 when I did my first professional job on Broadway called first by about Jackie Robinson, first black ball player, Ida Gress. Who? But you had to write your bio. I had no credits, because it was my first professional job. And I do not remember writing this, but at one point he says, you know, David has, you know, he has an MFA from Yale. He's done wine in the wilderness at the lab theater at Ann Arbor. And he has performed in comedy clubs all over this country, which was absolute bullshit. There barely were comedy clubs at that time. But you know, 81, 80, yeah, but the comedy boom had started. Got it, got it, got it, got it. And that was where the sexy shit was. And so then that became something, I think I want to try this. And so I just put it on my, I put it on my bio. Damn it, it's so funny. Yeah, I had no, I had no. And you still didn't do stand-up for a long time, right? No, because I was acting. And what happened was I met Robert Townsend. We did soldiers story together. Oh, he was in the movie, right? He shared a honey wagon. Now you're a comic, so you appreciate this. Robert and Denzel were really good friends, but I thought Robert Townsend was the funniest, most brilliant person I'd ever seen. He came in and we shared a honey wagon, which is like a half of a trailer. It's not even the size of this space. Right, so we were there together. And he was doing this material. He was doing mo money. He was doing all of it. And then at one point I was like going, oh my God. He has like 17 routine, I was just rolling. And he goes, oh yeah, that's my friend Damon. That's his routine. Oh, he was doing other people stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but he would claim it. He wasn't like, I wrote that. But still, and I was not of the comedy world. I was just amazed. I remember we drove on a day off from Soldier's Story. Robert and I, we drove, we were in Fort Smith, Arkansas in 1983, so they changed the movies. There's one movie theater. They changed the movie once a month. We were there for three and a half months. We drove to Tulsa, I think, as a road trip, just to see movies. You were shooting like on a barrack somewhere? Yes, Fort Smith, Fort, yeah, Fort Smith, Arkansas, Fort Chaffee. That's the name of the base that we were on. While we were there, Robert says, okay, we're gonna go to this comedy club and see my friend Larry Miller. And you know, I'd seen Bill Cosby when I was 12, but to sit in that club, Halffield Club, and Larry, my experience then was like, how is he talking for an hour? Yeah. Like this shit is just falling out of his ass. There's no character, he's thinking it up on the spot. Like I didn't know the process. I just was amazed, like how can you do this? And it's funny, and you're holding my attention. And then, you know, Robert was like, no, that's his act. You know, he was like, what is your, what do you respect more at this point, stand up for acting? It's not respect, it's how I define myself. Well, okay. At the end of the day, I've always defined myself as an actor, personally. I did stand up for a long time. Quite as it's kept, I've quit stand up, but I just didn't, yeah, I didn't make an announcement. Just because I felt I was done. David, we're all feeling it. I know, I know. I mean, when you're in a club and you're like, my sciatica is crazy. Guys, give it up for sciatica. No, I just felt like I didn't really have anything to say. Yeah. You know, I just wanted to do something else. But in that moment though, back to the Larry Miller thing, this was a whole new terrain. I'd seen Richard Pryor. And Richard Pryor was like one of my major idols. Sure. But I never looked into the mechanics of stand up until I started doing it. And when I started doing it is because I would hang out with Kenan, Robert and those guys. I was out here doing my first TV show like in 1985, 86, called All Is Forgiven. And that was created by the Charles brothers who just had done Cheers. Oh, wow. So I was at the Porsche dealership. I'm like, I'm going to be back in 10 days, man, because you remember this face, baby. Exactly. I remember our premiere. I think it was behind Cheers. We pulled a 20 million 20 million viewership. And the network was like, I showed one of the I showed one of the producers on the Carmichael's, the number. And he almost fainted. And still they were like, we just saw you do a little bump. You didn't really know. You know, I'd never really done stand up. I would do stand up to hang out with Robert and Kenan and those guys. So I started doing spots. Okay. But just for fun. I'd really, there's no longitudinal thinking that I'm going to get on this TV show. It's going to feed my road work and I'm going to do a special. No, I just thought it's fun. Because after a certain point, Robert and those guys said, you can't just hang out with us in comedy clubs and observe. You have to do comedy. They actually said like, hey, they kind of intervened. Like this is enough. You're funny enough to do this. So we either do it or leave. It wasn't even your funny enough. Because it wasn't just you. It was also Eddie Murphy and Rock were around too, right? So it was like. Well, Chris, I'd met when I was in New York. Chris, I met him. What is the special Eddie did? And of Town Comedy Express. Boom. I met him right around there. Yes. And I lived right around the corner from Catcher Rising Star. That was my last shitty fucking horrible apartment I had in New York. So I knew Chris a long time. Damon, anyway, Damon would go and do Stand Up Comedy. And I always looked down on it. You're in the saloon telling dick jokes. That's so sad. And he told me how much he made. Which I think at the time was like. Tell me more about the saloon. You think like 18,000, 25, something like that for two or three days. I'm like, what? Literally within 30 days. Hello, DC. So I wrote my jokes up. I did my spots and I got an agent and I started going out. And that changed my career for years because that will allow me a cushion to say no. Like I didn't have to play. Who is this dude in this James Spader movie? Radio. No, it was worse. The gay window dresser in Mannequin. Meshack, Taylor type. Yeah, in Mannequin. Yeah, I remember they called for that. And I didn't have to because I started doing comedy and that allowed me to go make this other money. But I got burned out, man. I got burned out during in Living Color. I would take two weeks off. Then I would tour all summer until. And you're talking about like from probably May to August. Clubs, some theaters mixed in grinding. And I would take two weeks off at the end of summer and then I was back on the show. So I did that for like three or four years and I just started getting burned out. Like I wasn't my income jumped, but my happiness didn't jump. It was just a grind, man. And what is your inner life like? What do people, what are your loved ones, what negative things do your loved ones say about you? It was more or relationships. It was more me because it took a while for me to voice it because I was on a hit show. I was playing sold out clubs and stuff. I'd done Boomerang in 93. And I remember when I was heading to some place like Houston or something and my ticket sales just skyrocketed because Boomerang was a really big movie and all of that. But inside I just was tired. You get on this plane, you get on this airplane, go to Milwaukee, go to the press or morning press. It was fucking, yeah, man. So I was getting burned out. And like everybody, I wanted to do a huge fucking born on the 4th of July, one armed, prison escapee crying, I'm a kid, I'm a kid, you know, all that stuff. And that was, that's not what I was getting yet. So there was always more and always questioning. I did not know in that moment if I was really going to get to the level that would shut me up. I don't think there is a level. Well, yeah, that's what I'm trying to think of. Like, did you get to the level that would shut me up? No, you know, lead in a movie. I always said my goal was like to be three movies deep. That means you're doing a movie and it's a juicy fucking role. You're going right into another movie that's another juicy fucking role and you're in talks about being cast. Right, in a juicy fucking role. Yeah, you say you don't know. And then you think about, let's talk about how many people are living that life. Oh, very few. You're very good friend Denzel. Yes, yes, yes. But back then he was probably the only black dude. Then, you know, Wesley Snipes, you know, the guys who came up. But that's where I was then. And I thought by the time I get to my age now, I thought I would be retired. I didn't think that they all thought you were. But we I didn't think people would really want me, you know. Well, it's funny to explain to I know it's funny to explain to people how like comedians in their fifties by this point, 30 years ago, we're doing Westbury like venues. You've never heard of like your parents would go to Westbury Music Fair, Westbury Music Fair. Like, yeah. And and like Cosby and Bob Newhart and all those guys and Don Rickles would be in that realm. But now like Dave, Chris, Kevin are doing arenas. Even Jim, like when Jim really blew up, I said, Jim, you should do a two day national tour. You should do one night in Yankee Stadium. Then you fly out and do one night at Dodger Stadium. And of course, Jim was at the same. No, he says, no, I want to be Robert DeNiro. Why would I do that? Yeah. And I was like, oh, God, I don't understand this, dude. Well, again, that's like the disease of more and the disease of I want to be Hamlet. Everybody did you and did you ever did you reckon with it? Did you get to a point where you're like, all right, I have to. This is making me miserable. This makes me that miserable because like I said, I always worked. I always made money. Now, I didn't have a 40 million dollar deal at Netflix. But, you know, I was flush. I bought a house. I had a nice life, you know. So also, there was no other avenue where I said, you know, and I'm going to bad groceries at Ralph's because it's more spiritual. No, I mean, this is what it was. And I figured I'd be retired. I did not take into account. You know, at my age, I've done my 10,000 hours. I actually know who the fuck I am. I know who who are you. I'm an actor, man. I'm really comfortable. I'm a dad. I'm an accomplished performer. Hey, did you like that? Did you like that? Yeah, did you like it, though? You want more? Don't want to work? Would rather watch videos of me grab acid with people. First, I'll go up here to subscribe and then go up here to watch more clips. This is like when the weatherman says there's a high pressure system coming in. I'm not really used to the green screen.