Artist Friendly with Joel Madden - Jay Pharoah

Episode Date: September 25, 2024

On this week's episode of Artist Friendly, Joel Madden is joined by Jay Pharoah. As an actor, comedian, and impressionist, Pharoah is best known for his six-year run on Saturday Night Live, where he portrayed celebrities from Barack Obama to André 3000. After leaving the show in 2016, he went on to expand his acting CV, including playing Shawn in the hit horror-comedy The Blackening, appearing on The Simpsons, and voicing Bulletproof in Invincible season 2. During an in-depth conversation with Madden, Pharoah reveals his first job, the best advice from Charlie Murphy, and his new comedy special Jared. ------- Listen to their Artist Friendly conversation on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify.⁠⁠⁠ ------- Follow Artist Friendly! IG: @artist.friendly TikTok: @artist.friendly YouTube: youtube.com/@artist.friendly ------- Host: Joel Madden, @joelmadden Executive Producers: Joel Madden, Benji Madden, Jillian King Producers: Josh Madden, Joey Simmrin, Janice Leary Visual Producer/Editor: Ryan Schaefer Audio Producer/Composer: Nick Gray Music/Theme Composer: Nick Gray Cover Art/Design: Ryan Schaefer Additional Contributors: Anna Zanes, Neville Hardman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, what's up? I'm Joel Madden, and this is artist-friendly on this episode. I'm talking with actor, comedian, and impressionist Jay Farrow. You can watch this new comedy special Jared on YouTube right now. Let's go. Because I'm not a funny guy. That's subjective. Right.

I think that real life is funny. Absolutely. So if I talk about my wife and kids and the everyday shit we deal with and just being married and having kids. People laugh because it's funny because it's like a fucking sitcom. Absolutely. That's where it all comes from. It's real life. Art Mette's life. I'll give you a tidbit.

Anytime you say clapping somebody's cheeks, it's hilarious. I don't know why, but see, you see, that's a guttural laugh. You're just clapping cheeks. Such a lot. I was in Canada last weekend. I was in Winnipeg.

And I was talking about Diddy, of course. I'm glad we have two hours. I was talking about Diddy. And I say clapping cheeks. Every time I referenced that, it would get a big Canadian laugh. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. He's so funny.

It's like, we know about clapping on both cheeks. Oh, yeah. We do that up here all the time. Oh, you're a funny guy. You know, Richard clap my cheeks. morning. Canada. Oh,

it's great. Are you having a good time, hey? Yeah. It's like some kind of European slash like weird accent. It's almost like Bobby's mom from, from Bobby's world, don't you know?

It's so close. It's like Minnesota. Minnesota. Yeah. It's like U.S. is Canada. Yep. They're like Canadians.

When you say, you know what baffles me, though. A lot of them are, um, as ingrained in politics as some of us are in America, as we are in America. To U.S. politics? Yeah, straight up.

Like, they don't give a shit about this. Who are you voting for? Yeah. You're like, are you going to get offended if I tell you? Like, yeah, fucking eh, we like that, yeah. You're voting for a Trump now, right? I'm like, do I look like? I'm going to vote for Trump.

Anyway. So the only thing I thought about when I was young was not being poor. At whatever age I realized, like, we were struggling, it was such, it was in the room all the time. It was just always there. Me, like, I just, I can't, I can't, I can't be poor. That was just the drive-me-force. That was my goal in life. It was can't be poor.

I was, mine was not working at Burlington anymore. That's what my work. Yeah. I used to work there. Great deals. Layaways, yeah. Oh, my gosh. Layaways, that's a crazy game, the layaway games.

Yeah, it is. Especially when, when you cancel it, and then the person. just got out of prison. You're like, all right, well, I'm going to have to call a manager. Yeah. There's nothing I can do. I'm sorry, man. You extended to 30 days.

We had to cancel it. So you worked at Burlington Co Factory? I worked at Burlington Co Factory in the Layaway Department. I allowed for, was it two? Was it three years? Three years? It's like nine years at that job. Yeah, it is.

I definitely aged. My hairline, I lost two inches. It was crazy. That being so young, you know what I mean? Ain't like I could resurrect it in Jesus the shit back. I couldn't. You know what I mean? So it was definitely stressful.

But I would always use it as a platform or perform or whatever. So people can you know. You were interacting with people the whole time. Absolutely. And you got to be a people's person. You got to be, you have to have some slight sense of empathy to do a job like that. You do. You have to be able to read, you know, if somebody is.

And the service industry, I mean, I worked every job under the sun until I didn't have to work anymore. What was the worst one you did? The worst job I ever had was construction. Oh, man. Really? It was outside. It was like really hard. That was only one summer that I did that.

But I always had two jobs. I always had two jobs at all times. So I also worked at Borders, books, and music. Okay. It was like Barnes and Nobles before Barnes and Nobles bought all of them, I guess. So it was like a big bookstore. And I worked in shipping and receiving and I would have to unload the trucks, dump the books out and sort them.

And my hands would get so dry from the cardboard. Oh, man. that they would be all like cut up and cocoa butter man that's all you needed yeah yeah it it saved them you had cocoa butter i did oh word yeah man you're black that's crazy well cocoa butter is probably the blackest thing about me yeah it's nothing else just that's about it man uh no but um but that job sucked cocoa butter that jobs that's like that's wow that's funny I don't know.

We probably find some other things. Yeah, I mean, there's got to be a couple of more days. I mean, shoot, you know, I can't name them because I just met you. Yeah, we'll get to know each other. We'll definitely. That job sucked. Yeah. I hated that job.

Yeah, I didn't. It was 7 a.m. to like 5 p.m. shit, shit job. I don't even know. I don't think I liked, uh, I didn't like Burlington that much. I liked the people, you know, it became, it was a family, man. Yeah. I didn't, you know, it's even funny, man, with working with all of the Filipino folks out there.

Because I didn't really know a lot of Filipino folks, but I saw faces of deaf and I was like, oh, what, the little puppies getting cut up, and then, and then once like I sat down and once I got around them, it's just like, just melded in. Like they're just like black, it's so crazy, the similarities. Like they got, you know, they got big ass celebrations,

A lot of, it's all about family. You know, they take care of each other. They watch each other's backs. And it's just like, they're all driven by faith. You know, a lot of them are Catholic. But they just have a lot of the same inner makings, man. So it's so beautiful how they became my family. And then, that's cool.

Yeah, yeah. They still call me that junior Eddie Murphy. Junior Eddie Murphy. That's what they called me. Oh, baby, baby, baby. Give me some sucky, sucky, suck. I ain't giving you no sucky, sucky. If you don't know what that, if you looked that up,

You know what that means. They were, some of them were horny, too. That was cool. Yeah. There was a 65-year-old virgin lady that worked in. Virgin? She was a version. Wow.

Her name was Miss Nora, rest in peace, though. She's not here anymore. Wow. Probably super religious. Super religious. Yeah, yeah, a lot of... She would grab my butt a lot. Oh, wow.

Yeah. She liked doing that. She, I like your butt, junior. And they could... She raised her, her Charlie Chaplin eyebrows. Because it looked just like. Have you seen, what is that, what's that movie with the rope? It was a robot and he had like Charlie Chapman eyebrows.

The old ones? Yes, it was before Chapy. So it was like Johnny Five? Yes. Yeah, so it was called Short Circuit. Okay, short circuit. Yeah. And that's what Damon Wayne, did Damon Waynes get the idea for J5 on the blankman for that?

Maybe he got it. Yeah, I don't know. But I remember that robot, but she had the same eyebrows. Yeah. Yeah. When I think about the nostalgia, yo, it's crazy. We're going up there. We got ADD.

We're just going from topic to topic. Yeah, that's okay because we'll edit it together. But my best friend, one of my best friends in a really pivotal time in my life when I left home. So me and my brother left home at a young age. We didn't have anywhere to live. And he was a Filipino kid. And his parents were like, I think they immigrated from the Philippines.

and they had like a big Filipino house. They let us live with them. Oh, snap. So we lived there for like at least a month or more until we could figure out our situation. How much pansy than lumpia did you eat? A lot of Filipino food. I remember purple yam.

Yeah, yeah. They got purple yams like grimace. And the kids would have these big parties. Yeah. Like high school parties, right? Yeah. And the parents would just be sitting up in their bed. bedroom. They had two chairs smoking, chain smoking and watching TV. And there would be the house

would be full. Like kids walking up in the bedrooms, hooking up, doing whatever, drinking, and the parents would just be in the bedroom and they would just be sitting there. Like it was wild and sweet, really sweet. That was their smoke break. They got a chance to like break away and just observe. Really, really amazing family. It was like, yes, a lot of fucking going around here. So I've always had like a real like soft spot. Yeah. For the Filipino culture. And when we work at our at our music company, we work with a Filipino artist.

His name's Idris. He's an amazing artist. But I've always like, I've always thought like Filipino people were really warm. Absolutely. Like welcoming, lovely people. Yeah, I've always thought they were, they were awesome. Yeah. They seriously are.

Your shout out to my Burlington click. Yeah. It's cool, too, to, like, get a real glimpse into another culture. Absolutely. You know? You know what? And another reason, that's why I feel so blessed with my field. You know, I watched both of my parents when I was a kid just travel everywhere.

They both had jobs. They both worked for the government. I don't know what the hell they did, but, you know, whatever. They could be Mr. Mrs. Smith, whatever. I know that there was meatloaf on the table. I didn't care, you know. But actually watching this. as a kid and then aspiring to become that and then doing it now.

Yeah. And being able to go to all of those different places. Like my mother would tell me about Japan. She would tell me about Italy. My dad would tell me about Germany. And I was like, yeah. When I grow up, I'm going to have a woman in every one of them places. That's funny.

I used to say that too. You did too? Yeah. Romania? What about Romania? You bet? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. They're like sexy vampires. You know what I'm saying? When did you start traveling? I started traveling when I was, oh, was I? Damn it, man, I was young. I was like five. But I mean, when did you start traveling and making money?

For work. All right, 19. Oh, that's good. Charlie Murphy started taking me in a row with him when I was 19 years old. He was like your mentor? Absolutely. That's amazing. Yeah.

He's the one that would, of course, he would keep me away from all the BS or whatever. And I would see, like, it was, you know, come meet rock stars, can meet. Yeah, 19, that's young. It's the same and it's like a crazy lifestyle where you'll see women that you have, um, touch yourself to in the green room. You're like, what are you doing? Do you know something?

You know, what are you doing here? But it was, uh, it was just wild to see, but he always kept me away from all of it. Because, yo, man, I want your mom coming in here talking about Charlie Murphy corrupted a son, man. It's not going to happen, man. You know what I'm saying? Put the weed down, bitch.

Yeah, shit like that. And you would. Yeah, yeah. When you you'd touch you. Until I got 21, you know, do you have a faith-based center? I'm just asking because you have a lot of, because you're cemented. Yeah. And a lot of folks, a lot of folks that are in the industry today, they don't have that

cementing. And when you don't have that, you seem to get lost in certain parts of this thing. Yeah, you get lost in the sauce. Yeah. I would say that I was raised in a very religious house. Me too. So my core beliefs are in line with those. Yep.

I struggle with joining groups. Okay. We don't have a church, right? But my kids go to like a faith-based school. That makes me feel good about that part of their life because it is present there. Yeah. I wouldn't say it's over the top. It's California.

Christian school. Christian school. Yeah, yeah. And my wife was raised in a very religious house as well. And her parents, so her parents are like, Southern Baptist or Lutheran. I forget which one. But they were very much about their church. So if you talk to my wife's mom, Brenda, I feel like her perspective on like the right thing, the wrong thing, how to treat people. So she's a very present force in our life. And then her dad,

who's also in entertainment, but grew up in the church and has a real base of like faith as well. So there's a lot of older people with real faith-based perspectives. Yeah. But that are also very modern people. And I wouldn't say they're over the top. Right. But they definitely have values. And those values are in the room with us when we like talk about stuff, when we make decisions, when we have family meetups and we talk about in any real life moments where we're, where we're, because I'm very close to our parents. They're like my parents. So they're like, the closest parents I've ever had. Yeah.

So they've been a big influence over the last 18 years. I would say I went from being kind of like a touring nomadic, me and my brother just running around the world, trying to run away from poverty and make it and never stop, meeting my wife, and then becoming close with her family. That's when I got like, I think, the first time in my life ever, a foundation that didn't move. And so it was always there. If I call her daddy picks up. But it's about anything.

I'm gonna'amena. And, like my music, my my hair can't change with me. And he has to be able to continue my rhythm. For so, Potion Nine, of Sebastian Professional,

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of Sebastian Professional, the secret professional of who not see-tendences but of who them as they're, man, that's, that's, uh, I find that, I find that an ongoing narrative and people who haven't lost their minds in this thing. Before we go any further, I can see,

I see aspects of myself and you, which is, you know, I've been watching you since I was a kid. Really? So, no, dead ass. Like, I've seen your shit. That's dope. Yeah. So I listen to everything. You know what I mean? I, motherfucker, smash it, part. I listen to every fucking thing. Yeah, me too. So for somebody to have, I like, my life. I like, me. So, yeah. So, I like, I like, minded person and you've had so much success, that makes me more comfortable. You know what I mean? It makes me open up because I'm like, you know, it's almost reflective here. I can talk to you. I'm seeing it. You know what I'm talking about. Yeah. You can level with me because you've been there. Yeah. I feel the same way. From watching you as you've come up, I see someone that's going to be

successful for a very long time because they know themselves. Yes. No clapping of the cheeks. Yeah, I think that's a real rare thing these days. Yeah. Because we live in a world like, look, if you have a viral moment, that's great. But if you're constantly only aiming at a viral moment because that's what you need to feel successful, you're going to water your shit down. Right. And I think that you've, you always show up in all the rooms you show up in and the things that I've seen. as yourself.

Absolutely. And you, and comedy, but it's not. It's tough in comedy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, because it's got to be a hard life

when you go everywhere and everybody wants you to make them laugh. Yeah. Some days. True, but it does go, it goes back to what you were saying earlier, which I live by,

I live by that quota, where it's like, if I can make you forget about your problem for two hours, hour and a half, I've done my mission. I've been blessed with a talent here. God gave me this talent.

He did, yeah. You know, so for me to have this and for me to keep it away from you when you come up to me, that's selfish. Right. You know, another thing, all of these people are customers. Right. Your customer. Everybody listen. Today, everybody in here that's listening to this. Everybody watches this, they're customers.

Right. The food that I'm putting out, does it taste good? Is it too spicy? Is it bland? Yeah. No, you got to make sure that, you know, you're the old, you're the southern black woman in the kitchen and know how to throw down. You know what I'm saying? You got to make sure that always, when people are coming up to you, make sure you always remember that something that you did took them away from some

painful thing that they were going through. And it got them through. The messages that you get from people that will tell you, yo, watching your videos help me through my day during a pandemic. I didn't know I was going to do such as such. Watching your video made me happy. Yeah. I, you know, I lost my, I lost my father last week. I came. to your show. I haven't laughed. This is my first time laughing since that. It's like, or a year. I haven't laughed in a year. I came to see you and it feels good. Those moments are validation that you're doing exactly what you're supposed to do. That honestly feels like, that feels very honest to me. Yeah. It feels like an honest transaction. It's funny because money is a byproduct of making

shit that people like. Yeah. Right? It shows up if we create. Now, we can get paid to do stuff. Like there's there's transactions you could like, hey, I'm going to have you come do my private event and I'm going to pay you a bunch of money more than, uh, than I usual because it's, it's a private and those are great gigs and stuff. And it's a little transactional. But then you show up. But for me, whenever I do those, I don't do them a lot this past decade. But back when we were doing a lot of that, um, I would put a lot of effort into making that the best I could make it. But that was very transactional. But someone coming up to you and having this, this experience where they're like, I met him. Um, I met him. And again, like they're going to go out and tell hundreds of people about how they met you and you had this funny exchange and, you know, you laughed. And that's a very honest transaction. That's like a very, very honest interaction. And it feels like that's probably why you're good at it because the view you have of it is actually pretty pure in my opinion. And something too.

And I sense that this about you as well, living in the humility of everything. Yeah. If somebody doesn't know who I am, I don't care. It doesn't matter to me. And then they're like, oh, I'm sorry. I have no idea. Like in Canada, I'm like, I'm so sorry. I didn't know.

I don't know. You were such a big deal. And you're like, no, no, I'm not. Actually, I'll just get in my coffee. And no, I don't want to cut in line. I'm good. I just want my chicken wrap home. Yeah.

Yeah. It is funny, though, because that's people's view, though, of what it must, of what it must be. Or they're trying to prove to you or whatever it is, right? Like some people want to prove to you that they didn't know or that they don't know or that they don't care or everybody has a. But that that's them making sense of themselves in relationship to something that they're putting above them. Right. That's my perspective of that is that I'm not putting myself above you. Right.

I don't care if you know who I am or not. I'm just here to get my coffee or to do whatever I'm here to do. And then now I'm having this interaction with a person who wants to make sense of me or themselves. Right. And it takes a little grace to let them. Yeah. And then you remember, you always have to remember that everybody's just trying to do the best they can.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah, that's real. It's cool that you thought that I was Michael Chey. It's cool. It's cool. I'm not, I'm not going to tweet about it, get mad. Yeah.

Yeah, you know, you're racist. Since racist came up to me, guess what they said, I don't care. I'm not in Blink 182. but I could be, I guess. I get it all the time. Wait, you know, I'll fork it. Yeah, Blink 12. I like Link 182.

Not them, but I like them. That's what I would say. I'm like, well, no, I'm not, but I like them. I get, listen, people, people, yo, a, new girl. I'm like, no, that ain't me. That ain't me, dog. That's, that's not me. That's, that's Lamorne, Morris.

That's not, shout out to Lamar. That's bro right there. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. It's just, it's so funny. I'll go to this. Somebody tweeted this at me. It was, it was like a week ago. They were like, I was having a conversation with this gentleman about SNL. Yeah. And he was asking me about SNL and he said, do you watch it? And I said, no, I haven't watched it a long time. And he said, well, you should because it's, you know, it's back. You should watch it. He said, that person was Jay Farrell. Now, I took offense that they didn't follow me,

But it was all good. You know what I'm saying? Just that, that little pocket like, yeah, I am going to be, the fame or whatever will never affect me the way that some people will. Because some people aspired for the fame so they could shit on people. Yeah, yeah. I wanted to get to where I wanted to get to because, first of all, I mean, what else could I do? I was either this Burlington Co-Factor, it would be a computer tech. Right.

You know what I mean? So I think when I found something or actually. whatever because I started acting when I was eight um started doing theater when I was eight and I always aspired to to be in entertainment but I never wanted to get I never wanted it for the accolades I knew if I can help people I want to help people you know what I'm saying in any type of way you know and the feeling that you get when you help somebody and you've helped so many people you forget what you've helped them with yeah they come up to you and remind you yeah Like everybody should be like that.

Yep. And you don't got to boast about it. You don't got to put it on your Instagram every time. You don't have to, you don't got to tweet. You ain't got to put it on your TikTok that you're at the soup kitchen or whatever. You don't have to do that. Just do it. Yeah.

It gives more. The glory is given up here and it's not here. That's how I should be up here. I agree with that. Yeah. Do you edit yourself? I've started to. Yeah.

And when I first got to SNL, I needed a lot. to edit because I won't use to this PR thing and that you know people try to finagle your words and get headlines or whatever but take you out of context or whatever yeah now I sense of myself as a respect for this right as you know because I'm growing I've grown super close before it was what like in your spiritual life absolutely oh that's cool yeah man has that been like a the last few years kind of thing it was always there but I had gotten away. Like, I was super close when I was a kid.

Like, literally, I used to be able to pray for things and it happened on a spot. It was, it was eerie, how close I was. Yeah, yeah. And then, you know, turn into a teenager. Things were changing, got depressed. I was overweight, you know what I'm saying? I was a struggle for me.

Yeah, man, I was. You see, when you gain weight, you gain weight regular. Like, you gain it in your face, maybe your arms, you know, your neck. So with me, I gain weight. It goes here. I turned, when I gained weight, I turn it to a bad bitch. And, you know, I don't like it. It's just I can't help it.

Like, I will, I make Cardi B look like a rug rat. Do you understand what I'm saying? Just thick. Like, just thick. And it's always, it was a problem. but when I got to middle school, I found out, Jack, because they told me,

hey, motherfucker, you fit. You know, like, you know what I'm saying? So that, so, so, so,

so, did that happen? Just, was it natural, like you're, you're going through the life change and some people

would gain weight or were you like, well, was it diet and depression? Was it, what was it? I first gained all of the weight when I was,

I first started to gain weight when I was six. You know, my mother used to send us to, uh, my aunt to New York, um, to stay.

Shout out to, shout out to my angel. Shout out to my viola. You know what I'm saying? Um, yeah, I mean, uh, shout out to mother Scott.

She just passed away, you know, rest of peace to her. Um, but we used to go up there and I got to introduce to Chinese food. I wasn't eating Chinese food and fried chicken and all that stuff when I was down there. My mother had a very, she was very meticulous and she watched what her kids ate.

Right. Tell you what happened. And you're in, Virginia at this time? I'm in Virginia at this time. Where at? Chesapeake, Virginia. Like near Norfolk? About 10 minutes away. Okay. Yeah, not too far from. Not too far from. Where are you from? From Maryland, Southern Maryland. Oh, shit. DMV. So yeah, but I'm down from where I grew up was down like Charles County and St. Mary's County. Okay. So like we would cross the Harry Nice Bridge to go across to like, it's not far from where you're from. It's like a couple hours from where you're from. But my grandparents were

from DC, so I spent a lot of time in DC. So yeah, so going up to, going and spending time with them, love my aunts, but, you know, they cook. Right. They cook a lot. And they're heavier. Yeah.

But just, nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with that. You know, they just, hey, baby, you want some chicken? Yeah, I want some chicken. So before, before I went up there, I would take showers and the water ran straight down my back. Right.

Like the water was running straight down my back. Yeah. When I got back, when I got back for New York and I took a shower again, it was shooting out and it was it was hitting the wall. It was hitting the mirror and everything outside of the tub. And I'm like, why is the floor getting wet? And I look and I see this voluptuous growth of butt. And after that, it was a it was a struggle.

Because that's, I tried to, I tried to hide it. I tried to cover it up. But that ain't work. It just looked like a fashion over ad. You know what I'm saying? It's just, it's, the cheeks, the cheeks were there, right? So, cut to when I'm, I'm 12 now, and it's, it's getting worse. It's getting worse.

My father, he's, he's. See, this is the pain. Did you? No, please ask. I want you to ask. I want you to ask. I want you to ask. Please, please ask.

There was no cheat clapping. Okay, go ahead. No twerking involved. No, me? No private twerk sessions. You know what? I have twerk four times. Four times.

I mean, I couldn't help it. I had to look back at it. I had to look back at it. You know, four times is enough to say, You've twerked, but not enough to say that you're a twerker. Thank you. Yeah. But five or more?

Five is the number. Your ice spice after that. Five is the number. You're a coil array after that. Well, she can't really, she doesn't really have anything to twerk. But she's nothing to twerk. But she twerk. She doesn't matter how much they're here.

She's a very beautiful. Listen, I don't think you're giving her enough credit. I think she's an excellent. Twer. Yes. Okay. So, okay. So, yeah, it doesn't have anything to do.

It doesn't matter the size. That's discriminatory to me. You know, okay, so, all right. Because it's like the action of perfecting the action. It's like someone worked really hard. But it's, it's, it's lean meat. Yes, it may not be the, the size that you would prefer to see twerking. Yeah. Maybe, but it's not wagoo. I get it. I get it. But I'm saying she's put a lot of effort in. She does. Coil-ray, you're a great twerk. Yes. I think she's an excellent twerker. She's a, you're an Excellent twer. We could get into the variations. I mean, hey, okay, on a scale of one, on a scale of one to ten, what do you give her a twer?

If I was holding up a card? Yeah. If twerking was in the Olympics, it probably is going to be in 2020. Okay. So in an Olympic twerking team, I think you would probably be picking superstar players. Okay. But. So, Nikki?

Yeah. Tyler. Tyler? Okay, she definitely twerked. Tyler. She's compact. Yeah. She's got that in there.

Now, would Koi make the Olympic twerking team? I think she probably would be some form of coach, to be honest. She'd be a coach. You know the NBA players that they didn't have the stuff all the way, but they're amazing coaches. Yes. Right? They played in the G League or something.

And they almost made it. But then they're just an amazing coach. Their mind is like, They know the game. It's just, it's wired for the game. I feel like her mind is wired for twerking. And I give her a lot of credit. I just do.

I find myself going like, well done. There you go. Just keep it. If she can do it. The commitment. If half of the people twerking had her commitment. That's true though. Dude, she's committed.

Yeah. I mean, it is so authentic. She's giving so much hope. She's given so much hope. to Nebraska teenage chicks. And also, yeah. Also, I think she's, she's normalized twerking in a way that has made it a much more mainstream, you know.

And you know what, though? And you know what? She loves it. She loves it. Do it. You can tell she loves what she's doing. And you can see other, there's other artists that will do it. You can tell they're over it. They don't love it. They're doing it because they're supposed to. That's right. And you see her and she's doing it because she loves it. That's right. She loves it. Like ice fights. She don't. She don't look like she loves it. I'm, you throw a feeling you.

So, now, if we want to, so I would always say to the people that want to criticize, hop on board, the twerkers that are maybe not the size and shape that they want to see twerking. I would say, open your mind to the effort, the mechanics. And like, give them the credit where it's due. Like, this person's put a lot of effort into perfecting an art form that's now, that actually could, If there was a twerk league, right? And actually maybe after we can talk about this, it could be a really good business.

I think, man, we- Twerk league. Hey, hey, man, let's get, let's get Megan the statue on the horn and see if we can do something. I think we would see a variety of people twerking. Yeah. And then you'd have to start opening up

the concept of what, who can twerk? Everyone can twerk. You twerk four times. I twerk four single times. So if I, I can do it, man, man you can too. So back to you're in Virginia, you're going to New York, you gain weight. How long from when you start gaining weight to when you're like, okay, I want to change this and, you know, you start working out or what?

You start. Yeah. When I was 17 years old, I went through a body transformation in three and a half months. Wow. I lost 75 pounds. Wow. And because I was determined. I was so, so depressed that I looked in the mirror and I just said, I'm done with you.

Depressed because of the weight. Because of the way I was, you know, dude, I didn't even go to prom, man. Right. I couldn't find a prom date. Like, it's just, and that could have just been lack of confidence because, you know, listening to. It's a tough time in a guy's life to, you're going through all that. You want to talk to girls. Yeah.

And you're thicker than them. It's weird. You feel bad about yourself. Yeah. I want to talk to girls and you got a little more cheekage than they do. You know, it's just, it was a weird, it was a weird time, but all of that pushed me to that point, to that boiling point, that breaking point where I said, I have to change this. Because if I don't change this, I'm going to end up doing something violent to myself. That's what I said. And I stuck to a plan and it worked. And also that year, when I came into my senior year high school, I said, look, I'm going to graduate. honors. I'm going to do that. So I went from a 2.4 or 5 to a 3.06 in a year.

Wow. Everybody was partying having a good time. I was in the classes. If I had to take an extra one to get an extra A, I did it. I just wanted to graduate with honors. And it worked out, man. It all worked out. Yeah. And your parents were, were they traveling a lot still? Or were they there? They were. My father, my father was traveling more at the time than my mom was. And when I was younger, younger, it was my mom traveling more than my pop was. And, uh, but they were supportive. Yeah, they were supportive. They didn't know what I, they didn't, they didn't know that I had the talent. They knew I could act. They knew I was in theater, but they didn't know, um, they didn't know about the, the funny aspect. You know, when you're in the house, man, and you feel, and I guess growing up,

my sensitivity levels were, were heightened anyway, you know what I mean? Because I was getting it everywhere. I was getting it at school. I was getting it at church and at home, you know, parents be like, hey, get your fat ass upstairs, some shit like that, you know, is it. But they don't mean No, it's just... But, you know, I really had a fat ass. Right. So I didn't like it. So it took all of those things, I mean, together, I think kept me, kept the shield up with my parents where it's like I would show the world, but I didn't want to show them everything.

Right. And then once my father found out, that's when it was on. It was game time. And that happened when I was 16. He found that out. But I was 16 years old. He found that I could do impressions and things because my uncles and everybody already knew and they called me up at this Christmas party to do, to perform in front of everybody.

Right. And I did it. My dad said, okay, well, we got to do some with that. And, you know, he's like Joe Jackson. Yeah. And it worked out. He would literally be, if I would get out of the impression, it doesn't sound like him. Get back into it.

I'm like, okay. You know, it was, he, Michael, he Joe Jackson my ass. Yeah. But it worked out. It did. because now, tonally, you'll have some of the most renowned people be like, it sounds, tonally sounds just like me. Because I've studied that.

Are you and your diet still close? Absolutely. Wow. Now we're closer. You know, he was kicking my ass before. But, you know, we're good now. And I think at my graduation party when I was 17, I told him that, you know, for everything that happened, you know, I forgive you, you feel me?

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per so he was physical. He was physical. Yeah. But he was drinking too. Like, it was, it was a transition for him because he was drinking and drinking beer.

Corona's, make people fight. Yeah. Yeah. My dad was an alcoholic. Really? Yeah. Real bad. He died from it.

Oh, man. And he was violent. But I think that generation, how old are you? I am 36. Okay. So I'm 10 years older than you. But that's still the same. Same generation of guys.

They didn't have the resources. And it was. It wasn't public knowledge that we had, like, growing to do. Go ahead. I'm sorry. No, go ahead. Yeah, that we have problems. Yeah, problems.

But just, just the. And that there were answers for those problems. Absolutely. And then you had the over, the over ego, the machiness, that you weren't allowed to show any type of emotion. Yeah, they were tough guys. Yeah, absolutely. They were real tough guys.

And you had to. Men don't cry. I remember my dad said that when I was a kid. Men don't cry and all of that. Men don't apologize. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, be a man.

Be a man. Be a man. That's all you heard your whole life. Like, be a man. Yeah. And what does it mean to be a man? Well, yeah, that's a funny question because... Apparently, it's beating the shit out of your kid.

Right. It's roughing your family up. Shut up, bitch. Later years, though, I think they gained some wisdom. Yeah. You know what? It was my... I've talked about this before.

So it's going to... For anyone listening that's heard me talk about it. But it's worth saying it. My father-in-law was the guy who told me to give my dad a chance because he said he's like yo he's from a different time man you need to you need to like go reconcile because he loves you yeah and he doesn't know how to love you maybe but he does i know that he was like i know it and if he hadn't done that and influenced me the way he has in so many different ways i wouldn't have gone and and had this like really great experience

where we became friends and i actually realized i'm a whole lot like him yeah and actually a lot of the grit I have that's probably why I'm still here is because of him making a living is because of him because he was a gritty fucking tough dude we survive we're just like we'll do whatever we have to do and and there's a there's a fearlessness he always had that I was like as a kid really admired about him um that I didn't think I had and then I realized like I got you know a wife and two kids and when I think about it I'm like yeah I'm not afraid of anything when it comes to them yeah I'm just going to get it done. That's the most, that's the most lucid view, just being like they, they're, they come from a different era, you know, they come from a different era so they don't know

how they try the best, again, trying the best they can. And the world wasn't a good place to them. At all, right? At all. My, yo. Think about your dad. The era was not a good era. No, no, it wasn't, wasn't good for blacks back there. Still, still not, but it, uh, getting better. So still, still, Is it? Okay, go ahead. Still, still not. Still not. But even back then, it was, it was really bad, really bad. Yeah, so how did you work through without hating your dad, right?

Right. So, so, so, because there's a lot of, there's a lot of God probably plays into it, right? Forgiveness, things like that are, I found really important and actually, I think, put me in touch with my faith. Yeah. That experience, because, you know, the metaphor of Father and God and all. that there's a relationship there, I think. And until we make peace with our father, I don't know if we'll ever really have a peace with God, because that's our view of God almost, is like the father.

So it's interesting. To be able to make peace with the man who was imperfect, right? But then to also recognize trauma and work on it, like go, okay, I got to work on my, did you go to therapy? It wasn't even, it wasn't even therapy. I think it was finding out it was, it was, it was, was finding some things out about my father that I was struggling with personally. It was this, he was struggling with the same type of things and noticing when, when he saw me do these things, it triggered him. Right. But it was, it scared him. It scared him because he didn't want me to, he was like, I want you to go to the moon. Right. And I feel like I'm limited. Yeah. I feel like because of this problem, I'm limited. I don't want you to go on that path. So being able to

take that out, excavate the good, and say, he was really trying to protect me at the time. That was his way. But I didn't, you know, I didn't know that. You know, when a grown man is telling everybody in the house, he's telling you to stand on the scale and everybody in the house to come look at the number. And he's like, God, you know, he's saying, listen,

you're going to middle school, all right? These kids are going to talk about you. and I don't want you to go through that. As a father, you never want your son to know you're like your dark secret. Right. Because you're just ashamed of yourself. Yep. Right?

Most people, we're all ashamed of something about ourselves. By doing this thing that was very cruel, in my mind, I'm protecting you from the cruel world. Yeah. By putting you through it here so that you're ready for it there. Yep. And we now know that's not the way to do it, right? The greatest teacher that I ever had was being a father myself. And then I realized with no hate to my parents at all, they did the best they could with what they had.

And they were uneducated and they didn't have a lot of the tools and they didn't have a lot of resources. But they definitely tried to love us and raise us. I think the best they could. And then my dad struggled with alcohol. So he was gone by the time I was 13 and he was off on his journey. We met back up when I was 29 and I had my first kid. And that's when we actually got to have a relationship. but when I have my kids, I realize like, oh, I will never do that to you.

Yeah. I'm only going to be your cheerleader. And you know, you're going to come home from the world and the world is mean sometimes and I'm going to help make you feel better. And I'm going to, you know, because I had a terrible experience in the world. I didn't have fun at school. I got picked on. I had all that.

All that was there. And my dad tried to tough me up. He was really tough. He was, you know, like just trying to pretend. us from being weak in his mind. Yeah. Because we were like little weak-ass dudes, you know? We were little coochies.

But we were strong here. Mentally. And we grew up. And now, you know, I don't feel weak ever. But I don't want my son to feel like he has to be strong all the time. I was just like how he feels is how he feels. And, you know, I probably overdo it sometimes with like, how do you feel about that? Or like, you know, like, but the message is is that I'm there.

and I care and that I'm trying my best. I always say that too. I'm like, I don't know, but I'll find out. Or, yeah, I don't know. I'm trying my best or whatever. And he knows that, like, I always say to my kids, like, I'm learning how to be a parent every day. Yeah.

But I'm there. It sounds like Chris Gardner and his kids. Sounds in the pursuit of happiness. Mm-hmm. Just like, listen, if I don't know the answer, you know, I'm going to find it and I'm going to figure it out. And, like, it's going to happen. And if I do know, I'll tell you, but if I don't, I'm going to go and find it.

And I guarantee I'm going to deliver it, Christopher. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Same thing. It's a good impression. Hey, you know. Do you have any heroes in the art that you're in?

Which, I mean, which genre do we want to talk about? First, I want to talk about comedy. We don't talk about music. I think all three. So I think that those are the people that shape us. For me, it's movies, filming TV right now. Music is big. I think music teaches us how to talk, how to dress, how to express the shit we see.

And then comedy is in a world all of its own. I think comedy is like, I'm such a fan of comedy. But comedians intimidate the shit out of me because I find them all to be extremely intelligent. Except for me. Extremely like, it's not that I think they hate everything, but like, I feel like they see the truth in the world. The truth of the world, right? Yeah.

Everybody's pretending that everything's fine. And it's not. And it's not. And the best comedians are the ones are going to give you a scope lens on how shit just doesn't make sense or why this isn't right. Why this is accepted and this isn't accepted.

But it's basically the same thing, but it's not accepted. And you do it in the form of making us all laugh. Yeah. So then it has to frustrate the shit out of you. Chappelle will bring up some shit. That's really important. And everyone laughs.

And he's just like. And then everyone goes back to life. That was funny. He's like, hold on, motherfuckers. Yeah. Hold on. Y'all are laughing at the wrong part. A smoke Dave.

Yeah. You know, I've seen him do that so many times. He was like to stand with somebody's neck. When we did the George Floyd thing, when he did that and people were laughing, he, it's like, it ticked him off a little bit. I could see it. Yeah. It's like, almost like, fuck you guys.

But it's the necessary part of the art form of comedy. Yeah. Is pointing out something that's wrong or pointing out something that's fucked up. Absolutely. So that it can be at least heard and addressed. But then the frustrating part is, I know it's coming from a place of wanting to, you know, change it. And everybody's sitting in the room laughing and going, okay, next joke. Yeah. Yeah. That's the part where I got must be frustrating as hell.

LPM. Because at the end of the day, when you're at a comedy show and of course with the economy being as bad as it is right now and folks just having to scrounge you up dollars or whatever. Yeah. Like, yo, I came out here to forget about this. So make me laugh. I just want to laugh. Some people are not into the, what is it, the, they're not into the philosophical, philosophical aspect of it. Yes, that's it. And you know that philosophical aspect. And you should, you should take it. It's all art.

All together, you're painting this beautiful picture, but you can't paint a picture without truth. If there's no truth in there, then the image doesn't make sense. Right. People are like, what the hell is that? I've never seen that before. You know if I paint you like yeah I've seen that somebody paints me I've seen that But if I if I just if it's just some smudges or some you never you're like what is what are you trying to say? You always have to make it lucid the point that you're trying to make what are you trying to say under this?

But how are you doing it in a way that's different than everybody else and how are you making it reside with me? at the end of the day. Because I made shit funny is great, but truth with funny, my gosh. That when you get a, like you're saying, when you put those two together,

you marry them, and then you have a Chris Rock, black people versus N-words bit, you know, or which you just have, well, there's so many Dave Chappelle moments I can talk about.

Man. You know, or you have Richard Pryor when he was talking about setting himself on fire. Like, all of those things are,

relatable because either you know somebody that's done that or your crazy ass done done it yourself, you know? And it's just, um, it's just a beautiful thing, man. I'm sorry, I'm just, I love all of the, the meticulousness and the specifics of comedy. Yeah, it's the art. Yeah, of a word, taking one word and adding it at the end of a sentence, vice versa, using it at the beginning of the sentence can get this much more laughter than this. Or, how just changing your face a little bit after a punchline can sell it even more and make people laugh harder. You might not even have to say anything. It might just be the face. That could be the punchline, but figuring out exactly what it is and writing a truthful, painting a truthful picture.

You know, I'm sorry. Long term, though, as frustrating as it might be for like Dave Chappelle in the moment, I think long term he's had an effect on culture that people, whether they realize it or not, they will and they do realize it in time, is when he brings something up, everyone talks about it. Yeah. And everyone argues about it. And that's the cross hill he bears, right? Yeah. Is when I see, you know, I'm just a fan, right?

I've met him a few times and I'm a fan of him as a person meeting him. but as, but his art and his, what he does. He does something that makes us all talk, think, and you hear people argue about it and this was wrong and he shouldn't say that and this and that, but he's actually opening up subjects that would be very hard to talk about. Absolutely. If we didn't have an argument over it.

And then over time, people, people's perspectives can change when they hear your perspective. So you get to know, you get to know Dave as a fan. and you're, let's say you're a person you live somewhere in America and he's a funny guy. So you're like, I'm going to watch his thing and you watch his thing. He's affecting your perspective of the world. Whether you agree with it or not, that's the long-term effect of art. Yep. And I think that, like, comedy is one of the greatest art forms.

And I'm not a big fan of, like, the spectacle type of stuff. I like, you know, there's a new, I'd say a modern, like, content-based comedy where people are, like, they're pranking people or they're doing like more spectacularly type stuff. I don't hate it. Yeah. I get the, there's always going to be like America's Funniest Home Videos and has this audience. Practical jokes and stuff.

But people that talk about life and the things that are happening in the world as they happen in a way that we can open it up. Yeah. And we can all like talk about it are the important, in my mind, they're very important people in our culture. Absolutely. So heroes. Okay.

So for comedy, wow, man. I've got to give a shout out to him. Robin Harris, Bernie Mac, Eddie Murphy, of course, Chris Rock, Pryorier, Dave Chappelle, Kat Williams, Carlin, Lenny Bruce, Robin Williams. I would say those guys. all 10 of those. It's a great list. And there, I mean, shoot, I could keep going.

Of course, you got you Dick Gregory, a Red Fox. God, there's so, there's so many guys who just didn't care. Right. Were willing to get up there. Okay, cool, you can crucify me. You can burn me at the stake, but that's not going to change. If you burn me at the stake, my mouth is still going to be speaking the truth. Yeah, I'm me.

I'm just being me. Yeah. You know, it's just total. Just no fear whatsoever. Yeah, no fear is a real thing. Yeah. Yeah, I like those guys for music. I always like, well, Jay-Z, of course.

I love Jay-Z. I would say, I would say Eminem. I would say Eminem because he's a fun rapper. I would say ludicrous. He's a fun rapper. Yeah. I would say, I'd say 50. I'd say Kanye.

I'll even say Drake. I'll say Cole. I'll say Kendrick. I'll say Who else? Big pun and Big L. I will put all those together. That's a good list too.

Yeah, like they just being able to punch line. I love J. Cole. Yeah. I've never gotten to meet him. He's the sweetest dude. Yeah, I think he seems cool. And he's, he's... I'm a huge fan of his music.

North Carolina. He's just a country boy. Yeah. Who's just like, who really is just about art and just wants to push that for. Yeah, he's one of the greats. Not worried about the beef or anything or numbers, even though he eventually got them. Yeah, he has now.

He has them. Because I remember back in 2009 when he was at BET Awards and they cut half his performance. Right. And now you go from that and seeing him now where it's like he's in stadiums and people are, people are chanting and people are reciting his lyrics. You know what I mean? So it's, it's just those guys. He's had a long winding road, which is a great career to me. Yes.

It's a great career. And I love people that who seem like they're steadily rise. Yep. You know, because I feel like that's synonymous with my career. It's not been a, it hasn't. Oh, it's a long winding road. It's a long winding road. Yeah.

But I feel like God is preparing me for everything that's happening at every step. Yeah. Because, man, had I had. had a dope special and been super stand-up ready at 22 years old, who knows what position that would have put me in today. I could have, I don't know, I might, I might have lost it all. You know, I might have been strung out somewhere, even though I did have, and I do have the cementing, still, anything could have happened. You always got to view it as God is either protecting you or he's preparing you for whatever's about to happen. And now I feel like

it's the best season. It's the best season. People can see the acting. They can see. They can see the comedy. You can come to my show. One of the best live shows you're going to see. I'll stand by that. Come out, watch it. Because I know what product I have. Whereas before, I wasn't as confident in that. It was like, it might be one of the best shows. Now I'm like, no, this is going to be some of the best stuff. that you're going to be able to see live. Yeah, I would make a bold prediction. I would say you're coming into the best 20 years of your life. I think you're going to do your best work.

And your work is great. It's not about what you've done. What you've done is you've gotten the experience you're going to need to deliver at the level that I think the opportunities are going to present themselves in the next two decades. I think you're going to have a ton of success. You got the energy around you. But you also seen enough to know, and so you can focus on the work. Absolutely.

It's cool to sit with you because I love it when I'm a fan of someone, and then I sit with and I'm like, well, I knew I was a fan. I knew we would probably get along. But then you meet a person and you're like, oh, that guy knows himself. And that's like when you meet someone and they just feel like they know themselves. And they're cool with it. It took me a while because I had to get rid of the cheeks. The cheeks. But the cheeks, here's the thing, though, is I think the kid with the cheeks

is like the kid you got to protect. Yeah. Because he was good. He was just eating chicken and Chinese food and loving life. And you have to like parent that side of you, that part of you. I had to learn how to do it too because I wasn't getting real good, solid advice from my parents. Yeah. And God bless them. They didn't know how to do it. They didn't know how to encourage me. They had never been in your position, and they couldn't tell you. And they never been in the world. We never traveled. I never got on a plane until I was 19.

So I was like, I went into the world and I thought I got my first million bucks and I was like everyone's going to celebrate me. And it wasn't like that. And then it took me until I was 30, probably, 2930 to actually feel like I was good enough to be in the room. That's crazy. I mean, but I get you. I understand that. You know what I mean? So I presented.

tattoos, jewelry, clothes, as I thought I should. And not to say I don't love that stuff now, but I like it in a different way. It's not as important to you. It's not important at all. Yeah. But I like stuff. Yeah. And so I'll go, oh, that's pretty cool, you know, and I measure if I want to buy something

or whatever. It's more of a decision of how much will I enjoy that? That's why I buy stuff now. It's not, what will people think if I buy this car or this or this thing or this whatever? It's not about that at all. It's about me. Do I like it?

I think I'll really enjoy that. Yeah. And then you start to taste the food and you go, I like this food. I'm not just eating here because I'm supposed to eat here. I like this food here, but I don't really go there or whatever. But for me, it's more like actually getting in touch with your real life and then building out of life you actually want to live in. And I tell the people that are listening, I always want people that are in their lives

to stop and start making choices towards like a life they actually want to live in. I don't work out because I want to look great. Of course, that's a byproduct of it. Right. I want to be healthy. You want to feel good. And I want to feel good about myself. And I want my clothes to fit me a certain way. And I struggle with that my whole life with my relationship with like physical activity and being athletic and all that. Like I didn't have a high self-esteem around that. So I had to work on it. Now I have a good relationship with it. And it's a part of my life that I like. But I had to build that out. It took me fucking years.

and I had to work on it. And I think that like if we can go in and work on ourselves, then we go out and we do our thing. And I think we do it better. Yeah, absolutely. The lie is that all the guys who were addicted to drugs made better art. That's not true. They would have been funny.

They would have been just as funny sober, even if it took them a minute. Yeah. Like maybe in the transitional part of getting sober, they weren't as funny, but that had nothing to do with being sober. I had everything to do with this. Internally.

And then once you get on the other side and you start to find some happiness, some joy, and you actually find the highest version of life that you're supposed, I think we're all supposed to be living. I think that's like divine. It's like to be the best version, right? Yes, the best version of yourself before you, we're all aspiring to be the best versions of ourselves before we close our eyes. Yeah.

Hopefully. And every day that you do wake up, you get another chance to try again. whereas somebody else didn't get that chance. Yeah. You know. If you can survive that and land on the ground and actually live in your real life and make art, there is a way to do it and be happy. Yeah.

You're in a real good place if you're there. But it sounds like you're doing that, but you've been at it a long time. So you've had all that experience. I'm sure you've had your moments. I can't. I cannot believe that we're about to do that, about to be in the 50th anniversary of S&L. It's crazy. I was at that place.

at the 40th and just remembering the multitude of talent that was in the building and a celebration for this for this cult classic that is just spread everywhere that everybody loves now and now 10 years later to get an invite yeah because I don't know if everybody going to be there you know I don't know I can't speak on that I got my invitation but I know in the 40th they were people I didn't see that were on the show before. So to still, to still be in high regard at the place where you went to as a baby. I was a baby at that place. I was 22 years old. That's crazy. Yeah. I was a kid. I mean, I'm not a kid anymore. I'm like, kid, the kids. Yeah, you're young as shit, though. Young but I'm a man. Young as shit. Yeah, but you're a grown ass man.

I'm a grown ass man. For sure. Before I was a. 36. is a great age though. The testicles hadn't yoked yet. Right, right. Yeah. You know what I mean? You understand what I'm saying when I say that. At 22, you think you know stuff. You don't know shit. You don't know anything. But you're trying to, you're trying to navigate how you know. And it's like, listen, if there's people around, don't take anybody's advice, but that's what Eddie Murphy said.

The best advice is not take anybody's advice. But watch how success move. Right. Watch it and be cognizant of that. Because if you're cognizant of that, you'll integrate it into your path. It's a natural way. It's a natural. If you actually acknowledge it and go,

oh, that's success. Right. And you watch it, you can actually take it and integrate it. I just want to make sure we talk about the special. The special. Oh, yeah, man. Jared.

And the headlining stuff. Oh, yeah, yeah. That's real shit. Yeah. Wait, wait, with the headlining stuff. What, what do you mean? What do you mean? Just all the touring.

Oh, absolutely. Okay. All the shows. Well, people. And the game show. Oh, yeah. That's right. One of the hottest, one of the hottest shows of the summer that came out.

That's what they called it. Quiz with balls. And a little twerking, hopefully. Yeah. Yeah, the twerking definitely helped. That was actually one of the, um, I twerked the fourth time while I was on set. So that was, that worked. I was hoping that one of them

would at least be while you were an adult. Yeah, the Quisle Boys came about, I've been trying to work with Fox. We've been trying to work with each other for years. And there were so many different concepts that got brought to me. And that one just stood out because it's trivia and it's wipeout.

It's like Family Feud, Cross, a Wipeout. And, you know, I look up to Steve Harvey. Man, I love Steve Harvey. I love him. I tell you what, boy. He's like, boy, I tell you this, boy, you got to get up in this game show space. Yeah. Got a lot of money you losing, boy.

You know, so having him as a blueprint to watch, I said, I want to be as comfortable as a host as he is when he hosts. Because you see a lot of traditional hosts, man. They, it seems like they're hosty. Yeah, yeah. You know, it's old school game show. And it's like, don't stay here. Like, be lenient, go off. Go off of this line, you know.

You don't have to say it. All right, and our next can, you ain't got to do that. You can be yourself. Be like, hey, man, so the next can test it. You could do it like that. Yeah. So watching him, I just soaked up so much by observing him and his element. And then when I got, when I got that show, it was, it was easy for me to kind of connect with the people.

Yeah. You know. And also making people feel real good every day. work. I go in work every day. Before we even started, I'd be like, listen, you guys are the greatest at your job. You know, whatever you give me, I'm going to use it. I'm going to give you 100. You give me 100. Let's drive this thing home together. And I would say, yeah, let's go quiz with balls. Yeah, yeah, balls, whatever. And we would just, it would just uplift people's spirits. It made people feel good about the long hours. Well, that's why the show's good. Yeah. Oh, you like

You saw, man, that's what's up. Man, when you make everyone comfortable, they can be comfortable. Absolutely. And if you have a good time, I'll have a good time. So it starts with you set the tone for the thing, right? Like if you come in the room and you're like, okay, we're going to have a good time or, okay,

we're going to have a bad time. It's with everything. It's with what you say. It's your facial expressions. It's all the things. And so some guys never get that. They bring all their stuff with them. I get it.

Life is hard. You're dealing with all the stresses of balancing all the jobs and you're doing 50 things and you got real, real life or whatever. But when you get to work, you do have to like, the day is going to be what you make it. And especially if you're the guy. You're the leader. You're the leader. So, and then the same thing with the contestants, right?

You're like, we're going to have a good time. Yep. And then everybody watching. Then we have a good time. And then what happens to game shows, right? Because yours is successful. Well, they get cooler. Because we all like watching them.

We still watch. We'll watch Family Feud or we'll watch whatever. And like it's actually like really nice. My kids every now and then, they'll like, we'll want to watch. It's like one of the things my teenagers would actually do with us every now and then is like watch a dumb show on TV like a game show. Yeah. Because everybody watches, plays along. You play along and you get the knowledge.

And if you get to play and you get to learn at the same time, those are always the factors for success. Yeah, you got to. I mean, you know, and going even further, I said the same thing to the audience. I'll say the same thing to the audience and the contestants. Listen, this is all the show. Like, we're all working together here. Y'all give a hundred. You give a hundred.

I can't do this without y'all. Y'all can't do this without me. Let's have a great time. And it just takes the edge off. Do you do that at stand up? No. But. They can feel it.

Yeah, they can feel it. I mean, as soon as I come out. I'm messing with somebody in the crowd and doing doing a bit and trying to scare a white person. We scare easily. Yeah. You should see when I come out, when I come out and I get in your face and I'm rapping Drake lyrics and your name is Scott and you don't know what the hell is going to come next and you're sitting there looking at me and I'm in your face and then I break away and I smile and you know I'm playing. Now you're at ease. Now make the joke.

Hey, listen, my spider's. since you just told me I scared a white person. But it's, but it works. It always works because it breaks whatever happens before. Yeah. And at the end, the, the, um, Scott is like, yeah, I was scared. I got scared. And then it's like, you know, he's in on it too. Absolutely. It's cool. Um, so the special. Yeah. It's coming out. Jared, September to 22nd, baby. So proud of it is. Day after my wife's birthday. What? Yeah. So your wife's birthday is on the 21st. Yeah. Okay, cool. Perfect. So You all get watch it, man. I mean, if you, if you like.

No, we're going to watch it. Okay, cool. Please. Because I made it available for everybody, you know, on YouTube. And I called it Jared because I guess I came to the conclusion before. Nobody really knows. Nobody knows a lot about me, you know. Nobody knows a lot about me growing up.

Some people forgot some of the tumultuous things I've gone through, career-wise, whatever. So I felt the need to take all of that and put that in this special. Yeah. You know, as the genesis of, listen, this is the guy who I am. And this is, I'm going to continue. I'm going to evolve, okay, because you always do as an artist. You evolve as an artist, evolve as a man. So there will be more stories and things that I'm more comfortable with talking about probably later than I was talking about this time.

Yeah. But I gave you a multitude of things. that you didn't know. And just being fun and funny and not being another personality 24-7 people, which folks probably, some people think that that's what I do. Like, I'll just wake up and I'm just another character every day, which is bullshit. Okay. Just looking into the camera.

That's phallis. Okay? It's not real. Okay. I don't walk around 24, 16 hours of my day doing JZ impressions. What the hell is wrong with you? Yeah, Shia. I don't do that all the time.

Yeah. What I do now is, of course, I'll practice, but that's just the part of it. You got to practice. You got to stay in the gym. So I always stay in the gym and I'm always ready. But whereas in my first special, it seemed like the impressions were punchlines. It's not like that anymore. Right.

It's like, now I got punch lines and the impressions there somewhere. And it doesn't need to be there. You can do without it. But, you know, LeBron James, if he don't dunk and if he don't bang the board, people are going to be mad at him. So you got to make sure. Yeah, but he's also, dunking is easy for him. And he's going to dunk.

So, yep. If you put the ball up there, he's going to dunk. He's one of my heroes. Hey, I love LeBron. Robbins. He's amazing. Me too. And still.

He's amazing. And he'll talk to you. He knows you. Yeah. If he knows you, he'll come up to you, he'll talk to you. Like, I think he's one of the greatest human beings, like the way. And sportsmen. And sportsmen.

And, you know, I'll have a sports conversation with someone all day long. But look, you can argue about a lot of things in sports. But, like, LeBron beyond sports, like, just what he's done. I just think he's one of my heroes. Yeah. So is Jay-Z, by the way. He's one of my heroes. Yeah, for sure.

But he's going to dunk. because he can dunk. Right. But then it's like, all right, but he can also shoot a three. He can also, he can also hit his, Frito, no look pass,

assist, everything. Yeah. So it's like when you have... And he make it look easy. So Jared is all of that. He's playing, I'm playing every position, which is fun.

And that's what I've been doing. But a lot of people haven't seen it ubiquitously. They haven't gotten to know you. Exactly. Which is cool sitting with you because I feel Like it's that thing. It's like you're, you're bringing the kid along. You're bringing the kid who

was self-conscious. With the cheeks. With the cheeks. But like, that's what I'm saying is like, you can laugh about it now, but you're not putting him on the scale in front of everybody. You're bringing him with you because he's a big part. He, that guy is what makes you funny. Yeah. That guy. That guy is the one in my mind, it's the same. It's the little chubby kid who like didn't dress cool, who had no money. Oh, damn. How the hell did you know I didn't dress cool? That's crazy. It's me. Oh, okay.

Oh, you, you, yeah. Right. See, we like, we like, there we go. I was like a little chubby. Marshalls, a lot of marshals clothes. Yeah, a lot of thrift stores, whatever, cammy downs, church donated clothes. JC pennies. JCPenies.

Yeah, dude, JCPenies. That's crazy. I haven't heard that one. That one in a long as time. The Pokemon sneakers. Yeah. So I think that's super cool, man. You're bringing it back to the like the beginning, the start.

That's dope. Yeah. Jared. Jared. That's my real name. What's your family call you? They call me Jared. Cool.

Yeah, they'll call me Jay. My father will call me Jay sometimes when he's around his friend. Yeah, yeah. Hey, Jay Farrell. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Hey, how's Barack doing? I'm like, you don't have to, I notice people around.

You don't have to do this. You don't have to do this. That's fine. That's cool. But it's, but it's still, when I go back home, I, You know, take out the trash, you know, do that. Like, it ain't no, there's no star treatment, you know. These are my, these are my people, you know.

And they, um, and Jared, Jared is the one who, uh, who gets the taxes taken out. Jay Farrow is the entity that pays the bills, but Jared is the one that has the taxes taken out and everything. So it's, it's fine. It's all, it all works together. And, um, who would have thought that a premature baby? came out seven months, had six fingers no longer, because my mother doesn't like weird things. So it's not there no more, but they were up there. That kid who was bullied, that kid who...

That's crazy. Didn't fit in like that. What? Yeah. Two months? Eight weeks. Oh, snap. Two months?

Yeah. That's... What the... Hey, man. We're like long lost friends, too. Yeah, this is a... A couple hours apart. where we live.

Yeah, we reunited and I feel so good. Feels like I knew you before. We would have been friends in school. Yeah. Yeah, you wouldn't have touched my cheeks. I would have been happy about that. No, I would have been like, hey, fuck off, man. Yeah, thank you.

Stop touching his cheeks. I was always sticking up. Yeah, yeah, I was premature eight weeks. I was in an incubator for like two months. Yeah, me too. Me too. And that's a real interesting, like, story to have to, like, live with is I was always told the story was I don't know why I'm getting so personal but it's interesting

I was told that I was the weaker baby because I'm a twin oh yeah and so I didn't fight when I was in the womb for or like my brother had to fight for everything so when he was born he fought for more life and that I was like that I just gave up you want to know something weird I had a twin too really twin it just didn't make it wow real talk though wow no the three What, three months in, three, four months in? It was, uh, wow. Yep. That's, that's heavy.

That's crazy. Yeah, it's crazy. If, uh, but I don't think the world was ready for two of us, two, two of us were voluptuous cheeks. Yeah. Yeah. Listen, I really do think that that shaped us into, uh, guys who were resilient, who could do this fucking business we're in.

Absolutely. How many comedians have you seen that are talented? that didn't make it because they weren't resilient enough. And they weren't disciplined. Not disciplined. So many. Well, I know a lot of them in Virginia that have it. They did just, just talented, but they just don't have the.

It ain't luck. Right. A little luck sometimes, but it ain't luck. It's resilience. Resilience. Show up, do the show. Go to the shitty club, do the stand up. Go to the thing, do the thing.

Show up, show up. How many, I mean, now in your life, How many hours would you say you've put into your craft? Jesus. Oh, boy. Into twerking? Yeah. It's the league.

Listen, twerk league is a thing, dude. I think, dude, now, what did they say it takes you? Hailing from Chesapeake, Virginia. Greenbrier, Greenbrile, Chesapeake, Virginia. With cheeks that would make Meg the Stallion jealous. It is. I don't even know my stripper name is the destroyer. What is? I don't know. The seismic, the size? Mine would be the graph. Mine would be ass pony. As pony. Yeah. Okay.

As pony. Here comes ass pony. Yeah. Pony boy. It's my nickname. Yes. Okay. You just, do you hear the, do you hear the pony? need the truck there'd be some kind of thematic horse related yeah maybe yeah that's uh yeah i don't even remember what we would talk about how many hours you put in you okay what they say to become a professional at something you got to do what is it uh is it they say 10,000 hours the truth is it's something between so people who are gifted talented uh their brains are wired certain ways it's something

like 3,000 to 20,000 hours, the average is 10,000. You likely got it quicker than 10,000 hours because you have some natural ability. And you were likely putting hours in. You weren't clocking. Like as a kid, you're making people laugh and you don't, no one else would account that as you're working on something. They would just go, oh, he's a funny kid. But actually, if you, if you looked at it as like hours in the gym, you could say you probably, I mean, I couldn't even say how many hours you got. It's probably the 100,000 hours. Yeah, geez. Yeah, talking about headlining since doing stand-up since you were 15,

headlining, headlining at, starting at 22, and then just going on tour and I'm 36, about to be 30-7. Yeah, it's got to be over 100,000 hours. Yeah. It's crazy when you think about it. Because you're not clocking it at, you're just doing it. You're just living it. Yeah.

Jesus. Yeah, over 100,000. Wow. Crazy. It's crazy. I don't even know what else to say. Yeah, it's just crazy. That's wild.

That is so wild. And I still only have pulled out one gray hair from my beard. That's crazy. Yeah, that's good genes. Yeah, just one popped out. I got more. You fine, you know. It was so white when I pulled it out, it asked to speak to the manager.

That's how white. That's how white it was. Yeah. That's very white. That's very white. Yeah, man. Thank you. Jay, thank you, bro.

Great to meet you. Thank you, man. I hope you enjoyed today's episode of artist friendly. If you really liked it, you can follow, like, subscribe to the show, anywhere you listen to podcasts, Spotify, Apple, Amazon. We appreciate your support, and we'll see you next time.