Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - Tracy Morgan

Episode Date: March 31, 2019

Tracy Morgan rose to the heights of comedy from the depths of poverty, growing up between Brooklyn and the Bronx. But five years ago, he nearly died in a horrific accident when the van he was riding in was crushed by a speeding tractor trailer. In this week’s “Sunday Sitdown,” Willie Geist talks to the former Saturday Night Live star about that accident and how it changed him, his return to comedy, and the newest season of his hit show “The Last O.G."  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast. My thanks, as always, for clicking and listening along. My guest this week, Tracy Morgan, where do I begin in setting the table for this interview for you? Well, I'll start with the fact that he invited us to his home, his palatial home in New Jersey. He said, come shoot the interview here, so we did. As we set up the interview, he gave us a tour of the house, which includes basketball court in the basement, with a Knicks mural with all his favorite Knicks painted on the side from Willis Reed to Clyde Frasier to John Stark's, Bernard King, Patrick Ewing. I think Alan Houston was on there as well.

He's got a movie theater. He's got a bowling alley. He's got a full arcade like the one you played in growing up. He's got like a little bar and restaurant down in the basement. And a big theme around that house is the fish and the sharks. And he's got tanks everywhere you look, including one, and I'd never seen this before, in his. pool table in the basement. The bottom of the pool table is a little tank with sharks in it. I think black tip sharks. There's just a lot going on when you step into Tracy's world. He was a great host. We had a good time talking about the second season of his TBS show, The Last OG, and the experiences in his own life that inspired the series. It's always hard to tell the difference as it was

on SNL and especially on 30 Rock where real life Tracy ends and the character begins and sometimes there's not really a difference. That's the case, again, if you haven't seen the last OG. We talk about his run on SNL. When he met Lorne Michaels, the creator and executive producer of that show, of course, and Tina Faye, who saw something in Tracy Morgan that she loved, became one of his closest friends, and of course, hired him for that job on 30 Rock. He also talks, as you'll hear in our interview, about the struggle in his own life. He grew up between parents, between the Bronx and Brooklyn. He was on wealth. He spent his teen years taking care of his father who had AIDS and ultimately died of AIDS in the 1980s.

During our conversation, he reflects on the moment in 2014 that you may remember that changed everything for him and almost took his life. When a van he was riding in coming home from a comedy show was hit by a Walmart truck in a deadly multi-vehicle crash, it killed his best friend Jimmy Mack, another comedian who was in the vehicle with them. left Tracy in a coma for eight days. We talk about life after the crash, his return to stand-up comedy after the crash, and how he believes it made him a better man. He's married and has a five-year-old daughter. He has three other children from a previous marriage. Let me take you inside his home office right now. Tracy and I sitting down in an office modeled after Vito Corleone's office in the godfather, right down to the shades that come down, the darkness of it. I guess some of the

biggest differences, though, are shark tanks, fish tanks, everywhere you look, and as we sat there between us in the background, and you'll see it when you watch the interview on Sunday today, as I know you will on NBC, there's an Emmy, there's an Oscar, there's a Heisman trophy, there's kind of every big award you could win, and I asked him about it, and he said, no, of course he hadn't won those. He goes, but if you have a couple of bucks, Willie, you can get any award you want. I really hope you enjoy our conversation with Tracy Morgan right now on the Sunday Sit Down podcast. All right. So where do we pick it up, season two, Tracy? Okay, season two, first of all, season one, you were on the outside. So, you know, me coming

on from prison, prison life and all that, her and a family being introduced. Now season two, you're on the inside of this family. You'll learn we're visiting. We're visiting. places or child's parent For example In season one I did 15 years in prison I didn't get to see my kids

being born Season two she filmed it I found out she filmed it And I watched the birth of my daughter Watched the birth of my son So these examples Of you being on the inside

Like watching the godfather It wasn't just a gangster movie There are great gangster movies out there But the godfather Was a movie about a family You were on a Tessio Wipe the side of the pot With the Tomatoes

and how they were as a family. Vito Collillon was a family man. He wasn't just a gangster killing people. He was a family man. The way he talked to his son, Sonny, and you saw the difference in the sons, the three sons, the three differences. And Fredo

and Sonny and Michael. Michael was all business. Sonny was a hothead. He might have lived if they had Easy Pass. And Frater was just a meatball. Fredo was the meatball. ball, running around town with Mo Green. So that's the OG in a nutshell.

And people are going to enjoy this season. This season is deep. It's emotional. The comedy is, you know, the comedy is there. That's going to be there when you've got the talent that we had, me, Tiffany, Cedric. We had the talent. But the storyline is so grounded. It's real.

It's ripped from my life. All of this stuff really, you're going to meet my mother. My mother kicked me out the house when I was 17 because she found my crack spot, my crack stash. You're going to see one of that. Well, that's, I mean, when you read anything about your show,

it's, this is Tracy's life. These are things you wanted to say about your experience. Well, the story has to be told. You can't write it. This is my life, my world. So if I'm watching that show, I watch the first episode this morning of season two, what pieces of your life do I see in there?

The first show in season two, I don't know what show that is. I don't know the audio. Well, just the show in general. I'm seeing your mother, seeing some of your father, right? I mean, yeah, we have writers and all that, and they add and all of that, but the authenticity is me.

This really happened to me in my life. And I give him, and they put the, listen, a great artist doesn't keep adding clay. He strips away until he gets to the bare essentials. So what you're saying is what happened. This is what happened. Whatever show you watched, that happened to me. I knew people like that.

If it ain't happened to me, I knew people like that. I knew people that got locked up and went away. Every woman, everybody had your husband mess up, your father mess up, trying to get back in his kid's life, their kid's life. I know that. You can't throw nobody away just because they got incarcerated. Every crime is not a violent crime.

That's what prison reform and all that is about. You know? Yeah. I know somebody did 45 years, literally. And I told him when he came to the set the first season, Every song, every word in this song is about you. Second Chances. What do we say in the last OG, second chances is a beautiful thing, man.

I know, I got hit by a truck. I wasn't supposed to walk away from that. That truck was doing 75 miles per hour with 85,000 pounds of frozen food in the back. And I walked away from my... Second chances is that beautiful thing. You woke up this morning? second chance is a beautiful thing, right? Make something happen today.

Forget about tomorrow or yesterday. Not tomorrow, but yesterday. Forget about yesterday. You are a million miles away from that, even though it happened 18 hours ago. It's over. Ain't nothing you can do about it. But the future, we could change.

So what was the inspiration for this show? Because you talked about the accident. The last OG comes from my friend Jimmy Mac who died in the accident. Because he was an OG to me. My first OG is my daddy. But my last OG is Jimmy Matt. He's my OG.

He gave me that knowledge of self as far as show business is concerned. So I named the show after him. He's the last OG. But what was that question again? Well, just the moment in your life when you thought of this show. So it's after the accident and you're thinking about what am I going to do next? What does my career look like? Well, I always wanted to do a show like this.

I always wanted to do a show like this because I know these stories. I'm from this world. Yeah. So I always want to do a show like this. But with comedy, when you look at the last OG, it's not a show about the community. It's a show starring the community. And what inspired me was years and years ago when I first watched Kulee Ha. When I first watched Kuli Ha, I'm like, that's my community.

So I'm doing a show about it. But it's not a black show. It's a human show. Old Asian women, white people, black people, everybody can, identify and relate. And that's how my stand-up is. The truth. The truth is the truth.

Let's not act like crack wasn't here. I know it's a dark premise, but it's we color in it. The thing I like about the last OG is a kind show. She ain't have to let me back in my kid's life after I'm going for 15 years. She told me not to go down there. You saw it.

She told me not to go down there and sell like crack. I did it anyway. I missed out on all of that. That really happened. With my first family, I became Tracy Morgan. I started leaving my wife behind, my first wife. And when I got back to her, she was emotionally gone. So I know what it is to miss that.

I lost my family, drinking, being a star and all of that. I know what I miss. I ain't gained nothing. I don't care about celebrity. I know what I lost. And he lost that. 15 years in prison, you see your kids. You know what I do?

You can't change the path. But you can start being their father now. And that's what Trey Burke is about. That's what Trey Barker is about. I can't get back the time that I lost with y'all. You know your mother's pregnant with you. But I'm here, y'all here, and we're going to start right now the second. I'm your daddy.

And I'm a good man. I just made mistakes. We all do. I was just telling Jews earlier, man, there's no such thing as perfection. As you strive for perfection, you will achieve excellent. That's what's about excellence. It's all about excellence. You mentioned Tiffany Haddish.

You guys have such good chemistry on screen. Off screen, that's because off screen, we like brother and sister. We love, we fight like brother and sister, but we're family. She knows it and I know it. We are family. That's my girl. That's my girl. I've rather die with that.

What do you fight about off camera? Just brother and sister stuff. She's saying I took her sandwich. I ain't taking a sandwich, Tiffany. I seen the sandwich sitting right there. I did not touch it. She walked away and just do this. She always do this.

She sees the tuna fish hanging out. I know you took it. You eating it. It's in your hand. Then we laugh at all in his love. You can't. That's on the screen. Yeah.

When you see the love. It's on the screen. It's on the screen. Tracy Morgan, Tiffany Addis, Cedric, my man, Adam Alamadano, Bobby. Oh, this year we got Method Man coming. It's going to be awesome. You mentioned, too, that it's, yeah, it's funny,

but it's also got heart to it when I'm watching these episodes. It has so. I won't be a part if it doesn't. I learned that and what inspired me with that was watching Busting Loose by Richard Pryor. He was a hustler-con artist, and then you surround him with wayward children. And those children fixed him.

He didn't fix him. These are children that nobody want to love, nobody want. They throw away. It was Sisley Tyson. You remember Bustin loose? Of course. Watching that stuff, classics.

They wind up fixing him. And it's inspired me. That stuff inspires me. I just can't. You know what if in me to watch a movie or TV, I got to get something out of it. They got to move me.

I like to watch Gloria. when Denzel is getting beat and he starts to cry. He's not crying because of the beating hurt him. He's crying because he feels betrayed by Matthew Broderick. Oh, guess who's coming to dinner? The Sidney Portier is arguing with his father. His father is telling him what it should be and this and that. And he starts going crazy on his father.

Then he turns around and comes back for more than that day. Very sick-in, he realizes this is my dad. He turned around and come back. He said, he's about to tear his father enough. His father another . You're my dad. You're my dad. You watch stuff like that.

I notice stuff like that. Jesus Christ. His father's already broken through what you said to him. And you're coming back for more and you realize it. I'll watch Raisin in the Son. I watch Gleng Lerry Glen Royce if you want to study. All of that stuff goes into Glass O.G.

The premise for last year, the first season, was the Godfather. This year might be started. I was. Ben Kenobi. You see Empire Strike Back? Ben Kenobi told him, don't go to the ice planet. Remember the ice planet? Then the ice bear, remember the ice... With the black nail, bruh. Ben. Luke, go to the Dagaba system. There you and me the Jedi master and you remember? Young Skywalker. That's what they called me on the street, Young Skywalker, aka Caligula. How do those go together?

Caligula. I can't tell you that. Treeberg. So the inspiration for this is your life, and I'm thinking about your childhood, the way you grew up between the Bronx and Bed Stuy in the heart of this. Well, when people ask me where I'm from, I just tell them, I'm a Brooklyn dude with a Bronx heart. Okay. I found my heart in the Bronx. Yankee Stadium light up the Bronx, man.

Six months of the year, it's sparking. nostalgia. So that's what inspired me, the people that are new in Brooklyn and the people that I knew in the Bronx. I grew up in Brooklyn. I was born and raised in Brooklyn, but I grew up in the Bronx. That's where I learned to hustle. And you grew up in the middle of the 80s of the AIDS epidemic, the crack epidemic. My dad died of AIDS. I know. You had a lot of tragedy in your life. My oldest brother was born with cerebral palsy. He's two years older than me, but he's my OG. He taught me who I am. Mom and dad broke up when I was sick. My mom's had to let him go.

He didn't go to Vietnam, I'm a junkie. He came back that way. But she got kids now. And she can't have that stuff around our kids. So my mom's went all out. I love my mom. My mom's, you know what I got from my mom's? I get my sons and everything from my dad, but you know what I got from my mom's?

Her stubbornness. She always refused to take no-for-an answer. That's why I'm here right now. So I'm not having it. I'm going all out for mine. I'm going to be funny. I refuse to let the audience spool me. I'm going all out.

I'm going to be paid and all that. That's what I give from my. I love you, Ma. So where does the funny come from? Where does the comedy come from? Both sides. Both sides. I got an uncle named Faddy Love.

He was very funny in the projects. Then I got my dad, who was Richard Pryfutney, the comedy of Vietnam. But you got to understand when you grew up in the ghetto. Being funny took my mind away from being poor. And that goes back to slavery.

entertainment, you pick cotton all day, and you go back to the village, you had to entertain yourself to forget slavery and poverty and picking cotton. So that's where that comes from, the root of it. So it's to compensate

for what's happening in your life every day? The tragedy. Yeah. Because comedy and tragedy is two different names. Plaython. The happy face and a sad face.

My sense of you, and God didn't bless me with material. Never cared about material. Material is right there money who's going on your third eyes clean. He blessed me with a sense of humor. If I can't laugh at it, I'm a cry. I'm dumb crying.

That's why I did the special, staying alive. That was right out that guy hit by the truck. Staying alive. I tell my writers, if you ain't got none of the writers, you go home and argue with your girl, man. I don't do comedy just to do it. I do it when I got something to say. I got to go through some stuff,

ups and downs and turns arounds and all that. gotta go through some stuff then you just inject your sense of humor but you've gone through a lot of stuff I mean you talk about yeah yeah yeah but listen my grandmother said just when you think

things are bad for you it's people out there worse for sure there's somebody out there right now on the street with nobody to love and nobody love them that's what I'm concerned with it ain't about me it's bigger than me

imagine that loneliness is a sad affair A sad affair No question But it doesn't diminish what you went through Yeah I couldn't do some stuff Yeah but nothing that I couldn't handle God put it on on me

Give me the diabetes Get me get it by the truck Just leave my wife And my daughter and my son's alone Let them live I take it all Give it to me I can handle it

I'm strong What was it like Taking care of your dad When he was sick It's a lot for a teenager It was bad. It was bad because I lost him already. I lost him when I was six.

Now I'm going to lose you again. So it was hard for me, but that's still my dad. I got to take care of him. That was hard for me. I lost you when I was six. Now you're leaving me again. But he did what he could do in the amount of time he had. That was giving me knowledge of self.

He taught me who I was. I know who I am and I know what I'm about. I'm a good man. to get what I say. I'm a good man. So you're funny where you live. It's one thing to be funny in your neighborhood. In my house, I don't feel the need to be professionally funny.

But in my house, I don't feel the need to be funny. I don't feel no pressure. Now you're talking about. Yeah, I'm daddy and I'm husband. For sure. But back then, how do you make that leap from being funny in the neighborhood to being funny on a stage somewhere? Everybody can't do that.

I started, because I was on the stage in high school. It started in high school. My peers. I knew being, and it's the same motivation. I knew at high school, I learned at an early age, and I was funny, and the girls liked it. You got the girls if you made them laugh. That falls through today.

I don't care what woman you see. Excuse my French. The thing she loved most in man is this sense of humor. You make her laugh, she's yours. You make her because women are emotional. They got the world on their shoulder. And you make her forget that for one minute and laugh, she's going to love you.

I learned that early. Look at me. And I got the top chair leader because I was funniest one in school. Everybody said, how do he do that? You laugh. But that's one thing. Another thing is being a professional comedian.

Yeah. So what's that first time you step on a stage in a club? What'd that feel like? Listen, this is how it happened. I remember me and my brother Jim, my oldest brother, Jim. We had a friend named Raoul that worked at Def Jam. He was an intern at Jeff Jam. And Jeff Jam had a friend.

just started. And I would watch it. I watched one episode. And Martin Lawrence had me. I said, wow, he looked like me. He sounded like me. He's talking the same stuff I'm talking. And then Raoul got us tickets

to see Jeff Jam. Two weeks later, I saw it. And I was sitting up in the bleachers. Martin down there. Do you know four months later I did the first season? That was four months. Because once I was bit by the buff. Wow.

Once I saw Martin doing it, four months later, I was on there. From the workshop, from that day I saw that, I wanted to do comedy. I want to do stand-up. Martin knows Martin is my OG. I love Martin. I bust my gap for Martin. Martin know that.

I love Martin Lawrence. He knows that. He's my older brother in show business, him at Eddie. I love both of them. And everybody else is my comrades in comedy. Richard Pryor was a king, and we're all just his princes. But if you ask Richard Pryor, he would say, Charlie Chaplin was the greatest.

He did it with no noise. So that's where it started from. My dad was Richard Pryor funny. He was in Vietnam. He was a magician, and he also was funny like Richard Pryor. Listen, when I first started doing comedy, I had a wife and three kids. Okay? After I saw that deaf jane...

And I started wearing a propeller hat, and I was being funny around the neighborhood. And at Rutgers Park. That's where I then I started getting a reputation in New York from being a funny dude. And then I came home one day And I told my wife I was going to do stand-up That was after my drug dealer friend Told me, yo, you never heard

The Uptown Comedy Club? I said, what's the Uptown? And he took me down there And I started going to the workshops And I came home one night And I told my wife, then, my ex-wife God bless her dad I told her I had a propeller ad on

I told her I was going to do stand-up Now by all rights He had three kids She could have been the one And said, what? UPS is hiring You better get a job She didn't

She said, Pull the trigger, Tracy. I know you funny. We got kids in there. I know you funny. But if you start doing this, Tracy, you go to these comedy clubs. It better be about no girls or no fame or no money.

You better do this for a legacy. So she allowed me. All right, she could have said, you better go get a job. She could have got my way and hass with me about doing stand-up. She knew I was going to make it. So this is one of my angels.

Oh, my dad, your people. They got people, they're with me. So I don't feel fair. I face death. Not by no truck. Every day, you don't have to wake up. So when I wake up and I go hard, when I go to the show and I do shows,

I go hard. Then I come home and I go harder as a dad and a husband. Because I don't want my wife to leave me because I became Tracy Morgan and left her behind emotionally. No, I'm there. I'm there. These are my biggest fans.

Matter of fact, they're not my fans. They're my family. They're my kids. They're my wife. So I've got to go all out. Cud's Vito Collillon told Michael, women and children can afford to be a careless. They can afford to be careless.

Men cannot. You don't remember that? When he told Michael that sitting in the garden? Oh, yeah. Because when you ain't on point, and I ain't no point, and we make a mistake, guess who that affects. So I'm on point.

point A day with Mons. Do they think you're funny? They laugh, your kids, your wife? Of course, but when I'm here, you know, when I'm with my wife and my kids and all of that, especially in public, I got my game face on. Yeah. Because I'm not being a comedian here.

That would be so corny. My wife ain't into that like that. She wants a husband. She don't want Brian fellows. Right. She don't identify or relate to him. So I'm not in here doing that. I'll deal with that when I get to the set

or when I get to the show. Right. Not concerned. It's a 30-year career you see sitting here. So Brian Fellows, it's funny you bring that up. So you get the job on Martin, and then it's only a couple years later before you get a call from SNL

to do an audition. How did that come about? Did you know somebody first at SNL? No, I was with my first manager, Barry Katz, my second manager, Barry Katz, who had Dave Chappelle and Jim Brew at the same time. And Jay Moore, and he had all of them.

So he got me an audition. And I was scared to death. Scared to death, but guess what? This young Tracy had nothing to lose. I know if I land this, it's going to change my kid's life. Thank God, Lauren, glad he chose me. Changed me in my kids' world. What do you remember about the audition?

What'd you do that day? Going all out? I don't remember the material. I remember doing stuff from where I'm from. Lauren Michaels was to saw Lauren Michaels, Marcy Kline, and Ryan Shrocky. Point it. That's the one. They knew it was you.

That one. Look. Lorne Michaels is like my daddy. I love him. Like my father. My father died in 1987. And I just think that my father's got him. Take care of my boy.

I love that man. Lauren Michaels. Love that man. And he keeps up with you still, right? You guys talk all the time? What? Whenever I'm in 8, he comes see me. Yeah.

You know I'm in a building? Yeah. You know I'm in a building. I'll call him. I don't spend time wasting my people. If me and you was tight, friends, if I thought about you, I'd call you, pick up the phone. Yeah. You, well, you all right?

Yeah, I'm good. I'll speak to you later. Simple to blame. I don't spend time wasting nobody. Missing nobody, rather. Do I have to miss you? Just call you. That's my thinking.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Tracy. I love it. I'm happy to be in it for a minute. Hey, guys, thanks for listening to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Stick around to hear more from Tracy Morgan right after the break. Welcome back to the Sunday Sit Down podcast, now more of my conversation with Tracy Morgan. Is it important to you, Tracy, to give your kids all those things that you had no access to when you were a kid? But what's important to me is to make sure that my young men, my sons, they're young men.

That was important to me to give them not. What's important to me to give my kids is love and knowledge of self. Once you have knowledge of yourself, can't nobody. fool you. Can't nobody pull a wool over your eyes? Can nobody tell you where you're from? Can nobody tell you where you come, where you're at, or where you're going? You know you've got knowledge yourself. I know who I am. Can't nobody pull a wool over my eyes. And that's important. Because if you don't have knowledge of yourself, guess what? You lost. You lost. You are lost. So that love, especially my daughter. That unconditional love, daddy love, that's my baby.

That's the princess. So she gets a lot of attention for me, a lot of love for me, a lot of affection for me. She gets all that because I'm setting standards for her boyfriend. The first one, you got to fill my father, my father says standards. Now if you don't fit those standards, I can't deal with you. And I will tell him, listen, buddy, it's my daughter. I got a gun, I got a shovel, and I got a goddamn alibi. Treat minds right.

I see how things are going now with men with women, and that's crazy. It's just like gender equality. Well, they were good enough to go to space with us. Why she can't get what I get? We took them in the space shuttle. We took them up in space. We went together, right? Remember when it blew up?

Two teachers on there. Two females were on there? No, I'm all for that. They were also on the ground. I'm all for gender equality. Putting the shuttle up in the air, too, along over years. They were responsible for all that. Yeah.

We're talking about important women in your life, your wife, obviously. My mother? Your mother. We talked about Tiffany a minute ago. What about Tina Faye? What has she meant for you? You're trying to choke me up now. Tina Faye's my sister.

Tina Faye's my sister. When I was going to say, and all the lobby she came, she recognized my funny. That's when you start seeing Judge Judy and all those things. That was her and Paula Pell. Irony. All the women in my life put me on. My mother was the first.

I bought my mother's son for Christmas. And she thanked me so much. And I said, Mommy, stop disrespecting me. She said, what? I said, no, I thank you. I thank you. I thank you. So what do you think Tina saw in you in those early years on S&L?

Funny. A sense of humor. The gift that God gave me, she saw it. Me and her was probably brother and sister in the last life. We're just picking up in this life. That's how I look at it. I've always looked at her like that. We probably, because me and Tina, I love Tina, we're tight.

And we were probably brother and sister in the last life. I was a younger brother, but I beat somebody in the basketball court because they said something to her. They made my sister cry and I came down and I said, I turned it to her. her because I'm like that I'm protective of her now like that. She knows that.

And on the other side of it, what makes her so talented? What makes her so good? Oh, smart. And what she does? Smart. Smart. This lady's very

highly intelligent and her sense of humor. But you know, sense of humor is the highest form of intelligence. She put me, my stage, she took my comedy and my sense of humor

and put her on another level. I adore that. She is, oh, I would be up under her and just listen to a conversation. Because you're going to, and her self-awareness is incredible. I love it. You always learn something new with this girl. I'm just so the attraction is intelligence.

She taught me how to handle my set on the last OG. I've seen the way she handled 30 rocks. She was cool. She was a fearless leader. She was cool with everyone on the set. said. Everybody on the set love to an M.A. for a great work environment. She gave us all someplace safe and loving and warm to work every week. And that's what I bring to the last OJ. You've mentioned a couple times the accident and how it changed you. Wouldn't it change you? Yeah. You get hit by a

semi-truck doing 75 miles per hour, 85,000 pounds of food and food. Guess what? My room wasn't ready. My room wasn't ready. You know how invincible I feel? Not invincible I feel. The only thing on this earth that could ever destroy me is marrying a Kardashian. Why would that destroy you? They are man-eaters. Chew you up and spit you out.

No, I love the girls. They're good. But that's a good funny joke. I'm going to put that on stage. There you go. I'm looking out in the tears. That's good. I ain't Iron Man.

I walked away from that. Forget Robert Donnie, Jr. If you had got hit by Walmart, Chuck, only thing that would have been left like is a spot of blood, tufts of hair, and a messed up Rolex, you know. I am, I, you know, I just feel very fortunate. A lot of people look at me and they say, you're lucky. I said, no, I don't believe in luck. If you want luck, go to Atlantic City or Vegas.

I'm fortunate. I feel very blessed to be here. in this world talking to you. And I don't take that for granted. People who have it faced death don't know what it is. All they know is life. They take it for granted

that they go to sleep and they wake up every day. That's all they know. I faced it. I know what it did to my family and my friends and my fans and people. I know. I was there.

So I'm happy. I'm not mad at nobody. I don't care what they got on. YouTube and all that. I'm not in the mood to be mad at nobody. I'm just not in the mood. I know what I've faced in the last four years. I'm not in the mood.

I know what I lost. I'm just not in the mood. I don't care. What you're saying? I know where I'm at and I know who I am. Like I told you, now that's stuff. Right now I'm in the mood to love everybody, man. It's all good.

It's all good. Because I know one day I could have been gone. I would have been four years my daughter wouldn't have had a father. I'm here. He's still got stuff for me to do. And I know what that is. Spread that love, man. We need it.

We see the world. We need love. We need forgiveness. If I can forgive that Walmart driver, I can forgive everybody. You said you're a better man since the accident. Well, he never did nothing to me. That Walmart driver didn't do nothing to me.

He did something for me. I was able to forgive him, so it made me a better man. Whenever you're able to forgive those, it makes you better. It just makes you a better person. Did you change your comedy, Tracy, the way you saw the world after the accident? I think it made me funnier. Really?

Something happened. It made me funny. I see things sharper, quicker, my timing, my instincts, I'm funny. How do you explain that? I don't know. I can't. I can't. You go through it.

And then people appreciate you a little bit more. Because you survived it. Nobody wants to see anybody get hurt like that. But as far as stand-up, I'm sharper. It might have something to do with the brain trauma. I had to learn how to say my name. I had to learn how to talk. I had to learn how to walk all over again.

All over again. That probably made me work harder. And then I got sharper. That's how I feel. I don't care with nobody else still. There's nobody in my shoes. I know how I was before on stage. Maybe I got lazy.

Maybe it almost, God got away. God said, I'm going to slow you down. I'm not going to kill you. I'm going to hurt you, bang you up a little bit. But I'm going to slow you down because you might miss the blessing. Slow down. In matter of fact, I'm going to use Walmart. Yep.

That's how I felt about it. Was there ever a point in your recovery where you thought I may never return to comedy? I don't know if my brain works the same. Every day, I'm scared of death. Forget comedy. I ain't have no if I was ever going to... I was bigger than comedy, man. I ain't know if I was gonna walk again, man.

I ain't know if I was gonna talk again. I don't know what can happen to me now. Three years from now, five years, I don't know. I took a pretty big bump on the head, man. I'm just living my life. One day at a time. That's all I'm doing. One day I'm doing.

No drama, no nothing. I don't know. where I could be every day, sitting in my wheelchair looking at that YouTube, watching Tina and Kevin and everybody do their thing. You know how depressed I got? My wife was there with me every day for over a year, watching everybody do what I love to do, not knowing if I was ever going to do it again. If I could ever do it again, I remember the first time I took the stage.

It was on a Monday. the day after I went, the day that I went to Saturday Live when I hosted. I was so inspired by that cast because I could just see it was high profile, really high profile, and all those people who were in the pitch meeting, all the cast was just giving their best. And that inspired me, and I went straight from Saturday Night Live to the cellar. And I did seven minutes. And they laughed. They laughed.

In confidence, I started doing it more. And it's confidence. Your confidence grows. Stand-up comedy is only confidence. Funny is confidence. Funny is confidence. You got to have confidence. I'm telling you, women love a man with confidence, man.

Feel like home being on that stage again? Yeah. Seeing y'all laugh. When y'all laughing at this, stand-up's brains, our brains move at the speed of light. Why are you laughing at the speed of light? at this joke, I'm going to raise seven jokes down. I'm going to raise seven jokes way ahead of you.

I mean, I was doing one joke at a time then, but as I got stronger and my legs and, you know, because when I first got on stage, I would sit down for an hour because my legs and my hips were hurting all that. So now I'm strong, you know, doing cognitive therapy and, you know, I was a long time ago. You know, I'm pretty much got my feet and I'm running now. It is special TV show on, so you see the results. But people who haven't seen me ever still asking me, I'm okay. So I like got to relive that every day.

There are people who still, they haven't seen me in the world. And they remember the accident, you know, but there was a life before that accident. I was funny. So I don't know. I just won't be funny again. Like I was and I think I am and more. And the confidence is too. When you get hit by a truck, man, you're confident.

You're still here. You're going to get more confident. Like, yeah, I'm Iron Man. Not to say that I'm not human, I am human, and I still consider others' feelings and all of that. But there's things that I say that are off-color and this and but that's only to make you laugh is only just to be funny. And people laugh at the truth.

They don't laugh at lies. Because lies hurt. If I said some of you is a lie, you go, wait a minute. Oh, come on, what? But if I told you the truth, you can relate and identify with that, because you've been through it too. You've been through it. Richard Pryor taught me that.

Now, this office is my office. Yeah, tell me about this room. This room right here is very special. You see the color and the shades? Yeah. Guess what is based on? Vito Collillon's room, office. Those are the same shades.

Everything is the same. Vito Collillon. Guess what the very first words in the Godfather is? I believe in America. I'm going to get a sign over my door. And then I'm going to get a mortician to come here once a week just to kiss my hand and go, can I be your friend, Godfather? You come here on a day of my daughter's wedding and asks me to commit murder.

I love me, though. I watch that movie every day. When you are channel surfing, you pass Spike TV, you see The Godfather, you bet not turn. You can't be disrespectful like that. That's the Godfather. Because every time you watch it, you're going to learn something new. I just love the idea of your front doorbell ringing. Your wife says, honey, the morticians here.

Once a week. Yeah, once a week. Come in. I need that. I need that in my life. Now, one other thing I'd ask you, because people are going to be. going to see this and they're going to wonder about the heisman you got down there. When did you win the heisman?

I don't remember that. Well, I used to run for Buffalo. But then I got traded over to the charges. And I shared the backfield with Chuck Muncie. But that was when I was in college. I was in college. I bought that off of, was it Hershey Walker? I bought it off of Hershey Walker.

He got two of them. So he sold me one. Fine. Yeah. He's good. I think Hershoe Walker is my second cousin, too. Hershue, we related. We are related, Hershue Walker. And you see, I got a lot of fish tanks around. I love marine life. My great, great-grandfather was Jacques Cousteau. Jacques-Coste Morgan.

Man, you come. Took me in the water, and I just loved marine life. You got them everywhere, too. You got the little sharks. I love marine life. There's things in this room right now that people don't even know it's on Earth. So my daughter's being raised And my daughter's like Marine Life Fanatic too I love it

It's tranquil Helps me relax I just watch the world And it's a whole different world And you've got one that's the size of a swimming pool out there Yeah 20,000 gallons In my backyard And a pool house

There's more water in there than Than in my pool In my pool Really? Yeah 20,000 gallons Wow And what do you do? What do you keep in there?

What do you keep in there? I have sharks. I have black tips, white tips. I have eels, Mori eels. I have a couple of schools of different fish. And I love a bunch.

I have a gray reef, two gray reefs. Wow. From Australia, gray reefs. Yeah. You got it all in here. Well,

well, I want to buy an orca. An orca. Yeah. I'm going to buy an orca. So Elon Musk is sending up Rocket Ones now. And I'm going to try to get hit by one.

though. I'll be on Easy Street then I can buy a walk-off. That's a great way. Once I get about the Rocket 1. Oh, man. You were too good. Thanks, Ben. That was fun. Thank you. My thanks again to Tracy for an incredible conversation and for opening up his home to all

of us. Season 2 of his show The Last OG premieres Tuesday, April 2nd, on TVS. And thanks as always to you for tuning in every week to hear more of the extended conversations with all of my guests. Be sure to click subscribe to you never miss an episode. And as always, don't forget to tune in to Sunday today every weekend on NBC. I'm Willie Geist. We'll see you back here next week on the Sunday Sit Down podcast.