Blocks w/ Neal Brennan - Earthquake
Episode Date: July 10, 2025Neal Brennan interviews Earthquake (Chappelle's Home Team - Earthquake: Legendary plus more specials) about the things that make him feel lonely, isolated, and like something's wrong - and how he is p...ersevering despite these blocks. 00:00 Intro 2:30 Comedy Career 10:00 Spirituality 16:02 Sponsor: BetterHelp 18:08 Sponsor: Tushy 20:09 Marriage 32:02 Selfishness 37:57 Inattentiveness 43:18 Sponsor: Modern Mammals 44:31 Sponsor: ExpressVPN 46:29 Biggest challenges of his life 57:47 Grudges 1:03:13 Improving relationships 1:13:15 Co-existing with a woman ---------------------------------------------------------- Watch Earthquake's new special on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81497886 Follow Neal Brennan: https://www.instagram.com/nealbrennan https://twitter.com/nealbrennan https://www.tiktok.com/@mrnealbrennan Watch Neal Brennan: Crazy Good on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81728557 Watch Neal Brennan: Blocks on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81036234 Theme music by Electric Guest (unreleased). Edited by Will Hagle (wthagle@gmail.com) Sponsors: This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at https://www.betterhelp.com/neal and get on your way to being your best self. Visit https://www.hellotushy.com and use promo code NEAL for 10% off your first bidet order. Visit https://www.modernmammals.com to shop for hair products. Visit https://www.expressvpn.com/NEAL for an extra 4 months FREE! Sponsor Blocks: https://public.liveread.io/media-kit/blocks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
My guest today, I've been hearing about for 32 years.
Dave Chappelle met this guy in 1993
and then told me one of your jokes
that I repeated to my girlfriend a week ago
about selling cocaine and selling crack,
having different sentences,
that you got 10 years for selling crack
and five years for selling cocaine.
No, the joke was,
I sort of remember. No, it's working.
Cocaine, you got, I forgot how it went,
but the thesis of it more or less was,
you get 25 years of life for crack
and then you get five years for cocaine,
and it's the same amount of weight.
The only difference between cocaine and crack
is the baking soda.
So if I sold crack cocaine, I had to give them,
here's your cocaine, here's your baking soda.
You gotta cook it for yourself.
Yeah, you gotta cook it for yourself, because they give you an extra 25 it for yourself yeah yeah you got to cook it for yourself
yeah cuz they give you extra 25 years for that recipe yeah you go yeah was
that your first great joke you know I mean did you consider it better than
your other joke yeah I had I mean it I had a lot of them. You had a lot of good jokes.
I have a lot of when it's pointed like that.
I try to find when I do write
and I try to make that the standard.
Oh yeah, like literally that joke?
Yeah, that joke.
Okay good, because I was gonna say,
I kind of do too with that joke? Yeah that joke. Okay good because I was gonna say I kind of do too
with that joke. You know. Meaning like if I can write a joke that's that good
that's like that logically structurally sound. It's like remember Rock's Chris
Rock's joke about James Earl Ray? Yeah. Remember that he had a joke, Chris Rock
had a joke about James Earl Ray. He's the guy who shot Martin Luther King and and
Everyone has Martin Luther King's birthday off
Including James O'Rae. So the joke was about James O'Rae walking around prison being like, you know, I'm the only reason we have off today
Yeah, none of them bother time and that was Chris's first like great joke
And it was like and then he figured out a way to do an hour of that.
Right.
And I would suggest you've done the same.
He has a Netflix special, Earthquake does.
What's it called?
Legendary.
Legendary, yes.
37 minutes guys, the perfect length.
And he's got excellent jokes.
And you had a Showtime special. Yes. Where you fucked the joke up and you kept a Showtime special
where you fucked the joke up and you kept it in.
And it's so goddamn funny
because it felt like you were in class at school.
You know what I mean?
NextFix was the first special I had
that was properly financed.
Okay.
So when Showtime did theirs,
she was on a structure, you know it as a comedian,
we gotta get it that way.
Right, you have one shot, you can't.
Yeah, you got one shot.
Yeah.
You know, one take quick, you know what I mean?
And you didn't have different people there
that had your best interest on it,
they just wanted the product itself.
So when you get to a certain level that I am now,
then you can do two or three different shows
to get it done in some more relaxed form now
to do it now than it was previous.
Everything was riding on the shoes.
Yeah, you had one one shot, and the audience leaving, you're not gonna get pick up,
you're not doing anything.
Yeah, it was just, it was on the tremendous
outside pressure to have to do it.
So you, and then I was in a totally different mindset
then than I am now.
It wasn't even that long ago though, right?
It was 10 years?
I don't even know how long that one was to be quite honest with you. Well, what did you, you're,
you're in your 50s, so what did you think was gonna happen?
You know what I mean? To be honest with you, to be honest with you, I thought personally,
previous comedians in our field, once they had successful specials,
certain things came along with them.
TV shows, bookbill, tour.
I'm talking about before Netflix,
what did you think, were you like,
cause you were always so goddamn funny in clubs,
and like this dude, I've never seen this guy
do even medium, You always crushed.
So I was... Were you frustrated?
No. Because I was... I mean...
You always made a good living.
A great living.
And who was I going to complain to?
Because I was doing the best among everybody else
that I'm around. You know what I'm saying?
My friends, my family, I'm doing well.
Who am I going to complain to?
And then it's a constant reminder
that I am doing well by the circle of people
that I'm around, you know, that my friends, my family,
financially, on the financial point, not on success-wise,
is not doing as well as me, so, you know,
there's nothing to cry about.
And then you also understand what you're dealing with.
What we deal with is subjective,
what's funny to one person, not funny to others.
And also the people that I was telling my jokes to,
who found me so funny,
didn't have the means to be able to advance my career.
You know, that's one thing by not performing
in mainstream comic clubs.
Yeah, because you would do like.
Yes, urban.
But also like southern rooms.
Yes.
Southern cities that like,
as a white person I barely heard of.
Yes.
And, but it's like, I'm sure you're doing,
selling a thousand, two thousand tickets.
Selling, making a lot of money.
Yeah.
But no one in that audience able to take what they've seen
and be able to further my career.
Yeah.
Give me a TV show had I did the same thing
and just stayed more here in LA or New York
where people that will be able to see my talent
would be able to expand my career.
And you were never, you were never,
you didn't really care.
I mean, I don't pander.
No, I get it.
But I don't think you'd be pandering in LA or New York,
but I'm saying you were just like, this is.
To be honest with you, man, if you go to LA clubs,
when you see certain comedians,
you can tell that is not what it is.
What they're like.
That's not their demographic.
No, I wouldn't say comedic demographic.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know what I'm saying?
Ideologically demographic.
But they're there for hopefully someone
that sees them that has the power
to give them TV shows and the rest of it.
And you never cared?
No.
It didn't seem like I should,
I would like to have a show and a sitcom and this and that.
And, because it seems like the world kind of changed more
to what you've been doing.
Meaning like just crushing and being like a sprinter.
Just like sprint and you just sprint and it's like,
oh fuck, he's very fast.
Where it used to be like, can you come you just sprint, and it's like, oh, fuck, he's very fast.
Where it used to be like, can you come to our sitcom,
and you'll have a dressing room, and all that shit?
To be honest with you, you just think, you know,
that if you continue on to be, do high-level work,
at a high level, somebody can recognize it,
and make that call.
I've seen this movie by Michael Jordan, Air,
and I think, I forgot the white actor who's the,
I think it's, that played it,
but he was the man that was willing to sacrifice his career
to give Michael those tennis shoes.
And I think Matt Damon played the carrier.
And I always said, eventually I will find that person
that feel that way about me,
like that white dude felt about Michael.
And do you think, was it Dave?
Dave was. Dave put his...
I mean, I guess that puts us in the same boat.
Yeah, yeah. Dave put his clout.
I wouldn't have a Netflix special,
which we're about to do another one this year.
I wouldn't even have one if Dave didn't go in there
and use his clout to say,
this is the guy that you should put on.
And many of people,
privately, publicly,
has told me the same accolades that you have given me, but never used that,
their clout for whatever reason,
to, uh, forward that, their feelings.
And, you know, certain people get bitter over that.
And a lot of people come back to me and say,
well, if they feel that way, they could and then,
and always say, and I've always said and I will say,
it's not their responsibility.
Yeah, you could interpret that in a very racial way, right?
You could take the sort of like lack of opportunity
and it's because you're black or whatever.
There's a million, it could be a bunch
of different reasons, right?
But you never really got, you never really tripped off it.
You never.
Well, because, see, you can't have faith
and then don't rely on it.
That's funny.
Yeah, either you have faith or you don't.
Well, you don't.
If you sit down here and says God is all
and he makes all the decisions,
then how am I angry for this man and do what I think what he should do for me?
That's an oxymoron.
It's a conflict.
You can't.
So I look at him like you don't control my destiny
nor my destiny is never in any man's hands.
So if you do it, that means that God wanted you
to do that for me and I appreciate it for it.
And if you don't, then it wasn't you to do it for me.
You're not part of the plan.
Was that easy to access?
No.
I mean, it wasn't easy to access that level of, like,
spirituality or faith or whatever?
No, I mean, my mother taught me that long time ago.
I mean, no one is responsible for you.
That's how I got my comedy club.
They wouldn't let me perform in a comedy club.
You had a comedy club in the 90s, right?
In Atlanta, yeah.
I bought my own comedy club because the comedy act theater
wouldn't let me perform in a club.
And my mother said, well, to start my own comedy club because the Comedy Act theater wouldn't let me perform in a club.
And my mother said, well, get your own club.
I said, you just can't buy a comedy club.
She said, why not?
Yeah.
And so that's what I did.
What it cost?
It cost a half a million dollars.
To start the club.
To start the club.
Me, Uptown Comedy Corner, me and Gary Abdul, we had an investor and that's why it was called Uptown, because it was in Buckhead,
this was before black people would start really patronizing
Buckhead in Atlanta, and I was just coming there
for the first time, so I didn't know the state.
Was this sort of like the tip of the spear
in terms of like getting more black people to Buckhead?
Yes, it was, yes it was.
I can take that credit off of it,
because I used to make commercials, you know,
purring and because we was in the South.
Come on, let's go to Buckhead.
You weren't supposed to be up there.
You're gonna be in trouble.
We deserve to be in Buckhead.
Come on, let's up there.
Oh, I don't know. You know?
Playing it on it like you got to kill that mindset
that, you know, certain places we wasn't allowed.
And I'm in the band for Washington, D.C.
I don't succumb to this mentality.
We're allowed anyway.
I didn't know the line is there,
and it was just a known that you shouldn't be there.
Did you know it was gonna be 500 grand?
No.
What do you think, it ended up being 500?
Well, the first thing is we was trying to find investors
and I went to everybody, Deon Sanders, everybody on it,
but Gary found this, his name was Tom,
he was a plastic surgeon.
He fixed all the ugly chicks' face and big titties in Georgia.
He was one of the biggest plastic surgeons.
So he gave us some money and said,
listen, y'all, I'm gonna give y'all 25,000
and y'all go and flip that out, throw some shows,
and if you come back and show a profit off of that,
then I do the rest.
And that's what we did.
We went down to Birmingham and the rest.
That's where we ran into Ricky Smiley.
So you were, you produced your own shows.
Yes.
Who was on it?
I met Gary.
Gary Abdul was putting moves in his own show as a comic.
He was doing them like in Taco Bell and stuff like that.
Taco Max, just written out of, go to the hotel
and talk to the beverage manager
and ask them, hey, can we put comedy in there?
That's when they had coconuts way back in there
and rent those out.
So we showed a profit from there.
And once we showed, we flipped the 25
and made it to 50 to 75, he gave us what it is.
And we had to find a location.
We had to build it out.
How long was the club there for?
Club was still there, it moved around,
but this club still exists now.
It's in Atlanta, Uptown Comedy Club.
And you're still the owner and you still?
No, I got out of business, me and Gary,
it's a long story, we went our separate ways,
what made me move here to, in the 2000 here in LA.
Looking back, does it feel bold?
Yeah, but see that's why. Because by the way, you haven't been doing stand up that long at that point. in here in LA. Looking back, does it feel bold? Yeah.
Because, by the way, you haven't been doing stand-up
that long at that point.
I hadn't done stand-up at all.
I was just starting out.
So you've done like five shows, and you're like,
you know what?
Yeah.
That's wild.
Yeah, that's because I wanted to work.
I was doing like a little circuit with coconuts,
and I forgot the other promoter.
You know, the circus down there.
They're sitting down there.
But the more or less, I entered Gary
into the black comedy club circuit.
I mean, what it was doing, I took him to the comedy act
and said, if you wanna open up a club,
you don't need to open up a white club
because you had the funny bone there
and the punch line already in Atlanta.
You need a real black comedy club.
And at that time, Comedy Act had 400 seats
and they was booking the same comic for the whole month.
And they didn't have food enough
and then only had four waitress.
I'm like, all we gotta do is put that.
Plus they was in a part of town that was very,
I just say challenging.
And for everybody or for white people?
For everybody, for everybody.
Got it.
Sexuality wise, foreign wise.
And so that's why I said let's move in and name it Uptown.
You know, and the club didn't have food,
so we got food, better place, valet, up and on there.
And that's what we did.
What were you doing?
What was your life like before that?
I was in the military for nine years.
I was going to do 20 years.
I keep telling people, but the war broke out.
So I got to get out.
They fighting for real.
I don't mind practicing for fighting.
No, I practice.
But when a real fight, you need a real soldier.
So I loaded nuclear weapons, 462, for about nine years.
What did you think your life was going to be then?
It was just like I always do.
I didn't have plans.
I was like, this is the best decision
today until another decision comes.
And you still live that way?
Yes, I do.
Is that the, I guess you don't know any other way?
Well, I mean, again, if you I guess you don't know any other way?
Well, I mean, again, if you're going to have faith in God,
it's up to him.
You know, I make a plan because he
determined where you're going to be.
So I wake up and just be as productive
I can for that day and forget about yesterday
and appreciate the day.
And hopefully, I'll see you tomorrow.
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Okay, and you got married?
I got married the first time.
I'm getting married again, but yeah,
I got married out here when I had my son,
about 22 years ago.
How do you like being a parent?
Parents, being a parent is rewarding and challenging.
Marriage is a great institution and you know,
I'm a kind of a one woman type of man, you know what I mean?
So, I like being, just pick the right one.
So that's the key?
Oh, that's definitely the key.
That's the biggest decision you would ever make
is who you share that time with.
It's such a big decision you can't,
and then having a child with them,
it's like you can't even explain to someone
what a big decision it is.
I mean, it's huge.
It's the biggest decision you're making in your life.
Who mothers your kids?
Who you, you know, if I had to do it all over again
in life, I would love myself better
and protect myself from that ever happening.
Just in exchange for the physical satisfaction.
Well, that's what I was gonna say.
What would you put in place in culture? A condom. A condom. What system would you put in place for people like to like you can't get married?
Like what would what would you what does someone have to know? That momentary
satisfaction for whatever it is. If it's your manhood or just the sensation
of being with that woman is not worth if she's the wrong one.
When did you, all right, so you're marrying,
you're getting remarried to, you said,
before we started, this is the right woman, et cetera.
What makes this woman the right woman for you?
She makes me, I know it sounds cliche,
but we can coexist when not effortlessly, What makes this woman the right woman for you? She makes me, I know it sounds cliche,
but we can coexist with not effortlessly.
I don't have to do anything.
We can sit right here in this studio and enjoy each other.
And she doesn't criticize you?
She doesn't have something you should be doing?
She doesn't criticize me.
She enhanced me.
She's the first woman to ever tell me that I was funny.
She's the first woman that, I mean,
most of the women I dealt with,
dealt with, I mean, dealt with,
benefited off my talent.
Of course.
You know what I'm saying?
Of course, that doesn't make it funny though.
That don't make it funny.
They don't wanna give you the power of saying you're funny.
No, no, they don't, they don't emboll you.
There's no feeling like if you have a woman
that lays beside you, that gives you the belief,
metaphorically says like being a corner man
that sit here and tell you what you need to know
and encourage you to put you out off that stool
to go out there and fight again.
And it's so, I've been talking to my girl about this,
it's so silly That that's not
The it the this person you should be the most special person in her life
Exactly, and she should be the most special person in your life and you should treat each other
Like kind of exalt each other because you're the most special you're all you eat
You're all you have.
If she's the right one.
Yes.
See, that's the, and you can tell when it ain't that.
How many people you think are with the right person, percentage wise?
10%.
Yep, I totally agree.
10%.
Yep.
A lot of them is just there for the standard 11th.
Yeah.
I think both men and women make the-
Both of them.
I mean, both of them.
Yeah.
Both of them. I'm not, no particular sex, when I say stand in the living,
I said, I wrote a joke long time ago,
and then I said I understand why rich people get divorced,
because it's hard to put up with somebody's shit
when you don't need their half on the rent.
Yeah.
You know what I'm saying?
I do not need you for my stand in the living,
I'm not just talking about financially,
just for my psyche, whatever, only.
It's easy to replace you.
Because the need for you is minimal.
I can find somebody else that doesn't think I'm funny.
I can, but for her, she's my soul to the point
that encouraged me, you know what I mean?
It's like a good coach, man, that you hear
players say it all the time.
We'll run through the wall for our coach,
you know what I mean?
That's when you have a good woman
that motivates you to, one, even to succeed
because she believes in you.
Did you find it strange when she said you were funny?
Or, like, are you still waiting for the other shoe to drop?
Were you like...
No.
I feel that way.
No.
You're not, man?
No, no.
Because I don't wait for the shoe to drop because it's the right pair or zone.
I've been so many, and I say this in no disrespect to any woman I've ever been with, but had I
known this existed...
Yeah, because you chose it.
Yeah, I chose this.
But I didn't know either that this exists.
Now I have something to compare it to.
It's not a myth.
You know what I mean?
What do you, because I've been talking to my girl about this.
She's a therapist.
What do you think it is
that makes the modern relationships so shitty?
Where like the woman's mad all the time and the guy just feels like a guest in their own
life where they're just walking around.
She's not with a man that every woman, every woman, it's just women, has an expectation in the man she wanted in her life.
And when she can't find that man, then she compromised.
Yeah.
And over the time of the compromise and the sell-a-ness,
the frustration come out.
But trust me, if you're the man that she desired
in her life and you have meet that expectation, the man she desired in her life and you have meet that expectation
of the man she wanted in her life and exceeded it,
gratefulness followed that.
Happiness followed that.
Territorial followed that.
She isolated, she makes sure she monitors everything
because she know how valuable not only you are to her,
but to who she is,
because she's never gonna find this again.
She's kind of like a Stephanie Mills,
so I never knew love like this before.
I never knew.
I like everything except the territorial.
Oh, territorial is a beautiful thing.
You like it?
I love my woman,
but that doesn't let me know that I'm valuable to her.
Yeah, but don't make me feel bad for going to the mall. You didn't know that I'm valuable to her. Yeah, but don't make me feel bad for going to the mall.
Oh, you didn't know that.
You just, I'm still going.
You know what I'm saying?
But dearly noted.
You understand what I'm saying?
Yeah, I appreciate where you're coming from.
I understand.
Your heart's in the right place, but you got to not.
But when she don't care that you go to the mall,
and when she don't, then I swear you should work.
Oh, OK.
You know what I'm saying?
When she just say, go ahead and go,
stay out of the next three days.
You know, certain men are in that kind of relationship.
That they don't care enough about.
Here's my question.
What do you think men's expectations is for a relationship?
For like their dream woman?
Cause I feel like our standards,
I feel like men would just like, we have like this,
again, like the high school kid dream of like,
just sex all the time and then that slowly gets like
beaten out of us.
And then, because it's like gross and like, ugh.
And then it's like, just be cool.
Can we just relax?
And that seems like, I feel like our standards are lower
so we're less disappointed.
Yeah, because you don't wanna be disappointed,
but the ultimate thing is you just wanna be the same thing.
You want a woman to love you just like your mother
but you get to sleep with her.
You understand what I'm saying?
The loving part of it, the nurturing part of it.
You know what I mean?
I'm for the world.
You think that's a realistic expectation of women?
That's the real expectation of any man.
The nurturing part from the woman,
without having to be told.
Right.
That she can see what you need, without you asking her.
Sometimes she can see what you need
without you knowing that's what you need.
Yeah.
But see, that's transferable when you have from a woman,
because that's her female intuition,
and that's what she do when she loves you.
A woman, your girlfriend right now,
could see a dude walk through this door,
and you could say, that's my man.
He's cool with me, he's my boy.
And she could look you in the face and never met him,
say, that ain't your friend.
She could smell who don't love her baby.
She can smell who don't have a good intention for her man.
She can tell, but if you suppressed it,
treat a man and not allow that to come out,
to be able to, you'll never get that resource
from your woman.
How have you changed or improved in relationships?
Patience.
Patience.
What for? Patience for what?
Just patience for things that not in my best interest.
And what I mean by best interest,
what I would like to be doing right now.
You know?
What do you tend to like to do?
Well, I like to be left alone.
My mind is moved around and my wife to be.
She penetrates that and whatever.
We could be sitting here right now.
What she want from me right now, she'll interrupt.
She will.
Oh yeah, babe, can you?
Yeah.
I mean, we talk right here.
Oh, my fault.
But when y'all finish that, can you?
You see what I'm saying?
She is that. No woman has ever done that before. Interrupted you? finish that King U, you see what I'm saying? She is that.
No woman has ever done that before.
Interrupted you?
Oh, no, no, we don't have that.
I mean, what I mean by interrupting,
ever made what she want more in priority
than what I'm doing or what I plan on doing.
That have always been a no-go for me.
That's when I knew I loved her
because I would stop doing what I'm doing
and immediately see what she need me to do.
Was it like a boundary you had to set in the past?
No, just the flow of the growth of,
that's what she needed from me.
And I was, it's transactional.
Did you resent it?
Did you resent it?
I still do every day.
I told her the other day, I'm out to buy you a slave.
You know they going cheap right now.
Because she asked me so many different things
and now you need a slave.
And you don't, you know, the expectations aren't too high.
Well, no, if that's what she need,
I'm still gonna bark at it, but I'm still gonna do it.
And she doesn't care about the barking. Oh, that's helpful. No, I'm still gonna bark at it, but I'm still gonna do it. And she doesn't care about the barking.
Oh, that's helpful.
No, she don't pay no attention.
She don't care.
Eh, whatever.
It's like your mama talking to you,
I don't feel like killing up.
Yeah, you can say all that,
but you still gonna clean that room.
You can cry and pout and throw your toys all over,
all that, but that room better be clean.
And do you think women in the past kind of let you be
because they didn't care about you
or they were scared of interrupting you or what?
That's a good question.
Maybe they didn't want to rock the boat.
They didn't want to mess up the relationship that we had.
But that would distinguish them from her.
She never had that fear.
I'm not afraid that even if it comes to the point
of losing you, this is how it's gonna be.
And you admire that strength.
I do, you know what I mean?
You admire that.
She don't, cow tells.
She, even though I am who I am and I take on the burden
of most of the things that handle for us
to have this standard of living
and the things that we able to enjoy,
but she runs it and she don't contribute a dime to it.
So usually when you deal with a man
with those different variables, I'm the boss of them,
but no, she is, she runs it. How have you changed as a person?
Like, what in your life?
Like, what did you, what areas did you need to improve?
The biggest part is I have always been selfish.
And I thought that just comes along with the occupation.
Were you selfish in the military?
Hell yeah.
Well, that wasn't the occupation then.
What would you think it was? I was in the military. Were you selfish in the military? Hell yeah.
Well, that wasn't the occupation then.
What would you think it was?
Man, I...
I ain't joined...
I just joined. This was a great place to start.
I'm only here for a little while.
This is not... I don't see myself being here
for this long. I just wanted to get out my mother house
and kick it around and see the world.
Soon this job is going on with this attempt job.
So all the other things that you're selling,
it doesn't apply to me.
Oh, so you were like above it?
Yeah.
You know what I'm saying?
Did people resent you for it?
Yeah.
I didn't give a damn.
They called me slouch, skate quake, you know,
skating strobe, strobe,
all those things, but it never bothered me
because I'm just waiting for the next thing,
whatever I'm supposed to be doing to formulate.
So did, and you've tried to become less selfish?
No.
So you have, you just notice it in yourself
and you're like, oh, I'm selfish.
Yeah, it's just a quality that's,
I mean, I only do things that I know I'm good at.
I think most men are like that.
I think that's like why I tell it to my girl all the time.
It's like guys go to work because they're good at it.
Yeah, I don't, I don't.
Like I was an average basketball player
so I stopped playing basketball.
Yep.
Because I was average.
Yeah.
Whatever.
See, I'm a different type of,
I have a different mindset.
I believe personally that in life
you should concentrate on your strengths
and work on your faults and your weakness
after you've mastered your strengths.
And if you don't have time.
If you don't have time,
then we're all beautiful, flawed people
and that's your flaws.
Yeah.
You know what I'm saying?
God told you, you're a flawed person.
So these are the things that I'm not great at
and I'm not gonna allow you to make me feel
not a total person or not a great person
because I don't do this well.
And I'll never succumb to that.
Well, we're going to need a sense of accomplishment
because you have overcome that part of it.
Fuck out of here.
Yeah, that's just weakness on it.
I'm gonna put all my energy in what my purpose is
or my strength that what comes on it
because we only got one life.
And why would I use up all this time
for something I don't like to do?
I'm assuming the thing you're,
is there anything besides comedy you're good at?
I'm good at a lot of things,
but right now comedy is the most important thing
because it is, it's what's gonna solidify
my standard of living
for the rest of my life. So I must, I didn't have the privilege or the blessings
of having shows, a TV show, a movie career,
or host any of the-
Any of the many game shows that we now can host.
Game shows, the historic black shows,
Def Jam, Comic for You, Apollo.
Mine has always been grassroots.
But when you're doing grassroots,
that takes enormous of attention to your...
You know what's funny?
You seem like the same age 30 years ago.
Do you know what I mean?
Right.
Like you seem whatever age you are now,
you've always appeared like that to me other than the gray
Maybe you didn't have gray before but like you look this exact same to me
Yeah, I believe in rest I say a lot of people in our profession
Stay they rich and then you look at me got the old face. Yeah, and I'll be like you don't got to be doing this
You don't gotta be doing this
Yeah, well these bags look like you ain't sleep you can't take it with you. Yeah, I mean, yeah
What? Listen take there's no reason for you be stressing your face out. Yeah and going through all it is
Yeah, it's changed for what yeah, you understand. I personally have not accumulated enough money
That I can get
Off the road and not do it. But once I do believe me, yeah, it's over
Yeah, I might do one a month. Yeah for whatever two months
Yeah, jumping on a plane every weekend and flying in from cold from Miami one weekend
You and linen next weekend you in Chicago
with a fur coat for what man listen man work take care of my body rest of it get
ample sleep drink water keep your stress load it down make sure you die today and
and no so you're not trying to die on the road you're not trying to die on the road. You're not trying to die at O'Hare Air Board.
Trying to die in my woman.
She hates that joke.
That's fine.
I just say one thing right in here.
Yeah, great.
Right in here.
Just roll.
Push me over and tell them come get me.
Have people, did you know you were,
so people in the military told you,
did your family tell you you were selfish
when you were small?
No, we come from a big family, you had to be selfish.
Yeah, I'm the youngest of ten.
Yeah, so you know, you can't identify selfishness
if you're one of ten.
That's called survival.
You know what I mean? So you're survival.
So, you know, that's why I hate these.
That's why I said,
and I used to say this a long time ago. Um
Plan kids destroy the world
Plan kids is very funny
Yeah, yeah, they spread the world. How many how many in your family? Um, it's six of us
So selfish, what up? What are your other problems? I'm not attentive
Yeah with names that you know, it's no disrespect.
Do you, okay.
Do you, I, when I direct stuff,
I have everybody wear a name tag.
Mm-hmm.
You should do it on your special.
Have the whole crew wear a name tag.
Okay.
Because then you can just call them by name
instead of like, yo, my man, what the thing.
Right.
Um, and people think it's inattentive,
people, it's like, I just don't...
Yes.
It's like, I just don't... Yes.
It's like, I'm not one of those people that go,
when I'm having a conversation, I go,
you know, earthquake, it's funny.
Earthquake, you know, earthquake.
So I said to him, earthquake, like,
I'm just not one of those people who thinks
remembering someone's name.
It just seems like a trick.
It seems like a, like a...
It's like manipulative.
Yes.
Because people go, they teach you that
in like charisma class.
Like you know people's favorite word is the sound of their own name.
So whenever someone does that I'm like they're fucking full of shit.
So but I don't think there's a,
I just also think it's like the way my brain is lined up.
I don't remember people's names.
I second guess them.
I'm with you.
I second guess if it's Greg and I'm like is it Rick?
Then I'll, yeah. So'm with you. I second guess if it's Greg, then I'm like, is it Rick?
Then I'll, yeah.
So I forgive you for being.
I mean, I am terrible with it.
I mean, I mean, and I try, I mean, I don't even,
I stopped trying.
I really did, I mean, it's not my thing.
And-
How about birthday?
How about like your wife's birthday, anniversary,
it's your kid's birthdays?
I'm terrible with that.
Like I know all of these things,
but we don't celebrate designated days.
Like playing kids.
Like playing kids.
Yeah, like birthday yes,
but like Valentine day and Sweetie day.
And I tell them I don't need no designated day
to tell you how I feel about you.
I show that every day.
So I boycott those.
How does she feel about it?
She loves it, because she loves the other days.
Yeah.
Because she knows that I do those things just
because for her.
And anybody can buy you roses on the day
that was designated for you.
How's that showing that they loved you?
It was told, it was mandated.
You understand?
Show it when you just come home and they're there
just because they thought about you.
And it was a Tuesday and it happened to be March 7th.
Yeah, I don't wanna give you,
be attentive the day everybody's being attentive
Let me tap on out of that so I've never
succumbed to that and with every woman every woman someone didn't they say that was just an excuse, but I was like
No, it's not but as they got to know me and seeing how I wrote they understood
That's just you like elaborate. You like elaborate dates?
I do because I'm elaborate to the point.
I like good food and great company.
So the best way it is, I always say is
when I take a woman on a date, when I was dating,
was I allow them to pick the restaurant
so they're already satisfied.
I tell them, you pick the restaurant,
you pick the place, I pick up the check.
Great. And some don't even like that. They want, I picked it. I pick up the check. Great.
And some don't even like that.
They want you to pick it.
Well, and then I can already tell
you ain't the woman for me.
Well, it turns out none of them were.
Yeah.
They was all right, but the opposite.
See what people don't understand,
ain't nothing wrong with them.
No, I'm with it, yeah, yeah.
They just didn't meet their expectations.
No, they just wasn't right for me.
I was looking for Miss Right, not Miss All Right.
You know, certain men get to the point, like,
all right, come on.
You're the best thing out here, you know.
You're eight out of ten of things I'm looking for.
I also think the thing that we were talking about earlier
about, like, the miss...
one of the common mistakes is the lifestyle one,
but it's also the... I've spent so much...
I've invested so much time. Yeah. And it's like... No, I don, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean only getting better, man, again, faith,
and you only got one life.
Yeah.
You're giving up your prime real estate
for somebody you know is not the one.
Yeah.
So have the faith that she's there,
and as long as she's there, you're not gonna be able
to find her, because she's occupying a place
that your woman's supposed to be.
And that's what every woman that I have ever broke up with, and I say, you need to find the your woman's supposed to be. And that's what every woman that I ever broke up with,
I said, you need to find the man
that's supposed to be with you.
And you're never gonna find him
if you're laying up here with me.
So you need to go find him like I need to find.
You need to find your Mr. Right,
I need to find my Mr. Right.
Did they, that's, I've used that approach
and I think it's about as good an approach as you can use to break up with somebody who's like,
you know this isn't it, it's just not it.
Well you really don't have to break up,
you just, see the good thing about our jobs is
we just get busy.
You know what I mean?
If you, like I tell a comedian,
if you apply everything it is to be a great comedian,
you don't have time for messing with women
that has no substance.
Yeah.
Because it's only 24 hours in a day.
Yep.
You know what I mean?
So you really have to find that person.
You know what I mean?
Because that's the only reason it don't make sense
to be productive.
Hey, you know how,
you're probably a guy for watching this.
You know how girls won't wash their hair sometimes, you're like, what's with them?
You know why they don't wash it is because most shampoos get rid of all the natural oil
and then your hair lays flat and it doesn't have any volume at all, which I didn't kind
of, I never really thought about.
So I got some of this modern mammal washing product.
It's great. It basically you just put it in, count to five, wash it out.
Super simple. And it keeps all your natural oils and it's way better than any shampoo you're using.
So now I use this instead of shampoo. Shower is shorter and it doesn't get rid of the oils.
It's just much lighter, it's more moisturizing,
doesn't dry out your scalp and hair.
It basically just like keeps the natural bio dome
of your head going.
It doesn't distort your natural oils like a shampoo would.
And legit great.
I wish you were here right now.
Man, I would have you smell my head.
That's my biggest regret is that you're not here right now
Smelling my head modern mammals really good use it. I use it this morning. You use it in a few days. Yes modern mammals
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What are the biggest challenges of your life then?
Right now?
No, ever.
The three biggest challenges you've ever faced.
Oh, that's a good one, man. One lately is understanding a lot comes with this.
That's why I think God didn't give it to me earlier.
How do you think you would have handled it?
Well, I'd be dead or locked up.
From drugs or fighting someone?
Well, just for the disrespect that men do,
that they would never ever do in real life. from drugs or fighting someone? Well, just for the disrespect that men do,
that they would never ever do in real life.
You know, the squawking, the talking,
the different things, you know what I mean?
Do they squawk at you?
You're talking about just people on the street
or restaurants around?
No, no one ever squawks in the streets, to me.
It's the internet that thumbs.
Oh yeah, you can't even look at that. You know, no you can't, I don't.
It's usually somebody else around you bring it to you.
Right, exactly.
You know what I mean?
I'm not, if I wasn't in entertainment,
I wouldn't even have, be even on social media.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
I remember Dave saying, why would anyone tweet?
And I like couldn't, because he was famous before Twitter.
Yes.
So I was like, yeah, to him, it doesn't mean,
it's like what?
Like he couldn't get his head around with it.
Because he's from DC and we, the mentality is this.
You must already accomplish everything you're supposed
to do in your life for you to be sitting here telling what another man should be doing in his life.
That is equivalent to looking at somebody else's house dirty and saying you need to clean your house and yours ain't clean.
Yeah, it's a glass house.
You understand? I mean, you, are you finished cleaning yours?
Okay, so when you say what comes along with it,
it's the, it requires a level of patience
or a level of even temper that you didn't always have.
No, it comes away more than anything.
How you have to be able to,
and this really plagues my community more than anything,
where we come from and where we was taught is contradicting.
It's totally different than what we go through now.
In other words, we're not, we don't allow,
when you have a critique of another man, In other words, we're not, we don't allow,
when you have a critique of another man, you bring it to another man,
and you have to deal with the consequences
of telling that other man that.
You see what I'm saying?
You don't critique another man unless you want to go over there.
You over there to fix what you said is wrong.
You understand what I'm saying?
And deal with the consequences of trying to fix it.
Or you don't say nothing to them.
You get what I'm saying?
So to sit here and critique another man
without even talking to that man
and that other man have to take it without,
showing you these are the consequences
of you just coming over here.
Well, it is funny that people say shit online
or whatever public and it ends up online,
because they know you can't really respond.
Not only they know you can't respond,
they know the devastation or the consequences of you
responding is only gonna help them even more.
See what I'm saying?
So my father told me this a long time ago
and I live by it.
He said one of his friends went to jail
and he went to visit him.
And everybody in the neighborhood was like,
because his friend killed the dude.
And he said he went to go see his friend
and his friend said, he got me.
And my father, what you mean, you killed that motherfucker?
He said, nah, I'm in jail for 25 years.
Yeah, yeah.
He got me.
What I didn't realize, to get me, he was willing to sacrifice himself just to get me.
I call it getting called off sides.
You understand? Exactly.
Basically, like, the snap count got me.
I'm like, fuck.
Got you, got me. I'm like got you got you. Yeah, you understand
He get and and what he and what he told me was, you know, I'm saying
Never let a minute cost you your life. Yeah, you know the mean
because
Everything you said about that person is true
But he got you. Yeah
Yeah, and even though he's dead your I're, I mean, he no longer exists.
You exist and your life sucks.
And that's what he wanted.
Oh, yeah, or even, that's what he wanted.
He wanted your life to suck.
He didn't like the standard of living you was with.
He didn't like the woman you were with or whatever things he didn't like the standard of living you was with him. He didn't like the woman you was with him. Whatever things he didn't like.
And this the extreme that he went to, to disturb it.
And you took the bait off of it.
And he said, he said he was sitting in his cell.
He said when he drove back, he was like,
it changed my father's life.
So he really installed that into us
to remember, you know,
personal satisfaction of getting it
could also allow a weaker man to win.
Yeah.
You know what I'm saying?
So all you're gonna get out of there
is the personal satisfaction of it.
So in some ways you've had to,
especially in the social media age, get better at kind of
just taking it.
Mm-hmm.
Call it an occupational hazard.
Able to compartmentalize it.
And more than anything, what you say or what you do or who you are,
what you say, what you do on,
so it's none of my business
and it's not my business to make it my business.
And that's what I do.
And that's the only way I was able to digest it.
You understand what I'm saying?
No, I know exactly what you're saying.
To digest it because it was very hard
because this is how you've been raised.
You have been raised for the personal satisfaction.
How dare you?
You understand?
Man to man, because if we were man to man,
you wouldn't have nothing you could do with me.
I know that and you know that.
So I have to take just that comfort of knowing that and let it go.
I know, but god damn it.
God damn it, man. Oh, you don't even know it. That's the only time me and my woman had problems
because I went through that and she never seen that part of me. And I was, and you know,
I had to break it down to it. And once she seen it, then she understood it
and helped me to come to where I'm at today with it.
So I'm cool.
Are you of the mind,
cause the thing of the, I mean, you call it petty,
you can call it vengeful, call it,
in some ways, it's self care.
Yeah, it is, but it's the fabric of a man.
Remember, Heat, Robin De Niro, could've got away.
Had to go back and kill that dude.
You understand?
Had his woman waiting for him, he got off, he had to go.
But he had to go back,
because he needed that personal satisfaction
of getting him and on.
That's what you have to relieve yourself of.
And true men who comes from that ilk
have to learn to do that.
And I always say,
cause I watch a lot of crimes this story,
like first 48 hours, after the first 48 hours,
on the stand, all that stuff.
That's my true TV.
Oh, I love it.
And while I always, yes, I always say
I would always like to be the fly on the wall
when that man comes to that conclusion
that the decision he made, for whatever reason,
cost him the rest of his life.
And then he has to evaluate it. Was it worth it? He made for whatever reason cost him the rest of his life. Yeah, and
Then he has to evaluate it. Was it worth it? Yeah, see those ain't I mean, I think the only time it's worth it and
I'm sure you've watched the same amount of videos when a
Kid gets molested. Yes, and the dog and the dad goes after the yes, like that's one of those things that like... I can do my time off there. Yep.
Sitting up, I eat a baloney sandwich,
yeah, what it is, I can do it.
A baloney sandwich would be better,
eating a baloney sandwich,
knowing that I did the right thing would be better
than eating a gourmet meal,
knowing that I didn't do everything to protect my daughter.
But I'm gonna put you in the quagmire on this, dog.
All right.
But what if you got four other kids?
I, yeah, or your daughter.
I'm not talking about, yeah, I'm not talking,
I totally agree.
You understand what I'm saying?
Now you, you didn't, you did the righteous thing
for the one daughter, but you left the other four out there
without a father.
You see what I'm saying?
By the way, the daughter doesn't have a father either.
The daughter don't have a father either.
You get what I'm saying?
Yeah.
Back to what I was saying previously. He got you.
He got you.
He got you.
He got you.
So it's the hardest, man.
It's the, and you know, it's, trust me,
it's a lot of sleepless nights.
It's a lot of hum.
I know.
It's a lot of hum. I know. It's a lot of other things.
I just, the hum, the Buddhist thing,
there's a Buddhist story where they're like,
so they just believe everything's an illusion, right?
It's all like suffering is just being attached to outcomes
and being attached to anything.
So they have to believe that everything's an illusion and none of it's real. And then a Buddhist monk's son dies, right? And he's
upset. And one of his students is like, but this is just an illusion. He goes, but a son
dying is the greatest illusion of all. You know what I mean? Like, this is an illusion he goes but a son dying is the greatest illusion of all you know
what I mean like it's yeah like this is an illusion but god damn it's right on
the edge of seeming of feeling real right and it's the same shit with this
where you're like oh even though no one we're not talking about what we're
talking about but but no one was against you.
That's what I'll say.
A lot of my friends.
I didn't know, I didn't think about it
until you brought it up, I'll say that.
Well, because my friends know, because they know me.
People that know me always try to walk me off the cliff.
Don't. Yeah. Don't. always try to walk me off the cliff.
Don't. Don't.
It was like Joe Biden, don't.
I have one word, don't.
Just don't.
And I was proud of myself because I was able
to make that trans.
So now, when it happens now, it's easier to take
because my mindset is that strong on it.
Do you believe that thing of when you hold a grudge,
you only hurt yourself?
True.
I know, but again, talk about an illusion
that's right on the edge.
But you're true, because they moving,
you have to tell yourself, I mean,
you're not factoring in their life.
I know.
They're moving on with their life.
I write in my journal all the time,
nobody's thinking about you.
Stop thinking about other people.
Yeah, they're not thinking about you.
And if they all is sitting out here,
if you do act on it, you know what I mean?
Again, he got you.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
He pulled your card to make you come out of character
and make you snatch everything.
So my new things is, you're gonna have to hate me
from the cheap seats,
because I'm not coming off this hill.
I know.
I'm not.
I literally write in my journal,
like don't leave the porch.
Just don't leave the front porch.
I just stay on the front porch
and go like I can see people fucking trespassing.
And I'm like, not leaving the porch, don't leave it.
Don't leave the porch.
You just, because they're gonna get you, man.
I know.
And you're gonna sit there, though it was righteous,
though you was right, don't change the icon
that everything you worked for and your freedom is gone
based upon something or somebody else done.
And that realization would be hard to deal with
the fact of what this person or said or did.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
So, where in between the two, I'll take the latter.
Of not just let it go and just tell them,
don't come around here.
It's such a funny age thing too,
cause under 40, you don't, yeah.
You don't even have a chance.
You have no chance of doing the right thing.
None.
And then over 50, what was Will?
Will Smith, 50.
Yeah.
Oh wow.
Couldn't stay on the porch.
He just, he could not stay on the porch. He just, he could not stay on the porch.
He just, fuck, open the gate,
went across the street.
Like, he just couldn't, you know what I mean?
And I know we're not tight,
but I know somewhere deep, you know,
somewhere in the shower, somewhere you're like, nah.
He got me.
He got me. Yeah. He got me. Yep. he got me yeah he got me yep he got me mm-hmm
got me on the biggest night of my night Oscar uh-huh lead that all I worked for
I desire to be everything in front of the world yeah image my brand well the
weird thing about it and I hate even talking about it,
because it's so hacky, but like he would have not,
10 years earlier, he wouldn't have done anything.
He like regressed in a weird way.
Like, do you know what I mean?
Like he got, to me, it got more,
like the thing I'm saying, like age,
he was so corporate for so long
that he wouldn't have done it.
And then he got less corporate from like 45 on.
I think also the accumulation
of all the circumstances around him.
And before it wasn't magnified as much
because there wasn't no social media.
So the accumulation of it,
personal things he'd gone through,
just the situation and we all do things
out of impulse that we regret.
And business-wise, it was a bad move.
Yeah, I, it, yes, I think, yes.
If you, hell with the personal, because we back again, personal satisfaction, You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying?
If you, if you, if you, hell with the personal,
cause we back there again, personal satisfaction,
you hit a man, he's gonna heal.
Yeah, you have to hit him real hard for him not to heal.
You know what I mean?
We're talking about the physical aspect of it.
He's gonna heal.
Psychologically, that's, you know,
that's what my good friend Chris on that,
but the physical, so physically,
you only did something that if in five hours
or whatever time, it's gonna be done.
But the last and the fact that what he did
just for the business part,
he didn't work that hard to lose it for that. You get what I'm saying?
So gotcha, gotcha.
And I try to avoid that, the gotcha.
It's that sickly sweet.
Yeah.
It tastes sweet though, it's bitter.
It's like so sweet, it's like, oh, ah.
This is almost too strong.
I'm gonna tell you, George Wilburn is a good friend of mine, he's like, oh, ah. This is almost too strong. I'm gonna tell you, George Wilburn
is a good friend of mine, he's a comedian.
And he said, it was such a big fish.
You know what I mean?
It was such a big one.
Put it back, George.
Let it go, George.
Let it go.
You should have seen it.
You should have seen it.
Stop, George.
Put it back, George.
It was such, it was right there.
Let it go, let it go.
All right, that's it.
What are your other big challenges in your life?
In your entire life, looking back,
what were the biggest challenges?
Just having a better relationship
with people that was in my life
that for whatever reason we go a different way.
You ever been with somebody
and you didn't never understand
why they were so angry with you?
You're like, did I beat this motherfucker?
You know what I mean?
You know what women are men or what?
Women, yeah women.
You're like, did I beat her?
You're like, I must be forgetting something.
Something for you to be this
Yeah, vitriol. You know, do you think it was the the
Disappointment in her compromise. I wouldn't even know because very few women are honest
Yeah, I also think people don't even know why they're doing what they're doing
Yes, they I mean to be honest to tell the honest reason you know
I mean, yeah, say what you honest reason. You know what I mean?
You can say what you wanna say about me,
but if you ask me a question,
I'm gonna give you the honest answer.
You might not like what I say.
You might don't agree what I say,
but that's where I'm at.
Very few people give you an honest answer.
Like I told, I can deal with anybody
long as I know where you stand.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
The flaky people I can't deal stand. You know what I mean? Flaky people I can't deal with.
You know what I mean?
If you're this, you that, I can deal with you.
Because see, I'm not God.
You're not put on this Earth to live up to my expectations.
Do you believe people?
You take people's word for shit?
Not as much as I used to.
Because now, whatever you say don't matter,
I'm watching your actions. But I, whatever you say don't matter, I'm watching your actions.
You know what I mean?
But before, yeah, I believed it.
Yeah, because it's hard, I wanna believe people.
Well, I mean, it's evil, you know what I mean?
So why should I just assume that you're the worst of you?
Exactly.
You know what I mean?
Again and back again, you're not here
to live up to my expectations,
so it ain't up for me to test you to say,
this is what I expect you should be,
or this is what, if I was you, who would have argued?
You know what I mean?
So I put that same on me.
I don't do anything, so I accept who you are.
So you wish that the people that,
the women that the relationships didn't even work,
you wish that the descent into the landing was smoother?
No, the conclusion.
Just because you're not my woman,
or we didn't get to that,
I mean, I should be your enemy.
We could still.
Well yeah, it's also like we were together three years.
Yeah, we should still be called you in good,
because something about me allowed you
to do everything you did with me.
And something about me also is giving you
this attitude you have.
And with the climate that's going out in the world,
I met none of those standards that you should be this angry.
You understand?
The disrespect or as you sleep with another friend.
We've all read the puffy transcripts.
Yeah, no puffy things.
No all, no nothing.
No disrespect, no called you out your name no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I hate to be hurting you. Something with this type of anger.
This kind of dis- What could you have done?
Well-
What to fix to make it not that way?
What could I have done?
Like is that a thing you actually ask yourself?
Like do you ever go, I didn't look back
and be like, that wasn't good, that wasn't good.
No, no.
I always give my best.
If my best wasn't good enough for you,
then I just didn't meet up to your standards or what you needed and I'm cool with that
How many people do you think?
To the to the that 10% of people are with the right person. Hmm
How many people do you think you could make the right person?
Or make the wrong person the right person, do you know what I mean?
Like is there a way that,
you think it's just, it either works or it doesn't.
And we're all fooling ourselves until we realize it doesn't.
I don't think you can make nobody adore you.
And that's what it takes.
I think they'll deal with you.
Back in the day, especially in my heritage,
in my culture, my people,
a lot of our women learned to love the men they was with
because they wanted the security of a house,
out there parents get their own place, a man in their life.
Women couldn't get credit cards until 78.
Yeah, they needed that.
They needed that chaperone, that person,
they needed that man on that.
So that wasn't the man of their dream,
but he did provide, it was more transactional.
You know what I mean?
And seeing that, coming from that,
I had always,, always said,
I'm not gonna do that.
Meaning, I'm not gonna do that to a woman?
No, I'm not gonna do that to myself.
Right.
That's why, you know, being rich,
I can't have any woman and she can play like she love me
because the rewards that comes along with it.
But I'm not gonna do that to myself.
That's why I tell a woman every time I meet one,
I hope you love me.
She say I do, I say I hope so,
because you're gonna need it.
You're gonna need it.
You're not gonna be able to be with me
if you don't love me.
As soon as I smell it.
When you say you're gonna need it,
do you mean because you're a pain in the ass
or you're not a great husband or partner?
No, because if I see that a woman who loved me
wouldn't do that, you can't hide how you feel.
Yeah, you can't hide.
You can only hide behavior for so long.
Yeah, I'm gonna see that I am not the band of your dreams.
Yeah.
I am not, I could see, if the circumstances was changed,
you would be somewhere else.
I could see you're tolerating me.
Yeah.
I want you, I want to be celebrated.
Yeah.
You know, and so if I notice that and I see that,
then I'm gone, because I seen it.
Yeah.
Because a woman who's in love with you wouldn't do that.
You know what I mean?
A woman that really feels no other man in the world,
this is the man I've been looking for my whole life
is in my presence wouldn't do that.
And like I tell them, I'm looking for Miss Right,
not Miss Right now.
I'm not looking for foe, I'm looking for one.
And I'm looking for minds, and apparently you're not minds,
and I'm not gonna find mine as long as you occupy
the place where mine's supposed to be,
so it's best for you to go your way,
you go where you're gonna be friends.
And soon as I tell him that, boy,
oh, you know what I'm saying?
You get anger and you get all of that,
and you're like, listen,
I'm not gonna sell myself cheap.
It has nothing to do with you.
You tell them upfront or you tell them eventually?
No, I tell them off as soon as I know.
And then they deal with, then they get angry and then do they come back?
Well, ain't no coming back. That's the great thing about us.
And when I say about us, comedians, you have to have an invitation to come in our lives.
Right.
You know what I'm saying? We don't work with you.
We don't hang at the same place you hang at. We don't shop at the same place you shop at.
To be in our life, you have to have an invitation. You understand? So once I
uninvite you, I'd never have to see you again. Yeah. Ever. Yeah. Ever where you just never see so many people again, yes, it's it's crazy if you see them again
Yeah, cuz you have to make you have to give me invitation at the end meet me here
Yeah, go they here and everything but once I'm done with you, I don't have to see you no more
We might cross paths, but you probably won't even cross paths and even if I do I can leave yeah
Yeah, I can leave because we don't work to go and shop the place. Yeah, same
The same house we don't have the same friends, you know
To be in our lives. You must have an invitation. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, you must be invited. So once I
Decided that I don't want to be a part of what you anyone
All I gotta do is get you back to your house
Say do you think you're more selfish than most people and would and but I would and would you recommend it?
I wouldn't recommend it. But if it is who you are, it's who you are
You know, why wouldn't you recommend it? What selfishness? Yeah
That's a good question, I would.
Sounds so bad.
But it's just like you said, self-love.
I remember one time, I was at a funeral
and my whole family was there.
And God told me, look around, you see all your family here?
I said, yeah.
He said, there's nobody in your family
that can take care of you if this don't work.
You done put yourself in a financial situation
that no one can help you to help you maintain
the standard of living that you got.
So it's you for yourself, and you gotta remember that.
And that's what I am.
I know, can no one help me.
I can't call nobody in my family, help with my mortgage.
Cause my mortgage is just too high.
Too big to stand a little bit too back.
So at that point, self,
too big to fail.
Self, too big to fail.
Self preservation is number one.
And I take, and we in a selfish business.
It's like golf, we don't handle teammates.
You know, it's all on you.
And it's like in life, you playing the course.
So yeah, I mean, but that's where we at.
And final biggest challenge of your life?
I'd encompass it.
I mean, baby, to coexist with a woman,
I really thought this was never gonna happen.
How old were you when you met her?
Ooh, shit.
We've been knowing each other.
We've been dating for five years.
I knew her eight years before that, so we 13, D.
Damn.
Man, we 13.
You, eight years ago, or 13.
I tried to hit her off, I tried to,
and she wouldn't go for it.
What do you mean, you tried to hit her off?
I mean, when I met her, I tried to get her to the crib.
Oh, got it, got it, got it.
The first night, yeah, I tried to hit her.
So you were like, well, if you're not gonna come
immediately, then fuck it.
Yeah, and then, you know, she just went into,
back in the day, the Rolodex, in the contacts,
and those type of things. I was trying to take her to a restaurant. and then she just went in there, back in the day, the Rolodex and the Contacts,
that was the type of things.
I was trying to take her to a restaurant.
Take her to a better place.
Yeah, and I said,
too near my condo she wouldn't go.
And so, I don't take no's.
Then you gotta soak for eight years.
So I gotta soak for eight years,
put it in there, let it marinate.
I mess with her all the time.
I said, if you would have went on
and let me get it that first night,
we'd have about three kids now.
But she was like, no, she wouldn't on that point.
So you can't believe that you find one
that works the way you want it to work?
I'm in the same boat, by the way.
It actually exists.
You know, you hear the cliches, best friend.
Now I see why men cry at their wedding
and they crying because the joy that I've found.
It's like a football thing.
I use a lot of metaphors because I love football.
I'm a Washington Commanders fan.
We finally got a franchise quarterback.
So I cried about it.
Did you really?
No, but I would have.
That's baby Jesus, JD-5. So, you No, but I would have. That's baby Jesus. Yeah.
JD5, so, you know, that's my man.
So just to sit back, I never thought we won three Super Bowls
with three different quarterbacks,
because we never had a franchise quarterback.
I didn't think we would ever be,
get a franchise, and we got one.
Did you feel sorry for yourself
about the lack of a good relationship?
No, but I knew I would never, ever meet my...
Were you bitter about it?
No.
It was just one of them things.
I mean, I'm never a person that's crying
about what I don't have.
I think the strongest value you can have is gratitude.
I completely agree.
You know what I'm saying?
So I'm so grateful for what I do have.
I could never ever look at and say,
well, wow, I'm sad for what I don't.
I will always, I always say it,
people used to ask me, Quake, why you ain't making it?
And I'll say, I'm one good black woman for making it.
Cause I never, I think no man could ever meet his potential
without his rib or his woman.
You could be successful,
but you would never meet your potential.
So I always knew I would be successful,
but I would never meet my potential unless I found her.
So let the games begin.
Shit.
Not a minute too late earthquake ladies and gentlemen thank
you earthquake fucking interesting dude man all you have to do is open
open up your hand
my man