Don dc curry speaks on Katt williams interview's Crossing the line after Katt did the club shay shay podcast and the joe rogan podcast , in this interview you get a chance to see a side of the legendary don dc curry. "In a candid and explosive episode of Its Up There Podcast, Don 'DC' Curry pulls no punches as he reveals shocking truths about Hollywood drama, including clashes with Katt Williams, Steve Harvey, and more. Get ready for eye-opening insights and unfiltered commentary from the comedy veteran!" Key Discussion Highlights: Katt Williams Exposé: Don 'DC' Curry opens up about Katt Williams crossing the line after controversial interviews with Joe Rogan and Shannon Sharpe, shedding light on the aftermath and personal conflicts. Steve Harvey Revealed: Explore the allegations of joke stealing and comedic cadence similarities between Don 'DC' Curry and Steve Harvey, as well as behind-the-scenes tensions. Next Friday Drama: Dive deep into the real story behind Next Friday, including pay disparities, conflicts with producers, and efforts to address issues with Ice Cube. Kevin Hart's Wife Tour: Discover the truth behind Kevin Hart's wife being put on tour and the implications for Don 'DC' Curry's career and relationships in the comedy industry. Kings of Comedy Beef: Uncover the reasons behind Don 'DC' Curry's absence from the Kings of Comedy tour and address any lingering beef with fellow comedians. Comedy Industry Insights: Gain valuable insights into the comedy industry as Don 'DC' Curry discusses his experiences with Dave Chappelle, Andrew Dice Clay, Corey Holcomb, and more. Community Engagement:"Join the conversation! What are your thoughts on the controversies surrounding Katt Williams, Steve Harvey, and the comedy industry as a whole? Share your opinions in the comments below!" Don Dc Curry Shares Insights on Comedy Industry Challenges, Personal Integrity, and Confrontations with Fellow Comedians, Including Steve Harvey and Katt Williams 0:00: 🎤 Don Dc Curry discusses the state of comedy, highlighting challenges and observations within the industry. 6:13: 💥 Comedian shares insights on boundaries in comedy, personal integrity, and the impact of social media on new comedians. 10:56: 🎤 Comic industry insights shared by Don Dc Curry, including mentorship experiences and unique comedic cadence comparisons. 16:31: 💥 Comedian Don Dc Curry shares personal anecdotes and confrontations with fellow comedians, including Steve Harvey and Katt Williams. 22:13: 💥 Don Dc Curry discusses his experience in the entertainment industry, including his involvement in the Friday movies and the impact of Comedy View and Def Comedy Jam. 27:54: 🎤 Insights on the challenges of comedians gaining experience through live performances and the significance of honing their craft. 33:30: 💬 Discussion on the challenges faced by successful black comedians and the impact of wealth on comedic performance. 38:27: 💥 Don Dc Curry discusses his experience in the comedy world, his views on Hollywood, and upcoming projects. 43:16: 💬 Comedian Don Dc Curry discusses his approach to comedy, ownership of his content, and camaraderie among comics. 47:57: 💬 Discussion on the evolution of comedy, impact of shock factor, comparison between black and white comedy, and views on immigration. 53:36: 🎙️ Comedian discusses historical injustices faced by his people and the impact of voluntary migration. Exclusive Patreon Content:"For exclusive behind-the-scenes content and extended interviews, join our Patreon community at www.patreon.com/ItsUpTherePodcast. Unlock bonus episodes and exclusive content you won't find anywhere else!" #kattwilliamsinterview #kattwiliams #dccurry #steveharvey #comedy #coreyholcomb #interview #itsuptherepodcast
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Because some people to say Harvey has your cadence. Some
people to say that Harvey has your caenance. That's your cadence.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Yeah, if you become Miss America, you'll make about a
million dollars doing your reign, four a five more million
there after if you're playing right. So do I think
it's a shame that you got to come out in
a bathing suit and a pair of high heels.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Yeah, I really do. I think, y'all I have to
come out. But nothing. Church is the building you attend.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
Church is the activity that go on once you get
inside the building.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
That's what I'm talking about. Praying.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
They talk to God like he staying next door, you know,
like he ain't buddy, like he got a membership out there.
Why they don't shut their eyes. Ain't no emotion in it.
They just be talking to God, Oh Father, God.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Steve my man, Man, Steve my man. You're trying to start.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Some I ain't trying to start Nothing brought him. You
think I'm trying to start something? Why do you think
you were not.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
On the Kings of Comedy.
Speaker 5 (01:24):
They edited an interview I did and made it seem
as though I was saying, don't go Steve.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
See Steve, come see me.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
How did you get in from those Friday movies, whether
that's that's an audition or just a phone call.
Speaker 5 (01:38):
You know a lot of people complaining I don't know
who they representing them.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Well, dog, I.
Speaker 5 (01:43):
Got paid right and uh when I did Friday after next?
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Uh? Because I had gotten so much for the.
Speaker 5 (01:51):
Next Friday, but did Friday at the next I bumped
ahead with the producers.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Comic view or death comedy?
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Jim, Yeah, as far as what far as what he
did for comedy? Are you familiar with what just happened
with Corey Hokum and down there wrong mile.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Mile m I l d you catch up? You ain't
have so I had.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Some of the hardest rooms in Brooklyn and you and
you ain't never man, I'm mild you saying I ain't
come through the streets or the gunners and straight boys.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
And if you want to ask somebody to ask the
you know you.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Once I gripped you, you ask any see me bomb anybody?
Speaker 3 (02:53):
And you have anybody that don't know me. I demonstgainst it.
I don't say no who times I'm a bum. I
we're talking about comedy, he said. D Z I went
south kivin Hart. He did an hour.
Speaker 5 (03:11):
I said, yeah, and he ain't offend nobody in the building.
I said, I can't do five minutes without niggas. Somebody
that niggas want to allure me to death. Exactly, my man, Lord,
my man, loans old.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Loan, new loan. Okay, okay, it's up there and stuck
that nigga. When it's up there, Man, it's stuck there.
Shut up. Yo yo, yo, yo yo.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Welcome to another episode of It's Up There Podcast. I
am your active and attractive hosts for another episode of
the fastest growing podcast in the world. Right now, I
don't talk to everybody.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Man.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
When I seen this guy in my city come to
the legendary Zaytis, I made it my im mission to
go out to see this man because I grew up
all of them and I think that he's a legend
in the game.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Today we got don DC Curvey. How why are you,
my brother?
Speaker 5 (04:10):
I'm doing good, man, but don't come and let legends
got about six months to live. You don't believe that.
You don't believe that. I appreciate you coming, man.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
I appreciate you for forgiving me and gracing me gracing
the platform with your with your presence. Man, you did
a lot in this game. How do you feel about
the state of comedy right now?
Speaker 5 (04:31):
Well, I couldn't think of a better time to be
a comedian with all of with all this going on now,
I remember when you used to take a story or
the news or whatever and turn it up a notch
to make it funny.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
But now what's going on now?
Speaker 5 (04:49):
You got turn in taking turned down a notch to
make it believable. But thank you making it up if
you just just tell what's really happening now. But with
regards in particular the black comedy. Uh, while it's funny
on one hand, it's sad on the other hand because
you spend your whole life fighting for equal rights and
(05:12):
all that, and then what happens it appears what does
it appears gonna happen? In the end, We're gonna implode.
You know you think we exploding from within?
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Why you think that? Well, I think part of it
is is uh well, part of it is just uh see,
people won't refer to it as a competition, is being
a competitive game and all that, But I don't wish
nobody ill will So when they mentioned going on Shad
(05:49):
Shade is that his name? Yeah? Yeah, they mentioned on
going there with me. I said, you don't want me.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
I'd be the bornest interview you ever had because I
know something on every but I ain't telling nothing.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
I don't know nothing.
Speaker 5 (06:04):
It's the equivalent to me when you put somebody's personal
business out there, a snitching, right, The same thing, man,
same thing.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
So is that how you felt about what Cat done?
Cat my buddy? He said some of the shit was
right and some of it was wrong. He ain't reading No.
Three thousand books a year. That nine books a day
for Cap. You ain't run No. Four three forty. Hell,
if you could, you should have ran that. When that
fifteen year old ball whipping your hand, I remember that too.
(06:37):
It Cap my man. Man.
Speaker 5 (06:39):
But I'm proud of her, you know, I'm proud of
some brothers that he might disagree with. You know, now,
some of the stuff he said was true. I just
wouldn't be aying it. I don't think is the truth.
Disrespect though.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Well, I'm gonna tell you why I drew the line.
I'm gonna tell you.
Speaker 5 (06:57):
I'm gonna tell you a couple of things that we debate,
but I tell you a couple of I tell you
a couple of things I had a problem with. Unless
a brother's wife is in the game, that's kind of
off limits.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
That's those are old gangster roots. Man. You don't mess
with the family, wife and children. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:19):
Now, in the case of Kevin Hart, his ex wife
is in the game, so I don't know, maybe that's
fair findo. But you know, he said something about some
of the other guys wives.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
I you know, I got a little problem with that.
Speaker 5 (07:37):
And then when he referred to Quake's illiteracy or accused
him of being illiterate, I got prob I got I
got a little problem.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
I mean, the Quake situation seemed to be a lie,
So I mean we should everybody got an issue with lies,
you know what I'm saying. Because Quake went on Breakfast
Club and said he was I think in the Navy
or he was in the Air Force air Force, I
don't think it was yeah right, It's impossible to be
a literate going through the Air Force. So I don't
(08:08):
I don't know if that checked out as far as
what Quake was saying.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
You know, I really don't.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
But do you harber any resentment like, do you do
you feel like because fifty million.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Views, fifty something fifty million year, that's a lot of money,
not cash, but just in this world that we operate tickets. Yeah,
so I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
They don't give you a handshot like cats say, they
don't look out for me.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Why am I holding their secrets? Yeah? But sometimes it
don't matter. Is so?
Speaker 5 (08:47):
Man, I was with Cat. We was hanging out one
day and I reminded him back in the day. Yeah,
it's true story, I said, Cat, you know you know
you steal me five hundred dollars. We were in New
York years ago, and uh, I did a Comedy Central
special and he did something now But anyway, we happened
(09:07):
to end up the same hotel, same bar after the show,
and uh the show. You how green he was at
that time when they paid him. He did a TV
show and they he thought they were gonna get him cash.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
But they wrote him a check.
Speaker 5 (09:25):
Yeah, he ain't had no money, right, I ain't five
hundred dollars loaning five hundred dollars. So I asked him
the other day, I say, Man, you know you steal
me that five hundred dollars.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
And he couldn't. He said, is that right? DC? So
I tried to refresh his mind and everything he said.
He said, DC, if you.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
Told anybody that, I said, no, player, I don't roll
like that. Yeah, he said, that's the difference between you
and me, d C. He said, if you told somebody that,
you would have had ten million hits tonight.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
I said, but I don't throw nobody under the bus
like that.
Speaker 5 (09:56):
He said, that's why you're a great comedian, but I'm
more famous that.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
That's sad, but that's how this is another part of
that story that I tell you when we off the A.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Right So with with I don't think I think you
from where you come from, y'all have a certain cadence
right with comedy. I don't know if it's it's it's
moving to the new era with these comics. Do you
see anybody in the new era that kind of reminds
you of what y'all were when you were coming up?
Speaker 5 (10:32):
Well, I think the new catch and I ain't mad
at them now. I think they kind of struggling to
find that way, just like we were. I think, Uh,
social media, I don't think I know. I'm just live
change the game, but uh, you know. Some in some
ways it's been good because it exposes them to different flavors.
(10:55):
But a lot of things ain't changed. When I was
coming up. You know, there was some old the comics
in the game, few of course than it is now.
But they wouldn't They wouldn't think to try to help you, man,
they wouldn't. I mean, I'm gonna tell you four or
five of them that helped me, But a lot of
them was just haters.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Man. Yeah, a lot of them are haters. Uh.
Speaker 5 (11:17):
John Witherspoon helped me. Uh, George Wallace, who's still alive.
He about one hundred and sixty. Uh, j Andy Brown,
hun forty, Lenardo Ray, Richard Pryore, and uh it was
six it was somebody else. But for the most part,
(11:42):
they wasn't at forthcoming with information. So what I've tried
to do cause ain't nobody You ain't no threat to me, right,
And I've tried to share all I could share with
the young brothers who asked me.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
They don't ask me. I ain't trying to push nothing, no, man,
But if they asked me, I tell.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Them, why why do you think you were not on
the Kings of Comedy?
Speaker 5 (12:09):
Ain't no king of comedy. I don't consider myself no
king comedy.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
You don't.
Speaker 5 (12:14):
But they told me no, no, But they told me
at the time that, uh, it was because I didn't
have a television show deal, Huglid deal, hughli show, Bernie
had Bernie Show, Steve and.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Cedric Well Steve harbish. Why I was on Grays Underfire?
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Why why do we feel like you you you try
to downplay it though, like I shouldn't have been on
No Kings of Comedy. I ain't no king of comedy.
You just told me Richard Pride helped you. John Witherspoon
three conversations with Richard Pride. I don't want to overemphasize that.
Pick up the phone called Richard. I had three conversations
with Richard Pride. But to be carry impact for and
(13:02):
very you know, he was very open with.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Me, and at that time he was like on his
going out last leg, but he was he was real,
you know.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Yeah, But we and even if whatever Richard Prode gave
you in that moment that that was that. But to
be in the game from then to now, how has
that not solidified being a.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
King, brother king king? Strong word that ain't make it clear,
because I know how y'all take shit and twisted. Ain't
no queen.
Speaker 5 (13:39):
I ain't saying that when I say, ain't no king,
no man, I'm just jn't and I'm not I'm not
trying to be overly modest than nothing. I ain't no
slouch now, you.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Ain't nothing nothing, No got hold my own. Yeah, some
people say Harvey has your cadence.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Some people to say that Harvey has your cadence, that's
your cadence.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Yeah, I've heard that. Yeah, So that's what I don't understand.
Speaker 5 (14:08):
Like Steve my Man, Man, Steve my Man, you know
I saw him and Mark Curry August.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Look, bro, when you came up in.
Speaker 5 (14:23):
The same general time frame, you're gonna have some overlapping
of things that are you got in common. Mark Curry
and Steve were going at it. By the Halloween costume.
Come on, man, all black folks for the most part,
me the Halloween costume.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
So some of that stuff.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
But you know when you write something and you got
your signature on it and somebody snatch it from me.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Now that has happened to me in some cases. You
even got a certain style.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Bro, What I'm saying is when you deal with jokes,
at least from the downside me looking in, it's like the
packaging of the joke is just as important as the joke.
And so your cadence just how you just did now
with the inflections and things of that nature.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Right when you see someone like you.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Coming up in that moment with comic viewing all that
was going on, that was you, Harvey, y'all, y'all was
kind of in that same pot that cadence is only
I don't know anyone else with that, but really you too.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
I'm talking about why I can close my eyes and
say that rhythm, that's that rhythm, that's that DC rhythm, Like.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Do you do you ever think that? Do you ever
feel that? Do you ever you're trying to start some shit?
Speaker 1 (15:44):
I ain't trying to start nothing, brother, you think I'm trying.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
To start something. These are my real thoughts.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Like when I hear this, even when going back just
listening as I was driving down, I'm like, oh shit,
let me listen to Harvey.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
I put Harvey in.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Now what I would say is different was he he
would do a little more acting with it. But if
you close your eyes, and this is only two or
three bits that I saw. But if I closed my eyes,
I say that Cadence belongs to d C.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
H M. Here. You want me to say, all right.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Well, hey, we can we can move we can move on,
we can move on.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
But you know, I just wanted to ask you that.
Speaker 5 (16:34):
Let me say something. It is in case Steve see this.
You know he's had several problems with me. Uh, I'll
tell you about a couple of them. Uh, we're doing
showing Memphis. One time back in the day and he
had just gotten his to pay YO, and we were
(16:57):
in the dressing room. It's low season, and they a
ceiling fan and I suggested he get off money. Ceiling
fan for it snatches two pail and after that he
ain't speak to me for about three years.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Damn.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
Another time, well, I ain't gonna tell that, but we've
had just two or three running. Another time I was
in Houston, he was at the Civic Center, I think
it was.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
I was at a club.
Speaker 5 (17:33):
They edited an interview I did and made it seem
as though I was saying, don't go Steve, see Steve,
come see me. That ain't what I said. They cut
it down and made it look like that, right. But
what I said was, you can go to see Steve
at the arena, but it's gonna be hard to see
(17:57):
in that arena. I was talking about the inn him
to see a comedy clubs, and I said, I'll be
at this club, and for what it's worth, Steve might
sell out. But the club I was at set two
hundred and fifty people, I know I'm gonna sell out.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
I said something like that, Yeah, yeah, yeah. He took
it and got on the radio after.
Speaker 5 (18:18):
That, and uh, you know, tried to try to insult me,
which he couldn't do. I got some tapes, man, Steve
had comedy club, you know, and uh I got some
tapes of me performing at his comedy club. So uh,
I just there's been some overlapping.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
But you know, and then for me, bruh in this game,
because I take it personal, you know me, and I
don't know if it's the dog is in me.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
And you seem like a player.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
You seem like a super cool player type nigga, So
I don't take you to be sensitive.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (18:54):
Man, You had to really you had been You had
you really had to you really had to you can't.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Right, right.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
But with the money though, it's just like yo, man,
with the money, I don't know, Like I commend you
for being so play about it, but I can't see.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
You know, certain things for me will be a little
more visible in my arguments, right because I'll be saying,
let me tell you something, man, talk about money. I
like money like that, but yeah, right, it does not
control me. Brother. And you know, for example, it's only
so much shit you can buy. After that, you can
(19:29):
buy bigger shit mos shit.
Speaker 5 (19:31):
You know, you can buy a house. Now if you
get hurt, you can buy another house. But I mean,
it's only so much shit you can buy. But if
you compare yourself to somebody who's super if you want
to call it successful or whatever. If a man got
a fifty million dollar playing fifty million dollars yet, but
(19:52):
I don't want one. I just made fifty million dollars
relatively speak God blessed beyond saying, jay Z, they bought
a two hundred million dollar high But in my mind,
because of where I come from, you know what, I
could buy it with two hundred million dollars two hundred
(20:12):
million dollar hius, Right, I'd rather I'm not shooting.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
I'm not shooting shit.
Speaker 5 (20:20):
God bless them what they did. But I cannot imagine,
Uh what a two hundred million dollar Highs is.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
It's something bitch on the moon ors. Well, what did
you grow up at? South side Chicago? Got that play
on you man? Finger high and nothing back then?
Speaker 5 (20:42):
All my partners was gangsters. I go back now. I'll
be scared to stop it at a stop side.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Yeah, man, are you familiar with what just happened with
Corey Hokum and Donne Wrong?
Speaker 5 (21:04):
No, But uh, I had a Cookie Hull on my show. Uh,
she basically was re button Cats interview, right, Cookie Hull
used to work for him? She said she used to
(21:26):
write for him. He said she didn't. I kind of
believe that she did. But at any rate, and I'm
trying to be careful now not throw nobody under the
bu But Cary holkn called me.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
Because he saw.
Speaker 5 (21:48):
Me basically interviewing her on my show This rayon right,
and uh he called me because he can go in
on her and uh, Cory kangster me. But I got
to give him props from calling me, and uh he
did that before he did it basically, you know. Yeah,
(22:10):
not getting my permission, But I like, like I brought
her home.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
Man, hey, man, you say what you what you think?
She said? What she thinking?
Speaker 5 (22:17):
I didn't condemn it or condone it, yeah, but I
felt she had a right to say it. And it's
a fact that she accompanied cat and whatever whatever capacity
for quite some time and she wanted to speak up
peace and she did and it wasn't friendly. But you know,
(22:37):
she's a woman. You know you had my egg zone, ain't.
I'm telling what the hell she said?
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Right? Did?
Speaker 1 (22:44):
How did you get in those Friday movies, whether that's
that's an audition or just a phone call?
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Now?
Speaker 5 (22:51):
Audition they called me, you know from stand up back
then man, the scouts and stuff for television and movies.
They would go out and then black comedy was so hot.
Then they go to the black comedy club in different cities.
So it used to be a place here. I used
to go to Comedy act Theater. Uh and uh they
(23:13):
came in there. Now I had turned them down three
or four times. People from BT had come in there
and they were asking me to come out and basically
audition to be the host of Comic View on my dime.
I'm like man gone that shit. I just stay right
here and work in the club and make this center fout.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
All the week.
Speaker 5 (23:34):
I was getting shows yea, and uh so finally I
think it was the third go round, they bought me
a ticket and and uh said they pay for a hotel.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
I said, okay, then now you now you're talking.
Speaker 5 (23:50):
But back then the scouts would go out, Nah, you
pretty much got to go to New Yorker l A.
They don't they don't travel like they used to and
for talent. But anyway, it flew me out the comic
view and uh, I think that's where Q's some and some.
At some point we got called and asked me to
come in and quote unquote read for the part. And
(24:15):
uh I went in and and uh it was a
wrap that's dope.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
Was that good money? Back then?
Speaker 5 (24:23):
You know a lot of people complain and I don't
know who they had represent them. Well, dog, I got
paid right and uh uh when I did Friday after next,
uh cause I had gotten so much for the next Friday,
But I did Friday at the next I bumped head
with the producers because Cube at that point had gotten
(24:43):
so big QB it basically stepped out of the negotiations
and stuff. So I bumped head with the producers and
uh so, later on that evening, I called CUE and
I said, hey, man, you know you can cut to
the you want these motherfucker crazy And Q said, well,
you know what's up, DC, And I said, well, we
(25:06):
just we can't come to Grips with the money ice.
Q said to me, DC, what you want and I
told him. He said, called him back in fifteen minutes,
and I come back fifteen minutes. They asked me when
I could come in and sign the papers. I said, damn,
I was too cheap.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Yeah, you need a little pushback, but just like that, man.
Speaker 5 (25:27):
So Kim Whitley, who didn't do Friday after next because
she had bumped head with the producer, but I told
her called qbe you know cute.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
We all talked.
Speaker 5 (25:37):
We were on set, right, I said, call Q and
she wouldn't do it. So that's when they went and
basically got some more.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Who was my friend? I'm doing with her now? They
went and got some more to basically replace Kim Whitley.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Wow, that's dope. The comic view of death comedy John
uh far As what far as what he did for comedy.
Uh who he propelled cachet in the culture. You know, overall,
(26:15):
I think death jam was ultimate.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
Uh at that time, it was an ultimate thing. Comic
View had more longefvity. It was a calm atmosphere. It
was kind of two different generous death jam you know. Uh,
Comic View you had time to make somebody think death jam.
(26:43):
You got to go, proud, you got to go. But
both of them did the thing. So shout out to
Rusid Simmons and shot out to Bob.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Johnson. I think Johnson Bob us.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
Yeah, both of them provided avenue. Bob something that was
with death Cham but Bob Johnson on bt d T
Comic View. Yeah, And it created a It created a
platform for us that.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
Wasn't invasible.
Speaker 5 (27:16):
I don't I don't think you can compare it to
anything now for us Black comics are concerned, right.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
You think he can be read, recreated in there, that
can be redone. Now you can centralize those audiences because
basically that's what there was. People would sit down at
a certain time, you know, get looking forward to watching
comedy on Comic View or.
Speaker 5 (27:39):
I tell you what, I don't think so because of
social media, I don't think so because of social media. Now,
I ain't I ain't mad nobody nothing. I ain't mad
to young real social media. But but I think uh,
And it's obvious when some of them are missing the
experience going out on the road, driving from place to
place with different people and trying to find where you
(28:05):
fit in.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
And you can't do that, can't do that with video, man,
And then it's.
Speaker 5 (28:10):
Not as real because you can't get booed on the
video and you gotta get your ass out there and
get booed and then figure out what you did wrong.
But on video you can do fit the takes and
just pick the best one. Then a lot of people
disappointed when they show up to see it. Now, some
of the brothers have gone on and gained experience and
(28:32):
stepped it up country Wayne Shooter King, Yeah, and figured
it out. But I've also seen I've seen some fall
but DC, young flyer, I've seen some fall by the wayside,
you know that possibly would have done better if they had.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
Been on the road. Used to call it the chit
Lin circuit.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Yeah, because you're working those jokes as a thing, like
you gotta get that joke.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
In different rooms and you know what I'm saying, Like
you said.
Speaker 5 (29:02):
Like that's why you know I do some concerts now.
I think I got forty fifty on the books for
this year, but I do, I got you know, farty
some clubs on it because the repetitions, right, the repetitions,
and you be surprised.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
I always call.
Speaker 5 (29:19):
Comedy, particularly black comedy, but comedy in general, it's psychological warfare. Brother,
And you be surprised how change any word or phrase
or the time and make all the difference in the world.
When you're doing the club and you got several shows
(29:40):
that do day after day, you know you can work
it out.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
You got that and work it out?
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Yeah, yeah, and then you see it'll it'll. You also
got to serve people that don't know you as much, too, right,
because especially with social media, the fanfare is so crazy. Yes,
like you come out, they Cheering's like he ain't even
got nothing out, he ain't even said nothing. These dudes
are getting that love and they I wonder the last comics,
the last wave of comics that'll make that seventy five dollars.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
A night or a week and all that doesn't fit
that old anybody.
Speaker 5 (30:12):
Yeah, they on my first paid job I opened for
Paul Mooney was seventy dollars fourteen show up getting five
dollars a show, and at the end of the end
of the week they're handed me a new They said,
I old them one hundred and twenty seven dollars. I
had drunk up two hundred something.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
Dogar shit. Michael Williams and his brother Gary Williams.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Yeah, was there any beef, well, not beef, but any
competition with Comic View and Death Comedy Jam back then
where it's like no.
Speaker 5 (30:47):
Back then, there was three things you had to do
to establish your legitimates as a black coming. You had
do Death Jam, Comic View and Apollo Apollo. After that
they they take you seriously.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
Yeah, yeah, showtime at the Pollow, right, and then if
you could do that and survive, you you're doing very good.
Speaker 5 (31:08):
Showtime at the Pollo. They talk about Death Jam, audience,
showtime at the Pollo. When I first did it, I
got that thing called time about eleven o'clock in the
morning and I got up to perform it, I think
at ten o'clock at night. Same cry, no water, no refreshment,
no nothing. Man, I don't even know what the bathroom
(31:30):
was working. But they've been sitting there eleven hour when
I got it.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
But you know it was it was all in the
game right now.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Them the reps, though, get them, the reps, Get the reps. Yeah,
he learned about TV so far, but the reps, you know,
they don't. And God bless them. You know, a lot
of them making a lot of money.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
Man.
Speaker 5 (31:58):
But uh, you know, I staying hard on what I believe.
I'm including radio shows now I'm eleven thousand and something deep.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
You, I'm telling you, man, I don't know why. I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
You don't got to like it. I'm calling you a legend.
You ain't even got to like it. And my voice
matter in the culture, so whatever. But here's something I
also want to ask you. When Corey Holcomb speaking of
those reps. Sometimes comedians even say season comics are quote
(32:37):
unquote mild. So Corey Holcomb says that Donielle Rowlins is
a mild comic. Yeah, do you do you understand that term?
And what what do you what do you think that means?
Because I'm sure my viewing audience don't know what that
don't know kind of what a mind? I know what
it means because I know what mild wings is versus
hot wings.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
You know what I'm saying, It ain't funny. Cary Holk
him hen Wow. Yeah, And uh, you know, I'm a
I'm a corn Hokan fan. But some of the stuff
caught me saying.
Speaker 5 (33:09):
I'll be like, damn boy, Yeah, what is wrong with you?
Speaker 3 (33:13):
But it's funny. However, and I don't want.
Speaker 5 (33:17):
To I don't want to reiterate what Cat said or
what Cory said. There is a certain vein that if
you get in that vein, you're more likely to become
universally acceptable and blah blah blah. I never I've always
spoke my mind. I had a conversation I don't know,
twenty some years ago with Tom Johnner, you know, about
(33:39):
being more accommodating. So yeah, it might could have been. Now,
you take a guy like Kevin Hart. Guy was telling
me the other day, Uh, we're talking about comedy, he said, DC.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
I went and saw Kevin Hart and he did an hour.
Speaker 5 (33:54):
I said, oh yeah, and he ain't offend nobody in
the building. I said, I can't do five minutes without
nigga somebody.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
Yeah, but if.
Speaker 5 (34:03):
You got that talent, God bless you. That's what you
can do. But you know, I'm more of a.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
I'm a little radical.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
Bro, you know, I mean, but the truth is, the
truth is considered that, you know what I mean. When
you get up there and just literally say your observations
from a true standpoint, some people gonna say it's radical.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
You gotta live with that. I speak it, and then
I can defend myself.
Speaker 5 (34:29):
Yeah, and uh sometimes that's that's uh, that's interpreted.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
As being radical, and then I don't give damn vide
is right?
Speaker 1 (34:39):
So so Downille Rawlins ran up on Corey at a
at the Hollywood Improv and interrupted his set. I ain't
see that, yeah, and just hollering at him, saying, nigga,
I'm a beast.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
You talking about I'm a mild comic. I'm a beast.
I'm a beast right now. I didn't know. I did
not know about that. Tell him in his face, man,
that ship mild you doing? Man? And they kind of
had this one too.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
What I want to speak to, though, is is that
Corey Yeah yeah, yeah. So what I want to speak
to is the conversation surrounding it, Because the conversation surrounding
that event is that yo, Donelle really is doing that
because what Corey said about Dave, which is Dave Chappelle
bombs a lot.
Speaker 3 (35:22):
Yeah, I saw that right, that's how courts. Do you
do you agree with that?
Speaker 1 (35:27):
I mean, I feel comics bomb, Like do you think
Corey is wrong in his observation for being able to
say that? Like he said, Yo, when they when they
on stage, I go outside, I don't. I don't like
what they doing. But for Dave, he's a good comic,
but he bombs a lot.
Speaker 5 (35:45):
Man, I don't know if you can bomb if you
got two or three hundred million dollars. I think he's
at a point where he just goes up and he talking.
He working stuff out in his mind. He's watching the crowd.
They react.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
He just took. He ain't gotta go up in slammed
the room. He doesn't, he didn't have to.
Speaker 5 (36:02):
The reason it gets hard, it gets harder and harder
for comic to be successful Black comic as he progresses
economically is because.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
Black folk about poverty. Most of us just a generation
maybe two from poverty. Man.
Speaker 5 (36:23):
Yeah, but when you got, when you are perceived, a's
having when you have or are perceived it's having hundreds
of millions of dollars. It's very hard for a black
crowd to sit down and listen to you talk about
how hard he had pay Bill right. I had this
conversation with a Cinnio whose my pardner. I tould him
(36:46):
at the time when you got when you got millions
of dollars, it's hard for you to connect with a
man that spend it last fifty dollars to sit in
the bleach in the nosebleed section see you.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
So it becomes a.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
Thing with But comedy is the one place in the
culture where it's like it's fair game, like that money.
Don't excuse you if you're not funny.
Speaker 5 (37:16):
You not funny, Well, you might be funny to some people,
and you may be funny to the right or wrong people.
The biggest lie I ever told about comedy is funny
is funny? That's bullshit because it depends on who's who's talking,
and depends on who you're talking to. That's what I
(37:38):
refuse to do. I've got a lot of offers for
seeds across for shows across the water, across the sea.
I don't know what the hell stay over there. I
ain't lived over there. I don't know nothing, and I
be talking about that. I be talking about how America
is crazy. So I don't want to go to a
foreign country and do that. I can't go to an
(37:58):
army base and talk about how crazy America is.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
So I just I just turned them down. Man.
Speaker 5 (38:05):
But it depends on who you're talking to and who's
talking to say, funny is funny If you believe that
Richard Pride, for example, could have taken Bill Cosby's material
and been as effected, Ain't no way in hell Bill
Cosby could go up and do Richid Pride mater and
be effected. No, there's an intricacy, intimacy, and I think
(38:32):
you developed that more of my personal opinion in clubs.
You know, concerts are hitting the they bang bang man
and uh and the you gotta get out of there,
the Union you gotta get out of there. Yeah, you
go do twenty minutes. You get up there and do
thirty if you want to.
Speaker 3 (38:51):
They hit the red light is time to go? Yeah? Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
Do you have you ever shared the stage with someone like,
you know, the new style like the eighty five South
Boys is doing. You see how they kind of like
it's a it's a three way kind of thing on
stage at the same time, Is that an awkward thing
for for like the old school for y'all guys that
came up one man, one mic, just taking care of
(39:16):
the business.
Speaker 5 (39:18):
Hey, man, to me, it's a individual sport. Now, God
bless them, they've been.
Speaker 3 (39:25):
Very successful, right, Yeah, but no, it's not. It's not
what I'm about.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
Do you think that you are part of Hollywood because
you've been in a few movies?
Speaker 3 (39:39):
No?
Speaker 5 (39:40):
On the contrary, Man, On the contrary, man, I've you know,
they talk about bowing down all that the Hollywood.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
I just never have.
Speaker 5 (39:53):
Even now, I refuse some auditions because I mean, you know,
it's all of a shit show man. Now, I'll I'll
come in the audition for something worthwhile. But you know
me come in and and basically showcase something. Well, why
you call me, right, because you know what I do.
(40:14):
You know what I'm about, So don't call me, ask
me come in? Do James Brown.
Speaker 3 (40:21):
Right, because that's what it feels like.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
It definitely feels like I was talking to another comic
I had nav Green when he was doing Coming to America.
He was kind of explaining the audition process and he's
just like this, sitting there stale face and just looking
at you like you got shit on your face.
Speaker 5 (40:37):
And then and I've experienced this, you know, because it's
audition game. You know, you go in you may audition
for thirty show and get one commercial or something. But
you go in there, man, and it's it's kind of
an ins up. You go in there and sit down
and some uh and some twenty two year old white
(40:58):
girl decide whether you get the part.
Speaker 3 (40:59):
Now, it's a hard lesson if you're seventeen trying to
make it right. Yeah, yeah, but I ain't about this, no,
nah nah?
Speaker 1 (41:09):
Do you feel like you made enough money out of
this game enough to do what to feel like?
Speaker 3 (41:14):
I ain't.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
I ain't built it. I feel good about I put
in forty years. It's what I got from or how
you know.
Speaker 5 (41:25):
I probably made more than I could have made doing
anything else. But like that set, man, I'm a I'm content.
I ain't said, man, I ain't got enough money. Yeah,
but I'm alright. After you buy certain things, ain't nothing
money and you can't buy nothing now, right, you know
you can have a two hundred million dollar high, but
(41:47):
I got a high. You know you can have a
five million now a car. But I got a car, right, So,
I mean.
Speaker 3 (41:57):
Relatively speaking, if you got something I don't want, we
even right, you got fifty million dollars yet and I
don't want. I just made fifty million dollars.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
That's a relative that's a good game, right there. Yeah,
that's an out of game right there.
Speaker 3 (42:11):
Boy, I don't want for nothing. Man, do you think
do you think that in this game, in the comedy.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
World, that there's for toub Are you interested in doing
movies on too?
Speaker 3 (42:24):
Bill? Would you do something like that?
Speaker 5 (42:26):
I got a deal on the I got a deal
on the table with him. Now, I did a television show.
AIB Productions put up most of the money. I put
up the rest. It's called Nappy Valley.
Speaker 3 (42:38):
You know.
Speaker 5 (42:38):
I'm a farmer and it's about all my my partner.
Speaker 3 (42:42):
Is working at about a new farm.
Speaker 5 (42:47):
It's about all my partners coming to work turn his
land into a farm, you know, right, So yeah, I'm
opening I'm open to that.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
Yeah, because it's some young entrepreneurs, you know, running around
with some bags intobi world that reached for your cachet.
Speaker 3 (43:03):
In this culture. You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (43:05):
Put a number out and you'll be surprised their phone
a ring.
Speaker 3 (43:08):
Hey we got that, We got that number for you, you know, yeah,
and you know and you know you do that. You
go at your own pace.
Speaker 5 (43:15):
I shot a special that I was offered that couple
people off of the finance.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
I financed it myself. That's dope.
Speaker 5 (43:22):
And I got to finish the editing it now and
then I shot it in Birmingham, Alabama to start down.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
But uh, I own it, you know right. It is
that expensive process to shoot a special. It cost me
for it some time. Now, it's dope.
Speaker 5 (43:35):
I imagine you could spend more if you want to
do a certain way. Imagine you could do it and
spend less.
Speaker 3 (43:39):
But the return on that, how do you make your
money back from that?
Speaker 5 (43:44):
Well, in the case of me owning it, I'm free
to basically lease it out, so I could get a
Netflix good buy into it, to be whatever, but.
Speaker 3 (43:52):
I still own it right as.
Speaker 5 (43:54):
Opposed to if I let them put the money up
and then there's a rap right and they buy it
and put it on the shelf.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
So you'll be doing more sot of a license and
agreement whatever. Just license your content for a couple of years,
pay you and then you retain ownership after the agreement.
Speaker 3 (44:10):
It's dope exactly. And I believe in the project. I
believe it is bona fide and and and I'm a gambler,
so I financed it, my damn sir. Yeah, I respect that.
How often do you write jokes? I write every day,
but some of it ain't funny.
Speaker 5 (44:32):
I'm gonna tell you what I do, man, I do
sat tire. Man, it's getting a lot of It's a
lot easier now because you got your phone.
Speaker 3 (44:40):
Man.
Speaker 5 (44:41):
I do sat tire, and I kind of do current
events and stuff. But sometime I just be writing and
don't be don't really be funny, but then something maun happen,
Something would happen in the world, in society that makes
it relevant. So I'd be like, I wrote something about
(45:03):
how unfat he is for a brother to live on
certain side of Atlanta, and then something happened, It makes
it relevant, you know what I mean? But right, pretty
much every day, but most of it ended up in
the trash.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
Do you think that you can start off funny in
comedy and run out of funny?
Speaker 5 (45:30):
Yeah, if you don't stay current and stay on what's happening,
because you know, most comics start off talking about the
same thing, parting on the elevation. Yeah, woman, period, which
ain't never been funny. I'll be watching the bomb with that.
I'd be like that ain't gonna work. Player, It's some shit.
You just can't make it funny. Man, You will sit
through a bombing.
Speaker 3 (45:52):
I sit through. Yeah, I sit through a bunch of them.
They funny to me. People the comics tend to laugh
at bombing.
Speaker 5 (45:58):
Oh man, I'm gonna tell you something that's changed. Back
in the day, guys, in my era, we would go
up some nights like we're there, Oh Mike night was
big back then for Black Coming, and we would go
up some nights challenge each other.
Speaker 3 (46:13):
I ain't gonna say nothing. I ever said it before.
Do it die if I bomb my just bump.
Speaker 5 (46:17):
And then after the show we go to waffle house
and sit till the sun come up, man, and and
be critiquing each other.
Speaker 3 (46:25):
You know, nigga, you should have said this, You should
have said that. You should have said it.
Speaker 5 (46:30):
So it wasn't that. It wasn't that like it is now.
You know, That's what's ma material.
Speaker 3 (46:36):
We was going there. We was going there and literally, man,
we would help each other right then bump up, bump
up jokes like you know that funny concept, man, But
what you said wasn't the shit, and we would go
back and forth and it was all, uh, it was
a camaraderie. Now that it doesn't, it's not the same. Nah.
Speaker 1 (46:55):
But that's one thing I think eighty five South got,
even though the shutters, they got that car rottery, because
they ain't worried about each other stealing the joke or
running out. With social media, it's much more easier to
claim ownership over something that's not yours, right over the
idea of something. If your following it's bigger or something
like that. You you you, you retain ownership or whatever
(47:18):
that is that you presented. But I think that's unfortunate.
But I got some stuff back then.
Speaker 5 (47:24):
You know, I used to travel with a little uh,
a little bitty consider because what you call it name minty.
Speaker 3 (47:30):
Because you got what they called Yeah, I can listen
let you, I could let you listen to some shit.
You would be like that sounds very familiar.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
You ain't got to tell me. I'm trying to get it.
I'm trying to understand why you ain't saying it. You known,
some stuff.
Speaker 3 (47:45):
Is coincidence and some some stuff you know, you know
what deal is.
Speaker 1 (47:50):
I don't believe in that man, like I mean, but
I think you a player, you know, a capital P.
Speaker 3 (47:56):
So I respect how you handle it. Brother.
Speaker 5 (47:58):
Let me tell you how to describe my said. I'm
a gentleman and a gangster. Fact, but I ain't. I
ain't trying to bring nobody else, Damn God blessing.
Speaker 1 (48:07):
Yeah, back in the day, do you think I was
talking to a comedy and I wanted to ask you
about saying that you was in the era or just
around and know about comedy. Andrew Dice Clay, Yeah, was
his wave as big as as as it's presented to
(48:29):
the culture. Because they tell you was sending that Madison
squad up and blah blah blah blah. But it's longevity,
wouldn't right, He didn't, you know, so he jumped out
of the gate.
Speaker 5 (48:39):
And back then because comedy wasn't exposed like it is now,
so you had another fact that it now is.
Speaker 3 (48:46):
So you had a shock factor, right, shock jock?
Speaker 5 (48:50):
So yeah, I mean you could be shocking and not
really be that funny, right and day he was shocking.
They couldn't believe he was saying that ship. He was
sending that masion squad. God man, three folk shows a day, right, Uh,
but it's longevity, so I might Uh you know, I
got a saying man, uh you know, cause I don't
(49:10):
be in no hurry to do nothing. I I my
saying is not saying patientself, don't raise yourself, right and
uh he jumped out there and he was. He was
rolling for a while after that, you know. And with
social media now and then, uh, death jam and all that,
(49:31):
That's one thing it did that I feel was positive.
It removed all that shock shit. Yeah cause back then
they'd be ye hear what they saying. They shocked me, Yeah,
but it wasn't necessarily funny. But now the people that
grew up on death jam and stuff, man, they forty
fifty years old, so you ain't gonna score no points
(49:54):
just shocking somebody, right.
Speaker 1 (49:56):
I think back then we they had and we'll we're
gonna wrap it up after this.
Speaker 3 (50:00):
Back then.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
They had Eddie Murphy as well, doing that stand up
thing he was was he competitors? Was that a competition thing?
Like what they selling out at the same time? Who
was running alongside Dice Clay when he was doing that,
because he was using rap, hip hop shit, and I'm
just wondering who black was moving around at the same time,
(50:25):
Like on that scale, it's probably only Eddie.
Speaker 5 (50:32):
Yeah that in that group, it's probably only Eddie man.
Speaker 3 (50:39):
Uh, but if you're.
Speaker 5 (50:43):
Talking about if you're talking about the skill of performing
and the skill of comedy and substance, Andrew dan Clay
couldn't touch.
Speaker 1 (50:53):
Eddie, right, And I always tend to think white comedy
can't really even though it from from just by numbers,
it's gonna sell and do certain things. But when we
I think people enjoy black comedy more than white comedy.
Speaker 3 (51:07):
Because it's more funny. Yeah, I believe that.
Speaker 1 (51:11):
I don't know if it's wrong to say, like, but
that's it's funny man's and then it's hard.
Speaker 5 (51:18):
Just like I was saying, give an example of uh,
you know, if you're coming, if you made millions of dollars,
it becomes harder for you because to connect the whole
thing is by connecting with your audience. How you gonna
be up there and you got three hundred million dollars
or perceived to have three hundred million Whitey and them
can't perform no more because black comedy about hard times.
Speaker 3 (51:42):
You know about then bills coming.
Speaker 5 (51:43):
You ain't got no money, and you cannot realistically or
convincingly talk about that when you got two hundred three
hundred million dollars. Man, anybody trying to hear that, you
come off with phony. So you're gonna have to go
up there like her boy and talking about you were
talking to the gold fish this morning, and the gold
(52:05):
fish said, right, So I said that to say, it's
hard for the quote unquote oppressor to entertain the oppressed.
Now the oppressed can entertain the oppressor, but it.
Speaker 3 (52:25):
But it's it's hard. It's hard for.
Speaker 5 (52:31):
It's hard for a person who's been uh uh on
the easy rapped so to speak, to make me laugh
and uh yeah, you just your problem I got with
and you know, uh, I got some mexicings work for me.
(52:59):
But uh, the immigration taking over. The problem I got
with it is it's the history of America. Man, even
though you know they coming over here five six thousand
deep a day, I ain't with that. When you got
pour folks over here already that you claim you can't feed.
But I got a problem raising hell by the Mexicans
(53:21):
coming over here voluntarily when my people were brought over
here against their will. So it's hard for me, even
though I realized the economics of it, it's hard for
me to be standing up hollering don't let the Mexicans
in here. Don't let the Mexicans in here, and my
people I'm here as a result. Are you bringing my
(53:43):
people over here against their will? Now I'm gonna get
over here and get halfway up on my feet, and
then I'm gonna be talking about don't let them voluntarily
coming over.
Speaker 3 (53:54):
Here, come over here to work.
Speaker 5 (53:57):
And you brought me over here to work, brought my
people over here against the will at the work.
Speaker 3 (54:02):
So indeed, it's.
Speaker 1 (54:05):
Something to think about for real. That's that's some that's
some ship to think about. That's why I respect comedians.
That that that observation of it all.
Speaker 3 (54:14):
Yeah, well that's why I respect Mexicans. Yo. Man, it's
up that podcast, DC Curve. Man. I appreciate you, brother,
last I appreciate you so much.
Speaker 1 (54:28):
Man.
Speaker 5 (54:28):
I wanted to give with your to date. Man, but
them clubs, they be weighing my hands out.
Speaker 3 (54:33):
Man. I already know what I appreciate you, bro. You're
letting on brother, calling me that man. I take that
just got about six months later. Stop it.
Speaker 5 (54:46):
I appreciate anything I said ain't acceptable because of that
ship you was smoking.
Speaker 3 (54:54):
On me. It's on me, Thank you, brother, that on man.
You're good man your progress, Radam. Thanks for watching this
clip from Its Up There podcast. To see the rest
of the interview, click one of the boxes on the screen.
Speaker 1 (55:13):
Also join Discord and Patreon to be in our community.
Because some people to say Harvey has your cadence. Some
people to say that Harvey has your caenance. That's your cadence.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Yeah, if you become Miss America, you'll make about a
million dollars doing your reign, four a five more million
there after if you're playing right. So do I think
it's a shame that you got to come out in
a bathing suit and a pair of high heels.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Yeah, I really do. I think, y'all I have to
come out. But nothing. Church is the building you attend.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
Church is the activity that go on once you get
inside the building.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
That's what I'm talking about. Praying.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
They talk to God like he staying next door, you know,
like he ain't buddy, like he got a membership out there.
Why they don't shut their eyes. Ain't no emotion in it.
They just be talking to God, Oh Father, God.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Steve my man, Man, Steve my man. You're trying to start.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Some I ain't trying to start Nothing brought him. You
think I'm trying to start something? Why do you think
you were not.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
On the Kings of Comedy.
Speaker 5 (01:24):
They edited an interview I did and made it seem
as though I was saying, don't go Steve.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
See Steve, come see me.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
How did you get in from those Friday movies, whether
that's that's an audition or just a phone call.
Speaker 5 (01:38):
You know a lot of people complaining I don't know
who they representing them.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Well, dog, I.
Speaker 5 (01:43):
Got paid right and uh when I did Friday after next?
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Uh? Because I had gotten so much for the.
Speaker 5 (01:51):
Next Friday, but did Friday at the next I bumped
ahead with the producers.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Comic view or death comedy?
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Jim, Yeah, as far as what far as what he
did for comedy? Are you familiar with what just happened
with Corey Hokum and down there wrong mile.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Mile m I l d you catch up? You ain't
have so I had.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Some of the hardest rooms in Brooklyn and you and
you ain't never man, I'm mild you saying I ain't
come through the streets or the gunners and straight boys.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
And if you want to ask somebody to ask the
you know you.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Once I gripped you, you ask any see me bomb anybody?
Speaker 3 (02:53):
And you have anybody that don't know me. I demonstgainst it.
I don't say no who times I'm a bum. I
we're talking about comedy, he said. D Z I went
south kivin Hart. He did an hour.
Speaker 5 (03:11):
I said, yeah, and he ain't offend nobody in the building.
I said, I can't do five minutes without niggas. Somebody
that niggas want to allure me to death. Exactly, my man, Lord,
my man, loans old.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Loan, new loan. Okay, okay, it's up there and stuck
that nigga. When it's up there, Man, it's stuck there.
Shut up. Yo yo, yo, yo yo.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Welcome to another episode of It's Up There Podcast. I
am your active and attractive hosts for another episode of
the fastest growing podcast in the world. Right now, I
don't talk to everybody.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Man.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
When I seen this guy in my city come to
the legendary Zaytis, I made it my im mission to
go out to see this man because I grew up
all of them and I think that he's a legend
in the game.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Today we got don DC Curvey. How why are you,
my brother?
Speaker 5 (04:10):
I'm doing good, man, but don't come and let legends
got about six months to live. You don't believe that.
You don't believe that. I appreciate you coming, man.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
I appreciate you for forgiving me and gracing me gracing
the platform with your with your presence. Man, you did
a lot in this game. How do you feel about
the state of comedy right now?
Speaker 5 (04:31):
Well, I couldn't think of a better time to be
a comedian with all of with all this going on now,
I remember when you used to take a story or
the news or whatever and turn it up a notch
to make it funny.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
But now what's going on now?
Speaker 5 (04:49):
You got turn in taking turned down a notch to
make it believable. But thank you making it up if
you just just tell what's really happening now. But with
regards in particular the black comedy. Uh, while it's funny
on one hand, it's sad on the other hand because
you spend your whole life fighting for equal rights and
(05:12):
all that, and then what happens it appears what does
it appears gonna happen? In the end, We're gonna implode.
You know you think we exploding from within?
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Why you think that? Well, I think part of it
is is uh well, part of it is just uh see,
people won't refer to it as a competition, is being
a competitive game and all that, But I don't wish
nobody ill will So when they mentioned going on Shad
(05:49):
Shade is that his name? Yeah? Yeah, they mentioned on
going there with me. I said, you don't want me.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
I'd be the bornest interview you ever had because I
know something on every but I ain't telling nothing.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
I don't know nothing.
Speaker 5 (06:04):
It's the equivalent to me when you put somebody's personal
business out there, a snitching, right, The same thing, man,
same thing.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
So is that how you felt about what Cat done?
Cat my buddy? He said some of the shit was
right and some of it was wrong. He ain't reading No.
Three thousand books a year. That nine books a day
for Cap. You ain't run No. Four three forty. Hell,
if you could, you should have ran that. When that
fifteen year old ball whipping your hand, I remember that too.
(06:37):
It Cap my man. Man.
Speaker 5 (06:39):
But I'm proud of her, you know, I'm proud of
some brothers that he might disagree with. You know, now,
some of the stuff he said was true. I just
wouldn't be aying it. I don't think is the truth.
Disrespect though.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Well, I'm gonna tell you why I drew the line.
I'm gonna tell you.
Speaker 5 (06:57):
I'm gonna tell you a couple of things that we debate,
but I tell you a couple of I tell you
a couple of things I had a problem with. Unless
a brother's wife is in the game, that's kind of
off limits.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
That's those are old gangster roots. Man. You don't mess
with the family, wife and children. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:19):
Now, in the case of Kevin Hart, his ex wife
is in the game, so I don't know, maybe that's
fair findo. But you know, he said something about some
of the other guys wives.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
I you know, I got a little problem with that.
Speaker 5 (07:37):
And then when he referred to Quake's illiteracy or accused
him of being illiterate, I got prob I got I
got a little problem.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
I mean, the Quake situation seemed to be a lie,
So I mean we should everybody got an issue with lies,
you know what I'm saying. Because Quake went on Breakfast
Club and said he was I think in the Navy
or he was in the Air Force air Force, I
don't think it was yeah right, It's impossible to be
a literate going through the Air Force. So I don't
(08:08):
I don't know if that checked out as far as
what Quake was saying.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
You know, I really don't.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
But do you harber any resentment like, do you do
you feel like because fifty million.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Views, fifty something fifty million year, that's a lot of money,
not cash, but just in this world that we operate tickets. Yeah,
so I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
They don't give you a handshot like cats say, they
don't look out for me.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Why am I holding their secrets? Yeah? But sometimes it
don't matter. Is so?
Speaker 5 (08:47):
Man, I was with Cat. We was hanging out one
day and I reminded him back in the day. Yeah,
it's true story, I said, Cat, you know you know
you steal me five hundred dollars. We were in New
York years ago, and uh, I did a Comedy Central
special and he did something now But anyway, we happened
(09:07):
to end up the same hotel, same bar after the show,
and uh the show. You how green he was at
that time when they paid him. He did a TV
show and they he thought they were gonna get him cash.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
But they wrote him a check.
Speaker 5 (09:25):
Yeah, he ain't had no money, right, I ain't five
hundred dollars loaning five hundred dollars. So I asked him
the other day, I say, Man, you know you steal
me that five hundred dollars.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
And he couldn't. He said, is that right? DC? So
I tried to refresh his mind and everything he said.
He said, DC, if you.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
Told anybody that, I said, no, player, I don't roll
like that. Yeah, he said, that's the difference between you
and me, d C. He said, if you told somebody that,
you would have had ten million hits tonight.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
I said, but I don't throw nobody under the bus
like that.
Speaker 5 (09:56):
He said, that's why you're a great comedian, but I'm
more famous that.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
That's sad, but that's how this is another part of
that story that I tell you when we off the A.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Right So with with I don't think I think you
from where you come from, y'all have a certain cadence
right with comedy. I don't know if it's it's it's
moving to the new era with these comics. Do you
see anybody in the new era that kind of reminds
you of what y'all were when you were coming up?
Speaker 5 (10:32):
Well, I think the new catch and I ain't mad
at them now. I think they kind of struggling to
find that way, just like we were. I think, Uh,
social media, I don't think I know. I'm just live
change the game, but uh, you know. Some in some
ways it's been good because it exposes them to different flavors.
(10:55):
But a lot of things ain't changed. When I was
coming up. You know, there was some old the comics
in the game, few of course than it is now.
But they wouldn't They wouldn't think to try to help you, man,
they wouldn't. I mean, I'm gonna tell you four or
five of them that helped me, But a lot of
them was just haters.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Man. Yeah, a lot of them are haters. Uh.
Speaker 5 (11:17):
John Witherspoon helped me. Uh, George Wallace, who's still alive.
He about one hundred and sixty. Uh, j Andy Brown,
hun forty, Lenardo Ray, Richard Pryore, and uh it was
six it was somebody else. But for the most part,
(11:42):
they wasn't at forthcoming with information. So what I've tried
to do cause ain't nobody You ain't no threat to me, right,
And I've tried to share all I could share with
the young brothers who asked me.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
They don't ask me. I ain't trying to push nothing, no, man,
But if they asked me, I tell.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Them, why why do you think you were not on
the Kings of Comedy?
Speaker 5 (12:09):
Ain't no king of comedy. I don't consider myself no
king comedy.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
You don't.
Speaker 5 (12:14):
But they told me no, no, But they told me
at the time that, uh, it was because I didn't
have a television show deal, Huglid deal, hughli show, Bernie
had Bernie Show, Steve and.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Cedric Well Steve harbish. Why I was on Grays Underfire?
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Why why do we feel like you you you try
to downplay it though, like I shouldn't have been on
No Kings of Comedy. I ain't no king of comedy.
You just told me Richard Pride helped you. John Witherspoon
three conversations with Richard Pride. I don't want to overemphasize that.
Pick up the phone called Richard. I had three conversations
with Richard Pride. But to be carry impact for and
(13:02):
very you know, he was very open with.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Me, and at that time he was like on his
going out last leg, but he was he was real,
you know.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Yeah, But we and even if whatever Richard Prode gave
you in that moment that that was that. But to
be in the game from then to now, how has
that not solidified being a.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
King, brother king king? Strong word that ain't make it clear,
because I know how y'all take shit and twisted. Ain't
no queen.
Speaker 5 (13:39):
I ain't saying that when I say, ain't no king,
no man, I'm just jn't and I'm not I'm not
trying to be overly modest than nothing. I ain't no
slouch now, you.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Ain't nothing nothing, No got hold my own. Yeah, some
people say Harvey has your cadence.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Some people to say that Harvey has your cadence, that's
your cadence.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Yeah, I've heard that. Yeah, So that's what I don't understand.
Speaker 5 (14:08):
Like Steve my Man, Man, Steve my Man, you know
I saw him and Mark Curry August.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Look, bro, when you came up in.
Speaker 5 (14:23):
The same general time frame, you're gonna have some overlapping
of things that are you got in common. Mark Curry
and Steve were going at it. By the Halloween costume.
Come on, man, all black folks for the most part,
me the Halloween costume.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
So some of that stuff.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
But you know when you write something and you got
your signature on it and somebody snatch it from me.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Now that has happened to me in some cases. You
even got a certain style.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Bro, What I'm saying is when you deal with jokes,
at least from the downside me looking in, it's like the
packaging of the joke is just as important as the joke.
And so your cadence just how you just did now
with the inflections and things of that nature.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Right when you see someone like you.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Coming up in that moment with comic viewing all that
was going on, that was you, Harvey, y'all, y'all was
kind of in that same pot that cadence is only
I don't know anyone else with that, but really you too.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
I'm talking about why I can close my eyes and
say that rhythm, that's that rhythm, that's that DC rhythm, Like.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Do you do you ever think that? Do you ever
feel that? Do you ever you're trying to start some shit?
Speaker 1 (15:44):
I ain't trying to start nothing, brother, you think I'm trying.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
To start something. These are my real thoughts.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Like when I hear this, even when going back just
listening as I was driving down, I'm like, oh shit,
let me listen to Harvey.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
I put Harvey in.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Now what I would say is different was he he
would do a little more acting with it. But if
you close your eyes, and this is only two or
three bits that I saw. But if I closed my eyes,
I say that Cadence belongs to d C.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
H M. Here. You want me to say, all right.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Well, hey, we can we can move we can move on,
we can move on.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
But you know, I just wanted to ask you that.
Speaker 5 (16:34):
Let me say something. It is in case Steve see this.
You know he's had several problems with me. Uh, I'll
tell you about a couple of them. Uh, we're doing
showing Memphis. One time back in the day and he
had just gotten his to pay YO, and we were
(16:57):
in the dressing room. It's low season, and they a
ceiling fan and I suggested he get off money. Ceiling
fan for it snatches two pail and after that he
ain't speak to me for about three years.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Damn.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
Another time, well, I ain't gonna tell that, but we've
had just two or three running. Another time I was
in Houston, he was at the Civic Center, I think
it was.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
I was at a club.
Speaker 5 (17:33):
They edited an interview I did and made it seem
as though I was saying, don't go Steve, see Steve,
come see me. That ain't what I said. They cut
it down and made it look like that, right. But
what I said was, you can go to see Steve
at the arena, but it's gonna be hard to see
(17:57):
in that arena. I was talking about the inn him
to see a comedy clubs, and I said, I'll be
at this club, and for what it's worth, Steve might
sell out. But the club I was at set two
hundred and fifty people, I know I'm gonna sell out.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
I said something like that, Yeah, yeah, yeah. He took
it and got on the radio after.
Speaker 5 (18:18):
That, and uh, you know, tried to try to insult me,
which he couldn't do. I got some tapes, man, Steve
had comedy club, you know, and uh I got some
tapes of me performing at his comedy club. So uh,
I just there's been some overlapping.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
But you know, and then for me, bruh in this game,
because I take it personal, you know me, and I
don't know if it's the dog is in me.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
And you seem like a player.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
You seem like a super cool player type nigga, So
I don't take you to be sensitive.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (18:54):
Man, You had to really you had been You had
you really had to you really had to you can't.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Right, right.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
But with the money though, it's just like yo, man,
with the money, I don't know, Like I commend you
for being so play about it, but I can't see.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
You know, certain things for me will be a little
more visible in my arguments, right because I'll be saying,
let me tell you something, man, talk about money. I
like money like that, but yeah, right, it does not
control me. Brother. And you know, for example, it's only
so much shit you can buy. After that, you can
(19:29):
buy bigger shit mos shit.
Speaker 5 (19:31):
You know, you can buy a house. Now if you
get hurt, you can buy another house. But I mean,
it's only so much shit you can buy. But if
you compare yourself to somebody who's super if you want
to call it successful or whatever. If a man got
a fifty million dollar playing fifty million dollars yet, but
(19:52):
I don't want one. I just made fifty million dollars
relatively speak God blessed beyond saying, jay Z, they bought
a two hundred million dollar high But in my mind,
because of where I come from, you know what, I
could buy it with two hundred million dollars two hundred
(20:12):
million dollar hius, Right, I'd rather I'm not shooting.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
I'm not shooting shit.
Speaker 5 (20:20):
God bless them what they did. But I cannot imagine,
Uh what a two hundred million dollar Highs is.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
It's something bitch on the moon ors. Well, what did
you grow up at? South side Chicago? Got that play
on you man? Finger high and nothing back then?
Speaker 5 (20:42):
All my partners was gangsters. I go back now. I'll
be scared to stop it at a stop side.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Yeah, man, are you familiar with what just happened with
Corey Hokum and Donne Wrong?
Speaker 5 (21:04):
No, But uh, I had a Cookie Hull on my show. Uh,
she basically was re button Cats interview, right, Cookie Hull
used to work for him? She said she used to
(21:26):
write for him. He said she didn't. I kind of
believe that she did. But at any rate, and I'm
trying to be careful now not throw nobody under the
bu But Cary holkn called me.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
Because he saw.
Speaker 5 (21:48):
Me basically interviewing her on my show This rayon right,
and uh he called me because he can go in
on her and uh, Cory kangster me. But I got
to give him props from calling me, and uh he
did that before he did it basically, you know. Yeah,
(22:10):
not getting my permission, But I like, like I brought
her home.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
Man, hey, man, you say what you what you think?
She said? What she thinking?
Speaker 5 (22:17):
I didn't condemn it or condone it, yeah, but I
felt she had a right to say it. And it's
a fact that she accompanied cat and whatever whatever capacity
for quite some time and she wanted to speak up
peace and she did and it wasn't friendly. But you know,
(22:37):
she's a woman. You know you had my egg zone, ain't.
I'm telling what the hell she said?
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Right? Did?
Speaker 1 (22:44):
How did you get in those Friday movies, whether that's
that's an audition or just a phone call?
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Now?
Speaker 5 (22:51):
Audition they called me, you know from stand up back
then man, the scouts and stuff for television and movies.
They would go out and then black comedy was so hot.
Then they go to the black comedy club in different cities.
So it used to be a place here. I used
to go to Comedy act Theater. Uh and uh they
(23:13):
came in there. Now I had turned them down three
or four times. People from BT had come in there
and they were asking me to come out and basically
audition to be the host of Comic View on my dime.
I'm like man gone that shit. I just stay right
here and work in the club and make this center fout.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
All the week.
Speaker 5 (23:34):
I was getting shows yea, and uh so finally I
think it was the third go round, they bought me
a ticket and and uh said they pay for a hotel.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
I said, okay, then now you now you're talking.
Speaker 5 (23:50):
But back then the scouts would go out, Nah, you
pretty much got to go to New Yorker l A.
They don't they don't travel like they used to and
for talent. But anyway, it flew me out the comic
view and uh, I think that's where Q's some and some.
At some point we got called and asked me to
come in and quote unquote read for the part. And
(24:15):
uh I went in and and uh it was a
wrap that's dope.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
Was that good money? Back then?
Speaker 5 (24:23):
You know a lot of people complain and I don't
know who they had represent them. Well, dog, I got
paid right and uh uh when I did Friday after next,
uh cause I had gotten so much for the next Friday,
But I did Friday at the next I bumped head
with the producers because Cube at that point had gotten
(24:43):
so big QB it basically stepped out of the negotiations
and stuff. So I bumped head with the producers and
uh so, later on that evening, I called CUE and
I said, hey, man, you know you can cut to
the you want these motherfucker crazy And Q said, well,
you know what's up, DC, And I said, well, we
(25:06):
just we can't come to Grips with the money ice.
Q said to me, DC, what you want and I
told him. He said, called him back in fifteen minutes,
and I come back fifteen minutes. They asked me when
I could come in and sign the papers. I said, damn,
I was too cheap.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Yeah, you need a little pushback, but just like that, man.
Speaker 5 (25:27):
So Kim Whitley, who didn't do Friday after next because
she had bumped head with the producer, but I told
her called qbe you know cute.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
We all talked.
Speaker 5 (25:37):
We were on set, right, I said, call Q and
she wouldn't do it. So that's when they went and
basically got some more.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Who was my friend? I'm doing with her now? They
went and got some more to basically replace Kim Whitley.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Wow, that's dope. The comic view of death comedy John
uh far As what far as what he did for comedy.
Uh who he propelled cachet in the culture. You know, overall,
(26:15):
I think death jam was ultimate.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
Uh at that time, it was an ultimate thing. Comic
View had more longefvity. It was a calm atmosphere. It
was kind of two different generous death jam you know. Uh,
Comic View you had time to make somebody think death jam.
(26:43):
You got to go, proud, you got to go. But
both of them did the thing. So shout out to
Rusid Simmons and shot out to Bob.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Johnson. I think Johnson Bob us.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
Yeah, both of them provided avenue. Bob something that was
with death Cham but Bob Johnson on bt d T
Comic View. Yeah, And it created a It created a
platform for us that.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
Wasn't invasible.
Speaker 5 (27:16):
I don't I don't think you can compare it to
anything now for us Black comics are concerned, right.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
You think he can be read, recreated in there, that
can be redone. Now you can centralize those audiences because
basically that's what there was. People would sit down at
a certain time, you know, get looking forward to watching
comedy on Comic View or.
Speaker 5 (27:39):
I tell you what, I don't think so because of
social media, I don't think so because of social media. Now,
I ain't I ain't mad nobody nothing. I ain't mad
to young real social media. But but I think uh,
And it's obvious when some of them are missing the
experience going out on the road, driving from place to
place with different people and trying to find where you
(28:05):
fit in.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
And you can't do that, can't do that with video, man,
And then it's.
Speaker 5 (28:10):
Not as real because you can't get booed on the
video and you gotta get your ass out there and
get booed and then figure out what you did wrong.
But on video you can do fit the takes and
just pick the best one. Then a lot of people
disappointed when they show up to see it. Now, some
of the brothers have gone on and gained experience and
(28:32):
stepped it up country Wayne Shooter King, Yeah, and figured
it out. But I've also seen I've seen some fall
but DC, young flyer, I've seen some fall by the wayside,
you know that possibly would have done better if they had.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
Been on the road. Used to call it the chit
Lin circuit.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Yeah, because you're working those jokes as a thing, like
you gotta get that joke.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
In different rooms and you know what I'm saying, Like
you said.
Speaker 5 (29:02):
Like that's why you know I do some concerts now.
I think I got forty fifty on the books for
this year, but I do, I got you know, farty
some clubs on it because the repetitions, right, the repetitions,
and you be surprised.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
I always call.
Speaker 5 (29:19):
Comedy, particularly black comedy, but comedy in general, it's psychological warfare. Brother,
And you be surprised how change any word or phrase
or the time and make all the difference in the world.
When you're doing the club and you got several shows
(29:40):
that do day after day, you know you can work
it out.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
You got that and work it out?
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Yeah, yeah, and then you see it'll it'll. You also
got to serve people that don't know you as much, too, right,
because especially with social media, the fanfare is so crazy. Yes,
like you come out, they Cheering's like he ain't even
got nothing out, he ain't even said nothing. These dudes
are getting that love and they I wonder the last comics,
the last wave of comics that'll make that seventy five dollars.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
A night or a week and all that doesn't fit
that old anybody.
Speaker 5 (30:12):
Yeah, they on my first paid job I opened for
Paul Mooney was seventy dollars fourteen show up getting five
dollars a show, and at the end of the end
of the week they're handed me a new They said,
I old them one hundred and twenty seven dollars. I
had drunk up two hundred something.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
Dogar shit. Michael Williams and his brother Gary Williams.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Yeah, was there any beef, well, not beef, but any
competition with Comic View and Death Comedy Jam back then
where it's like no.
Speaker 5 (30:47):
Back then, there was three things you had to do
to establish your legitimates as a black coming. You had
do Death Jam, Comic View and Apollo Apollo. After that
they they take you seriously.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
Yeah, yeah, showtime at the Pollow, right, and then if
you could do that and survive, you you're doing very good.
Speaker 5 (31:08):
Showtime at the Pollo. They talk about Death Jam, audience,
showtime at the Pollo. When I first did it, I
got that thing called time about eleven o'clock in the
morning and I got up to perform it, I think
at ten o'clock at night. Same cry, no water, no refreshment,
no nothing. Man, I don't even know what the bathroom
(31:30):
was working. But they've been sitting there eleven hour when
I got it.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
But you know it was it was all in the
game right now.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Them the reps, though, get them, the reps, Get the reps. Yeah,
he learned about TV so far, but the reps, you know,
they don't. And God bless them. You know, a lot
of them making a lot of money.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
Man.
Speaker 5 (31:58):
But uh, you know, I staying hard on what I believe.
I'm including radio shows now I'm eleven thousand and something deep.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
You, I'm telling you, man, I don't know why. I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
You don't got to like it. I'm calling you a legend.
You ain't even got to like it. And my voice
matter in the culture, so whatever. But here's something I
also want to ask you. When Corey Holcomb speaking of
those reps. Sometimes comedians even say season comics are quote
(32:37):
unquote mild. So Corey Holcomb says that Donielle Rowlins is
a mild comic. Yeah, do you do you understand that term?
And what what do you what do you think that means?
Because I'm sure my viewing audience don't know what that
don't know kind of what a mind? I know what
it means because I know what mild wings is versus
hot wings.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
You know what I'm saying, It ain't funny. Cary Holk
him hen Wow. Yeah, And uh, you know, I'm a
I'm a corn Hokan fan. But some of the stuff
caught me saying.
Speaker 5 (33:09):
I'll be like, damn boy, Yeah, what is wrong with you?
Speaker 3 (33:13):
But it's funny. However, and I don't want.
Speaker 5 (33:17):
To I don't want to reiterate what Cat said or
what Cory said. There is a certain vein that if
you get in that vein, you're more likely to become
universally acceptable and blah blah blah. I never I've always
spoke my mind. I had a conversation I don't know,
twenty some years ago with Tom Johnner, you know, about
(33:39):
being more accommodating. So yeah, it might could have been. Now,
you take a guy like Kevin Hart. Guy was telling
me the other day, Uh, we're talking about comedy, he said, DC.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
I went and saw Kevin Hart and he did an hour.
Speaker 5 (33:54):
I said, oh yeah, and he ain't offend nobody in
the building. I said, I can't do five minutes without
nigga somebody.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
Yeah, but if.
Speaker 5 (34:03):
You got that talent, God bless you. That's what you
can do. But you know, I'm more of a.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
I'm a little radical.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
Bro, you know, I mean, but the truth is, the
truth is considered that, you know what I mean. When
you get up there and just literally say your observations
from a true standpoint, some people gonna say it's radical.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
You gotta live with that. I speak it, and then
I can defend myself.
Speaker 5 (34:29):
Yeah, and uh sometimes that's that's uh, that's interpreted.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
As being radical, and then I don't give damn vide
is right?
Speaker 1 (34:39):
So so Downille Rawlins ran up on Corey at a
at the Hollywood Improv and interrupted his set. I ain't
see that, yeah, and just hollering at him, saying, nigga,
I'm a beast.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
You talking about I'm a mild comic. I'm a beast.
I'm a beast right now. I didn't know. I did
not know about that. Tell him in his face, man,
that ship mild you doing? Man? And they kind of
had this one too.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
What I want to speak to, though, is is that
Corey Yeah yeah, yeah. So what I want to speak
to is the conversation surrounding it, Because the conversation surrounding
that event is that yo, Donelle really is doing that
because what Corey said about Dave, which is Dave Chappelle
bombs a lot.
Speaker 3 (35:22):
Yeah, I saw that right, that's how courts. Do you
do you agree with that?
Speaker 1 (35:27):
I mean, I feel comics bomb, Like do you think
Corey is wrong in his observation for being able to
say that? Like he said, Yo, when they when they
on stage, I go outside, I don't. I don't like
what they doing. But for Dave, he's a good comic,
but he bombs a lot.
Speaker 5 (35:45):
Man, I don't know if you can bomb if you
got two or three hundred million dollars. I think he's
at a point where he just goes up and he talking.
He working stuff out in his mind. He's watching the crowd.
They react.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
He just took. He ain't gotta go up in slammed
the room. He doesn't, he didn't have to.
Speaker 5 (36:02):
The reason it gets hard, it gets harder and harder
for comic to be successful Black comic as he progresses
economically is because.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
Black folk about poverty. Most of us just a generation
maybe two from poverty. Man.
Speaker 5 (36:23):
Yeah, but when you got, when you are perceived, a's
having when you have or are perceived it's having hundreds
of millions of dollars. It's very hard for a black
crowd to sit down and listen to you talk about
how hard he had pay Bill right. I had this
conversation with a Cinnio whose my pardner. I tould him
(36:46):
at the time when you got when you got millions
of dollars, it's hard for you to connect with a
man that spend it last fifty dollars to sit in
the bleach in the nosebleed section see you.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
So it becomes a.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
Thing with But comedy is the one place in the
culture where it's like it's fair game, like that money.
Don't excuse you if you're not funny.
Speaker 5 (37:16):
You not funny, Well, you might be funny to some people,
and you may be funny to the right or wrong people.
The biggest lie I ever told about comedy is funny
is funny? That's bullshit because it depends on who's who's talking,
and depends on who you're talking to. That's what I
(37:38):
refuse to do. I've got a lot of offers for
seeds across for shows across the water, across the sea.
I don't know what the hell stay over there. I
ain't lived over there. I don't know nothing, and I
be talking about that. I be talking about how America
is crazy. So I don't want to go to a
foreign country and do that. I can't go to an
(37:58):
army base and talk about how crazy America is.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
So I just I just turned them down. Man.
Speaker 5 (38:05):
But it depends on who you're talking to and who's
talking to say, funny is funny If you believe that
Richard Pride, for example, could have taken Bill Cosby's material
and been as effected, Ain't no way in hell Bill
Cosby could go up and do Richid Pride mater and
be effected. No, there's an intricacy, intimacy, and I think
(38:32):
you developed that more of my personal opinion in clubs.
You know, concerts are hitting the they bang bang man
and uh and the you gotta get out of there,
the Union you gotta get out of there. Yeah, you
go do twenty minutes. You get up there and do
thirty if you want to.
Speaker 3 (38:51):
They hit the red light is time to go? Yeah? Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
Do you have you ever shared the stage with someone like,
you know, the new style like the eighty five South
Boys is doing. You see how they kind of like
it's a it's a three way kind of thing on
stage at the same time, Is that an awkward thing
for for like the old school for y'all guys that
came up one man, one mic, just taking care of
(39:16):
the business.
Speaker 5 (39:18):
Hey, man, to me, it's a individual sport. Now, God
bless them, they've been.
Speaker 3 (39:25):
Very successful, right, Yeah, but no, it's not. It's not
what I'm about.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
Do you think that you are part of Hollywood because
you've been in a few movies?
Speaker 3 (39:39):
No?
Speaker 5 (39:40):
On the contrary, Man, On the contrary, man, I've you know,
they talk about bowing down all that the Hollywood.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
I just never have.
Speaker 5 (39:53):
Even now, I refuse some auditions because I mean, you know,
it's all of a shit show man. Now, I'll I'll
come in the audition for something worthwhile. But you know
me come in and and basically showcase something. Well, why
you call me, right, because you know what I do.
(40:14):
You know what I'm about, So don't call me, ask
me come in? Do James Brown.
Speaker 3 (40:21):
Right, because that's what it feels like.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
It definitely feels like I was talking to another comic
I had nav Green when he was doing Coming to America.
He was kind of explaining the audition process and he's
just like this, sitting there stale face and just looking
at you like you got shit on your face.
Speaker 5 (40:37):
And then and I've experienced this, you know, because it's
audition game. You know, you go in you may audition
for thirty show and get one commercial or something. But
you go in there, man, and it's it's kind of
an ins up. You go in there and sit down
and some uh and some twenty two year old white
(40:58):
girl decide whether you get the part.
Speaker 3 (40:59):
Now, it's a hard lesson if you're seventeen trying to
make it right. Yeah, yeah, but I ain't about this, no,
nah nah?
Speaker 1 (41:09):
Do you feel like you made enough money out of
this game enough to do what to feel like?
Speaker 3 (41:14):
I ain't.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
I ain't built it. I feel good about I put
in forty years. It's what I got from or how
you know.
Speaker 5 (41:25):
I probably made more than I could have made doing
anything else. But like that set, man, I'm a I'm content.
I ain't said, man, I ain't got enough money. Yeah,
but I'm alright. After you buy certain things, ain't nothing
money and you can't buy nothing now, right, you know
you can have a two hundred million dollar high, but
(41:47):
I got a high. You know you can have a
five million now a car. But I got a car, right, So,
I mean.
Speaker 3 (41:57):
Relatively speaking, if you got something I don't want, we
even right, you got fifty million dollars yet and I
don't want. I just made fifty million dollars.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
That's a relative that's a good game, right there. Yeah,
that's an out of game right there.
Speaker 3 (42:11):
Boy, I don't want for nothing. Man, do you think
do you think that in this game, in the comedy.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
World, that there's for toub Are you interested in doing
movies on too?
Speaker 3 (42:24):
Bill? Would you do something like that?
Speaker 5 (42:26):
I got a deal on the I got a deal
on the table with him. Now, I did a television show.
AIB Productions put up most of the money. I put
up the rest. It's called Nappy Valley.
Speaker 3 (42:38):
You know.
Speaker 5 (42:38):
I'm a farmer and it's about all my my partner.
Speaker 3 (42:42):
Is working at about a new farm.
Speaker 5 (42:47):
It's about all my partners coming to work turn his
land into a farm, you know, right, So yeah, I'm
opening I'm open to that.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
Yeah, because it's some young entrepreneurs, you know, running around
with some bags intobi world that reached for your cachet.
Speaker 3 (43:03):
In this culture. You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (43:05):
Put a number out and you'll be surprised their phone
a ring.
Speaker 3 (43:08):
Hey we got that, We got that number for you, you know, yeah,
and you know and you know you do that. You
go at your own pace.
Speaker 5 (43:15):
I shot a special that I was offered that couple
people off of the finance.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
I financed it myself. That's dope.
Speaker 5 (43:22):
And I got to finish the editing it now and
then I shot it in Birmingham, Alabama to start down.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
But uh, I own it, you know right. It is
that expensive process to shoot a special. It cost me
for it some time. Now, it's dope.
Speaker 5 (43:35):
I imagine you could spend more if you want to
do a certain way. Imagine you could do it and
spend less.
Speaker 3 (43:39):
But the return on that, how do you make your
money back from that?
Speaker 5 (43:44):
Well, in the case of me owning it, I'm free
to basically lease it out, so I could get a
Netflix good buy into it, to be whatever, but.
Speaker 3 (43:52):
I still own it right as.
Speaker 5 (43:54):
Opposed to if I let them put the money up
and then there's a rap right and they buy it
and put it on the shelf.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
So you'll be doing more sot of a license and
agreement whatever. Just license your content for a couple of years,
pay you and then you retain ownership after the agreement.
Speaker 3 (44:10):
It's dope exactly. And I believe in the project. I
believe it is bona fide and and and I'm a gambler,
so I financed it, my damn sir. Yeah, I respect that.
How often do you write jokes? I write every day,
but some of it ain't funny.
Speaker 5 (44:32):
I'm gonna tell you what I do, man, I do
sat tire. Man, it's getting a lot of It's a
lot easier now because you got your phone.
Speaker 3 (44:40):
Man.
Speaker 5 (44:41):
I do sat tire, and I kind of do current
events and stuff. But sometime I just be writing and
don't be don't really be funny, but then something maun happen,
Something would happen in the world, in society that makes
it relevant. So I'd be like, I wrote something about
(45:03):
how unfat he is for a brother to live on
certain side of Atlanta, and then something happened, It makes
it relevant, you know what I mean? But right, pretty
much every day, but most of it ended up in
the trash.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
Do you think that you can start off funny in
comedy and run out of funny?
Speaker 5 (45:30):
Yeah, if you don't stay current and stay on what's happening,
because you know, most comics start off talking about the
same thing, parting on the elevation. Yeah, woman, period, which
ain't never been funny. I'll be watching the bomb with that.
I'd be like that ain't gonna work. Player, It's some shit.
You just can't make it funny. Man, You will sit
through a bombing.
Speaker 3 (45:52):
I sit through. Yeah, I sit through a bunch of them.
They funny to me. People the comics tend to laugh
at bombing.
Speaker 5 (45:58):
Oh man, I'm gonna tell you something that's changed. Back
in the day, guys, in my era, we would go
up some nights like we're there, Oh Mike night was
big back then for Black Coming, and we would go
up some nights challenge each other.
Speaker 3 (46:13):
I ain't gonna say nothing. I ever said it before.
Do it die if I bomb my just bump.
Speaker 5 (46:17):
And then after the show we go to waffle house
and sit till the sun come up, man, and and
be critiquing each other.
Speaker 3 (46:25):
You know, nigga, you should have said this, You should
have said that. You should have said it.
Speaker 5 (46:30):
So it wasn't that. It wasn't that like it is now.
You know, That's what's ma material.
Speaker 3 (46:36):
We was going there. We was going there and literally, man,
we would help each other right then bump up, bump
up jokes like you know that funny concept, man, But
what you said wasn't the shit, and we would go
back and forth and it was all, uh, it was
a camaraderie. Now that it doesn't, it's not the same. Nah.
Speaker 1 (46:55):
But that's one thing I think eighty five South got,
even though the shutters, they got that car rottery, because
they ain't worried about each other stealing the joke or
running out. With social media, it's much more easier to
claim ownership over something that's not yours, right over the
idea of something. If your following it's bigger or something
like that. You you you, you retain ownership or whatever
(47:18):
that is that you presented. But I think that's unfortunate.
But I got some stuff back then.
Speaker 5 (47:24):
You know, I used to travel with a little uh,
a little bitty consider because what you call it name minty.
Speaker 3 (47:30):
Because you got what they called Yeah, I can listen
let you, I could let you listen to some shit.
You would be like that sounds very familiar.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
You ain't got to tell me. I'm trying to get it.
I'm trying to understand why you ain't saying it. You known,
some stuff.
Speaker 3 (47:45):
Is coincidence and some some stuff you know, you know
what deal is.
Speaker 1 (47:50):
I don't believe in that man, like I mean, but
I think you a player, you know, a capital P.
Speaker 3 (47:56):
So I respect how you handle it. Brother.
Speaker 5 (47:58):
Let me tell you how to describe my said. I'm
a gentleman and a gangster. Fact, but I ain't. I
ain't trying to bring nobody else, Damn God blessing.
Speaker 1 (48:07):
Yeah, back in the day, do you think I was
talking to a comedy and I wanted to ask you
about saying that you was in the era or just
around and know about comedy. Andrew Dice Clay, Yeah, was
his wave as big as as as it's presented to
(48:29):
the culture. Because they tell you was sending that Madison
squad up and blah blah blah blah. But it's longevity,
wouldn't right, He didn't, you know, so he jumped out
of the gate.
Speaker 5 (48:39):
And back then because comedy wasn't exposed like it is now,
so you had another fact that it now is.
Speaker 3 (48:46):
So you had a shock factor, right, shock jock?
Speaker 5 (48:50):
So yeah, I mean you could be shocking and not
really be that funny, right and day he was shocking.
They couldn't believe he was saying that ship. He was
sending that masion squad. God man, three folk shows a day, right, Uh,
but it's longevity, so I might Uh you know, I
got a saying man, uh you know, cause I don't
(49:10):
be in no hurry to do nothing. I I my
saying is not saying patientself, don't raise yourself, right and
uh he jumped out there and he was. He was
rolling for a while after that, you know. And with
social media now and then, uh, death jam and all that,
(49:31):
That's one thing it did that I feel was positive.
It removed all that shock shit. Yeah cause back then
they'd be ye hear what they saying. They shocked me, Yeah,
but it wasn't necessarily funny. But now the people that
grew up on death jam and stuff, man, they forty
fifty years old, so you ain't gonna score no points
(49:54):
just shocking somebody, right.
Speaker 1 (49:56):
I think back then we they had and we'll we're
gonna wrap it up after this.
Speaker 3 (50:00):
Back then.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
They had Eddie Murphy as well, doing that stand up
thing he was was he competitors? Was that a competition thing?
Like what they selling out at the same time? Who
was running alongside Dice Clay when he was doing that,
because he was using rap, hip hop shit, and I'm
just wondering who black was moving around at the same time,
(50:25):
Like on that scale, it's probably only Eddie.
Speaker 5 (50:32):
Yeah that in that group, it's probably only Eddie man.
Speaker 3 (50:39):
Uh, but if you're.
Speaker 5 (50:43):
Talking about if you're talking about the skill of performing
and the skill of comedy and substance, Andrew dan Clay
couldn't touch.
Speaker 1 (50:53):
Eddie, right, And I always tend to think white comedy
can't really even though it from from just by numbers,
it's gonna sell and do certain things. But when we
I think people enjoy black comedy more than white comedy.
Speaker 3 (51:07):
Because it's more funny. Yeah, I believe that.
Speaker 1 (51:11):
I don't know if it's wrong to say, like, but
that's it's funny man's and then it's hard.
Speaker 5 (51:18):
Just like I was saying, give an example of uh,
you know, if you're coming, if you made millions of dollars,
it becomes harder for you because to connect the whole
thing is by connecting with your audience. How you gonna
be up there and you got three hundred million dollars
or perceived to have three hundred million Whitey and them
can't perform no more because black comedy about hard times.
Speaker 3 (51:42):
You know about then bills coming.
Speaker 5 (51:43):
You ain't got no money, and you cannot realistically or
convincingly talk about that when you got two hundred three
hundred million dollars. Man, anybody trying to hear that, you
come off with phony. So you're gonna have to go
up there like her boy and talking about you were
talking to the gold fish this morning, and the gold
(52:05):
fish said, right, So I said that to say, it's
hard for the quote unquote oppressor to entertain the oppressed.
Now the oppressed can entertain the oppressor, but it.
Speaker 3 (52:25):
But it's it's hard. It's hard for.
Speaker 5 (52:31):
It's hard for a person who's been uh uh on
the easy rapped so to speak, to make me laugh
and uh yeah, you just your problem I got with
and you know, uh, I got some mexicings work for me.
(52:59):
But uh, the immigration taking over. The problem I got
with it is it's the history of America. Man, even
though you know they coming over here five six thousand
deep a day, I ain't with that. When you got
pour folks over here already that you claim you can't feed.
But I got a problem raising hell by the Mexicans
(53:21):
coming over here voluntarily when my people were brought over
here against their will. So it's hard for me, even
though I realized the economics of it, it's hard for
me to be standing up hollering don't let the Mexicans
in here. Don't let the Mexicans in here, and my
people I'm here as a result. Are you bringing my
(53:43):
people over here against their will? Now I'm gonna get
over here and get halfway up on my feet, and
then I'm gonna be talking about don't let them voluntarily
coming over.
Speaker 3 (53:54):
Here, come over here to work.
Speaker 5 (53:57):
And you brought me over here to work, brought my
people over here against the will at the work.
Speaker 3 (54:02):
So indeed, it's.
Speaker 1 (54:05):
Something to think about for real. That's that's some that's
some ship to think about. That's why I respect comedians.
That that that observation of it all.
Speaker 3 (54:14):
Yeah, well that's why I respect Mexicans. Yo. Man, it's
up that podcast, DC Curve. Man. I appreciate you, brother,
last I appreciate you so much.
Speaker 1 (54:28):
Man.
Speaker 5 (54:28):
I wanted to give with your to date. Man, but
them clubs, they be weighing my hands out.
Speaker 3 (54:33):
Man. I already know what I appreciate you, bro. You're
letting on brother, calling me that man. I take that
just got about six months later. Stop it.
Speaker 5 (54:46):
I appreciate anything I said ain't acceptable because of that
ship you was smoking.
Speaker 3 (54:54):
On me. It's on me, Thank you, brother, that on man.
You're good man your progress, Radam. Thanks for watching this
clip from Its Up There podcast. To see the rest
of the interview, click one of the boxes on the screen.
Speaker 1 (55:13):
Also join Discord and Patreon to be in our community.
Host
Looney
Popular Podcasts
United States of Kennedy
United States of Kennedy is a podcast about our cultural fascination with the Kennedy dynasty. Every week, hosts Lyra Smith and George Civeris go into one aspect of the Kennedy story.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com