No I.D.
Comedian Jerome Davis hosts No I.D. Podcast — the show where real conversations meet raw comedy. Each episode dives deep with comedians, creators, and culture shifters, exploring everything from life and career to art, mental health, and surviving the grind — all with sharp humor and zero filter.
If you’re looking for real stories, unfiltered interviews, and laughs that hit different, this is your podcast. No scripts. No fluff. No I.D. required.
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No I.D.
Ghosts Don’t Wear Fake Jordans W/ Jay Flake
Ever hear a single sentence change someone’s life? That’s how Jay Flake’s story starts—cracking jokes in a corporate training room when an older coworker told him he’d missed his calling. One open mic later, the Nashville comic found his lane: high-energy, true-story material that feels lived-in, then sharpened it into a clean-comedy brand that books hard and lasts longer.
We dig into the gritty rise that rarely makes the highlight reel: Zoom corporate sets, underground rooms, patio shows, and a pandemic album that hit festivals even as the video stayed shelved to protect the brand. Jay breaks down why some jokes belong to their moment, how cleaner material unlocked better gigs, and how to translate everyday chaos into bits that crush without cheap shots. The COVID talk is raw and hilarious—taste disappearing mid-breakfast, a hotel deodorant “taste test,” and the lonely, surreal weeks that turned survival into stories.
The craft gets equal airtime. Jay salutes Bernie Mac’s fearlessness, Dave Chappelle’s ease with ordinary ideas, and Ali Sadiq’s storytelling and business blueprint: drop on Patreon, expand on YouTube, then license to streamers for a third check. We also walk through Andrew Schultz’s clip-first playbook and the discipline behind album timing—finding minutes, trimming fat, and protecting your voice. Plus, the green room rules nobody teaches: listen more than you talk, guard private shop talk, and treat owners and managers like the partners they are.
Want the laughs and the ladder? This one gives both—part origin story, part strategy guide, and packed with practical moves any comic or creator can use right now. Tap play, then check Jay's 13-minute NateLand showcase and see the craft in action. If this conversation hits, subscribe, share it with a comedy friend, and drop a review with your favorite takeaway.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of the No I Deep with your host Ron Davis. I have here a comedian from Nashville, Tennessee. He's been at Zany's performing their wise guy, Chocolate Sunday's Comedy Bar. He has a comedy album that's available right now on Title, Spotify, and Apple. He's the album has been nominated for the best comedy album at the Jackson Film Festival, and it was selected for the second line film festival entitled Pandemic Jokes, the one and only Jay Flake. How you doing today, boss? I'm doing well, man.
SPEAKER_01:I appreciate the invite on the podcast, bro.
SPEAKER_02:Appreciate the time. I tried to do my little Shannon Sharp thing with my cue card, but it ain't work out that way.
SPEAKER_01:Hey, that was good, man.
SPEAKER_02:That was good, bro. You know how you do. That man got a talk show, can't even talk.
SPEAKER_00:You're right. You see them everywhere. He'd been nominated for 14 grandmys. He got seven grandchildren and four grandbabies.
SPEAKER_02:My grandmother, he always says something like, My grandmother told me if you don't go up to the well to get no water, you're gonna be dehydrated. Well, duh.
SPEAKER_00:You're right. My grandmother said if you eat catfish at 2 o'clock in the morning with hot sauce on, you're gonna have heartburn. I'm telling you, I'm telling what you're saying now. I'm telling what you say now.
SPEAKER_01:How you feeling today, brother? I'm good, man.
SPEAKER_02:I can't complain, man. I'm a uh I'm a fan. I am a fan. I appreciate that, man. About right before I hit you up, you came up on my uh uh Explore page. And then I just you know, YouTube is the power of the world, bro. I was locked in. And if you guys haven't seen the season three showcase on Nate, was it NATO Land's Entertainment?
SPEAKER_01:Nate Nate Land Entertainment, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Nate Land En public school, brother.
SPEAKER_03:Public school.
SPEAKER_02:It is it's amazing. You will be hooked from from it's like I think it's about 10, 11 minutes, and I probably watched it probably watch it a few times, and uh the joke, the the jokes about TSA, parents going to TSA with no socks on.
SPEAKER_00:That's a true story. That is a true story.
SPEAKER_01:But I talk about man, all that all that true stories, man. Y'all, y'all say some people saying jokes, man, them true stories.
SPEAKER_02:You say you never seen a ghost story, a ghost after 1910.
SPEAKER_01:That's it. Hey, bro, you have not heard of no ghosts. Every ghost story ain't nobody out there that died in like 2010 coming back to be ghost, bro. Like, no, it's like, hold on, what's the deal? So I had to, we have had, we would have had to die at a certain point in time to come back and be a ghost. I mean, I ain't heard no slave ghost stories either, so I don't know if they're I don't know, I don't know if black people are allowed to come back and be ghosts.
SPEAKER_02:Nah, you know, the only ghost we like is the holy ghost. We don't exactly, exactly. Don't mess with that, man. I'm sorry to give it away, but I've been watching. Yeah, I wear husky pants. I thought these was top chef Levi as from the back. I'm like, dang.
SPEAKER_01:Somebody told me they still sell husky pants in certain stores. I didn't know that. Yeah, they do. Yeah, I thought it was over with. I thought that this point in time where they, you know, everybody involved in folks' feelings and mental health and stuff. I just figured they just, hey, you in the me in section now. You know what I'm saying? Or something like that. I just thought they just do it like that. Nah. It was like, nah, they still sell huskies. And I and I learned that the women husky was named something else. I can't remember, but they was tagging me in it. Like it's that nah, the women huskies was named, they had a different name for the women.
SPEAKER_02:They try and mask it now as big and tall, but you know.
SPEAKER_01:Hey now, big and tall story. Big and tall started like a 2-3X. They started a 2-3X. Like, where is the skinny tall? I ain't skinny and tall, but it's some skinny dude out there that tall, like, bruh, I ain't got nothing in this soul.
SPEAKER_02:Right. Big and tall be having queen size shirts and king-sized jackets over there.
SPEAKER_01:Let me tell you something. My mama, uh, she does embroidery. And uh she used to do a lot of mega sci-fi stuff. You know, mega sci-fi got some big boys. Bro, she would literally do a design on like a one X shirt that'll cover the whole back of the shirt. Then she's the next dude be like a five X. He'd be like, Man, like that small polo logo on the back of that shirt. It'd be the same, same size logo. And I'd be like, man, that joker look like it's little bitty on the back of that shirt again. So she charge extra for that. Folks get mad. They'd be like, You charging me extra for something over 3X? Yes, because the shirt I gotta buy is like$10 extra. Like, what we talking about?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I'm five foot four. My stuff is I'm I'm on the borderline of men's and boys' husky. I'm like, right in between.
SPEAKER_01:You know what I'm saying? But you but you getting all the Jordans before they sell out, though. You get what size, what size you wear?
SPEAKER_02:Eight and a half.
SPEAKER_01:Eight and a half, yeah, yeah. Yours be in the store. Yeah, you get you can wait two days at the you can wait two weeks at the Jordans come out. Your eight, eight and a half gonna be in there. So it's in there. See, I'm five nine, I wear eleven. If I don't catch it the day it dropped, they gone. It ain't gone. And for me, I just go to the ain't no big and short stuff. You know what I'm saying? I'm chunky, but I ain't tall, so I just gotta find my size wherever.
SPEAKER_02:Man. Man, Jay. How did you how okay? When I went on your website and your YouTube, I made notes, right? You've been doing it for a minute, energetic as hell, true stories raw, right? Like you said earlier. And it's no uh, well, as the young folks say, no cap, but it's no lies that I I it's very believable because I've been in New Orleans. I know it smelled like ass in there. So nice food. Good too. It smells like instinct. How did how did you get your start your start into comedy? And what was your reason behind getting into comedy?
SPEAKER_01:Man, I always enjoyed comedy. Um watched Def Comedy Jam as a kid, and I used to love watching Comic View. People remember comedy used to come on BT. I used to watch Comic View all the time, and none of that led to me to be a comedian. But I used to do stuff around the house with my parents, like I'd cut, I mock family members, we be out, I might mock somebody, we out, and none of that still led to me doing stand-up. What led to me doing stand-up, because it's weird, because it's like all the signs was there. And I just, I don't know. The Lord was just like, not yet, or even I it just never crossed my mind. But I was at, I work in corporate, so I was, I was, somebody was training me at a new job. It was an older black lady and I'm missing Rieto. And I'm in there cutting up, trying to, because to me, training be boring. If anybody knows when you start a new job, go to it'd be you be in there about to fall asleep. So in between time, I always be cutting up a little bit, bust a joke here and there just to keep myself awake. And uh she told me, she was like, You, you done missed your calling. I said, What you talking about? She like, you ought to be, you shouldn't be a stand-up comedian. I was like, I ain't missed that calling, but that's the first time anybody ever said that to me. And I was like, nah, I ain't missed that calling. So what I did was I hit, I asked around to some people, like, how do I get into comedy? I didn't know a dude I went to high school with was running an open mic. So somebody's like, you ought to reach out to Brad, he does an open mic. So I reached out to him and I was like, what's up, bro? Like, I heard you do comedy now. Cause he was doing music, he was rapping before, and then he moved to comedy. And I was like, I heard you was doing comedy. He was like, Yeah. And I was like, somebody told me to hit you up about doing open mic. He was like, Bet, you got five minutes. I was like, I guess I hope so. And he was like, all right, holler at me, I think it was that same week, night, the next week. He said, Holler, it was the that night he had it. And he was like, Come the next week, I got you. So I just wrote down like three jokes, man. And I was like, all right, I went and I told my wife, I said, if I got half the people laughing in here, I keep doing it. If I don't have half the people laughing, all right, I tried it, I'm done. I went in there with three jokes, total three jokes. I had about 75% of the crowd laughing, and it's been on ever since. That's it.
SPEAKER_02:I like how you're on ever since. Def Comedy Jam and Comic View wasn't the reason because boy, I get people up here that laugh all the time. Yeah, man, I was watching Deaf Comedy Jam. I'm like, bro, you 22.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's because it's crazy. I tell people, they really tell me about comp asking me about comedy, and I tell you I used to watch all of that, and none of them made me be like, I wanna be a stand-up. It never happened until Missy Reddit said it that day. And I was just like, let's give it a try, see what happened. I was like, boom. I guess it was always in me. I guess somebody had to say, hey, bro, you should be doing this.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you should. You should, man. Like you the creativity behind you is is is it's fucking genius, bro. I'm not gonna lie to you, man. Now you had a uh comedy, you had a comedy album out called Pandemic Jokes. Uh I'm guessing by the title, it was recorded in the pandemic.
SPEAKER_01:It was recorded there right after, toward the end of the pandemic. It was recorded. It was recorded then uh that's back when I was doing uh blue comedy, y'all. So anybody, anybody who sees this, they'd be like, hold on. The comedy I seen ain't been that was back when I was doing blue. I done switched from blue to clean now. But I recorded it back then. It's a video to it that won't see the light of day. Uh, but the audio is out there. The audio is out there. And it is right. I did put it in film festivals. The visual is out on those film festivals, and I got nominated and all that on the film festivals. However, it was an issue with the final cut of the video that lasted way longer than it should have had. So by the time it got rectified, I was like, well, we way outside the pandemic now. So I mean, I'm not dropping it. I mean, that's how that's that was my call. Like it's old, you know what I'm saying? Like, you had jokes in the pandemic, it's for that time. And after we had all that stuff rectified with the person who did the video and who's gonna get credit for this and that and all that, I was like, man, it just ain't gonna see the light of the day with the video in. Because it's just it's just too old at this point in time. So I like I come out with a with a mask on and everything, you know what I mean? So it's like all that stuff, I mean, it's a rap.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah. How was the pandemic comedy? Like, how was the experience in comedy with during the pandemic? So I remember Zoom shows. That shit was wild.
SPEAKER_01:I did my first corporate show during the pandemic, uh, and it was on Zoom. So they was like, you know, we used to have was for black Microsoft, I think it's the name of the group. There's a lot of black IT people that work for Microsoft. They got like their own little group or whatever, they do stuff. And um, they was like, yeah, we trying to have this, you know, this beat, this conference or whatever. And since, you know, can't nobody come in the office due to the pandemic, you know, we'd like to have a comedian. It was on Zoom. So I was able to do that. And I that made me like clean start making me start like clean up jokes. Because you get paid, you know, you get paid the corporate money doing comedy. Hey, special late. Hey, hey. So um, so I had I had a few of those where it was Zoom shows. Uh, we had some other shows that was like underground shows where basically, you know, uh, didn't nobody really know. You if you knew, you knew. One of them type of situations where we'd gather a whole bunch of people in there and do it because we had regulations on how many people, this, that, another. And then at Zany's, my home club, they would spread everybody out. So it'll probably be at 60% capacity during the pandemic. Instead of filling out, they'll do like 60% and spread everybody out. Another show, because we had the comedy bar here during that time as well, and they had a patio. So I would do a lot of shows out there in the patio. So I really got my chops up during the pandemic because so many, a lot of comedians wasn't coming out, or they were scared to come out. And then the ones who was, we was getting work out the yin-yang because it was like, hey, we'll come out and do the underground show. We'll come out and do the patio show. You know, of course, we was using Licefall and sanitizer like crazy, but it was like, I'm gonna get it. And I was able to get my chops up and able to get in some rooms that probably normally I wouldn't be able to get into, you know, and headline the weekend. I wasn't headlined at the time, but I had like 40 minutes, 45, and I was able to do that. So that was able to grow my comedy during the pandemic. Uh, so that's why I felt like I need to get all this stuff out. Because I did have a lot of jokes during the pandemic, about the pandemic, because to me it was, it was stupid. It was like the rules y'all telling us, y'all told us to do in preschool: wash your hands, cover your mouth, wipe your nose, don't sneeze on people, don't touch people. That was like that was the rules of the pandemic. For some reason, like we we lost that during the pandemic, and you know, don't stand so close to people. Like, this is all the stuff y'all taught us in kindergarten, first grade. And we gotta go back to them basic rules to keep from giving everybody this disease. You know what I'm saying? So I had a bunch of jokes about that and stuff that was going on in my personal life at the time. Uh, so I felt like I really need to get that stuff out. So it's out there on audio. Jokes I don't even tell no more, don't even touch no more. Um, but the visual won't see the day of light. I'm sorry. Unless you was at unless she was at those film festivals. That's the only way we see.
SPEAKER_02:Man, the the pandemic was a crazy time. I was doing Zoom comedy. I was doing I forgot it was some app up there called Curtain Call or something I was using. And that was that was an interesting time. It was actually one of the best times for me as a comedian, anyway, because it forced me to sit at home, write, and study. Yep. It forced me to get better. So that was like the my peak. And the comedy clubs here, they was just shut down. They was everything was shut down. When they finally opened up, they were serving bottles of water and chips.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, just water and chips? That was it. Schools, school, school.
SPEAKER_00:Right. That's their field trip, Montane. All they needed was the sandwich. Right.
SPEAKER_02:Man, we was going through it over in comedy and that thing. It was interesting because I had a couple of COVID jokes, but now it's just like, can't even use them things no more, bro.
SPEAKER_01:Nah, you can't you can't use it, man. Don't nobody even want to think about them times, man. That's the crazy part. Don't nobody want to think about them times because a lot of people, you know, passed away during that time and all that. So I'll tell you what's crazy. Like, I did all them shows, never called COVID, until I got invited to a Christmas party at the comedy club. So I was in and out of comedy clubs doing all these shows in person, never called COVID. They said, hey y'all, we're gonna have a Christmas party at the comedy club at Zanies. We had a Christmas party at Zanies. They're like, for the end of the year, we're gonna throw a big Christmas party, all y'all come, went to Christmas party, called Coke. I was so hot. I was like, so I did all this, never caught it. Went to one Christmas party, called Coke. Great.
SPEAKER_02:I caught COVID at work. That's crazy. First time. Second time I caught it, I was at work. And the last time I caught it, I was in California. And I must have caught it before I even left Virginia. I was dying in the airport in Atlanta. I was like, yo, this ain't this ain't it. I don't think I'm gonna do the show. I never had so many medicine balls from Starbucks in the air. I was I was dying. I was like, nah, this ain't it. So you caught it three times, man. I caught it, I caught it two weeks after I got the vaccination because my job required me to get the vaccine. And I caught it two weeks after. I was like, man, what the f and I was like, I should return this shit, but it's all good, man.
SPEAKER_01:Man, look, let me tell you, I caught and mine wasn't even in bed. Like, I didn't even know I had it until my wife had cooked me some breakfast and they brought us some orange juice. So I'm because I was working from home. So she brought me some breakfast and orange juice. I'm sitting here eating like the bacon, the eggs. I'm like, I was like, I don't even taste, like, what's going on? So I got the orange juice, and you know you drink some orange juice, you're gonna taste that orange juice. I drank the orange juice, it tastes like straight up water. I said, Yep, got cold. I said, I got it. I said, I got it. I said, I can't. But outside of that, I was fine. I like I didn't get sick with no coughing, sneezing, fever. I just couldn't taste and smell.
SPEAKER_02:That was it. Oh, I could I could do taste and smell. When I caught it, story, because people don't know this much. But when I caught it, I got tested two times in the day. Because I was like, ain't no way in hell I got this. So at the time I was staying with my folks, I was scared because then news, if you're over 60 something, you know, you're gonna die with it. I ended up getting a hotel at Red Roof in. In order for me to taste something, I was licking my deodorant to see if I was able to taste. I started losing my mind. I was licking deodorant like ice cream. Degree has a crazy taste to it. Anyway, I was licking deodorant in the hotel, bro. I was so scared.
SPEAKER_01:This man said he was licking deodorant, bro. Licking my deodorant. Hey, if somebody would have seen it, they was like, hey, we gotta get these junkies out of this hotel. Who keeps allowing these crackheads in here? We got somebody here licking deodorant.
SPEAKER_02:Licking deodorant, smelling is like every couple of hours, I'm licking it, man, and I'm like, I'm dying. The covenant wasn't killing you, it was the deodorant that was killing you. I've done this before. I'm taking sense of dining and go like, I can taste the mint, like I'm squeezing in my mouth. Because I was so scared, bruh. And yeah, the next thing you know, all the people in the house caught it. Everybody know. Everybody. I was like, damn, I bring it in the crib. I should have just stayed looking at the odor in that red roof.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's the only way I found out it was over. My wife wouldn't let me leave the room. She was like, nope. She was treating me like, she was treating me like a ceiling on color purple. She'll leave the food at the door and knock on it. I opened the door, she gone. Food just sitting there on the floor. So the only way I realized it was gone. Because I was sitting in the room, I ain't gonna lie. I didn't shower for like two, three days. Because I was just in a bedroom. Like, I'm not, I'm not doing nothing. I'm just I'm just sitting here watching TV and working. And boy, washing dryer had gone out. No, the dryer had gone out. And she was like, look, you can leave the bedroom when everybody go to sleep at like 11, at like 10 o'clock to go find out what's wrong with the dryer. So I pulled the dryer, I jumped behind the dryer and I sniffed. I said, I said, man, what is that? I said, man, they dirty clothes. Funky. So I was working on the dryer, I'm fixing it. I jumped back over the dryer, push it back. I was like, I said, golly.
SPEAKER_00:I said, man, is Simon here? And I did like this. I said, dang, that's me. I said, I said, bro.
SPEAKER_01:I got that shower so fast. I said, well, I'm done with COVID. I said, I'm over here stanking. I've been telling my wife all the time, I said, my funk cured COVID.
SPEAKER_02:This man is musty and I'm licking the order.
SPEAKER_01:I I can see how they say you humans are meant to be around people. Regardless if it's your family, girlfriend, you meant to be around people. Because that whole week I was in here, I'm talking about, I was like, ain't nobody really talking to me. I'm just in here. I ain't taking no, I ain't care about nothing. I ain't shaving my head, I ain't taking no shower, I ain't doing that. You got left alone a few days, you end up licking deodorant. You end up losing your mind. That's what happened. You end up losing your mind.
SPEAKER_02:All I had was Tubi. I didn't have Netflix at the time, so you can imagine the rabbit hole I went down in Tubi. But that that was uh damn, that was an interesting time, man. I ain't gonna be. You the first person on air that heard me say that I didn't look deodorant in the hotel. That is crazy. I gotta taste something, you know what I mean? I had eight. I had eight, and I was like, and then I'm like eating two pants, I gotta taste something.
SPEAKER_01:Something gotta happen. Hey bro, you could have just gone and got peppermints, man, and that would have done the trick. You could have went and got some black licorice. You like anything like that would have done the trick. An onion, anything, this fast liquor deodorant is crazy. But like I said, we you get to be in by yourself for so long, ain't nobody really talking to you ain't seeing nobody. That's what happens. You know, losing your mind.
SPEAKER_02:I think I was like, it's whatever. It's whatever. At that point, I was like, damn, because nobody was answering the phone. I'm in the sketch neighborhood at that. I'm like, I can't fight for shit. Like, I'm just like, I'm like, I ain't about to go ground the street to go get nothing to eat, man. I done eight on the way over here. I'm going home. I had my sister throw my clothes out door outside. You know, it's crazy when you ask people to give you some some clothes, something. They always find the raggediest clothes that you ain't never worn in a year. I done been out of ATT for over five years. They didn't find ATT uniforms with the logo on. Where do you find this? I ain't seen this a year. Samsung S4. I'm like, no, how do you find this shirt in it?
SPEAKER_01:I know this wasn't at the top of the pile. I know this one. You had to search for that shit.
SPEAKER_02:Neck of the collar all pulled down to your chest, polo shirt, the collar all scratched down. I never wear this no more. What fine is that? And they got the dare to give me some sweatpants. I said, the ATT collar shirt, don't even go with sweatpants. I'm already licking deodorant in Tupaces. Now they gotta walk out and check out in this outfit. Man, I left my kid the room and just walked down. I was like, I ain't damn about to see me. Hey, they had you out here looking homeless, man.
SPEAKER_00:A Tyler shirt and some giant pants.
SPEAKER_01:That is the homeless attire right there, man. Just struggling. That is hilarious. Hey, laugh in my pain, bro. That's all you can do, man. Cause that that's the that the whole I'm sure we don't have the work story. I'm sure somebody don't. I'm sure somebody's out there. Yeah, then the pandemic, I was out there doing some wild stuff.
SPEAKER_02:You know what I mean? I think the wildest thing I did was I got so hot, I walked outside and a wife beat her and but basketball shorts, because it was like, I go with COVID New Year's Eve of 2021. I walked outside, it's cold outside. I'm like, oh man, this feels so good. I just I know my neighbors thinking something off me. I said, this just Yeah, it made insane out here. They look at I live in a white neighborhood. I'm like, yeah, I know they think they I'm just walking down the street, just jolly.
SPEAKER_01:But it's all good, man. I'm I'm glad I ain't had none of that. I just lost smell and taste.
SPEAKER_02:That was it. You lost smell. I lost my mind. You sitting there crunching in the room messing with the dryer. And I'm sitting there.
SPEAKER_01:Funky as all get out.
SPEAKER_02:Who were some of your biggest inspirations in comedy? Like, who was that comedian? You was like, damn, I gotta.
SPEAKER_01:It's gonna it's gonna sing, it's gonna sing type. So it's like Bernie Mac, of course. I used to really love watching see it. Uh Dave lately, what Dave was doing at Fire of the Stars. Dave, during this time, he was getting off from get-go. I just like the way Dave could talk about random stuff and just make it funny. Some stuff that's everyday random and make it funny. Here lately, who's an inspiration to me is Ali Sadiq, as I watch him talk about his family stuff and growing up and stuff like that. Because my stuff is based off of that. Uh, it's just stuff in my life and what I grew off of. Because I just always figured, you know, can't nobody say you're stealing jokes if you're talking about stuff that actually happened to you. You know what I'm saying? Stuff happened with my family and stuff like that. You can't say I stole your joke. And I really experienced this, and it's my family stuff. You know what I mean? So I I really love Ali Sadiq's style with the storytelling, this, that, and the other. Uh, so he's been the inspiration lately uh with that. But yeah, though those are the ones. I'm not finna get on here and say some Richard Pride, because I wasn't old enough. I'm not finna say Eddie Murphy. I only saw one, I saw Eddie Murphy acting more than I saw stand-up. Like when his stand-up came out, I couldn't even understand what was going on or what he was talking about. Um so I'm not finna be that taboo with it. So the ones I seen when it came to my Comic View Days, Def Con the Jam, Burning, said Dave, um, you know what I'm saying. And like I said, Ali Sadiq here recently has been inspiration for sure. Sure. Especially from the business end from I leave. From Alien, from the business end, I would love to just sit down with him one time and just go over the business of comedy. He has, man, he's been doing his thing from the business end.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. They won't give him a Netflix special, but this man has been dropping special. For what?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, for what? He don't need it. He's on YouTube killing. And I've seen Domino Effect on Hulu. I don't know how long it's been on there when I logged on last week. Alice D Domino Effect. And that's on Hulu now. So he done got made all that money off YouTube. So this is how he does it, if you don't know, or if any fan out there listen don't know. He'll drop it on Patreon when he gets done with his album. Special. Whenever he get everything your edit cut up, he'll drop it on Patreon and you can get it for like$10,$15 a person. All right, so you make all the money from Patreon from doing that. Then he drop it on YouTube, and then he's gonna get paid from YouTube from all the millions of views that he gets on YouTube. And then now he done sold Domino Effect one on Hulu. So that's another check. So off that one special, the first Domino Effect, he done got three different checks and dropping them in different times, which is crazy. And he and he making a killing off of I ain't count the man pockets, but I'm just going off what he says his process is, and he said he's making good money off of doing that process.
SPEAKER_02:So he's one of the greatest storytellers, and I hate to say this person's name. You know, Cosby was a good storyteller as well, too.
SPEAKER_01:Hey, I say Ali is the greatest out of scene for the fact that you done dropped Domino Steck 1, 2, and 3, and they all run together. It go from one age to another. Like it is, it could be a movie. This I said, when I first watched those, I said, this man done made a comedy album series that could be a movie about his life. You can't watch two without watching one. You can't watch four without watching three. You gotta watch a previous one to even understand what's going on and all those domino effects. I said I ain't never seen that. I heard that before in my life. Not in comedy. Not in comedy. That's crazy.
SPEAKER_02:It's a genius, man. I seen Eile perform a few times here in Virginia Beach. And I'm actually supposed to see him in November. And I do gotta give him his flowers, man. Hopefully, if Eile ever listens to this interview, he comes on the show.
SPEAKER_01:At least let one of us get a guest spot. Yeah. I ain't gonna lie, I showed him to hit him up about a spot. Him and Marcus Wiley. I'd hit both of them up by a can your boy get a spot. I ain't got no responses, but I ain't got none either. I might get blocked, but he just uh I think he just released Patrice O'Neill's special on his YouTube channel. Yeah, he bought it and then he just released it. Yep. Yeah, that was. He bought the rights to his special. Yeah. Damn. So you know he's getting that paper. Caved up, caked up, and he ain't done drop it special. That's the crazy part. He ain't done dropping special. He said he got like three more he gonna do.
SPEAKER_02:You getting paid because he's touring doing it while he's on tour, so he's getting paid from the tour. Then you put it on Patreon, YouTube, and then selling it to like a Hulu too. And I know he got a couple, him and Marcus got one. They stuffed some of their stuff on um Tubi. Yeah. Hey man.
SPEAKER_01:That's the way with the future. You gotta go where the people are, man. You gotta go with people are wherever you at. If you ain't got Tubi, if you ain't got Hulu when you got Tubi, I'm dropping it there too. You know what I mean? They gotta go where the people are, make that money.
SPEAKER_02:That's it, because Lil Rail just had his special come up about a couple of weeks ago. The first Tubi special, original Tubi special that it is. And that was actually pretty decent. Is there a comedian?
SPEAKER_01:I forgot about Earthquake. Earthquake just dropped a special Netflix too. And he's one of my inspirations too. Earthquake, he just dropped one on Netflix.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I think it's the second one up there. I think it came out either today or uh Tuesday. Uh Tuesday. It came out on Tuesday. Is there a comedian that you work with that you was like in awe? Like he's like, man, this this person here is a beast. Like the way that they maneuver the crowd, the business behind the scenes.
SPEAKER_01:It'd probably be a little controversial. Andrew Schultz. I got the opportunity uh to open up for Andrew Schultz when he came to Zanies. So it was inspirational to watch him and I work because he his kind of unorthodox, the way he does his comedy. And it's just it was just amazing sitting and watch him, the way he can control the crowd, the stuff he does, you know, from the business end of it. Because I was able to hear some of the business end of it when I came, when he came back, and then we just sitting around talking. So the way he was able to rise up and come, you know, the stuff he was doing on Instagram, he was mainly, and I could be wrong, but he was mainly one of the first ones that were just clipping up their jokes and just putting stuff out, like every day, every other day, every week. And he was just putting stuff out, putting stuff out uh on Instagram and uh uh Facebook and YouTube. So um it was just amazing to be with him and see how that. Matter of fact, when I opened up him, it was during the pandemic, and uh he went and wrote a song. He got a song called Open Her Up, and he was talking about the pandemic, like we need to open everything back up. So it was just amazing just to see how he move, operate, think about jokes. Because me and him, because we would sit back there and have a conversation about something. And you think it's nothing. We just back there just chatting it up. 15 minutes into a set, what y'all was talking about backstage, this is what he was making a joke about on stage. And it worked, and people like busting out. Laughing. And I'm like, that's crazy. That's crazy. So I don't know if he would he had the joke already and just asking you about something. You know how some people will, some comedians will test their joke on you in conversation and you don't know it. You know what I mean? So I mean it was just great to see that writing process. I was able to sit with uh Ikash as well when he came back through and he was recording his album. He wanted people I was able to see like get prepared for an album, you know, go over stuff. Because it was just a two-man show. It was just me and him. So, you know, I'm back there timing it. He was like, How long was it? I said, Oh, you got done telling jokes like 55 minutes. I gotta find two more minutes. Or he'll go, he'll go over, you know, two minutes and what he wants and be like, oh, I gotta find a way to shave this down. So just being in a room with him and watching that process of doing the album and you know, getting it to the point of I need the exact minute. You know, I need this, I need this recording to be 58 minutes. And just trying to find the jokes to be right at 58 minutes, and you know, what he need to cut back, what he needs to add on, like that that was great too, just to sit back and see that. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah. Got to see D.L. Hugley perform. Now I didn't get the business side, but the way that he protected his brand was crazy. And the way he told his jokes, like I went to a six o'clock show, and then Odacious didn't have uh he couldn't make the index show, so when he was doing crowd work, I told him it was a comedian, he gave me a guest spot. And he told the same set the same way. And it it it it astonished me how he did that. Now behind the camera, he just like, man, just keep going, baby boy. I'm thinking he's supposed to draw some jewels on me, but it might be because he ain't know you, you know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_01:It might be because he ain't know you, but you know, some some people, you know, it just depends. Some people drop them jewels on you, and then some won't because they might have been hurt by or or, you know, because green room conversations as comedians like you and I, whatever said in the green room, stay in there. But some comedians, they like to run their mouth. So yeah, you and the headliner having a decent conversation back there, you think they ain't gonna leave the green room next thing you know, they done took it to YouTube. Yeah, Hugley said, blah, blah, blah. You know, it's like, eh, I don't really know you, so I might not say too much. Another, another comedian that's teaching me the business end, who I'm on the road with now, Aaron Weber, that's who I'm on the road with, quite. I'm featuring for him, and he's teaching me something about the business too. So it's good to have those conversations with him about the business end of it and protecting your brand and you know, what to do, what not to do, stuff like that. Because a lot of a lot of comedians don't share, you know, that bit. You don't know about it until you win. Yeah. You know what I mean? So I suggest any comedian, if you know, if you run across an owner of a club and they just in the green room talking, just stop what you're doing, just sit and listen. Because you probably about to learn something. You know what I'm saying? I ain't gonna say it's all the time you're gonna learn something, but it's a good chance you're gonna learn something about the business if an owner of a club, manager of a club, or somebody who's been doing it for a long time, and just sitting in there talking. Because sometimes you ain't gotta answer. Sometimes they just get to talking, you just sit back there and just listen and just soak it all in. You know what I mean? And then just see, see what you learn out of that. So that's that's how I learned a lot of stuff and just being a fly on the wall and just listening and just soaking stuff in, you know, because if you if you had, if you featuring for somebody or you got a guest spot or hosting for somebody, and they allow you to be in the green room. If it's a big timer, like somebody who done stole that a bunch of shows, most of the time the owner or managers gonna come in there and just be like, hey, how you doing? And they're gonna chop it up. That's your time to take the headphones out your ear, sit and just listen, because you might, you probably finna learn something. Thanks.
SPEAKER_02:You see that a lot, man. That green room was crazy. Comedians do do, yeah, yeah. I ain't gonna, you know, some comedians do go on YouTube and go do a bunch of, especially since the Cat Williams interview on Club Shea Shay Mig. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I ain't understand. Flock folks got mad at Shannon Sharp for that. He ain't do nothing. He just sit there and let the man, the man just talked. Shannon didn't really say a lot at all. Why y'all mad at him? Y'all mad at the wrong person.
SPEAKER_02:That man, that interview came out. It was a lot of comedians. I'm like, bro, we on the open mic circuit right now. Ain't none of us showcase. No. We just not on, we that's millionaires fighting in. We trying to get to day spot. Why we even worried about it? I know I'm going, I know he's going through.
SPEAKER_01:I'm like, no, you don't. No, nah, nah. That's a whole nother comedy level. We ain't got you yet. So let them folks, let them comedians have theirs.
SPEAKER_02:Before we sign off on this interview, once again, Jay, I do appreciate you um coming on and doing the interview, bro. It's it's been a blessing. Because one of the things I I do like to say, because I'm very humble, is time is an expensive thing that you can't get back. So you two allot me, you know, 45 minutes of your time is I really appreciate that, man. I really appreciate it.
SPEAKER_01:Man, I appreciate the invite, man. I was surprised. I was surprised when you was in the inbox. I was like, You want to wanna do my podcast? I'm like, oh hell yeah, I'll do it. Let's do it.
SPEAKER_02:Because I you know what's crazy? I was like, man, this man got a special out on YouTube. Let's see if he's gonna respond back. Because I didn't hit up a few people that got specials and they won't respond back. I had one just literally read the message and was like, What's the podcast about? I'm like, bruh, what are you doing? I'm like, this is our record. So I do appreciate it. Because I was like, Yeah, you were reachable, and man, we we joke so much up here, and I didn't open up about licking deodorant to you.
SPEAKER_01:Hey, that was funny, bro. I ain't gonna lie, I'm not gonna forget that. I'll be honest with you.
SPEAKER_02:I might pop up and see you out there, like, hey, hey, you may got them deodorant in your book back.
SPEAKER_01:Nah. Hey, them folks need to give you a commercial for that, bro. You need you need a sponsorship. From whatever brand that was, you need a sponsorship. Degree. It was degree. Degree need to be sponsoring this podcast, bro.
SPEAKER_02:Hey, man. It was crazy because I used to do the roll-on deodorant, now I do the spray. Ever since I licked it that one time, like, you know what? It's over. It's over. I think I'm gonna go to spray now. You know, the whole zone can get a little hole in the hand there. I'm not licking no more. That's funny. But if the folks want to follow you, brother, and and get in contact with you, how can they do that?
SPEAKER_01:Oh man, it's uh J Flake, the the word, not the letter J. J-A-Y. F-L-A-K-E underscore comedy on Instagram, J Flake Comedy on uh Facebook, J Flake Comedy, on TikTok, uh, YouTube is J Flake Comedy as well. The website, Jflake Comedy.com, everything J Flake Comedy. And you get you can look it up. I post my schedules and stuff on my on my Instagram page and on my website. You can go there. So meet me out in these streets. I got some dates coming up. Uh be in some different places, uh, featured for Aaron Weber. So, you know, you get to see me. You won't get to see me for an hour, but you get to see me do about 25, 30 minutes or whatnot. So, you know, and do that. And also check out on the Nate Land Entertainment YouTube page. Check out my 13-minute showcase uh on there as well. I promise you, it's gonna be it's 13 minutes of heat. Rome done told y'all, it's 13 minutes of heat. Go on there, listen to it, share it with your people, share it with your friends, leave a comment.
SPEAKER_02:Hey man, go, yeah, go check out the special. I'm gonna call it a special, man. Man say, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:That's a true story. True story. My daddy, little, like he and my daddy, he probably is to weigh 15 pounds more than what he weighed in high school. That man's 70 years old.
SPEAKER_02:Man say yeah. He little, man. Y'all went through TSA and your mama took her shoes off and had no socks on. I'm like, what?
SPEAKER_01:Ain't no way somebody's feet should be just raw dog in the floor like that. There's no way. No way. Your toes just hitting the floor like this right here. Just nah, bro. And look, people start paying attention to that. It's a lot of people that do that. They don't have no socks on gonna do TSA, bro.
SPEAKER_02:A lot of people, a lot of people. But I appreciate you, Jay. And if you guys want to get in contact with me, Comedian Rome on all social media platforms, no ID Podcast on Instagram and YouTube is at ComedianRome Davis. You'll see this interview plus other interviews and my stand-up, as well as my mother's stand up as well, too, all on my one channel. So, man.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, your mom is a comedian too?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, man.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, y'all got a family business going on, man. That's fire.
SPEAKER_02:Hey, man, she just don't do open mic. She's like, I gotta watch Madlock. I'm too old for to go out there with uh, I can't do all that smoke in the area. I'm like, that is hilarious. I be trying to get her out there. She's like, nah, man, you know, I did a show Friday. I said, You wanna come? They smoke weed out there. I can't be around that. Well, you got it.
SPEAKER_01:I did a smoking jokes in LA one time, bro. And them folks gave me like 15 minutes. And I tell you, about halfway through my set, I was done. Because I don't smoke. So I got how everybody was lighting up, the whole room filled with smoke. I called contact, bro. I didn't know what was going on.
SPEAKER_02:I did a cigar lounge last week. I did a cigar lounge, black-owned cigar lounge. I used to smoke, but I just couldn't do it. They had CBD cigars, people ordering it. I'm like, how you ashing your cigar would next to the chicken wings? I went up, I went up first. You know, etiquette, you know, you gotta stay the whole show. Take the picture after the show. I was in that thing, like, bro, I stink so bad. And I'm in there just because right behind the comedians, we won't smoking, but the the ones that was behind us, they was just pop up. This is just the smoke just coming out. I mean, I was like, I'm about to drive home my drawers, bro. I stink so goddamn. Well, I don't want to stink my car up like this, man. You know how it is. You gotta roll with the windows, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:It'd be the worst. You get home and you just smell the smoke on you, bro. It'd be worse.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, man. It's my homie talking about go get a uh Vicks travel tab and take a shower. Clear your sinuses. I said, Man, my sinuses is done right now. Nah, it's a wrap. Yeah, it's crap. We good. We're good. But Jay, I appreciate you, brother. We're gonna sign off, man. I appreciate you. Thank y'all, man. Thank you.
