What do you do when life doesn't go according to plan that moment you lose a job, or a loved one, or even a piece of yourself. I'm Brookshields and this is now What a podcast about pivotal moments as told by people who lived them. Each week, I sit down with a guest to talk about the times they were knocked off course and what they did to move forward.
Some stories are funny, others are gut wrenching, but all are unapologetically human and remind us that every success and every setback is accompanied by a choice.
And that choice answers one question. Now what.
I'm loving your book flipping box cars? Now, can you tell the audience what that means?
Because in my.
World it was actually flipping box cars with your middle finger.
That was something.
My mom is from Newark, New Jersey, and that was what I thought it was.
But you know, my grandfather was a dice roll of famous dice player. And again in the forties, dice players were like akin to the poker players that we know today. You know how we today poker players are famous and you know who they are. You can name different ones. And so my grandfather was one of those guys. And the box cars is two sixes and it's a rare thing. I think it's it paid something crazy like thirty to one or something like. It's a big it's a big payoff if you hit it and you call it.
Yeah, if you call, we have got a call it that I do know.
But then would you have to have other people hold them to make sure they're not weighted?
This ramblers there like they will get somebody's cheating, right, because it's all about this this feel and this kind of you know, luck being with you and all this kind of idea that people in you know, believe that they had least power over the dice to make them do what they want them to do.
My guest today is a game changer.
Cedric Kyles, better known as Cedric the Entertainer. He's a comedian, actor, game show host, and much much more. He got a start and stand up then became a household name as one of the original kings of comedy and also for his work in blockbuster franchises like Barbershop and Madagascar. Since twenty eighteen, he starred in CBS's The Neighborhood. But it's his latest venture as an author that has my attention.
His new book, Flipping Boxcars was a thrill to read, and I loved talking to Cedric about the real life inspiration.
Behind the story.
He's someone I greatly admire and I can't wait for you to get to know him too.
Here is Cedric the Entertainer.
I'm loving the book. I just I want to know everybody that that's in it. Why did you decide to write this book about your grandfather?
Now?
You know, it was interesting. It was this kind of thing. I grew up in a single parent household, so my mom, it was just me, my mom, and my little sister, and so you know the ideas of some of the behavior I have as a man. I was wondering where it came from. And you know, I've never met my grandfather. He had passed before I was born, but my mom would say I would just do certain things just like him. So it's like a DNA thing, right where the connected
through someone through just osmosis, So if you will. And so the fact that I had these few little stories about him, and you know who he was as a person.
How much of the book is real? I mean, is it? Did you have to really balance?
Yeah?
It was?
Was there anybody alive who knew him, Oh, for sure.
Again, it was a few people that we spoke to that knew him as a friend. Of course. Then my my mom's brother, the older uncle, who kind of grew up and was a teenager being pulled in to some of his father shenanigans at the time. So my uncle had great stories and so he was the one that kind of told me a lot of these things that kind of set up the world, helped me really set
up the world. And then we took the you know, the kind of creative liberty to tell this tale around these three four days around fourth of July in nineteen forty eight. So that's where the kind of fictional tale comes in. Some of the people and the relationships. I changed some names to protect certain people I have, you know, real relatives that they needed to be more of a hero, So I just changed them completely and like it made up like they will totally different personality.
I can totally see this as a Broadway like a one man show. I love that it's so interesting because it takes place in the forties. Yes, so much of your style that I've known you as that era, I mean, just the you're the clothing. There's this dapper, wonderful were you What were you like as a little kid?
Can you imagine?
We were just like that little boy with the fedora and spats, and I could see you a little zuit suit, a little little boy in.
A little suit suit.
Hello, sir? Are you hello?
How is it your funding your day today? No?
How you sir? Yeah? Now I was a pretty dapper little kid, to be honest though. That was funny that, you know, because we lived in this little town that's in the book, Corrounsville, Missouri, until I was about, you know, maybe about ten years old before we moved to Saint Louis. And then but my mom was she went away to college and she was one of those people that, you know, before online clothing, basically knew how to order out of catalogs all around the world. Is so I was known
to be a very sharp dresser as a kid. I can remember like my teachers complimenting me on my clothes, and kids thought we were rich because I would always have on these little nice outfits. But it was mainly because my mom, could, you know, knew how to kind of order and not get everything from the local store. And so she things delivered, and I would have these cool little outfits. Everybody loved the way that. Trust me and my sisters.
I love it.
My mother would buy only from thrift shops. And then my first day of third grade, she took me to the store and I she bought me gut shows nice.
But I looked I looked like I was auditioning for newsies.
Like it was so bad because I got into this school and all of a sudden, these kids are in ripped jeans and like rock and roll t shirts. And I was like extra extrae, you know, like this little, this little weirdo who did not help my social life, but to be dapper is amazing. So the book is touching in so many ways. In writing it, did you discover something about yourself even more in the similarities between you and your grandfather?
Yeah? I think, you know, one of one of the key things I thought was really that I, you know, had fun of discovering, was this kind of I don't even know is a driving spirit, a renegating spirit to want to be more, to be different than the status quo, right, And I kind of always had that, you know. I remember my mother used to say I was always skimming
up a dream. I was always trying to figure out how like I didn't you know, my mother was an educator, so going to school, going to college, that was all a part of our upbringing far as my sister and I was concerned. But who's a professor now? She teaches at Pepperdine. Like so, like casion was what everybody was doing except for me. I did not want him. I had this kind of you know, wild mustang, you know horse,
you know where I just need to run free. And so, you know, I found my grandfather was a lot like that in discovering like his aspirations, his ideas. I say, he was one of the first people to have a food truck when you think about it, because he would make his meals and then take him out to the field workers and charge them, you know, like a quarter or nickel to eat and they would grab the sandwiches from him and drinks and that was his business. That
was another little business he had. He just had his hands and a lot of little things. And so I kind of discovered like that spirit of wanting to be more of that spirit of like, you know, I just don't want to be a comedian. I want to be an actor. I don't want to be an actor. I want to write books. I don't want to just write books. I want to sing songs like I just all these things were like I believe kind of came from his spirit, if you will.
I love thinking about where people are when they were younger and then where they are after a full career. And was there a formative moment or time in your life as a as a kid that sticks out to you when you think back.
Yeah? Probably, you know, I think that once we moved from Corrusville to Saint Louis, if there was this idea that the world was so much bigger when you lived like in a small town, and you know, you can be a bit of a big fish in this small town, mainly mainly because I had cool clothes, right, But but I think that you know when you go We actually moved to Chicago first for a minute, and it was a little overwhelming for my mother, But as a kid, it was definitely something I saw, like, yo, I need
to be in the big I need to be out here, I need I need this is me like And so once I got to Junior High Scho School in Saint Louis, you know. It was the It was this you know, this mixing in with the kids, these these urban kids, the idea that I can be funny around them, that I had a funny personality. It was the first time I used to go It was the first time I changed my name. I used to go by my family name is Tony, and so all my life I went
by Tony. And when I got to Saint Louis, a teacher called my whole name, my name is Cedric Antonio Kyle's. And so when she said Cedric Antonio Kyle's, do you go buy anything else? I said no, and I go by Cedric. And from this point I just that was. That was moments where you decide, like I'm this guy, I'm not that guy.
Did you do impressions like even as a kid, for like, were you that guy to your friends?
Yeah? I could do like of course, like the teachers or versions of people, not like dead on impressions, Like I couldn't really like mimic folks, but I could do a version of someone you know that would be funny, uh, you know, or a teacher or a preacher or somebody like that, somebody that we all kind of identified with and so those are my things. But then we used to do the dozens or they called it jones joning
in Saint Louis, they called it joning. So we would, you know, you go in the lunch room, you talk about somebody's outfit or or you know what they you know, like how they're they're not smart or whatever. You know, that was the whole move. And I was the king of the lunch room. So people used to just wait. All my friends be like, wait till say it show up. You don't want no, say it show up?
And were you You were a theater kid too.
Right, Yeah, I did theater, but mainly as a minor. Again, I never like kind of jumped into it as my main thing. Both in high school and in college. I minored in theater, but never really you know, I studied broadcasts and communications in in college and minored in theater. I mean, but I did plays and I was, you know constantly, you know, part of the the inter scene.
But it's so interesting when you then you had a bunch of odd different jobs, I mean, very variety.
Anyone stand out for and protect you worked for? What state?
State farm? Was adjuster you.
Know claims adjuster I like that Jake.
From State Farm. Baby listen.
Oh my god, yeah, I said, he'll adjusted, He'll adjust.
It was at fault here.
Oh that's a role too.
When did you first really realize that comedy professionally was an option for you?
You know, it was it was after I was working at State Farm, you know, and somebody entered me into a comedy competition and the first time I did it, I won five hundred dollars and that was it. That was like Willy the Hook because it was one of these things of knowing like it's money to be made, and it was a guy that I knew that was a professional comedian that would go and he would come and be like, yoh, I made fourteen hundred this week.
I made eleven hundred that week. When I'm thinking, man, this dude is making more money doing that than I do with my job. And so, you know, once I kind of recognized, like it was lanes where people can go and they didn't have to be famous already. And he was just kind of explaining that he would travel around to do these comedy clubs all around the country. He had gotten a part of this circuit, and you know, once he explained it to me that that was actually
a route. You know, I had to convince my mother that I didn't want to work in corporate America anymore. But but you know I sat on the path to do that too, like all right, I'm getting out of here. I want to be a stand up. So it took a couple of years. But you know I did it with strategy.
Though, and not knowing the strategy. Was there anybody that was helping you or you're just learning on the.
Job a little bit of both. Like again, like I said, I knew a comedian who knew how to do it. He had done it before, he was doing it as a professional. I was very popular in the city. It was all I saw an opportunity for in Saint Louis, where you know, going on the radio in the morning, calling in being a regular person, you can get like little Pops when you go on the radio and people will say, oh, man, I like when that dude calls in. Then I would do a comedy night and sell it out.
And so you started to get a lot more confidence in yourself and believing. And then that that really became the choice right in there where you kind of hit that tipping point where you believe you can do this. And I was making enough money on the side, not like really replacing my job, but enough money to where I was like confident that I could pay my bills.
So do you have any like video where you able to find any video of any of your of your stand ups that you can look back at?
You know, I'm not really, I'm really I saw this special on Joan Rivers and really felt bad that I'm not as kind of archiveal as she is, you know, like Jones like had like every all her jokes and files and had everything kind of organized. And you know, I definitely have some great, great moments on stage that have been recorded that I have no idea where they are.
I'm surprised they haven't surfaced, you know, because people find each other, especially in this age of digital. When you think about your stand up, how much of it for you is a character versus the real said, It's like.
A it's very very close. Inmost stage, I really allow
a lot of yourself to be exposed. And so now I'm actually more probably more cerebral, more business like in normal life than i am when I'm on stage, like where everything is kind of coming out as a joke, like I don't think in jokes, which is what people are quite surprised, like, I'm not a I'm not like a super jokey joke personally, Like when you see me, go like, oh, I know you're gonna say something funny, like I usually have to be an environment when you
know where the energy is flowing, and then my natural personality will come out and I'll start saying a bunch of funny things like back to back. But I wouldn't. I wouldn't really sit up in conversation with someone and try to be the funniest person there. That's not like how I think.
Do you think comedy has really dramatically changed since you started?
Well, no, only the addition of you know, kind of the you know, viral comedy that's on YouTube or tiktoks, I think, which is great, you know, but I think, you know, from the days when it had to be stand up and you had to kind of construct a joke from the setup and then kind of delivering a great punchline while taking someone on a journey to get
to get them to laugh at the end. But nowadays because people can like just shoot it, create a character do something right in front of you these I think that that's changed, you know, the expectations a lot of times when people come to comedy clubs.
When I see a show like The Original Kings of Comedy, I see that as kind of quite a renaissance for the industry because you know, it was a it was a huge phenomenon. Also, there was a mainstream focus on non white audiences, and that was you were at the forefront of that, which was so for me, you know, because we're the same age and all of the people that shows that you loved are all the people that
I loved. But when you see a show like your show, that there's a whole world that had not been fully fully accessible until then.
I think that's what really made is so unique and great, you know. And for us, it was like, you know, in the early nineties, you know, like I said, I started in the eighties and eighties comedy was definitely different, Like it was all about white comedy clubs. You had to go in, you had to kind of, you know,
fit your jokes into a certain kind of box. And then the nineties kind of brought about this kind of you know, African American, this black comedy scene where you're right, the audience just allowed you to do it in shorthand you didn't have to fix things for people. You didn't have to you know, try to like, you know, say it the correct way in order to get to the joke. People knew what you were talking about because of the overall common experience and so I think that that was
really great. And then the Kings just came along and you know, kind of put it on steroids. And so it was just a really fun time to be a comedian and a big run and not just on stand up because we had shows, you know, you had Martin and the Steve Harvey Show and Wayne Brothers. They had a lot of sitcoms on. So it was a lot of room to be seen and to make money and be great and great notoriety and uh, that was a really interesting time in this in this city and in the world.
And then immersion really, you know, do you think that that space kind of let you grow in a way that you hadn't before.
Oh for sure, because now whilst people see you and kind of see what your abilities are and you can see what you can do. Now you're known for who you are, and now you have the ability to kind of cross over and do things in a more natural way, like you can just let people know like, yeah, you know, but I also went to college. I also worked in corporate America. So it's not all hood jokes, you know. I'm like, you know, every joke I have is not gonna be about the hood, Like I had a job, you know.
Like, so it's so amazing how quickly people are produced to you know, it's there's this.
Ability to be more than one thing is such a shock.
It's a shocker to people, especially in our industry. It's like I used to I fell in the I fell off a stool in the pilot of Suddenly Susan, And I kid you not.
For the next four years.
I was falling off of something all the time, and I kept saying, please give me more, Please give me smarter comedy. I don't always have to fall on my face because then it's not as funny.
It's a good faller.
Yeah boy, what did you think? Yo? She falls really well.
But this show is called now What and it's about the pivotal moments. Does sound like you've had had very many, But if you had to pick one pivotal moment in your life, good or bad, where you were really thrown and you had to say, okay, now what do I do?
What one would you choose?
Man? You know, you know, it was one that I thought that, you know, I was kind of talking about this the other day, Like in the earlier early two thousands or so, I was having a good little movie run, and I was having fun doing movies, and of course Hollywood was a little tough on the budgets, so movies were being shot everywhere, right. I was going from Prague to Dublin to Vancouver, Toronto, and you know, it was fun, you know, because you get to see the world that way.
But my kids were young and I could take them with me. And then it came a point where they had schedules and I started to book movies where I was going to be home, i mean, gone like three months, four months, and I just realized, like, that's just not that, you know, I didn't have a father in my house. I didn't want to become this rolling stone dude, and so I pivoted to television. And it was one of these things that was so hard for like, you know,
everybody in my group. And this was when television wasn't sexy. It wasn't like, hey, get a TV show. A matter of fact, I was on TV Land at the time. It was like it was not like this, you know, in a way, this smart move to do, but it worked out. I feel really great that I was able to be a part of my kids life and be at home and have a schedule where I can go
to work and come home and do that. And again, you kind of lose that shine or that trajectory where you're you know, you're this guy that's going to be a big you know, box office star or whatever, and kind of letting that be your goals. I think that was really something I felt like identify me as a human being, Like when I just chose to be quiet and bring it down and do the right thing for being a part of these kids' lives and so in my wife.
And marriage and now you're a proud grandfather, right, Yes, that smile.
You know you have to. It's a hard choice to make.
But I do think that having that base those children knowing they can count on their dad, knowing that there's safety in that and consistency and love. I also believe gives longevity to a career because you're not going to stop working, You're just going to find different ways to stay creative, which you have done. I mean American Buffalo on Broadway. Yeah yeah, I mean really that is one. I'm so sad I didn't get to see you in it, because I love I loved I love that play.
But that's no joke.
It was no joke. Definitely my hardest thing I ever had to do as an actor. You know, I tell people that all the time, you know, like I would lean on my comedy ability, even the Drew dramatic roles, I would lean to my comedy. But to do American Buffalo, to do Broadway was the first time that I had to understand that Broadway is about the playwright and it's not about the actor. The actor is there as a vessel for the play.
So so word perfect.
Word perfect, right, And so you know, as a comedia, you know, you like, you know, if you get it stuck in the moment, you know, you used to being able to use your wits and just like kill it. And so I remember like just how hard that was for me to kind of you know, entertain like kind of understand like that was a real thing, and so, but you know, working with John Leguizamo on there and Hayley Jill Asma and John was a you know, a
Broadway pro. He had done many of his plays and he just and he'd actually did the movie Honeymooners with me, so we knew each other and it just ended up being a great, you know, space for me to you know, like really kind of get off and learn about acting, like real acting. And it was probably one of my greatest experiences where I felt like I stretched and grew and became something different.
And realized what you are really capable of, you know, which you just don't know and stretching as a as
you have to be an athlete. I mean, you're doing eight a week and you have to be an athlete, yes, and then when something works one night and it doesn't work the next, and then you're just trying to milk that one one little laugh that's there, or that one whatever, and then I would come off stage and you just say to the stage manager, don't give me a note about that, because I know I was being greedy and I will not do it tomorrow. But is there a anything that you are most proud of?
I mean, I think that I really just kind of love the fact that I've had this great career that that feels like it's always been kind of on an up with trajectory. I feel really proud that, you know, I've never had any like, you know, crazy, you know downfalls that you know that that came with me being in the news of being chased by the police in the middle of the night. You know, I think there
was exciting for my true Hollywood story. I might just do one, just just just for my true Alleywood stories, like just pick a night where I'm just gonna go with a wild chase and let people like going a drunk victory.
I used to say, I wonder if I can fake check myself into rehab because I would say, it's like I didn't have that, So I'm like, what can I do where it's really not a downfall, but then I at least get a reputation at least.
To do a whole joke about it. I need it. In Hollywood, you need a scandal agent. Yes, you need to have your regular agent in and an agent that knows how to put you in a scandal so that you can become really popular.
That was Cedric the entertainer.
If you want to hear more from him, go pick up a copy of his new book, Flipping Box Cars, available online and at major retailers. I loved it, and I hope you do too. That's it for us today.
Talk to you next week now.
What with Broke Shields is a production of iHeartRadio. Our lead producer and wonderful showrunner is Julia Weaver. Additional research and editing by Darby Masters and Abu Zafar. Our executive producer is Christina Everett. The show is mixed by Baheed Fraser.