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INTERVIEW: David Alan Grier Talks 'Magical Negroes', Comedy Competition, In Living Color + More · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: The Breakfast Club, yep, Charlamagne to God, just hilarious.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: We are the Breakfast Club.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Ndia's not here today, but we got a legend in
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: the building.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Man, the great David Allen grizz Man. Y'all have changed,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: m elevated and all kind of new host when you
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: had a chair, sir. No, it's good to be here, man,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: just one. I'm great. Man, woke up. That's right, you know,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: that's right.
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: I'm here. You look so good still?
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Not that is that a? Yeah? It is? You look
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: so good still? You know you always.
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: So Now I love it.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: I'm the American Society of Magical Negroes, Yes, sir, What
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: is this movie about?
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, magical negro was a trope that Spike
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Lee coined back in the nineties, and Negroes that character.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: We all know. He's all knowing, all wise, black character,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: no backstory, no family. He was just a dude hanging
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: around and he had to answer for everything. He was like,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: I can fix that rocket ship, you know, driving Miss
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Daisy the Green Mile. You know we've seen all that stuff.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: So it's about a society, a mysical society of these
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: black people all over the world that de escalate and
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: intercede in conflicts with white folks to save and preserve
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: black lives. That's basically what it is.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was interesting to watch and a lot to
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: think about because I feel like black people we do
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: have that kind of power, right, we do have that
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: kind of magic, but just like in the movie, we
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: don't use it the harm anyone or takeover you know.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: No, it's it's about survival, yes, really, And my character
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: is I'm trying to recruit this young dude by played
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: by Justice Smith and get him into the society. And
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: I'm a recruiter basically, you know. And of course he
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: doesn't follow the rules as young people do. And the
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: movie takes gone from there.
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: That is it a movie for white people?
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: Because the title itself, they wouldn't even be comfortable saying it.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: But like, you know what, you'd be surprised the reaction people,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: the reaction to the clip. You know, this is the
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: world we live in. Nobody saw the movie. They just
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: reacted to the clip. White people would come to me,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: can I say that?
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: I was like, say what.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: The in word? I was like what in word? So
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: it was like negro is the other in word, it
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: was like, y'all are more worried about negro than you
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: are the real in words, So that was a paradox.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'm older than you, guys. I grew up
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: in a time in which, during this civil rights struggle
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: we aspire to be called negroes as opposed to but
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: that was long ago. So it's a sorry, it's a satire.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: It's a commentary on all of that whole notion, a
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: little love story and all of that mixed together.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: But it's interesting though, because in the movie, like you know,
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: they are trying to make white people comfortable, but it's
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: a movie that will make them uncomfortable.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: I think, yes, well that's the subversion, because you know,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: some black people like, well we will make nobody comfortable. Yeah,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: I think some black people want it to be like
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: like the Magical Society would be really a subversive, militant
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: group taking out all racist white folks. But that's not
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: really a movie. That's not really this movie. But yeah, man,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: I mean that's what we're doing.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: But when you make a movie, you wanted to I
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: guess reach a broad audience, right, or do.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: You care if this one does? Always? All?
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: Right?
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: I mean, that is the goal. But you know Toby,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: our writer and director, he's the first time writer director black.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: And I say that because I've been asked a lot
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: of times. You know, what was your first question after
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: I read the script? Well, my first question is did
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: a black person write this? Because I'm gonna tell you why.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: If I would have been told, oh, this is the
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: first time white director, I don't know if I would
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: have done it because I didn't want to spend six
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: to eight weeks and believe me, I've done this. Well,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: I have to explain black exactly. Man, I can't say this,
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: this is offensive. You need to rethink this. I didn't
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: want to. That's why. Yeah, No, I didn't want to
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: do that. So once I found that out, I said, okay.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: And I like working with young directors of color, young
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: women of color directors, you know, because I call it.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: It's why my way of mentoring in terms of of
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: I want to show you how you should be treated
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: on a set as a young director, because I've seen
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: I've been in situations in which the director is arguing
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: with the cinematographer, with the lighting designer. You can't do that.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: I want to shoot no and we're not gonna do that.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: So I, you know, I wanted to kind of show
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: through action, this is how it should be run. We
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: didn't have any trouble. It was you know, it was
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: a great, great experience.
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: So you played Roger. Yeah, so when you first were
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: presented the role, what about it like got you interested
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: in being a sci fi comedy doing it?
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, I know black men like that. I mean,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: I was exposed to when I when I was young
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: and growing up in Detroit. My dad was a doctor.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: I grew up around doctors, lawyer's, professional black families. But
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: I didn't want that. I wanted to be an artist.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: I wanted to be an actor. So I got that
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: he should go to law school. Yeah, that kind of thing.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: It's funny. My grandmother was born in nineteen hundred, so
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: she would tell me stories much like the one I
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: say in the movie about these racist incidents and then
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: are segregated America in the South, And as a little boy,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: I would say, well, Grandma, why didn't you fight back?
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: And she would say that was the way it was,
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: you know, and I don't want that.
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I didn't want that.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna fight back. So that's always the way it
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: is the next generation. They don't want to wait. They
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: don't want to wait. John Lewis was the radical young
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: voice in the movement, and he was the one advocating,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: we gotta yell louder, we have to fight harder. I'm
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: tired of marching and praying. So there's always that friction.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: So a lot of that is goes on between me
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: and Justice where he's like negroes, I mean, magical man,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Come on, why don't you magical society of black folks?
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: I mean do something about the name, you know. So
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: there's all that playfulness and stuff.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: It felt like justin throughout the whole movie was struggling
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: with belief in himself.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Well. Absolutely. It all leads up to that final speech
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: where it to me, it really hits home. I just
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: want to live in a society and you, when you're
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: not trying to kill me, I deserve to be here,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: be in this presence. Uh. One of the one of
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: the craziest b linds when he's talking to his white
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: co worker and they're talking about on Lee, who's a
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: love interest, and uh, Justice calls him out about some
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: microaggression and he says, well, I didn't know she was
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: a personal color. I thought she was white, so therefore
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: I'm could, you know, you know, it's like, what was
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: she white? I couldn't. She's biracial and nobody. I've had
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: situations like that, why, you know, or a black person
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: who is mainly Afro Caribbean and they're saying some foul stuff. Well,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I didn't know. So if I'm in
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: the clear, you know, and all those nuances that I
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: really like because it's real too. I mean, I know,
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: I've been through it. Yeah, and it's funny.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: You talked about the backlash, and I guess I saw
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: a little bit of it when the trailer first debut,
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: and it was like they making a movie and it's a.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Bunch of black people with magical power, but they try
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: to make white people. They wanted they cloned Tyrone, they
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: wanted us to come out with gun you know, No,
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: that's not what it is. And but you know, I
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: was never worried because at that point nobody had seen
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: the movie. Again, you're responding to a thirty second clip.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: But that's the world we live in. Yeah, it's you know,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: social media, people go say what they're gonna say, yeah.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: I didn't look at it that they were trying to
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: make white people comfortable in the movie. I looked at
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: it as they were trying to be comfortable, like they
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: were trying to just figure life out into exactly.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: Now, I'll tell you something. This happened when I was
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: in tenth grade in Detroit. I remember a Detroit police
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: officer was brought into a class my classroom, and he
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: walked us through surviving a stop with the police. Now,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: I doubt if it happens now. So he basically he
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: gave us the talk and it went like this. He said,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: you know, when a police officer pulls you over, what
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: are you gonna do? When we were kids, I'm not
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: gonna do anohing. I'm gonna say why'd you pull me over?
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: And he said, well, you could say that, but what
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: I would suggest is you keep your hands on the
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: steering wheel and you roll down the window. Well, why
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: he can't make me roll down the window? Absolutely right,
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: But keep in mind that gentleman has a firearm. You
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: probably don't now he's upset with a firearm. I would
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: suggest you roll down the window because if you don't
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: roll it down, he's gonna break it. So we went
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: point by point by point by point how to survive.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: You can fight in court. Now, you could fight at
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: the roadside, but you have a better chance of survival
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: to fight in court. So those are the kinds of
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: things that I experienced as a young person, and I
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: think a lot of that goes into that character. I'm
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: not that character, but I understand that character. You know
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: that kind of thing.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: Why don't just why in your opinion, why don't you
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: think we use our gifts more too?
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: I don't want to say takeover. I don't think takeover
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: is the right word.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: But I keep thinking about that sister who once said
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: white people should be lucky. Black people only want equality
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: and not well, I.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: Was just about to say that. I don't know. I mean,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: I can't speak for everyone, but I think it's funny
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: what justice says at the end is what most human
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: beings want. I just want my space. I want to
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: be able to live and prosper in peace. I don't
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: want to have to fight for my survival. Imagine you
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: could be killed, maimed, robbed, your loved ones in peril
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: every day, and for some black people it is that way.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: We want. What everyone wants. What we want is not extraordinary,
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: not any different. We want the same thing. So all
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: of the stuff that's put on race, culture, and ethnicity,
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: for the most part, is false because we're human beings
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: just like everybody else. So the stuff we're fighting for
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: is freedom to be free. Maybe we should be more revengeful.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: I don't know some folks are in Hollywood.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: Is there such thing as having to make white people
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: comfortable in order to work?
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: No? But I mean, you know what I think back,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: You know, I audition for some of the magical negro roles.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: I was just too crazy to get them. The Davis
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: reading for Rassus, I'll drive you. I was always to
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: nuddy to my to my benefit, you know. But h yeah, man,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: we all dorew I mean, not everybody, but those because
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: you know, in the eighties there was Eddie Murphy was
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: before Spike Lee and these other voices. He was the
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: black comic lead, you know, who took over for Richard Pryor.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: But now we have all these black creators, black female creators,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: say Ava du Vernay, who's a revolutionary, you know, So
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: we have more voices. That makes it healthier. The one
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: question I hate is you know, Charlemagne, what do all
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: black people think? Charlemagne, Charlemagne, what do all black people want? Charlemagne, Charlemagne?
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: Who are all black people going to vote for? I
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: don't know, you know what I mean? I encourage everyone
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: to vote. I'm not sitting here trying to tell you
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: who are what to vote for. But we have a
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: healthier democracy when more people participate. So that's where I'm met. Now.
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: Speaking of voices, you are the voice of the Oscar.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, it was so much fun. Man. I'm
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: old friends with Jimmy Kimmel, and first of all, I
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: defy you to tell me who was the voice last year.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: So you have been offered a job like it was
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: really great, but you don't even know what the job is.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: So my first question was, well, how many tickets do
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: I get? I was thinking about the party. You know,
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: I have a sixteen year old daughter and when she
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: was a little girl, she said, Daddy, take me to
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: the Oscars. And if you have little kids, they think
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: you could do everything. I was like, okay, I mean,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: but you got to get a movie, and you got
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: to finance the movie, and you got to cast me,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: Daddy in the lead in the movie, and then you
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: gotta hope Daddy gets nominated for an Oscar. Then we
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: all gonna go to the Oscars. And she was like,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: you're so silly. So it was great to take her
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: to the Oscars and we had a great evening and
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: it turned out to be a ball man. I mean,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: my job was not to screw up anybody's name and
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: don't mess up the name of the movie. But I
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: didn't really. I wasn't on under pressure. It was, you know,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: I'm cool. It was really really fun. Though.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: What do you think about people supporting this movie like
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: the American Society and Magical Negroes and you hear that
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: automatically all black people feel like they should go out
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: and support this film. What do you feel like if
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: they don't listen.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: I would not be here if I didn't believe in
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: the movie. I would say, go watch it. If you
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: don't want to watch it, that's fine. I ain't gonna
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: come to your house and you know, kill you. We
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: all have a choice. It should be an evening of entertainment,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: and a great viewing experience is one that elongates a
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: conversation because you know, good and well, if you see
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: a great show or if you see a great movie,
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: what are you gonna do. You're gonna text your friends,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: You're gonna tell your loved ones. Man, you gotta come
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: see this. So if we're successful, that's what should happen.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: And again, I you know, I think the movie is
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: really funny. It's a new voice, a new black voice
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: that I really love to support. And hopefully he will
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: hire me again, you know, But that's why I'm here.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: I feel like it's set up for a sequel. Yeah,
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: I don't know, I hope so yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: it was fun man. And you know, only this young
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: the love interest. This is her first job. I think
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: really like dang girl. She came out blazing. Man, I
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: think she's really good. I'm just glad you're not white.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: I don't want to get a movie away, but I
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: was perturbed at the end.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: I'm like, if you really you know, but if you
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: really listen, that is really kind of where they connect
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: in that basis. And also they don't really we do
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: touch on justices. He's a biracial kid, because I think
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: at one point he tells me you know this and that,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: But I'm just like, you black enough to be a
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: magical Negro come join our club. You know, it's Matt.
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: I Also it made me think like the magical Negro trope.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: And I know Spike Lee made it up, but isn't
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: that's something that like white people think in a way,
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: It's like like Barack Obama is a magical need.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: But they they created it. We didn't create it. We
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: didn't create that. No white people did. And traditionally to
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: have that character with that is not a whole human
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: that is like a spirit, a cipher. I mean, this
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: is like an angelic figure. You know, That's not what
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: we wanted. What we wanted is to be included as
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: whole people, whole human beings. But ultimately, you can't depend
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: on someone else to tell your story. You have to
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: tell it yourself. Now, the way it used to be,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: we weren't allowed to tell it ourselves, and I still
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: got up until a few years ago. David, we like
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: your idea, but it's not us. It's the international mark.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: You know, Black movies are very hard to sell, this
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: and that, so there's still all of that out there.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: But in fact, mixed race casts of big movies are
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: the biggest sellers in the world market. The fast and
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: furious franchise Say What you Want has the most diverse
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: cast probably of any franchise, and it is the biggest
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: selling and one of the reasons is that. Okay, so
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: for a long time we were sold a story that
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: was not true. And we're changing. I say, we the industry,
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: they whatever you want to call it, not enough, but
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: we're changing.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: You know, I think Hollywood lies. And the reason I
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: say Hollywood lies, they do. They'll say, oh, you know,
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: it's it's about the money. But I know, I think
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: your bias is trump the money a lot of times.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: Well also power. You know. I remember remember when Barack
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: Obama was first elected and I was watching I think
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: it was in an MSNBC, and the reporters were just
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: giddy because it's a fact that the electorate is changing
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: and becoming blacker and browner every day, and yay, we're
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: going to be in power. And I sat at home going,
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: you don't think white people can hear you. You don't
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: think they're listening, because to expect someone to relinquish power
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: gracefully is a fantasy. To expect the old power structure
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: to say, well, it's our turn and give us the keys. Okay,
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: it doesn't go like that, And I think that really
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: is at the root of what we're seeing now because
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: if the electorate is changing now all of a sudden,
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: you hear the maga crowd going, well, maybe a dictator
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: is not that bad because the numbers are not working
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: in there, So you know that's what it is. I
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: knew this was coming because you know, it's just it
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: through history and never gone like that.
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: Being an o G in comedy and I'm a comedian myself,
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: so I would like to know this. What are your
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: throws on all like the beef with the comics and
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: everything that's going on right now.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: First of all, what I was going to say when
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: I walked in here, as I said, you need some
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: brown lick up in here? Common over there? No, no,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: you need it right here now. It's common sense. Watch club.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: I love it's the ratio of SIPs, ma'am. He takes
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: one sip while the guest is taking five or six.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: I saw Mounique about it. After hour in she was
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: licking up. She would lubricated. I don't think Sharon drinking
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: it all. No, man, watch it again, he's real slick,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: he goes. I think that's Charlie, Man, who you want
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: to kill every I won't kill everybody, you know? He said, here,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: have some more. He was like, charl man, you want
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: to slap everybody? You know? Man, you didn't get me
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: up in there. My advice is bring your own cop.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: Bring your own cop. Man. Stop drinking. What is in
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: that bottle? Damn y'all man, that's not really my thing. Man,
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: I don't do all that. And at this point, if
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: somebody goes on Club shad Shape, they're loaded. I mean
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: they packed. You're going there for a purpose. You're not
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: going there to talk about your big new novel you wrote.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: You're trying to settle some scores. It's crazy, man, it
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: is crazy. I'm just a spectator. I don't think I've
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: seen one interview in its entirety because they go like
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: two three hours. Yeah, I've seen clips. It's bizarre. I'm like, y'all,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: I'm drinking coffee, going damn, I guess they don't like
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: each other. Yes, yeah, man.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: It does make me wonder what happens to the game,
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: because when I think about the nineties, you feel like,
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: at least from my viewpoint, it looked like everybody was
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: working together, right, it looked like there was you know, black.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: There's always been that we're human beings. There's always been petty, jealousy, envy,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: I want your spot. You mad about some stuff that
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: happened in club dingling back and you know, twenty years
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: ago and now it's just coming to the fore. It's
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: human nature. But it's just not my vibe. Yeah, it's
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: not my vibe. You know, we can talk outside. Man,
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: I ain't got to blow you up on the air,
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: but it is wild. I don't know where it's going
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: to lead, you know. Uh, it's funny. When Cat was
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: on there, everybody was, oh my gosh, this is amazing.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: Now they're like, no, this is is a lot club.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: Everybody's mad while like a.
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: Cat drink drinking like that he was, but Cat wasn't.
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: He wasn't drinking like everybody else be drink.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: Usually. Cat was a man. Cat is a unique individual.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: This brother has sprint speed, sprint speed. Yeah, and you
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: know when I look at him, I think about what
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: he did on Atlanta that was so brilliant. Emmy. I
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: would really love to see him in a more expanded
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: dramatic role. I really don't think anyone's tapped that part
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: of him because he was so good, so real. He
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: reminds me of that aspect of Richard Pryor, like when
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: you see Richard Pryor in a blue collar It was
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: one of my favorites where it was funny, but it
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: was also about class and the auto industry and all
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: this stuff. So that's what I would hope for.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: I'm sure if I dug around, I could find some
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: like psychological studies on why comedians are able to go
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: between drama and comedy so easily, Like guess, really a
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: thin line between comedy.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, you know, in times of like tartuff, back in
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: ancient times, comedians were the most dangerous figures because they
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: tell the most truth through laughter, and that's subversive. Man.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: And I'm gonna tell you something else. Donald Trump putin
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: all these leaders. They don't like to be laughed at,
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: and that is the easiest and most potent way to
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: bring a tyrant down. You make fun of them, you know.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: So there's always been that dichotomy. And as you know,
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: in school, comics are the most damaged ones. They have
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: been through everything, and a lot of times you deflect,
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: I know I did as a kid deflect many an
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: ass woman through laughter. So you know that's just what
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: that is.
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: You know what I want to see this last question.
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: I know, I go listen, I would like to see
• 23:51
  Speaker 4: a Living Color reboot.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: And asked me last time, we can't do that.
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: Why even if you write for it, and then you
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: caiss me.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: That's what I do think. I think in the next
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: generation has to do their version of it. You know,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: you guys say that. It was like remember coming to America.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: Everybody goes, oh, man, you should bring that back. Oh
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: they should reboot that. They rebooted, and everybody said, well,
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: y'all didn't do it right.
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: I mean it's like the original movie was a comedy.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: It was not a history of ancient African royalty. So
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: you know you wanted to bring it back and then
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: you want it to be what it should be today.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: We just can't do it. We were buck wild and
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: even when we put Yeah, when we put in Living
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: Color on, there was no social media. You could call
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: the station, you could write a letter where you could facts.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: You didn't have a voice that you could immediately counter
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: and protest what you're watching. So I remember the head Leaves,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: which was the Jamaican family. We were saying so many
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: Jamaican curse words. Fox didn't know what we were saying.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: The Jamaican viewers did by the time they wrote in
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: and told Fox we were on to the next thing. Yeah,
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: so that's how we got ahead of the sensors. But
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: it's more media now.
• 25:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I guess what, I guess what it is about
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: all of us younger comments. We just we look at that.
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: That's the stuff we look up to, and that's the
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: stuff that we wish we could do. That's the stuff
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: we want to see. And it's not coming to fruition
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: these days.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: It's different, man, because as soon as you utter there
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: on it, why do you say that you're wrong, You're bad, apologize,
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: take it back. They could take it down. And it
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: was guerrilla television when we did the super Bowl halftime,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: and think about it, before in Living Color did that.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: The super Bowl halftime entertainment were like, you know, Christian
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: young people up with people, you know, square dancing. There
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: was no competition. And what happened was after we got
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: that audience, people did not turn back to the super Bowl.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: That's why the next year you saw Michael Jackson, you
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: saw all kind of stuff because of us, and I
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: think more people know it now, but for a long
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: time it wasn't really talked about. I mean that that
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: shows you the power you know there you can still
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: get wild and plus now maybe you don't have to
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: be on network television. You remember when Prince he put
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: I think it was musicology straight out digital, and I'm like, oh,
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: this dude is crazy. Ain't nobody gonna download the album.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: It's not gonna work. He was ahead of his time.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: He's ahead of his time. So I would probably say
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: that if you're gonna do something really crazy, go that route,
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: release it yourself, do a podcast yourself. Then you're uncensored.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: Your voice is pure. I don't know how many people
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: to watch, but and that I'm.
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: Very unsensited, and I think I'm in the wrong job, like.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: You know, because waitlow down.
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: And I've already been slapped with like eight phobia stuff
• 27:04
  Speaker 4: I never even heard of.
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: They told me today, you bibliophobic.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: I say, I love the Bible.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: And that's how she knows she's doing it right because
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: to her point, I think what she's saying, what showed
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: like a living color, y'all represented a sense of freedom.
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: I think if you're getting if everybody coming at you
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: and saying you said this, and you said that, you
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: shouldn't have said that, you should have said that, you're
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: doing it right.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: You're absolutely right. Everything is not for everybody. And if
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: you perform and uh tell your jokes, your humor, and
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: everybody happy, then that's homoginized. Uh, that's a deluded, just
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: bland stuff. And we don't like. I don't like that.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: I don't mean a little something. Stay dangerous. You know
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: what I want to ask you for?
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: You go in the nineties too, like, because you know
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: there's all of these conversations about all, you shouldn't wear
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: the dress and you shouldn't do it y'all did men
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: on film men will addresses?
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: We just laughed.
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: I didn't think nothing of it back then.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: When did that change? I think I understand our history.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: I understand black people's history. I eat black men's history
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: in this country. But we weren't the only ones. Every
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: major comic of any race has cross dressed. I don't
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: do it in real life. If I did, that's another thing.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: But I did it like thirty years ago. But there
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: is this thing of you know, black men being emasculated
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: and all that stuff. I don't look at it as
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: that deep. It was a comic device, so I don't
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: really hang too much on it. But there does seem
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: to be this almost fetish about it about us. There's
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: some truth in it, but there's also an over fascination
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: in just that. Let me just put it like this,
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: there are a lot of black people and black people
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: in power who are being compromised and manipulated that never
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: put on a dress. Okay, So don't get hung up
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: on just that. And one more thing I wanted to say.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: I know you get flack for how you speak about
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: the electorate and who you want to support. We need
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: that voice. We need that voice because at the end
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: of the day, I trust people are smart enough to
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: decide for themselves. So speak your mind, That's all I'm saying. Absolute. Yeah, man,
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: love seeing you.
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: Guys, say man, David Allen Griddy. The American Society of
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: Magical Negros is.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Out so now right today today, okay, So make sure
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: y'all go check that out. Don't make me put a
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: dress on again. I don't want to do it in
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: the morning club.