optimal minimal at this altitude I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking can I ask you a personal question now in a broken time what if I did the opposite I’m a cybernetic organism living dissue over a metal endoskeleton this episode is brought to you by Trunk Club you know I’ve used them and here’s why especially in the holiday season last minute gifts at airports the family you have enough crap to worry about during the holidays without having to think about mixing and matching picking out buying clothing Trunk Club has your back here’s how it works Trunk Club takes the hassle out of shopping by shipping you a trunk of clothes that fit perfectly make you look amazing and in this case they would include custom picked fall and winter styles so go to trunkclub.com you answer a couple of simple questions about your style preferences and size and you’re assigned an expert stylist they curate clothing from Top premium
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[00:02:00] book cover prototypes for the 4-Hour Body which went on to become a number one New York Times bestseller I’ve also used them for banner ads illustrations and much more with 99 designs you get a variety of original designs from designers around the world give your feedback and then pick your favorite your happiness is guaranteed so check out some of my competitions and designs and some of your competitions and designs from fellow Tim farer show listeners at 99designs.com and right now you can get a free $99 upgrade on your first design so check it out 99designs.com hello boys and girls this is Tim Ferris and welcome to a very exciting episode of the Tim Ferris show at least I hope it will be because it was for me of course every episode it is my job to deconstruct worldclass performers whether they’re in entertainment military chess sports or otherwise how do they do what they do what are their routines what were their influences favorite books what did they do for ex exercise what is their favorite cereal
[00:03:01] if it comes down to that etc etc and this particular episode features Jamie Fox Jamie Fox is the most consumate performer and Entertainer I have ever met and I’ve met a lot of people he blew my mind uh we spent two and a half hours together in his Studio at his home he is an academy award-winning actor a Grammy award-winning musician and of course he cut his teeth as a famous standup and improv comedian he can do it all and in our conver ation which goes all over the place we do cover it all and that includes him playing live music just to off the cuff it includes impersonations Oprah Mike Tyson Kermit the Frog Bill Cosby Clinton Reagan Sammy Davis Jr Ray Charles and dozens more Morgan Freeman it goes on and on but he also talks about his origin stories so how did he for instance match a 1 million party thrown by Puff Daddy with $400 in La how did he go about doing that how did he build up his fan base what was it like
[00:04:01] to bomb in the beginning that’s b o m b not b m even though I said it that way the connections initially how did he connect with Kanye how did he connect with Jay-Z farel Etc and uh we get into a lot of nitty-gritty we talk about hard times we talk about what he learned from his grandmother the skills he developed as a kid what he uh uses as as far as parenting Style with his own kids we go really deep and all over the place uh I I was so excited and nervous at the same time in this interview it was one of those times and for those of you have done interviews you’ll know the feeling where the stuff that’s coming out is so good you compulsively check the audio equipment to make sure that you’re getting it so uh I hope to provide some bonus material on top of this and we’ve had that before for instance where Arnold Schwarzenegger has answered some of your questions after the interview and uh to get any of that you will need to sign up for the newsletter so just go to 4hourworkweek
[00:05:02] domcom Friday that is uh 4hourworkweek docomo Fridays which is just a short bullet list of all the cool things that I’ve managed to find in a given week and I send those out on Fridays so sign up for that and you might get some goodies related to this episode so check out Jamie on Twitter IM Jamie Fox Foxx and for all of the notes all of the links the resources and so on from this episode as always you can find it at 4our workk we.com podcast with all the other episodes and that all having been said holy [ __ ] put on your seat Bel have a cup of coffee and please enjoy the incredible Jamie [Music] Fox Jamie welcome to the show man thanks buddy I’m so excited to be here I’m I’m admiring your setup here this is this is where the magic happens to be honest
[00:06:00] with you a lot of magic happens here for for the people that are listening uh we are actually in my studio uh my home studio now you know Studios we’re talking about tech World Studios because of tech world uh a lot of them disip dissipated in closed doors because um if you think about when LMFAO came around they didn’t need Studios they did all of their music on the laptop right flying from here to Germany or whatever like that and just dumped it on to uh and and just Pur up the C CD or the iTunes so studios are almost becom an obsolete but there’s something very interesting about this studio first just for people that are listening this studio and I’ll describe it it’s you know it’s sort of plush the carpet is great we’re can sit next to a grand piano uh you hear the grand piano which a lot of places so we keep a grand piano around
[00:07:01] just to make sure that we don’t lose you know we don’t get too techy but what’s interesting about it is it’s actually electric but it’s an electric grand piano so we still have the wood to give you that warm sound uh which you know we I think it makes a lot of sense because as music starts to progress uh because of the way we record now sometimes you lose a little bit of the heart of it so I think within the next 20 30 40 50 Years it’ll be you know this type of music the real sound will you know remain if that makes sense now the studio when I first got the house looked like a a old porn set it had a it had like a old basement carpet and a couch and like a Metallica uh metallic poster and I was like what would I do with this because I needed a place to to work and do music what’s interesting now I got a guy to change the whole place over and as you can see we’ll take pictures and show it for you for you guys that are listening but the did a very good job in it but if you
[00:08:00] look over here this is where we do the recording there’s there’s a booth which is normal but also the recording on both sides we’re able to do animation we’re able to do uh if we want to do ADR for movies um what is ADR ADR is like when you um like when we’re doing the movie but we’re recording the the movie outside it’s a lot of noise are you doing pickup audio so we’ll do pickup audio uh so uh and so and and most any actor or actress would tell you ADR is the worst thing in the world to do so to be able to have here have it here I could do my ADR here I could do my animation here and things like that and so just the now the the studio itself the actual brains of the studio it’s a old hard drive and the reason I kept that old hard drive I used to have a smaller studio in a smaller house but when I had that small Studio I wasn’t in music I built the studio in my smaller house because I wanted to get in music but I was from Comedy and from acting and things like that but what I would do is I would throw parties and I would
[00:09:01] invite musical people over uh at the party like but and when they would come over like if I had puff or or Snoop or back at that time John B or or Brian mcnight I was say hey man you know I’m trying to get in the music would you leave me some music in my studio so people leave me like 16 bars 24 bars cuz I they would they would record something while they were in the studio they would record we’d have the party going I said hey man let’s go in the back you know while we drinking and whatever like that and go I said hey man just leave me a little something cuz I was trying to get into uh to music and then I met this kid uh uh named Brion Prescott basketball we play basketball and all this kind of stuff pick up basketball games and he said hey man why don’t you ever do music I said man I’m trying to get into that [ __ ] man I just you know I don’t know how to get into it and then one day he I throw this big party and uh it was a um uh the party was was crazy because as I digress a little bit I would follow puffy comb around back in the day when
[00:10:00] it was just like puff and JLo and and back at that time no one could get into his parties but the reason he would let me in because I would carry a camera with me everywhere I go but it was back in the day day like you know the big cannon cameras wait he would let you in because you carried the camera yeah because at that time I wasn’t Jamie Fox I was just Jamie Fox and uh uh so I couldn’t get into all the parties because puff was so big like he come to La we couldn’t even get in our own clubs right but I popped I I I took a town car everywhere he went jumped out of the Town Car one day and said yo puff can I record now at that point he didn’t know you at all he knew me he knew me the the kid that was on the Living Color whatever like that but it wasn’t elevated right and plus he was having parties that were like huge like nobody’s getting in and so they was he saw me with the camera he’s like yo let him through and it was back in the day it was like the big cannon camera with the light and I had to change the battery it wasn’t like how today you just got your your phone in your pocket no I had I had production but uh I would follow him around and then one day we had this this party in Philly that I I recorded for him and he said yo your
[00:11:01] money you know how much this party cost say what said it cost a million dollar for this party I said you paid a million dollar for a party he’s like yeah that’s how we I told PFF I challenged him I said I’ll throw you a party at my house in La which is way smaller than this situation but I’ll spend maybe $400 and it will rival this party not in the scale of it but in the type of people that there and he was he was a little upset you know puff is a you know he he always likes to win comp he’s a competitive guy yo you you must out your [ ] mind Playboy you going understand the essence of this part I like all right I I get it and uh he actually came to uh La a few weeks later and it was a Saturday he said yo Playboy make that [ ] happen so he calls me like 9: in the morning right for that night for in the morning he just said for the day for the day I said no problem so I go into my cell phones call I have a I have a list of people uh that since I first came to La the way I got into uh um um knowing
[00:12:02] everybody I was the first I was the first social media guy without social media I would go do a standup comedy routine at a club if they like the routine I had Q cards back in the day and would have people sign Q cards sign their name did you like the set give me your pager number I will text you and let you know where I would be time to time yeah I wish so they were like index cards index cards so a box and I had these got to get rid of this fly man stop for a second see we get rid this fly all right so we’re picking back up I just have to we took a fly break yes so it was a I I just have to admire this cuz the studio is what would you say maybe like 30 30 by 15 ft on the floor and then another 15t tall and you said I’m going to stop and get this fly yeah I saw a fly saled my man this is a lot of space and it took you about 7 Seconds to try this fly down and kill it I was very impressed got to get [ __ ] done in here we don’t have time so so
[00:13:01] the Q cards so so what so I would get Q cards and and you like I said I would send it you know I had a list of about 800 people had 600 women because women at that time this like around 90 91 women at the time would love to go to comedy clubs so was all the pretty girls cuz pretty girls like to laugh you know about eight nine girls together Jamie you’s so crazy so fun whatever and so uh I had 800 signat just 200 guys because they wanted to be where the girls were so I would take that list and also say okay now I’m having a party here here here whatever whatever if you want to come by so that same list along with the other people that I met as I as I started to grow in the business I text and said I’m throwing a party for puff and this one puff had uh we ain’t going nowhere was out and it was BL it was popping I mean even the LA dudes was like man we don’t want to [ ] with this New York dude this [ ] is so the song is so hot so I text I said listen I’m I’m puff is coming and the
[00:14:01] people that I text were only cool people like no guys that to be hating you know uh the girls are pretty uh uh not [ ] but not not too tight right you know what I mean it was just it was just really it was it was it was and so I hit him at 12:00 noon I said yo where you at we at a fevered pitch it’s going off over here in my little house and when he gets there his mind is blown and you know he shows up with the Entourage that you know he puff he was like Gatsby and he walked in he says oh that’s the girl from that show and that’s the girl on the and I said yeah puff we we all live out here you know so all the people you see in Hollywood I know they’re my friends and so he’s like oh [ ] so the party is incredible we’re playing his music through my little sound speakers everybody’s really toasting him and I said Puff the people that are here are different in this what the [ __ ] so another fly hold on stay right
[00:15:04] there good night two for two two for two so so so so he’s he’s admiring the the it’s it’s crazy and um and and everybody’s in tune with him and I explained to him I said puff let me explain to you who you are I said these are the people who not only live in LA but I think I found the right set of people who app appreciate the art as well because what you do musically and what you’re doing on the artistic side is blowing our minds as well and I said therefore look at the table I only spent $400 on the table there’s Kentucky Fried Chicken I just put it in a nice Bowl uh there’s Cola I just put them in pictures I said so no more than $400 but people are he I said because here’s the thing a fitted baseball cap New York fitted it’s $58 maybe retail I said but puff on your head on your head is priceless we just want to be around this fly [ __ ] right so we partying puff is
[00:16:01] partying and then there’s a dude standing uh next uh like on the wall no one’s talking to he got a little green jump jacket on guess who it was it was Jay-Z nobody knew who he was Jay-Z K I said yeah I know that dude uh missell has one room puff has the other room then I go to my garage to grab some other drinks and I see this tall dude and this little dude and they’re like the little guy goes yo B it’s like this all the time I said yeah what do you mean you know the girls and I said yeah yeah man who are you oh we’re the Neptunes my name is for real I said yeah man I heard of you yeah man I like your [ __ ] so that’s how long ago this was amazing so here’s how I make the music play though so as Puff is there I get people to leave me different bits of music or whatever because I’m trying to get into the music thing so I turned that into a show in a sense to where I would just have different people I would toast and try to you know get my music on so one day my boy Brion brings in in this kid he has a backpack on his
[00:17:01] Jaws a little busted his name is Kanye West and I say yo yo who’s who’s that I said yo that’s a new Kid Kanye W he coming on I said really what he do said he R I said well [ ] he got to perform that [ ] because everybody comes to this to my house they got to perform so I said yo man they say you the [ __ ] and he was really quiet you know I said man let me hear you rap you need your Beats or whatever he said I don’t need no beat freestyle BL every I mean chop everybody’s head just amazing I said dude I don’t know where you come from but you are going to be one of the biggest stars ever and he says I actually have a song for you I said Mah me a song like what you mean he said I got this song he says I want to record I said well you happen to be in luck because I got a studio in the back so we go in the back and my studio at that time I call it the Porsche it was a lot smaller than this it was really like n it was like a uh it was like a C Jet it was compact it was compact the sound was
[00:18:01] toasty I had uh Engineers from all over the the the city dial it in so that when real artists come they don’t think that oh this just comedian [ ] around some real [ ] so we go in and and and uh Kanye you know quiet but but at the same time he knew what he wanted he says okay the song goes like this she say she wants some Marvin Gay some Luther van a little I said I got it and I started going she say she wants some my get and he said what the [ ] are you doing I said well see young man you don’t know nothing about R&B see I’m an R&B [ ] see I I got to give him the [ ] you know I got to put the [ ] on it and he goes really politely he says hits the the button he says uh don’t do that I said but you don’t know what you’re talking about brother uh that ain’t how the song go you got to sing it this way so in my mind I’m thinking you know what I’mma sing the [ __ ] the song is whack it’s not going to make it cuz I’m thinking old school R&B but he was teaching teaching me the Simplicity of hip-hop which I didn’t
[00:19:01] know I was like what cool guy great rapper I don’t think it’s going to happen for him so I go off and do a bad movie and when I come back my boy says remember that song you said was wh I say yeah it’s the number one in the country You Kanye and twister Kanye’s first record and it was actually Twister’s record I said oh [ __ ] so I’m at a club he saids you don’t believe me I said no I’m we’re in Miami he they played it everybody ran to the dance floor I grabbed the mic said that’s me that’s that’s that’s my song I’m I’m on that you know and so the music that’s how I got into the music now the reason the story is significant is because the same brains that we use that same hard drive that we use I brought it to this studio so that hard drive is magical because we also did just to give you a history on the on the music Brion found that song Slow Jams it went number one and then as we started getting into music there was a song that Brion brought in and he would play these Brion would call me
[00:20:01] like he said you want to be in the music business it’s like you know 2: or 3 in the morning he called me says you want to be in the music business I said yeah he said and wake your ass up I said what he said I got this song you got to hear so I drove all the way from my house in the valley to this to this uh to this to this little Studio he says are you ready [ ] are you ready and Brion always says everything three times are you ready [ ] are you ready are you ready I said yeah yeah man play this [ ] so he plays it and the song was blame it on the goose got loose blame it on the I stopped it I said listen first of all please tell me that’s my song he said yeah it’s your song but you got to record it right now because a lot of people are listening to this song and they don’t know if it’s a hit or not he said but I know it’s a hit we did Blame It On the Alcohol that night I sung it exactly like the record which goes way in contrast to my R&B Roots cuz it was Out Of Tune and everything like that but we wanted to sing it exactly like the demo so we wouldn’t lose the essence of it I don’t want to be like Blame It On the Alcohol you know some corny [ ] so
[00:21:00] we did that and then we went from every the way we broke that record is that we went from every club we went to the strip clubs first went to the strip club strip club we went we we did a East Coast run said we we’re going to break the record in the east coast so we went to the strip we went to New York um my man pek us took us around uh and I would go into the club and use my comedic you know vernacular to get the song off I said fellas you ever been uh at the club you meet a girl you’ve been drinking you think she look like haly Berry you get her back home she looks like haly scary you know what you got to do blame it on the goose guys feeling loose blame it on the stop the record ladies you ever meet a guy you get back to the house with him and you’ve been drinking too much and you say I usually don’t do this but you do it anyway you got to blame it on the so we took that and we went all the way down from New York all the way down to Miami this is like 2008 and then the song took off and so long story longer blaming on alcohol was
[00:22:01] done here slow jams was done here so this studio has that that Essence to it that you just you don’t throw that away and just the building itself Natasha bingfield has been here she’s cut Kelly Roland’s been here she’s cut the game has been here he’s cut right here on this floor and I’m sure uh for you guys listening I’m pointing to the floor to the carpet a young man by the name of Ed sharing slept on this carpet for like six weeks uh trying to get his music career going uh he came from over from London he heard about a live show that I do in LA so really want to do your live showare if it’s possible uh you know because I have some music that here this kid with this red hair I’m like man you do my live show and it’s all it’s mostly black you know what I’m saying but it’s really like music people like really hardcore music people they’re very finicky you know people that have played for Stevie W Wonder people will come there I mean I had Miranda Lambert one night I had
[00:23:00] Stevie Wonder on stage I had baby face I said so this is the real [ ] you talking about you know you come here I don’t care about the London and the accent you got to really come with it said I think I’ll be okay I all right so I Tak him to my live night 800 people there people’s playing black folks sweating and just getting it you know what I’m saying I mean people singing and you know they would they would tear American Idol up you know these people don’t NE hasn’t haven’t necessarily made it so all of a sudden Sharon gets up with a ukulele walks out onto the stage and the brother that was next to me was like yo Fox man who the [ ] is this dude right here man with the red hair and [ ] in the [ ] ukulele I said man his name is Ed Sharon let’s see what he does within 12 minutes he got a stand in Ovation wow from that crowd and I said bro you’re on your way so this studio has a uh like I said a lot of history and it has that magic to it as well Mojo yeah now you uh you mentioned getting into
[00:24:01] music but it seems like from what I’ve read of you that music in some ways came first music did music did my when I was a kid my grandmother uh made sure that I took piano lessons and you know that’s tough for a little boy in Texas you know playing furry lease and chopan and moart we’re not talking about Houston or no we’re talking Terrell Texas and I love my City My City was dope because it was only 12,000 people so it was like literally like 12 or 15 families so we all knew each other but you know for a little boy playing at that time you know the kids didn’t understand yo man why you doing that my my grandma want me to do this you know so I would sometimes I would be belligerent and be like why you want me to do this he says the reason I want you to learn classical piano is because I want you to be able to go across the tracks and play your music for people listening across the tracks or on the other side of the tracks for a southern city was the tracks in a southern city separates the city one
[00:25:02] side is black the other side is white so in our city the South Side the south side of town was where all the black folk live the north side of town was where the white folks live so she says I want you to be able to go on the white side of town and play classical music so she taught me how to play classical piano um a lady by the name of lenita Hodge taught me how to play classical piano and I literally would go on the other side of the tracks and you know and and start playing for like wine and cheese parties and things like that but my grandmother took it a step further too cuz she was able to see the future uh here’s a lady with her eighth grade education she had her own business for 30 years she had her own uh nursing school business she says when I say across the tracks I don’t just mean interal and those people over there I mean the metaphoric like across the track like mean everywhere in the world so you she said because music connects you to the to to the whole world so in doing that I would connect with people
[00:26:02] on the other side of tracks who you know in a southern city and ter you know we were little we were a little behind the curve when it came to race relations let’s just say it that way without you know I don’t want to demonize my my my hometown but there was there was that who’s a little black kid and my grandmother be like don’t you know play do your thing and when I would play you know a lot of that broke up broke you know broke up I remember even like being armed with just my music in sort of that racial setting at some sometimes like there was a a time when there was a Christmas party were these paid gigs yeah I make like man I get like 10 $15 you know what I’m saying at that time was a lot of money and I played for the church so playing for the church I would make like uh $75 a week so if you count that up that’s like 300 a month you know real money that’s real money at 134 my grandmother would take the money though said Put it you know and give me this money so Grand what you doing my money [ __ ] you ain’t you ain’t paying no rent you going to give me this money so but I remember at that time
[00:27:01] being armed with just my music and uh there was a Christmas party that I was supposed to play for myself and my best friend who was 17 I was 16 at the time and so here was a little bit of the the racial misunderstanding shall we say I went to play for the guy it’s Christmas time maybe it’s like December 17th and we show up it’s two little black kids on the white side of town and uh when he opens his door and he sees these two little black kids on he say what’s going on here I said well I’m I’m here to play for your Christmas party sir then why are two of you here at the same time I said well I don’t have a license he you know he drove me uh is there a problem yeah there’s a problem I can’t have two [ __ ] in my house at the same time and I was like ah well you know I’ve been sort of used to the racial misunderstandings and I said well is there any way he could wait outside or wait and he can’t wait on the street starts at 6:30 now you got to make make your mind up now so I said I told my boy I said l’sen just just come get me at 8:30 which was pretty late you know for
[00:28:00] kids at that time you know uh so I go in he says where’s your tuxedo I said well he didn’t tell me to have a tuxedo so we go into this room which looks like a bedroom and I’m looking like why the [ ] does he have clothes hanging up in his bedroom but it was a walk-in closet I never SE no [ ] like that I like man we make a split Lev condo out of this [ ] so he gives me a Brooks brother’s jacket that had the patches on the elbows I’m like oh [ ] H so now I’m really playing you know what I’m get but as I’m playing uh they were doing uh the grown-ups there we’re doing uh racially misunderstanding jokes I’ll say it like that and my grandmother taught me something at that time she said uh when you’re in a setting like that uh there’s a word I want you to remember it’s called Furniture I said what’s that she said you’re part of the furniture so you don’t comment on what’s being said you play that’s what you’re there for you let these people enjoy their and the lady of the house felt bad
[00:29:01] she said I just want to apologize to you for what they’re saying I said no no problem she said can you sing something for us and I was like sure I could sing something for us and this was the song that I sung chestnuts roasting on an open fire Jack Frost nipping at your nose [Music] you being s by a Cho and folks dressed up like [Applause] esimo everybody anyway so as I’m singing I remember watching those white guys old men some of them faculty at my school that had just said something you know probably not I don’t think it was that
[00:30:00] they meant harm harm but it was they’d have to they’d have to resign today yeah and they look and they go they they immediately changeed wow man that’s good you know any other songs and I sat and I did about maybe like a six song set and I saw what my grandmother talked about that music cracked them in half they saw a different me and then afterwards he gave me a hundred bucks and I’m like [ ] call me [ ] every day I got $100 I’m rich and what was interesting was I went to give him the jacket back he’s like no I don’t I can’t wear the jacket so it was still a little bit of residue left over but I saw what the music did and I remember when my when my boy showed back up I said listen I was cool gig we got paid I said but I got to get out of here I said because because I’m too smart for this uh I need to go elsewhere and I did I changed my major well I changed the college that I was going to go to I was going to go to another College in Texas and studying music instead I came to California San
[00:31:00] Diego to study music uh at International University and what was interesting about that was is that being in Texas it was black whites and Mexicans when I got to International University it was 81 different countries represented at that school all connected by music and other things musical Sports uh and the music the music Arena at that time was high-end strict child prodigy from Japan child prodigy from China I had a Russian uh uh music teacher and I had a Yugoslavian music theory teacher so it was it was really across the tracks but uh because of that because of Estell tally and Mark tally you know picking me up every uh weekend to go play music um man I would it set me on a like I said a crazy wonderful journey and uh uh so the music was first you know and um my college was
[00:32:00] interesting I didn’t know anything about Jewish Palestinian I had no idea I was at the student center and it was this argument going on you so what what are they arguing about oh my brother my brother my friend they’re talking about the Gaza Strip I said the [ ] is that and he said no the Jewish the occupation the this the that and I had I I got a quick I got a quick uh history lesson on on that I got a quick history lesson on people from Argentina or I would see a person who look black and I’d be like hey what’s up brother be like oh [ ] where you from from Pat I was like the [ __ ] they got black so that music gave me not only an opportunity to share but opportunity to be educated by other people because we studi Texas history and studying Texas history is interesting like if you study Texas history if it didn’t happen in Texas it didn’t happen so when you look at like like like this is just a sidebar but when you think about politics and
[00:33:01] what people know and don’t know in politics and what they know about across the sea or what they know about even on the next block or what they know about what’s different in Texas from New York the reason their politics is so interesting is because the people don’t necessarily have educations of other people which is why I think that once we start opening up a little more and traveling a little more because what is it less than how many percent less less than 5% of Americans have passports and things like small number yeah so so anyway that music like I said took me took me everywhere what other your your grandmother seems like a very wise woman and I’ve heard you describe her and I might be par I’m sure I’m paraphrasing this but that she she was the bow or had the O and you were the arrow and she pointed you in different directions I’m wondering what other like you are the furniture right I mean when to speak when not to speak what other lessons did you learn from your
[00:34:00] grandmother my grandmother taught me confidence as well my grandmother’s a very confident person and uh very smart just how would you say just naturally intelligent she was a a Taurus you know I’m saying natural is like it wasn’t something that was super educated or anything like that but she just had a I’ll give you I’ll give you I’ll give you a uh a hint of my grandmother I’m 10 years old maybe I think I’m in the fifth grade 76 President Carter the preacher started preaching about homosexuality I don’t know what it is I’m yeah 10 or eight or whatever so he’s saying God made Adam and Eve God didn’t make Adam and Steve right so people like you know it’s Southern it’s Texas amen my grandmother stood up and said you stop that and the whole church stopped what’s that Miss Tor you stopped that now her word words what she said next was very interesting let me tell you
[00:35:01] something I’ve had this nursery school for 30 years and I want to let all y’all know that God makes sissies too and the whole place when what she said these little boys that I’ve watched since they could walk they they play by they play by different music and you stop that because you’re making it hard for them to navigate sits down he goes to another subject eventually he leaves the church but I found that very interesting at the time I didn’t know what that meant until I got to be about a grand what you know what was you talking about she says yeah it’s true she says you know I’ve had this Nursery School I I see the difference in the kids and so therefore I would have these kids come to me after they graduated from high school gone to college or tried to have a family although they had they were living with this so she was a type of woman who had natural intelligence I said well Grand well what does it say about religion
[00:36:00] doesn’t it say that it’s that it’s wrong you know being a you know kid from Texas it’s natural question she says you know what I think about it she said you have to open up the umbrella of religion I said what do you mean she said if you only open up the umbrella halfway only a few people can stand under it she said you have to open the umbrella all the way through so God’s children can stand on it because no one here did not get made by anybody else or anything else but God so that was my grandmother you know it seems very uh the move in church man it’s a very bold move very CRA very B very bold but my grandmother raised those people in church see I was adopted you know at seven months so she was much older so all of the kids that were there were and it was like I said it was only a few families that lived in Terell so all of the kids that grew up or all of the grown-ups that were there she she was The Matriarch she because during during the year it was a it was uh it was a uh it was a school you know what I’m saying but then during the summer
[00:37:01] you drop your kids off at my in my grandmother’s house and just let them keep them so she was very uh powerful in that sense and then when I did finally make it it was wonderful to tell my grandmother come live with me so my grandmother was living with me so we go to the clubs you know my grandmother was like she had to be 83 at the time she we go to the clubs we hang out you know what I’m saying she this in La this is La uh I had a little part split level condo remember when that was hype the split level condo so I had a loft oh yeah Ricardo he’s only 19 he do know what I’m talking but I had a loft and we were living in that Loft and then we eventually rented a house and me and my grand and I didn’t know I was a mama’s boy like we go to the parties come back we have an Afterparty at the crib and then one of my homies came and say yo uh yo Fox uh it’s a older lady out here uh in the in the front room I said yeah that’s my grandmother what’s up uh yeah it’s cool I said yeah then you just AB champagne pop what we doing we getting it or what you know so uh she was uh she
[00:38:03] was amazing man and so you know my grandmother you know we party hang have a good time she was 83 years old and then the big thing was is like granny you know it’s Christmas time why don’t we do something we ain’t never done you know your son making a little money why don’t we go to Hawaii for Christmas because I got some friends from Hawaii well what yeah well let’s get it going gas up the plane right so we uh of Hawaii one year and I it was just amazing to be able to show my grandmother another side of the world it even made the papers in terot Texas estl tally uh on her way to Hawaii you know and I remember you know just a fun just a fun time I remember um we’re having a good time we’re going everywhere and she had a boyfriend at the same time who was 83 too and he was on the you know he was on the land side and so so it’s like December 23rd and we uh we called her boyfriend just so they could talk so she’s on the phone
[00:39:00] mm yeah having a good time M oh yeah man weather’s nice sunny oh food is good I got my own seasonings though real night well I tell you what look I’m gonna go but let me tell you something don’t let me come back there and uh catch you with no young girls you know understand cuz I don’t play that let me catch it with no young girl you hear me so she hangs up you know it’s like three or four there we’re having like a little Christmas party and we all go granny what when you said the young girls what you talking about you know 60 65 I don’t want to mess with no 65 she said [ ] I’m 83 know I can’t have no 65 year old woman all in my [ ] so she was just say great person tough girl uh I remember there was some situations where I did make it and some people in my family felt like I should give them all all of my money this lady walks in and we’re at my apartment she comes and say my rich cousin I didn’t even recognize cuz I you know I had I only seen him
[00:40:01] maybe once or twice Growing Up So anyway he gets around to it she says I need $10,000 for a kidney I was like who kidney well I need kidney surgery or something like that so if you give me the cash I could take it and get the I said well why don’t you if it’s a situation of medical I I know some doctors maybe they can help you oh I would prefer the $10,000 that’s okay I’ll hit you and I didn’t call back I was like so that became a problem for her and she called me one day and left on the answer machine young fella the last time you seen an answer machine so I’m checking my answer machine and she leaves a scathing message well you know what I didn’t get the money from you and that’s fine cuz you’re not part of this family anyway you was adopted nobody wanted you anyway this is what this lady is saying to me brutal I said what the hell so I let my grandmother here let me run that back [Laughter] played it m what’s that number and she
[00:41:01] called and I I remember listening I’m grown you know I’m I’m 22 so I’m grown and I hear how she stuck up for me she said let me explain something to you boy and I could hear I got that boy when he was seven months old I said and everybody wanted him I wanted him uh everybody you know I said then he may not be blood but he’s our family that it just it was just incredible incredible thing my grandmother was absolutely amazing I think you need people like that and when you talk about that bow that’s what that’s my reference to to raising kids and I got my own kids now is that when you raise your kids you are the bow and arrow you’re the bow they’re the arrow and you just try to aim them in the best direction that you can and hopefully uh your aim isn’t too off and uh that’s what she did for me and then uh you know she watched my whole career uh all the way up until getting nominated for an Oscar where all of the things that she taught me came into play when we did uh Ray
[00:42:03] Charles that was an opportunity to play the piano to be funny to do an impersonation and all these things is what my grandma the champion so when we when we embarked up on that film I was like oh man granny was right this is taking me on the other side of the tracks and when we got in even when I got a chance to meet Ray Charles which you know that’s my grandmother’s era you know uh and she didn’t get a chance to meet him because at the time she was you know she couldn’t move bed ritten a little bit but uh being around older people you know I understood that muscle too cuz I was always the young kid with the old parents so meeting Ray Charles was like seeing my grandfather or seeing one of my uncles and when I met Ray and we were tring to do Ray Charles the movie and Taylor hackford who was the director and he said you know I’ve been wanting to do this movie for 25 years I’m glad you came along because it’s the right time
[00:43:00] and I remember meeting Ray Charles walking down his Studio you know clean you know look like almost like he can see you know and I said Mr Charles you know I’m just trying to do the best I can to you know to do uh to do your move your B he said you know what uh it look if you could play the blues man [ ] you could do anything man I said what do you mean he said hey just can you play the blues [ ] that’s what I’m asking you I said guess so then come on and we go and we sit down and all of the hard work that my grandmother put in all of the days my grandfather drove me to piano lessons here I am sitting with a legend and we were [Music] like and I was like playing the blues with Ray Charles and as we’re playing I’m like I’m on Cloud9 then he moved into the some intricate stuff like the lonus Monk and I was like oh [ __ ] I got to
[00:44:01] catch up and I hit a wrong note and he stopped cuz his ears are very sensitive hey now now why the hell would you do that I said what is that hey why you hit the note like that that’s a wrong note man [ __ ] I said well I’m sorry m m Mr Charles I just he said let let me tell you something Buddy the notes are right underneath your fingers baby you just got to take the time out to play the right notes that’s life so that was a lesson that the notes are right underneath your fingers so metaphorically so now you got AC cross the tracks that someone like Estell tally teaches you then you got Ray Charles explaining now that you’re across the tracks What notes are you going to play and so now we go on and we we we we do that movie which we didn’t know what we were doing we didn’t know that it was going to be like that it wasn’t a studio film uh it was independent and uh you know doing the
[00:45:00] during the process of the movie was interesting of my you know background being from terot knowing how to mimic but I needed to know how to do R do Ray Charles like the young Ray Charles so I got in touch with uh Quincy Jones and for all of you young ones out there uh listening make sure you Google Quincy Jones and Ray Charles and the reason why you should do that is because they were the building blocks of our music today which started in Seattle washt Washington which was interesting Seattle at that time was was a big hub for jazz music jazz musicians and that’s where Ray Charles migrated to running into a young Quincy Jones Ray Charles actually taught Quincy Jones everything he knows about music who is Quincy Jones for you young ones listening Quincy Jones was the one who did I mean he played he was the band director for Frank Catra all of those guys The Rat Pack all of those guys he was the band leader uh if you and when I met Quincy Jones He talks about that yeah man [ __ ] man music
[00:46:01] man these young cats don’t know music anymore man [ ] they wouldn’t they playing the KY Q if they would man [ ] man when I played Baby Frankie baby I said Mr Jones who’s Frankie man [ ] Frank AA man [ ] I was young man the ble we were playing in Monaco man we didn’t even have time to rehearse baby we’re just there playing waiting on [ ] Frank to come in I said what do you mean he says we had to play this show in Monaco Frank had never met me knew that I was this young kid who was great with the music I become the band leader we don’t get a chance to rehearse Monaco where his billionaires and millionaires in the audience waiting on this incredible show and he says we’re just vamping man [ ] and Frank doesn’t even come out on the stage he comes through the audience man [ ] talking and [ ] I’m like man I’m nervous as hell and then Frank got up he said he sung the band was tight and Frank Sinatra
[00:47:00] knighted him like gave him a ring that was like you know pretty significant if you know what I mean and if you guys uh Google Frank Sonu you’ll understand what I mean about the and uh uh so here I am now talking to Quincy johnes and he’s telling me about Ray Charles he says yeah man ray taught me everything man [ ] man he taught me how to dress we were wearing suit suits zoot suits and [ ] man he had nice suits tailor Maiden I said why did he have nice suits [ ] man he was always around women man and women would tell him man those zoot suits are ugly cuz he couldn’t see so the women was tell him how to how to dress and I said well Mr Jones I’m trying to figure out how to do Ray Charles but I need the young Ray right and he says well man [ ] let me look and he gives me a cassette tape to you young ones out there a cassette tape back in the day was a way for us to I’m just messing with it to uh to share music and I said okay I got the cassette tape I had to go rent a truck from rent
[00:48:01] from a Herz renter car because there was no cassette players in the cars so I popped a cassette tape in and uh uh on the tape was hi this is donore from the dinosaur show we have two very wonderful musicians here today and Mr Kenny roggers and Mr Ray Charles and you hear the young R you know what D I’m just so happy to be here uh so happy to uh that you know my music I mean this is just great and it was the young Ray like you know uh because when I was talking to the older Ray I didn’t want to grab those bad old habits I want to play Young so I hear Ray talking Young on the tape and then all of a sudden he’s in charge of the of the interview and this is you know he was just doing his thing and then all of a sudden she says talk about the drugs Ray and then he started to stutter well you know what so I Ed that as DNA to play the iconic character Ray Charles that when he’s talking about his music he’s fully in control when he’s confronted with real life things why are
[00:49:00] you doing drugs why don’t you take care of your family why are you cheating on your wife he would stutter and I say this long story to say this after the success of Ray Charles after being nominated for uh an Oscar uh my grandmother got a chance to witness all of that she got a chance to see the bearing of the fruits of you know of of her labor for her young kid coming from that racially misunderstood town which I love and wouldn’t change anything in the world when it comes to Terrell Texas her saying get across the tracks we’ve now gone across the tracks we’ gone all over the world and then here we are and think about think about what’s the what’s the odds of a kid who lives in a town population 12,240 people from terot to go all the way to Los Angeles
[00:50:01] California meet puff meet all these different people and they actually have an opportunity to win an Oscar and your grandmother gets a chance to see that now October 23rd 2004 she passed away which if you know the actual Awards was uh 2005 uh in February but she got a chance to hang in there and and you know and feel it you know so uh it’s a uh you know my grandmother was just like you know the the blueprint how do you think of teaching confidence with your own kids because you you’re clearly a very confident guy yeah uh grandmother was very bold very strong woman how do you try to teach that to your kids well what you do with your kids is like with my daughter is I there’s the phrase that when you see anise my my my daughter and my oldest daughter Karan I would always ask them what’s on the other side out of fear and they’ be like huh I said what’s on the other side of it meaning like if I stood in the middle of this floor
[00:51:01] right there and just yelled what’s on the other side of that or if I stood on in the middle of the floor and went what’s on the other side of it meaning like either you do or you don’t but there’s no penalty there’s no reward it’s just you just be yourself so I taught them what’s on the other side of fear nothing people are nervous for no reason because there’s nothing no one’s going to come out and slap you or beat you up anything you’re just nervous so why even have that and so that’s a building block that they can use not just about the entertainment business because that’s the other thing you don’t have to be an Entertainer but whatever you go into whether you be a lawyer or school teacher or Tech guy or whatever or girl whatever it is there’s nothing on the other side of it what’s on the other side of fear nothing I like it so it’s like so why are you why when people say oh I’m so nervous what are you nervous about from reminds me of this quote that I I sort of recite to myself and I’m going to paraphrase it because I
[00:52:00] have it written down but it’s from Mark Twain it says I’m an old man who’s known a great many troubles most of which never happened yeah exactly because all of it is in our head when we talk about fear or lack of being aggressive or what it’s just it’s in your head so not everybody’s going to be super aggressive but the one thing that you can deal with is a person’s fears so if you start early if they are a shy person they just won’t be as shy if you keep instilling those things so the mimicry impersonation how early did that start because I read and and maybe you can tell me if this is off or not because you never know what the internet uh that your second grade teacher used to reward the class if they behave by letting you tell jokes yeah they would let they would let me tell jokes cuz I would get in trouble Miss Reeves my I think it was my third grade teacher Miss Reeves cuz I would like talk talk but I was very smart my grandmother had a school I I lived in a school so I I already knew the the the the from like
[00:53:01] first to eighth grade I already knew all of the lesson plan so you know a kid like me sitting there with nothing to do I’m going get in trouble so she would uh let me do standup comedy on Fridays for the kids and all I would do is my grandmother would watch Johnny Carson and the only room that had the television was my room so I had to watch Johnny Carson too as a kid so 9 years old seven eight n years old I would just take the jokes that were being told by uh David brener and Steve Allen and a young uh David Letterman uh uh who else would be on there Franklin aai you guys when you when you’re hearing this go Google these guys uh a young Jay Leno uh uh these are like sort of like uh you know Richard Pryor what so I would take those jokes and tell them in school cuz those kids wouldn’t want pleas tell me is Richard prior on Friday well I guess it was on prime time so was Richard on prime time you couldn’t you couldn’t he couldn’t really
[00:54:01] say anything on prime time he was clean but like a uh uh uh Rich Little and Google Rich Little because Rich Little was the first person that I saw do impersonations so there was a there this was this had to be this had to be like 76 1976 so like fifth grade for me the joke was uh Jimmy Carter which was the president at the time singing You Light Up My Life and at that time his brother was getting caught drunk all the time like uh Billy uh so it was Jimmy Caron uh so many nights U me and my brother Billy uh would sit by the window waiting for somebody to bring some peanuts and beer and so that was my first attempt at an an impersonation and then it went on from there to do Richard nexton I am not a crook so you know uh who else would I do Reagan uh that came later but but here’s Reagan came later but Reagan came
[00:55:00] like in the 80s when I was actually like 21 I was the first black guy uh doing the Reagan impersonation probably the only one so I would be uh on stage doing my impersonations and going to Ronald Reagan people are like no it ain’t no way well well as a matter of fact I uh well oh no there you go again and so that that being being young and and and that teacher Miss Reed and miss miss doit and all those teachers allow Miss Cole allowing me to be myself um you know helped me hone in on what I was going to be doing for the rest of my life like like literally my friends from Tara go like how the [ ] did you do that this is the [ ] you used to do you turned your third in the cafeteria it’s literally the same [ ] i’ be like wow millions of people are watching this [ ] and it’s the same it’s the same thing and then then you know as people came uh came up you know the the
[00:56:00] impersonation you know like the Cosby is back in to do the Cosby impersonation is back in don’t know how I’m going to do it but there’s definitely a Cosby joke somewhere I don’t know where but I I I used to do because of the people and the Jello pudding and the and the filth and the flying and the F which Eddie Murphy did but people didn’t know like Cosby’s real speaking voice is not like that what is the speaking his speaking voice was different cuz I remember I got in trouble with Mr Cosby because uh he felt that the the the the movie booty call was not cool and he said some things in the Press about us and I was like a young comedian like damn man I I’m just trying to work you know but but his speaking voice when he was on the phone well see the thing is is that when you do something like booty call what is a booty call say why are you calling the boot you know whatever but it was so it wasn’t the it because and then you find out that that was your stick yeah
[00:57:00] because the kid and the child and people and the far you know so I know that that will that will come up I I I’ll find the joke for for Cosby that of course it’s going to be a little uh people gonna be like uh but it’s G to be funny and [ __ ] uh and now who who’s now uh Doc Rivers from uh the Clippers hey you know we’re going to try you know it’s not Blake’s fault you know next year we got to we got to do better you know it’s so I’m working on like the new impersonations now uh and so that’s and the way you do an impersonation is usually about it’s it’s it’s musical like um say Kermit the Frog right so Kermit the Frog is so it’s sort of like way you do you you know what I’m saying it’s it’s fing right so so the actual voice tone is in the key of G for
[00:58:00] Kermit def [Music] frog FR here here with the so that’s and then once you get the voice tone it’s how you make it’s how you manipulate your your your mouth to get the sound because you know so it’s it’s sort of constricting and then and then and then it’s and then it’s asking the character to come sit with you come the Frog here here with the uh three little p so you know it’s but the key is this and at the same time Kermit the Frog who else sounds like that Sammy Davis Jr a little bit because you know man so now Kermit the Frog is is one way but if you just twist your voice or twist your mouth to the right and grab some swag now you’re Samy Davis Jr you f because man you know it’s the same voice you know so that that’s that’s sort of like the mechanical way of of getting to the impression so you would start with not the visual because
[00:59:01] obviously those people who are listening can’t see this but the mannerisms are also very much on point mannerisms are are important because like uh uh like I I I do an LeBron James impersonation which is really not a a a a uh a voice it’s more of his mannerism it’s the jaw you know it’s the look let’s go bro you know just you know the game of basketball you know we just try to you know you know it’s that you know know it’s right it’s right after it’s right after playing you know when he comes off off the the court they catching me still tired you know uh you know the game of basketball we just try to you know do the best you know so it’s the the mannerism so people will appreciate the mannerism physicality the physicality of of someone like uh uh Lebron or you know different you know like I said different different personalities bring about bring about different things when you look back on what uh what Ray said to you if you can play the blues you can do anything if you had to translate that for your own
[01:00:03] kids let’s just say if you can do X fill in the blank you can do anything what would you put in that blank I I would say this it’s it’s a couple of things when you have kids who grow up around Hollywood if you can stay motivated and if you can not do some things not be jaded not be entitled not be spoiled not do drugs not get into all the bad stuff because it they you know our kids live in an elevated space so what I try to do and Ricardo sees this all Ricardo sees this all the time and so does Justine we don’t play around when it comes to discipline as well like when the kids are here and all of her friends the size of the house means nothing to if you don’t do the right thing thing you’re going to get in major trouble and you’re going to get in Texas trouble you know what I’m saying like
[01:01:00] how my grandmother disciplined so it’s a it’s a it’s a it’s a different thing when it comes to kids that are live in a privileged situation luckily my daughters are very very uh especially my oldest daughter my oldest daughter never even asked me for money never asked for the new car never asked for a plane to ride coach I mean you know so I think she really really had has uh a great head on her shoulders I remember I got this Rolls-Royce and I went to go pick my daughter up in the rolls Ro thinking that’s gonna be you know pick her up in the roll Roy drop the Top drop head what up dog so I’m riding go to pick her up at school she won’t get in the car I said baby what what you doing look at the top it comes off she says Dad I’m not getting in the car calls her mom say could you come pick pick me up I said what you doing she said I’m not getting you you goofy you make me you make me look stupid in front of my friends I was like oh so you know she’s really and that’s something she has on the inside my youngest daughter is a little
[01:02:00] different she wants to ride in the rain in the Rolls-Royce all the time daddy let’s take this car we riding down Sunset Boulevard she playing Rihanna you know what I’m saying with her shades on so she’s a little different in in in in that sense and I remember telling her I said well Anna we can’t ride around in LA in the in the limo in the in the Rolls-Royce with the top down you know we’re on our way to the Soho house and it’s sort of fin up there so I got to at least put the top up she’s like why I said just I said listen let me ride until I get to Soho house and then I’ll put the top up as we get there okay so we R up in the Soho house we’re in the valet and all of these you know celebs and people are coming out and she yells out Jamie Fox in the house and I’m like hell no so I’m trying to pull the top down all the other celebr like look at this [ ] being arrogant and [ ] he’s so Gody this [ __ ] and he’s got a kid announcing him so so you know it’s a lot of things you can tell your kids man and
[01:03:00] then then you just have to hope for the best and and and be there what uh what is your birth name Eric Marlon Bishop and how did Eric Marlon Bishop become Jamie Fox man I was Eric Marlon Bishop graduated high school 86 I get out to California and I start doing you know I’m I’m in college and and uh um doing the music but I would go up on these Open Mic nights for comedy so I go I do really well did I get like standing ovations and then I I came to La got a standing ovation and then when I came back every week I wouldn’t get called up I was like damn what why can’t what’s going on but what I noticed and is the how does the open mic work well here’s it is what you do is you put your name on the list put your name on the list and they pick from the list and they say okay these are people that are going up so I went up had a great set then for the next 3 four weeks I didn’t they never call my name I said yo money did
[01:04:00] you see my name yeah yeah you weren’t on the list you were on the list but we got other people but I found out that the comedians were actually running the list so the comedians that had been here for a while was like we don’t want him on here because he’s showing us up so I was like [ __ ] so I ended up going to this evening at The Improv The Improv like in Santa Monica and so I had never been there so I would notice that 100 guys would show up five girls would show up the five girls will always get on the on the show because they needed to break up the monotony so I said hm I got something so I wrote down on the list all of these unisex names Stacy green Tracy Brown Jamie Fox and now the guy chooses from the list he says uh is uh Jamie Fox is she here she’ll be first I was like no money that that’s that’s me ah okay all right well you’re going up you’re the fresh meat I said what was that they was shooting evening at The
[01:05:00] Improv this old old comedy show back in the day say you’ll be the guy that will just throw up to see if you get a laugh or two you know it’s going to be a tough crowd fresh me fresh me I said cool so I go up in between two of the guys get a Standing Ovation people like who’s the kid is he on the show said no he’s freshman amateur so then they started yelling my name yo Jamie yo Jamie hey Jamie but I’m not used to the name so now they think I’m arrogant this [ __ ] thinks he’s she not even listening to us so I I I took that name and it stuck and then I started building everything out off of it back in the day people used to wear jackets and put names on the jackets so I had Sly as a dot dot dot uh come to the Foxhole Foxhole you know things like that I’m going to grab a little something to eat yeah sure thing okay we are back back after a little food break yeah and uh we talked about some of your comedy starting in
[01:06:01] third grade maybe earlier we talked about uh grandmother and what I like to talk about a little bit more is fear so you mentioned on the other side of fear by the time you got to doing the open mics getting up on stage were you nervous were you afraid or were you over it because you because first I looked at it first like I I went to open mic night and saw the guys I like man these dudes is [Laughter] terrible and uh so when you go on stage and your whole life is not I want to be comedian I went on stage like yo I’m just [ __ ] around so if I hit cool if I miss I wasn’t trying to be that anyway you know I wanted to do more music but but when I went on stage it was just like it was it was just natural it was a you know I belong here so I think that’s the thing too when it comes to entertainment uh there’s a certain like oh I belong here this is what I’m supposed to do how successful I will be
[01:07:02] or won’t be that’s something out of my hands but I do know that this is where I belong and that’s with anything in anybody like when you can when you can sort of listen to that voice in your head or what’s in your heart and you get a chance to do something that you really feel like you’re supposed to do that alleviates a lot of the fear now if it was surgeon or a lawyer or something you know you know if something that I’m not you know versed in or something like that then maybe there will be more fear but with this you don’t have I don’t have those types of fears and and as I’ve gotten older in the business I sort of simplify things like now I just execute I have to ask people like Ricardo Justin Justin what should I execute so the fear of a celebrity or or or an artist now is how do I get my art off in a world where it’s uh uh the the
[01:08:02] the social media driven sort of uh uh ridicule and critic criticism like I always say like this like a person like Prince or a person like Michael Jackson could have never survived in today’s world because in the in the day of the internet and where everybody has a voice most of the voes are hateful voices or not understanding like like if you saw Prince with uh um a guitar and a bandana and the way he dressed you know people would meme the [ ] out of it you know so now it’s a uh it’s it’s not a fear but it’s just a a question that I have to always ask them like yo is this is this the cool [ ] to do or not the cool [ __ ] to do and so what I learned is when it’s just executing something when it’s either executing a song song or executing a joke or executing things within within uh entertainment is cool
[01:09:00] but then you have to wonder like how do you get it off like how do you like even now when you talk about the Bill Cosby joke back in the day we just tell the joke now you gotta be like okay I got to tell the joke in a way that is still funny it still keeps the bite on it but you know so those are the different like for me as a Entertainer where there is not fear it’s just like you know questions does that make sense Mak sense no it does make sense the considerations when you when you uh have you bombed on stage before oh yeah which what’s what two things what do you when you are bombing yeah what is your internal dialogue or response and then second internal dialogue is boy you stink boy you bombing uh I bomb and it wasn’t a lot of I only bomb like twice do you remember your first yeah yeah I I did this this show for this guy named Latimore old blue singer I’m 21 what was his name
[01:10:02] Latimore Latimore sounds like Voldemort yeah lore Latimore so this guy saw me at this other club and said hey man you know lore is performing around the corner man would you come and open whatever I said how much you paid he said pay $50 I said I’m there 50 bucks I need it so this is like 89 90 so I get there and I don’t know who lore is I just know there a lot of older people like I mean like oh oh I’m like oh [ __ ] where the people at these other people so I go up and the setting was different it was like the chairs and stuff were way in the back it was like a boot banquet setting and it’s in the middle of the hood you know crha and like the tables are like from here to where like 20 feet away 30 feet away from me so I don’t have that oh you didn’t have thatx and I hadn’t been doing standup comedy that long long i’ only been doing it for like a year so I had if I’m funny I got an hour if I’m not funny it’s about 10 minutes worth of
[01:11:01] [ ] cuz I would just take a joke and just keep spinning it and spinning it so my first joke they didn’t get second joke they didn’t get I said [ ] I’m daming near all the jokes so I said well let me do this before I do anything let me just talk about people in the audience so I looked and I saw this guy with this sort of suit on with a butterfly collar like oh [ __ ] I’m going to talk about him with the butterfly collar but before I could say that looked around everybody has a butterfly collar this is what they really want to look like and so uh I just said hey man I you know I don’t know what else y’all want and uh pretty soon Latimore is GNA come up you guys ready for Latimore and I just started doing I said I’m G to take a break so I get off stage and the dude that was washing the dishes takes his apron off and goes man I I got it grabs the mic how y’all feel and he started doing these old stock jokes kills and so I said okay now I
[01:12:02] know what it is you got to have jokes that are appropriate for your audience so I learned on how to tell jokes for everybody because at first my jokes was geared towards women it was singing and so what I started doing from that from that day on I would go to like de Mo iow Davenport Iowa boy Idaho where it’s all white gunis in Colorado all white and I will go do like 40 minutes of all black material to see what they understood what they didn’t understand so if I go to these all white places and if they understood 15 minutes I log that 15 minutes I can go to any place where it’s just all white and and you would determine if they understood it by the laughs huh you would if you would determine if they understood it by the by or I would ask y’all know who this is and so I would tell the joke if 15 minutes they understood it I can go to any place in the world that’s all white and they get it then I will go to my chocolate City Chicago DC uh Florida and
[01:13:02] do all of my uh political highbrow stuff and see what the see see what the black folks understood man what the [ __ ] you talking about that now they understood 15 minutes now I got 15 to 30 minutes or 45 minutes that wherever I go no matter what age they’ll understand no matter what gender no matter what race they’ll understand stand this 45 minutes so I had to learn how to use the formula in order for you to be funny and then once you got your comedy license once you’ve been seen by enough people in the highest way like in the like if you look at uh like if you look at an arc of a Kevin Hart like Kevin Hart takes that Arc takes the same formula I’m not for sure how he put it in his in his in his mind but he’s doing the same thing to where he’s going to all of these places all over the world implementing his comedy and if they get it he’s he’s Gathering all that so that
[01:14:02] now when people see Kevin Hart no matter where in the world they’re going to laugh you know so it’s the the you know becoming a great comedian is also having that formula going on in your head because if you if you paint yourself into a corner like you’re only the black comedian or you’re only the Hispanic comedian or whatever that is then it’s hard for you to become Universal I mean Eddie was Eddie Murphy was great he had an opportunity through Saturday Night Live to get it to everybody but uh uh it’s definitely a formula to not bomb it so what would you say to yourself so that’s the first bomb you mentioned two yeah what was the second the second one and if if it’s too if it’s hard to recall the the the follow-up question is going to be what is the post game analysis when you step off the stage after bombing say the second time well you got to when I bomb the second time was way later in my career when I’m working out jokes but I don’t like to work out jokes and tell people I’m
[01:15:00] working out I like to actually do a show come and do the show right so we’re in uh I think it was IR so you don’t tell people you’re working on no no no no I think I think that’s cheating and I think you you get bad habits so I I do a show in Irvine California first show I kill they was just ready for him I’m like oh man everything works second show bom bom because I didn’t take time to dig out the jokes and that so but when you bomb you go like okay all right let’s go let’s check it out so I got a team of my my guys I said let’s go okay that didn’t work no you got to put this in front of that you got to put that behind this CU that’s gonna kick this off people didn’t know what that was so maybe we don’t say that so you know you have to you when you take the bomb when you take the L it’s not like you’re not funny what’s the L like you take the loss oh God when you take the loss it’s not like you’re not funny it’s just like okay you just didn’t put the [ __ ] together so that’s the other thing too when you do become funny it’s going to be harder now to make people laugh
[01:16:01] because you set the bar so now yeah so now so watch this the hardest part for Chris Rock was after he had done something great in standup because now you got to top that the hardest part for Eddie Murphy cuz Eddie wants to come out and do stand up is how do I top that in your head the hardest part is coming for Kevin Hart in the fact that you SM you smashed him now you gotta you gotta you know what I’m saying you got to know how to you got to know how to refresh because when you do something like like I I would look at my stuff and go like I got to quit doing that because that stick that I’m doing people are catching on and they’re like okay [ ] we didn’t already seen that [ ] so that that’s the other thing you got to have great material and you got to have you got to know you got to know how to move CU like
[01:17:01] right now it’s the perfect time for Eddie Murphy to come out and do standup because it’s been so long it’s nostalgic it was 30 years ago so now you can catch a new Young uh you can still excite the older you know what I’m saying so being a standup comedian is tough and you’ve seen a lot of funny guys not be funny anymore why because you can’t top what you did you look at the Jim Carrey go okay man where you at where you at you know what I’m saying you know don’t give up to funny uh or you look at Chris I always look at Chris tuck and be like [ ] where you at don’t don’t leave don’t leave us because being a standup comedian is an interesting thing most the standup comedians want to look good in what way we just want to look good think about this when Eddie Murphy started doing standup he was funny but then he started doing you know to wear the leather suits and it was a fly [ ] and the Rings and they want look good Joe Piscopo started working out with the muscles you know what I’m saying so as a stand up
[01:18:00] comedian we got to be careful not to look too good because people start going like what the [ ] are you doing you ain’t cute [ ] we just want to laugh you know what I’m saying but when we started you know we started getting into our [ ] that’s when we l cuz I did that like like I got to uh my thing was it after a Living Color the show called In Living Color that I did I I felt like I had made it so I wasn’t necessarily on the good-looking [ ] but I was on the I’ve made it jokes I went on stage and was doing Rich jokes just got that Range Rover anybody else it’s crazy out here you know they’re so finicky right [ ] is looking at me like what the [ ] is you talking about and then uh uh I was talking about you know square footage of the house man when they get a certain square feet man that [ ] is crazy and maintaining you know [ ] is like [ __ ] if you don’t get off the goddamn State I lost it right I lost it and I walked off stage and all of a sudden I walk off stage give it up for Jamie Fox and I’m thinking they’re going crazy yeah yeah thank you thank you so
[01:19:00] much and I’m standing outside the club and I hear the crowd going crazy I’m like what the [ ] they doing I just went on stage what the [ ] are they laughing at and I open the door and there was a kid skinny little tank top on barely fit his name was Chris Tucker he was smash it he was no one has been that funny within 15 minutes I never seen I’ve never seen and I watch them all I’ve never seen a standup where people were laughing so hard like I said he’s going to kill somebody somebody like when he say last night how was you I killed it’s going be true somebody gonna have a [ __ ] heart attack and I sat down and said and I went I can’t do that I lost that so I left went to another club that night bomb like it wasn’t you know so finally I went over to Okinawa where the troops were and started doing stand up over there for the troops to sort of get back it was my Rocky moment like you know I started running up the steps chasing chickens and
[01:20:00] [ ] trying to get back and uh uh for a standup comedian that’s the one thing you can never let go you can never stop being excuse me a certain goofiness to you and so and like when you talk about fear or when you talk about bombing it’s uh uh it’s different when you when you when you’ve done it for a long time you know and when you do bomb you just got to give right back up and and you got to acknowledge it okay I stunk [ ] cuz they’re going to let you know yeah let you know like today’s world it a’t you can’t do nothing in today’s world without somebody letting you know oh [ ] you [ ] that up like you know what are the sources or where do most of your best bits come from when you look back at the stuff that just killed is it the shower the the thing that bugs you three times so you write it down I mean how do you develop your material it was observation and like you know I do jokes with them you know it’s just sort of like observation uh you know early on it was the black and white thing you know black folks do it this way white folks do which was the
[01:21:00] way we were doing comedy in in in the late 80s and 90s oh the average white man’s heart it has no it has to do with the heart the average white man’s heart beats like this why the average black man’s heartbeats like [Music] this you know ladies that’s why you have a choice would you rather make love to somebody like this Would You Rather Make Love to somebody like this I mean that was the jokes you know at the time so it’s observational and then it was personal like you do your observation first and then it was personal my grandmother who was uh um you know we lived together you know and when she first heard like on television what age was being old she didn’t know what it exactly meant she just knew it was bad but she thought that since she’s always on me anyway that I’m gonna catch AIDS but it was for the wrong reasons like she would say boy you going it’s 6:00 in the morning you going to wake up [ __ ] half the day done gone I said
[01:22:01] granny what you mean is a six [ __ ] I’m there sleeping anybody sleep that long got to have AIDS said I said granny I don’t think that’s how no I saw it on TV you sleeping too long you got a I said granny I don’t think that’s how they exactly and then like I would use her towels like you know you know you know old southern women had them there was a towel used and it was a nice toel so I Ed a nice towel boy I know you ain’t use my towels I said you going put the A’s on the towels you use everybody to anybody use a to like that got to have AIDS I said granny I don’t think that’s how you know so it was obos now this is what she was actually saying so when I did that joke on stage people would just you know would die so it’s observational then it’s personal and then some of the comedians are great politically I’m not necessarily a political guy my thing was the impersonation of the politician like Bill Clinton uh you know uh I did not have sex with that woman you know it was
[01:23:01] you know things like that but uh uh it’s so many different ways and so many different guys out there that you that that you look at and go o like when I would look at a young Chris Rock the way he was a technician just me or you look at Jay Leno or you look at uh even Arsenio Hall when he would work out or you see Eddie working out of J uh you know it’s they are or watching George Lopez who knows how to tap into the Bas and just really bring you into his world and stuff so it’s some it’s some uh some guys that Sarah Silverman uh just I mean a technician Amy Schumer watching her on a just a Saturday Night Live when she’s you know working her [ __ ] out uh a young whoopy Goldberg at the Met there so many people that you can watch and see how to how to you know tap into your own skill set you know but uh I try to look at all of them
[01:24:01] and try to just you know not steal from it but just get inspired by it all who are some of the most underrated comedians who come to mind or people who you think haven’t had their due haven’t been appreciated I wouldn’t say underrated but I I I think that were just that was just like Warriors that never got that shine oh there was a guy named TK Kirkland who was a warrior but he never got to shine and TK had a colorful pass you know and and he’ll let you know he said you know he was he was a crazy [ ] but TK had jokes like and ju dun K with the Frog always say hi ho hi ho is he a pimp and why and why do fat people wear leather pants do they think that [ ] is cute and why do people in wheelchairs tie their [ ] shoes do they think they going to trip oh man it was just he was just amazing and and his delivery you know what I’m saying he say uh uh he says cuz I’m te to the [ ] K
[01:25:01] that’s what type of [ ] I am don’t play me play Lotto you got a better chance and he’s he he played he he made he made he made himself a character on stage that was just you know you guys are too young to to to know this joke but Bugle Boy jeans oh yeah Bugle Boy je used to have a commercial where a girl would pull up in the car and says excuse me are those Bugle Boy she she would say this to a guy like he’s walking on the street with his jeans she says excuse me are those Bugle Boy jeans you’re wearing why yes they are and she get in the car around TK had a joke man that was so funny he said man let man let that [ ] be a [ ] black girl in the [ ] car excuse me are those B boy jeans you’re wearing yeah get in the car [ __ ] I mean people would just go the dude has so many like levels and uh he just you know he’s he’s a
[01:26:00] underground God uh who else it was a lot I mean a lot of people earthquake amazing uh uh earthquake is amazing uh what’s my other dude’s name uh Tony Roberts amazing Tony Roberts man I’ve never laughed so he says uh he said uh oh man I I had to dig out some of his jokes but he talks about uh it’s very physical but he talks about being on the plane and the plane is going down and he says he said he was on a plane and he thought the plane was going down so he says so I wanted to [ ] everybody before you know I want to [ ] before he says so while the plane’s going down he’s [ ] everybody you know he [ ] the he [ ] the uh he [ ] the nun he was [ ] everybody and then the plane leveled off oh I’m sorry y’all I’m sorry my bad [ ] just hilarious man and there’s a there’s so many man so many not a lot of new comedians now that are actually uh
[01:27:02] that’s funny right that are actually dangerous now we don’t have dangerous comedians only danger the dangerous comedian that we have right now is Amy Schumer she’s dangerous in what way like like she she’ll say it like it’ll be hot button you know what I mean have you uh have you ever heard uh I saw this guy on a actually heard of him through a guy named Evan Goldberg who’s Seth Rogan’s writing partner and and so gerro exactly that was good so Gerard carmichel oh yeah yeah his special oh my God he’s like I would never make a rape joke this is more of a raped question and it’s like oh my God he’s dangerous that that struck me dangerous well he’s D and it’s not a lot of that anymore it’s not a lot of dangerous Comedians and I think that’s where we sort of go like you know where’s that danger like you when you when when you see Amy Schumer you see like I saw her in the room talking about catching a dick in front of robbert dairo like we’re at the
[01:28:01] American uh film Awards or whatever like that and she’s just I mean hardcord d which is what Sarah Silverman started out as you know so but Amy looks like she’s rounded the corner and is now you know really making it you know making it dope for herself if you look back at uh In Living Color and I I watched the show and it just if in retrospect it seems like such uh such a magical combination of people so how did that group get assembled and uh I mean what made that team so special because I mean you look at the list right I mean you’ve got Chris Rock you’ve got Jim Cary you’ve got the way you’ve got it just goes Jennifer Lopez you got you go down the line it’s just it’s an All-Star roster well that time Keenan Ivy W was a he he put it all together and he was able to grab all of these incredibly talented
[01:29:01] people and make them get along and figure out how to squeeze all of this Talent into 22 minutes of programming sure because it was only it was a 30 minute show so it’s 22 minutes but he was very disciplined in how we make jokes you were not allowed to come in and be half-ass he pull you to the side and say as a black comedian you cannot be half-ass you’re either great or you don’t exist so and he says don’t take the racial part of that any kind of way that’s just the way it is because he wrote for Eddie Murphy he was around the greatest he says I’m around the greatest all the time so that’s what we G to do so when you see Damon W come in and I had just got hired like they had already been doing the show for like a year or two years so when I saw Damon walk in and Jim walk in it was like it was like [ __ ] Jurassic Park
[01:30:01] [ ] it was like [ ] T-Rex and [ ] you know what I’m saying and the way I got on the show was was crazy too because it went from the auditioning process it was 100 comedians down to 50 down to 25 down to 10 down to five I was part of the five but I was losing I wasn’t doing well within the uh improv of it because I just wasn’t catching catching the right [ ] and then Keenan says something incredible he says well I dig this but I want to see y’all on stage doing stand-up cuz I want to have stand-up comedians I was like oh [ ] that’s my [ ] that’s my [ __ ] and the other four people didn’t do stand up it was only one other girl that did stand up God bless you Evette Wilson but the other three didn’t do stand up so I was like oh man so that night everybody’s going to the Laugh Factory which was just starting cuz at at that time the comedy store was dominating Laugh Factory was just and and They begged can we please have the audition in the Laugh Factory so I show up late on purpose
[01:31:00] because I wanted to be last ah smart so I show up late and tomarrow rwit uh who was the producer on there what are you doing you’re late to my God why aren’t you here we’re supposed to go on up early you’re supposed to be first Jamie oh my God you’re going to kill me I said oh damn well work can I can I just go up last yes you have to cuz we’ve already started get in here you whatever so goad now this was interesting for me because I was in white world I was like on the mainstream I did all my jokes in the hood at that time you know what I’m saying I was the hood guy so I was like oh [ ] you know we Uptown you know what I’m saying it’s like everything is clean and [ ] you know ain’t no weed in the air nothing you know what I’m saying a nobody snuck no drinks in and [ __ ] and it’s a audition thing so I’m watching the guys and you know God bless them they just had never done stand up before so I had my cassette tape and I knew what I was coming up to I’m coming up to heavy de and effect with More Bounce to the Ounce so I get a dude my tape he’s
[01:32:01] like what’s this that’s my tape you I go on with music you know up there they didn’t go on with music they just went up a hand claps I said no man I gotta I got to come in with heavy decent effect with More Bounce to the bumps I need the crowd going so okay sure so he’s standing there with the tape and then sea ways gave me a great tip he he walked up he said yo Jamie just go up and do your act man just stop worrying about don’t don’t worry about the characters just do your act yo Maron Maron come here tell Jamie just do your act oh really just do my ACT do my act like I do in the hood yeah do you act like you’re doing in the hood I said straight cool so I go up they don’t play music I’m waiting on them like yo you got my music the dude is over there like I said well I supposed to have some music and I said if if this [ __ ] goes wrong you’ll actually see me working across the street at the gas station and I went into a character man I was in there with Keenan and all them dog and it just so I did this little character then I went into my act and uh I got a stand in Ovation that
[01:33:00] night and I remember seeing Jim Carrey and Keenan fly girls like on their feet like I oh man this is great and that’s how I got on the show and during that show I did this character Called Wanda where I said all the good-looking ladies clap your hands and everybody I said now all the ugly ladies let me see Make Some Noise it was quiet I said ain’t that a [ __ ] and all the ugly days out there hey for real though he ain’t talking about me so we did this character Keenan was like I want you to do that character on the show cuz I think that’s where you’ll you uh you’ll really uh flourish and when we did that when I did that character that’s when everything sort of changed because I was trying to find my bearings on the show because we got on the show but we were there for a trial basis but when I did that character it was like it was like it was was like playing football and I was like the punt returner and I was the rookie and I ran it all the way back the first day uh so nobody really knew who I was but they knew that this character was was was was
[01:34:01] slamming and so that sort of gave me like my stripes because uh these guys were juggernut I watched I watched Keenan I said Keenan these jokes ain’t funny that the wrs that that the writers wrote he says get on your feet everybody get up let’s do this so he was like there’s never a joke that’s not funny you just got to work and find it so he taught us the formula finding jokes and he was right every single time and so uh like I said to be there watching Jim Carrey like create Pet Detective on set he’s writing Pet Detective as a word said what’s that you wrri hey man just uh you know working on some stuff you know just got some stuff I’m working on so what is that man it’s a little thing called Pet Detective I said sound funny and was he developing it for the show at that for his own [ __ ] I got to make one phone call no problem all right so we’re we’re back we took a little took a little breather but uh what we catch us up what were we just talking about we were talking about how nowadays is that you don’t get a chance to control your
[01:35:00] own narrative like we were talking about is there’s two different people some people think that the tech world and the and social media and things on the internet is taking us to a great place and then there’s people who think that it’s a horrible place I had I spoke with a um a young lady who had been burned bad bad by the Press bad to where she her job and what was interesting about her job was that what they were scolding her about was like me knowing her I was like you’re not like that at all she says I can’t there’s nothing I can do everybody thinks so and they took something like they went through emails and through our personal emails and all whatever it was but it was just like you’re not like that at all so when I was on the phone talking with her she was like they’re saying this and ah don’t worry about it you’re cool like you’re not like that I don’t give a [ ] but I hadn’t I’m bowling I’m like I don’t I don’t I don’t even need to read it what could they possibly say and when I looked it was a national story I went what the [ ] she
[01:36:03] lost her job yeah and so like even like you’ll do something where you think that it’s either you’re making fun or you’re having fun you but they’ll take whatever it is that you say and make it what they wanted to say yeah or craft it where like if you a joke it’s not about doing a joke anymore Jamie Fox slams Caitlyn Jenner Jamie Fox trounces like nah I’m a comedian we do do but everything is something that they control and and it it it’s tough because when I say Justin Bieber what do you think what’s the first thing com to mind be honest hair that I’m jealous of yeah but what do you think but what do you think something about a kid who can’t get it together when I say Chris Brown what do you think it’s something negative when I say Jennifer Anderson what do you think do cover of Rolling Stone photograph black and white Pit you think what cover of Rolling Stone
[01:37:00] magazine black and white naked laying on a bed oh that’s hilarious what the average person right would think of not what they do right but the impression the headline is the subliminal image they got at the checkout counter yes it’s the headline if I say if I say Jennifer Anderson you automatically because nowadays they control we don’t control our own narrative to where it’s like they talked about this thing with with uh Quinton Tarantino which I thought was sad because usually when you see a a a a a story about black lives matter or anything black It’s usually the the same black folks with the kofy who’s trying to be heard and they’re absolutely right they’re absolutely it’s so much wrong going on in Black world there’s black onblack crime then there’s the the the divide that is because of social media is be uh that is going on between the police officers and black
[01:38:00] folk police officers are on the whole are great folk I know them I I [ __ ] I know a gang of police officers but the one or two that have been caught on social media makes it look paint the picture that it’s all of them now granted we’ve known for a long time that blacks and police off officers have always had a divide we’ve done music we’ve done movies about it we’ve done books about it it’s just is the way it is now my take on it is because I call it residue it’s slave residue meaning that slavery for 300 years you saw a person of of color a certain way for 300 years you’ve always saw him as the slave or the criminal or what something that you didn’t value so therefore coming out of that of course there’s going to be a divide when it comes to police and when it comes to to blacks and when it comes that’s always been that way so take that off the table right but in today’s world of how do we bridge that Gap I’ve gone
[01:39:02] to Quantico in Virginia saw what it what a police officer sees I’ve talked to police officers said how can we bridge the gap I’ve suggested that you go get a white police officer who you think might not like black folk you know what I’m saying get that person to go into the hood and throw a picnic for a kid that’s 8 n 10 years old who’s African-American so that he can see another another side another side of a police officer because right now in social media or in media period the stories that are the most salacious where it’s the the the black person the the black cop being K the black guy being killed by a cop it’s hard to erase those images I’m a black man when I see that I have to react to that because I’m like wow you know I that that trouble’s me but then I have to sit down and think okay let me not think of the worst thing to say but let me think because I know how media tries to make things or heighten it right how
[01:40:03] do I bring people together in spite of the headline because what people don’t understand is that when you keep showing the images of the black guy being killed by the by the cop that does something to you oh yeah that’s like whatever you believe in if if it was a Jewish person if it was a gay person you cannot sit and not be bothered by that at the same time that cop when he sees the other side of it when they’re saying all of you guys ain’t [ ] which that’s not what’s really being said most of the time it’s with the individual cop now the cop sees the story in his mind now well [ ] well it’s a problem now so now imagine that cop who’s watching the story driving on the street that young black kid who’s watching the story walking on the street what happens dynamite dynamite because we can’t get it we
[01:41:00] can’t we can’t get anybody responsible on the media side to say let’s stop interviewing people and putting labels on them let’s interview this man and this woman but don’t say that they’re Democrat don’t say that they’re Republican don’t say that they’re a cop just have them talk because when you see when you’re watching and you see something that you agree with you agree with them only and you can’t hear the other person that’s the first thing two like when I look at Quinton Tarantino to demonize this guy can and just because people might be listening to this for years could you catch people up on well let me c catch the confusion Quinton Tarantino who is a purist when it comes to his opinions and his emotions even if even if if you could go I could go to Quinton Tarantino and say something man I think you know it’s a black person and so and so and so he say well stop doing that stop hanging it just on black hanging on things that are substance
[01:42:01] first and then let it be h i mean so i’ I’ve heard this guy speak when there’s no cameras I said wow you know what you make a lot of sense so Quinton Tarantino uh sees the black lives matter campaign sees the individual stories 40 different people of individual stories where a police officer had killed the person who was unarmed it touched him the reason I thought that was an impactful because you seldom see the white Superstar go and stand with the black folk who just trying to be heard even high-end black guys don’t go stand with the black folks is trying to be heard when it comes to like especially Hollywood cuz you know people in Hollywood are so scared oh oh they won’t see my movie they won’t go see my song If I stand if I stand up for anything of substance they’re so [ __ ] scared so when I saw this dude do that I
[01:43:01] was like wow that’s great but then the misinterpretation of his words where he says I’m standing here with the murdered Quinton Tarantino speaks that way he speaks if you read any of his uh uh movie or saw any of his movies he speaks in those terms he says I stand with the murdered when I see someone being murdered I call it what it is it’s a murder though that’s a murderer that killed this this person however the story got spun was that quincon Tarantino is a cop hater he hates all cops and they’re all cops of murderers and I was just like oh here we go again man here’s a person who’s willing and I’m going to speak like willing to put aside his white cushy Holly woodness he could live on in his on his mountain and never give a [ __ ] about anything he came out said man I felt
[01:44:00] something and now they painted so bad and now you got you got the New York cop so we got something for his that now it’s a beef now it’s that’s not what we we trying to do but you can’t do anything right now because the media story if it’s not ious we don’t want to report it we we have to you feel what I’m saying no I do and it’s it’s I mean they if it bleeds it leads right so they put the salacious the the visually viscerally impactful stuff up front because it gets the clicks or the purchases the advertising the the uh the only I suppose flip side to that and I have a very specific question for you that from a fan I’d love to ask related to um some some of these race questions but the good news is if if you can look at it in these terms is that the necessity for new is so high that if you starve a story of oxygen it’ll often die on its own yeah
[01:45:00] because they can’t regurgitate the same thing if there’s no response exactly and so you you can let it kind of die on the vine um but um we were talking about this before I mean I’ve had instances and I won’t [ __ ] in on too long because I think the question is more interesting than my bitching but I’ve had instances where these these formerly I would say Outlets of record you know very prestigious Outlets uh magazines I’m not going to mention them by name cuz it’s I know what you’re talking but but I was interviewed and profiled by magazine at one point very very highbrow magazine uh there were six or seven misquotes or uh erroneous facts in the piece and I corrected those with the fact Checker went to press with no Corrections what do you do in that situation when those things then end up in Wikipedia so you have to develop a sort of um strategy and I mean this will get even more interesting once we have you know smart stadiums once we have uh facial recognition like you see on Facebook once that’s implemented across the board it’ll get very interesting but I’m going to go down that rabbit hole and instead
[01:46:00] I’m going to uh bring up a question that I’d love to get but before you go into that yes here here’s the problem back in the day if there was a misquote and you went to that entity and say hey you you quoted me wrong oh we’ll release a statement saying that we misquoted you and it erases the problem with today’s world once it’s out there you can’t get it back you cannot change you cannot change yeah because it’s going to stay there yeah when you when I punch up your name that’s the first thing that’s going to come up or the second thing that’s coming you can’t get rid of it yeah and when you talk about the regurgitating or the or the uh or just letting it die you could let it die but the problem is you have to at least once it starts give another hopefully that you can give another side of it that people may see a little bit they don’t want to see what’s crazy about our society right now no one wants to see anybody reconcile no one wants to see
[01:47:02] anybody come come together or say that like when I when I think about Quint and Tarantino I spoke and said I back you as a friend and keep keep speaking the truth and don’t worry about the haters meaning speak the truth from you not whatever the comment was right but whatever you’re saying in your truth you say that because you ain’t out there you could be promoting your movie you could be trying to make money you actually trying to see how you could get how you could go I know the way you think I’mma go talk to them if they are wrong in what they’re saying I’m going to tell them but if they are right he says I I’ll be the one that can go to the cops and say that and now look look at how it is it it’s so CR go ahead ask a question oh no I mean it’s I I think you’re right I think that people want gladiatorial games and we don’t have gladiatorial games so they use the front page gladiatorial games but but speaking of conflict resolution so this is this
[01:48:02] is a question from uh fan TJ my wife is pregnant we’re moving to a very non- diverse neighborhood we are kind of worried on how it will go she is black and I’m white what is some advice he can give to a young couple raising a child of color in today’s world I’ll say this I’ll say to I I’ll say this about America let’s use America is an example to me America is the most incredible civilization that has ever been created hundreds of years from now people will look on this look at this place and Marvel there’s the [ ] in complain aisle where everybody [ ] complains about every single thing but the one thing about America that is incredible is the evolution of Freedom the change when I talk about slavery that happened and it was 300 years of it look at the evolution we come out of it we have a black president people
[01:49:00] are more welcoming now um we used to live in a world not too long ago where was frowned upon it was tough it was this what I would say to people like that just live your life like I liveed my life in places where at times it was definitely racial misunderstanding but I would talk to that person I would make sure that person understood who I was as a person I’m not gonna compromise who I am as far as a black man but I’m also going to give you another another version of it not the version that you necessarily see on television the version that you see on the internet I’m gonna give you me and most of the time we are alike in so many different in so many uh instances so when he’s saying moving to that non-diverse place it’s different man look at the look at I hate to say this but listen to the kids bro but when you talk about the kids the kids today I’m I’m at the gym last night 24hour Fitness the kid is playing future
[01:50:01] white kid where your ass was at when I white kid when I first moved into my neighborhood years ago and I felt like I made it I’m in the white neighborhood now I’m here oh I’m so I’ve made it and I hear NWA blasting look out there with these kids it was 16 years old so times are changing man and you have to start giving people the benefit of the doubt that they’ll get it right and for all those people that were here back in the old days and that are now 50 and 60 and 70 years old that’s dying out the way of thinking is dying out you may be looking at a a situation where you may have the first female president it’s the evolution of of it’s the evolution of Freedom think about how we treated women at one point no voice no rights no nothing I’ve heard people say I’d rather have a black person tell me something to do than a woman any day but now it’s it’s so we are on the right path man love who you want to love be where you want to be because we are evolving look at look
[01:51:01] look at the steps that that that gay rights took in the past few years man that that was that’s huge when you when you talking about people in the Bible Belt and you know how they felt so if if those things are now like my my daughter taught me like when she was 13 she’s 21 now she was 13 and it was this was this was n years ago and it was talking about gay rights and things like that and and and I asked her friends I said what do you think about it she said Dad we don’t think about it she said that’s that’s you guys that’s a good answer she said that’s you guys she said that’s old people she said that’s why we’re turned off from religion sometimes that’s why we’re turned off from all of these different things cuz old people argue about where you from what you do what you look like we don’t give a [ __ ] and so thank God for the Youth thank God for that couple because what they’re doing is they’re showing the new world and she said Dad if someone was doing something somewhere that was straight gay black white or brown somewhere else does it affect you at all
[01:52:02] does your air change does anything around you change because the people are living the way they want to live as long as they’re not breaking the laws like you know what you made great points she went on my radio show and talked about it so um we are in a new day what we got to do though is we got to stop I said like like I was telling Justine I said we got to make shirts to say let’s put let’s put media out of business we got to quit allowing them to control the narrative those people like with with with quincon Tarantino or the black lives matter or or people that speak up on something that is broken or that is wrong you don’t give them a chance by painting them in a in a bad situation are you going to do another Comedy Tour yeah I’m gonna do another Comedy Tour but my I’m GNA start it organically like uh maybe a 100 people 200 people started organically and just sort of grow it uh I got some great jokes and that’s the thing like when when you’re when you’re when you’re a comedian it’s like you
[01:53:00] have to pray that the jokes will open up so I got some great like jokes that people will get and understand and then just the stuff that’s been going on with me you know uh you know getting older you know uh not realizing you’re the OG you know what I’m saying like you know the Young the young hip-hop guy what’s up OG damn that’s right you know I mean just just just it’s just some funny stuff it’s some funny stuff that’s and and that’s what any comedian would tell you that it’s hard to be funny when there’s nothing funny happening but there’s been so much funny [ ] happening uh for like my mom who you know adopted who who gave me up for adoption in seven months and she comes back to live with me and as she’s living with me she walks down the first day she’s here she walks down uh the steps and says I want a phantom I’m like uh [ ] of the Opera what are you talking about she’s talking about a phantom of Rolls-Royce right and it was just funny that just certain things that the fact that everybody lives in my house the
[01:54:00] fact that my mom my dad lives here my two sisters my dad still dates you know and my mom is going on his side of the house when she when he has a date you know just assessing like just being in the way like oh hey I didn’t know you had company gey I mean just and now they’ve turned they’ve turned into kids so you know my dad had come to my room uh uh uhuh could you tell her not to come on my side of the house when I got a date and I’m like now parents so you know it’s funny things are happening lot of organic material yeah so it’s organic now so we got funnyit when you think of the word successful who is the first person who comes to mind and why on the bigger picture because I witnessed this in 2008 to see President Obama become president to 2008 not talking about after he became president because everyone will have the views on on that I know what it meant to me to see him stand up there put his
[01:55:04] hand on that Bible and say you know become the president of the United States that is success in so many different ways and it also it jars you for every person that says man just cuz I’m black I’m maybe you can’t use that all the time cuz this man now showed you and whatever side you end up on because it’s not a political thing to see that and the reason that it means so much to me to see African-American man like do that like and literally when uh when when when he was this was interesting this is how we’re connected when he was 30 points down for the nomination 30 points down no one knew who he was I get a call from open winfy hi Jamie Fox it’s Oprah hi Jamie I was like what’s going on there’s this guy named Senator Obama I think he’s going to be the next president then I got a call from Norman Le Jamie it’s
[01:56:01] Norman Le the senator on fire so who is he say senator Obama but he’s 30 points down that’s what no one knows the reason they’re calling me is because we have a radio show that was reaching everybody especially the the huge Urban Market so I go on my show and I say uh I’m voting for this guy named Senator Obama because he’s black and I go to commercial when I go to commercial my phone lines light up with all black people saying that we will not vote for this guy just because he’s black don’t treat us that way so we ended up educating everybody about him he gets a nomination and he goes on and he wins and to me it was all odds against him and I thought that that that type of success regardless of where you come from from like I said whatever side you stand on to me that was something Monumental when we talk about where this country has come from when you talk about the greatness of America evolving
[01:57:00] and evolving to that type of freedom and him taking advantage of being in America and becoming um uh a president to me that’s just success that that uh he redefined what it is what historical figure do you most identify with who do I identify with with historically uh when it comes to entertainment Sammy Davis Jr is a person that I look at all the time who I go on the internet and watch him play the drums or watch him sing or watch him dance or watch him uh do jokes or watch him do a movie or watch him spin guns to me he was just the ultimate uh in Entertainer he was yeah full stack Entertainer as one engineer said that’s what they that’s what he called you meaning you kind of you had all the tools in the toolkit oh man that’s great and then there’s there’s other sides of me too so like the the sports side like I was the Magic Johnson like you know the person who was who loved being competitive but also want to get everybody else involved and you know the
[01:58:00] way he played basketball when it comes to social Consciousness may I interject for a second yeah so this might seem like a funny question but do you feel like you identify more with Magic Johnson than Kim Abdul Jabar yeah the reason I feel more than Kareem Abdul Jabar is because Magic smiled and it was fun he was happy you know not to say that Kareem wasn’t but Kareem was more serious guy you know Ser if you ever met him he’s completely serious you know I’m more the fun dude let’s have a good time and you know when it comes to social Consciousness and social issues that’s where I I I draw from a lot of different people I think going I I think Watching Martin Luther King and going to Atlanta and seeing what he did and how he did when he did it when when I look at The Bravery of him it’s beyond cuz I I look at social issues today how we’re so afraid to step out on anything like oh
[01:59:01] oh my cars and my my wealth and my money oh I and and not to say that I’ve thought this way all my life like literally like it just happened not too long ago where I was like we got to we got to step up more more socially we got to be social even if it even if some of the people say a [ __ ] it I ain’t going to your to your movie okay fine you weren’t gonna go anyway but we had to step up a little bit more social social wise and when I went to see where Martin Luther King came from what he did and how his house was he actually came from middle class big nice house but it right across the street from poor from poverty and it sort of taught him how to deal with other cultures taught him how to deal with other uh uh Financial groups he says I don’t want to see people hurting he says I want everybody you know so I I I think like that I’ve always thought like uh even we talked about earlier the Jews and the Palestinians in the uh in the student center you know the rest of the story was I befriended both of them and we all became friends because I call myself spackle which is the stuff that goes in
[02:00:01] between the bricks between the cracks yeah I’m I’m spackle I get along with all religions get along with all people and try to bring them all together and so that was the so when I think about it socially it is the Martin Luther King thing because I think sometimes we Overlook that the world is big enough for all of us to live on it it’s big enough for all of us to to to get along and uh sometimes I I I question why is it so tough to get along you know which is what Martin Luther King question he said I just don’t I don’t get it and I and I won’t stand by so a little and like I said I’ve only thought about like that you know here in the past few years after watching Harry Bonte Go on stage before I was supposed to get a Lifetime Achievement Award and he goes on and says something so prolific he says uh there was talking about violence and he said the the violence that’s happening in America is mostly black violence and you black entertainers sit here mute and we laid all of this groundwork down for you guys and you guys are disrespected
[02:01:01] and not picking up so you know uh that’s the one reason I said I think more socially I mentioned K do ja Barb because I saw just by chance a fantastic documentary uh called minority of one yeah uh and it’s so good and it detailed in particular I’m not I’m not at all well versed with basketball so it also a glimpse into that world for me but his relationship with Magic Johnson which was fascinating do you have any particular favorite documentaries or movies that you just feel are must watches for human beings and it’s a big question that’s that’s why but I think documentaries on cultures are important if you get a chance to see a doc any documentary about Jews what they went through watch it any document documentary about Palestinians and what they’ve gone through watch it blacks and what they’ve gone through watch it women and what they’ve gone through watch it the reason that I say it is
[02:02:01] because if we’re talking about the human aspect of it like I didn’t get it until I watched it was actually The Pianist yeah and I just went [ ] I like I didn’t know it was like that you know like I I didn’t know that and so you know and then when I listen to some of my friends who like you know live in the Middle East and they’re going through those thing I said [ ] I didn’t know it was like that so I think anytime you get a watch get a chance to watch people and where they come from or culture and what they went through uh you can even look at at whites breaking away from the I mean the 13 colonies breaking away from from England you go oh [ __ ] I didn’t know you went through that so it’s like when you do that you you you come away with a sense of okay get you now right it helps build your compassion yeah it helps build your compassion because you you only live in your own world you know what I’m saying and unless you get a chance to see what it is uh a lot of
[02:03:01] times your views will be will be narrow and just watching documentaries like that to to open up your views are just amazing when you look at when you look at the story of of uh like I said the story of slavery there was a book that I just showed these young guys called without sanctu without Sanctuary where it’s a book where a guy a photographer went around the South during the times of slavery and documented lynchings and he would document the lynching and take and make postcards because at that time see we go o but at that time it was Common Place yeah it was a party so people would get their food this where they got picnic from they would get the food drinks or whatever and they go down and watch the lynching and so there was a postcard said here’s the lynching of niggga Charlie uh hope you like it hope everything is well so that was something that was mindblowing because it was common place you know so um when you get
[02:04:01] it like I said when you get a chance to see cultures and history you understand what what’s going on today and this is a last little fact to it if you get a chance pull up the Harrison act the Harrison Act was an act about taking drugs off the street and making them illegal because it uh at at the time in our culture we were able to you know use whatever drugs that was out there was available but the government sort of didn’t know how to get it off the streets so they ran a story black man gets high on cocaine and fights cops and people’s like so we gotta get rid of drugs people like [ __ ] that get rid of our drugs get bigger guns give cops more jurisdiction finally they run a story black man gets high on cocaine rapes and kills Caucasian woman that’s when the Harrison act cuz well we don’t want that but because of that Harrison act with the jurisdiction of a cop that plays into a little bit of what we’re dealing with today because it was
[02:05:00] sort of set that way at a time where it was common place to see slaves it was common place to see blacks as second or third class citizens so and it’s not to incite anything it’s not to make you feel anything angry it’s just a it’s just a peering into someone’s Genesis to see where we are today so that you can understand to or try to have the compassion for all of all of us who live here in this country because like I said it’s it’s the best in the world and Beyond I remember a friend mentioned to me I was watching planet Earth and he said there’s a companion of some type which uh I really want to see called I think it’s humans of Earth and it actually profiles different civilizations different cultures around the world it shows you have humans have adapt you know Mongolians using Falcons for hunting and all this and whatnot but the um yeah I totally agree with you I think that you know if a culture is a set of beliefs and behaviors you have to in a
[02:06:02] way be taken on that sensory experience to develop the compassion you don’t get it through text alone necessarily uh if you could have a billboard anywhere uh what would it say man it would L change it would be those new bill sneaky answer I like it be Bill CH ball out dog have a great time go to church love somebody teach somebody get angry a little bit it would just change you know because you know these guys know me I’m all about having and at the end of the last one be have as much fun as you can because in a blink of an eye we’ll all be gone 100 years compared to Infinity is nothing I talk to my sister all the time why you she’d be like what’s wrong I said girl you better get you better start having some fun we going to be gone in a minute you going
[02:07:00] to look back and say like [ __ ] I should have been laughing and now I’m dead so yeah my billboard would change constantly cuz I I think we all change and so you said get angry a little bit and it’s it and I remember I was given this advice by a guy named po Bronson a writer many many years ago I asked him at an event I was sitting in the crowd and I said what do and you get writers block and he said I write about what makes me angry and uh if you if you were teaching a nth grade class yeah mixed race mixed gender yeah what would you what would you teach that class about like what would what would you teach what do you think the most important things skills or otherwise that you could teach ninth graders might be well like I said it would have to be different tiered yeah if it’s a ninth grader of today I would teach him as much as you can interact with actual ual humans uh you know the toughest thing in the world is like looking at my daughter and we’re in Paris and they generation thumbs yeah they’re on their they’re on their they’re on their cell phones so I
[02:08:00] said as much as you can interact with people cuz people it’s the best interaction because there’s all types there’s discretion when it comes to people like there’s no discretion when it comes to thumbs and what you can say on the internet and that’s why you get ruged down by it because it doesn’t take anything if there if it’s an anonymous person and they say you’re ugly and you’re this and you’re that and you’re this there’s no discretion there so they can sort of get the Venom off I said when you’re if we’re if we’re in a surrounded and I may feel something about something but I won’t say it because I don’t want to hurt somebody’s feelings I don’t want to have to hurt my feelings so that’s the one thing interact with people the second thing is interact with people from all over the world because you become narrow when you’re just all about my block and just being about your block in today’s world is going to hurt us because people don’t
[02:09:02] understand Global we don’t understand Global Market we don’t understand Global things that how does something in the Middle East affect me in North Dakota because of the way we’re set up like this so it’s like you have to get the education I would bypass well no I wouldn’t bypass it get the education of people all the world and then the last well last couple of things would be history know your history know why we’re why we’re here why this especially when it comes to to to rules and legislation and things like that know why uh why we vote why we don’t vote uh if you think about it this wonderful country runs on just like a human brain we only use a little bit of it when it comes to the voting Market you got to vote get out there and be active in that a lot of times we just hey man whoever the president the president whoever is this way so so that and then uh um the
[02:10:01] last part that I would teach is last two things hustle teach your hustle your hustle muscle is the hustle muscle is the most important thing uh when you hustle and you go get it a lot of times that alleviates your problems M when you don’t hustle or you leave it to chance when you leave things to chance and you didn’t give it all that day now you start to argue or wonder about think bills [ __ ] I got to get that done oh my relationship is how did that but if you hustle for one it’s going to take up a lot more of your time so you don’t have time to to concentrate on just the worrying the worrying if I put the work in I got my check I put it and your check can be doesn’t have to be monetary it could be anything it could be I put the work in at the charity and this happened because of the charity but whatever it is put that hard work in and now you could see things coming to fruition and that takes n 70% of your
[02:11:02] worrying away because you did give it your all and then uh the last part of it is reflect sit still for a minute cuz when you working working working working working I got this I got that that will strain you as well so you you got to be able to decompress you just got to be chill whatever it is that you chill with if it’s your homies your friends or what like take time out to be like you know what I I if if if it’s out of my hands it’s out of my hands I’ll get a better crack at it tomorrow Coen Powell said something incredible he said I always feel like in the morning I got a brand new chance I’m paraphrasing in the morning he said I love getting in the to the morning because it’s a new opportunity but really take that time time for yourself you know relax chill whatever it is that you believe in if it’s God Buddha Allah Hindu all of them whatever it is to get you on on that on that okay you know I did what I supposed
[02:12:02] to do let me relax now and then tomorrow the next day get another another start what is uh what does the first 60 Minutes of your day look like or what do you have any morning routines that are important to you morning routines I wake up I uh I I text the people that I dig and love uh what do you say I just send them encourag and like you know there’s a few know people that just you know really mean a lot to me want to let them know I’m thinking about them hold n and then uh uh it varies man sometimes I be like okay I I put some work in so I put in eight days so maybe these two days I could chill uh get a little I do the uh just on the physical part I get my uh I get my 5050 pull-ups in 100 situps you know maybe 100 uh maybe 100 crunches and it’s easy I used to not be able to do it my boy Tyron turn how many sets for the 50
[02:13:01] Pull-Ups for the 50 so I do 15 first 15 pull-ups this is what it is I do 15 pull-ups 50 push-ups 100 situps then I go back and I do 15 different oh chin grip yeah so that get me to 30 another 50 push-ups that gets me the 100 push-ups I’m done with the push-ups and then I do 10 and 10 back to the to the first grip and you don’t have to do it every single day you can do it every other day uh and then what you notice is the pull-up bar and Tyron kept telling me this well we I got a homie Tyron he played Kane and Minister society and he I kept wondering how is he always in shape he says man I’m trying to tell you the pull-up bar is everything so uh so that and then um and then just you know make the calls and what I need to get done and make sure I’m you know in the right you know position and you drink coffee get the kids I don’t drink
[02:14:00] coffee I don’t drink coffee is have you you oh you stopped I had to stop having stimulants there was some uh earlier in my career I was I was all about the stimulus so at a certain point I had to X on the a yeah I’ve been I’ve been cutting that out as well it’s not good for me people are like are you worried about depressants alcohol like no no no no stimulant that’s what I need to because because what I tell people all time to drink coffee after a while you you you keep you keep hitting that same muscle you know that in your brain to where you I I know people right now who could drink four cups of coffee and go to sleep yeah I used to be that person yeah and so it’s like my my one of my boys loves uh uh uh what is the Red Bull and then he won’t understand why some days he would just be like this yeah so I had to stop and it was tough because I had to have coffee every day and I drank like double expressos you know I was like I had to have the up yeah but now I
[02:15:00] know how to go get it inside of my you know I know how to go get it inside last last question here is um I’m going to ask what advice you would give to yourself three different ages 20 30 and 40 um so what advice would you give to your 20-year-old self man put the cond them on [ __ ] stop playing around important advice 20 man put that on buddy and not the fishnet one either put the real one on okay uh anything else for 20 or should we move to 30 20 20s I had my daughter 26 so the advice I would give me was like calm down you know it was like calm calm down and and just you know make sure you’re paying attention to your daughter and to the daughter’s mom 20s was tough cuz I just got the LA I was just you know man the
[02:16:01] whole world was opening up so I’m like man I’m you know I’m trying to do all of it and while I was like calm down and and luckily it was 26 so moving into 30 I was uh on my way to calming if that makes sense does make sense so then you hit 30 30 what advice would you give your 30-year-old self uh it’s going to fast in what way it’s going to go fast the time is going to go fast so just make sure that you uh you start now planning for your future and not only is going to go fast but don’t spend all your money don’t buy the the the jacket that’s $122,000 you know relax you know just just you relax it because it it’s and 40 is going to come so fast and you don’t think that it is but it’s going to come so fast and would you say that because you would want your 30-year-old self to
[02:17:00] pay attention to the present moment or do long-term thinking you got do longterm when you’re 30 you got a kid and you’re in my business and in any business all businesses are going to especially when when you when when you make my business is about me though so I have to be careful in my decisions socially uh and and plan for the future it’s not going to be I remember uh uh doing my television show and it went five years went fast and I would tell the people on my television show it’s G to go fast man and if you finish at 35 but you live till 70 you know so you have to really think about the future a long game yeah and then 40 big four Z wow 40 there they’re going to be tough decisions that you have to make when it comes to business cuz in your 40 when you’re 40 in my business the window is
[02:18:01] closing on certain things so you have to be able to open those windows to other things and some of the people that you’ve gone to to battle with till you’re 40 may not be the ones that you will battle and do business with towards 50 and take a little bit of your uh personal feelings out of it because I’m very personal uh meaning like I would stay with someone even if I feel that they’re not up toart business-wise but you know we have history take a little bit of the personal out of it still remain friends if you can with that person because now it’s really pending like 50 about to be here you know what I’m saying so it’s like you know and uh I would tell my 40-year-old self grow up in your your mind but not in your body necessarily meaning stay young in your body but certain parts of your life you have to grow up and be be grown about things because now you got another kid
[02:19:00] your other child is you know 20 she’s 21 now which is just you know this past year so but she was you know 13 14 if when I was 40 but now you got to start living uh you would always live your life 100% for you but now that you have your kids in their a certain age it’s got to be 30 to 40% you 60 to 70% what you’re going to leave for them and how you’re going to leave them because like I said it’s it’s flying and that’s it Jamie so much fun I really appreciate taking the time and uh where can people find what you’re up to find you online learn you can find me at I am Jamie Fox on my Periscope am I right am I saying this right you know I got these young cats telling me what to do and then I am Jamie Fox on Twitter also I am Jamie Fox of Twitter and I’m doing better on Twitter I’m trying to do better and on
[02:20:00] Twitter you and uh the old fella trying to the latest album the latest album is called Hollywood Story of a dozen roses is out I don’t care how you get it you can download it bootleg it steal it from a friend I don’t care I just want you to I just want you to hear the music the song that’s out right now is I’m supposed to be in love by now I’m supposed to be in love by [Music] now it’s been so long for me I don’t know [Music] how been drowning in a sea of broken [Music] vowes but I’m supposed to be in love by I’ve been chasing my dream now I’m chasing you running hard but my legs feel weak I done played every part I done played the fool write the movie I
[02:21:01] be your lead I’m supposed to be in love by L what girl you stole my heart to take about in Love by now so make sure you get that uh in Love by now’s out it’s a song that my daughter made me she sort of Made Me Do she’s like listen stop with the club stuff stop with and that’s my my oldest daughter’s like funny she said stop with the club joint stop you’re trying to be too young like even she’d even like I had on some shoes one day that she thought was was just I had too young of a shoe she’s like Dad what is that on your feet I said what they the new style baby they the jeis you know it’s just new style I had a zipper on and a buckle and my name engraved and she was like stop
[02:22:01] it she said dad you have old feet I said what does that mean you have old like you have you have feet for marching like a civil rights you have a Civil Right feet so uh but she said do a song that we know that is from you and and it’s true I’m supposed to be in love by now and so uh so that and uh jumping out of the window uh and uh we just shot the in Love by now video with George Lopez is the priest I get stood up at the altar George Lopez is the priest Nicole Scherzinger uh and we all know her from the Pussycat Dolls but also her solo career and and everything she plays my love interest interest which is great because she’s a good friend and so we were able to like really get into some like uh you know they don’t do old school videos anymore like this actually has a bit of a story my man tank is in it and then all of my friends my daughter’s in it my little daughter’s in it and U my mom and dad is in it you know so it’s uh it’s kind of cool I was um jamming to babies in love Yeah that’s
[02:23:03] the type of music I listen Len to before when I’m headed somewhere to to write sit down do some creative work yeah man baby in love solid on to I think Justin Bieber was supposed to do that song first and we were lucky enough to get it but babies in love kid is on there so you know we got some good stuff going and then uh later on uh sleepless nights will be out at some point and then uh we’ll start work on the uh Mike Tyson uh bio and uh and that’s it and then the the standup comedy is coming because like I said I got a lot of stuff that you know I got to get off uh get off my chest that’s it since you brought up Mike what would Mike say if he were here right now well I’m going to say it like this because now that I’m about to do the the movie to do the Mike Tyson impersonation would be a little disservice what I would say is is that I met Mike when I was 21 years old I went on stage and I was doing my joke and I
[02:24:01] was getting my Mike Tyson joke and I went into it and no one laughed because Mike was in the audience a guy was in the audience with Mike and said yo Mike is in here [ ] I was like oh man the black girls in the front was like what you going to do Jamie you gonna tell your jokes you scared of Mike Tyson this what Mike Tyson was knocking people out nothing I did and then the guy yells out Mike said do the joke and that [ ] better be funny I like oh [ ] so I do the joke is a stand in Ovation I come off stage and mik goes there he is I want to talk to you you’re so funny come come hang out with me you’re funny [ ] grab come on get in the car with me and we take off and I started hanging out with Mike Tyson at 21 years old it was the most incredible thing in the world Mike was bigger than Michael Jackson at that time he was just he was the biggest person biggest star in the world Mike would be in a club see a girl and say Hi how are you like BMW like huh do you like you like C so yeah he would go open up the BMW dealership they buy he’ll buy a car for a girl that’s how dope he was and then all his boys would go to all the different cities and pick up the cars that he bought for girls say yo come on get a keys back you know he’s playing so it
[02:25:01] was great to see it was great to see him during that time then it was tough to see him when he went through what he went through and then when we finally decided to do this movie This is the Mike Tyson that I think people really be able to grasp is that when we show Mike Tyson older and I call and I said Mike how are you all praises to Allah my brother I’m happy how are you I said I’m good Mike you know what’s up what’s going on I’m just happy I’m happy because I don’t have any money anymore so I’m happy I like M what does that mean he said no it’s just all the vultures that were around me the whole time it was always after my money so I don’t have any money so nobody wants anything from me so I’m just so happy and if you notice his speaking voice like what I told you with Bill Cosby is completely different from when he’s on stage when he’s getting ready to fight so he was like I’m just happy and I could tell I said Mike that’s the person we need to tell that’s the story we always see the person who Rises to the Mountaintop but we don’t see the other side of the mountain and all the jagged edges and all the things and and and
[02:26:02] you’re about to slip off of that mountain so uh Terry Winter who wrote you know uh Wolf of Wall Street uh Boardwalk Empire and Martin scorsi who’s going to direct it who hasn’t directed a film about boxing since raan bull so fingers crossed if it all goes together we’ll be able to see Mike Tyson in a different way and we’ll be able to transform uh to where I want to be so good that as Mike Tyson that I look so much like him and when I walk into his house his kids would acknowledge me as a father um and then I want to be able to sit back and reflect and here’s what I’m trying to do with with the career is establish characters In Living Color it was W hey for real though I’ll rock your world then it was Willie Beaman Any Given Sunday my name is Willie Willie Beaman I keep the ladies
[02:27:00] screaming then it’s Ray Char oh no it’s bundini Brown from Ali Muhammad Ali is a prophet how you going to be God Son soon as you come out the garage you be number two so bundini Brown and then it’s well I got a woman well CH is good to then it’s Ray Charles and then it’s a Jingo you know they love him very well Jango so the D Jango experience you know working with Quinton Tarantino which was mind blowing uh to be able to go in and read for that and I didn’t know about that part I thought Will Smith was going to do it I was like woo Will Smith and Quinton Tarantino going incred incredible it didn’t work out that way I meet with uh Quinton Tarantino I told him I understand the script and I said not only that I have my own horse and so I ended up riding my own horse in uh in D Jango and I knew that that was going to be another character that’s going to change the game and uh uh so they’ll
[02:28:01] look at that so that’s ajango and then hopefully if everything goes right Mike Tyson will sit with those characters so that you’ll be able to after a while look at a at a at a career where you transformed into a character people know it and were moved by it and and hopefully uh um if it all works out it’ll it’ll be a great it’ll be a great opportunity to look back and see like wow man look at the things that you were able to do uh in America it’s an incredible Cannon already and um my brother gave me Mike Tyson’s autobiography for Christmas last year and I sat down and I read it because when I was a kid I would watch on the grainy VHS Mike Tyson’s greatest hits over and over and over and you’d see his reception in Japan he was the biggest star on the face the planet planet but you read the audiography and they’re layers upon layers so a lot a lot a guy who just wanted to be in love just
[02:29:00] wanted to just just just you know it was more simple than we thought it would yeah and uh I can’t wait to see it I hope it comes together I hope so Jamie you are the consumate performer and Entertainer so please keep creating this has been uh such a gift uh thank you for your time thank you buddy and uh for everybody listening you can find all the show notes links to everything at for ourwork we.com podcast uh you’re to search my name and James it’ll probably pop right up and as always thank you so much for listening this episode is brought to you by 99 designs when your business needs a logo website business card thumbnail or any other design I recommend checking out 99 designs I use them myself I’ve used them for many years I used them to create book cover prototypes for the 4-Hour Body which went on to become a number one New York Times bestseller I’ve also used them for banner ads illustrations and much more with 99 designs you get a variety of original designs from designers around the world give your feedback and then pick your
[02:30:01] favorite your happiness is guaranteed so check out some of my competitions and designs and some of your competitions and designs from fellow Tim fer show listeners at 99designs.com and right now you can get a free 9 upgrade on your first design so check it out 99designs.com this episode is brought to you by Trunk Club you know I’ve used them and here’s why especially in the holiday season last minute gifts crowded airports the family you have enough crap to worry about during the holidays without having to think about mixing and matching picking out buying clothing Trunk Club has your back here’s how it works Trunk Club takes the hassle out of shopping by shipping you a trunk of clothes that fit perfectly make you look amazing and in this case they would include custom picked fall and winter styles so go to trunkclub.com slim you answer a couple of simple questions about your style preferences and size and you’re assigned an expert stylist they curate clothing
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