S2 E20 - David A Arnold

Ed talks with comedian David A. Arnold. They talk about Arnold’s newfound popularity after three decades in comedy. They talk about his latest Netflix special  and explore why his brand of comedy is deeply rooted in his life’s story and why nothing is off limits including his family and his years of drug and alcohol addiction.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Welcome to the latest edition of one hundred The Ed
Gordon Podcast. Today a conversation with comedian David A. Arnold.
Arnold has been in the comedy game for close to
three decades. He's been grinding doing stand up as well
as writing and producing comedies for television. His popularity really

(00:42):
started to grow during the height of the pandemic. He's
becoming one of the nation's hottest comedians in part because
his brand of comedy is deeply rooted in his life
story and that includes his family life. This is from
his latest Netflix special, It Ain't for the Week. Oh

(01:02):
and by the way, this interview contained some language that
is definitely adult and may be offensive to some. First
of all, these these new kids, they're the most entitled
group of people that I've ever met in my life.
Do you you hear me? But here's the thing. I know
they like this because we made them like this. My

(01:23):
kids is like because everybody wants to do better for
their kids, and they think what's done for them that
I thought about, like I came up pretty good. So
what the fund is the goal? With? Here? Am I
trying to get? This is how I know they're not
doing too much. But don't add grace to start sixty.
She calls me, said, I want to talk to you.
I ain't never said no ship like that to my father.

(01:46):
A matter of fact, I prefer we didn't talk to
be honest. She's like, I'd like to talk to you.
I'm turning sixty and I want to talk to you
about the type of car. I'd like it. I want
to hear what you think you got coming, she said,
I'm having my eye on the g Wagon. What do

(02:09):
you think is happening around here that the G Wagon
is anywhere in your future? You understand what makes you
think you're gonna get a hundred thousand dollars? Though Julie
lonely contends everything these kids say. Julie heard this. This
pisted her off. She came out the back like, hold on,
I'm fine, and I ain't got no g wagon. Definitely
not getting no wagon. You're getting the ninety eight Corona.

(02:32):
Get that here. I'm finally at that place where you busy,
you know what I mean. Like I've been doing this
for a long time and somebody was saying that to me.
They're like, man, you're just going a TV show to
tour all this other stuff, and I'm like, yeah, man,
it ain't it ain't time to be sleep. There's ain't
time to be sleeping. It's interesting you say that because
so many people have found you in the last few years.

(02:54):
But I mean, you've been out here two plus decades. Yeah,
I've been doing stand up for twenty eight years. I've
been writing television professionally and producing television for fifteen So yeah, man,
I've been out here for a minute. And it's and
you know, it's funny to watch people go, oh my gosh,
I can't believe I just telled you, and you know,
you have so much material, And I'm going, that's what
happened when you've been working underground for twenty eight years

(03:17):
and aintybody been paying attention. Now all of a sudden
they like, where you get all this stuff? Like, I've
just been working. I've been working. I've been grinding and
working every day. How much of you coming from Cleveland
has to do with that grind? I remember years ago
having a conversation with Barry Gordy. Yes, people said to him, hey, man,

(03:38):
what was it in the water in Detroit? He said, no,
he said Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, and the winner you got
to go to work. Before you go to work, you
gotta shovel that driveway. How much of the Midwest mentality
comes into play there, you think, Um, you know what
I would like to I would love to be able
to say that. You know. Obviously I'm from Cleveland, so

(04:00):
I understand exactly what he's talking about. But I grew
up with, you know, three men that were very influential
in my life. And I saw that. My grandfather owned
an asphalt company when I came up in Cleveland. He
only worked during the summer because asphalt, as you know,
was laid in the summertime and in the winter. You know,
he had to make all his all his money in

(04:21):
the in the summer and save it to get through
the winter. But I watched this man work every single day,
and I think that's where I got my work mentality
from him and my dad, and I remember my stepfather.
Between those three dudes, I just saw people who they
just worked. That's what you did, you just worked, you know.
And yeah, of course I remember shoveling snow. I remember

(04:42):
the snowblower. I remember all of that stuff. That's why
I live in l A now. I have no desire
to be a partner, none of that. But yes, that's
where it comes from. It comes from, it comes from.
It is a Midwest thing. But you know, I give
my work ethnic and my creditor to that, to my
to my to my dad, and my my dad and
my stepfather and my grandfather. Let me ask you about, um,

(05:05):
the pandemic and what it did for you, because so
many people found you, yeah on Instagram with all just
sitting at home. Yeah, how you view that? You know what?
It's The pandemic was so bad for so many people,
for so many reasons, and for me it was the

(05:27):
complete opposite. Um. I I had a Netflix special and
independent one that I did, my very first one, call
fat Ballerina. I put that. I put that Netflix special
up and it came up. It came out the week
of the pandemic, the week we got shut down. It
was posted up on Netflix, and obviously everybody was doing

(05:49):
nothing for the first month but watching Netflix, you know,
I mean, and they watched all the people they knew,
and then they got down to me. It was like,
let me see what this little light skim currently head,
you know what I mean, And they and they watched
the specially it was funny. I had been posting video
content on Instagram and social media Facebook a year before that,
maybe a year and a half before that. I actually

(06:10):
started to build a strong following. But when the pandemic
came again, everybody turned their attention to their devices, so
they just started looking and I was there. So when
when when everybody shut down, I was. I had a presence,
So people started finding me, and I knew that everybody
was gonna be at home or looking in their phone.

(06:31):
More so, I laid into that thing every single day
and it just it just caught like wildfire. Man. I mean,
for those who saw the last Special and certainly have
followed you, you integrate your family so much. Yeah you.
I don't know anyone who's done it as well as
you since Bernie Mac. You know, thank you. Yeah man.

(06:55):
I remember talking to Bernie about whether or not he
has to kind of go to the folks beforehand, or
do they just know you. Ain't no, ain't no, ain't
no getting permission for nothing like this. This is. And
I remember when I first started posting videos with my
wife and kids, and it like I remember my wife

(07:16):
the first time I started recording something that was happening
in the house. She's like, why are you recording this?
I said, because I need people to see what I'm
going through in here, because I know I'm not the
only one. And she was like, well, this is not funny,
and I was like, oh, it's funny, sister, And I
started posting the videos anyway with my commentary around him,
and I started she started seeing the comments she started

(07:36):
seeing and the next thing, you know, it just blew up.
My kids started to read it and they started to realize, oh,
we because my wife. I have a video of my
wife going we're not funny, Like, we're not there's nothing
funny about it. And she's like, we're real, but we're
not funny. And I was like, but that's what's funny,
and I so I know, I don't. I've never asked
for permission. My family has known who I am from

(07:57):
the beginning. And you know, everything I posted, you know,
none of it is stage. It's really unless we're doing
a skin of some sort, but most of it is
just us in the moment, really being who we are.
So it really is the antithesis of what we all
try to do, though, Dave, and that's the idea of
putting that Facebook Instagram life up front and trying to

(08:21):
keep the real ship. But exactly exactly we are the
complete opposite that, Like if you see me and you
see my page, my hair don't be done. I'd be
looking crazy at the time, my wife be looking like
ship sometimes like we both be, we both be out
of there. But people relate to that because it's real.

(08:41):
It ain't me trying to create uh you know, a curate.
My page is not curating. My page is caught in
the moment, real life. And I think that's the reason
why it's resonating with people so much, because it's how
we look when we had to creb. It's how we
look when we're just chilling, like as in the call
coach O very good, okay, right, But they Paige is

(09:07):
the most like like they on vacation with drone shots
and I said, hey, you got a drone camera on vacation, like,
like why you just I can't get a video y'all
to wake it up in the morning and don't look
like you've been through air makeup like they That's but
that's their brand, you know what I mean. Me and

(09:28):
Julie we Midwest my wife from Indianapolis. You know what
I mean. Her father was, you know, an NBA legend
basketball player. You know what I'm saying. We just we
come from a different we cut from a different cloth,
which is different. You know, we just different people. We're
just real, that's who we are. What about when you
have to decide though that because that is who you are.

(09:50):
There are things that I'm sure you had to think
about whether you okay, did with others or not. You
have to think about whether or not, particularly when you
you talk about your mom. Yeah, you know, your stepfather
or your father, whomever. What do you gauge? What do
you say? I'm gonna keep this one. I I don't

(10:16):
know that there's been anything yet that I've come up
on that I feel the need to talk about. There's
never been a time that I go, oh, I want
to talk about this, Oh maybe I shouldn't. There's not
been a subject that's come up yet because I've talked
about me. I've talked about being sober. If you saw
my my last Network, specially with Ain't for the week.
I go through all of my life and you know,

(10:37):
I I've not had that moment yet where I feel
like this is off limits, you know what I'm saying, Like,
because most of the stuff that I talked about is
my journey and these people that are around me in
my life. My dad, have a stepfather, and the grandmother
and my wifehood, you know all that they are. They
are a part of my life, but it's still my

(10:57):
perspective and it's my journey and it's my story that
they are connected to. I remember, like the first time
I told I started doing a bit about and I
did this in Fat Ballerina where I tell the story
about how I found out that who I thought was
my biological father my whole life was not my biological father,
and I tell the story about meeting my biological father. Well,
I started doing that joke fifteen years ago. And I

(11:20):
remember the first time I did it at the Improv
in Cleveland and my parents had come out to see
me perform, and they brought all their little friends. Right
and after the show, my mother came to me, It's like,
your dad is a little upset that you did this
joke about you know, And I was like, okay, So
I talked to that and I was like, Mama said
you're upset. He was like, you know I had frenzy.
I just expect you to do that you got and
I said, let me ask you a question. I said,

(11:40):
did I say anything that was not true? And he
said no. I said, I'm going to tell my story.
I said, I want to be good at this, I
want to be one of the best at this, and
I cannot do it if I'm not allowed to have
my truth. And he never said anything else to me again.
And I wrote the joke in the story in a

(12:01):
way to turn it back to honor him and who
he is. You know what I'm saying. And now I
think that was a growing pain, one of the biggest
ones I had. You know what I mean for me
and doing what I do. But my family they have
not my wife, I was never coming to me. I
don't like that joke, those jokes you're doing about you know,
side bitches and all that. We've never had none of

(12:22):
those kinds of conversations. Because I I protected my creative space.
I was doing stand up five years before I met
my wife, and I tell my friends now, who do
stand up? That called me? Then my wife was like,
why are you doing that joke? I had to tweak
that joke so she not man, that I'm not doing
any of that. That's my space. I deserve and have

(12:42):
the right to tell my story, and that's what I've
always protected. So I've been lucky that the people around
me have not been in that. In that way, I
really have what I loved about. And I hit you
just as soon as I finished watching the latest special.
I hit you up and said, brilliant man, because us

(13:02):
you you not only introduced us to the people in
your life, but you had the foresight to actually introduce
us to that We got to see them and meet
them after the fact, because too often I think we
tell these stories, comics tell these stories, and you wonder
who these people are in real life. We got to
meet them. When did you decide that was the best

(13:25):
way we um? You know, when we first pitched the idea,
I had a had another executive producer that was attached
this program, to this special as well as Kevin harty Is.
And I'm not gonna say who they are because they
pulled their name off of it because of some of
the content that I did that they felt like they
should not be on it. But we are great friends.
They are one of the biggest black producers in the

(13:46):
in the business, and it was their idea two uh,
to basically go, we should do a thing where we
meet your family. And it was a talk of maybe
we do the stand up and then show some of
the stuff in between. And then as we kept going
down the project, We're like, I don't want to break
up the flow of the stand up to go break

(14:07):
in that, so let's do it after. So from the
top it became a discussion. And because people knew me
from social media, and my wife and my kids and
my mom had already had a face on my page,
we were like, this would just be organic form my
fans who already know me from social media to get
a chance to see further into my life. So that's

(14:29):
why we did it, and we put that we tagged
that little eighteen minute documentary at the end of the
hour of stand up, and it's been received crazy, it's
been really it's been received really well. I mentioned Bernie
Mack at the outset. Would you consider have you considered
are you looking at the idea of doing what Bernie

(14:50):
did and try to do a sitcom? Man, I've I've
this is I've three times, I've already tried to do it,
and I've been rejected and told that you for what
one reason or another. The first, the last one of
the times I was told by b ET at the
time I started for developing this show at Hulu and
then it ended at b ET, which was this was

(15:11):
about four years ago, and they basically said I was
not marketable. I did not look like what a black
man looks like the black audience would respond to me
as a black man and all that, you know, and
that ship angered me and it hurt me. You know,
says when black people invalidate your blackness because I'm light
skinned and I got curly here and I might look
Dominican so dark skinned, you know. And all the women

(15:34):
who work at the office and bt is, you know,
they all dark skinned women. They got this car like
it's just a bunch of ship, and I just it
and a lot of people like you shouldn't say it.
Who these people? You shouldn't identify that. I'm gonna call
that when I get my b E T Award, which
they will give me, I'm going to let them know
who they are. I'm gonna call their names out because

(15:56):
it was them that motivated me to start posting a
line to start doing the things that I do. When
they said I wasn't marketable, I had twelve hundred followers
and I started posting in videos and then rants and
the things, and I went from that to over a
million now on all my platforms, and I have this
strong social media. So the answer is, yes, I want
to do a show. Where in the middle of doing

(16:17):
it again. Now you know, right now, Hollywood, from what
I'm being told, is on Hollywood's looking for the office comedy. Now,
they're not looking for family you know, it's always timing,
and you know this business, it's this business. So you know,
three or five years ago it was I wasn't marketable.
Now to Netflix specials later and millions of followers now

(16:38):
that what they say is, oh, they're looking for Hollywood's
looking for the next Abbot, Elementary, the new you know,
they're looking for works. But I'm going to continue to
We're out right now meeting with the showrunners to develop
another family sitcom based on me and my point of view.
So the answer is yes, and I will get there
because that is my That's always been my goal. Yeah, yeah,

(16:59):
good Arnold is not afraid to explore those corners. Of
life that most would want to keep in the dark.
That includes his years of addiction to drugs and alcohol.
I don't believe that there is a stereotypical kind of
but there are those who will say that you don't
get the stereotype for an addict. Yes, one, oh absolutely.

(17:25):
That was one of my biggest problems of being on drugs.
Like I said in my spot, I don't look like
I'm on drugs. I don't look like like And so
I would try to buy drugs and and you know,
and the dope man was like, you ain't no, God damn,
you don't get your ads out of here, you know
what I mean. They thought I was an undercover guy.
That was true. I had to I had to push
you against the north like what was naturally given to

(17:49):
me to be on drugs. You know what I'm saying.
It's always like when I see I don't know if
you've ever seen people are overweight, but they got real
skinny legs, like they got there like the only only
they up, it's just they out of shape. But they
leg to me are people whose they framed and they liked.
Was not meant to be like that. But they pushed

(18:10):
against it to do and be who they want to be.
I had to do that to be on drugs. I natured.
I didn't come from that, you know what I'm saying.
I didn't. That was not my destiny obviously. So it
was hard for me to be on drugs because you know,
the lifestyle of the drug addict was not the lifestyle
that I was good at. And so you know, when

(18:32):
I got sober twenty four years ago, now, um, you
know it was I knew that there was other things
for me to do. I felt like that was something
that I was emotionally addicted to, you know what I mean.
And when I worked on that, it changed. But yes,
I did not. It was It was ridiculous. It was
comedic almost so for you. For you, you think it

(18:55):
was more an emotional addiction than a chemical addiction. Because
I never as much cocaine as I did, and as
much weed as I said, drinking as I was. I
never went through when I went to read. I never
went through withdrawals. I never had any physical like you
never never had, which I saw that when I went
to the v A in Westwood in l A. And

(19:16):
I got sober for the third time, and I was
in rehab, and I remember seeing people go through physical
withdrawal like you know, I never had any of that.
And what I did know was emotionally I was locked
up on that because I was, you know, I just
didn't want to deal with whatever feelings that I had
that I was, you know, pushing through to try to

(19:38):
figure out. But yeah, I never I did. I never.
I've never had any of that. So what what what
changed for you? I got tired of being tired. I
got tired of pushing against what was naturally trying to
come my way, which was this life that I'm living.
You know what I'm saying. I grew up, Like I said,

(19:59):
I grew up as far as I'm concerned, I grew
up around greatness, my grandfather and my and my dad
and watching you know, watching these men around me work
and just be. It was not what I was supposed
to be doing, you know what I mean, Like I was,
and I just needed to get up and answer the call,

(20:19):
is what it was. And that's why being in this
business and the rejection and the bullshit and the lies
and all it don't bother me. Like when you've been
on drugs and you've been down there you can't hurt
my feelings. But then when you tell me, you will
make me mad. When you tell me I'm not blacking
up or I'm not this, or I'm not you'll make
me that. But you're not gonna break me. You're not
laughing when I'm on stage. I don't give a funk

(20:41):
about you not laughing. You know what I'm saying. Like
you you understand, like I've been through it. You're sitting
there with an attitude because you only want to come here,
you know what I mean? Like none, none of that
stuff bothers me. This business, the ship. I'm very honest
in this business. You know, I'm running the TV show
right now. I'm the showrunner of a TV show I
created for uh Me and Will Packer that I created

(21:03):
for Will Packer and Nickelodeon. And I'm not good at Hollywood.
I'm not good at you know. They very sugarcoat stuff. Yeah,
we think it's great. We just you don't think it's great.
You think it's bad, So just say you think it's
bad so I can move on. That's who I am,
and it's not received well be sometimes because I'm just
a real honest individual. And that's how I moved through

(21:25):
this business. I don't quit, you know what I mean.
And I'm at the age of you know, I'm fifty
three years old now, you know, and so like everybody
goes all this, all this stuff is coming to you,
But yeah, I see it for what it is now.
I don't. I'm not seduced by the attention. I'm not
because I have so much further to go, you know
what I mean. Like, I've so much further to go.
I have so much more than I want to do there.

(21:47):
This is not the time for me to have no ego.
I'm performing at the comedy Zone. Okay, I'm not at
I'm not at the I'm not at the Madison Square Garden.
That's where I'm trying to get to. I'm not there yet,
you know. So I don't get beside I myself by
no means, because I have so much more work to do.
One of the things that I think people don't know

(22:07):
you mentioned it a few moments ago, was the idea
that you have produced and written television shows. You talk
about Lele for Nickelodeons. You were also a part of
H Fuller House. How did that How did that connection come?
H Fuller House came about because Um, I worked on

(22:29):
I've worked like Get Fuller House. I think it was
from Bob Yes, it was was from Bob Boyette. Miller
Boyette was a big production company that was famous for
uh Friday Night UM Television when they had UM Family
Matters in full House and when when they were dominating
the air in the nineties. Miller boy At Bob Boyette was,

(22:52):
you know, very successful producer. Well, he did a TV
show with Martin and Kelsey Grammer called Partners. That was
a ten episode thing that they did on Fex. You know,
like I don't remember when it was maybe two thousand,
ten eleven, I could thirteen, I don't remember. But I
got that job because I had written this is when
everybody was trying to do these ten nineties shows, shoot

(23:13):
ten and then pick up ninety on the back end,
because that's what Tyler Perry had done with House of
Pain and Meet the Browns. I came from time. My
first job was House of Pain and Meet the Browns,
and I learned how to write and produce TV over there.
Then they hired me in Hollywood to do this Miller
boy At production and then they went on to do
Fuller House. So when they did Fuller House, he immediately

(23:34):
called me and he remembered me from that show. And
that's how I landed full That's how I landed Fullerer House,
one of the only black writers in that very white
I was gonna ask you about that because that's very unique.
You know, when you talk about television, I think some
people would be dumbfounded to walk into a writer's room
or a ya a table read and see, you know

(23:57):
the one Negro that yes, loud in if if that,
if that, Yeah, it's it's you know, yes. And it
was so funny. This is what's crazy about that. At
the time when I did season two, I did season
four and five of Fuller House. They did five seasons.
I did the last two because I was working on
other stuff and I wasn't available, and the first I

(24:17):
was right Real Husband of Hollywood with Kevin Hart. But
I remember being a full Fuller House. And I was
also working on a B E. T show with Will
Packer called Bigger that was on b ET Plus. We
did two seasons over there, and I was driving from
the Bigger writer's room, which was all black, from from

(24:39):
Paramount up to Warner brothers to right in the Fuller
House room, which was all white, and I would go
between these two worlds. Yeah, you know, and I when
I was driving one day, it reminded me of when,
you know, my parents got divorced when I was six,
and my mother married my stepfather, who was a music
producer and he started to Jay's. So we lived up

(25:01):
in a all white Jewish neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio, and
my dad still lived in the house that I came
from when I was six, which was in the hood
for all intent purposes, And every weekend I would go
from my dad's house from the hood back to my
house in the in you know, in the all white
Jewish neighborhood. And I did this every I would go
back and forth between these two worlds. And when I
was driving from Paramount from the B E T Set

(25:24):
to the Fuller House set, it just reminded me of
my life and how I could always toggle between these
two spaces and exist and be good at both of them,
you know what I mean. And funny, it's funny, funny,
it's funny, funny, funny, it's funny, and it cuts through
the way we talk about it might be different. But
white people got families, they got kids that they sick of,

(25:46):
just like like we might deal with them different. But funny,
it's funny, and I think that's why my audience is
so wide. Funny, it's funny. But there are cultural comedy differences,
absolutely often because we toggle between the worlds can get
white comedy, but white can't always get black comedy. They
cannot because ours is Ours is drenched in history. It's

(26:08):
drenched and like you said, it's drenched and the way
that we just do things, you know what I mean,
Like it's a whole it's a different language, it's a
different rhythm, you know. And yeah, one and that is
the that is the thing that as a comedian, as
a writer and a storyteller, I'm very good at finding
the space. I know what buttons to plut when I

(26:30):
can look in the audience and I can see, oh,
this room is predominantly this for that, I know exactly
what buttons to lean on, a what words to punch with,
words to throw away, Like I've been doing this long
enough and I can I can dance between both those
words very well. Who were your influences coming up comedically? Oh?
My gosh, coming up was Richard Pryor obviously you know

(26:53):
it was Bill Cosby um when I got all older,
and George Carlin when I got older and I started
to see stand up, Like the first time I ever
saw stand up was Eddie Murphy's Delirious with the Red Suit.
And I remember I was probably ten at the time,
and I came home. Now, I came to my aunt's house.

(27:15):
Me and my mom went over my aunts and all
the adults are in the basement where they were always at,
you know, smoking weed and talking ship and laughing, right,
And we walk in the house and they was in
there screaming. I was laughter, and I was like, what's
going on? And my my aunt yells to my mother, Barbara,
come down here and look at this little boy on
TV talking ship. Right. So we all go downstairs, right,

(27:35):
and Eddie is on stage murdering. I don't know what
he's talking about because I'm not there yet to be
able to listen and lock in. All I know is
I see a man in a box telling stories and
making the people laugh that normally are cussing me out.
Having these people uncontrolled like that was the first thing

(27:58):
that made me go what's been us? And then later
on I saw d O Hugeley do stand up and
when I was in the Navy, and that made me go,
I think I can tell these stories. I think I
got some funny stories to tell, just like my grandfather
told stories. I was like, I can tell these stories
like my grandfather told me. And that's so. My grandfather
was one of the biggest comedic influences in my life.

(28:20):
He wasn't even a comedian. So those were my those
were my pivotal moments. It was Bill and Eddie when
I was I mean Bill and Richard when I was
a kid. It was Eddie Murphy that made me realize
that something in Deo Hugley made me realize, well, I
can do this. Let me ask you in relation to
where you sit on a debate that goes on and on,
and that is the idea of black comedy. I'll put

(28:42):
that in quotes. And whether or not we have for
too many generations just gone to the lowest common denominator
for funny. You know, I'm I'm of the belief that
you can't legislate funny to whomever sitting in the audience
if they think it's funny. It's funny if they do right.
And I understand the debate. You can't invalidate anybody's experience,

(29:05):
you know. And because you went to school and read
a few books and now you want to hear something
cleverly put together because to meet my expectant. You know,
listen to what you think is funny. But there's people
who think that government cheese and and and and and
and and sporting out. They they that's the there's some
people's reality every day, and they think that ship is funny,

(29:26):
you know what I mean, The roaches in the corner.
You ever go to a girl's house roaches on the
ball and you're like, man, I'm gonna anyway. You know
these roaches like that. Listen, that is funny. And if
it's funny in your audience is buying tickets to see
you tell the roach on the wall joke. You can't.

(29:46):
You can't. You can't criticize a man who's selling out
wherever he's selling out, doing whatever it is he does.
You know what I'm saying. That's the here's the thing.
There is no one there. I just have to be
one bucket of comedy, one well that we all pull
from that's not real, everybody. That's why there's a thousand comedians.

(30:10):
So you can see who you want to see. And
if you want to hear what they call low hanging
through and that makes you laugh, then go see who
you want to see. And if you want to hear
some quote unquote elevated comedy, I don't know what that is.
You go listen to the people who speak to what
your reality is. But you can't make people like what
you like. I don't. I think that's just people who

(30:32):
ain't got shipped to do talking. It ain't for the week. Uh,
you know, I I loved when you started out, at
least when I started out. When I saw you, Yeah,
when you were posting and you say go get yourself
a family. Yeah yeah, yeah, And that's and it's true
like anybody who's anybody who's with the Gauntlet who's done time.

(30:54):
I say this and I name my specialness, and then
my my Netflix special is called it ain't for the week,
because anything worthwhile is not for the week. It ain't
gonna be easy. It ain't gonna and I say this
on stage even now, and it ain't gonna be easy.
It's supposed to be hard. It's supposed to make you
want to quit. It's supposed to make you want to go.
Why did I do this? Being married for long? Anybody

(31:17):
who know anybody who've been married for years? It ain't
It ain't for the week. It ain't easy zero to
eighteen months, that's where everybody dance at zero to two years.
Anybody can do that. Ship. That's the that's playtime. So
you don't get no credit from me for being with
somebody for two years. Of course you've been there two years.

(31:37):
You ain't done ship. Like kids, kids are going, oh
my god, the baby, look at the baby, Oh the baby,
Look at them. Let these little womens grow up. Let
them grow up and start telling you what you don't know.
And you gave it that. None of these things are
for the faith of heart. They not for the week.
And that's the reason why I said that you get

(31:59):
a wife that ain't do we get in the husband
ain't for the week, like it ain't. Women deal with
our ship like there are women way stronger emotionally than
we are, Way stronger than we are emotionally. You know
what I mean? Women deal with men is coming home
with a whole another family. It's still stay there. You
think that's for the week. That ain't for the week,
That ain't for the one who goes, I can't do this.

(32:20):
Your credit is not good. I can't be with you.
I gotta I have to go. It's what we're talking about.
You like that. Nobody, nobody knows until you've done it
and you really run the gauntlet of all the gamut
of everything. Is it ain't for the week, man, And

(32:42):
this journey of doing what I'm doing, it has not been,
has not been for the week. But I've never had
one time that I've ever thought about quitting. Never once.
So that takes me to the last question. I've heard
you a number of times talk about the journey and
it's over and you've got a lot more to do. Yeah,

(33:04):
what's the end of the road? And buy that you know.
I know people don't like to think about, particularly when
you love what you do. The end, but there is
you know your driveway, you make it home, you're satisfied.
What is that for you? Um? This is what I
will say lately, in the last couple of years, with
the success that I've had and and and just what

(33:26):
I've had now, I've learned to I'm learning to stop
and start enjoying the things around me that I do have.
My daughters are fifteen and seventeen. I try to spend
more time with them and really lock in with them
because there, you know, a few years out from going
out and to do their own things. Spend more time

(33:49):
in lock in with my wife, trying to do things
that I enjoy right because I do. I still, like
I said, I still want to do. I still want
I'm still gonna do it at com I'm gonna do.
I'm gonna do that. I know that's gonna come my way.
I don't know how long I'm gonna do it, but
I know I'm gonna do it. And then I would
get a chance to tour if I don't. If I
could just tour and people come and see me every

(34:10):
time my name goes up on a marquee, that would
be cool. But the end for me is being in
a place where I I'm okay. I've made an incredible
living doing what I love to do, which is a
blessing because most people do not get a chance to
do that. And I think the ind for me is
just being comfortable with the things that I have done

(34:33):
and being happy with the fact that I've made a
great living and taking care of the people around me,
you know what I mean, doing what I love to
do in a way that I was that was even
better than I was, you know, raised in some areas. Look, man,
I told you when we first talked, I'm a I'm
a big fan. I appreciate. I was so shocked, can

(34:54):
be the right same person? Right? And I looked at
the page, I text my what I said. I screeched
out a pace. I think somebody can't fishing me. This
ain't right. This cake like you, you never believe. You
never think you could be around long enough to get
a chance to see somebody who you watched work and
be great at what they do. Like I've watched you work,

(35:17):
so like when you hit me, I was like, really,
I just you know, because you just we work inside
a vacuum. You don't know who's watching, you don't know
who you're resonating with. So when you hit me up
and you're like, I would love it was one of
the like this has been one of the I'm just
I'm humble, man. I really really appreciate you. I respect

(35:40):
your journey. I respected things that you've done, and you
know I'm I'm honored that I've done anything that made
you go, hey man, I want to talk to you.
Another big thanks to David. Check out his Netflix special
it Ain't for the Week and look for him on tour.

(36:00):
To find out when he's coming your way, go to
his website at David a Arnold dot com. One hundred
is produced by ed Gordon Media and distributed by I
Heart Media. Carol Johnson Green and Sharie Weldon are our bookers.
Our editor is Lance Patton. Gerald Albright composed and performed

(36:23):
our theme. Please join me on Twitter and Instagram at
ed L Gordon and on Facebook at ed Gordon Media.