 Let's do it. Let's do it. We be on fire, we be lily, lily. It's a unique hustle, big shit, big shit, big shit. That's your original intro music? Yeah. Y'all own it, I see, I'm not mad at you. You're having a good time. As you should. 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. Mako. What's going on? None, none of you know my dad? Man, we die in Los Angeles, man. And like I say, man, we stumbled up on these gyms, man. I want to thank Kenyatta for inviting us into this set, right? Kenyatta's set. Hey, man, Kenyatta says, man. Hey, we hear a man doing it with comedian Alex Thomas. What's going on, baby? Man, I am good. Do people know that you guys married? Because you've been made, just made it like, the beautiful, the lovely. I didn't expect you to go hand my wife. Did I just mess up? No, no, we're doing it to everybody, no. And what did you say back to him? It sounded super country, y'all know that. Nice little country chemistry going on. What did you say back to him? I said, what's going on? I said, I'm here. Oh, you said that? Oh, I understood. That's what you said. Whatever you said earlier, I did not. I said, Madelwa, go on. Thank you. What the hell does that mean? The same thing when I just told you name them. I was supposed to know Madelwa, what does that mean? I mean, I'm here. In? In Jamaican, Patois. OK, you know you're talking as if I just should know that, right? Yeah, I guess. You just talked with something. Patois is a universal language. Well, I didn't get here in LA. I was like, that must mean something else. But yes, I love I love I love black love. I'm a fan of black love. There you go. I love my wife, too. So I know how it is, brother. Just I know you got this book out, man, you know, and at the end of the day, man, you brought me a copy. I see, man, the funny don't stop. This is mine. I know it. I can you know it is going to be pretty much to sign it. Yeah, and I seen here. You had Nipsey also in this thing, man, and I seen it. I seen this as well. And this is my type of book. Yeah, this is the one I can read and turn to the dress. This is for me, man. I was a whole lot. Well, I'm going to explain what this book is all about. Yes, because I'm shocked now. And then you'll understand. OK. Nowadays, being a comedian is more dangerous. But hold on, before we get into all of that. Before we get in the book, let me explain to everybody what this is. Which camera is the best? That one. You the one that. This is my new book. It is called The Funny Don't Stop. The funny don't stop when you say Alex Thomas, you say the funny don't stop with. In fact, let me hear y'all on three. One, two, three. The funny don't stop. One more time. The funny don't stop. OK, that is also the name of my new one hour special. That's also the name of my podcast, The Funny Don't Stop. So it's just like a commemoration of this year is my 30 year anniversary of doing stand up comedy, TV, movies and The Funny Ain't Stop. You know what I mean? So this was my pandemic project. I'm not going to lie to you for when the pandemic. I went through some serious anxiety issues. I was like, wow, we're going to ever hit a stage again. Am I going to ever be in an audience again? What am I going to do? Right. So for two years, I had amazing, how could I say that? An illustrator that came into my life, dude was one of the most incredible artists I've ever met in my life. His name is Mike Goldstein, and he was able to turn a lot of my jokes and a lot of my crazy ass ideas. Into illustration. So everything that you see in this book is jokes and thoughts that came into my head. Stuff that, you know, I could have bought to the stage. Some stuff I have brought to the stage. And some stuff is just crazy, real things. Like for example, right here, the truth is we had a baby. My wife and I during the pandemic. Really? He just happened to be a pandemic. Oh, this is not the pandemic, baby. This is when I got my prostate check. Wow. I was wondering, I was like, oh, that is not the baby. No, no, no, that's not the baby. This is this particular joke is I got my prostate check. I got a colonoscopy and I got a. The thing that most men scared to even go and get checked. Absolutely. And I'm not going to lie to you when what's his name? Panda, he was the. How am I going to forget his name? Chadwick Boseman. OK, rest in peace. Died of 43 made you go of colon cancer. Then made me really look into it. And I find out that colon cancer is one of the number one killers of black men in America. And you know, black men are scared to go to the to the, you know, to go see doctors and they don't want to find out. It used to be you have to be 50 to check it. But 43 died. So I was it was ironic. I was already scheduled to go get my prostate checked. But when that happened, I was like, hey, man, I got three kids. I got a wife. It's time to go get my asshole cleaned out pretty much. Long story short, I went in and got the prostate check. I got a colonic and I got a colonoscopy like in that order. Was it as bad as everybody was the fear of it? Was it what was it as bad as people think it is? Let me tell you something like, does it like hurt? Does it there was more activity in my ass than a RuPaul picnic? OK, when I tell you it was up in me, I tell the whole story on stage just to kind of like have black men live vicariously through me because, you know, we're such a homophobic, you know, people. You know what I mean? One of the jokes I do on stage, your brother like, can I come on this? Well, dude, you know, one of the homies I grew up with, he's like, oh, hell no, that's it. And nobody getting up in my ass like that's the only way they can get in. They can't go through your ears. They can't go through your mouth. They can't go through your eyes. They got to go through your ass. Right. So the first thing to do told me he was like, what if the doctor take advantage of it? I was like, bro, he's an asshole doctor. He sees thirty two thousand assholes a year. The last asshole he's thinking about is your phone. Right. I said, you go get this checked or you're not. So I tell the story, you know, to make brothers feel comfortable. Like I tell I'm not going to check because I want y'all to get the book and also see my special. But I tell people that the prostate was 30 seconds. The colonic was one minute. The colonoscopy was one hour. That was but it turned out, man, it was the best thing I ever did, because it's kind of like a piece of mind when you know that that is clean and clear. Then you know, a lot of people don't know that are, you know, are inside. What do you call it? I'm that intestines and digest is actually the biggest organ in your body. It's like forty three yards long. And you think about it as I tell brothers all the time, you like cars. Yeah. Would you go five years without getting a tuna? Would you go 10 years without changing? Well, no, what a hell you ain't cleaned your ass. Oh, well, I saw all kind of seed. I didn't know what's up in the show to tell you. I mean, I had a lot of sales in 10 years. I saw Oxtails. I had had black licorice since we're talking about when you do that. Colin, Colin, what was it? It's the colonoscopy. Remember, that's that thing where they put it in your butt and you sit down and you have the tube and you can watch all this stuff. OK, now let me clarify that. That's part of why I'm the comedian that I am, because I actually break that down. OK, the colonic is the tube in your butt. And you can see the sheet coming out. That's where I saw, you know, a nipple. That's what I was. That's why I saw Oxtails. That's why I saw it. I ain't seen in years, right? And that was the 30 minute process. The colonoscopy, you're not the fuck out. Completely unproper fall. You know what proper fall is? That's what Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson was to sleep to every night. Yeah. So I was on that. That was a whole hour. That's where they had to go deep. Whereas a colonic is one hour and that's just filling you up with hot water and just flushes you out and you just literally. It's almost like saying you can go get a car wash or you can go get a detail. Wow. That's crazy. Car wash is getting a little dirt and dust outside. Because you digest the system. Do not digest all of that stuff that you've been putting in your body for years. Your whole life. Right. And a lot of black people don't realize that the number one hypertension and in the high blood pressure and cholesterol. I mean, if they were just to cleanse themselves, we wouldn't have those problems. Wow. It wasn't about my asshole today. But you just know I put that because not only in my book, the funny don't stop. It takes true things that really happened in my life during the pandemic all the way down to Joseph. So when I bought up that we had a baby, we had a pandemic baby. In fact, his birthday was yesterday. He just turned two and he was born with a mask on. Yes, you can spend the first year and a half of his life when he got a mask on. Right. So I talk about that. And it's just a little insight into my life and what I went through through the pandemic. So I'm just very proud of it. You know, been writing for other people for years. You know, so kind of cool to do something of my own. You know, I love the fact that you did it on a level that I could understand like Tiffany Hatter said. So here on the back of my book, you'll see some quotes. Yeah, yeah. Famous people, Tiffany Hatter said, even if you can't read, even if you can't read, you're going to love this book because there's a lot of pictures in there. No, it's a simple set up and then a punch line. Let me ask you something, man. And I love the book. I know it's mine. I can't wait to get a sign. You put it put it back at my spot, you know, in Dallas, Texas. And spread the word and spread the word. All they got to do is go to Amazon. You can look at his family right here, Bay. Yes, they look. Oh, that's a beautiful family. My family is my wife. Have a son, three kids. Yes, my son is four. His name is legend. The two year old that just turned to his name is trust. And I have a daughter, a seven year old. She's her name is Halo. And OK. Wow, this is great. I don't see an older one. Who's the older one? Now, and that's my wife and that's my wife's mama. Oh, she don't know. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Hey, oh, no. No. You said your wife and your mom. I mean, that's you. Hold on, who is who? I know, right? Because they look good. These are the line. It could be sisters. Like nobody could be nobody's mama. Get it all the time. All my boys are like, what's up with her mama? How old is her mama? Somebody went like this. Who's the white chick? So that's the mom. Because her mom just really, really likes kids. So that's the mom. Yeah, that's the. Exactly. OK. So her mama was born, you know, in Louisiana and it's real, real fair skin. But my wife's daddy, 10 times blacker than my shirt, though. Oh, yeah? That nigga, that nigga is purple. How did you have her? How young is your wife? I forgot. You know, I just know she's 10 years younger than me. Oh, we're eight years apart. Yeah, we are. She's 10 years younger than me. So yeah, I found me a little young one back in the day. You got to, you got to. But I was of age and she was too. So I got to make that clear. They know R. Kelly. So all I say is I met her and she was 24. That's all I had to say. Oh, OK. I met her. You checked the ID card. Oh, yeah, I got a urine sample. And also a gas bill. I need to make sure all that shit was straight. You know what I'm saying? So what we like to do here, we like to go back because when we jump straight into the book, we like to go back to know, you know, you're upbringing, where you're from, family, mental illness, depression, all of that good stuff. So go ahead. I noticed that in your family. Well, shit, what family don't have some type of dysfunction in it? I was born and raised in South Central LA. You know, where I came from, you always hear rappers talk about you ain't supposed to be here and all that. You know, I'm going to kind of be all over the place. If that's OK, go ahead. Born and raised in South Central LA. I was the only black kid in an all white private school. Ended up, obviously, as you probably know, I wrote on the TV show, the original Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Yeah. For four years, 93 to 97. One reason Will Smith and I got along so well is the same way he grew up on East Coast was kind of similar to how I grew up on the West Coast. I, you know, I four brothers, parents were together pretty much the majority of my whole life. They divorced like once I was grown in out the house. Yeah, man, not a lot of people put it this way. I told somebody recently I did by 21, I had been to 21 funerals growing up in South Central LA, you know, half your family's Crips, half your family's Bloods. I, you know, but you don't join any of those. I'm here to tell you, and I say it in a lot of my interviews, not every young black man that grew up in South Central LA in the 80s was caught up in the gang. Like, yes, I know them all. Yeah, we know all about them. Like I know, I know the city like the back of my head. I just personally didn't get caught up. In fact, to get any more deep with that, people asked me all the time, so how did you avoid it? How did you not? Yeah, exactly. Take for a blood. I was like, because I was afraid of this thing called my dad. Fuck, if I get the Crips of the Bloods, I was afraid of my daddy whooping my ass, you know what I mean? And then when I did join the gang, it was called the Cub Scouts. So that was as close as I got. But so another thing that I talk about a lot of people go, so how really honestly, how did you like avoid going down that lane? Right. And I always say my parents kept me so involved in positive activities that I didn't have time for crime. Yeah. So give you a good example. I remember the day like it was yesterday, when they wanted me to go on a drive-by. Fourteen years, 15 years old, 1984. And I'm talking like the middle, the height of gangbanging and Crips and Bloods and colors, colors, colors. You know, the homies was like, you down with the hood? I'm like, hell, yeah, you riding with us? I'm like, hell, yeah, you going on this drive-by with us? I was like, hell, yeah, what time are you doing the drive-by at? He's like, we're doing it at three o'clock. I'm like, fuck, I got soccer. Oh, y'all, y'all doing like some crimes tomorrow or something like that. And the dude was like, hell, yeah, we doing something. I'm like, yeah, what? He's like, we robbing the liquor store. I was like, hell, yeah, he says, you down with the hood? I'm like, hell, yeah, I'm down with it. What time are you robbing the liquor store? He likes six o'clock. I'm like, fuck, I got choir rehearsals. I'm swamped, guys. I'm just swamped. I just can't get down with you. And, you know, that mentality and so many things that I was doing, it made me think, wow, it's going to be the same way when I have kids. They're going to be so involved in activities. They're not going to have time for that bullshit. Man, so many people. I'm pretty sure if you talk to every stripper on this planet, if you talk to every dope dealer, if you talk to every gangbanger, if he was busy doing something positive between 15 and 20, like those, those serious years of what the direction you're going to go in your life, but they were able to do whatever the fuck they wanted to do, chances are, when they got over, oh, they did what the fuck they wanted to do. A lot of times that ended up on the pole jail. God, unfortunately, I'm not knocking those people. So anybody that's watching like, no, I'm just saying I'm trying to lead by example and say be involved in your kids' lives. Which is 100 percent true. You let them decide what the hell they're going to do. How's the kid? How's your kid going to tell you what they're going to do? No, no, they don't know right from wrong. Right. I hate when I hear the stories. Brothers, he was about 16, I was a man in the household. He got to sell this building. I'm like, that's horrible. Right. That is fucking horrible that you had to be a man at 16 because you didn't know what it was to be a man. Unfortunately, you would dealt the cards, you would dealt. So again, I have to say that because people hear things and they take it out of context. You know, they shot up to the black women out there that had to be mama and daddy that had to do everything. But I'm just saying, imagine if they didn't have to do that, that boy wouldn't have went down that road. One more thing I wanted to ask you before. How did you get into comedy? And how old were you? So comedy was even like Kenyatta and tell you, you know, all my friends that are around. I was just always the silly, funny dude, not trying to be not saying, hey, guys, you know, I want to be a comedian. No, I guess I just had the purse. I was the dude that already always had everybody laughing, even though I was pop locking and dancing and being in dance groups and doing all that. I was I was in the party world. I was just always the dude that had everybody left and cut to high school. I ended up winning class clown, best sense of humor. It wasn't like in September, I'm like, vote for me in July. That's just humor, funny guy. No, it just happened that way. So obviously, you know, those years, you know, I'm looking up to two people and two people only. That's Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor. Don't get me wrong. I loved hip hop. Hip hop was new, but I was looking up to those two comedians not saying I want to be like them, not knowing one day I'd be friends with Eddie Murphy, my idol. It's just it just happened. How did you get your first break? Well, my first work, well, it started, I'm pretty sure, you know, that's the story I went up for the people that don't know. I was a dancer on Soul Train 15 to 20 years old. I would do it. Yes, get into it. Come on, man. I was just a local hood celebrity. And you got to think about it those years. Let's just take 85 to 90. Come on, man, no matter who you were, whether you were Michael Jackson, Prince, Luther Vandross or New Edition, whoever you were and you were black, you had to go on Soul Train. Right. That's before MTV. That's before MTV. It didn't get no bigger than Soul Train. So you got to think about it. I'm a hood celebrity because I'm going down the line every week. No credits. I didn't know I was just having fun as a kid. But I was that dude that even though I was just dancing, I was around all these stars. I learned on my own the whole networking shit. Here I am, 17, 18 years old, with a phone book full of stars because I didn't know any better. I was that dude when, you know, Tony, Tony, Tony, hell, hell, cool, Jay Luther Vandross come and they see me dancing. They be like, oh, you to do it on Soul Train, man. Like, that's me. Let's get a picture. What's your phone number? Before I know it, I can call Luther Vandross right now. I can really go hang out with LL Cool J. And I didn't realize I say that to say when I started doing stand up in 1991, right? A lot of the stars out there, they knew me as the dancing dude. So let's just take rest in peace, easy, easy. Take people like Run DMC, Hammer, when they started seeing me on the deaf comedy jams and the comic views, excuse me, and all the comedy shows. They're like, that's the little dancing nigga. Like you do stand up now. You get what I'm saying? I already had these relationships. I'm the dude that before I even got into Hollywood, I was kind of like already in Hollywood. Right. So here I am, amateur nights. Me, Chris Tucker, Dave Chappelle, all of us amateurs. We've only been doing comedy, you know, year, year and a half. And they used to want to Dave Chappelle, Chris Tucker. All of them be like, how do you know all these star niggas already? Remember Chris coming from Atlanta to become a young up and coming guy? Dave Chappelle, he's coming from D.C. Like nobody was famous yet. So we're all brand new, but they used to wonder, how does Tupac already know you? How does Tony, Tony, Tony already know you, nigga? How does L. L. Coot? How did Prince know you are? How did Whitney Houston already? Because I was the dude I had their phone numbers. If Whitney Houston had a birthday party, nigga, I was there. Wow. You know what I mean? If L. L. Coot, they had an album release party up at Clyde Davis's house. I was there. How you can do it? Because they were just sold right. Wow. It all came from soaring. I'm not even a lot. It came from soaring. And then now when I cut to I'm in the entertainment now, now I'm making a name for myself. I'm like, I've been knowing it for 20 years. Been knowing it for 15 years. And then when people see my Instagram, you know, this thing called Throwback Thursday came around. You killed them. You killed them. They're like, that picture looked like you was 12 years old with Prince and Whitney Houston in my brain. I'm like, because I really have kind of like been doing this since I was 15 years old. So yeah, let me let me ask you. I got to ask you the question that I always ask everybody. What what I want to ask you is because I asked I asked phase on the same thing for his bubble out the phase on love. Yeah, phase on the first dudes I met in this business. Really? And we've been friends ever since. So Bubba Dub, do you know Bubba Dub? Comedians. Yes, Bubba Dub, Country Wayne. I asked this question to all the older comedians called the end movie and the series, the comedy series. You've been in everything. We always ask this question, how do you feel about the new way that these guys are doing with the internet success that they're having versus the way that things originally were done and stand up? And now you're doing you have nights where you guys come on the same stage and y'all both have to rock out and you have to have mutual respect for one another. So how does that way out versus, you know, the way it was, the way it is. I don't knock it. And I'm one of the OGs that embraced it. OK, you can look at my social media and tell. Yeah, I embraced it. I'm a lot of the OGs, you know, my age or my level or higher. And first they were really getting that with this whole this shit. So Instagram shit. It was like, that's a mother. That's a mother. And I'm not knocking anybody that does I do what I can do. I'm not I'm not a tiktoker, you know, I don't care if a kid walked in in these nineteen right now. You tell me you got a hundred and fifty two billion views. It's just not my shit. I always tell them, young niggas, I was fake. I was funny your whole life. Yeah, so I found a way you know, you get what I'm saying. Um, I I just when it first started, I just had a problem with dudes calling themselves comedians. OK, you're funny. Anybody could be funny for 30 seconds, maybe a minute. A comedian is there's two thousand people. Here's the mic. You're next. Now let me see how funny you are, because that's an art form right there. You get up there and entertain those people for 20 minutes. A room full of thousand strangers and you kill them. Oh, more poverty, but you're a comedian. Yeah. Amazing. Good job. Right. But a lot of these cats, the social media guys it's almost like I hate to say insta, instant insta. It's like insta famous. People are getting famous without having to be talented. Wow. People are, you know, they're getting it twisted just because you have 11 million followers. I've had dudes that have 11 million followers, but don't have 11 minutes of jokes on stage. No, I get it. I get what I'm saying. I've seen it happen right in my fucking face. Yeah. Again, not knocking them in any kind of way. I know a lot of the young, you know, social media dudes that are that were able to flip it, you know, like to DC young fly. Yeah. Country, country, Wayne, Louis Belt. A lot of these dudes were able to flip it and make man. I'm proud of those and that's and that was a whole conversation because I think it was even Columbus short. We talked to him earlier. He was like, you know, because they was comparing the residuals versus the YouTube and the Facebook way. Oh, that's a different world. So it was trying to figure out how are they going to get paid when they're all, you know, once everything goes away? How does that world work? Right. Well, you know what it is? It's almost like Instagram and social media. It's kind of like what we used to call like having to play your dudes. Yeah. It's almost like if you know anything about baseball, it's almost like it's the it's the minor leagues. It's getting you ready. It's the farm system for ABC, NBC, CBS. That was the generation I came up under. But now, you know, the way it is now, you you can mess around after 10 million followers and ABC will give you a shot. Yeah, yeah, you know, because of your following. But there's one thing you can't cheat and there's one thing you can't lie on you. You still have to know your craft. That's great. And what happens is a lot of these Instagrams is like, dude, you're still living on your mama's couch. And you really didn't truly learn the trade. Yeah, you know, it's almost like a chick that's all she does is twerk and so her ass and so her titties every day. And now she does. She think that a Queen Latifah is going to respect that. She think of Jada Pinkett. She think of Gabrielle Union. Does she think, you know, an Oprah Winfrey is going to respect that? No, there's a lane for it now. Don't get me wrong. There's a lane for what do you call it? Reality TV. Yeah, these niggas are getting famous off. Just literally fighting for a whole hour. They get down and then talking message. OK, yeah, I've flipped through the channels and saw you a couple of times, but it's not the same respect. No, I get it. It's not the respect of what we call a body of work. Yeah, you get what I'm saying? I know it. I know. So I'm not knocking because I know the younger generation. They'll take every single thing that I say. I think that I'm knocking their way and their route. All I'm saying is do what you've got to do. But just know still to this day, man, you still got to work on your craft, still take acting classes just because you can get a thousand views real quick in five minutes on your phone. Don't you want to be a better actor? Yeah, don't you want to be a better actor? So if you do get a chance on a real sitcom, on a real TV show, know what foreign cameras is, know how to read a script, know how to cold read, know how to actually act. No, because they didn't work on it. No, you're right. There was no preparation. It's almost like I joke sometimes these dudes nowadays and be like, hey, hold the camera real quick, right? Be in your mama's driveway and it's a basketball hoop, right? Hold the camera and I hit three in a row. You know, be like, nigga, ready for the league? No, you're not, nigga. Just because you hit three shots, you didn't go for the league. They didn't go for the league. You get the comedy box. Yes, he says just because he may know. No, you're not knowing about the part of being in shape. Not talking about the blood, sweating tears of people that have been doing this their whole lives. Yeah, they're getting ready. So just because you shot three in a while, you think you're ready to go play for the Lakers? Just because you made somebody laugh on your Instagram, you think you can open up for me, Chris Rock, Kevin Hart and Dave Schipel tomorrow night and such, that's theater. You think you can do that? So you think so you take it away from what Tyra Banks and some of these great actual supermodels did just because you do on a what is fashion over song. Yeah, fashion over. Now you're you're a model. You're a model now just because they took pictures. You're a model. That is it's different, ain't it, man? You got to work. My bottom line is you got to work. They're not building a foundation is what you're saying. Eventually one day you're going to need to know the answers on the test. You can't cheat the process. You can't cheat the process. Yes, that's what I was trying to say. When you was when you what what memories do you have with you and Jamie Foxx working on that show? What was some of the fond memories? Man, it's incredible working with Jamie. I got real lucky early in my career, man, to work around people. Not only that I respect it, but I learned from from being around Jamie Foxx every day at the Jamie Foxx show for three or four years, from being around Will Smith every single day for four years. From being around Martin, from being around Steve Harvey, from being around all these guys, you pick up things and apply it to you. But I never was them. I could only be Alex Thomas. And you knew that I'm not the dude that you could look at hours of my jokes. You could come to shows. You're never going to say that dude sounds like Chris Rock. He doesn't sound like Dave Chappelle. He doesn't sound like Kevin Hardy. No, sound like that. No, no, I have my own style. I know. But I learned different things. I come from learning from the athletic world, even though I was never athlete. I'm a sports fanatic. OK. And I always hear the greats talk about how they became who they became. You might hit man, such such such was my favorite. Like I picked up how he dribbled and I, you know, I learned how he shot and then I watched the way that dude played play defense. And I just kind of ended up doing my own stuff. It was kind of like that with me would stand up. Wow. Wow. And you know, that's something to be proud of because you knew not to try to mimic somebody else. You know what I mean? Not at all. Because some people do that. Some people do that. I'll take you so far. I know, I know. When you're trying to be somebody else, I feel bad for somebody that wants to try to be a Snoop Dogg. Or you want to or you or you want to embody Jay-Z. We already have a Jay-Z. We have a Snoop Dogg. We have it. It killed me over the years when I would see dudes that would be they they damnly had the same names. Yeah. Yeah. I'll never forget. I was in Seattle somewhere. Some nigga introduced himself as Dr. Dre. I was like, nigga, either you're a real doctor. Well, you know, there's kind of like a guy out there already with that name. Right. It's going to be a kind of a need to pull that out. You know, these like these people have no clue. Like, be yourself, man. Yeah, I know. It's a great feeling to be yourself, man. So what's you and you don't have to tell us everything. You probably can't tell what what are you working on now? Currently, anything that that you got under wraps. Just all up in my business. So yeah, I just need to get that out there. I'll tell you everything that's going on in my business. Get that out there. That is why I'm here. So other than other than my book, I got the number one animated series right now on Netflix. It's called Motown Magic. OK, it's the history of Motown. Smokey Robinson's executive producer. That's dope. I am in every episode. My character name is Jimmy Mack. I'm a red convertible 1965 Catalan name Jimmy Mack. And we're actually number one in America right now between one and 10 year old children. So if there's anybody out there watching right now, there's black and they got kids between one and 10. Chances are they watch Motown Magic every day. So if you go to Netflix, you'll see a red convertible catalan. And it's just a bunch of amazing characters. And it's it's super educational. Like my kids are seven, four and one. Like how would they ever know about, you know, the Jackson five? Or how would they know about Little Stevie Wonder and what Motown was all about that they now know because they watch the show every day. But for everybody, 40, you know, do you watch it and you sing it along? Because every single episode we've done 52 episodes so far is a different Motown song. So her to the grave on its own. So but ABC, that's an episode. That's so dope because you kind of fear the stuff that's out there that people are watching to have a comfort that you are, you have something that's really something that's not, you know, all these characters are being depicted in a way, man. They're trying to sway. They they fly. No kind of boys kissing. And I'm so glad when you say that, you don't know what kind of comfort they bring to a person who really is watching on that level. Like, damn, I'm glad you said that because that's what this is about. It's like, let me stick something in there to make them maybe we can throw it to the right. I don't know if you guys probably don't have kids here, but if you have nieces and nephews, you have grandkids or anybody, you know, grandkids, they anybody between one and 10, they'll know. And I come from kind of like the animated world. Not only, you know, did I do this book, but I've been on Family Guy for 10 years, probably one of the biggest cartoons of all time. I've been on that 10 years now as a recurring, just different characters. Like, say, Family Guy's got 300 episodes. I probably did like 50 or 60. So I'm not on it every week. I'm what's called recurring, but yeah, man, just busy. I need to I need to ask you, what do you say to that young kid or that young aspiring actor or comedian that's trying to get in the game? What would what advice would you give them? Don't do it. So look, no, just play. No, any young people out there, man, if you're going to do it, don't half-ass it. If you're going to do it, commit. It's going to be good. It's going to be bad. I know a lot of this shit sounds cliche, right? But Hollywood and entertainment just in general is, it's a roller coaster. What do roller coasters do? They go up. They come down. They go down. They go up, they go down. That's just entertainment. And I think the unfortunate part, if someone's not in your life, that outside of Instagram and social media to let you know that there's good and there's bad with this. You know what I mean? You're going to win some. You're going to lose some. You know, like a young comic came up to me just recently and kind of had a bad set and like, the hell did I do wrong? Because that killed the other night. You know, like, okay, but that's part of this journey. Yeah. Yeah, you've been there. Every single night, not every single joke is going to kill. Every room is different. Every room is different. Every room is different. I do 30 cities a year. I'm doing, you know, 2000 cedars, 3000 cedars on a nightly basis. Every night's going to be different. Dang, you're right. That's what makes you strong. Ask any athlete. Ask this, take a brand new dude. Take a Steph Curry right now. Most relevant newest world champion. He'll tell you every night was different. Yeah, my jump shots the same, but every night when I'm at home, it's different. When I'm away, it's different. It's called a hostile environment. You know they don't like you when you're on the road. Wow. Kinda goes the same thing with us. Same thing with us, yeah. No, I just, I like the fact that you give an understanding on how, you know, this thing can go special when you talk about the internet guys, because I see those guys and I'm friends with a bunch of them, but I see them work too. I see them, the ones you talking about, the ones who just do it on the internet. But I seen, like Bubba Dubb, I seen him work his way up to a full room of people to where they come out every night, but he had to work his way to that. You have to, take another dude you probably know, Desi. Yeah, he was back, yeah. I like him, funny dude, right? Somebody, I don't know who got, I mean, I know he looked up to me also, we did a show together and he sat down in the front row and watched me for an hour, mouth wide open, like, like, oh my God, I've seen this dude on TV my whole life. I knew that you did stand up, but he never really sat there and watched, like, a master work this craft, right? And I don't know if that helped inspire him, but I've told a lot of the young guys, like him, that I watch what you do, it's funny, I laugh all the time, I see little skits, you know, would the hood niggas be like, you know, I can get it? I can get it, those all funny things, right? But you gotta be able to translate that into ticket sales, because what happens is the young kids, this is free, this is free, right? You see that they can talk about today, with the hood nigga be da da da da, two minutes is done, okay? How do you get that hood niggas daddy, mama, auntie to come pay $35, $40, come to see it next? So you can make 10, 15, 20 grand a night for making them joke for an hour, just standing up there. So he had to learn and I saw that he did this. It's just like with DC and those dudes that just were doing it on this and they were realizing, man, the youngsters aren't paying for the tickets. You know that, right? That's right. Say you 20 to 25 right now, and this is all you have and you've been following this dude for five years and you ain't paid one penny, but you know him, you know all the little funny little jokes. Okay, but now he's performing at the suction section, you 25 now, and you got a wife, you got a, you got a date, you got to come pay to see her. You got to come over with that money. But if you didn't have the material to make them come see you. So I think a lot of them now are learning the younger generation are learning, okay, that's a good way to suck them in for free. And given Instagram money, how can I make this money? I got to develop this thing called an act. Wow. I have to get jokes for an hour. So I can charge $50, $60, $75. So I can leave this bitch with 15, 20 grand. Yeah. So what we've been doing for these years as a business, you know what I mean? What they're doing, this was free. They get money in different ways, the clothing lines and little sponsors and this and that, but you want to make real money? My note to kind of answer to what you're saying, all these young stand up comics or future wannabe comedians and stuff that are just on Instagram, do this, but trust me, you're going to have to write one day. You're going to have to write one. You're going to have to ask some jokes sooner or later that the people can come see live. Cause that's how you make your money for real. And then obviously that leads to TV and movies, but I'm just talking about instant. Same way you went on that this morning, did a funny little sketch. Got 200,000 views, two hours for free. Great, still sleeping on your mama couch. That's even funny. You see when a nigga jumped out the car and he did it, I gave for free. That's good. I'm going to let you out of here, but I like, nigga, you need to turn that into, now I'm at the such and such theater this weekend. It's me, such and such and such and such. You got to turn it to all. It's $50. Come see me. But country Wayne made a lot of money on social media. Country Wayne, before he actually started hitting the stage to do a stand up, he made a lot of money off of YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. And a lot of them, like I said, there's all there are guys like country Wayne is that the group would have figured it out. They figured it out, right? But you still, if you're going to car yourself a comedian, my only thing, again, not knocking him or anybody else is you have to develop an act. Only if you're gonna call yourself a comedian. That's all I'm saying. You want to just be funny on YouTube forever and that's cool too. Not knocking you, but if you call yourself a comedian, you got to come up with an act because that's what the people pay to see. Okay. You know what I'm saying? Shout out to country Wayne and all of us. You have like all those things. Anything with Cat Williams while I get off here? That's my boy. You know what I mean? All the guys that from my generation. From you, they know you. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. We just all had different routes coming up. But something you said earlier though is so dope that you figured it out for you like what you were. Self-awareness is real, man. Exactly. This is something just named two or three dudes that you all know. Shout out to earthquake, right? Earthquake. You're like, booze, booze. Like all the black city, you know. All the FJ, all the black ingredients, right? Yeah, what's the other one they? LaValle Crawford. LaValle Crawford. All it is in just the funny niggas this weekend. That's all it's like. Don't get me wrong, I know them all. Respect them all. But when we were all coming up, all they had was stand up. I was very blessed to already be doing TV and doing movies and writing for TV shows. So I wasn't able to be on the Chitlid circuit comedy shows. I wasn't able to be on the deaf comedy jam tours because I had a real Hollywood job and doing TV and movies. That's dope. And I'm happy that they're still here. I'm happy. I'm really after the most for earthquake because he deserves it. Yeah, he's doing real good. He just got a Netflix special. He just got a Netflix special. I'm not Canadian. He's just, I'm just showing you different routes. The way you had to come, the way they're so mad at them. Everybody had different routes. I was just writing. I was just behind people. Like, you know, just the people that followed me my whole year, I mean, all my whole career for all my movies, you know, players club, the watch, to play that game. Don't be a menace. Jamie Foxx, all the stuff that those were all. That's just all part of my journey. Man, thank God for your journey, man. I thank you. I respect you. That's why when I went and looked, I looked for you because for me, that's what I enjoy at your career. I've seen it. I just, I just like certain things. And that was one of my likings. I seen the like Kevin Hart, the certain people that do it a little different and use that guy like you did a little different. Shout out to Kevin. You know, like I'm happy for Kevin Hart is done for our business in our world. He took it to the next level. Yeah. But I mean, a lot of people don't know I was actually the first to independently shoot a comedy special and get picked up by an major network in 2001. Wow. Yeah. Straight clowning. This is before Kevin. Yeah. That's why I just, why you think I've been called to what you started. Straight clowning was my first one hour special. I had one of my close pro athlete friends that gave me some money. He was like back then it was like, why you ain't got an HBO special? I'm like, man, they got me on this list. And I was on this list and I just wasn't on the top five 10. He was like, and that was at the time when like cash money, you know, that was at the time when like Master Pete was doing what he's doing in hip hop. He's like, Niko, why don't you shoot that shit yourself? Right. Long story short, we started ourself, ended up being on So Time for a few years, ended up being on the Platinum Comedy series at that time. If you remember the Platinum Comedy series with Dave Sparrow, Steve Harvey, Monique, D.L. I was the only one that was independent. Wow. Who did I have doing my music? Just a few friends. Dr. Joy did my music. Well, I called a couple other people. Will Smith was on it with me. Tyra Banks was on it with me. Jamie Foxx was on it with me. Shaquille O'Neal, just friends. Killed. They just all want to be a part. And that was me thinking ahead of the curve in 2001. That's dope, man. So. So who's your top three comedians of all time? They were alive. Oh, well, that's real easy. Richard Pryor. Richard Pryor. You go see that. Number two. Eddie Murphy. Number three. I'll be honest with you. My third was he's no longer with us with Robin Williams. Yeah. Robin Williams was one of the funniest ever. You got to go two more in there, man. George Carlin was incredible for the people out there that don't know who George Carlin was. He was one of the most brilliant comedians ever. He was white and he was blackballed from Hollywood because he was too real. He almost talked. I'm going to look him up. Man, you got to look him up and then watch a couple of George Carlin's sketches and some of his stand-up and you'll go, oh, that's why they put that white boy on TV in the 70s. He was too. He was almost like, he was almost an angry nigga but a white guy. Oh, wow. So ABC, NBC, CBS back in the day were like, we can't put this white boy on our TVs at eight o'clock in everybody's living rooms. Right. But George Carlin one of the funniest comedians ever but he was so real. He was white. He was so fucking real. Wow. Hollywood passed him up. Billionaires for a stand-up go. So without every arena in America, George Carlin. Look at Hollywood when trying to hear it, man. Well, Hollywood was like, ah. How can people get this book? The Amazon? Amazon, the funny don't stop. You get it on Amazon, what you can do in real easy. Go to my Instagram, funny man, Alex Thomas and just click the link in the bio and it'll go straight to it. So let me explain what the deal is. So Amazon has millions of books, right? Since I'm new and my book has only been out a month now, it's not on the top of the list, right? So it's very important for people to leave comments, leave reviews, because that helps you go up the best seller list. So if you just went on Amazon right now and just put Alex Thomas, the funny don't stop. It's not gonna be the first book to pop up. So people go, man, what's going on? I look, no, you just gotta dig a little deeper and you gotta go under books and you'll see the funny don't stop. But if you just click on my link, it'll come up right away. Man. Thank you so much. It is the funny, I want y'all to spread the word too. I'm gonna spread it. I'm gonna get my signature on it before we leave. Absolutely. And I came all the way to California. You was the first person I booked to be on this show. Then I told my wife, I'm so excited. I said, man, I got Alex Thomas, man. She say who? I say he's playing on Jamie Foxx. Oh, really? And we was just happy about it. Me and my wife were a team, man. Man, I appreciate that so much. And I love seeing black love. Oh man. That's a beautiful thing. I love my wife. Me too, man. I love my kids. I wouldn't even do this. I'd be somewhere, I don't know what I'd be without her. Oh, come on, man. We give all praises to the black women and the beautiful black wives out there. Man, so. I feel like that's important. Hey, man, so man, thank you, man, for coming on the show. We love you, brother. Appreciate it. Say, man, I'll never forget you and I'll never forget what you did today here on Boss Talk 101, man. Absolutely. Say, man, it's been another great segment of Boss Talk 101 where the boss is talking. And we out.