know mount Burn's

21:44

finest, right, We got they

21:46

want Affects dos Effects? What

21:49

New York was on fire at that time. It

21:52

was it was the renaissance. It was

21:54

the time where where we

21:56

weren't you know, Spike Lee, Maddie Richard

21:58

already made it tall in them.

22:00

They were starting to do this. You got sare

22:02

us, you got you got

22:05

you know, it's feeling good. New York rap

22:07

is great, Biggie's starting to come out.

22:09

Or we feel a lot of energy out there. Can

22:12

you name a song or something

22:14

like that? I mean, you know we had Do you

22:16

remember any song that you really, you know,

22:19

loved at that moment when you were driving

22:21

by, you were saying, man, I'm on TV

22:23

now, And I'm not sure if you were

22:25

like, damn, now, I really gotta

22:27

work or you were like, oh,

22:31

you gotta.

22:31

Realize one thing, Yeah, you got

22:33

that one thing. I grew up in Mount

22:35

Vernon, New York.

22:36

Right, you know who I grew up with, Pete

22:39

rock Stal Smooth, Heavy Dad,

22:41

the boys, right, I'll

22:43

be sure, Paul, Yeah,

22:46

ready to do all right? Next door to us,

22:49

Grand Cooper and Masters Masters of Ceremony

22:55

later came later when

22:57

I was growing up. I'm talking about

23:00

people. I'm really who I really grew

23:02

up with. Now, Yupis was

23:04

right right there. But I didn't know Xingum

23:07

back then. But I don't even know if that was even

23:10

I don't know if.

23:10

He was even known yet.

23:11

Yeah, I'm just saying the element of all the people

23:13

I mean because all yeah, yeah.

23:16

Going back to like early early, I'm

23:18

going back to when when when head

23:20

and Salt Pepper.

23:22

I'm going back back, back, back back. I'm

23:25

talking about.

23:26

Look, you talked to a dude who used

23:28

to carry record crates for

23:30

his cousin, who used to battle against

23:33

heavy d in the boys. You're talking about

23:35

a kid that used to go to the Bronx for

23:38

block parties in neighborhoods

23:40

and we didn't even know and we had to be like

23:43

contim we were from there be who we didn't get beat up?

23:47

You talking about it, dude, You I

23:49

was like mass spilt guard man talking

23:52

louder. I was one of the guests who

23:54

put his lead jeans between

23:56

the mattress to make sure they were flat

23:59

and spread them with stars to cuting between the matches

24:02

to make sure that they would they would have the best crease

24:04

ever. And wait to go downtown

24:06

and go to that concert. Man, you're

24:09

talking about man, Look you're talking about

24:11

somebody who's been to almost a few name adio

24:13

hip hop moment.

24:14

I was there. We are inspired

24:16

by everything, and this is early.

24:19

I played football with our you know,

24:21

I've been to every man.

24:22

I was almost every party that Heaven

24:25

did in mart Verna.

24:26

People.

24:26

I see us smooth hanging out with those guys,

24:29

and I'm all forgetting people because we

24:31

all grew up in.

24:32

The boys and girls cluff.

24:33

We all have history, man, and

24:35

that that's our that's

24:37

our beginnings.

24:38

Man, this is each one of

24:40

our talents

24:43

fees the other. It just has to

24:46

You can't mart Brother's wanting four square miles.

24:48

How can you not be inspired by someone you

24:50

went to school with and see them blow

24:52

up like that? I'll be sure during that

24:54

rooftop, I can't tell you how I want to feel love

24:56

out two ninety day on the

24:58

rooftop.

24:59

Doing video, it was like, oh, that's our friends.

25:02

A year a year earlier we throwing

25:05

football in middle of the street, and

25:07

he went from that to this. When

25:09

we saw that video, we said, yoh, look

25:12

at ow ow. It's on damn

25:15

TV. He's on Video Music Box.

25:17

See, man, you I'm talking about age

25:19

right now. I'm going I'm going to hord right

25:21

now.

25:22

Then no, no, no, no, no, I

25:24

was over.

25:25

I was over the Hollers the same this. But you know, you

25:28

know what it will, Chuck Shall out from Chuck

25:30

Shall out from up there Brox.

25:34

So it was truly Uptown's ticketing,

25:37

truly, all the battles

25:40

Shan and terrorist.

25:42

One and all these things.

25:44

Man that we see it. We saw that.

25:46

We went to I used to go to look.

25:49

I used to go to soundview. I

25:51

sell you uh sell view projects

25:55

over there. You know how many times I see.

25:56

The Cole Chris brothers.

25:58

I've seen the col Brothers for so many

26:00

times flash in a few age

26:02

five.

26:03

Man, I've seen everybody.

26:06

But but and I want to get into like

26:09

and you clearly are like you know you like me, like

26:11

I think you're only four years old than me. But you know, I

26:13

had the same experience with Hollis and we

26:15

were all having you know, I was there, you know the

26:17

same thing when running that pulled

26:19

that bus up. You know they picked us all up from Hollis

26:22

because you know you're doing the same

26:25

And I want to get into your head though about

26:27

the moments, because you know you

26:29

would go from there, then

26:31

you would go to Saturday Night Live. You're right on

26:33

Saturday Night Live.

26:34

Right.

26:35

I did a lot of first in New York.

26:38

I did the first pilot

26:40

on MTV. I did

26:42

the first pilot on Comedy

26:44

Central. I did the first

26:46

season of the comedy Jam.

26:48

I did the first one of the first seasons

26:51

of B E. T Comic View.

26:53

So I feel, man, I can't

26:56

even I try to spain us to young, young, inspiring

26:59

comedians and that you

27:01

truly have to

27:03

know how to drive your vehicle.

27:06

You know I use it.

27:07

I use that metaphor because you know, you

27:10

know, I use it because I just have a write a dance car,

27:13

you know, the kind of car you got to hold the foot and the break in the

27:15

gas at red lights because it was so when cut

27:17

off on you. That's how I feel

27:19

like I had to move

27:22

through everything I'm doing.

27:24

So you didn't look at those pilots as opportunities

27:26

or did you look at it or did other

27:28

people because other people, some people would have been like, yo, man,

27:30

I ain't doing that that new stuff all the

27:32

time, and me because you were starting to get more established.

27:35

Look, I told this is what I told people

27:38

when I when I did BAT Comic View,

27:40

I did BT com with view once by

27:43

the.

27:43

Death Comedy Jam twice right. That

27:46

was different.

27:47

When I did bat once right, and I realized

27:49

that all my other friends were doing it three

27:51

four, five times, I kept

27:53

staying I cut up. I would tell them to say, look,

27:56

it's okay to do it that many times.

27:58

But make sure now this

28:01

is the term, this is a big term.

28:02

Make sure you still do

28:05

other stuff, do

28:07

other stuff, be able to

28:09

communicate in other rooms.

28:12

Don't just make yourself one

28:15

dimensional because they gonna see you

28:17

with one dimensional and meaning that I'm

28:19

in saying it, because look, I

28:22

did multiple things, and

28:24

I made sure that I was able to

28:27

perform in front of different

28:29

kinds of audiences. Not that I

28:32

was excluding anybody, but

28:34

I made sure I understood and

28:36

I made sure I tried to write what's

28:38

overall funny that you can get

28:41

it, you can get it, and I can still go top.

28:42

Tele comedy club and kill it you know what I mean. But

28:44

I wanted to make sure that you're.

28:46

Saying when you said that to other people that did anybody

28:49

say, nah, man, I'm mistake.

28:50

No, no, no, that's

28:53

not even you know, an answer isn't

28:55

even required. It's just mean to

28:57

saying, hey man, you should try to this other stuff

29:00

so that way later on it'll make

29:02

sense. Right now, you might not see it because you're killing

29:04

you're killing me in the black black

29:06

clubs.

29:07

You don't mean killing it. I get it.

29:09

And and there is comedians who

29:12

do a lot of black rooms and black theaters

29:14

and they chill them. But you still,

29:16

if you want to have balance,

29:19

I said, don't exclude anything.

29:22

Do what you do, but find a way to

29:24

communicate and be able to walk in any

29:26

room for a meeting and be able

29:28

to communicate and be able to sell

29:31

your brand. Whatever your brand

29:33

is, you gotta be able to sell it. This is sharp language.

29:36

You gotta be able to sell your brand

29:39

and know what you do to the you know where

29:41

it's it's effortless.

29:44

I don't want you to float over that point because

29:46

I'm sure when you walked

29:48

into it, Okay, I you know

29:50

I'm not going to assume but when you walked into every

29:52

single room, different rooms,

29:54

and you knock it out the park all the time.

29:57

No man, no, but you

30:00

got you gotta hear

30:02

it. You gotta go through your system,

30:04

through your system. It has to go

30:06

through your ears, your decipels.

30:09

You know. You gotta be able to hear

30:11

the difference and hear different

30:13

laughters. You gotta hear what they what

30:15

this particular audience tonight loves

30:18

about me. Is it my delivery tonight?

30:20

Is it my timing tonight? Is it my mannerisms

30:23

tonight? Is it my physicality tonight? Every

30:26

night I went on stage, I got different

30:28

things that that worked.

30:31

But I had to listen to what this particular

30:33

audience is laughing at tonight and

30:36

give them more of what they want this

30:38

particular audience wants. Some

30:40

audiences just want you to sit there and give it

30:42

to them. Some want you to paint the pictures

30:45

on stage.

30:46

I think, you know, I think I

30:48

think you're too close to it, because

30:51

I gotta tell you the Uptown

30:53

Comedy Club in the Saturday Night live

30:56

audio, two different people, Saturday Night, different

30:58

people, and Curb two

31:00

different people. Now, when I go out and speak

31:02

sometimes I will be especially you know for some reason,

31:05

a lot of times I'm banking organizations

31:07

and especially insurance organizations have

31:09

to speak. And the insurance organizations always say,

31:11

damon, I got to tell you we need change.

31:14

We are all pale and stale. And I walk into

31:16

the room and a lot of silver haired

31:18

males are there that I'm

31:21

about to tell them a story about a little brown boy

31:23

who got left back and grew

31:26

up damn near welfare from Hollis. Yeah,

31:28

And I'm looking at them and

31:30

I you know, we don't want to assume,

31:33

you know what I mean, because the people have all colors, who've helped all

31:35

people around the world. But I'm looking like, how are they

31:37

going to relate to me? And

31:42

they do, But they're sitting

31:44

there in their staunch, you know, they're in their way. They're in

31:46

their suits right there next to their colleagues. Maybe they don't

31:48

want to have a good time. How did

31:50

you feel walking into these rooms,

31:53

especially when sometimes you did not get

31:55

the reply you wanted? How did you go back

31:57

into that room?

31:58

I need to drive, you know what I

32:00

mean.

32:00

If I'm and I use that because I

32:04

know how to drive me and I know and

32:06

I know how to sell myself

32:09

if you can sell yourself but

32:12

read people, you know, read

32:15

their energies and feel what they're

32:17

giving you back, even if they don't say nothing to

32:19

you, and you're able to change the tune

32:22

of the rule. You know, and

32:24

you can feel people, you

32:26

know what I mean. If you able

32:28

to do that, you you

32:30

are able to control your destiny.

32:33

Ain't anytime you see me on the late night show,

32:35

I'm always driving. It's not my damn show.

32:37

I'm not the guest, I'm not I'm not the late night host.

32:40

But but damn it, damnit, I'm driving. I'm

32:42

driving. I'm driving this damn

32:44

show tonight. When you pre

32:47

interview me, and you're right, you got ten questions

32:49

for me, you might get the two or

32:51

three. You might know, you

32:53

might get the two or three of them. They already know

32:56

when I come. They just would throw

32:58

that card away because.

33:00

Let's talk industry, because right now, what you

33:02

just said, because people listening right now,

33:04

when you pre interview show, people don't

33:06

know that it's not just a given you're gonna

33:09

go on the show. You have producer against producer

33:11

against. Yeah, they don't know what you're

33:13

gonna say. If you fit the way that

33:15

this uh you know, interview is going to interview.

33:17

So they call you up and they pre interviewed because

33:19

they want to know what are you gonna say? Can I

33:21

have this and that? And you're saying, they're

33:23

stuck in their own ways and a lot of us, you know, we

33:26

see people who are stuck in their own ways. They have

33:28

their ten questions. You're saying, you barely let

33:30

them get two out, and you dictate what's

33:32

going to happen.

33:33

Man, But I can't.

33:35

I cannot honestly

33:38

tell anybody to do it. But

33:41

I know how I know how to do

33:43

it. I trust my process,

33:46

I trust my thoughts. I

33:48

trust listening to what the

33:50

audience is laughing at right now.

33:53

I trust the host who's

33:56

show it is. You know, even

33:58

even hosts who have met for the first

34:00

time.

34:01

On their show.

34:02

I feel like we

34:04

have we have to come across

34:07

like, hey, we're cool, we're

34:09

friends, We're cool. This is gonna go so

34:12

smooth because and then they get

34:14

then they get caught up, and they disarm them

34:17

exactly, and they see what you're doing and they

34:19

let you be you the crowd. As long as the audience

34:21

is having a good time and at laughing man,

34:24

carry on. Man, it's has some fun and I

34:26

think that's what makes anything. But

34:29

it took me. It took me time to figure

34:31

that out. I can'tnot sit here and say

34:34

I figured it all out.

34:35

I learned.

34:36

Even today, every

34:38

time I get on a set, every time I

34:41

get on stage, I still.

34:42

Learn I stumbled. I

34:45

full, I do it all. But

34:48

can nobody tell you to be smooth? Who's

34:50

not?

34:50

Feelings? Because I truly

34:52

believe. And again, I got a bad memory

34:55

for failure. I have bad

34:58

memory for failure. If

35:00

you ask if I stay home one night and

35:02

you ask you that next say what happened, I'd

35:04

be like, I don't know.

35:05

You gotta whoa, I

35:08

don't know what ad memory

35:10

for fail Are you serious or you aer?

35:13

You have to?

35:15

I have to because if

35:17

I do well on things too long,

35:19

my movement stops.

35:21

And I tell people. I tell them people that all the time.

35:23

Don't let nobody talk you out of anything.

35:26

Experience it for yourself, Absorb

35:28

it and figure out how can I fix this?

35:31

What did I do wrong last night? Stole

35:33

and move on? Now you're just stuck

35:35

in the mud.

35:36

You're gonna want to You're gonna be too gunshot

35:40

to pull a trigger. You won't be able to pull

35:42

a trigger, they said, walking on

35:44

stage right, it's half

35:47

the battle. If you can say

35:49

I want to do this, and you can get your hands out

35:51

of that chair and walk on that seat and grab that microphone,

35:53

you're already halfway where you need to be

35:55

at.

35:56

So and why

35:59

don't we why don't we on what

36:01

you said? You said, you walk in the room,

36:03

you feel out everybody, and then you relate

36:06

to them. What can

36:08

somebody do right now when they walk into

36:10

a room, because a lot of people don't you know, they walk

36:12

into a room, they have their walls up in

36:14

front of them. Or are the cases I find you

36:16

work in a room. Everybody has some things in common.

36:19

Everybody has wives, they all have kids,

36:21

they all have some things they want

36:23

to do, And like, is there anything

36:25

that you can tell us right now that when next

36:27

time I walk in a room and I don't know how to read the room,

36:30

that I can disarm them and I can

36:32

relate to them.

36:33

You walk in the room, if your auditioned

36:35

for something, you walk in the room.

36:37

I just want them I go in the room as the

36:40

character. I want

36:42

them.

36:42

I want to see eyebrows raised, I want

36:44

to see them sit up in their chair. I want

36:46

to see them twist their head. I want to see

36:49

them like, okay, I

36:51

see what they're doing. I disarmed

36:54

them. And that's the same thing I talk about

36:56

with doing interviews. You

36:58

you'll control you're a cadence.

37:01

You're listen to.

37:01

What a meaning. Let's talk what I mean because you you're

37:03

often in rooms when you're you know, you're a

37:06

businessman the end of the day, a huge

37:08

and successful businessman. Do you walk in

37:10

the room as jab Smooth the

37:13

no comedian, or you walking there is the businessman?

37:15

I'm working as a businessman and how do you

37:17

designed? Hey, I'm

37:19

jb all day.

37:21

Let's talk about what we're gonna Let's talk about right now,

37:23

what we plan on doing together.

37:25

Do you relate and how do you relate?

37:27

How we can find our skills to do something? Don't?

37:31

And this is how this is, This is how I'm talking

37:33

right now, is how I speak when I'm in

37:35

meetings. I'm passionate

37:37

about what I do. I know how hard I

37:39

work, and I know that any I know

37:41

people can do this. I know

37:44

they can do it, but you gotta be passionate

37:46

about it. And if it ain't you who're

37:48

gonna do it? Somebody else gonna

37:50

do it, and they're gonna feel like that when you walk out

37:52

of that room, Like dammit, I like this, dude,

37:55

And how how do I corral this

37:58

moment and make it and make it work for me?

38:01

I can't sell myself short because

38:03

I already been through it.

38:04

I've already been through what I've been through it may

38:07

I lost my dad when I was fifteen years old, right, my

38:10

father died.

38:11

I guess that's what I had to do.

38:13

I had to figure this shit out,

38:30

and this is how you got to move sometimes.

38:32

I went to SNL as a writer,

38:35

right, That's what I ended up doing. I

38:37

ended up getting a job right

38:39

as a writer. That's one check. Then I

38:41

started doing warm up on the show. There's

38:43

two chicks. Then they started cutting

38:45

me in minologus here and there. There's three

38:47

checks. Then Cal O'Brien

38:50

was still downstairs,

38:52

still at NBC during his show in the

38:54

same building, four stories

38:56

down in his studio. He

38:58

finds out I'm upstairs as

39:01

a writer. He alreadyknew me already, he

39:03

said, Man, Jamie's some stats. You

39:05

know, people claw on lawn MICUs and say, hey, can

39:07

we borrow j B? To put JB

39:09

in some sketches on my show? So

39:12

I'm up there working as a writer behind a computer.

39:14

LAWD called my phone and say, hey, you know

39:17

JB. A.

39:19

Corn wants to borrow you for a little while and do a

39:21

sketch.

39:21

Go down there and do a sketch with Corn and then come back and

39:24

finish your writing. Man, what damn,

39:27

that's four checks. If that ain't a

39:29

New York hustle, I don't know what it is. Four

39:32

separate checks for doing four different jobs

39:35

in the same building, you know what I'm

39:37

saying. So that being said,

39:40

I had to hustle

39:43

to make that happen. I had to

39:45

show up to make them say, hey, you want to do

39:48

warm up? I had to show up to make them say

39:50

we didn't pick them for cast, but we're gonna

39:52

thraw on some sketches, you know what I mean. I

39:54

had to have a relationship already with Conan

39:56

from previously. He had

39:59

to like me, you know, he

40:01

had to. He had to like me to say, hey, can we

40:03

borrow j APE. I had

40:05

to do that a long time ago.

40:07

I had to plant that seed. That's another

40:09

scene that got planned that ends up coming back.

40:13

So I ended up not getting

40:15

not getting I end up not getting

40:18

renewed.

40:20

Right, man, this is crazy, this is crazy.

40:22

So I gotta I gotta go. I

40:24

was watching I got

40:26

I fired everybody, so I

40:29

gotta signed with a new agent.

40:31

Right.

40:31

So I would at home watching

40:34

Cribby Enthusiasm, and

40:36

I told my wife, I said, man, I love to

40:39

show so much.

40:40

Man, I said, I would love to be on the show.

40:41

One day, my wife said, you're

40:43

gonna be on that show. She

40:46

said, I see it. I

40:48

can see you and Larry together. I don't

40:51

know what it is. You love this show

40:53

so much, and you do you

40:55

do this stuff all the time, like

40:58

with your eyes closed. You improvised

41:01

all the time. You gonna go to a party

41:03

and this saying you know the party is it's a

41:05

lot live in the whole party up because

41:07

you just being you and you're just improvising

41:11

you. You and Larry would be so funny

41:13

together. She

41:15

put that into the universe. She's

41:18

here's how things happen sometimes. One

41:21

my wife told me I was gonna be on the

41:23

show. Two SNL

41:26

didn't resign me.

41:28

Right. If SNL

41:30

resigns me, guess what.

41:32

I never know about I never know about

41:34

quirk enthusiasm because I

41:36

wouldn't. But I ended up doing

41:39

sue stand up on the road when I didn't get renewed.

41:42

I was talking, I was, I just signed a new Asian.

41:45

I was on the road doing some stand up you're talking about two

41:47

or three months after I didn't resign. I

41:49

end up in Atlanta in the hotel

41:52

room after my show, my phone

41:54

readings.

41:55

My buddy O G.

41:57

Pearce, who produced the song, this

41:59

is that's how we do it, Marchal Jordan

42:03

is how.

42:03

We do it. You know, g Gonna

42:05

make some dance. You know, he produced

42:08

that song.

42:09

We became friends when

42:12

I was on such as

42:14

Anenter Tannis show.

42:15

He was doing the music supervisor, so

42:17

me and him hit it off. We came good friends.

42:20

And then I found out that O G passed

42:22

away, right, I end

42:24

up.

42:27

Leaving Atlanta and said, oh, and

42:30

then I found out they were having a memorial service for m

42:32

in La.

42:33

So look I just saw it. With

42:35

a new agent.

42:36

I get to La. I said, hell,

42:38

way, I'm in La. I'might as well go and

42:40

see my new agent, go.

42:42

And meet them.

42:42

So I say, you know what, let me go over

42:44

here and meet meet these dunble heads. I met the people in New

42:47

York. Let me go meet the people in the LA office.

42:49

I go over to the LA office. I'm only

42:51

in town one days. Came for the memorial service.

42:54

I get to the office, right. I called myself

42:57

in town for a friends of memorial service.

42:59

He passed away. They said, come

43:01

on over to the office and meet the team. I

43:03

go over there, man, I go to

43:06

go to this you know, big ass table, ten

43:08

chairs around the table.

43:09

I'm sitting at the head of the table.

43:11

Everybody got blue suits, hoole like weed, a damn matrix,

43:13

you know, like

43:16

I'm in the major like a meo. I

43:19

said, okay, so what you want

43:21

to do now? You know you've been behind a computer

43:23

typeing for three years. You know what's

43:26

what do you want to do? I said, you know what, man, I'm just ready to get

43:29

from behind the camera back to the

43:31

front of the camera again.

43:32

Man, my energy is good, you know

43:34

God.

43:35

And then Asian walks in and says, hey, man, hey,

43:38

JD get to meet you. Hey, I

43:40

heard you in town. Hey what do

43:42

you How long you here? I said, I leave tomorrow.

43:45

I only came in to town because my buddy O. G. Pierce

43:47

passed away. I only came to town

43:49

for that, so I'm leaving tomorrow. I got a gig on

43:52

Sunday.

43:53

Man.

43:54

He says, well, I got an audition.

43:57

If you have time to go over there.

43:59

I said, yeah, I'm free, I can

44:01

go over there.

44:01

I can go over there today. I said, what's it four? He

44:04

said, Curby Enthusiasm.

44:07

I said what I said,

44:09

man, I.

44:09

Love Kurb Enthusiasm. I said, I

44:11

love kurb enthusiasm. He

44:13

said, can you go over there now? I said, I said, I said,

44:16

give me the sides. He gave me the sides. There's

44:18

three different things on the page right.

44:20

He said, it's you know you're gonna do it, maybe

44:25

two of these off this list. I

44:27

said, okay, I read the paper. I said, man,

44:29

I'm going ahead. I know I know what this is. I

44:32

get over there, man, I go split over

44:34

there. Everybody's in that room ready

44:36

to go in the audition. All my friends,

44:39

all all my comedian friends

44:41

are all going in for the same role, for

44:44

my role, going in there, for vivoicous

44:46

role, going in there for Auntie

44:48

Rag's role. All the roles people

44:50

are in that room going in there. I'm

44:53

saying, oh, man, you know we're joking

44:55

around in there. So I said, yo, I

44:58

said one, okay, So I read it, and

45:00

here's what I do. I walk in

45:02

the room. This is my thing.

45:05

I feel like, especially when I'm trying to figure the character

45:07

out. Like I said, I go into the room

45:09

as the character.

45:11

Mm hmmm. I walk in the room as Leon.

45:14

M Yo.

45:15

Your white people were looking at me like, what

45:18

in the hell is going on here?

45:20

They didn't know what I was doing, but

45:24

I had him laughing.

45:25

Mm hmmm.

45:26

They were like, they said,

45:28

yo, and Larry's still in the middle

45:30

of the room. I had no idea.

45:33

At a curb your enthusiasm audition,

45:36

you improvised directly with

45:39

Larry. I had no

45:41

idea. I had no idea you over

45:43

this is room. Sometimes you're going on tape.

45:45

That gotta be intimidating too.

45:49

But see, just save me. It

45:51

saved me because I didn't go in the room

45:53

as JP. I

45:55

didn't go and I went in the room as Leon.

45:58

You always Leon. From from the minute

46:00

from the time.

46:00

I turned the door knob the walk in

46:03

there, I was already

46:05

in Leon Low.

46:07

I already started doing some man of riasms

46:09

who I thought he was. I started

46:11

speaking differently.

46:12

I started speaking more aggressively to Larry

46:14

because I wanted to put him on his heels. The

46:17

first thing I said to Larry, this is crazy. I did this though

46:19

I wouldn't recommend anybody doing this, but I

46:21

said, I said, okay, okay. JB

46:24

said you're gonna improvise with Larry. Let's

46:26

do seem one. And I said, Okay, Larry,

46:28

let's improvise. I said, may We're gonna improvise,

46:30

right, And I've been doing it. I've been improvising my

46:33

whole life. I've been

46:35

improvising through my real

46:37

life and my stand up life. That's

46:39

the only way I'm able to have

46:42

that type of confidence in what I'm doing.

46:45

Win or lose. You gotta have it.

46:47

I walk in there, I said, okay, Larry, for improvise.

46:50

I said, anything can happen, Larry. I don't know. I

46:52

might slap in the face. I don't know. Let's

46:54

see what happened. Le's see what we going.

46:57

Larry looked at me like what

46:59

the what is

47:01

room?

47:02

And the producers all like and Larry

47:04

looked at the producers.

47:05

Like like, okay,

47:08

you know, and

47:10

man, from that moment on, I

47:13

had that dude crying.

47:16

He had to we we get

47:18

it off, so.

47:19

Well, see you

47:21

don't you don't know how these

47:23

things work. Then later

47:26

on I found out that Larry actually

47:29

but well, Larry's on the show that I used to love, which

47:31

was Fridays.

47:32

Remember that show. Fridays. Fridays

47:34

was a show that was in competition with SNL

47:36

back and the day.

47:38

Remember Fridays, God Fridays.

47:42

Oh Man, Fridays was a joint.

47:44

Michael Richards was on Fridays, Larry

47:47

was on Fridays. It was a

47:49

show that went head to head with.

47:52

Man.

47:53

It was freaking Hilarry's. It

47:55

was the only other sketch show that was

47:57

just like SNL that came on late at night. Different

47:59

now work. I.

48:03

I go in the corner and we just started. We hit it. We

48:06

immediately hit it off.

48:06

We laugh and he laughed in his say asshof, you

48:09

know producers like me and

48:11

I left out of there. My agent called me, and my

48:13

new agent called me. Ticked on me. He said, Man, how

48:15

did we go? I said, Man, if

48:18

anybody else walk in and get that role, God

48:20

blessing, but all often.

48:22

Saying me and Larry had a great time. But

48:25

Larry.

48:25

But Larry didn't work in SNL for a year.

48:28

Now, I'm gonna tell you when I worked at SNL for three seasons.

48:31

I can count on one hand how

48:33

many of my sketches made it

48:35

to air one

48:38

hand, and I might be able to remove

48:40

two fingers.

48:43

Why you didn't get anything renewed but yet?

48:45

But but let me tell you them.

48:49

I was definitely a

48:53

favorite at SNL. My

48:55

pictures are legendary,

48:58

legendary.

48:59

You took comedian who writes.

49:01

For himself and you put them in a writing

49:03

position, you know, actuality.

49:06

I probably should have been both.

49:09

I probably should have been a cast member who

49:11

wrote for himself and other

49:13

people. Because I

49:16

mean, to this day, people still bring up

49:19

my old sketches.

49:20

I don't care who I see.

49:21

I could see Lauren, I could see head

49:23

writers from back then, task members from

49:25

back then. They all remember every

49:28

pitch I ever pitched, because I would

49:30

pitch. I would pitch as a comedian

49:32

meeting. I would stand up and I would pitch

49:35

my, my, my,

49:37

my sketch ideas.

49:38

So this is crazy.

49:42

I leave there.

49:43

I said, if someone gets it this, god bless him,

49:45

I said. Me and Larry had a good time. I

49:48

thought about it. I didn't think about it no more. I

49:50

said, whatever happens happens. I've seen a

49:52

lot of people in that room who are talented

49:55

as hell, so for me and so like,

49:57

we'll see what happens.

49:58

You know.

49:59

I didn't think about it. I just laborated a good

50:01

time. I don't know how it's gonna turn out.

50:02

I don't know.

50:03

I get on my flight for

50:06

the next day. I fly to Pittsburgh

50:09

to do a stand up show. I

50:11

landed Pittsburgh. I had to drive

50:14

two hours to get to the comedy

50:16

club, which is deep and Pensedica.

50:19

I get there the.

50:21

Most horrible hotel I've ever been

50:23

in, motel Motel

50:26

No.

50:27

I got to three hours earlier.

50:29

I laid on the bed in my clothes

50:31

and my colt and no, I'm

50:33

thinking about this is praise, how

50:35

life is.

50:37

I'm laying there one damn

50:39

thirty ass bed. Right.

50:41

It's a horrible ass motel, you

50:44

know, And I'm sitting there like, damn

50:47

my ass used to write form. I

50:51

get on stage, Man, I had a good

50:54

show. Right, go back to the

50:56

room, I said, Nah. After

50:58

I can smell bad weather coming.

51:01

I can smell it, I said, nah, I'm

51:04

two hours from the airport.

51:05

Here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna leave here. I'm gonna

51:07

go drive.

51:08

And stay at the airport in a nice clean room.

51:11

Got a Hampton in I'm not gonna stand this raggedy

51:13

ass motel. I packed myself, put

51:15

it in the trunk, started driving. Fifteen

51:17

minutes into my drive, it is freaking

51:20

me. Bury's coming down,

51:22

snow wurry. Then it's like more

51:24

snow. Then it's more snow.

51:27

Man.

51:27

It got a half an hour into the ride, I couldn't

51:30

see. I said, damn

51:32

it. Should I turn around and go back? I

51:34

said, no, what I'm these coats. I can

51:36

drive it in this snow. We used to driving in the snow. I'm

51:39

done fifteen hours. An hour is freaking

51:42

the blizzard. People are pulling over

51:44

under it and other passes and stuff. I'm

51:46

just driving in the middle of the highway. My agent

51:49

calls me. Now I'm thinking he's calling me about

51:51

what happened club and be cussing

51:54

his ass out. He said, you know what,

51:57

I said, man, Look man, that dude is a trip. He said, yeah,

51:59

I know, Mann, we we've he always gets into

52:01

it other people. Then he says, I

52:04

said, now, when a Holloway doing fifteen miles an hour,

52:06

man the snow, He said,

52:09

slow down to ten miles an hour because

52:11

I need you to come back to LA tomorrow,

52:14

because you just got Curby

52:16

enthusias dang, And I said,

52:19

yo, I said what I

52:22

said? Let me call you back, man. I call my wife.

52:24

I said, baby, guess what happened. Guess

52:26

what I got Kirby enthusiasmic. She said,

52:29

God, I do it. I told you

52:31

you. I told you he's gonna love you. I

52:34

do it it.

52:37

That's IM saying, listen to your wives. I

52:39

tell her, tell people all the time, it's still the wife. Once

52:41

in a while, my wife on

52:43

the show. David, this is nuts,

52:46

dammit.

52:48

I get back to l a

52:51

right. But first

52:53

day on set with that, we

52:55

were having so much some damn fun.

52:57

Right in between shots, Larry

53:00

says to me, he said, man,

53:02

this is crazy, but I feel like we've

53:05

been working together for years. I

53:08

said, no, what Larry has ironically

53:11

be had And I had to think about

53:13

this on my head. We were both

53:15

on essdel. We both

53:18

barely got sketches on SNEL. Larry

53:21

even quit while he

53:23

was on Essendel went home.

53:26

His roommate said, are you crazy? That's

53:29

a check. Larry went back

53:31

to work the next day and pretend

53:33

like he did. He actually

53:37

did an episode of a side thought on it.

53:40

He quit because I asked

53:42

whole his roommates so, are you crazy? That's

53:44

a freaking check.

53:45

Man.

53:46

Larry went back to work. By nothing happened.

53:50

Damn its crazy, he

53:53

said. So that's when we had that moment,

53:56

right, did the whole season

53:58

Kirk enthusing?

54:00

Right? We ended up.

54:02

You know they had the rap part. So they had the rap

54:05

part.

54:05

Just everybody, you know, all casts or crew,

54:08

they celebrate the season being over.

54:10

We get to the.

54:11

Rap part, right,

54:13

my wife and are there

54:16

showing it.

54:17

They have something called the gag wheel.

54:18

The gag wheels all the funny moments from the season,

54:21

or the photos of everybody on crew taking

54:24

pictures of pictures and candid photos of each

54:26

other, videos scenes that

54:29

you know where were laughing too much.

54:30

Or whatever, you know, group of rios stuff. Man,

54:34

So dam it's crazy.

54:37

Just what song was

54:40

on the Jagga Bull the bean

54:42

music? Right? This

54:46

is how we do it, shit.

54:50

Yo, yo, man,

54:52

My heart just started

54:55

being crazy and

54:57

my wife and I looked at each other like, Yo,

55:00

that's crazy.

55:01

I would never have even been in LA.

55:05

I had to think about everything.

55:07

I said, one, what if

55:09

WO you didn't die, What

55:11

if you didn't die at that week,

55:15

or what if you didn't die at all? I

55:17

would have never been in LA. What

55:20

IFS and L would have resigned

55:22

me for my fourth season? I

55:24

wouldn't have been in LA, I

55:26

said.

55:26

Third or first?

55:29

You told me I was want to be on the show, but

55:32

you wouldn't. We wouldn't have had that. She told

55:34

me I was gonna be on that show before I

55:37

got fired.

55:39

And if I think about that moment,

55:43

you gotta.

55:43

Have several moments. I think, but

55:47

you gotta have the right frame of mind.

55:49

You gotta want everybody to win.

55:53

You don't want just yourself to win. Even

55:55

when I left that audition, I

55:57

wanted my friends to win. Those

55:59

are a real friends in that room going

56:01

in after me. Now,

56:04

I ain't a lie. When I came out there, I was. I was fucking

56:06

with my little bit. I

56:08

said, hey, man, I hold the door. I was just that's

56:11

just how we do a commedity. I hold the door. I

56:13

was all right, all right, okay, Mary, you

56:15

call me later. Man, you'd be cool and close

56:17

the door. I said, Yeah, said y'all get just sco the.

56:21

Now.

56:21

You don't want to be in the room.

56:22

You don't want to be a room.

56:23

You don't want to be in a room with all your comedians. And one time

56:25

it's O no no.

56:26

Everybody started laughing. Because that's how we do. I

56:28

said, hey, man, y'all gonna have fun. Man, I gotta

56:30

go with the Pittsburgh Man do a show. I

56:33

said, good luck, everybody, good luck. But

56:36

I say that because that's

56:38

how we are. We that's how

56:40

I am. I root for everybody

56:42

because I know if

56:45

you could walk in that room and win, that

56:48

opens up. That opens up other doors.

56:51

Yeah, it opens other doors up. So

56:53

my moment can become your moment, you.

56:55

Know, Jay, And this is probably

56:57

one of the most informal, most powerful interviews

57:00

I've done it in a long time for various reasons. I

57:02

think that you did go over what that

57:04

moment was. I've had those type of moments,

57:06

but I think everything

57:08

is not just that simple. It is, like you

57:10

said, planning seeds, and that moment

57:13

is a culmination of a bunch

57:15

of moments that

57:18

happened. And I think you said it right, man.

57:20

You know, you lost a lot of people, so you

57:22

value the moments that when you when you're with people,

57:24

you you walk out the room and you wish

57:27

everybody you know success, even

57:29

if it's no one against maybe your success,

57:31

but it doesn't matter. You know, you

57:34

don't want to get in their way. It doesn't make

57:36

your way any easier, you know what I mean. And

57:39

then you had a special moment. Man. I really really

57:41

thank you, man, because I think that I

57:44

got to reflect and think about things. And you

57:46

know, you've always been like that. I don't know if I've ever met

57:48

I mean, you know, Quincy. You

57:51

know, you've never had

57:53

people in between any of us. Like when I speak

57:55

to you, and I've always whenever I've speak spoken

57:58

to anybody spoken you, it's almost like you're

58:00

talking to a long lost friend or old

58:03

body, you know. And even if you have somebody

58:05

there who's working with

58:07

you, like my Chauncey or my Ted

58:09

parent or Ted, it's like, yeah, that's cool, but

58:12

we're talking to you. We're just all hanging

58:14

out. And I think that that is what makes

58:16

you such a beautiful person. And it comes off on TV.

58:19

It comes off when people meet you. Man, and

58:22

and it's good to see people that don't put a lot

58:24

of shields in front of them. And if

58:26

we have to go and speak to the other people, it's

58:28

all good. But we know that, we know

58:30

that it's part of the process and it was all

58:32

cool. But thank you for sharing that moment with

58:34

me.

58:34

I think you're me man too. We know

58:37

we always have.

58:37

Good talk, we always have a good time. We're

58:40

gonna have any more the we're gonna have. Well,

58:43

thank you for being with us.

58:44

Brother, Hey man, I love you'all. Man, You'll be good

58:46

day.

58:46

This has been That Moment with

58:49

Damon John. That

58:55

Moment with Damon John is a production

58:58

of the Black Effect Podcast Network.

59:01

For more podcasts from the Black Effect

59:03

Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio

59:06

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59:08

you listen to your favorite show and

59:10

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59:13

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59:15

connect with me on any social

59:17

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59:20

daymon as in Raymond

59:22

with a D