Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke. I'm your host, Coleen Witt, and today we have very special guest actor Omar Gooding in the building. I'm very excited to have you, Thank.
You, happy to be here.
I'm not as excited about the dish you're gonna make me eat.
Copy that come.
Traditionally I ban rahmen across the board unless you're doing something crazy with it, but go ahead. You could tell our listeners what you're gonna have me eating today.
Yeah, yeah, no, no, I mean it's it's funny because we were talking about the old fashioned cup of noodles, how it's in a styrofoam cup, and we weren't even supposed to put that in microwave as they say now, but we didn't care. We didn't care. You know, back in my I used to call it my college years when I had a lot of roommates. I never went to college, never went to college, but you know, cause I was an actor since I was nine years old. So when I was like in my twenties, I just
did a movie called baby Boy. So I had a lot of roommates, you know, house full of house full of house full of fellas. And I remember I was eating a couple of noodles one day and my guy was like, yoh man, you don't put the egg in the noodles. And I said, what you what you on bumper? He said, yeah, man, the cup of noodles. All you do is you crack an egg right over the top of the cup of noodles after you pour the water in. But don't pull the water all the way up to
where that line is. Just pull it up. Pour it up to the top of the noodles right right, can you Right when you can see the water, you crack a raw egg, set it right on top, throw that bad boy in there for three minutes, and watch it cook. Now. We did this before we got on air, so I remember you were looking at all. Is it gonna be running? Is it gonna be cooked? Bro?
I was watching you like a kid that has never seen this project. I literally was like, oh, war like, You're gonna have to come over and do this because I'm gonna mess this up. But I watched you do this and I'm terrified.
Yeah, yeah, we're taking a look inside.
So we did it. Omar did it.
He taught me how to put an egg in a cup of noodles.
I okay, now this egg.
My biggest concern, and I was kind of annoying you with this, was what the texture of this egg is?
But a cook But look at that. Look at that that may got mine is a little running. Now, if it's a little running, you just dip it into that hot water and then you just steer it up and it'll cook. It'll all cook.
Oh yeah, this looks.
See the more the more you stir it up, the more it'll cook. Now the key ingredient, because you really got to let it sit. I think we did. We let it sit long enough.
Yes, yours sat mindset a little bit longer.
But yeah, usually once you take it out of the microwave, you got to start chopping it up and stearing it and making that thing happen.
Okay, so it's supposed to be thoroughly mixed in there.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. You don't just like eat the raw egg off the top of the thing, like what does that? No? No, no, no, do you have to make sure that the egg After.
You learn this with the noodle, do you make all your eggs with a microwave?
No, not a chance, No, no, no, this is just this was this was the back end the day thing. You know, when we was lazy, We wasn't cheffing it up, you know, and having women cook for us and then figuring out how to do it ourselves and so forth and so on. We was like, okay, look, we need to eat. We're gonna be drinking tonight. Grab me that cup of noodles. You know what I'm saying. Get you a get you an egg, set it on top. And then the key
ingredient is the hot to the sizzauce. You gotta have hot to the siss ace.
You're originally from La.
I'm from La. Yes, born and raised. My parents were born in Harlem. My, uh, you ain't gonna do that. Oh, you're really risking it down because hot sauce is the only reason I said yes to this. You can't do hot sauce.
Well, that's why I said you're from LA, because I feel like La is all about the hot.
It's all about the hot to the sissauce. Yeah, you can.
I put a drop in there, a drop.
Okay, all right, don't drop the noodle the egg when you can get down right? All right, here we go, we go break the diet on.
He's on a diet guy.
Yeah, it's a you know, you do the interimnute fast and you know that's how it is nowadays. You gotta stay right. You never know what that phone call is gonna be for the next project. Shirt off. Wait a minute, I've been eating a couple of noodles for the last week. Now you can do that. You want to booge it up, put it in, put it in there. Oh yeah, let's make it fancy. Hunh Yeah, noodle, gourmet egg noodle. What's
a cup of noodle? Now it's bowler noodle? Okay, man, you know you mix it up a little bit and depending on how many noodles you want.
I'm trying to try it with the egg peace.
Yeah, you gotta get a little pee, get adventurous.
Here we go. I'm gonna try it.
You're I'm gonna watch you when you dry. You just kept straight faced. Okay. We don't know if she's wincing because it's hot, or she's horrified. Look at the face. Look at the face. You ain't got no chase around or you see you got the UHU just in case, gonna get you some uh You can't do it. I haven't done this in about ten years, so I'm a little nervous myself. Let me try it.
Oh that's what I remember.
So you didn't put enough hot sauce on it.
I was sucked on a cough drop before.
Are you just trying to sabotage my whole meal?
I do it because all our listeners complain if I have a little bit of a cough, They're like, oh.
But we're close to that pandemic still.
So it's I'm gonna be honest. Yeah, the egg is not is.
Not doing it for You're not an egg person.
Not in my noodles.
Oh man, this is taking me back. I'm about to call the homies up and started start a dice game.
Look, this is a terrible way to come off a diet.
Yeah no, this is right. This is shocking to here. I jog home. I ain't even gonna drive. This is it. Let me get one.
Moment, right, So, yeah, your dish, I wouldn't. I would probably never do this in my free time. Again, So broke, I'm.
You can afford a little bit more than the noodle. But see the color in the texture of mind. The more you mix it, the better it gets you know what, just just look like regular little noodles with without no hot talk.
But it has like an egg flavor to it because you just took.
A straight by to the egg, right into the egg. I don't know why you've bit the egg like that. Let's all mixed together like you have fried rice. Do you fish out the egg or you don't really eat fried rice? I love?
I think it's just me mentally knowing that the egg was a little runny is messing with my brain.
Yeah. See, but if you know, the more you mixed that jone up, so you gotta constantly have your hands moving at all times because the hand moving keeps mixing the flavor. Because there's flavor in there that you have to get to see that.
See how look, Yeah, you can barely see your egg.
You can't see the egg it's got you know, it's in there in the broth. See your broth looks a little pale too. I don't know why your broth looks so pale. Well, let's seit my broth. Look at that thig.
That's because you have hot sauce.
Get your hot sauce in there. That is the point for the message hot to the sissauce is the bisaus. You understand me.
Take me back to what was going on in your life during this time when you're so.
This time, you know, it's it's like it's bachelor life. It's bachelor life. It's it's quick meals and push ups. And you in your twenties, so you ain't got to worry about your weight. You know, you don't do none of this in your forties with two young kids. This is nah, this is two bites and that's about it. I can feel my stomach saying what are we doing already, I can feel it saying what are we doing? So I'm just I think I'm eating enough for the program. Yeah,
but yeah, it was it's about twenty years ago. Twenty years ago. Like I said, I was explaining to you now behind my wife makes noodles. When we say, hey, you know, let's have some some noodles. With the way she does it is we take the ramen, we take two packets and no, but yeah, you're two packets of noodles. You take the spices out of each one, so you have two packets one cup of noodles. Throw it in there, you know, boil the water, put the noodles in It's funny.
I made this the other day. It's crazy you say this and then while it's cooking, you only cook it for like, I think, two minutes. Same thing like it in here. Then you crack the egg, throw it right on top, and then you just keep stirring it, keep stirring it, and the egg cooks right there in the broth. But it's in that chili broth, so I don't have to add hot sauce to it, because.
The chili flavor, the chili.
Yeah, it's the chili, not just oh any old rama. No, No, the chili. That's the only one we use. We use two chili packets. And that that that's goodness. That's it, doesn't It tastes way better than this I had, And the egg is more Cooked're right. It doesn't look like the white. You don't see the white fleshy parts of it. It looks more like a scrambled egg.
I think when Tim Chantarrong suit taped with us, I want to say he put egg in it, but he put peanut butter in it, damn well, And it was it was Tim Chantarong suit bless. And the one thing that I did like about his was that he chose a Thai flavored ramen, which I never think they had, and they put like corn and onion. And let me tell you something, I went home and try to remake it a couple of mons, and I never saw peanut.
He was eating broke.
Yeah, but it was like a tie. They got different flavored ramins. I never noticed that, but it literally changed the game.
Peanut Butter. I was like, peanut butter, Peanut butter.
I won't even pretend to act like I'm gonna try that ship. I don't really like peanut butter that much, for one, and my kid has a slight allergy to it, so I think that's probably just in my brain now Reese's maybe, But then Halloween try to mess up here about all that with the Reese's cups and if I'm.
Alright, no, no, no, it's sad.
It was it was recalling all type of candy, finding stuff in and poison and little bugs and that, and oh yeah, they said, dude, the recism. It's too like. Now when you're watching this, hopefully you ain't still eating that candy from Halloween. Throw it out, throw it out. It gets worse.
So in your twenties.
You're with all these roommates, but you were acting, yes, ma'am, But you didn't have a day job.
No that what what do you mean a day job with acting? Yeah, that's not a successful actor. I've been working since I was nine. Yeah. So yeah, No, when you get paid, you ain't have to do shit on the day. During the day, you sleep in, you know what I mean. Acting pays well enough to where, uh you can eat noodles and go to Vegas and then uh be back to work on Monday. You know what I'm saying.
But at the time you said you had roommates.
Yes, I did have roommates, but I they they some of them were broke.
So you were like the wealthy roomate.
Yeah, exactly exactly. I was. There was just come live with me. I got it. The house is big enough. There's plenty of rooms. I don't need all these extra rooms. You know. We had animals, pets, and you know, women walking in and out of the doors every five minutes. You know. It was single fun life. That's what it was felt like my college years. But I was paying all.
The bills, but you were paying all the bills, yes, ma'am.
All right, well, kind of tell me your story starting from I guess we'll take it all the way back to when you're nine.
Yeah, so when I was nine years old, then we were actually broke. That was, you know, because it actually my story starts back a little further. So my father was a singer with a group called the main Ingredient. He's singing hits like everybody plays the food. Just don't want to be like everybody plays the food. Yeah. So that was my father and my mother was also a singer and they were from Harlem, raised in the Bronx.
They had two kids, my oldest sister and then my brother, Cuba Gooding Junior, one year apart to the day, so they shared a birthday. Then they moved to La I was born five years later, and that makes my brother and I our gap is nine years, my sister ten years. And then a funny thing happened, not that funny. My father went to Africa during apartheid and it was a big no no for the act in the US to perform out there for them. They were telling him, don't
go out there, don't support this and that whatnot. My father was like, shit, I'm gonna go wherever I want. So when he came back, he got blacklisted. They pulled his records off the Yeah, he pulled pulled his records down. He had to start pretty much start over from scratch. So be it that we were in Los Angeles. He went on the road, you know, touring, and basically he's from New York. He he basically was in New York for most time, and he would we would see him
when would see him type of thing. So I wouldn't really see my father. A whole lot going up, and you know, we parents they were still together. They actually did divorce when I was around twelve years old, and then they remarried when I was eighteen years old. My father's deceased, so but yeah, no, but they did. They did remarry. Like I said, they remarried and they were together until till he passed. But yeah, so that time in between, my brother had an idea. He said, I
want to become an actor. So we were living. We actually lost the houses that we were in and moved back in with my my mother's parents, my grandparents that lived in Victorville, So we stayed with them for a couple of years until my grandfather said, nah, you got to find a way, all right. So we loaded up in a Bobcat station wagon, the four of us and a great name. It was a great name by the
side of you, yes exactly. So we had one of them in the car with us, and we sat out on the road and we traveled from the High Desert through Orange County and finally settled in to Luca Lake, California. We had our first apartment, and that's when it got a little better. You know. My brother kept booking small stuff and whatnot. And then when I was nine years old, I actually went in to pick up a script for
him from his agent. She saw me and said, wow, you speak very clearly for a nine year old, and you got a nice bright smile, no braces. Let me send you out on some auditions and see how you do. I begged my mom. She said, all right, fine, we can try it. Why not, what's to lose? And I went on on two auditions and my first try and I booked the second one. Wow. Yeah, So and it was for a McGruff. The Crime Dog was an industrial film that gets played in the schools, right, so I
kind of stayed at it. Stayed at it. I booked a movie called gold Dad. About a year later, with starring Bill Cosby, I was on a show called Webster, which was like my first speaking robe prior to the Cosby And then when I turned twelve years old, I landed a regular series role on a show called Wild and Crazy Kids for Nickelodeon. And at that time, my mother was able to quit her job and become my manager.
Right at the same time, my brother's still doing his thing, and he's you know, he's getting parts like saying elsewhere and two to seven, and you know he's doing this.
Did this bring your guys relationship really close? Because you were both in acting? You and your brother?
Uh No, not at all. And I said, like that kind of to be funny, but that's the thing. You know, a lot of people that realized that we're actors saying why I didn't I I mean, when they realize that we're brothers, say, man, I didn't know you guys were brothers. It's not that we're not close, but it's really more like a father son relationship. As far as the gap, you know that nine years, that's like, you know, it's ten years, a whole decade, you know what I mean.
He's breakdancing and I'm rapping like it's it's just two different almost cultures in a way, you know. But his friends weren't my friends. Yeah, you know what I mean. It was more like, you know, go get your own friends, big brother type of thing. He was real, you know. So it's like when he he left the house at eighteen, you know, so he moved out and to pursue his career.
Now I'm just ten years old, eleven years old, and I'm like the man at the house because my father's out on the road, so he's never there type of thing, you know. So I just kind of grew into my own at a young age.
So when you're booking these young acting roles, did it they have the things where like when you're young, your money.
Gets put in a trust.
Absolutely, So how was your mom able to quit her job and manage you if your money was in a trust?
Not all of it, just half?
Oh only hah.
Yeah. Yeah, they don't put the entire money and there you got to you gotta live off something. So you know, it paid well enough. That's how good acting pace, you know what I mean. So at half of it, I didn't. I wasn't able to touch until I was eighteen. The first half I was able to, you know, have bills in my name, you know what I mean. So you know, so it was you know, it was fun life, you know, and I just it just went NonStop for me. You know. So when I booked this series Wild and Crazy Kids,
it ran for three years. Right when it ended, now I'm around fifteen years old. I booked a show called Hang with Mister Cooper that was on Channel seven that ran five years, took me through high school, and then right when that ended, I booked a series called hang with I mean I'm sorry, called smart Guy. Smart Guy ran for another three years. Now I'm twenty four years old. Yeah, right, so it's oh, you didn't go to college and then went in high school. I was like, I got a
full time job, you know what I mean. It pays well, I got and I'm good, you know what I mean. So then when I was twenty four, I got a call from the late great John Singleton who called my mother because she was my manager, and he specifically told her, I made one of your sons a movie star. I'd like to make your other son a movie star as well. I have this script called Baby Boy that I want
you to read. And then I read that, and it, you know, blew my mind because you know, my friends at the time, which are still my close friends that I that I kick it was still you know, we stay as touch as much as we can. We're real cats, you know what I mean. And I say that like people say, hell, you grow up in the industry, So did you hang out? Do you know this? And you know this person? You know that person? I'm like, not really,
I work with them and then that's that. But I don't know, I don't want them to have my back and we're out in the streets. I don't know if beon Ardo DiCaprio can fight, and I don't want to find out if he got hands. And I you know, I got got real cats behind me that you know what I mean, that I'm rolling with. So when I read the script for Baby Boy, it touched home because it wasn't my personality obviously, but I was able to draw from people that I grew up with, you know
what I mean for that role. I had some similar experiences, believe it or not, you know, just being out and God was good. I escaped, you know, a few situations I used to carry guns. I got caught with that one time. It almost cost me my whole career. You know. I had one day where they said, you know, it was like twenty four hours of hell. It was like hanging with Cooper star, hanging in jail. And then I had to go, you know, show up at Warner Brothers
studios and apologize everybody. And thank God through the tutelage of Mark Curry, who suggested that over the weekend he called me, said, yeah, I heard about what's going on with you. I think you should first day when you show up, you need to show these people that that's not you. You need to apologize. You know, bended me and you know, really really let them know how someonce here you are. And I did that, and it really
it saved me. It really did. And you know, I appreciate him forever of that for that a little bit knowledge, because you know, if he didn't call me in tim but I probably just showed up at work and just tried to do my job and then all of a sudden, I've probably got a phone call saying you ain't got to show up no more, you know, But yeah, man, so you know, it's just been It's been NonStop for me, and God has been good.
You know.
I've I've had a long career, especially in television.
You know.
I finished a series called Family Time. We did ninety one episodes of that for Bouncing Network. I just signed a deal with Disney I got a show called Saturdays that's on Disney Plus right now. We did one season of that and then that strike hit, so I don't know about the season two, but the season one is still going. Season one is still airing on on Disney Plus. You can live stream that. And that's a cool show man because it's about the roller skating culture in Chicago,
so I had to learn how to roller skate. I was out of Chicago for about six months in the summer, so I didn't freeze my butt off.
Chicago in the summer is amazing.
Yeah, no, it's it was. It was amazing. It was real. Chicago's a real town. It's a real town. I mean, you know, it's everything that that that they tell you about, from the pizza, the food, the culture, the people, u the danger you know. I was seeing. I mean I literally came out of my apartment one day and walked to the store and everything was roped off and the cop said, oh man, you look familiar. Man, you out of here doing the movie? I said, yeah, so what's
going on over here? Somebody just jumped off the building. Yeah, they died, But listen, can I get autographic sensitized? Like he didn't bother him. I was just like, I'm getting the buck back inside. But it was, you know, it was a beautiful town other than that, you know, and it was fun. And then, you know, during the pandemic, I kind of spun into stand up comedy, which is interesting because I've always been funny and I've always done sitcoms.
So I hosted a room before the pandemic actually hit in Hollywood, and it started off as, why don't you just put your name on this comedy show and we'll do the rest. So it's all mar Gooting presents such and.
Such, and you're just hosting.
And I'm not even hosting. I'm just presenting. So I would just show up at the beginning, welcome everybody, crack a few like, hey, how's it going all? Look at this dude over here? Things for coming right? Here comes your host, and then I just sit back and collect the job, you know what I mean so that just evolved because once you put a mic in front of me, I can't just you know, do nothing, you know what
I mean. I remember one time before that happened. I actually think it was during while I was doing that show. I said, hey, man, once you come down on my comedy show. I said sure, and he said, I'll send a limo for you. That's all right, fine. He sends the limos out in Redlands. So it's a long drive, and you know, he's got champagne and liquor in the limos, so you know, I'm drinking and whatnot. And we get there and we're watching the show and the show's great,
and I'm like, oh man, it's a good show. And then the owner comes over. He says, you mind getting on stage, maybe just saying hi to everybody, you know, just just let him know you here. I was like, a little weird. I don't think I've ever seen that in the middle of a comedy show, but sure, I don't care. So we're watching, you know, another maybe fifteen twenty minutes goes by, and then I hear the whole say, coming to the stage, you got a very very very
funny comedian. You guys are gonna love him. Oh, he is just outstanding. You've seen him, you know. He just happened to be in the building. So he's gonna come up here and give y'all a little taste. Man, he's really really funny. Are y'all ready for that? And I started looking around, like, man, I can't wait to see what this is. You know, I like surprises. You know. He's like I've seen him in Hanging with Mister Cooper. You've seen him in Smart Guy, You've seen him in Baby Boy.
I was like, I must know him. He's been in half the stuff I've been in. Who is this dude? He's been?
Was your wife with you?
Was she looking at b This was before that, before I even got married.
That's so long ago. It was and it was fun and then she he called me up. And when I got on stage, you know, I just it was a ham So I just I just started talking about stuff. The light was bright. I was like, damn, it's right up here. What is an interrogation? You know? People start laughing. And then I got on a roll and I'm feeling good and they kept laughing. And then I hit that wall because I said, man, I'm surprised y'all to laugh with all these hicks in here. I adn't think nobody
be laughing. And it looked like and it got quiet like that, and I was like, anybody see baby boy? And it was like, yeah, we started cheering. I jumped off stage.
Okay, so nice, say nice, you know what I'm saying.
So everyone's like, why'd you get off? I was like, that's not what I do. I just you know, I just tried it. But now it's it's evolved, you know.
I would when I do stand up or when I do regular comedy, like I mentioned I did a family time uh for Wolf ninety one episodes, I would bring up punch up writers who were stand up comedians because we would film without a live audience, and when you don't have a live audience, you you still need that energy, yeah, because you don't want to tell a joke and then
me go to the next joke. You need to like you need to leave room for the laugh tracks, right, So I like, I would have comedians help me come up with new punchlines for every joke, you know what I mean? So if we did we do a scene we're talking about noodles in this and that boom when I say something Tommy's noodles a nasty and everybody laughs. All right, we're gonna do it again. When I say noodles would laugh nasty. No one's gonna laugh because they
just heard that. So I need something fresh for the next joke, for the next take round and we do take after take after takes. So anyway, so I got used to writing jokes and writing new punchlines and so forth and song.
But so you weren't just acting, you were writing too.
I was writing. So I was a producer and a writer on that show. Yeah, exactly. So so that was a that was that was my first voya into producing. And uh so what happened is I would always I wouldn't really practice my jokes. I would just save them and then spring them on everybody so that they were fresh. So as I transitioned into stand up, I realized that
you need a team. I always think about Kevin Hart and the Red Cup Boys, how he has his group of guys and I'm sure they run jokes past each other and that you know, he has a team that
helps them. The last time that I saw Kevin Hart was before he really really took off and he was at I believe it was the comedy store, and I saw him out the lobby and we were talking with just me and a couple of fellas, and we're all laughing, and he's getting ready to go on, and he just starts talking about things and bringing up certain things, and everything you're saying was just funny. We were all just laughing at it. That out he's all right, man, I'm
about to get on stage. It's all right, man, good luck. And then twenty minutes later he gets up and everything he said on stage was all of the stuff that he was practicing with us before he got on.
Wow.
So he was rehearsing his jokes and running them by us to see if they were funny and if it don't work, and then.
In a regular conversation, in a regular.
Convers and I said, Oh, that's how you do it.
So that's different. I never heard a comedian doing that.
Yeah, but I mean, you trust me, they do it and you don't know. So if you see a comedian before he's about to go on and he's just shooting the breeze with you and talking and stuff, and he's gonna be funny, he's a comedian, you know. Plus he's getting ready to go on stage, so he's working out stuff. He's working jokes out on you, and I'm like, oh, that is brilliant. So my sister, who shout out to April Gooding this was about, oh goodness, is probably about
seven years ago, she tells us. Because she wasn't in the business, she kind of did like a role here or there. I think she everybody hates Chris and a couple other little sitcoms whatever, And she said, I'm gonna start doing stand up and me and my brother were terrified, like are you kidding me? Like you're funny, but don't just jump in the stand up. She's like, no, trust me, come support me. I have a show at the Improv.
And we're like, oh my god. So we were just nervous as hell, and we sat there the whole show and everybody that got up was okay. And then she got up and she killed it. We were like, oh, thank god. And she was so funny. And then after she got off, the next person up with Seinfeld. I was like, girl, you opened up for Seinfeld on your first time, Like, how the hell did you do that? And she told me. She took a class and in this class they showed her how to build her set, her comedy set.
Wow.
So like the first week of the class, she would come up with five jokes. I got a joke about rom and I got joke about sage a noodle, something about eggs. You try every joke. The ones that work you keep, and then the next week you start with some new ones. Okay, right, you try those new ones, and it's just process of elimination until you build yourself a whole set. So you know, that's what I've been doing over this last during the strike, which is funny.
I had started, Uh you heard about the Montgomery brawl. Yeah, right, that happened with the dude with the hat. He threw the hat in the air and everybody came fighting and jumped in the water and all that. Oh my god, it was brilliant. You gotta you guys haven't seen it. I don't know where you've been living, but you gotta go google the Montgomery I s. Yeah, yeah, So I did this bit where I walked him. Remember he had on a white shirt and on some black shorts and
and and and a hat. So I did a bit where we started our scene where we started our show. We had a white guy. First, white guy opens up and he does his set and he's great and he finishes all you guys, makes no noise for omar goodding, and okay, hey, all right, I have ever seen me do standard hords that they're curious And I walk out and I whisper and I tell him you got to go that way, and he goes, no, I want to walk this way. No, no, no, bro, you got to you
gotta walk on that way. He says, no, I want to go this way. I said, cut the music, and I take my hat and I throw it in the air. So when I threw it and everybody fell out laugh and he walks off the stage. And then I start my routine. So once you know, hit him in the mouth off jump, it was easy. And then I talked about the narrator in the video and so forth and so on and all that stuff. So that was the beginning of my set, you know what I mean. And then I also have a show. So I do a
show every other Wednesday called Funny AF Comedy Show. So right now it's at the Culture Lounge in downtown La. Yeah, so it's every second Wednesday of the month, So today, the twenty ninth, I on the win this air or if they're watching it live or whatever the case is. But yeah, come on down and check it out and you'll see now it's evolved too. I have my host do his whole thing. We run through the whole show,
and then I just close it like a headliner. So I'll do like ten fifteen minutes at the end, and I'll just you know, I'll spend the night picking off jokes, you know, doing the old Kevin Hart getting getting some material, you know what I mean saying, some live, fresh material, because I'm also good at improv. And that's where's at. And I also have a tour that I'm doing called the We out Here Comedy Event, which started in San Antonio. That's the one that I told you about where I
did the hed of Here. We did four shows out there. We did another four shows in Atlanta. I just came back from Arkansas. We did some shows on the ninth. We will be in Come on, brain, don't fail me now. Not Midland is in Midland, Texas well. Anyway, if you follow me online Omar Gooding, you can check the link in my bio and I have all my show dates and now how.
Are you juggling your comedy with your acting?
Yeah, I'm just I'm scatter brained.
I need it.
I'm adhd. I'm just it's you know, also do music. I dropped the album, I be writing, you know, I'm producing a new film that we're filming out in Atlanta. I'm gonna be one of the leads in that. So it's just a schedule. It's just, you know, I just put it on my calendar and try not to forget it. I'll do this, we'll finish this interview, I'll get a power nap, and then I'll get ready for my show tonight. Over the weekend, I got a one day gig and what is this? I think we're going to be in Glendale.
And it's just, you know, it's just one thing after another for me. I've been doing my whole life forty seven years old, started at nine, So it's not it's not difficult to try to figure out with that whole journey.
Was there every any points where there was dips like dips or struggles?
Definitely, And there was definitely struggles, just the lulls, and it one just staying relevant. You know a lot of people, especially if you start off as a child actor nine years old. You show a picture of me nine, people always say you don't age. Yeah, right, show up picture of me at nine, side by side with me at forty seven with a couple of gray hairs. Pop up. I may a shaved and I look young or youthful
or whatever. But just reinventing yourself, staying current without pushing it or looking like you're trying to just keep up with everybody, you know what I mean. So I found a way to just kind of stand my lane, you know what I mean. Like a lot of actors feel like they have to do certain roles. They have to, for lack of a better example, put on the dress, so to speak, you know what I mean. So like with me, is I know which roles I can do.
I know which lanes I can stay And people said, well, damn me, like you do havey You played the thug, I played a doctor, I played a dad. I played the sun. Like you can do just about anything, just about you want to know what an actor is? My brother Cuba Gooding Jr. Now that man can play any damn thing. That's why you can see him in snow Dog's Boat Trip, Radio Men of Honor, you'd I mean, that'll be five different things. I've tried just about everything.
Just about that, I said, oh, you know, like something like radio mentally challenging. I tried it, but it wasn't in my wheelhouse. When I left the audition room, they were laughing. I'm like, this wasn't a comedy. Why are they giggling? You know? And I knew to stay off that path, you know, so I pretty much just no my land.
Someone told me recently at a party this past weekend that acting requires like so if it's like a comedic rom com, it's a certain style acting. And if it's there's like certain styles of acting within each genre.
Sure, sure yeah. I mean you know it's funny too when you say that, because when I started, I did sitcoms in the nineties and it was more like vaudeville. It was more animated. Everything was super funny and doing these facials hold on this, no, no, no, blah. But then as it evolved, you know, I always give my hats off to John Singleton because he helped me turn the corner in that regard. There was you know, we were talking about struggles initially in your question, And I always
wanted to do movies. I always wanted to be taken serious and serious roles. But even though if I auditioned and I did well in the audition, they would look at my credits and my name, what I'm known for, and the producers would go, now we'll go with somebody that's, you know, already known for drama. So once I did Baby Boy, excuse me, I was then taken serious for serious roles. For lack of a better word, you know, so comedy, my comedy has evolved into just being more natural,
you know what I mean. So back in the day, it was, like I said, it was more animated and comedic and you know and arkle and that type of thing. Yea, And now it's just just natural comedy. And you say something and then you laugh as opposed to here comes a joke.
Yeah.
So you know, there is that. There's the sitcom actor. There's plays, you know, dramatic where you have to project and acting you kind of you ham it up just a little bit more. But you also want to be natural, you know what I mean. There's dramas I did a during the I bring up the pandemic a lot, because I mean, you know, it's a big deal recently obviously
changed everyone's lives. But during the pandemic, right before it started, I negotiated to do a film called Am Radio Right And when every time I posted about it, people thought I had like an AM radio talk show and I was like, no, it's a movie about a recluse that started in FM radio and he had a meltdown and then you know, was given a second chance on AM radio.
So it deals with mental health, being alone, feeling alone, and it's also a love story and I really got to hone in on my serious acting, you know what I mean. So it's a drama for sure, but it's also funny because I can't do anything without making a joke here there. And we scaled down the budget all the way so that we can just film it with a skeleton crew. A shout out to Ricky Burschell, who's a film director out of Tennessee who is phenomenal. And he came up with the script that he had actually
wrote for another actor. But during the pandemic, this and that happened, the guy couldn't do it, and I said, I'll do it. I'm ready to get out the house been too much. So we went out. I flew out to Tennessee and we filmed it in like two weeks and it was brilliant. Man. You know, if you ever get a chance to watch it, check out AM radio.
Can we get it?
You can see it on I'm sure it's on two B, It's on Amazon Prime, it's pretty much everywhere streaming is. Now.
Were you you were also producing on it or just act.
I'm a producer as well on there. I helped with the editing, you know, it was it.
Was it was fun being helped with the editing.
The editing.
I mean, they said, you were actually editing.
I didn't like push the button. I gave my input put it that way. So they sent me like they would send me the first raft and I said, can we change this? And we moved this scene? Maybe you can, you know, because there was something in there that I just I felt like it was just going to make people think about the movie in the wrong way. And we actually edited it out and replaced it with like
a flashback. And it was fun. It was fun, and it was it was just fun to be on that side of it and giving my input after being in the business for so long, and that's what started me saying, you know, I have to be on the produce the production side of every film that I'm in because sometimes, and this will happen a lot too. People call me the King of two B right now because people will call me and say, yo, how much what's your day rate? All can I get you for a day in my
film out here? And blah blah blah, Like h sounds like an easy job. You fly out of town, you know, first class accommodations, They give you what you want, pay wise, your film for one day and then you're done. But then when people go on to B they say starring Omar Goode and they think I'm all through the film and it's like one or two scenes that they shot in that one day. And then I look at the film and the quality of the film and I'm like, man, I should have pushed to be a producer on the
film so that I can give my input. Let me see the final product before this thing is released to the world, so that I can help you out, you know, you know, just just just the transitioning, maybe the music, scoring a little bit everythingcause there's so many things that go into to making a successful film.
Wow.
Wow. So where do you see yourself comedy wise now that you're entering Well, you've been in the comedy arena, But like most comics, I think it takes like an average of like ten years before they're really where they.
Yeah, I mean, you know, it's funny. It's kind of like it depends on where it goes opportunity wise, because there's so many things that you can do. I mean, I think the top everyone I was, Oh, you want your special. You know you're a one hour special on Netflix. You know you say an hour and I go, damn an hour. You know, a long five minutes is of stand up comedy. That's a lot, you know. When I went on stage, and it's funny because what I would always do. I started off as a presenter, right, which
was like something that I invented. I felt like because I just I walk out. I think about Russell Simmons when he would just come on at the end of Death Comedy gen and say thank you will come and God blessed good night. Right, So that was gonna be my role. But I started at the beginning of the show rather than at the end. Now, if anybody knows anything about stand up comedy, the hardest part is the beginning. Yeah, because people just getting there ain't nobody full of liquor.
You know, they want to laugh, but they're just say, man, I'd be warmed up just yet. So to get a crowd ready to laugh, there's a tough spot, you know. That takes a special skill in itself. I was just jumping out trying that at first, and then I transitioned into hosting, which was also fun because it's the same idea where you welcome people there. He told them what's going to go on a joke over here and there.
But it's easy. You kind of have a safety net because if you run out of material or if you feel a little stale, you just say, all right, let me bring your first comic cup. Yeah, and then you jump off stage. Yeah, you know, and then in between comics it's the same type of thing. How you guys feeling that guy was funny? Right? Do you talk about this? Yeah? That is crazy? All right, let's bring your next comic cup? You know. So I did that in San Antonio. I'm
a man, Charles Allen. I got a shout out, you got to shout out Charles allen Man because he's He's really the reason why I do stand up now. He said, why don't you try just doing a set at the end of the show. And my initial response was hell no, Like that's.
A lot of pressure and how long was the set that he was saying?
So he said, do do a set? You know, because when we did the when I did the hosting the first night, I did the hosting, so I was up for maybe six minutes at the beginning, and then I do maybe a minute and a half in between tween each person. But it was new material, you know. I would come up and I'd look at my jokes that I wrote, and I said, I'm try this one. I come on, hey, what's up over anybody married? I do a marriage Joe? Oh, that pandemic was crazy, right, you
couldn't call froun nobody el yet. But I'm gonna try that. Joe, try that joke. And he said, just put them all together and do a set. So I said, I'll try it, and boy, it was nerve wracking. I've been nervous in about thirty years. But I got up there and I felt like it went fast, and I got off. I said, man, I only did ten minutes. He said, bro, you was up there for eighteen minutes. I was like eighteen minutes. He said, yeah, I got the footage, watch it back.
And then when I watched it back, I realized I was speaking fat. I was talking real quick. I said, a bunch of line and go right to the next one, you know. And he's like, man, if you learn to breathe and calm down and space out your jokes in between you, you probably got thirty forty minutes of material. And I did, so moving forward, that's what I did. So we also, like I said, we were on tour now. So I have a couple of show dates coming up and I'm doing the headline thing now, so I'll come
at the Deana. I got like four shows in Indiana coming up, which is also fun because I do adult comedy. But they said, can you do a clean show for us, no cursing? And I was like, ooh, I'll try, you know. So I've been working on that, and you know, I have to march to uh to kind of perfect my set. Like I said, I've got my show every two weeks, so I just work out new stuff and then just keep building and building for comics.
I feel like there's a lot of pressure right now because there's cancel culture, and I have a very my positioning on it is that comics need to not be afraid of cancel culture, because you know, comedy is laughing at real life, right and different perspectives on it. But once these comics start to get more filtered, I mean, can you really be funny. I've seen a couple of specials that dropped that I thought were like, okay at best.
I mean, you know, obviously we have the icons like Martin Lawrence and Eddie Murphy, and we have you know, we have so many good icons where you can watch that same tape one hundred times and be like, this is amazing, But then the news.
To watch it now, I feel like an old I still think they're funny. I mean, during this cancel culture, we would people if you if they released any of that old stuff now, people would be like, oh my god, they'd be outraged. Oh it is. It is a challenge. I remember I was on I was on set a Harmless Mistake. We were trying to rehearse our lines and
there was a that's funny. I've never told a story on filming because this happened who about six months ago and there was a person female gender that was Sam. So I'm still trying to figure out how to say this. She was the DP, which means she was setting up the shots and trying to figure out how to film us. But we were going over our scene. So we're going when when when actors, when when the director says and action and we start our lines, it needs to be
this quiet. If we hear anything going on, it'll throw us off. And we're guys, we gotta be you guys be quiet on set, please, because we're trying to rehearse and we shouldn't have to say that. That should be an ad saying quiet. You guys got to be quiet. My actors are trying to rehearse their lines. It's hard enough to do this job and remember all their lines, and they're blocking and their placement and the lighting and all this and that other. They got enough on their minds.
Please just be quiet while they're rehearsing. Right, So anyway, so we're going over our scene and that's what was just keep out of years and I was just like I couldn't stand it. I said listen, you guys gotta be quiet when we're rehearsing our lines. I know this isn't the most professional production, but it's good enough to where you guys need to respect your actors. And they said, well, you want to look good, then you need to let
us talk this out. And I'm like, listen, I've been in this business for thirty years and I've never been told that I need to be quiet or that I need to ignore you when I'm trying to do my you know. And they wound up going into it back and forth, and then another person joined in and said, well, you need to let her do da da da da da. Let them do blah blah blah. And then a friend of mine said, hey, hey, young lady, listen, we're trying to put and she said, oh my god, that's not
even the right pronoun you know. And then I said, oh, damn, okay, hmm. I mean it's respectful as for him to say, young lady that in our generation, all right, that's about the nicest thing you can say to a female, you know. And not to know that I had to go the right pronoun or I should have looked at this person and known that they didn't want to be referred to as a young lady, a woman, or her or she
at all. Like I have to filter all that in in an instant while trying to do my job here, and I was just like, wow, we're we're on a slippery slope. And you know, in comedy, I kind of feel like if you lead with that, you may be okay, you know.
Lead with what the disclaimers.
Yeah, it's like, you know, for one, I think I think if you're gonna get canceled or if you're going to get upset with something someone says, then it should be a someone that you believe should know better. So if you're in I don't know, your twenties and under, that's about the end of the No better is in
my opinion, maybe thirty. But if you're forty fifty years old, Like, if my mom walks in the room and says something crazy about somebody, everybody's gonna be like, it's okay, she's you know what, she's seventy eight, Yeah, you know what I mean, she's sixty says, They're like, all right, like you know what she means. She didn't mean it like that, or maybe she did in her age, and you you know, you'd be fine. Well, there's got to be some latitudes given to people that are that grew up in a
certain era. I mean, I was in trouble for saying and the F word and not the U because I was but I was referring to a man who had two women with him and I was just angry in Vegas. So I didn't mean him to be a homosexual in any way. Yeah, yeah, I was just using that word because I was angry. We were liquored up and I wanted him to try to do something, you know. And then the next morning I had to my Bubba. Sis was like, hey, you're gonna have to apologize if people
are outraised dat dad down. And it's like, what I can see if I was talking to a person that was gay, yeah, you know, and I tried to slander them, that would be one thing. But then again, like I said, slippery, So.
We're definitely a sensitive world.
It just sucks because a lot of these actors, comics or people in front of the camera already have It's already such a hard gig as it is to get in and to stabilize, and then you have to now walk on eggshells because of society. I don't know where the pronouns meets disrespect. Like you know, if I see, you know, someone and they look like a woman, I'm gonna say female, But then like now off camera will be like, whoa am I supposed to say female?
Like what you know, which is it's a weird. It's weird.
But we're definitely from a different air, you know, we're from the era of you know, tomato is a tomato?
Yeah?
Yeah, I mean, it's it's it's it's definitely tricky. I mean, it's like talking about the N word and who can say it? When you said and how are you supposed to say it? The B word? Same thing two women like yeah that oh ship, Now I'm in trouble, you know. Yeah,
so it's it's tough. I don't I don't think it's it's you know, I think personally, I think comics would have it it easier in the sense of like, okay, obviously he's just making a joke, so he might get let off the hook, you know, but other people doing interviews and you know, talk show hosts and people and you know, in your job, you know, it's you know, good luck, good luck to do a podcast. No, I shouldn't know.
Oh, I say things on here.
I get calls from uh one of my cousins shout outs to Heather, she listen to my podcast, and I get a text pretty often from her like I can't believe you said this on your show, And I'm like, I still can't believe you listened.
To this show.
Thank you for the comment.
Yeah, thanks, But yeah, I've said stuff on here. I don't care about being canceled at all.
I like.
I like the hate attention. I don't know why I like it. I like it more than I like the nice attention.
I know, I remember you said something about that. I'm sensitive in that regard, but I'm easy. I'm quick with the block button. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah. If you call me too much, text me too much, you'll be blocked. If you're online and you say something crazy, you know. I'll let that first comment go. But if I feed into it and start giving this person block, that block button is awesome hat oh yeah, and they'll be like, oh,
leave those comments on there. That's how people know you're authentic. Authentic, my ass. I don't want to read that block block block block. I won't report them, but I'll block them and they'll be like, I can't find this dudecause you're blocked. I block friends all about my mama once.
Okay, well I did block one fan from our show because he was disrespecting one of the guests on my show. He was like in my DMS in the in the eating while broke DMS on, like, are YouTube like any form of contact to me? And he was like talking so derogatory about this guest and I was like, had he actually listened to full episode, he actually would have
had more respect for her. But like, you know, for whatever reason, but he was like stalker level and I ended up reaching out to the guest and was like, yo, I think there's something unsafe here, you know, And she was like, oh yeah, I put a restraining order on him.
Could you keep all those records?
I was like he knew like everyone in her camp, and I was like, he's like after Charlemagne, And I was like, yo, so I let the black effect know, like you know what there is there's a problem, the mental health issue, because they'd be really invested. You'd be like, dude, they don't.
Really know you. You don't know that you know you're really losing sleep over here.
It's funny too, you know, and I work with the comedian shout out to damn, can I shout him out. I'm about to get this story.
I won't, but he's he was being heckled by this person.
It's funny. Everyone at the show and it's funny. It was an all black room. You know, do mostly these black shows and U but there was you know, I have white fans and a couple of you know, a couple of white fans showed up and they were just just completely drunk, like he was just three sheeted away and he was completely a mess. And every time he said yeah, homeorko, it's come up, he and he's like
right up front. So every comic was kind of being bothered by him, but the more seasoned comics knew to just ignore him, maybe give him an okay guy all right, and then relax. But this one comic got up there and he was like, you know, close to our headliner, and he has a whole routine and it's a rhythm and a it's all about you know, the first joke, and it all kind of snowballs from there, and this guy started yelling and he just started engaging with the guy.
Now it just ruined his whole set because he's going back and forth. And then somebody else came to his defense, actually believe it or not, and was like, heah, he's not the only white guy here, so who you mean by white people? And he's like, oh my god, somebody did it. And then he was just going back and forth with these people. I had to yell at him like, bro, finish your set, we love you, ignore them, you know. And then when he got off out to tell us, well,
you can't engage with them, you know. And it's sounded the same thing with these trolls online. As soon as you give him a little life now, they're like, I got it. They're just seeking attention. That's all they want they need. And then you see, I've seen I've made a comment or I've made a post, and then somebody will comment positive, and then someone will comment negative, and now these two people are going at it on my post, and I'm like, I got to block both of these people,
like I don't hear any of this conversation. Can y'all take that somewhere else or go to her page or his page, whatever the case is Yeah, it gets great.
I am curious before we close out your situation with April, your sisters. She started going on our comedy journey, where like, what does your relationship with her look like in regards to you now joining comedy.
Yeah, it's awesome. I mean she's kind of taking a step back to because she had she had a day job, you know, a day job because she wasn't a full time actress. She do it here and there, and she worked actually at an airline, and then there was an incident towards the end that was very traumatic for she was actually attacked leaving the airport and she's never like fully recovered from that. So it's like, you know, with the pandemic and then kind of being pushbom. So she's
taking a step all the way back. I actually threw which actually got me really jump started my stand up comedy career, is that I threw her a party at the beginning of the year because she said she wanted to just be around it again and she just wanted to laugh. So are you gonna go up? She's like, oh no, I'm not ready for that yet, but I'll
come and have a good time. And I brought five or six comics out shout out to comedian Warren V and a couple of his friends, and we had a terrific show because her birthday is January second, and so is my brothers because.
They're born Yeah, same day exactly.
Part so you know, it was funny. I always throw a party for it and be like, yeah, keep a good a junior's coming back. Yeah, you know, and he's like, I don't go to parties. But anyway, So, so she still hasn't got back all. You know, she hasn't got back off the sale, and I keep trying to eat so edger on, but she's very supportive. I'll come and say, you know, she's come to everyone, well not everyone, she comes to a bunch of my shows, and then we'll talk about it afterwards.
Now, all three of you siblings are very close, I would assume, right, And then when have any of you guys hit a low pocket and then you had to pull one out?
Yeah, obviously your sister went through that one.
Yeah that happened my brother. My brother's more guarded, you know, so all the things that happened with him, he kind of you know, we're like, are you good? I'm good man, I'll be all right, all right. I was like, bro, I'm telling you we upset here. We were ready to you know, rush in know, go Craze. He's like, nah, nah, can everybody be cool. I'm gonna trust the system. And I said, a man, you know, and he's a different breed than me. I'll tell you right now, they've been it.
Don't come after omar because if I got anybody had call, I would be like, yeah, you want to do something, Yes, yes, yes, I'm outside, Yes, help, I need help. I'm not doing do this by myself.
I'm more like your brother.
I'm like, let's wait until the last, last final moment before I push that red button.
Yeah no, I'm quick, like I told you a block of you need something? Yes, yes, me over here. I'm outside. The address is two two five note seven. Yeah no, but that's happened. I mean, I've had emotional times and I had to call him both and we all showed up and then when hung out and been like, yeah, man, is this going on? And that going on? And you know, and especially since I started having kids late in life. You know, I started at forty. My brother had already
had two or three kids. So I'd love to call him up just pick his brain about women and children and kids and just being that family man type of thing. So, you know, I've kind of I've had my father who wasn't around and my brother who traveled a whole lot because he was so successful when he had his kids. So then I took that as like what not to do, but also how to stay engaged and then still try
to stay relevant. So it's tough to juggle at all, but you know, there's there's opportunities that I've definitely kind of said, nah, I don't want to do that because I had to keep me await form my kids for too long. Like when I had to do this thing in Chicago was brutal, and I brought my kids out for like a month, and one of them got really sick and we had to go in hospital, and it was it was just a lot. It was so much.
So you know, the strike was, you know, it was important because there's a lot of things that needed to be addressed. I mean, I know we're closing, but I can go on and on about that strike. It's in my comedy set. So I'll wait and I'll wait and talk about it. Then but you know, if if if the Chicago, if we don't get a season two, I'll be fine with that because it was a lot. It was a lot. But I did love the culture and I did love being out there. But you know, my kids are too young. They need daddy.
And then what did you do to avoid the plague that happens with young talent?
Yeah? That one.
Or do you think your mom played a role?
My mom definitely played a huge role. I mean, I have a praying mama. You know, I watched her pray things in New Existence, from poverty, from a better job for herself to an apartment for us, from living in a car to living in an apartment. She prayed me, you're going to get a series. One day that happened, you know. Not when I say pray, she need to say one prayer and then oh it just happened. No,
every single day it was a mantra. She would pray goodbye, this, hello, this, and we would sing it driving in the car over and over again till these things happened. And it was just you know, I know that God is real and I've seen his power work. So it's it's it's faith first and foremost, and then having people around you that want the best for you as opposed to that are just leeching off you, or just happy that you're paying
the rent, you know what I mean. And I had gentlemine people saying, nah, bro, we don't need to do that. I'm like, what are you sure? Yeah? You know I I do music too, And I have a line where I say I'm tired of watching peers raising peers, you know, but that happens.
Wow, that's such a deep statement. Raising peers.
Yeah, I mean it is. It hadn't happens all the time, you know. And I remember my father. I loved him to death, but he would he said something to me, and most of the time I'd be like, yes, absolutely, But you know, I got in trouble and talked about having guns and whatnot. And remember he's like, yeah, you got one of those. You gotta give me that gun, bro, And I was like, not a chance. If anything, I'll get rid of it, but that's not going to happen. And my friend was there and always said not give
it to him. And that was when I went seriously, all right, cool, and I gave it to him. And it's like I'm not a follower by any means. I've always been a leader in every aspect of my life. And that was the one time that I remember, not too clearly to this day. I remember my friend said it, and I went, huh, all right, fine, and then he kind was like, yeah, man, we can get another one. You know, I don't know how deep it was, but it's still okay. Near dad, you know, he was like, yeah, okay,
and my son's listening. But I was like, yeah, it's only because my friend said it, because initially I was just gonna fight him on it and be like, yo, man, I got this. I'll figure it out on my own, you know. And it's tough, you know, especially raising kids now. And I remember had a conversation with my friend with a guy that I just met when I was out in Chicago, and he said how his son is very successful as a very successful athlete, gifted athlete, but he's
having problems following the rules. You know, he loves girls too much and he's getting trouble this, in trouble with that, and he's trying to tell his son things. But what he does is he appeals to his son's friends and he takes them all out here, treats him to this, talks to them directly because he knows they'll have a bigger influence.
On Okay, you know what I mean.
So he has a real good relationship with his son's friends and they're helping him stay on the right path. And I thought that was very deep.
Someone once told me that too.
They said, uh, you know, part of raising a kid is who their friends are, like being mindful of who their friends are. I know, growing up, my mom used to always be like, show me your friends and I'll tell you who you are.
That.
It was her basic like every time she was around us, like, let me see what your friends are looking like.
That's it was funny my mom. We always said to where'd you learn that from? Who taught you that? Where'd you get that from? And I'd be like, what, nobody, I probably saw it on this and that. I always would get offended, you know, as like a young man like I don't follow nobody. Everybody says, oh, Mark, what are we doing today or where we're going or what's the next move? They come to me, I don't follow nobody,
you know. But now that I have sons, like a young boys, I see when son comes on with and oh, I want to hear this song. Where's you hear that? Oh Bobby said this? He was get it all day. Oh Bobby does it? Who the heck is Bobby. It was like, now I got to talk to their parents because they're now raising my son because he's coming up with new stuff and new things. You know, he meets his cousin and he teaches him how to armpit fart or something like that. You know, now he's doing this
at the table. I'm like, look, boy, you have to find out, you know what I mean. So I'm like, who is this? And always cousin taught him that. Now I want to talk to their parents, like yo, for real. So they're like, oh, let's all have a play date and I'm like, I don't know about this play date stuff. You know, it's cool when you want to go hang out or whatever or meet some people and you know they see him at school and want to hang out,
but you got to be involved. You can't. You definitely can't leave in the front of no iPad.
No more, no, no, that's over.
Well that's I thought it was cute when they can just as soon as they learn how to scroll on their own. It's like, all right, okay, let me see what we're watching. No headphones, no, no, I'm listening in and what is that now? Oh? Ad came on? Because they're real sneaky with these ads. I'm watching that one. I'm scrolling all of a sudden, How did I get down this rabbit hole. I'm not following none of these people, but I've seen all these reels of stuff that I
didn't really necessarily want to know about. Now then've found out about all type of things going on. I'm depressed, I'm nervous. I'm scared about all type of shit because I don't.
I try hard to stay off the socials as much as possible. It is terrible. I wish we could go back to like my era where we just had aim.
Yes, right, no business. It's been there. My wife be like, am you on the phone, Like no, you're you're scrolling memes and then sending me something that you found out about the spoons and the forks and all this craziness that you can't No, no, no, I'm actually it's business. Every time I post, then I go on my DM it's new job opportunity, so I have I'm talking every time, like, oh man, you look at good. So how much is you? Hey?
Can I get you on that? I said, yeap, call my agent Neil set it up every I'm talking every single time, so I have to check on it. Wow, you know what I mean? That's be blocking.
I needn't get my MS popping.
I know.
We have a we have a but we get a lot.
Of requests for talent from people trying to pitch talent on the show. But we I use application so I don't have to do it manually.
From my phone. Like literally, it's like a calendar.
It's called later and we just put all our socials in a calendar and it drops it like in advance, so like whether I touch my phone or not, something's gonna drop today. So it looks like and it's all scheduled, and then they'll like set parameters like best time of day to post or whatever. Between that and chat GPT, we do the whole caption and drop or whatever, and then we have a clip team that just generates clips.
So yeah, so does that happen if you're on TikTok?
Yeah?
When you went there yet I tried it, I said, Wow, this is a lot you have to be engaged constantly, but you get way more traffic than Instagram. But I'll go live on Instagram to be like one hundred people. I go live on ig with like I got about three hundred thousand on Instagram. I go on TikTok, I got maybe fifteen hundred. But then I go live and it's like fifteen hundred people are watching you right now.
I don't even know TikTok had a live feature.
You have a lot, But I will say that TikTok does give a good interaction, Like I'll go on TikTok and it'll be like, compared to Instagram, a video will probably get like one hundred thousand or eighty thousand years.
I thought it was a joke. I was like, what are you talking about?
I want to I'm.
Telling you I went on live a couple of times. And then when you're on live, they'll put the little hat on you and the glasses while you're talking and like what is this? And then it's over. It's like you've made fifty dollars. I'm like, what do you mean? I made fifty dollars? I look on every time they put one of those hats they buy it. It's called a badge. I believe, no, buy a badge? Who I
want to interact with him? I thought, hat and I'll be like, oh, thanks for the hat, such and such dot whatever whatever, and TikTok on TikTok your life.
I'm just try and do that.
I'm telling you it's crazy. I'm like, look a, where does the little fifty dollars come from? People just keep tacking on a dollar here. Dollar. There's crazy. It ads up. I said, well, that's smart. I don't know if people know about that.
What would be your main piece of advice for the longevity you've had in your career, in addition to the pivots to people trying to get into your position.
Yeah, the longevity part for me is it's it's it's about it's called compromise, not compromising. Don't feeling that you have one shot and you have to compromise either your beliefs or your sexuality or your you know, your religion or whatever the case is, and and go all in on like one role. Because I've seen people take the wrong role and then you never hear from him again.
I've seen people be you know, their career was going pretty well, and they said, you know, I gotta do this, and then that was it for them, or they got discouraged because of the backlash they took for that role. You know, you gotta be careful too, you know, you don't don't feel that you have to do something and then don't do something that you're not going to be
able to live with. Like I'll you know, I always take I'll be honest, I'll take like the hero role or the macho role of the role that I know. I'm gonna be at the bar and someone gonna say, hey, man, you that dude that I saw in this such and such role. I said, yeah, I was. I was that one. And if it's something negative that I'm not gonna be able to respond to, and I'm not taking that role. You know, I have a fan base, you know, and
they're always proud of what I do. And then they said, well, every actor does this, and every actor eventually blah blah blah. Denzel Washington is my favorite actor of all time, next to my brother. And I've never seen him letting me down once. I haven't seen him come up anything. I said, Damn, Danzel, you see his name, You're gonna enjoy yourself. That's you know what I mean.
I didn't think Fences was that great.
I you know what, I thought it was a lot I was, but I was it was impressive. I was you memorized all that, like that ship was impressive to me. That's all I was doing as an actor. I was just watching him, going, look at this man. I said, he didn't take a breath, they didn't cut nowhere. I could tell he memorized all that, And I'm sorry that him self, to me is a lot. That's a big deal for me. Then the acting, you know, you kind
of get you know what you're gonna get. He's already done everything, so it's just one of those like, well it's gonna be what to be. But I'm just talking about the choices. There's nothing that's like, maybe go I can't look at him if again, I don't I don't like him. Yeah, you know what I mean, nothing nothing, nothing is wrong anyway.
So that's how I feel about Diddy right now. I mean I used to, let me just tell you something.
I used to look up to Diddy.
I was like when I was in high school, you know, but then as I got into the industry, I would hear so many bad rumors about him. But now it's just like, I can't even believe how much as a young person I looked up to this dude and to hear like and I one hundred percent believe everything.
I'm sorry all.
The Will Smith stuff that's pouring out now, and we've heard about that for years.
Let me tell that I believe Will Smith stuff, so I don't.
Look.
What I've learned is some with every story, there is a true underline, especially in the entertainment business.
Just it's just how far will those believing it take you? As far as are you still gonna watch the movies? Like, Okay, this movie comes on? Now, you're not gonna watch it again? Yeah? Right? This song is on, gonna tell him turn it off?
No?
I mean, you know, I'm sure they'll stop playing R Kelly. But if I'm out somewhere and it comes on, I'm gonna still nod my head. I'm not gonna be like I'm out here.
R Kelly's situation is kind of very It sounds terrible what I'm about to say.
Jesus, I get a call later about this, But R.
Kelly, I feel like is a is a two edged sword because he came from abuse. He came from a lot of you know, abuse, like sexual abuse. So I definitely feel terrible for the victims, but I also feel like that is definitely.
A a like that.
It was both both victims, you know what I'm saying, Like R Kelly, you know, everyone's a victim of that kid.
Is But it's like a matter of knowing right from wrong.
Well, the people around you, No, no, no, he definitely knew what was wrong.
But like when you have mentally normal people and they're like co siding, coldning and playing a role, then it's like, yo, no, I don't care how much someone pays you.
You know it's wrong, right.
And so there was a person, a person like that definitely had a room full of people that were looking the other way. But I'm not I don't give I don't give nobody a past though I don't mine.
I'd probably get backlash for saying the fact that it's I just don't think it was necessary for a man that could get pretty much any woman. You can get a woman that looks young, go to Thailand. They got the little kid, they look like girls to actually go there. You know, when it wasn't necessary. That's that's where I have an issue with. I got two sons. I can imagine I had a daughter, I'd probably be trying to go to jail. Just be next to them for a minute and get well.
There's a lot of parents that play a role in a lot of the kids to minds. Like people approach me all the time about my daughter getting into entertainment, and I'm absolutely against it. And my main reason is is the industry doesn't necessarily always support those parents that are guard dogs, like you know, like some of those parents that are guard dogs get blacklisted for being guard.
Allowed to say about that. And I talk to women, especially in the industry, and I think it's it's a matter of common sense and your upbringing. It's some people are far more susceptible to peer pressure than others. I mean, I guess that goes without saying. For me, it always
seemed obvious, it seemed easy. I'm in these rooms and they're passing around the coke and they're doing this, and they're doing that, and I'm like, look, I'll smoke some weed, I'll drink some drink, and I'll wake up the next day and have black spots like I don't remember what happened the rest of the night. I don't need to do anything the hell out When they're passing it around, I'd be like, no, I'm good. They're not gonna be like,
get out. You know what I mean. For young females, they invite you where they invite you to the hotel. All right, go to the lobby, but don't go up to the hotel room. There's a there's a there's a point where you know that don't but don't go up to the room and then tell me something crazy happen. You didn't know something crazy have in a room.
I will I agree with you, but I will say when I first moved here from New York, there was a couple incidents where I and my sister both put ourselves in positions where I mean, had us not had really solid good streets smarts, I would say we would have definitely been compromised. But yeah, there was some dudes, and it's usually to be honest, for my experience, it wasn't dudes that were actually in the industry. They were like the fake industry dudes like that house skirt dudes walk up to you.
In the mall and they're like be a.
Model and like no, no, they you know those ones that are like come be me here. But I will say, like even in the open, like I've seen dudes with power that were in the industry across the line where I remember I was as.
Good as done.
I went to my uncle like I'm I'm good, like I'm good, like this dude touched my leg and was married, and I just remember being scared death, you know, like oh my god, like this is this is terrible, and I started making rules. But even with men in general, I don't I personally don't do dinner dates. I only do breakfast and lunch dates. I don't want to hear no, and.
Guys will literally like if they hear breakfast and lunch, will be like I'm good, and I'll be like, no, that's cool. You know what I'm saying.
We both on the same page, you know what I'm saying.
But I'm not trying to walk into no setup or manipulation or any misconfusion or whatever.
But we will. We're on a clock.
So anyways, how can your fans, our fans keep up with you?
Omar keep up with me? The easiest way to find me is Instagram at Omar Gooding period. I don't hide it, TikTok. I threw my middle name in there, Omar Miles Gooding. Yes, my initials are O MG. And that's the easiest way to find me. Many what I would I Yes, Yes, I named my oldest son Omar Junior, because, believe it or not, when I'm out and people say, oh, keep Gooding Junior's brother. Yeah, so his name is Omar Gooding Jr. No, that's not how it works. That's not how juniors work. People.
The Omar Gooding Junior is my son and he's seven. Uh well he will be seven. And then my my my youngest son is named Miles. So I give, I give myself, like, oh you just hold on a name. Listen. My wife's name is Mia, and I was trying to think of names for a boy. We went Michael, Miles, I have two boys. I have two boys. Yeah, yeah, that's right, you know. It's uh, that's that's where we're at with it, you know. And then it's this culture.
I don't know that that's that's it's tough. You want him just to be boys and be you know, and I'm a manly man for man, I got to look, I gotta I'm gonna start a culture, like, can I be a man? Please? Is it okay for me to just be a man? I'm not, you know, hating on any other gender or race or or cumul unity or whatever the case. I'm just saying I'm a man and
I'm raising men. So that's that. Now, something happens down the line that I have no control over, and you know, we'll have that conversation and we'll cross that road when we need to. But as far as what I'm raising, I know how I was raised. So you know, if that's what's in me, that's how I figured that should be in them. And we'll go from there. For it's my young my OLDESTKI cries a lot. It's it's still he's very sensitive. It's very sensidive. And my father said
that to my wife. He said, you know, I was worried about him when he was younger. But you're all man now, I said, all right, he pulled out of that, he pulled, he pulled up quick. But uh but yeah, no, but that's that's where you can find me. You know, I got a lot on the plate. You know, I got music, I got comedy shows, I got some movies I'm doing. I even signed on to do a play in May.
Well, we'll be keep it up with you on your socials, and I will retire this dish.
Yeah, please don't here. Yeah please don't nobody try this at home, because first of all, we shouldn't even have the style phone and the microwave as we led with you try to put it in tap.
I'm gonna let you.
I'm a save y'all fans from yourself. Okay, don't in the cup of noodles cup unless you're apps.
Absolutely, It's good for a cleanse because I feel like I'm not doing nothing for next week.
All right, Peace out, guys. Peace for more eating while broke from iHeartRadio and The Black Effect, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.