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CT IS DOPE – Under $20 · Eating While Broke

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome you all to another episode of Eating Wild Broke.
0:04
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Colleen Wit and today we have special guests, actor, comedian,
0:09
Speaker 1: writer and social media influencer. How we all know him,
0:13
Speaker 1: best invest and best of all, Clayton Thomas is in
0:16
Speaker 1: the building. How are you good? Okay? What do you
0:20
Speaker 1: have us eating today? This is called under twenty? Got
0:25
Speaker 1: boneless skill with chicken thighs? We have broccoli and that
0:28
Speaker 1: is going to be that with our former gree of course,
0:30
Speaker 1: which is not under thirty dollars, but this is how
0:32
Speaker 1: you get it done? You so, is that what we're
0:35
Speaker 1: gonna call this? This under twenty? Under twenty? I love
1:01
Speaker 1: that James and George Foreman. I haven't seen sold just
1:05
Speaker 1: backstory and George Foreman. So I went to my husband.
1:08
Speaker 1: I said, um, we needed George Foreman girl. I haven't
1:11
Speaker 1: seen one of those forever. And then I was like,
1:13
Speaker 1: do you think we have one? And he was like,
1:16
Speaker 1: I don't know. Check the cabinet, and I go on
1:18
Speaker 1: my cabinet. Though I have never in my life used
1:20
Speaker 1: a George Foreman girl, I had to. I had a
1:24
Speaker 1: mini one and this one and shout out to all
1:28
Speaker 1: the roommates that I had in my lifetime that left
1:30
Speaker 1: George Foreman girls in my house. Here's the question, why
1:33
Speaker 1: are you not familiar with because even now Glory be
1:36
Speaker 1: the guy that success, I still own a Foreman. Do
1:39
Speaker 1: you still use it? Though I used one weeks ago.
1:43
Speaker 1: Oh okay, I put it out of the garage. I
1:46
Speaker 1: was like, I want some chicken because my wife is
1:47
Speaker 1: plant based, so she doesn't cook any meats. Are gonna
1:50
Speaker 1: outsource my meatballs, so I had to go get me,
1:53
Speaker 1: uh my former girl to garage. It's definitely smaller, right, No, no,
1:58
Speaker 1: I'm bigger. Oh luxury brand. Well, here's the thing. First
2:02
Speaker 1: former grill, um, can we say everything on it? You
2:05
Speaker 1: could say whatever you want. So the first former grill
2:08
Speaker 1: I had, I was smashing this older chick ground Yeah,
2:13
Speaker 1: of course. I think if you have a former girl
2:17
Speaker 1: and you don't have roommates and it doesn't it doesn't
2:19
Speaker 1: make sense, right, make sense. I got my rice cooking
2:21
Speaker 1: from my roommates. But the former girl smashing his older
2:23
Speaker 1: chick and she knew I was going through it. She
2:25
Speaker 1: was like, you need a former girl, and I was like,
2:26
Speaker 1: because I don't know how to cook. I didn't know.
2:28
Speaker 1: I mean I'm breakfast, I'm eggs, all of that. I
2:31
Speaker 1: don't do the baking because the grease pop. But she
2:35
Speaker 1: gave it to me and I kept it right until
2:37
Speaker 1: I got with my wife and she heard the story
2:39
Speaker 1: how I got the former grill and then she was like, oh,
2:41
Speaker 1: you can't head at my house. And I was like, okay,
2:43
Speaker 1: all right, So I got rid of it and I
2:45
Speaker 1: end up buying another one separately that was brand new,
2:48
Speaker 1: so she couldn't, you know, play anything. So we got
2:50
Speaker 1: the nice one. When you got it, okay, damn, I
2:53
Speaker 1: want to see what that puppy looks like. I was
2:55
Speaker 1: gonna bring it. I was like that she needs me
2:56
Speaker 1: to bring and I was like, oh great, but he
2:59
Speaker 1: had a seating. But it's the chicken tis broccoli. Now.
3:03
Speaker 1: We talked about seasons, so I see you got the
3:05
Speaker 1: crowber brand. I did, but I, like everybody knows what
3:07
Speaker 1: this weird topics? We ain't go ahead. Low Rees is
3:11
Speaker 1: in the building. If you're not making chicken with Laura,
3:13
Speaker 1: is this my camera? This you have both cameras is
3:19
Speaker 1: a staple in the black music. You understand me. If
3:21
Speaker 1: you ain't gonna Larris, you're not cooking chick. I don't
3:23
Speaker 1: know what you make it. Actually put larries on everything.
3:26
Speaker 1: Then we have the ground pepper and black pepper. Then
3:29
Speaker 1: we have my garlic powder. This is what gives you
3:31
Speaker 1: the pop. You understand me? Now, perfect, you got it.
3:35
Speaker 1: So this is the poultry season. The chicken poultry season
3:39
Speaker 1: is what you also add for flavor. Not interestingly enough,
3:41
Speaker 1: I put this on the chicken and I put this
3:43
Speaker 1: on the broccoli, because it gives flavors when you're tasting
3:46
Speaker 1: them both separately. Okay, yeah, I actually personally went shopping
3:50
Speaker 1: for the seasonings, and then a part of me was like,
3:53
Speaker 1: we'll go cheap. It's eating while broke. But then on
3:56
Speaker 1: the poultry seasoning, I don't think I had an option.
3:58
Speaker 1: I said, oh, they's best shure, but yeah, go ahead.
4:04
Speaker 1: I cleaned the chicken thighs for you. I can honestly say,
4:08
Speaker 1: I don't remember the last time I cooked chicken thighs.
4:11
Speaker 1: What did you eat while you were trying to I'm Jamaican,
4:14
Speaker 1: so even my husband's gonna laugh at me all day.
4:17
Speaker 1: But I didn't really cook with Lorry's until my husband
4:23
Speaker 1: and he based everything in Lorry's. I'll be having salt
4:26
Speaker 1: poisoning every dish. It's bad, it's salty. Shout out to
4:34
Speaker 1: using less lorries if you can. People think, But here's
4:38
Speaker 1: the things you gotta understand. Laws gives you the flavor
4:42
Speaker 1: and the los is what we grew up on. Lows
4:45
Speaker 1: is h Oh, you're gonna put it on that, okay. Oh,
4:50
Speaker 1: I should have brought you a cutting board. It's okay,
4:53
Speaker 1: we're gonna have to throw the camera. So you gotta
4:56
Speaker 1: eat this too, I understand. Don't bring me the good thing.
5:02
Speaker 1: That's a lot of laws for all y'all listeners. He
5:05
Speaker 1: is putting pulled the chicken thighs out um, and he
5:09
Speaker 1: just completely coded it in lawr's. Now I'm deeply concerned
5:13
Speaker 1: because my husband does the same and usually I can't
5:17
Speaker 1: even taste anything besides salt. But okay, so he put
5:20
Speaker 1: the lawries in the pepper. Okay, got the gary powder.
5:24
Speaker 1: Always you you feel. It ain't a measuring cups. You
5:28
Speaker 1: feel what you think your food needs right now. Interestingly enough,
5:34
Speaker 1: when you're doing this, I was coming from a place of,
5:38
Speaker 1: oh my goodness, I had only had the twenty dollars
5:42
Speaker 1: and I spent on the food like this is when
5:44
Speaker 1: I just got into l A in a roommate scenario,
5:48
Speaker 1: and I had four other roommates. I had to master
5:50
Speaker 1: bear room because where'd you move from? Yeah, coming from
5:53
Speaker 1: the Troy. Interestingly enough, when I came from Detroit, I
5:57
Speaker 1: moved here right for my twenty first birthday, Um, I
5:59
Speaker 1: to with my mother. I want to go to l
6:02
Speaker 1: A to follow my dreams. But in order to get
6:05
Speaker 1: to l A, I need money. So I'm gonna go
6:07
Speaker 1: to New York Chicago in Atlanta to perform and make
6:12
Speaker 1: some money. I'm gonna save that money and I'm gonna
6:13
Speaker 1: go to la so for my birthday. Yeah. So I
6:18
Speaker 1: started doing stand up at eighteen years old. Actually, the
6:21
Speaker 1: first time was in my high school auditorium because a
6:26
Speaker 1: comedy show came to the school, kool Aid Legendary Rest
6:29
Speaker 1: in Peace, Melvin Bender, Martez Jackson, and Chanelle simply Chanelle.
6:34
Speaker 1: And my dream was to be a comedian. There was
6:37
Speaker 1: a little boy and I just never knew how I
6:38
Speaker 1: would get into it. Watching Martin on TV, I wanted
6:41
Speaker 1: to be Martin Lawrence. And the way that it end
6:45
Speaker 1: up happening was I walked up to the comedians and say, hey, man,
6:47
Speaker 1: I would love to perform with y'all. And he was like,
6:50
Speaker 1: you're gonna open up and I was like right now,
6:52
Speaker 1: and he's like yeah, and I'm like, uh, okay, right.
6:57
Speaker 1: So I get on stage. You actually did it? Oh okay?
7:00
Speaker 1: I get on stage in front of my entire school.
7:03
Speaker 1: Was that your first time or first time? I wasn't bullets.
7:07
Speaker 1: I was scared as fun. And I get on stage
7:09
Speaker 1: and I said something about a security guard that we
7:11
Speaker 1: had at our school. He was also the head coach,
7:13
Speaker 1: very large man. And I said, yeah, man, he chased
7:16
Speaker 1: some people. He can't even make it down the hallway.
7:17
Speaker 1: Everybody laughs hard because they knew him. And I was like,
7:21
Speaker 1: all right, we look at this, y'all going y'all? And
7:23
Speaker 1: I brought the comedian up, and after I brought him up,
7:26
Speaker 1: the rest with history. Do you need to plug the
7:28
Speaker 1: sub forman grilling O? Thank you? Okay, I forgot it
7:31
Speaker 1: wasn't so um. Fast forward two years. I tell my
7:36
Speaker 1: mom that story about my plan and she says, great,
7:40
Speaker 1: so do you think my birthday comes? She gives me
7:44
Speaker 1: a birthday card and a get certificate inside for a
7:46
Speaker 1: thousand dollars and she said, go follow your dreams, go
7:49
Speaker 1: straight to l A. So I moved to l A.
7:52
Speaker 1: Oh so you ended up skipping? Did you skip New York? Yeah?
7:56
Speaker 1: Well I got there later as I was in later,
7:59
Speaker 1: but I didn't have to go because she gave you.
8:01
Speaker 1: The thousand dollars ain't a lot. Let me tell you something. So,
8:05
Speaker 1: so what happens, I'm carus to happen? Now. I want
8:07
Speaker 1: to hear how you how you manage this thousand dollars.
8:10
Speaker 1: So my mom made me make her a deal. She said, okay, um,
8:14
Speaker 1: I should have sleeping on at once, but I got
8:16
Speaker 1: to try anyway. So my mom said, how long do
8:19
Speaker 1: you think it will take you to get on TV?
8:21
Speaker 1: I said, huh, I'll be on TV and six months
8:24
Speaker 1: this is me. And she was like, oh okay, well
8:27
Speaker 1: by an opening the ticket and by your return ticket
8:30
Speaker 1: for six months from now, so that'll be by Christmas.
8:32
Speaker 1: And if you're not don't TV by Christmas, you have
8:33
Speaker 1: to move back home and go back to school. Because
8:36
Speaker 1: I was in college and I deal. So made the
8:40
Speaker 1: deal because I'm believing myself and you only had a
8:43
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. Thousand dollars okay, I like this three hundred
8:47
Speaker 1: and forty bucks round trip at that time, and then
8:51
Speaker 1: she asked me by the place to stay. I said yes,
8:53
Speaker 1: of course I was lying because I didn't want her
8:55
Speaker 1: to not let me go to l A. So I
8:56
Speaker 1: came to l A and you'r how old it this time? Anyone? Okay?
9:00
Speaker 1: So I came to l A and uh. I reached
9:02
Speaker 1: out to Corey Holkam. He's the first comedian who I've
9:06
Speaker 1: been a fan of, dude since I was a kid,
9:08
Speaker 1: and he was the first comedian that I had seen
9:09
Speaker 1: in Detroit that lived in l A that would help me.
9:12
Speaker 1: And he's like, yeah, when you get the l A,
9:13
Speaker 1: just hit me up. So I came to l A.
9:16
Speaker 1: I hit him up and he got me on at
9:18
Speaker 1: the Comedy Store on a Tuesday night, which was one
9:20
Speaker 1: of the most popular nights in the city, and I
9:23
Speaker 1: was able to showcase We're got around town and I
9:25
Speaker 1: was funny and I started performing everywhere else right I
9:30
Speaker 1: was homeless. I'm like, you know, my friend real battle
9:34
Speaker 1: really big. Now he's on a peak out shows some boy.
9:37
Speaker 1: I had met him a laughing loser down the Atlanta
9:40
Speaker 1: eight months prior, and he was like, yo, I'm in
9:42
Speaker 1: l A. I'm like cool, hey, man, can I leave
9:44
Speaker 1: my suitcase at your carib and maybe stay on your
9:47
Speaker 1: floor for like a week? And how are you getting around?
9:50
Speaker 1: L A, you don't have a car, right, Oh you
9:53
Speaker 1: really gangster? And I've been let me tell you something.
9:56
Speaker 1: I'm gonna interrupt you. I love the story already because
9:59
Speaker 1: I've been to your how this beautiful. It's fantastic and
10:01
Speaker 1: I would love to live on your couch. Okay, So
10:04
Speaker 1: if you just know like how he's living now, this
10:06
Speaker 1: is an amazing story, so continue. Sorry. So, um, so
10:11
Speaker 1: I'm homeless. I'm at Reel's crib. I'm like, I got
10:14
Speaker 1: my suitcases there, and I wouldn't got a gym membership,
10:16
Speaker 1: so I could say showers at the gym, so I
10:18
Speaker 1: didn't overstay my welcome in his crib. So I would
10:20
Speaker 1: get up really early. I would get to this group
10:22
Speaker 1: really late at night, so that way you didn't even
10:24
Speaker 1: notice that I'm there, so I can stay longer. So
10:26
Speaker 1: we turned to a month, and at the end of
10:28
Speaker 1: that month, he's like, yeo, man, I'm going out of town.
10:31
Speaker 1: You gotta find worse to stakes. My roommates don't want
10:33
Speaker 1: you hear without me, all right, So I uh, I
10:37
Speaker 1: was hanging out with Corey one night, Corey Oakum and
10:40
Speaker 1: there's another comedian, Vanessa Grad, and he was like, yeah,
10:42
Speaker 1: why don't you just stay with Vanessa? She ain't got
10:44
Speaker 1: no man. And I was like, you know right, And
10:47
Speaker 1: I wasn't trying to smash. I just really just needed
10:49
Speaker 1: to live. And she let me stay on her floor
10:51
Speaker 1: for a couple of months, and I just I was
10:54
Speaker 1: a floor sleeper. And then so were you doing the
10:57
Speaker 1: same thing where you're like out early and and like
10:59
Speaker 1: just sleeping on the floor and night were trying to
11:01
Speaker 1: get her. I was just there all the time. I
11:03
Speaker 1: was like, I'm here now. But uh so my friends
11:10
Speaker 1: from high school were in town and we go to
11:13
Speaker 1: the movies, and we go to the movies. He was like, yo, man,
11:16
Speaker 1: um Man, I wish you lived out here because we're
11:20
Speaker 1: looking for another roommate, and I was like, I live
11:22
Speaker 1: out here. We were talking about and they're like, oh, wow,
11:24
Speaker 1: maybe you could be the fourth room where your friends
11:26
Speaker 1: from high school come to visit the same visit. No,
11:30
Speaker 1: so one of my friends from high school was coming
11:33
Speaker 1: to the other friend had already lived out here, but
11:36
Speaker 1: I didn't know he was living here. Uh So they
11:40
Speaker 1: were talking to my other friend who was visiting, and
11:43
Speaker 1: they're like, man, we wish you lived out here, and
11:45
Speaker 1: I'm like, I live out here and they're like really.
11:48
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, I don't even know you lived
11:49
Speaker 1: out here. And we had this big moment that we
11:51
Speaker 1: were shocked, and then w story short, I became the
11:54
Speaker 1: roommate that we're looking for. Look at God. So I
11:59
Speaker 1: moved in there at the roommates and at this point,
12:03
Speaker 1: the only way that I'm making money is I had dpds.
12:07
Speaker 1: I filmed a DVD of my own in Detroit before
12:10
Speaker 1: I moved out to l A. And I was like,
12:13
Speaker 1: worst from the worst. I can sell this DVD and
12:16
Speaker 1: make money, right, So my share of the rent was
12:19
Speaker 1: only two hundred and eighty seven dollars because there were
12:25
Speaker 1: four of us, and that was my share to renting rooms.
12:29
Speaker 1: No no, no, there were two bedrooms and there was
12:31
Speaker 1: the living room. So in the very beginning I stayed
12:34
Speaker 1: in the living room and the other guys stayed in
12:37
Speaker 1: you know, different really broke okay, we really, we believe
12:40
Speaker 1: this now. So one of my buddies, even when I
12:44
Speaker 1: first moved in, he was always with his girlfriend. Right,
12:48
Speaker 1: So after a while, he just stopped living um. He
12:51
Speaker 1: stopped living in the apartment with us, so I took
12:54
Speaker 1: over his room. But we needed people to make the
12:56
Speaker 1: rent of so a couple of comedians rest in peace,
12:58
Speaker 1: my guy Kwan and John and he ended up moving in,
13:02
Speaker 1: and I moved another guy and named RT and Uh.
13:06
Speaker 1: One of them lived in the living room, the other
13:08
Speaker 1: one shared the other room with the other guy, and
13:10
Speaker 1: I was in the main bedroom. Bed room I mean,
13:12
Speaker 1: bad room. Attested. The bathroom felt incredible. I would bringing
13:15
Speaker 1: girls there and they loved it. Seem like I lived
13:17
Speaker 1: by myself even though I had these roommates. And because
13:20
Speaker 1: my rent portion was so low, all right, two seven
13:24
Speaker 1: dollars and fifty cents, I need to sell thirty DVDs
13:28
Speaker 1: a month and that's how I make money, right, So
13:31
Speaker 1: I was, Oh, I love it only doing comedy, and
13:36
Speaker 1: I would do comedy at night especially, and I would
13:40
Speaker 1: be extra funny. My goal I had to be so
13:43
Speaker 1: funny that I can sell at least ten DVDs per
13:46
Speaker 1: show We're five or whatever. And I made my rent
13:50
Speaker 1: that way so many months just by you know, performing
13:55
Speaker 1: and selling thirty DVDs a month outside of doing other shows.
13:58
Speaker 1: Girl would make some money. Right, But this is a
14:01
Speaker 1: huge testament to Ends Mitchell of the Comedy Union, which
14:04
Speaker 1: is no longer around closed during the pandemic, Ends Michell.
14:07
Speaker 1: The Comedy Union would pay us a spot, right, and
14:13
Speaker 1: with that twenty dollars of spot. I would perform there
14:16
Speaker 1: and get twenty dollars once a week, right, so actually
14:19
Speaker 1: twice a week, so I would get forty dollars per weekend.
14:22
Speaker 1: And then I would take twenty those dollars and buy
14:24
Speaker 1: my groceries. My groceries with a bone was chicken. This
14:28
Speaker 1: down to twenty down to twenty, okay, so not usually
14:32
Speaker 1: make sure. Yeah, I had this money sped around, so
14:35
Speaker 1: I will buy broccoli. I will buy me some chicken,
14:38
Speaker 1: and I would get Uh. I had a gallon of
14:40
Speaker 1: water that I kept refilling like a quarter. You don't
14:42
Speaker 1: have to cook that. Well, you're chefing it today. Gone.
14:47
Speaker 1: So so um, That's how I would survive pretty much. Right.
14:53
Speaker 1: I have a rent paid phone bill my sister in Detroit.
14:57
Speaker 1: I would be like, hey, did you please take here
14:59
Speaker 1: my phone bill? And my sister took care of my
15:01
Speaker 1: phone bill for years, like just off of like at
15:05
Speaker 1: one point she just stopped letting it be a barrow,
15:07
Speaker 1: and she was like, I'll just pay your phone bill
15:09
Speaker 1: and tell you good for yourself. Thank you, because as
15:12
Speaker 1: a comedian and your phone is your most prized possession,
15:14
Speaker 1: you gotta be able to pick the phone of being
15:16
Speaker 1: to get um. Fast forward back to Ends Mitchell. Now
15:21
Speaker 1: we're in December, right, this has been a whole six months,
15:24
Speaker 1: and I'm like, man, I gotta figure something out because
15:26
Speaker 1: I'm supposed to be going back home because I'm not
15:28
Speaker 1: on TV yet. Ends Mitchell calls me in his office
15:31
Speaker 1: and he says, listen, man, I think that you are hilarious.
15:35
Speaker 1: And I was like, thanks, man, and he's like, uh,
15:38
Speaker 1: We're doing a TV show called Tony Rocks the Funny Spot.
15:40
Speaker 1: It's gonna be on TV one. Would you be interested
15:43
Speaker 1: in doing it? And I was like when does the film?
15:46
Speaker 1: When does it film? And he's like, uh, in two days.
15:49
Speaker 1: So it was December. The film December twenty two. Wow,
15:53
Speaker 1: Saved by the Almost had the return to Detroit flight.
15:57
Speaker 1: So I called him like I didn't know. My mom
16:00
Speaker 1: only got announced. I called my mom right after I
16:03
Speaker 1: filmed it and I said, my I'll be home for Christmas,
16:05
Speaker 1: which my flight was leaving on there, so I called
16:09
Speaker 1: my mom and say, listen, I'll be home, but I'm
16:12
Speaker 1: coming back to alcause I just put my first TV appearance.
16:14
Speaker 1: So I kept on and uh, that was the very
16:19
Speaker 1: beginning for me where I started to really see things happen.
16:22
Speaker 1: I would catch the bus two spots. I would leave
16:24
Speaker 1: in enough time to get to the place, and I
16:27
Speaker 1: would leave in enough time to get back home because
16:29
Speaker 1: they must stop around eleven thirties twelve o'clock. And I
16:33
Speaker 1: always tell people, if you believe in yourself, things are
16:36
Speaker 1: gonna happen. Like there was no And what I mean
16:40
Speaker 1: is not just believing in yourself, but I always walked
16:42
Speaker 1: by faith and not by sight, not getting religious, but
16:45
Speaker 1: it's just like I knew that there was no other
16:50
Speaker 1: ending other than success for me. I wasn't going back home.
16:54
Speaker 1: I was not going to give up, and no matter
16:57
Speaker 1: what I mean, at no point, so the only option
16:59
Speaker 1: was success and that's what happened. Wow, your story is incredible.
17:05
Speaker 1: That's very sweet. It's like watching a movie. So when
17:10
Speaker 1: you made that phone call, I just kind of want
17:12
Speaker 1: to know like the emotional state and you were feeling,
17:16
Speaker 1: like because that's got to be an incredible feat. Oh
17:20
Speaker 1: it's crazy, Like what were you thinking, Like, I can't
17:22
Speaker 1: wait to make this phone call to my mama? And
17:24
Speaker 1: he did it smooth like you planned it too. Yeah,
17:27
Speaker 1: because my mom. You know, I'm a mother's baby, so
17:31
Speaker 1: when you're the baby, your mom is always worrying about you.
17:35
Speaker 1: She's never thinking that you're okay. And I tried to
17:38
Speaker 1: call home for money, like not at all because I
17:41
Speaker 1: didn't want her to think the wrong decision. And it
17:47
Speaker 1: was it was very nerve wracking because obviously it's great
17:51
Speaker 1: to talk about now, but when you're in it, you
17:52
Speaker 1: don't see that, Like you just see the grind daily
17:56
Speaker 1: of what you're going through. And I never wish that
17:58
Speaker 1: on anybody. But at the same time, I knew then
18:01
Speaker 1: what I know now, which is everything is a journey.
18:04
Speaker 1: The journey is the story. You gotta focus on where
18:09
Speaker 1: you're headed and that you know things will get better
18:11
Speaker 1: instead of focusing on the negative. At any point, I
18:14
Speaker 1: could be like, man, I don't want to bush. I
18:16
Speaker 1: got an air mattress, but girls were still coming to
18:18
Speaker 1: the career in the air mattress and I was like, well,
18:20
Speaker 1: I think in your twenties is different. I think guys
18:23
Speaker 1: in the twenties is like the best time to come
18:25
Speaker 1: up on women because women's standards are just like Netflix
18:28
Speaker 1: and Chill. It's fine, that's not really you think women
18:31
Speaker 1: in their forties are like Netflix and Chill. Yes, I
18:35
Speaker 1: think from personal experience and that women go after driven men, right,
18:41
Speaker 1: So it's not so much about I'm about to deal
18:44
Speaker 1: with this broke guy, this Netflix and Chill guy. I'm
18:47
Speaker 1: dealing with this guy because he's going to be more
18:50
Speaker 1: than this air mattress. He's going to be more than
18:53
Speaker 1: this bus rat. He's going to be more than not
18:55
Speaker 1: being able to afford to take me anywhere. Um. So
18:58
Speaker 1: those were the women that I have always attracted, Women
19:01
Speaker 1: who weren't the materialistic women, but also women who could
19:05
Speaker 1: be materialistic. You just like you don't want me to
19:07
Speaker 1: buy you anything, like I can buy everything. God bless you.
19:12
Speaker 1: But there are a lot of women in the world
19:14
Speaker 1: who are in their thirties and forties who would never
19:19
Speaker 1: even deal with the guy in their thirties and forties
19:20
Speaker 1: that don't have what they have. But I was very
19:22
Speaker 1: lucky to find women my age and older who saw
19:27
Speaker 1: the bigger picture and man nice. Now I love that
19:30
Speaker 1: your faith driven and I can be pretty headstrong, but
19:36
Speaker 1: and it could be the girl in me. But you know,
19:39
Speaker 1: we're in a gender you know, gender equality, age whatever
19:42
Speaker 1: in me. Um, but um, even when my faith is
19:47
Speaker 1: the strongest, there have been points in my career where
19:50
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, ship, I'm bat you crazy? Why
19:54
Speaker 1: the heck? It's like victim, you know, you go through
19:55
Speaker 1: the victim phase, like why why do I think I
19:59
Speaker 1: can do this? Any ways? And like, who the was
20:02
Speaker 1: there ever a point during that journey where you were like, dude,
20:07
Speaker 1: there was that doubt where it poured and heavy, like
20:09
Speaker 1: was there a particular incident where you were like, you
20:13
Speaker 1: guys shook a little bit? Yes? Um, well one. In
20:18
Speaker 1: my mind, I've always been star and this is this
20:20
Speaker 1: As I was a child, I can think back to
20:23
Speaker 1: a time in Detroit where I did a comedy show
20:25
Speaker 1: a Cocost House of Comedy, and Martes is back to
20:30
Speaker 1: the first story. He was one of the comedies at
20:32
Speaker 1: that school. He told my sister, He's like, yeah, your
20:34
Speaker 1: brother is funny, but uh, you know, he's arrogant. He's lawyer,
20:38
Speaker 1: and when his comedy meets his arrogance, he's gonna be great,
20:42
Speaker 1: and my sister said something I remember says that she
20:45
Speaker 1: laughed and she said, my brother would be this way
20:48
Speaker 1: if he worked at McDonald's. And that's the that's the
20:51
Speaker 1: guys on his truth. I have always been this way.
20:55
Speaker 1: I've never been a cocky person. Cocky is what people
20:59
Speaker 1: call you in the words of kool aid, when your
21:02
Speaker 1: confidence meets their insecurities. Right, And that's so real. I thought,
21:07
Speaker 1: see your head up if their head isn't up, so
21:10
Speaker 1: I have the way to try to bring you down.
21:15
Speaker 1: Believing myself right, I don't go to your point to
21:18
Speaker 1: your question, I should say I had the event shake
21:20
Speaker 1: me uh in my early twenties that I was like,
21:25
Speaker 1: oh wow, life is real. Right. I ran into a
21:28
Speaker 1: situation where I could have been arrested and in prison
21:35
Speaker 1: for the rest of my life or something I didn't do.
21:37
Speaker 1: And it was like, what's right? And we all know
21:40
Speaker 1: somebody who's in prison or in jail for something they
21:43
Speaker 1: didn't do. They're still there for the fact that I
21:46
Speaker 1: am not there, and was like, there's nothing in my
21:49
Speaker 1: name charges anything. It's like, this is God right, and
21:52
Speaker 1: with this I owe it to him and to myself
21:55
Speaker 1: to make way more myself than I was before. It
21:57
Speaker 1: was like before it was all chasing women and yeah,
22:00
Speaker 1: I'm doing some jokes, but I only do some girls
22:02
Speaker 1: right now, How do you sound like my husband to uh,
22:06
Speaker 1: to really buggling down and focusing. That's a lot of
22:10
Speaker 1: credit to my wife. Man. My wife has been with
22:12
Speaker 1: me as my friend since year two of me being
22:16
Speaker 1: in l A. And she was one of those women
22:18
Speaker 1: that we were so tight at friends. I had no
22:21
Speaker 1: choice but to be myself with her, right. And what
22:23
Speaker 1: that means to a lot of people is when you're
22:27
Speaker 1: friends with a woman and you're just friends, even though
22:30
Speaker 1: I was trying to smash with day one, you are
22:34
Speaker 1: you are honest, right. She knows the real me, She
22:36
Speaker 1: knows that I love women, she knows of how I
22:39
Speaker 1: am right. So she had that honesty and then she
22:43
Speaker 1: still shows that to be with me. So from that,
22:46
Speaker 1: she helped me become who I am. I would not
22:48
Speaker 1: have gotten eight percent of the blessings that I've perceived
22:52
Speaker 1: had it not been for her in my life and
22:54
Speaker 1: in my corner. So yeah, wow, my problem problem. So
23:14
Speaker 1: we're back from commercial break with some nice smelling chicken
23:19
Speaker 1: um and uh just just kind of tailoring off to
23:23
Speaker 1: where we left off in regards to your wife being
23:25
Speaker 1: your rock everything pretty much. She um. My wife's name
23:30
Speaker 1: is Tangerine. She is a very successful actress and producer.
23:34
Speaker 1: She was doing this when she met me, right like
23:37
Speaker 1: she was already. She had like two movies coming out
23:40
Speaker 1: when she met me. I think one of the first
23:42
Speaker 1: ones when I got super excited about was Miss March
23:45
Speaker 1: and Love for Sale because I love quest comedies, like
23:48
Speaker 1: you know, like a journey film, like you watch a
23:51
Speaker 1: road trip like that. I love those types of and
23:54
Speaker 1: that's what Miss March was, and the Love for Sale
23:56
Speaker 1: was just an incredible comedy as well. But she had
23:59
Speaker 1: these movies coming out as I met her as my friend,
24:02
Speaker 1: and as time went on, my first real television opportunity
24:08
Speaker 1: to become a writer on like real TV. Like something
24:10
Speaker 1: I'd written before before wasn't really credited, right, it was
24:17
Speaker 1: like it was credited but nobody. They didn't go to
24:19
Speaker 1: to air because of my wife. She introduced me to
24:24
Speaker 1: one of my childhood heroes, Billy Kyle Evans. I know,
24:27
Speaker 1: the Evans family. Mart we need to have them on here.
24:31
Speaker 1: We're gonna do that. We're gonna have them so Bentley
24:34
Speaker 1: changed my life right. Badley and Stacy Ethers Morgan his
24:38
Speaker 1: sister also an amazing producer and writer, and now Evans,
24:41
Speaker 1: the Evans family. Without them, I wouldn't have a career.
24:45
Speaker 1: And that goes to say so many of what they
24:48
Speaker 1: had done for me. Nile first, because during that dark
24:51
Speaker 1: point in my life I was mentioned to you, Nile
24:53
Speaker 1: had just reached out to me. I didn't even know
24:56
Speaker 1: he knew me right, Like, I was just doing comedy
24:58
Speaker 1: in clubs and he reached out to me and he
25:00
Speaker 1: sent me a message and said, this too shall pass. Right,
25:04
Speaker 1: anytime you're going through a dark moment, I always remember
25:07
Speaker 1: this too shall pass, because it will, whether that be
25:09
Speaker 1: time randomly and uh. He was doing the Twitter TV
25:14
Speaker 1: show called The Twitter was doing videos at this and
25:18
Speaker 1: it was called Trending Funny and Trending Funny. If people
25:21
Speaker 1: looking at it, you probably still find it. Trending Funny
25:24
Speaker 1: was all of these hashtag topics that I would make
25:28
Speaker 1: jokes from that he wrote and it would just be
25:31
Speaker 1: on camera. It was fun. And from that Bentley saw that.
25:35
Speaker 1: After I got to talk to Bentley because of my wife,
25:37
Speaker 1: she was working on the show called The Rev and
25:40
Speaker 1: I met him and I was like, I'm a writer
25:41
Speaker 1: and he was like all right, and I was like
25:44
Speaker 1: I'm a writer and he was like, okay, okay, this
25:46
Speaker 1: is tonight. So Bentley, I told him I was a writer,
25:53
Speaker 1: and I said, are you having uh? Are you staffing?
25:55
Speaker 1: Like I would love to be on your staff right
25:58
Speaker 1: And he was like, look, man, I don't really have
25:59
Speaker 1: a traditional staff writing staff, but uh, you know, if
26:05
Speaker 1: you write a spec script of one of the shows
26:07
Speaker 1: and I check it out and I was like, all right, man,
26:09
Speaker 1: I read a spec script and he kind of waved
26:11
Speaker 1: me off like he didn't believe it. And I was like,
26:14
Speaker 1: I write four spec scripts. And it was a Tuesday night.
26:18
Speaker 1: I remember it was the red carpet for Family Time
26:21
Speaker 1: Season one. Remember that? So Rick our Family Time Season one.
26:24
Speaker 1: My wife is on the red carpet, Angel Conwell, Omark Gooding,
26:28
Speaker 1: uh and Bentley and I sudn't write four scripts by
26:31
Speaker 1: Friday of that week by noon, and he was like, oh,
26:36
Speaker 1: all right, you know you told him you were going
26:38
Speaker 1: to do it before he didn't. Okay, so this is due.
26:41
Speaker 1: That's a lot of pressure because unheard, but he can
26:43
Speaker 1: write four scripts in that amount of time, accept your boy.
26:49
Speaker 1: I wrote those scripts and I finished the last script
26:51
Speaker 1: at eleven am that Friday, and I sent it off
26:54
Speaker 1: to him right before noon. He responded back. He said, listen, man,
26:58
Speaker 1: I don't care about anything but the fact that you
27:01
Speaker 1: sent this just like you said you would. You and
27:05
Speaker 1: I are going to work together because you just reminded
27:09
Speaker 1: me of me is in an email. Time goes by
27:12
Speaker 1: also to be prepace this. The scripts are not formatted
27:15
Speaker 1: properly at all, like not format of scripts that I
27:18
Speaker 1: was brand new as a writer. But they were funny.
27:21
Speaker 1: And about six months goes by, I'm getting angry because
27:25
Speaker 1: I ain't heard nothing prevently and down Yeah, I'm kind
27:29
Speaker 1: of propt up. Thanks. So I see Stacy of his
27:32
Speaker 1: Morrigan comes to the comedy store to see Bricia Whip
27:35
Speaker 1: and Bricia of course is uh is their family's well
27:38
Speaker 1: because I love that girls, the show that she was
27:40
Speaker 1: one of the stars of. So I'm angry when I
27:43
Speaker 1: see her. I'm like, hey, I sent your brother then scripts.
27:47
Speaker 1: I ain't hear nothing, and she was like, hi, I'm doing.
27:50
Speaker 1: I was so out of I God bless Stacey because
27:52
Speaker 1: she saw something in me. She said, hi, um, send
27:56
Speaker 1: me the scripts and I was like all right, I
27:59
Speaker 1: said to the scree And three days later she gives
28:03
Speaker 1: me a call and she says, our regis scripts. You're
28:05
Speaker 1: a great storyteller and you're very funny. The formatting isn't there,
28:10
Speaker 1: but I see you you have something. Would you be
28:13
Speaker 1: interested in pitching some ideas for I love that girl
28:16
Speaker 1: this season? And I was like yes. She's like, okay,
28:18
Speaker 1: come up with about two or three ideas and come
28:21
Speaker 1: pitch them to me in Bentley And I was like,
28:22
Speaker 1: done right. I showed to Bentley's home at this time.
28:26
Speaker 1: This is about a couple of days later. Showed the
28:28
Speaker 1: Bentley's home and when I get there, there's so many
28:32
Speaker 1: writers in a circle in his in his house is
28:34
Speaker 1: like one of the guest rooms, and everybody's pitching these ideas.
28:37
Speaker 1: And he gets to me and she told me to
28:40
Speaker 1: pitch two or three ideas. Already know you came up.
28:44
Speaker 1: I came up with twenty ideas and just started rattling
28:47
Speaker 1: them off, and everyone like after each one, I was like,
28:50
Speaker 1: how does that thing? He's like, we got something something?
28:51
Speaker 1: All right? I got another one, and I got another one,
28:53
Speaker 1: and I just kept going and I get the call
28:56
Speaker 1: later that night that they accepted one of the ideas
28:59
Speaker 1: and we're gonna give me script. What I did not
29:01
Speaker 1: know was how much money I was supposed to be making,
29:04
Speaker 1: because the previous writing gears that I had I made
29:07
Speaker 1: like fifteen hundred dollars a week writing scripts, right, and
29:11
Speaker 1: I'm thinking I was the industry norm. However, tell me,
29:15
Speaker 1: tell us, however, what is it? At this point, I
29:18
Speaker 1: didn't have those roommates. I had moved into a studio
29:21
Speaker 1: partment that Tangerine helped me get. Are you guys dating
29:24
Speaker 1: officially at that? Okay, okay, this is studio was my
29:29
Speaker 1: first apartment. Everybody, how much was it? Come on, I'm
29:33
Speaker 1: trying to let me so this, uh this through your apartment?
29:38
Speaker 1: I was sprushing and I had basically given furniture like.
29:42
Speaker 1: I had a bed for my guy Michael the bag,
29:45
Speaker 1: I had a couch, a TV like, and but I
29:49
Speaker 1: didn't know how I was gonna pay this rent because
29:50
Speaker 1: this rent was a couple more hundreds than I was
29:52
Speaker 1: used to make it uh paying? So I asked randomly
29:57
Speaker 1: to the writing system. I got Alex Skubutski. I said, hey, man,
30:00
Speaker 1: just out of curiosity, how much am I getting paid
30:04
Speaker 1: for the script. I'm thinking it's gonna be like two
30:06
Speaker 1: or three grand because I made before and this is
30:09
Speaker 1: you know, TV one. This is about to be great.
30:11
Speaker 1: I'm so excited right now. And he was like, oh,
30:13
Speaker 1: it's playing ten grand and I was like, all right, cool,
30:15
Speaker 1: thanks right, So Tam Grant, I had never seen this
30:23
Speaker 1: type of money. Yeah, of course, how old are you? Like, No,
30:27
Speaker 1: I'm twenty four, right, this is two thousand eleven. I'm
30:33
Speaker 1: eighty six. I want winning. That's twenty four. I don't know,
30:37
Speaker 1: I don't know. I get ten graham. I'm super excited.
30:41
Speaker 1: I'm excited for you. I was gonna have been there. Yeah,
30:43
Speaker 1: so I get the ten graham from that. Um. And
30:46
Speaker 1: here's the even more quick story. Like I said, my
30:48
Speaker 1: wife was a plant base. I've always struggled with eating
30:51
Speaker 1: healthy and not eating healthy. Weight been up and down,
30:55
Speaker 1: but I say it's for a reason. So we were
30:58
Speaker 1: we had gotten to a relationship because got me on
31:00
Speaker 1: this radio show called Chocolate Up Live, which was ran
31:04
Speaker 1: by this guy who's this health food gurgle guy, and
31:07
Speaker 1: I would get paid every week. Anyway, that company, the Herbs,
31:12
Speaker 1: started a weight loss challenge between myself and this this
31:16
Speaker 1: cool little white girl, cool little white girl, and the
31:20
Speaker 1: first person who could lose twenty pounds the fastest would
31:23
Speaker 1: get a thousand dollars, right, So I just got to check.
31:27
Speaker 1: From that from uh, I Love that Girl and then
31:30
Speaker 1: I won the weight loss competition. I immediately want to
31:34
Speaker 1: go buy a truck because I was like, I had
31:36
Speaker 1: a car, but it got to an accident all that,
31:38
Speaker 1: so I went in bar truck and my rent was
31:40
Speaker 1: taken care of for a while. And uh. From that point,
31:44
Speaker 1: after Love That Girl, a show called My Crazy Roommate
31:47
Speaker 1: came up that Thatly was doing, and after Badly did
31:50
Speaker 1: that show, I was like, oh, man, maybe I can U.
31:53
Speaker 1: I can audition for it because I know he knows
31:55
Speaker 1: I'm an actor. You can remember in the city, people
31:58
Speaker 1: aren't always up to date with were gifts, so I
32:01
Speaker 1: had to audition. I booked it, and um, but I booked.
32:05
Speaker 1: I wanted to book a series regular role on that
32:07
Speaker 1: show because it was like all these twenty somethings. I
32:09
Speaker 1: was sunning something. I'm ready and I didn't get that role,
32:12
Speaker 1: but he gave me a guest star on the show.
32:14
Speaker 1: I was kind of blown, but I killed it anyway.
32:17
Speaker 1: Now at that point, did you want to transition away
32:19
Speaker 1: from writing because you were trying to do the acting
32:21
Speaker 1: or where are you trying to do both? I was
32:23
Speaker 1: trying to do both, but I've always been more interested
32:25
Speaker 1: in being on camera when writing came easier to me
32:28
Speaker 1: because I'm a storytelling so they're great storytelling. That's very kind.
32:32
Speaker 1: Do you say so? Um? What d up happening was?
32:37
Speaker 1: I didn't book that role. I booked the guest star role.
32:39
Speaker 1: I got the guest star role, and I really wanted
32:41
Speaker 1: to be on that show because everybody was so young
32:43
Speaker 1: and just like me, And that show end up getting canceled. Wow.
32:48
Speaker 1: Family Time, which is from earlier that my wife was
32:51
Speaker 1: on season one, they were bringing that back. I was
32:53
Speaker 1: in the writer's role for Family Time. I wrote a character.
32:57
Speaker 1: First of all, this is about to be full circle
32:58
Speaker 1: because Corey Howkin was one season one of the Family
33:00
Speaker 1: Time court. Holim was shooting Black Jesus. He couldn't do
33:03
Speaker 1: Family Time season two, so we broke his character into
33:07
Speaker 1: two people, cousin Dave and Donnie. And with this character Donnie,
33:12
Speaker 1: I brought in all the comedians that I knew was
33:14
Speaker 1: Bailey Loves comedians. I was bringing all my friends. I'm like, yo,
33:16
Speaker 1: just go kill it. And midway through the audience, but Donnie,
33:21
Speaker 1: I looked at Bailey, I was like, can I read this?
33:23
Speaker 1: Things like yeah, but you gotta go in after all
33:24
Speaker 1: your friends, and I was like, oh, my friends were
33:27
Speaker 1: bringing that heat. Yeah. So all my friends go. I'm
33:31
Speaker 1: hearing laughter outside of the room. I'm like, man, I
33:34
Speaker 1: don't know how I'm ana follow this. And then I
33:37
Speaker 1: go in. I do my audition. I'm throw myself conscious
33:40
Speaker 1: because I'm like, man, I don't know if I'm gonna
33:42
Speaker 1: be as funny as my friends. Like this backfire right.
33:45
Speaker 1: So I get a call later that night and Bentley said,
33:49
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you the role of Donnie because you
33:53
Speaker 1: earned it. You were funny, and I was like, what
33:57
Speaker 1: cut two. We ended up filming seven more seasons of
34:03
Speaker 1: my character as value. So when I say sometimes blessings
34:05
Speaker 1: are in disguise, I wanted to be on Crazy Roommates
34:08
Speaker 1: So Bad and Regular, and that show got canceled. And
34:11
Speaker 1: I was a writer and an actor on Found the
34:13
Speaker 1: Time Craze season Wow, and in uh, how much money
34:19
Speaker 1: were you making at that time? If you don't mind
34:22
Speaker 1: it went up every season. Um, but initially was it
34:25
Speaker 1: as much as writing. Oh, the writing was great and
34:29
Speaker 1: it was good money. It was a little less that. Okay,
34:31
Speaker 1: let's keep in mind, uh TV one's budget was for
34:36
Speaker 1: that script, right, instead of just being on staff. So
34:40
Speaker 1: when you're on staff, you get a weekly amount of line.
34:44
Speaker 1: When you are just turning in a script, you get
34:46
Speaker 1: a set little rate. So I had that set rate
34:49
Speaker 1: for um, Love that Girl, Family time. I made a
34:52
Speaker 1: little less as far as just the script, but I
34:54
Speaker 1: was able to write more and more episodes and I
34:58
Speaker 1: got more seasons of episode the right, so it made
35:01
Speaker 1: a lot more and then I was getting any acting
35:05
Speaker 1: check as well, which was great. It was like, you know,
35:07
Speaker 1: I've never had anything, so you're looking at me being
35:10
Speaker 1: and you're sag at this point, right, Yeah, I don't
35:11
Speaker 1: know all the rules, but yeah it's but uh so
35:16
Speaker 1: you're looking at a kid who had nothing. And because
35:19
Speaker 1: of my wife's introduction to me to Billy Kyle Evans,
35:24
Speaker 1: I was on TV show for eight years, and in
35:26
Speaker 1: the middle of the eight years, I worked on other projects,
35:29
Speaker 1: like uh, I was able to be a consultant on
35:31
Speaker 1: Wilding Out was Nile because that relationship pretty ironically. So
35:36
Speaker 1: Nile and I have known each other since I was
35:38
Speaker 1: like one. He came up here and he taped. You
35:42
Speaker 1: have to see his episode when he taped guys. Y'all,
35:44
Speaker 1: y'all haven't We haven't released it yet, but now is
35:49
Speaker 1: definitely a breath of fresh air. But my whole crew
35:51
Speaker 1: was how you and now came up in here. The
35:53
Speaker 1: energy shifted because now it's almost like a mentor to me.
35:57
Speaker 1: So it's like he came up in and he had
35:59
Speaker 1: his directory, was like do this, tweak this, tweak this.
36:03
Speaker 1: I had to send Nile an email afterwards assuring him
36:06
Speaker 1: that we had to run a show written out because
36:10
Speaker 1: he was concerned, and I even he even offered for
36:12
Speaker 1: me to come out to his house because we don't
36:14
Speaker 1: live far from each other so he can help me,
36:17
Speaker 1: which I do need to rereach out to him. But
36:19
Speaker 1: Nile and I I freaking love now. I worked with
36:22
Speaker 1: Nick Cannon for a long time, and I remember I
36:26
Speaker 1: was like literally going broke trying to produce this company,
36:30
Speaker 1: and he was like, Nick's opening a studio, just moving.
36:32
Speaker 1: I'm like, you think, so you think I can do?
36:35
Speaker 1: He was like, bro He's getting the keys on this day,
36:38
Speaker 1: you better go ahead, and yeah, I made the phone call.
36:40
Speaker 1: Nick was like we wanted. I was like, thanks, Niles
36:46
Speaker 1: freaking incredible. Yeah, he has that and that that brother energy, right,
36:50
Speaker 1: but I love that. It's it's it's your story is
36:53
Speaker 1: so incredible. Um. I you know, we take a lot
36:56
Speaker 1: of shows on eating while broke, but nothing gets me
36:59
Speaker 1: more cited then like hearing these types of like damn,
37:03
Speaker 1: you went through it to make it and we didn't
37:05
Speaker 1: even get to the internet. That's what's so crazy. Oh
37:08
Speaker 1: so we ain't done yet. I mean, we're gonna go
37:10
Speaker 1: over time, guys. Um, but so so, now that we've
37:16
Speaker 1: seen your TV and your writing journey, you're acting in
37:18
Speaker 1: your writing, how did you end up becoming a social
37:21
Speaker 1: media influence? Sir? Because that that's a tricky transition. Tell
37:24
Speaker 1: me to tell me the t Interestingly enough, remember the
37:28
Speaker 1: name Jehan Jones. Johan Jones had been um. I had
37:32
Speaker 1: known it since he got to l A right from
37:33
Speaker 1: the East Coast, and he had been asking me to
37:36
Speaker 1: shoot sketches with him for years. And I'm like, man,
37:39
Speaker 1: I'm an actor. Brother, I don't sketches. You know, I'm
37:43
Speaker 1: on TV. You don't know if you've seen the show, right,
37:45
Speaker 1: and he's like, no, it's cool, man, but you know
37:47
Speaker 1: you should come shoot with me as great. And I
37:49
Speaker 1: never wanted to do internet honestly because I was scared.
37:51
Speaker 1: I was scared that that comment section and people, you know,
37:56
Speaker 1: if you're not funny, people say something crazy to you.
37:58
Speaker 1: And I was just afraid that I wouldn't be as
38:01
Speaker 1: funny on the Internet as I was on stage, and
38:05
Speaker 1: that it would hope that it would hurt me. Um.
38:07
Speaker 1: Even more interesting was the fact that when you do
38:11
Speaker 1: online content compared to television at that time, it was like,
38:16
Speaker 1: people aren't gonna respect this. I'm not gonna get roles whatever.
38:19
Speaker 1: And to be honest, I was afraid to fail. I
38:22
Speaker 1: was afraid to start something over because at this point,
38:25
Speaker 1: Donna stand up, I have been doing it thirteen fourteen years.
38:28
Speaker 1: At the time of you know, doing the videos and
38:31
Speaker 1: then acting, I was already becoming an even better actor
38:34
Speaker 1: because I had put my years in right, So I
38:36
Speaker 1: was like, I don't want to start something brand new
38:37
Speaker 1: on such a wide scale anyway. During the course of
38:41
Speaker 1: family time and while and now I had also started
38:44
Speaker 1: doing all these other game shows, I'm writing on them
38:47
Speaker 1: one of the game shows UM. I met a brother
38:52
Speaker 1: who run the Company's changed names now, but it was
38:56
Speaker 1: fifty one Minds at the time. Kristen Sharapia great guy,
39:00
Speaker 1: super cool. We have worked on a h one show
39:03
Speaker 1: to that role. And after the show finished, I say, hey, man,
39:05
Speaker 1: I want to pitch you some shows that I wanna do,
39:08
Speaker 1: like this make some money. He's like, come on in.
39:11
Speaker 1: I go in. I go pitch to him. Marlon Willams
39:15
Speaker 1: has a company. I talked to Marlin and I said,
39:17
Speaker 1: hey man, I want to pitch some stuff and he's like, yo,
39:19
Speaker 1: come through. I pitched him stuff to his company. Both
39:21
Speaker 1: companies told me, look, man, we like you. You're a
39:24
Speaker 1: great guy, but you don't have the numbers. If you
39:28
Speaker 1: had a million, all the numbers, we'll be doing it
39:32
Speaker 1: with you right now. But you don't have the numbers,
39:34
Speaker 1: and you want to be the star of these shows.
39:35
Speaker 1: Would be different if you were just trying to sell
39:37
Speaker 1: them like here, let else do if you want to
39:39
Speaker 1: be a part of it. And I was like, I understand.
39:41
Speaker 1: I leave. I'm still not thinking about doing the Internet.
39:44
Speaker 1: My my brother BT Kingsley is doing UM a Comedy
39:49
Speaker 1: Central special right thirty minute Comedy Central special produced by
39:53
Speaker 1: Kevin Hard. He had just done the Heart of the
39:56
Speaker 1: City show with Joey Wills. I go this taping and
40:00
Speaker 1: this is great, but this is this is January and
40:05
Speaker 1: I am stagnant. I'm feeling like, man, I'm not where
40:08
Speaker 1: I want to be in my career. I'm like, I
40:10
Speaker 1: got the TV show, but I'm not selling out comedy shows.
40:13
Speaker 1: I'm not on tour and you're still doing comedy in
40:16
Speaker 1: between stand up but I'm not getting the stand up
40:19
Speaker 1: love right And I'm like, man, what am I gonna do?
40:23
Speaker 1: And is your casual still smooth? At this point it
40:25
Speaker 1: was cool. It was like you know, when when the
40:27
Speaker 1: season is over, if you spent that money for another season,
40:31
Speaker 1: and glory to Guy Bentley kept me working on all
40:34
Speaker 1: these shows, writing and I'm acting on Families time. But
40:37
Speaker 1: I were right on in The Cut and his other shows.
40:39
Speaker 1: But you know, time, you know something like and I
40:42
Speaker 1: needed to do something. And at that tape in John
40:44
Speaker 1: was there and we were backstage of BT stress Room
40:47
Speaker 1: if he gets off stage and uh Jehan was like, hey, man,
40:50
Speaker 1: you're gonna come shoot with us man? And I was like,
40:54
Speaker 1: fucking man, when do you shoot bro Like, I'm at
40:57
Speaker 1: the point my way ain't working, so I'm just want
41:00
Speaker 1: to learn. I go to sketch House. It's ran by
41:05
Speaker 1: KP and I'm be More and Johan at this time,
41:08
Speaker 1: which Johan had a million followers, beautiful women all around,
41:12
Speaker 1: other content creators. Everybody's just creeping this content. I'm trying
41:15
Speaker 1: to learn what to do right. Anybody shooting with their
41:18
Speaker 1: phone and I had KP teach me how to edit
41:21
Speaker 1: on my phone, followed me to shoot these quick at
41:24
Speaker 1: that time, one minute videos. So you're you're on the Instagram.
41:27
Speaker 1: You're like after vining, after Instagram. So I started doing it.
41:34
Speaker 1: King Karen was there my first day and was just
41:36
Speaker 1: sitting around on this phone and I was like, hey, man,
41:38
Speaker 1: could you hop in the sketch. I was like, yeah,
41:39
Speaker 1: all right. Shot my first two sketches. The first sketch
41:44
Speaker 1: went viral. I'm talking about. The sketch was when a
41:47
Speaker 1: joke doesn't work. It was myself young easy, King Karan,
41:51
Speaker 1: k Johan uh step like that my boy Ti read.
41:55
Speaker 1: There was so many people in this sketch because I
41:57
Speaker 1: was like, if I get all of them in my video,
42:00
Speaker 1: it's gonna go viral. Right, um, but that doesn't work. Well,
42:04
Speaker 1: actually works, it's funny. I did the video when the
42:07
Speaker 1: joke doesn't work, and of course I made the punchline
42:09
Speaker 1: where I'm like, I told a joke and nobody laughed
42:11
Speaker 1: and they made fun of me. It hit a million
42:13
Speaker 1: views on Facebook and it hit um, I think a
42:20
Speaker 1: hundred thousand on Instagram that day, so I was hooked.
42:25
Speaker 1: kN was like, hey, create you a Facebook fan page,
42:27
Speaker 1: don't do it in your personal name. And I just
42:29
Speaker 1: kept creating Instagram videos run on and over, and then
42:33
Speaker 1: the aurithm changed. Um. That following year, I used to
42:38
Speaker 1: go from at least a million views on a video
42:41
Speaker 1: or a couple of hundred thousand on a video within
42:43
Speaker 1: a day or two two five thousand for the day
42:47
Speaker 1: because the AURAM was trying to push you with buy ads.
42:49
Speaker 1: So that next year, my my guy Big Job. He
42:54
Speaker 1: was like, yo, man, why don't you go to YouTube.
42:55
Speaker 1: I'm like, I ain't doing YouTube and I'm trying to
42:58
Speaker 1: get this Instagram pop. And he was like, if you're
43:00
Speaker 1: making no money off Instagram, you're just getting views. So
43:02
Speaker 1: no matter if you get a million or a thousand,
43:04
Speaker 1: you're not getting that money. Go to YouTube, and I'm like,
43:08
Speaker 1: all right, And I went to YouTube and I was like,
43:11
Speaker 1: how long does this take? The crack man he was
43:12
Speaker 1: telling me, and I asked him, as how long did
43:15
Speaker 1: it take you to make some money? He was like, man,
43:17
Speaker 1: my first check was two dollars and then my next
43:23
Speaker 1: check it was Tim Grant. And I was like, oh,
43:27
Speaker 1: ship when I sign up? Right, and he's like yeah.
43:31
Speaker 1: I started doing videos immediately, like I was flooding the system.
43:33
Speaker 1: I was dropping seven videos a week, one every single day,
43:37
Speaker 1: and then from that February of two that May, I'll
43:46
Speaker 1: take that back. Nope, yeah it was. It might have been.
43:51
Speaker 1: It was. It was like, from that February to that May,
43:54
Speaker 1: I grasped a hundred thousand subscribers, right, I got my
43:57
Speaker 1: plaque from YouTube and my first check was eight No,
44:04
Speaker 1: my first check was ten thousand, my second one was
44:06
Speaker 1: eight thousand, and it was like each but how long
44:09
Speaker 1: did it take you to get to that first check?
44:10
Speaker 1: So okay, So the first month that I did YouTube
44:13
Speaker 1: videos it was that February. By the end of that
44:16
Speaker 1: cycle of March, I had made like I was making progress,
44:20
Speaker 1: but by the deadline, I hadn't even hit a hundred dollars.
44:23
Speaker 1: After that deadline is when everything hit. So I got
44:26
Speaker 1: the rest of the month like which was probably eighty bucks.
44:30
Speaker 1: And then that next month, which all my videos had
44:32
Speaker 1: told almost ten thousand dollars. So I got that money
44:35
Speaker 1: and then I just kept the ball rolling. Then I
44:38
Speaker 1: started posting even more on Facebook, and they both took off.
44:41
Speaker 1: I would because I know you like numbers the highest
44:44
Speaker 1: IOUs like, so, I mean, it wouldn't be if you watching. Um.
44:51
Speaker 1: The pandemic hit and I had already start seeing successful
44:55
Speaker 1: with my sketches on Facebook, but I didn't see the
44:58
Speaker 1: boom of followers, like hundred thousand followers. And I got
45:01
Speaker 1: reached out to a comedy show in New York. Did
45:03
Speaker 1: it it was? It was a success. I came back
45:07
Speaker 1: and the pandemic hit. A couple of months later. We
45:10
Speaker 1: have went out of the country, were having good times
45:12
Speaker 1: and the pandemic hits, and I'm like, well, I can't
45:14
Speaker 1: shoot sketches like I was before. I got to do
45:16
Speaker 1: something else. I started doing reaction videos where I would
45:19
Speaker 1: take a clip of a video and I would write
45:23
Speaker 1: jokes to this video, like my reaction to it, but
45:26
Speaker 1: not like five seconds, like oh this is crazy. Look
45:28
Speaker 1: at this. It's like I would actually create a separate
45:31
Speaker 1: video of jokes for this video. So a video that
45:35
Speaker 1: might have been forty seconds is now a six minute
45:38
Speaker 1: video because I put my jokes on and doing those
45:41
Speaker 1: videos garnered me. I'm up to one point two million
45:45
Speaker 1: followers on Facebook and millions of views on these videos.
45:50
Speaker 1: A lot of my sketches of viral. But these reaction
45:52
Speaker 1: videos took a life of their own. So some of
45:54
Speaker 1: those videos hit twenty two millions, some of them get
45:56
Speaker 1: thirty million, five million, ten million, like you know, and
46:00
Speaker 1: and a lot of people showed me love my problem,
46:16
Speaker 1: my problem. And then I got you do Jeffredy Towns
46:21
Speaker 1: that creator dealing with some point you get shadow band
46:23
Speaker 1: where everybody doesn't get to see your stuff. You always
46:25
Speaker 1: at the mercy to algorithm. But anyway, in the pandemic,
46:29
Speaker 1: my highest month where I was like this is crazy,
46:34
Speaker 1: I made this is let me say you four starts,
46:38
Speaker 1: tell me something that's gonna make me stand. August of
46:44
Speaker 1: I had made in one month sixty four thousand dollars. Shit,
46:48
Speaker 1: I'm quit. I quitnon snap in the pandemic. Do you
46:54
Speaker 1: know how great that is? That's six I think everyone
46:59
Speaker 1: for everyone in the room is reevaluating. Huh, we go.
47:06
Speaker 1: That's you want to know something though, you gotta think.
47:09
Speaker 1: You come all the way from Detroit. You know, you're focused.
47:12
Speaker 1: You come here with nothing, and we got to try
47:14
Speaker 1: this dish over time. But um, you're focused, you know,
47:20
Speaker 1: and you're coming from where we all were all familiar
47:22
Speaker 1: with the space of like being broke, with the under
47:25
Speaker 1: twenty dish. Um, but look how far you've come. And
47:29
Speaker 1: even in the face of like fear, you're like, well,
47:32
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know about this new this new pivot. Essentially,
47:38
Speaker 1: you take a chance on the pivot and you murder it.
47:42
Speaker 1: And I love it. I love it. But the full
47:45
Speaker 1: circle for the six or four thousand next month, I've
47:49
Speaker 1: done a video. You gotta murder the pandemic because there's
47:53
Speaker 1: a pandemic. The computer is now the person that is
47:57
Speaker 1: reading through and watching the videos that you upload. I
48:00
Speaker 1: had done a video usually before there are people in
48:02
Speaker 1: office to do it. I did a video. Mm imputer
48:07
Speaker 1: misread it. I got de monetized for ninety days. What
48:12
Speaker 1: does that mean? Make any money days? Oh no, rock
48:17
Speaker 1: is a little too spicy. Let me say, all right,
48:20
Speaker 1: you can be your own critics. But I'm going to
48:23
Speaker 1: tell you right now, this food is delicious. It's tender, which, yeah,
48:29
Speaker 1: it's very tender. And that's not the way you're pouring
48:34
Speaker 1: those lorries. And that I was gonna drive a hard
48:37
Speaker 1: I've told you you were not. It's all about how
48:39
Speaker 1: you do it. I'm not for sure it was gonna
48:42
Speaker 1: be need salty is dish I've ever had no because
48:47
Speaker 1: I'm not about the exaustness. But this used to be also.
48:52
Speaker 1: And chicken thighs for rouse. You get about eight of them,
48:55
Speaker 1: and I would do two at the time. I would
48:57
Speaker 1: bring girls over and I would be like, yeo, it
48:59
Speaker 1: makes a chicken. They'd be like and if I if
49:01
Speaker 1: I made the chicken and they just wanted to have
49:04
Speaker 1: sex before I made the chicken, I'm like, God, damn it,
49:05
Speaker 1: you fucking made me rule. You made me use chicken.
49:10
Speaker 1: This supposed to last me a week and you ain't
49:11
Speaker 1: gonna eat this ship. Yeah, if you had sex before
49:16
Speaker 1: you cooked it while I was thinking, if she'd come
49:19
Speaker 1: over there trying to rub, I'm like, chicken, you don't
49:23
Speaker 1: want to do Oh guys, the way guys think I
49:27
Speaker 1: love it. We should just have a Guy Decoded show. Well, um,
49:32
Speaker 1: unfortunately we're running out of time. We've already ran out
49:34
Speaker 1: of time, we already ran the clock. Um, how can
49:38
Speaker 1: people like if they wanted to get ahold of you
49:40
Speaker 1: or wanted to support you, like, how could they keep
49:42
Speaker 1: up with like your shows and what's going on besides Instagram?
49:47
Speaker 1: Because we know you're you're in stuff famous? Or is
49:51
Speaker 1: that the only way? Oh you're still chewing? Okay, okay,
49:53
Speaker 1: go ahead too, I'm not Instagram. I am Internet popular.
49:58
Speaker 1: Think batch is inst the famous? I'm you see me
50:04
Speaker 1: on the street. Hey that's but um CC is dope
50:10
Speaker 1: on everything. Just Google ct is dope and all myself
50:12
Speaker 1: will pop up and subscribes to everything. Would be a
50:15
Speaker 1: great hilp. Yeah, fill them pockets up, Fill them pockets up.
50:21
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for coming to our show and
50:23
Speaker 1: blessing our set with amazing food. Now officially eating while
50:27
Speaker 1: Bro cookbook has real meals in it that involves chicken.
50:32
Speaker 1: For all y'all chicken lovers, Yes, for all y'all chicken lovers,
50:37
Speaker 1: we are finally blessed with a chicken dish that's under
50:39
Speaker 1: twenty bucks and this meal for under twenty dollars, serves
50:43
Speaker 1: as at least a minimum of four meals. And if
50:46
Speaker 1: you are afraid of the carves this this dish is
50:49
Speaker 1: perfect for you. So if you're watching that fat in
50:51
Speaker 1: that firm figures, this is it. Yeah. For more eating
51:07
Speaker 1: while broke from I Heart Radio and The Black Effect,
51:09
Speaker 1: visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
51:13
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.