Katt Williams Part 1

The legendary Katt Williams, hailed by many as the greatest comedian alive, joins Shannon Sharpe at Club Shay Shay for an explosively candid conversation. Renowned as one of America's most exceptional entertainers, Katt fearlessly takes shots at fellow comedians like Rickey Smiley, Cedric the Entertainer, Steve Harvey and Kevin Hart. He opens up about his turbulent life, revealing his homelessness experience after moving out at 13 and shares the financial challenges he faced in kickstarting his comedy career. Also, Katt recalls what lead to his famous outburst on Wanda Smith's radio show and how he found himself staring down the barrel of a gun afterwards.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the other side of Kirkin Franklin Prince, this
is the Renking. In twenty four, All My Life, Grinding.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
All my Life, Sacrifights, hustle peg Price Want, Slice Got
the brother Geist.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Swap all my Life, Poppy Grinding all my Life. Look
all my Life, the Grinning, All my.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Life, sacri Fights, hustle peg price one, Slice Got the
Bronc Geist. Swap all my Life, Poppy Grinding All my Life.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
Hello, Welcome to another episode of Club Shay Shay. I
am your host, Shannon Sharp. I'm also the propriet of
Club Sha Shak. The guy that's stopping buying from conversation
and to drink Today, Ladies and gentlemen, you're gonna love him.
Some call him the greatest, the greatest, one of the
greatest comedians dead or alive, one of the America's greatest entertainers,
one of the funniest men on the planet. World renowned, multitality,

(00:55):
a comedy legend. He's touring. He's the top touring comedian,
selling out arenas. He's a hilarious storyteller, Emmy Award winning actor, voice, actor, rapper, writer, producer, director,
icon genius, a national treasure, philanthropists, humanitarians, social activist, a father,
one of the great funny men of our generation and
any generation.

Speaker 4 (01:15):
Miss kat Williams, thank.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
You, sir. You are you are, You are magnificent at intros,
and you did not skimp on mine. I appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (01:27):
Appreciate that.

Speaker 3 (01:28):
You know, anytime you come to Club Shayshay, we have
to toast.

Speaker 4 (01:31):
Yes, bro, you've been doing it.

Speaker 3 (01:33):
I mean you told you one of the top tour
you're one of the top tour comedians of all time.
You already got started before we started taping.

Speaker 4 (01:42):
I did appreciate that. Tell people at home, I thought.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
They was lying. And yeah, this particular alcohol is stronger
than you think it would be, probably by about two
and unbelievably smoother and milder by the same maybe thirty

(02:08):
percent then you could possibly expect. And unlike kanyacs the
world over, this one doesn't taste like wood at the end,
and it doesn't taste like it's got artificial colors, and
it doesn't taste like it's got artificial flavors. Uh, it's
a it's a fine product.

Speaker 3 (02:27):
He's a connosour. You can tell he's a connoisance. He's
a Kangnac connoisseur. He understands the method that goes into
making Kanyac right.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
Well. As a comedian, you get free drinks at the club,
so all comedians either turn out to be connoisseurs like
myself or straight up and down alcoholics like sixty percent
of Hollywood.

Speaker 4 (02:50):
Well, thanks, thanks for stopping by the club.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
I understand that you're very, very busy, and for you
to take time out of your busy schedule and stop
in today, we really really appreciate here at Club Shayshay.

Speaker 4 (02:59):
Thanks thanks for stopping back.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
And I needed you to know why I came by.

Speaker 4 (03:03):
I need you to tell us why people know.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
I don't go everywhere. I'm not interested in talking to
people unless it's like a Larry King or somebody of
an amazing ilk that I would actually want to go
talk to in real life. Okay, I don't do it
so I can sell product, and then I got things
to sell, so let me come talk. You have a

(03:26):
great product here, and as a fan base, we love
the attention that you spend on the guest. We love
how much work you've done, how well you know them,
how prepared you are, the same things that we liked
about you in football. You brought that on over to here,
and that's why it resonates. And the reason I had

(03:49):
to come is because you've made a safe place for
the truth to be told. You know what I mean.
And I have watched all of these low brow comedians
come here and disrespect you in your face and tell
you straight up lies. I'm talking about things that have

(04:09):
never been heard in all of black Hollywood. They feel
comfortable sitting here lying to you about it.

Speaker 4 (04:15):
You gonna say the record straight?

Speaker 1 (04:17):
Are you kidding me? You let Ricky Smiley sit here
and you said out that mouth you stole Friday after next,
the one I was in. I wish all all of
America fumbled a bit when that happened. And then he
said some stuff that we hadn't heard in one hundred
years in Hollywood. You ain't say nothing. This man told

(04:39):
you he had Kat Williams role. He was gonna be
money Mike, and Kat Williams was gonna be was gonna
mean the Santa Claus. Now, let's three quick points. You
mean in Hollywood they cast a five fot five black
Santa Claus that weigh one hundred and forty five pounds.
That's your story. Your story is the Ricky Smile that

(05:00):
couldn't even do curse words because he had a Christian
fan base, he was gonna play the pimp. Why you
didn't ask him? Why has he played a woman in
more movies than he's played a man? Well, I didn't
know he He shouldn't be able. You wouldn't let an athlete
that been on steroids talk about one of the greats

(05:22):
Ricky Smiley can't act because Ricky Smiley can't act. He
told you the story about when the movie came out.
Where did he say he watched it at home? He
wasn't even not the premiere. You telling this man? You
stole that ah so he could get his name in
the same sentence with a great one. It is sad.
He was just that bitter when we were shooting it.

(05:44):
He told everybody it should have been my role, everybody
on the scene. Why do you think no cast member
has ever said anything.

Speaker 4 (05:52):
He couldn't have played that role like you.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
I thought he was sure no one. Why no, he
was with KD. He beat up Harry Crews. Why nobody
know this story? You're talking about Hollywood? They switched off
rolls you take this and he what Ricky Smiley knows this,
and I don't know why he would lose a child

(06:13):
and come on the air start lying. That's why people
believe in rituals right there is because well why would
he lie? I don't know why liars lie. But I
can tell you this. We auditioned in Los Angeles. Yes,
I was audition number two hundred and one. Two hundred
black comedians auditioned for the role of money Mike. With me,

(06:35):
you're saying all two hundred and one of us was
auditioning and you had already had the role and had
already shot the role in four days. The truth of
the matter is the Money Mike in the original script
got raped in the bathroom. And that's what Ricky Smiley
was okay with. Kat Williams had to take the risk

(06:56):
in front of the studios and the cast and the
powers that be in his very first movie, as say, respectfully, humbly, guys,
if we're talking about anything else, I have no credibility
and I have no pull. But we're talking about comedy
where I have all the credibility and all the pool.

(07:17):
The problem with Friday After Next is we're trying to
make a classic comedy, and this comedy involves a rape,
and rape is never funny no matter who it happens
to or what the circumstances are. If you would allow
me to allow us to do this movie without a

(07:38):
black man getting raped in it, I promise you that
it will be twice as funny as it would be
with him getting raped. So, considering that's the real story,
why would you bring up that story? Thirty five members
of the cast and crew have never brought up that
Ricky Smiley was gonna pla money mike. No one ever

(08:02):
saw him be put on a Santa Claus suit. We
got a wardrobe department. They made a Santa Claus suit
for me. Why that wasn't in the bloopers? And here's
the other thing. Everything that money Mike said. Kat Williams wrote,
So what Ricky Smiley say on his you can't say
my lines? I wrote him. That's how I already ready

(08:24):
know that I'm gonna be funnier than you. What he
told everybody was, Kat Williams, don't nobody know who he is.
I'm on the radio. I'm with Steven said, everybody know me.
That's what he told everybody. That would listen to on
this set. That's the truth of the matter. He was
so egregious, not now then, he was so egregious that

(08:45):
in Hollywood has never heard this in one hundred years.
He was so egregious. I put in my contract that
I won't work with Ricky Smiley again unless he's in
a dress. Now, what was Ricky Smiley's next movie? Was
it First Sunday? Did he wear addressing it? You bet?
He did it? In my contract?

Speaker 4 (09:05):
Why would you put that in your witness in your contract?

Speaker 1 (09:07):
Cat, That's where he's the unbelievable actor. Him and Tyler
Plarry can't play a man. Let's say their life. They
played good women. And I believe that the best actor
should be in the best role.

Speaker 3 (09:21):
So that's why because when we released that clip and
he said that, you responded because he said he was
supposed to play money Mike and you were supposed to play.

Speaker 1 (09:30):
Santa Claus in our right lie. So that he knows
is a lie.

Speaker 4 (09:34):
So why would he say it?

Speaker 1 (09:36):
Because he's a liar. Nobody knows why liars lie. And
that's why I had to come on the program. Cedric
did the same thing. Sedric told you when you asked him,
did you steal Cat Williams joke? He said it don't
line up? Howard, don't line up? That I did it
on TV in twenty eighteen, you came to see me
at the Comedy Store do it in twenty nineteen, and
then did it on the Kings of Comedy, Like what

(09:58):
doesn't line up? This is a televised joke that Mark
Curry helped me punch up and get to the level
that it was the same Steve that went to go
watch Mark Curry do his whole sitcom and then stole
everything Mark Curry had. Now Steve got a sitcom where
he the principal and he wear a suit and then

(10:20):
he gets this high top fade, making all black men
think he got the best line up in the business,
and it's a man unit. Then you asked it, why
are you not a movie star?

Speaker 5 (10:30):
I didn't want to be a movie star, just the
same Negro that hated on Bernie with this same thing.
I didn't want to be a movie No, you couldn't
be a movie star. There are thirty thousand new scripts
in Hollywood every year. Not one of them asked for
a country bumpkin black dude that can't talk good olba
kaba and look.

Speaker 1 (10:50):
Like mister potato head. There ain't none you would have
to have range. I played a lot of characters, sixty
movie roles. I'm not playing Kat william in there.

Speaker 4 (11:01):
I don't know. I don't know care. We might let
you drink anymore the way you you, I mean, we
ain't even got.

Speaker 1 (11:06):
Im not fueled by alcohol. I've had a sip less
than you. The truth don't need motivation. I'm just saying
I can't let these dudes lie. Cedric sitting here telling
you why he ain't a movie star, He on here
looked like a wal risk. You didn't say nothing. He
can't even get his arms off his stomach, sitting on

(11:26):
why I'm not a movie's what?

Speaker 4 (11:28):
It's a situation.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
We never wrote anything. Remember when Sedric the Entertainer starts,
he's supposed to be singing, dancing and telling jokes. That's
why he's called the entertainer. We found out he can't sing,
can't dance, and doesn't write jobbles. He did four comedy specials.
They're so bad, Shanning they're not available on Netflix or
to B Can I say that again for the audience.

(11:50):
They're so bad that they're not available on Netflix or
to be.

Speaker 4 (11:55):
You don't think say has a good a good comedian.

Speaker 1 (11:58):
The world doesn't think that, Sir, I have twelve comedy specials.
He has four specials that are not available on Netflix
or TV.

Speaker 4 (12:08):
It seems to me, Kat that you had a lot
to get off your chest.

Speaker 1 (12:11):
No, no, you wanted to say the record school winners
are not allowed to allow losers to rewrite history. I
don't say any these things if my name is not
breached by these people on your platform that if you
give them a liar a platform to lie, then I'm

(12:32):
not being messy by saying hold on that never happened.
It's untrue, and there are hundreds of witnesses for each
thing I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (12:44):
So let me ask you this, what are your relationship
with Steve Harvey, Ricky Smiley and said you did entertaina
as you sit here currently.

Speaker 1 (12:52):
They for thirty years. They're a group. These aren't three
random guys. The way that Ricky's Smiley kept appearing at
all of my auditions is because of Steven saying he
would tell anybody that listen, they got a gang on
that side. They know what it is. They know who
the gang is. Why Earthquake not in movies because he's illiterate.

(13:16):
He can't read, and they found that out when they
gave him a show and put the cards in front
of him. Like, all of these dudes are co entwined
and they share secrets. And this is the age of truth,
and the truth doesn't need to be scared of the
fact that people tell lies. Cats on drugs? Where are
the stories? Why is there no story of anybody who

(13:38):
ever sold a drug to me, did a drug with me,
was around me when I was inebriated. I got five daughters,
I got five sons. Why would we tell these ridiculous stories?
Because this competition, you feel like, well, why comedy guys
can't just get along? Why didn't you get along with

(13:59):
the other ten you were competing against if you're a
Denver Bronco or why you don't get along with the cowboys?
Something wrong with you?

Speaker 6 (14:06):
But I don't disagree. I don't know the cowboys. That's
what comedian do you? Did you play against the team? Yes,
I've taken forty six comedians with me on the road.
Forty six. Okay, I'm not the comedian.

Speaker 1 (14:22):
You can give that to I only put on comedians
that are funnier than me. Anybody that ever told you
differently was a fat Phaison liar. There's nobody like me
in the business. Faison said that getting a Netflix special
is easy. I have twelve specials. Guess how many Faison

(14:44):
got zero? Why is he allowed to have conversations about
real stand up people. We do not let people who
are on the juice discuss real athletes. That's all. As
a journalist, that's all. That's all I'm saying. I don't
have harbor any resentment to any of these entities because

(15:06):
I can't be jealous. I've never seen them have anything
that I ever wanted. If you sign up for their program,
you get a light skinned, weird face wife that never
do an interview. Listen in twenty years, won't do an interview.
Nobody's ever talked to her, and she's never been interviewed anywhere.

(15:29):
And now understand, I'm not talking about one person. When
I just told you applies to seven people. How they
all end up with that, that's part of what you get.
I came in this business saying I was gonna expose
when I talked about Michael Jackson. When I talked about
R Kelly. They canceled me for these things, because why

(15:51):
would you talk about another black dude. Race is not
where the line is drawn. It's God's side and the
other side, and we don't care nothing about the other side,
period period. All of these big deviance is all catching
hell in twenty twenty four. It's up for all of them.

(16:12):
It don't matter if you Diddy or whoever you is, TGJS,
any of them. Every all lies will be exposed, that's all.
And anyone who takes that the wrong way know why
they take it the wrong way. The truth is the life, and.

Speaker 4 (16:29):
They have no more of these Amen.

Speaker 7 (16:30):
Amen, kind of getting on there right that I.

Speaker 3 (16:40):
Don't really kind of know where to got me one
more time?

Speaker 1 (16:46):
Right?

Speaker 4 (16:47):
Were good?

Speaker 1 (16:47):
Now? Because the people want to know why would he
get black balls? Yeah? Because because because in thirty years
I've done nothing but collect information, knowledge and your secrets.
So if you and a man was in a corner
doing something you wasn't supposed to be doing, you tell it. No,

(17:08):
somebody come to tell me, Okay, I gather that I
value that I'll pay for that. Come tell me I
know so many things I shouldn't know. And they all
know it. They all know it. Why because you don't
make me the villain, not the guy that raises black children.
And they never done a hard drug in his life,
and don't have no stories of doing nobody dirty, and

(17:32):
they'll just go out in their lie. The industry doesn't
mess with Cat because he didn't show up for the studio.
No studios have ever said that. Look at my IMDb.
It will show you that no studio has ever lost
money with me on the script. How That's why I'm saying.
That's why I can't let Ricky Smiley say he was
supposed to play Money Mike because I wrote the words

(17:53):
for Money Mike. I designed the hair for Money Mike.
I collaborated with the wardrobe department and made out it's
to make sure that no one in America would be
wearing what Money Mike was wearing. I told him to
go get the prowler. I then told him to paint
it purple. I told him, don't have an actor at
playing a pimp. We could get an actual pimp, Archbishop

(18:14):
Magic don Juan to play like. I did far too
much work for somebody to come years later and try
to tag along just for their own self angrandizement.

Speaker 3 (18:27):
Why didn't Q set the Reconstrate? Terry Creuse could have
set the record. Strate, Mike Efs could have set the record.
Strate Why none of them set the recordstration?

Speaker 1 (18:34):
That's what you were supposed to ask him when he
told you those lies, that that one's a right. But
he's telling you something no one's ever heard of. Nobody
has ever heard. Oh, Matt ben Affleck and Matt Damon
was in a movie and somebody said, y'all should switch rolls,
like this is a business.

Speaker 3 (18:51):
But that's the thing can normally, when people will give
you information, I'm thinking I'm hearing it for the first time,
and they're giving information no one else knows or I've
ever heard.

Speaker 4 (19:00):
So I've taken him at face value.

Speaker 1 (19:02):
These are a lot. This is like Steve Harvey telling
people he used to be homeless. That's my story, that's
not his story. Steve Harvey wasn't never homeless. When Mark
Curry was touring with him twenty five years ago. He
was making three thousand dollars a show in cash and
doing five shows a week. They just tell the stories.

(19:22):
Thanks to my wife, I'm where I am. You said
that about the first wife you forget that you told
us it was her, then you went and married somebody
else that think like a man, like, what are you
talking about? They they think they can rewrite history. That guy.
Tori did a beautiful special about the Comedy Store in
Fat Tuesday where he said that Steve and Cedric and

(19:44):
Kevin Hart and Tiffany had hish came through there and
made all lies. Steve and Cedric never performed at the
Comedy Store at all. Tiffany was only seen at the
Lab Factory in fifteen years in Hollywood. No one in
Hollywood has a memory of going to a sold out
Kevin Hart show there being a line for him ever

(20:04):
getting a standing ovation at any comedy club. He already
had his deals when he got here. Have we heard
of a comedian that came to LA and in his
first year in LA he had his own sitcom on
network Television and had his own movie called Soul Plane
that he was leading. No, we've never heard of that
before that person or since that person. What do you

(20:26):
think a plant is? Maybe people don't understand the definitions
of these words. He just did his documentary with Chris
Rock where he shows you that his whole upbringing in
comedy was on the East Coast, So how simultaneously was

(20:46):
he here in Los Angeles doing the same thing. It
didn't happen. It didn't happen. And I hate to seem
like a petty individual for picking apart lies, but Jesse Smaw,
they gonna keep lying until you say, we don't believe you,
like it's important in the checks and balances of the

(21:07):
universe that liars not get to make complete narratives for themselves.

Speaker 4 (21:11):
Are you not afraid about being blackballed?

Speaker 1 (21:14):
Again?

Speaker 4 (21:14):
These are some power people?

Speaker 1 (21:15):
What do you mean again? These people are not powerful.
Satan can't create anything that includes blessings for his people.
That's why, you know what the number one job of
somebody that saw their soul in Hollywood is, it's to
act like it didn't happen. They all do the same job.

(21:36):
Why do you think Gary Owen can't cross over? And
he already white and been in comedy for twenty five years.
If what I say ain't the case, it's a cabal,
it's a consortium. They rock with who they rock with,
and they don't with who they don't. But I'm not
scared of being the competition anymore. Than you were when

(21:57):
you lined up across from a superior team. Yeah, on paper,
they're a better team. They have all the assets and
resources that we don't. But let us get on the line,
boy boy, and see if that factors in. I guarantee
you it won't wow. Because Shannon Sharp gotta be a
different person than that other person, and he always was.

(22:21):
That doesn't change when I change teams. That remains the same.
That's how a legacy is built. So all of these
shortcut takers, I was, they've canceled me for talking about
Harvey Weinstein before the thing came out. But he offered
to suck my penis in front of all my people
at my agency. What am I supposed to do? He

(22:43):
did all of that. I'm thinking, I'm the only black
person on the script. I get there, it's three other
black guys on there. Whoa huh? I told him, no,
what y'all do? And this is why when I walk
in the room, heads go down behind my back. I'm nothing.
I'm just a regular old comedian. That's better in jealous

(23:06):
but in my face, no, no, no, the king has
walked in and they have to respect it, only because
I'm not taken the shortcuts. I've not been funded. They
pay you to not talk about things they don't want
you to talk about. They tell you that themselves. I
can't do that, cause Steve told you that he stopped
doing stand up because he has seven TV shows. The

(23:29):
only problem is when he stopped stand up, he didn't
have those seven TV shows. He stopped stand up because
he got in a comedy battle called the Championship of
Stand Up Comedy with one Cat Williams in Detroit in
front of ten thousand people, and lost because Cat Williams
said he was actually bald and that was a wig

(23:50):
and I went in and that's why he couldn't do
stand up anymore. Imagine him coming to tell you another
story where he got so big and it was burning.
Them's fault because they want it to be movie stars.
What you called Ocean eleven to get that Nigga's part?

(24:10):
What do you mean you didn't want to be a
movie star? So on the behalf of Bernie, I would
have to say what I have to say.

Speaker 4 (24:18):
Have you ever been on tour with any of these guys?

Speaker 1 (24:24):
Every guy I mentioned to you is not funny out
there in real life. So no, Faison's never done his
own tour in thirty years. Steve Harvey don't do stand
up no more. Cedric doesn't write. I'm sorry he doesn't write.
Ricky Smiley has been playing the same old black woman forever,

(24:47):
like you can't get a young fan base with that,
Like you gotta be doing karaoke around the country to
make that work, and he is. But I'm a stand
up comedian. This is my nineteenth, one hundred city tour.
I'm not gonna have a conversation with these lazy bums

(25:08):
that will take a shortcut at any point. Yes, it's
easier for you to juice than to get in the gym,
but you don't get to bring that body in the
here talking.

Speaker 4 (25:17):
Crazy about how good you look. What.

Speaker 1 (25:22):
No, No, there's too many comics out there that are
put in their life on the line to tell these jokes.

Speaker 4 (25:27):
Man. Okay, let's get to your upbringing. We're gonna circle
back and we just I want to protect them real quick.
Because you had said for.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
The Kings of Comedy it was in twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen,
But did you mean nineteen ninety nine, because it came
out in two thousands. I just want to make because no, no, no.
So what I meant to say was, remember he said
I couldn't do stand up anymore. I had seven TV shows,
I said. He didn't have any of those TV shows

(25:55):
at the time though, Cedric Okay eighteen twenty nineteen, but
it came out in two thousand, So I just want
to make sure, Okay, no, no, no, no no, what comes
out in.

Speaker 4 (26:06):
Two thousand, the original Kings of Comedy?

Speaker 1 (26:08):
Right, my, I'm on BET's Comic View and they're using
this as the commercial in nineteen ninety eight. That's why
I'm saying, yeah. So if I yeah, so if I
said the date's wrong, yes, so.

Speaker 4 (26:21):
Ain't clear that? Okay?

Speaker 3 (26:22):
You said yeah, I had Cedric on here, and I
asked him about the joke stealing. He said, the timeline
doesn't add up.

Speaker 1 (26:30):
Correct to your to that point, you say, right, So
he thought that I was just a no name comedian
and that he could take this joke and nobody would know.
The issue was that I had already done this particular
joke on BT's Comic View twice. It had done so
well on BT's Comic View that they had made it

(26:53):
part of the commercial. So part of the commercial of
make sure you tune in the BT. Was you seeing
and me doing this joke? And this joke is one
of those jokes in comedy where you set it up
and it takes a little longer to set it up,
takes about three minutes, but then you're just hitting them
with jokes after that because you don't have to set
it up. Mark Curry had already helped me work on

(27:15):
this joke because I thought it was good, because I
was getting a standing ovation on it. He had me
go back in the lab to helped me craft it
to be an even more powerful joke. So this is
not just a random joke. This is my very best joke,
and it's my last joke, and it's my closing joke. Okay,
nineteen ninety eight, I'm doing this joke. It's on Comic View.

(27:38):
Cedric comes to the comedy store, he watches me in
the audience, he comes backstage, he tells me what a
great job I did and how much he loves the joke.
Two years later, he's doing that as his last joke
on the Kings of Comedy, and he's doing it verbatim.
He's just changed my car into a spaceship. Him and

(28:03):
Steve had already apologized for me, so I gave him
a pass for a decade. Why would you sit here
and be like I talked to I saw Cat thirty times,
and Cat didn't do as I stand before you, Shannon,
I would a bust Cedric's stomach. There was nothing that

(28:27):
would have kept me from one of these in that
patch right there, Like, are you kidding me? Why would
you downplay me like that? Why did I give you
a pass if you were just gonna lie? And so
that's what I'm saying, Like they're all a group, Cedric, Steve, Ricky,
They've been a group. Everybody knows that they've been aligned,

(28:47):
and there are these alliances in comedy, and if you
stand against them, then they sometimes have a problem. But
we don't let that change the content, because that's all
you know me for is that I'm quite likely to
tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

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Speaker 4 (30:28):
Let's get to you upbringing.

Speaker 3 (30:29):
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, raised in Dayton, Ohio.

Speaker 4 (30:32):
What was Kat Williams's upbringing? Life?

Speaker 3 (30:35):
Your parents with Jehovah Witness. You were a prodigy, you
were brilliant. You talked to me that you got to
accepted a college at seven years of age. You can
read fluently at three years of age. So having that
kind of knowledge, having that kind of of of of
prodigy are so?

Speaker 4 (30:52):
What was so? I mean with it? What was upbringing?
How was it? How was life as Cat Williams crunk
coming up?

Speaker 1 (31:01):
I I was often confused because I knew things and
I wasn't sure how I knew them. I knew things
that I felt like, I don't have a reason that
I know this, But I I loved to read. I

(31:22):
was voracious because they told me when I was young
that knowledge was powerful, that knowledge was power, and I
had studied powerful people, and I really believe that. I
immediately my next project was to read the whole encyclopedia set.
So when you're like six seven years old, you read
the whole encyclopedia set. You think you one of the

(31:45):
smartest people in the world, only to get out in
the world and find out you don't know anything. You know,
So it was a it was a confusing time. But yeah,
I had a childhood. I was grown, but I at
five years old, I was in front of five ten
thousand people given a performance with a full suit and

(32:08):
tie on, you know what I mean. So it hasn't
it had? It came full circle for my life. I
knew that the applause and the giving of information and
laughs and truth to people somehow benefited them and also
benefited you. And yeah, so when they would ask me

(32:32):
what I wanted to be, everything that I would say
that I wanted to be was something that didn't exist,
and they would never give me credit for it because
I needed to say a doctor or a lawyer. But
that's not what I wanted to be.

Speaker 3 (32:46):
So your parents weren't as supportive as you would have hoped,
because you were wanting to be things when you got
older that they had no knowledge of or it didn't
exist at the time.

Speaker 1 (32:57):
No, it wasn't that. It was I'm saying, I'm I'm
almost one hundred years old, right, now. But if we
go outside right now, I can run a four to
three forty or or sub I can do a four
to one six.

Speaker 3 (33:14):
If Jim John's crossed the street, we can order a sub.
But oh, you've been on the submarine.

Speaker 1 (33:20):
That what you saw so so back then it was
even greater. So you got this guy that all the
coaches want to like, I don't do that. Hold on
because I'm I'm five 't five in the fifth grade.
I've been this high as my whole life. Like there
was abortion of school where I was one of the

(33:41):
big dudes. Like it's as soon as everybody caught a
gross spurt, I was out of it. But I'm saying
I was a competitive individual. My father wasn't accurate seback like, like, no,
I've been one hundred and forty five pounds my whole career.
That's why I never bothered when they said you cats
on drugs. I knew how you're going to prove that.

(34:04):
My body is a temple.

Speaker 4 (34:06):
I've been the same size since I was teend.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
Like, what do you yeah? Like, I haven't. I haven't
changed off this pivot foot. This has always been who
I was before stand up or anything. But it was
a It was an interesting childhood. I appreciate my parents,
even though I couldn't live within the religious framework so
what they had set up, But that was more not

(34:30):
wanting to live a double life and not want to
embarrass my family.

Speaker 3 (34:34):
You know what I mean, because I read were a
form of punishment for you is that they would take
books because you mentioned you were such a voracious reader,
and a form of punishment was when they would take
the books for because you could read fluently. You told
me how at like three or four years old, you
could read, read, read, not not just a little child's book,
but you could read read well.

Speaker 1 (34:54):
I'm saying when we when we go to Haiti to
do missionary work, understand that my mother and my father,
nobody that's there with us speaks French, and I mean
it speaks creole and reads French. So I'm in charge
of everything from the housing to the cars to the gardener,
like I'm saying. So I'm not just reading, I'm reading

(35:17):
in multiple languages. Like I'm I'm probably reading three thousand
books a year from the time that I'm eight years
old to the time that I'm twelve. No fiction books
at all. I'm only reading nonfiction.

Speaker 4 (35:36):
You could drive.

Speaker 3 (35:36):
At twelve, you received the full scholarship to the National
Science Academy in Dayton, Ohio, but you failed, so you
couldn't become so you would become ineligible. Why did you
want to take that opportunity.

Speaker 1 (35:48):
I didn't see it as an opportunity. When I got
in there, all the students were wearing lab coats and
it seemed very confined and restricted, and nobody seemed like
they were having fun. It just seemed like everybody was smart.
I didn't want that. That was That wasn't what I
was signing up for at all. And plus I thought
that I was Jesus was my big homie. So you

(36:12):
know how you get a story about a dude joined
the gang and get a big home. Like at this
particular point in my life, my thought is that the
Bible is the greatest book that's ever been written, that
it houses the truth, and that it gives you this
story of Jesus, and that I'm supposed to be like him.
So it's already in my head that as soon as

(36:32):
I get thirteen, I'm leaving you.

Speaker 3 (36:38):
At thirteen, you the only like, okay, Mama moving out?
You moved from Ohio to Florida on your own. You
weren't afraid?

Speaker 1 (36:47):
I mean you, like, did you?

Speaker 4 (36:51):
So what were you? What were you going to do
when you got to Florida.

Speaker 1 (36:53):
Don't say I wasn't afraid. There's no such thing as
a human being of not being afraid. There are certain
human beings that understand that being afraid in no way
stops you from doing what you gotta do. Okay, So
I was afraid, but I couldn't be that afraid because

(37:13):
I knew what had happened with Jesus, I knew how
it worked out. I knew that I wasn't in the
wrong with how I was feeling, and I knew that
I didn't have any bad intentions in it. So I
trusted God that it would work out. What Florida, because
if you're raised in Ohio, the one thing on your

(37:34):
list is I'm gonna get away from snow, and I'm
gonna get as far I want to go. Tell me
the place. I literally went to a truck stop and
I asked all the truck drivers where they was going.
And there was one guy going to California, and there
was one guy going to Florida. And they told me
how long it was gonna take. And so that's why
I ended up in Miami because.

Speaker 4 (37:56):
Bus me.

Speaker 1 (37:56):
No, I just told you I was at the truck
stop I got in. I didn't hit you like I
got in the back of the dude eighteen wheeler, me
and my Rothwiler puppy and my suitcase. Yeah, because I was.
I probably had twenty five hundred dollars on me like
I like I was shoveling snow and cutting grass, like
I always had pockets full of money.

Speaker 3 (38:17):
When did you make your decision that you were going
to leave Ohio and go somewhere.

Speaker 4 (38:23):
And it ended up being Florida?

Speaker 3 (38:24):
So but when did you know that you were leaving
dating Ohio going to Florida?

Speaker 1 (38:31):
And my father and I's last interaction, somebody could have
not made it, and we both understood that was all bad.

Speaker 4 (38:46):
What was the disagreement about?

Speaker 1 (38:51):
If you say that my family is very religious, let's
just say I'm not. So anything that I'm going to
do is not gonna fall out of the guidelines, right,
But I'm not gonna let you tell me what I'm
going to be, even especially if what you're saying is wrong,
I can't condone wrong and if I find out that

(39:13):
something is wrong and I tell you where's wrong and
you don't back me, that's what it is.

Speaker 3 (39:20):
Even as a young child, you were willing to tell
your parents that some of the things that you're saying
doesn't coincide to what I've been reading in the Bible.

Speaker 1 (39:30):
No, no, very simply don't. Don't try to this fellowship
me for sexual acts. And I'm a virgin. Sorry, God
don't make mistakes. You don't get two times to fuck
me over. What do you mean You went to God
and he told y'all was guilty. You just lie on
God so long, that's it. There's no conversation, deuces.

Speaker 3 (39:55):
So that that's when you made the decision. After that
conversation right there, you say, no, I can't, I can't
live under this.

Speaker 1 (40:00):
It wasn't a conversation, it was an altercation. And the
altercation I love my father. My father loved me, but
we are two men at it that it'll never be
the same again. You can't sleep comfortably around me and
I can't sleep comfortably around you.

Speaker 4 (40:18):
How similar are you to your father?

Speaker 1 (40:23):
No, I don't know. He's a great man. I'm saying
because your heads right, But I'm saying that generally happens
with a father's son dynamic. It was just that religious
relationships are always difficult in families. They always are.

Speaker 3 (40:45):
Before he got to the point because the dynamic he's father,
your son, before that dynamic, and you step up on
his level and you challenge him, you feed it was
best for.

Speaker 4 (40:56):
You to leave.

Speaker 1 (40:58):
No, no, no, I'm not being challenge I'm being beat
to death.

Speaker 4 (41:02):
Oh he was abusive.

Speaker 1 (41:03):
I didn't say that. I said we were in an altercation.

Speaker 4 (41:08):
Uh, I see what you did that.

Speaker 3 (41:11):
I saw what you did that. I sawd you did that. Cat,
I saw what you did. You was an altercation. You
didn't say you lost, you save You's an altercation.

Speaker 1 (41:20):
I in no way gave you the impression that I
won anything. I'm the one leaving. I'm out of bounds.
This his house, right, ye. Yeah, So as long as
I'm gonna be under his roofs, there are certain things
that I'm gonna have to do right. And the only
way that's gonna change is either this or that. And

(41:42):
I'm saying I had two younger brothers, like I'm not
I'm not an unreasonable person, like I don't have any
mental issues whatsoever, despite what they lead people to believe.
You know, I make good, pretty good decisions.

Speaker 4 (41:56):
Were you not?

Speaker 3 (41:57):
So how was their relationship with your father? Were you
not a fay to leave them?

Speaker 1 (42:04):
Well, I asked, because it went all the way to
the actual department, so it was actually going to be something.
And when I asked them if they could just make
sure that my brothers didn't get separated and what have you,
they said they couldn't make those type of guarantees, that

(42:25):
they weren't really sure what would happen if this went down,
And so part of leaving was the hope that it
would be okay for them, because none of them experienced
what I experienced. I'm saying I'm the oldest. It's a
lot riding on me. I'm supposed to at least religiously
hold down the family's name at this household. You know

(42:47):
what I mean?

Speaker 4 (42:48):
How much older are you than the baby and the
knee baby?

Speaker 1 (42:51):
Like a lot older? Like if I'm thirteen, Yeah, they're
five and in pampers.

Speaker 4 (43:05):
Wow, you go to Florida, you tell the story.

Speaker 3 (43:11):
I've heard you you homeless, and somebody else told the
story said they were homeless, and you said they hijacked
your story.

Speaker 4 (43:19):
Now, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (43:21):
At thirteen, I shouldn't have to tell you I'm homeless.
I'm I'm in Miami, Florida. I have no family members
in Florida. I couldn't buy a house if I wanted to.
I couldn't get an apartment if I wanted to. I
don't have a credit history. Like this is not a
stretch for me to say that I'm homeless. I'm living

(43:43):
in a park in Coconut Grove. The park still exists
to this day. For eight hours a day, I would
get up and go to the library and study for
eight hours a day to increase my education. And then
I would leave out of there and go to the
marina and still car radios and make two thousand dollars
almost daily, like I had a routine.

Speaker 3 (44:06):
So you could have played that Santa Oh thief in
Santa Claus.

Speaker 4 (44:09):
You could have played it.

Speaker 1 (44:11):
No, the Santa Claus wasn't a thief. The Santa Claus.
You can't tell me I read the script. Ricky Smiley
told you he didn't read the script. The Santa Claus
was a crackhead. He just had that outfit on. That's
what I couldn't have played Okay, Like I couldn't have
played a black guy that got raped in the bathroom.

Speaker 3 (44:29):
Right, So at any point in times, you're like, man,
I made a mistake. Man, I should have stayed my
buddy in Ohio. Man, cause this is man, let's say
what I signed up for.

Speaker 1 (44:41):
I didn't experience anything once I left home that I
hadn't signed up for. If anything had saved my life,
me being homeless for that small period of time allowed
me to see all of the people that were in
that situation, and to see that these were lawyers and
doctors and teatures, and that these people were white and

(45:02):
black and Asian and Indian. And the only thing that
all of these homeless people had in in common was
they made a bad decision and aligned themselves with drugs.
And I interviewed them all what drug and guess what, Shannon.
Nobody had a great story. Nobody had a great story

(45:25):
of what meth had done for them, what crack had
done for them, with cocaine had done for them, where
heroin had done for them, with speed had done for them.
Nobody had them stories. Everybody's story was I had my
life together, and then I decided to do this dumb thing,
and I lost my wife, I lost my house, I

(45:47):
lost my cars, I lost my reputation, and I'm now
out here sucking penis in the woods. What talk about
scared straight? You ain't got to worry about me. If
that ain't weed or nicotine, you won't see me touching it.
I don't want no parts. I done seen what these

(46:07):
things can do to people. Anything that take over your
free will is the devil itself.

Speaker 3 (46:13):
Have you ever thought about what your life would have
been had you stayed in Dayton, Ohio?

Speaker 1 (46:22):
No, that's like asking somebody that's in the NBA for
fourteen years, like, what would have happened if you didn't
come to the NBA. Oh I shut her to think.
I thought it was what I was made for. I
thought it was what I was built for. Anybody that
knows me will tell you that when they first met
Kat Williams, when I was Cat in the Hat, and

(46:43):
they tell these stories about how he changed his name. Look,
the truth of the matter is Disney sued me. Yeah,
I was Cat in the Hat. They sent me a
cease and desist letter. And I'm not even making twenty
five thousand dollars a year and the Mega Company and
the Disney has sent me a cease and desist, telling
me I can't use any variations of that name. Fine,

(47:06):
I'm Kat Williams. That's all that happened. I have been
this same product the entire time. They will tell you
when they first saw me doing stand up, I was
just like this, this is what I bring, this my style?

Speaker 4 (47:22):
When did it?

Speaker 1 (47:23):
When?

Speaker 3 (47:24):
Did you know you was going you wanted? Were you
always funny? Did you always want to be a comedian?
Did you stumble on a comedianship?

Speaker 1 (47:31):
No? I loved what they did, and so I studied them,
all of them. I studied all of the white comedians
because I wanted to know why is Monty Python funny?
Why is Don not so talented? I wanted to know
what is George Carlin's thing like where? So I studied

(47:54):
all of the comedy masters, regardless of the field, because
I loved to like I didn't know that these people
were making a great living at doing this. I thought
this is just what they did. They tell jokes, they're
funny people. But I loved the craft, and that's why
when I got into the craft, I thought it was

(48:15):
my obligation to make sure that I kept writing new
materials so much that it forced these comedians to stop
doing the set they've been doing for ten years and
keep writing some new stuff. And I knew that if
I could get that to take on, that most of
these bombs would have to just quit comedy because they
can't keep up. They're not gonna keep writing an hour

(48:36):
worth of material. I've read an hour worth of material
nineteen times. They're not gonna do it. Why because they're
not creative writers. They want to get somebody else and
have them write it and put it together.

Speaker 3 (48:49):
So so, if i'm listening to you, correct Correign if
I'm wrong, I think the best thing that ever happened
was the Internet because now they have to Like you said,
you could do a set and you do that. Do that.
That's set in Kansas City. People ain't hearting in San Francisco,
people ain't hurting in Miami. They hearting Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta,

(49:10):
so forth and so on. Now you do a set,
it's on the internet. Somebody heard it. So you can't
do a set and look it make it last three
months four months.

Speaker 1 (49:21):
Well, it doesn't allow the regular comic the ability to
grow is The real problem, like the part of comedy
is me taking these jokes in January and by March
I've begun to craft this joke. It's not as simple

(49:41):
as it was when I wrote it. It was just
da da da da da. But now it has the
complexities of the fact that I'm having to deliver this
to an East Coast audience, a down South audience, a
Midwest audience, a Utah audience, a Colorado audience, And so
it begins to take on a different complexion because you're

(50:02):
having to deliver it to different people. Okay, and so
this is what sharpens your joke. You then take those
sharpened jokes that make it special, not you just randomly
take some. So it's a process. You don't allow them
to process. If the first time the guy did the joke,
now that's his joke and the joke is everywhere, that

(50:23):
just sets it up for people to steal.

Speaker 4 (50:27):
So how many times must you tell a joke before
you master it?

Speaker 1 (50:33):
How many times have you had to sleep with a
woman before you done with her? That's not fair. If
it's great, never if it ceases to have usefulness. So
it has been spoken, right.

Speaker 7 (50:53):
I read that you was raised in Florida. You had
some help some ladies of the night. No, no, no,
that's not true.

Speaker 1 (51:03):
No, that whole story doesn't take place in Florida. That
story takes place in Oklahoma City.

Speaker 4 (51:08):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (51:09):
So after I'm in Florida, I then join I try
to join the Marine Corps, and it won't accept me
because I'm too I'm too young, and I've lied and
told them I'm sixteen and my family's moving down out.
I don't have my ID but it's coming, and so
they let me go to the boot camp. Blah blah blah.
That's not gonna work now, Okay, So I've learned that lesson.
So then I get this job selling stuff door to

(51:30):
door across the country, and so I've been to all
fifty states. Again, I'm thirty fourteen years old, So I
did that at While I'm doing that, one of the
places i'm at, I'm in Oklahoma, and I've decided I'm
gonna stay here because of meeting these ladies that you're

(51:51):
talking about and that situation. I don't know at the
time why that's important in my life, or why it's
something I should be doing, or any of that. But
now later on it certainly helps me in formulating money.
Mike for Friday after Next and Pemp named Slickback for
the Boondocks.

Speaker 3 (52:13):
Oklahoma. So San Francisco, Oklahoma, Sacramento. From Florida, you moved
to the West coast after so you traveling? When did
you set up shop on the West coast.

Speaker 4 (52:26):
There?

Speaker 1 (52:26):
So, I guess I'm uh eighteen or younger, and I
once I have my Once I have a child, I
realized that I can't. It's a lot of things that
I could use to make money that now is a
no go. So anything with street aspirations that I might

(52:51):
have thought about pursuing or been good at, I now
am a single parent and I got a redo these things.
So I need comedy to really work out for me.
And me and God go into extreme conversation where I'm
explaining to him that I'm a crash out dummy if

(53:12):
he don't send me a lifeline, like I need something
I can hold on to. Before I had left Florida,
I did stand up one time because we was trying
to get in the club. I didn't have ID, so
I said I was a comedian. They ended up having
me do five minutes. I kept that in my head
that I had done that. When we get to Oklahoma,
they're having a competition for stand up and if you win,

(53:35):
you get to go out on the road with Jeff
Foxworthy and Dan Whitney who is Larry the Cable Guy,
and Richard Jenny and these great comics. You get to
open for him. And once I did that, I realized, Okay,
as a comedian, I'm like way behind schedule out and
started this too late. All the funny guys are already

(53:59):
funny and no names, Like, how am I going to progress?
So I realize that I do better with a white
audience than I do with a black audience. And I'm
not sure why that's occurrent, but the white audience likes
me more. That's that's interesting. So when I moved to Sacramento,
it's because Sacramento has a white and a black audience

(54:22):
almost fifty to fifty. That's almost the makeup of Sacramento.
So I live in Sacramento for two years until I
get to the point where I am equally as funny
if the room is black as I am if the
room is white. That's not enough. Now I need to
be one of the good ones when it comes to

(54:42):
black comics. So now I have to move to Oakland.
And that's what lands me in Oakland for three years.
Once I have dominated a male black comedy in Oakland
to my liking, Now I'm prepared to go to Los Angeles. Now,

(55:03):
now I know you can't throw me any curveballs if
it's a white audience, if it's a black audience, no
matter what they are, I'm prepared to deal with all
of the audiences.

Speaker 3 (55:13):
Do you write jokes according to the audience that you're
going to be in front of, or your joke universal?

Speaker 1 (55:21):
Well, in the beginning, part of my framework is that
I'm tailoring every show to this audience. Okay, And that's
how I was able to show my range and show
that I was better than my competitors, is that I'm
Kat Williams. But I was still doing clean comedy. So
I was still going to churches and doing forty five

(55:42):
minutes of stand up at the church with no curse words,
no sex, drug material, no none of that, just straight
stand up. And then I was doing everything else. Yeah,
that was the range. Is that where when in Rome
do as the Romans do? So that's how I started.

(56:06):
But as you begin to get better, you begin to
be able to speak to your entire fan base. And
that's really what's been helpful is that I've been having
the same conversation with my fan base for twelve comedy specials.

Speaker 3 (56:23):
Is that what said Cat Williams Apart is your range
is that you can do a comedy do forty five
minutes from the church. I can go to a comedy
club in front of two fifty, or I can go
into arena with fifteen thousand.

Speaker 4 (56:39):
That's range because everybody can't do that.

Speaker 1 (56:41):
Cat, Well, if that's what range is called, then then yeah,
it's range. But I like the people I'm talking to.
You see what I'm saying, So it's not like it
can't be condescending because I'm talking to my white male friend.
When I'm telling that white joke. Right when I'm talking

(57:02):
about this joke about this black lady, I know that
black lady. That's who I'm talking to. I'm I'm I'm
I'm speaking to this fan base that I've been speaking
to from the beginning. I already told them what I
was on when I first came in. I told them
they was gonna come after me, they was gonna cancel me.
They was going say terrible things about me and try
to mess my life up. I said that, coming in

(57:23):
to stand up. I'm saying it.

Speaker 4 (57:26):
Well, you knew it was gonna be.

Speaker 1 (57:28):
It has to be. I know I'm going into the
belly of the beast. How could I be naive? I
know that I'm going into Satan's playground, But I'm trying
to be so good that you got to bring me
in so close that I can see who's doing what
and what's going on in.

Speaker 4 (57:41):
There in San Francisco, you join the nation?

Speaker 1 (57:47):
I was ever in San Francisco. I was in Oakland.

Speaker 4 (57:49):
You was an Oakland Did you join the nation? Is that? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (57:52):
A minister, honorable Minister far Con and I have an
extremely close relationship. He refers to me as one of
his sons. So yeah, I spent a particular period of time.
Let me explain, because my particular background was already religious

(58:17):
and super strict, right. I didn't find out about other
religions by reading about them. I went to their religion.
I don't want to learn from Jewish people from outside.
I want to be in a synagogue. I don't want
to learn about Muslim people from I want to be
in a mosque. I don't want to hear about the

(58:39):
Baptist or the Pentecostal. I want to go to their church,
let's see. And so that was the religious discovery that
I was on through that period in my life.

Speaker 4 (58:49):
When did you know you were funny?

Speaker 1 (58:55):
Probably about ten years ago. Ten years ago, yeah, about
ten years So you didn't think.

Speaker 3 (59:04):
So you didn't think as a child because obviously you
said the very structured background, your family was very religious,
so obviously you didn't get an opportunity.

Speaker 1 (59:13):
And yeah, like I never did a talent show. I
was never any any extracurricular activities. I was never in drama.
I was never in band camp. I was never a
boy scout.

Speaker 4 (59:23):
You stay in school long enough to get for it
because you dropped.

Speaker 1 (59:26):
You understand, you understand. So there was no like, I
don't I don't tolerate high school games. I didn't go
to high school. Don't. I don't know how most of
the games they think I play, I'm not even aware
of them.

Speaker 4 (59:41):
But cap for you to get on stage.

Speaker 3 (59:44):
And like I said, a lot of people, like a
lot of comedians that I had a few here, they're like, okay,
you know I told Joe to get girls.

Speaker 4 (59:51):
I told Joe to, you know, get people to laugh
at someone else.

Speaker 3 (59:54):
But you, it's like you say, you did comedy one
time in Florida. Yeah, and you had this other opportunity
like in Oklahoma that they were gonna take you out
if you won the talent show, you was gonna go
on the road with these these well known comedians.

Speaker 1 (01:00:07):
And I did.

Speaker 3 (01:00:09):
But I'm just saying, how in Florida at thirteen, fourteen
years of age, you like sixteen, I.

Speaker 4 (01:00:14):
Could do that.

Speaker 1 (01:00:16):
Well because I knew that there were a lot of
other things I could do, Like when I looked at
drug dealers, I thought I could do that. Yeah, but
I mean so right, and who doesn't like that? Right,
I'm trying to figure out I'm gonna make it, but
now that I gotta do it on this side. But no,
your question was when did I think I was funny?

(01:00:39):
I never was my biggest fan. To this day, I'm
not the biggest fan. I'm a fan of comedy. I
like great comedians, like I like Chappelle, I like Patresea O'Neill,
like I like the greats of comedy because I do
like I like Ron White, I like Bill Enpall like
I know comics, like people that did the craft. They

(01:01:01):
raised me. I was touring with Steve Marmel and Richard
Jenny and Real Journeyman. So my comedy upbringing was standard.
I thought you had to work all night, every night,
all around the country, and you had to write jokes,
and that you were trying to write jokes that other
people weren't writing, and that your job was to be funnier.

(01:01:23):
People that know me will tell you I've been on this.
I had a list of all the black comedians that
were more famous than me. There was three hundred of
them on the list, and I had to be able
to cross them all out before I could make it
to the next level. Before I felt like I was
funny enough to do that. And so I I appreciate

(01:01:47):
what competition does for sports, and for my particular sport
and comedy is a sports.

Speaker 3 (01:01:54):
What gave you the comedies that you could get on stage?

Speaker 1 (01:01:57):
You remember I was five years old on stage. Okay,
that's but I was reiterating God's word at that point. Now,
I just have to make sure that the content is good.
If the content is good, what part can I not do?
I'm a vessel, He's given me these gifts to be
able to do certain things, So I just want to

(01:02:19):
utilize them in my craft, that's all.

Speaker 3 (01:02:22):
Do you remember your first set? How about five ten minutes?

Speaker 1 (01:02:28):
No? No, I think three minutes.

Speaker 3 (01:02:30):
Three minutes standing ovation, bulls, some plaw some years.

Speaker 1 (01:02:36):
No, none of that. They they appallauded like I was
a professional at it. But now looking back, I understand,
because you got to understand, they were all thinking, he
don't even look old enough to be in here, and
we don't have any black guys that live in this town, right,
Where did he come from? And then he gets up
there and for three minutes he talked about the fact
that he is the entire black community, right, and he

(01:03:01):
is as disappointed in them. It looked like they looking
for where the rest of them is, and so is he,
And that was his set. But I understood from that
point that the truth is really the commodity and the
fact that we are all individuals and all separate and
all our own islands. But not in real life. In

(01:03:23):
real life, it's only five or six different types of people,
and you gonna see them everywhere that you go, and
all like all my enemies all look the same in
the eyes, whether it's faise On, wander Aria Spears, they
all looks like and.

Speaker 4 (01:03:37):
What you got to get sight? You think.

Speaker 1 (01:03:39):
I don't rumor that, sir, Wander Sights and wander Smith
are two separate people. And I.

Speaker 4 (01:03:48):
Wonder Sights.

Speaker 1 (01:03:51):
I love Wanda, and I agree.

Speaker 4 (01:03:52):
I love that's my girl. But I remember on the radio.

Speaker 3 (01:03:57):
You went on the radio interview if I'm not gonna
sake that Atlanta right, and you came on there with
seemingly good intention, and she attacked you.

Speaker 1 (01:04:07):
It wasn't just that part. It was the fact that
before I go in there, she has a conversation about Okay, now,
I just want to talk to you because you just
wanted Emmy for the city of Atlanta, and this isn't Atlanta,
and they just want to hear about the Emmy and
hear from you and to thank you for what you
did putting the city on. And we won't talk about

(01:04:28):
your kids, we won't talk about jail, no cases, we
ain't gonna talk about none of that. Right, and immediately
gets in there and goes to opposite way. You can't
flip up on me because you're an inferior comedian. I'm
going to destroy you. And I'm never gonna call you
out of your name. I'm never gonna say anything disrespectful
the people that look like you. It's a very thin line.

(01:04:50):
I got a call, but this lady is trying to
embarrass me in front of a largely homosexual fan base.
That's why she got canceled. Gay people don't take it
kindly that you would as a derogatory call me gay.
Gay people don't feel like it's derogatory. So why are

(01:05:10):
you trying to shame me with something in the community
I don't even belong in. There's no gay people saying
I belong over there or been over there, But I
have no hatred of over there. And how dare you?

Speaker 4 (01:05:24):
Hey, you did a numb that's legendary.

Speaker 1 (01:05:27):
No, you either believe in karma or you don't. Because
I didn't even know any of the stuff that she
had done to my fellow comedians until afterwards. I just
know she that it was a setup. And remember they
they tried to kill me this same weekend, not in jokes,

(01:05:48):
with a real gun, in my real face, on real camera. Understand,
I'm losing my life for participating in something that goes
along with my job. Like this, two comedians, what do
you mean? And the world was okay with it because
it was me. Had that happened to anyone else? The
world went crazy when Will Smack smacked Chris. This is

(01:06:12):
a person pulling a whole gun on a comedian in
the confines of their job. It's really a weird situation
when they hate you that bad.

Speaker 3 (01:06:24):
Yeah, yeah, you felt she hated you at that moment
because you mentioned that she said he was gonna be
very professional. All you want to Emmy, congratulations, you put
the city on you own for the city, YadA, YadA, YadA.
And now did she mention anything about the Emmy on camera?

Speaker 1 (01:06:41):
I believe you saw the video and you know that
none of that took place. See that. The issue is
that all the comedians have to come do these radio
stations because you have to sell your tickets, and so
that means you have to go to the radio. Yes,
I don't go to the radio station, and I don't

(01:07:03):
make posts to sell tickets. I just don't. So you've
not seen me. I haven't. I'm not here in some
subservient position or as somebody sent me over.

Speaker 4 (01:07:14):
I'm you hear out of the cantis of yard you are.

Speaker 1 (01:07:19):
No, No, I'm saying yes, yes, situations.

Speaker 4 (01:07:23):
Yeah, let's sure.

Speaker 1 (01:07:25):
Yeah and this person knew I wasn't there for that
or yeah, it's.

Speaker 3 (01:07:30):
But how hard because you have to understand she is
a female, and so you have to be careful.

Speaker 4 (01:07:36):
You have to handle her with kid gloves.

Speaker 1 (01:07:38):
Sir, Sir, you want to go ahead and take that out.
You don't want to be against equality, dude, what you
just said was very unequal. Sir, But you think maybe
you've had enough of this because I think I just
heard you saying that women are not equal as you'ld

(01:07:59):
be treated on e They want to be treated me
as a comedian.

Speaker 3 (01:08:03):
No, no, they want Listen, you understand, and I understand
in certain situations they want to be treated equal, not
all situations.

Speaker 1 (01:08:14):
And and what part of what you saw her get
what part would have been different if she was a man,
It would have just been more vicious.

Speaker 4 (01:08:28):
That's my point.

Speaker 1 (01:08:30):
I took all the vicious and then them long way
because I didn't have any Plus I understood, I'm not
trying to offend black women with short hair. I'm not
trying to offend heavyset women. I'm not trying to upset
fellow comedians. I'm not trying to do any of that,
and I can't. I am qualified to be able to

(01:08:51):
do none of that and still eviscerate you because I'm
smart enough to know that I need to say that
you have gnarled fingers because I know you're living and
that education means you don't know what the word means,
so you can't possibly respond to it. You're not sure
of the meaning. And I'm going to continue hitting you
because this is what comedians do. You've been masquerating that

(01:09:14):
you're a comedian too, and that's the fallacy. So nobody
in boxing fights out of their weight class. If you're
a one hundred and thirty pounder, you don't just show
up with the one sixty pounders. You stay in your
weight class.

Speaker 3 (01:09:28):
Is that what you wanted to do? That she was
out of her league when it came to because.

Speaker 1 (01:09:33):
I didn't want to do any of it. I know
you didn't want it to do it, but what she
took it there?

Speaker 4 (01:09:38):
Did you feel that you had to go there?

Speaker 1 (01:09:41):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (01:09:41):
You you could have say, Wanda, I didn't come here
for that. I just want to do the interview. I
just want to talk about what happened?

Speaker 1 (01:09:47):
Oh you misunderstand my job. My job is to be funny. Haha.
My job is to be funny first. My first job
is to be funny. My second job is to be respectful.
My third job is to be immaculate and gaza strip it. Huh.
That's non political. I'm saying. If you do it, you

(01:10:10):
let a terrorist accidentally touch over here, and I won't
stop burning you down until there ain't nothing left. It'll
literally be rubble on top of rubble, and I'll still
be bombing. Why, Because that's why you should mind your business.
This is what f around and find out is about. Right.

Speaker 4 (01:10:33):
Have you ever been boot caped? Yes?

Speaker 1 (01:10:45):
Yeah, I have.

Speaker 4 (01:10:49):
What was that feeding like? Did it like want to
give up? Because we don't?

Speaker 3 (01:10:53):
I mean, because when you have, I mean, I don't
know how early it was in your career. Obviously it
hadn't been in the I don't think it's in the
last decade, because you've been immaculate.

Speaker 1 (01:11:06):
Have you ever dropped the past? I have, I've been,
you know, the little segment between everything is fine and
I got it and then you noticing where it is now. Yeah,
it's that The thing about as a comedian The audience's

(01:11:29):
opinion is the only opinion that matters, not you the writer,
not none of that. And so I don't think any
comedian has ever been booed unnecessarily either. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
I'm saying, I'm saying, I'm saying. What what do they

(01:11:49):
say when a guy shoots the airball in the NBA?
They say air ball and make sure everybody knows. But again,
he still got to get back on de like the
game didn't end. He don't get throw his hands up
and sunk. That's supposed to be used as a learning experience.
Most comedians don't get booed enough. I mean, this is

(01:12:11):
how you end up with a Michael Blackson who's a
real African doing a fake African accent. Okay, this guy
is mad at me. All I did was give him
the best advice of his life. Remember he was wearing
dirty dashiki and I told him he needed to dress
to be in the position that he's trying to say
that he's in. And if you're the African King of comedy, sir,
there's actually comedians in Africa doing comedy. If you're gonna

(01:12:34):
say that, you gotta go to Africa and get a
school dude. Everybody got you gotta put in some work.
And these guys they take my advice, they change their
whole persona, and then they hate me for it. And
generally I'm just too big to comment or make a
statement about it, or do a live or any of that.

(01:12:55):
But when it gets to be a whole grouping of
these guys, I gotta come and talk to Shannon. I
gotta lay down at the altar.

Speaker 4 (01:13:07):
You know, every comedian, this, this.

Speaker 1 (01:13:09):
Is the other side of Kirk Franklin, Prince, this is
the reckon.

Speaker 4 (01:13:17):
Twenty twenty four.

Speaker 3 (01:13:20):
You watched that. You know, every comedian that's been on
my show. You know you watched every episode, because that's.

Speaker 1 (01:13:28):
Not what you said. You said, I know every you
know every comedian. You're limiting me.

Speaker 3 (01:13:32):
Oh, you watched every episode because you you know things.

Speaker 1 (01:13:36):
You know thaves that. That's always where I'm trying to
come from, whether it's comedic or otherwise. That's why even
if you see me get arrested ten times in a
row on TV as a fan of mine, you can
be like, he's gonna be right out. Yeah, but they

(01:13:56):
just said he didn't do it. He couldn't. It's stupid?
Why would he do something stupid knowing he got to
come back and talk to us. Nah, they respect that
every time it happens. I'm gonna be free as a
bird sitting out here talking to you about it, that
it really was what I said it was.

Speaker 4 (01:14:15):
That's all you end up, You Tom down, You're in LA. Yeah.
Now I'm reading.

Speaker 3 (01:14:24):
Cat Williams won Entertainers and how's a Bush? The Best
Los Angeles Comic Award?

Speaker 4 (01:14:33):
Did you win? That award? Won? Cat Williams. It's a
simple yes or no. It's not a rhetorical question.

Speaker 1 (01:14:40):
It's a question that probably should have been asked to entertainer.

Speaker 4 (01:14:43):
I'm asking you.

Speaker 1 (01:14:44):
I got you here, though I know I couldn't believe
sent or didn't get asked that question. You still a
dude's joking to give him a award and then tell
him laying you don't know nothing about it. Hey, but
I promise you this, if he sees me again before

(01:15:05):
he sees you, he'll be talking different when you see it,
That's for certain. That's the difference. That's what these comics
understand is that I'm not doing nothing for Cloud. I
don't even recognize Cloud. But eventually the Lord is gonna
let me and you be in one hallway. A lot
of these dudes go. Kevin Harden went twenty five years

(01:15:30):
without ever being in the same building with me at
the same time. If I go in the building, he
walk out. You've never seen us in the same building
ever in twenty five years. Like it's like that, Why why?
Because I'm really the product. It's not what you think.
I am never under the influence of anything. I'm always

(01:15:52):
in my right mind. I'm always a physical specimen. And
when you see me, I'm much much bigger than you
had thought. I have far less play in me than
you would like, and I'm relentless. I'm out there. I'm
still to this day, I play eleven games of basketball

(01:16:13):
with a twenty year old. The record is ninety two
and six. This is just in the yard, just to
the rack.

Speaker 3 (01:16:23):
Just because you work out care y'ah, I mean no,
you work out cat, not to the gym.

Speaker 4 (01:16:28):
You don't work out the gym. You push up sit ups.

Speaker 1 (01:16:30):
My whole life was it was just push ups and
setups only. I would do like one hundred push ups
a day.

Speaker 4 (01:16:38):
Just I thought you was gonna say a thousand.

Speaker 1 (01:16:40):
No, no, no, because this is literally every day. This
is not for the yeah, for the graund you know
what I mean, like literally one hundred a day. And
I would do push ups and then I tore both
my rotator cuffs and so it was only thanks to
golf that I was even able to get mine. I've
been a golfer for quite some time. I shore game

(01:17:00):
is impeccable. I can't get you but but to and
some change off of the t off the tee. But
I'm still I'm I'm still coming in for par guaranteed.

Speaker 4 (01:17:12):
Are you playing for the tips?

Speaker 1 (01:17:15):
Uh? No, I've found that you don't get anything for that.
It seems like it seems very ego monologal. They go, hey,
cat for free, you can go further back there. Wait
it does it still counsel sing, Hey, I'm up at
the ladies teage. Don't tell me my pronounce on the

(01:17:36):
golf course. She her him, damn man, They whoever whoever
at the front team.

Speaker 3 (01:17:45):
We're I know, we're joking. We're having great conversation. But
you did win the award. How did the ward help
your career? It had to help some cat.

Speaker 1 (01:17:53):
Nope, No, I didn't remember it happened to you just
said it set. How can Sedri give you an award
that was worth something? Everything Sedrin and Ricky Smiley ever
been in got canceled for not being funny. Ricky Sahir
told you that they cut him out of every movie
he did. They always had a reason. That's why I'm funny,

(01:18:21):
because I'm a happy person. I laugh all day long.
I can't even imagine the misery of these bumps. Just
to not be good at what you do, not work
hard at what you do, but have that like you
the best at what you do. It is crazy. It's great.

Speaker 3 (01:18:40):
But they be touring, they be doing like a hundred
shows a year.

Speaker 4 (01:18:44):
That's me.

Speaker 1 (01:18:47):
I don't run into none of them. That's what I'm saying.
If you're a face our love fan, you mean you've
been a fan of him for thirty two years. You
still waiting on him to do his first special? You
mean to tell me if Steve Harry your favorite comedy,
you mean you've been waiting for him to do stand
up for fifteen years now. I mean, Steve got a
lot of d DL still out there. None of those

(01:19:09):
irons matter to stand up? Who cares that they wrote
a plat card for you to do family feud on
like you're successful, because we're surprised you can talk for
a living, and it's entertaining that you're gonna say some
funny country things. But not a writer, right, Not a writer.