QLS Classic: Deon Cole

Actor, writer and comedian Deon Cole talks about his show Black-ish, the art of the stolen joke and his time writing for Conan and The Tonight Show.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Of Course Love Supreme is a production of I Heart Radio.
This classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora.
What Up, y'all, It's like yeah, And this week's q
l S classic guests is actor, writer, and comedian Dion Cole.
Listen as he talks about black is, the art of
the Stolen joke and his time writing for Conan and

(00:20):
a Tonight Show. You don't want to miss this one.
Oh that's right, you already did, so catch up. This
episode originally released September twentie s. Roll Call Supremo, roll

(00:43):
Call sum roll Call roll is here. Yeah, I won't
steer you wrong. Yeah. When you cook my right some beans? Yeah,
the radio better be on. Frema roll call, Frima Prima

(01:07):
roll Call. My name is Fonte. Watch how I kick it? Yeah? Hey,
what's up? White girl? Yeah? I got your mere ticket
Roma Frema roll my name is Sugar. Yeah with the uncle. Yeah,

(01:27):
full disclosure. Yeah, just smoked a big boy rolla roll call.
I'm unpaid bill. Yeah, and times is tough. Yeah, what
has a big dick? Yeah? And hangs up. Roll Call

(01:52):
Sua Suprema roll Call. It's like with the plan, better
watch out, Dion. Yeah, I love me some Diane call.
My name is de yeah, and I'm with y'all. Yeah,

(02:16):
I don't rhyme much. Yeah, but who knows that? So
roll call roll hold it, Ladies and gentlemen, check out

(02:39):
unpaid Bill trying to flex on us. Like of all
your roll call versus, I thought that was so perfect.
It was that I felt like you were doing it
despite us, because you know that we always judge you
for not being on subject whoever the guest is. But
I was on subject today. That's amazing, Ladies and gentlemen.

(03:02):
This is Love Supreme only on Pandora. Welcoming you guys.
I'm here with teams Supreme, Sigo, Sugar, Steve Equal. It's
gonna fall out this one over here. Let's just finished
right now and played through the pain. Okay, but I'm

(03:25):
paid Bill with his relevant verses, so relevant, and it's
like you name, it's we found it. It's not it's version.
You know, it's like my name. We're saying your new
name on the show is n you know what's funny.
I wasn't like, I'll take it. It's a upgrade. No,

(03:46):
it's like a right, Yeah, I try that once would
come on from the roots. It was gonna be It's Jimmy,
but then he became fake Muslims, so then you know
they were Yeah, that was just name James. Great anyway,
ladies and gentlemen, Uh, we are honored today to have
our guests. I have to say that full disclosure. Uh,

(04:09):
this is this was a surprise. Uh for a lot
of us. Happy is a welcome surprise. But we're very
welcome surprise. Because I wanted to let you know that
your your your Netflix half hour special on the Stand
Ups is one of my favorite things ever. Your your
history with Conan. I'm a Conan fan, and you know

(04:31):
all the things you you were actually writing on the
tonight show. We were in there. But ladies and gentlemen,
please from Blackish, from Angie Tribeca. Uh, one of my
favorite comedians. This is Dion Cole right now, blown away

(04:51):
right now. We're fans were great man, fans of OD.
This is great man. I thought Dean Sanders was coming.
I was gonna say, part of me was going to
is he gonna do it? Must be the money reference.

(05:12):
I gotta I gotta let him know, man school, you
know it's yeah, sorry for doing how you doing today. Man,
I'm man, I'm good man. Just got off works. Was
about to say, you literally came from the set. Yeah,
we're shooting Black its man. This is season four, Yeah,

(05:34):
the season four. Yeah, so I just left to say,
come on, came on over here, man, you're shooting the
first episode of the season. We're actually on episode four. Okay, yeah,
studying five. We just got the disclosure were I believe
that the roots are involved in the premier episode, slavery.

(05:54):
It's us Yeah, to say that with such alacrity clarity,
you know, slavery sitting on the porch. You know that
makes sense. Okay, yeah, we once words. Thank you. It's

(06:23):
it's drade. Everybody celebrate. Yea. So what is well? I
want to know about your your your routine with Black
is which you know I feel? Is it almost blasphemous
for me to say that I feel that this is

(06:45):
the show is just as important? Uh cosby show go ahead?
Can I say that? I think you can. I would
even say it's more no no, no no, no, no no, that
we only got deep with like the joint episode. It
was a different no, it was a different time and
and cos was important. But I think the thing with Cosby.

(07:07):
The different between Cosby and Blackish, and that I see
is that Cosby Show was a show that could have
been about any family, you know what I'm saying. They
could have been white, they could have been whatever. But
Blackish is specifically about a black family, you know what
I mean. And to me, that makes a huge difference.
And I see it in the characters. I mean, my
kids watch the show and they love it, and they

(07:30):
can it's it's very different. It's very different. Well, I
love it, you know, and I was afraid to say that.
I've felt that it was not only as important, but
probably more important, more relevant to this generation than way
more relevant y'all say, more free. So that's a great advantage, think, yeah,

(07:51):
I mean, I think you know this day and time.
I mean, I think with the Cosby Show, it was
the fact that we had a black family with good jobs,
whole family like that was important to see that, like
I think, and for that to be a pioneer show
like that, that's what made that great, I mean important.
I guess you could say we're following the same footsteps,

(08:12):
but I think we tackle harder issues and more relevant
issues that apply to everybody today. Y'all talked to the audience.
I think, yeah, y'all like the whole the scene with
Anthony would Um the Obama where he talked about, you know,
seeing Obama and everybody was every black person was nervous,

(08:34):
Like that was real, this conversation at work. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
But it's important to show both sides too, you know,
not just short from my perspective, that's I think that's
important with what we do to we also show, you know,
a chick who voted for Trump and why she voted

(08:55):
for him, you know, in order for people to get
clarity on you know why, you know, people feel as
though that was the way to go, you know, as
far as voting this concern. So how long have you
been doing comedy about this? October would be twenty four,
twenty five years. What, Yeah, she started back like nine.

(09:20):
Where were you born? Chicago? I'm from Chico. Still stay there, yeah,
still yeah. When I ain't filming, I'm always back home.
I just left home. I just left home last weekend.
We did a big benefit with Chance. He did like
thirty thousand backpacks with supplies to kids and you know, right,

(09:45):
yeah getting there. So yeah, I'm always there. Man, I
was trying to be as active as posible. So I
know that Chicago is, uh, it is a big city
for comedy because I know that at least of the
SNL alumni or whatnot comes through I guess the Second

(10:06):
City out there absolutely, So did you have to get
into that fraternity too? Well? Now, because it different for
black comedians because I don't hear much of black comedians
going through the Groundlings or no they don't. I mean
because it's it's a it's a north Side thing in
the south Side thing. That's that's more like north Side.

(10:27):
A lot of South Side comics. They come up the
ranks just doing bars and whatever clubs that they can
or whatever. But we fortunately had the opportunity to go
through Second City. But we created our own skets troop
call Forgotten City, and we used to perform. Yeah, basically
because is there a politic game going on in there?

(10:48):
I mean, I'm well, honestly, to be real with you,
I think it's just a lot of cats couldn't afford
those classes and they couldn't afford to get in there.
So that's a school. Yeah, at the PA, all of
those kind of places out of those classes running like,
what's I can tell you because I'm broken I paid
for Yes, I've done like that's why she's so funny. Yeah,

(11:13):
like it like a good three hundred dollars or something
like that. You see what's it called out here? You? Yeah? Wait,
this is a muppet newsplash. I'm not saying that studios.
So you really fit Philly improv? Really? I mean how

(11:37):
long it was? It's a program, so it was like
two months. I'm kind of improv theater group too. We
performed at Relish out in Philly at the eating place.
Yet still to baking. I'm not doing when I'm not
doing question Love Sapareme, I'm working on comedy and writing. Yes,
I did not know this. It's dope. Yeah, I posted
all the time. Well I don't be reading talking at you. Well,

(12:01):
I don't read question. Yeah, I don't be reading. However,
this is one of the first shows of our second season,
and I'm shocked that you haven't said that to you. Well, no,
I haven't really pimped that fact. With all the comedians

(12:23):
that we had on Funny, I think what we had
we had Gerard Carmichael on it, who was the other
comedian that we had Chris Rock. I made a couple
of references and y'all shot me down real fast. I didn't.
I was very serious, and I was like, oh, I
started sweating and getting nervous, like, oh shit, he just
shot down my whole dream. I'm out here taking classes
doing flappers and ship Okay. So as a person that's

(12:45):
that's been in the system. So as a person that's
been in the system, and you know, I don't I
don't know if you consider it thriving or just a
continuing journey. But I mean you you've been on Conan's
writing staff and that sort of thing, so you utilize
the education that you got to get to that position.

(13:06):
And like, as a person searching, so what is the
how does one even get into that world? Okay? First
of you gotta pay. Do they accept anyone well me?
Well me personally? When it came to us with Second City,
that was something that we did. We were on our

(13:27):
own sketches and we did our own shows. So people
from Second City came and saw us and gave us
a night at their facility to perform our sketches, and
then we used to have people come there and we
did that for a while after the group broke up.
Many people were in the truth, it was like nine
of us. Were you the most prominent member? Like, were
there other people there? It was some other Yeah, we

(13:48):
were all equally around across the board as far as
like writing this concern, as far as perform and we
were all equal, I mean the performance wise creatively and
all of that themselves down today that were I mean,
they're still rocking or whatever, but you know, I don't
don't know as far as like mainstream wise, but they're
still getting down or whatever. But we broke up on

(14:08):
some true Hollywood ship and what happened it was nine
of you. Yeah, yeah, I was what happened. Man. We
came out to l A. We showcase for Puffy, and

(14:32):
we showcase for brill Stein and Gray. We did what
was that? My bad? That was you. I didn't realize
that I was actually watching your was just a weird. Sorry.
So so yes, came out around here, we showcase and

(14:52):
then they signed us and gave us some money. At
think of game. It's like eighties Stacks and our manager
when the rent limos and had bitches and a kind
of ship. Man. Yeah, it blew our whole fucking thing
man and then we all broke up after that. Yeah,
it was crazy. So I was already out here at
that point. No, we just came out here the showcase
and went back to Chicago. But then I had I

(15:14):
had went through this other showcase called Aspen and ended
up meeting this guy who worked for Conan, and he
asked me to come on the show and perform as
a guest, and I went on. As soon as I
got off stage, Conan asked me to write for him,
like like like two weeks later. I didn't have to
submit nothing to nothing And what was the time in between?

(15:35):
How much time in between y'all and that l a
trip and then the Aspen situation that took him, No,
I took about probably about probably about two years after that. Yeah,
and then I rock with Corner. Anything I have auditioned
for and I never got even to this day, Like
with Conan, I've always fun with people, all vibes. People
always been like, Yo, you're a cool motherfucker, let's rock,

(15:57):
or you're smart, motherfucker, let's rock. And it's always been
like that, and they've never been like audition for something.
And I get like with Conan, he just liked me
and told me to show up and I ended up
writing for him, Like I submitted nothing nothing Blackish. I
went over there or right, and the guy that well,
actually it was Charlie Murphy was supposed to be playing

(16:17):
a character that I play on Blackish, and yeah, he
didn't want to do it. That's why my name Charlie
on the show. And he didn't. He didn't want to
do it. So I ended up since I was writing
for the character, I knew how the character was gonna
be and what's and so they had me play that
character once and I ended up getting it. Then I
got this other show, car and Tribeca with Stephen Correll,

(16:40):
and I was supposed to be the lieutenant on there,
and Steve didn't want me to be, uh the same,
a black, screaming lieutenant, a cliche lieutenant, so he wrote
a character for me. I wasn't even in that show
and he just wrote a character for me. So this
has been going on and on my whole career, where

(17:00):
it's just never Yeah, it's never been like anything because
I think when you audition for ship, they're looking for
a certain type in their head and you just don't
match what they're looking for. I think because you probably
saw original so different, they really can't pinpoint you and
ship you know, sou but they but that you dope,

(17:20):
you know what I mean, And they all remember you
laid on for some other ship. But so how do
you make because I mean, of all the the the
arts that you can be, be acting, musician, chef, I
feel like comedy is one of the hardest things. Like,
at what point are you saying to yourself, I want

(17:43):
to make it as a comedian or are you even
saying that? Well, me, you originally got into comedy. Someone
bet you fifty bucks. Yeah, I read that on wiki somewhere.
Do But because I never was like, no, no funny motherfucker,
Like I never was like that, Like I never was.
I always was quiet and kind of have my own
thoughts whatever. I overthought everything though, and I think people

(18:05):
thought that was hilarious and my boy bet meeting on
stage and I went on there and did it or whatever.
But how many minutes you what was your first joke?
Like four minutes I did joke about Sunny Delight. What
I just talked about how that motherfucker they was playing
soccer and they all rushed his refrigerator and everybody was
in his ship, grabbing ship. And I was like that

(18:26):
that couldn't been a black household. And yeah, like Nick's
had to grout of water holes absolutely, because I said
that was my first joke ever, and I did that
ship repeatedly ever ever, for like two years straight. You

(18:46):
just like kept it to the point where mother fuckers
was saying it with me because everybody said the punchline
with me. That's a funny joke when you people know
the joke and they still want to be Yeah. Yeah,
but but it was hard commercial commercial. Yeah, so is

(19:08):
it comedy is high? Yeah? I was gonna say, because
you you have to speak two languages. Yeah, Like now,
is it to the point where that you're juggling, uh
acting you're no with your black audience and also the
white audiences that come in or did you just immediately

(19:31):
integrate with Uh? What's what's the what's the comedy spot
that's named after the guy Harry? I don't know if
it's Harry carry spot in Chicago. Um, Uh, it's not
like Danger Fields, it's it's it's a comedy club and
his face, this guy's faces the logos, but it's like glasses. Hilarious, hilarious.

(20:02):
In Chicago, there is there's a famous comedy club that
in Chicago. Yeah, it's you're talking about all jokes aside. No,
it's I was about to say that's back in the
day that was closed. I'm trying to chuck Harry, is

(20:22):
it not Harry, Harry carry ain't opened up. No, goddamn,
all right, this is like bust left breaking news. There's
no place like Okay, whatever, I just he'll come to
you when it was all over. Yeah, I had a
bolt two days later. Hilarious. So what was your household like?

(20:58):
Growing up? Man? Blackest ship only the only child find
out how to half sister later on out a place
that growing up she had passed. But I grew up
in South Southe Chicago, gang infested all that ship. My
mother moved me. My mother moved me to the suburbs

(21:21):
because she didn't want me to get caught up in
the games, because my cousins and ship, they was all affiliated.
So she moved me to the suburbs, which became almost
a culture shot because I ended up fighting more in
the suburbs than in the city, and I was fighting
the one person as the only black person, so I
stopped fighting the whole integration. Yeah, I got out there.

(21:46):
They used to pull their cars on our lawn, spinning tires,
funk out and I was fucked up. And it was
this family called the Gabarziks and ship they used to
throw like batteries like Gabarziks used to Yeah, it used

(22:08):
to be real mess stuff. But I wouldn't have had
it no other way because when I moved out there,
I stopped this this dude name Rich and he used
to turn me on like Zeppelin and like a whole
bunch of cool ass rock ship, like like like like
your Floyd and Stones and just and I used to

(22:29):
teach him. I used to play hip hop for him.
He ain't know ship about hip hop. So me and
him became like real tight because I just hang't out
with him every day on some cool ship and just
vibe out with him. And you know, I just learned
a lot and learned how to be you know, like
in a way not biased, but understand. Me and him

(22:50):
had to understanding that I wish everyone else had, you
know what that Yeah, and it was and he wasn't
trying to be black, and I wasn't trying to be right,
It was just y'all. We were very much interested into
each other's culture. Yeah, so I guess that formed us
to who we are. You know today, you know what,

(23:12):
I haven't seen Rich and I don't know how long
or whatever. But back then we used to be trying
to twitter you like, remember, I don't know where Rich
is a bullshit? I wish I did, though, So did
that play kind of a role in developing your comedy? Like? Yeah,
because when they came to write, and I didn't want

(23:33):
to write just black Ship, you know what I mean?
I wanted to write that was like for everybody because
I felt like I would have to do it anyway,
So why would I just why would I bullshit? And
right all black Ship? Now I could just take my time,
focus and write for everybody right now, right that joke
for everyone. If it don't work, make that motherfucker work.

(23:55):
And if it don't leave it alone. Yeah, Well, who's
mentoring you by this sport? Like who's teaching you as
far as coming after the bet? And you're like, Okay,
I could do this for real? George l Borne, Deal Givings,
Bernie MacKenny, how Tony Schofield. These are the people that
that I that mentored me coming up. Steve Harvey used

(24:16):
to come to Chicago all the time and he used
to always be there and you know, take me under
this wing or whatever. But it was it was. It
was George will Borne and A Dell and like I said, Bernie,
Bernie had like tough love, but he used to really
look out for us and like he used to be
like this used to have this place called the Cotton
Club in Chicago. In order for you to follow Bernie,

(24:39):
I mean, the only way you can get on stage
is if you can follow Bernie, and Bernie would dismantle
that motherfucker. You would have to go up at them.
And if you couldn't do it, you would never play
that motherfucker again or whatever. But they or they just
be silent. Now they'll be sometimes booze, sometimes silent, whatever.
But if you was horrible, you just had to get
the funk up out of that whatever. But it so great,

(25:01):
you know, because he used to have a lot of
people that came there and his night was so great.
It ended up being a television show called Midnight Mac.
It used to be coming on HBO. Remember that it
used to be so great. He used to placed a
place called Miltreineers where he had the dancers and the
mac dancers dances and the band and yeah, he used
to have an old show. It came on HBO because

(25:22):
of the room that we used to do. Phillis himI
used to come in there. Used to be crazy, She's
come on stage and just be like, why are you
in the middle of your set? Should just come grab
the mic and be like, oh, we need to wait
yourselver here? Where's this bitch? And didn't get the mic
back back down, like like you'll be like, who the
hell are you? Like a lot of people didn't know

(25:43):
who she was and should be like she'd come up
there like motherfucker's on fire too? Was was? Was Robin
Harris still around that time? Was just trying to get
Robin was around at that time too, but he wasn't
like at the club out there. He was like more
in l A. He was in l A around that time.
Did you ever get a chance to see him in
the city or see some of his Harris I never

(26:05):
even ran in the robbing Harris. I hope never know.
So Bernie was the main about it when you came on,
Bernie was yeah, Bernie was yeah, that was that was
motherfucker forever Bernie. Yeah. I wanted a deal to be
like that. I just wanted her was fired too, man,
That's what I'm saying. I always wanted her to be bigger.
From Death Comedy Jam three times was fire. Kenny how

(26:28):
I was fired too. Kenny was a monster on the road.
A lot of people don't didn't want to follow Kenny
how To. He was he was a beast. So so
back then, I mean, was your aspiration two Eventually, like
one day I'll get on Death cham or I mean
Death Death Comedy Jam or um. Like I'm sure earlier

(26:51):
you had to choose what circuit you were going to do.
And I don't know what the chipling circuit is for
black comics versus mainstream comics. You know where It's like
in New York. If you start working out at Boston
Comedy Club or catch a rising star, chances are you
might hit that mainstream you know lane. But there's also

(27:12):
the danger being stuck in the kind of the black
lane that doesn't allow you to go outside of Yeah, no,
you can get you can get caught on the South
side of Chicago doing bar at the bar, at the bar,
and then next thing, you know, all your material is
is geared towards who's the next bit walking in the door,
and that would be your whole set. But also do this.

(27:39):
But then you had to take your own initiative and go.
Like I said in the get Go, if you're gonna
write a joke and you're thinking about being around for
a while, you're gonna write a joke that's for everybody
at that time. So it was important for me to
hang out up north and do stuff up North and
north side of Chicago. It was predominantly white or whatever,
and I mean where it was white and uh, you know,

(28:00):
keep your chops up like that or whatever, because yeah,
it would be hard to get I mean, it would
be easy for you to get caught up into that
chipless So for your creative process, um, how do you developed?
How do you develop or protect a joke or an idea?
So say like ninety four, what was popping? Okay, it's

(28:21):
o J time, and so I'm certain that there's seven
of you at your particular spot that are like trying
to figure out what your angle it's going to be
on O J. R Now, I'm always certain that like Chappelle,
for instance, mainly works at like five secret spots that
he knows that Hollywood writers won't be at like he

(28:44):
won't do no l A spots because he's afraid that.
He said that some of his jokes mild le one
Family Guy, Yeah, mine too. I had a joke called
balls Date that I used to do that the Cleveland show.
Balls Date to have a joke. You can look at
it on the internet. While talk about I'll talk about
Wesley Pipes the poem. He talk about how he'd be

(29:07):
talking when he'd be fucking how he'd just he's a
real person, Yeah, he got his but he'd be talking
to women crazy, when he'd be hitting touching me. Yeah,
he'd be like, come on, don't make me look bad,
bit doing like may He'd be saying outland this ship.
And so I was talking about how he was talking
a woman to go balls deep or whatever. And next

(29:29):
thing I know, I said a few years later, she
was on Family Guy a whole song about it. Yeah,
because when Tyre when Tyra Banks came on our show,
we did balls Deep as her walk on because Junior
sing that's so Then I have a whole skin about
balls deep and I used to do that ship all

(29:51):
the time. So how do you protect that? How do
you There's really no way to protect it. Basically, you
you have to I mean, like, that's why I don't
like to cliche ship, you know what I mean? Because
I know if I think of something that easy is
seventeen million other casts that's gonna be thinking the same thing.
So I try to stay away from ship like that

(30:11):
unless I have a very unique perspective on it or whatever.
Other than that. The way that I think, in the
way my delivery is I try to make it where
you can't even you can't even twist that joke. You
can't even make it yours in the sense you know,
you could probably take it and do a rendition of it,
but you will never deliver it with my cadence or whatever.

(30:34):
You know, but you can take it and you can
get another idea from it, like and make a song.
Yes she can so, because I didn't think to write
a song. So how do you feel, I mean, do
you just like saying well to the to the other
writers who did do that. Basically you just look at it,
like you know, you believe in yourself and gold for
those who stole you know, I'll make up some more. So,

(30:59):
I mean, how do you confront Is there a confrontation
method or whatever? Like if you hear your joke, you
just have to approach that person if you hear him
say it. If you had a situation where it's like yeah,
at what time, I was in St. Louis with Kenny
How and Kenny had like nine dudes with him and

(31:20):
I ain't know nothing them. I just knew Kenny and
we walked in this comedy club and this dude was
actually doing my balls deep joke for line for line,
and when he got off stage, like confront of them,
like why would you do that? Like that's taking money
on my pocket. Now about if I come down here
and I have to do that joke, everybody gonna think
that I instill Joe ship when you're steal in mind

(31:41):
and he's sitting up like, yo, man, I ain't still
your joke, and I'm like you did, Like I'm like
I'm gready like put hands on this mother. They talked
about this on how we'd string all the time, about
all the time, and how Bill Man was my man
building died the comedian and everybody's like one of them, dude.

(32:04):
It's it's a lot of it's a lot of motherfucker's
out here. Some of your favorite comedians to be out
motherfucker's jokes because they know that the last dream. Yeah,
ain't nobody gonna tellt them. Then people don't think that
you're jokes. That's why I member, I did another joke
on my special when somebody was telling me somebody it
was somebody else joke, and I'm like, no, motherfucker, you
don't know who did it first, you know what I mean?

(32:26):
I did that ship first, you know. So it's that
kind of the danger of working and stuff out in
clubs and stuff like that. It is the thing because
sometimes you'll show up and there'll be nine comics in
the back of the room just sitting there, you know,
and they'll be watching you work out. Some of them
will come up to you and be like, yo, I
gotta tag for you. Let me help you and give
you a bit of something, and that be cool when

(32:47):
they do that ship, but the other ones they just
be mad quiet, go home and write something similar to
that ship or you know whatever, and now they got
a hot fucking twenty minutes and ship you ain't never
you never see them work out needed. So when you
say attack, what does that mean in comedy terms? I
mean like if I if I do a joke and
it's okay, but you thought of something clever, you can

(33:08):
come up to me and be like, Yo, that was funny,
but at this on that and oh yeah great, you
know what does Brennan Brennan Brennan is the king of
walking up to since, Yo, why don't you and say
it like that? And then I'll see that happen. Neil
is my dude when it comes to right. And Neil
had a room here on Sunday nights. Man, when we'll

(33:29):
go up in there and work out on ship and
always constantly having fresh ship, always working our ship. Well,
come up to you on a heartbeat. He'll do it
before he even go on. Like if you before him
and you get all stage and heat next he'll tell
your tag on your ship and then go do his ship.
You know, like that's wanted to coach, you know what

(33:49):
I mean? Like, yeah, Neil is the monster with that. Yeah,
shout out to Meil. So how long did you stay
in Chicago before you broke out? I don't know to
New York or l A, like we're you and I
when I came out here, like in two thousand and seven,
it's been like ten years. But when I first came
out here, it was I used to like hate it,
Like was it like starting over again or no, because

(34:14):
everybody knew in the comedy world. They knew as far
as black comics. They knew exactly who I was, and
they and they gave me, you know, the proper do
or whatever. But it just was so lame out here.
To me. I was just like these my lame this ship,
lame fuck this ship. This is then like Chicago, and
I always be hauling at Chicago ship. And then one

(34:35):
day this comedian they Dominique, saw me in front of
the Comedy Still and I was like, these lame motherfucker's
out here, fun this ship, this they like Chicago. She
was like, we'll go home, nigger yeah. And I was like, well,
she was like that's all I have here here. You
talk about the Chicago this and that in hw l A,
this this. She was like, l A was this way
before you came out here, It's gonna be this way

(34:58):
when you leave. She was like, you either play the
I ain't gonna take you. That's all, motherfucker. I don't
know why that stuck with me, but that was that
big that my career shifted. I think a month two
months after that, I got Coner. Yea, so all right,
and I'm glad you're here. I want to have the
l A rabbit hole discussion. I mean, I'm always hearing

(35:24):
people like, man, I can't you know Ellie's mad phone email,
Eli's you know what? Am I missing the memo? Like?
Am I the only one that enjoys Los Angeles? Now?
Your experience different than the average? No, but here it

(35:44):
is Los Angeles to me. Like I said, now, I
enjoyed Los Angeles. At that time, I was comparing apples
to oranges in a sense. And as far as my
career is concerned, once I switched, my mind stayed around,
understood exactly what I needed to do and to do it.
Then after that everything became easy and it became something

(36:08):
I was like, Okay, I get it. This is just
another planet out here, just like New York is another
planet to me. But are you are you judging from
a perspective? Okay, so from a musical perspective, like I
know that um. In the jazz world, New York jazz
musicians used to always look down on the l A
jazz musicians and actually music New York session musicians used

(36:30):
to always look down on l A session musicians because
it was just a different type. They were more easy going,
like a lot of that yacht rocky here, like the
sound of Toto, that's smooth, Michael McDonald's stuff. It's you know,
it's like and it represents what l A is about,
a breezy, sunshine sort of state of mind, which is
less gritty and roll than what what's on the East Coast.

(36:53):
So you're saying that is it the level of comedy
out here or just but a comedy. I'm from the Midwest,
where what we talked about is real blue collar ship,
and this is what it is when you're going to
the East coast. East Coast comics talk about different stuff,
and I'm talking about the majority. Ain't saying all of them,

(37:14):
but they would do more Haitian jokes. So they'll do
jokes about doms, Domnicans or some ship you know, each
comic or go on stags and they'll have their Dominican
or Chinese man or Puerto Rican ship. You come to
l A. Everybody had a you know, audition joke, how
the women are the cars of the weed. It's always that,

(37:36):
you know, And where I was from, we would look
at all of that and we would we had all
of that, so we were more well rounded, I think,
you know, as far as our experiences and our environment
or whatever. So I think that's why, Um, when I
came out here, I was more disappointed at the time,

(37:57):
but then I realized that that's what know. They only
know what they know, and I started embracing what they
knew and started liking what they was doing, and then
started incorporating some of these stories in the mind's situation.
It's by being a fish out of water, you know
what I mean? And how did you know when it
was I didn't know it was time you tried. Yeah. Yeah,

(38:18):
But it's cool though. I mean, you know, sometimes I
put myself in tripped out situations in order to write
because it is such a difference. Like I'm from d C.
So it is like a culture coming. I'll go to
a dog race and just sit there just the right
The only nick is sitting in there, just looking around.

(38:39):
The dumb and ship ever, but I got a hot
for team when I leave it. So all right, your
een a dog right in your mind? In your mind
is having a hot twenty? Is there a pressure to

(39:03):
refurbish it every month? Oh? Absolutely you have to. I
I try to refresh your refreshing every year. But I
tried to move out. And how hard is it to
let go of your gym? Oh my god? Because like,
and again, I'm not a comedian, but I know that
as a DJ, I know that these three songs they're
gonna work, like you know, but then it's like yeah,

(39:26):
but then it's like one I made like my ninth appearance,
and people know, like, oh, he's about to play poison,
Like they know what I'm gonna do, and it's and
it's so one of the hardest things for me to do.
In December, I always take like my most popular joints
and just raise them out to set and I gotta
start all over again. So how do you how you

(39:48):
know it's the same way, like you you it's so
hard to get rid of those gems. But then again,
it goes back to trusting yourself. You have to like
when people steal your jokes, you have to go all right. Well,
you know I'm gonna write another. You know, somebody asked
me one time in the interview that was like, what's
your favorite joke? And I was like, I ain't wrote
it yet. I really don't figure that. I'd always keep

(40:09):
that in mind. I haven't wrote that motherfucker yet. And
so I constantly am in mode of being a sponge.
I'm not no silly dude like that, but I'm always
paying attention to anything and everything that happened in order
for me to constantly have that kind of material. So
the times that we live in right now, in two

(40:31):
and which um news is constantly changing, we're living we're
living in a time period in which you literally won't
be all that surprise if you're going to be told
we're about to have a nuclear war. Yes, um, it's
now to the point that if a riot breaks out
in a certain place, you're not all that surprise if wait, wait,

(40:53):
wait it's a riot breaking down, Yes there is right now,
and where he pointed to, when let's roll, that's glad
we did this practice run. Now we know I'm about
to say, like, I don't know what your your partner

(41:14):
in case goes down like he's a guy's signal that man,
let's let's go. I grabbed because after your sheat screamed. Anyway,
my my point is that, um it's like, my point

(41:35):
is that I've been spending like the last month or
so observing all the comics that have been coming through
um Chappelle's residency at Radio City. Now some of them
have been complaining. You know. The thing is like, when
you're at Radio City, you want to put your best
foot forward, you know, because Dave has hot lineups and

(41:56):
you know all the celebrities in there, and so you
want to put your best foot for it. But then
like a lot of them are getting mysed because it's
like damn Trump changing the news again, making this joke irrelevant. Now,
I gotta I gotta scrap my my thirty minutes set
and reset it for exactly And it's not so I'm

(42:19):
saying that, you know, I know that in bad times,
the worst that times are, the better is for comedians
at least have subject mattered to to make fun of it.
But because the times we live in so unprecedented, unprecedented
with with constantly changing news, how does that affect you

(42:40):
as that hot twenty Like I said, before. I can't
write a lot of just ship this in your face
because it's too easy and it's too easy, and I
think everybody else is gonna write something that easy. So
I don't have a lot of current topical material. Like,

(43:01):
so you don't do much crowd work, That's what I mean.
I do sometimes, but I'm not, I'm not. I'm not
based on that. I don't like to get an audience
what they want. I'm a type of comic where you
have to you have to come into my world, you know,
And once you in my world, then I can go
wherever with you. But if I keep giving you what
you want, then I'm a slave to you, and then

(43:22):
you're they're getting fed what you eat and what you expect.
The way you describe the r like the kind of
way you talk about the comedy is the same way
I think about rhymen. You know what I'm saying. Because
it's like you can't almost yeah, Like you can't write
like if you try to write about, okay, what happened
on love and hip hop this week, and you try

(43:43):
to put that and make that a punch line or whatever,
that ship is old. So you have to write about
like things that are universal, like things that are timeless
balls deepest universal balls. So let me ask, because, Um,
when I watched the Netflix special, I was so happy

(44:07):
because one of my I hate this moment. It's like,
like you ever hate, like when someone wants to tell
you who they you remind them of, like no one wanted,
no one weren't, Like I mean, is the king of
letting you know who you look like and you don't

(44:30):
look like her like at all, as long as they
like legendary or something. The reason why I loved your
Netflix special was that you kind of you kind of
did this this this random, non secretive thing that one
of my favorite comedians, Mitch Hedberg, was the king of

(44:53):
where you just had all these random asides that weren't
you know, it weren't. It wasn't of a time p
it it was about you. But it's just you just
going through a list of things. And you know, since
Mitch Hedberg has has passed away, Stephen what's his name,
Stephen right, Stephen Wright was sort of in that lane
where like he would just let time go by, yeah

(45:15):
and then say something, And I was like, I always
wanted to know, Like I cannot wait for a black
comedian to take that lean. You took that lean, so
thank you. I think I think I think it's I
think the rhythm is no rhythm, you know, And and
that's that's the way that I leoked at it as

(45:36):
far as approaching and I felt the lack of rhythm,
it is groovy, you know what I mean? It was
like silence is good too, because a lot of people
don't trust silence, and let like, how do you? How
do you do? That is just as great as applause
because it lets you know that you have them and
unless them, let you know that they're paying attention. And

(45:57):
then and then also you can guide them wherever you want.
You can make a left of right, you can bag
up whatever you want to do at that moment. And
you need to test that throughout your sets that you
need to be quiet sometime just to see where they're
at and then also to get your your thoughts together.
Well you know, but but in experimenting, how do you

(46:20):
what happens if you get turbulence in your set and
you knew that didn't work, but you don't want to
give it away that there have that joke didn't work
you just like for me, personally, anytime I do a
joke that don't work, I purposely do it in front
of a joke that I know it's gonna work. So
I'll do this, but I know I got this fire

(46:40):
one coming next, or I'll do a fire one first,
or I'll put it in between two. Yeah, I sound
with you, between two in order to give it the
legs that it need at just in case it doesn't work.
I'm I'm gonna put that right between two great ass jokes,
you know. So it's an example for you of a
joke that you were unsure of or something that for

(47:03):
you that it's something that you had to joke. I
had this joke that I and me. Also, another thing
that I do is funny. It's funny regardless. And I
learned this from Conan that you know, every moment can't
be magical. If it was, then we wouldn't have magical moments.
So I would think that I would take jokes that
purposely wouldn't work, just to set up the next one.

(47:26):
But that would be funny to have a joke that
didn't work, Yeah, like a dead moment. Yes, I wouldn't
purposely do that. I had a joke, Yeah, Yeah, because
I think that that, you know, because that's a that's

(47:47):
a moment of honesty, that that that's a moment of
vulnerability that I showed the audience that I'm not as
together as you think I am. I had this joke
that I used to always do. I used to be
like Tiger Woods doesn't want to say he's black, but
his father's black and his mother's tie. I'm just gonna
call him a formal nigger. No, that would never get

(48:16):
a laugh. I don't know why, YO knew. No one laughed,
But I would purposely do that joke every time, just
just and then I would sit there and would not
move until people like it made it funnier because people

(48:37):
were like what, like, what is he talking about? But
that that was what I used to do, you know,
back in the day. I'll walk on stage this when
I first started, I'll walk on stage with like a saxophone.
I would never play. I'll do fifteen minutes old and

(49:02):
and then just leave. I didn't even play this, they're
gonna play. He forgot the play. I'll bring like a flute,
uh uh, I mean like hamonica, and would never play

(49:27):
that ship just just you know, just twist it up. Dude,
you gotta do that the next special, just wear a sexphone. Right.
You remember explained about the whole polarization thing. Yeah. Yeah,
So Chappelle does his trick where he polarized his audience

(49:49):
by you know, when you see him perform milk take
a cigarette and then he'll he won't puffe it. He'll
light the cigarette and won't puff it. And he and
he knocks this thing with his knee. Yeah, every time
he hits his knee with the after the punch, Like, yeah,
like that to me, you know, you with the saxophone

(50:09):
and never use it. Used to I used to do
that a lot. I first started just to keep people going,
what what so? What was it like? Um in the
the Conan camp because I know that his particular brand

(50:32):
of of of writers, at least from my perspective, um,
you know, I mean it was it seemed like it
was part national lampoons, like you know, like college uh
ivy League level humor some and you know like there
was the master baiting bear like kind of like Conan humor. Um.

(50:55):
How first of all, were you quote the only guy
in the room? And I think you know what I
mean by quote? Got like the rest. So I was
I was the very first and only to this day
black rider that Couner has ever had. Yes and yikes,
yeah wait, not even what's his name? I thought what's

(51:18):
his name? Was on the show for a second um
cribe enthusiasm. He was Jooth was not a Coning writer
at one point, j did you have any parameters or
did he just say go for it? Well? When I
first started, I was with all these Emmy Award winning
writers that went to Brown University, and I tried to

(51:41):
write like that. When I first started, how do you
find your tribe in your I just was trying to
write like them, and like none of that was working. No,
I was working. And one day they were writing this
bit about Andy Rector, uh going to october Fest and
I didn't know what that was and I was like,
what's that? It was like it's a German drinking day

(52:02):
and I was just like, why everybody got drinking day
with black people? And Coning at that day was like
once you write that up, and I was like, uh,
I was like really He was like yeah, So I
wrote it up and he was like, and I want
you to come out on the show and explain that,
and I was like okay, and I went out and
explained it. It blew up. Then I think something else

(52:23):
came up where I was like they were they were
they were talking about a hunting house or something, and
I was like that ship ain't scary to black people.
This scary to black people, and they just like write
that up. So it became this thing where it was
like my world with Conan's world colliding. It was like yes,

(52:44):
So it was this dynamic that we had that well,
it's funny. So it led to me writing my way
okay that they couldn't right now, Yeah, you needed your
voice like became my became my my voice in my
perspective that they couldn't write. So then they led me
to have my own lane, you know what I mean,

(53:06):
and doing my own thing or whatever. But yeah, and
that to just this black dude from the South side
of Chicago kicking there with this super white dude Harvard
graduated from Boston and US collide and but being like damn,
they're best friends, you know. So it worked. So assuming
that no NDA was signed, Um, both you and I

(53:30):
have something in common. Uh, we both at one point
and I still do work for the Tonight show. Yes,
now that was a really weird preference. The thing is is,

(53:54):
what what was the writer's room like when word first
got out that oh, we might not be on the
show anymore. Because the thing is like, once you get Tonight,
it's such a legacy that everyone thinks like, oh, it's
gonna be a thirty year run, you know, Johnny Carson,
thirty years. They years, and that's what we thought. And

(54:17):
when you yeah, you guys got to your second year
and it's like, wait a minute, what's going on here? Yeah,
like the writer's room was like and you all moved
to Los Angeles, but for that, like did you come
to New York at all? For any of them? Remember,
like they moved from New York and came here for
the show. I came on as a guest. I wasn't
even a part of the camp when it came. And

(54:38):
then after the they were there for like four months,
and then that's when then you were and then and
then and then I got hired or whatever. But when
we when they wouldn't move that time slot, and Conan
was like, yo, I'm leaving it. Just I was still
kind of like not knowing that history was be amazed

(54:59):
fast television, right sir. And like I was, I was
still like, yo, this banking sketches out and whatever. Like
everybody else was like, we moved from New York to here.
They just sold their houses and York you know, the
move that because they think and it was gonna be
a thirty year there. I was. I was there for

(55:19):
their last days. It was crushing, right, but we we
we went, we went ham We was like, okay, well,
let's just spend all of their money. You were never
that last episode, Yeah, okay, we had the roll we
we had the Rolling Stones song. Yeah play, yes, we

(55:40):
played repeatedly during the show, so we had to pay
for the licenses for that. I almost got in trouble. Well, yeah,
when I watched that last episode, Uh, they had also
played Julia by the Beatles four times. There's five songs

(56:01):
by the Beatles are like untouchable and it's near like
seven hundred thousand dollars per uth and I had tweeted
that out and that was the first time that the
Comcast people or you know, like called called my manager
like can we control mirrors account? Because I can say like, oh, ship,

(56:21):
see about to pay They're like, can you get tweet?
We don't want our bosses to know how much money
were wasting. Hilarious. Yeah, but how much did that last
episode costs? Because y'all did like y'all destroyed a very
expensive card. They destroy they some of the horse we had,

(56:49):
like this thorough bred horse that costs like millions, and
we was like, oh yeah, we was it, like you know,
and they didn't want us to do that. We had
these ancient bones flew in, these uh dinosaur bones flew
in some contexts into this because yeah, give me some

(57:16):
context to the Late Night Wars or whatever. So Conan,
you were writer for Conan and then what happened The
show just got canceled, like Jay Leno gave him the
show and then we had the show, and then they
wanted to move the Tonight Show from eleven thirty to twelve.
Conan was like, it's been eleven thirty since the beginning
of it Tonight Show, how dare you move the time slides?

(57:38):
And they was like, we want to move it and
so Jay can have the So Jay can have the
eleven thirty spot, and it was like he was like,
he wasn't he wasn't gonna do it. He wasn't gonna,
you know, go against the integrity of the show. Connor
was like, oh I'm out, and they gave him forty
five million to leave and he left. Yeah, it was

(58:02):
it was crazy, you know. But we went on tour
after that because he couldn't be on TV or radio
or nothing like that. So we toured for like three months.
So you were you yeah, I closed. I'd like I
went second to last doing stand up. I was doing
like ten fifteen minutes to stand up every night. We
was doing like between two thousand and fifteen thousand seats.

(58:25):
It was like that was like some rolling Stone ship
because it was a movement because everybody loved Conan at
that time and they knew that they did them wrong.
So everywhere we went it was like crazy. And like
every city we went to, whoever the celebrity was, I
was known in that city, they would come out on
stage with Conan. So we was with like Neil Diamond

(58:48):
and Eddie Vetter and like all these people that I like,
beyond my comprehensiveive meeting, like hanging out with him. It
was crazy. Like I remember when we finished the tour,
I got to my apartment and called my Renos plays
asking for chicken fingers and ship fadus rand I was gone, boy,

(59:18):
we did Bonaru. We did like because you know, Cone
is a musical guy too. You know. They played the
guitar and ship, you know, so we caught it. Cut
an album with Jack White was in Nashville. It was
crazy y'all album, Like it was crazy. Are you and
Cony y'all still cool? Now? Y'all still work? How many
years did you do on the TBS show before you

(59:40):
left my show? No No for Cony? Did you go
with Conan into TV? Yeah? Yeah, I went over there.
I was over there like six years, six years. Then
I had my own show called black Box, and then
at the Black Box. That's when I left and went
to black That was a sleeper black. They didn't they
didn't get behind me at all. They was trying to

(01:00:02):
promote it like it was some kicking the nuts that
show and ship, you know, but we was doing We
was doing topical ship, were talking about what was in
the news. But they was promoting us as if we
were showing yeah, like some toss ship and it went't
like that. We were talking about a Manda Binds and
all kinds of ship that anything that was in the news,

(01:00:22):
you know, but it was it was a great show,
but it was all white network at the time. And
you know, TBS used to be a network for baseball,
and so all these shows used to cater to the
white American baseball guy. And then I come along. They're like,
what those two guys, I know, you'll talk about them
all the time on Vice. They're like a kind of

(01:00:44):
like they might have been inspired by. Yeah, how did
you come across Kenya? Uh? It was agent by the
name of tam Are going. She was talking to Kenya.

(01:01:04):
Kenya was talking to her about some writers that she needed,
and she was like, yo, Dion just finished up on Conan,
you should go. You should have them come over. And
he was like all right, But Kenya had knew my
work and I knew a Kenya too, and so I
went over there for an interview and talked to him,
like I said, that's when we met about talking about
this Charlie character and all of that, and then um man,

(01:01:27):
it just at the uh Charlie didn't want to do it.
It just what it did. So did I hear you? Right?
You right for yourself for that character? No, I don't
now at that time, No, I never did. I was
just writing for I was I was going to write
for that character. But the way that I envisioned the

(01:01:48):
character of being me and Kenya only knew how that
character should be. So when Charlie didn't want to do it,
Keny was like, well, I want to find nobody else
and try to show them how to do. Want you
to just be that character from me? And how did
he describe that character to you? Like, what was he
to be? Well, he just told me that it was
this guy that works with Anthony and he uh, he's

(01:02:10):
just a friend that that comes that came into the
office and that you know, just chops it up with Anthony.
And I was more and you know, actually the character
is mainly based off of Kenya. Kenya. Is that guy
he Anthony? Your characters Kenya Kenya, Yeah, Kenya. It's like

(01:02:33):
it's like a split personality thing with Kenya. Kenya. Kenya
is that awkward guy in the office. Yeah, Kenya was
that guy with his family situation, you know, And that's
what irresponsible. That's the great thing about Anthony's character on
the show for those that watch it. When Anthony is

(01:02:56):
at home, he's an idiot. When he's in the office,
he's brilliant. Yeah, and he just he he plays this.
He played he flip flops. This character that's you know,
crazy to see him. So is that typical to have
one person right for one character, because I know that
in the case the thirty Rock um, Donald Glover's job

(01:03:18):
was to write and be the voice of Tracy Morgan's
character on thirty Rocks and just right for him. So
you know, like when you're getting this job, before you
were on the show, your job wasn't to contribute an
ideal line for the for the story, for the plot

(01:03:38):
or anything. It was like, what would this character said? Well,
I don't know, because I didn't. I didn't get that far.
All the furthest I got was, hey, it's this guy,
ain't childie. And I never wrote on a sick I
never only wrote for late night and yeah, yeah, it's
totally late late night, it's current. Late night is fast paced.

(01:04:02):
Next thing you know, twelve hours is gone buy and
you're like, god damn, yeah, yeah, you gotta do it
all over again. The next day you're in the news,
you're getting premises sent that you you gotta write descript.
It's like that with television. You know, you got months
to prep beforehand, and then you get the skirts easier.
I mean yeah, because yeah, yeah, yeah, because you got

(01:04:23):
you got to be funny, funny within minutes, Like every
second has got to be funny. On late night a monologue,
set up punchline, set up punch line, and you got it.
And then after that you got like just a few
minutes and before you know, the guests come out, you
know what I mean. So you gotta you gotta hit it,
like like tonight show now that y'all want, like it's

(01:04:47):
gotta be snappy, you know. But television, yeah, you got
time to prep and write, you know, get it together,
did you? Was it a transition for you going from
writing to like now having to add you know what
I'm saying, Like now, like but I was always like
loving acting, you know what I'm saying? Writing writing was

(01:05:07):
writing was more stressful to me than acting, because yeah,
because you have to be funny. You have to like
constantly come up with stuff, will constantly be funny and
not be funny to yourself. You gotta be funny to
the world, like it's gotta it's gotta old, young black
white man women. So are you trying to pander to

(01:05:31):
the room knowing that culturally their brand of humor is
a little bit different than yours, Like, do you have
to skewer the degrees a little bit so that you're like, okay,
if it hits these I'm assuming you have ten, eleven,
twelve writers in Conan's room. Are you in your mind saying, okay,
I got just okay, that's good. I have to adjust

(01:05:54):
to them or they don't know what funny is. Let
me just know it's No, it's you think can demographically
and you also thinking about Conan. You're thinking about how
his humor is, and then you're thinking about your demographic
that's listening to this, and you have to make sure
that your material. So if he thinks it's funny, then
you're like, I'm cool because I care about the writers
or your head writer and that sort of thing. No,

(01:06:15):
because you're already thinking what Conan might think. You're thinking
what the head writer would think too. But your your
your main purpose is what Conan thinks. It's not even
the demographic, because you can have something edgy and Conan
might let it slide through and go oh, yeah, yeah,
I like that, but you you ain't even thinking about
because it's been many times where I hadn't wrote sketches

(01:06:38):
and I thought they were brilliant and Conan like nope.
You know, like one time I had this thing where
I had like fifty suit coats come in where Conan
had to try on fifty Steve Harvey suit coats that
I was that I want him to do. Yeah, yeah,

(01:07:00):
like Steve never been just like it. He got it.
He just was like nah, And then I had to
get all fifty in them suits sent back. Because when

(01:07:24):
when you first think of it, when when you get
to work at like nine in the morning, you're looking
at two D premises and then at the premises you
write up a couple of jokes to pitch it to
the head right, and he go, that's funny. At that moment,
you gotta write a script and send her heads up
to the whole department which is casting props, uh, electrical whatever,

(01:07:44):
and they look at your script. Everybody's building casting everything,
shopping all wire. You writing the script, lunch, come, you
go downstairs and you rehearse that ship. Everything got to
be in order. And that's just one bite bite and
don't want me tell you something? Can it come out?
And he looked at that ship and if it ain't funny,

(01:08:04):
send all that ship back. Let me tell you something,
all right, Steve, And I can relate to this what
he just described, because nothing is more painful then when
a sketch, especially when music is involved on the Tonight
Show and the writer makes you slave over a mix

(01:08:26):
and you put four or five hours behind this ship
and then you realize, like by the fifth hour that
you're just doing a demo that's going to be submitted
to Jimmy to see to see and it doesn't make
And then just like they struggle, like, Okay, it's fine,
and I'm like that, I know that, I know that

(01:08:50):
payment arranging melodies. But it's weird though that because even
as you say that, I'm like, yo, doesn't cone and
realized the viral gold of seeing him in the Steve
Harvey suit that that will last on the internet forever,
all the memes and all the jifts that will be made.

(01:09:11):
But like, were they even thinking that far ahead into
the future, because like the stuff we do now, it's
it's you're you're thinking in so many compartments of like Okay,
is the sketch genuinely funny? Well? This will they change
the channel after this thing? But then it's beyond. That's beyond.

(01:09:32):
Are they going to watch it in the morning on
their iPhone in the gym? Is it? Is there something
visually funny that we can freeze it and then it
will be made a jeft into you know, there's so
many levels of marketing. Yeah, yeah, making the way people
consume it's so different now, like it you know what
I mean, Like I was, I want to ask you, like,
does that how does that inform comedy? Because I mean
it's like I was saying, it's it's no longer comedy

(01:09:54):
now is no longer I go to one spot and
I see a guy on stage, or I'll sit at
home and I watched body. It can be a snapchat everybody.
Everybody's funny Right now, there's like a little tension with
comics and a lot of Instagram people who come out,
they do a video and then all of a sudden

(01:10:17):
it's viral. On Now this person is booked in the
club and people coming to see them do what like
I don't know, And it's like taking it takes it
takes food out of I guess comics who can honestly
do stand up and really deserve to be there. It
takes food out their pocket. I guess it's similar to

(01:10:38):
models versus Instagram models. What were your feelings like four
like those buying stars like because there's at least eight
or nine or ten of them that could if there's
one in particular that's like extremely popular that uh, when

(01:11:01):
this particular person took a meeting with developing our own show,
like I guess like HBO had called them into develop something. Um,
it was like a fish out of water situation because
it's like this person is hilarious and a seven seven
second vine scenario, but I couldn't adjust at all in

(01:11:27):
the real world of the half hour. That's a different thing.
That's a different Yeah, that's that's two different skills, two
different things. But they just think, Hey, he's got followers,
he's got this, then y'all, let's let's throw him some money.
Let's get his followers. And we can't get his followers,
then you know, we can add those followers follow us

(01:11:48):
to what we got going on, you know. And I
think that's what it basically is. I think they just
get them for that, I think, you know, but when
that vine ship was popping off, I ain't even I wasn't.
I didn't even realize how big that was when it
was going on because I wasn't like on it like
that because I didn't know. I didn't know the magnitude
that we're doing real comedy out on stage. But you

(01:12:13):
take advantage of like social because I follow you on
yeah around that. Yeah, definitely I messed around. But that's
just my world and ship, you know what I mean, Like,
I don't be like you know, and people that I like,
I followed them and look at the stuff that they
did or whatever, but put real jokes up in there. No,
I would not do that. A good buddy of mine

(01:12:39):
in Chicago, Um, I have a lot of I don't
know what it is, like a lot of my comedy
homies in Chicago Dave ellum, uh yeah Dave and shout
out the nefertory to she put shout out, um, how
do you know? They wanted me to ask, how do
you know as a comedian winning time to move from

(01:13:01):
another city? Move leave Chicago and maybe go l A
or New York, Like, how did you know in your
journey it's like okay, now signed for me to move. Well,
I wasn't one of them, my fingers that believed in myself.
I waited till it came to me to it made
me go, yo, let's go. You know what I mean.

(01:13:22):
I wasn't gonna just go. You know what, I believe
in myself, let me pack up me and my dreams.
And now that now that, I was like, yo, it
has to like come get me and go yo, come
out here and come do this. Which yes, and that's
exactly what happened. You know. It came and got me
and was like okay, you need to come out here

(01:13:43):
and do this. And I was like all right, and
so that's what I did. But as far as just
jumping up myself now and and and I ain't knocking
nobody who do that, but I just I wasn't that
secure with my with myself like that, you know, because
it wasn't like this was something that I had, you know,

(01:14:03):
from a kid. I was like, I want to be
a kind like someone better me I did. It was
like whoa yeh, so what did your what did your
folks do? Like what was their uh what they supported? Yeah?
I was on television, jumping out of limos, walking right
in my mama house and taking the garbage out, mopping

(01:14:24):
the floor. She had no idea what was going on.
My mother a Christian, you know, she went the church
three times a week. She had no idea what was
going on? Like nothing. All she knew was her baby
boy didn't work. He woke up at one o'clock every day,

(01:14:45):
but he had money to put on the rent in
the bills. And she was just like, yo, you better
not be selling drugs. And I don't know how you
getting your money. And I used telling I was doing comedy.
She like, you can call it whatever. Parents never believe, right,
I mean, yeah, talk, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I can't

(01:15:10):
keep off the phone. So when during the period in
which you took your last quote last day on black Is,
because Andrew Tribeca was around the corner um, then you
came back to thank God black Is, Like how did

(01:15:34):
that work out? So? Black Ish was always in second position.
Andrew Tribeca was the show I had first. The only
reason why I went over the blackest two rights because
I was waiting on a yes. So I allowed that
they allowed you to sow the character I play on
Blackest wasn't even supposed to be like always. It was

(01:15:56):
supposed to be like a one time or dale. But
the character blew up that they kept I kept going back.
I left was like a one or two. Yeah, I
left for about eight episodes kids. Yeah, but when I
when I when I left, I had to go do

(01:16:16):
ant try back, and it kind of like went went
crazy a little bit. And so it got to the
point where they had to like work with each other
where they didn't have to. They just made it work.
TVs was kind enough to go, Okay, we'll let y'all
use him for this long and so that's just what happened,
you know. And they went back and forth every season

(01:16:39):
with how many episodes I can do and can't do,
and then it just balanced itself out at the world.
I don't seem like it's any a lot of actors
in Hollywood that have that privilege. No, it was unheard
of a lot of I think a lot of cats.
Now I started to get it or whatever. I remember
I was talking to uh uh, Tiffany Hattis, I see.
It was like, you know, I'm trying to get that

(01:16:59):
d white hot, right since we want black is joke
can I ask you, like, so, as far as shooting scenes,
do you have like a favorite actor that you like
to shoot scenes? But of course people love the Diane moments. Yeah,
but is there like somebody who you really like this man,

(01:17:22):
my my office buddies, Peter mackenzie and stuff like Yo
and Nelson We and Anthony. Those office scenes, man, they're
so crazy because those guys are just as racist as
funny as Yeah, but it'd be real ship that will
be you know what I'm saying. And so man working

(01:17:44):
with them guys, man, it's fun to say I love
playing playing that character as far as like with those guys. Man, Yeah,
how much stuff gets made up on setting? How much
stuff is written? Stuff like that, and be honest with you,
all of its written. Like the scrip. The writers are
like incredible. They're so brilliant, man, And like after certain

(01:18:07):
takes they'll go, Yo, you can freestyle a little bit now,
let us go. I mean they really open to us
freestyle or whatever. They'll give us all moments where we
can add live and throw some stuff in there. Definitely,
but the scrubby so tight sometime that we don't even
literally have to you know, because sometimes you can kill
a joke with a joke. What's the episode you're most

(01:18:28):
proud of. I love the Lemonade episode, which is the
one about Trump being voted on. And another episode I
really like is the one where I had to babysit. Yeah.

(01:18:51):
I was like, I would have loved that was killing Anthony.
I remember my showed up to work. That's seen her.
I was like, yeah, you'd be on time over that month,
showed up and seen how I just I was like,
can you kind of talk to you? I was like,

(01:19:13):
what is she doing? It? Like that's gonna be I
was like, what, So you didn't know until you got
on se No, I did that Kenya. They do that ship.
They're surprised you ship like he wanted your genuine reactions. Man,
I don't know. I was so nervous too. I was nervous.
She was fine. I tell you, I'm like, man, TV TV.

(01:19:37):
She looked nice on TV and then that, but seeing
personal life, like you can look you look at her
and go I get it. Yeah, I get it. I
get why. I get it. I get it. I get
why all these niggas is doing and she nicest ship man,
finest fun. Yeah, you're from cal You ain't from Philly? What? No,

(01:20:04):
I'm from DC. I can't get called. Yeah, who do
you like? Who? Don't want to ask you? Who do
you like? Down? Like? Who's your like? Cats? Did you
come out of the house? Yeah? You have comedians that
you like that that that I go see or I
mean we'll just cats that you did? Man, Man, it's
so man. I like Harlan Williams. You ever go see

(01:20:27):
Harlan Williams. Like I know who Harlan Williams is hilarious? Man?
I like J J from Mississippi. Uh, he's hilarious. Um My, man,
Tony Scofield it's funny and Tony is It's hilarious. And yeah,

(01:20:48):
those are get like comics that I look at and
get inspired by watching. Chris Specter it's funny as hell.
Is he still doing Is he going out and still doing? Clear?
He still do shows and stuff. Yeah, he's actually now
writing on um my other show, Grownish, that we start
shooting in September. Grownish, it's spin off from Black It's
too hold because this is it's not called college, It's

(01:21:13):
called Grownish. It's gonna be your different world. Yeah, Charlie's
gonna be on it. Yeah, he played as a JUX
professor at night and man, yeah it's crazy. He got
like a prostitutes nothing fetterman trying to get their life together.

(01:21:38):
But black does that mean you double up again? Are
you tripling? Na? Now I do both the studios right
next to each other, are all right? So what's your like,
who's your lawyer? What is it? What is your itinerary?

(01:21:59):
Then like what time you to be up? So right now,
like right now, I'm doing Blackish, and then like the
days that I have off, if I can, I go
over the coning and might do it better or whatever.
And then in September still I do bits. I do bits. Ye,

(01:22:23):
I do bits, like if something in the news or
if they call me and be like, yo, can you
do this, I'd be like, yeah, I come through and
do it. Or if it's something that I think it's funny,
I'd be like, man, I think we should do this
real quick. And then when they go all right, find cool.
So I'll go over there if I can, if I
got the time going, then do a bit. But I'll
do Blackish now, and then September I start Grownish and

(01:22:44):
I'll be doing Blackish and Grownish at the same time
until December, and then December and you try back to start,
and then I do Angie and Blackish all the way
into the spring, and then I got my other show
face Value BT with Want of the Sykes and Tiffany
hat this that starts September. We shot. We shot twenty

(01:23:09):
four episodes already at that. It's it's a it's a
game show man, It's it's funny. It's it's just we're
paying people to profile people. That's it pretty much. What's
like what it is man, it's it's it's it's funny, though,

(01:23:32):
it's like you We get these people and Tiffany interviews
them off the Vegas strip and before they can answer
the question that she asked them, we asked people on
the audience. I mean, these contestants whether they think and
if they guess what they think they might say. Then
they get okay, yeah, I've saw I've seen the yeas,

(01:23:54):
what would you do? Yeah, it's like and then we
break well. The whole shows you getting to know these characters,
and then the next act we will say something that
somebody did and you gotta guess who. And then the
third act it's like you know who said this. And
then at the end, whoever wins those three rounds they
go to the bonus round and then they get to

(01:24:16):
choose who they think they know the best and answer
as many questions possible. Then they win ten thousands. It's
a derivative of Black White. It's a radio game where
you play us and you tell somebody scenario and you
have to guess what they are. Well, it's it's Indians.
And she said, we all feel that that form. Come on,

(01:24:47):
I can't even I can't even ask what's in your
future because you have six jobs. While you wait a minute,
I'm the only one who telling job. Yeah, you know,
I'm just chilling. You know, okay, you're dating. I'm just chilling,

(01:25:11):
just chilling me like I know what it means, trying
to figure It's like we just figure out the world.
I got my dreams in the suitcase. I asked no questions.
You got babies. I have a son, Okay, you don't
treat them like you treat them. He'll be fifteen and September.

(01:25:38):
You just started high schools the first year. I just
took him to school last Wednesday started you know how?
So yes, I want to ask, so how do you
go because you still I mean Chicago still? Yeah, So
how do you balance it between here? Like how long
you out here? Come he come out here? I go there?
Or like my mother, I'm booking a flight soon as
I leave here and bring her out here. And and

(01:26:00):
you know when we had these moments where like they
can come out here during the week or I'll go there,
you know, just you know, just it's spurred a moment
all the time. You know, it's nothing like you know,
we're playing months in advance because we can't do that.
So how often what's your timeline? Like uh, in terms
of your shooting schedule being out here and then you say, okay,

(01:26:21):
well I gotta break, I can go home, Like how
long are you out here for? Well, no, I'm I
stay out here until like I'm done, like right now.
I'll be out here until like the spring, but I'll
go home like like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and then whatever little
moments that I can't get home, then I'll do it
like a weekend or a couple of days during the
week if if that can happen, but that that win,
dude to happen, for that to happen, is right, now

(01:26:43):
until like September, until when September here and I started
doing like both shows and yeah it's gonna be really
toughugh and then still doing stand up on Saturday. You know, alright,
I take that. Yeah, I know, I'm like I'm predicting me.
Uh uh, Dion, Little Real, Antiffany Hattish are all going

(01:27:07):
to simultaneously host the BT words. That would be great.
That would be yo, man, that would be crazy. You literally, yeah, dog,
I that exhausted me. Just just a dollar shot your

(01:27:27):
sons starting high school with in Chicago in the burbs. Yeah,
how do you feel? Because I have Chicago Tribune updates
and it's almost like their method of informing you. Usually

(01:27:50):
on Sundays they take a grand It's almost like Jerry's kids.
It's almost a fetish level. Sixty three people shots this weekend,
Like how do you do you sleep easy at night?
Like knowing that damn, I don't know. I don't never

(01:28:11):
sleep easy, you know, knowing that I got a kid
that's out that way, you know, But I stayed in
his life, you know. Fully, I'm always into everything that
he does. Talk to him every day. You know. His
mother is the same way. She keep keep keep her
foot on him, which is great, keep his keep his mind,

(01:28:32):
keep his mind, you know, involved in great things. He's
a great kid, you know. And just keeping busy, you know,
and and and showing them the proper love, because I
think that's the problem nowadays with all the gangs in
Chicago and all around I mean around the country period.
I mean they're bringing in all the National Guards and

(01:28:52):
all these people to protect people in Chicago from all
the gangs. But I've said it before, Uh, there will
always be gangs as long as there's no love in
the household, because they would they're gonna find that love
within the gang. So if we don't provide them with

(01:29:13):
proper love, then you can bring in as many National
Guards as you want to. You know, they're gonna love
in that gang. Don't make a difference. So you know,
we're provide them with that. And so you know, I arrest,
I arrest, okay with that, you know. But still it's
always a job being the dad man. You ain't never

(01:29:34):
leave about you know what I mean? Or I guess
last stuff like or do you have any movies in
the future that you're going to work? Just finished the
movie with h Nicole Parker and Kimberly Lee and Loretta
Divine called hair Shot. We just shot that. And I
did a movie with uh Whitney Cummings called um the

(01:30:00):
Female Brain. Yeah, so we're waiting on that to come
out too, so yeah cool, yeah we shoot those, shout
those and just then and Cannon waiting to come out
cool a podcast and uh no podcast? What do you want?
When did your mixtape coming out? Like, I mean, we

(01:30:24):
need the whole package. Let's go all the way with it.
I am sports, I am on vix album. Shout out
to vic Man. Yeah go check it out your face.
You got me man, Dion, thank you for making me

(01:30:44):
feel lazy. No, I need more jobs in my life.
Thank out for having men. Shout out enough now so
I'm paid built. What What have we learned today? That
Dion do a lot of ship, do not do a

(01:31:05):
lot of dudes. Don't claiming all your seven thousand jobs job.
He stays stayed doing. What did you learn today? He does?

(01:31:29):
I know, you know, you know. And if you watch
the way that the Netflix special is lit is so
f funny, but way about the same way that I
feel that if Leslie Jones makes a move in four
years to play Nina, right. I believe that he and

(01:31:49):
he got a story. Everybody maybe thinking that. I mean,
one time I was checking in this hotel. This is
the white girl Rana. To me, it's like, oh my god.
Hoograph was like alright, cool signing autograph and she goes,
I love your daughter, and I was like, ship, like

(01:32:12):
three different shades different. Watch the Netflix special, it's a
little bit different. I'm sure there was powder. He looks
like Richie, no joke, I'll see it, but everybody else do.
I damn so much. I learned that Dion cos problem

(01:32:41):
my hero. Especially that Late Night Ship just amazed me
because I always had like a hidden thing of like
writing more questions and ship like that. So you got
a mentee, a mental That's what I just think. I
know what that was. You know, it's not a hold up.

(01:33:08):
You got the it's a whole fucking word, you know
what I mean, just the way that it's a whole word.
I want the job word. We can say that after
the show. Shoot, thank you, thank you. Learned that we

(01:33:37):
want to hold you back all the time. I learned
that Dion is actually different than the character Charlie because
it's like you play it so well. I'm like, yo,
is this really how to do this? But if you're
lighting day from him and like you're like really a
spark cat like this, I mean this is the first
time we've met, but like you played just like you

(01:33:59):
played idiot so well. Well. Thank you brother, a lot
of experience, a lot of I'm a super fan brother,
Thank you man. This has been an honor man. Thank
you all so much. Man, this is great. Thank you well.
On behalf of Unpaid Bill, Uh Boss? What's the other

(01:34:20):
bill name? Vacation Bill German, German Bill, October Bill Sugar,
Steve Tilo and it's La need a job trying to
get off. Okay, I've learned that I need more jobs

(01:34:45):
in my life. This Quest Love on behalf of Quest
Love Supreme in Team Supreme. Thank you very much. We'll
talk to you in the nets. Go Around Only on Course.
Love Supreme is a production of I Heart Radio. This

(01:35:07):
classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora. For
more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the I heart
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