 We on boss talk one-on-one, one-on-one. Yeah, we gon' talk, we gon' have fun. We be on fire, we be live lit, lit. It's a unique hustle. Check it, check it, check it. It's a unique hustle. It's your boy, E.C.O. And I'm here with the lovely, amazing official Mr. Maker. Let's going on. Walk on, you know my damn? Already, man. Hey, man, we got a guy here today, y'all. He really don't need no introduction. This guy right here, man, you know, if you see him at the improv, he gon' say something that he shouldn't be saying when you walk in with your wife. He gon' just go to talking craze and say, man, you ain't even on the tip. You ain't even on the tip. I'm like, nigga, what is you doing, bro? Talk to her. The nigga is here, y'all. He talked his way up on the set. Y'all would never guess who this is, man. Black Run is in the building, man. What's going on? Man, see, I don't even like how you. Check it, man. Stop playing with me, dude. We ain't gone on boss talk, man. I don't like how you presented it to the people. But tell the truth, then. I mean, you know, you know, I'll just say that that was a unique narrative. I'll put it like that. No, no, no, no. Did it happen or did it not help? I mean, when you say it like that. It's the way how you say it. That's what he said. Yeah, it ain't the facts. It's the way you presented it. Well, okay, give me your perspective. Okay, so I'll say it like this. Don't worry about it, man. Let's get on with the show, man. Come on, man. Not him say his narrative. I was trying to kill this nigga off right now. I got him on boss talk, baby. See, you see how you do? You see how you do? I love it, man. I love this, man. It's the luck of home training. I really don't appreciate it. One one, man, enough respect. Big up yourself. Yes, sir. Big up yourself. Man. One one. Thank you so much for coming on the show for a while. Man, I didn't do it for you. You didn't make me feel welcome for none of that. He gave me the wrong directions. Say, listen, man. I'm gonna be honest with you. I was really like, dang, who is this dude that really gonna just bump? Just gonna bump on me. And then my photographer, this dude, this videographer guy, he said, man, that's black. My nigga who? He was on me, man. So ever didn't. So I went and did my research, man, and found out that night, man, dope show, man. I appreciate it. You and she go beam, man. I ain't gonna lie, man. You know, it's certain shows I've watched Eric when people invite us down. And that was one to be remembered, man. The way you, you kept the crowd involved, bro. You know what I'm saying? You really, really put it down, you know, and you know what you're doing. This is a gift. I remembered you from back over in, I think it was DeSoto or Duncanville. Which one was it? Duncanville. Duncanville, and you was over there. Legend? Yeah, man. Man, that's a long time ago, too. Long, long time ago. We came a long way from legends, baby. I know it, man. Just to come right back to the improv. You see that? We went all the way around the world with the comedy, all the way around the world with Boss Talk, come all the way back to the improv and this nigga still don't know who I am. Let's go, baby, come on, get him. So where were you born and raised? Oakleaf. Oakleaf. I know you were saying that the other day. So what part of Oakleaf? Well, okay, so came up, born in Singer Hills, came up in a little bit of area right off of Keyston Cockery Hill, known as Weston Park. If you know about it, you know about it. You know what I'm saying? Did my two litch over at Kimber High School, you know what I'm talking about? I matriculated over the El Centro, did graduated from middle college, high school class in 2003. After that, took up residence over in a little part of town known as Red Bird. You understand what I'm saying? Got a little thugging and a little bit of bug in the end over there off the Westmoreland and Wheatland streets. You feel me? And then after that, had a child in 2011, started my comedy career in 2011 and the rest is history and the making. So hold on, okay. I'm gonna ask you. Don't let him get away that easy. We gotta get back in there. Yeah, I'm gonna get back into that, but I wanna ask you. So growing up, I'm sure you didn't wanna be a comedian as a kid growing up, right? No, nobody wants to be a comedian at first. Okay. But you have a gift for Gab, even as a kid, right? Or were you a shy kid? No, never. Never a shy kid. Never was a shy kid. So if you have a gift for Gab, tell me about a time where maybe you were about to get into a fight or you were about to, somebody was harassing you or whatever. You had to use that gift to get out of it. My gift for Gab has gotten me in fights and out of fights. Tell me, give me a story. Okay, I'll give you a story about the last fight I got into. When was that last week? No, no, no, we don't fight no more. Okay, just checking because y'all were talking about that earlier. I fight cases, not people. Oh, okay. So when I was still engaging in pugilism, you know what I'm saying? A fan of the fester cuffs, as it were. I was 22 years old. I'll never forget. I'll never forget. What was Jay Mother's Day? I think it was Mother's Day. Two guys had said- You go and fight, try to fight on Mother's Day? It was either Mother's Day or Easter. I wanna say it was Mother's Day. Okay. So came home that Sunday afternoon, ain't got nothing to do. Don't nobody feel like playing basketball. We just gon' go over to my partner group stayed in the same apartment complex. We gon' smoke bloods, play dominoes, bullshit the rest of the day away. Get over there. He already got company over there. It's one of his partners and his partner's OG. Okay. And they're old ladies. Okay. Everybody over there having a good time. They playing uno at first. We switched from uno to the dominoes. Okay. On the domino tape, I'm finding ass up. I happen to have mastered in dominoes while attending Grammar State. But before that, I was already good cause I'm from Oak Cliff. You know what I'm saying? So everybody from Oak Cliff can play domino? Pretty much, pretty much. We can either fight, run fast or play dominoes. You get one of them skills. Just come in the water. That's the pipe through Alpha Five Mile Creek. But anyway, so I'm whooping that ass on them dominoes quite effectively. Okay. So he wanna start roasting. That's also something that we all are proficient at down in Oak Cliff Texas. We'll roast the hair off your back. We're on your ass like back pockets. I'm talking about, we all quit it. Quit. He wanna roast. Okay. He didn't know that I'm good at this. Okay. Turn that ass up. But he in front of his old lady and his OG. He can't lose. He shouldn't have started it. Now why this grown ass man still had a growner man that he considered his OG up around him and felt the need to impress him? I don't know. But EC, you know, Mr. Mackey, you done seen it. Whenever two dudes are roasting back and forth, arguing back and forth, doing anything competition wise back and forth in front of a woman and he go. So now he wanna start flexing on me. So I'm tearing his outfit up. So he go, whatever nigga, I got a pocket full of money. I found, well take some of that money and go buy yourself some style. And that's when his old lady started laughing. And that's the way. And that's when that nigga snapped. He come across the table, come around the table and I'm standing there and I'm smoking a squirt and I'm laughing cause I'm killing you and we having a good time. I didn't think it was finna get violent until he got violent. He was like, whatever nigga say something else and I bush in your mouth. And I looked at that man dead in his face and I said something else and I hit the square. Again, I looked off to blow the smoke cause I wasn't gonna blow it in his face. So I ain't disrespecting you. I'm just tying your ass up, pause. So as I look off. And he hit you. He fired off. Now he five nine, five eight, two forty. He stuck it with it. He swung with all his might. He thought that was gonna be enough to clean me up. I'm sitting here having a in a dialogue. Like, did this nigga just hit me? While I'm asking myself this question, he let go of another one file. I say, that nigga did just hit us. Twice. He get ready to file off the third one. And you ain't, you ain't even gotten on the floor with them punches. I haven't even got into the fight with him yet. He fight me all by himself. I'm not even in the moment. Because I'm still rolling off of the fact that I just killed the room so hard I got your own lady laughing at you. So he get ready to throw the third one. Cause now he mad that I ain't even wobbled, stumbled or none of that. He didn't got two free clean ones. Now I went into Super Saiyan mode. I don't remember what happened next in the fight. My brother told me to fight later on. He was like, man, I'm sitting there wondering what the fuck was wrong with you. You just let it go, just spar off on you. He was like, didn't even got ready to throw the third one. And you just weeded him and slapped that nigga hand down and fed that nigga three of them real, real fast. Now I remember hitting him and then resetting. When I reset, he realized, oh no, he can fight too. Now he won't play football. Tackle you. Now he wanna tackle me, but I'm already in the corner and my legs is already up against the chair. So there's nothing else, yeah. So I ain't got nowhere to go. So now you wanna bullrush me. I end up hitting my head on the microwave. Cause we in my pot in the living room, right by his kitchen, we tan, we fucking furniture up. I remember we destroyed that man's living room. He had a big ass glass table. All of that was fucked up, all the chairs. So the glass table hit me right here in my head. I would have threw water in y'all. And the microwave hit me right here in the head. I remember, I remember. Did it slice you? No, it just left a permanent knot right here. So I remember that his old lady, my partner who else we was over, had just had a baby a few months ago. So she was in the back, tending to the baby and everything like that. She heard all this thumping and rumpling going on in her living room. She come out, she screaming. She hysterical. Cause we in there really fighting. We fighting fighting. Fight get broke up. Now he mad cause he ain't win the fighting either. You ain't win the roast contest. You didn't lost your pride in front of your old lady. I go back to my house cause now I won't put on different clothes. I wouldn't even dress to fight. Let me go get ready. Let me go get dressed and we can come back over here. And do it around too. And we can do this for real in this grass and all this air and this opportunity. We ain't gotta get in no corner in the living room and my leg get tangled up in the chair. You know, like back in the cliff, everybody mama had these same chairs. They was brass and like they had a back on it. And then the legs and then the bottom of the leg swooped down into like a little U and then on the bottom, the bottom was connected with a little circle. So it was all one little piece. So what nowhere for my lead to go when it got, that's the only reason why I was on the ground. Otherwise I'd have just fed him to leave a fool standing up. But now that we stood and recalibrated, come on, let go fight for real. And my partner came over there and was like, bruh, I know you don't want to let it go. But for me, please let it go. Because that nigga there, he not necessarily about that life, but the nigga that he with is really about that life. And I don't want that nigga to do something to you, trying to impress the nigga that he with. So for me, please let it go. And you did. Because I didn't lose the fight. If I'd have lost, I'd have been like, here and all that shit. I'm back over there and nigga just got to show me. But I had won the fight and I had won the roast. There was no reason for me to go back over there other than pride. And I had a mean ass nod on my shit. And I just want to dirty your face up like mine is. Like you got to leave with a scar too. But I left with a lesson. Niggas get in their feelings. They do. You should already knew that. But then five years later, my comedy career started. So then I realized, oh, that skill that I had that always got me in the fights. That always got me out of trouble with principles and police officers and stuff like that. But always got me into it, you know what I'm saying? With gangsters and other parties and stuff. That was for a reason you were practicing. I was holding the skill I didn't know I had in the bag. So where did you get it from? Your mama, daddy, who was funny? Everybody. Everybody? I'm low-key like the third or fourth funniest person in my immediate family. Who was the funniest? My daddy is the funniest person in my family. Why? Because he raw like that. Really, just off the dome. My daddy is hilarious. My daddy is one of the funniest dudes because he ain't never lying. Like he's being dead ass for real with you. But like the way he says stuff is just so for real that you can't help but laugh. And but my mama is like the witty person. Like my mama gonna say something slick and you gonna walk off and he like, wait a minute. You jammed me right then. Like so like, don't say nothing stupid in front of my mama. She gonna bring that back. Wait a minute, you said what? You do, huh? Wait a minute, run that back. Like, and then my little brother is actually funnier than me. Really? Is he going into the comedy too? Well, he did stand up for a little bit. Oh, for a little bit, so he stopped? Well, because music, he always had the same name. Everything was always- Yeah, shut up. Man, I gotta force you to give your brother a shout out. I was saying it while you were saying, give me a shout out. I said everything was always asthmatic. So shout out to my brother. Hell no, he ain't been letting nothing out. Yeah, he's a biological brother. Yeah, that's my biological brother. That's how I was, man. I can't get my brother to do it. Now I'm jealous as hell right now. No, because we always came up- I can't get my brother to do nothing. My brother was my first writing part of it. My brother was the first soundboard, my brother. That's how I knew I was funny enough to be on stage. We used to sit up at night and play a game called You Can't Make Me Laugh. Just my brother and I. And you tried to be serious. Just my brother and I. Who lost? So this is how you play the game. You tried to be serious. No, number one, you're supposed to be in, you're supposed to be in went your ass to sleep. But we laying in the bed, staring at the ceiling. Look over like, bro, what? You wanna play You Can't Make Me Laugh? And now we got to argue for about five minutes over whose turn it was last time we played, where last time we left off who turned it was. So now let's just say it's my turn. I'm gonna try to say the funniest things I can. The minute you laugh, it's your turn. And we gon' play until we go to sleep. That's good. I don't care if it's a joke, you just shout out something funny like you got Tourette's, you fart, whatever it is. You can't make me laugh. Because we got a weapon for laughing in church one time. Y'all try to mimic the pastor or something? No, no, we got weapons at home for that. Cause you know, old black folks don't like we mock nobody. So don't be mocking nobody. Especially the pastor. Don't be mocking the pastor. We be at home playing, who is this from the church? And then we start doing something that they do. Like we gon' shot like sister so-and-so, we gon' fall out like brother so-and-so, we gon' say something that this Deacon I always say, but we was at church one time and this lady fell during the laying of the hands. You know, you gon' get a little dose of that Holy Ghost. Get your little dose of that Holy Ghost. But she had walked up on the pool pit to give the guest pastor something and everything. He just grabbed her by her hand and hit her with a little bit of that Holy Ghost one time and her foot slipped and didn't catch right there. But what done? But the stairs going back down to the congregation that way she just right back down to the congregation. And everything would have been cooler if we hadn't never looked at each other. And how old were y'all? Oh, I wanna say we three years apart. So we was probably like eight and 11 around about that time. Mm-mm, mm-mm, mm-mm. Like, you know, as soon as it hit you, you sniggled. Your momma say, you better not, you, your momma be talkin' through her teeth. You better not laugh. You better not laugh, you better not laugh. She knew y'all gon' laugh. About a whole minute went by, we thought we had survived it. Cause you know, you look down, you sniggled a little bit, you get yourself together. All right. I can go back to being a good child and look up in the joy service a little bit. Did you look at it? They looked at me and we lost it. And we lost it so much that like we couldn't be contained. My momma was like, all right, that's enough. But it wasn't enough. We gotta get a little bit more. I'm gonna say that's all right when y'all get home. Not gon' tear it up. Be charred as soon as we get to the high house. As soon as she went play. Ain't nothin' funnin' in. Joke over right there. Let me ask you about your, just how your career started. You know, like in the comedy lane, like you really like, and when I say started, it already started, but just meetin' with all of these people, man, to know the Chico beans, to know the while in our cast and just to be the done of things that you're accomplishing need to be duly noted. So I mean. Without bragging. Without bragging. Let me finish givin' you kudos, cuz. Like I say, just seeing you in reform after we had talked at the comedy show. I found out that I was talkin' to a guy that really was that guy, you know? So I really respect that, man. And how could I have slipped up and not known? I'm supposed to know that. You know what I'm sayin'? I'm rockin' with them boys. Carlos been on here. You know what I'm sayin'? People that been through here. Shout out to my boys. Carlos Miller, Chico bean, they called me like we know that this is goin' down over here. So them guys mean a lot to me and I should've been up on this. So then Alex Thomas, you and him was on the same type show. I should've seen that and I'm like, damn. Man, Alex did plenty of shows together, actually. Yeah, Alex's a good one. I had on here a Bubba Dub, one of them. That's my guy. Like for some reason this show has become a base for the comedians, Faze On Love, you know what I'm sayin'? So I know that, so I embraced that because I knew that that was an open lane for that. The respect that was due on a noted platform in this market wasn't here. So I knew when I went, I was gonna go get them guys. That's why I rolled up on it the way I did. Cause I was like, cause at first when you were doin' boss talk, you were interviewing street cats, self-made men, ballers, hustlers. So it really wasn't a space for cats in my realm. Then I look around, you got one comedian on here. I'm like, okay, that's cool. Cheatin' ass Myron. Yeah, yeah, Cheatin' ass Myron on there. Then you go to Jesse. I'm like, well, you know, Jesse handed cable booths so he might've been doin' somethin' for the disabled. You know what I'm sayin'? Then you had Country Wayne on here. I'm like, you know, Country Wayne self-made millionaire. He the first internet millionaire, you know? That, you know, that's the reason. But then you start like just all the niggas that work with me. But we had Faze On before we even had him, you know? And then, that's what I'm sayin'. So we got Faze On, Carlos, Chico, Bubba Dub. Alex Thomas. And I'm like, wait a minute. I just got off the road with half that lease. Rungee. Rungee. Rungee was only in town for two days. We been in L.A. We been traveling everywhere. That's crazy. We were not well in. So I hope in some of your homework that you did on me, you went and saw that I got some of the highest views at the lab factory. Yeah, I seen it. That was what I'm sayin'. That's not me and Rungee or cool. So I'm like, that's when it started. That's when I started to take it person. I'm like, so I feel like he fuckin' with everybody but me. So, you know, maybe it's cause I never walked up and shook the man hand and told him, you know, I like what he doin'. But in telling you that I liked what you doin', my feelings got in. I was like, man, I like what you doin'. But fuck what y'all goin' on. Why you ain't had me on there, baby? I'm him. Cause I don't like bragging, bro. But I'm low-key the highest decorated black comedian from Dallas. And I used to say the highest decorated comedian from Dallas, but here lately, my man Ralph Barbosa been tanned it up. And he's here in Dallas, huh? He's an Oak Cliff native. And he, shout out to my essays. That's also just as Oak Cliff as we are. You know what I'm sayin'? But I like D. Ellis. Hey. I am the highest decorated comedian. I don't care who, you feel the name, that nigga don't have more credits than me. Yeah, yeah. The only credit that Ralph has that I don't have is Jimmy Fatty. He just performed on Jimmy Fatty. Wow, that's big. He just gotta write up in the L.A. Times. That's big. He just gotta write up in Variety Magazine. That's hard. He just got through beefin' with George Lopez. Really? You know what I'm sayin'? Call for what? Over the fact that George pulled the EC. EC only did nothin' to you wrong. George didn't know who Ralph was. Oh, that's crazy. So they said, hey, George, what you think about the new kid Ralph Barbosa? People sayin' he the next you. He was like, what the fuck is Ralph Barbosa? Then he asked his assistant, you ever heard of a fucking Ralph Barbosa? I ain't never heard of that. Ralph Barbosa. Not knowing that Ralph is the new rising star and he's a Latino and he's always looked up to George. He's always admired George. So you shittin' on one of your on one of your projays and biggest fans. So when George found out about that, he called Ralph up personally. And was like, bro, I was just talking shit on a podcast. I genuinely did not know who you were, never heard of you. Shout out to you, young man. I see what you out here doin' salute. And that's big because the OGs really don't take that kind of humility when talkin' to us young cats, you know what I'm sayin'? So, but before this last three months that Ralph been on this meteoric rise, Black Run was the highest decorated comedian from Dallas. But I think it also has to do with, cause you know, George Lopez, he's older. Right. And then we are older too. So it's a case where- No, don't put yourself in there with him. Thank you, babe. He old. Thank you, babe. Y'all, Mr. and Mrs. old. I appreciate you, babe, you know. So it's a case where- I don't remember what happened. A lot of times, a lot of times- I can tell you what happened. Start lovin' you, feedin' you all that cheese and greasin' shit. Wouldn't let you put no beige in in your bed. No, I like it with a little gray in it. Yeah, turn it into a paw paw. I never did the faded shade and thing. Bruh, you know why? You know why? Cause you had money and because your old lady is good looking. Anytime you are successful as a black man, you have no need to live a fake ass life. Thank you so much, man. And you was never tall. So you was already secure in your stuff. I always was cutting up. That's how I know you can fight. Cause you're maxed out at 5'9". Little bitty niggas, they either real insecure or real secure. I've been through a lot, man. You know what I think why a lot of people, not him, but why a lot of people are now wearin' their grays more? You know, man? Cause of me. No. No, cause they said it. Cause for real guys, it's not in this. Exactly. Wait a minute. You see a lot of these young men who are actually having, you know, wearing their grays. Some people even dye theirs gray to have that sorta look, that GQ look and females are goin' crazier. Everybody was hadin' their grays until a lot of quarantines. You know, you see the DMs, you know what's goin' down, I mean they are they. Everybody hid their gray hair into the quarantine. Steve Harvey, Kevin Hart, P. D. D. All the actors and Jamie Foxx, everybody hid their grays or shaved so you wouldn't know that they were gray. Until quarantine. Until the quarantine when the barbershops and the beauticians was out of commission and your dye girl couldn't get through there and that just for me, I don't really make it in that Hollywood, Beijing shade that you need, that trick and niggas shade. So they start wearing their grays. And on TikTok, you saw all them Zaddies that kept showing it everywhere. Wow. And that was nothin' but a rollover of beard gang. Y'all remember Mr. Steel, your grandma? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Teacher from Houston. Man, they fucked around and showed a picture that his school ID picture without the beard and everybody was like, ah, get my grandma back. They even had a beard, make her man look grown. It distinguishes us. I gotta pull you back, man. I gotta pull you back. I gotta talk about your career. I gotta talk about your accomplishments. My people need to know there's a lot of people that wanna, you know, they wanna do comedy. They wanna be like you. You know what I mean? You gotta give them the blueprint, print, black run to where they can learn, man. And you that, you the go through guy. Don't do what I did. How long you been doin' it now? 12 years. 12 years. You waited 12 years. Late or so? No, well that, I felt like I waited about five years too late. But that's just my own little personal thing that I gotta deal with myself because I never thought I was good enough to do this. Like I'm funny at the barbecue. I can pull a girl. I'm good at a job, but professionally I never considered myself a real comedian. Even after I was the best in Dallas and had been for years, I doubted myself. It's what took me so long to get on the road. It's what took me so long to get into competitions. But hold on. Where did that stem from? Were as a child, were you raised like that? To be fearful? No. People say subconsciously like your mama said something and you see kids hold that and self-confidence is not there because of that. No, that wasn't where my fear looked. Where did it come from? My fear lied in the fact that when you go into something that's popularity-based you have to be what people like. And when you come up being something that most people don't like that gives you the confidence to be yourself. But it also puts you in a place where you're scared to go where you have to get validation from others. So in comedy, as funny as you may think you are you gotta go on that stage and the people in that room are gonna validate you. They're gonna validate whether or not that's a good joke or not. So I had to deal with that. And then after growing up in church and you watching people that suck still get clapped for because it's the proper thing to do. Then you watch something like American Idol and person like Simon Tillerson. I don't know why you even thought to do this with your life. It's because they've been lied to the last 25 years while they was at church saying, baby, you could be a star. You need to be in Hollywood. You need to be on TV. So I never let the locals people love for me give me an over inflated ego. Even though they were seeing something in me I ain't seeing myself like, no, bro, you got it. I'm like, I just got it to you. Cause if I go to New York, I go to LA, I go to Chicago, I go to Atlanta places where comedy was supposedly made and validated. If I don't have it to them, I don't got it. Is it different in every state? Like when you're telling your jokes or when you go different places, do you have to switch up your jokes a little bit? Depends on where you are to cater to the people. Some things are regional. Okay. Certain logo, lingo, certain words that they call this, they call it something else in a certain, in another part of time. And you have to learn all of that. Right, like down here we say soda water. It's pop in other places. It's coke in other places, you know what I mean? So you gotta learn little interchangeable stuff like that. But for any comedian that's starting out, get away from telling jokes that are funny to the people around you. Because that's a joke you can't use nowhere else. Get away from using stores and places of business that are local to you. Cause nobody else knows it. Ain't no Kroger in certain parts of the world. Right. You know what I mean? Ain't no Pigley Wiggler, ain't no Wayne Dixie, you know what I mean? Like if you ain't never been to Chicago, you've never heard of Jewel Osco. But that's their grocery store. You know what I mean? So get away from that kind of stuff. So then you don't compartmentalize yourself as an act from this place. A local. I tell people, I'm not a local comedian, I'm just from here. I'm not a Dallas comedian. I'm a national, international comedian that's from Dallas. But when you, how did you first get your, you know, stemmy relationship with something like I said, the heavy hitters that you've already, and I ask you this and y'all keep going off subject. Yeah, he told me to list my credits and my resume to tell people. Yeah, I'm cause people can. So let me, let me run it that way real quick. So there I feel like, and I really want to just dive into how you met them, the process. Because I don't want nobody to take my route. Yeah, but the process for you to meet these people, for you to be this writer, for you to be this guy that stands on stage proud today, that was a process. Yes. And we need to hear the process. That's all I'm saying. So it may not be a pretty picture, but we don't need to give people a pretty picture cause a lot of times it's not going to be a pretty picture. So let's be real with the people so that they can learn. Cause it's some guys that they don't think that they can start at an age like you did as well. But then you give them encouragement. Rodney Dangerfield was in his 40s before he started his comedy career. Sally Field was 39 before she ever got cast on her first movie. You know what I mean? 51 Savage was 51 before he ever went viral. You know what I mean? Two chains was damn near 40 before his rap career really took off. So there is no, like no specific time or time in your life to do something. If it's never too late to go back to college, it's never too late to start a new career path. So how old were you? I was 25. When I started. Which is good for me, but you could have done it earlier. I was just grown enough to have something to talk about. Yeah. And so when it takes off and you, how do you end up dealing with Wildin' Out? How do you end up dealing with 85 South guys like a Chico Bean? How do you end up meeting? Did you and Ricky Smiley ever do some stuff together? I'm touring Ricky right now. Okay, let's talk about this stuff. Man, let's get it out here. Shout out to Ricky Smiley. Shout out to Ricky Smiley, man. Proud for you, dawg. Proud for you, man. He definitely been going through something lately. I was about to say I went down to Mermanham and linked up with a few people that he rock with. But let's talk about it. So shout out to comedian A.G. White from Brooklyn, New York. A.G. White was down performing at Addison & Prive. Nene Lee was doing Fat Tuesdays. Yeah. I was a regular at Fat Tuesdays. I'm murdering it. I featured right before A.G. went on stage. A.G. come tell me, dude, you dope. You need to leave Dallas. Year later, A.G. White comes back. I'm doing that same show. He said, yo, you been on the road? I said, nah, I ain't had 10s. I ain't had the moneys to get out there. He said, yo, if I come back to Dallas and you haven't left Dallas, lose my fucking number. Wow. Right after that, comedian Mario Tory from Atlanta comes and performs at a comedian queue. He used to do a show called We Got Next at Hyenas. So Mario Tory headlines. I put our feature for him. He said, man, if you ever in Atlanta, hit me up. I get a wild hair in my ass one day. Got a cousin that used to live in Atlanta. Said, man, if you ever in Atlanta, you got a place to stay. Got another dude to say, man, if you ever get down to Atlanta, I got $100 for you for every show you do. Wow. That's big. Next thing you know, I done bought myself a $40 Greyhound ticket to Atlanta. Rolled that Greyhound bus 22 hours, pulled up in Atlanta. My man CJ, come pick me up, board me at his house, go do Mario Tory's room, go do all these rooms. Next thing you know, hey, man, you funny, bro. And you need to come here. So when you go to a city and you wreck all the comedians, got another spot for you. You don't fit all those chicken wings. I got a spot for you tomorrow. I got a room, my host. I got $50 chicken wings for you so you can accumulate nice little rent money and a nice little two-week grind. You know, you do three, four rooms a night, two, three rooms a night for about two weeks and you're in that town. Also, in that town is going to be somebody from somewhere else that's also in town knocking around. So that's why your network starts to build. So I went from Atlanta to Chicago, from Chicago to New York, from New York to Detroit. Went all around. You didn't come back home? Didn't come home until almost Christmas. So it was a whole year? No, I just, I would pop back home, pay rent. You know, see my lady, see my daughter, you know, get back on the road. Get home, comedy club that never gave me an opportunity, called me. The feature that they first called was sick. Second feature they called was out of town. Third feature they called couldn't get a ride. It was too last minute. God's plan. They called me. Hey, Black Run, are you available to feature this weekend? No, the guy before me, he wasn't able to do it all weekend. That's what it was. Are you able to feature this weekend? Yeah. Six shows you can do all weekend? Yeah. All right. First show is Thursday, eight o'clock, be here. You'll be featuring for Dick Gregory. Wow, big. Man. We talking about my idol. Yes. So when they told you that, did you like flip out? Of course, not on the phone, but as soon as you hung up the phone. I would've flipped out if it weren't for the fact that I got walked into comedy by an idol. Yeah, that's all. First time I ever touched a comedy stage, I featured for Shucky Ducky. Yeah, yeah. So I was already used to being around people that I admired for doing this, but I admired Dick Gregory for something way past comedy. I admired him for who the man he was. You know what I'm saying? The consciousness, the wokeness, that's why I followed Dick Gregory. Like, I was a disciple. So. Wait a minute, I know you lied to me. I think you pranked me. I'm thinking y'all must be pranking me because my friends know that I fucks with Dick Gregory, and by this time, the local comedians were calling me the Malcolm X of comedy by now. That's all. They were doing it as a joke, because Black Run get on stage, he'd like to say something deep. He'd be killing the crowd, and then he'd like to wanna preach at the end. Why this nigga just can't do jokes? I don't know. He just got to preach for 10 minutes at the end, and he the Malcolm X of comedy, and it took off as a joke, and then I just adopted it. Like, no, but for real, I am. Because if you look at Malcolm in his life, and what led to the man he became, the story's almost the same with me. So now I got Dick Gregory right in front of me. Who tells me, I heard you call yourself the Malcolm X of comedy. Wow. Yes, sir, I do. Well, you know, I knew that man, he was one of my best friends. That's all. Yes, sir, I know that. If you gonna wear his name, don't do his name, no disservice. Don't put no stain on that man name. So from that point on, comedy was live or die with me. If I wasn't gonna make it doing this, we're gonna make it doing nothing else. Then I get a phone call from my man, Derek Kenner. Shout out to Derek Kenner. He said, hey man, I'm writing for WBLS, for Erquigs radio show, because he was featuring for Erquig at the time. Got a radio segment, and they need some quick little one-liners. I know you good at them. Send me a couple of them. I just text about four or five of them, send them in. Turns into a writing job for Erquigs first radio show. The Quake comes to Dallas, Derek can't make it. I fill in for Quake. Right then at that same moment, Derek stops featuring for Quake. Quake needs a feature. You. Proved myself that weekend. Hey, young, you wanna go on a road with me? Three years in a row, I'm on a road with Erquig. Wow. By featuring for Quake, I meet all the OGs. But by also, Erquig was the first time, because everybody else, I got fired. I would do two or three shows and get fired, for being too funny. They don't want you to take their spotlight. That's real? You're not here to be funny. Faizon Cat, I mean, Faizon say Cat Williams pushed him away from the show because he thought he couldn't, he could come behind Faizon. Faizon tells me this and I understand what you're saying now because he's saying he can't go behind me. He didn't know what he was dealing with. The first comedian to ever give me love for being funny was Rodney Perry. The first comedian to promote me from the host spot to the feature spot because the host couldn't even get his credits right was L'Oreal. Those were the first two dudes to actually give me a stamp of validation when it came to working at the white people comedy clubs. So the white comedy clubs would never book me because I wouldn't go through their process. That's why I say I don't encourage nobody to take my route. What is their process? I did it the bar and grill, legends, real time, Brickhouse Lounge. I'm going to the black clubs. I'm doing black comedy. The white comedy route. But isn't that normally what black comedians normally do? That's what black comedians normally did. So just because you black skin, don't make you a black comedian. That's why you'll have black comedians that you've never heard of take off because they were mainstream comedians. They worked the white rooms. They went to the white clubs. So when you go to hyenas or the improv on open mic night, they have a sign up sheet about 40, 50 names long. No matter what time you showed up, the person there decides where you were you going. So they'll fuck with you. They're gonna put you on fourth block, which is the last 10 names. So you might get there 7 p.m. to sign up. You ain't going on to one in the morning. And I did this week after week, even though I'm the funniest dude in the room. Another thing they would do, the gatekeepers. So while the club is full of people that came to see a comedy show, they're going to put their friends up, bumming their ass off. She just couldn't joke their way out of a one-star bathroom. Have you ever seen somebody get booed off stage? Absolutely. He been booed off stage. No. He bummed. Yes. But not booed. But not booed. And damn sure not off stage. No, that's giving up. That's real. That's giving up. And I'm going to do my time. You're going to have to cut my mic off before I walk off stage. I will never let the boo. I will never let the crowd ruin my check. I'm booked to do a certain amount of time. I'm going to do my time. Now you not, I wasn't booked for you to like me. I was booked to do my time. So the only way I can get my money is if I do all of my time. Oh, okay. That's real. I'm learning now. Let's go. So that's when you start to get afraid because it's all about paying bills. So the next time you get a feature opportunity it's bad enough that the clubs don't fuck with you. It's bad enough that you don't play their game because you realize that it's rigged. So you making a name for yourself and you going around the country building relationships with these comics without doing it the white folks way. So then when these headliners come to town they telling the club, no, I want Black Run to feature for me. So now the club got to break down and call me. Which is why I would be fourth or fifth or sixth on the call list when the headliner would say, I need a black comedian to open for me. Even though black is my first name and my stage name I'm number six or seven on the list even though I'm at the top of the heap as far as skill. Is that why you named yourself Black Run? Well, yeah, because I'm proud of myself. But I named myself Black Run because when I was in the hood, living my hood life, everybody called me black. And then when I would be doing my corporate life everybody would call me run. So my dichotomy is both of those. So I'm Black to some and I'm run to others. I'm Black Run to everybody. Got it. So working with Quake, Quake see me on stage half stepping. He pulled me to the side in the dressing room. He said, hey, young, when I first saw you in Dallas this ain't what I saw. I say, well, OG, I was doing a guest spot in Dallas. I never thought I would be working with you. He said, you say that to say what? I say, man, I'm just trying to play my part. He said, I ain't one of them cats. I didn't bring you here to pity pat the room. I didn't bring you here to pacify the audience. I brought you here. And that was because of what had happened previously. Yes, ma'am. When you got fired because of being too funny. Not for being late, not for smoking, not for cussing too much. You know, it gave me the most rules as a headliner, don't do this, don't say this, don't do that. TK Kirkland. Really? T to the mother, Dutton K. Why he do that? Why? Well, because a lot of comedians, headliner comedians thing is they don't wanna work hard. And some of them don't wanna overrun the room. So if he gonna do a whole bunch of sex jokes, he gonna do a whole bunch of bitching and hoeing. He gonna do a whole bunch of. He don't want you to do sex. He don't want you to do it too because now the crowd has ran down. They've heard too much of that. So his jokes lose, they sting if that was your material too, especially if you finna be on stage for 30 minutes or for him. But do you think that makes sense? It makes a whole lot of sense. But at the same time, it also comes from a place of fear if you ask me. Because if your material was strong, it don't matter what you was talking about on stage before me. I don't care if you set a dog on fire right in front, right before you said my name. The minute the song plays and I go up there, I'm finna erase that whole chalkboard and teach a new lesson. That's just my take on it. And I learned that from the OGs and the dogs that I worked with from quake and then from then on. Quake said, man, I didn't bring you here to push it for it. I brought you here to push me. I'm trying to work a new special. I'm trying to get a new hour together. I need you to push me. So then I started going on stage, dogging it. So then I'm sitting in the back and because I'm an earthquake fan, I'm watching his show every show. And you saw the way how you pushed him. You saw that. I saw where I pushed him and then I also saw ways like, oh, OG, if you didn't say it like this, but if you said it like that, I think you might have a stronger response from the crowd. So you were housing him. Because I'm a student of the gang. So I'm starting to punch his jokes up. And at first he like, young nigga, who are you to give me a punch up? And then he said, I texted to him. He said, spit it to me. You know, don't write it to me. Say it to me how it should be said. And I told him to joke the way he should say it. And he slapped the string with, and he said, boy, you got something. And that night in his set, he told the joke my way instead of his way. And everybody cracked up. When he got the response, he looked off stage and looked at me and nodded his head. I didn't know I had just got hired. I just thought I got validated. Like, yeah, that was funny. From that moment on, then I became a trusted counsel. So when he would write a joke, young, what you think about this, and that's validation right there. When the OG, a man who been doing this long, as long as you've been alive, but who been professionally doing this, as long as you've been knowing what standup is, now values your opinion, all the rest of you local niggas can't tell me nothing. So from that, when he would introduce me to people, this my young gunner, he write for me. And you know, a lot of comedians won't even tell that. No. Just like musicians and entertainers, according to them, they write everything. That's ego. So. True greatness has no problem acknowledging the people who helped you be great. Henry Ford had that concept. That's right. I'm gonna put myself in a room full of great people and what comes from that, we are gonna be, you know what I'm saying? That's what they say, the sum is greater than its individual parts. If you surround yourself with great people, y'all gonna make something that's greater than any one of y'all could have ever did individually. That's real. I think you, God already been preparing you. Even at the fact of like when you got on stage the other night and you and Chico Bean was going back and forth, you know, playing the, you know, back and forth. Oh yeah. You know, you already been doing that since you were young. But I love Chico for that man because he shows the crowd that we equals in that moment. That's hard, ain't it? I respect him and I love him for that. Especially anytime we perform in Dallas, he goes out of his way to be like, hey Dallas, this guy is from here. This is one of y'all's own and you should love and support him just as much as you do me, if not more because he's from here. And then after that, we roast to show the people, I'm not just his opener, I'm his colleague. That's right. Shout out to Bean, shout out to DC Young Fly who also does that with me on stage. Yeah, I tour with Fly quite regularly. I tour with Ricky Smiley regularly, did a few shows with Corey Hulkem after I stopped touring with Quake. Quake started doing Quake's house, the radio show and it just came to the graduation point. You know, I learned all I could learn from him. We had accomplished all we could accomplish. Now it's time for me to go off and fly high. Now I have what it takes to be a headliner in my own right. Now it's time to lead the nest. When I left the nest, he put me in the hands of other people who needed writers. Put me in the hands of people like Ken Whitley, brought me on, had me right for it. Put me in the hands, put me into people like Bob Sumner. That's hard. I learned the fact that you're a writer because at the end of the day, you decided I don't want to do no more stand up. You could write for the rest of your life and be good. Because the fame is about ego. I've gotten everything I can get from comedy. Number one, I was the type of dude that could pull a pretty lady before comedy. So comedy didn't validate. Excuse me, Ms. Jamaica. Comedy didn't help me get no more hoes. You know what I'm saying? It didn't validate me in that regard. And I was already a secure man within myself because I spent 25 years with a chip tooth right in the front of my mouth. So I was already a very secure person within myself. So comedy didn't do that for me. But I wanted a way to make my daughter proud of me. That's hard. How old is your daughter now? She just turned 12. Shout out to my baby Lonnie. That's the motivation you need. That's my motivation, bro. And I thought that too because in the beginning when you were saying that the year she was born is the year you started comedy. So that's what made me feel like she made you get up off your butt and push. Well, she gave me the license to fail. Because remember when I started comedy, I didn't know whether or not I was gonna be good at this. But once I figured out I was good at it, about a year into it, I was able to quit my job and just be like, well, I'll just be broke. I just won't have no money coming in. So I can dedicate everything to this comedy, which is why I don't suggest and recommend nobody do that. You know what I mean? All people wouldn't do that and having a child. Most comedians that you know still got a day gig. That's real. Been on TV, been in movies and everything and still got a damn dance manager at Avis Renicott. And you've never had to have a regular job after that moment. Thank God, since Labor Day 2012, I have not put in 40 hours consecutively for nobody. That's a blessing. It's a real blessing. But I was homeless. You was homeless. And doing that. You know what I mean? Baby mama was able to paint me in the picture, slipping my ex-fiances. 2009 Ford Focus, many a night. That's hard. What does your daughter say about you now? Oh man, you can't find a bigger Black Run fan than my daughter. That's big. You know what I mean? Because no matter what you say about her daddy, she know she can go on any search engine, type in her daddy's name. She's gonna find pictures of him, not just selfies, getty images of her father. She's gonna find 30 minutes special on epics of her father. She's gonna find one hour special that he self-produced on his own. She's gonna see podcasts and shows that have millions of views. She's gonna see clips that got millions of views. And then more so than anything, when we out in public, and somebody walks up on me and say, what's up, Black Run? He love you. Daddy, they know you. You asked my baby, what do her daddy do? Oh, he's a comedian. His name is Black Run. He makes people laugh. And she's been proud to say that since she was three years old, dog. I just, like I said, learning so much, I feel like, Boss Talk 101, our people that listen to this show and hearin' your story, is gonna erupt somethin' in the ones who wanna follow and line up with comedy to where they, it gives you drive and motivation when you hear things put in a way, coming from a person, it comes from a genuine place. Yeah. So I think that's live, man. That's what we all about. That's what Boss Talk about, is basically gettin' us in front of our people so they can see that they can do it. You know what I'm sayin'? You don't have a problem gettin' in front of people like week in and week out, like as small of a forehead as you have, like your edge up. Nah, I was playin' man. I just had a gone, you see, cause you weren't expecting that one. Had to hit you in your edge, baby. I'm one of them guys, man, that kinda, I don't know, I've been through it, so I ain't much gonna get me off guard. So let me ask you this question. Because true survivors know this to be true. That was that moment when it looked like everything that you had gambled on was a loss. Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. Where you was gonna prove all your doubters right. Yeah. When everything finally happens, is it just me or you don't get no satisfaction from rubbin' it in people's face? Yeah, nah, it really, it's more of a humbling thing, to be honest with you. It's a thing where, I'm a big believer in God, so it's a thing where, from where I came from, looking back where I am now to where I came from, all glory go to him. So I don't really even get amused with the people, as much as I get amused with God. When I get on my knees at night, and my wife come get on her knees beside me, and we pray and we know where we came from, and we know who we are, I think that's bigger than anything any person could ever even remotely influence, you know what I mean? So I don't look at it from a people's perspective, I think the last time I counted, I had somewhere around 15 or 16 on-screen, on-camera credits, full productions. One HBO comedy festival, you know what I'm saying? Was in talks with HBO to do a special for them and deal for me in B.C., you know, been in all those places, done all those things. Yeah. The most rewarding thing for me. Right. Is the fact that I get to do this. The biggest perk that I still get is the fact that I get free admission in the comedy shows. When it's all said and done, dog, I'm still a kid that loves stand-up comedy that would risk getting a whooping to stay up late and watch Comic View, that was sneaking watch Def Jam, and sneaking listen to albums that I wasn't supposed to listen to, you know, Red Fox Party Records, Richard Pryde Party Records, things like that. Dolomite. Dolomite. You know, everybody, anybody that had anything that pig meat, Markham, here come the judge, Pastor David Banks, Millie Jackson, Mom's Mably. Better right, give us a props. Well, no, because Betty wasn't doing comedy. No, no, but she was, she was, she was a little, she was a little on edge. She was edgy. She was edgy. Millie was filled. Millie was very filled. Millie was filled, like there were certain things that the children was just not supposed to listen to. That's right. George Clinton albums were not intended for children at all, and my mama collects albums. And she had those. And she had all of these albums, and I would like do things like alphabetize her albums and stuff like that, like, cause I was just a nerd like that, but in doing so, I'm sitting there and I'm reading all these album covers, I'm absorbing all this material that's filthy. I'm listening to these jokes, I'm listening to these grown folks conversations, and I understand what they're talking about. It's funny to me, then you know, all kids cuss. So then when I get around my friends, I'm killing them. Cause these niggas ain't heard. None of this that I'm kicking off. But the whole thing is, and I don't mean to cut you off, but the whole thing is, God was preparing you for what you're doing now back then, and that's so dope. Just like I said, when you and your, you and your brother would play, you know, whoever laugh first, that's, that's God preparing you. He always does it in a way where you don't even know what's happening, but at the end, you understand exactly what happened. Do you know what that game prepared me for the most? What? Performing in front of a crowd that ain't feeling you. That's hard. That's hard. Because I don't get unnerved when people ain't laughing immediately, cause I know I'ma win the game eventually. I know that it's a lot later, I'ma hit you with one that's gonna crack you. I'ma bust you, and once I see that weakness, I'ma exploit that, and before I know it, I got you rolling on the floor. Man. That's a good game to, y'all need to start playing that game if y'all getting into this business, because that's a really good game. That's it. But who is the most funniest comedian to you? Because to me, no, hold on, hold on. Because since you're in the craft, anything that you're doing, you're not just listening to them like how we listen to them. Right. You're listening to them in more of an in-depth way. Who is the most funniest? Like, you can't stop laughing, comedian you've ever seen. Oh, okay, I thought you were asking me who's the best at stand-up comedy. No, the funniest as in like, so what's the difference? Oh, I'm so glad you asked. That's like asking me who's the best NBA player versus who's the best basketball player I've ever seen. Like, there's a difference between hooping and playing ball and playing professional ball, you know what I mean? So like, there are cats that are phenomenal at this craft of comedy, that write and craft a joke so good. It's like, oh, that's great. That's brilliant. And then there are dudes that are just... They're not super funny. Right, like when I watch a Dave Chappelle special, I don't watch Dave to laugh. I watch Dave to watch Dave take something that shouldn't be laughed at and make it funny. They make you go, or make you go, because that's just as deep as a belly laugh. So, but the comedian that makes me just laugh until I can't breathe, Tony Robbins, hands down. Really? Tony Robbins. Well, they're still alive. I'm gonna give you news of comedies that are still living. Tony Robbins, after him, Mike Epps, because they have such a free-flowing, non-join-it comedy style. There's no segue. There's no subject matter really. It's just joke after joke after joke after joke after joke of things that'll make you just laugh. It's just absurd. Then there's cats like Jamie Foxx, who are not only good at telling a joke, but they're good at painting a picture and he can sing the song and then he can actually do the voice and impersonate the person that he's telling you about. So he wraps you completely in what he's doing. So that, you know, there's different categories. There are people that are just really charismatic. You just really wanna hear what they got to say. They take on things. You know what I mean? Those are your people like your cat, your cat Williams. You know, those are people like your Bernie Macs. Eddie Griffin was the first person that I've ever seen that made me think. Mm-hmm. You know what I mean? It's not illegal yet. It made me think, I had to pull up my phone. Nobody else, everybody else, I just laugh and it was funny and stuff like that. He actually made me like pull up my phone and like research like, I never heard of that. Like, is that true? Eddie Griffin is in my goat category. See, there are certain people like Eddie, certain people like Dave, certain people like Red Foxx, George Carlin, Dick Gregory, Bill Byrne. Those are the cast that transcend just making you giggle. Those are the cast that become philosophers. But when you guys talk about comedy, right? And then you talk about these guys that are so talented, right? Mm-hmm. Then you catch a guy like Kevin Hardy who comes up a whole different way. Right. That's fly as hell to me. Right, because Kevin didn't show you about modern ability. He bad because for him to create his own wave and lane the way he does it, it's different, bro. Okay, I'll put it in like this. You see where I'm going wrong? Because they good. Everyone y'all said that these are spectacular people, but for him to come up slow but go, but then bam, that's hard man. Yeah. Kevin Hart is the Nelly of the comedy game. You explain that. When the time Nelly came out, we were at on the cusp of the end of the gangster rap era and we were going into the jiggie era. The bling-bling era. And Nelly came along and he was just commercial enough to where white people didn't mind singing songs about dealing drugs. And right when Nelly came along, if you were two gangster, you weren't commercial enough. If you was too poppy, you were still too corny for the streets. So you wasn't all the way corny like a Will Smith, or Nick Cannon, you know, Cassey's like, the streak in can't believe you really doing this. And he's also not zero. You know what I mean? He ain't gangster, but he's right on the edge of both of them. He'd do a little song right here and then, Nick's song got everybody doing the chicken head and everything like that. And he made itself marketable. Apple bottom jeans, vocal clothes, brought the St. Lunatic's around, brought his whole team around, kept his whole team around. Everything was all about hiring from within. But then once he became a superstar, got the prettiest girl, and then it was all about making opportunities for everybody else. Kevin Hart did that same thing. Kevin Hart was necessarily, not ever necessarily the funniest dude in the black comedy club, nor was he the squeaky clean white comedy club black comedian either. He was just street enough to do black jokes at a white club, which made him very marketable. Because when white people find you likeable, now you are something they can sell. The minute he became a big household name, brought the plastic cupboys with him, kept the plastic cupboys with him. As he elevated, brought them along. And then the minute he became a superstar, he started Heartbeat Productions, where he's able to give opportunities to everybody else. My first time ever being on TV, the reason why y'all know me right now, the reason why I got more TV creators than everybody else is because of a cat named Kevin Hart. Because he had a guy at his camp named Joey Wells. That's a plastic cupboy. That's one of his writers. That's one of his trusted close allies. And Joey said, I got an idea for a TV show where we go around the country and we find the funniest local comedians and we put them on. But I need you to put your name on it, Kev, so they can get on TV. And they named the show Heart of the City. And I was on Heart of the City season two. The Dallas episode, episode three. And then you got a chance to meet Kevin. But one of the stipulations for the thing was, the only way you can get on the show is you gotta have no TV experience, no TV craze. So let's back it up. A year and a half before that, Robert Powell, comedian who had just moved here to Dallas, had a TV show on Magic Johnson's network, Aspire, had booked me to be on his TV show. But because I was flying on a buddy pass, I got stuck in Hartsfield Atlanta Airport. But God, God got it working. So just because it don't happen, when you thought it was supposed to happen, don't mean it didn't happen when it was supposed to happen. Yeah, I hear that. You don't know what God has in store. And a lot of times we get frustrated at the moment because of what's going on. And I realized, and like I tell my daughter all the time, anytime you go through anything in life, it's think of it as a lesson. Don't think of it as a disappointment or anything like that because you're gonna get stressed and anxiety and whatever. Think of it as a lesson that God is trying to teach you. And then be patient. You just learned something. Now he prepared you for the next step that might come two years, three years, four years, but you just have to keep working. So you gotta meet him halfway. Wow. Do you know why fruits and vegetables grow mostly underground or under coverings? Even the fruit that you can see on trees, it grows in a pod in a covering because you can't see it. Reason being is because if you could monitor the progress, you would never be proud of the harvest. See, everything goes on underground. You can't see what's going on. You just hope. You just trust it. That seed that you put in the ground, that little sprout that came out that showed you a little promise, that little stalk with them little flowers on it that get pollinated already. You water it and make sure you got enough light. You just praying, Lord, please, please, Lord. Cause if this don't turn out, I'm gonna die of hunger and starvation. But I took my last little bit of money and rather than buy some fruits and vegetables from the stove, I bought some seeds. In other words, rather than continue to eat on handouts from my other friends and family that are on, quit asking your partner that made it to put you on. Ask him to give you a seed instead. Could ask him the people that are already blessed sitting at their table, eating their blessings, reaping their benefits from their hard work to give you a portion of that. Ask him for some dirt in a hole so you can go do it yourself. That's so many times people, I think people block out certain things. Just like how you're talking and you're dropping jewels and you're giving so much information. Some people will take that and be like, man, I need to hit them up. What can I get? He put me on here. Can he do that? Instead of taking the information and doing the research and saying, okay, I'm gonna do this now. I'm gonna try that. Because people think that there's a magic recipe to success. People think that there's a magic spell. Like if I say these 17 words in this specific order that everything is gonna happen perfectly for me. If I do these things the same way that that person did it, I'm gonna get the same thing that that person got. No, you not. Cause you're not them. And you didn't have the experiences and the life that they had to let up until the whole point. Exactly. The decision you make is based off of the person that you are and everything that happened to you before that moment. Bruv, if you didn't live the same life, I could give you, I could teach you, I could give you the coke, I could give you the pot, the spoon and the baking soda that I used. But if you don't know how to whip, you're not gonna get the same crack. But okay, coming up, the friends that you had in the beginning that helped you to get where you are. The person that gave you a place to stay in Atlanta gave you the money. Do you still talk to them today? Absolutely. My day ones and my day ones. Shout out to my doll celebrity, my ace boom koon, my best friend in comedy. We pushed each other out of legends. We pushed each other to become stars. Because how many times you see people that I've spoken to people who say, oh, I don't even talk to this person anymore because they've gotten too big, they forgot all about me, but I was the person who helped them to get to where they are. Well, I feel two ways about that. Okay. There's a difference between being there when I started and helping me get to where I am. Like, there were people at the hospital when you were born, but they didn't help your mama deliver you. They was just there at the hospital. So just because you was there in my infancy don't mean that you helped cultivate me or helped me get to where I am. You were just present. I'm talking about just like that person who gave you the money or gave you a place to stay or, you know. Right. Because if it wasn't for that, you probably would not have gotten the urge at that moment to go to Atlanta at that time. Right. So to that I say, if what you were doing for me in my career and in my life was from a genuine place, then the fact that I made it is the blessing that you should be thankful for. The fact that you know that when you invested in me when God told you, hey, bless that man right there. You know that you weren't sowing seed on bad ground. That's your blessing. If you were doing it for a return, then you weren't doing it from a good place. You weren't doing it from a holy place. Now, I don't think that you should forget about people that looked out for you, but there should be a cap on that also because what's enough? If I looked out for everybody that did something for me in my life as a look, if I looked out for the dude that didn't rob me when I was 17, he let me get on the train and go home. If I look out for the girl, the first girl that gave me some coochie. If I look out for the rent office lady who didn't put me out on the 19th, she put me out on the 24th. So give me three more days to have somewhere to stay. You know what I'm saying? At what point do you go back? And the $100 investment that you put in my life 10 years ago shouldn't equate to a $100,000 kickback now that I'm on. And I wasn't even talking about money wise and stuff like that. I was just talking about something as simple as calling every now and again and say, hey bro, I ain't forgotten about you. If you been in my life, Ms. Jamaica, ain't no such thing as you can't get a hold of me. The people that say that are the people that stopped talking to you until you got on. Then and now they wanna call this number to see if it still worked, usually because they're stuntin' in front of somebody else about the fact that they know you and that they've been knowing you since you wasn't shit. Oh, you don't believe me? I'll call this number right now. Hey bro, what's up? It's me. Who the fuck is me? Me from 35 years ago. I hope you didn't start it. Don't you remember me? Oh, oh, you brand new. No, nigga, there have been other people who have done other things for me in the 35 years since that time you told me you got what it take and gave me five dollars. That's real. If you were constant in my life, ain't no such thing as you don't know how to get in touch with me. That's why I have three phone numbers. Personally, I got a 469 number which is for all the people that knew me before I took off. I have an 818 number which is Los Angeles for all the people that met me after I became industry. And then I have a 214 number that is the bat phone that only my immediate family and close friends have that number too. Makes sense. If you call my 214 number, like to the point where my family knows, my immediate family knows, don't call that 214 number if you just wanna holler at me because that's a stop everything phone. And if you just stopping everything to say, hey, mama said, is you gonna be in town next week? You could have called me on the other two phones that y'all also have numbers to. But if my family can respect the fact that sometimes I don't pick up my phone, not because I don't feel like talking to you, but because I might be taping a show on one of the coldest podcasts in the country. Or I might be performing on stage. Whoop, whoop, nigga run, nigga. You heard what he said. You know what I mean? My mama'll call me, hey, black run, you be. She'll do it just to be teasing me. But if my mama respects the fact that her son has a job where he's a public figure now, then that nigga I ain't talked to since the last time I talked to him, fuck what he going through. Yeah, most of the time, like you say, that's just somebody trying to, you get that, you know? How can people get a hold to you, my guy, black run, if they trying to reach out and try to book you or trying to link up with you? If they wanna book me, I used to say, call me directly, but praise God, we got a team now. We got a team now, you know what I'm saying? Shout out to boss lady management, you know what I'm saying? The coldest management company in the country. She represents some of the most premier comedy acts in the country, and I'm just glad that I'm on her roster. You know what I mean? So she think enough of me to have me on there with the likes of Chico Bean, Darren Big Baby, Brando, some of them drinking. She's the manager of the 85 South Show Tour. Her first client was earthquake. Wow. So I've been walked in, you know what I'm saying? Everybody that grabs me, walks me to the next phase of my career. So I thank all the people that had something to do with the black run, getting into this chair, you know what I mean? So, but if you're gonna follow me, and if you wanna book me, holla at boss lady management, be sure you talk to boss lady. Send me an email, I'll direct you to her. What's your email? About email, black.run.comedy.gmail. And it's black with a Q. Thank you, Ms. Jamaica, because I know EC ain't gonna put it right here on my chest in post-production. Black with a Q. You ain't gonna drop the words right here. You ain't gonna spill it right here on my head, on the thumbnail. No, no, no, no, no, I'm not gonna do that, but I'm gonna have you right. Y'all can promise you that. Boss talk 101, what a boss is put him out there. But also, let me say this about people that wanna book. If you're real about this, because I believe in helping black businesses and small business owners, especially promoters, especially the ones that's trying to get off the ground. But bro, you gotta have your ducks in the road. You can't call me, tell me about, what can I get you for? No dog, no, because you wouldn't do that to nobody else. So don't act like because I'm from the town, because I'm from here, because you've been knowing me, because you've been rocking with me ever since, that we can't do business the legitimate way, a.k.a. white folk business. And I don't have to have a team of white folk behind me in order for us to do white folk business. My whole team, from my manager to my assistant, my publicist, my merchandise agent, my travel agent, everybody is a black woman. That's all. And we change the world. A black woman. A black woman, my whole team is black women. You feel me? Why no males? Because I can have a disagreement with a member of my team. We can talk to each other crazy and we know that it's love and I know that because that's a lady, I'm never gonna get out the way with her. I'm never gonna be all the way in my emotions. And that allows me to realize that she's not talking about me personally. She's talking about me professionally. So get my ego and my emotions out of it because this is business that we talking. But it would a dude, if he can get on the phone telling me I'm fucking up or I should have been there or why I didn't do this or tomorrow you need to be like you running to me. No, dawg, come outside. Who you talking to? I was just really self-awareness is all you speaking of. Yeah, and I'm not disciplined enough to have a dude. He understand who he is. So I mean, I'm good with that. I need a black woman to get your ass up and get to the airport before you be to miss your damn flight. You're right, you are so right. Thank you so much. Yeah, I have one more question. Go ahead. Because you said comedy, you've done it all in comedy. What's your next step? Whereas are you gonna go off into the movie industry? I don't know. I can't act. I've been acting since I was 10. So I've done everything from commercials, small TV, small plays and stuff like that. But honestly- I see you playing a preacher. Thank you. They didn't let the church say. But honestly, man, whatever I can do to put a stamp on the game, I want to change the culture of comedy. I want to be regaled as one of those philosophers. Like when you think about like, who gonna be on the Mel Rushmore comedy? I want my name in that conversation. So I don't necessarily need to be in a movie to do that. I don't necessarily need to be in a TV show to do that. Because Bernie Mac wasn't in none of them. And he's still Bernie Mac. You feel what I'm saying? Man. Oh, and you can follow me on Christian Mingle too. Deacon Longstrobe, that's my handle. No, but Facebook, YouTube, my publicist got me a new Instagram. They banned me off Instagram for over a year. For being too pro-black, bro, I had no naked women on my page or nothing. I wasn't doing none of that. I was just talking about pro-blackness and yeah, telling black people to love ourselves and during, that's when I found out TikTok was racist. Because during the 2020 riots and the George Floyd trial and everything like that, if you put hashtag RP George Floyd or hashtag Black Lives Matter on your TikTok, they would just delete that post. So I'm like, wait a minute, there ain't no app from China finna tell me that they don't care about my black existence. Oh, well then I'm not finna help you be great. Right. I'll be on fan base. Shout out to Isaac Hayes. Man, hey man, we enjoyed you. Thank you. You wanted them guys, man. I appreciate you for all the different things you did that I feel gonna enlighten people. You know what I'm saying? It's gonna help people. You ain't really gonna rock with me till you see these views. No, I don't really care about views. I'm one of them different niggas, man. I don't think I get it. But why ain't you invited to the barbecue then? Tell him. You better tell him. What's going down? I heard E.C. can barbecue. I ain't invited to now. All I'm telling you is, shout out to Sir Charles Jones. He invited me. Shout out to the guy who brought me over and cooked big, big, big meals for us, didn't he? So you need to cook. You know what I'm saying? Well, that's what people know me for. For real cooking? I was a chef for five years before comedy. That's hard, man. Because I was fat. I was fat in college. Really? Bro, I was 275 pounds in college, dawg. But you can't even say that because you tall. So 275, not gonna look like a regular job. When you a nigger with hips, you fat. I don't care what nobody's saying. You got a juicy body as a man. It is never a good thing. Man, thank you so much for coming on the show. We love you, bro. Man, I appreciate it, man. Thank you all for having me. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I think that's, I think- And I don't care what they say about you after this. I'll fight for you now. Bro, you know, the way you came in, man, at the place, I know we good. Because once you get into it with a nigger, then watch out. That's how we friends. Then it'll be stronger. It's a stronger man, won't it? I want somebody to say something about Boss Talk 9. See, you know, slapping across, they livin' you. Hey, man. I just thank you for even coming on the show, spending time with us this evening. For real. For real. And like I said, man, I know it's gonna help people, man. That's my biggest thing. That's why we did this, is because we know that y'all's story need to be heard, bro. In a way to where it can help some people, right? So check it, man. It's been another great segment of what? Of Boss Talk 101, where the bosses talk. What, what, what? We on Boss Talk 101. Hey! We out.