Best Of Full Interview: Rickey Smiley On Grieving The Loss Of His Son, Comedy's Healing, New Book + More

Best of 2024 - Recorded October 2024 - Rickey Smiley On Grieving The Loss Of His Son, Comedy's Healing, New Book. Listen For More!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wake that ass up in the morning.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Breakfast Club Morning, everybody in Steve j Envy, Jesseliri, Charlamagne
the Guy. We are the Breakfast Club. Justice on maternity leave.
So long a Rosa is feeling in and we got
a special guest in the building.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
About to mess up. So many people had because they're
gonna be in their call. Like am I listening to
the right station?

Speaker 4 (00:20):
You got the brother Ricky Smiley here.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Welcome brother man, Thank you for having me. Man.

Speaker 5 (00:24):
How you feeling man, I'm feeling good man. It's a
dream to be here stopping Broad lay in the bed
and I sit here and I just scroll and watch
all y'all videos.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
I've been a fan for years.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
I want to say something before we get started with
the conversation. I saw Ricky a couple of weeks ago.
I saw him in New Orleans at the Inspired Noa event,
and I went up to him and I said something
that I'm gonna say now. I want to I want
to publicly apologize. I'm just about to ask to Ricky
Smiley because several years ago I gave Ricky Smiley Donkey
of Today because of a radio executive asked me to.

Speaker 6 (00:56):
And you didn't deserve that, brother.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
So I told when I saw you, I told you that,
you know, And I wanted to say that again publicly
because I feel like if you if you do something
to somebody publicly that you don't agree with, you should
publicly apologize for it.

Speaker 6 (01:08):
So I want to. I want to say that to everybody,
all our listeners. I want to.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
I want them to hear me say that you didn't
deserve that. Now I want to apologize to you.

Speaker 5 (01:15):
But I appreciate that man the first time when when
you walked up on me. Man, your energy, man, the
love and the respect it takes a you know, a
big person. I know that it was all part of
the game because we have a mutual Uh. One of
your employees is one of my mentees, big Man Mac.

Speaker 6 (01:35):
Yeah yeah, Max as an intern.

Speaker 4 (01:38):
Oh yeahs as an intern. And yeah, got to he is.

Speaker 5 (01:41):
Well, I put him on stage. I'm the first one
to put him on stage. We'll talk about that, uh,
because I put a lot of them on stage. I
have a lot of comics their start or whatever. I've
been in the game thirty five years. But I really
appreciate that, man, and and don't feel no kind of
way about it. I didn't take it personally, but you know,
it takes a special kind of person to apologize and

(02:01):
stuff like that. I thought nothing because if I thought
anything bad, I wouldn't even be here.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
You know what I'm saying. But I love you.

Speaker 5 (02:08):
I appreciate you, man. I think you're doing a factorous job.
I met you at the White House. I was excited
about that, and I hear you in Florida all the time.

Speaker 4 (02:16):
We see each other on the road every once in
a while.

Speaker 7 (02:20):
A pleasure me you.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
I was gonna start that, but now we got to
go there because I was gonna ask it. One time
everybody was stolen shots and I was like, I'm just glad.

Speaker 6 (02:28):
I don't know everybody it was shot back to.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
From the South. We can go outside and just wrestle.

Speaker 7 (02:37):
At this big age.

Speaker 6 (02:40):
Might have called wrest somebody might.

Speaker 7 (02:42):
Not get up.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
Yeah, I might pull on something at my age. Yeah
I got up there.

Speaker 4 (02:46):
He might have called you short ball headed.

Speaker 3 (02:50):
So many mutual people, you know what I'm saying, whether
mister Harvey, whether it's a little du ball's back.

Speaker 6 (02:55):
So it's just like what we're doing.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we're getting older. We don't have time.

Speaker 4 (03:00):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Well, you got a new book out right now. Side
show Sideshow talk about? What's what's what? Side show about?

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Okay?

Speaker 5 (03:07):
You know the song that your parents, uh everybody parents,
Let the side show begin.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
Harry Herds about a sad clown. Right.

Speaker 5 (03:16):
My job as a professional comedians to go on stage
and make people laugh. And I lost my son about
a year and a half ago, and it's been hard
because the bills don't stop coming.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
I'm still a performer.

Speaker 5 (03:29):
I still have to go on stage, and I had
to dig deep and get in some real deep therapy
to get myself together so I can continue as a performer.
Because if I worked at you know, Amazon, lifting boxes
or delivering packages, that's one thing. But when your job
is to make people laugh, when you're crying on the

(03:50):
inside with the trauma that I experienced, uh, that's what
the song sideshow talk about.

Speaker 6 (03:58):
You know.

Speaker 5 (03:58):
See the man with the broken heart. You can see
that he is sad. It hurts so bad. See the
girl who collect broken hearts? Assuming it it's all about
a clown in a circus, performing but dealing with stuff
on the inside.

Speaker 3 (04:13):
I've watched you grieve out loud online and The only
reason I don't like that have nothing to do with
how you feel. Yeah, I know how people react. Yeah,
And when you're already dealing with something, when you're already
dealing with truma, and then you give it to people.

Speaker 6 (04:26):
Online, then they come at you. How did that? How
do you deal with that?

Speaker 1 (04:30):
Oh? No, it didn't bother me, Charlemagne.

Speaker 5 (04:33):
My job was I had to help other people because
the reason I was opening with it is a lot
of mothers out there that lost their eighteen year old,
seventeen year old, sixteen year old, fifteen.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
My son was thirty two.

Speaker 5 (04:46):
When we were in New Orleans. Your books, your book
signing was right after mine, and I had a couple
that had lost their two year old, right, And these
are that's some of the things that I talk about
in the book.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
It gave me it.

Speaker 5 (05:00):
It gives you glimmers of hope and the glimmers of
inspiration even during traumatic times.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
Right.

Speaker 5 (05:06):
So my son was thirty two, but this couple sitting
out here crying at my book sign and their son
was only two.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
Wow. And I could have lost my son at two.

Speaker 5 (05:14):
But God allowed me to have, you know, thirty years,
thirty two years. So you get a little gratitude from that.
And it's crazy that you can get gratitude from something
like that, you know, and you start looking at it's
a helpful to The book is a helpful too for
people that's going through the grief process because it's a
lot of people out there and my book sign has

(05:34):
been packed with people that have lost their kids.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
How do you still believe?

Speaker 6 (05:39):
New Orleans?

Speaker 1 (05:40):
Yeah, how do you still believe? Right?

Speaker 2 (05:41):
You talk about losing your father at the age of six, right,
and then you lose your son. How do you just
not say, you know what, there is no higher power?
How do you still remain focused and still have believe
and still have hope and still have all of that
with going through the pain that you've gone.

Speaker 5 (05:55):
You know, I grew up in Birmingham, Man, so you know,
I got that old Southern Christian background. I went to
Sunday school every Sunday.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
So I just have some.

Speaker 5 (06:05):
Strong beliefs in a close relationship with God. Because it
was nothing and nobody to land on. I was in
an apartment in Dallas, Texas by myself, you know, when
I found out that my son passed, and I had
an hour and I had an hour to make it
to the airport, and I'm packing a bag and on
the phone with my other kids letting them know what happened,

(06:27):
and trying to get myself together and preparing myself to
lead because my family needed me.

Speaker 1 (06:34):
You know, it didn't really hit me until a year later, right,
But at.

Speaker 5 (06:38):
That time, my son has a mother and a wonderful stepfather,
so I.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
Had to protect them.

Speaker 5 (06:44):
I had to protect my mother, who was really close
to my son because.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
My mother, you know, recovering.

Speaker 5 (06:50):
Adding my mother had thirty five years clean. Had to
protect her because they had a real special relationship because
she could identify with his struggle. I had to protect
my other kids. I had two kids in college getting
ready to graduate college, and my daughter that got shot,
she was a senior in college getting.

Speaker 1 (07:09):
Ready to graduate Bailor.

Speaker 5 (07:11):
And then I had my son graduate in Alabama State
and then my oldest daughter. So just trying to get
them and then come say, hey, here's what happened. Brandon
didn't make it. I need you to meet me at
the house immediately, just real calm. I need you to
text me, let me know that you're on your way,
text me when you let me know. Just all of

(07:31):
that I had to be come, I had to be cool.
I had to get in the car with my uncle's
who was crying. I had to turn the radio own
R and B station. I had to turn on Frankie
Beverley and Maids to go from the airport the house.
I'm comforting them because it reminded them of my dad's death, right,
And so I'm just a child man that sat on
the front road and watch my grandparents go through what

(07:51):
they went through, and through my grandfather. I learned how
to handle this situation because that's how my grandfather handled
it as well.

Speaker 8 (07:59):
Did you ever, because losing somebody, especially someone so closeer son,
can it changes you? Did you ever at first when
you were trying to get to that like, I mean,
I guess I get through it.

Speaker 7 (08:09):
I don't know if you ever get through it?

Speaker 1 (08:10):
Fit?

Speaker 7 (08:10):
Were you?

Speaker 8 (08:11):
Were you afraid that when you got back on stage
that first time that like you just it wouldn't be
the same, Like your ability to kind of push through
and make people laugh wouldn't.

Speaker 1 (08:19):
Be the same.

Speaker 5 (08:20):
You know, Charlemagne one thing about funny, It don't change
you when you want.

Speaker 6 (08:25):
Something to laugh at, especially in the trauma.

Speaker 1 (08:27):
Yeah, when your ass hit that stage. Man. Them jokes,
come them jokes, like when you get somebody on the
front row laughing. I cried all the way up.

Speaker 5 (08:34):
My first show was in Cleveland at the Horrors Casino,
and I cried from the hotel all the way to
the venue, all the way backstage, blew my nose did
like that, made sure my nose was clean, and walked
on stage and got them jokes and cried after I
got off stage. And you know I was coming, but
I've been in therapy. I was getting therapy twice a week,

(08:56):
so I was prepared to go.

Speaker 1 (08:57):
On stage again. My son died on a.

Speaker 5 (09:01):
That Wednesday, I was back on the radio, and they said,
take as much time as you need.

Speaker 1 (09:05):
Well, either you lay in the bed and think.

Speaker 5 (09:07):
About all of that, or you get your ass up
and go do your morning show and go do your
radio show.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
Because all the mothers in.

Speaker 5 (09:15):
Chicago and in Columbia, and in Charleston and in Atlanta,
all over the country, their kids died too much.

Speaker 1 (09:25):
As given much as required, you can't cancel the show.

Speaker 5 (09:28):
God put you in this position and put you in
a leadership position, and you have to leave. And I
still went to the Salvation Army like I do on
a regular basis. I fed the homeless with my son
clothes in the car to go to the funeral home.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
That was a dark Wednesday. I'll never forget it.

Speaker 5 (09:45):
You have to do it everything, all of this stuff,
and I don't want you to ever forget this.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
All of this stuff in me is a test. It's
a test. Our pastor has been teaching us that for years.
It's a test.

Speaker 5 (09:58):
God is watching you through your struggles, through your trials
and tribulation, and looking at you seeing how you're going
to handle this. Are you gonna make it about you?
Are you going to use this situation to help other people?
But I was still smart enough to go ahead and
get the help that I needed in the process because
I had to get therapy because it's trump is a

(10:19):
bad car accident.

Speaker 3 (10:20):
How do you think you would have been reacting without
the Without the therapy.

Speaker 5 (10:24):
Oh, man, I probably would have been dead. I had
my son was you know, my son was a comic,
No seaman. My son was a comedian. I'm singing some
clips my son, man.

Speaker 1 (10:36):
I remember.

Speaker 5 (10:38):
My son headlined his first gig at the Stardome in Birmingham,
and I walked backstage.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
He was by myself. He had on some ship.

Speaker 5 (10:48):
He had on some some black pants, and I was
roasting him because they had on the white shirt and
some and some uh suspendens and the black brooks.

Speaker 9 (10:59):
I was like, he said, oh, you told me to
dress now. I said, Okay, you look nice.

Speaker 5 (11:09):
I said, but I said, I said, yeah, whatever, And
he went on stage and performing. I stood backstage and
I washed him. Performed and he had a really good set,
and he was doing headlining shows. He had just started,
you know, clothing shows.

Speaker 1 (11:24):
Man. He was funny.

Speaker 5 (11:24):
He had a kind of like a sense of humor.
And uh, he was being mentored by Roy Wood Jr.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
You know their clothes.

Speaker 5 (11:30):
You know, we all came from Birmingham, same radio station,
all this stuff.

Speaker 1 (11:34):
So Roy was giving him some opportunities.

Speaker 5 (11:36):
And uh, one time now in just the funniest ship.
He was on stage performing. So he had stayed at
my house, fucking left some clothes on the dryer.

Speaker 1 (11:45):
You know.

Speaker 5 (11:45):
He took the clothes out of the washing machine, put
it in the dryer, and then he took all the
clothes and put the ship on top of the dryer.
I was mad as hell, you know, because I like
you to, you know, foll your stuff up. And then
I went to the comedy club. He was performing, he
was on stage. I didn't care because I was mad.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
I went into DJ booth and got on the microphone, said,
you get your ass on stage.

Speaker 5 (12:04):
You need to come flo these damn closed And we
got into a whole argument, and the audio was cracking up,
and I was for real and he was laughing and
all of sad.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
Yeah, when you get on stage, you come home and
get these damn clothes off my drive, slam the microphone
and walk out the door.

Speaker 5 (12:20):
That's some funny stuff that I that I always enjoyed
talking about.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
But yeah, how.

Speaker 6 (12:24):
Has it been like?

Speaker 3 (12:25):
You know, because when you write these books, you put
a lot of you know, you put your most vulnerable,
deepest thoughts into these books. Then you got to go
out here and do this. Yep, you gotta have these conversations. Yeah,
how's that been for you? I've gotten used to it, okay.

Speaker 5 (12:38):
You know, once you know how it is, Once you
do one interview, you do another interview, you keep doing interviews.
You just get accustomed to talking about it, and then
you developed some really good talking points. That's going to
help other people because what people have been telling me
is the feedback that I've been getting this Hey bruh,
it's been helping me out.

Speaker 1 (12:56):
You know how many people walk.

Speaker 5 (12:57):
Up to me and said that they lost a loved
one and they can't talk about it.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
And just because they hear.

Speaker 5 (13:02):
You on the radio every morning, now they're coming out
to your book sign. I have people walking up crying.
Almost ninety percent of the people that come out of
by the Book have suffered a loss and can't talk
about it and do not go to therapy. So I've
been promoting therapy because when you roll your ankle, you
don't pull out a Bible, you go to the doctor.

(13:23):
The doctors absolutely the muscle. The brain is a muscle
just like your ankle. Why is it that we black
folks as a stigma.

Speaker 1 (13:32):
That we won't go get help. That don't mean that
you're crazy.

Speaker 5 (13:35):
You have to get somebody and talk to somebody that's
going to help you process those feelings and emotion, because
you can go into depression start affecting other organs in
the bodies.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
Some people don't.

Speaker 5 (13:46):
Make it from their loss they got You know.

Speaker 2 (13:51):
A lot of times people, you know, we've been taught
as kids. You keep the home business in the house, right.
You never really talk about what happens inside your house,
Like you said, that winds up killing you. Absolutely, Depression,
that anxiety, all those facts, all those failings.

Speaker 5 (14:03):
Every time you cry in do you know that's like
popping the cap off of a pressure cooker.

Speaker 6 (14:07):
You're releasing I cried this morning. Yeah, man, I sat
on it.

Speaker 5 (14:11):
I sat on the side of my hotel bed. I
was having some anxiety. I called a good friend of mine.
She answered the phone. When I heard her voice, I
just started crying.

Speaker 1 (14:21):
Bro, I just let it out. I just cried. I
just needed to just cry.

Speaker 5 (14:25):
I felt it building up yesterday and I just started crying.
And the changing of the season, you know that that
affects you.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
I think they called it seasonal paving depressions.

Speaker 3 (14:35):
I've been dealing with anxiety and depression for my whole life,
and I started going to therapy in twenty sixteen.

Speaker 6 (14:40):
And when I wrote a book about it in twenty eighteen, my.

Speaker 3 (14:42):
Dad read the book and I had a cousin who
completed suicide that week, and my dad told me it
was the week of Thanksgiving twenty eighteen. A homicocking line,
and he told me that between reading my book and
my cousin completing suicide, he told me for the first
time ever that he was going to therapy two and
three times a week. He tried to kill himself thirty
plus years ago, and then in South Carolina they put

(15:04):
him on ten to twelve different medications for his mental health.

Speaker 6 (15:07):
And I remember I asked my mom.

Speaker 3 (15:08):
I said, Mom, you know Dad was going through all this,
and she said, I thought he was playing crazy to
get a check. So that's what they're doing to stof
they give you the crazy check. But imagine if he
would have had that conversation with me when I was young,
that just told me that the way we're discussing it
right now, imagine if we heard, you know, older men
in all life having that conversation early, we'd have known
that the stuff we was going through was normal.

Speaker 1 (15:29):
Yeah, my granddad never talked about it. My dad died.
My dad was twenty six.

Speaker 5 (15:33):
My granddaddy didn't talk about it until it was like
eighty five because he would be at my house all
the time, you know, And I was saying, I said, Granddaddy,
what happened?

Speaker 1 (15:40):
My dad died?

Speaker 5 (15:41):
Here?

Speaker 1 (15:41):
In New York.

Speaker 5 (15:42):
You know, my dad died of a drug overdose here
in New York. And my granddaddy was like, he just
started telling me. It's like I was there when they
bought your dad's body in.

Speaker 1 (15:53):
I stood there like a man.

Speaker 5 (15:55):
I was standing in the morning when they rolled my
sonbody in there like I took that shit like a
g I didn't shed a tear. I just made sure
everything was done properly, you know, bought the barber in
toalked the barber, I want my son mustache and beer done.

Speaker 1 (16:10):
And I stood right there and I took it. But
all that.

Speaker 5 (16:12):
Stuff you cried in the cardles, it hadn't really really
hit me. It's coming out in small pieces like this morning.

Speaker 1 (16:21):
Maybe this morning was some of it. And I didn't
cry at the funeral because.

Speaker 5 (16:29):
My granddaughter was looking at me the whole time, was
like pickaboo because she didn't know what was doing, you know,
the whole while you know she looking at me, we
playing because you know, and I just had that memory
of my grandparents crying.

Speaker 2 (16:45):
Ricky, have you dealt with it because it doesn't seem
like you fully.

Speaker 1 (16:49):
Yeah, it's a process. Brou Do you have a.

Speaker 2 (16:53):
Think about just giving away just stop it, you know,
like I don't want to do this anymore with that
ever a mo no.

Speaker 5 (17:00):
Man, we got to say people, man, my listen, some
have to die so others can live, you understand, And
you know, no Cross, no crown, bro.

Speaker 1 (17:12):
We have to go through what we have to go through,
and we have to talk about it.

Speaker 5 (17:15):
And I'm sure just trying to break the generational curse
of number one not talking about it, not going and
getting therapy and getting help and to talk about, you know,
drug addiction. You know, I had a son and a
nephew age thirty.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
Two and a niece.

Speaker 5 (17:31):
I had a niece, a son, a nephew all died
at age thirty two within two years of each other.

Speaker 8 (17:38):
Can you talk a little bit about that, like just
in real time when they were here dealing with the
addiction and trying to help them through it, and like
also wanted them to get better, but addiction, understanding it
like it kind of takes over where it's not it's
not even just them anymore, Like it's a big beast.

Speaker 1 (17:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (17:53):
The only thing I regret I didn't have a good
understanding of the illness because I.

Speaker 1 (17:59):
Had a niece and her nephew.

Speaker 5 (18:00):
That was cool and colme and respectful, but it didn't
affect my son that way.

Speaker 1 (18:04):
You know, my son.

Speaker 5 (18:05):
Would go off about stuff, you know, and it damaged
our relationship or whatever because I didn't understand, like, Hey,
I'm your dad.

Speaker 1 (18:13):
You can't say that to me.

Speaker 5 (18:15):
You know, I'm driving around looking for you to fight
you in the middle of the street. You know, I
raised you, I cooked food for you.

Speaker 1 (18:20):
You know what I'm saying. I wash your clothes. You
slept in the bed with me when it was thunder light.
Don't say that to me, you know.

Speaker 5 (18:26):
So I just didn't have a clear understanding of that.
But I did everything I could to save to save
his life.

Speaker 4 (18:33):
Did you ever blame yourself at all?

Speaker 1 (18:35):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (18:35):
No, that's one thing I never felt. I never felt guilt. Now,
you know, I felt a lot of stuff, but guilt
was not one of them. I did everything I could
as a father to save his life, you know, rehab
the seventy grand off the back boom, like like, you know,
we did that twice, and you know my mom was
trying to help him. I just couldn't. I just couldn't

(18:57):
get him. I just couldn't get him.

Speaker 1 (18:59):
To get him. Well, would you.

Speaker 4 (19:01):
Do anything different as a dad during any of those times?

Speaker 1 (19:04):
And you have six, so I like to that's that's
a good question. Uh.

Speaker 5 (19:11):
I wasn't tough on him. He was the one that
I caught him. I was tough on my other kids,
like like the other kids. Was like I was just
really really really really tough on them, and he was
the one that I just kind of caught on and
did everything for and took it because that's my first
born or whatever. I just wish that I was tougher.
I know that sounds strange because it sounds like I

(19:31):
should say I should have been easier on him. I
was easy on him. I should have been tougher on
him like I was the other kids.

Speaker 3 (19:41):
What do we call tougher? Though, because you know, we
come from the era. I was getting beat with extension
cards and my daddy made me take a bath.

Speaker 1 (19:47):
I gotta go.

Speaker 6 (19:48):
I don't beat my kids. I don't even touch my
kids at all, right, So what do you call tough?

Speaker 1 (19:54):
I just wouldn't give him. You know, I don't think
I popped Brandon. I hit him.

Speaker 5 (20:01):
I popped him a couple of times when he was
about fourteen, made him go stand in the corner and
go do that.

Speaker 1 (20:06):
Little right there. I would to make sure those legs
and those cames, you know what I'm saying. I didn't.

Speaker 5 (20:16):
By the time I started getting tough on him, it
was time for him to go off to college, you know.
But the other kids like Malik, went to military school.
Then he went to IMG Academy. I would say he
had a military mindset. I think this, But I tried
to do that for Brandon because I sent him to
the National Guard, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
So my son served. He had a flag drake over
his because he served our country.

Speaker 5 (20:38):
But I just think I caught on him a little
too much, and he just loved on him.

Speaker 1 (20:43):
And he was the one I loved on, hugged on,
you know, and just up under me all the time.

Speaker 6 (20:48):
Yeah, I don't.

Speaker 3 (20:49):
It's hard when you're a parent now did Like I said,
who the air? We grew up and I be talking
to my nine year old like she a basketball player, like,
but you wouldn't survived in the nineties.

Speaker 6 (21:00):
My grandma and my mom and daddy were going to
be right.

Speaker 5 (21:03):
But the key is it's good that you talked to
her with that coach boys, because we have to give
kids more.

Speaker 1 (21:08):
Of what we had as opposed to what we didn't have.
You know what I'm saying, You.

Speaker 5 (21:12):
Like who you are, You like how you turned out right,
get that same thing to your kids and the evol.

Speaker 4 (21:18):
Version of you.

Speaker 6 (21:19):
I'm sure in through therapy, I've learned the love of
every version of me.

Speaker 3 (21:23):
That's what you got to do in life, you know,
like every version of you served the purpose absolutely.

Speaker 8 (21:27):
In chapter twelve year book, It's Let the Tears Fall,
you said that it took you a year for all
of this to really like hit you. Yeah, what was
that day like when you were like, I'm feeling it
like that first time?

Speaker 5 (21:39):
That one year anniversary. A few days before that one
year anniversary, Man, it hit me like he had just
died and I was sitting I had just got off
the air. I was down in South Florida because I
didn't want to be in the house. But that one
year anniversary, I just wanted to go get away, and man,
it hit me, man, and I was I did some crying,

(22:01):
and I I think I think it was a bad
mistake for me to be there by myself. But I
just kind of sat on the couch and just cried
pretty much for a couple of days, like, like really
cried because the only difference was I didn't have a
casket and some flowers and some condolences, right, I had
all of that to keep me distracted doing when it

(22:23):
actually happened, I had to protect everybody.

Speaker 1 (22:25):
But that one year came in and uh, it was
like it was terrible.

Speaker 3 (22:30):
What about the chapter when addiction chases the bloodline? Was
that difficult to write because you know, you got to
go through your whole generational lineage with that. Was that
a difficult chapter right now?

Speaker 5 (22:39):
It wouldn't. It was just being being open and honest.
My dad struggled, my mom struggled.

Speaker 1 (22:44):
I had wonderful grandparents.

Speaker 5 (22:45):
My granddad taught to me every day church, Sunday school.
You know, hey, here's a trumpet, play that, here's some
PMO lesson, let's go do that. Little from little I
did trumpet, little football, did it all. My grandparents kept
me busy with the disc letting a destruction talk to
me every day so I didn't have to. I didn't
have those issues. And then he always talked about how

(23:07):
my dad died, so don't do this.

Speaker 1 (23:10):
So I just stuck with it, and to this day,
I don't drink or smoke.

Speaker 3 (23:13):
I always wonder how grief impacts people who lost their
parents at a very, very very young age.

Speaker 6 (23:17):
Does it hit you later in life?

Speaker 3 (23:20):
You see somebody out with their parents and it hits you, like,
what is it?

Speaker 1 (23:23):
It did when I was when I was a kid.

Speaker 5 (23:25):
But what hurt me about my dad's death was watching
my grandparents cry like that on the front row.

Speaker 1 (23:30):
I'm in therapy for that. That comes up in therapy.

Speaker 5 (23:33):
That wipes me out. Wow, that wipes me out more
than my son's death. Why I'm a grandmama's baby, like
you understand you from the South, Like watching my grandparents
cry like that on their front row. Man, I can't
get over it. Even when my grandparents died, the only
thing I could think about their caske was in the

(23:55):
same spot my dad's castle. Well, the only thing I
could think about was them crying on that front row.
April the eleventh, nineteen seventy four. Wow, I will never
forget it, man, It just it tears my soul out
of my body. I can deal with my son and death,
but that's that's what I struggled with more than anything.

Speaker 6 (24:12):
Wow.

Speaker 5 (24:12):
And that's why I didn't cry my son, you know,
because my granddaughter was watching.

Speaker 6 (24:17):
Man, I don't even want to traumatize her like that.
Like man, dang boy. Yeah, life is a mother.

Speaker 1 (24:24):
Living up there talking about it because about star crying.

Speaker 6 (24:28):
But that's what I understand about that.

Speaker 3 (24:29):
That's why that's why I noticed, like just putting this
out there to the world and having to relive all
these stories and retell these stories, is it therapeutic or
does it feel like you.

Speaker 6 (24:36):
Open it up?

Speaker 1 (24:37):
Man?

Speaker 5 (24:37):
This is therapy because if I go and get in
that car and start crying, that is helpful. It is
helpful to cry. It was helpful for me your CRD
this morning. You understand.

Speaker 1 (24:48):
I'm good.

Speaker 2 (24:48):
But I also think what you're doing is helping people
that don't know how to deal with it and can't
talk about it because now they have a friend in
you in this book and they're saying, well, let me
see how Ricky dealt with it, let me see what
the troubles he's going through is normal. I can feel
this way because a lot of times people feel like
they're on their own, yeah, and they don't have those feelings.
So that's that's one amazing thing about this this book.

Speaker 6 (25:07):
Well, let's talk about something else for a saying.

Speaker 3 (25:09):
You put on a lot of comedians, Ricky, and I
think that coming from the South, right, people don't.

Speaker 6 (25:14):
I don't think people realize.

Speaker 3 (25:15):
How big you are sometimes like this, you know what
I'm saying, Like, I don't think they realize how how
much money you got number one, but rich you are,
and just how big you are. And I think it's
it's it's almost a stigma with comedians from the South,
like they don't get the respect that they deserve.

Speaker 5 (25:29):
I think, yeah, I just do it for the love
of the art. Charlemagne Envy. I remember cussing d Ray
Davis out snatching the drink out of his hand because
he was too young to be drinking.

Speaker 1 (25:41):
Hey give me that. You know.

Speaker 5 (25:43):
I had a little comedy club back in Birmingham, the Combersome,
So I would I would have, like d Ray Corey
holcom Cory Hoakman was like, hey, man, I ain't never
been outside of Chicago.

Speaker 1 (25:53):
I'm like, okay, cool, let's go on the road. You know.

Speaker 5 (25:55):
I would take those guys on the road. Corey hop them,
d Ray Davis, h.

Speaker 1 (26:01):
A lot of them. Man, that Tyler.

Speaker 5 (26:04):
Some of them have passed away. You know, I would
just take him on the road to help him, because
that's what Steve did for me. You know, nobody have
to don't nobody have to fool you know what I'm saying.
Some people can just ignore you. Steve was one of
those guys man that was helping and training company.

Speaker 1 (26:19):
Then I started November.

Speaker 5 (26:22):
Thirteenth, nineteen eighty nine. Wow, that's the first time I
went on stage. I met Steve before he did show
Time to the Apollo and then tell you a story
I wrote about it in my first book and just
talk about the discipline and the structure of comedy. I
was dressed like a like flavor flave because I thought

(26:42):
that was the thing I'm doing the show with Steve.
And Steve was like, listen, he said, people pay money
to see us perform. Your outfit is nice, he said,
but tomorrow I want you to come dress better.

Speaker 1 (26:54):
I want you to.

Speaker 5 (26:55):
Dress he said, I want you to dress nice. So Bruce,
as the owner, was standing in the door watching, I
was embarrassed. I felt bad. I felt like my career
was over. You know, my feelings were hurt. I was like,
oh shit, you know, I don't want to blow an
opportunity with Steve Harvey man. He said, you can go
ahead and introduce me, he said, but tomorrow, let's get

(27:16):
it together. Say yes, sir, you know, because you can't
say nothing nowadays. You can't correct nowadays.

Speaker 1 (27:20):
Because everybody says it. I said, y'all give it up
and show your love right now. But Steve Harvey, queen,
I'll never get a queen.

Speaker 5 (27:26):
The teap to come home for the love of money
off that New Jack City soundtrash and he came up.

Speaker 1 (27:31):
I'm talking about. It was electric and I wanted to
stay there and watch man.

Speaker 5 (27:35):
I ran out that damn comedy club door. I jumped
in my nineteen seventy nine Toyota Corolla Force Speed.

Speaker 1 (27:42):
I peeled out of that Company Club driving.

Speaker 5 (27:44):
I drove all over across town, ran in my apartment,
put on a suit I had ma from Jeans West
because I used to work at Jeans West, you know.
Put my suit on boom time, and I'm running driving back.
I made it back to the Company Club just in time.
When I walked back in the day, he.

Speaker 1 (27:59):
Was like, all right, y'all have been one for god
Man show. My name is Steve Harvey, pease when I
walked back up there and had that suit on. No, nigga,
not tomorrow tonight. That's what's up right now.

Speaker 5 (28:10):
What Steve said to you when he saw so, he
damped me up and he you know how you do
talk about you? Let me up and down, and he said,
I'm gonna talk to you after the show. I said, yes, sir, And.

Speaker 6 (28:25):
Steve's annoying man, Oh my god, don'tkay.

Speaker 5 (28:28):
Well, nobody you know, after the show he said, follow
he said, following this car right here. I followed him
back to the hotel room. I sat on the edge
of the bed and took a little notepad in the pencil,
and he lectured me for about two hours, and me
and another comedian sat on the edge of the bed
and wrote notes, how to do this? Why not do this?
You did this joke wrong? Why are you cussing on stage?

(28:49):
Why are you dressed like this? T A T and
T is in the audience?

Speaker 1 (28:53):
You need to do this? Da da da. I took
all that stuff. I took it serious because I wanted
to be great.

Speaker 5 (28:58):
I wanted to be at or at at what I did,
and I ended up opening up for the Kings of Company.
I did some shows where I did a few dates
with the Kings of Company. You had to ride with Steve.
You don't get your own limousine. You have to ride
with him. So you have to be disciplined. Get in
the limousine, keep your mouth closed, slide all the way up,
put your back to the driver.

Speaker 1 (29:18):
Speak when spoken to. Had to share a dressing room
to Steve. We frant brothers.

Speaker 5 (29:22):
But I'm not ever comfortable enough just because you're a
que and I'm a cue.

Speaker 1 (29:25):
I'm finna come in here like I'm entitled.

Speaker 5 (29:28):
Be quiet and speak when spoken to. That's disc when
I got from my grandparents.

Speaker 4 (29:31):
Who's the other comedian on the bed with you?

Speaker 1 (29:32):
I was probably is Sir Walk.

Speaker 5 (29:35):
Yeah, a comedian that lives in Birmingham, Sir Walk, and
he was mentoring a lot of.

Speaker 1 (29:40):
Us, but he was really into teaching.

Speaker 5 (29:44):
Come on with him sitting down. I mean we're sitting there,
he's standing up, walking back and forth, and he's talking
to us. And I remember a couple of times I
was about to nod because I was so sleepy, because
I go to bed really and but that that that
was something that was life changing.

Speaker 6 (29:58):
Well do you still like that. I changed the title
Little Book of Steve.

Speaker 3 (30:01):
I was gonna name my book I Don't Give a
Fuck and neither should you a self help guide or
how not to give a fuck. And we was driving
around in a ranch in Georgia and I told him
that title. He looked at me and he said, I
gave you aenough no player, that ain't it. He said,
that's the problem with y'all. Y'all don't give a fuck.
We needed y'all need to give a fuck. Hed all
people need to give a fuck, say anything. Lecture me

(30:22):
for about an hour, and I'm like, all right, I
got it.

Speaker 1 (30:25):
Yeah, big brother Mentor.

Speaker 5 (30:27):
I was supposed to be on his morning show and
we had a big argument sitting in this truck, and
then Rashaan got on the phone said, no, you need
to do your own thing. We're gonna use his nephew Tommy.
He said, you go over here. If it don't work out,
you can come be on the show with us.

Speaker 3 (30:41):
Aw So hold on, you're supposed to be a co
host on Steve Harvey show.

Speaker 5 (30:44):
So Steve was gonna give me. When Steve left Radio one,
they said, who do you think? They said, he said,
Ricky Smiley.

Speaker 1 (30:51):
So I went down.

Speaker 5 (30:52):
There to do the morning show with Steve for two
weeks so he can gradually, Hey, turn the show on
the mixt Hey, I'm gonna be gone in two weeks,
but Ricky Smiley gonna be taken over.

Speaker 1 (31:04):
The chemistry was so good and we were so fun.

Speaker 5 (31:06):
I was just throwing them all kind of ally oops,
making him recycle jokes, and we were just so funny
on the air together. We're looking at each other like,
hey man, we need to we need to, you know,
and me and Steve had it.

Speaker 1 (31:17):
We was like, Okay, we're gonna we're gonna stick together.

Speaker 5 (31:19):
I'm gonna go to New York with you. And we
got in the car. Rashan, our other friend brother who
was Steve managed that, you know. Shan said hell no,
He said no, you know, I just have this idea.

Speaker 1 (31:31):
That you should go over here.

Speaker 5 (31:32):
We're gonna bring in you tell me and if it
don't work out, you can always come back.

Speaker 1 (31:37):
But let's give this a try. Let's see how you do.

Speaker 8 (31:40):
Was that tough to hear that because you beculd think
about it, like you go to New York with Steve Harvey.
It's like you say, what do you think was it
hard to accept that?

Speaker 7 (31:48):
And no you should It.

Speaker 5 (31:49):
Wasn't because once Steve gave me that look when he
did the fun and he just kind of you know
that look, you know that look when you give you
that that big brother look like, Okay, we're gonna go ahead.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
You're not gonna.

Speaker 7 (32:01):
Argue with him, right, Who do you do that for that?

Speaker 8 (32:04):
Because you talk a lot about people that you mentor
and you help, but like, who's somebody that you do
that for that? Like we might not know about that
might have started in your clubs or just unknown, And
now it's like taking over comedy wise.

Speaker 5 (32:14):
Oh man, little duvall with somebody that I that I
have a real good relationship with that I was doing
some you know, mentorship because remember I was the host
of Company View in two thousand US.

Speaker 6 (32:26):
A lot of people mentor just by being on that show,
right right, That's what That's.

Speaker 1 (32:30):
What they told me.

Speaker 5 (32:32):
So that I'm tripping like like Carlos Miller was like,
bru I met you when I was fourteen years old.

Speaker 1 (32:39):
You was in a hotel. I got excited. I'm hearing
these stories and stuff.

Speaker 5 (32:43):
Man, not realizing the impact on company because I'm on
bet Monday through Saturday. Like when when Comedy View really
blew up, it was in Atlanta. And then I hosted
again Charlotamane in two thousand and four, and then the
year after two thousand and two thousand and one, I
had my own little TV show, The Way We Do
It Time, you know, and I was doing all these
characters and all these voices and all this kind of stuff,

(33:06):
And so when comics needed help and needed mentorship, I
would always, you know, hey, dress nice, Hey, stop cursing.
Does that curse word make that joke funny? Are you
cursing just to be cursing? That's the real thing. I
just had that conversation with a coming. I say, hey man,
you curse too much. The cursing is not making the
joke funnier. But if the curse word is a part

(33:29):
of the punchline, then use it, I said. Because it's
like I give the onion example, Like, like you eat
an onion as nasty, but if you take it and
chop it up in sawteed and get some flour on it,
and you're still eat.

Speaker 1 (33:40):
An onion, but you can't taste it.

Speaker 5 (33:42):
It's just an analogy that I use with comics and
I make them redo the joke, and they said, damn,
you did the same joke and got the same laugh,
got a bigger laugh because people.

Speaker 1 (33:50):
Are not offended. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (33:52):
So you know it's no training and stand up anymore.
You know, back then in the eighties, late eighties, nineties,
comics wild pu you tell the signe Mark Curry them
they would put George Wallace got on my ass so
bad one night.

Speaker 6 (34:06):
Why you was moming?

Speaker 3 (34:07):
What?

Speaker 1 (34:08):
No man?

Speaker 5 (34:09):
I did some jokes behind him after he closed it,
after he headlined the show. I didn't know any better.
He said, you don't do them, damn jokes tumping me. God, damnit,
I make one phone call your career open.

Speaker 6 (34:19):
Damn motherfucker.

Speaker 1 (34:22):
I said, I'm sorry.

Speaker 5 (34:23):
He said, yeah, you You said good night, read the
announcement and bring your hands back to Maro. I said, yes, sir,
and I came on back. He was nice to me
the next night, and he won't admit it to this day.
I said, Joey, you remember me said I didn't do it,
shut up, but it was good.

Speaker 1 (34:40):
I needed that shit.

Speaker 5 (34:42):
If I got a booge in my nose, tell me
don't let me be out here bad.

Speaker 1 (34:45):
Pull me to the side and help me.

Speaker 6 (34:47):
But you can't even do it.

Speaker 3 (34:48):
You feel like you do that nowadays, and somebody will
be like, oh man, he threatened me, hurt my feeling.

Speaker 6 (34:54):
He hate me, so to be offended me.

Speaker 5 (34:56):
It's like what man, I tell comics man, because that's
the only with asked Corey Haakerman asked d Ray Davis.

Speaker 1 (35:03):
I used to get at them all the time about
little stuff. Man.

Speaker 5 (35:06):
I'm like, hey, man, you I think d Ray was
nineteen or twenty when I bought him to Birmingham. I said,
you can't drink nothing, you can't have that. Give me
that fussing at him about little stuff, man, And now
he's great and we laugh about it all the time.
He's just gonna always be my little brother or whatever.
They all come to the house. If you ever come
to Birmingham, you know you're welcome. I cooked my ass
off or whatever. So I wish you're right, y'all always welcome.

Speaker 2 (35:33):
Now, there was a rumor that in your contract it
said that you had to wear a dress.

Speaker 1 (35:37):
Oh man, I don't pay that stuff.

Speaker 6 (35:40):
God damn, honey, you put fly.

Speaker 5 (35:48):
And so so I then I started doing comedy eighty nine. Man,
you think there's a contract somewhere. I'm just I know
that that didn't bother me or bothered me.

Speaker 1 (36:00):
Was people believed it?

Speaker 8 (36:02):
Oh yeah they did, because it's always been that thing
about the weard of the dress, to not wear the
dress to It's comedy.

Speaker 5 (36:07):
Listen, it's comedy. I grew up watching Flip Wilson. Flip
Wilson is the greatest.

Speaker 6 (36:14):
Of all time.

Speaker 5 (36:16):
And right when you laughing at Flip Wilson, he turned
around to do Geraldine Me and my.

Speaker 1 (36:20):
I'm gonna sit down and watch that with my grandmother.
My characters came. Man.

Speaker 5 (36:24):
I was doing prank phone calls on the radio. I
was doing Bernie Jenkins. And whoever would have thought a
character that you do on the radio calling funeral homes
and all this stuff turned into a character and somebody
asked you to play the character in a movie or whatever.

Speaker 1 (36:38):
You know, it's funny that all that stuff is tamboo.

Speaker 6 (36:41):
Now they do that in Philly.

Speaker 7 (36:43):
Mother knows they do you ever heard it?

Speaker 8 (36:45):
And they do the calls. I just thought about that
when you said that. I don't know they got it
from you, but mother knows they call people all the time.

Speaker 6 (36:51):
But that's the thing radio everybody.

Speaker 1 (36:54):
I started.

Speaker 5 (36:55):
I listened to the Jerky Boys and then Mercer, but
the characters developed.

Speaker 1 (37:02):
I do.

Speaker 5 (37:02):
I do a redneck character. I do Bubert, I do
Bernie Jingins, I do Joe Willie. I have a gospel quartet,
Joe Willie and the Duderoma Nairs. You know, I do
a little Darren Precious. I do a lot of characters.
I'm I'm I'm talented. I played the trump and I
play the French one. I played the bass guitar, I
played the tube. I'm an organist. I play the beat

(37:25):
three hammon at church on Sundays.

Speaker 1 (37:28):
You know what I'm saying. I study music.

Speaker 5 (37:30):
I'm just multi talented, and you can't make everybody like you.

Speaker 1 (37:36):
I have never did anything, had any beat with any kind.

Speaker 5 (37:41):
I had one beat with a coming and it was
a quir beet for twenty years, and that was Arnier's J.
Me and Arnire's j could not freaking stand each other.
We had because a show happened, and you know, comments
get there early and go on first. You know, Artie said,
got that and didn't do the order either. Something happened,

(38:01):
but we had beef. Nobody knew about it, right, and
I'm sure how God worked.

Speaker 1 (38:06):
Nobody knew about it. COVID came. I'm sitting on Delta.

Speaker 5 (38:11):
I'm in for a lot of the airport, getting ready
to fly to Atlanta where I could drive home, you know,
And I see a dude getting on a plane with
a mask on.

Speaker 1 (38:18):
He got fishing rods Well, who fished? Arn SJ?

Speaker 5 (38:22):
Lavell Crawford and What's my Man? Shadik Houston. Those are
the three comics that really fish. They fish fish, they
go fishing. I said, it's RONJ.

Speaker 1 (38:32):
I had spoken to IRONSJ in twenty years.

Speaker 5 (38:35):
And so I got up and he was sitting right
next to me, and he sat right next to me.
I didn't say nothing. That's God I saw as I said,
I know that's ARNHJ. I hadn't talked to him in
twenty years like we had. It wouldn't so ugly be
like I'm gonna kill you, just like forget you, forget
you or whatever. And you know, I'm a Christian person.

(38:57):
I'm all about resolving and loving on people because that's
my heart. And I grabbed his arm and he did
it like that, and I looked. I grabbed it and.

Speaker 1 (39:08):
He's like like what, And I pulled my mask down. Man.
He started laughing. He started laughing, So Charlemagne, give me
your hand, the other.

Speaker 5 (39:18):
Hand, the whole, the whole, the whole flight me andre
Jay like this because when he started telling me that
the twenty years, all the people that passed away, everything
that happened to him, we cried the whole flight from
full lot of them to Atlanta. I said, now I apologize.

Speaker 1 (39:39):
He said no.

Speaker 5 (39:40):
He said, my wife been trying to get me to
call you for years, been on me about that.

Speaker 1 (39:44):
I said, nah, you don't have to.

Speaker 5 (39:46):
It was just love because because I had always said,
if I see on the show again, I'm just gonna
tackle them.

Speaker 1 (39:54):
I can't Cat. I saw Cat one time and he
had said some stuff.

Speaker 5 (40:00):
That's before the internet came out, and said some stuff,
some stuff years ago. He was roasting all the comedians
that wore a dress, that play a character. You know,
he was roasting I was talking about it on the
fox Hole one day and I'm driving down Fourteenth.

Speaker 1 (40:14):
Street in Atlanta. I saw Cat walking across the street
and I had my granddad in the car.

Speaker 5 (40:18):
Then my Ford f one pity and uh, you know,
I'm one of the type of dudes I'm gonna be carrying.

Speaker 1 (40:23):
I'm like, hey, Cat was up. He was walking the Starbucks.
I never forget it. He said, come on, have a
coup of cough with me, a cup of coffee with me.

Speaker 5 (40:31):
So I went over there, and before he went the Starbucks,
he came around. I said, hey, man, Cat Wave. I said,
this is my granddad or whatever. My granddad saw you
on TV before. My granddady said yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:41):
And Cat stood in the door had a conversation with
my grandfather or whatever. And that was like one of
the last times I saw him.

Speaker 5 (40:49):
And there was no issue because it's all love or whatever,
because you know, I don't know why I never did
anything to him if I did, you know, I'm always
open man enough to apologize.

Speaker 3 (41:02):
He felt like he was clearing the record on because
I think he or was it that he was supposed
to play a role?

Speaker 6 (41:06):
You said, well.

Speaker 5 (41:08):
What I did when I went out there auditioned for
that part, And uh, that's what I really auditioned for.
I didn't audition for the Santa Claus. If I'm not mistaken.
The Santa Claus role was supposed to be for.

Speaker 1 (41:19):
What's his name? He played in the First Friday, the
comedian that passed away? Oh man, that was that was
that was on drugs and stealing and breaking the people
house Johnson. I think A. J. Johnson was supposed to
play and this is what what I heard or whatever, and.

Speaker 5 (41:37):
They put me in that role because at that time
I was on B E T and stuff like that.
But I did audition for it. That's what I went
out there and read for. My manager at the time,
came on the air, cleared that up.

Speaker 1 (41:49):
DAVIDY.

Speaker 5 (41:50):
Talbert came on on Instagram and cleared up the fact
that there's no country. He had hired me, uh to
play my role in the movie first Sunday before he
hired he cleared he cleared that part of.

Speaker 6 (42:03):
But q Q clasified it too.

Speaker 3 (42:04):
You said that you did audition for money, Mike, but
when they saw how you move, they thought you'd be
better for Santa Claus exactly.

Speaker 6 (42:10):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:11):
And I don't have no have no beef. I love everybody.

Speaker 5 (42:15):
If there is an opportunity to resolve, That's why I'm
the rap beef and stuff with the rappers get killed.
I don't want comedy to ever come to that. You know,
that's not what I do. That's not how I was raised.
You know, we're from the South and we just don't.
We don't, we don't do that.

Speaker 3 (42:31):
I want to talk about some of the revolutionary stuff
I feel like you've done in radio. I feel like
this nation, you know what I'm saying, we had never
seen that before. And I mean, you know, as a radiohead,
to see radio personalities on TV in that era, that
felt like watching Howard when Howard did it on E right,
So that was that was a revolutionary thing. And also
making the move to urban ac Yeah, like knowing when

(42:54):
it was.

Speaker 6 (42:54):
I don't know if you knew it was time or
like how that happened.

Speaker 5 (42:57):
It just happened perfectly. We you know, we was on
hip hop stations and it was great. But we was
getting older. You know, I'm in I'm almost fifty brat.
You know, we all in our forties or whatever. We
ain't got no business playing certain stuff because.

Speaker 1 (43:09):
We just gonna You're gonna naturally age. You just can't,
you just can't can't be on the radio.

Speaker 5 (43:15):
We don't even know who some of the some of
the we didn't know who some of the rappers are
that were playing like who is this now? Rat Brat
the first female rapper seller for me, and she's like,
who you got? You got the backseller song this who
We're looking over the top of our glasses.

Speaker 7 (43:34):
Making funny that I used to watch y'all.

Speaker 1 (43:36):
Yeah, but but we just naturally got older.

Speaker 5 (43:39):
And then when Tom joined her retired, they just slid
us over and and now we were playing R and
B songs and now just relaxing in the morning.

Speaker 1 (43:49):
We just we chill.

Speaker 7 (43:50):
Whose idea was it to throw Porsche or to get
Porsch on the show?

Speaker 1 (43:53):
On this Nation?

Speaker 7 (43:54):
Yeah? I think that was so good.

Speaker 5 (43:57):
Well Porsche she would fill in for Porsche. Kane did
a great job, and she would fill in for Bratt.
And then they said, hey, you want to do this Nation,
So anybody came in and filled Then the producing and say, hey,
we can get you some makeup right quick.

Speaker 1 (44:11):
Can you do dignation?

Speaker 5 (44:13):
Here's the script and it's nothing, just reading a teleprompt
and he talk about what we have already talked about
on the radio. Then we were doing Dignation while we
was on the air, so doing commercial breaks, we would shoot.

Speaker 1 (44:25):
A scene from this Nation. Wow.

Speaker 3 (44:27):
Oh, I don't know why I thought that was the
show man.

Speaker 1 (44:30):
We was doing. We were shoot when we first started.

Speaker 5 (44:32):
We was in that damn same room for six hours,
were working out, asshole.

Speaker 2 (44:37):
And what did you what did you know you wanted
to do radio? Because radio was not a job for everybody, right.
People say they love radio right then when they got
to get there an hour before and two hours after
and they can't move it, especially with comedians, because you
guys are on the road. You might not be able
to go on the road some days. So when did
you know that I'm gonna stay with this man?

Speaker 1 (44:54):
I used to listen to these two white dudes named
Mark and Brian. You remember Mark and Brian Charlamagne.

Speaker 5 (44:59):
They big and Mark and Brian. They had this big
ass morning show. But they came from Birmingham.

Speaker 1 (45:06):
These first dudes.

Speaker 5 (45:07):
I used to hear doing characters and they did some
prank phone calls to So I used to listen to
Mark and Brian in high school. They went to l
A and became famous fame, but they came from Birmingham,
And uh, I was.

Speaker 1 (45:18):
Like, y'all ever listening to white dudes on kicks one
on six? You know? That's how I got in the
soft rock.

Speaker 5 (45:23):
That's why I'm sitting up here listening to Fleetwood, Mac
and the Eagles and Stilly Dan.

Speaker 1 (45:27):
You know, i'd be on some chill stuff. You have
to listen to that stuff, you know. But I was
crazy about radio and I wanted to do it. And
I'm gonna tell y'all something I drove.

Speaker 5 (45:37):
When they put up the New State Hip Hop Stession
in Birmingham ninety five seven.

Speaker 1 (45:41):
Jam, you know.

Speaker 5 (45:41):
Dashah, Yeah, THEYSA came from our radio station. Wow, Dasha
came from our radio.

Speaker 4 (45:46):
She used to be she used to be up here.
She's on will List now right.

Speaker 6 (45:49):
No, you talk about another day?

Speaker 4 (45:50):
Another day?

Speaker 6 (45:52):
Think about.

Speaker 1 (45:54):
Yeah, she's on with Kelly that TV show whatever.

Speaker 6 (45:58):
Kelly and he used to be Ryan and Kelly.

Speaker 5 (46:01):
Right, she's on that. And then Roy Wood Jr. Came
from We All come from w b HJ ninety five seven.

Speaker 1 (46:08):
Jam.

Speaker 5 (46:09):
I drove sixty miles every morning just for the opportunity
to be on the radio, and I got paid nothing.

Speaker 1 (46:16):
I was hungry and I wanted.

Speaker 5 (46:18):
Steve used to tell me, Hey, get on the radio.
That keep your name out there, They keep your brand
out there. So now Charlotte. Man, I do my comedy
shows during the week I don't do comedy clubs on weekend,
so I do a show. I just go do a
seven o'clock show out of emprov. And I do the
emprov Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. That's my four shows and get.

Speaker 1 (46:36):
It in like that. I'm in bed at nine o'clock.
Show start at seven.

Speaker 5 (46:40):
I'm back at the hotel sleep and uh, and I
have my weekends off seven.

Speaker 1 (46:45):
No no, you said the show started, comedy show. I
want to show start at five.

Speaker 3 (46:50):
When you said, David, I don't know why I thought
of Egypt. But dajuah Wood she is. She used to
be Earthquake co host on b LS.

Speaker 1 (46:57):
Yeah with the short haircut.

Speaker 6 (46:59):
Yeah yeah yeah.

Speaker 3 (46:59):
She DJ on right Kelly and whatever. Kelly's Kelly and Ryan.
I think Ryan left to do Wheel of Fortune.

Speaker 5 (47:08):
Yeah yeah, so yeah, man, we we had that was
a great station. We won, took down the number one
station and uh and just doing good radio morning show
boot camp, learning about breaks and timing and all that stuff.

Speaker 1 (47:21):
I take radio serious.

Speaker 5 (47:22):
Man, show to rep air checks, you know, listening to
yourself playing it back like I take it serious.

Speaker 1 (47:29):
And if you're not serious about that's a lost art.

Speaker 4 (47:32):
Yeah, that is a lost start.

Speaker 2 (47:34):
Doing radio the proper way, absolutely, airy checks, doing when
to go into breaks, teasing, looking at clocks, that is
a lost start.

Speaker 1 (47:40):
Yeah, you better hit that fifty three better? You know
about that fifty three?

Speaker 6 (47:44):
What do you love more? Standable radio?

Speaker 1 (47:46):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (47:47):
Oh god, damn, that's a good question. Radio don't give
you butterflies. Radio is just sitting in here, like right now,
I'm comfortable, it's cool or whatever. Stand up gives you
a little bit of anxiety. It because you got to perform.
You got to go out there. People paid money to
see you perform. But my stand up is being great.

(48:07):
I'm I'm probably funnier than not ever being. I got
a special coming out. We in negotiation with Kevin Hart
right now to release a comedy special.

Speaker 1 (48:15):
Oh yeah, I haven't done done a comedy.

Speaker 5 (48:17):
Special in like twelve years. But it's funny as hell.
It's probably my David Talbert. He directed it, him and
his wife Lynn. They directed it. It looked good.

Speaker 1 (48:27):
It's gonna be funny, it's gonna be all over the place.

Speaker 7 (48:30):
Recently shot stuff.

Speaker 5 (48:31):
Yeah, I just recently shot it. Yeah, I paid for it.
Myself and I just went on stage and killed the ass.
So I'm really excited about that.

Speaker 7 (48:38):
And what made you? I mean, Kevin Hart's Kevin Hart.

Speaker 8 (48:41):
But a lot of people go to Netflix too, Like,
how did you decide where you were gonna who was
gonna house it?

Speaker 5 (48:44):
Well, we're gonna, We're gonna see we in negotiation now
because I just did an interview with Kevin Hart and
he asked me about.

Speaker 1 (48:49):
The special, like I just shot one. I said, you
want to you want to present it?

Speaker 7 (48:53):
Okay?

Speaker 1 (48:53):
So I started started that.

Speaker 5 (48:55):
Gosh, yeah, yeah, he's a good friend of mine. I
absolutely love him. Great dude, A great dude, Kevin Man,
Jamie Fox, all of them have been good to me
my whole career. I didn't I didn't know Eddie Murphy
was a fan. I met Eddie Murphy at his house
or whatever, went over there one day. I had a
meeting with Tracy Edmonds, I think they were dating at

(49:16):
the time, and she said, ed play your prank phone
calls the line.

Speaker 1 (49:18):
I like you lying? Are you serious? And I ended
up going over there and there's some comments over.

Speaker 5 (49:25):
There, and we had barbecue, chicken, collar greens, cornbread, macaroni
and cheese. It was like we had some real soul.
And that was my first time to meeting Eddie Murphy. Man,
that was that was a pleasure. So that when you
get to do stuff like that. And I'm on tour
with Mark Lawrence right now, so that's my big brother.

Speaker 6 (49:41):
So the funny thing is you talk like you not
wanted you not wanted them you in a conversation.

Speaker 5 (49:48):
I'm just just humble, man. I'm still like I kind
of still feel like I'm kind of like just still
young and in the game because I feel young and
in the game, and I know I'm a little older
and stuff up and trying to coach younger comics and
I just kind of sit back and not try to
do too much.

Speaker 1 (50:05):
But I just try to make sure.

Speaker 5 (50:07):
When I do do something that is special and that
is awesome and that is funny.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
And my karaoke nights uh uh be sold out.

Speaker 5 (50:15):
My karaoke I see my karaoke nights sell out faster
than my comedy shows.

Speaker 1 (50:20):
My co host has down syndrome.

Speaker 5 (50:23):
What my co host, Big Chris has down syndrome, And
he is the funniest damn person.

Speaker 8 (50:27):
If you look at my huh, you can see you know,
I was seeing her trying to laugh.

Speaker 7 (50:33):
I was gonna like, don't kill me last night.

Speaker 1 (50:40):
All you have to do, all you have to do
is look up. I'm looking at Big Chris. And that
was it was the he know all the song. He
get up there and he's saying you can't get them all. Stay.
I said, hey, Chris, you're not getting paid. You need
to chill. Okay, I have to calm him down. I
know how to that.

Speaker 6 (50:57):
I did come back like, how did that? How did
that idea?

Speaker 7 (51:00):
Smiling Big Chris? You're so messy, Big Chris?

Speaker 6 (51:04):
Not even what's all he be doing? Man?

Speaker 1 (51:06):
What you made?

Speaker 6 (51:07):
Him saying you never didn't cut your grandma?

Speaker 1 (51:08):
Now I'm going you really really? I can't question go on.

Speaker 7 (51:23):
I haven't say this is big Chris.

Speaker 6 (51:26):
Yeah, Big Chris, Chris doing his thing.

Speaker 3 (51:30):
Man, that's my call, Chris. Though you better pay double.
He only make down payments.

Speaker 1 (51:39):
Yeah. It's funny as hell.

Speaker 5 (51:46):
So so he like the bring ladies on stage and
sit him in the chair and play a R.

Speaker 1 (51:49):
Kelly song and he serenate them like the Capitals.

Speaker 7 (51:53):
Got down on one stage.

Speaker 1 (51:57):
You just got the ones out there.

Speaker 5 (51:59):
I got this white the audience out. I take him
on the road with me. We do we do them
proving for a lot of it.

Speaker 7 (52:04):
And Daniel Beach selling out has set.

Speaker 5 (52:09):
He just I bring him on stage in the middle
of carry O and I have to keep have to
set boundaries for him, and he's going.

Speaker 1 (52:16):
He loved y'all. Oh, he loved y'all. He watch y'all
all the time. He always he got his phone.

Speaker 6 (52:20):
I bought him Chris Man.

Speaker 1 (52:22):
Yeah, he always showing me something that y'all. Hey, he
wants to come on.

Speaker 6 (52:29):
When I come back, I would come on. You come
for the special.

Speaker 4 (52:33):
Bring him up here.

Speaker 1 (52:34):
Yeah, yeah, someone my special come out. I will come
up here, promote. I bring big Chris.

Speaker 5 (52:38):
That'll be my gift to your ass because because see
we have the same kind of human because we laugh
at the same Chris took me to the cemetery. Have
a cousin and died, and this particular cemetery. You go there,
you have to follow this red line.

Speaker 1 (52:53):
It's in Birmingham. We followed the red line. He was
at the grave.

Speaker 5 (52:57):
Crying and I looked up at it till it was
Paul Bear Brown was a former head coach of Alabama
back in the seventy, I said, and I didn't tell
him that.

Speaker 1 (53:05):
See, you ain't ship.

Speaker 8 (53:09):
What you said.

Speaker 1 (53:10):
He took you to the cemetery.

Speaker 5 (53:12):
Somebody had died and we was at the wrong grade.
But I just let him let him. I adn't want
to tell him that we was at that Paul Briant Gray,
so I had to get him back to the car,
took him, we got, got him something to eat, and
take him home.

Speaker 3 (53:31):
Smiling ladies, gentlemen, grief is grief, man, he got it
out either.

Speaker 4 (53:37):
Side.

Speaker 2 (53:37):
Show is out right now. My god, I appreciate you
for joining us. Bro be a stranger man. You could
come up any time you would tell radio politics, and
we want you to come.

Speaker 5 (53:47):
Look if y'all ever in Miami. I have a boat.
I'm a boat camping. I go to the Bahamas every
fucking weekend in the summer. I dare you to take
a weekend off.

Speaker 1 (53:55):
And we broadcast on the boat.

Speaker 5 (53:59):
Then you add anybody, asked Jeff Johnson as David Talbot,
we go.

Speaker 1 (54:03):
I tell I drive all the way across the ocean
to them and the Bahamas. It's only fifty.

Speaker 5 (54:07):
Five miles off the coast the fort out of there,
and I drive my boat. We go all the way
to the Bahamas. I have a house that I rent.
You are more than what if you just get the
foot out of that, you don't have to worry about ship.
I got you be there too.

Speaker 1 (54:20):
You set the boundaries on the boat'll don't.

Speaker 5 (54:24):
Don't you see what I had them to do on
the front of the boat.

Speaker 1 (54:33):
Hold on.

Speaker 6 (54:33):
I hope you ain't had them like a phantom emblem.

Speaker 1 (54:36):
You're finished, scream bro Let me, let me let me
uh no pictures.

Speaker 7 (54:42):
This is Instagram or TikTok.

Speaker 1 (54:45):
Let me see.

Speaker 5 (54:46):
I can't hear it. It's just slow because I don't.
I couldn't get figure out that wi fi. Here we go,
Here we go. You've been a screen when you see
christ these Okay, here we go, Here we go. When
I tell you you're gonna you're gonna follow down? You
see this video? I canna get to it. Where is it?

Speaker 4 (55:06):
It's gonna be a me on social media?

Speaker 7 (55:08):
Yeah, because he's been saying, here we go, here we go.

Speaker 1 (55:16):
You ready watching them?

Speaker 6 (55:19):
Watch you gotta put this in the video. Man, cut
it out.

Speaker 7 (55:24):
Man, I can't laugh that.

Speaker 6 (55:27):
Cut it out.

Speaker 7 (55:27):
I cannot last. Is somebody holding him?

Speaker 3 (55:33):
That is not funny, man, man, it's a little bit
you got it like the Fantom even know when to
think about the Fanto?

Speaker 6 (55:44):
What's that called?

Speaker 8 (55:44):
In you?

Speaker 6 (55:45):
The phantom one?

Speaker 1 (55:46):
The Rose Array stuff?

Speaker 2 (55:47):
And he got a listen front man, man.

Speaker 6 (55:52):
You stupid man.

Speaker 1 (55:53):
That's not just in the video.

Speaker 6 (55:56):
Laues and gentlemen.

Speaker 4 (55:57):
It's Ricky Smiley.

Speaker 6 (55:59):
Bring Chris and she's looking.

Speaker 8 (56:05):
You're surprised, right, Oh yeah, Mhan thirty two.

Speaker 1 (56:10):
Yah that one had.

Speaker 8 (56:17):
Man, I still sitting you're right, Big Chris, Back to
Big Chris.

Speaker 5 (56:25):
I saw some video on somebody was trying to get
at you, was trying to get at you.

Speaker 6 (56:28):
I watched that the baby was the baby? Wasn't it Halloween?

Speaker 5 (56:32):
No?

Speaker 1 (56:32):
The baby baby that didn't work out?

Speaker 7 (56:36):
Work out. They didn't go past an interview. Where was
it going?

Speaker 1 (56:39):
Wow?

Speaker 5 (56:40):
Not?

Speaker 7 (56:41):
You sit back down.

Speaker 1 (56:47):
Right now.

Speaker 6 (56:48):
And it's the Breakfast Club.

Speaker 4 (56:49):
Good morning.

Speaker 1 (56:50):
Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club