December 3, 2025 • 56 mins
Kev has a funny and enlightening conversation with his friend, and Emmy nominated actress, Yvette Nicole Brown about her brief music career, the time she missed out on her dream of working for Disney as a college student, and her TV pilot that was picked-up and then dropped. Yvette tells hilarious stories about her setbacks and the valuable lessons she learned coming up in the entertainment industry before she saw amazing success.
Check out Yvette in Zootopia 2 in theaters now!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I applied for the Disney co Op, which is like
where you go down to Disney for a semester and
you like kind of bounce through all the different departments
of Disney. You work in every area of Disney, and
anyone that knows me now and knows my career, like
it would be like the mothership calling me home. But
they said no, no, thank you. But that's also the
summer that I met Michael Bivens and my music career began.
(00:23):
So I have a great story about how what you.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Think music career? Then you don't know me at all? Man,
You ain't done no research, brother.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
I've done You think I didn't know.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
I'm not I knew you.
Speaker 5 (00:35):
I thought I've just been following you.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
No, I think you know this. I was in the
East Coast family. You know this? What's wrong on for
one video?
Speaker 5 (00:42):
I do not know this, keV. I've only known.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
You at this point. At this point, keV, what are
we even doing? What are we even doing?
Speaker 5 (00:49):
Man? We got it to eye.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
But what is this friendship? If this is if you
don't know the origin story of me, what are we doing?
Speaker 3 (00:57):
I've learned? You know, friendships about learning. We're always evolving
as people. We're learning.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
You better be here with this friend, rod E That just.
Speaker 5 (01:23):
Oh my god, you better seen.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
You better seen that. Hold on, let me.
Speaker 5 (01:37):
Fine, now listen, let's let's kick it off.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Welcome to Not My Best Moment with me keV on stage,
author of hopefully New York Times bestseller book Successful Failure.
Usually on podcasts, we talk about what makes people great.
We're here with Event Nicole Brown today a ka just
Event the Moniker.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Not easily.
Speaker 5 (01:59):
We could talk about everything. She's done.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Over one hundred and eighty acting credits to her name
on IMDb, everything from community to inside Out. She's acting,
she's directed, She's been in your favorite shows. She's directed
your favorite movies. She's currently on Family Business on BT
Netflix at Your Age the Prophecy. Yes, yes, yes, we
know all these things. But we're not here to talk
(02:23):
about accolades. That's not what this show is about. This
show is about your mistakes, your mess ups, and what
you learn from them. If anything, So we are here now.
I didn't do my googles on Event. I've known if
as a fan for many, many years, and I've known
her as a friend for.
Speaker 5 (02:43):
A few years at least.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Passix seven, Lee Fas six, LASIXN and Effect. I didn't know,
my producers said, y'all didn't know if that was in
the East Coast family as event had a whole music career.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
Please tell me.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
I know I was wigging wigginy whack, I was Alloweddy
wiggy Whack, and everything about the music video took me
back to a time that I love to spend in
the nineties. But you know, update us who don't know
on what happened there, because this is news to me.
Speaker 5 (03:23):
Please inform me.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
You know, it's funny we started this conference. First of all,
I'm very happy to be looking at you in a box,
in an online box. I wish you could be in person.
But we have been trying to do this for how
many how many podcasts visits were us? Was I supposed
to make and life just kept lifing like cancer happened.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
It was just that, like crazy happening. But you know what,
all things work together because I think this might be
the best version of talking to you. I think this
is the most interesting, so you know, feel.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Good about it, talk a bit about it, so we
you know, the not my best moment, like when you
sent the little they send it for those that don't know,
they send a little pre little thing, a piece of paper.
Let you know what exactly they want from you. And
they said pick something, you know, pick a time when
you weren't at your best or life was life in
and all that, And so I had to have two things.
(04:20):
But the reason we got to East Coast Families. I
was telling keV that my first like big disappointment in
life happened when I was in college. I was a
think I was a freshman or a sophomore in college.
And so we had this thing there, and I think
other colleges may have had it too. It was called
the Disney co Op and it was where you got
a semester off from school and you spent that time
(04:42):
going to Disney World and cycling through every single part
of the parks, from executive to working as a guide
to backstage. You were literally you might even have time
in the Mickey Mouse a costume. Like you literally tried everything.
And I think the goal of the program was for
you to decide, you know, what you wanted to do
was part of the Disney family one day. Now, anyone
(05:03):
that knows my career now and how much I work
for Disney and how Pg. Thirteen I am you would
think that would be the mothership calling me home. So
when I heard about it, you know, my nineteen year
eighteen or nineteen year old self was like, oh my god,
this is this, this is the moment. God, thank you,
this is about to happen. Grueling interviews, keV like at
least three or four interviews while you're in school. So
(05:24):
you're going to school and then you're meeting with all
these different people and you're telling them why you want
to do what you want to do and really selling yourself.
It was wonderful. We get to the final interview, I'm like,
this is it my moment, Like I'm about to go
in there and it's about to be all that I
go in and do the interview. I'm like, this is it,
Like my life is about to change. I'm about to
be down at Disney. It's about to begin. Maybe two
weeks later, deary Vet Brown, we regret to inform you, oh,
(05:47):
I'm not chosen you to be a part of the
Disney Fellowship. And when I tell you to this day,
I mean, I'm going to say that I do know
now why, But at the time I couldn't understand and
what I did wrong. You know, I knew that my school,
my personality was great, my classes, my coursework, my grades
(06:07):
were great, I had extracurriculars. I know that I was
the personality that I'm obvious, the Disney personality.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
So I'm like, what is it? What is it?
Speaker 5 (06:16):
You know?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
So that's same.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
So I didn't get it. I was devastated. But then
that summer was the summer that BBD came to my
college town to perform, and that is the summer that
I went and sang for Michael Bivens. And that's the
summer that I became a part of the East Clast family,
got my record deal, met boys to men, got to
travel to la and see the world. And so what
(06:39):
I learned from that experience is that, you know, the
only thing that's heartbreaking about life is you don't have
the lane of experience to realize that things always ultimately
work out. Now that ultimately might be twenty years later,
might be twenty minutes later, but it does ultimately always
work out. And now you fast forward, you know, third years,
(06:59):
I'm on you know, in Disney movies, and I'm host
I'm going down the Florida in a couple of days
to host something else for Disney at Disney World. I
am hosting in front of thousands of people for the
Disney Company, and that's something. So what I felt in
my heart that I was being called to do it
was a call from the future. It was telling me
where you will be.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Huh. So it's not just about right, come on now.
Speaker 5 (07:24):
Sometimes come on.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Sometimes God will give you a glimpse of where He's
going to take you ultimately. And we only miss out
on that blessing if we stay in the muck and
the mire of the disappointment. Disappointment gonna happen. One thing
I know for sure with my fifty four years of living,
there's going to be times when you don't understand, when
it doesn't make sense, when it's all when all is lost.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
But you know it's the third day.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Yeah, yeah, on the third day is when and the
figurative third day for you is when you rise up
and God reveals what he always had for you. So
he just whispered it to me a few years really,
you know, but he already he told me what he
had for me. It just wasn't coming in that way.
Speaker 5 (08:04):
I love you.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
I love that. I think the part that is that
is so good. I think the part that's hard about
that is, you know, ultimately we believe God has and
I do believe this. I assume you do as well.
God has the whole picture, yep, the whole plan, the
whole journey. But we have the next step or two
(08:28):
right right, And I imagine it's like a maze, like
you're walking and amazing. You get to the end and
you're just like you don't know how far you are
where you are. And that part is very frustrating because
in the moment we be like this is what what next?
Like I imagine you were like, well, now, what how
(08:48):
long did it take you to, like to reconcile because
you put your eggs in that basket?
Speaker 2 (08:54):
In that oh that egg was down the road with
the with the rabbit carrying it. It was he was hopping
on down the road with that basket. I didn't have
no more eggs. It's like, it's like me in his
house right now because eggs is expensive. I had no leagues.
All my eggs was in that basket and I didn't.
Speaker 5 (09:08):
You know.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
The thing is, I was like I had planned to
be in Florida like I had. I literally told my
roommates deuces, like I was ready to go to what
it was supposed to be, and it probably wasn't. This
was like a fall semester into into spring semester, all
the all the interviews, and I didn't meet Michael until
that summer. So it really was months, like six seven,
(09:32):
eight months of just being just feeling like like I
really missed it. Because there's nothing as a believer, there's
nothing worse. I mean there's I mean, hell is worse,
reprobate is worse, but there's very little worse than knowing
that you heard God. Knowing that you heard God and
him saying nah, you know, not right now or later.
(09:54):
That is such a debilitating thing, especially when you're young.
When you're young, either when you're young Christ or you
young in the world.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Right I was or both?
Speaker 5 (10:03):
Right?
Speaker 2 (10:04):
So I was both.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
I was nineteen years old and I was you know,
I was young in my walk with God and I
was young in life. So I hadn't yet realized that
sometimes hard work doesn't pay off immediately.
Speaker 5 (10:17):
Oh say more about that, either, right, say that? Because
that's yeah, that's hard to that's hard to settle.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
With right because we because we're told, especially the black kids,
we're told that the only way through is if we
we have to excel right, excellence ten times better to
get half as much. All of that is what we're
told from the time we're young, and honestly, up until
that point in my life, it had been proven true.
Like I was the one that was front row center
in every class. I was National Honor Society, scholarships to college.
(10:48):
You know, I was that chick, like I really believed,
you know, if you work hard and you study hard
and you're good, a good person, the world opens up
for you. And that was the first time that I
did all the things. I did them all, you know,
and and it did not that particular blessing did not
come my way. And I had to really sit with that.
And cause you have that moment, it doesn't matter where
(11:09):
you are in Christ, you have the moment where you're like, well,
what does it What does it mean when you have
done what he said we're supposed to do? And the
answer is still know And that always takes me back
to the scripture. Though he slay me, yet, will I
trust him?
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Yet? Will I trust? And so listen slay is death.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Oh, now that might be you know, death to a dream,
death to a relationship, death to a job prospect, death
to a friendship. But the point is you supposed to
be able to be like, all right, he took me
out and I don't like it. We ain't gotta like it.
I don't like it, right, But I trust him? Yeah,
but I trust him. And that was the first time
(11:50):
I had to literally, you know, lean into that thing.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
So how did you trust him? Because okay, so well
let me I'm gonna ask this, and I'm gonna double back. Sure,
what's the time period between when you found out you
weren't getting it and then until you met Michael Bivins?
Speaker 1 (12:06):
It was probably I would say I didn't get it
around maybe March because they were setting us up to
be able to go there in the fall. Okay, So
I want to say, like maybe February or March I
got the no, it ain't you. And then I met
Michael probably that July, so four or five months from
(12:29):
that to that. And I gotta be honest, when I
met Michael, I didn't have that instant. That's why I
didn't have that Like I was very happy that I
met Michael, but I still.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Still wanted Disney.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Yeah, but what I mean I still because I didn't
know what was going to happen with Michael.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
I didn't know if I was gonna if I was
going to actually be signed. I didn't know.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
I didn't know that the East Coast family was coming.
I didn't know any of that. I just I just
knew that I sang for one of my heroes and
he liked my voice, and he promised me that I'd
be doing something musical, which had been my greatest dream
even before going to college.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
I always want to be a singer. So that was great,
but I didn't have it. Wasn't a bird in.
Speaker 5 (13:07):
The hand for sure.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
First was a Disney. Was the bird? The bird, the beautiful?
The dove was in the hand?
Speaker 5 (13:14):
Yeah? Yeah, you know?
Speaker 3 (13:15):
Yeah, So how did you take me through those those
in between months? Like what was it like? And you know,
when you're young, we don't have a lot of life
experience to even it ain't like all that one time.
Now you can say when I was nineteen this happened,
or when I thought I would get this roll or
book this movie. But at that time that might might
have been the most devastating being career wise for you
might have might have.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Might have been wo inconsolable. Couldn't nobody say nothing to it?
My mother was like baby, I said, my mom, okay,
here now, I can't hear right now.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
They didn't. The mouse then went on without the mouse.
Don't want the mouse. Don't want me, Mama, the mouse
don't want me.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
The only thing that I could even liking it to
back then was just like liking some dude that didn't
like me. Back that was the only thing that was
as devastating, you know, as that as that experience, you know,
it's the only thing.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Everything else paled in comparison.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
So you just kind of I think at the time,
I think this is the way I am though in life.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
I mean, we're gonna do. I mean, what I'm gonna
do with trust God, I don't know. I don't know
anything other to do.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
And I'm a completest, like I want to see how
this thing going in. This is why, for the most part,
I've never been suicidal, because and I've had things that
have happened that have made me like, I this sucks.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
I don't like it here.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
But the reason I've never seriously thought about leaving here
is like, well, I gotta see how it's.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
Going in tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
It might get better tomorrow, to see what it's gonna be,
you know what I mean, figure out what it is.
I mean, I'm gonna leave here someday anyway, so might
as well wait to the Lord take me to take myself.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
So that's, you know, so what I'm gonna do.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
But but but whether this and have a great story
to tell hopefully, so let me.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
Ask you this. And I want to know what happened
with your music career as well. But anybody, you don't
have to be an actor to know this. Very few
of us get to be Denzel and audition once and
never have to audition again.
Speaker 5 (15:04):
That's right. The rest of us, have you audition?
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Yea? Is there anything you learned from not getting that
Disney co op that later on in life you feel
like helped you navigate, you know, navigate Hollywood or the
music industry.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Yet what I learned is that you not promised nothing
like even if you even if you are even if
you got next, even if you are the person that
everybody's like, this is you, this is you son, there's
no guarantees, and that actually, where some people might see
that as sad, that was freeing for me because that
(15:38):
meant if there's no guarantees for me, there's no guarantee
for anybody else either, which means it's a very level
playing field.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
You know.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
I just realized at that moment, nobody. I say this
all the time when I talk to young, young actors
and young people, I always say, nobody knows what they're doing,
and nobody knows what the secret sauce is for this business.
Anybody you talk to that has made it, talk to
fifty people, you'll hear fifty ways they broke in. You
hear fifty ways they got their agent, their manager, their podcast, there, whatever.
(16:05):
There's no set way of doing any of this, which
means anyone that tells you, well, this is how you
do it, they don't know that's how they did it.
You know, the basics. You have a hit shot, you know, right.
If you're a comedian, have five minutes in your back pocket.
If you're a writer, make sure you got a script
or too. That's the basics. But as far as that
(16:25):
script guaranteeing you're gonna have a movie please or Churchy
on BT, absolutely not. There ain't no guarantee for that stuff.
You do the work and hope for the best, but
there's no guarantee. So that's what I learned from it.
I don't regret that I was excellent in those interviews.
I don't regret that I dreamed of being a part
of Disney. Like I said, it was my future calling.
(16:45):
That was good work I did. It was right for
me to put that time in. It made me better
for every interview I had going forward, every audition I
had going forward. It sucks that I didn't get it,
but I got it. It's like it's like wax on
wax off with a kid. Yeah, you know he's doing
the hard work and in the moment it doesn't look
like it's bearing any fruit. But getting there with one
(17:06):
leg and fight and be able to do that faint defense.
Speaker 5 (17:11):
And right right.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
I think that's so good to hear, Like, yeah, it
feels like harsh advice, but it's very true. Sometimes your
best isn't good enough. Like in sports, there's this this
this phrase that says good defense better offense, and there's
no there's no defense for the perfect play.
Speaker 5 (17:29):
Like you can have done everything.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Right, you could be in position you could have scouted,
you could know their tendencies.
Speaker 5 (17:36):
You can have your hand up.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Sometimes that shot still goes in and you lose a game,
and I think you gotta kind of you gotta kind
of own that. Regardless of your industry, sometimes you gotta
own that you did everything right, especially Hollywood. I think
for me, I was I hate auditioning. And one thing
I hate is they don't even tell you didn't get it.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
They don't even just never hear. You never hear from
yost it. You get ghosted.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
You just never hear. Like especially you, you feel like, man,
I killed this, you know. And my son used to
be in the industry and he was like six. He
was auditioning and he would be like, dude, his preparation
and do all this and then not get it. He's like, Daddy,
am I not good enough? And it could be something
as simple. And I didn't understand this until I was
on the other side. We you know, when he did
(18:26):
Little Rascals, they needed they wanted these characters to be
exactly four inches, the same height, same right right like
he played Buckweed in the remake and the partner Spanky,
I mean, uh, Parky. They loved him and they loved
my son's partner and they wanted buckwet to be exactly
four inches. So had my son done everything else, but
(18:46):
not have the wrong height been the wrong height? And
it's like, how do you do that over and over
when they don't even tell you that. I don't even
know that because he booked it. If he didn't book it,
they wouldn't they wouldn't have even told us that. And
I think that resilience is so necessary.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Yeah, but you know, something else came to mind. I
was thinking that I always think about life as like
I can't remember what painter it is that does the dots.
I don't know if it's Matisse or Monet, but one
of them does the little dots, and you got it.
You get really close to it and it doesn't look great,
and then you pull out and it's like, oh, they
boy the river looking at the ducks. So what I
always think about is we are looking at our life
(19:25):
very close up, and when it's a tough moment, God
is working on the shadow. If somebody is standing on
the river, right, it's a shadow, and the shadow is dark, right,
So when you're looking up close and you just see
black and blue and dark colors, but you pull like, oh,
that's the latest shadow, but you can only see it
from up here, and that's the way God is looking
at it.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Right.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
The other thing I always think about is we are
the star of our story, but sometimes we're a supporting
player or even a background performer in someone else's story.
So there might have been somebody at my college who
really wanted to go to Disney and they didn't believe
that they could do it, and they there was one
slot left and it was between me and that person,
and God needed to teach that person that sometimes you
(20:05):
can be the underdog and still win. So instead of
giving it to the one that was the shoe in
in this instance, God chose to use the shoe in
against the underdog for the underdog to get it so
that person could have what they needed to take them
where they need to go. It wasn't my story, that
was his story. I was a supporting player in that
person's version of this story, right their lifestory. And you
(20:29):
gotta be okay being a supporting player in someone else's story,
even if it's it's one that you want to show,
you really want to be in that.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Is so you know good. That is low key. That's
a really good perspective to have one thing that I've
been like, you know, implementing more wasn't a thought process
that I used to have, but I've been implementing more
and more, and it helps navigate Hollywood tremendously. Is what
God has for me is for me.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
It's for you.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
And the things you think are for you. You know,
like you're saying about that dot, in that moment, you
feel like, oh, if I just did this, it would
be perfect, and it seems like, oh, this would fit,
this would be perfect, and it isn't because you don't
have the right perspective. I remember when we were I
was very young, maybe about twenty maybe nineteen or twenty,
(21:21):
and this is when we were doing the plays. And
I remember we had done a play and we were
just sure we were going to take it on the road,
and I was going to be away from my family.
And I thought, my wife a laptop and this thing
was had more malware than key, just full of.
Speaker 5 (21:37):
Malware, spyware. I thought I was moving to Chicago.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
We didn't even have kids yet, so I was all
to go to Chicago and we're gonna make it ended
up being the lady. The promoter ended up getting pregnant.
She was like, I was ready to move to Chicago.
She was like, I'm sorry, I'm having twins.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Clinck's over.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
Yeah, And I think now I realized I'm very grateful
that my career has gone very slowly because I needed
to learn how to be a good husband, a better father.
Like I travel a lot now, but when my children
were young, I didn't travel that much.
Speaker 5 (22:07):
And you can't go back in time and redo that.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Now they're like, you know, I travel a lot now,
but they're like, you know, I felt super guilty about it.
And they were like, you've been a part of our.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Life, been here, you've been here and we and we've
almost were almost grown.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Now go we almost grown now, And tell you that
they don't even when I am home, maybe gone with
their friends, studios.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
They got a life camp. Ain't got time for you now, ain't.
Speaker 5 (22:31):
Got no time.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
But I think only when I look back I can
say I'm glad that things worked out the way they did.
Speaker 5 (22:40):
But looking forward, it's often it's like fog. You.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
I got to.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Say this though, you don't want to be somewhere you're
not ready for either you know what I mean, come
on now. Like we all have big dreams and things
that we want to do, especially in this industry.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
I want to I want to.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Lead a movie, do you? And and you may, but
are you to lead? I'll be on a multimillion dollar
Really you ready for that? The pressure? The pressure of it,
Like I kind of like slow and study. I like
God to I let God decide when it's time for
me to level up. I don't petition and do none
of that. I'd be like Lord, whenever you say it's time,
I'm gone and go. You open the door, I'm gonna
(23:17):
go through it, but I'm not banging on I don't
bang on doors. Care I don't bang on doors, then
don't do it. I've always joked that my career is
Forrest Gump, Like everywhere I've ended up has been literally
just you know, finding my way there, and I'm prepared.
I prepare, but I don't chase down things. And that's
why the other thing, going back to the what's for
you is for you? I've never understood people that act
(23:38):
as if there's not enough to go around, and because
of that they stabbing people in the back and stepping
on people's necks to get ahead. If I got to
step on your neck to get it, I.
Speaker 5 (23:46):
Don't want it.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
I don't want to lose myself to get something from you.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
Don't.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
I want you to have everything God got for you.
I'm not taking nothing from nobody. I am proud to
say I've never stolen anybody's job. I've never slept with
anybody to get ahead. I ain't never took nobody's boyfriend
or try to. I don't live like that. I've never
like lied about. I don't lie about privately. Girl, I
don't know who they saying. If I know who they saying,
I'm gonna tell you what they're saying. I will find
(24:12):
out about an audition and ask any of my friends
and they'll tell the truth.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
I'll be like I tave you they're over there looking
for us.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
They gone down to Ross Lacey because I mean, TV
don't need this.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Now she got to Oscar. They be calling her. But
I'm saying back in the.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
Day, I'd be like I Tavia, they looking for us
down at Ross Lacey, gone, and it's a Tide commercial
and they want somebody. It's a little fluffy that got
you know, little brown skin girl gone down there, tell
him I sent you. I don't care. I'll come out
of an audition and be like, there's three people in there.
The lady in the green sweater don't like to laugh,
so don't put nothing to her. Talk to the guy
in the brown sweater. He real nice. I tell everybody
(24:44):
everything because in my mind, it's either for me or.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
It's for you.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
And if you, if you my girl, min and even
if you know my girl, I don't care. I do
not keep information. I think everybody sho win. If anybody
looks at my page, I be promoting everybody stuff I ain't got.
Ain't nobody paying me nothing.
Speaker 5 (25:01):
I'd be like out here for the community.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
I'll be like church, you about to come back.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
I will read my stories is like five hundred pages long,
because every time somebody got some good news or need help,
I'm reposting it.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Yeah, I'm not hiding no good stuff from nobody. Ain't
got to be able to tell you it's good. Gon't
watch you gonna watch Kevin Show and stop playing. You
better go. Nobody pots from Tabitha silipot. You'all better go
get your pots and Donna's recipe. I'll be I'll be
the first one.
Speaker 5 (25:28):
Yeah, that's the first one. And it don't take nothing
from you.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
You'll take nothing.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
I fully believe God has your and honestly, I even
believe the more you are that way, the more people
celebrate you when it's your turn.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Absolutely, this is a saying I use all the time.
Kevin says, a candle loses nothing by.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Lighting or nothing.
Speaker 5 (25:46):
Oh that's good. Nothing.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
You get it that flame, that flame is plentiful. Go
go on, share your flame. Don't share your flame.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
Time for a quick commercial break. We'll be back with
more from eventing Nicole Brown. Now that that Disney fellowship,
(26:22):
you lost it and you won back and you got
everything worked out.
Speaker 5 (26:25):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
Is there anything in your life that you went through
way you still to this day?
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Might not his day?
Speaker 1 (26:34):
I will tell you it's so funny. I've never told this.
People know this story, but I've never told this story publicly.
So when I graduated from college, I moved out to
LA to pursue the music career. Music had changed a
little bit. I was I'm PG thirteen. I'm always in PG.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Thirteen.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Kim Whitley caused me a little baby, Jesus, I've always
been someone as I'm always fully covered. I'm just you know,
I'm just just who I am, and there's no judgment
if you want to be out there like that, live
your life. But for me, I know what works for me.
So I didn't want to sing sex songs. I didn't
want to sing songs like you know, flip me up,
throw me against the wall, all that stuff was just
not for me. And so between getting my record deal
at I think twenty is when I signed my deal,
(27:09):
and then graduating from college and moving to LA, the
music industry, like aDNA Howard was out there like I
want to get it. She was like, come on, get
remember I saw I know him very well. So yeah,
so and no shade the aDNA, but that I can't
do it.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
I can't do it.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
So by the time I came out, I was like, well,
let me just you know, work in the industry and
pursue other things. So I was working as an office
temp and there was this show that came out called
The Cut and it was the precursor to American Idol,
and it was three judges and you came out and
you sang and they and they assessed you, and then
I think the winner of that show would go on
(27:46):
and get a record deal and ended up being, you know,
get a video and whatever. And so I'm working as
a temp and I'm like, I think this is this
is look at me, this is it.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
I don't even imitate something.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
I had my teeth kicked in so much as a
young person that I don't even declare that something is
it anymore?
Speaker 2 (28:02):
I don't. I don't do it. I don't do it.
I go and I leave it.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
But I was like, this is it, Like this is
my way to get back into the industry. So I
go in audition and I get I get it. I'm
I'm I'm gonna be on the show, which I'm taking
as a sign. And I was not. Not to my credit,
I was not. I had just quit a job. Not
to my credit, I didn't quit the job because of
the show. I quit the job because sometimes I wake
up go it's a good day to quit, Like you
gotta know where.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
It's time, when your time is up. I said, today's
the day. So I'd already quit.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
And so I quit the job and then gave my
I gave my two weeks notice, and then within that
next week I was going to be going to do
this this show. So I go and do the show,
and I'm nervous and I'm backstage and I'm feeling like
my throat is a little dry.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
So so let me just put I'm gonna put a
delicious lodging and I'm just going.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
When a moisten, moisten needs vocal these vocal wars. Now,
I'm not a trained singer. Anything I know how to
do as a singer, and for the most part, as
an actor, it's just me learning, being a fool or
just singing. I just I'm not trained. Had I been trained,
I would know that you don't you don't eat a
lozenge because it kind of it kind of numbs your
vocal cords. You can't really control them as well. And
also training might have taught me that you don't start
(29:11):
a song with one in your mouth. So I got
you know how it sends. So I got out there
and started to sing on this national television show and
the lozenge goes down my throat as soon as I
say my first note, So we go. That is the
noise that my throat made. Now I'm thinking, do I
keep trying to sing or do I try to survive
(29:32):
I gotta get it down or it's gotta come up up.
It is probably, but all this is going through my
mind while I'm singing this song in front of these
three judges. So of course it was horrible. I got judged,
Oh horribly. The judges were like, you're trash. I don't
know how you got on the show.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
Boo.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Somebody had tomatoes. I'm kidding.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
But then if they had tomatoes, they would have thrown
the tomatoes. Now, this happened on national television. It happened
on MTV, and this is when MTV played things five
a million times. So I'm leaving, I go I literally keV,
I promise you. I was leaving the set and I
said to myself, well, I'm in the car already, I
(30:11):
should just drive to Ohio.
Speaker 5 (30:13):
I don't even.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
I don't need anything that's in that little small studio apartment.
I don't. I've quit my job.
Speaker 5 (30:19):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
I don't really own anything because I was poor. I
was so poor. I'm so poor back then. I was like,
I just I'll just drive home.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
I tried.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
I tried this, it's not didn't happen, It's okay, And
then it washed over me. How many times it would
be seen. And when I tell you, MTV did not disappoint.
When I tell you MTV, MTV ran my humiliation. If
I'm saying if it aired five hundred times, I'm not
even kid keV all all day parts, all day parts,
(30:52):
first thing in the morning, middle of the night, it was.
It was on and there was I remember, I'll never forget.
This is this girl that I thought was my friend.
Were I thought we were friends in high school. She
called me long distance, and this is before cell phones.
This is wow when this when long distance was expensive.
She found my number in that studio apartment and she
(31:12):
called me long distance. She said, hey, you know, I
just saw you. I just saw you on the cut.
That was real embarrassing.
Speaker 5 (31:18):
Huh oh oh my god.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
I said, yeah, that was that was really devas. Yeah,
I watched you. I've seen it a couple of times.
It airs a lot. I said, yeah, it does.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
You know, thank you, thank you for letting me know
that you watched me get humiliated on television. And I
realized in that moment there's always a lesson. I realized, one,
this girl is not my friend.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
That's obvious.
Speaker 5 (31:41):
But then I.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Also realized that there are people that enjoy someone else's downfall,
and though I had never been someone that did, I
really hate I'm so I'm so bad. I can't go
to comedy clubs because I don't like people to bomb,
like I'm.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
The fool, you know, the fool.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
We see somebody really bombing, and it's one person laughing
at that's me, I'm the one. And I can't watch
Apollo because they might get booed, like something dies inside
when someone doesn't do well, and I know that they
want to so I don't have that in me. I
don't understand the inclination to kick someone while they're down.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
But I learned from her that there are people that
do wish you ill, and there are people that you know,
I guess they call the monitoring spirits.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Now we didn't have that framework back then, but there
are people that watch you, hoping that you fail. And
I realized, you know, if I left Cleveland to come
to La to chase these big dreams that a lot
of people in Cleveland didn't have because we can't see
our way out, and I was, you know, crazy enough
to actually think that this could happen for me. And
I realized that that bothered her like she didn't like
(32:44):
that I wanted more for myself. And when she thought
that this big dream I had had died, she couldn't
wait to dance at the death party the funeral.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
And I had.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Learned in that experience to never to never allow someone
else's glee at my failure to affect me, because it
told me more about who she was than about me.
And that lozenge on that TV show, you know what
I mean, Like I you know, and I heard she
lost a toe recently. I heard she don't have a toe.
(33:15):
Lord came and grabbed that toe. He said, come on,
give me that, give me that right.
Speaker 5 (33:18):
Quick stand in nine toes down, nine toes.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Down, and her hate and listen, I wish I wish
her well. I've always wished her well. I ain't got
no beef with her, but she's showed enough relished, you know,
kicking me when I was down with the ten toes
she had at the time.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
You know what's so interesting about that event is that
wasn't even a skill issue. That was an unfortunate mishap.
And she jumped at something on another day. You don't
have the lozenge and you whatever happens is Yeah, it's
not a skill issue, but that's that's sometimes how the cookie,
how the cookie crumbles. But yeah, you know, I think
(33:59):
it's so interesting you your career started before social media
was a big part of it, and it's gone into
social media being a big part of it. That to me,
that lesson is a valuable one for having a career
on social media because people they don't like you, and
they just are waiting for enough people to not like
(34:22):
you so they can finally share by this thing they've
always had without reason. It's so rough, and I think
you we've had to learn to really not take that
unwarranted criticism personally, right, So I think you're right, it
takes a It really honestly is more reflective of the
(34:43):
person than anything you have done.
Speaker 5 (34:45):
You You are really just the target of their of their.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Own of their own sadness or their own self hate,
you know, uh excuse me. And being fair to her,
you know, she might have felt trapped in Ohio or
she might have felt like, you know, what she wanted
to to do she wouldn't be able to do. And
who am I to dream big? Who am I to
you know? And I've never been a braggadocious person, so
it wasn't like I was walking through the streets to
clean look at me.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
I've never been that person.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
So I didn't understand why she felt like she had
to kick me down. I'm pretty I keep myself pretty
low anyway. I'm a very humble person. So I didn't
get it. But I realized that it was it wasn't
about me, you know, And I also know God has
always got me, even in the midst of devastation. And
when I say that situation was even more devastating than
(35:32):
the Disney thing, because I didn't feel that I had
done my best.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
I felt that I'd made a mistake, a bad decision that.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
Ended up playing out repeatedly, and I didn't know what
that lesson.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
What don't put.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
Alazengin is that that's not a big enough lesson for
it to be. You know, played that many times. But
then I think it goes back to the lesson of
the Disney co op. I had to learn that sometimes
doesn't go your way, and it goes right back to
who are you as a child of God? If God
(36:07):
has another plan for you?
Speaker 2 (36:09):
Who are you? Now?
Speaker 1 (36:11):
You quit your jobs? You don't have a job. You
just humiliated yourself on television. And then also, I forgot
to say this, I had a temp job starting the
next day. So I went and I went to the
temp job. Now ask me, did I cry all day
at the place?
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Crowd all day? Kevin? I cried all day? They said, this,
poor girl, what is that?
Speaker 5 (36:30):
Was a TV show?
Speaker 1 (36:31):
And they said, well, girl, just answer the phones when
you can't death Dragon teas and get these phones. That
job ended up being how about this? That job ended
up being a blessing for years were not years, for
a few months, like six or seven months. It was
at a place called Apollo Investments. I think it still exists.
It was an investment firm. This place had a full
kitchen because they wanted the men, the men and women
(36:51):
that worked there to feel free to work as late
as they wanted or come in as early. So they
had breakfast, they catered lunch, they catered dinner every day.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
I had quit a job.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
I was on the bus and a system was poor.
And I ate well at Apollo Investments and they enjoyed me.
They forgave my tears that first day, and I ended
up working there as long as I wanted to anytime
they need attempt they called me in.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
So it literally, even though I was in my lowest place,
God was still providing, he was still giving me provision.
And you have to always look for there's a silver
lining in every cloud. I am old, and I can
tell y'all there is a silver lining in every cloud.
But you can sit there and bemoan the rain, or
(37:34):
you can go let me dip through, look through these
dots and these drops. And ah, I'm an all girl.
Whoa that is?
Speaker 5 (37:44):
That is?
Speaker 1 (37:45):
And I will cling to that little sliver of a
of a of a a silver lining as long as
it takes until the rain stops, because rain gonna come west.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
Let me tell you what life taught me, KIV.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
Most of life is hard, yeah, the good time like
we I think we were sold a bill of goods
that life is great and fun whatever, And sometimes it's bad. No, no, no,
it's mostly really difficult, and sometimes it's good. And so
you need to learn how to cope through the part.
If you learn how to make it through hard times
without you know what Tab always said, If you can't
(38:19):
have a gooday, don't you go mess.
Speaker 5 (38:20):
Up nobody else, go messing nobody else.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
Go mess up. Nobody else is here.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
So if you can find a way to weather your
storms without becoming a storm cloud in someone else's life,
you cracked the matrix.
Speaker 5 (38:31):
I th crat that cracked it.
Speaker 3 (38:34):
You know, that's that's so good because you know, I
imagine earlier in your career you went from tim job
to booking something to back to the job like booking
back to it. Didn't you weren't You didn't have like
my first road one hundred episodes like you've had, you know,
And I think that has to be.
Speaker 5 (38:55):
Tough to be.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
Like I got a little bit of my dream. Now
I got to go back to apollow investments.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
Man, let me tell you something. Well, they had very
delicious food, so I wouldn't ever say, but man, delicious chick,
the leg cuckaroo they was, it was doing it.
Speaker 5 (39:12):
That's a that's part of your amenities down to the job.
Speaker 3 (39:15):
Be more valua than for one k when you hung
I'm hungry right now, hungry today.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
Every cereal cab, every cereal that they made, it was
in there. When you go on the little treaded wheat
treading read on up to the fruit loops and the
apple jack stand. It all that milk two percent and whole.
You want to be. You want to do the skill,
do the skill you want to you want the full.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
Experience of the cow. Here's the hole with the bottom
in d Man follow vessels was amazing, But yeah, it's
it's it's all a journey. The first the first sitcom
I booked. Kevin Hard mentioned earlier the Big House. The
Big House was picked up for I should have.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Told that story. That's a great story. We got the
Big House, we still got time the pipe. We do pilot.
It's my first policiason book a pilot, my first policies.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
It's crazy. It never happens. And then the show is
picked up. They fly us to New York to do
the upfronts. The night before the upfronts, they call us
into a room and they say, we're sorry, your your
pickup has been rescinded. Never in the history of network
television had a show been a cast been flown to
the upfronts and the show canceled before they're able to
(40:23):
be announced. So they told us, you know, you guys
can either catch a flight back tonight, you can do
I said, well, listen, I got this room until the
day after tomorrow, so I'm gonna I'm gonna get me
and I got this per diem. They then told me,
I got some dim on this room I got. I
left there with a robe. We were standing at the
Ritz Carlton. I left with a ritz.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
I'm leaving. There was something I put that on it.
I got. I got all the shrimp. Do you understand?
Speaker 1 (40:46):
I called down the rooms, I ever saying I have
two hundred dollars went a lot further back in two
thousand and three.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
I said, I got two hundred dollars. I would like
all the shrimp, however you cook it fried freakazy.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
I would like all the s So they set all
the shrimp up, all of that, and then so we
were sent we fly back to California, and then they
because it was a black show, that got canceled that way,
and it never happened. I think there was really a
lot of bad press. And so then we ended up
getting a mid season pickup for thirteen. We're on the
night before the sixth episode starts. I go and buy
(41:23):
a car because I'd been driving a beater. I mean, like,
check engine light on, can't go up the hill and
have the radio on. You you could add a choice.
You had radio on the heat or go up a hill.
Those are your choices. So listen and told you the
car I would get able to listen. This is what
we're doing it down and told you what we can
do today, So figure it out.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
So this car was.
Speaker 5 (41:46):
Uphill.
Speaker 3 (41:46):
You if it got to go uphill, you got to
go on the way, park down here and walk walk up.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
So this car was on his last legs. And I
was like, I finally have a network show.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
I wasn't.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
I wasn't making a lot of money per episode, of course,
but it was enough to get a car note and
know that I.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
Could pay it. So I buy this car.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
The dealership was right across the street from we were
shooting at the studio that's on in Culver City. I
think it's called Sunset Gower or Gower Studios. Anyway, there
was a Honda dealership right across street. Bought my little
hond to CRV. Pull up to the show, got the
bowl on it. I'm excited, come in with the key.
They're like, you bet, can we have a conversation in
living room set? Anytime? They want to gather us somewhere,
(42:24):
ain't it ain't good. I go in with my key
in my hand, and they said, yeah, we've been canceled.
This episode is our last episode. So we not only
got canceled before Upfronts, we didn't even get to finish
the first thirteen.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
We got six and I had just bought a car,
and you bought the car the show after I bought
the car on like a Monday night, Tuesday morning, that
show was canceled.
Speaker 5 (42:48):
The next day you went to work, they said, with.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
The boat camp.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
I still had the bowl on the hood, with the
boat still. It's the first time I ever bought a
new car. I said, I need the boat. You got
to give me the boat. I draw with the boat.
The boat was on the car.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
I was like like, now that I'm telling these stories,
I'm like, why am I so hopeful? Why do I believe?
Speaker 5 (43:12):
Why did you go back to the car and rip
the bowl?
Speaker 1 (43:16):
I listen, I enjoyed my ball. I said, listen, I'm
gonna live. I'm gonna live in yesterday today. I'm gonna
live in yesterday today. And this is the other thing too.
I've always been a saver, so I knew that the
only big purchase I made was that car, and This
was two thousand and three. That car was maybe maybe
twelve thousand dollars, which you know was like maybe three
hundred dollars a month or something.
Speaker 2 (43:33):
It's doable.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
It was doable, but it still was, you know, another
another kick in the chest, but I didn't. This is
when I say about that experience. I learned immediately in
this industry that nothing is guaranteed. Now, what a great
way to learn it. I'd rather learn it with a
twelve thousand dollars car than a Porsche one hundred thousand
dollars Porsche, right, I'd rather learn it without a mortgage.
(43:57):
I'd rather learn it while Apollo Investments is still allowing
me to come in and eat that cereal and that
cuckaroo in the evening, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
I learned it at the right time. And then I
also it taught me how to appreciate and be grateful
for everything you get because nothing is guaranteed in this life,
and especially in this business. It's not guaranteed.
Speaker 3 (44:16):
So that's so interesting, right, because you've had full TV shows,
you know, you you were on Community you left there,
You've had like do you think that view that view
of life has made it easier to navigate this very
difficult life.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
Absolutely, because I think, listen, either you believe my favorite
scripture is Jeremiah twenty nine eleven.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
That's my favorite scripture. That's the one man.
Speaker 5 (44:42):
How.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
Help me that I have.
Speaker 1 (44:48):
Towards you to prosper you future, not to harm you,
to give you an expected in right, which means what
do you expect?
Speaker 4 (44:58):
You know?
Speaker 2 (44:58):
And also God's got you. So though it.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
Looks like right now this is horrible, it's an expected end.
So if it looks horrible, it ain't the end. I
put that scripture on the runner of my wedding. Jeremih
tweeny nine eleven was on the runner because that's how
much of a rock scripture it is for me. And
so if you believe that scripture and you believe that
God is literally trying to prosper you and not harm you,
(45:22):
that means in any time in life that you feel
like you got a kick to the sternum, that's not
the end. It might be a lesson, but it's not
the end. So I always hold on to God's God's
word and he says that it's gonna be alright for
me ultimately, So I'm just gonna keep going until I
get to my ultimate end. And that's when he calls
(45:43):
me home, when he says, well done, my good and
faithful servant.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
I know Jesus. You know I'm good. I know Jesus.
Speaker 5 (45:52):
Why it be?
Speaker 2 (45:53):
You know the Bible? Today? Y'all gonna do it today?
Speaker 5 (46:01):
Hey, guys, taking a quick commercial break, will be right? Man.
(46:27):
Let me ask you this.
Speaker 3 (46:28):
If you yes, some would assume at this level of
your career, which congratulations, You've had so many things go
well for so long. Some would assume, even me, at
this point, you don't have anything that goes wrong, anything
that you want that doesn't come to pass. Does that?
Do you still need these lessons? There's still things that
you want for go out for. I don't know if
(46:48):
you're auditioning your offer only.
Speaker 2 (46:50):
First of all, I think offer only is a trap.
So really, yeah, I do. It's nice.
Speaker 1 (46:55):
It's nice for somebody to say we'd like you to
do this, that's or we wrote this for you. I've
had a couple of experiences like that and it is lovely.
But when when it's an offer, I want people to
remember this, there's always somebody that ain't on board, so
that means when you get on set, you that person's there.
It might be the director, it might be the producer,
it might be the showrunner. There's somebody there that that
(47:16):
didn't wanted you to audition, and they're not sure. Now
the thing is, hopefully if you're offer only, you know
your your skill set enough and you've been on enough
sets to know and you can win them over. But
I don't want to start by having to win you over.
I'd rather I'd rather everybody say she's the one.
Speaker 4 (47:30):
Now.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
I'm not saying that I don't. I'll say no to
offer only, go audition me. Now you gonna give me,
don't give to me. But I also do not mind auditioning.
And I still audition, And I'll even tell someone that
they say, we are thinking of you for this. I'm like,
let me know when you want me to put something
on tape or you want me to come in, and
they go, oh no, no, we're gonna offer own. Okay,
you know, but the show I did Odd couple. Right
(47:52):
after I left community for my dad take care of
my dad. I got a call know I was on
this se I think I was on the CBS Radford
lot and I ran into the showrunner of The Odd Couple. No,
that's not true. I ran into one of the writers
on The Eye Couple that used to work on Community.
That's what I ran into one of the writers and
she said, Emily, and she said, Yvette, you know we
were trying to we're trying to get you to come
(48:14):
over to the Odd Couple. We have a we're recasting
a role and we'd love for you to to do
the Odd Couple. And I said, okay, that'd be great, awesome,
And I left her thinking, any day this audition is
going to come in. Then a couple of weeks later,
I run into a show the show runner, Bob Daily,
who I'd never met before. He said, Hi, I'm sorry
you don't know any My names by Daily, I'm showrunner
on Odd Couple. We really we try, we're trying to
(48:34):
get you.
Speaker 2 (48:34):
I said yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
I said, no one, no one gave me any information
about the audition. He said, no, no, we want to
give it to you, like, we want you to play
this role.
Speaker 2 (48:44):
And this was the first offered.
Speaker 1 (48:46):
Like and no one had ever offered me anything. And
I was prepared after jeemn off of coming off of
five years on Community. I was prepared to go on
audition for this role, and he told me, no, no, no,
we just trying to get the name of your eighth
like we do we need you because it's all before
social media and stuff. There was no which that's not
that's a lie. There was social media, but I guess
they didn't have my knowledge it. And then I found
(49:06):
out when I reached out to my agent that they
my agent had sent me something about the odd couple,
but it didn't have an audition attachment. So I saw it,
but it didn't say you know, the little attachment like
with So I never opened it. I literally and I
called agent, like, yo, they're looking for me a city,
but we sent you that three weeks ago.
Speaker 2 (49:26):
You never responded.
Speaker 1 (49:27):
We thought you didn't want to do what I'm going
through even like what so you just never know how
things are going to play out. But I've kept that
feeling like I I will audition for things if you
don't know for sure, if somebody's not sure about me,
I absolutely WI will audition.
Speaker 5 (49:42):
That is I think so good to hear.
Speaker 3 (49:46):
I hope upcoming actors and creatives hear that, like you
you know you this this industry, there's some people. There's
you people who who never have to do it again.
But that's not the norm. And you've you've been working good,
good hunting sixty IMDb credits, got kid. I remember you
said one time, you said, listen if you want to
(50:06):
work or work on that first season, that first pilot,
because if you only watch a little bit, they gonna watch.
Speaker 2 (50:11):
The first episode, they gonna watch you. I told you.
Speaker 1 (50:14):
I didn't told people this for years, and I hope
people are heeding me. The best, the best hack of
this industry is residuals. And the best way to make
sure you get them from day one. They when a
show goes into syndication is try to get on the
first season of a new show. Show ain't even got
to make it, sho ain't got to make it, but
the first season. I'm forever trying to get in on
the first season show because then when it went five
(50:35):
years later, when it goes into syndication, if we still
get twenty two year seasons anymore, then you're automatically in
that first set of residual syndication money.
Speaker 2 (50:43):
You're gonna get money, and it's gonna keep it's gonna keep.
Speaker 1 (50:46):
Coming for the rest of your life might be five
cent by the time it's done, but you're gonna get
that good money.
Speaker 5 (50:50):
Yes, personal investments follow.
Speaker 2 (50:55):
And don't think I won't go back.
Speaker 1 (50:56):
Listen if this, If this gets tired, I say all
the time I was always hiring, I will go get
a job. I'm about to get out there. I'll be
at starbus talking about what you want to vente. I
don't got no shame in it.
Speaker 2 (51:07):
I got to eat. I got to pay this for
this house.
Speaker 3 (51:10):
Get it the same way. I worked for many years
before I ever booked the thing.
Speaker 5 (51:15):
I would have to.
Speaker 3 (51:16):
Work for thirty eight years. Yeah, in this industry before
I have done enough time that I didn't work in here.
Speaker 5 (51:21):
Y'all.
Speaker 3 (51:23):
I feel if I'm on your uber and you see,
ain't you kept absolutely five absolutely five stars?
Speaker 2 (51:29):
Please get start.
Speaker 1 (51:30):
Here's here's your door dash door dash order you bet?
Yes I am, Yes, I am? And did you want
Here's a chicken. Here's the chicken and the drink. And
I put a little piece of tape over the drink
drink when I was driving because I didn't want to list.
Speaker 2 (51:43):
So all your drink is in there, but here's your straw.
I ain't got no shame. I'm from Cleveland. We work
in Cleveland. I will work, I will work.
Speaker 3 (51:53):
Oh my gods, you bet this has been fantastic. There
before we let you go, we've talked about some of
your moments that are not your best. Is there anything
you're looking forward to that you're hoping is going to
be some of your best moments that we can look
out for when it comes out.
Speaker 1 (52:05):
You know, I've got two films coming out. I'm in
a Code three with Little Rell and Rain Wilson that's
coming out, and then also I'm in k Pops with
UH with Anderson Parker plays mom. And then I've got,
you know, a couple of little things bubbling up of
a lifetime movie coming up with Tony Braxton and my
husband and I. He plays my husband husband's actor as well.
So Tony Tony up in there playing my husband. He
(52:28):
booked that job. And kisses were delicious on set because
I want to kiss nobody but my husband. I don't
know how these gona be kissing random people. I'll be like,
ginger vitis is contagious.
Speaker 2 (52:36):
I don't know I want your ginger vinis. I don't
know you like that? So yeah, So Tony's Tony's my husband.
He went on and booked the roles.
Speaker 5 (52:43):
That's amazing.
Speaker 3 (52:45):
Well, y'all, please check out event and all the things
she's done, and thank you Event for joining. These stories
were great. I hope somebody's left here encouraged.
Speaker 5 (52:54):
I sure have.
Speaker 3 (52:55):
I love some of your perspectives I think will be
necessary for me as I continue my care. I love
your point of view on this and I think it's
a necessary one. Thank you guys so much.
Speaker 2 (53:06):
And wait, wait before you go, Before you go, they
don't close it out.
Speaker 1 (53:09):
I got something I want to say. Please, please, I
am so proud of you. I have watched your career
for I don't know how long I have been rooting
for you. Have I feel like I've been friends with
you longer than we've been friends, because I've been rooting
for you ever since I first saw you. I think
that your way of doing comedy is brilliant. I think
the way that you always keep God first is amazing.
(53:30):
The fact that you celebrate marriage and fatherhood and you
love your wife like all of it, all of it,
keV is really really necessary and wonderful. And you prove
in the same way that Tabitha proves and other people
that you don't have to be wretched and hateful to
make it in this business. You can make it in
this business and keep your soul intact and celebrate and
support other people as you rise, and you embody that.
(53:53):
So I want to give you your flowers, brother, and
tell you that I'm so happy that I finally got
a chance to work with you, and this in disrespect
and I look forward to working with you and other
respects as well. I just think you're I think you're
all the things.
Speaker 3 (54:05):
Thank you so much. That means a lot to me.
I had an old viewpoint when I worked at the bank.
I you know it was it was, you know, the
bank would look the other way if you could trick
somebody into a into a product. And I was like,
I can't do that. I live in the city, do it.
I don't want somebody to hit me in the back
of the head with a brick because I tricked.
Speaker 5 (54:23):
Them, right. I can walk around good because I know
I ain't done.
Speaker 1 (54:27):
You wrong or to harm somebody, you know what I mean?
Like nothing, nothing makes me happier to hear one hundred
and some credits on IMDb and I know that I
didn't steal want of them jobs from nobody else. I
didn't lie, and I didn't lie to nobody to get
an audition I didn't deserve, or to make sure they
didn't get an audition that they did deserve. I have
not done anybody any harm in this industry, and that
(54:47):
that makes me prouder than anything. And that means, you know,
I may not be one of the cool kids. I
don't get to go all the places and stuff because
you know, I'm just not the cool kid. But I'm
okay being not the cool kid. I'm the nice kid. Yeah,
and nicest good, nice is good, coolest.
Speaker 3 (55:02):
Relative cool changes, cool changes, nice is good always. So
thank you that actually that means a lot to me.
I will cherish those little words. I'm gonna put them
in my podcast.
Speaker 5 (55:13):
I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you guys.
We'll see you next time.
Speaker 3 (55:46):
This has been a Unanimous Media original Now My Best
Mama was produced by iHeart Podcasts and Unanimous Media. It
was hosted by me Kevin Fredericks, Executive produced by Stephen Curry,
Eric Payton and Charlotte Sumter je co executive producer Maria
Cutney The executive producers of the iHeart Podcasts are Sean
Titone and Jason English. This series was produced by Peter
(56:07):
Calter and Jabbari Davis, co producer Kurt Redman.
Speaker 5 (56:10):
A special thanks to Stephen Curry and Will Pearson. Not
My Best Moment as a production of Unanimous Media and
iHeart Podcasts. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the
iHeart Radio app. Have a podcast, or wherever you get
your podcasts.
I applied for the Disney co Op, which is like
where you go down to Disney for a semester and
you like kind of bounce through all the different departments
of Disney. You work in every area of Disney, and
anyone that knows me now and knows my career, like
it would be like the mothership calling me home. But
they said no, no, thank you. But that's also the
summer that I met Michael Bivens and my music career began.
(00:23):
So I have a great story about how what you.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Think music career? Then you don't know me at all? Man,
You ain't done no research, brother.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
I've done You think I didn't know.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
I'm not I knew you.
Speaker 5 (00:35):
I thought I've just been following you.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
No, I think you know this. I was in the
East Coast family. You know this? What's wrong on for
one video?
Speaker 5 (00:42):
I do not know this, keV. I've only known.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
You at this point. At this point, keV, what are
we even doing? What are we even doing?
Speaker 5 (00:49):
Man? We got it to eye.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
But what is this friendship? If this is if you
don't know the origin story of me, what are we doing?
Speaker 3 (00:57):
I've learned? You know, friendships about learning. We're always evolving
as people. We're learning.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
You better be here with this friend, rod E That just.
Speaker 5 (01:23):
Oh my god, you better seen.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
You better seen that. Hold on, let me.
Speaker 5 (01:37):
Fine, now listen, let's let's kick it off.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Welcome to Not My Best Moment with me keV on stage,
author of hopefully New York Times bestseller book Successful Failure.
Usually on podcasts, we talk about what makes people great.
We're here with Event Nicole Brown today a ka just
Event the Moniker.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Not easily.
Speaker 5 (01:59):
We could talk about everything. She's done.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Over one hundred and eighty acting credits to her name
on IMDb, everything from community to inside Out. She's acting,
she's directed, She's been in your favorite shows. She's directed
your favorite movies. She's currently on Family Business on BT
Netflix at Your Age the Prophecy. Yes, yes, yes, we
know all these things. But we're not here to talk
(02:23):
about accolades. That's not what this show is about. This
show is about your mistakes, your mess ups, and what
you learn from them. If anything, So we are here now.
I didn't do my googles on Event. I've known if
as a fan for many, many years, and I've known
her as a friend for.
Speaker 5 (02:43):
A few years at least.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Passix seven, Lee Fas six, LASIXN and Effect. I didn't know,
my producers said, y'all didn't know if that was in
the East Coast family as event had a whole music career.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
Please tell me.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
I know I was wigging wigginy whack, I was Alloweddy
wiggy Whack, and everything about the music video took me
back to a time that I love to spend in
the nineties. But you know, update us who don't know
on what happened there, because this is news to me.
Speaker 5 (03:23):
Please inform me.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
You know, it's funny we started this conference. First of all,
I'm very happy to be looking at you in a box,
in an online box. I wish you could be in person.
But we have been trying to do this for how
many how many podcasts visits were us? Was I supposed
to make and life just kept lifing like cancer happened.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
It was just that, like crazy happening. But you know what,
all things work together because I think this might be
the best version of talking to you. I think this
is the most interesting, so you know, feel.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Good about it, talk a bit about it, so we
you know, the not my best moment, like when you
sent the little they send it for those that don't know,
they send a little pre little thing, a piece of paper.
Let you know what exactly they want from you. And
they said pick something, you know, pick a time when
you weren't at your best or life was life in
and all that, And so I had to have two things.
(04:20):
But the reason we got to East Coast Families. I
was telling keV that my first like big disappointment in
life happened when I was in college. I was a
think I was a freshman or a sophomore in college.
And so we had this thing there, and I think
other colleges may have had it too. It was called
the Disney co Op and it was where you got
a semester off from school and you spent that time
(04:42):
going to Disney World and cycling through every single part
of the parks, from executive to working as a guide
to backstage. You were literally you might even have time
in the Mickey Mouse a costume. Like you literally tried everything.
And I think the goal of the program was for
you to decide, you know, what you wanted to do
was part of the Disney family one day. Now, anyone
(05:03):
that knows my career now and how much I work
for Disney and how Pg. Thirteen I am you would
think that would be the mothership calling me home. So
when I heard about it, you know, my nineteen year
eighteen or nineteen year old self was like, oh my god,
this is this, this is the moment. God, thank you,
this is about to happen. Grueling interviews, keV like at
least three or four interviews while you're in school. So
(05:24):
you're going to school and then you're meeting with all
these different people and you're telling them why you want
to do what you want to do and really selling yourself.
It was wonderful. We get to the final interview, I'm like,
this is it my moment, Like I'm about to go
in there and it's about to be all that I
go in and do the interview. I'm like, this is it,
Like my life is about to change. I'm about to
be down at Disney. It's about to begin. Maybe two
weeks later, deary Vet Brown, we regret to inform you, oh,
(05:47):
I'm not chosen you to be a part of the
Disney Fellowship. And when I tell you to this day,
I mean, I'm going to say that I do know
now why, But at the time I couldn't understand and
what I did wrong. You know, I knew that my school,
my personality was great, my classes, my coursework, my grades
(06:07):
were great, I had extracurriculars. I know that I was
the personality that I'm obvious, the Disney personality.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
So I'm like, what is it? What is it?
Speaker 5 (06:16):
You know?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
So that's same.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
So I didn't get it. I was devastated. But then
that summer was the summer that BBD came to my
college town to perform, and that is the summer that
I went and sang for Michael Bivens. And that's the
summer that I became a part of the East Clast family,
got my record deal, met boys to men, got to
travel to la and see the world. And so what
(06:39):
I learned from that experience is that, you know, the
only thing that's heartbreaking about life is you don't have
the lane of experience to realize that things always ultimately
work out. Now that ultimately might be twenty years later,
might be twenty minutes later, but it does ultimately always
work out. And now you fast forward, you know, third years,
(06:59):
I'm on you know, in Disney movies, and I'm host
I'm going down the Florida in a couple of days
to host something else for Disney at Disney World. I
am hosting in front of thousands of people for the
Disney Company, and that's something. So what I felt in
my heart that I was being called to do it
was a call from the future. It was telling me
where you will be.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Huh. So it's not just about right, come on now.
Speaker 5 (07:24):
Sometimes come on.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Sometimes God will give you a glimpse of where He's
going to take you ultimately. And we only miss out
on that blessing if we stay in the muck and
the mire of the disappointment. Disappointment gonna happen. One thing
I know for sure with my fifty four years of living,
there's going to be times when you don't understand, when
it doesn't make sense, when it's all when all is lost.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
But you know it's the third day.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Yeah, yeah, on the third day is when and the
figurative third day for you is when you rise up
and God reveals what he always had for you. So
he just whispered it to me a few years really,
you know, but he already he told me what he
had for me. It just wasn't coming in that way.
Speaker 5 (08:04):
I love you.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
I love that. I think the part that is that
is so good. I think the part that's hard about
that is, you know, ultimately we believe God has and
I do believe this. I assume you do as well.
God has the whole picture, yep, the whole plan, the
whole journey. But we have the next step or two
(08:28):
right right, And I imagine it's like a maze, like
you're walking and amazing. You get to the end and
you're just like you don't know how far you are
where you are. And that part is very frustrating because
in the moment we be like this is what what next?
Like I imagine you were like, well, now, what how
(08:48):
long did it take you to, like to reconcile because
you put your eggs in that basket?
Speaker 2 (08:54):
In that oh that egg was down the road with
the with the rabbit carrying it. It was he was hopping
on down the road with that basket. I didn't have
no more eggs. It's like, it's like me in his
house right now because eggs is expensive. I had no leagues.
All my eggs was in that basket and I didn't.
Speaker 5 (09:08):
You know.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
The thing is, I was like I had planned to
be in Florida like I had. I literally told my
roommates deuces, like I was ready to go to what
it was supposed to be, and it probably wasn't. This
was like a fall semester into into spring semester, all
the all the interviews, and I didn't meet Michael until
that summer. So it really was months, like six seven,
(09:32):
eight months of just being just feeling like like I
really missed it. Because there's nothing as a believer, there's
nothing worse. I mean there's I mean, hell is worse,
reprobate is worse, but there's very little worse than knowing
that you heard God. Knowing that you heard God and
him saying nah, you know, not right now or later.
(09:54):
That is such a debilitating thing, especially when you're young.
When you're young, either when you're young Christ or you
young in the world.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Right I was or both?
Speaker 5 (10:03):
Right?
Speaker 2 (10:04):
So I was both.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
I was nineteen years old and I was you know,
I was young in my walk with God and I
was young in life. So I hadn't yet realized that
sometimes hard work doesn't pay off immediately.
Speaker 5 (10:17):
Oh say more about that, either, right, say that? Because
that's yeah, that's hard to that's hard to settle.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
With right because we because we're told, especially the black kids,
we're told that the only way through is if we
we have to excel right, excellence ten times better to
get half as much. All of that is what we're
told from the time we're young, and honestly, up until
that point in my life, it had been proven true.
Like I was the one that was front row center
in every class. I was National Honor Society, scholarships to college.
(10:48):
You know, I was that chick, like I really believed,
you know, if you work hard and you study hard
and you're good, a good person, the world opens up
for you. And that was the first time that I
did all the things. I did them all, you know,
and and it did not that particular blessing did not
come my way. And I had to really sit with that.
And cause you have that moment, it doesn't matter where
(11:09):
you are in Christ, you have the moment where you're like, well,
what does it What does it mean when you have
done what he said we're supposed to do? And the
answer is still know And that always takes me back
to the scripture. Though he slay me, yet, will I
trust him?
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Yet? Will I trust? And so listen slay is death.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Oh, now that might be you know, death to a dream,
death to a relationship, death to a job prospect, death
to a friendship. But the point is you supposed to
be able to be like, all right, he took me
out and I don't like it. We ain't gotta like it.
I don't like it, right, But I trust him? Yeah,
but I trust him. And that was the first time
(11:50):
I had to literally, you know, lean into that thing.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
So how did you trust him? Because okay, so well
let me I'm gonna ask this, and I'm gonna double back. Sure,
what's the time period between when you found out you
weren't getting it and then until you met Michael Bivins?
Speaker 1 (12:06):
It was probably I would say I didn't get it
around maybe March because they were setting us up to
be able to go there in the fall. Okay, So
I want to say, like maybe February or March I
got the no, it ain't you. And then I met
Michael probably that July, so four or five months from
(12:29):
that to that. And I gotta be honest, when I
met Michael, I didn't have that instant. That's why I
didn't have that Like I was very happy that I
met Michael, but I still.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Still wanted Disney.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Yeah, but what I mean I still because I didn't
know what was going to happen with Michael.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
I didn't know if I was gonna if I was
going to actually be signed. I didn't know.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
I didn't know that the East Coast family was coming.
I didn't know any of that. I just I just
knew that I sang for one of my heroes and
he liked my voice, and he promised me that I'd
be doing something musical, which had been my greatest dream
even before going to college.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
I always want to be a singer. So that was great,
but I didn't have it. Wasn't a bird in.
Speaker 5 (13:07):
The hand for sure.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
First was a Disney. Was the bird? The bird, the beautiful?
The dove was in the hand?
Speaker 5 (13:14):
Yeah? Yeah, you know?
Speaker 3 (13:15):
Yeah, So how did you take me through those those
in between months? Like what was it like? And you know,
when you're young, we don't have a lot of life
experience to even it ain't like all that one time.
Now you can say when I was nineteen this happened,
or when I thought I would get this roll or
book this movie. But at that time that might might
have been the most devastating being career wise for you
might have might have.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Might have been wo inconsolable. Couldn't nobody say nothing to it?
My mother was like baby, I said, my mom, okay,
here now, I can't hear right now.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
They didn't. The mouse then went on without the mouse.
Don't want the mouse. Don't want me, Mama, the mouse
don't want me.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
The only thing that I could even liking it to
back then was just like liking some dude that didn't
like me. Back that was the only thing that was
as devastating, you know, as that as that experience, you know,
it's the only thing.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Everything else paled in comparison.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
So you just kind of I think at the time,
I think this is the way I am though in life.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
I mean, we're gonna do. I mean, what I'm gonna
do with trust God, I don't know. I don't know
anything other to do.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
And I'm a completest, like I want to see how
this thing going in. This is why, for the most part,
I've never been suicidal, because and I've had things that
have happened that have made me like, I this sucks.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
I don't like it here.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
But the reason I've never seriously thought about leaving here
is like, well, I gotta see how it's.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
Going in tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
It might get better tomorrow, to see what it's gonna be,
you know what I mean, figure out what it is.
I mean, I'm gonna leave here someday anyway, so might
as well wait to the Lord take me to take myself.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
So that's, you know, so what I'm gonna do.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
But but but whether this and have a great story
to tell hopefully, so let me.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
Ask you this. And I want to know what happened
with your music career as well. But anybody, you don't
have to be an actor to know this. Very few
of us get to be Denzel and audition once and
never have to audition again.
Speaker 5 (15:04):
That's right. The rest of us, have you audition?
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Yea? Is there anything you learned from not getting that
Disney co op that later on in life you feel
like helped you navigate, you know, navigate Hollywood or the
music industry.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Yet what I learned is that you not promised nothing
like even if you even if you are even if
you got next, even if you are the person that
everybody's like, this is you, this is you son, there's
no guarantees, and that actually, where some people might see
that as sad, that was freeing for me because that
(15:38):
meant if there's no guarantees for me, there's no guarantee
for anybody else either, which means it's a very level
playing field.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
You know.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
I just realized at that moment, nobody. I say this
all the time when I talk to young, young actors
and young people, I always say, nobody knows what they're doing,
and nobody knows what the secret sauce is for this business.
Anybody you talk to that has made it, talk to
fifty people, you'll hear fifty ways they broke in. You
hear fifty ways they got their agent, their manager, their podcast, there, whatever.
(16:05):
There's no set way of doing any of this, which
means anyone that tells you, well, this is how you
do it, they don't know that's how they did it.
You know, the basics. You have a hit shot, you know, right.
If you're a comedian, have five minutes in your back pocket.
If you're a writer, make sure you got a script
or too. That's the basics. But as far as that
(16:25):
script guaranteeing you're gonna have a movie please or Churchy
on BT, absolutely not. There ain't no guarantee for that stuff.
You do the work and hope for the best, but
there's no guarantee. So that's what I learned from it.
I don't regret that I was excellent in those interviews.
I don't regret that I dreamed of being a part
of Disney. Like I said, it was my future calling.
(16:45):
That was good work I did. It was right for
me to put that time in. It made me better
for every interview I had going forward, every audition I
had going forward. It sucks that I didn't get it,
but I got it. It's like it's like wax on
wax off with a kid. Yeah, you know he's doing
the hard work and in the moment it doesn't look
like it's bearing any fruit. But getting there with one
(17:06):
leg and fight and be able to do that faint defense.
Speaker 5 (17:11):
And right right.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
I think that's so good to hear, Like, yeah, it
feels like harsh advice, but it's very true. Sometimes your
best isn't good enough. Like in sports, there's this this
this phrase that says good defense better offense, and there's
no there's no defense for the perfect play.
Speaker 5 (17:29):
Like you can have done everything.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Right, you could be in position you could have scouted,
you could know their tendencies.
Speaker 5 (17:36):
You can have your hand up.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Sometimes that shot still goes in and you lose a game,
and I think you gotta kind of you gotta kind
of own that. Regardless of your industry, sometimes you gotta
own that you did everything right, especially Hollywood. I think
for me, I was I hate auditioning. And one thing
I hate is they don't even tell you didn't get it.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
They don't even just never hear. You never hear from
yost it. You get ghosted.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
You just never hear. Like especially you, you feel like, man,
I killed this, you know. And my son used to
be in the industry and he was like six. He
was auditioning and he would be like, dude, his preparation
and do all this and then not get it. He's like, Daddy,
am I not good enough? And it could be something
as simple. And I didn't understand this until I was
on the other side. We you know, when he did
(18:26):
Little Rascals, they needed they wanted these characters to be
exactly four inches, the same height, same right right like
he played Buckweed in the remake and the partner Spanky,
I mean, uh, Parky. They loved him and they loved
my son's partner and they wanted buckwet to be exactly
four inches. So had my son done everything else, but
(18:46):
not have the wrong height been the wrong height? And
it's like, how do you do that over and over
when they don't even tell you that. I don't even
know that because he booked it. If he didn't book it,
they wouldn't they wouldn't have even told us that. And
I think that resilience is so necessary.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Yeah, but you know, something else came to mind. I
was thinking that I always think about life as like
I can't remember what painter it is that does the dots.
I don't know if it's Matisse or Monet, but one
of them does the little dots, and you got it.
You get really close to it and it doesn't look great,
and then you pull out and it's like, oh, they
boy the river looking at the ducks. So what I
always think about is we are looking at our life
(19:25):
very close up, and when it's a tough moment, God
is working on the shadow. If somebody is standing on
the river, right, it's a shadow, and the shadow is dark, right,
So when you're looking up close and you just see
black and blue and dark colors, but you pull like, oh,
that's the latest shadow, but you can only see it
from up here, and that's the way God is looking
at it.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Right.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
The other thing I always think about is we are
the star of our story, but sometimes we're a supporting
player or even a background performer in someone else's story.
So there might have been somebody at my college who
really wanted to go to Disney and they didn't believe
that they could do it, and they there was one
slot left and it was between me and that person,
and God needed to teach that person that sometimes you
(20:05):
can be the underdog and still win. So instead of
giving it to the one that was the shoe in
in this instance, God chose to use the shoe in
against the underdog for the underdog to get it so
that person could have what they needed to take them
where they need to go. It wasn't my story, that
was his story. I was a supporting player in that
person's version of this story, right their lifestory. And you
(20:29):
gotta be okay being a supporting player in someone else's story,
even if it's it's one that you want to show,
you really want to be in that.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Is so you know good. That is low key. That's
a really good perspective to have one thing that I've
been like, you know, implementing more wasn't a thought process
that I used to have, but I've been implementing more
and more, and it helps navigate Hollywood tremendously. Is what
God has for me is for me.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
It's for you.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
And the things you think are for you. You know,
like you're saying about that dot, in that moment, you
feel like, oh, if I just did this, it would
be perfect, and it seems like, oh, this would fit,
this would be perfect, and it isn't because you don't
have the right perspective. I remember when we were I
was very young, maybe about twenty maybe nineteen or twenty,
(21:21):
and this is when we were doing the plays. And
I remember we had done a play and we were
just sure we were going to take it on the road,
and I was going to be away from my family.
And I thought, my wife a laptop and this thing
was had more malware than key, just full of.
Speaker 5 (21:37):
Malware, spyware. I thought I was moving to Chicago.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
We didn't even have kids yet, so I was all
to go to Chicago and we're gonna make it ended
up being the lady. The promoter ended up getting pregnant.
She was like, I was ready to move to Chicago.
She was like, I'm sorry, I'm having twins.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Clinck's over.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
Yeah, And I think now I realized I'm very grateful
that my career has gone very slowly because I needed
to learn how to be a good husband, a better father.
Like I travel a lot now, but when my children
were young, I didn't travel that much.
Speaker 5 (22:07):
And you can't go back in time and redo that.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Now they're like, you know, I travel a lot now,
but they're like, you know, I felt super guilty about it.
And they were like, you've been a part of our.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Life, been here, you've been here and we and we've
almost were almost grown.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Now go we almost grown now, And tell you that
they don't even when I am home, maybe gone with
their friends, studios.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
They got a life camp. Ain't got time for you now, ain't.
Speaker 5 (22:31):
Got no time.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
But I think only when I look back I can
say I'm glad that things worked out the way they did.
Speaker 5 (22:40):
But looking forward, it's often it's like fog. You.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
I got to.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Say this though, you don't want to be somewhere you're
not ready for either you know what I mean, come
on now. Like we all have big dreams and things
that we want to do, especially in this industry.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
I want to I want to.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Lead a movie, do you? And and you may, but
are you to lead? I'll be on a multimillion dollar
Really you ready for that? The pressure? The pressure of it,
Like I kind of like slow and study. I like
God to I let God decide when it's time for
me to level up. I don't petition and do none
of that. I'd be like Lord, whenever you say it's time,
I'm gone and go. You open the door, I'm gonna
(23:17):
go through it, but I'm not banging on I don't
bang on doors. Care I don't bang on doors, then
don't do it. I've always joked that my career is
Forrest Gump, Like everywhere I've ended up has been literally
just you know, finding my way there, and I'm prepared.
I prepare, but I don't chase down things. And that's
why the other thing, going back to the what's for
you is for you? I've never understood people that act
(23:38):
as if there's not enough to go around, and because
of that they stabbing people in the back and stepping
on people's necks to get ahead. If I got to
step on your neck to get it, I.
Speaker 5 (23:46):
Don't want it.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
I don't want to lose myself to get something from you.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
Don't.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
I want you to have everything God got for you.
I'm not taking nothing from nobody. I am proud to
say I've never stolen anybody's job. I've never slept with
anybody to get ahead. I ain't never took nobody's boyfriend
or try to. I don't live like that. I've never
like lied about. I don't lie about privately. Girl, I
don't know who they saying. If I know who they saying,
I'm gonna tell you what they're saying. I will find
(24:12):
out about an audition and ask any of my friends
and they'll tell the truth.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
I'll be like I tave you they're over there looking
for us.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
They gone down to Ross Lacey because I mean, TV
don't need this.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Now she got to Oscar. They be calling her. But
I'm saying back in the.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
Day, I'd be like I Tavia, they looking for us
down at Ross Lacey, gone, and it's a Tide commercial
and they want somebody. It's a little fluffy that got
you know, little brown skin girl gone down there, tell
him I sent you. I don't care. I'll come out
of an audition and be like, there's three people in there.
The lady in the green sweater don't like to laugh,
so don't put nothing to her. Talk to the guy
in the brown sweater. He real nice. I tell everybody
(24:44):
everything because in my mind, it's either for me or.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
It's for you.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
And if you, if you my girl, min and even
if you know my girl, I don't care. I do
not keep information. I think everybody sho win. If anybody
looks at my page, I be promoting everybody stuff I ain't got.
Ain't nobody paying me nothing.
Speaker 5 (25:01):
I'd be like out here for the community.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
I'll be like church, you about to come back.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
I will read my stories is like five hundred pages long,
because every time somebody got some good news or need help,
I'm reposting it.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Yeah, I'm not hiding no good stuff from nobody. Ain't
got to be able to tell you it's good. Gon't
watch you gonna watch Kevin Show and stop playing. You
better go. Nobody pots from Tabitha silipot. You'all better go
get your pots and Donna's recipe. I'll be I'll be
the first one.
Speaker 5 (25:28):
Yeah, that's the first one. And it don't take nothing
from you.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
You'll take nothing.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
I fully believe God has your and honestly, I even
believe the more you are that way, the more people
celebrate you when it's your turn.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Absolutely, this is a saying I use all the time.
Kevin says, a candle loses nothing by.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Lighting or nothing.
Speaker 5 (25:46):
Oh that's good. Nothing.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
You get it that flame, that flame is plentiful. Go
go on, share your flame. Don't share your flame.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
Time for a quick commercial break. We'll be back with
more from eventing Nicole Brown. Now that that Disney fellowship,
(26:22):
you lost it and you won back and you got
everything worked out.
Speaker 5 (26:25):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
Is there anything in your life that you went through
way you still to this day?
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Might not his day?
Speaker 1 (26:34):
I will tell you it's so funny. I've never told this.
People know this story, but I've never told this story publicly.
So when I graduated from college, I moved out to
LA to pursue the music career. Music had changed a
little bit. I was I'm PG thirteen. I'm always in PG.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
Thirteen.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Kim Whitley caused me a little baby, Jesus, I've always
been someone as I'm always fully covered. I'm just you know,
I'm just just who I am, and there's no judgment
if you want to be out there like that, live
your life. But for me, I know what works for me.
So I didn't want to sing sex songs. I didn't
want to sing songs like you know, flip me up,
throw me against the wall, all that stuff was just
not for me. And so between getting my record deal
at I think twenty is when I signed my deal,
(27:09):
and then graduating from college and moving to LA, the
music industry, like aDNA Howard was out there like I
want to get it. She was like, come on, get
remember I saw I know him very well. So yeah,
so and no shade the aDNA, but that I can't
do it.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
I can't do it.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
So by the time I came out, I was like, well,
let me just you know, work in the industry and
pursue other things. So I was working as an office
temp and there was this show that came out called
The Cut and it was the precursor to American Idol,
and it was three judges and you came out and
you sang and they and they assessed you, and then
I think the winner of that show would go on
(27:46):
and get a record deal and ended up being, you know,
get a video and whatever. And so I'm working as
a temp and I'm like, I think this is this
is look at me, this is it.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
I don't even imitate something.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
I had my teeth kicked in so much as a
young person that I don't even declare that something is
it anymore?
Speaker 2 (28:02):
I don't. I don't do it. I don't do it.
I go and I leave it.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
But I was like, this is it, Like this is
my way to get back into the industry. So I
go in audition and I get I get it. I'm
I'm I'm gonna be on the show, which I'm taking
as a sign. And I was not. Not to my credit,
I was not. I had just quit a job. Not
to my credit, I didn't quit the job because of
the show. I quit the job because sometimes I wake
up go it's a good day to quit, Like you
gotta know where.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
It's time, when your time is up. I said, today's
the day. So I'd already quit.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
And so I quit the job and then gave my
I gave my two weeks notice, and then within that
next week I was going to be going to do
this this show. So I go and do the show,
and I'm nervous and I'm backstage and I'm feeling like
my throat is a little dry.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
So so let me just put I'm gonna put a
delicious lodging and I'm just going.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
When a moisten, moisten needs vocal these vocal wars. Now,
I'm not a trained singer. Anything I know how to
do as a singer, and for the most part, as
an actor, it's just me learning, being a fool or
just singing. I just I'm not trained. Had I been trained,
I would know that you don't you don't eat a
lozenge because it kind of it kind of numbs your
vocal cords. You can't really control them as well. And
also training might have taught me that you don't start
(29:11):
a song with one in your mouth. So I got
you know how it sends. So I got out there
and started to sing on this national television show and
the lozenge goes down my throat as soon as I
say my first note, So we go. That is the
noise that my throat made. Now I'm thinking, do I
keep trying to sing or do I try to survive
(29:32):
I gotta get it down or it's gotta come up up.
It is probably, but all this is going through my
mind while I'm singing this song in front of these
three judges. So of course it was horrible. I got judged,
Oh horribly. The judges were like, you're trash. I don't
know how you got on the show.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
Boo.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Somebody had tomatoes. I'm kidding.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
But then if they had tomatoes, they would have thrown
the tomatoes. Now, this happened on national television. It happened
on MTV, and this is when MTV played things five
a million times. So I'm leaving, I go I literally keV,
I promise you. I was leaving the set and I
said to myself, well, I'm in the car already, I
(30:11):
should just drive to Ohio.
Speaker 5 (30:13):
I don't even.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
I don't need anything that's in that little small studio apartment.
I don't. I've quit my job.
Speaker 5 (30:19):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
I don't really own anything because I was poor. I
was so poor. I'm so poor back then. I was like,
I just I'll just drive home.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
I tried.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
I tried this, it's not didn't happen, It's okay, And
then it washed over me. How many times it would
be seen. And when I tell you, MTV did not disappoint.
When I tell you MTV, MTV ran my humiliation. If
I'm saying if it aired five hundred times, I'm not
even kid keV all all day parts, all day parts,
(30:52):
first thing in the morning, middle of the night, it was.
It was on and there was I remember, I'll never forget.
This is this girl that I thought was my friend.
Were I thought we were friends in high school. She
called me long distance, and this is before cell phones.
This is wow when this when long distance was expensive.
She found my number in that studio apartment and she
(31:12):
called me long distance. She said, hey, you know, I
just saw you. I just saw you on the cut.
That was real embarrassing.
Speaker 5 (31:18):
Huh oh oh my god.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
I said, yeah, that was that was really devas. Yeah,
I watched you. I've seen it a couple of times.
It airs a lot. I said, yeah, it does.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
You know, thank you, thank you for letting me know
that you watched me get humiliated on television. And I
realized in that moment there's always a lesson. I realized, one,
this girl is not my friend.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
That's obvious.
Speaker 5 (31:41):
But then I.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Also realized that there are people that enjoy someone else's downfall,
and though I had never been someone that did, I
really hate I'm so I'm so bad. I can't go
to comedy clubs because I don't like people to bomb,
like I'm.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
The fool, you know, the fool.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
We see somebody really bombing, and it's one person laughing
at that's me, I'm the one. And I can't watch
Apollo because they might get booed, like something dies inside
when someone doesn't do well, and I know that they
want to so I don't have that in me. I
don't understand the inclination to kick someone while they're down.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
But I learned from her that there are people that
do wish you ill, and there are people that you know,
I guess they call the monitoring spirits.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Now we didn't have that framework back then, but there
are people that watch you, hoping that you fail. And
I realized, you know, if I left Cleveland to come
to La to chase these big dreams that a lot
of people in Cleveland didn't have because we can't see
our way out, and I was, you know, crazy enough
to actually think that this could happen for me. And
I realized that that bothered her like she didn't like
(32:44):
that I wanted more for myself. And when she thought
that this big dream I had had died, she couldn't
wait to dance at the death party the funeral.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
And I had.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Learned in that experience to never to never allow someone
else's glee at my failure to affect me, because it
told me more about who she was than about me.
And that lozenge on that TV show, you know what
I mean, Like I you know, and I heard she
lost a toe recently. I heard she don't have a toe.
(33:15):
Lord came and grabbed that toe. He said, come on,
give me that, give me that right.
Speaker 5 (33:18):
Quick stand in nine toes down, nine toes.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Down, and her hate and listen, I wish I wish
her well. I've always wished her well. I ain't got
no beef with her, but she's showed enough relished, you know,
kicking me when I was down with the ten toes
she had at the time.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
You know what's so interesting about that event is that
wasn't even a skill issue. That was an unfortunate mishap.
And she jumped at something on another day. You don't
have the lozenge and you whatever happens is Yeah, it's
not a skill issue, but that's that's sometimes how the cookie,
how the cookie crumbles. But yeah, you know, I think
(33:59):
it's so interesting you your career started before social media
was a big part of it, and it's gone into
social media being a big part of it. That to me,
that lesson is a valuable one for having a career
on social media because people they don't like you, and
they just are waiting for enough people to not like
(34:22):
you so they can finally share by this thing they've
always had without reason. It's so rough, and I think
you we've had to learn to really not take that
unwarranted criticism personally, right, So I think you're right, it
takes a It really honestly is more reflective of the
(34:43):
person than anything you have done.
Speaker 5 (34:45):
You You are really just the target of their of their.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Own of their own sadness or their own self hate,
you know, uh excuse me. And being fair to her,
you know, she might have felt trapped in Ohio or
she might have felt like, you know, what she wanted
to to do she wouldn't be able to do. And
who am I to dream big? Who am I to
you know? And I've never been a braggadocious person, so
it wasn't like I was walking through the streets to
clean look at me.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
I've never been that person.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
So I didn't understand why she felt like she had
to kick me down. I'm pretty I keep myself pretty
low anyway. I'm a very humble person. So I didn't
get it. But I realized that it was it wasn't
about me, you know, And I also know God has
always got me, even in the midst of devastation. And
when I say that situation was even more devastating than
(35:32):
the Disney thing, because I didn't feel that I had
done my best.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
I felt that I'd made a mistake, a bad decision that.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
Ended up playing out repeatedly, and I didn't know what
that lesson.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
What don't put.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
Alazengin is that that's not a big enough lesson for
it to be. You know, played that many times. But
then I think it goes back to the lesson of
the Disney co op. I had to learn that sometimes
doesn't go your way, and it goes right back to
who are you as a child of God? If God
(36:07):
has another plan for you?
Speaker 2 (36:09):
Who are you? Now?
Speaker 1 (36:11):
You quit your jobs? You don't have a job. You
just humiliated yourself on television. And then also, I forgot
to say this, I had a temp job starting the
next day. So I went and I went to the
temp job. Now ask me, did I cry all day
at the place?
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Crowd all day? Kevin? I cried all day? They said, this,
poor girl, what is that?
Speaker 5 (36:30):
Was a TV show?
Speaker 1 (36:31):
And they said, well, girl, just answer the phones when
you can't death Dragon teas and get these phones. That
job ended up being how about this? That job ended
up being a blessing for years were not years, for
a few months, like six or seven months. It was
at a place called Apollo Investments. I think it still exists.
It was an investment firm. This place had a full
kitchen because they wanted the men, the men and women
(36:51):
that worked there to feel free to work as late
as they wanted or come in as early. So they
had breakfast, they catered lunch, they catered dinner every day.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
I had quit a job.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
I was on the bus and a system was poor.
And I ate well at Apollo Investments and they enjoyed me.
They forgave my tears that first day, and I ended
up working there as long as I wanted to anytime
they need attempt they called me in.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
So it literally, even though I was in my lowest place,
God was still providing, he was still giving me provision.
And you have to always look for there's a silver
lining in every cloud. I am old, and I can
tell y'all there is a silver lining in every cloud.
But you can sit there and bemoan the rain, or
(37:34):
you can go let me dip through, look through these
dots and these drops. And ah, I'm an all girl.
Whoa that is?
Speaker 5 (37:44):
That is?
Speaker 1 (37:45):
And I will cling to that little sliver of a
of a of a a silver lining as long as
it takes until the rain stops, because rain gonna come west.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
Let me tell you what life taught me, KIV.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
Most of life is hard, yeah, the good time like
we I think we were sold a bill of goods
that life is great and fun whatever, And sometimes it's bad. No, no, no,
it's mostly really difficult, and sometimes it's good. And so
you need to learn how to cope through the part.
If you learn how to make it through hard times
without you know what Tab always said, If you can't
(38:19):
have a gooday, don't you go mess.
Speaker 5 (38:20):
Up nobody else, go messing nobody else.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
Go mess up. Nobody else is here.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
So if you can find a way to weather your
storms without becoming a storm cloud in someone else's life,
you cracked the matrix.
Speaker 5 (38:31):
I th crat that cracked it.
Speaker 3 (38:34):
You know, that's that's so good because you know, I
imagine earlier in your career you went from tim job
to booking something to back to the job like booking
back to it. Didn't you weren't You didn't have like
my first road one hundred episodes like you've had, you know,
And I think that has to be.
Speaker 5 (38:55):
Tough to be.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
Like I got a little bit of my dream. Now
I got to go back to apollow investments.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
Man, let me tell you something. Well, they had very
delicious food, so I wouldn't ever say, but man, delicious chick,
the leg cuckaroo they was, it was doing it.
Speaker 5 (39:12):
That's a that's part of your amenities down to the job.
Speaker 3 (39:15):
Be more valua than for one k when you hung
I'm hungry right now, hungry today.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
Every cereal cab, every cereal that they made, it was
in there. When you go on the little treaded wheat
treading read on up to the fruit loops and the
apple jack stand. It all that milk two percent and whole.
You want to be. You want to do the skill,
do the skill you want to you want the full.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
Experience of the cow. Here's the hole with the bottom
in d Man follow vessels was amazing, But yeah, it's
it's it's all a journey. The first the first sitcom
I booked. Kevin Hard mentioned earlier the Big House. The
Big House was picked up for I should have.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Told that story. That's a great story. We got the
Big House, we still got time the pipe. We do pilot.
It's my first policiason book a pilot, my first policies.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
It's crazy. It never happens. And then the show is
picked up. They fly us to New York to do
the upfronts. The night before the upfronts, they call us
into a room and they say, we're sorry, your your
pickup has been rescinded. Never in the history of network
television had a show been a cast been flown to
the upfronts and the show canceled before they're able to
(40:23):
be announced. So they told us, you know, you guys
can either catch a flight back tonight, you can do
I said, well, listen, I got this room until the
day after tomorrow, so I'm gonna I'm gonna get me
and I got this per diem. They then told me,
I got some dim on this room I got. I
left there with a robe. We were standing at the
Ritz Carlton. I left with a ritz.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
I'm leaving. There was something I put that on it.
I got. I got all the shrimp. Do you understand?
Speaker 1 (40:46):
I called down the rooms, I ever saying I have
two hundred dollars went a lot further back in two
thousand and three.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
I said, I got two hundred dollars. I would like
all the shrimp, however you cook it fried freakazy.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
I would like all the s So they set all
the shrimp up, all of that, and then so we
were sent we fly back to California, and then they
because it was a black show, that got canceled that way,
and it never happened. I think there was really a
lot of bad press. And so then we ended up
getting a mid season pickup for thirteen. We're on the
night before the sixth episode starts. I go and buy
(41:23):
a car because I'd been driving a beater. I mean, like,
check engine light on, can't go up the hill and
have the radio on. You you could add a choice.
You had radio on the heat or go up a hill.
Those are your choices. So listen and told you the
car I would get able to listen. This is what
we're doing it down and told you what we can
do today, So figure it out.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
So this car was.
Speaker 5 (41:46):
Uphill.
Speaker 3 (41:46):
You if it got to go uphill, you got to
go on the way, park down here and walk walk up.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
So this car was on his last legs. And I
was like, I finally have a network show.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
I wasn't.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
I wasn't making a lot of money per episode, of course,
but it was enough to get a car note and
know that I.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
Could pay it. So I buy this car.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
The dealership was right across the street from we were
shooting at the studio that's on in Culver City. I
think it's called Sunset Gower or Gower Studios. Anyway, there
was a Honda dealership right across street. Bought my little
hond to CRV. Pull up to the show, got the
bowl on it. I'm excited, come in with the key.
They're like, you bet, can we have a conversation in
living room set? Anytime? They want to gather us somewhere,
(42:24):
ain't it ain't good. I go in with my key
in my hand, and they said, yeah, we've been canceled.
This episode is our last episode. So we not only
got canceled before Upfronts, we didn't even get to finish
the first thirteen.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
We got six and I had just bought a car,
and you bought the car the show after I bought
the car on like a Monday night, Tuesday morning, that
show was canceled.
Speaker 5 (42:48):
The next day you went to work, they said, with.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
The boat camp.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
I still had the bowl on the hood, with the
boat still. It's the first time I ever bought a
new car. I said, I need the boat. You got
to give me the boat. I draw with the boat.
The boat was on the car.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
I was like like, now that I'm telling these stories,
I'm like, why am I so hopeful? Why do I believe?
Speaker 5 (43:12):
Why did you go back to the car and rip
the bowl?
Speaker 1 (43:16):
I listen, I enjoyed my ball. I said, listen, I'm
gonna live. I'm gonna live in yesterday today. I'm gonna
live in yesterday today. And this is the other thing too.
I've always been a saver, so I knew that the
only big purchase I made was that car, and This
was two thousand and three. That car was maybe maybe
twelve thousand dollars, which you know was like maybe three
hundred dollars a month or something.
Speaker 2 (43:33):
It's doable.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
It was doable, but it still was, you know, another
another kick in the chest, but I didn't. This is
when I say about that experience. I learned immediately in
this industry that nothing is guaranteed. Now, what a great
way to learn it. I'd rather learn it with a
twelve thousand dollars car than a Porsche one hundred thousand
dollars Porsche, right, I'd rather learn it without a mortgage.
(43:57):
I'd rather learn it while Apollo Investments is still allowing
me to come in and eat that cereal and that
cuckaroo in the evening, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
I learned it at the right time. And then I
also it taught me how to appreciate and be grateful
for everything you get because nothing is guaranteed in this life,
and especially in this business. It's not guaranteed.
Speaker 3 (44:16):
So that's so interesting, right, because you've had full TV shows,
you know, you you were on Community you left there,
You've had like do you think that view that view
of life has made it easier to navigate this very
difficult life.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
Absolutely, because I think, listen, either you believe my favorite
scripture is Jeremiah twenty nine eleven.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
That's my favorite scripture. That's the one man.
Speaker 5 (44:42):
How.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
Help me that I have.
Speaker 1 (44:48):
Towards you to prosper you future, not to harm you,
to give you an expected in right, which means what
do you expect?
Speaker 4 (44:58):
You know?
Speaker 2 (44:58):
And also God's got you. So though it.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
Looks like right now this is horrible, it's an expected end.
So if it looks horrible, it ain't the end. I
put that scripture on the runner of my wedding. Jeremih
tweeny nine eleven was on the runner because that's how
much of a rock scripture it is for me. And
so if you believe that scripture and you believe that
God is literally trying to prosper you and not harm you,
(45:22):
that means in any time in life that you feel
like you got a kick to the sternum, that's not
the end. It might be a lesson, but it's not
the end. So I always hold on to God's God's
word and he says that it's gonna be alright for
me ultimately, So I'm just gonna keep going until I
get to my ultimate end. And that's when he calls
(45:43):
me home, when he says, well done, my good and
faithful servant.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
I know Jesus. You know I'm good. I know Jesus.
Speaker 5 (45:52):
Why it be?
Speaker 2 (45:53):
You know the Bible? Today? Y'all gonna do it today?
Speaker 5 (46:01):
Hey, guys, taking a quick commercial break, will be right? Man.
(46:27):
Let me ask you this.
Speaker 3 (46:28):
If you yes, some would assume at this level of
your career, which congratulations, You've had so many things go
well for so long. Some would assume, even me, at
this point, you don't have anything that goes wrong, anything
that you want that doesn't come to pass. Does that?
Do you still need these lessons? There's still things that
you want for go out for. I don't know if
(46:48):
you're auditioning your offer only.
Speaker 2 (46:50):
First of all, I think offer only is a trap.
So really, yeah, I do. It's nice.
Speaker 1 (46:55):
It's nice for somebody to say we'd like you to
do this, that's or we wrote this for you. I've
had a couple of experiences like that and it is lovely.
But when when it's an offer, I want people to
remember this, there's always somebody that ain't on board, so
that means when you get on set, you that person's there.
It might be the director, it might be the producer,
it might be the showrunner. There's somebody there that that
(47:16):
didn't wanted you to audition, and they're not sure. Now
the thing is, hopefully if you're offer only, you know
your your skill set enough and you've been on enough
sets to know and you can win them over. But
I don't want to start by having to win you over.
I'd rather I'd rather everybody say she's the one.
Speaker 4 (47:30):
Now.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
I'm not saying that I don't. I'll say no to
offer only, go audition me. Now you gonna give me,
don't give to me. But I also do not mind auditioning.
And I still audition, And I'll even tell someone that
they say, we are thinking of you for this. I'm like,
let me know when you want me to put something
on tape or you want me to come in, and
they go, oh no, no, we're gonna offer own. Okay,
you know, but the show I did Odd couple. Right
(47:52):
after I left community for my dad take care of
my dad. I got a call know I was on
this se I think I was on the CBS Radford
lot and I ran into the showrunner of The Odd Couple. No,
that's not true. I ran into one of the writers
on The Eye Couple that used to work on Community.
That's what I ran into one of the writers and
she said, Emily, and she said, Yvette, you know we
were trying to we're trying to get you to come
(48:14):
over to the Odd Couple. We have a we're recasting
a role and we'd love for you to to do
the Odd Couple. And I said, okay, that'd be great, awesome,
And I left her thinking, any day this audition is
going to come in. Then a couple of weeks later,
I run into a show the show runner, Bob Daily,
who I'd never met before. He said, Hi, I'm sorry
you don't know any My names by Daily, I'm showrunner
on Odd Couple. We really we try, we're trying to
(48:34):
get you.
Speaker 2 (48:34):
I said yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
I said, no one, no one gave me any information
about the audition. He said, no, no, we want to
give it to you, like, we want you to play
this role.
Speaker 2 (48:44):
And this was the first offered.
Speaker 1 (48:46):
Like and no one had ever offered me anything. And
I was prepared after jeemn off of coming off of
five years on Community. I was prepared to go on
audition for this role, and he told me, no, no, no,
we just trying to get the name of your eighth
like we do we need you because it's all before
social media and stuff. There was no which that's not
that's a lie. There was social media, but I guess
they didn't have my knowledge it. And then I found
(49:06):
out when I reached out to my agent that they
my agent had sent me something about the odd couple,
but it didn't have an audition attachment. So I saw it,
but it didn't say you know, the little attachment like
with So I never opened it. I literally and I
called agent, like, yo, they're looking for me a city,
but we sent you that three weeks ago.
Speaker 2 (49:26):
You never responded.
Speaker 1 (49:27):
We thought you didn't want to do what I'm going
through even like what so you just never know how
things are going to play out. But I've kept that
feeling like I I will audition for things if you
don't know for sure, if somebody's not sure about me,
I absolutely WI will audition.
Speaker 5 (49:42):
That is I think so good to hear.
Speaker 3 (49:46):
I hope upcoming actors and creatives hear that, like you
you know you this this industry, there's some people. There's
you people who who never have to do it again.
But that's not the norm. And you've you've been working good,
good hunting sixty IMDb credits, got kid. I remember you
said one time, you said, listen if you want to
(50:06):
work or work on that first season, that first pilot,
because if you only watch a little bit, they gonna watch.
Speaker 2 (50:11):
The first episode, they gonna watch you. I told you.
Speaker 1 (50:14):
I didn't told people this for years, and I hope
people are heeding me. The best, the best hack of
this industry is residuals. And the best way to make
sure you get them from day one. They when a
show goes into syndication is try to get on the
first season of a new show. Show ain't even got
to make it, sho ain't got to make it, but
the first season. I'm forever trying to get in on
the first season show because then when it went five
(50:35):
years later, when it goes into syndication, if we still
get twenty two year seasons anymore, then you're automatically in
that first set of residual syndication money.
Speaker 2 (50:43):
You're gonna get money, and it's gonna keep it's gonna keep.
Speaker 1 (50:46):
Coming for the rest of your life might be five
cent by the time it's done, but you're gonna get
that good money.
Speaker 5 (50:50):
Yes, personal investments follow.
Speaker 2 (50:55):
And don't think I won't go back.
Speaker 1 (50:56):
Listen if this, If this gets tired, I say all
the time I was always hiring, I will go get
a job. I'm about to get out there. I'll be
at starbus talking about what you want to vente. I
don't got no shame in it.
Speaker 2 (51:07):
I got to eat. I got to pay this for
this house.
Speaker 3 (51:10):
Get it the same way. I worked for many years
before I ever booked the thing.
Speaker 5 (51:15):
I would have to.
Speaker 3 (51:16):
Work for thirty eight years. Yeah, in this industry before
I have done enough time that I didn't work in here.
Speaker 5 (51:21):
Y'all.
Speaker 3 (51:23):
I feel if I'm on your uber and you see,
ain't you kept absolutely five absolutely five stars?
Speaker 2 (51:29):
Please get start.
Speaker 1 (51:30):
Here's here's your door dash door dash order you bet?
Yes I am, Yes, I am? And did you want
Here's a chicken. Here's the chicken and the drink. And
I put a little piece of tape over the drink
drink when I was driving because I didn't want to list.
Speaker 2 (51:43):
So all your drink is in there, but here's your straw.
I ain't got no shame. I'm from Cleveland. We work
in Cleveland. I will work, I will work.
Speaker 3 (51:53):
Oh my gods, you bet this has been fantastic. There
before we let you go, we've talked about some of
your moments that are not your best. Is there anything
you're looking forward to that you're hoping is going to
be some of your best moments that we can look
out for when it comes out.
Speaker 1 (52:05):
You know, I've got two films coming out. I'm in
a Code three with Little Rell and Rain Wilson that's
coming out, and then also I'm in k Pops with
UH with Anderson Parker plays mom. And then I've got,
you know, a couple of little things bubbling up of
a lifetime movie coming up with Tony Braxton and my
husband and I. He plays my husband husband's actor as well.
So Tony Tony up in there playing my husband. He
(52:28):
booked that job. And kisses were delicious on set because
I want to kiss nobody but my husband. I don't
know how these gona be kissing random people. I'll be like,
ginger vitis is contagious.
Speaker 2 (52:36):
I don't know I want your ginger vinis. I don't
know you like that? So yeah, So Tony's Tony's my husband.
He went on and booked the roles.
Speaker 5 (52:43):
That's amazing.
Speaker 3 (52:45):
Well, y'all, please check out event and all the things
she's done, and thank you Event for joining. These stories
were great. I hope somebody's left here encouraged.
Speaker 5 (52:54):
I sure have.
Speaker 3 (52:55):
I love some of your perspectives I think will be
necessary for me as I continue my care. I love
your point of view on this and I think it's
a necessary one. Thank you guys so much.
Speaker 2 (53:06):
And wait, wait before you go, Before you go, they
don't close it out.
Speaker 1 (53:09):
I got something I want to say. Please, please, I
am so proud of you. I have watched your career
for I don't know how long I have been rooting
for you. Have I feel like I've been friends with
you longer than we've been friends, because I've been rooting
for you ever since I first saw you. I think
that your way of doing comedy is brilliant. I think
the way that you always keep God first is amazing.
(53:30):
The fact that you celebrate marriage and fatherhood and you
love your wife like all of it, all of it,
keV is really really necessary and wonderful. And you prove
in the same way that Tabitha proves and other people
that you don't have to be wretched and hateful to
make it in this business. You can make it in
this business and keep your soul intact and celebrate and
support other people as you rise, and you embody that.
(53:53):
So I want to give you your flowers, brother, and
tell you that I'm so happy that I finally got
a chance to work with you, and this in disrespect
and I look forward to working with you and other
respects as well. I just think you're I think you're
all the things.
Speaker 3 (54:05):
Thank you so much. That means a lot to me.
I had an old viewpoint when I worked at the bank.
I you know it was it was, you know, the
bank would look the other way if you could trick
somebody into a into a product. And I was like,
I can't do that. I live in the city, do it.
I don't want somebody to hit me in the back
of the head with a brick because I tricked.
Speaker 5 (54:23):
Them, right. I can walk around good because I know
I ain't done.
Speaker 1 (54:27):
You wrong or to harm somebody, you know what I mean?
Like nothing, nothing makes me happier to hear one hundred
and some credits on IMDb and I know that I
didn't steal want of them jobs from nobody else. I
didn't lie, and I didn't lie to nobody to get
an audition I didn't deserve, or to make sure they
didn't get an audition that they did deserve. I have
not done anybody any harm in this industry, and that
(54:47):
that makes me prouder than anything. And that means, you know,
I may not be one of the cool kids. I
don't get to go all the places and stuff because
you know, I'm just not the cool kid. But I'm
okay being not the cool kid. I'm the nice kid. Yeah,
and nicest good, nice is good, coolest.
Speaker 3 (55:02):
Relative cool changes, cool changes, nice is good always. So
thank you that actually that means a lot to me.
I will cherish those little words. I'm gonna put them
in my podcast.
Speaker 5 (55:13):
I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you guys.
We'll see you next time.
Speaker 3 (55:46):
This has been a Unanimous Media original Now My Best
Mama was produced by iHeart Podcasts and Unanimous Media. It
was hosted by me Kevin Fredericks, Executive produced by Stephen Curry,
Eric Payton and Charlotte Sumter je co executive producer Maria
Cutney The executive producers of the iHeart Podcasts are Sean
Titone and Jason English. This series was produced by Peter
(56:07):
Calter and Jabbari Davis, co producer Kurt Redman.
Speaker 5 (56:10):
A special thanks to Stephen Curry and Will Pearson. Not
My Best Moment as a production of Unanimous Media and
iHeart Podcasts. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the
iHeart Radio app. Have a podcast, or wherever you get
your podcasts.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Betrayal: Weekly
Betrayal Weekly is back for a brand new season. Every Thursday, Betrayal Weekly shares first-hand accounts of broken trust, shocking deceptions, and the trail of destruction they leave behind. Hosted by Andrea Gunning, this weekly ongoing series digs into real-life stories of betrayal and the aftermath. From stories of double lives to dark discoveries, these are cautionary tales and accounts of resilience against all odds. From the producers of the critically acclaimed Betrayal series, Betrayal Weekly drops new episodes every Thursday. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack. And make sure to check out Seasons 1-4 of Betrayal, along with Betrayal Weekly Season 1.