July 22, 2025 • 26 mins
Turning personal setbacks into creative gold is the hallmark of true entrepreneurs, and Jay Davis exemplifies this transformation. After a divorce fifteen years ago, he began writing short stories about dating experiences, eventually filming them as sketches when "nobody was doing sketches on the internet back then." That initial spark ignited a creative empire spanning four feature films, multiple series, children's books, and the acclaimed show "The Creative Hustle" on Tubi.
Davis pulls back the curtain on his creative process and business acumen during this candid conversation. When COVID halted traditional production, he pivoted to animation and, drawing inspiration from Robert Townsend's "Partners in Crime," assembled talented comedians to create "The Creative Hustle" – a fresh blend of sketch comedy, improv, and stand-up complemented by a live band. The show tackles contemporary issues like cancel culture with intelligent humor while showcasing established comedians including Leon Rogers, Damon Williams, and Rodney Perry.
Beyond his own creative pursuits, Davis's commitment to community-building shines through his establishment of the Bernie Mac Lifetime Achievement Award and creation of IndieCon, a film festival designed to support genuine independent filmmakers without the gatekeeping common in the industry. He debunks the myth of mysterious investors funding creative projects, instead emphasizing self-reliance: "Everything comes out of pocket... whatever revenue we make from a project, we use it towards the next project." His parting advice to aspiring creators is refreshingly straightforward: "Do your research... stop being lazy. You got a fucking computer in your hand... do your research and grind." Follow Jay's journey on social media @jdavistp and catch "The Creative Hustle" on Tubi, with an expanded second season featuring 8 episodes, 16 comedians, and 25 sketches coming soon.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode
of the no ID podcast.
I have here Arthur, producer,writer, actor.
This man, let me say this hegot one of my favorite.
I watched, like all sixepisodes of this show on TubB
(00:22):
called the Creative Hustle,where it's sketch, improv
stand-up comedy with a live band.
Executive producer of the show.
But not only does he producethis show, he embodies the title
Creative Hustle.
The one and only Jay Davis, howyou doing today, boss.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I'm good man.
How's everything?
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Everything great brother, I appreciate you coming
on.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Thanks again.
Forgive me for my lack ofknowledge on time zones.
I definitely appreciate youhaving me on.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Man, let me just say it's good to see a creative such
as yourself doing so manythings Merchandise, like I said,
children's books, televisionSpecials.
This is fire and you got somelegends that you're working with
(01:19):
and it was so good to see fourproducers black producers in the
credits of the show.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
No, yeah how did you?
Speaker 1 (01:33):
how did this all come about like, from the children's
books to writing, producing,acting and so on?
How did all this start?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
all this started, uh, I want to say 15 years ago.
I was in the house before firstoff a divorce from my first
wife and I was like man, I needto do something with my life.
So I just started writing shortstories and all I meant like
based on dating experiences, andI'm like and what if I film
(02:02):
these?
Like nobody was doing likesketches and shit on the
internet back then.
So I just started like I foundsomebody on like craigslist and
then that's before craig.
That got creepy too and so Ifound somebody.
Uh, he started filming them.
He, he really didn't have anyexperience, but you know I was
able to film him and get him outthere and then from there I
took the characters and and thatand shot my first movie.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Damn.
You was like, yeah, she gone,now Let me go ahead and show you
.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Let me move on with my life and make it better.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Look at me now Upgrade it.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
All right.
So yeah, from there, I shotfour feature films and like six,
seven series, so stay busy.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
I understand we got a little similar experience
because after I broke up with myex, I got into stand-up comedy
and podcasts.
Look at me now bitch, I'm justkidding Empire Caps.
Look at me now bitch, I'm justkidding.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Sometimes you gotta let some shit go.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Sometimes you do.
It's an adult children's bookseries.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
No, this is for kids, 100% kids, really.
Yeah, that was the funny partabout it when I told my friend I
I wrote a kid's book.
And they're like, come on, man,I can't be Quit playing.
If I sold my kid's book, theyain't going to be messed up.
I'm like, no, it's for 6 to11-year-olds.
Like no bad stuff happens tothese kids.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
I went deep in the trenches on your instagram page
the other day, dating a comedianbooger sugar booger.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
So that's a cartoon series I like reposted.
So I did the cart all right.
So the creative hustle and thecartoon series were products of
COVID, because I couldn't filmduring COVID.
So I started doing the cartoonseries Towards the end of COVID.
I reached out to my partnerOmar.
I'm like, hey, man, do youremember Robert Townsend's
(04:14):
Partners in Crime?
He's like, yeah, I'm like Iwent on like a YouTube rabbit
hole.
And I'm like, man, I rememberthis.
I'm like I think we can pullthis off Because I know a lot of
dope comedians and dope artists.
And he's like all right, let'sdo it.
So I reached out to RodneyPerry and then Will Gates, and
then we all came up with a plan.
We found a venue, we're goingto do this.
(04:35):
I got a bunch of comedians thathave been rocking with me since
I started.
I'm like, hey, man, we're goingto film, we're going to do this
.
We picked two days to film thelive taping and then we shot the
sketches on separate days.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
It was a sketch where the mass killer was going
around.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Yeah, the cancel culture, cancel culture.
He's like no, I'm black, no,I'm gay.
He said fuck it, I'm black, no,I'm gay he said fuck it, I'm
killing everybody no livesmatter.
how about that and that cameabout?
Do you remember that wasHalloween ends?
(05:18):
Okay, it was one.
I think it was Halloween endsor Halloween kills, one of those
Halloween.
It was controversy.
I think it was Halloween Endsor Halloween Kills One of those
Halloween.
It was controversy in thatmovie Because they said Michael
Myers killed a gay couple.
I'm like this nigga killedeverybody, but they really got
people really upset that hekilled a gay couple.
I'm like wait a minute, man,this is going too far.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
They did all too far.
They did, I mean I enjoyed itbecause like it seems like you
can't, like I don't know, justlike comedy has like saturated
and I get some jokes ain'tacceptable, but it's like it
seems like the cancel culture,the internet, looks to cancel
anybody for any reason, like Idon't know.
If you saw, we got, we just hada comedian, I forgot his name
(06:06):
but he got eight years and inprison for telling jokes in
brazil.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Oh, wow, that, that didn't like.
What jokes did he tell?
Speaker 1 (06:17):
I can't find them.
I can't find them eight years.
Imagine being in prison withsomebody.
What you ain't here for murder,what about you?
Oh, extortion, kidnapping,selling drugs.
What about you?
Uh man, I shot a comedy specialyou're right.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
like what that that?
Hey, I gotta, I gotta find thebackstory on that.
What joke was so bad?
Did he talk about somebody inthere, like in their Congress or
whatever?
To to piss somebody off Like Idon't know?
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
I don't know, and it was good to see it was.
I mean I saw it.
I was like, yeah, I ain know,and it was good to see it was.
I mean I saw it.
I was like, yeah, I ain't nevergonna do a special over there,
but yeah, I do like the factthat you, when you say you had
the comedians that you've beenrocking with and grinding like,
you had leon rogers up there,damon williams, who is a fucking
killer, oh yeah, I seen him twotimes.
(07:09):
I'm talking about like back toback.
Like I saw him at a friday showand I went to the saturday show
and seeing him and I was like,oh, yeah, damon's the godfather.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Um, yeah, he's godfather.
I just got I just talked to himrecently, um, so also last was
it last year um, I gotpermission from the, uh, bernie
mac foundation to create.
So I wanted to give damon anaward for always like being cool
, and whenever I called him heanswered the call.
(07:40):
He was in like my first feature, uh, third feature film, not
another black movie and uh, Iwant to give damon some kind of
award just to recognize him asbeing dope.
I'm like what if we named theaward the bernie mack lifetime
achievement award?
And so I reached out to hisdaughter, his daughter's, like I
love the idea.
You got to reach out to my mom.
She's over the foundation.
So I reached out to thefoundation, they reached out to
(08:06):
Rhonda and they gave uspermission to create the Bernie
Mac Lifetime Achievement Award.
So last June pretty much like Iwant to say the 9th June, 9th
of last year we presented Damonwith that award.
So this year we're planning thesecond award.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Damn, that's dope.
That's dope.
That's dope, that's dopebecause when you see like a lot
of comedians out there, theyonly really push so many of them
.
And damon williams is godfather, king, well, I'm gonna say
kingpin.
But kingpin goat rodney perry.
I've been following rodneysince the what's the show would,
(08:46):
I think was bill bellamy gotjokes.
It used to come on tv one, yeah, he got jokes.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Who got jokes?
Speaker 1 (08:51):
something like that yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That was like that was betterthan last comic standing because
they was putting them indifferent scenarios where, like,
what would you do if the micdidn't work?
Would you still talk, orwhatever I learned?
I went on a rabbit hole of uhyoutube prior to my journey and
then I came across Petey Green.
(09:16):
Oh yeah, I was like Petey wasraw.
Yeah, you make films as welltoo.
I remember I thought about this.
You posted up a meme a coupleof months ago.
It said I know what my cousindid last summer when it was like
Kanye, and then that would beso dope if he shot something
(09:40):
like that.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
But you know, I saw somebody post it.
This was hilarious.
They said Kanye was suckingdick of choice.
This was hilarious.
They said Kanye was suckingdick of choice.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
I was like, oh, Like Kanye, he dies for like two
months.
You don't hear nothing from himfor like two, three months,
Then randomly he comes, likeyeah.
I was with my cousin since 14.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
I'm like what I'm like, bro, you don't have to
tell you.
Like, why would you say that?
Like, do you need to sellalbums?
That bad?
Like I don't know man, I don'tknow, the medication ain't
strong enough.
You need a friend.
I don't know what it is, andhe's from chicago, and people
all the way like man, what's upwith?
Yay, I don't know this niggalike I never, never, ran across
(10:36):
him.
I don't even know if he's fromchicago.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
He might be from a suburb in illinois I don't know
he might be, I don't know, Idon't know.
I don't know the medication,but it was dope.
And you do films as well, too,right, so you've done a lot of
films, yeah.
Um, now you see, like thesuccess of more black, uh
directors coming along, moreblack filmmakers coming along.
(11:01):
Will they be on the main screen, like ryan coogler, who is, in
my opinion, the I wouldn't saycomparing, but he is this
generation spike lee with thefilm and the cinematography.
And you see, like 2b has openedup a lot of doors now for a lot
of black filmmakers.
Has there been more motivationfor you?
(11:22):
Is it getting easier for you toget more exposure through 2b or
are you looking to also getmore on the mainstream, or um,
2b is pretty much for any indiefilmmaker mainly black though
but, um, like they pay the bills.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Like you know, people make fun of Tubi.
They call them Tubi movies.
But Tubi don't produce shit.
They produce their own content.
But 98% of the movies you seeon Tubi are made from somebody
else.
And they got mainstream moviestoo.
But like Tub be pays the most.
(11:59):
It used to be amazon prime.
Amazon prime used to payfilmmakers, indie filmmakers,
like 16 cent per minute of yourmovie.
When you stream it, like, soanybody watch it, your whole
movie, say, your movie's an hourand a half, you'll get paid 16
cent per minute.
So, whatever that is.
Um, a lot of indie filmmakerscaught on.
They started putting theirmovies on amazon.
(12:20):
Amazon, I was like fuck that.
Um, we put it down to two centa minute and then after that
they were like you know what?
No, we're gonna make it arental.
It's not gonna be free forprime members, we're gonna make
it a rental.
And now we get half to be freefor Prime members.
We're going to make it a rental, and now we get half of the
rental too.
So if your movie's on sale for$2.99 in rent, they want half of
that.
So then Tubi came along andlike, yeah, we'll stream the
(12:43):
content, we'll put the contenton there.
And Tubi has, in my opinion,the best model as far as
streaming services one it's freeand you get paid by them
advertising during your move.
So they get.
They're getting money fromtheir sponsors.
Wanna, you know, playcommercial and ass throughout
(13:06):
their movies, and and that's howfamilies, filmmakers, do um to
be, yeah, cool.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
People don't realize about tubi is they do have those
films, those big main film,mainstream film, like you said.
But when hbo said they wasn'tgonna pay um union actors, half
of hbo max's catalog went overto tubi.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
So that's when you saw country and all that yeah
and um, yeah to be I mean to be,and it's like to be gets a bad
rap because, yeah, it's likesome people, their quality
control is not the best.
I can say that.
And so you see crazy shit goingviral on there like what?
Like come on, man, man.
(13:53):
But again, the indie filmmakers, tooby, don't have shit to do
with the making of the movie.
It's indie filmmakers doing thebest that they can with their
budget.
That's just what it is and it'sjust like yes, it's funny, it's
hilarious, but it's like peoplethink every movie is like that
and it's not.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Tooby has some original movies.
I watched some with DamonWilliams no, damon Wayne, excuse
me and Pam.
You're called cinnamon.
I love the hell out that movie.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
I think I did see that.
Yeah, it was dope.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
It was like it came out like a year ago.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
I remember that.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Yeah, it's fine.
People don't realize this too,Tubi went from one year having a
commercial on the Super Bowl toactually streaming the Super
Bowl.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
The following year.
Tubi got money.
Tubi has more viewership thanBET+.
That's the reality of it andthat's Googleable.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
That's what it is, man.
So who was like some of yourinspirations as far as like
filmmaking?
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Yeah like.
Robert Townsend, spike Lee,john Singleton, people like that
.
Okay, yeah, robert Townsend islike underrated as hell um
people like that.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Okay yeah, robert Townsend is like underrated as
hell cause Carlos Miller.
That's when I first saw CarlosMiller was on Robert Townsend's
um stuff.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah,he was one of the ones putting
the comedians on.
He was, uh, hollywood Shufflewas Hollywood Shuffle.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Yep Hollywood Shuffle .
He had some dope friends.
He had some dope friends aroundhim.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
I saw this interview.
They was talking.
He's like it took him for themto do Hollywood Shuffle was
$40,000 in credit card debt.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Yeah, he used credit card.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
That's a bet on yourself, man.
So just a question when youhave these ideas for these films
and these projects that you'reworking on, do you do the credit
card debt thing too, or do you?
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Oh, everything's out of pocket.
Does the studio give you abudget?
Nah, I'm the studio.
Me and my partner have thestudio.
Everything comes out of pocketand that's what it is, you know.
And then whatever revenue wemake from project, we use it
towards the next project.
So, and they know, oh, we gotpeople got this magical idea
that these investors are waitingaround with two million dollars
(16:32):
to give you to shoot something,that shit ain't going to happen
.
But you can keep waiting andsee what happens.
Best of luck to you.
But if you want to get someshit done in a reasonable amount
of time, you don't have to beton yourself.
You got to save up.
You don't need all the Jordans.
Put some money aside.
If you really want to do it,you'll figure it out Big facts,
(16:57):
big facts, big facts.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
I used to think like they had like hedge funds and
some I was like, yeah, I got ahedge fund, I want to put 30
million dollars into.
I guess it's not the case.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
I'm sorry, bro, I cut you off no, people do like
indiegogos and stuff like that.
And then something I've seenpeople raise money but that's
not like.
That doesn't happen foreverybody for sure.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Is it like a main goal that you have as far as
like the film, the book, the,the special?
Are you like trying to get moreinto, like, uh, what's the
american black film festival?
Are you trying to get an ifcfestival to sundance, anything
like that?
Or you just like, you know, Ilike being an underground king
and I like to, you know, get myflowers that way instead of
being so mainstream so filmfestivals are, uh, in my opinion
(17:56):
, uh, some of my uh a piece ofshit.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Uh, because I've seen the bullshit on some of these
film festivals, I'll give youone example that I've seen like
you know they'll film festivals.
A lot of them charge you anentry fee.
Say an entry fee is like $75.
And say you have like at leastsay like 500 filmmakers paying
$75 to enter their movie Justenter, not guaranteed to win.
(18:21):
I was on a particular film andsay we wrapped on November 15th
and we went to the wrap party,it was wrapped, the movie's not
done.
We finished wrap party, themovie's not done, we finished
filming, the movie's not done.
Two days later they announcedthat that film that we just
wrapped on is not edited yetmade a film festival.
(18:41):
I'm like, how the fuck did thathappen?
And so, and it was like it wascalled the Pan African American
Film Festival in LA, which is abig film festival and it was one
of the film festivals at thetime that I had reached out to
to put another movie in thereand they declined me.
This film, this rap, somehowgot accepted and it's not
(19:02):
complete yet.
I'm like, okay, that's thebullshit.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
You think it's more like a money grab, like they
charge you the production feeand shit like that it's
definitely a money grab, likethey charge you the production
fee and shit like that.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
It's definitely a money grab.
So I just like said, fuck that.
And I created a film festivalin 2024 called IndieCon for
indie filmmakers for real.
Yeah, we had this.
We had two years.
We did one in 2024 and 2025, sowe had, you know, a lot of
Chicago based indie filmmakers,but we accept films from all
(19:34):
over.
We screened films for two daysshorts and feature films.
People came out and had a goodtime.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Damn, damn, I'm going to check that out.
Yeah, don't prevent.
I'm going to check that out.
The support, support, becauseI've been to the black film
festival in DC, but I need to.
It's like yeah, issa Rae isgoing to be here.
I didn't see her.
I must have missed that day.
(20:05):
I must have missed that day.
You know what I mean?
I don't know, I don't know.
Then they'll tell Like for,like For me, like we got Podcast
festivals and then we gotComedy festivals and it's.
It's pretty much Just likeSomebody told me One time they
was gonna put me In front of a,a big booker and stuff.
(20:26):
Yeah, you gotta do it, man.
I paid Cause we'll get like thesame thing.
Uh, entry fee it was a hundred,bullet, hundred dollars.
I will say bullets.
I'm in norfolk, so I got yougot to forgive me, so it was a
hundred dollars to submit.
And I submit.
They said send the video in.
I sent five minutes in and Ijust waited and probably like
(20:47):
four months later I get an email.
Unfortunately we're not able toaccept.
I'm like, why, damn, give me myhundred dollars back?
Uh, we don't read four monthslater and that that's the great
thing.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
How many, how many people you think submitted?
Is that the guess?
Speaker 1 (21:07):
it's got to be hundreds, probably, probably
thousands.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
That's a lot of money .
It's in somebody's account,like you know, the Book of Venue
.
There's still a few thousandunaccounted for, so it's like
that's a lot of money that youare.
You know, come on, now, that'srobbery.
They should scream at peopleand be like hey look, all right,
(21:34):
all right, we're gonna acceptyou here, here's the fee to get
in.
But instead you submit theylook at you, look at the tape.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
They probably don't even look at half the tapes, to
be honest with you so I had abig comedian do one, uh,
actually, from I ain't gonna saytheir name because I want to
work with them in the future,but he has a talk show.
I submitted and I promise you Isubmitted like at 7 o'clock pm
(22:00):
and 7.30 pm I got a rejectionand I was like, oh, I'm sorry,
god damn, god damn.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
They probably go off name recognition like I know
this nigga how many followersyou get, nah he out.
They probably even look at that.
They couldn't have looked atyour tape they couldn't looked
at it.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
What got me is I went on the page.
I was like I was being petty, Iwas mad as hell.
I.
I was mad bro.
I was like I'm going to look.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
There's no way possible the odds that they're
doing absolutely nothing from 7to 7.30.
The day like, I'm going to lookat this tape and then watch it
and be like nope, open and getthe email in real time, watch
the tape, type another email andsend it in 30 minutes like now
(22:57):
they pissed me off.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
So bad, bro, because I looked at who was up, they had
people from wild and out upthere.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
I'm like, oh yeah, it was name recognition and that's
a lot of what they go on.
They go off a name recognitionand instagram following.
That's it that's it.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
That's it, man.
Look, jay, I got one morequestion for you, brother,
before you go off.
What advice do you give was topeople that's actually trying to
live what you do.
The creative hustle hustle fromthe books to the movies, to
everything.
How, what?
(23:34):
What advice do you have forsomebody that's looking to do
what you're doing?
Speaker 2 (23:38):
do your research.
You, anything is, um, you canfact check anything.
You can look on youtube, google, um, now, ai.
But do your research.
Whatever you want to get into,whether it's writing, writing a
book or writing a script,anything do your research
because a lot of people jump inhead first and spend unnecessary
money and waste unnecessarytime and you can figure a lot of
(24:00):
stuff out on yourself.
You don't have to ask everybodyfor something.
You don't have to pay forinformation a lot of times.
Dude, stop being lazy.
You got a fucking computer inyour hand.
Yeah, the phone in your hand isequivalent to the library any
library you got in your area, soyou can look up anything you
(24:20):
want to know.
Do your research and grind.
That's pretty much it.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
My man.
And if anybody wants to seeyour content or follow you and
support you, what can they reachyou out at?
Speaker 2 (24:35):
uh, it's, you know, j davis, jay davis, tp.
On everything instagram,facebook uh, what's that tiktok?
And then look up creativehustle on um on tubi or edyH on
Tubi and jdavisfilmscom all mymovies and everything is listed
on there my guy and if you guyswant to follow me, it's at
(24:58):
Comedian Rome on all socialmedia platforms.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
The podcast is no ID Podcast, jay, I appreciate you,
brother oh man, I appreciate youbro, I'm going to say this too,
because my mom, she's acomedian too.
We watched the creative hustlewith each other and we got
locked in to the point where itwas like, alright, this shit is
good wait till you see.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Season 2, season 2.
Yeah, season 2.
We got 8 episodes, 16 comedians, like 25 sketches.
So season 2 is gonna be huge.
We got eight episodes, 16comedians, like 25 sketches.
So, yeah, season two is goingto be huge.
We got on season two.
We got Sean Morgan, wildcatDamon's back, calvin Evans.
(25:43):
Who else we got I'm going toget in trouble Marlon Mitchell,
fabian Rowe we got a lot ofcomedians.
I'm sorry, anybody wild, I'msorry, we got a lot of comedians
.
I'm sorry, anybody.
I'm sorry, we got a lot ofcomedians.
Uh, velmo.
Uh, comedian Roy Mo.
Good, we got a shit load ofcomedians on season two.
So get ready, it'll be out soonmy god amen.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
I appreciate you once again, god bless and everything
, wishing them but the bestsuccess.
Likewise, brother, appreciateyou once again.
God bless and everything.
Wish you nothing but the bestsuccess likewise brother.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Appreciate you, thank you, thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode
of the no ID podcast.
I have here Arthur, producer,writer, actor.
This man, let me say this hegot one of my favorite.
I watched, like all sixepisodes of this show on TubB
(00:22):
called the Creative Hustle,where it's sketch, improv
stand-up comedy with a live band.
Executive producer of the show.
But not only does he producethis show, he embodies the title
Creative Hustle.
The one and only Jay Davis, howyou doing today, boss.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I'm good man.
How's everything?
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Everything great brother, I appreciate you coming
on.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Thanks again.
Forgive me for my lack ofknowledge on time zones.
I definitely appreciate youhaving me on.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Man, let me just say it's good to see a creative such
as yourself doing so manythings Merchandise, like I said,
children's books, televisionSpecials.
This is fire and you got somelegends that you're working with
(01:19):
and it was so good to see fourproducers black producers in the
credits of the show.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
No, yeah how did you?
Speaker 1 (01:33):
how did this all come about like, from the children's
books to writing, producing,acting and so on?
How did all this start?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
all this started, uh, I want to say 15 years ago.
I was in the house before firstoff a divorce from my first
wife and I was like man, I needto do something with my life.
So I just started writing shortstories and all I meant like
based on dating experiences, andI'm like and what if I film
(02:02):
these?
Like nobody was doing likesketches and shit on the
internet back then.
So I just started like I foundsomebody on like craigslist and
then that's before craig.
That got creepy too and so Ifound somebody.
Uh, he started filming them.
He, he really didn't have anyexperience, but you know I was
able to film him and get him outthere and then from there I
took the characters and and thatand shot my first movie.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Damn.
You was like, yeah, she gone,now Let me go ahead and show you
.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Let me move on with my life and make it better.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Look at me now Upgrade it.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
All right.
So yeah, from there, I shotfour feature films and like six,
seven series, so stay busy.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
I understand we got a little similar experience
because after I broke up with myex, I got into stand-up comedy
and podcasts.
Look at me now bitch, I'm justkidding Empire Caps.
Look at me now bitch, I'm justkidding.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Sometimes you gotta let some shit go.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Sometimes you do.
It's an adult children's bookseries.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
No, this is for kids, 100% kids, really.
Yeah, that was the funny partabout it when I told my friend I
I wrote a kid's book.
And they're like, come on, man,I can't be Quit playing.
If I sold my kid's book, theyain't going to be messed up.
I'm like, no, it's for 6 to11-year-olds.
Like no bad stuff happens tothese kids.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
I went deep in the trenches on your instagram page
the other day, dating a comedianbooger sugar booger.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
So that's a cartoon series I like reposted.
So I did the cart all right.
So the creative hustle and thecartoon series were products of
COVID, because I couldn't filmduring COVID.
So I started doing the cartoonseries Towards the end of COVID.
I reached out to my partnerOmar.
I'm like, hey, man, do youremember Robert Townsend's
(04:14):
Partners in Crime?
He's like, yeah, I'm like Iwent on like a YouTube rabbit
hole.
And I'm like, man, I rememberthis.
I'm like I think we can pullthis off Because I know a lot of
dope comedians and dope artists.
And he's like all right, let'sdo it.
So I reached out to RodneyPerry and then Will Gates, and
then we all came up with a plan.
We found a venue, we're goingto do this.
(04:35):
I got a bunch of comedians thathave been rocking with me since
I started.
I'm like, hey, man, we're goingto film, we're going to do this
.
We picked two days to film thelive taping and then we shot the
sketches on separate days.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
It was a sketch where the mass killer was going
around.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Yeah, the cancel culture, cancel culture.
He's like no, I'm black, no,I'm gay.
He said fuck it, I'm black, no,I'm gay he said fuck it, I'm
killing everybody no livesmatter.
how about that and that cameabout?
Do you remember that wasHalloween ends?
(05:18):
Okay, it was one.
I think it was Halloween endsor Halloween kills, one of those
Halloween.
It was controversy.
I think it was Halloween Endsor Halloween Kills One of those
Halloween.
It was controversy in thatmovie Because they said Michael
Myers killed a gay couple.
I'm like this nigga killedeverybody, but they really got
people really upset that hekilled a gay couple.
I'm like wait a minute, man,this is going too far.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
They did all too far.
They did, I mean I enjoyed itbecause like it seems like you
can't, like I don't know, justlike comedy has like saturated
and I get some jokes ain'tacceptable, but it's like it
seems like the cancel culture,the internet, looks to cancel
anybody for any reason, like Idon't know.
If you saw, we got, we just hada comedian, I forgot his name
(06:06):
but he got eight years and inprison for telling jokes in
brazil.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Oh, wow, that, that didn't like.
What jokes did he tell?
Speaker 1 (06:17):
I can't find them.
I can't find them eight years.
Imagine being in prison withsomebody.
What you ain't here for murder,what about you?
Oh, extortion, kidnapping,selling drugs.
What about you?
Uh man, I shot a comedy specialyou're right.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
like what that that?
Hey, I gotta, I gotta find thebackstory on that.
What joke was so bad?
Did he talk about somebody inthere, like in their Congress or
whatever?
To to piss somebody off Like Idon't know?
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
I don't know, and it was good to see it was.
I mean I saw it.
I was like, yeah, I ain know,and it was good to see it was.
I mean I saw it.
I was like, yeah, I ain't nevergonna do a special over there,
but yeah, I do like the factthat you, when you say you had
the comedians that you've beenrocking with and grinding like,
you had leon rogers up there,damon williams, who is a fucking
killer, oh yeah, I seen him twotimes.
(07:09):
I'm talking about like back toback.
Like I saw him at a friday showand I went to the saturday show
and seeing him and I was like,oh, yeah, damon's the godfather.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Um, yeah, he's godfather.
I just got I just talked to himrecently, um, so also last was
it last year um, I gotpermission from the, uh, bernie
mac foundation to create.
So I wanted to give damon anaward for always like being cool
, and whenever I called him heanswered the call.
(07:40):
He was in like my first feature, uh, third feature film, not
another black movie and uh, Iwant to give damon some kind of
award just to recognize him asbeing dope.
I'm like what if we named theaward the bernie mack lifetime
achievement award?
And so I reached out to hisdaughter, his daughter's, like I
love the idea.
You got to reach out to my mom.
She's over the foundation.
So I reached out to thefoundation, they reached out to
(08:06):
Rhonda and they gave uspermission to create the Bernie
Mac Lifetime Achievement Award.
So last June pretty much like Iwant to say the 9th June, 9th
of last year we presented Damonwith that award.
So this year we're planning thesecond award.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Damn, that's dope.
That's dope.
That's dope, that's dopebecause when you see like a lot
of comedians out there, theyonly really push so many of them
.
And damon williams is godfather, king, well, I'm gonna say
kingpin.
But kingpin goat rodney perry.
I've been following rodneysince the what's the show would,
(08:46):
I think was bill bellamy gotjokes.
It used to come on tv one, yeah, he got jokes.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Who got jokes?
Speaker 1 (08:51):
something like that yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That was like that was betterthan last comic standing because
they was putting them indifferent scenarios where, like,
what would you do if the micdidn't work?
Would you still talk, orwhatever I learned?
I went on a rabbit hole of uhyoutube prior to my journey and
then I came across Petey Green.
(09:16):
Oh yeah, I was like Petey wasraw.
Yeah, you make films as welltoo.
I remember I thought about this.
You posted up a meme a coupleof months ago.
It said I know what my cousindid last summer when it was like
Kanye, and then that would beso dope if he shot something
(09:40):
like that.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
But you know, I saw somebody post it.
This was hilarious.
They said Kanye was suckingdick of choice.
This was hilarious.
They said Kanye was suckingdick of choice.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
I was like, oh, Like Kanye, he dies for like two
months.
You don't hear nothing from himfor like two, three months,
Then randomly he comes, likeyeah.
I was with my cousin since 14.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
I'm like what I'm like, bro, you don't have to
tell you.
Like, why would you say that?
Like, do you need to sellalbums?
That bad?
Like I don't know man, I don'tknow, the medication ain't
strong enough.
You need a friend.
I don't know what it is, andhe's from chicago, and people
all the way like man, what's upwith?
Yay, I don't know this niggalike I never, never, ran across
(10:36):
him.
I don't even know if he's fromchicago.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
He might be from a suburb in illinois I don't know
he might be, I don't know, Idon't know.
I don't know the medication,but it was dope.
And you do films as well, too,right, so you've done a lot of
films, yeah.
Um, now you see, like thesuccess of more black, uh
directors coming along, moreblack filmmakers coming along.
(11:01):
Will they be on the main screen, like ryan coogler, who is, in
my opinion, the I wouldn't saycomparing, but he is this
generation spike lee with thefilm and the cinematography.
And you see, like 2b has openedup a lot of doors now for a lot
of black filmmakers.
Has there been more motivationfor you?
(11:22):
Is it getting easier for you toget more exposure through 2b or
are you looking to also getmore on the mainstream, or um,
2b is pretty much for any indiefilmmaker mainly black though
but, um, like they pay the bills.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Like you know, people make fun of Tubi.
They call them Tubi movies.
But Tubi don't produce shit.
They produce their own content.
But 98% of the movies you seeon Tubi are made from somebody
else.
And they got mainstream moviestoo.
But like Tub be pays the most.
(11:59):
It used to be amazon prime.
Amazon prime used to payfilmmakers, indie filmmakers,
like 16 cent per minute of yourmovie.
When you stream it, like, soanybody watch it, your whole
movie, say, your movie's an hourand a half, you'll get paid 16
cent per minute.
So, whatever that is.
Um, a lot of indie filmmakerscaught on.
They started putting theirmovies on amazon.
(12:20):
Amazon, I was like fuck that.
Um, we put it down to two centa minute and then after that
they were like you know what?
No, we're gonna make it arental.
It's not gonna be free forprime members, we're gonna make
it a rental.
And now we get half to be freefor Prime members.
We're going to make it a rental, and now we get half of the
rental too.
So if your movie's on sale for$2.99 in rent, they want half of
that.
So then Tubi came along andlike, yeah, we'll stream the
(12:43):
content, we'll put the contenton there.
And Tubi has, in my opinion,the best model as far as
streaming services one it's freeand you get paid by them
advertising during your move.
So they get.
They're getting money fromtheir sponsors.
Wanna, you know, playcommercial and ass throughout
(13:06):
their movies, and and that's howfamilies, filmmakers, do um to
be, yeah, cool.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
People don't realize about tubi is they do have those
films, those big main film,mainstream film, like you said.
But when hbo said they wasn'tgonna pay um union actors, half
of hbo max's catalog went overto tubi.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
So that's when you saw country and all that yeah
and um, yeah to be I mean to be,and it's like to be gets a bad
rap because, yeah, it's likesome people, their quality
control is not the best.
I can say that.
And so you see crazy shit goingviral on there like what?
Like come on, man, man.
(13:53):
But again, the indie filmmakers, tooby, don't have shit to do
with the making of the movie.
It's indie filmmakers doing thebest that they can with their
budget.
That's just what it is and it'sjust like yes, it's funny, it's
hilarious, but it's like peoplethink every movie is like that
and it's not.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Tooby has some original movies.
I watched some with DamonWilliams no, damon Wayne, excuse
me and Pam.
You're called cinnamon.
I love the hell out that movie.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
I think I did see that.
Yeah, it was dope.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
It was like it came out like a year ago.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
I remember that.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Yeah, it's fine.
People don't realize this too,Tubi went from one year having a
commercial on the Super Bowl toactually streaming the Super
Bowl.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
The following year.
Tubi got money.
Tubi has more viewership thanBET+.
That's the reality of it andthat's Googleable.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
That's what it is, man.
So who was like some of yourinspirations as far as like
filmmaking?
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Yeah like.
Robert Townsend, spike Lee,john Singleton, people like that
.
Okay, yeah, robert Townsend islike underrated as hell um
people like that.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Okay yeah, robert Townsend is like underrated as
hell cause Carlos Miller.
That's when I first saw CarlosMiller was on Robert Townsend's
um stuff.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah,he was one of the ones putting
the comedians on.
He was, uh, hollywood Shufflewas Hollywood Shuffle.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Yep Hollywood Shuffle .
He had some dope friends.
He had some dope friends aroundhim.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
I saw this interview.
They was talking.
He's like it took him for themto do Hollywood Shuffle was
$40,000 in credit card debt.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Yeah, he used credit card.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
That's a bet on yourself, man.
So just a question when youhave these ideas for these films
and these projects that you'reworking on, do you do the credit
card debt thing too, or do you?
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Oh, everything's out of pocket.
Does the studio give you abudget?
Nah, I'm the studio.
Me and my partner have thestudio.
Everything comes out of pocketand that's what it is, you know.
And then whatever revenue wemake from project, we use it
towards the next project.
So, and they know, oh, we gotpeople got this magical idea
that these investors are waitingaround with two million dollars
(16:32):
to give you to shoot something,that shit ain't going to happen
.
But you can keep waiting andsee what happens.
Best of luck to you.
But if you want to get someshit done in a reasonable amount
of time, you don't have to beton yourself.
You got to save up.
You don't need all the Jordans.
Put some money aside.
If you really want to do it,you'll figure it out Big facts,
(16:57):
big facts, big facts.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
I used to think like they had like hedge funds and
some I was like, yeah, I got ahedge fund, I want to put 30
million dollars into.
I guess it's not the case.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
I'm sorry, bro, I cut you off no, people do like
indiegogos and stuff like that.
And then something I've seenpeople raise money but that's
not like.
That doesn't happen foreverybody for sure.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Is it like a main goal that you have as far as
like the film, the book, the,the special?
Are you like trying to get moreinto, like, uh, what's the
american black film festival?
Are you trying to get an ifcfestival to sundance, anything
like that?
Or you just like, you know, Ilike being an underground king
and I like to, you know, get myflowers that way instead of
being so mainstream so filmfestivals are, uh, in my opinion
(17:56):
, uh, some of my uh a piece ofshit.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Uh, because I've seen the bullshit on some of these
film festivals, I'll give youone example that I've seen like
you know they'll film festivals.
A lot of them charge you anentry fee.
Say an entry fee is like $75.
And say you have like at leastsay like 500 filmmakers paying
$75 to enter their movie Justenter, not guaranteed to win.
(18:21):
I was on a particular film andsay we wrapped on November 15th
and we went to the wrap party,it was wrapped, the movie's not
done.
We finished wrap party, themovie's not done, we finished
filming, the movie's not done.
Two days later they announcedthat that film that we just
wrapped on is not edited yetmade a film festival.
(18:41):
I'm like, how the fuck did thathappen?
And so, and it was like it wascalled the Pan African American
Film Festival in LA, which is abig film festival and it was one
of the film festivals at thetime that I had reached out to
to put another movie in thereand they declined me.
This film, this rap, somehowgot accepted and it's not
(19:02):
complete yet.
I'm like, okay, that's thebullshit.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
You think it's more like a money grab, like they
charge you the production feeand shit like that it's
definitely a money grab, likethey charge you the production
fee and shit like that.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
It's definitely a money grab.
So I just like said, fuck that.
And I created a film festivalin 2024 called IndieCon for
indie filmmakers for real.
Yeah, we had this.
We had two years.
We did one in 2024 and 2025, sowe had, you know, a lot of
Chicago based indie filmmakers,but we accept films from all
(19:34):
over.
We screened films for two daysshorts and feature films.
People came out and had a goodtime.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Damn, damn, I'm going to check that out.
Yeah, don't prevent.
I'm going to check that out.
The support, support, becauseI've been to the black film
festival in DC, but I need to.
It's like yeah, issa Rae isgoing to be here.
I didn't see her.
I must have missed that day.
(20:05):
I must have missed that day.
You know what I mean?
I don't know, I don't know.
Then they'll tell Like for,like For me, like we got Podcast
festivals and then we gotComedy festivals and it's.
It's pretty much Just likeSomebody told me One time they
was gonna put me In front of a,a big booker and stuff.
(20:26):
Yeah, you gotta do it, man.
I paid Cause we'll get like thesame thing.
Uh, entry fee it was a hundred,bullet, hundred dollars.
I will say bullets.
I'm in norfolk, so I got yougot to forgive me, so it was a
hundred dollars to submit.
And I submit.
They said send the video in.
I sent five minutes in and Ijust waited and probably like
(20:47):
four months later I get an email.
Unfortunately we're not able toaccept.
I'm like, why, damn, give me myhundred dollars back?
Uh, we don't read four monthslater and that that's the great
thing.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
How many, how many people you think submitted?
Is that the guess?
Speaker 1 (21:07):
it's got to be hundreds, probably, probably
thousands.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
That's a lot of money .
It's in somebody's account,like you know, the Book of Venue
.
There's still a few thousandunaccounted for, so it's like
that's a lot of money that youare.
You know, come on, now, that'srobbery.
They should scream at peopleand be like hey look, all right,
(21:34):
all right, we're gonna acceptyou here, here's the fee to get
in.
But instead you submit theylook at you, look at the tape.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
They probably don't even look at half the tapes, to
be honest with you so I had abig comedian do one, uh,
actually, from I ain't gonna saytheir name because I want to
work with them in the future,but he has a talk show.
I submitted and I promise you Isubmitted like at 7 o'clock pm
(22:00):
and 7.30 pm I got a rejectionand I was like, oh, I'm sorry,
god damn, god damn.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
They probably go off name recognition like I know
this nigga how many followersyou get, nah he out.
They probably even look at that.
They couldn't have looked atyour tape they couldn't looked
at it.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
What got me is I went on the page.
I was like I was being petty, Iwas mad as hell.
I.
I was mad bro.
I was like I'm going to look.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
There's no way possible the odds that they're
doing absolutely nothing from 7to 7.30.
The day like, I'm going to lookat this tape and then watch it
and be like nope, open and getthe email in real time, watch
the tape, type another email andsend it in 30 minutes like now
(22:57):
they pissed me off.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
So bad, bro, because I looked at who was up, they had
people from wild and out upthere.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
I'm like, oh yeah, it was name recognition and that's
a lot of what they go on.
They go off a name recognitionand instagram following.
That's it that's it.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
That's it, man.
Look, jay, I got one morequestion for you, brother,
before you go off.
What advice do you give was topeople that's actually trying to
live what you do.
The creative hustle hustle fromthe books to the movies, to
everything.
How, what?
(23:34):
What advice do you have forsomebody that's looking to do
what you're doing?
Speaker 2 (23:38):
do your research.
You, anything is, um, you canfact check anything.
You can look on youtube, google, um, now, ai.
But do your research.
Whatever you want to get into,whether it's writing, writing a
book or writing a script,anything do your research
because a lot of people jump inhead first and spend unnecessary
money and waste unnecessarytime and you can figure a lot of
(24:00):
stuff out on yourself.
You don't have to ask everybodyfor something.
You don't have to pay forinformation a lot of times.
Dude, stop being lazy.
You got a fucking computer inyour hand.
Yeah, the phone in your hand isequivalent to the library any
library you got in your area, soyou can look up anything you
(24:20):
want to know.
Do your research and grind.
That's pretty much it.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
My man.
And if anybody wants to seeyour content or follow you and
support you, what can they reachyou out at?
Speaker 2 (24:35):
uh, it's, you know, j davis, jay davis, tp.
On everything instagram,facebook uh, what's that tiktok?
And then look up creativehustle on um on tubi or edyH on
Tubi and jdavisfilmscom all mymovies and everything is listed
on there my guy and if you guyswant to follow me, it's at
(24:58):
Comedian Rome on all socialmedia platforms.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
The podcast is no ID Podcast, jay, I appreciate you,
brother oh man, I appreciate youbro, I'm going to say this too,
because my mom, she's acomedian too.
We watched the creative hustlewith each other and we got
locked in to the point where itwas like, alright, this shit is
good wait till you see.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Season 2, season 2.
Yeah, season 2.
We got 8 episodes, 16 comedians, like 25 sketches.
So season 2 is gonna be huge.
We got eight episodes, 16comedians, like 25 sketches.
So, yeah, season two is goingto be huge.
We got on season two.
We got Sean Morgan, wildcatDamon's back, calvin Evans.
(25:43):
Who else we got I'm going toget in trouble Marlon Mitchell,
fabian Rowe we got a lot ofcomedians.
I'm sorry, anybody wild, I'msorry, we got a lot of comedians
.
I'm sorry, anybody.
I'm sorry, we got a lot ofcomedians.
Uh, velmo.
Uh, comedian Roy Mo.
Good, we got a shit load ofcomedians on season two.
So get ready, it'll be out soonmy god amen.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
I appreciate you once again, god bless and everything
, wishing them but the bestsuccess.
Likewise, brother, appreciateyou once again.
God bless and everything.
Wish you nothing but the bestsuccess likewise brother.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Appreciate you, thank you, thank you.
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