QLS Classic: David Alan Grier

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Of Course. I Love Supreme is a production of I
Heart Radio. This classic episode was produced by the team
at Pandora. What up, y'all, it's Layah and this week's
q LS classic. It's a good one. I'm talking about
David Alan Grier. Yo. This episode, he goes all the

(00:21):
way back to his days at Yale Drama when he
was Angela Bassett's old head and all the greatness that
came out of that school, to talking about his days
on Broadway. You got about that, and of course we
dished into some in living color. You don't want to
miss this. You think you know David Alan Grier, you don't,
So listen and find out. This episode was originally released

(00:41):
November fourteen, two thousand eighteen. Enjoy Supremo. Role called Suprema
so prima, role call, so prema, sub prima, roll call

(01:05):
so prima, So noting here, roll call home skilling question.
The third yeah and if you want it starts with
my jam Yeah, I had a verse I'm fresh Suprema
su primo, roll call sub prima, su prima, role call.
My name is Fonte. Yeah, I stay so fly yea

(01:29):
In this verse, yeah, ro primo, roll call so Prima
sub prima role call. My name is Sugar. Yeah, now
listen here. Yeah, my favorite comedian Yeah is a mirror Hello,

(01:51):
Primo roll call, Soma Prema role call, spools favorite Yeah
record to listen. Yeah, that classic platter from Dono So
Simmons ro call, So Prima Prima road call. It's like

(02:13):
year yeah, oh my god, thirty years later. Yeah, we
would have all picked I run good friend Frima see it.
My name is Dave, DJ know me, I'm my fin
this my We're gonna to tell Marie Suprema roll call,

(02:41):
Sma Suma so Frima Suprema road call, Suprima Suprema roll call.
Ladies and Johama, Oh man, I might not make it.
Let's just cut to the chase. Ladies and John we
have David Alan Grier. That was probably your best road

(03:10):
call in the last A lot to me, I worked
on my hat like three alternates. You've done a lot.
Mr Kristen, you know I didn't write nothing time. Okay,
you didn't have to do that to me was getting
from an iPhone. I don't know. That's not really that's
nerd pop. You can't be like can you try to

(03:30):
light to place. Can you roll it back? Can back place?
Damn I old to you, you know, Oh sorry, try
to hug me, but I'm not. I'm not. You know,
there's too many tugs have been diminished because everybody wants
a damn hug. You used to be for your grandma.

(03:51):
You know you're sick, Mama when you're leaving home. Now
it's just every woman. Every everybody wants a damn hug.
And it's too intimate. I don't that hug strangers. You know,
he's got to mean something. How long it take for
me to get months? Take your months to gain his trust? Jesus,
the only one. It used to be a handshake, you handshake,

(04:14):
look person in the eye. How are your question? It's
nice to meet you. I'm like, see, that's even worse.
That's even worse. He's trying to not catching We need
some love. I think that's a little man. Please, I
ain't trying to lose my job, man, Kanye. Even Kanye
apologize today, Yes, yes, was that Atmosory. I just tweeted,

(04:35):
apology accepted. Let's move on. So I'm trying to talk
about this. Yeah, I'm talking about right. We're gonna pray
for him anywhing ahead, let let's let it out. Like
what was just I was just saying I was saving
my prayers something like no, I'm not gonna say no, no

(04:59):
no notice. Still times time him and Tiger Tiger Woods
King and shut up. I named some other questionable black folks.
It's always like, you know, we all got a family
member that's like, exactly my mother, May she rest in peace,
I said. She was like, what are you gonna say Republican?

(05:22):
I mean, if you want to say we're gonna vote it,
why would you even say the word. I was like,
my mom, come relax, I'm not even I just said Republicans.
She's like, but you know, she well, my mother was
born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, from Michigan. She was light skin.

(05:43):
Did you know she said she was freedman. I'm just
telling you the families she said, we weren't slaves, we
were freedman. I'm like, okay, the whole time, father's side
field workers, field workers, So make no doubt about it,
that can happen. You know what they did the history
of Local Jay's family, none of his family and theirs

(06:06):
had to go through slavery when they came to the
United States immigrants they got no, they were African American.
For some strange reason, they came immediately to Ohio and something. Luckily,
I don't know what the story was, but it's still
on finding your roots with Skip Gates on PBS. Yeah

(06:27):
but you did it, Yeah, I did. It was there
when my grandfather was the last my great great great
grandfather was the last slave. Did you read uh this
book that was recently published. Um, come on, you looked
at me? Thank you? What's it called? I just got
the reading it. I'm foggy right now. Um sorry, I'm sorry.

(06:51):
There watching God you know. Yes, well, well I'm mentioned
this because this guy in the book, his pstimonial, he
was on one of the last slaves. Yeah, my grandfather.
You know, that's some evil ship right there over in

(07:15):
this blasphemous name. It was a it was a bet.
It was a flip. Slavery was over. They flipped the
coin and the bet was whether or not uh he
could get a hook up uh in over in Nigeria
to bring something back on the sneak tip. Because it
was it was That's what this book was. Basically, it's

(07:35):
the same deal. It was technically over, but they snucked
this shipping and contraband cargo and all that, you know,
exactly like slaves were like having cocaine on you like,
you know, the British were like what you got in
the trunk? Oh, because they were the biggest culprits. But
then all the all the what I'm trying to say,
all the European moneyed families, you know, these people who

(07:57):
quote unquote built this nation. Nobody had as slave trader
on there because that was removed long time ago, because
that's not kosher. Nobody wants to be known as that.
They're like, well, we sold tobacco. Yeah, so they got here,
and then if they owned a farm in the yeah, tractor,

(08:18):
I don't think not yet. So can we move on?
I'm not allowed to laugh at the slave. Can nobody
see you? But dig man I did twenty three and
me and there were no surprises. It was just black, black,

(08:40):
Irish Scottish. Okay, Uh, well it's I don't I don't
know everybody here in this room has greater or lesser
knowledge of their family. I would assume you know, uh,
their lineage, and I have some knowledge. I mean in uh,
there just was no crazy story. You know, it wasn't

(09:02):
like you know, you're one third tie. No, it was
none of that. It was a straight slave ship plantation Detroit.
Here we are. So yeah, well I did that initially,
and they tried to tell me that was from Sierra Leone.
And when Skip Gates got to me, he was like, no,
I'm gonna do a thorough DNA search. And you know,

(09:23):
he had the receipts and all that stuff I need. Man, Yeah,
I got thirty. I was about to say, you're not scared,
because I was all for this until recently. They really
want us to do this real bad and they're doing
crazy things with your DNA and that moment, what are
they doing with the name? Listen? They're finding criminals with
the DNA. You know, it's just the beginning. Did you

(09:45):
do anything criminal? And they're they're finding it in your family,
like in your lineage. They're like, so you're related to
so and so. Oh, that's how we can get so
and so in the system. Like, yeah, it happen. I
don't never even thought that that's happened. That means a
relative of yours did something and they can they can
trace it. Also, our DNA information is not secured twenty three.

(10:07):
Once you do that, once you enter that database, it's
not like you can. I don't know where that is.
I spent in the test tube. I send it off
in the mail. All right, did they sell it? What
they do when something way to modify? Yeah, it's like
posting a picture on Instagram. You don't know, but you did.
You say, skip is good for now. My homie did

(10:31):
a sketch about that on the on the show Random
Acts of Flying. Watch that show. It's super Trip, it's ono.
So it is a sketch where a reparations Yeah, Terence
nance he did. It's a reparation sketch where there's an
app where you give your d n A and they're
able to trace who are the family, who's the white
family on you? And this is where it is where

(10:56):
you getting your reparations, where you get your reparations from
and like and they's like and I also takes into
account things such as redlining and like all like, it's
funny as hell, but it's oh sketch. Oh, in my mind,
I was like, word, but you know what? We did
something when I did Chocolate News, but it was based
on the thing where skip Gates. You never all all

(11:18):
of your relatives are always wonderful with skip you. I've
never seen him say, hey, dog, you'll you'll be by
ain't blood and ship you know white people. Dr Phil
got it, tried to crea let's not let gave him

(11:41):
that bottle of hooch and said go sit over there, brother,
get your life together. So Michigan, Sir, Detroit, Michigan, east
side of west side, west side, barely. I grew up
in one house. My parents bought this house two days
before I was one. I'm the youngest of three nineteen

(12:02):
fifty six sixty two years old, and that's the one
house we I grew up in. And I left at
eighteen and my mom sold the house, you know, when
she got remarried in college. But that's a just one
house because but it was I'm sorry to answer your question.
It was four blocks west of Woodward, which is the
dividing line between east and west. So it's barely west

(12:24):
because I often hear stories of people that are from
the west side of the Detroit that will lie and
say they're from the east side of Detroit for credibility,
like seeing that the west side is the Bussey side
and the East Side supposed to be in the real side.
And have you been to Detroit? It's a real like, uh,

(12:46):
just man place. Detroit is so black, I want to
come up now though it is different vibe. I mean
once they settled, I met this twenty five year white
girl and I was performing in a club and she
was there like as a uh, as an intern because
she wanted to go back to Detroit and open a
club in downtown Detroit. And you know, that's what you need.

(13:07):
You need the folly of youth. I was like what
she was like, Yeah, it's gonna be great and I'm
gonna do it and we're all gonna succeed. How are
you gonna I'm just gonna do it. You know it
can happen. So I was like, oh, that's what you need. Yeah,
not me, bro, you never want to go back to Detroit.
I do. I go back all the time. I mean
I've gone back to my high school. I did a

(13:29):
master class with the kids there at cast Tech. I
go back to my university. I went to University of
Michigan UM. So I tried to go back. I went
for It's weird. I was like, uh, inducted into the
Detroit Hall of Fame. It was me Ben Carson that year.
He didn't show up, and I was like, did he

(13:51):
get in? I'm called in sick, so he didn't show up.
But he's a doctor. You shouldn't know that he's a
brain surgeon. Knucklehead too. It's like damn, but yeah, yeah, yeah,
So I try to do that. I mean I tried
to when it's like I said, applicable and I have time,
it's mostly with kids, like when I went back, you know,

(14:15):
to work with actors, young actors and stuff, because I
know when I was a student, anybody who had any
connection to professional, professional art community, we thirsted for that
because you know, you really, you know, when you're a kid,
you have like teachers, you know, they're not really there
their pedagogues, you know, So anybody who could bring that

(14:37):
that fresh knowledge and we just ate it up. So, yeah,
did you always have aspirations to be an actor first
or comedian first? I didn't want I wanted to be
a musician. Yeah yeah, yeah, I'm a very marginal guitar player.
But um, I just remember the first time me and

(14:58):
my best friend we discovered alternative radio, and our alternative
radio station was w A b X, So you figure,
I was um eleven or twelve and the first time
we heard Jimmy Hendrix is like our minds exploded. Man,
it was like, oh my god, who is this? So
we just ate all of that up, you know, all

(15:20):
that hippie music and our you know, our parents. It
was wild. It makes sense because now it just hit
me that you were you were actually playing guitar. As Calhoun.
Tug Yeah was based on a guy. I went to
the Universt of Michigan in an arbor and there was
this guy's campus mascot, this old black guy named Shaky Jake.

(15:43):
He couldn't play, couldn't and you just that's basically how
he sounded. So that was kind of the impetus. And
you know what that well, I was eighteen then, but
you'd always see a blues dude. There was another dude
named One String Sam and he I'm not making this,

(16:05):
but this guy he he he recorded to like in
the fifties, but he had he took two liquor bottles,
a two by four and a string and it was
one string and he had a hit. It was like,
all I need a hundred dollars a hundred dollars. So
I saw him, and I mean, you know, once I
got into the blues, I was like, do you know

(16:27):
Robert Johnson, sir? Yeah, I know, yeah, I know, you
know that kind of stuff. And uh so I was,
I was into it, Yeah, I did. I mean it
was mostly self taught. Back in the day. It was
you had to just wear the grooves out the record.
You could take We could take a thirty three and
a third. We put it down to sixteen r rpm,

(16:52):
but then it wasn't in the right tune. And so
it was all about or when we got a little
portable cassette recorders and we just tape it and go
over and over and over and over. No YouTube, uh
cheat sheet. Uh. The whole open tuning thing was just

(17:12):
you had to look on the back of an album
and try and match it to the recording. So that's
how we did. What were you in school for at
the time, Uh, you mean as well? I went to college. Yeah,
but you know when I went to college, you know,
my mother told me, she said, look, I will not
pay for an education and for acting, you know, and

(17:33):
I wasn't really into acting then. No music, you know,
and by then I really still wanted to do music.
She would not let me play in a band because
that meant you had to go out at night, and
she's trying to keep me off the streets, you know.
But I had a good friend whose father owned a
recording studio on Grand River, and I would hang out
there all day and night. You know. They were not

(17:53):
in Motown, by the way. He had a he had
a record label. It was called Sounds Detroit Sound something
like that. They put out some singles, but mostly we
just hang out in the studio and just so, who
did your mother? What did she what were her designs
for you? And when I was in Jack and Jill,

(18:14):
thank you, I just think I didn't remember Jack and
Jill being that niggers. But it was like we should
explain with Jack and Jill, is people the community outside
the community to do that. Jackie Jill is basically a

(18:37):
nationwide organization for people who want who want their children
to be in like minded bougie a situations, doctors, yes,
middle Black people who want their kids to be around
like mandy minded kids and families. So these chapters are
in every different city. Like A Girl version was like

(18:57):
a lot of colorism, right, because I at aunts that
were or like people at that age in the seventies
that were they kind of used the paperback test, like
if you were lighter than a paper bag man, you
got treated certain ways. Well, like I said, my father
was you know, deep dark, semisweet chocolate d brown. Moms

(19:19):
was kind of you know, beige, and they got together.
But we were in Uh That's how I was raised,
and so the Huxtables, That's pretty much how it was.
You know, my doctor was a layer, I mean a
doctor he was. My dad was a doctor. He's a psychiatrist.
And as a young kid in our neighborhood, we lived
in this neighborhood that was kind of like um Hancock Park,

(19:41):
big old houses in a certain part Boston, that Sine area,
and most of the kids I played with were you know,
doctors and dentists and that kind of professional folks. Can
I ask, did your father did you know if he
had black clientele only because for me, a lot of

(20:01):
here's the thing for where I come from, Like black
people in therapy, it's like they're like, oh, I rather
go to my preacher, my pastor you know, like that's
for crazy white people. Take it the guy. My dad
he yeah, yeah, yeah, he told me a great story.
He said, this one guy came in, this stude came

(20:21):
from the auto plant, you know, and friends brought him in.
He was all funked up. He said, Doc, you gotta
help me. Uh, this woman put a mojo on me.
And at first my father did not know how to
deal with it because he said, I can't help you.
Doesn't Yeah, you do, STU believe in. He said, I
need you to she put a hand on me, and
I need you to release this hand. So he said

(20:45):
he had to go and get in this dude's mindset.
At first he said, I can't you know, I'm a psychiatrist.
So finally he said, okay, you gotta talk on that level.
So he said, well, okay, we're gonna work with this.
Get this evil off you. And he worked with them
and came up with some bullshit to do around three
times and say on a mona backwards and exactly. He

(21:11):
had to make some stuff up, you understand. So no,
he had black clients here, black clients. He had a
real cute white secretary though at one point, which my
mom was, My parents had passed away, so I can
tell you all this ship now. Yeah, yeah, it's funny
you ask said, I don't you know, I couldn't tell
you if every patient was black or white. I'm sure

(21:34):
the vast majority were black. You have to understand Detroit
at that time, you know, the forties and fifties and sixties,
had a lot of moneyed black people. It had a professional,
upper middle class, large black community. Even I mean just
working at a car plan you know, back in the day,
you can make a good living, exactly, making a very

(21:55):
good living, you know, and so so so there was
a large unity Detroit, Chicago, where else Philly, you know,
New York. So so, yeah, he was good. Did you
did you have any interaction with any other notable figures

(22:15):
from Detroit? And you're growing up and went to my church, Well,
you know, my dad when my parents broke up, my
dad moved to San Francisco in nineteen sixty seven, and
it started sixty sixty seven. So he came out there
into the summer love and we went to visit him,
and he was working on a book. So I met

(22:38):
Alex Haley, uh Claude Brown junior. He would introduce me
to all these people, man, and I just be like, hey,
what's up, man? Can I get a mini bike? You know?
He was like, no, you know, we marched. I marched
with Martin Luther King Junior in Detroit in sixty three. Yeah,
our family did. And so it was it was you know,

(23:02):
Cel Franklin, who Franklin's dad was a prominent minister in Detroit.
So he was he was instrumental in bringing Dr King
to Detroit. And that was the summer of the March
on Washington, you understand. And so in Detroit he actually
did the I Have a Dream speech. Uh, it was
an earlier version exactly, this typical Detroit we got the

(23:27):
we got the last run through. Yeah. Yeah, so uh
and you know, just a sidebar, you know, Aretha Franklin,
she reached out to me several times, you know, just
as well. I remember Damon and I Damon Wains and
I reperformed at the Fox Theater, you know, in downtown Detroit,

(23:48):
and I came to my dress room. I mean this big, big, big,
huge bouquet of flowers, and it was from Aretha. Franklin said, David,
you've always been one of my favorites. I have something
special for you. Call me and I was so tripped
out by the note. I never called her because I
was like, oh she was she was good. But I

(24:16):
mean I think that she because I'm from Detroit, she
always whenever I came in town, or like, because we
finally hooked up, she came to see Porgy and Bass
where her husband. They came and we hung out afterwards.
There was this thing yet, um, I forget that, this armory.
It was like to Honor and Living Color and Radio

(24:38):
City Music Hall all in that time. And we talked
and she was real cool, I mean just real friendly
and really nice and reached out, meaning, here's my number,
let's keep in touch, you know, let's let's kick it.
I mean it was nice. She was cool. Yeah, yeah,
she was nice to you. Well soon, oh too soon?
Anybody have any Lauren Hill actually because you know she

(25:09):
she clapped back back back to it's too much. It
was a whole bunch of words, salad of words. It
wasn't it was about the comments. Yes, you know, you
can make it on Twitter on time, but not to
your concerns. That's all I'm saying. Two hours, okay, clapp

(25:34):
right back on Twitter. The comments, the comments, for one time,
they were actually worth reading. Really hilarious. You know, I
can't say, I can't believe I'm about to say this. Okay,
so I read the whole thing. I read it, but

(25:54):
part of me was legit proud that she knew what
emojis were. Yeah, right there, and tell you the message
fail when you look at the emojis. Yeah, the emojis
to make your point, she got kids, you know that's

(26:16):
I spent at least ten minutes trying to analyze, like,
imagine Lauren Hill knowing what that that skeptical, the cynic
with the eyebrow, but it was co writers on that. No,
since I don't want to since to come get me,
I was like, who wrote this? Because I can't imagine her.

(26:38):
I think I think she actually wrote because the opening
paragraph was like, it's mighty presumption? Was for you to
think that I would presumeiosity of youth with real? Oswald
Bakers answer? This is medium a blog? Or is it?

(27:00):
It's a site where anybody can post anything? Oh, because
I was like, why aren't the medium people spell checking
and all that stuff? You can type that on your
phone and oh I didn't know that. A big fan
of Laurie. Yeah, I love I'm on punishment actually, first come,

(27:21):
anybody quest real quick, A big fan, by the way,
big fan, you should run then don't wait. And I
think it sounds a big fan, bro, Can I ask
you some please? Yeah? I was proud that she not
since Okay, when when I graduated high school, LLL's Walking
with a Panther came out and my big surprise was

(27:45):
okay because again L's from like, so I was trying
to imagine LLL over modern breakbeats and to hear him
over modern hip hop of eighty nine was like a shocker, like, oh, okay,
L's new. And that's how I felt about Lauren, like
she knew what a hashtag was and in the moodie

(28:05):
like I was legit proud because I mean, been around
for like fifteen years. But he was acting taking a
selfie and being on Remember when Prince took that selfie
and post Prince itself. It was awesome. Yeah, but I
think he did it on purpose. So I think the
greatest selfie was rubbing al selfie. Had to show you

(28:34):
the whole fist. Yeah, Like, I gotta see y'all. He's
a wee man. I just saw him. I was in
Brooklyn last Yeah, he was at the Spike Lee has
a Michael Jackson party he does every year. I was
out there dance. Yeah, I saw video he was dancing. Yeah.
I kicked it with a man. He was chasing me

(28:57):
down for years, Like REVN would like to talk to you.
Good Finally we finally we we we touched base and
he's good man that he wanted. No, it's fact. You
know in the ninety when Living Color was on and
I was just trying featherman sterile at that point, you
know what I mean, I was trying nothing. But anyway,
are you one of those people that your leary on

(29:20):
meeting your idols or it might scare you. Have you
ever had a situation in which you met someone and
they disappointed you because they weren't like I'll tell you one,
but I mean, I didn't hate on him. I'm just
telling you how it happened. Like I was doing this
award show and Cab Callaway, Cab Calloway as a kid.

(29:41):
You know, he wrote his memoir. I forget what it
was called, but it was beautiful. Man. I'll tell you
a quick story from his memoir, Like when Cab Callaway
had his band Diznie Gillespie played in it and Dies
Gillespie and them when they're on the band stand, they
used to shoot spitballs at each other, and Cab Callaway
hated that ship, you know, because she would get wild

(30:03):
when they're gigging, and one or two spitballs were hit
hit him. So he and Dizzy had it out. Now
the story is, you know, he always wore a white
tuxedough and so he got in the fight with Dizzy
Gillespie and he said he went past the room and
he came by the white tuxedo was blood on it.
And he said, I guess y'all heard. I had to

(30:24):
father nigger. I tried to swing on him. Dizzy pulled
out a knife and stuck him. Now I got to
cut you. And forgive me if I get the story
slightly wrong, because was many years ago. But anyway, I
see Cab Callaway and I just totally fanned out. I

(30:46):
was like, oh my god, you know he was talking
to another dude. I knew he was like, you know,
stage managing the whole thing. I was like, oh my god,
Mr Callaway, you are my hero, You're my idol. I've
been watching you since my whole life. I've read every
anything I have posters of him, and he just went,
that's beautiful anyway. I was like, oh, man, if blown

(31:13):
off by camp Kali, but it's all good. He didn't
know who I was, you know, it was all good,
So that's not you know, it wasn't. Yeah. I would
like to have talked to him longer, but he didn't.
I didn't go home like I hate you, man, you
just wanted Cuba. Cuba Gooding Senior did that to me once,
like he was sitting, Yeah, he was sitting. We were
at uh the movie that Junior was in with Denzel Washington,

(31:37):
The Drug Frank White. Uh. Yeah, we were at like
an after party and Cuba setn't even sitting alone, like isolated,
and I was just like, yo, like, dude, you're my hero,
main ingredient. I love all your music, YadA YadA YadA,
And instantly like he shook my hand, but then he
saw iced tea and cocoa walked in and he just

(31:58):
pushed me out the way I grew up on me
and ingredients. Oh my god, boy, how did how did
you feel? I mean, people are human beings, Cocoa, so
I got curful cocoa. I guess I kind of got it,
but I'm sure people would tell you. You You know, I
curbed him. It depends if you roll upon me five

(32:20):
forty five at the airport and want to take a selfie,
if you roll up on me in a nightclub with
a you know, cell phone talk to my nephew, you
might get curbed. Okay, I'm not gonna face time with
your mama. Yeah I don't know. Yeah, I mean with
your mama would because I know you, But you know
what I mean, sometimes you have to be like now,
you have to put up those boundaries. Man, No, dude,
I feel like that. This is longer, but thank you

(32:41):
for the short of it. Yeah, but you know, sometimes
and it's just that way. So I give people. I
give people latitude as long as it's not too foul.
I mean, you know, nobody's ever like swung on the
that alright. I don't want to be standing. Nobody wants
to get stabs raps. I kind of down right after that.

(33:13):
It's gonna be my YouTube and Twitter use it because
people they won't even know they want no good. Well,
I wanted to tell you my sly Stone. You guys
are first of all sly Stone, Sly and the family
Stone were. There was a record store on twelfth Street.

(33:34):
Twelve Street in Detroit is the Black Street. We had
to walk a few blocks to get to twelfth Street,
twel Street. There's a store on there called Being Bob's
and that's for me and my friend. We go and
get our singles. You know. It was like soda soda
shop records, uh palm maade, you know. Yes, by the

(33:56):
way Detroit Company New Nial. But so we heard dance
to the music again on on the local radio station Slice.
Music was so different, so new. I had never heard
no kind of ship like that, you know what I mean.

(34:20):
I was like, damn, you know, boom boom boom boom
boom boom. We're like, oh my god, I gotta get
some of this. So we went and that's where I
got that first single. And watching him back then there
was now all it was was Ed Sullivan and what
Hollywood Palace, you know. Uh so you had to just

(34:40):
wait American band Stammar Yeah yeah, yeah, but watching side
seeing slide, his style was so different and fresh. The
way he combined gospel. He was in inventor of funk.
I mean, he really was in his drum patterns. I
mean he had the fun monkiest drummers I've ever heard.

(35:03):
I mean his player, his bass player, Man Black Graham
invented a whole style that changed the bass player. So
all that in one group. So I saw him at Olympia.
At the Olympia Auditorium. That was the UM hockey rank
in Detroit. I had to be fifteen, okay, So this

(35:24):
is the first time we talked. Me and my, my, my,
my crew. We talked one of the moms and the
dropping us off, then they would pick us up. It's
got to be seventy one. So he would get there.
Everybody was there, all all the crew from school. You know,
we all pile in there and we're well, we take

(35:45):
the cheapest tickets and then just bum rush. That's what
we did. So as soon as the lights went down,
slide came out and you know, it's all white on stage.
He had those tufted custom amps. And by the way,
we're always you know, equipment heads. We just look what
is he playing? What is it? What is that? What
is the gear? What is the cord? The guitars? All

(36:07):
that far Fisia Oregan. So he comes out and he
starts jamming, and it was like as soon as he
hit that first note, people turned and started whopping the ass.
They just it was riot immediately. So Slide stopped and
he said, look man, He said, look man, if you
if you all don't stop beating these kids, we're gonna
we're gonna go. We're gonna go, man. And so it

(36:28):
was like no, no, no, don't go. Everybody's calmed down.
He started up again. It was like robots bam, we
just start swinging and so that went on and on.
So we got about twenty minutes of music. So he
got to want to take it and I'm out for
you interrupted like a motherfucker. And so then he went
on the news and he apologized and he said I'm

(36:50):
coming back. You know. He had the knit hat and
gass boots. We fucking loved the Slide. There was a
dude I went to school with who dressed like Slice
don't every single day summer went. He had the fuzzy boots,
he had those you know, knit hats, all all that stuff.
So sly Stone was he was huge, huge, huge. I

(37:13):
loved him. I saw him then and then I saw
him another time at the Fisher Theater. This has gotta
be seventy four or five. And again, this was at
twelve noon. He had skipped out on another concert and
I just happened to have a ticket, Like I had
been in town home from school and I heard he
was there and I just went. It was a half
full house, but that was that drummer there. I don't

(37:36):
know who this dude was, but he one handed. Was
not gregor Rico. But no, it was not gregor Rico
because Greg and I gotta look him up. I know
you're talking about who was Sugarfoot with somebody else, but
I'm just telling you it was still. It was just
I just loved Sly. I mean I would go see

(37:56):
him anywhere. He wasn't late because I know, like he
was the original Lauren Hill. Be out Lauren, Lauren Hill.
You can't well slide was notorious that I loved him, Okay,
so to tie in not to take him to right, Okay.

(38:20):
So I was looking at guitars and stuff, becaus soon
as I got flushed, you know, as soon as I
got a TV show, I just started buying guitars. You know,
they were like, well play, I'll get it. I'll take it,
give me gold play it. I'll take it. So I
met But I met a dude who was just the
equipment guy, and he said that he got a call
one day to take up all this equipment had been

(38:42):
ordered from their music store here in l A and
take it up to this house. And when he took
it to deliver it, Slye was there. It was sly
Stone and I was like, what is going on? So
this is in the nineties, he said, Man, this young dude,
he said, sly brought him in and he played him
some of the music he was working on and he
do said, he said, he just started crying because it

(39:04):
was just so beautiful and so amazing. And I was like,
oh my god, I never heard, never heard anything. Everyone
we know has like a zillion I've went to slide
wait he released I went on iTunes. Yeah, he did
a cover covered his own stuff and released that a

(39:25):
few years back. It wasn't weird. Yeah, well, you know
Jesse Johnson was able to get you know, get that
one too now. It's funny. Yeah when you got it.
If you ever talked to him, Jesse Johnson, I love
his guitar playing man, love him. Yeah, but dick so um.
Like when Lenny Kravick's first Like broke, you know, that

(39:48):
was that whole young heads who were like, oh, we
want to sound like dirty like the seventies like that seven,
Like there's a riot going on. But what really happened?
I mean what I remember back in the day, it's Slide.
You know, by then the drugs and everything had taken
hold and they were doing so many takes retakes. It
wasn't that they wore the tape out. That's why it
sounds so funky. That's what that's what um like, what's

(40:13):
the dude, brown sugar, come on, D'Angelo you know all.
That's what they were going for. Whoever that is, but
you did you know what I'm saying. But I was there.
I remember that ship. That's why, because it was like
they owed this album. They had done eight hundred overdubs
and at one point I think Slide was recording on
a boat in Um like sas Alito. That was the story,

(40:37):
you know whatever, six tracks and just taping over taping over,
taping on It's not good, but that's what they tell you.
You should not be You shouldn't print over anything, just
in case any remnants remain of the of the earlier takes.
But maybe you just wear the ship out, get a
certain sound that. Listen to it. Listen to it, you

(40:59):
can hear like it's like damn. But anyway, I love Slide.
Love Slide to the end. There's a story of the
George Clinton always tells of slide Um. The premise starts
with Slide, David Ruffin and George Clinton Detroit and the

(41:21):
story is great. The wait, long story short is basically, Uh,
they found a dealer guy, uh to hook him up
with stuff and pretty much uh Slide new slacker charm
the I mean, he can sell you the Brooklyn Bridge
if he wanted to. That's the kind of charm he had.
So Slide told them the dealer guy who was such

(41:43):
a massive Slide and Family Stone fan. Um, you know,
I don't have the money on me, but this is
what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna give you. I'm gonna
give you the new unreleased slide of Family Stone Masters.
And he had ten masters. Everything's drawn out like song
titles and the tracking and the dB levels and all

(42:07):
the eq s. And he gave it to this guy
and something told George something told George Clinton to just
level with the guy and tell him. George went up
to him, was like, look, man, what I don't want is,
you know, to get unnecessarily shot over some bullsh So
I just want you to know that these things are blank.

(42:29):
I was gonna say. Was like, He's like, no, these
these are blanks. Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna pay your money.
Just give me a second. Well did when we did
Live in color we did a sketch. It was kim
Way in Tonight. It was you don't know that? Wait, no,
here's the deal, so they listen. My sister was one

(42:54):
of the was one of the gospel was one of
the gospel sayings, Cynthia Rose or the younger one then,
I don't remember it was one of them, Cynthia one
of them because I talked to her and I said,
oh my God, sly and to her face drop and
I went no, no no, no, no no, because I don't
have any bad stories to told about I love him.
I just wanted to say I'm a big fan. I'm
honored that you're even here. I was. I couldn't believe it, man,

(43:16):
I couldn't believe. Yeah, but she was one of the
gospel singers or or or Roadstone. Yeah, I forget now
it was a million years ago. But yeah, so that
was a whole big circle. So you're you're like, when
you went to uh college? You Yale? Right, I did,
but I did. My undergrad was at University of Michigan

(43:37):
years Yale. I went to Yale from seventy six to
eighty one. I went from seventy eight to eighty one.
I went to Michigan from seventy four to seventy eight. So, oh,
Angela was there the whole year. She's one of the
first people I met at Yale. And when I tell

(43:59):
you I was there, Reggie Cathy, he and I were
college roommates Michigan. We're college roommates of Michigan. He was
from you know, he was from Huntsville, Alabama. But I
met him as actors, you know, at the University of Michigan.
So we were roommates there. I applied to Yale. I

(44:20):
told Reggie I was applying. He applied to. We both
got in. So that's how we rolled up. Such an
amazing voice. He always said that, you know, he always
had that voice. But the problem was he was real
skinny dorky looking kid, and he sounded like James L. Jones,
so we all knew like, yeah, man, come thirty two years, brother,
you're gonna be just wait thirty two years. Though he

(44:47):
always smoked like forever, all day and night. So yeah.
Pre So from the time you were at Yale where
you involved in any um, like when you're doing theater,
Like how did you kind of get your job? Went there?
I went to the acting school. Yeah so, but but
you know, Angela was undergraduate, so we would do our
little productions and like we did this uh play, a

(45:10):
series of one acts about Lester Young and Angela as
an undergrad, we tapped her and she would come and
act with us. Charles Dutton came like when I was
in a sophomore, I mean or like my second year
because his graduate school he was there, and so we
all worked and stuff, and yeah, Angela, I just saw her. Man,
we're doing Pressed. She's a one, and I'm doing this

(45:33):
other show. But yeah, She's what I'm saying is Angela
was Angela back then. I remember sitting backstage and this
little funky theater and I was like, so, what are
you gonna do? And She's like, I don't know, And
I'm like, you don't know, like maybe you should be
an actress. But she had already been at Yale for
four years, so for her to stay another three, that's

(45:56):
seven years she did, which was great. Well, Courtney was
after I left, after she left, but so uh, I
saw her do antigony as a student and when they
could have gave her oscar then, I mean, she just
ripped it up. I was like, damn, what was what

(46:18):
was the Ivy League experience like back then? Because I
mean now it seems like there's an adjustment. Like I
went to Harvard like a year and a half ago,
and the students seemed well adjusted, and you know, like funny,
you know it's funny. Yeah, Reggie and I when we
got there, we just I felt like and you know,

(46:41):
I felt like just a kid in a candy store,
like you know, we're gonna run this motherfucker because we
just did what we wanted to do. I mean, we
were just running out there. But it was different for
me and my class as an actor as a black actor. People,
black kids, students who were in the acting program who
came to see us told us, you know when they

(47:03):
were there, Uh, they played butlers and maids. You know.
That's it. That's it, that's it, that's it. That was it,
you know. And by the time we got there, we
were doing everything. I mean, because we're just like, no,
give me that, now, give me that. I'm gonna have
a piece of your steak. I'm gonna take some of
your fries. We just did it. So that was a
change over this that's the only thing we knew, and

(47:26):
that's how we moved in the world. But those older
students who had been there before us came back and
they told us, they were like, oh, man, y'all are
living good. This place has changed, and we just happened
to come in in that new wave and energy. You know.
After that, then black kids, it's still not it's diverse.

(47:46):
It wasn't as diverse back then as it could have been. No,
I don't remember. They were Asian students, but not really actors,
you know, not that I remember of brown, Hispanic, not
none of that, I think. But you know, a couple
of black kids, what was Charles that's done like the man. Well,

(48:06):
there was a woman that was in my classroom name
is Easy Monk, and she knew Charles because they went
to Towson State. So yeah, Charles came in, Rock came in,
and we just, yeah, we kicked it real hard. And
he was just a beautiful dude. Man. I mean he
still is. I haven't talked to him in a while. Um,
but he came in with such a force of nature,

(48:31):
you know. I mean if you if you ever got
to see him on stage, he would just rip it up.
But he really was a great guy. I mean, like,
if you befriended him, um, that's a friend for life.
I mean, he came from some real ship. Like I'm
not really gonna tell his stories because that's for him

(48:53):
to tell, but I mean yeah, but I mean he's
written about it that before he went to prison, or
was it was after? It was after? It was after?
But see, the story was like when I first met Rock,
I was like, that's me and so what's up man?
What they put you in there for? Now? The story
at the time, he said, well, I got busted for
possession of bank paraphernili and we're like, yeah, so the

(49:16):
police caught him and you know that means like bank
money and the accouterments of a robbery, you know, and
that they put him in jail. For that. So that
was the story that we got. And uh, you know,
if Rocks talking to you, you will accept that story.
I mean, you're not gonna be like you know. And

(49:40):
later we found out, you know, after he came out
and he did Mo Rainey's Black Bottom, the story was
I think, um, maybe a tabloid was threatening to expose him,
you know, and about what he really did. And Rock
just gave an interview and just you know, his own story. Yeah,
got in front of it. So that that's when I

(50:00):
really heard the other half of it. And I was like,
damn at this just at the time for you, when
you were at Yale, what was really floating your boat
and moving your passion because you're such a multifaceted actor,
music person as well as kind of like well at
that point, I mean, I was my passion was acting

(50:24):
and what I always did from Michigan. Again, when I
started acting in Michigan, they had the Black Kids and
we had this one. It was called Black Theater, and
you know, it's very much an extension of the sixties,
um that black arts movement, um studying black playwrights and
putting on these plays. But the cultural Michigan was such

(50:46):
that they did one black production a year and all
the black kids will wait for that production. Well, soon
as I hit the ground, I was auditioned for everything,
Jacobean tragedies, uh, you know, parlor mysteries. I'd be only
in the Lady Olivia. Now I approached the you know what,

(51:09):
thanks for coming in, buddy. But my thing was like,
I'm gonna keep auditioning. Man, You're not gonna you know,
you're not gonna deny me forever. And I auditioned for everything.
Was the first one you got. It was Othello, and
my professor, Vaughan Washington played Othello, but me Reggie was
in it, and uh so we're in I'll tell you

(51:29):
a funny stories. So every night, you know, at the
very end of Othello, you know, the whole company comes in.
It's Othello's death scene. But soft you a word before
you go. I ain't done the state some service. You know,
it goes on and on. Now, usually we'd be standing
on the stairs because me and Reggie we had like
three lines. I remember, my life was a messenger from

(51:49):
the galleys. Here's more news that. So we would be
working around and we'd be like where we gonna hang
out tonight, man, We're going to pizza her to Bloody
Bloody Blue. So every night we'll be kicking it, like, yeah,
what we're gonna do, man, whatever? And so I look
over and see Reggie and I'm like, I'm asking, man,
what's up? What we gonna do tonight? And he wouldn't answer,

(52:11):
and I look at him and he's just blubbering crying.
I'm like, what the fund is going on? Man? He
looked at me and he said, the motherfucker got to
meet mar was like going, I know all you you know,
you know, I know you, you know, you know he
gets this big monologue cracked me the fun. I can't

(52:36):
help you, man, some words in my ship sucking me up. Man.
From the time that you after, like othello and your
time at Yale, how did you what was kind of
one of your first breaks or you know, what did
you do in between that? Well? My first job I
played Jackie Robinson on Broadway. It was in a musical

(52:58):
called The First. That was my first professional job. I
started auditioning um while I was still in my final
year at Yale. Because the casting uh directors for the
First were the same people who who cast the Repertory
Theater there and they said they came to me and

(53:19):
they said, what do you mind if we submit you?
I was like fuck. So it was over months and months,
and as a matter of fact, the guy who wrote
the lyrics and directed Annie the music, Martin sharnon Uh,
was directing and co writing the first with Joel Siegel.

(53:39):
Martin Sharton, he's eighty five. I just did Daddy Warbucks
at the Hollywood Bowl. Martin came to see me, and
you know, Alan Johnson passed away. These people are dropping
like flyes. So here's what I did. I got Martin
and my addressing with my clothes do. I said, listen, man,
I'm not gonna post on Facebook. Okay, I'm not gonna

(53:59):
wait to your dad. I just want to tell you now,
I love you. You started my career. He really pulled
me out of school, and you gave me my first break,
you know, and I appreciate you and I love you.
Let's get this pound in now while we're alive and breathing.
So that was fun. That was good to know. Yeah,
so that was my first job that we ran like

(54:20):
three weeks. What was this? Yeah? Dream girls could come in? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I remember sitting in up. We used to hang out
this place called Corumbas, and these three finest black girls
come in. They're like, that's gonna be a hit. And
it was Lorette, Divine, Shelley, Ralph, Jennifer, all of jen

(54:44):
Jennifer Lewis, Jennifer she not not when I was in there,
but Jennifer Lewis was again. Jennifer Lewis was Jennifer Lewis
back in one. Yeah, she worked works out the world
at Ethie and then yeah, oh yeah, and they worked
out for like three years. I mean it was long.
And so by the time I came in and took

(55:06):
over for Cleveland Derek's while he was on vacation. And
then I stayed and stood by and you know, making
that money, man, that Broadway money. But that's how to
me back then, A couple of it was a couple
of grand a week, man. Please, I was big. I
thought I was rich. I had it had a nineteen

(55:27):
and Sony trinit child. How dare you looking up and down?
Looking up and down? Man? I had this j I
had this green and blue Nike track suit that I
bought on a hundred twenty fifth Street this ship was
that I'd like it was. It was hell. Yeah, I

(55:49):
thought I was flushing. Where were you living in the
city where I lived? You know, I lived in like
a little apartment up on a hundred and third seventh
and Broadway, and then I moved to my own joint
and like this is duplex, but it really was an apartment.
They cut a hole in it, and yeah, I was
right next to the furnace, you know, like it used

(56:11):
to be coal. So I actually my my bedroom was
the old coal bend, whatever you call that. But but
again I was like a preast side and Nikki sleeves.
The thing is is that I'm when I've heard in
past interviews where you like, you know, I started out
a serious actor and everything, but where do you is it?

(56:36):
Your theory that comedy really depends on how good your
timing is, because I would have have had I not
known your serious back background and and acting, I would
have thought that, you know, you were in a like
a groundlings or I was, you know, I started doing
I mean, we did a stand up show at Yale,

(56:58):
and clearly I was enamored with comedy. When we were
doing Porgy and Best, a woman came and gave me
the playbill from the first and when I looked at
my bio, I had no credits. This is my first
professional job. But what I put down there is David
has appeared in comedy clubs across the nation, and you

(57:20):
know so clearly that Eddie Murphy had just it was
just about to come on. All the energy was in comedy.
I snuck down and performed like open mics a couple
of times at the Improv in Manhattan, and I met

(57:44):
Keenan there. That's actually the first place I met him.
This gotta be eighty seven nine or eighty yeah, And
I waited in line and he was the only regular
that would talk to me, and I was like, dude,
what what should I do? And he said, okay, well
I watch you know, I went on like two in
the morning. Basically you get three minutes. So I just
yelled and scream did some card wheels, and Keen was like, okay,

(58:08):
will you have energy? Keen he was a coming. He
would go up then he was he was working man.
He was already I mean he was. When I say
he was a regular, that means you know you've passed, well,
you passed this audition. And so you were able to
do spots. That's how the old system was no, no no.

(58:29):
A regular means he stood in line until the owner goes, okay,
you are passed. That means you get spots and all that.
The rest of us were just out there. So uh yeah, man.
So clearly to answer your question, I've always been a
class clown. I've always been this dude. But I was
just trying to be like, you know, like because back

(58:49):
then I wanted to be like the black doctor or lawyer.
So when Denzel got st elsewhere, we all auditioned. I
auditioned everybody. Couple of places. She needs to have her
appendix taken out. You know, he got it, but we
all auditioned, and then you know, I did Soldiers Play.

(59:11):
This was after the first and that's where I met
Adolf Caesar, Sam Jackson. Sam. Let me tell you about Sam.
Oh my god. We had all the dudes. We we
shared one big room and there was this twelve ins
TV black and white TV that was in the corner
and they watched Family Feud every day and Sam Jackson

(59:31):
ruled that dressing room. Talked about commend I will save
this actor's name, But what time understudy went on, and
Sam was just really just like, motherfucker, what was you doing? Nigga?
What the funk was that? You know? He kept going

(59:51):
out of and doy fuck you Sam and said we're
not missing a be said before you put your dick
in me, you need to put your dick in the
second act. Man, listen to me. I ran out the building.
I ran out the building. Eidolf Caesar he was, he's
putting his makeup with Sam was in the corners like, man,

(01:00:13):
what the fun is you doing with this old kabuki makeup?
Only motherfucker he here with. Yeah, the rest of us
were sweaty, funky, We'll just be like I'm ready. What
was Adolph like? As as in that guy? My god?
We loved Adolf Adolf Caesar, man, please, he was first

(01:00:33):
of all, a little short, light skinned dude grew up
in Harlem name Adolf Seesar. What parent would name Adolf Caesar? Yeah? Man,
But Adolph had great stories. I mean I talked to him.
I remember he said, you know, he was caught in
a trick bag, whereas he was not black enough in

(01:00:55):
Hugh because when you know black consciousness the sixties, all
that big as Afro's chocolate brown skin. He didn't fit
in that mold yet he wasn't white enough. He described
going to the Guthrie as a young actor and Tyrone
got three and the white. They sent him home. They said,
eight off, we really we don't have anything for you.
So you need to go back to New York, you know,

(01:01:16):
because we can't really help you. And uh so that
was really a poignant story. And when he came in
he had been on a roll. But Sergeant Waters, okay,
so who was because the Soldier Story, like, that's one
of my favorite movies. I used to watch that coming
home from school, Like that was like my babysitter. And

(01:01:37):
I didn't think we get into it. Sam didn't get
in Oh yeah, who was saying, we'll say you know Sam?
I think they as I remember, they wrote his character
out like he was because his character would always read
all his love letters, you know, from all his girlfriends.
That wasn't in the movie. Um, but to watch it. Okay,
So Reggie Cathy, he called me up. He said, look, man,

(01:02:00):
and there's a part for you in Soldier Story because
soldiers play. Yeah. Larry Riley, who played the pH he played,
played guitar, played slide. You know, everybody knew I played guitar,
and He's like, man, you could kill this. So I
went over there and I got the part immediately in
the play. Yes, first play. The play came first, so

(01:02:24):
you know people would come. But you know, at that time,
I didn't think any of us would get in to
the movie because I just thought they would use Hollywood actors,
and but Norman Jewison auditioned all of us and he
put us in there. Man. Yeah, so what was that experience? Like?
Man like working with his great Howard Rolins. I mean

(01:02:45):
that was was, man, you know Howard, most of it was.
You know, that was a six million dollar movie and
that that they vibe around it. You know, everybody was like,
don't suck up. You know this is your big not
since Bingle Long and the Traveling Old Stars. You know, yeah,
this is gonna be Black Panther, you know version. But

(01:03:12):
it was like, you're going to watch this movie. No,
we hung out. I mean it was a brotherhood, man, Denzel.
Everybody was putting in work. But the story I wanted
to tell you when I finally met Eddie Murphy, Eddie
said the first time he ever saw me was in
a soldier story and he didn't know me, He didn't
know who I was. He said, dude, when you came on,

(01:03:34):
he said, who the fuck is this country? Ass? Where
the fund did they get him from? You know, because
we're all doing the Southern accents, which was a great compliment.
But it was funny. Yeah, see ja don't talk quick,
talking quick, and we had big fun and Norman Juson

(01:03:54):
was beautiful. Man. Yeah, man, it was nice to my sons.
I did. I mean I used to watch it as
a kid, but it didn't really resonate until you know,
I got older and really understood. But yeah, that that's
just a class. That's one of my favorite was Big Fun, Man,
Big fun. We went fishing, We did everything, man in
that little ass funky fucking Arkansas man. Yeah, damn Sports

(01:04:20):
Smith Arkansas on location three months. So what was it?
I was gonna ask, what what uh? What was the
first television The thing that you did As far as
the first television thing I did is I did a presentation,
a pilot presentation that's like a fifteen minute presentation and

(01:04:41):
it was me and two white guys. David Steinberg directed it,
and it was for CBS, and you know, it was
just some innocuous comedy. But I remember I would call
CBS every day and there's this cute Puerto Rican too
who worked at the reception. I'd be like, because I

(01:05:02):
wanted to know if a show got picked up. I
had a pad and pencil I was at calculating. I said, ship,
if this bad word gets picked up, you know, fifteen
thousand a week, I'll be a thousand airs. Yeah. It
didn't get picked up. So that was the first thing
I did, you know. But the first show I did
was called All This Forgiven. That was the nineties six

(01:05:25):
and it was the Charles Brothers who did Cheers. That
was their first show after that. So again I was like, well,
I was at the Ferrari dealership. Notoriously, I had a calculator.
I'm like, in two and a half years, you know.
So so that's what we did, and we got an

(01:05:46):
order for thirteen and Dick I was telling people when
I was on UM the Car Michael Show, talk about ratings,
and we looked it up. We followed Cheers, so our
premier week we pulled in twenty million viewers, and at
that time the network was like, what word yeah, because

(01:06:08):
and at that time it was like you held it
but yeah, And when they canceled us, we were pulling
in like eighteen million. Yeah, we had an order for thirteen.
We did nine episodes and you know, then they took
they had a big meeting and they said, listen, we're
so good. We're not going to do the rest of
our order because we don't need it. And I was

(01:06:28):
like nig I was on the phone immediately the ship
is sinking. That was like going, hey, do we're gonna
record this album? We're not gonna release it because it's
so good people will find it you And You're like, no, man,
like a Perl remix album, box everything, whatever. How did

(01:06:51):
you m so from the time from the Soldier story
and I was just laughing at your fast react. It
was just fast. Oh no, from the time of a
soldier story to you know, you're doing the past uff.
How are you supporting yourself? Were you still just doing theater?
I always worked, I mean I never only did theater.
I mean I mean I only did acting. So I
was doing everything in my whole, in my button button.

(01:07:18):
My parents never helped me. It was just money. Well,
I was singlely just that gig. That gig, that gig.
I mean, that was my reality. It's it's you know,
older like you know, there are people would mentor me.
I remember Animale Horsford had a sister who was like
at Columbia and Colombia did Soldier story. And I remember

(01:07:39):
where I was eating, you know, at her house. She
had this really nice apartment West End Avenue, and they
were asking me back then. They were like, um, you know,
well you'll know when you're out of work. And I
was like, I've never been out of work, and these
they're like, oh my god, the small pucker. I'm not
saying I was doing like you know, I just was working.
We're doing everything we do, voiceover's, commercial, you know, anything that.

(01:08:04):
How did you get how did you get hooked up
with um Hollywood Shuffle? How did you get that? Well,
Robert Townsend. I met Robert Townsend on um Soldier's play,
So it Toole Soldier. We shared the honeywagon. So I
will tell you, like I thought, Robert was the funniest

(01:08:25):
dude I ever in the world, Like he was doing
everybody's material, you know, like he was doing he said, yeah,
I miss my boy Damon and he did all the
more money ship and I'd be like crying, like who
then me and him, Him and Denzel were always already
tight and just crying. I'm talking about fifteen hours a day,
you know when you're young. Uh, we couldn't get enough.

(01:08:47):
We would make each other laugh until we just passed
out sleep. I remember sitting on the bed and I
think it was Denzel's room and watching Keenan on Soul Train,
you know do and on the Night Show when he
did his first spot he was in the center fold
of Right On Magazine, you know, was like But Robert

(01:09:08):
broke it down to me in our little trail. He said, look, man,
we're gonna have a film company, him and Keenan. We're
doing these movies we're doing. So he broke it all
down there. He said, Man, if you down, I want
you to do this. You know, Hollywood shuffle all that stuff.
So I heard about it, and when I came out
for to do my pilot season that following year, I

(01:09:28):
stayed with Robert and he introduced me to Keenan Damon,
who Damon was the size of like Marlon, like like
Damon always had kids, like he had kids from the
first time I met him, I was like, damn so dick.

(01:09:52):
So that led I'm gonna show you how I get
to God to a living color. So Keenan, all those
guys knew me just from hanging out. So I would
hang out with them every and go to these comedy clubs.
I didn't do comedy until Robert and those guys just
shamed me into it. They were like, look, man, you
can't be just rolling with us. I gotta do spots.
So I started doing spots just for fun. And uh

(01:10:13):
so through that, Keenan knew me, you know. So when
we did I'm gonna get you sucker um and that
broke um. Keena was like, look, I know how funny
you are. What did you do? I'm trying to play
the news again. That was basically interviewed, he interviewed. Uh,

(01:10:33):
but he was the one that was seen. I was.
I was like, through Springsteen is amazing. You guys heard
him because he's really good. Yeah. So so they basically
Keena just said, dude, do your thing. So so he goes, look,
look man, I'm doing this show. You know, this sketch show,

(01:10:56):
Black sketch Show. I want you to be on it
now Robert already we have been talking about the Five Heartbeats. Now.
The original counsel was supposed to be Me, Denzel, I think, Damon, No, Keenan,
and Robert. So I got in long story short, I
got in in living color, and then Robert called. They said, man,

(01:11:19):
I got the money. We're doing the Five Heartbreaks. I'm
like what. I was like, shoot, I gotta get out
this day. He said, man, what the funk did you
signed the deal? You know what? I called Keenan. I
was like, Keenan, I need to talk to you because
I'm very unhappy about this contract. I need to be
let go to do this movie. Was like, dude, I can't.
I mean, you signed a contract. It's not me. I mean,

(01:11:40):
Fox will sue. You know what what I'm saying. I don't
think you want me in your show. I'm gonna be
very angry. Was like, Dave, look um, shake it off.
I mean I wish I could help you, but I could.
I mean, I was just it was one of those things.
So I didn't do it. Keenan couldn't do it, Damon
didn't do it, and who were you? I forget, I

(01:12:02):
honestly forget which one of those dudes. But yeah, who
was the original lineup again? Me, Bob, you know Robert
Town's Damon, Keenan, Denzel, who who would have been? Well,

(01:12:22):
there's a documentary about that I haven't seen yet but trying. Yeah,
maybe maybe it's in there. But yeah, so all that
and like, uh yeah it was wild. So when no,
I was just gonna say, it's it's deep because you
worked with so many like dope ensemble casts that I
just I was going to ask you, like, who has

(01:12:44):
challenged you the most and the best ways? That obvious
it was in Living Color because you know, coming into
a Living Color I did not have a comedy background.
I mean, you know, Keenan, Damon, all those guys were
in the trenches. They came in with their pockets full.
I didn't have any characters. Damon actually came to me.
That's how Calhoun Tubbs was written. He said, look, man,

(01:13:07):
you gotta have some characters. Think of something, you know.
I was like, well, there's this blues dude, and he said,
let's write it down. So we came up with that.
Then we did men On. So it just kind of built, Yeah,
I kind of built. But originally that was Keenan and
Damon and they were supposed to be Dicky and somebody
their brothers. You know they're gonna be and then Stephens

(01:13:29):
and recy was listening. Way who was it? It was
the dudes from Motown, the writers, that was what it
was based on. But the Ghetto asked version of and
Howard Tips the third based storm real people because when
when Licolor first popped, I mean, dudes would just hang
out and I remember sitting in the makeup room and

(01:13:50):
dudes would just roll in and be like, oh, look,
your brother, can you give this card to Damien? And
then you know, you know, you know black, yeah, lot
of it. There was a table that was in our
rehearsal studio and we would have breakfast and then we
start our day and most of those characters started. We're
just ragging on each other, you know. And that was

(01:14:12):
one of those things where me, everybody would do it
because we all saw those guys until finally, after a
few days, you'd be like, yo, man, that'sh it is funny.
You need to put that on the show. So that's
kind of how it evolved. And then it was me
and Tommy Man, how often did y'all crack up? Because like,
some of my funniest times watching the color was watching
y'all about to last, dude. That was so funny. There's

(01:14:33):
a sketch where I saw a while ago because I
remember we were doing it and I was tired. It
was late. I'm like, man, I ain't gonna tape this ship,
and Terry the director goes got it and I'm like,
what I told you? We were taking it. So I
was watching when this good? You see me in there,
like I thought we were rehearsing. Man, I was like,

(01:14:56):
oh ship, she was right. Where did prison tiny co
for him? I did? I wrote that with like I
went to college with this guy Fax bar And and
he was white dude, and he was in our theater company,
like way back we did short Eyes and stuff. So
I brought him and his writing partner onto the show

(01:15:18):
and he me and him and Adam Small, we all
wrote the prison Cable Channel Network. And the reason why
it was so much fun is because if you look
back the first one, especially, everybody was in it. He
didn't really didn't. He would, he would do stuff, but
he was in it. Jim was in it. Everybody all together,
and that's what made it so fun because Usually it
would be like, you know, this is your sketch. You know,

(01:15:40):
I don't know microphone man, and we do smaller stuff
and support you and go on. But to get everybody down,
and that was what was fun about it. How did
because of the kind of the rapid level of how
that show just exploded across America? Um? How different was

(01:16:03):
your life after season one? Well, I'll give you an example. UM.
I auditioned for A Living Color with Chris Rock. We
did our final like this improv is me and him
and Susie Esmon. Susie. Susie didn't really want to do
this show. She was like, you guys do it. I
don't really want to do No, she wanted to stay.

(01:16:23):
She was I'm not moving to l A want so
New York. Who Martin Martin, Martin Lawrence. I auditioned with Martin.
Me and him were friends from way back, and he
didn't get it, so he would come in. No, he
didn't get it, so wait other people auditioned for this.
I felt like you eleven were specifically chosen what we were.

(01:16:44):
But still there was an audition process. Martin auditioned and
everybody from the comedy act theory, No not everybody. Robin Harrison,
he was on At one point. I feel like, I
don't think no no, no, no no no. It was
but but but I went to the Comuni Act Theater
a million times. I performed there a million times. I

(01:17:05):
saw Robin, you know, a trillion times now as I remember,
he was not on it. But I just I'm telling you.
I auditioned with Martin, I auditioned with Chris Rock. Uh,
Chris did Saturday Night Live. So I went to visit Chris.
And that's when I really thought, with down ship, I
guess I'm doing something because you know, everybody is Saturday

(01:17:27):
Night treated me like I was famous. You know, Lauren Michaels,
They're like, oh my god, you know, the whole cast. Uh.
They were like, dude, well you know they're treating me
like I was about some ship. And I was like,
damn man, because you know, when we didn't live in
color we would, you know, we would do our work,
then we would go have Thai food or go hang

(01:17:47):
out at Cape Mantalini's. That was a big joint on Wilshire.
It's closed now, but uh, and then we go home.
It wasn't you know when you go to Saturday Night Live.
They got limos after party OPERAZZI. No, man, I got
my little I forget what I had. My father gave
me a chocolate brown one Coope Deville and you could

(01:18:12):
outrun that motherfucker. Yeah, it was not like that. You know,
so so so coming to visit Chris and I was like, Chris,
is it like this all the time? He said, yeah, man, yeah,
So Chris came on after that, he came later, Yeah,
he came later. But Chris. I knew Chris since probably

(01:18:33):
nineteen fuck, I don't know, eighties something. Where did y'all
come up with the little miss Magic? Little Magic? It
was at the back of it was Kim right, It
was the back of a jet magazine. We found this
picture of this little black girl and it was so
obnoxious because she was like, we just started riffing. We

(01:18:57):
just I forget who named your little Magic. But it
was Kim and me, and I didn't want to play
the mom because I was like, why are you putting
on this drag ship? And then goes, listen, motherfucker, I
have the dress on. Okay, It's like, let me just
go and do it. Because we played around and stuff,
so that's how that happened. I mean, it just a
lot of it's very organic. You know, if we made

(01:19:19):
each other laugh, then it was obvious you gotta do that.
You gotta make a sketch out of that. So all right,
So here's something I always wanted to know. That's what
I was. Who happened to her? I was trying to
get married. She was like the first many seasons she
was the wasn't she the whole show? I mean she
made Alexandra went well tick. Kelly was there from the beginning,

(01:19:46):
now fucking hilarious. Well she wanted. I mean, it's like anything.
I mean, Keenan said something really funny, like when it
first popped off. He said, Look, I'm gonna tell you
what's gonna happen. Somebody's gonna cheat on their wife, somebody's
gonna fuck, somebody's go girl friend, somebody's gonna have a
drug problem, somebody's gonna come out the closets, and you know,
all that stuff. It's what happens in every group, basically,

(01:20:08):
And basically that's what happened. I mean, you know, you
you you you get a groove going, it's really famous,
and then you know people want more, you have more
lines to me, you know, that's the kind of stuff.
So that's basically what happened. And it just once Keenan left,
where did he leave? He left after the second year? Yeah, yeah,

(01:20:29):
I always felt like he was there longer. But no,
you're right now. But but when we all stayed and
then the wayans gradually, I think, uh, Damon laughed and
then so it was Kim and Sean and you know
so and then just kind of dissipated after that. What

(01:20:50):
I want to do is, Okay, so when you were
in your your bag and in your zone, was doing
like Broadway and occasional movies whatever, and you had you
said like you weren't super broken, you didn't have to
get a regular job. You made a modest living. But okay,
so when you're on a cultural phenomenon like Living Color

(01:21:15):
and you're in l a and you make that decision
to jump into the river, which is like, Okay, you're
making good money and the show looks like it's going
to be a hit, so you're probably seeing yourself. Okay,
all should be no reason why we're not on the
air for at least seven years or whatever. So how

(01:21:39):
risky is it too, really laid down roots in Los Angeles,
as in, I'm want to hit show. Do I get
the ball out? Do I do I get the You know?
I that okay, when Ugly Betty was on the air
and it was such a hit and all that stuff,

(01:21:59):
a mirror could purchased this house and everything, and then
like it got canceled in three years and she couldn't
sell that house for ship nine years ago. That never
happened to me. But well, just in general, like once
you decide to not be meager, and I'll tell you
what that happened. That happened Like I was doing. I

(01:22:20):
started auditioning for this Bob Fosse musical, and I went
to England to visit a friend of my, Matthew Modine,
who is doing full Meal. And I remember my agents
called and they said, David, if you come back, we
know you're gonna get this musical. And at that point,
you know, I had done dream Girls on and off.

(01:22:42):
I was really getting tired of New York. That scene.
I really wanted to buy a car. I wanted to
buy a drop top Mustang g T five point out
that was my dream car. And I said, I'm not
gonna get this man in New York. That's when I
really emotion Lee said, I'm going to l A. Okay,

(01:23:03):
So I didn't go back. I didn't go back to
do that final call for the Bob Fosse Musical. I
went out to l A that for that pilot season
and I booked my first pilot. So basically from that
I would move back. I came back once after we
did the pilot of In Living Color, because once we

(01:23:24):
did the pilot, it took over a year for them
to pick it up. You know, when I would go
and do guest was I I did this guest spout
on alf but wherever I would go, right wherever I
would go, all the crew had seen we did our
pilot of in Living Color. It became like a bootleg
and these dudes on the crew be like, yo, man,

(01:23:46):
that was the funniest ship. What are they gonna do with?
And I was like, I don't know. It got so
bad that Vanity Fair printed an article about in Living Color,
you know, something like this is the hottest underground tape.
You know, it like a black Saturday night Life. Everybody
had seen it. Yeah, it was over. What took long?
What took so long to iron it. We'll see. You

(01:24:06):
know the concept of the living color Eddie had. Eddie
Murphy had it, that idea to do a black SNL
a Black Scotch show. Everybody had that idea, but Keenan
is the one who actually did it. Yeah, I don't know.
I mean it was Barry Diller was running Fox and
they didn't see this as you know, it's gonna be instant.

(01:24:27):
I'm just telling you, man, it took a while. Finally
we got picked up, and uh that's when I went
and I said no three times. You know, I said
no because, like I told you, I'm not that's not
my thing. You know, I don't really i don't have
a bunch of characters. I'm not deep in this improv thing.
But Kim Wains I moved back to New York. And

(01:24:48):
when I moved back after being in l A, I
realized that was the wrong thing because the next day
I was back at the same call, same two dudes.
Hey man, what's up? Man? I was like, oh my god, yeah,
And she said, David, trust me, this is the right decision.
So I trusted her. And because out of all the
ship I auditioned for It was at a time where

(01:25:10):
I must audition for thirty pilots. I was the dude
or be like, well, I don't know, maybe we'll go
black red. Yeah, you know, so I would read. I
didn't get it, but I always knew that living color
would be the most fun. It wasn't the most money.
But finally I just told my agents. I was like,
I'm just gonna do this because I'm tired of, you know,
auditioning for stuff. I didn't really care, because you want

(01:25:31):
it to the very end, right, Yeah, yeah, I was, Yeah,
yeah I was. And so once I got in there, dude,
we did the pilot, we did men on. I remember
my agent call the next day and she said, they're
doing snaps over a time, MGM, David. They're doing snaps
at Columbia. People are snapping all over the city and
I was like, damn. And this was for the first time,

(01:25:56):
for the first time in my life, everybody was in
like our green room. Everybody, all the biggest stars, you know,
everybody wanted to come and hang out with us. And
I was like, damn, for one for once in my life,
I was on the coolest show. I went, I got
my burglar alarm installed and the white dude he said,

(01:26:16):
he was like, oh, he just went crazy. He was like,
oh my god. The cab driver. I was like, damn,
this must be what it feels like. No, it's It's
funny you say that cars your thing because you created
some of my favorite characters, like Steven's and recy, Like,
I mean, I got into it. I'm just saying that
as an actor, as an artist, we all are apprehensive.

(01:26:38):
I mean, I just everybody has insecurity. I mean I
just heard a story that, like What's Jones talked about it.
He talked about like he was supposed to jam with
Hendricks a bunch of times, but he said Hendricks never
showed up because he said he felt like he knew
he was intimidated by these jazz musicians. You know, he
didn't his knowledge was different. You know, him and Miles

(01:27:01):
Davis kicked it. They were supposed to record a bunch
of ship, but it just never got together. Everybody has
an insecurity, even the most brilliant people. They do every artist,
you know, ship where they I'm not ready, you know
this kind of thing, but you know I jumped in,
I said, you know, so it all worked out after
the Living Color? What were your Where did you go
from there? I'll tell you know. After a Living Color,

(01:27:22):
I figured because I was doing stand up and stuff,
I said, well, I probably can headline for about eighteen months.
You know, there's no YouTube, there's no nothing. How long
did they announce to you that the season five is
our last one? Was it just like here's the cake?
I was in New York, I was doing Shakespeare in
the Park. And now after that, you know, Jim Carey

(01:27:45):
had always already blown up with Yes, was that the
first one was his first movie, which was As Winter.
I turned that down. Everybody it was. It was a
script that was passed around, but Jim look it because
he said, look, I'll take this, but you gotta let
me do my thing. So they gave him all the

(01:28:05):
power and he said, fuck it. You know, so now
I gotta tell you another story. So we went to
the opening of uh Ace Ventura and so the press
check goes, oh, I got an excitement, you have exciting news.
I've sat you next to Jim and you know yet
Jim Carrey and Jim was so nervous he literally was
climbing out of his skin. So I'm sitting right there

(01:28:27):
and I want I'm gonna laugh because it's my boy
or whatever, I'm gonna laugh. And I laughed myself dizzy sick.
Now I'm watching it and I'm like, Jim is too crazy, man, Jim,
Jim Jim. He did that movie like they gave him
six months to live. So he was just telling every joke,
every joke. He just worked it. And so I come
out in the lobby. I see Chris and I was like, Chris,

(01:28:49):
what's up? Because nobody's gonna see this movie? And I
was like no, because it was too crazy. I just
thought America is not ready. We used to joke with Jim.
I said, look, man, if I won a lot of
I wanted to give Jim five million dollars just to
do his movie. He used to do this thing called
Colon Man. He would whip out, you know, his three

(01:29:10):
of Colon and he would last sue people and suck
him in his ass. That's not the kind of ship
we would do. This is the kind of ship we were.
We're comedian, we just do dude. I was crying. I
was like, Jim, please please, I'm gonna give you some money.
I want you to do Colon Man. He was like, yeah,
so we'ld just be messing around making each other laugh.

(01:29:31):
But what I'm saying is I didn't think I just
saw it. You know, in a couple of years, people
forget about the show. I go back to, you know,
I do what I really want to do, which is
I want to do like a sitcom like the Black Signfeld,
you know, and I just that's where my head was at.
I did not see the legacy of in Living Color.
And I'll tell you who did. Was Jim Carrey. I

(01:29:52):
mean from the very beginning, we'd be sitting in the
dress when he said, man, this is history, this is
I was like, man, please, it's likely didn't know because
I just didn't. I just did not see, Like you
don't read yours, I know, but I didn't. My sons. Yeah,
but I also didn't. I'm gonna put it like this,

(01:30:14):
what I did. I remember, I did this play and
they had the men's dressing when the women's dressingroom at
this point, you know, it's like two thousand six. So
everybody had their laptop all laid up, and all these
dudes had catalog their favorite in Living Color sketches. They
could press a button dial it in You know, that
technology wasn't there when we did in Living Color in

(01:30:37):
ninety four. I didn't anticipate that longevity. As I toured
the country, I started performing for guys who were kids,
say ten or eleven or twelve, who snuck and watched
the show. Now they're teenagers, you know what I mean.
Now they're teenagers. And from there the people who saw
the next generation under them, who saw it on be

(01:31:00):
et or whatever you know, on I forget what it's
It's on a bunch of channels. Yeah, there was a
point where it was on every day. I mean it
was somewhere right. I mean, I just I didn't see
all that. I didn't see YouTube. Come on, man, I
don't see it. And I was gonna I was gonna
ask was I felt like Boomerang was closer than Live
in Color than that Boomerang was during in Color. And

(01:31:20):
what I didn't know is that's so I get Boomerang
and Keenan said go ahead and do it, and I
figured he I was cleared by Fox, But Keena never
told Fox. He just told me. He went to the
Huddling Brothers and he said, make sure you have David
back on tape day, so that the makeup. No, but

(01:31:43):
I'm talking about you talk about doing someone a solid,
putting himself out there. And I didn't find out too
many years later. I was like what, and he goes, yeah,
what was that scene, dude? The table scene we were doing.

(01:32:05):
We were doing the scene and I'm sitting there and
I go, what is the most embarrassing thing that could happen?
Your parents fucking in the bathroom. So we're at the
table and I'm sitting next to Eddie, So I whispered Eddie,
and Eddie fell out laughing. So I see him get
up and go around because we're shooting in this big gloss.

(01:32:25):
He goes around and he tells Warrenton, who was a producer,
and it's all in pantomime. I see Warrenton just fall
out laughing. He goes and tells Reggie, the director, who's
on the other side behind the monitor. He falls out laughing.
So at the very end of the day, um, Eddie says,
we're gonna film it. So every time we tried to
do the scene, you know where John and then come
out and Eddie's looking at me. Eddie never kept a

(01:32:49):
straight face, so I always thought well, we can't use
it because we didn't get a good take. So that's
why I went away from it. Um. The brilliance of
Eddie Murphy again is that he allowed that in the moment,
we gotta put this on film, and it was became
one of the funniest you know. My character was was
just the best friend. You know. When I read the script,

(01:33:12):
I kind of was like, well, I'm in a Eddie
Murphy movie. But am I doing? But the brilliant thing
is we rehearsed for three weeks and rehearsed what we
actually improvised. It was controlled improvisation, so all of like
the scenes with me, Martin and Eddie mostly like, uh,

(01:33:32):
we we improved it, you know. So so Reggie would go, look,
you know, you guys are working out, just go and
we would start improvising. There was there was a well
there was a woman there taking notes and when I
say guided, he would go, okay, stop stay in that area,
stay in So he would guide it. All the best
bits they wrote them down and that's how the script
was rewritten. That's how it really became ours. Yeah, that's funny,

(01:34:04):
that's funny. That's why I mean, it was guy so
so that was rehearsed. Well, it was like a table read.
And then Eddie was living Eddie life like he was
in Washington. Then they would flies to Washington. I think
it was for I don't know something, you know. He
was just there hanging out in d C. And we

(01:34:24):
hung out at the Four Seasons for a few days
and we rehearsed there. Um, there was improvised improvisation that
happened on the set, but it was already formed and
for us to succeed. And also what that did. I
didn't know Eddie at all. I kind of knew Martin,
you know, like I said, me and him were boys,
but it bonded us because we're supposed to be best friends.

(01:34:47):
So it was really that's the only time I've ever
done that on a film, and I think that's the
only time I heard Eddie did. It worked like that.
But that's what made that film so good. So that's
not standard, right telling. You know, I've been acting for
thirty five years. I've never had a month long rehearsal
period before we start filming. What if something was so

(01:35:08):
magical and there was no camera to capture just it
was lost, I mean, because the things that happened in
rehearsal that damn that should have Yeah, you know, never
whenever get that magic again. You got you got the
good ship, trust me. Okay, I'll give you one thing
that happened when I left the loft, you know, after
my parents fucked, we did an improv all the way

(01:35:32):
down the stairs, all the way out in the street.
So they said cup for me and John we kept going,
how could you do this? I'm trying to do my thing.
I was like, man, what, Daddy why? And we kept going,
We kept going. All that was lost but we were
so and it was so much fun with mom. Mom,
this is why could you do? You know? We kept

(01:35:53):
going back and forth and you know, so that kind
of stuff was lost, but it just but we I
don't you know, they didn't videotape it. What they may
have recorded it, but I don't think so. I just
so in contrast with the halle Berry scenes, that was
completely like on bok no because I'll tell you what,
because because like I'll give you an example, when halle
Berry go, when Hallie go, that was me. That was

(01:36:15):
an improv I did, But it didn't make sense that
I would do that. You know in the kind of
the scene. So I gave that to her, but just
and that was in the moment. That was in the moment.
So so they encourage that. How did the student go on?
Martin red Done told me he just let me go.

(01:36:40):
But me and Martin, I love Martin man. I met
him like from way back, you know. And Martin was
always Martin like he told me from way back when
this like white lady owned the clubs, like sit down,
you can't do what you're doing. It's foul, you know,
you can't be talking like that. Martin was always like,

(01:37:03):
this is what I'm gonna do it. So um yeah, yeah.
So when Martin Martin did his show, uh, he brought
me on. And the only thing I remember, there's a
guy named John Bowman who used to be on a
Living Color. Then he went over and was worked with Martin.
And I just said, I want to play a preacher.

(01:37:23):
I just want to play a bootleep. You say okay,
because they still were saying we want you to come on.
Martin wants you to come on. What do you want
to play? And I said, let me play a preacher.
And from there it just and I did a bunch
of times as one of my favorite characters of Yours dude,
and the way he scooped back the scoop. Don't let

(01:37:52):
the damn you he's here. It's a spare sparencing there.
So that's where get your bier. Tell us about Blank Man.
Oh ye, damon, here's here's a story before you start.
When everybody was out watching Black Panthers when that came out,

(01:38:14):
I was at home watching Blank Man, the only one
because I saw a black panther on a stone going
to England. I was like, I was crying. I want
to jump the Panthers. You still haven't. I haven't seen
it yet. Out of the club until you come. I'm

(01:38:37):
not a Marvel person, so this is a real black
nerd like a Marvel person, all clothed at the orgy.
I don't like told shoes, you man, Black Panther's not true.
I went to the movies with this girl and this

(01:38:58):
is when the first weekend and Black Panther open. I
saw this one brother. It was at the what was
it at the arc light he had but it was
too small and he was waiting around. He got stood
up and they were like, sir. The movie starting and
he's like, I didn't want to be that dude. So
I was like, I'm gonna wait until people stopped dressing

(01:39:19):
up and I could just go see it was turned up.
Everybody in the wrong Black panthers. A lot of you know, Carlie,
they get it wrong. It was a lot of leather jackets.
Well we try, we try, but no Black Panther was beautiful. Man.
I love this ship. I eventually yeah, what was that?
Like you and Damian told me he was doing this thing,

(01:39:40):
you know again we're on the Living Color and uh
he said, you know, I want you to do this.
Let's say cool man, let's do it. Um, Robin Givens,
I don't think i'd matter. Everybody heard about her, you know,
she was just that girl. You didn't meet her on
the they didn't do Yeah, I don't think they have
anything together. No, I mean at the matter I matter.

(01:40:06):
I mean we I knew her as a friend, you know,
like that, and I loved her. She's cool. Um, we
just did it. I mean it was great. It was
a beautiful thing. And um, but I you know, when
we were doing blank man, like I don't know if
meteor Man came out first, but I know they're kind
of competing. But you know, back then, there were two things.

(01:40:28):
There a couple uh scenarios for black comedians performers. Wouldn't
it be great if they were a black superhero? Every
black comedian talked about the possibility of a black president.
That wasn't everybody. We all did. We all talked, we
all had some riff on that, you know, those kinds
of things. And to live and see all this ship

(01:40:49):
that's what makes it amazing. But I never got to
meet Obama, but because I always wanted to meet him
in the White House. But I didn't want to have
to like donate money. I just wanted to be like no,
I wanted it to be organic. I wanted it to
be like David Um, this Brock and Michelle not likely

(01:41:09):
to come to the house, you know like that. I
know you Yeah. And then at the end when it
was like they started throwing parties, it was like DJ Scribble,
you know everybody. I was like, man, I'm good, I'm good,
I'm good. I met Michelle. I'll meet him eventually. But
I did want to meet him while he was in office.

(01:41:30):
You know, I've he's still president. Would you ever do
or have you done a special. Yeah, I did one.
I did a stand up special a while ago. Um
would I do another one? It's a Netflix world, so

(01:41:52):
it's beyond that now. I mean, Gerade just directed up
special where there's no laughter. I'm like, that's first. No,
he directed this white dude where there's no audience, it's
just him talking. I didn't understand what it was, but
I saw his name and I saw what he directed it.
Like I said, Okay, now y'all are giving lectures no audience,

(01:42:16):
call me old school. Tell us about chocolate news, and like, well,
chocolate news. You know. This was happening after the Chapelle Show.
Everybody I heard, everybody was pitching to comedy centially. They
wanted to be the next Chapelle. So I just looked
at that and and from what I heard was all

(01:42:36):
of the next Chapelle stuff was a trap. Nobody could
be the next Day of Chappelle. So I avoided that.
And then it was the like I wanted to do,
like the Black Daily Show kind of but in a
in a sketch scenario, meaning everything was written, it wasn't
based on real news. It was all fake. So I
just you went in there and I talked to them

(01:42:58):
and used the template of real Sports, because if you
mentioned Chappelle, they'd be like, now we've done that, it's
always failed. Oh I want to do the Daily As
soon as you say the Daily Show, that's John Stewart's territory.
You gotta go through him. No, we won't do that.
So I purposely never said that, and they were like, wow, okay,
So they bought it. And I was only on for

(01:43:18):
one year or one season was ten episodes. But that's
the purest me, unfiltered from my own hand written performed
that you're gonna get. So I just I just did
everything I wanted to do. I mean, they gave me
pretty much free rain. Probably the one idea we wanted

(01:43:40):
to do a Quanza special and they said no, and
we wanted to do the origin story of Quanza. But
in claymation my people, there's a whole we don't get it,
so they wouldn't short of that. I did everything I
wanted to do. Man, they just might let go. So
that was cool, even if it was just I think

(01:44:02):
a couple of we have homies, Um was it? I
think THEO was he right? That was the first job?
What were they like them. They were hungry, man. I
mean I dug them because they were intelligent and just smart.
I mean I was in there every day writing with
the writers, and I just wanted people who were as

(01:44:25):
excited as me to be there. I mean, what I
didn't want is, you know, like as a musician, you
know that stuff. You want the people that have a
passion for your project. Okay, there's a there's a lot
of really great musicians are great artists. But you know,
if you're not down with what I'm doing, that's good,
but it's not gonna help me, you know what I mean.

(01:44:46):
So so I was just trying to find people that
were hungry and saw the vision and we did. We
had fun, man. I remember we were talking about I
just talked about the other day. I was talking to
Facts that we were planning the Inaugura aation festivities, and
Lunelle came in. I've been watching Binge, watching my Super
six team, you know, because that was really popular. So

(01:45:08):
we just did the ghetto version. It was like she
was the party planner for the It's gonna be real classy,
but Rocket is gonna be carried in on the throne
and Michelle will be his lady in waiting, so we
just blot it out like it's super sweet sixteen. So
it was funny. I mean it was really fun. I
mean it was fun to plan all that stuff. It

(01:45:28):
was exhausting at the end. I was just woll the
funk out. But that the night that Barack Obama was elected,
I went and I was to host the Democratic election
party in Century City. So by the time I got
there after working at the studio, was like seven o'clock
and the party was almost it was that capacity. Okay,

(01:45:51):
the police were gonna shut it down. So I go
on stage and I'm watching as it's official. You know,
it's just like Barack Obama is a president. I remember
standing there because I wanted to make sure I kept watching.
I kept watching, dude, the emotion that night. I remember
this white lady fell out on the stage. Her dress

(01:46:12):
just went over her. Heead just crying. This grown as
photographer who was on stage, He's just weeping, and I
started crying. I started. You know, my grandmother was born
in nineteen hundred, and I was like, oh my god,
if my grandmother could see this, you know. And I
remember as a kid listening to all these stories I

(01:46:34):
could tell you stories. Man. My aunt, my aunt ethel
in Alabama. She was traveling to see her friend on
the Trailways bus and they didn't have enough seats for
the white folks. And the bus driver, she said, they
were in the middle of the country. He said, look, nigger,
you can either get off the bus or you get
under the bus and ride with the baggage. And she said,

(01:46:57):
you know, she had her best dress on, her hair
was all done, and because she was going to see
her friend, she got under that bus and she had
to ride the rest of the way under the bus
with the baggage. And she said, when they got to
where she was going, they left her there. And she
said she because she had coastrophobia and she's banging. And
she said, but you know, as a little child, when

(01:47:17):
she told me this, we would laugh because she told
it and laughed. He said, Oh, my hair was all
messed up, I was all sweating, my dress was all that.
We would laugh, and I would tell her. But as
I grew older, and she would retell that story because
I would make her and it was no longer funny.
And and I realized all that I thought about all
that stuff. Uh man, and this is where we're at.

(01:47:41):
You know, this is this is this is what I'm witnessing.
That's how big that moment was. That that was not
just me. This is my point of view, but for
everybody in this room. Man, come on and let me
tell you something. Even when people to this day, when
they go, you know, well Barack didn't do enough for
black people, I'm like, didn't do do you know what

(01:48:03):
he was going through? They said everything but call him
a nigga every day, every day, every day they cock
blocked everything he wanted to do, loud and proud. We
ain't supporting ship. Now this is it. So I'm not
for it. I don't want to hear. I don't want
to hear, you know. And and you see what's happening

(01:48:25):
anything but a nigga, anything the village idiot. They got
the opposite. Yeah, man, So I'm just we're talking polics.
I don't know what's gonna happen. I really don't. I
want to know. Like, were you guys fine with the
carm Ancles show just being three seasons? No, it was

(01:48:46):
such a revolution to me. I thought it was just
but but no, no, no, no, but listen, first of all,
it wasn't even a season because you know, we came
on around with Blackish. I think we did about thirty
episode those and they had done like sixty seventy because

(01:49:07):
you know, they would pick the car Michaels up for
like six shows, ten shows, and you know when we
got there, you know, after we're on the air and
I signed a contract there you know, uh, Jeff Greenblack
Robert Bob Greenblack brother um, the head of NBC was going, well,
we want to do this like a specialty show. I
didn't know nothing about that. They didn't tell me when audition,

(01:49:28):
we may only pick you up for six episodes, ten episodes.
Have you locked down for five years? Because that's the contract,
you know, I thought we were doing a regular show,
you know, twenty episodes the season. We never got that.
They only put us on in the summer. That's the
summer dump. We were never on the fall schedule, you know.
So But the flip side is you trade that with

(01:49:52):
Gerard got to do the show he wanted to do,
so I would rather do thirty good episodes then seventy
bullshit episode, so that is it. But no, we were
never down with that. I was no. We always and
I can speak for Gerard and this. We all wanted
to be not the step child, but the child, you know,

(01:50:16):
put us on in fall, give us a full order,
you know. But were they too afraid to say that
we were afraid of the show. And now yes they
were because they were, like you knows, on surface, they
seemed like sport, but you could not go back and
read what the critics said. There's no other show at
that at the network that was getting the criticism. The

(01:50:37):
critics loved us. No, they would say, you're hard to
program around. You know. That's you know, they always tell
you you're unique, you're well, you're an acquired taste. You know,
you got all that bullshit. I love I love that show.
I really like like this, the episode where the mom
kills herself. I was going to bring that one up,

(01:50:58):
like that ship was. I mean, that's never been done.
Tells you should have been there, man, Black folks in
the audience. I didn't mean to cut you off, but
we got to it like that part, and I was
like telling Gerride, you know my character, yeah, Grandma wants
to kill yourself in the audience of black don't do it. No, Yeah,

(01:51:19):
I was like we were like trying not to it.
Oh those good well not good time. These were Christian people,
first of like in good times in the audience, like
they would have those outbursts, you know, like oh yeah
they were they were they were like, oh so waiting

(01:51:40):
the Bill Cosby episode, Oh yeah, because that was I mean,
not for nothing. That was. It was brave. It was
on NBC. NBC gave you both. It was perfection, to
be honest. You know, a lot of times it was
an experiment, like when I say that, like we would
read the stuff, but frankly, I didn't know how we
we're gonna do it until we actually did it like that.

(01:52:03):
You know, you know this was from Gerard's mind. I don't.
I didn't know you know, how we're gonna get out
of this? You know, and people get it confused. I mean,
you know, my character voted for Trump. I mean, and
you know the whole thing about Bill Cosby and stuff.
These are characters, not me, These are characters. But how
are we going to get out of it? You know
that until that very last thing, you know, that last

(01:52:26):
line when Drive goes it's shame what he did to
those women. It was fun to play with that. But
but what became exhausting is for white journalists, that's all
they wanted to talk about, you know, because it's it's
I call it the niggat litmus test, you know, quest
what do you think about? Um? Kanye? I love all
your albums? Because can we talk about about Kanye? You

(01:52:47):
know it's like, you know, I was like, okay, you
know we can I say that when when I found
out that this is a person who didn't see Black Panther,
go ahead, I want to say that. When I found
out that you were playing opposite Loretta Divine, I was like,

(01:53:08):
I'm in and that was just perfect casting. Like I
wanted to. I wanted to see the way you two
played against each other, and you guys did not disappoint. Yeah. Yeah,
like the com parents, you know, they were still getting
it in. Yeah. Yeah. When I auditioned, you know, I
met Gerade and rel I met Rele on like Twitter,
and you know, we go back and forth to say,

(01:53:28):
I'm a big fan. I hope we get to work together.
I'm like, yeah, cool whatever. So then I saw Gerarde
and I was hosting this um evening of stand up
as part of the Montreal Comedy festivals in two thousand
and ten. I think, and if you've ever seen Gerard's comedy,
well immediately he has an original voice. He's different from

(01:53:51):
everybody else. So I always dug him as a comedian.
And so that that year, when I heard he was
doing a show, I was like, yea, do this. So
I went in and I saw Loretta coming out of
the building. I was like, Hey, what's Upretta, what's going
We known each other for over thirty years. And she said, Oh,
they like David. Theybody like him in there. And it

(01:54:19):
was just butter Man, you know, did you do any
kind of outdoor like research or whatever? Because me and
Gerard grew up like thirty minute. He grew up in
I grew up in greens bro And I'm telling you, Man,
your character, the way you played like dude, that's like
my uncle's. That was my family. The thing I loved
about loved about the car Michaels. It was very much

(01:54:40):
any real black family. Everybody got a hand, they say,
like they could have been talking about the Canadian trade agreement.
Everybody's gonna hand the sick. Most of people didn't read.
They didn't know they're gonna say what they're gonna say, so, yeah,
I like that. I mean, I really I knew that character.

(01:55:02):
I knew that black man. You understand, his kingdom was
that Barker lounger and the change and now was about it.
But he ruled it right there. So yeah, yeah, man,
I I've really felt like also, I felt like I
had earned the right to play it in terms of
age and experience and just I didn't really have to act.

(01:55:23):
I mean I knew that. And the thing I loved
about the Carmichaels is from comedy to tears. I mean
I feel like, out of all the rules I've done,
that encompassed everything. I mean I was able to go
you know, emotionally. Yeah, the scene where the episode where

(01:55:43):
he has to confess to the wife that he had
a kid, like when every everything, like with the Porno episode,
I would take like, look, man, come on, will go
oh actually, David, I did find my parents porno stairs, Okay, whatever,
And then when he said, you know with the kid,

(01:56:03):
he said this happened in his family. So after that
I just stopped questioning him. I mean, whatever the script was,
dr would be like, hey man, I'm trying to tell
you and his parents, everybody's family would come and hang
out and watch. Yeah. I really felt blessed. Man. I remember,
I'll tell you a good story. So Tiffany, I saw

(01:56:24):
the trailer for Uh Girls Trip. I had not seen
the movie. I just saw the trailer in the theater
and I came back and Tiffany was begging me at
that was David and I opened for you. I was like,
can you wait like a month, I'm gonna be opening
for you. She was like yeah, but I wanted. I
was like, Tiffany, do you realize what is about to happen? Well?

(01:56:48):
I don't know. I was like, you have to listen
to me, and everything. It was right there, man, Please.
Her ship blew all the way up, and it was
again she was Eddie. I mean all the crazy stories
that you hear her say. I heard that ship every
day and she hasn't she has a cure for cancer.
She has a cure. Tiffany had it has a cure

(01:57:10):
for cancer. I'm not bullshitting you, man, Can you share?
I don't. I went to at that point, I would
just go to my dressing room disappear. I was like,
Timmy and I just gotta to go late now are you?
Are you allowed to talk about what your character on
Little Rail shows is going to be. I'm not on

(01:57:31):
a Little Rail show. I'm on the Kids, but somehow
online they think I'm in his show, but I'm not.
Yeah it is. I did see advertising. Everything was the movie.
It is my show that I'm doing with Vicky Lawrence
and Martin Mall and Vicky Lawrence from caliberne in The

(01:57:54):
Last Person? Who else is the for Leslie Jordan's he's
like a four ft he's the gayest man. I've been
the man in a senior citizen facility. But I saw
this thing on Instagram where I don't. I think someone
had to put that together honestly, because it's not the
route was advertising, Yeah it's not. Again, just go to

(01:58:17):
the comments. I'm in the Superstars. I didn't have the
heart because you know the comments. They don't they don't care.
Accuracy doesn't know, they don't care. They were like going
all I mean, you know the people, they got an
alternate universe. Oh, I see what's going on. They're trying
to keep it on the double down low. They make

(01:58:38):
us a super surprise. You know. I didn't even get involved,
but no, I saw I was looking for and I'm
with the biggie Lawrence because I Lawrence Mama. She's putting
it down. But that's my show. I'm doing Cool Kids
on Fox, reil Is on Fox and The Fame of
Fact right next door to each other our sounds. But

(01:59:05):
wait before I go, we gotta talk music. Yes, I
need to tell you what we didn't even talk Wiz.
We could talk about are we out of time? The
Christmas Story? No, the Wiz was the one. The Wiz
was the one man. Thank you for saying that. I
just wanted to be fair. I mean again. Okay, when

(01:59:25):
me and Reggie Cathy, we we drove with a bunch
of friends across country to come to New York for
the first time or during spring break, and we to
go see some Broadway shows. And we went to see
The Wiz. We bought the second to the last for
all Majestic Theater six dollar tickets half price. And after

(01:59:45):
the mattenee, I went in with my eight by ten
to the stage door and I wanted to give him
my my my picture and the you want what I said,
I want to be on Broadway, he busted out, laughing.
So he got a the p he said, a man
come up in here please, and any cast they came up,
tell him what you just told me. And I was like,

(02:00:08):
I'm acting from you. I'm from Michigan and here's my
I want to be. They laughed in my face and
I was like, can I leave? They yeah, but they
I know, but they clowned me. So I'm telling you
so to do the Wiz, I mean, and I had

(02:00:29):
done this crazy version of the Wiz. Des mckenow directed
it at the Lahoya Playhouse and I was in it, Nicki,
James Titus U. First of all, you all don't even
know Titus has the voice. So he did the lion

(02:00:49):
and they raised the keys. I mean, he would do
just crazy stuff. So he was in it and Michael Benjamin, Washington,
Michael Washington, Michael Benjamin He's gonna kill me. But whatever. Anyway, So, uh,
that never made it. That never made it to Broadway.
I knew Kenny Leon and when it was announced I

(02:01:12):
texted Kenny. I said, hey, man, I want to do
the Whiz. And I played the Whizz in this production.
At some point I was trying to make and Kenny
kind of hit me back. He's like, man, I don't
even know what I'm doing. I mean, let me just
hit you when I you know, when I meet with
the network and figure out what we're gonna do. So
I was performing at Carolines a few a couple of
weeks later, he came with his assistant, but I was

(02:01:33):
pushing the Whizz because that's what I played before. I figured,
you know, from the movie, that's kind of like Richard
Pryor did it, So maybe I could get in here.
And he goes, so what other carroc what charrec do
you want to play out the Whiz? And okay, anything else?
I mean, would you do another part? And I'm like inside,
I'm like, ship, yeah, sure, I just want to be

(02:01:54):
a part of it. So he said what about the Lion.
I was like, oh fuck, I said yeah yeah, so
from there, yeah, you know, you know, but but the
Wizards of stuff, so long story Shark, we do this thing,
and Kenny all along. It was like the way he directs, now,

(02:02:16):
this is motherfucker's y'all got one shots? Yeah, shot fuck
this up? You know. He kept going and kept going,
and um so I turned my phone off and I
could feel, like, you know, people online, black folks were
like you know, they better not sucked us up, and
they got real hots. I was like, damn, well, let
me just do my little lines. So I went to

(02:02:38):
my trailer. They gave these big gas busses. After it
was all done. Um, it was good. I mean, you
guys got the best version. Okay. So I turned my
phone on and I was not expecting the response. I
got emails, I got texts, messages, letters, I mean for

(02:02:58):
people I hadn't heard from in twenty years. A lot
of them would start, David, is this still your email?
Black women, and they were saying, I'm sitting on my
bed with my daughter, I'm watching with my nieces and nephews.
I'm crying, I'm dancing. It was just such a flood
of love because I was like, I'm sure we're gonna

(02:03:21):
get some bullshit. So no, it was. The response was
so great, was so amazing that that's what was humbling
about it. It was really great. It was such a
great experience man, to be involved in that. I brought
it back. Should that should always be a part of
a black child's life, like you should always know about
the way. It was such a joy to watch that.

(02:03:41):
I'll tell you real quickly. Now he didn't, man, you
kind of fit man stop. My daughter's ten. So when
the win, she was about seven, and her mom showed
her the movie first. Know when I came, when Lulu
came to visit me, I showed her The Wizard of Oz.

(02:04:01):
So she was about five then, and she kept looking
at it. She saw like seven times in one weekend
because for me, we only got to see it once
a year. So I had the DVD. I was like,
you can watch this ship all day, so she would
get up watching. She was going, Daddy, I think they
took this from Michael Jackson's yeah, because you know, kids

(02:04:21):
at that age whatever they see first. I said, but
you know, this is an older movie, and she goes,
Michael Jackson did this movie because it's real similar, don't
you think? And I'm like, I said, which one are
you like? She goes, I think I liked the Michael
Jackson went better. So it was so it was fun.
It was fun. But people didn't know that we did

(02:04:44):
the Broadway version. We never had the rights to the
film because that was a whole different thing. That was
a whole different money, and it was beautiful and it
was a beautiful experience. It was really fun. I've never
done anything where you do one performance, you know. We
rehearsed for two months. Man, yeah, man, But that lion outfit,

(02:05:05):
the lion outfit, it was, oh my god, this thing.
When we started, we did our our, our text. The
dancers like, there's there's water on the stage. You know,
it's at the very end this after uh, Evelyn comes
in and it's you know, everybody rejoiced. And finally I
put my hand up. I said, that's me sweating, and

(02:05:25):
everybody's oh, David is so crazy that lion out it
Because it was TV, it had no ventilation. So by
the time I got to that point, all the water,
my sweat was puddled in my hands, in my feet
and it just started dripping out and it would be
on the stage and they were slipping. Yeah, it was

(02:05:46):
It was wild. We we we survived. We lived one while.
But wait quick, can I give okay? Now? These are
the greatest concerts I went to. In nineteen seventy two,
I saw The Rolling Stones in Cobo Hall in Detroit.
The opening act was Stevie Wonder now seventy two. This
is intervision. This when Stevie changed his background singers were

(02:06:10):
Martha and the Vandela's So dude, they rocked the house.
The Stones come on they played, and then they brought
the entire Motown band Stevie Wonder, Martha and De Vandals
and they all did Uptight. Yeah, they did Uptight and
something else. I can't get no senten. It was just

(02:06:32):
that was probably probably one of the greatest conscious of course,
I saw the Motown Review as a kid, and back
in the day, you go they had an early show
where they showed a movie, then the band would be
behind the screen and they pulled the screen up and
then you did the Motown Review. Sorry, I remember that.
Well they Okay, I'm glad you're I witness to this

(02:06:53):
because I always wanted to know, because they would do
at the Apollo, like five of those a day, and
people tell me, like, you know, you go there what
they will showed a cartoon first in the movie, then
a comedian. Then well, as I remember, they showed the
movie and this was early because we were kids and
it was wintertime. So we went and Willie Tyler and

(02:07:14):
Lester were there, and then they had what was the
name of this group it was you know they did
It was all white group, and they did Cloud nine,
Rare Earth, Rare Earth. Um, Willie Tyre and Lester really big.
But you know, Stevie Wonder played. The Supremes were gone

(02:07:35):
by then, So this has gotta be sixties six, sixties,
probably nineteen sixty six because after the riot everything was
fucked up. So I'm pretty sure it's probably sixty six.
Were you there in Detroit for those rights? As a
matter of fact, the movie Detroit, that's five blocks from
my house. That's five blocks from my house. And so

(02:07:56):
to watch that movie and that Algiers Motel, we used
to drive past there all the time. Um, that movie.
It's just no uh uh. It was so big. It
was so much bigger that city never recovered it never ever.

(02:08:17):
Detroit never came back. It was so much bigger. Um,
it was funny. I talked to Eric Dyson about Detroit.
He loved it. I didn't, just because most black people Okay,
I worked on the film scoring, but most black people
I know told me that it was hard for them

(02:08:38):
to watch it because it literally was the snuff film.
And you know it was in two thousand when we
were watching actual stuff films, Twitter and faces. I'm just
telling you man, it was. It was much bigger than
that movie. I mean, you know, that acting was awesome.

(02:08:58):
I like to that. She just wanted to tell one story,
and you know, the story. The dramatics really just yeah, yeah,
I understand. Uh, there's a website that I found that
someone put up, and this person researched as much as
they could each fatality that happened during the riot, and

(02:09:21):
so they tried to do a background of the person
and how they actually were killed. It's really creepy and
spooky and weird. Um there is a film there. Uh,
it's just also that's like the movie Ali, you know,
living through Ali the real person as a kid, to

(02:09:44):
see it fictionalized. I was too close to that material,
so that that's what I'm saying, being born and raised
in Detroit, a few blocks from the m just too
close to get some distance and really talk about it.
But we're just starting experience that now. People said that
were like Biggie movies and Tupac Tupac hang out at

(02:10:07):
the at the set when we did a Living Color
did so. The story was when I woke up, I
see all these policemen, you know, and I've been sleeping
in my dressing room, like they gotta sucking corral these extras, man,
they're all over the place, and they were real policeman.

(02:10:28):
So Tupac was there, and the story was he claimed
that the limo driver had a gun. Now the limo
driver called a police, is the story I heard, And
they claimed Tupac had the gun. So they came and
they took Tupac. But the next day they found a

(02:10:48):
gun in the bushes, like Tupac was in lying. Motherfucker
had a gun. That was That was regular day. That
was a regular day of living. Color Man. Tupac was
little too. He was a little guy physically. All that voice,
all that ship man, it was deep man. Anyways, that's
about it. I'll tell you one last um music story.

(02:11:10):
The craziest lineup. I saw Santana, Leonard Skinner, and Bobby Womac.
It was all in the same bill. It was Bobby
Womack first and it was Santana was headlining. Leonard Skinner
came on second, and they gave us the finger and
spit on at the crowd, you know, because it was

(02:11:31):
like people weren't there to see them. And it was
during caravanserai. So this is after Santana had gotten knowledge,
you know, Coltrane and all that stuff. But that you
know as a kid, because that's all we did is
go to concerts. For me, that's I wasn't into sports.
All we did get high and go to concerts. Do

(02:11:51):
you miss that feeling now? Like, um, what what? Well?
I miss? That's still exciting. I maybe basketball is exciting,
like to see, what I mean, someone genuine performing their craft.
I would go see Moses Sumney. Yeah he's a cat,
I really like. I like him, but to get me

(02:12:11):
out the house to see music. It's been a while.
I went to see Charles Lloyd one time with my
girlfriend here in l a. And it was back in
the nineties when he did you know, notes from Big
sur and stuff. And he's playing and listen to me, man,
it was so deep. It's like he levitated from the stage.

(02:12:34):
He was hovering in space. He took me there, you know,
and I'm sitting there going, oh my god, this is
killing me. So I get in the car and I'm
driving home and I asked my girlfriend called, if I
tell you something, we promised not to laugh. She goes, yeah,
what's up? Okay? I was listening to Charles Lloyd and
all of a sudden, he just was floating in space

(02:12:55):
right in front of me. It was like we weren't
even in that I think it was the Cataline and
barne Brol. We weren't even in that space. We were
just in the universe. And she went, yeah, I saw
that too, That's what I'm talking about, Man, take me out.
It was like so amazing, Like, oh my god, yeah,
I want to be taken away, right. Yeah, it sounds crazy.

(02:13:19):
I'm not. I'm just do you can somebody and when
you get in the zone, come on, now, you're gonna
back me up? Or no, there's some moment. I mean,
you know, it's it's just far and few between. I
mean there's some rock shows. I mean, like I still
when I see Radiohead, I'm still I still feel that way.

(02:13:39):
But it's like you really got a wine in your palette.
But I mean just for the days where like it's weird,
like watching Baloo, Like I have to play with Balao
in order to get that joyce. So sometimes I have
an out of by experience when he has a good
night and improvised. It's rare. This was that I feel
over ten years ago. I mean, yeah, I had great experiences.

(02:14:01):
I saw David Bowie the Ziggy Starters tour that changed everything.
I mean, I was like sixteen, I've never seen no
ship like that. I was like, damn, you know what
the fund is this um Prince. I met Prince, but
I couldn't it was too much. We actually in the

(02:14:21):
studio or Prince. Yeah, I forgot to note that we
are literally and we finally, ladies and gentlemen, we made
it to Studio three so many times we tried. This
is Studio three where most of was created Purple, all
the B sides of Rain Around the World Today and
the Parade album and parts of Sign at the time.

(02:14:44):
I'll tell you a quick Prince story then I'll shut up.
But I went to I performed at the All Star
Game when it was in Minneapolis, and I performed at
the Avenue Avenue Club or the and I took the
whole gig because I yeah, because they booked me to
do comedy. But the only reason I went is to
meet Prince. So I go all the way there and
he said, well, Princess in here. But his road manager

(02:15:06):
took me to Paisley Park, you know, And at that time.
It's got to be ninety six Paisley Park. That was
farm land out there, like we drove out, but it
was all there. You could have done in living color
at Paisley Park. I mean, they took me all through it, everything.
And so he told me this story. He said, when
they were on tour, it was about three three in

(02:15:26):
the morning, he gets a call from Prince and he
picks up the phone. The princess motherfucker his motherfucker's calm um,
I get motherfucker voices coming from the motherfucking walls. And
he's like, Princess, motherfucker, I'm hearing motherfucking voices coming from
the motherfucking walls. And so he goes to Prince's room,
knocks on the door. Prince answers, and he has white

(02:15:47):
satin pajamas, perm tight, white satin do rag full makeup,
and white satin high heeled boots and he says, dude,
what's going on? He said, motherfucker, I told you, I'm
hearing motherfucking voices coming from the motherfucking walls. So they
come in like Princey tripping, and they go in there
and they hear this voice. So they called the hotel security.

(02:16:10):
They come in, they do a whole sweep of the floor,
and they find a crawl space behind his bed, and
they go into crawl space and they find this girl
in there with the flash like. Listen to me with
a flash like and a bible? Who has been reading Versus?
And the dude said. As they took the woman out

(02:16:31):
the police, Prince sat at his coffee table with his
legs crossed like this. He went, I told you'all, motherfucker's
mocking walls, but y'all motherfucker's didn't believe. I fell out laughed.
It was just like that. I was like, Wow, thank
you man, thank you. We appreciate you so much everything

(02:16:59):
you've done. Yes, I know Dave Chappelle. He was I
think he was eighteen when he middled for me the
first time I met him in New York. Really kill Yeah,
Caroline's people come in and go, great sat Day. Who
is that kid that went on before you? It was amazing.
It's like yet, Dave Chappelle man one for the records

(02:17:25):
anyway on behalf of Team Supreme, Layah and Fontagelo and
Boss Bill and I'm paid Bill and Sugar Steve. You
cool Sugar Steve. Yeah, man, I'm just out the Sugar
Network and continuing my work there is sweet See what
I did? La favorite thing that show. Yeah, I can't

(02:17:51):
I can't wait to see you, said high. She because
we remember we met at the Tony party. Damn yes,
your memories. Your mom was right. Yeah, yeah, you gave me,
you gave me. What's up man? Mims was like, I'm
a very big fan. She was eating. Yes, remembers everything. Yo.
This is Love Love Supreme, only on Pandora. We will

(02:18:12):
see you in the next girl around. Thank you, m
What's Love Supreme is a production of My Heart Radio.
This classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora.

(02:18:34):
For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the I
Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.

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