CT IS DOPE – Under $20

boneless skill with chicken thighs? We have broccoli and that is going to be that with our former gree of course, which is not under thirty dollars, but this is how you get it done? You so, is that what we're gonna call this? This under twenty? Under twenty? I love that James and George Foreman. I haven't seen sold just backstory and George Foreman. So I went to my husband. I said, um, we needed George Foreman girl. I haven't seen one of those forever. And then I was like,

do you think we have one? And he was like, I don't know. Check the cabinet, and I go on my cabinet. Though I have never in my life used a George Foreman girl, I had to. I had a mini one and this one and shout out to all the roommates that I had in my lifetime that left George Foreman girls in my house. Here's the question, why are you not familiar with because even now Glory be the guy that success, I still own a Foreman. Do you still use it? Though I used one weeks ago.

Oh okay, I put it out of the garage. I was like, I want some chicken because my wife is plant based, so she doesn't cook any meats. Are gonna outsource my meatballs, so I had to go get me, uh my former girl to garage. It's definitely smaller, right, No, no, I'm bigger. Oh luxury brand. Well, here's the thing. First former grill, um, can we say everything on it? You could say whatever you want. So the first former grill I had, I was smashing this older chick ground Yeah,

of course. I think if you have a former girl and you don't have roommates and it doesn't it doesn't make sense, right, make sense. I got my rice cooking from my roommates. But the former girl smashing his older chick and she knew I was going through it. She was like, you need a former girl, and I was like, because I don't know how to cook. I didn't know.

I mean I'm breakfast, I'm eggs, all of that. I don't do the baking because the grease pop. But she gave it to me and I kept it right until I got with my wife and she heard the story how I got the former grill and then she was like, oh, you can't head at my house. And I was like, okay, all right, So I got rid of it and I end up buying another one separately that was brand new, so she couldn't, you know, play anything. So we got the nice one. When you got it, okay, damn, I

want to see what that puppy looks like. I was gonna bring it. I was like that she needs me to bring and I was like, oh great, but he had a seating. But it's the chicken tis broccoli. Now. We talked about seasons, so I see you got the crowber brand. I did, but I, like everybody knows what this weird topics? We ain't go ahead. Low Rees is in the building. If you're not making chicken with Laura, is this my camera? This you have both cameras is a staple in the black music. You understand me. If

you ain't gonna Larris, you're not cooking chick. I don't know what you make it. Actually put larries on everything. Then we have the ground pepper and black pepper. Then we have my garlic powder. This is what gives you the pop. You understand me? Now, perfect, you got it. So this is the poultry season. The chicken poultry season is what you also add for flavor. Not interestingly enough, I put this on the chicken and I put this on the broccoli, because it gives flavors when you're tasting

them both separately. Okay, yeah, I actually personally went shopping for the seasonings, and then a part of me was like, we'll go cheap. It's eating while broke. But then on the poultry seasoning, I don't think I had an option. I said, oh, they's best shure, but yeah, go ahead. I cleaned the chicken thighs for you. I can honestly say, I don't remember the last time I cooked chicken thighs. What did you eat while you were trying to I'm Jamaican, so even my husband's gonna laugh at me all day.

But I didn't really cook with Lorry's until my husband and he based everything in Lorry's. I'll be having salt poisoning every dish. It's bad, it's salty. Shout out to using less lorries if you can. People think, But here's the things you gotta understand. Laws gives you the flavor and the los is what we grew up on. Lows is h Oh, you're gonna put it on that, okay. Oh, I should have brought you a cutting board. It's okay, we're gonna have to throw the camera. So you gotta

eat this too, I understand. Don't bring me the good thing. That's a lot of laws for all y'all listeners. He is putting pulled the chicken thighs out um, and he just completely coded it in lawr's. Now I'm deeply concerned because my husband does the same and usually I can't even taste anything besides salt. But okay, so he put the lawries in the pepper. Okay, got the gary powder. Always you you feel. It ain't a measuring cups. You

feel what you think your food needs right now. Interestingly enough, when you're doing this, I was coming from a place of, oh my goodness, I had only had the twenty dollars and I spent on the food like this is when I just got into l A in a roommate scenario, and I had four other roommates. I had to master bear room because where'd you move from? Yeah, coming from the Troy. Interestingly enough, when I came from Detroit, I moved here right for my twenty first birthday, Um, I

to with my mother. I want to go to l A to follow my dreams. But in order to get to l A, I need money. So I'm gonna go to New York Chicago in Atlanta to perform and make some money. I'm gonna save that money and I'm gonna go to la so for my birthday. Yeah. So I

started doing stand up at eighteen years old. Actually, the first time was in my high school auditorium because a comedy show came to the school, kool Aid Legendary Rest in Peace, Melvin Bender, Martez Jackson, and Chanelle simply Chanelle. And my dream was to be a comedian. There was a little boy and I just never knew how I would get into it. Watching Martin on TV, I wanted to be Martin Lawrence. And the way that it end up happening was I walked up to the comedians and say, hey, man,

I would love to perform with y'all. And he was like, you're gonna open up and I was like right now, and he's like yeah, and I'm like, uh, okay, right. So I get on stage. You actually did it? Oh okay? I get on stage in front of my entire school. Was that your first time or first time? I wasn't bullets. I was scared as fun. And I get on stage and I said something about a security guard that we had at our school. He was also the head coach, very large man. And I said, yeah, man, he chased

some people. He can't even make it down the hallway. Everybody laughs hard because they knew him. And I was like, all right, we look at this, y'all going y'all? And I brought the comedian up, and after I brought him up, the rest with history. Do you need to plug the sub forman grilling O? Thank you? Okay, I forgot it wasn't so um. Fast forward two years. I tell my mom that story about my plan and she says, great,

so do you think my birthday comes? She gives me a birthday card and a get certificate inside for a thousand dollars and she said, go follow your dreams, go straight to l A. So I moved to l A. Oh so you ended up skipping? Did you skip New York? Yeah? Well I got there later as I was in later, but I didn't have to go because she gave you. The thousand dollars ain't a lot. Let me tell you something. So,

so what happens, I'm carus to happen? Now. I want to hear how you how you manage this thousand dollars. So my mom made me make her a deal. She said, okay, um, I should have sleeping on at once, but I got to try anyway. So my mom said, how long do you think it will take you to get on TV? I said, huh, I'll be on TV and six months this is me. And she was like, oh okay, well by an opening the ticket and by your return ticket for six months from now, so that'll be by Christmas.

And if you're not don't TV by Christmas, you have to move back home and go back to school. Because I was in college and I deal. So made the deal because I'm believing myself and you only had a thousand dollars. Thousand dollars okay, I like this three hundred and forty bucks round trip at that time, and then she asked me by the place to stay. I said yes, of course I was lying because I didn't want her to not let me go to l A. So I came to l A and you'r how old it this time? Anyone? Okay?

So I came to l A and uh. I reached out to Corey Holkam. He's the first comedian who I've been a fan of, dude since I was a kid, and he was the first comedian that I had seen in Detroit that lived in l A that would help me. And he's like, yeah, when you get the l A,

just hit me up. So I came to l A. I hit him up and he got me on at the Comedy Store on a Tuesday night, which was one of the most popular nights in the city, and I was able to showcase We're got around town and I was funny and I started performing everywhere else right I was homeless. I'm like, you know, my friend real battle really big. Now he's on a peak out shows some boy.

I had met him a laughing loser down the Atlanta eight months prior, and he was like, yo, I'm in l A. I'm like cool, hey, man, can I leave my suitcase at your carib and maybe stay on your floor for like a week? And how are you getting around? L A, you don't have a car, right, Oh you really gangster? And I've been let me tell you something. I'm gonna interrupt you. I love the story already because I've been to your how this beautiful. It's fantastic and

I would love to live on your couch. Okay, So if you just know like how he's living now, this is an amazing story, so continue. Sorry. So, um, so I'm homeless. I'm at Reel's crib. I'm like, I got my suitcases there, and I wouldn't got a gym membership, so I could say showers at the gym, so I didn't overstay my welcome in his crib. So I would get up really early. I would get to this group really late at night, so that way you didn't even

notice that I'm there, so I can stay longer. So we turned to a month, and at the end of that month, he's like, yeo, man, I'm going out of town. You gotta find worse to stakes. My roommates don't want you hear without me, all right, So I uh, I was hanging out with Corey one night, Corey Oakum and there's another comedian, Vanessa Grad, and he was like, yeah, why don't you just stay with Vanessa? She ain't got no man. And I was like, you know right, And

I wasn't trying to smash. I just really just needed to live. And she let me stay on her floor for a couple of months, and I just I was a floor sleeper. And then so were you doing the same thing where you're like out early and and like just sleeping on the floor and night were trying to get her. I was just there all the time. I was like, I'm here now. But uh so my friends from high school were in town and we go to

the movies, and we go to the movies. He was like, yo, man, um Man, I wish you lived out here because we're looking for another roommate, and I was like, I live out here. We were talking about and they're like, oh, wow, maybe you could be the fourth room where your friends from high school come to visit the same visit. No, so one of my friends from high school was coming to the other friend had already lived out here, but

I didn't know he was living here. Uh So they were talking to my other friend who was visiting, and they're like, man, we wish you lived out here, and I'm like, I live out here and they're like really. I was like, yeah, I don't even know you lived out here. And we had this big moment that we were shocked, and then w story short, I became the roommate that we're looking for. Look at God. So I moved in there at the roommates and at this point, the only way that I'm making money is I had dpds.

I filmed a DVD of my own in Detroit before I moved out to l A. And I was like, worst from the worst. I can sell this DVD and make money, right, So my share of the rent was only two hundred and eighty seven dollars because there were four of us, and that was my share to renting rooms. No no, no, there were two bedrooms and there was the living room. So in the very beginning I stayed in the living room and the other guys stayed in you know, different really broke okay, we really, we believe

this now. So one of my buddies, even when I first moved in, he was always with his girlfriend. Right, So after a while, he just stopped living um. He stopped living in the apartment with us, so I took over his room. But we needed people to make the rent of so a couple of comedians rest in peace, my guy Kwan and John and he ended up moving in, and I moved another guy and named RT and Uh. One of them lived in the living room, the other one shared the other room with the other guy, and

I was in the main bedroom. Bed room I mean, bad room. Attested. The bathroom felt incredible. I would bringing girls there and they loved it. Seem like I lived by myself even though I had these roommates. And because my rent portion was so low, all right, two seven dollars and fifty cents, I need to sell thirty DVDs a month and that's how I make money, right, So I was, Oh, I love it only doing comedy, and I would do comedy at night especially, and I would

be extra funny. My goal I had to be so funny that I can sell at least ten DVDs per show We're five or whatever. And I made my rent that way so many months just by you know, performing and selling thirty DVDs a month outside of doing other shows. Girl would make some money. Right, But this is a huge testament to Ends Mitchell of the Comedy Union, which is no longer around closed during the pandemic, Ends Michell. The Comedy Union would pay us a spot, right, and

with that twenty dollars of spot. I would perform there and get twenty dollars once a week, right, so actually twice a week, so I would get forty dollars per weekend. And then I would take twenty those dollars and buy my groceries. My groceries with a bone was chicken. This down to twenty down to twenty, okay, so not usually make sure. Yeah, I had this money sped around, so I will buy broccoli. I will buy me some chicken, and I would get Uh. I had a gallon of

water that I kept refilling like a quarter. You don't have to cook that. Well, you're chefing it today. Gone. So so um, That's how I would survive pretty much. Right. I have a rent paid phone bill my sister in Detroit. I would be like, hey, did you please take here my phone bill? And my sister took care of my phone bill for years, like just off of like at one point she just stopped letting it be a barrow, and she was like, I'll just pay your phone bill

and tell you good for yourself. Thank you, because as a comedian and your phone is your most prized possession, you gotta be able to pick the phone of being to get um. Fast forward back to Ends Mitchell. Now we're in December, right, this has been a whole six months, and I'm like, man, I gotta figure something out because I'm supposed to be going back home because I'm not on TV yet. Ends Mitchell calls me in his office and he says, listen, man, I think that you are hilarious.

And I was like, thanks, man, and he's like, uh, We're doing a TV show called Tony Rocks the Funny Spot. It's gonna be on TV one. Would you be interested in doing it? And I was like when does the film? When does it film? And he's like, uh, in two days. So it was December. The film December twenty two. Wow, Saved by the Almost had the return to Detroit flight. So I called him like I didn't know. My mom

only got announced. I called my mom right after I filmed it and I said, my I'll be home for Christmas, which my flight was leaving on there, so I called my mom and say, listen, I'll be home, but I'm coming back to alcause I just put my first TV appearance. So I kept on and uh, that was the very beginning for me where I started to really see things happen. I would catch the bus two spots. I would leave in enough time to get to the place, and I would leave in enough time to get back home because

they must stop around eleven thirties twelve o'clock. And I always tell people, if you believe in yourself, things are gonna happen. Like there was no And what I mean is not just believing in yourself, but I always walked by faith and not by sight, not getting religious, but it's just like I knew that there was no other ending other than success for me. I wasn't going back home. I was not going to give up, and no matter what I mean, at no point, so the only option

was success and that's what happened. Wow, your story is incredible. That's very sweet. It's like watching a movie. So when you made that phone call, I just kind of want to know like the emotional state and you were feeling, like because that's got to be an incredible feat. Oh it's crazy, Like what were you thinking, Like, I can't wait to make this phone call to my mama? And he did it smooth like you planned it too. Yeah,

because my mom. You know, I'm a mother's baby, so when you're the baby, your mom is always worrying about you. She's never thinking that you're okay. And I tried to call home for money, like not at all because I didn't want her to think the wrong decision. And it was it was very nerve wracking because obviously it's great to talk about now, but when you're in it, you don't see that, Like you just see the grind daily of what you're going through. And I never wish that

on anybody. But at the same time, I knew then what I know now, which is everything is a journey. The journey is the story. You gotta focus on where you're headed and that you know things will get better instead of focusing on the negative. At any point, I could be like, man, I don't want to bush. I got an air mattress, but girls were still coming to the career in the air mattress and I was like, well,

I think in your twenties is different. I think guys in the twenties is like the best time to come up on women because women's standards are just like Netflix and Chill. It's fine, that's not really you think women in their forties are like Netflix and Chill. Yes, I think from personal experience and that women go after driven men, right, So it's not so much about I'm about to deal with this broke guy, this Netflix and Chill guy. I'm dealing with this guy because he's going to be more

than this air mattress. He's going to be more than this bus rat. He's going to be more than not being able to afford to take me anywhere. Um. So those were the women that I have always attracted, Women who weren't the materialistic women, but also women who could be materialistic. You just like you don't want me to buy you anything, like I can buy everything. God bless you.

But there are a lot of women in the world who are in their thirties and forties who would never even deal with the guy in their thirties and forties that don't have what they have. But I was very lucky to find women my age and older who saw the bigger picture and man nice. Now I love that your faith driven and I can be pretty headstrong, but and it could be the girl in me. But you know, we're in a gender you know, gender equality, age whatever

in me. Um, but um, even when my faith is the strongest, there have been points in my career where I was like, oh, ship, I'm bat you crazy? Why the heck? It's like victim, you know, you go through the victim phase, like why why do I think I can do this? Any ways? And like, who the was there ever a point during that journey where you were like, dude, there was that doubt where it poured and heavy, like was there a particular incident where you were like, you

guys shook a little bit? Yes? Um, well one. In my mind, I've always been star and this is this As I was a child, I can think back to a time in Detroit where I did a comedy show a Cocost House of Comedy, and Martes is back to the first story. He was one of the comedies at that school. He told my sister, He's like, yeah, your

brother is funny, but uh, you know, he's arrogant. He's lawyer, and when his comedy meets his arrogance, he's gonna be great, and my sister said something I remember says that she laughed and she said, my brother would be this way if he worked at McDonald's. And that's the that's the guys on his truth. I have always been this way. I've never been a cocky person. Cocky is what people call you in the words of kool aid, when your

confidence meets their insecurities. Right, And that's so real. I thought, see your head up if their head isn't up, so I have the way to try to bring you down. Believing myself right, I don't go to your point to your question, I should say I had the event shake me uh in my early twenties that I was like, oh wow, life is real. Right. I ran into a situation where I could have been arrested and in prison for the rest of my life or something I didn't do.

And it was like, what's right? And we all know somebody who's in prison or in jail for something they didn't do. They're still there for the fact that I am not there, and was like, there's nothing in my name charges anything. It's like, this is God right, and with this I owe it to him and to myself to make way more myself than I was before. It was like before it was all chasing women and yeah, I'm doing some jokes, but I only do some girls right now, How do you sound like my husband to uh,

to really buggling down and focusing. That's a lot of credit to my wife. Man. My wife has been with me as my friend since year two of me being in l A. And she was one of those women that we were so tight at friends. I had no choice but to be myself with her, right. And what that means to a lot of people is when you're friends with a woman and you're just friends, even though I was trying to smash with day one, you are

you are honest, right. She knows the real me, She knows that I love women, she knows of how I am right. So she had that honesty and then she still shows that to be with me. So from that, she helped me become who I am. I would not have gotten eight percent of the blessings that I've perceived had it not been for her in my life and

in my corner. So yeah, wow, my problem problem. So we're back from commercial break with some nice smelling chicken um and uh just just kind of tailoring off to where we left off in regards to your wife being your rock everything pretty much. She um. My wife's name is Tangerine. She is a very successful actress and producer. She was doing this when she met me, right like she was already. She had like two movies coming out

when she met me. I think one of the first ones when I got super excited about was Miss March and Love for Sale because I love quest comedies, like you know, like a journey film, like you watch a road trip like that. I love those types of and that's what Miss March was, and the Love for Sale was just an incredible comedy as well. But she had these movies coming out as I met her as my friend, and as time went on, my first real television opportunity

to become a writer on like real TV. Like something I'd written before before wasn't really credited, right, it was like it was credited but nobody. They didn't go to to air because of my wife. She introduced me to one of my childhood heroes, Billy Kyle Evans. I know, the Evans family. Mart we need to have them on here. We're gonna do that. We're gonna have them so Bentley changed my life right. Badley and Stacy Ethers Morgan his sister also an amazing producer and writer, and now Evans,

the Evans family. Without them, I wouldn't have a career. And that goes to say so many of what they had done for me. Nile first, because during that dark point in my life I was mentioned to you, Nile had just reached out to me. I didn't even know he knew me right, Like, I was just doing comedy in clubs and he reached out to me and he

sent me a message and said, this too shall pass. Right, anytime you're going through a dark moment, I always remember this too shall pass, because it will, whether that be time randomly and uh. He was doing the Twitter TV show called The Twitter was doing videos at this and it was called Trending Funny and Trending Funny. If people looking at it, you probably still find it. Trending Funny was all of these hashtag topics that I would make jokes from that he wrote and it would just be

on camera. It was fun. And from that Bentley saw that. After I got to talk to Bentley because of my wife, she was working on the show called The Rev and I met him and I was like, I'm a writer and he was like all right, and I was like I'm a writer and he was like, okay, okay, this is tonight. So Bentley, I told him I was a writer, and I said, are you having uh? Are you staffing?

Like I would love to be on your staff right And he was like, look, man, I don't really have a traditional staff writing staff, but uh, you know, if you write a spec script of one of the shows and I check it out and I was like, all right, man, I read a spec script and he kind of waved me off like he didn't believe it. And I was like, I write four spec scripts. And it was a Tuesday night. I remember it was the red carpet for Family Time

Season one. Remember that? So Rick our Family Time Season one. My wife is on the red carpet, Angel Conwell, Omark Gooding, uh and Bentley and I sudn't write four scripts by Friday of that week by noon, and he was like, oh, all right, you know you told him you were going to do it before he didn't. Okay, so this is due. That's a lot of pressure because unheard, but he can write four scripts in that amount of time, accept your boy.

I wrote those scripts and I finished the last script at eleven am that Friday, and I sent it off to him right before noon. He responded back. He said, listen, man, I don't care about anything but the fact that you sent this just like you said you would. You and I are going to work together because you just reminded me of me is in an email. Time goes by also to be prepace this. The scripts are not formatted properly at all, like not format of scripts that I

was brand new as a writer. But they were funny. And about six months goes by, I'm getting angry because I ain't heard nothing prevently and down Yeah, I'm kind of propt up. Thanks. So I see Stacy of his Morrigan comes to the comedy store to see Bricia Whip and Bricia of course is uh is their family's well because I love that girls, the show that she was one of the stars of. So I'm angry when I see her. I'm like, hey, I sent your brother then scripts.

I ain't hear nothing, and she was like, hi, I'm doing. I was so out of I God bless Stacey because she saw something in me. She said, hi, um, send me the scripts and I was like all right, I said to the scree And three days later she gives me a call and she says, our regis scripts. You're a great storyteller and you're very funny. The formatting isn't there, but I see you you have something. Would you be interested in pitching some ideas for I love that girl

this season? And I was like yes. She's like, okay, come up with about two or three ideas and come pitch them to me in Bentley And I was like, done right. I showed to Bentley's home at this time. This is about a couple of days later. Showed the Bentley's home and when I get there, there's so many writers in a circle in his in his house is like one of the guest rooms, and everybody's pitching these ideas. And he gets to me and she told me to pitch two or three ideas. Already know you came up.

I came up with twenty ideas and just started rattling them off, and everyone like after each one, I was like, how does that thing? He's like, we got something something? All right? I got another one, and I got another one, and I just kept going and I get the call later that night that they accepted one of the ideas

and we're gonna give me script. What I did not know was how much money I was supposed to be making, because the previous writing gears that I had I made like fifteen hundred dollars a week writing scripts, right, and I'm thinking I was the industry norm. However, tell me, tell us, however, what is it? At this point, I didn't have those roommates. I had moved into a studio partment that Tangerine helped me get. Are you guys dating officially at that? Okay, okay, this is studio was my

first apartment. Everybody, how much was it? Come on, I'm trying to let me so this, uh this through your apartment? I was sprushing and I had basically given furniture like. I had a bed for my guy Michael the bag, I had a couch, a TV like, and but I didn't know how I was gonna pay this rent because this rent was a couple more hundreds than I was used to make it uh paying? So I asked randomly

to the writing system. I got Alex Skubutski. I said, hey, man, just out of curiosity, how much am I getting paid for the script. I'm thinking it's gonna be like two or three grand because I made before and this is you know, TV one. This is about to be great. I'm so excited right now. And he was like, oh, it's playing ten grand and I was like, all right, cool, thanks right, So Tam Grant, I had never seen this type of money. Yeah, of course, how old are you? Like, No,

I'm twenty four, right, this is two thousand eleven. I'm eighty six. I want winning. That's twenty four. I don't know, I don't know. I get ten graham. I'm super excited. I'm excited for you. I was gonna have been there. Yeah, so I get the ten graham from that. Um. And here's the even more quick story. Like I said, my wife was a plant base. I've always struggled with eating healthy and not eating healthy. Weight been up and down,

but I say it's for a reason. So we were we had gotten to a relationship because got me on this radio show called Chocolate Up Live, which was ran by this guy who's this health food gurgle guy, and I would get paid every week. Anyway, that company, the Herbs, started a weight loss challenge between myself and this this cool little white girl, cool little white girl, and the first person who could lose twenty pounds the fastest would get a thousand dollars, right, So I just got to check.

From that from uh, I Love that Girl and then I won the weight loss competition. I immediately want to go buy a truck because I was like, I had a car, but it got to an accident all that, so I went in bar truck and my rent was taken care of for a while. And uh. From that point, after Love That Girl, a show called My Crazy Roommate came up that Thatly was doing, and after Badly did that show, I was like, oh, man, maybe I can U. I can audition for it because I know he knows

I'm an actor. You can remember in the city, people aren't always up to date with were gifts, so I had to audition. I booked it, and um, but I booked. I wanted to book a series regular role on that show because it was like all these twenty somethings. I was sunning something. I'm ready and I didn't get that role, but he gave me a guest star on the show. I was kind of blown, but I killed it anyway.

Now at that point, did you want to transition away from writing because you were trying to do the acting or where are you trying to do both? I was trying to do both, but I've always been more interested in being on camera when writing came easier to me because I'm a storytelling so they're great storytelling. That's very kind. Do you say so? Um? What d up happening was? I didn't book that role. I booked the guest star role.

I got the guest star role, and I really wanted to be on that show because everybody was so young and just like me, And that show end up getting canceled. Wow. Family Time, which is from earlier that my wife was on season one, they were bringing that back. I was in the writer's role for Family Time. I wrote a character. First of all, this is about to be full circle because Corey Howkin was one season one of the Family

Time court. Holim was shooting Black Jesus. He couldn't do Family Time season two, so we broke his character into two people, cousin Dave and Donnie. And with this character Donnie, I brought in all the comedians that I knew was Bailey Loves comedians. I was bringing all my friends. I'm like, yo, just go kill it. And midway through the audience, but Donnie, I looked at Bailey, I was like, can I read this?

Things like yeah, but you gotta go in after all your friends, and I was like, oh, my friends were bringing that heat. Yeah. So all my friends go. I'm hearing laughter outside of the room. I'm like, man, I don't know how I'm ana follow this. And then I go in. I do my audition. I'm throw myself conscious because I'm like, man, I don't know if I'm gonna be as funny as my friends. Like this backfire right.

So I get a call later that night and Bentley said, I'm gonna give you the role of Donnie because you earned it. You were funny, and I was like, what cut two. We ended up filming seven more seasons of my character as value. So when I say sometimes blessings are in disguise, I wanted to be on Crazy Roommates So Bad and Regular, and that show got canceled. And I was a writer and an actor on Found the Time Craze season Wow, and in uh, how much money were you making at that time? If you don't mind

it went up every season. Um, but initially was it as much as writing. Oh, the writing was great and it was good money. It was a little less that. Okay, let's keep in mind, uh TV one's budget was for that script, right, instead of just being on staff. So when you're on staff, you get a weekly amount of line. When you are just turning in a script, you get a set little rate. So I had that set rate

for um, Love that Girl, Family time. I made a little less as far as just the script, but I was able to write more and more episodes and I got more seasons of episode the right, so it made a lot more and then I was getting any acting check as well, which was great. It was like, you know, I've never had anything, so you're looking at me being and you're sag at this point, right, Yeah, I don't know all the rules, but yeah it's but uh so

you're looking at a kid who had nothing. And because of my wife's introduction to me to Billy Kyle Evans, I was on TV show for eight years, and in the middle of the eight years, I worked on other projects, like uh, I was able to be a consultant on Wilding Out was Nile because that relationship pretty ironically. So Nile and I have known each other since I was like one. He came up here and he taped. You

have to see his episode when he taped guys. Y'all, y'all haven't We haven't released it yet, but now is definitely a breath of fresh air. But my whole crew was how you and now came up in here. The energy shifted because now it's almost like a mentor to me. So it's like he came up in and he had his directory, was like do this, tweak this, tweak this.

I had to send Nile an email afterwards assuring him that we had to run a show written out because he was concerned, and I even he even offered for me to come out to his house because we don't live far from each other so he can help me, which I do need to rereach out to him. But Nile and I I freaking love now. I worked with Nick Cannon for a long time, and I remember I was like literally going broke trying to produce this company, and he was like, Nick's opening a studio, just moving.

I'm like, you think, so you think I can do? He was like, bro He's getting the keys on this day, you better go ahead, and yeah, I made the phone call. Nick was like we wanted. I was like, thanks, Niles freaking incredible. Yeah, he has that and that that brother energy, right, but I love that. It's it's it's your story is

so incredible. Um. I you know, we take a lot of shows on eating while broke, but nothing gets me more cited then like hearing these types of like damn, you went through it to make it and we didn't even get to the internet. That's what's so crazy. Oh so we ain't done yet. I mean, we're gonna go over time, guys. Um, but so so, now that we've seen your TV and your writing journey, you're acting in your writing, how did you end up becoming a social

media influence? Sir? Because that that's a tricky transition. Tell me to tell me the t Interestingly enough, remember the name Jehan Jones. Johan Jones had been um. I had known it since he got to l A right from the East Coast, and he had been asking me to shoot sketches with him for years. And I'm like, man, I'm an actor. Brother, I don't sketches. You know, I'm on TV. You don't know if you've seen the show, right, and he's like, no, it's cool, man, but you know

you should come shoot with me as great. And I never wanted to do internet honestly because I was scared. I was scared that that comment section and people, you know, if you're not funny, people say something crazy to you. And I was just afraid that I wouldn't be as funny on the Internet as I was on stage, and that it would hope that it would hurt me. Um. Even more interesting was the fact that when you do online content compared to television at that time, it was like,

people aren't gonna respect this. I'm not gonna get roles whatever. And to be honest, I was afraid to fail. I was afraid to start something over because at this point, Donna stand up, I have been doing it thirteen fourteen years. At the time of you know, doing the videos and then acting, I was already becoming an even better actor because I had put my years in right, So I was like, I don't want to start something brand new

on such a wide scale anyway. During the course of family time and while and now I had also started doing all these other game shows, I'm writing on them one of the game shows UM. I met a brother who run the Company's changed names now, but it was fifty one Minds at the time. Kristen Sharapia great guy, super cool. We have worked on a h one show to that role. And after the show finished, I say, hey, man, I want to pitch you some shows that I wanna do,

like this make some money. He's like, come on in. I go in. I go pitch to him. Marlon Willams has a company. I talked to Marlin and I said, hey man, I want to pitch some stuff and he's like, yo, come through. I pitched him stuff to his company. Both companies told me, look, man, we like you. You're a great guy, but you don't have the numbers. If you had a million, all the numbers, we'll be doing it with you right now. But you don't have the numbers, and you want to be the star of these shows.

Would be different if you were just trying to sell them like here, let else do if you want to be a part of it. And I was like, I understand. I leave. I'm still not thinking about doing the Internet. My my brother BT Kingsley is doing UM a Comedy Central special right thirty minute Comedy Central special produced by Kevin Hard. He had just done the Heart of the City show with Joey Wills. I go this taping and this is great, but this is this is January and

I am stagnant. I'm feeling like, man, I'm not where I want to be in my career. I'm like, I got the TV show, but I'm not selling out comedy shows. I'm not on tour and you're still doing comedy in between stand up but I'm not getting the stand up love right And I'm like, man, what am I gonna do? And is your casual still smooth? At this point it was cool. It was like you know, when when the season is over, if you spent that money for another season, and glory to Guy Bentley kept me working on all

these shows, writing and I'm acting on Families time. But I were right on in The Cut and his other shows. But you know, time, you know something like and I needed to do something. And at that tape in John was there and we were backstage of BT stress Room if he gets off stage and uh Jehan was like, hey, man, you're gonna come shoot with us man? And I was like, fucking man, when do you shoot bro Like, I'm at the point my way ain't working, so I'm just want

to learn. I go to sketch House. It's ran by KP and I'm be More and Johan at this time, which Johan had a million followers, beautiful women all around, other content creators. Everybody's just creeping this content. I'm trying to learn what to do right. Anybody shooting with their phone and I had KP teach me how to edit on my phone, followed me to shoot these quick at that time, one minute videos. So you're you're on the Instagram.

You're like after vining, after Instagram. So I started doing it. King Karen was there my first day and was just sitting around on this phone and I was like, hey, man, could you hop in the sketch. I was like, yeah, all right. Shot my first two sketches. The first sketch went viral. I'm talking about. The sketch was when a joke doesn't work. It was myself young easy, King Karan, k Johan uh step like that my boy Ti read.

There was so many people in this sketch because I was like, if I get all of them in my video, it's gonna go viral. Right, um, but that doesn't work. Well, actually works, it's funny. I did the video when the joke doesn't work, and of course I made the punchline where I'm like, I told a joke and nobody laughed and they made fun of me. It hit a million views on Facebook and it hit um, I think a hundred thousand on Instagram that day, so I was hooked.

kN was like, hey, create you a Facebook fan page, don't do it in your personal name. And I just kept creating Instagram videos run on and over, and then the aurithm changed. Um. That following year, I used to go from at least a million views on a video or a couple of hundred thousand on a video within a day or two two five thousand for the day because the AURAM was trying to push you with buy ads. So that next year, my my guy Big Job. He was like, yo, man, why don't you go to YouTube.

I'm like, I ain't doing YouTube and I'm trying to get this Instagram pop. And he was like, if you're making no money off Instagram, you're just getting views. So no matter if you get a million or a thousand, you're not getting that money. Go to YouTube, and I'm like, all right, And I went to YouTube and I was like, how long does this take? The crack man he was telling me, and I asked him, as how long did

it take you to make some money? He was like, man, my first check was two dollars and then my next check it was Tim Grant. And I was like, oh, ship when I sign up? Right, and he's like yeah. I started doing videos immediately, like I was flooding the system. I was dropping seven videos a week, one every single day, and then from that February of two that May, I'll take that back. Nope, yeah it was. It might have been.

It was. It was like, from that February to that May, I grasped a hundred thousand subscribers, right, I got my plaque from YouTube and my first check was eight No, my first check was ten thousand, my second one was eight thousand, and it was like each but how long did it take you to get to that first check? So okay, So the first month that I did YouTube

videos it was that February. By the end of that cycle of March, I had made like I was making progress, but by the deadline, I hadn't even hit a hundred dollars. After that deadline is when everything hit. So I got the rest of the month like which was probably eighty bucks. And then that next month, which all my videos had told almost ten thousand dollars. So I got that money and then I just kept the ball rolling. Then I started posting even more on Facebook, and they both took off.

I would because I know you like numbers the highest IOUs like, so, I mean, it wouldn't be if you watching. Um. The pandemic hit and I had already start seeing successful with my sketches on Facebook, but I didn't see the boom of followers, like hundred thousand followers. And I got reached out to a comedy show in New York. Did it it was? It was a success. I came back

and the pandemic hit. A couple of months later. We have went out of the country, were having good times and the pandemic hits, and I'm like, well, I can't shoot sketches like I was before. I got to do something else. I started doing reaction videos where I would take a clip of a video and I would write jokes to this video, like my reaction to it, but not like five seconds, like oh this is crazy. Look at this. It's like I would actually create a separate

video of jokes for this video. So a video that might have been forty seconds is now a six minute video because I put my jokes on and doing those videos garnered me. I'm up to one point two million followers on Facebook and millions of views on these videos. A lot of my sketches of viral. But these reaction

videos took a life of their own. So some of those videos hit twenty two millions, some of them get thirty million, five million, ten million, like you know, and and a lot of people showed me love my problem, my problem. And then I got you do Jeffredy Towns that creator dealing with some point you get shadow band where everybody doesn't get to see your stuff. You always

at the mercy to algorithm. But anyway, in the pandemic, my highest month where I was like this is crazy, I made this is let me say you four starts, tell me something that's gonna make me stand. August of I had made in one month sixty four thousand dollars. Shit, I'm quit. I quitnon snap in the pandemic. Do you know how great that is? That's six I think everyone for everyone in the room is reevaluating. Huh, we go. That's you want to know something though, you gotta think.

You come all the way from Detroit. You know, you're focused. You come here with nothing, and we got to try this dish over time. But um, you're focused, you know, and you're coming from where we all were all familiar with the space of like being broke, with the under twenty dish. Um, but look how far you've come. And even in the face of like fear, you're like, well, you know, I don't know about this new this new pivot. Essentially, you take a chance on the pivot and you murder it.

And I love it. I love it. But the full circle for the six or four thousand next month, I've done a video. You gotta murder the pandemic because there's a pandemic. The computer is now the person that is reading through and watching the videos that you upload. I had done a video usually before there are people in office to do it. I did a video. Mm imputer misread it. I got de monetized for ninety days. What does that mean? Make any money days? Oh no, rock

is a little too spicy. Let me say, all right, you can be your own critics. But I'm going to tell you right now, this food is delicious. It's tender, which, yeah, it's very tender. And that's not the way you're pouring those lorries. And that I was gonna drive a hard I've told you you were not. It's all about how you do it. I'm not for sure it was gonna be need salty is dish I've ever had no because I'm not about the exaustness. But this used to be also.

And chicken thighs for rouse. You get about eight of them, and I would do two at the time. I would bring girls over and I would be like, yeo, it makes a chicken. They'd be like and if I if I made the chicken and they just wanted to have sex before I made the chicken, I'm like, God, damn it, you fucking made me rule. You made me use chicken. This supposed to last me a week and you ain't

gonna eat this ship. Yeah, if you had sex before you cooked it while I was thinking, if she'd come over there trying to rub, I'm like, chicken, you don't want to do Oh guys, the way guys think I love it. We should just have a Guy Decoded show. Well, um, unfortunately we're running out of time. We've already ran out

of time, we already ran the clock. Um, how can people like if they wanted to get ahold of you or wanted to support you, like, how could they keep up with like your shows and what's going on besides Instagram? Because we know you're you're in stuff famous? Or is that the only way? Oh you're still chewing? Okay, okay, go ahead too, I'm not Instagram. I am Internet popular. Think batch is inst the famous? I'm you see me on the street. Hey that's but um CC is dope

on everything. Just Google ct is dope and all myself will pop up and subscribes to everything. Would be a great hilp. Yeah, fill them pockets up, Fill them pockets up. Thank you so much for coming to our show and blessing our set with amazing food. Now officially eating while Bro cookbook has real meals in it that involves chicken.

For all y'all chicken lovers, Yes, for all y'all chicken lovers, we are finally blessed with a chicken dish that's under twenty bucks and this meal for under twenty dollars, serves as at least a minimum of four meals. And if you are afraid of the carves this this dish is perfect for you. So if you're watching that fat in

that firm figures, this is it. Yeah. For more eating while broke from I Heart Radio and The Black Effect, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.