WTF with Marc Maron Podcast - Episode 1111 - Byron Bowers

Episode Date: April 2, 2020

One thing Byron Bowers knows for sure is that comedy taught him who he is. He needed it after a childhood filled with parental discord and moving around Georgia. That was followed by a period where Byron was living three separate lives, as a basketball player, a college student and a drug dealer. Then he had to come to grips with his father’s schizophrenia and wonder if there was a difference between his dad’s disorder and his own delusional pursuit of a comedy dream. Byron also compares notes with Marc about their experiences at The Comedy Store. This episode is sponsored by Squarespace and Dave's Killer Bread. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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T's and C's apply. Lock the gates! All right, let's do this. How are you, what the fuckers? What the fuck buddies? What the fucksters? What's happening? It's Mark Maron.

This is WTF, my podcast. Welcome to it. The quarantine version of it. Not that different than the other version. Really, to be honest with you. Comedian Byron Bowers is on today. We taped this before this shit went down. Before the quarantining really got off in earnest,

I don't know if you know his stand-up, but he was also in Honey Boy, the Shia LaBeouf movie that he wrote, and Byron's wife directed it, which for some reason I didn't realize throughout the entire interview. I didn't know that that was the situation he said that she was director i didn't think to ask because i'm a fucking idiot i guess but uh yeah his girl i don't know if it's his girlfriend or his wife i that will

be revealed in the conversation but nonetheless guy, interesting guy, interesting perception of things. As I recall, heading back into this conversation that I did a few weeks ago, I remember trying to kind of hang on to where he was coming from. Make sure I was following the thread. So that's going to happen for all of you shortly. I appreciate I always appreciate all the thread. So that's going to happen for all of you shortly. I appreciate, I always appreciate all the emails. I try to read all of them. All you people that are getting and staying sober, very inspirational. I always like hearing from you and I'm happy that even in this time of isolation and fear that I'm getting a lot of nice emails from people staying sober.

I don't think I've eaten healthier in my life. There's really no bending because you're limited to what you have in the house. And I guess that really depends what you have in your house. And I guess my heart has to go out to those of you with kids that have to supply them with the sugar and fun food that they demand and deserve as children to make them happy. Even if it fucks them up a little bit, you'll give them a little of that stuff, right? So that stuff's around the house. And it's hard. I bet you it's hard not to eat it. Hard not to eat the fun cereals.

I bet you it's hard not to eat it. Hard not to eat the fun cereals. Who doesn't want a bowl of Cocoa Pebbles when they're in their mid-50s? Why not have some of that around? Is there anyone out there that does that? Is there anybody out there in their 50s who still eats the cereal that they ate when they were a child? Are there any 55 to 60-year-old people out there just reading the back of a box of Lucky Charms? Not my thing, Lucky Charms.

Not my thing. Even the good part of Lucky Charms, the marshmallow things, were not great. Not a fun cereal. Quisp, not great. I was Cocoa Pebbles guy. I've discussed this before but are there people are there people in their 60s fucking up the roof of your mouth with the captain crunch

that'd be the thing to do though you know when you're afraid and you think this might be it why not have some cereal as opposed to you know shoot heroin or drink a pint of fucking bourbon or snort a bunch of rails if you're an addict and you're going down the drain reach back into your brain and and think about what was that cereal it's probably where it started man i'll blame cocoa pebbles for my drug problem i'll do it right now because it was fred fred and barney's there was their fault what else did you like cocoa puffs i think used to be good frosted flakes were okay that's all still around right i have no reason to shop for this stuff i even enjoyed that cereal life, but that seemed like a grown-up cereal. Whatever you got to do to get by, people, seriously though, just try not to

compound the fear and panic and kind of hopelessness of isolation with self-flagellation and self-hatred. Just know in your heart that nobody's doing anything that they can't do at home. You're not losing. We're all on the same page. So it was only a matter of time before this would happen. I mean, we've done well over a thousand of these interviews and I was sort of hoping the day wouldn't come that we found out that a former guest died of coronavirus, but it happened the day before yesterday. Adam Schlesinger, the composer and pop songwriter, former member and co-founder of the band Fountains of Wayne,

musical producer for my crazy ex-girlfriend for years, Emmy Award winning, Grammy winning, I believe Tony nominated, Golden Globe nominated, but all that stuff. He was clearly a musical wizard, a genius of pop songwriting, musical songwriting, very gifted man, but also a very young man. 52 years old. Was not sick, was not compromised immunologically that anyone knew of. He was a friend of a friend of mine. And it's just, it's devastating. It's really only a matter of time and probably a short time before everyone is directly affected by this virus. And it's sad that so many people in this country don't really take it as seriously as they should, but that's not really what I'm talking about here. We lost a brilliant artist that had a lot of good years ahead of him. And another guest, a former guest of this show,

John Prine, one of the greatest American songwriters, is sick with this disease and he's old and he's struggling for his life. And I hope he pulls through. I'm sad and sorry that we lost Adam. Like we do, we don't like to do it, but we do in honor of the artists that passed, we re-release or put the episode back in the feed so everybody can hear it. I talked to Adam back in December of 2012. Didn't know him that well. Got a little familiar with his work. My girlfriend at the time was a huge fan of Fountains of Wayne. My friend John Dane, one of my best friends, was really a champion of Adam's genius. And I got to know him during that episode. And you can listen to that if you want, but but it's just a sad day sad day to have to say a few words for a 52 year old

man who was gifted and gone now because of this illness so rest in peace adam swessinger and take care of yourselves, people, really. Really. Jesus, God, I can't. It's so hard on a day-to-day basis to kind of reconcile your deep habit and desire to think things are going to be okay with the fact of the matter. And again, a great deal of gratitude and love and respect goes out to everyone, you know, helping the people that are overwhelmed with sickness and the sick, the health care workers, the first responders, police, ambulance drivers, people delivering food, people who are actually really doing essential services. actually really doing essential services. God, you know, thanks, you know, because a lot of us out here, we're holed up in our homes. We can watch what's on TV. We can look at our phones, but we're not going to the hospital every day. We don't know the shit show of chaos and horror and

death and disease that you guys are dealing with on a day-to-day basis. Thank you very much for doing that. And I hope to God I don't get sick, But if I do, I hope that, you know, someone is there to receive me and take care of me. And I hope that the supplies are there. And I know most of you realize, I don't need to have, I don't need to tell you that, you know, obviously we're living in a failed state in that our government's reaction to this was too late and it was not enough. And a lot of what the federal government's supposed to do, late and it was not enough. And a lot of what the federal government's supposed to do, they're not doing because over the last few years, but certainly over the last 20, whenever possible, Republicans try to dismantle the government. Everything they see is non-essential. And some of that being what was needed to respond to this properly. So this is the goal, the failed state. This is the Republican vision. Let private

enterprise take care of it. Great. So now we have people that need ventilators and masks, and there's a bidding war going on over who is going to make a profit on those items and which states are going to sell to. It's all working out. Good vision but uh but again thank you to everybody that's sacrificing self-sacrificing in the face of this horror show um my job here has been deemed an essential service but i wouldn't call it self-sacrificing i i know that i'm in a privileged position but i'm trying to do what i can okay i was trying to figure out i'm doing something this weekend uh for comedy gives back uh it's it's called comedy gives back laugh aid and it's a benefit to help comedians who have lost work and income due to the uh coronavirus um it's obviously not a cure but it can do a lot of

a lot of good comedy gives back.com check that out but i think it's sat. Is that the fourth? Anyway, look, man, you don't need paper towels. If you have dish towels and you can wash them, you can use them. You can use them for anything. What did people use before toilet paper? Seriously. You never see that in any of the movies, the period pieces. What are they using for toilet paper? Where's that detail? I'd like that detail. I had to go out, had to go out into the world. I've taken, I've cut, oh, I made my own mask. Is that helpful? I just cut the bottom off a t-shirt about five or six inches wide and I cut one of the seams and then I use the other side of the shirt that seam to go run down the line of my nose down through my chin and then just tie it behind my back but from what I understand some

people are going to give me some handmade hand-sewn masks which I'm excited about because I think you probably should wear them when you go out even if people are on the fence about it, why not just wear them? Is it in any way a bad thing to wear them? Also, my special, still on Netflix. It's also brought all my other specials to the fore. The other two that I did for Netflix over the years. So all three are kind of front and center. Going back to Thinky Payne, which I think was 2010 or i don't know 10 or 11 um and then uh too real and now the new one end times fun people are still enjoying and i and i'm glad you like it i like

hearing about it so this is an email alexandra sent it dear mark yesterday I gloved up, masked up, and walked my suitcase from my Brooklyn apartment to a Hertz and got the fuck out of Dodge. Read New York. I'm one of the lucky few who has a job that is remotable and had enough bread in my basket to make this kind of rash decision. I fled to Dayton, Ohio, where I am self-quarantining for my 14 days until my friend and her incredible family are taking me into their Corona tribe to ride this out. They have land, four dogs, a cat, and most precious of all, each other. I wanted to write you because the night before I left, I downloaded 10 hours of WTF to last me the drive. I had a strategy and it paid off beautifully. See full strategy below.

We're getting there. Thank you for still podcasting. I look forward to every dispatch. I've been forwarding your newsletters to my friends who know I need a voice of reason, admissions of uncertainty, and of course, a fucking laugh. Love and stay healthy and thank you, Alex. Love and stay healthy and thank you, Alex. And then she gave the layout. Marin Drive, Brooklyn to Ohio, March 31st, 2020. Anthony Bourdain, one hour, 22 minutes. A comfort episode for me. I'm familiar enough with the episode to quasi-listen while I navigated out of the city.

Gary Shandling, one hour, 20 minutes. As expected, once I was out of the city, I needed some space to process and get existential. Thanks to you and Gary. Mark Marin has told to Mike Birbiglia. One hour, 34 minutes. Another comfort episode that makes me think and laugh. Rob Riggle. One hour, 10 minutes. Remembered the 9-11 part of this episode

and thought it would be soothing to hear about another time when the world imploded and remind myself that this too will end. Maria Bamford, one hour, seven minutes. You and Maria fleeing a nerd parade, said with love in parentheses back in the day. No further explanation needed. Bob Zamuda, two hours, seven minutes, 6.5 hours in and I knew I would need a never heard episode and a meaty one. Was hoping this episode would provide some clarity on some of the Andy myths, but alas, or maybe, thank goodness, it didn't. Nate Bargatze, one hour, 22 minutes. Bringing it home with a comfort episode to top all comfort episodes.

I'm from Nashville. Nate's accent is soothing to my brain. I've been to the Applebee's where he met his wife. I sold drums at the guitar center across the street and we'd have lunch at the B's. And like you said, he's just so damn funny.

Well, Alex, thank you for sending this. And I hope that maybe that'll provide a template for others who need to flee wherever and they have 10 hours to fill. But as you should all know, you can go get Stitcher Premium and get all of the episodes. All of them. Cat update.

Buster is getting fat. And Monkey is okay. He's pretty good. Everybody's well. And now I'd like to share with you my conversation with the comedian byron bowers you can currently watch him in the film honey boy on amazon prime video and here we go into the interesting mind of byron bower Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly, host of Under the Influence. Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing.

With cannabis legalization, it's a brand new challenging marketing category. And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talk to an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company markets its products in such a highly regulated category, and what the term dignified consumption actually means. I think you'll find the answers interesting and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly.

This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative. It's a night for the whole family. Be a part of Kids Night when the Toronto Rock take on the Colorado Mammoth at a special 5 p.m. start time on Saturday, March 9th at First Ontario Centre in Hamilton. The first 5,000 fans in attendance will get a Dan Dawson bobblehead courtesy of Backley Construction. Punch your ticket to Kids Night on Saturday, March 9th at 5 p.m. in Rock City at torontorock.com. You know, it's weird because I've seen you around for years. We've never hung out. We're always sort of in passing.

How's it going? Man, you know what? I don't know. I don't know. Did you get the feeling like we didn't like each other or what? No, it wasn't that. I just respect the game and I know where I'm at. And hopefully I will get to the point where we face each other like we do now.

Right. To me, I don't look at it. I guess I've been disrespected. What I would call disrespected so much in life. Yeah. what I would call disrespected so much. Really? Yeah. That,

and coming from where I'm born in a small town, moving to the city. Yeah. That I learned that you got to work your way up. You got to earn that respect. It was weird because like, you know, I always,

I didn't have any disrespect, but I just didn't know, like I'd see you around, but by the time you were coming around, you know, I was sort of moving, like I was sort of moving out of the alternative rooms yeah and then like you know i'd see at the store when he started coming around the store more i'm like oh there's a there's byron you know like because i didn't you know i i felt like an old man

already well it's it's a uh it's it's perception it's perception it has nothing to do with you right that's what i'm learning about life it It's all perception and your own, however you handle it, traumatically. Yeah, projections and perception. Yeah. You assume things based on your own broken brain. True. True. But I recognize the pattern.

I'm like, if I get to a point, you know, like I just met Jay-Z. Really? Where'd you meet him? At a gold party after one of the awards show. Oh, really? Yeah, after the Oscars. Because that's where I said we got to do the podcast. I saw you on the red carpet.

Yes. We're both standing there like a couple of comedians going, look at this. Yeah. This is fucking crazy. This is crazy. So that's why I'm at the point where I'm just questioning everything because it kind of like happened. Life don't happen as you plan.

Well, what happened with Jay-Z? Well, I shook his hand and he was just like, hey, but it was quick. Yeah. It was one of them interesting handshakes. And I'm like, yeah, I'm a fan to Jay-Z. Right. The way he's shaking my hand is not like a business person, but it's like a fan, which is cool. Right, yeah.

Because I've been through it so many times. Right. And then I got reintroduced to him. And he was like, yeah, I met him already. So I'm like, oh, OK. The same night, the same night. So now you're annoying him. Well, a part of it is. But I'm like, oh, we're going to bump into each other. Like we're going to bump into each other. Yeah. Because to me, it's like, oh, I'm on this level.

Right. Just like when we were going to shows. Yeah. When we started doing the same show. Me and you? Yeah. Like Nerd Melt? Nerd Melt. I feel like Nerd Melt was the first time I saw you. Yeah, it started at Nerd Melt. I was in the corner, like with everything, like just watching it for the first time. Yeah. And then Emily, bless her heart, put me on to the Nerd Melt stage. Yeah.

And I remember when she booked me, and I probably sounded cocky. I was like, make sure it's a good show. Yeah. I told her that. She's like, all my shows are good. Yeah. And I was like, make sure it's a good show. Yeah. I told her that. She's like, all my shows are good. Yeah. And I was like, oh, okay, I'm sorry. Right.

I probably overstepped my, you know, my lane. But yeah, man, it was some wonderful shows. It hasn't been the same since. Is it still going on? No, but the scene to me has changed. Well, I think that, you know, I think that it was built on a faulty premise to begin with. The whole nerd melt alternative comedy scene.

It had a crowd, but it was a trend. It was a fad. Whereas you go to the comedy store, that's eternal. That's true, but even the store was struggling. The store was struggling for sure because it was like a dark fucking shithole for a long time. But then everybody got proud of it. And, you know, in Brenton, you know, got that the social networking going. They got rid of Tommy and brought Adam in.

And then fucking Peter took over the place. And we all were excited to work. I think we, you know, our excitement about the store brought the people in. I agree. Yeah. I agree. Yeah. I mean, Tommy, I was there. I remember meeting Mitzi and shaking her hand. So you go that far back?

I mean, I got in like 2010 or 11, and it wasn't a moment that everybody else had getting passed in the store. It's like watching my ex-wife leave in a U-Haul and then getting the call that I got passed. Like, life is a balance, you know? Is that what happened? That's what happened, yeah. So let's go back. So you say, where do you come from?

I came from Atlanta, Georgia. Atlanta? Yeah. And that's where you grew up? I grew up in Atlanta, yeah. Born in Athens, Georgia. Athens, Georgia. UGA.

That's a nice town it's nice it's it's a little rock and roll town that's the part i know i'm sure it's not i don't know you know it's separated man yeah i know you got the low any college town you have the locals yeah and you got the college people that's there to like have fun and stuff and and the in the locals the locals man it's like you were local's like, whew. You were local. My family more the local. Me going to Athens, I remember somebody saying, don't fuck a local. Yeah.

They didn't know I was from there. Really? But that's the thing. Yeah, if you have sex with somebody, don't have sex with a local. Yeah. Or don't. Because then they'll never leave? Or they might try to trap you. And I'm like, oh, they say the same about Jamaica when you go to Jamaica.

Is that true? Yeah. Versus, you know, different countries you go to is a similar thing. You know, like, be careful. The locals, they're going to pickpocket you or they're going to rob you or all that stuff. I thought you meant like trap you into having a kid. Well, that's the same thing. Yeah.

Yeah. That's the far end of it. Well, I mean. The kid problem. Yeah. You're lucky if you just get robbed. You're lucky if you get robbed. As opposed to a lifetime of robbing.

Yeah. So, I mean. So, that was word on the street, don't fuck a local. Yep. And you were a local. But how long were you there for? I think until like six. I was back and forth, but I left at six and then I had to come back because the state

was going to try to take me and my sister from my mother. So she had to send us back. To Athens. To Athens for a while. So what's the layout of the family? So it's just, you just got a sister? I have a sister, yeah. Two separate fathers, which is a blessing. Two separate fathers. So your sister's got a different father. Same mom. Same mom, different father. So who's the blessing? For her or you? I mean, like, you know, most kids, I say get two separate rooms, but we got two separate dads. So you had a relationship with both of them?

No, we didn't have a relationship with none of them. So it was the jealousy, you know. And when you play the dozens in the streets, they talk about each other's mom. But me and my sister talked about each other's dad. Yeah. Like, oh, your dad ain't shit. Your dad ain't shit right your dad ain't only got one arm fuck you okay you know so you both knew it was empty and insults because you didn't know your dad's yeah but we did yeah now you know we we closer than that you know yeah i was at my dad

i was at her dad's funeral she was at my dad's funeral. And when it ended, like they folded the flag. Yeah. And they was lowering my dad into the ground. You're hearing that clicking noise. Yeah. I remember looking back. I was sitting down. Yeah.

And she was standing behind me. And I looked at her. And her eyes was watery. And I was like, my dad's funeral was better than your dad's funeral. And she started laughing. She was like, you're right. You're right. Your dad's was a military funeral?

He was. They had the guys come out, yeah, and fold a flag because he was in the Navy. Her dad wasn't in the military. No, he wasn't in the military. But he had a normal life. Like, he worked 30 years. He retired. And three months into his retirement.

Dropped dead? He passed, yeah. Well, he didn't drop dead. He was very healthy. He jogged like four miles every day. Yeah. But somebody in the car which is funny it's funny and sad at the same time that's the worst man it's the worst because probably texting too uh you said who the person in that car yeah uh it's sad because um you know he spent he he dedicated all that time to his job yeah and they were just building their relationship.

And he was like, I'm finna do what I want to do in life now. And then it happened. Got slammed. Meanwhile, my dad, drugs, prostitutes. He kept living. Paranoid, schizophrenic. Yeah. And I'm like, this guy, it's almost like rich dad, poor dad.

You know what I mean? But in a tragic way he was like yeah so you're okay so you you're born in athens and your mom splits and goes to atlanta with you and your sister yeah she left my because your dad was a scary fucker or what no she left my sister's father she was married to my sister's father oh so you're older i'm older yeah okay they my mom and dad were never married okay yeah and um yeah, she split and left for reasons we're not quite sure. Oh, really? Yeah.

Because I thought that was the good dad. Well, I mean, to the next family, probably more. Right. You know, when you're in our towns and you're not from L.A., people have kids 19, 20. Right. We don't know ourselves then. Yeah. Just looking back on the shit we all got into.

We don't know ourselves. So, like, her old man had her when he was young. Yeah. A little bit after me, they probably was 24 or 25, but, I mean. Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, what do you know? Yeah, what do you know?

Yeah. Yeah, so if you got dreams and you in a place like Athens, then that really don't go together because— I have no sense of Athens other than the independent music scene. The independent and that, you have the people that, you know, any small town is like, you want to do what? Yeah. Man, you better go work at the plant, at the chicken plant. Is there a chicken plant there? Yeah, there's a chicken plant.

Oh. My aunt and my cousin worked there from two different families. My aunt on my mother's side worked there and my cousin on the other side. Just killing chickens

and taking the feathers off? Just taking them feathers off, man, and putting them in packages. You know? Trying to probably sneak some free chicken out the back.

Get some free chicken and some healthcare probably. Some healthcare, you know? That's what you do it for. Yeah, my grandfather hauled chickens which was cool

because he would bring chickens. Chicken trucks? chicken trucks yeah yeah bring chicken like baby chicks home yeah we had chickens in the back yeah like they got a certain smell to them baby chickens yeah yeah and you had big chickens in back yeah big chickens in the back that's where the eggs came from every day you had fresh eggs every day fresh fresh eggs. Corn came out the back. Wine came from the vine. Really? You guys made wine? Strawback grandfather made wine, muscadine wine. Did he have like a farm?

You know what? Big enough piece of property for that shit? They descended to farmers, right? They didn't graduate school at all. So they're farmers. Yeah. So that's what they did with acre to acre land, I mean, which was big to me at the time. It's pretty big.

Man, they had everything. Acres are big. Yeah. Yeah. Watermelon, beans. And then the land overlapped with the neighbor's land. So they gave him that land and he would give them like. Oh, stuff he grew.

Stuff he grew. And then he would fish. We'd go fishing on the weekends. So this is your grandfather. This is me young. Yeah. Training us to hunt. They give us guns at like eight.

And they trying to teach you how to really like feed yourself. Your grandfather? Yeah. Yeah. And he grew all that stuff. He grew it, yeah. Corn. I remember having to shuck corn and like get split peas with your fingers.

That's nice, man. It's not nice until you older and you're like, oh, we had it. Yeah. That was the life. Yeah. You don't remember it being. Pecans fall off the tree. You pick them. The pies come from that. I moved to the city and it was just different. Yeah. You don't remember. Pecans fall off the tree. You pick them.

The pies come from that. I moved to the city and it was just different. Were you excited though? I mean, it seems like, I guess it's hard to appreciate things when you're six. Yeah. I mean, all I know is I just had a moment of sadness when I moved to Atlanta. Right? Sure.

Yeah. But before then, you out with bow and arrows. You're getting sticks and you're hunting for wild dogs. Bow and arrows? Yeah. You're making, you're getting sticks and you're pretending they with bow and arrows. You're getting sticks and you're hunting for wild dogs. Bow and arrows? Yeah, you're getting sticks and you're pretending they're bow and arrows. And you're just in the woods hunting for wild dogs. Wild dogs? Yeah.

Were there a lot of wild dogs? That's what we heard. They'd be like, stay out of the woods. There's wild dogs. They'll attack you. They probably were stray dogs. But what did you take with the guns? You were shooting birds?

We started with birds. Quails? Cans and birds. And BB is pellets, so you're pumping like 40 times. 40 times, yeah. But not shotguns? Shotguns they all had. My granddaddy had like eight shotguns.

He didn't go out for the, what do you call those little birds? The quails or the doves or whatever? Oh, rabbits. Rabbits, deers. And deers? Yeah. Grind the deer and make deer meat. i don't think you can shoot a deer with a shotgun you gotta shoot it with a bullet bullet well uh you can if it's a heavy gauge i

know but then you gotta pick all those pellets out of the well depending like these guys are like i mean they nailed it i remember watching them break rabbit down which was scary to rip that skin off and man all i knew i cut it up like a chicken cut it up and just peeling i remember the peeling of this disturbing yeah it's like uh yeah like a glove coming off yeah i shot one bird i shot one bird heartbreak and i watched it pass okay and it was that was the only animal i had the exact same experience i couldn't i couldn't take it i couldn't take it like like some guy talked me into doing it with a pellet. Yeah.

And I watched it fall and die. And if I think about it now, it upsets me. Man, it's interesting. And then 10 years later, you're in the city, and gunfire just erupts. Ba-ba-ba-ba-boom. You heard it a lot? Enough. So you moved to Atlanta with your sister and your mother when you were six six then back to athens and then back probably like at 11 or 12

so what happened that the state was going to take you guys yeah according to my mom oh i guess uh the other guy the father no father was there yeah, but he ratted her out. Who called the cops? Allegedly, it was an internal family thing. It was a jealousy internal family, probably one of my mom's sisters. Oh, really? Yeah, it was, yeah. Yeah. Oh, what the fuck, man?

Yeah, man. So she was jealous of what? That she had her kids? I don't know. You know that lady? Your aunt? Yeah, I just got into it with her. Just now?

Thanksgiving. I had to eat Thanksgiving outside. I never thought I'd be the guy who'd get into the fight. Every family gets a fight. You had to eat Thanksgiving outside? Yeah, I showed up to the south. I showed up to Athens, Georgia with a Jew and a dog. A Jew?

A Jewish chick. Yeah, and a dog. And a dog. An Israeli and a dog dog that's your girlfriend's israeli yeah yeah and uh and i tried to bring the dog in the house uh-huh and they was like you're not bringing this dog in the house and i'm like i got papers all that la la shit i got it's my emotional support dog and i ran in the house with the dog and it's like 40 motherfuckers just looking at me angry and i i panicked because i didn't make any plans i just in the house with the dog and it's like 40 motherfuckers just looking at me angry

and i i panicked because i didn't make any plans i just in the house with a dog just ran in the house and i i ain't know what to say so i was like just get her some water she thirsty yeah she's been on the plane all day that's right when you get there that's when i get did you have papers for the jew no no no my girl just stayed outside. She just stayed outside. Yeah, yeah, of course. But it's so weird. It's just weird, right? It's just weird. Okay, so your girlfriend doesn't even go into their house. You go in with the dog.

Everybody freaks out. Yep. And that's not, and then, you know, so your dog's probably freaked out. Dog freaked out. And you're freaked out. I'm on 10. Was it really? I got anger.

You know those anger issues you don't even know. You're not even thinking once the thing, once the whatever you raise, whatever you want to call it, hit, you just, you gung ho. Oh, so right away. You gung ho. Yeah, I just picked the dog up and just ran in the house. Out of the house or in the house? In the house with the dog. Yeah.

So the dog, you actually have a license, papers for the dog because you need the dog as emotional support dog? Well, I mean, it's my girl dog, so. Oh, it's her dog? Yeah. Does she need the dog for emotional support? Yeah, and apparently I need the dog to run the way. The dog didn't stop the anger. No, no, it didn't.

But I calmed down, you know what I mean? It's a growing thing, I guess. Sure. So what happened? So your aunt got pissed off and you had to eat outside? Yeah, we ate outside. I mean, everybody, you know, the dog just wasn't coming in the house. So you ate outside with the dog and your Jewish girlfriend?

My girlfriend and like my uncles and stuff, they were outside. Okay. So it wasn't terrible. No, it wasn't terrible, but it still was like, you got to calm down. It takes like 10 minutes or something. Oh, you had to calm down? Yeah, I did. You got a rage problem?

I never really looked at it, but if i was the it could it could be so once it starts you gotta yeah it's got to go all the way through it gotta go yeah it gotta go or i'm getting better at it but it just it just came out of nowhere though i don't know where it developed from oh so in that moment or in general in general oh it's the worst yeah it's it's horrible when you get hit with it yeah so like So. Like, you know, usually you can keep it under wraps and all of a sudden something will trigger it. Well, I have. Are you fucking kidding me? Yeah.

You get loud. You get loud, man. Yeah. And I've had to apologize to people 10 minutes later. Oh, yeah. I used to do a joke about that. Like, I'm closing the gap between an outburst and apology. Oh, that's good.

Like, it used to be. And now it's got down to like, go fuck yourself. I'm apology. Oh, that's good. Like he used to be, and now he's got it down to like, go fuck yourself, I'm sorry. Oh yeah, that's hilarious. Look man, I don't know, people don't know, man. And I don't know, I think I put up with so much for so long internally and then held it in until it just. It popped.

It's like, goof. Yeah, you don't know what's gonna pop it. But it's better than like schizophrenia you know so yeah let's talk like so okay so you you go back and forth you weren't taken away from your mother but you end up growing up in atlanta yeah i know growing up in atlanta with my mom i moved my mom got her stuff together and me and my sister moved back with my mom and that's where you went from age what seven or eight all the way through no i was there i there. Back in Athens, like, six, and then I remember landing in the fourth grade in Atlanta.

Yeah. And then having to deal with the school systems. Even in both places, I had to deal with the school systems. What do you mean, deal with them? Because we lived in a different place than we were supposed to. Right. And I had disciplinary problems,

and they just couldn't send me home. What do you mean they couldn't send you home? Because normally back in the day, they would send you home. Like, go home. And you'd be like, I'd be like, I can't go home. I live too far.

Oh, I see. Where you live, I don't know. It'd take a few hours to get here, you know? Really? Well, I don't understand. That's how they would find out. Oh, because you wanted to go to that school so you put down the wrong address?

I think that's where I was in charge of that. Yeah. My mom just survived. You don't know at the time. She just surviving. Yeah. But she got you into the school, but it wasn't the district you lived in. It probably wasn't the district I lived in.

And then by the time I came back in fourth grade, I was at a school. I just wasn't clicking. I don't know what it was. And then I got sent to a this mixed school called jolly elementary jolly jolly elementary a mixed school as opposed to a black school mixed school opposed to like a black and African school yeah and uh I tested I took a test one of those standardized tests and I tested out of my class yeah yeah that's good. An advanced science, English, and math. Yeah? Yeah. So you got to jump a grade?

I got, they put me, I went from my all black class to a class with five black people in it. Uh-huh, and how did that change things for you? It was an adjustment. I remember walking down the hall and people from my neighborhood would just take our heads and just mush them against the lock like that's what the separation that's what you get that's what I got you know it was like oh you you over there now you

know and then you have to get on the bus with the people and get dropped off and I remember I got in trouble I couldn't go to gym class and they put me in this class there's three classes advanced classes regular class there's behavioral classes so i remember like vaguely getting put in behavioral classes because i couldn't go to gym so they made me sit uh in the class with behavioral class and i remember sitting on a desk and they were going over math or something and i was like y'all stupid something like that yeah like y'all don't get this yeah stupid right and we all they got mad apparently why couldn't you go to gym i got in trouble oh i couldn't go to recess i don't know you don't know i don't know i had disciplinary problems

always had disciplinary problems i don't think think they were bad as people in my neighborhood. I wasn't bringing guns to school or something dope or nothing, but I do remember hitting a chick with a book because she called me immature. Oh, well, you showed her. I closed the book. I closed the science book. It was like a frog on the front, and I looked at the book,

and then I just took the bottom of my hand like a pie, and I just, poof, hit her in the face with it. That's no good yeah i got in trouble uh so with with all this going on so obviously you know as a comic you know we all had disciplinary problems so i imagine you were just a smart ass and causing trouble and whatever right yeah no guns no drugs no guns no drugs no just being a smart ass and yeah just starting shit hitting girls in the face with books beat up just getting beat up. Just getting beat up all the time. You got beat up too?

Yeah, I mostly got beat up. Really? The girl I hit, the face beat my ass. And the coach was going to stop the fight, and he was like, let him fight. And I was like, motherfucker. Like, it's a window. You know that window that closes? Oh, she had on like panalella shoes and a dress.

You know what I mean? Yeah. And she didn't even grow. And she beat you up in front of everybody. She beat my ass in front of everybody. And then we ended up going to high school together, and she never grew. Oh, really? Oh, so she stayed the same size?

Same size. And she's bragging about that shit. I like seeing people I haven't seen in a long time when they come out of nowhere. Yeah. Oh, my God. Don't you? Yeah, I've been surprised, man. I've been surprised man i've been

surprised and it's like oh you made it yeah right you're a lawyer right or you are you are yeah still alive yeah and not only that like you successful and we came from one not the not the you know we came from a certain place where a lot of people and you know i don't know if you people fall off oh yeah and the older you get it's like yeah They like they fall off or they you know, you get to a certain age people start dying don't say I want to say that But yeah, I got 13 dead people my phone and I cannot erase 13 13 from this past decade under that's just recent shit. Yeah Yeah from natural shit natural and like it started, you know, the younger you are, it starts with unnatural. Right, right.

Getting shot or boyfriend shot. Yeah, all these things. Boyfriend shot? Yeah, my best friend's sister was, and the baby was killed by like a boyfriend. Oh, that's terrible. And the last thing he said to me was like, you should get out of here. You can make it far, you smart. In Atlanta? Yeah. You can make it far. You smart. Atlanta?

Yeah. So that was the shit. We was in the hood and they were playing on the car at night. And it was weird because for somebody to do that and say, I love you. That's weird shit. So he said, I love you and killed him. And the next time. No, no, they caught him.

But yeah, the police caught him before the family did. Well, that's an old adage that I read. A police chief said that. People only kill people over two things, money and pussy. Yeah. Yeah. I read that in a book. It was a quote from a police chief.

I think it's an old idea. Yeah, it could be true no of course break it down if you if you keep it broad you know like what money equals property anything that you own yeah yeah if it's a big category yeah so okay so when did you end up getting out i mean like what were you doing when did you start doing comedy i started my first time on stage i think i was at a talent show in college. Oh, where'd you go to college? Southern Polytechnic State University.

Where's that at? Marietta in Georgia. What were you studying? Engineering, electrical engineering. You had a big plan? No. No. Stay off the streets.

My freshman year, I went to another school in Tennessee, and I ended up selling crack for a little while. So this was just to stay. My goal was to stay off the streets. My freshman year, I went to another school in Tennessee and I ended up selling crack for a little while. So this was just to stay. My goal was to stay off the streets. I gave myself 10 years to be in college. 10 years? 10 years, yeah. Because I can get financial aid because my dad was a crack addict at the time. So I could just be like- Okay. So let's explain this. So you've grown up in Atlanta, but not in the hood. You didn't get to the hood till later? So you've grown up in Atlanta, but not in the hood. You didn't get to the hood until later? Yeah, I didn't get to.

I was in a decent area. And I had good grades. And I was a nerd. Then I got dropped off in Tennessee by my mom. What's that, for college? Yeah, for college and a new boyfriend. And nobody ever went to college or could tell me how to survive this world. So when you were growing up, though, you did good in school. You weren't around no guns no drugs no no drug my dad was already on drug did you know that

15 yeah you knew your dad was on drug oh yeah i found out the hard way so your dad like but you didn't know him when he was in the navy uh no no so you knew him growing up first six years on the farm yeah and but you only it's neighborhood, but yeah, they grew stuff on the land. But you didn't know him to be a crackhead. He wasn't a crackhead at the time. Okay. No. So when you're 15-

He was a guy who worked and probably was like a middle-class man. He had everything. Oh, he did? He had the house. He ended up having the house, the car, the boat. Yeah? The extra land. Another family?

No, not another family. He wanted me the car, the boat. Yeah. The extra land. Another family? No, not another family. He wanted me to move back with him. Oh. And then the mental thing happened. What happened? At the time, I really didn't understand, but he ended up developing paranoid schizophrenia. How old was he? That usually happens in your 20s.

I mean, he was 21 or 22 when I was born, so it had to be like maybe late 20s or early 30s. Oh, no kidding. And things just disappeared. And then the drugs started. What do you mean things just disappeared? Like the house and everything was gone. His job, it all was gone.

That's all I knew. And I remember. Because you were with your mom at the time? Yeah, I was with my mom. I was in atlanta and the when i seen the house it was a this uh he was like i want you to move back in look i got all this the stuff i accumulated to make a comfortable home for you and then um i remember him grabbing me by my shirt collar yeah and was like uh it's later going around town telling people that I did something to her.

And I heard that you're telling people I did something to her. To who? To some chick. This is your dad? Yeah. And he was like, but I didn't. He's like, I just grabbed her like this. And he grabbed me by my collarbone and my shirt.

And he's like, but it's all good. You can tell them. They can come for me. I got something for them. And then he removed like the tiles in the attic. Yeah. And pulled two Uzis out of the attic yeah and i remember telling my grandfather he was like i don't think you should see your dad for a while so the next time i seen him all that was gone and they say he has a mental issue what yeah

so you go visit your dad and he says they're after him he's got uzis yeah and he's ready he's ready but you don't know and you just calm yeah because you've been in you've been around some street stuff so you just kind of know to remain calm yeah but by the time you get yeah don't freak out yeah yeah so uh yeah and that was the last time so your grandfather the farmer said you better get out of here yeah i mean just don't spend time just don't it's a you shouldn't that's his father that's his father yeah he knew he was ill he knew something was wrong people you know started you didn't know what though yeah this is uh black you know how we deal community we deal with health uh mental health yeah and it's a stigma so we don't really know so you just kind of like you know well

my keep away from him we'll see what happens yeah let's let him do his thing he'll figure it out he'll he's a growing person you know we could pray this thing away yeah right yeah yeah but pray pray at a distance pray at a distance you know uh yeah yeah and then like i came back to spend some time with him and um we end up going to a crack house but but so wait so how did you know he had paranoid schizophrenia it hit me later on. Much, much later on. Was he put away? I think my grandma told me that they went to the clinic,

and I remember visiting him somewhere when he had on all white. Oh. And he was pretending like he was going to flee that place. Oh, okay. So you're still a little kid. Yeah, this is in Augusta. I still was young. So he was in an institution probably. Probably like around an institution or something like that.

Right, right, right. Yeah. And then I seen him after that. And I remember him being a security guard and trying to join the police force. Right? After he got out of the institution? Yeah, after everything. Yeah.

Was he on medication? That I don't know at the time. Did he ever end up on medication? He did, but then here's the scenario. When you're an addict and you're on drugs, you stop drugs, you stop all drugs. Right. No, I get that. When you're a paranoid schizophrenic who's thinking that you were wrongfully fired from a job

and you got a lawsuit with a lot of money coming um but people try to give you drugs to make you prove that you are not qualified right to get your money yeah then that's a whole different level so if a doctor try to offer you a pill you're gonna and you're paranoid schizophren that you think he's in on keeping you from not getting your money. And this is what your dad's situation was? Yeah. And what drugs do to you,

it slowed him down and everything. So he just didn't end up taking it. What put him further down. Made him more crazy. The rabbit hole. Yeah.

So he got to a point where it was no bouncing back. Oh, so he was lost in his schizophrenia. He was lost in his schizophrenic delusions. Delusions, which I never understood until I did my first bad acid trip in London. And I was like, oh, this is where he is forever. This is where he lives.

Yeah. I did it for seven hours. He's here forever. It's a cold, lonely place to be. I did it for seven hours. He's here forever. It's a cold, lonely place to be. So what's the story where you go back where you said when you found out that your old man smoked crack?

I found out he did crack. I had to be like 15. Yeah. And I went with him. And we ended up in the project. We were supposed to go to the movies. And he gave me some money. Long story short. He was like, we're going to go get some food. We're going to go to the movies and he gave me some money long story short he's like we're gonna go get some food we'll go to the movies i'm just there to spend some time with him yeah um and my mom never dropped you were in atlanta no this is athens

georgia no but you went back yeah i went back but you you were living in atlanta yeah i was living in atlanta and he wanted to see you he wanted to see me and my mom would drop me off at my granddad's house the farmer yeah yeah Because she trusted him. Yeah. She didn't trust nobody else. Right. So he would come. He came and picked me up.

And we went around the street. Somebody was like, give me a ride around the corner. Yeah. And I remember him saying, I got my son with me. Yeah. And then he was like, all right. Like, just go for a little while. And then we went.

And then that turned into basically like, you know, you there. And I remember like when I walked in the crack house something's like get out of here yeah so i saw basketball i went picked up a basketball right yeah went to the basketball the projects across the street where my cousin passed and i was just in the project like by myself real scared yeah and uh he came and asked me for some of the money he gave me and i gave him some money yeah and he left and he came back and asked for the rest of the money he gave me, and I gave him some money, and then he left, and he came back and asked for the rest of it, and I didn't give it to him.

And then he got disappointed, and then I got disappointed, and I remember his car driving down the street. He left you? He left, and then he ended up coming back to get high, and then we went back to grandmother's house for me to get dropped off. Like, no movies, no food, nothing. And then I couldn't even, my mom was already at a place or whatever, so I couldn't even tell her really what happened. I just had to sit on it.

Because you'd never be able to go down there again. Yeah, and I just unraveled from there. Yeah? Yeah. What do you mean? Grades dropping, like. Oh, just after that event yeah because i knew i had to do something like i was i got to do something yeah i don't know what i got

to do this before college but you're you're still in high school i'm still in high school are you mad are you getting into more trouble because of this well not a like disciplinary problem yeah but it's like i ended up joining the basketball team. I learned how to play basketball. That day? Basically, yeah. The pressure was on. Yeah. Because that's the only way I knew like to get out of the situation.

I already like couldn't be with my mom because of financial situations. And then this thing with my dad. So I just knew like what am I going to do? You know what I mean? Yeah. All right. Yeah. So yeah, man.

I just end up like, you know, I mean, end up on a partial basketball scholarship at this college in tennessee yeah and then you go down there and you don't know how to live you don't know how to take care of yourself yeah man people getting money for the stipends for the basketball players and i'm just there like on a partial scholarship broke i'm just trying to figure out where i'm at i'm failing my christian classes yeah and i've been going to church this whole time you know so man Yeah. So, man, I got... Church help? Yeah. No, not really.

I'd be horny in church. Yeah. But I remember, like, somebody busted my dad out with a bat, like a drug dealer. And I remember being furious about that.

And I was like, man, I'm gonna have to kill this dude, right? But I was like, I can't kill him. Like, I just can't kill him like this. I gotta become like a drug dealer uh-huh and when the opportunity presented itself i started to like go in and i wanted to see how powerful crack was yeah because to make a man like

climb a telephone pole you know who climbed a telephone pole my dad heard my dad climbed a telephone pole for some rock. You know, you hear all these stories, you know what I mean, that make you like furious, right? Yeah. And my aunt's on it too, and my little cousin down there going through too. Your aunt's going too? My dad's sister is on it too, yeah. On crack.

And your cousin too? No, my cousin, he was like, he's younger than me. Oh. So he was in the environment though. So some drug dealer cracked your dad's head and you wanted to kill him but you figured you had to know what it was like to deal crack in order to yeah you gotta be one you just came like so you gotta think like him yeah you gotta like you ain't no weapons and you ain't got nothing you got no resources to really just walk up to a crackhead and just like

yeah i mean crack a crack dealer and do it but then you know when you become one you like oh so you became one it's not his fault right yeah oh i see yeah it's not his fault or he just you'd crack is that what you learned man selling crack is addictive it's addictive and i had to get out of it just you didn't smoke it though no no drug i still was sober the whole time really believe it or not yeah he's just how'd you get into the crack business uh i got a keen eye for observation, the same way I got into comedy, observation. I knew at the time, because of my paranoia, I knew who was in the building, who had straps, every way in and out of a building, even how to get into a place if need be. Yeah.

And those are good skills for somebody that's a bigger OG than you that can bring you in because they in Dane, they go to dangerous situations. Right. And if you got a king eye and know everything and then it started with me stashing it. For somebody else? Stashing it. Yeah. It was all just two of us, two man operation at first.

It just started with me stashing it and knowing what to put it. Stashing the vials? Stashing the crack and the cookie when you break it in, it comes in the bottom of the jar and you sit there with the razor and then you just can't keep everything on you if you've ever been in that environment because, you know, crackheads will snatch it or you just

don't know what'll happen. So you just need a place for it, the stash. You'll keep your main stash. And we on the college campus. Right. So, you know. It was easy to stash it? It the college campus, right? So, you know It was not easy, but we definitely couldn't keep it in the room. We were in so this is your roommate not my roommate I had another room and that was the thing we became roommates. Yeah, but we end up with the master key to the door How'd you end up with that? I? always feel like it's a weird situation, but somehow we got it off the ring of the RA and made a copy in time to put it back.

And what does that get you? Access to empty rooms. Oh, I see. Yeah. So that was your stuff. And I could break the furniture apart. So I could put it in desks and everything like that. And people could be in the rooms and not know.

So you were selling the crack on the campus? No, we was off. Oh. Christian campus, but off the campus in somebody's apartment in the rooms and I know. So you were selling the crack on the campus? No, we was off. Oh. Christian campus, but off the campus in somebody's apartment in this neighborhood in the hood. Somebody's mom had an addiction for it, so you barter, you do a barter thing. Yeah.

And it'd be a crack spot, you know? Oh, I see. Yeah. So you had a little crack business. We had a little crack business, yeah. It got bigger when I left, but it was crazy because I remember it was a pharmaceutical

company there. And I remember looking at this in this town, small town. A nick was $50. Yeah. That's how small the town was.

So it's a no brainer. Like for $2 worth of product, instead of $5, you're making $50. Yeah. This is just profit. It's a no brainer. Well, with the crack.

Yeah. Yeah. So you go in and like you get get you get a good sample the crack cook is the most important part yeah you know i mean uh that's the chef yeah and if you make a good sample and you give it to somebody they're gonna get they're gonna be your mouthpiece and get everybody else right and we had we finally got that a good cook um and um yeah man how would you do that oh no i don't think it had to be long because i got out of We finally got that, a good cook. And yeah, man.

How long did you do that? I don't know. I don't think it had to be long because I got out of that school within a year. So maybe six months, a few months. You're lucky you didn't get fucking busted. It don't matter, man. It don't matter, man. It's just the issues.

It's just issues all that time. Yeah. It's better to get busted when you're young than when you're older. Well, yeah, but you don't want to go to jail either way. I don't know. It's just issues at that time. Yeah. It's better to get busted when you're young than when you're older. Well, yeah, but you don't want to go to jail either way. I don't know. It's just jail. At the end of the day, when you look at it, there's no people go to jail by now. You know?

It's just jail. Well, you didn't go to jail. I didn't go to jail. That was my main goal. I was raised not to go to jail. So how did you get out of the school? Did you hit the wall? I got kicked off the basketball team.

I was filling classes. Because of the crack business? I was just lost. It was freshman year, and then my friend was dealing with his court shit. By this time, it was already like people were mad in the town. Your friend the crack dealer? Yeah, the OG, my OG, yeah. What was he dealing with?

He was dealing with baby mama drum oh that was that one yeah yeah that's a bigger issue you know right right and um and um he was like i want you to take over this town i'm gonna stay in this town and do it i want you to take over this town and you were gonna be the king pin i don't know what i was gonna be but i i thought some i knew somebody was gonna die i know it was a point it was you cross a line that you can't come back i think that's true yeah and you just feel it i don't know what's gonna be i i i thought some i knew somebody was gonna die i know it was a point it was you cross a line that you can't come back i think that's true yeah and you just feel it i don't know what's gonna be i don't know if it's gonna be me or somebody yeah i already had an incident where i was hanging i had three separate lives i was on the basketball team i had this college

life and then i had this thing that i would do in the middle of the night the crack life yeah and i was hanging out with some white friends and they went to buy some weed one night. I fell asleep and we ended up in some project and they got robbed. And the guys, I stayed in the car. When I got out the car, I seen these guys like reaching their hoodies. Yeah. And I was like, damn, are they after me? But the white friend, they was oblivious to what was going on. They thought I stayed in the car because I was scared.

Yeah. I seen two guys on opposite sides of the building come with these guns. And when they all hopped in the car, gunshots erupted. And I found out that one of those guys' uncle

had kind of worked for us. Yeah. So it was a weird thing on the situation that other people were in. And I don't know if it was because of me. Well, that's the thing about drugs.

Yeah. Is you increase the odds of you getting killed for some dumb reason yeah that you might not have anything to do with yeah and it's like i'm not even on the clock yeah right you know i got on the college t-shirt you know i'm a whole different person right now you know shit so yeah man it's like incidents like that the pharmaceutical company and i'm like they winning they legal they gonna they gonna wipe us off the street in a new group of people gonna come in i'm like this is a bad this is a weird pattern so you got out that got out and then like the situation like me killing my i felt like i was part of me was like i'm killing my own people yeah you know like it's a lot that way in so you know. So you were able to get inside of it of understanding the whole socioeconomic, personal, evil side of the drug business.

Drug business. But you look up five years later, you broke. And them guys, you know, making probably like $14,000, $15,000 a week. You know what I mean? Yeah. And it's like, oh, the number's increasing you know yeah but i mean but then you got a moral struggle you got the moral struggle and like i probably want to you know my anger issues happened then that's the first time i remember me just being mad and

yeah when somebody flipped you for some money it's like well we gotta we gotta do something right did someone flip you for some money i, the first thing that when we started, it was soap. Soap. Oh. Yeah. So it was a thing already. So the first batch you bought was garbage.

The first batch was like, and then, yeah, they don't teach you about that. You got to pay your dues in the game like with anything else. You know? Yeah. You take losses,

big losses, you know? So. But you got out and then you went back to Atlanta? I went back to Atlanta. I went to engineering school. Did you feel like you learned who you were? No.

Oh. Comedy taught me who I was. So you went to engineering school for how long? Maybe seven years. Seven? Maybe. Off and on. I was there.

You know what I mean? Did you graduate? I ended up graduating. That was the first thing I completed. Oh. But that's when you started doing comedy in college? I started, and then I stopped. I started comedy.

I quit because I got booed. I'd never been in a comedy club before. People said I should try. Where, at the Punchline? Uptown Comedy Corner in Atlanta. Yeah. Yeah. On an open mic?

Boo, amateur. Amateur night? I didn't know people go to... Is that a black club? Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yep. So, got on stage never

written a joke before just went on and got booed did you have a plan no plan why'd you go on i don't know people are funny i mean i used to crack people up at the table yeah just naturally uh like you got to go on amateur yeah but you didn't have any plan you hadn't watched any comedy i knew i knew about def jam i watched def jam in high school while everybody would go on dates and stuff right yeah when i was in junior high my mom put a disc on my on my desk of martin lawrence talking shit album yeah and that was the beginning of everything so you knew the idea i knew the idea and i watched it i was watching in high school def comedy jams on friday and then that made me a bully in school oh yeah because i could talk i could break talk shit about somebody and just

just hurt hurt their self-esteem so all the bullying stopped you know and uh i became the man for a minute you know yeah and it was cool and that was the disciplinary problems yeah i mean i joined the basketball team i would do nerdy classes in the day and in the evening i'm with the people your secret asshole well i don't know probably let my girl tell it yeah yeah so but the first time you got booed yeah i got booed man i quit right away i like the same for me right away yeah so when did you do it again like maybe two years later then i did good at same place same place where you put together some i remember the first joke yeah i remember the first joke i wrote and then um that night i killed and then i got booed every night since and then i quit again for like another year and a half

you did good one night and then you go back once a week once a week yeah and you just stink stink and then uh instinctively something you know i follow my instincts and it was like, this will take you to the promised land. And then I just fought my way through it. So you stayed there in Atlanta, going to school a bit, doing comedy, no more crack dealing. No, that's over. Yeah. And then your old man's in the hospital or he's not?

He's not in the hospital. He's doing from 15 to like 25 straight like. like from you yeah your age 15 to 25 he's not on anything and he's okay or he's not okay i mean he's on drugs yeah it's hardcore like he's withered down you know yeah like the finger the burnt fingers and the the voice he got one eye now he leaves home for extended period of days oh um we had to go get him um for my college graduation like the first graduate from college we went and got him where was he he was in athens and we brought him back and we gave him yeah we gave him a coat to wear like a pea coat so he's like a street guy yeah he's yeah you know yeah and um yeah yeah yeah that's what it was sad i don't know you know it was i think it was he should be there for that moment this was a sure uh a moment you

know so um you know him my mom would be i think he grabbed a booty or something like that during the uh while he was there during the ceremony yeah during the ceremony but he's out of his mind right i mean he's still he's still got charisma he's the most one of the most charismatic persons out of the people i know you know um but he's beat he's beat up oh yeah he's but he's beat up but he's still in good spirits yeah yeah but what about the schizophrenia um it's not as bad at the time because we i realized now he was just self-medicating sure yeah he was self-medicating so when you graduate college do you does that when you decide how long after that did he die oh last last oh he died after tiff uh last year oh just last year I left I left Toronto

and came to LA you were at the film festival for Honey Boy? Yeah, doing Honey Boy. Yeah. And then I had a week off. Some was like, don't book any shows instinctively. And I didn't. And I had a week off between Toronto Film Festival and Toronto just for laughs. I came home. I flew to LA. I landed. I got the phone call.

Then I went to Georgia. And buried your dad. And went. And he died. But I was with him. And he opened his eye and we we was able to communicate for the first time and i was able to tell him that i love him and i'm not mad at him and i'm and i'm proud of him he lived a full life and and there's no need

to feel like you fucked up the life is good and he felt that peace. We had peace. And I felt them pass. And my arm felt like this energy go through me and his body got real cold. And I told the nurses that he passed and he like passed in my in my arms. Really? Yeah, it was peaceful. And my anger left when I when that whatever went through my body, that tingly feeling, my anger left. So I was able to comfort my grandmother and stuff because i had to tell a mother that her child was gone which is weird you know he was in a coma he's in a coma the whole time and i've been here before because my grandfather was in a coma and i'm named after his father yeah i'm named after my grandfather so when i showed up my grandfather came out of his coma and i was able to tell him I love him. And he passed that night.

So it was like round two. You know, I'm the last Bowers. I'm the last Bowers. So I went down, you know. Yeah. And all black. I got the hoodie on. So I look like a Grim Reaper because my girl filming it.

That's a problem when you like you date a director like she filming everything. Oh, yeah. And, you you know my family don't like cameras and shit around so uh we played some elton john um for him because that's what he i remember he liked elton john and the last time i tried to tell him that i that i loved him and stuff and he had an episode elton john was playing and i thought he was gonna die without him knowing how grateful i was that he was a great father.

So I brought that Elton John back. Which song? Rocket Man and Tiny Dancer. Oh, yeah. Right? Which is the gayest thing to me you could play, but it's a very sentimental moment. For him? For both of us.

Yeah. And it was one of the most peaceful moments outside of taking shrooms that I've ever had in my life. And you felt him pass through you and your anger left. Anger left, and I felt that peace for a long time. And this was just, what, last year? September, yeah. September, Friday the 13th in September. Huh.

Full moon. Crazy, man. Crazy. Beautiful moment, though. I told his mom told grandma he healed there was no other way to heal and for him to have mental peace right because before we would talk once i learned how to communicate with him we would just talk and try to figure out who was trying to kill him and how did he get in this situation that was that was

always the conversation yeah yeah and but you knew that nobody was trying to kill him yeah i knew but you know through improv you know you learn the yes and crazy people right so if you don't yes and you're gonna argue i did all the arguing with him that i was gonna do right and i understood like i said i had that bad acid trip and i had to tell my family everything that he say about us, that we're trying to kill him and stuff, is real. Whether you believe it or not, if it's real in his mind, it's a delusion, it's real. There's nothing we could do about it. But it's interesting, though. I would imagine that once you start kind of like, you know, just playing along, that at first they don't really quite know what to do about it.

But eventually they don't trust you either, correct? They don't trust you, but you're still going along with it. Right, right. It allows you to talk to somebody longer and spend time with them. Right, right, but eventually they crap out, right? You can talk to them for a while, but eventually be like, I can't talk to you about it anymore. Well, with me, no, I went the long haul.

But when I left, it was like, I had to like come down. I had to- Because you got your brain all fucked up. I got all fucked up. Like, this is the person

that you realize, this person taught you about women or whatever he was teaching you about. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He wired your brain to begin with. He wired my brain.

If somebody tell you like, man, he might have been that way since he was 18 now that we look at it, then that means everything, that time you spent together and that stuff he taught you might not have been. Well, right. You just have the same grooves in your brain. So you talk to him for an hour.

You're going to leave going, maybe someone is trying to kill both of us. Well, it's not. It's just the thing he taught you about women. Why you can't trust women. They trying to after your money and shit. Oh, so it's about women. That's true. Because he had you about women, about you can't trust women. They trying to after your money and shit. Oh, so it was about women. That's true. Because he had like 200 women.

Yeah. Yeah, he got a book full of women that he slept with, like photographs. He showed me and my girlfriend. That's his pride and joy. His book of women. He got a book of women and old family pictures that remind him. I realize it reminded him of a time

when everything was good. Yeah. So, yeah, man. So did you have to unwire yourself around some of the things he told you about women or you believe yeah because i'm in a real relationship right so you learned yeah so tell me about this acid trip that changed your mind i was in i was in london and i was on a trip which is never, something told me to never trip in a city. And me and my girl, we was dancing in the square and everything was happening. Then I saw some trash and it went bad.

What kind of trash? Like London, like dirty London trash on the ground. Oh, just garbage. Garbage. And I looked up and the city became garbage. And we was in near Buckingham Palace where they used to behead people. I felt the- Oh, so the history of the empire came down on you.

The energy, yeah. You're absorbing all this energy. And I'm feeling man's need to take over and be powerful. And it comes from a place of loneliness. And I just got lonely. And my girl and her producer, they're having a happy-ass trip. And they're skipping in front of me. And they would go in a place.

And I couldn't go in because the energy wouldn't allow me in yeah and the cops would show up and they just be pacing behind me and i almost got hit by a car and yeah so i had to experience this trip alone and it was bad bad for seven hours and then i had uh and you believed it i was there i felt i understood i came out of it understanding it but i knew that this was just a trip and it wasn't real but i was here to learn something i had to go through it like that so you had you knew that you were on a trip oh i definitely knew i was on the trip yeah and everybody phone died except mine and i had a battery pack and they was running around looking for things battery packs or power so their phone could come on and And I knew I had all the power, had all the resources, just like somebody who starts a corporation.

Yeah. And I saw that need to control the power, because if you have all the power, then people need you. Right. People need you. Yeah. And it comes from a place of loneliness. So once I told him I had the power power people got upset and i was like i know and he's like how could you do us like this and i was like cuz you know yeah that real creepy whisper shit and then i just i needed to um my girl actually pulled me out of the trip i looked in her eyes and saw love and i remember running the tub full of warm water because i felt the need to be in my mother's womb and I went and balled up and got into the tub how'd that work out oh I came down it felt comfort I felt comfort so but coming out

of it in terms of understanding your father it was about delusions being real that they're only delusions to people that aren't having them but to him that's that's the way his brain is. That's reality. This is life forever. Forever. Yeah. Yeah, so. Got empathy. I had empathy, but I knew I could not. It's no more how we say, man, you crazy.

Why are you doing this? That's all it is. And the family don't really understand schizophrenic. So now I'm like, this is what he have. I'm looking it up and I'm going to explain to my family like this is what's going on with him. Regardless of what the you know, the you know, what you think is going on. And they tell me about these shots. This is his reality that he lives in. And it's real. So he's going to, of course, not eat your food or say you're trying to poison him or you gonna see him outside eating on eating your cactus plant and stuff like that because he really you are trying to poison him um in his mind

in his mind yeah which is tough for the family right so but you got closure yeah we got closed which is a it's a beautiful thing in life when you look at this journey and really and and yeah it's trippy like my whole set is kind of like trippy now my hour is like trippy oh is it yeah it's scared it's scared it scares black people black people be scared of that why that that uh lsd talk oh they did they are because it's not acid is not anything like that's heavy in our community no yet right but i'm gonna get it there yeah yeah well you do it a lot i've done it enough to really get the message where'd you get hip to it um ari shafir oh yeah uh shroom fest 2014 that was it

and joshua tree uh-huh and i did and i met the creator and i got to understand it i had a human experience on mushrooms first mushrooms yeah not a human experience. On mushrooms first. Mushrooms, yeah. Not a black experience. I explain to people when the weight of being blackness was gone. The heavy weightness that we carry, the trauma that we carry around from slavery, that ended. And I had a human experience and found out actually what it is to be human, which was like the good and the bad,

the destruction that we have caused on this planet that all of us are responsible for as well as the beauty like everything we got computers airplanes we created from this planet yeah so and then i had a spiritual experience after that so i just kept moving up in levels yeah but that was all on one trip or one trip and so you 16 hours and you had the god experience yep i met the creator but you had god in before i only had the voice like the spiritual thing god you know guiding me like that strong instinct of like don't do that don't get in that car yeah um don't go over that at night right Right. And things will happen. So you learn to trust that voice. Right.

And then, but the mushrooms, you met the creator? I feel I met the creator. And when I say, it's almost if I met God as a spirit and he was like, you sit in this driver's seat. And I realized how connected we are to the source. And we're responsible, our responsibility, like almost if we created plants and we created living things every we're responsible our responsibility like almost we created plants and we created living things and we're responsible for these things you know like i couldn't even step on grass out there because it felt like the grass was looking at me like they were my children and like really like going deep into this the vibrations the vibrations yeah

the wind turning the jazz like yeah everything's connected yeah so frequencies frequencies and not and i i couldn't listen to rap music after that too uh too violent the frequency is just like heavy the heavy bass yeah yeah and follow getting this this real trippy music to listen to for like a week because it took me a week to really come down but it's good so it reconfigured your brain yeah well you did work with some trippy dudes you work with eric andre he's kind of out there eric is on they out there on a whole yeah they on a whole nother level but yeah they out there yeah yeah so yeah i end up with that that whole alternative that's why all my alternative

stuff that's where it started came from and after the trip um well the trip everything led me there okay everything led me there and and then the traveling got heavy yeah going to japan and going to israel for the first time with your girl with my girl and like you performed there i did yeah a place called the dancing camel yep so when you started doing comedy it was primarily uh black clubs black clubs i got boo in the comic named run g was like yo shit smart and clever you should do uh these white rooms and then i did the punch line and these other rooms and then i started having success no and then i got in the punch line yeah and start weekends. And then another friend of mine, Drew Thomas, he was like, man, you raw and edgy. You should check out these.

A lot of comics are out here that make people laugh and they do simple stuff. Check these comics out. And a comic who was a television show host, he was like, go see this guy. I'm like, you want me to see this guy? And that was Joe Rogan. Yeah. Joe Rogan came through the punchline. And I saw Joe Rogan. And I was like, like damn he talking about real like shit like edgy shit yeah

in front of this conservative ass georgia crowd and then i saw chelsea chelsea handler come down yeah real raw yeah and i was like oh so i can do this thing you know i mean and then slappy squirrel you know kathleen madigan yeah uh who i end up hosting for you know uh the club would try to tone me down like hey you gotta tone down or they would cut my time yeah and i was like if i'm if i'm killing these features why can't i feature and they like they bring the features from la or new york and i'm like i gotta go to la and new york and that was the beginning of that talk you know yeah when did you move here 2008 economic crisis yeah economic crisis yeah yeah so well it sounds like you like just went

to school at the punchline i went to school but really it was the beginning the beginning but leaving home and coming to la and sleeping in your car and like doing all that crazy shit. You did that? Man, for no reason. Because I couldn't work. I just could not work. So I had to do the other choice, which is to be the bomb and just work on the craft. Yeah.

I remember trying to get a job. My instinct was like, why are you spending three months trying to look for a job when I gave you the resources, the tools to actually make money? That's what my instincts said it said loud and clear i was standing in line to fill out an application or something and i was standing with my homeboy and they was like hey man you got to pay rent or move out and i was in that line i was like man i gotta move out yeah and i moved out and i slept in my car on hollywood boulevard behind the lab factory where the houses were and i remember like waking up in this neighborhood from coming from

inglewood yeah and i was like man this is a nice area people were jogging in the morning and i would go to that coffee bean on sunset and i would wash up and uh neil brennan just moved here and he saw me in a coffee bean and he let me stay at his house that weekend and i realized like oh i don't ask nobody for shit. And then I ended up crashing on people's couches, and me and Josh Adam Myers, we squatted in an abandoned apartment in Mid-City, and then me and Josh tried to find a place together where all credit was shit, and we were broke, and then we gave up, and the day we gave up,

we found a place to live. You and Josh? In Beachwood. Yeah. And it just was the nicest place, one of the nicest places I ever had. How long did you live there? We lived there for like a few years. I was engaged at the time, so my wife came, and I ended up getting married in 08.

She came out here. She came out, and then that happened. And then we lived together eight months, and it wasn't the best time. You know what I mean? Very depressing time. So you left the place with Josh yep Josh moved out first with his girl and then I moved out with my girl Mary I was married already when I moved it I moved here engaged in 08 I got married yeah and it was silly silly you know I

mean I never been married before fuck it and I was like I love this person we're gonna try to make it happen but there's no way nobody get married yeah you know stay in separate places and like yeah it's all delusions so she came out here she came out here and then she moved back we got we got divorced she was not happy that was the same night you got passed at the comedy that weekend I got passed I remember her leaving and I went and did a set at the store for mitzi not for mitzi but i was already like on the list of getting paid like i had already showcased and what was it like when you met her how did she because was she okay she was not okay but she had this look of this dreamy look in her eyes and she was in a booth they had a booth in the kitchen at the time yeah and uh i remember shaking her hand it was like it had a

coldness and a warm warmness to it yeah um very soft yeah and she was dreaming she looked up at me like that like yeah and tommy was like mitzi this is he has voice was so soft at the time who bought him i mean tommy's yeah i never heard his voice talk to her yeah so soft you know i mean yeah he's like yeah remember you saw his tape and he told me that she didn't she didn't understand shit i said on my showcase tape yeah but she knew the audience liked me like i had rhythm or something yeah yeah and um i got passed to the belly room first yeah so i was just working out of the belly room so that was the system the old system the old system and then i got brought down you're non-paid regular non-paid regular and then when my wife my uh ex-wife left i got

brought down to the to the main room you got paid regular paid regular two o'clock in the morning yeah her parents flew out and they drove off in the u-haul and i remember the truck going around the corner and i was about to get real sad and then i remembered because they made a left i remember walking my watching my mom walk out when when we were separated and her making a left. So I couldn't get sad at my ex leaving because I realized like, oh, shit, I got this other thing. This other trauma. That I haven't dealt with. Yeah.

And I remember going in the house and looking at the betta fish and the betta fish died and i cried yeah a betta fish is a yeah i had a little bowl for it a betta fish is a fish that you buy is cheap you get it at walmart and it can survive anything it can survive so you saw your your your your wife's family they left and then it reminded you your mother leaving you at your and i just walked in the house in athens taking a left yep and then you walk in your mother leaving you at your... And I just walked in the house. In Athens, taking a left. Yep. And then you walk in the house.

And the betta fish died. And then that's when I cried. That's when you lost it. Yeah, that's when I felt like a failure because I could not keep a betta fish. You know, it's already hard to keep a woman. I get it, but you did just get passed at the comedy store. Yeah, I got passed at the comedy store. So that's what was going on.

That was going on, yeah. You're going to let go of your real life and be a comedian. Yeah, yeah. That's when the delusion started, as I say. That's the question I ask. What's the difference between a delusional father and a son chasing his dream? Well, you have awareness. Do I? I mean, i made some pretty crazy decisions like no i know but but you have tangible evidence that you are doing okay now yeah right so but so did he

is it he yeah yeah at the end a guy saying that is somebody's planning to kill him and they got him locked in a hospital and they set him up and he's in a hospital. Right. Can't go nowhere. It's believable. This is believable as me saying I'm gonna make it in Hollywood. Hmm. Oh, yeah. OK, fine.

But but but the thing is, is that, you know, his his whole life was reacting. Your life was taking action, right? And you had a plan and you had a skill set and you sought out to do it. Yeah. I mean, it's a long shot to make it in show business, but you had a path. I mean, his life was constantly constructing and reconstructing a conspiracy against him. Yeah. And sometimes it was credible because he was locked up, but I don't see how it's that similar. Okay. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, I guess. I mean,

you got to be delusional to think you can make it in this business, but after you commit and you work the skillset and you get on stage and you do the business and you know, you're good at it and you know, you're creative and you make decisions to build your act and meet new people and take opportunities and stuff. Yeah, that's not the delusion. The delusion was thinking you could make it, but learning how to do it and being successful at it, that's not a delusion. That seems to be real. Yep, so far.

Okay. I'm just trying to tell you it's a little different. It's a little different, yeah. I don't know. I guess I still think of it in a crazy way. Yeah, it's crazy. We're in a crazy business. It feels like it can all go away. Yeah. And it can. And it can. That's the scary part. Because you know what? I've seen success go away.

I know, man. Me too. And I've seen it in my dad, too. So it's always like that's different. Yeah. It hits you hard. Like like chasing money and stuff. I know is nothing there. I guess that's true. My dad lost everything, too. Like, chasing money and stuff, I know there's nothing there. I guess that's true. My dad lost everything, too. And I don't necessarily. But see, I can see why it happened. And I'm not that guy.

Yeah. I don't think I am. I don't know. Me neither. Hopefully. But I get compared to him. Well, you do? Yeah.

Well, I think you get. Well, you know, the thing is that you did something. You know, you took some risks with your brain. Yeah. And you sent it out there. And, you know, you saw some shit, you learned some things and it came back. And so now you've got that wisdom. You don't live in it.

I don't live in it. But, you know, when I'm sitting in an award show as a comedian, I'm always looking around like. The fuck is this? How did I get here? Yeah, I know. Yeah, me too. But the better thing is, it's like? How did I get here? Yeah, I know. Yeah, me too. But the better thing is, it's like,

what am I doing here? Yeah. This is fucking ridiculous. But when I see you, I get excited. Yeah. Because I'm like, what are we doing?

Yeah, this is a guy who do spots in the OR. Yeah. And went through this game and it made you into, it brought out you. Yeah. Right right exactly i i got into comedy to get me yeah and and me and that's where i feel i'm at this moment like it brought i'm able to talk about these things now yeah and it's like and now everything i get from here is a is a byproduct

of the voice to me yeah right it's like oh man i found it i found it you found yourself yeah yeah well no that's and that always keeps me fucking straight in the head you know like uh even at the award show or whatever i like the idea that like you know you i used to fucking do big things like it was weird that i went to that award show and i didn't have a spot later like you know oh yeah like like I always do that kind of shit. Like, I'll go do an amazing thing, and I'm like, ah, fuck, I got a spot. Like, Sarah Silverman's party, like, you know, after doing that whole thing. Oh, yeah.

And then I'm like, I got to get over there. Yep. And it keeps me grounded. I did that the night before. I went to a William Morris party, dropped my lady off, went to the improv, into a william moore's party dropped my lady off went to the improv came back picked her up went to the uh lab factory then the store yeah then went home right so you know who you are it's crazy you gotta do that too in a tuxedo so we yeah in a tuxedo right joe my shit don't go over well all the time when i'm wearing a tux. Yeah. Yeah, so. It's nice to give it a try.

Man. Well, I think what we've learned, though, is that, you know, whatever our journeys were, no matter how crazy or angry or delusional we are, we, you know, we know who we are because of standing on that stage. I agree. And I try to give that to people, man. Like, life is ups and downs. It's the summation of it.

to give that to people man like like life is ups and downs it's the summation of it and we got to enjoy you know the the we gotta learn how to enjoy the downs just like we do the ups because when you see somebody pass you know a few people pass and they smile you know they got that look like i did it that's what it's about at the end of the day whether whether life good or bad, we got to do it. Agreed. Thanks for talking to me, buddy. Thank you, man. It's been an honor and a blessing. That's Byron.

That is Byron. You feel like he just got out of a head? Yeah. You can see Byron do his work. I think you can look him up online and see some of that comedy, some of his comedy. But you can also see him in Honey Boy, the film, the Shia LaBeouf movie

that Byron's partner directed. You can see that on Amazon Prime Video. And a reminder, the documentary about the Eugene Merman Comedy Festival. It started as a joke comes out tomorrow april 3rd on video on demand platforms you can pre-order it now on itunes eugene is an old friend of the show and this doc is about a lot more than

a comedy festival he created it's a very moving story about the healing power of comedy and now i'm going to to play through a pedal through the VibraVerve amp using the built-in vibrato. I'm gonna do a little raga riff with my Stratocaster. Here we go. Just like float man. Just float. this flow Thank you. © transcript Emily Beynon Boomer lives. Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing. With cannabis legalization, it's a brand new challenging marketing category. And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talk to an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company markets its products in such a highly regulated category, and what the term dignified consumption actually means. I think

you'll find the answers interesting and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative. It's a night for the whole family. Be a part of Kids Night when the Toronto Rock take on the Colorado Mammoth at a special 5 p.m. start time on Saturday, March 9th at First Ontario Centre in

Hamilton. The first 5,000 fans in attendance will get a Dan Dawson bobblehead courtesy of Backley construction. Punch your ticket to kids night on Saturday, March 9th at 5 PM in rock city at Toronto rock.com.