BYRON BOWERS & NEIL BROWN JR.

Byron Bowers (Comedian/Actor) & Neil Brown Jr. (Actor) discuss booking 'Wonder Man' TV series and upcoming 'Varnell Hill' TV series with no callbacks, filming 'Straight Outta Compton' with no script, starting out acting as "extras", importance of building relationships with casting directors, and more.

Hosted by @RealLondonBrown, @JustinHires, @BTKingsley

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Executive Produced by London Brown, Justin Hires, BT Kingsley

Engineer: Aaron Brungardt 

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

The reason why I was bringing up the no callbacks is because anybody that's trying to get into acting, first we used to go in in person with the casting director, they would call you back, you would then go in with the producers. Then if the producers like you, then they would call you to meet with the network. That's called a testing, that's the final audition. Then you would go in front of the studios and the network executives, and then they would say, okay, you got the role. So to hear both of y'all say, yo, we put ourselves on tape and they casted us from the first tape. That's like, I think that's new information for a lot of people that may not know, like, oh damn, like I could get cast off of my tape, which is phenomenal information, though, because I know a lot of black actors, male black actors, not black female actors. I know a lot of male black actors who are struggling getting auditions.

SPEAKER_02 0:47

Yeah, I mean, it's few and far in between. I mean, that's just the reality of it, though. It's tough out of everybody, because everybody's available as well. You're not competing against it. Because they ain't making ideas. That's why everybody's available. Yeah, I'm not competing.

SPEAKER_05 0:57

Well, yeah, once D.I. D.E. ended, it should be a sign. You should follow business because it's a business. Uh, and this for somebody who's not the best at it, but I know when money dry, I know when the streets are dry.

SPEAKER_04 1:16

Welcome to another episode of Killin' It. We're your host, Justin Hyas. London Brother. BT Gangley. Man, we got a phenomenal episode today. That be my favorite word to say. Uh man, we got two, man. One of them, first of all, one of them is one of the best comedians in the game. Uh, need to be known even bigger because anytime I watched him, I'm blown away by his material. I told him the other day, I was like, he's he can do what I do, but better. Uh I'm gonna list off your credits. Hold on. So to the left of me, okay. You seen him on the shy, the movie Honey Boy, Swarm, the TV series, Lady in the Lake, and most recently, Wonder Man. Giving up a Byron Bowler. Not left off his Hulu special. You got a Hulu stand up special. Yeah, what's up with that? And then, man, you know, what I did. You was doing Hulu's Hulu specials before people cared about him.

SPEAKER_05 2:23

How was the test monkey for that? It's another word. What do they call it?

SPEAKER_06 2:27

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_05 2:28

Guinea pig. Guinea pig.

SPEAKER_04 2:31

You had it right first time you write up. Uh then, then we got an actor extraordinaire. Uh you seen them in the movie straight out of Compton. The TV series Insecure, still team on CBS in the upcoming Barnett Hill show, which we'll get into. It was all available. I gotta kick it off. I gotta kick it off. First of all, Neil is on the show because we posted a clip. We was interviewing just Neash. You know, Nisha. And she was talking about the Vardale Hill show, and I was like, who got the the part of Fad? And she was like, Neil. I was like, Neil who? You know, and then she was like, Neil from Insecure. She was uh stumbling to figure out your last name, to remember your last name. And I said, see, that's the problem. We're hiring people that we don't know. Then I looked up Neil and I was like, oh, I know who Neil is, man. This is working his ass off. Man, working his.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

You mean the Barney Hill show is coming out soon? Yeah. Did you audition for two? No, it's not a problem.

SPEAKER_02 3:41

Did you two audition for things? With Black Brothers working. We support that. Yeah, I I I that was, man, these tapes, I don't get cast from tapes, man. Me either. I don't ever get cast from tapes. That was surprising. Actually, I pissed my wife off, is what happened was, and she wouldn't read with me. So I just had, I was upset. I was like, fine, I'll just come up with it myself. And I was just like, I'm sorry, I'll just do it. Fine. And I came up with a character like like a half an hour, and then I tapped on the thing. I said, baby, can you please just put me on the tape real quick? Fine. And I was like, okay, cool. Boom. And we just shot it, and she was like, oh, that's actually pretty good. I was like, thank you. And I got a job. Nice. No, no. Martin saw. Martin saw it. And he uh what I was saying, he watched um SEAL team. And if you watch SEAL team and then watch this tape, you'll know that the the talent swing is like, you know, the the range. The range is there. Um and I, you know, I love comedy. I just never get a chance to really do it. First comedy I really did was uh was uh uh naked with uh with Marlowe Wayne. And um you know they asked sometimes, but even on uh uh Straight Out of Content, they asked Ev Gary, it was like, yeah, but can he be funny? Because all I had did was play the heavy, do action and stuff like that. But my bread and butter, like at the meat of me, I'm you know I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm a fool. You know, I'm a corner boy. Nice. So um he saw it and then uh he said, I don't want to see nothing else. He's like, that's the guy you hire.

SPEAKER_04 5:12

Wow. Man, that's a blessing, bro.

SPEAKER_02 5:14

Nice, bro.

SPEAKER_04 5:14

I be telling people, like, nobody is watching your tapes. So this is what I mean by this. What he did was amazing. That was God had his hand on your hands. I mean that sincerely. But when we submitting these tapes, we don't even know if we're if they're getting to your tape.

SPEAKER_03 5:31

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_04 5:32

You know what I'm saying? And so you spending however much time doing these these tapes, you send it off the casting, and you're like, man, when they see this, it's like if they see this. Yeah because they're getting 200, 300, 400 auditions.

SPEAKER_02 5:46

They're doing a lot. They it's very difficult to break break through the noise. Yeah. And auditioning. Auditioning, going to auditions is a skill in itself. It builds character. You gotta be careful that you don't let your talent get you somewhere that your character can't keep you. And one of the ways that you build character is by going to when you gotta get across town to the west side at three o'clock, and everybody's there, they wore the same shirt, you know what I'm saying? You thought you was the one dude with the black shirt and the gold chain, and you was gonna kill him. Right. You walk in, everybody wearing the same thing. And that one there, excuse me, that one cat's there who always gets the part. You gotta look at him and he comes out smiling. Smile. And you can hear the laughter on the inside. They killed, he killed it, and you gotta go in after him, nail it, be best, you know, do you do you do your best work. That's a skill. That's a skill. And then get over to the second audition because you got two that day. Now you done took away all that. So what you're doing when you build that, you're building the ability to be on set. You're building the ability to know how to adjust. Because you can do this tape all day. You can do 200 takes of it, and then you get it right. They hire you, you get on set, they'll be like, hey, uh, instead of you being upset, now we're gonna do it, you're you're super, super happy. And in fact, your mother is your father, and we're cutting it by like 75% of the lines. Go. And people freeze, they they fall apart because they don't have the skill of auditioning, being nervous, working through the nerves, and all this stuff like that. So auditioning in person was very important to building an actor and kind of like you know, separating the wheat from the chaff.

SPEAKER_04 7:19

Man, hold on. Before I I want to get to you, Byron, because that's scary. Go for it. What? I thought you were about to.

SPEAKER_05 7:26

No, I mean, all that just sounds scary, because I don't audition well. A lot of people don't. Yeah, so you know But you book well, so uh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I'm gonna get to that. I'm just gonna get to that.

SPEAKER_02 7:36

And here's the thing, you you you you can even cats that don't audition well, find a way. When you have to, you just gotta do what you gotta do. Uh Michelle Rodriguez hates auditioning. She's she's the worst auditioner, but she did get hired because this you see the stuff there, and you'll know whether it's just because a person's not a good auditioner and they still have the stuff. Also, you you find out if a person's got a problem, you know, they are not. You know, when you see a person constantly, you and you see how their character and how they come in and how they they show up, even though the casting director know you you're nervous, they know how difficult it is, and they're dealing with these little kids that come in here and try to put on, and they you know they want to be the guy, and and they see the hunger, and then a lot of times you can look uh a proper casting director will see through that, see through the noise and be like, yeah, you need a shot. Yeah. And it's all about minutes.

SPEAKER_04 8:24

Byron, me and Byron go back. I just want to set the stage before we really get into this. Me and Byron go back to Stomp the Yard. So before then. Before Stomp. Yeah, Twisted Taco? Yeah, like live comedy live comedy. So I first met Byron in Atlanta. I was in college. I probably had been on, you know, I used to go to Twisted Taco. It was a spot, me, him, Carlos Miller, uh, Ronji. Like we was kind of like Drew Thomas. We used to be up in the, you know, trying to work out, you know, jokes early, early. Then I ended up booking a role in the movie uh Stomp the Yard. Byron was background in Stomp the Yard. But I want to tell this story to let people know that he went from being background in the movie Stomp the Yard to having a Hulu special, uh, being an actor in a Marvel TV series. But what was your thought process when you was doing, what made you even, if you remember, like the goal to be background on Stomp the Yard, and what was your aspirations at the time?

SPEAKER_05 9:27

My thing was like, I need I was doing comedy at night, like full time. So I was just doing all types of hustles. And that was a hustle I could do during the day and see what a set is like. Uh, because they just started filming stuff in Atlanta for the first time. Yeah. And then I could go perform at night. Also, I was a stand-in. I was a stand-in for this guy, Lance Gross. I was telling him, Tyler Perrett just came to town. Tyler Perry just came to town, opened a studio, and then I auditioned for like Pookie or somebody like that. And my audition was horrible, you know.

SPEAKER_04 9:57

And was that the one that Clayton English guy?

SPEAKER_05 9:59

Yeah, Clayton or whatever. What's the other man? Uh uh uh Quincy, Quincy Barnes. Okay. Um so uh they just brought me in, and I it's just something I could do during the day, and then at night I could go and then like do comedy. So when I was on your set, I was a background, and they had us in this like football stadium or something. And we just there sick most of the time. And I just was at the point where I just started to become like a good comedian for the rooms I was doing. So I remember seeing you and y'all up there, y'all having a ball, and then I'm just sitting there, and then I remember they gave us lunch, and it was like a tuna fish sandwich and some pimples. And we there like 12 hours, we there 12 hours, and then we leave and then I and I see I see Justin, and I was like, I was like, Did y'all give y'all a tuna fish sandwich? He was like, nah, we got lost and stuff in the back. And then he was like, man, I'm about to go hang, we about to go have a ball. And then I was just like, uh I can't be doing this. I'm on the wrong side of this thing. And then when I was working with Tyler, when I was working with Tyler Perr Perry, um, I learned how to like be on set and just move. Like feel where the camera is and like not even look while we doing these blocking and stuff like that. But I do remember one thing that stuck out. We was block, we was we was blocking, he'd come in, he'll move us around, like, all right, this how this is how the uh set gonna go. And then I don't know who said it was somebody who was like, all right, let's bring the real actors in here now. And then I was looking around. It's a cold game, brother. It's a cold game. Yeah, I was looking around, and I was because extras is their own thing, right? Right. They know all the rules and they like real professional.

SPEAKER_04 11:46

And then the way they new term is background actors, and you're fucking canceled, buddy. Oh, real? I mean, yeah, I I think. But back in my day, they was they was extrased.

SPEAKER_05 11:55

You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 11:56

We was extra.

SPEAKER_05 11:57

Yeah, so the way they would the way they would the way they would just accept being this thing was crazy to me. I guess because I'm in like both worlds. And I'm like, this ain't this can't be it, you know what I mean? And that was my you know thing to be like, oh, you gotta move out of this, this, this group as well. And um, I end up leaving like shortly after that. But my my trajectory is is is crazy.

SPEAKER_03 12:23

You just bring the real actors in, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_05 12:25

Man, that's crazy. And you feel you feel a certain way about it, and then it's like you're you're an outsider, right? Like I always felt like an outsider, so I'm an outsider, I'm an outsider coming in, watching how these people are treated now. You know, who are inside. They probably went to school for it and all this stuff, and then they getting talked to like this and accepting it. So I was like, you know, but I I can say this, and I think what this is what helps me and what hurts me. My ignorance helps me, but me trying to plan and learn, like, oh, this is the way the thing should be done, is what hurts me. Even in life, sometimes, if you believe in a higher, you know, power, because sometimes the plan isn't what this is what people's doing. Sometimes it's like, oh no, you finna be like way over here, and then you're gonna be, you gonna pick up the skill. Like he's saying the skills he get, I had to go like over here, over here, over here to pick those skills up, you know. Yeah, wow. Be on punishment, sit down for a while. You know.

SPEAKER_02 13:29

You wanna make God laugh, make a plan.

SPEAKER_05 13:31

That's a fact.

SPEAKER_03 13:32

The uh I want to talk, uh Isa is a very unique entity between the world that we're living in, even more now than then. She was uh high-level social media YouTube person that turned her ideas into a high-level network show. Being on hot shit, uh both of y'all are on shows that are hot, Insecure was hot, Wonder Man was really hot. What have you seen the difference in like being on something like that? When when you're on Insecure and it's happening in real time, what do you feel like out in the industry?

SPEAKER_02 14:19

Um a show like that when it's popular as an industry watch show, um, you get love from the industry. That's the difference. As opposed to being on something that maybe lots of fans watch, but it's not an industry-watch show. SEAL team, you know, we got 10 million viewers a week. You know, way more than you know, we get on insecure. They was like, all right, that's cool, that's cool, that's cool. Anyways, about insecure. You know what I mean? It's like, wow. Because the also the subject matter was so much more, you know, um uh free you know when it came to insecure. And it was special. We knew it was just like a straight out of content. It's like the what was happening on that set wasn't gonna always happen on another set. You get what I'm saying? So we knew when it was special, and it and insecure was very special. Just the amount of diversity and amount of diversity within diversity. I'm talking about the stories, the the um to not just play like the black and white, the good or bad, the up or down, but everything in between that makes for completely fundamentally flawed and therefore fundamentally um human characters. We were able to do that on Insecure and not just play archetypes. You know, this is the the the you know, the tough black chick, and this is the best. You know, they all had different the tough black chick here was also a nerd, and and then she but she's also sassy and she also, you know, whatever. Um and so the industry uh actually responded to that and I it it was a big change because I would think you know, sometimes middle-aged white woman come up to me and I'm just know she's gonna say something about seal team. And she's like, Chad, Chad, I was like, what, woman? Don't you be hanging around black folks too much. You're gonna be in trouble. Your credit is gonna go very low. You gotta you gotta back up. Uh and and and it was surprising um at how wide the breath of uh people were that that that that watched the show. And Issa, you know, Issa Apprentice Penny, like Jay Ellis, ever everybody on that show that they worked very hard. They were all writers unto themselves as well. Yeah, right. So they were all able to add in um that stuff that that that's uh in bet the lines in between the lines that that we don't always get to too.

SPEAKER_03 16:32

It was such a beautiful transition of a show because uh, you know, seeing Aqua Black Grown and then seeing that show was like, first of all, the show is shot beautifully. HBO just be doing it, right? It's just like you know, it's just like all the things connect, just like oh my god. Yeah. And it was uh such a a beautiful palette like cleanser for like what was coming out at the time. I told Issa when I met her, I was like, I believe you, 50, and um and ATL Donald Glover has have some of the most unique new organic voices. You guys aren't trying to copy anything that you see. It's like, no, this is like direct, you know, clear reflections of of a new idea. Uh in that same aspect, you a superhero, bro.

unknown 17:22

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 17:24

You got to be in a in a Marvel show. Um Y'all know me. I'm diehard Marvel. I've been reading Marvel since I was a this was hold up before you continue.

SPEAKER_02 17:34

No, go ahead. I've been a little upset for years. I was very, very happy to see Marvel come, you know, because Marvel was making movies. Marvels didn't make superhero movies, they made movies with superheroes in them. Correct. And that's why they were so dope.

SPEAKER_06 17:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:47

But it really made me upset because this was my place, counterculture. This was my the nerds of the world, the comic book guys. And now you're bringing everybody and their mama into our business, and everybody thinks they're act expert on knowing what the what was canon and what's not canon and all this stuff. You talk about stuff you do not know what you're talking about, Jack. Like you ain't been in these streets long enough to know who Patch is. Marvel Moment.

SPEAKER_03 18:10

Marvel moment. Black Panther. I had to cuss a lot of black people out. Yes. I show up to Black Panther and I see my nerds, and they're here 15 movies deep, ready to watch Black Panther, and niggas. Show up with their dashiki is like, move. I was like, move, little Asian boys. I stood up in the theater. I said, hey you guys, you guys, you guys. I don't know if y'all, I'm glad y'all here. I'm glad y'all sold out. This is our third watch. Yes. We officially dissect the movie, which I mean y'all saw it three times. I said, you know, we've been watching since the other movie. He was in another movie. I said, be nice to them, y'all. Like, because that was gonna it was gonna be it was gonna be a thing. And then after it was beautiful because we all sat and talked and they got to understand, like you said, like the lore and all the things that had happened. Being a part of that, uh, I think last time I saw you, I was like, bro, you need to go to the card. So they they're gonna attack you. Like it's gonna be a whole thing.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

They're gonna try to dive through your chest. Everybody, stop what you're doing right now. Make sure you subscribe to Killin' the Pie. Boom.

SPEAKER_05 19:20

This is the first thing I was in where I was walking. Uh it was me, I think it was me, CT, and Chris, and we was walking. CT. And somebody can't, and then somebody did, they did like they did like this, and then they backed off. You know what I mean? Yeah. And I was like, it's wool. You could you could go ahead and touch it. But they saw what I haven't seen yet. Like a lot of people saw the the show before I saw the show. So when I did press without knowing what was going on, and even when I showed up to the show, you know, you hear about this thing, and they like, yeah, you are you are your door man. And I'm like, what's the superpower? And they like, you just a door. And they like, you like, damn. You know, they done got me again. I always get the short end of the stick type of thing. And then it was like, but they still had that look in their eye, like, this is gonna be special. This is yours. You know, they was like, out of the series, this is your thing. And I was like, oh, okay. And, you know, um it was cool, you know. Uh James Ponceau directed, uh, Andrew, uh, one of the writers, and Zeke, you know, and um they put something special together and then they allowed me to play within that, uh, within that realm. And I I work with a lot of filmmakers, luckily, you know, so you get a lot more play than like regular directors. Like a lot of these guys wrote and created films that probably won awards or hit all the festivals. And um I think because of my lack, my technical lack, I end up with a bunch of those guys because they take more risk.

SPEAKER_03 20:58

Yeah, but it I mean the the that episode looks like that. It looks like it's more film noir, it's like black and white. Yeah, yeah. It's like Ponce, what's crazy?

SPEAKER_05 21:07

Ponce, he's a film noir like nerd. Yeah, yeah. And like I'm not a big Marvel nerd or nerd or too much of anything. We got you. Me and Nick. But he's a he's a film noir nerd who's also happened to be born and from Athens, Georgia, where I was born.

SPEAKER_04 21:25

Got it, got it, got it. The Georgia Connect. Yes, yeah. I this what I need to know. How did you book it? Did you go through a regular audition process? Was it you had a chance?

SPEAKER_05 21:34

Well, I book, I book a lot through, I book a lot of stuff through uh Carmen Cuba because we believe, you know, I believe in her and she believes in me.

SPEAKER_04 21:43

See, I don't know who that is. She don't believe in the city. She met me in the shot. She don't never have it.

SPEAKER_05 21:47

I did the shot with her. So my first thing I did, you know, who I just so happened to meet at a party and just had a conversation.

SPEAKER_04 21:54

But what what is she? Is she a cashier? She's a cashier. No, she's a good thing.

SPEAKER_05 21:58

She does a lot of donalds. Uh stuff. I mean, she does everything. Soderberg.

SPEAKER_06 22:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 22:03

You know, you can follow my film thing and see, like, oh, she's she she was working with Soderbergh for like 20-something years. You know what I mean? She you're her kind of her go-to too. Like, I know he's gonna deliver good tape and trust me. Yeah, somebody that knows you and knows like the roles you'll do do well for. Did you do Stranger Things? I didn't know. No, she did, yeah. She didn't know. I was somewhere with her and I met the uh the brothers, the Duper brothers. That's why you're working. Yeah. That's why you work it. But um, so I just finished Lady in the Lake, which was tough for me, you know, to be in Baltimore. Where was it?

SPEAKER_01 22:38

Well, why was it tough?

SPEAKER_05 22:39

I think, man, just the politics behind it, and like that was like a hundred million dollar show, and then, you know, the workload that came came with it, you know. My lady wrote and and filmed that show, so it was just a lot of like pressure coming from the indie film world to like something like that big. It's more rules and like a lot of back and forth, and um I wasn't a major fan of it. So when I did, I I I think I was getting like auditions for other stuff that didn't shoot in LA, and I was like, I want to go home. You know, oh wow. And so this came up and they was like, it's shooting in LA.

SPEAKER_04 23:16

I bet so you you mean you weren't a fan of the process, not you weren't a fan of the show.

SPEAKER_05 23:21

No, they processed, yeah. The process, okay.

SPEAKER_04 23:23

I didn't want you to be able to do that. I mean it was just a lot, it's just a lot that happens on a sort of thing.

SPEAKER_05 23:26

Like you in town for like 11 months, and then it's just a lot. Right. You know, but going from LA to Baltimore, and then I shot Swarm, I went down and shot Swarm and came back. So um I just wanted to be back in LA where I could recharge, and then I got the I got the audition for Wonder Man. And I was like, man, I don't I don't want to do it, I don't want to do it. And then they was like, do it, and I was just like, all right, I'll do it. And I did it like this. I just did it like this. And then because I guess everybody was doing it like this, and I did it, I just did it like this. They was like the tape or in-person. And tape? I don't do, I don't think I do in-person stuff. At first I wasn't even like that's the thing, I don't like auditions, and when I started in the game, I wasn't auditioning. Right. And then I got auditioned, and I'm like, we're going backwards.

SPEAKER_03 24:20

Because I got all this stuff already there, you guys should know what I do.

SPEAKER_04 24:23

Yeah. How many callbacks? Did you do any callbacks or was it straight from the tape?

SPEAKER_05 24:28

I mean, that's the original show Wonder Man was called Callback on the script. Oh, I know. Now I got confused.

SPEAKER_04 24:34

Uh for what? For the Marvel thing? For the Wonder Man.

SPEAKER_05 24:37

No.

SPEAKER_04 24:37

No callback, just straight tape. Yeah. Okay. So, you know. No, no, no, no, no. This is this is the thing, though.

SPEAKER_05 24:46

No, no, no. This is good information. Because only callbacks I got was for the shot. That was like seven, and I tested for the the lead, but I didn't get it. And I don't know what happened with the show politics-wise.

SPEAKER_02 24:58

Black people make you jump through hoops.

SPEAKER_05 25:00

But I do know, like, I didn't get the role, and they brought me back as the character producers brought me back to play one day role, which I wasn't gonna do. And they was like, do it, and I did it. And they liked that little character. You got the editing book. And then they did, I did like, I went from one episode to like seven or ten. Yeah. And then my lines kept getting bigger and bigger, and then the guy, I was playing opposite. If you look at the shaw, I was playing opposite of the guy who I tested with. Oh, damn. So we the same complexion, same height, and everything. And then like, it was just like this dynamic we had, you know. Is that is that your first on-screen uh debut? That's like, I think I was in uh uh a sketch with Deion Cole in Comedy Central.

SPEAKER_03 25:41

You know what, you know why I act that is because I remember how jarring that was, like uh watching it, because bro, you you have this uh you've been uh attached to really like beautiful, like like you said, like cinematic things. Like even your special looks like that. It's like the sweeping shots and like the fucking. I was like, why do I look like that? It's so pretty. You know what I mean? Sometimes, you know, I mean you you you it's like you see work and it's like this this work is like artistic, and you was standing there with no shirt on in that yard. I was like, it was like this epic image. With a dog with wig on my hand, just like this.

SPEAKER_04 26:14

I mean, before we move on, I I did want to say the reason why I was bringing up the no callbacks is because anybody that's trying to get into acting don't really know how the business works. Typically, first we used to go in in person. That was the norm. You would go in in person with the casting director, you they would call you back, you would then go in with the producers. Then, if the producers like you, then they would call you to meet with the network. That's called a testing, that's the final audition. Then you would go in front of the studios and the network executives, and then they would say, okay, you got the role. So to hear both of y'all say, Yo, we put ourselves on tape and they casted us from the first tape, that's like, I think that's new information for a lot of people that may not know, like, oh damn, like I could get cast off of my tape, which is phenomenal information, though, because I know a lot of black people, black actors, male black actors, not black female actors. I know a lot of male black actors who are struggling getting auditions right now, like at least like 20. You you do too.

SPEAKER_02 27:21

Yeah, I mean, look, they it's few and far in between. I mean, that's just the reality of it, though. It's tough out of everybody, because everybody's available as well. Everybody is available. You we're not competing against it. Because they ain't making our shit. That's why everybody's available. Yeah, I'm not competing in the city.

SPEAKER_05 27:34

Well, yeah, once D.I. DEI ended, it should be a sign. If you follow, like, you should follow business, because it's a business, you know. Uh, and this for somebody who's not the best at it, but I know when money dries, I know when the streets are dry. And when DEI ended and corporations ain't putting money in diversity, that's gonna go, that's gonna translate to like movie projects as well, because it's a lot of money lost doing but also the uh independent projects as well. Right. They're not gonna start, they're gonna not gonna make a bunch of those either. You know what I mean? They're gonna wanna everybody wants to be Coca-Cola, sell the same product for a hundred years.

SPEAKER_04 28:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:12

So let me ask you this. Um you have this background in martial arts. Correct. How do you feel that has worked for you with what you do as an actor?

SPEAKER_02 28:23

Um, well, it's the reason why I am an actor. It's how I it's how I got my first role.

unknown 28:28

Oh man.

SPEAKER_02 28:29

Speak on it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:30

Just so you know, you're not the only martial artist in here. Oh no. We have a certified black belt brother right here.

SPEAKER_02 28:35

Same, I see.

SPEAKER_04 28:36

But martial arts is how I that's how I got into acting too. But I'm listening to you. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:40

Yeah, I was a um So um I was a youth ISKA champion for three years. And um uh I did show the conqueror with high and boxing, but I did pretty much any martial art you can kind of think of. And I had got suspended from school again.

SPEAKER_04 28:56

For fighting or what? For fighting, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:59

Um actually I didn't get suspended for fighting, I got suspended for winning. Spoken like a champion. There's a difference. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Did you say queen? No, but I I I I I was a you know, I was a bit of a knucklehead, uh, to the chagrin of my father and my mother. But um uh and when I would get suspended, um, in addition to the to the to the ass whooping I get, um, I would get sent to uh train at the gym. And so instead of being at home, chilling at the house, and now and no, I was dropped off there in the morning and I had to get all my studies, my my homework, I had to clean the dojo, I had to had to work, had to train extra, I had to help with classes, do every little thing that the old man um felt I needed to do. So I was doing that and this lady Patty Thomas Robinson came in, and uh they were going around to the different martial arts schools that they had heard of with great kids who did martial arts, you know, and they went to Capoeta schools, they went to everywhere. Um and uh they came in and and and the old man, my my sense saying, he said, uh he said, I was cleaning, he told me get up. He's like, come in. That thing you do, the kick. So I used to do the van Dam kit. But everybody tried to do the van Dam kit, but I would go completely um horizontal with my legs because I could jump. You know what I'm saying? Um and so I just looked at him, he went to put out his hand. He was about 6'1, I was barely five feet tall. I just went went over his head, landed, came, and I was very close. So he just stood like that, and then I just went back to cleaning, and then he was like, I think you'll do. And then we then they brought us to Universal Studios, they brought me to Universal Studios, and I was like, oh, he's they said we're gonna be in a movie, and I was like, oh, okay, great. Wow. I love movies. And I got there, I was this time. I was 14. Okay. I was 14.

SPEAKER_04 30:48

And then we're like, '95, right?

SPEAKER_02 30:51

We did it in '94. This happened in 94. Um 93 going in in 94. Um, and uh I got to Universal Studios, and every dude that I had beaten in competition and lost. And Cats who could do Scooby, Capueta guy, he could do the Tatsumaki Senpokeku kick that uh uh you could do in uh Street Fighter. He could do that. The Ryu joint. Yeah, yeah. He would just choo choo-choo. Um and they were like, hey, all right, it was an audition. I didn't know what an audition was. He was like, so just do your best martial arts stuff. And we did all of that. And then um then they gave us lines. I didn't know what lines were, sides were or anything like that, the game sides. And it was like 30 of us. And uh, you know, everybody went in. I can't I went in last. I was I fell asleep. That's hilarious. I fell asleep because I was tired. You know what I'm saying? I fell asleep, I got nearly an idylitic memory. So I just looked at the blink that the pages laid down, and he's like, hey, you gotta wake up. It's five pages, you know the. I said, yeah. I went in there, I threw the pages on the floor. She said, No, you should keep these, young man. I said, I know. I know. It just took me like five minutes. And then I did the lines and they were like, okay, great. And then everybody left. They said, goodbye, everyone. And then as I was leaving, Miss Patty Todd Ramerson, she grabbed me, she says, Hey, come in, hold it, hold up. I want to tell you something. I was like, You got the part. Oh, snap. Oh, wow. Boom. And then I said, Well, can I get a ride home? Because uh I gotta catch a cab, otherwise. My parents ain't had like I grew up in the time. I um Where are you from? Uh huh. I'm originally Georgia boy. Well, Georgia and Florida. I was right between Georgia and Georgia. Georgia, baby. Yeah. Albany. Uh Doherty County. That's where my dad is from, and and uh was down in Orlando, Florida. Okay. But during this time.

SPEAKER_04 32:31

St. Pete, Florida.

SPEAKER_02 32:31

Oh yeah. You know what I'm saying? Country has name. So um because I I lost that accent a long time ago. When I got here, they were they were they they were like looking at me like, oh my god, that's amazing. How did you do that? Stop. Do something different. And I was like, okay, all right. Um, but I, you know, uh I had to get headshots and all this stuff. I didn't know about any of this stuff. And my parents, you know, we were poor, we didn't have no money. So I had to like go hustle and like clean floors and scrub, you know, scrub floors to and convince people to give me acting classes, which I didn't end up taking many of those because they said uh, you know, I was more like a natural dude. Um but I worked for this dude to get me some headshots. Found this agent, and uh I just did a bunch of extra work, bunch of you know, stand-in work. Wow. Um, and then just kept hustling. And and I would get like a big movie. I got big movies. Like and got, you know, like a a role in the movie.

SPEAKER_04 33:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:25

And then we'll go do extra work too. Cause, you know, I had a kid when I was 17. We got pregnant when we were 17.

SPEAKER_04 33:30

Wow. How many years you and your wife, your wife in the building? How long?

SPEAKER_02 33:33

Yeah, uh 31 years.

SPEAKER_04 33:34

31. That's time to retire. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_02 33:39

Well, I'd say she's gonna trade me in for a new one.

SPEAKER_03 33:42

Looking like this, you like a vampire, bro.

SPEAKER_02 33:44

You look like a new one.

SPEAKER_03 33:45

What are you talking about? Everybody in LA is 36. That's a good age, man.

SPEAKER_02 33:50

No, it's a that's a great age. 36 is great. But um, but I but to answer your point more succinctly, the the the way that I trained um always taught me to do very hard stuff. If you want to do something, if you want an easy life, do what's hard. If you want a hard life, do what's easy. Martial arts was very hard for me, very difficult. I was always getting into fights. I was a little light-skinned and angry. So I like and and I fought. Um the discipline that I learned from it, um, the way I learned to move my head, uh all helped in um being a more measured actor when it came to the politics of it all and things like that. Are are you uh are you military also? No, my father is. My family mo most of my family is. I was in RTC and and all that.

SPEAKER_03 34:34

Uh because it feels like you end up in that casting often. I do.

SPEAKER_02 34:39

My father uh don't say it.

SPEAKER_04 34:45

She looked at you like, don't do it. You gotta go home, Donna.

SPEAKER_02 34:48

Yeah, no. My father's my hero. And uh I'm here with you. He's uh I appreciate it. Um anyway, he's he's kinda sick right now. Uh but he he's a very uh he had a very powerful presence. And uh he was a Marine and he fought. Uh he was in Vietnam. I mean he fought, he fought he he was during during the Vietnam time and he fought in for a country that didn't want to fight for him. Um so he's it was very impressionable on my life. And then my uncles all went to the military. I loved ROTC. I was going to the military, I was working for a scholarship to West Point. My wife joined the Air Force, um, and then she got pregnant. And then they'd say you have to sign over to accept the scholarship, you have to sign over full custody of the child to her, because they're not gonna take an 18-year-old kid with a family to West Point. And I was like, Well, I'm not doing that. And so I she said, Hey, well, well, it's an acting thing, you better you better go and get it.

SPEAKER_04 35:44

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:44

And it uh it turned out it it worked out.

SPEAKER_05 35:46

It was Man, congratulations, man. I don't think you were you know where we're from, we go the other way.

SPEAKER_02 35:50

Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_05 35:51

That's a fact. Yeah, man. Shout out to uh I'm saying congratulations to you, but to like to have that whatever insight spiritually pushed, you know, because it's challenging.

SPEAKER_04 36:02

Speaking of child actors, I did want to ask you this quick. You work with Child LaBeouf. Yeah. How was that? I mean, we didn't have scenes together.

SPEAKER_05 36:09

Okay, that's it. I do remember walking by, I was walking by on my way to set, and he was in front of a heater doing like jumping jacks. In front of one of those heaters. And it wasn't like, it wasn't cold outside. So I'm just like, you know, this is how I view it. I'm only learning acting from being around actors, and I'm like, this is this the thing? You know. But I know he's good, but I'm like, this is how good people do. He's great. It's it's funny because I'm I get I've thrown into the I worked with Lucas Hedges, who was who was uh award, you know, up for awards, and I'm I'm always thrown in with the the uh you know these type of guys, and I and the pressure makes you because I'm not the most disciplined person, but the pressure of not letting people down that put me in this position always like makes me be like, you know, all right, here goes Natalie Portman across from me. Like somebody took a chance. Right, yeah, you know, so I gotta go, you know. I don't know what, I don't know how, but when I'm in it, I'm just like that's why I'm audition well, because it's not that I need because the type of dopamine, yeah, I'm a child of an addict, so I need that, that like, and I like drive cars through the mountains and do com I do comedy, everything hot stakes. Yeah, he's dead. So when it's like that, it's like, all right. It's like let's go. I mean, that's what my wife is.

SPEAKER_03 37:37

She got ADD, that's why she in that in that aspect too, like what is speaking of the pressure, when you decide to do the special on your own, uh, how far are we in? Spiritual nigga, I can cuss now.

SPEAKER_06 37:50

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:53

Uh but uh for for when when it's time to do that special, what's the thought process going in? Uh how do you feel like the receiver? Because you're it's on Hulu now, but it was FX when it dropped, right? It was an FX who always took chance on artists because they had the whole dumbest. But that's the only FX special. I don't I don't know another. That was their first one. They did another, I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 38:16

They did Cape Berlin. They had a few days scrapped. Oh, really? And then I was the first one released, and then Hulu as well, you know what I mean? And then it happened to get bought by Disney, and I just remember somebody was like, You will never be on Disney. What are you crazy? Because it's called Spiritual Digga? Well, they was like, have you ever heard? Did you hear yourself? Have you ever heard what you say? Because I always had these things like I'm gonna do this, and then and then uh That is hilarious. And then it's like, I guess, I guess you can end up on Disney. Double time, because you're Wonder Man.

SPEAKER_03 38:45

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Two times.

SPEAKER_05 38:48

Come on. But I think I do think, you know, we fought for the title, and uh, and the um, you know, the network was against it. And I'm like, no, because it's about they like, we just call it spiritual. And I'm like, no, I'm not fully spiritual. You know, um, and I just saw the Will Smith Chris Rock incident. Right. And I'm like, if you go full spiritual and I have an incident like that, it's gonna make me feel bad. I'm not fully there yet. So uh then my remember my girl was on the phone, and she's she's like a seller, she could she sold it. And I'm like, it was like why I never seen Michael Jordan play, but if somebody could carry a meeting, I was like, she somehow convinced them that it should be that because she was like, this word, you know, this word started here and it went through a process. The N-word went through a process. So it means so much more, and it and it has a spiritual aspect of it as well. So you can't leave it off of that because that shows no growth. She's she somehow. Wow, yeah, and it's just like really. All right, but it's gonna make it hard to market. And they really didn't put they put it under my name and stuff, but you could tell they just like yanked it on the this is what he called it. Yeah, and then people writing you for overseas, like, yo, I just saw your your thing. Like it's in other countries as as that. But you gotta you gotta search for the name. And it's on Disney in other countries.

SPEAKER_03 40:14

Yeah, but that's I mean, if you go back to some of the classic, classic specials, like I want to say, doesn't Fox and Pryor have a have nigga in one of their tiles? Isn't super nigga? Richard, yeah, Richard.

SPEAKER_04 40:25

Richard Pryor does.

SPEAKER_05 40:26

The Times, though, they were still saying it on TV, I think, at the time. So it's a throwback to that also. That's why I put a sketch in the front. That nigga's crazy. That nigga's crazy. I put a sketch in the front because I remember seeing like Richard walk from his car to his thing, and Eddie did a sketch. So it's it's also a tribute to the lineage. It's shot in a boxing ring because comedy is like compared to compared to boxing, and it's just trippy. Like the the the windows that have the color on them, the stained glass and the boxing gym and the cater, you know, it's like the church aspect of it, you know. Growing up in the church in the South, so I was able to put, you know, all those elements in it. And when people like Net, you know, at the time, Netflix just wanted to be like, here go the stage. We just want to change the name and then like keep it going. So they like I'm glad I was able to do something like that. And once we got the green light, it's like, let's do it as trippy as whatever we want, because we don't know when we get an opportunity.

SPEAKER_01 41:22

Did y'all always, when you were younger, did you see yourself doing what you're doing now, or did you guys see something else? And if so, where did the change happen?

SPEAKER_02 41:32

Um, me, I wanted to, I love the movies, man. I loved them so much. I love comic books and movies, and I wanted to be, I wanted to be the guy in the movie I saw. So if it was a movie like Cobra's, because I wanted to be the detective fighting crime, you know, if it was a movie of the blood sport, Van Damme. Van Damme is one of the main reasons, people is one of the main reasons that I'm gonna act in the game. Yeah, people look at it and they're like, wait a minute, you act way better than that. I said, but listen, you gotta give people who come to this country don't really speak the language, and then make it to the top of this game. You gotta give them all the credit. First of all, just in life, just making it, just doing anything, but making it to the top of that, the Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Van Dams of the World. Now they got the complexion for the protection, but it's all good. They did the work. So he had me like in a chokehold, and if he, you know, he did blood sport, I wanted to be in the army and military and then get out and fight in the blood sport. I went, I just wanted it so bad. And then once the once that happened, once I got on set, and it was not when I was doing, I had to do that kick, but it wasn't then. It was when I said words across from another actor looking in my eyes. That was it. I was high. I was a 14-year-old, but it was sugar couldn't compare.

SPEAKER_01 42:50

What when that's what can we get? I want to make sure they get fired on.

SPEAKER_05 42:54

Oh, me, man. I my aunt said I told her I wanted to be a comedian when I was younger. Um, but I had like so many different dreams as a kid, I guess, because you try to figure everything out. And then um I remember when I started comedy, I would get booed for like six months. And, you know, I say, God, universe said this will take me to the promised land. Right. And, you know, somebody who always never who don't complete stuff a lot, it's some I stu I stuck with and it was it was brutal. I think college was for me was tough to be in the first. Um, and and then I quit that as well, but then I knew I had to go back to finish something to complete something. And then I knew this would be harder than more challenging than that. So my thing is really my success comes from, I guess, growth in the journey, you know, um, than anything else. Because it's like stuff he mastered at 14, I haven't mastered coming up in the type of discipline situation. So the more, you know, I realize the more you can master yourself, the further you can get in anything. I do think I could do anything.

SPEAKER_03 44:02

The how how did how did how does your acting career play the role in your stand-up? Like how much more stand-up would you like to be doing and or touring and so on and so forth? Because I still see you on stages all the time. But I but do do you want it to translate?

SPEAKER_05 44:17

Well I have a I have a kid now. I mean I'm I'm at a I'm at a very interesting place because my my daughter's about to be three and it's time I can't get back. As somebody who, me and my lady with our with our trauma bond, who then have a certain time with our parents, we hold certain things at a high regard. So the discipline for me now is to become a better father and a uh, you know, partner, which I never really had to do before. And it's and it's challenging. But through that, it'll it makes me a better, you know, uh actor and a probably a better person in show business as well. Got it. If that if it answers your question. No, absolutely. Uh I I I have to ask this too. But as you can tell, I land in places I have, like I said, I don't sometimes have no clue how big they are when I when I get there because I'm working on I'm working on the stuff I think that you know the universe is telling me to work on, but you still have to trust that. You have to trust that voice, which is challenging. Because you, like I said, it's a lot of times you end up all the way over here in a very lonely spot, just to get dropped off in in Marvel. You know.

SPEAKER_03 45:36

The you get a call, you know you're doing a role, it's a biopic of a real person. And he's a legend. Playing DJ Yellow and Straight Out of Compton, like what's the weight of that feel like compared to the other things? Because you've been attached to very large franchises. You Walking Dead, Fast and Furious, but now it's like this is a a a whole person's career and life and because he existed, and he was still around.

SPEAKER_02 46:05

Yeah. And you didn't want to disappoint him. None of us did. Yeah. Everybody, and and F. Gary was not going to let this movie movie fail. Every and uh Q, well, first of all, Q, Dre, um, Yella, uh, Rand, everybody, they was all there all the time. And um Eric's widow uh widow, she was there as well. So they were making sure everybody was on point.

SPEAKER_01 46:25

Great work, too, man. Yeah. Oh, thank you. My mom's favorite movie, and she's my mother loves God. Oh, my mom, my mother followed. I found my mother like straight from the couple. I was like, That's a good movie, baby.

SPEAKER_00 46:35

That's a well, but they got the curse when they got the curse.

SPEAKER_01 46:43

But that's nostalgic. It's God, Jesus, hurt.

SPEAKER_00 46:47

This is nostalgic. The nostalgia in this movie is crazy.

SPEAKER_02 46:52

I just recently re-watched it. I'm a fan of the movie. Yeah, because it's a great period piece as well. And it's such a good like picture of what that time was. You know what I'm saying? Uh Gefgarry really swung for the fences on this one. I think he really nailed it in a lot of ways.

SPEAKER_04 47:06

Oh, it's a classic one. I think it is for sure a classic one.

SPEAKER_02 47:09

We it was heavy. At the time, I'm gonna keep it a butt with you. We ran out of money. We were like broke, broke. We had like 53 cents in it between two accounts, had $10,000 worth of bills, and me and my wife could only do all we could do was like sit in the living room, dance to uh uh to the Isaac Brothers and just laugh about it and say, God got us. We're gonna pray on it. And then I went to get help from SAG. Um, and I was sitting in there with the lady, because SAG, like, if you've done enough work, apparently they had this program where they pay your bills for for like a month. So I had to go get that done. I was like, oh, I didn't know this was a thing. Apparently that's how people survive. So they went and they did it, and then the lady looked at me and she said, ooh, you got you gotta, you about to get a job right now. I can see it, it's just on you. I went out there and got a job like the next week. But but so the pressure was on like financially, it was a big thing. It was like, oh my god, we're gonna get out of this little situation. And at that point, I knew how to handle money before I got it. Like before I got real money. You know what I'm saying? So that's why I'm able to keep my money, you know, long without working a lot of times. Um so I knew exactly what to do with it. I knew it was a huge blessing. The thing was, my wife can attest to it, I looked like it was stressful. I wasn't sleeping or nothing. I was stressed out of my mind. Um, even though they said that, like, dude, you you never met Yellow, but you you're studying, you're you got it, you're him. But I didn't want to let them down. You know what I mean? I knew how important this was, and more so than the rest of the cast. I was older, so I grew up with this. This was like my first record I heard cursing. I grew up with this music, so I was like, I can't, I can I can't mess with that. You're very close to it. But they made sure I I had to learn to be a DJ. I worked on the ones and twos. They had a um they trained us for for for we had like uh about a month and a half of training, and and then um um Jason and all those guys had like three, four months of training. Uh, because I came in late. Uh Aldous and I, we were cast because they couldn't find Yellow and R and Ren. They had already cast everybody, but they couldn't find us. So um uh I auditioned for it and didn't get the part. Didn't get a callback. Because my and my manager called me back like a month later. He says, I got an audition for you. I was like, what? He said, straight out of Compton. I was like, oh, it's a callback. He said, No, it's a redo. I said, what the fuck is what you talking about? And then he's like, yeah, different casting director. And Vicki Thomas had took it up and she says, If I know it went from Cindy Tolan. Remember Cindy Toling? I thought Kim did that one the first time. I thought Kim did it. No, well, they it went through a bunch of different hands. Cindy Tolan had it, Kim, and then it came to um uh Vicki Thomas at fine. Yeah, yellow, yellow.

SPEAKER_03 49:50

I need to know these names. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 49:52

There's some real shit. People need to know.

SPEAKER_03 49:53

Oh, everybody, look, when we get it. Or not. Or not.

SPEAKER_02 50:00

The straight star.

SPEAKER_05 50:02

But it was Look, here's the thing. I met a casting, I met a lady at a party and had a a very probably a spiritual, chilling conversation with her. And then I get a phone call, and then I go to her office, and she just so happens to be a casting director. That's deep. But if it's different if you know. Yeah, you probably gonna put on or something. So Which I used to do all the time. Sometimes sometimes, like I said, yeah, you gotta like, you know, you just can't plan it. You put in places and you just especially in this city, if you you ground it and just be you, I think it's it's pops more. For better or for worse.

SPEAKER_02 50:42

Oh, and a little sidebar, you know we ain't have a script, right?

SPEAKER_03 50:45

First out of conference. What?

SPEAKER_02 50:48

We didn't have a script. We got the script, we had a script that we started, we did the movie. To get the movie started, we had a script. And then they said, throw that shit away. We're gonna write pages every day. So the new pages would come in every day. Oh my goodness. New pages, just pages. And F. Gary would be like, he's like, hey, this happened a lot. He'd say, Remember them pages inside your room? He's like, Yeah, forget them. We're doing something different. Okay, what do we want? And he would conduct like how he he everybody had a hand signal. He's like, and we all knew what to do based on our character. And everybody was the character. Everybody, we we trained so much to just be the people that all we had to do was memorize words, and we were automatically locked in. And most of the time, I ain't even have no lines. They were just like, say what yellow would say. I was like, oh good. So I would come in, but chief, you know, I look, they always get me, yo man, yo, yo, you crazy off the cuss. Your improv is crazy. Bruh, I wrote five of those lines before I got here, okay? Right. And they just seemed very they're so uh spontaneous because they're so well rehearsed. Okay. And you know what I'm saying? I always have something in the tank. If you loved us enough, you can't, you get, you gotta be able to put in the work. So I would keep stuff in the back of my head, and they were like, all right, that's Gary would say, say something funny. Now, say it. And I'd be like, say something, and then he like uh say something else. Say something else. That one, say that. Action. That's how it was going. So pressure, the pressure was on. The pressure, yeah. But oftentimes, you know, ignorance is bliss. Because one of the reasons why I made it out here in Hollywood, because I didn't know no better. You get what I'm saying? We didn't know no better. You know, we come out here, it was like, yeah, I'm gonna make it. You don't really know the numbers that are against you. You don't know the rules that are against you.

SPEAKER_05 52:29

That's discouraging to some, depending on your personality, discouraging to know too. Versus sure will.

SPEAKER_02 52:33

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 52:34

But but like you, I being untrained, I don't sometimes I don't have stuff in the tank. But when work working with certain filmmakers, they do allow you to like go. And if you are that person, you just you just exist. It's there, brother. You even if you ain't write it, it's there.

SPEAKER_02 52:51

I only write it so I can grab it fast.

SPEAKER_05 52:53

You know what I'm saying? But you're that person though. You became that, you embody that person. So you just, like you said, you just existent.

SPEAKER_03 53:01

Yeah, we we talked about this before. I feel like there's like two types of actors. Either one, you're you have like this instance extensive training where you understand things like a very specific way, and or you're a natural and you're is you're so far away from the training that it's like it allows you to just be organic and that comes across real on screen. So it's like it's a win both ways. Either you know how to tap into something, or you know how to just you wing it, I'd be like, this is if I was more technical, I would be doing comedies.

SPEAKER_05 53:31

What you mean by more technical? Yeah, I see what you're saying. Like, if I knew, like comedy got beats and like certain yeah, you know, da-da-da. Like I went, I went, I took this class after the shot, Leslie Khan. And I remember I remember Yolanda. But no, this is this is school. This is when I tried to go to school. Yolanda Ross from the Shah gave me some great advice. She's like, what you got is so raw, and she's like, I'm trained, but if you train, they're gonna teach you some something that might take some of that rawness away. And I remember I went to Leslie Khan, uh, which is one of the best comedic trainings, you know, trainers in the city. And uh she was like, she asked the class, she was like, name a comedy. And I was like, um, I was like, uh, I think I said like uh breaking bad or something like that. And they was like, no, it's not, it's not a it's not a comedy. And they was like, name another one. And I was like, Handmaid's tail. And the whole class looked at me and she was like, why? She was like, she started cursing, she was like, Why the why the what you say handmaid is a comedy? And I started explaining to her what I thought was funny about Handmaid's Tale. And she was like, that's her. And she was like, oh. She was like, that's funny, but no. And then she was like, can somebody name a comedy? And then they was like, friends. And she was like, that's right. And I never seen friends before. And that's when I knew, like, oh, I've been, I've been doing the wrong thing this whole time. Oh. Because I just did my this is not happening, which is dramedy. You know, I'm damn near crying on stage. And then I did the shy, and I was like, oh, I probably should be over here. Yeah, but but if you Or not.

SPEAKER_02 55:17

Yeah, or not. Or not. I I, you know, because it sounds like training, but that's from my discipline from martial arts and my father. But when I went to acting class, because I was like working, I told you to go to acting class, my coach Dennis Neal, um, who's like my guru, he he's basically very similar to my father in age and everything, but he's a a no-nonsense, you know, cat from Harlem. He was like uh uh him him and Russ Blackwell, when I started to do their classes, they say, okay, here's the deal. Um you we'll just mess you up. What you have right your talent is natural. He said, You understand text, you understand emotion, you understand all this stuff. So all we're gonna do, you're like this big body of water, and all we need to do is get you to find a way to bring it together to turn it into a stream that can cut steel. So that's this, that's your talent, and then putting it exactly, putting that beam exactly where it needs to go. That's all you had to do. So they they taught me techniques of like how to calm down and be cool, because I was just so like, I would just go, go, go, go, you know, and I talked way too fast, which ended up being cool because when you deliver it. By the way, that chat, when I played chat, I wanted to slow down so bad, brother. And they wouldn't, they were always Neo, pace it on it, pace it up, pace it up. No non-sequitors, just boom, just go. And I was like, but then people ain't gonna understand what I'm saying, because I'm always talking like this and this, but that and they'd be like, yes, that's what we want. And it was uncomfortable because at that point I had learned so much more by acting that it was a challenge for me. And I was filming two shows at the same time. Wow. So I would go play, I would play on the show called Dirt Gently in Canada, completely different character, like a detective, and then fly in to play Insecure. Then I would go, then after that year, I would do SEAL team, and then do extra work. And then do extra work. Well, that's why they had to add it into the show that like they made a line, it was like, man, you shape like a box. Because I couldn't lose the waiting time. I would lose 15 pounds to play insecure and then gain it back to to play Ray on SEAL T.

SPEAKER_04 57:16

I wanted to know about both of y'all, like, how much preparation goes into you developing a character before you audition?

SPEAKER_05 57:25

I'm bad at I don't know. I mean, I really I I can't I can't I only can speak unprofessionally. Like, I got audition due today. And I ain't I ain't learned it yet. I do this lane, I do the same thing. This this this is my this is my technique. And this was and it's probably been like this since high school. Oh, we got a test today? Oh, let me learn a test. Oh, I'm gonna fail the test. Uh this is what I got. You know, and all the stress that come with it, and then I just go do the test, and then I'll be so happy when the test over.

SPEAKER_04 58:06

But you pass.

SPEAKER_05 58:07

Pass or fail. I'm just happy as well.

SPEAKER_04 58:09

The universe might happen over here.

SPEAKER_05 58:13

But I'm gonna man, I don't I shouldn't do that. I shouldn't do that no more.

SPEAKER_04 58:15

I'm gonna I'm gonna tell y'all why I brought up that question. I I wrote half baby two, right? For this whole thing.

SPEAKER_02 58:22

Yeah, shout out to Mike Titus.

SPEAKER_04 58:23

Yeah, shout out to Mike Titus. Um didn't cast me in scare movies.

SPEAKER_02 58:27

Yeah, I know. Uh he didn't cast me neither. And we make we have a movie together. Come on, man, with me and Corey Hard. He didn't cast me.

SPEAKER_04 58:33

I mean, hey man, I didn't even get no comment. We let me get the comment stuff y'all talking about. He didn't reply to that text message. I said, You about to be working. He was like, I know nigga. No, I'm gonna reply back, nigga. I know I got this flyer movie that's a good thing. That movie is tracking insanely. Oh, I already know. I told Marlon, I said, bro, y'all finna say the comedy movie. He texted me back then. This is what I brought this up. I wrote halfway too, directed by Mike Titus, and Dexter Darden was the star of the movie. He played like Bill's son in the movie. And I went to his hotel room while we were filming, he had baby bowl in there.

SPEAKER_06 59:18

This is taking a turn.

SPEAKER_04 59:20

So I go I go in this room and we discussing the the film, and I look at his laptop or his tablet, and I'm talking about he got notes and notes and notes and notes and the margins and everything. And I'm like, oh, I see why he's working, and I see why I'm not. Um I was working at the time. I think I was doing McGyver at the time. But I was like, yo, I was like, I don't do this much preparation, even with MacGyver, even with Russian out, anything I've ever done, it's like I just look at the size and I'm like, okay, I got it. And I do the audition. That's why I was asking, you work so consistently. I'm like. You work a lot. I'm like, are you doing any additional? Do you do backstories on the characters? Do you make notes?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:01

I I do um I treat a uh job like a play. So I study it that way. Um Although I've never blessed. Was that a call for a couple? Yeah, we don't know what's going on. But was that was a snuff? I know, it was a snuff, it was kind of in between. Bless everything. I don't know what it was. It was a keys. Um uh I I I I I've never uh done you know Broadway or anything or even done a stage play, but I've learned to study like a play. So um uh Dennis Neo, he would give me these papers that would tell you all about just a character, and he would ask all these questions. You ask a lot of questions. Um my wife is who I do a lot of my reading with, and I bounce, she's terribly great at understanding text as well, and um and seeing the things that I don't see. I always feel bad when I see people with the with the sticky notes and the and the notes on the script and stuff, because I don't feel like I'm doing enough. Right. But then I look at my stuff and I said, there's things written there. And I I I make sure to know about uh uh essentially who the character is, what they want. I make sure just to be able to fit the rhythm, right? Because the the every everything we play in has a rhythm, and you don't want to be like the one off key. So I just I do my preparation in effect is is doing that. I do build up backstory. It depends on the character, though. It depends on what this is. If it's a if it's you know, you you saw it in Wonder Man, you know how what all of those all this stuff he was doing, I've watched actors get fired that day from that, from doing that.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:30

Um about the other actor, the Oh, episode one. Episode one.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:34

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I I've worked with that actor. I've been that actor to a certain extent. I've caught myself before it got too far. But oftentimes you just need to exist and to be. And to because most of the stuff you write down in that stuff, you're gonna forget it anyway. But you study it enough to where it's in your DNA so you can play. Knowing your lines is the most important thing it is. Know them backwards and forwards, inside and out. Because even if you dope, even if you dope with just kind of knowing your lines, it could have been masterful if you hadn't known your lines. Because then you can you can play around and you can mess around, and then all that stuff that you got down here, it'll pop up out of nowhere, and you'll catch it, you'll be like, oh, that's why he's doing that.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:16

You have a great memory though, right? You kind of referenced that earlier. You have a great memory. I'm bad. So me too. And so I've had to work it. If you have an audition tomorrow, it'd be like your audition is due tomorrow at 3 p.m. It's like take your time.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:29

Yeah. That's the hardest thing because I'm I'm bad with names, so lines is like, and if the lines got a name in it, I'm gonna need my eight takes. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:39

Let me ask you this, man. Both of you guys have, you both have your partners as you've been going through this journey, going through the 53 cents in the account and not sure about the process. What's something small that your partners do for you that means so much?

SPEAKER_05 1:02:57

I mean, I take, I take what my lady I'm when I didn't have a job, my lady created a show, and her whole thing is you gotta make you gotta make the show. You know what I mean? She's a foreigner, so her mentality is like totally different when it comes to how, you know, foreigners, how they view, or you might not know, they view Americans a certain way. You know what I mean? Uh it's not favorable at all times.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:20

I'm about to say, how do they?

SPEAKER_05 1:03:22

Lazy. Lazy, right? Well, some of the other things, you know, they just gotta like like I I say like um, I heard a while ago, like people from a place where, you know, we we wait on jobs or we look for jobs, and people from a place where they create a job. There's no jobs. There's no jobs, so that's not even in their mentality. They create the jobs. Yeah. And then my lady has that mentality, like, like, you know, audition. You write the thing. Write it or just write it and do it. So it's like, but she's like very stern, you know, so sometimes you get like a little, like, oh, a little intimidating, but it's good to have somebody like that. And like, even with Late in the Lake, it was based off a book. My character went in the book. She created my character. You know, I ain't had no job. She created a job, and then I was a a Zigger producer on it.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:12

You better never leave her, boy.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:14

So, like you said, having no script, like it's a lot of stress coming with that when you're doing a TV show, because they need a new script every week. Right. You know what I mean? Right. Uh, and back to you saying with learning, learning lines, sometimes the best time I learn lines always show up. And I learn a scene and have all my notes, then I show up and then they change it. Yeah. And then I'm stuck doing this thing I done rehearsed for so long, versus coming up sometimes like a little loose. That way, when they when the scene changes, that you gonna you just go, you easy for you to go with the change.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:52

We see that what but remember uh when we were talking outside, uh the the thing that I was talking about with Denzel, a lot of people forget this. Um to be a big movie star, th things have changed, but originally to be a big movie star, you had to learn things on the small screen. So you had uh Robin Williams, you had um Denzel Washington, all these guys. Yes, they they worked for five seasons on a 22-episode television show. This is one of the reasons why I wanted a TV show for the money. As well as money is good, as money good. But also to be under that pressure that you're talking about, to be under that pressure to have to learn these things, follow this major arc over the course of seasons, and be able to change and and and and learn it so well that you would change and alter it. You could do a play. Even people with bad memory go up and do plays because when you have to learn those lines and you drill them over and over, because you have the time, you you know them. So if you do a uh a show where you're doing 22 episodes, your memory will get real good. You will learn your lines, or you stand up and won't be in the show. You get what I'm saying? So it's either you want to get you wanna eat or or you wanna you know not remember.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:57

So you'll you if you're gonna start if I was starting as an actor. To anybody inspired at it. Me personally, if I was just starting as a straight up actor, I would just do plays. Oh, that's a good thing. Cause I came up in the in the in bars doing comedy. Night after night, like you said, it's such a raw thing. Like you get everything that right in front of you. You get the response. You know whether it's working or not, because it's right there. And um it's a discipline comes with that, having to get three minutes of material material and stuff like that. How do you how do you I did it once?

SPEAKER_03 1:06:34

Write, right how you where does your humor come from? Because you have a uh you're hilarious, and you have a off rhythm or off the norm, very organic, original style, uh, especially within your subject matter. How how do you what is your writing process like?

SPEAKER_05 1:06:53

Man, it's bad now. I have an idea and I take it on stage, but it comes from like a real place that I might not want to, you know, you shouldn't you shouldn't say this. You know, it comes from one of those places backwards. Yeah, it's like, oh man, I and I gotta confess. My girl would say if I want to hear what, if she wanna hear what I'm thinking, she go to a show. You know? Yeah. Um and uh and then you just you just find the beats in it. But it comes from a real place. You know, I'm a I'm a my dad was a schizophrenic, so it's a lot of improv. You know? It's a lot of yes and. You know, if he says some shit went down, then it went it went down, and you learn like these worlds exist. This whatever he's saying is real, whether we believe it or not. And I think that helps my my acting. You know what I mean? Because you've been in, you've been somewhere with somebody having a conversation, and you like, man, I wish somebody could hear this thing going. You know? So I think it's those real life situations. Growing up small dude in the city with bullies, you fit you fit in your environment. Cause I wasn't nerd enough to stay in the house. I still went out, I still went outside, you know. And I was thrown, I was kicked out of my black schools, and then I was thrown in a, I took a test and I was thrown in these upper middle class white schools, and like having to do all these adjustments and stuff helped shape. You know, it's the same thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:22

I know it because I went to live in both worlds. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:24

Same thing. It's the same as being thrown on the set with a uh, you know, with an award-winning actress, and they like keep up. That's the same way they did it in school, you know. So it's just pulling from those life experiences and then like trying not to like freak out, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:43

Is there anything specific that you learned from F. Gary Gray or you from Lena specifically? Uh in terms of like just your process and working with them. Was there anything that you took away that you use still uh to this day or like it it was a lot.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:02

He specificity. I mean, I always knew about specificity, but it's funny because he would get on stuff about uh being very specific, right? So if you were a um if you were a radio uh you're playing a D a DJ, he says, don't just come in here and just press buttons. Know what buttons you're pressing, why you're pressing that way. You know what I'm saying? I played it, I I was a DJ, worked on the ones and twos. See, don't just be up there cutting, why are you cutting it that way? Is it gonna bleed into this? Is it gonna bleed into that? Why are you moving that? Why are you using the Sorata? What are you using? Like be very specific about what you're doing and intentional. And then he cast himself in the movie, played the disc jockey, and he didn't know what he was pressing. That's what I was like, ah and we were messing with him the whole time. But uh, but no, he just being specific. Like, being specific, because uh if you come into a scene, you came from somewhere and you're going somewhere afterwards. You didn't just come in just to talk. Or did you, right? Like, do you want to go to the bathroom after this? Do you need to pee? Do you need to pee?

SPEAKER_06 1:10:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:02

Because if a person needs to pee, they needed to pee before they came in the room. Right. And they still need to pee. And as they sit there and talk to this person, the need to pee is growing. You get what I'm saying? Yeah, all of that plays into your body. And that plays into your body and what you're doing. Especially, and if your preoccupation is like, I want to hurt and get this conversation over with because I gotta pee, you're gonna play it completely different than if you want to go in and uh and do your art and be awesome in front of the camera. Cats who come on set, particularly on guest stars, who do that and they want it to be their moment, they always kill themselves. And I said, because they what ends up happening is their coverage is gonna turn into my coverage. Because it's my story. I work to get here. You are working to get here. So this isn't about you. You're a conduit, you're you're playing nowhere you fit in, you know what I'm saying? Play your position.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:51

If people do that, wow, you get to play more and you get to work lesser.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:57

Which is what um what I've fortunately I've been blessed to do, but I ain't got no choice. I gotta work because I support I support everybody. Um, but yeah, uh uh specificity, being very specific and intentional and that stuff.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:10

Anything with uh Lena? Um I think I'm learning Lena Wade.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:14

Yeah, I was like, Lena Wade, what did you say before?

SPEAKER_05 1:11:19

I think just from observation, um because I don't fully know my situation, how I ended up on the show, and I don't know if it was network or her, but the stuff she was fighting for, like I knew it was something going on, and her professionalism, which is something I don't have impatience to work probably with these certain type of people, you know what I mean? Um, that was the first thing I've been on with a director would change. Like I had to reshoot, like I shot everything, which is crazy. I shot everything as myself, and then they was like, you gotta start an S Corp. And then I re-shot everything under a tax different tax entity, and I was like, oh, you know, this is different. So this is that was my beg beginning into like a fox.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:13

We did the same, all the same shit.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:15

Yeah, so and nobody tells you these things, but then like the ad to it, my my my girl Alma Horrell, women in this game, you know, that that's that's my girl, that's my girlfriend. And we would be on set, and I'd be like, man, whatever. And then learning, like, no, you don't talk on set, that's the boss. You the nigga had holding the purse and then learning how to how to respect that because if I do something to her, and I had to learn that with my daughter, if I talk to her a certain way, the other these 300 other dudes gonna think they could they could do do that to her. And learning the the with both of them, the like you said, your role, your overall role in this, in this thing. Yeah. Cause it's bigger. At this, they're there, we we're acting, they're they're producing, creating, you know, this that's real show business. You know what I mean? And learning how to you gotta carry yourself a totally different way. They they fight totally different for certain things, you know what I mean? And and you know, they got a level of professionalism. So it's that. Like they the they're the big dogs. They're they're big dogs here with the bigger dogs, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_04 1:13:41

Y'all both have been on a bunch of TV shows and and film sets. I know, espe I'm not gonna say the type of show. I know there are times when you have a uh every okay. Every show has a difficult actor.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:01

I don't know what you're talking about. All my actors have been fantastic and wonderful, and everyone I've ever worked with has been terribly kind and efficient. And they've all known their lines.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:09

Every show, if you've worked on a show, there is always one difficult. How do you deal with a difficult actor? I'm that difficult actor. No, you're not. No, you're not. You can't be. How do you deal with the difficult actor? Or if you don't want to say that, what's even more exciting of a question is do you have any difficult actor stories that you've experienced and had to be?

SPEAKER_02 1:14:38

Oh, you worked on MacGyver too. That's crazy. Um I did work on MacGyver.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:41

So we had one. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:44

They got him off the show. They sure did. Bless his heart. I used to see him working out all the time, and he was like, hey man. And he was like, I was like, man, turn your neck. Hey, so I know about it. Yeah, I know you know about it.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:56

Uh I was I had it on MacGyver in rush hour.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Bless your heart. Um, first of all, I just wanted to say, uh, you know, in answer to your question earlier, when you're talking about something that your wife does that gives you the space and breath and ability to do what you do. Um my wife uh she reads lines with me. She's the only person I really trust. She's the only person that does my auditions. Um she doesn't think she's great at it, but she's amazing at it. And I see I just I just, you know, I just keep working stuff off of her. You know, and but but they be going back and forth, isn't it?

SPEAKER_05 1:15:28

You should say it like this. Listen, look, look.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:31

Listen. Okay. But um uh what is great about what about difficult actors? What is what's specifically?

SPEAKER_04 1:15:39

Well, how do you what do you have any difficult on set stories? How about that? I don't know if I have. I I've had HR deal with deal with me before. Deal with you? Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:49

Yeah. About everybody. I didn't I didn't know. I was pulling up on set. I was leaving a comedy club in Baltimore, and I was pulling up on set like at 2 o'clock in the morning, and I'm in this, I'm in this car, and you know, I'm I move, I move swift. And you know, they got the cones on set, and I'm just I just pulled through the thing. Boom, and this guy comes with a cone. He's like, you can't park here. And I was like, what? I was like, I'll park in the way I want to. And I put I just went around him and threw the car on the sidewalk.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:17

What number were you on the on the call sheet? Call sheet is the is a is a list of priority.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:26

Here's the thing, you know what I mean? I'm with the Lord, because I'm number one. You know what I mean? That call sheet is a man-made thing, okay? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_04 1:16:38

With a difficult actor.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:42

You gotta stand in the trailer. This man, this is a prison sale. I'm gonna walk around. You know? Right. I don't like that shit either, but I'm listening. So I put the car on the sidewalk, and then security come up, like, yo man, what's up? And I was like, what's up? I was like, I'm on, I'm on the show. Man, I'm a um, I'm a consultant producer on the show. And he was like, he was like, Where your badge at? I was like, oh man. He was like, nigga, move this car on the sidewalk. I was like, you right. And I just didn't. And then it turned into this, this guy tried to run me over on the thing. Wow, wow. And then it was like, man, I don't even, I have my badge at, you know? And then they got me a they got me a badge. But it's always, yeah, it's like these little societal rules that I really don't deal with. I'm like that too. Which is probably like, and then with comedy, here's the thing, as a comedian, you're in the shower, you already, you already own. By the time it depends on your process. So by the time I get out of the shower, I'm ready to go it's go time. Right. And then you get to the set and they like, we need an hour. And it's like, nah, it's it's go time. It's the hurry up and wait thing. Yeah, so but as far as like, anybody that people might have said was a had an issue was always like one or two on the call sheet. So I'm like, if they if they one or two on the call sheet, they gotta be doing something right. You know what I mean? Well, I mean, go for it.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:07

Me, come on, go for it, nigga. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:09

But you like I did movies with Shire. We reward bad behavior all the time in this business. Was he a good was he doing what he was doing?

SPEAKER_05 1:18:19

I think I think so. I me personally, with the type of being the type of person he is, I think he held his own. And these are the thing, you putting certain type of people in the environments too, you know? And I'm like, oh, they pretty much held held their own. To me, to me, the best sets starts with hair and makeup. That's how I know. Like, if you in a good, if you're in a good set. Oh set. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. If you heard that too, I was like, my joy came out just because I don't know what said. My bad. If your set is pretty, is your if your set, I did the, I worked with the Atlanta people from the that did the when I did Swarm, there was a lot of people that did the show Atlanta. I mean, from the from the hair and makeup to the food, we had a bar. I had an issue with that on Zed set too.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:01

What tell us about that?

SPEAKER_05 1:19:02

Oh, they wanted me to wear a mask. They wanted me to wear a mask. Was it during COVID? I don't know when it was, but that was the protocol. That was the COVID. So we had the actors. There was a certain protocol. And then the lady, then I was like, I don't wear these type of masks. And then the lady came and she brought somebody from that. I was like, call your manager. And I was fucking with him on the phone. Oh, yeah. And then somebody in management came and gave me a personalized mask. But I remember being with Harry Makeup, getting a call from management on the mask thing, and I was like, watch this. And then the lady called, and I was just like, having fun, you know what I mean? And uh, because I'll be doing this for fun sometimes. Oh yeah, Bob. Yeah, he's the guy. Yeah, yeah. And I don't like you the guy. I'm like, let's see how far up this goes, you know what I mean? Yeah. And then the lady, they the management, head mask management came with a mask with my name written on it, you know what I mean? And I was like, bruh, this more like it. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 1:20:05

This is why you think they okay, because this you are the dude. I love it.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:09

I love it for you, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:10

But black people, we don't really get to do stuff, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_05 1:20:13

But but here's the thing that's that is that man difficult? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:20

But come for it. But in the most beautiful way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:26

It's just your naivete of just moving like I'm gonna be Byron. I'm gonna be me.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:33

This is what makes you a brilliant comedian. Exactly. I do want to say that, but go on.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:36

This is what but these are the things, like, you know, I I I come from a school, greater men and women than you or I have had to deal with so much more for so much less. So I don't I often know that even what I'm doing right now is a setup for the next person that looks like me to come behind me and do that thing. Uh one of the big things that, you know, we've been involved with and and and I had to deal with it personally. I had to talk with the powers that be. I got the HR complaints and all that. We know about this black hair, not having people to do our hair. So listen, listen. The reason why we have that now in our contracts, the reason why SAG passed that with that with that uh provision from the last um negotiation is because of cats like you and I and all that playing ball, but making just enough noise to finally get it happen. Because people don't realize up until last year it was not a requirement that they had people on set to do black people's hair properly. Or makeup. So oftentimes it was like they'll I used to get on set and they'll be like, oh my god, you got such great skin. I was like, yes, because I know you don't know what you're doing, and I don't want makeup on me, because I don't wear makeup in my shows. Um and and I had I come with my hair cut, you know. I know actors at the top of the topic. I'm I'm number two on my show, and not for lack of trying, they tried our our showrunner, uh Spencer Hutton was great. He ended up, you know, getting you know the great people in there. But for years I had dealt with the fact that you come there, you can be number two on the show, number one on the show, and number two on the show.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:12

No, nigga, Russia or number one, and I still had to have somebody cut off.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:16

Have somebody else come cut your hair. And it and it and and then you become like almost a problem. It's like, oh, he needs someone special. No, I need someone, period. And so I had to fight those fights, but I had to do it in a measured way that wouldn't turn me into a the uh the problem on sex. You get what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_04 1:22:36

Yeah, I'm gonna skip kill it so we could do your thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:39

All right.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:40

Uh okay, so I got um we got a game on this show. Oh, you got a game on this show? You should do a little kill it.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:48

A little kill it. By the way, difficult people. Yeah, they just kids, man. They just kids. We all kids. You just just let them give them give them a snack. They need a nap. Most of the time they need a snack or a nap. Or they need to sleep one off. You dig what I'm saying? Right. That's it. You know what I'm saying? I'm gonna do it by two. Lucas Till said, what up though?

SPEAKER_04 1:23:09

No, ah, no, no, good, kill it off. Two, three. Kill it or let live. All right, I'm gonna throw out a topic. You're gonna say, if you don't like it, kill it. If you mess with it, let it live. It's all good. Kill it or let live. Um, okay. Oh, no, you know what I had a don't got it. Kill it or let live. You get to be the most successful actor in the world. Okay? Most successful actor in the world, the most followers on social media ever. But you have to go back in time and be a slave for three days.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:44

Wait, when when when what time am I acting? Like, am I uh uh yeah, what am I number one in in today's time? Slave time or today time? Like Google movie for this. Like Cool the Kid was the biggest. I don't want to be the biggest thing to Mr. Foot. You know what I mean? The biggest actor today.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:08

You the biggest, biggest slave of all time. You the biggest actor in the world today, right? Step a finger like Thanos. You the biggest actor in the world today. Most social media followers, you get the green light in the movie, you get it get made. But you have to go back in time and be a slave for three days in order to accommodate.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:30

You can do that. You know, you know, you know how light. You know how light. I'm gonna catch the hell from this one. This one, I'm gonna I'm gonna burn. Um I think you might be okay. You get to be the house. Nah, I'll be nah. I'll be okay. Look at my friend. Look at my friend.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:45

I'll be a slave idea for three days.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:50

Find out how I fight back. Um I'll be cooking for three days and be out. You know what? I've never I never want it to be. It's so funny she said, well, for the success, if that success led to me being able to help the people that I care about, absolutely. I do it for 10 days, 100 days. Because what I would get to do from that, you know, everybody, you have to be able to do the stuff that you don't want to do so you can do things you want to do. Right? Everybody wants their bills paid, but don't nobody feel like paying bills. You can't have one without the other. So, but I've never wanted to be so big because I like my privacy. I don't like people in my business. I never wanted to be a famous like actor. Yeah. I wanted the role to be like beloved and stuff like that, and people to be affected. But I want you in my business because it's mine. You know, that's my personal, like even my gaming and stuff. Don't nobody even hardly know they know now. Uh but don't nobody know my game and stuff like that. They don't know my my my script, my name. Why somebody be like, it's this. That's this.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:44

I'm like you. I like to go to I'd like to go to Walmart and stuff like that and just kick it and fuck with people. So I can't do that as a famous person, but I do the slave thing just for the story. Oh, the comedy would be man, that'll be crazy.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:59

And they ain't never seen a brother like me. I was a slave for three days. I'll be that rapping.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:05

I'll be like, yeah. I'll be doing other I'll be doing other people's raps. They don't even know.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:11

Go ahead, go ahead. All right, so uh, so I'm gonna do we doing, I'm gonna do keep four cut six. Keep four cut six. Keep four cut six one hour drama shows. I'm gonna name the shows blindly. Y'all both get two.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:27

Okay, so two, so we each get to keep so two. You keep you two.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:31

I keep two, you keep two. But but you but the other ones you cutting, they gone. They just gone. Forever. They gone forever. Oh. All right.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:39

I want T Vot?

SPEAKER_03 1:26:41

Not even old T-Vot.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:43

Break it Bad. Oh man. Hold on. You hold on. You gonna name, you ain't gonna name them all? Wow. You're gonna open up with Break It Bad.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:54

Isenberg. Okay, so I got the T-Big. Oh, he keep he keep it. So it's on the list. Only one need to keep it. He keeps it on the list. Only one need to keep it. Oh, okay. That's good. Homeland. All right. We got the homeland? All right. Homeland's gone. Power.

SPEAKER_06 1:27:13

I know.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:16

Shout out to Amari, another A town. Shout out to Amari, yeah. Shout out to them, Georgia boy. Man, I don't. Oh man. Wow. Because I don't know where you're going to post.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:28

Damn.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:29

London. You like keep it shit.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:32

I'm like, uh make me proud. I got nothing. Uh I got one left. You already I got two left?

SPEAKER_02 1:27:42

I got two. I got two left. All right. Keep it. Okay. Okay. Okay. So there's one and one. Game of Thrones. Kill it. Oh man, I love me some Game of Thrones. But you know what? Save us, Khaleesi. That's a nerve actually. Like, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:56

You cut and gave it throne? Uh yeah, cut it, kill it. All right. Kill it, give it thrones. Uh The wire. Oh. I got I didn't see the wire.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:07

Oh.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:08

I'm gonna give power and the wire.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:10

Hey, man. I know it was instrumental, but I was dealing with the wheel. You don't know what's coming next. It might be better worse.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:16

I was just trying to get the detailed.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:17

It may be better, it may be worse.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:19

Man. Um wow. Man, the wire was my man. It's a classic. I mean, this is early. All right. You know what? You made me keep power. Hold up. We kept power. And then now you because wire is the big power.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:36

Oh, gee. I know.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:37

All right, I'm done. I keep wire.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:39

All right, you're Sons of Anarchy. Cut it. Alright, cut it, cut it. Alright, uh, Stranger Things. I I love Stranger Things. Even his wife, his wife's wife.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:52

I'll be honest. I think they landed it. I think they landed it. It was a hard show to land. But I'm an 80s kid and it was such nostalgia in there, man.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:02

You got two more left. I don't know what these last two is. You got two more left or one more left?

SPEAKER_02 1:29:06

It's two more.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:07

Oh, you mean options?

SPEAKER_02 1:29:08

Yeah, it's two more options left. Oh, it's two more options left.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:11

Yeah. Hold on. How many you got? He got one choice left.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:14

Couldn't. All right, there it is. Ozark. Psh, nigga, you should. Oh, my bad. You know damn well you should have you should have gone ahead and grabbed Stranger Things. He's gonna cover with some bullshit on his laptop. It's gonna be some shit you ain't gonna wanna watch at all. But then I got one for next time.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:35

I love Ozark. Cut it. Cut it. Walking dead. Got him. Got him. Get over the get over the gotta go. You gotta sometimes you gotta go with the spirit. You know this is the one.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:50

I gotta give you a. That's the last one. That's deep.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:53

That's a long, deep, great. That's it. I still get residual. Penny here, penny there. Man, I got man, I got a 14 cent residual. They took 10 cents out of that.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:04

Four cents, Negro.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:06

But yeah, I'm keeping that.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:08

Hey man. Let people know where they can find y'all on, what you got coming up, any upcoming projects, social media.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:16

Social media is at Byron Bowers. I'm on there uh once a month. Um, but I'm um I'm on there. And uh well you can find me on there, and then um I got a book that I'm putting the finishing touches on called The Hardest Part About Schizophrenia is spelling schizophrenia. Uh oh, I got a I got a uh uh co co-writer to you know I mean uh so any big words in there, they wrote that part. So yeah, I mean that's that should be out towards the end of the yeah, and watch my special spiritual inward, if you don't want to say nigga, just think of going inward spiritually. Uh and and everything that we've both done on Hulu, which is Disney now, you know, or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:01

Yeah. Um you can uh uh get you know my Instagram at uh CP the comedian.

SPEAKER_06 1:31:07

Um random CP shout out You're gonna be like, eh that boy good.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:14

I thought I told you I like him. Um uh uh uh Neil Brown Jr. Um on Instagram and and stuff like that and my website. Um and uh the the new show on BET plus the uh the Varnell Hill show. That's the more spin off.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:31

That's gonna be fire.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:32

Yeah, it's gonna be fire. It is it's really funny.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:35

Oh, I already know. That's it's it's rare that I'm actually like want to be on the show. And when I saw that, I was like, I know that's gonna be fire.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:42

It's super funny. And I and I'm so I play the whitest black guy ever met. Oh dear God, I don't even know what's happening right now. That's why you bugged me. I mean, you know what I'm saying? It is you know, because people on that show didn't even realize it was me. People who had worked on SEALTING were working in the crew and didn't know it was me until the last few episodes, a couple episodes. That was good. Straight up good.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:05

I hope that show deserved it, earned it and deserved it. Um, yo, man, uh make sure y'all like, comment, subscribe to the uh to the podcast. Yo, shout out to everybody that's been watching, man. We we we're starting to build a community and we see it in the comment section. We appreciate y'all sharing the clips and just watching us. And uh, yeah, man, more to come. You know what I'm saying? We've been your host, Justin Hyatt. London Brown, BT Kingsley. And this has been Byron Bowers and Neil Brown Jr. Somebody nailed that!