Executive producer, director, creator and writer Andre Barnwell interview

In this episode Markivus Nious interviews Executive producer, director, creator, and writer Andre Barnwell.

About Andre Barwell:

A longtime resident of Altadena, CA, and a business graduate of Howard University,
Andre’ has made his mark in the television world as a producer, director, and production
executive. Having spent 12 years at Black Entertainment Television where he held
several executive positions including Budget Director, VP of Network Operations West
Coast, VP of Development and VP of Comedy. In addition, Andre’ was executive
producer on several shows Comic View with DL Hughley & Cedric the Entertainer, BET
Live with John Salley, creator, executive producer, and director of his sketch comedy
show The Way We Do It before going independent. Andre’ landed at the WB as
supervising producer of Steve Harvey’s Big Time and then to a syndicated dance show
for Paramount called Dance 360 starring Kel Mitchell and Fredro Star.

Andre’s independent projects include writing and directing a sitcom pilot called Jocks 2
for former NFL player Nate Jones, executive producing reality show pilot for actress
Mischa Barton as well as directing the first episode of Stars on Stars with Stephon
Marbury and guest Kobe Bryant which aired on Fox Sports Net. Further, Andre’
continues doing freelance jobs like finance producing for Byron Allen’s HBCUGO
network showcasing Black College Football for their first season.

Andre’ has decided to pursue film as a writer/director solidifying two of his passions:
comedy and horror. He is working on bringing back his sketch comedy show current
episodes can be seen on his YouTube channel The Way We Do It and would love to
collaborate in some way with Pasadena’s iconic Ice House which has a long tradition of
supporting standup comedians. Andre’ is currently shopping for his original horror script
CRAWGAROU.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/deeper-than-music-with-markivus--2705530/support.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Behind every great song, there is a greater story, deeper
than music radio, the cool.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Of you, the fans. The truth simply, the truth is
the linked, just the nesic, the of you, the fans.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
The truth.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Simply, the truth is the linked, just the news.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Good morning of the evening, wherever you are in the world.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Deeper than music podcast radio, behind every great song, there's
an even greater story.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
This is the podcast where we interview talent and just
get the story behind their talent, how they got to
where they are, and the motivation. And today we have
a very accomplished gentleman here, and I'm just gonna touch
a little bit on the surface here and the and
the introduction, and we'll fill in the blanks and go

(01:02):
from there.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
This brother well accomplished.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
He has held executive producer roles on several shows, including
A Comic View with d l Q, Glee and Cedric
d Entertainer, b E. T. Live with John Selly, John Sally,
I'm Sorry, and then his own sketch comedy show The
Way We Do It, which he created, producing directed before
becoming independent. And he also has been affiliated with the

(01:28):
television station You Guys Remember the WB Ladies and gentlemen,
and again this is just the surface. We have Andre
Barnwell here on deeper than music.

Speaker 4 (01:38):
Andre, how you doing, I'm doing great, market, Thank you,
Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. Man.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
I was just watching, uh, just watching Drumline recently. And
then one of my coworkers actually used to he graduated
high school and went to school with Nick Cannon, speaking
of speaking of sketch comedy, and I take it he
really doesn't think too how he's Nick candidate I always was,

(02:09):
and I was like, you know, how is Nick cannedy?

Speaker 1 (02:11):
He's like just like wilding out. That's how he was school.

Speaker 3 (02:15):
So I was like, okay, okay, this guy is very serious.
When we think sketch comedy, well I think sketch comedy.
I think like in Living Color, Saturday Night Live. And
I must say I admire people that do that because
I seen seeing comedians man to make people laugh. It

(02:36):
looks easy and theory. But good god, man, I applaud
you for that, because sketch comedy in my mind is
on the fly and just let it roll in my
correcting that assumption.

Speaker 4 (02:48):
Yeah you you are, And I'm gonna age myself a
little bit you know, my introduction to Saturday Night Live
was when Eddie Murphy came on Thurday Night Live. Yeah, yeah,
I left when Eddie Murphy left.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
You mentioned in Living color Man the.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
Wayans Man that is a great family, and I mean
their impact was huge, definitely huge, and out of that
cap came a lot of people. The one thing I
will say, though, well, I think I'll ask your opinion.
Do you think it would it be a challenge for
them to come out and these times with the content

(03:27):
that they had.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Or would it be difficult?

Speaker 4 (03:31):
No, it wouldn't be difficult. But the challenge is that
Keenan doesn't own that trademark, so he would approval of Fox.
And see that's where you know what I try to
do this time because I own my trademark now and
very few creators can own their trademark. You have to
go back to these corporations and if they moved on

(03:56):
or you know, they don't want to do it, then
they don't and those creators have no they can't do
anything about it. And that's the different comedy. You know,
comedians have been controversial since Mom's Maiden. That hasn't yes
respect for comedians is if you stand on your truth
one and comedians will say the things that the rest

(04:20):
of us want to say what we can't and that's
why we laugh. And as long as we have that
kind of And again for me, where comedians do to
societies is they kind of take the team off. You know,
we're all pressured right now, and that humor just takes
the pressure off. And you'll see, like you know, they

(04:40):
tried to they tried to excommunicate dash Heel, but it
didn't work. Why because he has his his audience, Cat Williams,
you know, he Cat Willians went out there really hard
on folks and they're like, oh, no, you're because of
those audiences. No, I think the truth stand up now,

(05:02):
it might scare away. And this is where I would
say the difference between stand up comedians and funny people.
Stand ups know that they're profession by trade. Comment you
can't do and try to appeal to everybody. And a
comedian a long time ago told me he's like, you know,
he said, now we stay out of trouble. We talk

(05:24):
about everybody that we're not really talking about it.

Speaker 1 (05:30):
That makes sense.

Speaker 3 (05:31):
And then you also you brought up a good point
as far as the business sense and I noticed in
you in your biography you graduated Howard University in business.
And then also another thing is like you spent twelve
years at BEET, but not only were you in the front,

(05:51):
you also had several executive positions such as a budget director,
VP of Network Operations, West Coast, VP Development, and VP
of comedy, and then you were the executive producers of
the show like Comic View DL Hugh Glee and says
it's in the chater. One of my questions is because

(06:12):
we always here with with a lot of entertainers, it's
a business, right, uh music business? Uh, entertainers know the music,
but not necessarily the business.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
Was that Did.

Speaker 3 (06:26):
That help you out as far as like, because what
you explained about the wine and the brothers, I didn't
even think about. How did you go from business to
getting into did you initially I'm gonna get into busines?
How did it all come together to intertwine with the
business and then also be a contient creator?

Speaker 4 (06:46):
To answer your question, market was really luck man. I
had no and I always let people know, you know,
be curious and keep moving forward. I had I had
planned none of these things out. I nearly came out
of how hours. When I graduated from Howard and DC,
I was working for a major corporation, Zero Corporation. A

(07:06):
friend of mine who I went to Howard with, went
over to BT in their accounting finance area. My concentration
was marketing, but my degree was administration, so I still
had to tap in on the finance and accounting, but
I specialized in marketing, and I went over to BT

(07:27):
to handle financing and budgeting an accounts. And even though
you know, personally I knew I was kind of creative,
but you know, lets you have family or someonech for me,
persons that are in that creative space, I never saw
that as a career, right, So I just kind of

(07:47):
stayed with it. And I like people. That's why I
picked marketing. So I didn't really want to sell things
to people, but I was curious and I just liked
how people moved. And I said, I can persuade people
who adds and that kind of thing. So don't make
a long story story. So I went over to I
was on the East Coast, I was in financing budgeting,
and I was and it's just fortunate when you're CT

(08:09):
back then was a small growing company whenever you're in
a small, growing company, there's typically you're typically doing more
than just your job. And I and I wasn't that
type of person where I wouldn't do anything. It was
scario somebody, Hey, I'm here eight hours anyway, so let
me just figure out how to do it. I was
that kind of a person. So as a company crew,

(08:31):
and because they trusted me, I was a hard worker
and I was you know, and I was curious and interested.
That's how I fell it to be a corporate a
budget director. And I didn't know that. I mean I
was in my thirties. I didn't know that being a
black and being a budget director was some big deal,
you know, because you have no no reference to it. Yeah,

(08:53):
So what I gained was truly how a business is run.
And because I was a budget directors, I knew corporate
budgets for BP. I know individual budgets for individual shows
and all the line at them. So I knew everything
about what made a show and what what made the

(09:14):
business work. So when I left BT to go and
I resigned for BC and I went West, I actually
lost the fragrance business. I came to California and when
I came back to BT on the West Coast and Burbank.
I was able to take all of those skills and
support the two shows at the time that were in California.

(09:34):
That was a comedy show and it had a dating
show called The Tween Refectors. Because I did that, I
took all that corporate skill set and just narrowed it
down to two shows. The executive producers out here were
really impressed with that because then, as you know with producers,
the creative producers really don't want to do that then
the number stuff and the money stuff. So I took

(09:57):
that pressure off of that. And just for young people,
whenever you take pressure off of other people in an
organization where they don't have to do it and they
can trust you can do it, they're going to keep
you because you you allow them to do their thing.
So unintentionally, but I just thought, because I knew financing,
I was like, hey, guys, when we're shooting down on

(10:17):
the set, I'll handle the money, I'll write the steps,
I'll take care all of that, so you guys can
put all your producing it into creating a bid. And
that's how I started to transition to the creative side. Now,
Mark what I didn't know, and this is this is
why it's always good to have people and mentors and
people around you, because sometimes they can see something in

(10:39):
market that you can't see in yourself. And so my
executive producer saw me and he was like, you know
what that's He's really a creative person, but he don't
know it, and I didn't know it. And so he
slowly started to add creative things to my experience behind
the scenes. So I'm always good with money, always have

(11:00):
to run the money. But then he started adding those
creative things he wanted to need to be more of
a creative producer, and that's how I started to make
that transition. Now I'm an executive who knows how to
talk to money games. So when I call back to
the East Coast and get money, I know what the
finance people need, but I know what the creative people
need because I know both sides that they camp. And

(11:22):
that's how I sort of modified myself and towards unique position,
and I just continued down that path. In a typical
role for someone who has creative experience and financial experience
is show running, which are the executive producers who actually
run the shows, And that's how I was able to
start the showrun on comics youth. That's why I learned

(11:45):
about stand up comics, DL Fedrick and the More, and
Ricky Smiley and DC Curry. So I understood what they
needed to be able to do a show. But then
I also knew support wise, everything that you needed. Now
I was lucky in this sense because if I was

(12:06):
a creative black producer back in those days in Hollywood,
They're not gonna give me the full budget. They're not
gonna let me know everything. They're gonna give me the
part that I need to know. But what I knew
was everything. I knew how to rent the play the limousine.
I mean, every number that you can imagine that you

(12:26):
needed to have on paper to make a show run
for the eighteen weeks that you were doing it. For
the tape shows, I knew the vendors, I negotiate with
the vendors. I knew all of that, not knowing at
the time how important that was. But that's the difference
in that's where I would not have traded my BT
experience for a Hollywood experience, because in Hollywood they would

(12:51):
only showed me just what I needed to know where
for me personally, now I knew everything, someone just can't
come up to me, oh, well we need this and that.
And I've done line item budget. I know what that means.
I know what this means, and I'm like, why why
don't we have this on this? So that's what I
was fortunate enough mark not knowing it, And that's why

(13:12):
I'll be the first one to say I didn't know it,
but I just stayed curious, you know what.

Speaker 3 (13:17):
And that's uh man, that's very imporcause, like I said,
we don't with the background and the budgets, we don't know.
And then I wonder that I was going to ask you,
like so with most people not knowing the full the
full scope or the full budget, because I know in
Hollywood or even we're talking with people and seeing what

(13:38):
people are hearing about, Okay, I want to get this
movie made, or you know, you you sell it and okay,
here's your budget. Where there were there times where you've
seen where people were given budgets that were impossible but
you but you knowing line items, like you said, they
only revealed so much, but that help kick open the door,

(14:01):
Like wait a minute, I know what that expense is
or be able to sell a show or an idea
because you knew exactly how it was.

Speaker 4 (14:11):
You hit it on the nail mark what they do,
and it all has method to its madness by you
by let any black talent who glew up. You know,
and I'm just using this for example. They say, say
a d L and they want to get DL a show. Well,
if they don't tell, if DL's people don't know everything
that you need to do a show, their people are

(14:34):
going to know that part. So you'll never be able
to separate yourself from their people because their people always
needed to below the line. So they would let you
do the talent and you can write, get your writers,
but their people are going to know about who to
get the insurance from, the hotel rates, all of that stuff.

(14:54):
So it was by design never to give you everything
because then you don't need them.

Speaker 1 (15:00):
Hmm okay. I was like, hold your car job security.

Speaker 4 (15:03):
That'll step away with with with with deals. But when
you look behind the scenes, they're still using the same
people that they used from before.

Speaker 1 (15:13):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 4 (15:14):
And that's how they keep them locking. They're like, yeah, okay, yeah,
we'll do a tour. You you know, we'll give you
the money and extra money for you to play on
your side. But when you look at the who's breaking
down those sets and you're breaking all those crews, those
mobile production trucks, those audio trucks, you have no idea
about that because they handle all of that and that's

(15:37):
how they control.

Speaker 3 (15:40):
And then and then you mentioned like with Comic View
that was like the be et version of deaf comedy
jam and we can speak on the nineties how that
explosion just happened and like how was that like thinking
back now being involved with that and the names that
you speak of like they were just beginning and now

(16:00):
like with d L.

Speaker 1 (16:02):
Cedric, these are all big.

Speaker 3 (16:05):
That must feel like, I mean, that must be a
satisfying feeling to see that you saw that from the
inception or the beginnings, and now look at where they
are and you had a hand.

Speaker 4 (16:14):
In that exactly. And what happens is you see it
after the fact because when you're doing it, like when
you're in the trenches. Like I knew a DL but
I mean I didn't really follow a comedy circuit, right,
So I was a producer of comedy and what I
would do and when my boss Is always would say
to me, it's like, you don't want to get too

(16:36):
close to the circuit because you might be influencing how
how they moved right, so you kind of step back.
So when it hit me is when the King of
Comedy came out and I'm like, two of those hostess
came from comedy. I was like, DL, you said, your entertainer,
we're hosts of comedy and there are two of the

(16:57):
Kings of comedy. That's when it's that's what I really
knew the impact. I was like, Okay, And then when
I started thinking back now, and here's the thing that
people don't really understand about black comedy. Uh and and
you and you alluded to it. You know, you had
Depth Jam, and you had comedy. Depth Jam was on
a pay service that's HBL. Yeah, b ET was on

(17:20):
basic cable. More Black people had Basic Cable than HBL.
And we were on four to five nights a week,
so we were in black homes at ten o'clock, four
to five nights. Depth Jam. It was like a Friday

(17:41):
or Saturday kind of an event.

Speaker 3 (17:42):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right thinking. I think it was
a Saturday, Yeah, Friday, yep. You're exactly right.

Speaker 4 (17:47):
So when you're down south, when you're down like when
my aunts in Texas and and they're looking at at
comed view because you know, a lot of black people
can't afford the high end. So some of the urban
areas would have more apio, but most, you know, most
black people still in America live in Mississippi. I don't
know if your viewers know that. And that's still to

(18:09):
this day, and our biggest audiences were Mississippi, Alabama, the
South Louisiana, Texas. You know, I was born in Philly.
You could take out all the major cities. You could
take New York, Philly, Chicago, Detroit, Oakland. You could take

(18:30):
all those cities out, and it still doesn't compare black
population now to the South.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (18:37):
And so that's where I started to understand because remember
I'm coming from a business side, so I still had
access to my friends in the financial department. They still
would show me where where our people were, the marketing numbers,
where the bodies were, and the viewership. So I was
able to see those real numbers that were out there.

(19:00):
And that's where you know people to this day, and
that's why I'm starting to speak that down because these
young people need to know these these numbers and what
all of this stuff means. And I was just watching
a special on like Vice TV and it came out
with Black Comedy in America and they barely mentioned comed
View and they did a whole episode on death Jam.

(19:21):
I'm like, we don't even own death jot. That's not enough.

Speaker 3 (19:26):
And that's said, yeah, because Comic View, like you said,
comic View. I put Comic View up there with death
Jam because it helped, especially in the nineties, to bring
out these big people and it seemed like, you know,
they were on Comic View and they were on death Jam.
Another question I had, because you just dispelled.

Speaker 1 (19:45):
A rumor in my mind.

Speaker 3 (19:47):
You're always told that people that are mathematically inclined aren't
so creatively and vice versa. Was it a challenge going
to but then again, you said, somebody saw that you're creative.

Speaker 1 (20:00):
You already had a creative side.

Speaker 3 (20:02):
But was it Was it a difficult transition going from
numbers to Okay, I'm going to create and where that hat.

Speaker 4 (20:12):
For me personally? No, because what happened. You know, I
come from my fallows in the military, and so I
come from a very disciplined family. So it was always
about working hard. And I knew that having a business
degree would probably be the best case for me, you know,
structure wise. But you know, I'm an aquarium, so I'm
going on bounceide day. I've always you know, I played

(20:34):
football when I was in high school, so I've always
had that kind of like, you know, kind of rebellious thing.
But I was very disciplined when it came to school
and work. So for me, no, it was just that,
you know, uh, if people keep you in your box,
like for you, Mark, say, you come from a family
of chemists, right, and so you just do chemistry, but

(20:55):
but you know, media and journalists is your thing. And
then and every job you go go to at the
chemistry company, they have a media department, but they won't
let you over there because they're like, no, Mark, you're
a chemist, you see what I'm saying. So I so
it'll they'll keep you in your box. And so I
think that's why when you're around people, and when now

(21:16):
we're at the age where we need to start finding
this out for young people, because you just don't know
how young people grow up. I mean, you grow up
in the environment that you grow up in. You grow
up in families that might have certain kinds of things
that they do. I mean some of these comedic art.
I mean, I'm sure in the way in family there's
some very hard science type people in this you know

(21:38):
that they aren't doing the comedy. They are much more
comfortable doing finance or money to be a lawyer or doctor.
And then but if you're like, no, no, you got
to be a stand up, see, then that's when the
reverse happens. So it wasn't that me because I think
that I was gravitating to that side of the world
because when I left Xerox, which is you know, is

(21:58):
one of the tops marketing corporation's UH companies in the
in the country. Subconsciously I didn't know why, but I
just that wasn't it, you know what I mean? When
I went to BT, and it was so funny. Mark
my first day at BT in the Georgetown office, it
was like remember the scene in Boomerang where Eddie's coming

(22:19):
into the office and you see all those beautiful black
people and.

Speaker 1 (22:24):
All the yeah yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (22:26):
They were the receptionists, there were secretaries, they were I mean,
that's how it was to be. Everybody in there was
black and they were all doing they thing, from the
janitors to the cleaners, to the VP of this to
the assistant. And I was like, wow, this unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (22:42):
Now you say Georgetown, d C.

Speaker 4 (22:44):
Yeah, this is in Washington, DC and Georgetown is where
BT had his corporate office. Yeah, that's where Bob Johnson
on the corporate staff was. And that just marks that
just blew me away because I just never saw black
peace in every type of busin And one thing you
couldn't do at at when you were there was was

(23:06):
pull your black car because everybody was black.

Speaker 1 (23:09):
Everybody was black.

Speaker 4 (23:10):
If you're not good, you're just not good because because
you're just not good, it ain't good in your color.

Speaker 1 (23:16):
You speak on that time, I think what was it, man?

Speaker 3 (23:19):
There was a show I watched, maybe it was Dark
Side of the Nineties where they talked about nineties comedy
and they had episode also in our senior Hall and
talking about in Comic View with def comedy just part
of that wave in the nineties.

Speaker 1 (23:33):
Man, we had Martin.

Speaker 3 (23:35):
We had all these these black shows in that nineties
that werere that wave and then Living Color, and like
you said, it was a time to behold man and
it you brought up a good point man comic view
should be in that conversation. So you then go to
produce and direct your own sketch comedy show the way
we do it.

Speaker 1 (23:56):
How was that? Like? How was that experience?

Speaker 4 (23:59):
You know what? I had to thank my boss it
was it was unbelievable because it really came down to situations.
So I was at that point I was show running
comic and the year that I actually got the most
responsibility to show runner on Tomic you is the year

(24:21):
that we had a white hot mhm. And that just
was like my boss was like, well and and then
and the thing about oh Gary Owen was the hope.

Speaker 3 (24:34):
Oh Gary, okay yep for a former nav guy like myself.

Speaker 4 (24:40):
And he. But the thing about it, Mark was this
is what people don't realize. That year of getting the
host was voted on by the by the audience that
was there. We were shooting at show Enormous at the
Normandy Casino in Guardena, California.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
Mm hm.

Speaker 4 (24:58):
And you would perform the people in that audience, all
the black people, and that all the audience voted for Gary.
It wasn't me kicking them. It wasn't my foss picture.
I heard. I heard some stuff out there in the marketplace.
Only that's all lies. All those comedians have said, all
that nonsense. Because I was there, that's not what happened.
And if anyone knows Gary, Gary's presentation is very friendly

(25:23):
to black women. Yeah, they like how he does his humor.
And the majority of the audience that night were black women.
And one thing I give to black people, you know,
they're the most fair people I've ever seen on the planet. Yeah, Paul,
for a second, to kind of figure you out, I'm younger,

(25:43):
you know, I'm older up the door about Tina Mariem.
When black people first heard Tina Marie on the radio,
they thought she was black. Then they're like, oh, he
and Ree is white. Then they looked at it again.
She starts singing. You're like, well, hell, well she could sing.
And that was it. Black people, You if you come
with your job, they'll pause for a second, but if

(26:05):
you come right, they will reward. And that's what I
love about our folks. Man. Now that has a double
edged story because the other people they don't do that.
They're still acts. They're great, but you're black, But we're
still not going to pick people don't do that, and
that's and so so. So I'm coming off of that.
I'm coming off of a lot of the comedians that

(26:27):
we were using weren't necessarily big nationally, but they were
big on the road. A lot of our comics made
their money in the comedy club, which is sad to
say now because back in those days, in the nineties,
there were a lot of black comedy clubs around the country,
and so we were able to service each other. We

(26:48):
didn't have a lot of money to do, uh to
give our comedians, but what we did was their rates
were higher in the clubs because they did comedy. And
just a little tibot, just for your autists, I would
like to drop a little tibbot. But here's here's here's
how the comedy auditions worked with us. We would a

(27:10):
black club. We would say to a black club, we
want to look at the commedey to come from your club,
you know, for comedy. You send us this paper of
all the comedians that perform. We'll give you our trade name,
the door, food liquor. We don't want none of that.
All we ask is can't charge the comedians for performing

(27:34):
that night. And you send us a clear and visible place.
That was our relationship with the comedy club around its MHM,
and that's where and so when they're when folks blew
up in their places, when they came back, our viewers
would would go to those clubs, and then those comics

(27:54):
would get higher ratings, you know, higher rates in those
comic clubs because they did become so we were trying
to figure out a way to balance that out. So
we never took none of the bar that could use
our name for free to promote those nights. And our
only requirement was you can't charge the all comics that

(28:15):
go up go up. And this is something we couldn't
reinforce on paper, but we had to reinforce behind the
scenes that you couldn't like a manager couldn't have like
just their comics go up. We were very clear with
we're not doing any kind of like, hey, i'm a
manager of these eight comedians, I'm gonna send them, but

(28:39):
everybody who goes up, and we will select the comics
to go on the show, not based on your what
agency you were. And again these are on the road comics.
A lot of them weren't in but we didn't do
any of those manager things like the funny people get
on air. That was the thing we wanted to make sure,

(29:00):
because he didn't have a lot of resources, that we
can at least make the opportunity. So if you were
from you know, Bumdale, Alabama, and and your name was
Darius Bradford and you were hilarious, you got invited. I mean,
that was our way of trying even the playing field

(29:21):
for up and coming comics getting a shot.

Speaker 1 (29:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (29:26):
And then so that allowed me to so now because
of Comic View, and I'm sorry I was long winded,
but because of Comic View, I was able to you know,
a lot of comedians that I then went back into
that pool of comedians to do my sketch shop. So
when you see the comedians that I have on there,

(29:47):
you know, you see the speedy, You see the Doug Williams,
and see the Bradfords, and see the Romans, those are
all Comic Views. And even even any of Jeff Garcie,
even the ones that weren't a black but theyde the
rotation to comput I tapped into into that pool for
my comedians and then and the only the only limitation

(30:10):
I had is the community that I was using it.
They had to be they had to be in the
you know, LA area because they would have to go
on through Burbank. So that made it it's so much
easier for me. And again, because I appreciated stand up,
I made sure that the format and you know, if
you ever get templed. Because I put them up on

(30:31):
my YouTube channel, there was a lot of room for
them to do what they did. My goal was not
to overproduce them. My goal was to, hey, what do
you think is working on the road? You want to
do some some characters? Hey? And then I just let
them do their thing. It's almost like jazz music. Man.
I just made sure that the instruments were there, the
sound was there, the light was there. But whatever the

(30:53):
ancestors came through. You you know, they couldn't cut, couldn't
move then world. Other than that, I was pretty quite
open to ask because I admire and I appreciate what
they do. I'm not funny, I know they're funny, and
so I just wanted to make sure the showcase did that.
And Mark I didn't have I mean that who I

(31:14):
was able to pull off? And then and I had
no intention of directing them. I don't know if that
was in my story thing. But in my second year,
my second season, first day of studing, my director quit
on me. Oh man, I mean literally right before we shot.
I called my boss. My boss was like, okay, you

(31:35):
just sent all sixty people home until we figure out
the director. And again, here's where this mentor kicks in.
He said, or you can director and Mark. I don't
know what it came from, but I wasn't scared because
I was as the EXECUTIVEDUC You're always in the truck,
You're always right behind them. You're kind of hearing what
they're doing. But you know, I like that lane. I

(31:57):
was like, that's a good lane. But I'm like, I'm
not letting all of this die because I got someone
who's gonna try to play some games with me. On
the day of a shoot, and my boss said, okay,
give your give your people about thirty minute break. He got.
My boss was a director, Curtis Gatch who's the creator
of comic He's off the sprint, so he's like, okay,

(32:19):
this is how this work. He got protective the TD.
He said, this is what you do and Mark, because
I couldn't afford to lose that day. You know about production,
it's like all this month, can't lose a day. So
and that's the that's and that's why I directed the
second season again, Yeah, thank god because I probably wouldn't

(32:41):
have ordinarily done that myself, but sometimes the universe kicked
in and then when I did it, and then I
rolled it out and I'm so glad I did it.
But that's again, these aren't playing things, but sometimes circumstances
coming to your life. And you know, as as black folks,
you know we step our game up when we have to.

Speaker 1 (33:03):
Oh yeah, we we we make it work, we make limits. ELM.

Speaker 3 (33:08):
Question, are all comedians? Can they all do sketch comedy?
Or is it a special skills center neck that they
got to have?

Speaker 1 (33:18):
And you're in your personal opinion.

Speaker 4 (33:20):
Stand up comedians have for me? Stand up comedians sketch
comedy is a stand up comedian flatform, gotcha because it's not.
The first takes are always the funniest. Anytime we can't
stand up can when when they get that and I
learned it the tough way. We were trying to do

(33:41):
stuff and this is never been a comedic actor who
reads off of a strip and a stand up comic
stand up comedy, it's more of a gut thing with them,
never comes out. That's why they're very good at ad libbing.
That's why they're very good because on the road they
know how to just quickly still a faith or they
know about so it is there. To me, it is

(34:05):
their platform. Now there's better ones than others. Stand up
comedians who create characters in their performances are much better.
So the storytelling type of stand up who creates mud bone,
who creates these characters, then that character you add a
couple of props to it, Like Doug has gust the cabin,

(34:28):
so that Cabby concept is something he played off on
the road, and so to put that on a stage
is different than say a stand up comedian who just attacks.
You know, their style is attacking. They're not really creating characters.
And so it's that character storytelling comedians that the stand

(34:49):
up comedians. To me, that's the best one. For Skeet John.

Speaker 1 (34:54):
Gotcha, we know, I like in the that man, I'm
having a blank.

Speaker 3 (35:04):
Life with all those comedians, and I can just imagine
the improvs like whose baby is that, I'm the I'm the.

Speaker 4 (35:11):
Peppy and and this is where Now, this is all,
this is, this is what, this is why the director
has to respect comedians because now I've been told this
as well on Bad on the Bad Boys film set,
they let Martin jump off of that script a lot,

(35:32):
and then Will was smart enough to follow Martin. That's
what I was told. But that makes I love about
stand up. They can find when you're doing something, they
can find the glitches that they're not working, you know,
and then they immediately fill it with something. And if
you're a smart director, you step back and let them,
let them do they craft. Just step back. Well that's

(35:56):
not on the page. See, if you do that kind
of crazy stuffing, it's not gonna work. And that's why
I see a lot of stand up comedians we do
stirdy Night Live. When when they leave the show and
I find out that they're stand up comedians, I know why.

Speaker 1 (36:13):
Oh because with the rains and the white tape and
all that.

Speaker 3 (36:20):
Okay, So going from that, you now w b supervising
producer of the Steve Harvey's Big Time and then the
syndicated show for Paramount called Dance three sixty starring Kel
and Federal Starr. How was that experience with the Dance

(36:41):
three sixty because now you're going from comedy Steve Harvey
and now it's a dance show. Was that an easy transitioner?
Like you said, it was just creativity and it just flowed.

Speaker 1 (36:55):
It was fluid.

Speaker 4 (36:57):
That Now, that's what I learned why so many black
talent have frustrations with Hollywood Because the Dean Harvey showing
with it on the WB and Dance three sixty was
under Paramount syndication. Dad, Remember, up until this date, I've
only had to make I only needed approval from black people.

(37:21):
Like when I get my comedy show one person. I
walked into my boss's office and he was like and
he said, all right, well, what do you want to
do because you got about two years before you leave.
And he said, go away, think about it, come back
and I said, I want to do a sketch comedy show.
And then he and then he said write it up.
And I wrote it up and I went in there
and I pitched it to him. That was it what

(37:42):
I realized when I went over to WB and when
I and I went over to Paramount Restrict, Paramount Syndication
at that time had a syndicate syndication. All the toads
happened and they're jumping and the black people had to
do over there, and I wasn't yous. Wow, I'm looking
at it like I'm looking around like you just and
they just tap dancing, and I understood why they had

(38:04):
to do it, but I wasn't. I was like this, no,
this isn't this, this is different and how people who
didn't even come from those artless, especially dancing, it's called broke.
You know. He was the executive, he was a creator
that and you know he comes from a very hip
hop background. I could just having to translate a lot

(38:28):
of stuff for the suits over there. I was like,
I don't want that job. It's like playing in greens
to someone who eats kale, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (38:38):
So in my mind I didn't. But when you said
that you want to do of Hollywood Shuffle, you.

Speaker 4 (38:48):
Know, and that's why, and this is just for black
audiences that we have to give our black town a
little bit of some leeway because they don't realize what
they have to go through on that side to just
even get barely something done. Because those other folks are
going to tell them, well, Mark, that's not how black

(39:10):
people think. I mean, just like what Hollywood Sheffel did.
So that's why for me, you know, it's I don't try.
I don't I don't bring down none of us there
over there because I'm like, that's a lot of stomach.
I mean because I was like, so I dabbled into
a little bit and so that I could have a
better understanding of what that was and to realize going
from a black company to independent was much better for

(39:33):
me because I couldn't do that stuff. That was like
because I was in those meetings and I'm just I
just had to bite my list. Sometimes, well let's do like,
let's have goats run around the shit. I'm like, I'm
just like, where am I? This was like the Twilight though,
you bring up when you.

Speaker 3 (39:51):
Talk about the Linings, when we talk about the Linings,
because you've seen with a scary movie, and you've seen
a lot of stuff, Like you said, they didn't own it,
and we saw how it slowly got diluted. We saw
how you know, with Dave Chappelle and him leaving, how
it gets deluded and then they don't own it and

(40:14):
then like the scary movie was brilliant, but then like
you said, it got crazy and then they walked away
from the project. Like okay, Now, like you said, the
people that want to do this stuff, they are doing
that thing and it just loses its essence.

Speaker 1 (40:27):
It's soul.

Speaker 4 (40:30):
And again that alludes to the to me, it's twenty
twenty five. We have to now step the game up.
It not it's not just a black presence on television,
but the combination of what ownership does. Because even a
scary movie, now, when it came back to do scary movies,

(40:52):
Wayne still don't own scary movie. Wow, you know what
I mean. So it was like, so we have to
take the next Yeah, now do stuff for them and
take their money. Yet then start doing your own projects.
We might not be a little smaller. But remember when
when Nick got into trouble with with wild are now right,

(41:16):
remember oh yeah show? And I told people, because you
don't own it, that's the only way to get kicked
up your own show, because you don't own it.

Speaker 1 (41:29):
And that and that's crazy to me.

Speaker 3 (41:31):
Like ye, it's like historically Cadillac Records, we've been the talent.
We've been the talent, but we don't own it. I mean,
even when you talk about you know, uh with.

Speaker 4 (41:46):
Even with you know they got chess records. Yeah, yeah,
I mean the shout chess records was like the grittier motive. Yeah,
and the owner and so we kind of get conditioned
to that and right or wrong. And again I'm not

(42:09):
here the business model because remember I look at things
creatively and from a business standpoint. The Tyler Perry model. Now,
what we have to understand about how you might not
necessarily like all of his stuff, but god to understand
the ownership strategy that he used, and to me use

(42:30):
the business models that work and then make your own
tweak on it. If you don't want to do something
that you're in a dress, then own yours, but don't
be in a dress like so we have. We only
have a few of these folks that are out there,
so we don't want to throw them totally away. Now
sometimes you know, we got chastise them a little bit.

(42:51):
And the way you do that is at the box office. Yeah,
but you don't throw them out. I mean his last
thing that he did this is the triple.

Speaker 1 (43:00):
Six six triple eight, yeah, six, triple We had.

Speaker 4 (43:04):
To encourage seats. Those kinds of things you continue to
encourage so and he did that Jasmine hit like a
Jasmin Blues movie. Yeah, So there's things out there. So
what we had to do is to be smart, and
you know, because there's a lot of challenges. Those folks

(43:24):
who give you money give you money to do certain things.
They're like, no, we want you to do pineapples, even
though your movie was about strawberry. Yeah, give you pineapple money.
So now you gotta do pineapple. Now, if you do
your own money, you can do strawberry exactly.

Speaker 3 (43:40):
And something that you mentioned before, what you did I read.
I forget what actress it was. She was like, very
well known and she was in the Tyler Perry movie.
And she's like, that was the only time I was
properly compensated.

Speaker 4 (43:57):
Toronto. Yes, yes, yes, And so they'll overlook those things,
you know, for the subject matter. And I'm like you,
we can do both. I mean, just like any creative person,
I am a better creative person today than I was
ten years ago because you allow me to grow and

(44:19):
learn and and start to make adjustments and start to
tweak and start to like for me. Part of what
creative producers have to start to do is to the
ability and black people. We tend to not really do
this really well in general, is to delegate. We're not
very good in the entertainment business. About delegate. You all

(44:43):
through ourselves and then well it died.

Speaker 1 (44:46):
Yeah, and that's in delegate. And I hate to say it.

Speaker 3 (44:51):
I mean, he did a good job with the six
Trip late, but like you said, with Tyler Perry's written everything,
Tyler Parrent is like, hey man, why not delegate and
hire some experts and some other people that can also
help with that and help broaden the view or the
creative process.

Speaker 4 (45:12):
And again I understand why he did it in the
beginning because it wasn't about writers. It was the unions
that acted stupid.

Speaker 1 (45:20):
Oh gotcha.

Speaker 4 (45:22):
And the same thing that happened with Bob Johnson when
when Bob Johnson did sixty Minutes and they showed that
he lived on a rant and his daughter was a question,
all hell broke loose and we had to literally move
comic view. Now they didn't care about us in doing
Convue and Guardina and I don't know if you understand
about Guardiana. Guardiana is the hood and in Hollywood when

(45:46):
we shot consu we were in Normandy Casino in Guardena, Gallifornia. Wow,
care that we was down there, But when they saw
sixty minutes, all of a sudden they're like, oh that
negro must got some money, and they forced us out
of Calumny. You had to go to it, and it's crazy.
There's not a there's not a stand up platform for

(46:10):
up and coming black comedians anywhere on DELT.

Speaker 3 (46:14):
I gotta I got a question because you know they
talk about we heard about the friends, was it was
living single and which blew blew my mind? And then
the conditions of the studios compared to the living single
and Friends. And I always wondered, how do we let
because I mean, we've been in this situation for so long,

(46:38):
how do we I just feel like in twenty twenty
five we should have more owners more ownership, more networks.
How do we how do we overcome that? How do
we leverage our talent and and be more? How do
we get out of that this slump? Like why aren't
there more Tyler Perry's?

Speaker 1 (46:59):
And I've always wondered that.

Speaker 4 (47:04):
Well, for example, now remember we they used to have
the upn oh W B and all. Yeah, the way
you drive your viewership from a business standpoint news. Now
we're into streaming. So the way you drive streaming is
black viewers are very loyal viewers. And I'll give you

(47:25):
an example. Look at TOOB. Yeah, to B is the
modern day Upne.

Speaker 1 (47:32):
You're right, you're right.

Speaker 4 (47:33):
And when those numbers get big enough, they're going to
drop all that black context because now they got tieballs.
It's going to happen again.

Speaker 1 (47:42):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (47:43):
To answer your question, the only way you really got
to get around it is you got to have your own.
It's like and in my world of comedy, the uh
and I had, I had asked one of some some comedies.
I was like, I asked some percentage. Well, I said,
how many you know? Because they were on the road
a lot, And I think I said, it's a god.

(48:05):
How many comedy clubs did you go out in the
road are black owned? Because that's going to determine what
kind of leverage you have, right because the black own
comedy comedy club are driven by black talent that's putting
black dollars into those black neighborhoods. And that's how you
can start to set black streaming networks. How many black

(48:26):
streaming networks they're black owned? You'll have some called black,
but they're not black owned, and so it is a
tough call. But we have to get the entrepreneurial black
people back into the game, and black viewers have to
spend support those black.

Speaker 1 (48:45):
Cham Yeah, now, you're right, we.

Speaker 4 (48:48):
Have to.

Speaker 1 (48:49):
I just feel like we've been We've been at this
for sovi.

Speaker 3 (48:51):
I was even thinking as far as you know, when
Kanye made his comments about the Jewish community, but hey,
they created their own I mean, think about hospitals, think
about you know, Hollywood, and I was thinking about that.
I was like, I've never heard of a black hospital.
You know, we we we've been here, We've we made
money for a lot of people. But when it comes

(49:13):
to ownership, like you said, an entrepreneurial ship, where we're
far behind the power curve. And that moves to my
next segment is now you're independent. You wrote and directed
a sitcom Pilate called Jocks two for Nate.

Speaker 1 (49:30):
Was that Nate Jones?

Speaker 3 (49:32):
And then like you're making you're making moves like with
you with Stefan Marberry, Kobe Bryant.

Speaker 4 (49:39):
How is that so?

Speaker 3 (49:41):
I think I'm pretty sure I understand the motivation is
what we talked about before and how has that journey been.

Speaker 4 (49:48):
Well, you know, it's and again to to to your point,
we were looking at, okay, where is the money coming
into the black community, And a lot of it was
coming through our black stars, right, so whether it's film
and TV stars, and then the athletes were starting to
generate I remember Stefan Marvey. I believe he had like

(50:11):
one hundred and seventy nine million dollars contrapt guaranteed money,
you know, And so the black athletes, especially the basketball
players were getting guaranteed money. And my business head was, well,
thirty three percent of whatever you're doing has to go
to the government, to the man unless you create some

(50:32):
kind of business opportunity. Right, So I'm like, this isn't
money that we would be taking from your pocket. So
if you make two hundred million dollars, thirty three percent
of that is going to Uncle Sam. Let's just look
at that thirty three percent. And if we can make
that business expensive, then you could still profit from that
because now you're generating business, but we're not taking money

(50:56):
out of your pocket because you have to you have
to spend that anywhere, you have to get that away.
So that was that was the goal. Was to and
then and with athletes, if you can do it for
one or two of them, because our athletes are a
very good pie type, what they'll do is another athlete
won't come directly to me and say Drake, can you

(51:17):
do that for me? They'll find Nate, say hey, Nate,
he did that pilot for you. Oh okay, I'll call
so'll they'll go to Nate to get validation for me,
because you know, a lot of athletes they get, you know,
their money taken from them and want to prevent that.
And then two, unfortunately, Mark, a lot of their handlers
are not black people, so their managers, their agents, there's

(51:42):
no incidentive for them to do business with me, a
black person. And so those athletes who are always conditioned
to listen to whatever they say. That's what I didn't
realize how much of a grip. Now. I will say
this though, And this is where uh, young people, these
young and these these younger players coming into the league,

(52:05):
they not built like that. Mark. They don't have that
kind of you know, well whatever white my white manager,
and it's like, is your name Angie Reese? The young
lady that's that's playing the w n B A is
it Angie. Yeah, yeah, yeah, see you know I think

(52:27):
she's from Baltimore, I think, but you can't come to
her side eye. You know, they're this young generation they're
looking at in these Nils and these young people doing
their stuff. They're a different kind of athlete where John
Moran and all them. If I doing stuff with them,
they'll they'll take a chance on black people. Where that

(52:48):
generation I hate to say it, with that nineties generation
black athletes, they ain't really weren't. You know. They would
saying a lot of good talk on camera, but he
hit him up directly. They was They was listening to
their managers and the agents who ninety nine percent of
them were culturally not the same as them. But these

(53:11):
young man I like their spirit because they're like, I
forgot that brother that plays for the Boston Celtics. Uh
oh god, God, the dark skin brother, not the light
skin brother. Hate then that there's a dark skin brother
that they kind of shit on for the Olympics. A

(53:31):
bad word. Sorry the Olympics.

Speaker 1 (53:36):
Yeah, I know you, I know you're talking about. I
can't remember his name.

Speaker 4 (53:39):
Is He's the type if you can get to him,
he'd like what that young athlete, they moved differently, and
so I'm excited about that general. I just hope that
some kind of way we can have the experience of

(54:00):
people like me in a room with their enthusiasm and
the financial money that they can generate in the same room,
that we could then create a blueprint for younger people
to look like us, to be like, oh, I know, hey,
launder beat. I know a black owned launderymat, so i'mould
buy a laundervat, you know that kind of just don't

(54:23):
even have to think about it, kind of a think.
So I'm optimistic in that sense because these young and
these younger ones, they're you know, social media, and they
kind of control their own destiny a little bit more,
and that's why the system is trying to figure out
how to control them. Again, this is a good time.

Speaker 3 (54:43):
It's I'm making a point now where I and like
you said, because of streaming, I search for the shows
and the movies where we are reflected like I was
to show Millie Black just started watching the show Missing.
It's just like the one thing that is really and
like you said, it's all about ownership.

Speaker 1 (55:05):
We have to own.

Speaker 3 (55:06):
We have to own because if not especially in these
times time and time again.

Speaker 4 (55:14):
We are.

Speaker 3 (55:16):
We're tolerated, but we're not appreciated, and we have to
control the narrative. It just blows my mind when you
hear about like these shows that we I mean, there
was an interview with Jaalil White talking about family matters
and just hearing about these shows. We weren't in the room,
we weren't writing, and other people are writing our narratives

(55:39):
or even like with the Netflix thing with Monique and
just it's crazy to be like, at what point do
we say that, hey, we have the talent, we're making
people money.

Speaker 1 (55:51):
We need to own Like you brought up a good.

Speaker 3 (55:53):
Point, like networks clubs, how many buildings, how many facilities,
these distribution companies, our owners are reflective of us.

Speaker 1 (56:04):
And it's that time. And I hope, I hope you're right.
I hope this generation.

Speaker 3 (56:08):
Takes it and we we really need to do that
because it I've always wondered, like in the nineties, like
you saw Martin, you saw living Single and then all
of a sudden.

Speaker 1 (56:19):
Like you said, the Fox, Fox station, the Fox that
was then then the Fox Now.

Speaker 5 (56:24):
This is definitely well, like I mean, they don't you
don't own it, so they're like, no, well we got
another we gotta we can make more money on this
living still single that we call it friends, yeah, or
or even you know when when Viacom acquired BT.

Speaker 4 (56:46):
You know, I can't prove this, but you know the
way we do it was on air before a while now,
And I know for a fact the MTV executives paid
attention to what we did over at BT because we
were on the post of a black culture and black
culture is American culture, yes, so they find what we

(57:07):
do and then they accelerated. And I know when we
were doing our comedy stuff. The advertisers, for example, and
I think they wrote a book on Bob Johnson, a
long time film and I forgot billion a billion dollar
bet something like that. But I encourage young people, anybody
to read that book because it also says how advertising

(57:31):
can control you. So like on our network, my goal
as a producer was to get a certain kind of
rating number, right, and it was like zero, two ones
and two right, So the higher the rating, the more
money that you could get for advertising. Well, we found
out that it didn't matter if it was a show
on MTD and they got a point seven and we

(57:52):
got a point nine. MTV got more money than we
got because the advertisers value the white eyeball more than
a black eyeball. So even the rules of us competing
were not the same. So you get a nine and
you get twenty five thousand dollars spots, and I get
a nine. I should get twenty five thousand dollars spots,

(58:15):
but they're like, no, you get ten thousands. They get
twenty five, you get ten. So with that money, Mark,
I have to now spread that money over a budget,
so I can't do the same things that they can
do over there. I can't pay the same stuff that
they could do it. And that that was that, That
was what most people don't understand how advertised it. Even

(58:40):
though black people buy more tied detergent than them folks do.
But they disrespected our values.

Speaker 3 (58:47):
Yeah, it's like we're always being undermining. You also reminded
me of a different world. Yeah, they that showed phenomenal ratings,
but they weren't invited to functions or as visible as
people that were underrated.

Speaker 1 (59:05):
But because I forget.

Speaker 3 (59:06):
Who said this, I just recently saw a black show host.
He's like, you don't have the right complexion for the connection.
It's just like, it's just all the stuff that we've
run to the table, and I'm glad you're going independent
and you're pushing that business model. It shows that we
have to, like you said, go independent, write our narratives

(59:30):
and create, and we have to support.

Speaker 4 (59:33):
Yeah, and to me challenging, my goal to bring back
the way we do it is to go after starry,
not love Yeah, because I don't think it's fun na,
but it's the only It's like it's the only food
shop in town, but everybody got to eat it. And
I'm like, no, that's not how the entertainment world is

(59:55):
supposed to be. It's the entertainment world is supposed to
be competitive, and it's supposed to have choices. It's like
in the music world, it's not that one singer and
so they're like, I'm like, no, there's another formula. And
remember I alluded too long a while ago about the
Living Color. The first two years have been living with color.
If you watch the first two years of A Living Color,

(01:00:17):
you will actually see the talent laughing at their own judge. Yep,
that's how funny they were. And then you slowly saw
that go away. That's because the network got at them.

Speaker 1 (01:00:29):
Yep.

Speaker 4 (01:00:31):
And I'm like, see, that's why I stand up comedian.
I mean Jamie Fox, oh My, Tommy Davison the way
and I mean that's that, that was it. But because
the other folks couldn't compete at that level once they
got rid of it. And then and to me, my

(01:00:53):
personal opinion of reason why I live in Color went
away is because Fox took that money. Remember when they
bought sports after the Color got got football, they took
all that money, all that back viewership, all the eyeballs,
and then they took that money and they bought football

(01:01:13):
and then.

Speaker 1 (01:01:15):
And sew, and we see how that demographic.

Speaker 4 (01:01:22):
Live in Color anymore. It serves our purpose yep. And
I'm like, and folks, so we have to take that
and and and again. And I'm sorry these things keep
popping up. But back to Tyler Perry in writing to
me at this point in his career, and it's just
my humble opinion, it's time to start to delegate I

(01:01:48):
mean the kind of key ones he wants to do,
because if we don't give it to another generation, we
lose all of this leverage when we lose him yep. Yeah,
you know, you got to start creating little kings and queens.
That's why they call him princess and princess.

Speaker 3 (01:02:06):
Because you see, like with the directors, there's time pieces, right,
there's there's no overlap. We had the Spike Lee period,
then we had this person period. We're in the Tyler
Perry and if you delegate, it'll overlap and it's like
a seed, it'll grow and create a network exactly.

Speaker 4 (01:02:24):
And I think you'll have the unions can't go after
him like they used to because I know that was
bitter for him. But but now he's at the level
now where he can he should pick and choose, you know,
his his flagship projects that he wants to do. But
we've gotta there's got to be caught the Tyler Perry
Academy because we got to pass that courch on. Even

(01:02:47):
if he even if he has his own right and
he can have his own writing school where he's the
head writer and shows him how to do it, but
the past that's still along because one hundred writers can
make more of an impact than one writer exactly. I mean,
look at the soldiers in.

Speaker 1 (01:03:06):
The industry, look at Disney, wet Disney limit what we do.
Disney had writers animation and their output was.

Speaker 4 (01:03:16):
People coming out of these schools and they're challenged, but
they got to. If theyf not, they'll have the experience
I had when I was over there at the WB
in Paramount Syndication. And so they'll turn them. They'll they'll
turn them into their creation and get that spirit and
so and again. You know, I don't want to talk

(01:03:38):
on people's money, but for the black culture generally and
at his level of maturity and when he's done, I'm
not taking anything away from him, but I would just
love to be able to have that conversation because I
understand where he is at. But all of us have
to start thinking about the next general yes that we

(01:04:02):
have to and the opportunities in the spot so they
have the confidence that they don't have to go over
there to mister Charlie. You know, that's what I love
about Asians in America. You know, it's like there's a
reason why every major city in America got a Chinatown.

Speaker 1 (01:04:18):
Got a China Sound Yeah, yeah, I mean it's like.

Speaker 4 (01:04:22):
You got to respect them. You know, I'm not hating
on them for that, but that's just letting their young
people know, you got two places that you can go.
You can go out in that little world there, but
you always there's always going to be a China.

Speaker 3 (01:04:34):
Yeah, And it's just it just blows my mind how
we came here and how we built this country and
made this a mega power economic powerhouse and when it
comes to ownership and our piece of the pie, and
like you said, other cultures that come in, we're still
behind the power curve and that just it blows my mind.

(01:04:57):
And as always with these interviews, man, time flies so
so so fast. And I want to thank you for
being on the show and speaking to business because I feel,
like you said, business and delegation is something that we
really need to focus on, and now you give you
give a face and a narrative to that. So my
my last question before we go, Andre is no, actually

(01:05:21):
my last two questions where can people like, what do
you got going on next?

Speaker 1 (01:05:26):
Where can people find you? This is shameless promotion time.

Speaker 3 (01:05:30):
And then my my last question is and if you
forget it after you answered the shameless plug question, what
advice would you give to young people today that want
to go out and make an impact.

Speaker 1 (01:05:43):
Like you did? Right?

Speaker 4 (01:05:45):
No, No, I appreciate that, and thank you Mark for
allowing me to share. Because our people are so chalented,
we're creative. We just the business side of our brains
have to come up to our creative side and we do.
Those two creatures. Our left hand our right hand are
the same. Left man, it's it's on. So I'm really
excited about that. But shameless plugs, Well, what I did

(01:06:06):
was I took all thirty six of my episodes and
because I now own my trademark, I put them up
on my own YouTube channel. So at tw w U
d I the Way we do it TV, I put
all of my all of my stuff up there for
people to see. It's free, go up there and look
at it. All the episodes are there. I've broken down

(01:06:29):
some of the other ones as well too, because I
want I want them to see what sketch comedy. The
talent of those people that I work with then and
there's still talented people and so for me that that
will help me. So I really want to be able
to then raise the capital to get and then do
our bring the way we do it and go after

(01:06:51):
Saturday Night Live. The other side of my brain is
and again this is sort of like it's weird. It's
sort of like Jordan Peele in that case. And we
haven't talked about grip Field and Catches over there on
Comedy Central doesn't own it. Same thing. But I've also
gone into horror. I don't know what it is about
sketch comedy, comedy and horror, but I don't know, there's

(01:07:15):
just a natural connection. So I'm actually I wrote a
horror movie and I've created a seasoning for the horror
script even though the movie hasn't been made yet, And
that's on kragaroo dot com e E R A W
D A r o U dot com kragaroo for those

(01:07:36):
from Louisiana, that's a that's a playoff of ruga ru,
which is a monster in their folklore. And so I'm
gonna be doing that low budget, three to five million
dollar horror movie that has gen zers in it and
a monster in it. So those are two things that
are keeping me excited at Mark and moving forward. And

(01:07:59):
then your last what do young people need to do? One?
Do what you can where you are. For example, I
put my stuff on a YouTube channel because until now
YouTube is still free, and I would I would encourage
them to put their stuff on a YouTube channel, not

(01:08:20):
an Instagram channel, not a Facebook page. A YouTube is
a mini version of a television network. So want them
to get in the habit of creating some content uploading
it to their own YouTube channel. Because once you have
a YouTube channel out there, so the world has access

(01:08:41):
to yourself. So continue to move forward. Do what you
can where you are, shoot what you need to see.
Take a TV class or a film class, or a
screenwriting class at a local community college. Have to go
to your top ten university and get into a film

(01:09:04):
program and go one hundred thousand and debt no fine.
And then for me personally, YouTube Academy type in how
to write a script fight, then how to direct them
it fight, then how to use my phone to record them.
YouTube is a tremendous place for them to learn the craft,

(01:09:26):
and so for me young people. And then try to
encourage your teachers and your schools to get people to
come in that look like you to talk about this.
I think that's probably one of the biggest things to
be able to do. Go back to your models, go
back to high school, have those A lot of those

(01:09:48):
schools have media program. Ask the princess, say hey, can
we get some folks in to speak on did these crafts?
And I think that that allows us to pass staff
of time. If you have if they have local film
festivals and they can go through just in their local
towns or communities, go to those, you know, just start

(01:10:10):
where you are with what you have. Use YouTube as
it's a university. Look at stuff from the business of
producing stuff and type in things and it's amazing what
you can find for and then you know, start with that,
you know so, and then you'll build because the more
you do it, the better you're going to get at it.

(01:10:31):
And so time into two programs like yours, so you
can hear for yourself. You know, Mark, you do an
excellent job. So I've been looking at your stuff before
I even came on. You do an excellent job of
reaching these real people that look like them, talk like them,
from the same neighborhoods they are. We're not rocket science
and from a small town right outside of Philadelphia, you know.

(01:10:52):
I went to the University of Houston for two years,
transfer went to Howard and graduate from Howard, you know,
and did my thing, got into a b E T,
you know, moved moved around. Now I'm on the West Coast.
It's doable if I'm not if I don't have a
job in the industry and I need to pay my bills,
and I go get a job to pay my bills,

(01:11:13):
there's no there's no shame in paying your bills to
work on your food. So I'm very thankful Mark for
you to take the time out so allow me to share.
And I'm so glad there are people like you out
there because you have a platform where people can tune
in too and get this real information. And you you

(01:11:36):
didn't have to have me come on your program. So again,
my hats off to you, my friend.

Speaker 3 (01:11:41):
Oh and thank you and thank you for being that
example that speaks to both the business and entertainment side.
And it's been a lot of gyms and I hope
listeners you had your notepads and we're taking notes because
at the end of the day, and have plenty of conversations.
I've had is ownership. It's all about ownership.

Speaker 4 (01:12:05):
Exactly. And it took me ten years to give my
ownership back. So don't don't quit early. I mean, you
just gotta be persistent. I mean everything, you're not gonna
give it. People who have power just to not give
away power. That's just not how the planet works. But
you just gotta be a pit bull, and you just
got to hang in there, and you just gotta keep
at it, keep at it, and keep that and just

(01:12:25):
don't let you make the universe do what you need
to do by your persistent perseverance. You just gotta hammer, hammer, hammer,
and camera, just like you don't want to eat them
green vegetables, and you keep switching your head back and forth.
That's the thing way you gotta do with your craft.
You just said, I will not be denied. I'm gonna
figure it out. Take me twenty twenty hours to do

(01:12:47):
something something elself for one hour will still be it.
But I'm just not going to.

Speaker 3 (01:12:55):
Well, ladies and gentlemen, you heard it here. Another awesome
episode with an amazing talent, entrepreneur and just a man
two that leads example. This is another episode of Deeper
than Music with our special guest Andre barn