The Tim Ferriss Show - #465: Jamie Foxx on Workout Routines, Success Habits, and Untold Hollywood Stories (Repost)

Episode Date: September 18, 2020

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 routineJamie’s origin stories — 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 beginningWhat he learned during the magic of In Living ColorJamie playing live music throughout our interviewImpersonations (and lessons learned from many of the following) — Quincy Jones, Ed Sheeran, Ray Charles, Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, 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 othersThe key skills Jamie learned from his grandmotherJamie’s parenting styleCheck out the show notes for much, much more.Enjoy!This episode originally aired in 2015. You can find the show notes here: https://tim.blog/2015/12/06/jamie-foxx/***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.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.

At this altitude, I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking. Can I ask you a personal question? Now would have seen an appropriate time. What if I did the opposite? I'm a cybernetic organism living tissue over a metal endoskeleton. Me, Tim, Paris, show. We all shop online and we've seen that promo code field that taunts us at checkout. You see it all the time. Thanks to Honey, you never have to manually search for coupon codes ever again.

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That's drinkag1, the number one. drinkag1.com slash Tim. That's drinkag1, the number one, drinkag1.com slash Tim. Last time, drinkag1.com slash Tim. Check it out. Hello, boys and girls. This is Tim Ferriss, and welcome to a very exciting episode of the Tim Ferriss Show. At least I hope it will be because it was for me. Of course, every episode, it is my job to deconstruct world-class performers, whether they're in entertainment, military, chess, sports, or otherwise. How do they do 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 stand up 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 to 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,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've 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. So just go to fourhourworkweek.com forward slash Friday. That is fourhourworkweek.com,

all spelled out forward slash Friday, and that'll 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. So 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 4hourworkweek.com forward slash podcast with all the other episodes. And that all having been said, holy shit, put on a 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, 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 just dumped it on to, uh, and, and just pressed up to see CD or the 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, you know,

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, 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 uh which you know i think it makes a lot of sense because as music starts to progress uh 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, 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 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're able to do uh if we want to do adr for movies um what is adr adr is like when you um like when we're doing a

movie but we're recording the the movie outside there's a lot of noise are you doing pickup audio so we'll do pickup audio uh so uh and so and and most any actor or actress would 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 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 or snoop or back at that time john b or or brian mcknight i would say hey man you know i'm trying to get the music would you leave me some music in my studio so people leave me like 16 bars 24 bars because they would they would record something while they're in the studio they would record we'd have the party going i say hey man let's go in the back you know while we're drinking and whatever like that and go and i said hey, just leave me a little something,

because I was trying to get into music, and then I met this kid named Breon Prescott, basketball, 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 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 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. He'd come to L.A. We couldn't even get in our own clubs. Right. But 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 nobody's getting it and so there was 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, what? He said, it costs a million dollars for this party. I said, you paid a million dollars for a party? He was like, yeah, that's how we – I told Puff, I challenged him. I said, I'll throw you a party at my house in 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, 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. I said, yo, you must out your motherfucking mind guy i said yo you don't say out your motherfucking mind playboy you don't understand the essence of this part now i was like all right i get it and uh he actually came to uh la a few weeks later and it was a saturday he said

yo playboy make that shit happen so he calls me like nine in the morning right for that night for not in the morning but he just said for the same day for the day i said no problem so i'll 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 uh um um knowing everybody i was the first 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 I would have people sign cue cards, sign their 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. Let's see if we can get rid of this fly. All right.

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 by 15 feet on the floor. And then another 15 feet tall.

And you said, I'm going to stop and get this fly. Yeah, I saw the fly assaulting 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 got to 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 would send it. I had a list of about 800 people. I had 600 women because women at that time, this is 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. You know, we got eight, nine girls together. Jamie, you're so crazy.

I'm funny, whatever. And so I had 800 signers, just 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'm throwing a party for puff and this one puff had uh we ain't going nowhere was out And it was blazing It was popping I mean even the LA dudes

Was like man We don't wanna fuck with this New York dude But this shit is so 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 The girls are pretty Not 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 yo where you at we're at a fever pitch it's going off over here at my little house and And when he gets there, his mind is blown. And, you know, he shows up with the entourage.

You know, Puff, he was like, Gatsby. And he walked in and he says, oh, that's the girl from that show. And that's the girl on this. And I said, yeah, Puff, we all live out here. You know, so all the people you see in Hollywood, I know they're my friends. 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. What the fuck? It's another fly. Hold on. Stay right there. Good night. Two for two.

Two for two two for two so so so so he's he's admiring that it's crazy and um and 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 fit. It's $58. Maybe retail

I said but puff on your head on your head is priceless. We just want to be around this fly shit, right? So we part in puff is party and there's the dude standing next Like on the wall. No one's talking to he. He got a little green jump jacket on. Guess who it was? It was Jay-Z. Nobody knew who he was. Jay-Z. I said, yeah, I know that dude. Missy Elliott 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 said, yeah, what do you mean? You know, the girls and karaoke. I said, yeah, yeah, man, who are you? Oh 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 turned 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 Breon 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 that? They said, yo, that's a new kid, Kanye West. He coming on. I said, really? What'd he do? He said, he rap. I said, well, yo, who's that? They said, yo, that's a new kid, Kanye West. He coming on.

I said, really? What'd he do? He said, he rap. I said, well, shit, he got to perform next year because everybody that 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, man, let me hear you rap.

You need your beats or whatever? He said, I don't need no beat. Freestyle. Blue, every, I mean, 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 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 that, oh, this is just comedian fucking around some real shit. So we go in and, and, and, and, uh, Kanye, you know,

quiet, but, but at the same time, he knew what he wanted. He says, okay, the song goes like this. She says she wants a Marvin game,

some Luther Vandross, a little. I said, I got it. And I started going, she say she wants some, my V. And he said, what the fuck are you doing? I said, well, see young man, she say she wants a mouth. 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 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 got to sing it this way. So in my mind,

I'm thinking, you know what? I'm going to sing this shit. The song is whack. It's not going to 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, what? 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 said was where I can say. 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't believe me. I said, no, I'm where Miami they played it. Everybody ran to the dance floor I grabbed the mic said that's me. That's that's that's my song. I'm I'm on that, you'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.

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 to this studio. I don't know. 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 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 gotta 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 are you ready i said yeah yeah man play this shit so he plays it and the song was blame it on the goose got you feeling loose blame it on the i stopped it i said listen it. And the song was Blame It On The Goose, Got You Feeling Loose, Blame It On The Ah, Ah, Ah, Ah, Ah.

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 got to 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 auto-tuned and everything like that. But we wanted to sing 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 clubs? Strip clubs. We did an East Coast run. So we were Went to the strip clubs? Strip clubs. We did an 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.

My man Peck took us around. And I would 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. 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. 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 got to 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 Alcohol was done here, Slow Jams was done here. So this studio has that essence to it that you just, you don't throw that away and just the building

itself natasha beddingfield's been here she's cut kelly roland's been here she's cut the game has been here he's cut right here on this floor and i'm showing this uh for you guys listening i'm pointing to the floor to the carpet a young man by the name of ed sharing slept on this carpet for like six weeks uh trying to get his music career going uh he came from over from london he heard about a live show that i do in la so 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 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 Wonder. People will come there. 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 got to really come with it. I said, I think i'll be okay that's all right so i take it to my live night 800 people there people's playing black folks sweating and just getting it you know i'm saying i mean people singing and you know they would they would tear american idol up you know and these people don't necessarily haven't necessarily made it so all of 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 a like i said a lot of history and it has that magic to it as well the mojo yeah now you uh you mentioned getting into music but it seems like from what i've read of you that music in some ways came first music 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 or... 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 i was 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 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 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 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.

Here's a lady with an eighth grade education. She had her own business for 30 years. 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 don't just mean in Terrell and those people over there. I mean the metaphoric. Like across the track, I mean everywhere in the world. So music connects you to the whole world. So in doing that, I would connect with people on the other side of the tracks.

You know, in a southern city. In Terrell, you know, 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 hometown, but there was, there was that, who's a little black kid. And my grandmother would be like, don't, you know, play. Do your thing. And when I would play, you know, a lot of that broke up, broke, you know, 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 mean, like, man, I'd get, like, $10, $15. You know what I'm saying? 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, Grandma, what are you doing with my money? Shit, 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 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 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. Then why are two of you here at the same time? I said, well, I don't have a license. 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, well, you know,

I've been sort of used to the racial misunderstandings. And I said, well, is there any way he can wait outside or wait? And he can't wait on the street. It starts at 630. Now, you got to make your mind up, man. So I told my boy, I said, let's just come get me at 830, which was pretty late for kids at that time. 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 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 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 uh when you're in a setting like that uh there's a word i want

you to remember it's called furniture i said what's that 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 of 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 the song that I sang. Chestnuts roasting on an open fire

Jack Frost nipping at your nose. You'll take care of being sung by a choir. And folks dressed up like Eskimos. Everybody. Anyway. So as I'm singing, I remember watching those white guys, older 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.

They'd have to resign today. Yeah. And they look and they go, they immediately change. I said, wow, man, that's good. You know any other songs? And I sat and I did about immediately change 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 everyday 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 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 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,

San Diego to study music at International University. And what was interesting about that was, is that being in Texas, it was black 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 of sports in the music 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 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. So what are you arguing about? Oh, my brother, my friend. They're talking about the Gaza Strip. I said, what the fuck is that? And they 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 and be like oh shit where are you from i was from paris i was like fuck they got black people so that music gave me not only an opportunity to share but opportunity to be educated by 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 or less than five percent of americans have passports and things a little more because, what is it, less than how many percent, less than 5% of Americans have passports and things like that. That'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 I've heard you describe her, and I might be, I'm sure I'm paraphrasing this, but that she was the bow or had 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 grandmother was a very confident person and very smart.

Just, how would you say just naturally intelligent she was a a a taurus you're saying natural is 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 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. Some 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, you know, 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 had they were living with this. So she was a type of woman who had natural intelligence. I said, well, granny, well, what does it say about religion? Doesn't it say that it's that it's wrong?

You know, being a kid from Texas, it's 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 grown-ups that were there, 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. So 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. You know, my grandma was like, 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.?

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. 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 uh in the in the front room i said yeah that's my grandma what's up uh yeah it's cool i said yeah 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, I was like, Granny, you know, it's Christmas time. Why don't we do something we ain't never done? You know, yourself making a little money. Why don't we go to Hawaii for Christmas? Because I got some friends from Hawaii. Well, yeah, well, let's get it going.

Gas up the plane, right? So we 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 Terrell, Texas. Estelle Talley on her way to Hawaii, 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. It 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. Oh, yeah. Man, weather's nice. Mm-hmm. Sunny. Oh, food is good. I got my own seasonings though. 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 hear me?

So she hangs up. You know, there's like three or four families there. We're having like a little Christmas party. We all go, Granny, what? When you say the young girls, what are you talking about? You know, 60, 65. I don't want to mess with them. She says, shit, I'm 83.

No, I can't handle a 65-year-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 in my apartment. She comes and says, my rich cousin.

I didn't even recognize because I had only seen him maybe once or twice growing up. So anyway, it gets around to where 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 i know some doctors maybe they can help you

oh i would prefer the ten thousand dollars that's for you okay I'll hit you. 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. Last time you seen the answer machine. So I'm checking my answer machine and she leaves a 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. Br family anyway. He 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 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 just it was an incredible thing. My grandmother was absolutely amazing. I think you need people like that. And when you talk about that bow, that's my reference 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 was 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 said 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 it looked like almost like he could see, you know? And I said, Mr. Charles, you know, just trying to do the best I can to, you know, to do,

uh, to do your movie, your biopies. And 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? 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 Thelonious 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, what is that? Why you hit the note like that? That's a wrong note man shit. I said well, I'm sorry

Mr. Charles, I just he said let me tell you something 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 tally teaches you then you got ray charles explaining now that you're across the tracks what notes are you gonna play and so now we go on and we we we we do 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.

It was independent. And, you know, 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'd play in the Kia Q 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 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 his 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 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 Google Frank Sinatra, you'll understand what I mean about the Lucoso Nostro. And so here I am now talking to Quincy Jones, and he's telling me about Ray Charles. He says, yeah, 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 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 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, is donna shore from the donna shore show we have two very wonderful musicians here today and 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 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 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 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, uh, 2005, uh, in February, but she got a chance to hang in there and, and, you know, and feel it, you know? So, uh, it's, uh, you know, my grandmother was just like, you know so uh it's uh you know my grandmother was just like you know the blueprint how do you think of teaching confidence with your own kids because you're clearly a very confident guy yeah uh 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 like when my daughter is, 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 said, 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'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 school teacher or tech guy or whatever or 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 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 will let they will let me tell jokes because I would get in trouble. Miss Reeves, I think it was my third grade teacher, Miss Reeves, because I would talk, but I was very smart.

My grandmother had a school. I lived in a school, so I already knew 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 gonna get in trouble. So she would, uh, let me do standup 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 the jai

you guys when you when you're hearing this you go google these guys uh a young jay leno uh uh these are like sort of like uh you know Richard Pryor what so I would take those jokes and tell him in school because those kids tell me he's Richard Pryor on Fridays well I guess it was on prime time so what was it? Richard Pryor on prime time you couldn't you couldn't he couldn't really say anything on prime time he was clean but like a Rich Little and Google Rich Little because Rich Little was the first person that I saw do impersonations. So there was a, there was, this was, this had to be, this had to be like 76, 1976. So it was like fifth grade for me. The joke was, uh, 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 Richard Nixon, 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 that teacher, Ms. Reeves and Ms. Douthit and all those teachers, Ms. Cole, allowed 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 cafeteria it was literally the same shit I'd be like wow

millions of people are watching this shit and it's the same it's the same thing and then you know as people came 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 gonna do it but there's definitely a Cosby joke somewhere I don't know where but I used to do Cosby impersonation 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 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, is that when 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 because, and then you find out that that was your 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, uh, people are going to be like, uh, but it's going to be funny as shit. And now who's, now Doc Rivers from the Clippers. Hey, you know, we're going to try. You know, it's not Blake's fault. You know, next year we got to do better. You know, so I'm working on 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 is So it's sort of like the way you do your You know what I'm saying?

It's finding... Right? So... 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, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh.

So it's sort of constricting. And then it's asking the character to come sit with you. Kermit the Frog here with Here with the three little pigs. But the key is this. And at the same time, Kermit the Frog. Who else sounds like that? Sammy Davis Jr. a little bit. Because you know, man.

So now Kermit the Frog 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, uh,

uh, like I, I, I do it in LeBron James impersonation, which is really not, uh, uh, uh,

a, uh, a voice. It's more of his mannerism. It's the jaw, you know, it's the look. Let's go,

bro. You know, let's go, bro. You know, the game of basketball, you know, we just try to,

you know, you know, it's that, you know, it's right, it's right after, it's right after playing, you know, when he comes up to, off the court, they catch him, he game of basketball, you know, we just try to, you know, it's that. You know, it's right after playing. You know, when it comes off the court, they're catching me still tight. You know, the game of basketball, we just try to do the best. You know, so it's the mannerisms.

So people will appreciate the mannerisms first. The physicality. 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 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 discipline. So it's a, it's a, it's a, 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 i 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 uh a great head on her shoulders i remember 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, I'll 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. I called her mom and said, could you come pick me up?

I said, what are you doing? She said, I'm not getting a 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. 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 up there.

So I got to at least put the top up. She's like, why? I said, just, 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 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 his kid announcing him. So, you know, it's a lot of things you can 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 and I started doing, you know, I'm in college and doing the music. But I would go up on these open mic nights for comedy. So I go, I do really well. Did I get, 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, why can't,

what's going on? But what I noticed, and is the, how does the open mic work? What you do is you put your name on a list. 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, four weeks, they never called my name. I said, yo, money, did you see my name? Yeah, yeah, you weren't on the list. You were on the list, but we got other people. But I found out that the comedians were actually running the list. So the comedians that had been here for a while 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. 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's that?

They were shooting Evening at the Improv, this old comedy show back in the day. I said, you'll be the guy that will just throw up to see if you get a laugh or two. You know, it's going to be a tough crowd. Fresh meat. Fresh meat. 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 amateur so then they started yelling my name yo jamie yo jamie hey jamie but i'm not used to the name. 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 you, because first I looked at it first. Like I, 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 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, it was just natural. It was, you know, I belong here. So I think that's the thing, too.

When it comes to entertainment, 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 like when you can 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 so you know if 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've sort of simplified things. Like now I just execute. I have to ask people like Ricardo, Justin, what should I execute? So the fear of a celebrity or an artist now is how do I get my art off in a world where it's the social media driven sort of 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 um 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 a 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 entertainment, it's cool. But then you have to wonder, like, how do you get it off? Like, how do you, like, even now when you talk about the Bill Cosby joke, back in the day, we just tell the joke. Now you got to be like, okay, I got gotta tell the joke in a way that it's still funny it still keeps the bite on it but you know so those are the different like for me as a entertainer 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. What's, 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 bombed, and it wasn't a lot i only bombed like twice do you remember your first yeah yeah i did this this show for this guy named latimore old blue singer i'm 21 what was his name latimore latimore sounds like voldemort yeah latimore

so this guy saw me at this other club and said, hey, man, you know, Lattimore's performing around the corner. Man, why don't you come and open it? I said, whatever. I said, how much you pay? He said, pay $50. I said, I'm there. $50, I need it. So this is like 89, 90.

So I get there, and I don't know who Lattimore is. I just know it's a lot of older people. Like, I mean, like, oh, oh. I'm like oh shit where the people at these other people so i'll go up and the setting was different it was like the chairs and stuff were way in the back 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 because i would just take a joke and just keep spinning it spinning it so my first joke they didn't get second joke they didn't get i second joke they didn't get. I said, shit, I'm damn near 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. I'm like, oh, shit, I'm going to talk about him with a 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 uh i just said hey man i you know i don't know what else y'all want and uh pretty soon latimore is 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. He 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, and 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? You would determine if they understood it by the laughs. Huh? You would determine if they understood it by the laughs. Or 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, D.C., Florida, and do all of my political highbrow stuff and 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 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 in the like if you look at uh like if you look at the arc of a Kevin Hart like Kevin Hart takes that arc takes the same formula 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. You know, so it's the, you know, becoming a great comedian is also having that formula going on in your head. Because if you paint yourself into a corner like you're only the black comedian or you're only the Hispanic comedian or whatever that is, then it's hard for you to become universal. I mean, Eddie Murphy was great. He had an opportunity through Saturday Night Live to get it to but uh uh it's definitely a formula to not bomb it so what would you say to yourself so that's the first bomb you mentioned 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? 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 on the show? No, no, no. I think that's cheating, and I think you get bad habits. So I do a show. Right. So we're in, I think it was Irvine. So you don't tell people you're working on the show? 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 and that. So, but when you bomb, you go like, okay, all right, 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 got to put this in front of that. You got to put that behind this because that's going to 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. 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. High water. So watch this. The hardest part for Chris Rock was after he had done something great in stand-up. Because now you got to 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 like i would look at my stuff and go like i gotta 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 to know, you got to know how to move.

Because, like, right now is 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. You can still excite the older. You know what I'm 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 Carrey, you go like, okay, man, where you at? Where you at? You know what I'm saying? Don't give up the funny. Or you look at Chris Tuck. I always look at Chris Tuck and be like, motherfucker, where you at?

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 a 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 looped

because I did that. Like, I got to, my thing was after In Living Color, the show called In 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, motherfucker, if 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 opened the door and there was a kid, skinny, little tank top on, barely fit. His name was Chris Tucker.

He was smashing. He was, 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 stand up where people were laughing so hard. Like, I said, he's going to kill somebody. Like, when he says, last night, how was I? Oh, I killed. It's going to be true.

Somebody's 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.

I started running up the steps, chasing chickens and shit. Bom, bom, bom, bom, bom, bom, bom, bom, bom. 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 when you talk about bombing it's uh uh it's different when you when you 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 because they're gonna let you know like's world, you can't do nothing in today's world

without somebody letting you know, like, 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. 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, 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? Or would you rather make love to somebody like this? I mean, that was the jokes, you know, at the time. So it was observational. And then it was personal. 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

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 She just knew it was bad. But she thought that since 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, it's 6 in the morning. You going to wake up? Shit, half the day done gone. I said, granny, what you mean it's 6? Shit, I'm in there sleeping.

Anybody sleep that long got to have AIDS. I said, granny, I don't think that's it. No, I saw it on TV. You sleep that long got to have AIDS. I said, I don't think that's how. No, I saw it on TV. You're sleeping too long. You got AIDS. I said, I don't think that's how they exactly. And then I would use her towels. 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 use my towels. I said, you're going to put the AIDS on the towel. You don't use everybody's towel. Anybody use a towel like that i know you ain't use my towels i said you don't put the a's on the towel you don't use everybody's towel anybody use the towel like that got to have a's i said granny i don't think that's how you know so it was obviously this is what she was actually saying so when i did that joke on stage people was 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 uh you know uh i did not have sex with that woman you know it was you know things like that but uh oh 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. 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. 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 tap into your own skill set. I try to look at all of them and try to 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? some of the most underrated comedians who come to mind or people who you think haven't had their due haven't been appreciated i wouldn't say underrated but i i think that would just that was just like warriors that never got that shine oh there was a guy named tk kirkland who was a warrior but he never got to shine and tk had a colorful past you know and he'll let you know he said you know, and he'll let you know. He said, you know, he was a crazy motherfucker. But TK had jokes like, and Juan Dunn's Kermit the Frog always say, hi-ho, hi-ho.

Is he a pimp? 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 going to trip? Oh, man, it was just, he was just amazing. And his delivery, you know what I'm saying? 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's he he played he he made he made he made himself a character on stage that was just you know you guys are too young to to know this joke but bugle boy jeans oh yeah bugle boy juniors used to have a commercial where a girl would pull up in a car and says excuse me are those bugle boys 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, it was so funny. He said, man, let that motherfucker be a motherfucking black girl in the motherfucking car. Excuse me, are those Bugle Boy jeans

you're wearing? Yeah. Get in the car, motherfucker. I 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, like, levels. And he just, you know, he's an underground guy. Who else? There was 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. jokes but he talks about uh 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 said 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 him he fucked the uh he fucked the nun he was fucking everybody and then the plane leveled off. Oh, I'm sorry, y'all. That's not 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. We don't have dangerous. The only dangerous comedian that we have right now is Amyy schumer she's dangerous in what way like like she she'll say it like it'll be hot button you know i mean have you uh have you ever heard uh i saw this guy on a actually heard of him through a guy named evan goldberg who's Seth Rogen's writing partner. And so Gerard,

exactly, that was good. So Gerard Carmichael, his special, oh my God, he's like, I would never make a rape joke. This is more of a rape question. And it's like,

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 hardcore dance which is what serious silverman started out as you know so but amy looks like she's rounded the corner and is now you know really making it you know making it dope for herself if you look back at uh in living color and i i watched the show and it just if in retrospect it seems like such uh 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 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 said, 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 what we're going to do. So when you see Damon Wayans come in, and I just got hired 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 it was like fucking jurassic park it was like fucking t-rex and fuck you know i'm saying and the way i got on the show was 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 five. I was part of the five, but I was losing. I wasn't doing well within the improv of it

because I just wasn't catching the right shit. And then Kenan said something incredible. He said, well, I dig this, but I want to see y'all on stage doing stand-up, because I want to have stand-up comedians. I was like, oh, shit, that's my shit, that's my shit. And the other four people didn't do stand-up. There was only one other girl that did stand-up, 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 Factory, which was just starting. Because at that time, the comedy store was dominating. Laugh Factory was just, and they begged, can we please have the audition in the Laugh Factory? 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. Can I just go up last? Yes, you have to. Because we've already started. Get in here.

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 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? 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 decent 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 a hand clap I said, no man, I gotta I gotta come in with heavy decent effect With more bounce to went up and hand clapped. I said, no, man, I got to come in with heavy DJing effect. I'm going to 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 and 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?

Just do my act? Do my act like I do in the hood? Yeah, do your act like you do in the, Marlon, come here. Chill, Jamie. Just do your act. I said, oh, really? Just do my act? 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, oh, you got my music? The dude's over there like this. I said, well, I'm supposed to have some music. And I said, 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 so I did this little character, and then I went into my act.

And I got a standing ovation that night. And I remember seeing Jim Carrey and Kenan, Fly Girl, I was like on their feet. 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's like... I said, now all the 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. Kenan was like like i want you to do that character on the show because i think that's where you you uh you really uh flourish and when we did that 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 it was like it was like playing football and i was like the punt returner and i was a rookie and i ran it all the way back the first day uh so nobody really knew who i was but they knew that this character was was was slamming and so they sort of gave me like my

stripes because uh these guys were jugging us i I watched Kenan. I said, Kenan, these jokes ain't funny. They're the writers' role. 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, like 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, you know, working on some stuff. You know, just got some stuff I'm working on. So what is that?

Man, it's a little thing called Pet Detective. I said, okay, sounds funny. And was he developing it for the show at that time? No, he was developing it for his own shit. I got to make one phone call. No problem. All right, so we're back. We took a little breather.

But 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 e-mails and through our personal e-mails and all this other stuff, 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 was like, ah, don't worry about it.

You're cool. You're not like that. I don't give a fuck. 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 looked, it was a national story.

I went, what the fuck? She lost her job. Yeah. And so 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 doing a joke 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? 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. Oh, that's hilarious.

The average person would think of not what they do, but what the headline is right the subliminal image that 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 tarino, which I thought was sad because usually when you see a story about Black Lives Matter or anything black, it's usually the same black folks with the kufi

who's trying to be heard, and they're absolutely right. They're absolutely – there's so much wrong going on in the black world. There's black- black crime. Then there's the the divide that is because of social media is that is going on between the police officers and black 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 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. saw what a police officer sees. I've talked to police officers that how can we bridge the gap? I've suggested that you go get a white police officer who you think might not like black folk. You know what I'm saying? Get that person to go into the hood and throw a picnic for a kid that's eight, nine, 10 years old who's African American so that he can see another.

Another sign. Another side of the police officer. Because right now in social media or in media period, the stories that are the most salacious where it's 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 you know i that 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 right 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, 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 is 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 you 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. And I think, you know, as a black person and so on, so on, so on. He's able to 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, know what you make a lot of sense so quentin tarantino uh 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 an 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. They won't go see my song 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 movie or saw any of his movies, he speaks in those terms. He says, I stand with the murdered. When I see someone being murdered, I call it what it is. It's a murder though 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 are 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 ass now it's a beef now it's that's not what we we 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 the uh 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 the vine. But we were talking about this before. 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, magazines. I'm not going to mention them by name. I know what you're talking about. But I was interviewed and profiled by a magazine at one point, very, very highbrow magazine. There were six or seven misquotes or 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? a sort of, um, strategy. And I mean, this will get even more interesting once we have,

you know, smart stadiums. Once we have, uh, 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, uh, 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 up. You can't get rid of it. And when you talk about the regurgitating or just letting it die, you can 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 they don't 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 speaking the truth and don't worry about the haters. Meaning, speak the truth from you. Not whatever the comment was. But whatever you're saying in your truth, 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 going to go talk to them. If they are wrong in what they're saying, I'm going to tell them. But if they are right,

he says, 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, 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. Oh. Gladitorial games. But speaking 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. 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 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 live 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 move into that non-diverse place, it's different, man. I hate to say this, but listen to the kids, bro.

But when you talk about the kids, the kids today, I'm at the gym last night, 24-Hour Fitness. The kid is playing Future, white kid. Way to ask is that when I, 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. 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 in 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. But now it's so we are on the right path, man. Love who you want to love're talking about people in the Bible Belt and how they felt. So if those things are now, like my daughter taught me when she was 13. She's 21 now. She was 13, and this was nine years ago, and it was talking about gay rights and things like that.

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 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,

because old people argue about where you're 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 the 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 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 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 in a bad situation are you going to do another comedy tour yeah i, 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.

When you're a comedian, it's like you have to pray that the jokes will open up. So I got some great jokes that people will get and understand. And then just the stuff that's been going on with me, you know, getting older, you know, not realizing you the OG, you know what I'm saying? Like, you know, the young hip-hop guy. What's up, OG? Damn, that's right, you know? I mean, it's just some funny stuff.

It's some funny stuff. 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 and who who gave me up for adoption in 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 uh bitch

of the opera what are you talking about she's talking about a phantom uh rose royce right and it was just funny that 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 hi i didn't know you had company joy i mean just and now they've turned they've turned into kids so you know my dad had come to my room but uh 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 funny 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 to see President Obama become president to me, 2008, not talking about after he became president, because everyone will have their views 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 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, maybe you can't use that all the time. Because this man now shows 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,

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? It's 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 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 thought that that that type of success, regardless of where you come from, like I said, whatever side you stand on, to me, that was something monumental. When we talk about where this country has come from, when you talk about the greatness of America evolving 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? 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 uh do jokes or watch him do a movie or watch him spin guns to me he was just the ultimate uh in an entertainer he was like a full stack entertainer as one engineer said that's what the that's what he called you you know and he kind of he had all

the tools in the toolkit oh man that's great and. And then there's other sides of me, too. So, like, the sports side, like I was a Magic Johnson. Like, you know, the person 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 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. 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 like oh my cars and my my wealth and my money I 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 got to step up more socially. We got to be on social comms. Even if some of the people say, oh, fuck it, I ain't going to your movie. Okay, 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's right across the street from port from poverty and it sort of taught him how to deal with other cultures taught him how to deal with other uh financial groups he says i don't want to see people hurting he says i want everybody you know so i i think like that i've always thought like

uh 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. And so that was the, 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 get along. And sometimes 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 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 uh 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 dual jabar because saw, just by chance, a fantastic documentary called Minority of One.

Yeah. And it's so good. Yeah. And it detailed, in particular, and 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. Yeah. 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?

I know it's a big question. 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. 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 yeah and i just went shit i didn't know it was like that you know like i 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 anytime you get to 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 didn't know you went through that. So it's like when you do that, you come away with a sense of, okay, I get you now. Right. It helps build your compassion. Yeah, it helps build your compassion because you only live in your own world, you know what I'm saying? And unless you get a chance to see what it is, a lot of times your views will be narrow. And just watching documentaries like that to open up your views are just amazing.

When you look at the story of, 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 where a guy, a photographer, went around the South during the times of slavery and documented lynchings. And he would document the lynching and take 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 lyn of nigga charlie uh hope you like it hope everything is well so that was something that was mind-blowing because it was commonplace you know so um when you get it like i said when you get a chance to see cultures and history you understand what 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 it uh at a time in our culture we were able to you know use whatever drugs that was out there 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 was like, so we got to get rid of drugs. People were like, fuck that. I'm getting 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 us

who live here in this country. Because like I said, it's the best in the world. And beyond, I remember a friend mentioned to me, I was watching Planet Earth, and he said there's a companion of some type, which 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 how humans have adapted. You know, Mongolians using falcons for hunting all of this and whatnot but the um 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 yeah to develop the compassion you don't get it through text alone necessarily uh 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 saying, 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 we have as much fun as you can because in a blink of an eye

we'll all be gone 100 years compared to infinity is nothing. I talk to my sister all the time. Why you? She'd be like, what's wrong? I said, girl, you better get,

you better start having some fun. We're going to be gone in a minute. You're going to look back and say like, shit, I should have been laughing. And now I'm dead. So yeah, my billboard would change constantly.

Cause I think we all change. You said get angry a little bit. And it's, and I remember I was given this advice by a guy named Poe Bronson, so yeah my billboard would change constantly because i think we all change and so you said get angry a little bit and it's it 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 and i said what do you do when you get writer's block and he said i write about what makes me angry yeah and uh if you if you were teaching a ninth grade class yeah 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 him as much as you can interact with actual humans. Uh, you know, the toughest thing in the world is like looking at my daughter and we're in paris and they're generating thumbs yeah they're on their they're on their 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 and 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 there 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 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, if we're in a surrounding and I may feel something about something, but I want to say it because I don't want to hurt somebody's feelings. I don't want to have it hurt my feelings. So that's the one thing. 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 over the world. And then the last couple of things would be history. Know your history. Know why we're here, why this, especially when it comes to rules and legislation and gotta 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 way so so that and then uh um the last part that i would teach is last two things hustle 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 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 in. And your check 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 not 70 percent

of your worrying away because you did give it your all and And then the last part of it is reflect. Sit still for a minute. Because when you're working, working, working, working, working, 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, take time out to be like, you know what?

If it's out of my hands, it's out of my hands, I'll get a better crack at it tomorrow, Colin Powell said something incredible, he said, I always 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 say? I just send them encouraging. There's a few people you know really mean a lot to me want to let them know i'm thinking about them the whole night and then uh uh 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 uh get a little i do the uh just on the physical part i get my part I get my 50 pull-ups in 100 sit-ups

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-ups? 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 grip yeah so that'll get me to 30 another 50 push-ups that gets me 100 push-ups i'm done with the push-ups and then i do 10 and 10 back to the to the first grip and you don't have to do it every single day you can do it every other day uh and then what you notice is the pull-up bar and tyrant kept telling me this well we i got a homie tyrant he played cane in menace society and he i kept wondering how is he always in shape he says man i'm trying to you, the pull-up bar is everything. So that. And then just make the calls on what I need to get done and make sure I'm in the right position.

Do you drink coffee? I don't drink coffee. I don't drink coffee. Have you never? Oh, you stopped. I had to stop having stimulants. That's you and me. Earlier in my career, 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 caffeine K. Yeah, 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 to be worried about. Yeah, because when I tell people all the time,

to drink coffee after a while, you keep hitting that same muscle 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, and one of my boys loves, what is the 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 to go get it inside. Last question here is, I'm going to ask what advice you would give to yourself three different ages, 20, 30, and 40. 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. And not the fishnet one, either. Put the real one on.

Okay. 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 and, 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 LA. I was just, you know, man, the whole world was opening up. So I'm like, man, I'm, you know, I'm trying to do all of it. And while I was like, calm down, and luckily, it was 26, so moving into 30, I was on my way to calming,

if that makes sense. 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 $12,000. You know, relax. You know, just relax because it's $12,000. You know, relax. You know, just 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? No, 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, though, so I have to be careful in my decisions socially and plan for the future. It's not going to be, I remember doing my television show, and it went five years, went fast. And I would tell the people on 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 There There gonna be tough decisions 40 before zero. Wow. 40. They're,

they're going to be tough decisions that you have to make when it comes to business. Cause 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, 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 i'm saying so it's like you know and uh 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 when I was 40. But now you got to start living. You would always live your life 100% for you. But now that you have your kids and they're a certain age, it's got to be 30 to 40% you, 60 to 7% 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. i right am i saying this right you know i got these young cats telling me what and then i'm jamie fox on twitter also i'm jamie fox on twitter i'm doing better on twitter i'm trying to do better and twitter and uh the old

fella trying 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 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 a 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 I'm supposed to be in love by now. Well, girl, you stole my heart to 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. Stop with it. That's my oldest daughter. It's funny. She said, stop with the club joints. Stop. You're trying to be too young. Like even she'd 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 it and a buckle and my name engraved. And she was 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 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. 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 and everything

She plays my love interest which is great because she's a good friend 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, so it's kind of cool. I was jamming to Babies in Love. Yeah. That's the type of music I'll listen to before when I'm headed somewhere to write, sit down,

do some creative work. Yeah, man. Babies in love. Solid. Babies on top. 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 gotta get off uh get off my chest okay 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 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 going to do, Jamie? You going to tell your jokes? You scared of Mike Tyson?

This is when Mike Tyson was knocking people out for nothing. 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 funny, motherfucker. Come on, get in the car with me. And we take 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 on, 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 a club, see a girl and say, hi, how are you? You like BMWs? I was like, huh? Do you like BMWs? You like cars? He would go open up the BMW dealership. He would buy a car for a girl and say hi how are you like bmw's they're like huh do you like being like you like cars yeah he would go open up the bmw dealership they bought he'll buy a car for a girl that's how dope he was and then all his boys would go to all the different cities and pick up the cars that he bought for girls say yo come on get the keys back you know he's playing so it was great to see it

was great to see him during the time that 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? Something good Mike, you know what's up? What's going on? I thought I'm just happy. I'm happy because I have any money anymore So I'm happy It's like right was like, Mike, what does that mean, he was like, 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 and 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 a different way and we'll be able to transform to where I want to be so good that is mike tyson that i look so much like him and when i walk into his house his kids would acknowledge me as a father um and then i want to be able to sit back and reflect and here's what i'm trying to do with with the 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 Beeman I keep the ladies screaming then it's Ray Charles no it's uh 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 that'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, you know, 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, ooh, Will Smith and Quentin Tarantino. This is going to be incredible. It didn't work out that way. I meet with 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 Django.

And I knew that that was going to be another character that's going to change the game. And so they'll look at that. So they'll say 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 career where you transformed into a character. People know it and were moved by it. And hopefully if it all works out, it'll be a great opportunity to look back and see like, wow, man, look at the things you were able to do in America.

It's an incredible canon already. My brother gave me Mike Tyson's autobiography for Christmas last year. 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. You'd see his reception in Japan. He was the biggest star 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 in 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, you know, 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 all right man this has been uh such a such a gift uh thank you for your time thank you buddy and uh for everybody listening you can find all the show notes links to everything at for our workweek.com forward slash podcast uh you can search my name and jamie's it'll probably pop right up. And as always, thank you so much for listening. Hey guys, this is Tim again, just a few more things before you take off. Number one, this is five bullet Friday. Do you want to get a short email from me? And would you enjoy getting a short email from me every Friday that provides a little

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