Club Shay Shay - Rickey Smiley

Episode Date: February 13, 2023

Rickey Smiley, actor, comedian and host of The Rickey Smiley Morning Show, joins Shanon this week for Club Shay Shay. The two of them discuss his long career in entertainment, prank calls and famous movies. The two also speak on Rickey's personal experience with the perils of gun violence, and how it has affected his family.We recorded this interview back in January, and want to honor Rickey's son who's since passed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Make sure to listen to the Good Morning Football podcast Monday through Friday on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. It actually started out in 97 with Lil Darryl. And when I did it on BET, I came off stage, Zoo Man, Bruce, Bruce the Comedian was like, man, he said, when this air, man, your life gonna change. They said that was funny. Got the roll of dice, that's why all my life I've been grinding all my life, look, all my life

Been grinding all my life, sacrifice, hustle paid the price, wanna slice Got the roll of dice, that's why all my life I've been grinding all my life Hello, welcome to another edition of Club Che Che. I am your host, Shannon Sharp. I'm also the proprietor of Club Che Che. And the guy that's stopping by for conversation and a drink today, he flew all the way to L.A. just this morning. Stand-up comedian, TV host, actor, writer, author,

philanthropist, executive producer, top-rated national syndicated radio personality, entertainment, business mogul. Damn, you got a lot of titles. Comedy legend, over 30 years in the industry. HBCU alum. Alabama State's finest. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Boom, boom. You know. Yeah. You already know. Yeah, that's how we do it. Rick is smiling. What's up?

Rick, how you doing? Glad, man. Thanks for having me. We were talking earlier. It's nice to finally be face-to-face with somebody your age. Yes, sir. I'm 86. You're class of 87. Yes, sir. How you doing? I'm doing good, man. It's nice to finally be face-to-face with somebody your age. Yes, sir. I'm 86, you're class of 87. Yes, sir.

How you doing? I'm doing good, man. Give me Ricky Smiley wakes up at what time and starts his day and does what? 3.30. No alarm clock ever. 3.30. Full of breakfast, coffee, watch the news, and just drive to work. Jump on the tollway in Dallas, Texas.

Right. Drive up to the studio and do the morning show. The morning show lasts for like three and a half hours. That's a long time to talk, bro. Yeah, well, you know, you got commercial break. Yeah, but I'm saying, okay, it's commercial break. So for every hour, that's about 32 minutes. Yeah. And we arguing in between.

I got a sports guy, Rock t yeah it's on my morning show so we always arguing about something okay it's our rock t super dave and then the brad in there you got gary in there right so we've been talking about news relationships or sports right and just telling stories or whatever so it goes by like that it's nothing you're a comedian been in the business a very long time yeah what made you decide to say, I'm going to start doing radio at the height of your comedic genius? Man, Steve. You're talking about Steve Harvey. Steve Harvey's like a big brother.

Okay. And he's like, Rick, you need to. I'm like, nah, nah, nah. I just bought a house. I'm doing comedy shows, my show. He said, hey, how you going to pay for it? He said, so he called me. He said, hey, there's going to pay for it? He said, so he called me. He said, hey, there's a radio opportunity in Dallas.

Okay. I was like, nah. I was like, I'm good. And so Boomerang, his bodyguard called me. He cursed me out. He said, hey, man, if you don't be in Dallas by this evening, we ain't blanking with you no more. And he hung up in my face.

And Steve called me back. I'm like, can I come tomorrow? He's like, yeah, you can come tomorrow. So I went and I got the job. They put me on one hip hop station. And after that, we won. We syndicated. And then

we went from hip hop and they moved us over when Tom Jordan retired. So we own in like almost 100 markets now. So this was in 2004. Yes. Steve Harvey picks up the phone. And we're going to talk about Steve a lot later because I've had said the entertainer. I've had earthquake. I've had so many comedians. Yeah.

And everybody swears that Steve. And I have a story with all of them. OK. Earthquake and I was roommates. OK. I mean, like sleeping on earthquake couch to go and do shows. And I never went to a strip club before I went with earthquake. OK.

But I would go in the VIP and take a nap because I wasn't used to being up the lake. And I never went to a strip club before I went with Earthquake. Okay. But I would go in the VIP and take a nap because I wasn't used to being up there. Because I was a church organist. Okay. So Earthquake got me out at the strip club or whatever. But I would go in the VIP

and get on the couch and go to sleep. Man, God must have went on vacation when you were coming up in the church. That's a true story. And I used to open for Ced. Ced and Eric Rohn, that was my first manager. First person to take me on the road.

Radio pay. I mean, because you still busy. You still do stand up. Yeah. So I'm trying to, but damn, how you have time. You do radio for three and a half hours a day. You do, I mean, we're going to talk about all the other stuff. I mean, you're a grandfather.

You're a philanthropist. Yeah. How do you find the time, Ricky? Shannon, you make time. You have to create space. Okay. You don't take all the engagements. Okay.

Sometimes I just want to stay at home and push my grandkids on the swing on Saturday. Okay. Or whatever. And I just make a lot of time for myself. But for the past six years, I don't perform in the summer. Okay. So I only perform i remember you telling me that you take summers off yeah take summers off so may that's the time going to

vote what you gotta go with me i said you was gonna go with me i did i did gotta make gotta create some space okay gotta go with me okay uh uh so that that's a lot of fun so now i feel like i'm living okay because you just you know know, on a Saturday, it's July. You look on Facebook, everybody in Jamaica, everybody, class reunion, everybody on the beach. Right. And you're sitting in Atlanta Airport waiting to go to Tulsa, Oklahoma, only to go to an empty hotel room that night to get up the next morning and fly to another city. And you have to make some time to like, okay, you know what I'm saying? You can't just chase money all the time.

You got to make some stuff happen. What do you enjoy more, radio or stand-up? Stand-up. Nothing beats stand-up. Walking on stage, I'm about to do a Netflix special, by the way. But it's nothing like walking on stage and it's 3,500. I just did the Martin tour. We was performing in NBA arenas.

Wow. 20,000, 12,000 to 20,000 people in the audience. Man, there was nothing like that. Walking on stage, just getting that heat for a good 25 minutes. But radio is a lot of fun because radio muscle, everything helps everything. Stand-up helps radio, and radio helps stand-up.

That was my next question. Yeah. How did radio prepare you for, how did stand-up prepare you for radio and vice versa? With a quick wit. Yes. So, whatever we're talking about, you for, how did stand-up prepare you for radio and vice versa? Well, to quit with. Yes. So whatever we're talking about, you know, you got a joke for it, or you can move the conversation into a comedic, you know, a comedic conversation and get some jokes off. Right.

And then, boom, you go on the commercial break. Right. But on stage, well, you're doing that on radio, it's exercising that comedy muscle. So when you hit the stage, you also got quick wit. Right. But there's no commercial break. Correct. Better come on with the next joke.

Right. So let me ask you a question. So when you're doing stand-up, do you write your material or you just remember? Do you write a set or do you just like, okay, this is what I'm going to do tonight. These are the jokes I'm going to do. Yeah. And they just flow. I used to write, Shannon.

But now that I'm older, I can just walk on stage and just off the top of my head rip off a good 30 minutes of nonstop people crying laughing because I've been doing it so long. 33 years is a long time. Right. Let me ask you this. When you walk into an arena or you walk into wherever you're doing the show, do you look at the audience and says okay these are the jokes i need tonight oh yeah these are the jokes i need tonight shannon believe it or not i got a playbook okay and i i do everything sports based okay i'll sit up and watch a nick saban speech before i go out and tell jokes i'll fly every i started out with football right i play little league football even though

you denied that i did or whatever you didn't I think the records denied it because we couldn't find any. I think that's what gave me like, okay. That's all my homeboys in Burman. I came from Tony Nathan High School. You ever heard of Tony Nathan? He played with the Dawson, yeah. Woodlawn High School. That's the high school I graduated.

And Bobby Bowden came up. I got a homeboy named Google. I asked him. He said, no, he ain't here. Hey, son, Bowden came out. I got a homeboy named Google. I asked him. He said, nah, he ain't either. Hey, Shannon, don't do that. I'm just saying. So I came all the way out here. Oh, you did.

You did my bad, my bad. You know, we rest you. That's your folks over here in the background laughing. You can fire every last one of them. But I do everything sports-based. OK. So I get motivated and get excited and go on stage and kill it. You mentioned your... But I do have a

playbook. You do have a playbook. So to answer your question, it depends on the audience. You can look at the audience and then what comedian go on in front of you. Right. So I have like six different acts. Okay. So my man, my role manager here, Tara Page, I said, let's do this one tonight. Okay.

And he'll go and kind of tape, like lay it on the floor. Right. Front of the stage. Right. And I have like footnotes. Right. And once I do the first two, I already know. You in a rhythm then.

Yeah, I'm in a rhythm. You mentioned you were in syndicated over 80 stations. Yeah. You won syndicated personality twice. And when you win that, there's a lot of responsibility because now the expectations, not only for yourself, but from everybody that's listening to you. Yeah. How have you been able to manage those expectations? You just don't change anything, Shannon. You just make sure that you're funny and that you're

relatable. Right. That you, you know, most of our markets are in the South. So you have to open up with a praise break. Yeah. Have a pastor come on and give a good word. They want to have a good word. Yes. You know, you got, you know, you're doing your Bernice Jenkins, your church announcements. You got the Will, this comedian Will K comes on. You got comedian Benji Brown that comes on once a week and do it. Then you got Jeff Johnson that comes on and do three things you need to know.

Then the president of the National Urban League. Right. So you got a variety of news, politics, funny, spiritual stuff. And, you know, so to open and close the show. So the show is well diverse. Right. Have you had a minister come on and then after you're like, I don't know if the spirit heard that one.

No, no. But like I know what you're talking about but pastor freddie haynes in dallas texas oh he's so he's the regular he's he's the regular okay the presiding bishop of full gospel bishop joseph walker nashville right he comes on okay bring that heat right so any pastor that i that i get on pastor slater other pastors okay these pastors are really really good right but some preachers can preach yes but they're not so good on radio correct right but i i found pastors that have they can really articulate right a 60 second message in radio right and get people up and motivated then follow it with a song or whatever and uh to start the show every morning is anyone from mount zion missionary baptist number one tabernacle on the hill church the old lord the old lord hold

my mule while i shout missionary evangelistic episcopal baptist church of god in christ you have a great crew you mentioned the brat uh gary with the t special k rock t what makes your relationship so special? Been there for so many years. It's the chemistry. Right. I know where Brat, Brat know what I'm thinking before I say it. I know what she's thinking.

Rock T is kind of like the laugher. He does sports or whatever, but he's instigator, laugher. Yes. I got comedian Special K on. Then, you know, you got Gary. I know you're a big fan of Gary. Yeah. You got Gary with the T. Gary's about

74 years old. And everybody business. And everybody business. I'm just joking, Gary. I mean, you do a good job, Gary. You ain't nobody. I mean, the business is out there. So you just giving us the business that's already out there.

It's a lot of fun or whatever, but just the chemistry, man, and how funny everybody is and how fun it is. You grew really fast. You're in over 10 million listeners daily. What were your expectations when you got into radio? Did you expect or did you think you would be this big this quick?

No, because we were only on in Dallas. Okay. So I was happy with that. I'm like, okay, I'm a Dallas Cowboys fan. The Cowboys, see, there you go. You were one of the interviews. But I've been a fan my whole life, Shannon. Okay. Alabama, how you getting way to Dallas from Alabama? You don't jump past the Falcons. How many teams you jump over to get to the Cowboys?

In the 70s. Yeah. You my age. Yeah. We all had Dallas Cowboys jogging. Big Bird Steelers. Okay, you was either one or the other. You were. Right? You were. In the 70s, you was either for the Cowboys or the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Because they was all the time. So my granddad said, we rolling with the Cowboys. That's how I grew up. Right. You got to go here. I had a little baby jerry curl in a Dallas Cowboy jogging suit holding the football like that. I'll show it. I'll send it to you.

You know, I was thinking that, Rick. Everybody that had a jerry curl ain't got no hair. You think them chemicals burned y'all hair out? It did. Because the Jericho went from Jericho to Wave Nouveau. Yep. And then Hawaii Silky. Yeah. And then after that, your hair start thinning like right there. Then you just have to let it go.

But see, that's the thing though, Rick. Hey, Rick. The thing was, you let it go. You ain't try to to the side. You ain't try to hold on to it. I've seen some people on TV need to let it go. You ain't try to to the side. You ain't try to hold on to it. The scenes of people on TV need to let it go. We talk about it, but we don't call no names. Let me ask you a question. The Breakfast Club, and you kind of do kind of what the Breakfast Club does. Not exactly.

What do you know about those guys? Is there any competition? Well, we were in that competition when we were on the hip-hop station. Okay. So it was either the Ricky Smiley Morning Show or the Breakfast Club. What we were known for

was the funny. Right. Or whatever. And we were number one in every market. Right. They were known for the interviews with Angelou, Charlamagne,

DJ... Envy. Envy, who I absolutely, who I met for the first time. I met him at the White House this past December. It was really, really nice. I met him and his wife. So I'm a big fan.

I watch all of the interviews. I love their work and everything that they do. But that was our competition. Right. Believe it or not, our competition now is Steve. OK. And Steve the one got us a job. Damn.

And now we compete directly against the Steve Harvey morning show. And we always texting each other. And sometimes we get on the same page in the morning like, hey, what are you talking about? Okay, we're going to talk about this or whatever. Because when we're trying to push something in agenda, DL, Steve and I, we stay on group text.

Because we are, DL and I, DL Hughley, we work for the same company. Steve works for the other company, but we communicate. So, you know, like Pastor Warnock and different people we're trying to help, we're always on the same page. but we communicate. Right. So, you know, like Pastor Warnock and different people we're trying to help, we're always on the same page. Right. And we all accuse.

Yeah. You mentioned that Tom Joyner, you took over Tom Joyner. Steve Harvey's been on the radio for years. Tavis Smiley was on the radio, still is. I think he's still on the radio. Yeah. But he used to have a, what was that? Was that PBS or BET that Tavis Smiley used to have

that talk show on? PBS. And Wendy Williams. Yeah. What is your style? Who is Ricky Smiley's style based off of? More kind of like Steve or whatever, but I'm just a little different. I'm a little sillier.

My morning show probably is the funniest morning show out of all of them. Right. Because it's just that you got Brat laughing, you got Rock T instigating and laughing. I'm the instigator. Right. I'm not even the funnier. The funny one on the morning show is Comedian Special K. Right.

Or whatever. So then you got the Voice of Reason, you got Maria. Right. More on the show. So our show get going, but it's more comedy than anything out of all the morning shows that I listen to. We more funny. And I don't like to do the controversial stuff. I don't like to bring people on and ask them real controversial stuff. Right, right, right.

Because it just kills the energy. It worked for some people. Right. But for me. Yeah, that's how I am. I'm not 60 Minutes. You want those and 48 Hours, those type of interviews, you don't go there. Right, we're not. That's I am. I'm not 60 minutes. You want those in 48 hours, those those type of interviews. You go there. Right. Right. Right. I just try to keep it light because I want the guests to feel comfortable.

Right. And open up and have an open up, have a good conversation. I want them to come back. Yes. You know, instead of asking them about something controversial, let's ask them, what's your favorite candy? Right. So what do you do before you go on stage? I want to get into what the listeners don't know about the artist. So that's where my success comes from. You mentioned Steve Harvey and how Steve Harvey pushed you in a direction. He was one of your mentors.

What are some of the advice that Steve told you about when getting into the business of being a comedian and getting into the radio business? Oh, yeah. Dress nice, discipline, discretion, be on time.

You know, Shannon, when I opened up for Steve Harvey, I was going with the LL Cool J look. Yeah, the big baggy, yeah. I had the clock, the LL Cool J, you know. Yeah. And so he pulled me to the back of the dressing room. He said, hey, he said, people paid their money to come see us tonight. Yeah.

He said, so this is a Friday. He said, you need to wear a suit tomorrow. I said, people paid their money to come see us tonight. Yeah. He said, so this is a Friday. He said, you need to wear a suit tomorrow. I said, yes, sir. That was my first time meeting Steve. Look, well, Steve, they ain't paying me like they paying you. This is the kind of money they paying me. You see how I'm dressed? Right.

But see, I was working at Jeans West. Oh! What you know about that? What you know about that? OK. That free merchandise. Yes, sir. So I had a little

suit so okay he said i'm gonna let you introduce me tonight but tomorrow uh i would like for you to wear a suit these days you say that to somebody their feelings hurt right so i took it like a man like okay it hurt my feelings right but in a in a good way right because he didn't have to say anything at all but that was but see but you and I came up in the area of respect. When somebody older said something, it wasn't no debate. It wasn't no ah, but. Shannon, it ain't no why. So you know what I did? Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Steve Harvey.

Bought Steve on stage. Man, I peeled out of that parking lot while he was on stage performing. Made it to my apartment in time. Ran back to my room, put on a suit, went back to the comedy club. By the time I ran in the door, he was saying, thank y'all. Good night. My name's Steve Harvey.

I went up. But when I came back on stage with that suit on, he looked at me. He said, you serious. You're damn right. I'm serious. Right. I want it. Right.

I'm not waiting until tomorrow. You have. Right now. You have one of the OGs. Absolutely. This is what you need to do absolutely in order to be successful yeah dress for success look like success right feel like success you will he's big into that steve i listen to a lot of his motivational stuff yeah he says you have to manifest it he says but you have to feel you have to think a certain way right and i tell that story a lot, Shannon, because that was life-changing for me. Yes.

That led to me opening up for the Kings of Comedy. Yes. Which led to me being around Steve. Right. Which led to me having a syndicated radio show, which changed my whole life. So, you know, just the discipline and the structure that I got from my grandfather and my grandmother, do what you're told

to do. Right. Nothing to ask why. Just do it. Period. And it worked out. Once you started doing comedy, obviously there are a lot of comedians. I don't know who's your favorite. I mean, me growing up and listening to Pryor and listening to Eddie Murphy. Who were some of the comedians that you wanted to

meet? You're like, man, if I meet him, I made it. Oh, man. I was excited when i met john witherspoon man uh i met eddie murphy uh for the first time at his house i got invited over because i didn't know that eddie you know i was hosting comic view i was on bet every night eddie murphy i didn't know that eddie murphy watching bet coming you right and um so i was out here and he got word that i was staying at the sofa tail and he had a little get together at the house. I end up going over there. I met Eddie Murphy and that was just a real blessing.

And he repeated my jokes and my prank phone calls like I watch Raw and Delirious like you did. You know how it is. We in high school. Yes. Coming to America. We were 12th grade coming to America. Came out like what? And he repeating my prank phone call. And that was just absolutely amazing. I was shocked. Coming to America came at 88, right? 80-something, yeah. I think I might have been a junior in college.

Right. You were a sophomore in college. Right, right, right. We're college. Alabama State. But yeah, coming to America. Just to see him and that. And to be able to go to his house.

And I really tripped out when Stevie Wonder was repeating one of my prank phone calls. That really blew my mind. Wow. Because my mama had all the albums. I have them now, but all the albums. So I did not know that people was listening to those prank phone calls

and watching BET kind of like that. Or whatever. When you said you started off, you were performing in front of mainly white audiences. Yeah. Do you have to tell jokes different? Yeah. So wait, so my audience was white, right?

So I thought that's the way comedy go. Right. So I would never take the mic out of the stand like i was like oh gee you know i could do those jokes man yeah hey tell the joke and they laugh and you hold it on to the mic you hold it to the mic then so i had an opportunity the first black show i did i was opening up for uh for ice cube and the ghetto boys and and d nice or whatever. So here I come with a comedy club routine. I came on stage with a suit on. I said, I need a mic stand. I was like, you know dog. You open up an ice cube in the lynch mob. It was ice cube, the lynch mob, all the doggone rappers and stuff. Man, they booed me so hard.

Come on, man. They booed me. It was ugly. And I walked backstage, ice-colding them. They would make eye contact with me. Like, no, no, no, little man. Go on over there. Don't bring that energy over here. I got booed really bad.

I got booed at the Apollo, too, Shannon. Huh? I got booed on Showtime at the Apollo. And I hadn't even told a joke. When they said Birmingham, Alabama, Mark Curry was the host. Right right when they say from Birmingham, Alabama They were like boo They booed so when I was coming on stage Mark Curry who was the host at the time

He said do your jokes play to the camera. He said yo ish gonna air. He said don't worry about I Did I did five minutes of comedy? Right while they was booing and throwing stuff and played to the cameras trying to think of my joke. So I didn't tell nobody I was on Showtime at the Apollo. Right. So it comes on TV. Dun, dun, dun. At the Apollo.

You know, on Sundays, we watch the Apollo before we go to the skate rink. Right. Come on, Shannon, get with me. All right. I didn't go there. I didn't go there. I can't skate. The skate rink?

No. Everybody went to the skate rink on Sundays. We'll argue about that later. Okay. Anyway, so, I didn't tell nobody. So they took an audience that was laughing

at another comedian and spliced it up. Right. It may have been you. had them laughing. All of a sudden, there was no cell phone, so my phone was ringing.

My phone was blowing up. I started getting bookings or whatever when I actually got booed. Wow. True story. Showtime with the Apollo. But that's...

What is that feeling like? I mean, you know, obviously... To get booed. Yeah, to get booed. I mean, so how do you remain confident? Like, I'm sticking with it. I don't care what y'all say. Y'all didn't laugh at these jokes tonight.

But y'all gonna laugh tomorrow. Yeah, back then, you would just kind of go on and try to do your routine. Now, if you boo me, I would turn all the lights on and step off stage and go through the audience and roast every last one of you. I'll give it to them. Like, I don't care because something's wrong with everybody. Right.

I don't care how good you look. I can find something wrong with you. I'll make you hate yourself. Right. Okay? Right. You want to boo me? I had to get my son.

My son came home from college was sitting in the kitchen every time i passed by getting ready to go to uh you know to frat me right you know i heard somebody giggling or whatever i'm wearing something like this i'm just age appropriate right exactly not gonna wear those tight skinny jeans that ain't me sagging and with a hoodie on and yeah yeah i ain't wearing no chrome heart jeans that cost eight thousand dollars ain't happening come on harsh jeans that cost $8,000. Ain't happening. Come on, man. I'm about to be double nickel.

And then, you know, by me being a dad, my son, I guess, got what I do for a living. Yeah. You want to roast? I went in and cleared that kitchen. They was spitting Kool-Aid everywhere. Like, yeah. You get on your soil like that?

What? You trying to roast me in front of your friends from college? Ah. Yeah. You know, my son on the basketball right that Alabama State right now, okay Oh, whatever Malik shut out the Malik smiley, but you know, it's trying to roast right? So I got Yeah, right right now I'm a comedian I'll be dead in the minutes go well once I get your free and laughing at you I don't know

I Open for the ghetto. How do you, how does a comedian, I don't know, I've never been to a concert where a comedian opened up for people that's going to sing or rap. Well, at that time, Shannon, they started doing, they was having comedians open up all the shows. Okay. Because, now, mind you, I had a great show when I opened up for Will Downing and Gene Kahn and Jennifer Holliday.

Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. And Mr. Cooper, Michael Cooper. Yeah. I opened up for Michael Cooper. Okay. You know, Joe Cribs put me on my first big show. Okay. Running back.

Buffalo Bills. Yes, sir. He became a promoter. Okay. Put me on my first big show. Okay. Little running back from Auburn, man. Yeah.

I love him to this day and thankful for the opportunity. But Joe Cribs saw talent in me and had me open up for Michael Cooper. Right. Which meant a lot. So they was like, okay, we can have you open up for Ice Cube in the Litch Bar. In the ghetto boys. And you thought that would be a good idea? And Too Short was on that show.

Oh, man. I got the pictures. Yeah, I got booed, man. I had a suit on. I had a three-piece suit on. I was dressed like the Jackson Southerners. We don't need to talk about this, the Will Smith incident, but we saw something out here at the Hollywood Bowl with Dave Chappelle,

and somebody ran on stage. Are you afraid now? You said that if people start booing, you're going to cut the lights on, and you're going to clear it out. Yeah. Do you get afraid now of telling a joke that might offend someone, or are you like, I'm Ricky, this is what I do? You came here, so you're going to get it if you're not appropriate.

Shannon, I don't care. If you're sensitive, don't come to my show. Stay at home. Right. Society is too sensitive now. You can't say nothing. You can't correct. You can't.

If somebody doing something that affect you, you can't even correct them. What they're doing affect you. I'm going to, hey, I'm 54. It is what it is. I'm going to say what I need to say, especially if it directly affects me. Right. I'm offended. I'm offended that you're affected.

I'm offended that I have to correct you. Right. How about that? But they get offended that you offended. Right. Right. All of this cancel culture and all that kind of stuff. I'm going to do my jokes or whatever.

I talk about everybody. I talk going to do my jokes or whatever. I talk about everybody. I talk about myself or whatever. I don't care if you're black, white, fat, skinny or whatever. Everybody going to get a little bit. Right. And most of my comedy is relatable and it's done with love. It's not mean-spirited. Right.

That's the difference. My comedy is not mean-spirited. So, you know. When you got Comic View and Def Comedy Jam, how did that change your life? Well, hosting Comic View changed my life. Your money definitely changed for your appearance. Def Comedy Jam, Martin Lawrence was the host,

so I did a joke about the Qs and the AKs, so I started getting booked for colleges. Right. But when I became the host of BET Comic View, that means you're on TV Monday through Friday. Correct. Number one show that was the highest rated season of Comic View on BET.

And I was also the host in 2004. Right. Then BET gave me a show the year after that. So that was a real staple in my career. And even now, and that was 2000, my tickets is 2023 now. My ticket sales has been consistent for 23 years. It actually started out in 97 with Lil Darryl. Right.

If I did Lil Darryl, I've been selling out since 97. So can you still do that, Joe? Even though you're talking about maybe a special needs, I mean, do you have to, do you have to? Oh yeah, I do it. They like it, the special needs. Right. Lil Darryl bought out all the special needs right little daryl brought out all the

special needs uh uh kids right not necessarily kids right especially an adult yeah yes they all came to my show right and i they would not let you leave off stage unless you did how do you how did you come up with that it's true i had we had he went out church right and he would get up there and say it's speech right Shannon and uh it was uh it was one of those situations where you can laugh right and your mama looking at you like yeah so in situations where you're not supposed to be laughing, that's when things are extra funny. Correct.

So little Darryl would be out there saying his Easter speech, and we would be in the choir standing with a straight face with tears coming down our eyes. Right. Wanting to laugh but can't laugh. Just like you pledged. Right. You better not laugh while you're online.

Right. So I just simply was. And Cedric the Entertainer actually actually, I told Ced the story. Cedric the Entertainer helped me write the joke and do it a certain way. And when I did it the way Ced taught me how to do it, it blew up on BET. And my career took off. That was it. We was in a 79 Cutlass driving down Peachtree.

We had got right in front of that Chick-fil-A. Yeah. And Ced said, I had, itA. Yeah. And Ced said, I had, it was another name, but Ced said, Lil Darryl. Ced said, my name, Lil Darryl. And Ced started doing it. We had hit my Cutlers. We had the 79 Cutlers driving the

Uptown Comedy Club, the one behind Houston. Yeah. I know exactly where it is. And so Ced and I did the opening week. Right. You know, it's Earthquakes Old Club. Yeah. And he told me how to do it, and he helped me form it and formulate the joke. And when I did it on BET, I came off stage, Zoo Man, Bruce, Bruce, the comedian was like,

I'm like, what? What happened? It was like, man, he said, when this air, all the comedians, they circled me. I thought something was wrong. Right. I'm like, man, your life under changed. They said, that was funny.

Because Mike Epps and Cat Williams was on that episode of comic-g as well Wow He wasn't he went on his alley cat right and Mike Epps had on a Dallas Cowboys jersey I'll never forget it. The audience was dead. It was midnight It was the last show they had been taping already and here I come doing little Darryl or whatever and it blew up Shannon Right, No lie. When you say, when you travel and you were doing it like you do now, and all these comedians, how difficult is it? Because you hear the laughter. You know you back there, you hear what's going on.

Yeah. And you're like, damn. Do you ever stick your head out like, what is he saying? Not behind Lavelle Crawford. I'm not. I'll be damned if I'm going behind him. I don't care. I would give a promoter every dime back. I'm not going, hey, listen.

Now, I can almost follow anybody. Right. But I did a show with Lavelle Crawford in D.C. for New Year's. I'm glad that I went first. I saw him stand in one spot with a suit on and a bow tie and totally destroy audience. And I just never seen somebody standing. I'm talking about back to me. How do you follow that?

Right. But I had to follow Darnell Rollins one time. Yeah. In Atlanta. Right. At the Phillips Arena. Sold out on the Martin tour. He got a standing ovation.

And guess who's next? Me. So I had to go to my playbook. Yeah. You had to go deep. I had to go deep in the playbook. But thank God I'm on the radio because I think they gave me a little leverage. So by the time I came on stage, they were like, yeah, this our guy.

We listen to the morning show. And I was A, but they gave me a little cushion. Right. And so I put on a good show that night also. But that was scary. Give me your Mount Rushmore of deaf comedy jam, comedians that's been on deaf comedy jam. Oh, my God.

And then I want the one, the Mount Rushmore comic view. Man, deaf comedy jam, of course, you have to start with Martin. Martin. Hamburger. Hamburger. Hamburger. You know, Bill Bellamy came out with Booty Call. Yep.

And, of course, you can't talk about that if you don't say Bernie Mac. I ain't scared of you. That was the hottest. Adele Givens, the whale in the tic-tac. Yep. Adele Givens, Bernie Mac. Who had a good set, like, with Rip Def Comedy Jam up? Shuggy Duggy.

Yeah, Shuggy Duggy was big on BET. On BET. That was? Shuggy Duggy. Yeah, Shuggy Duggy. Well, Shuggy Duggy was big on BET. On BET Comedy. That's when Shuggy Duggy, quack, quack. Yeah. When he blew up. But all of those comedies. J.B. Smoove came from Def Comedy Jam.

J.B. Smoove would sleep on my couch. Was Cheryl Underwood on Comedy View or Def Comedy? She was on Comedy View. Okay. She came, she classed of 94. Right. I did Def Jam in 93. But Cheryl Underwood and all them they came

in 94 like a year later uh henry waltz had a a real good set uh he does shows with mike epps one of the funniest comedians in the country but uh but yeah now bet uh bet you got arneis jay yeah and arneis jay killed it on Def Comedy as well. Gary Owen. Yep. Earthquake. Earthquake. Totally.

That's my dog. That's my dog. You know what I'm saying? Earthquake. Some more. Yeah. You know, and all of the guys, Lester Berry, all of the guys that hosted Comedy View, Sid was the second host. D.O. Hughley was the original host of BET Comedy. So you had a lot of talent

that come from BET Comedy. So yeah, those are some of the goats. 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?

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Listen now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Do you think there'll ever be another Comic View or Deaf Comedy Jam? I don't know, Shannon. It'll have to die down because comedy is so... Sometimes it feels oversaturated

or whatever. In order for it to be special, it have to kind of die down for a minute, then boom. Right. Kind of like all the movies and stuff. Right. Doing the remake. Yes.

Or whatever. It would be hard because now you got phones. Right. People have more options than they had back then. But you know what? It's harder now, now that you mentioned that, it's harder to tell a joke more than once

because everything is recorded. Yeah. So now, you know, I'll be used to get away, you can tell a joke for like three weeks. You just add to it. I still do Lil Darryl

every now and then, but I do it different. Right. So I'll mention Lil Darryl as a recap and then put a spin on it and then do something totally different

using the same character that they love. You mentioned earlier that you're about to do a Netflix special. is that kind of direction because chappelle came back in 2016 i think he signed the deal yeah uh it was reported i don't know how true it is that eddie murphy has signed a deal with netflix he's gonna do a series on netflix yeah our earthquake had one which was hilarious was fire yeah is that kind of and dion cole oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah by the way dion cole i gave dion cole his first job his first writing job right and dion cole we used to do colleges

together back in the day it's crazy because everybody that was in this van i remember dion cole sitting in the back seat of the van said in the front of the van and everybody's like famous now right and it's just so amazing to me. But yeah, I haven't done a special. I did a BET special, a live stand up on BET. Right. Called Open Casket Sharp. But it was like 13 years ago.

So now it's time to come back with some new hits, you know, some flavor. You know, I still got it because I kind of settled in the radio. Right. But I still perform low key. Right. So just to kind of put something out there, people have been asking me to do it. Do you write your own material or do you have some writers? I have writers for this special to help me punch up the material that I have.

Right. David Arnold was helping me before he passed away. Chris Spencer is going to be helping me out. Comedian LaVar Walker, Special K. Other guys helping me put it together. So I got basic stuff, but they're just going to take helping me out. Comedian LaVar Walker, Special K. Other guys helping me put it together. So I got basic stuff, but they're just going to take the stuff that I have and punch it up and make it really funny. Do you think it's harder or easier now for comedians to get on?

Harder. Really? Yeah. Even with all the avenues, you got social media, because you see a lot of these guys, they kind of get their start on social media. Like DC Young Fly. Yeah. You see a Ha Ha Davidson.

You see like Desi Banks is like flooded. Oh, yeah. Well, if you get on social media and you do some good sketches. Yes. And some funny sketches. Yes. Or whatever. That would get you on, but you're doing sketches.

Right. But you have to catch up in the comedy club. Yeah, because you can't do no sketch. You can't do no sketch in the comedy club. You got to learn how to perform. Right. So I think we had to learn how to perform first and then catch up with social media.

Right. As with Desi Banks, then they blew up on social media. Right. And they had to catch up and get a rhythm on stage as to how to perform. Right. And they're really doing a good job.

I just did some shows with B. Simone, Just Hilarious, D-Ray, who I don't get along with. I do a lot of shows with D-Ray. I don't know why they're- D-Ray Davis? Yeah, he bothers me. Why he bother you? He's just annoying.

He tired. Yeah, because he got light skin. He got good- Yeah. Hazel eyes. Hazel eyes and stuff. And then he always in my dressing room, making fun of my clothes and my outfit. He be like, you know, like last time we did a show, like, man, I wear this on the plane.

You know? What? Yeah, yeah. Like my outfit that I'm wearing. Oh, you're talking down to your, you're talking down to your getup? Oh, yeah, talking down about my outfit. Like, D-Ray, he text me. He harassed me.

I blocked him on several numbers. I don't know how, and he just, but that's, you know, there's two people I don't like, and D-Ray Davis is both of them. Ricky, why did you stay in the South? You had an opportunity. You did a couple of movies. We're going to talk about you. Peaches.

Peaches? Peaches. What peaches? I know you ain't talking about the ones that grow on the tree. Yeah. No, you ain't talking about them. You talking about South Bell. But they out here.

They're not as good as the ones. What about these navel oranges? You don't like navel oranges? I like navel oranges. Whatever. But in Alabama, man, let me as good as the ones. What about these navel oranges? You don't like navel oranges? I like navel oranges or whatever. But in Alabama, man, let me tell you about the South, man. I don't know, man. It's just different, Shannon. It is.

You can come to LA and you can go to New York. Ain't nothing like simplicity. Right. A quiet lake. People speaking to you. People nice. How you doing? Right.

Good food. Chef, I'm a hell of a, people nice. How you doing? Right. Good food. Chef, I'm a hell of a cook. Man, you know what? You want some chicken and dumplings? You told me that. You want some chicken and dumplings? Every time I see you, no, I follow you. Every time I see you, you always cooking something.

Always. Shannon. You ain't got that many people in your house to be cooking like that. You cook like you got family reunion. Shannon, I have four kids, and then I raised a lot of nieces and nieces. I know, yeah. I had a house full. My chicken and dumplings, my green, my sauteed greens. got family reunion i have i have four kids and then i raised a lot of nieces and nephews i know yeah i had a house full my chicken and dumplings my green my sauteed greens i had a cooking show on fox on fox soul i had a cooking show absolutely shan i get down okay what what's what's your what's

the chicken chicken and dumpling everybody liked the chicken and your grandma made them right yeah i know it so you like chicken and dump yeah next time Next time you come to the South, I'll meet you in Atlanta. Okay. And I'll bring you a pot of chicken and dumplings. People go, they swear by them. I put celery and carrots in there. Well, that's a signature is chicken and dumplings. I hope you put that in there, Rick.

Yeah, absolutely. Okay. I make the best chicken and dumplings. Okay, what else? I have a good fried chicken recipe, my collard greens. I do great things. I make a good cornbread recipe, my collard greens. I do great things. I make a good cornbread dressing, not stuffing. Right.

Dressing. Right. I make good dressing, good turkey wings, anything. Anything Southern. I take a cooking class. Okay. So I can do gumbo. I can do shrimp etouffee.

I also can cook Italian. I make my own tomato sauce from scratch. I will boil tomatoes, a big pot of tomatoes for three hours. Make a sauce pan, put on a sauce pan with my butter, my wine, my seasoning. I have a food processor and put it on and I draw all of my stuff up. So when I make lasagna spaghetti,

I made my own sauce from scratch, Shannon. Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't come on here and try to not position your questions I'm doubting your mindset. I'm sorry for the surprise in my voice. Okay, Shannon you act like Apologize what? You not married I was What happened 12 years career took off and you ain't want to bother me.

When you was nobody, when you was driving that 79 Cutlass, she was right there with you. When you ran up, when you... That's the problem. She wouldn't help me drive. That's one of the things that actually stick out of my mind. Hey, baby, can you get the wheel for an hour? I got to perform and...

Oh, man. That was before they started doing this. I got to perform and... Ah! Ah! Oh, man. That was before they started doing this. Before they started grabbing her. Yeah, man, it's just hard to have a relationship, man. You're all over the place. I just... For me, Shannon, Jesus Christ himself, going to have to walk her up on the porch and say,

Ricky, there she is. Now, I dated Juicy for a little while. That didn't work out. Juicy? Juicy from the morning show, Little Women Atlanta. No, you didn't. Yeah, just for a hot minute. We went to Applebee's.

That was a short relationship. That didn't last. No, Rick, I ain't going to. I'm not doing this. I'm not doing this. See, Juicy. Nope, nope. No, no, this. I'm not doing this. See, see what I'm saying? He said, nope, nope. No, no, no.

We went to the back. Where is this? I first dated the Applebee's, and the lady bought a coloring book and crayons over there. And then what happened? Man, that's a grown woman. Man, you can't. Well, they didn't know that. They didn't know.

You should have told. You should. I tried to explain it. The lady started crying because she felt like she offended her. She did? Yeah, she did. But then everybody standing in Applebee's window when I was putting in the baby car seat to take her back home. Come with me.

There you go with your food. I heard you say, I don't know if it's true. It was reported that you said, I don't want to be as big as Kevin Hart. Because I like my life. I like the simplicity of my life. Man, I'm happy for Kevin Hart, Chris Rock, Deshaun Hill. I just couldn't imagine the pressure, the pressure to deliver in the work schedule, the workload.

I mean, you got a crazy schedule. Kevin Hart is in every commercial, every movie, on the radio. He got his podcast, Hold His Balls. He's doing this thing, something with L.A. Husbands. Yeah, everything. Yeah. Yeah. Shannon, for me, man, you know, I'm 54.

I was on the road every weekend for years. I've been performing for 33 years. Right. I feel like I don't have anything else to prove. I want to do it if I enjoy doing it. I just don't want the pressure. I just want to sit back and enjoy. I want to go to a football game.

I want to go, you know, go to Alabama State, Alabama A&M, Magic City Classic, you know, or go watch Alabama and Auburn. Do you travel with security? Nah, but thank God for the COVID mask because, boy, it worked. I can get in and out. And I got the one with the fisherman wear around the neck. Yeah. I pull it all the way up to right here and have my hat pulled down.

I can go anywhere. You got that from Friday. The next Friday. Friday after next. See, that's who you, that Santa Claus. All I needed was a Santa Claus hat on the white one. Yeah. But that actually worked, man.

That has allowed me unbelievable freedom to go anywhere, anywhere and not be noticed. That's on days if I don't want to. Right. If I'm just trying to have some private time. Right, right. Or whatever. But, man, I enjoy fishing, man.

I know. You told me. I would sit on the beach. I get off the air at 830 in the morning if I do the morning show from Fort Lauderdale and would sit on the beach all day for a week. Every single day. Drive over to Bimini, you know, because I'm a I'm a boat captain. Right. And I drive over to the Bahamas across the ocean. I went through storms. I'm talking about where you get like four to five foot waves coming at your boat and just having to stay the course and make it to an island or try to make it back to the United States or whatever, man.

I'd be out here doing some adventurous stuff. I've been taking flying lessons, so I can fly. Boat captain, I'm just having some nice, relaxing experiences. Were you always this adventurous as a child, or did you just become this way? When I became an adult i started getting no you started getting some money you got to call money to have a boat well well well even as a child man uh i played nine different instruments i played the bass guitar i played the drum i played

the trumpet the baritone the french horn the tuba the piano and the organ and i read music so i'm a musician right so i could sit at a piano i was a minister of music at a church for years. I played basketball. Didn't make the basketball team, but I damn sure made the football team. And you see, I didn't see that. Now see, there you go. I played football.

Why we gotta come back? Why we gotta come back here? We were doing so good. The interview was going great. You don't ask anybody in Birmingham, I played football with Shannon. The interview was going so well, it was flowing beautiful.

It's still flowing beautiful. I loved the way we were transitioning, getting in and out of topic. We're in the sports building. Go get a football right now. Go run a big route and watch when you turn around, it's in your chest. Go run a post corner. Run a post, hit that corner, turn around.

I promise you, it will be right there. Ricky, you 54. It don't matter. You haven't thrown a football in 30 years. I have a son that played college ball. That's not you. You don't play college ball. He matter. You ain't throw a football in 30 years. Shannon, I have a son that play college ball, man. That's not you. You don't play college ball. He does.

You don't throw the football. Shannon, I still throw. I do. I do. Shannon, I still. Shannon, when I'm backstage, before I go on stage and perform, guess what one of my rituals? What?

Warming up with a football. Mike Epps. How'd that get you ready to go on stage? Mike, it because it just get me loose. Mike Epps said I get you ready to go on stage. Mike, because it just get me loose. Mike Epps, DC Young Fly, we had to pick up

a flag football game backstage before a show in Houston. Mike Epps was like, damn, I didn't know you could throw like this.

I didn't know you had an arm like this. I have an arm. Go get a football. Stop talking about it. We ain't got no footballs here. Yes, you do.

We in the spot. All these shows y'all have here in the Fox building. You in Fox studio. This ain't got no footballs here. Yes, you do. We in the spot. All these shows y'all have here in the Fox building. You in Fox studio. This ain't a football field. Football downstairs in one of those. You ain't at the Rams facility. We don't have footballs here. We have cameras. We have microphones. Go get a college football. I'll show you.

Can't throw no NFL ball, but I can throw a college football. You stole the show in Friday After Next. Yeah. How was that experience? Why we going through this, man? I don't know. I believe we related, but go ahead. You were originally supposed to play Cat Williams' character.

Yes. And Cat Williams was supposed to play my character. And somebody said, no, we want you to play Mike. The beaming ass Santa Claus. Right. Yeah, because Cat Williams is going to be the Santa Claus. Right. And then they switched it over.

Right. Because when I auditioned, I auditioned for Mighty Mike. Right. So when I went in there to audition, I'm at the toilet. When Cat Williams went to use the bathroom, that's the line I had to use to audition. So they switched it up. So I was like, yeah, I can do this Santa Claus role Friday. But I didn't know that because I did my role in four days.

Right. They shot all my stuff in four days. I went back to Birmingham, came back out because they changed the ending. Did you know that? No, I didn't. No, you know the ending where they got to fighting or whatever. The ending was me giving out, Santa Claus giving out presents to his kids. Right.

So the test audience didn't like the way it ended. So they changed the ending. Right. So I had to come back. The scariest thing was laying down in front of that limousine. Right. And you better hope and pray that he got it on dry and not reverse right because that was real but i had to really lay there while that limousine peeled off right so they let they allowed me to get up about

three or four times right to go and look at it to make sure i said go up all right put it in reverse i said put it in drive put it in reverse so i got comfortable i said okay let's go say hey we're gonna do this one time one time So they actually did it twice. And that was scary. And the part where the Santa Claus got with the clothesline. Right. We were laying on the ground. We was in a real backyard somewhere south of L.A.

Shannon, why was maggots in the dirt? It was somebody's backyard for real. The dirt was infested with maggots. Like, real talk. I had to lay down there, right? So that was a stuntman that did the clothesline to Paul.

Right. But I had to pick up where he was already down. Right. And I'm laying down, and I'm looking, and I see maggots in the dirt. Man. True story. It was disgusting. Did you know you had

hit it out the park when you did this role? I had no idea. Never seen the movie. Never read the whole script. Friday after next come out, I get my kids. Where we going? We're going to the movies. We're going to see Friday after next. I have a small role in the movie. The movie come on and it starts out with me.

First of all, to see some more name on the screen. Dunn, D.C. Curry. And then Ricky Smiley. Right. And people in the theater started clapping because we in Birmingham. Right. But they didn't know I was in the theater. Right. And the movie go on, Santa Claus get hit by the car, my kids start crying, had to take them out

outside to tell them that I was okay. Right. And then everybody realized I was in the theater, Shannon. Right. And start clapping. Everybody was proud. That was the first big movie.

Then I end up doing First Sunday. Yep. With David E. Talbert. Right. And I actually was in the movie with Ice Cube and Mike Ips. All About the Benjamins. Right. But they cut the part out because they rewrote it.

Right. But I was snitch Mitch in that movie. When you did, did you freestyle any lines? Because you like that. Mostly all of them. Cube said, I have you in this movie because I just want Ricky Smiley. I want you to be you. But here's the base.

Here's what you need to say. Here's what's happening. You're robbing them. Right. He said, don't talk over each other. Everybody just stop talking over each other like and once we got it together we shot it a couple of times running down the alley all that stuff or whatever um so it was easy what made you hit the dion because you hit the dion oh man i was a fan of that oh i was a fan

you hit a prime time i've been doing that since he's been doing it. Right. You know what I'm saying? Like the guys do the gritty. When I go on stage right now, I do the gritty. Right. I come on stage, man, I be killing that gritty.

I thought you said you was age appropriate. I am. But I can do the gritty. The gritty ain't age appropriate. I can do the gritty. Not for the young boys. My son is a college athlete.

I can do the gritty. I can do the gritty. I can do the gritty. I'm not going to do the prep. I'm not going to be. Won't you do the washing machine? I can do the dougie. I would kill the dougie. Right now.

I know, Rick, but that's not inappropriate. Shannon, you still got to be relatable and hip. I'm 54, but 54 is not old. What do you want? Do you want me to have my shirt tucked in my pants and have an adult diaper on? No, I don't care about the adult diaper, but you should have on jeans and hardball Stacey Adams. No, sir. You know what?

Okay. First of all, I changed clothes in your dressing room. You did? I didn't see one pair of Stacey Adams in your dressing room. No, you saw. I saw your shoes. Yeah. So don't play with me, Shane.

My bad. Okay. Keep it moving. You see what he's play with me. Okay, keep it moving You see what he over here trying to do right? That's why I keep people out of my dressing room. You got to tell him. Shannon, I saw your shoes. Okay. Okay, we're gonna leave it at that. I mean now one pair of mighty clouds of joy In their shoes in there no square toe gators. No, none stuff. No. All of those shoes was full of gossip. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. The residual check. Do you

want to do any more movies? Would you like to do any more movies or are you like, I'm done? I have my share? I mean, if there's a situation where I can get in and out, like when I was in Baggage Claim, I flew to LA and shot that in one day and got on the plane and left. And the way David E. Talbert and Land Talbert were some of the best producers

in LA, they spread it out through the whole movie. So I like situations where I can get in, shoot, do what I have to do, but sitting in a trailer all day, every day, it don't mix with ADHD. Because I had it for real.

You know what I'm saying? You know how you be talking to somebody talking to you too long? Your brain go to commercial. You be talking to somebody, talking to you too long? Right. Your brain go to commercial. Yeah. You be talking to somebody, your brain go, liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty. You got you. You know, yeah.

You be talking to me over two minutes like, emu, emu. And Doug. I'm looking at you in first Sunday. Ice Cube, Tracy Morgan, Cat Williams, Regina Hall, Loretta Devine, Red Grant. I played football with Red Grant. Red Grant was on the team at State. Yeah. Shout out to Red Grant.

Red Grant, happy belated Founders Day. You know Red Grant, a capital. Yeah, he a capital. Yeah. Yeah. Red Grant is running for mayor. Mayor in D.C. Absolutely.

That's one of my good friends. Yes. Baggy claim with Paula Patton, Laura Lunden, Jill Scott, Christiana Millian. Yeah. I mean, Boris Koje, Terrence J. I mean, bruh. I mean, you don't want... I play football.

This man here, we just won't give it up, huh? I want you to respect the fact. If you just respect the fact that I can throw a football still, I'll stop talking about it. Okay, well, you know what? You know how when you interviewed Dion and y'all went on the football field? I got a workout video with Kevin Ridley.

When he was playing at Bama, I went to the swaddle. I saw how he played. He's like, yeah, you're kidding. I said, okay, do a five and out. He turned around and that ball was right there. I got the video on my Instagram. I'll show it to you. You want to see it?

No, I'm good. You know, I was a comedian. You know, before I played football, yeah, I did stand up. Where? The same place you played football at. In my mind. Hold on. I'm going to send you the picture.

I got you. I'm going to send you the picture. Okay. I'm going to show you. You do all about the Benjamins. Right. And you was like, okay. And see how you got your people over there laughing?

Your staff is. That's your people. They so. That's your people. That's your people. Hollywood over there laughing? That's my people. And your your people. Hollywood over there laughing? That's my people. Your boy from St. Louis over here?

Your people, man. Go ahead, Shannon. So when they told you, but you already got paid. I mean, obviously you wanted to be in there, but they had to cut the check, so you straight. What? When they cut you out of all of my arrangements. Oh, yeah, yeah. That was a good opportunity to be with Ice Cube.

Yeah. Around Ice Cube. It wasn't nothing personal. Right. Against me. They rewrote. So my part didn't make sense. But Cube was like, Rick, I got something else for you.

And then I end up doing First Sunday. But you know what I'm saying? I had a sitcom, too, on TV One with Ray J. Right. So I had that show. And then I had a reality show. Right. That was six seasons.

I called Ricky Smiley for real. With my morning show and my kids. So I had a lot of stuff. I still don't understand how you find all the time to do all this. Shannon, I just do. I consolidate and compartmentalize. Okay. That's so important.

I get the compartmentalization of it. Yes. But I just kind of do everything like January, February, March, April. Those are your busy months. I will grind. Okay. Non-stop. Okay. But a lot of people don't understand. When I get off the air, man, I'll take a three-hour nap.

Right. I'll go back home and get in the bed, let the blinds down, get under the cover, and go to sleep. Right. Turn the phone off. I don't do this cell phone. My cell phone never, and my ring will stay off 24-7. I got my phone set so if my mama call

or my son in college call, whatever, it'll ring or whatever. But that's just be cash up with them college kids. Yeah, that's all you need. Yeah, I have a daughter at Bell or a son at Alabama. So I got two seniors, I got two boys in college. But I have the discipline to say no. Right.

I have a discipline to create space for myself, to give me time to think. And sometimes I wake up, I go through my text messages and respond from important to less important. From how you doing today, just checking on you, to hey, I need an answer right now to this, that, and we need to make a decision. That's how I do.

I be going through my text messages like, K, hey, yeah, man answer right now for this, that, and we need to make a decision. That's how I do. I be going through my text. I'm like, K, hey, yeah, then, you know what I mean? Boom. Exactly. All that, all that, like, no, I ain't finna, no text, no 75 words. And then I can't stand a holiday text. I can't, I just, it be too much, bro. Yeah.

You like group chat? No. I don't either. No. No, it's too, because, see, now you're getting all the response, especially when. Yeah, bro. Number that you don't know. Yeah, I'm talking to you. I ain't trying to get everybody in this. All these people in the, all people do, the people in their 60s do group, group text.

Only people in their 60s and 70s do stuff like that. What do you like more, radio, stand-up, movies, reality TV, sitcom? Because you've been in them all. You've been in them all. Well, you know, I do like reality TV, sitcom? Because you've been in them all. Well, you know I do like reality TV because... You like drama? Nah, I didn't allow it. Well, you'll see, I didn't see...

I didn't allow it on my show. I didn't see the sitcom because I was about to ask you, are you like Housewives of Atlanta? Believe it or not, Shannon, you're going to cringe. My favorite TV show that I watch all day? Yeah. First 48. Oh, I watch all day? Yeah. First 48. Oh, I like the First 48, too.

I can't. They be snitching. They be dry snitching like mug. For a cheeseburger, they be telling them everything. No, it be Church's. It be that damn honey biscuit from Church's. Shannon, you know I haven't had Church's chicken since 82. Yeah, I don't think I've had Church's chicken.

I mean, if I'm going to eat chicken, I'm probably going to be Crispy Chick. I like Crispy Chick. Yeah, Crispy Chick is good. I like the Publix. I mean, Publix. You know how Publix chicken down there. Publix chicken. That's a fight.

Shannon, and the cakes. And they desserts and they bakery off the chain. They got a Crispy Chick in L.A.? Anybody know they got crispy chicken out here? But when my granddad's sister, my grandfather's sister died, they had a church chicken head just came, it was banging in the 80s. And it was at the repair.

And the lady was like, do you want this piece or that piece? I said that piece. Back then, they wasn't wearing rubber gloves. And the lady had a finger missing and The old lady had a little dark spot right there and she grabbed the chicken like that And she put it on my plate and this and it's all I saw You dover do you double church and sleep that night But I didn't eat that chicken and I hadn't had a sense because every time I see church chicken. That's all I see

coming back. You roll for this, man. You roll. True story. Of all the impressions that you've done, what is your favorite one? I have this character. Bernie Jenkins, Lil' Darryl, Joe Willie.

Joe Willie's my favorite. Joe Willie? Joe Willie in the Deuteronomionaires. So this is poking fun at the gospel group the male male chorus like where you and i grew up yeah i host a male uh chorus convention in augusta georgia every year okay every at the bell auditorium and joe willie in the deuteroman airs joe willie this big guy that's real physical's real physical, but all the other singers are real old men. They're in their 70s and 80s in real life. But I can sing a little bit, but they sing in background,

and it actually sounds good. But Joe Willie kinda like in a big suit, kinda got gray hair, kinda like Professor Klump a little bit, but he moving, he moving, he jumping, he spinning, he doing all this stuff. But Joe Willie is my favorite character. That's the one I have the most fun with. Right. You mentioned that you play like seven instruments.

You can play the piano. You mentioned that you played the piano. You played the organ in the church. You play a lot of different instruments. Yeah. Have you ever thought about, did you ever think about doing anything in music? Yeah. My goal was, Shannon, to be a musician.

But I would do a comedy show at choir rehearsal. I would get $75 to play at a small church in Birmingham and end up doing impersonations of the pastor or somebody in the church or whatever. And a comedian named Chuckie Jenkins took me over to the comedy club one night to watch him. And I was like, I think I can do that, because I'm funny. Everybody said I was funny.

And I went back a couple of months later and did open mic night. And then I ended up opening up for George Wallace. So that was the first person I opened up for. And then I just kind of went from there. But yeah, I wanted to be a gospel musician, classical pianist. I enjoyed playing the instrument. I've been taking lessons since the third grade.

Right. And I learned how to play by ear when I got to Alabama State because I was minoring in music. Right. Or whatever. So I took all these applied piano classes, applied trumpet class or whatever. So I was really into it. And I still am. You know, I'm a big soft rock fan. So Steely Dan, the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac. I go to every Elton

John concert. Sometimes I take off to go see Elton John or whatever. But I am a big Frankie Beverly and Maze, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder or whatever. I love music. Were you funny as a kid? I mean, because a lot of people get into comedy, Stevie Wonder, or whatever. I love music. Were you funny as a kid? I mean, because a lot of people get into comedy, you know, so kids don't make fun of them. Me, I talk with a lisp. So me, I make jokes. I make jokes about somebody else, so the kids start laughing at them.

Leave me alone. So were you naturally funny as a kid? I was a laugher. Okay. Yeah, I was a laugher, but I started learning how to be funny. So I would watch the ones that was actually funny. Right. And they're still funny to this day because we all still hang together.

I got folks I hang with that we go back to elementary school. Okay. So I'm trying, you know, I was trying to figure out how can I put this on stage because I'm doing plays and piano. So being on stage was nothing for me. Right. So let me figure out how to be funny on stage. Right.

Yeah. All these prank calls. Did you ever get in trouble for making me prank calls? Well, back then, before caller ID, we used to have the phone book open. Right. You know, you're spending the night at your cousin's house. Right. Had the phone book open.

I got in trouble one time. I called my neighbor and told him and his dad they had won some tickets to see the Commodores. But they had to be at the radio station 30 minutes. And went to sit on the front porch and watch them run out the house and peel out of the driveway. But they came back real slow. They came back real slow. They came back real slow. Did they ever know it was you? They know now.

They know now. They know now. But back then, I wouldn't say nothing because I didn't want to get a whooping. Why do you think you're so relatable, especially the black woman, Bernice Jenkins, that voice? Why is it so relatable to the black community uh because everybody have a a bernie's jenkins a miss janie or or whatever everybody knows somebody like that so when you do church announcements we grew up in the church you know you had the lady go up there and do the church now you read it man come on right so they take the church announcement and

just make them funny or whatever and uh you, you're just talking about what people know about. And we tried to read properly and be getting every last word wrong. All of them. All of them. Govern yourself, what? Accordingly. You look at Tyler Perry and what he's been able to do in Atlanta. You look at how he got started doing Madea as a play.

Hollywood. Now we good. Puts his own money up. Becomes a billionaire. Build this big studio, state of the art. Rival anything they have out here in Hollywood. Built LA in Atlanta. Yeah, he did. And I just saw the overview of his home that he built

out in Douglasville. Yeah. Yeah. You think Queen Elizabeth got something. He got something. He got something. Yeah. Do you know Tyler? How surprised are you that he was able to do that in such a short amount of time? Because it's not like

Tyler's not, I mean, we're probably about the same age. Maybe it'll take a year or two. He's actually younger than us. I met Tyler Perry in baggage claim at LaGuardia Airport. That had to be many, many years ago because he ain't know nothing about no baggage or claim now. It was years ago. Tyler Perry and I and Earthquake and Niecy Nash. We was we had a pilot on Fox called The Kings of Comedy.

It was a sketch show like Saturday Night Live. And he was like, hey, he recognized me from Comic View. He said, hey, I'm Tyler Perry. He said, I do plays. I said, nice to meet you. And he said, how are you getting to the hotel or whatever? I said, I'm just going to catch a cab. He said, you can ride with me. So he had a car.

Right. So I jumped in the car. It was just Tyler Perry and I. We were just talking. So he telling me about this character. He said, man, you be doing Bernie Jingle. But I do this character named Madea. So Tyler Perry was telling me all of this stuff. And there is a sketch that Walter Latham has with Tyler Perry doing Medea and I'm doing Bernie's

Jenkins with Niecy Nash called The Pew. It's supposed to be making fun of The View. We did a sketch called The Pew and it didn't get picked up. They picked the show that said did, said the entertainer did, or whatever. But it didn't get greenlit. But we shot a pilot. We stayed in New York City for a couple of months. Went to dinner every night.

And I knew he was going to be big or whatever because he was talking business. I wasn't business savvy back then. But sitting in that car with him, Tyler Perry, Niecy Nash, Earthquake, myself, we went to dinner every night or whatever. But he was staying over in that. The only thing that caught my eye, I knew he had money. He had money then because we're staying in this fancy hotel across from Central Park.

Okay. Or whatever. You know that real? Rift Cotton? No, it's something else, but it's real or whatever. Yeah. It's real expensive. But I recently stayed there.

I left because it's decorated like a funeral home. It's those. And, I mean, it's set up like where you make funeral arrangements. Yeah. Like they have an obituary right. I couldn't stay. I had to go to something modern. Right.

I made a whole video on Instagram about that. Right. But I knew he was going to make it it and i am so proud of him he has given so many people jobs and opportunities and stuff man i absolutely i'm a i am a huge fan people like well the monday i'm like listen man like they criticized him because a man a man shouldn't be wearing no dress man listen he did he listen okay nobody's for a billion, I'd wear a bikini. For a billion dollars, I would. Right.

Ain't nobody said nothing when Jamie Foxx do Wonder or when Martin Lawrence do or whatever, man, people have. Sinead. Sinead, when people have taken all that stuff. Well, Robin Williams started out with Miss Doubtfire. Right, right. Before that, Flip Wilson. Flip Wilson did. Geraldine. Geraldine.

Come on now. And then Benny Hill. Yeah. You know, so, man, people do stuff, man. You Wilson did. Geraldine. Geraldine. Come on now. And then Benny Hill. Yeah. You know, so, man, people do stuff, man. You do it for the comedy. Right. People have over-sexualized and this and that. Yeah, they make too much.

Well, I wonder if they put on a dress. We do too much sometimes. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, reading in the stuff and whatever, man. But the stuff, if it make people laugh, our job as comedians is to make people laugh. And then now people want me to do the character. Now I don't want to do it because you get criticized for it. Right, right.

Or whatever, you know what I'm saying? Because I know who I am, you know, as a person. Yeah, and I like Tyler because no matter what, Madea, what you think, there's a message in everything that you say. And it's funny. It is. Period. Point blank.

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Oh, yeah. Share with that. Yeah, man. Shannon, my grandmothers lived across the street from each other. That's how my mom and dad met. Okay. My mom and dad were musicians. They both played snare drum.

Okay. And they graduated high school and had me a year later. Okay. And I had my grandparents and my mom's mom and my dad's mom and dad or whatever. They was wonderful in my life. I had grandparents. Shannon, I have touched every last one of my great-grandparents.

I met my grandmama, mommy and dad. I met my granddad, mommy and dad. I met my other grandmama, dad. I met my granddad's mom. most of my great grandparents I have touched and had relationship with. My grandmother, my great grandmother was 106 years old

when she died or whatever. And I had every last one of my grandparents. And they've been a blessing to my life. My grandfather, my dad died. My dad got killed when I was about six, seven years old. You came back from Vietnam, right? Yeah. And, I mean, think about that. You go to Vietnam

and you survive that only to come back here and lose your life. Lose your life. How much of that do you remember? Man, I can tell you more about my dad's funeral at seven years old than I can tell you about about my grandparents funeral who just recently my granddad who just died three years ago I can tell you uh

where everybody sat what everybody had on uh I think that was 73 or 74 uh April the 11th when my dad died I'll never forget it um you know, that was that was something that is probably one of the only things that make me cry to this day as a 54 year old man, because when I think about. Watching my grandparents sit. Over here on this front row, crying like they cried that day, that tear me up to this day, to this day or whatever. My grandparents had a chance to see me on BET. They had a chance to see me do some movie and TV stuff. They saw me on Def Jam. I made them proud. They gave me everything with nothing. You know

what I'm saying? My granddad worked at the steel plant. My grandma worked at the airport or whatever. They taught me class. They taught me table manners, good home training, respect, good morning, good evening. Yes, ma'am. No, ma'am. Which ain't nothing wrong with this generation. Try to say that. Yes, ma'am. And no, ma'am. It sounds slavish. And that's a problem. It's respect or whatever. And I just appreciate everything that they told me because now that the discipline now that I use with my granddad, well, I'm not going to wake you up for school. No, no, we don't use alarm clocks in this house. Because if you go to bed with your job on your mind,

you're going to wake up. So take your ass to bed early. Then you won't miss the bus. Right. And now, I don't use an alarm clock to get up and do radio, which the show starts at 5. That means you have to be up at 3.30. We'll go to bed.

Right. 6.30, 7.30, I'm in the bed. Lights off, TV off, sleep. At 6.30? You know, it started getting dark in the fall. Yeah, yeah. Shannon, Shannon, I'll be just like this. You put your hands together.

You put your hand right there. You cross your arms. Shannon, Shannon, at 6.30. I don't care if I got company or whatever somebody rolled through, it's going to be early. I don't want you to go to bed this early. Well, you're okay. You're going to go to bed at night this early. You were shot.

Oh, yeah. What transpired? My beeper went off. Okay. Okay, this 95, my beeper went off. Okay. Okay, this 95, my beeper went off. So I stopped at a payphone because somebody hit, I think, what is it, 411 with me? 911. 911, L-O-V-E, when you turn it upside down or whatever.

So I go to the payphone. No, 411 then. 411. Yeah. Something like that, whatever. That's how you text back then. Yeah. Well, I thought you see 911 meant an emergency.

That's why you would pull over and call. No, but I think if you text shell or something like that, it means like love or something or whatever. Certain numbers they'll put in. If you turn the beeper upside down, it'll read something else. So I went to the payphone and so they was robbing this other guy,

my friend Johnny, that was at the payphone and it was like, get up. He was like, I don't havephone and it was like get up he's like I don't have nothing it was like boom said I get up they shot me to make him get up to let him know that they were serious Shannon sawed off 12 gauge, point blank. He said, hold on, just a second.

He said, hey, hold on just a second. I get in the potty. No, I ran. He didn't give me, I was about to run. If you'd have waited one more second, I was about to jet. If anything would happen, I already got hit by a car. I almost got hit by a car running across the street after I got shot. Right.

I still, Shannon, as a matter of fact, I still have them. See that? Right in the elbow. Yeah. See those buckshot? Yeah. Solid 12 gauge, man,

like real talk. So, you're going, you're laying in the hospital, what's going through your mind? Well, I was in, How old were you at the time,

if you don't mind me asking? I had to be about 21. Okay. 21, 22. I had already did Deaf Comedy Jam. Wow.

I think, yeah. Or something on BET, the old comedy, where they would have come cam. Yeah. Or something. So I'm in the hospital, and I'm in ICU. I got all these tubes and things.

Just boop, boop. And I look up at the TV, and I see all these police cars chasing a white Bronco. I got shot that night. You got shot the same night that oj was supposed to turn himself in i got shot when they found nicole brown simpson and run goldman okay i got shot that night you got shot that night so when i went to surgery when i can't when i woke up i saw police officers chasing the white bronco wow that's great and i'm laying there in intensive care watching this and I'm seeing the whole O.J. Simpson.

Right. Right. So. But yeah, I was in the hospital, man, for a couple of weeks. And that was crazy. It was it was scary. I could have died. Yes. I remember the guy on the ambulance. Hey, man, I say, am I going to be OK? And he was holding my hand. So just hold my hand. And I will never forget that man. The ambulance. He was he was like, Rick, you did. They catch the guy that shot you.

OK, that's a whole story. The guy, the guy that shot me. Got caught. Went to prison for 25 years. They called me for a parole hearing. So I went in there with the attitude. Now I want him to do the rest of his time yeah he violated my life and i got in there i saw his mother sitting over there and then you know you can look and tell people you know that people struggling this lady probably been going to prison driving ever since he's been in there she's been

going she's been going you feeling sorry for his mother then i started breaking down like okay hey my life is good god is good let me get this lady back do what i can to get this lady son back to her i can go on with my life and they can go on with day life right and uh he eventually got out um and he got killed drag. He got killed two months after he got out of prison. Then I was taking my mom some black eyed peas. I had made some black eyed peas that I'm famous for. Taking my mom some black eyed peas. Coincidentally, somebody hit me on Facebook and told me that the guy had got killed

and where the funeral was at. Coincidentally, I'm driving down Birmingham version of Peachtree. It's called First Avenue. Okay. So that's our main street that go through Birmingham. Okay. So I'm driving down through Birmingham and run across his funeral procession.

Because I saw them coming out of the funeral home. And I'm in a Jeep with the doors off. Right. Rubicon. Right. And that was more morbid than the night he shot me Shannon that scared me More than anything the guy that shot you almost took your life is in this hearse passing by that that gave me chills I didn't sleep for two months Wow Unfortunately your daughter was in a situation where he was in a road rage at incident and she got shot. Yeah

Where were you when you got the call and what's going through your mind? I was on the air. I She was in a road rage incident. And she got shot. Yeah. Where were you when you got the call and what's going through your mind? I was on the air. I was at the radio station. Okay. I was on the air. My daughter's mom hit me on the cell phone. Hey, call me, emergency.

I was like, okay, let me do it. All right, y'all, Rick's about to morning. Show 15 after the hour. We're going to be talking about blah, blah, blah. Then the next text message said Aaron was shot. And so I just hit the phone to dial. What? She said, yeah, Aaron got shot. And I said, how did my daughter get shot?

My daughter's a straight-A student. Right. My daughter attends Baylor University. Right. But how did my daughter get shot? She said she was at a red light. My daughter gets shot. She said she was at a red light and some guys

on this side of her and this side of her started shooting back and forth and she got hit twice. So this in the beginning of COVID, Shannon, so I had to figure out a flight.

So I had to fly from Birmingham to Dallas DFW Airport, get in a car and drive from dfw airport to lovefield airport to get on southwest airline to fly to houston only to get to houston and can't go in the hospital because it's covid right so that was that was trauma it brought back all of my trauma. And to this day, I'm still in therapy because it brought back up all my old trauma. Right. You getting shot. Me getting shot in 95.

And that was trauma itself because your daughter got shot. Right. And Shannon, I was on the air a week and a half later after she got out of the hospital. and a half later after she got out the hospital because when she got out the hospital people had sent food turkey leg hut um uh the the mayor the city council the police chief it was a lot of flowers in the house and it was that saturday so it felt like a repass yeah the only difference is your daughter is sitting right here right or whatever so i flew back to dallas i'm on the air moving on my daughter's okay i'll never forget i was playing i was talking over the intro 50 cent in the club son don't don't go go all right y'all rick is fine the morning show your daughter's been shot

and i lost it i was laid out on the floor in the studio a week and a half later. They had to walk me out to my car. I couldn't even do the rest of the show. Like, it took that long for it to hit me that my daughter, I knew she had got shot, but it didn't hit me because I went into, I got to get my kids here. I got to get her parents here. I got to get my parents here. We got to get to Houston. How do we get up to the room to see the daughter? I just went into action.

Right. And I didn't process. You didn't grieve properly. I didn't grieve properly. Yeah, that's how I be now. Yeah, that was crazy. But she's a senior now at Bailey University and she's scheduled to graduate in May. My son is scheduled to graduate in May also at

the Alabama State University. Which always beats Savannah State. No, they don't. Always. Don't do that. Always. Don't do that. Basketball.

I know y'all wouldn't have beaten what I was there. I don't know what happened now, but all I know. You won the whole team. Did y'all beat Alabama State every year? We did. We didn't play y'all. We played Alabama A&M. We played like. Did y'all beat them?

No, we didn't. OK. Go on. Go on to the next question. That was that. We didn't beat you. You couldn't catch the ball and throw the ball. But I can get.

But y'all couldn't do that. You played defense? I didn't. I played. I was couldn't catch the ball and throw the ball. But y'all couldn't do that. Did you play defense? I didn't. I was a wide receiver. I was held, too. I was held. I'm looking at you. You raised your kids, but you raised your nieces, your nephews. You raised almost 15 kids.

Played for them to go to college. Sure did. Kids playing football and basketball, something that you couldn't do. Why are you doing this? Because, Shannon, I knew what it was like to grow up without a father. Most of them didn't have a father. Right. I had no choice. Right. I did what I had to do. Some of them appreciated and some of them didn't. Some of them I talked to and some of them I don't. Some of them I hadn't talked to in years. Hold on. It'd be like that. Even after you've done everything that you've done. Bruh, it'd be like that. The wrong person

getting on a child's ear against you or whatever, it's just that way. It be like that. The wrong person getting a child against you or whatever, it's just that way. People be naturally jealous. And I don't know what you're jealous of because I share everything that I have with you. But I have a nephew, Terrell, that played I had three college athletes come out

of my house. One played basketball for Miles College. Nephew Terrell who was a running back coach at woodland high school played running back for middle tennessee state university and then my son um league alabama state so i had college athletes to come out of the house right and stuff and uh you know and and all of the nieces and nephews wasn't biological some of them shannon just didn't have nothing and nowhere to go. Right. And I had to help them. And they are off doing good and doing big things now. Right.

Nephew that has his doctorate degree, my nephew, Deltrick, got some Greeks in the house. My daughters are AKA. Right. You know, a couple of Qs in the house or whatever, and a Kappa. So we got degrees on the wall. Education matters. Sent a couple of kids to IMG Academy.

That's where my son went. Right. Or whatever. So I perform, man, just why I can educate and give them an opportunity because I don't need anything. Right. What are some of the challenges of being a single father? And then in the process of becoming a single father, how rewarding is it when you see the manifestation of your work? The challenging part is. Especially with your life. Yeah. Well, it wasn't really that challenging being a single father because I had help. You hire somebody.

I had a lady from my church. Right. Name is Pat. OK. Miss Pat, no nonsense. She don't play. She'll knock him out. She'll cuss them out or whatever.

And she hold in and down. Miss Pat and before Miss Pat, Miss Bishop would help me out with that. So I could easily jump on a plane and go out of town and do what I need to do. I had a support system or whatever. And what was the second question? The manifest and to see that your hard work. Oh, Shannon. To lay in a hotel room and watch my nephew playing for Middle Tennessee State University.

Right. Run up and run a touchdown. And I'm sitting in the bed and I remember him sitting in my lap crying because his father got killed. His father was my one of my best friends, my frat brother. I remember you told me that you raised him. Yeah, man. And I'll never forget two days before Christmas, he came in my room,

he had that look in his face and he started crying. And he sat in my lap, man, and had his head on my shoulder. I said, listen, man, it's going to be okay. I said, I know how you feel, man. My dad died too. And we talked about it.

I said, but you will smile. I said, you will smile. said you will smile now he's helping other kids that don't have fathers 26 years old graduated college high school running back coach but to see them kids on tv to see my son uh on the big screen at alabama state and he's getting ready to go into law school right you know and to see what my daughter's doing and all the degrees on the wall, all of the kids that we've helped, Shannon, it's been, that's the reward. I don't, I just want them to do good and I wanted them to have a chance or whatever because I had uncles step up to the plate and I know how important that is. So to have an uncle, Ricky, or somebody that's going to hold

you accountable to step up to the plate and be there for you and for you to become something is everything was it important for you to break the stigma that black men aren't in their kids life absolutely yeah we are absolutely i went through that and we want to be here you're damn right it ain't going nowhere um i went through that uh with my oldest son you know, having a hard time seeing him. That all worked out or whatever. I've been through the court system. I've had judges that wasn't fair. A judge in Alabama said the reason I don't award men custody of their kids because I never seen a cow follow his pappy. That was quoted by a judge in the state of Alabama. Now that the laws is changing,

they have fathers' rights movement. Men do hair. I mean, my daughter, I do them little doggone two little afro puffs. Man, I know how to put that part down the middle and get that pink oil moisturizer.

Rub it in my daughter's hair, drop that part down the middle, put them two little things in them little afro puffs. Only mistake I made was sending her to school in some pajamas Riding in my daughter here dropped that part down the middle put them two little things in normal afro puff Yeah all the mistake I made was sending her to school and some pajamas because I thought it was an outfit from limited to But I thought was an outfit but I didn't know that it was a pajama But she thought she was gonna get busted so she didn't say anything

And I get a phone call from the school said my daughter's at school crying Because she didn't want to go to class because she had on pajamas. I said, it's not pajamas. That's a brand new outfit. I had just bought it from Limited, too. Right. Well, come to find out, it was pajamas. But I thought it was an outfit. So it was a pajama outfit.

It was a pajama outfit. It was a bed and not class. But yeah, man, Shannon, it was fun, man, being an uncle, being in the house, screaming up the steps. Hey, stop jumping on me. Running up the steps, going up there with the belt, popping everybody at one time.

Sit down. Sit down. Sit down. Nobody crying. The links didn't hurt. You know, go to bed. Go to bed. Go to bed.

Take a shower. Have you had a, man, that was fun. Right. The whole highlight of my life is, you know, dads don't do nothing but this Hey Don't maybe come on. That's it. You have to say don't make me come up there. Hey Then the stomping stop there. So I have my grandson there now. Yeah, you adopted your grants. Yeah

So I'm I just became a first-time grandfather. How yeah, so let me so so give me give me some pointers What what did the grandson call you? Pop pop pop pop? Oh, I'm not a fan of it first time grandfather. What? Yeah. So give me some pointers. What did the grandson call you? Pop Pop. Pop Pop. Oh, I'm not a fan of it. If somebody can give me some help. I like G-Pop.

Right. Now my granddaughters, I'm going to start trying to train them to start saying G-Pop because it got a little swag. Right. A little swag to it. Pop is still there. P-O-P. Yeah. But G-Pop.

Right. You know what I'm saying? Now my grandson called me Pop Pop. Right. P-O still there. P-O-P. Yeah. But G-Pop. Right. You know what I'm saying? Now, my grandson called me Pop Pop. P-O-P, P-O-P. Yeah. But I'm trying to. I'm going to be Papa Shea. Oh, man.

Pop, Pop, Papa Rick. Papa Rick. Shannon, I'm for real. You laughing, but I'm dead. But you're going to be Papa Shea? Papa Shea. Is the grandbaby here yet? He's here.

Okay. How old? Two here. Okay. How old? Two weeks. Okay. My granddaughter that was just born. Congratulations, first of all. Congrats. Bruh.

Girl or boy? Boy. Let me tell you something. Let me tell you something. Oh, I can sit back. I can cross my legs on this one. I already done told him. I'm going to have the kid just like you were.

When I bring him back to you, he going to be just like you were when you came to me. No already done told him. I'm going to have the kid just like you were. When I bring him back to you, he going to be just like you were when you came to me. No more, nothing less, nothing more, nothing less. You think you love your kid. When that boy look you in the eye and smile,

and you combing his hair to the side. I got all the videos. Yeah, that's what I'm doing. I'm going to have his hair like mine. Yeah, yeah. With the old school part. I did that on Facebook.

Blew up. Just in there. Come here, come here, come here. Come here old school part. I did that on Facebook. Blew up. Just in there. Come here, come here, come here. Come here, come here. Hey, hey, hey, hey. You know, people get mad at me on Facebook because I talk heavy to them. That's what makes them tough. Right.

So when they go out in the real world, he ain't sensitive. Right. I talk to him in a coach tone like my granddad talked to me. Of course. And it works. Yes. So my grandson right now is tough. He's tough as nails because i don't care about the

curly hair right i don't care about the cuteness all of them cute right until they become 15 16 yeah and do nothing with them that's right that's what i should tell my kid i said now if you're gonna stay this size if you're gonna stay like seven or eight i'll let you run them up right but at some point in time you're gonna be to be a teenager. You're going to be an adult. Right. And all of a sudden, that ain't going to be cute. Right. Right. But, man, pushing my grandson, teaching my grandson just turned six and can swim the length of the pool with no life jacket.

My granddaughter is jumping in the deep end of the pool now. And she's only three. Wow. Teaching him to swim. Shannon, you ought to see him throw a football at six. We get in the living room. You ain't teaching that. Who you got working with you?

Me. Me. I mean, I know you're Alabama fans, so Bryce Young come over? No, me, Shannon. What about Mac Jones? Jalen Hurts? Ask Calvin Ridley. Call Calvin Ridley.

Ask Calvin Ridley. Ask him. He'll tell you. You and I are both 54. Right. Give me some tips on dating. You like 50. You like.

Let me see. 50 to 55. You like 45 to 50. You like 40 to 45. You like 30 to 40. I'll take 38 to 50. 38 to 50. Slim. Sexy, but genuine.

Genuine and sincere. Now, I need sexiness. I have to have it. Because I can't be with you just because you're a good person. You got to be sexy, too. You see what I'm saying? You can't be, you know, the... Man, they tried to...

Come on, now. Who tried to hook you up with who? With what? A chick that was on my 600-pound life said she has a good heart. Uh-uh. But I wasn't able to do it because I can't. Well, you might need to donate that,

but I'm talking about if you try to be with me, I mean, I need more than a good heart. I need sexy. Yeah. You know, about if you're trying to be with me, I mean, I need more than a good heart. I need sexy. Yeah. You know, your walk off got to be fire. Yeah. Your walk by got to be fire. Yeah.

Your walk by air got to smell like Neiman Marcus. I mean, so you wanted to wait. You walk by and like. Every time. Because that keep you out the street. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Okay, what about 28 to 35?

No, I can't do nothing at 20 because my daughter's 20. Okay. Okay, what about? 35. 30 to 35. No, not 30. But a mature 35, in all minds, she have a kid. No, I ain't never mind that.

I don't care nothing about that. No. You know what I'm saying? Actually, my college girlfriend had a kid. Right, right. And You know what I'm saying? Actually, my first college girlfriend had a kid. Right. You know what I noticed? Ain't nobody want her. I saw that girl. Man, what? They'll be the finest ones. But here's the thing.

I saw Walt. He was on campus. We were at first. We went football players. We went to school. We practiced first. Before the regular students got back, we already had a game. Right. So I saw Walt cross that campus for three weeks straight. Yeah, I told my roommate I said I'm gonna make that girl go my girlfriend. I said that's gonna be my girlfriend, you know back Then we should say that's gonna be the wife. Yeah

Walk by walk by one day. I say I say, uh, you mind if I walk you to your dorm? She's like, yeah, we started talking carry on I saw in the hallway, you know, next day class we started talking I was like, you, we started talking, carrying on. I saw her in the hallway. You know, our next day of class, we started talking. I was like, you know, what you know? Getting enough. The moment, the moment they see me talk to this girl. Everybody. Hair got big.

No, everybody tried to talk to her. They're like, dude, I'll let y'all have three weeks. I'll let y'all have a three weeks hair start. Three. It ain't nobody want her until I started talking with her. But that couldn't beat my time. Like my greatest, I had to lay down a blister in time. It was over for them.

I laid down a blister in time. On my mama. Ain't do nothing. So she hides my pole for a minute. But anyway, that's not here. So give me some dating advice. Dating advice, man. Shannon, for real, man.

Finding somebody that's genuine, sincere, and kind, and pay attention. How do I find that in L.A.? I don't know about L.A., but I'll tell you a good dating pool. You want to find a good one. Man, Dallas. I've had the best relationships in Dallas, Texas. Man, not Houston. Houston if you're in your 30s.

But, man, if you're in your 40s and 50s, man, Dallas, Texas, man, has some nice, beautiful, genuine and sincere. You got Bishop Jake's church there. You got Pastor Haynes' church there. It's kind of like the Bible Belt. It's Midwest with a Southern feel to it. Classy. Them little Erykah Badu, natural Afro. Be wearing that little African or sexy,

gonna make sure you're, make sure you, I'm talking about the chick that's gonna make sure you're straight. Yeah. Cause, cause see, I don't need your money. Right? If you have a job and a career, that's fine. Right. But man, if you can help me organize my life, like what Marjorie

did for Steve. Right. That's what I want. Man, listen, when Steve got with Marjorie, man, I seen a whole difference, not only in his happiness, his career. That type and then, you know, Marjorie bow-legged, too.

I was walking up behind Marjorie in the airport, man, getting ready. I was walking up on her. I said, oh, my God. I said, ooh. She looked at me. She said, ooh. I said, ooh. I said, I was on I said oh my god but I did she look at me she's a I'll spin a holly shoot but I know it was you she's a I said oh you know we like brother right right whatever but but that right there what Steve has right that's a blueprint of what I would like to have I'm not unlike okay I don't need you to wash clothes I don't need you to wash clothes. I don't need you to cook. I'm real domesticated.

I ain't real domesticated. I am. I'm going to find somebody to do that. I'm going to find somebody to wash the clothes. I'm going to find somebody to cook. But I want you to be stacked like dirty laundry in a dorm room. Come on, bro. I would like for you to have a degree. Now, if you want to have two, that's fine, too. Shannon, but guess what? But don't be... Look.

Shannon, guess what? What? If she don't have a degree... No, that ain't gonna... That ain't no deal breaker. If she got the basic stuff that your grandmother and my grandmother had, if she just got genuine love and her walk-off is fire and she look good in some wedge heels and some jeans and she look...

Hold on, hold on. Not even that. A sundress and some... Bill, did you bet I have no sundress? Shannon that a sundress and you bet I'm also dressed a sundress and some wedge heels and she look and she look she got it and she bowled a Basketball cut and have back there and you bet not and used to be a cheerleader Or a majorette. Oh my god. Oh my god. It's just cookout Mario. Oh, yeah I mean it and then you know, they'd be a little fettuccine.

But you know what, Rick? Right. Here's the thing. And I tell any woman that I've ever been with, I became what I became because all I would ever want to do was make sure my family was out of this situation. Absolutely. To raise my problem. Now, that doesn't mean I'm not going to do for you.

Not only am I not going to do for you, or I will do for you. I will treat your family, your mom and dad, as if they were my mom and dad. Absolutely. So if you tell me, say, hey, Shannon, can we help my mom and dad? Why are you asking me? That's a no brainer. Right. Done deal. Right. But I need you to understand that my family, that's it for me. Right. Now, my kids know I'm not first option. I'm last resort. So once you got, I need you to brainstorm. I sent you to school. You got a good degree.

Hey, my youngest daughter is one year away from being a doctor. My son, like I said, my daughter's in the human resources. I said, y'all figure it out. Now, if you can't figure it out, okay. Let's see what we can do. See if daddy can help you.

Right. But next to me, you good. now if you can't figure it out okay let's let's see what we can do see if daddy can help you right but next to me you good right your mom and dad good right don't and don't be don't it's not a competition what i've learned is that the women that i've dated felt like they were in competition with the kids and there's no oh no oh no, no. We're not having that. No. The biggest turnoff for me is the half that I've dated a selfish woman before. Well, God dang, it seems like I find that's all I find. Yeah, man. Asking about everything is about her and her kid, but you never ask me how my grandson doing.

See? I got a grandson and a granddaughter. My uh lived with me between me and miss pat or whatever when i'm out of town right how's how's grayson right how grayson that's important to me right when you can get my grandson to take my grandson and your kid to the jumping gym and have a good time so i can go downstairs and get on the couch and take a nap right and watch first 48 or whatever then hey i spot you on the food i got food ready when you come back right i'm either on the food or i've cooked or something yeah and we just have a good good chemistry and i would really need for a woman that that will enjoy swimming and athletic stuff

right you know i ain't nothing like a chick that would sit up and watch a game a basketball fan or football yeah whatever you're a fan of, whatever your team is. I got a whole man cave downstairs and get down there on the couch and watch football. But you can't be talking about why we got to watch sports again because sports pay for all this ish that's in here. Right.

You do realize that. That's what pays for this. Absolutely. Absolutely. And the thing about it. So we're going through kind of the same thing, really. Yeah, man. You know, at a comedy show, just knowing how to be.

Right. See, I know how somebody that use a certain amount of discretion. If you walk in a room, Shannon. Yeah. You see a chick sitting over there in the corner. I bet that's Ricky Smiley. Because you automatically know she don't even have to be standing next to me. Because she gives you that energy.

Right. You know, if you go to a church uh anything you see that woman over there the man up there preaching you already know that's the pastor why you looking at him look at look at our pastor keelan and shunny or whatever that kind of vibe somebody like like pastor keelan on wife shunny you know somebody like her, classy. See, you like me. I'm low-key. I ain't really flashy. Yeah.

Yeah. I'm real discreet. I got... But she... People look at me because I don't flash. I ain't got no big jewelry. I ain't got no... I ain't got a 2027 ride.

But I got paper now. I got paper, too. But I drive a Ford F-150. I got paper. And I drive that little Jeep. Yes, I'm good. That little Rubicon of 2009. I don't have nothing to prove.

I don't do enough. I don't have nothing to prove, Shannon. I'm real secure. I did for 14 years. I had to prove something every year. Right. That I need to be on this team

and I was kicking butt. Nah, I ain't get that. I got a necklace too, but it ain't real. Because if you snatch it, then you can have it. Why your coach act like that with time and talk but it ain't real. Because if you snatch it, then you can have it. Why your coach act like that with Ty and talk about he ain't swag? Ty said he ain't swag.

He was, who is swag? If I ain't swag. If I ain't swag. Right. Who's swag? Eddie Robb because he's still at Alabama State. I played against Eddie Robb in Tennessee and in Jacksonville. So I know Eddie Rob because he's still at Alabama State. I played against Eddie Rob in Tennessee and in Jacksonville. So I know Eddie Rob.

We used to work out together. Listen, man, Eddie Rob, both of them are friends of mine. Eddie Rob helped me get my house that I'm in now. I didn't have enough money at the closing table. I ain't going to lie. I know he hate. He is such a friend. He is a frat brother.

He's a friend or whatever. He came through for me, man, one time when I just didn't have it. You know what? And I love him for that. I never forget.

It's funny that you say that. I had one of the first CL Mercedes. Yeah. Two-door. I sold it to him. To Eddie Rock? I sold it to Eddie Rock.

Ask him. Next time you see him, ask him. I sold it to him. Yeah. I had that car. I had it for like... I had it for him. To Eddie Robb? I said to Eddie Robb, ask him. Next time you see him, ask him. Oh. I sold it to him. Yeah. I had that car. I had it for like three months. Right.

My homeboy knew Eddie Robb, and he said, Eddie said he wanted to buy your car. I said, huh? He said, okay. I sold it to him. I think I had like 800 miles. I didn't even have 800 miles. Maybe I think I might have drove it like five times.

Now, Eddie Robb a good dude. He is. He is. He do a lot of stuff at Alabama State University man, and uh, you know, he's a wonderful frat brother man Shout out to gamma C. Right? You got Omega all over you man cause I was You will be to wear my clothes and drive my car? My brother going to buy that car for me. We're going to talk after the show. You are definitely, you are definitely. Jalen Hurts, man. Join Jalen Hurts' shack in myself.

I was in that Me5Me. Michael, join us. The wonderful fraternity of Omega Psi Phi. I can do Grand Chapter? Incorporated. It don't matter. We just need good men like yourself. Okay.

I'll think about it. Yes, sir. I heard you used to charge people to sit at your lunch at the table with you at lunch yeah alabama state uh in the south hall yeah we're gonna charge you a quarter or something to sit there because that was a whole comedy show we don't getting up the jokes for free yeah yeah so you literally didn't know you were working on your material then, huh? Working on it then. Yeah, man. My college roommate, Ben, was a hilarious man. He was from Andalusia, Alabama. Ben was country as a brown egg.

First of all, Alabama. Ain't no city parts of Alabama. Think about it. It's the only state they call you Obama, and it's a slight. Oh, come on, Shannon. If somebody called you Obama, what'd they mean? Now, that's disrespectful. If it's on the East Coast, when the East Coast said,

if somebody country, then they just country. Yeah. But don't call them Bama. Yeah. Don't group us up with country because it's some country parts of D.C. too. And like, okay, but where are the city parts of Alabama? Birmingham, Mobile, Huntsville is the biggest city in the state of Alabama now. You got to. This man said Mobile and Birmingham.

Damn right. Everybody comes to Alabama. No, they come to play football. No, Birmingham has one of the largest, the second largest civil rights museum. Yes. They come to visit a civil rights museum. In the country. Yes.

They come for the food. They come for the hospitality. They come for peace and quiet that you ain't going to get in Atlanta now. Ain't but 42 people in Birmingham. Don't damn matter.

I guess what. Shannon, we're not stuck in traffic trying to get home. We can get home in five minutes. Yeah, you know how that is in Alabama. You mentioned Omega Psi Phi, and you're really proud.

You stayed the purple and gold. Oh, yeah. You're the purple and gold. Oh, yeah. What made you decide to pledge that fraternity? Man, I got real excited about the Qs when I was going to Alabama State when Jesse Jackson was running for president.

Uh-huh. So that was my first. I am. Somebody. I am. Somebody. Repeat it. You overlie.

Man, when Jesse Jackson said, just because you fund the project, that don't mean that the project have to be in you. And that stuck with me. Man, a tear came. I heard him speak at chapel, cause I actually went to Tuskegee my freshman year. Okay, you went to Tuskegee. Couldn't afford to stay there.

You know what I'm saying? Tuskegee is for kids if your mom and dad still together. Tuskegee had them things. We used to go down there and play football. Tuskegee had them things. I don't know what Alabama State had, but I know what Tuskegee had. Tuskegee had them.

Cause you leave Alabama State, and you make that little drive down 85 to go to Skeggy. And they had just built the McDonald's when I was there. So it was a McDonald's, a movie theater, and the chicken coop was right next to Lionel Richie's dad's house. Did you know that? No. You didn't know that. But you know, some great people come out of Tuskegee. Yeah. Lionel Richie is dad's house. Did you know that? No. You didn't know that. But, you know, some great people come out of Tuskegee. Yeah.

Lionel Richie is an alpha. He pledged alpha to Tuskegee. Probably do it. They got together. They get Tuskegee. Tom joined a pledge queue at Tuskegee. So, Tuskegee is rich in black history, but I just couldn't afford to attend school there because it's way too expensive.

What made you decide? Because I hear a lot of people, you know, the brotherhood. Manhood, man. The brotherhood, the lottery. Manhood. Man, you grow up without a dad. Yeah. I didn't have any brothers.

Okay. And I didn't have a dad. Okay. I found everything I needed in Omega Psi Phi. I have fathers in the frat. I have unbelievable uncles in the frat. I have brothers in the frat. I have nephews in the frat. And I have sons in the frat. I have brothers in the frat. I have nephews in the frat.

And I have sons in the frat. Right. Omega Psi Phi man has, shout out to our grandbosses that's out here in L.A., Ricky Lewis. Yeah. Who's a real good guy. Shout out to some of my frat brothers, Anthony Anderson. Yeah. D.L. Hughley.

Yep. Shaq. George Clinton. Yeah. D.L. Hughley. Yep. Shaq. George Clinton. Yeah. He's a brother now. Big time attorney. Ben Crump. Yeah.

Pledge that fam. Yeah. So it's a lot of. I would look good in them gold boots. Man, come on. James Clyburn. Really? Yeah, you didn't know he was a kid.

I did not. If I'm not mistaken, your school. Yeah. No, did he go the University of South Carolina or did he go to South Carolina State? I think he went to South Carolina State. If I'm not mistaken, but he is definitely a member of Omega Sci-Fi. Every time you're doing

his interviews, you see the Sci-Fi right there behind him. Or whatever. So, man, the bros is just awesome, Shannon. It would definitely change your life. Ask Michael Jordan and say one of the greatest things that ever happened to him was pledging Omega Sci-Fi. No, jumping from the free throw line. What made you decide, I'm gonna get you out of here on this Rick, what made you decide like, I want to learn how to fly a plane? I mean cuz of all the things that you could do.

Just curious man, I was obsessed with airplanes when I was a kid. Now my grandfather would take me to the airport and we would sit on the car because it's a road that's lined up with the runway. And we'd just watch them take off and land. Then my Uncle Herbert, before he passed away, he would take me to air shows. And we'd be out there watching airplanes, all that stuff. I said, I'm going to learn how to fly a plane.

So I started working at the radio station in Birmingham. The guys were calling in to do the traffic. I said, how y'all know where the traffic jam is? They said, how to fly a plane. So I started working at the radio station in Birmingham. The guys were calling in to do the traffic. I said, how y'all know where the traffic jam is? They said, we're in a plane. He said, come out, go with us. They said, we do morning traffic and we do evening traffic. Right. Well, I couldn't do it in the morning

because I'm doing a morning show. Right. So I went one evening for the evening drive. Right. We were getting off work. Right. You were in a helicopter, though, right? No, we was in a plane.

Really? Shannon, we was in a plane. So? Shannon, we was in a plane. So he said, hey, I'm going to let you fly, and I'm just going to do the traffic. I said, what? So he was like, OK, here's your rudders. That's with your feet. I said, oh, OK. I got that part.

So he was like, here's your throttle. I'm like, OK. He said, you know, he told me exactly what to do my first time in a plane. I took that baby down the runway. I pushed that throttle forward, and I balanced that, because you drive the plane with your feet. You know that he told me exactly what to do my first time in a plane. I took that baby down the runway. I pushed that throttle forward and I balanced that because you drive the plane with your feet. You know that? Yeah. So you're driving.

He said, okay, you feel the plane getting light? I'm like, yeah. He said, go ahead and pull. So I went and pulled. We got up in the air. Showed me the altitude meters. Just showed me everything. Man, I was addicted, man.

I'm like, I can fly a plane. He didn't let me land. But take it off. Hell, I wouldn't let you took off. Where you at, baby? Where you land? It's that easy. It's easy.

Shannon. All right, think about it. It's easy for a pilot. Shannon, listen to me. You're not a pilot. I am. You're a comedian. Shannon, I am.

Look at you. You're a television personality. Yep. You started on the football field. That's what I do. I can do all things. That's what I do. Not some things all things. That's what I do. Not some things.

All things. Shannon, listen. Shannon, you can fly a plane. Shannon. If I'm getting on a plane and I see you in the cockpit, I'm immediately getting off that plane. Shannon. Shannon, I fly really well. And I land really well.

I'm going to trust you. Just not with me on a plane. Shannon, come on. Shannon, I was. Shannon, they took one of my Instagram videos down because I was landing the plane and I was filming at the same time. You only fly with one hand. Right. You don't, you don't be with the, with the, with the knuckles gripping it tight because you're scared. You have to relax and fly. Okay. Right? So I was doing a, uh, I was coming in and landing

in Fort Lauderdale Airport and they said there was a violation so they took the video down. Right. But I got plenty of flight videos or whatever but. You got your no i have my license yet but i have to fly with a licensed pilot right but i am gonna get my license so so get ready for that but i am a boat captain and it's in this air and some of the stuff is the same right going across the ocean and flying in the air like when you got when it's bumpy yeah or whatever same thing right you know in the sky but flying is easy because in a car you got gas right brakes radio a car right here car right here car right here car behind your trucks passing by and the plane is just you yeah and only thing even if you can't see you just focus on your instruments like i can drive a boat in the dark by reading my navigational system and bag it in

a 54 boat in, a 54 foot sea ray in and bag it in and jump off and pull it in and tie it up and dock it and everything. It's just fun, man. It's like there's something different. It's outside of the box. I swim with sharks. I'm like the most interesting man.

You out here in LA, you swimming amongst them, trust me. No, I don't swim. I swim with the Sharks and the Bahamas. Oh, no. These Sharks out here, I'm talking about you walk well. You ain't swimming. You just walking. The Sharks, Toronto. That's in every city. It's like American carnage going on in every city. Yeah, we should

have a conversation about gun violence because it's really bad and unsafe. Well, talk about it. Go ahead. 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.

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. Yeah, man, you know, just being a gunshot victim, being a household of five, and two of us are gunshot victims, man, I am just really protecting yourself, man, because at this point, you can't do nothing about the guns because they won't change the laws, but damn,

me and my kids are armed, and we take tactical training and situational training. But that's a Southern thing. I couldn't thing I couldn't imagine growing up in a household we always had guns yeah those were always loaded there was never a situation in which the gun was not loaded right my grandpa say what good is the unloaded gun if you need or having one and not having it on you in a holster yeah so you just have to protect yourself because this just 30 years ago 30 years ago let's think about 30 years yeah that's when the when it got to a point where you can't say nothing to nobody's kid you can't correct nobody right what do you have now what do you have now look at what's going on

now get people in their 30s most of the a lot of the crimes people in their 20s. Most of the a lot of the crimes, people in their 20s and 30s. You can't correct or say anything to anybody's kid. Yeah, we've grown up. And they go to a dog to correct you. Shannon, they doing everything now. It's unsafe now. When I perform and I got two uniformed police officers with me and I just pay them out of my pocket. I cash out my pay them under the table or whatever. And because I'm scared people getting shot backstage people getting shot running up on stage uh uh you get your money they think you got money they got paid for a comedy show and cash set up the rob uh to rob you and all this

kind of stuff man it's dangerous right it's seriously dangerous so you have to move real careful now so you think differently now than when you first got into the business? Hell yeah. I assume that you are finna rob and shoot me coming out of a grocery store. You ought to see me paying that parking lot and looking around. I can recognize every face I saw in the grocery store

and identify anybody that was in the grocery store in every car that's in the parking lot. And I know how to get to my car without you knowing that i'm going to that particular car i move a certain way right because i'm a gunshot victim and i see what's going on because it's the details the details a small detail is the difference between life and death you just have to assume that somebody's going to do something to you and people can say all they want to. You can't live in fear.

The hell you better live in fear because look at the time we're living in. You can't say that now. Right. So you'll be dead. You know what I'm saying? So we just got to figure out how to protect ourselves because you can't do nothing about the gun laws.

Right. We just hope and pray that people in the community stop killing each other. Right. Or whatever. But until then, you have to do what you have to do to protect you

and your family. Right. Because I don't want my grandson burying me, have me up in a casket, my grandson sitting on the front row

crying like I did my dad. It's not fair to him. Right. For some damn 23 to 33 year old that didn't have no manners in home training

and grew up entitled and feel like he could kill somebody because he didn't get nothing. He ain't got nothing. Right. There you go. Ricky, thanks for stopping by. I really appreciate it.

Thank you for having me. HBCU alum to another. Yes, sir. Continued success and all the best, bro. Thank you, man. I love you, man. I appreciate you, bro. Appreciate it. All my life, been grinding all my life Sacrifice, hustle, pay the price

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