Club Shay Shay - Donnell Rawlings Part 1 - Club Shay Shay

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I don't know nothing about the free parties, but I
do know right, Thank you nah, because you're about to
get crazy, go ahead and say it. That's how Diddy
parties taught, right, I'm just saying that time going. I
know you about to say some slip ship. Yeah, that's
how it gets you to take the time off to
your shit around.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
All my life, grinding all my life, sacrifice, Hustle, pe Price,
one slice got the pro geist, swap all my life,
iop be grinding all my life, All my life, grinding
all my life, sacrifice, Hustle, paed Price, one Slice got
the bronc Geist the swap all my life, Pop be
grinding all my life.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
Hello, welcome to another episode of Club Shah. I am
your hole Sheddon Sharp. I'm also the propriud of Club Shah,
and today we're at the brand new Villa sixty six
at Resource World in Las Vegas. This says, a spectacular
two bedroom entertainment villa on the sixty sixth floor with
a stunning view of the strip. This is deserved for
invited guests only, which I am. I'll be staying here tonight.

(01:03):
The guy that's stopping buy for conversation and the drink
today is one of the most beloved comedians in the industry.
He's had significant impact on the entertainment industry. He was
on what two of the greatest television shows in history,
The Chappelle Show and The Wire. He was honored also
with the Red Fox Award. He's a critically claimed actor,
a versatile performer, season stand up comedian, the host, the writer.

Speaker 4 (01:23):
For over thirty years, he.

Speaker 3 (01:25):
Tours the world to sold out audiences everywhere, A fan favorite,
a proud father, a larger than life personality. Here he is,
Ladies and gentlemen, mister Donnielle Robin.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
I really appreciate that introduction, but you missed one thing.

Speaker 4 (01:38):
What I miss R and B Singer.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Sonthing's got a hold on me eighty hand. I don't
know myself. He ain't need more. And that's not the
drink speaking, that's just me.

Speaker 4 (01:49):
Yeah, Ladies and gentlem Mister Teddy drowns.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
It's ironicda. He's one of my favorite artists right now.
And no black people's swearing. I love Teddy's Sondy's unbelievable.
He's good guy too, and he swims. He swims in
the milk. You know what that means right, I don't
know them. You know what bunny hopping is, yeah, I
know that is well, it's the opposite of the bunny hoppings. Oh,
the white guy dates of black chick. He swims in

(02:14):
the milk, which would be such a disapproval to doctor Umar,
but I put it on. I'm just saying. So. Some
people don't appreciate love and all flavors. They used to
call me a basketing rawlings because I dipped in different
flavors and I support the happiness. I supported happiness. That's
what that said. That's what people don't like having like you.
I like who like me?

Speaker 3 (02:34):
There you go, there it is, thanks for stopping, but
damn bought them bunny. Sometimes I'm just I'm just saying, Lord,
have mercy. I want you silent. They don't talk. A lot.

Speaker 4 (02:47):
Does not approve of this.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
Yes you do, Yes, you do. Yes, you don't try
to get it. Let's just say, I can get me cares.
If you ain't cares about now, you won't get cares
all right.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Certain people, when you create, and this is the real stuff,
when you create your own lane, you're doing it on
your own term, so you are uncancellable. And people always
ask that question. You think somebody gonna cancer? People say
to me, sometimes you think you get canceled. I like,
first off, I'm not connected with a major network. I'm
not connected with no corporate sponsors. So my only boss
is the people that work hard, pay to pay the money,
come seeing you, and they can't cancel for that.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
Well, I do have. I am on television. I work
for the guy that got the ears. I try to
want to keep that look.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
Gig. I spoke on me. I didn't speak on you,
and you said that your face looked like you know
what he speaks to himself.

Speaker 3 (03:35):
I did not approve the message that mister Rawlings delivered earlier.
Thank you very much. Okay, all I'm just said, be happy, Ron,
thanks for stopping by.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
My mother. I talked to my mother. I said, I'm
doing Shanny show. She said, well, don't get crazy, and
she told me don't drink the yat. But I'm in
a profession right now where I don't have any disciplines.
So to my mother, you'll have to get over. Should
be all right. I love you, mom. It's a holiday
to see he's a two b tlly.

Speaker 3 (04:04):
Everything that you've done in the industry and continue success. Brother,
thanks for stopping by.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
It, thank you for having me. And oh my mother
might have been right. That is smooth though. You got
the fancy sisters too. Yeah, that's the next level. Then
we go see you home. We're gonna send you a
couple of bottles with you. Yeah. I saw With's Cleveland
the other day. You can send me home with something
else too. I'm just saying I didn't get I didn't
keep them people upstairs. He didn't keep anything.

Speaker 4 (04:30):
I didn't.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
I was like this, I said, Oh, I'm coming back
the week after. I say, it's still gonna be some
remnants of it. You you you partake what I just
want to say this all of courses could be politically
you mean partaking. Do I get hide?

Speaker 4 (04:48):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (04:48):
Yeah? Do I smoke white? Do I smoke it fatty?
In some cases I do? You do and I don't.
But the thing is, I'm not like some people like
they smoke just to get lipped. I like it. And
then even my preference is like hybrid's heavy. You're on
the sativa side because of like stuff that make me
feel creative or make me want to write, But I
don't like to like smoke a joint, just lay on
a g.

Speaker 3 (05:08):
Yeah, based out and so you partake. No, I don't, Damn,
it's gonna be chess. It's gonna be chess.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
Are you from the d m B. Yes, quake from
the d m B. Yes?

Speaker 3 (05:20):
Uh, Martin Lawrence wonder Side Shale, Yes, Tommy Davison.

Speaker 4 (05:24):
What is in the water? What in the salt?

Speaker 3 (05:27):
How you get all these guys from what that little
one central location?

Speaker 1 (05:30):
I think you have that in different cities. Atlanta's is
a good market. Uh Uh, Chicago is a good market.
Joe Rogan has made Austin a good market. But I
think that uh that cruel people. You missed a couple
of people good friend of my mentor fat doctor. It's
just something about the people that we really believed in
being good stand ups and we learned from like Craftsman.

(05:54):
You know what I'm saying now today, You know the
comedy is going to a way where people go up
there and ask like crowd work quest and everything. I
don't think that that's the best form of stand up,
but it's getting paid. And we was coming up. We
came up, We came up behind Martinus, Tommy Davidson. So
We used to go to those shows. We wanted to
be good, so we used to always sit in the
back and study the young commons. To day, they don't
do that. We used to sit in the back and

(06:15):
study and watch what makes this got dope? What is
he working on? How much time does he have? Is
he good at some of the crowd work? Is he
a good good storyteller? So when you have people like
that that you're coming behind, you have no choice but
to be a good comic because you're coming from coming
behind some of the best people to do it. And
everybody every and it's the funny thing you said, everybody

(06:38):
that you now on the list is still actively correct
doing it. And we're talking like guys have years careers
of twenty five, thirty forty years, still relevant and still
making people laugh.

Speaker 4 (06:48):
I've noticed in correct me if I'm wrong.

Speaker 3 (06:50):
I noticed a lot of the young and up and
coming comedians they're like, lean heavily on the skins. If
the older guys didn't really do a whole lot of skits.
You got up there with a microphone, you had a stool,
and you told joke, You walk the room, you appeal
to the crowd. Do you notice the difference in how
stand up is being I know.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
There's a difference, but I will say it's evolving. The
reason why it was like that we didn't have access
to what the kids have today to blow up. I
had a conversation with a young female comic, maybe like
seven years ago. She said, I'm a comedian. I was like,
let me see some of your stuff, and she went
to YouTube. She said, well, I do these skits and
I said, that's not being a comedian. She said, yes

(07:27):
it is. I said, no, it's not. But then she
broke open the Webster Webster dictionary definition one who entertains
a crowd with humor. So when I started, it wasn't
to sketch up. So when you said comedian, you only
associate it with stand up. Now you have to telling jokes.
But now it's a whole different thing. The only thing

(07:50):
the thing about it is I'm like a real artist
to this. I believe in it. And you see some
of the younger guys that get on real real quick,
and you're like, well I liked them doing that skits,
but not doing a stand up. I just wish that
some of them just would respect the ard enough to
take it a little bit more serious and want to
be a craftsman of it. But when I when I

(08:10):
first started, if you wanted to get pussy, if you
wanted to give money, and you wanted to give fame,
you had to be good first. You had to be
good before the money came. You had to be good
before the girls came. You had to be good before
the fame came. But now you got somebody can go
viral real quick. Don't have that skill set. So how
do you tell a young a younger comic, you know

(08:33):
what you need to work on this? And when he
looked at his YouTube money and it's like this, I
just made three hundred thousand this a week. I don't
care about being good right now. I care about getting
this money. But then you have some people that break
away from it, that take take the tools of being
to do this stuf on the internet and also work
on being being good stand ups too.

Speaker 3 (08:55):
But let me ask you this, when your skit driven,
is that sustainable? Because I mean, now you can see
some of the guys, some of you guys. Also, you
know you came up in the stand up game where
you told joke you worked the room, but you could
also do skits. But do you you believe if you
start with skits first, is that sustainable?

Speaker 1 (09:12):
It's it's sustainable because you're gonna get the money fast.
And at the end of the day, what are most
people doing it for the cash? You don't have to
do skits for ten or fifteen years. You got some
of these guys to get a lick for two years
and if they invest their money right, do the right thing.
They good. But the funny thing when I first started,
I started as a stand up and then I realized
that a lot of the jokes that I was doing

(09:34):
was three dimensional. They was like characters. They had storylines. So,
and I'm talking about maybe like thirty years ago. So
I said, what I want to do is take my
jokes make and make them characters. Right, Okay, Yes, I
had a sketch group years ago called Secret Society. Red
Grant was in that sketch group. Yeah, I know, I know,
And he told me everybody knew Shannon came to college.

(09:56):
You only had two shirts and two pairs of players.
That's wh That's what I'm saying. And then he said
he's also said back then, that's when he used to
watch you wear his watch to tail time. But the
different ball came down. Oh Joe, Oh Joe, I'll tell
you the nice add a nice fake code. Yeah, I know,
I know you and you rocked out. You made me feel,
you know, smoke. What was the question again?

Speaker 4 (10:18):
With skits and I had it.

Speaker 1 (10:20):
I had schedule with me, Red Grant was Mike Epps.
It was just got Rich Paralls. It was a whole
bunch of us and we was doing sketch back then.
We was ahead of the game before the Chappelle Show
even existed. I had to looking. I looked into the future.
I was like, all right, I'm gonna bring this super
group together. It was like twelve of us, and I
knew the group wasn't gonna last long because anytime you

(10:42):
got twelve different personalities, it's always gonna change a lot.
It's always gonna change. But what I realized it almost
I felt like it was like wu tang of sketch.
I was like, I knew we wasn't gonna all stay together.
I knew that we had people that kind of were
stronger on the on the producer side, stronger on the
righting side, and the actors. In fact, my manager at

(11:02):
the time, she said Donell, I think the group is
about to fall apart, and I was like, it's designed
to fall apart. But if it wasn't for us to
come to her like this, we wouldn't have had the
platform for people to see what to do. But you
can sustain a career with just doing sketches because people
are coming out just for that. Not in a million
years when I thought somebody could make millions of dollars

(11:22):
intour theaters just sitting on the stage having a podcast
of talking. So comedy the way it's perceived and how
you can make it work for you, it's evolved where
it's so many different lanes open now.

Speaker 3 (11:36):
When I think of comedic comics in the past compared
to the day's comics, you guys, they had a very
seedy past. They had a very like you look at
prior and you hear Miss pat tell her story and
she's almost like an old school comic. The heartbreak and
the disappointment that she's had and what a comic is
able to do. They're really able to take true events

(11:56):
and make them money, and that's how they're able to
get over the trauma.

Speaker 4 (12:00):
And the hurt and the pain that they're dealing with.

Speaker 3 (12:02):
Do you notice that that the comics today are a
lot different their past past a path You're a lot
different than you guys.

Speaker 1 (12:09):
To get there. Yet I think that I don't want
to say it's easier, but you have different avenues. When
I came up first off, on the stand up side,
it was almost impossible to be seen as a black
comic because you only had a couple of net where
you had to David let him show Johnny Carson. I'
talking about way back in the day. Yeah, And then
if you look at the list of comics they do
that it was all white comics. You might have won

(12:31):
black comic every couple of years. That's why it was
a good thing that Deaf Comedy Jam came because there
was a group of comics. It was a chilling circuit.
It was underground, but they weren't They weren't being seen.
But I think that now your phone, man, I tell anybody,
your phone can just blow you up. And everybody in
this business that make excuses. But at the end of

(12:52):
the day, you can have a little bit of talent,
but if you got the right work ethics, you could
make it happen for yourself. When I started ABC, CBS
and NBC, HBO would give us special every two years
by how many people got an opportunity. That so the
people that sit back and complain about what they can't do.

(13:12):
So my dad told me a long time ago, you
got two excuses, a good excuse and a bad excuse.
And the end of the day, your success is dependent
on how hard you work and you can get it.
It's too many examples that get it with the right
work at us.

Speaker 3 (13:28):
Would you consider DC the funniest city? You mentioned New
York you mentioned, but when you look at per capital,
you look at the DMV and how small it is
compared to a Chicago, compared to.

Speaker 4 (13:38):
A New York in some of these other major cities.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
Everybody got their bosses, everybody got these people. But I
think pound for pound, the pound for pound, DC is
one of the best cities that's had comics that not
just got high for a minute, being able to sustain
theirself in this business. And a lot of people can
make arguments what else Chicago. It's a lot of good
comments that come out of there. Well, you talk about

(14:01):
the people that's been on the small screen, the big
screen and has success just touring. I think, hands down,
DC is one of the best, one of the best series.

Speaker 4 (14:09):
We look at Martin Been on television and in the movies.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
You look at Dave Chappell television and movie, Tommy Davison
television and movies, Wanda Sykes television and movie. Down then
when you got into this, because you see the transition,
you see you see Richard Pryce was a stand up
did television?

Speaker 4 (14:24):
Eddie Murphy stand up? Did television?

Speaker 3 (14:26):
Is that the natural progression does does most? I can't
say all, Kevin Hart can't say all. There's no such
thing as all in every but do. A lot of
comedians get into stand up with the hopes and dreams
aspirations of doing television.

Speaker 1 (14:39):
I think a lot of them that's the ultimate goal.
But I also think that at the end of the day,
and I look at my career, you know, whether I
do another film project, we'll do another television project. I've
at least positioned myself where I can put my name
on the marquee and make some good money for the
rest of my life. You know. I think that that's
an evolution for some people, but not all people, and

(15:00):
some people it was like the stand up was just
the platform and the setup to be an actor. Chris Tucker.
When Chris Tucker first started, everybody knew when Chris Tucker
first started, he probably had ten minutes of fire set,
you know what I'm saying. But he But when you
when you saw Chris Tucker performed depth jam when he
came out, just pissed off. Man, I'm so broke. If

(15:23):
it tried me and just be practiced. You knew you
wasn't just looking at a stand up, You was looking
at a movie star, you know what I'm saying. He
was one of those guys. And Martin Lawrence is a
great stand up. But when you look at Martin Lawns,
you can see him in a television show. You could
you could see him in a in a in a movie.
But for everybody, it doesn't work out like that. Everybody
have Some people don't care to be film TV. They

(15:46):
just want to be able to make an honest living
doing something they love. And how many professions, How many
people get an opportunity to actually call their own shots.
They are their own boss, do what they want to
do and make good living. Not too many, right, And
it's not if you even if you look at the era,
the death Jam area, the era of all the comedians
with the nicknames and everything. I would say out of

(16:09):
everybody before my death Jam, it's probably five or ten
percent of those people that are actively working this. People
will still go pay a mnket price to go.

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Speaker 4 (17:50):
You kind of got you your breakout.

Speaker 3 (17:53):
You worked on a show and many considered this show
as the great one of the greatest TV shows of
not the greatest, The Wyre Right East in Baltimore.

Speaker 4 (18:00):
Yeah, how did that role come about? The crazy thing?

Speaker 1 (18:04):
If you are really an historian on The Wire and
David Simon in Baltimore. You know that Charles Dutton had
a miniseries called The Corner. The Corner was before The Wire,
and my relationship with The Wire was I played Bread
on The Corner heroin addict on that show. And David Simon,
if you watch any show that he's producer, that he's

(18:26):
producer or he's written, he is really loyal to people
that worked with him before. So that kind of gave
me a heads up on the opportunity to be on
the Wire. But the crazy thing about The Wire was
the role of Omar. It came down to me and
Michael on that role of Omar. Robert Colesbury, one of

(18:47):
the executive producers of The Wire who's not there anymore.
When I came on set, he said, you know, we
had you heavily favored to play the role of Omar.
I had no idea that he said, but this character
day the day day price, we thought there was gonna
be something special. Want to save you for this role.

(19:08):
And if you really follow a Whire, you noticed a
lot of people say first season was all about the towers,
a swing of bear as elbow, you know, wood and
all those guys. The second season, it made a twist.
It went from the Towers to the docks about being
at the shipyard, and that was because the Baltimore Tourism
Board was complaining that every time, and they have a

(19:30):
show that in Baltimore's always a picture that's being a
CD drug written and I'm like, when the less time
you walk downtown the daylight they called it body more
for now they don't call it for no reason. So
they had to switch because my character sent it to
Clay Davis assistant. I got caught with thirty thousand dollars
right they had. I had to give it back and

(19:52):
then next season my character it wasn't in the story arc.
So once they switched it to the docks, my character
got lost. The David signed, who's really loyal to people
that's on that show. He wanted to pay like homage
to my character. He brought me back. But that that
was an amazing experience to be on that show.

Speaker 4 (20:10):
The role that you played. How easy was it for
you to play that role?

Speaker 1 (20:14):
Uh, Clay Davis, No role is easy for me to
play because I'm more connected to stand up than acting
right and to be quite honest halftime, I don't even
know what I'm doing. You know. It was one scene Macnaughty.
He was one of the actors in the Wire. He
was the director too. So it's one scene when I
had to snitch on Clay Davis, right, and I was

(20:36):
feeling uncomfortable to it. I was like, what type of
what emotion do I want to have? So I was
playing it like kind of nervous, like oh no. And
then he came up to me with his accent. He
was like, I don't know if you're playing it right.
He said, I think you really want to put this
guy down. You want to you want to lock him up.
I said, motherfucker. I don't know where you're from, but
where I'm from, you don't snitch. Yeah, and you don't

(20:58):
snitch like he's the jolliggest fellow, like, oh it's that guy.
Put them away. You got to act like that's the
hardest shit in the world. You're like, oh, man, I
don't want to snitch, but I don't want to go
to jail as much. I don't want to snisch. And
then after I did that, he was like, Okay, I
think you might be blought right. And then and he
let us stay yep, but that show Man, even though

(21:20):
it's so interesting. Because an actor, I never took a class.
I never been trained. The furthest thing, the most training
I've ever done was I got a monologue book and
I used to practice in the mirror of different monolagues.
And the crazy thing was, even when I got the
role of Bread on the Corner, I had no idea
how that happened. I was in an audition for like
thirty minutes and the cast director of Jackie Brown Carmen.

(21:44):
She was one of the biggest black cast directors in
New York. I was eating in this audition and I
wanted I wanted to be like, I'm all right whatever,
and she said, Downhill, God is in the room. You
good take your time. I was like, well, God, you
need to come right now. I did the audition and
I didn't think anybody. I was like, that's passed me.
And I booked the role and I went on set.

(22:06):
The first thing I asked David Simon, I said, I said,
how did y'all pick me? I was like, I really
thought I bombed that role. I didn't know what was
going on. And he said, don that we liked the
fact that you threw the lines away and you did
your own thing. The reason why I threw the lines
away because I didn't remember the lines. Yo, I ain't
throw away. I ain't know it. I ain't know what

(22:28):
the hell was going on. So and then another thing,
because I was planning a heroin atic. Yes, and I
think that everybody and I don't be reading my scripts
like I was supposed to. Everybody looked at that character
as a heroine autict and I'm pretty sure everybody went
in there with the stereotype of leaning like the dope
feed and everything, and I didn't do that because I
didn't know. I just thought it was a cool dude.

(22:48):
And what they wanted to see was who was this
guy when he wasn't high? Was he that funny? You
got the neighborhood was was if he was high? So
you know, I guess God was in the room. I
got that part. I built a relationship with those people
of HBO, and it led to me being on the wire.

Speaker 3 (23:05):
When you were doing the wire, did you realize it
was going to be so well received and it would
be the phenomenon that it became.

Speaker 1 (23:12):
I didn't. I didn't. I had no idea. But what
I did know I was doing shit nobody else was doing.
You know, I was a deaf Jam comic at that time.
I probably was one of the only comics that was
on deaf comedy Jam and then on a critically acclaimed show.
I didn't predict it. I didn't predict it to be
that big, but it just took on the life of

(23:34):
his own. I mean of Idris Elbert, you know, came
from working the door at Caroline's Comedy Club in New
York City to being one of the biggest stars in
the country. And I got to tell you something, I
hated that when he was on the show, and the
reason why because they had these women called the string
of string of belllets or something. He had fans everywhere, right,

(23:55):
and then I would meet girls and they were like,
what's you on a wire? And I thought it was
bout time to shine, right, And they'd be like yeah,
they'd be like, could you introduce us a string of
bell I was like, I was like, you as stringer
bell right. But when they killed him, I was like, yeah,
where you're man at now? Getting killed on man because
he was taking all the girls. And I was so

(24:16):
happy that he just really doubled down. It came one
of the biggest international stars in the world. So he
won that fight. But it was Wood, all of those
guys man, and we had like a like a dope unit.
Like I was still doing stand up then, and can
you imagine I would do like a little hole in
the wall spot in Brooklyn and half half the cast

(24:36):
of the Wires show up. It was crazy. But nobody
knew how big that show would be and how last
so long we're talking about There was an article Entertainment
Weekly and they said two of the they had one
hundred best shows in history of TV and Chappelle Show
in the Wire ranked And I was like, you ask

(24:58):
yourself legacy and what people remember you by if nothing else,
If I don't, if I'm not a part of anything else,
at least I could say I was a part of
what people are going to talk about. They're gonna be
talking about that shows until the end of time.

Speaker 3 (25:09):
Yeah, and a hundred year history of television. Yeah, I've
been on two of the biggest shows.

Speaker 1 (25:12):
They might remember. Part of depth jam with those shows
they remember, and I was doing both.

Speaker 4 (25:17):
Of them at the same time.

Speaker 3 (25:18):
Yeah, what do you what do you remember about Eris
because that was early in his career also, so he
was just an up and comer, just like yourself. I
remember he took all the damn girls, That's what YO about.
I still traumatized.

Speaker 1 (25:30):
And then he would double down with that punk ass
English accent. You want to get to you the Bloy
Eo town and I got a New York yo. Son
y'all tried to go. It was a whole different thing.
But I say, one of the most humble guys, and
people don't understand they hear about him DJ and whatever
I think Idris was is and still to this day,
is as passionate about dj Is as he is as

(25:53):
as an actor. Really yeah, he's He's a he takes
the DJ super serious. Wow.

Speaker 3 (26:00):
So when you first heard that accent, do you like you?
I saw you at Caroline's Comedy Club.

Speaker 4 (26:05):
Bro, you not in joy. You don't talk like that.

Speaker 1 (26:07):
When I heard first heard the accent, I wanted to
keep talking because I wanted to use it. I wanted
somebody to come to the Bloid Hotel too. I wanted
somebody to come to the Bloy Hotel. I'm like, oh man,
he tare dark handser and an accent. I ain't got
a chance, and I was just starting my assy journey

(26:27):
at that time, so it was I was out of
the I was out of the look.

Speaker 3 (26:30):
But if you think about it, if you go back,
you look at Idris and the role that he played,
and you look at Damson uh Idris and Snowfall. How
the British actors getting all these gangster rolls.

Speaker 1 (26:41):
I mean they they students of the craft. I know
it's was to talk about to get all the road,
but you gotta be just imagine a level you have
to be.

Speaker 3 (26:48):
All those guys. They gotta get dialect coaches. Yeah, cause
because I didn't even know. I didn't know the guy
at Snowfall, I did not know he was British.

Speaker 4 (26:55):
No, I couldn't tell.

Speaker 1 (26:56):
I don't know if they're working for a cheaper amount
of money, I don't know, if you're on a load,
that part of it. But for you to be able
to embody these characters and to do it out in
another accent, it's got to be something to be said
about their skill set. But at the end of the day,
we can plain but everything, but at the end of
the day, made the best man win, you.

Speaker 4 (27:17):
Know, because a lot.

Speaker 3 (27:18):
They're getting upset, like, hold on, you got black actors,
actors right here in America, and then you bring British
actors to play a black person a black America.

Speaker 4 (27:27):
Why not just hire black American to play off.

Speaker 1 (27:30):
Because they might not have been the best person for
the job. I don't understand this business. It's about competition
and like what you're saying, like people can plain. I
know this may sound crazy. Work harder. Everything ain't gonna
be for you. You gotta keep going this whole notion

(27:50):
the man. First off, Hollywood is stuff. The people's perception
of it is different. At the end of the day,
all a lot of people do is sit back and complay.
I say, pull yourself up by the bootstraps, work harder.
If you didn't get that roll, keep going. This feel
is a job where you going to be rejected ninety

(28:12):
five percent of the time. This is a job where
you're gonna be broke most of the time. When people
come up to me like Donelle, you got the advice
or words of wisdom, I'll always tell them you. First off,
you gotta be able to be happy being broke in
this business. If you can't be happy being broke, you
might as well get out of it, because you're gonna
be broke most of the time you're doing it. If

(28:32):
you could find that happy place, if you could, And
I say, in my case, when I first started, wasn't
making no money. When I'll do a give for thirty
dollars and get a five pound bag of potatoes, some baloney,
some cheese, and some eggs, I'm like, I got food
for the rest of the week. I was happy because
I knew if I keep on, eventually it's gonna pop
right and every not everybody, but for the most part,

(28:53):
you're gonna get a shot. You're gonna get in the game.
But what you do with it when you get in
the game, and that's what's gonna separate you from everybody else.
To sit back complaining and not doing nothing and looking
at everybody succeed and complaining about it.

Speaker 3 (29:05):
When you became successful, you did the WHI you did
a Chapel show, you're still doing yourself.

Speaker 1 (29:10):
I wasn't successful then I was working. I was successful.
That's the illusion people have TV. They think everybody making
big dollars. Though, let me tell you something, man, When
I was doing Chappelle Show and the thing about it
was they you heard me saying a rich bitch at
the end of the Earth Show, right, you are rich, yo.

Speaker 2 (29:30):
Yo.

Speaker 1 (29:30):
I go to restaurants that Bill would come. They would
be like this, ah, we thought you was rich bitch.
I said, I'm nice. But at the same time, Shannon,
I knew I was positioning myself for success when I
was doing Chappelle Show and I seen people coming this platform.
That's what I understanding about actors and people. You signed

(29:50):
the contract, you put your name on the dotted line,
you started this show. It was a small show. It
just so happened that the show blew up. Right, your
contract already signed, so you entitled to all that money. No.
The only person in the history of this business has

(30:10):
ever really tested the industry and say, you know what,
I know, I did do some contract, but I know
my value is and y'all still going to step up.
Dave Chappelle the only one. He forced the hand of
Comedy Central, and I think it was very admirable what
Comedy Central did because they could have said, man, you
this is what he's supposed to pay you. But you know,
when I was doing Chappelle Show, I was making five

(30:30):
hundred dollars a sketch and people already know the blogs like,
oh they should have, but the show wasn't established. I
knew the best thing I could do that was just standard,
that's what you got as an actor. But I knew
me working that episode, me getting three minutes of camera time,
Now I could go out and get my money on

(30:52):
the road. Even when when I was when we was
working there first year's me Charlie. Nobody on that show
was making a lot of money. But I was like,
wait a minute, don't match up. Everywhere we go, we're
hearing I'm Rick James bitch and everything right, we know
we popping, but our bank accounts ain't popping. And I
was like, we got to do something. I came up

(31:13):
with the idea. I said, let's do we need to
do a tour. I said, let's do a tour. Call
her I'm rich bitch tour right, And at that time
I forget the name of the agency, but it was
a young agent named Mike Berkerwitz, right, he was a
very young agent. My manager brought to him. I said,
I want to do this tour. Charlie name is popping.
It was nowhere you go. You didn't hear Charlie Murphy.

(31:35):
Charlie Murphrey never did comedy before, which I found very
strange to be around all these people, but never tested yourself.
So I said, if I want to do this tour,
I'm the first person that ever took Charlie Murphy on stage.
And I bullied him to do it because Charlie man
is a funny guy, talk a lot of trash, and
whenever I wanted to show him, I was like, yeah,
you tough in the streets, but put a microphone on

(31:55):
your face and see what happened. I knew we was
trying to get some money. He did his open like
all I needed him to do was have ten minutes
Bill Burr at the time, Bill Bird. And it's no
disrespect because you see what happened Bill Berr career. At
the time Bill Burr probably was a comedian, was headlining
probably one thousand dollars a weekend. And I'm not saying
that no disrespect, but you knew when anytime somebody saw it,

(32:18):
but you know he was gonna pop. But that's just
where it was then. And I said, Okay, I get
Charlie to do ten minutes. I bring Bill Burr on
the show. And Bill Burr wasn't a draw, but he
was a funny act. And I said, we're gonna do
this tour. Yes, I could put anybody else on the tour,
give him a little bit of money. I said, no,
we're gonna go get some money three ways split. And

(32:41):
we did down Rich Bitch Tour and we made some
probably at that time our career, the most most money
we ever made. But with anything, Charlie started to know
what his value was in regard to people wanting to
pay to see him. Bill Burr was buzzing. He knew
that he was about to take off, but we had
to make adjustments. Those that five hundred episode was getting

(33:05):
us thousands of dollars on the weekend, and that was
at that time. That was the most money any of
us have ever said, right with Bill?

Speaker 3 (33:13):
Was he the first white comic that you actually too,
that you went on tour with?

Speaker 4 (33:16):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (33:17):
But Bill Birr his history was like you know, Bill Burr,
when he came to New York, he was one of
the few white comics that did every room. He did
the mainstream room and then he did the Chickling Circus
and I think part of his You know, he's a
very powerful, strong comment. But I think he got a
lot of edge being able to go into those rooms
that everybody feared and just take control of it. But

(33:39):
Bill Burr has always been a funny guy.

Speaker 3 (33:41):
How difficult is that when you're young you're a black comedian?
Because I've always asked, and I asked this a lot
of times, do you set? Do you write a set?
Like I'm going to be in a predominantly white audience.
Do our writer set accordingly? I'm gonna be in front
of a predominantly black audience. Do our writer set accordingly?
How difficult is that to do when you're young, en,
up and coming. Obviously, once you get established, you can

(34:02):
go into any room.

Speaker 1 (34:03):
It's the toughest thing because usually when you first start
sharing it, you write your voice is usually who you
perform for. Right, So if I do the chilling circuit,
it's easily for me to go up there. The way
I speak. Certain things that I say, I already know
they're gonna understand it. But then you have to. And
even with me helping with my accent from DC coming
to New York, you know, I was going places and

(34:25):
people say, what, what did you say certain rooms, it
wasn't that way other rooms. I said, you know what,
you got to work on your addiction. You got to enunciate,
and you gotta do this butt of a lot of comments.
They get used to one circuit or one side of
it and stay with that. But always always knew that
I wanted to do more than just chillling circuit. I

(34:46):
want to do more than just what the black comics
and my thing was I wanted to be. When I
was in New York, there's a very popular club called
the Comedy Seller. It's like the biggest comedy club in
the world, the biggest names. And when I was in
New York at that time, it was only two or
three black comments working there. It was Keith Robinson, it

(35:07):
was Dave Chappelle, Gria Bombs, and will William Stevenson. That
was it. And basically it's like you walk around the
corner of the black club and the white club. It
wasn't too many people doing both. And I said to myself,
if I'm going to be respected in this business, or
if I want to be, I want to be one
of the best to do it, then I want my
name to be on the same line out as the

(35:28):
best to do it. And that was one of the
reasons why I said I want to do mainstream because
the black circuit back then, they was paying more, but
you didn't really have no future. And at the end
of the day, you were just getting pussy in the
check and it wasn't even a big chat.

Speaker 3 (35:45):
But in order but for you, you'd realize that, you know,
in order for me to be what I want to become,
I'm going to have to have crossover appeal. I'm gonna
have to go appeal to that white.

Speaker 1 (35:53):
Un I gotta go. I gotta go where people are
gonna see you. Bat then you producers and directors and
executive producers. They wasn't going to Chaplins Sunday. They wasn't
going to the Boston Comedy Club Sunday night. They wasn't
going there. So if you wanted to be seen, you

(36:15):
had to cross over or another thing people do they got.
People used to get caught up in the fame of it,
in the women and the money. I'm cool with this,
but as the years go on, you like this. I
wasted so much time just catering to this side of
it when I could have been over here That's one
of the things. Like I hear people talk about kem

(36:36):
On Heart all the time. Kevin Heart was smart enough.
And I'm not here to defend anybody. And you know
something about your culture. You be wondering when it's going
to heat up, right, And I know deep down them
cards is gonna get.

Speaker 3 (36:50):
That's a lot of gods, right, I'm looking at him
like this, he got me do so when you were
growing up?

Speaker 1 (36:56):
What inspired you? I wait for you like this? So
when you and so and so is pete for nah? No,
But but what people don't know and I'm using and
I not Kevin Heart don't need me to defend him.
I know this little work ethics, yes, because I was

(37:17):
a part of it. I said it to another platform.
I remember Kevin Hart had one joke and this is
not being racist. He's doing an impression of a monkey, right,
And he was the best monkey you ever seen do
a monkey joke he had. I mean, he had this
going on everything. And he used to rip, and he

(37:38):
used to work the grimiest spots. But he used to
commute from Philly. He would come up. He would do
my clubs, the hood clubs, those phillylic spots and then
he'd go do the mainstream spots. He knew that this
is only gonna get me one thing. He had a
bigger picture. He knew it'sact. What's gonna do it? He

(37:58):
knew how he's gonna get there representation. Guess what, They're
not going to the to the chicken factory, They're going
to the seller. They're going to the comedy strip. They're
going to that. And you have to have the work
ethics to sit around shaying and wait for opportunity. Somebody
fall out on the lineup right, somebody you gotta get.
You got to get a reference to somebody just sit

(38:19):
around just hanging out. One day, k now's your shot
to go in there. And I seen him do that.
I seen him go from my spots to the commedy
seller spots. I seen him get a manager. I seen
him go to one of the most prestigious comedy festivals.
It's a comedy festal challenge with my man Brewser Random
JFL Comedy festival for years, this festival twenty five years ago, Montreal.

(38:42):
Yet this was everybody's dream. If I could get on there.
Guess what, you're not going to get on there. In
the chilling circuit. You're not. There's no way, some kind
of way you got to get into the audition. You
got to the main street. But one thing about that
special it broke so many people that that festival Monique
Uptown Comedy Club. It broke her. This festival was so dope, Shandon.

(39:05):
You can go up there with an eight minute showcase
set nine to ten minutes, and if you got a
point of view, people can see what they can do
it you walking out of there. People was walking on
there with a quarter million dollar deal just to hold you.
That's what that festival was. And when people don't understand,
they say, well, how did so and so go from
this to that to that? You missed all shit? The

(39:26):
reason why you miss it because you wasn't invited. You
didn't have the audition. And you can't knock a person
that knows how to use their resources and position themself
for the right people to see them. Or you could
bitch complain, do them chipling circuit shit all you want.
They paid money. That's where I came from. But eventually
you got to figure out how to maneuver yourself through
this business. Kevin blew up off of that. Dave Chappelle

(39:48):
blew up off of that, Sue Costello, Monique. It was
so many people, it was the hottest festival. And that's
what the birth of Kevin Hart was for the pe
be like, oh, oh he's a plant. No, his path
was different from your path. You cannot fault anybody because

(40:10):
the way they get it is different from where you
get it. And all of this bullshit about oh I
came through the mud, so and so guess what. I
came through the mud. Guess what's shannon. I took a shower,
I put colone on the day, I washed myself, I
used my watch and lets you know how much child
and I switched it up. And it's nothing wrong with that.

Speaker 3 (40:30):
When you started to become having success, did people think
you took the easy way out? Because it seemed to
be I get that now. Oh he sold his soul.

Speaker 1 (40:38):
But guess what, they don't know what the prince say.
Sometimes take ten years to be an overnight success. Those
people that just introduced you, they don't know. But the
real people they know. That's why I've had arguments with
comics or whatever. Oh he ain't saw So I'm like,
ask somebody about me. Ask somebody about my career. Oh
it's easy, you got the suits. Ask somebody about me

(40:58):
moving from DC, sleeping on my man, Royo Walker's couch
for a year and a half. He get a TV show,
leave me in this apartment. I ain't got no money,
no electricity, no water. I tried to pay the bills
them thirty dollars shows. Wasn't getting it.

Speaker 3 (41:17):
Yo.

Speaker 1 (41:17):
I had an African landlord too, and he's so sick
of me. Man, we used to pay you what I old.
He was so mad, he said, please, I would pay
you to leave, yo, because it was an area about
to be gentrified. He was like, please, no, no, I
don't want nothing. I just want you to leave. I'm
talking about a stitch, of course, from my man's apartment
up up top, sliding down, switching at stitcher cord from

(41:42):
a hot plate to an iron to a heater. People
don't know. Nobody knows you come back other than the
people did. But then at some point it ain't your
job to give a.

Speaker 3 (41:56):
You know, because a lot of times all they see
is the success, but they never see the struggle. And
because they didn't see the struggle, they see the success.
They see the TV shows, they see the cars, they
see the house, they see whatever.

Speaker 1 (42:08):
That's what everybody want to do. Now they want to
be you. Everybody want to be you today. Everybody want
to be Joe Rogan. To that day, nobody want to
be Joe Rogan twenty five years ago when people is like,
what the is this? But now they see the success,
they want to do it. You don't even know how
many they say now I want to do a podcast,

(42:28):
I want to do a club station. They don't know
how many years you was putting in with't nobody believed
in this when it was like, watch, it's gonna pop
if I keep going. I had offers to do this show.
People are trying to fi this before it popped, and
I feel bad, not feel bad coming under down because
I didn't. I didn't. I really didn't want it to

(42:49):
feel like, oh now it's popping. Always but it was
always a conflict. Another one of the reasons because we
got mutual friends Red Graham, my Man, Keith Burns on
one of your Yeah, I went to I grew up.
I know him since we played little league football today, right,
But they going back to my point, everybody wants to
take the easy route. Nobody wanted to take the hard work.

(43:10):
It takes something like this. It wasn't last year. It
takes years. It takes years of look at them subscriptions.
God damn, I thought that one's gonna pop like a
thousand views. You don't know, you don't know. But then
when that lick hits, you feel good. But everybody else like,
oh my god, but you back there like this. I
knew it right. All I needed was the time.

Speaker 3 (43:33):
You go back to the wire, you yourself, Iri Selba,
you had Michael B.

Speaker 4 (43:39):
Jordan was on there. I think he was like fourteen
fifteen years of age. Yeah, Michael K. Williams.

Speaker 3 (43:43):
I mean that cast that you guys had, what were
your you have a relationship where you guys everyone said together.

Speaker 1 (43:49):
I had a relationship with Idris. Would I have a
relationship with him? Michael B. Jordan. I was like so
much older him. I really had nothing in common with him.
Michael kay Wims. We was really really close. I was
like one of my closest guys connected to that. He
used to come out. He was a real Brooklyn Brooklyn dude.
So he used to be like man rfpd M. He's
a great dude, you know, trouble souls. You know, things happened,

(44:11):
but he was like one of my closest connections, but
the biggest connection. And I want to go back when
I did the corner Tasha Smith, Tasha Smith and Candy
Alexander Right, Tasha Smith, and I don't want to be
offensive or anything. When I say it's people don't have
to take the wrong way. She's a bad bitch. And
when I say that, not just on the actor's side,

(44:31):
I'm talking about directed. There is nothing she can do.
A lot of people don't know. I'm trying to encourage
her to go back. She started as a stand up
but she was my coach when I didn't know what
I was doing. Chinna and I don't have You're talking
about a guy with no training. She used to put
me to a side, read my lines with me. In fact,
she was the reason why I was on BMF. Wow.

(44:53):
She was like she called me one day. You know
how certain people call you. You know it's a money
phone called, right, And I was in the was getting
dressed for another thing. It was for a winning time
the HBO show by the Laker Dinostat And I'm gonna happy.
I'm like, I'm working and I get a call for her.
I'm like, I ain't got time to answer this call.
I'm getting dressed right soon as I picked the phone up,

(45:14):
because she said, what I called? You gotter answers? I God,
damn phone. I'm with fifty right now, I would I'm
with Randy. Randy was with the Creative Record and she
basically gave me that role. Wow, that role I played? Uh?
What was I? Alvin? She gave me that role. And
this is what people don't understand about this business. Everybody

(45:39):
aways want to say, oh, you had that little role
or that little so and so because they didn't have it. No,
not only that, because they didn't have it, but only
that they don't They don't look at what you're building. Right.
First off, I tell anybody you got to get on
set first. You gotta get on set or I'm gonna
turn it there. I only got one line. You gotta
get on set. That role that I played, I was
only supposed to be in one unseen season finale. Randy

(46:04):
loved that character so much because it was it was
based on one of his cousins. He was really connected
with that. I was supposed to be on one episode, right,
The next next they brought me back and they fell
in love with the character. They brought me back for
another episode, another episode, another episode where it went through
that that second season, I think I was in seven

(46:26):
out of the out of the out of the ten
and that's because I took that little ass role and
I and I did the Parlad Chappelle's show. I was
not supposed to be on that show. There was no cast.
Everybody's lace call us the cast. It wasn't no cast.
It was Dave and Neil had this show right, and

(46:51):
they could just put anybody on the show they wanted.
At the beginning, we had one actor in one scene
I remember he wasn't doing well. Wasted about an hour
and a half of UH of industry time, a lot
of money, and where Dave and Neil would just say
you on the show. They said, you know what, Comedy
Central says that everybody has to audition. Now I had
already did. I'm rich, bitch right. I could have been like, man,

(47:14):
y'all know my work, I'm not auditioning, But I said,
if I do that, I guess what, I won't have
a shot. So I went back in the audition room, murdred.
The audition never heard that again. But I was only
as good as my last sketch. I was only as
good as my last scene. It wasn't like they had
to write stuff for me. And my thing was if

(47:34):
you go hard enough one thing when you want to set,
and if you start ripping, same thing I say with
Julie White with Erkele supposed to been on one episode.
But if you rip and you and them right now,
they start thinking about you now. They used to just like, Okay,
we're gonna bring them in. Another thing. When I was
doing Spell Show, ninety percent of the things I was

(47:57):
in I wasn't supposed to be in. I was broke.
I knew that if I go on set, I guess
some free food, I get to hang out and they
gonna tap me in right, Like eighty five percent of
things that came out of my mouth on that show,
it was all improv and me being in a moment,
just hanging out.

Speaker 3 (48:16):
I think you mentioned that you were supposed to have
Michael K. Williams's role, and you see what that role became.
Did you, like damn think about what could have been?

Speaker 1 (48:26):
No reason why? Because certain things happened. I was like,
they got the best person for the job. And another
reason why they had the best person for the job
for the job with him, because I wasn't gonna tunk
kunk dunk gets some big old They got the right
one for that was I was like, I just thought

(48:47):
he was a gangst I didn't know he was taking
dick Son. But that's they wrote that in. I didn't
write it in, but I was like, you know what,
they got the best person for that job. Another situation,
this role Cat Wims was here right, yes, he talked
that role that he played Alligator Man on Atlanta. That
role came to me and him. I was still in

(49:09):
the running for that. I was asked major, they said,
you're still in You said, I ain't saying I was
going to get the job, but I knew I was
still in the running for it. But certain times I
look at people, I look at their skill set, and
after the minute I found out that Cat Williams.

Speaker 4 (49:26):
Got it, I was not mad that you didn't get it.

Speaker 1 (49:31):
I didn't get it. I know how strong he is
as a combat I know how strong it is an
actor that role. I looked at the role, in the
dynamic of it and I know he would go all
in and I was absolutely right about Dave was a
bad choice because he won an envy off with them
with that role. But never once I was envious or jealous.
I was like back to the drawing board.

Speaker 3 (49:50):
I remember when Michael k Waditam said that he was scared,
he was conflicted about taking the role.

Speaker 4 (49:56):
And we we hear now a.

Speaker 3 (49:57):
Lot of about black putting on dresses, playing those type
of roles.

Speaker 4 (50:05):
Where are you on that? Where are you on Matt Donnie?

Speaker 1 (50:06):
I will tell you this, and you might just all
need something to be mad about it? And I hope
you can keep that. I'm not happy unless they mad
about something. How many it's rich, bitter out of here,

(50:29):
they got everything, still have something to be mad about.
You can make that argument the demascalation of a man. Whatever.
You know who you are, and really the reason why
they're so stupid to me, Flip Wilson, Flip Wilson, All right,
this motherfucker Ward dress. Guess what he was owner of
his show, He was executive producer, and he knew who

(50:53):
he was and he knew it was a character. And
I tell you another thing. They always talk about his dress.
Ship right. I'm gonna tell you when I was like,
and I'm not saying you know, I know they blooded,
Oh that means he would put a dress on, go
out of here. Ping Rains played Holiday Heart right, right, transgender.
I hope I'm getting the right character. How Holiday Heart right?

(51:13):
Our auditioned for that role? It's you? What was the
line so you all see you are the bitches? It
was because of you? Bitch? Is that this bitch has
been ignoring me for months? I remember that was part
of the line. Right. It was a dress, all right,
whoeveryone says dress, go say something to being ranged about

(51:34):
word of dress. You ain't gonna do it. And what
people don't understand is like, this is an art, right,
this is an art. Now. I'm not saying this for everybody.
I'm not saying this for me. I'm gonna tell you
when they hit me when I was like, man, who
give a about what people say? I was doing the
episode of Wilding Out. Pull up to Tyler Perry's studios

(51:55):
Military Basem. You been there.

Speaker 4 (51:57):
I haven't been there, but I know.

Speaker 1 (52:00):
You go up in there, military base. Eight lanes on
each side of the studio. You drive through that shit
you may go down and make a rite Harry Belafonte Studios,
Oprah Winfrey Studios, Sidney Poitier Studios. And I look back,
I was like, from a dress. From a dress, I

(52:26):
was like, I'm a size eight. But it's people that
have too much time on their hand to make the argument.
And I guarantee you, Shaney any the most people that
talk that shit about blah blah blah blah blah, look
at what they're doing in life. It's probably a nigga

(52:47):
the bar's girl car bring it back on, eat blunt,
guts all over it. You know what I'm saying. You
just it don't make no sense in any intelligent person
will underst sing that it's all bullshit, right, you know
you don't want to get caught. And I know that.
Oh yeah, he looked like, here, wear a dress. It
ain't my thing. But I am not knocking somebody or

(53:11):
judging them somebody that does that. And especially in comedy. Now,
if I pick you up, we're going to the club
and you come up with a sequence dress, I'm like,
your son, you gotta change that, or at least change
your heels and so put some temps on with that dress.
Nigga ain't gonna be going out yet, right, Well, that's
with that dress and them heels in.

Speaker 4 (53:31):
The bare bottoms. But is that mainly in our community?

Speaker 3 (53:34):
Because you see Dustin Hoffman, you see uh uh and
Robbie Williams play that missed oubt fire and I think
Dustin Hoffer was a tutsi uh, and you see so
many other actors.

Speaker 1 (53:44):
It's mostly it is definitely linked to our culture because
Black culture is the most homophobic culture out there, right,
you know what I'm saying, certain like just it's just
it's what it is. It's the way I have a
gay brother, right, and I was I asked my brother,
I said, do you think I'm homophobic? And he said, no,
I don't think you're homophobic, but I do think you're

(54:06):
homo ignorant. And the reason why I was, I was like,
you know, I am ignorant. I'm not just saying that
I'm a bad person. I think the reason why I'm
homore ignorant because I was raised by homophobic people. Of course,
so how do I not be homophobic?

Speaker 4 (54:22):
Correct?

Speaker 1 (54:22):
I was raised with uncles that thought anything could make
you gay. Don't eat cottage cheese, nigga, nah, they're getting
you used to consistency. I'm telling you, that's the gateway.
You'd be like wa wak walk I do that. Don't worry, pink.
That's what I grew up with. But I do think
that our mindsets have evolved to a point where the

(54:43):
things I noticed it even in Commy Shame, it was
certain things that I could say thirty years ago it
would get a laugh from the audience, like easy, lad
go ahead, you little whatever you get. Let that that
doesn't exist no more. And I understand that the mindset
of p people in general have changed. My brother is

(55:04):
my brother with my My father had multiple kids, and
and uh when I remember when my brother kind of
came out, because when I was growing up, I just
thought my brother had all the bitches right. I didn't
know he was like in that life or that I
didn't because I was so young, I didn't really connect

(55:26):
with sexuality. And I was too busy trying to build
bikes and shit like that. So some time it went
past we had separated each other. As a young adult,
I was at a comedy club in Hollywood and he
came to the show and he said we was outside.
I was taking pictures I was caught up in my
moment and I said, I said, he said, you see
that guy over there. I said yeah, he said that's

(55:47):
your brother in law. When my father has so many kids,
I thought he was introducing me to another brother. I'm like, man,
I ain't got time for no more brothers, no sisters.
It didn't hit me too Later I went home, I said,
oh shit, I think my brother just told me he
was gay. I called my father, my father. I'm talking
about a straight street dude, heroin kingspenn In DC, whatever
like Pool got straight straight. And I said, Dad, I

(56:08):
think Chucky just told me he was gay. And my
father said, man, I knew what he was up to,
like being gay was up to something like not there, yeah, yeah,
court body, But just right, he said, I knew what
he's up to. And this is when I when I said,
the way people think and in mind is evolved. And
for my father, just make this thing right here. It

(56:28):
means a lot to a person's carriage. He said, I
knew what he was up to, but he said he
was speaking on my on my brother's boyfriend. He said, man,
but that's a good nigga right right in that moment
and I knew that my father cared more about the
character and the guy that my brother chose to be
in love with than what anybody else can think. And

(56:50):
I do, and I do think that mindsets have changed
so much when it comes out.

Speaker 4 (56:57):
Let me ask you this the Chappelle Show, How did
that come about?

Speaker 1 (57:02):
The Chappelle Show came about? Were you friends with before
the show? Yeah? I knew him, but we knew of
each other. Like going back to your question about the
DC thing, It's one thing about being a comic from DC.
You always looked at the people that were before you
and what moves they made. The first thing when you're
coming from d C, the first sign that you're really
going forward. When you moved, you gotta leave DC. You

(57:25):
gotta leave. It's not like now you be on the internet.
You could be anywhere. You had to be going to
New York in La so and when I came out
to gains Shannon, when I tell you, first time I
ever touched the microphone, I got to stand in the ovation.
I was doing comedy for five months that I made
Death Comedy Jam. I was on fire and David. It
is on record, Dave telling this story. Somebody asked Dave.
And my fiftieth birthday, they asked, Dave, where did you

(57:47):
Chris Spencer ask Dave. He said, where'd you meet Donelle?
He said, I'm gonna tell you where I first met donnad.
He said, well, now, I used to be in DC.
He said, I was the guy and I would leave,
I would be in New York. I would come home
and I would always ask who's the up and coming
who's smoking? And Dave say it was always the regular names,
fat doctor, Andy Evs, but the owner barber RP wrest
of So, she said, Dave, but there's this one guy

(58:10):
named Don all Rawlins that's on fire. And Dave the
competitive nature he is, he said that nigga. And then
when somebody asked me, when I asked that same question,
I said, who was popping? Who's got to smoke it?
They was like, Dave Spouse like, so, what's so nice
about me? It's like he's smart, you know, he's animated,
he's a good actor. They said all this shit, and

(58:32):
I was like, I felt the same thing. I was like, man,
fuck him. It was like a healthy competition. So we
knew of each other. But my connection with Chappelle show.
It was Neil Brennan. Neil Brennan was a producer or
an assistant for In a Living Color when they were
going out scouting talent, and he had me in a

(58:53):
couple of audition tapes. And Neil Brennan and Dave had
already wrote Half Baked, right. But the thing was when
they did that, Neil was popping as a writer. I
think he sold two or three scripts to Hollywood, but
his work wasn't being produced. It wasn't getting greenlit. He
was getting the money, but he wasn't getting green light.
So he wanted to direct. He called my manager and said,

(59:13):
I really like Downille. I did this short film. I
would like for him to be in it. It's just me,
a camera, me and one other person whatever. And he said,
I want him to do it. He said, I want
no money to pay him, but I like for him
to do it. But this was the time I was on.
I was on, already started to wire. It was on
a corner. I was like, I know you can't afford

(59:35):
to pay me, but if you're ever in a situation
where you could throw me a bone, i'd appreciate it, right,
but I'll do it. I did it. Maybe two months
later he said I'm working on something. Neil bring and said,
I'm working something. I'ma let you know. I was like,
I'm busy, whatever, right, I was like, what's the show?
Nehby show? He said, we don't have a name for it.
A month after that, Neil called me and said, I
want you to be on the show and that show

(59:55):
and a lot of people don't toss back that show
that he promised if he ever did in a position
to look at for me, it was a Chappelle's show.
And of course I could have couldn't have been on
the show with the out the approval of Dave. But
Dave Dave was one of the work with people that
he just thought were funny.

Speaker 4 (01:00:12):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:00:12):
He didn't really know me as an actor. It was
just like this, these are the guys. But Neil Brennan
with Neil Brennan was definitely instrumental on my connection with
that choke.

Speaker 3 (01:00:22):
I try to tell people this that the one thing
that I know about in this business now, the entertainment
side of it, and when you have advertising and sponsors,
it's all about relationships. Yeah, if you do not have relationships,
you're not going to go very far in this bit.
It's really that simple because a lot of times the
people that are in position now weren't in those positions

(01:00:43):
years ago. And they were and they remember how people
treated them when they couldn't help them.

Speaker 1 (01:00:48):
Let me let me tell you something. I'm nice to
thirty three old yo, thirty three, thirty five. And the
reason why I say that he wasn't twelve. They was
twelve when I was. I told my agents, Yo, let's
go for these thirty three old executives. They were twelve
watching this show. A lot of the work that I

(01:01:09):
get now is like this, man, I used to watch
the show with me and my dad, and you know,
you started relationships early on. I'm like these guys and
I feel and you know, I get this a lot
of times. Oh, he's riding Dave coattails, Dave's flunky, all
of this shit right. Oh, if it wasn't for Dave,
guess what Dave had his production companies called Polytboy Production.

(01:01:34):
The reason why I was called polyt Boy Production because
Dave had like eleven or twelve pilots before Chappelle's show.
They always gunn for him. He was always getting shot
for some reason. If it wasn't the right chemistry, the
right team. It wasn't happened. It was a Chappelle show
that came together and that was the one. So as
much as you want to say, as much as I

(01:01:54):
want to say it wasn't for Dave, guess what if
it wasn't for the team that Dave built, he wouldn't
have won a championship. You give Jordan all the credit.
He's the star. He needed rebounds, he needed somebody to
push that ball out. He needs somebody to say it.
So as much as people want to say that, yes,

(01:02:15):
that show was a platform for me, but I brought it.
There's not a scene on that show that I didn't pop.
If you listen to, some of the most iconic phrases
on that show came out of my mouth. It was

(01:02:37):
their writing, but as much, and I'm forever grateful for
what they did to me, But I know that I
wasn't a bum.

Speaker 4 (01:02:44):
I put in wait, and.

Speaker 1 (01:02:45):
I always tell people that if you look at it,
I say, my career is if you want to compare
it to anything, and I just go to the hip
hop artists bust the rhymes. You might not remember too
many of busting rhymes albums. But you know when he
came on the track, he was up and he was
going to bounce, And that was my relationship with that show.

Speaker 4 (01:03:00):
You know what.

Speaker 3 (01:03:00):
That's what I hate when they say, oh, you know
you ride this cold tails or if it wasn't for him.
But the question is, if I'm not successful, what would
you have said? But I ain't got no talent? You
know what I'm saying. You say you rode Dave's code teil.
It was all because of Dave. Now, if the show
is not a success, you're not a success. What are
you gonna say? Then you can say you just sain't
have no talent. Now that it's successful, you're gonna say

(01:03:21):
it's because of somebody else.

Speaker 4 (01:03:22):
You don't want to give me the credit.

Speaker 1 (01:03:28):
Once we get the power of not giving them, that
is yo. You think about it. The most successful, you know,
the one they get to.

Speaker 3 (01:03:38):
A point they don't they don't give them the care.
They care less.

Speaker 1 (01:03:42):
But when you got heart, which I do have, and
then when you care about what people think, which I
do have, I think about that. And if we because
of social media, you get to instantly tell how people
feel about you. You slide in comments, you get somebout it,
but once you get to that point where you don't
give it, that's when your ship start to pop.

Speaker 3 (01:03:59):
But then when you don't care, you see how he
turns back on the people to help them get the
way he got to.

Speaker 1 (01:04:04):
That's why I have the thing, no ship, no ship.
I do that, like you know what, Once I get
to play, that's it.

Speaker 4 (01:04:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:04:15):
So when you start the Chapelle Show, could you have
envisioned that it was gonna be what it became?

Speaker 1 (01:04:20):
Now I know I'm gonna pick it back on what
you said about earlier the wire. I didn't know Chappelle's show.
I knew. And the reason why I knew Chappelle's show
because I was the warm up comic on that show,
Like when I said what my comment, like when we
did the wrap rounds in the studio, I was the first.
I was the first person you ever saw in that show.

(01:04:40):
It was my job to go out there and get
the audience. Ye, So I knew I could feel the
energy from that audience. I knew it was gonna blow.
And another thing, I used to call Neil every every
every time episode because I used to be like I
was in the streets. I was still in the streets,
still in Brownsville, Brooklyn, and I was like, I would
call him, I like, yo, I was talking to the
streets today, and they'd be like, what the street say.

(01:05:00):
I'll say the streets say that shit was funny as shit,
because you know, Dave has had a level of success
for the most part, Dave earlier in his career he's
been a prodigy, and then he had a level of
success way before a lot of us, and we say
that all we wanted to do when we first started
was the work of college circle and make money. He
was a king of that. They loved him, Main Street

(01:05:22):
loved them and everything. But for some reason at that point,
his stuff was not resonating with the streets like that right,
he was like, why you get the streets? WHOOPI Goldberg,
Mailbrooks all these people. Okay, but I just felt a
certain enjury when I go to the barbershop when I
used to talk to you like some real streets and

(01:05:42):
they was fascinated with that. Neil and Day was like,
what did the streets say? Because they know what the
executives say, what the streets says. And every week I
would every week I would just predict what the rady
was going to be. It was over. It kept going
bigger and bigger, and even like another reason on that show.
You if you're a historian that show, you notice every

(01:06:04):
time I did a character. When I come on, people
just went crazy. The reason why they went crazy because
I was the warm up comedian before the sketch, so
they would be connected to this stand up comedian and
then oh shit, so it was a bigger laugh. That's
why when Beautiful came on. That's why when Ashy Larry

(01:06:27):
came on, people did it came off a bigger laugh
because they laughing and somebody made them laugh before they
even saw him in the sketch.

Speaker 4 (01:06:34):
How did you come up with the character Ashy Larry?

Speaker 1 (01:06:37):
I didn't well the character on paper. He was just
a guy that had boxers on and dress shoes and
stole his girl's money. But I knew on that show
that I didn't get a lot of time to talk,
So I knew that any character I had, I had
to physically be funny before I even say anything, because

(01:06:58):
I'm not gonna if you had an editor, uh on
the timeline how much time I talked on that show?
I didn't talk a lot, but I knew that I
wanted to be funny on site. So I went to
uh Don Yelle. He was a makeup guy. I told him,
I said, give me some baby powder, right, I said,
I want to be so I want to be so ashy.
I could write how much money people owed me on

(01:07:19):
the side of my leg. I wanted to be I
wanted to be the Ashes dude. Then when when you
see me go back and get the trash bag, that
was real trash. I was like, how can I get
the most? How do I get the most out of
this with the least amount of time. In fact, when
we did World Series of Dice, that was the first
time we had somebody outside of what was becoming the cast.

(01:07:45):
Charlie Dave, Eddie Griffin was in that sketch. That sketch
wasn't supposed I wasn't suposed to pop that sketch. It
was for Grinson Gravey, that was for them. But I
just couldn't stop. I just it was just something that
was possessed with something. I remember Charlie looked at me,
he said, do you know what you're doing to this shit?

(01:08:06):
I was like, I don't know. He said, man, you're
killing this shit, and I just went I just went
crazy because I knew I might not be here next week.
Eddie Griffiny even said something to me. He said, Donny,
you know what I like about you and this show,
and in particular, he said, you're not afraid to get ugly.
I want to say, I'm not too far from it.
You know what I'm saying. I ain't never caught. Nobody
ever caught me. Fine, you know, I was like, but

(01:08:27):
he was like, just that person to get dirty, don't
give I wasn't nobody think And then I knew that
I was just I was just only I was just
fighting to be on a on another thing. But that's
how the character was there.

Speaker 4 (01:08:39):
But I put the hot salt on right.

Speaker 3 (01:08:41):
Yeah, the success is having the show is having success
beyond I mean, you thought it was gonna be successful,
but it probably at this point, he's even surprising you
with the level of success that it's enjoying. And then
you find out that Dave is going to step away.
Did she talk to you? Did he talk to anyone
about that?

Speaker 1 (01:09:00):
It just broke out, But I felt we got to
realize that was going to the third season me and
Charlie were so excited. We got the rich bitch to
it going on, were going back to the third season.
You know, it's a chance that it might be a
situation where we can make more money, but we're just

(01:09:21):
excited about it. If I knew it's something weird because
the last sketch I saw it, man, it was this
show where we played monsters. I played a mummy, he
played a wolf, and Charlie played Frankenstein. Whatever right, and
me and Charlie just having fun on set. We kicking it.
We're kicking it. And I saw a Dave he was
awharewith and he was just looking like the and he said,

(01:09:45):
I guess fifty million is not enough. And I would
look at him like, who you talking to? Not enough?
I take the zero, you could take three more milk
zeros off. I'm good with it. And I didn't know
that what was troubling, But that was just so for
somebody that's still me, still coming up, not used to

(01:10:06):
having no big money anything. I was like, I don't
even know staying how anybody can say I guess fifty
million is not enough. I didn't understand that. And then
he disappeared, not not communicate with me. But you gotta
also realize we was doing the show me and they
weren't the best of buddies. I try to keep my
relationship be co workers. I don't want to be all like, hey, buddy,

(01:10:28):
just let me go do my do movie. So we
never even that time we hung out after the show.
We really got connected after the show. After he came back,
but like he disappeared. And it was so funny because
I told Neil didn't know where it was, and I said, man,
I bet you he went. He probably went to Africa.
And it was to be like, why would you say that.

(01:10:48):
I remember we were in the green room one day.
It was me, Dave most Death and Dave was I think.
I think most Death was a real estate agent in
Africa because he was trying to get everybody come to Africa.
Every I want to say, Yo, you can't get all
of Brooklyn to come to Africa because the Africa becomes
Brooklyn making a secret or whatever. Right, But I just
had this weird feeling that he probably went there. Didn't

(01:11:11):
cut to maybe two three days later that they announced
that he was in Africa. But for us, I never
thought I didn't know what the severity of what his
thoughts were. I didn't never I never thought that he
wasn't gonna come back. In fact, when he left, we
was like this, all right, we can go back on tour.

Speaker 4 (01:11:30):
Now, right, because we had you gonna come back.

Speaker 1 (01:11:33):
Yeah, We was like this, oh man, yeah, let me
take three months off. I'm just thinking about the money
we're gonna stack up to come back. But he never
came back, and he never communicated anything to me.

Speaker 3 (01:11:43):
Do you believe there was a number that he would
have been willing to come back from or he was
just over being underpaid for such a long time that
he's like fifty million. If y'all gonna pay me fifty million,
how much are you guys actually making.

Speaker 1 (01:11:55):
I don't know. That's a tough question that only Dave
could probably they can answer. But at the same time,
I know he loves money, but he's not driven by money,
you know what I'm saying. I think that it was
probably it probably more than likely something morally he didn't
agree with, but I don't think it was I don't

(01:12:16):
think that his decision to walk away was just the money.
But I think that when he came back, it's like, now,
give me my money. Yeah, but I don't think that
that was.

Speaker 3 (01:12:24):
That when you did the blast get reparation skits, you know, Prince,
you know the skits are classic, the Rick James, the Prince.

Speaker 4 (01:12:34):
Did you I mean when you're like on set.

Speaker 3 (01:12:36):
And you're seeing him doing these skids because I can
just imagine to hold it together?

Speaker 1 (01:12:42):
Yeah, did you ever like we never held a hill?
We ain't never had it yet, for we blew so
many takes. It was so many takes that we were
always thought about what we had on paper, right, but
then he's so genius, was sketched. It was always like, yeah,
that's what was on there, but he always had something
in his back pocket. He always had a draw for
that he was going to throw something. And then after
a while he kind of trusted us to get kind

(01:13:04):
of loose and add that element to it. But it
was I guarantee you half the stuff that was written
on that paper it never made it, and we just
we just got loose with it.

Speaker 3 (01:13:13):
Is that what makes you is that what makes him
so good is that is and most comedians have this ability,
is that their ability to improv and yes it's wrong,
it's on there, but if you let me do it
my way. Kat said that, let me do it my way,
and I promise you it will be ten times funnier.

Speaker 1 (01:13:28):
But you can't always. But see, that's the problem that
everybody's not gonna agree to that. And the reason why
that you got writers are getting paid a lot of money.
You know, it's kind of insulting if you just basically
saying I'm gonna do all of that. Some people they did.
That's the only way he can work. But even in
our case, we never want to disrespect the writers. We
would do with Brian Tucker, nail and put on paper.
Then it was like this, Okay, let me get one.

(01:13:49):
You know what I'm saying. But no, you're not gonna
have too many sets. It's gonna let you do whatever
you want. Yeah, because then now you start doing that,
now they gotta pay you as a writer. There's a
whole bunch of things. But it wasn't. But but the
thing that we the thing about working with him is
that he makes you go harder. It makes you want
to be the best thing you could be. Is it

(01:14:12):
true that r Kelly said goons at I don't know,
I don't I don't know if this is true? To
Kelly's uh saying goons, But I know we had goons too,
So it was gonna be a good It's gonna be
a good Yeah, it was gonna be a good convention.
But I don't know too much about that. But damn man,
that was another thing we was like it was it
was a show, was feelings like we're gonna say we

(01:14:32):
want and not care about what you think, but we
do the funny first to deal with it after that.

Speaker 4 (01:14:37):
Could there be a Chappelle show today?

Speaker 1 (01:14:41):
Mm hmm, that would be a tough one. That would
be a tough I think certain things. I don't know
if they could be a Chappelle show, but it would
be interesting if there was a one off, you know, yeah,
just but it's just so hard because now you.

Speaker 4 (01:15:02):
Gotta today's society is a lot different than today, but.

Speaker 1 (01:15:05):
It's about to change those changes. It's like I think
it is. I think that I think that the idea
of canceled culture is about to be dead. Good people
getting frustrated with that. And after a while we went
through that stage and you can't say just can't say that,
but people are getting sick of that. If anybody could,
if anybody would be able to pull it off. It
would be it would be him. But I think that
it's gonna be time for us to get back to

(01:15:28):
like not concerning ourselves what you think, and but what
we think is funny and put it out there.

Speaker 3 (01:15:35):
If I'm not mistaken, I think I read that you, uh,
what's the Living Color?

Speaker 1 (01:15:41):
Yeah, which is kind of I mean before, Yeah, what
about the Living Color?

Speaker 4 (01:15:46):
Didn't you audition for that?

Speaker 1 (01:15:47):
Audition to it? I did audition for it, but I
was green. I didn't know what I was doing. I
auditioned for that. I was, like I said, when I
first started, I came out hogh. But I just I
was green. I was funny as a stand up that
I had a couple of little quirky little characters and
things I was doing. It was different from everybody else,
but I wasn't. I wasn't ready for a Living Color.
Our auditioned for Saturday Night Live. That's where I met

(01:16:08):
Neil and in fact that audition I did a certain
Night Live. Tracy Morgan was on that same audition and
he got it. I was a guy that told a
funny story, but it did not understand when they say
we need three original characters. What that looked like. I
was telling long stories and I remember, uh, Tracy Morgan,
he did he did a character a black hockey player

(01:16:30):
and it was a very simple character, but he really
committed to the character, like he had the little things
and everything, and I saw he looked like a sketch actor.

Speaker 3 (01:16:39):
But I wasn't ready for that yet. But you so,
you didn't understand. You understand now and now you probably
go on an audition. You understand they sing you the format,
what they're looking for. You go in there, you know
what they're looking for. You become back.

Speaker 1 (01:16:51):
Yeah, but back back then, I was only getting shots
because I was funny as a stand up. But again
I wasn't trained. I didn't know what I was doing.
And that's there was.

Speaker 4 (01:17:00):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:17:00):
When I look back, I was like, Oh, if I
was prepared for that, I probably could have got it.
But it wasn't the I've been to. I always say,
it's a tortoise in here. I've been a tortoise for
so long. I don't have I don't have a problem
with the slow route, how it's going. As long as
I get my money now to keep going, I'm good.

Speaker 3 (01:17:17):
Comedy Central moves in a different direction. They do Key
and Peel, which does a lot of what you guys
were doing. Did you feel any sort of resentment where
you like, bro y'all, that's us. All they did is
Key and Peel, But you guys are doing what me
Chappelle and Charlie Murphy.

Speaker 1 (01:17:33):
No, I don't, don't. I don't. I don't believe that
reason why everything has a moment in time. Okay, you're
gonna compare it first off, to try to replace that
time slot and everything. Of course it's gonna you're gonna
compare it. But there's no way. I was just a
lot of the Key and Peel stuff coming up on
my timeline lately, and I was like, they were some
funny They were. They were some funny and it could
have been reversed. It could have been they could have

(01:17:55):
came before Chappelle Show and it would have been reversed.
I think it was a time and thing. I think
that they was in one of the toughest spots you
could be to come behind the show that became so
much part of pop culture, and then you all, I know,
everywhere they went, they was like, oh, y'all trying to
be Chappelle Show. It's sketch comedy, you know what I'm saying,
and then the sudden to be saying for that. It
was basically there was two actors that read all these things,

(01:18:16):
you know, and in the moment people are the same
time slot whatever. But I don't think I don't you know,
but it had.

Speaker 4 (01:18:22):
To be good because they stayed for the extended period
of time, so.

Speaker 1 (01:18:25):
They had to be good. They could just trying to
prove the point to day we got another nigga, we're going,
you know how those people.

Speaker 3 (01:18:35):
Upstairs are let's get say for the sega argument. Chappelle
show is going, and we got the thing going on
with Diddy with y'all have poked fun of that.

Speaker 1 (01:18:45):
I'm pretty sure what we poked fun of Diddy before
Diddy was Diddy.

Speaker 5 (01:18:52):
If you.

Speaker 1 (01:18:54):
If you noticed Dame played Diddy and he had a
lot of baby on his lips. Here, they over Steve.

Speaker 3 (01:18:59):
Knew something that we didn't know. They've knew something now.
Oil was an come in. They've had one bottle of
baby old on that scene.

Speaker 4 (01:19:07):
Take that.

Speaker 1 (01:19:07):
Take that. Take that, of course it would have, because
we would have made fun of the things that's happening
right now. Well that had been a tough one.

Speaker 3 (01:19:16):
Hold on, I'm trying to figure out, Hold this happen.
Trafficked a lot of people. You ain't never trafficking nobody.
I know you're gonna say the right thing right now, right. No,
you're gonna say, ain't no right thing right now, tomorrow, yesterday, No,
ain't no trafficking going on?

Speaker 1 (01:19:32):
No. Hello, Can I ask you a question? Yeah? Okay
you yeah, successful athlete?

Speaker 3 (01:19:44):
Yeah, a lot of money, A little bit of money,
not a lot.

Speaker 1 (01:19:50):
Don't try to downplay it. Got a little bit bunny hopping,
not just saying.

Speaker 3 (01:19:57):
I'm just saying, now, one time in your successful life,
you have not flown someone in with the intentions of
having sexual intercourse.

Speaker 4 (01:20:12):
With him my girlfriend.

Speaker 1 (01:20:14):
You should be a lawyer. God damn you smart. I
believe it in that.

Speaker 3 (01:20:19):
I believe it at death. I believe it at death. Hello,
is it true you got about you? See between dinny
and now? I say, first off, first off, first off
with first off, okay, get to the second part. Okay,
the second part.

Speaker 1 (01:20:30):
First off, All right, what I'm trying to tell you
is all right that what I'm okay, let misplace something. No, no, no,
I take I'm gonna tell you. I'm gonna tell you.
I'll tell you it's a photo that's going viral that
ten years ago, Shannon, would have been a photo that
had been iconic and people that wish they was in

(01:20:51):
that picture. It wasn't until after the freak off shit
that now picture looks suspect. But you look at that picture, Shannon, uh,
you see it different from me what I saw in
that picture. First off, I saw eight successful black men.
I saw and I was there talking about friendship creating Jennifer.

(01:21:11):
Why between leg can I finished? Goddamn? See what I'm saying?

Speaker 4 (01:21:18):
Old, let me? Can I get another drink? Because I
wouldn't hear this door.

Speaker 1 (01:21:22):
It's just my truth, which is I saw black excellence
in that picture.

Speaker 4 (01:21:29):
That's what you saw?

Speaker 1 (01:21:32):
All right?

Speaker 4 (01:21:34):
All right?

Speaker 1 (01:21:34):
This happen? This, this how happened? This how happened? They
was hating on me. I was on that boat, that yacht,
and I was going right, I was really you remember
what happened. Don't you trying to say, don't do that,
don't do that, don't do that, don't do that, don't
do that. Say you were best? I know, I know,
don't talk about that memory ship all right, I don't

(01:21:54):
buy one of that. I knew exactly what happened, which
was nothing, but I wasn't it. I knew I was
you know, I you know, I know I was fucked up,
because then he looked at me like, damn, somebody get
this off the boat. I was.

Speaker 4 (01:22:04):
I was lit.

Speaker 1 (01:22:05):
And so they was really just they did. Everybody was mad.
I was having a good time, and they was trying
to take this picture right, and everybody was talling me.
They were trying to block me out. They was already
frustrating with me, right, So I did and this it
was a situation like this. I swooped around, went in
to the front of the picture, and I did like this.
I did not notice that there was right here behind me,

(01:22:26):
and I, you know what, why you asking me to
tell you my story and you don't want to hear
my motherfucker's story, or you could have just said no
matter what you said. Watch he was in between his
legs and I wasn't. It was it was the depth camera, people,
It was the depth of the photo. What do y'all
call that ship when it's not focusing, it's blurry? It

(01:22:46):
was it was yo, I didn't know I didn't listen. Man,
I had a good time in that boat, all right,
I left.

Speaker 3 (01:22:55):
I love.

Speaker 1 (01:22:58):
It ain't it's the difference. That was a family. It
was family, my sons when I got damn boat.

Speaker 4 (01:23:06):
All right, see hear me in the picture.

Speaker 1 (01:23:14):
I'm just saying, I mean, see, this is what we're
talking black on black crime, right, and this is why
I loved you at my standing routine. Now I'm gonna
get you back. Got Oh, I'm gonna see some videos.
I was waiting for this. Let's go. No no, no,
it's too lame. Don't compeplate now it's all the popping.

(01:23:35):
Come on, can't no, no, can't, come on, come on.
I got a whole twenty minutes.

Speaker 4 (01:23:40):
But I'm just saying, but look, in all seriousness, what
you have defended.

Speaker 1 (01:23:46):
I did defend.

Speaker 4 (01:23:47):
I defended who the parties that you didn't know what?

Speaker 1 (01:23:50):
First off, it's at different parties, all right, right, you can't.

Speaker 3 (01:23:53):
I didn't defend no party. I defended what that was,
all right, and that was.

Speaker 1 (01:24:00):
Family or in it.

Speaker 4 (01:24:03):
But you don't remember a whole lot that, you know what.

Speaker 1 (01:24:06):
Let me get a drinks because I'm not gonna let
you do this. I'm not gonna let you do this.
I am not defending. What I'm saying is, of course
there have been freak afs, and of course, how you
know I read the same blogs you read. I read.
How god damn you just think it turned to a lawyer. No,

(01:24:28):
I'm saying, Okay, where it is on the streets, Okay, right,
everybody know it's freak afs. Everybody know Hollywood is Hollywood.
I don't understand why all these motherfuckers are like, oh
my god, they had a mansion party and they had
cocaine and all these orgy drugs and circh. Why people
don't know. I'm not saying you got to be a

(01:24:50):
part of it, but why is this this whole thing?
It's like, I can't believe they were doing that in Hollywood.
And I understand Cat Wims came up here and it's
part of I said, Cat Wims on this couch for
three hours in his feet, never touched the ground.

Speaker 3 (01:25:04):
That's the first thing I said. I didn't y'all didn't
see the same thing I saw. Y'all didn't see that.

Speaker 1 (01:25:10):
I don't give up.

Speaker 3 (01:25:11):
Why did you Am I scared of Cat Williams? No
for what he probably come back, start your year off right.

Speaker 1 (01:25:18):
But I noticed my feet was like this the whole time.
And I told him and and I don't disrespect him whatever,
but I and part of my ten I said, cat
wasn't a funny, but everybody think it was funny. You
was the funniest because it didn't matter what the cat
wims said. You said, Oh, come on, cat, you can't
see that.

Speaker 3 (01:25:34):
I'm like, he just said it. Give me a card,
Give me a card. You was like this, Oh, come on, cat, No,
ca't come come. Oh cat, come on now, cat. Oh
he ain't gonna that dagger o cat, these my friends. Cat,
Now come on, cat, cat cat cat cat cat cat
cat cat cat.

Speaker 1 (01:25:48):
O choe ochoe ochoeoe. Hey sipep o choe. See the
difference between me and you is you were your watch
to tell died and I wasn't every party did he had?
And I wasn't at too many. Okay, wait, I was

(01:26:08):
at how you helping? You're the camera man, man?

Speaker 3 (01:26:16):
What you doing?

Speaker 1 (01:26:18):
No, I'm just saying I don't know that side of it.
That's what I'm saying. And I'm not defending anything. What
I'm defending what that incident was. He does a party
every Christmas holiday, Saint Mark, Sat Barton, Saint Martin, Sat
Bart's whatever it is.

Speaker 4 (01:26:35):
And it was a gift change.

Speaker 1 (01:26:39):
We had dinner. Okay, no gifts was changed. It was
just a vibe.

Speaker 4 (01:26:43):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:26:43):
I was there. We was vacational with day. It was
a vibe. We went over there. It was a vibe.
And the thing I'm gonna tell you, the thing that
I did like about it that party was that Kimora
was there.

Speaker 4 (01:26:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:26:54):
Uh, kim Porter was there. My baby mother was there. Uh,
Dave's it was there. And I was one of the
only thing I saw And I don't know what happened
to anything else. What I saw was a vibe. Okay,
what I saw was a good thing. And that's what
I'm saying. Anytime you say anything about all you're defending.
I'm not defending. I don't know nothing about the free parties,
but I do know, right, thank you, Nah, because you're

(01:27:18):
about to get crazy. No, I can tell you. I
gotta get lose what I'm saying, go ahead and say it.
That's how Diddy parties taught, right. I'm just saying, not going.
I know you're about to say some ship. Yeah, that's
how it gets. You take the time off throwing your
shit around. I'm not saying that. What I'm saying was

(01:27:39):
what I know was that was family joint and was cool.
People can make out what they try to make it
to say what it was. That's not what it was
for me. That's what I'm not here.

Speaker 4 (01:27:50):
You know, I cast no judgment. I don't look at
you with judge the eyes. That's your story.

Speaker 1 (01:27:56):
If you could do a close up, those are very
judge your eyes, yo, you're judy and ship. Anytime you
tell your glasses off and wipe your ship off, don
judge your eyes back. Cause I've been crying that you
hit me up your cry. I'm just saying it is
what it is. I know I said no Diddy, Yeah
I said it, so so you know he coming home right.

Speaker 3 (01:28:17):
I don't know, man, I don't look Honestly, I don't
pay attention to that stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:28:21):
I know you don't.

Speaker 3 (01:28:21):
I don't because it I'm sorry for the people that
was impacted by it, But that ain't got nothing to
do with me, man. I ain't never. I ain't never
been to nobody's house. Fuck you asked me cause you
the picture. No, you could have just if you really
using a picture like if.

Speaker 1 (01:28:35):
You I wouldn't like that said, I wasn't like that.

Speaker 3 (01:28:37):
I was.

Speaker 1 (01:28:38):
I was in it like this. I was like, I
wasn't like the most interesting man.

Speaker 2 (01:28:42):
In the world.

Speaker 1 (01:28:43):
So I was like this, I was doing real ship.
Who wanted to drink? That's what I did.

Speaker 3 (01:28:47):
But it was the fact that you between the man
lands though that last one.

Speaker 1 (01:28:50):
I wasn't it between us. He was right there, Yeah,
I was right here you but you laid down. I
wasn't like, I ain't even know he was back there.
How you not know he was back there? You snuck
in the picture? Think this is what I just said.
All these people right here, Yes, I can't see who

(01:29:11):
in the front shaying I can't see who in the front,
So I run around the side. I couldn't see. I
don't even know it's it.

Speaker 3 (01:29:18):
I turned an It just so happens. You photo bomb
and you between the man legs.

Speaker 1 (01:29:24):
That's you know what a photo bomb? And I was
in an awkward position. You don't got to say between
some bouts that's you needed. You got the wrong word play.
I photo bomb and was in a situation with people
to perceive to be very suspect or as a kid say,
sus that's what it was. You could take How.

Speaker 3 (01:29:41):
Would you perceive it if you look, if you and
not if you're not the person that's how would you
perceive it?

Speaker 1 (01:29:48):
I would look at if I saw that picture, Yeah,
I would say, you know what it looks like. Black
excellence is in this photo right, and these guys are
having a good time, and then slipped into a compromiser.
SPI sistrict. That's what I did. Say, no further questions.

Speaker 3 (01:30:06):
This concludes the first half of my conversation. Part two
is also posted and you can access it to whichever
podcast platform you just listen to part one on. Just
simply go back to Club Shasha profile and I'll see
you there.

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Club Shay Shay - Donnell Rawlings Part 1

Episode Transcript

Host

Shannon Sharpe

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