August 28, 2023 • 51 mins
Tommy Davidson was raised in an era where quality came first as an entertainer, he prides his work and longevity based on the company and talent he group up with. We learn about his life from the beginning; from being adopted to learning racism and what his skin color meant in the world, to his early start as a comedian making his friend laugh that pushed him to the stage.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I remember my mother sent me a letter in the
mail and she wrote a little magic marker she left
for twenty dollars bill. She said, oh, no, you need that,
and don't leave, baby. I love you and I didn't
go that happened. So I called her and I said,
guess what happened? Because Richard Pryor for the show, found
me and he looked up and down like I was
(00:20):
a strange animal. He went, he was a funny mother
and walked away. And we was like, And I called
my mother. I told her what happened.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
She said, I told you not to leave.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
The love of a mother is unlike any other. Tommy
Davidson telling the story of how he was ready to
pack up and leave La because his dreams had not
been fully realized. His mom sends them twenty bucks, and
not too long after that, he's at the Comedy Store
performing with Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
His story is pretty amazing.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
It also solidifies the fact that he is a legend,
and he is also our guest on this day of
Naked Gotta pay some bills, We'll be right back.
Speaker 5 (01:12):
It's the greatest suspersion entertainment can Naked Wind Carry Chappie,
and then Carrie Chappy is to be a champion, a Champion,
and Carrie CHAPPI and Nigger Play Got a Champion and
Carry Chappion and Carrie Chapy Entertainment cant Naked Word.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Hey everybody, welcome to a new edition of Naked You know,
I'd like to do a little news update and I
received a few messages about the Alabama Brawl. I talked
about that last week before we interviewed Stephanie Mills. Made
in Brooklyn. If you haven't checked it out, please check
it out. One of my favorite podcasts. I'm so hot
on Brooklyn, Like I can't get off Brooklyn. I'm from California,
(01:47):
but living in Brooklyn in my mind right. But today,
before we get into Tommy Davidson, Uh, the iconic comedian
who you may all know from in Living Color. He's
been on tour forever. He's known for his impressions. He
has had a life. He will talk about that with
us today. But before before we dive into that, I
(02:07):
want to talk about what happened this week in the
world of sports, the world that I live in so much.
She Carrie Richardson is now the newly minted one hundred
meter world champion, and she won gold at the World
Championships in Budapest. I don't know if you remember she
Carrie Richardson. She came onto the scene with a lot
(02:29):
of flare and flash, and we loved it. Black girl magic,
We loved it.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
We loved it. She was nineteen years old.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
She had just declared that she was going to turn
pro after the NCAA Championships. She was a freshman at
LSU and she was leaving college to basically go to
the Olympics. She had qualified for the Olympics, and we
loved her because she had everything. She was unapologetic, she
was beautiful, she was fast, and she talked that trash.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
She could back it up seemingly.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
And unfortunately, just a few days after she qualified for
the Olympics, she tested positive for marijuana and that immediately
voided her results and she could not go to Tokyo. However,
what ensued after that was a combination of social media hype.
(03:25):
How come the black girls getting vilified? Why isn't she
allowed to do what we've seen other Olympians get away with?
Russians have been cheating, They're still allowed to compete Michael
Phelps was smoking weed, he was still allowed to compete.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
The list goes on.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
She carry adding to the narrative by going to Twitter
and talking about it very unapologetically, as mentioned, and she
was like, I just don't trust this system, the IOC,
which is the International Olympic Committee. They don't operate in truth.
They are hypocrites. I'm paraphrasing. But none of what she
(04:01):
said was wrong. Everything she said was right. But this
was one of these instances where I thought, Hey, Shakerrie,
you're right, but I don't know if you've earned the
right to say that just yet, just because you're so new.
There was an instance in which there was some back
and forth and Alison Felix went on a show and
(04:24):
wished her well, and she jumped on social media and
was like, people who wish me well don't really mean it.
We didn't know where that was coming from. There were
a lot of subliminal messages, and it seemed like a
lot for someone who had so much to prove. Perception
is everything, and oftentimes we want our heroes to behave
or act a certain way until they've actually earned that
(04:46):
grizzly vet respect. It's like a rookie coming into the
NBA talking mad trash and can't back it up. It's
like Dylan Brooks going after Lebron James and saying things
that he just can't fully say. Although he's a great,
great player, he doesn't have the hardware.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
To back up just yet. We like your trash talk,
but hold on.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
And she Carrie said, just a few days before she
won the World Championships, in regards to what people thought
about her, she goes, listen, I don't really care about
what people think. The world already turned on me. I
disbelieve in me. And she's referring to a very public
pushback to her tweets, to how she handled herself, to
(05:27):
her response to the Olympic Committee, to everything. She just
was loved by everyone, and then all of a sudden,
people started to, in her words, turn on her. And
I lived in the camp of follow the rules. But
as a black woman, I get where you're coming from.
But I also lived in the camp of some things
(05:48):
don't need to be said. In fact, most things don't
need to be said. Keep that to yourself until you
earn some cachet to really talk about the experience in
a way that gives you perspective. You can't tell a
nineteen year old that a nineteen year old is going
to be nineteen. And as of late, especially within the
last year, we've watched her win race after race after race,
(06:09):
and she's been quiet, and she's put her head down
and she's not saying the things. In fact, all of
her frustrations with the Olympic Committee, with the way in
which track and field athletes how they are being treated,
she has now started an advocacy group and she's advocating
for their rights. She's using her voice in her platform
in a way that is a constructive, and we can
(06:31):
digest that. But I started to think, why did I
require her, as a black female athlete to behave or
conduct herself in a certain way. And what I realized
is that as a black woman, I didn't want her
to have to deal with the things that I had
to deal with. I too spoke too soon, I too
(06:54):
used to say things. I too used to light the
world on fire. I too used to say this is
not right and you can't do this, and I'm waving
my hand to say this that and the third but
I realize is that there's a time and a place
for everything, and also how you say it is arguably
just as important as what you say. And I felt
a way about her being so unapologetic without filter, But
(07:17):
I don't have the right to feel a way about that,
because inherently, as a black woman in a world that
doesn't really understand us, it is oftentimes the only way
that we can express ourselves if we feel like we
haven't been heard or seen. And I started to think
back about how female athletes, but more specifically black female athletes,
(07:41):
are treated by society, by social media, by those who
don't really understand the complexity of being a black woman
in this world, and how we show up.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
And I started to look.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
At some of the egregious or what we're at least
in that in that moment, it was seemingly egregious offenses
or instances that involved black women, and I realized, this
is crazy.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
We really don't do anything wrong.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
You all want us to behave a certain way, and
you won't even allow us to come up and be
our full selves. And when we are, you beat it
out of us. And the older we get in, the
more experience we get, we decide, all right, I don't
want to pick up that baton if you will, I
do not want that fight. Serena Williams wearing a catsuit
(08:35):
at the French Open was a scandal.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Get out of here, guys.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Naomi Osaka saying that she wasn't going to do any
more press interviews during the French Open and she'd pay
the fine because she's mentally exhausted with talking to the
media after every single match. She's just not ready for
that this time around. Scandal Simone Biles taking a mental
break during the Olympics and not performing. Are not participating
(09:00):
in certain events because she said, guess what, I just
don't have it. I lost a beat, too much pressure.
I need to sit down. How dare you sit down?
You're here to represent America. Angel Reese making gestures at
Caitlyn Clark after she won the national championship. Talking is
(09:23):
a rite of passage once she win a championship, and
yet she was vilified for doing the exact same thing
Caitlyn Clark had been doing leading up to the final game.
Then there was this athlete, I don't know if you
remember her, Olympian, Gwen Berry. She was at the US
Trials leading up to Tokyo and she put up a
(09:46):
sign that said athlete activists exercising her First Amendment right.
All of these things were written about, think pieces, comments
on social media, thirty thousand and commons left telling her
what she did wrong. The same was true with Serena,
the same is true with Naomi Simone Shakiri. And you
(10:09):
would think these women actually committed a murder. You would
think they robbed someone. You would think they took kittens
and threw them on top of a roof like you.
Whatever you can think of as the most egregious offense.
You would think that they've done those things. But we're
talking about simple actions to be themselves, to exercise their
First Amendment rights, to be honest, to be true to
(10:30):
who they are, who they think they are, and bringing
their full selves to work. And all it does is
send the message that as a black woman, you cannot
bring yourself to work, your full self.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
That is.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
I already knew that.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
So why was I so disappointed that Shakiri was trying
to express herself in the way in which she knew how,
the only way in which she knew how. Why didn't
I say, Hey, you're nineteen years old, it's okay, you'll
figure it out. Fast forward nearly four years later, she
has figured it out and to should carry and all
(11:06):
of those alike, myself included. We have to give these
women space to grow and be in these new environments,
because I could not imagine the pressure that they are under.
We are so quick to judge, so quick to be
to be as if we are offended by their behavior, we.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
Don't even allow them to make mistakes.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
I don't want you to know what I was doing
when I was nineteen, Thank god social media was a
big deal or perhaps around. But I find myself at
this stage saying I was wrong for judging she Carrie,
and I'm asking everybody to give her some grace of
mercy because we all deserve that. And that's how I
(11:45):
feel about Serena. I've come full circle in Serena. People
will say ABC and D. I think she's lovely. She's lovely.
She's earned the right to be who she is. Take
it or leave it, I don't care. She's the goat,
end of story, period, done no more. And I feel
that way about so many of these great female athletes,
(12:07):
because if they were.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
Men, this wonn't even be up for debate. It just
won't even be up for debate.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Fills Lebron, James Harden, Kobe Bryant rest in peace. He
was in love but never vilified. He had his moments,
but winning solved all. It could be the case here too.
Once you start to win and you do your job
and you put your head down, perhaps people start to
respect you in a way. With that being said, take
(12:35):
a minute go check out her page, Instagram, Google her,
show her some love, her words the world turned on me.
Just let her know that the community and the culture
still has her back. She needs to hear that, whether
she says she does or not. And with that being said,
today's guest, you know him from in Living Color. You
(12:58):
know him from, like I said, various films. I know
him from his impressions. Tommy Davidson has been in this
business five plus decades and one of the very first
things that I get into is how long have you
been able to sustain? Or how more importantly have you
been able to sustain? And he's worked with the likes
(13:21):
I get the very beginning, the likes of Jim Carrey
on a Living Color, Jamie Fox, j Lo Flygirl. He
used to do comedy tours with Dave Chappelle and Martin Lawrence,
two other people from DC, because that's where he is from.
I don't know if you heard of that Martin Lawrence,
he's from DC. You heard of him before, Dave Chappelle.
I think you heard of him too. Anyway, I sit
(13:44):
here and I think this man has lived some life,
and he has worked with and has been a part
of some amazing iconic projects. Comedy that can narrate your childhood,
if not your adulthood. You can go back and watch
it now and it'll still make you laugh. True classic.
Sit back, relax and enjoy this edition of Naked with
(14:05):
Tommy Davidson.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
You.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
I called my friend, a really good friend of mine.
Her name is Kendrick Carter. She's been in the world
for a minute, and she is you in a few ways,
and she's always thought, well, you're so great. But she
also said something that I think is important. You have
been able to have a career that has expanded and
lasted for such a very long time. Why do you
think that?
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Is one?
Speaker 1 (14:30):
God love me a whole lot that that's the first
and most important one. And the second one is I
always have emphasized on quality, not quantity, So I didn't
need to be doing a thousand things. I don't need
(14:50):
no bill's and bees of dollars to do something good.
It's a standard, it's the standard. So and I do
know that quality doubts, you know, you wouldn't think so
these days, Yeah, because it's not. It's not about quality
these days, it's about it's about it. It's more popular,
has nothing to.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Do with quality.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
So so I was I was raised in an era
where being an entertainer quality was first.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
What era would you call that? What era is that?
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Oh, that's easily, that's easily the seventies, easily the seventies
up to now.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
But but I think that people any any African Americans
that are in the we're in the chevianties their formative stage, seventies.
So we grew grew up with a whole different type
of music, you know, a whole different type of society
is really really different.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Then, so we we bring those fourth, we bring the
stuff that we experienced fourth, you know.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
And so that's why I would agree that you are
quality and you always finish well in terms of all
your projects, like you and that most people would obviously
bring up and living and living color rather and and
so many wonder folk medians yourself obviously included, were born
(16:14):
from from that special show. How was how was it
or how did it feel working on such a project,
And did you have any clue where Jim Carrey or
Jimmy Fox would land while you are all in the
midst of working.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
I had every clue in the world. You know. We
were we were good, and we knew it.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
We just we just we just were looking for that opportunity,
you know what I mean. I'm like, I'm like the
people I'm from. We're good, we know it.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
We We're gonna.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Press you about nothing. What's supposed to come our way? Uh,
it's gonna come my way, and and and and we
got the faith to show it. So so and that
that's what is about for me.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
You know. I I'm on full.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Scholarship from from the ones before me, you know, so
they had already put faith in me, so so here
I am, you know, and I knew it. We we
we didn't get on the air for six months after
we shot the pilot. He's already we all ready to
go back to the clubs and start over, building ourselves up,
you know. And it got it got picked up. I
(17:23):
knew if it got picked up it was gonna be
good because it's actually good. It's actually funny. You know,
funny in a way is expressed by audiences sometimes like this,
Oh that's funny. Sometimes it's express it's expressed like oh,
but the best way is expresses.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
You say it that you know, and that's what it was,
and that's exactly what it was.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
You're gonna be at the laughs.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
I'm curious because as you were such a part of
iconic television, that's like that's Americana for me. What was
it like weekend and week out filming? Was the process
similar to what I hear about Saturday Night Live? Like
you all sat around the table and had to make
people laugh and they said, yes that works, and no
that doesn't work.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Nah, not at all. It's like being in the Titi
in high school or something.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
You know you're gonna have fun or else, you know
what I mean. So it's just like the best atmosphere
you can imagine, Like here we are, we're all talented,
we all love each other, and we have fun all
day long. And them when the cameras come, you better
watch out because we're gonna have double fun. Double fun.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
We were inviting the whole country to the body and
that and that was us. That was us.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
Man.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
I feel like when I hear these stories, and I've
interviewed a lot of comedians who have been a part
of this iconic moments, it makes me, it makes me
have a little bit of fomo fear of missing out.
I hate that I missed out on such a I
never heard that. It's such a beautiful process. And you
guys are all so amazing. I'd like to talk about
(19:09):
your childhood because you've talked about how you had a
rough childhood and you were ultimately adopted by white parents
and you didn't really understand what the racial barriers were
until until you moved to d C. Yeah, yeah, can
you walk me through that process, of course.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
But then you mentioned the word amazing. So and it's
so amazing, you know when you hear that love.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
Has okay, rest in peace, not.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Of single you know. And he was a really good
friend of mine. We we we we knew each other
for years. He was he was one of the first
people that I performed with. Wow, and before you live
in college and took me on the road, took me
on the road, him and Anita Baker for that tour
that they had.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
DC for me was shocker because I didn't know I
was black coming into it. You know.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
I didn't know the things that happened to me until
way later in life, and didn't understand what was going
on until way later in life. But I found out
that I was left in the trash that a woman
found me random. She raised me in in the Midwest.
So I grew up in Colorado and Wyoming.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
And I didn't know I was black. I didn't know
what black and white was.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
All I know is that, you know, if if a
brown cat had kitten said to be a white one,
gray wound speca one. So I thought people were like that.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
How did you not know that?
Speaker 3 (20:44):
Did you went to school? No one let you know
when you were in school. No, no other children, because
you know kids are mean. No one said, hey, you're
different than us.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
I was five, and where I lived, it wasn't really
affected by that. Racism wasn't really I wasn't affected by it.
At that point. It existed, it existed more than now.
But at that point, just personally I had I hadn't
confronted it or been confronted by it. My family was
(21:13):
a very loving family, So all I knew was that
I was a very love loved little boy and had
all the opportunities that anybody else would have. Is when
I moved to d C that I got the concept
of black and white. Because we moved to d C
in sixty eight right when doctor King was shot and killed.
(21:37):
So we moved in during the riots, so that one
blue was a mind blower. I was like, Okay, things
are on fire. The soldiers was going out in tear gas.
And so we settled in in Northeast Washington, and they
called it Trindyday in Northeast for it in Northeast.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
And we get there.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
And we go to play with the other kids, and
the other kids whipped our ass every day. They were
calling my sister and my brother white cracker and calling
me white cracker lover.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Wow. So I was confused. So I go to my mother.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
I say, you know, why why they calling me a
white cracker lover? I like Graham crackers, you know, and
being serious, you know, yeah, that was what people are
color called people you're a color when.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
They don't like them.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
I said, what we're color? She said, you're black? I said, no,
I'm brown. Let my colors and crayon.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
I know, I'm ready.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
She said, well that's what they say. So I thought
that was stupid, like, how can you call me? How
can you hate me for a color?
Speaker 2 (22:35):
I really ain't. And then we moved to the suburbs.
It was the same thing, but in reverse.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
You know, the white kids, well werewing not kids, men
and teenagers.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
I'm six years old.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
We're chasing me. Paul, kill the knick, kill the nick.
You know, barely get in the house. And I went
to my mother. I said, wood, he's Nick. We need
to stay away from him because they all seem to
be two good people, you know, And then she said,
that's what people are color coffee ver in the reverse.
(23:12):
So that was really really coming up with all of
that going on. And you know, DC is majority black,
not the city. So I had a lot of physical
conflicts because I always had someone trying to hurt my family,
and no matter how old they were, I had to
face them, you know, And it was what I had
to do. And it's okay because I still turn out
(23:36):
to be really loving, really down to earth. It's what
it's what shaped me into just being I ain't just
you won't get that from me.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
I'm just a person.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
No, I am an African person, a person of African descent.
The category is African American and that's that.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
So it shaved me the right way. I have a
book called Living in Color. The book is appropriately named
living in Color. So you can't tell me that something
bigger ain't happening if I end up on a show
called in Living Color.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
And I lift it, see I lift.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
It, and I know it. I know what it's about.
And I got a lot of insight on real love
because people could say, you know, you heard it. Seems
like you hear it a lot. You know, love ain't
got no color.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
You know. Well, if you really really look at it,
it don't.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
But you really got to look at it from a
very fundamental, elementary point of view.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
And I'll tell you what it is.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
When a tribe or whatever you want to call in
the village of whatever, way way back, okay, came across
another group of people. The women from that color tribe said,
those men look pretty good, and the men from there said,
those women look pretty good.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
V'stly we all look different, m hm. So I don't
know we love each other, but we love something.
Speaker 4 (25:15):
We love something because everybody is the same.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
I want you.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
I'm really really curious you now have.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
I feel like, not necessarily it's a full circle moment,
but growing up in d C, where you learn the
good and the bad of what humanity looks like and
how people can be great and how they can be
not so great. You now have a new show, Caught
the Union, based in d C. How how do we
get back to d C? How do we get back
to your roots?
Speaker 4 (25:42):
If we will?
Speaker 1 (25:44):
That the miracle that came about in the first place,
you know, to to go out to Hollywood, which is
so far away from the way I grew up and
so far away from the DC experience or even the
East Coast experience you on New York City Philly. It's
just how could that come about if there wasn't something
(26:07):
something that was really happening good and that was was
not temporary, was something that exists, like you know how
racism is racism and sexism you know there isms they're
not wasms, yeah you see yeah, and you know it's
an ism me and see thing we we just is,
(26:32):
you know, So so to be back makes total sense.
Because the city that I come from has been one
of the top African American cities in the whole country,
in the world since it's been around. You know, I
can go back to NW James like Duke Ellington, Marlon
Gay to people like PD green A to go mayor
(26:59):
Marion Berry just outstanding and and and and many many,
many multitudes of multitude more of intelligent, family oriented, professional
or blue collar. But get it done and get it
done right. And so so this city deserves union, deserves
(27:25):
a TV show, deserves to have relationships broadcast into the world,
especially since the native residents, the African Americans you know,
have been displaced in a way. What better way to
bring it back together than to have a television show started.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
You know.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
But but the DC Commission on Television and Film Entertainment
is the one who came up with the concept to
bring entertainment back to using DC on the level that
it is in Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Mm hmm, and why not?
Speaker 4 (28:05):
And why not? It makes sense?
Speaker 3 (28:06):
And I'm curious, Hey, y'all gotta pay some bills as
I normally do, not me but black effect and I
heart have to do that.
Speaker 4 (28:14):
So you know, how to get past this point?
Speaker 3 (28:16):
You could just like fast forward a little fifteen second button,
you know, just fast forward, fast forward a couple of minutes.
We'll be right back in just a few moments.
Speaker 5 (28:24):
Every Champion and Cary champions to be a champion, a
champion and carry chapion and carry Chappy out a champion
and carry Chappion and carry.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
Chappy is the sports and entertainment and naked weird.
Speaker 5 (28:42):
Harry Champion and carry chappion is to be a champion
of champion and carrie Chappi and nigger shout a champion
and carry champion and carried sheppy.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Naked word.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
Hey, everybody, welcome back to this edition of Naked Tommy
Davidson still here. Uh. And in between being very vulnerable
and naked and honest, he's also given us a few impressions.
This man just does them, just spews them out. Did
you know he actually has a few singles out on
Apple Apple Music.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
I didn't.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
You're welcome. I asked you mentioned DCE. Tell me what
Union is about? I know this is the very first
streaming show of its kind on DCE. So what is
your Tell me what Union is about?
Speaker 2 (29:26):
In your role, It's just about it. It's like the
prowd family.
Speaker 4 (29:32):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
You know, it's it's about us being a part of
humanity and not outside of it. You know, it's like
like Africa where we're from. Yes, it's not outside humanity.
We're not like in some zoo. We're part of humanity.
A matter of fact. We created it and the things
that sustained it to be able to survive to this
(29:53):
point anyway.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
You know.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
So if you got cheers and you got friends, well
you better say cheers because we're going to.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Be chilling with our friends, you see what I mean?
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Yeah, and our friends don't just have one race of
friends in a major city.
Speaker 4 (30:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
That that that's a that's a fairy tale. Yeah, you know,
we as real as it goes back to that. Yeah,
you know the whole nine Yard Chocola city all the way.
And we're we're we're not. We're not we love hip hop.
We're not a hip hop city, we go Go city.
We're not from from LA We're not we're from We're
(30:34):
not dirty South. You know, we who we are. I
think that our closest cousins would be Philly probably.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
Really really, that makes sense, that makes sense. I agree
with that. I agree with that that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Be our closest cousins.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
Yeah, yeah, you.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
Know, every I love d C. I think anyone who's
been there can appreciate it. And yes, you love Go
Go music. You love what it brings. There's so much
power there. How do you in this show talk about
the power in the black experience while addressing humanity because
we should be a part of the power collective.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
In many ways, we talk like we really talk, you know,
we talk like we really talk. We talked about politics,
we talk about we talk about relationships, we talk about business,
you know, we talk about aspirations and goals. We talk
a lot of too, like everybody else, you know, but
(31:28):
most of the most of all, we talk about positive
We talk about, you know, getting ahead or knowing how
to get ahead, or learning how to get ahead, you know,
or learning how to be the best that you can be.
You know, and that that hasn't gone anywhere, That hasn't
gone anywhere, we have not the only thing that African Americans,
(31:50):
Americans have done here and and at large globally is
get better, get better at who we are and what
we are. You know, don't let the last eight years
fool you mm hmm. Because you know, once we ran
the world for eight years. Look like they're trying to
get us to forget. And that was just one of us.
Speaker 4 (32:12):
Yeah, correct, can you imagine?
Speaker 2 (32:14):
And there's there's there's a billion. Correct, So.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
You know we we we stand firm as anyone else
who loves their culture and loves themselves. You know, there's
a Korean there's a Korean community that's that's orbiting around
the black community. There's a there's an East Indian community
that's orbiting around the black community. There's there's an East
Indian community that's orbiting around the black community. At Vietnamese
(32:42):
community that's orbiting around black communities. There's and uh back
in the forties and and and the Industrial Revolution that
were Polish families orbiting around Washington, d c. Or orbiting
around a majority of Black city. So it's just it's
just designed for us to orbit around ourselves.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Get it? Union?
Speaker 4 (33:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (33:06):
Yeah, So Frankie asked something like that. Freakie add something
like that, Uh, ain't understand.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Why wait treat you over this?
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Why things we do?
Speaker 2 (33:22):
Right?
Speaker 4 (33:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (33:24):
I do?
Speaker 2 (33:24):
I love you? Don't battle? How would said or done
you do?
Speaker 4 (33:29):
The best impression?
Speaker 3 (33:32):
You need a whole album of just you singing by
yourself because you can sing.
Speaker 4 (33:36):
Do we have miss.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
That's missing that?
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Because I'm now in the music industry, I just had
my my biggest song single. It's called Kids zero. So
you go to Apple, you go to Apple Spotify, don't
get it. I have another one called I Know featuring
Richard Elliott, and also another word called Sweet Reunion featuring
Dave Cox any many others coming with was collaborations with artists.
(34:05):
Use music Spotify, check it out. And the good thing
about that is I started singing first, tell me more
be since I was a little kid four, I was
seeing entertaining.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
I must have won.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
I must have been, you know, fifty five and oh
as a kid when the talent show singing undefeated, yeah, undefeated, undefeated, you.
Speaker 4 (34:32):
Know yeah, I love it.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
The last time I.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Lost a talent show was when I decided to sing
instead of do comedy, and a friend of mine from
DC told me, don't don't sing because everybody do. Your
comedy is unique, and I said, man, I'm a singing
I lost you.
Speaker 4 (34:50):
I never even asked you that we got into all
of this. How did you? This is so bad on
my part? How did you get started in comedy?
Speaker 3 (34:56):
I know you moved to LA and I know you
had you made friends with some of the grades, and
you and up being this amazing show. When your career
has spanned and you've had TV shows and you've been
in movies, But how did you start in comedy? What
was the genesis of that for you?
Speaker 2 (35:09):
My friend Howard, who grew up with Howard.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
Okay, hey, Howard, he out there. If he ain't out there,
then you can talk to Monique or with Sheila or
Cartoon Harvey or Leo Monique. You know, you got a
lot of brothers, sisters. But he's the one told me,
you know, you stupid, you stupid man. You don't even
know you could be in Hollywood right now doing movies
(35:33):
and all that, and you happy to be an assistant
chef at Ramada in Virginia. He's like, come on, man,
you're crazy. So he made me go down to the
worst strip club in DC, the Penthouse, and there was
a mic available where the guy said he going to
net you to the stage. So I went there. I
stood there for a while. The guy turned to me
(35:54):
and said, all right, you go ahead on. I turned
to Howard, I was like, well, what do you want
me to say? I said, I don't care what you say,
just say something. And from the first thing I said,
people laughed, and within a year I was in Hollywood.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Wow. Now I'm talking to you. It happened.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
Wow wow wow. So wait, you were a chef at
the Ramata in Virginia. Howard said, you wasted your time.
Let's go to the strip club his open mic. You go,
you don't know what to say. First thing you say,
they start laughing. And then at that moment it just clicked,
like this is what you were going to do for
your life.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
It had been there the whole time. Assistant chef.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
Okay, I'm sorry, hey guys, sorry, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
But I was qualified because I was working as a
prep cook since I was fifteen, So the chef knew me.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
So when he got the big job, he took me
with him because you know, I knew what to do.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
So wait, tell me more. I'll go back to the chef.
The assistant chef gig in a second. So then you
do this at the Penthouse. Everyone loves you. Do you
just start performing in there every night? Do you start
finding local clubs to go up and do open mic?
In the neighborhood in the d m V area. What
happens next?
Speaker 1 (37:07):
It was a It was an avalanche. It was an avalanche.
Remember Mason, Mason Buffy had to join Bybee What's to
think about comedy? And I went so so it was
(37:28):
like it was like I ended up, uh doing talent shows.
I ended up doing concerts, opening concerts, and I just
it just started rolling and rolling. As a matter of fact,
there was a television show that preceded def Jam and
all of them. The first one was here at Howard
Universe m hm, oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, And that
(37:51):
was the first. You know, Andy Evans was a brilliant
guy who said we should have a TV show just
with black comics. That was the first time, and so
I came from that since trifty. The first time I
went to a comedy club for open night, I mean
open mic night, I met Martin and Dave Chappelle. That's
(38:14):
how we met. You see, two other small names. They
came out of DC two all.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
The time, little names. Yeah, I think I've heard of them.
I read that you lived in the same neighborhood as Dave.
Speaker 4 (38:26):
Is that true? Or you guys kind of grew up
around you one another.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
I lived in Silver Spring on sixtieth in East West Highway.
He lived a little further up, so yeah, he lived.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
He lived.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
He didn't live in my neighborhood. He lived near it. Okay,
So so where he lived, everybody went to play basketball,
you know. So he basically isn't from my neighborhood, but
you from around the way.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
Can you point to one single moment, whether it be
a show, a comedy show, a TV show, a movie,
something that really defined your career and established you as
a comedian, a premier comedian, a part of that that
og cast of greats.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
I think it was the night that I went on
in the main room at the Comedy Store, which was
the real deal, and I got put on the show
with Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor, and I was thinking
I was the host, and then he told me, no,
you're on the show with him. You all do it
half an hour each and you're You're a sandwich between
the two of them for four shows. So amazing, So
(39:35):
I turned I turned it out. I turned up, y'all say,
turned up?
Speaker 2 (39:39):
Right?
Speaker 4 (39:40):
Yeah? Yeah, the kids still say that, how amazing.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
Listen a look at you.
Speaker 4 (39:44):
You can't still say that the main.
Speaker 3 (39:47):
Room you're talking about here in La right, and you
were sandwiched between Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
Yeah, I was doing that well in all the other rooms.
So it's my turn to get in the big room.
And I didn't. I didn't disappoint. I was like, I
was like, I looked like Michael Vickan his first season
to watch out.
Speaker 4 (40:08):
They could catch you. They can't catch you.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
Uh that's exciting. Yeah. Yeah, it was the best frit
of in my life.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
No, I wasn't because I had gone from having two
little cars and the job to take in the bus.
I ain't never I didn't think you was gonna catch
me on the bus for the rest of my life,
you know.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
I usually we used to do laundrying, go get groceries
on the bus. Are you crazy?
Speaker 1 (40:35):
So so here I am catching the bus, you know,
Mexican's with cowboy ats on. Somebody got to fight, got
to the front of the Dago bus or whatever. And
I'm like at a bus stop. From all that, from
being at a bus stop, you know, and and and
working at working at Deli's and making ends meet and
staying out all night every night doing comedy and I
(40:58):
was about to go home because it was just too much.
I had a job. I go back to DC do
my thing, and then I did that show. I remember
my mother sent me a letter in the mail before
that show, the week before that show, and it was
one of those big legal on the legal yellow legal paper,
you know, long ones, and she wrote a little magic
(41:21):
marker she left for twenty dollars bills. She said, I
know you need that, and don't leave, baby, I love you, yep, yep, yep.
And I didn't go, and man, that happened. So I
called her and I said, guess what happened? Because Richard
Pryor for the show, found me in the little room
(41:41):
I was in and he looked up and down like
I was a strange animal.
Speaker 2 (41:44):
He went.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
He was a funny mother and walked away and was
like yeah. And I called my mother and I told
her what happened. She said, I told you not to leave.
Speaker 4 (41:58):
Heartbreak.
Speaker 3 (41:59):
That makes me want to drop two thug tears. I
appreciate that. What great moms are wonderful?
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Right, yeah? Yeah, And so that to me.
Speaker 3 (42:10):
Is truly a defining moment. And you were one of
a few who can say that you've witnessed that. To
have Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy, that'sn't heard of people.
People would like to die and come back and see
that happen again, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
And so stuff that I've been able to do, it's
amazing as a result of you guys, as a result.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
Of my audience.
Speaker 1 (42:34):
Yeah, you see the stuff I've been able to drop.
I drove the Goodyear Blimp over the Super Bowl. I
drove the Oscar, my Wheder wagon drug, I was at
Bozo Studio. I did so much stuff that that you
I traveled the world for three years for a TV
show on ABC that I was the host of, and
(42:57):
I traveled during the during the during I traveled during
the elections. You know, you know with Trump, I was gone,
you know, so so I was I wasn't even in
the country.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
I learned a lot from the experience. But all the
things that I've been able to do.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
What did you learn from that experience? You're saying you
were not in the country while Trump was running for president,
but you travel did you What did you learn while
you were.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
I found out that you can get the black off you.
They don't look at us like like would looked at here.
You know when you when you were you know, around abroad.
You know, there's just like, oh there's a there's another
human being. Yeah, you know, not o, hey, that's a
black man. And so you can get the black off yet.
Speaker 2 (43:43):
You know. And so it's it's it's it's right away.
You feel a little more relaxed. You know.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
Not that this country is a bad place for us,
it's just it's history that's influenced. Are fellow citizens that
aren't black. Yes, you look at us it a certain way.
Speaker 4 (44:05):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (44:05):
Yeah, everything is you're saying is true. Like, no one's
denying it. It's absolutely fact. The country's built on racism,
isn't it built this country. We built this country and
it is what it is. No one would deny that.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5 (44:17):
Every champion and carry champion is to be a champion,
a champion and carry champion and carried chat, beata champion
and carry chapion and carried chap entertainment can naked weird
kerry champion and carry champion is to be a champion,
a champion and carry champion, A champion and carry champion
(44:41):
and carried chatim word.
Speaker 3 (44:44):
I think it's very interesting that comedians, I believe and
I think are the most astute in terms of of
how of how you all observe behavior and politics and
how they work together. Was it intentional for you to
always have comedy that was stop thoughtful, thought provoking, and
(45:06):
obviously funny as well.
Speaker 4 (45:08):
It's hard to blend the two.
Speaker 2 (45:11):
I think.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
That it all was a combination of what was already there, okay,
and then what how it came how it came out
was the stuff that was already in me, that I
was taught, or that I saw, you know, I saw
you know I was taught. You know I want to
I want to start wielding the gun and hanging out
with my friends and robbing and stealing and you.
Speaker 2 (45:37):
Know, all that stuff.
Speaker 1 (45:38):
And my mother threw me out the house so you
can't not come back here at all. And that was
hard for me because everybody in the community respected her.
And one day she walked by and everybody said, I'm
miss Davison. I said, I a mom, and she kept
on walking. MMM, so I had to go. I went home,
(45:59):
knocked on the door. She opened the door with the
chain on it back one eye.
Speaker 2 (46:05):
She told me.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
You get a job, you can come on. Damn you
close the door. So went and got a job at
eye out. Sheate on my little work permit. You know,
I had to be thirteen, you had to be fourteen.
I was thirteen, But I got the job. Came back.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
She opened the door.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
She said, me on the couch, and she said, you
stealing from people who are just like me.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
You know you ain't doing nothing sexy. She said.
Speaker 1 (46:35):
The last thing you should be doing is trying to
take something from somebody, because there's three ways that you
can live.
Speaker 2 (46:42):
You can live.
Speaker 1 (46:43):
From taking things from somebody, right, you can. They're only
she said, they only three ways.
Speaker 2 (46:50):
To make money.
Speaker 1 (46:52):
She said, you either inherited wi your people having inherited
nothing here right to work for it. Or you either
take it and only two of those things is susceptable here.
So I started seeing the world that way.
Speaker 2 (47:12):
H m hmmm.
Speaker 1 (47:14):
What I do is a job. What I do is
a job. When I go here, I go a little
grocery store, just like when I when I was at
uh the hospital, I used to work, as you know,
put a little gas in the car.
Speaker 2 (47:31):
Yeah whatever, this is a job.
Speaker 3 (47:34):
Yeah, it's a job. It's all a job. Yeah, everything
is a job. When it's all sett and down. Hopefully
you can make it a career, but it is a job.
I am curious before I let you go because I'm
thinking about you don't sing it, bring it in, bringing in,
bring it in. Do you still cook? What's your favorite
(47:54):
thing to cook? Because it sounds like you can burn?
Like you you you had all these different positions. Can
you still burn? Or no?
Speaker 2 (48:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (48:00):
I got different things that different cycles I go through.
So I'll go through, uh a state cycle where I
want to do the traditional you know rehearby and make
you know that thing with some nice French green beans
and some white rice and some mashed potatoes. I'll be
a more extravagant mood and do a three tortellini cheese
(48:24):
pasta with baked salmon with a cream sauce, capers, sun
dried tomatoes.
Speaker 4 (48:30):
Tommy's restaurant open, Yeah it's open.
Speaker 1 (48:34):
Oh yeah, I can go into uh did Jamaican move
and maybe do some curry gold or you know, soap.
And I eat like we eat we eat heavy.
Speaker 2 (48:47):
We eat heavy, you know, we eat heavy because we
have you.
Speaker 3 (48:52):
Yeah, we need it, we need it, and we mad
because you can say so thin. That's what we're mad at,
because you can eat and stay so thin. And we
want to know if yeah, you know, I listen, I
work at it. You just you It seems it might
be more easy for you. It's a job. But remember
you're talking about jobs a moment ago. Tell me it
is a job by to stay fine.
Speaker 2 (49:13):
I get that, I get that. I get that.
Speaker 4 (49:17):
When does union premiere or has it already premiered? I
want to know. I want to tell the folks where
they can find it.
Speaker 1 (49:22):
You know what I'd be lying if I told you
I knew. Okay, great, I got to do some more
homework on that.
Speaker 4 (49:28):
Okay, we will do the homework too.
Speaker 2 (49:30):
Yeah. That the easy part is now. Mh you ain't
even got to ask a question. You can just go right,
you know.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
And I'm I'm losing my mind because while we were
on this interview, I was like, with.
Speaker 3 (49:48):
You're on your phone. You're doing the interview with the phone.
By the way, I've done that too, don't be in better.
Speaker 2 (49:55):
I had a little mini panic. I was like, but
my phone.
Speaker 3 (49:58):
Yeah, it's our brain, it's our brain. Tommy Davidson, You're
such a pleasure and a true legend. I'm going to
get you out of here. Has been a little over
thirty minutes. Thank you so much for being so gracious.
Speaker 2 (50:08):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (50:08):
And hey, yes you can have a great interview without
great questions, man, man, thank you.
Speaker 2 (50:13):
I'm also great questions.
Speaker 3 (50:15):
I really am, I really am a fan and I
and I've watched you forever. I don't want to just
say that, but you've had you have some really truly
iconic stories. And I hope you know where you live
in history, for us, for the culture you. I hope
you Okay, thank.
Speaker 2 (50:32):
You so much, good good, good, god luck to you girl.
Speaker 3 (50:35):
Thank you guys so much for listening to this edition
of Naked. And remember remember remember this, Remember this respect
Tommy Davidson, because he's a true og that that those
original gangsters og that titles thrown around a lot. He
is an og uh. He started an entirely new wave
of black comedy, and he sits a top with the greats.
(50:57):
Maybe not a big platform like them, but he is
a great.
Speaker 4 (51:01):
Do not forget that.
Speaker 3 (51:03):
Secondly, Secondly, secondly, co senior girl should Carrie Richardson some
love and give her the grace to make mistakes, give
her the grace to be famous and figure it out.
Give her that grace to be a black girl in
this world, in a world in which when we show up,
(51:23):
it can be so very complicated, so very hard on us,
and we don't need somebody else being hard on us.
Speaker 4 (51:30):
Just give her some love. I appreciate you off for listening.
We will be back next week.
I remember my mother sent me a letter in the
mail and she wrote a little magic marker she left
for twenty dollars bill. She said, oh, no, you need that,
and don't leave, baby. I love you and I didn't
go that happened. So I called her and I said,
guess what happened? Because Richard Pryor for the show, found
me and he looked up and down like I was
(00:20):
a strange animal. He went, he was a funny mother
and walked away. And we was like, And I called
my mother. I told her what happened.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
She said, I told you not to leave.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
The love of a mother is unlike any other. Tommy
Davidson telling the story of how he was ready to
pack up and leave La because his dreams had not
been fully realized. His mom sends them twenty bucks, and
not too long after that, he's at the Comedy Store
performing with Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
His story is pretty amazing.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
It also solidifies the fact that he is a legend,
and he is also our guest on this day of
Naked Gotta pay some bills, We'll be right back.
Speaker 5 (01:12):
It's the greatest suspersion entertainment can Naked Wind Carry Chappie,
and then Carrie Chappy is to be a champion, a Champion,
and Carrie CHAPPI and Nigger Play Got a Champion and
Carry Chappion and Carrie Chapy Entertainment cant Naked Word.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Hey everybody, welcome to a new edition of Naked You know,
I'd like to do a little news update and I
received a few messages about the Alabama Brawl. I talked
about that last week before we interviewed Stephanie Mills. Made
in Brooklyn. If you haven't checked it out, please check
it out. One of my favorite podcasts. I'm so hot
on Brooklyn, Like I can't get off Brooklyn. I'm from California,
(01:47):
but living in Brooklyn in my mind right. But today,
before we get into Tommy Davidson, Uh, the iconic comedian
who you may all know from in Living Color. He's
been on tour forever. He's known for his impressions. He
has had a life. He will talk about that with
us today. But before before we dive into that, I
(02:07):
want to talk about what happened this week in the
world of sports, the world that I live in so much.
She Carrie Richardson is now the newly minted one hundred
meter world champion, and she won gold at the World
Championships in Budapest. I don't know if you remember she
Carrie Richardson. She came onto the scene with a lot
(02:29):
of flare and flash, and we loved it. Black girl magic,
We loved it.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
We loved it. She was nineteen years old.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
She had just declared that she was going to turn
pro after the NCAA Championships. She was a freshman at
LSU and she was leaving college to basically go to
the Olympics. She had qualified for the Olympics, and we
loved her because she had everything. She was unapologetic, she
was beautiful, she was fast, and she talked that trash.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
She could back it up seemingly.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
And unfortunately, just a few days after she qualified for
the Olympics, she tested positive for marijuana and that immediately
voided her results and she could not go to Tokyo. However,
what ensued after that was a combination of social media hype.
(03:25):
How come the black girls getting vilified? Why isn't she
allowed to do what we've seen other Olympians get away with?
Russians have been cheating, They're still allowed to compete Michael
Phelps was smoking weed, he was still allowed to compete.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
The list goes on.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
She carry adding to the narrative by going to Twitter
and talking about it very unapologetically, as mentioned, and she
was like, I just don't trust this system, the IOC,
which is the International Olympic Committee. They don't operate in truth.
They are hypocrites. I'm paraphrasing. But none of what she
(04:01):
said was wrong. Everything she said was right. But this
was one of these instances where I thought, Hey, Shakerrie,
you're right, but I don't know if you've earned the
right to say that just yet, just because you're so new.
There was an instance in which there was some back
and forth and Alison Felix went on a show and
(04:24):
wished her well, and she jumped on social media and
was like, people who wish me well don't really mean it.
We didn't know where that was coming from. There were
a lot of subliminal messages, and it seemed like a
lot for someone who had so much to prove. Perception
is everything, and oftentimes we want our heroes to behave
or act a certain way until they've actually earned that
(04:46):
grizzly vet respect. It's like a rookie coming into the
NBA talking mad trash and can't back it up. It's
like Dylan Brooks going after Lebron James and saying things
that he just can't fully say. Although he's a great,
great player, he doesn't have the hardware.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
To back up just yet. We like your trash talk,
but hold on.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
And she Carrie said, just a few days before she
won the World Championships, in regards to what people thought
about her, she goes, listen, I don't really care about
what people think. The world already turned on me. I
disbelieve in me. And she's referring to a very public
pushback to her tweets, to how she handled herself, to
(05:27):
her response to the Olympic Committee, to everything. She just
was loved by everyone, and then all of a sudden,
people started to, in her words, turn on her. And
I lived in the camp of follow the rules. But
as a black woman, I get where you're coming from.
But I also lived in the camp of some things
(05:48):
don't need to be said. In fact, most things don't
need to be said. Keep that to yourself until you
earn some cachet to really talk about the experience in
a way that gives you perspective. You can't tell a
nineteen year old that a nineteen year old is going
to be nineteen. And as of late, especially within the
last year, we've watched her win race after race after race,
(06:09):
and she's been quiet, and she's put her head down
and she's not saying the things. In fact, all of
her frustrations with the Olympic Committee, with the way in
which track and field athletes how they are being treated,
she has now started an advocacy group and she's advocating
for their rights. She's using her voice in her platform
in a way that is a constructive, and we can
(06:31):
digest that. But I started to think, why did I
require her, as a black female athlete to behave or
conduct herself in a certain way. And what I realized
is that as a black woman, I didn't want her
to have to deal with the things that I had
to deal with. I too spoke too soon, I too
(06:54):
used to say things. I too used to light the
world on fire. I too used to say this is
not right and you can't do this, and I'm waving
my hand to say this that and the third but
I realize is that there's a time and a place
for everything, and also how you say it is arguably
just as important as what you say. And I felt
a way about her being so unapologetic without filter, But
(07:17):
I don't have the right to feel a way about that,
because inherently, as a black woman in a world that
doesn't really understand us, it is oftentimes the only way
that we can express ourselves if we feel like we
haven't been heard or seen. And I started to think
back about how female athletes, but more specifically black female athletes,
(07:41):
are treated by society, by social media, by those who
don't really understand the complexity of being a black woman
in this world, and how we show up.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
And I started to look.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
At some of the egregious or what we're at least
in that in that moment, it was seemingly egregious offenses
or instances that involved black women, and I realized, this
is crazy.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
We really don't do anything wrong.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
You all want us to behave a certain way, and
you won't even allow us to come up and be
our full selves. And when we are, you beat it
out of us. And the older we get in, the
more experience we get, we decide, all right, I don't
want to pick up that baton if you will, I
do not want that fight. Serena Williams wearing a catsuit
(08:35):
at the French Open was a scandal.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Get out of here, guys.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Naomi Osaka saying that she wasn't going to do any
more press interviews during the French Open and she'd pay
the fine because she's mentally exhausted with talking to the
media after every single match. She's just not ready for
that this time around. Scandal Simone Biles taking a mental
break during the Olympics and not performing. Are not participating
(09:00):
in certain events because she said, guess what, I just
don't have it. I lost a beat, too much pressure.
I need to sit down. How dare you sit down?
You're here to represent America. Angel Reese making gestures at
Caitlyn Clark after she won the national championship. Talking is
(09:23):
a rite of passage once she win a championship, and
yet she was vilified for doing the exact same thing
Caitlyn Clark had been doing leading up to the final game.
Then there was this athlete, I don't know if you
remember her, Olympian, Gwen Berry. She was at the US
Trials leading up to Tokyo and she put up a
(09:46):
sign that said athlete activists exercising her First Amendment right.
All of these things were written about, think pieces, comments
on social media, thirty thousand and commons left telling her
what she did wrong. The same was true with Serena,
the same is true with Naomi Simone Shakiri. And you
(10:09):
would think these women actually committed a murder. You would
think they robbed someone. You would think they took kittens
and threw them on top of a roof like you.
Whatever you can think of as the most egregious offense.
You would think that they've done those things. But we're
talking about simple actions to be themselves, to exercise their
First Amendment rights, to be honest, to be true to
(10:30):
who they are, who they think they are, and bringing
their full selves to work. And all it does is
send the message that as a black woman, you cannot
bring yourself to work, your full self.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
That is.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
I already knew that.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
So why was I so disappointed that Shakiri was trying
to express herself in the way in which she knew how,
the only way in which she knew how. Why didn't
I say, Hey, you're nineteen years old, it's okay, you'll
figure it out. Fast forward nearly four years later, she
has figured it out and to should carry and all
(11:06):
of those alike, myself included. We have to give these
women space to grow and be in these new environments,
because I could not imagine the pressure that they are under.
We are so quick to judge, so quick to be
to be as if we are offended by their behavior, we.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
Don't even allow them to make mistakes.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
I don't want you to know what I was doing
when I was nineteen, Thank god social media was a
big deal or perhaps around. But I find myself at
this stage saying I was wrong for judging she Carrie,
and I'm asking everybody to give her some grace of
mercy because we all deserve that. And that's how I
(11:45):
feel about Serena. I've come full circle in Serena. People
will say ABC and D. I think she's lovely. She's lovely.
She's earned the right to be who she is. Take
it or leave it, I don't care. She's the goat,
end of story, period, done no more. And I feel
that way about so many of these great female athletes,
(12:07):
because if they were.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
Men, this wonn't even be up for debate. It just
won't even be up for debate.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Fills Lebron, James Harden, Kobe Bryant rest in peace. He
was in love but never vilified. He had his moments,
but winning solved all. It could be the case here too.
Once you start to win and you do your job
and you put your head down, perhaps people start to
respect you in a way. With that being said, take
(12:35):
a minute go check out her page, Instagram, Google her,
show her some love, her words the world turned on me.
Just let her know that the community and the culture
still has her back. She needs to hear that, whether
she says she does or not. And with that being said,
today's guest, you know him from in Living Color. You
(12:58):
know him from, like I said, various films. I know
him from his impressions. Tommy Davidson has been in this
business five plus decades and one of the very first
things that I get into is how long have you
been able to sustain? Or how more importantly have you
been able to sustain? And he's worked with the likes
(13:21):
I get the very beginning, the likes of Jim Carrey
on a Living Color, Jamie Fox, j Lo Flygirl. He
used to do comedy tours with Dave Chappelle and Martin Lawrence,
two other people from DC, because that's where he is from.
I don't know if you heard of that Martin Lawrence,
he's from DC. You heard of him before, Dave Chappelle.
I think you heard of him too. Anyway, I sit
(13:44):
here and I think this man has lived some life,
and he has worked with and has been a part
of some amazing iconic projects. Comedy that can narrate your childhood,
if not your adulthood. You can go back and watch
it now and it'll still make you laugh. True classic.
Sit back, relax and enjoy this edition of Naked with
(14:05):
Tommy Davidson.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
You.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
I called my friend, a really good friend of mine.
Her name is Kendrick Carter. She's been in the world
for a minute, and she is you in a few ways,
and she's always thought, well, you're so great. But she
also said something that I think is important. You have
been able to have a career that has expanded and
lasted for such a very long time. Why do you
think that?
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Is one?
Speaker 1 (14:30):
God love me a whole lot that that's the first
and most important one. And the second one is I
always have emphasized on quality, not quantity, So I didn't
need to be doing a thousand things. I don't need
(14:50):
no bill's and bees of dollars to do something good.
It's a standard, it's the standard. So and I do
know that quality doubts, you know, you wouldn't think so
these days, Yeah, because it's not. It's not about quality
these days, it's about it's about it. It's more popular,
has nothing to.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Do with quality.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
So so I was I was raised in an era
where being an entertainer quality was first.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
What era would you call that? What era is that?
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Oh, that's easily, that's easily the seventies, easily the seventies
up to now.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
But but I think that people any any African Americans
that are in the we're in the chevianties their formative stage, seventies.
So we grew grew up with a whole different type
of music, you know, a whole different type of society
is really really different.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Then, so we we bring those fourth, we bring the
stuff that we experienced fourth, you know.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
And so that's why I would agree that you are
quality and you always finish well in terms of all
your projects, like you and that most people would obviously
bring up and living and living color rather and and
so many wonder folk medians yourself obviously included, were born
(16:14):
from from that special show. How was how was it
or how did it feel working on such a project,
And did you have any clue where Jim Carrey or
Jimmy Fox would land while you are all in the
midst of working.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
I had every clue in the world. You know. We
were we were good, and we knew it.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
We just we just we just were looking for that opportunity,
you know what I mean. I'm like, I'm like the
people I'm from. We're good, we know it.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
We We're gonna.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Press you about nothing. What's supposed to come our way? Uh,
it's gonna come my way, and and and and we
got the faith to show it. So so and that
that's what is about for me.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
You know. I I'm on full.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Scholarship from from the ones before me, you know, so
they had already put faith in me, so so here
I am, you know, and I knew it. We we
we didn't get on the air for six months after
we shot the pilot. He's already we all ready to
go back to the clubs and start over, building ourselves up,
you know. And it got it got picked up. I
(17:23):
knew if it got picked up it was gonna be
good because it's actually good. It's actually funny. You know,
funny in a way is expressed by audiences sometimes like this,
Oh that's funny. Sometimes it's express it's expressed like oh,
but the best way is expresses.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
You say it that you know, and that's what it was,
and that's exactly what it was.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
You're gonna be at the laughs.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
I'm curious because as you were such a part of
iconic television, that's like that's Americana for me. What was
it like weekend and week out filming? Was the process
similar to what I hear about Saturday Night Live? Like
you all sat around the table and had to make
people laugh and they said, yes that works, and no
that doesn't work.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Nah, not at all. It's like being in the Titi
in high school or something.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
You know you're gonna have fun or else, you know
what I mean. So it's just like the best atmosphere
you can imagine, Like here we are, we're all talented,
we all love each other, and we have fun all
day long. And them when the cameras come, you better
watch out because we're gonna have double fun. Double fun.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
We were inviting the whole country to the body and
that and that was us. That was us.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
Man.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
I feel like when I hear these stories, and I've
interviewed a lot of comedians who have been a part
of this iconic moments, it makes me, it makes me
have a little bit of fomo fear of missing out.
I hate that I missed out on such a I
never heard that. It's such a beautiful process. And you
guys are all so amazing. I'd like to talk about
(19:09):
your childhood because you've talked about how you had a
rough childhood and you were ultimately adopted by white parents
and you didn't really understand what the racial barriers were
until until you moved to d C. Yeah, yeah, can
you walk me through that process, of course.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
But then you mentioned the word amazing. So and it's
so amazing, you know when you hear that love.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
Has okay, rest in peace, not.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Of single you know. And he was a really good
friend of mine. We we we we knew each other
for years. He was he was one of the first
people that I performed with. Wow, and before you live
in college and took me on the road, took me
on the road, him and Anita Baker for that tour
that they had.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
DC for me was shocker because I didn't know I
was black coming into it. You know.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
I didn't know the things that happened to me until
way later in life, and didn't understand what was going
on until way later in life. But I found out
that I was left in the trash that a woman
found me random. She raised me in in the Midwest.
So I grew up in Colorado and Wyoming.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
And I didn't know I was black. I didn't know
what black and white was.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
All I know is that, you know, if if a
brown cat had kitten said to be a white one,
gray wound speca one. So I thought people were like that.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
How did you not know that?
Speaker 3 (20:44):
Did you went to school? No one let you know
when you were in school. No, no other children, because
you know kids are mean. No one said, hey, you're
different than us.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
I was five, and where I lived, it wasn't really
affected by that. Racism wasn't really I wasn't affected by it.
At that point. It existed, it existed more than now.
But at that point, just personally I had I hadn't
confronted it or been confronted by it. My family was
(21:13):
a very loving family, So all I knew was that
I was a very love loved little boy and had
all the opportunities that anybody else would have. Is when
I moved to d C that I got the concept
of black and white. Because we moved to d C
in sixty eight right when doctor King was shot and killed.
(21:37):
So we moved in during the riots, so that one
blue was a mind blower. I was like, Okay, things
are on fire. The soldiers was going out in tear gas.
And so we settled in in Northeast Washington, and they
called it Trindyday in Northeast for it in Northeast.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
And we get there.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
And we go to play with the other kids, and
the other kids whipped our ass every day. They were
calling my sister and my brother white cracker and calling
me white cracker lover.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Wow. So I was confused. So I go to my mother.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
I say, you know, why why they calling me a
white cracker lover? I like Graham crackers, you know, and
being serious, you know, yeah, that was what people are
color called people you're a color when.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
They don't like them.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
I said, what we're color? She said, you're black? I said, no,
I'm brown. Let my colors and crayon.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
I know, I'm ready.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
She said, well that's what they say. So I thought
that was stupid, like, how can you call me? How
can you hate me for a color?
Speaker 2 (22:35):
I really ain't. And then we moved to the suburbs.
It was the same thing, but in reverse.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
You know, the white kids, well werewing not kids, men
and teenagers.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
I'm six years old.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
We're chasing me. Paul, kill the knick, kill the nick.
You know, barely get in the house. And I went
to my mother. I said, wood, he's Nick. We need
to stay away from him because they all seem to
be two good people, you know, And then she said,
that's what people are color coffee ver in the reverse.
(23:12):
So that was really really coming up with all of
that going on. And you know, DC is majority black,
not the city. So I had a lot of physical
conflicts because I always had someone trying to hurt my family,
and no matter how old they were, I had to
face them, you know, And it was what I had
to do. And it's okay because I still turn out
(23:36):
to be really loving, really down to earth. It's what
it's what shaped me into just being I ain't just
you won't get that from me.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
I'm just a person.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
No, I am an African person, a person of African descent.
The category is African American and that's that.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
So it shaved me the right way. I have a
book called Living in Color. The book is appropriately named
living in Color. So you can't tell me that something
bigger ain't happening if I end up on a show
called in Living Color.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
And I lift it, see I lift.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
It, and I know it. I know what it's about.
And I got a lot of insight on real love
because people could say, you know, you heard it. Seems
like you hear it a lot. You know, love ain't
got no color.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
You know. Well, if you really really look at it,
it don't.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
But you really got to look at it from a
very fundamental, elementary point of view.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
And I'll tell you what it is.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
When a tribe or whatever you want to call in
the village of whatever, way way back, okay, came across
another group of people. The women from that color tribe said,
those men look pretty good, and the men from there said,
those women look pretty good.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
V'stly we all look different, m hm. So I don't
know we love each other, but we love something.
Speaker 4 (25:15):
We love something because everybody is the same.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
I want you.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
I'm really really curious you now have.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
I feel like, not necessarily it's a full circle moment,
but growing up in d C, where you learn the
good and the bad of what humanity looks like and
how people can be great and how they can be
not so great. You now have a new show, Caught
the Union, based in d C. How how do we
get back to d C? How do we get back
to your roots?
Speaker 4 (25:42):
If we will?
Speaker 1 (25:44):
That the miracle that came about in the first place,
you know, to to go out to Hollywood, which is
so far away from the way I grew up and
so far away from the DC experience or even the
East Coast experience you on New York City Philly. It's
just how could that come about if there wasn't something
(26:07):
something that was really happening good and that was was
not temporary, was something that exists, like you know how
racism is racism and sexism you know there isms they're
not wasms, yeah you see yeah, and you know it's
an ism me and see thing we we just is,
(26:32):
you know, So so to be back makes total sense.
Because the city that I come from has been one
of the top African American cities in the whole country,
in the world since it's been around. You know, I
can go back to NW James like Duke Ellington, Marlon
Gay to people like PD green A to go mayor
(26:59):
Marion Berry just outstanding and and and and many many,
many multitudes of multitude more of intelligent, family oriented, professional
or blue collar. But get it done and get it
done right. And so so this city deserves union, deserves
(27:25):
a TV show, deserves to have relationships broadcast into the world,
especially since the native residents, the African Americans you know,
have been displaced in a way. What better way to
bring it back together than to have a television show started.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
You know.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
But but the DC Commission on Television and Film Entertainment
is the one who came up with the concept to
bring entertainment back to using DC on the level that
it is in Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Mm hmm, and why not?
Speaker 4 (28:05):
And why not? It makes sense?
Speaker 3 (28:06):
And I'm curious, Hey, y'all gotta pay some bills as
I normally do, not me but black effect and I
heart have to do that.
Speaker 4 (28:14):
So you know, how to get past this point?
Speaker 3 (28:16):
You could just like fast forward a little fifteen second button,
you know, just fast forward, fast forward a couple of minutes.
We'll be right back in just a few moments.
Speaker 5 (28:24):
Every Champion and Cary champions to be a champion, a
champion and carry chapion and carry Chappy out a champion
and carry Chappion and carry.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
Chappy is the sports and entertainment and naked weird.
Speaker 5 (28:42):
Harry Champion and carry chappion is to be a champion
of champion and carrie Chappi and nigger shout a champion
and carry champion and carried sheppy.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Naked word.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
Hey, everybody, welcome back to this edition of Naked Tommy
Davidson still here. Uh. And in between being very vulnerable
and naked and honest, he's also given us a few impressions.
This man just does them, just spews them out. Did
you know he actually has a few singles out on
Apple Apple Music.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
I didn't.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
You're welcome. I asked you mentioned DCE. Tell me what
Union is about? I know this is the very first
streaming show of its kind on DCE. So what is
your Tell me what Union is about?
Speaker 2 (29:26):
In your role, It's just about it. It's like the
prowd family.
Speaker 4 (29:32):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
You know, it's it's about us being a part of
humanity and not outside of it. You know, it's like
like Africa where we're from. Yes, it's not outside humanity.
We're not like in some zoo. We're part of humanity.
A matter of fact. We created it and the things
that sustained it to be able to survive to this
(29:53):
point anyway.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
You know.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
So if you got cheers and you got friends, well
you better say cheers because we're going to.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Be chilling with our friends, you see what I mean?
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Yeah, and our friends don't just have one race of
friends in a major city.
Speaker 4 (30:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
That that that's a that's a fairy tale. Yeah, you know,
we as real as it goes back to that. Yeah,
you know the whole nine Yard Chocola city all the way.
And we're we're we're not. We're not we love hip hop.
We're not a hip hop city, we go Go city.
We're not from from LA We're not we're from We're
(30:34):
not dirty South. You know, we who we are. I
think that our closest cousins would be Philly probably.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
Really really, that makes sense, that makes sense. I agree
with that. I agree with that that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Be our closest cousins.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
Yeah, yeah, you.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
Know, every I love d C. I think anyone who's
been there can appreciate it. And yes, you love Go
Go music. You love what it brings. There's so much
power there. How do you in this show talk about
the power in the black experience while addressing humanity because
we should be a part of the power collective.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
In many ways, we talk like we really talk, you know,
we talk like we really talk. We talked about politics,
we talk about we talk about relationships, we talk about business,
you know, we talk about aspirations and goals. We talk
a lot of too, like everybody else, you know, but
(31:28):
most of the most of all, we talk about positive
We talk about, you know, getting ahead or knowing how
to get ahead, or learning how to get ahead, you know,
or learning how to be the best that you can be.
You know, and that that hasn't gone anywhere, That hasn't
gone anywhere, we have not the only thing that African Americans,
(31:50):
Americans have done here and and at large globally is
get better, get better at who we are and what
we are. You know, don't let the last eight years
fool you mm hmm. Because you know, once we ran
the world for eight years. Look like they're trying to
get us to forget. And that was just one of us.
Speaker 4 (32:12):
Yeah, correct, can you imagine?
Speaker 2 (32:14):
And there's there's there's a billion. Correct, So.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
You know we we we stand firm as anyone else
who loves their culture and loves themselves. You know, there's
a Korean there's a Korean community that's that's orbiting around
the black community. There's a there's an East Indian community
that's orbiting around the black community. There's there's an East
Indian community that's orbiting around the black community. At Vietnamese
(32:42):
community that's orbiting around black communities. There's and uh back
in the forties and and and the Industrial Revolution that
were Polish families orbiting around Washington, d c. Or orbiting
around a majority of Black city. So it's just it's
just designed for us to orbit around ourselves.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Get it? Union?
Speaker 4 (33:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (33:06):
Yeah, So Frankie asked something like that. Freakie add something
like that, Uh, ain't understand.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Why wait treat you over this?
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Why things we do?
Speaker 2 (33:22):
Right?
Speaker 4 (33:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (33:24):
I do?
Speaker 2 (33:24):
I love you? Don't battle? How would said or done
you do?
Speaker 4 (33:29):
The best impression?
Speaker 3 (33:32):
You need a whole album of just you singing by
yourself because you can sing.
Speaker 4 (33:36):
Do we have miss.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
That's missing that?
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Because I'm now in the music industry, I just had
my my biggest song single. It's called Kids zero. So
you go to Apple, you go to Apple Spotify, don't
get it. I have another one called I Know featuring
Richard Elliott, and also another word called Sweet Reunion featuring
Dave Cox any many others coming with was collaborations with artists.
(34:05):
Use music Spotify, check it out. And the good thing
about that is I started singing first, tell me more
be since I was a little kid four, I was
seeing entertaining.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
I must have won.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
I must have been, you know, fifty five and oh
as a kid when the talent show singing undefeated, yeah, undefeated, undefeated, you.
Speaker 4 (34:32):
Know yeah, I love it.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
The last time I.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Lost a talent show was when I decided to sing
instead of do comedy, and a friend of mine from
DC told me, don't don't sing because everybody do. Your
comedy is unique, and I said, man, I'm a singing
I lost you.
Speaker 4 (34:50):
I never even asked you that we got into all
of this. How did you? This is so bad on
my part? How did you get started in comedy?
Speaker 3 (34:56):
I know you moved to LA and I know you
had you made friends with some of the grades, and
you and up being this amazing show. When your career
has spanned and you've had TV shows and you've been
in movies, But how did you start in comedy? What
was the genesis of that for you?
Speaker 2 (35:09):
My friend Howard, who grew up with Howard.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
Okay, hey, Howard, he out there. If he ain't out there,
then you can talk to Monique or with Sheila or
Cartoon Harvey or Leo Monique. You know, you got a
lot of brothers, sisters. But he's the one told me,
you know, you stupid, you stupid man. You don't even
know you could be in Hollywood right now doing movies
(35:33):
and all that, and you happy to be an assistant
chef at Ramada in Virginia. He's like, come on, man,
you're crazy. So he made me go down to the
worst strip club in DC, the Penthouse, and there was
a mic available where the guy said he going to
net you to the stage. So I went there. I
stood there for a while. The guy turned to me
(35:54):
and said, all right, you go ahead on. I turned
to Howard, I was like, well, what do you want
me to say? I said, I don't care what you say,
just say something. And from the first thing I said,
people laughed, and within a year I was in Hollywood.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Wow. Now I'm talking to you. It happened.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
Wow wow wow. So wait, you were a chef at
the Ramata in Virginia. Howard said, you wasted your time.
Let's go to the strip club his open mic. You go,
you don't know what to say. First thing you say,
they start laughing. And then at that moment it just clicked,
like this is what you were going to do for
your life.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
It had been there the whole time. Assistant chef.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
Okay, I'm sorry, hey guys, sorry, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
But I was qualified because I was working as a
prep cook since I was fifteen, So the chef knew me.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
So when he got the big job, he took me
with him because you know, I knew what to do.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
So wait, tell me more. I'll go back to the chef.
The assistant chef gig in a second. So then you
do this at the Penthouse. Everyone loves you. Do you
just start performing in there every night? Do you start
finding local clubs to go up and do open mic?
In the neighborhood in the d m V area. What
happens next?
Speaker 1 (37:07):
It was a It was an avalanche. It was an avalanche.
Remember Mason, Mason Buffy had to join Bybee What's to
think about comedy? And I went so so it was
(37:28):
like it was like I ended up, uh doing talent shows.
I ended up doing concerts, opening concerts, and I just
it just started rolling and rolling. As a matter of fact,
there was a television show that preceded def Jam and
all of them. The first one was here at Howard
Universe m hm, oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, And that
(37:51):
was the first. You know, Andy Evans was a brilliant
guy who said we should have a TV show just
with black comics. That was the first time, and so
I came from that since trifty. The first time I
went to a comedy club for open night, I mean
open mic night, I met Martin and Dave Chappelle. That's
(38:14):
how we met. You see, two other small names. They
came out of DC two all.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
The time, little names. Yeah, I think I've heard of them.
I read that you lived in the same neighborhood as Dave.
Speaker 4 (38:26):
Is that true? Or you guys kind of grew up
around you one another.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
I lived in Silver Spring on sixtieth in East West Highway.
He lived a little further up, so yeah, he lived.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
He lived.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
He didn't live in my neighborhood. He lived near it. Okay,
So so where he lived, everybody went to play basketball,
you know. So he basically isn't from my neighborhood, but
you from around the way.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
Can you point to one single moment, whether it be
a show, a comedy show, a TV show, a movie,
something that really defined your career and established you as
a comedian, a premier comedian, a part of that that
og cast of greats.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
I think it was the night that I went on
in the main room at the Comedy Store, which was
the real deal, and I got put on the show
with Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor, and I was thinking
I was the host, and then he told me, no,
you're on the show with him. You all do it
half an hour each and you're You're a sandwich between
the two of them for four shows. So amazing, So
(39:35):
I turned I turned it out. I turned up, y'all say,
turned up?
Speaker 2 (39:39):
Right?
Speaker 4 (39:40):
Yeah? Yeah, the kids still say that, how amazing.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
Listen a look at you.
Speaker 4 (39:44):
You can't still say that the main.
Speaker 3 (39:47):
Room you're talking about here in La right, and you
were sandwiched between Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
Yeah, I was doing that well in all the other rooms.
So it's my turn to get in the big room.
And I didn't. I didn't disappoint. I was like, I
was like, I looked like Michael Vickan his first season
to watch out.
Speaker 4 (40:08):
They could catch you. They can't catch you.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
Uh that's exciting. Yeah. Yeah, it was the best frit
of in my life.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
No, I wasn't because I had gone from having two
little cars and the job to take in the bus.
I ain't never I didn't think you was gonna catch
me on the bus for the rest of my life,
you know.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
I usually we used to do laundrying, go get groceries
on the bus. Are you crazy?
Speaker 1 (40:35):
So so here I am catching the bus, you know,
Mexican's with cowboy ats on. Somebody got to fight, got
to the front of the Dago bus or whatever. And
I'm like at a bus stop. From all that, from
being at a bus stop, you know, and and and
working at working at Deli's and making ends meet and
staying out all night every night doing comedy and I
(40:58):
was about to go home because it was just too much.
I had a job. I go back to DC do
my thing, and then I did that show. I remember
my mother sent me a letter in the mail before
that show, the week before that show, and it was
one of those big legal on the legal yellow legal paper,
you know, long ones, and she wrote a little magic
(41:21):
marker she left for twenty dollars bills. She said, I
know you need that, and don't leave, baby, I love you, yep, yep, yep.
And I didn't go, and man, that happened. So I
called her and I said, guess what happened? Because Richard
Pryor for the show, found me in the little room
(41:41):
I was in and he looked up and down like
I was a strange animal.
Speaker 2 (41:44):
He went.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
He was a funny mother and walked away and was
like yeah. And I called my mother and I told
her what happened. She said, I told you not to leave.
Speaker 4 (41:58):
Heartbreak.
Speaker 3 (41:59):
That makes me want to drop two thug tears. I
appreciate that. What great moms are wonderful?
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Right, yeah? Yeah, And so that to me.
Speaker 3 (42:10):
Is truly a defining moment. And you were one of
a few who can say that you've witnessed that. To
have Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy, that'sn't heard of people.
People would like to die and come back and see
that happen again, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
And so stuff that I've been able to do, it's
amazing as a result of you guys, as a result.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
Of my audience.
Speaker 1 (42:34):
Yeah, you see the stuff I've been able to drop.
I drove the Goodyear Blimp over the Super Bowl. I
drove the Oscar, my Wheder wagon drug, I was at
Bozo Studio. I did so much stuff that that you
I traveled the world for three years for a TV
show on ABC that I was the host of, and
(42:57):
I traveled during the during the during I traveled during
the elections. You know, you know with Trump, I was gone,
you know, so so I was I wasn't even in
the country.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
I learned a lot from the experience. But all the
things that I've been able to do.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
What did you learn from that experience? You're saying you
were not in the country while Trump was running for president,
but you travel did you What did you learn while
you were.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
I found out that you can get the black off you.
They don't look at us like like would looked at here.
You know when you when you were you know, around abroad.
You know, there's just like, oh there's a there's another
human being. Yeah, you know, not o, hey, that's a
black man. And so you can get the black off yet.
Speaker 2 (43:43):
You know. And so it's it's it's it's right away.
You feel a little more relaxed. You know.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
Not that this country is a bad place for us,
it's just it's history that's influenced. Are fellow citizens that
aren't black. Yes, you look at us it a certain way.
Speaker 4 (44:05):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (44:05):
Yeah, everything is you're saying is true. Like, no one's
denying it. It's absolutely fact. The country's built on racism,
isn't it built this country. We built this country and
it is what it is. No one would deny that.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5 (44:17):
Every champion and carry champion is to be a champion,
a champion and carry champion and carried chat, beata champion
and carry chapion and carried chap entertainment can naked weird
kerry champion and carry champion is to be a champion,
a champion and carry champion, A champion and carry champion
(44:41):
and carried chatim word.
Speaker 3 (44:44):
I think it's very interesting that comedians, I believe and
I think are the most astute in terms of of
how of how you all observe behavior and politics and
how they work together. Was it intentional for you to
always have comedy that was stop thoughtful, thought provoking, and
(45:06):
obviously funny as well.
Speaker 4 (45:08):
It's hard to blend the two.
Speaker 2 (45:11):
I think.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
That it all was a combination of what was already there, okay,
and then what how it came how it came out
was the stuff that was already in me, that I
was taught, or that I saw, you know, I saw
you know I was taught. You know I want to
I want to start wielding the gun and hanging out
with my friends and robbing and stealing and you.
Speaker 2 (45:37):
Know, all that stuff.
Speaker 1 (45:38):
And my mother threw me out the house so you
can't not come back here at all. And that was
hard for me because everybody in the community respected her.
And one day she walked by and everybody said, I'm
miss Davison. I said, I a mom, and she kept
on walking. MMM, so I had to go. I went home,
(45:59):
knocked on the door. She opened the door with the
chain on it back one eye.
Speaker 2 (46:05):
She told me.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
You get a job, you can come on. Damn you
close the door. So went and got a job at
eye out. Sheate on my little work permit. You know,
I had to be thirteen, you had to be fourteen.
I was thirteen, But I got the job. Came back.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
She opened the door.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
She said, me on the couch, and she said, you
stealing from people who are just like me.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
You know you ain't doing nothing sexy. She said.
Speaker 1 (46:35):
The last thing you should be doing is trying to
take something from somebody, because there's three ways that you
can live.
Speaker 2 (46:42):
You can live.
Speaker 1 (46:43):
From taking things from somebody, right, you can. They're only
she said, they only three ways.
Speaker 2 (46:50):
To make money.
Speaker 1 (46:52):
She said, you either inherited wi your people having inherited
nothing here right to work for it. Or you either
take it and only two of those things is susceptable here.
So I started seeing the world that way.
Speaker 2 (47:12):
H m hmmm.
Speaker 1 (47:14):
What I do is a job. What I do is
a job. When I go here, I go a little
grocery store, just like when I when I was at
uh the hospital, I used to work, as you know,
put a little gas in the car.
Speaker 2 (47:31):
Yeah whatever, this is a job.
Speaker 3 (47:34):
Yeah, it's a job. It's all a job. Yeah, everything
is a job. When it's all sett and down. Hopefully
you can make it a career, but it is a job.
I am curious before I let you go because I'm
thinking about you don't sing it, bring it in, bringing in,
bring it in. Do you still cook? What's your favorite
(47:54):
thing to cook? Because it sounds like you can burn?
Like you you you had all these different positions. Can
you still burn? Or no?
Speaker 2 (48:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (48:00):
I got different things that different cycles I go through.
So I'll go through, uh a state cycle where I
want to do the traditional you know rehearby and make
you know that thing with some nice French green beans
and some white rice and some mashed potatoes. I'll be
a more extravagant mood and do a three tortellini cheese
(48:24):
pasta with baked salmon with a cream sauce, capers, sun
dried tomatoes.
Speaker 4 (48:30):
Tommy's restaurant open, Yeah it's open.
Speaker 1 (48:34):
Oh yeah, I can go into uh did Jamaican move
and maybe do some curry gold or you know, soap.
And I eat like we eat we eat heavy.
Speaker 2 (48:47):
We eat heavy, you know, we eat heavy because we
have you.
Speaker 3 (48:52):
Yeah, we need it, we need it, and we mad
because you can say so thin. That's what we're mad at,
because you can eat and stay so thin. And we
want to know if yeah, you know, I listen, I
work at it. You just you It seems it might
be more easy for you. It's a job. But remember
you're talking about jobs a moment ago. Tell me it
is a job by to stay fine.
Speaker 2 (49:13):
I get that, I get that. I get that.
Speaker 4 (49:17):
When does union premiere or has it already premiered? I
want to know. I want to tell the folks where
they can find it.
Speaker 1 (49:22):
You know what I'd be lying if I told you
I knew. Okay, great, I got to do some more
homework on that.
Speaker 4 (49:28):
Okay, we will do the homework too.
Speaker 2 (49:30):
Yeah. That the easy part is now. Mh you ain't
even got to ask a question. You can just go right,
you know.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
And I'm I'm losing my mind because while we were
on this interview, I was like, with.
Speaker 3 (49:48):
You're on your phone. You're doing the interview with the phone.
By the way, I've done that too, don't be in better.
Speaker 2 (49:55):
I had a little mini panic. I was like, but
my phone.
Speaker 3 (49:58):
Yeah, it's our brain, it's our brain. Tommy Davidson, You're
such a pleasure and a true legend. I'm going to
get you out of here. Has been a little over
thirty minutes. Thank you so much for being so gracious.
Speaker 2 (50:08):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (50:08):
And hey, yes you can have a great interview without
great questions, man, man, thank you.
Speaker 2 (50:13):
I'm also great questions.
Speaker 3 (50:15):
I really am, I really am a fan and I
and I've watched you forever. I don't want to just
say that, but you've had you have some really truly
iconic stories. And I hope you know where you live
in history, for us, for the culture you. I hope
you Okay, thank.
Speaker 2 (50:32):
You so much, good good, good, god luck to you girl.
Speaker 3 (50:35):
Thank you guys so much for listening to this edition
of Naked. And remember remember remember this, Remember this respect
Tommy Davidson, because he's a true og that that those
original gangsters og that titles thrown around a lot. He
is an og uh. He started an entirely new wave
of black comedy, and he sits a top with the greats.
(50:57):
Maybe not a big platform like them, but he is
a great.
Speaker 4 (51:01):
Do not forget that.
Speaker 3 (51:03):
Secondly, Secondly, secondly, co senior girl should Carrie Richardson some
love and give her the grace to make mistakes, give
her the grace to be famous and figure it out.
Give her that grace to be a black girl in
this world, in a world in which when we show up,
(51:23):
it can be so very complicated, so very hard on us,
and we don't need somebody else being hard on us.
Speaker 4 (51:30):
Just give her some love. I appreciate you off for listening.
We will be back next week.
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