The Tommy Davidson Episode

This week on GBR, Willie D and Scarface sit down with comedian and actor Tommy Davidson. They discuss fatherhood, marriage, his early beginnings, the current climate of comedy, film and much more.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Get up, get th boys. It's back and reoaded all
in your mind. Yeah, not deep throating. This is for
the streets, the reel, the railroaded, the disenfranchise, the truth,
the scapegoating. And they ain't knowing we speak the truth.
So they quoted because we wrote it. The North South
East coat is the gv my. We're keeping your head bobbing.

(00:21):
It ain't no stopping and wants to be dropped head by.
And then the system is so corrupt they throw the
rock out their hands and then blame it on us.
Don't get it twisted on code and me and dancing
for no buttoment biscuits. It's Willie d y'all scar facing

(00:44):
the building. Collectively, we are to get old boys reloaded
with another episode of information and instructions to help you
get through this wild, crazy, beautiful world. I guess today. Yeah,
we gotta clasp for him before we say his name.
Tommy David said, oh yeah, man, man cot and congratulations,

(01:08):
thank you man, your new father. How is that? Man?
Oh my god? And this and this makes how many kids?
Six six's she's the youngest girl. Three girls, four girls
now three boys. So I don't know. I'm gonna look

(01:29):
up a little bit. I'm in love man. Yeah. Yeah,
it's your first girl, huh no, this is the fourth one.
But this is I'm in love different, different. I got time, Yeah, yeah,
it's differently. Yeah, you know when I see it, because
it's like it is you. I got time for you,

(01:50):
Like I got time to be with you, to appreciate you,
to know, time to time to look at you. You know,
I got it. It's to the point where, you know,
she she's only two months old. I got him talking basically,
you know, because I can look great at her and
she's like, I can go and she's like, I mean,

(02:16):
she's there. You see what I'm saying, you know, put
him down, you know, Hey, I gotta go. Hey, you know, Okay, okay,
I'll be back or whatever. She's like, it's a different
it's a it's different stage from me and just more
appreciation just from the experience of life. So I'm like,
you know, do you think do you think that that

(02:37):
uh ada, that you will make the other kids a
little jealous? You know, it does anyway, But it's a
different kind, you know what I mean, It's a different kind.
Like my fourteen year old she was the baby. Yeah,
you see what I'm saying. And so you know, relationships
look complex. Okay, So her mother, you know, I didn't

(03:00):
see her, you see, I didn't see her until she
was like three, damn. Okay, then again ten and Christmas
with the other kids and blah blah blah blah like that,
you know what I mean. So that part of her
life she didn't get with me. Yeah, do you see
what I'm saying. So she's sensitive to that when I'm
when I'm like this, But where where we are? You

(03:22):
know what I mean saying? She understands how much I
love her because I got her there with me. You see,
she she she this is the real place, right, It's
the real place where we get it done in the
real right. That's how, y'all. That's how. That's what I
know about, y'all. Yeah, that's what I know about y'all.
So I don't know, go ahead, man, talk ship. We're here.

(03:46):
I couldn't get her. I couldn't get her in my
life for nothing. Fourteen Now I just got her and
and um um last August. Was that some ship that
her mother put in her head about you? That that
that just kind of messes up everything you answer that. Yeah,
so so you know, and and it is what it is.
Life is gonna be what it's gonna be. But because

(04:09):
I was able to endure that, and that's hard. That
enduring that kind of stuff is hard because the woman
never really takes in the fact, takes in the reality
that we really love our children, we really want them
with us, like our mother with us. That closeness were
different kind of black man bred Brandon, black man. All together,
your head, lotion, all that you go to school, all

(04:31):
this you I'm with you. You know, you gotta learn
to do this. You clean like all the stuff that
I had to do. You gotta do all that stuff
your mind. So when you don't have an opportunity to
do that and you're not seeing them, and it's a girl,
and you know how the world is with girls, with
all of this, it's your scared. Yeah, you're scared to night.
You can't you know, it's it's like you're not seeing us.

(04:53):
She ain't talking to her, you see. So now she's
with me, so you gotta talk. You know, I learned
how to talk like my mother would talk to me.
She did take me straight up, what the hell? You know?
One time. This is the real place, right, so welcome
to the right. Right, We're welcome to the real place.

(05:15):
I'm about I think about fifteen right, ship around the neighborhood.
Older girl had everything, fifteen year old one. Right, she
in my room. You know, that's a new relationship for
me and my mother. I'm a teenager or whatever. You know,
I ain't wasn't coming home on time, you know, since
twelve or whatever. Right, she come my room, and he

(05:36):
had a real short hair, you know what I'm saying. So, so,
you know, were in the room doing the thing, right,
and my mother came doing what you know, you know,
the naked you know, so you button naked in the
room in the room, right, my mother comes in the room. Right,
I'm done. So you got a call right, naked, right

(06:00):
with your pants down with the girl in my room? Right?
And yeah right? Oh, so so my mother came in.
Excuse me, you know, I guess you were trying to
come in and say I'm home or whatever. Right, your mom,
excuse me in the old house, I mean she that's
my mother. The hell going on in here? That happened to?

(06:26):
Who do you know? How old my son? How old
are you? No? To hell. Cut hair cut. No, no, no, no,
that's just the beginning fire. I'm wondering what I gotta
deal with. She's excuse me, like, I'm like, oh man,
I gotta go outside that door. And then she closed
the door back. She closed it, do it back. Holy shit,
you're in trouble stairs, you know what I'm saying. So

(06:49):
I go downstairs and the girl, you know, I tell like,
you know, he hold one about I come in with
my mother living room, right Mercy. I said, sorry about
that that new thing, you know. She said, that's all right,
that's all right. She said, she you're scared she had me.
I said, what do you mean? She said, I thought
that was a dude, A funny. I'm not Fenna having

(07:18):
that ship. Man. You know what I'm saying. She said,
I would. She said, you scared she had me? She said,
I thought that was a dude. I wasn't really deal
with all that. You see what I'm saying. One thing
is one thing and the other thing is the whole number.
She basically yeah, just because she was kind of like

(07:41):
on edge, you know, she was trying to think about
what she wanted to me. But she realized it wasn't
a dude. She probably was like, don't get back in
there and finished, so so so short you we're fine.
She looked me straight in the eyes and said, you know, hey,
you know hey, all right, it's cool. Had me right now,

(08:02):
question a question. You're in your room, you get caught
with your pants down. Mom closed the door. You actually
finished and then went out. Mm hmmm mmm. Let me

(08:24):
tell you. You know you're gonna finish. Let me let
me tell you something, bro. You finished after she walked
in the room. I mean, I'm weak, and so she
walked out of the thing. You stop, its right, Let stop.
When she closed the door, she's there. You got a
couple more strokes and after man, let me bullshit, Tommy,

(08:45):
wait a minute, but I had to stay in the
whole summer for her. No, the whole summer. Say, Mike
will get it in. Let me tell you something, bro,
My mama would walk in now while I'm a grown
ass man taught me do or some ship. It wouldn't
be nor most team left in my boat, like you're
a bold. Mother wouldn't post be home. She was there.

(09:09):
She wouldn't post be on. Man, how does a guy
from rolling for Mississippi make it to the national international stage.
How do you how do you get that? Get the
Hollywood were Greenville, Mississippi. It's near. It was down in

(09:35):
the in the in the in the delta. Yeah, down
the delta. I ended up. I got left in the
trash when I was a kid, when I was baby,
eighteen months old. Man, your your story, your story from
where it starts to where you are now, there's nothing

(09:58):
short of remarkable. And I mean I was. I'm not
gonna bring that part of the story up. But eighteen
months walking right walking into eighteen months in a trash
can mm hmm for somebody to grab you and adopt

(10:19):
you and make you their own and you call them
your mother and and dude, and and for you to
start there and end up here? Man, have you ever
have you ran into your parents from? Oh? Ship? I have?
I was like thirty nine, I had I had my
twenty eight year old with me. Oh he now he

(10:44):
was a baby. You know. So my mother who raised me.
I found my mother and didn't tell me she found
her because she used to work for House and Urban Development.
She used to work for for welfare basically well for housing.
So Section eight all a right, so she my mother, right,
your mother adopted she was whitey. Yeah, yeah, what do

(11:08):
you call the lady they gave birth to you? Tommy Jane? Okay,
that's rag all name. Go ahead to the country. You know,
she gave my mother gave me a new name. Because
my name really is Anthony Anthony Reid. I'm Anthony Reid
of the Reds from Greenville, Mississippi. Oh you see. But yeah, yeah,

(11:32):
So everybody they see me at the airport, it's a
slew up all black, the whole you know. Some of
them looked exactly like you know, and they like, that's Tony.
That show is Tony. That gotta be Tony. Look look
at him. That is Tony. That's what they call me,
you know what I mean? The ones that knew her

(11:53):
brothers and her you know when I was you know,
and and and my brother. My brother is if I'm
my brother, probably about ten years older than that, he
like six, he said, maybe sixty eight. He was nine
when when he lost me. See who told you the
story of the trash car? Uh? My mother finally, finally

(12:18):
she told me because she told me she did. She
found me physically there because she was in Mississippi in
sixty six with her husband there from four College Colorado.
They saw Kennedy on TV. Kennedy said, if you look
back on this time in history, did something about the

(12:42):
race problem. They were teachers. They were teachers at Colorado
State with the cowboys, you know that, you know. So
so they said, let's go, let's go and do something.
So they found imminent immunization program in Greenville where they
you know, Emmy and as children and voting drive for
the black community. So they went down there in Greenville

(13:03):
and did that. They did it for like a year.
They met my mother and she was doing voting drives
and she was young, she was like maybe two. She
already had five kids, you know, twenty two good looking girl,
that's my mother said, you know. And so she worked
with us. She had a lot of zeal, you know.
And they left, but they were doing something else and

(13:24):
they had to go through Greenville. So she said, let's
go see Tommy. So they went down there and they
said she gone, she gone, but we think she left
her youngest son at this house. So my mother knows
e she d gonna go over there, you know, over there,
you know, she went over there. It was kids in
there doing drugs, getting drunk, batting house. So she got

(13:48):
out of there fast. She walked out. She told me
that she saw a pile of trash on the side
of the house that she was walking out. She said
something told her to look under the tire. There was
a top tire on top of trash. So when she
lifted tire up, she saw my foot sticking out the trash,
sticking out the trash, and she moved it. I was there,

(14:11):
you know, flies unconscious, you know, yeah, yeah, I've been
in the coma. Who knows how long. They took me
to the hospital. I stayed there for like sixty days,
you know, and they don't know if I was gonna live.
I had cuts, institusions and my skull and ship like that. Right,
So I recovered enough. And so she couldn't find the

(14:35):
mother or the family. So she went to the city
and said, hey, I'm gonna take them. They said we'll
go ahead, and she did. That just shows the reciliencing
in this man. Bro. You just refused to give up. Man,
that's that's so inspirational. Man. Listen, and we all have

(15:00):
our crosses the bad, right, and we people don't know
people's story. They just see people and they think they
know people based on whatever they know them as to
be as a professional or whatever. But they have no clue.
Like I didn't even have a clue. I knew a
little bit about your past as for us, like being
adopted and stuff like that, but I didn't know that.

(15:21):
I didn't know the depth of it. And that's heavy.
That's how we heavy, That's how I went. So I
didn't know I was black. Explain that that's why you're
comedy white. I know, that's why your comedy is so hilarious, bro,
because they took what you were given and you you

(15:43):
you took limits. It may lemonade bro like it's funny
now you know you can look back at this ship
and laugh at it. Bro Man expound on that that
you didn't know you was black in what regard, No,
because I didn't know what happened. I didn't know because

(16:03):
when I got to Colorado, you know, I didn't really
the only thing I really remember as far back as
I can remember, because I can remember a Christmas tree
and I remember going out there. Due to Christmas Tree,
I was like through four now you know what I mean.
I grew up in Colorado. I ain't know about white.

(16:25):
I was just a little kid and there was a
little truck under the tree. I grabbed the truck, and
my father came out and said that you gotta get
that later, and I went back to bed. That's like
the much as I remember about where I was. See,
so my sister's white, my brother's wife, my mother's white,
my father's wife. But I'm not thinking that white because
it's just my brother and mother and sister and father. Right,

(16:49):
So you're thinking that your mother naturally had you, right,
because I grew up in in Wyoming, in Colorado, so
so up to four up to five, okay, so you
know that's farms and streams and animals and all kind
of ships. So I thought whatever I was, I was

(17:09):
a brown one or whatever we were. Because the cat
could have a white cat, could have kittens to have
a black one, a gray with a speco on the brown,
so I'm a brown one. Or a horse could be
a white horse and have a black colt. I'm like,
you know, so I'm brown, I'm a brown one or
whatever we are. That ship was over because they broke
up and we moved to d C. When I got

(17:32):
the d C. I found and I was black. Seem
what happened? We got the d C for anybody who's
from Washington. We moved. We moved to Trinity South, Uh, Trinidad,
Northeast Okay, northeast Washington. We moved there in six eight,
right when King got shot, like two days after he
got shot. Riots fires. Me and my sister were in

(17:55):
the station wagon. My sister bro, we're on the ground,
tear gas like all that stuff that just happened. I
saw it when when I was a kid. That's the
first thing I saw. I'm like, wait, where are we right?
So we finally settled in the neighborhood. My mom says,
there's a pool down the street. These kids are gonna
walk you guys over there. You know we kids, right,

(18:16):
I mean, man, the black kids kicked our ass. Man,
they jumped us. I'm five, My brothers like eight. My
sisters were twins. She's the same age. They beat our
ass all the way home, and they were saying white
cracker and white cracker lover right, and they kept happening.
We stopped going down the pool. I had you know,

(18:38):
we're fighting all the time. I'm a white cracker. Lover.
Finally I went to my mother. I said, why are
they saying I love white crackers because I like Graham crackers? See,
And she was like, well, I guess she's gonna tell
me now right. That's because people who are your color
when they don't like people but they don't like people

(18:59):
are color, they called them white crackers. You know. I said, well,
what color am I? You know? She said, you're black?
Who I said, No, I'm not black, I'm brown. She said, nah,
but that's what we call y'all. I said, but that,
but that's not the real color I learned in the
crownds and brown. She said, yeah, I know, but that's
what we call y'all. And that's so we moved because

(19:24):
I mean, I never forget this. My fucker's would come
my brothers, like nine black dudes come boom, busting in
his mouth, take his bike, and you ain't gonna do
you know, I'm watching this happen. You see what I'm saying,
And I'm like, I'm small. I always wanted to wish

(19:45):
I was bigger because I couldn't do nothing, you see.
So we moved to the suburbs. Weach in Maryland. For
anybody who from d C. Then you started getting it
from them. Now I'm I'm being chased by grown white man. Yeah,
into the house, truck full of truck full of adults.

(20:05):
Nigga kill them running just getting in the house. They're
throwing stuff through our window, I mean, you know. And
so I go to my mother, I said, who are
these niggas? We gotta stay away from him. And we're serious,
you know, And we're serious. You know what I'm saying,
you know, yeah, man, hilarious man, man, yeah, yeah, yeah man.

(20:36):
And she explained it, that's what our people call your people.
We didn't like them. I said, well, what color? You know,
we're mine and all of this. She said, you're black,
you know. So I was like, this is stupid. I can't. Yeah.
A lot of ship happened to me during that time,
man from white guys fucking with me and just all
kind of ship that I had to do right. So

(20:58):
we finally moved to the neighborhood. I grew up in
Silver Spring, Maryland, which is like right on the D
Street d C line. DCS here, my neighborhoods here. And
was this intentional for your mom to try to it was?
She moved me right to the cusp. It's white and black,
but it's there, you know, And that's where I grew

(21:19):
up right there. So we're black enough to be Washington,
white enough to be all Right, you see what I mean.
So it's balanced right. The white boys chased me, man,
because I don't know nobody in that neighborhood. When me
and my sister, it's like a movie. We me and
my sister moved to to h Silver Spring. We went

(21:43):
in by bear Room. We should love music, man, My
sisters love music. So we put on remember that song
Ball of Confusion by Temptation, Do Do Do Do Do
Do Do? Do you know? I love soul music even
back then. Who we made this song? Uh, we're fit

(22:03):
to do that, man. And it's a whole new anyway,
so so so so so um um. So I had
my radio. You know, I was always up with the
music because my mother had me listening to everything because
I was real talented, even when I was little, like four.
You know. The black people they kind of liked us
because they're like my mother. It wasn't the ones that

(22:25):
knew my mother. Was the ones that ain't you know
what I mean that we had to deal with. So
I'm on the table with a spoon doing say it loud.
I'm black, and I'm proud I could do the Mustang,
all of all the dances, read the Franklin you know,
change chain, chain, I know all that. So and I'm
I'm five. You know, I'm five. I had this back
back then. So I get we go to the window.

(22:46):
We actually sit out the window. We're looking at this
new neighborhood, right, and the music playing, people moving out,
people moving in. Yeah, all because of the color of
the skin. Yeah, run run run, But okay, I do
loose do do do Do do do? But confusion do
do do do? And me here in the window, like

(23:08):
do do And I'm years later, I'm fifty seven and
and and and it hit me. You know that moment
me in her head, you know what I mean? You know,
and it was it was man because you know, we
grew apart man too, because you know, and this happened

(23:30):
to me this morning. I got off the show. I said,
I'm black, but I really and I said, nigga, you
black with you? You know what I mean? But but
what goes on in my head? You see what I'm saying,
I'm I'm listening to some other voice that's telling me
because I was raised by white people, I ain't really black.
That's a societal side. Okay. My mother is the one

(23:56):
who told me I'm black. M m. You see, she's
the one that taught me about black. She's the one
that gave me say it loud. I'm black, and I'm proud.
I remember first grade. I went to first grade. You
had to say the pledge allegiance. It's the first time
I'm in first grade, you know what I mean. We
moved from here to here, and now we're here at
the same the new school. When the second huh no, no, no,

(24:19):
I was in second I was in I was in
seven grade. Second, let's seven grade. Yeah, you know, we
need to save grade. We can talk about you know
what that thing, you know what I mean. But you know,
and so we gotta learn you know, first grade. You
gotta learned that. You know, our player of leading judi flat,
you know. So I put up the black belfish and

(24:39):
the teacher was like, what the hell are you doing?
Black teachers? Did you go on the principal's office. Don't
do nothing like that in my room. I went down
to the principal's office. This when I found at my
mother's crazy. Principal said, oh, so you you think you're
really funny doing that? Huh, you call your mother. My
mother came down and she was smiling, and I was like,
that's when I discovered she kind of crazy, right. She
was like, what's the problem. He said, he put up

(25:02):
the black power fist in the class, and my mother said,
what's wrong with that? He said that were they're learning
the pledgere lation, she said, but that's all he knows
about him. He knows he's that, he'll do that. He'll
learn what you want him to learn. But that's what
he knew about him. He's there to learn what you
gotta tell him. But he's black, he's proud, and that's

(25:23):
what he knows. That's the first that's the first seed.
She knew I could read to read good and I
was and seven eight could read a book. She knew
I could, so she Malcolm X Biography and Malcolm X
lean her Horn, Bury My Heart and Wounded Knee. I mean,

(25:45):
just handing me books, she said, I know you can
read it. I read it, talk about it, you know
what I mean. So that was starting to because I
remember the time she was on the porch and I'm
over with my friends black neighborhood, you know, and she
had to come back to the house. She told me,

(26:09):
you talk so drive now, you know what I mean,
She told me talking abound. She said, yeah, you just
got this thing about you were you you know, this
is another thing, you know what I mean. I was like, well,
you know that's me. She said, yeah, yeah, I know
it is. But you know, get that little thing, which

(26:31):
is not a problem. What became a problem was and
I had to fight from my sister. My brother was
never ran. See he's older than me. That fight for
my sister is to be like five black girls twelve
years old. We're like eight nine. He said, We're gonna

(26:54):
whip your sister ass for no reason, for no reason,
My my sister and I'm fighting, you know, four or
five black girls by my self taking asks whipping a
whole nine yards. And I'm still like defending her. You
see what I'm saying. I'm like, I'm probably like around
about because I didn't started really changing as a person.

(27:19):
I ain't really because man, when I moved, when I
moved to Maryland, you know, I was a really good lottle,
like I knew, like I was a good kid. I
had friends, like I loved everybody. You know, it was
like it was. It was when I turned eight, all
all all, all the black people from DC started moving
into my neighborhood. You see what I'm saying. Even though

(27:40):
the neighborhood was mixed, was mixed with African and all
of this, I had to deal with a whole another thing. Yeah,
I even turned my back on my little friends. Man.
It liked me so much, man, because we're not when
when when I was fighting by myself okay, and I
wasn't big enough, okay, but I hooked up with some boys.

(28:01):
So my friends when I we we all met when
we were nine. We've been friends since we was nine.
So we was that that, you see, Yeah, And so
that that was different from me than my brother. I
was different than my brother. I was different than with
my sisters in that way. Is your brother and sister

(28:22):
still you know reachable today? My brother's my brother died. Yeah,
you and your sister really still close? Man? And her
like Bonnie and Clyde. I told you we're like twins.
Is your mom still no? She died too, So it's
just us too, just me and my sister. Sorry, bro, Yeah,

(28:44):
I always think about them. This morning it was just us.
Said no, I had met them. I got. I got
to like real, I got, he said, dollars blood, Yeah, blood.
I got four sisters and two brothers. Okay, you know,

(29:07):
and I didn't know that we're grown up. I've never
seen my black family. You know. My family was that
family you know with your siblings you grew up with.
It was it was it was two. It was three
my brothers, sister and me and my mother because they
broke up, so it was just us, you know. So
that's when I started to change. But I didn't change
for the worst. I just you know, we broughatly of

(29:28):
our environment, you know, so I just had to do
what I had to do as as as a as
a a black man in American man. Hey, you got
the information, and hey, you know we we we we
we you know in the neighborhood. You know, now I
got them six. You know, we think of Steve's so

(29:51):
ain't the more jumping me any more? That? Yeah, damn,
we was fair. You know, we had to. Somebody has
something within one of us or whatever they can straighten
it whatever, but no one else is gonna you. I
ain't gonna tell you. So I mean, I think I

(30:12):
think people should jump. People don't want I mean I want,
I want it. No no, no, no, no no no,
you win. You gotta win that finish. I said, you
win by any meaning. If I if I know my
I know my brother fin to fight some dude that
I know they can whoop my brother. We ain't taking
the whales, bro, now hold on, We're not taking their
old on. And that's the truth. Now, I said. With us,

(30:35):
it was like, hey, if it's a one on one situation, whatever,
but no one could come up to us if we're
not in my neighborhood. No one can come up to
us if it's the one on one one of us.
If you got two people that want to fight, it's different.
If it's two people that want to fight each other
and y'all want to go ahead, go head up. But
you're talking about trying to ride on my people or

(30:57):
something like that, that's gonna be a totally different stories.
Is that I give you. I give you an example
for my sister. My sister. All right, little du Jerry,
you know you know short stocky whatever. You know, you're
like we like we like to Joan and DC. I
don't know what they call it here they call it.

(31:18):
They call it the Joan here ranking here Joan and
is busting in LA or whatever. Your dozens of snapping
in New York whatever. So you know we did that.
So she'm whipping your ass at the school. You do
it to Jones and I mean, huh, you go to
j King at d C. We got the Jones after
this ship is over. Yeah, I'm the king. Yeah, you

(31:40):
don't want to do that. You saw me last name.
I'm the King. I'm a professional. That's like me going
to Jordan's. That's like, that's like me going to Michael.
Jordan's said, let's play one on one man. Yeah, I
ain't handled towards growing up up, we all we did well,

(32:02):
talked about each other. Man. So after you know, damn
where I got going? You better because I was gonna
get on your head. But go ahead, right, you're done,
You're done. You've got twenty minutes beyond. So so um,

(32:26):
you know after it's an example. You know me at
the bus stop, everybody want to see it. You know,
everybody there, everybody there he's you know, it was bigger
than me. But you know, whatever, right, I'm holding my own.
But I tripped over the sidewalk and it was a faucet.

(32:49):
They didn't have a knob on it, and I failed
and I hit my head. You know, I was like, oh, man,
when I looked up, he was right white flash. I
looked man, my sister and then then when when it
was over, they all they jumped them, you know what.

(33:11):
My sister was like, whatever, you know what I mean.
So so it's like, you know, when you're in that
situation that that don't make you black neither white, but
identified it as such, you see, identified it as such
has nothing to do with anything else other than you

(33:31):
become who you are from whatever. I mean, you you
built out or whatever. But I was in that value
system where I was thinking, I'm talking about me. I
was thinking, in order for me to be black like
the dudes that I grew up around, I had to
be that, you see. So I went and did trifling things. So,

(33:55):
I mean, I did all kind of stuff, and my
my mother was moving away from me. Man, she was
like she wasn't understanding what I was going through. Really
what I mean. But this is what I want to know, Like,
how how is it that you so like willingly accepted
that if I want to be black and identified with black,
I gotta act like a criminal and do these crazy things,

(34:17):
but not associate that with whiteness. Because white folks are
criminals too, Like they do a lot of they commit
a lot of crimes. Yea even been made. Yeah, because
I'm just in my little pot trying to survive. And
you also probably you also probably being having these type

(34:39):
of negative thoughts about black people being reinforced by the media.
You're seeing certain things in the media and hearing certain
things at school, probably even from teachers or something, because
because I know some of those teachers are, they could
be as as bad as any enemy that you could have.
It could be. Uh. I thought you was the drummer
from the muppage man. Yeah, you know, scam me. I think,

(35:09):
what are you doing here? Man? For those of you
who can you cannot see it? Yeah, animal, yeah you know. So,
So if everything everything is as you learn, you know, uh,

(35:34):
hindsight is always I was in that situation, you see,
even though I knew better, it doesn't matter because I
was in this situation. So I had. I had read
Claude Brown Man Child in Promise Land. Right, it's a book.
It's about Claude Brown, who was in the detention system
in New York City, you see what I'm saying. So

(35:57):
I read that probably when I was probably about oh,
you know, and I was like, Okay, what do you
went through? That? Is that? That the other thing? And
blah blah blah blah blah. And you know, my neighborhood
was Weed neighborhood and Coke neighborhood. You know, uh, you know, hey,
you know use these whatever DC we boxed. That's we're

(36:20):
like in Florida like football, you know, right, And in
the Texas they like football, you know. You know in
d C we like boxing. Yeah, that's that's that's what
we do. So it's about what you got here, you know,
So learn what you need to learn, you see. So
I'm thinking all of this but knowing it's it's it's
God man that I got put in the in the

(36:42):
right soil, in the right soil and then had the
kind of experiences that I had to be able to
come to the river the revelations to understand the things
he's talking about. And it took a little minute because
I was putting them all together, because my family was
helping me put them together. See, white people are with

(37:04):
the camera. There are nothing and not the same, you know.
And if I take that attitude, then I'm against a
whole lot of people with a whole lot of power.
I gotta take a look at individuals, even though they
don't got to do that with me. But for me
to be able to negotiate my way around, I gotta
be able to do that because because I found not

(37:26):
that our distinction is just this. So I'll give an
example from last night. I was at the club. We're
having a good time. He was there, Ladies said just
that and everything right, And so a group of black
people came up to me and there was from cameraon.
I know about cameraon. I'm I'm exposed to cameroon because

(37:46):
the people I work with been there before this that
another thing. And I had a whole separate kind of
conversation with them, a whole separate kind of conversation with
them then I would have with us, because we're a
different brand a black people, although we're black. Okay, Like
I Hatian in Miami, y'all in the h I'm a
niche because of what happened with me. I'm a nigologist, Okay,

(38:12):
a nigologist. I ain't find out about y'all. I ain't
find out about y'all. Tell like, y'all, tell y'all because
the only thing I knew was that Artie Bill and
Drells about Houston. Billy who Warren Warren y'all? Yeah, how

(38:33):
how I'm just saying blowing that with the Bills Thorough
we call him Thorough Campbell, Thorough Campbell, tear away Jersey,
watch out, Donny Shell Bam. That's what I knew about you,
but I ain't know using like this though, I ain't
know you was like DC. When you come from where
you come from, you think you you know, you're the

(38:54):
only little corner, you know what I mean. I ain't
gonna tell y'all. Yeah, you know, DC is, like I said,
the biggest market. It's like at first, I second big
fluctuates between d C in Chicago, Man Cleveland there too,
now well clean, yeah, the Cleveland is Yeah. If you
say it like that, then you also have Dallas is

(39:16):
in there and Houston is in there. But I didn't
get to see it, like we just made it. We
just made it a really we made a nice solid
market um in in all of the neighborhoods that that
are reflected, you know, the same images that were reflected
in our our neighborhoods. They love us. Yeah, and y'all
was able to do that and that motherfucker sound. See

(39:39):
that's where I said, oh, yeah, no, I can't go
down there, like you know, no you go down They're like, hey,
I'm regulated or whatever. Like I'm thinking, I am anyway,
what you gonna do? Right? But but I didn't really
really really know that it was like that here. I

(40:01):
I even came here. I even came here um earlier
doing comedy before we live in color. You see what
I'm saying. And didn't know that. See, so your eyes
get open to how similar we are, you see what
I mean. So I even heard it just the other
day and it just hit me about the song. It

(40:25):
just hit me about the song my worst fears I
may come real in my head. That's the song. That's
the song, But it's each of y'all's interpretation of that ship.
You see what I'm saying, And I ain't even we've
all been there, rabbits whatever, we've all been there with

(40:49):
you might think this that that you might be and
you're thinking it's real. Man, he's talking about on fans.
Hold on, hold on, dude, I do do do. I
learnt dings a doo doo doo ding dootings do doom,

(41:16):
I learn loom d dooms. Won't play, don't walk the link,
won't do I'll do do do. Okay, that's what I'm talking.
Speaks a whole lot of language. Man. I never quite

(41:40):
hurt that nobody backed on the eight a weight like
that much. You know, they're like, doom do A little
lootle question, Man, at what point does the comedy start
in your life right away? At what? At what point

(42:00):
do you because, like you said, you were Jones Jones, right,
But at what point do you get there and you
say I want to do that for a living? What
are you doing at that moment? I got lucky, Yeah,
I got lucky. Um. I got a job at the
Remota end okay Um as an assistant chef. I had

(42:27):
an apartment, two cars, had doson beat you ten and
and Toyota Selleca and the Remota n page you like that.
I made it work. I made it work because I
got thrown at the house when I was fourteen because
my mother found all this stuff under my bed. She said,
you can't come back until you get a job. And

(42:47):
I went out there thinking, oh, man, I don't even
you know, I could just hang now. And I went
to live with the guy who used to keep us
out of trouble, you know. And so me and my
friends decided we're gonna stick up a mopad shop. I'll
tell my daughter that this morning, because you don't want
to listen. She fourteen, So you know, at everybody, I
get caught, I get brought back to his house, right,

(43:09):
but he run everything and he's embarrassed me. Man, we'll
be in the rex cent and playing pink pong or whatever.
He said. Man, y'all, hey, man, lead that lead that
boy along. He would have been through some ship. I'm like,
why he keeps saying that? Man? He was saying, Bill,
what you keep telling him? Mad man? He said, you
have But at the time I'm not knowing right. But
he loved me. Man. I went to live with him
and his family. I wouldn't go home the next day

(43:31):
because man, they clean mooning. My mother made his clean up,
you know. But I thought it was cool. I get
to hang out and all of this. Right, the police
brought me to his house, he says, something never forget.
I walked in the house. You know. The police took
me to his house, not to jail, right, And he
came out the back. You know, is sight right. I

(43:52):
had later reform me to put the dog on me,
and you know, you know whoever was trying to you know.
So so he come out the back telling my daughter
that this mom made her remember me telling her that,
Oh yeah, you know. So so he came out the
back and they said, Mr, you know, Mr mcmiller, this
is your son. And he said, yeah, I was kind

(44:15):
of scared. He said, yeah, yeah, it is, it is
it is. He said, all right man, Well he's all
yours man, He said all right man. So when I
closed the door, I thought he was gonna be like, nicky,
you need to do and do you know, he turned
his back went back to bed. He did even look back.
He said you know what time, he man, one day
you got to take responsibility for your goddamn south and
went to bed. That's the first time they just started thinking,

(44:36):
how did y'all rob the moped place? What did you
I didn't. They never let me carry one. But the
other guys, my friends never did they go to jail. No,
they got away. They got away. You brought you home
instead of sitting right right. Yeah. So so he says

(44:58):
to me, I'm I need you to the point though.
How I got lucky. But this was a small town.
It was this DC. Yeah so so so so you know,
I'm fourteen right from tent from we met when he
was nine. Okay, so and I'm with them all the time,
you know. So he turns his back and he says,

(45:20):
one day you gotta take response before you goddamnself. Man.
And it had an impact on me, you know. And
his older his older son had a job at a hospital.
He he had he had the hospital scrubs and brand
new Ada white of DTAs. He needs to be the
cool dude. So we're out there fighting and stuff like that.
And I come home. You know, yeah, we've been fighting.
We've been fighting, and he's like, man, that's why I
stopped going out there with him. Niggas say what you

(45:43):
know I'm thinking? You know, yeah, he told me, look,
you know you got job this summer. You know, chain gun,
you lost your shoe. He said that with him, and
it started occurring to me, like, so my mom to
let me back in the house. But I had to
get a job. So I got my first job and said,

(46:03):
I have my friends. You should laugh at me because
I come home with them. I haven't pancakes stuff on me.
They like jeans and theaters, you know they you know
he he, he used to call me. You know, he
was very dough boy and ship you know what I mean.
I'm like, yeah, whatever, Yeah, he got a blue dart

(46:30):
with him. How many times you get in the mom
so so so I built myself up, man, you know,
I didn't build myself up, but that helped. So I
ended up with an apartment. See, and my friends ain't
come over to my apartment. They come for a second
and gone, you know, doing whatever they're doing. So my
friend Howard, who grew up with me, I called him

(46:53):
when I got this job from her outer end. Howard
had Lemon brothers and sisters. You need the poorest, dude,
I know. I mean they had moving blankets on nate bed.
You know the blankets they used for when you moved.
That was on their bed. Yeah, that was their bed.
My grandmother made those with my great great grandmother made those.

(47:14):
They were quilts. Yeah, yeah, just big giant industrial. Yeah,
they had them on their bed. They didn't have nothing, right.
So I grew up with him, you know, and he
always thought it was funny. He always thought it was talented,
you know. And I called him because he were my
best friends to know him since I was eight or whatever.
He moved a lot, he and I called him. I said, man,
I got a job as a rebody and man as

(47:34):
an assistant. Yeah, he told me, and you the stupid
and Nick, I haven't met my motherucking lifetime. You're trying, mom.
He said, you can be in Hollywood right now because
Eddie's Murphy's Delirious came out, you know. He said, Man,
you're getting funk with you. He said, man, you're funny

(47:55):
as hell. Do you know that? Man? You can be
doing this, you can be doing that, and you can
sing and you get this. And I'm like, man, you man,
you ain't got no job. Right called me. He said
he's the worst strip club in DC. He called me
and said I talked to manager and letting me on
stage at the Penthouse. I was like, I ain't going there.
And there he said, man, come on, came out of
my house, took the bus to my house. Okay, I'll

(48:17):
leave out the house with him. Boom, my radiator buses February.
He got on the bus, looking right at me, sat
me back next week. You may be ready this time,
I radiot to fix. He come over. I go to
the club. Right walking to the club, the managers, I
got lucky man. Man, you just standing there right. Man
just said this the dude right here man and how

(48:37):
I said, yeah, that's him. He said, you got five minutes, man,
he said, the worst strip club in d C. Right.
So I turned to Howard. I said, man, Howard, what
do you want me to do? You look at me?
He said, I don't care what you do. Just say something.
I swear because God is my witness. From the first

(48:58):
thing I said, people died laughing, and I never stopped.
How killed in that place. How do you get people's
attention at a strip? You got dudes that they did
all that interested interested in? Is that's right? Right? All
that interesting and it's getting money right at this point
for five minutes that nobody's getting no money. Nobody's getting

(49:19):
no honey. How do you get their attention. I did
you know I did. I just told I just told
him a real story. Do you remember it? Yeah, what
you say? I said my mother? I said, we had
roaches a lot of roaches everywhere in the house. My
mother told us, you know, if you clean up the kitchen,
you wouldn't have no roaches. So she made us stay
home all weekend and clean the kitchen, and sure enough Monday,

(49:44):
we had no roaches. Right. But I found out they
was eating our couch because when me and my sister
wind to watch cartoons, we looked on the hill and
the move they moved from the kid into the couch,
and many they roared in that bitch and everything I

(50:05):
said was the real you see. And it was like
I knew singers and what nobody doing singers? You know.
I found out nobody was doing singers afterwards. But I
knew how to do these because I used to do
when I was little. So my mother will say, stopped
and she said stopped all that, you know, until she
saw outro one time on TV. She said, do that again.

(50:26):
She said, you might have something there, you know, But
I didn't think about it. But I was around when
this song first came out. I so tired of belong
I'm so tired of being wrong. Don't you helped me?
Girls soon as you can. You know I used to
do that when I was a little kid. You know,

(50:48):
umdunes done real well whatever, We're there, girl, you got it,
you know. Deeba deeba. Here the looks off on my face,

(51:13):
sweet on, sweet on the Carolyn lousy is on my face, Sweeter,
I'm sweet. You know that's from Soultree watching it, watching
Berry watching so I had it. It was it was
like like opening the can and it was like all there,
you know, peeboe me. He just turns into a totally

(51:37):
different person. Feel the fire, yeah, you know, to get
the balloon polluting the wounds, Google liding blue, blue, loom, looming, banging,

(52:00):
ain't bound. It's a shame that when you went the
man edge man. It's a shame. Wy you hurt me.
You know it wouldn't that, nobody wouldn't It turned into
a totally different person, man, turn into a very different
person on it. How many times do you play this

(52:20):
strip club before you find your way into a comedy club?
Like shit so much? Yea? And what's the name of
this comedy club Penhouse d C Georgia Avenue, right right
down street from Howard University and it was the worst.

(52:40):
They had the guards outside. He had t shirts swear
the teachers on the back seat don't shoot me. Wow,
you know as a joke, you know, you know it
was right there, right there. And how long do you
play this comedy club before you moved to Where do
you go first? I don't. I don't never play comedy club.
I only went to DC, only played one comedy club

(53:01):
or two and the comedy club I went to, I
met Martin there, I met Dave Chappelle. There no at
a comedy club the first time I went to a
comedy club and DC. Somebody said, you need to go
to comedy club. Well, pen Houses a comedy club club.
I actually like, when when's the next time you went
to a Okay, like four months from from that to
four months comedy club? Yeah, but I was killing in

(53:23):
there and I was killing that concerts. He promoters found
out about me. So you so you go to so
you go to the comedy club time and you meet
Martin Lawrence, he's there, You're on the stage. Yeah, I
got on stage and he loved it. Did you really
know each other really, Yeah, he hadn't know hol Eddie
Murphy Kit. How long did you? How long did you play? Yeah?

(53:46):
He had you know, the Deaders were just right and
then Golden Head? How long? How long did you play there?
Before you catch the break? And what's the break? Who
gave you a break? All black men gave me to
break All black man. It started with Robert Townsend. He
saw me. He put me on Partners in Crime. Yeah,

(54:10):
he saw you. He saw me at the clubs in
l A. I'm trying to he gonna move. So I
started doing so good in d C. I started opening
for concerts Freddy uh Uh, Melbournemore, Evan Champagneking, Patty Bluebell.
So I'm sort of getting known throughout the city. You
see what I'm saying. Also, did Go Go music, So

(54:32):
Little Go Go album it was hot one summer for
the whole summer. Yeah, yeah, exactly, So I had that.
So I'm bubbling, you know. But I never played a
comedy club, so people said you need to play a
comedy club, which I never played before. So I have
a comedy club. It was different, you know than what
I was doing. So the first comedy club. I went in.
Martin was there, Dave Chappelle was there. First time I
met him. I did comedy. I did good. I think,

(54:54):
what's the comedy? Um, I think it's Garvin's. So Dave
Chappelle actually been talking about it on YouTube about the
first night that he met me and Martin you've been
talking about Yeah, at Garmen's right, he gave me a
good compliment. I appreciate that too. That's my man right there.
He be kind of scared of back in the day.

(55:15):
He used to live in my neighbor who he grew up.
Long story, so so so, so I went to the Apollo.
I said, you can, you can win the Apolo. So
I went to Apolo and Apolo was different. It wasn't
like TV and TV the clown come out all the time.
The real Apollo, the clown never came out because everybody
was serious. So I went down to the last person

(55:38):
on that just doing comedy. I'm being singers, I'm making everything.
So they want to sign me, you know, I go,
We're gonna make a record deal with you. To say
to ohing. But I've met a brother named st Clair Jones,
my first manager, a really good friend of mine, and
he told me, hey, man, you can do it all.
He said, you could do movies, TV, you can write
your own ticket. I'll take you to l And I

(56:00):
paid for your ticket for like a week and you
like it, would you let me manage you? I was like,
you know, we went out there s everybody here, came
off everywhere we went in l A. Over. Did you
ever play bird Land? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, I used to.
I used to go. I'm trying to say if if

(56:21):
I haven't, was the turnout, yeah, because I used to go.
At one point I started I would go to bird
Land any weekend that we wasn't on tour and I
didn't have something to do, I would fly to bird
fly to l A. And I would live with my homeboy,
Reggie Johnson was middlewe champ of the world. So I

(56:42):
would live at this house in Lone Beach and we
go to uh to Bland on the weekend. And man,
I'm talking about everybody, Yeah, yeah, de yeah, all of us. Yeah.
It was liked who else, Jamie, Jamie, all these guys,
all these people. Man, you know that was the place

(57:03):
none of us had TV shows, nobody had Yeah, tell me,
so you saw it? You saw it. You saw that.
I remember, Yeah, that was get on the stage for
fifty bucks. You know what I'm saying, I go and
sometimes free if if it was a crowded man, that's right. Yeah,
you're gonna do what you gotta do. Burn Land, I mean,

(57:23):
anybody that missed that, that was an experience. That was
one of the greatest comedy experiences for me because Birdland,
if you with the bird Land, the heckless sometimes was
better than the act on stage. To be ready, the
heckless was cold. Be ready there would l know what
I about Long Beach neither, you know, that's what trought
me about Long Yeah, Oh my god, I got me cavil. Yeah,

(57:46):
so so so you so you you played Long Beach
and you started playing on the club And how does
in Living Color happens? Because that's what we got introduced
to New York or l A New York, I mean
l A because Jennifer Lopez is from New York and
she was a dancer on there, so traveled across the

(58:07):
country too. She used to go to Keenan. Yeah. Yeah,
so they were in a relationship when she got one.
I don't know that, you know, I want to be
on record. It's nice saying that's because that she got
that she that you know what I mean. But I'm
mad I mat her in New York. But they were dating.
At some point he brought her to me, I mean,

(58:29):
my trailers drinking business man of my business. He said,
you know, I'm I'm here, come on, come on, my
trailer man. He brought her up and there I was like, man,
so he brought up. He brought up to offer her
to you know, he brought her this dude with wasn't

(58:50):
offer you know what I'm saying. But I was working
with Hallie, so I was you know, said yeah, yeah,
I was working at Halley. My boy Papa was my boy.
Me and Pappa me puffing and have we up all
night at the clubs New York. So you know, it's
it's it, that's it's a situation. Yeah. Andre Horrell to
produce in the movie. It's I'm right there. You know,

(59:11):
he was running up town and h Andre uh, Andre's
best friend Russell, you know, yeah, Puff was Andre's assistant.
Puff was my person on the movie who takes me everywhere.
Was my sitting and all that. So you know, I'm
feeling good at this point, you know he did it
was your assistant. Yeah, I'm a movie. Start now. Listen,

(59:33):
boys and girls. I don't say like that, man, No, no, no,
I'm not gonna rub it. I'm not gonna do it
like that. I'm just letting people know that there's levels
to this. You know, some of these youngsters and stuff,
they want to come into the game and they want
to start all the way. If they can't get to
if they can't start at the top, they don't even
want it, and so and so. You know, this is
indicative of what could happen, and you humble yourself. I

(59:57):
got humped by him. Yeah, yeah, I humble by him.
Humility is well, humility is something that you know, you
tied that around like a belt around you. Like forgiveness,
you gotta carry it rich Man. It works if you
use it, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, yeah,
it works if you use it. It's like having a gun,
you know, you know, don't take it out nless you
mean it or whatever, because what happens when you take

(01:00:19):
it out? You know. But forgiveness and humility works the
same way. But there's not disaster behind it. You know,
you get to get to live more fulfilling life because
you know you have bullets in your life chamber that
help you grow as a person and understand, so you
don't turn the stone thinking, oh, this person is here

(01:00:43):
and I'm here now and he was here if you're
thinking in levels, and I'm glad you said that, because
it's levels. I knew he was smart from Jump Street.
I knew Puffy was smart from Jump I knew it
from Jump Street because he took me all the clubs,
all the New York clubs, underground clubs, and he was

(01:01:03):
telling me, we we're riding down there. He said, Man,
this this this group ain't even signed, Tom, you gotta
see them. I was like, really, I go down there
leaders in the New School, busting all of them. And
he told me we got some good m season in
the group. Man, and I've gone in there a couple
of times. He said, but I think it's gonna be
bust man. I think Bus gonna be the one that

(01:01:25):
break from that. I mean, I was like, Noah, I
like to see Brown. Dude. Brown got nice with it.
He's like, Nah, busting is different, you know what I mean.
That's why I went by Nick is mad. I get
more boots to Nash trade fu the fed wall to
get him on the fast way ski masks where nigga
rass some no damn him hands damnit nigga boom boom

(01:01:48):
more gun and Rods is rolling in and then busting
my flag your ear leaf. See hey, hi, you know
what I'm saying that he knew that back then. He
was telling me before they was even signed, and the
years that they became stars. And then Buster did the
what the remix of flavoring Year of Craigs with l

(01:02:11):
Boy Scout uh Big who was in the jump. You
know you like sports bro like you know, it was
like I got taught to in in in a in
a continuum, you see what I'm saying, Because I'm like,
you know, you discover how small somebody is over time.

(01:02:33):
He said that, you said, and I bet Buster back
then and we don't go to clubs and all that.
I knew him back again, you know what I mean,
But I hadn't seen you know, I knew that he had.
You know, but when you're see him with a group
or whatever. You know what I'm saying, You're like, Okay,
but puff knew that Pop saw that. You see what
I'm saying, it's not the individual. You know, if you're

(01:02:56):
in a producing role, then that's how you need for that.
Saw how you need for that because you're packaging stuff,
you know what I'm saying. So you're going for you know,
you know your slave, Uh either either you slave purchaser.
You know what I mean? You know, yeah, I can
tell by his shoulders what country is he from? You
goett kid him six? Um, yeah, he's you know what

(01:03:18):
I mean. In order to get him all on one place,
to get the cotton out, you gotta know the you
know what I'm saying. So so that's and he told
me at a high top fade and I had to peek,
you know, he said. And we ride into to say, said, yo,
cut that you should cut that. You know. I was like, Man,
I ain't cut my peak. Man. He said, yeah, but man,
on screen, that's gonna look big man. I was like, Man,

(01:03:40):
I'm from DC. Mannna keep my you know you're from
New York. I'm from DC. Right right at the premier
of the movie when the movie, you know, I got
on the screen. Man, this thing was like it looked
like a shark fin on my booking four. I said
that it's smart. He got an eye what I'm saying.

(01:04:00):
So when you're saying that, you're right, you see. But
I learned that from Mario van Peebles, another legend. I mean,
not Mario Melvin were both both of a legends. But
I'm I'm on the plane coming back to Canada and
I'm on the down, you know, I'm going through whatever,
everything bad, right, and I'm going back to l A. Man.

(01:04:22):
I'm wanting to myself, Man, I had I had kind
of a bad, bad experience with Booty Call, you know,
and I'm going home. This is a joke movie. You're crazy,
Jamie turned that shot out, I said, the experience so
so so I get back. I'm going back from Canada

(01:04:43):
to l a five hour flight and I'm in my
head and I'm you know what I need to do? Max?
You know I mean that I'm down, man, I gotta
go back home with the kid. What was the bad experience?
Before we get too far away? Bad experience just trying
to reach out to stuff that wasn't up for me.
M hum, reaching out to stuff that wasn't helping me
that I thought would help me instead of getting into detail.

(01:05:06):
A lot of stuff out there. You know, the Bible
talk about a yokes, you know, snares, you know, snares
out the forest and the foxing his business and bam,
coax a snare elaborate on. You know, you got to
I'm gonna keep that. Okay, I'm gonna keep it too
to sufferer, you know, get taught what I got taught to.

(01:05:29):
You know what I'm saying, that snare, I never you know,
that snare is like a little thing that's put out
in the forest. The fox is having a good time. Wham,
ain't paying attention, he ain't going nowhere, you know, and
that stuff put out for us. There's a lot of
snares somebody, somebody, somebody's listening to. You know, the whole

(01:05:51):
nine yards ain't anyway. Somebody somebody's listening right now, going like, man,
tell me deep. You know, anytime you say something, man,
you know, very time you say something sorry, any time
you come on back your animal, any time you say

(01:06:12):
something where people can't understand it, they'd be like, man,
that's deep. Man, that's deep. You know. But but yeah,
I get it. Caught up on what's there? I get it,
you know what I mean? And you know I'm in
that the only way to Canada. Yeah, I'm going to
l A. Okay, I'm going from Canada to l A.

(01:06:37):
Coming down, and I'm like coming down, coming coming coming
off a bad off, a good experience, bad you know,
coming down of me, coming off of me. Just trying
to to deal with the situation at the time. So
I'm in. I'm in the plane like it's another day.

(01:06:58):
But so Man was in the playing and he told
me come here. Man. I never met him. Man. I
sat down next to him. He told me everything about me.
He took five hours and talked to me like this, Yeah,
somebody daddy though you would expect that from the daddy head.
But he knew the numbers, he knew my stats, he

(01:07:19):
knew you know. But he told me. The main thing
I can sum it up. He said, you got your
own audience. M hm, you're good. You know, whatever you're thinking,
it ain't real. You got your own audience. You know
what moves them. So if you fashion your game for
your audience, you can take it any direction you want

(01:07:42):
to go. You got very talents, take those talents and
craft them into places where your audiences are, you know,
and you can do that yourself with the help of
your respensation, not not with them doing it for you,
because you're the one who knows your talent, and you're
the one who knows you. And then he told me that,
he said, I did Street Bags, badass song, and I

(01:08:08):
was the first black dude to make a movie before
the black explotation started. He said, that was a serious movie,
you know what I mean. Then they started making Shaft
and all this stuff aboutdrug dealers and all that, But
that was a serious movie, you know. But it started
a movement. Brothers got paid. It was also another dimension
of our neighborhood where we did have that going on
or whatever. You know, you got a reflection of that

(01:08:29):
happening now, right. But he told me, he said, so
I got paid for this thing, man, And all of
a sudden, man I was famous, man, and and and
and I had money. You know. I got a big
old new house. My family could do some things, you
know what I mean. And then somebody asked me on
a TV Digest interview, how did you get to the top,

(01:08:51):
And he told me, he said, y'all, motherfucker's wouldn't let
me in at the bottom. Mm hmm. You said, your
top is your top. Your top is what you make it.
That changed everything. That one conversation changed everything, Man, schooling
right now, that one conversation changed everything. So how did

(01:09:21):
you how do you get that? How did how do
you get to that audition? Um? I had when I
got the l When I got to l A, I
was the number one out of North Carolina, like number
twenty three. You know what I'm saying, like national champ

(01:09:42):
just yeah, yeah, yeah, j B yeah, you know what
I'm saying. Right, So so so I am j So
I had all these deals on the table. Damn. I
had what I wanted. Man, you number okay, so you
number three? Job pick jo number three? Now join with
number three. You've was number one? Uh right right right?

(01:10:03):
But that's that's that's understandable. You know. Is that region
still still Georgia fans still? Yeah? Yeah? Yeah. So So anyway,
I worked my ass off, me and st Clair Jones,
and we found out what it was that made me

(01:10:24):
take I worked my butt off at comedy. I found
my skills. I worked on it seven days a week.
I worked in a little Delhi, you know, I did
what I needed to do. I got finally to the
main room the comedy room, main room. You get you know,
three years, ain't let me in comedy store. Comedy story
and let me in the comedy store. That's key because

(01:10:48):
I finally got called by them. Yeah, on on a
on the weekend. They said, you got that. You're you're
You're in the main room and on this weekend. So
really he said, yeah, you Richard Pryor Eatie. He said, okay.
So I was like, all right, well then do you
want me to see the intros when you want me
to be there? And said, no, you're on the show.

(01:11:08):
It's like, I'm on the show. How long they want
me to do? He said, you're doing a half an hour,
You're doing a half hour, Eddie's doing a half hour,
and Prior is doing a half I said, okay, well
what time I gotta be there, you know, to do
intros for it? He said, no, Eddie comes on first.
Hell no, you come on second for first and second
show Friday night, first Shore Friday Night. Eddie comes on first,

(01:11:31):
you come on second, Prior goes on last. Second show,
Prior goes on first, You come on second, Eddie goes
on last, and the same thing Saturday Night. It was like, seriously,
they were like, yeah. I was like, let's go, let's go.
I was. I was like, are you closed behind Prior
and the first first the first night. Yeah, so she

(01:11:54):
was in the middle of both both nights. Yeah, man,
was coming behind Prior. Let's go. Oh, let's go. You
had to write some new stuff, if you when it's
in me by that time, I'm like, I've lost my
apartment and you know, in d C, I was my cars.
I had to drive a button, take the bus for
the first time, and like since I was like I

(01:12:16):
don't know when, like, hey, I was admitted rice and
and and and pizza on a good day after have
him out, you know what I'm saying, working in the
game whatever. So I'm like, all right, all right, cool,
you know, I'm like, uh, Jordan's net Championship game that

(01:12:41):
that series with Boston when he has six year Okay,
oh man, huh huh right, So it's over everybody there,
Stevie wonder you know, because I'm in there now. I
went from burn Steve. Everybody was there. Man, it's Eddie
and it's Eddie and Prior. So it's a Saturday night

(01:13:04):
at the college when the comics at the comedy store
didn't have TV shows yet. Sign Feil's in the main room.
Rose Hand's in the main room, Jim Adam Sanders in
the main Uh uh, Michael Keaton's in the main room.
What's his name? Life like a box of chocolates. Um

(01:13:27):
Hanks is in the main room. They all stand up
movies in the main room. Wait wait, wait wait, So
Tom Hanks was a stand up comedian before he became
in the main room. So I'm in the main room
from from Whoopy Go very funny on stage as a
stand up. Really, she's a killer, she's the real. Yeah.

(01:13:50):
And the thing about it was, I got to watch
all of them. See I came out there from d C.
And since I pay my dudes in our little rooms,
we run to the main room. Just okay. And the
next day about it, you know, how do you like
how he did that? He was like my, my, my
sense a man. So by the time I got that
main room shot, I was like, all right, let's go,

(01:14:13):
let's go. I gotta standing ovation. Every night we're in
the little closet. We and we in the green room,
ring room, green room, got the bitches and the food
and you know, yeah, yeah, they got prior to he
got that Joan and they the hottest. So we're a
little closet right, never forget this. So I'm sitting there

(01:14:33):
with my boy. You know. We then came out there,
he wrote my Lissa his Nissan Sentra, you know, my
big gass TV. We drove out the l a not
knowing nobody. So here we are a little, a little cubicle.
I'm just sitting there. We're talking, not to disturb, no
camera angles. So I'm sitting there and Prior walks up
to me. He looks me up and down and We're like,

(01:14:58):
you know, and he shook his head. He looked at me,
he said, use a funny motherfucker, man, and just walked away. Yeah.
And me and my boy was like, oh, I called
my mother. I said, Mom, Mom, no proceed. You know,
I'm a funny motherfucking And she was like, I told
you not to leave. I told you not to leave.

(01:15:18):
She wouldn't let me leave. I want to go. I
want to go home because it was just tough, you know.
So from there I got all these big deals with Disney.
I was I had a part on Murphy Brown without
even auditioning. Okay, um um, I had all these opportunities.
I had a pilot with Eddie Murphy's company to do
coming to America as his Little Brother of his TV
series on CBS just came out. People put it on YouTube.

(01:15:42):
You know. It was a tough experience, but none of
it happened. None of it happened, none of it. So
we went back to the clubs, you know. And so
I get a call from my agent. Agent said, Keenan
got a show called it a Living Color was Liken
right now. We're just back in the clubs doing this
And my agent told me, what's your audition? You get it?

(01:16:04):
You get it? You don't, you don't. I was like
a he said, just go. So when Keen is there
with all the people, you know, and they're watching me,
and they asked me to do improv. So I don't
know how to do improv, but I knew all my life.
So they said, man, hey, have a good one. You
know what. I'm like, hey, because I don't not got
auditions before the Different world. It was me Alfonds were

(01:16:25):
berrow and and Kadeem Hardison who got it? You know
what I mean? Kadeem got it? You know, It's like yeah,
Codem from a different character. Right. It came down to
me and cadem I didn't get it. So I figured,
this is another one I didn't get. But I must
keep working, you know, keep working. And and then we

(01:16:46):
got a call from a Living Color. They said there's this.
I'll say. My agent said, how do you do? I said,
I don't think I did too well. Man, He said, well,
don't worry. This is there's a stand up audition at
the laugh Factor tomorrow night. Is it? Really? Said? Yeah?
He told me to line up. It was thirty of

(01:17:07):
the comics that everybody. No, guess who's number thirty? Yeah,
give me the ball. I don't know about no, Tom Brady,
Yes I do. Uh. Jordan's uh chef chef chef uh

(01:17:27):
uh Yankee grets the great You know what I'm saying? Yeah,
Ray Robinson, Okay, now I know about that, right, I'm thinking, Hey,
but I know what I know about this. And I'm
thirtieth and I'm thirty and I'm regardless of I get

(01:17:52):
this show. Somebody getting hurt tonight. What's the whole crowd
still there? Did the crowd stayed at the time? Yeah,
it was everybody, Martin Man, Yeah, is everybody you know,
and you went on and this was not an audition.
This was an audition. I thought I blew the sketch thing.

(01:18:14):
He said, well, there's another audition. They're doing two auditions. Okay,
they're doing two auditions doing sketch. What andy doing it?
So I grow up? And that's by stopping thirties? Are
you kidding me? Me? And and he always used to
train me like a boxer. So I'm on the sidewalk
everybody else inside She's like, let's do it again. Do
it again, man, do it again. Take me through it,
Take me through me. Take me through a john, take

(01:18:35):
me through it. Magame on, take me through it again. Man,
we want sade w boom boom boom boom boom boom
boo boo boom boo boo boo boom. Take me through
it again, man, take me through it again. And every time,
you know, once in a while a friend of mine
to come outside and say, hey, man, you can't do
that thing that you do. Man, because which mccon did it?
You know? Yeah, So I'd be like, all right, man,
all right, you know he's that man. I don't pay

(01:18:55):
no attention. Then, man, come on, man, run the ship.
Running ship time. You know it might come out and
you can't do the thing thing thing because somebody else
did that. Man, all right, man, don't worry about that. Man.
Come on, let's run it time. Man. They said my name. Man,
I don't remember it. I really don't remember the set.
I don't. But all I do is I remember this.

(01:19:18):
I knew what I couldn't do, right, but the comedy
got in the sky. Robin Givings was real hot at
the time, her and Mike Tyson, right, and RoboCop was
like the number one movie, right. So I did this
thing with Robin Gibbons as robo Cop with Tyson and

(01:19:42):
murdered it. It just came to me standing ovation keen
to lead up, leaned up. He came out to do it.
He said, Man, I ain't telling nobody, but it's what
you got it, God damn got it. And they were
all these comics were auditioning for. Yeah, yeah, only the

(01:20:02):
best of the best. Guy on there. Yeah, the uh
it was l It was everybody that goes to Burland,
Jim Jim, Jim Carrey. He wasn't here. I'm talking about
the ones who did not I know who. Jamie wasn't
in but he but he would we know that did
not make it? That was that John Lego Zamos almost good. U.

(01:20:28):
I didn't think Robin Harris. Robin Harris is good. Uh,
you know T Kane and you know what Stay um
k is good. David Allen Grier. No, I'm saying David,
they made the show. I'm saying who who did not?
Trying to see but who did not make the show

(01:20:49):
that we know. I'm gonna see everybody. Lego Zamo, I'm
gonna say everybody. Man did you know? Because I can't
really because I was so I was so in it,
you know what I mean. But I know that it
was when when we started the cast, it was like
twelve people. Then they took a damn from twelve to

(01:21:10):
just us. See, I'm more interested in knowing who those
people were, just you know, for the sake of the
people on the our side. Like no, I know, I
wish I could remember they went through all of that
in spite of these people still perfectly Yeah and look
at them now, I like your angle, Yeah yeah, because

(01:21:30):
it ain't over till us all. But never so the
people that are on there, Jamie wasn't even in town
yet nobody heard of what Jamie foxx Well said entertainer
or even a Bernie mac but never played on in
Living Color later or whatever. No, no, no, no, no,
Jamie was in Hollywood around that time because they was
playing Birdland. Well he wasn't, because we're talking, you're talking

(01:21:58):
it built up from built up from AD seven, so
A seven built up from them comics. Jamie got there
probably about the ninety one ninety one at the at
the most, but he wasn't a party of like the
all pro squads. Yeah, you see by that time, you know,

(01:22:22):
we've been playing, playing, playing playing. But he was good.
He was good. He was real good. I remember Jamimes.
I remember one of his first, very first jokes. He's
talking about his grandmother being afraid of AIDS. Like he
was like talking about his grandmother like being like really
really afraid of anybody with AIDS. And he was talking

(01:22:43):
about the time that he was in the bathroom, uh,
playing with himself and and uh and his his his
his grandmother knocked on the door. Jamie, I hope you're
in and that hope hen that playing what your self?
You know it that's how you get them AIDS. But

(01:23:04):
he just kept going away. It was dudes on a
totally different level even way back. And the crazy thing
about all these cats that were playing that burn Land
you're watching, you was in it. You're watching Magic Man.
You're looking at these guys, and you said, you see
every single one of these guys on in an arena

(01:23:29):
by themselves, Like this guy could play that arena by himself. Yeah. Yeah,
but that's I mean, it's the same with y'all. You know,
we just came in a really good time. Yeah, you know,
we came in a really good time. We came during
we were, we were, we're we're the new Black Renaissance.
Anybody anywhere from eight six to nine and from ninety two,

(01:23:54):
two thousand three or four, that's the renaissance. That that's
the the renaissances. It's a French word for um new beginning,
you know what I mean. And that that renaissance for them,
they called it the renaissance. Because the Black More's were

(01:24:15):
in Ata Louisa. They got thrown out after being there
for seven honey years, bringing them grapes, tomatoes, lemons, animal stalls,
most importantly algebra, algebra. They you know, they also brought
them um um gunpowder stuff to change Europe. But mainly

(01:24:40):
it was the library in Cordoba, which was the library
that had all these Arabic texts from Africa thousands and
thousands of years old. So the French took those Arabic
texts and translated them into French so that all that
knowledge was now available to Europe because they were in

(01:25:01):
the dark ages, you see. So they called that their renaissance,
you see. And then the first then that when the
English finally by the English time, the English, uh turned
that stuff into English. They had a renaissance. They they
started the first university in Europe, Oxford. So there their

(01:25:27):
renaissance ain't nothing, but uh so i'm old for us,
with with with with that. Our renaissance wasn't old something
but old for us. But it was brand new for
us because the seventies from sixty nine, yeah, you know,
it's about seventy nine when Good Times came out. That

(01:25:49):
was a renaissance, and soul renaissance what he took and
renamed our music. It was called soul music. And Smody
coming with R and B. R and B was the
oldest ready and all them, you know, so old man,
that was that the soul is is man drill sholights,
brightest side of darkness, art building drills cameo earth when
you fry uh parliament, Uh sun brass, construction, mass production.

(01:26:16):
That that's soul. Somebody said his R and B took
that soul off of because it was called soul. Because
what so soul? Marvin Gate, what's going on? You get
albums that Gil Scott hearing, You get albums that you
get to grow from. You see that renaissance coming off
another renaissance, but coming out of that seventy nine, what

(01:26:37):
about eighty crack or whatever? You know, gotta be a
new beginning somewhere. You see about eighty six eight six
seventy nine started the hip hop thing, not the whole one,
because it started in seventy seven. In my eyes, because
I was in New York m hm, seventy six. The
first time I heard rap myself and I'm from d C.

(01:26:57):
What's the first song? You heard? The first? Wraps on
her on Wax the first song period I heard him
on cassettes. I don't know. It was some brothers from
around the block. They just was was mixing tapes and rapping.
The first one I heard on wax was spoony mm students,

(01:27:24):
students speeding down the street when they pushed my brakes,
when it seemed to find girl maybe ship or artis
from the south, from the north, from the east to
the west. Come on, did you got to go out?
And yes, yes, y'all, that's the first I heard or
or um um do lu doo do do do lu
doo do do do lu doo do do do. That's

(01:27:45):
the joint. I was HEARDing it from uptown and I
was before a sugar Hill gang. The stuff I heard
on wax was the funky for treacherous melle melingmousah turcher
four plus one more plus one more rock hit the top,
don't hit the top and k K and out here

(01:28:06):
you ain't c k K. We're gonna we've been breaking
to the break to day. We're gonna go all the
way k K checking out, y'all. You don't you know
I was hearing that. See that was that was me
in d C. They dined years before the is before
the butt. Yeah. You mentioned Richard and and Eddie at

(01:28:28):
the comedy store. Right, and these are two guys to
comment giants that are on my mount us more right,
who's on your mount Rushmore for comedy them too? Um, Dave,

(01:28:50):
it's pretty funny, yeah, Dave said, he that's what you said, Rushmore. Yeah,
I says, right, Well, my my Brushmore would consist of
people that ain't my contemporary. You see. So I would
I would put, I would put, I would put, I
would put prior numero Oh no, I put, I put Uh.

(01:29:16):
Eddie he died for a second with Red Red Fox
was it was from a whole another Rid was doing
comedy fifty six years. Yeah, the albums and all that. Man, Yeah,
these albums he clips prior you know, prior albums came
out of the seventies. Man, Red was back in the fifties. Man,

(01:29:38):
we're gonna train. Have you ever worked with Eddie Murphy
in the movie in movies? Nope, let's run off this
this Nope, And I wonder about that. It's round. I'm
gum coop. So we got Eddie, we got Richard, we
got we got Red Fox. I put Red Um, I

(01:30:04):
put Dick just on the strength of what he brought
the comedy. Okay, what he brought the comedy he brought,
he brought, he brought consciousness. How are we gonna do
without that, you see, Um, I'll put Robbing on that beach. Harris. Yeah,

(01:30:27):
so you got five reconstructing Mount Rushmore, just on the
strength that you know, he's off the head, he's he's
he's a kid like you like he like um, like
Reddy moss Man, like you know, you can't do nothing
with him. You understand. The game is so good. You
can tell him that he run his own bass patterns

(01:30:50):
like you know, he just got that easily, got that thing.
You can't really you can't. You can't teach that. You know.
That's my Rushmore. I got several. But you know there's
a white Rushmore too, Robin Williams. Uh, George Carlin, a
guy named um uh no, no, he crushed water Millen.

(01:31:13):
I'm talking. I'm talking about uh Charlie Fleischer. The voice said,
Roger Rabbit. Yeah, stand up, I understand, stand up. You know,
I understand the craft. You know, I understand the craft
of standout is good. Yeah, it's it's what he can
bring to were only on an hour, half an hour?

(01:31:33):
What you can bring to an hour? Where can you
bring to the table George brought you know? Yeah, he
had that that that knowledge what's that boy, they said,
He said, uh, he said, they check your pist. He said,
seven eleven, opened twenty four hours a day, has a

(01:31:53):
lock on the door. Having eleven is open twenty hours
a day and it has a lock on the door. Yeah, right, right, right,
right right? Is that that's sublime? But since I'm a
student of the whole thing, so I got several rush
rush mors. You know, I'm like, I'm like Bruce Lee,

(01:32:15):
you know, don't turn into Bruce Lee on the show
Man Easy, cowboys, don't don't. Earlier, I said, I don't
want to affect any camera angle. Yeah, you know what
cameras six cameras. Yeah, okay, okay, okay, y'all can cover me. Okay,
y'all can cover me. Y'all got y'all gouts covered. No.

(01:32:37):
But but but the genius thing about him was, you know,
is that he studied each form of it. He studied
each form of it, He studied each form of martial arts.
Boxing is boxing is a martial art. Boxing is an art,
you know, it's art with gloves in a ring and

(01:32:58):
rules and a ref and this technique. But judo akido
is about weight moving weight around. Karate uh, kimpo, and
all of those are like empty hand. They're called empty hand.
That's being able to defend yourself with nothing in your hand,
no weapon, you see what I'm saying. And then you've
got the other more extravagant forms like kung fu. Kung

(01:33:20):
foo is called time. Come fuo is called time. That's
the name of it. So they watched animals and nature
so long that they were able to take all the
traits that they saw and put him into a defensive form.
He took all those put them all in one form.
He took the best of all of them and put

(01:33:41):
it into one. So I was wondering, can I do
that with comedy, you know? And so that's what I've done.
If you see my show, you don't know if you
don't know if this is the beginning or the end.
You don't know if I'm making this up or it's real,
because it is, it's all one. What is speaking of?

(01:34:01):
What's what's imaginary and real? What? What? What do you
believe is the greatest misconception about Tommy Davison? M hmm,
I don't know. Um, I guess I would say that
people don't know how really skilled I am as a

(01:34:21):
comic as as a stand up comedian. They don't really
really realize how skilled I am. I think that's the
average person though. But people that no comed understand skill. No,
I don't think that. People in the business, no that.
I don't think that other comics know that. You know,

(01:34:42):
because there's different brand's, different brands different But I disagree.
But okay, dirt dirt dude, you can do your joint
from me on that. Do do do? Do? What is
a lot of little fluke? What the hill is at? What?

(01:35:06):
I never knew? I knew that was slick, though I
knew that. I knew that was slick. Though I knew
it was slick, I knew it was slick. Tell me, man,
how do you I heard it before? Now, not heard
that exact riff, But you hear the songs, you know

(01:35:27):
the bas break something. You know you heard it, but
y'all took some over the only reason why I can
identify what the ship that you're doing is because I'm
a musician. So I hear this ship, but don't don't.
Did you do that in class like a school? Did
you do that in the in the first grade? Did
you get sent to the principal's office. For I could

(01:35:47):
see it when Howard said that to me, I'm telling you,
I got lucky. Did you do it like after you
finish your work, because you're a smart guy, you know,
so you did it after you got your work done.
And then you were trying to say he didn't say anything.
You see that, you see this, you see I know
for I did it. Yeah, we wanted the same what
I'm saying. What I'm saying because you're a comic, I'm

(01:36:08):
a musician. But that's a whole another, that's the whole,
another gig. And Willie is a fighter. I know that.
I'm a comic, musician and a fighter. He's not funny,
he's not funny, but you're funny. I'm not funny, Willie,
And you're not funny. But you don't understand you're funny.
I'm not funny. I'm not funny. Funny. That's not funny. No,

(01:36:31):
but he's not saying that. He's in that Robert the Neork.
I'm funny, funny, funny Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, the whole another, Yeah,
you're on the whole another thing here. Yeah, man, we
appreciate you coming out for having man, you know, I've
been always wanted to see that and talk to y'all.
Why because I saw what y'all did. Do you know that?

(01:36:53):
I mean, Willie have we have never been able to
get along like this is the most you know how
when you get you know, y'all got on from one recording,
but you know how when they recorded y'all in a
different place. But look, man, it's it's it's you know
how things can be water. You can have water under
the bridge. Did he do it? Sision last though I
don't remember. You can have water under the bridge, and

(01:37:16):
then you have people like him that will fucking try
to come with a jackhammer and destroy the bridge. You know, No,
look at this water. It was right here. Look we
still got problems. What we're gonna do about this water?
Right right? This? Dude? Man, I mean, I tell you,
But that's why I don't even say ship bro Hey,
let us pray. I've been waiting for this. Let us

(01:37:36):
because I saw it happen. You saw me and Willie
Dee happening. I saw y'all group happened. I saw your
song happening. But I ain't see y'all coming really, But
when I heard the song, I had never heard nothing
like that. Nobody has. Everybody got a song. Everybody has
a song that defines them. That's not your only song.
Y'all got songs that are nice. Y'all got catalogs and stuff.

(01:37:59):
But the one that his names with everybody, he's the
one is that one after it comes. He never heard
Willie's first song. When I left my neighborhood to make
this big break, I promised my road dogs that I
dedicate a super jam to the hood that is sharp
as a sickle. So here it is fifth Ward, better

(01:38:19):
known as than Nickel. Everybody know my neighborhood. They say
it's no good, but they don't talk that ship my
Nickel the woods. And then he was like naming some
names and ship Thomas, who is it? Jordan's Your ladies
and gentlemen. Uh, that's a rap. Thank you for joining us.

(01:38:41):
Uh absolutely, Tommy Davis, it's got so much man. You
know your library. The club I was telling you about,
get me get one more second. The club we were
talking about is the club he was mad him at
that club of that comedy club that was here, just joking, Hey,

(01:39:05):
do you think that's where we met? You want you
want to do a man any time, get on the mic.
I don't want to get on the mic where we
were still we're not, we're not. We haven't closed the
show out yet. Man, you got a closer shot. Say
something in the show, say something, Man. Okay, bye. This

(01:39:28):
episode was produced by a King and brought to you
by The Black Effect Podcast Network and our Heart Radio