The Right Time with Bomani Jones - Roy Wood gets real about fatherhood, comedy journey & cancel culture | 11.05

Episode Date: November 5, 2025

Roy Wood joins Bomani Jones to discuss his new book. "Man of Many Fathers". Roy kicks off the show by describing his ideal cohosts for his CNN show and explaining the motivations behind his new memoir. Roy describes the lessons he learned from his job, his father's own shortcomings, and the lessons he wants to pass down to his own son. He then details some of the mistakes he made in his youth and why they have turned him against the idea of cancel culture. 08:00 - Back in my goodness 16:30 - Pros and cons of a great work ethic 27:00 - The inspiration of avoiding prison 35:00 - The Dangers of Cancel Culture Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the right time, a wave original. My name is Beaumani Jones. Thanks for listening wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for watching us on YouTube. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater. It is the time of week where we have a guest join us.

And this time we had to do some a different way. He is the author of Man of Many Fathers, soon to be best-selling awful. Roy Wood Jr. Sir, what's going on? Greetings, greetings. It's just a blessing to be in the building in here with the cash money millionaires. They're bawling like I've never seen. Ain't no toilet people in the bathroom, just some tens and some 20s.

That's such a Bun B thing to say. It's an old cash money album. And Bun B said that on like an outro. Yes. Just a beautiful way to enter a track. Blessing, blessings, ready to be in the building. Also, a man that you don't necessarily associate with jokes.

Very funny, though. Yes, he is. Yo, I have been pushing CNN to get Bun B on Have I Got News for you. They are sleeping on my man's political IQ, bro. They're sleeping out. They're not going to be my spot, is it? No, we have more than one black.

I know you have more than one black, but I just know my spot might be tenuous. I mess around. Okay, to hip-hop black, too. And I was like, hey, Lance, hit them up. Let them know I free all these other weekends. I love what you do on the show. I think Bund B would be a great addition.

I really think there's a Cameron and Mace world. I don't think they would do it, because it's mainstream media and they kind of operate to the left of, you know, the mainstream situation by design. But I don't know. There's a lot of interesting

black folks that I want to get on that show, man. Erica Badoo. Yeah, I feel like though you put Erica Badoo or Cam and Mace and it's not your show no more. That's fine. Yeah, yeah. That's just the one thing about it is

that you have just hired two executive producers as Bill O'Reilly about what happens when you make that call. Bro, Erica Badu is one of the low-key, well, it's out now, but she's hilarious. She's one of them people that, you know, for a long time folks said she would call Ricky Smiley's morning

show just to roast Ricky. She wasn't promoting nothing. No concert, no show. I just called to tell Ricky his teeth, and I can hear him, crooked teeth. She said something about, I can hear your breath on the radio. How you hear bad breath? Like, just

just funny, just a funny person. She told that academics fella with the long set up that you remind me of somebody, I just can't think of who, and let that sit for tens of minutes before coming

back around and looking at him and saying Jerry, Jerry the mouse. That's who you remind me of. Jerry the mouse. What do I do at this point? I agree it. Accurate.

And I will also say this. Erica Badu can say and Erica Badu apparently can do to Baidu. Having jokes on top of all that is just a little bit unfair. You are

that fact you are actually now terrified. You know, I've thought about that though. When they start making hip-hop movies about everything that's happened in this era of hip-hop, which eventually they will. I think I got a good chance to throw my name and a hat to play DJ academics. I think I could put it off.

I got a round enough face. I could throw in a hoodie, sit at an off-angle streaming camera. Yeah, but don't you need to be like 15 years younger? I don't know. First off, now, see, not you being disrespectful. No, he's not old, is he? He's not 46.

Academics not 46, but he ain't 21. I didn't say I play Kaisenat. Jesus, for mine. No, I'm saying that is somebody who is the same age as you. It views himself as being much older than academic. You could use me up. You could, you, black in the, put the Beijing on me. And boom, I'm academics.

Look here. I can be 31. You know what? I have to apologize. And the reason I have to apologize is you humbling yourself so much already to be willing to play academics that I did not need to also be like, you do a little bit of that shit. You're right. You're right.

I'm wrong in this situation. Yo, why, why, I gotta give a shout out to Van Lath and Rachel Lindsay over a higher learning man. Why they was asking me what Silver Rights character I could play? And I couldn't think of it at the time. And I said, Dr. King, of course. But the answer is John Lewis. You could do John Lewis. You're a little tall to be both of them, either of them, because they was both point guards, scat-backs.

If you will. You say Dr. King was Warwick done? Yeah, yeah. That's kind of where I'm going. Like, not trending holiday, right? Like, that's going a little bit too far in that direction. But yeah, you know, but he had a locker room presence. Yeah.

Yeah. It's one of those things. First of all, I'd never play anything. I think I've been on TV too much to where you know it to me. I can't disappear into it. Like real actors go away for months at a time and you don't see him. And then you see him bald and you be like, oh, he must be getting ready to play a bald role. I'm on TV too regularly.

It just, I don't know. I don't think I could disappear like that. Okay. I can see that. Now, we'll talk about this book. And for people, you know what it's about me. If I come in here and I'm holding the book up, it's because I actually did read it. I ran through it.

It is a good read. It is a quick read. It is an enlightening read. called The Man of Many Fathers. And I have watched many of these interviews with you about this book. And I have found that many people have gone in that direction. But I have a spin or a thought on what this book is in part, and I am curious your thoughts. Before I get to that question, I want to ask this.

And if you're not watching on YouTube, you're missing out. I sent this question at your event in New York and you did not answer it. Why are you looking at us like this? Man, I don't know how to take no picture for no book. Like, I'm just asking, like, what are we trying to convey with this one right here? Well, it's just, hmm, who am I? Do you know who I am? Because every photo, that's a painting by this wonderful black woman, Cashman Thompson.

I know Cashman. And so Cashman, I'm like, read the book. And then for each chapter, just do what you think the father would look like. And then I'm in a collage with some of the fathers. Is this me? Which one is me? You do look like somebody. daddy. I do have to say that, that there is a daddyish element to what's going on here to bring it

full circle. The only thing I knew for sure I didn't want was no sweaters. I don't want to be in no sweater or no book cover doing anything. And then with the hand, with the fingertip hands, well, you know, you do this and you look you? All right, I don't want to do none of that. I want to do not of that. Every time of this book had a lot of that I loved. And what I found myself going back to was a very healthy dose and healthy presentation of back into my day goodness. Like, I was struck in going back through this story with you to being when you're very small and going all the way up of the ways that we lived and how different they are from the life that your son will live.

This book is kind of a letter to your son about life. You think you're tied to Hossie Coates in this motherfucker, right? And so, like, when you get back to like the way, that kids played in the streets and the things that we did. It was like, oh, yeah, we used to do that. And one thing I thought that was interesting is you made reference and used the term latchkey about your upbringing.

And I look at it and I'm like, damn, mine kind of was too. And I thought that was the coolest part of growing up. Like we was out here making moves, making it happen. Grown adult decisions. And it wasn't even until I wrote the book and I really reflected on when I went to Clarksdale every summer. My mom sent me to Clarksdale for two months

to be with my grandma and aunties. we never saw adults until late in the afternoon, bro. Like, just didn't see. My aunt Rose would make breakfast. She would leave and go to work. My grandma at the house, my grandma sleep most of the afternoon. We'd come back in about 1 o'clock, get food, and then be back out the door. And we would be outside, like, you'd see the postman at 2,

and then the mosquito truck was spinning a block about 4-4-30. And that was it. unless my uncle Derek came by to make a plate and he was the dog catcher and he would bring a dog and my uncle would have the same dog in the truck all day to make it look like he working. Then free the dog at the end of his shift.

So he could go catch him again. Catch him again tomorrow. Church's chicken wing and a honey biscuit. That dog be right there waiting on it on time. You know, animals can tell time. They got a feeling because he knew when my uncle was coming around that. corner and he'd happily get in that truck fresh cold water chinking in a biscuit yeah i'm riding with

you all day big dog it's you and me but i was just think all the advice that you give is so interesting because the time is such a character in this book and the setup of the book is you're talking about different men in your life that you've met right and and and gained some wisdom yeah it's like either by learning from what you did or what you did not do right yeah yeah this was a concept, man. Like I thought the idea of how to do that, of course, like starting with your mother and then working all the way around is it really is so much game that you pick up in this world off these small

moments with people that don't necessarily realize that they really did it. And a big part of it, and I want to talk about this kind of first is overarching thing as I think about is the importance where I think you and I grew up with similar parents, though, in a different class dynamic, right? Like I never had to go get money to pay no bills, which is something that you talk about here. However, being the child of learned parents comes with a certain exposure that you wind up having

and an expectation of what life is going to be that is largely due to that. And where you really start learning about the world is if you can get you a job as a teenager, it is your first foray into actual factual adulthood because you're not a teenager when you're on the clock. You are there. And like now you are a child among men, but we're all men.

Yeah, and I'm going to talk to you like a man. And I'm a treat you like a man. And sometimes I'm going to slap you cross the face like a man. And that's just what is going to be. And you go, oh, wow, this is nothing like dealing with my scoutmaster or the youth pastors or all these, the camp council, all these people who's supposed to legitimately care about my upbringing and matriculation into the world. No, your coworker don't care.

Your coworker don't care. In the least, bro, I used to work with Cats at Subway. They come to work crying. And I'm 16. And I know I'm supposed to like ask you Well, what's wrong? Hey, man, it's a line out the door, dog. I worked a subway by UAB Hospital.

Do you understand the lunch rush at a hospital location of any food establishment? A sandwich shop in particular because everybody likes sandwiches. And they order them for the whole floor. Every nurse got eight sandwiches. You got the little sheet where everybody wrote down I want a six inch with bell peppers first,

then the mustard on top of the bed. And you in the corner crying, your wife and a divorce you. I'm sorry, but also I need you to come fix these sandwiches, bro. But then that taught me the importance of choosing the right person. Because I can see how, especially in stand-up comedy, man,

I've seen how choosing a wrong partner can pollute so many different layers of your existence, man. That is not good at all. So it just became this path of, all right, let me write about some of these folks. And like if I made the decisions, my son is born and I make a decision, all right, if I pass before he's old enough for us to have some grown man conversations over Cognac, let me write some things down for him.

And the more I started writing, I was kind of looking at, well, why do I believe that? Why? Okay, don't, don't have a good partner. Why? Well, what were some examples of bad partners? you know remember that time he was at that dude house and his wife cussed him out and then y'all went to do the gig and the gig canceled and then he started crying because he knew his wife was going to cuss him out even more yeah that's probably a good story to tell and so it just started becoming this long word document and the more I looked at it bro

the more I just felt like all right this is a book so let me just start putting this together and then figuring out what to cut. You know, that, that was the biggest battle was how much of my childhood. Because I'm my mom's only child. I'm the ninth of 11 kids by my dad. So I ain't get a full 100% present father. Pops was an OG and a veteran in the journalism community. His contributions to Black America through the microphone, Wikipedia of that. It's a journey. And there's plenty. of paragraphs to read. He earned every, every syllable of praise, but also, sometimes you can't come home. So in the days you ain't come home. And if a bill needed to be paid, and the bill wasn't paid because you was the bread, went on, well, then I got to go out here and

work. I'm 13. I'm working 30 hours a week. I'm raking leaves. I'm sweeping parking lots at convenience stores. Like, any hustle I can come up with in the neighborhood that ain't dope, I'm on it. We washing cars. I wish I'd have known about dog walking back then. That ain't really something you see in the hood that much anyway. Because everybody got a yard and the dog just shit in the yard. But I would have, man, I would have done that.

I would have washed animals like anything. And it's weird because like I want to, you tell me if this is a good idea. I really want to do a scholarship for C. students. And I don't know the best way to go about setting that up because I was a C student in high school. I had a two two out of high school. Matter of fact, at the second lowest GPA in my high school, the dude below me had been expelled. So you get pulled to the side by your principal when you 16, 17, and you need to quit walking these halls and blah, blah, blah. And I'd already peeped game. I knew if I killed an ACT,

none of this shit y'all talking about in class day-to-day matter. So I'm going to go get this 25 right quick on this ACT. I know any black college would be happy to have me with a 25. It'll offset the GPA because you can't explain why are you a C student. Well, because my parents be beefing sometimes and sometimes bills don't get paid. So I work beyond the Alabama fucking child labor law guidelines to make sure that there's heat. in the house. So yeah, I didn't do Ms. Shaw's American History Project last night. My bad. So this idea of work ethic and everybody will say it like when you're grown, right,

people will go, oh, you got a work ethic, man, you're a hustler, you are grinder and always grind. But when I really stopped to look and reflect on why, is it work ethic or is it a trauma, response. So now, now that you've discovered that about yourself, is work ethic something you really want to pass down to your child? And if so, why? And how? Because now you have to teach work ethic without inducing trauma. And that becomes the challenge as a parent is trying to figure out how to give them the things that made you you benefit from, but that were triggered by something negative. You know what I'm saying? Like how do you create a positive impulse for a positive life trait? I don't know. All I can do is write a book and go, hey man, I work real hard because

there was a time of my life where if I didn't work real hard, might have been hungry, lights might have been all sleeping fully clothed in a cold-ass house. So I just never wanted that for myself. So I just always work hard because I don't trust that anything is going to be. I'm I left the Daily Show. We talked about this before. I was like, I don't trust this shit. Y'all got a merger coming. You don't know who the host's going to be.

I don't know. I know I'm not going to be the host. So I don't know if the new host is going to choose. Man. I love y'all, but let me go figure out something else. This is the time to figure it out because there's an election coming. Oh, CNN? Don't want to do something?

Bet. Perfect timing. It's always worked out, bro. But I just think dissecting why there's certain pieces of me are me. It's important for my son to understand why. I don't want to just grow up and go, my dad was always a hard worker and he was always gone. But that's why I'm a hard worker. Slow down.

Let's look at it. Well, I can give you some insight on that one. Because what struck me as I was hearing you talk about that, was I remember getting my first, like, actual factual job. And I was just trying to stack a little money to save up for the prom without having to get that money from my parents. Because I hadn't understood that all the people I went to high school with had jobs because that's what they had to do to get money. And my parents wasn't giving me no money. So it was like, oh, you go get a job.

This is how it works. But what I didn't fully appreciate until I started working the job, they basically had hired me at this job at Fuddruckers Busting Tables because they were trying to run this one woman off the job. She was not saving for the prom. She had a 10-year-old. You understand what I'm saying? And I went in there one week, and they gave me 35 hours. I had just started that job. They gave me 35 hours, brother.

And she used to be real sour to me. And I didn't really understand this until he dogged on me. You are trying to use me to fire this woman, at which point I fully realize, oh, these are what the stakes are for people that are out here having jobs. And then had that day where the line went out the door and they had sent everybody home on the floor except for me. And I almost died. I really almost died. And that was the day that I realized. Oh, the work ethic was developed because I understood, I now understood what the rules were. You know what I mean? Like that's what I was thinking as I was reading you talking about like having all these jobs and how your perspective was very often different from the people who worked these jobs. But having those jobs, I took that less as you having a trauma response than you were. informed by the people that you were around, this is actually how the world works, no matter what you thought before you got here. These are the states.

Yeah, but then also working those jobs, it's like, okay, I know that this is not what I want to keep doing forever by having that as an example. Like you work, man, so when I used to travel, so, man, did I ever tell you how I discovered day labor? I think I read it in the book, but I don't think you told me. No, I don't think I told that. I talked about working day labor in the book, but the first time I ever worked day labor. All right.

So you're not even had a fundraiser for like the candy and the Katie Dids and the chocolate turtles and all of that. So my high school ROTC unit, we were selling the candies. And you sell candy for three months and you collect money. And then after three months, you turn all the money in. And then two months later, the candy come and you give it out to everybody to order the candy. bro they they folks was paying my mom's friends they're paying me they give me like $20 here $15 there I got like $300 in the house that's supposed to be for the candy man I wouldn't have spent that shit I don't even remember what I bought I know I went to

Century Plaza Mall and I went there was a store called sports fantasy and you're not like small cities like smaller cities in the south you only had one store that had out of town sports memorabilia in the 90s. Like, you wasn't going to get a Dolphins chalk line jacket anywhere but sports fantasy. And the idea of ordering out of catalog that was just, eh, there's too much trouble.

Man, I bought a Dolphins chalk line jacket and the next day my sergeant moved up the deadline to turn in the money by three weeks. You motherfucker. And so, I had to go and start working daily work, daily paid jobs

immediately after high school. As soon as I leave work, so now I'm working night jobs. I'm like, it's any job after dark for day labor, you wish you was working construction or cutting grass. You're cleaning trash cans, you spraying out trash trucks, you, the grease truck, oh my God, bro.

So like, you know, every fast food spot got the there's a dumpster and then there's a grease like that when you take the deep fry grease that goes in a separate thing separate from the dumpster clean all the concrete around that real quick big dog and then I'm going to need you to go inside and we're going to do a deep clean on all these deep fries and it's a school night I know you work until one in the morning it's cool your mama really you know she know you out you just say you're working late and you had a double shift she don't like it but what she gonna do you gonna come get me you ain't gonna come to the job and get me you gotta get up for work so man it was like working those jobs being around those dudes

grown men in the 40s and it's like for them this is life and that's an honest day's work but i know you did not choose dump grease trap from back of wendy's when you was 18 when they made you write in your yearbook what you want to be one day. So I just never wanted that for myself and being around those types of people. It was like these like reverse reverse inspiration

because I'm just around somebody with this is just sad. I don't want to keep doing this. What do I need to do to not do to get back in FAMU and graduate? Let me tell you, I got lucky and I'm going to say this for the other side. I have a story my brother has that is right in line of what you were talking about.

I'll mention that in just a moment. All right, we are back with Roy Wood Jr. The Man of Many Fathers. That is the book. Go check that out. And my brother tells this story. I got lucky. I got an older brother.

He's 13 years older than me. So he caught a lot of ills that I did not have to catch. Right. That's like having an assisted daddy. Yes, that is exactly what it is. Right. Right. It is somebody at the perfect midpoint who also, you know, was learning somebody less is the hard way, shall we say, right? And so I remember he had graduated from college and he had gotten some job. He didn't. That wasn't working for whatever reason. And so he's at the crib. And, you know, my mom was not feeling this at all, right? He's at the crib. So he got to do something with himself. And so he goes and he gets the job at the Home Depot. And at that time, my brother. was a pretty big dude and he's young.

So you know what they're giving him the job that you got to put the back brace on, right, to do those things. But, you know, in the end, he is a college graduate who is working at the Home Depot. And at some point, while he's working at the Home Depot, he said one of the old heads came over, and this is very similar to a story that Roy tells in his book, said when the old heads come over and it's like, hey, man, let me talk to you for a second. It's like, look, man, I see you. and I can tell you smart

and the managers they know you smart too but let me tell you something that attitude you keep acting like that and you ain't never go make it to our manager and my brother had never really set any goals

for his path at the Home Depot and the idea that there was upward mobility in this was aside to him that it was time to do something with his life. I'm washing lettuce, soon as fries, then it's front counter. And that's when the big bucks started rolling in. Just a couple of years, huh?

Right? There's something that happens in a moment and there's no way to put it, but where you realize, this is not my journey. I am here right now, but there is a path that goes with this that I am not going down.

And somebody will come to you, and be like, hey, man, you know, you're on the right track for really making it in this place. And it makes you be, oh, hey, hey, buddy. Yeah. But then I have people like that in my life who said it to me like that. And then people also in my life who showed it to me by dying or going back to prison.

You know, the idea of being on the straight and narrow and being around people who were on the straight and narrow and then seeing people get knocked off. You know, I worked at Golden Corral, and I talk about it a little bit in a book, about how, and this was something that also wasn't until I sat down and really looked at it, and I was like, damn, man, Golden Corral was the first time I really felt like forgiveness was possible

after I got arrested. And not only that, I learned that you have to forgive yourself when you've made a mistake. Because society wants you to live an apology and everybody sets a different bar for what they deem is an acceptable amount of atonement for you to have offered up. How much a pound of flesh?

Somebody won't a pound and a half. Then who are you? So being around, you know, I go to Golden Corral after I steal lease credit cards. I'm on probation. And Golden Corral is my first job while I'm on probation. and I think I'm going to get fired when my PO finally has to come up and do the in-store visit to verify that you work there. And I'm in that bitch nervous because I lied on the application.

I'm like, hey, man, I have never been to. Oh, no. I have never. I'm a good server, though, sir. And I've been in there four months, four or five months, and I'm killing it. Everybody love me. I'm cracking jokes on the floor. I'm helping.

I'm doing other people's side. I'm one of them servers where I'll do your sidework for you because you got too, you got set late when you're supposed to be doing your side. I'll clean your salt and pepper shake. Man, my PO came in that thing, man, and I was so nervous because you just feel like, all right, they go on, you know, this is the bull. Come to find out that half the start.

store was on probation because Golden Corral had an owner who believed in giving second chances to people with convictions. Not only was I not in trouble, bro, my manager was thrilled that I was on probation because it meant they could get a back tax credit for the four months I had already been working there. He was like, oh, this is great. And I got, and I got. I got enveloped in warmth by all of these cats in the back who had also made mistakes, but were committed to having a different outcome in their life. And so they stayed on me. They checked on me.

And you think that you are surrounded by people who are intent on doing better. But all they said, all one of them said was I'm never going back to jail. And so when someone tell you they're never going back to jail, the assumption is, I intend to live a wholesom-som, no, died in a shootout with the Tallahassee police. And that's something that was just jarring at the time, because it's like, oh, oh, you weren't necessarily saying that on a positive. You were saying you were so intent on living right that if it ever comes to you having to go back to prison, you would choose death.

And he slipped up, police came to get him, and he left in the body back. And you think about people like that, and you go, all right, well, whatever was in prison that he experienced, that made him choose a shootout over going back to that, I don't ever want to learn what that is,

So let me go and get this degree right quick and stop bull up and around. Let me go and get this degree. That lesson is as impactful as any big brother, big sister, or any one of my mama's college friends who go, hey, Roy, you need to get your education. Yeah, because that's what happened when I was on probation. My mom had all these alphas and Q dogs coming by the house. My mama had all these, you know, them big muscular frat brothers. You know, they show up in the tight t-shirts.

Look, I love Divine Nine, but all your t-shirts be too tight, the Negroes. Hey, Roy, what's going on, brother? Your mama say you're down there in Tallahassee messing up. What's happening? You need to get that education straight. That helped, but the lesson of my coworker who feared prison so much in the institution of incarceration to the point of making that choice of death, that's impactful. And I have to acknowledge that, and that has to be documented.

And that has to be something that for my son to be able to consume and see at some point. But, you know, that store, like Golden Corral is also like to a large part, bro, this ain't in the book. I'm just talking to you now. But like, that's why I don't really like rock with cancel culture in a way that I think a lot of other people do. Because I spent a year with people just trying to cancel me. and you know I made this mistake and I'm suspended from school at this point they wanted to expel me from FAMU but my pops used to teach there my mama graduated there so it was enough people within the administration where I we're going to work some strings look you got we got to sit

you down for a year but when you come back you're going to get you back in the you know we can get you back in the fall and even when I got back in school I was wasn't allowed to do anything. Like, I was on every form of, it's not just academic probation. I forget what the other probation is called in college, but it's the one where you can't do shit. Like, you just go to class.

That's all you can do. You can go to class, you can go to the library, you can go to the bookstore. That's it. You can't go to no games. You can't go to no tailgate. You can't go to no party. Oh, ESPN is on the set doing college gang.

Take your ass home. You can't talk. pledge nothing. You can't play intermural, nothing. Like, straight up, just, I had to get an exemption to do, to write for the campus paper when I got back in school. Because that was pertinent to my degree. But during that time, there was a, there was a bomber. I can Google his name. I think it was Lawrence Lombardi. But there was a bomber. There was a terrorist leaving pipe bombs around the campus of Florida A&M University. And

and this is like peak black church bombings, late 90s, early 2000s when that type of intimidation was that type of terroristic intimidation was happening to black folks. And they're trying to catch this bomber.

Like every, like once or twice a week a pipe bomb is blowing up on Famuse campus somewhere in a bathroom. Nobody's getting hurt. But you never know the next one might be the one. Bro, the FBI came to the campus and started rounding up students out of the classrooms.

Straight coming to classroom, we're looking for a surgeon and Roy Wood Jr. Coming out in the hall. And you're getting questioned by the feds on whether or not you're a terroristic threat to the university that you're paying money to, by the way. Why would I bomb this shit

and still be in class? Like the idea of being suspected for that because I'm on behavioral probation with the school. And then students in the hallway seeing who was questioned. And now you got people pulling your paperwork and sending your paperwork on the low back to the campus paper, back to the Tallahassee Democrat to try and get articles written about you to get you expelled. sending articles to the professors who teach you trying to get them to give you an F. Send an articles to the deans of your apartment.

Sending your arrest paperwork to the head of your department to try and get you expelled. And then you couple that with at the time, I had one or two friends, but I was not cool, no more. I got arrested. Like, I was the plug for two years. I was the dude, cheap food, cheap PlayStation games, cheap clothes, whatever you needed. I got it. anything but drugs, which ironically is what I almost call my business. Anything but dope.

Anything but drugs. And so you're socially ostracized. And even if I wanted to hang on campus, I can't because it's a literal violation of my re-enrollment. So you are alone and you are on an island and you are surrounded by people who want to do nothing but remind you that you're the sum of your mistake. And that's not the truth. So Golden Corral was the first spot when I got back out into the world

that embraced that, that embraced me. It's like, yeah, you made a mistake. So have we. And here's how we keep from making mistakes again. And it gave me this sense of, well, fuck y'all to everybody else that was still judging me. I got to a place where you have this realization that you don't need other people's permission to be a better person.

I don't need you to forgive me. I've forgiven me. And I've set forth a path and you will look and observe as I walk this path and let that be the testament of whether or not you think I'm a decent person. But this idea of doing any type of permanent song or dance in the moment when people hate you, you're never going to get them folks back on your side. But, you know, it's love now. And I'm not trashing the university.

I'm just telling you what the state of affairs was, with particular people within the school. You know, the FBI is the FBI. They just going to always harass. But the idea of there being people who didn't want to forgive me, you know, that hurt at the time. But what I didn't realize is that I never needed their approval to make better choices.

I just started making better choices. I will say this. And I've known you for about 10 years now. And I knew about the story that involved you getting arrested. I don't think I realized how close you were to doing, like, actual factual time. Five years. I was told five years. Expect to do three year and a half good behavior.

I go to court that day. It was a different judge because the other judge was out and I got probation. No clue why. No, could not tell you any. My lawyer was just as shocked as me. My lawyer, damn to mummered under his breath. Mr. Wood would be given your probation. You bullshit.

I mean, it also doesn't sound like something you should get actual factual time for, but it sounded like it was actual factual time coming down to- remember, though, this is a different Tallahassee at this time. This is the 90s. At that time, at that time, the murder rate,

Tallahassee averaged less than 10 murders a year, maybe five or six. I think they're well over, they're in their 50s now. It's become a lot worse, but at that time, anytime you catch a young black teenager. I'm 19.

Oh, we got one. And then honestly, like what's C murder say? Probation for 10 years don't mean you free. There's more people on papers than in prison. So honestly, that is just a setup to get you tripped up back into the, because now you have to keep a job. Well, what if your car breakdown and you in a city with a terrible, local transportation. How you keep your job? You don't. That's a violation. Come on back to jail,

big dog. Got to have gainful employment. Got to have a gainful place of residents. Can't live with no felon. So if you live with one, you got to move out. Can't find nowhere to live because you ain't got no job. You can't get first last month. And I don't want you staying here because you were felon. I don't know what kind of trouble you're bringing. So now you can't find know where to live. That's a violation. Come on back to jail, big dog. So, you know, yeah, I was bro, my house was packed. I did what my lawyer told me to do. He said, get your affairs in order. I had six months. So here's how I happen. I get arrested Thanksgiving and 98. I go to an open mic that December. January comes around and I plead guilty. Senate scene is in June. Because I pled

guilty, I get suspended from school because I stole the credit card from the campus post office where I had a work study. So because I committed a crime on campus, violation of student code, you're officially suspended from the school. That's January. Top of February comes. I get a financial aid check for $7,000 for classes I'm no longer taking. And I'm going to prison in June. But I was out that bitch like Brewster's million. I have. What does this matter? I'm going to prison.

So I like doing comedy. It's the one thing I enjoy. I got this job of Golden Corral just to mess around until I go to jail, just some way to get out the house for 20 hours a week. I'm going to just use his money

and just ride the bus and go do open mics all over the south. That's what I want to do. So that's what I'm going to do. And that's what I did. I worked to Golden Corral and I wrote the bus every week. And then June came

and dude gave me probation. And then September came and fam, you let me back in school. And then December came and my mama bought me a car because she found I was sleeping in the bus station. And that's how the career started. And it sucks that it takes

hitting a bottom like that to go, all right, what was that thing I really wanted to do when I was 13? All right, I'm going to do that. I should try that now at 19. Man, I was 13, bro. I ain't even know Birmingham had a comedy club. Not only did it have a comedy club,

it's to this day, one of the most premier clubs in the country. And people think, oh, Birmingham. Birmingham was part of the stand-up boom in the 80s. And you could, there's flyers on the wall at the comedy club starred on, bro. Steve Harvey MC, Seinfeld Feature Act, headliner Sinbad.

Like, just murderers' row. of just comedy. And I just was never, like, I never, we never went to that side of town. Did you, did you ever, like, just, was, like, not go to the white side of town till it was shopping? See, like, to, like, to,

I live on it. But, but, um, my friends who did not would act like they were going to bars when they were coming to our house. Yeah. Bro, I, I, I, we never went to Hoover. We never went to the suburbs. Oh, you asked a thing, too.

Houston wasn't quite apartheid out, quite like the Alabama Mississippi situation. Oh, yeah, Birmingham is like, all you Negroes is over here. And we call it over the mountain in Birmingham. You have to literally go over a mountain. And then there's Whiteville. So the idea of even knowing, not knowing,

like here's the thing I'm curious about, and I don't know anything about it. And I didn't even feel comfortable sharing it with my parents. So when you take that lesson and you flip it as a father, well, I'm on my son face. What you like, bro? What do you want to do? He mumbled anything.

We're going to read about it. We're going to learn about it. And eventually we're going to go and try and do something tactile with it. You're in aviation. Cool. We're going to hit all these museums. All right. You got a little interest in that?

You still got interest? All right, cool. Let's play around with some VR flight simulator. You still like that? All right, cool. Let's see if I can get a plug. Like, I didn't really tell. yo, I've tapped in to like, man,

black college alumni networks, man. I'm so blessed, bro. Like, I got a friend. I saw you had a picture with your son touching an airplane wing on your Instagram from three years ago. My homeboy, he works air traffic control in Chicago. If you ever want to go into air traffic control tower at old hair,

and I'm like, yeah. And so the idea of his dreams will get water or you would at least know what the world has to offer so that lack of knowledge because your parents just had the heads down trying to work,

that's not going to be the reason that your progress is impeded. What would my life have been if I knew that comedy club was out there? Or if I just shared it with my mom, hey, I like watching, she'd come home and see me watching Comedy Central and imitating Eddie Murphy, imitating Simbad.

We'd watch George Wallace. We could watch George Wallace and Simbad. Who knows? I don't think Simbad good enough credit either, man. That man did a live primetime comedy special on network television with commercial breaks. That is the most wildest shit. Like for all of this, I'm live on Netflix.

Cool. but can you do comedy and perfectly time a four-minute commercial break in the middle of your comedy which means you're still doing comedy while the commercials are airing and when we come back from commercials merge perfectly back into a new bit

that the people watching at home didn't see? Hey man, Simbad was the top of the marquee star the number two TV show in America. It is very easy to forget that. That man, yo, I grew up watching him and like that was that was like the impetus for like, oh, what is this comedy thing? But I just buried it.

You just put it in your back pocket because you don't think anybody cares about your dream. You think your dream don't matter. You think it's too massive of a mountain to climb. So you just don't pursue it. So for me, it took having everything almost taken away from me for me to get to that place. But then from that going through that thought process, you go, okay, how do I mean? make sure my son doesn't walk around unaware of whatever his comedy club is. And that's to talk to him.

That's to have interactions with your kids. That's to see what they're interested in and try and learn it. Be a part of it. And then maybe they'll share the next thing. Man, I got to learn Spanish and the fucking trombone this year. Just so I can be close to this boy. And I'm going to do it. and then you're going to watch.

In two years, I'm going to be the first trombone comic. I'm going to be up there. The way they'll be playing the piano and the guitar stay, I'm going to have a whole ass trombone. Let me tell you something. It wasn't that easy for me to tell people when I was finishing school that I wanted to start writing about music and stuff. I can't imagine running up all people being like,

I'm about to go tell these jokes. Don't worry. It'll be fine. Yeah. You can't. And even when I had. under control, my mom was still like, eh, eh, eh. Because when I graduated college, I ain't had no choice but to keep doing stand-up because I couldn't get no internship in journalism because of the

conviction. But it didn't matter because I was always doing stand-up. So I graduated college. My projection for 2001 was I was going to make 17-5 doing stand-up. I had two job offers that were going to pay 14. So I go to my mom and I go, look, let me move back in with you. I'm going to make 17 this year. If I don't make more money the following year, let me stay with you up to three years. All I need is three years and I think I can get this stand-up money to 60,000. I've done the math. I do merch. I'm 17 this year. I should be 25. that should go to 40 and then it should be 60. And I moved out the next year.

I was making almost 50K. I was driving hella far to make it, but I was making enough to pay for a $525 month townhouse of Alford Avenue, which was almost over the mountain. It's at the top of the mountain right before you come down in the Whiteville. It was like the perfect, you're almost there, Negro. You're almost there. It was like eggshell

It was like cream Almost like Yeah but yeah I would get on the road Man I would work day labor In cities I would donate plasma

Which is just weird Like I don't know if you ever been in a room With people giving up fluids for money No man I'm just driven past the plasma joint Man I went somewhere once where the Goodwill Was right next to the plasma

And it was the saddest parking lot I'd ever seen in my life Yeah man The plasma parking lot Look like a truck stop but no trucks. It's everybody in the unwashed hoodie in the past every damn test. But you get $75 for an hour, bro.

That's what they was paying in Tallahassee. 75 for an hour. All you got to do is sit here for an hour, do this with your arm, they get your little squeezy. And I'm just sitting there reading homework. I ain't gonna lie If I knew you could get 75 for it I might have tried it myself

and I ain't even really need the money You can only do it twice a week though So it ain't a super lit Yeah, 75 at a time though big dog like Oh yeah I was hurting them Well that's why I went multiple times And passed out

Because I was putting the makeup on my hand To keep them from Like when you do In those days when you donated plasma They stamp your hand UV ink So you have to show the ink You have to put your hand Under the light

And then they They would keep track but what they didn't keep track of, the two different plasma centers didn't communicate with each other. There was no centralized computer to say, hey, he already donated across town. The UV stamp was strictly for that location. So Monday, I hit the one on Tennessee Street.

And then Tuesday, I hit to join on Duval Street. Wednesday, go back to Tennessee, donate again, and then passed out. I was like, all right, well. I can't, like, I read that part in the book. And I was like, this dude, really try. to hit them for lick number three on the plasma. Yeah, because what you do, you would put concealer makeup on your hand on Monday

so that when they stamp your hand on Monday, the concealer will wipe the UV ink right off. So it's like Monday's donation never happens. So when I go in Tuesday and they UV me, it's not there. So now that's technically the first donation by their account. And then when I go back Wednesday to the crosstown location that I went on Monday, and they know I was there on Monday. As you can see, I still have my UV. But the UVUC is really from the cross-town UV scam.

I feel like we could do a whole scam in episode. There's so much untapped mischief that I was unable to get to. You're trying to get somebody else. You got to send somebody else to jail. No, most of my scams, they shut down real fast. You know, my first hustle was fake funeral programs, right? continue continue so i've i flunked a class well i overslept for a midterm freshman year i see you shifting in your seat they can't take the degree from me now i got it no i wasn't

shifted i was just i'm curious where this was going to go they can't they can't they can't take the degree from me it's mine i so i overslept for a class and um and the professor was like where were you? And I just, it just came out my mouth. I just got back in town from a funeral. He go, oh, that's easy. All you have to do is just provide the funeral program to the dean's office and they'll give you an excuse and you can come back and make up the test.

And I went, yes, sir. I went back to the dorm. I opened up Microsoft Word. I made me a funeral program. I went on AOL Personals, found a picture. some black lady in the 70s who's looking for love, right click, save image as, and then copy image, drop that JPEG into Microsoft Word. Dot, print that four page dot, take that to FedEx office, Kinko's at the time, have them reduce it to the proper size where it fits on one sheet

of paper, and then you put it on some of that, like, that cream-colored marble paper with the wavy lines. It's like light brown with the cream streaks in it. the good emotional paper, you print a funeral program on that, make sure your name is somewhere in the list of surviving relatives. Take that program back to your dean. As you can see, I was at a funeral.

I would like to make up my test, please, and I did. And nobody thought that that it would work, and it did. And I made up my midterm and flunked that bitch. I was going to say, I love that you said,

Nobody thought it would work, but it did. Nobody thought we could do it, but we believe. They were, everybody was teasing me because I was bragging about it. You know, you're bragging about, yeah, man, I meet up my kids. And then somebody came to me a week later. Hey, man, you think you can make me one of them funeral program? And I'm like, of course, good, sir, for $20. For the low, low price.

So I made one for this dude. And it worked for him. And somebody else came to me and they didn't want to pay $20. And they went to somebody else who said they'll do it for $10. I refused to fold on my price. The brother who was doing them for 10 was making it mint. He was making like seven, eight a week. And the problem, though, was that he was never changing the picture on the programs.

And so now you have somebody making fake funeral programs. but it's the same dead person in every. So if you got two students in the same major going to the same dean to get an excuse, you're going to recognize it. All of a sudden, there's just a wave of dead grandmamas sweeping the campus? How long do you think that scam lasts?

About two and a half weeks, they shut that shit down so fast. Fam, you ain't stupid. And like, I don't know what the rule is now on campus, but at the time the rule was changed to like, yeah, the funeral program has to be, mailed directly from your, your mama got to mail this to the dean before you even get it. Don't come in here with that. We don't trust that no more. You know, funeral program got to be

signed by a notary. Like there's always a lag, right, between the new hustle and people getting up on game. But there's always, like you said, not stupid people. There will be a lag, but it will be caught. And one of you will be the first person to be the first example of the new world order. Yeah, bro, I literally, I literally, that was the first hustle and I flunk. And you think that should have been a sign from God. Just, hey, man, scamming for you. Just don't do that. Amen.

You think it can't happen to you. Didn't it do? But yeah, man, it's a blessing, man. It's a blessing to be on the other side of this. just have some degree of awareness. All I want people to do with this book, man, is if you're like me and you feel like you loved and appreciated your father, but there were things that you wish you hadn't. There's things you wish you had gotten from your dad, but you didn't get them.

You got to let go of that. Whatever you feel them because of that, you got to let go of it. And if you really take a minute and reflect on your life, you'll see all of the people that God put in your path, who put it. planted seeds in you. Take them seeds and plant those ideas in your child. And then you guarantee to have a child who doesn't grow up to be like your dad. It's simple. Man of many fathers, available for all five books are sold. It is a really good book for you to check out. I highly recommend it. I checked it out before we got on here. My brother, you did good work on this one,

man. So I appreciate you joining us here with this. And best of look, you know, we went me, Dominique and golf, we went to pulled up to your live show the other night. You know what I'm saying? Good times, man. Yeah, we're on tour too, man. The book is baked into the price. So we go into a bunch of cities. Roywood Jr.book.com and find out all that information, man.

I appreciate it, y'all, man. I just wish y'all to come chop it up before the show backstage. But the problem is, and I'd be forgetting this stuff about you don't be telling nobody that you're doing nothing. And then Dominique don't think to tell you that we're going to be there. Like, it never really dawned on me when Dominique was like, yo, I got tickets to this less roll that you were unaware that the rolling was going to be happening.

I did not know. Didn't I know? Like, we're all working on being better friends to one another and we just don't have that much practice, apparently. With time. Yeah, Roy do all the stuff that we find out about in the trades. Like, hey, guys, let's tell everybody what Roy's doing right now because Roy's not going to tell us.

all right i'll be a better friend i'll share my victories as they say that's that's it i've been working on this with that hater joel anderson for a very long time also right but that's how you know i actually love joel because i'd be wanting to share in his victories but he too much of a hater to even tell anybody damn shame i know i know brother i appreciate you and ladies and gentlemen thanks so much for joining us here on the right time we do this three or four times a week ryan brumley handled everything behind the scenes thank you sir Also hit our voicemail line 323-9667767. Remember, follow the right time.

Subscribe, like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater. We'll talk to you guys in a couple of days. Take it easy.