Club Shay Shay - Lil Rel Part 1

Episode Date: March 13, 2024

Lil Rel slides to Club Shay Shay and takes us on a hilarious and heartfelt journey through his life, starting from the tough streets of the Westside of Chicago. He reflects on the impact of A Different World on his desire to pursue entertainment while recounting high school days filled with tragedy, dodging the pitfalls of gang life through the guidance of his dad. Lil Rel shares his parents’ economic strategy of Payless shoes over Nikes which lead to a private school education that transformed his dialect. With humor and humility, Lil Rel dives into the roots of his comedy passion, inspired by friends and late-night TV. He opens up about his mother's unwavering support, tackling bullying, and discovering his comedic calling in high school. The episode explores Chicago's comedy environment, citing comedic legends like Bernie Mac, while Lil Rel shares intriguing encounters with Katt Williams and R. Kelly. Lil Rel offers reflections on Kanye West's artistic impact, the struggle of losing a mother which both Chicago natives share and the turbulence of Ye’s personal and public lives. As Lil Rel unveils his Mount Rushmore of Chicago rappers, the conversation turns into a comedic congressional assembly because just four names is too limiting for Lil Rel’s list. Touching on everything from Chicago sports heartbreak to Hollywood adventures with Kyrie Irving and Shaquille O'Neal, Part 1 of Shannon Sharpe’s conversation with Lil Rel is full of laughs, insights, and Lil Rel's unique perspective on life and comedy. #VolumeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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. Subscribe today and you'll immediately be smarter and funnier than your friends. Listen now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. That Wanda Smith interview. For no reason, Cat brings up me, Gerard, and Hannibal Buress.

Real, yeah, they're going to make you a style, but you're ugly. Look, I don't think I'm the finest nigga in the world, but a short nigga with a perm. Man, you know he's going to see this and respond. I don't give a'm the finest nigga in the world, but a short nigga with a perm. Man, you know he gonna see this and respond. I don't give a fuck. Y'all know how to do it. All my life, been grindin' all my life Sacrifice, hustle paid the price Wanna slice, got the rollin' dice That's why, all my life, I've been grindin' all my life

Hello and welcome to another edition of Club Shea Shea I am your host Shannon Sharp I'm also the proprietor of Club Shea Shea The guy that's stopping by for a conversation and a drink today Is a heavyweight and a veteran of the game He was once the best comedian performance uh mtv movie and television awards he's a two-time naacp image award nominee crown bernie mack comedy king of the year well respected comedian actor writer executive producer iconic personality a host a loving father a superstar little real howard how was that intro

you did i leave out anything i can i can i got a pen right you know something you left out glasses my no i'm joking yeah no that's all on i know you just didn't put british night up on my table you put some bks up on the table man you know what i'm gonna tell you something crazy about this so i just got these so i was on instagram one day tamika brown yeah one of my my friends bought these for her husband right Right. I hit her up like, yo, where did you find British? I've been looking for British nights, actually. Why? Because, you know, that's nostalgia.

I grew up in the 90s. Yes. So, like, the BKs is a real thing. Right. So, like, she told me to go on Amazon. I went and ordered a bunch of them. But then I had my old address attached to Amazon because I don't usually order from Amazon. Right.

So, all the shoes went to, like, two addresses ago. Right. So, I just got all these British nights. So, I'm going to just be rocking them all week. Okay. i don't use the order from him right so all the shoes went to like two addresses ago right so i just got all these british nights so i'm finna just be rocking okay okay okay okay how you found you know i know you don't drink but you got some water water i'll take that water thank you so much but i still want one of these bottles yeah we got you we got you covered thanks for stopping by can i say this real quick before you can before i got here today how much like like you in my life way too much so i get up and watch first take you to morning right

i appreciate that and then after that i end up watching like either like club shea shea stuff or like clips and stuff and then later on i'll watch you and ojo and last night i got like a bing and then i listened to it last night before i went to sleep right y'all did the last minute thing yeah happy yesterday But I'm like, you know, Shannon's way too attached to my life. Like every day I'm watching you, which is kind of crazy.

Well, that's a good thing. I appreciate that. I hadn't seen you since we did that. you remember we did another sports show. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for stopping by the club,

man. I really appreciate that. I know you're busy, but to give me, but give me a couple of minutes of your time. I really, really appreciate that. you're from shy growing up on the west side of chicago what did little rel want to be when he was a kid um a couple things like i was a big fan of the show different world okay yes so i wanted to be the wang wang like okay yeah

right right computer engineer whatever that character was what i wanted to be dwayne wayne like okay yeah right right computer engineer whatever that character was what i wanted to be uh which is really a funny story because i actually wrote the show one time and i wrote dwayne wayne right let's say right khadim hardison right and the postcard i get i'm like 10 years old is khadim hardison sitting on a motorcycle with no glasses on so what dwayne wayne right it was the actor it was it was the actor okay my father was like well you guys you got this do right sitting there with a motorcycle He said no mosaic with his legs open like right and I'm a kid right like this ain't this Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, right right, right

So you wanted to be on the show or you just wanted to be the character? I wanted to be doing Wayne okay, cuz I wore glasses like really early on as a kid So he was just cool, you know what I'm saying? He had the cool flip shades. He wore all types of Jordans. And he had the cool jerseys on all the time. And he was really smart, you know what I'm saying? So, like, I like different world had a lot of influence on the way I saw the world, which is really interesting. Great show.

So what was it like growing up on the west side of Chicago back, like you said, back in the 90s for kids? The 90s was kind of crazy. I look at like, like when you think about like when you come from certain environments and you just used to stuff. Right. But like, and this is real talk. At one point, losing classmates every year. And that was a normal thing to me.

Like somebody like 14 or 15 dying. And so like until I like, you know know i traveled the world and moved and i was just telling people my background anyway wait like kids was like getting killed right like all the time like oh i ain't thinking about it like that right that was just some that was a normal occurrence for you like every year but we had a rest in peace right at the end of it and so like you know but i grew up with a dope family so like what what kept me out of the streets is just I had an I got an amazing family. Right. I have both my parents growing up who are very active in the community. Also, you know, I'm saying my mother and father and then my aunts, my uncles.

And so I like I had a great village around me. Right. That made sure that we didn't get into any trouble and a family full of educators. You mentioned growing up on the west side of Chicago. you saw a lot of classmates lose their life early on. How did you avoid the gang life? My parents, my father, my father, you know,

being present and making sure that it wasn't even tempted to us. You know what I'm saying? I remember the summer, like it was one summer where like everybody, like you could tell all of us are starting to grow up. And like, I felt like everybody joined a gang. Right.

Like it was kind of crazy. Right. We, we started we started out just you know going to the basketball court and one day it just felt like everybody literally you know i'm not even lying about this like it was kind of weird now that i think about it's like damn everybody like literally became like these little young adults right you know joining game i've been my father watching it kind of happen in the neighborhood and you know he just sitting us down like me and my brother's like yo you know this is not your life right and if anybody come talk to you I'll come talk to me too right you know somebody even asked and what's funny my father was well respected as far as like a a dad so they wouldn't even approach us with any of this why do you think those those kids your your classmates your friends you like you said you're going to the basketball court you're just a normal kid

all of a sudden chose to join that life did whether they felt the need to be a part of something were there something missing in their life maybe a father mother or something why do you think they joined the game the one thing everybody don't talk about a lot of times i think you know you hear these the stories of like oh they don't have a father at home and that's why they're doing this and that but a lot of stuff is kind of like kind of generational okay so if your big cousins and them that's what they're doing you know i'm saying you're at a certain age and then they actually do the same thing that happened a lot then like a lot of times people don't realize like it was lineage right chicago gay like which is like some random orphans or nothing

correct okay it was people in their family already gangbanging you know right and it felt like all right this is what it is so you so it's a lot of things that happen kind of traditionally to be honest with you did you ever get into a fight did you get jumped did how did i mean i mean you're around it so yeah i mean you can't help but you know fights happen uh you know i mean yeah it's been quite a few fights and like it being robbed is like a regular thing because some of the stuff you know back then they used to make people do stuff when they first joined right like i remember coming from school one day somebody robbed me for like my payless gym shoot he wouldn't even name brand but he had to do it you know i'm saying and so like were those british night first of all british nights i mean i mean nice was a

name brand i know i mean there maybe there's some a nostalgic breakdown that's going on that made you order another pair somebody stole some pro wings okay you know they were supposed to be right but at like the full stop like come eat the payless yeah so yeah somebody stole my hard bottom payless shoes right which they were real hard people don't really pay less shoes but like they was like loud because i used to run track in them so like you could hear me like literally running on the track how you run track in hard bottoms because my mother was my mother and father was not gonna buy a nike they did they refused to pay over 20 for a pair of gypsy right and i understood now but at that time it was like you know we had like you remember we used to make the

the rebar pumps yeah yeah the payless pumps couldn't pump them. It was just a big basketball I remember I remember I remember those And you just want to become you probably saw a lot of the other kids regardless of how they got the shoes Yeah, they had the shoes and as a kid you want what you see Yeah, everybody else has it and your mom like nah, nah, nah, so we we're not doing that And I you know weirdly enough i understood that it was still a little irritating it was always kind of embarrassing you know he's a kid right but for the most part but i understood like they just they rather invest

the money into other things right you know i'm saying if that's in like after school program because we did a lot of activities growing up so like that was the investment then like for me i ended up going to like private school kind of early uh all black private school on the west side chicago probably the same meal which i believe helped mold my life um yeah it did actually that's why i got a chance to go to camp in the summers and like like dealing with white people for the first time the first camp i went to was like literally i was the only black kid that mean other kid in my school right and so it felt like i dropped it to save by the bill you know what i mean and so it was it was the it was a weird i remember it was a culture shock almost like what they what they thought was dope name brand right i remember like showing up you know you know i asked

my parents to give me some nike stuff and they were wearing umbros that was like the thing man i didn't realize what the hell is an umbrella? I'd never even heard of umbrellas. And it was like a culture shock, honestly. But I learned a lot. I got a chance to go camping and learn how to water ski and all this stuff. But this is what's funny about that. Being around all those white people, I didn't realize my dialect changed.

So when I got back home to the west side of Chicago, I thought slavery happened again. Everybody literally started like, I thought something happened. Because, you know, I was hearing this dialect the whole summer. Yes. And then, you know. Get back home. I started talking about it. I was talking white and all this other stuff.

And I didn't know any of that. I thought I was still sounding exactly the same way. But, you know, it's really. Association brought on assimilation. Yeah. That's interesting. I didn't realize that was a thing. You know association brought on assimilation. Yeah, that's it true I didn't realize that was a thing I mean, but that really that happened me cuz you know Most of that go to London for like a year and they come back and I got like these this nice accents, right?

or like Madonna When your class come Yeah, no, right the funniest people in my class was my friends. Okay. Like, some of the class clowns were, like, some of my closest homeboys. Now, with me, I just love, I really love comedy. I love comedy since I was, like, 10 years old. I started watching, like, SNL really early.

You know, I'm a church boy, so, like, I used to kind of stay up on Saturday nights to watch, like, these random shows that came Saturday night live there's a show called quick which that came on at Wayne Brady was on as a random show and shout out to Louie Anderson used to host a stand-up series that came on like one in the morning and Somebody cast is like these huge superstars now with like new comics on there and I used to watch it Oh, no, God rest Louie Anderson. So I mean when I got a chance to meet him i got a chance to tell him i watched the show he was like you know how old are you right you know because i was like no i used to stay up and watch the stand-up series you hosted and uh so i i've been i wasn't a class clown but i love comedy right you know so like i've always studied like i tell people all the time i got a master's degree

in stand-up comedy because i was about to ask you how did that play with your parents because you said both of your parents were there and they seem to be uh uh get your work very hard working people no nonsense you go to school to learn you don't go to school to play a mess around and so i was going to ask how did that play out with them that's funny because they didn't realize i was funny till i started doing stand-up okay but they didn't realize it felt funny until I started doing stand-up. Okay. But they didn't realize. It felt like it was separated.

Like, you only act a certain way around your parents. So my silliness and all that stuff was around, like, friends. Really, my little brother, Matt, I love him to death. He's been my muse since he's been a little kid. So anybody I've ever, like, tried. To this day, we'll be on the phone for hours. And I sometimes. You try material out on him.

Not even knowing it. But if he's laughing really hard at somebody man I gotta like I might keep that so he's been by me but no I'd never acted like dinner for my parents my mother really know how much I did stand up to she actually and saw me to stand up which is crazy growing up your height your size skin complexion. Yeah. They call it bullying. We call it picking. Yeah.

How much was that in your life? Oh, it was a lot of it. I mean, you know, we chocolate brothers, so we heard every, you know, African booty scratches. I've heard the worst of the worst you know I'm saying but like and this is thinking about you got to add on I wore glasses right I had my mom always put the vaseline so I was always really greasy and shiny all the time uh but she had me really confident like I believed in myself like the way I look now is how I couldn't I look exactly how I imagine myself to look because the way my mother was always like she always made me feel like I was handsome and I was really smart no matter what you know I'm saying and I've had moments where

like I came home crying because I was being picked on one day and um you know I'll never forget this real shit she was just like you, one day these kids still talking crazy to you. They're going to see your name in lights one day. Right? You know, I didn't think much of it when she used to say that stuff. But, like, she was always encouraging me that, like, I'm bigger than what this moment is. You know what I'm saying? Like, you're going to be okay.

You're handsome to me. You're going to grow into you. And she'll keep it real. She's like, so many people are going to fall off. Right. Right. You're just a late bloomer. You know, and I love her to grow into you. And she'll keep it real. She's like, so many people are going to fall off. Right. Right. You're just a late bloomer. And I love her for that.

Have you run into some of your classmates that you grew up with? I mean, I don't know how often you get back home, but do you see any of them that were on and popping then and all of a sudden it's not the same now? Oh, 100%. And they're the biggest fans. And to be honest with you, I don't even hold no grudge to that. You know what I'm saying? We were all young. And honestly, I was one of those people, I couldn't wait to get out. I couldn't wait to be done with school. I was ready to do stand-up. I

was ready to start going. I was already planning my stand-up career probably when I was about 16. And I used to look like Chicago sometimes. The newspaper Chicago used to do a weekend magazine in there. And it had a list of the comedy clubs so for like almost most of my life I was looking at this list of comedy clubs so I by the time I turned 18 I started writing them down like okay I'm gonna show up here show up here show up there like a lot of those places I wouldn't be old enough to get in I would just get there really early then they had them set up they probably thought I worked there just so I could sign the list get some stage time so from a very early age you knew

exactly what you wanted to do you wanted to be a comedian I knew exactly what I this this is like I so the moment I for real knew was in high school I did a play and uh my teacher let me write my lines and I went to a hood high school it's a west side they heckled everybody somebody came in there and did I have it I have a dream speech they booed them oh my goodness how you move dr they'll boo you like take that little suit off you know what i mean but you know when i the teacher let me write my lines so i wrote my jokes in this you know the script and i remember my first big laugh i ever got from something i wrote was almost addictive and this once again i told you this this is a tough crowd right easy crowd to make it right and so i remember when we got to the play and it gave me like a period off so i sat in the auditorium by myself which is this is 100% a true story i literally talked to god that day i said

god i wanted i was very specific i wanted to stand up i want to be an actor and i want to be a writer and i said that by myself i said i don't know how i'm gonna do it said, I don't know how I'm going to do it. I know I don't know nobody, but this is what I'm going to do. And, man, I've been running at that since then. That's like, I'm not even lying about that. Sometimes I blow my bag, and I'm like, oh, I really, like, pulled off something I had no connections to. Was that the first time when you wrote your lines and you did that special at school, was that the first time that you knew you was funny

and you could make people laugh and this Was what you're gonna do. Oh, I knew it, but this one made it cool I remember like because we did the play was a play we write all the different classes the freshmen and sophomores Juniors and seniors I was seeing at the time and I was walking around school that week and everybody was treating me like I was Jamie Foxx Like I mean it was kind of it was one of the most it was scary It was almost like I got a chance to see whatever that felt like right you addicted I was like well I can do this right what is it about Chicago cuz I'm looking at Bernie Mac

Michelle Obama Jennifer Husson Kiki Palmer Sherri Shepherd Jesse Williams chance to rapper Kanye common Harrison Ford Robert Williams who he left me D Wade D wrote what y'all got in the water now look i don't understand chicago is big but i mean chicago you get tough skin there okay and so whatever you decide to do you kind of you can go to i think if you can make it out of chicago you can make it anywhere you know i'm saying and even when you think about stand-up comedy you know you think about the bernie max you know and i can name a gang of comedians, especially that influenced me from Chicago. You know, I remember even just being a new comic.

When you came to Chicago, say a headliner came to Chicago. Okay. And I've seen everybody come to Chicago. Man, you really had to be funny because you had to go after all these local comics who would do just five to ten minutes and stand in ovations. So you had to be a beast so it's like it's certain comics especially as a Chicago comic that we all know they ran through that and we'd be like yeah we respect you we respect you because we saw you do that we saw like people like JB smooth

was like a Chicago comics favorite like like even if none of us liked each other right all be in that room to see JB smooth I don't care but what no audience and it'll be an audience full of Chicago comedians and tears laughing at J.B. Smoove and Tony Roberts. You know what I'm saying? I mean, I remember when Cat came to Chicago. You know, D-Ray Davis. I don't know. Yeah, I know D-Ray.

D-Ray used to have a Sunday night in Chicago. Riddle's Comedy Club was the hottest spot. Like, it was just a hot spot. And, man, like, he brought in every right cat came in that headline we sent we seen some of the rudy ray moore dolomite did riddles now he now he had to be that wave wave let me tell you something he dissed all of us like he went on stage because he was real old at the time yeah and so you know we all excited to see him he's selling he's still selling the movies and everything he used to sell the movie still he's literally still said the Dolomite movies in person Wow There's though he goes stage. He got his own theme music got the cape on

And he goes up to that. These ain't real comedians. They don't have their own goddamn music, you know I okay like he just told holding all of us for no reason at all But it made it change did it change the way you look at it? No, it just made me laugh, you know, cuz this thing about for me the way I came up in the game I feel like I was a fly on the wall for a long time And so all I did was just observe how everybody moved and I listen I've gotten advice from everybody you could think of and I'm one of those people like i i keep like a clipboard in my head full of advice from everybody and i feel like that's why i've had success in this business

because i really listened to the advice you know and i got it from everybody i mean i told you i watched the show so like you've had some of my ogs and like you know said entertainer who i love to death because you know when i was trying who I love to death because, you know, when I was trying to, I used to open for Sid too. I toured with him. But man, when I tell you he gave out great advice. I remember I went to go do the Carmichael show and I've never done a sitcom before.

And I came out here a couple days early in LA and I called Sid and I said, I'm in town, blah, blah, blah. I'm a little nervous. He's like, oh yeah, you've never done a sitcom before. Well, come on the Soul Man set. so he had me come on the soul man said to watch how the rehearsals go right so i'll be ready in a couple days to go do car michael show and he prepared me with that and i really appreciate he didn't have to do that you know what i'm saying and i remember being on set of car michael show loretta devine like why are you so

comfortable like man you don't know two days ago i was on soul man said and i saw exactly Why are you so comfortable? Like, man, you don't know. Two days ago, I was on Soul Man's set, and I saw exactly how this was supposed to go. Yeah, so shout out to Sid and Ricky, Artur or Ricky. I'm open for everybody. I've worked for everybody. You know, even shit.

Even Cat. Like, Cat gave me some advice to this day that I've kept with me, which is very interesting. It was weird when he gave it to me. We was at the improv. He still do Monday nights at the improv. And I got on stage, I had a great set. And some one of the cats and one of his homies said like, yo cat wanna, you know, say what's up to you. And I go say what's up to him.

And he didn't really say hi or nothing. He just gave me this advice. That's all it was. I was like, oh man, what's up man, I'm a big fan. You know, blah, blah, blah. He's like, don't let these niggas burn you out. I was like, what?

Don't let these niggas burn you out. What did he mean by that? I don't know. But I took that advice and it only shows up in certain times, right? I think it shows up when my team

wants me to do way more stuff and i'm tired you know i mean or somebody's pushing me too much i'm like no i gotta i don't want to be burnt out i gotta i gotta have it together i think like you know i look at somebody like well you have to learn to say no you gotta not even just know or not right now you gotta learn to pace yourself it doesn't have to you know that strike the iron wise i think is could be a little scary at times because that means you're just gonna do whatever but like if you take yourself and just pace yourself because i look at somebody bernie max a great example who we saw really bernie was working all the time yes and you know sometimes he you know i think he would write a little fatigue because he'll he'll he'll come to

la but you know he didn't live in la right little fatigue because he'll come to L.A. You know, he didn't live in L.A. Right. So Bernie would come here and film and then literally go back to Chicago, which is crazy. Right. You'll film here all weekend and you fly back to Chicago just to be at your house. Like, that's a lot. And so I just wanted to make sure. Cash said that, but then Chris Rock kind of said the same thing when we talked before.

And I've heard it from a bunch of veteran comics about pacing yourself and not burning yourself out. 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 Wolf. This is their window right now. This is their Superbowl 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. on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. But as a young comic coming up in the game, there's a fine line between getting out and doing an upset so people see you, so you get that big break, and not, like Cass said, not burning yourself out. So where is that line? Well, in the beginning, it doesn't feel like a burnout because you grind you just need the stage you just wait right you get the stage and the

stage time man that's what you do you know what i'm saying like you know like friends i told you about d-ray had the sundays right when i first started he wants to get that was the hottest club in chicago and i wanted to go up every week and And so he's like, yo, you want some stage time, you got to help seat. So I helped seat the people every Sunday. Both shows, I was seating people. And I might be catching a lot of shit from comedians. Like, damn, how you going to do that? That's not degrading.

That's not da-da-da-da. I'm like, nah, because I get a chance to go up on the hottest stage every single week in front of the biggest crowd every single week right so i don't care how embarrassing it looks matter of fact it gives me a cheat code i know everybody does in here i know what this audience is gonna be i know what their energy is got seated everybody in here and so you know it's one of those things where like you know i cared about the stage time it's just getting those reps up and that was so important but then it's like learning all different aspects of the game

which is why like you know i think it's very important and i definitely i have to say this is like everybody's journey is different nobody has the same journey right and which is why i i don't like telling nobody else's story you know i'm saying everybody's journey is different which is why i think it's so beautiful about this time now in black comedy You know people don't realize that comedy still kind of a new It's kind of the newest a newer entertainment. They almost like hip-hop is and so we just really seeing our consistent millionaires of black comedian

This this is new Like the deals that Kevin is getting the stuff this cat has done stuff that said is done stuff ricky's done with the radio this is just this is consistently still almost first generation of all this type of success and it's a bunch of people at the same time and so like you know i i i'm excited about like we just have all these things happen. We have fucking hit radio hosts We have cats who've been on several sitcoms. We had cats who still torn arenas everywhere selling now We had this cat who's like, you know, you look at Kevin is selling underwear now. We got everything, you know Yeah, it's like, you know comics are selling shoes

Mike Epps is buying his neighborhood, right? you know michael blackson's going back to like it's so much happening it's like yo like i hope sometimes that people could take time i know it's competitive what we do but take time to be like yo what yo we doing this shit you know we have a jamie foxx who won an oscar. A black stand-up comic. And we think about mostly everybody came from Def Jam and Comic View. True. You understand what I'm saying? Like, our

people made us stars, and now everybody's crossed over. Yeah. That's crazy. I'm not who, I'm who I am because of them. You don't have a Hannibal Burroughs or Gerard Carmichael without all these sacrifices which is one of the things I I look at the camera they told me I look at all my OGs I love y'all I want y'all to realize all those things you went through saying from like I'm talking about all

the stuff because I've been handling a lot of stuff since club Shay Shay is look I get people who've had you know you've had things encounters and people ask you to do things that you didn't feel comfortable with. Your nose made it easier for me to walk in. Your nose. So when they was asking you to do stuff you didn't want to do and stuff like that, your nose helped me. Helped Gerard. Helped Hannibal. Helped East.

It helped so many people. Your nose. And look at it from that perspective don't think we all because we doing it now then we we haven't even went through any of the stuff some of them have went through because of their nose right and you got to realize the business understood like damn we need we need the funny so we can't even try we got to get them on a town yeah and so that's that's best I have to say that your Kanye's also excuse me from Chicago how motivation is it to see him local become this global icon what he became me taste and that college dropout

album I bought it with for the comedians and we drove around listening to it you know no matter what you know kanye said and done a lot of stuff since then that college dropout album for chicago for chicago like if you talk to other chicago people you know you know stars whatever we all was like yo that was like that person we like yo, he's a superstar. Mm-hmm, and he did it his way He's the underdog and they're like especially for like the nerd group the backpack group. Yes, and you know wearing your sweaters You know it was Man, it was life-changing. I thought one of my cars at that time. I used to say I just called myself the Kanye comedy You know I'm saying because I was so inspired by like like, dude, he did it his way, his voice.

He loved it so much that he, like, got in these rooms with Jay-Z. They had to show him love. Right. Like, even when you watch the Yeezus documentary, the last dance and that documentary give me chill sometimes. Because I remember the moments. Like, you know, I watched the last dance. You know where you were when you saw it you saw and I know how it inspired me and so I get goosebumps when I when I watch Jesus and I see Kanye when he paid for his first

video the the through the wire video and you see D Ray in the video you see Harold's chicken in the video you see it's so Chicago and it's number one on 106 in part and it's the most localist video you could ever do but around the world it's the number one video you know i'm saying yeah and so i was inspired by that like his rise like i wouldn't be like chicago we do have a sense of how do i say it it's not like cocky it's like we just really sweet really confident chicago cats are like insanely confident and that's because you know i told you i grew up and things i saw so like if i'm able to get out of all that like i'll be all right that's why i

come to la i was coming here to dominate right when i was hitting the stages here i love me used to put me up in the new face part of some because next time you got put me on the shot went too hard so they like me we got the home on the regular show he can't do the opener thing about cuz he too he gone too hard so I used to come here with like I'll come here being a problem Chicago made me feel like a star and I did all the grinding I had like shots out to Mary Lindsay who own jokes in those comedy club gave me a spot every single week that I could freestyle on stage and do new material and just

bring and develop my own audience and learn a business of comedy. Cause I had to learn how to hustle my own shows. Right. Cause nobody want to go book me like this. I had to book my own, you know what I mean? And so like, man,

I'm glad you brought yeah. No, look, Kanye, Kanye's's a lot but in that beginning stage i love kanye for how he inspired us man so what about the latest rant where are you cat says something i agree with right i don't understand how if we saying somebody talking crazy and this we all got family members that talk hella crazy. Do we really pay attention to them? No. Do we take everything they say like, oh, man, this is what we want to take. No, but they don't have the platform that he has. But even though he has the platform, they're not as influential as he is. But is it really influencing anybody? You see, how do you see what happened when he when they took jesus off from adidas yeah so you tell me that influence but here we go they actually but

they took it away from him and then they needed them again you you gotta understand stuff this is a person who know who they are they know their business and they know what they had off you know what i'm saying and so because of that, like, as much as they're like, we done. These, like, we done with him. And then you see months later, like, well, we got to. Sell the rest of the product. Yeah, we got to give him his money anyway because we bought all the product. Yeah, so he know his business. I just think Ye, you know, I think Ye just talk better than music.

Sometimes I think he just makes songs. Like, stop talking regular. Just make a phone. He lost his mother. You lost your mother at a young age. Do you think he hasn't healed from that? Because he was very, very close to his mom. And I don't know the relationship.

So maybe you can correlate. Maybe you can say, OK, well, this is the type of relationship that I had with my mom. And this is how i dealt with it and so maybe we can have a better understanding of what kanye is going through dealing with this tragedy and the sudden loss of his mom i think it's funny you say that so i'll go to therapy and took years for me to do that and i didn't realize how much my mom died at 09 but it was still affecting me this whole time you know it wasn't till i had like a panic attack on my stairs one day and i've never had one before I was on my way to set and I couldn't stop crying and my assistant came in and she was like you know she could tell you know I

was and she'd been talking to me about going to therapy actually which is interesting I'm like well pull them up let me talk to somebody and my first session was literally about how I really never mourned and got over my mother's death. And a lot of us go through that. You know, not just Ye. You know, and I hope she don't mind me even saying this, but my good friend Tiffany Haddish is one of my best friends. And, you know, we talked about this. And some of us tend to go busy, right go busy we don't that's how you deal with

us how we deal with it and you're not dealing with it you're not dealing right and so for me you know when i you know am i she was just saying that she was just talking about how like she had to slow down and just deal with it she thought her working yeah would help and it does all it doesn't make you more tired, first of all. Yes. You physically, outside of mentally and spiritually, you're just tired now. Because now you're trying to make up for something

that you can't make up for. And so when I went to, you know, I had my first therapy session and we broke that down and I didn't realize how like, damn, I'm still like, oh, I was still like trying to, I didn't give myself space to mourn. Was it because you were like so busy in the comic, in the thing, and you're trying to grow your career that you didn't take time to mourn because you didn't feel like you had that? Because you say, I got to strike what I ask.

Well, we say career, right? I think it's career and I think it's blackness. I think it's black people. We've always been told to just get over it, move on, move on, push through it. Youness okay I think it's black people we've always been told just you know we move on push through it you gotta push through it and which is fine you should push through things but like it's okay to be hurt by somebody you extremely love yes being gone mm-hmm that that you love that that's done like I didn't realize it you know and that once again therapy opened up a lot of doors from that I didn't realize that, you know, and once again, therapy opened up a lot of doors for me.

I didn't realize that was something. I didn't realize all the other traumas, seeing, you know, young people. Like, all that stuff was a part of it. And, you know, when I look at Ye, and I remember telling somebody this a while ago, and I remember watching a documentary, and I had to pause it because I really got emotional because I started seeing his pain.

I could relate to it like, damn, that brother is still hurting. And which is why you've got to be careful who you let into your life too, man. You know, especially as black people, our pain comes from so many different places. Our personal pain along with like generational cultural pain. And if you don't have people who can recognize that around you, that that's a thing, that's a problem. And then when you're making all this money for people, they extremely don't care. Right. You know, and I think Ye still goes through that a lot of the times, you know, he's still

like lashing out at people who really care about him. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Because when you're hurt, it doesn't matter. I mean, you take an animal that's hurt, you might be trying to help it. All it knows is it's hurt, and it's going to lash out, even though you're trying to get it the attention that it needs to get better. Yeah.

So those people, as you mentioned, because he's hurt and he's dealing with what he's dealing with, he doesn't understand the people that's in his life that's actually trying to help him that's what's interesting like when you you know it's funny the one thing we don't talk about i if i could be honest i think kai is on the spectrum i was watching once again jesus again and the way his mom would talk to him i I have my youngest son. He's six. He has autism. It's a language, man.

It's a way you have to talk. And I'm watching things she's saying. And I'm like, oh, wow. Which makes it even more fascinating to me that he was able to like to even function and do all these great things. But I'm like, oh, he that's why she was able to say. You think about it. She's the only one that's been able to speak his language. You know what I'm saying? And I think that's fast.

I was watching, they was walking through a field, I think, on the south side, near the old house, and I think that's one of the things I hope, I don't know if Kanye talks to anybody. And I've always said this before, like, you know how sometimes you wish you could be friends with somebody? Yes.

Kanye is one of them. It's people that's passed away I wish I was friends with. I wish I was friends with Luther Vandross. I wish I was friends with Whitney Houston. You know, I wish I was friends with Richard Pryor. I wish I could have just talked to them. You know, especially, you know, like I bring up Luther because I was seeing an interview with Patti LaBelle and she was like, you know, as much as Luther never wanted to publicly say he was gay. Because he didn't want to, Patti LaBelle said he didn't want to disappoint his fans or his mother.

And that's, that's wild to me. And I wish, you know, you wish you had a friend to be like, man, do you, brother? What your gift got to do it there you know you know i mean and you know it's same thing with whitney i feel like a lot of these guys especially in our business with so much pain and you know kanye's one of those dudes let's think about it i've ran into kanye a million times we've been around like we all should we all got the same friend right um but it's like one of those things were like if anybody ever could sit down and just have like with nobody around conversation with

i would love to do that because i think i could still watch somebody dealing with that type of pain from his mom and he doesn't give it moments i give it moments now sometimes i remember I did my last special, I kicked everybody out the dressing room just so I could have a good cry. I shot it, I shot my last special at Chicago Theater and all this was based, I mean,

I told you, I told you, she sat me down one day it's a thing I never forgot, she said my name was going to be in light. So, you know, I did the Chicago Theater and I remember before the show started, I stood outside across the street. Because we used to go school clothes shopping and school supplies shopping downtown Chicago.

And on Christmas, go see it. But we always walked past Chicago theater and see the lights. So I see L'Oreal Howery live in lights. I stared at that thing for about an hour. And at one point, I remember when I was done with the show, and it was standing ovation,

and, you know, you're trying to close the show, and you can go back and watch it. I get really, I get kind of choked up because I literally looked out there, and I saw her standing there in the crowd. And so I'm like, oh, shit, I really

pulled this thing off. You know, and even what's so funny, even at the end of that night, you know, the end of the show, I give praise to Bernie Mac. It felt like, I felt like I saw my mama, I felt like I saw Bernie,

and I go backstage, and I'm one of those people, I don't have fanfare. It'd be, you know, most times it's me and my lady or whoever. And I literally I was in that green room just bawling. And you've got to give yourself space to do that. That's not sadness. Right. That's that's me celebrating. That's me being human.

And for a long time, especially as a black man, I felt like I had to be extra strong about everything. Like extra strong. Oh, I couldn't cry. I couldn't I had to be extra strong about everything. Like extra strong. Oh, I couldn't cry. Oh, I couldn't do this. And I couldn't do that. And, you know, having sons now, that's the one thing I teach to my family. It's okay.

You know what I'm saying? I think it's strength in crying. That's one of the things I love about my fiance. She's let me, she doesn't make me feel like less of a man in my most vulnerable times and i've had some i have some crazy i was like yo they gonna keep you know man she's been there and she's seen me cry and i don't feel like less of a man wow you know i'm saying yes um i read you had a more than a few run-ins with R Kelly and they were all bad

Yeah, I mean y'all from Chicago. Come on You just fit 30 minutes telling me how everybody from Chicago Could let me say that the brother less best know that say this car Kelly's gifted We all know that one of the most gifted R&B singers of all time and I think it was writers Hey, you have to care for our kicker Chicago I don't give a damn fan. Like, I literally just did a show in Chicago, and I was talking about something. I don't even know if I even said R. Kelly's name. I think I was talking about Jay-Z.

No, I was talking about proposing to my fiancée at Jay-Z Hill. And somebody got mad that I said Jay-Z because it triggered him to be like, well, forget Jay-Z. You know, he played Rob. I'm like, yo, y'all still, and I had to say Chicago, let me say this to y'all. If I ever get in trouble, y'all better have my damn back. You know what I mean? Like y'all have his. Man, because what, when you go to Chicago, they still play R. Kelly in the clubs and everything. And he's some of my homeboys' DJs. Right. Look, R. Look, it's...

Our Kelly, we just had some very awkward... He just... You know... So what made it awkward? What made... Look, he's from... Like you said, you've had run-ins with him. Yeah.

You've had... I mean, obviously, you've seen him around. What made it so awkward? What is it about him? Now, maybe you knew what the public finally found out yeah but what was it about him that rubbed you the wrong way okay well i don't even know where to start let's start it's john singleton's birthday party okay you the john singleton birthday party before you know before he passed away yeah and. And no VIP section.

John Singleton, no. Again, it's just famous people everywhere just having a good time together. Guess who made themselves a VIP section? He made, I don't know where he got a rope from. I'm not even making this shit up. It was this space maybe big as this. He found a space to make a section for us, which I thought was weird for him. Right. Because it's not your party.

Literally, it's not your party. Then he sends somebody over there, like, hey, Real, man, Robert wanted to say what's up to you. I'm like, well, he can come over here. We all chilling. Ah, come on, Real. I don't know what I'm saying.

I'm not, I'm not feeling like, because it was such an open, it wasn't like that. Right. It literally wasn't like that. So in other words, he wanted you to leave your spot and come to where he was. Just do what everybody else doing.

Just mingle. Just walk around. John Singleton has such good energy. Everybody was just chilling, man. It wasn't like that. And he did that. And so you said no. I said no.

I'm good. Okay. That kind of rubbed. That probably caused you. I would say rubbed the wrong way. But at said no, I'm good. Okay, that kind of rubbed, that probably caused you. I don't want to say rubbed the wrong way. But at that point, I didn't care. Now, my first run in, which maybe started all this, was I did stand-in work for Trap in the Closet.

Okay. Okay, you remember the Trap in the Closet? Yeah, I do. My friend, Cassidy Redhead, Kenyatta Mucci, oh man, special lady, gave me and my brother a job. My brother, so this is like the first few chapters. So I was the stand-in for the cop, Michael K. Williams.

Okay. And my brother was the stand-in for the little guy. Even though my brother was way taller than him, so he had to like stand on his knees to meet him. Because I don't know why. But that's what it was. One of the other stand-ins was one of his background dances. And we all became, all the stand-ins hung out with each other, man. You know, we became friends and we was talking.

I mean, we all was laughing, having a good time. And I remember him looking at us, talking to her, right? He was just looking. Okay? He was just looking. He was looking at his, you know, in your little chair. And he's just like, I'm like, I ain't paying. I ain't whatever.

That ain't no big deal. The next day we all sit. Okay? I go to speak to the young lady she's not talking to me she don't even speak back right i'm not making this up yeah i don't have no reason to laugh and so i'm like man why she not talking to us my brother like you know what she ain't talking to us no more right the next day he had every i'm not even lying about this he had every woman on that set

near his chair and They're like literally all the guys who's all literally standing And I remember pulling her to the side and I'm like yo, what's up man? Did I say something wrong? Did I do anything? He's like no Robert said I can't I can't talk to you. I Said for what why would I do and that was it'd I do? And that was it. And I thought that was so weird. And so that set with me for years. And then he acted really crazy, that funny actor. Did you ever address it?

To him? Yeah. At that time, I was just a stand-in. No, but I'm saying later. I'm sure you had seen him since then. No, I'm one of those people, like, I'll keep something to my head. I'll just be like, yeah, that's that's you on my list r kelly you know i'm beefing with you right but i'm beefing with you but i just never forgot that and then like he came to a comedy show one time and i went to speak to him i tried to give grace again and he's like do i know you you know oh come on man he hit you with that yeah man was this before or after the john singleton birthday party before that so by the time we get to that and i'm like i'm in la now

i'm invited to stuff i'm you know i'm doing my thing i definitely don't care about talking to you i don't like that's why it was so funny by the time his boys all right man he's a fan you want to say what's up i'm good tell him i say what's up. Yeah, I'm over here, bro. So how you feel? Do you feel he finally got his comeuppance? You know, that's a... I don't know, man. It's one of those tough things, because, like,

I feel bad for anybody that went through anything that R. Kelly put them through. The victim. You feel bad for the victim, not him. But then also I kind of feel bad for him a little bit, too, because I think once again, I'm talking to you about yay and I'm talking to you about I just want black men to go to therapy. I feel like that brother has some things happen to him that's like that he's never addressed.

A lot of times people who do all these very abusive things like that have some crazy things happening to them that they've never addressed and i feel like he's he's one of them but then it is this weird thing where everybody think they could just do stuff and get away with it it's such a weird mindset to me like how do you think you can do all this crazy shit and never get caught up in it let Hmm. Let me ask you a question. Who's your rappers on Mount Rushmore? You got Kanye, Common, Lupe, Lupe,

Fiasco, Twista, The Brat, Chance the Rapper, Juice WRLD, Lil Durk, Chief Keef. Come on,

Chicago? Yeah, Chicago. Okay, that's easy. Twista, Do or Die. I know they're a group,

but, you know, Crucial Conflict, Kanye West, Common, Chance. I don't know if you went to school, but you do know, Crucial Conflict, Kanye West, Common, Chance. I don't know if you went to school, but you do know where, like, Mount Rushmore only got four heads. Well, I know, but I'm not, you're not for the, if I can't do a round, I'll get my ass kicked. I just said Mount Rushmore. I'm not doing no Mount Rushmore.

I could have watched it on TV. I'm going to do Congress. Yeah, well, damn, you about to put a hundred people on Mount. I'm going to do the council. Okay, well, damn, you might have put 100 people on Mount. I'm going to do the council. Okay. Okay.

I can't do no Mount Rush. Okay, how about give me your top five? Oh, Chicago. Chicago. Damn.

Common. The brat. And it's tough putting Common on that list because he broke my homegirl heart. Who? Tiffany. Tiffany Haddish is my best friend. Yeah, but I mean, Common had a lot of girlfriends.

I'm sure a lot of people think he broke their heart. I know you don't know them like you know Tiffany. I know a couple of them, actually. Yeah. But yeah, he broke her heart, man. I'm sure at some point she probably broke somebody's heart, too. It's them light-skinned south-side

niggas. Oh, Lord. Well, you better tell us you better get with the dark skin, bro. They just move how they move. But I still love him as the emcee. Yay, comment, Debrat, Twister, Chance.

Okay. That's a nice list. Yeah. Let me ask you a question. When you hear, like, Chicago violence, every time, every politician, the first thing they holler, what about Chicago? Politician the first thing they holler. What about Chicago? Hmm It's interesting because As a stand-up comic right I tour everywhere I

Tour all over the country and it's a lot of places like Chicago. Mm-hmm You know, I just think none of these politicians will ever own up to how they just you know What they create in all the inner cities? I'm tomorrow from Chicago to Baltimore, D.C. It's fam. Yeah, sure. Memphis. Like, what are y'all talking about?

It's all, it's what it is. So, you know, it's Chicago's, Chicago's interested with that. It's just, because I just think it's deeper than what we... We like to do this and this and that. I don't know if that's fair, man, until we start cleaning up all the shit that goes on in our communities. Nobody will own that. They love to just point to... You know a Baraka

came through. They come with this... Come on, fam. I don't think that's fair. Honestly, we didn't have social media I think the 90s was worse oh for sure for the violence man it was crazy like it was like you know that's what drive-bys was happening that's what like people would tell you go home for real cuz they about that you know I mean it

was about to go down for it wasn't like stuff is a little more loose and now but back then it was way more organized you know know, it was a bunch of gangs. You know, I went to high school. One year in high school is one of the scariest years of high school. They had closed a school that was down the street from us. So then all the gangs, literally, they put all those students in one school. So after every bell rang, it was just fights everywhere. It looked like lean on me.

It was fucking crazy. Wow. It was fucking crazy. Wow. It was really crazy. I was a, I'd never seen nothing like that before. Are you a Bulls, as a Chicago sports fan, are you a big Bulls, Cubs, Bears? Damn, that's a tough one. Me and my brother was just talking about,

we was talking about what stresses us out the most, which team. Because, you know, we big Bulls fans. That's how I was yelling at the TV as usual. I might be a bigger Bulls fan, but it depends. I don't know. Like, it's easy to be a Bears fan and be hurt because

it's only 16 games. Right. So I can get over it. It's not months. The NBA is from October to, like, June. That's right. It's a lot. The NBA is from October to, like, June. It's a lot of hurt. And, you know, baseball goes on forever. Oh, my God. And then, you know, especially when your team, like, the Cubs made a run,

that shit, and then, you know, fell short and that. Right. So I am a Chicago sports fan. You're talking about a person when the Cubs won the World Series. Oh, man. I flew back to chicago for that watched it in the club i ain't never hugged so many grown-ass men in my life with tears in my eyes full blown we was all so happy that was such a crazy game you mean it was a rain

delay yes it was so stressful yes but when i tell you that was the most peaceful chicago has ever been is when the cuz won the world series i talked about black people all of us was hugging in the street it was everybody was outside no violence just happiness well you had it great in the 80s and 90s with the bulls oh my god the bulls at that you know i i told you last dance i watch it it's like a bedtime story to me. I'll watch and I can skip through now. I don't have to watch it all day.

Right. So what, I mean, did you get an opportunity to go to any Bulls games when Jordan played? No, I didn't. But I am a crazy Bulls fan. I mean, one game last year, the Lakers played the Bulls. You were sitting across from me. Okay. I didn't want to say nothing to you because i was focused that was a sunday game that was sunday game me and my

cousin rashida we had on our bulls gear and we were talking hella shit i'm doing a movie with lebron james yeah you didn't speak to me that day he shouldn't i was talking so much shit. He ain't say nothing to me. He act like I wasn't sitting there. Of course I. You wasn't sitting there. You probably had the Bulls gear on too. I had everything off. So, okay.

Chicago native. Jordan, 80s and 90s. You was in a movie with LeBron Space Jam 2. Who's the GOAT? Michael Jordan. You biased. Well, I got a... You know what's funny? I'll say this, though.

If we're going to go a couple more seasons, I may have to switch that up because there's something interesting about watching LeBron. I think I'm more impressed by his older years than I am these younger years, to be quite honest with you. The stuff he's doing at 39 is...

He's not supposed to be playing at this level. I feel like him and Serena Williams, to me, are my two favorite athletes of all time. Who was still able... When we watched Serena make that last one, she was still... What, she won the U. watched serena make that last one she was still

like like that's what she won the u.s open and she was pregnant that's crazy that's good like them two the two superhumans outside of bo jackson right you know i wish we could have stopped but bo was like the first to run to me you know maybe like other than that lebron and serena they're like superheroes in me you were in uncle drew with shaq and kairi what was that experience like oh man that was that was so much fun and it was it was also it because i'm a sports fan you know i've been like telling the story and this became a thing because i told the story i went to the oscars and i know it's going to be a thing but i was like you know oh you talk about you that don't go with chris but well i went to the oscars

and i somebody asked me about uncle drew and I don't talking about something it went it went it made it to sports in which I thought was yes and so it was because I was so are you see I'm a basket see I'm a fan yeah I watch every day I think I watch first take every morning at least I watch sports in the night on it so we about to do our first me me and Kyrie about to do our first little read together. Right. I'm watching SportsCenter, and I'm like, do-do-do. Kyrie wants to leave Cleveland. And I'm like, what? And so we get, our first read is just quiet. I'm just like, before we go through these lines, can I ask you something?

Is that true? Yeah. Did you? And then, you know, that's why I say I was a fly on the wall. Right. I heard some amazing stories that I will take to the grave with me as a sports fan. Wow. And it was one of the greatest environments of all time.

And we played real basketball. If you watch the movies, it's the scene where Lisa Leslie gets hot. She really hits 6'3 straight. Wow. The one dunk Chris Webber does. The dunk, the one dunk Chris Webber does. Chris Webber does the dunk. They all start playing for real. He got hyped and forgot about his knees.

Chris Webber dunked the ball and literally ran off set and went home. They brought the stand in because his knees were shot. He literally ran. He went to the trailer and took everything off. That was it. His knees was gone. He was so hyped. He dunked it for real.

It was like, it kept going. 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. Get in on the action with DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA. New customers who deposit $5 or more can get no sweat bet up to $1,000

back in bonus bets. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now and use code shannon new customers can get a no sweat bet up to one thousand dollars if your first bet loses only on DraftKings Sportsbook with code shannon the crown is yours so what was it like you got started in the comedy so what year did you get started in the comedy game damn um 99 2000 99 2000. so how was your first time on stage you don't even remember the first time i don't even know if i did good i just know i went on stage with my jokes so i felt very happy and uh but then you know i i was okay starting out that first year was trying to you're trying to figure out your voice you know which is it's so interesting because you know another subject because of your 34 million viewed club is you know people talk about joke uh stealing

and all the other stuff and the weird part is most comics i think in the beginning you're doing probably other people's stuff you don't know you're doing right if you watch comic view every day in dev jam you're probably doing whatever you thought was your original thought and it's not till somebody tell you it's not you know saying until you find your voice you know so you just told somebody joke oh yeah i i don't even mean to do it damon williams i tell the story all the time damon williams is chicago godfather comedy and he had an all good joke he did on comedy and I didn't realize I watched it so many times I thought I wrote an original joke and it wasn't my joke and I did the joke at the hit

spot got booed off stage because they had heard it heard him do it they had heard him doing it I had no facial at the time I was cursing so people look who that little boy up there cursing it was just it was it was hell they played the DJ which is my friend to this day DJ Dollar Bill he's my friend play someone please call 9-1-1 that's how i got up your boy he was my at that time we know

each other right but that's how hard i was eating it and damon was on the side of the stage damon taught this so funny damon roasted me killed me, you know, I did his joke So you hit me with that and I'm like 19 at the time, right? So I'm waiting on my ride Everybody's gone Damon's he's still there. He sees me outside in the rain. I got my little book back You like a man getting the cars car i was like no i'm good right because i'm still mad about the roasting right he's like man get in the car and i felt like it was so funny because he i felt like he felt like he had to encourage me right because i was

in the car right he's like yeah man you know just uh just keep on you know just keep trying man you know just gotta you know i'm like man you ain't gotta say to me yeah you already said man, you know, just gotta you know, I'm like man you ain't gotta say shit to me. You already said She already said no back earlier, but I but I you know, that's yeah We I think we all bum and and try stuff but you have to find your voice and once you figure that out You know you get the glow. That's when you just you make it run. So did you freestyle or did you write it down? I wrote down a lot of stuff in the beginning But like now like when I started hosting a room every week Which I always suggest all comedians like a host host

I know a lot of comics don't like the host but it gives you that you get a muscle about just freestyle, right? You know, I mean like I heard cat When he's on here, Tom, you know Tom by how you know how people develop specials and you got to do this and do that Right. So like you sharpen the joke you tell everybody has to do that Like sit bad is somebody that can just go on stage. Sinbad doesn't have to write anything. Sinbad, some of those specials, most of them are Sinbad freestyling. Wow.

Just going. My last special, because I was shooting all these movies at the same time, I didn't have time to tour. So whatever I did that night is what I did. You know what I'm saying? So like, but you only develop a muscle like that from doing it for so long right you trust your voice and your comedy and your timing right you know i can go up tonight and do an hour and i don't know what the hell i'm gonna talk about so you're shooting movies and because you don't have time to really write you're freestyling you say you're gonna go up on stage you would you could go up on stage and have no idea and it would just come back because you've done it for so long i lied to hbo

and told him i wrote and practiced the set and i didn't do shit so we like that's why they're like and somebody everybody came backstage and i was like man that was great i was like and i had i flew in a couple of my homies uh rito brown jay alexander right tour with me but they what they did with the first show became the like our blueprint for what i was gonna do for basically the special so the second show was mostly the special right because that's where it was more tight but that first year i was just having fun right i'm just winging it and then the second show i kind of had a better idea on where i would go with things but that first year was just me winging it. And then the second show, I kind of had a better idea on where I would go with things.

But that first show was just me winging it. So are you one of those guys where you roast the audience? Or do you just like, I mean, you just like, come on, guys. Hey, I'm here to do my thing. I got the skills. I will roast the shit out of you if you heckle me. But this is the crazy thing about it. If you're good enough as a comic i'm for real about this

a heckler wouldn't even have time to do you're hitting them too hard even if they want to heckle you you still you're thinking too fast like and that's the one thing the greatest thing about being a good roaster and i'm talking about like i've done colleges and colleges are tough for standard comics yeah because if you don't roast like you got to know how to roast and i was like 21 22 so when i was like 21 22 so when i was doing these colleges it was my age group in school it's people to this day walk up to me like hey man uh my next three years of my college life was fucked up because you roasted me i'm like well you was heckling right that's why you play where they literally talked about

this man for three years straight based off that comedy show but you shouldn't have yelled out right you mentioned early on in your career d ray davis gave you an opportunity for a five minute set so you had to set up set up the club what did the opportunity mean to you it meant everything to me i look at every opportunity like that you know like d ray gave me that opportunity dion cole gave me hella opportunity. Sid let me tour with him. Ricky Smiley let me tour with him. And Ricky's funny too, because Ricky,

the way me and Ricky met is so weird, because I couldn't wait to meet Ricky Smiley. My homeboy booked a show in Chicago and he booked Ricky. And Ricky brings his own show, but I didn't know that. And so my boys booked me on the show to open right matter of fact no i was supposed to host and ricky's like no i'm hosting the show dog you know how ricky tough right and they was like well

real has to be on the show he's like well i don't know who he is you know he didn't know who i was at the time and then ricky called damon and damon told you that's what ricky said he called damon damon said i was funny but then he was still like I don't know him dog You know, well, I'm gonna put him up there. So Ricky put me up on stage and sit right in the front to watch my set You know and this needs Chicago promoters. They told Ricky was talking all that shit, but it was like Maybe he on the show we go up your ass, right? And so, you know, I put him up in ass right and so you know he's like all right well i'll put him up in

dog and he put me up and i like man i went crazy on that and right after that ricky came backstage that's why i love ricky's body he said look kid dog i know who you was dog but damn i'm gonna call you dog i'm gonna call you how long would you how long do you remember how long you said it was probably like 15 minutes and you know this is like that was one of the at that time in Chicago I was like I was on one like, you know, like that was one of my biggest things I get Jamie Foxx's do a festival called Jamie Foxx laughapalooza in Atlanta. Mm-hmm and one of the panels I was I wouldn't watch was was old manager Marcus King and What she gave great advice. I'm ever sitting with a notebook. He said

The best thing you could ever do is learn to run your city first be the man in your city first then venture out and That that's what I decided to do. I Work my ass off become the man in Chicago And because I that happened and I had that type of buzz and all that shit going on When I showed up to LA and New York and all those places i was fucking crazy confident so i used to come out here people are why this motherfucker so confident he's just so i'm like because i already felt like a star right chicago made me feel like a star already so like yeah what's up now i'm finna show y'all who i am yeah the facial expressions how long does

it take you to master a facial expression you know what's funny you have to master people that's good at it first so you know who's one of the greatest facial expression people to learn from is david allen grier yes he does a weird point he can make his lip shape you know it's just a very like that's like i've told you i'm a student so watching the living color watching some like some of the best guest spots i've ever seen on television was watching Martin and Dave Allen Greer playing that pastor mm-hmm so funny right and but it's his facial expressions if he did mr. McAfee if he did CT and Reese's it's even dialect you know saying so Martin to another one like you could tell when Martin was irritated right which I think all of us started you know taking that

for Martin watching Kenan and Kel right well dude like so you know, taking that from Martin, watching Kenan and Kel. So, you know, I'm a student. Those facial, J.B. Smoove, the king of milking a joke and facial expressions is, yeah. Do you find yourself doing any of these randomly? 100%. My kids, you know, this is funny about having kids, right?

Now that, you know, the oldest two are teenagers. They be making fun of me. They know when i'm irritated they and they think it's funny right we'll be at a restaurant and like you know somebody say some stupid shit for me i had some face i'll make and i'm like and they like oh damn it's irritating they just be cracking up like they really be picking on me right uh so i do it all the time and i don't know i'm not knowing it not knowing but i think that's what makes that's what helps them like the movies and all that stuff. This concludes the first half of my conversation. Part two is also posted and you can access it to whichever podcast platform you just listen to part one on.

Just simply go back to Club Che Che profile and I'll see you there. 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. Subscribe today and you'll immediately be smarter and funnier than your friends. Listen now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts.