Donnell - Staying Alive!

Episode Date: February 15, 2021

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is from God. When a hero stumbles, well, the cowards rejoice. Nothing feels better to a coward than to watch a brave guy fall. Now you guys might've seen in the news that I caught coronavirus recently. And then I did whoops. I did because in the beginning of the pandemic, I talked to a guy in the live entertainment business and I said, when can we go back to work? He said, probably sometime in 2022.

And I said, there's no fucking way I can wait that long. And I just tried to find a way that I could work. You see what we've been doing. All of you who had to endure this invasive test and wear these masks just so we could be out and hang out and be together. I tried. And after all these months, after doing all these shows, God damn it, my number was up. And then I had the Rona. Oh, well, cowards rejoice at a time like this because they're so invested in being afraid and when i said i had the coronavirus the overwhelming majority of people wished me well said we hope

you get better take care of yourself we don't want anything bad to happen to you but there was a faction of people the cowards who said you see that Dave Chappelle? That's why we stay inside where it's safe and we never try anything. Well, enjoy yourselves, motherfuckers, because I'm better now. The company that's giving us a... Yo, man. I'm trying not to interrupt. Oh! Oh!

Oh! I'm trying not to interrupt. I'm trying not to interrupt. Yo, yo. I'm trying not to interrupt. The Donnell Rawlings Show, live in your face. Fuck y'all bitch ass niggall bitches You'll never take my place Thank you. Fear. Fear is a powerful thing.

I mean, it's got a lot of firepower. If you can figure out a way to wrestle that fear, to push you from behind, rather than to stand in front of you, that's very powerful. I always felt that I had to work harder than the next guy just to do as well as the next guy and to do better than the next guy i had to just kill and you know to a certain extent that's still with me and how i work i just go in what's up son what up son nah i don't know if we got that energy, son, because a couple of weeks ago, son, first off, I just did, that was a quote from Jimmy Iovine. It was in one of the documentaries or something he did. And it was also featured in Dr. Dre's album, Compton,

which I think should have been Chronic 2. I really believe that Dr. Dre wasn't feeling secure enough to say this would be Chronic 2, but that album had so much of him so much on the relationships he had with people and it was so powerful but he didn't want to call it chronic too he called it compton i don't give a this felt like it was uh it was chronic too and in that statement like that it's a song all of the days we're featuring Anderson. Anderson kills this, right? And that quote, speech, whatever it said, the first time I heard it, it meant so much to me, right? Because you always, everybody think they're tough or whatever, right?

And people think they're not afraid of anything, they have fear of anything. But the thing that most people fear the most, dear, is death. I think that that's the one thing. Blowing up. Let me take this. Let me see. Okay. I think.

Oh, boy. The thing I fear the most is beeping during a podcast recording. Well, I know. And I didn't record it. And I fear that because you get to talk shit to me. You're like, who's goddamn beeper is that? Where is it? It's over in the corner.

Oh, I'll grab it. All right. But going back to, I'm going to take that off. You don't got to worry about it. I just took the Bluetooth off. I'm disconnected. For the most part, people think they aren't afraid of anything. But one thing people are afraid of, and i think that this happens at different times

of your life um i don't think anybody's afraid of death in their 20s their 30s their 40s once you start hitting that 5-0 and you may not fear death but it'd be motherfuckers dying around you and you can start here man I'm telling you man I got a younger brother and he's like the guy that always lets you know when somebody passed away you know I'm saying we talked we don't communicate can't communicate that much but we talk but for some reason every time we call you know when you get this card right here? You remember Robert Smith? You remember Mike Wallace, right?

When you say, the nigga died. Once you say, remember, I'm like, oh, what's about to happen, right? And then you start questioning stuff. And then I think when people start thinking about death, the thing that makes you the most nervous is you probably ask yourself what have i accomplished in my life i ain't ready to die i got too much other then you got some people that and this is why i know it sounds crazy when i say the good die young you have some people that pass away at a younger age where they accomplished a lot of so. So I don't care what nobody says.

You never be at peace with that, but I think that some people go away at a young age and their life represented a lot. It meant a lot to them. It meant a lot to other people. It inspired other people. It motivated other people. It made people do stuff. But I don't know if I get scared of a lot of shit.

I know I'm not saying I'm a super tough guy because I think, I know this is an old school saying everything happens for a reason. You can't get ahead of yourself. The reason why I don't fear a lot of stuff is because I don't believe in getting ahead of myself. I don't believe that once you find out somebody's not doing well, you automatically just counsel them and say it's over. I don't believe in like, oh, my God, when you get two situations where this is the good side of it and this is the bad side of it.

Some people will choose to connect with the bad side of it and not the stuff that could be optimistic. But I got an interesting story. Like I have a brother, brother older brother we've talked about me for my older brother i don't want to call him my gay brother but he is my gay brother right but it's interesting because i don't know if i shared this story before but um we talk shit to each other you know i talk not talk shit about him being gay but i make fun he'd make fun of mommy being straight and the weird thing is i don't have these two dogs right now just give

an example of how our lives are so different. It seems crazy. My brother lives in Watts, right? He lives in Watts. He has two pit bulls. My brother lives in Watts. He has two pit bulls. And he buys crab legs from crackheads.

What? Yeah. What? Yeah. What do you mean? He buys, like, on the regular? Whenever the shit is in the streets. You guys heard. Is that a common occurrence? In the streets?

In the streets. It is. Oh, my God. Is that, like, every day? It's not every day. This is where selling crab legs is very, very prominent. If you have a direct contact to your crackhead or the barbershop. You know what I'm saying?

Barbershop. Motherfuckers bring all types of shit to barbershops, son. But my brother will buy four dozen crab legs from the crackhead. You know what I'm saying? And that's how gangster he is. I would never do that. And it's so funny because we're so opposite. He lives and watches two pit bulls. He lives and watches two pit bulls.

He lives and watches two pit bulls. He likes Hennessy and he buys crabs and crackheads. Me on the other side of my tough existence in my life, I live in Hollywood. I had two Yorkies at one time in my life. I like gin martinis

shaking well with muddled cucumber. Right? I like to buy high-end seafood from Gelson's. Right. We're so different, but similar. And it's so funny because I talk shit to him. Whenever we go out and I order a drink, he's like, and this is his voice. You talk about me.

It's always like a little extension at the end. You talk about me. You over here drinking them foodie drinks with them bitch-ass dogs. Right? And his dog bit me. I don here drinking them foodie drinks with them bitch ass dogs. Right? And his dog bit me. I don't know if I told you this story. Nah. Man, this was the funniest shit ever. He got two pit bulls, right? And I know, please

LBG community, that means you don't talk shit about me because I profile and I'm going to be honest. I thought because my brother was gay that his dogs was going gonna be gay. It's the same thing with like a gay couple raise a kid, they be like, he will automatically be gay.

There's no way. I thought because my brother was gay that the dogs was the most bitch ass pit bulls you could ever, I thought that they bark like rough, rough, right? So every one time it was Christmas and that's when you know something fucked up with something tragic like this happens to you during christmas the holiday like um it was christmas and i was in the back with his dogs and i'm really taking advantage of them because i think they're feminine pit bulls right i'm talking shit i'm like this i don't talk to gay people like this but i talk i talk to what i think gay dogs are like this, right? Because they can't talk back and say, you can't do that.

They can't march. Dogs can't march. They can't organize. They can't organize anything. They got no social media. No social media. They do what happened to me. And I just realized, I had a piece of chicken in my hand, right? And my brother wasn't around. Walked down the backyard and I

looked at the dog and I said, oh, bitch ass, dick gay ass, motherfucking dogs. Oh, bald, sniffing ass dogs, dip dogs. I did, I did. I said, get out of here. And something said, RAP! Motherfucker bit the back of my motherfucking leg, right?

And I was started. I did not just get bit by a gay dog, right? And I went in the house and I was nervous as shit. Not nervous. Okay. A little fit. No. It already happened. I got bit. I told my brother, I said, yo, son. He was like, why?

I was like, your dog just bit me, nigga. He said, they bite. I said, what? He said, and this. I said, what? He said, and this is the funny thing about it. He was in the middle of cooking, so you don't never fuck with a gay dude when they're cooking Christmas dinner. You get fucked up.

He said, they bite. I said, what you mean they bite? He said, they bite. They got teeth. They bite. You got teeth? You bite? I said, yeah, but I didn't know.

You should have told me they bite. And said, yeah, but I didn't know. You should have told me they buy it. And I was preventing myself from getting bit. He just looked at me like it wasn't nothing and went right back to making his potato salad. Went right back to the motherfucker, looked back. He was staring at the potato salad and went right back to it. And the funny thing about potato salad, do you, how do you feel about potato salad? I mean, I know it's an issue with you, but.

Issue with you? Does that mean black people? No, you personally, because I hung out with you in the summer. We did a lot of barbecues. I never really thought about potato salad that much. I like. All right, first off, you pronounce it wrong. Oh.

You don't put the poet in potato salad. Potato salad? Tater salad I'm learning I know there's two kinds Black people and white people That could be true too It's true I'm talking about there's oil and vinegar

Nigga that's the whitest motherfucker What the fuck That's the German potato salad Wait niggas don't fuck with no German potato salad. I'm a mayonnaise guy. Yo, the fact that you said there's a potato salad with olive oil and vinegar. Did you say vinegar? Yeah, vinegar.

Olive oil and vinegar. That's the crackers. No disrespect. That's the white potato salad. We ain't fucking with that. What's the other potato salad? It's got mayonnaise in it. Yeah, what's that potato salad?

What up, son? It's got mayonnaise in it. And I know white people put like apples and shit in there. Apples, cheddar cheese. But not me. Asparagus. They put everything but the black shit that go with potato salad. And the main black ingredients in potato salad is mustard, mayonnaise, relish, celery salt.

And that's like, everybody got their different portions of it or whatever, right? But for the most part, that's what makes you a good potato salad. Then you got to add to the fact what potatoes you use, how they cooked and everything. And I'm a great cook. It's not me saying it. The bitches say it too. That's the truth, yeah. That's true.

Right? And my brother's a good cook. And I'd be tearing his ass up. Right? I'd be almost had a domestic situation in his relationship. Because his boyfriend kept on saying, your brother can cook. I was like, nigga, you better shut the fuck up. You know what I'm saying?

It was funny for years. I'd make attempts to make potato salad. Every time I'd make an attempt, I'd just don't go out the way I want. It's not, it wasn't my thing. It wasn't my thing like that, right? And I remember when y'all was doing the barbecue, and see, bitches won't tell me, I mean, queens won't tell you if they don't like your potato salad.

They just won't fuck with it. So I think I'm doing something special with my potato salad. And then one year I was dating this girl and I said, so what y'all want me to make? And they was like, we want you to make your shrimp, we want you to make your garlic noodles, whatever. I said, oh yeah, I'll make my potato salad. They looked at me like,

nah. They just got real quiet? They got quiet. They said, we good. They said, my brother's nickname is Chucky. They said, we want a Ch want Chuckie potato salad I was like so you niggas like gay potato salad right it was like we want Chuckie potatoes and I was offended I was like I'm gonna make my tape potatoes out they was like no we want Chuckie's potato salad and I'm like this motherfucker got some award-winning

world's famous shit so I caught my I was like yo man I got some award-winning, world-famous shit. So I called him. I was like, yo, man. I said, these chicks going crazy eating potato salad. I said, you know, I said, you probably could get some pussy off that potato salad. And he said to me, and that be the last day I make potato salad. He was like, he is not fucking with that, right? But I love my brother. And the reason why I brought this story, I brought this introduction to him, is that he's a tough guy.

He's not too scary or anything. I remember we were in Watts. We were outside on the stoop, and then he was like, I remember when I first moved out here, because it was excitement, moving from D.C. to Watts, you know what I'm saying? Like, I'm in the hood. And my brother's, like, very smart guy, master degree, education, but he's still hood, right?

And I was like, how you living out here? He said, when I first moved out here, because, you know, I done watched this shit. Like, all night, they be having helicopters and shit out there. Shit, police be, whew, whew. He was like, when I first came out here, he said, I would sit out here and I would see the helicopters. He said, and the helicopter he like, and it was

fun. He said, I thought I was in a John Singletary movie. He said, I thought I was in a John Singletary movie. And I said, then what happened, man? He said, and then one day I got scared. He said, I had got, he grabbed his heart.

He said, I had got scared. Scared? No, I was scared. And I never seen my brother scared of anything. I know he'd been through some tough stuff, tough times in life. I never seen him be scared of anything. And I had a situation. And I'm going to be transparent about it now now I'm in a different place everybody knows I've been traveling with Dave Chappelle

over the summer and we extended that to Austin Texas at a very popular venue called Stubbs known for the barbecue and the entertainment. It's an outdoor amphitheater situation. Some of the biggest names in music have performed there. And we were doing our shows. And it's not like I'm blowing the beans, but it's documented that Dave contracted COVID-19. And a lot of people in our team contracted, as they say,

corona. And not that we thought that we were invincible, but we felt and we tried to do everything to create a safe, healthy environment to experience live entertainment, which is the backbone of our existence, the backbone of how we make money, everything. And when I say we felt we did everything, I feel like our team, compared to what other businesses and other people are doing, trying to continue to be normal, trying to create jobs for people, trying to entertain audiences, I think we did above

and beyond. There's not, I don't know one show, if it's not's not say like a TV taping or something that would entire would test an entire audience of 500 people nobody does that one of the things that things that could make you feel somewhat comfortable not just the audience but every staff member, every hotel employee, everything. And with all, I mean, these efforts are greater than a lot of things people do. I've been to Atlanta. I've been to Florida. I don't really go out and hang out in all those places like that.

But I've seen what people are doing during this pandemic. And literally, there's places where you could go that people are standing shoulder to shoulder. And the only precautions they did was give them a temperature check, which means like every man for himself. Yeah. You know, we went above and beyond. We went above and beyond. Like, rapid from, like, going from when we used to test,

like, every three days to every day. So that will give you, if you want to say some false sense of security yeah not a bad thing but what it's telling you in our case is that you could do everything you think you could do everything you think you could do and it still could pop through right in our case felt like we did everything we thought we could do and it still popped through and i remember when it happened you do oh i remember when you know what you know exactly what happened what i know exactly when it popped off because again we test so frequently right that even if someone um in our circle was positive it wouldn't be like a week later finding out.

It would literally be in 24 hours. Right. Which gives you an advantage of how you isolated and you move forward. And I remember I was in the green room, and I was hosting a show. The show started at 7 o'clock. At 6.50, head of security had a a somebody got the rona look on his face it's a look i've

seen that look yeah i've seen that look yo that look is like you know you like oh you don't believe how did it happen and um yeah i've seen that look that look it was like, there's a lot of situations could happen where the show's not over. He was like, boss man got the boss man tested positive. I was like, what? It was like 10 minutes. And the thing about it was like, the thing about it, when he told me that, a lot of people were like, fuck that, did I? I never once thought about myself.

When they said he was positive, I never thought about myself. I only thought about him. I thought about him. I thought about him, and I thought about what him going down means to an operation. Wow. You know what I'm saying? It's like a couple of craft service motherfuckers, you know, put them in a motherfucking

hotel. Everybody's the same. But you know what I'm saying? No, but you're right. It's like, that's the head of the snake right there. You know what I mean? And for that, like, his presence means so much to so many people. You know what I'm saying?

Like, how many people employed? First, it's your health first and foremost. But then you're like, what does this guy do this for? Why does he do it? What is the effect of Dave Chappelle or anybody trying to do shows? People would like to say... That's kind of the question

in the air that everyone would ask. What was the question in the air? Why would someone like Dave Chappelle continue to do shows i'm gonna tell you why but yeah i'm gonna tell you why because we live this shit this is our existence live performance is everything for us it's our therapy it feels good to us it feels good to the people that go to those shows another reason why and another reason why when we were doing the summit, one of the things, he wanted to bring the gang back together. He wanted his closest friends to feel some sense of normalcy, be able to have a good time, be able to have functions, be able to do outdoor stuff, to be able to do barbecues, to do this stuff, and be somewhat normal. Because as much as people are concerned about their physical health, your mental health is being strained like a motherfucker during this pandemic.

It's making you be mad at people you're not normally mad at. You know what I'm saying? It makes you just, you got anxiety or whatever. And a lot of people are mentioned in that trap. They're locked up. You know what I'm saying? Of course you're doing everything to be safe, whatever, but you're still locked up. You ain't doing shit.

You're not doing shit with your life. And you're not even trying. It's making some people lazy. It makes the other people stronger and want to work hard. But that's what it does. And then if he get it, you're like, the motherfucking operation is over. And the funniest thing was, I was supposed to emcee. And then, you know, one of the guys that's close to Dave,

he came and he always gives me instructions about the rundown and the show and everything. And he was like, son, I need you. I need you. DJ Trauma is doing a hype set right now. Make some noise in the air. How many? Y'all ready for Dave's Bell Show? I wanted to go like.

I wanted to break through the curtain, son. I wanted to be like. And he got him pumped up he's already like this yeah like cut cut and he's like yeah we're about to get it popular and everything and at the same time son is telling me dave he said you got to go out there and you got to tell the audience that this show is going to be chaos i said no i ain't got to do that i said that's not what i do yeah no way i said i'll tell jokes because me going up, I was like, let DJ trauma. He got them hyped. Let him unhype them. Let him get off the hype, right?

Let him do the unhype set. Let him do the unhype set, right? So I'm saying to myself, I was like, I'm not going to be the bearer of that news. Fuck no. And the reason why, I'm a team player. Even with our lineup throughout the summer, I've played every position on that lineup from the summer to now. I've played feature. I've played headliner. I've played every position on that line from the summer to now. I've played feature. I've played headliner.

I've played emcee. Opener. Opener. Whatever you want to do. But I was like, I'm not doing that role. And the difference is, like, when you do my intro, hey, give it up for so-and-so. You've seen him on Bert Kreischer's The Cabin. You've seen him in Spider-Man, whatever. You've seen him in Pixar's new animated blockbuster show.

So, but you fell in love with him as Ashley Larry on Chappelle's show? Crowd goes crazy. And I was not trying to deal with crowd going crazy and then, hey, y'all ready to have a good time? Oh, we got some bad news. Yeah. Dave Chappelle's not going to be here. That's crazy. And then, hey, y'all ready to have a good time? Oh, we got some bad news. Yeah. Dave Chappelle's not going to be here. That's crazy. So he got the positive while the club was packed.

Yeah. And the show was ready to pop. That's fucking wild. With a red show. And to be honest, this is another thing I admire about his character, is that when he found out, it was 10 minutes before the show was going to start, he could have easily got in the car by himself, with a mask on,

drove to the show, stayed in the car, tell them to call me when they're introducing me, walk in that venue with nobody, nowhere around him, with a mask, took the mask off, individual mic,

done his show, got back in the car. He didn't do that. I think it was a testament on how you react to when your bubble is busted. Yeah. That happened.

So he wasn't, I thought he was at the venue. That's what I was saying. No, no, no. It was never at the venue. He thought he was at the venue that's what I was saying no no no it was never he didn't get to the venue and the crazy thing about it was

of course anything that he related TMZ hit me up you know and it was like the news broke TMZ hit me up and one thing

I say that and it's hard people are like how can you respect I respect TMZ because they like one of the the biggest entertainment news sources out there. And when they say something, it's usually truthful. And they could either fuck with you or not fuck with you.

Yeah, they've been good to you. They've been good to me. Even though I've had some crazy stuff happen to me in my career, it's always some type of comedic slant to it. It's always something that they be like, oh, yeah, they still think it's cool. I mean, they got about ten good ones to maybe one or two bad ones. They got a whole bunch of them. We can play some of them sometime. But the crazy thing was they called me, and I was like, do I talk to him?

Do I not? I don't want to talk to him. I'm like, what do I say? But the only thing, the reason why I talked to them is because I knew all the haters was going to be talking shit. Y'all out there trying to live y'all life. Y'all having fun. Taking chances out there. See what happened. Putting people's life in jeopardy and all that type of shit. And I was like

how can I ask that? My voice strong enough for them to understand what we were trying to do. You know what I'm saying? And I didn't want anybody to discredit the efforts that this guy put into giving people jobs trying to get people safe and just living life. You know what I'm saying?

I just wanted to nip down the bud. And when I went out there, I talked to them. I kept it kind of short. And they were like, Donnell, do you think there was risk involved with these shows? I was like, there's always risk involved when you are trying to be responsible or make an effort to make people feel good, to bring some happiness into their life, to give some people. There's always some risk.

Of course. Yes, there's some risk. NBA's risk, taking a risk. The NFL did a season, right? And they do everything to make sure people are safe. And it was still players that was coming up. Did you see that the barber had a COVID positive test like four days before the Super Bowl

or a week before the Super Bowl but he was the Kansas City Chiefs barber he was going to cut Mahomes hair that day had a positive test so he could have that could have fucked up the whole Super Bowl that's what I'm saying crazy that's what I'm saying so there is some risk involved yeah there's always some risk involved and I explained it to him and they were they were they were good they were good to me so I'm like then the next question they was like You know they always ask you So Don L How do you feel?

Are you okay? How do you feel? Are you okay? And like Dave tested positive on Friday And this was I think it was Friday evening maybe Saturday morning Friday evening I think it was Friday evening, maybe Saturday morning. Friday evening. They was like, how do you feel?

I said, I was like this, I'm good. Because I'm tested negative, negative, negative, negative. I'm like, I'm good, I'm negative, right? They was like, oh, thank God to hear that. I was like, yeah, I'm good. Right? Cut to next day. I did a rapid test, PCR test, right?

Rapid test comes back negative. I go to sleep, and I wake up with a phone call. And the phone call is the hotel phone. You know, the hotel phone is never good news. Right. Hotel phone is, I smell smoke coming from your room. Could you quiet down? Y'all fucking too loud.

You owe $300 on your bill, some shit like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's crazy. We need your credit card. And I phone rang and did one of Dave's closest guys. This guy is, I'll say his name, Cena. He's Dave's right hand man. If you see Dave, you see him. He's the guy responsible for just organizing everything Dave Chappelle.

And this motherfucker called me. The phone rang. When he called me, I picked up the phone. And he said, he sounded like he had a voice as if I was about to get a pay raise or something. He was like, son! Son! I was like, what? He said, son, you're positive, son!

And I was like this. I was like what he said son You're positive son And I was like this I was like what I was like that's impossible I felt like a white dude Trying to save their dog In the veterinary office Run more tests I was like no that's impossible

I was like how did that happen I was like you know Zach now it happened It could always happen So you had a different test? What do you mean? Did they do, like, a rapid test and then, like, a next day test or something like that? How did you get the positive? The positive was with the PCR test.

To me, like, rapid test is the thing that gives you the results the quickest, right? Okay. And it's accurate to a certain point. Okay. You know what I'm saying? I think it's things that could throw it off. But for the most part, if you see these productions, Hollywood and these productions, these sets, whatever, they're doing an antigen, I guess we would say. Might be pronouncing it wrong.

They're doing that test. I see. They're doing tests. You get results in five minutes. You know what I'm saying? But then you got the, you're talking about a PCR test is a longer. A PCR is considered to be 100% accurate. And that takes longer to get the results?

That takes longer. That's like three or four hours to get the results. The rapid test is what a lot of people are using. But if you have a situation where you have a bubble and you've been tapping, because it's a money thing too. If you've been testing negative for the rapid test and then somebody pops a positive, then you shift your gears. You go from rapid to PCR. PCR is diagnostics or whatever. That's the spinning around and all that type of shit.

So I was negative on the... So you knew that was the real deal. Yeah. But I didn't because you didn't deny you. I didn't because I'm like, wait a minute. How did I test negative on a rapid and positive PCR? PCR is the one that if you're in this business and you got to do a job on a movie set or whatever,

you got to get that. So it was confirmed. But I was still in, I was in denial for a couple of days because I didn't have troubling symptoms. Yeah, you were asymptomatic. Asymptomatic, whatever. I think, well, I guess asymptomatic means like mild. The only thing I dealt with was-

No, asymptomatic means no symptoms at all. If you had mild symptoms, then it's mild. Well, I was A minus symptomatic. Okay, motherfucker. Hey, wait. Yo, you ain't going to take my symptomatic out of me, motherfucker. Well, I was B. I was B symptomatic, son.

A plus. A minus symptomatic. And we got a sponsor, right? Yeah, yeah. Let's take a second. Let's take a second now. And I'm B-symptomatic, son. A-plus, A-minus symptomatic. And we got a sponsor, right? Yeah, yeah. Let's take a second now. And I'm going to tell you now to tell you why I'm so happy that these people are sponsors because they goddamn came through for me when I was dealing with that motherfucker quarantine. Thanks to Philz for supporting my show.

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automatically taken off your first order with free shipping that's feels f-e-a-l-s.com. Cool? Yep. So, can I continue the conversation? So, like, nah. See, that's the denial. That's the denial. You trying to figure out what your symptomatic is. Now, when I think about symptoms, I think about life-threatening symptoms. Right. So, I didn't consider a brief taste being altered, smell being altered.

I was like, that ain't no symptom symptom. Did you lose your sense of smell? Yeah, but I was in denial. You were in denial. I was in denial. I was in denial because I had this little infuser in my room that emits this lavender,

like essential oil shit, right? And everybody talking about they got symptoms. Like, I'm telling a motherfucker, I ain't got nothing. They a symptom. And they're like this. We might got a false positive. Don't even look.

I got no symptoms. But little do I know, I got the goddamn infuser this close to my nose. This shit is sending steam. I'm like this. Yep. I still smell lavender. I ain't got no fucking rona the fuck out of here, right? I lost my little bit of sense of taste.

But I didn't think that would happen because I could still taste salt and hot sauce. Salt and hot sauce, the only taste that can beat through COVID. And I talked to one of our COVID nurses. I was like, I think I'm good. I can still taste. She said, what you taste? I said, I taste hot sauce and salt. She said, I think that's DNA in black people.

You always been a taste of hot sauce and sauce. I'm in denial, but I got it i got it right and it was so funny because motherfuckers soon as they got it mother was like you okay you gonna be all right donnell how you feeling how you feeling right and people notice that i was somewhat absent from social media for a while. And it wasn't the embarrassment of it. Because I found out that there's a lot of people that have had COVID than you believe. Oh, definitely. It wasn't the embarrassment of it. My issue was the fact that I still didn't want anybody to undermine the efforts that we.

I didn't want to hear that shit. And I'm going to tell you the worst thing about testing positive for COVID, the shaming that comes with it. Right. Oh, y'all out here, again, repeat myself. Y'all out here trying to live y'all fucking life, the shaming that goes with it. It comes from everywhere. It comes from family, everything.

You get this fact of the, mm-hmm, see? See what happened when you tried? Yeah. See what happened when you tried to pay your bills? Mm-hmm, see? And I know another part of it is that people hated to see us having so much fucking fun. Yeah. But the thing I respect about it, it's going to happen.

No matter what bubble you produce, there's a chance that something could slip through the cracks. Right. And the thing about it is like, how do you react to it? How do you, as a business, as about is like how do you react to it how do you as a business as a person how do you react to it you act like it don't exist exist put yourself out there getting other people uh affected or do you do what we did was like operation completely locked down it felt like like when I was in the military, we did what we called exercises. Exercise trained you in case it was like a wartime situation.

You react as if the base is coming under attack and all that shit. It's like, okay, what do we do now? And when I tell you the system that was always in place that we thought we would never have to use in regard to everybody that came in contact that to that person they go from from being out to like completely locked down going from rapid testing to PCR testing when I found out that I was positive within an hour at my door where every vitamin known to man a b c d e f g h i j every vitamin it was a thermometer there

it was alkaline water you know i'm saying it was charcoal pills you know i'm saying we went into um uh uh productive mode it wasn't nobody going out to the general public you were shut down you were shut down with everybody two weeks is the norm but the number of people don't understand because we had one person on our team that tested positive and seven days later he tested out he tested out pcr and that's why i say it's an individual situation some people have it in them longer than others some people it just comes in like i've had colds that felt worse than that right you know but it worked out. But I'm telling you, you go straight into prison mode. You go for the freedom of doing whatever you want.

Now you're confined to your room. But like I say, vitamins, everything was set there. Regular testing was set up. We had people delivering our lunch. We had people delivering dinner. We had, like, if you needed something from walgreens whatever it was a man i'm telling you you know how much fun i had a summer camp it was like corona camp it was like old school chicken pop camps you just couldn't be around anybody

we kept our sense of humor up we had a thread we were cracking jokes whatever we always took it serious and we all hope that everything Worked out for the best And after Almost two weeks Everybody That had contracted it Tested out Dope

The show must go on The camaraderie But I'm telling you because people will make you feel bad Nobody wanted to hear As much as they want to say it, nobody wanted to hear no good shit. The only thing they want to do is feel sorry for you. And then when you go into this stuff mentally,

you don't always want somebody to feel sorry for you. You know, you want the people, like, you're going to be all right. You're going to be good. You don't want to, I have family members. Oh, I'm going to pray for you, oh, God, I'm going to pray for you. See, I'm going to pray for you. I had to tell one of my family members, this is the first the first day i believe in prayer but i don't want to abuse it right god is really busy fucking with ventilator niggas you know i made like down to it there's

people out there not making fun of it oh i know yeah no for real you know i'm like yeah i'm like don't waste your prayer on a motherfucker that can still smell lavender. Exactly. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. And I was like, now, if I hit two weeks, everybody, the whole family, get down on your knees and let me get it right now. But like, you know, I've talked about this on other podcasts, I don't believe in just like, some people just pray for every goddamn thing. Do you think you're busy? How busy do you think God is doing a a global pandemic he don't got time for

me and not being able to taste strawberry jam he's got other shit to do but again we did it i mean i'm glad you guys i'm glad everyone's all right that's great yeah we got it we got everybody everybody's all right that's everybody's all right but i don't know that it's like what people don't understand is eventually, at some point, everybody's going to have to have some strand in them. Can you imagine the world two years from now? You go to a bar or something, you meet a girl, and you say, have you ever had COVID?

And they'd be like, nope. You'll do six feet. Like, ugh. You ain't got none of them body. Well, we got to get that vaccine, son. Yeah, but, I mean mean we talked about this before Yeah You got the vaccine

But I'm gonna tell you what When these cases keep popping up Motherfucker positive These motherfuckers That was reluctant to get That fucking vaccine They gonna get that vaccine I hope so

It's gonna It's gonna It's gonna It's gonna It's gonna make a difference But again It's gonna be people That's gonna be reluctant to do it

And these are the people That confuse me the most The people That think your life Is to be people that's going to be reluctant to do it. And these are the people that confuse me the most. The people that think your life is going to be cool just never going anywhere. Suicides. All that type of shit. We did it. We got through it. And it was so funny because people be trying to do the Instagram investigations.

They don't see you on Instagram. Oh, I know. They like this. It's people like. I knew something was popping off. No, but it's so funny because you go from eight hours ago to, now you know you've been on Instagram for a while. When it goes from the days to like January the 12th.

Yeah. Week and a whole day. Last post January. Yeah. And then you had the haters call up and call you. Tell them, what's up, D? You kind of quiet on Instagram. They was like, why you so quiet?

I was like, I got scared. I got scared. And this is what I'm talking about fear. The only thing that scared me was the relationship with my son. And I never felt bad, but there's always a what if factor. What if I'm not here for him? And this little boy loves me.

I love him. What if I can't be there for him? What if I don't see certain things with him? And I'm like, that's fucked up. And that's what started scaring me. But the thing that made me feel better about that, and if anything grave was to happen to me at this point or period, I asked myself

what type of person are you in your son's life right now? At this moment? Something happens to you today. What does Austin remember you? About you? And as tragic

as it could have been, I felt good. I felt good knowing that if anything was happening to me like that, he knows 100% that his daddy loved him.

And thank God it wasn't my last minute or whatever. I was like, but at the end of the day, I would have been at peace with that. The fact that that little boy know his dad, love him like crazy, and he loved me. And that was the toughest thing about being in quarantine. I was like, damn, when I'm going to get out of this shit,

the way I'm going to see him. Because once my office started testing negative, my office was like, how are you going to leave? I was like, wait, wait, wait, wait. I didn't say I want to go home so fast. I said, I want to just go outside. I feel like we still have unfinished business to do.

Yeah. And I don't know if, maybe you will at some point, but there is no better feeling. And then throughout the whole thing, my son was FaceTiming me a lot. I didn't want him to know what was going on because I didn't want him to be mentally fucked up or whatever.

And he was FaceTiming me a lot. He was FaceTiming me so much, I was like, you ain't got nobody else to call. Daddy! Daddy! He just wanted to FaceTime me all the time. And sometimes I, you know, mentally I wasn't feeling good.

I just wanted a break, you know. And I'd be like, I'd say, Austin, do you mind if Daddy take a little nap? He said, if taking a nap means hanging up the phone, yes, Daddy, I do mind. He said, it's okay. You can take the phone by the bed, and I'll take a nap with you up the phone. Yes, daddy, I do lie. He said, it's okay. You can take the phone by the bed, and I'll take a nap with you.

Oh, my God. The best shit. That's what that awe. I feel like the awe, and I couldn't wait to see him. Yeah. And he was just so excited. So excited. Kids are so goddamn innocent, man.

Just so beautiful. And they have just like the purest hearts. You know what I mean? They just have the best. Just their ideas are so pure. Man, he says things. He's very smart. And I get all emotional sometimes. I remember one time I said,

you're going to, aw. I said, you're trying to make daddy cry? He said, it's okay, daddy, because if you cry, it'd be happy tears. And I looked at him, and in my mind I said, are you trying to make daddy cry? He said, it's okay, daddy, because if you cry, it'd be happy tears. And I looked at him, and in my mind I said, he's going to get so much pussy in high school. It's going to be over. If he's selling lines like that, it's going to be crazy. Like, yeah, you know, he's going to be like, yeah, what's your sign?

Sagittarius, oh, we get along good. Our moons and all that. He's going to be one of those herbal pussy getting motherfuckers. Hell, yeah. He's going to be like, that's my dad. He's a comic, but I'm funnier than he is, man. Yeah. He used to think he was funny to me until I dropped that soul, the movie Soul.

Yeah. Oh, that changed the game. I am literally the biggest superstar in the world to him now. Yeah. That was the one thing. And I understand why you have successful comedians and actors that just start doing animation stuff. Oh, yeah. Because it's just the connection you have with your kids.

And not only that, it's the connections with the world. That's a huge film. And it's nominated for Golden Globe, right? Oh, my God. That thing is going to sweep everything. Is it? Are there Oscar nominations out yet? I don't think the Oscars.

I mean, Golden Globe is an indication of what's going to happen in the Oscars for the most part. But I can't see this thing not being nominated in probably every possible category you can. For sure. And it's so interesting because I was kind of saddened because it didn't have a theatrical release. But if you look at the reach and who it reached out, I mean, how many people got to see it? Yeah, way more, right? Because the new wave is like the way they gauge movies and stuff. It used to be just box office everything is streaming now right and this movie did 1.8 billion streams which they equate to like 380 million dollars at the box office wow yeah it

killed and it probably wouldn't get that many eyeballs if it wasn't for people being constricted to just being in their house. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, but also just the availability of being able to see it. Because even if you want to go to the movie theater, you just don't always go. But if you can just flip your TV on, oh, let me see Soul. I really want to see that. The opportunity to watch it is a lot easier. But film, going to theater shit eventually is going to fade out anyway.

I don't know. I mean, it'll always be cult, I think, on some level because it is so fun to go to a movie theater. Yeah, it's fun. It's great. But it's fun. But our mental state now is going to be like this. People are going to be so paranoid to do inside anything. I know.

You're right. It's going to take a long time. It's going to take a long time. But not only that, with the price of big screen TVs and everything, I know it's still something about going to the movies, but kids don't give a fuck about that. No, kids don't give a fuck about that. I saw Lawrence of Arabia on 70mm film in a movie theater right on Hollywood Boulevard a couple years ago. I don't know, it just fucking blew

my mind. there's a scene Where he's I mean most of it's filmed He's in the desert But he's like riding a camel And the camel's like so tiny On this gigantic screen And there's this

Massive shot of the desert Right It's just a fucking But But because he's small On the screen And the screen's so big He's still huge

Right Do you know what I mean So it's like I don't know man That really That was the one movie I saw where it was like 70 millimeter film this gigantic screen amazing theater and i was and plus the way the movie shot i was like i get it now this really makes sense right you know or when i saw uh once upon a time in hollywood in the movie theater and brad pitt like, sorry for the spoiler.

Did you see that movie? I didn't. All right, well. Spoil it. I don't give a fuck about it. He smashes her. You got to see that movie. It's funny. He smashes, you know, it's Charlie Manson's crew.

You know how he kills Sharon Tate in real life in the movie? I don't know the movies, son. No, but in real life, Charles Manson's crew. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he killed that one chick. But in the movie They fuck up And they go to the wrong house

And Brad Pitt's there And he His character And he fucks him up And he smashes This chick's face On like This fucking

On his telephone It's so nuts He's like Yeah Yeah Yeah And everyone was laughing In the movie

Like you know what I mean Oh it's funny Yeah Yeah cause she's like The fucking Manson chick You know they're like Psycho I know like the charles manson how did charles manson get bitches the fucking acid and the he was good looking guy and he was charismatic he was a well a good looking guy in the sense that like it was the 60s and and that was you

know what i mean scruffy you got that kind of psychotic yeah vibe yeah i mean i mean i'm married but yeah i did good when i was a kid you know yeah so women are attracted to danger they don't have no fear yeah yeah yeah speaking of fear like this motherfucker killed 80 motherfuckers but we going over to get some drinks y'all i have no fear i'd rather take that chair push me from behind and rather stand in front push me from behind and rather stand in front of me I'm Charles Manson but Charles Manson had that kind of like drug he had that kind of um philosophical drug thing going right where they were doing a lot of drugs but and then he was kind of like being a

meditation leader and like a he's a lot of mind tricks like you know that like I don't know most guys get there that how most guys yeah yeah like gaslighting and make them believe in something that's not really true i can't even say that that's no don't meet to me that yeah i'm gonna sell you this thing but let's get it popping that's the reality of it ladies that's how we get it it's never the same after you meet us for the first did you know it was called gaslighting when you started to hear the term gaslighting? No, I didn't know that. Right, I didn't either.

But then they were like, yo, it's where a guy tries to like when you get in an argument and he tries to pretend like you're crazy and that none of the things that happened really happened and he's telling you like, that's not what happened. That's not what happened. That's not what happened at all. I'm like, oh, it's called gaslighting. Well, I know that now. That's just normal life to us.

I'm going to go gaslight these hoes. I'm going to gaslight these hoes. I can't wait for this episode. By the time this episode comes out, Dave Chappelle would probably have made one of the biggest, most impactful announcements in the history of entertainment. Oh, for real? I'm pretty sure of it. He bought the nfl what happened

i ain't but robert johnson is thinking about he's on bt he's thinking about trying to buy a team it's time for a black it's definitely time black person to own a nfl team no but he would have made an announcement that uh will make you feel like there are, in the world of business, there are some good people. There are some people that stand on morals. They stand on their belief and do things because it's right. Are you talking about Dave specifically? Yeah, he's an amazing person.

I don't want to spoil it. It's a moment that is going to be very iconic and people are going to remember. It's going to be one of those moments like, I remember where I was when i heard this news wow so yeah how long we've been talking trash about covid about 55 minutes we've been talking corona talk for 55 fucking minutes okay here's the thing during about the whole covid shit yeah fuck all y'all motherfuckers i was trying to hate on me fuck all y'all motherfuckers that wish death the one to go uh-huh I told you sooner or later it was going to catch up it was

definitely gonna catch up and you absolutely right and guess when the shit caught up after 80 shows after employing half of a town of yellow spring after giving people at Stubbs jobs that hadn't worked in a while. After celebrating anniversaries with people. After people didn't know what they wanted to do. And for two or three hours in your life, you got a chance to escape. And that was presented and that was created by Dave chapelle team day chapelle the people at stubs the yellow spring community and that's what's going to happen and you got motherfuckers

that want to kick you when you down you got people want to talk shit i realized i said this earlier covid shaming is the worst thing you can do it's going to happen to people be supportive that's why i'm so happy that it happened to me in a group that i was with i didn't feel alone i didn't feel like anybody was gonna just everybody was like fuck you i didn't feel like i couldn't call somebody could help me i felt like it was a unit and together we're going to get through this together we're all going to get healthier it was so hard for me would say people like this are you still sick i never felt sick but guess where sickness comes from dearie sickness goes in your brain too physically you might not be sick but your brain

could be sick your brain could be sick enough where you don't even understand when something loves you or wants you your brain could be sick where you resist anything that feels good your brain could be so sick that you can't even deal with the idea of I can get past this. It's not all grave. I have family members that have passed away. People close to me has passed away. And it's tragic. It's unfortunate.

And understand that we have to take all the precautions to keep yourself safe. But as you are talking, wear a mask. Wear a mask. Wear a but as you are talking wear a mask wear a mask wear a mask you got to wear a mask take a vitamin get in the gym try to build your immune system up so that in the event that you contract it god forbid that you can handle it so many rumors going on but let's try to say elon musk gave us this shit niggas couldn't wait one day I was in the room with the richest man in the world everybody's like yo what was that conversation like and the next day like yo that bitch Grimes gave y'all the corona fire yo niggas trying to say Grimes gave us the corona well I don't know what strand we had I don't know if it was the billionaire strand, but

it was the easiest. In my situation, this is not for everybody, but for y'all, hey, say whatever, that it was not a pleasant experience, but it wasn't such a bad experience. And I feel a little bit confident knowing that my body resisted it.

My body said, get it out of here. But the thing you got to worry about, they got a new strand. Every day, they got a new strand. Every day, we got a new strand. And I want to say this. The dopest thing, after we quarantined for those two weeks,

and there was another week where we didn't have shows or anything, and we could have just ran home and said fuck it we manned up we did five more shows rug was a part of that show dave was a part of that show mo am was a part of that show michelle wolf was a part of those shows faheen anwar was a part of those shows buck rogers was a part of those shows but Rogers are part of that show fucking met you how camera do was a part of that show and it could have been fucked up we manned up we got through it and here's the last thing I want to say son no matter what the fuck nobody's safe be cautious be safe but you always got to remember this this show must go on that's it Thank you. © transcript Emily Beynon