Christianity isn't a religion..its a LIFESTYLE | Darren Fleet

Today I sit down with my friend, the funniest comedian out, Darren Fleet and we talk all things religion, having to 'fake' it till you make it in this industry, and how NOT to play with God. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hello and thank you for watching and listening to another episode of Audacity with K Rose. Here we dare to use our voices, have the audacity to own who we are, and vow raise up your roses. We vow to never stop, never shrink, and most importantly, never shut up. That's just not gonna happen. Like, share, subscribe, talk, share in my comments, you know. Tell me how you really feel. Hit that bell notification so I can pop up on your timeline. Why wouldn't you want to see me? And hype this video up is you. Y'all, y'all. I already told you that I was gonna do another segment, right? Called The Breakup Didn't Break Me, and this is exactly what it is. I wanted to talk to real, authentic people, people that aren't afraid to be themselves, people that have the audacity about some real shit. And that's exactly what I intend to do here today. My guest is somebody that I have admired for a long time. I've been following him forever. First of all, let me just brag on him real quick. He sells out rooms, he's done amazing productions with some of the most hateless celebrities. But don't make no mistake, it would behoove you to know that he's the funniest. This is the comedian, the the great Darren Fleet. Darren Fleet, thank you so much for coming.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

I had to look and see who she was talking to. Is that me?

SPEAKER_02 1:19

No, it would be who you to know who the fuck Darren is. Darren, I I love you. I love you back. I love you.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

I know that. Like, I'm always in your notifications. I know you see me.

SPEAKER_02 1:29

I see you. And I hope and I hope you see me. I did. I like you're just so real and you're just so authentic. And I, you know, you know that in this industry, right? Fake the way to go. You gotta fake it till you make it, right? Don't you feel like that? And it's like, first, when I first started, like doing my internet videos and getting online, I felt like I felt like I had to when I saw everybody grow and and and amass all this, like this following and everything. I'm like, damn, they because they were some fake ass motherfuckers when I met them. And I was like, I wondered if I could ever make it by being just me, like just by being authentic.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Honestly, that's the only way you're gonna make it.

SPEAKER_02 2:06

Okay, so do you did you ever feel like you had to be fake in the beginning?

SPEAKER_00 2:10

Yeah, because see, I started off as a stand-up comic before I started doing internet comedy. Okay. So I was watching how everybody else do it. You have to stop and pause, you gotta make sure you're looking a certain way, you gotta do this, do that. So I'm thinking I gotta do what everybody else do, but the whole time I'm like, nah, I'm gonna do darn. I gotta be mean. Same shit that people already love you for, they love you even more once they get to know that this is really how you think, this is who you are.

SPEAKER_02 2:32

Man, do you ever get like, so when I'm out and I finally, you know, I meet people that have been following me, they go, oh my god, you really act like that. Did do people tell you that? All the time. Like, oh shit, you really who you are.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

All the time.

SPEAKER_02 2:43

Like, who else am I supposed to be?

SPEAKER_00 2:44

My favorite one is, oh my god, you really talk like that. That's your voice, like, yeah. Yeah. I don't have a I don't have an Instagram voice.

SPEAKER_02 2:51

I don't have an Instagram voice. I don't have an Instagram uh personality. That that'd be your phase.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

That'd be your phase. No, that's T.

SPEAKER_02 2:58

Clock it. Yeah, that's not us. But that's why I was like, you know, everybody knows what I've been through. I wanted to end podcasting. I just wanted to stop. Like I was like, I'm done.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

Why are you so good at it? Like you are podcasts.

SPEAKER_02 3:11

You ever been through something that really like almost took you out, like mentally, emotionally, like almost had you just gone, you just I just fell out of love with it. Especially when I met the people who made it, met the people I look up to. You know, they say you're not supposed to um meet your idol.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

Correct.

SPEAKER_02 3:31

And I'm looking like nobody's real, and I don't think I'm gonna make it. I don't, I I gotta be myself, I gotta be authentic. I I don't I can't put on this facade. Correct. I can't do it, so maybe this isn't for me. Correct. So I wanted to stop, but then I was like, no, no, no, bitch. You you you that bitch. You really need to keep on going.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

If it kept you up at night or if you kept on second guessing, like I'm one of them people, like I've quit comedy so many times.

SPEAKER_02 3:54

Really?

SPEAKER_00 3:54

Girl, I've quit comedy the same day I was supposed to go on stage and still went out there and go.

SPEAKER_02 3:58

Can we talk about it?

SPEAKER_00 4:00

I do. Shit, I I quit comedy today. We got here in Dallas. Dallas, I love y'all down, but Dallas is gonna take your money first. I'm gonna tell you, like, so I got to my hotel, they was taking our money, but they were already booked up, but they had already took my money just to tell me they were booked up. So they made me go through the process of you know how you gotta go through a process just to get your money back. Right. So we went to two different hotels before we got to the final one.

SPEAKER_03 4:24

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 4:25

So I was tired. We've been up since three o'clock this morning. Yeah. I caught a flight here. Thank God it was just a one-way flight. I don't like a layover. Um at all. Girl, no, especially not just coming from Baltimore to that's crazy. Right. So we get here, now it's what, about eight o'clock y'all time, which is nine nine hour time. I'm exhausted. I want to take a shower. That's the first thing I want to do when I get off a plane. I'm like, I gotta get that shit off me. Right. I get to the hotel, can't check in the first one. You get to the second one, can't check. So remind me of like Goldilocks and the three bears. This bowl is too hot, this bowl is too cold. When am I gonna find the perfect?

SPEAKER_02 4:59

When am I gonna find a just right situation?

SPEAKER_00 5:01

So I quit comedy. Yeah. Yeah, and then I was I was like, nah, I know I supposed to come and do the podcast. Woo woo up there. She always my coach. She like, no darn, you did not, you we not quitting. We came too far to quit.

SPEAKER_02 5:12

Is woo your emotional support? Is she? I need emotional support. Is she?

SPEAKER_00 5:17

I love that. If it was not for her, I swear to God, like, I would be in prison, jail, or hell. I swear to God, like one of the shit, like somewhere, because woo be reeling me off the the deep end. I'm like, bitch, I'm just about to get up and knock the shit out of this dude.

SPEAKER_02 5:33

You need somebody to ground you. Like, it's so funny that you say that, like, I almost quit, I almost quit, because that's what it is. Sometimes everybody knows I'm bipolar, right? I I've been diagnosed a little bit, for real. But I've been actually diagnosed with bipolar since I was 14 years old. So I've always felt intensely. I feel everything. A lot of people think bipolar is just you freak out. No, I feel everything. And there is no black, like there is no gray. It's like if I'm sad, hot or cold. If I'm sad, I'm depressed. If I'm happy, I'm elated. If I'm mad, I'm enraged, right? Like that's just what it is. And so when I feel all these emotions, one thing is I like feeling all these emotions because it makes me human. I feel like I don't ever want to be numb. Like I want to feel shit. I feel like it makes me human. But when you feel all these emotions and you're going through it, like the frustrations that you went through with the hotel, I'd be like, fuck all this shit. What am I doing?

SPEAKER_00 6:23

That's the first thing I did. I'd have called my agent. I'm like, girl, look, from now on, when they book tell all the clubs to get because a lot of the times the club get my hotel. Yeah. But certain, certain times it's called a buyout. So that's where they will give you like a certain percentage outside of your ticket sales and everything. But this is just for you, for your flight, your hotel. A lot of times it'd be way more than what the hotel or flight is gonna be. Yeah. But they give you a little buyout. I done told my agent today, I don't want no more buyouts, no more tryouts, buyouts. I want it already there when I get there. Because I was so annoyed. Because this has happened to me twice, and both times were in Texas. I love, no, but it wasn't the first time was in Houston. Okay. But I get I give Houston the benefit of the doubt. I love Houston too. But Houston, this was because Beyonce was in town. I was Beyonce. Oh, hell yeah. They was like, oh bitch, we don't care. You're not important. Beyonce is in town. So it was people sleeping all in the lobby. Oh my gosh, are you serious? There were people making palettes in the lobby. I don't know. Beyonce. Not to say that's her hometown. Okay, and we love Beyonce. But I love I love my bags. I love my bag. I'm not sleeping on the Florida lobby. No. What's out of in the machine? Uh-uh.

SPEAKER_02 7:32

But I'm really glad that you said that because it just shows you that this shit is not all glitz and glam. Like when you see somebody on stage, you believe, like, oh, they got it all together. You always look good, you smell good, the nail, you know, manicure, pedicure, cool. But you know what I'm saying? You know, we try. But I be wanting to show people more of the struggles behind the scenes.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

Correct. How hard it is when the the Uber driver not knowing where you're at, you don't even know where you at, so you can't even explain to them where you at. Right. Or the flight being delayed, but you gotta be on stage by seven. It has been times where we just get to the city and have to leave straight from the airport and get dressed in the dressing.

SPEAKER_02 8:10

And make sure everything's okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

I'm in there, I'm moving the hair out my homegirl lace. She's tightening my belt. Like, it's crazy. It's a disaster. It's like the storm before the calm. Yeah. But it also makes, like you said, make you human. It's like, you know what? I ain't the only person who went through this because the people who were entertaining before us, they had to go through a back room just to, you know, entertain for a room full of white people just to make so if they can go through that, sure, I can go through two, three hotel.

SPEAKER_02 8:38

I'm glad you said that. It's true. Especially in Black History Month. Come on. Yeah, Black History Month, let's go. A shout out to all my uh people out there. Yeah. All the non-blacks to the to the bag.

unknown 8:49

Good.

SPEAKER_02 8:51

Um, does it annoy you that people, some people assume that you're just an internet personality, or you know, you you just use skits and they don't maybe know that you are actually a stand-up comedian because internet stand-up, like internet comedy and stand-up are two different things. They're not the same at all. I remember being like, and this is somebody clapped me, but I like being corrected because you know, let me know. Like, you know, correct me if I'm wrong. So one day I had met this comedian. Actually, his name is Richie Fontaine. He's a comedian, stand-up comedian.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

Nice.

SPEAKER_02 9:22

And he was like, So, you know, what you do, da-da-da. And I was like, Oh, I'm a comedian. And he was like, Oh, so you you do stand up, da-da-da. And I was like, Oh, I'll do stand up, but you know, I do my skits. And I love sketch comedy, that's my thing. I love sketch comedy. I grew up living in living color, like I love sketch comedy.

SPEAKER_00 9:35

Oh, I'll take you back, girl.

SPEAKER_02 9:36

Mad TV.

SPEAKER_00 9:37

I'm a Philip Wilson. Yeah, terrible net. That's my type.

SPEAKER_02 9:40

So when I I do my skits, like I put on my little beard and my skits.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

And he told you, no, you wasn't a comic if you ain't had the mic in your hand.

SPEAKER_02 9:47

To my face. And it hurt. And I was like, Well, what do you mean? I'm like, oh, like, what's going on? But then I tried to write some jokes and go to an open mic, and they called up my name, and I did not get on stage.

SPEAKER_04 10:00

What?

SPEAKER_02 10:00

Because I was afraid to bomb. Because I was afraid, I don't know, I was afraid to bomb, and then that's when I realized, oh shit.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

The best of the best bomb.

SPEAKER_04 10:08

I know.

SPEAKER_00 10:08

And even once how do you deal with it? You go home the same way you did when you just said, you know what, I'm a quit podcaster. It's been times like we would be at open mics competing. Yeah. Baltimore is a hard city to do open mics because people don't care who you think you are, none of that. And I'm like, girl, shut the fuck up. You ain't funny.

SPEAKER_02 10:25

Yeah. Can I say that? Yeah, you can't say it's a good thing. Okay, okay, my baby. Yeah, this is a puddacity. Oh, yeah, the paudacity is the ass cannot cast.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

Yeah, but you would go home and you would cry about it. Cause like when you write a set, I put my all into it. So I'm like, this is my baby. This joke works, and like, and it didn't work. And then it didn't work. And it would make you want to quit. Like, I'm quitting, and I could just go back out, you know, I got a degree. And the whole time, it's like, but none of that, you know, fills my jet. I gotta do something to make me feel alive. That's why I'm harmony, make me feel alive. Like podcasting for you. Yeah. Interviewing people, you know, speaking your truths, being vulnerable and make you feel alive. You go home at night, like, damn, I'm helping somebody as much as I'm helping myself. Facts. So, yeah, my therapy, I mean, your therapy, my truths.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

My therapy is.

SPEAKER_02 11:12

And that's it. Like, I wanna be me. And I also want to show people that are gonna come after us that you don't got, first of all, you ain't gotta do nothing strange for a little piece of change.

SPEAKER_00 11:22

At all. At all.

SPEAKER_02 11:22

In order to make it now, will it take you longer because you're not scamming, selling it, finessing, manipulating, stealing, whatever? It's gonna take you longer. And when you look at people that are, you're gonna feel like, damn, like, am I ever gonna make it? Am I ever gonna be there? But you're gonna be that. It's just gonna take you a little longer. But you know what? You said something in an interview that I watched. You said the faster people go up, the quicker they come down. The quicker they come down, and that's some real shit.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

I'm saying guards this time with me because once I get there, I'm gonna stay.

SPEAKER_02 11:51

It's longevity that you want. That's true. Right. Right. So I saw that you used to work at Forever 21, but then when you went viral, you quit your job. Would you tell people nowadays, like in this economy, in this situation, you know, everybody wants to be a content creator, influencer, whatever. Would you tell them, like, to do that after going viral? Or when when should you quit your job after going viral? How many times should you go viral?

SPEAKER_00 12:18

I don't feel like it's after you go viral, because viral can be anything. You know what I mean? Like today, anyone could go viral. TikTok has so many people with 20,000, 30,000 followers, and no offense, I'm not saying it's offensively, right? Who think that they are now internet personalities because you got two viral videos. And I look at it like this if you cannot sell something outside of your internet personality, you probably shouldn't quit your job. Damn. Because you can get hacked.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

Um, you're a social, you can get censored, they will demonetize you. I don't know if that's a word, but we're gonna use it to they would demonetize you. And what you gonna do? You gotta have something else you can sell outside of that. And so if you are a chef and you do internet cooking, you need to at least have a dish that you can package and sell, a cookbook. A cookbook. Something like that. If you're a comic, like that's why I think he, you know, corrected you, even though I feel like comics are whoever can make someone laugh. Yeah. But I do know in order to call ourselves a stand-up comic, you have to do stand-up comics. Yeah, you have to do stand-up. But just to go back on what you're saying, as a comic, I know that I just couldn't just do internet.

SPEAKER_04 13:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:26

So I had to sell it, you know. And that's why I started. I'm not gonna say the internet wasn't popping. This was like divine days, but I never saw myself as an internet personality.

SPEAKER_03 13:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

It took someone to actually record what I was doing on stage. And then I would see other people. I had started working with people um from the Carolinas. I really, really enjoyed um like uh Trapon and a few of the brothers. Some names I'm not gonna name, and you know why, because I don't fuck with you. And we don't like to fake it over here. I don't fake nothing. They know I don't fuck with them. But I would sit back and I would write, you know, whatever. And a lot, some of them are even popular now. And it's just so good to see brothers who were writing from that ass for uh and some of them had already started like the internet. So I would be lying if I said when I watched them get over to the internet and see, then I was like, okay, cool, darn. I should start, you know, just ranting about my humdrum day or something. But I was super authentic. Right. It wasn't like, oh, just tell a joke. It was like, nah, this happened to me in Walmart. Right, right. So I made my life kind of like that. So now more people know me as an internet personality and stand up. And you had asked me something earlier, you was like, does that bother me? Yeah. No, because it's better to be known at all than not to be known, especially for something that you do.

SPEAKER_02 14:42

I like that.

SPEAKER_00 14:43

At least I'm known for something that I love to do. I love them both.

SPEAKER_02 14:46

I like that. I like that so much. So I know one of my biggest like hangups was feeling like I don't have a team. Like when I so that's what I was gonna ask you next. Like, do you think it's necessary for you to have a team? Or if you don't have a team, would you just do shit solo dolo?

SPEAKER_00 15:00

You know how many teams I'd have been through.

SPEAKER_02 15:02

How many teams?

SPEAKER_00 15:03

Shit. I'd have been on 18. Who was dying over there? Basketball things. Stop it. No, real shit. I I had a torn partner for like three years. Okay. Um, something went wrong. Um, so we could talk about it. We here. One of his friends tried to rob me.

SPEAKER_02 15:19

Really?

SPEAKER_00 15:19

And I got rid of his ass too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:22

Wait, so he got fired by association because one of the friends. Don't play that.

SPEAKER_00 15:26

If I don't like your mother, I don't like the daughter. Period. That's just me. I'm like, no, because both of you, because the apple don't fall too far from the tree. Both of you can get real shit. That's just that round way shit in me. Um, I had a team of people I used to sit back and write with, like the guys I was telling you from the Carolinas. Yeah. I was just like, nah, y'all niggas hating on me. Or, like you had said that you went through. It's kind of like, I go through it too as an LGBT guy. A lot of times when you're in a room full of like straight dudes, and especially when it's comedy and it's been such a straight male-driven form of entertainment, they feel like their ideas are way more. And I'm like, no, they're not. No, they're not. I know what the fuck I'm talking about. Right. And I would never talk unless I know what I'm talking about. So you know, when they would try to travel here and dirty, but we don't think that's gonna work, but then I would go off and do it alone. Yeah, it'll work. So the power of a team starts with you. Then the people who's supposed to be there, like me and my girl Wu, we've been touring together for five years.

SPEAKER_03 16:24

Come on.

SPEAKER_00 16:24

They come because they get it too. She grew up like I did. Or we we we have a lot of similarities. I listen to her ideas. She listened to my, we bounce off each other. It's not a one-man show. You know what I'm saying? Because you can't you can do it alone, but it's no fun in it.

SPEAKER_02 16:40

It's it's really not. It's not.

SPEAKER_00 16:41

And on top of that, hotels get lonely.

SPEAKER_02 16:43

I can't stand. I think I saw one, I think I saw one thing that you said when you were like, Why would I bring openers? Because you know, in comedy you have an opener, right? Why would I bring openers that aren't that good in order to make me look good? No. I feel that same way. I want everybody to shine. I want people to do that. And I feel like if you build it, they will come. Correct. So a lot of the times I'm like, damn, I don't have a team. You see all these people, right? With people that will record you or do this or help you with skits or da-da-da. And I'm like, damn, I would be so much farther if I had a team. But what I realized is when I would go out and search for people and link up with people and ask somebody to mentor me, they would either try to fuck me. And I hate that. That makes me so angry when somebody is coming to me under the guise of like business, and they're like, oh yeah, I'll help you. But he wants to have sex, and I see that a lot. Women see that all the time. You know what I'm talking about, right? And then, or they try to play you, or they just try to steal from you, or different things like that, or the jealousy.

SPEAKER_00 17:38

We can because one thing can't nobody ever say is Darn tried to fuck Keater to get who's gonna believe that. It's like I didn't know that it happened. Period. We can definitely work together. I love when I'm around like-minded individuals who really want just to like you just want to work up to a common goal, and our goals don't have to necessarily be the same, but I'm willing to help you execute yours as you know, you willing to help me execute.

SPEAKER_02 18:03

And if it's time for us to depart, ain't no. It's just okay, girl. You're gonna be. So I want you to elevate. Like, why would I want a team who doesn't elevate? I want you to elevate. I want you to elevate around me, under me, above me. I want you to get there. What the fuck do they gotta do with me?

SPEAKER_00 18:19

I don't know if I could talk off camera, but woo, don't we always talk like that? If I tell her all the time, if we out.

unknown 18:26

If you blow up, we in this together.

SPEAKER_00 18:29

We blow. Come on now. I'm like, girl, you don't even gotta put me on your show. Just tell him, you know, Dern gave him, you know, when you sit down at the interview or whatever, and you with Clubs Shea Shea, Dern and gave me my first money. You like, oh shout out to Durn. I'm like, thank you, Shay.

SPEAKER_02 18:42

And that's it. But there's so much hating ass shit in this industry. If they feel like if you blow, then somehow that's gonna take from you. If anything, it does. If anything, it's good. That means that means I make millionaires. That means you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_00 18:58

Like, correct?

SPEAKER_02 18:59

What is the fucking issue?

SPEAKER_00 19:01

Because people don't know the power of a team. I heard Tisha Campbell say the other day, a shout out to Tisha Campbell. She's a label mate.

SPEAKER_02 19:07

I love her. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 19:08

She's one of my label mates at innovative. We love Tisha. But she um she said, you know what? I don't think I would be where I'm at without Tishina.

unknown 19:16

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

And a lot of times that, and I'm pretty sure they both feel that way. Yeah, no, she's kind of. Because a lot of times they probably were pinned against each other. I'm pretty sure if it was a role for one black girl, because at that time it can only be one black girl. And in colorism, you want to talk about it. Okay, come on now. And you would see Tishina probably go up. Tisha probably would be Regina King, you know, the girls who were out at that time, and it they was only gonna get a role to one girl. So you had to be twice as good, you know, just to get, you know, a half a piece of the pie. But for her to come out and say, no, I wouldn't be where I'm at without Toshina. I mean, without yeah, without Toshina, let's you know that it was no competition, even though we were competitors. Yeah we didn't see each other as that. Nope. If we had a show and a man come, a director come and slide, woo-woo, or even give me something to give to her. I'm gonna give it to something. Like this recently just happened. You know, I'm not gonna tell the whole shebang, but we got some real big shit coming up in the works where my agent was like, You think woo-woo gonna wanna do it? I had woo-woo, I broke a nail trying to dial woo-woo number one second. That's how I feel about my friends. I don't care about my friends. We gonna rise together.

SPEAKER_02 20:22

So, speaking of friends, right? Um, do you hang out with a lot of people or do you roll kind of like a few? I say that because people say, people have said, I side-eyed people that don't got a lot of friends. Like, what's wrong with you? And I'm like, I don't have a lot of friends, but then I don't think there's nothing wrong with me.

SPEAKER_00 20:39

I have my core friends whom I call every day. Okay. Once who happened to be one of my per business partners, but I didn't come into the industry looking for friends. You know, I had a goal and I'm executing everything I need to do to get to the goal. Now, if I make friends along the way, I'm open to that. Yeah. Because I grew up Christian, so the Bible tells us if you want friends, present yourself as friendly. So I am a friendly person, but I'm not sweet. You ain't shit sweet over here. So I'm like, nah, you trying to play with me, and I don't play that type of shit. I'm kind.

SPEAKER_02 21:13

I am not nice. I am kind. Correct. I'm a good hearted person. I'm a giver. I'm a giver. I I I will I will listen to you, I'll give to you. I'm not nice. There's nothing sweet over here because what happens is sometimes people take your kindness for weakness. Correct. And I know you know that. Correct. And it's like, that's why I did come into this industry looking for friends. I fucked up.

SPEAKER_00 21:33

Ain't nothing wrong with that.

SPEAKER_02 21:34

I fucked up because I'm just like, we do the same thing, we can help build each other, da-da-da-da. And not knowing that bitches was really like jealous. I don't look at myself as somebody to be jealous of. Correct. Because anything somebody has, if I want it, I'm gonna go work hard for it. Correct. It's it never gave why the fuck did you get it? And not me. No, like I'm gonna go get it.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

That's why you're in the position that you're in, because that's another thing that happens to me all the time. Time when I meet people, they be like, darn, but you were so humble. And I was like, why am I gonna meet you and shit on you and then ask you to buy my tickets too? Where does that make sense?

SPEAKER_02 22:08

Where does that make but a lot of people do it? Why would I a lot of people do it?

SPEAKER_00 22:11

I'm gonna take every picture. I'm gonna take the babies. You gotta say that in right context, you know, I'm gonna kiss the babies with the consent of the parents.

SPEAKER_02 22:21

And the consent of the baby. I'm not gonna eat them either. Okay, this administration. I'm not gonna eat the babies either.

unknown 22:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

I don't go to island. And when I do, it's normally with my man, my man.

SPEAKER_02 22:34

My baby, my baby. So we talk about the island thing, I just wanna say, and we're gonna go, we don't gonna go there, but there was a clip that went viral where this man was like, um, it's from the pivot podcast, I think. And he was like, I would sell my soul for a hundred for a hundred million dollars, you can have my soul, right? Would you, would you, do you feel like you would sell your soul for like something like a a billion dollars, a hundred million dollars? Do you feel like no?

SPEAKER_00 23:00

Well, like I said, I grew up Christian. Okay. So I already know your soul ain't for sale nowhere.

SPEAKER_02 23:06

It's not.

SPEAKER_00 23:07

Um will I do something that I'm ashamed of for money? Um that's a because I guess it depends on what it is.

SPEAKER_02 23:20

I hate you.

SPEAKER_00 23:21

I mean, you know, like you because like I'm not I'm not afraid to go to Dubai, you know what I'm saying? You know, get low. But I'm not about to do too much. Yeah, I'm not gonna be on no island eating children. No man. Like, not it depends on what it is. Well, you know, I ain't gonna do that, so I'm okay with that.

SPEAKER_02 23:40

I think like I guess people think selling your soul is like there's a devil behind an alley. No, selling your soul to me be like selling out your best friend, selling to a party, you know, like crossing somebody, willing to basically hurt somebody or for capital gain.

SPEAKER_00 23:57

For capital gain. No, I'm not gonna.

SPEAKER_02 23:59

And you wouldn't do it.

SPEAKER_00 24:00

I don't have a friend that I hate enough to do that. I don't have a friend that I hate at all.

SPEAKER_02 24:04

Yeah, a friend that you hate a lot. That's that's that's a that's a bar right there. I don't have a friend that I hate enough.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

I don't have a friend that I hate because if I if I have an inkling of, you know, we just don't mix, we won't mix. I don't force it.

SPEAKER_03 24:20

Right.

SPEAKER_00 24:20

And in 2026, I'm not forcing nothing. That was my that was my goal. I'm not forcing friendship, relationship. I'm not gonna force hair and a ponytail. I'm not sweating. I'm not forcing anything. If it ain't what it's gonna be, it ain't gonna be.

SPEAKER_02 24:34

If it ain't aligned, it's not for me. I had to learn at the hard way. Yeah, I had to learn alignment. Yeah, I had I felt like I went through like a spiritual awakening. I know you say that you grew up Christian, and I and I do want to get on how you feel about like how does it feel to be a black, gay male, but then claim, you know, claim that you're Christian, especially when a lot of Christians feel like you can't be Christian because you're gay.

SPEAKER_00 24:58

Well, I feel like a lot of church folks feel that way.

SPEAKER_02 25:00

Okay, a lot of church folks, right?

SPEAKER_00 25:02

I think when it comes to Christianity, um, and it's so crazy to even talk about, but this is just really how I feel. I feel like all sex before marriage is already sinful. Right. So whether I'm sleeping with a nigga or a woman, if I'm not married to either one, I can do what I want, right?

SPEAKER_02 25:17

Do you want to talk about how like there's no greater sin?

SPEAKER_00 25:19

But and that's exactly what it is. So I'm not gonna be condemned no more than my homeboy is for knocking off 10 bitches. Right.

SPEAKER_02 25:26

Or the pastor for sleeping with little boys.

SPEAKER_00 25:28

Oh, you just or whatever, you know. So I'm not, I don't feel like I'm gonna be condemned no hard. Now, when I do get married, if I ever am blessed to get married, because I do believe in Christianity and I don't believe in no gray area with it. I do believe that I would want to marry a woman.

SPEAKER_02 25:46

Wait.

SPEAKER_00 25:46

Yeah. Hold on. I'm not gonna marry a man. I don't play with God like that. Wait, uh-uh.

SPEAKER_02 25:51

Darren, this kind of okay, I'm sorry. I usually don't get be lost for words, but I'm a little lost. Because you said that was my next question when we go into relationships, because you had said that um you never really been into a real relationship. You kind of like a fun boy. You kind of like it's not fun. So my one of my questions was do you feel like you would regret that when we get older? Like when we get, you know, people say that you're gonna regret not building right now. There's somebody building their 20, 30 year marriage, and we're not. So I wanted to know, would you um do you feel like you would regret that? But then you said you would marry a woman.

SPEAKER_00 26:27

Uh what?

SPEAKER_02 26:27

So are you are you bisexual?

SPEAKER_00 26:29

I've I've been with both sex.

SPEAKER_02 26:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 26:32

No. But do you like labels or any other? But I'm not a label person, but I will say this much. I um I don't play with God like that. I don't tell other LGBT people, LGBT people, okay, QIA, SW V, 3OW, and all the other letters. But I don't tell them how to, you know, navigate their lives. You do whatever you're gonna do. But from what I've read and understand of Christianity, homosexuality is a sin. From what I've read. And I'm not gonna pose that on them because if you feel like you can live your life, okay, I'll just tell you, okay, just be prepared before you meet Jamaica.

SPEAKER_03 27:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 27:10

I don't play like that. Um so even if I never marry at all, I don't want to die still less than men. Because to be Christian is to be born again. And when you're born again, the things that you once desired, you won't. So that could be drinking, that could be smoking, that could be fornicating, that could be self-doubt, porn. Yeah, gluttony. Gluttony. So many things. Because when God comes into your life, it's a born-again experience. So this ain't nothing that you would know from church or anything. This is all you know because of the equipping you. You're gonna feel it.

SPEAKER_03 27:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:45

I've been around real quick. My grandmother been Christian all my life.

SPEAKER_03 27:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

No backslider. So I know the word. That's just you know, I was born in it, I was raised in it. So I'm a firm believer that you, you know, both can't occupy. I don't trust a Christian who God put weed here so we could smoke. God didn't put weed here so you could smoke. An herb is an herb. He put oregano here too, but if you smoke it, you surely die, wouldn't you? Right. No, I feel what you're saying. I look at it.

SPEAKER_02 28:11

You don't like people who who try to tell you.

SPEAKER_00 28:13

Jesus turned water into wine, but not for you to be a drunk bitch at the ball.

SPEAKER_02 28:16

Because drunkenness is a sin. And so you don't like people who use the word to manipulate and and change their narrative to make them feel good about their sins. Oh, whoa.

SPEAKER_00 28:25

Correct. Whoa. You don't use the Bible to justify your negative behavior. And I'm not gonna say because you're Christian, you're perfect, but when you're Christian, you don't willfully sin. Because when you know better, you do better, don't you?

SPEAKER_02 28:39

So do you feel convicted when you, if you see a fine, you say you like Oak Cliff niggas, right? We've we in Dallas, right? So you see an Oak Cliff nigga walk in, okay? And do you feel convicted about that?

SPEAKER_00 28:51

Do you feel like because I know that I have Christian background, yeah, but I know that I can't just come out and say I'm Christian. In order to say that is to stand on it. There are niggas who are bloods who can say I'm blood, I bang, this is what I did, and this is what I did to get here.

SPEAKER_03 29:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:08

Or there are people who said, I do this and I do that. I have a master's degree. I am a doctor. You know, this is my you can't just be calling yourself Christian and you still do what you want to do. You cannot love God and do whatever you want to do.

SPEAKER_02 29:22

I agree, but I think that in these like coming years, especially when people are starting to open up and de, I think it's called the deconstructionalize, I'm sorry, y'all, uh, Christianity. They basically they break it down. What I've learned is I do feel like I'm more of a spiritual person. And I say that because back in back then I used to hear people say, I'm more spiritual. And I used to be like, no, you just want to do whatever you want and you don't want to feel committed. That's what I would think. But I genuinely believe that now I believe that like religion's like a man-made thing, right? Like when you look at a lot of the times when it says like submit to men, and a lot of a lot of Christianity goes along with the patriarchy and the benefit of man. And so you can see, you can see where I'm coming from or what people are coming from when they say that. So when it says like the kingdom of God is within you, I genuinely feel like Christ was teaching Christ consciousness. This is how you be, like, this is how you move like a man or woman of God. And a lot of the times when it, when you have a label, I'm a Baptist, I'm a Christian, I'm this, I'm a Muslim. When you have a label, you do have to, you're right, you gotta go by a certain set of rules because that's the rules that go along with that religion. However, there's so many things that we're seeing now in our administration and different people that claim Christianity, but they're doing all types of nasty things. And it's like, right, listen, it doesn't, it takes nothing to be a good person. You don't even need to claim a religion to be a good person. Like, don't cheat, don't steal, don't like, it's not hard.

SPEAKER_00 30:53

Correct.

SPEAKER_02 30:54

Why make it that hard? I know a lot of people are gonna maybe bash me for that and what I said, you know, because this is a really sensitive topic.

SPEAKER_00 31:02

This is just a good conversation, and I like having these conversations, especially when we're on the topic of Christianity. Um, because I'm a firm believer that, like I said, when it comes to Christianity, we don't do what we want and we love God. And when it comes to being Christian as well, once he's living through you, the things that you used to want to do, you're not gonna want to do anyway.

SPEAKER_02 31:25

Okay. So I've seen you'll have the urge to do it, right?

SPEAKER_00 31:28

So once guys it's gonna always be temptation. Temptation, that's all right. And that's the that's what we know about like the devil reeling you in. Like, you used to like this, and you even have people who used to enjoy those things with you who don't understand you no more. But you know what's so crazy? I can only quote things from experience. Okay. I watched my grandmother, um, she told me one day, she was like, you know, Darren, when I got Christian, the people who used to hang out at my house didn't understand me no more when I And they don't. They don't. But they don't. I've also saw other Christians walk up to her and they know each other right away. You know how like a gay man knows a gay man or a crackhead knows a crackhead. It's like that with Christianity because I don't believe Christianity is a religion.

SPEAKER_03 32:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 32:12

I believe it's a lifestyle.

SPEAKER_03 32:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 32:14

So you're gonna be able to identify people by their fruits. One knows the other. And I've seen it. I've seen it. And I've also seen where people live a bountiful life, happy, loving, and loving and serving the Lord. My grandmother, my aunts, I grew up like that. That's how my dad is. Yeah, and never can't, you know, just don't have the desires for the things they had no more. Not to get all, you know, you know, super Christian because I know the people don't.

SPEAKER_02 32:44

So you're you grew up Christian and you're black. And I'm not sure. And LGBT, but you know, because my dad wakes up at 4 a.m. every morning to read the Bible. He has done for the last 20 years. Come on, no. My dad and mom are still together 30-something years away, um, uh 30-something years that they've been married, and it's like they're just they're happy, but they do not judge. I think what makes me so angry, and maybe this is the reason why I'm like if they judge, then they're not Christian. Because that's the reason why I'm like, you know what? I'd rather call myself spiritual. And I say that because, bruh, like what you do with your life, I can only show you my the the love I have for you. And I and if I want you to come over to the side or if I want to try to convert you, show them the love of the Lord. Like, I'm not trying to be all preachy, but show them the love of the Lord. How do you expect somebody to convert being to a Christian when you're telling them you can't be Christian, you dress like that, you can't be Christian, you talk like that, you can't be Christian, you get like you're already letting them know that they can't be. So you wonder why so many people turn away from the God, turn away from God.

SPEAKER_00 33:44

But you can be, because if you know anything about God, God likes to vibrate in the lower places.

SPEAKER_03 33:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:50

Jesus is Jesus came to save people who needed the saving. He wasn't around a lot of Christians when you read the Bible. He was with Mary Magdalena, it was with, of course, Jude.

SPEAKER_02 34:01

He was with people who really people that they can they consider low life, low-level low, vibration where Jesus was.

SPEAKER_00 34:08

So, yeah, it's never too late. Um now, because the signs of times, I feel like are more fun than they ever been before. Because we're living in that world that um, well, you don't even know what the administrator is about to do next. So it's like every time I hear a plane flying too low, I'm like, oh Jesus, it can't be like a few. No, they're coming. That's scary. That's how I feel. But I just want to be right. And I do agree with you when you say that we you know we can all be good people. We can be decent people, but I hate to say this. There are decent people in hell.

SPEAKER_03 34:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 34:42

You have to have a relationship and you have to be born again. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:46

I agree.

SPEAKER_00 34:47

You have to be born again. I agree. It's from what we know of Christianity, from what we know of Christianity. So I don't want to say this against other people because I know that people take things very, very, you know. But in Christianity, in order to get to the goal, you have to have a relationship. It can't just be, well, I paid my taxes on time. I never cheated on my wife, and blah, blah, blah. But you still didn't have a relationship with God.

SPEAKER_02 35:10

And that's what I feel. I feel like before you sit around, we saw it, we see it with these motivational speakers and these gurus.

SPEAKER_00 35:16

I'd be so sick of them. I'd be so sick. Maybe I can't take it. But if you're nobody else telling me about how they get up in the morning, they take an ice bath, run for two miles, come back, read a word, journal, walk the dog, jump rope.

SPEAKER_02 35:28

All before 8 a.m. Like I'm I'm fucking tired of it. But when you when you see these type of people, right, and they're but they're Christian-based, right? They make you feel like you gotta do a certain thing or you gotta act a certain way. And my whole thing is like you need to have a personal relationship with God because there are people, like you said, that will take the scripture and they'll manipulate it, and it'll go up to the body.

SPEAKER_00 35:51

Just like the slave owners did, because most of us couldn't read at that time, no way, or it was forbidden to read. So even when they were sitting there, and this is what's a good conversation. Um, differentiate from, you know, or or they get very, very upset about Christianity because no, it was a white man written book, and you the white man was trying to teach you no, you were not supposed to be reading in the first place. So if he even knew you could read, that was already a stripe against you. So if he didn't think you could read, he could read you whatever. Right. He knew the word too. Right. The devil knows the word.

SPEAKER_02 36:21

The devil was an angel before he came. Come on now, the devil was an angel before he fell.

SPEAKER_00 36:26

So that you could come up and now you feel like, oh, my back is turned against it. But you could turn your back against God. But I feel like this about God. We all are born knowing that there is a God. Yeah. Because even when you could hit your toe on a dresser, and the first thing you're gonna say is, Oh my god. In sex, we say, Oh my god. And it's all a form of worship. You don't say, Oh my Satan, oh my Buddha. And it's because you know who he is. And I would hate to die and had my back turned against him just to find out he was real, than to live here and act like I didn't know him the whole time. No, absolutely. That's my whole thing.

SPEAKER_02 36:59

First of all, just the Ten Commandments alone, when people try to go against it. I again I don't judge. If you're an atheist, you're an atheist, I don't know. I don't care. Yeah, I'm not mad at you. We can still be friends. We can still be cool. But we, I mean, we can't we're gonna be done cool. Well, we can hang out with time. It's it's like it's like um if if it's again, I say, you know, the cheating, the stealing, the killing, the it's just how to be a good person. Correct. The the book and the rules really protect you from a lot of shit you don't even know. You about to step into. You really don't know. So if God isn't real, if it isn't real, okay, then I would rather die knowing, oh, that was just fake, and I just live my life like this, rather than finding out.

SPEAKER_00 37:37

And then getting there, and it's like, damn, I went to hell just because I didn't believe. Right. I was a good person, but I paid my taxes.

SPEAKER_02 37:42

But I did a cheat. Right. I didn't cause havoc. Oh my god. You didn't believe. So I really gotta touch on this because I can't believe you said it. Not in a not in a bad way, but I just never heard anybody say, I didn't expect you to say, like, oh, if I if I'm blessed enough to get married, it'll be to a woman.

SPEAKER_00 37:58

Absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:00

I'm sorry, why is this blowing my mind?

SPEAKER_00 38:02

And maybe I'm just like, Because I believe in holy matrimony, and I don't believe in I don't play with the Lord. Once again, these are all things that I believe. Right. So if you're out there watching, right? This ain't got nothing to do with shit. Like, you know, you can do it. You do as you will. I'm gonna put that in the beginning. I'm a firm believer that when God comes for you, He's gonna come for you. So it ain't even my job. Now, our job as Christians or Christian like people is to spread the goodness and what he's done for you. But I believe that man and woman are put together in holy matrimony because I don't feel like God can bless something that he didn't never see together.

SPEAKER_02 38:36

What if you felt? I mean, you say, you know, you say you've never been into a serious relationship and you just felt you're just having fun. But what if you found the man of your dreams? Like, like, what if he was beat like everything about this man made you feel like you were supposed to be with him forever. Correct.

SPEAKER_00 38:52

You're just gonna I know people who've been smoking weed for years. Only happy when they gotta block, oh yo, this just makes me f when I smoke, oh my organs just come. You you hear the shit today. But I feel the same way if I was to find a man of my dream, it probably would make me feel that way. But I also, it is when they say we're all born into sin, yeah, you don't know what that sin may be. My sin may just be homosexuality. So you have to fight hard to get to where you want to be in life.

SPEAKER_02 39:21

Wow. I never really looked at like that.

SPEAKER_00 39:23

So your sin might have been, oh well, my mother was on crack, so you're a crack baby, so now you turn out to be a fiend of some sort. So now I have to fight harder to get to where it is I want to go because this is my sin. This is what condemns me. So this man that I've met is the man of my dreams, and he makes me start my car on go and check my. I have to get out of that quickly if I really want to get into where I want to go, because hell is a forever thing. It's a forever thing. I know that this is just temporary, even a man that's of my dreams. Yeah. And if he's of my dream, I need to wake up really quick. I mean, that's just me.

SPEAKER_02 39:58

No, of course. And again, just me. All the viewers are about to see because I know the LCBT is like, oh, we can't. Oh, you must be a good thing. No, no.

SPEAKER_00 40:08

I know. We won't we'll take it down.

SPEAKER_02 40:11

No, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_00 40:11

There ain't no cancel. No, because I feel like also this will save someone too, you know, who's having that battle. Um, so don't take it down. No mence, none of the words.

SPEAKER_02 40:20

Well, it's just it's just it's good to know this because I mean, when you said, like, oh, everybody's born in sin, I've heard that before. We've heard it all the time. But when how you broke it down like that, right? Like, your sin is your sin. Correct. Your trauma is your trauma. And you do have to battle that and figure that you will be accountable for it. And just because you went through A, B, C, and D doesn't mean that you get to treat anybody a certain way. Correct. Doesn't mean that you don't get to take responsibility for that. Your trauma is your trauma, your sin is your sin. But I never looked at it like that with the sin part. I never looked at it like that. Like the things that I battle in my life, that's for me to figure out with God, my personal relationship with God, to figure out how we can get through it.

SPEAKER_00 41:03

Because no, I've never heard nobody who just well, I have heard people say this, but I don't think in no one's heart, especially black people, no one wants to die and go to hell. And the thing about sins, the way I break them down is they're sins because they feel good.

SPEAKER_02 41:18

They feel they feel amazing.

SPEAKER_00 41:19

It feels good to cuss a bitch out in traffic.

SPEAKER_02 41:21

Oh, I love it!

SPEAKER_00 41:22

Feels good to drink at the bar, smoke, fornicate. All sins feel good. That's why they're a sin. Pleasurable. Pleasure, yeah. Self-pleasure. All of it feels good. But instant gratification, but if it felt really good, would you have to do it all the time?

SPEAKER_02 41:41

What do you mean by that?

SPEAKER_00 41:45

If smoking weed was if that's your sin and I get how I get drunk and I do it, would I have to keep coming back to? God is one of those things that you don't have to keep coming back to because He wants it's there, it's there. He's gonna make sure he shows up and revealing you.

SPEAKER_01 42:01

Every day.

SPEAKER_00 42:02

So all you have to do is make sure you keep feeding yourself. Right. You know, make sure you stay in your word. But with weed, it's like, yeah, I was good, but no, no, no, I'm not. I've seen people crash out when they can't get weed. I've seen alcoholists get mad when you I'm not crashing out because I can't get to God. God ain't he never runs out. You can't the things that are simple runs out very quickly.

SPEAKER_02 42:22

You can't tell a pothead that weed is an addictive drug.

SPEAKER_00 42:26

Oh, child, my mother is a substance abuse counselor. Oh, really? Yes, it is. If you can't eat before you smoke, you have a problem. If you're a person who can't catch a flight, no, it's five hours. I'd rather dry there. If you measure a road trip about how many blunts you got, man, it's four hours. That's gonna be about full blunts. You have an addiction, sir, ma'am.

SPEAKER_02 42:46

My name is Ken Rogue and I have an addiction. No, but it used to get it used to get like that for me.

SPEAKER_00 42:54

I'm not speaking like a person who don't do these. Right, facts. We're telling you. Speaking as a person, I'm gonna be condemned more than people who don't know. Right. Because God know that I know the truth. And it's like, oh, and you just refuse to do a darn. So yeah, must of my condemn, like it's gonna be worse. But for people who don't know, now that you're watching this podcast, now you will if you choose to learn from it and you'll be condemned like me.

SPEAKER_02 43:20

Yeah. I mean, that's true. Because God only God only looks after children and fools. Correct. And you're not a child, and you know, so you're not a fool.

SPEAKER_00 43:28

So that means you were being foolish, you know, for just not doing it. Yeah. And he ain't gonna keep looking out. I think that's when your time run out. It's like what your mother, I'm sick of telling you, darn. And yeah, look at you.

SPEAKER_02 43:37

And it's over. And sometimes you gotta, and one thing God'll do, that's why I say I started really getting into spirituality after I felt like I went through a spiritual awakening. I felt like I went through a spiritual awakening because I felt like I was going to die. And I'll say that's I'll tell you why. Like, I had lost a relationship, I was losing a job, people that I thought were my friends turned against me, and I found out and it was revealed. It's like you saw that one movie by Tyler Perry Straw where she just kept going through shit. I was like, bruh, like I think it's over for me. Like I really felt like I was gonna die. Even though that may sound dramatic. I was like, I feel like I'm gonna die. And I'm like, I'm just I'm just done. But really, I I did die. Let me tell you, like, I felt like I died to self. Like the the versions of me that I kept holding on to were saying, let me go. Don't look back, right? You you spoke on that. Don't look back. Right. Because you'll turn into a pillar. Like, come on, man. Right, like don't look back. And I kept looking back. No, no, no, because that's that version of me is familiar. That's what I know. And it's like when you look forward and you step into the unknown, that's the scariest shit ever. Because I don't know who I'm finna be now. I knew who old Kita was, but I don't know who new Kita is. I don't know what she does, right?

SPEAKER_03 44:46

Correct, correct.

SPEAKER_02 44:47

And so I had to kill off my ego, ego deaf. And that was like the hardest thing ever. But when I went through the spiritual awakening, I'm like, okay, get right with God. Be more spiritual. Have a relationship with God. But also too, really figure out yourself. And that's why I created this The Breakup Didn't Break Me segment.

SPEAKER_00 45:07

I like that too.

SPEAKER_02 45:09

Thank you. And we're going on tour. I can't wait to see you in Black. Well, tomorrow too.

SPEAKER_00 45:12

I'm coming out here. Calm down. You just let us know the date. We're showing up first.

SPEAKER_02 45:18

Thank you. But it's because a lot of people feel like they can't move on from things that almost broke them. A lot of people are fighting silent battles. And one of the reasons why I went, you know, out and I told my story was because I'm like, I don't want to suffer alone. I have supporters that care about me. Okay. It would be rude of me or wrong of me not to tell them everything. You can show them when you're at the award ceremony and you can post a picture and you can show them when your makeup is beat. Right. But why I can't show them.

SPEAKER_00 45:47

What do you look like in the morning?

SPEAKER_02 45:48

My nigga, I'm manic.

SPEAKER_00 45:49

You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 45:49

Nigga, I'm manic. I need you to see.

SPEAKER_00 45:52

You ain't talking to no beauty queen, though. You feel me? So get it together.

SPEAKER_02 45:57

What, like, that's the reason why I did that. And that's the reason why I'm just so happy that you decided to sit down with me because I really look up to you because of your authenticity. I love people that can be themselves. It's not easy. Because when people out there, the tech, you know, the DMs in the comments are talking shit, they're not talking shit about a persona. They're talking shit about you. Correct. This is not an image. Like Kita Rhodes is not Nikita Rosetta. No, like I'm Nikita. Like I'm Kita. Yeah. And you're talking shit about me because I'm myself. Um, and I just wanted people to know that you can transition from anything, like you said, correct. Sin. Correct. Past mistakes. Correct. Right? Jobs, relationships that you feel like you need, that you feel like you're gonna die from, friendships. Correct. That you felt like meant everything to you. A friendship breakup hurts fucking more than a friendship breakup hurt.

SPEAKER_00 46:44

And I broke up with friends.

SPEAKER_02 46:46

It hurts. Yeah. And so you can get through this. So I guess my question to you would be like, what was one thing? If you can't remember, off the top of your head is fine, but what was one thing that you thought was gonna like take you out that almost broke you, but didn't?

SPEAKER_00 47:06

Um there's been like quite a few things. Yeah. Um like I said, I grew up Christian, and that's I tell people that. So that means I knew that I wasn't gonna break. So it's always something that made me be like, no. It's like a burning thing. Yeah. And I know it's God. But there's been things that has taken my breath away. That I was just like, oh sh, you know, you think, have you ever thought about something you gas? Like, so um, I went to jail when I was 20, and I got out when I was almost 22. So you spent two years in jail? Yeah, I had to go to prison.

SPEAKER_01 47:39

Why'd you go to prison? You if you don't want to tell, you don't have to tell.

SPEAKER_00 47:43

If you don't want to say it, you don't have to say it. I used to do like some white collary shit. I used to embezzle, scam a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 47:49

Okay. Get get get your money up. Got your money up.

SPEAKER_00 47:52

Yeah. Okay. And I've been in jail for quite a few times in my 20s. Um but yeah, I felt like that situation, especially because I was in school when it happened, and I'm the oldest out of all of my siblings, so I was like, oh shit, I don't know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna have to pick out the pieces of my life, keep on going. And I just started doing open mics, and that kind of saved me. But I felt like that situation, it wasn't the going to jail that I felt like I wasn't gonna be able to bounce back from. It was the whole thing of like, now when you go to interviews, if I wanna buy a house, if I wanna go out the country or whatever, how will I tell people, you know? It's gonna you're a record. You have a record. But like I say, when you when you serve a guard that I do, it's like nothing can stop you. There's two show pads. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:42

That's what I really had to feel. Like, I was like, my mom is a praying mom and my dad is a praying dad.

SPEAKER_00 48:47

Come on, mom and dad. Shout out to my dad.

SPEAKER_02 48:49

And they're they're so they're so supportive of me, right? And they and they really support me. And I just felt like I just called them up one day and I'm like, I can't do this. Like, I don't know what to do. I lost everything. Like, I feel like I lost everything. And sometimes I'm like, God, maybe you don't want me to do this because why do you why'd you make it so hard?

SPEAKER_00 49:05

Correct.

SPEAKER_02 49:05

Why did you make it so hard? And oh I'm not gonna cry. But I don't know when you say like this too shall pass, everything did work out. Everything that you went through in your life that you thought was gonna take you out, that relationship. You had to go through. You had to go through it. And that's the hardest shit ever because it'd be like, Why me? But I remember seeing this video, this one lady, she had kids that loved her, like she was such a good mom, you could tell, and she had cancer, and she was like, I'm about to die. And she said, I used to say, Why me? But then I started saying, Why not me? Like, what makes you so great that you don't that you don't experience?

SPEAKER_00 49:46

They killed Jesus, they hated on Jesus, you don't get to escape it.

SPEAKER_02 49:50

I know, and a lot of the times when we think about the things like what you mentioned, you really opened my eyes. This this was crazy, it's such a good conversation, but you really opened my eyes to a lot of things. Thank you. Because when we drink and we smoke and we have sex and we da-da-da. Yeah, you could judge a person, but they're trying to escape their reality. Yeah, they're trying to escape the reality.

SPEAKER_00 50:11

Because the reality is, God, if you have, if you're full of God, you don't need anything. It's like we walk past everything we need to what we want. You see some in a commercial, I want them new shoes, or you see a new restaurant, I want to try it. It's on TikTok, I got to. And God is standing here the whole time with his arms out like that. You don't want that, you don't want that. Because you don't see where you can thrive in that. Once you realize that's all you need.

SPEAKER_01 50:36

That's all you need.

SPEAKER_00 50:37

I've seen people who did not have no money, but were so rich. Like my grandmother tells me all the time, she was like, Darn, when we stayed down in the country, she moved from Baltimore to Virginia. And she was like, When we stayed down in the country, and after your granddaddy here from died, I didn't have no money. All I had was a curse on here and a doll ass. But I had Jesus. I had more than a lot of people. And I watched Gar just bring my family up. Move her back to the city of Baltimore. My Aunt Dee Dee, Ma Didi was sick. When they brought her back to the city, and they went out. I have seen God work miracles in people like my life, my friends, my family, and the people around me. I even have friends who be like, Darren, because you speak so much of Woo-Woo told me that one day. And that was like the sweetest thing she ever told me. It was like my birthday last year. And you was like, you know, your relationship with God drew me closer to him because we all know him. But she was like, I can't, but she was like, Darren, you would just wake up and be like, Thank you, Jesus. Ooh, that plant. Because I say it even after my shows. It's just a natural thing. I love y'all so much, God bless y'all. Naturally, after meeting people, it is just who I am. So I've seen him, and that goes for you and anybody in this room. It ain't nothing you going through that's too big for God. When I say nothing, child support, a miss bill, my nigga ankle over here. You didn't walk again. I am just saying it like that. He broke his ankle. My whole point, but it ain't nothing too big. No. And even when you think it is, it's like that's a pee on him, y'all.

SPEAKER_02 52:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 52:28

Because he spoke this into existence.

SPEAKER_02 52:29

And I really feel like God wanted me to break away from things I was holding on to a lot. I felt and that's some that's some powerful stuff. I felt like I needed man, not because we were having sex, not because I was in love, but I felt like, oh, this is my job. No, I I I need this. Like I'm my son, and you know what's crazy? Like, it started off in January. That's when everything happened. And every month he provided. Like, I know that to a non-believer, that sounds crazy. Like, oh, so what? So money just came at you. No, but like you open your email and you get this thing that leads to this, and then you meet this, and then it's like, oh, I went through a whole year and it worked.

SPEAKER_00 53:06

God had to show you that I am the provider.

SPEAKER_02 53:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:10

Not the people that you're working with. He literally provided.

SPEAKER_02 53:14

I didn't have I was so scared. I'm like, I'm screaming. He he hears me. I scream. And I was like, what am I gonna do? I have a fucking child. I gotta, I'm a single mom. What the fuck? And I'm like, every month, bills got paid. Correct. I ate. And I you don't think of it like that. You just keep living. But when you sit back and you reflect and you really isolate, I think isolation is like really key. It is. A lot of people can't be alone, but you need to be alone.

SPEAKER_00 53:41

Because those people who really come on. Well, I'm never alone. I like to tell people I'm a problem with you. I'm never alone, even when I am. But when you are, I like staying by myself. I like myself. I love when my people are around too. Like me and my own girls hang out, whatever. But I like myself enough to keep going. And God loves you enough to keep you going. That's just how it's gonna be. My misery don't like company. Like my misery. Me neither. I when people think people think I'm so people because I don't want to be like, no, because this is the worst version of me. I'm gonna cuss you out every day. Yeah. I don't want you to see me at my worst.

SPEAKER_02 54:19

Not because I think you're gonna judge me, not because of anything. I need to isolate. My misery does not like company. I don't want to sit up there and fill a room with my negative energy. So let me do it. And I can't, because once I once you see my face, like this was so I had to really realize, like, I had to isolate, I had to be by myself, and I kept being like, I don't have a team, I don't have this, this happened, I lost this, I lost that. But I really wasn't counting my blessings.

SPEAKER_00 54:47

But you didn't lose faith.

SPEAKER_02 54:48

But I didn't lose faith. Come on, no. I didn't, and I said to myself, okay, God. So then I started Google, you know how you YouTube shit, you be hurt, you be so hurt you get on YouTube. And I'm like, why? Like, I don't know what I wrote, but I'm like, why does it feel like my world is crashing? And then it was like, oh, you might be having a spiritual awakening. And I know that people think it's like woo-woo, and I don't know about crystals and different things like that. I don't really do that, not to judge, but I don't, I don't do that. But it was God opening your eyes. God will humble you, God will sit you down, and I wasn't ready to sit down, I wasn't ready to let go of things. We never are. I wasn't ready. We never are and I was like, no, and I kept fighting it and fighting it. It's that resistance. Correct. He will force your hand. Like, he will force your hand. And so I'm like, basically, God pushed me on my butt, like enough, closed the door, and I felt like I was in timeout. And I was just still like, damn. I had and of course I did threw myself a pity party.

SPEAKER_00 55:44

I'm like, Of course, we all did. We like to cry because this is the worst thing can happen. Meanwhile, there's people running for their lives in Syria. So this is not the worst that can happen.

SPEAKER_02 55:54

It's not, and so I said this was to bring me closer to God, and then that's when I learned about alignment. And I was like, oh, I was chasing money. Not to say I wouldn't fuck nobody over for money, fuck nobody's man for money. No.

SPEAKER_00 56:08

But I was chasing money. We all do. Yeah, like I'm a Capricorn. I love the bag, but I love the Bible. You can have both.

SPEAKER_02 56:19

Like, you really can't. I promise you, you can, but it may take a little longer, but you can have both. You can have both. And I was chasing, chasing, chasing, and there were things that I seen that I ignored, things that I seen that I knew wasn't right. Right. And I said, not my business. I need to go face chase the bag. But I wasn't aligned. And when you're not aligned, God will knock you down. And that's exactly what happens.

SPEAKER_00 56:38

Especially when you come from it.

SPEAKER_02 56:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:40

We have it way worse. Because you ever noticed that the people who come from the church background, and they make it. Elvis Presley, Whitney Houston, R. Kelly, a lot of these people come from that church. I hate to say it, and they make it. And then when you go out there and you do everything against what you've been taught, because it's like, oh, okay, well, you know what, but I'm still gonna have my fun. And it's like, not I said the Lord.

SPEAKER_02 57:04

And they take it all over.

SPEAKER_00 57:05

Especially when you knew who I was. So that's the thing. Like, you know, since we're talking about that, like right?

SPEAKER_02 57:11

Since we're talking about that, you're so right. And that's that's that's again like selling your soul. Some soul. When you know some shit and you're just or it's like I'm just gonna keep doing it. Oh, man, I just gotta get my money. It's not my business. No, it's your business. It's your business. Okay, cool. So I felt it and I felt. Okay, cool. And it was public, cool, whatever. I know one thing, black women covered me. I know black shout out to black women.

SPEAKER_00 57:33

Oh, black women gonna take care of everybody. I know they covered me. Gay men, they even we even I've seen black women even feeding white people. You know, and no offense, white people, but I'm just saying, even knowing what has happened or knowing that they are like the second thought. Yeah, you know, when it comes.

SPEAKER_02 57:49

So black women cover me, period. And I've been. And we know we do, we nurture. And I said, okay, so one, get yourself back up there. But okay, now that I'm in this industry, this is me talking to me, right? Okay, so are you gonna are you gonna get out of the industry? Are you just gonna quit? You're just gonna give up. No, I'm gonna keep going. I this is my calling, I'm doing my thing. But how am I gonna do it? Because you know the deals and the different things that you have to, okay. So then I wanna ask you something. Because we talked, you talked about Elvis and Whitney and everybody has like a similar story about how they fell from grace a little bit too far, right?

SPEAKER_00 58:27

Cool. And it's a hard fall, and it's a hard fall.

SPEAKER_02 58:31

So we know you won't sell your soul, answer that question. But my second question to you about the celebrity world and all that, and for you being a gay man, was there's a lot of celebrities that feel like they have to be DL. We won't name them, but they have to be DL because they won't be successful.

SPEAKER_04 58:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 58:49

But I I don't know about the LGBT commun community, and I say that because I don't I don't want to speak out of terms.

SPEAKER_00 58:55

You don't live it out. I don't live it.

SPEAKER_02 58:56

So I don't want to speak out of terms. Correct. But in 2026, with all the advocate uh advocacy and different things, do you feel like celebrity black men specifically, celebrities still have to be DL to be successful? Like, we be like, just be your speaking your truth.

SPEAKER_00 59:14

I do.

SPEAKER_02 59:14

So you feel like they cannot speak in their truth and be successful.

SPEAKER_00 59:18

I feel like they can be themselves at home, maybe, but not to the public eye. And the reason why I say that is because I know I'm a really good stand-up comic. I know I have really great numbers, but I've watched my straight male counterparts get way further because they're straight. So like you can look at stuff like even the Weed of Wands tour.

SPEAKER_03 59:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 59:38

All straight men, maybe one woman, or every once in a while, another girl. Love all them brothers. Yeah, love them. Mojo is amazing. I think DC, Chico, uh Love Them Down. Love Chico. They uh, oh, yeah, Chico from Brown White. Love Chico. We actually real cool. Chico likes a lot of my work.

SPEAKER_01 59:52

She's so cool, right?

SPEAKER_00 59:53

So, yeah, and I've met him quite a few times. I love Chico. But the thing about it is when I look up, it's all straight male driven. And I'm cool with that. Um a lot of spaces in comedy, not just that, you know, most of them who have big podcasts or, you know, big stand-up. I noticed that when Gerard Carmichael came out as a gay man, we don't see Gerard as much as we used to when we thought he was straight.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:22

That has to do, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:24

I can only speak from experience. Because I know that I'm just as good as the brothers I named. That I do know.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:31

But I know that they would get a call back before me.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:36

Like, I've never seen a king of comedy that was LGBT, and it's not because I'm not a king, and I'm funny.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:42

That's true.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:42

Like Burry. Look at me say, like, like, but like Burke. I know what I do. Pop your shit, sir. I'm just being honest. I can't. I didn't think that about you. Or they all like me behind closed doors. Oh, well, bro, you funny as shit. But I'm like, but you got a podcast. Why you ain't never invite me on? Because you think it's gonna make you gay or something, or you think it's gonna Or it might make it like, oh uh, now we can't be, you know. Man, I'm not gonna say that it's happening all aspects, because I've been around some great comics that did not care that, you know, that we were sharing their spaces. Like D Ray. Oh, I love D-Ray. D-Ray makes me, he always called me nephew. Yeah. Like he'd be like, Darn, you my nephew. Oh, every time I come to Hollywood, yeah, I do improv with him. Dion Cole always to me up. Tracy Morgan has been great to me. So the older comics, it's like, man, I already, you know, stamp my shit. I've been there, but I don't care about what these niggas say. But they also already have a big piece of the pie. I mean, Deion Cole is the face of, you know, old Spice. Yeah. So it ain't nothing I can do to get him off that horse and the whistle and Dixie. Right. So, but as far as to a lot of the younger people who are like climbing that ladder, it's like, yeah, girl, we see you, we fuck with you. But until we get to where we gotta go, we can't call you. So I just watched even Flame Unroll. Okay. She was on Breakfast Club. Shout out to Flame, I love Flame.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:59

Love Flame.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:59

And she was talking about how like the comics used to treat her back in the day. I get like that same, I get that same treatment, except they are not rude to me. Well, you can't be rude to me. Yeah. And then just think that it ain't gonna be no comedy.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:13

Because ain't shit sweet.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:14

Absolutely. Oh, okay. But they do, I have seen like isolation of rooms that it's like I wouldn't be able to get in.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:23

Because like I said, I've never seen a gay king of comedy. I've never seen a gay man host family feud. We're not callbacks. Uh only time I can get the callbacks is if they want me to be the gay cousin who live across the street, but we don't get the big, I don't get the darn fleet show like they would give the Martin Lawrence or the Steve Harvey. I'ma have to play the gay neighbor who does hair.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:44

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:45

Yeah, and I don't want to be that. I'm like, bitch, I don't get to be.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:47

Because you say several times that in your in your comedy, you don't even talk about like I don't even know how to do hair.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:53

Yeah, like you don't even talk like that. I don't know how to vote. So it's just certain shit that it's like, no, that's not in the lifestyle I had. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:03

So I went to- I really I'm I wanted to speak to you and I wanted to ask you those questions because that did put a lot into perspective. Because, you know, as a as a straight black woman, I'm like, just living your truth, just living your truth.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:14

Correct.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:15

But if they can't get hired, but like how?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:19

I mean, and we counsel so many people for living in their truths, and you know, especially in the black community, Nikki Minaj is living in her truth right now. Okay, whether we like it or not. And that's gonna be another episode.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:30

That's gonna be another motherfucking episode of the podcast.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:34

We like it or not.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:35

Okay. Okay, so one, I just want to give you your flowers while you're here. Okay. I, you know, I love you. I love you. I really, really appreciate this. You are amazing. You are real, you're authentic, you're talented, and you are going to go far. And I will be right there rooting for you. I am a fan. I am a big fan of you. Thank you. Um, and I just want to just say thank you for just being honest and having this honest conversation with me uh and breaking it all down. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:05

You already know, that's what we came to do.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:07

I love that this is my first interview back, baby.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:10

I'm back, bitch. What? You can have some viral clips in there. Oh, I know I know we do.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:18

I know we do, but um, tell everybody what new uh productions, what new things you got working on.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:24

Um doing well, I I'm not supposed to say, but I will give like a little hint. Okay. Doing something really big where we're flying back out to Hollywood, myself and Woo-woo.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:34

Hey Woo-Woo. Shout out, Woo Boo.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:36

That's my girl. My homeboy Mikhail just came in too. So I'm gonna shout Mikhail now, too. Shout out Mikhail. Yes, make sure y'all following my people. But um, we're gonna do something that is very groundbreaking. I will give this much away, is um, with Kevin Hart Studio. So I'm excited about that. Okay. Um, of course I'm on tour, so y'all can catch me in the city near you. We got like almost 20 dates now, and we end dates as we go. Myself, McKellen, woo-woo. Uh I am writing. I'm writing a play. Really? Yeah, because I wanted to do. I've been inspired. I grew up watching like Broadway and stuff. So like I said, I grew up with my grandmother and my mother, and the women in my family love Broadway, like down to opera singing, ballet, you name girl. I never went to a Broadway show. Oh, girl, I've been a lame as a raw, Ida, Chicago, baby. Okay. Woo-boo and my homegirl, Miss Jackson. Shout out to Miss Jackson. They took me out for my birthday. We went to go see Wicked at the Hippodrome. Okay. Baby, I act like a little girl the whole time. I'ma singing all the songs. Cynthia would have been so proud. Oh, and Cynthia follows me too.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:43

Cynthia, we don't follow you. Okay, that's lit.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:46

Period. I mean, that boy, that bitch.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:49

You know.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:51

Pronounce it is what it is. But no, real shit. Uh um, I'm just trying to do as much as I can, dude. So you're gonna write it. I'm writing a play. It's based on my.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:00

Tree or a bush or something and come on, like you can come on.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:03

Come on. It's gonna be funny, but it's gonna be like I want it to be Broadway aesthetics. Like I want, I'm writing it down to the way the costume's supposed to look, the way the lightning's supposed, and the way my background. I don't want it to just be oh, it's a play. Yeah, yeah. I want it to be, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:17

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:18

I also saw Alicia Keyes Hell's Kitchen play. She invited me out personally, her and Candace. I love them too. So I was still up in New York. So I want to do something like that. But um a play, stand up. I'm doing something with, like I said, the Kevin Hart Studios is coming up. I wouldn't mind doing films. I'm doing a podcast with you, and that's huge to me, you know, especially with somebody of your caliber. I've been watching you for years too. Um, you know I'm in your notifications. Like, I mean, I shows up. I even took a picture that you had the other day and did a video. You did it on Rihanna. I was like, oh, she already got a side by side. Let me crop this.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:52

And then when I DM'd you and you wrote back, I'm like, he wrote back? Like, and then I just went and shit and was like, he wrote back. I'm like, yeah, he drove me on the show.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:00

What she mean I wrote back? I watched her shit. I was shocked that you even hit me up to want to do it. So, like, real shit. Cause like I said, you know, we gotta look out for each other. Yeah, we do. Business partners.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:12

Yeah, we do. So, y'all go follow Darren. Y'all I cannot wait to support every single thing. This nigga does like, like, share, follow. Okay, woo woo, shout out Mikhail. Mikhail?

unknown 1:07:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:23

Okay, okay. And we'll put your, you know, down on the lower thirds. We got you, we got you. Um, I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. It's just a little piece of me given to you. And until next time, baby, I will follow.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:36

Thank you.