Club Shay Shay - J.B. Smoove

Episode Date: November 16, 2020

On Episode 9 of Club Shay Shay, Shannon welcomes in comedian, actor, writer & producer: JB Smoove. JB Smoove talks Shannon through his experiences performing standup comedy during the pandemic, gearing up for the premiere of ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ season 11, and the multitude of other projects he’s working on.All aspects of JB Smoove’s 30+ years in the entertainment business are covered, from writing for SNL to landing a serendipitous audition for ‘Curb.’ JB tells stories about working with Conan O’Brien, Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, Larry David, and a large roster of legendary comedians. He also reveals his five most influential comedians of all time, and delves into the historical importance of Def Comedy Jam, where his career began. This hilarious and insightful conversation reveals the inner workings of life as a comedian and entertainer, but Shannon also presses JB on his passion for sports. They talk about LeBron and the Lakers’ championship season, Kobe Bryant’s passing, JB’s beloved Jets & Knicks, and much more. #DoSomethinB4TwoSomethin & Follow Club Shay Shay:                                                                 https://www.instagram.com/clubshayshayhttps://twitter.com/clubshayshayhttps://www.facebook.com/clubshayshayhttps://www.youtube.com/c/clubshayshay Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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I am going to share my journey of how I went from Christianity to now a Hebrew Israelite. For some former NFL players, a new faith provides answers. You mix homesteading with guns and church. Voila! You got straight away. They try to save everybody. Listen to Spiraled on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, welcome to another edition of Club Che Che.

I am your host and proprietor. And the gentleman that stops by the club for some conversation and a drink today is a comedian, he's an actor, he's a writer, he's a producer, Mr. J.B the roll of dice. That's why all my life I've been grinding all my life. All my life. Been grinding all my life. Sacrifice. Cuss will pay the price. Want a slice. Got the roll of dice. That's why all my life I've been grinding all my life. Smooth. What's going on, bro? Hey, man. I told you, man, I'm working on these guns right now. Trying to get these guns right. Now most people work out, they get the guns right for the summer.

I get my guns right for the winter time. I'm more of a, you know, I like my turtleneck look good on me. I'm a turtleneck guy, I don't know about you. I like a good turtleneck man. A well-fit turtleneck look good with arms and your chest a little bit, you know. It does, it's kind of like, almost like the bodysuit for the female, the bodysuit, catsuit for the female, because it accentuates.

If you're muscular, if you got decent body structure, you're like, wow, okay, yeah, yeah, I like that. Let me tell you something, Shannon. The turtleneck is the greatest invention in fashion history. The turtleneck. When the turtleneck came out and see, and it transcends all time. It's time. It's in the future.

I'm telling you, in the future, it's cats wearing turtlenecks in the future and wearing them in the past. The turtleneck has been around a long time. Well, because you can dress it up or dress it down. You can wear it with a suit. You can wear it with jeans. Yeah, it's a great piece. I recommend that every man have at least one.

I've not seen anybody wear one with shorts yet. No, no, no. But see, you just gave somebody an idea. Because you remember, Smooth, it used to be you never saw anyone wear shorts with a tie or with a suit jacket. And now guys are wearing shorts and ties and bow ties. So you just gave someone an idea. I just gave someone a dope idea.

Hey, why not, man? This is about to be turtleneck weather. I'm getting my turtlenecks lined up. I got a bunch of them, all colors, lined up, ready to go. Well, considering you're saying it's about to be turtleneck weather, it's very apparent to me you do not live in L.A. You live back east. No, it doesn't matter to me where I live. You understand? I'm on the West Coast. Of course,

I'm back and forth from New York, but guess what? When I go to New York and I'm wearing a turtleneck and I fly back wearing said turtleneck and I land at LAX and it's 90 degrees outside, I'm still wearing that damn turtleneck home. I'm going to wear that turtleneck. I'm going to pull it off and have a tank top underneath. I don't wear no damn tank top underneath my turtleneck because I want it to look smooth.

I want you to see the turtleneck. Yeah, I want it to look smooth. I want you to see the turtleneck. You want everybody to see that silhouette. You want to see the pegs and the depths and the traps. You want all that accentuated. To me, a turtleneck, a damn

tank top getting away. It's like seeing a bra strap on a bodysuit. Right. Why she got that damn turtleneck, that damn brassiere showing up under that damn catsuit? So, Brod, tell me what's going on. How you being?

Man, I'm doing good, man. I'm just, you know, we camping out, man. We on the quarantine right now, of course. Right. We all just camping easy. Know what we're doing, though? You got the quarantine right now, of course. Right. We all just camping easy. No, we don't know. You got to come over one night. Okay.

We do a little social distancing picnic in the yard. Okay. You know, everybody bring a little blanket. You know, I even got myself one of those picnic baskets. Really? Do you have one of those? I do not. Let me tell you something.

When I walk into my yard, right, and we make it a whole event. Right. We make it a whole event. Right. We make it a whole event. I put a little shirt on. You know, I have my little sandals on or whatever. Or I'll go barefoot because it is my damn yard. And I bring my little picnic basket.

Now, in that picnic basket, you put little wine glasses in there. You put some little snacks. You like to snack on. And I'll tell you something. In the world better than some grapes, you know, maybe some vegan cheeses. An assortment of vegan cheeses. You getting

dressed up. You going through all this show and dance to walk 50 feet to your backyard. Hey, I'm dressed up right now. I ain't even sure. When they say I want to be on your show, I put my shoes on. I got my dress pants on.

I threw a little Debbie Smooth t-shirt on, though. Yeah, I see that. I threw a little hat on. I'm glad you're not making the mistake like some of these people doing on Zoom, and they doing a little bit too much on Zoom. They forget that. You do realize on Zoom and they doing a little bit too much on Zoom. They forget that you do realize on Zoom people can see you. This is

not the old just the audio. This is visual also. So the antics that you think you might have had going back then you can't do that on a Zoom call. Hey, technology has advanced to the point where you can't do you got to be careful and watch what the hell you say and watch what you're doing.

You be livin', people be livin' all the time. Yes. Anything that happen when you lie, anything can go wrong, you know? I watched a lady the other day. She was helping, obviously, their kids at home. And the lady walked by. She ain't got no bra on. And the teacher's like, ma'am, ma'am, your son's on your own life.

Ma'am. Back in the day, we call that show and tell. Yeah. We call that show and tell back in the day. You bring something to class right there, you got to talk about it. So obviously there have been, you know, with the pandemic going on, there's not having, you know, obviously you couldn't do a whole lot. But are there any projects, have you been working on any projects since some of the quarantine has been lifted?

Yes, man. Yes. This has been a remarkable kind of thing that we're dealing with right now. You know, it forces your hand, you know, when you're dealing with, you know, this limited access to studios and your coworkers and all that kind of stuff. So you of stuff. Like we just said, the technology has advanced to the point where you've got to be creative with it. I've been recording animated shows on the crib via Zoom or whatever, like we're doing right now. Of course,

a lot of people might have heard my voice in The Woke on Netflix. No, The Woke series is on Hulu. I'm sure a lot of people heard that and caught that. That's been fun with Lamorne

and a bunch of us on that show. It's really fun. I played a pin. I played a damn pin, man. I played a pin on the show. So it has been amazing doing that kind of stuff. Recorded some other animation. I did some American Dad stuff and a bunch of that kind of stuff.

But at the same time, you know, I also recorded a bunch of stuff for IFC. We did some promos in my yard. I just did something for the NFL just about an hour ago. Really? The crew just left out of here, man. You know, it just keeps you... But you know what? I've been lucky

because I planted a lot of seeds, man. Right. You know, I just planted a lot of seeds, man. You know, I show up early, I stay late. You know, people come over to do stuff. Whether I'm in a studio, even before the pandemic, I just kept planting these little seeds.

I'd rather have the phone keep ringing continuously over a long period of time as opposed to me just doing things, one thing here and another thing, you know, whatever. But I like to plant those little seeds, man. So I stay busy, you know. And, of

course, Kirby Enthusiasm, we're coming back with season 11. That's going to be a blast, man. So, you know, I'm always looking forward to see what Crazy Larry got up his sleeve, man. You know, he always finds a way to attach the climate of the world to the show. So I want to see what he brings, you know, dealing with all this stuff right here, you know, out of his head. And we go back to work and we'll start doing that again. And then, you know, of course course I'm producing a bunch of stuff. And this is kind of

my season, man. I love being busy about this time. The fall is kind of my thing, man. Of course you can't I had to cancel like 15 maybe 20 shows off my tour, my stand-up tour.

But we'll get back to it when things are safer. The main thing is that people are safe. You know, I did this, I was on, you know, all the clubs have limited seating now. Right. You know, it's limited seating because they can't, even the restaurants, they can't have a

whole room for people no more. Right. But you want these restaurants and these clubs to make their money. Correct. You know, you want them restaurants and these clubs to make their money. You want them to be able to stay afloat. So I was on Conan O'Brien. I told Conan, I said, man, look, here's my idea. You can't have people that

close to each other. It's about the proximity of people to each other. So I told them the restaurants should get back to maximum capacity by having something I call lap seats. So, you get a lap seat, you go with your lady to a restaurant, she got to sit on your lap. Your whole family, you on the bottom, of course,

your lady on your lap, your kids on each other laps, and you step each other up. I told them to do it. See, that way the restaurants can still get a lot of people, but you ain't so, you know, you're going up, you ain't going out. So you ain't too close to each other. You go up. I don't, out here in LA, most of the restaurants now have partitions. Most everybody has booth now. So it's like,

it's like you're setting it off of everybody. But they still keeping the amount of people down. Right. Because they can't have people spread all out too close, even with a partition. Correct. Now, a partition ain't nothing but a bowl. You in a bowl.

You ever see that TV show, that movie back in the day with John Travolta was in it? It called The Boy in a Plastic Bubble. Remember that? I did. Yeah, The Boy in a Plastic Bubble. Oh, man. I used to love that damn show. That was a good movie right there. Come on, man. I just love that one. And remember the other one, the other show? They all came out the same era. We had the after-school specials back then.

I only remember the after-school special on ABC and all the good shows. Remember they had the boy, what was his name? Oh, it was called James at 16. Remember that? The boy would pee in the bed every day. Remember? And then his mama would take his sheets.

She was a mean lady. She would take his sheets and hang his sheets out the window for all the kids to see. So everybody could see and embarrass him. So James would run home from school every day to beat the kids home so he could pull a sheet in the window. That boy ran every day for a whole year and became a track star.

Shannon, the boy became a track star, man, running from school every day to beat his mama from putting that damn sheet out the window. Shannon, come on, man. You never know where your athletic ability is going on, man. You never know where your athletic ability going to come from. You're exactly right. Smooth, the last six, seven months,

obviously, everybody's been in this pandemic. It's been going on. You've been quarantined. What have you been most appreciative of? What have you been most thankful for? I've been really thankful for my wife, man. I feel like, you know, a lot of people tell you, you really have to have a true friendship with man, because I feel like, you know, a lot of people tell you, you really have to have a true friendship with your companion,

with your wife, you know, whoever you're quarantined with. You know, you got to still look for growth. You got to still look for all the things that you love about... My wife and I knew, she calls me her husband. A husband is half boyfriend, half husband.

So that way you keep it fresh. And I'm gonna tell you something Shannon, my wife changed her hairstyle like four times a month. See, so I done been with everybody. I done been with everybody. So you got a different woman. You got a different woman. I done been with all the girls, man.

Four times, Shannon I'm telling you, four times, four times a month, a new the girls, man. Four times. Shannon, I'm telling you, four times. Four times a month, a new hairdo, man. Come home. Come home to somebody different. I be like, oh, what the hell you doing in my house? You know what I mean? Like, uh-oh.

Hey, baby, uh-oh. I ain't gonna look at you, girl. You know what I mean? That keep it spicy. Keep it spicy, man. Change that hairstyle once in a while. Keep things interesting. Yeah, spicy, man. Change that hairstyle once in a while. Keep things interesting. Yeah, well, you learn a lot.

Because I think most couples, if you're married and you work, they go to work, come home. You go to work, come home. There's an eight, nine-hour gap between. But when everybody's quarantined, there is no gap. It's 24 hours. So you're going to have to find a way to go about your day and not get on their nerves

and they don't want to get on your nerves because I can imagine being around someone 24 hours a day. You know what? Hey, I like my coworkers, not 24 hours. I might really like someone, but 24 hours is asking a bit much.

24 hours, man. Hey, it's people in jail who at some point, they're going to get tired of that top bunk. Exactly. I'm about tired of that top bunk. I want to go down there. Can we work something out?

Maybe we'll split the difference. Maybe half the year, you get the bottom bunk. Half the year, I get the bottom bunk. Oh, you got to work things out. But are you right? When you're in a home together, you still got to make things happen.

You still got so many things happen. You still got so many things to be blessed with and thankful for. Because in this climate, people are losing their businesses, losing their families. So many things come into play that you have to be

have a compassion for and understand and feel it every night. Every night before we eat our meal, we pray for those who do not have and compassion for and understand and feel it every night. Every night before we eat our meal, we pray for those who do not have and pray for those who have enough to progress and make that more and be able to sustain themselves

in this climate because I know. And, you know, we as comedians and stand-up guys, there are comedians who are my friends who only do stand-up. So when this all started happening, since comedians are the ones who brighten your day and give you laughter to get you through your day or through your year, and we have a way to connect and make things relatable and take the weight of the world and things that go on, take it and we process it

and give it to you in a funnier form so you can deal with stuff. I immediately thought about, wow, you know, I wonder what they're doing since we give a piece of ourselves every time we hit that stage, you know. We take all our things that ever happened to us

and we take that and we shape it and we make it relatable for you to understand but at the same time a lot of people in the audience are going through the same thing that we grew up with or things that we've been through so we have put that to the side and still go on that stage and make people laugh and enjoy themselves i thought about those guys because i know those guys you know a lot of my friends don't have that you know i've been blessed to be i've really been 30 years in the game i have been so blessed to be able to touch different areas. I've been able to do commercials, TV, film, write, you know, everything that I've ever

done. I have been able to use that at my disposal, use that in a way to give other guys work, use that in a way to still spread the word of laughter and find some way to make all this we're going through make sense. So we still do that. I thought about those guys who only had that one revenue coming in to their homes, you know, and I know that their bread and butter was the road,

going down the road, making people laugh. So I think about those guys, and I think about what they've given already to their audience and to their fans. But I'm pretty lucky to be able to be in a position where I can help these guys get work and spread.

If I find out something that's out there, I'll call a buddy and say, hey man, I know someone's auditioning for something. Maybe you should go out and read for it or talk to this guy. Now, of course, everything is not in person anymore, but they're finding a way to make it work and keep everybody safe. That's the biggest key.

And I tell people all the time, you go back and study history, the greatest key for survival is not speed, it's not strength, it's not size, it's not IQ, it's adaptability. You have to be able to adapt. Okay, well, this is what I normally only would do. But okay, in order for survive, instead of just doing standup, you might have to do it, take a TV.

You might have to do sitcom. You might have to do other things to generate a source of revenue. It's kind of like an animal. Okay, if an animal only eats fish and the stream drives up, he's going to find another way to survive or he will die.

So your guys, and for you to put them on like that, that's what I love to hear. I love someone that's fortunate to be, that's willing to help someone that's less fortunate because sometimes we get in a situation, well, I'm doing good. Okay. I'm straight over here. And you see that, especially in today's society, smooth. You see a lot of people that are like that. Well, I'm doing good. That ain't me. Well, you got to have empathy. You got to have sympathy. You got to have compassion for your fellow man. And then it will come back to you tenfold. It will come back to you tenfold, man. And I tell people all the time, man, I don't want to be...

I'm just a more open individual. You know, my wife, we go RVing. We have these RV parties. I think I might have invited you to a few of the RV parties at the beach a few years ago. We do that kind of stuff, man. We love to entertain. We have a huge... Oh, you came to our

New Year's parties before? You the entertaining kid. I don't know who... I mean, you, the new Dick Clark, you have New Year's parties. You might as well put yours on TV. Hey, I'm going to tell you though, I'm going to tell you something about last,

our 2019 party was so damn crazy. I mean, it was amazing. Just now, we just had it in January. It was sick. And I'm going to tell you something crazy. 2019 wasn't the greatest. We sat there, man. We was like, everybody at the... I said, everybody, when we go into 2020, I would have everybody say, boy, 2019, get out of my face

because 2019 was bad 2019 was bad but who would know that 2020 would take 2019 fold it up in a little piece of paper and put 2019 in their mouth and eat it you know i mean 2019 and better 2019 was 2020 has taken 2019 and drop kicked it. You know what I mean? Just drop kicked it. Like, huh. You know what I mean? Yeah. So we're going to look back.

We're going to look back 20 years from now. Maybe even not even 20 years. Maybe even 10 years. We're going to look back. And when something goes bad, we're going to be like, man, that was so 2020. And you're going to be like. That was so. Yeah, you're right.

That is terrible. Yeah. That's the end of it. Smooth, let me. And you're going to be like, yeah, you're right. That is terrible. Smoot, let me, Smoot, you've done a lot of, you've done a lot of movies. You've done Barbershop, Pootie Tang, Curb Your Enthusiasm. I mean, TV shows, Monsters. You've done animations. Yeah.

Can you tell us the difference between preparing for a movie role as far as a TV, a sitcom? Oh, yeah. I tell you the difference. Film is like this. To me, I just love movies so much. I feel like with a movie, some things you have time to develop things and sometimes you don't have time to develop things. A film is kind of what it is. I've been blessed to get directors who have allowed me to, and that goes across the board, TV and film, who I've been blessed to be able to, and that's what I mean by planting those seeds.

That's what I mean by planting those seeds, Shannon. You plant enough seeds that when people do call you, they ain't wasting your time. They're calling you for something very specific. They know you're a good tight end. They're calling you, they ain't going to trade for you. They know you're a damn tight end. And they want you to do something totally different.

They want you to throw the ball downfield. You know what I mean? Throw the ball to yourself. You know what I mean? I don't know. But that is the reason I love film so much. But in film, you really don't have time

to develop a character. You know what I mean? You don't have time for those nuances because that script is written, you know, for what it is. That script leads to other characters. It defines,

it determines so much that you got to tell a story from A to B. Okay. leads to other characters. It defines, it determines so much. You gotta tell a story from A to B. Okay. In a TV show, let's just say you get a TV show and y'all got 21 episodes. Right. And that's only 21 episodes. If you get renewed,

you get another 20-something episodes. Keep on going, keep on going. So in other words, in TV, you get to, not only do you get to develop, you get to build on the character. As a movie, you're shooting that, you take three months, six months, and that character is done. Even in TV, you get an opportunity to evolve the character.

You get an opportunity to evolve the character. And then you have the inner workings, which is different. You have multi-cam. You got single cam. you know and that and and then you have the inner workings which is different you have you have multi-cam you got single cam you got shows like kirby enthusiasm that i'm on where there is no script we just have an outline seven eight page outline and we make our own we make our own we create our own dialogue we improvise which is a whole not lane. So now it depends what it is. Network TV is different. The streaming services are different.

I personally love movies. When I was on Spider-Man, when I was in Almost Christmas and Barbershop, I freaking loved it. But that also took me having a director who brought me in because he knew that i

would take a character and make it my own and they allowed me to have fun and elaborate with the character and make it fun so that they got to give you a little a little rope they gotta give you a little rope and let you have fun let you let you do your scenes so So do they let you, are you able to ad-lib more in a movie than TV or vice versa? It depends what the project is. Now, they let me get nice. They let me go in Barbershop.

They let me go in Almost Christmas. They let me go a little bit in Spider-Man. So they know that I'm coming from the improv world already. And they know exactly what I do. So they're going to naturally let me, they don't want me to come on stage

and be a robot on set. Right. They want me to go do JB. You know, we got you in the movie because we want you to go. Yeah. But that also expands the writing for the writers. If they know you coming in,

they're going to say, oh, let's just give him a framework, and I know JB going to take it, and he going to start to get wordy. He going to have fun with it. He going to make it what it is. All that stuff in barbershop, playing around, me and Sid going back and forth, joking around in that barbershop,

that's all like, some of that stuff, we just came up off the top of around in that barbershop that's all like some of that stuff we just came up off top of our head with that and that's what a lot of us on the set because you know when you're comedians they're going to let you elaborate and let you improvise

if you have fun now but that's not saying it's not that's not saying it's easier but now curtain enthusiasm take that some people

some people don't as amazing as they are, they can't improvise as well. Right. They'd rather have... That's a gift. Yeah. That is a gift.

Give me what I'm going to say and I'm going to give you exactly what you want. Right. Right? Now, but that does not say it doesn't come with making decisions. Right. When I'm working with Lowry,

I got to sit there and say, you know, since there is no full script, I got to sit there and say I got to make a decision in the moment. Am I going to have Larry's back in this scene or do I want to go against him? And I got to think about

how many laughs am I going to get out of having his back and going along with him with this craziness or how much mileage I'm going to get out of going against him. Right. You know what I mean? Say, you're wrong Larry. You're wrong or you're right, you know.

So, I got to sit there and try to think how I can make this work and get the most funny out of it. Right. And at the same time, I'm also, you know, I'm making a point since it is improv and since my character doesn't have any origin, they don't know what the hell my character really came from. I just keep giving him, I keep giving him something new that he didn't know about my character. Every time we go on camera, I try to give him something new he didn't know about Leon. You know what I mean? So I say, I still say that TV gives you more

of a chance to expand the character because you get more at-bats. Right. You get more at-bats. Right. Movie, when they say cut, moving on, you can't go back and say God dang it, I wanted to say this so bad. Right. So, okay, we got movie,

we got TV, and then we have animation. So obviously animation, you're in a film studio, I mean, you're in a studio, we got TV, and then we have animation. So, obviously, animation, you're in a film studio. I mean, you're in a studio, you're in a booth. There's nobody else around. Because let me tell people a story. On American Dad, when they did American Dad, they were going to actually have you to do me.

I was going to be on the original schedule, and you were going to do me. And then they called because no one knew who I was. They knew me, but they didn't know if i would actually do the do the voiceover so what they called me i was like well if i don't do it who are you going to have to do the voiceover for me they said jb uh jb smooth and so i at the time i didn't really know who you were because that was that was probably like over a decade ago so i googled you yeah i was like okay then i pulled up some of your stuff i was like okay he could definitely do it I said but I can't pass up this opportunity I love voiceover work because you can really get animated because no one sees you in the booth

and so you can make your voice rise you can make it fall you can have a cadence it is I love I love that you strike me as a guy that loves that also no No, when I tell you, one day, I was doing a radio show. And sometimes the radio guys, they'll pull your IMDB up. Right. And the guys just ran down some stuff that I totally forgot I did. I totally forgot. But the animated world is so fun. You know, of course, I've done the Black Dynamite stuff.

I've done American Dad. You know, I've done The Simpsons. I've done Smurfs. I'm in the Harley Quinn series right now. The Harley Quinn animated series. Monster University. Monster University. Man, I done did so much that I get in there and I visualize

like when I'm in the booth, I just close my eyes and I just visualize what I need to do and like you said, the cadence and all those things. You got to be in that booth. You got to really embody that animated character because you got to bring him to life. You got to bring

you got to have all those emotions all those things going on. You got to bring him to life. Correct. You got to bring... You got to have all those emotions, all those things going on. Yes. You got to hit it, hit it, hit it because that determines the next person. Now, I have been in a room when I was doing Ninja Turtles. Okay.

I did Ninja Turtles. I played Bebop in Ninja Turtles. Right. The animated show in Nickelodeon. Now, that right there, sometimes we'll be in the same room together. Okay. Myself there, sometimes we'll be in the same room together. Okay. Myself and Rocksteady, we'll be in the same room together.

But a lot of times. Yes, just you by yourself in the script. 75% of the time, I'm by myself. So I gotta still match the energy as if he was there. Correct. And you're right. You have to hit the emotions, the cadence. You got to hit all these little things that's going to bring that character,

animated character to life. Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast, NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal. Five days a week, you'll get all the latest news, previews, recaps, and analysis delivered straight to your podcast feed by the time you get your coffee. No dumb hot takes here, just smart hot takes. We'll talk every single game, every single week, but I can't do it alone,

so I'm bringing in the big guns from NFL media. That's Patrick Claibon, Steve Weiss, Nick Shook, Jordan Rodrigue from The Athletic, and of course, Colleen Wolfe. This is their window right now. This is their Super Bowl window. Why would they trade him away? Because he would be a pivotal part of them winning that Super Bowl.

I don't know why, Colleen. Catch the podcast, the NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal every day. Subscribe today and you'll immediately be smarter and funnier than your friends. And who doesn't want that? Listen now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast, NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal. Five days a week, you'll get all the latest news,

previews, recaps, and analysis delivered straight to your podcast feed by the time you get your coffee. No dumb hot takes here, just smart hot takes. We'll talk every single game, every single week, but I can't do it alone, so I'm bringing in the big guns from NFL media. That's Patrick Claibon, Steve Weiss, Nick Shook, Jordan Rodrigue from The Athletic, and of course, Colleen Wolfe.

This is their window right now. This is their Super Bowl window. Why would they trade him away? Because he would be a pivotal part of them winning that Super Bowl. I don't know why, Colleen. Catch the podcast, the NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal every day. Subscribe today and you'll immediately be smarter and funnier than your friends. And who doesn't want that? Listen now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast, NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal. Five days a week, you'll get all the latest news, previews, recaps, and analysis delivered straight to your podcast feed by the time you get your coffee. No dumb hot takes here, just smart hot takes. We'll talk every single game, every single week, but I can't do it alone, so I'm bringing in the

big guns from NFL media. That's Patrick Claiborne, Steve Weiss, Nick Shook, Jordan Rodrigue from The Athletic, and of course, Colleen Wolfe. This is their window right now. This is their Super Bowl window. Why would they trade him away? Because he would be a pivotal part of them winning that Super Bowl window. Why would they trade him away?

Because he would be a pivotal part of them winning that Super Bowl. I don't know why, Colleen. Catch the podcast, the NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal every day. Subscribe today and you'll immediately be smarter and funnier than your friends. And who doesn't want that? Listen now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Without someone being around, because you know when you're shooting a live movie scene, you got the other character, you got someone to play off of. It's like when you're playing with a team, that's one thing.

But then you got playing one-on-one, but you're playing by yourself. It ain't nobody to defend you. It's really no one to play off of. It's kind of like when you, it's kind of like them damn kickers. Boy, you're down by one point or two points, and that goddamn kicker walk out there, nobody look at him,

nobody talk to him, nobody do nothing. He got to get his own energy up, and he got to sit to himself and figure a way. Hey, he got to see that ball already went through. He's got to pretend the ball already went through already. He's got to pretend this already happened already. Right.

I took a step back in time. I already kicked that thing already. We already won the game. My physical body is already in the locker room. I'm already in the shower. This game's been over. So, LeMah, do you remember what's one of your most

memorable auditions? Ooh. The one I think about the most is matter of fact, I just posted myself being in an audition with Larry. So, that was my first time meeting Larry

in that audition I posted. And I'll tell you a little bit of a backstory on it. So I was at SNL, working at SNL three seasons. My fourth season, I didn't get renewed. So I was free as a bird. So the time I didn't get on my fourth season on SNL to the time when I walked in the room for audition with Larry for Curb,

you're talking about maybe two months, maybe two months. Okay. So I had already, I already didn't get renewed. I had already fired my old agent, fired, I got rid of it every day.

I just wanted to clean sleep and and just see what i can do i'm not behind the camera anymore writing on snl now i'm back in front of stuff so let me get my butt out there came my wife had already told me i was gonna be on snl she already said you're gonna i could see you and larry together i don't know what it is but i see it you always say crazy stuff and larry say crazy stuff i could see y' Larry together. I don't know what it is, but I see it. You always say crazy stuff, and Larry say crazy stuff, and I could see y'all working together one day. And then all of a sudden, I was on the road in Atlanta, and I got a phone call that one of my buddies had passed away.

OG, I'm sure you probably know OG, OG Pierce. He produced the song, This Is How We Do It, from Michael Jordan. He produced that song. That's how I do it. This is how we do it. So I came to LA for one day, one day to pay my respects for him. They had a memorial service for him. I met him when I was doing Cedric the Entertainer Presents sketch show. He was the music guy on that show. So I met him there. We became good friends.

You know, he's a producer. My wife sings. So everything kind of worked out. And I heard that he had passed. One of his friends had called me because my phone had rang. My phone rang and I saw his name up there. I'm in Atlanta in a hotel room like, I'm going to do my show. I just came from my show, matter of fact.

And my phone rang. I saw OG on my phone. I said, oh. Answered the phone and a woman was on the phone and she said hey jb this is a friend of og's but i wanted to call you let you know og passed and i'm like oh man you know so i said i said oh man my buddy you know so i came to la for that one day and yeah and i just signed with a new agent in new york who also had an office in LA. So I get in, I said, you know what, while I'm in town for one day, you know, the memorial service is tonight. So I got here early.

I said, I'm gonna go say hi to my new agent. I go in there and say hi to my new agent to meet them. And then an agent comes in late and said, hey man, how long you in town? I said, I leave tomorrow. I only came in for one day because my buddy passed away. They said, oh, I got an audition here. I said, what's it for? And he said, Caribbean enthusiasm. So I was like, wow. Immediately I thought, I said, man, that's crazy. I said, I'm only in town for one day because my buddy passed away. My wife told me I was going to be on Curb Your Enthusiasm one day.

SNL didn't resign me for my fourth season. So if any one of those three things had not happened, I would have never been on Curb Your Enthusiasm. But one, if I got renewed, I would have been sitting behind a Enthusiasm but one if I got renewed I would have been sitting behind the desk still typing jokes on SNL my wife told me I was going to be on the show

if my buddy didn't pass away you wouldn't be in LA even if he didn't pass away those few days earlier you know what I mean I still wouldn't have been in town I still wouldn't have been here and then I came in town that was probably what I mean? I still wouldn't have been here.

And then I came in town. That was probably my, you know, because I'm making a point. Here's where I do it on auditions. I don't tell everybody to do this, but don't be afraid to try this, all you young actors out there. I always walk into the room as the character. I don't, I feel, I feel like I got to, it's like starting a car on a cold day. If you walk in there, you walk outside your car cold, like I'm not talking about the new car, the new car's got the fuel injection, all that stuff. You know what I'm talking about, Shannon. You gotta pump the gas

a little bit. Pump the gas. You know, I don't like pumping the gas when I walk into the room. I don't like introduce myself, and then all of a sudden I got to turn on the character. Right. It's a weird transition. Right. You're already in character.

Man, I like to be that dude. I like to be that dude when I'm sitting down waiting to go in. So by the time I walk in, I'm already, I'm walking the room as my character already. I'm ready to go. I say shit. I say stuff that the character would say immediately.

I jump, I just jump right in it. You know what I mean? I make, I like to control, I like to drive the car. I'm not a terrible, I'm not a good passenger. I like to drive. I like to drive the car a little bit. You know, let me drive a little bit. I'll let you drive.

But I tell you, I tell you when I, you know what, I'll get out the car and walk around the side and get in the passenger side. You slide over. Smooth, you mentioned, go ahead. I'm sorry to cut you off, but you mentioned SNL. Is it every comedian's dream to be on SNL, to write, be in front of the camera? Because it's launched a lot of people's career,

and it seems to me that's one of the launching points for, for greater success. Now, from what I've heard, it's not easy to be on there for a length of time. I mean, anybody can do it for a year, but to do it for year after year and then walk away on your turns. Yeah. Yeah. It's a, it's a, It's a... It's definitely not easy and, you know, and when you're writing on...

When you're writing those sketches every week, you know what it's like? Here's what it's like. It's like trying out for the cheerleading team every damn week. Right.

You know how... Remember how they would put, you know, a list of who made the team on a piece of paper and stick it to the wall? You got to go up there, everybody's crowding around trying to see if you made it. Trying to see your name.

You're trying to look for your name. You're hoping it's not in alphabetical order. Maybe it's not in alphabetical order. I don't see my name yet. You try to find your name. Oh, man. Every week You try to find your name, like, oh, man. And it's like every week when you submit those jokes, those scripts,

and you pray you get one picked. Man, I'm going to tell you something. I probably can count on one hand how many in three years, how many I got picked up. But I ain't going to never forget my ass around that one. I'll tell you that much i mean i always make a presence you know i mean you ain't gonna never say jb ain't work hard you know never say jb and

show up for me you never say you know because when i got there i had to i had to like do my new york i had to do my new york hustle right i was writing on the show i did warm up on the show. I did warm up on the show for two years, two seasons. I did, I was in sketches all the time. You know what I mean? They put me in monologues all the time at the opening of the show.

So that's a writer. That's three jobs already as a writer. Number four, I had four jobs. So, Conan O'Brien was still at NBC at that time.

Conan O'Brien found out I was working upstairs as a writer and we had worked together before. He called, I. Conan O'Brien found out I was working upstairs as a writer, and we had worked together before. I did Conan O'Brien 11 damn times, probably, while I was working as a writer upstairs. They would call Lorne Michaels and say, hey, can we borrow J.B.

for a sketch? He would call my office and say, J.B., we got a Conan call. He wanted to know if you wanted to come downstairs and do a sketch. Go down there, do the sketch, come back up and finish writing. I said, all right, cool. I get in the elevator, go down there,

I do a damn sketch with Conan, go back upstairs, get behind the computer, keep working. So I was blessed. I was blessed. And Shannon, that's four checks. That's four separate checks. They're going to pay you for doing every last one of those four things. So, obviously, I said, man.

So, it's not like TV. It's not like really TV now. Like, okay, you pay me to do this show. But if I feel like I do somebody else's show, that's for free. If I do somebody else's radio gig, that's for free. And if I do something else, that's for free, too. You get four checks for both different jobs. Hey, you get paid for each individual thing you do.

Everything you do. Hey, they call me a la carte, goddammit. They call me a la carte. Smooth. I'm looking at your resume, Smooth. I look at some of the people you comedians, Chris Rock, Kevin Hart, Adam Sandler, as you mentioned, Larry David, Sandy Entertainer, Tracy Morgan, Jerry Seinfeld, Marlon Wayans, Whoopi Goldberg. When you guys get together, is it joke telling all the time, part of the time, none of the time?

Let me tell you something. Each one of those names you mentioned, every last person you just said shows up who you think they are. They show up as who you know them to be. That's how they show the hell up. And that's what makes

every last one of those people you named so unique. It's like everyone brings something to the table. And you get, like, let's take the movie Top 5. That Chris Rock did. Man, he had everybody in that damn movie. Let me tell you something, man.

You're so upset, everybody is exactly who the hell you want them to be. You know, there's one thing about when we're at that level, you thing about one thing about, and when we at that level, you meet someone bigger than you, like someone up there,

you want them to be who you hope they are. Right. The worst thing for a person, the worst thing for a person to meet their heroes or meet someone, and they ain't who they thought they were. They're never like you expected them to be. Oh, man, you'd be like, God damn, man.

And they'd break your heart, man. They'd break your heart to the point you're like, God damn, I didn't want that to happen. I thought they were somebody else, man. Right. But blessing, but blessed that Chris pulled together

some amazing comedians and man, it's flawless. And he allowed everyone to do them. That's the key to an actor, that's the key to a comedian, is for you to get these opportunities that they allow you to do you and let you do exactly what they brought you

on the project to do. And that's a good director. That's a good showrunner. That's a good producer. That is what you need at your disposal to make whatever you're writing and that's how that's a good director that's a good showrunner that's a good producer that is what you need at your disposal to make whatever you're writing come to life because i always think about like this you know i always try to show up and always try to make i question the director i question the producers what exactly do you need from me right what exactly do you need from me you know i mean

and i need to know that clearly so i don't step on no toes so i don't burn no bridges is this is this his scene or am i a part of the scene am i am i am i pitching him right my fastballing him what am i doing in this scene you know so that I don't mess up whatever you however you envision this scene I want to know so I don't I don't mess up whatever you need out of it because that's there you know you realize you need producers you need directors that's their thing that's their dream they always wanted to be that. And the only way they're going to get that is you give them what they are looking for. And why show up half-assed something that's their thing, their dream? You know what I mean?

Their job is to make you look good. And your job is to make sure that you give them the tools to make you look good. So it's got to work like that and and that's how that's the only way you know and and those opportunities sometimes you don't get that many swings at the ball right you don't get that many you don't get that many swings now blessings have come upon us that we've been getting more. As far as Black people, we've been getting more opportunities now to be on camera and also have our own shows and stuff. So that's a blessing, you know. But sometimes, I remember back in the day, shit, man.

I know a few of my buddies who had deals and shit. Sometimes you get one shot. One shot. You get one shot. I shot. You get one shot. I know people who got shows, and them shows lasted two episodes. You know, you're like, god dang it, two episodes, man. That's not enough to showcase. They'll pull a damn repeat in your slot at 8 p.m.

You're like, god dang it. Put a whole show on it. Smooth, you got one of your big stars, I believe your first star on Def Comedy Jam, which was probably responsible for launching more black comedians career than probably any other, from the DL Hughleys to the Bernie Macs,

the Bruce Bruces, some of the great comedians who have gone on to not just do standup, but to do television shows, to be in movies, to become leads. How instrumental was Deaf Comedy Jam for you and other Black comedians? Men and women. Oh, men and women. Deaf Comedy Jam was the, you know, here's another thing I let people know all the time is that Deaf Comedy Jam was amazing.

But it's kind of like this. It's kind of like we have all these... There was so much going on that no one knew about in the comedy world. In the Black comedy world. Because, you know,

being from New York, we had this spot called the Uptown Comedy Club right which is right in Harlem on 125th Street uh and um let me tell you something man that place oh my god man that was even before the comedy jam right before BET comedy before all that. You are going to have these pockets of comedy clubs or nightclubs that had a comedy night. We would be busy. Let me tell you something. We worked every night in New York because it was a metropolitan area.

You could be in Connecticut, Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Westchester. You could be in Jersey. That's six different boroughs that you could easily be in. And you could probably do, if you hustle, you got a nice car that run, you could probably do two or three a night if you really got to hustle. And this is before Def Comedy Jam, before BET,

before any of these shows. You're talking about you had to have a, something had to light it. Something had to light that fuse with a slow burn, but by the time, you know, the explosion of black comedy hit its plateau,

the deaf comedy jams, the BET comic views, you got to realize, you can't have all those comedians. You're talking about a lot of damn comedians. Yes, yes. A lot of damn comedians, deaf comedy jams. They had to come from somewhere. You know what I mean? They had to come from somewhere. And you what I mean? They had to come from somewhere.

And you're talking about every major city in the United States had these funny, unique comedians all around the country that Deaf Comedy Jam could grab and say, hey, we got a platform for you. This is going to be perfect with everybody. Everybody's going to be able to shine and do their thing, man. We got Martin Lawrence hosting it. I got blessed, man.

I was on the second taping of the first season. I was so happy, man, to be able to get on that show. And I'll tell you something. That audition process wasn't no joke. And you talking about back then, man. You talking about cats fighting for positions. Let me tell you something, man. That thing became fighting for positions? Let me tell you something, man. That thing became, it became, let me tell you something, man.

It's kind of like fighting for your position. A roster spot on the team. You got three other tight ends, three other damn tight ends on your team, and they all good. And you're like, God damn, what can I do different outside of knocking one of these dudes out with a damn, in practice? How can I make it sure? I've just got to be unique enough. I've got to have that intangible

that is going to bring something to the show. Because my thing has always been make the show amazing. I never think about myself as an individual because it's really not about us. It's about when you're doing a stage show, you're doing a stand up, it's really about the audience

enjoying their money's worth and having a good time. I never make it about myself. You know, hell, I never make it about myself to the point where shit, I have had nights when shit just went wrong. It went wrong it went wrong and it's a stumble but I'm the first to

to claim you know and learn from everything so these that Def Comedy Jam was a platform a springboard for everybody man it became the one show you wanted to get on. It was.

You would do anything to get on that damn show. And you wanted to watch it too. You wanted to watch it? Hey, you know how many times Def Con would come on, man, and I was supposed to go out? Man, we would sit there, right, start getting dressed to go to the club, but we would make sure

we slow down a little bit so we go watch the deaf comedy jam while we getting dressed we go to the club and we waited till it went off and then we go out and get in the car and go to the club but we had to see deaf comedy jam but it propelled everybody everybody you name it propelled everybody and it was like I cannot explain how amazing that time period was that finally we had this this this place we could go to and we can all express our style all express our humor and we all had this unique opportunity and I think I think Russell Simmons and and Def Jam and Martin and everybody who was a part of that, because that is really,

that is the fuse that was lit to propel all these amazing people you see today, man. There is a class of Def Comedy Jam. There is a unique class of comedians. They should, I mean, we've had a reunion and we've had a uh a tribute show and that kind of stuff but man it's just amazing at the at how that that show made a lot of comedians bob sumner also an amazing he's he ran all the all those um all those auditions man bob was a big part of that man he's a big part of all those um all those auditions man Bob was a big part of that

man he's a big part of it you got all those comedians on board right when you look at comedians do most comedians okay you do you start out doing stand-up but do most comedians all comedians how what percentage do you think says you know what I want to graduate to tv I want to graduate to movies is that or just some people just like you know stand up my? I want to graduate to TV. I want to graduate to movies. Is that, or just some people just like, you know, stand up my gig. I want to do stand up. Because it was like, once Eddie, once Eddie was,

Eddie Murphy, obviously, I'm talking about Eddie Murphy. Once he graduated from stand up and started doing, did, you know, movies. Yeah. I think he's going to do another Netflix special. But he went totally away. You see Jerry Seinfeld, he had a TV. He went back. A lot of people, Kevin Hart does movies.

He comes back. Chris Rock did movies, comes back. Is it that you, okay, do you always want to come back? Because, you know, some guys come back, some guys don't. Let me say something. Stand-up, stand-up will always be the bread and butter of any comic.

It's just what it is. Here's what the benefits you get out of doing stand-up is. TV, you shoot TV, you gotta shoot stuff, you gotta shoot stuff, you gotta package it, you gotta post it, you gotta air it. Movies, you gotta shoot stuff, you gotta shoot stuff, they gotta package it, they gotta put, they gotta do post, they gotta air it. Movies, you gotta shoot the movie,

you gotta be on a cane, you gotta do all this stuff, you gotta do all this mess when it comes to movies, movies, movies, movies, movies, movies. Sometimes you won't see a movie, shit, eight, nine, sometime a year, by the time you see that damn movie. And I'm gonna tell you something, even as an actor,

a lot of times you grow in those eight, nine months. Right. And majority of the time, you don't like the movie because you sit there like, damn, I could have done that better. I'm a better actor a year later

than I was when I shot that damn movie. Okay. You know what I'm saying? Yes. So you have to, and then there are comedians who are totally satisfied with being

stand-ups and could care less about movies and TV. Here's the thing you get out of doing stand-up. Stand-up, that's how I compare it to TV and film. You might not see that movie for a year. TV, you got to do all that work, shoot all these damn episodes.

By the time people see it, stand up, you get a chance to be in the moment. It's instantaneous. You walk on that damn stage, you can perform, you got people laughing their ass off, they can touch you after the show,

you can hug them, they can tell you, oh, I needed that so much, thank you so much, I needed that laugh. In the moment, you can get in your car. They can tell you, oh, I needed that so much. Thank you so much. I needed that laugh. In the moment, you can get in your car. You can go home. You can drive home like, damn, that was a good show.

You feel it on your skin in the moment. It's there. That just happened. You in the moment. You felt it. They felt it. It was a great time. They talking about you right now while you driving home.

They driving home talking about you because they had a good time. TV, film, man, you can tell people all you want. Man, when you see this movie coming out? When it coming out? Oh, man, about nine months. About nine months, man, brother. It's good. It's good.

Right. So that's why people thirst. They thirst to get back. They want that immediate. They want that instant grat to get back. They want that immediate. They want that instant gratification. They want that instant. That's that instant rush. It's not a slow day.

I'm going to get that in nine months or a year. I'm getting that right now. I'm getting that euphoria. I'm getting that high right now. Oh, man. You got it right there, man. You got that right in the moment, man. It's like, oh, man.

We all were there. In this timeline, we were there. We did man. You got that right in the moment, man. It's like, oh, man, we all were there. In this timeline, we were there. We did it. You know what I mean? The show was great. All the whole show was good. Look at it. Everybody did great tonight.

The crowd had a good time. Ooh, it works. It works, man. Give me your Mount Rushmore of comedians. Ooh, man. And you know there's only four Mount Rushmore of comedians. Ooh, man. And you know there's only four Mount Rushmore. So we can't do no ads. We can't do no ties. We only got

four. We only got four spots. Now, are you basing it on... Here's what I ask you. Are you basing it on impact in my life? Are you basing it on... You know how, even in top five,

everybody had their different opinion of who the best rappers were, who the best hip hop could do it. Everybody had an opinion because you got to go by what touches you. And if I base it on... See, I'm inspired by so many different things. You base it on whatever you want your criteria to be.

I want to know what smooth, top, I want to know smooth, Mount Rushmore comedian. So you base it however you want. Impact, who have me laughing, whatever the case may be. See, I'm like Mike Tyson. See, here's what I say. Styles make fights for me. Right.

You ask Mike Tyson about boxing, he gonna break down why and he gonna give you all the little nuances of what the sweet science is all about. Right. Right? You know, there's guys who lost fights to me who I still consider the greatest. Right. Some of the greatest boxers to me. Right. Right? You know, there's guys who lost fights to me who I still consider

the greatest. Right. Some of the greatest boxers to me. Right. Even though they lost, they ain't undefeated. But they lost,

but they still get classified as the greatest. So, here's what I want to say. Damn, this is hard. Hey, I know it's hard.

I'm a fight fan. See, I'm a fight fan see i'm a fight fan okay you know what i mean i can only go by what inspired me in my movement you know what i mean and you just come from a guy who was inspired by music who was inspired by comedy who's inspired by anything and everything birds i'm inspired by everything you can think of okay outdoors i'm inspired by personalities by people so science the stars astrology oh so i say this prior okay he would be on my he'll be on my prior oh man see in my in my book fourth hard damn it man prior murphy i gotta go murphy you be mine now this is a hard one people gotta understand this one i i i was inspired by Bill Cosby okay here's why I tell people as a

asterisk on it you cannot if everybody had to give back the inspiration they got from somebody because that person didn't live up to it or something happened where they got

heavily flawed flawed right that person was flawed now think about this if you had to give all that back you know what it does to you it drops you down

because something about them inspired you in that moment right in your upbringing in your career that helped you propel you to grab that microphone and start opening your upbringing and your career that helped you, propel you to grab that microphone

and start opening your mouth. And they say 50% of the job is grabbing the microphone. Right. Just like you guys, you put a uniform on, you got to have the guts

to put that uniform on and walk in that field. Yes. Before that kickoff, you already halfway there. You already here. You showed up. Now you got another already halfway there you already here you showed up now you got another 50% to do

to win this damn game and put somebody on their ass or whatever so I say those three right are you

now this is a hard one because I love me some Fox I love me some Red Fox man I'm telling you I'm telling you Red Fox, man. I'm telling you, I'm telling you, Red Fox is, to me, whoo!

That particular style, right, is hilarious. He had the party albums, all the good stuff. Right. I'm going to tell you another guy, but it's hard because he's too close to my age. Right. Chris

Rock, his, he had a run of four specials. And I dare you to put them in order to the best of each one. Those specials that Chris Rock did, that rapid fire Chris Rock, when he on a roll and he's banging that microphone and walking back and forth

across that stage. Come on, man. Ain't nobody gonna match that. Ain't nobody gonna boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Walking to you. I'm singing and Chris walking back and forth hitting you with the fourth tossed salad and all them jokes.

Come on, man. Shannon, you cannot beat that pace. You can't even keep up. You can't keep up with it because you're like, God damn, this dude's shooting the shit out of me. He's shooting me with these jokes. I'm like, ooh, ooh, ooh. I can't even keep my balance, man.

He's too close an ace to me. He's reachable. I can grab him right now. He's a friend of mine. I love him. I love him. I would love him to now. He's a friend of mine. Right. I love him. I love him. I would love him to be up there, but I got to go. See, Chris wasn't around. I didn't know Chris when I first had in my mind I wanted to do this.

You know what I mean? I had never stepped on stage before. But this one guy, I feel like he was a big – all these guys were a big part of my, and I needed these styles, and I said styles make fights. I needed a balance of all four of these guys in order for me to get

the courage to walk on stage and grab that microphone. So I feel like as far as stand up, I got to add my man George George Carlin, because all I can think about in this moment is George Carlin was so, all these comedians are very outspoken in their way. Every last one of them. Different eras, but very, very, very, very, very outspoken. Different eras, but very, very, very, very, very outspoken.

Now, I can only imagine what George Carlin would do with this shit show he got going on in the world today. I mean, he would have a fucking field day, Shannon. You hear me? He would have a – no, he would take this stuff and he would mangle it. He will mangle what's going on in the world today. That was his style. That was his thing. Outspoken, poignant, all the things you

can think of. This dude, he can find a way to make you look so stupid in your thinking, in the things you are making important in your life, the things that the government is doing. He will take every, half the stuff he said

in his last special happened. And the man is dead. The man been gone. Half the stuff he said and half the stuff he been saying in all his special is happening. That's the crazy part. You look at it like, damn. He knew

stuff about human nature that only certain comedians can take it. Take human nature. Some are very storytellers, was it prior? You know, storytellers. Eddie Murphy was very, I'd say he can talk

about almost anything, but when he starts talking about his family and different things like that, oh, Eddie will kill you. Yeah, you're dying. You know, Aunt Bunny, you know, he has stuff. Relationship stuff will kill you. You know what I mean? These are,

and Cosby, he's sitting there, he's sitting down, he sat down on a chair and painted, he would paint pictures He's sitting there. He's sitting down. He sat down on a chair. He would paint pictures and tell you stories and paint pictures, man. How can you not? He's sitting there like these damn styles, all these styles. And not one of them is alike.

Each and one of these guys is completely different. You couldn't even put them in a ring together because you couldn't tell who would win. When I look at, and I think you left Chappelle off because Chappelle is your age. He's a peer of yours. I can't, I can't. I knew Dave when he was 15. When you walk on stage, I'm 20-something. He was 15, waiting to go on stage in the same club.

Right. No, don't get me wrong. Chappelle is my man. Right now, if there was to, right now, he is definitely someone who- He the king right now. He is the king right now. There is no king right now other than Dave Chappelle.

He is the king right now. But I gotta go by what inspired me. That little 15-year-old boy who was waiting to go on stage in the comedy club, he didn't inspire me in my upcoming. Right, right. He was just another kid starting out who's watching

us and, you know, who was amazing in his young age. But he, I was already on my... You were on your sin, right. Yeah, exactly. I can't say, you know, had I started today,

I would say, shit, I got to throw Chappelle up in there because I'll be starting today. So let me ask you a question. Robin Harris was, I think he was on the ascent before he he lost uh he died bernie mack is still one of my favorites you know what after i've listened to him a couple of times you know who i like seinfeld and i didn't i didn't watch his show and i wasn't

a big seinfeld watcher but i've listened to some of his things, I can get down with Seinfeld. See, I think for me, when I hear Pryor and I hear Red Fox and I hear some of these other guys, that's relatable to me because that's how we talk in our community. I can relate to that. You know what I'm saying? It's like a food dish.

You talk about oxtails, you talk about neck bones, you talk about pig in sandwiches, that's things I can relate to. So when someone talks about cooking that, okay, I get that. I don't always relate to some of the other comedians that are outside of my demographic. But you know what I'm talking about, Smooth. I know that.

See, here's the thing. Here's the thing. Here's the thing that's going to put that in a nutshell. Back when Blockbuster was open, right? Right. I was walking around was open, right? Right. I was walking around Blockbuster, right? And I realized something. I said, I think I told my wife this.

I said, baby, do you realize that we can walk in Blockbuster and we can rent anything in here because we get it. We can rent anything in this because we get it. We can rent anything in this damn blockbuster, take it home, put it in, and get it because we have to understand everybody. We have

to. It's just the nature of what it is as a black person. We got to understand all this. Why people can't walk in blockbuster and just grab Friday? They ain't gonna get it. They can't grab Car Wash. They can't grab that.

They can't pick that up. Oh, hell no. They ain't gonna get it. They ain't gonna laugh at the right stuff. They're gonna be afraid to laugh at stuff. Because they ain't gonna know what this show laugh at. They ain't gonna get it. They ain't gonna understand it. House party.

I said, we done read it. House party. Shannon, come on, man. You can't get that as a gift to somebody. Right.

You know, your white friends, your ego. You're right. Smooth, let me ask you this. House party. Smooth,

let me ask you this. Okay, you're doing a show and one of these other guys walk in, they might be before you, they might be after you. I know when you go to obviously the All-Star game,

let's just take basketball All-Star game. You know, guys want to show, okay, Steph Curry, you shoot, I can make threes too, I can make local threes too. Okay, LeBron, you want to dunk, I can dunk too. Are you in secretly competition? Because I remember when I used to run, I'd go to the gym, I made a treadmill. You might not think it, but you're racing me, bro.

Don't even worry about it. If what's known doesn't need to be spoken. But we're racing. I mean, you're trying to go 10, I'm going 11. You're going 12, I'm going 13. You know, we're Olympic. When you're going 13,000 steps, I'm going 15. We're racing.

So are you in competition against that guy at the club? I am not, but that person's in competition with me. That's the bad part. And that's the part that is sad on some levels. So yeah, it's sad, but as much as we give to our audiences, the inner workings of it, you know, it can get a little, you know, it gets a little messy sometimes,

you know, especially coming up. Right. But it is what it is. You know, if you got a bunch of cats in the circus and they all can walk on the tightrope real good with the chair and they got all that good balance. You're not special then. If we all can do the same thing, you got to be able to do something that I can't do to set yourself apart. Now, here's the thing.

So that particular guy can walk on that tightrope. He got that chair. He got, you know, he can put that chair, one leg of that chair on that rope. Right. And sit his ass down, Shannon. Right. He's sitting there, bowing himself out.

Everybody looking at him like, oh, man, he just showing out now. Right. But I guarantee you, one of them other guys will steal that and they're going to try to do it. They're going to... They're going to go home and practice it and then they're going to be able to sit

in the chair all the time. They're going to be able to do the same damn thing. So, the race... The race... A race only comes into play if two people agree that it's a race. You know, one guy might not even know it's a race, but you hauling ass.

So you hauling ass. I'm just running. But you hauling ass. But somehow you hauling ass so hard, but we still side by side. Right. But you working hard. Right. You working hard.

I'm like striding. I'm like striding. Right, you striding out. I'm striding out. You like, you got this. I'm running. You hauling ass. striding out. You were like, you got this. I'm running. You hauling ass. It's different.

You know what I mean? So I say that because there are people who are motivated by your, you know, motivated by your failure. And that is the nature. And I think in this world of social media, you see more of the character of people come out. You know, I think, you know, everything is more out front now. You know, I think it's almost cool to hate. It's almost cool to make it a competition. It's almost cool to compare yourself to everybody all the time. It's almost cool to make it a competition. It's almost cool to compare yourself to everybody all the time. It's almost cool to boast.

It's almost cool to do all these things, which is terrible. But we have somehow landed in this climate. But, you know, some people think you're racing them, and you're not. You just, you know, you can only do you, you know. And that's why I say, I think I might have said it at the top. you know, you can only do you, you know, and that's why I say, I said at the top, I said, man, I'm so content, man. And I'm so happy and blessed to have longevity 30 years in the game, have longevity, have still have patience, still willing to learn.

You know, I learned every day in this, in this, in this, in this, in this standup world, in this acting world, in this world that, you know, constantly evolving. Right. Constantly, the comedian has to evolve with the times because we have to be able to make it relatable to what we're talking about. Because the thing is that,

because you remember back in the day, everything kind of went. You can make jokes about people's orientation. You can make jokes about people's race and religion. Where that was acceptable then, that's really not acceptable now, even though comedians are supposed to push the boundaries. So you have to be careful. You have to evolve with the evolving and the changing of the times. Has that been difficult?

You know what? It has always been a part of the comedian. It has always been there. It's never going to be something different. It has always been there. It is actually what we have to deal with constantly is being PC. And, you know, we've always had to deal with that. But I realized, you know, like Eddie, you know, you can't pull up those old albums.

No. You know, you got to almost admit you were thinking different back then. You almost got to come out. You know what? You got to almost admit you were thinking different back then. You almost got to come out. You know what? You got to almost say it yourself. You can't allow them to pull your albums up and start to dissect it. You got to say, you know what? Man, that era, that time period, woo, we got away with so much.

Yes. Anybody who I, who, in this time. No way. In this time, I got to say, hey, that was some early year stuff. In my view, I took some chances in comedy. But people, you know what? People loved it. And the times were different.

Of course, I would never do any of those things nowadays because it just doesn't fit the times. Correct. And I would never, you know, degrade or say anything bad about women or, you know, or your gender, you know, it just, you know, I'll take this as a good example. So I had to pull up my old comedy special and I was like, man, so this is a bit I used to do. People used to love it. So I used to do a used to love it so i think about um police officers right right and i would sit there and do this whole run on uh i talked about how you know and living in la everybody's always running from the police you know he's high

all you see these high speed car chases all the time i I said, man, and these, you know, I said, and police officers, this was like years ago, but police officers, like five years ago, but police officers, you know, would get mad because when they blow your tires out, they're supposed to spike strip down and blow your tire, you get out the car and start running. And it's a whole 15-minute bit about how

once you get out the car and start running, a police officer would get mad as hell because he got all that shit on that belt and i got and i put everything on the belt you can think of but it's all about you know how you know uh uh criminals and and police officers now back then of course the joke was relevant because people do run a lot in LA. Right. You know, they run, they love to run out here. You know, they will have a cop chasing them all day

if they had to, until the car ran out of gas. And you try to watch TV. They still put those chases on TV out here. Oh, yeah. And you run out, you be mad because they interrupt your TV show. You be like, God, can't watch nothing out here. You know, you like be mad because they interrupt your tv show you be like yes can't watch nothing out here you know you like man they would interrupt anything out here in la they would

i said they would interrupt the damn dvd they don't give a damn and so i did this whole bit about police chasing people and catching catching you and and and all the stuff on the belt i talked about they had they had a gun, taser, bullets, you know, breathalyzer, that damn lie detector, a coffee maker. I had all this stuff on the belt. And I said, man, they'd be mad because they got all that mess on the belt.

They chasing you and all that stuff is shaking around and spilling coffee and stuff. And man, it's hilarious, right? And I said, the damn cop It's hilarious, right? And then I said, and I said, the damn cop was so mad, you know. And this is, I'm going to tell you, I'm going to wrap this up at the end. But, and I did, I said,

when they catch you, they be so mad at you. I said that the cop pulled his billy club out and he's so mad that you made him chase you. I said, he hit himself in the back and then he hit you. Like, boom, boom, boom, boom. That's how mad that you made him chase you i said he hit himself in the back and then he hit you like boom boom boom boom that's how mad he was at you now that's the times we we live in right we talk about we talk about how a lot of comedians because we have to make the obvious we have to make pain we have to make we have to take whatever's going on in the world make it relevant because believe it or not laughter is the cure for a lot of things that we

are going through and i say this all the time you if you think there wasn't at least one funny slave in the midst of all that on those plantations you had to have one dude you had to have one dude when they finished working on the plantation you had to have one dude who had to take the sting off of what we going through and he'll stay on that box. Boy, he'd be 10. Boy, let me tell you something. He'd be talking about the damn slave owners. Boy, he'd be going in on them damn fools. They'd be laughing their ass off. Boy, you do got a tight ass. You know what I mean? You have to.

You have to have that separation of what is happening and how to deal with it. Right now, Shannon, we're going through a terrible time right now. Yes. Terrible. Yes. Black Lives Matter. We're going through a terrible presidential race. We're going through it.

We are going. 2020 is it like you said, people are going to be saying man, is that so 2020 of you? I'm telling you it's going to come a time Shannon, when this climate, this time period, our timeline,

we are living in right now. It's going to come a time when a comedian is going to go on stage and completely clown 2020. Of course. Even though death, even though pandemics, even though police brutality,

even though you name it, you name it, you name it, the rise of racial, racist groups, you know, even in the midst of all this, you cannot function mentally if all you hear is negative, negative, negative. You remember when this is a good example. Remember the fifth element? Yeah. Now, this is this right here might make you cry.

Okay. Remember fifth element when, I forgot her name, but anyway, you know, Bruce Willis had to help the lady, right? And remember she didn't know anything. Remember they put, somehow she got a hold of some videos

or something happened. And remember she was watching it and it was a history. It was a complete history of the world. Remember that? All she saw was, she saw every good point and every horrible part of this planet earth and she started crying shan that tear was rolling down her face because she just saw in a nutshell everything she needed to find out about who she was where she came from and how this world is that she's about to come into and she started crying because it

was terrible right terrible she saw war she saw famine she saw shannon you name it she saw that all like this back to back back to back back to back she didn't have time to even process it and she started crying no one in their right mind, Shannon, can possibly. People are overwhelmed right now. They're overwhelmed. It's impossible for you to constantly have overwhelming situations thrown at you. You're going to crack. You're going to crack.

And that's when revolution happens. That's when people go out on their own because they feel like there's nothing they can lose. But they ain't getting nothing out of this. They're going to lose their marbles. And you need to have someone to take it, who has a stronger will, who has a different mental capacity for pain. And a lot of times, comedians can take horrible things that happen in their lives and they find some way suppressing it,

writing it funny, whether they had a bad father or a bad mama or whatever it is, they suppress it, they find a way to do impression of their dad or impression of their mom. And it can be undertone, could be the most horrible things ever.

But they find some way to make it relatable to you sitting in that audience and you be laughing your ass off because you know that he couldn't be up there telling you the full pain of it. Right. And that's what this right here that we are going through right now somehow has got to go from this horrible feeling that we are having to somehow making sense of it.

And to me, the only person who will make sense of it is one of these amazing comedians, Dave Chappelle or whoever, is going to walk on that stage and be as blunt with you, but in its honesty, is going to make you laugh and realize that we got to push through

all this somehow and we got to make sense of it. For some reason, this is happening right now for a reason you know we are not in control of any of this stuff you know as much as we are at the mercy of people who are in government people who are you know i say this is what i say i don't really listen to people because i know that people are all humans and we are all actually learning how things work at the same time.

Some people might find out before you, that doesn't make them smarter than you. You know, there's things that they could never understand and be smart enough to do that you know how to do. And there's things that they know that you can't do. But in all reality, we are all learning at the same time how the world works and what it is. No one knows what it is. I think

everybody does. We're all dumb. We're all dumb, believe me. No one is this freaking amazing person that knows everything. If they did, they would have saved the planet a long time ago. That person doesn't exist. We are all dumb as hell, I promise you. Every day something new comes out, you find out some fool been fucking your body up

all these years you didn't know about. They're making drugs on TV that had a thousand damn side effects. They got to find that stuff out after they give it to you. They can't just say it's going to cause this because they don't know what's going to happen until they give it to you they can't just say it's going to cause this because they don't know what's going to happen until they give it to somebody and test it on one of us so i say that because man we're going to find some way to take all this

and it's got to make sense because the only way to deal with all this is to have some version of it that is able to take your mind away from the pain of it you can't take that kind of pain forever you're going you're going to take pain pills to a certain point until you become addicted to them and now you now you mess your whole body up now you can't get off of them so so that that saying the comedian is is the catalyst for everything you know getting back to production these studios reopening because they know and a comedian is the catalyst for everything. You know, getting back to production, these studios reopening because they know people ain't gonna be able to.

They ain't gonna be able to. People ain't going to know you without being able to go to the movies and go be entertained. You better be able to turn your TV on and you better be able to watch something and laugh because you gotta laugh to keep from crying. You better laugh to keep from crying you better laugh to keep on crying because we don't know if it's gonna get worse we don't know there's been a movement

to try to bring equality to hollywood they want more blacks more women in roles what do you feel about and this is the animation we've seen and some have given up those roles where we see white actors and actresses doing voiceovers for black characters how do you feel about that animation is a unique thing because i've seen it you know i can't i can't say i haven't done a white character on tv before i can't say i haven't done a white character on TV before. I can't say I haven't done a white voice. I can do just about any voice. You know, I can do just about anything you want me to do. And think about this.

You know how many times I've played characters that weren't gendered? It could be black. It wasn't black. It wasn't white. It was just a character. You know what I mean? Now, i can make him sound however i want to sound but you know but that takes me looking at the character every

time i do a voiceover animation i always say send me how he looks that's the first thing i say let me see if he's purple let me see if he has eight arms you know i did the Harley Quinn thing, the Harley Quinn, I played Frank the Plant, right? I said, send me a photo of the plant. I want to see how he looks. I want to see how his face looks. I want to see how he has little leaves

for his hands where you can point and stuff. So when I do my voiceover, I do this. This is how I do my voiceover, I do this. This is how I do my voiceover because I want to, you know... You invited the character. You actually, even though it's animation, you... It's management that'll match.

So I'm going to be honest, man. I've met some Black comedians who can do some amazing white people. And I've met some white comedians who can do a Black voice. I've seen them do it. I'm like, ooh, this dude do a amazing white people. And I met some white comedians who can do a black voice. I've seen them do it. I'm like, ooh, this dude do a good Eddie Murphy. Ooh, this dude do a good, you know.

And I'm like, oh, smack. But you are still a product of whatever you are around. It's just, you know, if you're used to hanging around with a mixed crowd or a mixed audience or you got black friends, you naturally are going to be able to do a Black character. And, you know,

for me, see, we want to make sure that this is what we want to make sure as actors and Black actors is we are doing this because we are, like, here's the question you got to ask. We are doing this because we are. Here's a question you got to ask. We are doing this because I'm talented, right?

Right. That's what you fucking want to say. We are doing it because I'm talented and not because I'm black, right? Right. I don't want you to give me shit. I don't want you to give me nothing. And I've always been like that. I'll turn down stuff.

I don't want you to give me nothing. I want to sort to work because you want me to come to work and do this. I don't want you to give me nothing. I don't want no handout. See, I'm like this, man. I am not a handout dude. You know, I wouldn't even expect. I dig my own self out of stuff.

I'll give me a shovel and I dig myself out. Now, I ain't gonna lie, Shannon. Sometimes I have, while I'm digging myself out, I have literally thrown dirt over my shoulder back into the same damn hole.

Right. Plenty of times. Because I don't know, I don't know sometimes what to think. Right. So, a lot of times I stay in the same spot. And if you're digging a hole and you're throwing the dirt over your shoulder back into the same damn hole you're digging, you ain't getting nowhere.

You're still in the same position. So, I don't want to be in the same position because you're giving me something because, just because I'm black. Right. You know what I'm saying? And you have to do it. I don't like, you have to do it. I don't like you have to do it. You know, I want you to say this dude right here is talented and man, he's going to be great in my movie. I don't like people doing shit because someone told them they had to do it because that throws me off because it makes it makes what the work you put in to get to your point

minimal it makes like you're not talented i'm just doing this shit because i have to because they're making me do they're making me do this shit man that's a hurtful feeling man how you show up knowing that someone had to do it you want to show up because they they have to have you they want you that bad they need you they need you they need your particular they need your particular presence on this set they don't you don't want man the last thing you want to do man is be slighted in your in your work you put in slighted man you'd be like man i feel so slighted i'll tell you what that good example is this is football it's a football one remember when remember when god

damn uh the jets brought in tebow yes i was mad as hell man i was mad as hell i'm gonna tell you something i'll tell you why the guy only got in on third down, like maybe twice a game. And guess what he did? Hand the ball off the man around the middle. Man, that hurt me so bad, man. And I know, I know that man was hurt. Yeah. He had it show up.

He had it show up. He had a contract. He may have had it show up. He had a contract. He may have to show up. How they used the man, I was hurt because I know the dude on the Heisman, the dude, you know, the miracle player in Pittsburgh and, you know,

all this stuff that happened. And man, to be relegated to and run up the middle, push for a third and one. It's like, ouch god damn it man that had to hurt the man i had to hurt and it actually happened in many other instances with people athletes comedians whatever you whatever you do but you don't want you don't

want to show up because someone had to do it that's not where we need to be at because nothing is going to be honest, not coming from an honest place. So if you are talented enough, if you are talented enough, I can give a damn. I'm going to be honest. If you are talented enough

and it's obvious you're more talented, of course, have fun. Show your talents. Show your ass. But man, don't do it because you have to do it it throws me off I can't even get you 100% on set if I know I'm just here because

of a just because you had to do it right you don't want to come in for a quota you don't want to come in because you fit the quota right that hurts you so bad, man. Like, you know, if you had to show up on the field

and you know damn well you catch the ball, you knock somebody over, you can run, you want to score some touchdowns, and then someone will block, just keep blocking. Don't worry about it. Just block. I'm going to put you in on third down. Just block.

You're like, man, I don't need to be here. This is not why I should be here. Right. Smooth, I'm going to get you out of here on a couple of sports. LeBron came to the Lakers. He won a title this year with Anthony Davis. Four titles, four MVPs. Talk to me, what did you see from LeBron this year?

What I saw was, see, this is the thing about here's what I think back to. I think back to that first season Miami, you know, Dwyane Wade playing against Dallas. You know what I mean? To me, here's the thing that happened when I watched that game. I watched

a team that hadn't gelled yet. I watched a team. You see, do you know how many bad passes was in that game i watched a team that hadn't gelled yet i watched a team you see do you know how many bad passes was in that game that was the sloppiest i mean i know these guys ain't never played together i mean they play together but i know they ain't never been in that kind of situation where and you're on a big stage right i watched that game like wow these dudes ain't ready they shouldn't even have i would rather have stayed home and got eliminated in the playoffs rather than end up in dallas and and look that way like that oh man it looked bad man all i say was look man i said give me a year i said once they learn how to learn how to play

with each other and learn how to learn the timing and passing and all those little intangibles this team gonna be good right and that's what that's what i feel like you know but that's also because LeBron is a leader, but he needs to not rely on you, but know that he can rely on you, which is different. Which is different. It's a whole different thing. So I think this year he found that in the Laker team. I think he turned it up. I think LeBron is an amazing player, man. I think, you know, I agree with almost everything you say about him on the show.

And I think that this guy is, how do you, you know, based on this year, he doesn't have no drop-off. Where is his drop-off? Where is that moment we say, oh, okay, it's a wrap. Not the same. He ain't got that it's a wrap moment yet. Right.

When this man might, this man might play until 40 years old. Yeah, this might. No, he has not shown the drop off. Here's what the thing is. People forget that this is not just all mental. I mean, all physical. This is a mental thing.

Oh, absolutely. Oh, you got to have it. You got to have not just do you have to have, you know, mental strength. You got to have resilience. You got to be, you got to have that bounce back because the man has lost. It ain't like, to me, the greatest strength shown to me is when you lose and you have the ability

to still come back and win again. Overcome adversity. Oh yeah. When you lose, and people expect you to win, that's the double layer of pressure on your mind. I don't

want to disappoint my fans again. I don't want to disappoint me. I don't want to show up to the big game and not play right and lose. That, to me, is the ultimate level of strength, especially in the sports world. This dude, I think what they did for the Lakers, man, and the timing of it,

you know, I said it before, you know, all this. I said this is going to make a great story. Right. You know, I live, let me tell you something i live right an exit away i mean literally i can see the area where from my house if i stand on my roof i can see further enough i can see almost in the vicinity of where kobe crashed at from my house and let me tell you something crazy that morning you know we we were in the process of building our new home but we were still at our house our old house which is five six blocks away so we woke up that morning had plans to come over to the new house and talk to the concrete guy about the driveway. So I wake up in the morning

and I said, God damn. I said, baby, I don't think I've ever seen it this foggy in my life. And it was a weird, like, I don't know what it is, man, but it was a weird, eerie,

kind of like fogginess outside. It was that bad. It was that bad, Shannon. bad shannon i was like god dang it's cloudy it's foggy outside and my wife said wow yeah because we live our old house is on the hill and we could see the mountains we see the mountains all the mountains and we couldn't see nothing you're gonna see nothing you're gonna see nothing i was like't see nothing. You couldn't see nothing. I was like, I can't even see the mountains at all. I wanted to see four rows of houses,

blocks. And I couldn't see nothing else past that. Right. When we come over here to meet the concrete guy, we're standing in the driveway and we're talking

and we're like, you know, so how are we going to do this? And all of a sudden we heard do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. Right? And we all look around like, you know, so how are we going to do this? And all of a sudden we heard, right? And we all look around like, what was that? It was a helicopter flew over our house and shit, I'm going to tell you something. It was flying so low and it was so loud. And all I could say was, man,

that helicopter is loud. And we saw it go over us. We was like, damn, right? So this is crazy. And we saw it go over us. We was like, damn, right? So this is crazy. So we leave the concrete guy. You talk about this time span is like 15 minutes. We leave 10, 15 minutes. We leave and go to Rouse, the shopping center. By the time we parked, right?

This is like two blocks away, the Rouse. Go around the corner. And I sat in the car and then my wife went in Rouse. So when she walked out the car, my buddy Shannon, you know Shannon Smith, played basketball. So Shannon texted me and said, hey, I just heard something that came across the news saying that Kobe's helicopter crashed. I'm like, yo, my heart jumped out my chest, man. I said, yo. Yo, and my wife was still in the store, so I got out the car and stood in the parking lot.

Like, I'm looking around like, does anybody else know what the fuck just happened? I'm looking around, and this one dude came by with a shopping cart. I think he had a Lakers jersey on. He said, yo, man, did you hear? I think I just heard on my little earpiece that someone said it was a helicopter crash. And I think Kobe was on it. I'm like, holy shit, man. All I think about was, was that his helicopter or was that someone going to the site? Right.

Because it was so foggy. It was so foggy. Like, this helicopter was literally, I mean, it was so foggy. It was so foggy. Like, this helicopter was literally, I mean, it was flying low enough where it's almost like they were trying to see where they was going. And you can't see when you're up there.

When you can see, you can see. You know what I mean? You can't. And I was like, and I was just going by the timeline. I said, man, I wonder was that someone rushing to their aid I didn't know

because all I know was it was almost surprising how loud and low it was you know because they don't normally fly that low and you only fly that low if you're trying to see it was that foggy janet and it gave me a it hurt me man i was like yo and once i heard and i knew i knew i knew exactly the area

once they said this the exit i said oh baby it's right here it's like right there this happened and i'm weird man there's people who want to go down there I said man I can't I can't look at pain like that because I know it's a terrible thing to happen man and this is a icon of Los Angeles man this is respect this man's you know his daughter's on the flight it's other friends and family man it's like respect what happened you You know what I mean? Just don't go down there and make it a spectacle. The last thing I would want to do is go down there and, you know, stand in there

and all of a sudden, people recognize you and then it goes away from that to let me get a picture with you or I wouldn't want to go down there and take the... You know, these people got a job to do and try to rescue people or whatever's happening. And you can't be that insensitive and get in the way or, you know,

and I mean, literally I could ride my bike there. It's that close. It was terrible, man. So this is big for LA. This is what needed to be done. They needed to win this to complete the story. Yes. This story would have been, I'm telling you,

I couldn't even imagine you showing up on the show and they lost. Oh, no, I wouldn't. I couldn't imagine. I didn't think I had to take a vacation. I know because I know how you feel about LeBron and I know how Skip, you know,

I know where Angle and Skip going to come from. And I'm like, man. I said, man, they better win this game. They had to. They had to win it. I said, they got to do it for the city of Los Angeles. They got to do it for I said, they got to do it for the city of Los Angeles. They got to do it for Kobe.

And, you know, and I'm happy that LeBron had enough confidence in his team, enough confidence in what he wanted to do that sometimes, I tell people all the time, sometimes you got to speak your actions into existence. Yes. You got to speak on what you plan on doing no disrespect to the other team no disrespect to anybody else this is what i got to do i gotta make this go so i'm gonna say i'm gonna put it into the universe and say we we have to win this and we're gonna go for it we're gonna give it our all and we're going to win this game.

If you don't say that, you lose, you step back. You know, and that's what I told. I did the Jets debut of their new uniform event in New York, right? Right. And I told them guys, I said, look, man, you guys got a brand new uniform. You know, no one's ever worn this uniform. Right. Y'all got to find some way to make this make sense.

Don't make, don't have this moment where you can hit the reset button and you got a brand new uniform. This uniform is yours. I said, y'all, I said, y'all scared to even talk trash your job is to talk trash your job is to go on that field and punch somebody in the mouth you punch people in the mouth every week every sunday you punch somebody in the face how you gonna sit there and say you ain't gonna go out there and fight you better say you're gonna go out there and punch somebody in the mouth you better say it you better make going to... Ain't nothing worse than playing somebody and they flinching. They flinching.

Flinching can be this. You can make them flinch or you can make people flinch off words. If you talk enough trash, they're going to flinch in their mind. All they're thinking is this dude going to punch me in the mouth. They don't know when, but they don't get

punched in the mouth. So you got to step in that field and be prepared to punch somebody in the mouth. They don't know when, but they don't get punched in the mouth. So you got to step in that field and be prepared to punch somebody in the mouth. Even if they're going to lose an effort, they better leave there limping. They better leave there like, God, damn, they whooped our ass, but we won. They got to remember next time they come,

they going to be flinching because they were like, man, last time we beat y'all by 21, but God, boy, y'all put it on us. You know what I mean? Yeah. If you don't have that, what do you have? And that is a true testament to this dude's work ethic.

He made it happen, man. Yep. He made it happen. And I'm going to get you out of here on this one. You're Knicks. You had an opportunity. You missed on Zion. You missed on Kyrie. You missed on

KD. Will the Knicks ever be able to attract a big-time free agent? And what are your expectations of the Knicks next season? I'll throw this in there, too. I wish we had got.

This is not the biggest piece in the world. But see, I go by this. I go by getting pieces to get a piece. Right. You can't. Sometimes you cannot get the big piece unless you have a piece that the big piece want to see. Right. We might have got Zion, but that one may be going to win.

Right. right you can you we might have got zion but that may be gonna win right you need something there so when zion get there he can say i see i see what we can do but if you can't see what we can do ain't nobody gonna come to the next right what they should have did was this they should have got kimber they should have jumped on Kimba I would have made it happen I would have brought the boy home we could have had a nucleus I was at a Knick game one night I saw Kimba tear our ass up

and I said man if they don't bring him and I knew his contract was going to be up and I knew he was going to be free I said man if they don't get this dude right here if they don't get Kimba we got to start somewhere that's going to make somebody else come if they don't get this dude right here if they don't bring if they don't get Kimba we gotta start somewhere that's gonna make somebody else come

we missed everybody man I think they was kind of hoping they'd get Kyrie and KD but that's the thing if you don't you're hoping and waiting on KD and Kyrie but if you don't get one of them then what you get nothing you get nothing you got to get one of them, then what? You get nothing. You get nothing. You got to

get something to bring something. You cannot, you can't rely on getting those two dudes unless those two dudes completely agree that we both going to come to the Knicks and we both going to change things. You need to get something there. You need to get some excitement. What they should have did,

I ain't lying, I've been saying this for years and I sit on your show, they should have did, I ain't lying, I've been saying this for years, and I sit on your show, they should have got Mark Jackson. I don't know what is going on and why this man, this icon, you got to give the fans something to cheer for until they have something to cheer

for. We're not going to get that big-time player. We're not going to get him. I wish, I wish, I wish, Shannon, we would get out with that. I wish we'd get the Greek freak to come on down from Milwaukee, man. I wish, I wish, you know, and I already got a slogan for the team. I'm a marketing genius, man. I love, like, play on words and stuff. I was like, y'all got to go for the dude and everything. I'm a marketing genius, man. I love, like, play on words and stuff.

I was like, y'all got to go for the dude, man. But I'm sorry, we don't got, we got some good players. They're young players, but we need to entice people to come to the Knicks. This is one of the biggest marketing teams in the country. Sometimes you need a little fish

to attract a big fish. You need it, man. I said, man, if Giannis come over here, they do a campaign. You know, I said, I said, man, look, let me be the damn publicist in the commercial. All it is

we promoting, bringing him to the Knicks. Maybe he comes to the Knicks. That'd be awesome. And then we could go out there and promote as a publicist. I would say, man, we are advocating that the city of New York changes the city of New York to the city of New Yonnas. See that? New Yonnas. Oh, Shannon, what an amazing campaign.

People being amped up. Got New Yonnas shirts on it. New Yonnas. Bring the man to New York, man. Let's make it happen, man. I know Milwaukee don't try to hold on to that man because that's all they got. If they lose him, people are leaving these small market teams, man.

Yeah. These super teams. So I don't know. But just because you get it, you got to know how to play with the person. You got to know, you know, you can't just throw the man anywhere. Right. You don't want to waste that man's career. anywhere right you don't want to waste that man career yeah you don't want to waste it man and the same thing with zion you got to go somewhere where you can nurture these young these young guys man and get them

right and you got to have somebody on the team they can feed off of you gotta have something they can somebody to talk to in the locker room all these young guys need that they all need that they're just running they're that. They're just running. They're just running. They're just running, running, running. They get hurt or something happens. They don't got organization on the court. You need to put a team together like a puzzle, man.

And that team that won the championship, this team that was in that bubble, man, which is another level of mental, you know, your mental got to be right, stay in that bubble for that long, man., your, your mental got to be right. Stay in that bubble for that long, man. Got to. Right. Got to.

And to be away from your family and be away from everybody that long, man, and still have to, have to have that in you that allow you to win this championship, man. That's, you know, we, we gonna, Nick's got a little ways to go, but you need something to get something. And you got to be willing to make that small leap in order to pull somebody here. But I still say Kimmel would have been a nice piece to have.

And he can push the ball. He can do a little bit of everything, man. He's exciting to watch play. And, you know, we'll see what happens, man. I don't know what's on the horizon for the Knicks, but, you know, we've got some good young players, man. I do like RJ. I do like Knox.

I like what we got. But, you know, it is a team that you've got to have some names on that team, man, for the people to understand what you're trying to do. And the fans just want to see you. Fans just need effort, man. Fans just want to see effort. If you bust your ass, that's okay. You know, the old Knicks, man, man, come on, man.

You barely got out of that building with 88 points back in the day. Remember? Yep. You come in town, you might score 88. You'll be lucky to get in the 90s because them boys, they put it on you. Yep. They put it on you, man.

And the fans need to see that kind of effort, man. And, you know, I'm a Knick through good and bad, man. I'm a Knick fan, man. And we don't see what happens man but uh we got a lot of young players we need to get we need to get one good name there and we need to we need to get somebody a good name there to be able to pull the big fish but we need but we also need some sort of some sort of management needs to have a little

more what's the word for it we gotta I don't like the management on any level of most of my New York teams I don't like how they handle things and I think I think it pushes people away

and I just don't want the city, the fans to continue to suffer by people being pushed away. Right. And it's not good for the fans. And fans just got to hang on. And it's hard, man. It's hard being a loyal fan

if you feel like, you know, you're not really doing it for the team. You don't know why they're doing it. And you just want to be on the same page with the fans, man. You want to give them what they come out to see. You want to put a show on. You want to make sure win or lose that you're really giving attention to the fans and making sure you're not just doing stuff for spite

or doing stuff because you can. It's really about putting them seats in fans and making sure you're not just doing stuff for spite or doing stuff because you can it's really about putting them seats in there and making people you know ain't nothing better than leaving oh i left the old nick game the starks and hewitt you know how many times i left that bad boy even in a loss smiling because i was like oh i can keep pulling up it's a good play here and there you know what i mean and I mean? And that keep you going. That keep you going. Like, man. Woo! And Mark came down court and threw that ball back with him.

And Patrick caught it and dunked it. Ooh! We lost. But, man, that play. Ooh! You see promise. You see promise. Yep.

You know? That's all we want as a fan. That's all we want. I'm a real fan. I'm a real fan through the good and bad I'm a rider now Smooth I really appreciate it bro I really appreciate you taking time

spending a couple hours with me today good catching up with you I'll see you down the road alright bro have a good one Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast, I've been grinding all my life. Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast, NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal. Five days a week, you'll get all the latest news and the best analysis delivered by the time you get your coffee. The show hits every single game every single week, but I can't do it alone. So I'm bringing in all the big guns from NFL media like Colleen Wolf.

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