July 8, 2025 • 43 mins
Josh Ward doesn't just tell jokes; he transforms life's darkest moments into something beautiful through comedy. During our candid conversation, this self-described "underground comedy king" reveals how he channeled the grief of losing his son into his powerful special "My Special Boy" - a 21-minute journey that showcases his remarkable ability to find humor within pain.
Despite being just three years into his comedy career, Ward displays the confidence and skill of someone who's been performing far longer. He takes us behind the scenes of developing deeply personal material, sharing the struggle of preventing audiences from becoming too emotionally invested while still honoring his authentic experience. "I had to address the audience like 'y'all can't get all sad about this, because then it's not gonna be funny if y'all in here about to weep for me,'" he explains with refreshing honesty.
Ward's journey to comedy has unexpected roots in his religious upbringing. As the son of ministers, he regularly spoke in front of church congregations, developing the public speaking foundation that would later serve his comedy. His first true comedy performance wasn't at an open mic but at a family reunion, where he boldly delivered raunchy material to relatives of all ages - a true baptism by fire. This fearlessness continues to define his approach, preferring longer sets where he can truly establish rhythm and connection with the audience.
The conversation takes a fascinating turn when Ward discusses the brutal realities of open mic culture, including an encounter with another comedian who tried roasting his appearance while he was working through material about his son. "I got up and left the mic because on the inside I was about to cry, but on the outside I was about to fight," he shares, capturing the vulnerability comedians face when developing deeply personal work. Through these experiences, he's developed an audience-first philosophy that has accelerated his growth: "Laughs in the crowd, every room I go in and it's an audience, I'm cooking."
Ready to witness raw talent and authentic storytelling? Follow Josh Ward at @joshwardcomedy on all platforms and check out "My Special Boy" on YouTube to experience what happens when grief transforms into art through the healing power of laughter.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode
of the no id podcast.
Have a comedian here.
This man has.
I called him about five minutesago underground comedy king,
meaning he's one of those onesthat has the talent, he has the
juice.
The has a special out, nowcalled my Special Boy.
(00:25):
It's a tribute to his son.
If you haven't seen it, it's inhis bio.
I saw him on an explore page.
The one and only comedian Holdon Josh Ward.
What's going on, pal?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Hey, what's up man?
What's up man, what's up bro?
How's everybody doing what'sgood?
It's good, it's good bro let'sjust get into it, man, man well,
first of all let me say thanks,man.
Glad to be here, appreciate theopportunity, glad to be on your
platform, man, it's an honor, Iappreciate it.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
She is.
I appreciate you even coming onmy platform.
No doubt you know what I'msaying.
Uh, I am uh a fan.
I respect the work man I'vebeen.
It's gonna sound crazy, but youdid say moisturize my sexy
about 10 seconds hey, yo hey.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Sometimes it's necessary, especially when you
this dog black.
You know what I'm saying.
The ass real good on dogsurfaces.
You feel Got to make sure I'mlubricated.
Paul Snow Did it Reason.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
The special, your special, my special boy was a
was a tribute to your late son,michael.
Yeah, yeah, and one of thethings I liked is what a lot of
comedians have done they turngrief into laughter and was more
therapeutic for everybody.
And in those 21 minutes and 27seconds I know the exact time
(02:03):
because I watched the specialtwo times.
Wow, I watched the special twotimes, um, which is in the link
in his bio, by the way, I justwant to throw it out there to
the people that's listening.
Go run them numbers up.
Yeah, you got into it.
Yeah, you turned what kevin hartsays laughing my pain.
You did what richard prior hadtalked about with his special
(02:25):
live in california or anyprevious special that he did.
Um, and I I salute you on that,because it takes a lot of guts
for and a lot of creativity forsomebody to take something
that's supposed to be tragic andand flip that and bring us into
their world, because I'm sorryto be rambling you see a lot of
comedians making up these fakeass stories all the time.
(02:47):
Yeah, yeah, you know they're notbelievable right but you
actually took something and didit and I just felt like you just
deserve your flowers for that,because I know that probably
took a lot wow, yeah, yeah, Iappreciate that, man.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
It was definitely, um , for me, it definitely was
therapeutic in a way, but alsoit was like a challenge.
You know, I'm one, I'm a fan ofcomedy man, I'm a fan of the
game, um, since childhood and so, yeah, like you, I've watched a
lot of comedians take theirtough times, their hard times,
things like that, and translateit on stage and find a way to
still find some funny in it.
(03:21):
You know, I'm saying, and sothat was the goal in that, um,
even when I was writing thatmaterial, you know, I was just
like I, I gotta try to find away to be vulnerable about it
and find a way to be real aboutit but still be funny somehow.
And I took it as a challenge,like, if you're gonna do this
art, I feel like on the highestlevel, you gotta make it
(03:42):
personal.
Those are the people who last.
You know, I'm saying you makeit personal when you can bring
people into your world, when youcan tell a story, when you can
relate, you know things thatyou'll think about later, all of
that stuff.
So, yeah, that was my goal withit, man, that was my goal with
it.
It still wasn't perfect, but Ionly got one shot at it.
So you know, I'm like cool,it's a couple of bits that I
(04:04):
didn't get off.
I was like, but once it's done,it's done, it's done, it's done
.
I'm proud of it.
I'm proud of the project it cameout, came out really well, the
production quality is good on it, the audio and everything's
good on it and it's definitely ameaningful piece for me, for
that being my first special everwas in that fashion and about
that topic.
(04:24):
So I was like this is the shot.
I'm going to do this for him,man.
So it pushed me, it challengedme in ways that I'd never been
before and I'm just, you know,proud of myself for doing it.
To be honest, like it takes alot.
You know you carry a lot withthat every day and so to be able
to translate that, I was likewhen I did that, I was like,
yeah, you might have, you mighthave something for this comedy
(04:46):
thing.
You know I'm saying to do that.
So, proud of it, man,appreciate it.
Thank you so much for watching.
Thank you to all y'all who goand watch.
Go watch the special my specialboy on YouTube at Joshua.
Comedy is definitely it's agood time, but it's also like
(05:06):
it's heavy a little bit.
But yeah, it's, I think it's apiece of art for me.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
So my first one of many, hopefully.
So I think you got.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
I think you can do like a cat williams type, do
like at least 10 more yeah, yeah, that's my goal, man, um
building the dexterity as well,to be on stage for a long period
of time.
I you know, at this point to beable to do, you know, an hour
or something like that.
But my first special I was likeI don't want to stretch out too
much, I'm a flay and I didn'thave that much time either,
(05:33):
because the show that I did iton, you know, there were
timelapse.
It wasn't completely about mefor real, for real.
But I just capitalized on theopportunity.
Everything, opportunity,everything fell in place for me
to be able to do it.
And my boy shout out toMookuzzo, who gave me that
opportunity.
Man, he let me do my thing.
He was like, yeah, I'll let youcome in and tape it.
You have one shot, thoughYou're not going to do no re-dos
(05:55):
, you're not going to be able tocome back and re-shoot it.
So you better get off what youwant to get off.
And I wanted to kind of displaya little bit of my, my, um, you
know, reach a little bitcomedically.
I want to do a little crowdwork because I love crowd work.
So I wanted to do a littlecrowd work too, um, and just,
you know, display some of thetalents and skills that I'm
trying to work on.
Man, that's all.
I'm trying to get better,trying to get better how long
(06:17):
have you been in the comedy game?
Speaker 1 (06:19):
shout out to mccuzzle , by the way because, yeah,
that's big bro man.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Um, this is three.
I'm going on three years now.
So I'm kind of early for real,for real.
But uh, they call me the youngvet.
But you know, I'm saying likeyou know, I'm a little ahead of
my time as far as how long I'vebeen doing it and ability, and
that's how I kind of what I wantto do because I'm older man.
I'm older in the game.
Um, when I'm out of these micsand these young kids getting up
24, 23, 25, I'm like man, if I'dhave been doing this when I was
(06:47):
22, 23, oh my gosh, I'm almost40 now.
You know what I mean.
I got to shave some of thattime off.
I got to try to make up forlost time.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
And that's impressive you had 20 minutes of material
in three years.
There's some guys in the gamethat don't have 10 minutes of
material in three years.
There's some guys in the gamethat don't have 10 minutes of
material yeah, no, that's umstarting out man.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
To be honest, I was terrible at writing jokes.
I was just funny, justnaturally funny, um, and tried
to.
You know, do translate, theydon't stay.
That's why I cry at work I loveso much, because I just get to
be me and be funny.
But that was my challenge.
You got to learn how to writeand construct a joke and
(07:33):
punchline, tag, tag, misdirectall the comedic skills that
exist.
That's been my challenge sinceI started and because I've
pressurized myself in that way,I think it's paid off a bit.
Man, if I could remember it all,I could do four hours, bro, if
I could remember it all.
Dude, I got bits I haven't evendone yet for real.
(07:56):
The longest I ever did was anhour.
Yeah, hours, the longest I'veever done.
But yeah, it's been a stretch,so I've been stretching myself.
So I'm proud of that too.
I'm not afraid of the long time.
I actually do better with longtimes.
I hate five and 10 minute spots.
I hate five 10 minutes.
I want 15 and up 15 to 30.
That's my bread and butter.
(08:17):
45.
Oh, we about to cook.
Oh, we about to cook, becausethen you can really get off, you
know.
I mean you can really get off.
So cut that time down andgrabbing your audience and
getting them to your pressurepoint or your level.
You know I'm saying it's likeevery comic gets up, gets to set
the tone of the room and so thequicker you can do that, the
(08:40):
more effective you can be.
Um, and so when you got moretime, you got time where you can
kind of like slow walking, butwhen you got the short time you
got to hit it and quit it maybe,like James Brown said, you got
to go in, man.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Yeah, yeah, bro.
Imagine they had an open mic,would everybody get 45 minutes?
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Oh, you just show up at your time.
What's up, jesus?
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Christ Coming to the stage.
God damn it, no.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
That's the crazy part , but that's like the hardest
part of comedy man For me anyway, because you got to get better
like four or five minutes at atime.
You know what I mean.
Put these mics and spend hoursto do five minutes of comedy.
You know what I mean.
Spend hours to do four minutesspot that kind of thing.
So and I'm getting to the placenow where I'm like writing
longer bits, like I want to tryto write out stories more and
(09:32):
stuff, and it's just not enoughtime to be able to get to where
I want to get to, um, in thatway.
So it's hard sometimes.
I gotta come in sometimes andlike do the first part of a bit
and then go to like another micand like do the next part of a
bit or the back end of a bit.
I know I need to work on, but Istill gotta lay a foundation
from the first part so the backpart makes sense.
(09:53):
So you kind of like try tospeed through the beginning
points that's gonna give itcohesion and then work on the
thing that you really want towork on.
It's even an art to practice incomedy if you want to be
effective at it.
I mean if you just put littlemics and just recite the same
thing over and over again, thenthat's different, but you want
to get better.
I believe when you go out youwant to learn something about
the bit, learn something aboutthe language, learn something
(10:16):
about how you wrote it, learnsomething about how the crowd
receives it.
That right there makes you honea bit and make it better and
better and better.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
So that's the goal most of the time man, I've been
working on that more so yeahyeah, yeah, I got into the when
I first started, just like you,I was horrible, horrible and the
only reason this podcast isthis because I had a show so bad
.
The lady threw a chicken boneat me yikes right.
(10:46):
She threw a chicken bone at meand cussed me out for being bad.
Wow, I said.
Oh, I'm gonna quit this shit.
She hit me with a thigh bonethigh bone.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
That's the girthiest bone.
You know that thigh bone gotthe most weight on it my mentor
because I went to comedy school.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
My mentor, the v on 35th street, marlon hargrave and
james cooper those two guys wastelling me just like you was
talking about five minutes.
They taught me how to take fiveminutes.
Then once you do your firstfive minutes, you add on another
five minutes, then you add onanother five minutes, you add on
another five minutes, then yougot a quality built set.
But you also got a way if yougot 15 minutes, if one of those
(11:36):
five minutes sets don't work,you can pivot in and out of
those other 10 minutes.
It's just ridiculous.
Um, what I did like about youhad on your special the P-joke.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Oh, yeah, yeah, I did too.
I think I did.
I did one with my son and onejust for guys, or whatever.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Yeah, the P-joke, oh, okay, okay, I got you Both of
them, the P-joke, and then youdid a little crowd work, but
what you had did was you saidyou wanted to talk about your
son and I think you did itwithin like the first 10 minutes
.
I gotta go back and watch again.
I'm more than likely to go backand watch it again tomorrow.
Um, and I was like, okay, he'scooking Right.
(12:20):
And I said this is excuse me, Idon't know if you're a cuss,
but this is fucking genius.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Oh no, no, you saw my special.
You know I cuss.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Yeah, I don't know if you really you know how some
people cuss on the stage.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
I do.
I do cuss on the stage, and notin regular life as often.
Yes, that's true, I do cuss onstage.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
This is amazing.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
You can't help yourself.
I appreciate that, bro,straight up.
I appreciate that because itmeans something to me when
people actually connect with thework you know what I'm saying
Connect with what I put out,that really matters.
I had a comment come to merecently like an OG I respect.
He was like yo, I saw thespecial bro, that's tough stuff,
(13:03):
man, like that jump was good,like you can see the skills and
everything you did.
I was like bro, I appreciatethat.
That matters to me.
Um, because you want your peersto at least respect what you do
, even if they don't like you asa person.
You know I, they, I won't belike hey, but he be cooking, he,
he cooks now.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
So yeah, man, I appreciate that, bro, through
the jokes on the grill youserved him up.
I was like okay yeah, like alittle crowd work in there
because it's an older lady thatwas somewhere in the corner.
This is the richmond funny bone.
I've only been there like three, four times to perform so I was
like okay bad.
Yeah, like I'm all over theplace because that takes like I
(13:45):
said, that takes courage,because the reason I connect
with yours I lost my father backin 2020.
Wow, not 2020, excuse me.
I lost him two years ago, 2023.
He was diagnosed in 2020.
Okay, and I had a.
I mean diagnosed with what?
Stage four pancreatic cancer.
Okay, okay, stage four finger,and he was the reason why I got
(14:08):
into comedy.
Those is my way, sir.
Yeah, it, it, it wasappreciated.
Yeah, um, and I actually wrotea bit.
I wrote like 10 minutes aboutthe funeral.
I don't know if anybody's everbeen to a black funeral.
Black funerals are comedy,especially mine pure comedy bro
(14:34):
so I was like and I I'm sayingthis because I tucked away the
10 minutes that I wrote about myfather's funeral and his
diagnosis and stuff, and Itucked it away and I was like I
ain't telling these jokes nomore, because one time I did it
I didn't do it right andsomeone's like oh, yeah, yeah.
But then somebody came up to mesaid my condolences, but that
(14:56):
was funny.
I was like, okay, yeah, youkind of, not kind of kind of you
gave me the inspiration.
Maybe I just need to bring thisback out one more time.
One more time.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
What your experience was.
That was my experience at theopen mics, trying to work that
stuff out.
I'm not even going to lie, it'shard to get up there and tell
jokes about stuff like that andthe crowd not get emotionally
connected to it immediately.
And that was the challenge.
I was like all right, man, likeevery mic I did, I had to like
address the audience like y'allcan't get all sad about this,
(15:32):
because then I'm not gonna beable.
You know what I'm saying.
It's not gonna be funny ify'all in here about to weep.
For me you know what I mean.
So definitely that was one ofthe biggest challenges of
working out that material ishaving to go out to mics and
figure it out.
And when it wasn't figured out,that was tough.
That was tough because thecrowd, I don't know.
You know, when you get thissomber energy from the crowd, it
(15:52):
kind of makes you sad too.
You know I'm like you should besad and I'm like I know I am
actually sad, but right now I'mtrying to do something, so I
don't have time to be sad aboutthis, you know I mean.
So I'm, I'm grateful I had achance to have those tough
moments um beforehand, that waywhen it got on stage, like I
could feel it in the roomhappening and if you pay, if you
(16:14):
notice, I addressed it.
You know, I'm saying during theroom to bring the room back up
from it, because they was tryingto go there and I was like, nah
, y'all better come, come onwith it.
I'm plucking butt cheeks.
It's about to get worse.
So I don't want to hear it.
I want to hear it, you know.
So that's definitely tough.
Um, that was, that was one ofthe tougher parts of it
(16:36):
definitely story actually abouta mic while I was working it out
.
You mind, if I tell it, goahead, share it babe, yeah, so
um, I went out about a mic whileI was working it out.
You mind if I tell it, go ahead,share it, baby.
Yeah.
So I went out to a mic to workout some of the material,
whatever.
Whatever I get up there I do myset.
You know it's a good set, itgoes okay.
You know, I still had that samework through the.
You know, the songwriteraudience don't know this guy.
(17:05):
He's like new to the scene.
I've never seen him before andI guess he have no jokes.
So his jokes was gonna be totry to make fun of me.
So I go out to this mic, I throwon like sweatpants, a hoodie.
I got on Crocs, like I'mlow-key, depressed right now,
like I'm in real life.
(17:26):
I'm depressed, but also I gottawork out this stuff.
So I just throw something on toget out here, to get through it
and work through it.
And then the guy comes upbehind me and like roast my
outfit.
You know I'm saying because Icame to an open mic with Crocs
and a hoodie on and all and I'mlike bro, if this is the top
tier place for you to come andput on your duds and stunt and
(17:48):
show all you know you're in alow place in life.
I mean, that's an open mic in atop.
We're in a basement dungeonslash attic.
I don't even know how you dothat.
I've never seen a dungeonupstairs.
What are we talking about?
We we're in an upstairs dungeon.
What is we practicing for?
It's 11 people in here?
Really Interesting occurrence.
(18:12):
He pissed me off.
I got up and left the micbecause on the inside I was
about to cry, but on the outsideI was about to fight.
So I'm about to smack thiswhite man with tears in my eyes,
bro.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
The crazy thing is, I think I know who you're talking
about, but I don't want to sayhis name on the show.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
No, it ain't who you think.
It's a newer guy.
You've probably never seen thisguy before, so the person I
think you might be thinking hasbeen in the scene for a while.
Mm-mm, oh, okay, well, it mightbe you might know, but I had a
vendetta out on this guy.
If I ever see him at another mic, he is getting the works.
(18:50):
You hear me?
Oh, you going to roast me in mydepression?
Oh, nick, I can't wait.
I never saw him again.
He never came out and his setbomb.
Let, I can't wait.
I never saw him again.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
He never came out and his set bombed.
Let's be clear, they always do.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Because the crowd wasn't with it.
Because my jokes was tellingthem I'm grieving and, like bro,
you gonna make fun of thegrieving guy.
The crowd wasn't with that, sohe tried to pivot, do some of
his stuff.
Nothing landed.
At that point you would turnthe whole room sour against you,
like everybody was already likethat was so brave for him to
even get up there, and then youwould come behind me and be a
dick.
Oh my God, bro.
(19:28):
So yeah, it didn't go well, Inever saw him again, but if I
ever see him again, it's goingto be smoke.
It's going to be some furnituremoving On stage, though On
stage, on stage.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
I had on stage, though.
On stage, on stage I had onecomedian tried and I was like
I'm gonna get his ass and Iwaited to the next week.
He showed up at the mic.
He's like what spot you want togo to?
I said man, put him in front ofme I was like you know, when
you was talking shit, I was likeyou know what that five minutes
is bad when you got the rightmaterial, don't you?
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Yeah, five minutes turns into a long time if you
ain't got nothing to say.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
I was like yeah what'd you say?
Remember, last week we talkedabout my hairline.
I forgot my hat in the car.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Young bastard, I was so hot, yeah, I ain't gonna lie,
you do have the church deacon,john, you know what I'm saying.
Oh man, it's all right though.
It's all right though, john.
You know you got to ride withwhat you got.
I'm bald all the way becausemine are back here too.
I just gave up.
You know you still fighting agood fight.
(20:37):
I gave up.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
You know what I bought Beyonce's hair products.
I just got them last week.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
I didn't want to hear nothing.
After Beyonce I boughtBeyonce's Cowboy Carter album
and I just knew all my follicleswas going to jam.
What are we saying?
Speaker 1 (20:56):
I saw it on Instagram .
I was like oh, they said thatthe sacred, the creed is
supposed to bring them back.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
I was like okay, oh, so she got some hair growth
stuff.
Yeah, never knew.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
I never knew I've been doing this right here, I've
been just going right here.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Keep it up, believe in yourself.
I believe in you?
Speaker 1 (21:17):
I mean, you know what I appreciate you, bro, I
believe in you.
Baby, keep up the laugh.
Who was your inspiration, orwhat was your inspiration to get
into comedy?
What was that thing that I knowyou say it was always funny,
right, but what was that thingthat was like, yeah, I'm gonna
get this, I'm gonna try this andkeep going crazy thing is I
(21:41):
always loved stand up fromchildhood.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Like I always loved stand-up from childhood.
I always loved comedy andstand-up from childhood.
Eddie Murphy's my goat.
Growing up watching Eddie andRichard Pryor, watching a lot of
the older comedians and stuff.
I actually have their recordsaround here and stuff.
It was always a thing that wasinside but I never felt like I
(22:05):
could actually pursue that.
That didn't seem real Crazything.
When we were kids I got fivebrothers and sisters, so it was
six of us.
We literally used to do comedyskits for each other.
We set up chairs and the otherfive sat down and one of us
would get up and we would try tomake the other ones laugh, like
literally like a comedy show.
And now in retrospect I'm likeit was there the whole time,
(22:27):
like I wasn't even payingattention to the connection.
Until I started doing comedy Iwas like duh.
So, um, you know, always hadthis thing inside, um, that I
wanted to pursue, never foundspace.
I actually spent a lot of time.
I grew up in church so my momand dad were both like ministers
(22:48):
and stuff.
So I grew up in church so I wasalways up speaking.
They used to make us go to thefront of the church and recite
stuff and memorize scripturesand stuff.
This is old school.
You grew up in the 80s andstuff.
You didn't have a choice, youhad to.
Everybody had to live in thishouse.
You know what I'm saying.
Got to go in the black blackfamily if your parents or
whatever.
So I always just do publicspeaking, stuff like that, and I
(23:10):
grew in church and startedspeaking in church and stuff
like that, and but then I willalways be funny, be funny, you
know, while I'm doing it.
And so part of me was just likeI want to try to pursue this.
So I tried to actually get mychurch to do this little like
stand-up comedy slash preachernight thing where it's like a
comedy show I wanted to call itthe stand-up preacher where it's
(23:31):
like you know, like a preacherthat's actually got not do stand
up, but it was like a play onwords.
Basically, you know what I'msaying Stand up guy, stand up,
reach, that kind of thing.
And so never really did it, buthad opportunities to just talk
and be funny.
And then 2020, the pandemic cameand, like you know, the world
shut down and everything wentcrazy and I was like you know
(23:53):
what People dying.
They never died before.
You know what I'm saying.
And I could be next and mindand ain't never died before.
You know I'm saying and I couldbe next, and so I don't want to
live and die with this in myheart and never actually give it
a shot why not so?
then I just started writing.
I just started like trying towrite jokes and stuff.
And when I first started likemy whole set was just about dogs
, it was about dogs, bro, I wasliterally going to do a special
(24:18):
on dogs.
I was just joking about dogs.
I got an interestingperspective I think about dogs,
bro, I was literally going to doa special on dogs.
I was just joking about dogs.
I got an interestingperspective I think about dogs.
And so I was telling all thesedog jokes you know dog jokes and
stuff like that.
And then I was like I don'twant to be the dog guy, you know
what I mean.
So I actually performed for mywife in the house with a TV
remote.
(24:40):
I did During the pandemic.
I wrote some stuff I've beenworking on, you know, for a
while.
I was like I'm just trying toperform stuff.
So I did a little performancefor her in the house.
She was like it was funny, likeit felt like it was comedy.
You know it didn't feel like hewas trying, it just felt like
you know it's funny.
So then my first, I guess,performance in front of people
(25:00):
outside of her was a familyreunion and my family was like
you know they was like anybodywant to do different talent, do
something with entertainment.
I was like, yeah, I want to try, I want to do some comedy.
It was like you do comedy, Iwant to Like, all right, so they
let me get out there.
You know, for like 25.
(25:21):
My first time before it waslike 25, 30 minutes.
And at the family reunion, withall my family sitting in chairs
and stuff, I got out there withmy aunties and great uncles and
everybody and said someoutlandish stuff.
The way I am on stage.
It was in me from the beginninglike I never wanted to be like
a clean comic or anything,because the comics that I like
(25:43):
were not clean, like I didn'tgrow up laughing at clean comedy
.
That's not what I thought wasfunny.
So I was like I want to be trueto my identity.
I told him from jump, I was likeI'm about to say some wild
stuff, y'all gonna be alright,and so all my cousins and them
out there, whatever, and I'mtelling some wild jokes and um,
(26:03):
they was like chuckling a littlebit but they couldn't laugh
because like your mama, his mama, your mom sitting over there,
you know, I mean my grandma'sout here, great grandma's out
here.
End of the job.
They came to me after everybody.
You know, the end of the night,once all the older people leave
and the younger people stay andturn up a little bit, it was
like yo, you was funny as hell,bro.
(26:24):
I just couldn't laugh becausemy mama was here.
So I, you know I did that andfrom there then on it was like
if I can perform in front ofthem, I can perform in front of
anybody.
Like that was the most wildaudience to tell these types of
jokes in.
They all you know, they realreligious, they.
I got christian family andstuff and I was cussing, I was
(26:46):
telling dick jokes.
I was all the things, brother,oh shameful stuff that you never
say in front of those peopleother times.
So some of my family, they lovethat, I do it.
They don't love my material,but you know they like that, I'm
doing it and whatever.
So it started from there.
And then my first opportunity,my first time actually doing out
(27:07):
public, was in a comedy club,which is rare, you know.
Usually it was an open mic thatSandman Comedy Club used to
have.
I remember you did.
You was in a competition atSandman with me actually.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
That shit was so horrible.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Yeah, we were in a competition with me.
I made it to the finals in thatjet, but we weren't on the same
night so I never saw you.
But yeah, the Sandman was thefirst place I ever did it
outside of that, and once I didit that night I was hooked.
I was like, oh yeah, this is itright here.
My set wasn't great, but like Ihad the bones, you know, I had
(27:42):
the energy, I was quick with itfor a little bit.
I was like I think I can dothis.
And from there that was in 2020to, yeah, like 2022.
That was like everything openedup.
You know, the world startedletting us back outside.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
It was yeah, and they started back doing the mics or
whatever, and that was.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
It was like everything opened up, you know,
the world started letting usback outside.
It was, yeah, and they startedback doing the mics or whatever,
and that was it.
And from there it was like I'min there, um, so I've been doing
it ever since, you know, doingit ever since, man.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Sam man, it was my shit Cause it was but I you know
it was my, that was my jam,that was that that competition
um showed me about preparation.
Well, I'm gonna go ahead, justdo the same shit.
That's been working.
Blah, blah, boom.
I done did this set already innumber five minutes.
I just want to, you know, makesure I get it to the finals.
(28:33):
Boy, I ain't prepped none of theshit that I was supposed to
rehearse.
I get up there.
I'm like all right, they gonna.
This is what I learned, reallyhow to get into the bag.
Uh, they said the whole set oftimes, like I'm not doing no
jokes, I'm just gonna bring youon and give the rules.
I'm like what, and who wasfirst?
(28:54):
I was, oh man, I go up there.
I had a cotton mouth.
I'm like yep, and I had anothercomedian.
He was right there beside me,we cool.
It was like yeah, bro, we, weain't making it.
We kept hearing everybody sayslike well, it was, I'm off on
monday.
(29:14):
You know, I can drive home homesleeping and watching this
night.
It's a wrap.
It's a wrap.
The preparation man.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
No, that's crazy, because my Sandman experience
was a little bit opposite.
I wanted to go out here and donew stuff and so I'm like, yeah,
I'm about to hit them with thisnew joint.
Yeah, this right about to befire.
Do not go into a competitionand try to do new material.
It's what I learned.
Do your old stuff that yousolid on and you cool, or you
(29:48):
know what I mean.
Get up there and be confident.
Right, right, right.
And that was what I.
That was the biggest lesson Itook away from it.
I'll never try new material ina situation where that counts
like that.
You know what I mean.
So the finals jump I did okay,but my first night, my first
night, I cooked and made it tothe finals round or whatever,
(30:09):
but they shortened it.
I felt like that robbed youknow a lot of, because, remember
, it was supposed to be longerbut then the place was going to
shut down and they ended upgoing straight to, like, the
finals.
They took the people, thatwhatever, and changed the format
, but it was supposed to growfrom that five minutes to 15
minutes, that kind of thing orwhatever, and that's where I was
going to excel.
I was like plenty of these guyscan do five minutes, but when
(30:31):
you get to 10, 15, that's deepwater.
That's deep water right therefor a lot of comics.
And I knew that.
And so I was like, if I make itpast the first round it's a
wrap, because with the longertime I'm a cook.
But then they cut it and theywas like, no, we're not doing
all the rounds and stuff, we'regonna wrap it up, we're gonna
let this be the finals.
Blah, blah, blah.
And I was like, oh all, right,whatever.
(30:53):
So, um, yeah, I learned the hardlesson that, that, that doing
that experience too.
And don't let other commentsget in your head.
That's another lesson I learned.
Don't let other comics get inmy head.
Because I was off kilter thatnight because another comic made
a comment in the comics beat,that kind of like threw me.
You know, I mean, it's always alittle shade, you know I'm
saying sometimes.
(31:14):
And so another comic made alittle comment and kind kind of
threw me.
And I wasn't as sure of myselfwhen I got up there as I usually
am and I said I'll never dothat again.
I'll never do that again.
I'm going to cook, despitewhoever in the room thinks what.
I don't care about what noother comic thinks.
The only thing that matters tome is that audience.
(31:36):
That's it, because you can denywhatever you want, you can say
whatever you want.
You cannot deny laughs in thecrowd and that's the goal Laughs
in the crowd.
I don't care what you thinkabout me, I don't care whether
you think I deserve or you thinkI'm as good as people say
whatever.
Laughs in the crowd Every roomI go in and it's an audience.
I'm cooking, that's what Ivowed.
(31:59):
From that point on, I'm cooking.
I don't care nothing about thecomics who in there, what?
Nope, I ain't got nothing to dowith me.
Me and this audience is allthat matters.
Since I've adopted that, it'shelped me a lot Because you know
it's hard to go to open micsand the room full of 25 comics
and two crowd members.
You know what I mean.
I hate that.
(32:19):
I hate that.
You know what I mean, becausethen the comics sit back there
and not go on and not try not tolaugh, especially if they don't
like you or whatever.
They just sit back there,ignore you, start reading, start
taking out their phone and youthink you're not doing a good
job, but they just not.
It don't matter.
(32:44):
Up to him like yeah, you had agood set not even, not even.
So yeah, I learned a lot fromthat experience too.
That sandman was.
That was the first and onlycompetition I've been a part of.
I said I'm gonna do another oneeventually, but I don't know
when.
That's gonna be witnessopportunities, right, the last
one they had.
I wasn't able to make it allthe days so I didn't even sign
up to pearl street when I thinkpearl street had a junk.
I wasn't no to make it all thedays, so I didn't even sign up.
The Pearl Street one.
I think Pearl Street had a jump.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
I wasn't that one.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Funny one, last Ham who won that Shout out to Last,
last one of my faves in thisscene, last of the Beasts.
We've definitely been on someshows together.
Yeah, we got Last one of myfaves Shout out to Last Ham who
won that jump.
But I couldn't be there everyweek on Tuesday.
I could only be there, like, Ithink, two of them, like one or
(33:24):
two of them, the last one andone other one and I was like, oh
, there's no need for me to signup for that.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
I was in that one.
That's who you knew was talkingabout probably the Crocs.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
I was in that one oh no, they weren't in that they
wanted that one okay this was a.
This was a new comic.
Like I think they justgraduated from the little class
or something like that.
You're like they were new tothe game all together.
He learned some lessons thatnight, though, hopefully
probably.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
But you know what some some, some of us don't,
some of us don't learn them well, let's be clear while he was on
stage I did roast back.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
I ain't say that I did roast back from the audience
.
I forgot that part.
So, yeah, I did roast backduring the set and then I left
after.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
But, um, yeah, yeah, a lot of us don't learn those
lessons, man.
I think a lot of us try and bealphas but really deep down
inside we bait us.
A lot of us want to be bigsharks and small ponds.
A lot of us want it real quick,like it's it'd be a comedian
that's doing it for six months,but like, yeah, I'm getting the
open mic.
I'm like, yeah, do what yougotta do, man yeah, good luck
(34:34):
with that.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
What's your take on that, on like running a mic man,
because I've had some offers todo so and I've thought about it
, but I just don't see thebenefit just yet personally.
Like, I know you get guaranteedtime, sure, but does that weigh
out the production?
You know the the work that it's.
Have you ever ran your own mic?
(34:55):
So yeah, what are the benefitsof running your own?
Speaker 1 (35:00):
you get guaranteed time, maybe a free meal and a
little bit of money in yourpocket.
That's it now, if you do decideto run your open mic, um, I
wouldn't do one every week yeah,that's the thing too.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Yeah, I don't want a weekly job.
I can't, don't burn throughyourself.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Don't throw burn through.
Yeah, I don't want a weekly job, I can't.
Don't burn through yourself,don't burn through your material
and don't burn throughcomedians, because the allure of
having a mic once every twoweeks or once a month is the
greatest thing ever.
Mm-hmm, I personally don't wantto run one.
I might run lasted two well,three.
(35:40):
Run lasted two, well, threeweeks.
It lasted three weeks.
I was running with another,with three other comedians.
I stepped away because I saw Iput it on my story a couple of
weeks ago, but I can see whereit falters into.
I've also had opportunities toput on shows, but my thing is, I
(36:03):
love a lot of these comediansbut I don't want to jeopardize
their craft or put their name indanger, something.
The show don't go right.
So I'd like I just rather justask for some time, go pull up at
an open mic.
Yeah, keep it pushing mepersonally, but if you want, I
think everybody should at leastproduce one show in five years
(36:26):
of comedy why do you say that?
just want to get the experience.
That's it.
Just one notch on your back.
I think everybody should do atleast produce one show well,
actually I do.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
I have produced a show Because I put a show
together in North Carolina and,you know, brought some of my
boys up here, from up here downhere, and did whatever for A
family event.
So I mean I guess that counts.
I paid them you know what I'msaying Took care of them.
Yeah, I produced the show.
I was the host, so you knowwhat I mean.
It was a good time.
A couple little shaky momentsyeah, I produced the show, I was
the host.
So you know, I mean it was agood time.
(37:00):
It was a good time.
You know, a couple of shakymoments.
A couple of shaky moments forsome of the comics, because you
know certain crowd.
You got to know your audience,you know.
I mean you got to know youraudience and if you realize that
your audience not vibing withwhat you're doing, you got to be
able to.
You got to be able to pivot.
Vibing with what you're doing,you got to be able to pivot.
(37:21):
You got to be able to find away to grab them.
And one of the comics he wasjust so vulgar and it was just a
lot for the audience and thenhe wasn't telling no jokes.
So you're just up here cussinga lot and talking about a bunch
of stuff, but you weren'ttelling jokes for real, for real
.
And so the vulgarity istolerated when it's in context
of funny and the material andit's like pacing and timing and
(37:41):
all that too.
But yeah, I was like bro,whenever they start yelling out
at you and saying stuff, likeyou doing all that cussing, you
ain't saying nothing.
I was like, oh, you heard thelady, she telling you what the
problem is, what you going to do, and he ran the light like
(38:02):
crazy, like I was trying to getthis nigga off stage for like
for like six minutes, bro.
I'm like bro, what we doing,man, what we doing?
So that kind of stuff I don'tdeal with it.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
I had one comedian.
He did it numerous times.
He ain't run no light, but hegave up in the middle of the
joke where they had to do like alet's go, you can do it.
Keep going, bro.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
I'm like what what are we doing?
Not the church encouragement?
Speaker 1 (38:32):
everybody just started clapping for you before
the show this is, I'm not reallyapproachable for anything.
I'm quiet as shit before I evengo on the stage.
Um, I'm trying to get my mindright.
He was asking for some advice.
Hey, lock in, because thisisn't a black room.
(38:52):
Excuse me, alain, this is anigga room.
You better walk into, whichmeans you better be able to fire
off, mess with somebody in thecrowd and keep it pushing.
Yeah, yep, yeah, it's like, andkeep it pushing.
Yeah and yep, yeah, yeah it'slike that sometimes.
(39:14):
It's like that sometimes well,man, josh, I do appreciate you
coming on.
This has been a good convo, bro, I that's it we wrapping up
already, hey, man, let me tellyou.
Hey, bro, I appreciate yourtime, but I'm gonna say like
this they got us back in theoffice with the government, bro,
I gotta get up 4 30 in themorning.
(39:38):
That's crazy, 4 30 nice theearlier you wake up for the job,
even while you hate it.
4, 30, and I gotta get to workat six.
Yeah, this man, I feel that man, I understand, I do appreciate
it, man, and um, all I just wantto say is, bro, I'm I just may
(39:59):
sound weird, I ain't glazing orwhatever these terms.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
I'm proud of you, bro I appreciate that man ain't
glazing at all.
I appreciate that man I ain'tglazing at all, man.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
I appreciate that, brother.
If you need anything, just DMme, because obviously I need to
get this new email addressworked out.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
Because that's some shit.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
My sister helped me set up.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
Yeah, I checked my email a few times.
Yeah, I was like, nah, you know, you can search by trying to be
specific.
I'm pulling up stuff from 2013.
I was like ain't no way, no waydeep in the trenches.
So, yeah, yeah, I'm glad atleast we.
Um, we sent it multiple ways,so I appreciate it, so I can
(40:40):
have everything to be locked in.
Um, it was a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
Man enjoyed it me man and people want to follow you
and get in contact.
Which way do they go to?
Speaker 2 (40:48):
yeah, follow me at josh war comedy on all platforms
.
Um, tiktok banned me right nowso I gotta start a new page on
tiktok.
There's a whole nother story wecould have got into um.
But um, yeah, follow me at joshwar comedy on all platforms.
Man, there's another josh wardout there that's more famous
than me.
He's a musician, so put comedyat the end of it.
(41:09):
Josh ward comedy, that's howyou find me.
All right, don't just put joshward.
Uh, yeah, hit me up like,subscribe, share, follow all the
good things and follow me atcomedian rome and on instagram.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
No id podcast, uh.
At comedian rome davis.
On YouTube, if you hit the linkin the bio you can get all that
stuff and more Tiki Tok.
I don't be up there becauseJosh talking about he banned.
This ban is about to be lifted,about to get rid of TikTok.
My dumb ass deleted the wholething.
Brung it back.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
I'm like it ain't hitting no more there was a
space where people deleted itand couldn't put it back on
their phone.
Like people was being petty,going in other people's phones
and deleting the app off thecheck and put it back.
Wasn't that?
It was that thing that was thething.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
It was like flappy birds back in the day.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
I don't know what's flappy birds flappy birds was.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
It was a game.
I lied to you.
Not, it was a game on theiphone.
It's just like, yeah, I don'tknow, I can't really explain it,
but I know that if you updatedyour phone to the new software,
because of copyright things,they deleted the flappy birds
off.
So if you guys got time, youcan google this flash birds.
People was actually sellingoutdated iphones with the flash
(42:32):
birds game for like a couple of16, like a couple thousands of
dollars, like 16 000 because itstill had the game on it still
had the game on it.
It was like that old atari typefeel mario, this super nintendo
type oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, Ihave seen that before, I just
googled it.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
Yeah, I have seen that before, I just Googled it.
Yeah, I have seen that before.
People was hooked on that giant, though, yeah, people was
hooked on that Flappy Bird, Iremember.
Okay, alright, that's the jokewhere you go up or down and you
gotta maneuver between thetunnels and all of that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know whatyou're talking about.
That's why.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
If I didn't have the automatic updates we'll be
having a whole we'll be having awhole different conversation.
Probably wouldn't be no damncomedy on the podcast nah, I
feel that, though, but Josh man,keep going, bro.
That's all I got to say, bro,like, just keep going.
(43:24):
Thank you for making fun of mydeacon hairline no offense man,
please.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
I hope you can take a joke, bro.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
I was like I can take a joke, yeah.
No, you can't take a joke, yeahsame to you, man.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
I checked out some of your stuff as well.
Um, keep going, keep grinding,man.
Yeah there's no end in sight,because there is no end for this
man.
That's the thing.
If you're looking for adestination in comedy, there is
none.
The only destination is yournext stage, so keep it going
amen, we gonna sign off rightquick, ain't gonna stop.
ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode
of the no id podcast.
Have a comedian here.
This man has.
I called him about five minutesago underground comedy king,
meaning he's one of those onesthat has the talent, he has the
juice.
The has a special out, nowcalled my Special Boy.
(00:25):
It's a tribute to his son.
If you haven't seen it, it's inhis bio.
I saw him on an explore page.
The one and only comedian Holdon Josh Ward.
What's going on, pal?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Hey, what's up man?
What's up man, what's up bro?
How's everybody doing what'sgood?
It's good, it's good bro let'sjust get into it, man, man well,
first of all let me say thanks,man.
Glad to be here, appreciate theopportunity, glad to be on your
platform, man, it's an honor, Iappreciate it.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
She is.
I appreciate you even coming onmy platform.
No doubt you know what I'msaying.
Uh, I am uh a fan.
I respect the work man I'vebeen.
It's gonna sound crazy, but youdid say moisturize my sexy
about 10 seconds hey, yo hey.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Sometimes it's necessary, especially when you
this dog black.
You know what I'm saying.
The ass real good on dogsurfaces.
You feel Got to make sure I'mlubricated.
Paul Snow Did it Reason.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
The special, your special, my special boy was a
was a tribute to your late son,michael.
Yeah, yeah, and one of thethings I liked is what a lot of
comedians have done they turngrief into laughter and was more
therapeutic for everybody.
And in those 21 minutes and 27seconds I know the exact time
(02:03):
because I watched the specialtwo times.
Wow, I watched the special twotimes, um, which is in the link
in his bio, by the way, I justwant to throw it out there to
the people that's listening.
Go run them numbers up.
Yeah, you got into it.
Yeah, you turned what kevin hartsays laughing my pain.
You did what richard prior hadtalked about with his special
(02:25):
live in california or anyprevious special that he did.
Um, and I I salute you on that,because it takes a lot of guts
for and a lot of creativity forsomebody to take something
that's supposed to be tragic andand flip that and bring us into
their world, because I'm sorryto be rambling you see a lot of
comedians making up these fakeass stories all the time.
(02:47):
Yeah, yeah, you know they're notbelievable right but you
actually took something and didit and I just felt like you just
deserve your flowers for that,because I know that probably
took a lot wow, yeah, yeah, Iappreciate that, man.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
It was definitely, um , for me, it definitely was
therapeutic in a way, but alsoit was like a challenge.
You know, I'm one, I'm a fan ofcomedy man, I'm a fan of the
game, um, since childhood and so, yeah, like you, I've watched a
lot of comedians take theirtough times, their hard times,
things like that, and translateit on stage and find a way to
still find some funny in it.
(03:21):
You know, I'm saying, and sothat was the goal in that, um,
even when I was writing thatmaterial, you know, I was just
like I, I gotta try to find away to be vulnerable about it
and find a way to be real aboutit but still be funny somehow.
And I took it as a challenge,like, if you're gonna do this
art, I feel like on the highestlevel, you gotta make it
(03:42):
personal.
Those are the people who last.
You know, I'm saying you makeit personal when you can bring
people into your world, when youcan tell a story, when you can
relate, you know things thatyou'll think about later, all of
that stuff.
So, yeah, that was my goal withit, man, that was my goal with
it.
It still wasn't perfect, but Ionly got one shot at it.
So you know, I'm like cool,it's a couple of bits that I
(04:04):
didn't get off.
I was like, but once it's done,it's done, it's done, it's done
.
I'm proud of it.
I'm proud of the project it cameout, came out really well, the
production quality is good on it, the audio and everything's
good on it and it's definitely ameaningful piece for me, for
that being my first special everwas in that fashion and about
that topic.
(04:24):
So I was like this is the shot.
I'm going to do this for him,man.
So it pushed me, it challengedme in ways that I'd never been
before and I'm just, you know,proud of myself for doing it.
To be honest, like it takes alot.
You know you carry a lot withthat every day and so to be able
to translate that, I was likewhen I did that, I was like,
yeah, you might have, you mighthave something for this comedy
(04:46):
thing.
You know I'm saying to do that.
So, proud of it, man,appreciate it.
Thank you so much for watching.
Thank you to all y'all who goand watch.
Go watch the special my specialboy on YouTube at Joshua.
Comedy is definitely it's agood time, but it's also like
(05:06):
it's heavy a little bit.
But yeah, it's, I think it's apiece of art for me.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
So my first one of many, hopefully.
So I think you got.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
I think you can do like a cat williams type, do
like at least 10 more yeah, yeah, that's my goal, man, um
building the dexterity as well,to be on stage for a long period
of time.
I you know, at this point to beable to do, you know, an hour
or something like that.
But my first special I was likeI don't want to stretch out too
much, I'm a flay and I didn'thave that much time either,
(05:33):
because the show that I did iton, you know, there were
timelapse.
It wasn't completely about mefor real, for real.
But I just capitalized on theopportunity.
Everything, opportunity,everything fell in place for me
to be able to do it.
And my boy shout out toMookuzzo, who gave me that
opportunity.
Man, he let me do my thing.
He was like, yeah, I'll let youcome in and tape it.
You have one shot, thoughYou're not going to do no re-dos
(05:55):
, you're not going to be able tocome back and re-shoot it.
So you better get off what youwant to get off.
And I wanted to kind of displaya little bit of my, my, um, you
know, reach a little bitcomedically.
I want to do a little crowdwork because I love crowd work.
So I wanted to do a littlecrowd work too, um, and just,
you know, display some of thetalents and skills that I'm
trying to work on.
Man, that's all.
I'm trying to get better,trying to get better how long
(06:17):
have you been in the comedy game?
Speaker 1 (06:19):
shout out to mccuzzle , by the way because, yeah,
that's big bro man.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Um, this is three.
I'm going on three years now.
So I'm kind of early for real,for real.
But uh, they call me the youngvet.
But you know, I'm saying likeyou know, I'm a little ahead of
my time as far as how long I'vebeen doing it and ability, and
that's how I kind of what I wantto do because I'm older man.
I'm older in the game.
Um, when I'm out of these micsand these young kids getting up
24, 23, 25, I'm like man, if I'dhave been doing this when I was
(06:47):
22, 23, oh my gosh, I'm almost40 now.
You know what I mean.
I got to shave some of thattime off.
I got to try to make up forlost time.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
And that's impressive you had 20 minutes of material
in three years.
There's some guys in the gamethat don't have 10 minutes of
material in three years.
There's some guys in the gamethat don't have 10 minutes of
material yeah, no, that's umstarting out man.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
To be honest, I was terrible at writing jokes.
I was just funny, justnaturally funny, um, and tried
to.
You know, do translate, theydon't stay.
That's why I cry at work I loveso much, because I just get to
be me and be funny.
But that was my challenge.
You got to learn how to writeand construct a joke and
(07:33):
punchline, tag, tag, misdirectall the comedic skills that
exist.
That's been my challenge sinceI started and because I've
pressurized myself in that way,I think it's paid off a bit.
Man, if I could remember it all,I could do four hours, bro, if
I could remember it all.
Dude, I got bits I haven't evendone yet for real.
(07:56):
The longest I ever did was anhour.
Yeah, hours, the longest I'veever done.
But yeah, it's been a stretch,so I've been stretching myself.
So I'm proud of that too.
I'm not afraid of the long time.
I actually do better with longtimes.
I hate five and 10 minute spots.
I hate five 10 minutes.
I want 15 and up 15 to 30.
That's my bread and butter.
(08:17):
45.
Oh, we about to cook.
Oh, we about to cook, becausethen you can really get off, you
know.
I mean you can really get off.
So cut that time down andgrabbing your audience and
getting them to your pressurepoint or your level.
You know I'm saying it's likeevery comic gets up, gets to set
the tone of the room and so thequicker you can do that, the
(08:40):
more effective you can be.
Um, and so when you got moretime, you got time where you can
kind of like slow walking, butwhen you got the short time you
got to hit it and quit it maybe,like James Brown said, you got
to go in, man.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Yeah, yeah, bro.
Imagine they had an open mic,would everybody get 45 minutes?
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Oh, you just show up at your time.
What's up, jesus?
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Christ Coming to the stage.
God damn it, no.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
That's the crazy part , but that's like the hardest
part of comedy man For me anyway, because you got to get better
like four or five minutes at atime.
You know what I mean.
Put these mics and spend hoursto do five minutes of comedy.
You know what I mean.
Spend hours to do four minutesspot that kind of thing.
So and I'm getting to the placenow where I'm like writing
longer bits, like I want to tryto write out stories more and
(09:32):
stuff, and it's just not enoughtime to be able to get to where
I want to get to, um, in thatway.
So it's hard sometimes.
I gotta come in sometimes andlike do the first part of a bit
and then go to like another micand like do the next part of a
bit or the back end of a bit.
I know I need to work on, but Istill gotta lay a foundation
from the first part so the backpart makes sense.
(09:53):
So you kind of like try tospeed through the beginning
points that's gonna give itcohesion and then work on the
thing that you really want towork on.
It's even an art to practice incomedy if you want to be
effective at it.
I mean if you just put littlemics and just recite the same
thing over and over again, thenthat's different, but you want
to get better.
I believe when you go out youwant to learn something about
the bit, learn something aboutthe language, learn something
(10:16):
about how you wrote it, learnsomething about how the crowd
receives it.
That right there makes you honea bit and make it better and
better and better.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
So that's the goal most of the time man, I've been
working on that more so yeahyeah, yeah, I got into the when
I first started, just like you,I was horrible, horrible and the
only reason this podcast isthis because I had a show so bad
.
The lady threw a chicken boneat me yikes right.
(10:46):
She threw a chicken bone at meand cussed me out for being bad.
Wow, I said.
Oh, I'm gonna quit this shit.
She hit me with a thigh bonethigh bone.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
That's the girthiest bone.
You know that thigh bone gotthe most weight on it my mentor
because I went to comedy school.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
My mentor, the v on 35th street, marlon hargrave and
james cooper those two guys wastelling me just like you was
talking about five minutes.
They taught me how to take fiveminutes.
Then once you do your firstfive minutes, you add on another
five minutes, then you add onanother five minutes, you add on
another five minutes, then yougot a quality built set.
But you also got a way if yougot 15 minutes, if one of those
(11:36):
five minutes sets don't work,you can pivot in and out of
those other 10 minutes.
It's just ridiculous.
Um, what I did like about youhad on your special the P-joke.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Oh, yeah, yeah, I did too.
I think I did.
I did one with my son and onejust for guys, or whatever.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Yeah, the P-joke, oh, okay, okay, I got you Both of
them, the P-joke, and then youdid a little crowd work, but
what you had did was you saidyou wanted to talk about your
son and I think you did itwithin like the first 10 minutes
.
I gotta go back and watch again.
I'm more than likely to go backand watch it again tomorrow.
Um, and I was like, okay, he'scooking Right.
(12:20):
And I said this is excuse me, Idon't know if you're a cuss,
but this is fucking genius.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Oh no, no, you saw my special.
You know I cuss.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Yeah, I don't know if you really you know how some
people cuss on the stage.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
I do.
I do cuss on the stage, and notin regular life as often.
Yes, that's true, I do cuss onstage.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
This is amazing.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
You can't help yourself.
I appreciate that, bro,straight up.
I appreciate that because itmeans something to me when
people actually connect with thework you know what I'm saying
Connect with what I put out,that really matters.
I had a comment come to merecently like an OG I respect.
He was like yo, I saw thespecial bro, that's tough stuff,
(13:03):
man, like that jump was good,like you can see the skills and
everything you did.
I was like bro, I appreciatethat.
That matters to me.
Um, because you want your peersto at least respect what you do
, even if they don't like you asa person.
You know I, they, I won't belike hey, but he be cooking, he,
he cooks now.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
So yeah, man, I appreciate that, bro, through
the jokes on the grill youserved him up.
I was like okay yeah, like alittle crowd work in there
because it's an older lady thatwas somewhere in the corner.
This is the richmond funny bone.
I've only been there like three, four times to perform so I was
like okay bad.
Yeah, like I'm all over theplace because that takes like I
(13:45):
said, that takes courage,because the reason I connect
with yours I lost my father backin 2020.
Wow, not 2020, excuse me.
I lost him two years ago, 2023.
He was diagnosed in 2020.
Okay, and I had a.
I mean diagnosed with what?
Stage four pancreatic cancer.
Okay, okay, stage four finger,and he was the reason why I got
(14:08):
into comedy.
Those is my way, sir.
Yeah, it, it, it wasappreciated.
Yeah, um, and I actually wrotea bit.
I wrote like 10 minutes aboutthe funeral.
I don't know if anybody's everbeen to a black funeral.
Black funerals are comedy,especially mine pure comedy bro
(14:34):
so I was like and I I'm sayingthis because I tucked away the
10 minutes that I wrote about myfather's funeral and his
diagnosis and stuff, and Itucked it away and I was like I
ain't telling these jokes nomore, because one time I did it
I didn't do it right andsomeone's like oh, yeah, yeah.
But then somebody came up to mesaid my condolences, but that
(14:56):
was funny.
I was like, okay, yeah, youkind of, not kind of kind of you
gave me the inspiration.
Maybe I just need to bring thisback out one more time.
One more time.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
What your experience was.
That was my experience at theopen mics, trying to work that
stuff out.
I'm not even going to lie, it'shard to get up there and tell
jokes about stuff like that andthe crowd not get emotionally
connected to it immediately.
And that was the challenge.
I was like all right, man, likeevery mic I did, I had to like
address the audience like y'allcan't get all sad about this,
(15:32):
because then I'm not gonna beable.
You know what I'm saying.
It's not gonna be funny ify'all in here about to weep.
For me you know what I mean.
So definitely that was one ofthe biggest challenges of
working out that material ishaving to go out to mics and
figure it out.
And when it wasn't figured out,that was tough.
That was tough because thecrowd, I don't know.
You know, when you get thissomber energy from the crowd, it
(15:52):
kind of makes you sad too.
You know I'm like you should besad and I'm like I know I am
actually sad, but right now I'mtrying to do something, so I
don't have time to be sad aboutthis, you know I mean.
So I'm, I'm grateful I had achance to have those tough
moments um beforehand, that waywhen it got on stage, like I
could feel it in the roomhappening and if you pay, if you
(16:14):
notice, I addressed it.
You know, I'm saying during theroom to bring the room back up
from it, because they was tryingto go there and I was like, nah
, y'all better come, come onwith it.
I'm plucking butt cheeks.
It's about to get worse.
So I don't want to hear it.
I want to hear it, you know.
So that's definitely tough.
Um, that was, that was one ofthe tougher parts of it
(16:36):
definitely story actually abouta mic while I was working it out
.
You mind, if I tell it, goahead, share it babe, yeah, so
um, I went out about a mic whileI was working it out.
You mind if I tell it, go ahead,share it, baby.
Yeah.
So I went out to a mic to workout some of the material,
whatever.
Whatever I get up there I do myset.
You know it's a good set, itgoes okay.
You know, I still had that samework through the.
You know, the songwriteraudience don't know this guy.
(17:05):
He's like new to the scene.
I've never seen him before andI guess he have no jokes.
So his jokes was gonna be totry to make fun of me.
So I go out to this mic, I throwon like sweatpants, a hoodie.
I got on Crocs, like I'mlow-key, depressed right now,
like I'm in real life.
(17:26):
I'm depressed, but also I gottawork out this stuff.
So I just throw something on toget out here, to get through it
and work through it.
And then the guy comes upbehind me and like roast my
outfit.
You know I'm saying because Icame to an open mic with Crocs
and a hoodie on and all and I'mlike bro, if this is the top
tier place for you to come andput on your duds and stunt and
(17:48):
show all you know you're in alow place in life.
I mean, that's an open mic in atop.
We're in a basement dungeonslash attic.
I don't even know how you dothat.
I've never seen a dungeonupstairs.
What are we talking about?
We we're in an upstairs dungeon.
What is we practicing for?
It's 11 people in here?
Really Interesting occurrence.
(18:12):
He pissed me off.
I got up and left the micbecause on the inside I was
about to cry, but on the outsideI was about to fight.
So I'm about to smack thiswhite man with tears in my eyes,
bro.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
The crazy thing is, I think I know who you're talking
about, but I don't want to sayhis name on the show.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
No, it ain't who you think.
It's a newer guy.
You've probably never seen thisguy before, so the person I
think you might be thinking hasbeen in the scene for a while.
Mm-mm, oh, okay, well, it mightbe you might know, but I had a
vendetta out on this guy.
If I ever see him at another mic, he is getting the works.
(18:50):
You hear me?
Oh, you going to roast me in mydepression?
Oh, nick, I can't wait.
I never saw him again.
He never came out and his setbomb.
Let, I can't wait.
I never saw him again.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
He never came out and his set bombed.
Let's be clear, they always do.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Because the crowd wasn't with it.
Because my jokes was tellingthem I'm grieving and, like bro,
you gonna make fun of thegrieving guy.
The crowd wasn't with that, sohe tried to pivot, do some of
his stuff.
Nothing landed.
At that point you would turnthe whole room sour against you,
like everybody was already likethat was so brave for him to
even get up there, and then youwould come behind me and be a
dick.
Oh my God, bro.
(19:28):
So yeah, it didn't go well, Inever saw him again, but if I
ever see him again, it's goingto be smoke.
It's going to be some furnituremoving On stage, though On
stage, on stage.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
I had on stage, though.
On stage, on stage I had onecomedian tried and I was like
I'm gonna get his ass and Iwaited to the next week.
He showed up at the mic.
He's like what spot you want togo to?
I said man, put him in front ofme I was like you know, when
you was talking shit, I was likeyou know what that five minutes
is bad when you got the rightmaterial, don't you?
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Yeah, five minutes turns into a long time if you
ain't got nothing to say.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
I was like yeah what'd you say?
Remember, last week we talkedabout my hairline.
I forgot my hat in the car.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Young bastard, I was so hot, yeah, I ain't gonna lie,
you do have the church deacon,john, you know what I'm saying.
Oh man, it's all right though.
It's all right though, john.
You know you got to ride withwhat you got.
I'm bald all the way becausemine are back here too.
I just gave up.
You know you still fighting agood fight.
(20:37):
I gave up.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
You know what I bought Beyonce's hair products.
I just got them last week.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
I didn't want to hear nothing.
After Beyonce I boughtBeyonce's Cowboy Carter album
and I just knew all my follicleswas going to jam.
What are we saying?
Speaker 1 (20:56):
I saw it on Instagram .
I was like oh, they said thatthe sacred, the creed is
supposed to bring them back.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
I was like okay, oh, so she got some hair growth
stuff.
Yeah, never knew.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
I never knew I've been doing this right here, I've
been just going right here.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Keep it up, believe in yourself.
I believe in you?
Speaker 1 (21:17):
I mean, you know what I appreciate you, bro, I
believe in you.
Baby, keep up the laugh.
Who was your inspiration, orwhat was your inspiration to get
into comedy?
What was that thing that I knowyou say it was always funny,
right, but what was that thingthat was like, yeah, I'm gonna
get this, I'm gonna try this andkeep going crazy thing is I
(21:41):
always loved stand up fromchildhood.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Like I always loved stand-up from childhood.
I always loved comedy andstand-up from childhood.
Eddie Murphy's my goat.
Growing up watching Eddie andRichard Pryor, watching a lot of
the older comedians and stuff.
I actually have their recordsaround here and stuff.
It was always a thing that wasinside but I never felt like I
(22:05):
could actually pursue that.
That didn't seem real Crazything.
When we were kids I got fivebrothers and sisters, so it was
six of us.
We literally used to do comedyskits for each other.
We set up chairs and the otherfive sat down and one of us
would get up and we would try tomake the other ones laugh, like
literally like a comedy show.
And now in retrospect I'm likeit was there the whole time,
(22:27):
like I wasn't even payingattention to the connection.
Until I started doing comedy Iwas like duh.
So, um, you know, always hadthis thing inside, um, that I
wanted to pursue, never foundspace.
I actually spent a lot of time.
I grew up in church so my momand dad were both like ministers
(22:48):
and stuff.
So I grew up in church so I wasalways up speaking.
They used to make us go to thefront of the church and recite
stuff and memorize scripturesand stuff.
This is old school.
You grew up in the 80s andstuff.
You didn't have a choice, youhad to.
Everybody had to live in thishouse.
You know what I'm saying.
Got to go in the black blackfamily if your parents or
whatever.
So I always just do publicspeaking, stuff like that, and I
(23:10):
grew in church and startedspeaking in church and stuff
like that, and but then I willalways be funny, be funny, you
know, while I'm doing it.
And so part of me was just likeI want to try to pursue this.
So I tried to actually get mychurch to do this little like
stand-up comedy slash preachernight thing where it's like a
comedy show I wanted to call itthe stand-up preacher where it's
(23:31):
like you know, like a preacherthat's actually got not do stand
up, but it was like a play onwords.
Basically, you know what I'msaying Stand up guy, stand up,
reach, that kind of thing.
And so never really did it, buthad opportunities to just talk
and be funny.
And then 2020, the pandemic cameand, like you know, the world
shut down and everything wentcrazy and I was like you know
(23:53):
what People dying.
They never died before.
You know what I'm saying.
And I could be next and mindand ain't never died before.
You know I'm saying and I couldbe next, and so I don't want to
live and die with this in myheart and never actually give it
a shot why not so?
then I just started writing.
I just started like trying towrite jokes and stuff.
And when I first started likemy whole set was just about dogs
, it was about dogs, bro, I wasliterally going to do a special
(24:18):
on dogs.
I was just joking about dogs.
I got an interestingperspective I think about dogs,
bro, I was literally going to doa special on dogs.
I was just joking about dogs.
I got an interestingperspective I think about dogs.
And so I was telling all thesedog jokes you know dog jokes and
stuff like that.
And then I was like I don'twant to be the dog guy, you know
what I mean.
So I actually performed for mywife in the house with a TV
remote.
(24:40):
I did During the pandemic.
I wrote some stuff I've beenworking on, you know, for a
while.
I was like I'm just trying toperform stuff.
So I did a little performancefor her in the house.
She was like it was funny, likeit felt like it was comedy.
You know it didn't feel like hewas trying, it just felt like
you know it's funny.
So then my first, I guess,performance in front of people
(25:00):
outside of her was a familyreunion and my family was like
you know they was like anybodywant to do different talent, do
something with entertainment.
I was like, yeah, I want to try, I want to do some comedy.
It was like you do comedy, Iwant to Like, all right, so they
let me get out there.
You know, for like 25.
(25:21):
My first time before it waslike 25, 30 minutes.
And at the family reunion, withall my family sitting in chairs
and stuff, I got out there withmy aunties and great uncles and
everybody and said someoutlandish stuff.
The way I am on stage.
It was in me from the beginninglike I never wanted to be like
a clean comic or anything,because the comics that I like
(25:43):
were not clean, like I didn'tgrow up laughing at clean comedy
.
That's not what I thought wasfunny.
So I was like I want to be trueto my identity.
I told him from jump, I was likeI'm about to say some wild
stuff, y'all gonna be alright,and so all my cousins and them
out there, whatever, and I'mtelling some wild jokes and um,
(26:03):
they was like chuckling a littlebit but they couldn't laugh
because like your mama, his mama, your mom sitting over there,
you know, I mean my grandma'sout here, great grandma's out
here.
End of the job.
They came to me after everybody.
You know, the end of the night,once all the older people leave
and the younger people stay andturn up a little bit, it was
like yo, you was funny as hell,bro.
(26:24):
I just couldn't laugh becausemy mama was here.
So I, you know I did that andfrom there then on it was like
if I can perform in front ofthem, I can perform in front of
anybody.
Like that was the most wildaudience to tell these types of
jokes in.
They all you know, they realreligious, they.
I got christian family andstuff and I was cussing, I was
(26:46):
telling dick jokes.
I was all the things, brother,oh shameful stuff that you never
say in front of those peopleother times.
So some of my family, they lovethat, I do it.
They don't love my material,but you know they like that, I'm
doing it and whatever.
So it started from there.
And then my first opportunity,my first time actually doing out
(27:07):
public, was in a comedy club,which is rare, you know.
Usually it was an open mic thatSandman Comedy Club used to
have.
I remember you did.
You was in a competition atSandman with me actually.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
That shit was so horrible.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Yeah, we were in a competition with me.
I made it to the finals in thatjet, but we weren't on the same
night so I never saw you.
But yeah, the Sandman was thefirst place I ever did it
outside of that, and once I didit that night I was hooked.
I was like, oh yeah, this is itright here.
My set wasn't great, but like Ihad the bones, you know, I had
(27:42):
the energy, I was quick with itfor a little bit.
I was like I think I can dothis.
And from there that was in 2020to, yeah, like 2022.
That was like everything openedup.
You know, the world startedletting us back outside.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
It was yeah, and they started back doing the mics or
whatever, and that was.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
It was like everything opened up, you know,
the world started letting usback outside.
It was, yeah, and they startedback doing the mics or whatever,
and that was it.
And from there it was like I'min there, um, so I've been doing
it ever since, you know, doingit ever since, man.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Sam man, it was my shit Cause it was but I you know
it was my, that was my jam,that was that that competition
um showed me about preparation.
Well, I'm gonna go ahead, justdo the same shit.
That's been working.
Blah, blah, boom.
I done did this set already innumber five minutes.
I just want to, you know, makesure I get it to the finals.
(28:33):
Boy, I ain't prepped none of theshit that I was supposed to
rehearse.
I get up there.
I'm like all right, they gonna.
This is what I learned, reallyhow to get into the bag.
Uh, they said the whole set oftimes, like I'm not doing no
jokes, I'm just gonna bring youon and give the rules.
I'm like what, and who wasfirst?
(28:54):
I was, oh man, I go up there.
I had a cotton mouth.
I'm like yep, and I had anothercomedian.
He was right there beside me,we cool.
It was like yeah, bro, we, weain't making it.
We kept hearing everybody sayslike well, it was, I'm off on
monday.
(29:14):
You know, I can drive home homesleeping and watching this
night.
It's a wrap.
It's a wrap.
The preparation man.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
No, that's crazy, because my Sandman experience
was a little bit opposite.
I wanted to go out here and donew stuff and so I'm like, yeah,
I'm about to hit them with thisnew joint.
Yeah, this right about to befire.
Do not go into a competitionand try to do new material.
It's what I learned.
Do your old stuff that yousolid on and you cool, or you
(29:48):
know what I mean.
Get up there and be confident.
Right, right, right.
And that was what I.
That was the biggest lesson Itook away from it.
I'll never try new material ina situation where that counts
like that.
You know what I mean.
So the finals jump I did okay,but my first night, my first
night, I cooked and made it tothe finals round or whatever,
(30:09):
but they shortened it.
I felt like that robbed youknow a lot of, because, remember
, it was supposed to be longerbut then the place was going to
shut down and they ended upgoing straight to, like, the
finals.
They took the people, thatwhatever, and changed the format
, but it was supposed to growfrom that five minutes to 15
minutes, that kind of thing orwhatever, and that's where I was
going to excel.
I was like plenty of these guyscan do five minutes, but when
(30:31):
you get to 10, 15, that's deepwater.
That's deep water right therefor a lot of comics.
And I knew that.
And so I was like, if I make itpast the first round it's a
wrap, because with the longertime I'm a cook.
But then they cut it and theywas like, no, we're not doing
all the rounds and stuff, we'regonna wrap it up, we're gonna
let this be the finals.
Blah, blah, blah.
And I was like, oh all, right,whatever.
(30:53):
So, um, yeah, I learned the hardlesson that, that, that doing
that experience too.
And don't let other commentsget in your head.
That's another lesson I learned.
Don't let other comics get inmy head.
Because I was off kilter thatnight because another comic made
a comment in the comics beat,that kind of like threw me.
You know, I mean, it's always alittle shade, you know I'm
saying sometimes.
(31:14):
And so another comic made alittle comment and kind kind of
threw me.
And I wasn't as sure of myselfwhen I got up there as I usually
am and I said I'll never dothat again.
I'll never do that again.
I'm going to cook, despitewhoever in the room thinks what.
I don't care about what noother comic thinks.
The only thing that matters tome is that audience.
(31:36):
That's it, because you can denywhatever you want, you can say
whatever you want.
You cannot deny laughs in thecrowd and that's the goal Laughs
in the crowd.
I don't care what you thinkabout me, I don't care whether
you think I deserve or you thinkI'm as good as people say
whatever.
Laughs in the crowd Every roomI go in and it's an audience.
I'm cooking, that's what Ivowed.
(31:59):
From that point on, I'm cooking.
I don't care nothing about thecomics who in there, what?
Nope, I ain't got nothing to dowith me.
Me and this audience is allthat matters.
Since I've adopted that, it'shelped me a lot Because you know
it's hard to go to open micsand the room full of 25 comics
and two crowd members.
You know what I mean.
I hate that.
(32:19):
I hate that.
You know what I mean, becausethen the comics sit back there
and not go on and not try not tolaugh, especially if they don't
like you or whatever.
They just sit back there,ignore you, start reading, start
taking out their phone and youthink you're not doing a good
job, but they just not.
It don't matter.
(32:44):
Up to him like yeah, you had agood set not even, not even.
So yeah, I learned a lot fromthat experience too.
That sandman was.
That was the first and onlycompetition I've been a part of.
I said I'm gonna do another oneeventually, but I don't know
when.
That's gonna be witnessopportunities, right, the last
one they had.
I wasn't able to make it allthe days so I didn't even sign
up to pearl street when I thinkpearl street had a junk.
I wasn't no to make it all thedays, so I didn't even sign up.
The Pearl Street one.
I think Pearl Street had a jump.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
I wasn't that one.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Funny one, last Ham who won that Shout out to Last,
last one of my faves in thisscene, last of the Beasts.
We've definitely been on someshows together.
Yeah, we got Last one of myfaves Shout out to Last Ham who
won that jump.
But I couldn't be there everyweek on Tuesday.
I could only be there, like, Ithink, two of them, like one or
(33:24):
two of them, the last one andone other one and I was like, oh
, there's no need for me to signup for that.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
I was in that one.
That's who you knew was talkingabout probably the Crocs.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
I was in that one oh no, they weren't in that they
wanted that one okay this was a.
This was a new comic.
Like I think they justgraduated from the little class
or something like that.
You're like they were new tothe game all together.
He learned some lessons thatnight, though, hopefully
probably.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
But you know what some some, some of us don't,
some of us don't learn them well, let's be clear while he was on
stage I did roast back.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
I ain't say that I did roast back from the audience
.
I forgot that part.
So, yeah, I did roast backduring the set and then I left
after.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
But, um, yeah, yeah, a lot of us don't learn those
lessons, man.
I think a lot of us try and bealphas but really deep down
inside we bait us.
A lot of us want to be bigsharks and small ponds.
A lot of us want it real quick,like it's it'd be a comedian
that's doing it for six months,but like, yeah, I'm getting the
open mic.
I'm like, yeah, do what yougotta do, man yeah, good luck
(34:34):
with that.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
What's your take on that, on like running a mic man,
because I've had some offers todo so and I've thought about it
, but I just don't see thebenefit just yet personally.
Like, I know you get guaranteedtime, sure, but does that weigh
out the production?
You know the the work that it's.
Have you ever ran your own mic?
(34:55):
So yeah, what are the benefitsof running your own?
Speaker 1 (35:00):
you get guaranteed time, maybe a free meal and a
little bit of money in yourpocket.
That's it now, if you do decideto run your open mic, um, I
wouldn't do one every week yeah,that's the thing too.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Yeah, I don't want a weekly job.
I can't, don't burn throughyourself.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Don't throw burn through.
Yeah, I don't want a weekly job, I can't.
Don't burn through yourself,don't burn through your material
and don't burn throughcomedians, because the allure of
having a mic once every twoweeks or once a month is the
greatest thing ever.
Mm-hmm, I personally don't wantto run one.
I might run lasted two well,three.
(35:40):
Run lasted two, well, threeweeks.
It lasted three weeks.
I was running with another,with three other comedians.
I stepped away because I saw Iput it on my story a couple of
weeks ago, but I can see whereit falters into.
I've also had opportunities toput on shows, but my thing is, I
(36:03):
love a lot of these comediansbut I don't want to jeopardize
their craft or put their name indanger, something.
The show don't go right.
So I'd like I just rather justask for some time, go pull up at
an open mic.
Yeah, keep it pushing mepersonally, but if you want, I
think everybody should at leastproduce one show in five years
(36:26):
of comedy why do you say that?
just want to get the experience.
That's it.
Just one notch on your back.
I think everybody should do atleast produce one show well,
actually I do.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
I have produced a show Because I put a show
together in North Carolina and,you know, brought some of my
boys up here, from up here downhere, and did whatever for A
family event.
So I mean I guess that counts.
I paid them you know what I'msaying Took care of them.
Yeah, I produced the show.
I was the host, so you knowwhat I mean.
It was a good time.
A couple little shaky momentsyeah, I produced the show, I was
the host.
So you know, I mean it was agood time.
(37:00):
It was a good time.
You know, a couple of shakymoments.
A couple of shaky moments forsome of the comics, because you
know certain crowd.
You got to know your audience,you know.
I mean you got to know youraudience and if you realize that
your audience not vibing withwhat you're doing, you got to be
able to.
You got to be able to pivot.
Vibing with what you're doing,you got to be able to pivot.
(37:21):
You got to be able to find away to grab them.
And one of the comics he wasjust so vulgar and it was just a
lot for the audience and thenhe wasn't telling no jokes.
So you're just up here cussinga lot and talking about a bunch
of stuff, but you weren'ttelling jokes for real, for real
.
And so the vulgarity istolerated when it's in context
of funny and the material andit's like pacing and timing and
(37:41):
all that too.
But yeah, I was like bro,whenever they start yelling out
at you and saying stuff, likeyou doing all that cussing, you
ain't saying nothing.
I was like, oh, you heard thelady, she telling you what the
problem is, what you going to do, and he ran the light like
(38:02):
crazy, like I was trying to getthis nigga off stage for like
for like six minutes, bro.
I'm like bro, what we doing,man, what we doing?
So that kind of stuff I don'tdeal with it.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
I had one comedian.
He did it numerous times.
He ain't run no light, but hegave up in the middle of the
joke where they had to do like alet's go, you can do it.
Keep going, bro.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
I'm like what what are we doing?
Not the church encouragement?
Speaker 1 (38:32):
everybody just started clapping for you before
the show this is, I'm not reallyapproachable for anything.
I'm quiet as shit before I evengo on the stage.
Um, I'm trying to get my mindright.
He was asking for some advice.
Hey, lock in, because thisisn't a black room.
(38:52):
Excuse me, alain, this is anigga room.
You better walk into, whichmeans you better be able to fire
off, mess with somebody in thecrowd and keep it pushing.
Yeah, yep, yeah, it's like, andkeep it pushing.
Yeah and yep, yeah, yeah it'slike that sometimes.
(39:14):
It's like that sometimes well,man, josh, I do appreciate you
coming on.
This has been a good convo, bro, I that's it we wrapping up
already, hey, man, let me tellyou.
Hey, bro, I appreciate yourtime, but I'm gonna say like
this they got us back in theoffice with the government, bro,
I gotta get up 4 30 in themorning.
(39:38):
That's crazy, 4 30 nice theearlier you wake up for the job,
even while you hate it.
4, 30, and I gotta get to workat six.
Yeah, this man, I feel that man, I understand, I do appreciate
it, man, and um, all I just wantto say is, bro, I'm I just may
(39:59):
sound weird, I ain't glazing orwhatever these terms.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
I'm proud of you, bro I appreciate that man ain't
glazing at all.
I appreciate that man I ain'tglazing at all, man.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
I appreciate that, brother.
If you need anything, just DMme, because obviously I need to
get this new email addressworked out.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
Because that's some shit.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
My sister helped me set up.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
Yeah, I checked my email a few times.
Yeah, I was like, nah, you know, you can search by trying to be
specific.
I'm pulling up stuff from 2013.
I was like ain't no way, no waydeep in the trenches.
So, yeah, yeah, I'm glad atleast we.
Um, we sent it multiple ways,so I appreciate it, so I can
(40:40):
have everything to be locked in.
Um, it was a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
Man enjoyed it me man and people want to follow you
and get in contact.
Which way do they go to?
Speaker 2 (40:48):
yeah, follow me at josh war comedy on all platforms
.
Um, tiktok banned me right nowso I gotta start a new page on
tiktok.
There's a whole nother story wecould have got into um.
But um, yeah, follow me at joshwar comedy on all platforms.
Man, there's another josh wardout there that's more famous
than me.
He's a musician, so put comedyat the end of it.
(41:09):
Josh ward comedy, that's howyou find me.
All right, don't just put joshward.
Uh, yeah, hit me up like,subscribe, share, follow all the
good things and follow me atcomedian rome and on instagram.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
No id podcast, uh.
At comedian rome davis.
On YouTube, if you hit the linkin the bio you can get all that
stuff and more Tiki Tok.
I don't be up there becauseJosh talking about he banned.
This ban is about to be lifted,about to get rid of TikTok.
My dumb ass deleted the wholething.
Brung it back.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
I'm like it ain't hitting no more there was a
space where people deleted itand couldn't put it back on
their phone.
Like people was being petty,going in other people's phones
and deleting the app off thecheck and put it back.
Wasn't that?
It was that thing that was thething.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
It was like flappy birds back in the day.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
I don't know what's flappy birds flappy birds was.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
It was a game.
I lied to you.
Not, it was a game on theiphone.
It's just like, yeah, I don'tknow, I can't really explain it,
but I know that if you updatedyour phone to the new software,
because of copyright things,they deleted the flappy birds
off.
So if you guys got time, youcan google this flash birds.
People was actually sellingoutdated iphones with the flash
(42:32):
birds game for like a couple of16, like a couple thousands of
dollars, like 16 000 because itstill had the game on it still
had the game on it.
It was like that old atari typefeel mario, this super nintendo
type oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, Ihave seen that before, I just
googled it.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
Yeah, I have seen that before, I just Googled it.
Yeah, I have seen that before.
People was hooked on that giant, though, yeah, people was
hooked on that Flappy Bird, Iremember.
Okay, alright, that's the jokewhere you go up or down and you
gotta maneuver between thetunnels and all of that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know whatyou're talking about.
That's why.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
If I didn't have the automatic updates we'll be
having a whole we'll be having awhole different conversation.
Probably wouldn't be no damncomedy on the podcast nah, I
feel that, though, but Josh man,keep going, bro.
That's all I got to say, bro,like, just keep going.
(43:24):
Thank you for making fun of mydeacon hairline no offense man,
please.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
I hope you can take a joke, bro.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
I was like I can take a joke, yeah.
No, you can't take a joke, yeahsame to you, man.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
I checked out some of your stuff as well.
Um, keep going, keep grinding,man.
Yeah there's no end in sight,because there is no end for this
man.
That's the thing.
If you're looking for adestination in comedy, there is
none.
The only destination is yournext stage, so keep it going
amen, we gonna sign off rightquick, ain't gonna stop.
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