WTF with Marc Maron Podcast - Episode 1318 - Guy Torry

Episode Date: March 31, 2022

Comedian Guy Torry spent 13 years creating and running the most famous all-black comedy night in America at The Comedy Store. And now Guy just spent another 13 years making a documentary about that influential weekly comedy show, Phat Tuesdays. Guy and Marc talk about the limited opportunities for Black comedians in mainstream clubs and how the racially divided climate of 1990s Los Angeles highlighted the need to fill a comedy void. Guy explains the importance of comedian Robin Harris in mentoring young comedians and how comics like Martin Lawrence, Bernie Mac and others thrived in the new environment. 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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Along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. 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 i'm mark maron this is my podcast welcome to it i don't think i've spoken to you really since the oscars the last episode I did was recorded before that.

I was actually writing in my update about Chris Rock at the Comedy Store when Chris Rock got assaulted on camera in front of the world by Will Smith. So I think I might have something to say about it. I talked a little bit about it last night at the Comedy Store on stage. Let's see if I can put my thoughts together. But first off, Guy Torrey is on the show today. Guy Torrey, the comedian. Well, he's an actor, but started as a comedian. His brother's Joe Torrey.

He was a regular on Def Comedy Jam and all the typical comic shows that were going on in the 90s. But around that time, he also created Fat Tuesdays at the Comedy Store. And he's one of the producers of a new documentary series about Fat Tuesdays that's on Amazon Prime Video right now. And I got to be honest with you, I didn't know anything about it. I felt bad when I watched it that there was this whole blind side to my comedy history there's plenty of it of blind sides but this one in particular because it was so contemporary I knew that there was a black show down the hall in the main room at the comedy store when I would go to the comedy store in the early aughts or whenever I'd come back and forth but I just always assumed

that was like oh that's not for me but they're having a good time. And I didn't know what the story was and that it went on for 10 years. And it was sort of kind of it came out of something called the Comedy Act Theater, which was a black comedy showroom that lasted for years. That's where Robin Harris came out of. See, I always knew Robin Harris, but I knew nothing about the Comedy Act Theater and how it got sort of derailed as did a lot of black rooms after the riots in the 90s. And then there was this sort of this period, this vacuum in Hollywood where there was no sort of black comedy specific black comedy outlets until a guy put Fat Tuesdays together. And the whole history of that world and the performers in that world who I knew, but I did not know about the impact it had on show business. And that sort of gave me context for the great Robin Harris and Bernie Mac. I wasn't watching those shows back then.

I didn't watch BET. I didn't watch a deaf comedy jam. I didn't know about this world i i knew there was a black circuit and that there was an evolution to that but i didn't know the impact and uh i felt stupid but now i feel educated so i'm happy to have a guy tori on it was great to talk to him it's comedy store talk you know that's what we do here a lot of times comedy store talk that was what was interesting about uh about ch Chris Rock is that, you know, I've been seeing him at the store for the last couple of weeks and then the Oscars

happened. Wow. I was watching it live and then I quickly had to go watch, you know, footage from other countries that, you know, aren't, you know, kind of repressed, dumb language censors. I mean, like America could not handle Will Smith saying, keep my wife's name out your fucking mouth. That would have disrupted America if we heard that, not the fact that he physically assaulted Chris Rock on stage during a live televised Oscar ceremony. Man, had to go look at the Australian feed or the British feed or the Japanese feed anywhere in the world where grownups can hear language on television. grown-ups can hear language on television so here's here's my thoughts on the experience of seeing it live was was just baffling it was like what what what what what the fuck just happened

and a few things in retrospect now that we've got a little distance from it uh first off it was wrong there's no conversation about uh well i don't know will had no but chris no but i mean seriously if you know it was his wife no it was fucking wrong you don't go up and smack someone in the fucking face anywhere it was wrong i mean there's no conversation about that and this other idea that that uh is this what happens when you tell jokes? Are we afraid to tell jokes? No, it had nothing to do with the joke. You can tell whatever joke.

And I don't like that comedians are sort of like, well, this is going to be bad for us. Comedy is always scary. I can't remember a year or a show, very few, that I've done comedy where the possibility of me getting hit wasn't a possibility. I guess it depends what kind of comedy you do. If you're a poker, I'm a poker. Chris is a poker. You know, if you keep poking, sometimes you poke the wrong fuck and you're going to get poked back. Something's going to happen, but you know that if that's what you do, you know the possibility. I've been tackled on stage. I've had guys come on stage and stand me off several times in my career. If you poke, sometimes you're going to have to handle it.

But this isn't about jokes and whether you can tell jokes or not. I guarantee you, Chris did not know that she had alopecia. I guarantee you that Chris was handed a paper, just a bunch of jokes by the writers. They hire writers. He had a writer, probably, for the award show. And he said, I want to take some shots when I go out. What do you got? And he saw a bunch of jokes.

And these were the ones that he was carrying into his head when he went on stage. And the interesting thing about it is he's been working out, man. I've been watching him work out. He bumped me to work out at the comedy store. I've talked to him about his new hour. And he said, yeah. I said, how's it going? He says, it's going.

And I'm like, it's amazing. It comes, right? It does come. So he was ready. He was battle ready. He was ready to do comedy on that stage. And you saw it. You saw it in his eyes.

You saw it in his disposition when he walked out there and took control of that place. Just slam it. He had full-on comedian energy and was going for it. And he took control of that room and made it alive. And then all of a sudden, Will Smith is on stage. He smacks Chris Rock. And then he's offstage. And in that moment, all that happened in terms of the discussion is the guy that has spent

the last 30 years of his career managing his personality to be one of the nicest guys in show business and have everyone like him lost his fucking mind. That's what happened. I don't know what's going on with him, how far back it goes. I don't know if it's relative to a past thing with Chris. I don't know if it's relative to his marriage, to the pressure he's been under, to what he exposed about himself and his memoir. I don't know what caused it. But in that moment, that guy left reality, no longer had a context and decided impulsively and without much reflection to go on stage and hit appear on national television that's what happened a guy fucking snapped can happen to anybody i guess not great timing but it's got nothing to do with can you tell jokes anymore it's got nothing to do

with whether it was virtuous or not it's got nothing to do with any of that a guy snapped and it was a bad time for it to happen and it was wrong that's it but i'll tell you one thing after working at the comedy store and watching chris work the kind of store and any of us who work at the comedy store i could tell you one thing confidently that security at the comedy store in the room is better than security at the Oscars. Granted, no one expected Will Smith to get up and smack him. But still, what should have happened? Well, if you're going to make the fucking Oscars look like a nightclub, you better control it like a nightclub. Somebody should have walked him out, him off figured it out made some decisions

around it how he was going to handle it he went up there at the acceptance speech because he did win best actor he knew he was going to win best actor and that convoluted speech was he must have still been out of body that guy did not when he went up and hit Chris, he was not at the Oscars. I don't know where he was. All he knew was he was following a sort of red hot rage impulse. And I think by the time he got up there to accept that Oscar, he was still sort of out of body and he was still reckoning with, I don't know what. It was almost like he wanted to apologize or wanted to be forgiven in that moment or was trying to explain away his actions. But it was convoluted and it was the most profound display of self-sabotage I've ever seen. And I thought Chris, as a comic and as a comic who has been accosted on stage handled it pretty fucking great pretty fucking great

i mean in that moment it was there was a couple things that happened that i found striking when i think he basically said will smith just slapped the shit out of me and it was almost as if he was speaking to himself to bring him into the present. He went out there all jacked up, ready to go, jokes in the chamber, laying it out, took hold of the room quickly like a comic. And then this thing happens that he has no control over. And the one thing that you have control over when you're a comic is that fucking stage and what you're doing. That's your place.

If there's one place you shouldn't be fucked with it's on stage and at the fucking oscars and i was surprised that like you know you're just dealing with a room full of humans that whatever cachet or whatever gravitas or whatever sort of royalty these people uh live in uh they're just people and they acted like a room full of people that were didn't know what the fuck to do, froze up, and probably wanted out. Someone deal with this. But as a performer, I know exactly what that feels like. You spend your life as a comic trying to have control of the stage, trying to never be embarrassed, never be caught off guard, never be made the fool on stage. That's what you spend your whole career doing.

That's what comedy is. So I assume that when Chris was smacked, like when I was tackled, the thing that you know right then as it's happening or a millisecond after is that you know I'm going to have to take the hit I can't run I can't cry I can't make the fight go on longer I'm not that guy so I have to take this hit with a certain amount of dignity and and defuse the situation that's what you're thinking your first thought is like i can't look like an asshole on stage when you spend your life on stage perfecting not looking like an asshole on stage when you're being made to look like an asshole by somebody's fucking insanity your reflex is how do i not look like an asshole and i think he did a great job with that the whole thing was disturbing but there's no the

conversation around is it safe to tell jokes or was will right or wrong are not real conversations the entire thing was wrong and it's still fine to tell jokes. And the risk of being a comic of a certain type, you know that danger is there. But you just don't really assume that in a room full of peers, on a live televised night, to honor people,

that some guy you've known for 30 or 40 years is going to pop and lose his fucking mind for a few minutes. The other thing I've been talking about on stage, I've been thinking about certainly since Lynn's death, is that in relation to this situation that after four years of Trump and two years of a pandemic and just watching the social fabric kind of fray at the edges, watching societal collapse, feeling the terror of a plague and just not really knowing whether the norms will hold anymore, either governmentally and now socially. It just, it's one of those indications. In reality, Chris Rock should have felt more safe on that stage than he felt anywhere in his life.

And what happened in that moment was painfully human on both sides. One out of control, one trying to handle and control the situation and this can't be the way society goes look everyone's at the end of their fucking rope we're barely holding on we don't know what's going to happen we never do but now more than ever as things break down no one gives a shit about the oscars seriously no one gives a shit about the Oscars. Seriously, no one gives a shit. They don't even know if they want to do them anymore.

The global impact of that Oscars is only because a meme is going to live on for infinity. Of Chris Rock being slapped by a guy who snapped under the pressure of this fucking world we live in. That's scary. And if there's anything we take away from it i don't know where chris went after that moment he got back up there and did his job i know a bunch of people surrounded uh will but you know the comedian walks back into the darkness the comedian works alone no one's got you no one's got you you're all alone out there man and it's not getting any better scary times so guy tory i never met this guy and you know it, and it's a great documentary, this three-part docuseries, Fat Tuesday, the era of hip-hop comedy.

It's streaming on Amazon Prime Video, and I got a lesson. I got a lesson right now talking to Guy, and I got a lesson watching that about black comedy. And I'm wiser for it. This is me talking to Guy Torrey. It's winter, and you can get Guy Tornado. Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be Yes, because that's alcohol and we deliver that too. Along with your favorite restaurant food, groceries, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly.

Product availability varies by region. See app for details. 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. Tori. Yeah, Best Western Plus, buddy. Man, I didn't know that exists. Sure, you know, it's no different than a Best Western. But you know what? I stayed in a Best Western in San Francisco one time. I was playing, what was it, Cobbs, I think.

Yeah. And I stayed in the best it was a nice bit best western down by the by the by the wharf yeah yeah that was actually a nice best western yeah sure they're okay but I mean when you talk about that's the first and only time I ever stayed in the best west yeah well I mean I stayed in a suite in New York that like that I didn't pay for it was all right DreamWorks paid for it in a suite in New York at this place called the Crosby Hotel oh I've never been in a nicer fucking hotel. Really?

Yeah, and I was like, oh, this is what it is. I didn't even know what a nice- I'd say it's a pretty decent hotel. I think the nicest one I've stayed in was back in the day when Steve Sharippa- Oh, the Tropicana? No, it was the Riviera. Oh, the Riviera, right. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

He put me in this suite that was in the movie Casino. Oh, yeah. The big suite. Oh, the Riviera, right. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. He put me in this suite that was in the movie Casino. Oh, yeah. The big suite. Oh, yeah, yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He put me in that suite, but he put me in the suite at the wrong time because I was celibate at the time. You want a suite like that?

You want to be able to, you know. What? Yeah, it's a long story. Celibate at the, just going to drop that? I was, you know know I had been on tour for years you know Def Comedy Jam tour

Kings of Comedy tour all that stuff and I was just like man I can't keep just you know I can't keep gambling like this

my dick is tied right so I started going to church and stuff man we got deep deep and then I said

you know what? If I'm ever going to find a wife, I can't be the wife just begging from city to city. So I ended up... Did you find a wife? I did find a wife. I mean, I'm divorced now,

but I found and lost her. But no, it was cool. It was a nice hotel, huge. And, you know, wasn't getting any answers. But the thing was, with me, it's like, I don't want to pay for that shit. Right. I mean, that's the trick. Right.

You know, it's like, I don't care how much money I have or don't have, but if you're going to spend, it was like a $3,000 suite. Right. If I'm going to spend that kind of money on one night, something better happens. Yeah. Just because you have it don't mean you have to spend it. Yeah. I'm not that guy.

Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, it's, I get, you know, airline tickets are like that for me. Yeah. Well, you have it don't mean you have to spend it. Yeah, I'm not that guy. Yeah. I get, you know, airline tickets are like that for me. Yeah, well, that's one thing I let myself have. I don't have no kids.

I have no wife. I got some money saved. I'm going to fly first class. No, no, but yeah, true. Here's the thing. The way the tickets, you know, it's the logic to me. Like, I can fly to Miami one way for 99 bucks.

Right? I can. I mean, you can, like, right now. Sure, yeah. and then one time i was coming back to la i had to come back last minute for a gig right for a interview yeah and the ticket was 1300 yeah and coach i'm like wait man i just paid 99 to come here and i got upgraded the first right Right. And coming back at $1,300 in a middle seat in coach? Yeah, yeah. And I didn't get my upgrade. I was miserable.

No justice. Man, sitting between two people with bad breath trying to talk to each other, talking across me. Yeah. I'm caught in a crossfire. So it was like, yo. So I had the money. Yeah, I could afford it. But logically-

It wasn't right. It wasn't right. It wasn't right. I know you definitely feel that. I used to be American all the time. Now Delta I could afford it. But logically- It wasn't right. It wasn't right. It wasn't right. I know you definitely feel that. I used to be American all the time. Now Delta- That's what I am now. Yeah, but it's good.

It's a nice first class, especially the coast to coast ones, right? That's 777. You got your own apartment on the plane. I got nine blankets and 10 pillows from 777. Yeah. But the Delta is half the price. It's okay. I mean, not for the coast to coast.

I'll do the American coast to coast. Yeah. Yeah. Delta, the flight attendants are, no offense to Americans, but the flight attendants on Delta are a little bit more pleasing to the eye. Oh, is that? That's what the Bible says. A little bit more fair to the eye.

You've made notes on that? Yes. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Because if you're going to be on a plane for hours, you want something to look at. Yeah. And no offense to American Airlines flight attendants. Some of them are lovely, but some of them have been there since the Wright brothers.

I know. They've been there for a while. Yeah. God bless them. Yeah. So, look, I'll be honest with you. I watched the whole doc. Oh, thank you, man.

And, you know. Fat Tuesdays, the era of hip-hop comedy. Yes. Yeah. But, like, Fat Tuesdays,s the era hip-hop comedy yes yeah but like the factors is there are hip-hop comics but i'm embarrassed because you know i've been talking to comics and i've been a comic and i was a doorman at the fucking comedy store in 1980 what at six or seven wow and uh and i've been i've been talking to people for for years on this thing i don't know i didn't

know any of that shit as well it was the comic store was a little dark secret. Well, just, but even that history of modern black comedy. Oh, yeah. Like, I didn't have a perspective on it. I knew just from being in comedy that there was a different world. Right. But I didn't know what that world was and who was in it. Like, I knew about Robin Harris.

Right. But I couldn't contextualize him. I didn't, you know, when the record came out,'s baby's kids yeah baby kids yeah I mean I knew about him and I knew that he was great but I have any foundation for him because no one did unless you were in that world unless you were at the Comedy Act Theatre you're not gonna and or air black I'm not gonna know what that guy comes from what his you know what makes him great. Right. So it was a real education to me. And how long have you been working on this?

13 years. Okay. So nine years underground, doing it myself, just collecting interviews and collecting research and things like that. Then it was like three to four years ago, I took it to my agency, Innovative Artists. After, you have 10 years of work already? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. yeah, yeah.

But on and off, you know, we go on the road, you put it down, you pick it back up, you get busy, you put it down. But it's tight, man, it's tight. Thank you. It was a great team, man. Those original productions and a Gramnet, Kelsey Grammar's company, man, really embraced it. And then once we got Reggie Hudlin on board, well, actually we got Amazon on board first.

And then once we added Reggie Hudlin, who directed it, man, who directed, my God, everything. Yeah. I think he directed The Last Supper. He directed it? He directed it. Reggie Hudlin, he directed House Party, Boomerang. All right. Black Godfather.

So that guy directed this? Reggie Hudlin, yes. But you had all this stuff that you shot, though, right? Yeah, I had a lot of stuff that I shot. A friend of mine who's an up-and-coming director Bishop Moore we were doing interviews I had vintage footage from you know what was the idea you know it was it was a comedian a Michael Blackson we're on a flight one time going to a gig and he was talking about how he missed fat Tuesday's he's talking about how these young comics

need to know you know about this night what was the how many years what was the years from 95 to 05 see that's so funny because i remember you know i remember because i got back to la i was a doorman 86 87 and then i went and did my own thing because i got all fucked up on drugs when you know and i left and for years i didn't come back i was in and out in and out right and i come back in 2002 and i'm going over there and tommy's running the joint right right right right but i just remember the place was dead. But on Tuesday nights, you'd be like, what the fuck is going on? What happened? You'd be in the OR, in the original room, for 12 people.

And you'd just hear from down the hall, like, ah! Right, right. But I knew looking down that hall, I'm like, I don't think that's for me. It was a big black hole. Yeah, right. I was like, I don't think I'm supposed to go in there. Am I supposed to go in there? Yeah, man.

Yeah, man. And Peter Short says hello, man. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Lovely guy. Speaks highly of him. Yeah, he's a great guy. And I was like, let me see what I have. So I went and looked at old VHS tapes and stuff that I had.

And I started interviewing people with a friend of mine, Bishop Moore. And we started just getting all these stories. I didn't know how important Fat Tuesdays was to certain people. Yeah. And the things that went on in the back rooms or on the sidewalk or in the VIP booths, you know, my staff getting finger banged. Yeah. And I didn't know any of that stuff was going on.

How'd you go, like, now what's the director's name again? Reginald Hudlin. Reginald Hudlin. Now, how do you, because in order to put the whole thing in context, it couldn't just be about, you know, Fat Tuesdays at the Comedy Store. Right. So you had to go back and talk about Comedy Act Theater, right? Right.

Well, here's the thing. Before I even got to that part, I was already laying the groundwork. Right. To like, we got to tell the history of how Fat Tuesdays came about, but why it was important. Right. And Fat Tuesdays was important because there weren't opportunities for black comedians a whole lot in mainstream clubs Right, and so I had to lay the groundwork. I even went as far back as the chitlin circuit even to slavery Oh, yeah, did you really do the research? That was a tough gig? Oh, man

All right, but you know slaves used to you know, tell jokes to massive to keep getting ass whooped Yeah, and if they were funny enough the slave master would take them to another plantation to perform. So, you know, niggas been on tour for a long time. We've been on tour. I'm doing a joke right now about, I say, you know there were some funny fuckers in Auschwitz.

I mean, it's like, it's all Jews. You can tell me there's not one guy where they're like, we gotta go watch that game. Exactly. But see, laughter purifies the air. Yeah.

And when you're going through hardships or going through hard times and you're oppressed, this comedy is going to come out of that and you're going to make somebody laugh. So in that situation and in slavery and with us, period, comedians, we purify the air. We're dark individuals on the inside. Right. We do comedy to bring light to our dark areas.

Yeah. So this story of Fat Tuesdays had to be laid out correctly. Right. So you can understand why this night was important, why having it on Sunset was important, why having it at the world-famous comedy store was important. And the world-famous comedy store is the club that took all the misfits anyway. It took all the comedians that nobody else wanted.

Still, still. So here's these black comedians that no other club wanted. The perfect fit was the comedy store. But walk me through it. So how do you, like, with your brother, Joe, like, he was out here doing comedy,

and he was connected with, he was like the second generation Comedy Act Theater, right? He took over. Yes, after Robert Harris passed away. Well, did you spend time in that situation? Did you go out to the Comedy Act Theater when you were a kid?

No, no, no, no. I grew up in St. Louis. I know. So I moved here in 1992. When I moved here in 1992, this place that Joe had always described- Where was it? In Leimert Park on 43rd Crenshaw. So this was the first reaction to sort of black comics not having the stage time.

Right. Because, I mean, Red Fox back in the day had a club. Right. But that wasn't necessarily a black comedy club. It probably was, kind of. Yeah, it probably was. Yeah. But, like, so the idea was in contemporary comedy,

you got all these white guys doing their thing. Mainstream clubs. Mainstream clubs, but we needed space. Right. Now, there was always a black comedy circuit, but it seems like here. It was a chitlin' circuit, though. Yeah.

It was an old, you know, in clubs where you have one or two comments go up, you know, before a band or after a band. Yeah. You know, it was never really a really a full fledged black owned comedy club until probably Red Fox. But the Comedy Act Theater with Michael Williams started. Right. So that that whole thing, the Comedy Act Theater was where that was the first sort of community effort on a comedic basis to put black comedy on the map in this town. Right. To get opportunities and also to have a room to work. Right. And maybe the only one in the country, the first one in the country.

I would guess that's true. So you would see... Damien Wayans. Yeah, Damien. And Robert Townsend. Yeah, yeah. And Robin Harris. Yeah.

And Sinbad. Yeah, Sinbad. All those guys came to the Comedic Theater and you see the black stars came there. If they wanted to see black comedy, Michael Jordan would stop through. Dominique Wilkins, rest in peace Moses Malone. So the stars would come to South Central to the Comedic Theater to see

comedians that they can identify with, stories that they can relate to. Right, and Robin Harris was the host. He was the guy. Because he got tired of waiting for spots at the comedy store and not being able to go up right and that's when he told marcel warfield uh who's a legend as well i'm going home that's what i'm meaning i'm going to the hood i can't keep coming here waiting for hours and not get stage time so i'm going home home. And at the time, Michael Williams was looking for a host to host the room.

And he's a producer? He created the Comedy Act Theater. Right. What was his job? Like, what did he do before? I don't know what he did before, actually. I know he used to come to the comedy store. Okay.

And he didn't see a lot of black comedians. So he was like, I'm going to start my own club. Figure this out. But he wanted Paul Mooney first. Oh, yeah. He wanted Paul Mooney to host the room. And he said, I can't see Paul Mooney as a host. Well, Paul Mooney goes, Oh, yeah. He wanted Paul Mooney to host the room. I can't see Paul Mooney as a host.

Well, Paul Mooney goes, oh, no, I'm not doing that nigga shit. He said, you call Robin. Call Robin. Could you see Mooney hosting, though? No, because he's such a- He's a singular thing. Yeah. He's not going to play the game.

Right, right, right. You know what I mean? And where did Robin come from? Did you know Robinin i never met robin here's the thing me living in st louis my brother joe was already out here doing stand-up right and robin harris took like joe and martin lawrence under his wing yeah right and a few other comedians so and ricky harris rest in peace what happened to that guy how did he die ricky harris yeah heart attack because I remember him when it was so funny man because back in like 95 like I did the

Aspen comedy oh yeah and they brought all those black dudes out yeah and it was like Bernie and Cedric and Ricky Harris was there

and you didn't see those guys in the snow that was something right because black people black people don't ski we will buy the outfit we'll spend a thousand dollars on a Gucci or a Fendi ski outfit and won't touch one damn slope.

But we look good. We got our brand new skis, our brand new outfit, and we ain't touching it. Nothing. So Robin takes those cats, Martin and your brother. And so I was in St. Louis. But you weren't doing comedy yet, right? No. I went to a Luther Vandross concert in St. Louis. Louis Dix opened up. Comedian Louis Dix opened up. I don't St. Louis. But you weren't doing comedy yet, right? No, I went to a Luther Vandross concert in St. Louis.

Louis Dix opened up. Comedian Louis Dix opened up. I don't know that guy. And he was real tight with Cosby. Yeah. He used to be all Cosby, warm up for all Cosby shows, things like that. Very funny guy. So they advertised Robin Harris is coming to the Fabulous Fox in St. Louis.

Yeah, the big place. And I called my brother, Joe. I said, hey, man, I'm going to get this ticket to see this cat named Robin Harris. He said, oh, no, don't get tickets. That's my guy. I'll get you tickets. I said, you sure?

He said, no, I'll get you tickets. So about three weeks passed, and my brother calls me. I said, hey, did you get those tickets? He said, no, he died. I said, come on, man. If you can't get the tickets, just say you can't get the fucking tickets. Don't wish death on somebody.

And my brother said, no, no, no, he died. So I felt like I knew Robin because all the stories that I heard from my brother. I worked on the Martin Lawrence show as a production assistant. All the stories Martin would tell about Robin. So all the stories about Robin Harris, I felt like I knew him,

but I never got a chance to meet him. So Robin Harris, I mean, the thing that made him amazing and sort of defined what your brother did and what you did was that there was a way to host a situation. Right. That a black comedy environment had to be sort of managed with a firm hand.

Yes. And Michael Williams had a strong hand who owned it and Robert Harris was well respected and ran that room. Right. He'd get into the crowd. Yes. And he would just walk around shitting on everybody. Right. Just busting everybody. And they loved room. Right. He'd get into the crowd. Yes. And he would just walk around shitting on everybody. Right.

Just busting everybody. And they loved it. Right. And no one would fuck with him. No. And then you set the stage and you're like, all right,

now we're going to have a show, but don't fuck with anybody. Right, right. And you set the tone and that's how a comedy club should be. You shouldn't have hecklers. I mean, everybody can't handle hecklers.

I can. But when you have a host. I can do it all right. When you have a strong host that sets that tone and sets that precedence, like Robin Harris and that's what I you know learn to do but it's funny but Fat Tuesdays but you do a different like each one of you guys do a different in terms of like you uh Robin Martin your brother and you you all do it different right you know what I mean right there's something a little different. Like, you're nice. You know what I mean?

And Martin can go pretty deep and pretty weird. You know? Yeah, yeah. But he's not nice, but he's charming. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. So, but Robin, so that original crew was Townsend and Damon. And Damon and Sinbad. But they were young then. They were young. Yes. And even Kenan. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. When he was still doing comedy. Yeah But they were young then. They were young. And even Kenan. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

When he was still doing comedy. Yeah, they were all Comedy Act Theater guys. And Myra Jay and like Marshall Woolfield. I mean, they played the Comedy Act Theater. And Marsha did the store, too. She did the store, too, yes. Yeah. But like they just weren't, it wasn't happening.

I think it was a really interesting point in terms of the history of comedy, this idea that Pryor was this amazing. And he was. But the thing was is that there was a whole world of black comedy going on that you don't know about. And now I'm just an excited white guy going, man, why didn't anybody tell me about this? It's funny because when I took it to Ramnet, Kelsey Grammar's production company, Kelsey was like, he said the same thing you said. He said, I'm embarrassed that I never knew about this night. Why isn't this story, why hasn't this story been told already? That's right.

That's right. And I say, because I've been sitting on it. Well, it has to be contextualized. You know what I mean? And it's sort of like, you know what, sadly, and I was going to mention this, but I didn't know how to frame it, but I remember hearing about the store in those years. Because it was

dying. I don't know why, but it was. And I remember somebody telling me, it's like, yeah, the gangs took over. And it's like, that's not what happened. I think I know what they're talking about, though. There was a night, Eddie Griffin attempted an Urban Night before Fat Tuesdays, for the record. record. It did a couple of months

and I think what ended it was from what I understand it was a fight one night. I think his was on a Monday night. And it was a fight. And Tupac was in there and Tretch from Naughty by Nature was there and a fight broke out and they were beating the guy up.

A fight broke out and somebody approached them and they started the fight. Right. And Tress used to wear that big chain, not like a gold chain, but the chain that you lock your fence up with. Yeah, yeah. He used to wear that around his neck

and I just heard he was beating the shit out of somebody. And I think that, so when they said the gangs took over, I think it was that one night and it kind of scared Mitzi for a while. But I think that sadly, you know, my take on it is it just meant black people. Well, yeah. Do you know what I mean?

They didn't want to say niggas ago. It was the gays ago. Exactly. That's the polite way of saying niggas. Or I like how now they say, oh, that's so ghetto. You really called me a nigga. Urban. So urban. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You really called me a nigga. Yeah, yeah. Urban. So urban.

Yeah. But I knew that there was a dark time in terms of the skin. In what ways it was. Yeah, yeah, right. But even when I was there in 2002, it was like, you know, I knew that the black people were having fun down the hall. There's a picnic going on. There's a family reunion going on down the hall.

It's true. But that's what it felt like. Yeah. So Robin dies. Right. And then your brother takes over? Robin dies. My brother takes over.

And, you know, the comedy store. At the Comedy Act Theater. At the Comedy Act Theater. It lost a little bit of its luster. And then the riots happened. So your brother, how long did it, before it happened? It was maybe only a few months. What year was that?

92. Right. And Robin passed, I think, in 90, I want to say. So, like, in the doc, you really presented it as like, we were about to happen. Everybody was about to happen. Robin was about to happen. The whole scene was about to happen. And then, you know,

boom, that verdict comes down and the place is on fire. Right. And that was just the tipping point. Because you realize at the time, man, L.A. was divided. The country was divided. Because in the early 90s and 90s... Thank God that's over. Right. Am I right? More divided now than ever.

Yeah, exactly. But you had the Rodney King trial. You had Michael Jackson trial, which divided black people and white people. Yeah. You had the O.J. trial that divided white people. So you had all that tension in L.A. Yeah. And like I said, black people have been oppressed for a long time

and we need to laugh the most yeah you know sure we need to laugh the most so that's why you see these nights these urban nights flourish because we got we tell her dealing with you know shit and we come out to to laugh to either laugh about it or get our mind off of it. Right. And I think it was interesting after everything burned down that literally there was nothing going on down there. Nothing. And there was still a community of black comics. Right. So how long and what happened in the interim after the riots?

Did somebody, I don't know, was it you? Well, there were a few rooms still going on, like around the corner from the Comedy Act Theater with Maverick's Flat. I mean, the Comedy Act Theater was Maverick's Flat. What about Comedy Union? When did that happen? Comedy Union came way late. What's that guy's name?

He was in the dark. Enz Mitchell. Yeah, yeah. I played that place a couple of times. Yeah. Yeah. That came way later. Way later.

Yeah, yeah. Because he was actually, when I was doing Fat Tuesdays at the Comedy Store, he was actually one of the managers at the Comedy Store. Oh, really? And he ended up leaving and taking over the Common Union, which would be called Mixed Nuts. Yeah. So he took over and changed to the Common Union, so he started that club.

Okay, so you're saying after the riots, there was still some shit going on? There was still a few things, like the Funhouse, Mabbitt Flat, right around the corner on Crenshaw. Was that just a comedy club? It was a comedy night. It was a club. Oh, a night, yeah, yeah. We did comedy on Saturday. And who was going there? Same people? You know who was hosting that? Who? It was a comedy night. It was a club. They did comedy on Saturday. And who was going there?

Same people? You know who was hosting that? It was J. Anthony Brown. Okay. Very, very funny comedian. He was hosting that. And then at Ladera, in Ladera, the townhouse, was another night for comedy. So they didn't have clubs. They had clubs that did comedy nights. And it's cool, but there's nothing

like a full-fledged, full-time comedy club. It just sets a different tone and a different energy. You mean having the night at a club, at a real comedy club. At a real comedy club. Right. It's a little bit more respectable. Not that these nights aren't important at these comedies. Sure.

They're very important. Yeah. But when you got a full-fledged club, especially on Sunset, where white people aren't scared to come and scout talent, that's better. Well, what's your evolution? When do you come out? So you wanted to see see robin harris in st louis when do you decide to do comedy uh when i got here in 92 i was always a class clown and campus clown but you knew your brother was like right kind of a big deal right right so when you know what what

do you you just decided after college or whenever you go when i got kicked out of college you got for being a comedian not only kicked well basically yes and hitting a cop yeah but anyway that's a whole other story knock his ass out though yeah

but what is that story I was in college and I was at a party yeah in like university center yeah

and students and two fraternities started fighting yeah Omega Psi Phi and and what was it Blue Phi who are they I don't know Sigma Sigma they started fighting. Yeah. Omega Psi Phi and the,

what was it? Blue Phi. Who are they? I don't know. Sigmas. Yeah, Sigmas. So they started fighting and it was like a free fall, like a ballroom brawl,

like the old Western movie. Yeah. Everybody just punching everybody. Yeah. And somebody grabbed me from behind. I turned around and just swung. Yeah. And it was a cop.

Yeah. And that was it. And I didn't know it was a cop when I just turned around and started swinging. Yeah. And it just happened to be a cop. And they whooped my ass and locked me up.

And not only did I get kicked out of college, I got kicked out of the whole town. I couldn't come within 100 miles of the town. What town was that? I only lived 109 miles out. It was 109 miles out of St. Louis. It's Cape Girardeau, Missouri. But yeah, it was. So I moved to LA in 92, man.

And two weeks later, you know, I went to the, I got on stage. Where? Comedy Act Theater. Oh, so and your brother was hosting? He wasn't hosting. He was already done hosting and on a Deaf Comedy Jam tour at that point. Oh, okay. Right.

So when did Deaf Comedy Jam start? It started early 92. Because that's in the movie. So that grew out of the Comedy Act Theater. Pretty much. The Comedy Act Theater and also clubs on the East Coast in New York. The Peppermint was in Jersey. That was a hot room.

They had another one called, I think it was called Uptown in New York. That inspired Deaf Comedy Jam. Was it a live tour before it was a TV show? No, no, no. So, 92 is when Def Comedy Jam started. Right. On TV. Right.

Wow. And who hosted that? 91, 92. Martin Lawrence was host. At the beginning. All the way through? Because it was supposed to be Robin Harris. Oh, yeah.

And Robin Harris passed away. What was the thing that Talent hosted? Talent had a night at the Boston Comedy Club. The Boston Comedy Club. Yeah. I remember that guy. But I thought he was on TV too, BET. Well, he toured with us on Def Comedy Jam after I did Def Jam, but he did Def Jam as

well. And Def Jam ran forever. Def Jam ran forever, man. All right. So your brother's out on tour. You come in and you did the Comedy Act Theater. Who was hosting the night you first did comedy? Oh, you know what?

I don't even remember. Really? I really don't. It was a thursday night but you've never done it before and you just went up there i had done it that i had done it the night before in a club where ricky harris was hosting my brother was headlining and it was gonna be my first time on stage yeah and uh i was in a limo they sent a limo for our brother to go to this club in Mount Clair. It was Clairmount or Mount Clair, one of them. And I'm in a limo talking shit.

I'm drinking rum and coke. And I'm going to go on this stage. And I'm going to tear this motherfucker up. I'm going to get a standing ovation. I am going to be in the Hall of Fame after this fucking first set. I died the death of a thousand damn dogs. I bombed so fucking bad. You thought I was in Baghdad

I'm telling you it was horrible and Ricky Harris went on stage after me and tore my ass up for 10 minutes like he did a bit he was just like man you saw him in the car he was a rock wallah I'm gonna tear him up

then he said he left the stage like like a cat yeah i mean he did 10 minutes on me strong yeah but i went up the next night and did a little better i went up next night at the comedy act theater and i just started going to baby night after that yeah now i know like part of the subtext of the three episodes of the doc is your relationship with Joe. Yes. And it's strained and weird. Yes. And even at the end, I don't feel like it's any better, to be honest with you.

Were you a psychic? No. It's not. I mean, we have our moments. We kind of came together as he was shooting the doc. Yeah. Because he realized that it's stupid. But then Joe's Joe.

Everyone goes back to their corner. Yeah. Everybody's going back to their corner. It's good for a little while. Yeah. Right. And then he appears again. Yeah.

And then we're back to being estranged. And you're both doing comedy still. Yeah. Oh, yeah. But it's kind of wild. You didn't have to do no open mics. You know? And then we're back to being estranged. And you're both doing comedy still. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's kind of wild. You didn't have to do no open mics. You just- I did.

Oh, okay. I did tons of open mics. Oh, I did tons of open mics. So after the Thursday at the Comedy Act Theater, then you had to start doing it for real. Oh, yeah. I was doing pizza parlors. I was doing living room fireplaces. Sure.

It's like living for New Year's Eve. Yeah. Anything to make a buck, because you don't get paid in comedy. We get paid to work out, but it's not a lot of money. But I did all the open mics. I was doing the potluck on Monday nights at the comedy store.

So that was an open mic I would do. I would do the other clubs I mentioned, the Funhouse, Maverick Flat, I would do the improv open mics. Because you're working hard. You're trying to figure it out. It was so funny when Chappelle's in the doc.

His take on the doorman system at the comedy store, which was such a dug-in system. No, you've got to work the door and work the lot, and then you kind of get spots. You've got to get one of these shirts. Yeah, yeah. And Chappelle's like, uh-uh how you doing that yeah i don't know he he couldn't wrap his brain around right who the fuck is gonna do that right because i guess it's different i guess on the east coast i'm not

sure well there's nothing like the comedy store i mean and she had this like and it was there for years right you know tommy did it and it's still sort of there. That the idea is you get to spend all this time making shit, cleaning up and working the door, but you're seeing the real thing. And eventually you get on up there. I was a doorman, lock guy, and I lived in that fucking house in the late 80s. Yeah, I mean, I did the system.

There should be a doc just on that house. Dude, yeah. I almost closed that house down. I don't know if I became a comic, but I certainly became a pretty good cocaine addict. Doing that belly room every once in a while, going up on the original room. But I don't regret any of it.

It took me a while to get my brain back. You're back here. Yeah, I'm back. Stronger than ever. We're doing good. Took me a while to get my brain back. Yeah. You're back here.

Yeah, I'm back. Stronger than ever. We're doing good. So at what point, how does it come together to do Fat Tuesdays? What was the idea? You know, it's funny you say that because I hated the way white people made me feel when I told them I wasn't a regular at the comedy store or the improv lab factory. Which white people? I mean, the people that knew what that meant? Right. Because they were saying, you're a comedian. Oh, when can I see regular at the comedy store or the improv laugh at which white because it's just I mean don't people with that knew what that meant right

because they were saying you know when can see at the comic store and I was like oh well I'm not oh they made you feel like I wasn't a real comic yeah I wasn't a regular my name wasn't on the wall of the Comedy Store I wanted the Improv a laugh at it I wasn't real coming yeah I do that to the parking lot guy hey I got shit on somebody. So I hated that feeling but I also hated the black comedians who were regulars

at the comedy store who would come down to the hood and peacock you know parade around and say hey you going up tonight? Who would that be?

Tyree? I said David Tyree? They kind of like looked like you no I got a spot at the store tonight. Finest Henderson? You know yes.

You come down there you know they would make you feel like you was, yes. He's going to come down there. They would make you feel like you was a nobody. Yeah. So I wanted to change that feeling. Yeah. And industry wasn't coming to see us. And I had an agent and manager already. But I'm like, yo, it's a lot of talented motherfuckers down here.

You know, let me see what I can do. But it goes back to, it's funny, because I think about that. I think about being a kid. And I think about my dad who's a very strict disciplinarian. Drill sergeant. Oh, he's in the service? He was there 23 years in the military, 22 years in Vietnam. He was

strict as fuck. Still around? No, he passed away seven years ago. Oh, sorry. He used to always say be proactive. Don't wait to be told to do something. If you see something need done, go ahead and do it. You see it hang on the floor, even if you didn't put it there, you know it belonged there, pick it up and put it where it belonged.

And when I think about that, hearing that so many times as a kid, and then you bring that to Fat Tuesdays, there was a void. Nobody asked me to start Fat Tuesdays. No one told me to do it. I was like, man, something needs to be done. Yeah. And I'm going me to do it. I was like, man, something needs to be done. Yeah. And I'm going to fucking do it. Yeah.

But I go back, I'm like, wow, that was instilled in me as a kid. Yeah. And you know, it's like, it's so weird to me because Binder does that documentary and he could have had an hour. Right. You know, the comedy on Fat Tuesday. Right. It's probably better he didn't because now you got the whole thing.

Right. And that's the thing. People say, wow, I saw the Comedy Store documentary on Showtime. Man, how come they didn't mention Fat Tuesday? They didn't mention Fat Tuesday. And I was a little offended for a hot second. But I already been putting this together for 10 years. You're like, great.

For 10 years already. But now you can put it in the press material. It's like, we're going to fill in the gap. Yeah. And I'm glad they didn't tell the story because we need to tell the story our way. I think that's true. And the Comedy Store doc was great. I watched it and learned a lot about the Comedy Store watching their doc.

But my doc was in place since 2009, 2010. And it's a better through line. Your doc is specific. You're like, this is basically the history of black comedy in this city in the 80s and 90s. This is how it happened. Right. Because in your doc, you're able to see the evolution of hip hop, the evolution of black presence in movies. Black fashion.

Black fashion and television. Right. Like, you know, you don't really think about it. All is the same time happening. Right. But it all happened. At the same time. It's crazy.

You know, Clinton was in office. Had a surplus of money in this country. Yeah. Expendable income. It was popping. I like all the outfits. It's so good. Right, right. It was popping. I like all the outfits. It's so good.

Right, right. The big shit. You could make a whole other wardrobe out of one pair of jeans back then. Oh, man. When Bernie comes on and that's... Oh, man.

That's Chicago, though. Chicago has a way of airbrushing their faces on their own clothes. Like, what the... I saw one comedian, I think it's... I think it's Corey Holcomb,

one of my favorite comedians, man. And there's an airbrush of him smacking a chick and the teeth flying out her mouth or something. The Chicago Comets, they're a special breed. I love them. They are. But before we get to him, so how does the negotiation go with Mitzi? You got to talk to Mitzi.

She's still got full mind then. I had a manager at the time that was friends with Scott Day. Oh, yeah. Who was, I think, talent booker, general manager. I remember him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember him. He approached Worthy Patterson. He approached the comedy store and was like, hey, you know, my client wants to do a night. Yeah. And

I don't know how much back and forth it was. He came and told me, he's like, look, look, you got Tuesday nights. And that's 95? 95. February 95. And at that point, the store was, because like, I was a doorman there in 87. And it was huge. Right.

But then it like just dropped, man. It just dropped. We had another club started. You had comedy on TV now. Comedy became a little bit saturated, I think. I guess. But like, you know, now it's so hot again. And, you know, who the hell knows why?

I mean, it's still pretty saturated. Right. But now, like people, it's kind of hip. Right. You know, all of a sudden. Like I mean, it's still pretty saturated. Right. But now, like, people, it's kind of hip. Right. You know, all of a sudden. Right. Like, vinyl came back, too. Right.

Exactly. Like, the 80s comedy thing, if anything, it just became sort of, you started to think, like, Jesus, can anyone do this? Right. Who the fuck are all these people? Right, right, right, right. You know, and it got tired, is what it got. Yeah, yeah.

But not black comedy, because no one was seeing it. Right. All right. So, you didn't have any interaction with Mitzi then? I did. No, I didn't. Not after until I started the night. And then we had an interaction.

She would come in like, hi. Yeah. Yeah. She wanted to, it's funny because once Fat Tuesdays was popping. Yeah. I ended up getting a TV show, writing on a TV show. Which one? It was called Minor Adjustments.

Well, that's one thing you make really clear in the doc too, is that this was a showcase for all of the black comedic talent in the city. Right. And all the executives were like, what? Right. And it became a thing because I never thought about that, but that's what everyone thinks about. But at that time in the 90s, it's like you could walk out with a deal.

There were people sitting there that could change your fucking life chris tucker nick cannon nick cannon mike epps mike epps michael blackson yeah yeah you know i booked american history x because they saw me you're so good in that man i'd forgotten it's very good good role many moons ago before i got my teeth fixed yeah but pre-dinner i don't think you would have got it if you had your teeth i know right i look like a prisoner. I look like I should have been in jail. Okay, so she starts talking to you once you start doing the show. Yeah, and she wanted to-

So I moved it to the main room once a month. So you're in the belly room at first. How long were you up there? It must have blown up- Nine months. You were in the belly room for nine months with that show? It's kind of crazy because it's kind of poetic. Because it's like 80 people.

We spent nine months in the belly. Yeah, yeah. In the womb. Right. And then gave birth to the main room. Well, that was the idea of it, yeah. In the womb. Right. And then gave birth to the baby. Well, that was the idea of it, but it was for women. Right.

That's where the bedroom started. The original idea was for women comics to go up in the bedroom and work their sets out. Right. But it strikes me as a long time to be in that small a room for it to take hold.

What made it click so big so quick? You know, after, like, because you switched rooms and you were selling out, right? Right. So what was was the event did it get some weird press or did no no it was it was when we were in a belly room man every week we had to turn people away right okay like it turned people away because tupac would come yeah dr dre would so that's out so people here right and there was no you know realized there was no social media bags word of mouth there was no social media back then yeah yeah i had no money no advertising budget for radio and tv yeah it was just word of mouth right and so when i switched to the belly room i mean to the

main room i did it once a month every first tuesday i called it fatter tuesdays yeah yeah and and and oh i see i see okay it was a success right in the belly room on the other tuesdays and every first tuesday in the main room. And people started knowing that. Yeah. So now when I did that, Mitzi wanted to do it every week after the first one. Because the place was going broke. Right.

And I said, Mitzi, I can't do it, Mitzi. I didn't know that at the time. Yeah. It was going broke. I said, Mitzi, you're trying to have me do 400 seats every Tuesday in a club that has no food, high drinks, and no parking in L.A. on sunset. That's tough. So I fought her off for like six months.

And they said, God, I'm just going to move another room another night on the other Tuesdays. And you can stay up in the belly room on the other Tuesdays. And I thought about it for a minute and said, no, because no one's going to think about which Tuesday it is. First, second, third. They're just going to come. I said, okay, Mitzi, you know what? I will. I'll take it over every Tuesday in the main room. So I had to increase my staff, increase, and just expand.

And the other thing is Mitzi wanted to, Mitzi wanted to, after the show, wanted to open it up and turn it into a club for dancing. Yeah. I said, no. I said, now it's going to attract the wrong element. Because now you got comedy club people and you got people who want to shake their ass people. Yeah.

And shake your ass people who are going to come to the comedy show and it's going to be rude because they want the comedy show to be over so they can shake their ass. Yeah. So I said, no, Mitzi, I'm not a club promoter. Not a shake your ass club promoter. Right. I just want to do stand up. I don't want to do any of that shit. Now, so what was the deal?

She got the drinks and you got the door? Yeah. And so you're paying comics? Yes. That's another reason why I really wanted to do it because and I was paying comics more than what the other clubs were paying. Sure. I was paying no less than 25 bucks a spot. From 25 to 150. Yeah. So

the warm-up person got 25 unless I was doing a showcase. Yeah. And then the first, second, third, fourth spot, average to me went from $30,000 to $40,000 or $50,000 to $100,000, depending on who it was. But you're making good money then. Well, yes, but I'm paying it out. I brought my own staff. I get it.

I get it. It's not a judgment, but I mean, it's like you're doing all right. Well, I'm breaking even or going in the red. Oh, yeah. Because, number one, I did it legit. You got to pay the staff, too. Taxes, IRS. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I had the staff. I brought it legit. You got to pay the staff, too. Taxes, IRS. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I had the staff. I brought my own hostesses in. I brought my own security in. Because, man, yo, there was guys coming through. I didn't. There was guys coming through there with knives and guns. Yeah. And until we got, you know, this officers group security who was searching them the right way.

What's the name of that guy? The big guy? Oh, Big Shorty was security. But then we had to get some professional cops, too. Oh, yeah? Because we had to get a metal detector. Oh, really? And they were, man, Hennessy bottles.

They were bringing their own Hennessy, their own knives, their own guns. And the thing about it is... So you had to send guys back to the car with the gun? Yeah, and that's what happened. They were like, you can't bring it? Brass knuckles? Yeah. And the fucked up thing

about it was a blessing at the same time was I listened to some of my old cassette tapes when I record my set and I talked a lot of shit

to a lot of gangbangers that I didn't know was packing and I'm like what the fuck was I thinking and even my security when we did the documentary

they was like man it was a lot of nights we had to save your ass that you don't know about because this guy's ready to fuck you up after the show i bet and you're just doing it and i'm just like kid from st louis skinny kid from st louis yeah i don't know if i was this dumb fearless or dumb yeah so well i mean you're just doing the job right and everyone's getting a laugh and they probably got a laugh too but yeah there's a fine line between that and like who the fuck's this kid and that yeah and that's what Shaq and and Snoop used to always say to me man you fucking fearless yeah you don't give a fuck who it is celebrity gangbanger you don't care I said man hey when I'm on that stage that's my

house yeah that is my goddamn house but that was that was sort of interesting too like that whole Bernie Mac story I didn't know and like Bernie Mac is is a great example of a But that was sort of interesting, too. Like, that whole Bernie Mac story, I didn't know. And, like, Bernie Mac is a great example of a comic that was, like, that was all black shit. Yeah. And, you know, when he broke nationally on his own show, no white person knew who that guy was. Right. Well, they tried to give Bernie pilots and stuff, but the word was they had trouble understanding him. Well, he had that cadence a very unique cadence I don't know where it came from

well you know what it is funny you say that because I read I read an article years ago about how Chris Rock Earthquake Bernie Mac TK Kirkland and those guys like um Kenison

the preachers they follow they study preachers and preachers preachers they follow they study preachers and preachers have this cadence yeah they have this cadence where they like hypnotize you and make you give up

your fucking money in church yeah so comedians who study that they have that cadence or come from and Obama had that it's a culture yeah yeah

Obama had that in his speeches when he gets on the road and he just fucking hypnotizes you and you're like fuck I'll vote for you. I bet your Bernie grew up with it. Yeah.

Yeah, black churches. And him, him, him. Yeah. And him, him, him. And you just get hypnotized. And you're laughing. Or you're giving up your money and your tithes. Yeah.

Or you're giving up some ass because you're a pimp. Yeah. And you're a hoe. So when you got that cadence that get the gab, it's magic. And Sam Kinison, like you said, was a preacher. He was a preacher. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he had that cadence.

He had that stage presence. It's a different one. That's the angry white Baptist preacher. Right, right, right. It's not as poetic. It doesn't have the same rhythm. It doesn't have the Nelly sing-songy rap style. It's another thing.

Right. No, I can see that, but I like that discussion of bombing about, like, you know, that he was born out of a moment on Def Jam Live. Yeah. Of, like, somebody bombing badly. Before him, yeah. And it's just that, because, like, he knew from upstairs, who was it, Bellamy was talking about?

Bellamy, yeah. So, like, he knew that, like, I'm walking into that. Yeah, and we were shooting the doc, and Reggie Hudlin, you know, was a great director, and he was asking all the questions, and then when he's done, he turns to me and says, Guy, you got anything else?

Did we cover everything? And I remember Bill Bellamy telling that story on a radio station when Bernie Mac had died. So I said, when we were done, when Reggie was done asking all the questions, I said, guy, you got anything? I said, hey, Bill, tell the I Ain't Scared of You Motherfucker stories

of Bernie Mac. Yeah. And Bill Bellamy was like, oh, oh, oh, oh, let me tell you, let me tell you. And he went into that story, man. It's great. And Reggie and Byron Phillips, who are one of the co-executive producers and directors, was just like one of the co-executive producers and directors like

was just like what the fuck and so those moments I'm glad we had a director that that listened to me but then you were able to talk to a bunch

of other dudes that had watched it yeah oh yeah and it was like the way the team edited and put it together was just magic

and all these black comics who were watching it when they were kids. Jay Pharoah, yeah. They were like, they remember it. Yeah, yeah. I remember that bit very clear, man. And it's funny because Bernie Mac was on that Deaf Comedy Jam tour, too.

That you hosted, yeah. That Joe was on. Oh, oh, oh. He was on the Deaf Jam tour before me. So he and Kid Capri had already developed the kick it part. There's that part. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was already,

but the Iron Skating motherfuckers part was fresh. It was improv. But the kick it was like, so that's his mastery. That was inspired.

Yeah, yeah. And that happened that night. Yeah. I love it. But who was on, who were the regulars? Because you have a lot of the people in there

and I don't know all their names that you talk to in the show. Not just the have a lot of the people in there, and I don't know all their names, that you talk to in the show. Not just the managers and the agents and the hostesses, but the comics that were regulars. Right. Who were some of them? Because I had no idea, really, about Chris Tucker's early act.

And he was weird, man. Yeah. And he is weird as a performer. Yeah. In a good way. Oh, yeah, yeah. And he's a nice guy yeah i saw him down in atlanta a few years ago i was working down there but uh but like it was a

very quirky right thing there's a lot of cats high energy yeah yeah high pitched voice yeah animation yeah you know and that that story about him getting the third what was that movie called fifth element the fifth element over tomm Over me. Over you? Yeah. He got Fifth Element over me. I got American Street X over Tommy. Okay, that's how it worked. Yeah. But who were the regulars from the beginning?

Man, Chris Tucker. Yeah. Cedric the Entertainer. Yeah. Melanie Camargo. Yeah. Mike Epps. Yeah.

Luella, I didn't know her. Lunell. Lunell, yeah. Yeah, Lunell would come whenever she would come to town because she was in Oakland. Yeah. I'd put her up. Yeah. Luella, I didn't know her. Lunell. Lunell, yeah. Yeah, Lunell would come whenever she would come to town because she was in Oakland. Yeah. I'd put her up. Yeah. I mean, those were some of the regulars who did it on a continual basis.

Yeah. And Cat Williams. Oh, yeah. You know, they would drop by and come by. Nick Cannon was a kid, right? Nick Cannon was 15, 16, man. So he would go on at that age? Yeah.

Yeah. You know, I met him in San Diego, and he was rapping, and I invited him up to rap. Yeah. To open up the show, and then he got bit by the comedy bug, and then, wow, he just took off from there. And also, it goes into in the doc that there was always sort of women around doing the shows. It wasn't a lot, unfortunately, but I know Monique would come by and do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Leslie Jones.

She was a regular up there. I didn't know she had been at it that long. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's really wild to see her in that form. Yeah. Because I interviewed her before she got SNL, and she was the intensity of that person.

Man. Wow. I remember talking to Leslie Jones, and she was going to quit comedy. It's before she went to New York yeah and she was like god I'm just not it's just not working for me uh I'm not get booking any gigs like as far as acting gigs and stuff like that and I remember I was I lived in Hollywood Hills at the time and I was cleaning up my garage and I was like Leslie you're funny yeah you're you're

you're you're gonna make it just stick to it yeah trust the process right she's like fuck this shit and then one of her last performances in la before she moved to new york was at fat tuesdays i have the recording she talks about i'm about to move to new york and then she moved to new york and then wow you know yeah she just started you know working more and you make more money in in new york doing stand-up than you do in la yeah so she was able to survive yeah i remember talking to mike epps one time yeah mike epps was upset he had i saw him at this this uh club it wasn't even a comedy club yeah and he was like yo man fuck this shit hollywood shit man i ain't booking no movie roles no tv roles out here man

fuck this shit i said mike you funny just trust the process. He said, fuck that, man. I said, how long you been out here? He's like, three months. I said, shut the fuck up. Are you kidding me? You after three months? But then about six to seven months later, we were up for the same role next Friday.

Yeah. And I think it came down to him and I. And Ice Cube saw him at Fat Tuesdays. Oh, yeah. And Ice Cube liked him, and Ice Cube saw him at Fat Tuesdays and Ice Cube liked him and the director liked him and the president of the studios

New Line Cinema liked me and the director liked me and I think it came down to Cube and he got it and he killed it and I was so happy for him like I told you

what were you just talking you were just bitching six, seven months ago now I look at you man even though he beat me out I didn't care it was meant for him yeah Ice Cube seems like an intense guy I'm like, I told you. What were you just talking? You were just bitching six, seven months ago. Now I look at you, man. Even though he beat me out, I didn't care. It was meant for him. Yeah.

Ice Cube seems like an intense guy. Yeah. But he's cool. Real cool. Yeah. No, no. He seems like a- Yeah. He's intense, though.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he- Did he come to the show a lot? A lot. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Cube used to come, man. Yeah. All those guys. Snoop was there on a regular. Yeah. Yeah. You know? I tell you was there on a regular. Yeah. You know.

I tell you, in the doc, like, watching him and Tiffany together, they should do a fucking show. That's what everybody's been saying. And, and, and, and. He gets such a kick out of her. That was a Reggie Hudlin thing. Oh, yeah. Reggie Hudlin was like, I want to pair people up. And he paired Snoop. Because Tiffany's too young for any of this shit.

She was trying to sneak in. Yeah. She was trying to sneak in back then. But, you know, and trying to get on stage but she just wasn't ready, but she ready now. She ready. But he gets such a kick out of her.

It's real sweet. That whole interview, Snoop was smoking. And I don't smoke. I smoke cigars. And I was high from the contact. The whole crew. We shot at his place it's his compound yeah yeah his compound people don't even have houses anymore man he had a house and a company but but that's so smart yeah to have a compound where everything's not his house no it's not his house oh okay his compound is where this is recording studio yeah um he can shoot videos there yeah he can have he

has private comedy shows there yeah he has you know she can sleep there if he needs to yeah but he has one nelly has one in st louis uh-huh they do all it's so smart yeah too short has one you don't have to rent a studio you got you got everything you you go to some area where they're giving away basically giving away warehouses. You gut it. Build your own shit. And you can rent it out to other people. And you can make money off of it.

Sure. Yeah, yeah. It's smart. We recorded it at Snoop's company. And it's a club. Yeah. Snoop got a casino in his. Maybe we shouldn't tell everybody.

I'm not going to tell them where it is. But it's smart. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. So you do this and everyone's getting breaks. This is your compound. It is. My little compound.

Yeah. We ain't going to tell you where it is, people, but this is the compound. It's on Studio. It's not hard to find anybody anymore. Two minutes on the internet. You're like, I got a picture of Snoop's compound right now from the air. Right. And he's taking a dump.

I can see him on the toilet. He's up right there. And he's smoking. Right. He's smoking and shitting at the same time. So you do this and everyone's getting breaks. You're getting breaks. You're doing movies, a lot of movies, a lot of TV shows.

Yeah. And the tension with your brother's growing. Yeah. That's when it happened, right? Yeah. When you blew up? I think it started, I think it, I think it, I start feeling it when I moved out. Because when I first moved here, I lived with him for the first four years.

Yeah. And after a while, I was like. That's a long time. Yeah, I was like, two grown ass men don't need to live together. Yeah. You know, unless they fucking. Yeah. You know, unless they a couple.

Yeah. And we brothers. Yeah. And we like tacos. Yeah. But, so I just wanted my own space. Yeah. I wanted my own place to decorate it my own way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I wanted to be my own man. Yeah. But so I just wanted my own space. Yeah. I wanted my own place to decorate it my own way.

Yeah. I wanted to be my own man. Yeah. And I think he liked having that control. Right. So when I moved out, I think that's when the tension started because I was like, and it made me work harder. I said, I need the burden of having to pay bills.

Right. Rent. Yeah. So that's going to make me work harder. Yeah. And so I needed that. And I think that's gonna make me work harder yeah and so i needed that and i think that's when attention started and then when i started working i think the tension got even yeah you know yeah more and it's weird sometimes like with that kind of tension even when it's family just

can't you can't get it can't let it go yeah and i and i'm gonna be honest with you i'm a grudge holder yeah i'm still mad the doctor who slapped me in the ass when i was born i'm i hold grudges and but but but part of the grudge holding is part of my therapy meaning that's my wall yeah that's my way of keeping you from fucking me over again yeah so i put this i hold the grave as long as i'm mad at you can't fuck me over do you have a lot of people grudges oh man let me tell you something my My nickname is Fallout Guy. Oh, yeah. I fall out with everybody. Oh, really? But only if I feel like you're coming for me or if you're stabbing me in the back or you have a hidden agenda. Right. That's reasonable.

Yeah. It's like, yo, don't. But the problem is you can't know most of those things. You can only assume them. And then it rears its ugly head. Right. Like, I give people too many chances sometimes. And then when I find out, I'm like, okay.

And we may be friends again. Yeah. But it'll never be the same. Yeah, yeah. Especially if we come to fisticuffs. Yeah, yeah. Does that happen a lot? Yeah, I punch a lot of my friends in the mouth.

How many are still your friends? Oh, man. Some of them are still my friends. We made up and stuff. But it's not the same. Once you go to Fist of Cups, it's just never the same. Of course. Right.

So who are the comics that you're still friends with now? All of them. I'm cool with basically every comic, and I'm just a fan of comedy. I may not like it. How's Cedric doing? Cedric's great. Every time I call Cedric, he answers the phone, meaning that when I was putting this sizzle together, and I was putting it together before when I was underground.

He's a St. Louis guy, right? Yeah, St. Louis guy. And he came and did an interview for me. We went to him to one of his sets and did an interview. When I got with Kelsey Gramner Company, and we need to reshoot a sizzle and update it, I called, he answered the phone. He's a great guy. You know?

And then when the documentary came, he was just like, so he's always just been like man i got you but your doc made me like steve harvey more i love steve steve steve always man steve you should let me i think people forget how funny he was i mean he was he's still funny he's still pretty funny he's just and in those interviews great yeah yeah he oh man he's such a great storyteller, too. And Ari Spears, too. The two of them talking about when a black audience starts to turn. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

The stages of like, uh-uh. Yeah. The movement. Yeah. Yeah. The shift in the chair. Yeah, yeah. To look back.

Black audiences are tough, man. I know. That's why I respect Roseanne Barr stand up when she went back and did the Apollo years ago yeah cause she said

black audiences are honest they're gonna let you know if you're funny even now like I just noticed it lately I'm like

black people laughing more at me I must be doing something right man cause you know what like I said we need to laugh the most

and it's like you know I always say this and I say it in the doc but it wasn't the full it wasn't the full statement but white people come to laugh the most and it's like you know I always say this and I say it in the doc but it wasn't the full it wasn't the full statement but white people

come to laugh black people come not to laugh a white person will tell you on stage before you go on stage hey have a good show

break a leg brother be you better be funny motherfucker I didn't brought these tickets I didn't brought my girl out man

you better be funny motherfucker I don't need that pressure yeah yeah but it's but it makes you a stronger better comedy and also like the

the idea that it's more honest or whatever it seems like there's two ways to go that the black audience likes if you can give them shit

and do it fearlessly they love that they like that or they like honest shit but like busting balls is not necessarily

honest shit it's just old school right it's old school right and on the other side they like honest shit. Right. But like busting balls is not necessarily honest shit. Right, right. It's just old school. Right, it's old school. Right. And on the other side, the honest shit or the busting balls. They respect you if you come at them, you know, come back at them. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know? So it's respected because growing up in black neighborhoods or being on the school bus going in the morning, that's what you play the dozens all the fucking time. Right, yeah. That's where it comes from. Yeah, I know. And you can do, you know, and people like hearing the same joke every once in a while.

Man, they do. I mean, you get, man, it's a couple of jokes I've been trying to get out of my act. Yeah. And when I don't do them, people get mad. Oh, really? And like, you didn't do the abs and back joke. I'm trying to retire that joke.

Yeah. And they're like I brought you know my girlfriend up here so she can see that bit I'm like do you have that one footage of them singing along

to Bebe's Kid oh yeah right with Robin yeah like he do it every week when you get a when you get a great

catchphrase uh huh yeah yeah right right when you get a great one man but you can't write it too long yeah yeah like I remember Chris Rock telling me one time he hosted Def Jam one time they did all star Def Jam

celebrity host he hosted one time there was a comedian named Shucky Ducky that went on and Shucky Ducky killed with this Shucky Ducky quack quack first season he did it bam he came back the next season and people wasn't feeling it and he died and i was

literally backstage with chris rock because i was a punch-up writer yeah uh on the show that season and and chris rock says god i'm gonna teach you something yeah never get a hook yeah cool when your hook go you go yeah it's great chris has always got the wisdom man that motherfucker is is is y Yoda yeah yeah he and Chappelle are Yodas he does thinking he does the thinking

yeah man yeah putting it into perspective but the bombing thing like you got that footage who was that Jimmy Woodard in that yeah it was a few

in that particular one yeah but you got something against that guy no you let that go on for a while hey man he's wearing that jacket here's the thing about stand up yeah You let that go on for a while.

Hey, man. He's wearing that jacket. Here's the thing about stand-up. I never root for any comic to bomb. Even if I don't like you. I never want to see you bomb. But when it happens, it's funny as fuck. Yeah, to comics. Oh, my God, it's funny.

I've been in that position, man, when you're on stage bombing, and the audience is looking at you like you took your dick out in church. And sometimes you don't even know why, but you know what it is. Even watching that thing. I mean, I haven't seen Jimmy Ward. Is he still alive? I don't know. Yeah.

But that's him, right? With that jacket on. What was that on? Def Jam was just on stage. I think that was a special. It looked like it was a special at the Comic Theater or something. I don't know. But he's eating it, you know?

Yeah. But, you know, as a comic, like I can hear why. When you're up there, you don't always know why, but you leave your body. It's over. What? Yes. It's an out-of-body experience. Because you just give up.

And you hear it in your voice. Right. You can't get behind your shit. You're confident. It's in the eyes. It's over. It's in your body language. And it's like you said.

It's like your spirit is outside your body looking at you and saying, what the fuck are you doing? Yeah. And your mouth gets dry. You looking at you and saying, what the fuck are you doing? And your mouth gets dry, you get cotton mouth. Get the sweat? Oh, the sweat. Your booty hole tighten up. Yo, man, bombing is the, yo. Because you're trying to hold it together, so then the sweat comes.

I hate that fucking sweat. Hey, let me tell you something. If you're on the back of your neck, you're like, oh, man. I bombed so bad one time in vegas at the riviera yeah one of those midday shows at two o'clock in the afternoon no no no i bombed so bad and it was a audience full of white people yeah i bombed so bad i i couldn't think of any i couldn't think of none of my jokes like all your jokes leave you they betray you after the first few ones die you're like what am i gonna they betray... They betray you, right? Yeah. So then

I was like... Men don't have nothing to do with it. In a room full of white people. I am ashamed to say this, but I'm going to say it because that's how bad bombing is. In a room full of white people, I couldn't think of anything to say. I said, well, let's talk about something. What's going on in the world? Do something. Call me a nigga. Do something. I'm like... And my boy who was there

was like, did you just tell a room full of white people to call you a nigga I was how bad I was fucking bombing like wanting something to spark you know you look for anything to spark make me hate you

yeah let me do an angry set after that I'm tired of hating me right now I was on a road with this comedian one time

doing this creative tour who back in the 95 his name was Sean Sean Miller Sean Miller and it was a creative run.

You do two weeks, and you do these rooms. I remember those, yeah. It's fucked up because the feature who gets paid the less is responsible for renting the car and getting the headliner to the game. Yeah, you got to drive you around. It's a two-man show? Yes. Half hour, 45?

Yes. Yeah. Yes. And it's so stupid. So we had been on the road for a week and a half already. Yeah. Now we're in Atlanta. Yeah.

Right? Yeah. And we're at this club that's a community named Bruce Bruce used to host. I know Bruce Bruce. Bruce Bruce hosted this club and it was in the hood hood. Like hood hood.

They checked for guns at the door. Like if you didn't have one they would can you one. That's how this fucking club was. And it was a tough worse than Apollo.

I mean tough tough room. So Sean's on stage and I know it's routine because we've been on a roll for a week and a half i've heard it for a week and a half i know his his opener his middle his closer i know he's supposed to do 30 minutes yeah right yeah and uh and uh he goes on stage and the audience is not happy they're not they're they're they're dead silent so i see him shifting his set around you, you know you throw that

first joke out there, don't hit. So you go to that closer to get him. And I see him shifting his shit around. He's supposed to do 30 minutes. His name is Sean Miller. This motherfucker did like 12 minutes and goes, hey, my name is Larry Johnson. Good night. They were saying real names.

And I'm like, oh shit, I'm next. So now I'm on stage, and I had some real cerebral jokes. I know this was not the crowd for some cerebral shit. You just want to hit them in the mouth and get the fuck off stage. So I went on stage, and I did all my low-hanging fruit jokes, and I got them dying. And now about maybe close to 45 minutes, about 15, 20 minutes in, I'm out of Yeah. And now about, you know, maybe, supposed to be 45 minutes, about 15, 20 minutes in,

I'm out of low-hanging fruit jokes. Yeah. I'm like, fuck, I'm not trying to go to cerebral shit because they're going to think I'm trying to be too smart for them, right? Yeah. So I go, I look in a certain direction.

Yeah. I go, who mama? And I just reeled off like five or six minutes of straight mama jokes. Yeah. And then I get out and say, goodnight. And one of my boys was just like, man, nobody said anything about your mama. I said, I know.

I said, I was out of fucking material. And I just had to do a Gatling gun of fucking mama jokes back to back and not let the audience breathe and say goodnight. Yeah. So I ended up only doing 30 minutes total instead of 45. Very happy, right? So I got off stage and the owner was like man you was killing him

why'd you get off stage I said oh well Bruce said that man they party afterwards and you know only do 30 minutes and cool but I was like

I was done I'm like fuck this I'm not this is not this was 95 I'd only been doing comedy what three years didn't want to take the chance

with the cerebral jokes man fuck that no no no you had to survive I had to survive man what, three years? Didn't want to take the chance with the cerebral jokes. Man, fuck that. No. No. No. You had to survive. I had to survive, man.

Didn't nobody say anything about my mama. I didn't look at a certain person. I just looked in a direction and made up a heckle. Had an imaginary heckler. Didn't matter. Didn't matter. Yeah. I got out of there alive with my dignity and my pride.

That's good. Larry didn't. No, no, Larry didn't. Is this thing on? It's not good, but it's fun watching people bomb. Oh my God, it's so much fun. Because if you're

watching, you've been doing it a long time. Me too. And when you see it start, you're like, right when it happens, you're like, oh, it happens right oh here we go here we go it's not gonna be able to it's like it's like it's like you hear the confidence the comedian starts to shrink we're like fred flintstone yeah i used to fucking shrink right right you got him brown that's like you just start shrinking on stage and now now your jokes flee you your jokes betray you now you're looking for jokes. You're picking up the mic stands.

I had a joke under here somewhere. Is there a joke under your drink, man? Right, right. And then you're like, so what's your name? Where are you from? Right, right. What do you do for a living? But black comedians are like, man, give it up for all the beautiful black women in here.

Give it up. You're trying to get anything to grasp to keep you from dying the death of a thousand dogs. Well, black people got to struggle. Like me right now. You're trying to rally the troops to get any type of sound. But just that look of like, uh-uh.

That disappointment. Not going to help you. That's why, too, though, at Fat Tuesdays, I made sure I put the lineup. The lineup was important. Not just putting any comic on stage, but putting the right lineup together. I had taught a friend of mine who moved out to St. Louis how to book the room. Yeah, who was that?

Terrence Reynolds. Right. And he wasn't a stand-up, but he moved out here. And what we did was we put all the comics' name on a page, right? Every comic we could think of that was in L.A. and ones that came to L.A. frequently. And then we put numbers by them, one through four. Right. And one being opener, second, you know, who's a good third and who's a good closer.

Was it four or five people on the show? I put four to five. We had fives were people like your Cedric's, your Chappelle if he dropped in, Chris Robb. Those were special people. My brother, those were yeah you're you know your Chappelle if he dropped in Chris Robb those were special people yeah my brother those are special comics yeah you know Bill Bellamy yeah you know but but one through four was who's a good opener right who's a good second right who's a good third yeah middleer and who's a good closer yeah yeah so what we did was everyone's doing the same time no no some are doing seven minutes some are doing 10 or 12 sets 20 huh big sets 20 yes or if it's somebody like an earthquake who knew one who wanted 30 will earthquake do 30 Some are doing seven minutes. Some are doing 10 or 12. The big set's 20? Big set's 20, yes.

Or if it's somebody like an earthquake who wanted 30, will the earthquake do 30? So here's another one who was a frequent one. Cat Williams would do 25. Kevin Hart would drop through. He was a regular. So what we did was we numbered them, and what I did was I made combinations. So you can't have four ones on a show. You can't have a one and three twos on a show.

You can have a one, a three, and a four or maybe two ones or maybe two twos, a three and a four. So those combinations would work for almost a foolproof lineup. What if you don't got a four? Huh? What if there's no four in town? There's usually a four because it's LA. So you had some fours. Otherwise you put two

threes. Right, right. You know? And then I also put that rating as far as their energy. Like, say for instance, you don't want an Aerie Spears and a Pablo Francisco on the same show. They both do impressions. Right. You don't want two guys with impressions on the same- You don't want to exhaust the people.

Exactly. So you don't want somebody who does too much political stuff. You want to mix the lineup up. So I put that formula together so i can give it to you know my guy who's booking it so you can book a show now every once in a while somebody's gonna bomb yeah no matter what of course but at least you have a show yeah where you have a whole show at least at least three out of the four are funny yeah all four are not gonna bomb all three the chance of of all everybody bombing yeah is is is is not gonna. And I thought it was kind of wild.

Like, did you have that Saget shit in the bag before he died? Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. Because that was kind of great that he was like that whole moment of him showing up, the white guy. Yeah. We had a little bit of a little section of the two or three white guys. Right, right.

One guy, I didn't even recognize. I didn't know who that guy was. It was, oh, we had Bob Saget. Uncle somebody. Oh, Honest John. Honest John, man. Honest John was fearless. Yeah, well, clearly.

He was fearless. He would go up in front... When the first time Tupac and Suga came to Fat Tuesdays, it was in a belly room, and that's a small-ass room. Yeah. And before Tupac and Suga and them came, a lot of comics wanted to go up, right?

When Death Row showed up, a lot of those black comics got scared and didn't want to go up oh really honest john was one of the few uh-huh that was like shit i'll go up he's a white dude though yeah yeah and old yeah you know john been that same age his whole he's been 90 his whole life what happened to that guy he's still around still doing stand-up still working so no good he was like he's not afraid of suge he's gonna go up no he wasn't he can give a fuck yeah uh billy gardell is another one oh yeah yeah who i wanted i wanted him in the doc yeah i wanted him in a doc he's uh from pittsburgh but he did he did stand up in chicago right but he's from pittsburgh right uh we have a lot of pirates i'm a st. louis cardinal

fan yeah baseball so we go back and forth when they play each other but he was another one oh i met him up in aspen at the Comedy Festival in 97. And I said, man, you're pretty fucking funny, man. I have a night in L.A. You ever come to L.A., come play my night at the Comedy Store. It's called Fat Tuesdays. And then when he would come, he'd call me. Hey, got him in town, man.

You got a spot for me? I got him. So I interviewed him for The Sizzle. And I really wish I could have got him in this and in the doc doc yeah but he goes man when you told me that i was like yeah yeah okay because he said so many comments have told me that i get to la and then i return my call so you're the only one who would pick up the phone and and and give me a spot and he said what you paid me was just enough to put some gas in my car buy me a beer and some food in my belly, and I appreciated that.

Yeah. And I was like, wow. Because I just never knew how that night was affecting people's lives. Well, I mean, but how many white people could play it? He did it and did well. Yeah. Dice kind of did it one time, and then the second time he kind of ate it. Yeah.

Pauly would come in there and do it. Yeah. Gary Owen would come and do strong there. Would do really well there. And Bob Saget. Those are the ones who... I just love the Saget thing because it was before anyone knew his stand-up. So all these black people were like,

okay. They looked at him like, okay. But they gave him the benefit of the doubt because they were so surprised. Why is this guy here? Right, right, right. And then he just does that shit. Right.

And they were like, oh, shit. Now black people say, that's my man. Yeah. They don't know the name. That's my man. That was funny. When they don't know your name, that's my man. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Someone in New York was walking down the street and somebody was walking the other way. He looks at me and goes, you look like Marc Maron. I go, I am Marc Maron. He goes, motherfucker.

We're so expressive. We're so expressive. And I said, I could use that once a day. Once a day, someone could do that. Motherfucker. So, when you quit it, it just felt like it was done?

2005? You know what? There's a couple of things that made me stop. And I say it in the dark. I was married. I was recently married. That's a job. Full-time fucking job.

I was doing radio in St. Louis from LA. And wait, when did you do the tour with the original Kings? Kings of Comedy was 98. Okay. Oh, so that was in the middle of it. Yeah, 98. And you were hosting that. They picked you.

It was Steve Harvey, Bernie, and Cedric, and you're the emcee. Right. I was more like the prince of the Kings of Comedy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was five years in the game. Those guys were already seasoned. Sure, but how long did you, how many of those shows did you 52 of oh so yeah we did i did we did i did a year of it huh that's great and i left announcing on bt's uh tab with tavis malley bt tonight yeah i

announced i'm leaving because i wanted to become a comedian i was a comic yeah and it's a difference between a comic and a comedian right Right. A comic says funny things. A comedian makes things funny. Yeah. And I saw these guys go out there every night and just tear these audiences up. And I heard these jokes every night. But I laughed every time because you brought them to the story. You brought them to the energy.

You know? And I wanted to be that guy. I wanted to be that type of comedian. Yeah. So I left. And I also ended up getting a TV show that was paying me 10 times as more. You left the tour. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. You know, and I wanted to be that guy. I wanted to be that type of comedian. Yeah. So I left and also ended up getting a TV show that was paying me 10 times as more. You left the tour. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. I did a show on UPN called The Strip playing a Vegas police officer. I mean, well, detective, private detective. How many episodes did you do? We did nine fucking episodes until our executive producer, Joel Silver, cussed out the head of the network. Yeah, that was that. But it was a good show.

So when he ended Fat Tuesday, you just had other responsibilities. You didn't... Yeah, I just got busy. But you didn't want to pass it down. Huh? You didn't want to pass it down. I did.

I did pass it down. Oh, you did? What happened was, when I ended it, another guy came in. Two other guys wanted to come in and take it over, and they met with the comic store. Yeah. And the comic if guy's not involved right we don't have any we're not

gonna do it yeah so the two guys called me and tried to wrangle me back in and said hey man this comic store's not gonna do it without you involved yeah and i said dude i'm done i got too much responsibility but i said i know how important this room is to black comics so i'll tell you what i'll call them and tell them i am involved, but I'm not going to be involved. Yeah. So I lied. Yeah. Because I needed, black comics needed that room.

But I think, but also what you pointed out in the doc is that. It became tripping on Tuesdays after that. Tripping on Tuesdays? Yeah. But what you pointed out in the doc, that because of Fat Tuesdays, it became a thing across the country. Yeah. In clubs.

There was a black night. Right. In all the big city right but at first the clubs teased the comedy store for having nigga night yeah called it yeah and then once I saw how much money was making yeah then the improv yeah started I remember nights was that D-Ray? Way before D-Ray oh it's guy named Zoo Man yeah it's Corey Zoo Miller who's actually on tour with Cat Williams right now. Yeah. But they started over on Monday nights at the Improv. Yeah.

And then Pookie Whittington came from the East Coast and wanted to start. We wanted to interview him, too. We didn't get around to it. But he said he came to LA and wanted to do a comedy night. Yeah. So he was asking the people who got the hottest black night. Yeah. And they said everybody was telling Fat Tuesdays, Fat Tuesdays. So he came and he studied it he said I mean I studied fat Tuesdays

from how you ran it yeah to the lineup to the energy and then he went to laugh factory and he had he called Chris Spencer and and to host the room and that's how chocolate sundaes that's done see Spencer and a lot of Doc's lately yeah I know right he's in the Cosby doc he's in you Fox lately. Yeah, I know, right? He's in the Cosby doc. He's in, you know, the Fat Tuesday doc. Professor Spencer's. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, but he's a very, very smart.

Great guy. Great guy and smart comedically. He's funny. He's funny. He is very funny. So, and so since then, so after 2005, you just, what, you did the family thing? You did the radio thing? I was still on the tour.

I was still on the road doing my own stand-up shows. I was still acting. Yeah. So I was just being pulled in every different direction. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I was like, you know, but I was a little heart road doing my own stand-up shows. I was still acting. Yeah. So I was just being pulled in every different direction. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I was like, you know, but I was a little heartbroken too. Yeah. Because there was, Pauly Short had a show called Mining the Store.

Yeah. And I was a little heartbroken when they showed the marquee. Yeah. And they blurred out Guy Torrey and put Fat Tuesdays. Oh, yeah, yeah. And said that it was a gimmick night. Yeah. And I was a little heartbroken. Oh. And I was like, a gimmick night and I was a little heartbroken.

Oh. And I was like, a gimmick night? It's a decade. I was like, and I was hurt. I ain't gonna lie. I was hurt.

And I said, you know what? I'm going home. Yeah, yeah, right. You know? But they reached back out and, you know, but it, you know,

it was what it was. You know what was interesting, though? I'm forever grateful to the Comedy Store. Sure. I mean, you know, the Comedy Store is a weird place and there's nothing like it. There's nothing like it. You know what was interesting though? I'm forever grateful to the Comedy Store. Sure. I mean, you know, the Comedy Store is a weird place and there's nothing like it. There's nothing like it.

That's what makes it the greatest. Good and evil. All happens in there every night. Before it was a Comedy Store, when it was zero, a lot of evil. Yeah, I heard. I mean, what,

you got the ghost stories? The rumors. The ghost stories. You got a place carrying a lot of shit. Man, what? Yeah. Before I did the documentary, every day

yeah I would sage the place oh I swear cause I wanted good energy for the documentary man for Fat Tuesdays and I go

every morning before a production I would walk through every room and sage it sage the whole place it's so funny because like

I was deep in the evil of that place you know in my brain when I was on coke back when I was a kid and like it feels better it feels okay in there right now yeah it does because I sage every fucking day for

a month I was in a fucking sage in that place man well somebody like you know I think when Peter took control of the thing and got real managers in there real security they started great job fix the bathrooms great job you did yeah man it's like all of a sudden it's like, but honoring the place. But it feels like the negative ghosts, they left. I don't know why, but it's good. It's good energy. It's better energy now.

Yeah. Yeah, and that's why it's hot again. People don't understand how important energy is. It's true. In a space. Yeah. That whole, the ending where, you know, all those people from Fat Tuesdays who won a representation on that wall. Right. And you did a a space. Yeah. That whole, the ending where, you know, all those people from Fat Tuesdays who won a representation

on that wall. Right. And you did a little presentation. Yeah. A big reveal, you know, that Peter signed off on it. And he did, man. And he was respectful to the process. He was respectful to the legend of the wall, but also respectful to Fat Tuesdays being

important to the comedy store right those comedians being important to fat tuesday right and and and putting those names on the wall because some of those guys you know earned it sure you know they earned it before like like like d militant yeah who passed away since you know i hate they didn't get a chance to see the doc, but he passed away, and he was passed as a regular, but Mitzi wanted him to change his name to Whipsy Willie. And he was like, no. And his name never got on the wall. And he was someone that should have been on that wall

a long time ago. And the thing about it was, and Marshall Warfield's name either was on the wall and got covered up, but it wasn't on the wall. So she definitely deserved to be on the wall, too. She got up there again with the new crew? Yeah.

She was definitely up there. Sometimes things get, they move shit around. I don't know if it was behind the sign or something. I don't know. But I scaled that wall. I mean, I scoped it out many times and never saw it. But T. Miller Tant, all of them got emotional. scaled that wall i mean i scoped it out many times and never never saw it but d miller time all of them got emotional and cedric was even emotional when i told him and he was like man i

got a star in hollywood walk of fame but i don't have my name on the wall and he used to kill fat tuesdays yeah but the thing about it is d miller time when i told him yeah he got super emotional yeah and and i think now in hindsight i think he knew he was dying at the time and to have his name on the wall he got emotional because he said wow you know that's gonna stay there finally yeah yeah i'm i'm you know i don't have a star in harvard walk of fame he has great books he's written on black comedy history black comedy but to have his name on the wall before he passed away i I think, really meant something to him. Yeah.

Well, I mean, it was beautiful. Because we understand it. But, like, it's such a specific crew. It's only comedy store people are going to know what the fuck that means. Right. Most people just look at the wall going, oh, look at that. Right, right. They don't know.

We're like, God damn, where's my fucking name? Right. Well, man, it's a great doc. And it was a great story, and I learned a lot, and I feel good to know all that history because I didn't have it. I appreciate it. And I'm a guy that lives and breathes the store, really. Man, that's a great place, man.

Yeah, yeah. I had one in the early versions of the doc, of the My Sizzle. You know, people call it a the comic store the mecca of comedy I had a photoshop of of of of some

people praying on their knees oh really and the comic store in the background yeah yeah yeah that's funny it's the mecca the funny thing is

is that for years you couldn't get industry to go in that place right I mean when I was there in the you know after you know that

when that dark period happened right they're like I'm not fucking going there right that place is creepy. Right. But during Kennison's reign, that place was dirty, man.

And what's funny, too, is there's a part in Fat Tuesday when Suge Knight was coming on the regular. Yeah. Some industry got scared. Yeah. And they wouldn't come because they heard Suge was there every week. Yeah. So it was like, damn. This is when, you know, the 90s when people were scared of Suge.

Yeah. Not that they're not scared of him now, but he is locked up. Yeah. It's so funny that I remember, like I get such a kick out of that. You remember when Cat Williams was losing his shit on stage? Yeah.

There was like someone's phone video coming on or coming around. There was some black lady's phone video. Right, right. And they're just taping, you know, Cat losing it. And then Suge comes on the stage

and all you hear is, is that Suge? I think that's Suge. That's when Suge, I think, was managing Cat hear is is that Suge I think that's Suge that's when Suge I think was managing Catboy yeah but it was just she was giving shit about what was going on

that's Suge that's Suge I love it good talking to you man this has been great man it has been make sure you check out my website

GuyToryLive G-U-Y-T-O-R-R-Y L-I-V-E dot com and follow me on Instagram and Twitter at GuyTory G-U-Y-T-O-R-R-Y-L-I-V-E.com and follow me on Instagram and Twitter at Guy Torrey, G-U-Y-T-O-R-R-Y. Good talk.

Okay, once again, the three-part docuseries Fat Tuesdays, the era of hip-hop comedy is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. That was great. It was fun to talk to Guy. Old school comic talk. Here's some guitar.

The guitar I played right before the guitar you're about to hear was actually better. Just saying. There's no way you can know. No way. guitar solo boomer lives monkey and lafonda cat angels everywhere Boomer lives. Monkey in La Fonda. Cat angels everywhere. 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,

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