The Breakfast Club Sits Down With Ryan Davis To Discuss 'Underrated' Comedy Special, Netflix, Family, Eddie Murphy, Kevin Durant. Listen For More!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wake that ass up in the morning.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Breakfast Club Morning, everybody. It's DJ n V Jess Hilarious,
Charlomagne the guy. We are the Breakfast Club law La
Ross here as well. We got a special guest in
the building. We have a comedian, Ryan Davis. Welcome brother.
What's up man now? Donald Rawlings is feeling into here.
You know, Charlomagne's out, just is out. So donn Ella's
is one of our family members, extended family.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
But don't expect me to do no booty drop, so
none of that type of stuff.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Crazy.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
But how are you feeling?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
First for I'm feeling good, man, I'm feeling good.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Your new special, Underrated is out right now. Yeah, man,
And it's a story. You put it together for people
that don't know. Explain how you started to do this
on your own. You shopped it around and yeah, you
couldn't get a deal.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Nah, I shopped it around. It's funny too whenever you
because I mentioned Netflix immediately when I said all Netflix
didn't take it, people go, you know, there's other places.
I don't think they understand how shopping around goes. You
shop it everywhere, you know, I just mentioned Netflix, but
it was hailed for like five months or it was
in their hands for like five months, and then eventually
(01:07):
they said, you know no, they passed on it. And
by that time, you know, yeah done. Will tell you man,
some material has like shelf Life. Yeah yeah. But what
I want to say, this is what people understand.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Like Robbie.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Robbie Praut is a big exec over Netflix, and even
for years I've been in his presence. I don't want
to make this interview by myself, but we shared the
same career paths and I asked him one time, I said,
what do I have to do to give myself a
better position for you know what? I know people ask
him all the time what about a Netflix special? And
he said, Donelle, you one of the funniest comments that
I know. I respect you, but you have to understand.
(01:43):
We tell people no all day and that's what people understand.
You see people that on Netflix. But it's a lot
of deserving people. But for some reason, it might not
have been the time, it might not have been the thing.
They might have needed something from the Alphabet Commune, somebody
from the Alphabet Commune that year, whatever, But what I could say,
and I had a problem moment I slipped on your
(02:05):
page when you took metals into your own hand.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
And one of the.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Things I did, and I appreciate about you. A lot
of people in this business they talked ship. They won't
put their money where their mouth is and they won't
bet on themselves. So when I saw you that testimony
and you broke it down, this nigga went analytical. Yeah,
he had charged numbers.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
You spent, well, how much did you shoot? How much
you did?
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Take? You ast me about one fifty. Because you know,
when you choose certain venues and then you have to
address the venue. I had to paint the stage. It
was several cameras. You know, you got to get the jib,
you gotta get the everything. Like I had to pay
for everything out of pocket.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
So when you go to these places like Netflix and
all these other places that said no, which made you
decide to do it on your own, they tell you
why no, or they just like, damn, you have no
clue why it.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
Has been the block. Once you did that breakdown on
the line where you showed those so.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Many and that was the thing, it went so crazy.
But because it was it was shared hundreds of thousands
of times, So like my dms were crazy, and there
was a lot of people reaching out who have platforms
and things of that nature, but I couldn't see it
all or even entertain Plus I've already told millions of
people where I'm gonna put it and what I'm gonna
do with it, you know, And to the people who
(03:18):
were reaching out, you know, with these platforms, you know,
I appreciate it. But also at this time, this is
a great time to reach out to other comedians because
there's a lot of comedians that have my story. You know,
at this point, you should you should put out that
you're willing to bring comedians to your platform and give
them a space to share their art, you know what
(03:38):
I mean, that's what I wanted. I wanted, you know,
whenever I put it out to inspire other people to
put their money where their mouth is.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Yeah, yeah, but they're not going to do it.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
A lot of people talk a lot of shit, and
at the end of the day, like when we are
in a better position. When I first started, it was
only like ABC, CBS, NBC, and the ultimate platform for
specialist was the HBO, Right, It wasn't a million things.
So there are avenues but if you know, in this business,
Netflix probably is the most prestigious, the one that people
(04:09):
gravitate to the most, Like this is the platform to
say this is one of the great and even if
even if you do find another home for I know,
it's something to be said about a Netflix special. I
think you're deserve it. Interesting to me, is underrated? Why
did you choose to name your special underrated?
Speaker 1 (04:28):
I think that is.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
And if you're just joining us, Ryan Davis is here,
Donnella's filling in for Charlemagne, and Donnella is on his journalist.
Speaker 5 (04:36):
Tip period because he just brought that in real, real easy.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Yeah, I think underrated describes kind of what my journey
is right now in stand up, you know what I mean.
I think amongst my peers, they know how I get
down on stage. But I think the general public we
have gotten to a point where the skill of stand
up isn't really celebrated as much as the popularity of
(05:02):
an individual. And I wanted to highlight that when it
comes to the stand up space. You know, I think
I'm one of the best out here, like one of
the top ones, and I don't want and whenever I
think I'm criticist anytime I'm criticized, it's based off of
social media content. Oh, I don't think, you know, he
(05:23):
may be this because of the I've seen clips of
something instead of the actual thing that I do. So
that's why I went with underrated.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Let me ask you, is Netflix the goal? And what
I mean by that, It's like when you when you
play basketball, the goal is NBA, When you play football,
the goal is NFL. You know, when you do something
the goal might be, you know, to own a Ferrari
as a comedian, is the goal Netflix?
Speaker 1 (05:48):
I don't think so. I think I think Netflix put
themselves in position with the deals that they did, you know,
with Dave and Chris and Kevin. When they started handing
out twenty million, you know, uh, they had surpassed HBO
at that point, and then it had been a while
since you saw an HBO special and then that person
(06:10):
went on to like incredible success, and that's been the
story for a lot of people that you know have
been on Netflix. So I think Netflix had surpassed you know,
HBO as far as being a launching pad, so that,
you know, I think any creative keeps there, you know,
into the street and eyes on what's going on. So
you have somebody like Sebastian Maniscalco who he wasn't relatively
(06:34):
known like that, and he did his Netflix special. Now
he does Madison Square Garden. So you know, you see
stuff like that and you don't see it on other platforms.
It makes you go, Okay, now I see the influence
that Netflix has and I kind of want that launching pad.
That's how you think of it. I think that's what
made Netflix appear to be the top one.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
When you say when you say underrated, is that your
observation or is that the observation from your fans and
people that have been following your journey. Who's saying you
underraty you? Or there's the people that you want to
reach out to.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Nah, I think that's what I've viewed over the years.
I don't I don't even think. I think over the
years I've seen that people don't even think I'm as
successful as I am. I think it's uh. I think
the narrative on me is that I'm still like that
I'm still trying to figure it out, or I'm up
and coming and I've been like how successful.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
I will say the first time I ever saw you,
I think it was that. I think it was that
maybe chocolates, Sunnies.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Or last Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
And I was like, cause, you know is a thing,
you know, my stuff set I come to eat it up.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Yeah, did you come behind me? I closed?
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Yeah, And I was when I left them, I was like,
all right, do what you gotta do. What it was
and and I don't have a problem with that. And
like the thing that you didn't get rattled.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
You know what I mean? You getting rattled.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
And when I say, even when I watched the clips
and stress your composure.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
You know what I'm saying, you're timing, you know.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
And then when I saw you, when I first time
I saw you, it's so hard to say somebody's original.
I was like, this motherfucker's original his point of view.
He's not talking about everything these motherfuckers talked about. And
then when I watch you, I say, guess what this
motherfucker can entertain black, white, Asian or whatever. And that's
the point. How do you do you feel sometimes because
(08:20):
you have the crossover ability that people don't connect with
your blackness?
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Man, you know that you deal with that.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
I'm asking you the question.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
So it's just but to add on what he said,
he's right, right, And the reason I say that is
is I know you as a comedian, but to me,
it doesn't stand out as it should. Yeah, he's a
little different because he's been coming on the Breakfast Club
for years, so we poke at that, we make fun
of him. But for you, I didn't see it the same,
(08:51):
almost like a Hannibal Burrs right where he's huge, but
not in our community. For say, you know what I mean,
So how do you deal with that? And how come
that is?
Speaker 1 (09:02):
But that's why I lead to underrated. And I'm gonna
tell you, I'm not going to act like that's not
bothersome to be underrated amongst the people you feel like
you relate to the most black people.
Speaker 6 (09:13):
Yeah, because I'm going to ask you, like, because you
said underrated, people look at you like you said up
and coming, like you're not successful. Like when I said,
I was going to ask you how successful you are?
But I don't mean for you to like name every accolade.
I mean, where do you think your level of success ranks?
And like what is success to you? Because if you
can put out one hundred and fifty k real easy
for a special right, a lot of people don't got
one hundred and fifty k in cash, just be like, yo,
(09:35):
I need to shoot this.
Speaker 5 (09:36):
Yeah, so you're doing something somewhere.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
I'm doing all right. So yeah, I'm doing all right.
But that's also because of my fans. I went straight
to my fans. This Patreon that I'm doing is not new,
and I you know, I don't do the whole flashy thing.
I'm all about. You know, if my fans believe in
me enough to give me money, then I'm gonna in
return give them a product. So the special aim from that.
(10:01):
Me and my my partner, Austin Hall, my business partner,
Austin Hall, we did a movie.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
Well, you know you succeeded.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
You're successful when you say my business partner, business partner.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Yeah, Like we're doing a movie. Even the money that's
made from this special is go. I'm gonna shoot my
second one this year. You know, it's all about giving
the people. If they're willing to invest in me, then
I'm willing to give them the product that they paid for.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Why don't you think you connect to the black community
as you should?
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Like I think that the black audience has been trained
to gravitate towards certain type of stuff. Well, you know,
in our business we call dick and pussy jokes continue alrighty,
not because I think I think what happens is uh.
(10:56):
We have been trained over the years to do what's
the move, like what's the popular thing to do? Like
everybody's gonna be there, so I'm gonna go, you know
what I mean, instead of I don't think a lot
of people are willing to stand on. I like this person,
so I'll go even if the building is empty. You know,
(11:17):
they rather be a part of something bigger. People love
to be a part of something, and I think if
I don't, I don't create that fear of missing out
like a lot of people do you know, I'll sell
out a show and I won't show anybody. So there's
so the narrative is the thought that I don't sell
out shows. And I always thought that was weird, and
(11:37):
then some like I remember seeing comments when I would
promote shows. They're like, I don't know, if the shows
sell out, then I might have to pull up, And
I'm like, why would that be the reason the reason
to a show? Stuff like that always, you know, I
think we're always because we're the coolest, you know kids
that were always looking for the coolest people to follow,
and comedy ain't about cool, It's about funny, you know.
(12:01):
And I think once we get back to that, you know,
celebrating the skill and the you know, the actual talent,
then you know, comedy would be back in a good place.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
But I really believe, I really believe this. It's people
like yourself. Right, I've been doing it long with you,
but it's people like yourself that I really appreciate. And
I really believe that. Sometimes I think, will the artists
stand up fade away? You know what I mean, because
it's so easy to get caught up in you know,
the crowd work comics, it works him and everything, and
(12:32):
he's like this is this going to oversaturate the market,
and this is what's gonna be the norm. Then it's
kind of refreshing when I see people like yourself. I
was like, you know what, there will be people that
save this art form. And it's interesting because I've heard
underrated come to me. I just really really believe Ryan,
it's just a timing thing. Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
(12:53):
I think for you, I think all the things you
expect you're gonna get Okay, maybe not happening this year,
but the trajector to be on the discipline you have
to work as have. It's inevitable that everything you think
you should get out of it. I think definitely, and
I think the people follow you know that.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
I'm gonna be honest with you, man, I really didn't
have expectations when I went online to just share my
story or whatever. I was like, oh, my fans will
see this. But then it ended up getting like eight
million views across platforms. I didn't That wasn't what I expected.
I expected. I was like, yeah, I'm just I hope
to get my money back. So yeah, I want people
(13:30):
to see it. I hope to get my money back.
But but I worked really hard on this project, man,
Like whenever I went to shoot it, my father had
been diagnosed with cancer.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Yeah, okay, wait a minute, I have to stop this
right now.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Wait a second, Wait a second. Laugh.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
My dad passed away about a year ago, and I
had a box of what nigga, you laughed?
Speaker 6 (14:08):
Isn't that one of the most memorable clips I told you.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
But I'm just saying you.
Speaker 5 (14:15):
Stories your father was diagnosed with cancer too, not.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
That, but it was just an emotional part.
Speaker 5 (14:21):
Okay, go ahead, so.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
That I appreciate your empathy. Brother. So he uh, it
was my mom, him and my mom. Uh, they had
never even been on a plane before and they got
on the plane to go to Chicago for my special Yeah.
That was a huge deal, a lot of like I've
(14:45):
like my entire siblings, like all of my siblings, I
want to bait like everybody got out to support it,
you know, to see that type of you know, belief
from my family, man really meant a lot to me.
And you, like I said, the success that I don't
talk about, like I bought the house that I was
raised in from my parents and then and then you know,
(15:08):
gave my dad the deed on like Father's Day and
just being able to do that stuff. But I think
that stuff isn't necessarily cool. It is cool, No, no, no,
it is. It is, but it's not it's not what
we celebrate as much.
Speaker 6 (15:25):
It seems like I don't know, no, no, no.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
I'm not saying it's not celebrated.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
That's what we call generational wealth and the fact for
your parents. See, I like stuff like that because it
encourages more people to do more right. And you know
the reason I talk about a lot of this stuff,
especially when it comes to generational wealth. Is a lot
of times we like to show success from the call
we drive and the jewelry we have and the watches.
And I'm guilty of it as well sometimes too. But
(15:52):
also I like to make sure that my kids collegees
are paid for, that my kids start off with. You know,
my daughter graduated from co legit I was able to
buy her a home, her first home. She starts at zero.
You know the fact that paid for my parents' crib.
Those those are the fly things to me.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Those are fly the fly.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
The Louis Vatine shirt that you got on it is cool,
but those are the fly.
Speaker 6 (16:15):
Like how emotional I can only my mom stage for
a cancer survivor, so I can only imagine how emotional
it was for you having your dad be there and
because it's such a people don't understand that you've been
through a cancer battle of like how it weighs on
you and how strenuous it is. But to be able
to bring laughter during that time, yeah, I know they
had to be emotional for you.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
It was huge. It was huge and uh, my father, man,
he's super proud, Like I'll never. I'll never forget that.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
How's he doing now?
Speaker 1 (16:43):
He's see proud black man. He won't tell you, he
won't tell you. We never know how this nigga's doing.
You know, we're like, hey, can you give us an update?
Oh no, everything's cool, So we never know. You just
have to gauge how it looks.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
Say you're one of eight kids, Yeah, where were you?
Speaker 1 (17:02):
You're the middle middle child.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
So half of them support your half of them don't
funk with you.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
No, so that my family actually didn't know how successful
I was.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Really Yeah, when did they find out?
Speaker 1 (17:15):
They went like one when they went to the special
and saw like I sold out the House of Blues
multiple shows, and they.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Were like what And then I really don't have what
your siblings?
Speaker 1 (17:27):
No, No, we get in a group chat every day.
We just don't talk about money, We don't talk about
any none of that matters. That changed, Yeah, no it doesn't.
Christmas time we've done Secret Santa every year and they know, no,
they know whoever get Ryan is gonna, they know what
time it is. So but they didn't like I did
(17:51):
a show at UH in Virginia Beach. I did a
weekend I sold out the whole weekend and my older
brother was there and he was like, Man, all these
people here, they probably gonna become fans of yours after this.
I was like, they all paid to see me, they
already fans.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Damn.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
He was like, people come to see you like that.
And it's like, Bro, and I'm talking about this is
I've been touring like yearly since like twenty sixteen. This
is like twenty twenty three.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
A lot of times people don't acknowledge nothing but the flash.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. It's not that people
don't appreciate substance. They do, but the audience that appreciates substance,
I think is a much smaller group than and I
think it's by design, you know what I mean. I'm
not saying that, you know, something is wrong with our people.
(18:44):
It's just people love. Like when I grew up, MTV
cribs was a thing for a reason. Before that, lifestyles
of the Richard Famous was a thing for a reason.
People want to attach themselves to maybe a life they
can't see, and if you look regular to people, they
don't gravitate to it as much. I think that's probably
the better way to put it.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Well, I think that's relevant in our community.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
It is different. There's a difference, man.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
But like I said, to be able to be able
to pull a audience the black side and the white
side and don't lose anything like some people when they
do this shit, like you're like, oh, when he front
of a white audience.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
He's this way.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
When he's from a black audience, he's that way. But
Ryan has ability that it doesn't matter. You don't see
I know it sounds crazy, I'm saying the same thing.
You don't see color. You just see a person's a storyteller.
It's got the wit hitting you with some stuff. It's
just it's a totally different.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Vibe, and it's it's intentional. I don't be honest with you, man,
I didn't even know before I went to Canada to
do a run of shows. I didn't know my perspective
was so black, like African American black until I went
to Canada and ain't no niggas there. There's black people there,
but we ain't there, and my perspective was so Black American.
(19:59):
I was losing the audience and I was like, I
didn't realize that my perspective was so limited. So I
started to work on broadening my perspective because I don't
want to leave anybody, Like if I if you can't
follow the joke, I want it to be because you stupid,
not because I left you out.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Culturally, that's all that comes with experiences like me coming
from DC. I had a very very very strong Southern accent,
and I had to work on in the South. If
people we call that country from DC to New York,
I signed the country as well. And I had to
(20:37):
work on my diction because I got tired of motherfucker
saying what did you just say?
Speaker 4 (20:43):
So I had to work on that.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
You know, So how important you think that is for
you to be able to connect all across the board.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
No, it's really important. I think I have like control issues.
I want to be understood. If you don't laugh at
something I say because you think it's not funny, I
can deal with that. But if there's if I feel
like I didn't communicate it correctly, then you know that's
gonna bother me, and then I want to I want
to fix that, Like I don't know, that's just always.
(21:12):
That's the thing in my personal life too.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
You remember your worst show? You ever you ever got
booed like you remember your worst show?
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Nah, I've never been booed. I always I always remember
my worst show. Though I invited a crush of mind
to the show. She sat front row and I bombed
right in front of her, and H damn, yeah, I
don't think i've seen her sin this. Uh, I wasn't
that long ago, like ten years?
Speaker 4 (21:38):
Who wasn't Who wasn't?
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Like sometimes the girl No, no, no, my brain is
somewhere else always asks this question when someone thinks about
doing comedy.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Who was it?
Speaker 3 (21:48):
Was it somebody in your family or life that said
you have to do it?
Speaker 4 (21:54):
Stop making me laugh, you gotta do it.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
No, because my humor is a little different, and I
love the art of comedy. You know, being funny in
a space versus being funny on stage is two different
skill sets. There's so much thoughtfulness to being funny on stage.
Speaker 5 (22:11):
He don't understand that because.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
I think you know, whenever you're whenever you're in a
space with many people, a conversation is usually already happening,
so the connection is already there. So you all, whatever
you're going to say in that moment is relevant to
the conversation. When you're on stage, you're creating the conversation
(22:40):
and the relevancy, and it's your job to communicate it
in a way that makes them laugh. So the idea
of just being funny in your day to day and
that's going to carry over. You know everybody that's a
that's a gift. Very few have. Donelle is funny like that.
Carlos Miller is funny like that. But there's not There's
(23:01):
not a lot of people who are so funny that
it can translate like that. I've seen Donelle walk into
the audience. He forced the connection of one of you.
You know, you'll understand what I'm saying, yo, and then
he'll put He'll like it's it's insane.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
But let me ask you, you know, with so many
comedians supporting you, right if you listen, like you know,
I heard Kevin Hard and Charlemagne do an interview, and
I've heard Kevin support you, you know, support you. I
guess verbally, do you feel like there should be more
support with comedians where they actually help because they have
other opportunities Because you know, we all see what's going
on with Netflix and some of those other things.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
But they do. They do. I think the conversations aren't
had a lot. But Dave Chappelle, whenever I put it
out or whatever, he texts me. He's told me before,
you know, if I need anything, I can reach out.
When we did when fifty was opening he did the
big show down in louisianas the Shreveport I was like,
(24:06):
literally in Dave's green room and he told fifty, if
you're working on something comedy or whatever, this is one
of the better comedy writers of today. You need to
book him to do something. Those things do happen, you know.
I like, have you written on shows? No, So whenever
a time came for me to write on a show,
(24:26):
Aaron McGruder actually had reached out because they were working
on something, and I was like, man, the opportunity to
work with the creator of Boondocks would have been crazy,
but it got shelfed, so I didn't get the opportunity.
But yeah, now.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Man, he is reaching out.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Yeah, I like so with my special I got it
as a one time by because Patreon is a subscription
based and I don't want nobody to feel obligated to stay.
But the people who get the subscription you also get
my talk show. Slash podcast is coming, Kevin Hart's gonna
be on that, Charlemagne's gonna be on that, Jill Scott
method man a lot. There's a lot of support from
(25:04):
entertainers and they agreed to this before that video even
came out, you know what I mean. And within the
industry there's always a lot of support in people, but
a lot of us artists aren't decision makers, so they're like,
what can I do that, you know what I mean.
They can use their popularity and their platform to draw
(25:24):
more attention to you, but at the end of the day,
it's still on the decision makers to make that decision.
And I'm like, well, the decision makers didn't pick me,
but the people did, so let me do. I'll put
my own money up to give the people what they've
been asking for.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
And you know, with that add to it's a slow grind,
but it's still a grind.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
It's like, you can it's easy for it. You be
like this, oh I want to do, this is gonna blood.
But I think the path that you're doing, how you're
doing building relationships with some of the top people, being
respected and being funny.
Speaker 4 (25:51):
Like I said, the.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Success whatever success you, it's already my opinion, it's already
mapped out. It's going to happen. You just got to
stay the course and it's everything's going to fall into place.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Yeah, I think you know what story because I don't laughing.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
No, I'm telling you something.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
It's so hard for me to laugh at the motherfucker
And I didn't want to laugh, right, I'm like this,
but it was just like, man, it was just seeing
you perform. It was a breath of fresh air man,
especially from seeing so much garbage, and like right now
the biggest thing now. And I'm not knocking anybody doing
the crowd work, but I remember when I first started
that wasn't respected that side of comedy. It was like
(26:28):
I did forty five minutes, Yeah, but you did thirty
minutes worth of crowd work. But now it's a different thing,
and it's hard. It's so refreshing to see somebody like
it's up because it's easy. You can't tell these young
guys that have the following, you can't tell them to
work in their craft because it used to be if
(26:49):
you want to pussy, if you want the money off
of this, guess what.
Speaker 4 (26:51):
You had to do. You had to be good.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
You had to be good.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
Now you don't got to be good.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
They got me the money, they getting the accolades, They're
getting the money before they good, and it's hard to
tell him you should work on this. And was like,
you know, I just made three hundred thousand on Instagram. Yeah,
they don't have that. They don't have the thing to
make them want to be better.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
And that was I didn't want to fall into that.
I didn't want to fall into that. Like I even
monetized my social media late. I remember a lot of
people were like, you're not monetizing, you just missing out
on money. I was like, I don't want that to
be my motivation.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Put that first check you is easy.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
No, Yeah, when you get when the money that come
from social media is dumb, it's really dumb. But I
didn't want that to be I wanted to be one
of the best, and I didn't want I'm gonna tell
you the story that bothers me so much is the
Bernie Mack story. Why he like he doesn't have that
hour special because he was at a time where you
(27:45):
had to be picked. Yeah, and they wouldn't pick him,
even though he was so popular amongst us that he
would sell out theaters and that other comedians like when
we when you can look at def Comedy Gym view
Bad Boys of Comedy, comedians up doing impressions of Denzel
(28:06):
Washington and Bernie Mack. Denzel Washington was our biggest star,
and the other recognizable voice within our community that people
wanted to do the most was Bernie Mack. And he
still wasn't picked. It took him dominating on Kings of Comedy,
which he wasn't considered the guy, you know, industry wise
before he really got And I just like I wish
(28:29):
that he had the opportunity to self produce because that
one stand up is really all most people have it.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
I'm not exactly the same, but it's some similarities. Like
even with the testimony you did, was like this, okay,
how come what he did was eventually he showed.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
In the numbers. Yeah, he showed the numbers.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
This is this, this is this? How does that translate?
Speaker 3 (28:50):
And somebody foually that got I think I forgot who
was the showrun? He finally connected with the right crew
and then they saw it and he basically was like
this this what to tell you, motherfucker.
Speaker 6 (29:01):
Yeah, but I think it was like cracked me from wrong.
All of that fight shouldn't have happened because from the
minute that he mic, we knew he was the guy.
And you actually had a quote I wanted to actually
if you still felt this way. You said, fame hasn't
cared about talent for.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
A while now, for a while now, and I don't.
But this is the funny part. They moved the goal post.
They moved a gold post. Fame hasn't cared about talent
for a while, so but now they don't even give
opportunities to the famous. So it's like like, what do
you do? Like you can be really like what are
(29:35):
they looking for? Are they searching for anything? Because you
can go I'm really like, I'm really skilled, I'm really talented,
or you get Nah, we're not giving it to that
right now. And it was like this person has a
bigger follower than you, will give it to you. Well,
this person has a bigger follower than them. Yeah, we're
not doing followings right now. It's like it's like, what
is the criteria I would look, I'll do I'll do
(29:57):
the work necessary to let me know where the I
think that's one of the most difficult things just for
us within this space is if you set a criteria,
we'll hit it. But when there's no criteria, now you
you have us like waiting on you to make a
decision on us. And once I realized that, I was like,
(30:21):
I'm not I'm not waiting on nobody.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
No more about with you and Kevin Durant, Why are
you Kevin Durant got upset with you.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Oh, Kevin Durant. So, Kevin Durant loves to go back
and forth with people on social media. And you know,
we had a difference of opinion, and I'm cool with
difference of opinion. He said, he said offense wins championships,
which is not a saying, has never been a saying
in any sport. Yeah, and that's what we disagreed. And
(30:52):
then he called me a trash comedian. And that's when
I knew he was familiar. This is what I'm talking about.
It's certain words, the in word in comedy.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
It's like, it's hard to go back to trash anything whack.
Speaker 4 (31:09):
Those are fighting words in the way in the world
of comedy that you roasted.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
The man's just horrible. Trash is trash trash. That's how
my whole day went. Like if you like, you know
people now they set up, they try party. You see,
they show with how they do that. If that, if
that had done that, all you would have saw is
me like sitting at the trash everywhere.
Speaker 5 (31:34):
But that's what But that's I said. But if you
know you funny though, it's like.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Yeah, but that's why I think. I think he didn't know.
That's why you felt like, yeah, I had to show
him he don't know, and let me let me show you.
Speaker 5 (31:49):
Show you something. I like that.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
But the thing is, like, y'all asked me about that,
why do you take it so personal? It is the
trigger trash Cordy in Whact when when Kramer went off
at the last factory that year and he just was
flowing down, you know what triggered him? Somebody, Yo, you
ain't funny, That's like, what the fuck are you talking about?
(32:13):
And especially when you know you know you're not trash
is so sensitive?
Speaker 1 (32:19):
It's not comedians. Let me tell you something sensitive, y'all. Y'all,
y'all ignore when everybody else is. You gotta remember Erica
Badu said it best keep in mind, I'm an artist
and I'm sensitive about my ship.
Speaker 6 (32:33):
But I thought so many shots though, So I feel
like y'all moved from sensitivity.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
I'm like, I just I don't feel like I was
sensitive in that moment. I kept it basketball. I talked
about basketball and that he said I was a trash
commed he said that he made it personal. I would
I kept it basketball, but I was like, since we
want to get personal.
Speaker 5 (32:55):
You want to be finding, you want to.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Be Yeah, you want to step into my arena. Let's
let's see how you fair. I can't beat you in basketball,
but I promise you I'm way better at this.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
Like you said, well you you put it in one lesson.
Certain comics aren't like you, like y'all fuck with everybody
like your style. He's not a style of comic that's
going to be like trying.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
To roast certain people like that.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
You got Michael Blackson, perfect example, Michael Blackson, and I
love him. He's a provocateur. He's going to push the
button and he's going to cross the line. But it's
like a person like Ryan, person like myself. They don't
cross the line. When people come at him like that.
It is I know it's easy for y'all say why
y'all take person because this is our shit man.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
Yeah, and this is the crazy part when they say
people take shots. Michael Blackson is a good example. Michael
Blackson is roasting you with love. I run into him
in the airport. He's like, what you doing in here?
You ugly nigga? And then be like, Yo, were about
to go to Ghana in a couple of months. You
know what I mean, let me know if you've available,
I'm gonna fly you out. I'm gonna show you some
stuff where I come from, like in Africa. You know
(33:59):
what I mean. That ain't somebody who hate you.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
He just he just loves I had him on my
podcast and it's so funny. A lot of people don't know,
like what he did in regard to his village during
that school and I was like, wow, I know you
look at him and he talked. I'm like, why isn't
this being celebrated, And a lot of people when I
passed a lot of people saying I didn't even.
Speaker 4 (34:20):
Know about it.
Speaker 5 (34:21):
Maybe I don't know. I think people just look at
because I know what you're talking about.
Speaker 6 (34:25):
But like when you got y'all are like, we look
to you guys for relief a little bit, and I
know you talk. There was a sitdown that you did
where you talked about how comedy, especially black comedy, is
kind of like the relief for a lot of like
traumas and different things. And when I watched that, I
was like, Okay, I kind of get what he's saying,
and maybe that's why I don't see Like for me,
I look at you, it's like, Okay, you're the funny guy.
(34:46):
So when you're being upset about something, it's like, why
you upset, You the funny guy.
Speaker 5 (34:50):
Or when you're responding, it's like, no, you're the funny guy.
Just be funny. But it's like you're our relief. So
it's like it's hard for us to see y'all as
anything but that.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Sometimes, and that's messed up that y'all don't see us
as people.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
Smokey Robinson, people say I'm the life of the party
because I tell a joker too, But take a good
look in my face and you see I'm frowning. We
as comics, as much as someone going to the show's
therapeutic for them, is therapeutic for us, and the best
comments are the ones that whatever they deal with life,
they know how to go up, go on stage and
talk about things in trouble in them.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
Right on my special I talk about I talk about
my relationship. I have a fractured relationship with my mother.
I talk about that.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
I talk about that must have been difficult to do
that in front of him.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
Oh what like she she had something to say, but
she was there, she supported So I always love her
for that.
Speaker 4 (35:38):
Fractured relationship.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Man, whenever, especially in our community, the woman the matriarch
of the family. You know, she can do no wrong
at times, and then she does do wrong. You gotta
have that grace. You don't ever disconnect from your mother.
And I made the decision not to really speak to
my mother for several years.
Speaker 4 (35:58):
Oh that's tough.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
Yeah, And I talk about that in the set. You
know what I mean. The mother of my children almost died,
you know, carrying our children. I talk about that. I
talk about That's what I'm saying. I turn those those
things into levity. I talk about race, I talk about
political correctness, I talk about relationships. I talk about everything,
(36:20):
because there aren't spaces for that. I talk about suicide.
I talk about. And I think people don't realize because
if you don't go to my shows, you don't know
they've been. There have been many black men who walk
up to me and go, you know, I have a
kind of a fractured relationship with my mother and there's
(36:41):
no space for us. Nobody's talking about what it is
to be a black man in that space, to look
at the woman who created you and not feel the connection.
That's the person we want to love us the most.
You know. The people who don't feel that love, where
do they go for levity? And that's what I try
to provide.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
But do you give a grace?
Speaker 1 (37:01):
Right? Oh? I give her grace?
Speaker 2 (37:03):
And I say that is you know, we came up
in the ever where, you know, especially black families, it
was mind your business, a kids, stay in a kid's place,
and they didn't show emotion. They didn't talk about their bills,
they didn't talk about none of that. You had to
figure it out when you figured it out, right, So
you have to give her that. Like my kids are differently.
They know everything that's going They know when daddy got
a bad day, daddy having a good day. They know
(37:23):
when daddy get a big check. When that they ain't
got no check. They know everything because we're more I
would think we're younger parents and we're more relatable. So
as long as you're giving your mom.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
I had to give her grace because my mom's super young.
My mom had me as a teenager and I wasn't
even a first child, so you know, understanding, I had
my first child at twenty six and I wasn't ready.
So having my third one at like seventeen, you know,
I couldn't even imagine what. You know, she never had
a chance to become an adult before she started raising
(37:55):
children of her own. Was your mother trafficked? No, she
was married.
Speaker 4 (38:03):
I was on stage the other day and I really
do the stage. I realized that my father trafficed my mother.
Speaker 5 (38:08):
What what is happening?
Speaker 4 (38:10):
I'm so sorry?
Speaker 1 (38:11):
What did you want to talk about it?
Speaker 5 (38:17):
Like, not whenever your mom got traffic tell us about it?
Speaker 4 (38:21):
No, this is your show.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
But your mother had three children by the age of seventeen.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
Four by nineteen by nineteen Yeah, so was your father
a lot older? Was it? He's older? Yeah, he's older.
I talk about that in the special.
Speaker 5 (38:35):
What was that dynamic like for you? Though?
Speaker 6 (38:37):
Just because I mean the relationship ended up fracture, but
like coming up and your mom is growing up with
you with three other kids for other kids, that was like,
that was your sister.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
Was like when you see her as mom, that's mom
because she we weren't raised like she's. We weren't raised
by grandma like my parents were married, they raised us together.
It wasn't until you get to like you get to
become an adult, like I'm thirty eight. My mom was
thirty eight when I was twenty one and I had
(39:07):
older siblings. That's crazy, that's crazy. That's when I started
to see how young she was. Before it was always
that's my mom.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
Club and actually see your yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
Man, listen, no, yeah, but she my mom is I
and I deal with It's so funny because now because
I didn't deal with the stuff that she dealt with,
it's like I'm more mature than her now because she
never got a chance to mature. She had to be
that fourteen year old girl and then turned mom and
(39:41):
then never really got the chance to grow us up
because she had to focus on everybody else. And at
times now I feel like I'm older than her.
Speaker 5 (39:48):
When she came and saw you, was that her first
time hearing the jokes about your relationship.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
Yeah. Yeah, but I've talked about our relationship on podcasts
and I never said what exactly was or whatever she
did because it was you know, that's between us. But
the thing is she won't admit to it. And there'll
be people who watch this who know what I'm talking about.
When you confront your parents about what it is or
(40:14):
what trauma they brought to you or what they did,
and it's not that you're saying you're a bad parent,
this is my experience of you. And then the first
thing they'll say is, also, I was the worst parent ever. No,
I wouldn't be here if you were a bad parent,
wouldn't I wouldn't purchase the home and give you that.
You know, if I thought you were a bad parent,
(40:35):
I wouldn't praise you the way i'd do if you
were a bad parent. This is where I feel like
something went wrong in my development and I just want
you to see what's happening to me. I'm coming to
you because I'm trusting you. This is still me being
vulnerable with you. They can't register it like that you're
(40:58):
taking a shot.
Speaker 3 (40:59):
I have a daughter, How does that affect the relationship
did you had did you have with your mother? How
does that affect the relationship? And you're raising your daughter?
Speaker 1 (41:07):
So my I have a ten year old daughter, seven
year old son. So what I realized is because my
parents wasn't affectionate, and I felt like I turned out okay,
that there was no need to give my children that
kind of affection. You know, I didn't deem affection necessary.
Speaker 3 (41:24):
Well, you know what in Korean culture because I was stationary.
That's Korean fathers. They have no emotional connection with the kick.
Their only responsibility is to provide and protect all that
I love you and everything they are. Korean fathers are
the toughest fathers to have period.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
Yeah, And I was really like that. My son, you know,
he's very affectionate, he's very sensitive and things like that,
and I was just like tough up, blah blah blah
blah blah. But I'm like, he's going to the person
he believes will protect him, and he trusting with these emotions.
And I'm sitting here going get over it. I ain't
(42:02):
even realizing what I'm doing to him. I'm drawing a
line of disconnecting with him. He doesn't feel safe around me. Now.
Speaker 3 (42:08):
Is that because of the relationship you have with your father?
Is that passed on the generations?
Speaker 1 (42:13):
No, man, my father was my dad. Oh my god.
If you have older parents, your parents still here, you
might have seen this from your father.
Speaker 4 (42:21):
You have father's dad.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
Yeah, man, sorry to hear that. Yeah, Dad, I love you,
See you when I get back to Charlotte.
Speaker 4 (42:31):
So my dad, y'all got your fathers all in your life.
Speaker 1 (42:34):
No, it's not a flex man. Yeah, it's not a flex.
Speaker 5 (42:42):
So, I mean my dad halfway and half way, y'all
depends on today.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Yeah, yeah, stop rubbing this. So my dad, he wasn't
very affectionate and I and you get older and you realize,
you know, I remember how my grandmother was, and I
was like, oh, he probably didn't get a whole lot
of affection either. But my dad is super affectionate now.
He says I love you all the time. He calls
(43:10):
to see how you're doing, any cares and all that stuff.
He a completely different nigga than the nigga I grew
up with, and that took a while for me to
get used to. Like he would go, you know, he
would say I love you, over the phone. I'd be
like everything, okay, we're good. Yeah man, yeah, But grandfather
(43:32):
he'd be like, gone, my dad was he didn't do
he didn't do it like that. But now I'm so
like I kissed my son and my daughter every time
I see him, hug him every time. We can't get
off to you gotta we got it. Exchange I love
you or it's not. So it's up to you to
change it. It's up to you to recognize these things
(43:53):
because your your parents did the best they could, whether
you believe it or not. Even if you like, well,
they could have done better what they couldn't see how
many of us actually see the things that we do
that we're messing up. Somebody from somebody has to tell you. Usually,
somebody has to tell you how they're experiencing you. You
don't get to tell people how they should experience you. Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (44:16):
How do you want your kids to see you?
Speaker 1 (44:19):
Oh? I want my kids. I want my kids to
respect me, and I want my kids to be proud,
and they're not. They're not proud of me.
Speaker 4 (44:29):
Yeah, I'm telling you you I don't know. Once you
voice something.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
But no one else said they'll be proud they'll be
proud in the next couple of years.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
Right.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
Let me tell you why. Similar to you, my kids
they know they hit me on the radio, but they
don't know what it is.
Speaker 1 (44:44):
They don't know what it is.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
When people take pictures, they like, that's just dad. Still
not popping to them. But when they see me on TikTok,
so be with other people, don't I'll be like, see
me like when they see me on TikTok and the
Man Yo.
Speaker 1 (45:06):
When Kevin Hart was on here and he said my name,
I showed my son and he said, why does he
know you? I was like, he was like, but he said,
casanat casanatus cool and like I when I had done
I had done TV movies and stuff like that, I'll
put it on the TV screen. It didn't mean nothing
to them. They saw I had a large following on YouTube.
(45:28):
They're like, oh, my dad is really somebody. He on
YouTube with a lot of followers.
Speaker 3 (45:33):
It was sol for me. When I did this character
on Soul. My son was like because the characters made
it to and that's how he got to get McDonald
happy meals every week because that was the toy thing.
He was like, my dad was in soul. And I
remember when when the Happy Mill discontinues that Dad, I
got a happy meal a day and I wasn't.
Speaker 2 (45:50):
Really happy You're.
Speaker 3 (45:53):
Not there no more than that's when he went back
to not fucking with me.
Speaker 6 (45:57):
Before y'all get out of here, this is I'm changing
gears because I really want to hear your opinion on this.
So I was just this is breaking right now, not breaking,
but a lot of outlets are picking this up right now.
Eddie Murphy, he's a part of the No call Sheet documentary,
number one on the call Sheet documentary, and he talks
about Sidney Potier telling him to not do dramatic roles
in movies and to lead that up to like the
Denzels and things of that nature. I just want to
(46:20):
hear how y'all feel about that. Just hearing it, I
can give you all more context my personal.
Speaker 4 (46:24):
Opinion on it.
Speaker 3 (46:24):
If someone tells me what I can't do or shouldn't do,
that's gonna put the pack on me to want to
do it. And especially you can't understand Sidney Poitier's thing
on that. But you never know, like how Eddie wanted
to start, you know what I mean? Comedy might have
been the thing that he connected with it, but at
the same time he might have been wanted to be
considered a more dramatic actor opposed to like a comedy actor.
Speaker 1 (46:47):
Stay Ryan, I think if he takes that advice, we
don't get Jimmy Early from dream Girls, and what a
shame that would have been. You see what I'm saying,
Like you can, you can respect the greatest who ever
do it. But just because they're one of the greatest
to ever do it doesn't mean that they won't set
limitations on you. And it's on you to not listen
(47:08):
to those limitations. Thank god Eddie Murphy didn't listen to that.
You know what I mean that. That's my first thought
is you know, and Eddie Murphy to me, is the
greatest talent to ever live. I've never seen anybody more
talented than that in all facets, That's what I'm saying.
I've never.
Speaker 6 (47:27):
He said he turned down that they were putting together
a Malcolm Ximell's be and he turned it down because
he had basically had been in conversation for it and
he was talking to Sean was like, Hey, what do
you think about this?
Speaker 5 (47:38):
And after that advice. He was like, you probably won't
do it.
Speaker 1 (47:41):
Yep, And that was and that's sad. But I think
when people try to set limitations on you, they're thinking
about their own. As great as Sidney Poitier is, he
probably was thinking about He probably thought that there were
you can't imagine. I don't think people can imagine a
person like Eddie Murphy. Eddie Murphy is unimaginably talented. He's
(48:05):
literally a parrot. He can mimic anybody's voice, he can
mimic people's singing voice. But then he's talented within his
own right. Like his stand up is magnificent. His movies
are blockbusters. Saturday Night Live, he showed you I can
dominate sketch comedy and do that animation. He's Mushu and Moulan,
(48:27):
He's Donkey and Shrek. There's no avenue that he has
not dominated. He has hit records like, yeah, I understand
telling somebody to be you know, realistic. I guess that's
what you know. Maybe Sidney Poitier was thinking, but Eddie
Murphy doesn't fall into that. Neither does Jamie Fox. I
(48:49):
don't think a guy like DC young Fly falls into
that category. Is some people in this world who are
just so multifaceted and mostly talented that you actually limit
the gift they could given to the world when you
tell them to stay in their lane.
Speaker 5 (49:03):
He said that Sidney said to him, you're a brother
for fresh air, and don't.
Speaker 1 (49:06):
F with that. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (49:09):
And then also that's a matter of opinion too, you
have to subscribe to a Yeah.
Speaker 1 (49:15):
No, I think I think it was it was done,
and I think he was looking out for him. I
don't think people realize how how close you are from
a bad movie from being forgotten or a bad performance
from being forgotten. It happens, you know. I think also
you got to think about in Sydney's time, he couldn't
take a risk on a roll because if it didn't happen,
(49:39):
it was it wasn't a space for him to come.
Speaker 4 (49:42):
Sid did an open mic involved, right.
Speaker 1 (49:48):
So you gotta But I don't think like even Kevin
Hart came up here and said the exact opposite, you know,
when he was talking to my generation of comics, he
was like, don't make your main thing your only thing, right,
you know. So that's I just think that's the evolution.
Speaker 3 (50:03):
That resonated with that part resonated with me. That was
like loud and clear.
Speaker 1 (50:07):
That was clear. I thank you for that.
Speaker 3 (50:10):
That was That was something that so many people and
there's so many different lanes and so many other avenues
that you can do. I remember, want to remember they
used to do the Mixed Type Mixed Tape Awards, yep,
I remember, and you know those crowds used to be
rowdy as hell and run run DMC.
Speaker 4 (50:27):
He run it.
Speaker 3 (50:28):
I mean those mixed tape boards. They'd be like, yo,
fuck you get out of here. I never seen nobody
when he went on stage he commanded that order. They
got completely quiet. Then he was talking about hip hop
and he was like, hip hop is not just about
being an MC. Hip hop is creating fashion. You have
hip hop lawyers and they don't just limit it to
(50:49):
music just MC just behind the scenes. I remember one
time it was a quote from method Man. Mehan Man said,
I'm tired of being a chump in the front. I
want to be the MAC in the back. And what
Kevin said that it kind of all of those things
resonated on what you can do in this business.
Speaker 1 (51:04):
And I hope whenever you know, me putting my money
behind my own projects and I will do that for
the rest of my career, whether anybody chooses me or not.
I'm always work towards my passion and I'm not gonna
let anybody slam the door on my on my dreams.
But I want to inspire my peers to do the same.
Not just do the same in their own career, but
(51:26):
come do it with me. Let's go, let's go make
some stuff together. You got something you're passionate about. Let's
put our money together, Let's get it done. Let's just
get it done.
Speaker 3 (51:34):
You know you're in our community. Easier said than done.
Speaker 1 (51:39):
I'm gonna tell you why it's easier said than done.
In our community. Black people love credit. They love credit.
Like like you said, the method man said, you want
to be the mac in the back. Not a lot
of us want to be the mac in the back.
Like me. If I did a movie about my life story,
people would expect me to play myself. Right, what if
(52:02):
there's a better actor than me for this role, I'll
move out the way. A lot of us won't move
out of the way because we want credit. We rather
our face be on the front of it than giving
people the best product possible. And that but that comes
from I believe just we go through life in our
community without getting the credit we deserve. So whenever we
(52:25):
get the opportunity to get it, we want all of it.
And we can't move like that whenever we're wanting to
be creative. So I just hope that this inspires people
to go look for it. Yeah, go look at the audience.
Go look for people you because when you think about it,
some of the most popular people don't even do stand
up the people you deal the point if you really
(52:47):
want to enjoy stand up comedy, there are people a
Lei Sadik is killing it, you know what I mean?
You know you got people like name Lyn, you got
me you know even the way. Yeah, and you just
gotta you gotta go search it because they're not like
in music, they used to have artists development that we
(53:08):
just don't have that no more. So it's up to
the audience to go find us.
Speaker 2 (53:13):
But where can they find you? Where can they find
your comedy special underratio? If they want to see it paid.
Speaker 1 (53:17):
For, go to You can go to my Instagram, right,
but you go to Patreon type and Ryan Davis, it'll
come up. Just go to Patreon type and Ryan Davis.
Speaker 2 (53:26):
It'll come up and if you want to see him live,
he's performing at the Gramercy Theater on April.
Speaker 1 (53:30):
Twelfth in here in New York.
Speaker 2 (53:32):
That's right, And we appreciate you for joining us, and
thank you Donnelle for sitting due. Donnell's actually gonna be
at the City Winery this weekend. So I appreciate both
of you. Brothers man, thank you, thank you for donaver Stadase,
Charlamagne and just without today.
Speaker 1 (53:46):
Yeah, but can I I don't even think Donnelle even remembers.
But when we did, uh we did the Laugh Factory.
He was hosting. I wanted to close. Shout out to Lonnie.
Lonnie is a tough judge of comics.
Speaker 4 (54:00):
Oh my god, we had so many beasts in the day.
Speaker 1 (54:02):
But yeah, she loves you, and that was the thing.
She was like, I need somebody to close. I was like,
I can close. She was like I don't know about that,
and then I was like, nah, let me, let me
do it. And then I got there and Donnelle was hosting.
I was like, oh, that's probably why she so. But
the show it was like me Donelle, miss pat JJ Williamson,
(54:23):
Seawan Jones. It was it was like they were bringing it.
And then I did the first show and the second
show when Donelle brought me up, he said, there's some
people in this game that people don't know. They're like,
you don't know who they are one day and then
the next day they're one of the biggest comedians. I
think this guy might be one of them. Wow, you
probably don't even remember, but that's how he brought me up.
(54:46):
And I was like, all right, I proved the Donelle
that I'm supposed to be.
Speaker 3 (54:49):
But yeah, it was like for me because it's again
that three years ago.
Speaker 1 (54:55):
Yeah, that's because I'd like, it's whatever.
Speaker 3 (54:58):
People want to say that I know talent when when
I see it right and that room, I mean, the
thing that impressed me the most. People could go up
there and they can have a good set, but it's
the way he did it, the subject matter, and you
could tell it was somebody that didn't do the easy route.
It's like, this is who I am. And the level
of confidence. I was like, that's a bad motherfucker. And
I've seen people they're going to these spots and they
(55:20):
feel like they got to perform a certain way. They've
seen this guy do that. That works for him. But
the ship was so original. That's why when you say underrated,
I'm like, well, who's rating you?
Speaker 1 (55:28):
Well, they don't know, That's what I'm saying. They want me.
Being underrated speaks to if I was rated properly, they
would talk like you talk right.
Speaker 2 (55:40):
Yeah, well definitely go check it out for yourself so
you can see the brother, Ryan Davis, and again, thank
you for joining.
Speaker 1 (55:45):
Us, you for having men down there.
Speaker 4 (55:47):
Thank you brother.
Speaker 2 (55:48):
Yes, sir, and you see down there. We ain't make
no booty jokes today. Nothing.
Speaker 4 (55:54):
I missed the movie. No, no, no, it is Ryan Davis.
Speaker 2 (56:02):
It's The Breakfast Club. Good morning, thank you about now.
Speaker 1 (56:04):
Wake that ass up in the morning.
Speaker 4 (56:06):
The Breakfast Club.
Speaker 1 (56:11):
H
Wake that ass up in the morning.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Breakfast Club Morning, everybody. It's DJ n V Jess Hilarious,
Charlomagne the guy. We are the Breakfast Club law La
Ross here as well. We got a special guest in
the building. We have a comedian, Ryan Davis. Welcome brother.
What's up man now? Donald Rawlings is feeling into here.
You know, Charlomagne's out, just is out. So donn Ella's
is one of our family members, extended family.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
But don't expect me to do no booty drop, so
none of that type of stuff.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Crazy.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
But how are you feeling?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
First for I'm feeling good, man, I'm feeling good.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Your new special, Underrated is out right now. Yeah, man,
And it's a story. You put it together for people
that don't know. Explain how you started to do this
on your own. You shopped it around and yeah, you
couldn't get a deal.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Nah, I shopped it around. It's funny too whenever you
because I mentioned Netflix immediately when I said all Netflix
didn't take it, people go, you know, there's other places.
I don't think they understand how shopping around goes. You
shop it everywhere, you know, I just mentioned Netflix, but
it was hailed for like five months or it was
in their hands for like five months, and then eventually
(01:07):
they said, you know no, they passed on it. And
by that time, you know, yeah done. Will tell you man,
some material has like shelf Life. Yeah yeah. But what
I want to say, this is what people understand.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Like Robbie.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Robbie Praut is a big exec over Netflix, and even
for years I've been in his presence. I don't want
to make this interview by myself, but we shared the
same career paths and I asked him one time, I said,
what do I have to do to give myself a
better position for you know what? I know people ask
him all the time what about a Netflix special? And
he said, Donelle, you one of the funniest comments that
I know. I respect you, but you have to understand.
(01:43):
We tell people no all day and that's what people understand.
You see people that on Netflix. But it's a lot
of deserving people. But for some reason, it might not
have been the time, it might not have been the thing.
They might have needed something from the Alphabet Commune, somebody
from the Alphabet Commune that year, whatever, But what I could say,
and I had a problem moment I slipped on your
(02:05):
page when you took metals into your own hand.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
And one of the.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Things I did, and I appreciate about you. A lot
of people in this business they talked ship. They won't
put their money where their mouth is and they won't
bet on themselves. So when I saw you that testimony
and you broke it down, this nigga went analytical. Yeah,
he had charged numbers.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
You spent, well, how much did you shoot? How much
you did?
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Take? You ast me about one fifty. Because you know,
when you choose certain venues and then you have to
address the venue. I had to paint the stage. It
was several cameras. You know, you got to get the jib,
you gotta get the everything. Like I had to pay
for everything out of pocket.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
So when you go to these places like Netflix and
all these other places that said no, which made you
decide to do it on your own, they tell you
why no, or they just like, damn, you have no
clue why it.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
Has been the block. Once you did that breakdown on
the line where you showed those so.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Many and that was the thing, it went so crazy.
But because it was it was shared hundreds of thousands
of times, So like my dms were crazy, and there
was a lot of people reaching out who have platforms
and things of that nature, but I couldn't see it
all or even entertain Plus I've already told millions of
people where I'm gonna put it and what I'm gonna
do with it, you know, And to the people who
(03:18):
were reaching out, you know, with these platforms, you know,
I appreciate it. But also at this time, this is
a great time to reach out to other comedians because
there's a lot of comedians that have my story. You know,
at this point, you should you should put out that
you're willing to bring comedians to your platform and give
them a space to share their art, you know what
(03:38):
I mean, that's what I wanted. I wanted, you know,
whenever I put it out to inspire other people to
put their money where their mouth is.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Yeah, yeah, but they're not going to do it.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
A lot of people talk a lot of shit, and
at the end of the day, like when we are
in a better position. When I first started, it was
only like ABC, CBS, NBC, and the ultimate platform for
specialist was the HBO, Right, It wasn't a million things.
So there are avenues but if you know, in this business,
Netflix probably is the most prestigious, the one that people
(04:09):
gravitate to the most, Like this is the platform to
say this is one of the great and even if
even if you do find another home for I know,
it's something to be said about a Netflix special. I
think you're deserve it. Interesting to me, is underrated? Why
did you choose to name your special underrated?
Speaker 1 (04:28):
I think that is.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
And if you're just joining us, Ryan Davis is here,
Donnella's filling in for Charlemagne, and Donnella is on his journalist.
Speaker 5 (04:36):
Tip period because he just brought that in real, real easy.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Yeah, I think underrated describes kind of what my journey
is right now in stand up, you know what I mean.
I think amongst my peers, they know how I get
down on stage. But I think the general public we
have gotten to a point where the skill of stand
up isn't really celebrated as much as the popularity of
(05:02):
an individual. And I wanted to highlight that when it
comes to the stand up space. You know, I think
I'm one of the best out here, like one of
the top ones, and I don't want and whenever I
think I'm criticist anytime I'm criticized, it's based off of
social media content. Oh, I don't think, you know, he
(05:23):
may be this because of the I've seen clips of
something instead of the actual thing that I do. So
that's why I went with underrated.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Let me ask you, is Netflix the goal? And what
I mean by that, It's like when you when you
play basketball, the goal is NBA, When you play football,
the goal is NFL. You know, when you do something
the goal might be, you know, to own a Ferrari
as a comedian, is the goal Netflix?
Speaker 1 (05:48):
I don't think so. I think I think Netflix put
themselves in position with the deals that they did, you know,
with Dave and Chris and Kevin. When they started handing
out twenty million, you know, uh, they had surpassed HBO
at that point, and then it had been a while
since you saw an HBO special and then that person
(06:10):
went on to like incredible success, and that's been the
story for a lot of people that you know have
been on Netflix. So I think Netflix had surpassed you know,
HBO as far as being a launching pad, so that,
you know, I think any creative keeps there, you know,
into the street and eyes on what's going on. So
you have somebody like Sebastian Maniscalco who he wasn't relatively
(06:34):
known like that, and he did his Netflix special. Now
he does Madison Square Garden. So you know, you see
stuff like that and you don't see it on other platforms.
It makes you go, Okay, now I see the influence
that Netflix has and I kind of want that launching pad.
That's how you think of it. I think that's what
made Netflix appear to be the top one.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
When you say when you say underrated, is that your
observation or is that the observation from your fans and
people that have been following your journey. Who's saying you
underraty you? Or there's the people that you want to
reach out to.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Nah, I think that's what I've viewed over the years.
I don't I don't even think. I think over the
years I've seen that people don't even think I'm as
successful as I am. I think it's uh. I think
the narrative on me is that I'm still like that
I'm still trying to figure it out, or I'm up
and coming and I've been like how successful.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
I will say the first time I ever saw you,
I think it was that. I think it was that
maybe chocolates, Sunnies.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Or last Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
And I was like, cause, you know is a thing,
you know, my stuff set I come to eat it up.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Yeah, did you come behind me? I closed?
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Yeah, And I was when I left them, I was like,
all right, do what you gotta do. What it was
and and I don't have a problem with that. And
like the thing that you didn't get rattled.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
You know what I mean? You getting rattled.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
And when I say, even when I watched the clips
and stress your composure.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
You know what I'm saying, you're timing, you know.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
And then when I saw you, when I first time
I saw you, it's so hard to say somebody's original.
I was like, this motherfucker's original his point of view.
He's not talking about everything these motherfuckers talked about. And
then when I watch you, I say, guess what this
motherfucker can entertain black, white, Asian or whatever. And that's
the point. How do you do you feel sometimes because
(08:20):
you have the crossover ability that people don't connect with
your blackness?
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Man, you know that you deal with that.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
I'm asking you the question.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
So it's just but to add on what he said,
he's right, right, And the reason I say that is
is I know you as a comedian, but to me,
it doesn't stand out as it should. Yeah, he's a
little different because he's been coming on the Breakfast Club
for years, so we poke at that, we make fun
of him. But for you, I didn't see it the same,
(08:51):
almost like a Hannibal Burrs right where he's huge, but
not in our community. For say, you know what I mean,
So how do you deal with that? And how come
that is?
Speaker 1 (09:02):
But that's why I lead to underrated. And I'm gonna
tell you, I'm not going to act like that's not
bothersome to be underrated amongst the people you feel like
you relate to the most black people.
Speaker 6 (09:13):
Yeah, because I'm going to ask you, like, because you
said underrated, people look at you like you said up
and coming, like you're not successful. Like when I said,
I was going to ask you how successful you are?
But I don't mean for you to like name every accolade.
I mean, where do you think your level of success ranks?
And like what is success to you? Because if you
can put out one hundred and fifty k real easy
for a special right, a lot of people don't got
one hundred and fifty k in cash, just be like, yo,
(09:35):
I need to shoot this.
Speaker 5 (09:36):
Yeah, so you're doing something somewhere.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
I'm doing all right. So yeah, I'm doing all right.
But that's also because of my fans. I went straight
to my fans. This Patreon that I'm doing is not new,
and I you know, I don't do the whole flashy thing.
I'm all about. You know, if my fans believe in
me enough to give me money, then I'm gonna in
return give them a product. So the special aim from that.
(10:01):
Me and my my partner, Austin Hall, my business partner,
Austin Hall, we did a movie.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
Well, you know you succeeded.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
You're successful when you say my business partner, business partner.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Yeah, Like we're doing a movie. Even the money that's
made from this special is go. I'm gonna shoot my
second one this year. You know, it's all about giving
the people. If they're willing to invest in me, then
I'm willing to give them the product that they paid for.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Why don't you think you connect to the black community
as you should?
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Like I think that the black audience has been trained
to gravitate towards certain type of stuff. Well, you know,
in our business we call dick and pussy jokes continue alrighty,
not because I think I think what happens is uh.
(10:56):
We have been trained over the years to do what's
the move, like what's the popular thing to do? Like
everybody's gonna be there, so I'm gonna go, you know
what I mean, instead of I don't think a lot
of people are willing to stand on. I like this person,
so I'll go even if the building is empty. You know,
(11:17):
they rather be a part of something bigger. People love
to be a part of something, and I think if
I don't, I don't create that fear of missing out
like a lot of people do you know, I'll sell
out a show and I won't show anybody. So there's
so the narrative is the thought that I don't sell
out shows. And I always thought that was weird, and
(11:37):
then some like I remember seeing comments when I would
promote shows. They're like, I don't know, if the shows
sell out, then I might have to pull up, And
I'm like, why would that be the reason the reason
to a show? Stuff like that always, you know, I
think we're always because we're the coolest, you know kids
that were always looking for the coolest people to follow,
and comedy ain't about cool, It's about funny, you know.
(12:01):
And I think once we get back to that, you know,
celebrating the skill and the you know, the actual talent,
then you know, comedy would be back in a good place.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
But I really believe, I really believe this. It's people
like yourself. Right, I've been doing it long with you,
but it's people like yourself that I really appreciate. And
I really believe that. Sometimes I think, will the artists
stand up fade away? You know what I mean, because
it's so easy to get caught up in you know,
the crowd work comics, it works him and everything, and
(12:32):
he's like this is this going to oversaturate the market,
and this is what's gonna be the norm. Then it's
kind of refreshing when I see people like yourself. I
was like, you know what, there will be people that
save this art form. And it's interesting because I've heard
underrated come to me. I just really really believe Ryan,
it's just a timing thing. Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
(12:53):
I think for you, I think all the things you
expect you're gonna get Okay, maybe not happening this year,
but the trajector to be on the discipline you have
to work as have. It's inevitable that everything you think
you should get out of it. I think definitely, and
I think the people follow you know that.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
I'm gonna be honest with you, man, I really didn't
have expectations when I went online to just share my
story or whatever. I was like, oh, my fans will
see this. But then it ended up getting like eight
million views across platforms. I didn't That wasn't what I expected.
I expected. I was like, yeah, I'm just I hope
to get my money back. So yeah, I want people
(13:30):
to see it. I hope to get my money back.
But but I worked really hard on this project, man,
Like whenever I went to shoot it, my father had
been diagnosed with cancer.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Yeah, okay, wait a minute, I have to stop this
right now.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Wait a second, Wait a second. Laugh.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
My dad passed away about a year ago, and I
had a box of what nigga, you laughed?
Speaker 6 (14:08):
Isn't that one of the most memorable clips I told you.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
But I'm just saying you.
Speaker 5 (14:15):
Stories your father was diagnosed with cancer too, not.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
That, but it was just an emotional part.
Speaker 5 (14:21):
Okay, go ahead, so.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
That I appreciate your empathy. Brother. So he uh, it
was my mom, him and my mom. Uh, they had
never even been on a plane before and they got
on the plane to go to Chicago for my special Yeah.
That was a huge deal, a lot of like I've
(14:45):
like my entire siblings, like all of my siblings, I
want to bait like everybody got out to support it,
you know, to see that type of you know, belief
from my family, man really meant a lot to me.
And you, like I said, the success that I don't
talk about, like I bought the house that I was
raised in from my parents and then and then you know,
(15:08):
gave my dad the deed on like Father's Day and
just being able to do that stuff. But I think
that stuff isn't necessarily cool. It is cool, No, no, no,
it is. It is, but it's not it's not what
we celebrate as much.
Speaker 6 (15:25):
It seems like I don't know, no, no, no.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
I'm not saying it's not celebrated.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
That's what we call generational wealth and the fact for
your parents. See, I like stuff like that because it
encourages more people to do more right. And you know
the reason I talk about a lot of this stuff,
especially when it comes to generational wealth. Is a lot
of times we like to show success from the call
we drive and the jewelry we have and the watches.
And I'm guilty of it as well sometimes too. But
(15:52):
also I like to make sure that my kids collegees
are paid for, that my kids start off with. You know,
my daughter graduated from co legit I was able to
buy her a home, her first home. She starts at zero.
You know the fact that paid for my parents' crib.
Those those are the fly things to me.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Those are fly the fly.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
The Louis Vatine shirt that you got on it is cool,
but those are the fly.
Speaker 6 (16:15):
Like how emotional I can only my mom stage for
a cancer survivor, so I can only imagine how emotional
it was for you having your dad be there and
because it's such a people don't understand that you've been
through a cancer battle of like how it weighs on
you and how strenuous it is. But to be able
to bring laughter during that time, yeah, I know they
had to be emotional for you.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
It was huge. It was huge and uh, my father, man,
he's super proud, Like I'll never. I'll never forget that.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
How's he doing now?
Speaker 1 (16:43):
He's see proud black man. He won't tell you, he
won't tell you. We never know how this nigga's doing.
You know, we're like, hey, can you give us an update?
Oh no, everything's cool, So we never know. You just
have to gauge how it looks.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
Say you're one of eight kids, Yeah, where were you?
Speaker 1 (17:02):
You're the middle middle child.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
So half of them support your half of them don't
funk with you.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
No, so that my family actually didn't know how successful
I was.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Really Yeah, when did they find out?
Speaker 1 (17:15):
They went like one when they went to the special
and saw like I sold out the House of Blues
multiple shows, and they.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Were like what And then I really don't have what
your siblings?
Speaker 1 (17:27):
No, No, we get in a group chat every day.
We just don't talk about money, We don't talk about
any none of that matters. That changed, Yeah, no it doesn't.
Christmas time we've done Secret Santa every year and they know, no,
they know whoever get Ryan is gonna, they know what
time it is. So but they didn't like I did
(17:51):
a show at UH in Virginia Beach. I did a
weekend I sold out the whole weekend and my older
brother was there and he was like, Man, all these
people here, they probably gonna become fans of yours after this.
I was like, they all paid to see me, they
already fans.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Damn.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
He was like, people come to see you like that.
And it's like, Bro, and I'm talking about this is
I've been touring like yearly since like twenty sixteen. This
is like twenty twenty three.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
A lot of times people don't acknowledge nothing but the flash.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. It's not that people
don't appreciate substance. They do, but the audience that appreciates substance,
I think is a much smaller group than and I
think it's by design, you know what I mean. I'm
not saying that, you know, something is wrong with our people.
(18:44):
It's just people love. Like when I grew up, MTV
cribs was a thing for a reason. Before that, lifestyles
of the Richard Famous was a thing for a reason.
People want to attach themselves to maybe a life they
can't see, and if you look regular to people, they
don't gravitate to it as much. I think that's probably
the better way to put it.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Well, I think that's relevant in our community.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
It is different. There's a difference, man.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
But like I said, to be able to be able
to pull a audience the black side and the white
side and don't lose anything like some people when they
do this shit, like you're like, oh, when he front
of a white audience.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
He's this way.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
When he's from a black audience, he's that way. But
Ryan has ability that it doesn't matter. You don't see
I know it sounds crazy, I'm saying the same thing.
You don't see color. You just see a person's a storyteller.
It's got the wit hitting you with some stuff. It's
just it's a totally different.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Vibe, and it's it's intentional. I don't be honest with you, man,
I didn't even know before I went to Canada to
do a run of shows. I didn't know my perspective
was so black, like African American black until I went
to Canada and ain't no niggas there. There's black people there,
but we ain't there, and my perspective was so Black American.
(19:59):
I was losing the audience and I was like, I
didn't realize that my perspective was so limited. So I
started to work on broadening my perspective because I don't
want to leave anybody, Like if I if you can't
follow the joke, I want it to be because you stupid,
not because I left you out.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Culturally, that's all that comes with experiences like me coming
from DC. I had a very very very strong Southern accent,
and I had to work on in the South. If
people we call that country from DC to New York,
I signed the country as well. And I had to
(20:37):
work on my diction because I got tired of motherfucker
saying what did you just say?
Speaker 4 (20:43):
So I had to work on that.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
You know, So how important you think that is for
you to be able to connect all across the board.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
No, it's really important. I think I have like control issues.
I want to be understood. If you don't laugh at
something I say because you think it's not funny, I
can deal with that. But if there's if I feel
like I didn't communicate it correctly, then you know that's
gonna bother me, and then I want to I want
to fix that, Like I don't know, that's just always.
(21:12):
That's the thing in my personal life too.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
You remember your worst show? You ever you ever got
booed like you remember your worst show?
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Nah, I've never been booed. I always I always remember
my worst show. Though I invited a crush of mind
to the show. She sat front row and I bombed
right in front of her, and H damn, yeah, I
don't think i've seen her sin this. Uh, I wasn't
that long ago, like ten years?
Speaker 4 (21:38):
Who wasn't Who wasn't?
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Like sometimes the girl No, no, no, my brain is
somewhere else always asks this question when someone thinks about
doing comedy.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Who was it?
Speaker 3 (21:48):
Was it somebody in your family or life that said
you have to do it?
Speaker 4 (21:54):
Stop making me laugh, you gotta do it.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
No, because my humor is a little different, and I
love the art of comedy. You know, being funny in
a space versus being funny on stage is two different
skill sets. There's so much thoughtfulness to being funny on stage.
Speaker 5 (22:11):
He don't understand that because.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
I think you know, whenever you're whenever you're in a
space with many people, a conversation is usually already happening,
so the connection is already there. So you all, whatever
you're going to say in that moment is relevant to
the conversation. When you're on stage, you're creating the conversation
(22:40):
and the relevancy, and it's your job to communicate it
in a way that makes them laugh. So the idea
of just being funny in your day to day and
that's going to carry over. You know everybody that's a
that's a gift. Very few have. Donelle is funny like that.
Carlos Miller is funny like that. But there's not There's
(23:01):
not a lot of people who are so funny that
it can translate like that. I've seen Donelle walk into
the audience. He forced the connection of one of you.
You know, you'll understand what I'm saying, yo, and then
he'll put He'll like it's it's insane.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
But let me ask you, you know, with so many
comedians supporting you, right if you listen, like you know,
I heard Kevin Hard and Charlemagne do an interview, and
I've heard Kevin support you, you know, support you. I
guess verbally, do you feel like there should be more
support with comedians where they actually help because they have
other opportunities Because you know, we all see what's going
on with Netflix and some of those other things.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
But they do. They do. I think the conversations aren't
had a lot. But Dave Chappelle, whenever I put it
out or whatever, he texts me. He's told me before,
you know, if I need anything, I can reach out.
When we did when fifty was opening he did the
big show down in louisianas the Shreveport I was like,
(24:06):
literally in Dave's green room and he told fifty, if
you're working on something comedy or whatever, this is one
of the better comedy writers of today. You need to
book him to do something. Those things do happen, you know.
I like, have you written on shows? No, So whenever
a time came for me to write on a show,
(24:26):
Aaron McGruder actually had reached out because they were working
on something, and I was like, man, the opportunity to
work with the creator of Boondocks would have been crazy,
but it got shelfed, so I didn't get the opportunity.
But yeah, now.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Man, he is reaching out.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Yeah, I like so with my special I got it
as a one time by because Patreon is a subscription
based and I don't want nobody to feel obligated to stay.
But the people who get the subscription you also get
my talk show. Slash podcast is coming, Kevin Hart's gonna
be on that, Charlemagne's gonna be on that, Jill Scott
method man a lot. There's a lot of support from
(25:04):
entertainers and they agreed to this before that video even
came out, you know what I mean. And within the
industry there's always a lot of support in people, but
a lot of us artists aren't decision makers, so they're like,
what can I do that, you know what I mean.
They can use their popularity and their platform to draw
(25:24):
more attention to you, but at the end of the day,
it's still on the decision makers to make that decision.
And I'm like, well, the decision makers didn't pick me,
but the people did, so let me do. I'll put
my own money up to give the people what they've
been asking for.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
And you know, with that add to it's a slow grind,
but it's still a grind.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
It's like, you can it's easy for it. You be
like this, oh I want to do, this is gonna blood.
But I think the path that you're doing, how you're
doing building relationships with some of the top people, being
respected and being funny.
Speaker 4 (25:51):
Like I said, the.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Success whatever success you, it's already my opinion, it's already
mapped out. It's going to happen. You just got to
stay the course and it's everything's going to fall into place.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Yeah, I think you know what story because I don't laughing.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
No, I'm telling you something.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
It's so hard for me to laugh at the motherfucker
And I didn't want to laugh, right, I'm like this,
but it was just like, man, it was just seeing
you perform. It was a breath of fresh air man,
especially from seeing so much garbage, and like right now
the biggest thing now. And I'm not knocking anybody doing
the crowd work, but I remember when I first started
that wasn't respected that side of comedy. It was like
(26:28):
I did forty five minutes, Yeah, but you did thirty
minutes worth of crowd work. But now it's a different thing,
and it's hard. It's so refreshing to see somebody like
it's up because it's easy. You can't tell these young
guys that have the following, you can't tell them to
work in their craft because it used to be if
(26:49):
you want to pussy, if you want the money off
of this, guess what.
Speaker 4 (26:51):
You had to do. You had to be good.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
You had to be good.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
Now you don't got to be good.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
They got me the money, they getting the accolades, They're
getting the money before they good, and it's hard to
tell him you should work on this. And was like,
you know, I just made three hundred thousand on Instagram. Yeah,
they don't have that. They don't have the thing to
make them want to be better.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
And that was I didn't want to fall into that.
I didn't want to fall into that. Like I even
monetized my social media late. I remember a lot of
people were like, you're not monetizing, you just missing out
on money. I was like, I don't want that to
be my motivation.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Put that first check you is easy.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
No, Yeah, when you get when the money that come
from social media is dumb, it's really dumb. But I
didn't want that to be I wanted to be one
of the best, and I didn't want I'm gonna tell
you the story that bothers me so much is the
Bernie Mack story. Why he like he doesn't have that
hour special because he was at a time where you
(27:45):
had to be picked. Yeah, and they wouldn't pick him,
even though he was so popular amongst us that he
would sell out theaters and that other comedians like when
we when you can look at def Comedy Gym view
Bad Boys of Comedy, comedians up doing impressions of Denzel
(28:06):
Washington and Bernie Mack. Denzel Washington was our biggest star,
and the other recognizable voice within our community that people
wanted to do the most was Bernie Mack. And he
still wasn't picked. It took him dominating on Kings of Comedy,
which he wasn't considered the guy, you know, industry wise
before he really got And I just like I wish
(28:29):
that he had the opportunity to self produce because that
one stand up is really all most people have it.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
I'm not exactly the same, but it's some similarities. Like
even with the testimony you did, was like this, okay,
how come what he did was eventually he showed.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
In the numbers. Yeah, he showed the numbers.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
This is this, this is this? How does that translate?
Speaker 3 (28:50):
And somebody foually that got I think I forgot who
was the showrun? He finally connected with the right crew
and then they saw it and he basically was like
this this what to tell you, motherfucker.
Speaker 6 (29:01):
Yeah, but I think it was like cracked me from wrong.
All of that fight shouldn't have happened because from the
minute that he mic, we knew he was the guy.
And you actually had a quote I wanted to actually
if you still felt this way. You said, fame hasn't
cared about talent for.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
A while now, for a while now, and I don't.
But this is the funny part. They moved the goal post.
They moved a gold post. Fame hasn't cared about talent
for a while, so but now they don't even give
opportunities to the famous. So it's like like, what do
you do? Like you can be really like what are
(29:35):
they looking for? Are they searching for anything? Because you
can go I'm really like, I'm really skilled, I'm really talented,
or you get Nah, we're not giving it to that
right now. And it was like this person has a
bigger follower than you, will give it to you. Well,
this person has a bigger follower than them. Yeah, we're
not doing followings right now. It's like it's like, what
is the criteria I would look, I'll do I'll do
(29:57):
the work necessary to let me know where the I
think that's one of the most difficult things just for
us within this space is if you set a criteria,
we'll hit it. But when there's no criteria, now you
you have us like waiting on you to make a
decision on us. And once I realized that, I was like,
(30:21):
I'm not I'm not waiting on nobody.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
No more about with you and Kevin Durant, Why are
you Kevin Durant got upset with you.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Oh, Kevin Durant. So, Kevin Durant loves to go back
and forth with people on social media. And you know,
we had a difference of opinion, and I'm cool with
difference of opinion. He said, he said offense wins championships,
which is not a saying, has never been a saying
in any sport. Yeah, and that's what we disagreed. And
(30:52):
then he called me a trash comedian. And that's when
I knew he was familiar. This is what I'm talking about.
It's certain words, the in word in comedy.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
It's like, it's hard to go back to trash anything whack.
Speaker 4 (31:09):
Those are fighting words in the way in the world
of comedy that you roasted.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
The man's just horrible. Trash is trash trash. That's how
my whole day went. Like if you like, you know
people now they set up, they try party. You see,
they show with how they do that. If that, if
that had done that, all you would have saw is
me like sitting at the trash everywhere.
Speaker 5 (31:34):
But that's what But that's I said. But if you
know you funny though, it's like.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Yeah, but that's why I think. I think he didn't know.
That's why you felt like, yeah, I had to show
him he don't know, and let me let me show you.
Speaker 5 (31:49):
Show you something. I like that.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
But the thing is, like, y'all asked me about that,
why do you take it so personal? It is the
trigger trash Cordy in Whact when when Kramer went off
at the last factory that year and he just was
flowing down, you know what triggered him? Somebody, Yo, you
ain't funny, That's like, what the fuck are you talking about?
(32:13):
And especially when you know you know you're not trash
is so sensitive?
Speaker 1 (32:19):
It's not comedians. Let me tell you something sensitive, y'all. Y'all,
y'all ignore when everybody else is. You gotta remember Erica
Badu said it best keep in mind, I'm an artist
and I'm sensitive about my ship.
Speaker 6 (32:33):
But I thought so many shots though, So I feel
like y'all moved from sensitivity.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
I'm like, I just I don't feel like I was
sensitive in that moment. I kept it basketball. I talked
about basketball and that he said I was a trash
commed he said that he made it personal. I would
I kept it basketball, but I was like, since we
want to get personal.
Speaker 5 (32:55):
You want to be finding, you want to.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Be Yeah, you want to step into my arena. Let's
let's see how you fair. I can't beat you in basketball,
but I promise you I'm way better at this.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
Like you said, well you you put it in one lesson.
Certain comics aren't like you, like y'all fuck with everybody
like your style. He's not a style of comic that's
going to be like trying.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
To roast certain people like that.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
You got Michael Blackson, perfect example, Michael Blackson, and I
love him. He's a provocateur. He's going to push the
button and he's going to cross the line. But it's
like a person like Ryan, person like myself. They don't
cross the line. When people come at him like that.
It is I know it's easy for y'all say why
y'all take person because this is our shit man.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
Yeah, and this is the crazy part when they say
people take shots. Michael Blackson is a good example. Michael
Blackson is roasting you with love. I run into him
in the airport. He's like, what you doing in here?
You ugly nigga? And then be like, Yo, were about
to go to Ghana in a couple of months. You
know what I mean, let me know if you've available,
I'm gonna fly you out. I'm gonna show you some
stuff where I come from, like in Africa. You know
(33:59):
what I mean. That ain't somebody who hate you.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
He just he just loves I had him on my
podcast and it's so funny. A lot of people don't know,
like what he did in regard to his village during
that school and I was like, wow, I know you
look at him and he talked. I'm like, why isn't
this being celebrated, And a lot of people when I
passed a lot of people saying I didn't even.
Speaker 4 (34:20):
Know about it.
Speaker 5 (34:21):
Maybe I don't know. I think people just look at
because I know what you're talking about.
Speaker 6 (34:25):
But like when you got y'all are like, we look
to you guys for relief a little bit, and I
know you talk. There was a sitdown that you did
where you talked about how comedy, especially black comedy, is
kind of like the relief for a lot of like
traumas and different things. And when I watched that, I
was like, Okay, I kind of get what he's saying,
and maybe that's why I don't see Like for me,
I look at you, it's like, Okay, you're the funny guy.
(34:46):
So when you're being upset about something, it's like, why
you upset, You the funny guy.
Speaker 5 (34:50):
Or when you're responding, it's like, no, you're the funny guy.
Just be funny. But it's like you're our relief. So
it's like it's hard for us to see y'all as
anything but that.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Sometimes, and that's messed up that y'all don't see us
as people.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
Smokey Robinson, people say I'm the life of the party
because I tell a joker too, But take a good
look in my face and you see I'm frowning. We
as comics, as much as someone going to the show's
therapeutic for them, is therapeutic for us, and the best
comments are the ones that whatever they deal with life,
they know how to go up, go on stage and
talk about things in trouble in them.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
Right on my special I talk about I talk about
my relationship. I have a fractured relationship with my mother.
I talk about that.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
I talk about that must have been difficult to do
that in front of him.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
Oh what like she she had something to say, but
she was there, she supported So I always love her
for that.
Speaker 4 (35:38):
Fractured relationship.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Man, whenever, especially in our community, the woman the matriarch
of the family. You know, she can do no wrong
at times, and then she does do wrong. You gotta
have that grace. You don't ever disconnect from your mother.
And I made the decision not to really speak to
my mother for several years.
Speaker 4 (35:58):
Oh that's tough.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
Yeah, And I talk about that in the set. You
know what I mean. The mother of my children almost died,
you know, carrying our children. I talk about that. I
talk about That's what I'm saying. I turn those those
things into levity. I talk about race, I talk about
political correctness, I talk about relationships. I talk about everything,
(36:20):
because there aren't spaces for that. I talk about suicide.
I talk about. And I think people don't realize because
if you don't go to my shows, you don't know
they've been. There have been many black men who walk
up to me and go, you know, I have a
kind of a fractured relationship with my mother and there's
(36:41):
no space for us. Nobody's talking about what it is
to be a black man in that space, to look
at the woman who created you and not feel the connection.
That's the person we want to love us the most.
You know. The people who don't feel that love, where
do they go for levity? And that's what I try
to provide.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
But do you give a grace?
Speaker 1 (37:01):
Right? Oh? I give her grace?
Speaker 2 (37:03):
And I say that is you know, we came up
in the ever where, you know, especially black families, it
was mind your business, a kids, stay in a kid's place,
and they didn't show emotion. They didn't talk about their bills,
they didn't talk about none of that. You had to
figure it out when you figured it out, right, So
you have to give her that. Like my kids are differently.
They know everything that's going They know when daddy got
a bad day, daddy having a good day. They know
(37:23):
when daddy get a big check. When that they ain't
got no check. They know everything because we're more I
would think we're younger parents and we're more relatable. So
as long as you're giving your mom.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
I had to give her grace because my mom's super young.
My mom had me as a teenager and I wasn't
even a first child, so you know, understanding, I had
my first child at twenty six and I wasn't ready.
So having my third one at like seventeen, you know,
I couldn't even imagine what. You know, she never had
a chance to become an adult before she started raising
(37:55):
children of her own. Was your mother trafficked? No, she
was married.
Speaker 4 (38:03):
I was on stage the other day and I really
do the stage. I realized that my father trafficed my mother.
Speaker 5 (38:08):
What what is happening?
Speaker 4 (38:10):
I'm so sorry?
Speaker 1 (38:11):
What did you want to talk about it?
Speaker 5 (38:17):
Like, not whenever your mom got traffic tell us about it?
Speaker 4 (38:21):
No, this is your show.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
But your mother had three children by the age of seventeen.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
Four by nineteen by nineteen Yeah, so was your father
a lot older? Was it? He's older? Yeah, he's older.
I talk about that in the special.
Speaker 5 (38:35):
What was that dynamic like for you? Though?
Speaker 6 (38:37):
Just because I mean the relationship ended up fracture, but
like coming up and your mom is growing up with
you with three other kids for other kids, that was like,
that was your sister.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
Was like when you see her as mom, that's mom
because she we weren't raised like she's. We weren't raised
by grandma like my parents were married, they raised us together.
It wasn't until you get to like you get to
become an adult, like I'm thirty eight. My mom was
thirty eight when I was twenty one and I had
(39:07):
older siblings. That's crazy, that's crazy. That's when I started
to see how young she was. Before it was always
that's my mom.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
Club and actually see your yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
Man, listen, no, yeah, but she my mom is I
and I deal with It's so funny because now because
I didn't deal with the stuff that she dealt with,
it's like I'm more mature than her now because she
never got a chance to mature. She had to be
that fourteen year old girl and then turned mom and
(39:41):
then never really got the chance to grow us up
because she had to focus on everybody else. And at
times now I feel like I'm older than her.
Speaker 5 (39:48):
When she came and saw you, was that her first
time hearing the jokes about your relationship.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
Yeah. Yeah, but I've talked about our relationship on podcasts
and I never said what exactly was or whatever she
did because it was you know, that's between us. But
the thing is she won't admit to it. And there'll
be people who watch this who know what I'm talking about.
When you confront your parents about what it is or
(40:14):
what trauma they brought to you or what they did,
and it's not that you're saying you're a bad parent,
this is my experience of you. And then the first
thing they'll say is, also, I was the worst parent ever. No,
I wouldn't be here if you were a bad parent,
wouldn't I wouldn't purchase the home and give you that.
You know, if I thought you were a bad parent,
(40:35):
I wouldn't praise you the way i'd do if you
were a bad parent. This is where I feel like
something went wrong in my development and I just want
you to see what's happening to me. I'm coming to
you because I'm trusting you. This is still me being
vulnerable with you. They can't register it like that you're
(40:58):
taking a shot.
Speaker 3 (40:59):
I have a daughter, How does that affect the relationship
did you had did you have with your mother? How
does that affect the relationship? And you're raising your daughter?
Speaker 1 (41:07):
So my I have a ten year old daughter, seven
year old son. So what I realized is because my
parents wasn't affectionate, and I felt like I turned out okay,
that there was no need to give my children that
kind of affection. You know, I didn't deem affection necessary.
Speaker 3 (41:24):
Well, you know what in Korean culture because I was stationary.
That's Korean fathers. They have no emotional connection with the kick.
Their only responsibility is to provide and protect all that
I love you and everything they are. Korean fathers are
the toughest fathers to have period.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
Yeah, And I was really like that. My son, you know,
he's very affectionate, he's very sensitive and things like that,
and I was just like tough up, blah blah blah
blah blah. But I'm like, he's going to the person
he believes will protect him, and he trusting with these emotions.
And I'm sitting here going get over it. I ain't
(42:02):
even realizing what I'm doing to him. I'm drawing a
line of disconnecting with him. He doesn't feel safe around me. Now.
Speaker 3 (42:08):
Is that because of the relationship you have with your father?
Is that passed on the generations?
Speaker 1 (42:13):
No, man, my father was my dad. Oh my god.
If you have older parents, your parents still here, you
might have seen this from your father.
Speaker 4 (42:21):
You have father's dad.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
Yeah, man, sorry to hear that. Yeah, Dad, I love you,
See you when I get back to Charlotte.
Speaker 4 (42:31):
So my dad, y'all got your fathers all in your life.
Speaker 1 (42:34):
No, it's not a flex man. Yeah, it's not a flex.
Speaker 5 (42:42):
So, I mean my dad halfway and half way, y'all
depends on today.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Yeah, yeah, stop rubbing this. So my dad, he wasn't
very affectionate and I and you get older and you realize,
you know, I remember how my grandmother was, and I
was like, oh, he probably didn't get a whole lot
of affection either. But my dad is super affectionate now.
He says I love you all the time. He calls
(43:10):
to see how you're doing, any cares and all that stuff.
He a completely different nigga than the nigga I grew
up with, and that took a while for me to
get used to. Like he would go, you know, he
would say I love you, over the phone. I'd be
like everything, okay, we're good. Yeah man, yeah, But grandfather
(43:32):
he'd be like, gone, my dad was he didn't do
he didn't do it like that. But now I'm so
like I kissed my son and my daughter every time
I see him, hug him every time. We can't get
off to you gotta we got it. Exchange I love
you or it's not. So it's up to you to
change it. It's up to you to recognize these things
(43:53):
because your your parents did the best they could, whether
you believe it or not. Even if you like, well,
they could have done better what they couldn't see how
many of us actually see the things that we do
that we're messing up. Somebody from somebody has to tell you. Usually,
somebody has to tell you how they're experiencing you. You
don't get to tell people how they should experience you. Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (44:16):
How do you want your kids to see you?
Speaker 1 (44:19):
Oh? I want my kids. I want my kids to
respect me, and I want my kids to be proud,
and they're not. They're not proud of me.
Speaker 4 (44:29):
Yeah, I'm telling you you I don't know. Once you
voice something.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
But no one else said they'll be proud they'll be
proud in the next couple of years.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
Right.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
Let me tell you why. Similar to you, my kids
they know they hit me on the radio, but they
don't know what it is.
Speaker 1 (44:44):
They don't know what it is.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
When people take pictures, they like, that's just dad. Still
not popping to them. But when they see me on TikTok,
so be with other people, don't I'll be like, see
me like when they see me on TikTok and the
Man Yo.
Speaker 1 (45:06):
When Kevin Hart was on here and he said my name,
I showed my son and he said, why does he
know you? I was like, he was like, but he said,
casanat casanatus cool and like I when I had done
I had done TV movies and stuff like that, I'll
put it on the TV screen. It didn't mean nothing
to them. They saw I had a large following on YouTube.
(45:28):
They're like, oh, my dad is really somebody. He on
YouTube with a lot of followers.
Speaker 3 (45:33):
It was sol for me. When I did this character
on Soul. My son was like because the characters made
it to and that's how he got to get McDonald
happy meals every week because that was the toy thing.
He was like, my dad was in soul. And I
remember when when the Happy Mill discontinues that Dad, I
got a happy meal a day and I wasn't.
Speaker 2 (45:50):
Really happy You're.
Speaker 3 (45:53):
Not there no more than that's when he went back
to not fucking with me.
Speaker 6 (45:57):
Before y'all get out of here, this is I'm changing
gears because I really want to hear your opinion on this.
So I was just this is breaking right now, not breaking,
but a lot of outlets are picking this up right now.
Eddie Murphy, he's a part of the No call Sheet documentary,
number one on the call Sheet documentary, and he talks
about Sidney Potier telling him to not do dramatic roles
in movies and to lead that up to like the
Denzels and things of that nature. I just want to
(46:20):
hear how y'all feel about that. Just hearing it, I
can give you all more context my personal.
Speaker 4 (46:24):
Opinion on it.
Speaker 3 (46:24):
If someone tells me what I can't do or shouldn't do,
that's gonna put the pack on me to want to
do it. And especially you can't understand Sidney Poitier's thing
on that. But you never know, like how Eddie wanted
to start, you know what I mean? Comedy might have
been the thing that he connected with it, but at
the same time he might have been wanted to be
considered a more dramatic actor opposed to like a comedy actor.
Speaker 1 (46:47):
Stay Ryan, I think if he takes that advice, we
don't get Jimmy Early from dream Girls, and what a
shame that would have been. You see what I'm saying,
Like you can, you can respect the greatest who ever
do it. But just because they're one of the greatest
to ever do it doesn't mean that they won't set
limitations on you. And it's on you to not listen
(47:08):
to those limitations. Thank god Eddie Murphy didn't listen to that.
You know what I mean that. That's my first thought
is you know, and Eddie Murphy to me, is the
greatest talent to ever live. I've never seen anybody more
talented than that in all facets, That's what I'm saying.
I've never.
Speaker 6 (47:27):
He said he turned down that they were putting together
a Malcolm Ximell's be and he turned it down because
he had basically had been in conversation for it and
he was talking to Sean was like, Hey, what do
you think about this?
Speaker 5 (47:38):
And after that advice. He was like, you probably won't
do it.
Speaker 1 (47:41):
Yep, And that was and that's sad. But I think
when people try to set limitations on you, they're thinking
about their own. As great as Sidney Poitier is, he
probably was thinking about He probably thought that there were
you can't imagine. I don't think people can imagine a
person like Eddie Murphy. Eddie Murphy is unimaginably talented. He's
(48:05):
literally a parrot. He can mimic anybody's voice, he can
mimic people's singing voice. But then he's talented within his
own right. Like his stand up is magnificent. His movies
are blockbusters. Saturday Night Live, he showed you I can
dominate sketch comedy and do that animation. He's Mushu and Moulan,
(48:27):
He's Donkey and Shrek. There's no avenue that he has
not dominated. He has hit records like, yeah, I understand
telling somebody to be you know, realistic. I guess that's
what you know. Maybe Sidney Poitier was thinking, but Eddie
Murphy doesn't fall into that. Neither does Jamie Fox. I
(48:49):
don't think a guy like DC young Fly falls into
that category. Is some people in this world who are
just so multifaceted and mostly talented that you actually limit
the gift they could given to the world when you
tell them to stay in their lane.
Speaker 5 (49:03):
He said that Sidney said to him, you're a brother
for fresh air, and don't.
Speaker 1 (49:06):
F with that. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (49:09):
And then also that's a matter of opinion too, you
have to subscribe to a Yeah.
Speaker 1 (49:15):
No, I think I think it was it was done,
and I think he was looking out for him. I
don't think people realize how how close you are from
a bad movie from being forgotten or a bad performance
from being forgotten. It happens, you know. I think also
you got to think about in Sydney's time, he couldn't
take a risk on a roll because if it didn't happen,
(49:39):
it was it wasn't a space for him to come.
Speaker 4 (49:42):
Sid did an open mic involved, right.
Speaker 1 (49:48):
So you gotta But I don't think like even Kevin
Hart came up here and said the exact opposite, you know,
when he was talking to my generation of comics, he
was like, don't make your main thing your only thing, right,
you know. So that's I just think that's the evolution.
Speaker 3 (50:03):
That resonated with that part resonated with me. That was
like loud and clear.
Speaker 1 (50:07):
That was clear. I thank you for that.
Speaker 3 (50:10):
That was That was something that so many people and
there's so many different lanes and so many other avenues
that you can do. I remember, want to remember they
used to do the Mixed Type Mixed Tape Awards, yep,
I remember, and you know those crowds used to be
rowdy as hell and run run DMC.
Speaker 4 (50:27):
He run it.
Speaker 3 (50:28):
I mean those mixed tape boards. They'd be like, yo,
fuck you get out of here. I never seen nobody
when he went on stage he commanded that order. They
got completely quiet. Then he was talking about hip hop
and he was like, hip hop is not just about
being an MC. Hip hop is creating fashion. You have
hip hop lawyers and they don't just limit it to
(50:49):
music just MC just behind the scenes. I remember one
time it was a quote from method Man. Mehan Man said,
I'm tired of being a chump in the front. I
want to be the MAC in the back. And what
Kevin said that it kind of all of those things
resonated on what you can do in this business.
Speaker 1 (51:04):
And I hope whenever you know, me putting my money
behind my own projects and I will do that for
the rest of my career, whether anybody chooses me or not.
I'm always work towards my passion and I'm not gonna
let anybody slam the door on my on my dreams.
But I want to inspire my peers to do the same.
Not just do the same in their own career, but
(51:26):
come do it with me. Let's go, let's go make
some stuff together. You got something you're passionate about. Let's
put our money together, Let's get it done. Let's just
get it done.
Speaker 3 (51:34):
You know you're in our community. Easier said than done.
Speaker 1 (51:39):
I'm gonna tell you why it's easier said than done.
In our community. Black people love credit. They love credit.
Like like you said, the method man said, you want
to be the mac in the back. Not a lot
of us want to be the mac in the back.
Like me. If I did a movie about my life story,
people would expect me to play myself. Right, what if
(52:02):
there's a better actor than me for this role, I'll
move out the way. A lot of us won't move
out of the way because we want credit. We rather
our face be on the front of it than giving
people the best product possible. And that but that comes
from I believe just we go through life in our
community without getting the credit we deserve. So whenever we
(52:25):
get the opportunity to get it, we want all of it.
And we can't move like that whenever we're wanting to
be creative. So I just hope that this inspires people
to go look for it. Yeah, go look at the audience.
Go look for people you because when you think about it,
some of the most popular people don't even do stand
up the people you deal the point if you really
(52:47):
want to enjoy stand up comedy, there are people a
Lei Sadik is killing it, you know what I mean?
You know you got people like name Lyn, you got
me you know even the way. Yeah, and you just
gotta you gotta go search it because they're not like
in music, they used to have artists development that we
(53:08):
just don't have that no more. So it's up to
the audience to go find us.
Speaker 2 (53:13):
But where can they find you? Where can they find
your comedy special underratio? If they want to see it paid.
Speaker 1 (53:17):
For, go to You can go to my Instagram, right,
but you go to Patreon type and Ryan Davis, it'll
come up. Just go to Patreon type and Ryan Davis.
Speaker 2 (53:26):
It'll come up and if you want to see him live,
he's performing at the Gramercy Theater on April.
Speaker 1 (53:30):
Twelfth in here in New York.
Speaker 2 (53:32):
That's right, And we appreciate you for joining us, and
thank you Donnelle for sitting due. Donnell's actually gonna be
at the City Winery this weekend. So I appreciate both
of you. Brothers man, thank you, thank you for donaver Stadase,
Charlamagne and just without today.
Speaker 1 (53:46):
Yeah, but can I I don't even think Donnelle even remembers.
But when we did, uh we did the Laugh Factory.
He was hosting. I wanted to close. Shout out to Lonnie.
Lonnie is a tough judge of comics.
Speaker 4 (54:00):
Oh my god, we had so many beasts in the day.
Speaker 1 (54:02):
But yeah, she loves you, and that was the thing.
She was like, I need somebody to close. I was like,
I can close. She was like I don't know about that,
and then I was like, nah, let me, let me
do it. And then I got there and Donnelle was hosting.
I was like, oh, that's probably why she so. But
the show it was like me Donelle, miss pat JJ Williamson,
(54:23):
Seawan Jones. It was it was like they were bringing it.
And then I did the first show and the second
show when Donelle brought me up, he said, there's some
people in this game that people don't know. They're like,
you don't know who they are one day and then
the next day they're one of the biggest comedians. I
think this guy might be one of them. Wow, you
probably don't even remember, but that's how he brought me up.
(54:46):
And I was like, all right, I proved the Donelle
that I'm supposed to be.
Speaker 3 (54:49):
But yeah, it was like for me because it's again
that three years ago.
Speaker 1 (54:55):
Yeah, that's because I'd like, it's whatever.
Speaker 3 (54:58):
People want to say that I know talent when when
I see it right and that room, I mean, the
thing that impressed me the most. People could go up
there and they can have a good set, but it's
the way he did it, the subject matter, and you
could tell it was somebody that didn't do the easy route.
It's like, this is who I am. And the level
of confidence. I was like, that's a bad motherfucker. And
I've seen people they're going to these spots and they
(55:20):
feel like they got to perform a certain way. They've
seen this guy do that. That works for him. But
the ship was so original. That's why when you say underrated,
I'm like, well, who's rating you?
Speaker 1 (55:28):
Well, they don't know, That's what I'm saying. They want me.
Being underrated speaks to if I was rated properly, they
would talk like you talk right.
Speaker 2 (55:40):
Yeah, well definitely go check it out for yourself so
you can see the brother, Ryan Davis, and again, thank
you for joining.
Speaker 1 (55:45):
Us, you for having men down there.
Speaker 4 (55:47):
Thank you brother.
Speaker 2 (55:48):
Yes, sir, and you see down there. We ain't make
no booty jokes today. Nothing.
Speaker 4 (55:54):
I missed the movie. No, no, no, it is Ryan Davis.
Speaker 2 (56:02):
It's The Breakfast Club. Good morning, thank you about now.
Speaker 1 (56:04):
Wake that ass up in the morning.
Speaker 4 (56:06):
The Breakfast Club.
Speaker 1 (56:11):
H
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