The Tim Ferriss Show - #124: Jamie Foxx on Workout Routines, Success Habits, and Untold Hollywood Stories

Episode Date: December 6, 2015

This episode is one of my favorite I've ever done. Jamie Foxx (@iamjamiefoxx) is an Academy Award-winning actor, a Grammy Award-winning musician, and a famous standup and improv comedian. He is, without a doubt, the most consummate performer and entertainer I have ever met. In the 2.5 hours we spent together in his home studio, he blew my mind. We cover a TON in this wide-ranging episode, including many never-before-heard stories. Here's just a tiny sample of what you'll hear: Jamie's workout routine Jamie's origin story -- how he used $400 to match a $1,000,000 party thrown by Puff Daddy; building up his network with Kanye, Jay Z, and Pharrell; expanding his fan base; and bombing horribly at the beginning. What he learned during the magic of In Living Color Jamie playing live music throughout our interview. Impersonations (and lessons learned from many of the following) -- Quincy Jones, Ed Sheeran, Ray Charles, Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Cosby, Doc Rivers, Kermit the Frog, Sammy Davis, Jr., LeBron James, Bill Clinton, Tamara Rawitt, Shawn Wayans, Jim Carrey, Oprah Winfrey, Norman Lear, Mike Tyson, and others. The key skills Jamie learned from his grandmother. Jamie's parenting style. And much, much more... For all of the show notes and links from this episode, please check out: http://fourhourworkweek.com/podcast This podcast is brought to you by TrunkClub. I hate shopping with a passion. And honestly I'm not good at it, which means I end up looking like I'm colorblind or homeless. Enter TrunkClub, which provides you with your own personal stylist and makes it easier than ever to shop for clothes that look great on your body. Just go to trunkclub.com/tim and answer a few questions, and then you'll be sent a trunk full of awesome clothes. They base this on your sizes, preferences, etc. The trunk is then delivered free of charge both ways, so you only pay for clothes that you keep. If you keep none, it costs you nothing. To get started, check it out at trunkclub.com/tim. This podcast is also brought to you by 99Designs, the worldís largest marketplace of graphic designers. I have used them for years to create some amazing designs. When your business needs a logo, website design, business card, or anything you can imagine, check out 99Designs. I used them to rapid prototype the cover for The 4-Hour Body, and I've also had them help with display advertising and illustrations. If you want a more personalized approach, I recommend their 1-on-1 service, which is non-spec. You get original designs from designers around the world. The best part? You provide your feedback, and then you end up with a product that you're happy with or your money back. Click this link and get a free $99 upgrade. Give it a test run. ### And as always, thanks for listening!***If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading the reviews!For show notes and past guests, please visit tim.blog/podcast.Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (“5-Bullet Friday”) at tim.blog/friday.For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts.Interested in sponsoring the podcast? Visit tim.blog/sponsor and fill out the form.Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books.Follow Tim:Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss Instagram: instagram.com/timferrissFacebook: facebook.com/timferriss YouTube: youtube.com/timferrissPast guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren Aronofsky, and many more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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what they do? What are their routines? What were their influences? Favorite books? What do they do for exercise? What is their favorite cereal, if it comes down to that? Et cetera, et cetera. And this particular episode features Jamie Foxx. Jamie Foxx is the most consummate performer and entertainer I have ever met, and I've met a lot of people. He blew my mind. We spent two and a half hours together in his studio at his home. He is an Academy Award winning actor, Grammy Award winning musician. And of course, he cut his teeth as a famous standup and improv comedian. He can do it all. And in our conversation, which goes all over the place, we do cover it all. And that includes him playing live music just off the cuff. It includes impersonations, Oprah, Mike Tyson, Kermit the Frog, Bill Cosby, Clinton, Reagan, Sammy Davis Jr., Ray Charles, and dozens more. Morgan Freeman,

it goes on and on. But he also talks about his origin stories. So how did he, for instance, match a $1 million party thrown by Puff Daddy with $400 in LA? How did he go about doing that? How did he build up his fan base? What was it like to bomb in the beginning? That's B-O-M-B, not B-A-L-M, even though I said it that way. The connections initially, how did he connect with Kanye? How did he connect with Jay-Z, Pharrell, et cetera? And we get into a lot of nitty gritty. We talk about hard times. We talk about what he learned from his grandmother, the skills he developed as a kid, what he uses as far as parenting style with his own kids. We go really deep and all over the place. I was so excited and nervous at the same time in this interview. It was one of those times, and for those of you who have done interviews, you'll know the feeling where the stuff that's coming out is so good, you compulsively check the audio equipment to make

sure that you're getting it. So I hope to provide some bonus material on top of this. And we've had that before, for instance, where Arnold Schwarzenegger has answered some of your questions after the interview. And to get any of that, you will need to sign up for the newsletter. Just go to 4hourworkweek.com forward slash Friday. That is 4hourworkweek.com, all spelled out, forward slash Friday, and that will get you the five bullet Fridays, which is just a short bullet list of all the cool things that I've managed to find in a given week, and I send those out on Fridays. Sign up for that, and you might get some goodies related to this episode. So check out Jamie on Twitter at I am Jamie Fox, F O X X. And for all of the notes, all of the links, the resources and so on from this episode, as always, you can find it at fourhourworkweek.com forward slash podcast with all the other episodes. And that all having been said, holy shit, put on your seatbelt,

have a cup of coffee, and please enjoy the incredible Jamie Foxx. Jamie, welcome to the show. Man, thanks, buddy. I'm so excited to be here. I'm admiring your setup here. This is where the magic happens. To be honest with you, a lot of magic happens here.

For the people that are listening, we are actually in my studio, my home studio. Now, you know, studios, we're talking about tech world. Studios, because of the tech world, a lot of them dissipated and closed doors because if you think about when LMFAO came around, they didn't need studios. They did all of their music on a laptop,

flying from here to Germany or whatever like that, and just dumped it on and just pressed up to CD or to iTunes. So studios are almost becoming obsolete. But there's something very interesting about this studio. First, just for people that are listening, this studio, and I'll describe it, it's sort of plush. The carpet is great. We can sit next to a grand piano. You hear the grand piano, which a lot of places.

So we keep a grand piano around just to make sure that we don't lose, you know, we don't get too techy. But what's interesting about it is it's actually electric, but it's an electric grand piano, so we still have the wood to give you that warm sound, which, you know, I think it makes a lot of sense because as music starts to progress, because of the way we record now,

sometimes you lose a little bit of the heart of it. So I think within the next 20, 30, 40, 50 years, it'll be, you know, this type of music, the real sound will, you know, remain. Right. If that makes sense. Now, the studio, when I first got the house, looked like an old porn set. It had like an old basement carpet and a couch and like a Metallica poster. And I was like, what would I do with this?

Because I needed a place to work and do music. What's interesting now, I got a guy to change the whole place over. And as you can see, we'll take pictures and show it for you guys that are listening. But they did a very good job. But if you look over here, this is where we do the recording. There's a booth, which is normal. But also the recording on both sides, we're able to do animation. We're able to do, if we want to do ADR for movies.

What is ADR? ADR is like when we're doing a movie, but we're recording the movie outside. There's a lot of noise. Oh, you're doing pickup audio? but we're recording the movie outside. There's a lot of noise. Oh, you're doing pickup audio? So we'll do pickup audio. And most, any actor or actress will tell you ADR is the worst thing in the world to do. So to be able to have it here, I could do my ADR here, I could do my animation here, and things like that.

And so just the, now the studio itself, the actual brains of the studio, it's an old hard drive. And the reason I kept that old hard drive, I used to have a smaller studio in a smaller house. But when I had that small studio, I wasn't in music. I built the studio in my smaller house because I wanted to get in music. But I was from comedy and from acting and things like that. But what I would do is I would throw parties. And I would invite musical people over at the party. And when they would come over, like if I had Puff or Snoop

or back at that time John B. or Brian McKnight, I would say, hey, man, you know, I'm trying to get into music. Would you leave me some music in my studio? So people would leave me like 16 bars, 24 bars. Meaning they would record something while you were in the studio. They would record. We'd have the party going. I'd say, hey, man, let's go in the studio. So people would leave me like 16 bars, 24 bars. Meaning they would record something while you were in the studio. They would record. We'd have the party going. I'd say, hey, man, let's go in the back.

You know, while we're drinking and whatever like that and go in. I'd say, hey, man, just leave me a little something because I was trying to get into music. And then I met this kid named Breon Prescott. We played basketball and all this kind of stuff, pick up basketball games. And he said, hey, man, why don't you ever do music? I music i said man i'm trying to get into that shit man i just you know i don't know how to get into it and then one day he i throw this big party and uh it was a um uh the party was was crazy because as i digress a little bit i would follow puffy combs around

back in the day when it was just like Puff and J-Lo. And back at that time, no one could get into his parties. But the reason he would let me in because I would carry a camera with me everywhere I go. But it was back in the day-day, like, you know, the big Canon cameras. Wait, he would let you in because you carried a camera? Yeah, because at that time I wasn't Jamie Foxx. I was just Jamie Foxx. And so I couldn't get into all the parties

because puff was so big like he come to la we couldn't even get in our own clubs right but i popped i i took a town car everywhere he went jumped out of the town car one day and said yo puff can i record now at that point he didn't know you at all he knew me he knew me the kid that was on 11 color or whatever like that but it wasn't elevated right and plus he was having parties that were like huge like like nobody's getting in. And so he saw me with the camera. He's like, yo, let him through. And it was back in the day, it was like the big Canon camera with the light, and I had

to change the battery. It wasn't like how today you just got your phone in your pocket. No, I had production. But I would follow him around, and then one day we had this party in Philly that I recorded for him, and he said, yo, money, you know how much this party costs? I said, him and he said yo yo money you know how much this party causes what said cost a million dollars for this part I said you paid a million dollars for a party he's like yeah that's how we I told poor if I challenge and I said I'll throw you a party and my house at LA which is way smaller than this situation but I'll

spend maybe $400 and it will rival this party not in the scale of it but in the type of people that are there. And he was a little upset. You know, Puff is a, you know, he always likes to win. He's a competitive guy. He's a competitive guy. He said, yo, playboy, get out your motherfucking mind, playboy. You don't understand the essence of this party.

I was like, all right, I get it. And he actually came to L.A. a few weeks later. And it was a Saturday. He said, yo, playboy, make that shit happen. So he calls me like 9 in the morning, right? For that night? In the morning. He just said for the same day, for the day. I said, no problem. So I go into my cell phones, call, I have a, I have a list of people, uh, that since I first came to LA, the way I got into knowing everybody, I was the first

social media guy without social media. I would go do a stand-up comedy routine at a club. If they liked the routine, I had cue cards back in the day and would have people sign cue cards, sign the name, did you like the set, give me your pager

number, I will text you and let you know where I would be from time to time. They were like index cards. Index cards, so a box, and I had these, God, get rid of this fly, man. Stop it for a second. Alright, so we're picking back up. I just have to, we took a fly break. Yeah, so it was a fly assault.

I just have to admire this because the studio is, what would you say maybe like 30 30 by 15 feet on the floor and then another 15 feet tall and you said i'm gonna stop and get this fly yeah i saw the fly salted my man this is a lot of space and it took you about seven seconds to track this fly down and kill it i was very impressed we gotta get shit done in here we don't have time. So the cue cards. So I would get cue cards. And like I said, I had a list of about 800 people.

I had 600 women because women at that time, this was like around 90, 91, women at that time loved to go to comedy clubs. So it was all the pretty girls because pretty girls like to laugh. We got eight, nine girls together. Jamie, you're so crazy. I'm fine, whatever. girls like to laugh you know and you got eight nine girls together and jamie's so crazy whatever and so uh i had 800 signatures 200 guys because they wanted to be where the girls were so i would take that list and also say okay well now i'm having a party here here here whatever whatever if you want to come by so that same list along with the other people that i met as i as i started

to grow in the business i text and said i, I'm throwing a party for Puff. And this one Puff had, we ain't going nowhere was out. And it was popping. I mean, even the L.A. dudes was like, man, we don't want to fuck with this New York dude. The song is so hot. So I text.

I said, listen, Puff is coming. And the people that i text were only cool people like no guys that'll be hating you know uh the girls are pretty uh uh not slutty but not not too tight right you know i mean it was just it was just really it was it was and so i hit him at 12 noon i said said, yo, where you at? We're at a fever pitch. It's going off over here at my little house. And when he gets there, his mind is blown. And, you know, he shows up with the entourage that, you know, he, he was like Gatsby. And he walked in, he says, oh, that's the girl from that show. And that's the girl on this. And I said, yeah,

we, we all live out here, you know? So all the people you see in Hollywood, I know they're my friend. And so he's like, oh shit. So the party's incredible. We're playing his music through my little sound speakers. Everybody's really toasting him. And I said,

Puff, the people that are here are different. And this, what the fuck? It's another fly. Hold on. Stay right there. Good night.

Two for two. Two for two. So he's admiring. It's crazy. And everybody's in tune with him. And I explained to him, I said, Puff, let me explain to you who you are. I said, these are the people who not only live in LA, but I think I've found the right set of people who appreciate the art as well, because what you do musically and what you're doing on the artistic side is blowing our minds as well. And I said, therefore look at the table. I only spent $400 on the table. There's Kentucky Fried Chicken.

I just put it in a nice bowl. There's cola. I just put them in pitchers. I said, so no more than $400, but people are here. I said, because here's the thing. A fitted baseball cap, New York fitted. It's $58 maybe retail. I said, but Puff on your head is priceless.

We just want to be around this fly shit, right? So we partying. Puff is partying, and there's a dude standing next, like, on the wall. No one's talking to him. He got a little green jump jacket on. Guess who it was? It was Jay-Z. Nobody knew who he was.

Jay-Z, kid. I said, yeah, I know that dude. Missy Yellett has one room. Puff has the other room. Then I go to my garage to grab some other drinks, and I see this tall dude and this little dude and they're like the little guy goes yo b it's like this all the time i say yeah what do you mean you know the girls and karaoke and i said yeah yeah man who are you oh we're the neptunes my name is pharrell i said yeah man i heard of you yeah man i like your shit so that's

how long ago this was amazing so here's how i make the music play though so as puff is there i get people to leave me different bits of music or whatever because i'm trying to get into the music thing so i turn that into a show in a sense to where i would just have different people i would toast and try to you know get my music on so one day my boy brian brings in this kid he has a backpack on his jaw's a little busted his name is kanye west and i say yo yo who's who's that i said yo that's a new kid kanye west he coming on i said really what do you do so he rapped i said well shit he got to perform that shit because everybody comes to this to my house they got to perform so i said yo man they say you the shit and he was really quiet you know i said, let me hear you rap

You need your beats or whatever? He said, I don't need no beat Freestyle Chopped everybody's heads Just amazing I said, dude, I don't know where you come from But you are going to be one of the biggest stars ever And he said, I actually have a song for you

I said, moi? Me? A song? Like, what you mean? He said, I got this song He says, I actually have a song for you. I said, moi? Me? A song? Like, what you mean? He said, I got this song. He says, I want to record it. I said, well, you happen to be in luck because I got a studio in the back. So we go in the back. And my studio at that time, I call it the Porsche. It was a lot smaller than this. It was really like nifty. It was like a Learjet. It was compact. It was compact. The sound was toasty. I had engineers from all over the city dial it in so that when real artists come,

they don't think, oh, this is just comedian fucking around. Some real shit. So we go in, and Kanye, you know, quiet. But at the same time, he knew what he wanted. He says, okay, the song goes like this. She say she want a marvin gay some luther van jose a little i said i got it and i started going she say she wants a and he said what the fuck are you doing i said well see young man you don't know nothing about

r&b see i'm an r&b motherfucker see i i got to give him the shit you know i got to put the shit on it and he goes really politely he says hits the button he says uh don't do that i said but you don't know what you're talking about brother uh that ain't how the song go you gotta sing it this way so in my mind i'm thinking you know what i'm gonna sing the shit the song is whack it's not gonna make it because i'm thinking old school r&b but he was teaching me the simplicity of hip-hop which I didn't know. I was like, cool guy, great rapper. I don't think it's going to happen for him. So I go off and do a bad movie. And when I come back, my boy says, remember that song you said was whack? I said, yes. Number one in the country, you, Kanye and Twista, Kanye's first record. And it was actually Twista's record.

I said, oh shit. So I'm at a club. He said, you don Twista's record I said oh shit so I'm at a club he said you don't believe me I said no we're in Miami they played it everybody ran to the dance floor I grabbed the mic

said that's me that's my song I'm on that you know and so the music that's how I got into the music now the reason the story is significant

is because the same brains that we use that same hard drive that we use I brought it hard drive that we use, I brought it to this studio. So that hard drive is magical because we also did, just to give you a history on the music,

Breon found that song, Slow Jams, it went number one. And then as we started getting into music, there was a song that Breon brought in and he would play these, Breon would call me, like he said, you want to be in the music business? It's like, you know, two or three in the morning. He called me, says, you want to be in the music business? I said, yeah. He said, then wake your ass up. I said, what? He said, I got this song you got to hear. So I drove all the way from my house in the Valley to this, to this, uh, to this, to this little studio. He says, so you ready, motherfucker? Are you ready? And Breon always

says everything three times. Are you ready, motherfucker? Are you ready? And Breon always says everything three times. Are you ready, motherfucker? Are you ready? Are you ready? I said, yeah, yeah, man, play the shit. So he plays it. And the song was Blame It On The Goose, God's Feeling Loose, Blame It On The I stopped it. I said, listen, first of all, please tell me that's my song. He said, yeah,

it's your song, but you gotta record it right now because a lot of people are listening to this song and they don't know if it's a hit or not. He said, but I know it's a hit. We did Blame It On The Alcohol. That night, I sung it exactly like the record, which goes way in contrast to my R&B roots because it was out of tune and everything like that.

But we wanted to sing it exactly like the demo so we wouldn't lose the essence of it. I don't want to be like, blame it on the alcohol, you know, some corny shit. So we did that. And then we went from every, the way we broke that record is that we went from every club we went to the strip clubs first went to the strip club strip club we went we went we did the east coast run so we were going to break the record in the east coast so we went to the strip we went to new york um my man peck us took us around

uh and i will go into the club and use my comedic, you know, vernacular to get the song off. I said, fellas, you ever been at the club, you meet a girl, you've been drinking, you think she look like Halle Berry, you get her back home, she looks like Halle Scary, you know what you got to do? Blame it on the goose, God's feeling loose, blame it on the ah, ah, ah, ah, ah. Stop the record. Ladies, you ever meet a guy

You get back to the house with him And you've been drinking too much And you say I usually don't do this But you do it anyway You gotta blame it on the Ah, ah, ah, ah So we took that

And we went all the way down From New York All the way down to Miami This was like 2008 And then the song took off And so Long story longer Blame it on the alcohol was done here Slow Jams was done here

so this studio has that that essence to it that you just you don't throw that away and just the building itself Natasha Bedingfield's been here she's cut Kelly Rowland's been here she's cut the game has been here he's cut right here on this floor. For you guys listening, I'm pointing to the floor, to the carpet. A young man by the name of Ed Shearing slept on this carpet for like six weeks

trying to get his music career going. He came from over from London. He heard about a live show that I do in LA. I said, I really want to do your life share if it's possible uh you know because i have some music that i love and hear this kid with this red hair i'm like man you do my live show and it's all it's mostly black you know what i'm saying but it's really like music people like really hardcore music people they're very finicky you know people

that have played for stevie one wonder people will come there to i mean i had miranda lambert one night i had stevie wonder on stage. I had Babyface. I said, so this is the real shit you're talking about. You know, you can come here. I don't care about the London and the accent. You gotta really come with it. I said, I think I'll be okay. I said, alright. So I take her to my live night.

800 people there. People playing. Black folks sweating. Just getting it. You know what I'm saying? People singing. They would tear American Idol up. You know what I'm saying? These people haven't necessarily made it. So all of a sudden, Ed Sheeran gets up with a ukulele,

walks out onto the stage, and the brother that was next to me was like, yo, Fox, man, who the fuck is this dude right here, man, with the red hair and shit and the fucking ukulele? I said, man, his name is Ed Sheeran. Let's see what he does. Within 12 minutes, he got a standing ovation. Wow. From that crowd. And I said, bro, you're on your way. So this studio has, like I said, a lot of history and it has that magic to it as well. The mojo. Yeah. Now you mentioned getting into music, but it seems like, from what I've read of you, that music in some ways came first. Music did. Music did.

When I was a kid, my grandmother made sure that I took piano lessons. And, you know, that's tough for a little boy in Texas, you know, playing Fur Elise and Chopin and Mozart. And we're not talking about Houston there. No, we're talking Terrell, Texas. And I love my city. My city was dope because it was only 12,000 people. So it was like literally like 12 or 15 families. So we all knew each other.

But, you know, for a little boy playing at that time, you know, the kids didn't understand. Yo, man, why are you doing that? My grandma want me to do this, you know. And so sometimes I would be belligerent be like why you want me to do this he says the reason i want you to learn classical piano is because i want you to be able to go across the tracks and play your music for people listening across the tracks or on the other side of the tracks for a southern city was the tracks in a southern city separates the city one side is black the other side is white so in our city the south side the south side of town was where all the black folk live the north side of town was where the white folks live so she says i want

you to be able to go on the white side of town and play classical music so she taught me how to play classical piano a lady by the name of lenita h she taught me how to play classical piano a lady about the name of lenita hodge taught me how to play classical piano and i literally would go on the other side of the tracks and you know and start playing for like wine and cheese parties and things like that but my grandmother took it a step further too because she was able to see the future uh here's a lady with an eighth grade education she had her own business for 30 years she had her own uh nursery school business. She had her own nursery school business. She says, when I say across the tracks,

I don't just mean in Terrell and those people over there. I mean the metaphoric, like across the track, like meaning everywhere in the world. So she said, because music connects you to the whole world. So in doing that, I would connect with people on the other side of the tracks who you know in a southern city and tarry you know we were a little we were a little behind the curve when it came to race relations let's just say it that way without you know i don't want to demonize my my hometown but there was there was that who's a little black kid and my grandmother

be like don't you know play do your thing like, don't, you know, play. Do your thing. And when I would play, you know, a lot of that broke up. I remember even, like, being armed with just my music in sort of that racial setting sometimes. Like, there was a time when there was a Christmas party. Were these paid gigs? Yeah, I'd make, like, man, I'd get, like, $10, $15.

You know what I'm saying? And at that time, it was a lot of money. And I played for the church. So playing for the church, I would make like $75 a week. So if you count that up, that's like $300 a month. That's real money. That's real money at 13, 14. My grandmother would take the money and give me this money.

So, you know, you don't want my money. You ain't paying no rent. You ain't going to give me this money. But I remember at that time being armed with just my music and uh there was a christmas party that i was supposed to play for myself and my best friend who was 17 i was 16 at the time and so here's a little bit of the the racial misunderstanding shall we say i went to play for the guys christmas time maybe it's like december 17th and we show up as two little black kids on the white side of

town, and when he opens his door, and he sees these two little black kids, he says, what's going on here? I said, well, I'm here to play for your Christmas party, sir. Then why are two of you here at the same time? I said, well, I don't have a license. He, you know, he drove me. Is there a problem? Yeah, there's a problem. I can't have two niggers in my house at the same time and i was like oh well you know i've been sort of used to the racial misunderstandings and i said well is there any way he could wait outside or wait and he can't wait on the street starts at 6 30 now you got to make you make your mind up now so i i said i told my boy i said let's just come get me at 830, which was pretty late, you know, for kids at that time, you know. So I go in.

He says, where's your tuxedo? I said, well, he didn't tell me to have a tuxedo. So we go into this room, which looks like a bedroom. And I'm looking like, why the fuck does he have clothes hanging up in his bedroom? But it was a walk-in closet. I've never seen no shit like that. We can make a split-level condo out of this shit so he gives me a brooks brothers jacket that had the patches on the elbows i'm like oh shit half a loon so now i'm really playing you know i'm getting but as i'm playing uh they were doing

uh the grown-ups there were doing uh racially misunderstanding jokes I'll say it like that. And my grandmother taught me something at that time. She said, when you're in a setting like that, there's a word I want you to remember. It's called furniture. I said, what is that? She said, you're part of the furniture.

So you don't comment on what's being said. You play. That's what you're there for. You let these people enjoy their... And the lady at the house felt bad. She said, I just want to apologize to you for what you're there for. You let these people enjoy that. And the lady at the house felt bad. She said, I just want to apologize to you for what they're saying. I said, no problem. She said, can you sing something for us?

And I was like, sure. I could sing something for us. And this was a song that I sang. Chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Jack Frost nipping at your nose. Yuletide cows being sung by a choir. And folks dressed up like Eskimos. Everybody.

Anyway, so as I'm singing, I remember watching those white guys, old men, some of them faculty at my school, that had just said something, you know, probably not I don't think it was that they meant harm, harm, but it was that they meant harm harm but

it was they'd have to they'd have to resign today yeah and they look and they go they they immediately change so wow man that's good you know any other songs and i sat and i did about maybe like a six song set and i saw what my grandmother talked about that music cracked them in half they saw a different me and then afterwards he gave me a hundred bucks and i'm like shit call me nigga every day i got a hundred dollars i'm rich and what was interesting was i went to give him the jacket back he's like no i don't i can't wear the jacket so it was still a little bit of residue left over but i saw what the music did and i I remember when my boy showed back up, I said, listen, it was a cool gig. We got paid. I said, but I got to get out of here. I said, because I'm too smart for this. I need to go elsewhere. And I did. I changed my major. Well, I changed the college that I was going to go to. I was going to go to another college in Texas and study music. Instead, I came to California and San Diego to study music at International University. And what was interesting about that was that being in Texas, it was black, whites, and Mexicans.

When I got to International University, it was 81 different countries represented at that school, all connected by music and other things, music and sports. And the music arena at that time was high-end, strict, child prodigies from Japan, child prodigies from China. I had a Russian music teacher, and I had a Yugoslavian music theory teacher. So it was really across the tracks. But because of that, because of Estelle Talley and Mark Talley, you know, picking me up every weekend to go play music. Man, it set me on a, like I said, a crazy, wonderful journey.

And so the music was first, you know, and my college was interesting. I didn't know anything about jewish palestinian i had no idea i was at the student center and there was this argument going on you know so what are you talking about oh my brother my brother my friend they're talking about the gaza strip i said the fuck is that and they said said, no, the Jewish, the occupation, the this, the that. And I got a quick history lesson on that. I got a quick history lesson on people from Argentina. Or I would see a person who looked black, and I'd be like, hey, what's up, brother? Bonjour.

I'd be like, oh, shit, where are you from? I was like, I'm from Paris. I was like, what the fuck? They got black people? So that music gave me not only an opportunity to share, but opportunity to be educated about other people because we studied Texas history. And studying Texas history is interesting. Like if you study Texas history, if it didn't happen in Texas, it didn't happen. So when you look at like,

like this is just a sidebar, but when you think about politics and what people know and don't know in politics and what they know about across the sea or what they know about even on the next block or what they know about what's different in Texas from New York. The reason that politics is so interesting is because the people don't necessarily have educations of other people, which is why I think that once we start opening up a little more and traveling a little more, because what is it, less than how many percent, less than 5% of Americans have passports and things like that? It's a small number, yeah.

So anyway, that music, like I said, took me everywhere. What other, your grandmother seems like a very wise woman. And, uh, I've heard you describe her and I might be, I'm sure I'm paraphrasing this,

but that she, she was the bow or had the, or the arrow. And she pointed you in different directions. I'm wondering what other, like you are the furniture, right? I mean,

when to speak, when not to speak, what other lessons did you learn from your grandmother? My grandmother taught me confidence as well. My grandma was a very confident person and uh very smart and just how would you say just naturally intelligent she was a a a taurus you're saying natural it's like it wasn't something that was super educated or anything like that but you just had a net i'll give you i'll give you. I'll give you a hint of my grandmother. I'm 10 years old, maybe.

I think I'm in the fifth grade, 76, President Carter. The preacher started preaching about homosexuality. I don't know what it is. I'm 10 or 8 or whatever. So he's saying, God made Adam and Eve. God didn't make Adam and Steve. So people are like, you know, it's Southern. It's Texas.

Amen. My grandmother stood up and said, you stop that. And the whole church stopped. What's that, Ms. Taylor? You stop that. Now, her words, what she said next was very interesting. Let me tell you something. I've had this nursery school for 30 years,

and I want to let all y'all know that God makes sissies too. And the whole place went, what? She said, these little boys that I've watched since they could walk, they play by different music. And you stop that because you're making it hard for them to navigate sits down, he goes to another

subject, eventually he leaves the church, but I found that very interesting, at that time I didn't know what that meant until I got to be about 18, I was like, what was you talking about? she says, yeah it's true, she says I've had this nursery school. I see the difference in the kids.

And so, therefore, I would have these kids come to me after they graduated from high school, gone to college or tried to have a family, although they were living with this. So she was the type of woman who had natural intelligence. I said, well, granny, what does it say about religion? Doesn't it say that it's wrong? You know, being a kid from Texas, it's a natural question. She says, you know, when I think about it, she said, you have to open up the umbrella of religion. I said, what do you mean? She said, if you only open up the umbrella halfway, only a few people can stand under it.

She said, you have to open the umbrella all the way through so God's children can stand on it because no one here did not get made by anybody else or anything else but God. So that was my grandmother, you know. It seems very, the move in church, that's a very bold move, very courageous move. Very bold, very bold. But my grandmother raised those people in church. See, I was adopted, you know, at seven months, so she was much older. So all of the kids that were there, and like I said, it was only a few families that lived in Terrell. So all of the kids that grew up, or all of the grownups that were there, she— She was the matriarch.

Because during the year, it was a school. You know what I'm saying? But then during the summer, you drop your kids off at my grandmother's house and just let them keep them. She was very powerful in that sense. And then when I did finally make it,

it was wonderful to tell my grandmother to come live with me. So my grandmother was living with me. So we'd go to the clubs. My grandma was like, she had to be 83 at the time. We'd go to the clubs, we'd hang out. You know, she had to be 83 at the time. We'd go to the clubs, we'd hang out, you know what I'm saying? This is in L.A.

I had a little apartment, split-level condo. Remember when that was hype? The split-level condo. So I had a loft. Oh yeah, Ricardo, he's only 19. He doesn't know what I'm talking about. But I had a loft. And we were living in that loft, and then we eventually rented a house, and me and my grandma, and I didn't know I was a mama's boy like we go to the parties come back we have an after party at the crib and then one of my homies came and said yo uh yo fox uh it's an older lady out here

in the in the front room i said yeah that's my grandmother what's up uh yeah it's cool i said yeah and then you use a bottle of champagne pop what we doing we getting it or what you know so uh she was uh she was amazing man so you know my grandmother you know we party hang have a good time she was 83 years old and then the big thing was as i granny you know it's christmas time why don't we do something we ain't never done you know you saw making a little money why don't we go to hawaii for christmas because i got some friends from hawaii well what yeah well let's get it going gas up the plane right so we uh fly to hawaii one year and it was just amazing to be able to show my grandmother another side of the world it even made the papers in taro texas estelle tally uh on her way to hawai you know. And I remember, you know, just a fun time.

I remember we're having a good time. We're going everywhere. And she had a boyfriend at the same time. He was 83 too. And he was on the land side. And so it was like December 23rd, and we called her boyfriend just so they could talk. So she's on the phone.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, having a good time. Mm-hmm. Yeah, having a good time. Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah. Yeah, weather's nice. Mm-hmm. Sunny. Oh, food is good.

I got my own seasonings, though. Mm-hmm. Real nice. Well, I tell you what. Look, I'm going to go, but let me tell you something. Don't let me come back there and catch you with no young girls. You understand? Because I don't play that. Don't let me catch you with no young girls you understand because i don't play that let me catch you with no young girls you hear me so she hangs up you

know it's like three or four families there we're having like a little christmas party we all go granny what when you said the young girls what are you talking about you know 60 65 i don't want to miss no 65 she says shit i'm 83 no so i can't handle 65-old woman all in my shit. So she was just a great person, tough girl. I remember there was some situations where I did make it, and some people in my family felt like I should give them all of my money. This lady walks in, and we're at my apartment. She comes and says, my rich cousin. I didn't even recognize her because I had only seen him maybe once or twice growing up.

So anyway, it gets around to it. She says, I need $10,000 for a kidney. I'm like, who's kidney? Well, I need kidney surgery or something like that. So if you give me the cash, I could take it and get the, I said, well, why don't you, if it's a situation of medical, I know some doctors, maybe they can help you. Oh, I would prefer the $10,000.

That's fine, okay, I'll hit you. No, I didn't call back. I was like, so that became a problem for her. And she called me one day and left on the answer machine, young fella, the last time you seen the answer machine. So I'm checking my answer machine, and she leaves this scathing message. Well, you know what? I didn't get the money from you.

And that's fine because you're not part of this family anyway. You was adopted. Nobody wanted you anyway. This is what this lady is saying to me. Brutal. I was like, what the hell? So I let my grandmother hear it. Let me run that back.

Played it. What's that number? And she called, and I remember listening now i'm grown you know i'm i'm 22 so i'm grown and i hear how she stuck up for me she's let me explain something to you boy and i could hear i got the boy when he was seven months old i said and everybody wanted him i wanted him uh everybody you know i said and he may not be blood, but he's our family. And it just, it was an incredible, incredible thing. My grandmother was absolutely amazing. I think you need people like that. And when you talk about that bow, that's what, that's my reference to, to raising kids. And I got my own kids now is that when you raise your

kids, you are the bow and arrow. You're the bow, they're the arrow, and you just try to aim them in the best direction that you can, and hopefully your aim isn't too off. And that's what she did for me. And then, you know, she watched my whole career all the way up until getting nominated for an Oscar, where all of the things that she taught me came into play. When we did Ray Charles, that was an opportunity to play the piano, to be funny, to do an impersonation,

and all these things is what my grandmother championed. So when we embarked upon that film, I was like, oh, man, Granny was right. This is taking me on the other side of the tracks. And when we got in, even when I got a chance to meet Ray Charles, which, you know, that's my grandmother's era, you know. And she didn't get a chance to meet him because at the time she was, you know, she couldn't move the bedridden a little bit. But being around older people, you know, I understood that muscle, too, because I was always the young kid with the old parents. So meeting Ray Charles was like seeing my grandfather or seeing one of my uncles. And when I met Ray and we were trying to do Ray Charles, the movie and Taylor Hackford, who was the director.

And he says, you know, I've been wanting to do this movie for 25 years. I'm glad you came along because it's the right time. And I remember meeting Ray Charles, walking down his studio, you know, clean, you know. Looked almost like he could see, you know. And I said, Mr. Charles, you know, I'm just trying to do the best I can to do your movie, your biop.

He said, you know what? Look, if you could play the blues, man, shit, you could do anything, man. I said, what do you mean? He said, can you play the blues, man, shit, you could do anything, man. I said, what do you mean? He said, can you play the blues? Shit, that's what I'm asking. I said, I guess so. Then come on.

And we go and we sit down, and all of the hard work that my grandmother put in, all of the days my grandfather drove me to piano lessons, here I am sitting with a legend and we were like and i was like playing the blues with ray charles and as we're playing i'm like i'm on cloud nine then he moved into some intricate stuff like the loneliestious Monk. And I was like, oh shit, I got to catch up. And I hit a wrong note. And he stopped, because his ears are very sensitive. Now, why the hell would you do that?

I said, why is that? Why you hit the note like that? That's a wrong note, man. Shit. I said, well, I'm sorry, Mr. Charles. He said, let me tell you something, buddy. The notes are right underneath your fingers baby you just got to take the time out to play the right notes that's life so that was a lesson

that the notes are right underneath your fingers so metaphorically so now you got across the tracks there's someone like Estelle Talley teaches you then you got Ray Charles explaining now that you're across the tracks, what notes are you going to play? And so now we go on and we, we, we, we do that movie, which we didn't know what we were doing. We didn't know that it was going to be like that. It wasn't a studio film. Uh, it was independent and, uh, you know, doing the, doing the process of the movie was interesting, of my background being from Terrell, knowing how to mimic. But I needed to know how to do Ray Charles like the young Ray Charles.

So I got in touch with Quincy Jones. And for all of you young ones out there listening, make sure you Google Quincy Jones and Ray Charles. And the reason why you should do that is because they were the building blocks of our music today, which started in Seattle, Washington, which was interesting. Seattle at that time was a big hub for jazz music, jazz musicians. And that's where Ray Charles migrated to running into a young Quincy Jones. Ray Charles actually taught Quincy Jones everything he knows about music. Who was Quincy Jones for you young ones listening? Quincy Jones was the one who did, I mean, he played, he was a

band director for Frank Sinatra. All of those guys, the Rat Pack, all of those guys, he was the band leader. And when I met Quincy Jones, he talks about that. Yeah, man. Shit, man. Music, man. These young cats don't know music anymore, man. Shit. They wouldn't, they play in the key of Q if they would, man. Shit, man. When I played baby Frankie, baby, I said, Mr. Jones, who's Frankie, man.

Shit. Frank Sinatra, man. Shit. I was young, man. The band that we were playing in Monaco, man. We didn't even have time to rehearse, baby. We're just there playing, waiting on fucking Frank to come in. I said, what do you mean? He says, we had to play this show in Monaco. Frank had never met me, knew that I was this young kid

who was great with the music. I become the band leader. We don't get a chance to rehearse. Monaco, where there's billionaires and millionaires in the audience waiting on this incredible show and he says we're just vamping man shit and frank doesn't even come out on the stage he comes through the audience man shit talking and shit i'm like man i'm nervous as hell and then frank got up he said he sung the band was tight and frank sinatra knighted him like gave him a ring that was like, you know, pretty significant.

If you know what I mean. And if you guys, uh, Google Frank Sinatra, you'll understand what I mean about the Lucoso Nostra. And, uh, uh,

so here I am now talking to Quincy Jones and he's telling me about Ray Charles. He says, man, man, Ray taught me everything, man. Shit, man. He taught me how to dress.

We were wearing suits, suits, zoot suits and shit, man. He had nice suits, tailor-made. And I said, why did he have nice suits? Shit, man, he was always around women, man. And women would tell him, man, those zoot suits are ugly. Because he couldn't see. So the women would tell him how to dress. And I said, well, Mr. Jones, I'm trying to figure out how to do ray charles

but i need the young ray charles right and he says well man shit let me look and he gives me a cassette tape to you young ones out there a cassette tape back in the day was a way for us to i'm just messing with it to uh to share music and i said okay i got the cassette tape i had to go rent a truck from a Hertz rental car because there was no cassette players in the cars. So I popped the cassette tape in and on the tape was

Hi, this is Donna Shore from the Donna Shore Show. We have two very wonderful musicians here today, Mr. Kenny Rogers and Mr. Ray Charles. And you hear the young Ray, you know what, God, I'm just so happy to be here. So happy that you know my music. I mean, this is just great. And it was the young Ray, like, you know, uh, because when I was talking to the older Ray, I didn't want

to grab those bad old habits. I want to play him young. So I hear Ray talking young on the tape. And then all of a sudden he's in charge of the, of the interview. And this is, you know, he was just doing his thing. And then all of a sudden she says, talk about the of the interview and this is you know he was just doing his thing and then all of a sudden she says talk about the drugs ray and then he started to stutter well you know what so i use that as dna to play the iconic character ray charles that when he's talking about his music he's fully in control when he's confronted with real life things why are you doing drugs why don't you take care of your family? Why are you cheating on your wife? He would stutter. And I say this long story to say this, after the success of Ray Charles, after being

nominated for an Oscar, my grandmother got a chance to witness all of that. She got a chance to see the bearing of the fruits of, you know, of her labor for her young kid coming from that racially misunderstood town, which I love and wouldn't change anything in the world when it comes to Terrell, Texas. Her saying, get across the tracks. We've now gone across the tracks. We've gone all over the world, and here we are. And think about what's the odds of a kid who lives in a town, population 12,240 people, from Terrell to go all the way to Los Angeles, California, meet Puff, meet all these different people, and then actually have an opportunity to win an Oscar.

And your grandmother gets a chance to see that. Now, October 23rd, 2004, she passed away, which if you know, the actual awards was 2005 in February. But she got a chance to hang in there and feel it. So my grandmother was just like the blueprint. How do you think of teaching confidence with your own kids? Because you're clearly a very confident guy. Grandmother was very bold, very strong woman. How do you try to teach that to your kids?

Well, what you do with your kids is, when my daughter, there's the phrase that when you see Annalise, my daughter and my oldest daughter, Corrine, I would always ask them, what's on the other side of fear? And they'd be like, huh? I'd say, what's on the other side of it? Meaning like, if I stood in the middle of this floor right there and just yelled, AHHHHH! What's on the other side of it? Meaning like if I stood in the middle of this floor right there and just yelled,

ah, what's on the other side of that? Or if I stood in the middle of the floor and went, ah, what's on the other side of it? Meaning like either you do or you don't, but there's no penalty. There's no reward. It's just you just be yourself. So I taught them what's on the other side of fear? Nothing. People are nervous for no reason

because there's nothing, no one's going to come out and slap you or beat you up or anything. You're just nervous. So why even have that? And so that's a building block that they can use not just about the entertainment business because that's the other thing. You don't have to be an entertainer, but whatever

you go into, whether you be a lawyer or a school teacher or tech guy or whatever, or a girl, whatever it is, there's nothing on the other side of it. What's on the other side of fear? Nothing. I like it. So it's like, so why are you, when people say, well, I'm so nervous, what are you nervous about? It reminds me of this quote that I sort of recite to myself,

and I'm going to paraphrase it because I have it written down, but it's from Mark Twain. It says, I'm an old man who's known a great many troubles, most of which never happened. Yeah, exactly. Because all of it is in our head. When we talk about fear or lack of being aggressive, it's in your head.

So not everybody's going to be super aggressive, but the one thing that you can deal with is a person's fears so if you start early if they are a shy person they just won't be as shy if you keep instilling those things so the mimicry the impersonation yeah how early did that start because i read and and maybe you can tell me if this is off or not because you never know with the internet uh that your second grade teacher used to reward the class if they behaved by letting you tell jokes yeah they would let me tell jokes because i would get in trouble miss reeves my i think it was my third grade teacher miss reeves because i would like talk but i was very smart my grandmother had a school i lived in a school so i i'd already knew the the the from first to eighth grade, I already knew all of the lesson plans.

So a kid like me sitting there with nothing to do, I'm going to get in trouble. So she would let me do stand-up comedy on Fridays for the kids. And all I would do is my grandmother would watch Johnny Carson. And the only room that had the television was my room. So I had to watch Johnny Carson, too, as a kid. So nine years old, seven, eight, nine years old, I would just take the jokes that were being told by, uh, David Brenner and Steve Allen and a young, uh, David Letterman, uh, uh, who else would be on there? Franklin Ajayi. You guys, when you're hearing this, go Google these guys. A young Jay Leno.

These are sort of like Richard Pryor. So I would take those jokes and tell them at school because those kids weren't watching. Please tell me you used Richard Pryor on Fridays. Well, I guess it was on primetime, so it wasn't Richard Pryor. Richard Pryor on primetime. He couldn't really say anything on primetime. He was clean. But like, Rich Little.

And Google Rich Little, because Rich Little was the first person that I saw do impersonations. So there was a, this had to be, this had to be like 76, 1976. So it was like fifth grade for me.

The joke was Jimmy Carter, which was the president at the time, singing You Light Up My Life. And at that time, his brother was getting caught drunk all the time, like Billy. So it was Jimmy Carter going, so many nights, me and my brother Billy would sit by the window waiting for somebody to bring some peanuts and beer. And so that was my first attempt at an impersonation. And then it went on from there to do a

retrodiction. I am not a crook. So, you know, who else would I do? Reagan. That came later. But here's the thing. Reagan came later, but Reagan came like in the 80s when I was actually like 21. And I was the first black guy doing the Reagan impersonation, probably the only one. So I would be on stage doing my impersonations and going to Ronald Reagan. People are like, no, it ain't no way. Well, well, as a matter of fact, I will.

Oh, no. There you go again. And so that being young and that teacher, Ms. Reeves and Ms. Douthit and all those teachers, Ms. Cole, allowing me to be myself, you know, helped me hone in on what I was going to be doing for the rest of my life. Like, literally, my friends from Terrell go like, how the fuck did you do that? This is the shit you used to do? You turned your third grade back. In the cafeteria. It was literally the same shit. I'd be like, wow, millions of people are watching this shit, and it's the same thing.

And then, you know, as people came up, you know, the impersonation, you know, that Cosby is back in. To do the Cosby impersonation is back in. Don't know how I'm going to do it, but there's definitely a Cosby joke somewhere. I don't know where, but I used to do Cosby. Because of the people and the jello pudding and the filth and the flying and the fun, which Eddie Murphy did. But people didn't know, like, Cosby's real speaking voice is not like that.

What is his speaking voice like? His speaking voice was different, because I remember I got in trouble with Mr. Cosby, because he felt that the movie Booty Call was not cool. And he said some things in the press about us, and I was like a young comedian, like, damn, man, I'm just trying to work, you know?

But his speaking voice was on the phone. Well, see, the thing is, when you do something like booty call, what is a booty call? See, why are you calling the booty, you know, whatever. But it was so, it wasn't the, and then you find out that that was his stick. Yeah, yeah.

Because the kid and the child and the people and the farmer, you know. So I know that that will come up. I'll find a joke for Cosby that, of course, is going to be a little, ugh, people are going to be like, ugh, but it's going to be funny as shit. And now Doc Rivers from the Clippers hey you know we're gonna try you know

it's not Blake's fault you know next year we gotta we gotta do better you know it's so I'm working on like the new impersonations now

and so that's and the way you do an impersonation is usually about it's musical like say Kermit the Frog

right so Kermit the Frog, right? So Kermit the Frog is... So it's sort of like what you do. You know what I'm saying? It's finding... Right? So the actual voice tone is in the key of G

for Kermit the Frog. So that's, and then once you get the voice tone, it's how you make, it's how you manipulate your mouth to get the sound. Because you notice, so it's sort of constricting. And then, and then, and then it's, and then it's asking the character to come sit with you. Eh,

Kermit the Frog here, here with the, uh, three little pigs. So, you know, it's, but the key is this.

And at the same time, Kermit the Frog, who else sounds like that? Sammy Davis Jr. A little bit. Eh, because you know, man.

So now Kermit the Frog is, is one way But if you just twist your voice Or twist your mouth to the right And grab some swag Now you're Sammy Davis Jr. Kermit the Frog Because man you know

It's the same voice So that's sort of like The mechanical way Of getting to the impression So you would start with Not the visual Because obviously Those people who are listening can't see this, but the mannerisms are also very much on point.

Mannerisms are important because like, like I do it in LeBron James impersonation, which is really not a voice. It's more of his mannerism. It's the jaw, you know, it's the jaw. It's the look. Let's go, bro. Let's go, bro. The game of basketball, we just try to...

It's that. It's right after playing. When he comes off the court, they catch him, he's still tied. The game of basketball, we just try to do the best... It's the mannerism. People will appreciate the mannerisms first. The physicality of someone like

LeBron or, you know, different, you know, like I said, different personalities bring about different things. When you look back on what Ray said to you, if you can play the blues, you can do anything. If you had to translate that for your own kids, let's just say,

if you can do X, fill in the blank, you can do anything, what would you put in that blank? I would say this. It's a couple of things when you have kids who grow up around Hollywood. If you can stay motivated, and if you can not do some things, not be jaded, not be entitled, not be spoiled, not do drugs, not get into all the bad stuff because it's, you know, our kids live in an elevated space. So what I try to do, and Ricardo sees this all Ricardo sees this all the time so does Justine

we don't play around when it comes to discipline as well like when the kids are here and all of our friends the size of the house means nothing to if you don't do the right thing you're going to get in major trouble and you're going to get in Texas trouble. You know what I'm saying? Like how my grandmother disciplined. So it's a different thing when it comes to kids that are, live in a privileged situation. Luckily, my daughters are very, very, especially my oldest daughter. My oldest daughter never even asked me for money. Never asked for the new car. Never asked for a plane to ride coach.

I mean, you know, so I think she really, really has a great head on her shoulders. I remember I got this Rolls Royce, and I went to go pick my daughter up in the Rolls Royce, thinking that's going to be, you know, pick her up in the Rolls Royce, drop the top. Drop it. What up, dog? So I'm riding, go to pick her up at school.

She won't get in the car. I said, baby, what are you doing? Look at the top. It comes up. She says, dad,

I'm not getting in the car. Calls her mom. I said, could you come pick me up? I said, what you doing? She says, I'm not getting,

you, you goofy. You make me, you make me look stupid in front of my friends. I was like, oh, you know, she's really,

and that's something she has on the inside. My youngest daughter is a little different. She wants to ride in the rain, in the Rolls Royce all the time. Daddy, let's take this car. We riding down Sunset Boulevard. She playing Rihanna, you know what I'm saying, with her shades on. So she's a little different in that sense. And I remember telling her, I said, well, Annalise, we can't ride around in L.A. in the limo in the Rolls Royce with the top down

we're on our way to the Soho house and it's sort of finicky so I gotta at least put the top up she's like why I said listen let me ride until I get to Soho house and then I'll put the top up as we get there okay so we ride up in the Soho house we're in the valet and all of these

you know celebs and people are coming out and she yells out Jamie Fox're in the valet and all these you know celebs and people are coming out and she yells out jamie foxx in the house and i'm like hell no so i'm trying to pull the top down all the other celebrities like look at this motherfucker being arrogant and shit he's so gaudy this motherfucker and he's got a kid announcing him so so you know it's a lot of things you could tell your kids man and then you just have to hope for the best and be there. What is your birth name? Eric Marlon Bishop. And how did Eric Marlon Bishop become Jamie Foxx?

Man, I was Eric Marlon Bishop. Graduated high school, 86. I get out to California andia and i started doing you know i'm in college and doing the music but i will go up on these open mic nights for comedy so i go i do really well did i get like standing ovation and then i came to la got a standing ovation and then when i came back every week i wouldn't get called up. I was like, man, what's going on? But what I noticed

How does the open mic work? What you do is you put your name on a list and they pick from the list and they say, okay, these are people that are going up. So I went up and had a great set then for the next three or four weeks they never called my name. I said, yo, money, did you see my name? Yeah, you weren't on the list. were on the list but we got other people

but i found out that the comedians were actually running the list so the comedians they had been here for a while i was like we don't want him on here because he's showing us up so i was like fuck so i ended up going to this evening at the Improv, the Improv like in Santa Monica. And so I had never been there. So I would notice that a hundred guys would show up. Five girls would show up. The five girls will always get on the show because they needed to break up the monotony. So I said, hmm, I got some.

So I wrote down on the list all of these unisex names. Stacey Green, Tracy Brown, Jamie Foxx. I got some. So I wrote down on the list all of these unisex names. Stacey Green, Tracy Brown, Jamie Foxx. And now the guy chooses from the list. He says, is Jamie Foxx, is she here? She'll be first. I was like, no, money, that's me. Ah, okay. All right, well, you're the fresh meat.

I said, what is that? They were shooting Evening at the Improv this old old comedy show back in the day said you'll be the guy that will just throw up to see if you get a laugh or two you know it's gonna be a tough crowd freshman freshman i said cool so i go up in between two of the guys get a standing ovation people like who's the kid is he on the show i said oh he's freshman. So then they started yelling my name. Yo, Jamie. Yo, Jamie. Hey, Jamie.

But I'm not used to names. So now they think I'm arrogant. This motherfucker thinks he's the shit. He's not even listening to us. So I took that name, and it stuck. And then I started building everything off of it. Back in the day, people used to wear jackets and put names on the jackets,

so I had Sly as a dot, dot, dot, coming to the foxhole, foxhole, you know, things like that. I'm going to grab a little something to eat. Yeah, sure thing. Okay, we are back after a little food break. Yeah. And we talked about some of your comedy starting in third grade, maybe earlier.

We talked about grandmother. And what I like to talk about a little bit more is fear. So you mentioned on the other side of fear. By the time you got to doing the open mics, getting up on stage, were you nervous? Were you afraid or were you over it? Because first I looked at it first. I went to an open mic night and saw the guys. I'm like, man, these dudes are terrible.

And so when you go on stage and your whole life is not, I want to be a comedian, I went on stage like, yo, I'm going to just fuck around. So if I hit, cool. If I miss, I wasn't trying to be that anyway you know i wanted to do more music but but when i went on stage it was just like it was it was just natural it was a you know i belong here so i think that's the thing too when it comes to entertainment uh there's a certain like oh i belong here this is what I'm supposed to do. How successful I will be or won't be, that's something out of my hands.

But I do know that this is where I belong. And that's with anything and anybody. When you can sort of listen to that voice in your head or what's in your heart and you get a chance to do something that you really feel like you're supposed to do, that alleviates a lot of the fear. Now, if it was a surgeon or a lawyer or something, you know, if it's something that I'm not, you know, versed in or something like that, then maybe there will be more fear. But with this, you don't have, well, I don't have those types of fears. And as I've gotten older in the business, I sort of simplify things like now I just execute.

I have to ask people like Ricardo, Justin, Justin, what should I execute? get my art off in a world where it's uh uh the the social media driven sort of uh uh ridicule and criticism like i always say like this like a person like prince or person like michael jackson could have never survived in today's world because in the in the day of the internet and where everybody has a voice most of the voices are hateful voices or not understanding like like if you saw prince with uh a guitar and a bandana and the way he dressed you know people would meme the shit out of it you know so now it's uh it's it's not a fear but it's just a a question that i have to always ask them like yo is this is this the cool shit to do or not the cool shit to do and so what

i learned is when it's just executing something when it's either executing a song or executing a joke or executing things within within uh entertainment it cool. But then you have to wonder how do you get it off? Even now when you talk about the Bill Cosby joke, back in the day we just tell the joke. Now you gotta be like, okay, I gotta tell the joke in a way that is still funny, it still keeps

the bite on it. So those are the different for me as an entertainer where where there's not fear. It's just like, you know, questions. Does that make sense? Makes sense. No, that makes sense.

The considerations. When you, when you, have you bombed on stage before? Oh, yeah. So what's, two things. What do you, when you are bombing, what is your internal dialogue or response? And then secondly. Internal dialogue is, boy, you stink. Boy, you bombing.

I bomb, and it wasn't a lot. I only bombed like twice. Do you remember your first? Yeah, yeah. I did this show for this guy named Lattimore. Old blues singer. I'm 21. What was his name? Lattimore. Lattimore. Sounds like Voldemort. Yeah named Lattimore. Old blues singer. I'm 21. What was his name? Lattimore. Lattimore. Sounds like

Voldemort. Yeah, Lattimore. So this guy saw me at this other club and said, hey man, you know, Lattimore is performing around the corner. Man, would you come and open it? I said, whatever. I said, how much you pay? He said, pay $50. I said, I'm there. 50 bucks, I need it. So this is like

$89.90. So I i get there and i don't know who latimore is i just know there's a lot of older people like i mean like oh i'm like oh shit where the people at these other people so i go up and the setting was different it was like the chairs and stuff were way in the it was like a banquet setting and it's in the middle of the hood you know crenshaw and like the tables are like from here to where like 20 feet away 30 feet away from me so i don't have that oh you didn't have that yeah and i hadn't been doing stand-up comedy that long i'd only been doing it for like a year so i had if i'm funny i got an hour if i'm not funny it's about 10 minutes worth of shit cause I would just take a joke

and just keep spinning it and spinning it so my first joke they didn't get second joke they didn't get I said shit I'm damn know all the jokes so I said well let me do this before I do anything let me just talk about people in the audience so I looked and I saw this guy with this sort of suit on with a butterfly

collar like oh shit I'm gonna talk about him with a butterfly collar. Like, oh, shit, I'm going to talk about him with the butterfly collar. But before I could say that, I looked around. Everybody has a butterfly collar. This is what they really want to look like. And so I just said, hey, man, I don't know what else y'all want. And pretty soon, Lattimore is going to gonna come up you guys ready for latimore and i just started doing that so i'm gonna take a break so i get off stage and the dude that was washing

the dishes takes his apron off and goes man i got it grabs the mic how y'all feel and he started doing these old stock jokes kills and so i said okay now i know what it is you got to have jokes that are appropriate for your audience so i learned on how to tell jokes for everybody because at first my jokes was geared towards women it was singing and did that so what i started doing from that from that day on i would go to like des moines, Iowa, Davenport, Iowa, Boise, Idaho, where it's all white. Gunnison, Colorado, all white. And I would go do like 40 minutes of all black material to see what they understood, what they didn't understand. So if I go to these all white places, if they understood 15 minutes, I log that 15 minutes.

I can go to any place where it's just all white. And you would determine if they understood it by the laughs? Huh? You would determine if they understood it by the laughs? I would ask, y'all know who this is? And so I would tell the joke, if 15 minutes, they understood it, I can go to any place in the world that's all white and they get it. Then I would go to my chocolate city chicago dc uh florida and do

all of my uh political highbrow stuff and see what the see what see what the black folks understood man what the fuck you doubt my doubt now they understood 15 minutes now i got 15 to 30 minutes to 45 minutes that wherever i go no matter what age they'll understand no matter what age, they'll understand. No matter what gender, no matter what race, they'll understand this 45 minutes. So I had to learn how to use the formula in order for you to be funny. And then once you got your comedy license, once you've been seen by enough people in the highest way, like if you look at an arc of a Kevin Hart, like Kevin Hart. Takes that art, takes the same form.

I'm not for sure how he put it in his in his in his mind, but he's doing the same thing to where he's going to all of these places all over the world, implementing his comedy and if they get it he's he's gathering all that so that now when people see kevin hart no matter where in the world they're gonna laugh you know so it's the the you know becoming a great comedian is also having that formula going on in your head because if you if you paint yourself into a corner like you're only the black comedian or you're only the hispanic comedian or whatever're only the Hispanic comedian, whatever that is, then it's hard for you to become universal. I mean, Eddie was,

Eddie Murphy was great. He had an opportunity to Saturday night live to get it to everybody. But, uh, uh, it's definitely a formula to not bomb it. So what would you say to yourself? So that was the first bomb.

You mentioned two. Yeah. What was the second? Second one. And if it's too, if it's two yeah what was the second second one and if it's too if it's hard to recall that the the follow-up question is going to be what is the post-game analysis when you step off the stage after bombing say the second time well you gotta when i bombed the second time was way later in my career when i'm working out jokes but i don't like to work out jokes and tell people I'm working out.

I like to actually do a show, come and do the show. Right. So when, I think it was Irvine. So you don't tell people you're working out? No, no, no. I think that's cheating and I think you get bad habits.

So I do a show in Irvine, California. First show, I kill. They was just ready for me. I'm like, oh man, everything works. Second show, bombed. Because I didn't take time to dig out the jokes. But when you bomb, you go

like, okay, alright, let's go. Let's check it out. So I got a team of my guys. I said, let's go. Okay, that didn't work. No, you gotta put this in front of that. You gotta put that behind this because that's gonna kick this off. People didn't know what that was, so maybe we don't say that. So, you know, when you take the L, it's not like you're not funny. What's the L?

Like you take the loss. Oh, okay. When you take the loss, it's not like you're not funny. It's just like, okay, you just didn't put the shit together. So that's the other thing, too. When you do become funny, it's going to be harder now to make people laugh because you set the bar so now you're high water yeah so now so watch this the hardest part for chris rock was

after he had done something great in stand-up because now you gotta top that the hardest part for eddie murphy because eddie wants to come out and do stand-up is how do i top that in your head the hardest part is coming for kevin hart in the fact that you you smashed him now you gotta you gotta you know i'm saying you gotta know how to you gotta know how to refresh. Because when you do something like, I would look at my stuff and go like, I got to quit doing that. Because that shtick that I'm doing, people are catching on. And they're like, okay, motherfucker, we done already seen that shit.

So that's the other thing. You got to have great material. And you got to have, you got gotta know how to move because like right now it's the perfect time for eddie murphy to come out and do stand-up because it's been so long it's nostalgic it was 30 years ago so now you can catch a new young uh you can still excite the older you know saying so being a stand-up comedian is tough and you've seen a lot of funny guys not be funny anymore why because you can't top what you did you look at a jim carey go like okay man where you at where you at you know i'm saying you know don't give up the

funny uh or you look at chris i always look at chris tug and be like motherfucker where you at don't don't leave don't leave us because being a stand-up comedian is an interesting thing most stand-up comedians want to look good. In what way? They just want to look good. Think about this. When Eddie Murphy started doing stand-up, he was funny,

but then he started doing, you know, the way the leather suits, and it was the fly shit, and the rings, and they didn't want to look good. Joe Piscopo started working out with the muscles. You know what I'm saying? So as a stand-up comedian,

we got to be careful not to look too good because people start going what the fuck are you doing you ain't cute nigga we just want to laugh you know what i'm saying but when we started you know we started getting into our shit that's when we look because i did that like like i got to uh my thing was after in living color the show called the living color that I did, I felt like I had made it. So I wasn't necessarily on the good-looking shit, but I was on the I've made it jokes. I went on stage and was doing rich jokes. Just got that Range Rover.

Anybody else? It's crazy out here. You know, they're so finicky, right? Motherfuckers are looking at me like, what the fuck is you talking about? And then I was talking about, you know, the square footage of the house man when they get a certain square feet man that shit is crazy and maintaining you know motherfuckers are like motherfuckers you don't get off the goddamn stage i'd lost it right i lost it and i walked off stage and all of a sudden i walk off stage they give it up for jamie foxx and i'm thinking they're going

crazy yeah yeah thank you Thank you so much. And I'm standing outside the club, and I hear the crowd going crazy. I'm like, what the fuck they doing? I just went off stage. What the fuck are they laughing at? And I open the door, and there was a kid, skinny, little tank top on, barely fit. His name was Chris Tucker. He was smashing. No one has been that funny within 15 minutes.

I've never seen, I've never seen, and I watch them all. I've never seen a standup where people were laughing so hard. Like I said, he's going to kill somebody. Like when he says last night, how was I killed? It's going to be true. Somebody going to have a fucking heart attack. And I sat down and I went, I can't do that. I lost that so i left went to another club that night bomb like it wasn't just you know so finally i went

over to okinawa where the troops were and started doing stand-up over there for the troops to sort of get back it was my rocky moment like you know i started running up the steps chasing chickens and shit trying to get back and uh for a stand-up comedian that's the one thing you can never Like, you know, I started running up the steps, chasing chickens and shit. Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. Trying to get back. And for a stand-up comedian, that's the one thing you can never let go. You can never stop being, excuse me, a certain goofiness to you. And so, and like when you talk about fear or when you talk about bombing, it's different when you've done it for a long time, you know.

And when you do bomb, you just got to get right back up and you got to acknowledge it. Okay, I stunk, nigga. Because they're going to let you know. Like today's world, you can't do nothing in today's world without somebody letting you know, oh, nigga, you fucked that up.

What are the sources or where do most of your best bits come from? When you look back at the stuff that just killed, is it the shower, the thing that bugs you three times, so you write it down? How do you develop your material? It was observation. I do jokes with them.

It's just sort of like observation. Early on, it was the black and white thing. Black folks do it this way, white folks do it, which was the way we were doing comedy in the late 80s and 90s. Oh, the average white man's heart. No, it has to do with the heart. The average white man's heart beats like this. Or the average black man's heart beats like this.

You know, ladies, that's why you have a choice. Would you rather make love to somebody like this? choice would you rather make love to somebody like this or would you rather make love to someone like this i mean that was the jokes you know at the time so it's observational and then it was personal like you do your observation first and then it was personal my grandmother who was uh um you know we lived together you know and when she first heard like on television, what age was being old, she didn't know what it exactly meant. She just knew that it was bad. But she thought this is she's always on me anyway, that I'm going to catch AIDS.

But it was for the wrong reasons. Like she would say, boy, you know, it's six in the morning. You're going to wake up. Shit. Half the day done gone. I said, granny, what you mean it's six?

Shit, I'm in there sleeping. Anybody sleep that long got to have AIDS. I said, I said, granny, I don't think that's how,

no, I saw it on TV. You're sleeping too long, you got AIDS. I said, granny, I don't think that's how they exactly,

what, and then like I would use her towels, like, you know, you know, old southern women had them there was a towel used and it was

a nice towel so I used a nice towel well I know you ain't used my towels I said you gonna put the A's on the towel you don't use everybody's towel anybody use a towel like that got to have A's I said granny I don't think that's how you know so this is what she was actually saying

so when I did that joke on stage people was would just, you know, would die. So it's observational. Then it's personal. And then some of the comedians are great politically. I'm not necessarily a political guy. My thing was the impersonation of the politician, like Bill Clinton. You know, I did not have sex with that woman.

You know, it was, you know, things like that. But it's so many different ways and so many different guys out there that you look at and go, ooh. Like when I would look at a young Chris Rock, the way he was a technician, just me. Or you look at Jay Leno. Or you look at even Arsenio Hall when he would work out. Or you see Eddie working out a joke.

You know, or watching George Lopez who knows how to tap into the bass and just really bring you into his world and stuff. So it's some guys like Sarah Silverman, just, I mean, a technician. Amy Schumer, watching her on just a Saturday night live when she's, you know, working her shit out. A young Whoopi Goldberg at the Met. There's so many people that you can watch and see how to, you know, tap into your own skill set, you know. But I try to look at all of them and try to just,

not steal from it, but just get inspired by it all. Who are some of the most underrated comedians who come to mind? Or people who you think haven't had their due, haven't been appreciated?

Oh, I wouldn't say underrated, but I think there were just like warriors that never got that shine. There was a guy named T.K. Kirkland who was a warrior, but he never got the shine. And was a guy named T.K. Kirkland who was a warrior, but he never got the shine. And T.K. had a colorful past, you know.

And he'll let you know. He said, you know, he was a crazy motherfucker. But T.K. had jokes like, and why does Kermit the Frog always say, hi-ho, hi-ho? Is he a pimp? And why... And why do fat people wearing leather pants do they think that shit is

cute and why do people in wheelchairs tie their motherfucking shoes do they think they're gonna trip oh man it was just he was just amazing and his delivery you know he say uh uh he says because i'm t to the motherfucking K. That's the type of motherfucker I am. Don't play me. Play Lotto. You got a better chance. And he made himself a character on stage that was just, you know,

you guys are too young to know this joke, but Bugle Boy Jeans. Bugle Boy Jeans used to have a commercial where a girl would pull up in a car and says, excuse me, are those Bugle Boy, she would say this to a guy, like he's walking on the street with his jeans, she says, excuse me, are those Bugle

Boy Jeans you're wearing? Why, yes they are. And she'd get in the car. TK had a joke, man, that was so funny. He said, man, let that motherfucker be a motherfucking black girl in the motherfucking car. Excuse me. Are those beautiful boys you're wearing?

Yeah. Get in the car, motherfucker. I mean, people would just go. The dude has so many levels. And he's just, you know, he's an underground guy. Who else? There's a lot.

I mean, a lot of people. Earthquake, amazing. Earthquake is amazing. What's my other dude's name? Tony Roberts, amazing. Tony Roberts, man, I've never laughed. He said, oh, man, I had to dig out some of his jokes. But he talks about, it's very physical, but he talks about being on a plane and the plane is going down.

And he says, he said he was on a plane and he thought the plane was going down. So he says, so I wanted to fuck everybody before, you know, I wanted to fuck before. He says, oh, while the plane's going down, he's fucking everybody. You know, he fucked the nun. He was fucking everybody. And then the plane leveled off. Oh, I'm sorry, y'all. I'm sorry.

My bad. Just hilarious, man. And there's so many, man. So many. Not a lot of new comedians now that are actually, it's funny, right? That are actually dangerous now. We don't have dangerous comedians.

The only dangerous comedian that we have right now is Amy Schumer. She's dangerous. In what way? Like, she'll say it. Like, it'll be hot button. You know what I mean? Have you ever heard,

I saw this guy on a actually heard of him through a guy named evan goldberg who's seth rogan's writing partner and uh and so gerard exactly that was good so gerard carmichael oh yeah his special oh my god he's like i would never make a rape joke this is more of a rape question. Oh, my God. He's dangerous. That struck me as dangerous. Well, he's dangerous. And it's not a lot of that anymore.

It's not a lot of dangerous comedians. And I think that's where we sort of go like, you know, where's that danger? Like, when you see Amy Schumer, you see, like, I saw her in a room talking about catching a dick in front of Robert De Niro. Like, we're at the American Film Awards or whatever like that. And she's just, I mean, hardcore dance, which is what Sarah Silverman started out as. But Amy looks like she's rounded the corner and is now really making it dope for herself. If you look back at In Living Color, and I watched the show,

and it just, in retrospect, it seems like such a magical combination of people. So how did that group get assembled? And what made that team so special? Because, I mean, you look at the list, right? I mean, you've that team so special? Because, I mean, you look at the list, right? I mean, you've got Chris Rock. You've got Jim Carrey. You've got the Wayans.

You've got, it just goes, Jennifer Lopez, you go down the line. It's just, it's an all-star roster. Well, at that time, Keenan Ivory Wayans was the, he put it all together. And he was able to grab all of these incredibly talented people and make them get along and figure out how to squeeze all of this talent into 22 minutes of programming.

Sure. Because it was only, it was a 30-minute show, so it was 22 minutes. But he was very disciplined in how we make jokes. You were not allowed to come in and be half-assed. He pulled you to the side and say, as a black comedian, you cannot be half-assed. You're either great or you don't exist. So, and he says, don't take the racial part of that any kind of way.

That's just the way it is. Because he wrote for Eddie Murphy. He was around the greatest. He says, I'm around the greatest all the time, so that's just the way it is. Because he wrote for Eddie Murphy. He was around the greatest. He says, I'm around the greatest all the time, so that's what we're going to do. So when you see Damon Wayans come in, and I just got hired, like they had already been doing the show for like a year or two years.

So when I saw Damon walk in and Jim walk in, it was like fucking Jurassic Park. It was like fucking T-Rex. You know what I'm saying? And the way I got on the show was crazy too because it went from the auditioning process, it was 100 comedians, down to 50, down to 25, down to 10, down to 5.

I was part of the 5, but I was losing. I wasn't doing well within the, uh, improv of it because I just wasn't catching, catching the right shit. And then Kenan says something incredible. He says, well, I dig this, but I want to see y'all on stage doing standup because I want to have standup comedians. I was like, oh shit, that's my shit. That's my shit. And the other four people didn't do standup. It was only one other girl that did standup. God bless her, Yvette Wilson. But the other three didn't do stand-up so I was like oh man so that night everybody's going to the laugh factor which was just starting because at that time the comedy

store was dominating laugh factor was just and they begged can we please have the audition in the laugh factor so I show up late on purpose because I wanted to be last. Ah, smart. So I show up late and Tamara Rawitt, who was the producer, and I'm like, what are you doing?

You're late? Oh my God. Why aren't you here? We're supposed to go on early. You're supposed to be first, Jamie. Oh my God. You're going to kill me. I said, oh damn.

Well, can I just go up last? Yes, you have to because we've already started. Get in here, you. Whatever. So go ahead. Now, this was interesting for me because I was in white world. I was like on the mainstream.

I did all my jokes in the hood at that time. You know what I'm saying? I was the hood guy. So I was like, oh, shit, you know, uptown, you know what I'm saying? It's like everything is clean and shit. You know, ain't no weed in the air or nothing. You know what I'm saying it's like everything is clean and shit you know ain't no weed in the air you know what I'm saying

ain't nobody snuck no drinks in and shit and it's an audition thing so I'm watching the guys and you know God bless them

they just had never done stand up before so I had my cassette tape and I knew what I was coming up to I'm coming up to Heavy D's in Effect with more bounce to the ounce

so I get a dude with my tape he's like what's this? That's my tape. You know, I go on with music. You know, up there, they didn't go on with music. They just went up on hand claps. I said, no, man, I got to come in with heavy decent effect

with more bounce to the pumps. I need the crowd going. He said, okay, sure. So he's standing there with the tape. And then Sean Wayans gave me a great tip. He walked up. He said, yo, Jamie, just go up and do your act, man. Just stop worrying about it.

Don't worry about the characters. Just do your act. Yo, Marlon, Marlon, come here. Chill, Jamie. Just do your act. I said, oh, really? Do my act like I do in the hood? Yeah, do your act like you do in the hood.

I said, straight. Cool. So I go up. They don't play the music. I'm waiting on them. I'm like, yo, you got my music? The dude's over there like this. I said, well, I'm supposed to that I'm like oh you got my music The dude's over there like I said well I was supposed To have some music

And I said if If this shit goes wrong You will actually see me Working across the street At the gas station And I went into a character Man I was in there with Kenan and all of them dog

And it just So I did this little character And I went into my act And I got a standing ovation That night And I remember seeing jim carrey and keenan fly girls like on their feet like i said oh man this is great and that's how i got on the show

and during that show i did this character called wanda where i said all the good-looking ladies clap your hands and everybody i said now all ugly ladies, let me see you make some noise. It was quiet. I said, ain't that a bitch? And all the ugly ladies out there, hey, for real though, he ain't talking about me. So we did this character. Keenan was like, I want you to do that character on the show. Because I think that's where you'll really flourish.

And when I did that character, that's when everything sort of changed because I was trying to find my bearings on the show because we got on the show, but we were there for a trial basis. But when I did that character, it was like playing football and I was like the punt returner and I was the rookie and I ran it all the way back the first day. So nobody really knew who I was, but they knew that this character was slamming. And so they sort of gave me like my stripes because these guys were juggernauts. I watched Kenan.

I said, Kenan, these jokes ain't funny. They're the writers wrote. He says, get on your feet. Everybody get up. Let's do this. So he was like, there's never a joke that's not funny. You just got to work and find it. So he taught us the formula of finding the jokes, and he was right every single time. And so, like I said, to be there watching Jim Carrey create Pet Detective on set. He's writing Pet Detective, as it were. I said, what's that you're writing on?

Hey, man, just working on some stuff. Just got some stuff I'm working on. So what is that? Man, it's a little thing called pet detective. I said, okay, sound funny. And was he developing it for the show at that time or for much later?

For his own shit. I got to make one phone call. No problem. All right. So we're, we're back. We took a little, took a little breather,

but, uh, what were we, catch us up. What were we just talking about? We were talking about how nowadays is that you don't get a chance to control your own narrative. Like we were talking about is there's two different people. Some people think that the tech world and social media and things on the Internet is taking us to a great place.

And then there's people who think that it's a horrible place. I spoke with a young lady who had been burned bad, bad by the press, bad to where she lost her job. And what was interesting about her job was that what they were scolding her about was, like me knowing her, I was like, you're not like that at all. She says, I can't. There's nothing I can do.

Everybody thinks so. And they took something like, they went through emails and through our personal emails and all of a sudden, whatever it was. But it was just like, you're not like that at all. So when I was on the phone talking about it, she was like, they're saying this. I don't worry about it. You're cool. You're not like that.

I don't give a. But I hadn't. I'm bowling. I'm like, I don't even need to read it. What could they possibly say? And when I look, it was a national story. I went, what the fuck? She lost her job.

And so like even like you'll do something where you think that it's either you're making fun or you're having fun, but they'll take whatever it is that you say and make it what they want it to say. Or craft

it where, like if you do a joke, it's not about being a joker anymore. Jamie Foxx slams Caitlyn Jenner. Jamie Foxx trounces, like, nah, I'm a comedian. But everything is something that they control. And it's tough because when I say Justin Bieber, what do you think? What's the first thing that comes to mind?

Be honest. Hair that I'm jealous of. Yeah. But what do you think? But what do you think? Something about a kid who can't get it together. When I say Chris Brown, what do you think? It's something negative.

When I say Jennifer Aniston, what do you think? What do you think? I think of cover of Rolling Stone photograph black and white. You think Brad Pitt? You think what? Cover of Rolling Stone magazine black and white naked laying on a bed but that's hilarious well the average person right would think of not what they do right but the impression headline right the subliminal image they got at the checkout

counter yes it's the headline if i say if i say jennifer anderson you automatically because nowadays they control we don't control our own narrative to where it's like they talked about this thing with with uh quentin tarantino which i thought was sad because usually when you see a a a a story about black lives matter or anything black it's usually the the same black folks with the koofy who's trying to be heard. And they're absolutely right. They're absolutely, it's so much wrong going on in black world. There's black on black crime. Then there's the divide that is because of social media that is going on between the police officers and black folk.

Police officers, on the whole, are great folk. I know them. Shit, I know a gang of police officers. But the one or two that have been caught on social media makes it look, paint the picture, that it's all of them. Now, granted, we've known for a long time that blacks and police officers have always had a divide. We've done music. We've done movies about it. We've done books about it. It just is the way it is. Now, my take on it is because I call it residue.

It's slave residue, meaning that slavery for 300 years, you saw a person of color a certain way for 300 years. You've always saw him as a slave or the criminal or something that you didn't value. So therefore, coming out of that, of course, there's going to be a divide when it comes to police and when it comes to blacks. And when it comes, that's always been that way. So take that off the table. Right. But in today's world of how do we bridge that gap? I've gone to Quantico in Virginia, saw what a police officer kid that's eight, nine, ten years old who's African-American so that he can see another. Another side. Another side of the police officer, because right now in social media or media period,

the stories that are the most salacious, where it's the black person, the black cop being the black guy being killed by a cop, it's hard to erase those images. I'm a black man. When I see that, I have to react to that because I'm like, wow, that troubles me. But then I have to sit down and think, okay, let me not think of the worst thing to say, but let me think because I know how media tries to make things or heighten it.

How do I bring people together in spite of the headline? Because what people don't understand is that when you keep showing the images of the black guy being killed by the cop, that does something to you. Oh, yeah. That's like whatever you believe in. If it was a Jewish person, if it was a gay person, you cannot sit and not be bothered by that. At the same time, that cop, when he sees the other side of it, when they're saying, all of you guys ain't shit, which that's not what's really being said,

most of the time it's with the individual cop. Now the cop sees the story in his mind now well fuck it was a problem now so now imagine that cop who's watching the story driving on the street that young black kid who's watching the story walking on the street what happens dynamite dynamite because we can't get it we can't we can't get anybody responsible on the media side to say let's stop interviewing people and putting labels on them let's interview this man and this woman but don't say that they're democrat don't say that they're republican don't say that they're a cop just have them talk because when see, when you're watching TV and you see something that

you agree with, you agree with them only. And you can't hear the other person. That's the first thing. Two, like when I look at Quentin Tarantino, to demonize this guy. And just because people might be listening to this for years, could you catch people up on the confusion?

Quentin Tarantino, who is a purist when it comes to his opinions and his emotions. Even if you could go, I could go to Quentin Tarantino and say something, man, I think, you know, as a black person and so on and so on. He'd say, well, stop doing that. Stop hanging it just on black. Hanging on things that are substance first and then let it be. I mean, so I've heard this guy speak when there's no cameras. I said, well, you know what? You make a lot of sense. So Quentin Tarantino sees the Black Lives Matter campaign, sees the individual stories, 40 different people of individual stories where a police officer had killed the person who was unarmed.

It touched him. The reason I thought that was impactful, because you seldom see the white superstar go and stand with the black folk who just trying to be heard even high-end black guys don't go stand with the black folks that's trying to be heard when it comes to like especially hollywood because you know people in hollywood are so scared oh oh they won't see my movie or they won't go see my song if i stand if i stand up for anything of substance they're so fucking scared so when i saw this dude do that i was like wow that's great but then the misinterpretation of his words where he says i'm standing here with the murdered quentin tarantino speaks that way he speaks if you've read any of his uh movie or saw any of his movies he speaks in those terms he He says, I stand with the murder.

When I see someone being murdered, I call it what it is. It's a murder. That's a murderer that killed this, this person. However, the story got spun was that Quentin Tarantino is a cop hater. He hates all cops and all cops of murderers.

And I was just like, Oh, here we go again, man. Here's a person who's willing. And I'm gonna speak like willing to put aside his white cushy Hollywoodness. He could live on, in his,

on his mountain and never give a shit about anything. He came, I said, man, I felt something. And now they paint it so bad and now you got you got the new york cop so we got something for his that now it's a beef now it's that's not what we we're trying to do but you can't do anything right now because the media story, if it's not salacious,

we don't want to report it. We have to. You feel what I'm saying? No, I do. And it's, I mean, if it bleeds, it leads, right? So they put the salacious, the visually, viscerally impactful stuff up front because it gets the clicks or the purchases, the advertising.

The only, I suppose, flip side to that. And I have a very specific question for you that, uh, from a fan I'd love to ask related to, um, some, some of these race questions, but the good news is if you can look at it in these terms is that the necessity for new is so high that if you starve a story of oxygen, it'll often die on its own because they can't regurgitate the same thing if there's no response. And so you can let it kind of die on the vine. But,

we were talking about this before, but I mean, I've had instances and I won't bitch and moan too long, because I think the question is more interesting than my bitching, but I've had instances where these formerly, I would say, outlets of record, very prestigious outlets, uh, magazines. I'm not going to mention them by name because it's, but I was interviewed and profiled by

magazine at one point, very, very highbrow magazine. Uh, there were six or seven misquotes or, uh, erroneous facts in the piece. And I corrected those with the fact checker and went to press with no corrections. What do you do in that situation when those things then end up in Wikipedia? So you have to develop a sort of strategy. And I mean, this will get even more interesting once we have smart stadiums, once we have facial recognition like you see on Facebook, once that's implemented across the board, it'll get very interesting. But I'm going to go down that rabbit hole.

And instead, I'm going to bring up a question that I'd love to get before you go into that yes here's the problem back in the day if there was a misquote and you went to that entity and said hey you quoted me wrong oh we'll release a statement saying that we misquoted you and it erases. The problem with today's world, once it's out there, you can't get it back. You cannot change because it's going to stay there. When I punch up your name, that's the first thing that's going to come up or the second thing that's coming. You can't get rid of it. And when you talk about the regurgitating or just letting it die, you could let it die. But the problem is you have to at least, once it starts, give another, hopefully that you can give another side of it that people may see a little bit. want to see what's crazy about our society right now no one wants to see anybody reconcile no one

wants to see anybody come together or say that like when i when i think about quentin tarantino i spoke and said i back you as a friend and keep keep speaking the truth and don't worry about the haters meaning speak the truth from you not whatever the comment was right but whatever you're saying in your truth right you say that because you ain't out there you could be promoting your movie you could be trying to make money you actually trying to see how you could get how you could go i know the way he thinks i'm gonna go talk to them if they are wrong and what they're saying i'm gonna tell them but if they are right he says i i'll be the one that can go to the cops and say that. And now look, look at how it is. It's so great. Go ahead. Ask a question. Oh, no. I mean, it's,

I think you're right. I think that people want gladiatorial games and we don't have gladiatorial games. So they use the front page. But, but speaking of sort of conflict resolution, so this is a question from a fan, TJ. My wife is pregnant. We're moving to a very non-diverse neighborhood. We are kind of worried on how it will go. She is black and I am white. What is some advice he can give to a young couple raising a child of color in today's world? I'll say this. I'll say this about America. Let's use America as an example. To me, America is the most incredible civilization that has ever been created. Hundreds of years from now, people will look at this place and marvel. There's the bitch in the complain aisle where everybody bitches and complains about every single thing but the one thing about america that is incredible is the evolution of freedom the change when i talk about slavery

that happened it was 300 years of it look at the evolution we come out of it we have a black president. People are more welcoming now. We used to live in a world not too long ago where it was frowned upon, it was tough, it was this. What I would say to people like that, just live your life. Like, I lived my life in places where at times it was definitely racial misunderstanding, but I would talk to that person. I would make sure that person understood who I was as a person. I'm not going to compromise who I am as far as a black man, but I'm also going to give you another version of it, not the version that you necessarily see on television,

the version that you see on the internet. I'm going to give you me. And most of the time, we are alike in so many different in so many instances so when he's saying moving to that non-diverse place it's different man look at the look at the i hate to say this but listen to the kids bro but when you talk about the kids the kids today i i'm at the gym last night 24 24 Hour Fitness. The kid is playing Future, white kid. Where your ass is at? White kid.

When I first moved into my neighborhood years ago, and I felt like I made it. I'm in the white neighborhood now. I'm here. Oh, I'm so, I've made it. And I hear NWA blasting. I look out there with these kids. I was 16 years old.

So times are changing, man. And you have to start giving people the benefit of the doubt that they'll get it right. And for all those people that were here back in the old days and that are now 50 and 60 and 70 years old, that's dying out. The way of thinking is dying out. You may be looking at a situation where you may have the first female president. It's the evolution of freedom. Think about how we treated women at one point, no voice,

no rights, no nothing. I've heard people say, I'd rather have a black person tell me something to do than a woman any day. But now it's, it's a, so we are on the right path, man.

Love who you want to love, be where you want to be because we are evolving. Look at, look at, look at the steps that that that gay rights took in the past few years man that was that's huge when you when you're talking about people in the bible belt and you know how they felt so if if those things are now like my my daughter taught me like when she was 13, she's 21 now, she was 13. And that was,

this was, this was nine years ago. And it was talking about gay rights and things like that. And, and, and I asked her friends, I said, what do you think about it?

She said, dad, we don't think about it. I said, that's, that's you guys. That's a good answer. She said,

that's you guys. She said, that's old people. She said, that's why we're turned off from religion. Sometimes that's why we're turned off from all of these different things things because old people argue about where you from, what you do, what you look like. We don't give a shit. And so thank God for the youth. Thank God for that couple because what they're doing is they're showing a new world. And she said, dad, if someone was doing

something somewhere that was straight, gay, black, white, or brown somewhere else, does it affect you at all? Does your air change? Does anything around you change because the people are living the way they want to live, as long as they're not breaking the laws? You know what? You make great points. She went on to my radio show and talked about it. So we are in a new day. What we got to do, though, is we got to stop. I said, like I was telling Justine, I said, we got to make sure to say, let's put media out of business. We got to quit allowing them to control the narrative. Those people like with Quentin Tarantino or the Black Lives Matter or people that speak up on something that is broken or that is wrong. You don't give them a chance by painting them in a bad situation. Are you going to do another comedy tour?

Yeah, I'm going to do another comedy tour, but I'm going to start it organically, like maybe 100 people, 200 people, start it organically and just sort of grow it. I got some great jokes. And that's the thing, like when you're a comedian, it's like you have to pray that the jokes will open up so i got some great like jokes that people will get and understand and then just the stuff that's been going on with me you know uh you know getting older you know uh not realizing you the og you know i'm saying like you know the young like the young hip-hop guy what's up og damn that's right you know i I'm saying? Like, you know, the young, like the young hip hop guy. What's up, OG?

Damn, that's right. You know? I mean, just, just, just, it's just some funny stuff. It's some funny stuff that's, and that's what any comedian would tell you, that it's hard to be funny when there's nothing funny happening. But there's been so much funny shit happening. For like my mom, who, you know, adopted, who, who gave me up for adoption at seven months and she comes back to live with me.

And as she's living with me, she walks down, the first day she's here, she walks down the steps and says, I want a Phantom. I'm like, bitch, of the opera? What are you talking about? She's talking about a Phantom of Rolls Royce, right? And it was just funny, just certain things that, the fact that everybody lives in my house, the fact that my mom, my dad lives here, my two sisters, my dad still dates, you know, and my mom is going on his side of the house when she when he has a date, you know, just assessing like just being in a way like, oh, hey, I didn't know you had company, Joy. I mean, just and that they've turned they've turned in the kids. So, you know, my dad had come to my room but uh could you tell her not to come on my side of the house when i got a date and i'm like

now parents so you know it's funny things are happening lots of organic material yeah so it's organic now so we got fun when you think of the word successful who is the first person that comes to mind and why on the bigger picture because i witnessed this in 2008 to see president obama become president to me 2008 not talking about after he became president because everyone will have their views on on that i know what it meant to me. To see him stand up there, put his hand on that Bible and say, you know, become the president of the United States, that is success in so many different ways. And it also, it jars you for every person that says, oh, man, just because I'm black, I'm black, maybe you can't use that all the time

because this man now showed you and whatever side you end up on, because it's not a political thing, to see that and the reason that it means so much to me to see an African-American man do that,

and literally when he was, this was interesting interesting this is how we connected when he was 30 points down for the nomination 30 points down no one knew who he was I get a call from Oprah Winfrey hi Jamie Foxx it's Oprah hi Jamie I was like what's going on there's this guy named Senator Obama I think he's going to be the next president. Then I got a call from Norman Lear. Jamie, it's Norman Lear. The senator's on fire. So who is he? Senator Obama. But he's 30 points down, so no one knows.

The reason they're calling me is because we have a radio show that was reaching everybody, especially the huge urban market. So I go on my show and I say, I'm voting for this guy named Senator Obama because he's black. And I go to commercial. When I go on my show and I say, I'm voting for this guy named Senator Obama because he's black. And I go to commercial. When I go to commercial, my phone lines light up with all black people saying that we will not vote for this guy just because he's black.

Don't treat us that way. So we ended up educating everybody about him. He's the nomination and he goes on and he wins. And to me, it was all odds against him. And I and evolving to that type of freedom and him taking advantage of being in America and becoming a president, to me, that's just success that he redefined what it is. What historical figure do you most identify with? Who do I identify with historically? When it comes to entertainment, Sammy Davis Jr. is a person that I look at all the time

who I go on the internet and watch him play the drums or watch him sing or watch him dance or watch him do jokes or watch him do a movie or watch him spin guns. To me, he was just the ultimate entertainer. He was a full-stack entertainerer as one engineer said that's what the what's what he called you you know you kind of you had all the tools in the toolkit oh man that's great and then there's there's other sides of me too so like the the sports side like i was a magic

johnson like you know the person who was who loved being competitive but also wanted to get everybody else involved and you know the way he played basketball. When it comes to social consciousness... May I interject for a second? Yeah. So, this might seem like a funny question, but do you feel like you identify more with Magic Johnson than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? Yeah.

The reason I feel more than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is because Magic smiled, and it was fun, he was happy. You know, not to say that Kareem wasn't, but Kareem was aJabbar is because Magic smiled and it was fun. He was happy. You know, not to say that Kareem wasn't, but Kareem was a more serious guy. Very serious. If you ever met him, he's completely serious. I'm more the fun dude. Let's have a good time. You know, when it comes to social consciousness and social issues,

that's where I draw from a lot of different people. I think watching Martin Luther King and going to Atlanta and seeing what he did and how he did it, when he did it, when I look at the bravery of him, it's beyond. Because I look at social issues today, how we're so afraid to step out on anything. My cars and my cars and my my wealth and my money oh i and and not to say that i've thought this way all my life like

literally like it just happened not too long ago where i was like we gotta we gotta step up more more socially we gotta be on social con even if it even if some of the people say oh fuck it i ain't gonna go to your movie okay fine you fine, you weren't going to go anyway. But we had to step up a little bit more social-wise. And when I went to see where Martin Luther King came from and what he did and how his house was, he actually came from middle class, big, nice house, but it was right across the street from poverty. And it sort of taught him how to deal with other cultures Taught him how to deal with other financial groups. He says, I don't want to see people hurting.

He says, I want everybody. So I think like that. I've always thought like, even when we talked about earlier, the Jews and the Palestinians in the student center. You know, the rest of the story was, I befriended both of them. And we all became friends. Because I call myself Spackle. Which is the stuff that goes in between the bricks. In between the cracks.

Yeah, I'm Spackle. I get along with all religions, get along with all people, and try to bring them all together. So when I think about it socially, it is the Martin Luther King thing because I think sometimes we overlook that the world is big enough for all of us to live on. It's big enough for all of us to live on it's big enough for all of us to to get along and uh sometimes i i question why is it so tough to get along you know which is what martin luther king

questions i just don't i don't get it and i and i won't stand by so a little and like i said i've only thought about like that you know here in the past few years after watching harry belafonte go on stage before i was supposed to get a Lifetime Achievement Award. And he goes on and says something so prolific. He says they were talking about violence. And he said the violence that's happening in America is mostly black violence. And you black entertainers sit here mute. And we laid all of this groundwork down for you guys.

And you guys are disrespected and not picking up. So, you know, uh, that's the one reason I said, I think more socially. I mentioned criminal duality Barbie cause I saw just by chance, a fantastic documentary called minority of one.

Uh, and it's so good. And it detailed in particular, and I'm not, I'm not at all well versed with basketball. So it was also a glimpse into that world for me, but his relationship with magic Johnson, which was fascinating.

Do you have any particular favorite documentaries or movies that you just feel are must watches for human beings? And that's a big question. That's, that's why I think documentaries. On cultures are important. If you get a chance to see any documentary about Jews and what they went through, watch it. Any documentary about Palestinians and what they've gone through, watch it.

Blacks and what they've gone through, watch it. Women and what they've gone through, watch it. Women and what they've gone through, watch it. The reason that I say it is because if we're talking about the human aspect of it, like, I didn't get it until I watched it was actually The Pianist. And I just went, shit. I didn't know it was like that. You know what I'm saying? I'm like, I

didn't know that. And so, you know, and then when I listened to some of my friends who, like, you know, live in the Middle East and they're going through those things, I said, shit, I didn't know it was like that. So I think any time you get a watch, get a chance to watch people and where they come from or culture and what they went through. You can even look at whites breaking away from the I mean, the 13 colonies breaking away from from England. You go, oh, shit. I colonies breaking away from, from England. You go, Oh shit, I didn't know you went through that. So it's like when you do that,

you, you, you come away with a sense of, okay, I get you now. Right. Helps build your compassion. Yeah.

It helps build your compassion because you, you only live in your own world. You know what I'm saying? And unless you get a chance to see what it is, uh, a lot of times your views will be will be narrow and just watching documents memories like that to to open up your views are just amazing when you look at when you look at the story of of uh like i said the story of slavery there was a book that i just showed these young guys called without sanctuary without sanctuary where it's a book that I just showed these young guys called Without Sanctuary. Without Sanctuary. Where it's a book where a guy, a photographer, went around the South during the times of slavery and documented lynchings.

And he would document the lynching and make postcards. Because at that time, see, we go oof. But at that time, it was commonplace. It was a party. So people would get their food. That's where they got picnic from. They would get their food, drinks or whatever, and they would go down and watch the lynching. And so there was a postcard that said, here's the lynching of Nigga Charlie.

Hope you like it. Hope everything is well. So that was something that was mind-blowing because it was commonplace. You know, so when you get it, like I said, when you get a chance to see cultures and history, you understand what's going on today. And this is the last little factoid. If you get a chance, pull up the Harrison Act. The Harrison

Act was an act about taking drugs off the street and making them illegal because at the time in our culture we were able to, you know, use whatever drugs that was out there. It was available. But the government sort of didn't know how to get it off the street, so they ran a story, Black man gets high on cocaine and fights cops.

And people were like, so we got to get rid of drugs. People were like, fuck that. We can get rid of our drugs. Get bigger guns. Give cops more jurisdiction. Finally, they run a story. Black man gets high on cocaine, rapes and kills Caucasian woman. That's when the Harrison Act, because, well, we don't want that.

But because of that Harrison Act with the jurisdiction of a cop, that plays into a little bit of what we're dealing with today. Because it was sort of set that way at a time where it was commonplace to see slaves it was commonplace to see blacks as second or third class citizens so and it's not to incite anything it's not to make you feel anything angry it's just a it's just appearing into someone's genesis to see where we are today so that you can understand to or try to have the compassion for all of all of us who live here in this country because like i said it's it's the best in the world and beyond i remember friend mentioned to me i was watching planet earth and he said there's a companion of some type which uh

i really want to see called i think it's humans of earth. And it actually profiles different civilizations, different cultures around the world. And it shows you have humans have adapted, you know, Mongolians using Falcons for hunting and all of this and whatnot. But the, um, I, yeah, I totally agree with you. I think that, you know, if a culture is a set of beliefs and behaviors, you have to, in a way, be taken on that sensory experience to develop the compassion. You don't get it through text alone, necessarily. If you could have a billboard anywhere, what would it say? Man, it would constantly change.

It would be those new billboards. Ooh, that's a sneaky answer. I like it. It would be the billboard channel. Ball out, dog. Have a great time. Go to church. Love somebody. Teach somebody.

Get angry a little bit. It would just change, you know, because, you know, these guys know me. I'm all about having, and at the end of the last one, have as much fun as you can. Because in a blink of an eye, we'll all be gone. A hundred years compared to infinity is nothing. I talk to my sister all the time. Why you? She be like, what's wrong?

I said, girl, you better start having some fun. We're going to be gone in a minute. You're going to look back and say, shit, I should have been laughing. And now I'm dead. So, yeah, my billboard would change constantly because I think we all change. You said get angry a little bit. And I remember I was given this advice by a guy named Poe Bronson, a writer. Many, many years ago, I asked him at an event.

I was sitting in the crowd. I said, what do you do when you get writer's block? And he said, I write about what makes me angry and if you if you were teaching a ninth grade class Mixed race mixed gender. Yeah, what would you what would you teach that class about like what would what would you teach? What do you think the most important things skills or otherwise that you could teach? Ninth graders might be well, like I said, it would have to be different tiered. Yeah.

If it's a ninth grader of today, I would teach them as much as you can interact with actual humans. You know, the toughest thing in the world is like looking at my daughter, and we're in Paris, and they're on their cell phones. So I said as much as you can, interact with people. Because people, it's the best interaction because there's all types. There's discretion when it comes to people. Like, there's no discretion when it comes to thumbs and what you can say on the internet.

And that's why you get drugged down by it because it doesn't take anything if they're if it's an anonymous person and they say you're ugly and you're this and you're that and you're this there's no discretion there so they can sort of get the venom off i said when you're if we're if we're in a surrounding i may feel something about something but i want to say because i don't want to hurt somebody's feelings i I don't want to have to hurt my feelings. So that's the one thing, interact with people. The second thing is interact with people from all over the world because you become narrow when you're just all about my block. And just being about your block in today's world is going to hurt us because people don't understand global. We don't understand global market.

We don't understand global things that how does something in the Middle East affect me in North Dakota because of the way we're set up like this. So it's like you have to get the education. I would bypass. Well, no, I wouldn't bypass it get the education of people all the world and then the last well last couple of things would be history know your history know why we're why we're here why this especially when it comes to to to rules and legislation and things that know why uh why we, why we don't vote. If you think about it, this wonderful country runs on just like a human brain.

We only use a little bit of it when it comes to the voting market. You got to vote. Get out there and be active in that. A lot of times we just, hey, man, whoever's the president is the president, whoever's this or that. So that. And then the last part that I would teach is the last two things. whoever's the president, whoever's the president, whoever's this, whoever's that. So, so that, and then, um, the last part that I would teach is,

last two things, hustle, teach your hustle. Your hustle muscle is, but hustle muscle is the most important thing. Um, when you hustle and you go get it, a lot of times that alleviates your problems.

When you don't hustle or you leave it to chance, when you leave things to chance and you didn't give it all that day, now you start to argue or wonder about things. Bills, fuck, I got to get that done. Oh, my relationship is out of it. But if you hustle, for one, it's going to take up a lot more of your time. So you don't have time to concentrate on just the worrying. If I put the work in i got my check i put it and your check can be doesn't have to be monetary it could be anything it could be i put the work in at the charity and this happened because of the

charity but whatever it is put that hard work in and now you could see things coming to fruition and that takes 70% of your worrying away because you did give it your all. And then the last part of it is reflect. Sit still for a minute because when you're working, working, working, working, I got this, I got this, I got that, that will strain you as well. So you got to be able to decompress. You just got to be able to chill. Whatever it is that you chill with, if it's your homies your friends what do i take time out to be like you know what i i if if if it's out of my hands it's out of my hands i'll get a better

crack at it tomorrow colin powell says something incredible he said i always feel like in the morning i got a brand new chance and i'm parap feel like in the morning, I got a brand new chance. And I'm paraphrasing. In the morning, he said, I love getting to the morning because it's a new opportunity. But really take that time for yourself. You know, relax, chill, whatever it is that you believe in. If it's God, Buddha, Allah, Hindu, all of them, whatever it is to get you on that, okay, you know, I did what I was supposed to do. Let me relax now.

And then tomorrow or the next day, get another start. What does the first 60 minutes of your day look like? Do you have any morning routines that are important to you? Morning routines? I wake up. I text the people that I dig and love. What do you send? I just send them encouraging.

There's a few people that just really mean a lot to me. I want to let them know I'm thinking about them the whole night. And then it varies, man. Sometimes I'll be like, okay, I put some work in, so I put in eight days. So maybe these two days I could chill. Get a little, I do the,

just on the physical part, I get my, I get my 50 pull-ups in, 100 sit-ups, you know, maybe 100, maybe 100 crunches, and it's easy.

I used to not be able to do it. My boy Tyron Turner. How many sets for the 50 pull up for the 50 so i do 15 first 15 pull-ups this is what it is i do 15 pull-ups 50 push-ups 100 sit-ups then i go back and i do 15 different oh chin grip yeah so that'll get me to 30 another 50 pushups that gets me to 100 pushups I'm done with the pushups and then I do 10 and 10 back to the

first grip and you don't have to do it every single day you can do it every other day and then what you notice is the pull up bar and Tyron kept telling me this well I got a homie Tyron he played Kane in Minnesota Society and I kept wondering howie, Tyron, he played Kane in Men of Society, and I kept wondering how is he always in shape.

He says, man, I'm trying to tell you, the pull-up bar is everything. So that. And then just, you know, make the calls on what I need to get done and make sure I'm, you know, in the right, you know, position. Do you drink coffee? I don't drink coffee. I don't drink coffee. I don't drink coffee. Oh, you stopped?

I had to stop having stimulants. That's you and me. Earlier in my career, I was all about the stimulants. So at a certain point, I had to... Ixnay on the Appian K. I've been cutting that out as well it's not good for me people are like aren't you worried about depressants alcohol i'm like no no no no stimulants

that's what i need yeah because because when i tell people all the time to drink coffee after a while you you keep you keep hitting that same muscle you know that in your brain to where you i know people right now who can drink four cups of coffee and go to sleep. Yeah, I used to be that person. Yeah, and so it's like one of my boys loves, what is it, Red Bull? Red Bull. And he won't understand why some days he'll just be like this. Yeah. So I had to stop, and it was tough because I had to have coffee every day, and I drank like double espressos, you know.

I was like I had to have the up. Yeah. But now I know how to go get it inside of my, you know, I know how, I had to have the up, but now I know how to go get it inside of my, you know, I know how to go get it inside. Last, last question here is, um, I'm going to ask what advice you would give to yourself, three different ages, 20, 30, and 40. Um, so what advice would you give to your 20 year old self? Man, put the condom on. Shit. Stop playing around important advice 20 man put that on buddy not the fishnet one either put the real one on okay uh anything else for 20 or should we move to 30 20 20s i had my daughter at 26. So the advice I would give me was like, calm down.

You know, it was like calm down and just, you know, make sure you're paying attention to your daughter and to the daughter's mom. 20s was tough because I just got to L.A. I was just, you know, man, the whole world was opening up. So I'm like, man, you know, I'm trying to do all of it. And while I was like calmed down, and luckily it was 26, so moving into 30, I was on my way to calming, if that makes sense. It does make sense. So then you hit 30. 30.

What advice would you give your 30-year-old self? It's going to go fast. In what way? It's going to go fast. The time is going to go fast. So just make sure that you start now planning for your future. And not only is it going to go fast, but don't spend all your money. Don't buy the jacket that's twelve thousand dollars you know relax you know just just you relax it because

it's good and 40 is going to come so fast and you don't think that it is but it's going to come so fast and would you say that because you would want your 30 year old self to pay attention to the present moment or do long term thinking? You got to do long term. When you're 30, you got a kid and you're in my business and in any business. All businesses are going to, especially when you make, my business is about me. So I have to be careful in my decisions socially and plan for the future it's not

going to be i remember uh uh doing my television show and it went five years went fast and i would tell the people on my television show it's gonna go fast man and if you finish at 35 but you live till 70 you know so you have to really think about the future. A long game. Yeah. And then 40 before zero. Wow.

40. They're, they're going to be tough decisions that you have to make when it comes to business. Because in your 40, when you're 40, in my business,

the window is closing on certain things. So you have to be able to open those windows to other things. And some of the people that you've gone to battle with till you're 40 may not be the ones that you will battle and do business with towards 50. And take a little bit of your personal feelings out of it. Because I'm very personal, meaning like I would stay with someone, even if I feel that they're not up to par business-wise, but, you know, we have history. Take a little bit of the personal out of it. Still remain friends if you can with that person, because now it's really pending.

Like 50 about to be here, You know what I'm saying? So it's like, you know. And I would tell my 40-year-old self, grow up in your mind but not in your body necessarily. Meaning stay young in your body. But certain parts of your life you have to grow up and be grown about things. Because now you got another kid. Your other child is, you know, 20,

she's 21 now, which is just, you know, this past year. So, but she was, you know, 13,

14. And if, when I was 40, but now you got to start living, uh, you would always live your life a hundred percent for you. But now that you have your kids in their certain age, it's got to be 30% to 40% you,

60% to 70% what you're going to leave for them and how you're going to leave them, because like I said, it's flying. And that's it. Jamie, so much fun. I really appreciate you taking the time. And where can people find what you're up to, find you online, learn? You can find me at IamJamieFox on my Periscope.

Am I right? Am I saying this right? You know, I got these young cats telling me what to do. And then IamJamieFox on Twitter also. IamJamieFox on Twitter. I'm doing better on Twitter. I'm trying to do better. On Twitter, you know.

And the old fella trying to do better. And? On Twitter, you know. And? The old fella trying to. The latest album? The latest album is called Hollywood, Story of a Dozen Roses. It's out. I don't care how you get it. You can download it, bootleg it, steal it from a friend. I don't care.

I just want you to hear the music. The song that's out right now is I'm Supposed to Be in Love by Now. I'm supposed to be in love by now. It's been so long for me. I don't know how. Been drowning in the sea of broken vows. But I'm supposed to be in love by now

I've been chasing my dream, now I'm chasing you Running hard but my legs feel weak I done played every part, I done played a fool Write the movie. I be your lead. I'm supposed to be in love by now. Well, girl, you stole my heart. Take a bow.

In love by now. So make sure you get that. In love by now is out. It's a song that my daughter made me. She sort of made me do. She's like, listen, stop with the club stuff. And that's my oldest daughter. It's funny. She said, stop with the club joint.

Stop. you're trying to be too young like even, she even, like I had on some shoes one day that she thought was just, I had too young of a shoe she's like dad what is that on your feet, I said they're the new style baby they're the Giuseppes, you know

it's the new style, I had a zipper on and a buckle and my name engraved and she's like, stop it. She said, Dad, you have old feet. I said, what does that mean? You have old feet. Like you have feet for marching, like a civil rights. You have a civil rights feet.

But she said, do a song that we know that is from you. And it's true. She said, I'm supposed to be in love by now so that and jumping out of the window and we just shot the in love by now video with George Lopez is the priest I get stood up at the altar

George Lopez is the priest Nicole Scherzinger and we all know her from the Pussycat Dolls but also her solo career she plays my love interest which is great because she's a good friend. And so we were able to like really get into some like, you know, they don't do old school videos anymore. Like this actually has a bit of a story. My man Tank is in it and then all of my friends, my daughter's in it, my little daughter's in it.

And my mom and dad is in it. And, you know, so it's kind of cool. I was jamming to Babies in Love yeah that's the type of music I listen to before when I'm headed somewhere

to write sit down do some creative work yeah man Babies in Love solid I think Justin Bieber was supposed to do

that song first and we were lucky enough to get it but Babies in Love Kid Ink is on there so you know got some good stuff going and then

later on Sleepless Nights will be out at some point. And then we'll start work on the Mike Tyson bio. And that's it. And then the stand-up comedy is coming because, like I said, I got a lot of stuff that, you know, I got to get off my chest. That's it. Since you brought up Mike, what would mike say if you were here right now well i'm gonna say it like this because now that i'm about to do the movie to do the mike tyson impersonation would be a little disservice what i would say is is that i met mike when i was 21 years old i went on stage and i was doing my joke and i was

getting in my mike tyson joke and i went into it and no one laughed because mike was in the audience a guy was in the audience with mike and said yo mike is in here motherfucker i was like oh man the black girls in the front was like what you gonna do jamie you gonna tell your jokes you scared of mike tyson this is what mike tyson was knocking people out for nothing i did and then the guy yells out, Mike said do the joke, and that shit better be funny. I was like, oh, shit. So I do the joke.

It's a standing ovation. I come off stage, and Mike goes, there he is. I want to talk to you. You're so funny. Come hang out with me. You're a funny motherfucker. Come get in the car with me. And we take off,

and I started hanging out with Mike Tyson at 21 years old. It was the most incredible thing in the world. Mike was bigger than Michael Jackson at that time. He was the biggest person, biggest star in the world. Mike would be in Michael Jackson at that time. He was the biggest person, biggest star in the world. Mike would be in a club, see a girl and say, hi, how are you? Like BMWs? They're like, huh?

Do you like cars? Yeah. He would go open up the BMW dealership. He'd buy a car for a girl. That's how dope he was. And then all of his boys would go to all the different cities and pick up the cars that he bought for girls and say, yo, come on, get the keys back. You know he's playing. So it was great to see him during that time. Then it was tough to see him when he went through what he went through. And then when we finally decided to

do this movie, this is the Mike Tyson that I think people really be able to grasp is that when we show Mike Tyson older and I called Mike and I said, Mike, how are you? I'll pray this to Allah, my brother. I'm happy. How are you? I said, I'm good, Mike. You know, what's up? What's going on? I'm just happy. I'm happy because I don't have any money anymore.

So I'm happy. I was like, Mike, what does that mean? He said, no, it's just all the vultures that were around me the whole time. It was always after my money. So I don't have any money. So nobody wants anything from me. So I'm just so happy. And if you notice his speaking voice, like what I told you with Bill Cosby,

it's completely different from when he's on stage, when he's getting ready to fight. So he was like, I'm just so happy. And I could tell, I said, Mike, that's the person we need to tell.

That's the story. We always see the person who rises to the mountaintop, but we don't see the other side of the mountain and all the jagged edges and all the things. And, and, and you're about to slip off of that mountain so uh terry winter who wrote you know a wolf of wall street uh boardwalk empire and uh martin scorsese who's going to direct it who hasn't directed a film about boxing since raging bull so fingers crossed if it all goes

together we'll be able to see mike tyson in all goes together, we'll be able to see Mike Tyson in a different way and we'll be able to transform to where I want to be so good that as Mike Tyson, that I look so much like him. And when I walk into his house, his kids would acknowledge me as a father. And then I want to be able to sit back and reflect. And here's what i'm trying to do with with a career is establish characters in living color it was wanda hey for real though i rock your world then it was willie beeman any given sunday my name is willie Willie Beamer. I keep the ladies screaming. Then it's Ray Charles. No, it's Bundini Brown from Ali.

Muhammad Ali is a prophet. How you gonna be God's son? Soon as you come out the garage, you'll be number two. So Bundini Brown. And then it's, well, I got a woman way over town. It's good to me. Then it's Ray Charles. And then it's Django you know

they love him very well Django so the Django experience working with Quentin Tarantino which was mind blowing to be able to go in and read for that and I didn't know about that part

I thought Will Smith was going to do it I was like Will Smith and Quentin Tarant incredible it didn't work out that way i meet with uh quentin tarantino i told him i understand the script and i said not only that i have my own horse and so i ended up riding my own horse in uh in django and i knew that that was going to be another character that's going to change the game and uh so they'll look at that so there's a Django and then hopefully if everything goes right Mike Tyson will sit with those characters so that you'll be able to after a while look at a at a career where you transformed into a character people know it and were moved by it and and hopefully uh um if it all works out it'll

it'll be a great it'll be a great opportunity to look back and see like wow man look at the things that you were able to do uh in america well it's an incredible canon already and um my brother gave me mike tyson's autobiographyography for Christmas last year and I sat down and I read it because when I was a kid I would watch on the grainy VHS Mike Tyson's greatest hits

over and over and over and you'd see his reception in Japan he was the biggest star on the face of the planet but you read the autobiography and there are layers upon layers a lot a guy who just wanted to be in love

just wanted to just you know it was more simple than we thought it would yeah and layers. A lot. A guy who just wanted to be in love, just wanted to, it was more simple than we thought it would. Yeah, and I can't wait to see it. I hope it comes together. I hope so. Jamie, you are the consummate performer and entertainer, so please keep creating. This has been

such a gift. Thank you for your time. Thank you, buddy. And for everybody listening, you can find all the show notes, links to everything at 4hourworkweek.com forward slash podcast. You can search my name and Jamie's. It'll probably pop right up. And as always, thank you so much for listening. This episode is brought to you by 99designs. When your business needs a logo, website, business card, thumbnail, or any other design,

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