DJ D-WREK - Fried Bologna and Noodles

what we're gonna do? What we have here? This is just regular bologning, like you know, bologna and cheese, and which is type of bologna, kindergarden food. This yere is beef top ramen and then butter it and said, what we're gonna make is beef top ramen with fried bologny. Got it? So this is an extremely affordable this affordable this, I mean this is this might be thirty cents right here. This is thirty cents. What all the big money was spent here? The butter. It's like all these dishes, like

the nutritional value is like so low. Yeah, it's not. It has nothing to do with that. It's all about feeling the tummy, filling the tummy. Well, why don't you fill our tummy and start cooking for us because I'm hungry. Okay, this is what we do since since the top ramen is already unpackaged, we're just gonna put it in the

in the boiling water. Most of the time, I kind of break it up a little bit for you know, you break it at hungry just because you know, other than that, you're if you don't break it, then you're having spaghetti. So I put im make it in a little I'll break it in a little four little okay, little top ramen pods. So there's a method to the matter.

There's a method to it. So what I just did was I put the top ramen in the boiling water, let it boil, and I use just to kind of it's gonna get soft, and so if you don't want to, you don't want it to get too soft. Okay. So when was the time you ate this dish? Probably like nine seven, So since ninety seven you have not resorted back to this. I haven't. I haven't added fried bologny, but just sometimes like on a late night, you know, I don't want to eat a huge like I'm hungry,

but I don't want to eat anything like heavy. I'll make like, you know, a little top run or something. So what we'll do now is we're gonna add We're gonna fry the blood. Okay. So what we want to do is it's just on right here, that is on. Okay, where are we? Don't burn yourself? No, I don't know what the insurance policy, what you guys kind of insurance? You know, we're on eating more broke, So I don't have too much faith in it. So right now I'm putting a little butter on the in this skillet, just

to you know. And now is that for it's to not stick or for it to actually just to you know kind of this is it adds labor and look calcium calcium, got it? This is calcium on the package. Yeah, go for it. Okay, so you get yourself a couple of these here boom, let that fry up? All right? So what what this is gonna do? And this is what everybody did that fries bacon knows this It should uh, it should create able Okay. So we're looking for the bubble, waiting for the bubble. So take us back to seven.

What was going on in I was a cashier at Costco wholesale, and I was living in l A. I was a cashier at Costco hostel and I was just out in l A doing what I call the Hollywood shuffle. Um, I got that from a Robert Townsend movie, but I was really doing that. I'm still Hollywood shuffling, but just on a different level now. Um and uh, auditioning for different TV shows and and and you know, dance gigs

or whatever. So you are a dancer, Yes, I should do I should dance for different artists and music videos and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, I mean you see the bubble, yeah, Bubble'll see the bubble. I see it. So are you supposed to pop it? Oh? Yeah, part of it being fun. So you wanted to kind of be a little crispy not to Christmas. So that's the whole point of frying is for the texture. Well, yeah, for the texture and to add protein to to your meal. Okay, you know what I mean? Now do we know what

really is in boloney? Is it like one of those hot dog things? Are probably? I mean it doesn't look like you should just shave this off the side of a cow. So so when did you realize you wanted to get into entertainment. When I was a little kid.

I used to watch like, you know, Good Times and the Jeffersons and Different Strokes and things like that, and I would see these actors that I was I would always emulate anyway, you know it was you know he acts like I mean, I would, you know, kind of you know, emulate the young black actors that were out. You know, like I was always mimicking j J or something and uh, you know doing it what you're talking about. Well,

it's all that kind of stuff like that. And then the TV show Fame came out, and I was like I could dance too, and then be born and breaking came you know, all that stuff. So I was like I used to enter like little hip hop dance contests and things like that, and uh and I would win like first, second or third place, and I was winning money. So my mom wouldn't have to uh give me much allowance because I was always winning, like, you know, a

few dollars at Chuck E Cheese every weekend. Yeah. So then so she did she standed up supporting that because you're always winning her Well, it was it wasn't that I was. It wasn't She didn't support me because I was winning. She just didn't discourage me. You know, like when I said, Okay, Mom, I'm gonna go to this little kid's club and we're gonna you know, it's gonna be like a breaking battle or whatever, popping battle and

stuff like that. You see. Right now, I'm chopping up the belogni because you gotta put little pieces of bologni in the ramen. Year when we turned it down a little bit, it's it's actually smells pretty good. Yes, it's not bad. It's not bad, okay. So right now I'm gonna turn off the rat it, okay, because we don't want to get too soft. Yeah. I like my ramen where it's like I don't know what that means, sounds like it's like a little harder, like you know, I

don't like my ram and too soft. Right, So right now I'm gonna pour off some of this water right because I don't like it. I don't like it too soupy. Yeah me either. Don't be like me. Don't try to promise you. I always drain it. I don't like it too soft, and I don't like it too soupy, So I pour it off enough to wear the water in the rama are about the same level. Okay, got it,

all right, So we do that. So it's a little bit soupy, but in fact, let me turn off a little bit, pour off a little bit more, all right, that actually smells pretty good. I'm not saying I would like go and eat, you know, pack of baloney. But you're gonna be making this at the crib by yourself. I don't know. Let's see how bad or how well eating will broke does. So just purring that. So let

me tell you what we're doing now. So right now, we're gonna season to see, didn't need package right now, and we're gonna season at the time where we're gonna we're gonna dump it into the into the noodles, into the pot with the noodles, and you just empty all the contents of that. So you just want to you just want to, you know, stir that up in there now. You want to get that a little bit not too crispy, but a little bit crispy. And um. While and that

went away. So I was back to Hollywood shuffling with without a job. And when you say Hollywood shuffling, that's like auditions or you just are you trying to find places to DJ auditions, uh, DJ, and you know DJ gigs and stuff like that, you know, but uh, I really wanted to do. You know. DJ has been good to me, you know since I started DJ, and uh and being on television is great because it actually gets me more DJ gigs. But uh, you know, I like I like acting and that's really hard to get in too,

you know, so every nothing. Then you know, you book a few commercials, you book two or three commercials a year, and you're doing all right, but uh, you know when it's when it's dry, it's dry, you know, So right now, what I'm gonna do? He kind of looks like a little bacon bits. Yeah, see little bacon bits here cutting this up. You put that in there like that, you cut it up. What you do, You gotta mix it all up, mix it up a little bit. This is

what it looks like overhead cam. Alright. Nice. When you're doing the Hollywood shuffle and things dry up, is there like a special thing you do in your mind to handle the cash flow going up and down. You just want to keep your your sanity and know that you're still in the right place, You're still with your thank you. You're welcome, you know what I mean. Like, so there are times that I would feel like, man, maybe maybe

show business is not for me. And there were times you oh, yeah, there were times when I felt that way, you know. And then you know, I get a call from my agent for an audition and it will conflict with something that I have to do, like you know, maybe I booked or maybe i'm you know, doing a day job or something like that, and then they're like they're they're like, well, if you go to this audition, you're not you know, you might as well just quit.

And so, you know, my passion is show business, so I would just go to the audition and then you know, look the commercial and then it kind of reassures you and let you know, remind you that you are where you're supposed to be. Now, did you have any naysayers around you that would make you doubt yourself or was it just all like in your head where the doubt

would come and go? Um. I never really had any naysayers. Um. But you know, any time if you ever have to call a family member to tell you, you know, to borrow money. Family member was a state man, you need what you need to do. You need to move back home, and you need to get a job, a real job,

you know. And those are the same family members, are the same good friends or whatever that when you know you're back doing what you do or what you set out to do, those are the same people to tell you that they knew you were going to make it. You know, I knew he's gonna make it. Man, how do you feel about men? It was something special about you when I first met you. How do you feel about that when you it's the nature of the business. Yeah, wow, all right, let's try to try your cooking. And I

like that it's not too soupy. It's not too soupy. So you look a little soft everybody. I'm not trying to judge him, but because she was talking to me, you know what I'm saying, I normally don't, you know, cook it as long as I did. So Colleen's fault. It was good m hm, soft noodles on. You're welcome you. I'm saying, I'm sorry for a gapping. When do you feel like you were officially confident that the entertainment business

was where you were going to be? Like, was there a level of like checks had to ride before you were like, Okay, this is it, I'm never turning back to Costco. Or well, I got fired from Costco so I couldn't go back to Costco. Why did you get fired because I went to an audition When I had it, I had a jerk for for for a supervisor. Do you shop at Costco? Finding? Okay? Do you ever like when you see someone that did that type of thing to you? Do you ever like wish you could bump

into them? I waved to him, why does he still work there? Still Costco? He's one of those dudes. I knew you were gonna make it. He probably takes side tries to take credit. Do you know I'm gonna fire man? Just to encourage me? Kenny? Can I cuts on here? It's funny. I had Celebrity High, as you know. And when I was creating the company, I worked at country Wide. This was right before the crash, and yes, country Wide

played rolling. They had yeah, probably they had everyone, And uh I remember I was doing Celebrity High and I would have like the little posters of like what this magazine was going to be, and a lot of my coworkers would come by my desk the girls and they would laugh at me because I drove a bucket that like I could start with anything. And uh. I remember country Wide fired me and I cried because I was broke.

I was only making like ten dollars an hour, and of the ten dollars an hour, I was investing into this idea. And I remember calling my grandfather and he was just like, I'm so happy they fired you. And I was like, how am I gonna pay my My rom was like four a month. Do you remember when was that cheap? And uh? But yeah, I looked back and ironically enough, I am thankful that they fired me, because sometimes that's that last inch you need to like

push your drive even further. Right, Yeah, absolutely, because I mean one thing that I did have, I had health insurance through Costco. I had if I needed to get more hours at work, I could just you know, go to switch the full time for like six months. And it's really hard to get fired from Costco. Um so, but getting fired from Costco definitely lit a fire under my behind and I had to I mean from there, I was a waiter at the soul food restaurant, you know. Uh,

and then right when I booked book that keeps saying. Right, when I started waiting at this restaurant, I got this gig um that took me to Korea for like six months that paid me like and asked, well, at that time, what felt like an astronomical amount of money? And so I went over there and K pop groups and stuff. Was at your first time flying out of the country. Absolutely, yeah,

I'm sure you were excited. I was, but I also knew what you know, the money is what motivated because if I could have stayed here made that money, I would have, but there were no other offers at that point. Now, was there ever anything that you did where say you like, for instance, do you take wilding Out? And I know wilding Out doesn't have a huge like every month schedule is probably a couple of weeks. But have you ever

gotten an opportunity while you secured another opportunity? What was the opportunity that you felt like you wish you you didn't have to say no to? Um? Well, one thing I'm never gonna do is say no to whiling out. Yeah, um, but one of the things I mean. I So, what happened when I there was one gig that I booked, I booked a tour dancing for a popular artist and m But the week before I went to the audition for the dance audition, I auditioned for this big McDonald's commercial.

Every day we're seeing everybody. So I went to the audition, and then that following week audition for the dance. I went to the commercial audition, and then that following week audition for the artist and um to be a dancer, and then during that week I got a call back for the McDonald's commercial. Right, so I went to the callback, and I'm starting rehearsals for the the the dance, the dance gig. So then you know, that's in the beginning

of the week. And then at the end of the week, I get back from rehearsal for the dance gig and I'm at home chilling. Is a Friday, and I didn't get a call. I hadn't gotten a call from my agent to let me know whether or not I booked this gig, the commercial gig, and I'm laying in my bed and I'm like, I'm looking at my watching this like five something. I know the agency closest at six, and then I'm like, I'm not gonna get this get this gig five forty five fifty my phone rings and

my agent caused me. She says, uh, um, you just put yourself un you know this commercial. I was like, what, I'm like, She says, you shoot next third, next Friday, so a week from that day. That day, I was so that following week I was supposed to leave to go to Orlando to do the first show for this tour on Thursday. So which and that first show is going to be on Friday when you're typing the commercial.

So I asked the choreographer and you know, talk to the artists and stuff, and said, hey, I booked this commercial. I really want to do this gig. I really want to do the dance gig, but I really need to do this commercial. And I said, so they had like dancers, so they could have just you know, allowed me to do, you know, miss that first show. I said, hey, can I miss the first show? And they were like, well if you can't miss. If you can't do the first show,

then you can't do the gig. You said, peace, and he said to McDonald's, McDonald's paid more. Yeah, even though I would I would have loved that had that experience dancing for that artist. But once I did, that was my first major commercial that I was the star of. It was me and a whole bunch of little kids. Yeah, it was literally me and a bunch of kids and a a a McDonald's rapper that was like flying through there and so but that just made me say, I am.

I am where I'm supposed to be. So what would you say, like two people that are trying to get in the game, you know, like, what would you say to those that may have been trying for the last five us ten years and still haven't been able to make a decent check, but they're still going out? I would say, you mean you still auditioning and things like that, and they're starting to doubt themselves maybe they're in their mid thirties, or I mean, keep a day job, like

you know, take care of yourself and your responsibilities. But I mean, show business is not for everybody. But I'm not I'm not the one to tell anybody to give up, you know, I'll just if you feel that passion, just keep pressing. Have you ever met, like say, a guy that wants to be a rapper, a girl that wants to be a rapper, and you're like you heard their music and it's just not where it's where you think

it should be at. Do you do you ever tell them to maybe look into alternatives or do you just no? I never discourage people because I mean those people all the time, because they're they're a way. There are much more people that are not good at you know, they're not good artists or they're just they're just not there yet. But you know, I wasn't always there, So you just keep going. You get better, but you still have to, like, don't go rob banks and support that habit. Yeah, you

gotta keep a job. If you've got kids and responsibilities, you gotta do what you gotta do to survive, you know, including eating alone round exactly. And I'm enjoying mine. She didn't look like I have to ask questions and have a whole interview. But the second the cameras cut, I'm gonna be taking a couple of extra fights. What season are you on a walling out? Now? We just wrap season sixteen? Sixteen seasons? What would you say is the one thing you walked away learning the most of benefiting

the most from walling out? I would say that even though as steady as that gig is it can still go away like that. Speaking of that, when the whole controversy with the Jewish and wilding out and some of the comments Nick made, did a part of you panic a little bit that there was a chance that the show wasn'tna come back, or have you been there before so you were prepared? I was not prepared. UM kind of panned a little bit because I mean, at this point, I have a family, and you know, this is my

main source of income. I mean, I've been on the show of since day one, you know what I mean? And so, uh, I literally if all I did was wilding out, that's all I have to do. Yeah. So yeah, So so I panicked a little bit. But then, I mean, I know Nick and I kind of understood everything that was kind of was happening, and I was in touch with Um, with other producers on the show, the executive

producers was in touch with Nick and everybody. So we were having conversations, and I felt confident that we were going to come back, you know. And then one of the the most um negative people on this show and one of the most negative producers on the show, he called me and he said, we'll be back we just gotta work some things out. Once he felt confident that we'd be back, then, um, I felt really confident. But I just you know, it doesn't matter how much money

you have when money is just going out. I mean, because it wasn't just the pandemic, it was when the show went away, and then you couldn't get other gigs because you know, there weren't many other gigs you could get that we're paying the kind of money that you needed to sustain the lifestyle that you already have. So when that happened, I was like, Okay, I'm confident that we're gonna come back. When when are we gonna come

back now? Because pretty soon, when money is just going out and doesn't matter how much you have, you know you gotta take care of that overhead. No, I'm just curious just to get into the Devil's advocates say it didn't come back, and you know you have your family, would you ever like if pandemic because during the pandemic there was no tape and there was absolutely nothing going on. Would you ever, you know, do whatever job. I love

that you are really enjoying this dish. I'm gonna save mine just so we could just but um, would you ever? Are you? Do you feel like you're above going back and getting a real job just to support your family. No, I do not feel like I want above. That's and I would have done that if if I need to, And I still do that if I have to. Wow,

that's amazing. That's amazing to hear that. Now. When I saw the whole controversy with the While and Out, so I honestly didn't feel like anything Nick said was controversial. I don't want to say controversial. It was a total negative slant. I thought maybe his quotes were missed, he didn't quote them. Well, but I understand what cancel culture. It's like you're you're really skating on the nice while Now. It's kind of interesting because there's a level of comedian

breach where nothing is off the table, but yet cancel culture. Yeah, but cancel culture hasn't even come for some of the stuff that While and Out has, you know, some of the jokes that have aired on this show. But do you feel like now that cancel culture is becoming more of a mainstream being comics are starting or when you guys in your writing room, they're starting to be like, well, maybe we should inch away from this. I mean, I don't I don't know all that Nick said. I never

saw all of that whole podcast Um episode. But I think that what it has done is it it has made people that like comedians just more aware because comedians, at the end of the day, they don't care what anybody like. That's their freedom to They're not the PC police. But and you know, and comedians that they want to

they want to say what they want to say. I mean, they community are some demented people, a lot of them, you know, you know, to find humor in some of the most tragic things, or just to to find humor just everyday life that we all live. And uh, you know, they tell their experience and and you know we all laugh from that because we can relate to it's all relatable. You know, that should be something that they're allowed to do,

but it's aware. It definitely has made us aware. And I think that what makes I my little brother is a comedian, my husband's a comedian. When I look at them, I'm like, what makes you guys great is actually keeping it real. To put a censor on on comedy is a weird space, right, I mean, to my understanding. Nick wasn't telling jokes at the time, you know, he was doing he was doing his podcast interview and people get offended. You can't help how people feel, you know, and people

are gonna feel the way they're gonna feel. And not everybody's gonna be happy with you, you know. But I'm going to post the most positive posts on Instagram or social media and somebody's gonna have something negative. You'd have a thousand positive comments and the one that's gonna stick out is the negative one. Yeah. Yeah, when you and Nick got together, this was long before whiling out or did you have to audition onto walling out and you

guys just built your relationship from there. No, I met Nick. I met Nick in ninety seven. We didn't start wilding Out until two thousand four. So and actually wilding Out was created in my living room. Yeah, because at the time Nick was renting, uh he was, he was my roommate. So in North Hollywood, in Studio City. I was gonna say, not the walk up where you cannot that. So you guys were roommates, and then he conceived this idea in

the living room. Yeah, we were just at the crib, you know, just acting silly doing you know, I can't remember everything we were. We're just doing stupid stuff. And then you know, Nick comes up with this idea and says it can be a TV show. And we were at that time, we were doing the whole you know, we were on tour. We had been on tour, were doing like the Scream Tour and the and he had like a little not a little, a little rap career, but he had I think it was like jo or something.

He had something out and we were doing a lot of shows. So you guys weren't necessarily broke then, but you guys were like, yeah, but we were still living paycheck to paycheck, you know, I mean record deals. It looks all glamorous, you know, and sometimes once you sell records you can make some money. But you know, we were doing shows, we were traveling, we were you know, but we were still the roommates in an apartment. I

love that so um And that's crazy. You look at Wall and Out now and it has this huge budget and it's a little different now, yeah, from when you guys first started. Now, I remember hearing like when you guys first when it first started, it was like in a club and it was like, did you guys self

shoot it or we did? The first pilot was at a club called the Comedy Union down on Off Brea in l A. And that's the one that MTV saw and they liked it, and then we did um, MTV paid for us to do a yeah, and so that was that was kind of cool. We did that at a club. We did that at a Princess old club,

I think, I think that's what we did. And then um, a couple of months after that, MTV I wanted to buy like six or ten episodes or something like that, so we went to series there and you know, besides that low that we had between two thousand and seven and two thousand and twelve or thirteen or something like that, you know, the show has never been off the air, like, you know, besides but this recent thing. But it was

always on the air. They were always playing reruns. But yeah, I mean, you know, I never thought that I wouldn't be able to make a living in this business. Never. Never. Wow, that's amazing. I think when I interview a lot of people, especially at this table, they're all as well, celebrities, influencers, entrepreneurs, and they all had that level of confidence, like we knew at some point, even though we were homeless, we were going to make it. Yeah, because you know, when

you're trash, do you think? So you have to Hopefully you're self aware enough to just know, because I've seen a lot of talent going American Idol, and you know, I'm like, come on, man, but they probably know because I sometimes when I sing to myself in the shower, I'm like, I sound great, like move over, Mariah, and then like if I were to record it, I play it back, I'm like, oh, that's reality right there. You know.

I just have to ask when you look at where you guys started UM to where you're at now, do you ever just sit back and go like that's crazy? Absolutely do you don you and Nick ever step off

the stage and say can you believe this? Especially like yeah, we we have UM, especially like when we're doing the tour wild Out Tour, Like I can't remember what city we were in, but you know it was a basketball arena in a major city and it was sold out, so it was like, you know, not just the floor, but it was like probably eighteen thousand people there and you just hear like the opening DJ playing music and stuff, and you you walk into the backstage area and you

can see the audience and it's just thousands and thousands and thousands of people. And I remember saying to him, can you believe this started in the living room? You know what I mean? And that's when you know Nick. You know, Nick is too cool for school sometimes and Nick's like it's crazy, huh. And then we're just you know, and then I go out on stage and I introduced Nick,

and then we do our show. You know him? But does happen a couple of times you kind of have to you have to step outside of yourself sometimes, I think, and to appreciate what you what you've accomplished, you know what I'm saying, What you've been blessed to accomplish. And um, I think that's kind of that's smelling the roses, you know. And then I just have one last question and then

we'll wrap. Um. And this is kind of go back going back to when you guys, oh when the pilot, when you're pitching MTV, where you guys cold calling or are you calling every relationship in your roller decks saying here, I got this great idea. Here's the tape for it or was it all a word document in a deck? No. I mean, you know, Nick is the one that had all of those you know, relationships, um, and he had all those avenues to get you know, because that wasn't

Nick's first pilot. He had done probably called Loose Cannon that we did, um, we did another show called The Nick Cannon Show. We did two shows called the Nick Cannon So one didn't go who one ended up on Nickelodeon. UM. So you know, and you know Nick at the time, especially Nick was like Hollywood's little guy that they were trying to figure out, hollywood young new little guy that they were trying to figure out, what can we do with this guy? Because he's talented and he's got some

great ideas, and he was like clean cut. He was like that clean he was like the new version of the Freshman. Yeah. Yeah, I would definitely say that. Yeah. So you know, so he was able to use that to pitch the show, and the people wanted to be in business with him, you know what I mean. I mean he's a likable Yeah, he's very nice, very nice, very likable, very hard working. Now he's got you know, neck tattoos. It's yeah, that can be a whole another discussion.

But I'm so happy that you came out and fed me uh some bologny fried bologny ramen. It's be flavored, and now I officially know how to fry rom well. Thank you so much for coming on another episode of Eating While Broke Broke. Thank you for more Eating While Broke from I Heeart Radio and The Black Effect. Visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.