INTERVIEW: Tommy Davidson Talks 'The Varnell Hill Show,' 90s Comedy Comeback, Ms. Pat, Martin + More

Today on The Breakfast Club, Tommy Davidson Talks 'The Varnell Hill Show,' 90s Comedy Comeback, Ms. Pat, Martin. Listen for More! 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hold up.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Every day I wake up.

Speaker 3 (00:03):
Wake your ass up.

Speaker 4 (00:03):
The Breakfast Club.

Speaker 3 (00:05):
Y'all finished or y'all done?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
When those saints come marching in. That's the wrong song, right?
It's Did You Miss Me. Yes, that's what I was
waiting for.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
How are you, sir? The Barnell Hill Show has premiered
on Paramount.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Plus, man. Seven years.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Took seven years. Hi, I'm Tommy.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Hi, Tommy Cat.

Speaker 4 (00:42):
Actually, it took longer than seven.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
If you're counting Martin.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Altogether, 35.

Speaker 5 (00:48):
Me, Dave Chappelle, and Martin met At the same time,
at the same club.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
And we all went to Hollywood about 35 years ago. Wow.
And I got my show. He got his show. I
got my movie. He got his movie.

Speaker 5 (01:04):
And that's all we were in for play.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 5 (01:08):
He moved departments that I lived in. My kids call
him Uncle Martin. I know his family. So we got
really close over those years, like brothers, you know?

Speaker 2 (01:16):
And finally....

Speaker 5 (01:18):
We did a project together, executive producing together.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
Wow. I was watching BET this weekend, and they replayed
the original Varnell Hill episode from Martin.

Speaker 4 (01:29):
Was there ever any.

Speaker 3 (01:30):
Talks after that episode of making that a spinoff?

Speaker 2 (01:33):
No, no, no. The idea came from Kid, from Kid
at Kid and Play.

Speaker 5 (01:37):
All y'all know Kid, everybody knows him. And he called
me upset about late night TV. He was like, hey, man,
we don't got no talent coming on TV at all,
you know, with the two Jimmys. He said, why don't
you call Martin and ask him to do that Varnell

(01:57):
Hill show as a TV show, but it's really a
late night talk show.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Wow. And so we got it.

Speaker 5 (02:06):
It's a sitcom about a television show that is a
television show.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
So at the end, just like in Living Color, we
get our performances.

Speaker 3 (02:17):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
You know, October London, Kirk Franklin, killing it.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
Yeah, I see Doug E. Fresh is in it as well.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
Yeah, Doug E. 's my MC.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
Yeah, I think that's dope.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
That's really, really dope.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah, yeah. So we put it together. It's not hitting
me yet. It's not hitting me yet. No, no, it's
not hitting me yet.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
What you mean?

Speaker 5 (02:36):
You don't feel like it's... It's almost like I'm ready
to get the work. I'm ready to get the work,
but we'll be able to watch it. for a whole
season before they say, hey, we're gonna keep this thing going.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
You know what I mean? But I guess it's hitting me.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
What were some of the challenges making it? Actually bringing
it to life.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Actually bringing it to life. I actually had to do
two episodes a week.

Speaker 5 (03:01):
Which was really hard because I had to remember two
scripts out of sync, which I learned how to do
over the years. So usually when I did a movie,
to not.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Forget my lines, I remembered everybody's lines.

Speaker 4 (03:18):
Right.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 5 (03:19):
I knew everybody's lines, so I wouldn't, you know what
I mean? So I'm kind of used to it. But
it was a challenge. I drove from where I lived
every day at 4 a.m. and left the studio about
1 and then did it again. And I did that
for two weeks, but we got through it. I mean,
there was a job at the end of this.

Speaker 4 (03:36):
That's a lot at your age, I'm sure.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (03:40):
I mean, I'm at the age, I don't know if
I got, you know, do number one or two, I
just go to the bathroom.

Speaker 3 (03:47):
Nature call, you don't know what's going to happen when
you pick up that. God.

Speaker 5 (03:52):
You know, you wish you was in a monster truck
if you were in traffic, you know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (03:59):
That's the only way you're going to get.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
To the bathroom.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
He's a monster truck, man.

Speaker 4 (04:05):
Oh my God.

Speaker 6 (04:07):
How does it feel to go, it made, watching the episodes,
it made me feel like back in the 90s.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (04:13):
Was that on purpose? Because it feels like the Martins,
the this, the that, the laugh traps, the way it is,
just the way you watch it makes it feel like that.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
It turned into that because everybody showed up.

Speaker 5 (04:26):
The In Living Color set was like the set. Bruce Willis, Denzel,
everybody on a Friday, right? Everybody was coming to the show. Light,
Jaleel White. Everybody was just coming just to hang. Raphael Sadiq.
Everybody was coming to just be around that energy. And
everybody who came knows that they're a part of the

(04:47):
show too.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
This is a.

Speaker 5 (04:50):
Combination of Arsenio Hall meets In Living Color meets Martin.
So me and Martin come and do characters and Damon's
doing sketches within the show. So everybody's coming in and
doing their thing, man. It's really, really unique in that way.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
I love that. I love seeing Damon in it. I
thought that was really dope.

Speaker 7 (05:12):
You also got Mike Epps, Dion Cole, Miss Pat. There's
some killers in there.

Speaker 3 (05:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (05:17):
Everybody wants to be a part of it because they
know what it is. They know we're going to go hard.
You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (05:23):
And Wendy Raquel.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
And Wendy, yeah. She's doing her thing. And Kim.

Speaker 8 (05:28):
Kim.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
Yeah, Kimberly.

Speaker 7 (05:30):
Oh, my God.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
And then there's some new actors that are unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
You got to see Emanuel Hudson.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yeah, Emanuel Hudson. That's my man.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
Timothy DeLaGhetto. Yes, yes, yes. Yeah, they my peoples.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
Go ahead with the names, girl. Go ahead.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know my peers and shit.

Speaker 3 (05:41):
How did Timothy get on the show?

Speaker 2 (05:43):
I don't know, but he's on there. How did Timothy
get on the show? But I know he's on there.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:50):
My question is, how did I get on the show?
You know, it's like, it happened. Yeah. It happened seven years, man.
Seven years from the day the kid called me. to now.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
Did the kid get a production credit for that?

Speaker 2 (06:00):
No.

Speaker 3 (06:01):
Damn. What did you put into the Barnell character?

Speaker 2 (06:05):
He got a new heart.

Speaker 3 (06:07):
He's stupid.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
He's easy on the gifts.

Speaker 3 (06:14):
What did you put into the Barnell character that made
people remember it for three decades?

Speaker 2 (06:19):
His spontaneity, man.

Speaker 5 (06:22):
Because when me and him lined up, I went into
that daggone show, man. And I was like, so he
was like, come on, you know you're on my show, right?

Speaker 2 (06:31):
You know you're on my show. I was like, yeah,
I know I'm on your show, man. But you know,
I got a show. He said, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5 (06:36):
So bring it, bring it, bring it. So I brought
what I brought. And what I brought was, hey, watch out.
It's going to be some corners to go around. But
the same thing's happening on this show. The same thing's
happening on this show, man. We did a scene and
he was crying. Like, like, He had these boys, right?

(06:58):
And I started going down the line, calling them different
names and blah, blah, this, that, and everything. And he
was supposed to be playing this gangster. And he was
trying to keep a straight face. And he was like,
literal tears were rolling all down his cheek. It was
like a mix of joy. And it was hard to describe.

(07:18):
You know what I mean? Just us being there. Because
we went through all the ups and downs, man. There
was a comedy club called the Comedy Act Theater. And
that's where everybody went. That was Robin Harris' joint, right?
So everybody was there. It was the hottest in L.A.
It was so far back that the Raiders were winning
Super Bowls.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
Oh, wow.

Speaker 3 (07:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
So that's just a reference. And we were out in the.

Speaker 5 (07:44):
Parking lot crying because the owner wouldn't put us on
stage the night that Spike Lee came to cast Do
the Right Thing.

Speaker 2 (07:56):
And that was our shot. You know what I mean?
And he got the movie. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (08:01):
He definitely got that movie, and that was his start.
And then I got my movie, Strictly Business.

Speaker 3 (08:07):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
Which, speaking of Puff, you know, I'll just put that
out there. But, yeah, for the algorithm.

Speaker 4 (08:16):
What Puff had to do with Strictly Business?

Speaker 2 (08:18):
Puff was my assistant.

Speaker 3 (08:20):
Was he really? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:22):
In the movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5 (08:23):
He was Andre's assistant. A protege, right? So he was
to take me around all the clubs and show me
all the acts. And I was like, this dude is
smart as hell.

Speaker 2 (08:38):
Like he went around and he showed me black sheep.

Speaker 5 (08:39):
He's like, they're going to blow up. He went and said,
this is the leaders of the new school. People are
thinking it's going to be C.

Speaker 3 (08:45):
Brown.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
Okay, okay. People are thinking it's going to be C.

Speaker 1 (08:47):
Brown.

Speaker 5 (08:48):
I think it's going to be Busta. Like he would
give me this whole analysis. But what he told me
one day was, he said, you're going to have to
cut your peak.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 5 (08:56):
And I was like, I ain't cutting my peak, man.
This is my signature. He said, if you don't cut that,
it's going to look big on the screen. I was like,
get out of here. And then I was at the
premiere like.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
He was right. My head is like a shark fan. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah,
he was right.

Speaker 3 (09:14):
Hello, Cooja.

Speaker 2 (09:14):
You know, yeah, yeah. Yeah, he was right.

Speaker 3 (09:17):
Brilliant.

Speaker 2 (09:17):
Me, him, and a guy named Craig Boogie and Heavy.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
Why'd he get fired?

Speaker 2 (09:21):
Who?

Speaker 1 (09:22):
Then did he get fired from that job?

Speaker 5 (09:23):
Yeah, because he... He punched one of the, damn, one
of the Teamsters.

Speaker 2 (09:31):
It wasn't really even a punch. It was just kind
of like a nick.

Speaker 1 (09:33):
Oh, I thought you was going to say it because
it was your peak.

Speaker 5 (09:36):
No, the guy, you know, New York, some Teamster was like,
you can't put your car there. And he said, hey, man,
I'm just dropping this guy off. Look, I'm his assistant.
I'm putting his bags in the trailer.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
Get it out of here. Get it out of here.

Speaker 5 (09:49):
And he leaned in a little bit too close and
probably said, bam. And, you know, what happened to the
tough guy?

Speaker 1 (09:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
What I mean? He got taken away in a whole
nine yards. He got locked up for that, too. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Got taken away. I went and got him. You had
to bail him out?

Speaker 5 (10:07):
Four in the morning, down at 21st, in the precinct
right down there. And he called me, man. Russ wouldn't
get him. Andre wouldn't come down there. Nobody would get him?
Nobody was coming down to get him.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
But you would always say, probably regular behavior to them.

Speaker 2 (10:24):
Yeah, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (10:25):
Did it again.

Speaker 5 (10:26):
Yeah, so I said, I'll come down there, not knowing
if I was even going to be able to get
him out of there.

Speaker 4 (10:32):
And it was harder to get in touch with people
back then.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure, man. Yeah, but when
I went down there, they were cool. In Living Color
was at its hottest.

Speaker 1 (10:41):
Oh, okay.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
Gotcha.

Speaker 4 (10:42):
Did they have that one back then? It was a
big one.

Speaker 2 (10:44):
Yeah, it was a big, that was a big Saving
Private Ryan one. Yeah. Yeah. Four, five, six coordinates. Five, one, one, one, one, one, one, one.
You know, yeah. You know, I had one. Everybody had
a brick. Did you have a brick?

Speaker 4 (11:00):
I had no brick.

Speaker 3 (11:01):
Mm-mm.

Speaker 8 (11:01):
No?

Speaker 2 (11:02):
Anybody here have a brick?

Speaker 3 (11:03):
No.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
Y'all from here.

Speaker 1 (11:05):
I was the beeper era.

Speaker 4 (11:07):
I was born and raised here.

Speaker 3 (11:08):
Yeah, South Carolina had the beeper, and then I had
the two-way pager.

Speaker 4 (11:13):
I never had the brick.

Speaker 8 (11:14):
I remember my pop-pop having a phone in his car,
and it was connected to the car.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
I had an antenna to my car. that I put
the antenna to.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
Make people think I am.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
So we were born in 92.

Speaker 1 (11:26):
Yeah, 91. My oldest phone was like a Nokia.

Speaker 4 (11:28):
I don't even remember my first cell phone. I'm trying
to think about it. I don't remember when I.

Speaker 1 (11:30):
My first one was Nokia.

Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah, I had a Nokia. It came with a little pouch.
Wasn't a Motorola Flip? You know what I mean? A Motorola...
I really don't remember. Motorola Flips was after that.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
That same. And then we had the Sidekicks that came out. Oh,
I had the Sidekicks. iPhones really got high.

Speaker 3 (11:43):
I had a BlackBerry, too.

Speaker 2 (11:44):
Remember I was talking about the BlackBerry? Oh, a BlackBerry
was just... It was too small.

Speaker 3 (11:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (11:48):
Them kids listen to like, what the hell are they
talking about?

Speaker 3 (11:50):
Right, right, right. Oh, are they?

Speaker 2 (11:51):
They're not even paying attention to us.

Speaker 7 (11:54):
And you gotta turn it off for a little minute
so it don't blow up.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
There was a.

Speaker 8 (11:59):
I was gonna say, there was an Instagram live. Remember
Fat Joe was on all the lives during the pandemic?
And he had somebody on his show from Juice, and
they were talking about how Diddy was trying to be
Bishop in Juice, but he didn't get it. They wouldn't
let him come on the set to try it because
of the incident that happened on that set. They didn't
want the set to be crazy.

Speaker 5 (12:19):
Maybe so, maybe so. I mean, he was jumping in.
When I was going around to the clubs, Red Parrot, Octagon,
The Building, those were the spots.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
And I was in New York at that time.

Speaker 5 (12:32):
When everything was So when he came, when Puff came
out with, by the time Bad Boy Remix came out,
and I saw that video, I was like.

Speaker 2 (12:42):
He's going to blow.

Speaker 4 (12:43):
Which remix was that?

Speaker 2 (12:43):
You said Bad Boy? Yeah, yeah. Flavin' Yeah? Flavin' Yeah Remix.
When I saw that video, I was like, he gone. Oh, yeah.
I was like, he gone. You know, niggas matter. Mo'
boots and ass trays. Like a fair one. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ransom notes. Damn, I'm handsome. Damn, a nigga. Bow, bow.

(13:05):
The roses, roses.

Speaker 3 (13:06):
Shakin' in my boots.

Speaker 2 (13:07):
He loves that little line.

Speaker 4 (13:09):
Yeah. Take them rides back to the factory.

Speaker 2 (13:14):
I see.

Speaker 4 (13:15):
Okay, all right.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
We know.

Speaker 3 (13:16):
We know. We know. We know. We know. We know.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
We know.

Speaker 3 (13:19):
We know. We know.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
We know.

Speaker 4 (13:38):
I don't know where Envy get that from.

Speaker 3 (13:39):
I ain't never seen that.

Speaker 2 (13:41):
Is this me over here greasy?

Speaker 3 (13:44):
I don't know what the hell Envy talking about. Jesus Christ.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
And you know, LL would really put hands on him.

Speaker 3 (13:51):
No, LL, I'm going to see you. I didn't say
no shit like that.

Speaker 6 (13:56):
But I wanted to ask, you know, in the show,
you have somebody, a younger comedian or a younger person
telling you all the new lingo.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
And slang and all that. You have to ask somebody
in real life too, like, you know what, help me
out with... That's what Varnell's about. You know, Varnel don't
know nothing about TikTok. Varnel's me. I don't know nothing
about no TikTok.

Speaker 5 (14:13):
I ain't on IG. You know, I can't keep up
with Facebook. I'm just, I'm just me.

Speaker 7 (14:19):
And you're not trying to get bought up to the top.
It's like a fight to go back and forth with
you to try to.

Speaker 2 (14:24):
Get you upbeat. I'm in between.

Speaker 1 (14:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:26):
I'm in between. My GPS works. My GPS works. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But sometimes it don't. And if it ain't, then I'm done,
you know, but.

Speaker 5 (14:34):
It's really about what's changing so fast, what's changing so fast,
and not only just.

Speaker 2 (14:44):
Technical, you know what I mean, but for entertainment.

Speaker 1 (14:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (14:51):
So the ability to have a show where you have,
you know, a sketch show. You actually have a sketch
show now, and people ain't getting upset about the subject matter.
and you have live performances of people coming out there
and doing it, you ain't got to wait until the
BET Awards.

Speaker 2 (15:09):
You know what I mean? Yeah.

Speaker 5 (15:10):
All you got to do is wait for the end
of In Living Color and you're going to see a
new group. Crisscross and every time. So this is that
opportunity that we have for that. And then we go
on buck wild. The director just said, well, just like Keenan,
he just said, well, this one's yours.

Speaker 2 (15:26):
So just go ahead and take it.

Speaker 3 (15:27):
It's interesting though, because Barnell is an old entertainer. trying
to stay relevant, right, in a world that's changing around him.
How much of, I guess, Varnell's insecurity is actually yours
as well?

Speaker 2 (15:39):
All of it. All of it, really.

Speaker 5 (15:41):
I'm like, you know, what the hell are we doing
in here? You know, you guys, you know, I got
an idea. I'm like, hey, what you got an idea about?
Everybody can roast me.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
Don't nobody know you. What do you mean nobody knows me?
They all know me, man.

Speaker 3 (15:57):
I've got 30 million followers.

Speaker 2 (15:58):
Yeah, what are you talking about? I know Suave.

Speaker 3 (15:59):
Hey.

Speaker 2 (16:00):
I know a big bub from the group today. You know,
it's like I'm way out. Yeah. You know what I mean?
And then they're bringing me right back in.

Speaker 5 (16:10):
But there's also a corporate element, too, to what we
do with this. You know, with the network saying and
all the notes that we're getting and all of this thing.

Speaker 4 (16:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (16:20):
And staying out of the politics, but still staying in it.
And all those things are there. So you get to
see the operation of the show. from the time that
we start in the morning until we go to camera
and we follow him home.

Speaker 2 (16:34):
Yeah. You know?

Speaker 1 (16:35):
That's real dope. I wanted to ask you about the
Martin episode, the Varno Hill episode, right?

Speaker 7 (16:39):
So when you come up to the radio station and
you had WZUP with Martin and you was like, we
got a lake out back, you know, catfish are delicious.
Was that, that was improv. That had to be, it
just lets you just go.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
All of it.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
Because how do you write for a genius comedy.

Speaker 2 (16:55):
He knew what he was getting. Yeah. He knew what
he was getting, man.

Speaker 1 (16:58):
You made him bring character a few times.

Speaker 2 (17:00):
Yeah. Yeah, but his scripts are real, though, when he
was going for his.

Speaker 5 (17:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (17:05):
So he's going for his, you know, yeah, yeah, all right,
you got a pool, man. You got a pool.

Speaker 1 (17:10):
A lake.

Speaker 2 (17:10):
I got a lake. It's called Lake Varnell. Catfish, delicious.
Everything became iconic, man.

Speaker 5 (17:19):
Everything became iconic. So we got the singing contest with
the Varnell thing. But the most important part of Arnell
to me is that it stayed in everyone's living room
for like 30 years.

Speaker 2 (17:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (17:31):
Like people grew with this dude, man. You know, it's
somebody they come to know.

Speaker 1 (17:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (17:38):
You know, now when Miss Pat and Mike Epps and
Lavelle and them came to.

Speaker 2 (17:46):
Roast me, they roasted me.

Speaker 3 (17:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (17:48):
And I was Lavelle Crawford?

Speaker 2 (17:49):
Yeah he's on there as well I know him and.

Speaker 4 (17:52):
Miss Pat wasn't dead at the same time ain't enough
room in the world.

Speaker 7 (17:54):
Jesus they actually sat next to each other in that episode.

Speaker 2 (17:59):
No way they sat next to each.

Speaker 6 (18:01):
Other yes they did leave my Miss Pat alone.

Speaker 4 (18:03):
Y'all know that?

Speaker 2 (18:04):
We was on the show dummy do the hump do
the hump do the hump do the hump you.

Speaker 7 (18:10):
Know Lavelle lost a lot of weight Lavelle ain't big
Miss Pat ain't that damn big either not.

Speaker 4 (18:15):
No more yeah you're right Oh my God.

Speaker 2 (18:17):
She coming down. She coming down.

Speaker 6 (18:22):
You know, when you see the resurgence of some of
these older 90s shows.

Speaker 3 (18:27):
Leave Ms.

Speaker 2 (18:28):
Pat alone. I'm getting in trouble on your show.

Speaker 4 (18:30):
I'm getting in trouble on your show.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
But he kept saying it to himself. Is she coming down?

Speaker 7 (18:36):
He had the picture in his mind.

Speaker 3 (18:39):
I think she's coming down.

Speaker 1 (18:41):
I love Ms.

Speaker 5 (18:42):
Pat Ann LaBelle. She's the most giving person, man. You
got to get to know her, boy. You got to
get to know her. So she brought me in over
and over again with nigga poppins. You know, just, you know,
nigga pops in and nigga pops out.

Speaker 2 (18:58):
You know what I mean? So I get a chance
to go over there and they let me go. They
let me go. No, don't, don't, don't, don't make them
read nothing. You know, just tell me, just, you know,
tell me, just go ahead and just let me go.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
And then even, what's her name? Oh my gosh. Marshae
in the show. She old, dusty niggas.

Speaker 2 (19:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
Man, y'all do go.

Speaker 5 (19:18):
We go hard. We go hard, man. It's fights break out.
All kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 (19:22):
And I love that, because you're from DMV.

Speaker 7 (19:24):
The reason why I love that is because it's a
lot of us that shows up there.

Speaker 1 (19:29):
We're not afraid to, like, you.

Speaker 7 (19:30):
Weren't afraid to go to the max with the jokes.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
Like, that's how we talking in DMV.

Speaker 2 (19:36):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (19:37):
Nigga this, nigga that.

Speaker 2 (19:37):
That's right. Let's go.

Speaker 1 (19:39):
I like that.

Speaker 7 (19:39):
How hard was that to get all those niggas cleared?

Speaker 2 (19:43):
It wasn't hard at all, really. I mean, they making money,
You know what I mean? I'll leave it at that.

Speaker 5 (19:51):
Oh, you're talking about Carolina. They let it go. FCC,
you know, we can have a little leverage here.

Speaker 6 (20:01):
I was going to ask, how do you put somebody
on to 90s comedy, right? Because, of course, we know Varnell, right?
But as a 22-year-old, how do you introduce him to
that character to make it a fresh start where it's
not like I'm already seeing it from 30 years ago?

Speaker 2 (20:16):
Just putting what we put into what we did back then.

Speaker 5 (20:20):
You know, if, you know, Kenan says, you know, hey, man,
you just got possessed by a dog. You know, so
when you come through that door, be a dog.

Speaker 3 (20:30):
Hey.

Speaker 2 (20:33):
Jesus.

Speaker 5 (20:35):
You know, so I'm a dog.

Speaker 2 (20:42):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 3 (20:43):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (20:45):
You know, you know the Spanish. Yeah, you know the Spanish.

Speaker 5 (20:49):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 7 (20:51):
So, you know, they're the only Spanish dogs on earth.

Speaker 8 (20:54):
Right, right, right.

Speaker 4 (21:06):
That's Dominican.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
That's a different class.

Speaker 3 (21:15):
But you know what's so interesting? See, that type of
talent that you possess is timeless. And that's always valuable.
And I feel like there's a difference between being relevant
and being valuable. So have you ever felt like this
business stopped recognizing your value simply because you weren't the
newest thing anymore?

Speaker 2 (21:33):
Yeah, yeah. but that was just mental, you know?

Speaker 5 (21:37):
And because if you have a whole business, you know, going, okay,
that's enough.

Speaker 2 (21:45):
Shoop! All the way on someone else. You know what
I mean? That's mental.

Speaker 5 (21:50):
You know, you, you, you just have to remember that,
you know, what comes from you comes from you. This
is a gift, you know, and it doesn't wear off.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
You know what I mean? It's, it's there, it's there
for you.

Speaker 5 (22:01):
I remember we, we was in, um, We was little kids,
and you remember the good humor used to come with
the back door that came open?

Speaker 2 (22:09):
Y'all remember that?

Speaker 3 (22:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (22:10):
No. Right. Ice cream truck, right?

Speaker 4 (22:12):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (22:12):
With the big chrome handle. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got
the handle that you can pull open. Yep, yep.

Speaker 5 (22:17):
We ain't had no money. So when it come by,
we just look and watch it go. You know, one
day it was going up the hill, and the door
came open. So we was like, man, we got a
shot at it, right? So we all run over there.
and we go to put our hand in it, and
there's an old black woman at the bus stop.

Speaker 2 (22:35):
So we stopped. And she said, go on, get y'all something.

Speaker 5 (22:39):
But just get enough for you. So it's that kind
of thing where you start to... I remember we went
to a party way up in Mount Vernon. The girls
had houses, and they had KFC on the table. And
it was February cold. We had our ski jackets and
gloves on. So we started wrapping in napkins. Hey, man,
that's KFC. And the father came over, and he was like, hey,

(23:01):
Y'all come over here. So we thought we was going
to get thrown out. That's natural. And he said something
that I'll never forget. He told me, hey, man, we
put that chicken there so you guys can have it.
You guys don't have to take it because we put.

Speaker 2 (23:15):
It there for you. This is there for you.

Speaker 1 (23:18):
Right.

Speaker 2 (23:19):
He put it there for us.

Speaker 1 (23:20):
Right.

Speaker 2 (23:20):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 5 (23:21):
So when I watch, it's natural to want to do
what you do at the highest level, but you just
can't do it all the time.

Speaker 3 (23:28):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 5 (23:28):
A lot of people in this business man and a
lot of people and now the social media is here
too you know it's just all on like popcorn but
you know as long as you're working you know and
as long as you're being true to yourself you know
then it'll come it'll come but man patience without faith

(23:49):
man that's a long wait you gotta have a little
you gotta have some faith in that you know what
I'm saying were.

Speaker 7 (23:55):
You always that way though like like able to, like,
you just embodied a fucking dog, right?

Speaker 3 (24:01):
Like, literally, two different things.

Speaker 4 (24:03):
Two dogs.

Speaker 1 (24:03):
No, three, the Dominican, the Chihuahua, and, you know, I
think the person with the pit bull, right? So, you
and Jim.

Speaker 7 (24:09):
Carrey, y'all are, like, I watched y'all growing up, and
y'all could, like, turn into anything y'all wanted to fucking be.

Speaker 1 (24:16):
The drop of a dime, right? Were you always that way?

Speaker 7 (24:19):
How did you end up being so animated and not
afraid to do that?

Speaker 2 (24:24):
I didn't know I was. I just was.

Speaker 5 (24:27):
Now that I look at my daughter, I'm like, that's
how I was. My youngest daughter is.

Speaker 4 (24:31):
Like, what?

Speaker 2 (24:34):
She's all out. She's all out. She's like, you know,
this is a buffalo, and the buffalo has roller skates.
Watch this. That state of mind is there. You know
what I mean?

Speaker 5 (24:47):
We all got our skills, but when we have an
opportunity to use them to make a living, man, that
is the miracle. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (24:57):
That's the miracle right there. And sometimes you just gotta wait.

Speaker 1 (25:00):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 (25:01):
You gotta wait, man. You gotta wait your turn. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (25:04):
Man, Tommy, that's so interesting you say that, because I
swear I was just sitting there thinking, like, you've had
so much success, but then there was, like, your contemporaries,
a lot of them have become even bigger household names, right? Mm-hmm.
But have you ever had to wrestle with wondering why
somebody else's career went one direction and yours went another,
but right now you got your own show in 2026?

Speaker 4 (25:21):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 (25:23):
I did when it was happening.

Speaker 3 (25:24):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 (25:25):
Cause I didn't understand what I know now.

Speaker 5 (25:28):
You know, I, something happened to me along the line
where I realized, Hey man, won't you stop complaining? Won't
you stop complaining about who got this and who got
that and who got that? Won't you find out what
they did? Won't you find out what they did to
do that? Won't you, won't you start to look at
what choices they're making?

Speaker 2 (25:49):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 5 (25:50):
Won't you start trying to, to, to, to work harder
on what you're doing. But at the same time, do
the math. Do the math about what you see.

Speaker 2 (26:03):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 5 (26:04):
If it's a certain agency, if it's a certain this
or that, or they did this with an article or whatever,
then there's nothing wrong with watching the path and following it.

Speaker 2 (26:16):
But for me, I want my path to be my path.
I don't want to have to You know, I can
do this. I can do this. You know what I mean?
But you can learn. You can learn from the people
closest to you.

Speaker 4 (26:31):
You can do all those things and still not pop
off easy, though.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:34):
Yeah. But you know what? You know, what's today?

Speaker 1 (26:40):
The 31st.

Speaker 2 (26:41):
This is the end of the line. It's the 1st.
Today's the 1st.

Speaker 3 (26:44):
Oh, the 1st.

Speaker 2 (26:44):
This is going to air tomorrow.

Speaker 4 (26:45):
It's really the 31st, but we put air tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (26:47):
Okay, okay, okay.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
So today's the 1st. Today's the 1st. So let's act. Yeah,
let's act.

Speaker 4 (26:51):
So today's the 1st.

Speaker 2 (26:52):
So today's the 1st, right?

Speaker 5 (26:53):
Well, it's the last 1st that we're going to have
until the next 1st of this type of month, right?

Speaker 2 (27:02):
So why not go all out?

Speaker 3 (27:05):
But at 60 plus, getting your own TV show built
around a character you created in your 20s, 30s, that
has to hit differently. Does it feel like a comeback
or confirmation that you never went nowhere?

Speaker 5 (27:18):
It's confirmation and it's a comeback too because I get
to be in front of the thing that people.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
Know me for.

Speaker 5 (27:26):
If I play quarterback and then I have to sit
down for another person for a couple of seasons or whatever,
then hey, I'm always a quarterback, right?

Speaker 2 (27:37):
But I've seen quarterbacks.

Speaker 5 (27:40):
Go through going in, first round draft choice, being the
hot guy, got all the money, this, that, and the
other thing, and then slow down.

Speaker 2 (27:48):
Slow down.

Speaker 5 (27:49):
And the years went by and they didn't get those things.
And then finally, the opportunity came. But the opportunity didn't
come like in one day. The opportunity came by them saying,
you know what, I'm going to hang in there.

Speaker 2 (28:03):
I don't have to start. But, you know, I'm working.
I got my kids. You know, he's good to me.
You know what I mean?

Speaker 5 (28:10):
I've seen greater miracles, but I'll take this one. I
will take this one. What got you back on your square? Because,
you know, you talk about your trials and tribulations. What
got you back to staying focused and saying, I can
do this? Because most people would have focused, right, with
some of the stuff that you've been with. So what
got you in that mind frame to be like, I
can do it? I always thought that I could. you know,

(28:35):
but while things started happening without me, I started doubting it.
Not doubting what I could do, but doubting if it
would happen. You know, that's one of the things that
has changed about my thinking is that who cares when
it's going to happen? Just keep working on it. Just

(28:58):
keep working on it, man, and it'll meet you halfway.

Speaker 2 (29:00):
Mm-hmm. You know, if you ain't prepared when it happen,
it's not going to happen anyway. That's right.

Speaker 6 (29:06):
Did you ever do anything that would hurt you from
coming back? Like, you talk about Diddy, and she just
mentioned that, you know, Diddy might have or might have
not punched the guy in the face, which hurt him
for trying out for Bishop. Have you ever went so
far where you couldn't come back or had to repair
those relationships?

Speaker 2 (29:21):
Plenty. With myself.

Speaker 5 (29:24):
You know, going through my downward spiral with substance and
going through my downward spiral just as a man.

Speaker 2 (29:30):
Mm-hmm. Trying to be a man... In this thing... You
know what I mean?

Speaker 4 (29:34):
And.

Speaker 5 (29:35):
and, and, and, you know, not able to be the
best that I could be in relationships too, you know,
and now that my children are older, you know, and,
and now that I see you can, you can lose it,
you know, you can lose it. You might not think so,
but it also can come back. But there's, there's one ingredient,

(30:00):
that I never really paid much attention to, is the
thing that brings the sun up every day. And I
took more, I started taking more, I had more respect
for that. Not because I have respect for it, because
trial by ass whipping, I learned it.

Speaker 2 (30:20):
Trial by my own ass whipping.

Speaker 4 (30:21):
You weren't a spiritual person prior to that?

Speaker 2 (30:23):
Not like I am now. Not like, I don't have
to think about believing.

Speaker 4 (30:28):
All praise is due to God. Say his name.

Speaker 3 (30:30):
Don't say that thing before that puts the sun up. God.

Speaker 2 (30:34):
Yeah, there you go. There's no doubt. There's no doubt
in my mind.

Speaker 5 (30:39):
And it was from things being put right in front
of me. Like when my mother passed away. My mother
wouldn't let me come see her. She knew I was
the most sensitive ever. So she didn't let me come
see her. And my sister was like, She's serious. She
don't want you to come and see her like this.
And I was like, man, I had to stay at
home and.

Speaker 1 (30:58):
All that, right?

Speaker 5 (30:59):
Well, she started out as an atheist, right? She never
taught God in my house, none of that.

Speaker 2 (31:05):
None of that, right? Didn't want to, but she was
carrying on that way.

Speaker 5 (31:09):
Like she'd give, you know, kids food and if somebody,
you always know somebody got killed in my neighborhood because
they crying in our living room at four in the morning.
She's always helping people. So I couldn't understand that. I
couldn't understand it. But then on her, She used to
like me to sing to her. So I called her,
and my sister said, if you want to talk to
her again, you better call her.

Speaker 2 (31:31):
I said, cool. She said, sing for me. And I sang.

Speaker 5 (31:35):
And then she said, I'm not afraid anymore because there
is a God. Now, what's the chances of her finding
me in the trash, carrying me that whole time, a
black child with a white family in D.C., and then
finding God in the process?

Speaker 2 (31:52):
So when I see people.

Speaker 5 (31:53):
Having a debate about it, you know, I don't debate
anymore because I know where I've been on more than
one occasion with a gun in my face or whatever
it was where it could have been gone.

Speaker 4 (32:07):
Look at God. That's right. What song did she like
for you to sing to her?

Speaker 2 (32:10):
I sing. Definitely not some boing boing.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
Not to his mother.

Speaker 2 (32:15):
What is my word to him? I think he's doing
Sammy Davis, your boy. What is my word to him?

Speaker 1 (32:23):
Emotion on his face and then here you come.

Speaker 2 (32:26):
He still gets ching ching when he does it.

Speaker 3 (32:28):
You see what I'm saying?

Speaker 2 (32:30):
It works for him. I ain't doubting him. I'm never
doubting him.

Speaker 5 (32:35):
When I heard that, I was like, he's three less
than Mahomes.

Speaker 2 (32:39):
You know what I mean? But when you stay true
to yourself, though.

Speaker 1 (32:43):
Period.

Speaker 5 (32:43):
You know, when you stay true to yourself and what
your ideas are and you don't move from it, people
can really start to adhere to a new idea. You know,
the fact that, you know, I could do like, yeah, well,
don't call it a comeback. I've been here for years.
But I know what he was saying. You know, but
if you're not seen, then who knows?

Speaker 2 (33:07):
That's the hardest.

Speaker 3 (33:08):
But you've always been seen. Like, there's something beautiful about it.
about this idea sitting dormant for all this time, and
then suddenly this is your next chapter. What has this
taught you about timing? This experience in particular.

Speaker 2 (33:26):
That when God feels you're ready, then it's going to happen.
It's going to happen.

Speaker 5 (33:33):
You can have all the doubt in the world and
have just the storm brewing. And just know that there's
always a light at the end of that tunnel. I
remember watching Three Things, I remember, because I listened to
hear him in people after things happened. So when the linebacker, Lewis,

(34:04):
from the Ravens, Ray Lewis, the stabbing situation, he was
going to go to jail and blah, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 2 (34:10):
He ended up getting the MVP in the Super Bowl
and winning the Super Bowl.

Speaker 5 (34:15):
And I listened to his interview, and he said, I
knew God wouldn't put me through that kind of trial
unless there was a triumph after that. Then Plexico. Plexico
actually got the last touchdown in the Super Bowl. So
they asked him, hey, man, you shot yourself in the leg.
You got thrown out of the league. You had to

(34:35):
go to jail. You end up coming back two seasons.
And then you end up catching a winning touchdown in
the Super Bowl. What do you attest that to? And
he said, well, when I got up this morning, I said, God,
if you get me to the field, I'll be happy
with just that.

Speaker 1 (34:50):
So playing Vernell for you this time.

Speaker 4 (34:52):
Hold on, you got one more.

Speaker 1 (34:53):
You got one more.

Speaker 2 (34:53):
I don't remember it. Dang. Yeah, I don't remember it.

Speaker 4 (34:57):
It's okay.

Speaker 2 (34:58):
It went away.

Speaker 1 (34:58):
That's age. It'll come back.

Speaker 2 (35:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (35:01):
When it come back, just go over there. We'll know
exactly where you're going.

Speaker 8 (35:04):
But playing Ronell for you this time, because of all
the ups, the downs, the times that you had to
sit and the thought process, just all that is different
than when you were playing Ronell on Martin. There's more
of a spiritual alignment for you right now?

Speaker 2 (35:16):
Yeah, and you learn. You live and you learn, right?

Speaker 5 (35:21):
And one of the things that is the most difficult
about entertainment is that there's a thing called business attached
to it. So this is show business and that's why
the song says that you know there's no business like
show business that it's like no business i know now

(35:42):
ain't nothing like that going something like that is going
to make the person across from you in the movie
not not give you your lines off off off off
camera just because they felt like not doing it that
day or just because they felt like hey man i
ain't helping you you know what i mean or or
or or um at a job, you, there's just one

(36:03):
person that they just ain't going to be your friend.

Speaker 3 (36:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (36:06):
It just ain't going to be your friend. You tried everything,
you know, try to be nice to him, Christmas, Hey,
Merry Christmas, whatever. And then you finally had to stop
speaking to him because it was hurting you. I'm never
going to be able to get through to that person.

Speaker 2 (36:19):
You know?

Speaker 5 (36:19):
So, so it's that conclusion that the business is never
going to be done. The business got to do itself,
but the show must go on.

Speaker 7 (36:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (36:28):
The show must go on. I remember, you know, I
paid dues. I remember Thanksgiving, I was in a hotel somewhere,
and it wasn't VIP, and I was putting one of
them little microwave cheeseburgers in the microwave to kind of
be a delinquent store. Before they had the microwave, it

(36:49):
was like a toaster oven. You know what I mean?
So all of those experiences culminated. Oh, I know what
it was. It was Tom Brady. Tom Brady said something
that I was like, oh, my God. And then I say,
that's why he's so successful.

Speaker 2 (37:08):
And I'll explain it.

Speaker 5 (37:10):
Mike, when Seattle threw the interception to them, right, well,
here go Mike Irvin. He had Tom Brady on the sideline, right?

Speaker 2 (37:20):
Tom, now you tell me, and I want you to
tell me the truth, too. Don't lie. Okay, Tom? Listen,
if they gave that ball to beast mode, Would y'all
have won that game? Right?

Speaker 5 (37:35):
He said, I'm just glad they didn't. Plain knowledge, because
as a quarterback, he did his job. It's up to
the defense. So he was content about that.

Speaker 2 (37:48):
He was content.

Speaker 5 (37:48):
He said, hey, I got us in a time period
where we had enough of a score to win the game,
and all my defense got to do is stop them.
That was like wisdom. And he laughed a little bit.
He said, hey, I'm just glad they didn't. Because he knew.
There's a knowledge inside of knowledge. You know what I mean?

(38:09):
Like your grandmother got. Remember, she used to come in
the room. We'd be talking about girls. She'd tell me,
I'm tired of y'all talking about girls that don't like y'all.
Why don't you start talking to girls that like you
because they got something for you. I didn't know what
you were talking about. But later on, I did.

Speaker 2 (38:30):
You know?

Speaker 5 (38:30):
And then my grandfather would say, I mean, if everybody
was the same, everybody would be.

Speaker 2 (38:35):
Chasing after your grandma. Like, there's a knowledge inside of
a knowledge. You know what I mean?

Speaker 3 (38:40):
What's harder mentally? Becoming successful the first time, right? Or
proving you still belong now after the industry has changed
so much?

Speaker 5 (38:50):
I think they're the same, but they're on different parallels.

Speaker 2 (38:53):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 5 (38:54):
You know, with this stage of my life, you know,
I feel there's a feeling of deserving.

Speaker 2 (39:03):
There's a feeling of deserving. Like, I deserve. Baby, I deserve.
What's that song? Yeah, by Tank. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
I deserve.

Speaker 3 (39:10):
I deserve.

Speaker 2 (39:10):
You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 5 (39:11):
He ain't deserve that from Tank when he went at
the turtleneck, but I'm just saying.

Speaker 3 (39:15):
Oh, I'm sorry.

Speaker 5 (39:16):
You know, yeah, he was hitting him with darts, but...
But it's like, I deserve this or whatever.

Speaker 2 (39:24):
You know what I mean? That kind of thing. The
other one is just sheer effort. You know, like one.

Speaker 5 (39:30):
bedroom apartment after having a job with two cars and
a little apartment of your own and then going out
to L.A., staying in one room and taking the bus,
you know, for three years and this, that, and that.

Speaker 2 (39:42):
That's another kind. You know what I mean?

Speaker 5 (39:44):
But that's a different, that's a determination. I got left,
I used to get left at the bus stop. In February,
I used to have to be to my job at
a hospital, right? And it was cold at the bus stop.
And I'm like, man, and this one bus driver, white boy,
used to look right at me and drive right by.

(40:04):
Drive right by me. And I had to walk to work.
I was late every time. And as I was walking,
I said to myself, I know what I got to do.
I got to get myself in a position where no
one can control me.

Speaker 2 (40:21):
Where I go. You know what I mean? And that's determination.

Speaker 5 (40:25):
So one is deserving. The one is determination, right? And
then what you going to do with it when you
get it? You know, I didn't know that one. Black
ladies used to say that, you know, you better watch
out for what you pay for because you just might
get it. You know, and I was like, shoot, I
don't know what your problem is. It might be difficult
for you.

Speaker 2 (40:44):
Then what? If you got everything that you want, then
how you going to act? How you going to carry on?

Speaker 3 (40:49):
Now you got the wisdom. Now you got the experience.
You got the feeling of worthiness.

Speaker 2 (40:52):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now where you going to get it from?

Speaker 5 (40:56):
You know, and I found out that you get that
from giving.

Speaker 2 (40:58):
Wow.

Speaker 6 (41:00):
You get that from giving. So that's what you think
it is. You think people are seeing that now is
your time. Like I see where's Papa. I see all
these other things that you're working now. It just seems
like things are starting to fall in your lap the
right way and people are starting to notice more.

Speaker 4 (41:12):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5 (41:12):
Well, I had some work to do. I had some
work to do. I just, you know... Like the Saving
Private Ryan.

Speaker 7 (41:18):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 5 (41:19):
At the end, you know, the white boy had already
told Private Ryan, hey, man, stupid, some people got killed
to get you home.

Speaker 4 (41:28):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (41:28):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 5 (41:29):
And so Tom is in the middle of the, middle
of the daggone bridge shooting at the tank with all
he got left.

Speaker 2 (41:36):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 5 (41:37):
And then here comes a plane, blows the tank up,
and he's just there with him. And he says, and
he says, I earned this. And then he morphs into
an old man.

Speaker 3 (41:47):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 5 (41:47):
And he's at a graveyard of that person who told
him that. And he looked at his wife and he said,
you got me ready to cry here. And he said,
have I been a good man?

Speaker 2 (41:58):
And she said, yeah. Yeah. You know, she said, yeah.
Like my supervisor, Joe, at the hospital, used to cuss
me out every day. Every day. You ain't shit. You're
never going to be nothing.

Speaker 5 (42:10):
You're going to have kids. You're going to have all
these kids. You ain't going to ever be. And he
would show up every day. At 4.30, because I had
to be there in the freezer, you know, work with
him in the freezer. And he cussed me out so bad,
I'm waiting there for him to come. You know, because
I'm trying to hold myself up to his. I'm going

(42:31):
to have this and that.

Speaker 2 (42:31):
And I didn't realize that all that time he was
preparing me. He was preparing me.

Speaker 5 (42:37):
So when I got my show in Living Color, I
went to the hospital. And, you know, came in and
everybody was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:46):
Yeah. And he looked at me, and he.

Speaker 5 (42:50):
Went in his little drawer, and he had those paper cameras,
and he took a picture of me.

Speaker 4 (42:57):
Click.

Speaker 2 (42:57):
He said, that ain't for me, that's for my son.
And I put it in the drawer.

Speaker 5 (43:01):
And I realized years later, man, that man, if it
wasn't for that dude, because.

Speaker 2 (43:07):
I was out in D.C.

Speaker 5 (43:10):
Our favorite was Smoking Dust and Jack Daniels as entertainment.

Speaker 2 (43:15):
You know, and going out and doing all the works.
And that one guy.

Speaker 5 (43:22):
Cared about me enough to cuss me out and then
let me know that's for my son.

Speaker 3 (43:27):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 5 (43:28):
You know, that's for my son. And when he hit me,
I called him. You know, just tell him thank you.
And his girlfriend Judy answered the phone. And I said,
where Joe at? She said, stop playing, Tommy. I said,
where Joe?

Speaker 2 (43:42):
She said, stop playing, Tommy. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 5 (43:45):
And I said, where's Joe? She said, Joe died this morning.
And I didn't have a chance to do that. My
buddy from Philly, I never had a friend like him.
He was like 26.

Speaker 2 (43:57):
I was like 18.

Speaker 5 (44:00):
But, you know, with me and my friends, we kick
your ass. Or we, you know, hey, that's my friends.
We do all kind of edgy.

Speaker 2 (44:07):
We out there, right? We, hey, I got your back.
What is it? What's that one? Die for me now. So,
you know, that's what the thing was.

Speaker 3 (44:16):
With him, it was like, hey, man, you know you
can get a used car with your check.

Speaker 2 (44:41):
I was like, I can't afford a used car. He
take me and did the math.

Speaker 5 (44:44):
If you get, you're getting like $ 234, you know.

Speaker 2 (44:49):
Damn near every week. You know, look at this. That, that, that, that,
I got it. You know what I'm saying? He said,
let's go to the grocery store. Let's do this. Let's
do that.

Speaker 5 (44:57):
When I told him I was going to Hollywood, he's
from Philadelphia. I told him I was going to Hollywood, right?
And he didn't even look at me. He didn't even
look at me. I said, I think I'm going to
go to Hollywood, man. And And I'm going to try
to was in the car. He was dropping me off
at my house, right? And he used to just look
straight ahead, you know, real wise. And he told me,

(45:19):
he told me, Nick, if I was.

Speaker 2 (45:21):
You, I'd have been gone. Ain't even look at me.
Been gone.

Speaker 5 (45:24):
All the talent you got out of being gone. And
I just got out the car and said, all right.
He said, that's right. So he had got a.

Speaker 2 (45:33):
New BMW.

Speaker 5 (45:37):
And I was already out there in L.A. And I
called him just to check.

Speaker 2 (45:41):
In and the same thing happened. The same thing happened. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (45:47):
When I called him, somebody answered the phone. I can't
remember who it was. And she said, stop playing.

Speaker 2 (45:53):
Stop playing. And she said, Jeff got killed this morning
in a car accident.

Speaker 4 (45:58):
Nigga, stop calling me.

Speaker 2 (45:59):
Don't call me no more. Don't call me no more
because I'm going to die next. You know what I mean?

Speaker 5 (46:08):
But all those things, being isolated, being isolated out in
LA by myself and having to grow on my own.

Speaker 2 (46:16):
A loss can be a thing. You know what I mean?

Speaker 5 (46:21):
But we can't be here and be nothing. We can't
be here and be something and come from nothing.

Speaker 3 (46:29):
I wanted to ask you, because you said something earlier
that I thought was powerful. You said that you realize
it's about giving.

Speaker 2 (46:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (46:35):
Expand on that.

Speaker 3 (46:37):
It's a circle.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
You know? Learn how to give. Learn how to give
of your time. Learn how to give of your love.
Learn how to give of.

Speaker 5 (46:47):
Your encouragement. Or think about somebody. You know, if I'm
always thinking about me, then it's going to be about me,
but that's so limited. I ain't got but two eyes
and we can't put them in the back of our head.
And God said, man, I ain't put it in the
back of your head because you can't handle all the
stuff happening.

Speaker 2 (47:01):
Behind your back. You know what I'm saying? You know?
You can't. You can't. So, you know, because thoughts can
start to accumulate. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (47:17):
An idea that, look, this isn't working. And I don't
think it's going to work. And I remember one time
that this and this and that. So this is really
an example of that. And that thing starts going. And
that thing starts going. And then, you know, now my
awareness is like, wait a minute, Junior lost his daughter.

Speaker 1 (47:36):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (47:39):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 4 (47:39):
That's real.

Speaker 2 (47:41):
And call him.

Speaker 5 (47:43):
Just because I knew that at the point where my
mind starts doing that, you know, I said, hey, man,
call June. Or call Judy, the one who answered the phone.
She's still around. Call her and say, how you doing?
Because she's the one that worked with me at the
hospital and pulled me out of the sink when I

(48:04):
would fall asleep or whatever.

Speaker 2 (48:06):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 5 (48:07):
And so giving is that part that I never really
knew had that much power.

Speaker 2 (48:13):
But if it wasn't for.

Speaker 5 (48:17):
Our great, great, great, great, great grandmother and grandfather, we
wouldn't have we wouldn't have the 100% faith we have
inside of us. Because they knew they wasn't going to
get here. But they knew for sure we were.

Speaker 1 (48:32):
We were, yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:34):
They knew for sure we were.

Speaker 5 (48:36):
We're probably one of the few populations of people that
call themselves Americans that are here on 100% faith. I mean,
I'm in the cotton field with my wife. And my kids,
because we used to work as a family. My aunts
would come and say, you come with me.

Speaker 2 (48:58):
To my wife. Take her in the cabin.

Speaker 5 (49:02):
Come back an hour or two later, she straightened up
her clothes. And all the girls pulled her to the
side and said, you all right, honey? And then all
the guys come to me and say, don't do nothing crazy.
And they didn't do that for just one year. That
was a whole lot of faith to have. to have
that happening to you constantly and your kids eat out

(49:25):
of a trough a pig trough you know so our
existence here is based on a faith that has.

Speaker 2 (49:37):
Been proven To last.

Speaker 5 (49:40):
Because you'll never hear us talking about, well, we're going
to go and start shooting stuff up.

Speaker 2 (49:45):
Not as a group. Not as a group.

Speaker 5 (49:47):
Because what happened on Sundays or whatever happened with us,
there's a black.

Speaker 2 (49:54):
Woman somewhere that said, you ain't got to do all that.

Speaker 4 (49:56):
Yeah, God going to take care of it.

Speaker 2 (49:57):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You just go ahead and forgive them.
You know, go ahead and forgive them. You know?

Speaker 5 (50:04):
I had, when I was in my darkest time, man,
a friend of mine's sister called me. And she said,
in the middle of the night, scared the hell out
of me. And she said, and their whole family had
sent me a prayer clock.

Speaker 2 (50:19):
You know? And I was just up. And the phone rang.

Speaker 5 (50:23):
She said, Tommy, sometimes we got to just hang there
in pain like he did. Sometimes we got to just
hang in the pain.

Speaker 2 (50:31):
You know? Because if he didn't do that, we wouldn't
be talking right now. You know what I mean?

Speaker 5 (50:39):
So it's those kind of things that just gave me
more clarity. It don't make me no saint, no nothing.

Speaker 2 (50:45):
Because I ain't. You know what I mean? But I
understand me a little bit better. I understand me. Because
me is the problem. You know what I mean?

Speaker 8 (50:57):
The show is like the then versus the now, right?
And I'm listening to you with all this wisdom and
this clarity. And I'm thinking about how the shows in
the 90s, and like you mentioned Arsenio Hall and those
talk shows, they carried a different type of responsibility than
you see with a lot of creators and just people
online in writers' rooms today, right? What do you think

(51:18):
is missing from that time period that we don't have
today and is there a way to bridge it? Because
that's kind of what Ronell Hill's show would do if
it were a real show and could.

Speaker 5 (51:27):
Probably these databases and stuff and.

Speaker 2 (51:32):
Social media.

Speaker 5 (51:34):
Now you can have your whole world in the palm
of your hand. You ain't got to reference nobody, really.
You ain't got to talk to nobody, really. There's a
lot of stuff that you can do in there that's
to do.

Speaker 2 (51:46):
A big part of our generations, they live in there.
You know what I'm saying? They live in there.

Speaker 5 (51:52):
But there's a world out here, too. I credit it
to that, but it ain't going nowhere. You got to
live with changes.

Speaker 2 (52:02):
I'm sure when.

Speaker 5 (52:06):
Couple guys were on a horse and they saw the car.
They said, man, what is that, man? It can't even
go up a hill. You know, now the cars are
named after horsepower. So we know that it's there. You
know what I'm saying? But so are horses. You see
what I'm saying?

Speaker 2 (52:20):
So, yeah. Yeah. You know, they don't need no grocery store.
They don't need us.

Speaker 1 (52:25):
But I know them damn horses was happy as hell. Like,
thank you. I don't know what else to ride on
because look.

Speaker 2 (52:31):
Comedy, comedy, comedy.

Speaker 3 (52:33):
Stand up comedy.

Speaker 2 (52:36):
That's comedy.

Speaker 3 (52:37):
Now them horses getting hunted for meat.

Speaker 1 (52:39):
Right, right. See, that's it. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (52:42):
They getting what?

Speaker 4 (52:42):
Hunted for meat.

Speaker 2 (52:44):
Oh, they're being hunted. They're being hunted. You ain't never
tasted horse? I don't think so.

Speaker 1 (52:47):
No, you have?

Speaker 3 (52:48):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 (52:48):
Is it good?

Speaker 2 (52:55):
Yeah, if everybody knew how a horse tastes, they'd be gone.

Speaker 4 (52:57):
Delicious.

Speaker 1 (52:58):
Damn.

Speaker 2 (52:59):
Delicious. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5 (53:01):
I did it in Sicily, man. The dude was like,
it's horse. I was like, no, we ain't gonna eat
no horse meat. He took that thing and put it
in a broiler, put some butter on that, man, brought
that out to me.

Speaker 2 (53:09):
I was like, oh my God. I was like, horses
would be gone. You know what I mean?

Speaker 3 (53:16):
I've got a couple more questions.

Speaker 4 (53:17):
You know what I think is smart about the Varnel
Hill show?

Speaker 3 (53:19):
I've heard Martin say he don't want to reboot Martin,
but this is like the smart way to To expand
that universe and to get back into that universe without
rebooting Martin.

Speaker 2 (53:30):
Yeah, yeah, because that boy is smart, man. He is smart.

Speaker 5 (53:34):
It's so good being attached to him at this time, too,
because of the choices he's made.

Speaker 2 (53:39):
And I'm also a part of.

Speaker 5 (53:42):
My career is credited to black men.

Speaker 1 (53:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (53:49):
The first time I was on TV, it was Robert Townsend. Mm-hmm.
Second time I was on TV, it was Arsenio Hall.

Speaker 4 (53:56):
Oh my God.

Speaker 2 (53:57):
Third time, it was.

Speaker 5 (53:58):
Eddie Murphy where I played his little brother in a
CBS series called Coming to America.

Speaker 2 (54:04):
It didn't go, but he did that. And then Kenan
was the next one.

Speaker 5 (54:09):
And I had swore off everything because I had the
best agents and everything and I was going to be
the big dude and it didn't happen. And so I
got a call from my agent, from Kenan Ivory Wayans,
who was the man that said he wanted me to
do a TV show. And I said, I don't want
to do it. Because me and my manager at the time,
Sinclair Jones, wherever you are, man, call me, boy. He said, nah,

(54:35):
let's go back to the clubs and rebuild what we're building.

Speaker 2 (54:40):
Because all this was a strategic plan.

Speaker 8 (54:42):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 (54:44):
I just hit the plan earlier than that.

Speaker 1 (54:46):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 (54:47):
It was, our plan was dominate and stand up.

Speaker 8 (54:52):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 5 (54:55):
Do a stand-up special. Or as many as you can.
Then get into TV. Then get into film. Then get
into producing and authoring and all the other stuff you
want to do. You know, we had like a 20-year plan,
but it's been 35 years now. So I hit it
15 early.

Speaker 2 (55:15):
You know what I mean? So, you know, I'm just grateful, man.
I got the call from you. I'm like, oh, man.

Speaker 3 (55:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (55:24):
Yeah, let's do that again. Yeah, man. Yeah, you kidding me?
Let's do that again.

Speaker 3 (55:29):
If the Vaughn Hill Show becomes a hit, which I
don't see why it wouldn't, what do you want this
next chapter of Tommy Davidson to be?

Speaker 5 (55:39):
I want it to be what I've seen. Antoine Fuqua.
That little boy that does Michael B.

Speaker 2 (55:48):
Jordan stuff. I want it to be what I can be.
Or what I am. I'm a great producer, great writer.
I'm a great coordinator, production coordinator.

Speaker 5 (55:59):
I can do all that stuff really, really, really good.
And I'm still learning, but it's going to take some time.
But I look forward to doing those kind of things too.
This was the first step. The first step was to
produce a television show.

Speaker 2 (56:13):
And I did it. I didn't do it by myself,
but it happened.

Speaker 1 (56:16):
You did it.

Speaker 2 (56:17):
But it happened, yeah.

Speaker 5 (56:19):
And I never fronted on people. You know, the director
of that, when they called, I said, I do that movie.

Speaker 1 (56:23):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (56:24):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (56:24):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (56:25):
I got to get calls from directors and stuff. And
they'd be like, yeah, man. And then on the set,
they'd be like, why you do this? I said, because
I'm an actor.

Speaker 1 (56:31):
Right, right.

Speaker 2 (56:32):
You talked about Ryan Coogler, too, when you said. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (56:34):
Ryan Coogler is the guy.

Speaker 2 (56:35):
I mean, call him a little boy. That's how I
say his name. It's a habit. You know, they're younger
than me. Yeah, I was going to say a little boy, too.

Speaker 3 (56:41):
Yeah, man.

Speaker 2 (56:41):
I ain't never met him.

Speaker 7 (56:43):
But on the set of The Realty, yeah, people were
even talking about, on the side like oh my god
we got Tommy Davidson why would he do this movie
why is he doing and you are you never showed
any type of ego like no I am better than
you guys you guys you guys everybody that came up
to you and asked you questions you dropped gems you
gave nothing but knowledge on acting and certain ways to

(57:03):
do tips I mean certain tips on how to like
change the pitch of your voice to make you know,
certain lines believable. You are just amazing. So that was
always great.

Speaker 3 (57:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (57:15):
I was gay. I was, I was given what I
was given. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (57:18):
Um, I don't know if y'all, y'all don't know who
it is. Um, um, Stoney Jackson. Y'all don't know who
Stoney Jackson is.

Speaker 2 (57:24):
Stoney was a big star back in the seventies. Right.

Speaker 5 (57:28):
And I was going up to Robert Townsend's house, you know,
to ask him about a commercial audition that I had.

Speaker 1 (57:33):
Right.

Speaker 5 (57:34):
And, um, Stoney was up there living weights. And, um,
I said, what you doing, young boy? I said, I
came up here to see Robert. He's going to work
with me on this audition. I said, you did an
audition before?

Speaker 2 (57:45):
Not too many. He said, all right, let me show
you how to audition, boy.

Speaker 5 (57:48):
He took me in the little garage and said, I
usually fold the page like this and blah, blah, blah,
and taught me that.

Speaker 2 (57:54):
Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. Patti LaBelle.
Patti LaBelle going on tour with her, I learned.

Speaker 5 (58:00):
Every night she would go do three extra songs, four
extra songs, kick off her shoes, be sweating.

Speaker 2 (58:05):
I said, I'm going to do that.

Speaker 8 (58:06):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 (58:07):
You see what I'm saying?

Speaker 5 (58:09):
George Lucas asked me to lunch one day. We were
at the Aspen Comedy Fest. And Troy Bear, an actress,
came to my door and said, George, I want to
meet you. And George sat down with me, man, and
just was like, this is how I did it.

Speaker 3 (58:29):
Wow.

Speaker 5 (58:29):
Like this, that, that, and that. Dick Clark used to
call me over his office, you know, Come over here,
have lunch with me. He tell me all about Sam
Cooke and Aretha, about all the stuff.

Speaker 2 (58:42):
Don Cornelius. When he first saw me, he said, boy,
you're going to be the biggest thing. I'm telling you.

Speaker 5 (58:47):
And he revised me over the house and talked to me,
George Duke, same, Luther, same.

Speaker 2 (58:53):
So it's like, what am I going to do, man? Yeah,
what am I going to do? What is that going
to do for me if I don't? Is that missing
from the industry now?

Speaker 6 (59:01):
Do you do that to people? Bring them to the
house and have a conversation? I don't feel like we
hear that enough now.

Speaker 2 (59:06):
Well, I live too far, but... I do, though.

Speaker 5 (59:11):
I do, and that's a big part of the show.
A big part of the show is I get.

Speaker 2 (59:16):
To hang out.

Speaker 5 (59:17):
I get to hang out in the writer's room with them.
I get to hang out in our writers, the actors
who are in the writer's room. I get to hang
out with makeup and and electric and all of them.

Speaker 2 (59:29):
Because I love this. I love every part of this.

Speaker 3 (59:33):
But you always share information. Tommy, he'll text me all
types of stuff all the time.

Speaker 4 (59:39):
You share information.

Speaker 2 (59:40):
He's a consumer.

Speaker 1 (59:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (59:42):
Yeah, he'd be like.

Speaker 4 (59:44):
Don't say it like that.

Speaker 2 (59:45):
Gobble it up. Gobble it right up.

Speaker 1 (59:48):
No, no, no.

Speaker 2 (59:49):
I sent him a book. I sent him a book
or something.

Speaker 1 (59:52):
Yes, that's right.

Speaker 2 (59:53):
And next thing he called me, that was good. That's right.

Speaker 1 (59:55):
YouTube-y.

Speaker 8 (59:57):
I always ask him, like, how do you get through
all these? He be like, well, I'm reading this. And
they be like, well, I'm reading.

Speaker 2 (01:00:02):
Now, he's quit the God Bowl and say something's good. Like,
that's what he does.

Speaker 3 (01:00:04):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:00:05):
Like, that was good.

Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
You know?

Speaker 2 (01:00:07):
I do have a question, right?

Speaker 6 (01:00:08):
So, when I heard you were coming, of course, I
Googled the show before they sent the trailers and the
episodes beforehand.

Speaker 2 (01:00:15):
I seen Jess Hilarious on there. I thought Jess Hilarious
was in it, but I seen the first four episodes
and she wasn't.

Speaker 4 (01:00:21):
Is she on it?

Speaker 2 (01:00:22):
I watched the whole season.

Speaker 1 (01:00:23):
No, I'm not in it. What happened, Tommy?

Speaker 3 (01:00:25):
Damn. Damn.

Speaker 2 (01:00:27):
Were you there? Yeah, I did.

Speaker 7 (01:00:29):
Remember when I came out to L.A. and I shot
something with you? It was like two or three scenes.

Speaker 1 (01:00:35):
Remember, Bentley had hit me, and I know now Evans.

Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
I don't remember that.

Speaker 1 (01:00:41):
I don't know why you don't remember that. You ain't
that damn old.

Speaker 2 (01:00:43):
It wasn't on a set?

Speaker 3 (01:00:44):
It was.

Speaker 2 (01:00:45):
It was a set.

Speaker 1 (01:00:45):
We came out.

Speaker 3 (01:00:46):
What was the scene?

Speaker 1 (01:00:46):
You had on a yellow suit. You had on the
same suit you were in. What was the scene? I was.

Speaker 7 (01:00:50):
Oh my gosh, I was like, one where I was
flirting with you, and then it was like three different
scenes that we shot.

Speaker 1 (01:00:56):
I forgot what the hell my name was, but yeah,
I came out there. They flew me out to LA.

Speaker 7 (01:01:00):
I remember Bentley Evans, you, it was a few other people.
Martin was supposed to come to the set that day.
He didn't show up. And then the writer's strike happened,
then they said that it was done.

Speaker 1 (01:01:12):
Like, all right, they brought everything to a halt. And
then I'm sitting.

Speaker 7 (01:01:16):
Here like weeks ago, and I hear Sharla like, yo,
Bono Hill show coming back.

Speaker 1 (01:01:21):
I was like, shit, it is?

Speaker 7 (01:01:23):
Ain't nobody hit me. Leo Jackson, that was the other
guy I talked to also. I think he works closely
with you or whatever. You and Martin, he works closely with.
And I was like, damn, it is. And then he said, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:01:34):
And so when they sent it to me, I watched
the whole season. I'm like, damn, this shit is funny.

Speaker 3 (01:01:39):
I ain't in it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:40):
Yeah, but you know what, though? You're resilient, though.

Speaker 1 (01:01:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:01:44):
You're resilient. When I be in Jacksonville, you know, I look, look,
There go her name. Right up on the thing. Or
I go somewhere else. In Connecticut somewhere, there go her name.

Speaker 2 (01:01:55):
You know?

Speaker 5 (01:01:55):
Hey, how many times has that happened to me? Man,
Lord have mercy. I auditioned for A Different World, right?

Speaker 2 (01:02:08):
And that was the hottest audition. It was right behind Cosby.
Cosby Show, yep.

Speaker 3 (01:02:13):
Right?

Speaker 2 (01:02:13):
And it was a black college. And I'm like, man, oh,
my God. I want this.

Speaker 1 (01:02:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:02:20):
You know, I want this thing. And so it was me.
It came down to me, Kadeem Hardison, and Alphonse Ribeiro.

Speaker 4 (01:02:29):
To play Dwayne Wayne.

Speaker 2 (01:02:29):
To play Dwayne Wayne, right?

Speaker 8 (01:02:31):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (01:02:31):
But I tell you how it all.

Speaker 5 (01:02:34):
Really turned out. And those things are good, you know?
He was hungry, you know? So I go in and
come back out. Then Kadeem go in and come back out.
And then Alphonse go in, come back out, but he left.
And I'm like, oh, man.

Speaker 2 (01:02:56):
So he goes in. He comes back. I go in.
He comes back. He goes in. This time they're clapping.

Speaker 1 (01:03:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:03:05):
Yeah. That's how I found out I didn't have it.
They were hugging this motherfucker. Oh, wow. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:03:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:03:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:03:11):
You know what I mean? So I guess I ain't
got this. And the lady at the desk was like,
I've got your parking valet.

Speaker 3 (01:03:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:03:17):
They want you out too.

Speaker 3 (01:03:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:03:19):
Not only are you finished with that opportunity, you finished
with the building.

Speaker 2 (01:03:27):
Damn. Yeah. Yeah. Here's your validation. Yeah. For your parking.
You know what I mean? How many times? Booty call.
Booty call. I didn't get booty call at first.

Speaker 5 (01:03:40):
I went in, auditioned my butt off.

Speaker 2 (01:03:43):
And they're like, yep, thanks. You know, and I was like, okay.
And Bill was supposed to do it. Bill Bellamy. Oh, wow, okay. Right? Yeah.
But the deal didn't work out. So they called me back.
And I told them, I ain't auditioning, though. And they
was like, well, come on. It's you and Jamie.

Speaker 1 (01:04:02):
That's what's up.

Speaker 2 (01:04:03):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:04:03):
That's how I ended up getting my first sitcom as well.
I did Rel, a Fox sitcom. I was a series lead.
I didn't... It wasn't originally me that got it. It
was somebody else. And then they called me back like,
you know, come on. And I was like, I'll audition again.

Speaker 1 (01:04:17):
Fuck that, Tommy. I was like, yeah, I'll do it.

Speaker 3 (01:04:19):
You know?

Speaker 2 (01:04:20):
And then, yeah, I got the part.

Speaker 3 (01:04:22):
Yeah, of course, of course.

Speaker 2 (01:04:22):
And whatever's next for you. Yeah. Whatever's next for you, man,
is next for you. Radio's hard. Hold on. You on it.
See something hard?

Speaker 4 (01:04:33):
Try this.

Speaker 2 (01:04:35):
Oh, yeah, I know. Lord have mercy.

Speaker 3 (01:04:37):
This.

Speaker 2 (01:04:38):
No, you made it.

Speaker 4 (01:04:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:04:40):
You made it through to, you know. You should try it.
I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, you made it.

Speaker 5 (01:04:44):
You know, but I didn't know what to do in college,
but I knew I wanted to go to Hollywood and
be something, right?

Speaker 1 (01:04:50):
Right.

Speaker 5 (01:04:50):
And so I tried radio, and I interned at the
school's radio station, putting trash, giving people food, and blah, blah, blah.
And at the end of the semester, they told me,
You know, well, they were going to let me DJ. Well,
we gave it to our frat brother. I was like, damn, man.
And I had a counselor who would talk to me often.

(01:05:11):
And I went to her office and she said, you
know what? You got two jobs. You got your own apartment.
You know, maybe this isn't for you.

Speaker 2 (01:05:21):
You know?

Speaker 5 (01:05:22):
I've been talking to you this whole semester. You got
something going on that I don't know about, but it's something.

Speaker 3 (01:05:28):
And....

Speaker 2 (01:05:31):
Shortly after that, I got into comedy and went out
to L.A. and did all that.

Speaker 5 (01:05:35):
I was walking through the lobby probably about 25 years
later in Coconut Grove.

Speaker 2 (01:05:41):
And she walked through the lobby. And I saw her.
And she walked up to me and started crying. And
her husband was with her.

Speaker 5 (01:05:52):
And she said, I was so scared when I told
you not to go to school because I've never, as
a counselor, I've never told a student not to go
to school, and then I saw you on TV.

Speaker 2 (01:06:05):
Another one. My teacher, Ms.

Speaker 5 (01:06:07):
Sandberg, y'all got me talking about everything. My teacher, Ms. Sanders,
I used to be really good at pottery, naturally. Like,
I could just make pottery, and it was just my thing.
And I would hang all my stuff, they would hang
all my stuff in the school, but I didn't tell nobody. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:06:23):
Because every time I told my boys, they was like,
that ain't yours, man. You know what I mean?

Speaker 7 (01:06:27):
Right.

Speaker 5 (01:06:27):
So I just stopped telling them, right? Well, they tried
to get me into our school. And it didn't work out.
25 years later, 30 years later, however long it was,
Miss Sandberg's here at the club.

Speaker 2 (01:06:39):
And it was Jacksonville.

Speaker 5 (01:06:41):
And I came in the back and her kids were
grown now. And she told me, you saved my life.
I said, what do you mean I saved your life?
She said, I had six brain tumors. And in the removal,
I went into a coma. And I was in a
coma for like six, eight months or something. And I

(01:07:03):
heard your voice. And I woke up, and you were.

Speaker 2 (01:07:06):
On the TV. Oh, wow.

Speaker 1 (01:07:09):
One of my favorite.

Speaker 2 (01:07:10):
Wow. Yeah, and I said, nah, that was you. You
don't believe that?

Speaker 4 (01:07:15):
No, that one, I don't believe it.

Speaker 1 (01:07:16):
No, true, true.

Speaker 2 (01:07:16):
Swear to God. I swear.

Speaker 5 (01:07:21):
My counselor followed us through junior high all the way
through high school because he knew we was nuts. Him
and her tried to get me into Parsons, which was
the top... Pottery School, and SMU, which was the top
pottery school.

Speaker 4 (01:07:36):
What show was on the TV?

Speaker 2 (01:07:38):
What's that now?

Speaker 4 (01:07:38):
What show was it?

Speaker 2 (01:07:39):
It was mine. What do you mean? When she... In
Lemon Color?

Speaker 4 (01:07:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:07:43):
Okay, okay.

Speaker 2 (01:07:44):
Yeah, so she was in a coma, and she said
she heard my voice, and she looked on TV. Now, okay.
I swear, I swear, I swear.

Speaker 3 (01:07:51):
Hold on, hold on. Hold on, I know, I know
what's happening.

Speaker 2 (01:07:54):
Hold on, hold on.

Speaker 1 (01:07:55):
You're on your way, girl.

Speaker 2 (01:07:56):
But one more, one more, one more, one more. This
will balance the story out.

Speaker 3 (01:08:00):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:08:01):
So I told my daughter.

Speaker 5 (01:08:02):
You know, she was in college and wanting to do
this and wanting to do that. I think I'm the
dad telling her something. And I told her that story.
And I told her, you know, I actually went back to...
I'm turning to Varnel. I actually went back to SMU.
And I also went back to Parsons. You know, when
I went to.

Speaker 2 (01:08:21):
SMU, they took.

Speaker 5 (01:08:22):
There was a black girl who was part of the
black student union or whatever that took me down to
the pottery, to actually the pottery department, right?

Speaker 2 (01:08:31):
And I was like, so.

Speaker 5 (01:08:32):
If you put your dreams in front of you, eventually
they will happen. And my daughter said, okay.

Speaker 2 (01:08:39):
That was it. That's it.

Speaker 1 (01:08:42):
She think you was BSing or what?

Speaker 2 (01:08:44):
That's how they are, man.

Speaker 5 (01:08:46):
I could be doing something in front of the refrigerator. Yeah, man,
I could be doing something in front of the refrigerator.
I think I'm doing something. They'd be like, excuse me.
And get a popsicle.

Speaker 1 (01:08:55):
That's it. We know daddy talks.

Speaker 2 (01:08:57):
That's who it is.

Speaker 3 (01:08:59):
Well, I love you.

Speaker 7 (01:09:00):
I'm absolutely happy to see that.

Speaker 3 (01:09:02):
Absolutely, man. I'll tell you something else, too. I know
you do that Sammy Davis impression, but the talent level
is there.

Speaker 4 (01:09:11):
That's the same skill set.

Speaker 3 (01:09:13):
What Sammy had, you got.

Speaker 2 (01:09:15):
I'm not watching y'all comments, though.

Speaker 1 (01:09:18):
Good.

Speaker 2 (01:09:18):
I ain't going to look at y'all comments. My comments
are nice.

Speaker 1 (01:09:20):
The shoe.

Speaker 4 (01:09:21):
They're nice.

Speaker 2 (01:09:22):
I ain't looking at y'all comments.

Speaker 1 (01:09:23):
Don't.

Speaker 4 (01:09:24):
The comments for what? The show?

Speaker 2 (01:09:26):
I never look at comments.

Speaker 1 (01:09:27):
On social.

Speaker 4 (01:09:27):
Do y'all look at comments?

Speaker 1 (01:09:29):
Sometimes. Not like, no.

Speaker 4 (01:09:31):
Not really, but sometimes.

Speaker 1 (01:09:32):
Every now and then I do, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:09:33):
People are mean.

Speaker 1 (01:09:34):
Right, right.

Speaker 2 (01:09:34):
But I love what you did.

Speaker 7 (01:09:36):
Because basically everything you're saying, you're trying to tell me
and everything like that is build and they will come.

Speaker 2 (01:09:41):
These niggas did you lying. No.

Speaker 3 (01:09:43):
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:09:44):
He said you lying.

Speaker 3 (01:09:45):
I don't believe you.

Speaker 4 (01:09:45):
What Tommy said. Everything you want will come to.

Speaker 1 (01:09:53):
You in 30 years.

Speaker 4 (01:09:55):
Listen, Jess, everything you want will come to you in
30 years.

Speaker 2 (01:09:58):
That's the black man for you right there. You lying.

Speaker 1 (01:10:03):
But you got to build and they will come.

Speaker 2 (01:10:05):
Yeah, man.

Speaker 1 (01:10:05):
Y'all made me famous too.

Speaker 2 (01:10:07):
Oh, with them niggas. Man, that thing went. Man, that
thing went. Everybody says that more than damn near right now.
Who is these niggas? Who are these niggas? You know
what I'm saying?

Speaker 3 (01:10:25):
We were talking about the draft.

Speaker 2 (01:10:27):
The draft, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:10:28):
Who are these niggas?

Speaker 2 (01:10:32):
And I was serious. Dead serious. Tommy, we appreciate you
for joining us. Tommy Davidson, The Barnell Hill Show.

Speaker 6 (01:10:39):
You can check it out today. Paramount +. If you
haven't seen it, I've seen the first three episodes.

Speaker 2 (01:10:44):
Hilarious.

Speaker 6 (01:10:45):
It gives you that 90s feeling back.

Speaker 2 (01:10:47):
Love it so much. We appreciate you, brother. Hey, man,
you too, man. Thank you so much.

Speaker 4 (01:10:51):
It's Tommy Davidson.

Speaker 2 (01:10:52):
It's The Breakfast Club.

Speaker 3 (01:10:53):
Good morning.

Speaker 2 (01:10:54):
Hold up. Every day I wake up.

Speaker 3 (01:10:57):
Wake your ass up.

Speaker 4 (01:10:58):
The Breakfast Club.

Speaker 2 (01:10:59):
Y'all finished or y'all done?