Get Out There & Do It (w/ J. Anthony Brown)

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Wherever you are, you're
listening to the Vitamin D Podcast when we shine no
matter the time. I'm your host, Dawn Day, and I'm
here to get you excited about your life. You're ready
for Adosa Vitamin Day. I got a question for you.
What do you do when you feel something so deeply
in your soul right and it just screams out to you?

(00:24):
But you've never done it before, so therefore you don't
have a blueprint or do you know how to do it?
And I hear it again and again from people, family, friends,
co workers, about this invisible hand that feels like it's
holding us back. And you know, some call it fear
from our spirits calling, which I like to call purpose.

(00:45):
And then it's happened in my life too. I think
about it when I had to write my first sketch.
Now I'll study improv over at the Groundlings Theater that's
in Los Angeles, and some classmates of mine we started
our own improv sketch group we called s mc forest
and you can follow us on all social media at
Cosmic Forest Comedy. And it came up to me it

(01:07):
was my turn to write the sketch and I had
never done it before, and I can feel everything just
locking up and I couldn't think. It was almost like
I was giving birth. And what I came to realize
is that the smartest person in the room isn't always
the one that knows everything. Sometimes the smartest person in
the room is the one that uses their resources. So

(01:29):
I had to ask some friends, and I appreciate Karina,
Danielle Camerie, o Lydia, everybody. And this not only goes
for things that you've never done before, but it also
goes for things that you're currently doing, because that's when
we call it self sabotaging, like the procrastination. You know,
it's that feeling like you want to quit, and you'll

(01:50):
just say, Okay, I did enough, something to come on TV,
pop up on your phone, somebody's gonna try to call you. Hey,
you're gonna even have to pay your bills. Okay, you
still need to pay your bills. But what I'm saying
is is that stop making excuses. And you know, sometimes
you're gonna have to break. In order to break through,
you ask God to help you grow and it started raining. See,

(02:14):
we sometimes have to push through ourselves in order to
get to ourselves. With all that being said, I have
a special treat for y'all. I sat down with comedy
legend Jay Anthony Brown, the one who taught one of
the kings of comedy comedy about his life for me
and the host of the time during the morning show
to going over to the Steve Harvey Morning Show to

(02:36):
kick and cancer with a son Don't Shine, and we
actually talked about him and Steve Harvey on the road together.
Also how to overcome the voice inside that tells you
you can't when you can't take a lesson, get your
righty right with me and get excited about how you

(02:58):
doing good. I'm ready, let's do it. We're already going.
We're talking. Are we talking? All right? Whatever? Everybody Brown,
We should have checked out my radio show where I
count down the top ten jams in the country each
and every week on I Heart Radio and check me
out on Mondays and Fridays on the Steve Harvey Radio Show.

(03:21):
And this message has been brought to you by Jay
Anthony Brown dot com. What's better sell yourself? Tell these
people that you know this, this is the perfect time
to start your own business. It's the perfect time for everything.
That's the beginning. This is happening now. All that stuff

(03:42):
you could do before, you could bake pies and cookies
and stuff you did as a hobby. You can eat
off of that. Don't let don't let the shutdown shut
you down. Okay, write the are you gonna don't? Don't
let the shutdown shut Don't let the shut down shut
you down. Don't let the shut down shut you down.

(04:06):
Turn that round upside down during that done outside down,
don't look like a clowhn. Don't let the sun down
shut you down. Don't let the shut down shut you down.
You do right, You'll be wrong. Down, don't move down,

(04:32):
shut you down? What you got? What's happening? First of all,
First of all, let me just say that this is
this is a pleasure. No seriously, I know I said
it before, but like I'm talking to a legend right now,
so people be like, down. You hear that word a lot, like, man,
you're legend. I don't feel legendistic. I don't know what

(04:55):
do you mean. Okay, first of all, let's just go here.
We were just on the phone, just the other guy,
and you're like, don you know, Steve Harvey. You know
he had these shows and how amazing he is. But
then I'm thinking back when I first started working as
the digital content producer for the Steve Harvey Morning Show,
and I was in Punta ConA in the cafeteria talking

(05:17):
to Roderick Jr. And he proceeds to tell me that
his father, Roderick Harvey Senior, got inspired from comedy from
you and Richard Pryor. So when you sit here and
tell me that you're not a legend, or maybe you
can't fathom to imagine it, I just look at you sideways. Okay, Okay, Well,

(05:40):
you know you forget when you do this, or when
you start doing this, that how many people you've touched
her some somewhat inspired. Everybody's inspired somebody somebody. A lot
of people say, man, I used to watch you and
I got X y Z. So when you're doing it,
you don't think about it like that. And I guess
it's because I'm still doing it. I'm still out any
game at this age. I've been blessed. I came to

(06:03):
l A a long time ago. I've never been without
a job. That's a blessing from the man upstairs. And
you're very talented at that too. You do more than
just radio. I can sing, I can write, you know,
I can dance. You clothes, what's my book? I don't
have my Oh, I don't have my books. And I
missed the whole way you sing, jay, have you been on?

(06:25):
You were just so don't let let down? Get down.
We're just okay in case. Okay, I hear you, I
hear you, okay down, get you down. So you said
you came out to l A and you kept working.
But where are you from? Game? From Columbia, South Carolina.
I came out of here. I don't already even do
a comedy. By the time I decided to come to

(06:48):
l A, I've been doing comedy probably about ten years.
So oh, ten years before coming to l A. Ten
years before coming to that, I was I was considered
what they call a road comic. A road comic is
a comedian who works quote unquote on the road. So
from working on the road, I was able to you know, sustain,

(07:10):
uh to eat. I didn't have to worry about, you know,
getting a job when I came out here. Uh, luckily
I got a job. But I was always out here.
And then I go to Texas or Chicago or whatever
to work. So I was blessed by that. And then
luckily I got a job as a writer and was that. Yeah,
I got a job writing on the our senior Hall
show What Foo Foo Is? Wait a minute, how does

(07:34):
that happen? You just said it like, oh, it was nothing.
I mean it was meant to happen. The first day,
first of all, I drove to l A. I drove
to l A in a powdered blue Escort. Took me, Yeah,
the little blue Escort, and I had this thing built
on the back so you know how you're back in
the because we would pull a little cloth thing down

(07:56):
and it would you couldn't see what you have. So
I had a wooden piece made show that all my
belongings could be in there. When they look in the car,
they couldn't see anything. So I had a pot of
brand new, brand new pot of blue Escort. I drove
to l A. And my joke, my my goal was
to get on Johnny Carson or anything. And it's amazing
how it has turned. Uh that comics back in the day,

(08:18):
in order to be quote unquote successful, you had to
get on one of those shows, either or senyor Hall,
Johnny Carson or any of those late night shows, if
you you know, that was that was the next step.
And so I come out of here. Man. The next day,
I go over to Paramount Studios and out with my
friend who was a writer on the our Cenio Hall Show,

(08:38):
and we're just hanging out. He's got two writers, both
of them white. I know both of them. And we're
sitting there and they're typing up the monologue and form
them typing the monolog I'm yelling out of stuff. And
he says, see you can do this, and said do
what you can be a writer. Just nothing, man. We
type these jokes and then we go home. It's just
that simple. He said, why don't you send our cineos

(08:59):
some jokes. Here's the keep part up until this day.
I can't type, and I'm a horrible speller. But I
don't figure it out that most people let what they
can't do stop them from what they want to do.
Come you, they always they always put it, well, I
can't do this, so I'm not gonna be able to.
You know, I don't have a big kitchen, so I

(09:19):
can't cook pies, or I don't have this, so I
didn't let that stop me. Now this was before the internet,
this is before any of this stuff. So all I
said to myself was, if I get somebody to type
up my jokes, I'll send him into our sending at
home and see what happens. So I typed up with
two jokes, took them to Pall. Because this is before
facts machines. Facts machine didn't exist. When you know, you

(09:41):
went around, it was the day when there was no facts.
So I meant you had to call the jokes into.
The lady who was typing. It was an elderly lady,
so sometimes she didn't get the joke that I was saying,
and like it didn't make sense because I didn't see
it until I picked it up, you know. So I
had a type of these jokes, and so I sent
him in the get him to Pall, I take him
over to the palm allins. I'm gonna give it to

(10:02):
her Senio. So I'm on the road and he called
me on his sister night, Arsenio is gonna do your joke?
Oh really? Yeah? He put it into mindlog. So I'm
sitting in and I'm sitting in the hotel in Kentucky somewhere,
and I see our senior will do the joke, and
the joke I wrote, it might not be funny. Uh
don't go that. That that the joke that got you

(10:24):
a job. So what was the joke? The joke was
LaToya Jackison did a spread eagle on a motorcycle. This
was in Playboy magazine and she said she did it
to enhance her career. And our senior Hall said, well,
I mean, I ain't here about thirty years and I

(10:45):
like to enhance my career too. But you don't see me.
But ask naked on Harley Davidson, whom that was the joke.
It killed, It destroyed the room. They called me in
and said, Arsenio wants to meet you the next day
when you come back to l A. So I said,
my god, I can't tank. I want to go. So
I started, uh got We started working with this lady

(11:06):
who would type up my jokes. Because back then the
only news outlet you had was USA Today. USA Today
came out at six o'clock in the morning. I could
look in the paper and get my six o'clock in
the morning jokes. Get the lady to type up me
always turned in three pages of jokes. Now maybe six
or seven jokes on each page called the lady up
if she messed it up. Boom, Now I turn my

(11:27):
jokes in. Now I'm free to work with whoever. And
now you gots a whole life. So right, there was
the start of it. All that. All right, ladies and gentlemen,
welcome to the vitamin here what you get excited about
your life? Here, I'm here to give you adults inspiration.
And I am talking right now to the incomparable Mr
j Anthony Brown. What brother said he started his career

(11:54):
are sitting on hall. But I'm interested to know who
is Jay? Before, before the coming before this was a tailor.
I was a tailor. I made clothes and I made
I went to school in Denmark, Germany, South Carolina. You
know I always throw that out there that people this

(12:17):
is a world traveler. Sprugm z Deutsch VISs loule smith. Dude. Obviously, yeah,
did ena didn't I still be on a hushtanding nine
pushtand year and see that's German chatter. I wasn't saying anything,

(12:38):
and so you know what, that's what I thought. But
I was like, wait a minute that's what they called dialout.
So anyway, I was a tailor, but I was always
fascinated with comedy, like I just love coming. Who did
you look out to when you were coming up? Oh
my god, some of the names. Have you never heard of? Wildman,
Steve Pigmate, Mark Um, Flip will Send one which Wilson

(13:06):
and Bill Cosby was doing his albums at that time.
Richard Pryde did not exist. So Bill Cosby was doing
his albums and were in Red Fox. Red Fox was
really big because you had to buy the Red Fox
albums and you would or you couldn't play them. You know,
you're playing real low. I mean, it wasn't like, don't
play that in here. And and Rudy Raymore. Those were

(13:28):
the people that you saw on the quote unquote chipland circuit.
You could hear their records or on certain radio stations,
and those were the people that I was influenced by. That. Yeah,
So did you get a chance to meet any of
your people that inspired you? I met Bill Cosby, I

(13:48):
met Um, Rudy Raymore, I met Richard Pryan. I met
him twice, old young Richard. Richard Pryde was at the
height at the hot and he's coming down the steps
and I asked him to take a picture. I mean twice,
two times I made Richard Pryor, and each time I
took a picture it didn't come up. I don't have

(14:10):
a picture with Richard Pride, but I saw him twice,
a man him. I touched this garment, shook his hand.
So out of all of them, who would you say
would be your top pick? Richard Pryor because his vision
of comedy was so big. But there's some white comics
that I just adore with That would be George Carlin

(14:33):
and Jonathan Winters. Because Jonathan Winters his improv skills, to me,
it was just amazing. He had this one bit where
he'd take a bunch of junk and pile it on
the table and then he picked picked it up and
then he make a routine out of it. Jonathan Winters,
Richard Pryan, Bill Cosby because of his cleverness, Bill Cosby

(14:53):
because Bill Cosby could talk about one subject it seemed
like forever, you know, and then Red because of the
rawness he was. You know, So all of them, all
of them had in influence. Okay, and you know it's
so interesting that you were saying, how your moment when
you were working on our sen of your hall show
that you are not a good speller, nor can you type,
and how did you get the confidence to do it?

(15:16):
Because usually here's something I always said. This is where
I would when I was working on my comedy routine
while I was in the tailor shop. Honestly, I would
sit and I would practice my routine. I would if
I thought of anything funny, this is the truth. I'd
be doing sleeves or shorten the jacket or whatever and
putting on buttons. When I would sit there and I

(15:38):
would just talk to myself. They thought I was crazy,
and I would talk and anything that came up funny
that you know, yeah, and I was so so Negro
is crazy and so I just at the end of that,
I would say to myself, I'm not gonna let nothing mentally, physically, emotionally,

(16:03):
or financially stop me from what it is. I'd say
that every day now, so it was that it would
It never dawned on me what I couldn't do in
terms of what I could what I wanted. When I
first started doing comedy, I was horrible, but I didn't
let that stop me. I sucked at boot I got
booted up stages and you know, and you drive home
to the It's horrible. The hark the most of you

(16:27):
that I can compare bombing on the stage to having
a death in your family. It is. It is the
worst feeling, and in comics with it is the worst
feeling in the world because you go up here to
make somebody laugh and they go, na, we we ain't

(16:48):
feeling numb. By the same token, the most funniest thing
in the world for a comedian is to watch another
comedian bomb. And let me tell you why it was
because we've all been there. We've all been there, so
we're laughing at you. We're laughing at your pain. We're
laughing at that pain. You know what it's like, You know,

(17:08):
like Mom's when the baby sticks your things in the socket.
You you ain't gonna do that, and you're laughing not
that because mom has burned herself. So I've been burned.
So that's why that's funny. So man, I would have
I would have nights oh my god, it was like
it would be but you but I just tells me

(17:32):
the fact that you had that type of perseverance, Uh,
you know you had some type of foundation. What was
it like growing up? Somebody had to push you? Are
you had? I had several funny people in my family.
My mom was hilarious, but my mom was funny, laughing
if you were laughing at her, if you my mom

(17:54):
was funny if I was laughing at her. Not not
that she said anything brillently funny. It's just that my
mom was a big lady. She waved probably about three
hundred pounds, and she was a short lady, and she
would just say things that to me were funny. Uh
the funny. One of the funniest things my mom did.
My mom and mom. When I started be doing comedy,

(18:16):
I put my mom in my acting. It just came
to the point where when I would come home, my
mom and my dad like, all he come, don't don't
nobody moved, because if you see something, he's gonna make
a joke about he gonna put you on the radio.
So they were they were funny. But the funniest thing
I bought a hat a pi a hundred and fifty
dollars for the straw hat. This is you as a child, right,

(18:36):
I was the comedian at the time. I was doing
the set up. So I go see my mom. I
had my on my new hat and set my hat down.
I get ready to go. I can't look. I can't
find my hat. I don't know where my hat is.
Where's my hat? My hat? My hat? Oh my god,
my hat. And my mom says, well, I'll get up
and help you look for it. I'm not okay, no problem.
So she gets up. You see where this is going? Right?

(18:59):
And the hat? So she's looking around and the hat
is stuck to my mom's ass. So I started laughing.
She said, you been not see that in the radio. Well,
I'm gonna put that right on the radio. That's going.
That's going directly. Because my family had to understand that

(19:21):
if you could take money from these jokes, you could
be the joke. The joke helps us. That's where it
comes from. It's like, I'm inspired by y'all do something
stupid so I can take to the radio. Yeah, get
some money and everybody gonna be So what was your
mom like? Oh my god, as I have two moms

(19:42):
about writing, I thinking about writing a book or two moms.
It was an appreciative mom and the mean mom when
I was young, and then the save mom that she
got saved, she got religion, and I love I love
both of them, and I think both moms love me.
And the beginning, she was just me, just you know me,
like you know, you're a comic, so you you probably

(20:04):
no no my mother when I was me or here's
the thing, and I think, and I know why when
I grew up, when I grew up and became an
older man, my mother had two kids at the age
of sixteen years old, sixteen or seventeen, maybe fifteen. When
she had my sister, she was probably fifteen, and my
grandmother said, well, you know what, since you're trying to
finish school, I'll take the baby and raise that baby. Well,

(20:28):
then my mother gets pregnant again with me, you know,
and now my grandmother said, well, I'm not taking care
of any more babies. You're on your own now. And
I think my mom resented the fact that, Okay, I
gotta do this by myself. Here's this kid, my mom
got the other one, my mother has the other one.
Now I got the younger baby. I really got to

(20:48):
do this. And so whatever resentment that she had from
being in a situation that she put herself in, she
took it out on me. My mother wasn't, you know,
school educated, but she had eight knowledge of awareness in
terms of I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna believe
in myself. My mother pleaded house. She cleaned the University
of South Carolina. The most inspirational thing was my mother

(21:10):
cleaning the University of South Carolina. And my sister graduated
from there. That's like, that's some amazing ship. That's amazing.
My sister graduated from the same place my mom cleaned up.
So when my mom became the save mom, the same
mom didn't remember the stuff the bad mom did. She
don't remember none of When you say bad mom, like
are you talking about you got popped for doing something you?

(21:33):
I got beat? I got her bad. What made her
or not so good? Because I was the only child,
you know, I was the only child. Was just me
and her, and there were times when you know, I
wasn't doing good or just for no reason. It was
that her, her and my dad weren't together. It was like,
you know, and your daddy is not taking care of you,

(21:55):
and your daddy is not you know. So it's just
some resentment that people have and people who who are
never in that predicament where it's just one parent. You
can have one loving parent, but you can have one
parent who's not so loving. Right. I was just thinking
for myself, like, I don't I don't have that direct experience,
Like my dad died when I was three months, so
I don't know what it's like to have that father figure.

(22:17):
And for my mom, that was the love of her life.
So I just came from having a single parent. So
I don't know when you say, like, oh, just not nice,
go to your room. I'm not talking to you, but
you're seeing that turn out all right? Oh yeah, I
think I did to know, right, because that was that
was the basis of comedy, was to talk about stuff
that I went through. I got beatings, I got put unpunishment,

(22:37):
you know. When I was young, I went to bed,
uh you know, I got bad grades, you know, And
I kind of took some of those things that happened
and maybe turned it into the routine where I could
talk about it. There were several people in my life,
my aunt. My aunt was one of the funniest people.
She read the newspaper. And when I say read the newspaper,
because like I said, there was no news outlets back then,

(22:58):
other than you've got the paper. She read the paper
from front to back every day, front the back, very
smart and she only opened her out when she got drunk.
She got drunk. It was she was. She was classic.
My aunt Emily was the first one to give me
a beer and a cigarette together. What beer and don't take?

(23:21):
And what was so unique about her when she got
drunk Her tongue like heavy and that, and she would
deny being drunk. You be like animally you drunk like
you're drunk like and what was so unique about it?

(23:43):
She would go in on my grandmama and nobody nobody
said anything about big Mama, but my aunt Emily would
light into her ass man, she ain't the big Mama.

(24:05):
So um, there was your aunt Emily and your mom.
Good good for sisters? Like are were they good friends?
With twins? Not identical twins? One like one dog, one
was like one dog. They were one the same day?
How you know, when you think about it, I don't
think they were twins because they didn't look nothing in
like that. Think about just because they were light skin

(24:29):
of dogs. Scared Come on now, no, I'm just stand
it's it's but you know, when you're young, sometimes the
highlight don't go out to you get true. And that
part because you know, black folks keeps some secrets. Okay,
Oh yeah, there was Oh they was doing it. Okay,

(24:50):
that's why he was over there every day. Oh she
was cooking, fucker. Okay, all right, it was fun again,
I'll right, all right, and you know, and that's just
where it is. And I had an uncle who was gay,
who lived with another man. I didn't The light didn't
go off till I got my was like, oh that's

(25:11):
his friend. They always hanging around. Oh oh, okay, all right.
I mean I didn't judge him. I loved me with
my uncle. But that's what happened. Sometimes in life, the
light didn't go off until later on. In life, you
figured things out, that's what you do. My grandmother played
the numbers. Oh yeah, mama, your mom played number? When

(25:34):
did you figure out there were numbers? I had to
be grown. Okay, and let me tell you what, nothing
but the lottery. She tell me she was gonna play
the numbers. Okay, Well, my grandmother didn't tell us. She
would send us to this lady's house with little pieces
of paper that sometimes I would have fifty cents, then
in a twenty cents or thirty cents, and it had

(25:57):
a number on it. I always thought it was her
paying somebody back, and he figured out was a number
to let shipping the number right. Okay, so you you
got older, you start to realize some things. But I
thought it was something interesting because you said your mom
had you are two kids by the time she was sixteen.
So that may have said that she, you know, may

(26:19):
have gotten around and have fun or just lived a little.
So at what point did she change over and get
all holier than thou art? And then out of that
affection thirty five forty when she moved, when she when
she separated from my dad, When she separated from my
dad um and to get her own place, her whole
attitude changed that I gotta really do this for myself.

(26:41):
I remember my mom being depressed at one point, and
then I just remember her being just the strongest person,
not only the strongest person, my biggest supporter in terms
of whatever I wanted to do. You know, when I
started doing the Time Joiners Show, when I started sewing,
I started, you know, I went and bought a saw machine,
and I could at the end, I was a master

(27:04):
Taylor and my mom was just you know, I could
make stuff for her and she put it on sheep
where I mean I was, I was good? I was,
I was. I was a bad boy and I was.
I didn't start out good. There were times when there
were things I couldn't make, but I got better at it,
and at the end it was I was accomplished Taylor.
When I was a tailor, I was making more money
than my sister, who had a nursing degree. So you

(27:26):
were Taylor and as well as on the radio at
the same time. I didn't do the radio until later
later in life, but I was doing Taylor at first.
When I was doing I was doing Taylor and stand
up at the same time. And then how did you
get in contact with Tom Joyner? How did that work out? Oh?
I did um Deaf Jam. My manager called me up
and said they got this new show coming out called

(27:47):
Deaf Jam and the Pain. I think at that time
it was she's gonna be there in three days, didn't
give your own hotel room, They're gonna fly you up.
And the fifth it all was a day for per
d M And she said, I don't think you should
do it. And I said, that's a lot of money
to turn down. Beverly. She Beverly muses her name. You know,

(28:10):
we she she was really instrumental in helping me get
my name out there. But at that point we just
had a disagreement on that. I said, I'm gonna go
do it. I'm gonna do it, you know, and it changed,
It changed my life. I did not know. If you
think about death Jam, there are very few people whose
name you can remember their routine. I'm one of them.

(28:33):
I'm one of them, and it happened by mistake, but
I'm one of them. If you talk about death Jam
twenty five, twenty five years ago, they don't even know
my name, but they know watch come on, they know me,
shake any kids. They know that they only spraying the heirs,
but they know that they know you. They know that.
So I go to the rehearsal, and that the rehearsal,

(28:55):
you had to do your first joke and your last
joke so the CAMA would know when to pull out.
You did a little routine. I'm gonna open with this
joke and I'm gonna close with this show. One of
the jokes that was gonna open witness and um about people.
It's it's a common joke now, But I did it
first on Death Jam, so I know people, Oh, I
heard that joke before. You probably have joke about people laughing.

(29:17):
Some of you have to see people with no teeth laugh.
They laughed like this, they coming in my or they go.
That was the joke I was gonna do. Now. When
I did it on Death Jam, when I was gonna
go to nobody had seen it. So we did it
at rehearsal. Not at rehearsal. All the comedians are sitting
at rehearsal, so everybody hears each other's jokes. Well, they gotta,

(29:39):
you know, they do them all one time. First show,
glass Jow, Next, first joke, glass Jow. Next, he's gonna
be on the show one to three. You can go
back to the room. So anyway, the night of the show,
the m C did my joke. He did my he
did my joke. I'm not gonna say who the MC was.
What did you confront him? No, I don't know my

(30:00):
any know what's mean as a comedian, you don't. I don't.
I don't need that. I don't need that. What I
needed to do was get in my head on what's
coming up. So I found out they had a basement.
And know what I'm saying, I gotta go down in
the basement. I can't get mad. I can't go out mad.
If I go, nobody knows me. They never seen me. Yeah, well,
all right, that's all you got to that one joke,

(30:23):
go down to the basement, and said Lord, I prayed,
I remember the prayer, said Lord, please don't let me
go out there. Man do I can't go out there. Man,
I can't do this. Man, I gotta stay in mind.
I gotta this before Woosa, I was loose so and
dynam said, I put. I had this other joke that
I put in, which was to watch out there, and uh,

(30:43):
I said, I'll do that because the mouth joke got
a big laugh. I said, I put the watch out
there now, Joe, Now to watch out there now. Joe
came from when I went to a hockey game with
a white friend of man named Dave Horrorwich, who is
a producer for game shows. He takes me to a
hockey game. As we're going to the hockey game, a

(31:03):
black man walks past me. I said, how you doing this? Straight?
He said, watch out Dad in lone sella, how are
you doing? And I said, you see that, that's how
black guys tell, We talked, we speak different. I took
that and made it a routine like younger guys speak
like this Sun it's going on, so older guys they
get physical. Watch out there, they moved, they got more

(31:26):
move And I put that in if you watch that,
if you watch my death Jim, the room exploded, I
mean the room just it just killed. It blew up
so much that I didn't even I wasn't aware Heavy
D was there, Wesley Sniper, because this was the only
outlet for comedy in the room. It just blew up.

(31:48):
And I'm sure it was pretty a pretty big grind
for black comics, right, it was huge. Every major comic
that's a major comic Deny pretty much, i'd say of
him on defth gent really. With that being said, so
when did you meet um Mr Harvey? I mean Mr
Harvey were working in cost I just said, when did

(32:12):
you meets I mean Steve and Lafayette, Louisiana. We're working
at a comedy club and they said, I'm working with
this guy named Steve Harvey. You you would always something
that most places wouldn't put two black comics on the show.
And this is an eighties, nineties, eighties, eighty nine, early nineties,
they didn't put two black comments in the shop. But
this particular show, they put me and Steve on the

(32:33):
same show. I'm the headliner, and Steve's is opening um
for me. He's in the middle at. He's not opening,
he's the middle at. So Steve is the middle AT.
And so I'm sitting in my room and I hit
his knock, pin it done, and it's Steve. He said, hey, man,
they told me we roomed together. Like, look, dude, I
do not travel on the road to room with anybody.

(32:55):
I left an apartment. Why am I gonna go on
the room and share a room with somebody that's I'm
not doing that. So you go back and telling the
club woman he needs to get your room. So he
goes back. He said they're not getting room and said, okay,
parting here. Tell what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna give
you the money for the room because we ain't staying
in the same I got almost sowing stuff out them,

(33:16):
making the chicks and stuff, you know. So he came
back again and then you gotta hie, I don't like, dude,
do you have anything? That night we did the show
and we've been friends him since every since, just like that. Okay,
but no, there was something in the middle. It would
had to be something. Did you find out was he

(33:37):
green behind the ears at that point where you what
would your teaching know? You know he he you know,
he his his his like Rose, you know he was
hold he started hosting, uh, the Apollo. I think The
Apollo was a big break fast y'all. But somehow y'all
stayed together. And I'm wondering, what was that common thread
that made sure all these years, what you're talking about
with thirty forty plus years, it wasn't that many black people.

(34:00):
First of all, we was we was too hoes again,
and let's talk. He's not a He's not a hole anymore.
He's a reformed hole. Loving the death. He settled down.
I'm not a hole. I still have a hotel duen disease.
And so we would cope to each other, you know.
Any weird it was weird that the way we communicated,

(34:21):
because he would call me and said, I'm gonna be
in such and such and okay, man, I see I'm
coming that way, and we just hook up and stay friends,
you know, and we would time to time get busted in.
The code was may day. Whenever with somebody said may day,
that means you gotta may day. I'm gonna be at
x y Z Hotel. You gotta call me YadA yah. Yeah. Man,

(34:42):
she found my book, she found every damn everything. When
the dog hanging there, man, And that's what we did.
That's we stayed in touch and stay friends. And when
he got when he got me and the boys, he
got the show called me and the boys, we were
he got When you auditioned the first star search, I
was right there when you're auditioned for when you're auditioned

(35:04):
for the Apollo, I was. I was sitting there watching him.
I'm like, you're gonna get it. So I was never.
I was never jealous of his star rising. It just
that's my buddy, that's my friend. You know. Um we
stopped talking for a minute. I don't know why you're
not come on now. I do not know why don't
have a conversation or not. No, we didn't have a conversation.

(35:25):
Somebo you and me are we gonna keep it real
ands like what happened. I don't want to talk about
it because I'll tell you why, because I don't think
he could. I don't think he had the power he
has now to deal with it. So he dealt with
it differently. That's respect, Yeah, and that's what you call grace. Yeah,

(35:49):
the power that he has. Not it would not go
what what? Who said? Who you did? What do jay ship?
You know? That would be now and then when he
was young, his star wars rising, and I just looked
at it. You know, he dealt with it. We all
do that. You know, you got to go back to
somebody going, you know, I'm sorry for the way I
dealt with that. I wish I had and when I was,

(36:11):
when I'm my, when my son was, when my baby
mama's son was carrying her, I've stepped away from the girl.
I don't want nothing around her because if I'm not
around her, she ain't pregnant. So this is this is
the knowledge I had back then, and I just felt
that's that's what he did then, and I'm still I'm

(36:32):
still love to dude. He gave me. He stepped up
to the back for me when he didn't me and
the boys. He didn't have to do that. He didn't
have to do that. I remember it like it was yesterday.
That show. It was so much fun. It was just
you know, me and I was I had a writing partner,
Rashan McDonald. Sean McDonald was my writing partner, so we

(36:55):
were the only black. I remember sitting in the room
where Steve is talking to the big people and he says,
we got the show for you. We're ready to start production, YadA, YadA, YadA,
and Steve said, um, okay, cool. He said, but y'all
got to hire these two dudes right here. I ain't
going nowhere unless you hire both of these dudes as

(37:16):
writers on the show. And you know, that was something
when I talked to Steve, we had interviewed him for
a station, and you know, just looking at the whole
morning show crewe none of y'all are new, and you
are testifying to the fact of him bringing you along
echo the same sentiments that he's loyal, he's going to
look out And I think that's just one of the

(37:38):
things that when you think about coming up an industry
finding mentors. You know, he ain't a huggy type. How
you doing type guys like, if you get sick, you
might not hear from him at all. But if something
happened to here be broke up, you know, he ain't
the guy to call and check on you. You know,
and you're gonna that's just not him. You know, he
ain't that he ain't got his tolerance from the man.

(38:00):
You know. You might know. But I'm where I'm at
because of him two things. Because I'm talented and because
of him saying well, and he was trying to get
me to come over to his show for the longest.
But I think it's it wouldn't it be safe to
say that he wouldn't be where he is unless you
came along. That's what I call a rare relationship. Y'all
pouring each other. And when I sit there and I

(38:21):
talked to his son, and he says that you were
part of the inspiration that built his career. Let's stop.
We came play small case, play small jay. You even
if you tried your history, your credit screamed so loud.
And you know, you talked about a couple of things
right now, And I said, you, you know, when I
was talking to you that the day and we're talking

(38:41):
about just getting people on the show and interviewing you
echoes so much that it touched my soul and it
kind of got me a little emotional because you spoke
life into me and you said, don go after it.
There's times that I didn't take the chance and I
didn't do it, and sometimes in this business it can
get Sometimes it's hard, especially when you're young. Are you
trying to come up? It's hard. But I tell you

(39:02):
the hardest part about it is that we talk ourselves
out of stuff that's like right there, Why why is
that we ask for greater? And then we don't do
it because we don't see what other people sometimes seeing us.
We were looking at mirror, like you can tell your
best friend girl, man, damn him, you don't need him,

(39:23):
You're gonna sign another man. But you can't do that
sometimes when it comes to your career or a decision,
you just sometimes we can't do that to ourselves. We
can't inspire own self. We can look at somebody else
situation up x y z x y z z q
foom go try that. That don't work, Okay, I've got
more advice for you. We look at our seven though, well,

(39:46):
you ain't never done that for it. Do it well.
It's just so dope when you do come across people,
because when you said that, that was something that my
mother would have said, don't just do it. And all
the times that you you came and you've inspired and
you're like, so what you got going on? Dar? You're
doing this? I just want to say I see you

(40:06):
and I appreciate you because of you. When I told
you that I'm getting and I said, did you do it? Well, No,
I didn't do it. Come on honest, talking to you
on my podcast done. I got my weekend segment done.
But no. Yeah. Sometimes I think it's interesting because sometimes

(40:27):
people look at fear and it's like, oh, there's real.
Don't get me wrong. Let me just say that, Okay,
you would not believe. You would not believe how nervous
I am before I go on stage. What are you
talking about? You? That's your whole career on being on
stage and so scared before I as Steve, as anybody,
as Tommy. It's unbelievable. Like what do you say? I

(40:52):
don't know what it is? So wait are you saying that? You? Okay?
So you just get over it? I mean, how do
you get over the minute I walk around, it goes away.
But before it's like, oh lord, have you ever had
it so intense that you did not go on stage? No,
I'm gonna go. You've you've never not shown up. No, No,
there are things that, like I said, there were things

(41:14):
that will offered to me that I didn't take on
the job to me that I said, Uh, I don't
want to look stupid. And I always threw things in
the way of stuff. I threw things in a way
of something I couldn't do that would decide whether or
not I could take on something somebody was offering me,
which is what a lot of people do sometimes the ill. No,

(41:36):
I'm not ready for that, so I didn't do it.
But it's so interesting how you were just saying in general,
how even the times that you've been so scared of
not doing it and just go to fight, But you
said it's real. But how was s fear real? False
evidence of beearing real? Come on? Ju? I felt like
I always used like fear like an ammunition to to

(41:57):
to kind of spearhead me further. But I look it
now like I've been able to like one being here
talking to you, to just working on the show and
getting the podcast, doing the voiceovers, you know, writing sketches
with my team's and filming that. And I've been so uncomfortable, Jay,
It's like so uncomfortable. There are times that I just cried,
and not because I didn't think I could do it.

(42:19):
It's just that I don't know how to do or
I don't know what the first step. But you know
what you said to me, And I've been telling each
person you just said, Dawn, you ain't gonna never have
your ducks in the order if you think about it,
ducks don't even walk in order to go back and
get a duck, like when you go you know, so't

(42:39):
the role, but you never It's like we spend so
much time preparing to do something that time goes by
and we don't do it because you know, a lot
of people man as soon as as soon as I man,
as soon as this I'm doing it, as soon as
just right here happens, as soon these kids back the wait, um,

(43:00):
you know, and you spend a whole lot of time
preparing to do something when you can start the Internet
has changed the jame completely completely. And if you're not
promoting yourself and talking about yourself, and don't don't think, well,
they got a bigger audience, and you ain't up against that.
You're not up against I listened to this talk radio show.

(43:22):
We're not up against the person doing that. You know
what we're up against? Well, up against Trump? Well up
against the COVID web, against the virus web begins shootings.
That's what people's focus is. The focuses on that, we're
up against You gotta stay home unemployment, so you gotta
break You ain't up against somebody got more listeners than you.

(43:42):
You're not up against that because people ain't even thinking
about that, or end up beating shot out another black man.
Oh my god, Trump said something stupid. That's where the
focus is. So if you can break through that, you
really don't have no competition. Because you're breaking through the
b s. You don't worry about Oh man, they got
six thousand listeners. I ain't got but seven. You start

(44:05):
where you are, take noise, You promote yourself. You're going
on any show you can get you promoted, and you're
doing the promotion that calls to action. Don't just say
I have a podcast. Registered to see my podcast. Don't
just say I have a podcast. You know, give me

(44:25):
an email when I do my podcast, I'll send you
a note. Don't just put up a picture you eating chicken.
Put a little thing at the end by my house.
I don't post nothing online that I don't talk about myself.
I know because I see you post official they'd be
like ba. I'm like, what I've got to do with it?
Because I gave you entertainment, but I want something from you. Hello,

(44:47):
it's a give and receive exchange. Yeah, it's a fair exchange.
I gave you you laugh, and you went to my
website or you went to my police page and you
look at something funny. Now you ain't got to buy
my hunt some and maybe you don't buy you know,
ja got what? Yeah? What? How did the mobile dot
com boom? That's it? Uh? You know what else I'm

(45:08):
thinking about two? You know, you talked about comedy and
how to hit you and I'm just listening to you now,
just laughing. It's just it's so invigorating. Um what you
say that it was your joy because you recently just
battled cancer and fought it. Yeah, wasn't the laughter? Wasn't
the comedy? Did you do it? Did you put it
down for the comedy in order to be a true comedian.

(45:29):
This is just my opinion. I should do this own stage.
Everything is funny, not right away, but after a while
you think of the worst thing you've ever been through.
You like you, like you, and you cut you crime,
thinking like I can't lead with with my sister. It

(45:50):
was with my sister, you just do it like this.
Then all of a sudden you get to the point
with your girlfriend with you and she said, girl, you
remember that tell you love sho my fun over there?
Oh my? Oh no, no, I don't want to hear. No, no, no,
I gotta show you what you did. I don't want
to hear. I want till it becomes funny. That was

(46:12):
the attitude with me with cancer. It wasn't funny right away,
but later on. I mean, like, look, I'm walking around,
I'm holding all this blue and stuff like this, and
people died from it. A lot of people died and
they don't make it, and I just didn't. With cancer.
Now here comes this ship covid W what what give

(46:32):
me a break? Lord? What I do? So that's just
the way you have to do. When my mama died,
where did your mom died from um She had high
blood pressure and heart and heart trouble, and when she
passed away, it was like inside was ripped out of me.
But I couldn't get I couldn't wait to get back
on the radio. Really, you know, I couldn't wait to

(46:54):
get back to work. But I don't know if it
was a distraction. I don't know, Like when my mom died, well,
I was about, well, you didn't have comedy, you're in
a comedian. No, I wasn't a comedian, But I was
just thinking about what I felt. I'm not sure that
I grieved right away because I think as I look
at the grieving process was probably like years down the line,
and it's just subtle things that it hits you that

(47:14):
I'm like, oh snaps. Yeah. For me, it was like
every day when I would go do the Tom Jonas show,
I would leave the house at two thirty. The show
went on at three in the morning because we we
take you know, Coaches Coast with me. I live in
l A. It's six o'clock in the morning in Georgia,
so we gotta start live. So I would call my mama.
The three clock in the morning is is is six o'clock,

(47:36):
three o'clock. Yeah, yes, East Coast. I called her right
before I called her at two thirty before we went on.
And it's so weird. And she said get him. Every
time say mom, get me to do the show, and
she would say, get him. And so for me, that
was the one thing that was missing that when stuff
started to happen good, you can't can't, you can't share it.

(47:57):
And that's what I try to tell people. People think
you just said all time, No, when something amazing, you
want to call your mama. And it's like, dang, like
in the in the in the instances of George Floyd,
he was calling his mama. Let me tell you something.
It wasn't until I really realized it. When I remember
I had what was living in New York at the time,
and my mother she was in so much pain and

(48:18):
she was her third bout with the cancer staged for
a breast cancer, and you know, and that's what reminded
me because when I saw your fight and how you
were pushing, and I was like, that's who my mom was.
But I got I think she got to a point
where she had broke when you just get tired. So
when you mentioned George Floyd. I remember her on the bed.
They were pouring like pumping morphine into it, like every

(48:40):
ten minutes or so because the pain was uncontrollable, and
she said, I just want my mama. So when I
saw that, man said it, I said, that was real,
because nobody gonna love you like your mama, Like your
mama brings you in this earth. And that mother could
be Let's say, if they're not even biological, whoever mothered you,
they love on you so much and gotta give you away.

(49:01):
My mom. I could look at my mom and see
that where she's in such pain, and anyone who's had
a loved one quote unquote go from this healthy person
to where they wither away, come and you know they're
gonna die. You have a selfish wish, and the wish
is very simple. Lord, even let him get better or

(49:21):
take them home. I don't want her to continue to
suffer like this anymore. Either heal her or take her.
That was what I said that in my mind. Didn't
said to my sister. And she passed away. We were
standing right there, but you know she had switched to
good mom. Men that time she passed. She is good

(49:41):
and she was my biggest fan. She would I would
call him but for my shows, and she said, give them.
And it's so weird that the next week or two
weeks after my mom passed, I go somewhere to do
a show, right, I go somewhere Todd and the guy
standing on the side of the stage and s you
can hear people introducing me, and he said, all right,

(50:02):
young man, get them. That was your MoMA. Was my mom.
She'll speak to me like a numbers and uh, I
can't think of the name, but you know that song.
If you don't know me by now, you'll never ever
know me. That's when she comes. It was so interesting,
Like before I got this job, I was on a bike.

(50:24):
I had total my car. Probably a couple of years ago.
I was hustling game shows. So I just I'm one
of those people when I go to what do you
mean every game show I go to, they pick me.
I get on there more than luckily I win some money.
And yeah, how many game shows? Had you been on?
Talk shows? On game show? I've been on the Rail,
I've been on Let's Make a Deal. I've been on

(50:45):
t d J Show. I've been on UM DR Phil,
I been on the cooking show that you and I was.
They had to cut out on me. That was the
best shot I've ever had. I was on Oprah's Queen
Sugar Show, so several yeah, yeah, So I just look
at that as guy was. But you know, even starting

(51:05):
this job day, I just got this job. First of all,
just being a Midwest girl from Detroit, coming from New York,
and I had been working in radio since probably high school, right,
And I was like, oh my god. And I was like, man,
I couldn't call my mother. But then the thing that
was so traumatic it was the first week. The first
week I was there, I was walking around. I kept

(51:26):
feeling this pinch in my leg and I was like,
oh my gosh. My friends like, Dawn, you need to
go get that checked out. Nobody just has like a
pinch or whatever in their leg. Go to the doctor
on the first week, find out that I have a
blood clot in my leg. What First, can't even tell
my mother about the situation. Secondly, I'm at a point

(51:48):
where I'm gonna walking target. Mind you, my father died
of a blood clot that traveled to his lungs. So
having that whole instance, and when you talk about strength
and how you gotta pull them on there because I
look at times and I'm like, it's just me. And
so when you whisper those words of encouragement, when I
see your battle and what you went through, like even

(52:09):
yourself as a reminder, like if you're like how you're saying,
like Dawn, don't wait, or the fact that you sit
there and you take time and you talk what I'm
talking about, you say, let's keep it real. Didn't get
it real about what I said, don't wait, you said,
you said to me, okay, let's keep it. I was
talking about interviewing for fog as you said, don did
you ever think about asking Steve if you want to

(52:30):
do it? I said, well, I hadn't gotten there yet.
I was thinking, let me on my whole you know,
my whole spield, because you know you said going the
ducks ain't gonna never be in order? And you know,
how did anybody you you known him like the longest
you know, I don't think you would feed me to
the lions. No, I wouldn't need you that. Now he
does a very possibility that he might say no, but

(52:53):
it doesn't. What would be the greatest, what would be
the worst thing that would happen. I didn't even asked you.
He was right there and I didn't say nothing. I
didn't ask him. I will. But I was sitting here
thinking it's on the target. But the reason why even
like you is because we have a relationship, like we
talk and I don't this whole vitamin D. It's about

(53:15):
breaking barriers. It's about being inspired, getting a dose and
motivation and understanding stories. M I hope that he sees
the work that I do found and say, but not
even that. But I'm saying that if he comes around,
then it will come around, Okay, focusing on the doing
thing you don't want to put. He may say yeah, Nate,

(53:36):
and then you want to get You just want to
ask him. That's all you want you If he says yeah,
or if he says Nate, that means every person that's
important that's on that show. You asked them all that
you're gonna get some of them. Some you ain't gonna
get some. I'm gonna give you the running around, but
you can say when you get down the road and

(53:56):
you do something. I was running, why would they I
don't know. Did you ask yeah? I asked him, well,
which is a better story. Did you ask him? No,
I didn't say nothing to him. I was, why didn't
you ask shoot your shock? As you said you had
an experience? Where what'd you say Robin Harris? You said,

(54:16):
because I never spoke to him. I was I would
go to the working with him or you. Well, I
was an up and coming comic. He was big, quote
unquote man of l A at the Comedy Act Theater,
so that was considered the black comedy club. Now, mind you,
I was considered a comedic who played only white clubs
because back in the day there weren't no black comedy clubs.

(54:37):
So predominantly our audience was was white, which for me
was great. Women know that too. But it taught me
how to work both audiences. It was just it just
blew my mind. I could work. I had to learn
to work black audiences, but I could work white audience.

(54:57):
I had them in my palm of my hands. So
when I came to l A, it was an all
black comedy club. I've never been in the all black
comedy because I've never seen an all black audience. Never
make you nervous, Nell, I'm always nervous. So and I
didn't do things I do added onto that, so I
how to do that. So when I became a writer
on radio on TV shows, I mastered it. I knew

(55:20):
how to make both man because white comics that never
have to go on in front of all black audience,
and they are black comics who never get to see
an all white audience. So we have two different worlds
that you might get a sprinkle, but you never get
an all white audience. So what all shows have you
written for? You? Said ar Ceneo. Me and the Boy,
Robert Townsend, UM sin Bad, Steve Harvey's, UM Steve Harvey

(55:45):
had two shows? I did want three shows, four shows.
UM Steve Harvey is a big time Steve Harvey show,
UM Me and the Boys, and the TV talk show
and Our Senio Home and all. I write stuff for
the radio show God and and you've also been in

(56:06):
movies and so forth. And my biggest claimed the famous
UM How to Be a Player? And drum Line. What
a lot of people don't know about drum Line. There's
another movie called Pay the Price. Pay the Price was
it a movie that was out before drum Line. It

(56:28):
is the exact same movie version. It's a black version
written by it was written or I can't look it up.
I can't think, but it was written by somebody. It's
the same movie as Drumline. It's the exact same the
only differences. It is a low budget of Drumline drum Line.

(56:50):
Somehow they ended up going to court suing that they
stole their idea and made Drumline. I'm in both movies, snap,
so you already know the truth. Got jee? You look
sound like a common denominati man. I'm in both movies
to pay the price. It's just just fell by the wayside.

(57:11):
Drum Laine was a major success. Who did you tell
them about the movie? You were just the actor. They
know about it. There was a lawsuit after Drumlin came
out about this movie. Wow are you? Are you writing
any more movies? Now? I just did Tyler paris um
TV show um Um called Assistant Living. I'm used to

(57:32):
do a bit on the Steve. I've done a bit
on the Steve every show called the Chapman's. Because I
was telling Carli, I said, where is it at? Please
bring it back now that we're on zoom, Please. I wouldn't.
I just told her last because I took you and
I asked her to be on the podcast. I wrote
The Chapman's and it's a fictitious family. One is a

(57:54):
one run sport run's and Carla to know who her
daddy is and r just whenever he speaks. They said,
shut up, Junior. Tommy plays different characters. Tommy has a
fictitious person that he can talk to, but you never
hear him talk. Um. I killed myself because I do
get so nervous reading. So I killed myself. And Shirley

(58:18):
is a narrator. She moves the story in love. So
when you write, what inspires you the premise, the story
or the characters. It was just something. When Steve said
he wanted to have, uh something like a sitcom went
on and I said, well, you know, it would be
great to have a sitcom. Firstfore we make it shut
and we make it that instead of bringing in people,

(58:39):
let the people on the show play the characters. That's ingenious.
That's just genius stuff. Then, and so I came up
with this concept of the Chapman's and uh, my assistant
Mysup would type it alone from me and to make
surely the narrator. It's just it's great, it's bright. I mean,
she is the voice and she moved in there times

(59:02):
when you could write it that. One of the best
shows for me written, the best writing show on television
is a show called Green Acres. Which network is that on?
It's on It's on the old Challengel network. What's you
love about it? Because the way they write on Green Acres,
they not only wrote what was happening in this predicament here,

(59:27):
they would right, they would write jokes about the credits
still going across the screen, what they were yes for
instant they would he would be talking to his wife
and she would say, Oliver, why of the words still
on the screen, and and you know, they would play
it off like he didn't say it. He would break

(59:48):
the wall if he said anything, if he just said, man,
I'd like to get some new sighting. They had a
character that came in said, I heard you talking about sighting.
Now he wasn't in the seen. He just showed up,
just said, and he just showed up selling stuff. You know,
he wasn't like he acted if he heard what they

(01:00:09):
were saying and he'd showed up selling it. It's to
me and it was all written by one guy. To me,
it's one of the best written comedy shows ever that
in the Savor and Son Samfon and Son was a
beast what and it was so wrong? Real? Do you
is there any show out that you felt like probably

(01:00:30):
got inspired for that or maybe some I know what
got in fact the show came from England. Well no,
I'm saying after Sanfon his Son here, do you see
anybody else that came up after that? Con had a
show that that I thought was Martin and Martin Martin
when Martin was antagonists in terms and what was so
good about Martin the same thing with Safon his Son

(01:00:52):
is when you do a sitcom, you gotta have look
at look at all of you gotta have a character
on there that every body either dislikes or that they
just talk about everybody in the room. You gotta have
that character that that character has to exist. And you
look at your major sitcoms. All in the family, good Time,

(01:01:15):
that's my mama, Um Monique. You know who who is
the antagonist who gets to insult everybody? Monique gets sit
insult to everybody. Mosha who gets in insult everybody. She
brought in her friends that wouldn't come. You know, So
when you have that when you do that for your writing,
or either you have a quote unquote come in the
door character on on the Seinfelder Seinfeld it was Kramer.

(01:01:40):
When Kramer came in the door, it was just the
lap because they did the show line. They got so
much applause that they would have to wait. And if
you look at the tapings now, they took it out.
They took all They took it out because they ate
up time on Room to two seven, Hey signed and
when she came in the door, when Rollo came in
the door, they the next door jump man. You gotta

(01:02:02):
have some kind of character coming in to break up.
Fox called all his friends z Lwanda when she came
in out food and they were a yeah. So that
was That's just writing. That was just great writing. So
what um, I know you talked a lot of the
male comedians. What about the female comedians back then? Like
it was comedy hard harder for female Um Marcia Wallfield

(01:02:26):
Adele given some more, um Um Wander Pykes, oh Man,
Mom's Navely just Tunda And I've always said this, these
females are way smarter than these negroes, way smarter. They're
way smarter enough when they hit the stage way. I'm
glad that you give respect that they're way smarter than

(01:02:50):
we are, because you know they don't have to go
I'm scrolling up. Um, look, ain't they ain't going there?
They'll go that route, but it's so clever that you
don't see it coming. They're smarter than me because they's
running them in anyway, I would not have comedy shows
when I go on the road. I don't have a
guy on my show. I will not put a man

(01:03:11):
on my show. Give me some women. The room is
full of women. You know you actually did you didn't
you go on tour with your daughter. Yeah, that's a
whole different story. And I didn't want my daughter to curse.
I wanted her to be clean. You're a sailor, and
you didn't want hard to curse. Yeah, I know, but
I wanted it because when you don't curse, it makes

(01:03:33):
you think more. I'm not saying comments to curse, are
not thinking. You just throw out curse words. That's just
my opinion. When you don't curse, you're thinking what can
I put that? What can I say? So I said,
in order to work with me, you can't curse. You
go on stage, you do three minutes. I don't need
you to do one that. But you know it's it

(01:03:55):
takes hard work to do this. It's hard. What you
mean A couple of times you gotta go to places
that you don't want to go. You gotta, hey, you
gotta go to I mean, it's not saying now you
gotta go to campuses. You gotta go to jobs. I
went to I went to all girls schools. I went
to restaurants where they didn't have comedy. I stood on

(01:04:15):
the floor. I stood on the DJ floor to do comedy.
I um. I went to all white places. I went
to biker clubs. I went to places where the three
and four people comics don't want to do that. Now
they want to be on the internet. So it's a
whole don't get me wrong, it's a whole different game. Now.
You can be successful by being on the internet. But

(01:04:36):
once you come off the internet and there's a crowd,
you gotta find a way to entertain that crowd. You
gotta find a way. Well, I won't say the good
thing now because everything is on a lot. A lot
of people are doing like a live audience, so that
steel that feel. But I feel like I would imagine
that there's a different kind of energy when you got
somebody in the when you got people like this different
and you can steal the breath and all that kind

(01:04:56):
of stuff. So are there is there any advice that
you even tell with somebody about if the thing about comment? Yes,
when if you think about now, I would tell people
to post as much as you possibly can and build
up an audience. You can do that on the internet.
You don't have to quote unquote do the chipping circuit
if that's the type of comedian you want to be.
But if you want to master both, can find a

(01:05:16):
way to master both by getting on that stage and
as many diverse audiences and you possibly can, and you
will be a better comedian. And you gotta go all in.
You got to go on in. You got to drive
home from that club that night when you know you
was not funny and it did not work. It was
funny in the mirror, it was funny when you told

(01:05:38):
your friends, man, what you think about this, I'm gonna
do that. Man, that is funny. You need to open
with that. You're gonna man, You're gonna do that. And
how to go loud, so other than other than a
gentleman that got you onto Arsenio? Who else took a
chance on you before that? But I'm wondering what did
they see? Why did they take a chance on you?

(01:06:00):
Tom Joner took a chance for me and put him
on the radio because um what happened was, I was
working at a club called Mavericks Flat right, yeah, right
down now for Crnshaw. I was working there and his
producer You're a lot of Starts, would come to the
club with her husband and she went back and told

(01:06:20):
Tom I had already done death Jam. She said, you
gotta put this guy on his show. He's funny. She was.
She booked the guests, so that was her job to
book people. She puts me on the show as a guest. Tom,
and I'll just click it, just click. And I said,
give me time number because I want a job. Give
me She said, Okay, I get I call him up.

(01:06:42):
I say, man, I like that. I like to be
on your show every week and I'll do it for free.
And this is my advice. Yeah, this is my advice
to people. Try to figure out how you can get
in for free. Free, get you in the door. But
you listen, people knowledge as are too big for their bridges.
If you're not paying them, then that's trying to be
about it. But when that's a different kind of hunger,
when you gotta work for it. If you read the

(01:07:03):
book My Two Dads. You read the book My Two Dads.
It talks about how they work for the two dads
and he didn't pay him any money. And even unquote
unquote slaves who are working for free. When they became free,
they worked at the trades that they have pull them
in porters picking cotton. Or if I can pick cotton,

(01:07:24):
I can grow cotton. If I can shine shoes, I
can open the shoes shot. If I can make Miss
Hattie address, I can make my own dresses and sell them.
If I can cut masters here, I can cut negro here.
You know, so you can niche out with you and
free gets you in the door. Freeway gets you in
the door. It will Hey, I want to be a bobber,

(01:07:45):
but I'll come in here and sweep up for free
because I just want to be a brown bobbers man.
I want to be a cook. I'll take the flower.
I want to do tattooing. Man, I don't care. If
you take that attitude, it gets you in the door
and blue evening. If you become good at what you're doing,
somebody will pay you a lot of money to do it.

(01:08:06):
Somebody will. My brain was going everywhere when you said that,
because I tell people like I understand um colleges and
for everybody, right, But you know who went to college?
Hitting went to college? And Trump with the college. I'm not,
I'm not about to. But the thing with the college,

(01:08:30):
they all went to college. I went to trade school.
Bill Cosby went to college. Bill Cosby did a lot
of us went to college. But but here's the thing,
and I was getting there while college, you know, we
learned all this stuff. I I did well. I graduated
with honors, hosted the graduation. That's not the guessing point.

(01:08:52):
But I feel what I benefited most from college was
what you just talked about about working for free. Was
doing my internships because I had an excuse to be
in the door. I had an excuse just to hear
the conversation. So whether you were talking about a name,
whether you were putting me on, telling me things that
I need to learn about, to read about. And then
it became that thing of Oh Dawn is always there.

(01:09:12):
Oh Dawn is showing up. In fact, that's even how,
that's how. That's why I said before you right now,
because when I was interning in Detroit, I was a
promotions assistant running the streets, but the marketing director would
always say like, hey, you know me, Skip dialer, go
talk to him. I saw him in the studio and
it was at that point that I realized one of
those how moments you realized when you were later that

(01:09:35):
Um Martin was based on a radio personality from Detroit,
which was Mason. On that day, Skip was filling in
and he took a chance. I just asked questions. But
I wouldn't have had a reason to be in the
room had it not been for free and had it
been an internship. And I tell people all the time,
stop thinking that it has to be the monetary thing.
Right now, just show up because a lot of people

(01:09:58):
want to say, oh I wasn be Um. I'm thinking
about making you dex Laz and the next thing to
come out of that minch. But well, how much I'm
gonna make I ain't gonna pay you nothing. Well, and
I ain't doing it. I ain't coming, not even realizing
that the information of what you got to say is
super ses that dollar, Yes, how did it was amazing? Actually, um,

(01:10:19):
you know, I want to break in there a little
bit more about because your battle was cancer like that's huge, man, Like,
that's huge. You have to face the radio every day
it's the fight, and you had to laugh about it.
That's a lot of pressure that I think. I think
had not laughed been there and I didn't have this
ability to go on the radio, who knows what I

(01:10:41):
would have done, you know, who knows how I would
have dealt with it. Every day. I could go on
the radio and I could be ignorant or you know,
to the extreme as much as the extreme as I
wanted to be. And it made a difference for me.
So I'm blessed. The pain was it was it the
worst thing you ever felt. No, I didn't have it
paid for. I was. There were times when I threw

(01:11:02):
up a lot and I lost a lot of weight.
But I've heard people have bounce with cancer where they're
a lot of pain. I was never in pain. It's
just that I lost my appetite. I felt like I
didn't want to eat. Nothing stayed on my stomach. Because
of the chemo. I threw up a lot. You know,
I'm not trying to get to graphic, and I lost

(01:11:23):
I lost weight in which you look good man, I
was up to two. I was wearing like two fifty
five and like two hundred guns. So wow. Well, I'm
so glad to see your face because I haven't. I
don't even know the last time I seen your face.
It was before your power and I can't wait to
see you in person. But we talked. When we talked
all the time, I can't remember, like why I haven't

(01:11:45):
seen you in because Lord knowles when I run into week,
we've seen each other. Yes, thank you so much for
being on the vitamin. The podcast this is I ain't done.
I'll let your letter. Let me tell you something. I
love me some j Anthony Brown true story. Jay was
actually one of the very first people that I reached

(01:12:06):
out to to help me with writing a sketch. And
that's what I mean about using your resources, looking around
and seize around you who can help you out. You know,
fear is nothing but false evidence appearing real. It just
causes it to cripple you to stop and remember as
long as you own this earth, you're growing, so that
means you have to continue to move, you continue to grow,

(01:12:29):
and you're constantly building from the good and the bad.
I appreciate Jay, and you know what, even how far
I've gotten with this podcast right now is thanks to Jay.
I sat down with him a few weeks ago and
get the center of you. And he said, Dawn, did
you ask the rest of the morning crew? And I

(01:12:50):
was like no, and he was like why not? I said, well,
I'm waiting to get everything in order and get my
ducks lined up. He said, Dawn, ducks, don't even walk
in or her what you see what I'm saying there,
fine your mentor use your resources. And from then that's
how I got Shirley Strawberry had coming up soon, just

(01:13:11):
gonna meet Carla Farrell. And you know, he said, did
you ask Mr Harves? I said, no, not yet, And
each time I talked to him he asked me. That's
all I'm gonna asked Mr Steve Harvey and listen, if
he does he does, if not, he doesn't, But I'm
gonna shoot my shot and you'll know because you'll hear him,
and if you don't, you'll know what happened. So thank you,

(01:13:33):
Mr j Anthony Brown. Your ducks don't always have to
be in order because ducks don't walk in order. So
if you like what you heard and you want to
learn more from Jay, you can follow him on Twitter
at the letter j spot Comedy. He's on Instagram at
Jay dot Anthony Brown. And if you're looking for more
Vitamin D in your life, you can always follow me

(01:13:54):
at Dawn Day Speaks on all social media. Again, that's
Dawn d a A I speaks on all social media.
And I'm also going to put up some clips from
this episode later in the week. I hope you enjoy
it okay, and until next time, always remember you are
your greatest asset.

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Dawn Dai

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