Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh - Sheryl Underwood on Flagrant
Episode Date: July 1, 2026YErrrr today, we have the incredible Sheryl Underwood with us. We're talking: - Women and accountability - Her father and leadership - Performing for the troops - Kevin Hart Roast - Bernie Mac's impac...t And much, much more - INDULGE Timestamps: 0:00 Women are perfect + Accountability 3:38 Not being the bread winner 5:43 All relationships are transactions 7:42 Football Player impressing Daddy 12:54 Leading, Family's influence + Entertainment biz 17:26 Str1pping, Military + Community Service 23:00 "We can't protect you" + Camaraderie 27:17 Getting Kevin Hart Roast + Process 35:51 Co-ordinating jokes + Tony Hinchcliffe = perfect villain 45:31 Upset at comedy + Don't get mad, get motivated 52:23 Animosity, Comedy evolving + Draymond Green/Lizzo 57:46 Comedy does translate internationally 1:01:19 Incels, face rub + Not recording jokes 1:08:54 Loving sports + Topics 1:11:31 Bernie Mac + Meeting your heroes 1:18:50 Sheryl's comedy + Wifey 1:23:03 Is Sheryl dating? 1:25:11 Variety show, Hollywood + Opportunities This episode is sponsored by Kalshi. This episode is sponsored by Sesh. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Y'all might start the camera right now.
Let it roll.
Yeah.
Well, I think that, okay, there's when you, so when you guys, all of you are married.
Yes, yeah.
Okay.
He's not really married.
He likes to pretend like he's married.
It's married.
Is that, what is this?
Y'all is married or what's your name?
No, we engage.
Engage.
Oh, okay, so you almost.
You bought a ring.
You married.
Yes, right.
Okay, got it, got it.
So you married.
So you fell in love with the girl.
Uh-oh.
You fell in love with the girl.
Is there anything that she does to this?
day that still drive you up a while.
Like, it annoys me?
Yes.
No, he's perfect.
You did a Jack Benny.
You're not even lying, right?
Hey, come right.
That's the whole lot.
And sign bitches.
So you're going to leave her and bury me?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, I don't want to do with her.
I was right.
I was right.
I'm going to call right now, bitch.
Never coming home.
Sunshine.
What did y'all want to talk about?
Yes.
We want to talk about you.
So you heard me talking to somebody that I was like, what did it say it?
Something was frustrating in you.
We could tell.
But here's, I'm trying this new thing.
Yeah.
And this new thing is called figure out where you can be contributing to your own
frustration.
Accountability?
There you go.
And I wish more bitches had it.
How do we get?
How do we?
How do we get them to give it?
It's a new book we can all write together.
Hey, be part of this.
Hey, bitch, you are the problem.
You are contributing to it.
We were trying to write that book for a little time.
That's not a book.
This is a scientific paper.
Okay.
So how do we solve this theory?
How do we test it?
How have you noticed that you're the problem?
How can you think you're the problem when you're on fire right now?
It seems like every decision you made was the right decision.
Well, I would say most.
If you're 90% is the 10 that you need to work up.
So if you're communicating with someone and they don't seem to be understanding, then the first thing I look at is, because my dad taught me, look at yourself first. So am I not conveying it right? Or did I believe, now this is where I think me as a woman, did I believe that you were capable of not doing what you're doing?
So if I believe that you were capable of not doing the thing that annoys me, then I'm the problem because I believe that I believed it.
I believed that you were not going to do the thing.
If you don't like hair on soap.
Yeah.
And every time this dude comes over here, it's his hair on my soap.
So he ain't taking my bar of soap and rubbing his balls with it.
Can I say that?
Yeah.
You can say it.
I'm rubbing the balls with it.
And then it's in my shower.
But I'm in love with this dude.
And I go, with this motherfucker with the pubic hair on my damn soap.
Yeah.
But if I believe that he's incapable, if he's capable of not doing that.
Yeah.
But he continued to do it.
So there's a challenge to authority somewhere in there.
Okay, because he doesn't want to be controlled.
So this bitch keeps asking me about the pubic hair on the soap.
And I keep telling this, showing this bitch, I'm going to put the pubic hair on the goddamn soap because I'm a fucking man.
There is an ego in it, which is like, stop telling me what to do.
Yes.
It's almost like you need to suggest it or ask it.
But telling, there's a thing about the being told.
Well, I say, might you consider?
See, I think we look at that.
just said, yeah, she just told me what the fuck to do.
Well, see, I feel like it's the man.
You remember when I was, I don't know if y'all saw me on Shannon Sharp's Club Shea, right?
And he asked me, how did I feel being the breadwinner?
I'm like, I'm not the breadwinner.
I'm the person who might make more money in a relationship.
It depends on who the man is.
But I'm not the breadwinner.
The man is the breadwinner.
And we live off of what you do.
My money is in addition to, hey, you want to be a cowboy?
I'm going to send you to Montana to learn how to be a cowboy for your birthday.
Right?
That's what my money is for.
So when you're with a guy, you will live completely within the means of his salary.
If that's what he wants to do.
Well, first I got to get to being engaged or married or being that girl for you.
Because if, well, I believe, and I could be wrong and hit me in the comments,
I believe when a man's money is not stable, he cannot concentrate on a person.
relationship with a woman.
There is a version of that because it's hard to separate your identity from your ability to
provide.
That's right.
Some guys can do it, man.
What, the jigolo?
The jigolo's, I think.
But they have a disconnect.
There's almost like a sociopathy that allows them to do it.
But then to me, God makes woman's intuition to go, the guy's the jigolo.
Do I want to be with a jigolo?
Or do I want to be with all these other girls that are with the jigolo?
and then, because I would ask, man,
how long do you plan on being a jigolo
and can you use those skills for anything else?
And how can I help you?
Yes, yes.
We're going to do what we're going to do.
But if you seem to be good at being a jigolo,
because you pulled me,
and I fell for the bull to say,
so that's what you're going to do,
and I got the $1,500, if that's what we're doing.
So what are we doing with this $1,500?
That's right.
How are we going to take 750 to us or 500, put 500 in crypto, trying to get your life together,
and then another 500 for you to live off of.
Now, you want to be in a relationship with me or is this just, is this a transaction,
which all relationships are still transaction?
How so?
To me.
How so?
You're either trading for love or comfort or security or you make me feel good or you care about me.
Does it make it not transactional if it's a love for love?
love trade. There's still a transaction. It's equal love. I love you, you love me, and we build a
life together. It's still a transaction. It's just a more pleasant transaction, right? If it's just
I'm fucking you because you pay me, or I'm fucking you because I get something from it or
home security. Yeah, that's right. That's right. To me, I wish people would just talk about,
it's a transaction because my needs are meeting your needs and let's see how we can get together.
and if we enjoy ourselves together.
But then you got to figure out,
what about the shit about me that you don't like?
And then can you handle that shit?
And can we just talk about it?
What's not likable about you?
What can someone not like?
Ooh, it's a lot.
It's a lot.
What is the thing?
You smell phenomenal.
Oh, Joe, I'll just feel it now.
And it's a black guy.
He's a black guy.
He's a black guy.
Right.
That guy would have said,
I'd be like, hey, man.
You got a white, wife.
You got white, wife.
You got a baby.
You got a Mexican.
You got a Mexican.
That's your opinion.
That's different.
No, but that's a little more.
No.
Okay, listen, listen.
I'm not against interracial.
I have sampled everything.
God have made on the buffet I love, so I'm not against it.
Same.
Right.
What's the best?
Can you rank them?
I would say, well, everybody's decent.
If you're still talking to me after we do something, it was decent, you know.
It's not.
You're still talking.
If you ain't put your hand in my back and said, all right, sure, that was cool.
Okay, that's not going to watch.
The Knits will be on in a few minutes.
Okay, is in your shoes, bitch?
Why are you still?
Oh, man, I guess.
And I get an Uber.
Wait.
No, I had a guy.
Okay, wait.
See, this is a good start.
So I met this guy.
We've been talking on the phone for about a year talking on the phone.
What race?
He's black.
Play football.
Yeah.
And we met at a Super Bowl.
Oh.
And he comes up, I'm selling cassettes.
That's how long ago it was.
Cassettes and CDs and hosters.
So he comes up, how much this cause?
How much this cause?
And I was like, okay, if you big ass going to buy something, buy something.
So then he says, you know, let's exchange numbers.
And I said, well, you know, listen, I'm not these bitches.
Okay, so straight up.
Straight up.
I say, I'm not these bitches.
I'm a different bitch.
If you want to exchange numbers, cool.
but I'm not excited about that, right?
So we start talking, and we talk, talk for months, years.
I think I'm getting to know him, right?
So by the time something about to happen,
I'm in the city where he's playing football,
and he sends a car for me.
Now, you just how far back sends a stretch limo.
You know, so we all looking out the window, ooh-a.
I was like, don't ooh-a.
Don't ooh-I.
It's a setup.
It's a setup.
No, it's a setup.
I'm thinking, it's a set up.
I'm being set up. Okay.
So it's a setup.
So I get to the crib.
to tell this story in my act where we get to the location and the limousine dude is just throwing
shit out the car, like drive off. I'm like, I'm trapped in this motherfucker, but I'm glad I got
gas money in the case I need to get to fuck out, jump out of window or something. Right. So then
we get together and he says, he said, I got to go, I got to go to work. I said, okay, and he's in
training camp. I said, okay, so what's up? And he said, what do you mean? I said, when is the car coming
to get me? To take me back?
He said Friday
I said motherfucker I'm not fucking like this for four more days
You're in training camp not me
I was panicking
I don't have that type of duration
I was panninger right
So but then I thought about
So then he goes
It's downstairs
It's some money in the car keys
And it's car garage and everything
So I go down and look at the car
Cars and I've been driven
And it's a guap
It's a big guap of money
Right
Guap
So I look at it and I go
I set up
This is not right.
This is the first day, and I get the money in the car.
Some bullshit.
Must be some cameras around this.
I'm being set up, right?
I never think it's the happily ever after.
Never, ever.
So I call my father and I go, Daddy.
I said, I think I'm being set up as well.
Cheryl?
You're calling your dad from the house?
Yeah, from the house where I was in the car.
I called my dad.
And I said, I think I'm being set up.
He said, what do you mean? And I told him what happened.
You said, the details?
Yeah. I said, we're romantic.
You know, we're romantic. You know, my father.
And I said, but I said, this happened, this happened, this happened.
I said, what do you think? He said, don't fuck this up until I meet my son-in-law.
What? And then, and then when it's time for me to go back, because it's time for him to go play with the team.
So you stayed for the weekend?
Yeah, yeah.
Stay for the weekend.
How was your body holding up?
It was a struggle.
It was a struggle.
Yeah, because I'm only five, too.
Right?
It was a struggle.
He was six, five, three-fifty.
Whoa.
Oh.
Puss at two black eyes.
Pop-bye.
I was like, who is doing this all the day?
Who is doing this?
It's what's doing this?
It's with you all the day.
You did.
Right?
So, so, what's up?
You know, what is this?
I said, because this seems like,
he said, why don't you just relax?
And then he said, I'm going to take you,
The car is going to take you back?
I said, oh, no, motherfucker.
No, after five days it is, you have to go back and you have to introduce yourself to my father.
And you have to talk to him.
What?
What?
I said, the motherfucker.
Yeah.
I said, put some clothes on.
So I made him get in the car that I didn't drive.
And he drove me back to where my father was.
I said, get out the motherfucking car.
Go talk to my dad.
So he walks in and my dad's watching wrestling.
So he's sitting straight to a TV.
He doesn't look up.
My father doesn't look up.
My father old school, Southern, right?
He doesn't look up.
And I said, Daddy, this is such, such, such, such.
He nods at him.
And then I said, why don't you just tell him what you do for a living?
I play his football.
My father said,
my father said, you do not have to bring her back to come back and visit us.
I said, wait, wait, hold on.
Did you get that?
Now, once he said he played football, he don't get a fuck about me.
You're welcome to come here.
Any time you want.
Any time you want.
So what I'm saying is, a little story long is,
is you have to figure out what is, especially as a woman.
You need to figure out what is and what role you're going to play in this situation.
And that's why I do not believe any man I date,
whether you play football or whether you work at the gas station.
I'm not the breadwinner.
You are the head of the household because that's the way I was raised.
My father was ahead of household.
When my father died, I defer to my older brother.
Oh, really?
Right.
But you got leader energy.
I don't know.
I don't believe that you completely would defer to anybody.
But a leader also has to play the position.
You could leave from behind.
Absolutely.
And I, you know, everybody that works with me.
That's right.
And he was trying.
And I was scurried.
No, no, no.
That's not for you.
I'm not doing it.
You didn't know my dad.
But everybody that I work with, I tell, they go, you're the boss.
No, I'm not the boss.
I'm the leader.
Interesting.
The boss tells you what to do and you can be unhappy about it.
The leader leads you into battle and you will go into battle with the leader because you know we're coming back alive.
And that's why I'd rather be the leader than being the boss to dictate to someone.
Is this military influence or did you have this from like your pops or?
early on, or your mom early on.
Like, where are you getting this philosophy on the world?
My dad really shaped my worldview.
Yeah.
And he was military.
He and all his brothers were in the Army.
And then my mother married a man who was stationed at Offutt Air Force Base.
And so that's how we got to Castle Air Force Base and then went into the Air Force.
So I was at Warner High.
But I always...
Wait, hold it.
Didn't you...
You went into Air Force later, though, right?
You got your masters before that?
I was working on my master's.
while I was in the Air Force.
Got it.
So I got my associates, my bachelor's, my master's degree, a paralegal certificate from UCLA.
And I have five honorary doctorates, four of them from HBCU's.
One, I'm from University of Illinois, Chicago.
I wanted to go to college because my dad was really, really smart.
But my dad was, he was progressive but very conservative.
So he would read a lot and understand people.
And I wanted to be that.
And my dad and my uncles on my mother and my father's side, very, very funny.
Yeah.
So I would just be in the corner watching them.
Like how so?
What were you observing from the?
Storytelling.
Yeah.
Cadence.
Hidden the joke.
And I was like, okay, that's interesting.
Because I started out as a singer, was singing the choir.
No.
Most of us.
Okay, you grew up in the church.
Church, singing the choir.
So I was like, oh, maybe I could be a singer.
I wanted to be in the entertainment business.
You felt it early.
Definitely, yeah, five years.
Well, you know, you know, us community,
did your parents wake you up in the middle of the night
to dance for their friends and perform for them?
Okay.
He's got a new generation.
These Puerto Rican.
So they were partying when we were just running in the middle of the night.
But they never said, come, my son can pop lock and spin on his head.
They never said that.
Are you in salsa dancing?
You want everybody in that.
You didn't have no white shoes and nothing like that.
I wasn't nice to know.
Okay, so you're Puerto Rican, Dominican.
None of that happened for you.
When we were growing up,
my parents would wake us up
to perform for their friends while they're playing cards
and all this stuff. So I thought, okay,
to get that kind of attention,
you know, oh, okay,
I kind of liked it. I knew I wanted to be
in the entertainment business because I spent a lot of time
in the house and watching things.
And I was like, I can do that, I can do that. But
what do I do I start off as a singer?
I don't have pipes.
My voice, when I started singing,
it sounded more like Diana Ross.
But now that I've been doing comedy for
so long, it's lower. It's like Lou Ross.
You know what I'm saying?
It's deeper now.
I still sort of sing.
I can sing, talk.
I say I can sing, talk, walk, dance.
Got it, got it.
Quick update.
I'm going to be out in L.A. shooting a movie this summer,
but we added some stand-up shows.
So pull on up.
The Brea Improv will be there July 17th and July 18th.
And then we're going to be at the Halifax,
Nova Scotia, Canada,
Great Outdoors Vest, August 8th.
So you can go grab tickets to any of those shows if tickets are still available.
Dandrewshelts.com.
All right, Mark, what do you got?
Oh, I have great news.
I'm going all over at the end of the year.
I'm going to Plano, Texas, Chandler, Arizona, Pasadena, California, San Diego, California.
And then I'm also going to a couple other spots that are going to be coming up at the end of the year, like Detroit, Michigan and Salt Lake City, Utah.
And I can wait.
I can't wait to see you guys all there.
Mark Yagnon Live.com.
Alex.
Guys, my monthly tennis series, the all loveclub.com.
The tennis is on July 25th.
I'll see you guys there.
The first one was fantastic.
The second one's going to be even better.
Then I got into dancing and I answered an ad while I was in college at a bar.
And it was a sexual interpretive dance.
That's what we call it.
Sexual interpretive dance.
Yes.
It's a great way of saying stripping.
Yes.
No, no, it's not. It's art.
I thought I was being artful.
What it was. So I grew up in Chicago
as a tavern. And it's still
open to this day, and the owner
remembers the day that I
did this. Yes. How old
you when you go in? Oh, I was
19, 20? I was
young. I was young but old.
You know,
I was young but old.
We got to stay vague.
I don't know watching this.
I feel my damn
identity and my credits.
No, it's still my eyes.
So I'm in this place where you're supposed to, you put on the lingerie, and then you're supposed to...
Model the lingerie.
So the guy buys it.
So whoever buys it.
Like burlesque?
No, it's a little bitty place.
Burlese seems beautiful.
It's like a movie with, what's that girl?
Christina Aguilera and Cher.
Have you seen it?
Mulan Roo.
Burlesque was the movie they did together.
Matter of fact, James Brolin was in the movie.
But I digress.
So it's really.
more like you buy
the lingerie, you walk around
the little bar and whoever
wants you to take it off, they pay
for the lingerie. So you
take it off in front of them. And then they get
to keep your lingerie? But you're
naked in front of these dudes. So it's really
a fancy version of stripping.
And I think
God let me know what I'm not capable
of doing. So I start to tell
jokes. And I was doing the
Fred Sanford.
I was telling a joke.
Full long.
And them street do
You can't shirtwork the damn
Put your shit back on
You know, so that's what I knew
Oh, I can do it
And then being in the military
I was making people laugh
In the military because you have to entertain
We had a lot of downtime
So you have to entertain
And basic training
What did you do basic?
Lackland, Air Force Base
Lackland was basic training
San Antonio
The tech school
because I went in as a medic and they told me I could transfer out to MWR.
What's MWR?
Moral, welfare, and recreation.
So that's what I wanted to be in because I knew I wanted to be in the entertainment business.
Wait, do you go in as an officer?
No, I didn't.
I went in as enlisted.
But it helped me pay my way through school.
Right.
But it also taught me how to entertain people you don't know.
If we're talking to each other, then we know some of the things of our background that's going to make us laugh.
There's a shared understanding.
standing in a shared reality, but when you're talking to somebody that you never knew anything about,
Mexican dude from El Paso, Texas, you still got to crack him up. Or a white boy from Oklahoma.
You got to make them laugh. And so I found that I was funny, and I was doing the cadence.
Because I couldn't do the guide on. The guide on is where you troll the flag.
But don't let that flag hit the ground, Airman. You know, so you can't let the flag hit the ground.
And they hear that clean, like, everybody looking at you like, you crazy, right? So I couldn't do.
that because I don't think I had the
because you got to twirl it under your arm
okay and I couldn't do it but then
they said well what else could you do
and one of the TIs said let her do
the cadence the chance and but
my chance were you know you
your mother was home when you left you're right
your mother's on but mine were dirty
oh so you do it okay yeah and people
looked forward to us marching
but mine were dirty and they're trying to
keep a straight face they're trying that's right
and you're trying to crack them do you remember any of the
any of the cadency
um nothing I could
say here, but I say whatever you want here.
Well, no, one thing I do remember is that I learned that I could be entertaining.
But I also learned that it takes, being in the military, first it's a scary thing because
they strip you down to build you back up.
But it's the best thing I wish in this country we had mandatory.
And if you don't want to do mandatory military service for two years, go into Peace Corps.
Yeah.
Do something.
something in this.
I did.
We were talking about this, like, volunteering in, like, the national parks or something.
Yes.
Serving the country in some capacity.
Absolutely.
We were in Virginia Beach this past weekend doing shows, and the U.S.
as Iwo Jima came back.
And I've never seen this live, but like you got to see this ship that was away for
10 months.
Yes.
The whole family, people with kids.
It's also like 10 months, so you see a really young baby, you're like, hold on.
Is that?
Right.
But, like, dude, I got emotional, man.
I got kind of caught up in it.
The music, the pomp and circumstance.
Also, just seeing these young guys.
Like, these are kids.
They're, like, 21 years old.
They're coming off.
Their moms are grabbing them.
It was their first time.
These, like, big hugs.
It was just this beautiful thing.
Asking one of the moms, like, oh, who are you here for?
She's like, oh, my son.
And you're like, how long has he been deployed?
She says, 296 days.
Oh, to the day.
To the day.
It was like a beautiful.
Care packages.
Oh, yeah.
They said Amazon replaced all.
that. I said if you try to send a care package, it's going to take twice as long as if you can just go Amazon direct and I'll find a way to it. And that's what's good about ingenuity. Of course. But also, when you're away like that, you live for letters and care packages and things like that. And I remember when I was first performing after I got out of the reserve, they called me, somebody called me to do a comedy show. And we were in Yakuoka, naval base in Japan. Where is that?
In Japan. So I was doing, my company has always been adult.
Always been sexual. Always been adult profane.
So I was wearing these fringe hot pants and this fringe, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,
belero jacket and boosting. And I had these fishnet stockings, these pumps on that I couldn't really walk in.
And I was telling the most hardcore sexual humor. And the, and the Admiral, they said,
the Admiral would like to see you. And I said, sir. And he said, so you form a military. I said, yes, sir. And he said,
listen, I'm going to give it to you straight.
What? We can't protect you.
These men have been on a ship for 40 years.
If you keep talking, we can't protect.
When the U.S. military says they can't protect you?
Who the fuck else?
You know who they put in front of the, because we were staying in billeting
where the, you know, the hotel is called billeting.
So we were staying there. You know who they put in front of my daughter to guard me
every night? And they wore in shifts.
Bruce Lee.
The Marines.
Really?
The Marines.
Because these dudes were sitting outside of my door, playing a guitar, making beaded necklaces, and professing their love.
And I was like, what is that?
What is that?
I'm just doing a show.
Yeah.
You know, but I do, I like perform for the military.
The last thing I did, I did a U.S.O tour.
Oh, yeah, that's pretty cool.
Oh, my God.
So fun.
So fun.
But what made it really fun for me, it was with the sergeant major, the Army.
And I kept asking, are you sure?
you mean me. Are you sure you want me to go? Because you know me, right? And the U.S.
people are like, absolutely, because you don't get paid for it. The pavement is the love from the troops.
So we go to Afghanistan. And we go down to the five. Well, first, I'm so excited. I think I'm going to walk up to General Petraeus.
And I'm going to shake his hand and hug him and tell him how great it. And General Petraeus was like, who the fuck are you?
You know, we're the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders.
I was so fucking hurt.
But the command sergeant majors and the people
that knew me and then they were asking
who was I because they had double the people.
So the people that knew me from Deaf Comedy Jam
and Common View, they had double the people.
So I was doing this bit, Shalvis, a tribute to the king.
And I was dressed as Elvis Presley with the mutton chops
and the wig and custom-made Elvis outfit from BK
Enterprise Wear.
Elvis was getting his maid.
Okay. And I was doing this. That was my
intro. And people
died laughing and everything. And they loved the country
singers and they were waiting for Dallas-Calibur, Chili's.
But we went to a Fib,
a forward operating base in Afghanistan.
And you could hear these dudes on their
head say, Who the fuck is the black girl?
I don't know who the fuck she is.
And I was telling every dick joke,
every dirty joke, I knew.
And they were stomping
and clapping. And then I could get
on, I got on the helicopter and they said,
whoever she is protect her.
I ain't never laughed at heart.
And that's what comedy does, in my opinion.
Yeah, absolutely.
Oh, that's amazing.
It brings us together.
Same thing with the roast.
But so does the military.
Oh, absolutely.
I think that's the thing that a lot of people maybe don't understand,
like the camaraderie that exists within the military.
It's like when you know that your life is dependent on the person next to you,
you don't really care that much at their Filipino.
That's right.
You don't care.
A lot of this shit goes out the window.
Absolutely.
So a lot of my buddies that are in the military, they have these, like,
incredibly close relationships with guys, like from all different walks of life.
But there's nothing off limits.
No.
It's not like a regular office job where like you would never maybe share your real
personality with somebody at the office.
That's right.
You're going to get to know who that person is.
Absolutely.
Because you're shitting, showering and shaving with the person.
You know, you're eating the same MRI that they're eating.
Yeah.
You're telling stories.
You're sad that your girl betrayed you.
So now you want to shoot somebody.
I'm just saying, you're just saying.
You're just saying to be facetious.
But I think military, um, it's,
one of the great law enforcement, anything that, like you say, your life depends on.
Life's on the line.
She gets different, man.
But also, it's the humor.
It's gallows humor.
Like, people that were so upset about the rose.
Yeah, what did you, first of all, you had an amazing set.
Thank you.
I obviously, you've heard this, but like, you killed it.
There was something that I thought you brought to the rose that was fantastic, which was, one,
genuinely having fun is infectious.
Mm-hmm.
Right?
Like, whoever has.
the most fun. Yes. I want to be around as a person is consuming. Yes. Right? The person who's
watching the game and they're having the most fun watching the game, that's the part of the bar you want to be
around. Yes. And you were up there, you were having so much fun. And in a way it like broke the fourth
wall. Like there are moments where, and I want to ask you here, it's like, I don't know if you were even
reading off the prompter. Like, are you just making up all this shit? Like this is a big fucking
moment. I did the Brady one. It's a big moment where you're going, okay.
I've been working on this.
I want to make sure that everything goes well.
But it felt like you were just kind of letting it rip.
Well, okay.
Like it felt so natural.
Yeah.
So, okay, can you, because a lot of people don't really understand the amount of preparation.
It is a production.
And you run in jokes with their writers.
Did you guys do that?
So basically, so I had a few guys that were working with me.
And they were fantastic.
Me too.
Yeah.
And like, and you should have the guys that kind of like understand your voice.
And it was not.
to make this about me, but it was a crazy weekend.
We don't make it about us.
Okay, we make it about us.
So it was like, I was doing Mass and Square Garden Friday, Saturday, and then I had to go do the roast Sunday.
So basically I was like, okay, I have two weeks to work on the roast, and then I want to make sure I'm ready for a Master Square Garden.
Yeah.
So it was like this, it was crazy week.
But some amazing guys that helped me write, Robbie Slovic, Ryan Nesson, Matt Broussard, Tyler Morrison.
I want to make sure I'm getting all the guys.
Anyway, but I had it all kind of mapped out, but there is that part of you when you're up there.
You're like, man, I just want to be in this moment.
And I felt like the times where I kind of like segued away were like the realist.
I saw Dana White in the audience and I like had a joke on him.
Like there were just these and I saw you do that or at least it felt like you were doing that.
That's what happened.
That's what happened.
You saw the whole place just get caught up in it.
It was like the most pure version of what you wanted to say.
That's right.
And now instead of like us analyzing the misdirection of your joke, we're caught up on your energy.
Absolutely.
And that's what you want.
And that's what American humor is all about.
This is an international experience because everybody got Netflix.
Yeah.
But I agree with you.
For me, I took a meeting with Netflix and I pitched an idea that I wanted to do with them.
And they were like, oh, that's interesting.
Great idea.
Would you do Netflix as a joke?
I was like, sure, you want me to do that?
So they said, okay, let's start there.
So they offer me the ice house in Pasadena.
The 100 plus seat room.
It wasn't no big room, right?
Great room.
That's right.
Very intimate.
See, I like the intimacy of the comedy club.
Yes.
There's something beautiful there.
You can't beat it.
The connection is built there.
That's right.
Theaters are great.
They're amazing.
But you cannot hold your lemon pepper wings and your drink on your lap at a theater.
You can literally like touch everybody in the club.
You could slap somebody in the back.
Because you don't know.
Did you hear with the fox?
He just said.
Also, everyone can see everyone else.
That's right.
And it brings people together.
And you can feel, okay, you don't like this.
Okay, let me transition over to that.
You know, because I'm doing like political humor on the road.
I'm doing, I'm talking about being a Republican.
I'm doing Trump jokes.
I'm doing, you know, why the Democrats are going to continue to lose election jokes.
But I'm using every word in a lexicon and telling them why I'm using these words.
So in a comedy club is more intimate.
Yeah.
But I got a couple of calls.
from my colleagues and you too big.
You need to be in the Hollywood Bowl show.
You need to be in the this, this, this.
Why would you do a little bitty room like that?
Why not?
Why not?
If this is where we work, this is where we work.
I think sometimes people get caught up on like the perception of what you should be doing
instead of like what you choose to be doing.
Absolutely.
And I think you've been in the game long enough where like maybe you're not as worried about that.
I think like when people are first getting there a little bit of momentum.
Yes.
And I remember being in that position.
where it's just like, all right, what should we do it? What is the venue we should be doing?
And then I think after you do those things, you go, well, what do I want to do for where I'm at in my hour?
There you go. And see, for me, I wanted to do, I asked him, I said, will you allow me to bring the show that I'm doing? I'm doing the I need a job tour.
Will you allow me to bring that show into the Ice House? They said, sure, whatever you want to do is your night.
So I go on first. Then it's Kyle Irby goes up. Now, Mike Washington usually travels with us, but
we're all such close family.
You'll start your own show?
Oh, absolutely.
And then you bring up comics.
Uh-huh, uh-huh.
And that's what I was trying to advance.
Oh, interesting.
That's the show that I really want to do because I think that there's a camaraderie of comics.
There are a lot of comics out there to think that their career is, they're not going to have it.
But there's some great comics out there that need us to pull them up and go, come on, it's not over for you.
You could be Kathy Griffin.
Come on, girl.
So you had that issue with the head, with the bloody head.
Okay, come on back.
Tammy Cascatelli, great comic.
When you're talking about Mellie Camacho,
but you're talking about there are a lot of old school comics that need to be put back in the mix.
So I ask, could I do this?
And then they said, what about BT Kings?
I was like, cool.
So we did the show the way we do it.
Are you doing time in between?
Like if I'm going to see Cheryl.
Yeah.
And I want more than just the opening.
am I going to get Cheryl throughout the whole night?
You get what I would do as a headliner.
You get that up front.
Oh, you open the whole thing.
Yeah, I open the show and you get that up front.
And then Kyle comes up and he does the show.
But when Mike Washington is with us, I do what I do, then Kyle comes up.
Then me and Kyle got a banter.
Then we bring up Mike Washington.
And then he does what he does.
And then me and Mike got a banter.
So it's like being in a comedy team with everybody on the show.
And I say it's a high.
house party inside of a comedy club and it's fun. But also we run it. The time is right because it
helps me do better on time. Of course. You know, if you want to be in the club all night long,
but these people have been here setting up before you were here. Come on, let's get them in. Let's
entertain. And let's feed them, put drinks and food in them and get them out so they can go home
happy, right? So, but when doing this for Netflix, this small room, it put my name on the
map. So then somebody calls me and says, would you be willing to do the Kevin Hart roast? I said,
of course. How long before the roast do you agree to it? Oh, we had to be maybe a week.
So you would have to prep. No way. So everybody else is probably been prepping for at least a month.
Yeah, I think. I think about a, I'm not sure. I don't know. Can somebody ask Kyle's out there. He'll
know the exact time. I know I had enough time.
As soon as they asked, and I didn't know if I had it, I started looking for outfits online.
Alice and Olivia, Alice plus Olivia is where the outfit came from.
And then I went to Amazon.
It's this shirt.
And I'm thinking, okay, what shoes can I walk in?
And I called my glam guy, Dale McDonnell.
And I said, listen, can you come in the town to put my face together for the Ice House show?
Can you stay over and do this?
And he was like, yeah, I got you.
So I pulled my team together.
Erna Foucher is my conscience.
She runs my foundation.
Harry Sutherland runs part of my foundation.
And he's the person that hooks me up with corporations because he's an elected county commissioner.
So I brought my team in and I said, we're going to network this, see what we can get out of it.
But putting the set together and dealing with their writers.
Because did you have to run jokes with their writers too?
So what we basically did was say,
hey, does anybody have these jokes?
Yeah.
And I knew I was going up at the end.
Okay.
So I was basically like, just tell me if anybody has this and I'll just scrap it because I don't want to get to the end of the show.
Uh-huh.
And then a lot of the stuff has been used.
That's right.
Unless you can make it better.
If you can make it better, that's fine.
That's the key.
You got to make it better.
Like with the Tony Hankscliffe George Floyd joke, I don't think God sent me a good enough comeback.
But because Pete Davidson hit with the Charlie Kirk joke for the cookout coalition,
I was like, oh, yeah, he got you.
Right, he got you.
But for me, I wanted to learn to work with other people's writers.
And so we could see that they were writing for everybody.
And what was working and what wasn't working, but what was funny to me, they had the brunch.
The one where you're like, yeah, we fucked me and Kevin fucked.
Yeah.
He's making all this.
He's making all this.
No.
I said, Kevin, shut up before someone thinks I'm watching one of your movies.
And so I'm taking what they were.
But it looked like you weren't going to tell it.
I wasn't because I was like, move, go through the teleprompter.
That was the beautiful moment like for the consumer, right?
Yeah.
It's like, this wasn't supposed to happen.
And Kevin's like, no, you got to tell you.
But I'm looking at the prompt.
And so for me, I like to be prepared so that you know where you can ad lip.
If you're not prepared and you ad-lib, you could lose the whole.
You don't know what's going on.
You don't know what's going on.
So in working with them, and then Vanessa Graddock and Kyle Irby, Ian Edwards, Chris Spencer.
It was a lot of people, I was like, what you got, what you got.
But the fact that I could talk to Nikki Glazer at the luncheon.
Yeah.
Okay, so they have the brunch.
Everybody's there.
Yeah.
Get to hug and talk to your colleagues.
And I said, Nikki, how are they coming?
They said, they're coming for you.
I said, what are you coming to me?
You fuck that?
What am I?
I'm the beast that just lost a daytime talk show.
I need a job.
I need to work.
Why are they coming at me?
And she said, they come up for you, hard.
And I met Tony at the brunch.
Yeah.
Tony Hanksclose walks up to me.
He said, I'm Tony Kishko.
I said, I know.
I say, how are you coming?
He said, I'm coming.
Your husband's suicide and you're being raped.
No.
Jesus.
And I said, he said, he's.
He said, well, what was he thinking?
I said, it better be funny.
I said, if it ain't funny, I said, if it ain't funny, I said, I'm going to get your ass, I swear.
I said, I'm going to get you.
If it ain't funny.
I said, it better be funny.
He said, well, what about you?
I said, my husband been dead, you know, and then that's when I thought, what are you going
to say back to him when he says it.
And I'm thinking, what do you say back to him?
Then, and, but he, he's a great villain.
Yes, he is.
I think he's the snidly whiplash of comedy right now.
He is.
If we're looking at comedy as wrestling.
Yes. He is the perfect heel.
Absolutely. Slytherant.
Yes. But here's the thing about this generation of roasting.
It's not like when it was private at the Friars Club.
And it was digs against people and we knew each other. We knew it wasn't personal.
And then it's not like when Dean Martin and you got Milton Burl who has the best dick jokes in the industry.
Why? Because he's got a big ass dick and he was blowing the backstop.
He was far in the 40s, 50s.
Oh, yeah. Milton Burke, because he's not attractive in the face.
You were throwing that dick on the bat.
Yeah, you were blowing their bidsies out.
So for me, it's not the same thing, but they roast at a certain level, right?
But the fact that he came to me with respect.
Yeah.
And I said, okay, it better be good.
I said, it better be good.
And so Shane Gillis calls me, and I said, first people were saying,
when Shane wants to talk to you, I said, give my number.
Let's talk.
And I said, Shane, I said, your name.
I said, it's a great Western.
He said, that's what I'm named after.
I said, good.
I said, if you don't come hard and going to come correct and this shit ain't funny,
I said, I'm going to pop you like Doc Holliday in Toonstone.
That's my favorite movie.
I love shame and Tombstone.
So we laughed and we joked.
But then even running the jokes and having other comics go, nah,
and then running them through the prompter because I want to get my cadence right.
I don't want to be reading something.
I want to be feeling and giving life.
But I kept asking God on that stage.
give me the words. Give me the words that the audience needs me to say. What in the moment?
Yeah, because I had a piece of paper. I had a piece of paper and an ink pen and I'm, and me and Tony
are sitting next to each other. We're laughing and talking. And I'm getting to know him. I'm getting
to feel him. Yeah. And he's not, he's not all the way this dude. You know, he's the dude
that talked about Puerto Rico. Yeah. But if the Puerto Ricans ain't through hands on you every time
they see you. Yeah. Okay, what, what is it? Is it humor? People don't want to believe.
this, but Tony is a very sweet guy.
He is very much so.
People will not want it because people make up
their minds without really understanding
who somebody is. And that's why I went to Austin
to do kill Tony. I went there
to do it because I'm trying
I'm not going to change you.
I don't believe in changing someone.
I believe in influencing them
to be their better self and evolution.
So you can be that right now because you're making
a lot of money. You make a lot of money.
That's why I said what I said.
Midget and retard.
Okay. What is the funny word? Little people? Yeah. Or midget?
Mid. Okay. Disable or retard?
I mean, retard. Okay, but here's the thing. If you push the pendulum too far to politically correctness, then people are going to fight back with all of what you do, right?
Yeah.
And it's, I think, that's why I said, I'm glad you white male comics are out there doing what you're doing.
because we were getting cast.
You know, Glad had me on their website as a homophole.
No.
Yes.
For a joke that I told at Comic View, and I thought I was telling a civil rights joke.
And they said I was home for, oh, I would say one day, because I'm writing a book, called I'm fat because of you.
It's my life story.
So I think we're going to put that story in there.
Okay.
But the punchline is Dick is like secret deodorant.
Dick is like secret deodorant.
It's strong enough for a man, but it's made for a woman.
And that's the punchline.
That's what makes you a homophob?
It's all the stuff that I'm comparing it to say of our struggle,
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And they said I was a homophore.
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I laid it out from the middle passage to everything.
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So you go back to people being upset about jokes that were told at this roast.
Well, it's racist.
Of course it is.
Yeah.
It's racial.
Of course it is.
Yeah.
But when we're looking at you guys say things, then they say,
When it opens the door that it's a, but Paul Mooney used to walk white people out of Carolina.
I used to watch Paul at Carolina.
That was one of the most unique comedy experiences.
Yes.
Because Paul would get these white women.
It was also the women.
He would get them in their feelings.
But Paul, Paul would say wild shit.
Don't get me wrong.
Yeah.
But he was hilarious.
And it was well written.
He had a pen.
That's right.
But it was wild.
Jackie Mason.
Yeah.
See, people don't understand.
And I'm not giving cover to racism.
What I'm saying is don't get mad, get motivated.
If you are mad about this, then be mad that farmers are now losing their farms in these red states.
Be mad that 300,000 women lost a job.
But they're not going to do that because there's no cliques or virtue signaling or white knighting based on that.
There's no paths on the back based on that.
Well, here's your problem, though.
So you want to talk about a roast that we did with an expectation of us being superhero.
but you go to your job every day
and Bob from accounting
tells the worst jokes in the world
but you ain't did shit to buy from accounting
but you want us to stand up
if you and I were on the day as
we were supposed to slap Tony
right? They wanted us to
well here's the problem
I need you to go to your job
and slap the motherfucker
that's telling the same
if that's what you want
if we're throwing hands
if that's what you're doing. We were talking about this
on the pot and it was interesting thing because
I think a lot of the outrage maybe came from, this was huge all over social.
Yes.
And when you're looking at like your friends, pictures of their kids and vacations and then all
the sudden this joke pops up on your screen that you didn't really elect to watch.
It's just kind of throwing your face.
And you're like, you know, what the fuck is going on?
When you're at home and you choose to click on the roast of Kevin Hart, knowing it's going to be wild,
I don't know if people had that much of a reaction
There may be moments where they're like
Ooh, that joke was harsh or ooh, do these people really not like each other?
Yeah, because I was even like, damn.
But they didn't want us to know what people were saying.
Which I think is better.
Right. It's a reaction.
Yeah.
It's a reaction.
But then people are like criticizing us saying, well, you sat there and you laughed at it.
Well, first, somebody had to clear that joke.
So what I'm thinking is, who cleared the joke?
So if you cleared the joke, then that's the type of humor.
with whether it was funny or not funny, but on the same token, it is a roast.
That's the thing.
People got to understand a rose is different than a stand-the-backed.
That's right.
And Mark, you had a great way of describing this, where you were like, it's like seeing a street
fight can be like brutally violent.
But then seeing a UFC fight where you know this is the point of what these guys are doing
and they all signed up for it.
It can still be brutally violent, but it's a little bit more digestible.
Yes, it's digestible.
It's contextualized.
But at the same time, if you're scrolling at 8 a.m.
And like you're having breakfast with your kid.
Did you see this?
Now it's not.
Punch in the face 10 times.
You're like, this is so violent.
Why does anyone watch this?
But it's being pushed on to you.
Exactly.
The algorithm.
So what I've said to everybody, I'm not going to get all these interviews right.
And I'm going to come to my thoughts.
But here's the thing.
Radio stations, everybody that's arguing, D.L.
and Big J, going back and forward with each other.
Yeah, I'm like, why?
Well, but here's the thing, though.
Listen.
They're giving as good as they got.
When they put up Big J, the meme of Big J as Roseanne, it was hilarious.
It made me laugh.
It was hilarious, right?
But then when they're pulling up DL's old stuff, I would never do this.
That's right.
That's right.
Okay, that's comics.
That's comic.
We're not perfect, especially if we're talking on a podcast or like a talk show for 10 years.
We're going to say some wild shit.
That's right.
That is going to present ourselves as hypocritical if we're white knighting about something.
If we're trying to.
And we are hypocritical.
Yeah.
Because we evolve in that state.
But you're doing radio time spent listening.
So you're arguing about this.
You're talking about this.
Hey, when we come back, Dr. Such and Such is going to talk about his reasons why the roast was not applicable.
Da-da-da-da-da.
Okay, it's time spent listening.
It's advertisement.
Now people that didn't have Netflix now got Netflix.
People that didn't see the roast now watching.
So something that had 13.8 now has 15.
Oh, they told me the roast numbers for Kevin Hart were fantastic.
Yes.
It's big.
But you know what?
I thought the genius was.
you put what looked like an attack upon a black female comic up against the
manned sphere.
So if you love Cheryl Underwood and you're watching them beat her down, right?
Now you're like, Cheryl, do something, do something and did something.
That's right.
If you say anything that sound like, you will not make it out of Englewood alive.
I love it.
This is the motherfucking forum.
Yeah, yeah.
built by the showtiles.
You will respect us in this house.
So for me, I felt that God sent me and I was produced to deliver for everybody that thought what was being said was inappropriate.
So God sent you to call Shane a retard.
I believe it.
No, I asked you.
Give me the words.
Give me the words.
Give me the words.
Listen, I'm not talking about you, Kevin, that's the midget.
But I'm talking about you, Shane as a retard.
But also that January 6th joke.
Now, that was written, and I said, that's the one I want.
Because I asked Nikki, I said, Nikki, give me some pointers.
And there's two female comics talking to each other, right?
Well, we're supposed to be mortal enemies.
White woman, right, black woman.
We're supposed to be mortal enemies, right?
Are you?
No.
Well, society would want us to be mortal enemies.
Oh, really?
Chelsea Hamler, she comes to me at the brunch, and she says,
listen, I'm not coming for you.
I said, listen, I got a couple on you, but they're not bad.
So we're talking, but that's camaraderie.
Right?
So when Nikki says, tell them to give you the hardest stuff.
So some of the stuff they said, I said, that don't even sound like me.
No, I said, give me something.
We want to make this a great roast.
We want to do Kevin proud, right?
And for Kevin to say, Cheryl, I want you to do what you do.
And then for my team to go, here's what you need.
Here's where you are at your best.
And then I'm feeling the audience.
Because some of the jokes, the audience didn't like.
some of the jokes they like, but they didn't know why they liked it.
And then also, Hollywood is jaded.
California is jaded.
So they're not laughing like if we was in Kentucky and they're slapping them and they,
we're having a good time.
But then I thought, now you got them moving.
Yeah, speak to the room.
Speak to the room.
Oh, you're saying earlier in the roast, maybe they weren't really cooked.
Because when you were up there, I thought they were standing up.
Yeah.
Well, I did not.
And, you know, it's kind of out of body experience because I didn't realize what was happening.
What I felt was, okay, Cheryl, nobody's getting up because I'm listening and nobody's saying, answer them, answer them back, let them know.
You ain't saying nothing but a motherfucking word.
What the fuck you think you at?
You know, this is a roast of Kevin Hart.
We still black up in this motherfucker.
Right?
So when you were watching it, what were you thinking?
I think my biggest takeaway was that it felt like there was some animosity between some of the comics that went up.
Yes.
Like, that's why I think it felt a little bit different.
Like other roasts, it's like, oh, we all like each other.
So there's more love here.
But it seemed like there were some people that went up that actually didn't like each other.
So that's why some of the jokes is like, ooh.
But to me, what I felt, and really, I did talk to God.
I said, listen, I'm up here with my colleagues.
These are gentlemen that I'm trying to get to know.
Yeah.
That I need to understand what is comedy right now.
This is what comedy is right now.
So, Cheryl, if you're in this game, you better figure out what it is right now.
But then I thought, oh, wait a minute, because I used to say, Ophay, cracker, pecker.
One of my first jokes that I wrote, what go good with chili?
Crackers.
Now, as you just mentioned white people, let's talk about their motherfuck game.
Why do you care of your personal stage?
Because white folks steal.
Any race of people take land from the Indians or show enough, take two or three dollars out your purse.
Those are jokes I'm telling me because I'm trying to express the history of this country.
Right. But then if you get to do comedy long enough, you evolve into something else.
Shane will evolve. Tony will evolve. But if we work together, just think of the type of movies we can make.
We could recreate a Smoke and a Bandit. I told Shane. I said, we need to redo Smoke and a Bandit.
You be Bert Reynolds and I'll be Jerry Reed. You know, redo Cannibal Run. Let's get together. All of us as comics should be.
working on content together
so we can keep American humor
alive and we can pay our bills and our
mortgages and do things for our foundations
because do you have a foundation?
I have a foundation I work with. Not my
personal one. But it's not my personal
but wouldn't it be great if we all got
together and it wasn't just Netflix
roasting somebody. How about
we roast to benefit something?
We're good enough that we can roast
to benefit something. We can still hit
somebody. Not as hardcore because Netflix
I think, that's why I said
free speech is alive and well, and I thank you Netflix.
Why? Because I think people push too far into political correctness, the pronouns and stuff.
So people got mad because I got to call you a pronoun.
You know, like I do transgender. I'm supposed to be transphobic.
I'm supposed to be homophobic. And I do all of this in my show where I talk about these things that I'm supposed to be.
But you won't get to know me and understand I'm not against you.
Just because I'm pro me, don't mean I'm against you.
But some of these things, I just can.
Why are we agreeing with?
Why can't we talk about it?
And that's how I looked at me participating in his roast.
And then I found that I really want to get to know everybody.
Draymond Greene, scared to death.
He was scared of you.
So, no, he was scared to do the roast.
So we're in the green room.
It's terrifying.
Imagine someone who's never done comedy before doing on the biggest stage in front of the most people.
You know what I told them?
What?
I said, listen, you play basketball?
Yeah.
I said, I don't.
You're coming into what I do.
So you don't have to be me.
get through it.
Yeah.
The expectation is definitely lower.
I said, take a deep breath.
I had him called Chris Spencer, and I said, you talk to Chris.
I said, but even if you get a chuckle, that's your standing all.
Yeah.
Even if you get a, he's a trip, Dreamer.
That's a standing on for you.
You're not going to get what they're going to get because we've been doing this.
We know how to course correct quickly.
That joke didn't work.
Let's go to something else.
We know how to feed off the crowd.
This is what we do.
Yeah.
If I was playing basketball, that ain't what I do.
If I hit the rim, I'd be happy.
If I can just dribble a little bit, you know.
But to talk to them, to talk to Lizzo and say, girl, don't worry, take a deep breath.
She was another one that did fantastic off of energy.
Yes.
She seemed like she was enjoying the moment.
Yes.
And again, it's a very difficult thing to communicate to somebody who's nervous.
To be like, hey, if you just don't be nervous and have fun, it will be great.
Relax.
Because it's the hardest thing to do is when you're nervous.
If it's just, oh, okay, well, I guess I'll just turn that off and have fun.
But the people they can kind of embrace that.
I felt bad for Draymond because he kept getting booed by all the Lakers fans.
Actually, he's doing this for the first time and you're getting booed?
Yes.
But now he, once you get through it, it's over.
I think Naim did a wonderful job.
And I really would have wanted Tiffany while I was getting beat up to come down and go,
hold on, let me help you with some of this shit.
And we show what black female comics can do when we're in it.
I thought Regina Hall represented a side of the audience that was like,
what the fuck is happening?
What the fuck y'all talking about?
She represented a viewer.
Yeah.
And to me, I thought Chelsea Handler had the types of material, the type of material.
I was like, God damn.
That joke, we talked about them being pussies.
And the only reason they, where they're going to Saudi Arabia is to go get the money.
I thought, hell yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
Go again this year.
Yes.
But I don't know.
You know, my feeling is I don't know, like people say with Cheryl, why don't you do international shows?
Yeah.
I don't know if it translates.
Yes, it doesn't.
Really?
You would translate.
Not only would you translate, but like you got to understand a lot of people learn English through comedy.
So the biggest thing that the industry missed is they thought that comedy didn't translate overseas.
Okay.
So they wouldn't like spend.
big money on like Hollywood comedy movies because they're like, there's no international audience.
And when they stopped selling DVDs, the way that they made up for that, you know, money disparity
is international box office.
So then they started making all these like big action movies because they're like, listen,
if they're not really talking but there's action, they'll watch it overseas.
What they didn't realize is that when you go overseas and meet people who speak English,
a lot of times they learn English from watching Family Guy.
Really?
They learn English from watching The Simpsons.
They learn English from watching Friends.
others.
Yes.
Literally.
Friends was a big one.
Friends or like Ray, like the Ray Romano show.
What was it?
Everybody was.
Everybody was.
It's like, and it's, it's amazing.
And also now with YouTube and so much comedy on YouTube and social media,
since they don't have a comedy channel in their country, they'll watch a lot of their
stand-up on YouTube.
Really?
So I was able to tour internationally for a long time simply just by putting stuff out on
YouTube.
And now with this success, I mean, I'm sure you'll be able to do it.
And they know English.
Yeah.
That's the other thing.
It's like, if you're coming from a small country, you don't have your own, like, film studio
that makes all your movies just for you.
But you still need to watch TV.
So what TV do you watch?
You watch America.
You're right.
Well, I am.
You're watching all the same.
Dude, when I was in, when I was in the Middle East, because we've done Abu Dhabi, Dubai,
we did the Riyadh festival.
Really?
And, like, how was it?
It was awesome.
Really?
It was awesome.
And they did.
How dirty could you go?
As dirty as you want.
Girls can do that?
Yeah.
There was gay girls on it.
Really?
Yeah.
They killed them.
No, no, no.
That's not true.
That is not true.
They killed them.
They had a falcon just peck at them on.
Get her!
Get there!
A thug!
You stupid as hell.
Well, that's why I'm doing an animated vehicle, and it's for nothing but comedians,
and it's how we talk at the rows.
How we talk, we're just talking to each other.
And I'm hoping that Netflix will be interested in that.
Oh, what I was saying about that was that like a lot of them are getting a lot,
first of all, a lot of them are like just getting educated in America.
And they're more aware of American isms and culture than Europeans.
Really?
Yeah, because Europeans, like a lot of them have like built up.
They have their own TV shows.
They have their own everything.
So it's like, yeah, maybe they'll watch a big blockbuster American movie, but not as much.
Right.
But if you're from like a small country in the movie,
release. The only thing you're watching is
foreign shit. Really? Yeah.
They don't have 40 sitcoms that are all made
there. There's just not enough people for it.
So they're more aware of our
slang. They're more aware of our cultural
shit than maybe if you went to
France or if you went to Belgium.
So you would crush over there. Well, I will tell
you it's, uh, I knew something
was different than walking through the airport.
Oh, he's felt it. Yeah, I'm getting
stared at. Or it's not just the flight
attendants. It's like really young dudes
are gazing at me. I'm like, what's happening? Do you know me or what's happening? And it's all these people
that are, I don't know, it's a word for it. What is it? Involuntary celibacy. Oh, incels.
Yeah. Incells. Involuntary celibates. Yeah, they're horny.
They're horny. Remember when you were in Japan? Remember how horny those guys were?
Yeah, oh my gosh. These guys are horny. Yes.
Oh, wait, I wrote this train.
TSA ain't on protection.
No.
When I wrote the train in Japan
When I was in the military
And I was in train, you know, train, they did some wild shit
On the train in Japan
And this dude just walked up and started rubbing my skin
Wow
And I was like, what the fuck is?
And where's the police? What the fuck is happening?
Yeah.
And the translator said
We nuked them and they're different now.
You've never seen it.
They've never seen it.
They've never seen anybody alive with this color skin.
Wow.
So they were fascinated by it.
But it was stimulating.
And I was like, well, get me off the train.
I disappeared.
But to me, and a lot of people there was, oh, you sold out, they offered you a special,
and you just took it to let them crucify the black community like that.
That's not what happened.
What happened was.
You can't respond to all that.
Like, there's always going to be someone out there's going to have a negative.
I felt I need to eat off these jokes.
I didn't want, I don't like to record material.
I want to be Henny Youngman.
Take my wife, please, until I die.
I want to, because I believe you can write jokes every day, but you can only polish them on stage.
Yes, that's true.
So do you have jokes in your set that are years old?
No, not years.
Yeah, see, I got stuff that's decades old that people, you bring new people.
You put out specials already.
I did Laughapalooza with Jamie Fox and Marks and Marcus King, but I wanted to put the September 11th of material on film because I was proud of our country.
But I was getting booed when I came out as I'm a Republican.
And I'm like a Bush, a baby Bush Republican.
I was like, get they asked us.
Get they asked.
And the jokes, if you go back and look at the laughing.
You're saying a woman that grew up in a military family that ended up going to the Air Force herself?
Yeah, but I'm different.
What a crazy idea.
Well, but you know, we were Republicans before we were Democrats, you know.
And if you, if it wasn't Trump saying things, we would be into a lot of this shit.
I feel right about that.
But Trump and what's happening now.
So you voted for this, motherfucker, and now he doesn't fuck shit up.
But I'm giving both sides.
And then you got the Clintons on the other side, which allows you to tell the greatest.
And the greatest dig jokes in the world.
Right?
So to me, that's the set.
But then when Netflix made me an offer, I couldn't refuse.
Because I kept saying, no, no, I got to live off of this.
This is how I eat.
I don't have a TV show anymore.
And I have responsibility.
But I also have people who depend on.
on me working. You can write new stuff. We saw you put together new stuff on stage. You can't polish it on stage.
How's you do it over all these years? But with the roast, see, the roasts. I'm saying your act over
years. This is decades. I add too. If something happens on and I go, oh, what do I want to talk about?
And then, but then I lose some things. You know, I got great open-wifery jokes, but then I lose it. And then do I get to talk about the
homosexuality stuff? And then I'm trying to figure out, do I want to bring those jokes back to go, this is how I got canceled.
I got canceled from telling this joke.
I kind of want to construct a special like that.
Because I want people to get to know me, but I also want people to understand.
This is what I think is funny.
And this is what I want to say.
When you were booing me because I said, I like President Bush.
I want him to get their motherfucking asses, right?
But you booing me for this, but you cash the checks that he sent.
You hate this motherfucker, but you cast the checks.
Now, Trump is a totally different.
entity. He should have stayed his
ass at home. He stopped fucking with the Knicks.
So we'd get the shit over with him.
We'd be on 3-0.
That's right. We'd be on 3-0, Charlie.
That's right. That's that you're fucking right.
But you're selfish-ass motherfucker. You came out
here. You fucked up traffic.
You did all this bullshit. You should have stayed your
ass in the White House. Did you go last night?
No. I was in the vicinity.
But the police told me, stop
wandering your little hoish ass around.
Looking for sad Knicks' friends
to have sex with it.
There was a lot of them.
There was a lot of them.
I can't tweet up that.
All right, guys.
Take a break for a second.
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Are you a Knicks fan?
I'm a sports enthusiast.
I'm more football players. I try basketball players.
I'm going to tell a story in the book.
Somewhere from the 76ers pulled me out of a comedy club, and it was the greatest experience.
So we're putting it in the book.
Oh, are you going to say the name?
I'm not sure because some of these men, we're going to change the name to protect the innocent.
We don't know if they're married now.
You know, yeah.
You don't know.
But it's a great.
It's a great story.
It's a really great story.
It involves the fact that I'm rarely alone anywhere because I just feel like getting gaffled.
I'm getting fucked up somewhere.
You know, looking for Mr. Goodbar.
Remember that movie where, oh, girl, is out there fucking dudes and the dude stabs are at the end of the movie.
Oh, no spoiler alert.
It's all.
But I'm never alone.
So the person who knows people have witnessed me be infatuated by somebody.
I don't want to give the book with it.
More football players than basketball players.
But this basketball player, let's, just a fake name.
Maybe it was, he was known as Dr. K.
No.
No.
If I could have, I would have.
There were a couple of people that I was going to get.
You were I am?
Yeah, man, it's a couple of people.
I was like, hey, so what are you doing after that?
Or they'll say, I don't even like that shirt, dark skin, girl.
You don't like me now, but you will like me later.
I know how to keep a secret.
And I got one good skill.
One, one good skill that I know.
And that's what I talk about in the show.
I talk about in the show what I can do and what I can't do.
But those jokes, I try not to record them all the time.
Because you want to hold them for a big moment.
No, I really like for people to have fun in it because I like sexual material.
I like profane material.
I like racial material, spiritual material.
I talk about abortion.
Talk about transgender.
Matter of fact, when Shane and I were talking,
we almost have the same
topic list.
Topic list. That's right.
And so I was like, oh, because I'm going
in the right direction.
Either you're going to be offended
or you're going to laugh real hard.
Sometimes people yell out,
okay, we're here to hear comedy.
I'll not tell it. If there's a white man yelling,
hold on, sir. I'm going to get to some material
that you're really going to appreciate.
It's 10 minutes.
That's right.
Let me get through this political stuff.
This political stuff is for them and for us.
But that's what I like about comedy, be able to do topics.
Can I ask you a Chicago war question?
Bernie.
Bernie, man.
Bernie is, like, transformative for me in, like, my comedy.
How so?
Well, I saw him.
I remember watching Kings of Comedy in a movie theater on 11th Street and Third Avenue
with four of my friends.
And it was the hardest I've ever laughed watching something.
Eddie was the hardest I ever laughed listening.
I listened to an audio cassette with my dad.
Eddie Murphy.
Eddie's, yeah, delirious.
And I listened to it with my dad.
And I think that moment right there made me become a comedian many years later.
Yes.
But Bernie, it was, I was watching somebody that like,
I just never had seen someone be so naturally funny
that I didn't even know if it was joking.
I didn't know if it was a set.
I didn't know if somebody that was truly like listening to the crowd.
Yes.
Like the crowd was like an instrument for him.
So it was like material, but also I know how to play off of your energy.
And the words at that time to talk about the little boy.
Yes.
And he's hysterical.
The F with the two jeans.
A little one.
That's right.
He kind of muffled it.
Yeah.
Him downstairs.
Him downstairs.
Yes.
To milk and cook.
Yes.
That's right.
But most people don't know.
in Chicago?
Well, Bernie was a mentor to all of us that were coming up.
So you were watching him when he had his, like, he had a room, right?
Yes.
That we would go do the room and he would do the Cotton Club and we would go do the Cotton Club.
But we knew Bernie from the neighborhood.
He was called Blue.
Oh, so you know growing up?
Yeah, he was blue because he was so black he was Blue.
That's what we would call it.
Hey, what's up, Blue?
You know, and he would come to my neighborhood.
Okay.
Because I think he was friends with the Cobb family across the street in my old neighborhood in Chicago.
So when we were coming up as comics, matter of fact, it was Bernie that was telling us, dress up, come on time.
You know, he was a mentor to us as comics.
And when they did the 25th anniversary of deaf comedy jam.
I ain't afraid of you, motherfuckers.
And Chris Rock said the two people he didn't want to follow.
Oh, no.
Cheryl Underwood and Bernie Mac.
Oh, wow.
Really?
It was Chris Rock said he didn't want to follow.
follow either one of us. But Bernie, a big brother to us. And then when they did kings...
When he would watch him at that, at that room, what was the name of the room that he would do weekly?
It was two of them. It was the Roberts, 600 room, I think. And then he did the Cotton Club.
A Cotton Club. Okay. He's hosting it, right? Yes.
Is he every night just doing different stuff? Is he riffing every night? So it was purely, he was like a magician in a way.
In his purest form, he's a comedian.
He could just hold attention and like.
Absolutely.
And for Bernie, if you're talking about the comedians that you look up to and study,
because I tell young comics, what can you tell me that I need to learn about comedy?
I said, find your favorite comic and study mechanics.
Don't take jokes.
Yeah, yeah.
But learn how they tell jokes.
That's right.
That's right.
Cadence.
That's why the social media comic is good.
Yeah.
But if you don't have a point of view and a set,
structure.
Yeah.
What happens when those, that those sketches are not hitting.
Yeah.
Right?
Or your crowd work.
It's different.
It's a different.
You got to learn it.
So Bernie Mac was one.
And I would say for me, when I was coming up in comedy, Mitch hadburn.
Yeah, Mitch was fantastic.
So I was in love with Mitch.
I was like, if we would just marry each other, we'd be a power couple.
So you just loved him as a, did you look, because Mitch was operating on two frequencies.
He was, he was like, you weren't sure if he was playing a character or this
was truly him.
Yes.
But you weren't looking at somebody who was being like the quintessential straight man.
Yes.
He was different and he was on his own rhythm.
And then he would have these jokes that seemed like they could come through a personality like he had.
But he's operating on two, like you could laugh at him without telling the jokes.
Absolutely.
And Bernie had that too.
The Bernie had it too.
Bill Hicks.
Hicks.
Hicks.
Hicks was like structure, but he was so intellectually sound, you know,
Because I'm old school.
I'm watching comics.
People said, well, did you realize you were a black female comic?
No, I really believe that I'm an old Jewish comic from somewhere.
Because when I came, all I was watching was Deaf Comedy Jam.
That was my only real introduction of comedy.
Really?
I never saw Seinfeld do stand-up like I knew he had a TV show.
But that's all that was on TV for me.
See, I'm talking about old school, Lenny Bruce.
You know, I'm talking about that old school stuff.
Richard Pryor.
I was in the room where Richard Pryor was in the room.
and I just felt this energy pulling me
and I felt like don't do it
because I've ever been in wrong with no
I just stood behind him
and just digested
no same thing with Michael Jackson
when they were doing those rallies
for Michael Jackson to protect him
and I was in one of those events
right and sometimes
you don't want to walk up to the person
because you don't want to break that energy
that's pulling you toward him
after the BET comedy
The first one, Eddie Murphy, was in the room.
And I ran up to him, but I stopped myself.
He was wearing this cold-blooded vanilla outfit.
Vanilla sweater had to be cashmere.
Vanilla slacks.
Everything matched, right?
And I almost reached out to touch him, and I pulled back.
I said, Mr. Murphy.
And he said, I know exactly who you are.
I sure loved.
I was like, wow.
You know, so when you, for me, I never want to intrude on someone's energy.
I get it.
I would rather, even when I was going to.
the Republican conventions and
going to the DNC.
Icons in politics.
Bill Clinton, very
sexual power.
You felt it.
Hell yeah.
I used to tell the story about
I put my hand out,
draws just fell down.
I was like, what if I said.
I should have wore slacks.
Because some people just have this
energy and this pull
to you.
And I think people need to respect.
I know people want to run up and
take selfies and do something. Sometimes respect the energy. Respect the energy. Especially if you
really respect the person. Absolutely. And it's not like we don't want to. How many people
walk up do you and want to take a picture? And they don't care what you're doing.
I'll be honest. Like as long as in my, in my experience, people have been very respectful.
If I'm with my kids or whatever, like they're almost like embarrassed to ask. I know you with
your family. Would it be possible? And if you approach that energy, I'm so. That's how I feel.
Because you're basically going, I know that you're having a moment with your family.
But if it's possible, and every single time, if I can, I will.
When I first did Deaf Comedy Jam, and I said, I told my dad, I said,
people are walking up to me, they want to talk to me.
And he said, well, how many black people do you now?
We'll be able to talk to someone they saw on TV, heard on the radio, saw in a movie.
Great perspective.
Respect that.
Yeah.
But he also said, no matter who the person is, talk to everybody like you're talking to Jesus and you can't go wrong.
Love it.
Secondarily, your job is no better or no worse.
but respect what other people do for a limit
and respect their time.
So for me, and I'm a female comic
who's very male directed.
I'm very patriarchal.
That's why my sets were constricted.
When I first started doing comedy, women were popping out of my show
like the great pop.
I'm not sucking no man dick, I'm not doing it.
And I'm like, but that's why you're sitting by yourself.
Or that's why you're mad that your man is talking to me
because I'm not pretty.
Like, you know, I'm not.
Lies. Lies.
I'm not the stereotypical aesthetic attractiveness.
I'm more intellectual.
I'm more energy driven.
I'm more like I can talk sports and politics and current events, but I'm also.
You're wafee.
Yeah.
But I know, okay, now that's the question then.
Let's ask the question.
Then if I am that, then why can I find him?
You got to let them get out their system.
What do you mean?
Yeah, like when you're young, when guys are young, they want to wear the cape, you know what I mean?
and they want to fly around a little bit and have some fun.
But, like, eventually, you don't want, like, some 23-year-old sitting next to you on vacation,
just, you know, scrolling your fucking phone the whole time.
You're like, I'd rather shoot myself in the head.
I want something that I can enjoy and have fun with and loves to do that thing you love to do.
Well, but here's the catch.
I think that some men, absolutely.
And I would like, go, okay, depends on how long you want this to be.
If you wanted one night, you can have it all one night, but I'll never talk to you again.
Ooh.
What is it?
We didn't build nothing.
What is this?
Do you want a hit and acquit it?
I show you a hit and quit it is.
And they usually look all pitiful.
You know, that's why I sneak out of rooms.
They look and say, I thought we were going to know.
You said.
I see why the guy in Japan was having a hard time.
Right, but you said, you just want you said.
You said, you just want this.
Okay, I'm going to give you what you said you wanted.
But then most guys are not used to a woman being as like, up front with what she wants.
as you are.
Well, it's rarely what I want.
I will trade a man.
Yeah.
Intimate.
I will trade you for me to get intimacy in my past.
I would trade you an action for intimacy.
And now you're not going to do that anymore.
I try not to.
Nitch tickets.
$150,000, I got to do something.
Exchange ain't no robbery.
for hardwood.
Right.
And I'm not doing it fun to tickets.
I'm doing it to show my appreciation that you would consider me worthy of these things.
Exactly.
On the floor where I get this slap, Spike League, go, man, look at this.
But I would like a man to understand while stand up comedy is very strong.
Yeah.
It's very sexual thing to do when a woman is doing it.
I want to be your companion.
I want to be your wife.
I want to pick up the dragling.
I want to cook when I come home.
That's a tricky combo for you because you need a guy who is not intimidated by your strength and your leadership and your intelligence and like the straight talk that you do.
Yeah.
But at the same time is confident enough to lead you in certain times.
And are you confident enough to let them lead?
It's the question.
Absolutely.
If you come to me as a man.
Yeah.
Maybe a traditional man, but if you come to me as a man, you're going to let out.
And I'm like, oh, this dude is thorough.
He got it.
Okay, you ready.
It doesn't matter race.
It doesn't matter age.
Doesn't matter station in life.
However long I got on this earth, I want to find somebody I can build wit that understands.
This is my job.
I'm going to do my job.
I'm not sleeping with everybody on the road.
I'm not doing all this stuff.
Matter of fact, I can't wait to come home to you.
And most people don't understand.
And when you do stand-up comedy, you're quiet.
When you don't want to talk to me.
I've been talking.
I've been talking.
And all this adrenaline is running through my body after the show.
So I want to call somebody, and how was the show, baby?
It was good.
Did you miss me?
Of course I miss you.
Bitch, when you fly land.
I'm looking for that guy that understands you have a job.
So do I.
What has been the nature of your relationship history lately?
Have you been dating?
Well, I guess you got to go outside to date.
And I'm kind of a homebody, kind of reclusive.
But if somebody would ask me out, most for the past few decades, most men just kind of stare at me or gaze at me.
And I think they think I have somebody.
So they don't ask me.
They don't talk.
They don't go through.
So I have to show, would you like to go out for coffee?
They're probably intimidated.
You sound like an insult.
Yes.
But I think, see, I've heard that from women.
They're just intimidated by your success and your power and your education.
I don't know a real man who's intimidated.
It's not a lot of real guys.
Well, that's right.
A real man looks at me as an asset.
Yeah, of course.
Right.
If you're quiet as a man, but you're still strong man.
That's what makes them.
Assets are expensive.
What do you mean?
Assets are expensive.
Buy an asset of home is an asset.
Assets are expensive.
Yeah, but what if we build?
You ever seen a man by a home?
You know how intimidating that is?
What?
It's fun.
It ain't fun.
When you go and get a loan from the bank, can they tell you home?
Oh, God, it's so much.
Got a pass inspection.
That is intimidating.
No.
See?
In the hotel room for a night.
That's easy.
But see, to me, I go into it as, okay, what do I need to have this?
What I need to have this?
Okay, check it out.
Check it out.
Then I send in my lawyer, and I send in my accountant, and I go, okay, don't come
back without it. And then let's go. And I do my job. But see, to me, that's the kind of guy,
but that he's more traditional. Well, that's what you end up with then. Yeah. Somebody is more
traditional. Somebody that understands, I want somebody that I can talk to about things and go,
did you hear this? Did you hear that? And then somebody that understands, I don't know everything.
Yeah. I may project leadership, but I want you to teach me something. Change tire.
Let's talk about cryptocurrency, which I don't understand. Yeah. Nobody, nobody does.
See, I think it's speculation.
It is all speculation.
If you can get your money in there.
But see, to me, this is what I wish people would understand about comics.
We have to know a lot about everything.
And then we have to keep working.
And then we have to find other revenue streams making content.
So that's why, you know, I'm doing a great American talent search because I want to bring back the variety show type structure and take it all over America.
That's going to be my next tour after we do this.
Because I think there's a way to merge my data.
daytime persona with the person they saw on the roast.
Oh, interesting.
Right.
And do it all over the country and then turn it to maybe a TV show vehicle.
But anything is talent.
But if you sing or if you are in a singing group, you have to master the past.
Classic rock, classic country, classic soul, classic hip-hop, classic Latin.
So you have to do some old school stuff because nostalgia works.
Of course.
But if you're a young person doing it or if you're the white fire department somewhere doing new addition,
See? That's going to bring America together.
And they got gospel plays that we're putting on college campuses,
you know, PWI's, HBCUs, community colleges,
because I think people need to learn both sides of the entertainment business.
You think you want to be a performer, but maybe you're not the performer.
Maybe you're a writer.
That's right. Maybe you're a writer.
That's right. Maybe you're audio.
Yeah.
Right? And then I want to try to do something that brings jobs back to California.
Because we just want to drive to work and come home and sleep in our own beds.
There's a lot.
There's a lot that needs to change for that to happen.
You're talking about entertainment jobs.
Yes.
How so?
I think the easiest way of looking at it is to just say, oh, the unions are doing this.
So the city is making that.
I think that probably the more nuanced way to look at it is that for a long time,
making a movie in a place like California was not only the easiest, but also the best.
Like you had the most talented crews there.
And when I say that cruise, I mean, like the lighting guys, the audio guys, whatever.
And then as equipment got less expensive and as people got trained in other parts of the world, they could start to be competitive.
Like, you saw what Tyler did in Atlanta.
And like that's working within politics, like getting these tax rebates on its other things.
And like, there are other places in America that did it and there's other places internationally.
Like we just did this movie Street Fighter.
Remember the video game?
So we shot that in Australia.
and I think it's like 60% off to shoot it out there.
But why can't, first, the right political leadership, the right financial structure.
So I think what has to happen is like there's got to be like an incentive structure.
And like I think the easiest version of it is to just be just to like point fingers and blame.
Yeah. But there's another part where you just go, okay, like California has been incredibly
successful and prolific and making like film and TV for a while. Now other places can make high level
film and TV. So maybe California goes, okay, in order for us to say competitive, you have to
change something? That's right. It's going to have to be a paradigm shift. That's the free market
economy. But if you bring a budget to, if I want to make a movie, you bring a budget and California
says, okay, you do that here. And we're going to help you pay to do that here. I think people
have to understand there's so much. The people that I worked with on the talk, the greatest people in the
So when I got to the roast and I saw the same people I worked with at the top, I felt safe.
You're like, oh, wow, these people are.
Yes, that's my cameraman.
That's my, that's my teleprompter person.
That's what you, that's what I mean, like, we're going, like, I'm going to film a movie out in California this summer.
Okay.
And like, I would imagine it's one of like a handful of bigger budget movies that are going to be filmed there,
which is good.
Yes.
Because there's nothing about this movie.
where you need to film it there.
Yes.
It was decision made where they're like,
we're going to make this year.
But did you have to do reasonably price other places
to get to the money,
the finance money being in that?
I would imagine there was like good financing behind the movie.
Can I tell you something?
Honestly, not because I apologize.
No, go please, yeah.
But, okay.
So while I was working at the top,
and I have people that, like,
I'll write the three to five pages,
and then I'll hand it off somebody.
go just give me a script.
Doesn't have to be perfect.
Why?
Because the first draft is not the last draft.
So I have all these scripts.
If you go to the agency, they tell you why it's not good.
Okay.
But I just watch some stuff.
This is horrible.
So how did that get financed?
Good doesn't always mean it gets made.
Right.
So I think what happens, without going like two inside baseball, like I think what happens is like
there are different networks that have objectives.
So they go, hey, we're going to make a show.
for young adult males.
Yes.
So you might have the best idea in the world.
That's what my animated vehicle is.
It's for young adult males.
So then your agent's got to find a streamer that is looking for something for young adult males.
But if you're a streamer that's like we're looking for 24 to 40 women.
Yes.
And you present them that, they might think it's amazing and they might go, it's just not what we're looking for.
Right.
And they might choose a shittier project that actually fits their family.
Right.
But for me, now for people that say,
you sold out by agreeing to do a Netflix special.
Why is that selling?
What's the argument for that?
Because there are people who believe that we just sat there and took the beatdown of our culture for money from Netflix.
But what I want people to understand is this is the business we're in.
I was called to do a job.
I believe I did the job while I also defended the culture and defended American humor.
Couldn't you also say like just being up there as representative of?
the culture isn't one thing, I would imagine.
It's just like saying like Latinos, their culture is just salsa.
It's like it's not just that.
You're right.
And like you being on that stage and having that prolific set and being the talk of the industry.
Yes.
You could make an argument that that's a huge contribution from the culture.
That's what I would want people to see and to see.
Well, that's what we'll stick.
Like the controversy lasts for a few weeks.
That's right.
And it goes away.
So it's like your longevity after this moment is the.
culture's longevity. It's opportunities.
Opportunities. I wouldn't have
these opportunities now. You don't think these other
streamers are seeing what you do,
what you did right there, and they see
that you get a deal, and then let's
say your Netflix special goes crazy.
This is a, like, the industry is a game to be
second, not first. So you don't think
that they're having their board meetings going like,
who's the next Cheryl? What if we
could get another Cheryl? Yes. That's
how it works. That's the game. It's like,
it's like
do you want Cheryl?
I can't get her.
We can't for Cheryl.
Who is next?
Or they'll say, get me a.
And then they'll, then you get to a point.
And that's.
And that is the goal.
And the goal is for me.
And that's what I think sometimes maybe is lost with like what Kevin's contribution has been.
That's right.
Like Kevin's contribution to entertainment.
And I think a lot of times maybe we're used to it because a lot of us grow up seeing black people in like these amazingly high positions.
in entertainment in terms of like the comedians that we look up to or the actors,
etc.
But like that also needs to be maintained.
Yes.
So like Kevin being acting and doing stand up, but also like doing all these advertisements.
Like think about what that like this is again, we kind of get used to shit.
It's showing that we can be that.
Being an investor, a business owner.
A business owner, but also like T-Mobile being like, I want the face of my company.
Yeah.
To be that black guy.
Do you think 40 years ago?
No.
Do you think these companies 40 years ago
where a black, they're having a board meeting
and they're like, can we make a black person the face apart?
Even now.
Even now.
Yeah, even now.
But even now.
But that's the thing that kind of gets lost.
Not saying that we can't make things better.
We should always try to make things better.
But maybe there's a little focus where we look at like the success.
And I would hope that would also be celebrated in this moment.
That's why I said.
you're not just a great comment, you're a hell of a business man.
Because that's what they did.
Something that makes something and continues to grow.
When we had a black comedy explosion happened,
did people think that one day there was not going to be a WB,
where there was not going to be a UPN?
This is downstream from it.
And I don't know, maybe that's why I get caught up.
And I'm like, I understand that like the reflexive nature.
Like you just react in the minute in the moment to something.
But like when things explode, so many other.
people are given opportunities and make so much.
That's right.
And it's, you know, to me, like, I'm so grateful for, like, the people that, you know,
really kind of put me on.
So Charlemagne the God.
Yes.
And then Rogan, it's like they both.
Charlemagne is where my book is being done.
Of course.
Yeah.
Come on.
Yeah.
And so for me.
But here's the catch, though.
We're trying to get somewhere.
And then it's Cheryl before the roast.
And then Cheryl after the rose where now people are taking my call.
Or now the agents want to, okay, go out.
This, this, this.
Look at all those.
So it's like that's what these things can create.
And prepared content.
But now what we need, and I wish this for, I'm going to say specifically female comics,
it's not just you getting on or it's not just you doing a movie.
Okay, now we're going to produce.
Now we're going to make content.
We're going to make animated stuff.
Not just for us.
We're going to make it for the marketplace, right?
So we should be making sitcoms and movies.
And then we should say, okay,
you only going to give me $250,000?
I'm going to make the movie for $250,000.
It's the show.
She has like a micro drama, I think, or something like that.
Have you heard about the SRA?
Yeah.
And it's getting like hundreds of millions of it.
And again, it's a different metric that they're trying to understand because it's like
short form on your phone, whatever.
But I'm saying like these.
It's the thing.
Have you seen it?
It's on your phone.
And it's always abroad that she meets up with the millionaire that wants to hide his identity.
And then somebody slaps her and he's on the phone going,
buy stock and put that bitch out of that
and slap my girl. But I thought you were to show fire. And then it's,
it goes for a minute or two. And then you buy the other minute or two.
And I'm addicted to this stuff. And again, this is like,
big explosions create tons of opportunity for other people.
And I get the reaction. I get, and people have to feel whatever they want to feel.
It's America. You were here in this country, you can feel whatever the fuck you want to feel
and say whatever you want to say about. That's a beautiful thing about it.
But there is also, on top of that, there's also potentially when these moments are really successful, so many opportunities for other people that are aligned with these moments without even realizing it.
And that is the cool payoff that I think happens over the next few years.
And then we forget about the controversy.
And then we just end up seeing when we were growing up, it was like you're watching the Wayans Brothers and you don't even realize how that might be downstream.
That's right.
Or something happened 10 years before.
That's right.
And how can we help each other?
Well, that's a idea.
You know, this is the moment.
This is the moment.
That's why I'm coming around to talk to people that I would never have been able to talk to and say,
oh, let's make this type of thing.
Or how do I structure this?
Or who would I come to finance it?
That's my biggest problem with people that want to live in their own little silo.
So if you don't step out of that silo, you will never understand why Netflix is now interested in Sherlock.
Yeah.
You could have fought the other comedians at the rest.
Or you can go on their shows, go on their podcasts,
collaborate with them on projects.
And to get to know them better, because these are my colleagues.
You can't have more opportunities for people that you really love
that might not be afforded those opportunities.
Now you're in a position to shine some light on people.
That's my job to open the door.
That's why it's the leadership.
Am I right?
That's what I'm talking about.
Cheryl Underwood, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you so much for being here.
You're awesome.
This was fun.
I'm glad you, Gerald.
So let's figure out how we're going to make some money.
I think we didn't do that.
Yeah, we didn't make some money.
He makes some money.
