Godfrey, comedian of controversy & culture, tackling tough topics thru humor and honesty | The Pivot

What up, dog? Cash meetings in Atlanta airport. What up, dog? Yo, man. What's up? You good, baby? Damn. I was like, yes, I do. What's going? Welcome, man. That is back.

Freddy T was just talking about the fact that he, uh, went to Diddy's parties. No, it's not no plural. They, they always trying to find some Diddy parties though, but not plural. No, just like in New York when New York was dope, uh, like early 2000s. We would go to parties, but it was public parties. Right. Right. I mean, we went to a Halloween party that was dope, and you know, we would go see Jay-Z. We see all this regular club, but I never did know after. Yeah. You feel? Do you feel I wasn't even famous enough to get invited to say, do you feel let down that, you know, I ain't into that moist booty ass? I said, "Hey, I hit her." Okay. Hit her. Okay. Now they going to hit you. I don't with moist. No, they hit me. Yeah, they crazy. Oh, no. Damn. They call. They used to call me Freaky Fred on this show, but I ain't into the freak. Hey, man. There's different kind of freak on your own, but not one-on-one. It witness it. My people feeling way got me up on a mission. Got me up knowing me. I got the key on the vision I can trust. Trust limitless [ __ ] still be it. I hear the witness it. My people feeling. Whoa.

Hey, welcome to The Pivot. Take that. Take that. This is Godfrey. This is my boy Freddy T. Channing Crowder. I'm Ryan Clark. Pivot fam. Thank you for pivoting with us. I mean, shoot. We just jumped right into it, which is funny, right? Because you talk a lot about being Nigerian. Yes, sir. Right. And anytime we have like a first-generation African, it's always they were told, "Be doctors, lawyers, engineers, everything that had to do with going to get an education, applying that trade." That's right. How did comedy work out in your house?

Yeah, that's what's crazy. I went to the University of Illinois. I was a pre-med psych major because my father's like, you know, you know, medicine, you have, you know, you have to do engineering, you have to lawyer, you have something to to make sure you, you know, that they're very, very hardcore on that. That's why a lot of Nigerians you meet are doctors, lawyers, mathematicians, 'cause it's just or Indians, same. It's like we're parallel. Indian, the Indian culture, they're all lawyers, doctors, engineers because they think that's the ultimate success. It's that nothing else. Like sports is cool. Even even sports when I play sports, my father said that's nice, but if you don't make it, you can be a doctor. See, see, you cuz some people are better than you. So real. And it was it was true. You know, you play sports, you don't every because that's why I admire you pro athletes, whether you've been doing sports, you get into the NFL for a year or in Major League Baseball two, three, to make it there is just is some of the most difficult. Can I say [ __ ]? Yeah. Oh, it's the most difficult [ __ ] That's why I make short like this, right? Be like, "Don't ever curse [ __ ]" but no, it's the most. I do a show with him. Yeah, bro. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You, you good. They admire. Yeah. It's it's it's that's why I admire pro athletes like, you know, 'cause there's a difference between when you're watching a game and like if a pro athlete makes a mistake, the people in the stands are like, "Oh man, how he missed that pass? You wouldn't have caught that [ __ ] You know, you're a bum." We're we're watching people who are better than you. Shut the [ __ ] up, you know what I'm saying? We, you, you were in flag football, mother [ __ ] shut the [ __ ] up, you know what I mean? So I was always impressed by that. So I'm glad. My parents were very hardcore on the educational thing because they were right about certain things. I was a pre-med psych major, you know. I'm thinking I'm going to do psychiatry. That's I was always into the brain and human behavior. So that's what I was going for. And then, um, I was thinking about comedy my third year in college. I was like, "Yeah, I'm thinking." 'Cause I play, I walked on the team at Illinois. I did on a bet from my friend, uh, Marlon Primus. He was our free safety. It was the year of Jeff George, John Makovic. What an [ __ ] John M. I hated that mother [ __ ] John Makovic. Who's Jeff George? Uh, Henry Jones. Henry Jones for you played for the Bills. These were these are the guys I was on the team with. Derek Brownlow. All of these guys. I walked on the team on a bet and this dude, Marlon, who was one of the most, man, he's one of the most talented dudes I've ever seen in my life. This dude could throw the ball 70 yards. Like he went to Banning High School in in LA. It was like a number one high school, um, football team. And I remember when I was, we were we were practicing on the field. I was wide receiver, right? So he, so he was throwing the ball. I said, "Damn, he was a free safety." I said, "Damn." I said, "You could, how the [ __ ] you threw you? Are you a quarterback?" I said, "Yeah, but he tal, he said, 'Cause a lot." I didn't understand 'cause I'm from Chicago. So he'd be like this. He's like, "Man, [ __ ] 'cause I control." [ __ ] 'cause I'm a quarterback 'cause it was the C, you know, all the C 'cause [ __ ] like. He says, "Yeah." I said, "But why, why weren't you, why couldn't you be a quarterback?" He says, "They don't let be quarterbacks, man. Illinois don't want no black quarterbacks." He kept that [ __ ] They didn't in Illinois at the time, they didn't want black quarterbacks. You? Yeah. They didn't allow. They they converted all the guys that could be quarterbacks into defensive guys, which I. But it was that it was that time and era in football where if you played quarterback, but you were fast, so you could move. We're going to put you at wide receiver, we're going to put you at defensive back. Yeah. Happened to Lamar. Lamar had those conversations. You can look at the University of Florida, too. Not until Chris Leak pulled up. I don't believe we had a. And a lot of the black quarterbacks were like option quarterbacks a lot of time. Like, what's his name from the Sooners? Fraser from Nebraska. Hollow. Holloway. It was Holloway. He would always it would toss it, run, toss, run, toss. And that's we we weren't known to be in the pocket or none of that. And it was all white guys because we had Jeff George, who was phenomenal. He could really throw it, man. Phenomenal. But there were we had black dudes that were like quarterbacks and we did and that was that. I I learned a lot just walking on the team. I learned a lot. But then I was I remember, uh, I I think you guys do this. You had to have a talent show. Yeah. All because they shaved your head when you were, uh, rookies. You, they shaved your head and they made you do a talent show. So I did a talent. I did the talent show. So I was imitating like our coaches and [ __ ] like that. I kind of took it over. I took it over. And so in my head, I was like, man, I was thinking about standup because I always wanted to do standup when I was in college because I used to hold court in the cafeteria. But then I was really militant at the same time. So you're talking about this is the Spike Lee movies. This is Malcolm X days. This is Public Enemy. I'm listening to KRS-1 and all this conscious rap. And we started an African-American studies book club at the cultural center, even though the university was trying to shut us down. So there was a lot of racist [ __ ] happening on campus. So I was into, um, black activism and [ __ ] like that. We brought people like Sister Soldier to our school. uh, Stokely Carmichael when he was, uh, Kwame Ture. uh, this lady by the name of Frances Cress Welsing, who wrote this book, The Isis Papers. So we brought all these people in. We brought in, um, Dhoruba bin Wahad, who was members of the Black Panther Party, which Tupac Shakur's mom. He's in that documentary. So we were that was militant as [ __ ] like, and and being in Chicago, I would go to the Southside to see Minister Farrakhan. So I was 18 going to Savior's Day. So I, like, and this a predominantly white university. So I was angry every day, you know what I mean? I was angry, but I was funny. So I would I would incorporate, like, you know, racism and comedy. I said, "Yo, I should do this [ __ ] like 'cause I felt like 'cause I had a lot of funny friends, right? You have a lot of funny friends. And people say, "Why do you do comedy?" Because I'm funny. I said, "No, I I'm funny. I I got no funny dudes, but I have something to say though." I said, "This will be a chance for me to talk [ __ ] and and and talk about the system." It through comedy, I could do that. Like Richard Pryor did it. Like Paul Mooney did it. George Carlin. I said, "I could do it like that." When I started finishing up college, when I got back to Chicago, I started doing open mics. And and I didn't tell my parents. I didn't I didn't tell my dad until my sister caught me at a show, like some open mic [ __ ] I'm just in the hallway getting ready to go up. My sister's in the hallway like, "You doing here?" I said, "What the [ __ ] you doing here?" She said, "You doing comedy?" I said, "Yeah, don't tell Dad." "Shut the [ __ ] up. Don't tell." She told him. And then I remember the day, my first couple weeks of doing comedy, my father came down to 'cause I I stayed in the basement in the house. The basement room. That's when you're a dude, you like the basement 'cause you can sneak. You know what I'm talking about. So my father comes down. So he says, "Good. Get get. Hey, hey, what's up?" I'm thinking he's going to ask me to do some regular shit. He says, "So, uh, your sister told me that you are doing this comedy thing." I said, "Uh, yeah, doing comedy." He said, "But I thought you wanted to go to medical school." I said, "Yeah, I do, but I don't try this thing." He said, "Okay, but you know, if it, if you don't do good at it, just continue, right? It's always, you could be a doctor if that don't work. If that doesn't work." And I was like, "I'm not falling back on this shit." And I had odd jobs. I was working at a grocery store. We were all grocery store kids, my brother, my sister. So, I was working at a grocery store and I started to cut my hours 'cause I wanted to keep doing this comedy [ __ ] Got my degree in psychology. Boom. Done. I finished that and I just went straight ahead, you know, and things started working out, you know? I I booked some commercials and, you know what I'm saying? I was making a little money. I remember I booked a McDonald's commercial. That was like a big ass deal. Damn. Seven Up. I remember black. This is before Seven Up. I'm still in Chicago before I moved to New York. So I'm like, I booked a commercial, McDonald's, and back then you was getting money. I was like, "What?" So then I was able to move out the house, get my own place. And my father's like, you know, this is good. I like, you know, it was all about supporting yourself and being successful. And from there, moved to New York City, started doing the New York circuit. This is during the Def Jam days. Def Jam. This when I ran into Bill Bellamy and Chappelle and Tracy Morgan and, you know what I'm saying? And I'm coming to New York, a Chicago guy, you know, 'cause I started in Chicago in Bernie Mac's club. Bernie Mac had a club, it's Cotton Club in Chicago, that was like the premier black comedy place. It was Bernie Mac Monday nights with his band and [ __ ] You know, it was it was amateur night and Bernie was the host. It was me, you know, Corey Holcomb, Dave Davis, you know, it was all. And and that's how I met Cedric the Entertainer 'cause he was from St. Louis. Mike Epps from Indianapolis. So, we all Midwest dudes. That's how I met everybody. Mark Curry, Jamie. I met everybody. I was like, "Yeah, this this is it." 'Cause Bernie took me under his wing. You know what I'm saying? Bernie took me under his wing. This is when the Bulls were winning this. So, you know, Mike, how hard is it though for you? Right. Cuz you talk about the psychology degree. Yes. Right. And you say you have stuff to say. You talk about being militant and social media lets us see all of those things. Yes. But it's difficult sometimes to be that funny, to be funny enough where people like it and also be authentically enough yourself to show that comedy and intelligence can mix. How hard is that for you to continue to incorporate?

It's very easy for me 'cause I always I was I'm used to talking like that, but I'm used to being funny with it. You know what I mean? There's some comedians that won't take that. I took the hard road, you know, because sometimes like Paul Mooney was one of my favorites because when white people would walk, white people would leave the room. And Paul Mooney was like, "White folks can't handle when a [ __ ] smart." You know what I mean? Anytime white people leave, it's like, "Oh, there they go. White folks leaving again." You know? But I I love that because a lot of times white people would leave off of honesty and truth. Like, you're leaving off of this man's pain, which is unfair. That's why we can never get anywhere because you're always leaving when there's a real conversation happening. I've seen people stay still when a dude's saying the word all day, just doing like buffoonish ass. You guys are just clapping. But when somebody talks about, like, I do a joke like I say, "Man, it's so funny because the banjo is an African instrument. It's an African instrument and these hillbillies love the banjo. That's weird and it's African." I go, "Why don't you pick your own instrument? Why are you using black people's [ __ ] for white supremacy? That's white mediocrity to me, right? I wish I could just go to a Klan meeting. Of course, I wouldn't be invited, but if I could disguise myself into a Klan meeting and just go, 'Excuse me, can we have our instrument back?'" But that's the kind of [ __ ] you were infiltrate like Clayton Bigsby, right? You, you want to infiltrate like Clayton, bro. I love "Devil Down to Georgia" as well. It's one of my favorite songs, too. But does it water down your message? The comedy of it. No, but it got you because it's in a. Anything you say in a joking way, 'cause I mess I joke around a lot. I mess around a lot. Yeah, but like you're you're bringing up, you know, the the black activists. Yeah. But you up there bullshitting. I'm bullshitting because that's a. You got to lighten it up for people to get the. Richard Pryor was a king of that [ __ ] Like Richard Pryor said, um, a lot of times when you go to court, you're looking for justice and that's all you see is just us. You get that black. And that's a way to, you know what I mean? That's a way to kind of make it palatable to to bring a message because I could I mean, I could be one of those Malcolm X dudes and just speak on a podium, but I was a funny dude too, you know what I mean? And it's it's a tough message and I and I for myself don't want to be that angry, but I was angry enough where I was like, "Yeah, I'm going to do this joke in front of these." And I'll do it in front of majority white crowds. I don't give a shit. When they're just like, "God damn it, I didn't appreciate you [ __ ] just duck." What I do is because I can change my voice, I go, "This will be neutralizing. I'm not going to talk about his politics. I just do whatever I see him say. I'll just like he's talked about stage nine cancer. There's no such thing." So I go, "He has stage nine cancer and it's so bad. I can't believe it. Stage nine, it's bad. Stage 10 gets really bad. I've had stage 20 and I was able to survive 'cause my cells are very different." But the question, but to to Channing's question though, right? And I deal with this in the media, right? When you stand up and you say certain things, there is a section of people that will not only push back but shut off to you, right? And say, "Because in this one moment you mentioned a certain thing or joked about a certain thing, this is the whole of you. And if that's who you are, I'm I'm done with it." Right. In comedy, it's about having people wanting to come listen to you, wanting to see you. Yeah. How do you deal with the balance of saying, "Okay, I don't need those people in order to make sure I'm doing what I want to do?"

Comedy is like, man, I can maybe compare to chefs. You're going to make what you make, and the people that don't like it, they don't like it. You can't worry about that as long as you know you're a good chef. Because you can be the best chef in the planet, but some people just don't like your [ __ ] It it is what it is. Comedy is an art form of words, man. Comedy comes from pain. It doesn't. That's why black people are the funniest 'cause we get [ __ ] on the most. That's just facts. We do. Whether they're African, Caribbean, all around the world. It's like I say, we're the most famous people 'cause we run rent-free in people's heads. I mean, you got people online that are wearing blackface and making fun of black people just out of nowhere. They never met black people, but they just decide, "Let's just make fun of black people." Or you got people copying us. They, you know, every time I see some Asian dude pop-locking a something black. It's like, or I see a I see a white couple doing some Afrobeat [ __ ] We run rent-free in everybody's head 'cause we're the coolest [ __ ] on the planet. Period. Our our culture is the best. It's the best. All of that [ __ ] 'cause you don't see black dudes driving around listening to Indian music. No, they're driving around listening to Jay-Z and Beyoncé. They're listening to our [ __ ] We. You ever see black dudes going, "Yo, turn that up. Yo, that's my [ __ ] right there." [ __ ] No. Every time I see them playing hip-hop out of their song, out of their [ __ ] Ain't nobody listening to their [ __ ] They listen to our [ __ ] Yeah. All of American music is black created. Period. Country is black. The [ __ ] It's all black. If you know your history, it's just. But it's just it's not a magic potion. It's facts. It's just. Yeah. Now, I agree with you, but as a businessman and you're your own business, you don't have franchises. Yeah. Are you cutting out consumers? I don't think so. I I think that my thing is the way I do it is I'm not coming from a point of I hate people 'cause my friends are from every walk of life. And you know, some of my friends be like, "Do you, you seem like you hate white people." It's like, "You're my friend. You're sitting in my house. How do I hate? I don't. I just don't like. There's some white people that are horrible." And I just called them out. What's the big deal? You're calling us the n-word for no reason. I was called. Listen, racism. I didn't wake up wanting racism. I was walking down the street, minding my business, saw me, come call me the n-word. You know, you know, white dudes drive by you [ __ ] [ __ ] That's it. That's what happened. That's how I ran into it. I thought they were mispronouncing Nigerian. I didn't know. I I was like, "It's a soft G, bro. Soft G." You see what? But you see how that's funny? How I made it funny off of my pain. Someone call me the n-word. Yeah. They call me the n-word. But that's how I make it funny 'cause I. We could be going around taking people's heads off if we wanted to. If we look at the history of how we've been treated, we should be taking their heads off every day. Every day we should be punching them in the face. But we don't do that 'cause we're not like that. But but that fear, that's the deflection is, "Oh, you don't like white." I said, "No, one said that. I don't. There's specific people. I judge people by content of character. We all do. You know that. We're we're the most accepting people on the planet, you know, until you do something up to us. Like you see some people like, okay, Michael Richards, you know, Kramer, Kramer from Seinfeld, when he did that whole rant, I I was with him a week before that. I did a show with him in in LA at the Laugh Factory and I've talked talk to him. He's a very strange guy. He's like Kramer, you know. He's like, "Oh my, you're very funny." I was with him. Yeah, man. Yeah. You're so intelligent." That's how he talks. So, one day I was hosting a show. He was on it. He was bombing. Old white lady said it was pretty funny. She goes, "You're funnier on Seinfeld." And he goes, "You [ __ ] bitch." He just went off, snapped, cursed her out. So the next week he went off on some black people and he called them the word. He was just do he was just trying to shock them. I get it. I know he doesn't have a bad heart. You know what I'm saying? But we still forgave him because I heard in the streets in New York, people were like, "Man, I love Kramer though, man. I that was one of my favorite characters because he was like an outsider. He disappointed us, man. That's how we. We'll accept you and then when you hear somebody going off doing the n-word [ __ ] you disappointed." Like Drew Brees, when he was doing all that [ __ ] you like, "You played in the NFL when all your teammates are black and then you now that you out of the NFL now you're a right winger now." I know some comics that I've known for years that I was always cool with. They in the woods now calling people all day. They're just in the woods going, "I was like, wait a minute, but I thought you was cool." You understand? So a lot of these, we we're accepting of everybody. We believe in content of character. So when you just are racist and I'm calling you out, why are you why are you getting mad at me? Because I'm not giving you that stereotype. I'm not giving you that [ __ ] all that.

One of your recent posts, I mean, I don't know how far back it is, you know, how stuff comes up is, uh, it's the Catholics and you were talking about just religion. You know, you said you grew up Catholic. It was Episcopalian. There's no, it's like second street Catholic. It's the same [ __ ] but you just don't get the chip, right? You know, the little body of Christ. What, what is sort of your relationship with religion then? Because you, in in hearing you talk about it, it's from a very pessimistic point of view. It feels like a very pessimistic point of view for it.

I don't get mad at people that are that are atheists because an atheist actually believed in God at one time. The concept of God, they did. They they obviously believed in God first and then they saw a lot of the stuff that was like, "This isn't making sense. If, why is God letting this happen to me? If I'm supposed to believe in God, why is he letting all this happen to me? Why did he let slavery happen? Why did he let this?" You know, I understand. And there's and and first of all, Nigerians are god-fearing. I have God in my name, Godfrey. My middle name is Chukuma. That means God knows all. Danima, my last name. It's all [ __ ] everything is about God. Go and my father, my father always says, "Believe in just always believe in your God." Always. My mother believes in God. Just my father always says, "With God's grace." My father used to say small [ __ ] like, you know, "I have to go to the store, but with God's grace, the store is open." It's right. Everything was about God. He said, "The store is open. You got five hours left for the store." But I always had a belief in a higher power. But the Catholic school that I, I was 12 years Catholic school. Anybody? Catholic school. Catholic school. Catholic school. There was a lot of weird [ __ ] going on. Some of the priests were weirdos. You know what I'm saying? Something was like, there was real funky ass [ __ ] happening. And I was like, "What? This is this is making sense." And my my brother was an altar boy for a while and he was, he quit 'cause it was some weird [ __ ] going on. I'm like, "Yeah." And you know the the office, the office, the priest's office in a Catholic school is called a rectory. Okay. It's called a rectory. No, that's the priest in the back of the school. It's in the back. It's called a rectory. Catch you up. I'm just going to stay right there. Look up the word rectory. A rectory is in the back. And that's what that's what of the school. I was like, "Yo, this [ __ ] ain't right here. Got to get out of here." And and any priest that decides not to ever marry is weird to me. You should be a. I think a priest that gets married would be good. A marriage to a. I think that's what to never get married. That's weird. And then that's why you start hearing all this weird stuff that happens. I go, it's not natural to never be with somebody. That's, you know what I mean? All that. That's weird, man. I think balls are heavy. What do y'all? Yo, this. No, listen. No, I I I I am trying to listen, but this is I'm trying to figure out. I'm like, man, and I've done this a lot. We've had a lot of shows, right? And normally I'm like, okay. Yeah, you're very, how do I get them to go this way? And no matter what, it's like, I got one for you. What? You say Jason Statham always acts in movies. No, wait. Let's finish this Catholic thing. I'm not. Listen, I listen. I've gone to different churches. I've been invited to synagogues, mosques, all that. Regardless of the religion, we all trying to. It's all one God, right? My thing, I like taking. Even when I with Nation of Islam, I know a lot of people from Nation of Islam. I have friends that protect the minister. I they they come to my shows, but there's some things I don't agree with on their thing. There's some things I don't agree. My friends that are Arab, I go, "That's cool. I don't agree with you on that." You know, because there's a lot of hypocrisy. Like in New York, you got a lot of Muslim cab drivers that won't pick up black people. I'm like, "You're a Muslim. You know, you're a Muslim and you don't pick up black people. I think that's a little strange. You know, you have African Muslims that won't pick up black people. So, you're praying five times. That's a lot of praying for you not to pick up a black person. What? What is I mean, what are you doing going? Don't pick up black people. Don't pick. I don't I don't think I don't think that's I don't think that's a prayer you pray to Allah. I'm just saying. But if you are a man of God and God is not supposed to judge anyone, why are you driving past black people and not picking them up, sir? So there's a lot. Fear of what? If you if you have Allah, you have God, Yahweh in your life, what are you afraid of? They say, "God gives me no fear." Then why are you afraid of picking up a black person? Yeah. And I'm not saying they all do that at all. No. But thank God Uber came 'cause Uber started taking money out of their pockets. So now they're now I get followed by cabs. "You look tired, brother. Your legs look tired. Come now. You want to pick me up?" 'Cause the money got taken away because it's all economics to me. All of this [ __ ] is is all money. Religion is money. That's why I want to open up a church. Comedy. I want that real money. They got they got private jets. I want I want to be like C-Lo Green with with the jets. You know what I'm saying? I want to have a private jet. And my my my congregation said, "Pastor, say yes." I have a list. "Yes." "Why you got a list?" "I don't know." "Yes." "Why do you have a private jet?" "It's like, how am I supposed to talk to Jesus with all these people in commercial?" No. "Jesus wants to talk to me one-on-one. So I need that private jet." I don't think you need a private jet to talk to. The private jet gets you loose.

But no, I want to go back to the the Nigerian side. Right. I know about Jollof rice. Yes. Right. That's like one of the bigger dishes. Oh yeah. Popular. But I want to know about pounded yam. Pounded yam. Yeah. Cuz I like to pound some yams. But what is what is pounded yam? That was awesome. I liked it. I like pounding some. Yeah. And I like that fufu. You feel me? I like that a goosey. So when I want to say it, you I like pounding me some yam. I want to know. All right, Jim Brown. I like pounding yam, but I want to like know about the pounding yam 'cause I pound [ __ ] yam and the fufu. I put the fufu. I love how you're using the wordplay. It's hilarious. You sounded like an action hero from the 70s. Hey man, your pound of yams. I like pounding yams, but I want to know about your pounding games. Shut your mouth. No, but for real though, he turned you into Shaft, too. Somewhere. Hey, Freddy T. Somewhere in there, you turned from a football player. You went to Jim Brown to chef. None of these people done anything past the 70s, but you're all those people. You're like, "Yeah, I look proud of y." Yeah. Out for. But what is pounded yams though? For real. It's like you. It's like you ma. It's mashed up yams. You pounded yams. It's like yams mashed up. So you got to mash the yams. You got to mash the yams, baby. You m. You smash the yams. But this is. You mashing the yams, right? Yash. That's. You've eaten it, right? You've eaten. You've eaten the food. I have. Okay. I thought you like me if I ever ate some yams. I've had yams. Goddamn. I eat some yams. [ __ ] from behind. I eat the yam from behind. Why you keep going to the? You know what I'm saying? What is wrong with you? Like candy yam. I like I candy yam. Put the honey on the ass. That'd be candy gang. [ __ ] I be all up. You know me. You going to have to pray. So now we talking about prayer. Excuse me. You got to stop him. No, we we. No, I'm going back to church. Now we got to pray. You got to go to church. Okay. And because you got you impersonate, you impersonate so many different people. Yes. So let's say you did something wild. Yeah. Probably probably was that hanging out with Diddy too long. It's anybody. Damn. I'm saying something crazy. You got to pray now. You got to get into heaven. Yeah. And whose voice would you use to try to convince God to let you in? Like Denzel, Shay Shay. I like that. Steve Harvey. Maybe not Shay Shay right now. You ain't getting. You ain't getting into heaven with what's going on now. I'm just 'cause I dude when you did the show. I'm just saying. I'm just saying right now if I was Shannon, I'd be like, um, listen, Lord, I know, um, there's a lot of things that, you know, I've done that I'm ashamed of, but being in the NFL for as long as I have been. We have to skip all the things that we've been doing. Um, so I just feel that nobody's perfect and, um, like my grandmama said, if you were told you better come out the water, what you ain't getting in. Shannon. You. No one understands what your grandmother says. Like, he's like, "You can't get in." Oh, come on, man. You got to let me in. Come on, man. No, man. I thought you going to forgive me, Lord. I thought you going to forgive me. Lakers in five.

But Denzel got to be the smoothest though, right? He. I met him a few. I met him like four times, man. 'Cause you know, Denzel was. I I met him during the Training Day days, you know, at a party, man. And he was he was cool. He's like, "All right, so, uh, show why you comedian, right?" Yeah. "All right. You going. You got to put in the work. Got to put in the work." And he walks off like that. He just. But he was. We were at something, but he spoke to me. He's like, "What about what about his run-in with the photographer, though?" That was great. So, so when you're but when you're Denzel, you obviously know there is a different sort of microscope on everything you do. Yes. Right. You think about the the high visibility of the moment, the the reaction. Yeah. As someone who is in that business, obviously he's in a different stratosphere from everyone. What does it say that he feels like in that moment that is the correct reaction?

Denzel is the greatest actor walking the planet. I model myself after a guy like himself because he can look back and look at all his body of work and go, "Yeah, I can go to sleep." You know, there's some cats I I admire, but there's some things I would be like, "No, I wouldn't do that." Nah, to get to here. 'Cause you, there's certain things people want you to do as a black man to get to certain levels. And there's some I go, "Nah, I don't really like what he's doing to get there." Denzel is a good model for me. Or Samuel L. Jackson, that he keeps his manhood, you know, he keeps his black manhood, which is tough, you know, and he's so good that, well, he should have five Oscars, personally. Man on Fire, John Q, Malcolm X. I think they purposely limited him just to say, "Oh, well, that's his only." He's been he's been nominated every decade. I think he won supporting for Glory though. And Glory got supporting actor and he was lead actor. Lead actor. I mean, he did Steven B. He did. Man, I mean, he had he he's owed. I think they just do a backorder Oscars ceremony for people. We apologize to up like, "Yo, Denzel, we owe you like three more. You, Man on Fire, you kidding me? See what he's done with Equalizer? What you talking about? Like, what Oscar award-winning in an action film? I mean, John Q, Hurricane. He got snubbed for Hurricane. Like, but I think that the fact that he's at a he's at that level. He can check people, you know. He can check people, say, "No, you don't touch me like that. I'm not no clown." I love that [ __ ] He's from money earning Malverne. I'm talking about I want that kind of feed. And I. It's it might be a harder road, but if you're not built for the sucker [ __ ] you're not built for sucker [ __ ] I'm not built to be a clown. I I like being silly. It's a different.

But what were you going to say? I was going to say, have you turned down roles? Yeah, sure. That now. But you regret turning down that there. No, there's some roles I go, "They they be like, 'Here, there's this role. This is their characteristic.'" I go, "Ah, no. I'm not good with that. I'm not comfortable with that one." You know, and they and I and and I know people, some casting directors will ask, "Well, why?" And I'll explain it to them. They go, "Damn, that I I appreciate you telling me that." I go, "Yeah, I'd rather do this. Why can't I want to do that? That cool [ __ ] right there. Why can't I do that?" I grew up, you know, um, looking up to the Jim Browns and the Richard Roundtrees and I looked up to these Bruce Lee, who always fought for his rights, who always fought for, uh, civil rights. Bruce Lee tried to be a leading man and they didn't like him because he was Chinese. You remember there was a a show called Kung Fu back in the day. That was Bruce Lee's. He wrote that "Way of the Warrior," but they gave it to David Carradine, a white dude, and slanted his eyes. They were like, "No, you can't be a lead 'cause you're Chinese." So, David Carradine took his story. Bruce Lee fought for Chinese respect. You know, Bruce Lee, every black dude loves Bruce Lee, you know, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, these were my heroes. These were bad dudes like that kept their manhood. I I that's me. Like, even though there's always a big controversy about would you put on a dress? Now, if Hollywood started out equally where black people weren't wearing blackface and buffooning, maybe if you wore a dress, it would be an artistic thing because there are actors that that play women. They do it in Japan. They have a theater in Japan called Noh. Tyler Perry. Tyler, he does it all the time. Oh, but that's Tyler Perry. And I'm not. I don't want to wear a dress. I'm not. That's just me, though. Anybody else that does it and does it well, that's their business. I don't know if it takes away from that manhood, but I know from the history of. I just go by the history of Hollywood on, you know, Sidney Poitier was where we had some a little bit of dignity. First person to win an Oscar other than Hattie McDaniel. Was first black woman to win an Oscar from Gone with the Wind, but she wasn't even allowed to eat dinner after she won. She had to wait in the kitchen. You understand? She had to wait in the kitchen when she won her Oscar, you know? And Clark Gable came over to her and apologized and said, "I'm sorry." Because Clark Gable was black, you know, he's black and Native American, but he passed as a white guy. You understand? They call him Dark Gable in the black community. That's facts. I just I'm just into history and history. H history is very important. You know, when people, we're the probably the one main race that is always told to move on. We're always told to move on. We have moved on. We've caught up to people when we were told you, it was illegal for black people to read, but we're beating you in education now. What are you talking about? Move on. You're so. You're the ones that are. We're beating you. Black women have the highest degrees in education. But we weren't told to read. We. It was illegal for black people.

All of this knowledge, right? Because people say ignorance is bliss, right? Ignorance is bliss. True. How much does having all of the knowledge of history weigh on you? Because if you didn't have this knowledge or you didn't have this connection to certain things, there may be a role that you could kill that could elevate your career that you might do. Right? But with having that knowledge and now that not sitting right in your heart, that not sitting right in your head, you're passing up on things that I'm sure agents or representation are like, "Hey man, you got to go do this. If you do this now, what you're filming on June 12th or whenever it is, there's going to be more people there. There's going to be a diverse group." Like, how, how much does the knowledge Yeah. Sort of hold you back in some sense?

I don't think it does. I love knowing [ __ ] I just I just like knowing it. I just, you know, James Baldwin said, "A conscious man is almost a doomed man." And I. Oh, well, I just, you know, it's too late. I've been like this since I was 17. I was reading a lot. I was like, "Oh, let me just start reading this stuff." It was it was infuriating sometimes. You're like, "Damn, you know, you know, when you look at, oh, why is the wealth gap of black people? Why is it, you know, why is it so far? How come black people don't own anything?" Well, there's a book that a white man wrote called The Color of Law and why they purposely redlined black people from owning houses. They purposely, it was in the law to not sell to African-Americans. You see how they act now? How they depreciate when they're selling to black families. They, you know, they, but the how, where does this come from? Oh, it comes from here. Building highways in the middle of black neighborhoods so that black people couldn't build houses. This is all facts. Or they put black neighborhoods on toxic waste dumps and then black people get cancer. This is happening. You need to know about this kind of [ __ ] So if I go and buy a house, I go, "Oh, I know what don't don't be." Yeah. But but history is important. But the problem is is our history is and just whether it's African colonialism is so atrocious that they don't want to hear that [ __ ] Well, you shouldn't have acted like that. But how about this? Why don't you let it help you and don't be like that? That's. So if you go to a doctor's office, what's the first thing they pull out when you come to the doctor's office? You sitting down, what do they do? What do they bring out? Your medical history. What do they make you fill out? Your medical history. They make you fill out. Does your family have? They write they pages of that [ __ ] because that's how they assess your health now. It's no different than anything else. When you guys were playing ball, what do they talk about? You know, the announcers always talk about your past. Well, as you can see, last week he had a pulled hamstring, but now he's doing much better. They talk, they talk about the past all the time. Last week he was two for three. Now he, you know, has five RBI. It's always the past. That's how you assess what's going on now. All you guys talk about sports, you're talking about passion. You go, he was there. He was recruited there. Then he got traded. But when it comes to us, we're the only people they go, "Just move on." No, we're moving on. We're actually moving on. Mother [ __ ] owning businesses. Even though you barely give anybody loans, every people are moving. Black people are moving on. You're the ones in the old adage of "We can't do [ __ ]" You're the ones that haven't moved on because you still think we're not human. I'm not saying every white person is like that 'cause it's not true. Because there are, if you look online, there are white people spitting knowledge about African-American. There's a lot of allies for real. But in the consensus of, you're still calling people names online. You're still.

Monkey noises and just dumb [ __ ] like that. That's old. You haven't moved on. You haven't, cuz the the racial, you got young kids using racial slurs. You haven't moved on, cuz you're teaching your kids this old adage [ __ ]. You understand? I would love to go on stage one day and do some racial [ __ ] and people go, "Hey, man, we don't do that anymore." Oh, great. So, my [ __ ] is antiquated. This is great. But racism is so. My nephews experience that [ __ ]. You feel me? Have we really moved the bar, though? We just keep doing what we're doing. We understand, we know, and marginalized and we know about the red things you're talking about. We know about all that stuff, but how like do we really move the bar? Because you're you're extremely passionate about it. Yeah. And you you really speak on it, you know, I don't want to say daily, but weekly like, you know, with humor. With humor. You speak about it with humor. But are we moving the bar? Are we making are we making any change? I think so.

Well, there's a lot of there's a lot of comics that still do old ass [ __ ] old jokes. They haven't moved on. They even even their racial jokes are not updated. Sometimes I tell people, update your racism, man. Update it. You could be racist, but update it. Be smarter. Stop talking about watermelon. We we already understand. First of all, white people eat more watermelon than we do. So, I mean, it's [ __ ] talking. It's actually It's actually just a tasty fruit, though. It's delicious. You can't tell me You can't tell me fried chicken is is the best way to eat a chicken. But fried chicken, but but watermelon was grown. Well, it was a it was a delicacy. And then white folks started eating it again. Like, we want that too. But then they clown black people as in that's all we ate while they were eating it. Like, you know, they they compare us, oh, you guys love chicken. And I go, "You eat more chicken than us. There are more whites in America." They definitely keep KFC open cuz right. I'm a Popeye's guy. I'm a Popeye's guy. Y'all can't put no salt or nothing on this goddamn chicken. But fried chicken. Look who's making chicken now. Korean fried chicken. Very good. Because the the soldiers in in Korea, the black soldiers taught them how to fry chicken. That's where it comes from. But everybody's eating that. But see, they make fun of us first. They wait and then they start to copy. And then they go, "You guys didn't invent it. You used to make fun of us." Lips. Look at They used to clown this [ __ ]. The white girls look like Donald Duck now. Out of here. I tell you what, this going to be this going to be a great this going to be a great show for the 10 of us to know happened. Hey, they going to be like, "Hey, Carl Car call Carl going to hit us up one day and be like, man, you remember that show y'all did with Guy? Is this cancelled? Am I going?" I'm going be like, "It's up. Is this Nobody go to see I'm saying all of this [ __ ] that was made fun of. I mean, they used to make fun of us big lips this that and now everybody's bonging their ass. They used to make fun of me. I saw you do something cool about Sinners. Uh, you were replying to a person who I don't talk about on this show. So I'm not going to allow you to talk about it. Okay.

But part of that movie that was extremely cool was some of the references throughout history that connected our culture to other people. Yes. Right. It wasn't a coincidence that the people that helped them were of Chinese descent. And the reason that was was because that was part of the actual history. That's right. It's real. Of ours, right? And so when you watch something like Sinners that connects art to history is such a beautiful way and then see some of the the hate that it gets to oppose its greatness. What does that say about what still needs to change and even the Hollywood culture of understanding? All All it takes is you got to see us as human beings. Once you see people's humanity, you start to change. It's like I like to compare it to rats. Like when you see a rat, you're like, "Holy [ __ ] a rat." But I know people who have pet rats and go, "Oh my god, they see it as a an animal. It's an animal. It's all it is is an animal." You see it as a rodent. So you don't give a [ __ ] what happens to it. You're like, "Man, I kill that shit." That's how they Some people see us. They just don't see us as human beings. You know, we were three-fifths human in the Constitution. Yeah. So, think about that. When people see you as that, they don't give a what happens to you. They don't care what happens to a George Floyd. They don't care what happens to a black woman being beat up by a grown man or a black child. But when you see the human because we most of the times we see humanity in people like, you know, you I've seen, you know, I we plenty of times where you see somebody getting abused. It could be a white woman getting abused. We be like, "Yo, chill, man. What you doing?" Cuz we see people as human beings. We just see people as good people. It's just when you up, we go, "Yo, you know, so with Sinners to me, because Ben Stiller stood up. He did for the per um they headline, it was the headline. They tried to talk about the money it cost to make the movie as opposed to the first like it's not really making enough. But then there was a movie that had a mainly white cast that they lied about. Said it was doing well. It wasn't. But they went and tried to [ __ ] on Cougler's movie. And Ben Still was said, "Why would you do that?" And I love that about Ben Still. I was in Zoolander. I was in his first film, Zoolander. And he was like, "Why would you do that to them?" I love that. See, there are good there are good people in every race. And I'm not trying to say this to appease. I'm not trying to do no Al Sharpton [ __ ]. I love Al, but I'm not trying to go everybody has a chance. No, I'm saying this. It's the truth. I know people who look different than us that are good people, man. You know what I mean? And yet you're doing that because you don't think, and this is facts, they don't think black people sell in movies. They just don't think we do internationally. How? Afrobeat is the number one music genre. Hip hop is number one. Everybody, and I've been to a lot of countries, they do black [ __ ] Lithuania, I've been to Russia performing. I've been all Turkey. Black [ __ ] everywhere. I go, "Wow, look at that." Celebrating black culture. It's especially in America, it's the Americans, that American mentality thinking we ain't [ __ ] cuz they know our [ __ ] is dope.

Look at Look at sports. Please, please. There was a time where we they didn't want us in football. They had a black football league for about seven years. I think Henry Pard Hank Pard who went to my high school in Chicago was one of the first African-American coaches in the NFL. Now they have the Fritz power to line Fritz power. He sorryzit he went to my high school lane tech high school in Chicago. You understand the Negro League baseball. This is what time they the reason why they integrated baseball because the Negro Leagues was better. So they had to shut it down by integrating. That's why they picked Jackie Robinson. They were like let's get Jackie Robinson. We were in baseball in 1884. It was Wilbur and Moses Walker. That's the first blacks. And then we were banned from baseball for 60 years. Then in 1947 it was Jackie Robinson. I go to the Negro League Baseball Museum every year when I get to Kansas City. That's all I just go and read. But what look at what we do. Look at what sports. Imagine if sports look at the next level. I remember talking to Michael Jordan's agent. I'm friends with him. I knew him for years. He used to come see my comedy shows in New York and he was telling me about the story of when we first were trying to sell Michael Jordan to sell sneakers. He goes, "You know, I remember when we were trying to pitch Michael Jordan for a sneaker deal." Yeah. And they were like, "Black Black guys can't sell sneakers." He He's telling me, he goes, "Black guys can't sell sneakers." And he goes, "No, let's take a chance on the guy. I think he's going to they this is what they thought. We couldn't sell sneakers." And he goes, "Thank God that they took a chance cuz look at ain't nobody wearing no white dude sneakers. You got any Lewinskys on? You wearing Lewinskys? Where the birds at? Where the where the birds at? I love Larry Bird, but nobody wearing it. White kids ain't man if if the if the league turn cuz they're trying to bring back a se segregation ban, you know, because you know, whoever wants uh uh to bring back segregation. I said, I don't mind. I don't mind if you want segregation. Cool. But it has to be segregated and and equal. So, we get all of our things back. You can't have any of our stuff. You got to have yours. Not se separate but equal. If you you can't you can't be separate, then come burn our towns. No, you got to stay over there and we stay over here. No, you All right. Let's And by the way, we're taking our athletes with us. Even white dudes be like, "Ah, nah, nah, nah. We can't have that. Nah, no. We We need speed. I'm I'm since we're so supreme. Let's do that." And all of our music has to come to us. So you you'll be sitting in silence. You can't cuz it's all black invented. It's I'm just tell if you really are about the segregation and if we had segregated water fountains, how much fun would that be now? Cuz I would rub it in their ass. I'll be like, "It's good. This tastes good." And they'd be like, "Let me taste that." Hey, what? This I wanted you to do cuz I saw you do it though. What would Oh, I wanted to say about the film thing about Sinners. First of all, shout out to Michael B. Jordan. I know. Good dude. Ryan Cougler, good man. Black people sell because when I brought up Shaft, by the way, Gordon Parks, remember Gordon Parks, the famous photographer? Gordon Parks from Harlem Renaissance. Gordon Parks is the one that produced and directed Shaft. Okay. Shaft saved I think it was Warner Brothers saved Warner Brothers from bankruptcy because they were going bankrupt. And Shaft was $500,000 budget. They made 12 million. Wow. Richard Roundtree saved Warner Brothers. My friend used to work for Stan Lee who created Marvel. I met Stanley three times, hanging out with Stanley in his office on Santa Monica in LA. He was at POW Entertainment when he left Marvel. I'm sitting there talking to Stanley. He's 89 years old. Now, you think about it as a kid, I'm listen I'm talking to the man who created Spider-Man and he's like, Godfrey, I want to show you something about Spider-Man. He's telling me everything. I'm listening to this dude like I can't believe I'm talking to Stanley. He goes, I want to show you. Yeah. You see, he had a big picture of Wesley Snipes blade. He goes, "Yeah, Wesley Snipes, I tell you. Wesley Snipes. Wesley saved Marvel. It's We were going bankrupt. If it weren't for Wesley Snipes in 1999, we would have been in bankruptcy. Black person saving again a company. Black people sell. You look at In Living Color saved Fox. The halftime, remember the halftime celebration. Who saved it? Michael Jackson saved it. That [ __ ] was going down. Empire saved Fox again. Empire with uh uh Saraji P. Henson. Saraj B. Terren and yeah, Terrence Howard saved Fox. WB, black people saved it. Stars, black people saved it. Black people sell. It's just this old adage of of of hatred and not wanting and this fear of other people's success. They got to get over it. It's all We're all good, man. If we get people think if we get into a certain power, we're going to act the same way you did. We're not like that. We just want everybody to because when people say, "Oh, you just you want to be white." I never wanted to be white partner. Never did. I like myself. You just don't like my existence. I've never wanted to be. And if I were white, I'd be a white guy. Okay. But we don't hate being what we are. Look at us when we're by ourselves. Autonomous by ourselves. You look at us and you're like, "Look at all that noise over there. There's making all that damn noise." Our Whenever we're happy and autonomous, people got a problem with it cuz they ain't part of our [ __ ]. So what do they do? They make fun from insecurity. Why don't you just come and join us and act like a human being then yell at us and do all this other [ __ ]. You know what I'm saying? It's like when you move into a neighborhood, it's like the blacks moving in the neighborhood. I'm sorry. You move into a neighborhood on land you stole? What are you talking about? I'm sorry. I want America to be great again. Well, then let the Native Americans come back. I'm just saying if we really trying to break [ __ ] that's what happens.

You mentioned social media before. or I saw in the interview changing comedy. Yeah. Right. Giving it it has it has it used to be the way you said you had to come up. I had to go I'm a Bernie Mack here. I'm working just busting ass, right? It's different now. It's different now. You can get on social media and you can build this brand, right? You can sort of build a career. How should or how even do you as a comedian choose what to speak on? What to what to be a part of? What part of your comedy even from your shows you share? Because social media gives people a lot of you, more of you than they actually may see at your show or for the people who don't see your show. Cuz everybody's going to have their thing. There's some people will be like telling you the news in a in a in a I don't know in a shower cap, you know, everybody has their little thing. Yo, what's up? It's this is or somebody use a sock puppet or whatever. I said I'm just going to be authentically me with with cuz I what I did was which a lot of cats cats from my era, they saw social media as like I ain't doing that [ __ ]. I ain't doing that [ __ ]. And then I kind of got off my ass and say, yo, it's the the the winds are changing, man. We got to get on this [ __ ] because there, you know, there are people who are super famous off of social media aren't real. They're aren't real comedians. They don't they didn't put the hours in. One thing about live performance, you can't skip that. You can It's This is like the first time where the you can put the cart before the horse. You can build a following in your living room, right? Have millions of followers, then you go, "You know what? I'm real funny on camera. I'm going to book me a comedy club." Then they go to a comedy club and people come in like, "All right, we're in real time now. Now you got to show us what you got." And they go, "What? This [ __ ] ain't no real comedian." That's the only that's the only detriment. The people that get famous and aren't didn't put the stage time in. They have to make sure cuz it's going to catch up to you cuz once they go around and see you once and you [ __ ] up, they going to come back and go, "Oh, he ain't [ __ ] or she ain't shit." So the good thing about me and guys from my we have the stage time. we have the, you know, the knowledge and and the and the um seasoning, but the one thing a lot of us don't do is we don't get on because we think we're too good for that. I go, you have to you got to be shameless. So, I said, let me do something consistent that matches who I am because I don't want people come to my show go, damn, he talk about race. I go, no, that's I do that on Instagram. I go in. It's a few ways to jokingly talk about race in a positive light. I mean, Channing, he's mixed. He He has a a white mom and a black dad. He just recently lost his dad. Sorry about that. But he he also um does uh stand up. He He's tried it. Cool. You crazy enough. He was hoping his dad left him crazy enough his his schlug, but what the hell? Damn, Fred. What? Fred, what you just I'm just trying to We We My dad is a big He's a big ass black dude. He was just 6'4 to 70 big, right? And my mom's a white woman, right? And so when I was young and saw my dad getting out the shower, I thought my would grow into what he had, right? And it never it never it never ended up maturing. Wow. So you got everything from your mom. So I got my mama's. So you got your mama. Funny praise. You said that. So yeah, if we got that, but even that like just the world can be better when we combine races. But you'll be in the club and you you know I I've done I've done a number of shows. Yeah. And you tell the joke get hits, but then you see the white dude in the back mad looking at you. Why? And why is he mad though? Because he got his mama's too, but his mom and dad's wife. And that's what you do when you see the white dude be mad like you mad cuz you got your mama's dick, right? I understand. See that? That's when you bring him in. That's you bring him in. Go, yo, dog. I'm I'm a black man. But I get it. I got that part to I want to ask talking about comedy though. Yeah. Go ahead. I want to ask man it like I played Freddy. I played against Ryan. Ball players like we can we compete. Yeah. But when I see Freddy walking through the airport, he he you know, we both gers. I see Ryan and like we cool. What's up with this damn comedian beef [ __ ] man? Like it doesn't seem like it should be nasty. Why is the comedy nasty amongst us, not amongst the white boys and other people? Like I mean, listen, everybody has rivalries, but we are the most we're the most vocal about it in public, which is stupid. It's like I I mean, I've been in a couple of them, but I'm like I'm not even a confrontational dude like that. Why are you choosing me to It's It's It's up. And a lot of and I'm gonna say this on this this this show, a lot of us don't stick together, which is up. You got some comic, and these are not all some comedians that will literally not tell you about certain jobs. They don't want you to have them. We do this to each other. But this is a historical [ __ ]. You know, they cuz they there's that whole one one negro at a time rule where they let one negro get famous so you can be mad at this one guy and they pit us against each other. They do this [ __ ] on purpose, but we don't have to do that. We can create our own [ __ ]. You know? There's plenty of comedians in positions like like Kevin is my boy. Kevin Hart, he lets all his boys eat, man. His whole crew are millionaires. Joey Wells and all his n all those dudes. I love that. That's what you're supposed to do. You let your He don't owe everybody everything, which is crazy. He lets his crew, his writers, Harry, his writers, they all getting money. Rick Ross said it best. How in the world am I going to be around some dudes and not make them any money? I'm making all the money and they ain't That's [ __ ]. But they work for it. They work hard for it. They write. They perform. They look out. That's how you're supposed to do it. Regardless of what you think about Kevin, that got his crew eating. That's how you need to do. We should have groups of us. You got You got Adam Sandler takes care of his boys. Still takes care of his boys. Jud Apple. They I see them. They take care of their dudes, man. And you should be taking care of them, not on some subservient [ __ ]. Let them rise. Why are you? But Especially if they're working. They're working. A lot of us a lot of us don't want to. I'll give you enough. No. Teach that man to fish. Don't give him a fish. Teach him how to fish.

But you mentioned being public though. Why wouldn't like if if you're an upand cominging comedian and you see Cat Williams go on this show and talk about all the other comedians of our culture and really call them out almost say in some ways their success is fraudulent or stolen or taken from them. And then you see even in doing that though he blows up right he's back he's back in the public eye. Yeah, it almost makes it seems like that's the way to do it. Yeah, but Cat is special, man. Cat is special, man. And and what if Cat is telling the truth? Cat is a superstar. That's real talk. I love I'm a Cat fan. And he's very intelligent and supremely intelligent. And when he talks, you can't help but listen, even if he's lying. I know there's [ __ ] on Mars. I'll be like, "Yep, there's I've been to Mars. I know Mars." I'll be like, I believe he he's that he's like he's has that preacher power, that influencer power. He's and I believe a lot of things he's saying is the truth. I'm not going to pick at what I believe, but I don't he's a famous dude. I mean, my first time meeting Cat, I met him twice. The the flavor flavor roast and one day I was I don't know, we were at a post Oscar parties. I see cat, he goes, "Uh, you want to go in this party?" blah blah blah. I said, "Yeah." He brings me in this party, walks right in. Everybody knows him. I'm He introduces me to Martin Land who's a not around anymore. Very very famous actor. They go, "Hey, cat. How are you?" I go, "That's one of my mom's favorite actors. God damn." He knew Cat. He's like, "How you doing, Mr. Landau? This is I'm He's introducing me all these superstars." Then I then there's some jazz playing jazz playing, jazz piano player. I said, "Oh, this jazz is good." And I didn't know it was Jeff Goldblum playing jazz piano. You know Jeff Goldbloom? I do. He plays jazz piano. And I'm like, he goes, "How you doing, Mr. Gold Bloom?" And he goes, "Hey, Cat. How are you, man?" I was like, "This dude is the real he's that he's that influential." That was the last time I saw Cat's a magical creature to me. He just disappears. I never see him again.

You just mentioned all of those people. What? Knew all of them. What was or who was a person you met and had sort of a perception of and even in meeting you they blew you away? Meeting Jason Stathithm, fantastic dude. He was awesome. Like I'm happy that he was awesome cuz I don't want somebody being shitty to me, you know, cuz I might say something, you know, like the transporter, the beekeeper, the what is he now? The working man. The working man. But he's he's he's a mechanic, but he's transporter. He's mechanic. He's a a beekeeper. He had a bank job. He was a bank robber. And so he always has a job. Listen, but is he a good actor? Cuz he's the same person every I like that though. I like being I like Ice Tea. Like that's why I love Ice Tea. He's just Ice Tea. Ice Tea don't change. Like, yo, I heard they got killed the other day. Yo, you like you like beating up little kids, you gonna go to jail. You know, I like that. I like what you said. I like that ICT is just himself. I don't want him to change. What you say about Jason when you like he always states his job though. Yeah. He goes, I forgot to tell you I'm the transporter. I'm like, well, yeah, that's the movie. He's like, wait, I just watched a working man. And he's like, "I'm a working man. That's what I do." I I want him to be like a barista at Starbucks. He likes to take jobs where he could whoop somebody's ass. He's like, "I called your name. You had the latte." He's like, "What do you do?" I'm a barista. But you just said you need to walk away. I But those dudes make money. Like Arnold Schwarzenegger. He made billions off. Get out of Get out. That's all he did. Even when he was kindergarten caught. I It's not a tumor. He should have just named all his movies. And he made not a policeman. I'm a princess. What is this? Do I I remember there was a video of Arnold like making fun of skin heads, you know? He was making fun of all these skin heads groups. And did you ever see him do it? He was like, I want to tell you, you guys, what are you doing? You're you're spreading hate whether you're not even the real thing. I my my father in Austria that's the real Nazis. You're [ __ ]. Ah I was dying. You're like why you not even that's not real. All this crap in your bald head. [ __ ] was fantastic. But yeah I like guys that are just the same. There's some people that are just what they are. But Denzel's the same way. You know, so he's the same guy, but you believe him in that character. That's how good. Dairo same way, but you believe that's how good when you can be yourself. But the charact cuz I mean, if I'm a doctor, I'm still me. I'm a doctor. If I'm football player, I'm still myself. If you're a a dentist, you're still you. But that's how good Denzel I mean, you see Magnificent 7. Yeah. Um, and that's a remake from the original Steve McQueen. And Denzel's just a cowboy, but he's still a cowboy. He's like, "All right, so we gonna ride this horse." In Mag Beth, everybody had an accent. Yeah. Like to be or not to be. Why is thouest here? Huh? Is that what you're telling me? Is that what you're telling me? Thou must come there within between thy loins. And I got to push back cuz Gladiator 2, ain't no way that black man is just walking up like Denzel was. But that was He didn't have a script in Gladiators 2. Have y'all seen Gladiators 2? I didn't see it yet, bro. It's Denzel just Denzel being Denzel in BC. Just chilling BC, you know. I am your king. I am your king. Huh? Huh? I'm your king. I'm always going to be your king. Huh. I did see him in Oll though. He was absolutely phenomenal. unreal because it was you're watching him in that without like any special effects, without any cool cameras. He's just standing in front of you and it's in Shakespeare, you know. I saw him in Julius Caesar. He did he did a modern Julius Caesar with um that brother brother Anon from um Chicago PD. He was amazing. He was like but dead zel was still dead zel. But why is thouest, you know? I was like, have you ever seen to be or not to be? Huh? There's a thing on Instagram. There's a thing on Instagram and it's people who do Denzel impersonations and they're all different ones, right? I know the guy who does the best Denzel. This dude named C King. C King does the best perfect Denzel. I was on Wild and Out with him. Ain't nobody [ __ ] with his. His Denzel is pitch perfect. Pitch perfect. C King. He don't even look like He's a big dude from New York City. His Denzel is perfect. And you know, you got Jay Pharaoh, you got my boy Dean Edward. Nah, this C King. Good lord. It's like my Steve Harvey. I'mma tell you this right now. It's a hell of a show. It's a good show. [ __ ] I host a better show. That's his lips right there. You know what you done did, Ryan. I like your show, but it ain't better than my show. What? Where? And why? That is crazy. And Steve can't stare me. I he didn't even invite me to no celebrity nothing. He don't want me on that flat family. He He brought another impersonator who's what? Who's not even impersonating him? He won't He ain't going to bring I know. He text me one time. He sent me a DM saying, "I'mma kick your ass, boy." That's all I saw was a You think your ass funny? I'm from Cleveland. Hey, but uh your ass here. Let's get back to the game. So, no, it's nothing crazy. I promise you.

But no, just just throughout the journey cuz you you've met some obviously amazing people. Yes, I have. Uh some very successful people, right? Yeah. And um you know, you've landed to where you are now. We always ask our guests what's their biggest pivot. Like that's that one moment you can look back on and say uh with without this happening to me or happening for me, I wouldn't be who I am. I think um my biggest pivot was just taking a chance to be a comedian just doing it you know uh because I wouldn't be you know we look at different levels of success you some people say man you should be here you should be I go man I'm doing awesome you know compared to I'm doing what I love to do I I wrote stuff on a napkin and it became real I wrote stuff on a napkin that became famous the stuff I used to do about my dad was huge like all around the world they'd be like oh I was in Russia they'd like Please do the thing about your father. I like, you know, I was in Russia doing stuff about my dad, but I wrote that on a napkin, bro. Like, you know what I'm saying? I was in Lithuania. The stuff about your father I like. I'm in, you know, in Saudi and it's about your dad. I wrote it on a napkin. I made that come into fruition by taking a chance. You know, listen, there's levels in here. I feel I'm successful doing what I do. If I'm making a living doing what I do for 25 years, I'm doing fine just because you didn't get that. It's We got to stop worrying about other people's [ __ ]. That's another thing. And it's tough cuz people will compare you. They go, "Well, that's cuz you ain't." I go, "I'm not that dude cuz that's not my name. I'm Godfrey. I'm doing f." You know what I mean? And I feel like another pivot for me was getting with social media, was going with technology, go not getting out of my own way and going, you know what, it's it's given us a sense of of individuality. It gives us a sense of, oh, you got to do the work. You can actually, you don't have a middleman anymore. Yeah. Like with with your show, your show is fantastic. That's why when I saw you, I was like, hell yeah, I want to do that [ __ ]. Cuz Ryan don't be playing like, you see, he be like this. See I what he said you always look like you about to knock a [ __ ] out your hands his hands be like really so you in on it too you always be like he always be like yeah man yeah hey but I love it because no because the head you got the explanation heads when you want to kill them all see the thing he did I respect that but what I didn't Like you see that's Mc Brothers is trying to stay from violent. Hey now I'm going start talking like this on the show now every show every show and be like yeah well what happened? No I love that's why I loved your show because I'm like you're unapologetic but you do things in a way where it's fair and palatable but you mean what you say. See there's a way to do it like the way you do it. It's like with comedy I'm not up there going [ __ ] white people. No, I want my fans are I have a mixture of fans. And don't get it twisted, there are white fans that go, I love the [ __ ] you do because the way you do it, you're not pounding us in the head with it. You're actually being creative because I think it's it's not fair for me to go, yeah, white people are mean. Good night. That's [ __ ] cuz not all of them. Not at all. But be creative, though. Like when I said about the banjo [ __ ] people laugh like a buck and they go, but they're learning. I go, it's an African instrument. I'm just saying get your own instrument. I'm not even telling you not to be racist, but just be fair and get a white instrument. Maybe a piccolo. I don't know. The negroes are coming. Just But don't use a banjo. That's an African. Hey, what was old boy that said, "The British are coming." Back in the day, the British are coming. The British are coming. The British are coming. Oh, you know, it's it's like I say, hey, like the symbol of of like like I even talk about the Swatika symbol. I go, "Yo, that's that's a Buddhist symbol." The original one is Buddhist symbol, but they turned it and to to make it white supremacist. Go, that's brown people [ __ ] Use your own symbol. Be a racist, but use your own [ __ ]. I'm trying to teach you how to be a good racist. I want you to be good at it. Okay? Like there's books about being anti-racist. I don't think we need No, no. I want you to be good at it. You can't cheat. If you going to be racist, exale, do good. Like the Fighting Irish symbol would be good. You guys know Notre Dame. That would be a good white supremacist. Come on, you bastards. But I just think it's weird that the Fighting Irish is nothing but black dudes running out in a field. That's weird. See, I talk about [ __ ] like that. It's funny stuff. It is. It's that that's what's about art. It's like when you go to see you go to a museum and you see an it'll be an exhibit on war or activism and you'll see the paintings. Do you smack the painting off cuz you don't like it? You just go, "Okay, oh, let me look over here." Okay. It's art. Comedy is an art form. It ain't a It ain't a [ __ ] talking form. It's an art form. It's the hardest art form of all the arts. Think about it as art. And if you see somebody not doing it artistically, then you should be mad at them. But if you see somebody going, "Oh man, I like the way he did that. I like the way he did that." And a lot of times whites white some white guys will go, "Man, you were towing the line, dude. But I like what you did, man. You were towering the line, man. You were going ass cheeks were tight." But dude, yo, that was [ __ ] brilliant. But that you know what I'm saying? Come on, man. How did you make uh that lady pooping on that man's car in traffic funny though? How did I But what I said I said I'm going to tell you some [ __ ]. It's going to be some heavy [ __ ]. Yeah, boy. You won't believe this [ __ ]. But that that's that's that's what I'm talking about. Like when you see do you see the world from that perspective though, right? Are are you are you trying to understand the the funny or the comedy? Always trying to I'm I'm a goofy man. If you saw my my if you saw my makeup of of friends, you'd be like, I was I don't [ __ ]. I'm coming from love all the time. I think if you love somebody, you tell them the truth. If you love people, I love humanity. You all do. We all love humanity. I just want to set something straight. It's like when you had that thing with Aaron Rogers, you was like, "Yo, man. I just want to set you straight. Don't get it up out here, but we can be cool." Like I you know it's the same thing dog. You just have a different platform. It's the same with me. I go listen man I'm not like I remember bringing up something about Kaepernick. I was 45 minutes I was in Kansas City whatever. 45 minutes I was doing jokes at great audience. I brought up Kaepernick. Just brought him up. I was doing something about Kaepernick. This lady threw a glass at me at the wall. Pow. Cuz I brought up Kappa. Didn't even start the joke yet. Wow. But they hemmed her up. They choked her out. Dragged her out of there. Banned her. But but you didn't even let me finish. Just that word made you mad. I go I'm but I'm not finished with it though. I was going to talk. It was a good joke. And she just you know some people just it is what it is. But this is where I'm at. I'm through 25 years of this [ __ ] Plus I'm not stopping. I'm not If you don't like me, you don't like me. It's all it's okay. You understand? But I pack rooms out that [ __ ] with me because I'm funny. It's I'm funny. And I'm like George Carlin. George Carlin. You know, George Carlin spoke to power. A white dude from Harlem, Irish, told told people to their faith. That's my style. Richard Prior said it in a different way. Him and Carlin were very similar. I that's my lane. It is what Joan Rivers was very honest. Who I loved her. She was a fan of mine. That's my [ __ ]. If you want to do puppeteering, that's your [ __ ]. I like what I do. I like being edgy. I like thoughtprovoking [ __ ] because I I I that's I vibrate on that level. My father was an intellect. What am I gonna do? I'm around intellectual [ __ ]. Stop. It's like it's just is what I do. Why? Well, your father also thought everybody every kid had a knife. Everybody he like they would just stop you. Don't do it. Like what? Cuz you know Chicago was a heavy gang a gangridden gangs were Hey, he said dad thought everybody thought everybody was That's why like you see I have a a part one part my father that we he's only only one line. You can't just be you look like you they just stab you cuz you're in a gang. I'm like that dad that's not me. So, but I like that his paranoia was good. It was just it was just it was just they would just shoot you with they going everybody had a gun. They would just shoot in the news they shoot you. Bro, listen baby. That was I like that because it balanced out eventually, you know. It was good. I appreciate your time. Now, I'll be honest. I've watched other things with you. Yeah. I obviously didn't know how this would go. I think the education, the the wise behind who you are, I think that's what makes our show beautiful. Yeah. That we actually get to learn about people and, you know, we pounded yams and some other things that I could have talked about, you know, the year when Fred Hampton passed, Black Panther. I could have talked about a lot, but at that moment trying to be like, I want to talk about pounding fight the power. I just talked. No, I thought it No, I'm so But what I'm saying is I thought I thought he pounding yams. I thought it was Well, that was my point though. Like the the thing about our show, we've done shows with everybody. He always talks about his favorite show being Caitlyn Jenner, right? Because Oh, that Oh, you like that show? It was just that that that reality show. No, no, no. We We had Caitlyn Jenner on the show. Yeah. A couple years ago. Yeah. Bruce on there. I mean, sorry. We had Caitlyn Jenner. Caitlyn Jenner. Pivot fam. Thank you for pivoting with us. Hey, we had Hey, I was like, I'm not gonna let him get I got still in there. Hold up. Limitless pinning it. I hear witness it. My people feeling militant. Way got me up on a mission. Got me up me. I got the key on this vision. I can trust trust. Limitless. Take a step pinning it. I found the head here to witness it. Got my people feeling militant. Way to get me up.