Club Shay Shay - Damon Wayans Part 1

In the latest episode of Club Shay Shay, Shannon Sharpe sits down with the legendary Damon Wayans, a true comedic icon and Hollywood heavyweight. Damon opens up about his extraordinary upbringing in a large, tight-knit family, revealing the tough love, financial struggles, and sibling dynamics that shaped his path to stardom. From his rebellious school days to his first foray into stand-up comedy, Damon shares raw and hilarious stories about his life before fame, including his experiences with family discipline, navigating school with a clubfoot, and his early run-ins with comedy as therapy.

Damon dives deep into his career, reflecting on his time with In Living Color, the birth of his iconic character “Homie the Clown,” and his battles with the entertainment industry, including his brief stint on SNL and the challenges of working on toxic sets. He also shares a hilarious encounter with boxing legend Mike Tyson, who once tried to beat him and his brother Keenen up for making fun of him during a comedy bit.

He also opens up about the complexities of fame, family, and money, offering his thoughts on relationships with friends, financial success, and the struggles of cancel culture. Damon shares his admiration for Eddie Murphy, recalling how Murphy's trailblazing comedy career inspired him, while also addressing the complex relationship between Black comedians and their freedom to express themselves on stage, including the controversial topic of cross-dressing.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
What happens is the more money you make, the less
black people. You see. So I love about like Lebron
he got.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Mad and he got randy and he got rich. Yeah,
he kept that group yes around it.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Yeah, and it's divide and conquered. You know, at a
certain point they sit you down.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
You know.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Beyonce's father, all right, we got her from here. Venus
is Sorena. We got him all my life, grinding all
my life, sacrifice, hustle, bat Price, one slice, got the
brothers all my life.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
I been grinding all my life, all my life, grinding
all my life, sacrifice, hustle, bat Price, one slice, got
the brother gst all my life.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
I've been grinding all my life.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Hello, Welcome to another episode of Club Sha Shay. I
am your host, Shannon Sharp. I'm also the propriud of
Club Show shak And today we're at Spotlight La stopping
by for conversation. Today. He's Royalty, a true legend, a
living icon, a comedic genius. He's been making us last
for over forty years. A pioneer, an innovator, trailblazer in
the film and television industry. He's appeared in two films

(01:06):
that have been selected for the National rec Film Registry
by the Library of Congress. He's ranked as one of
the greatest TV dads of all time. A New York
Times bestselling author, a fearless artist, gifted writer, veteran actor, expert,
executive producer, seasoned stand up comedian, and a great storyteller.
He's mastered the art of creating characters. A member of
the royal family talented Williams family dynasty that entertained the

(01:30):
entertainment empire. They were just inducted until the NAACP Image
Awards Hall of Fame. Marlin calls him the funniest Wayians.
His influence has spanned generations. He changed the industry, kicked
down doors and built a blueprint that's sustainable. A creative visionary,
a versatile entertainer, powerhouse performer, Hollywood heavyweight, a game changer,

(01:51):
the love father. Sometimes he goes by Papa A Papa Damin.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
Williams nco hell of a resume.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah, it is. When I don't know how many times
you had an opportunity to sit and listen to people
explain what you've been able to do in this industry.
When you hear people talking about you've been at this
for forty plus years. What do you think?

Speaker 1 (02:16):
I think it's wonderful that you know I had some longevity,
and you know, I always think about what's next, because
if you sit back and think about what you've done,
like I can go on social media and I don't
have to leave a house. Everybody loved me, hold me
to clowns for life. But it's like that that doesn't
like satisfy me. So I'm driven and my whole family

(02:39):
is driven, you know, hopefully for greatness. And you know
it's an honor that people like what I did.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
You know what, I know you don't drink it anymore.
But bro, we got to toast you. We celebrate people
here on this platform.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Well, I don't like toast toast to clink the glass,
but I will salute, thank you, salute.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
Man. How you doing?

Speaker 1 (03:01):
I'm good sixty five in loving life.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Sixty five and loving life. When you were ten, did
you project out here? It's like, you know what I'm
gonna do this X, Y and Z because I'm interested
because I had Marlin on and Marlin always had an idea.
He's like, man, this is kind of what I want
to do. Did you always know you wanted to be
in this.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
No. I had teachers tell me you're gonna be either
dead or in jail, So that's the guidance. Counselor tell
me that, you know. So like for me, it was
just like I at a young age started looking to
Keenan because Keenan just did everything right. He was just
like my role model. And I knew if I could

(03:41):
do what he's doing, I'll be all right.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
Right.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
You know, my mother used to tell me, you need
to be more like Keenan. I get bad grades, I
was getting rested, I was doing all the wrong things right.
And then in eighty two I got caught stealing credit
cards and they released me into Keenan's custody. So I
came out to California.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
Damn. So you have a mom and dad, but they
released you to the older brother.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
I didn't want to go to my dad. I'd rather
stay in jail till my dad. My dad would beat
you like he didn't know you, right. I love him,
and we needed it. I needed it. But you know,
back then now they call it child to be yes, yeah,

(04:27):
back then, it was just you know, I'm teaching this
a lesson.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
You have ten brothers and sisters. Nine nine brothers and
sisters under one roof. Bro And I read that you
get your father made like twelve thousand dollars a year
sometimes sometimes okay to feed that many kids. Put a
roof over your head to make sure everything's okay. Did
you realize, like, damn, I wonder if everybody else living

(04:55):
like we living or we just exception they.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
Were living like we were living. I mean, you know,
there's probably less people. But you know, I had a
friend robbed ned and they went so poor. The oven
door was off. Yeah, I swear the oven door would
be off, and when they cooked dinner, one of them
would have to put their feet up, one there until
it got too hot, and then the other one would

(05:19):
come in until the meat was done. So you know,
I was aware that everybody was going through it. We
love the project. There wasn't no rich people in the projects.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
How many bedrooms did the home have?

Speaker 1 (05:31):
Four? My mother got one and then there was three
of us to a room.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yo, So it was a lot of feating. People face hard.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
But my brother's tortured me. My oldest brother, Dwayne used
to hang me on the door on the hook where
your coat is, that's how he babysit me right, and
I had to like put my foot on the doorknob
so I didn't choke it that so and then every
once in a while he come check on me and
punch me on my chest.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
You know what. Damn you guys are like your mom
and them had a stretch there where for like an
eight year pero. They were, they were, they were ten
year period. They were good. They had like eight fifty six,
fifty eight, sixty sixty one, sixty three, sixty four, sixty five,
sixty six. I was like, so were you all close?
Did you? I mean, did you have sibling ribs you
fought like normal kids do or were you always like

(06:21):
because it seemed like Keenan was always the overseer. He
was the peacemaker and what everybody looked to for guidance,
even though he wasn't there.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
Well, my oldest brother was crazy. Used to hang me
under the like no, no, listen, he was. He got
diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic. Oh okay, So where we come from,
everybody crazy, everybody there's a crazy you know every yeah,
go Ronald Walker if everybody know he crazy off. But
we didn't know what there was medication for it. It
was just he was off and my brother was that guy.

(06:48):
But he was so crazy that he kept people from
messing with our family. Oh okay, because nobody wanted Dwayne.
Dwayne told a guy one down, he said, he said,
We're gonna fight every day until I beat you. White
boy living in thes like Bully Bobby Boyd and every
day Dwayne would just walk up and punch this dude

(07:11):
in his face. He get beat up every day, but
he was relentless. He'd be riding on his bike, he
see Bobby and they scrapped it to the point where
Bobby had him with his He was sitting on his
chest and punching him in the face, going all right,
you won, you won. He didn't want no parts of

(07:31):
him because he had to. Like he'd be outside with
his back against the wall because he didn't know where
this was coming from. But that told everybody else, don't
mess with my family.

Speaker 2 (07:41):
Right. What's one of your proudest childhood memories that you
can like share.

Speaker 1 (07:48):
Keenan getting his first gig on you know, he did
the Tonight Show first and then he did a pilot
with Irene Kara, who was like this, she was beautiful.
She passed, but.

Speaker 2 (08:01):
She's lash dance right yeah yeah, uh fame.

Speaker 1 (08:04):
Fame, yeah she was Uh, and we just thought, man,
this is great. He dreamed it and then he did it,
And that was like one of my favorite childhood moments
because I didn't even think about it. I wasn't even
thinking about doing stand up back then.

Speaker 2 (08:19):
You know what, I think you and I are similar
this way because my brother I felt whatever I saw,
I feel I can do. So if if I saw
him do it, I could do it. If I saw
him go someplace, I felt I could do it. So
that's seemingly how you looked at Ken. You're like, what
damn he doing all that? He out in California? He
doing this, He could do it. He lived in the

(08:40):
project just like I did. He ate what we wait.
He got asked to it from dad, just like I
got mine.

Speaker 1 (08:45):
So if he didn't get as many, he didn't.

Speaker 2 (08:47):
Really he was a good kid.

Speaker 1 (08:49):
The good kid got straight a's. And yeah he keenan
the one thing he did that we got him for.
It's like, uh, he got in trouble with school and
then this the teacher called home and Keene said, I
get it. He ran and got the phone. He's like yeah,
and then he hung up and my mother came. My
mother's like, who the hell was that, because we're not
supposed to answer her phone, and Keene was like, it

(09:12):
was Sammy Williams and they knew he was lying. He
got Sammy Williams called and then he called back. They called,
They called the number back and he's like, I get it,
and it was the teacher. My mother said, no, I'll
get it. And that was the only time Keenny really
got his ass beat by my father.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (09:29):
And then the jokes went on forever. Sammy Williams. Any
time the phone ring, Ken, go get Sammy.

Speaker 2 (09:38):
But I read that when you guys would fight, your
mom would make you guys kiss.

Speaker 1 (09:43):
In the mouth. Huh. I learned how to tongue kids
with Marlin. No. But like once you kiss your brother
and you don't want to do that, you want to fight. Yeah,
we'll take this. We go outside, we'll find a place
to finish this. But like we didn't like kissing each other,

(10:05):
but to finish the kissing thing, like to this day,
we all kiss. I noticed that hello and goodbye. I
noticed that because you never know what's gonna happen when
they walk out the door, even if I get into
an argument and we're yelling and screaming, all right, nigga sa.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
And I wondered, you know what, because I saw I
noticed it when you guys we won't live in color
and I noticed that. I was like, well, you know,
they can't do this all the time.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
Yeah, all the time.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
And I saw you guys when you are at the
NAA the Image Awards. Have you guys always been that close? Yes?

Speaker 1 (10:39):
Yeah, we are best friends. Like the funny thing about
being a wayans is we don't you know that Kim
is very social. She has a lot of friends. Malind
has a friend.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
Yeah, I would never be guest that.

Speaker 1 (10:50):
But Kim has like old school friends. She's not out
and about her friends are from she grew up Westland
and from the project, you know, and so she has
still a lot of those friends. Marlin still has, you know,
Omar and Mitchell, you know all his like childhood friends.
And my friends are my brothers and their friends. You know,

(11:12):
I'm cool with Omar. I'm cool because as long as
they love them, they vet them from me.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
You cool with him, I'm cool with you. Yeah, But
so were you guys. But because you it's a lot
of you brothers. So you guys kind of ran the neighborhood. Hunh.

Speaker 1 (11:27):
They didn't run the neighborhood because we were lived in
and we moved into the projects and it was predominantly white,
and then it slowly got blacker and blacker and more dangerous,
you know. But we were respected and because of Dwayne,
we were kind of protected. Nobody wanted to fight this
for every day, even if bullied in your brain, I'm

(11:51):
tired of it and then you know so. But my
mother would always tell us, listen, if you get into
a fight, it's ten against one. Wow. So y'all should
never lose a fight. And my mother make you go
back wow and fight. So it wasn't no losing, no losing.
And my mother would fight for her kids. Damn. Yeah.

(12:12):
This woman slapped kim once in the laundry. My mother
went downstairs, hair all over her head, and the lady
she was pregnant.

Speaker 2 (12:19):
She pregnant. Your mama was pregnant. The lady was pregnant.

Speaker 1 (12:22):
My mother, Oh, my mother was always.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
Pregnant, said she had a tear your spreads, she was
he was the wrong.

Speaker 1 (12:29):
Dan every childhood memory of her. She got a baby
here and a bump here. Then my mother chased this
woman from the laundry mat to her house, and then
one's gonna fight her husband, damn for her kids. So nobody,
you know, she would send a message, you don't mess
with my kids, right, they don't want that crazy pregnant woman.

Speaker 2 (12:48):
Tell me about this game that you guys used to play.
Make me laugh?

Speaker 1 (12:52):
O god, Yeah, that was a great game because that
that was like commando comedy. So what happens is we'd
be sitting because we had to be upstairs at six
o'clock unless you had a full time job that demanded
you to be out later six o'clock, not six oh one.
Six o'clock, my dad's gone. You know he's gonna put

(13:13):
hands on you. So what we would do is we
would all sit around in the living room and then
one would get up and have to make everybody laugh
in unison. It couldn't be one like nothing. You have
to make everybody laugh, and if you didn't, then you
had to die, and to die would be something like

(13:33):
go grab daddy's beer and drink it in front of him.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
Oh nod.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
And we couldn't wait for you to not to be funny,
so we had incentive not we just sit there just
even if it was funny, you weren't laughing farted out,
you wouldn't know.

Speaker 2 (13:56):
So did anybody actually drink his beer? Oh?

Speaker 1 (13:58):
Yeah, you had to do to die or we beat
you up. Yeah there was die or you know. Sometimes
it was just like nah, I ain't doing that. And
then you got to take punches from Duayne, the one
that used to hang my brother hit you and make
this sound. It made it hurt even more. You didn't

(14:20):
want that.

Speaker 2 (14:21):
And then I read that you guys have to pass
gas in front of your mom. Yeah, come on, damon.

Speaker 1 (14:27):
That's the whatever, whatever we chose you had to do's
go sit on.

Speaker 2 (14:37):
I don't want to I don't want to play no more.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
But it made us funny. It helped make us funny,
you know what I mean. It's like this this like
you can kind of trace why one we were like
we are still best friends, and two why we're funny
because we made each other laugh and we weren't easy laughers,
you know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (14:58):
Where did that? Were? Was your dad funny? Was your
mom funny? Where do you think that.

Speaker 1 (15:02):
Came from my mother. My mother was hands down the
funniest woman. That's one of my only regrets in life
that I never got my mom on stage. I wanted
to have her go on stage.

Speaker 2 (15:13):
Really.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
And there's this little room in Burbank called the U
who runs like thirty people. Have all of us in there,
give my mom a mike and then tell her talk
about Marlon. My mother got not only stories, but she
got punchlines. You know where all the bodies.

Speaker 2 (15:32):
Wow, do you think had had she not had a family,
all these kids because she had to raise a family,
do you think that'd be something that she would have
been interested in.

Speaker 1 (15:43):
My mother used to sing at the at the was
in Harlem, the Apollo, you know the Green Sisters. All
of the sister they beautiful. They won contest, they won
you know, prizes and stuff like that. So her dream
was to be a singer. And then you know, kid
after kid after kid were puttle.

Speaker 2 (16:12):
So when you got it's twelve people in a home,
your mom, dad and the siblings, were you guys eating?

Speaker 1 (16:19):
My mother was a miracle worker. She'd feed all of
us with ten dollars a day, ten three meals. We
get a bag of knuckles, pig knuckles. We get a
box of rice. We get they used to make this
cereal colt like puff of weeks. Yeah, but this had
no sugar on This was just like a big bag styrofoam.

(16:42):
We used to get that. We eat that well. You know,
if we had sugar, we'd put sugar on it, but
that was it. We didn't. There was nothing special, you
know what I mean about our meals.

Speaker 2 (16:53):
Did you ever complain like, man, I don't want to
eat this.

Speaker 1 (16:56):
No, because my father didn't play about food time. I
hated peas and I hated line of beans, and whenever
I get it, we would try to like spin him
out and my father would make you eat it up
the trash. What I did one time we were being there,

(17:18):
and what we would do is like sit around table
and we're eating this when we'd fill up our cheeks
and then we get up and excuse ourselves and go
to the bathroom and we would try to make you
choke on them beans. Yeah, my father didn't play with food.

Speaker 2 (17:34):
It seemed like your father was very very disciplined, very strict.
Do you think he was like that way because he
had boys and he knew what was going on because
this is the sixties and the way it was back
then is a lot different than it is now. But
some things changing, some things remain the same. You think
he was well, you guys, because he knew what was
gonna face. You guys were gonna face.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
Yeah, but it was that and he didn't really have
a dad, so he didn't really know, Okay, and then
he read in the Bible that you should spare the
rods child, but the rod of discipline ain't always your hand.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
Yeah, you have a conversation. Yeah, he got the bold.
Guys wouldn't like that.

Speaker 1 (18:14):
And then you know, I think we got extra spankings
because he would go to work and come home and
be unhappy and you know, and it's just it was
just a lot. So I guess at a certain point
we were you know, it's a little punching bag.

Speaker 2 (18:27):
And plus it's always noisy in the house.

Speaker 1 (18:29):
Yeah, but my mother hit him at the door, so
we had to do you got in trouble. You have
to sit in front of the door when my dad
come in.

Speaker 2 (18:39):
Up. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:40):
Yeah, I was so scared of my father. When I
heard his keys jingle, I pee on myself. I ain't lying,
that's because he I knew he and my dad would
beat you with stuff like the slat from under the bed,
just like did he say, yeah, take my belt?

Speaker 2 (18:59):
Did he ever say he did he you take your
belt off?

Speaker 1 (19:05):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (19:06):
Keeping from finding something else?

Speaker 1 (19:07):
Yeah, whatever you get, you know, the thing from the
iron court?

Speaker 2 (19:12):
Yeah yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:14):
So you know I love him today because I knew
he was protecting. He taught us lessons and you know,
you got ten kids, so you know you're gonna be
the example. I'm gonna beat you, so he don't do
what you did.

Speaker 2 (19:28):
Did he ever have a conversation with you guys? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (19:32):
You know, you don't understand it till you have your
own kids, you know what I mean. Like I have
my sons, and then I go, oh wow, because my
son we grew up. They was up in Beverly Hills
and they would hang out in the hood, got jumped
into gangs. I got a crip in the blood living
in my house. I didn't even know. I didn't know.

(19:54):
But that's like you you have to watch your kids,
you know what I mean. It's like you just have
to just know that boys are different and they need
they need you to Hey, you know.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
But whether the situation given how you was raised. Your
dad was very strict, very hands on. Literally. Did it
make you take a step back and not be that
way towards your own kids?

Speaker 1 (20:23):
I chose the comedic route with my kids. I was like,
my son, if he messed up in school, He's like, oh,
you're a clown. So if you're gonna be a clown,
you're gonna look like one. And I shave all of
this out of his head and you just have the side.
Now you go to school and you'd be a funny clown.

Speaker 2 (20:41):
So you have you have little young homie, little homie,
that's right.

Speaker 1 (20:46):
They you know, I would make up because they went
to a private school Crossroads where they could dress how
they want. You know, you're gonna put on a suit.
You're gonna be a well dressed clown. That's how you
want to be. And they go to school and they
would have, you know, they didn't get slicked and have
you know some clothes in the locker. I show up
at school, put you soon on, clown. I know the game.

(21:11):
Why you ain't dressed up clown.

Speaker 2 (21:13):
As a child? What would you say? Your favorite meal was.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
Beans franks Soudkraft mustard, rolls and yeah beans, shranks, crowd
soud Craft, mustard.

Speaker 2 (21:23):
Rolls, sauber Craft.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
When you pour south Crubb, it's just something different. It's good.

Speaker 2 (21:33):
So you eatn beanie weened.

Speaker 1 (21:34):
Yeah you have porking beans with sugar on it. Oh
my god.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
Yeah, I mean your dad worked three jobs.

Speaker 1 (21:41):
He still wasn't making enough, but he dogged.

Speaker 2 (21:44):
He dog tired when he get home day before, he
had time to whip ants.

Speaker 1 (21:48):
Oh he found the way he worked over then, Yeah,
some sauce he had it, look up for drinks.

Speaker 2 (21:56):
Hello, you got in trouble for stealing from your dad.

Speaker 1 (22:00):
I stole fifteen cent from my father and he missed it.
I'm like, I don't ever watch.

Speaker 2 (22:05):
Y'all that poor he missed fifteen cent.

Speaker 1 (22:07):
Fifteen cent, came downstairs, followed me down the stairs and
like like a like a school bully, threw min against
the wall, win.

Speaker 3 (22:14):
My money, and I'm like, I know I didn't take
no dollars, so I'm just like what And I had
it separated in my pocket right right because I didn't,
you know, he had to change and my father searched me.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
Ain't pat you down. He stopping frisk.

Speaker 1 (22:31):
Took my that's my that's my nickel, nineteen sixty four,
that's my nickel. And he beat me right there on
the stairs like like like a dude off the street.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
Damn.

Speaker 1 (22:44):
And like I said, I don't ever want to be
that poor. That I missed fifteen cents, But that's with
me today. That that's part of my motivation.

Speaker 2 (22:54):
Damn. Did your siblings see it? Did when y'all got whippings?
Did they make fun of y'all.

Speaker 1 (23:00):
All the time? We market you as soon as you got.

Speaker 2 (23:02):
Yes, that make it worse that it was worse. But
how important do you think having your dead in your household?
Given what you know now, how important do you think
that is to have a black man in the household.

Speaker 1 (23:25):
The greatest gift my father ever gave us was coming home. Damn.
That's deep because my mother didn't make it easy. He
was a dumb mfr and all kinds of stuff, but
he didn't he did.

Speaker 2 (23:39):
You know.

Speaker 1 (23:39):
She wanted stuff in life, like new underwear, like stuff
she couldn't get little stuff, make up and get a hair,
that couldn't do it. But he came home humble. You know.
Sometimes he had to tell O that they ain't no
food what, mister provider, You ain't got no food and
you're trying to tell me what to do. Yeah. So,

(24:04):
but but that was the gift. That's like, you know,
you come home, it doesn't feel good.

Speaker 2 (24:09):
But so he's working three jobs. He has to provide
for this family and when he gets home, your mother,
your mom doesn't make it easy. And I think Marlon
said he could have. He could have easily understood it.
Pop would have checked out because it wasn't easy.

Speaker 1 (24:23):
We used to say what hit her or something. My
father he would never he never would like cuss at her.
Really yeah. My father too. When she died, he was
he was ready to go. I miss her. I missed
my gal. What the when it used to cut you.

Speaker 2 (24:48):
Cursey you?

Speaker 1 (24:49):
I miss my gal. He was just ready to go
check please. But that's like he taught us love, like
unconditional love. You know, he always saw her as the
sixteen year old he fell in love with. Ooh, you
know that's beautiful.

Speaker 2 (25:05):
You mentioned your mom had sisters and they would sing
occasionally at the Apollo. Did your mom sing around the house?

Speaker 1 (25:11):
Oh yeah, yeah. Music was like, you know, that's one
thing we always had in the house. And to this day.
I listened to music all the time because those are
some of the happiest times in our life. You know,
when when al Green was on, you know there was
gonna be peace in the house. I remember I took
my mother and father to see Motime Review on Broadway

(25:34):
and we're watching the play and my mother and father
sitting together, and my father.

Speaker 2 (25:40):
He just.

Speaker 1 (25:43):
Mother, nigga shut up. He just started sobbing.

Speaker 2 (25:48):
The subject to my life.

Speaker 1 (25:51):
And I was like, wow, it's powerful. What music. I
guess all the memories of you know, what they went through.
It was just it's beautiful. But you know, there's always
music in the house.

Speaker 2 (26:04):
What are some of the best things your mom and
dad taught you and what would you want their legacy
to be.

Speaker 1 (26:12):
My dad taught us stick touitiveness and that you have
to whatever you do, whatever you have to do to
feed your family, you know, and you do what you
can do until you can do what you want to do.
Because my dad always had dreams of like being something.
My dad listen, he was. He was Amazon before Amazon,

(26:37):
sweating my dad. So we lived in the projects. There
was three buildings with twenty there was twenty five stories tall,
ten families on each floor. So my dad would go
to warehouses and get like afro picks and then he
would put them on We put them on cardboards and
he'd send us door to door. That's seven hundred and

(26:59):
fifty families. Somebody need an afro pick and we go
door to door and we have a pitch. You know.
Sometimes we get them beads that Serena wims and them
used to wear. Yes, and who is it? You want
to buy some beads? Nigga? What beads? I ain't got
no beats. We just hold them up, beads. You want

(27:21):
some beats, Get out of there with them bead But
you know, you meet people who appreciate it. You get
to know everybody in the neighborhood. Some people just give
you money just because yeah, and then some people would
throw the beads.

Speaker 2 (27:33):
Get your ass out of the side. I ain't got
no just.

Speaker 1 (27:35):
Take your bead and close the door. You see them,
I side them. You got my beads on his head.

Speaker 2 (27:45):
You were your family was raised at your hole witness
and there are a lot of the Jackson's, Uh Prince Biggie,
Terrence hil John run Naomi Campbell. What is explain to
me because I don't really hold All I know is
that we close the door in a lot of them
face yes, because when they come right of one of
them think, yeah, So what do you think your mom
and dad were drawn to about this religion?

Speaker 1 (28:07):
Well, my dad was drawn to it. Mother was not.
My dad just knew it was the truth, you know.
And so the kingdom we pray for our father, who
are in heaven. Hallowed be your name. What's the name.
It's not God, it's Jehovah. Let your kingdom come. What
is that kingdom? Who's the king Jesus? Let your will

(28:30):
be done? What's the will? As it is in heaven
on earth? That's the will. It's that we live in
unity and be God. So Man has plans, God has
a purpose. So you know we I believe that. And
you look at all you got to do is read
the news and then read two Timothy three one through five,

(28:53):
and you see it's what it says. How people will
be in these days, the you know, the critical times,
hard to deal with, lovers of money, self assuming, hearty, blasphemous,
having a form of godly devotion, proven false to His power.

Speaker 2 (29:07):
This is where we are today. Are you still a
practicing joke.

Speaker 1 (29:12):
Yes, yes, and I love it, you know, I think it.
The greatest feeling you'll have is to be at peace
with God and peace with man, because that puts you
at peace with yourself. Because my prayers aren't God forgive me, no,

(29:34):
thank you, thank you for my family, thank you for
this journey. It's nothing but like gratitude because I ain't
living a life that I got to apologize for. There
was a time I was wild, couldn't even pray God.

Speaker 2 (29:51):
You know what it is? Do you do the whole wedness?
Do they celebrate holidays? Do they celebrate things? Because I'm
trying to figure out, like, did you did birthdays? Were
birthdays big in your family?

Speaker 1 (30:09):
No? My mother celebrated everything. My mother would celebrate Christmas, birthdays,
you know.

Speaker 2 (30:14):
But how did that work? He doesn't, she does.

Speaker 1 (30:18):
My father is just going to room. My mother would
save money up all year to get us something. And
one of the greatest Christmases we ever had was my
father took the money and tried to open a business
that she was saving so we didn't have no Christmas.
My mother sat us down, it ain't gonna be no

(30:38):
Christmas this year. Y'all what no Christmas? That asshole in
the room, and she would just told us what happened.
My father wanted to have a business, right, and so
we decided that we're gonna write Santa Claus a letter.
Oh and all of us wrote Santa Claus a letter

(30:59):
and then we mailed it off to the North Pole. Nothing.
Nothing till Christmas morning the U haul truck pulls up
to us our house, bikes, all kinds of toys. It
was just like wow, that felt like Christmas. And then

(31:19):
the next year we tried to do it again and
stop niggas no tell you daddy. But but it's okay
because we you know what most of the stuff is,

(31:40):
you know, based in paganism. You know, I said on toast,
because that's some the old Greek pagan thing where they
clink it and you're gonna chase the demons away. Well
if they hear from when I'm drinking, you know what
I mean, I don't you know, it's like people don't
know what they do. They're celebrating stuff they don't know.

Speaker 2 (32:01):
Right Easter just tradition that's been handed down in yourself.

Speaker 1 (32:05):
It's once with knowledge comes power, right, once you know
that Jesus' death is more important than his birth right Christmas,
that's that's something that Corporate America figured out, how to
get rid of all the inventory. At the end of
the year. Let's clean this out. We'll have a sale,

(32:25):
call it Christmas. Because Jesus didn't celebrate his own birthday.
Don't you think he threw a party if it was important, right,
change everything to wine. Everything's wine, right, So it's like,
once you know, then it makes it easier to go, Oh, okay,
I get why I don't celebrate this.

Speaker 2 (32:46):
You mentioned something earlier about it.

Speaker 1 (32:48):
I never talked about my mother. You didn't what she
because I poked jokes, right, But you asked what did
she give us love? My mother was the heartbeat of
this family, that's what Marlin said, and taught us how
to love and how to you know, even though she
sometimes didn't practice what she preached, but how to get

(33:12):
past grudges. That's your brother, that is your sister. You
love them. They're going for the rest of your life.
They gonna be your brother and sister. That's what my
mother gave us love.

Speaker 2 (33:24):
Did your mom ever discipline y'all?

Speaker 1 (33:26):
Yeah, my mom. My mom would do this thing. He
was like, come in, let me slap your face.

Speaker 2 (33:31):
She wouldn't even taste it.

Speaker 1 (33:33):
Come in, let me say you doing this?

Speaker 2 (33:37):
No, I think I stay over here.

Speaker 1 (33:39):
And then the trick was she gets you like this
and nick ma'am ears ringing. You'd be like, what the hell? Yeah,
my mom that But she had to be really really
mad at you to hit you, to pop your head.

Speaker 2 (33:54):
Dr Yeah, that's what old people. They believed in slapping.
My grandmother slapped fire at your mom. Yeah. Well, I
mean I'm like, what is that about?

Speaker 1 (34:02):
Because it's better than a punch. It's a slap is
more of a humiliation. That's Chris Rock.

Speaker 2 (34:10):
Lord heaven Lord. Marlon told us his story about the foot.
So you had a club foot.

Speaker 1 (34:26):
It looks like I have a club foot? Had I haven't?

Speaker 2 (34:30):
I mean what you got a size level and a
half it or not?

Speaker 1 (34:32):
No? No, well no, this here's the thing. A club foot.
Now I don't have the same flexibility I was born.
My foot twisted all the way around. Okay, right, so
you had to bres at the up yeap off the
pedic shoe came up to here, you know it was
they had it was high once I hung the hermit monsters.

Speaker 2 (34:54):
Yeah yeah, I walk.

Speaker 1 (34:55):
With a limp. Yeah, but people thought it was cool
because perfected the limb rather smooth. Because I wanted you
to look up, you know what I mean? That was
my whole thing in life when we played. Doesn't get
you to look up to look at the shoe because
I'm vulnerable down here. So I hit you before you?

Speaker 2 (35:17):
Did you? Did you? Were you insecure about it?

Speaker 1 (35:21):
Did?

Speaker 2 (35:21):
Were you self confident?

Speaker 1 (35:22):
A no?

Speaker 2 (35:25):
Very super Your family, your brothers and sisters killed you
about that, didn't it.

Speaker 1 (35:30):
I never felt like they had jokes, but there was
so much love in my house. I never felt like
them attacking me. I know they talk about my little foot,
but it's okay because I'm in on the joke. I'm laughing.
They seen me with you know, my pants off, and
you know what, Yeah yeah, but it's it's it's okay.
It was in love. You put anything in love. It

(35:53):
takes the sting out when you go outside. They were
trying to got you, Oh my god, but I got them.

Speaker 2 (36:00):
And it's true, Kim Kim would fight people. People make
fun of you for a time.

Speaker 1 (36:05):
My baby brother, I'm her old brother.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
But you got a little sister kick.

Speaker 1 (36:10):
They ass like like like Ali cat fight. You know,
Kim is demrroring. You know.

Speaker 2 (36:19):
Yeah, she seemed really and that's what when you told
me she was social. She doesn't come off as social.
She seems very quiet, very some dude. I'm here for
a purpose. I'm gonna talk. When people need to talk
to me, I'll talk to them.

Speaker 1 (36:31):
But I'm not you know, she shot she said, you know,
she don't. None of my family like the Lime like
that Marlin Marlin blind loves it. Me Keen and Sean,
we you know, we don't have to be seen, you know.
Rather Kim just rather not be seen, even juniors like that,
like we I don't.

Speaker 2 (36:50):
Need that hold on. The doctors thought you were gonna
be a little person. We can't use the m word
that they thought you was gonna be a little person
because of the foot.

Speaker 1 (36:59):
No, they put me in the in the special head class.
You yeah, because they I'm in there with them. And
my mother was like, no, it's like he's not wrong
with him. But I got to know all the kids
in the right, you know.

Speaker 2 (37:14):
So they figure any any abnormal malley and product deformity
that you had, you had there had to be something
wrong with you mentally a fifth emotionally what I mean.

Speaker 1 (37:23):
I think of you just because I was black? Oh
you know, and they're just like here, let's.

Speaker 2 (37:27):
Let's because I remember those classes. Don't remember seeing a
whole lot of white people. Yeah class.

Speaker 1 (37:31):
Yeah, and they put me in there with the you know,
back then you call them retarded yeah people, you know.
And and like I said, I made friends with some
of them, you know, until I got one of my
other friends. Then I just owned them. Yeah, out there,
kirky kill crabbing my style, David.

Speaker 2 (37:51):
I know when it when when the regular kids saw
you go to those classrooms.

Speaker 1 (37:55):
Bro oh, they would come by and teach me to
be pointing at me and oh, man.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
Did I mean did you have home? Did they give
you home? Did you have homework? And you yeah? Easy
hold foldless paper. That's the whole way here, foldless paper
and half. Oh you did good. I was the smartest
kid in the class. But finally, but you do realize,

(38:25):
when you do realize, day were like when you were
the classes. You stay in that class the whole day.
You don't change classes.

Speaker 1 (38:30):
Now, my mother got me out. It was it was
a it was a quick stack. Okay, you know, probably
for like a week, but you know that. Yeah, it's
about a week.

Speaker 2 (38:45):
Marlon said, you were terrible in school. I mean really bad.

Speaker 1 (38:50):
No, here's I was funny.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
So you went to school to tell jokes. You ain't
going to learn.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
This is this is how my mind thought. Okay, when
I went to high school, I took Chinese Mandarin Chinese
just because I knew it was so hard I could
fail it. Everybody, I'm telling you, I get to the
class and it's me and everybody else is Asian because

(39:18):
there's a proper way to speak Chinese, right, Mandarin is
not like its language. Yeah, each word has four different meanings.
So like I'm like, hey, it's Chinese, Dad, I can't
do it. But I was always like I had one teacher,
mister Freeman, who believed me. And in seventh grade, I

(39:39):
used to call him Mike. He would I would get
under his skin, but I would make him laugh. He
was my science teacher, and he told me one day,
so I would do stuff to try to stump him.
So we were talking about inertia, right, He's teaching about inertia,
and I said, mister Freeman, you know, Mike, why is
it that when you get on the train and the

(40:01):
fly flies in and the train starts to move, the
fly doesn't smash against the wall. He said, well, the
fly goes aside and said, no, the fly never touched
the wall to go the same speed as the train.
Why doesn't the fly.

Speaker 2 (40:17):
When you take off? Because if you take off and
you're not holding on, you fall back. Why doesn't the
fly move that part?

Speaker 1 (40:22):
And he was like, he said, that's critical thinking, he said.
And the thing about you, he said, you're brilliant. He said,
you have a gift. He said. The problem is I
need to control the room. Right now, you are controlling
my classroom, and that's not good for me. So here's

(40:42):
what I'm gonna do. I'm going to give you five
minutes on Friday to say it. Do whatever you want
to do. Wow, if you just be quiet.

Speaker 2 (40:54):
It was a trade off.

Speaker 1 (40:55):
It was a trade off. And I would, you know,
sometimes I would blurt out stuff. But you know, for
the most part, I honored that, and he honored that,
and I couldn't wait for my five minutes every Friday.
But he was the only teacher that ever told me
that what I do is special.

Speaker 2 (41:12):
He's the only one that really believed in. Everybody else
thought you was an f up class clown. You dropped out.

Speaker 1 (41:21):
I got thrown out. I was so I got thrown
out of I went to Murray Bertram High School for
business careers. It was the first school high school to
teach computer science. And they had like like computers as

(41:41):
big as this room. Wow, and that's like the Cobalt
and they're teaching us this and my dumb behind. I
had a teacher who I didn't like, and somebody gave
me some mace and I'm in the class and I'm
spraying mace. She made me sit right like this because
I was such a you know, right, So I'm spraying

(42:04):
mace the whole time she talk. Well, I didn't know
mace was gonna affect me too, everybody in the classet.
I got expelled from that school. Then I went to
go I had to go to another school. Charles f.
And Hughes got thrown out of that one for turning
out for all the lights in the school.

Speaker 2 (42:24):
Damn. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:25):
And then I went to one of them schools. Well,
all you got to do is show up.

Speaker 2 (42:29):
You went to an alternative school.

Speaker 1 (42:30):
Yeah, all you gotta do is show up. I got
thrown out of that?

Speaker 2 (42:36):
So you realized school wasn't for you?

Speaker 1 (42:38):
Yeah, yeah, I was. I just I don't know. I
was thinking funny. So I got thrown out of one
school because I threw a chair off the roof. I
didn't want to hurt nobody, but in my mind, I
thought like a cartoon. I wanted to see them go
and their eyes bout they head and didn't run. So
you could have killed me. I didn't. I like, I
had no concept of killing. This is like fifth grade.

(43:01):
I didn't. I didn't. I wasn't trying to kill nobody.

Speaker 2 (43:04):
But when you come home, okay, let me this. You
get thrown out of school, how do you go home
and tell or do the do the school call and
tell your mom and dad that we're expelling damon? Or
do you have to tell them?

Speaker 1 (43:18):
No, I get on the train and just ride it
all day long.

Speaker 2 (43:25):
That's what I do. Oh, so they didn't know you?
They didn't know. When did you realize that? You know what?
School ain't for me? The hell with this?

Speaker 1 (43:33):
Once I started doing stand up, well like, no, I
don't think it was stand up.

Speaker 2 (43:37):
It was just.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
I had to go to job Cort because it was
that or jail. And so I went down to Breckenridge, Kentucky,
and it was the first time I ever saw a horse, like,
like a real horse that wasn't on Oh yeah, one
of them Central Park horses just phone out the mouth.

Speaker 2 (43:59):
Of all day long.

Speaker 1 (44:00):
It was like a real horse. And it was the
first time I flew on a plane, the first time
I smelt fresh air, you know. And I got my
ged down there, I got my driver's license right, and
I went for what did I go for? I ended
up taking accounting, so I learned how to do good

(44:24):
with numbers, the numbers right. And then I came back
home and that was like the first time I went Okay,
I did something. I achieved somethinglishment. Yes, the ged meant something.
My parents are so proud. And then I got a
job at an American Express.

Speaker 2 (44:40):
Oh lord, I did.

Speaker 1 (44:42):
I got a job at Americans. I was in the
mail room and then they promoted me to mailroom supervisor
because I had a way of making people laugh and
you know, building like a you know, like morale. Right.
So I had the late shift. I worked from seven
o'clock to seven in the morning, and we had to
I always found a way, and I thank my dad

(45:03):
for this of making a job fun. So we had
to like open up the mail. You get five hundred
and fifty envelopes, you got to take them out, open
it up. Then you have to decide is this a
change of address? Is this a return of a credit card?
Is this you know? Whatever it is. You had like

(45:25):
to manually do it right, and the quota was to
do five boxes. I used to do fifteen. Wow, And
I'd have my music on and I'd have my basket
here and I would just go and because they had
a machine that would open it.

Speaker 2 (45:42):
For you, for you, right.

Speaker 1 (45:43):
But I was that fast and that I remember. The
controller walked in one day that that was his position,
like the manager. He said, I never seen nothing like this.
And I would make the other people in the mailroom
and say, man, slow down.

Speaker 2 (46:00):
Bad. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:01):
But they made me the supervisor and then I had
everybody giving ten boxes a night.

Speaker 2 (46:07):
Wow. Now stand up? How do you go from being
at American Express to the stand up?

Speaker 1 (46:18):
I always admired Keenan and then so with Keenan, he
would I would go to the improv and watch him perform.
And then sometime I got keen He used to try
this joke, try this, and he would do it and
they would get laughs. And so that was the first
time I ever thought, well, I thought about that he
said it and got a left. Maybe if I used

(46:38):
it for myself, yeah, maybe right. And then Robert Townsend
one day, I was still working at Smilers and the Delicatessen,
and Robert Townsend and Keenan wearing like a little improv group. Right,
it's like Reggie Van Johnson and Melvin Joey. It's just

(47:00):
like like four people. And they brought me in because
Keenan told him Damon could do characters. So I'm just
there and I'm just like doing all this stuff that
me and Keenan would do all the time. And I
remember Robert's face like this, and he said, you got it,
and I didn't. I had to go, you know, do

(47:23):
the sandwiches to Mars. I didn't really like think about
what he said. And then in nineteen eighty two, I
was so prised this Keenan got his little sitcom and
I was telling my wife, you know, Lisa, I'm like, man,
Keenan Kenny Key says that you know what you need
to go do stand up. Otherwise I'm gonna go sleep
with Keenan because you make you make him sound wonderful.

(47:48):
So I started doing stand up and the first time
I went on stage, I fell in love with it
and I didn't do good. I actually bombed, but I
got one laugh. And comedy is like golf. All you
remember it is a good shot. Yeah, you know what
I mean, that's what everybody said.

Speaker 2 (48:06):
Everybody said, you get it's not the boot that you remember,
it's that one. It's that one laugh that gets you
hooked and you're like, yeah, this is my calling.

Speaker 1 (48:13):
Yeah I knew it. I knew it. Likes as I
was doing it, like this feels good.

Speaker 2 (48:21):
Is it a high?

Speaker 1 (48:23):
Yeah, it's it's it's like a runner's high, especially when
you come off stage. You know. The thing is when
you're first starting out and you're doing it, you come
off stage, you can enjoy the high. When you become
you know, famous or whatever you you know, people want
to and it just ruins the high, you know what
I mean, Like you interacted because you want to like

(48:44):
enjoy that moment you have like out of body experiences,
you know, when you do when you have a great show,
it's like you just sit back, going watch this nigga work,
go go, you know, and you forget about the pain
in your back and you know, just everything. It just
feels right. So yeah, it's definitely a runner's high.

Speaker 2 (49:06):
Wow. And so now you're doing stand up, you're like, okay,
now you don't want to do anything else but that,
or do you have do you have another job? No?

Speaker 1 (49:16):
I had other jobs because I had to have you know,
I had kids.

Speaker 2 (49:19):
Yeah, stand up wasn't paying like it is. They will
pay it back then, huh.

Speaker 1 (49:23):
Right, Well, you know stand up would pay you a burger.
That's what you got. You got a free burger, maybe
some fry, right, and a soda. That's what that was
your pay. But you know, then they had they had
a strike and they started giving you money for cabs
or gas money. You know, so you can make twenty

(49:43):
dollars here, but you know, any real comedian that's really
about it, yeah, hits the stage five times a night.
So you're not just making you know, twenty dollars, you're
making one hundred and twenty dollars you're making right, so
you can live off of.

Speaker 2 (50:00):
Back then that was that was that was good money.

Speaker 1 (50:02):
Yeah, yeah, how did you and Eddie meet through Keenan.
So Eddie would come see me do stand up. He
would bring Prince Rick James. He just thought like the
stuff I was doing was really innovative, you know. And
and then I started hanging out with him and Keenan.

(50:23):
You know. The first thing Eddie would do when he
came out during like Saturday Night Live, and he would
call Keenan and go, man, watch this buck weet tonight.
Watch the buck wet buck. We got shot. And I'm
just like, so at the time I was doing stand
up before I met Eddie, I'm like, who is this
Eddie Murphy? Everybody, because as far as I was, I
was the next right. And then I watched him do

(50:46):
James Brown getting in a hot tub, and I was
like this amazing. And I became, you know, in awe
of Eddie and when and and the fact that him
and Keenan were like friends as soon as he came out,
can't it come on? And they hang out to the
wee hours of the morning.

Speaker 2 (51:06):
Do you tag it along?

Speaker 1 (51:07):
Tagging along? Eddie would would actually bring me, my wife
and my sons on boat rides, like he would rent
a yacht and go around the Marina and be I
was the only family of just all these pretty women,
and Eddie and his boys were like yeah, and Eddie

(51:29):
would come over, always make time to come over and
sit down with us and go, yng, got something special.
This is what I want and now go get something.
But you know that was so wonderful for me and
to see that life, right, you know what I mean,

(51:54):
because I never had it on that level. You know
what I mean. I was married from you know, since
Team what eighty four or something like that, so I didn't.

Speaker 2 (52:05):
Damn you ain't get a chance to enjoy the single
life of your stand up.

Speaker 1 (52:08):
Did I broke up my marriage?

Speaker 2 (52:09):
No, don't worry. I broke up my marriage. Seek I
joined it.

Speaker 1 (52:21):
And I regret it really, yeah, because you know it
show business. You think that this chemistry you got with
this person, this actress is like special and pure, and
then what you don't realize is she gonna go do
that on the next row with somebody else, and you'll
be like, but I left my wife for you. You

(52:43):
know what, Tell her the stuff you told my character.
She'll take you back.

Speaker 2 (52:51):
What. Yeah, you got an opportunity to do Eddie up
close and personal. What is something about Eddie that you
share that people don't wouldn't realize about him, that wouldn't
know about him.

Speaker 1 (53:04):
The funniest guy of my generation, for sure. His mind
is like a Rubik's cube the way he processes comedy,
and he's one of the most giving people. Like you know,
Eddie can steal scenes. He doesn't have to steal scenes
because he's the star right right. But the thing I

(53:25):
learned from Eddie was letting other people shine. You bring
somebody in. When I did the Banana Man, I'm still
working in the mailroom and He's like, he told Marty Breast,
the director, you gotta let him do it, you gotta.
He wanted me to play the brunts and Pinchot character, right,
who did a wonderful job. But the director was like, nah,

(53:46):
he's unseasing it. And he said, all right, then let him
do this one little scene. And Eddie was like laughing
in the scene. You know, I'm with the biggest star
in the world and he's making me feel funny and
encourage me. Go no, no, no seriousness, he says, And
the director was like, we got to move on, Eddie,
gonna know we're gonna do this, and we got that

(54:07):
take and it was just like just the fact that
he cared enough, you know, to make sure that I
Shine was beautiful. And then you know, Eddie put on
Robert Townsend, my brother, you know, all the people that
he put on in this business. I don't think people
really give him the credit. He is our sino on

(54:31):
our Senior show, you know, multiple times to support his friend,
you know what I mean, Paul Mooney. Eddie put everybody on.

Speaker 2 (54:40):
How do You Get? On? How did be Beverly Hills?
Cause happen.

Speaker 1 (54:43):
Eddie would see me do stand up and he saw
that character. He's like, you got to do this, and
he made them put me in the movie.

Speaker 2 (54:53):
Eddie smil. A lot of people have gotten nobody's been
bigger than Eddie SML and blew up. I mean there
have been other guys, but nobody like Eddie. You was
on SNL for I mean.

Speaker 1 (55:06):
It half a season.

Speaker 2 (55:10):
What what were you? What did you think what SNL
was going to be as opposed to what you got
once you got on SNL?

Speaker 1 (55:17):
Well, I grew up. You know when we watched Richard
Pryor on S and L. You know, the famous sketch
with Chevy Chase and you know him with Lily Tombling
playing the drunk, and you know, it's like, wow, he's
bringing our flavor to this show. Because before it was white,
there was funny you know, John Belussy Bryant and all

(55:40):
of these guys was brand but it wasn't us. And
then I was like I was born to do that.
And Eddie had just left. Eddie actually came to my
you know, celebration party before I went to New York
because I was living out here, and he told me said, look, man,
learned to write you because they're gonna put you in

(56:01):
it and you're gonna hate it. They're gonna give you
black stuff to do. You're gonna hate it. And so
when I went there, he was right, and I was
writing sketches, but they would they would shoot it down.
This dude would like sit there, read my sketches in
front of me and go, yeah, oh, I just don't

(56:26):
get it. I just got tired of getting shot down.
They would, you know, like, and I kept getting told, well,
we're trying to protect you from the Eddie's you know, Aura,
It's like Eddie's gone. And what I knew that the
characters that I wanted to do were nothing like Eddie.
It would be no comparison, you know, because I didn't

(56:49):
really do impressions. I didn't do the kind of stuff
Eddie did. These are you know. The funny thing is
I did an interview for SNL and they showed me
my audition tape. In the audition, it's a twelve minute
tape of me doing Homie to clown men on Handyman.

(57:12):
The seven characters that I did ultimately on in Living
Color that I showed them what I could do, and
I was writing stuff for these characters kept getting shot down,
so I just I didn't care. I just just changed
characters on them during a live show. And I was like, yeah,

(57:32):
give me the ball, or let me go.

Speaker 2 (57:35):
Let me ask you this. Were you becoming frustrated because
you're like, I'm doing this and every time I try
to do something, every turn you shoot it down. It's that.

Speaker 1 (57:44):
And then the stuff they were giving me. There was
one sketch they wanted me to stand in a loincloth
with a spear with no lines.

Speaker 2 (57:55):
So what the hell were you gonna be doing just
standing there?

Speaker 1 (57:57):
I'm gonna be stabbing somebody with this spear. If you
think I'm doing this, and I told him, I said,
I can't do this. My mother is gonna watch this show.
I can't do this. And they're like, yeah, I got it.
You know it's you gotta service the piece. That's what
I was told, service the piece. I didn't do it.

Speaker 2 (58:16):
And then there was how do you say? How did
you how do you tell? How did you respectfully tell them? No?

Speaker 1 (58:20):
It wasn't respectful. I didn't. I just said no, I
don't care who you call. I'm not doing this. I
didn't do it. We had a uh, this woman Danitra Vance,
who is this? Uh? She was very talented, but she
did it and I was like, Dnetra, don't if we

(58:41):
stand together it means something. You make me look crazy.

Speaker 2 (58:46):
She wanted that role, she wanted to be on Saturday.

Speaker 1 (58:48):
I live that she is and this with this beer boo,
I'm trying to improvise.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
So what's the pay like on this andl nothing?

Speaker 1 (58:59):
Fifteen h a dollars a week?

Speaker 2 (59:03):
So let me because I'm always interested. How so how
does explain to people at home? How does that and
their work? So how do you come in there like, Okay,
the show is going to air Saturday night, are you
guys rehearsing during the course of the week.

Speaker 1 (59:15):
You come in Monday, okay, it's a writer's night, Okay.
So you come in and your pitch ideas okay, right,
and then they say, yeah, go off and write them.
So you start writing Tuesday. You're right into Tuesday morning,
and then we do the table read with all the
collection of sketches you read on Wednesday, forty five sketches

(59:38):
like on a I forget if it's Tuesday or Wednesday.
And then you start rehearsing. You start picking the sketches,
and then you start rehearsing Friday and then till Saturday day, and.

Speaker 2 (59:49):
You're writing sketches kind of like what's what's funny in today?
What's funny today? Because I remember I saw that when
I had the Cat Williams, they ended up doing a
spoof of Cat. So you guys are writing things, try
to like what's happening in the real world and make
them funny.

Speaker 1 (01:00:04):
I was writing character driven stuff. I wasn't writing like
because here's the problem. When you do kind of social
political stuff. There are no good Nixon jokes right right,
it's a dated You date yourself because events happen and
then something else happens, and then people were forget what
was that? So when you do characters characters, cheez begger, cheezburger,

(01:00:24):
cheeseburger is always gonna be funny brown. But you know
all the stuff Eddie did, you know, pump you up?
You know, there's a bunch of catchphrases that they that
that are in the you know, the the zeigot because
of you know, character driven comedy. That's what people relate to.

Speaker 2 (01:00:45):
Right, let me ask you this. You were you said
you lasted half a season, but you were fired after
one season? I did.

Speaker 1 (01:00:52):
I got all right after, no after and in the
middle of the season.

Speaker 2 (01:00:56):
Are you the only one that's ever happened to is anybody?

Speaker 1 (01:00:59):
But you know I got fired live. I didn't even
make the good nights.

Speaker 2 (01:01:04):
Damn dada, let the current come down.

Speaker 1 (01:01:07):
I didn't say good night. He said get the hell
out of here.

Speaker 2 (01:01:10):
Who told you that?

Speaker 1 (01:01:11):
Lauren Michaels, he was red in the face.

Speaker 2 (01:01:13):
John Blushi never did this to me, you ad lib?

Speaker 1 (01:01:18):
Did you? I did more than that. I said get
me out of here. Everything I did was to go.
But see God has plans right right, So in Living Color.

Speaker 2 (01:01:31):
Was my.

Speaker 1 (01:01:34):
Vindication.

Speaker 2 (01:01:35):
Did you know hold on you said you did everything
you could to get fired. Did you know Keenan was
in the process of doing it.

Speaker 1 (01:01:43):
No, because this was in eighty six and Living Color
wasn't until nineteen ninety. Yeah, right, So I was like,
I was so angry when I was there. I was
walking around. I had these shades on, like black, like
I guess they're ray bands, and they go, why you glasses,
it's too white in here? It hurts my eyes?

Speaker 2 (01:02:02):
Damn what you thought they were?

Speaker 1 (01:02:06):
I didn't want. Well, you know, you get shot down.
The thing is like, now, I was young. I didn't know.
I didn't understand producing a show very very because I
felt like, you know, they were trying to Garrett Morris. Me, okay,
who And Garrett Morris is a wonderful man, love him,
but back then, you know they used him like a

(01:02:28):
prop right, you know what I mean? And that's not
why I did stand up. I'm ready, guys, I'm locked
and loaded. You've seen the tape. You know what I
can do. But it wasn't meant to be right.

Speaker 2 (01:02:43):
What did Keenan say when you told him, like, man,
I ain't gonna be on this and now.

Speaker 1 (01:02:47):
No mo bro good if they if they're not gonna
let you do what you do, then you know it
doesn't make no sense to be something else will happen.
And the great thing about doing stand up is, you know,
after I did Saturday Night Live, I could get booked
in comedy clubs and make good money because I'm you know,

(01:03:09):
featuring the guy who got fired from Live. I can
use that right, right, And so I was making you know,
stand up allows you back then ten thousand dollars a weekend.
Even that's good money.

Speaker 2 (01:03:22):
Yeah, good money, you mean good money, is.

Speaker 1 (01:03:25):
Right, more than I was making on S and L. Right,
So it's like, yeah, okay. So I started doing stand
up and it's been a very.

Speaker 2 (01:03:35):
Lucrative, lucrative but feeling.

Speaker 1 (01:03:38):
It's always good to know that you don't have to
do something right because I can make money. I can
feed my family, my dad ringing in my ear. As
long as I can feed my family, you can't touch me.

Speaker 2 (01:03:50):
Do you fellow the situation because you came on so
soon after Eddie left, and how many people believe Eddie
had gotten too big for SNL and they didn't want
to run that same risk.

Speaker 1 (01:03:59):
With you that might have been some of it, you know,
but I mean, whatever it was, don't hire me if
you don't want me, right, you know what I mean.
Don't hire me if you're not gonna let me do
because I can do what Eddie did. I can do.
You know how many people watched the show when Eddie
was doing it? Yes, why don't you want them? Because

(01:04:22):
they negate our audience, the audience that Eddie brought there.
I was coming in thinking I would service them, you
know what I mean, Black people would give me a
shot to be funny before they start comparing me. Then
he trying to be Eddie because I got a different flavor.

Speaker 2 (01:04:39):
Robert Downey Junior was also in your cast. He got
at the year too. Damn.

Speaker 1 (01:04:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:04:42):
Now homeboys are Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:04:44):
So Robert Downey and Michael Anthony Hall, we called them
the kids, and they were the ones that you know,
thought I was funny. So we would connect and they
knew that it wasn't funny. What we were doing was
so we had all these like inside jokes about that
sketch is not gonna work, and they knew how bad

(01:05:04):
it was. So yeah, we became good friends. I love Robert.

Speaker 2 (01:05:09):
Yeah, Tracy Morgan said, he felt culturally isolated on SNL's
called the Whitest show in America.

Speaker 1 (01:05:14):
It is it is because you know, I mean, I
love Lauren Michaels to do anything for.

Speaker 2 (01:05:21):
Fifty years, it's a long time.

Speaker 1 (01:05:24):
You deserve your flowers, you know. But when you go
up and look at the people who run the show,
the writers room, it's all white and it's not like,
you know, it's not.

Speaker 2 (01:05:39):
Like it's not diverse like the people in right, it's not.

Speaker 1 (01:05:42):
You know, Neil Brennan's funny, the guy who wrote with Chappelle.
You know, he's funny. But you got all these guys
that come out of Harvard who write for like magazine, magazine,
funny ain't funny? They would do sketches like Nadoville. Yeah,
so you go to this town where there's a tornado

(01:06:05):
and people walking around with hangers in the head. All right,
but I'm like, well, who are the people and what's
the character with the hanger in his head? What does
he do?

Speaker 2 (01:06:13):
What?

Speaker 1 (01:06:14):
What's funny about him? You know, they didn't want to
hear that.

Speaker 2 (01:06:17):
Right, Have you? Have you talked to Tracy? I know
he had an incident a couple of last week on
the sideline he had food poisoning. Then he at the
NIXT game.

Speaker 1 (01:06:27):
I don't want to talk to him with the six numway.
I give him some pepto bisball. Now. I love Tracy.
I met Tracy in New York in a in a
club in the middle of the winter. And I remember
this because he didn't have no shirt on and he

(01:06:48):
was sweat and I'm like, it is four degrees outside.

Speaker 2 (01:06:51):
Where jes get these girls pregnant.

Speaker 1 (01:06:54):
I'm to get somebody pregnant. And he had a little
big belly. I'm like, you look pregnant.

Speaker 2 (01:07:02):
Chris Rock. Damn everybody getting fired from itsadel Chris Rock.
And then he tried out for in Living Color. I
think Mark also tried out for in Living Color.

Speaker 1 (01:07:11):
Probably, but we were gone, you go there, Yeah, we
weren't there.

Speaker 2 (01:07:16):
How did so? When Keenan pittures in Living Color to you,
what are you thinking? And You're like, this is it?
This is our chance, this is my chance to show
my comedic genius.

Speaker 1 (01:07:29):
I'm whatever, keen you wanna do? You know what I mean?
We did before we did a living color he had
done I'm gonna get your sucker, yes, so, and then
we had done the Robert Townsend partner in Crimes. He
had written, you know, sketches for that. And you know,
the funny thing is they told Keenan asked Robert if
he could direct some sketches, and Roberts like, nah, man,

(01:07:52):
you too lazy. All you want to do is chase girls.
He said, you got to be disciplined to do this.
And Keenan was hurt. He's like, what bro, we.

Speaker 2 (01:08:01):
Done hung out? We would chasing girls together, Bro, not
you right?

Speaker 1 (01:08:05):
And so Keenan locked itself in his room for two
weeks and wrote I'm gonna get you sucker.

Speaker 3 (01:08:12):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:08:13):
And then he directed. But that was his fuel, right,
you know what I mean, It's exactly what he needed
to hear, right. And then when we did I'm Gonna
Get you Sucker, it was so much fun. There's nothing
like showing up to a set where it's a party
and then you're filming, you know what I mean, you're
filming too, but the environment is just so fun and creative.

(01:08:34):
And that's what in Living Color was. That's what I'm
Gonna get you, sucker, and the Robert Townsend partner in crime.
And then they paid you too, you know, but it
was Just the fun that we had is what you
take away from it.

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Speaker 2 (01:10:19):
The thing is that you do stand up. And we
saw the incident with a will and Chris. Has that
ever happened to you? Has somebody ever ran up on stage?
A heckler ran up on stage as somebody run up
on stage, wish he may?

Speaker 1 (01:10:33):
You know how heavy that Mike's stand. I'm busting it
to the white meat. Na, I'm not. You know, you
get into situations where people hacklright, you know, but a
man aren't gonna try you.

Speaker 2 (01:10:49):
If you think he can get you exactly if.

Speaker 1 (01:10:52):
You stand your ground. And you know, I learned this
from my brother. It's like not everybody. A lot of
people talk, but I'm gonna hit you first if I
feel threatened.

Speaker 2 (01:11:04):
You got to get off chopped right.

Speaker 1 (01:11:05):
In the throat. You have been chopped in your throat.
I wish you would try to fight half this somebody
pot right, it's quick. I don't want to fight. I'm
sixty five years old.

Speaker 2 (01:11:16):
Yeah, but I got that kind of wins.

Speaker 1 (01:11:18):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I ain't wrestling. You ain't gonna build
your rep off me.

Speaker 2 (01:11:25):
But you You were in Bambooso with Jada.

Speaker 1 (01:11:27):
Yeah, I love Jada. We had a great time. Spike
Lee was so generous and just like this awesome. It's
an awesome experience because this is the first time he
actually used ten cameras at one time. And Spike would go,
all right, damon, you come in. All I need you

(01:11:47):
to do is not put your hand down because there's
a camera camera here. So that's the kind of direction
he would get. But because he believed in what I
was doing in the rehearsal, and so it's really about, wow,
we're doing like two hundred setups in a day. That's
like ridiculous, you know. But he was like really braying

(01:12:08):
with that and Jada. We had so much fun on
that and just taking chances. And you know what happens
is the show business changes you really, yeah, because you
know you and I don't. I'm not speaking on Jada,
I'm talking about in general. Only God should be famous.

(01:12:33):
And you see how he do it. He staying visible
because you know, people stupid, you know, because it's it's
a psychological This guy's are all messed up and they out
there partying, and and it's never enough because it's not what.
You don't deserve this, you don't deserve to have a threesome.

(01:12:56):
Go back to the ghetto where you came from. Did
you get to get in? Then you you deserve it
ain't never happened. And and the thing is when you
look yourself in the mirror, you know you mean you
put you gotta put on uh these errors and pretend
that you deserve it because you don't.

Speaker 2 (01:13:15):
Wow, I'm looking at some of the the the people
that was only living color. You became even bigger. David
Allen Greer, Jamie Fox, Jim Carrey, and I had Marlon
and and Marlon said, jao jalah uh and he said

(01:13:36):
he knew. Did you know Jim Carrey was gonna be that?

Speaker 1 (01:13:39):
Yeah, I'm the one that brought Jim to Kennan. So
me and Jim used to be in the comedy club.
Jim Carrey is a master impressionist. Yes, like he he
does like like Sean Penn, Yeah, like weird, like like
Michael Landon, like uh. He would get standing ovations in
a comedy club doing a twenty minute set. Now, any

(01:14:02):
comedian to tell you that's damned there impossible. There's few
and far between that can do that. That's how good
he was. But he hated doing the impressions because people
thought that's all he did. Right, So me and him
after Sam Kennison made it like we made a pack
that we're gonna push each other. So he would go

(01:14:23):
on stage he couldn't do his impressions and we just
yell out stuff to him and he would do the
same thing for me, and we would just challenge each
other on stage. He had none to lose, right, you know.
But Jim I truly knew he was special. Special, And
it didn't take Keenan long ago. He's the guy because

(01:14:43):
they saw every white boy in Hollywood for that role. Right,
and when he came with Fire March, Yeah, he did
that on stage. The comics store. He's messing around with
a match on stage.

Speaker 2 (01:15:01):
But he but the one thing he's always He's given
your family and Keenan and yourself your flowers. He says,
when Hollywood turned their back on me and didn't believe
in me, this black family did, and they gave me
a platform.

Speaker 1 (01:15:18):
He's our eminem y'all different here with yeah, but listen
when I still when I see Jim, it's all love.
It's It's like that's how you know your your family.
It's like when you see your old teammate, you just
pick up like it was yesterday. You don't see man,
why you're there's none of that. It's just like instant,

(01:15:41):
instant connection. And we're just talking about you know, anything
without resentment, without it's it's just love. David Allen, Grid
Tommy you know.

Speaker 2 (01:15:52):
Yeah Tommy, I forgot about Tommy.

Speaker 1 (01:15:54):
Yeah. Yeah, Well it's all love, Jamie, because we we
we thought of fine fight and we won.

Speaker 2 (01:16:02):
How did the hell did Keena convince Fox? Well, it's
not so convinced now, because you know they kind of
do they kind of go against the grain over there.
But how did he convince them at that time to
put a living color? What you guys were doing on
the air.

Speaker 1 (01:16:17):
Well, the funny thing is they came to him after
they saw I'm gonna get you, sucker. The reaction they didn't.
They were like what the hell? Like people would get
up and run out the theater around We laughed, he's
falling out.

Speaker 2 (01:16:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:16:32):
Yeah, And they didn't understand it, and they wanted to
meet with him immediately, and they's like, look, and so
Keena took this meeting thinking that they wanted to do a.

Speaker 2 (01:16:43):
Film deal with a movie yet.

Speaker 1 (01:16:44):
Right, So he's in there and they're telling him about
you know how great it is and we want that
kind of edge, and they say we got a network.
We're we're gonna do a new network coming up. And
Keena was like, okay, the meeting is over. And he
went to walk out the door and goes, wait, wait away.
You can do anything you want to do.

Speaker 2 (01:17:03):
Anything that part.

Speaker 1 (01:17:07):
And that's actually a lyric in the Living Color song
you can do what you want to do. The thing
is we did do anything we want. And then so
we were a mid season replacement right supposed to come
out in February or something, and they got it. They
were so scared of it that they went to the JDL,

(01:17:30):
they went to the NAACP, push you know, everybody, to
try to get them to sign off, and they would like,
give us money, we'll sign off for it. And then
you know it's like they they was like they didn't
know what to do. So we missed that window, We
missed the fall season because they still didn't want to

(01:17:52):
know what to do. And then Barry Dilla just went,
you know what, put it on. Let's see if it's
if people are having this kind of reaction to it,
let's it on. That's what we wanted. And then the
rest is history.

Speaker 2 (01:18:03):
Wow. So now you go from did you feel vindication
going from SNEL to Living Color because everything that you
did on in Living Color you had tried to do
on SNL and it said not ain't gonna go. And
now you're you're getting rave reviews. Everybody's talking about homedy clown.
They still talk about homedy clown, homedy clowns on T shirt.

Speaker 1 (01:18:24):
Now I ain't getting no money for that.

Speaker 2 (01:18:26):
Thank you, tality. You should have copyright a home.

Speaker 1 (01:18:30):
Well, the thing is it's all good, it's you know,
it's love and you know everybody got to eat it
is a great vindication. No, I think it validation. Yeah,
but in Living Color was the validation. It has nothing
to do with SNL. I buried that as soon as

(01:18:53):
I left. It was like I never looked.

Speaker 2 (01:18:55):
Back on Then they called you come back. You went back.

Speaker 1 (01:18:58):
I would host it, and I would host it, did
host one, and he brought me back to do stand
up at the left. You know, Lauren is very forgiving,
you know, but he had to show me who's boss.
And that's fine, right, you know, But in the end,
he know and I know that it was the best
thing for me to be off the sholwf Right.

Speaker 2 (01:19:14):
I saw Jerry Seinfeld explaining the importance of failing it
doing you're your way because a lot of people, and
I've said this about sports, a lot of times people
would rather lose their weight than win someone else's way
because they lose themselves. That's not who they are. And
it seems to me that she was like, look, if
I'm gonna go down, I'm gonna go down doing things
my way. I'm not finna go down doing it your

(01:19:36):
way because I'm not being authentic to myself. Right.

Speaker 1 (01:19:38):
But I had already gotten the warning from Eddie, right,
So when I walked in. I knew it wasn't a team.
We weren't playing team ball. I was on the team.
So I just knew that you know this and what
he was saying was playing itself out in front of me.
So you know, when you talk about sports, sports is

(01:20:00):
a team game, right, you know, And you can be
the best person in the in the game, but it's
the team.

Speaker 2 (01:20:08):
The team don't play well around you, you lose, right.

Speaker 1 (01:20:12):
But if you and if you try to take all
the glory, then people praying for your downfall and they
may not block the next time.

Speaker 2 (01:20:21):
Yeah, so you got you have to.

Speaker 1 (01:20:23):
You know, these are your brothers that you are out
there trying to, you know, compete in this war. It
is the footballs of war, basketballs of war.

Speaker 2 (01:20:33):
I read that some celebrities would get upset with you
when you would make fun of them or use them
in your sketches. Did they ever approach you? I saw
Mike Tyson, Whitney Houston mc Hamburg. Did they ever coming
to you, say, bro, come on that.

Speaker 1 (01:20:46):
Mike Tyson rolled up on me in a jewelry store.
You talked about scared. I wanted to show them my foot.
I got club foot Mike please like but he it
was like he was playing but he's so strong. He

(01:21:06):
grabbed me and he bit me on my neck. That
was yander and I just felt I'd still remember his high.
I could feel his hot high and I was like,
oh and he was but he was playing right. But Mike,
here's an interesting thing. Mike Tyson loves my family and

(01:21:26):
it's not because of me. He was at some event
with my mother and my mother said and said, introduced
herself to him, and she said, I'm the you know
missus Wayne. He said, oh, your kids they make and
the I don't like they mockerized me. They're always making
jokes and that. And my mother saif shut up, they

(01:21:50):
didn't love you, they wouldn't do you.

Speaker 2 (01:21:52):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:21:53):
And Mike Tyson was like, I fell in love with
your family right there. Just just if anything ever happen
happened with you and your family, I'm gonna eat through people.
But he loved just I guess that's it felt like
a mother to me. You know. She just he said,
I couldn't knock your mom out, but she just she

(01:22:18):
reprimanded me. It was like beautiful because he did want
to be keen of though and he was trying to
instigate it. He's gonna kick his door down and beat
him up.

Speaker 2 (01:22:30):
This concludes the first half of my conversation. Part two
is also posted and you can access it to whichever
podcast platform you just listened to part one on. Just
simply go back to club profile and I'll see you there.