Inside Conan: An Important Hollywood Podcast - Nore Davis

Episode Date: June 12, 2020

Comedian Nore Davis joins Conan writers Mike Sweeney and Jessie Gaskell to talk about how he prepared for his late night debut on Conan in 2018, some of the barriers for black comics in the stand-up scene, recording a stand-up album online over Zoom, his thoughts on the current protests, and more. Check out Nore Davis’ stand-up on Conan here: https://teamcoco.com/video/nore-davis-06-05-18 Got a question for Inside Conan? Call our voicemail: [phone] and e-mail us at [e-mail] For Conan videos, tour dates and more visit TeamCoco.com

And now it's time for Inside Conan, an important Hollywood podcast. Hey, everybody, welcome to Inside Conan. I'm Mike Sweeney. And I'm Jesse Gaskell. Writers on The Conan Show. And every week we have a guest on where, you know, has a connection with The Conan Show. And today is no different.

Yeah, we have a great comic who he did his late night debut in 2018. Has been on a couple times since then. Nori Davis. He spoke with us from New York City. He had a lot to say on a lot of subjects. And it was really fantastic. We got into it about some of the barriers for black comics in the stand-up scene and his feelings about the protests and he had a lot of good insights. A lot of good insights and some great advice too.

So here's Nori Davis. So Nori Davis, welcome to Inside Conanan thank you for having me all right we are inside conan man we in coco's head we are yes well and you've been a conan insider for a few years now you did was your first set in 2018 yeah on the show 2018 was that your first uh late night set yes first one oh never if that was your first time what a dream set you know it was fantastic and the crowd loved you thank you mike yeah i remember that whole process man getting with jp buck and really what's it uh what was it were you were you nervous oh for sure. I was definitely nervous, but I felt very ready because I was just like really hammered out that act a lot. And I even remember the build to it of like, because I came from like the Def Jam type circuit, you know, and Chitlin circuit and also mixing in with the alt scene and the club scene. So it's like, you know, we're not too prone about like set up punchline,

you know, boom, or like joke joke. It was more like just having act out. So it was just like I really did want to buckle down and like, what is the structure of a joke? Let me get the jokes. Let me get the beats. Let me get the math behind it. And I remember just being so tedious about it and how much hard work it is.

It's a lot of hard work. And then knowing the timing of where you're at, and then you get that laugh. You know how much that laugh, how many seconds that was, and then you move on to the next one. It's just, it's all math. It's all math. And that set, it really came together. It is. That's great. So how, wow. So all that work, how far in advance would you say you started preparing for that? Well, let's just say, uh, your whole life. Yeah. Right. My whole career, my whole career, even to the beginning, I'll say like, I've been doing it, uh, this year is 14. So I say, uh, yeah, like 12 years I've been preparing for that, trying to like, because I have so many unlisted YouTube late night sets. Just jokes I think that will be good, that will work.

And they just never really came together. And then I just said, all right, let me just keep writing. Let me just keep hammering out some good bits. And it finally came together. So, yeah. Well, and I always love talking to comics because I think one thing a lot of people don't realize

is how much material you have to write to get it down to that five minute set. Because what you're seeing, it's not like, oh, I just, this is all I wrote

and so I did that. Yeah, exactly. Like you're honing that material for so long. So long, just hammering it away and also taking jokes out and putting more jokes in.

Like, you know, just you're really a coach. You really are a basketball coach. You just get out, get out the game. All right, you get in the game. You got your LeBron. You got your Westbrooks. You got your Derrick Rose. That joke keeps getting injured. All right, get out of there. You're not being consistent. And then you have to you have to get the order down and try to like jokes you never normally would put together i have to kind of flow from one to the other and it's exactly it's a lot of work i know a lot of comics who like the night before they're doing a tv show like go to a local club and they do their tv set and it's so regulated and formatted that they're like, I bombed. And they'd be

terrified to do the TV show the next day because the last memory was some drunk crowd just kind of staring at them. And then they would kill on TV. It's just a very different. And then they're like, now I can never perform again. I want that to be the last time. That's the last time you'll ever remember me. You took a year off after that set in 2019. Like, yo, I am out. I'm not doing this no more. Once you do all the work of getting this TV,

it's called a TV set together, then you've got to kind of practice that. Sometimes that's tough in front of a club because it's almost a different rhythm in a way. It's more kind of locked down. That's what I wanted to say, Mike. It's like when you rhythm in a way. It's more kind of locked down. That's what I wanted to say, Mike, is like when you're in a club doing that, I would like to do my late night set

in the middle of my set. So if they give me 10 minutes, I would do the middle. Like in the beginning, I would start off like it's a normal club set because yeah, you would set yourself up a failure if you just go right into your TV set and the audience is like,

all right, are you going to say hi? Like, the audience is like all right are you gonna say hi like what the fuck like are you gonna acknowledge this person's drunk right here like it's why is he calling us conan yeah hey richie how you doing man i'm not richie i'm not andy that's a smart that's a smart way to do it you just yeah because i remember seeing that and it's just like it it does give you a off feeling and you do feel like putting and that's the worst thing you don't want to go into a set being all off put like and feeling low like damn that shit didn't really hit as much as i thought it would hit and then you go on tv and it will kill and then sometimes you see i heard from other comics where you have a tv audience where they're they are they're all

right but you're like look this is being taped so fucking perform you know i'm saying i used to do the warm-up for late night way back in the 90s and a lot of my friends who are comedians would come on and i would know before the show started some crowds are great and some i'm just like oh this is this is not would you tell them would you get them over well that's that's a hard thing with a comedian like sometimes if a comedian knows the crowd sucks it gives them great power to know that so they know it's not them yeah like a lot of times comics would go on first in a club if it's a bad crowd they come off feeling awful and then the third or fourth comic who knows they're bad kind of goes in with guns blazing yeah and so cleanup crew yeah

but on the other hand like someone's about to do a tv show i didn't want to like i'd worried it seemed like trying to psych someone out do you know what i mean yeah tell tell someone it's a that's really awful too so i kind of nor of what do you want to know uh it's really not even your job mike because i feel like the comic is there so they'll see like oh this crowd's going to be type of horror or so it's like they have to make their adjustments they have to protect it's all about protecting your ego that's what it is it's like all right man don't get your feelings hurt just drive through there right what i would like to know jesse i i would i would i would be there

and see that and i'm just like all right so just have confidence in your joke and then you have to have that type of energy of like look man this is my moment i would love you guys to join it and not you guys aren't gonna ruin this exactly you're not yeah just like the classic bernie bernie megg i ain't scared of you motherfuckers. You know, that's every comics plateau, no matter what color you are. Like, you know that story. That was like one of the greatest sets of his career in the beginning, where the crowd was like horrible, and

they were booing people off right before him. And he's like, I ain't scared of you motherfuckers. And then he set the president, and then killed. It's to have that type of confidence and that type of leisure just to go in there like gung ho, like, fuck y'all. You know what I'm saying? So, yeah.

So, Mike, you can do the best you can. But after that, it's like, look, man, this is the business. Go ahead. Go for it. Even though you're on a TV show and there's all these landmines within that one hour you're waiting to go on. Like, I've seen comics who are going, you know, they go on at the end of the show usually. And like, you know, Jim carrey was the lead guest this crowd's already heard this you know yeah uh comedian kill and i i would always be like oh man i i'd feel so bad if i was a comic right now just having to

like you kind of want to have you know newscasters or really serious guys on before you go on so you kind of well oh yeah wow like yeah you have a guest i i haven't done it that long to like experience that but that must be i i guess you really just have to like just believe in yourself like all right yeah you can have whoever you have yeah and believe you can follow anybody like they can have kevin hart on and he kills and all i gotta know is like well look this is my time this is my slot you know this is my buffet. This is my slot. You know, this is my buffet dish. Let me just be the best macaroni and cheese in this fucking buffet dish I can be. So people remember like, hey man, I've always loved turkey, but damn, that was some good mac and cheese. And that's where I try to

keep my confidence at. And I try to keep believing myself right there. You're right, Mike. Like there's just so many landmines I could just throw you off. And it's just all distractions. It's distractions. I love that Bernie Mac story. If a crowd senses any fear, they just like, they want you to be in charge. And if they think you're not totally in charge, all of a sudden they're, they lose their confidence in you. I know it's such a trust. It's basically, I feel like a stand-up, we are a player and the crowd is our instrument, but our instrument has an emotion. So a saxophone will be like, ah, you ain't playing me with confidence. And they'll just destroy it's own weed on you or some shit.

And then it's bucking, it doesn't, yeah. Really like, no, you a mind saxophone. Come on, baby. Or the saxophone could feel you like, are you not believing in yourself? Ah, saxophone. Come on, baby. It was a saxophone good feel. You're like, are you not believing in yourself? Nah, fuck this. I'm not. I'm not.

I'm going to squeak. I'm going to squeak right now. Yeah. Or a violin. You know what? This string's going to plop. Like three strings just plop away. They just break.

Yeah, man. So that set was great. Like, I always love Conan, man. Like, I love you guys. You always hold me down, gave me the opportunity. And I'll never forget that. I'll just never forget that.

It made me feel like you guys are the first people to give me that stamp. Like you're a standup. That's what you do. You know, when you get that, you know what that means, Mike, right? You get that late night title. Like you're a fish.

I actually don't. No, but yeah. It's great. Because you were doing stand-up for so long and you were in clubs. Maybe you can tell us a little bit about the comedy scene when you were coming up. Did you start in New York? Yeah, I started in New York at the Comics Group Live in college. I went to Pratt Institute.

So like 2006. And I took a class, DM Sweetler. DM Sweetler is my, uh, my teacher. All right. You two have a similar sensibility. Yeah, exactly. I remember, yeah, I remember him and he was, he was dope. He was one of those guys that's just like, I would go up there and just start cursing. And then he's just like, all right, where's your joke? That's all nice, but where's your joke? And I was like, okay. So he taught me structure, set up punchline. From there, I just, I think I'm the class that came up in the,

I'm the bringer show generation. It's like, oh, you want to perform? You've got to bring two friends and they have to pay a minimum and drink two drinks. That would have taken me right out of it oh dude yeah man we but that's how much we wanted it they i mean that was that was i guess the capitalism of comedy like it was everybody wanted to do it so much it's a it's like a multi-level marketing exactly that was that was the pyramid pyramid yeah yeah comedy clubs are all in this pyramid scheme. My family hates me. I literally could not have done it. I would have just been like,

oh, well, this is not for me. Dude, I drained my mom, my family, my friends. And my mom would bring her, like she's a teacher, so she would tell other teachers to come. But I felt so bad about it. So I just like, you know. When I started doing stand-up, I also did bringer shows. And was it like this for you where if depending on how many people you brought, that was the position you got to go in the night?

Like the more people you brought, the more premium spot you got. Exactly. And if you only brought two people, you had to either go first or last. Yep, that's the same formula. And if you bring a lot of people, they would have you go last.

So like, you know, you are the headliner. And if you didn't bring any, then you're like begging to get on. Like, I'm sorry, I didn't have anybody. And they would punish you. You wouldn't get on. Because the whole thing of it was really trying to get into the club. It was the whole thing of like, I'll get into the club this way. And also I can build a new tape. Remember that? Let me get a tape. And I think I was starting to come up in like DVDs of like CD-Rs and then like fuck it I got a CD minus

plus R so their DVD didn't take that one. I was like fuck man I have a whole trough of plus R's. Y'all don't take this? So I had to run back to Best Buy or Radio Shack Yeah Office Bags and get minus R's, all these plastic circle ninja stars. And I have so many sets of like Miner's R comic strip or blah, blah, blah.

The comic strip had that. You could just pop it in and record yourself. That one, Gotham. Comics. Remember comics in New Yorkork city yes i do yeah comics that one and um yeah and you know the cellar and all those other clubs they were like one day i'll get up there but yeah just bumming around uh not bumming around slumming around bring a show bring a show and then after that stopped. And then I just started doing the grueling open mics and

then being funny and making friends. And then you start building this camaraderie in this community of like, yo, perform here. All right, perform here. Oh, you're funny, man. Why don't you come do my show? All right, well, I'll do your show and blah, blah, blah. And then you just start building. We've talked about this on the show, how important that camaraderie is when you're starting out and meeting like-minded people who want to be doing the same thing. And it's such an important support group. And yeah, you guys start helping each other out, don't you think? I mean, I always found other comedians to be very generous in terms of wanting to help each other.

I feel like we're all in it together. We're all in it together. Sometimes like in the black community, it's more of like there can only be one, you know, like Highlander. It can only be one. But in reality, we're all in this together. We're all fans of this and we all have our own voice. So let's just like do the best we can. And then the competition should only be within

ourselves not with you or the other person it's just like look i love doing it you love doing this let's come together try to figure it out and there's one day i have to give you a compliment you're running your own race exactly i want to give you a compliment on to conan people because i remember like they used to say there was an error i think it was like 2019 2018 like the conan writers they're all they just have nothing but white writers and just dion cole and i would defend y'all because i remember doing the conan presents the festival and seeing all you guys perform you guys are all white but you all have different voices different white voices different white voice like it's nobody's a fucking saying nobody's the same

the bald headed dude that just the one line is he was on Letterman Brian Kyle yes him and then the other that just like the voices and the he does the theater type when I did Andre Duvaché is amazing yes like all you guys are fucking amazing I was just like

this is I was laughing at everybody like it didn't feel. Well, that's nice of you. But let's talk, I mean, just going back to something you said earlier, you said you felt like there can only be one.

I mean, tell us, first of all, you can be general about your experience of being a black man in comedy, but also like, what are some of the barriers that black comics face? Like, does it feel like there's a limit on the

number of black comics that can be on certain shows of course um yeah there's a lot of yeah tell us about yeah there's definitely a lot of limit they feel like if they have one act or even one black woman or one black man there's this caucasian math where it's like one black person equals three white people so if you have one black person that's like that's a lot of people it's just like it's just one dude nah that's that's three that's three white people that's too much so they feel like and they also feel like we're all the same exactly and yeah so what I always dealt with is like it'll just be me as the feature and the headliner will be uh somebody white or if they have a black headliner then that headliner won't want to have a black feature so they'll move me down to host so i can

host the show so it's spread out or sometimes i dealt with um a black headliner going through my material like what do you talk about like oh i talk about technology i don't talk about that that's what i talk about it's like well it's the same same same bro like they paid tickets to see you there's that i don't know if white comments go to that but i definitely experienced that between our own community because they they have to feel like look if i'm going to be the only black guy here i'm going to be the black guy where it's just like it don't even be be like it's just like you the funniest Just be the funniest dude. I'm the feature. All I do. All I do is pass out appetizers, bro. That's all I do. You the entree. That's it. That's the way I always thought about stand up within that realm.

But yeah, it's it's that system. I guess it goes back to we can go back to slavery, the Mandingo of like, you know, seeing brothers wrestle each other to make Master feel proud of, like, I'm the winner. You know, that was the classic scene in Django, you know, with Leonardo DiCaprio. That's the type of mentality that coming into the industry, like, there can only be one. I'm not going to have one of y'all. Y'all have to go against each other. It's still embedded within our DNA,

which we need to get that out of. Like, look, we all here, we all brothers, we all have different voices. We all have different experiences. We just need to find a way how you do yours, you do mine. And we good. That's it. Doesn't have to be a competition. Well, yeah, like you said, it's sort of the system is making you compete when really the

you have a common, I don't want to say enemy, but it's like if you were able to join forces, maybe that's more powerful than the antagonist. Exactly. It does go back to that system. I'm always trying to figure out ways. It depends on the person you're going against, where they came up and how they were raised. I mean, I am competitive, but I'm more competitive with myself. And I also want to say something that's memorable, right? Because at the end of the day, if there's a business,

we are in this capitalist country. It's like, hey, these are my jokes. This is what I... And then people are like, oh, I want to come see your show. So it all depends what you want. And all I ever wanted was like, look, I just want to have enough jokes that pay these bills. I've been doing that. Great. So now the rest is like, all right, how can I progress my career even more and like do another special? Like, what am I going to say? Like, that's why, like the Conan said, you said that I love that set because I want to talk about, all right, let me talk about ties and masculinity. Nobody's talking about that. Let me see if I can tackle that. Let me take something that hurts so much yeah that's not

been uh talked about in our culture in our society and turn it on its head and find some laughter through that pain that everybody's going through that was a really funny bit thanks yeah funny but also like it you know you're you have a good message and you're yeah it seems like you're starting to get more political with your comedy do you feel like with everything that's going on right now, is this going to be informing your comedy from here on out? What do you think? Yeah, definitely. I feel like the artists, we are the, we are the tellers of time. You know, we tell exactly how the temperature of the political stance is happening. And we, I like to try to find some funny within the pain. That's just how I always dealt with it. Even coming through how I was raised, sickle cell anemia, anxiety, depression,

emotional abuse, you know, as a kid. So it's just like laughter has always been my way of expressing myself and healing. And if I can give healing to other people, I mean, that's amazing too, because we all need to heal together at the end of the day. I really hate how we're not talking about the psychological term of it, like hurt people or hurting people. So like, I feel like comedians and comedy writers, we are people who probably are hurt within ourselves, but we are using our art form to heal people and give them laughter, give them a relief, release from this pain that we keep experiencing every day. So, yeah. Yeah, that's a good point.

Hurt people either become comics or they become cops. And I guess that's the two options. Exactly. They become comics or cops. We can't have that. You can't have a fucking hurt person with a gun. That's all that is out there.

We have to get cops to start doing open mics put open mic in the police station talking about the time we're in how insanely frustrating is it to not be able to go into a club right now? All right. What is that like? It's, you know what? Okay. So for me, it's been different because I have been performing on Zoom. I did.

I am one of those comics that like, you know what? This shit works. It's not, if standup is heroin, Zoom is morphine. You dig? So I'll take the morphine. So yeah so yeah just and it's just like this where i hear you i say something i just have to wait for the wi-fi to get it you hear it and then it comes right back like a delay like yo shout out to technology like i'm just glad verizon at&t are not racist because they could just turn off all our Wi-Fi and then that's it.

Oh, man, you're right. They can just, you know what I'm saying? Why are you giving them ideas? Yeah, right. My bad. Yeah, right. Don't want the white supremacy here to say, who's the owner of Verizon? We'll edit that out.

Shut it down. Yeah, edit that one out. I've been doing this out of my living room called the Comedy Trap House. I was doing like little headline shows and I had comics perform. And I would just tell my, go on Eventbrite, send a link and, you know, do like an hour show. And what do you hear back? Like how many people did you allow a certain amount of audience microphones up? Or how does that work?

Twenty-one. About 21 to 22 people. You can hear their laughs, man. It's like digitized laughs. Like, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah. Wow. It's like performing for the Terminators. Yeah, robots.

That's wild. So, I, yeah. So, what day was that? That was May 20, May 23rd i i recorded the album on zoom oh wow yeah that's awesome yeah that's great so it's gonna come out we're in post-production right now because the thing about zoom is good i guess you can record every participant's audio track by itself and the wav file is not it's kind of healthy so me and my label we were like hey let's try this shit. And plus I'm just

like, I'm bored. I just, I just need to, I need an outlet. So I was, I was one of the comics that was like gung ho with zoom. And I would tell other comics, like it's, you can do your act. You know, I had a mic. I don't have my mic here today, but I had a directional mic and I would stand up and I would have the laptop in front of me and I would just perform. It came out cool, man. It came out cool. I'm excited to put it together. Oh, I can't wait to see it. Yeah. That's very impressive.

Yeah. I'm really excited to like promote that and let you guys, let you guys hear it, let the world hear it. Yeah. It's basically a time capsule album to where like, remember this was a thing. Like we know Black Lives Matter is happening right now. We are protesting. We are getting that message out. And the pandemic is still happening. Hopefully the curve doesn't go back up. But there was a time where we were just stuck in the house for three months and no bars, no restaurant, no comedy clubs. And I feel like it's always just like you guys are doing this podcast through Zoom. It's like I feel like artists, we just we adapt to our environment. Like, look, these are the tools.

Here's a hammer. Yeah. I still need validation somehow. But you get it. Even if I'm alone. Exactly. Yeah. I feel like with Zoom, you get the validate.

Just like you just said that joke and I heard it. I laughed. That's it. That's all. Exactly. Yeah. I feel like with Zoom, you get to validate. Just like you just said that joke and I heard it, I laughed. That's it. That's all. See, you laughing right now. That's all the fuck. I try to tell other comics,

like, you know who comics are. They're like, hell no. I will wait to the clubs. I am not doing nothing. I'm not an influencer. Fuck.

I'm not TikTok. I'm not dancing. No. Do not tiktok i'm not dancing no not a do you know adapt to it and if you don't want to do it that's fine but don't hate on it or don't get bitter about it you mentioned something earlier i was fascinated by you said you worked three different types of comedy clubs which is really versatile and really impressive and i was wondering yeah what that was like you said you did alternative comedy rooms you did conventional New York comedy rooms like the comic strip

but then you said there was the black clubs yeah do you have a favorite or do you or they all do you like them all? Well yeah you have different sets for each one I mean that's like we've talked a little bit about that code switching with other

comics but i i love all right so what it is is that it makes me sharper because with my people black people we do not have the privilege for you to stand there and take your time with a joke look look nigga i got the babysitter i ain't got i bills. I came here for a good fucking time. I ain't come here for you to just try some Shakespeare bullshit. Right now with white people, white people do have the privilege because it's like, look, life is good. I'm great, man. Bills is fine. We own the world, blah, blah, blah. And I can go up there. It was either this or Ira Glass. Exactly. So I want to go up there and talk about how Monique could be a person that I want to start

a farm with. And you guys are like, oh, okay, what the hell is that about? Right? I'm going to follow this. Yeah, exactly. I'll follow this. It can bomb and you're like, all right. And then when you leave, you're still like, that was a cool show. Black people are just like, nah, man, if I'm

not laughing, I'm just going like they don't boo no more they just like that that's such a stereotype boo fuck you it's like right right now they're more just like they'll look at you they'll give you they'll give you they'll give you a lot of time to be like look you better hurry up and get out of here that's it right so uh a blank a blank stare is almost worse oh my lord that's what i tell people silence and then and the thing about black people you see their eyes their eyes are like look their eyes say just like like um like your mama can just be like look you better hurry up and do that you better get their eyes say that and it's just like all right i'm not mad i'm just disappointed exactly what

if they exchanged they stare you and then exchange a look with someone else at their table it's like oh god and there'll be that one brave brother like after a while just like all right man boo all right hurry up get out of here there's that so i say all that to say that it's i go to the alt rooms and i go to the clubs to where like try to figure out a joke i throw up on the stage not literally throw up blah blah i don't know what the fuck this premise is, but let me figure it out. And then once it gets sharp enough, then that's when I go to the black rooms. And then it's just like, here it is. And then once you get them to laugh or like my mom or people that I, or even my best friend, he's Jamaican and Jamaicans don't laugh at shit.

But if he laughs, it's like, all right, it's ready i have the confidence so that's i guess that's my secret and if people listen to us that's fine do it use white audiences to practice because that's what they're there for they're like look man go do what you want to do with like yeah you know where our life is you know what our privilege is and there's nothing wrong with that but use it to your advantage discover your fucking voice and then go to the black rooms and then see if that shit is actually funny. That's great advice. That is great advice. Because in the white rooms, you

don't want to get that, not code switch, but there is the opposites of like, I could kill in the white room because I'm black. I could just raise my voice like, shit, motherfucker, nigga, shit. See? See, you're already laughing. Y'all already laughing. I know. But if I do that in the black room they're like why are you screaming what's what are you doing we can hear you

yeah mike we we hear you fine why do you keep saying the n-word okay right what are you talking about and i see white comics the opposite where the white comics would try to be um they'll be smart and uber and like niche in the white room. And they're like, all right, whatever, dude. And in the black room, they're like, oh, shit, this kid crazy, man. He talking about, like, he talking about his dick. Wow. Like, I ain't never hear him talk about that shit.

You'll have a white comic that'll do great in a black room because a black audience will give him a moment. Like, go ahead ahead white boy go ahead white girl go ahead talk your shit cut him a little slack exactly like people don't see that type that so i i noticed that and you can use it to your advantage to like sharpen so that's what i do when you said you run stuff by your mom too is she a good audience for you if i don't run it by her but if she'll come to a show like if i'm doing an album recording or stuff like that my mom is how can i say this if you guys had that type of parent they don't understand what we do how it works they don't get it they they're like they came up with that generation of like, go to work, you get an education, you get a job, and then you shut the fuck up.

That's it. Right. Like, no, mom, I want to be an artist. I want to be a stand-up. I don't know how to help you with that. Like, how are you going to get insurance? You have sickle cell. You're going to die.

You're not going to make it. Like, you know? Right. Well, and they don't see, like, Twitter retweets as a currency. Right. You know, they see the type of parents like, why don't you like Twitter retweets as a currency. Right. You know, they see the type of parents like, why don't you just go on SNL? Like, yeah, mom, I'll just walk up there. Yeah, yeah.

Just take your resume. I'm not going to do it. So she's like, when is this 14 year experiment going to wind up? Is she still kind of like waiting you out a little bit? She gets it and she's happy that I'm doing it. But I don't feel she accepts me or love me for exactly what I'm doing. Like actual respect.

I think it's just something like, well, he's surviving because she'll still ask me like, hey, do you need money? Like, mom, I'm 30, I'm 37. I'm fine. I was on colon. I was on a couple of things and i have money all right well if you need if you need money just let me know like i'm grown nigga like i'm good yeah like i'm

stop stop i'm a full-time stand-up and i think she doesn't still get that so there's you know she came to the album like came she she pressed the link and came to the zone right and you know she said like hey yeah very funny and you. Right, right. And, you know, she said like, hey, yeah, very funny. And, you know, my friends tell me that you're funny. And it's just that. It'll be that. And it's just like, all right. I'll take it for what I can get.

That's very common. I'm almost suspicious of people are like, yeah, my parents, you know, since I was six, were really supportive. It's like, oh, fuck you. Yeah, that's a trust fund kid. Yeah. What? Come on. I guess maybe just child actors. It's like, oh, fuck you. Yeah, that's a trust fund kid. Yeah.

What? Come on. I guess maybe just child actors. They're the ones, like, their parents are, like, in the trenches with them. Like, yeah, they're great. I know what they can do. But, yeah, no, my mom is old school like that, where a lot of black parents are like, yeah, we're in this system of get an education, get a job, get insurance, follow the rules, and then retire and die. Like it's so mundane.

It's so boring. It sounds great. And millennials, yeah, exactly. And millennials and younger, we're just like, no, man, we're trying. We're not about money. We're trying to do things that make us happy every day because I think it's mental health is much more better than actual what's in your bank account. Finding other ways besides capitalism, maybe. That is not, yeah, that's not taught in schools, Mike.

It's not taught like, hey, find something that makes you happy, then try to figure out how to make money off of it. Or money will come. It eventually will come. But just try to find something that makes you happy. What do you want to do? Because there's not that many options out here at all. Right.

It's up to your parents. You don't learn that in school unless you take philosophy and you're much older by then. Well, and it is a good point that, I mean, there are barriers to entry because you have to be able to survive for a while without making much money and you know being an artist like it's not something that everyone can do because you don't get paid for a long time like you might not get paid for the first 10 years of doing stand-up and so that really limits who's able to even get in the game yes and you And you mentioned you're paying student loans. Like that's, what?

Yeah. That's no way to start your, you know what I mean? Come out of the, the shoot at 20 or 22 and it's, ugh. Mike, you come out the game

down 500,000. That's crazy. You come out the game $500,000. Yes. Go. I don't see why we can't just say,

I mean, it's not even real money. Like just make it go. Yeah. It's straight monopoly money. Like, all right. I pay you, I pay you $20,000. And what, what does that go to? Just you, just you Sally Mae. That's it. Like you don't build another, I don't know, community. Do you pump it back into the community? Do you give more, do you give scholarships? No. You know, it's just like the banks, like lenders. I wish we were like the modern, mature minds that were born

in the 1990. Then we could have stood up better for people because all it is is these big banks and these big ass wealthy white people who are like, yeah, you know, tell me what's your credit score? All right. Here's 500. Go ahead. It's just like, no. Like, why can't it be in a way where like just dissolve money and just make it a way where like everybody should get an education? Everybody should be smart and everybody should contribute to what we can do to make society better. Why is that so hard? Oh, i get it yeah fuck yeah i mean if people really wanted to start everybody off on a you know more even footing that's what we would do of course but we're not we're it's always the analogy of like some people are starting

one foot from the finish line and other people are starting like back in the parking lot classic economics man you know we came here as fucking slaves just to work and we're the type we're the slaves that say like hey you know we don't want to do this anymore this is wrong we're out i mean there's still a slave mentality even to this day of like people having to fight for minimum wage like why am i fighting you for minimum wage yeah yeah hey i can't live off of this McDonald's. Look, I'll write a quarter. Shit. You want a quarter more? Even that I can't live off of that. I have kids. I have I have rent. I have insurance. I have a car. I have to travel. Oh, God. But then I won't have money from my island. I mean, what do you want from me?

Yeah, the demands are so it's just like, please stop killing black people. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's another thing within the zone, of course. And I just love this, that how now white people on board and see exactly what we're seeing. Thank you. It's like now we're in this together. I know we're very late to the party. I think one fact that everyone I've talked to is stunned by, including myself, was how much of every city's budget goes to police. That, like you just see the pie chart and it's more than 50%. It's like wait what like

that's something i have to tell you i never thought about at all exactly and and i and i just want to be like i'm glad thank you for having me you know i'm saying i'm glad for you guys waking up and don't ever feel guilty about that bullshit just know welcome to the party and we're happy you're here and join the fight because you got to remember like the cops are evil like that because they are they became they came from evil they used to have to like catch slaves catch the ones that were free and even the ones that were free selling back to slavery that was the police force in the beginning and then they just graduated to who they are right now of like yeah you know we're upholding the law and making people that look just like y'all to make you feel like well that person broke the law it's like

all right well yeah maybe he broke the law but you don't need to snap his fucking neck to let him get the point to not do that and also prisons are not even should be a form of to rehab you know rebuild the person to put them back into society. But no, once they're in there, you are their property. And it's just a form of slavery. Slavery just turned right into the prison system. We're so happy you guys are joining now to see like this is right, because even if a person does commit a crime, that is a person that looks and bleeds and smells and loves just like you and that's just basic human rights and the other part of it is you know our countries

went insane in a different way after 9-11 where it's you know everyone's freaking out about terrorists and then all this money this military money is pouring into, like I remember after Ferguson. Yeah, buying tanks for the police force. Learning about all that. But when you have all that firepower and you accumulate it, you tend to want to use it. It's like having toys. And I think that also adds to a total

us versus them mentality across the board. Yeah, my parents live in a sleepy little suburb and they had protests last weekend that got dispersed with tear gas and the police came out in riot gear yeah like i i know it was unnecessary but i know they were just like we've got we've got all this riot gear we haven't gotten to wear it exactly i want i want everyone to see me in my cool shirt not start a cannot start a war with China because America owes too much fucking money to them. And also they're probably scanning the virus. So it's like, all right, let's start a war with it.

Because what a war does is like, we can use the stuff we have and we can burn it down and rebuild it up because we have the money to rebuild it and take out small businesses, take out everything, the resources that middle- and lower class need. And that's why right now we're starting to, the message has started like, hey, look, let's protest, but not riot and loot,

because that will give them excuse to break this down, like fuck up mom and pop shop and then put up another target. So now you have these huge corporations who who these are the only conglomerates like look at the right look at the pandemic all we could go to is walmart target and the grocery store and back home like yeah you know you know what the stock market is going up and it's all for all these companies that are profiting from the pandemic and from the lockdown and you have so many people like you and me who have a nice grocery store or who have like organic food, who have their own garden

or like who have other resources of entertainment, but they're being crushed by corporations because of the competition. And like this quote I saw on the gram, like the system isn't broken. It's doing exactly

what it's supposed to be doing. And that's what we need to fix. Get rid of that system. Yeah. Because it's doing exactly what it's supposed to be doing. And that's what we need to fix. Get rid of that system. Yeah. Because it's not bringing, it's not bringing you, you know, everyone's talking about,

you know, Congress, Oh, Congress is going to pass laws. And it's like, what I'm encouraged by is how local the upset is on a local level. And I think everyone's kind of looking at their local situation, their local police force and where they live and going okay how do we change the dynamic yes here and i think that scale

finally starting to figure out their city council member yes yes the number in their phone yes so it's waking it's waking white people up to to challenge own system. Don't go off of what other white people are saying. If this person died or got killed by a cop, why is he not convicted? Why does he have better rights than the person on the floor right and if it's not right we're gonna burn this motherfucker down or we got to do something like keep that i need to speak to your manager energy forever all right jesse all right mike keep that shit forever i know the hardest thing i've always been afraid to ask for the manager that's my across the board well mike you will find your way of protest you'll find your way everybody has their own way of comfortable protest uh can i yeah can i say one thing i mean we're talking about police and we our producers sent us a clip of you talking about police and you know

hey if they shoot someone they go out on a paid administrative leave yeah oh yeah and you're like why did i have that when i worked at a boston market boston market and i i laughed that is so funny and at the same time that is something i've never thought about which is like oh yeah they just kind of like okay you're gonna work at a desk for a while you know and where did you do that what was that on the show or it's on comedy comedy central i did comedy central featuring that was in february of this year but i've been working on that joke yeah the yeah like a year and a half before just like figuring it out and saying it and you know it's one of those bits of like yeah i just want to

express like what's happening here you know and i always felt it before it's good that it's starting to get a little like recognition now but i always felt it before of like when you say that joke white people laugh like yeah cops kill you but you know you probably you probably did something to deserve it anyway uh but now it's like no with this uprising like my nigga it's bad like they're killing people that look just like me yeah yeah um i'm just happy you guys are at the party like it's actually not funny. It's not. Yeah, exactly. This is the only way. But that's what comedy is, man. Like, comedy is like, hey, let's laugh at this because it keeps us from crying.

Because if we're not laughing, then what the fuck are we doing? We're crying. And I don't want to cry. I want to laugh. I want to laugh. So it's like getting the change. And the protests are going to go on for a long time. And the government and local government, we're starting to know what mayors actually do.

Like, you know, because politics, there is this they are a salesman of the land, which is like it's a crazy ass job title. Like vote for me. Why? So i can still get paid motherfucker like that's why well and even and even liberal mayors like in new york and la i think yeah liberals are realizing like it's not enough to just vote sort of down the line down the ticket also liberal you know liberal mayors talk a good game in terms of social stuff but then also there's the reality of the unions that they're beholden to and a big one has always been the police unions so yes those unions are the gangs that are more dangerous than the crips and the bloods and and you know you also have media with the trades which tells you what you what you need to know but not what you want to know i think some crips are still dangerous i'm just gonna say it i'm sorry i'm not gonna say go go uh go walk in the neighborhood

with with the opposite color or even their color and say and go plant your tomato garden i would like to see the sweeney cats there's a more dangerous gang out there that are legalized. I'm pro-blood, anti-crip. Matter of fact, the Crips, that was different history too, because the Crips and the Bloods were a gang who were there. They were basically originated from the Black Panthers, where they were protecting their own community against the police. Then what the police did was put them against each other and drugs. Bam. then what the police did was put them against each other and drugs bam that was a whole that was a whole facade that made the attention get off of the police and just put it on them like

the crips and the bloods in the beginning in the 70s were just a bunch of brothers and sisters who came together like look we have to defend our community because the cops keep coming in here, killing us, planting drugs and then leaving. And nobody's getting any justice. So that's that's where the issues are not even being focused on. The origin story, because you hear blood, you hear Crips gang killing drive by. Now, but if you know their origin story, they were just like the Black Panthers in the beginning of we are here to protect Compton or we are here to protect L.A. because we are not going to be brutalized by these police officers any longer. Yeah, which from today's lens makes a lot of sense. It's just the media has done such a good job of inundating us with images of violence that it's totally changed our perspective yeah i like

my new media outlet now it's twitter instagram yeah i was gonna say where do you get all your news twitter and instagram twitter yeah because those are we are real people posting what's actually happening and having video and it's tagged with a person from a profile and you see their profile they're legit where you have tv you know, my parents and probably your parents, like whatever Fox or ABC or CNN says, it's on TV. It must be. It must be the truth. It's like, yeah, but they also can be lying. Matter of fact, they are.

Right. Because you can't see the logistics and you can't challenge it. So it's great to have resources within Twitter, the Twitter community, the Instagram community. Not too much Facebook because that can be manipulated. Facebook is for boomers. You're taking away the editor. On TV, there's a group of people processing everything that comes in and deciding what you're going to see. That's right.

You can challenge a tweet because the tweet is right there. That person said it. Right. And now it's like, all right, then you see the comments like here's the resources and you can see the footnotes, you know, where, you know, like you guys work at where he does a bit, but, you know, he does. People don't know in the world that there's writers, there's producers, there's so many people gathering that information and putting it out there and it's a whole team with twitter it's just one fucking person is or or one account that's like this is what's happening here's a video here's yeah so it's there's nothing fake about that well nori we have to wrap up with you but this has been a great conversation and i don't want

the conversation around this to end so we'll have to have you back to keep talking more but how can people find your zoom special oh well it didn't drop yet but keep following me on instagram i'll announce there okay uh at nori davis n-o-r-e-d-a-v-i-s and uh right yeah sign up to my mailing list and hit me on Instagram or Twitter. And that's it, man. And I have other albums too, Woke, Home Game, and Away Game on Spotify and Apple Music. Thank you guys for having me. Thank you for uplifting. Thank you so much. This was really great.

Thank you for being awake to what's happening here and amplifying Black voices now. Don't feel guilty for that. Like, oh, man, black voices now. Don't feel guilty for that. Like, oh man, I feel good. Don't feel guilty. Just welcome to the party and let's get to work. Yeah. That's it. Yep. No guilt. We don't have time for guilt. I don't have no time for guilt. I'm happy you're here. I'm happy you're here. Thank you. I feel guilty about a lot of things. You can keep doing that. That's fine. But yeah, i know the comedy world has a long way to go still too so hopefully you can keep helping us open our eyes to some of the of course man because the blind spots we are the culture we are the ones we are the architects we are the people who tell

everybody like this is how it is but we but we place it in a cake and so people like that's a nice cake and then they bite into it. Oh, is that police brutality? Yes. There's glass in this. Yes, there's glass. Yes, there's glass. There's a bullet in there.

I'm trying to tell you. Thank you, guys. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you, Nori Davis. Stay safe. Bye, Nori. You too.

Well, that was awesome. Thanks to Nori Davis for being here. Thank you, Nori Davis. That was a great interview. I really learned a lot from it. I really am going to stop talking now. That could go for all white people, I think. I know. I'm so self-conscious talking. So that's our show for this week. And we hope you'll tune in next week. Thank you for listening. We like you.

Inside Conan, an important Hollywood podcast is hosted by Mike Sweeney and me, Jesse Gaskell. Produced by Jen Samples. Engineered and mixed by Will Becton. Supervising producers are Kevin Bartelt and Aaron Blair. Executive produced by Adam Sachs and Jeff Ross at Team Coco. Thank you.