Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Rushion Interviews Best Selling Author, Journalist, and Host of theGrio's Masters of The Game, Touré.
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: My next guest is Tory is the best selling author,
- 0:03Speaker 1: writer and podcaster Towards well known for his work on
- 0:06Speaker 1: Cycle on NMSNBC, Hip Hop Shop on FUSE, the Black
- 0:09Speaker 1: Carpet on BT I Try Anything Once, So Treasury a
- 0:13Speaker 1: d and Spoken Herd on MTV and it's the first
- 0:16Speaker 1: pop up culture correspondent on c n N. Tory hosts
- 0:20Speaker 1: a new series. I'm very excited to announce Masters of
- 0:23Speaker 1: the Game, a monthly one hour program on De Grill
- 0:26Speaker 1: as host on this one on one interview with living
- 0:28Speaker 1: legends and intimate settings touring, His special guests will discuss
- 0:32Speaker 1: their crafts, brilliance and rhodes, something I tried to do
- 0:35Speaker 1: on here, but he's doing it at a much higher
- 0:37Speaker 1: level and I respect that. Please welcome to the host
- 0:40Speaker 1: of Masters of the Game, the one and only Tory.
- 0:43Speaker 1: How you know, thanks man? How are you pretty good? Uh?
- 0:47Speaker 1: Your face is so familiar. And that's as a compliment
- 0:51Speaker 1: because but if I say that in complimentary way, because
- 0:54Speaker 1: it's been on so many different platforms. You know, when
- 0:58Speaker 1: it came into my life, it was on the tennis
- 1:00Speaker 1: far My daughter was striving to be the next Venus
- 1:02Speaker 1: Williams and she tore need at n eighteen and now
- 1:05Speaker 1: she's a college graduate and honors graduate and graphic designs.
- 1:10Speaker 1: I'm happy. But she was a prodigy of sixteen, and
- 1:12Speaker 1: so you know, in that world. I like to go
- 1:15Speaker 1: into that before we get it to the Masters, because
- 1:17Speaker 1: I think that's what the whole thing is about people's
- 1:19Speaker 1: lives and perspectives. And you have such a unique perspective
- 1:22Speaker 1: because you've done so many things, Tori, so many things
- 1:25Speaker 1: well in the name of tennis. What are the upsides
- 1:29Speaker 1: of a young person going to to that sport and
- 1:31Speaker 1: what are the downsides? That's a great question. I mean,
- 1:35Speaker 1: you know, I've spent a lot of my life playing. Um,
- 1:38Speaker 1: I just got off the court playing this morning. I
- 1:40Speaker 1: play every day. Uh, played junior tournaments throughout my youth.
- 1:43Speaker 1: I mean, definitely one of the upsides is learning how
- 1:48Speaker 1: to deal with pressure. When you get to a certain
- 1:51Speaker 1: level and you've had adults pushing you and investing their
- 1:55Speaker 1: time and money and you and they maybe fly you
- 1:58Speaker 1: to some tournament and they want to see results. They
- 2:01Speaker 1: want to see you trun card, they want to see
- 2:02Speaker 1: you do well. Um, you feel a lot of pressure
- 2:06Speaker 1: because the guy on the other side or the girl
- 2:08Speaker 1: on the other side is dealing with the same stuff.
- 2:11Speaker 1: None of these kids paid to fly themselves there. Um,
- 2:14Speaker 1: so there can be a lot of pressure. Learning how
- 2:17Speaker 1: to deal with pressure is very valuable. And when I
- 2:22Speaker 1: got I started getting into my live television career, I
- 2:27Speaker 1: was not paralyzed by the pressure of being on live
- 2:32Speaker 1: CNN or whatever it was, MSNBC, whatever, because I was like,
- 2:36Speaker 1: I've been nervous before and still performed because it's you know,
- 2:41Speaker 1: add out and my dad is watching, like we beat
- 2:44Speaker 1: this kid now. I mean, I can't think of a
- 2:48Speaker 1: lot of cons but I mean that's sort of mental
- 2:51Speaker 1: strain on someone who's twelve or fourteen or sixteen can
- 2:56Speaker 1: be a lot and can it be It can be damaging.
- 3:00Speaker 1: It wasn't to me, um, although you know, the most
- 3:04Speaker 1: most of the most stressful moments of my childhood were
- 3:08Speaker 1: on a tennis court in terms of the amount of
- 3:10Speaker 1: pressure that the adults around me we're putting on me
- 3:14Speaker 1: to succeed. Um. But um, you know, I see others
- 3:20Speaker 1: who are dealing with more trauma from the childhoods in
- 3:23Speaker 1: tennis than me. I still enjoy the game and still
- 3:25Speaker 1: play all the time and will play tournaments to all
- 3:28Speaker 1: the time. Um, you know, you learn self reliance, self resilience.
- 3:36Speaker 1: You are out there by yourself. You cannot pass the
- 3:39Speaker 1: ball or take a break. You can't even turn to
- 3:42Speaker 1: the coach and say, hey, like what should I do here?
- 3:44Speaker 1: You've got to figure out your problems by yourself. You
- 3:47Speaker 1: have to do all the things by yourself as opposed
- 3:51Speaker 1: to a team sport. Um. You know it's you who
- 3:55Speaker 1: makes it or doesn't. So I mean, like you know
- 3:57Speaker 1: that that learning that is a great life lesson as
- 4:01Speaker 1: a great life lessons. But like you said, pressure, pressure
- 4:05Speaker 1: at every age is not always good. But then you
- 4:08Speaker 1: had an opinion. You have no opinion now, Tori, when
- 4:11Speaker 1: you play tennis, did you have an opinion? Absolutely? I
- 4:16Speaker 1: mean you know, you know I started playing tournaments when
- 4:19Speaker 1: I was ten, Um, so you know how much of
- 4:22Speaker 1: a political opinion did I have been? But you know,
- 4:25Speaker 1: my parents were always talking about political ideas. Um. That
- 4:30Speaker 1: was a big part of our constant conversation. What was
- 4:32Speaker 1: going on in the world, with Jimmy Carter with a
- 4:35Speaker 1: fair writive action, with Ronald Reagan what have you. So
- 4:39Speaker 1: I was aware of the world and I had strong
- 4:43Speaker 1: opinions about the world. And I think that by the
- 4:47Speaker 1: time I definitely got to be sixteen seventeen eighteen, I
- 4:49Speaker 1: had strong opinions about the world and you know, black
- 4:54Speaker 1: people and where we were going. So you know, I
- 4:57Speaker 1: mean that was always part of my life. Right now,
- 5:00Speaker 1: it's is everything is a brand now. Your name has
- 5:03Speaker 1: become a brand. There's there's no last name when you
- 5:06Speaker 1: are introduced. Where was that was that? Was that a
- 5:10Speaker 1: decision made by management, decision made by you? How the
- 5:13Speaker 1: decision that came by so you know some this this
- 5:16Speaker 1: first name is the one, This is my brand. This
- 5:18Speaker 1: is what I'm gonna ride it out with. That's a
- 5:20Speaker 1: great question. It wasn't. It didn't have anything to do
- 5:23Speaker 1: with branding in the way that people talk about branded now.
- 5:29Speaker 1: But when I was going after I finished high school,
- 5:33Speaker 1: I started to have just some larger thoughts about me
- 5:38Speaker 1: and my place in the world. And I was thinking
- 5:40Speaker 1: about how my first name was something that my parents
- 5:43Speaker 1: had very actively searched out and chosen for me, and
- 5:49Speaker 1: the government name was something that we really didn't know
- 5:51Speaker 1: anything about. You know, my father's father had died before
- 5:57Speaker 1: he was born. We had no photographs, we had no records,
- 6:00Speaker 1: really didn't have any stories. I had a friend who
- 6:04Speaker 1: uh still to a friend of the day who was
- 6:06Speaker 1: Irish and now on the wall in their family room
- 6:09Speaker 1: they had like you know, going back sixteen generations into Ireland.
- 6:13Speaker 1: You know this one, this one, this one, this one. Um,
- 6:15Speaker 1: we had nothing of that in my family. And I
- 6:18Speaker 1: felt that rupture in the family that I think a
- 6:22Speaker 1: lot of African Americans experience. And my way of reflecting
- 6:26Speaker 1: that was Gay is the name that was chosen for
- 6:31Speaker 1: me that links back to African history, and the last
- 6:35Speaker 1: name was something that didn't have that same residence for
- 6:41Speaker 1: us because there was no story, there was no people,
- 6:44Speaker 1: there was no history connected to it for us. So
- 6:48Speaker 1: I said, you know, going into college, I'm going away
- 6:51Speaker 1: from my family. You know, my my parents and my
- 6:54Speaker 1: sister were a constant presence on my high school campus.
- 6:58Speaker 1: But in college I would be more or at a
- 7:00Speaker 1: chance to sort of redo some things, you could say.
- 7:05Speaker 1: And so I said, okay, like this is one way
- 7:07Speaker 1: I want to do that. So when I first begin
- 7:10Speaker 1: writing for the local for the college paper, um, it's
- 7:14Speaker 1: always with one name. Um. I wrote a story when
- 7:18Speaker 1: I was in essay when I was in college for
- 7:19Speaker 1: the Philadelphia Tribune. That was with one name. So even
- 7:23Speaker 1: the first things that I'm writing publicly, we're just one name.
- 7:29Speaker 1: We'll be right back with more money Making Conversations Master
- 7:32Speaker 1: Class with Rushan McDonald. Now, let's return to Money Making
- 7:37Speaker 1: Conversations Master Class with Rushan McDonald. You know, it's always
- 7:42Speaker 1: just because my name is Rushan, and I know that
- 7:44Speaker 1: if my name was Ricky, I'll be a different person.
- 7:47Speaker 1: But because the uniqueness of my name and then the
- 7:50Speaker 1: annunciation of my name, because at one time people say
- 7:52Speaker 1: Russian Rushan, and then a friend of mine said, he said,
- 7:56Speaker 1: Piccolin Rushan, are you Russian? And you Rushan rik alone,
- 8:00Speaker 1: so came ra Shan and I and I fought for
- 8:02Speaker 1: it to be Rashawn. So I know it does make
- 8:04Speaker 1: a difference when you, like I said, when I made
- 8:06Speaker 1: that decision, it wasn't about branding. I just made a decision.
- 8:09Speaker 1: This is how I wanted to be recognized, and to
- 8:11Speaker 1: be recognized does lay the pathway because their uniqueness. Whenever
- 8:15Speaker 1: I heard your name, it it resonated with me because
- 8:18Speaker 1: it's stood for something, It's stood for you. And with
- 8:22Speaker 1: that being said, it has allowed you to me to
- 8:25Speaker 1: be able to say, I'm just not a tennis guy
- 8:27Speaker 1: who could just talk on tennis. I'm just how are
- 8:30Speaker 1: we able to start cultivating the brand because we have
- 8:34Speaker 1: to talk about because you are a brand, and and
- 8:36Speaker 1: I recognized brand. That's why you're hosting the show Masters
- 8:39Speaker 1: of the Game. Because people are recognized you as an extellectual,
- 8:42Speaker 1: They recognize you as a as an authentic that recognized
- 8:45Speaker 1: you the person who can who can cultivate conversations, whether
- 8:48Speaker 1: it's entertainment, whether it's hip hop or athletics. That's a
- 8:52Speaker 1: beautiful thing for people to respect you from. And I
- 8:54Speaker 1: as as a writer as well. So the brand of
- 8:58Speaker 1: developing you leave you mean tennis, you talked about Philadelphia
- 9:02Speaker 1: inquire when you started realizing, you know something, I can
- 9:05Speaker 1: do this, I can expand this, and I can build
- 9:07Speaker 1: a career out of this. Um, you know, I think
- 9:11Speaker 1: I was always confident that I could be a professional writer.
- 9:15Speaker 1: I wasn't necessarily certain when I moved to New York
- 9:19Speaker 1: exactly how you do that, but I knew do it
- 9:23Speaker 1: if I could get in the door. Um, you know,
- 9:27Speaker 1: I mean Master of the Game is great because it
- 9:28Speaker 1: does give me a chance to sort of stretch out
- 9:31Speaker 1: on a wide array of topics. So we talked to
- 9:35Speaker 1: Francis Tifa, the great tennis player. We talked to Tyler Perry.
- 9:40Speaker 1: You know everybody knows he is, Keenan Thompson, the great comedian,
- 9:45Speaker 1: and Don Peebles, the great real estate uh tycoon. So
- 9:51Speaker 1: it's sort of really stretches my muscles. I've had a
- 9:55Speaker 1: few things that I am super passionate about the politics
- 10:01Speaker 1: and black people, UM culture and how that speaks to
- 10:05Speaker 1: black people, especially hip hop, but all sorts of black culture,
- 10:09Speaker 1: UM and and and and tennis, and within black culture,
- 10:14Speaker 1: I would include, you know, the sort of sports conversation
- 10:18Speaker 1: that I've had. I'm not a sports sports guy, like
- 10:22Speaker 1: like a Michael Smith or something like that, but like
- 10:24Speaker 1: in terms of the black cultural nature of sports, I
- 10:27Speaker 1: have been part of that conversation. I'm super interested in
- 10:32Speaker 1: a small number of subjects, and I have sought out
- 10:36Speaker 1: opportunities to talk about those things that I've gotten the
- 10:38Speaker 1: opportunity to talk about those things. I was always interested
- 10:41Speaker 1: in politics, but in my twenties, nobody was going to
- 10:45Speaker 1: hire me to talk about politics. But I was able
- 10:47Speaker 1: to get on at Rolling Stone and write about culture.
- 10:50Speaker 1: In my thirties, I was given more of a chance
- 10:52Speaker 1: to talk about politics, so I added that, um, all along,
- 10:57Speaker 1: I always talked about tennis. Um. When I got the opportunity, uh,
- 11:03Speaker 1: and I had some really interesting opportunities to write about tennis.
- 11:06Speaker 1: And you know, it wasn't really about I really wasn't
- 11:08Speaker 1: thinking about branding. I was thinking about, these are the
- 11:11Speaker 1: things that I love that's interested in, So let me
- 11:14Speaker 1: talk about these different things. UM. I mean, you know,
- 11:17Speaker 1: I think about my father put a lot of time
- 11:20Speaker 1: and energy into my tennis when I was growing up.
- 11:24Speaker 1: And when I got into my forties and he got
- 11:27Speaker 1: sick and I hadn't been playing for several years, I
- 11:30Speaker 1: started think about, like all that he had poured into
- 11:34Speaker 1: me through that and honoring him by well dishonoring him
- 11:38Speaker 1: potentially by not utilizing that information and then saying like, well,
- 11:43Speaker 1: let me see if I get back on the court
- 11:45Speaker 1: and used that that he taught me. And it's been
- 11:50Speaker 1: partly a way of honoring him through getting back to it. Um.
- 11:57Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean, these are just the things that
- 11:59Speaker 1: I love of and feel happy talking about. You know,
- 12:03Speaker 1: it's really interesting, um, your personality because you know, success
- 12:08Speaker 1: and your success is always tied to the fact that
- 12:11Speaker 1: you you seem to be a normal conversationalist, you know,
- 12:14Speaker 1: because you just mentioned uh, you know TiO four, you know.
- 12:17Speaker 1: Then then you mentioned Tyler Perry billionaire. Then you mentioned, uh,
- 12:21Speaker 1: don people a near real estate billionaire. You mentioned I know,
- 12:25Speaker 1: don't people you mentioned Donald Trump around him, he like
- 12:28Speaker 1: he just goes really stopped. He was giving his he
- 12:31Speaker 1: was giving his real estate. I earned my reshod, I
- 12:34Speaker 1: earned my And then you missed Keenan Thompson, you know,
- 12:37Speaker 1: uh from Saturdaynight Live, and each one of these till
- 12:41Speaker 1: four or dear for it, you know. And and sometimes
- 12:44Speaker 1: I would like, would I be talented people like you
- 12:47Speaker 1: who have just mastered your craft? I would like to
- 12:50Speaker 1: slow down. Go you know something? You talk about a
- 12:53Speaker 1: rising athletic superstar in tennis. Yeah, Tyler Perry, who has
- 12:58Speaker 1: changed the production game, owns the studio, owns all his properties. Yeah. God,
- 13:04Speaker 1: people who in New York City, Miami area, Florida area
- 13:09Speaker 1: real estate, real estate tackle black except made by the way. Well,
- 13:14Speaker 1: let me see one thing, because you're talking about naturalism.
- 13:17Speaker 1: And yes, when I do an interview with these sort
- 13:19Speaker 1: of people, I am striving to have a conversation. Absolutely
- 13:25Speaker 1: look at it like I wrote down ten questions and
- 13:27Speaker 1: I'm going to ask them and answer, or I'm listening
- 13:31Speaker 1: to you. I am trying to discern what it is
- 13:34Speaker 1: that you really want to talk about. I am dialoguing you.
- 13:38Speaker 1: I want to move you in a comfortable way through
- 13:42Speaker 1: your memory bank and not have you sort of like
- 13:46Speaker 1: jerking around through it, so you're you know, and I
- 13:49Speaker 1: want you to feel like you are never more heard
- 13:55Speaker 1: than when you're talking to me. So I'm paying attention
- 13:59Speaker 1: to you. I may be mirroring to certain extent your
- 14:02Speaker 1: body language, sort of paying attention to the crevices and
- 14:06Speaker 1: nuances of what you're saying, maybe laughing at your jokes
- 14:08Speaker 1: and agreeing with your ideas. And some of this begins
- 14:13Speaker 1: before the interview even officially begins, and like when we're
- 14:16Speaker 1: just sitting there waiting for the crew to be ready,
- 14:19Speaker 1: I'm talking to you and giving you this treatment. I
- 14:22Speaker 1: want you to feel heard and paid attention to, so
- 14:27Speaker 1: that then you feel comfortable talking to me and letting
- 14:31Speaker 1: that out. So we're having a natural conversation. But I'm
- 14:34Speaker 1: also making you feel comfortable and wanted and paid attention
- 14:38Speaker 1: to um, And I think that goes a long way
- 14:41Speaker 1: towards getting people to feel comfortable to open up. We talked.
- 14:46Speaker 1: We were talking to Tori. We're best selling author, writer podcasts,
- 14:50Speaker 1: the host of the Masters of the Game, which would
- 14:53Speaker 1: be a monthly one hour program on degree Um. When
- 14:56Speaker 1: I was saying that was not an insult, just a
- 14:58Speaker 1: just a testament to your talent. But you know you're
- 15:00Speaker 1: doing something. Yeah, but they're doing something that people always said,
- 15:03Speaker 1: don't do you know when you're about to interview somebody,
- 15:05Speaker 1: you know, you you leave valuable nuggets on the ground
- 15:08Speaker 1: if you talk to them too much prior to it,
- 15:10Speaker 1: and then you save very shot. I talked to him
- 15:13Speaker 1: prior to that. I I established a zone of a
- 15:16Speaker 1: conversation and that's how I get into it. That's your style,
- 15:20Speaker 1: and it works for you. Now we know there are
- 15:23Speaker 1: a lot of legendary interviewers out there, the Barbara Walters,
- 15:27Speaker 1: the the oprah Winfreeze. What is the Tory style? Was
- 15:31Speaker 1: that the Tory style of interviewing that you just gave
- 15:33Speaker 1: us an example of pretty much. I mean, you know,
- 15:36Speaker 1: for one thing, I like to make statements right and
- 15:41Speaker 1: have you respond to the statement, because I think sometimes
- 15:45Speaker 1: if I make a statement if I say, let's say
- 15:48Speaker 1: I was interviewing you and I said you're a great interviewer,
- 15:52Speaker 1: you would take that where you think you should take that.
- 15:56Speaker 1: They go to your training as an in your viewer,
- 16:01Speaker 1: or your style of preparation or whatever. You know, you
- 16:05Speaker 1: are so great in that movie, such a tough rule,
- 16:09Speaker 1: and now you're gonna go where you think that should go.
- 16:14Speaker 1: If I if I tagged that with a question, now
- 16:17Speaker 1: I may have narrowed where you can go with your answer,
- 16:23Speaker 1: and you may think, well, this is the more interesting answer.
- 16:27Speaker 1: But he asked me this over here, so now I'm
- 16:29Speaker 1: gonna go over here. And I didn't give you the
- 16:31Speaker 1: chance to choose what would be the most interesting answer
- 16:35Speaker 1: to the subject of let's talk about your movie, or
- 16:37Speaker 1: let's talk about your book, let's talk about your interviewing skills,
- 16:40Speaker 1: or you know what it was like when you play
- 16:42Speaker 1: with the Lakers or whatever it is. I love the
- 16:46Speaker 1: statement as a question. Every once in a while you
- 16:50Speaker 1: get people who were like, that wasn't a question. What
- 16:54Speaker 1: am I supposed to And sometimes you know, sometimes people
- 17:00Speaker 1: a uh. It took me a minute to get used
- 17:02Speaker 1: to that, because I was like, he's not asking questions
- 17:04Speaker 1: and they're like, oh, this is the way he does it.
- 17:06Speaker 1: There is also a value in asking questions. All right,
- 17:11Speaker 1: sometimes I do want to target you towards a specific thing, um.
- 17:16Speaker 1: But you know, I love the conversationalist statement approach. I
- 17:22Speaker 1: wanted to feel natural. I wanted to feel like you're
- 17:26Speaker 1: talking to a friend. Um. You know, everything is about
- 17:31Speaker 1: follow ups. It's really never in the first question. The
- 17:35Speaker 1: first question is just like a jab, it's just probing,
- 17:39Speaker 1: just hey, I want to talk about this general area
- 17:42Speaker 1: of your life. And then after that, and they go
- 17:46Speaker 1: into one or two or if it's really important, three
- 17:49Speaker 1: follow ups, and there I don't I don't need and
- 17:52Speaker 1: I can't really write down what the follow ups are
- 17:55Speaker 1: gonna be because I need to listen to you and
- 17:59Speaker 1: here or what did you say that was interesting? What
- 18:02Speaker 1: do I want to go deeper on? What part of
- 18:04Speaker 1: the answer did you not give me? So as you're talking,
- 18:07Speaker 1: I'm sort of calculating, like how much more space is
- 18:11Speaker 1: there in this topic that you haven't yet touched on?
- 18:16Speaker 1: And is it interesting? Do I need to try to
- 18:18Speaker 1: get you to touch on that or should I move
- 18:20Speaker 1: on to something else entirely? But you know, I have
- 18:23Speaker 1: to be very actively listening and thinking about what is
- 18:28Speaker 1: the overall conversation that I want to have with this person, um,
- 18:31Speaker 1: not just waiting for them to finish talking so I
- 18:34Speaker 1: can go on to the next question. Wow, We'll be
- 18:37Speaker 1: right back with more Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rushan McDonald. Now,
- 18:44Speaker 1: let's return to Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rushan McDonald.
- 18:49Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask you, Tori. You have a lot of
- 18:51Speaker 1: titles and a lot of loves. TV host Arthur, music journalist,
- 18:55Speaker 1: cultural critic, podcaster. We talked about Roshan. I just got
- 18:59Speaker 1: off play tennis today. It's a passion. I go back.
- 19:02Speaker 1: I love like I like. For instance, now I have
- 19:05Speaker 1: a love for baking. It relaxes me, It takes me
- 19:08Speaker 1: out of my space. Stress is gone, so going now
- 19:11Speaker 1: I can see results when I bake. TV host, author,
- 19:15Speaker 1: music journalist, cultural critic, podcasting. Which one jumps out outside
- 19:20Speaker 1: of tennis? Which one jumps out to say, you know,
- 19:22Speaker 1: I'm gonna follow this outside of tennis. That was the
- 19:25Speaker 1: way I was gonna You know, you could, you could
- 19:28Speaker 1: which one is the de stressors the stresser? You know,
- 19:33Speaker 1: I I find enjarment in it because you know, a
- 19:36Speaker 1: lot of things we do, we do it because we're
- 19:38Speaker 1: gifted at it. You know what I'm saying. I mean,
- 19:41Speaker 1: I I enjoy the vast majority of the work that
- 19:47Speaker 1: I do, hardly ever doing something that I'm like, I
- 19:51Speaker 1: don't want to do this. You know. I love writing,
- 19:56Speaker 1: whether it's writing books or writing short essays. I love podcasting.
- 20:01Speaker 1: I love hosting television shows. That's really exciting. Um, you know,
- 20:06Speaker 1: I mean, all of it is interesting to me. And
- 20:10Speaker 1: I try to set myself up that I am doing
- 20:14Speaker 1: things that I am excited about because then the outcome
- 20:19Speaker 1: will be better. And one of the great things about
- 20:21Speaker 1: being at the Grio it was they were kind of like, okay,
- 20:26Speaker 1: we need content and I said, okay, great, I want
- 20:30Speaker 1: to do this, this, this, this and this, And they
- 20:32Speaker 1: were like, it's fantastic. Let's do a, B and C.
- 20:36Speaker 1: Because you don't have time to do six things, but
- 20:38Speaker 1: you can do do these three. So they're saying to me,
- 20:42Speaker 1: this is what we want you to do. Um. You know,
- 20:45Speaker 1: they're giving me the latitude to choose what it is
- 20:49Speaker 1: that I'm doing. I've worked on a podcast that's going
- 20:51Speaker 1: to come out next year. It's a bit of a
- 20:54Speaker 1: audio documentary. It's called Being Black in the Eighties, where
- 20:58Speaker 1: we talk about black socio political issues from the eighties,
- 21:03Speaker 1: but we use the lens of popular eighties songs, um
- 21:09Speaker 1: and and sort of tease out the political meanings out
- 21:12Speaker 1: of them. So, for example, the first episode is Tracy
- 21:16Speaker 1: Chapman's Fast Car. We talk about Beautiful, So Beautiful, the
- 21:19Speaker 1: rise of poverty in the eighties, and the black community, um,
- 21:23Speaker 1: the importance of affirmative action, the importance of and the
- 21:27Speaker 1: value of afrocentric and dastoric thinking. Um, you know, is
- 21:34Speaker 1: the importance of self esteem at that time. So there
- 21:38Speaker 1: so used. So we use the song as a leaping
- 21:40Speaker 1: off point to tell the story of the eighties. So
- 21:44Speaker 1: it's it's really interesting that series is done. We're starting
- 21:47Speaker 1: to work on the second series, the second season um,
- 21:50Speaker 1: but that will come out next year. But this is
- 21:52Speaker 1: something they were like, we want a podcast, like what
- 21:55Speaker 1: do you got in mind? Like, well, this is what
- 21:57Speaker 1: I would like to do, And they supported me on
- 22:00Speaker 1: the concept that I had, and um, you know, it's
- 22:03Speaker 1: really exciting to have people say, what do you want
- 22:06Speaker 1: to do? We want to support you in the ideas
- 22:09Speaker 1: that you have. I love listening to you. I love
- 22:14Speaker 1: the you know, your type of guy that I can
- 22:17Speaker 1: just sit around and just and have a good conversation.
- 22:20Speaker 1: I don't drink coffee, I don't drink liquor, so I
- 22:22Speaker 1: wouldn't be drinking wine, so I would probably be drinking
- 22:25Speaker 1: a strawberry milkshake or something because I love sweets. Did
- 22:27Speaker 1: you Did you ever drink alcohol? No? I didn't know.
- 22:30Speaker 1: It's just it was just nothing. It was just I
- 22:32Speaker 1: just didn't like the taste and it was just and
- 22:34Speaker 1: so the same thing with coffee and tea. But when
- 22:37Speaker 1: I would but you're the You're the person that I
- 22:39Speaker 1: think I have to have something that resembles liquor in
- 22:43Speaker 1: my hand talking to you, because your your personality lose
- 22:47Speaker 1: itself in that direction of going, Man, this guy is
- 22:50Speaker 1: so cool, this guy is so intellectual, This guy is
- 22:54Speaker 1: so comfortable with himself. I think that when I when
- 22:58Speaker 1: I enjoyment of watching the series an episode I did
- 23:00Speaker 1: watch watching Master's of the Game, it wasn't about you.
- 23:05Speaker 1: It was about the first US interviewing and what you
- 23:07Speaker 1: can get out of them. And you actually, and I'm
- 23:10Speaker 1: not saying this in a negative other than your visual
- 23:13Speaker 1: you became invisible and I would focus on that guest
- 23:18Speaker 1: that is incredibly gifted, my friend, and that's that's a
- 23:23Speaker 1: compliment on that I appreciate. That's that's the job that
- 23:26Speaker 1: you that we are here to listen to him or her,
- 23:30Speaker 1: and I want to put the focus on them and
- 23:32Speaker 1: the spotlight on them. Um. You know, it's it's it's
- 23:36Speaker 1: their world. I'm ushering you through it, um, but you know,
- 23:40Speaker 1: we try to usher you through it in an elegant way.
- 23:44Speaker 1: So you know, sure, if you watch a basketball game
- 23:48Speaker 1: or a football game and you don't think about the referees,
- 23:51Speaker 1: that that the referees did a great job. I mean,
- 23:55Speaker 1: in a way, I would say it's something similar for
- 23:57Speaker 1: an interviewer, although I guess I never watched interviews that
- 24:01Speaker 1: way because I'm always being critical of the interviewer and saying, oh,
- 24:08Speaker 1: you know, he's he went on too long with that question.
- 24:10Speaker 1: You don't need long questions. You can have short, targeted
- 24:15Speaker 1: questions because people like the sound of their own voice
- 24:18Speaker 1: and they like talking, so let them talk a lot,
- 24:21Speaker 1: right If they are talking of the time, that's a
- 24:25Speaker 1: good interview because you asked a bunch of short questions
- 24:28Speaker 1: that lead to you know, great expansive answers. Um. You know,
- 24:33Speaker 1: so a lot of interviewers ask long questions. They don't
- 24:36Speaker 1: think about the question that they want to ask before
- 24:39Speaker 1: they start asking it, so they're kind of thinking it
- 24:41Speaker 1: through as they're talking and meandering, and then they find
- 24:45Speaker 1: a question and I'm like, you were not prepared to
- 24:48Speaker 1: ask a question in that moment. Now, Um, the person
- 24:55Speaker 1: who I really can say I never criticized is the
- 25:01Speaker 1: best interviewer in America without question is Oprah. She's extraordinary.
- 25:08Speaker 1: And I watch her do interviews and I'm like, this
- 25:11Speaker 1: is whatever she does is the way you do it,
- 25:14Speaker 1: So just copy her, be more like her. And I
- 25:17Speaker 1: noticed a lot of times, you know, the naturalism that
- 25:21Speaker 1: you talked about, I'm trying to um evoke some of
- 25:25Speaker 1: her style. She's good at making statements, She's good at
- 25:28Speaker 1: asking very short or natural questions. I also noticed a
- 25:33Speaker 1: lot of times she doesn't seem to have notes, which
- 25:36Speaker 1: makes me think that she is moving. She has. She
- 25:40Speaker 1: has deeply imbibed the research. However, she's not necessarily one
- 25:46Speaker 1: to come out with a bunch of cystics and stuff.
- 25:48Speaker 1: She is working with her deep and genuine curiosity of
- 25:53Speaker 1: the crevices of your life, so she doesn't need, you know,
- 25:58Speaker 1: a bunch of notes to know. I'm gonna ask Megan
- 26:02Speaker 1: marcle was it the queen who said some racist stuff?
- 26:06Speaker 1: Or was it you know, Prince Charles who said some
- 26:08Speaker 1: racist stuff? Were you silenced or were you silent? And
- 26:11Speaker 1: like these sort of you know, she's she's following her
- 26:14Speaker 1: deep sense of curiosity and her ability to intellectually understand
- 26:20Speaker 1: the situation or at least the terrain that we're moving
- 26:23Speaker 1: in the conversation. Um, she's a brilliant conversationalist and I
- 26:29Speaker 1: every interview I watch of hers, I'm like Jesus Christ,
- 26:33Speaker 1: this woman is brilliant. Well, I'm gonna put the word
- 26:35Speaker 1: brillian on you, and I would take this. As we
- 26:38Speaker 1: close out, I'm talking to Tori to host of Masters
- 26:40Speaker 1: of the Game, a monthly one our interview program, sit
- 26:43Speaker 1: Down Chat Chat on the Grill and Oprah's Famous Opu's
- 26:48Speaker 1: well known Oprah. A lot of people get nervous when
- 26:51Speaker 1: they walk in the room to talk to Oprah. That's
- 26:55Speaker 1: but it's her job to chill you out. Making But
- 26:57Speaker 1: listen to me, sir, This is a compliment to you.
- 27:00Speaker 1: M you you're brilliance. And that's why I had to
- 27:05Speaker 1: let you remind you of that diverse people that you
- 27:08Speaker 1: just said for people. Then you got DC Rivers coming up,
- 27:10Speaker 1: You've got Davie Allen coming up here. Okay, I don't
- 27:13Speaker 1: believe you're making people nervous when they come in the room,
- 27:17Speaker 1: but he's on the potential star power that open brings
- 27:19Speaker 1: to the table. But what you do make them tell
- 27:22Speaker 1: their story, that's a gift you have, Tory. That's the
- 27:25Speaker 1: gift that I admire. I wanted to just bring you
- 27:28Speaker 1: on my show, not only just to promote your brand,
- 27:30Speaker 1: but also introduce you to my audience because a skill
- 27:33Speaker 1: set like yours can sometimes go under appreciate it, but
- 27:37Speaker 1: I appreciate it. I also appreciate the fact that you
- 27:40Speaker 1: have shown us that you can be follow your dreams
- 27:43Speaker 1: in a lot of different lanes, and people accept that
- 27:45Speaker 1: and also give you a creative lane to build more,
- 27:48Speaker 1: especially with my brother, and I want to thank you.
- 27:50Speaker 1: I'll be watching Masters of the Game. I'll be promoting
- 27:52Speaker 1: the Masters of the Game. I love what Byron Allan
- 27:54Speaker 1: is doing. He is changing the game and you're part
- 27:57Speaker 1: of that big change. And degree Oh keep winning My brother,
- 27:59Speaker 1: and thank you for coming to my Make Comics with
- 28:01Speaker 1: DO master class. Thank you so much. I appreciate talks
- 28:04Speaker 1: correctly