What Now? with Trevor Noah - Meet Wil Sylvince - My Favorite People

Episode Date: May 21, 2026

On this week’s episode, comedian Wil Sylvince, one of Trevor’s favorite people, joins Trevor and Dave for a loose, funny conversation about comedy, soccer, wearing your own merch, and the strange routes people take into stand-up. A longtime friend, Wil brings the kind of chemistry and storytelling that only comes from years of friendship and life together on the road. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Rates as of January 1, 2026, existing customers can view their variable APR in the wallet app or card.com. I felt like I always thought out the box. Did that make sense? Because I was very close to my grandmother, right? because my dad used to always tell us like everybody's equal, right? There's no such thing as gender roles. You learn how to cook, clean, wash.

You know, also you learn how to fix electrical appliances. You learn how to, if a socket is broken, you learn what to do, you know. Also, my dad, my dad used to do this thing where, so you know, you know, when the gas come into the house. Yeah. Right? And there's a meter that...

Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. So my dad figured out how to beat the company. He would just unscrew the thing and turn it backwards. And so now the meters would run the other way. But he made sure they go all the way down. I'm like, what, you guys... You guys didn't use any gas? You guys used anti-gas?

Yeah. You guys use negative gas? Right, so he knew just the amount and the gas, our gas bill was pretty low. and he he knew how also with the electric and the sheep and the he used

so there's different now fuses he'll get the ones with a certain amount of resistance and you know no wonder the white people didn't want the black people doing these cats

look at what they're doing with their engineering knowledge this is what now with Trevor Noah The difference is... But I'm saying, did you see what you did there? Yeah. You said, is Haiti still in the World Cup?

Yeah. I said Haiti. Then you were like, why did you say it like that? Then you said, Dave, is Haiti in the World Cup? Then he said, Haiti. Then you said, why do you say it like that? Right. Then Sanaz said, did you take Iran spot?

And then you said, Iran? Why did you say it like that? Because I know what you're talking about a personal place. You thought you were talking about a person? There's people named Iran. So I wanted clarity. Haiti's in the World Cup. For the first time in 50 years.

Is that a question or statement? Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you. You guys didn't I hear about that? You barely heard about it. Do you even watch soccer? I don't.

That's why I wanted to know. I don't watch soccer. You know, I heard the whisper. You're supposed to, if you're from a small country like Haiti, you should just support everything they do. I do, I do. That's why I'm like, you know. You know what's cool about Haiti being in the World Cup?

is that it's almost like you decided as a country that, guys, being a country is hard, but I think we can get back in the World Cup. Do you know what I mean? Like, if we use our, there's too many, do you know what I mean? There are too many pieces. But it's like this particular,

it's just to get into tournament. I just want to apologize and say, this podcast was not supposed to start like this, all right? Oh, I know we started. Yeah, we started. Yeah, we started. I thought it was the ab-dab-dab-doin. No, that's what, I mean, we're always yab-dab-da-doing.

I thought I was going to start this from like a really sincere place and we're going to get into it. But then as usual, when we're in the same space, things devolved and they go off track. You know what's actually going to be really interesting, Dave? Maybe you'll let us know if this throws you off as the man on the street. Is it at all weird for you that Will has himself on his shirt? Because it throws me off. I'm not going to lie.

It is very weird that I'm talking to a person. and then I look down because you know sometimes when you're talking to someone you don't look in their eyes you look away but then I look down and then he's looking at me as well

and then I look up and then you're looking at me well you think this is me you think we all look alike is that what you think and why are you naked in the top not naked

you're naked I got jump ropes about my neck I have a tank top you're naked you're wearing one of those yellow like spandex things no that's a yellow jump rope that's not a jump rope

that's a jump rope that's a jump rope that's one of those yellow you know what I mean You know those things that like Who was like Sarah Baron Cohen wore something like that in one of his movies I don't know who that is

But the girl played like Borat and stuff Oh yeah yeah yeah That's what you're wearing Don't see the ropes? I don't see ropes I don't see ropes. I don't see what you on medication You can't see the rope

I don't see it Welcome to the podcast Well thank you for having me I'm happy to be here This is good man What's you been up to? Did you sleep today by the way I probably got three hours for I'm asleep

Yeah I can tell me I can always tell when you know Why don't you sleep? I don't know Because sometimes I get home I'd be excited to go to bed I get home I'm driving

I'm going to go to bed early Be like 1.30 I'm going to be in bed by 2 I get home Take my stuff off You know Get online Or start watching the TV show

And I'm wired Okay hold on Just so I can help you for real Is Explain why it is that No this is legit Explain why it is that You are getting home

And two Oh God I do shows at night I do shows at like 1.30, 2 o'clock. Sometimes I get home at 3.3, 3.34 o'clock. Because the shows go late. Yeah, but, yeah, but I mean, we've, when we first met, how many years have we known each other now?

What are we, 15 years, maybe? 15. Maybe even more. Yeah. Funny enough. When I first met you, like, so when I first came to New York, I met Will at the comedy cellar, right? And you and I would be there until 3 a.m., 4 a.m.,

when the shows would go, like, we'd run the show. shows all the way from 7 p.m. until like 4 a.m. Yeah. Right? So the janitor come out. Yeah. But I will go sleep. You don't sleep. I don't understand why you don't sleep. Like what is it about like, is it like anxiety? Is it like a- It could be fomo, fair missing out. Of what? Because when I was younger, we had to be in bed by 10. Okay. Right? 10. And sometimes there was a TV show, it was like a special TV show that lasted two hours to 11. My brothers and I will put the cover over the TV and when we'll watch out

see my parents, it's coming, and we'll watch TV till 11. And we thought I always, maybe not we, but I always thought there was something special as happened after 11. You know, the only two times we were allowed to stay up past 11. Past was Christmas

and New Year's Eve. Because Christmas, we stayed December 24th, we stayed up to December 25th, yeah. 24th at night, and then when it becomes 25th at 12 midnight, we open the gifts and we play for them for an hour, we'd go to bed. The New Year's Eve was another time. Already, all of this is, uh, yes. Sorry. I know that you're telling a story that scene is normal to you because it's your life, but, but it's not that normal to other people. But I didn't know that, as a kid. I didn't know that. I didn't

know what's going on. I used to, I remember one year at New Year's Eve, I was just looking out the winter. I'm like, what's going on out there? Yeah, but what I want to know is, sorry, the thing that got me was you saying we played with the toys for an hour. We got tired. We're not used to staying at that late. And we go to bed. Go to bed. Go to bed.

I want to play some more. Go to bed. Was this like a typical Haitian parent thing? Or was it just like your parents who were doing this? Did you grow up in like a big Haitian community? No, no. It wasn't like a big Haitian immigrant community that came together. We was the only Haitian family in

on that neighborhood, in that neighborhood. Where did you grow up? In East New York, Brooklyn. Yeah. Yeah. And three, four blocks away with my cousins, but we never, you know, it was hard for us to connect like that

because, you know, I felt like the world was anti-hating. Yeah, but I mean, like, because most immigrant groups in the world will sort of track the first person, you know what I mean? One person goes, they tell their brothers and sisters, hey, I came here, the next group comes,

the next group comes, and then everyone starts to settle in the same place. That wasn't, was that not, Excuse me, can I ask a question. Sorry. Yeah. Back to... Okay.

You know, in Star Wars, is it Star Wars? Well, you're the one who just asked it and then asked us a question. Sorry, in Star Wars, where they have that thing, as the movie starts, there's like a... Oh, the scroll. There's a scroll. The crawl, I think it's called. Yeah. Oh, the credits?

Yeah, yeah. Right at the beginning. The beginning is not the credits. I think that thing, I think it's called a crawl, I think. Oh, the Star Wars crawl. Yeah, where it comes from, the empire has built out of the... Yes, that forces. The rebel alliance is growing stronger.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Does this show, does this podcast have that? I feel like you're tricking us into... No, I'm asking a real question. No, it does not. Okay, the reason why is because you guys are talking as if that thing was going to be put in. Do you see what I mean?

Haiti, for us in the street, Haiti is not like just a easy country to deal with, you know what, and not to deal with, but to... It's not like saying, I was... My parents are from France and, and, and, you know, we need some. Why did you bring France into it? You see what the French have done to Haiti.

Because Haitians speak French. Yeah, but you see what he did this. That was what they call microaggression. Yeah, yeah. It's a trigger for us. That was a trigger. It was a trigger. I know it's a trigger.

Do you know why I knew you would say something like that? Because now you're taking me off. Now you're going to say I went off. But while we're here, this is what I'm trying to say. You guys have jumped into the conversation and you're very loving people. jump to the conversation, but we don't know where you are. Okay. Do you want me to do a crawl?

Yes, almost, but before the crawl. They're hard, though. Sorry? They're hard. Like, I'll try. Not completely, but just give us a bit of a setup, a little bit of your relationship with him, just so that we're like, oh, okay, this is this guy. He said we knew his show for X amount of years and.

Yes, doing what, doing shows at mid-day? What's happening? Do you know what I mean? Yeah, we're doing shows at the comedy seller. I'm trying to think, how do you even do a crawl? Just a little bit. Someone walked up to you at a party. And then the cross starts and you go,

Will and Trevor are sitting at a table together. They reminisce on how they were friends 16 years ago meeting in a comedy club. They performed comedy shows at the comedy cellar in New York City from 7 p.m. until 3 to 4 a.m. Will Silvince was the kindest comedian Trevor Met And over the years they got to know each other Will Silvince from a Haitian family

Haiti a small but powerful nation That resisted the French occupation And was one of the first colonies To free itself from enslavement Now you're going a bit far Whoa you can't tell me how No no Now we know okay cool

You guys are comedians Great buddies Have you ever watched a movie with this guy's the worst He'd be talking during the movie He does this during the movie as well He does this exact same in the movie. I'm, please. George Lucas put the crow

because of him. Now that we know, okay, you guys are great buddies. You knew each other from comedy. Now, how, now you can go and you have a sleep problem. Now, but do you think it's a sleep problem?

Now we can go into it. I never thought it was a sleep problem. You know what? I never went to the doctor for any specific reason. Yeah. When I got older, when I found out, like my wife friends

have a specific doctor, just a doctor that tells you everything about your body, but the eye doctor, the lip doctor, the skin doctor. I'm like, there's a doctor for that? Like, I didn't know that was a thing. Like, you know, our therapist, I thought therapy was just for, you know, in the black community, we just thought therapy was for crazy people. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right.

No, no, you're right, you're right, but it's true. For crazy people. When we were growing up, they'd say that, like in Zulu or stuff, they just be like, you're just crazy. Yeah. There was no ADHD. Do you know what I mean? Anything.

Oh, autism, this, no, you're crazy? or you're not crazy. Yes. So, yeah, it's a similar thing in, like, South African, and I would argue most African culture as well. Yeah, and you don't go to the doctor, you just figure things out. You just figure it out.

You're sick or you're not sick. Yeah. But I'm saying, if you were sick, you figure out how not to get, be sick on your own. Yeah. That makes sense? Or you go to, like, a doctor because you're, like, dying sick. That's different.

That's not you need a doctor. You wouldn't go to a doctor because you can't sleep. Yeah. That I agree with. Because you're thinking about other women when you're married. There's a doctor for that, right? Well, therapists. The therapist.

Yeah. A couple's therapists. Which is crazy. Why don't you just talk to your wife? Because it's awkward to say to your wife that you're thinking about other women. That's why the therapist exists. So it's not awkward when you're your wife and a person you don't know, you're talking to that person. Almost like how people talk to dogs, they share stranger with a dog like, hey, buddy, how you're doing?

You know, they talk to a dog. Like, is he treating you good? Is he giving you feeding you a wife? You ever see that happen? You know what I've noticed. People in most parts of the Western world, you know, like so in the United States, in England and all these, people don't really like to talk to a stranger.

But I've learned the trick is if you, especially like white people, they can get very uncomfortable if you just try to talk to them. But if you talk to their dog, they'll answer all your questions. So I do that thing, but to the dog. So I'll be like, hey, how are you doing today? And then they'll answer, oh, doing good. I'll be like, oh, do you guys live around here? And then they'll be like, yeah, we live around the.

I'm like, oh, what's your plan for today? And they'll answer on behalf of the dog. And then you use, so that's, it's the same principle. That's what therapy is. Basically, you use the therapist as a conduit. A dog. Yeah, so that you don't, you don't say to your partner, this is my problem with you. You say to the therapist, this is my problem with my partner.

Right. Okay. One question. Why they're sitting right next to you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you become like a conduit. Right. You know what I mean?

So you can do the same thing for like sleep. Wait, what? I'm saying you should go talk to. to somebody about your sleep. Oh, I see what you're saying. Because you don't sleep. Here's a question about sleep, a real one. Do you, are you tired? I'm tired on the way home. No, Will's always tired. No, I'm saying in life, like, you know, the day. He's tired. I think something about my house energize me. Because when I get home, I'm like, I should paint the house. Yeah, but Will, you are always,

I know few human beings who will sleep anywhere the way you do. I've been on the road with you. We've been to different countries together. We've been to different cities. We've driven to different states. We've driven to different...

You name it. We've been on drives, trains, planes, everything. Without fail, if we stop moving, you sleep. Without fail. You sleep before the plane takes off? You sleep when the plane lands. You sleep in the flight. You sleep like, Will, you are always tired.

And I only say this because I'm worried about you. I always go like, you know me. I can even tell you when you've stepped and when you haven't stepped. Right. Now, you see me in planes, trains, automobiles, but you now have to see me in my house when I'm wired up and wired. Okay. Fair?

Fair? This is true. No, this is true. On top of it, the part I'm trying to go with, like, okay, if you're sleeping in places, is it like isn't that just like almost like a different way of getting sleep? No, it's a bad way of getting sleep. It is? Yeah, it's definitely a bad way of getting sleep.

Because remember, so your sleep is divided into different stages, right? Right. So you have rapid eye movement, that's REM. You've got light sleep and you've got deep sleep. The thing is you need each period of sleep to take up a certain amount of time. So you can have a little bit of sleep the whole day, but then you're never going to get into deep sleep. and each one is doing a different thing for your brain. Right, right.

And each one's doing a different thing for your body as well. I found out of your brain when you're in deep sleep, the brain get rid of the bad cells out the brain. How would you know you never in deep sleep? I read about it. Oh, yeah, yeah, okay, okay. You were reading about sleep. You're like, oh, this sounds interesting.

Have you always had this as like a thing? Yeah, again, I think it comes from when I was little. I was very curious about what the whole reason why I became my engineer. I used to look at a digital clock and wondering what is why, how he's going from one to two to three, what's making this digital clock work and I got into electro-mechanical engineering.

You know the first time you told me that you used to be an engineer I thought you were just saying this is like a like a comedy bit. Because I'm black? No. No, that would be the most logical conclusion. Yeah. Any like immigrant, doctor lawyer, engineer.

That would be the most logical. No, I just thought you were making a joke. Like the first time Will said to me, he was like, yeah, as an engineer, then I just thought he meant like metaphorically in life. Yeah, well. No, because Will, I've never known you as an engineer. Right, right.

I've only met you as a stand-up comedian. And engineers have like a stereotype. Yeah, they like they don't wear. It's like an accountant has an stereotype. Yes, exactly. What's the stereotype? They don't wear their face on their shirts. That's generally how engineers roll.

Good point. But tell me a little bit about like young Wilson, Vince, Because you see, like, that story about you and your brothers, I feel like you grew up in the strangest world, and it's made you the comedian and the person that I know you as today. Because every time we hang out, you tell like a new story about growing up. And I'm always like, what world did you grow up in? So wait, let's go back to the beginning.

So your parents were born in Haiti. Born in Haiti. Yeah. Yep. They moved to America because of Papa Doc. You know Papa Doc. No, I don't know. Papadoc.

Francoe Duvalier, he was the president of Haiti in the early 60s, 1960s. And he promised a lot of changes and stuff. And then he actually became very bad. And within a month, like, he started killing Haitians that disagree with him. Like, immediately. I want to, how quick do dictators do that? It depends on the situation. Like, when they promised to do good for the country, they get elected, then how quick do they start?

It literally depends on the situation. Some take years. Some it'll be like within a few months. I think maybe, I'm not a historian, but I think maybe it has to. Like Dave reads a ton of history books because like he just doesn't have friends. But like that is that incorrect reason. Which part? He said that so many things.

No, no, no. But I think it's, I genuinely think it just depends on the, I think it depends on the structures within the country, maybe I'm wrong. I could be completely wrong. But I think depending on how entrenched certain systems are in a country, that's how quickly you can turn

into like a murderous dictator. Maybe that was your plan all along and then when you got in power, you decide, because dictators don't start out like, hey, if you disagree with me, I'm going to kill you. No, never, never, never. They never start out like, hey, everybody's, we're going to help everybody out.

Yeah, I would argue, Most dictators have the best messaging. Like, I don't think there's a single dictator whose speeches you can see before they were a dictator. Right. Where you'll disagree with it. They say, we need to feed the people. We need to make our land what it was. We need to reinstate pride.

You know what I mean? Right, right. One of the campaigns, Francis Duvalli was running on was he's going to equalize blacks, the dark skin blacks. Yeah. Because for so long, white and white. Likskins was, was like the top of the show. Oh, this was in Haiti? In Haiti, yeah.

Damn. And even after Haitians won the war, somehow the colonization still seeped in there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the white was the highest thing to be. And so, Francis of Dubai was like, yo, we're going to kill that. The dark scenes are going to be the rulers. I'm paraphrasing. Yeah, of course, of course.

I figured. And we're, you know, we're going to put the whites in their place or anybody that, you know, with that mentality. Yeah. And obviously there's more dark skins than whites in Haiti at the time. So the black people, Haitian's like, yes, yes. Let's do it. Yeah.

And then, you know. And then he flipped it and he became. Yeah, he didn't care about that. The thing that I'm surprised about, actually, it's an interesting question you is the speed. But it is interesting that it took months. But that's what I'm saying. I think it's.

Wait, what took months? That he flipped from, from, I'm going to. I'm going to save you too. I'm a dictator. Well, as soon as he got elected, I think within a month, he got elected like August, something that year.

Yeah. And September, he started executing people. That's quick. That is really quick. Yeah. Yeah. September, yeah. So when did your parents leave?

I sometimes think it's, I think, sometimes think it's a shame that I'm going to try and phrase this as, as delicately and eloquently as I possibly can. You should give it to his war. And then. And then we phrase it. Oh, okay, cool. Okay, I'll do it that way.

I sometimes wish that, like, dictators and evil people, I wish we could use them for good because they're very efficient. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Like, like, Papa Doc comes into power and just starts killing people. He doesn't go like, ah, man, I want to kill people, but it's so hard. And, you know, there's so many things I've got to get right. And so I think of, like, apartheid in South Africa.

When you look at what the apartheid government did in the country, It's pretty amazing. You know, like how they were able to build systems. You know that they invented new ways to create fuel because they were sanctioned by the world so they couldn't get fuel from other countries like most countries can. You know what I'm looking forward.

You know what I'm looking forward to. Yeah. The non-rawl version of this, but continue. No, no, no, no. Who's the they? The white apartheid government. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they were sanctions.

So, yeah, there were sanctions. So, where are you, Allah's won't do business with you. Yeah. So they figure out, well, we'll figure out how to. Yeah, they were like, it's fine. We'll keep the racism going. And we'll just figure out our own thing. And they developed new ways.

One of the most, like, impressive was they found a way to make fuel from coal. So is that, what's that phrase? Pressure creates. Pressure creates. Something. Creates you to be, like when you're up against the wall. Is it pressure? Or is it necessities the mother of invention?

I don't know. I've never heard a pressure one. Is there pressure one? When you, when you, it's almost like. A pressure cooker and it figures out how to cook. I don't know that one. I think you just thought of like coal and diamonds. No, no, it is a phrase like...

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, that I know of. But I can't think of like a... On the pressure diamonds. So you guys made diamonds. Racist diamonds. They made very, very good racist diamonds. Yeah, out of lemons, so what I'm saying... Yes, if life gives you lemons, say something racist and make lemonade.

No, so what I mean in like a... in the non-raw version is this. I wish we could harness the determination that evil people have in the world to do good things because they never seem to be blocked by the things that like quote unquote good people are blocked by. That's the same thing with naughty children, so to speak.

You know, no, no, no, legitimate when you're like, if you focus, if you use all the energy using on the bad thing to the naughty child on a good thing, it would, you know, the parents say that all the time. Yeah, I hear you, but that's different because, like, being naughty is actually easier than being good. It is? Yeah, it's way easier.

So when I was a kid, if they go do your homework. Right. Versus go play outside in the mud. Playing outside in the mud is easy. Oh, oh, that, okay, I thought, there's other naughty things that's easy. Like, don't put your hand in the fire. Don't put the fork into the electric outlet. These are, these are dangerous.

These are not, these are different naughty and dangerous. There's a complete difference here. No, no, so what I'm saying is like, like, I know what you're saying. Yeah, so naughty, naughty kids, they're sort of choosing the easy way out. I can say this as a kid who was naughty.

I was going, this is more fun and it was easy. Yes, that's true. What I'm talking about with the adults is it is very difficult to do like the evil things. It's actually quite difficult. When you think of the systems that the Nazis set up, you're like, man, this was so intense. you could have spent this energy like curing cancer.

Yes. The apartheid system was so complicated, will, complicated. What is a black person and what kind of black person and who counts as black and who doesn't and where do people live and where don't they live and how are they treated in prison and how are they not treated? What you're saying about Haiti, like the, like,

it's such a complicated system. But then in that sense, I would say that you, they are, you want to change their definition of, what a good thing is. Because to them, they're using energy for a good thing. Yeah.

In their minds. That's what I wish it could be. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like if Papa Doc had that same determination that he did the evil things with, but he did it with good, imagine where Haiti could have been.

Mm. You know? It's like people use solar energy to power up their house and then people use solar energy to power up their solar powered guns. I was with you for the first part. And then you,

You went off completely. I was thinking of something solar power that's bad. Are you sure you were an engineer? You know what? Actually, I came up with, what year was that? 94. I came up with solar powered paint. So you know how solar panels are on top of your roof?

Yes. And I was still like, why don't they just pick the whole house out of solar panel, put solar panels all over? So no matter where the sun is, it collects the energy from the sun and turn into, you know, stored energy. later and I'm like oh they should just paint the house and solar power and panels. Is that a thing

now? It was when I was coming up I actually created it on paper. So the thing about technology the hardest part is to get to work on paper. You get to work on paper you forgot to get it to work in real life. Yeah yeah okay so I forgot how to make it work on paper

at the time it was three coats of paint in nano ground and anther and then paint the whole house and then you had these huge capacities in your basement that collects energy and stores to save it for later and this other system that dissipates the energy slowly throughout the rest of the house.

It doesn't, because capacities, once you use energy, it depletes completely. So this other device that slowly released the energy to the rest of the house as you needed. This is one of those situations where I don't know enough about electricity. Well, actually, there's a company now. To be able to call you or not.

There's a company now. You could be completely bullshit. shitting me right now and I don't know no no you could be and if you if you've done it well done right so congratulations to you will I've been talking about in podcasts and radio shows blah blah for a long time that then I found out there's a company in australia 2014 they start developing a sole power paint did you reach out to them and tell them that they stole your idea no I didn't I didn't have the money to partner so I didn't I couldn't afford the pattern at the time okay question who are your parents.

How old are they when they are leaving Haiti? Oh, early 20s. Early 20s? Early 20s, yeah. Wow, that's young. Yeah, they left Haiti early 20s. Was it easy to get out? No, because Papa Doc would not let people leave.

Like, you could go visit, but you had to come back. You know, like in North Korea, they're like, oh, see, we see what other countries did. They let them leave. So now, what, North Korea don't let them leave. their people leave. Right, yeah. Yeah. So I think

a place like North Korea learned from a place like Haiti, oh, no, just don't let them leave. Just don't let them go. And then... Yeah. So, wait, how did they escape them? So the thing is, if you leave

and then your visa expired and the country send you back, then Haiti were like, oh, oh, did you try to leave? This visa expired two years ago. What would you... Did you forget? And they're like, oh, you got to go to.

You got to go to boot camp. Boot camp with jazz. Help. Oh, man, I'm just picturing them at the board of office. Just being like, oh, did you forget? But how did your parents get out, Rick? What did they do? So my dad and my mom got together because my dad was in the military, Haitian military.

Yeah. And the reason why my dad, how they met, my mother's father, my grandfather, was always talking shit about Francoe Duvallier. Oh wow. Before he got elected right because he saw he saw it before because Francis de Valle was in politics and then my grandfather kind of said like

once you once you have a taste of that it's like once you once you have cocaine you always going to be coked up. I never did cocaine I'm just saying for someone that's someone that told me. For those of us, Francois Duvay is Papa Doc. Yes. Yes. No I'm saying

just so. Yeah yeah. Frenso Duvaya aka Papa So your grandfather was always talking smack about. He said, yo, don't, this guy's, you know, and people, people, people was against my, my, my, my grandfather saying like, no, that's not true. So he was like publicly saying this stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah, because just before he was elected, before Papa Doc and Faso was elected. And so he was like, don't vote for him. You know, he didn't, Frenzio divided, they had 100% of the votes. But there was some people that was against them.

Right. They said, no, vote for this person instead. And then, and then Fentzdavati was like, you know, no, I'm going to do all these things. and my grandfather did see through that, through the BS that he was spitting. And so when Papa Doc got elected, he just remembered all the people that was talking smack. Oh, damn.

And he went and had them arrested. So my grandfather was one of those people that got arrested. And when my mother and my grandmother, my wife of my grandfather, went to go to prison to go out and try and see him, they wouldn't let them see him. For money months, weeks, They try to see him.

And so they got the war that they killed my grandfather. That was one of the early killings where he didn't just come out, start killing people, just quietly killing people. And so they started talking smack where they were living. Like, you know, they killed so-and-so. Can you believe that? They killed so-and-so. And so then the war got back to Popplica. Like, you know what?

Go kill the whole village. I don't care about that. And they actually killed your grandfather. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They killed my brother. I didn't know that. Oh, yeah, yeah. It was a long time ago.

No, no, but still, I genuinely, I didn't know that. I don't know why I assumed he just, like, lived his life and then, wow. And so then he got. So this was like a real thing for the family then. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So that was the, and so they got, he sent a group of soldiers to that village to go and kill him. Yeah. And my dad was one of the soldiers.

And then when my, when they got to that village, they just started killing anybody. But when my dad got to the house, my dad was like, no, you guys got the, he, my dad was not about that life. You know, another thing is like, when you vote for someone and then you realize they're bad, like, oh, man, I messed up, you know? And then, and then he got me too, you know? Yeah. And so it's not like he was a nice person and he became a dictator. And his father was like, yeah, we should dictate. You should be a dictator.

Right. No, they was like, oh, yeah, it was too late, you know. And so my dad allowed that family to escape. and then they got they got they got they met at some some um at a market in Haiti and they recognized each other immediately and and you know they fell in but my dad my mom was like we can't really get together because you know it's a conflict of interest you you work for the man because also if you wasn't a military you would not allow to lead the military because that's nothing that happened when he became president and became a dictator so many people in the

military wanted to, I'm not going to, I'm not going to work for this guy, but then he wrote a law saying that, well, you can't leave the military, otherwise you'll get arrested and executed. I think most militaries in the world, you're not allowed to leave when you want to. Oh, yeah, what, AWOL? Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so it's like, um, um, so my dad was stuck, but then also he wanted to give him my mother, and it was like a conflict of interest.

Like, you know, you guys killed my, my dad. And then so, who. And at the time, my dad had five houses in Haiti. He was playing opening a mechanic shop where he was going to fix cars and stuff. He was a mechanical engineer, you know. Okay. In fact, my dad was, my dad would, so while he was in military, he was sabotaged some of the trucks. So when they would set them out to a village to go and kill people, the trucks would break down.

No. Not close enough to the village to the base where they could go get new trucks. but not close enough to the village that he could walk so they had to like as close as to walk back to the base by the time they got back

they were tired and we'll try tomorrow and he was sabotage also some of the weapons the guns would jam up you know after a while they started looking back

who worked on this truck last so he had to like he had to chill on sabotaging the weapons and trucks so how long was he was he in the military how long was your dad

still in Haiti So once he met my mother They started dating They started, you know This is like Haitian Romeo and Juliet for real Yeah And they And then my dad decided to like

So my dad told my mother Say hey You know Really we We have no future together Right Because you're working with this guy What future do you see

He killed my dad So my dad said Well I'm just going to leave And my mother you can't leave You can't leave He's going to leave My dad said no I'm going to leave the country

my mother would like leave the country but you got your houses your business and you know and even if you leave successfully your family's here because it's called another thing

that will come after your family okay if you leave so you know they'll teach your lesson through your family oh yeah yeah yeah yeah that's what North Korea does apparently yeah yeah yeah so my dad got everybody out

no ways his family my mother's family the cousins no ways yeah and he was like one of last ones to leave, you know, because obviously, you know. This is like a Haitian action movie meets, like a love story.

I thought it was a homeowner Juliet. I thought there was a Haitian moment. No, no, no, but you didn't tell me if you were escaping. Now it's a Haitian Terminator? I be back. Or better, I'd be back, okay? What were your, what did your dad say that? Because they came, did everyone come to the United States?

Yes. What did he say he was, what did he tell the United States governments, a refugee? So at the time, the U.S. was actually giving visas. They was accepting people. It was not like how it is now. They were letting people in if you had a skill. Yeah. You know, my mother, she went to school to be a seamstress, you know, and she also went to school,

culinary school. So she had those two skills. So it was easy for her to get a visa, you know, and my dad was a mechanical engineer. So it was easy for him to come in. And so you just have to have a. skill. I can't remember what my cousins or what their story was, but once you have the skill, it was easy. You know, early

60s, they was accepting people like crazy here. Yes. You know? Damn. Yeah. So your parents come over to the U.S., settle in Brooklyn. Yeah, and then... Before that, my dad my dad interviewed people because the main places to go when you leave Haiti was Dominican Republic,

Miami, okay, Montreal, Boston and New York those are the main places You know, that was a place like Chicago and, but those are the main places Haitians was fleeing to. Okay.

You know, Dominican Republic was kind of like out of the question. Wait, you didn't mention New York in those, right? New York, yeah, yeah. Oh, you did, sorry. Dominican Republic. Montreal, Montreal, Miami, New York, Boston, okay, got it, got it.

Yeah, right, cool. So Dominican Republic was out the question for my dad because it's like, Dominican was anti-Hasian. Okay, got it. You know, that was killing Haitians also. You know, in 1936, there was the, so there was a word that if you could say, they would come out to dark-skinned people in Dominican public and say,

say, parare, parrari, something where you're the tongue bow. Haitians can't roll at the time. They say, why you do this? I shouldn't be laughing. Okay, you are my, I'm going to one down the block. I'm not going to run down, I'm going to one down the block, okay? I'll be back. So you can't say that, that word that will, don't make it.

I'm not laughing at, please don't give me wrong. I don't laugh all you want. No, it's the way you did it, please. Because the situation you just laid out was terrible. Very terrible. But the way you did it, the way you did it. You know when someone is recounting a very tragic story. Yeah, I mean.

But the way he said it made it seem very funny. It is not funny at all. I want you to know that the way I reacted, has nothing to do with the content of what you said. As your friend, I hope you know that. All right, sorry. So Dominican Republic was out of the question because they were anti-Hatian. Yeah.

Okay. Miami. He interviewed someone from Boston and the person in Boston. This is your dad like asking other people. Asking people. Could you say interview like? Interview. Well, you just try to figure out where you're because also, you know, back in those days,

people would just leave. Yeah. And just figured things out, you know. For Haitians, it was, you know, you want to leave, but let me figure it out. I don't want, my dad was like pretty, like, aware and smart about things. Let me just ask a few people see which way. His main thing was education and, what was it? Education and jobs.

Okay. Where can he go? Okay, so where are the opportunities? Opportunities, yeah. So education, opportunities for the kids and then opportunities for the family. All right, got it. And so Montreal was not good because he talked to someone where they were pretty, they were pretty mean to him. I can't remember the details of it.

I'm getting the story from my heart. Miami would just know real opportunities. Yeah, that makes sense back then. The weather was nice like Haiti, but it was, you know, Boston was pretty racist. He met a lady. He talked to her and her sister and the sister's husband moved to Boston. You don't have to explain. Sorry, continue.

Oh, there were doctors. You just said Boston in the 60s. A Haitian, is Boston in the 60s welcoming to Haitians? So all three were doctors when they went to Boston, they got reduced to nurses. So you had to take a test. You just can't be, just because you're out of your country, you've got to take a test.

And so the test was expensive. But then she found out the lady that my dad was talking to how racist they were, you know, with the way they were. treating. So one time she said there was two patients that got hit by a car, right, on the corner. It was a black lady and the white lady. The black lady was way more pain. The white lady had scrapes and stuff. And the white lady asked to be staked and I stay in the hospital. I'm still not feeling well. Where the black lady was really in pain, they discharged her early. The doctor was like, oh, you can't stay here, you got to leave. You know, and she left. She went

home. She was feeling bad again. She came back. Also, they didn't have ambulances back then, so the police will pick you up in a paddy wagon in a police car. And the police took their time to taking her back to the hospital, and she died on the way there. Oh, man. So she realized, oh, wow, they discriminating. Also, that was a lady who was, a black lady who was, she was about to get burnt. And they made her fill out all these forms and stuff. And they made to walk to the room instead of putting in a wheelchair and wheelchair into a room.

and when she got to the room, the doctor wouldn't give her pain medication saying these people exaggerating. And they didn't realize, like, she was black also saying these people. But also Haitians, when they came to America, racism was not a thing because everybody was just human beings. It's when they got to here, they realized, oh.

And also, another thing about Haitians, they thought like, oh, they're talking about African Americans. I'm Haitian. That's so funny, man. So that's another thing she didn't think, oh, they must be talking to African-Americans don't feel pain. That is so crazy.

And then she realized after so many instances, and then when it happened to her, because she told the head nurse, I'm going to become a doctor. I'm going to take the test. The head nurse loved her, right lady, loved her. Then when she realized that she's going to be a doctor,

the nurse was like, well, what do you want to do that for? You're a great nurse. Why would you leave to be a doctor? It's no joy in that. You're doing so well here. And I'm taking care of you. And then she said, well,

So when she convinced her head nurse that, hey, I want to take the test, the nurse said, well, listen, you'll always be a nigger. Don't think you'll ever be above me. She didn't know what the word, and word meant. You know, like, all I am, you know. I mean, that would get you to cross it of the list. Boston? No, thank you.

So, so. You know, as you're saying these things, the two thoughts that come to my mind. one is how similar the stories of racism are around the world. I don't know what it was like for your dad and stuff. I don't know when he came to South Africa. But I think of my mom. When my mom was trying to be qualified, she was doing like a typing course

and she was doing just courses in and around like secretarial skills, but then also things that required like managerial expertise. I don't know what she was actually studying because I don't think it was like a fixed. course, you know? And my mom went in, and no joke, she was being qualified to do certain things that were only for managers. And the person who was her boss at the company or at this training institute said to her, what is the point of studying what you're studying? Because at the end of the day, you'll always be, and then they use the word in South Africa, Kaffir. He was like, you're going to be

a Kaffir, so what's the point? Oh, wow. But it's crazy that you're saying this. She's also a woman, remember? Yeah, she's a woman. I'm saying so it's double. Yeah, but that's what I mean. Like, it's, it's crazy that you're telling me about a story in Boston and then I'm going like oh yeah my mom told me this story from South Africa and then the the compounded thing of it all is the

pain and the the time you know who gets this kind of story is when you listen to to like white aspiring white rappers they sort of tell the story as well which rapper do you know what this guy

do you hear what this guy oh no no do you hear what Just named a rapper. There's only one who... Do you hear what this guy just said? Do you hear what this guy just said? They do have the same story. It's the same.

Yes, I mean, in many ways, white rappers are the black women. Oh, you said white rappers. Oh, right. Oh. I'm saying white rappers. You don't belong here. You're never going to be nothing.

Yes Some of them rap well But you're like Oh man Oh wait wait Can we pause my story real quick So wait That were people from Africa

Migrating to South Africa Yeah Even though they knew How they were Treating the blacks It's a complicated story But they were Because we didn't know

How they were How they were treating the blacks in America We didn't know that Yeah So Haitians would go to America But you guys knew How they were treating South Africa

No, but remember they had the number one of, because I didn't want, you don't want to make it like a dictator off. But Papa Doc versus Idiotin. It sounds like you're making a dictator off. But he's not wrong. Papa Doc versus Idiot versus Idiotamin. Yes. Who's the real Ghi here? No one knows Papa Doc.

I had to tell people from Frasbauduio. Idiot mean, people know him. So if you're escaping Idi Amin, apartheid is. Racism is almost charming by comparison. In a way. It's playland. Yeah. Yeah.

Because these... You're just going to say bad things to me. Ah, ah, ah, ah. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Does this interaction end with me still alive? Ah, ah, ah. Wow.

What a quaint form of hatred this is, huh? Ah, okay. Okay, that makes it. My dad should have gone to South Africa then. Yeah, I mean, could have. Could have. And so, once she realized how bad it was treating, like, not just Haitian, Black, but her.

Haitians as well, she moved back to Haiti. She moved back to Haiti? My dad actually talked to her in Haiti. Yo, what? Because her thought, her thought was, well, as long as I stay out of politics, the Papa Doc won't message you. Wow. People was going to the movie.

Yo, do you know what, an indictment? This is of racism in Boston, that this person was like, I'm going back to Haiti. No offense to Haiti, but, yo, Will, what? Another people came back. Haiti is going through the worst period ever where thousands of people are being killed. And this person was like, goodbye, Boston. I am going back to Haiti. Yeah.

She went back to Haiti and she was actually selling things at a market. Wow. And that her sister was setting her to Haiti to sell. Like products they didn't have in Haiti. So she just went back. She said, you know what? I'll just stay out of politics. I want to talk about politics.

Sorry, who's this again? Sorry, just follow up. Just a lady my dad interviewed about Boston. Should he go to Boston or not? Great. You know? Damn. Yeah.

So he actually talked to her. And, and, um, and, um, The Toto Makut, you know Toto Makut? No, what is that? So when Papa Doc became president, most of the presidents, they got ousted by a coup. Yeah, yeah. So he got smart.

He's like, you know what? I'm going to get my own secret service. Okay. And they call him Toto Makuts. And the thing, Toto Makuts, they would blend with the people in the streets. So you know, who was a Toto Makut? So they'd be listening seeing you're talking about Papa Doc or talking about, you know, and they'll show.

you right there on the street. So there was a time when my dad was talking to his lady in Boston at the market. And then he heard, they thought they saw someone that, the Dr. Makut. And then the guy said, hey, don't move. Stay right there. And so he's talking to his lady like, oh, shit, oh, shit. And then he went past my dad to someone else and then got him on the floor and say, hey, what do you think you're doing?

What do you think you're doing? And then it wasn't my dad. So they learned not to talk in the street. and more like that. This is a crazy time. I mean, I'm picturing your dad. I'm picturing your mom, planning to leave.

Totomacuts. Totomacuts. Which, again, it's really wilder. Every single authoritarian regime around the world has the same playbook. Yes. People in the community who listen to you,

spies, spying, like, family, spy on family. Same in Russia. You know what I mean? Any place that's been like an authoritarian regime, the same thing. Same rules apply. The government finds ways to get the people to spy on each other on behalf of the government

so that you don't trust each other. And if you don't trust each other, then the only thing that has absolute power is the government. Same way with America. House Negroes and field Negroes. Today more? So if you're a slaveowner in America, right? You got your wife, you, you're maybe two kids and a dog, but you have 80 slaves. How you get

how you get protection from 80 slaves from storm your house What you do is you divide them You'll reward Oh yeah divide and conquer Yeah You'll reward the ones

To tell you hey They must say they plan on Come to your house tonight Or leaving the field And so So that Oh good good Do you get to sleep in the house

Oh thank you ma I got to sleep in the house You know Yeah And so the same thing So that was there Toto Marcuz The house The house negroes

Damn Dave can you say that Allah and words for me, please? The which word? House Negroes is... Oh, no. I was just thinking... You were thinking it? No, no, the way I was thinking,

I was thinking that I would have been a... Oh, yeah, what would you have been? A house Negro? Yeah, I would have probably been House. A House Negro? No, you wouldn't. He says that. No, no.

The thing, you know why? Why? Why? It's just... At that, and I'm being genuine now. Like, I don't know if you could have convinced me to forego like comfort.

I don't think this is true. I don't think you know yourself well enough. I think pressure make diamonds. You know what, this guy, did you just remember the quote now? This guy just remembers the quotes like deep in the conversation.

I think pressure makes diamonds. You've been waiting to say that now that it came back into you. No, so here's, he says that. But here's why I disagree with you. I don't know anybody who is more charitable than you are. I don't know anybody who's more helpful than you are

I don't know anybody who is like friends with more homeless people than you are and look I don't know everybody but what I'm saying is you say that about yourself but I'm having a comfort time yeah I hear you but I don't think I think you are more like revolutionary

than you paint yourself out to be maybe it would be this and I genuinely I'm not even saying that to gas you up I just I don't think you'd be that guy okay okay I think you would be there helping formula escape plans with people.

But okay, okay, maybe, because we don't know, but I'll say this, is when I was offered it, I'll say that, you know, when you were offered to be a house,

Nico? Yeah. What are you talking about? When they make me, how old are you? What is happening here? What I'm saying? Because when they come to me

and they say, can you spy on the rest? Okay, got it, got it. Cool. When I'm offered it, some people would be like, hell no. Others would be like,

yes, definitely. Yeah. Okay, give me this much. Wait, wait, wait, I want to hear his ending. There's a third. Wait, wait, wait, let me just say the third. Yes, I'll be a spy, but actually I'm spying on you to tell them information. Okay.

The double agents. The double agents, yes. I'll say, okay, I'll do this. Can I, can I think about it? So, you see what I'm saying? You think they were like, hey, listen, listen here, Edward, you got two ways to think about this offer I'm giving you. Can I come back to you? You got two weeks, Negro.

No, that's what I'm, so I'm at least. So I'm, because remember, I'm minding my own business, then I get called. I get called in. Wait, you think picking cotton is minding your own business? No, I'm not, I, don't do this. I'm picking, mind my business. No, no, no, no, don't do this. Because this is a very delicate subject.

Just no, no, no, no. I'm saying, no, don't do that. I'm saying, don't do that. I'm saying that my own personality, I don't, think that I would directly be this revolutionary that you think and maybe

maybe you know I would but what I'm saying that certainly when you make the offer I wouldn't I would have to think about it and then maybe to gather myself gather myself then I'll come back and say no I can't do this for you I have to be

I can't so now because I'm not making light of the issue because whenever I read about people who do these kind of things who go against the system the totamacuts oh no no the people who go against the system yes Harriet Tubman Nelson Mandela these kind of people

like you know no because you genuinely go oh you know like if you're like wow would I do it and then if because would I do it if I had the offer of not you see what I'm saying yeah yeah yeah if I didn't have an option

yes if I was offered an easy life in exchange In exchange for the hardness of my people, would I take it or not? I don't think it's worded that way at the moment. I think it's like, hey, go clean my bed. No, no, no, no, no. And then they clean the bed. Oh, you did a good job, Missy.

Well, you know what? Or maybe a slave saw another slave, were you supposed to be leaving? I'm going to tell Master. And he went and told Master, I'm like, oh, thank you for telling me, Rufus. You know what? You get to sleep in the house.

Maybe it was an orphan. Maybe it was another slave who did it because they're like, you're going to get us all in trouble. I think all of those things are probably true I think all of those things are probably true at the same time You think slave match just came and offered them No, no, no, no, I think all of them are true at the same time I don't think there's one

A basketball deal I don't think there's one fixed example Does that make sense? Right So I don't think there's one I'm sure there's some that were implicit I'm sure there was some that were explicit I'm sure there were some that

Does that make sense? Right, right And I think that's how these There's no viable reason to what slave owners did No, the reason I think is is pretty obvious, you know. You become very rich and very powerful and you don't pay the people around you.

Right. Well, the main thing is, how you get 80 people from watching their house. Yeah, but what I'm saying is, what I'm saying is I think it's a combination of things, right? When you terrorize people, one of the things about terror that makes it particularly powerful is

you need very few acute acts to have a long-lasting effect on a group. Do you get what I'm saying? To put a fear. That's another reason authoritarian regimes have very public flogings, very public beheadings,

very public. All of you have got to see what we do to somebody who steps out of line. And you just need to cut off a few people's heads or hang a few people or stone a few people for everyone to now be like, ah man, we've got to get in line.

You got what I'm saying. When my parents used to warp one of my brothers to do their homework, And he'd be like, oh, I better do my homework. I mean, that's one way to think of it. Yes, that is. We're going to continue this conversation right after this short break. So wait, wait, but let's go back because I want to get to how we get to this Wilson, Vince.

So your dad gets everyone out of Haiti. He's chosen New York. New York, because the job opportunities and he feel like they're very fair to everybody. Okay, cool. So your dad comes out, your mom comes out, now you guys are in Brooklyn. Where are you in the brothers? How many brothers? Four brothers.

I'm third. You're third? Yep. Okay. And so were you all born in the U.S.? No, two born in Haiti. Damn. So your mom had to come with kids as well.

Wow. How different are you from the Haitian brothers? I'm not saying you're not Haitian. I'm just saying like from the born in Haiti brothers. I don't know. I felt like I always thought out the box. Does that make sense? Yeah.

Because I was very close to my grandmother. right? Because my dad used to always tell us like everybody's equal, right? There's no such thing as gender roles. You learn how to cook, clean, wash. You know, also you learn how to fix electrical appliances. You learn how to if a socket is broken, you learn how to do. Also, my dad used to do this thing where, so you know, you know the, when the gas come into the house,

Yeah. Right? And there's a meter that... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So my dad figured out how to beat the company. He would just unscrew the thing and turn it backwards. And so now the meters would run the other way.

But he made sure they go all the way down. I'm like, what, you guys... You guys didn't use any gas? You guys used anti-gas? Yeah. You guys use negative gas? Right. So he knew just the amount and the gas, our gas bill was pretty low.

and he he knew how to also with the electric and the sheep and the he used so there's different now fuses he'll get the ones

with a certain amount of resistance and you know no wonder the white people didn't want the black people doing these cats look at what they're doing with their engineering knowledge well look what they're doing to us now

man there's all the people in Boston watching this podcast and they're just like what I tell you about them Haitians. Now you see why we didn't want them here. But wait, look what they're doing now. The AI company was building

these massive places and they're charging the people for the electricity. You know about that, right? So your dad was getting revenge before the he was getting future revenge on behalf of humanity. And so my dad was like everybody got on everything. So I knew how to sew,

I know how to cook, I know how to fix the electrical stuff. And so my dad used to always say, you know, if you have a good woman in life whether she's a girlfriend or a relative or a friend always pay you know got to always pay because the world treat women like shit and they don't realize women are really the the ones the backbone of society and so i'm so i was so close to my grandma because of this you know my grandma's also also nice so you know i was probably going to be closer anyway but my dad's saying that and

putting that into us about treat women, you know, treat women with respect and all that. As a kid, I respect, what does that mean? You know, like, I'm not going to hit my grandmother. I'm not going to curse out. You can't curse, you couldn't curse to, you know, you couldn't even curse to your friends when your parents was around. Yeah. Your ass woke, you know. So I just remembered that, you know, and I became close with my grandmother.

So when actually my grandmother died, I was the only one at the funeral. not crying because I'm like, you guys didn't see this coming? She was old. Is that how your brain processed it? Yeah, like, yeah, guys, like, yeah, you guys, you know she was old. You know this is going to happen. How old was she when she passed away? 65.

All right. Well, yeah, I don't know how to put this to you, but that's not particularly old. For black people, that's like 95, 98. That's, I mean, that's, but that's really not that old. Yeah. Well, if you think that's bad, my mother died at 55, my dad died at 55, my grandfather got shot at 55, well, allegedly, if Papa died come back in power. Everyone at 55? Everybody died at 55.

How did your mom and dad pass away? My dad, my dad had chest cancer, but he never smoked. So what happened was You heard of Dristan to clear your nose A sinus? The spray? The spray. Yeah.

So one day he had a cold, he took Dristan. But the thing with Dristan, when you take it, clear your nose. Yeah. You're actually breathing better than when you went out. Yeah, before you got sick. Yeah. And the thing about Drisand, after a while,

your nose got clogged up. You got to let it clog up for a day and you get your breathing back. But my dad kept taking Dristand. They call it rebound. Yeah. So, you know, in the 80s, they had the shirts with the pocket by here. Yeah.

So he kept the drista in his pocket. Oh, man. And he just kept taking it. Oh, man. For many years. That thing is, until even now, like, all those nasal sprays, if you're on it longer than, I think, like, 14 days, maybe even less, you're in big trouble. Well, talk about 10 years, 10 years, 10 years? Maybe seven years, seven to 10 years, my dad was, you know, taking it.

He just needed that to breathe at some point. Yeah, he just kept taking every day. and, you know, he developed a form of cancer in the chest. But, you know, the doctors never tell you, you know, they just want to know if you got money. That's not funny? No, I mean, it's not in this moment. And then my dad, my mom died of a, of, she had moved to Florida.

She came back to New York and she got stung by a bee and she developed an allergic reaction. She had a stroke. And, yeah. Damn, I'm sorry, man. That's a crazy period to go through for you and your brothers. It's like how far apart was it between your parents dying? Oh, like 10 years?

Also, no, like 70 years. Also, when my mother died is when I realized the truth about hospitals. Because I used to always think hospitals and doctors and nurses, well, not nurses are still amazing, but they were all about want to help. and save people. Yeah. So when my mother had a stroke and she was in a coma, she went, she went in a coma,

and she was, she had, she went without oxygen for like, I think like eight, eight to 13 minutes, you know, by the time they called an ambulance to the house and they resuscitated her. And, but she was without, so she, they was not sure if she do come out of the coma. Yeah. How much brain activity she'll have. So, so we, my brothers and now were at the hospital. And the doctor came out and said, hey, your mother's in a coma, but we're not sure how long she's going to be. We're not sure how much fighting activity she has.

But she cannot stay here. She can't. Oh, no, no. First she said, you guys have insurance? She said, no, we don't have insurance. He goes, you cannot. She can't stay here. She got to leave.

She can't stay here. And then he kept, this went off like five minutes about she can't stay here. Then we said, can we just find a place? So my brother's son went back to the house, went through my mother's paperwork, and we found she had insurance. through a credit card. She had insurance. As long as she used this credit card, she has, I think,

up a million dollars worth of insurance. Wow. So we went back to the hospital next day. We said, yo, the doctor, Dr. Kempai said, did you find a place for your mother's stay? We said, yes. Also, we showed them the paper. Do you think this facility will take this insurance?

He looked at the paper and no lie. He goes, your mother can't leave. And she leaves here, there's a risk of her dime. Okay. Oh, man. Like, we knew what was happening,

but at the same time, like, what if he's, wife is real? Right? Because the first thing he said, do you find a place for your mother? Yeah. Look at the paper.

She can't leave. Okay. So she stayed at the hospital to like eight months and the doctor was like, the money was running out. Your mother can't stay here. Wow.

That's not funny? Man, no, I mean, it's insane. Too soon. So then we found a place for a stay. We moved her to this facility, this home. And then me and my brothers had a talk, like, man, you know, this happened to me. Dude, pull the plug. Like, there's no brain activity.

Like, I don't want to come back, you know, I can't say hello. I barely could blink. Like, dude, pull the plug. Let me leave. So once we all decided that, we just. said, yo, so we unplugged that. I think she passed away, like, later that day

or day later. Damn, we're... No wonder you can't sleep. This stuff you're telling us. I mean... That's not funny. I thought it's funny. It's funny. It's very funny. I'm still... Yeah, I don't know.

Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I'm trying to put myself in your shoes in some of those moments and process it. I can't imagine. imagine what a lot of that is like. So after that experience with the hospital, I'm like, doctors are full of shit.

The hospitals are full of shit. It's just all about money. It's all about business. But then I met some amazing nurses. Nurses really want to help. I'm not saying all doctors are like that. But that doctor, you know what I'm saying? He wasn't about that.

Yeah, the thing that's tough from everything I've read, let's say specifically in American healthcare. It's funny because it depends on the country you live in. In South Africa, when my mom was shot and we were in the hospital, they said the similar thing to me. They said, does she have insurance? And I was like, I don't think she has insurance. And it was so crazy because my mom, she always had insurance.

And then I want to say like six months. before the incident, she was like, I don't need insurance. She's like, this makes no sense. I'm just paying for this thing and nothing happens. Then I said, that's what insurance is for. It's not if something, it's because something might happen,

not because it does happen. Right. She was like, no, I don't need insurance. He was like, my friend who gave up his fire extinguishing the show. He said, yo, I don't, I want to use this. You want, you want to hold on to it? We could, we could, I'll have it for one month. You have it for one month.

Like, so, so I'm in the hospital. And they said the same thing. They said, yeah, it was the closest hospital to where it happened. And then they were like, oh, we've got to move her. And the hospital that were going to move her to was going to be like 45 minutes to an hour away. Oh, damn. And I was lucky that I was like, I'll just, I'll pay. I was like, I've got a credit card.

I'll just pay. And they were like, oh, it could cost a lot of money. I was like, yeah, it's my mom. I'll never forget that interaction with the doctor because I was just like, what? the way you know what I mean the way he said it to me was very like

he's like oh it could cost a lot of money it's like a leather jacket you know what's just leather jacket cause yeah I was like yo brother it's my mom yeah

and he's like okay and he was still like oh I mean all right um your mother was white would he had say that

yeah I'll be honest with you that's that's the one thing that I find has now united people across color lines and that is that like the medical industry in many places in the world has become one

that has allowed itself to become so controlled by money that it doesn't necessarily allow them to care about health first right and and in America it's interesting right so in America how it works not everywhere but in a lot of America is there are companies that have bought out doctors practices so the doctors don't even sort of work for themselves anymore. Wow. And then there are also companies that own hospital groups. So the hospital's also a part of a company, right?

Right. And then they need to make money. And then the doctors that are in as part of this thing. So they feed into the hospital. They're also, their money is also going somewhere. So the doctor's working a lot, but they're not necessarily earning the money of working a lot. Right. And then the hospital is in cahoots with certain providers for certain procedures or

certain medicines and so and it just becomes this weird world where everyone seems like they're being held hostage by somebody else but they're also the hostage takers I don't know if I can explain this it's like it's like a weird rabbit hole where like the hospitals themselves we're like we're barely making a profit and the doctors will say we we barely make any money and we work we were countless hours and then the people who are in the hospitals are like we don't have any money and we're treated like shit or we spend all our money who's making the money. And it's generally these big organizations that are, that they've designed systems that put an undue pressure on the medical industry. And unfortunately, the stories are a lot

like what you're saying. So who, who's, there got to be somebody up top, right? Like, like, it's a, it's, like, it's a CEO. Yeah, but it's generally the big, the big companies. Like, there's a few, I don't know them by name, so I won't like say the wrong one and then, you know, getting into trouble or whatever. No, no, but I know this big... So it's one like a... Yeah. Yeah.

No, but they are actual big companies that own these groups. And they're trying to consolidate more and more. And that's what's leading to the systems being worse and worse and worse and worse. But then there's also weird things in American medicine. Like when it comes to prescription medications, for instance, you have these things called pharmacy benefit managers,

I think it is. I think it's pharmacy. Yeah, but basically what they do is, They're like the middleman between you and your prescription, but they can also like decide a price that your insurer pays, which also determines the price that you pay, which also determines the price of the medicine, and it determines the price of what the medicine maker is getting.

It is as convoluted as I'm saying it right now. You know what I mean? It's not like it's in demand. Like when you buy a ticket to a concert, right? You realize that they'll jack the price. Oh, yeah, yeah. It's very similar to that. Yeah, it's very similar to that.

This is one of the reasons why I didn't get a BBL. Because... What were the other reasons? I'd like to know what the other reasons were beyond cost. Okay, this is the main reason. And then also because the cost of one, this whole thing, and then the cost of changing all of my pants. Wait, BBL is big butt lactose?

What's BBL again? I think it's a Brazilian butt lift. Oh, Brazilian butt lift. Yeah. That's what it is. but I like the your guest was pretty it was fantastic

big butt lactose big butt lactose hey you got that big butt lactose over there man so wait you was gonna get a bbl for ill no oh I'm like damn how bad it was in this country

that the girls got no you see Dave's dad told him when he was very young he said there are no gender roles in this house men can get BBLs and women can get BBLs And Dave was very close to his grandmother.

So Dave was like, I'm going to get a BBL as well. So there was a guy who invented insulin. You know the story about the guy who invented the insulin for diabetic patients? Yeah, I think I know. Which story? Well, he wanted it to be cheap for everybody. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Some company bought it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, you can buy it, but as long as you make it available for everybody and really cheap. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then they actually jacked up the price. to like $300, $400,000, even $1,000. Yeah, it's one of the most frustrating things about health care in general

is that everyone gets frustrated by it and really no one needs to be. But then the quote-unquote bad guys are very good at obscuring their role in making the system worse. Does that make sense? Yeah. So there's people who buy patents on drugs, for instance, or they buy the companies who own the patents on the drugs,

and then they can just check up the price. So they'll know there's one medicine that treats a specific disease that's very niche. Like they go, this disease, you have to have the medication. It's not an option. But then they'll buy the company that owns the patent and then they just jack up the price. So whether that guy would have to hold on to it. Well, I have a question for him. Because you're going to...

Are you going to smoke? No, no. It's a real question. I'm just trying to think of how to phrase it correctly. Where did you start to think? Sorry. It's a bit of a... When did you start to think that you were a funny person because of the electrical engineering?

Actually, that is a good question. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. When I was young, two things out there was amazing was eating and laughing. I remember laughing my ass off. I'm like, there can be nothing better than this. Like I was just, you know, laughing and then you laugh so much. And then eating good foods as I got older, it was.

eating healthier foods was better and laughing was still in the game. And so I always thought laughing was the best thing in life. But what I mean is because remember you've just, your family has come from quite trying circumstances. Like you've sort of like in terms of it you didn't, we've spent a lot of time telling us not a funny story. So now, was there any humor in your family because of all this kind of stuff was happening? Yes, even in Haiti, people were still in.

enjoying their lives. Not having is not your life. It's like you still laugh, you still have a good time, you still go to the movies, you still cook good foods. So being poor was not like, oh, we poor. No, people don't think like that. They just think like, hey, we do with the best that we have, but we still enjoy our lives. There was a lot of laughter in my house. My dad used to make jokes. As strict as my dad was, he would make jokes. My mother would make jokes. You know, there was laughter. And, you know, but at the same time, you got to do your homework. You got to go to church.

You know, but, you know, laughter was a good, you know, we used to always have dinner together. And my dad would say a few jokes. Never hardly say jokes, but we're like, we'll laugh and stuff. So I just remember those are good times, you know. That was a, but my dad was also solid. Like, does that make sense? Like a hardcore.

Strict disciplinary guy. Like a man, like, like, he never really showed emotion. Oh, yeah, yeah. We know those guys. Yeah. Never showed them. There was, like, a very specific generation. Yeah, so my mother would go around the table.

How was school today? Any stories happened? How was school happened? And then got to my dad. My dad said, yeah, I was in downtown. Someone came with a gun, put it in my face, asked me for my wallet. I gave it to him, and then he'd go away. And was like, and my dad was like, mm-hmm.

Anything anybody else have stories? It was like, and then he, by the way, he pissed with my dad. He hit him in the face with the gun. But he's telling this story like is like, oh yeah, I went to the park and I swung on the swings. That's how he told the story. But you're having a very, I don't want to say, you're having like a very well-grounded family life. You know, sitting at the table. Yeah, yeah, I mean in the sense of your upbringing.

Sitting at the table with the whole family, mother saying each person tell the story, you know, that kind of thing. So this is a very, like almost like a. the family that we, the TV has told us as a family, you had their childhood in a way, or a certain portion of it. Yeah, I guess, yeah. I mean, eating together was like a, was the norm. I never, I didn't, I even think it would not.

I thought all families were eating. No, no, no, no, that's not normal. Or rather, it, or rather it is not as ubiquitous as it may seem. Not everyone is doing it. We used to pray together also. Yeah, all these things. Dave's right. This is very wholesome.

So were you the funny kid in the family? family? I was to my, to my brothers. My dad, you know, you get their ass who up. But I was, I used to do practice. I used to like hide and scare them or like I used to like switch their plates, you know, remove the burger and put like more lettuce in there when they bite it. And I'll be holding the burger. Are you looking for this? You know. What was the first thing you remember seeing that made you think I want to get into comedy, like specifically comedy? Because I know every comedian has something they saw that made them think

two people yeah Ronnie Dangerfield okay and Joan Rivers interesting because Ronnie Dangerfield was the first one I saw he talked about himself and it was okay

hey the girl said come on over Vonny come on over nobody's home I went on over nobody was home I get no respect I remember I'm like I was laughing man John Rivers how old were you when you were listening to this was the first time

I can't remember how I was still young. But I just remember those two was like so funny. I didn't get into Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy to later. Yeah. You know, because we were not allowed to. But those two was on TV. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I got to see those two a lot.

Eddie Murphy was not really on TV. And also he was on SNL and that came out on too late. That was after the 10 p.m. curfew. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And Richard Pryor was in the movies and stuff So I didn't really get into those two Like to later on later on and stuff How did you start stand up?

I ran into a comedian named Dougie Doug up in Harlem Dougie Doug was in the movie The Jamaican bobsled movie Oh, cool runnings? Cool runnings, yeah He was one of the and then I said, yo man, you're amazing man And he invited me to his club, the Uptown comedy club and then I just went there and that's that was it.

Like a fan, you said, you're amazing. Then he said, you must come and be a comedian. Oh, no, no, no, no. I asked him. I said, how did you, I was kind of like interview him. How did you get into it? How to do it? I was like, Ducky Ducky Ducky Ducky was having a tough time at his comedy club. People were like, hey, man, can I get a selfie? He's like, yo, if you come to do five minutes tonight, man, we need an act. No. No, but I was interviewing him. And it seemed like all the questions about how did you get into comedy. I love that you say interviewing him. You said that. You said that. about your dad as well. You said this like, your definition of interviews very different.

Anytime Will sees one person asking another person any questions, Will's like, yeah, that's an interview right there. I bumped into Douggy Doug and I interviewed him and my dad was interviewing my mom that one night about why the potatoes seemed a little less tasty than usual. So, so Dougie Doug was the one that got me, like, got So he said come through. He said come through the comedy club, yeah. At what point in your life is this? Actually, my boss, I used to work at a company called International Robotics.

We used to build robots. In fact, one of our robots was in the movie Rocky 4. Did you see the Rocky movies? Yeah. You saw the Rocky movies? Remember that robot came out with the cake for the birthday? No, I don't remember this. So you didn't see Rocky 4?

No, I saw Rocky 4. I just don't remember the robot. Do you see Rocky 3? Yes, I've seen all the Rockies. You don't remember a big robot that came out with a big round hair? I don't. That's not like the thing. Did you see Vakis?

I did. Do you remember the Vobat? I can say that... It's a yes or no question. It's a politician. I do not remember it. I'm going to look this up right now. But I may remember the party.

Do you know what I mean? I'm going to look this up right now. The Vobat's name is Cisco. Cisco spell Tau. S-I-C-O. Is this when you're an engineer? Yeah, yeah. I was working at that company.

Where did you go to school? I went to school in New York Tech and City College. And then you begin. And then there was... Not a job at... Oh, damn, here it is. Paulie and his robots. Yeah.

The robot comes out. Brother-in-law. See it? Where's the worst? Happy birthday, Pauli. Oh, yeah, I don't remember the scene at all. I don't remember this at all. See?

I would be lying if I said I remember this scene. But you said you saw the movie, though, right? I've definitely seen the movie. This I don't remember. Yeah. So that was your robot? Yeah, I worked on that robot. No ways, Will.

Yeah, so... You were in Rocky? No. No. I worked on that mobile after... Like, I came to that job after that one. Okay, got it. But that robot was still at the job I was working on.

And so my boss at that job, he's the one that actually told me you should do stand-up. Was this his way of soft firing you? No, actually, he allowed... Hey, Will, I've seen some of the work that you've done. You should think of comedy, man. Think of comedy, man. You should quit the day job. I saw the way you connect those cables.

You would be a very funny guy. He actually said, quit the day job. So he said, you should be a stand-up comic? Don't quit the day job. Yeah, he said, quit your day job. So he was a stand-up comedian. So he gave me a CD, Robin Harris CD, and I listened to it every day for a year straight.

I couldn't stop laughing. I laughed almost every time I listen to that CD. I'm like, yo. is this happening somewhere? Where can I go see comedy like this? Then a few months later that's when I ran to Douggy Dog in Harlem and he invited me to do it.

What was it like the first time? So you get to Dougie Doug's club? I would just like a student-ish or a customer and they knew that I wanted to be a comic the people that was running the show and one day they had no comedians because all the comics was playing some celebrity basketball name. And they say, hey, you won't be a comic, right? I'm like, yeah, but I'm not ready.

Say, yo, you're on tonight. And I went on that night and I bombed. What did you talk about? I think one of the jokes were, I don't necessarily, because my English was pretty bad now. I said, I don't say, I don't say pronounce words properly. I made a list of all the words that I don't pronounce, and I pulled out a dictionary, I threw it on the floor. That's a funny joke, actually. Did you show that it was a dictionary? I just...

Ah, yeah, that's probably why it didn't work. Because I think that's the kind of gag way everyone has to see that it says dictionary. Yeah. Yeah. And then you... Yeah. That joke can work very well. And that's also more of like a comedy festival joke

than a comedy club joke, I think. Yes. You know what I mean? I mean, I ain't know any, brother. No, no, I'm just saying. I'm just saying that you go back in time and you tell Will, that was a good joke. You might have bombed, but it was a good joke.

But yeah, I bombed my ass off. But I remember that night after that show, no, no, they didn't understand it. I got to find a way to make them understand. Because one thing that blew my mind, I was watching a Richard Pryor, right? I'm like, man, this guy's funny as hell. Then they showed the audience.

It was an all-white audience. I'm like, I just assumed the audience is black because he was telling blackest jokes. And so when I saw it, I was like, oh, comedy's, for everybody. It shouldn't just be for a group or, you know. Just your people. Yeah, or your people. You just got to find a way to get, it's all about language. How do I interpretate this? You know, this is why. How do I? What? It's funny that he said in, he said, he just said this about language and then will pull the will and said,

did you say interpretate? Interpretate. Man. Dave, Dave, he's not. No, I know what you're saying. I know what you were saying. Because you interpreted it in your head. I did interpretate it in my head. Have you always done that, by the way? That's probably one of my favorite things about you as a human being. What's that? Is that like you've just substituted words in your head? Yeah, my brain looked for the nervous word. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, but you like, you've done this with, you just say like the craziest word where I'm like, but it's always adjacent. Yeah, we know what you're saying. Yeah, like, interpretate. I'm like, yeah, that's correct. And I'm willing to say, if it was a game show, I would accept it. Interpret.

So what's to interpretate? I don't think that's a thing. at all. But what I love is I always understand it. And that's a word. I do speak fluent will. That's what Patrice Sinal used to say. That's a word.

That's one of those words that should have been a word. Interpretate. It's not, you know, it's not so bizarre. Yeah, yeah, it's not a bizarre word. Like conversate. I heard conversate is not a real word. No, conversate is a word. Conversate is a word.

Or is it politicking. Politicking is now a word, I think. No, conversate wasn't a word. It became a word. I think it became, when I. All words weren't words and they became words. No, no, but people, when they use their slang in a way and then it'd be... So you should just do interpretate more.

Right, like, like, like, yo, I was particking this girl, but politic and is... Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, we used to converse. Yes. Not conversate. Not conversate is another one, right? No, I'm saying converse was the word. Then conversate is like a cool way of saying it, I imagine.

I guess. And then it'd be, you know, but I don't, if I had to bet like a, Webster's Dictionary or whatever for Conversate, I would go. You willing to bet on that? I would go. No. Because I didn't hear Conversate when I was growing up. You hear Converse?

I heard Converse. Yeah, yeah, you're correct. Converse is a proper way. Yes. Yo, Conversate goes back to the 19th century. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. No, no, no.

So... Conversate's been a thing. Okay, cool. Conversate... Used for over 200 years. Okay, but you see, Conversate. Okay, this is actually, sorry, this is my point.

Yeah. You see, interpretate? Well, actually here, this actually is you, funny enough. Conversate, they say here, conversate is a valid word. So converse is the standard widely accepted verb for engaging in conversation. Conversate is a valid word, but it is often viewed as a not real word by strict usage guides and is labeled non-standard. That is one of the craziest thing ever. That's what I said.

It's a valid word, but it is often viewed as a not real word. word. Yes. Wow. Yeah. I'm on my teacher. My teacher, you tell me, oh, conversate is now a word. Because kids were like, yeah, I was conversing with, and the teacher will stop the whole

class. That's not real word. You, it's converse. Yes. That is, but it is a real word. Yeah. Every word is sort of like a real word. Yes.

But, but what I'm saying is, is that certain words sound like they could be a word. Yes. Interpretate is one of them. Interpretate. Yes. Some are like wrong. I think he's just ahead of your time, Will. Also, a word.

A word is misused for a number of period of time, it becomes a word. Yes, that's true. Right? Except for Pacific or Specific. Well, Pacific is because it's an ocean. Yeah, but Pacific people use as specific. I was having a stroke. Versus, you know what I'm saying?

But that never became. Yeah, because it's Pacific already. It's got to be a new word. We've already got Pacific. So we can't say Pacific. Are you in Pacific? I'm saying pacifically. That word won't work.

That's what I'm saying. Say it again? Pacificly that word. But you say specifically? No, I'm saying pacifically. Why are you saying? I won't say any of the stuff that you guys are saying. But the, um, what?

Because you're just butchering the Queen's English. Do you know what I mean? We are indeed. He's so colonized. Look at him. Look at him. That's why I told you that I wouldn't be saving people. He would be a house Negro.

That's what I told you. I told you. So wait, so you, okay, you get on stage, you bomb. How long did it take before you got like your first life? The next time I went on. Oh, so you went back? I waited six months. Yeah.

It was September. Yeah. And I went up again in December, January. What did you change? I made sure that in the stew I was saying. And then I opened up with a different joke. And what was the new joke? The new joke was, if I ever make it to the top, if I ever come across the money,

no more ugly girls for me because I'm ugly too two wrongs don't make a right that's a good joke that's a great joke now that's a now in between

that's a nice one in between bombing and and this whole thing what happened no I mean in the sense did you because you obviously did not go on stage

I kept replaying that that moment even though it was like it was like trauma getting booed but I kept replaying in my head. Well, you got booed? The first time. Oh, I didn't know.

You said bombed. You didn't say booed. In the black neighborhood, you bombed, you booed. Okay, no. Bombing is, when I hear bombing, I think silence. Like when comedians be like, oh, I bombed hard, it means silence. Yeah? Yeah, when you get booed.

Yeah, booed is different. Bood is like, whewy. That's how you get, that's how you bomb in the black? Yes, that is true. No, I mean, that's true, but I'm saying you didn't say that before. That, this is now I feel even more for you. So you thought I was. at a white club in Harlem.

No, I just... Because white people are the ones that, they, that's, in your definition, booed, bombed. Yeah, bomb is just silence. Yeah, they just... No, no, black people got to let you know. Yo, this ain't happening.

You know, even, like, you talk about Japanese people. They will stay silent. No, no, no, I mean, well, because they're so respectful, will stay silent when you're killing. Yeah. Killing or dying, you won't know. Yeah, you'll be doing well.

And they'll make a connection with bombed and Japanese people. No, no, no. Oh, damn. God. I'm not trying to go there. No. Well, I'm just saying that the respect, because they don't, well, now it's a bit different,

but before culturally, because it's like, I don't want to, oh, this one I've heard at least, I don't want to interrupt your performance. No, it was like that. When I did shows in Japan, then there were a lot of Japanese people in the audience, and I thought I was just not connecting with them at all. And then there were a lot of expats as well. So people from all over the world who live in Japan, they were having a good time. And then I remember after the show, I met a bunch of people in the streets.

This was in Tokyo. And then a lot of Japanese people came up after the show and they're like, oh, you know, can I get a selfie? Can I get an autograph, et cetera? And then there were a few people. And you know how it is as a comedian. You remember the people. And I was like, yo, you didn't laugh once.

And then he was like, oh, no, he's like, I couldn't laugh. He's like, I didn't want to laugh while you were there. It was very funny, but I didn't want to interrupt you. And I was like, man, that is the exact opposite reaction that we were looking for. This is the exact opposite reaction. You know, I was in China, right? This is how amazing Chinese people are. I did shows in China, and that would be Chinese people sitting in the audience, not laughing, right?

And then they'll come, and then so there was this one Chinese guy. He filed me to all my shows by the seventh show. I'm like, dude, you come to the shows, you're not laughing. He goes, I'm learning English. Oh, wow. They would just come to the show to learn English. That's how dope Chinese people are. They just, I just, and then he said,

the first show he didn't speak any English by the seventh show he was having a fairly good conversation you were going around saying your act basically he said they were just figuring out at my show I'm like oh you know what I'm loving right now

is the idea that there is a Chinese man somewhere maybe still in China who's walking around saying interpretate and Pacific I think he's going to say no more ugly girl for me. But sorry.

So you're replaying this thing in your head, but you didn't go on stage. I didn't go on stage. No, no, no. So you were still back at the robotics from? I was trying to figure out.

I stayed at, I worked at robotics for a long time. Yeah. You know, how many years? Because my boss allowed me to, oh man, maybe seven,

10 years. Oh, yeah. This is a full leg job job. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And my boss allowed me to do shows. And I, because sometimes my shows were, you know,

and he gave me a key this shop, he said, I'll just leave a work order. You come in, you come in three o'clock in the while, you just come after my shows, work on the robot, check off the list on things I did, and then leave. And so that made it easy. That's a great boss, man. It made easy until someone told me, he said, man, you would never take comedy far, because he asked me, comedy or, I'm really loving comedy.

So you'll never take comedy far as long as you have that safety net. Who said this to you? Some dude. Some dude? The same Chinese guy who learned in. Yo, what? Yeah, so because you would never... And you believe this person?

Yeah, so I quit my job. That is the worst advice anyone could ever give anyone. As long as you have a safe net, you won't take... I think the exact opposite is true. If you want to enjoy your comedy and you want to be a great comedian, just have it as your hobby. Do it as like... I think there's nothing worse for an audience.

than the smell of desperation. You know when a comedian gets on stage and the audience is like, this person needs us to laugh at the jokes or their rent won't be paid? There's a different feeling in the room. I thought only animals could smell fear and desperation. No, humans can as well.

Trust me. Trust me. When a comedian gets on stage and they're doing it for the love of comedy, like really for the love. Like when Dave and I started doing comedy shows in South Africa, like Dave would put this room together. It was weird.

It was hard at first. It was this whole thing. But there was no money and we did the room for the room. We did it for comedy and then we like had jobs and we'd get money from other things. But I've always felt the comedy that comedians make from passion is far superior to the comedy they make from survival. Yeah, that's true. There's just like a joy, man. There's a different type of, you know.

Yeah, you go out because you want to go out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And also the, you're not. pandering to an audience because that's your livelihood. So you don't go, let me make this joke because this joke works. You're going, I like this joke. Let's figure it out. And I can afford to like this joke.

That is true. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because when you're doing it because you have to survive, you'll, you do whatever thing you got to get for the last. Exactly. So you could keep getting work. Yeah.

I'm just, you know, hey, they didn't work. We'll try another time. Exactly. That's genuinely my opinion. So I mean... Sorry, question. No, no. While you're doing this kind of comedy and stuff,

no, I mean work slash comedy, work slash comedy. How long is this work slash comedy going for? I don't know. No, I mean, you know, is it like from day one of working at the engineering or is it like towards the end? You know what I mean? No, no, no, no. Towards the middle-ish.

Middle-ish, okay, cool. And then are your family seeing you? No, because my, it was, we were not allowed to do, because comedy was like, my dad, my mother was like, no, let's make us laugh if that's the case. You know, throwing your future way. Like, you know, you have to be engineer, you have to be a doctor, you have to be a lawyer, you know. And because, because the thing was, you know, education, good job, then you get a family, then you take over the house. Yeah. You know, only in America where you, when you turn to.

18, you leave a house. In a Haitian household, well, at least when I was going up, no, the family always stay together. When you become 18, then you get a job. Then when you get a good job, you get a wife, then you, then the, all right, now you don't, you're the head of the house. Oh, you just take over the household. I think that's, there's a version of that. And there's multiple cultures.

And they go, they take over that, their wife's household or vice versa, you know. But, but, you know, you don't leave the family ever. It's like Fast and the Furious It's all about family It's all about family So family was a big thing So you're saying comedy is basically like saying I don't give a shit about family

No We Because they didn't see value in Yeah Yeah Yeah You know Where they come from

A doctor A engineer or a lawyer Was the way Because one of the most important things Is how you're going to support how you're going to make money. And the top things to make money was doctors, lawyers, engineers.

What did they do when they discovered you were doing comedy like you were moonlighting as a comedian? So one day, I did a show that came on late at night. I didn't think it was going to, you know, my mother being, my mother normally goes to bed by 10.

And so my little brother came and she said, hey, I saw you on TV. Oh, man. I was, who should say? You'll see when you get home. And then my mother's in the living room talking to her friends. And I walk in, we had the living room with the beads as a door.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I walked in, they all heard me coming through the beads. And they just look, and they all start talking. And one of them go, is that the comedian there? And they just started laughing. I ain't say nothing. They just started laughing. And I'm going, yeah, that's my, that's my favorite son.

Come on, Ma. And then it was accepted. I guess when they see there's a way. to make money, there's a living. And then last also, it brings people together. So there's so many things happening. I guess when my mother's first saw me on TV for the first time. First of all, she's like, is that, is that weird?

You know, I try a picture like what was going to her mind when she was, you know. First of all, it's 1 a.m. What is she doing up at 1 a.m.? You know, that's number one, number two. She's just flipping through the channels, look probably looking for the news. That's wild and she bumps into you. Do you remember what the show was? Some show about the appellate, not the Apollo.

Yeah. It's another show that Apollo was producing. And then my brother told me, because not my mother, but she was flipping to her channels, and then she stopped. And what made her stop, because she, is that weird? And she just, you know, watched it, you know, and then. That's insane. That's really amazing.

It is? Yeah. Just think of all the variables that have to come together for that to happen. Yeah. Your mom has to be up past her bedtime. Yeah. Which she isn't normally. Your mom is flipping through channels.

Remember, there's no TV guide when this is happening. She's making tea. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So now she's flipping channels. She bumps into you. I'm assuming you're not doing a long set on the show. No, no, five minutes.

Five minutes. So she has a five minute window to catch you. Yeah. She catches. Yeah. Within that five minutes and 30. And so she catches this five minutes of her son and he's not bombing. You know what?

Yeah. You know what that's the same? You know what that's the same? Because you're an engineer at this point, a Haitian engineer. So it's like if you're- Why not just an angel? What's the Haitian engineer versus a Chinese engineer? No, no, I'm trying to put it in the sense of like,

you're not a engineer from Long Island and your family's Jerry Seinfelds. And we talk about comedy all the time. And Ben Stiller, you know what I mean? People who are all the prior. or Murphys who are comedy could happen. Do you know what I'm saying? It's like, no. Or LeBron and flipping and he sees one of his cousins

or someone playing basketball. I'm saying you are firmly not comedy people. It's the same as like if she flipped and you were doing like the rocket launch. Or playing basketball for the next. Yes, yeah, actually. That would be. But he had no idea.

Is that weird doing a slam dunk? This is just like... That's crazy. I'm really happy that happened for you guys, though. Because I wonder if you ever would have had the guts to tell her. But most cultures from these small countries or these whatever countries, in those days, information was not that readily available. No, no, no.

And the thing they most of them knew is like, you know, you got to make money. The reason why what's the number one reason why people migrate to America in those days? Yeah, it's money. Opportunity. I would assume. what Trevor's saying is that, let's say you had a tape of that, of that thing. Firstly, you were never going to tell her in a way. And if you had a tape of that and gave it to her, a tape is too, but you gave me the tape.

That's exactly what I mean. You, not staged, but you gave me a tape. That's exactly what I mean. The fact that she saw it on live TV. Yeah. Yes. That must have been amazing for her. Like, genuinely, genuinely amazing.

And for you as well. Yeah, I was still absorbing the fact that she saw me on TV. like what's going to happen like you know yeah um did that change your relationship afterwards with my mother yeah um no i i i always like i she was always on a high pedestal no but i mean like from her to you like did she like now be like you know like where's my comedian going or you know what are you doing these days comedy boy or you know she she in a good way yeah always viewed me as like the number one son somehow oh that's beautiful but i didn't learn that up yeah except for three other people i mean i didn't

I didn't realize until later. I thought my older brother was the number one son for a long time. Do you ever wonder if she just said this to all of you in a different way? I know. Like, are you saying this? Because no other son is ever around when you sat on the number one son. Yeah, because I feel like that's like great parents. We'll just pull your side and be like, you know you are always my favorite.

But don't tell your brother. You know you are always my favorite, but don't tell your brother. You just tell every brother. And then they just go like, I feel bad for my brothers. Because that was always the favorite. But I did have a connection with my mother because I was close to with her mother. And you were also her son. Yeah, because my grandmother,

no, my grandma was like very close. Yeah, yeah, I'm with you. We were like, best of friends. Right. And so my mother was like, oh, all of them, why him? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And my grandma was like, no, he's amazing and stuff. And so I think that, you know, when my grandmother died,

my mother was, my mother must have cried every day for a year straight. And then she looked to me like, like, you know, does she tell you anything? any stories you can share, like, no, just same stories she shared with anybody else. Yeah, you were the connection. Yeah, yeah, so I think that's why she could start connecting with me more and more, you know. Don't press anything.

We've got more. What now after this? When would you say comedy, like, clicked in your life? Like, and I mean, like, click. Because, I mean, you know, already when I met you, you know, you were a regular hosting shows at the comedy seller. And the comedy seller is one of the most discerning comedy institutions in the world. You know what I mean?

Like, it doesn't matter if you have 10 million followers on social media. SD is not going to put you on stage of the comedy seller. But you could have five followers and she'll put you on stage. Well, that's the thing I'm thinking about SD. But what a lot of people know, the comedy seller, one of the most successful comedy clubs happening right now. Yeah. And I blame Esty. You blame her?

In a good way. You credit her. I credit her. Oh, okay. Except one of those words I'm using different things. Yeah, okay, okay. Yeah. So she's the reason why because she does, she just don't put a lineup up.

She actually watched the videotapes at all the shows. And then she determines, okay, I got to put this guy on first. I got put this person after, because this person, but I can't follow this person. She actually studies comedy. Yeah, and you can tell, man. And she puts an amazing lineup up, which is why we get all these shows happening at the cellar and we get more work. Yeah, and they, they. care about comedy itself.

And you see it in the product and then the people feel it when they come in. But what I mean about clicking is like... Then you have Liz, the manager, who doing an amazing job because they was going to different managers and they couldn't get it together. When they got Liz in, it all clicked in an amazing lineup and amazing management, you know. But then back to what my dad said about having a good woman in your life. Oh, yeah. I think the owner, the seller, he has two great women in his life.

and they do an amazing thing. It's like, you know, people always, let me not say people, I don't know, but the world discredit women so much. They put women down, you know, and women got to work twice as hard. Twice as hard. Yeah, for half the recognition.

Women are way smarter than men, I feel like, but, you know, we've got the guns in power. I don't have any guns. No, you know what I'm saying that. No, I'm joking. I'm joking. Yeah, but what I mean about the clicking, though, is like I go, when you look, I don't want to say back,

because it's not like your life is finished, but when you look at your career in comedy now, you have to admit it's pretty crazy that you've done shows with like, you know what I mean, you are touring with like the Wayans brothers. Wayne's brothers, Dan Williams, Wayne's brothers. Yeah, Cat Williams. Cat Williams. By the way, don't listen to another stuff about Cat Williams.

That dude is amazing. Oh, that's the stuff I heard. What do you mean? Oh, Gordon, what's the other stuff? He's nuts. He's not. He's not. He's the only person that I know.

You might know someone like this. He's the only one that I know when he gets to a town. He'll get the local paper and read the whole paper. And his first 10, 15 minutes or 20 minutes will be on that town. The crowd go crazy. It's almost having like a local open or open. Yeah. But it's Cat Williams.

But it's Kat Williams. That's telling jokes about your people. One of the most fascinating people. And he loves. comedy man. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Loves comedy. One of my favorite things that ever happened in my life was, I probably like credit cat

with even giving me an opportunity in comedy in Los Angeles. I used to try and get spots at the... Commerce stuff? No, the La Factory.

Couldn't get any spots. They were always just like, yeah, come back next week. Yeah, come back next week. Yeah, come back next week. Now, the funny thing was I was doing pretty well in South Africa, but these guys didn't know who I was.

And they didn't need to know, there's no reason they should have known who I was, you know? So I just show up every week. And because South Africa's comedy scene was so intimate, you could just show up and say, hey, can I perform? And people would be like, all right, get on. It was like Dougie Doug's club.

It was like the black clubs in America also. You just walk in. Yeah, it's just like, aye, right, right. Come on, come on, come on, come on. So I get to L.A. Go to these clubs. Man, they just everyone. And the thing about L.A.

is nobody says no in that town. Right? Because everybody in that town is not sure who you are or who you may end up becoming. Yeah. So they never want to be the person who said no to you. So it's just the town of people saying fake yeses and maybes that keep you on a treadmill of hope. Yeah. So something happens.

I discovered you, Mumbai. Yeah. That's literally it. So I'd go to the comedy store and I'd be like, can I perform and they'd be like, oh, what are your credits, kid? And what have you done? And what are you? I was like, oh, you know, South Africa.

They're like, no, no, we mean real credits. What are your, you know? And I'd go to another club. Another club. Anyway, I would just like... You pull out your credit cards? And I was just go,

this is something I'm trying to do. I'm trying to, whatever. I didn't really mind. And so one day I'm at the Laugh Factory. And the comedian, the guy was running at actually Pookie Wigington. You know Pookie? Yeah.

Yeah, everybody knows Pookie. Yeah. So Pookie would like put on the show called Chocolate Sundays. And they go, hey, the comedian who are supposed to go, go on dropped out.

You're here like every week. They're like, you're ready to go up? I was like, yeah, I'm ready. So they go, okay, you're going to go on before the host, before the opener. Oh, yeah, the warm up for the host. Yeah, but they didn't tell me that. They didn't explain that. Because I don't know if you know this, Dave.

I didn't know this. In some clubs in America, they have a comedian who comes on before the show starts. I did not know this. But that's like the worst slot in all of comedy because they don't even play music for you when you walk out. Like, you are, you exist before the show. Yeah. Yeah.

I didn't know this. Because the host is, is a prominent name. Not even, not even. It's just a like, you, you know those stories they would tell in war of certain soldiers who were chosen to be on the front lines just as far down. Yes. Your job was to be killed in the front lines. Yeah.

So that like the respected soldiers could actually survive the fight. Yes. That's what that, that position is in comedy. You're going to go up. there, you're going to talk, no one's going to listen, but at least it sets in motion the idea that a show is going to start, and then the host comes up and the music plays. So anyway, I go on stage. I ask very naively, I say, is someone going to introduce me? And then the guy's like, he's like, no man, he's like, you, you're up first. Get on stage. So I'm like, god, damn, okay.

So I walk on stage. No one is paying attention. They're getting food orders. Like, it is, It's the worst position you can ever be in. So I start doing my set. You know, I'm like telling the joke. But no one is listening. No one. I had, they gave me four minutes or three minutes. I even remember then.

I was like three minutes. Like, what do you say in three minutes? Hello? And, you know. So I start doing my set. And about like a minute in, it's now just silence. So the room is, they've done taking orders. But now it's just silent.

You got the attention. Yeah, but the attention is just like, what is this man? What is happening here? No one laughing, no one doing anything. I hit like a minute and a half. And then all of a sudden, you hear like, I hit a punchline,

land on a punchline, and then you hear one person, the back of the room, top of the room. You know that balcony? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. One person. Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah. 15, 20 seconds later,

hit another line. Ah, oh, that shit funny. 20, 30 seconds later. Now the room starts turning because they're like, the room has decided this is not funny. But there's somebody who's like laughing so loud that they're almost like offended by this.

So the room turned, they keep turning. Everyone's trying to turn to see what's happening. And then eventually they look and I don't know if he leaned or whatever. It's Kat Williams. And he's in the balcony. and that was all like empty update so he's like by himself with his crew

and he's laughing I mean this man was like he was dying like I had paid him killing himself and the more he laughs the more the crowd but they're looking at him not me and they're like yeah I guess we laugh now

I guess we laugh now and then by the end of the set thankfully it wasn't a complete disaster and then Cat Williams came down and I'll never forget this Cat comes down, because I walk off stage and Cat comes up to me. And then he says to me, he's like, he's like, are you really from where you say you're from, young man? And I was like, yeah.

And he's like, well, welcome to America, brother. And I was like, thank you, thank you very much. I was like, good meeting you and whatever, and what are you know. And we're chatting about common. He's like, come sit with me. Come sit and go sit with him. And then he, I think it was Esau McGraw was hosting that night. So Esau's hosting.

They do the thing. Cat jumps onto headline. He's not on the lineup. He's just, he's cat. So cat jumps on at the end, does his thing. But then Kat says to the audience, he starts talking about comedy. Then he's like, you ungrateful sons of bitches don't even understand the level of comedy you were experiencing here tonight. This young man from South Africa stood on stage and he regaled you with some of the finest humor.

But you ignorant people of Los Angeles were unable to comprehend what you were experiencing. and this may never happen again in your lifetimes. And then he looks at me in the balcony. He's like, my African brother, I apologize for the ignorance of these who were gathered me in your midst. And now I'm like, yo, bro, you don't need to do. But he just went on and he killed. And he did like, you know, he did whatever.

He did, you know, current affairs, did his own material, did these old stuff, did whatever. And then at the way they treated me after that, I will never, like, they were like, yo, so you come back next week, man. And people are giving me cars like, yo, I got a club, you got to come and do this thing, man. Yo, the guy was genuinely,

Cat Williams. That guy loves comedy. Yeah. Loves comedians. Loves the like, he goes to what I'm saying about like, even when I see Cat Williams on stage, I feel like Cat Williams is doing comedy for the joy of the thing that he's doing.

Yes. Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He does not feel, he reminds me to do comedy for the joy of comedy, not for the business of comedy and the thing is the business of comedy so powerful that it can pull you

but the joy of comedy is the thing that'll sustain you. Yes, yes. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Cat Williams amazing person he actually,

I feel like he does comedy at his level. That makes sense? It's almost like Yeah, he just does his own He doesn't care about what you do. Yeah, yeah. I mean when I did the show

at the Laugh Factory, I went on, I had an amazing set and Cat went on after me and he goes this nigger I was going to come up here just work out some jokes but this nigga got me

telling me regularly my old jokes and right and the thing is the way he was saying it I'm like is he really mad at me right so after the show I saw me say hey I need to talk to you come here I'm like oh shit he was mad he was like listen man he went in his pocket

and I'm like oh shit oh shit he said listen man these comedy clubs, they don't be paying what you work. They treat you like shit. And pulled out $400 bills. He said, here, take it. I'm like, thank you. I was so confused with what's happening.

The emotions are everywhere. I'm like, thanks. He said, yeah, take it. And I'm like, wow. No one ever treated me like that. Yeah, my cat, you know, you need people like him in comedy. Yeah. Because they love comedy.

But that's what I mean. And he pulls people up, man. Yeah, I look at your life and your career. The Cat Williams, Dave Chappelle, the Chris Rocks, you know what I mean? Aziz Ansari. Do you know what I mean? Another one, yeah. Ziz Ansari put me his movie.

Oh, yeah, that was amazing actually. Did you see Good Fortune? I will now. I loved Good Fortune. Oh, yeah? Yeah, yeah. Can I tell you what I loved about it is these days I think it's becoming increasingly rare to see a movie that you haven't seen before.

And I don't just mean that literally. like IP, like so many movies are reboots of other movies or stories. But it's rare to watch a movie where you just don't know what's going to happen because you haven't seen it before. Like he watches movies like that all the time. If Dave ever recommends a movie to you, be very careful. You should watch it, but don't expect anything normal. Like how Cat Wins watched you. Yeah, like Dave watches, Dave only watches movies that have any.

Endings. Not the typical ending. Yeah, that leave people, like you walk out of the cinema questioning yourself. Like six cents. Not even. That's like a chill version. Six cents was not, no one expected. Yeah, that's just the twist.

Okay. Dave would watch, okay, this is the kind of movie Dave would watch. It would be six cents, but everyone would be French. And then the child, instead of seeing ghosts, would say that, like, they see the pain that the world is in. and then instead of Bruce Willis, it would be a flower. And then instead of like a two-hour movie, it would be like four and a half. Those are the kind of movies that Dave watches.

That's a lot of reading. No. One of the reasons is it's a version of what you're saying, is that I like the thing of not knowing what's going to happen. That's what I credited with you. I'm not even slamming you. No, no, no. So I'm saying in an ideal world,

it would be contained almost like within normal Yes, I know what you mean Yeah, like so because every now and then You'll see let's say a rom-com Where you know You sort of like know what's going to happen Yes, you know exactly what's going to happen But the things are so refreshing within it

That you're like wow, I was That's how I felt about good fortune And I'm not saying that because you were in it I'm not saying that because of Aziz I genuinely enjoyed that somebody tried To make something and I think succeeded That upended a lot of the ideas That you would have of how a plot

And a story are supposed to go Yes, right But still pulls it off Yeah, yeah, completely And I remember watching it and I was like, oh shit, this is. And then you walked in and I was like, oh shit, Will! I felt like such a, like, it's such a weird feeling because I know you. And then you're there in the movie and I was like, oh shit, will!

And I was like, that dance routine I did? Yeah, that was very good. It took me four hours to get that dance routine. Is that long? I still didn't get it after four hours. Oh, that's what you should mention then. You should say after four hours I still didn't have it down. If you say I got it in four hours, you seem like a good dancer.

If you say I didn't get it. I didn't get it. Your dancing is very interesting. You saw it? I didn't see it. Are you on medication? What's that mean? Aren't you supposed to be a good dancer, though, because you're a good boxer?

That's what I was going to say, is that you recently became a boxer. No, he didn't. He recently had his first professional fights. Oh, I thought you recently became a boxing? No, this guy's been boxing for like 50 years. Oh, really? Is that where the speech in Panama came from? How old are you?

I started boxing in 2007? You know, 2010. Yeah. Yeah. And I got my first professional fight a month ago. Oh, no, I thought you started boxing. But, but, but, but, but I never had rhythm. When I jump rope, I, I, I, I, I skip a lot because my rhythm is always off.

My rhythm always been off. Huh. I can't, you know, when I dance, people, they're like, you must be white down, down inside. You know, I, I never had, I never had rhythm. Haitian family, Haitians have rhythm. We have, yes, loud of rhythm in Haiti. but since we're not in Haiti, in America, my dad made sure

focus on your school work. So he's like, no rhythm for my kids. Your dad was a hard man. Your dad was a hard guy. Yeah, your dad was a really hard man. Is that rhythm out here in your room? If that, is that rhythm? Are you dancing to the beach wheel?

That is crazy. So I never really developed. No one taught me how to dance. My parents didn't teach you on the dance. You know, we couldn't really be around girls and stuff. Because my mother said, if you hug a girl, she'll get pregnant. So make sure you don't hug no girls. Wow.

I didn't get my first hug until I was 16. You're trying to get her pregnant? My first hug outside of my family. You know, when your mother give you a hug is, my arms are always like, yeah, my, I love you too. I love you too. Yeah, because you don't get your mom pregnant. I mean, you can't leave a child with that information.

You can't say to a child, if you hug a woman, she'll get pregnant. And then you're like, now, come give your mama a hug. So the thing is, my first hug, ironically, was from a priest. Oh, wow. I was very religious. Wow. I was born, raised Catholic. Should we get ready for another bumshel on this show?

No, no, no, no. Okay, okay. So it was one of these Saturday classes, CCD. And then all the kids was greeting and hugging each other. And I was just on the side, just watching, you know, and on the, and on a farm. Brinnan, the father John, one of them, came up to me, he goes, why are you not, why you not greeting? I'm like, I never hugged anybody. I don't know what to do. He said, you never hugged nobody. He said, he had the big brown robe on with the big ass arms. He said, come here. He opened his arms.

I just went in and he hugged me. And I was like, holy shit, it felt so good. Oh, Will. But my penis didn't get hard. That's how I know I was like, you know what I was saying? No one thought you're a penis from a lot. It was genuine. No one thought that. Nobody thought that. No, because this guy, you added it. This guy said, this guy said, can I have some popcorn and we're not going to put gravy on top? We didn't think that.

No, because I hope the whole, you get someone pregnant. You just said, Wilson. Oh. That's how I knew it wasn't genuine. That's why I knew it was genuine. But he's a guy. Oh, man. Because I'm like, okay, no one's going to get pregnant.

It happened to be a girl. It was just a hug. It was just a hug. It was hang on the sex. It was just a hug It felt so good And I'm like I gotta do this again

But it took me another Until I got to 18 to do it again But Who was the 18 hug My first girlfriend Oh look at that My first girlfriend But I avoided

I avoided having sex for her Because I was very religious That's good That's fine They didn't have sex I was 24 I was virgin until I was 24 Wow

But I used to lie to girls Like oh I got I gotta go I gotta go to work Oh I got to do some home I got to go back to class. Oh, when it was... We'd be butt naked.

Oh, no, I forgot. And I get... And I leave the place. Damn. You were, because you were so scared of sex because you were religious. You were like, I got to get out of the situation. Yes. Resisting temptation, essentially.

Yes, yes. Yeah. And then you were like, my boss gave me the keys so I can clock in at any time. There's a work order waiting for me. I got to... And then you'd run out. I run out. And girls were like, okay, all right.

All right. I wonder if one of your girlfriends thought you were like a superhero. Because that's what Peter Parker does Think about it Peter Parker will be on a date Oh yeah, yeah And then out of no will be like I gotta go

And it's like what happened And it was a spidey sense Yeah There's a crime somewhere Yeah yeah yeah Same Batman will be the same thing Superman same vibe So maybe one of them was like

He's a superhero And then they're gonna watch this podcast And be like No he thought he was gonna have It was religious He just wanted to get to heaven Religious from hate So what happened?

So what happened? So what happened at 24? 24. 24. I met this girl, got it back to my place. We'll call her S. Okay. And we started making out.

And you want to hear a story? No, no, no. I don't have to give me the details. I just want to know what changed, Robert. Because you were always like the escape artists. I was like, I got, what am I doing? I got to, let me just, you know, make it happen. You know.

And, you know, we made it happen. Was this will pre- because there's a will that existed, like sort of pre-the-healthy, pre-the-boxing. Health was always in the back of my head. Yeah. Even when I was little, health was very, because actually when my grandmother passed away,

I'm like, man, if she was living a healthier life, she probably would have been here longer, you know. And then, you know, then, you know, so health was always there, always there, but I never really took initiative until later on until, you know, what changed my life about health was two, two things. I did a show with a tank top on, and I was dating this girl, and I did a great show, and I got off stage, and she said, Abo was saying, good job, good job. She said, either do, either wear a shirt or wear the tank top without the stomach.

I go, what? What is that mean? I had a big stomach, but nice arms. What did you weigh at your heaviest? 2.20. Have you seen Will's pictures at his heaviest? I've only ever seen this will. If you see Will's pictures at his heaviest, it's a pretty amazing... Oh, really?

Transformation? Yeah. I use that word correctly? Yeah, you use that word. When did the transformation happen? 2007. I gave up... In fact, every year I was giving something else.

That year I gave up poultry. All type of... of turkeys, chicken, gave up poultry. I thought that was going to be very hard. And I gave up poultry. The next year I gave up um, oh,

fried things, anything fried. Okay. Right? Then the year after that, I gave up, um, uh, ice cream and, and like, you know,

like a lot of sugary things. Okay. But sugar always kept coming back and forth. Then the 40s the devil, man. Yeah. Oh. Will sent me a, uh, DM this morning about sugar.

that's probably like the only thing Will sends me you just send me like a random message out of the blue sugar is killing you let me tell you what sugar does to the human body dementia yeah yeah yeah I know you sent me the video I know I know I know and then the hardest thing

it's almost like you know when I'm on my couch about to have ice cream and then you DM me and I'm like huh what's this sugar will destroy your life sugar will make cancer in your brain and I'm like thank you Will and so the one of the one year, this is the fourth or fifth year, I was getting up dairy.

I'm like, oh, if I give a chicken, I gave it, it's going to be easy. Dairy was so hard, because I love cheese. I used to put cheese on everything. There was cheese, put extra cheese. It never had cheese. Well, let's try and see what happens, you know. And then I read up on, why is it so hard? And that's when I first started doing research on health.

And is addicting? is dairy is probably the worst things you can put in your body it causes so much information No but which dairy You always say this and I always fight against this Will which dairy You gotta be specific

Because like It can't just be dairy Milk Milk Yeah but what I mean is They use milk for so many things Yeah but what I mean is this right This is like

Except for eggs I don't think Sorry to say the eggs dairy Sorry to bring like the listeners Slash you into Like these conversations That I have with Will But like

So my thing with Will is this I go I think sometimes you are so obsessed with the pursuits of health that you will make like the unhealthy decision or the, you know what I mean? Or a decision that isn't necessarily backed by like the people have eaten dairy since forever. Yes. There are unhealthy ways to eat things and there are healthy ways to eat things, right? There are healthier cheeses than other cheeses.

There are good things you can get from cheeses. You know what I mean? They were like, okay. Here's what I'll say. I think if you could eat a little more cheese and sleep more and your health would be better. That's what I'm saying. I'm saying three hours of sleep is worse for your health than cheese. Oh, yeah.

I mean, look, everything for a healthy lifestyle, good sleep, eating healthy, exercising, all that, you know, you can't set the two, one. You can't say, oh, I eat more cheese, but sleep more. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Everything contributes to your health in a different. form of pattern. But no cheese? No, because So what do you eat now?

Okay, the reason What do you eat now? You know why I gave up chicken? And people always say, won't get, um, um, um,

what's the healthy chicken? What's the healthy chicken? The, you know, organic chicken? Organic chicken. Yeah, yeah.

And the reason why I gave it up is because if I go some place, right, and they don't have organic chicken. Yeah. They just got the, the drug infested chicken. Like free range.

Drug infested chicken. This man just said, drug-infested chicken. The chicken, right? The chicken they put all the drugs into. No, I know. But I've never heard anyone call it drug infested chicken. The crackhead just rocked up.

Man, I'm just picturing like chicken that's like on the farm. It's just like, cac, gack, gack. Oh, man, come on, man. Okay, so, yeah. So if I go there, they don't have the healthy chicken. If I got the craving for it, I'm just going to eat the bad chicken. Because you're already eating chicken. So I just like, if I give it up entirely, then I won't have the cravings will

eventually leave my body. And so I won't care if I had, you know, that makes sense. Yeah, yeah. But what do you eat now? Basically, I'm a pescatarian. Fish, veggies, foods, and nuts. Are you worried now that fish is being farmed and is becoming sick now and it's not? Well, I try not to get farm-based fish.

I get my fish from a place that they catch the fish fresh. Yeah. And they ship it to your house real quick. Oh, wow. Yeah. I didn't know that that's a thing. Yeah. A place called, okay, shout out some places.

Yeah, you can say it's a real thing. From C to table. From C to table? Yeah. Oh. It's like a digital service and then you order the fish. You order the fish. They should have gone with like net fish.

That would have been a better one. Oh, that would have been a cool name. There's a few companies, but sea to table is one I use a lot. Okay. Do you get to like pick the fish itself? They have different fishes. They show you the picture of the fish. And you can pick the fish.

And they send it to your house. They send you house immediately with that hot ice. The styrofoam packing. Yeah. And then you put it in the fish. Yeah, I've been, so I really cook most of my foods and stuff. So fish veggies, you can't really go wrong with veggies, even though they have been making bad veggies. But, you know, drug-infested veggies.

Drug-infested veggies. Foods, man, I've been, one year, one summer, I decided to try different fruit I never had. And, you know, I got into dragon fruit. I got into, I can't even name the fruit. So many different types of fruits. You are that guy, I will say that. You know, because we tend to use, if you think about it, people tend to eat the same five things,

whatever the five things are for their life. Yeah. For the most part. Huh? Yeah, for the most part. And I try different foods. Something was good, something was bad, according to the taste, and then nuts.

And, you know, most of your almonds, cashews, what's the one that looked like your brain? What's the one that looks like a brain? Walnut. Walnuts. Walnuts. Yeah. Walnuts is actually good for your brain, ironically.

Because they look like your brain? I don't know. Are you going to act more? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I wrote a movie. I am a Reese. You know about it. That's the one about the Haitian boxer?

Yeah, come from Haiti to America to pursue his boxing career. Oh, I like that. You should make him fight Rocky. The winner gets the robot. The winner gets the robot. And then you, what did you like about acting that you didn't get from like stand-up? What is it about, like when you're doing the movie with Aziz? It's just your creativity.

So these are lines, but you be creative with how you want to present these lines, you know? Your scene is really funny, man. Yeah. Yeah, it's properly funny. Oh, thanks. Yeah, Aziz is a great writer because those are his words. Yeah, but it's fantastic. But there's some of the words that did change.

Yeah, there were some wills in there, I could tell. I could tell. When we was on the balcony and you got me eating things that came and pronounced I couldn't pronounce that special dish Yeah, no, it was good

Thanks, man Yeah, I'm excited for you man I'm excited for like this next phase of your I just, no more like professional boxing I don't think it's necessary But that's just me I mean I'm happy you

You know, I just want to get out my system Okay, cool Yeah, yeah yeah Did you win? I won unanimously That's what I'm talking about man That fist bump was at Pun intended, no pun intended.

No, no pun intended. This is great. Dave, do you have any questions before I let Will go? Are you doing a set tonight? You do a set every single night. Every night at the comedy cellar. How many nights off do you take a year? I don't take any nights off.

Yeah, almost nothing, right? Unless if I got traveled, like, when I go to Australia, because you miss a day when you travel to Australia, I can't perform on the plane. Oh, not yet. I can ask one question, but you have to answer it in the shortest possible. way. Okay. What do you like about boxing? That it allows me to defend myself,

allow me to get aggression out when I hit the bag. Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you. Huh. It's not the question I thought you would ask, and that's not the answer that I thought you would give. That's who you are, Will, an international man of mystery. This has been fun, my friend. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me, man. Yeah, man, this has been dope. You're canceled. Why are you going to say that? Why would you say that? Why would you say that? I'm like, you want me? What do you mean, of course I want you.

You're one of my favorite people. You know this, though. You know this. Come on, we've been around the world together. We've had meals together. We've watched sporting events together. We've done stand-up comedy together for years. We've eaten countless meals.

We've almost. Well, I mean, got killed together. Remember that bus driver. Oh, man. Every time. I see a sprinter van. I think of you now. Every single time.

That journey started with you saying this is how you should travel and then I'll never forget in the middle of it. Dave stopped because to give context to anyone who's listening or watching this.

Will is a big fan of sprinter vans for long distance travel. I was calling splinters for some reason. Yeah, you were calling them splinters like the Ninja Turtles. So you were like, you got to get a splinter. Then I was like, a what? And then you're like a splinter van.

And I was like, oh, sprinter van. So we decided, let's get a sprinter because Will genuinely believes that sprinters are the best way to travel to and from a comedy show. Voices? Wait, wait, Tom, versus? Versus what? Your way was SUV? Yeah. Like a car.

Yeah, that's fine. I just go in a normal car. You were like, no, got to get a sprint event. But he gave you the picture. He did. In his defense, Will gave me a picture of the sprinter van that he was talking about. This was a very luxurious. It was a very luxurious sprint a van.

It was like, wow, this is great. But then the sprints of van that turned up for us. That you hired. Looked like a shuttle. Yeah, if you were taking people to... It looked like the shuttle at the airport that now, you know how they've kicked ride share services? Now they can't pick you up at most airports? Yes.

You've got to get in a shuttle bus, the small ones that take you to a parking lot in a field. Well, in my memory, in my memory, it doesn't look like that. In my memory, it looks like if you were... if you were no longer how can I put it if you were no longer if you had overstayed your visit in the country

and they needed to take you to the border they would use the I was going to say the prison the one they transformed the prisoners from one prison to know it did have that vibe it did have that vibe

except they also had it also had depressing like stripper lighting if you remember that yeah so it felt like we were all

on a bachelor party but of someone who's been like divorced four times and now the money's run out and things are really bad and we're in the car and we're driving

and my favorite memory of this drive is we're two hours into a four hour drive and Dave turned to you mid-conversation and he said will because the wind was blowing so hard that the van kept on tilting over and then the driver would have to stop suddenly in the middle of the highway

and then he'd be like sorry guys the wind is really bad and then he'd start driving again and then the bus would tilt over and be like, sorry guys, the wind is really bad. And then Dave turned to you. We're having a regular conversation. And Dave turned to you and he said, Will, I'm not going to lie. Our friendship is on a thread right now.

He said, you and your vehicle have put our friendship on a thread. And I don't know if we're going to be friends after this right. But let's be honest. The driver was a bad driver. I can't say that about him because it was really windy. Do you remember the truck that was? You don't remember the truck he showed us that was like the FedEx truck. That was a massive truck.

One truck, well, I mean, like one truck blowing the wind, but... Yeah, but it was... Every car was, you know what I'm saying? Hey, man, I'm not going to judge the driver. I'm going to judge the person who told us to get the splinter van. Because you were very specific about that. Pacific.

Pacific. Will, this was fun, man. Thank you for having. Thank you so much, man. We'll see you at the show. Yes. Apple card is designed to support your financial well-being. With unlimited daily cash back on every purchase

and the ability to track your spending on your iPhone, Applecard helps you lead a healthier financial life. So that way you can stress less about money and focus more on enjoying your life. Because you know what I've realized about financial health, Eugene? Here we go. No, no, no. Are you going to give me some money? I'm going to do something better.

I'm going to teach you how to keep and manage your money. Okay. That maybe I'll give you. Financial health is a feeling. Right? And like most feelings, you don't notice it when you don't have it, but you notice it when you finally do. That's true, because feelings are fleeting. Exactly. So when you've got like your financial health, it's like, it's that moment when you spend money and then you just don't think about it again. Do you know what I mean?

Beautiful feeling. Exactly. So you spend money and then you're not second guessing. There's no mental math later. Oh, did I go over? Did I go under? No replaying the decision in your head. you just spend it because you know you can and then you're done. You can never be done spending, Trevor. Yes, but you can be done thinking about the spending, Eugene. And I used to think financial health was about big milestones. Like I thought financial health will be achieved when I earn more, when I save more, when I do everything right.

But that's what everyone thinks. That's what everyone thinks. That's the trap. Financial health can happen at any level if you are lucky enough to have finances. because in real life it shows up in much smaller ways. It's in the clarity. You know, you know what's coming in. You actually know what's going out.

And you're not surprised by your own life. Like, wow, I spent that much on car rides. I spent this much on movie tickets. What am I doing with my life? Or you just know that you're in your budget. Because when you don't know, every decision becomes heavier, you're guessing with your life and your money. Do you know what I mean?

But you know what they say? Budgets are like promises. They're meant to be broken. I don't think that's correct. Yeah, I totally made it up. You know what? It had a nice feeling. I think let's go with budgets are like your face in a mirror.

When you can actually see it, you know what you're dealing with. I'm going to work on this. I'm going to work on this. The point is it's got to be a choice. And the more you know, the better your choices can be. Does this make sense? Makes absolute sense. Exactly.

So if people understood that they can make a choice because they know what's happening and then when you understand it, it changes how you move. You decide differently. You pause differently. You feel more in control.

Well, not of everything, right? But enough. That's financial health to me. And over time, those small, consistent things are what make your financial life feel steady. Not perfect,

just steady. You know what? I'll take steady any day. Oh, Eugene. I like that. It wasn't a proposal. Oh, I thought you were saying we should go steady. Steady fees, steady funds, steady money. Oh, okay.

Well, regardless of that, remember, Apple Card is good for your wallet. It's designed to support your financial well-being. It's a no-fee credit card that lets you track your spending on your iPhone. Plus, you can get unlimited daily cashback on every purchase. stress less about money and focus more on enjoying life. Apply for Apple Card in the wallet app on your iPhone today. Subject to credit approval, Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA, Salt Lake City Branch. Variable APRs for Apple Card range from 17.49% to 27.74% based on creditworthiness.

Rates as of January 1, 2026, existing customers can view their variable APR in the wallet app or card. Apple.com. What Now with Trevor Noah is produced by Day Zero Productions in partnership with Sirius XM. The show is executive produced by Trevor Noah, Sanaziamin, and Jess Hackle. Rebecca Chain is our producer. Our development researcher is Marcia Robiou.

Music, mixing and mastering by Hannes Brown. Random Other Stuff by Ryan Hardoof. Thank you so much for listening. Join me next week for another episode of What Now.