Stay Tranquilo - Comedians Chris Spencer & Ryan Davis on Comedy, Culture Wars & Why Funny Never Retires

Episode Date: February 16, 2026

On this episode of the Stay Tranquilo Podcast, we sit down with comedy legends Chris Spencer and Ryan Davis for a raw, hilarious, and insightful conversation straight from Super Bowl week.From cultural identity and comedy politics to mentorship, touring, and navigating today’s comedy landscape — this episode goes deep. Chris opens up about his Hulu special Go to Jason, his role as a mentor to some of the biggest names in comedy, and why stand-up will always be at the core of who he is. Ryan shares how YouTube strategy, timing, and authenticity helped his special Underrated rack up millions of views — and why ownership matters more than ever.We also get into:The reality of comedy mentorshipOld-school vs new-school stand-upWhy YouTube is changing comedy foreverBehind-the-scenes stories from Don’t Be a MenaceBlack Comedy in America and preserving the cultureWhy comedians support comedians (and why that’s rare elsewhere)Funny, honest, and packed with legendary stories — this is one you don’t want to miss.🎤 Chris Spencer🎤 Ryan Davis📍 Super Bowl WeekTap in. Stay Tranquilo. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

All right, we're here with Chris Spencer, Ryan Davis. How are you guys doing? We're incredible. Great, man. It's colder than I thought it was going to be up here. I didn't even bring a sweater. You did? Well, you're half white, so you guys don't get cold.

See some of the associate right now. He actually got cooked by a couple real Cubans apparently. First off, they're not Cuban. I'm Cuban. I'm Cuban. It's Honduran that I wasn't dark enough. Oh, yeah. No, the Latino, the racial tension between Latinos.

Well, that's why I explained to him. Yeah, you don't know. There was colorism. everywhere. I said, I just like white on black. I didn't realize brown versus brown. Is one more more?

Koreans? Oh, boy. Chinese is like crimson bloods. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Every culture has their version of people. That's what I was explaining to him too, like, like, like Cubans, Puerto Ricans, like, you know, no butt heads.

I never see somebody so mad that you were the same race and said, like, what the best one over here? It was actually like a surreal, like, we just met this guy. You're not dark enough. I'm like, The reason you feeling like that, by the way, is because he's a L.A. guy and they don't have seasons. So to me, I'm like, oh, it feels great out here. Yeah.

I'm wearing a jacket just because I'm fat and it looked better on my body. But I want to, yeah. Yeah, it's just for the shape. I'm doing this. I'm showing this to hide the body. Yeah, this ain't fashion. I don't like the way I look in just a t-shirt. Y'all got the exact same jacket.

Yeah. I got the same damn. That's funny. Oh my God. Wow. Well, listen, Chris, I know you just dropped a special. Yes.

That guy is like your return, right? I've always been lurking. Oh, yeah? You know what I mean? And I'm, I could say people call me a Magic Johnson because I'm a point guard and I give out a lot of assist. I'm working a lot of people. Yeah.

I'm still a point guard, but it's more Steph Curry-like. Yeah. I'm thinking shoot first, pass later. And then sometimes I might pass it to you and then ask for it again so I can shoot it again. The give and go. I'm trying to be a little bit more selfish with my career in these last couple of summers I got left.

Well, we're out here at the Super Bowl. You should use the football analogy. Oh, yeah. Now you're more Lamar Jackson. I'm a run too. Y'all don't get the Scarlet of town. I'm a run too. It's for today.

It's for the name. What was normally a pass down is it? I'm running to this. I think I did it. He's the over the rock. So it's a great experience. It's on Hulu. And, you know, first and foremost, I have all these slashes,

director, writer, producer, host with him on, like comedy in America. But both of us, in our nature, true and true, we are comedians. Oh, yeah, yeah. And the way I like to break it down is if, like, we were all in high school, we walked into a room, and I saw F. Gary Gray and Ryan Coogler and all these directors at one table. And I walk over here and I see Kenyon, and Lena Wade, showrunners on this table.

But if I come over here and see Tiffany, Ryan, Cedric, Dave Chappelle, Mike Epps, I'm sitting here. Yeah. This is who I am. And we would clown him if he sat somewhere else. Oh, you ain't one of us? Oh, you got boozy on us.

You don't know anybody care if you want an Oscar. You are a stage performer, Chris. Yeah, nah, we wouldn't even let him try to act like he's something else. It's funny just watching them being great at something and being known for so many other things. I was like, yeah, y'all should really see the thing he does. Yeah, like the reason, it's the reason why he's so trusted, and he's talking about passing, that's how I got black comedy in America.

A lot of people saw me, this is my first time being one of the lead people in anything television, and it was passed to me by Chris. It was his idea and everything, and, you know, because he keeps, his ear to the ground. He always knows what's going on in the space. And they needed somebody young who really cared about comedy. And fortunately for me, I did the work to be on his radar and he chose me. But I don't get here without him not only being as great as he is, but also having an eye for other people who do. So that's why I love him so much, man. And I'm, you know, to get a Chris Spencer co-sign is a real thing. Yeah. Yeah, like, I'm super proud. There he goes.

It means a lot. It means a lot and the check was great. So you put the two together. Check always help. We were talking earlier about how good it is for you but how you must be jealous. You could be 20 and have 2 million followers now. Yeah.

Get on. Yes. When you did it, who you know. Yeah. My little 75 followers on MySpace didn't come into comedy shows back then. But I was never jealous. Like a lot of the older comedies are jealous.

I watched these younger guys, the ones that really cared about stand-up, nurture their following, but also make their craft better. I feel like bunch of money. I'm a fun. I'm going to perfect their craft. I'm going to tell you the weird thing about Chris's show, though. Like, let's say you go, well, Chris ain't selling tickets. There's only 50 people there.

It's Snoop, Dray, Sugar, Rang, Lemon. He's only got heavy hitters. You go at his show, he'd be like, how'd I even get it? Am I supposed to be in here? I've been around for a long time. Yeah, but every time I go to something he's doing, I get imposter syndrome. I'm like, am I supposed to be here?

I was like, thank God. He let me in. Like a minute ago, let him come here. Yeah. Marcus Allen. Marcus Allen. Barre Davis. Yeah.

Man, and I mean, they don't just know him. Everybody loves him. Yeah. That's why, like, the name is special is go to. Jason, I'm telling you, man, perfect name. Perfect name. We did the show last night. Hell yeah.

It was Chappelle. It was, he was the, yeah, he was the host of the show. That's awesome. He tours, whatever, every, like, one time I was, I was like, Chris Rock is like my, one of my favorite comedians. He was like, you want to talk to him? I love Chris, man. Yeah.

That's awesome, too, like, because you hear stories of, like, other comedians trying to help other comedians. Like, I think that, I think it's a cool thing that, that, you know, because, like, In other occupations or stuff, like, people, like, try to get, like, what up on the other person and, like, there's not really help. But I've heard, like, stories like that that, like, comedians are usually, I'm sure there's fucking dickheads out there. But the fact that you're willing to help, you know, let you, like, the up-and-coming comedians is awesome. You know, that's funny because even the biggest comedians have him as part of that. Like, Trevor, Trevor Noah was talking to Idris Elba.

He was like, yeah, he was like, yeah, I was trying to learn comedy and I was doing it wrong. Wait, wait, do it. Do it. In the voice, he made me have, like, an 80s. drug dealer for 70's drug dealer boy. He's like, hey, man, you're doing comedy. You gotta go straight. I was like, Chris don't sound like that. Yeah, but like Kevin Hart's story is Chris Spencer all through it.

Like, it just doesn't matter. It's like if you're coming in or if you're at the top, everybody has, you know, how Chris Spencer played a part in our success. So that's why it means a lot for us to support him right now. Yeah. And him doing this own thing, man. fantastic special as well. We actually shot ours a damn near the same week.

Yeah. This came out before mine and it's absolutely incredible. Thank you. And what I loved about him, he's the exact same guy that you see in all of his social media posts. Like, that transcends to the stage. We know people, we say they don't have any offstage material, meaning they're not funny right here.

Yeah. This dude is funny right here. He's funny over there. He's funny on the screen. He's funny in that whatever that little spaceship is over there. He's always without pushing it. He's so subtle. He's one of those people like, if he was an assassin,

you guys would be talking to you go, and go, like, man, I think Ryan shot you, no, I didn't shoot. Wait, where can they find your special? Wow, you can find it on YouTube, underrated, Ryan Davis. I think it's at 3.2 million. Yeah, three months. Settle flex.

I wanted you to click the right one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They could have been two. There could have been too. Yeah. Could have been Ray Davis, exactly.

It's not there in China. I don't know. It's fantastic. Thank you. Rated A plus. Oh, man. Thank you. I actually have a question in terms of that, like, you getting like your special on YouTube, right?

Like, is that like, I've been seeing it. Like, I've been seeing it. some comics doing the same thing, right? Like trying to enter that world? Or, like, is it strategic versus, like, partying with a, you know, Netflix or something? It's all strategy. Yeah?

It's all strategy. Each streaming platform means something different, right? Yeah. So if, for me, getting it on YouTube is because this is an introduction to a lot of, of me to a lot of people. Yeah. So I need as many people as possible to see it. And your audience loves YouTube.

Yeah, and my audience loves YouTube. So one, YouTube is easy to pass. I can text it to somebody. I can text the link to somebody. I can put the link in the comment section or anything. It's me using my power in social media to spread the word about me, and I'm just gathering fans. It may not do a lot for me in like the spaces of industry,

but it gets the word out about me. At least it gets the hype around. You know what I mean? And his tour money goes up. Yeah, and then my tour money goes up. People are watching him on YouTube. It may not get me a gig in Hollywood, but I'm with Chris. So I don't.

I'll never get. I mean, like, I really want to work, Chris. If you hear anything. If you hear anything. Yeah. And so, like, that was important. So you always want to know what the goal is. Like, so with black comedy in America,

it's with LOL, right? It's Kevin Hart's network. LOL is on every single app that's television. If you have a Roku. It's even YouTube as well. Everything. It's, man. Vizio.

You know, when you get the TV and it comes with stuff now? Your TV comes to black comedy in America. Yes, yes. You mean like, which one of these apps do I choose? Yes. All of them. That one. All of them.

And that was strategic. That was strategic. We had the option to go to some of these other streaming networks that were, you know, pay. Yeah. And we're like, how can we get the masses? We wanted people to see it because it's a great product. Like, I remember watching it and thinking, thank God I'm in this. Because I think it's going to be one of those things that if people watch it, people will be like, I remember that docu-series.

One, it was really good. It was really funny. And I learned more than I ever knew. We talk to people who've done movies, some of the biggest movies, some of the biggest shows ever. And they're telling, like, never told stuff about that experience that before, Will Smith's in it, Kevin Hart's in it, Dan Chappelle's in it. They haven't been together since Bernie Macs. Yeah. Yeah.

2000 and then Bernie Mexico's in there, Bernie? Man, yeah, no, the Bernie's daughter. I love that stuff, man. Dude, we have, we have Kevin, we have Dave. We have an episode on strictly deaf comedy jam and how important Stan Lathen and Russell Simmons were to that project. We have an Eddie Murphy episode.

We have an 80s sitcom episode. Yeah. I know you guys were born in the 90s. Yeah. But it's an 80s sitcom episode, and we have Florence. That's awesome. Marla Gibbs, who played The Maid on the Jeffersons,

right there. She's like almost 100 years old. And she's sharp as a tack. She has a book coming out, too. Yeah. Man, it was one. one of the greatest experiences ever. Ben, Al Sharpton, Dr. Boyd.

Like, we didn't just have comedians and actors. Leela Rashad told a story, Lila Rashon told a story about how Red Fox had his nipples spears. No one knew that. Nobody. Nobody knew that. That's what I'm telling you. Not even Lamont.

Yeah, not even Lamont. Rest the beast of LeMont. So, like, when I say never told stuff, I mean, from serious to the silliest stuff to everything, It's going to be a fun watch no matter who you are, man. It is a great show. And that's coming out. It's on right now.

Right now. Black comedy in America. So many different fast shows. And the reason it's called black comedy in America is because we're black. It doesn't mean that if you're not black, you shouldn't watch it. Everybody watch this. It's amazing. It just has black people in it.

Right. So it's because if we only put country in America, black people wouldn't watch it. Black people wouldn't want to. I've seen this already. People don't know why we put that moniker on there for us. You know y'all coming. What them Negro's doing over there? This is for us to come.

We need that good 13% to look at it too. That's all it is, man. But no, it's about everybody, but it's, you know, it just so happened to people we're talking about are black. So it's black. Yeah, but Eddie Murphy didn't belong to black people. He was the biggest, he was the biggest global. That's what I'm saying.

We named Will Smith, Kevin Hart, Dave Chappelle. They don't belong to black people. That's global. So it's that kind of show. Yeah, it's just, I mean, we black though. We want to thank Michael Strayhan. Yeah. Constant Shorts, Anthony Smith.

A lot of these people, those are the people that own Smack, the company that produces it. Yeah. My wife is a producer. on it, Vanessa? Yes. Vanessa. Yeah. You have to make sure you got that way. Absolutely. She said no dinner, no name. No dinner. Tell my wife, Vanessa, it was an

integral part. Actually brought this thing together. And Tiffany was not sitting with us. It's also an executive producer, as well as a host on this project. So it was really an incredible marriage for all these different, it was like Woutang Clan. It was like all these headliners came together to make this incredible project. And speaking of black comedy and how it's not made for anybody in particular. Just kidding. I got to say, you.

Hold on. You can't say. Now we're going to be white and black. Now we sound louder when you guys say it's making a black as long as you don't hold the B and the L together. I've seen that to black. What is that? All right. Let's get it out quick.

Speaking of black comedy, how it's got to make for a certain person. Don't be a minis. I got to hear about that, your involvement. Being a part of that project. How did y'all finish? the movie, how did y'all not laugh at every scene? It's outrageous.

I wish we had a screening of all the stuff that's on the cutting room floor. Sean Marlin, Suli McCullough, Bernie, Faison, Terry Vaughn, I mean, Tracy Jones, I mean, it was just every day. People would stay on the set even when they weren't shooting. Right. You're wrapped. That's okay, I'm cool. I'm gonna watch. We laughed all day.

One of the funniest stories. We really shot in the hood. Yeah. So I remember we got ran up out. the hood, we were in our trailer and all of a sudden some dude was like, I'm laughing. I didn't know this. We were in the hood. You guys have an episode on the movie on. Yeah, yeah, that's what I'm sitting there telly. Yeah, I've turned into the audience. Me shot on and surely. Crazy legs,

one in the wheelchair. Yeah, crazy legs. Hey, Coo! Hi. What y'all studio ganges are doing up in the hood? I don't know. Y'all got the pain. pay for shooting in the hood. I was like, see that white guy right there? He got a lot of money. And as he was talking to him, we don't know what. We were packing up stuff. We don't know what's going.

We got the money? Okay. We're good. We're good. No, speaking of crazy legs, we'll show you how outrageous the movie is. I remember he's a guy in a wheelchair. He hasn't walked in his whole life.

No, no, that's not true. He was the best dancer in the hood. He got... He was spinning it. That's right. It's not. It would be better to be. Man, look.

Classic, brother. Listen, in my classic movies all time, right? There's like, gone with the wind. Don't be a minisk. Cynar. Yeah, sinners. Forrest Gump. I like the finest of theater.

He gets in an accident later in the movie. He's already made in the wheelchair. And he's like, you're like, believe it. Doctor said, I ain't. never been walking again. I'm telling you. Wait, my fucking, you ain't never

to walk. Yeah. Hell. It's better than me. So. Oh, no. I'm telling you, like, for me, it's one of those

movies that if you think for a second, you're catching every joke on the first watch, you've lost your mind. Like I just said earlier, when we were talking, I watched it,

two weeks ago, and I was like, I forgot Faiza and Love was in the movie. Yeah. You got to watch the movie. I got to watch. I was like,

That's crazy. Man. Message. And you want to know why it's so funny? A lot of comedians. They don't do that in comedies as much as they used to. They're like, oh, I want to make a funny movie. Let's not hire the funniest people in the world.

Yeah, let's get people who don't specialize in funny. Yeah. Yeah, it's weird. That's why you laughed every day long. And it was young comedians in there who were just getting their start. We give them a line or two. They kill it, blow it out. the park now, they're selling out clubs and stuff, you know, just from that one credit.

I think the other thing that makes it magical is you couldn't release that movie today. No. No. No. You know, the funny part is I would release that movie today, though. Of course you would. Because me, I don't know, man. I invite criticism for some reason.

I don't know what that is. It's like, I was showing him like my favorite, I was like, let me show you a scene from the movie. And it was the convenience store. Walked to the door and the chime goes off. And the Asians are falling around the story. I love that he was very detailed in everything. Except what the chime said. That's how you know.

I appreciate you. For those who don't know. We're getting close. We ain't there. So for those you don't know, when they walk into the convenience store, and you normally hear, ding, dong. In our movie, it said, niggas.

And somebody walked in before, and it was the regular time. There was the regular time. But then when they walked in. That's good. And then there racial profile on the black dudes the whole time there in the store. White dude. And he's robbing the shit out. Hold on.

You forgot something. And it has him his money. He's not. Nice. Yeah, that movie's class. Man, I'm going to watch it today. You reminded me of if you ever get a chance to see it, stop. see it. Stop what you're doing and watch it. It's better than anything you were watching before you.

I'm telling you, if the Super Bowl is on, right. Just flick back and forth. I'm telling it, it's going to be working now. Yeah, watch what I promise you. I promise you. Well, gentlemen, this has been awesome. Absolutely. Thank you guys. Go check out. Both are special. Yeah, go to Jason on Hulu. There you go. Yeah. Go to Jason Hulu. underrated on YouTube. Right. And black comedy in America on everything. At a TV near you. Even to be.

Every, I mean, every I'm telling you. I think we're on the Klan channel now. Every. Every. Well, the Klan don't want to get canceled. I'm talking about Wooten Klan. What are you talking about? Yeah. Hey, we want that cream. He is a brother. But they don't, they don't allow the word, though.

You got to put in chime. And then it'll pop. Thank you so much. Thank you.