Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Interview of the Week - Stephen A. Smith of ESPN’s “First Take” “SportsCenter,” talks new show ESPN+ “Stephen A’s World”

Transcript

Interview of the Week - Stephen A. Smith of ESPN’s “First Take” “SportsCenter,” talks new show ESPN+ “Stephen A’s World” · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's the show that she
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: has the secrets of success experience firsthand by marketing and
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I will know he's giving me
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: advice to many occasions in ocasion didn't notice I'm not broke.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: You know. He'll be interviewing celebrity CEOs, entrepreneurs and industry
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: decision makers. It's what he likes to do. It's what
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: he likes to share. Now it's time to hear from
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: my man, Rashan McDonald money Making Conversations. Here we come
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: work on to money Making Conversation. I am your host
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: with Sean McDonald. UM, it's very special guests I have
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: on the show today. US name is Stephen A. Smith.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: We will start right there. Before we get started with
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: my interview with Steven NA Smith. Let's look at his
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: early media snapshot of one as listen. Steven N. Smith
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: will continue his host his popular ESPN First Take Money
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: through Friday. Then Steven N. Smith will also hosts a
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: weekly Wednesday ESPN NBA show Coach Sports Trawler with Steven A. Smith.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: It premiers January six. Stephens also hosts a daily Half
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Our ESPN plus talk show Stephen Age World. It premiers
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  Speaker 1: on January level and airs Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Because The Sports Center with Stephen A. Smith airs on Wednesday.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Steven A. Smith will continue his recurring role as Brick
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: on the popular ABC soap opera General Hospital. It airs
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: January twelve and thirteen. Stephen Smith and co producing an
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: HBCU docuseries on the North Carolina Central University basketball team,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: which they followed spokesperson the NBA superstar Chris Paul. That
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: premier's January fifteenth, and Steven A. Smith Stephen A. Smith,
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: the Speller, msman his name, is starting a highly anticipated
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: family theme animated wrestling movie called Rumbo. The release date
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: is made fourteen. Yes, he is very busy. Please work
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: with the money making conversation stephen A. Smith. It's going on, man,
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: How you doing, Steven? Leave anything out? First of all,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: you know, I don't even know, man, I'm so busy.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: I can't even answer that question defensively because, uh, things
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: are just happening for me, and you know, through the
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: grace of God and a lot of good things happening
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: to me for me, and you know, my inner circle,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: my family and my friends and my loved ones, which
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: obviously includes you as well. Things have been going incredibly well,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: so I'm happy about that, and you know, we just
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: move along and see how things go. Moving into the future. Well,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: you know when when I listened to that schedule, you
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: know you're doing first take. Let's let's look at that
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: first week of January, January four, First take Monday through Friday,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: then Wednesday, January six, is gonna premiere your next show,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: new show, Sports Shower with Stephen A. Smith, which is
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: the NBA centric show, and then the following week the
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: premier of Steven AD's World tell us about stephen as World. Well,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: stephen A's World is a new show that's gonna be
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: on ESPN Plus, and as you articulated earlier, the only
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: reason that it's not gonna be five days a week
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: is because I have to do the Sports in It
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  Speaker 1: with Stephen and A Smith show on ESPN every Wednesday,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: not every Wednesday, but most Wednesdays. So because of that,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: is gonna be Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Fridays. And the
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: reason why I'm so incredibly excited about that is number one, um,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: it's pulling It's my show it's pulling me away from
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: the debate format. It's not that I don't enjoy it,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: but you know, a lot of times you have to
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: depend on others, you know, in terms of being on air,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: because again, the debate involves not just you but the
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: person that you're debating. And beyond, this is my show,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: this is me And not only am I the host
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: of the show, but I'm also going to be the
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: executive producer of the show. And I have my own
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: production company, which is Mr. S a S Productions, and
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: that's going to be co producing it as well. Um
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  Speaker 1: and as you well know, because you're my right hand man. Uh,
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  Speaker 1: it's something that is very incredibly important to me in
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  Speaker 1: terms of showing my production chops as it pertains to content,
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  Speaker 1: and beyond just knowing just showing showcasing what I know
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  Speaker 1: how to do, in terms of knowing how to generate
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: and and create content that I think that the public
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  Speaker 1: would be interested in seeing. And the thing about it
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  Speaker 1: is that it's not just in the world of sports.
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  Speaker 1: It's beyond. Yes, I can create sports content for ESPN
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  Speaker 1: Plus or what have you, but there are things that
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: I can do for Walt Disney as well. Along with
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: others because I've got the kind of contract where, obviously,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: as an employee of ESPN and Walt Disney, you know
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: they're gonna get first looked at it at anything, but
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  Speaker 1: in the event that they decide to move in a
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  Speaker 1: different direction or what have you, I have two freedom
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  Speaker 1: to venture beyond that, to go to other folks, to
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  Speaker 1: really show that I can create content for different venues
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  Speaker 1: and different genres and things of that nature. So I'm
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  Speaker 1: incredibly excited about it. Um efty three years of age.
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  Speaker 1: So you know, I didn't want to have my career
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: completely continue and dependent on me being in front of
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: the camera. I wanted to step behind the camera and
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: showcase what I could do in that regard as well.
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  Speaker 1: And that's what I'm gonna have the opportunity to do here. Okay,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: a lot of information you gave me Steve and A,
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: but I still don't know what Steven Age World is.
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  Speaker 1: What is steven a World is a half hour talk show? Uh,
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  Speaker 1: it's a half our talk show is essentially where you're
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: gonna still see my takes, open and common closing comments.
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  Speaker 1: But I want to bring a bit of levity to
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  Speaker 1: the situation. I wanted to show the light heartness side
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  Speaker 1: of me because my ultimate aspiration is the show that
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: I could host the late night show. UH, similar to
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: what Senio Hall did, the Great Johnny Carstons, Jay Lenos,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: David Letterman Is, Jimmy Kimmels, Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Gobeil, all
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: of these guys af tremendous respect and admiration for what
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: they do. UH. Is something that I want to do
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: moving ahead in the future. Um, for the foreseeable future.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: I don't know how soon that will happen, but I'm
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  Speaker 1: confident that I'll be able to showcase what I can
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: do in that regard and that opportunities will be created
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: moving forward into the future in regards to that. So
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: it's gonna be a half hour talk show. I'm gonna
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: give you my takes, but you're gonna see me bring
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: stephen A baby stephen A into the mix. You can
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: see the Love Doctor when I You know, I stole
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: from Martin Lawrence because that's one of my all time
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: favorite comedians and I religiously watched the show Mark and
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: every chance I get. I've seen practically every single episode
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: all the years that he was on and one of
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: my favorite all Time episodes was when he played the
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Love Doctor, you know, where he gave relationship advice and
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: things of that nature. So things like that, just to
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: have a lot of fun, laughter and bring a bit
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: of levity to the situation. It's something that I want
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: to do. And you know, of course I'm gonna be
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: interviews are gonna be incorporated into the show as well,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: but I want people to come on the show to
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: know that I'm bringing them there to celebrate them, Celebrate
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  Speaker 1: what they wanted, what they're doing, Celebrate their accomplishments, Celebrate
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  Speaker 1: the visions that they have for themselves moving into the
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  Speaker 1: future and beyond. These are all the kind of things
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  Speaker 1: that I'm thinking about, and that's what I'm excited about
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  Speaker 1: looking forward to when it comes to my own show,
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  Speaker 1: because I think that even though people have seen that
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: side of me Rashan, they haven't seen enough of it,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: and I'm anxious to show it. Why Why is Baby
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  Speaker 1: Stephen They've become a phenomenon. I give ESPN social media
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  Speaker 1: folks all the credit in the world because essentially what
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  Speaker 1: they've done is they've seen takes that I've been I've given,
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  Speaker 1: whether it's on Sports Center or whether it's on first take,
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  Speaker 1: and what they've done is they've super imposed the baby
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  Speaker 1: faced stephen A and alter the voice a little bit,
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  Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, you see this baby version
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  Speaker 1: of stephen A, you know, given the same takes that
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  Speaker 1: I gave on first takes. So it's their brilliance, their creativity.
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  Speaker 1: I gotta give them all the credit in the world.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: My social media guy, Brendan Kaminski, Uh, he definitely spearheaded
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: that Mike Fosscoo be working on my new show along
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: with yourself. Uh. He had a lot to do with
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  Speaker 1: that as well. I take no credit in doing that.
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  Speaker 1: Whatso if I give them all the credit in the
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: world for their brilliance and their creativity, they deserve a
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: lot of credit for coming up with that because it's
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: absolutely hysterical and everybody loves it. I'm laughing because of
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: the fact that you know, they've done it on a
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: lot of people. Stephen A. That's why I gotta bring
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: But it just went over the top. It just blew
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: up in social media with you. Wasn't because first of all,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: when I when I'm looking at you now, I can
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  Speaker 1: see the baby stephen A, and it really does look
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  Speaker 1: like a smaller version of you, but animated, agitate, agitate
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  Speaker 1: like hyper. Well, well, they didn't fake the animated part,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: you know, that was definitely me. They just attacked the
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: baby face to it and all to the voice, but
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: that that animation, that definitely was me, And that's always
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: been me. A lot of times people get upset and
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: it's not even for the things that I say, it's
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: the way that I say it. But I quickly remind them,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: and people who know me well quickly remind folks, he's
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: always been that way. That's the way he talks. You know.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes I'm mellow and I'm cool, I'm doing an interview.
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  Speaker 1: Certain environments and what have you calls for a most
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  Speaker 1: cerebral approach to things. But when you're talking sports, you're excited,
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  Speaker 1: you're animated, you're enthused, you're emotionally invested. And so as
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: a result of that, I try to bring that to
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  Speaker 1: the airwaves because that's what people expect it. More importantly,
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  Speaker 1: that's who I am. I'm not faking who I am
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: by any stretch of the imagination, because I think that
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: the death now in this business is to come across
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  Speaker 1: in authentic. So I do everything that I can to
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: make sure that I consistently who I am right whatever
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: that makes me, And that doesn't mean I one dimensional,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: because there's multidimensions to me. But nevertheless, everything that you
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: see from me is a part or an element of
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: who I am, from the time I was born to
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: me being fifty three years of age right now. Now,
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: now let's talk about producing because you're an HBCU grad
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  Speaker 1: and you and I have been fortunate the last couple
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: of years to be unit brand ambassador of HBCU Week
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: and stephen A, you've you've we've been part of registering
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: on this spot over two thousand students to attend hbc
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: used and raised over eleven million dollars in scholarships for
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: students to attend HBCUs. How do you feel about that, man,
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: that's pretty powerful. Well, I'm incredibly proud, um, so you know,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: and I'm humbled. I'm humbled that I could find a
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: way to have that kind of impact. But to be
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: quite honest with you, Rashan, I'm also humbled, uh, primarily
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: by people like yourself. Um, you know, who's the who's
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: the rain. You know, basically you're the brain child behind
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: all of this, and I think it's important that our audience,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: that your audience knows this. I wasn't thinking about being
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: a brand ambassador. I've always been happy to give back.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: The promise that I made to my late coach Clarence
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: Big House Games from Winst the Salem State was that
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: I would never forget and that I would always get
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: back because that's all he ever asked of me. He
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: never asked to think of me other than to never
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: forget my alma mater and always contribute to my alma
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: mater and HBCUs overall as much as I possibly could.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: That's all he ever asked of me in return. And
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: I made a vow to him a long time ago
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: that that's exactly what I would do. And so for
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: me living up to my promise to him is a
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: very very big deal. Um. And obviously I've tried and
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: I've strived to do that. But in terms of HBCU week,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: I never saw that coming. A guy by the name
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: of Rashan mcdonna rolled up on me and said, listen, man,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: I think you should do this. Here is the plan.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: This is what kind of impact I think you can have.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: This is what I need from you in order to do,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: and so I think one of the things that it's
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: incredibly important for folks on the come up to recognize
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: and even those who have made it, uh in case
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: they don't learn a lesson, never refrain from giving credit
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: to those who deserve it. If you're confident enough in
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: yourself and what you bring to the table, you don't
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: have to deny the alkalaies and the adulation and others
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: so richly deserved. And so when it comes to HBCU week,
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: yes I am the brand ambassador. Yes my name has
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: been attached to it. As a result of that, eleven
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: point four million scholarships have been in love point four
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: million and scholarships have been given out. All of that
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: is true, but none of that would have happened if
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: you didn't bring it to me. You were the one
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: who brought it to me. You were the one who
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: asked me to do it. You would the one who
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: employed me that this was a good thing. And you
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: gotta remember you're also the one that is still the
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: confidence of me, because I was saying me, I would
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: have that kind of been back. I mean, damn, I
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: work in ESPN. What's the big deal? I mean, are
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: you sure like Stephen A. Steam, just listen to me.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: I'm telling you trust me on this, and so I
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: listened to you, and that it happened from that. So
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: I'm incredibly grateful to you. I'm incredibly grateful to my
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: sister Carmen, who's an educator, my sister Linda, who's an
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: educator who also we're behind the scenes encouraging me to
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: do it. You've got people like that in your life
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: that have a vision for you that you don't see
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: for yourself, but you trust them enough to listen to them. Um,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: just because you did doesn't mean that they don't deserve
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: credit for what you ultimately receive adulation for. And so
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: I just want to thank you. I want to thank
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: my two sisters, Linda and Carmon UM, and I want
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: to thank obviously everybody else Ashton Cooper and Earl and
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: others who are murdered me, PERSICKI and Delaware UH Senator
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: Coon and others. I just can't thank everybody enough for
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: their involvement in it, because it was certainly a collective
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: effort that made this successful, regardless of my face being
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: attached to and man David Robbins's and of course David
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: rob Its my boss at ESPN, UM Who's Who's the
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: greatest boss that I've ever had. He's tyrannical about winning,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: making a mistake about it. That's who he is. He
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: is about winning at all courts, anything he touches. Uh,
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: He's is just ultra ultra determined for it to be successful.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: And and he deserves credit. And Norby Williamson deserves credit
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: because if they did not give it. Norby Williamson is
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: an executive VP at ESPN. Dave Roberts is a senior
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: VP at ESPN. If they did not give the okay
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: for us to do the show for HBCU week Live
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: from Delaware State, it would have never happened. And so
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: it's incredibly important to remember people realize. Sometimes people don't
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: realize that I'm not the boss you know at ESPN.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: They are. And when I went and asked them to
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: do first take from that locale, they literally said yes
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: in two seconds. The two seconds and I'm telling you
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: when the pops that it was very amazing, amatic. There's
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: another HBCU project, docuseris that I mentioned in your opening
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: credits or the NBA Superstar Chris Paul uh talld us
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: about that. It seems like a natural participation being that
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: you played basketball in Winston Salem State, it is an
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: HBCU school, and you went to schools in the state
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: of North Carolina. To talk about this this premier on
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: ESPN Plus, well, I'm not at liberty to get into
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: it right now. CP three and his brother want me
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: to wait until there with me to tend to really
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: get into it. When I can tell you is that
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: it's a project essentially that's going to highlight a particular
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: school and a couple of athletes from no school, and
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: it's going to highlight a particular basketball program and just
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: basically highlighting some of the challenges uh. You know that
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: that HBCU program stakes. Um. I was called by them
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: and ESPN and asked to be an executive producer on
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: this particular project, which I was obviously incredibly honored to do. Um.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: CP three is somebody that I respected a maya a
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: great deal. Um I think he does. He's a fabulous
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: basketball player and somebody that I think is a future
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: Hall of Famer because he's one of the great quintessential
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: point guards to have ever played the game of basketball.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: But what a lot of people don't realize is that
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: as fiery as he is on the court, he's just
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: as as as enthusiastic and tenacious about contributing UH to
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: various communities, various African American communities throughout this country and
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: certain causes that would help elevate the profile of of
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: of African Americans in this nation, particularly as it pertains
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: to HBC US and beyond. So he deserves an incredible
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: amount of credit and to be a great basketball player
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: that he is, combined with being the president of the
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: player NBA Players Association, UH, combined with his philanthropy and
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: what have you. Uh, He's just one of the true
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: true role models. And even though I have to sit
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: up there and cover the sport of the NBA and
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: call it like you know, I will UM and call
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: it like I see it. UH, it just doesn't take
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: away from the fact that this is a guy UM
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: that I have incredible, incredible admiration for UM, and I'm
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: honored to be working with him on this project and
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: on it that I was asked to be an executive.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: It's finally here the season of celebration, and no matter
• 16:13
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  Speaker 1: free auto dot ai. That's O T T E R
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: dot ai. So let's talk about something you can't talk about. Dough.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: You're acting acting Brick on the popular ABC soap opera
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: General Hospital Premiers episodes premier January. Man, you know sometimes
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: you called me man you get so excited going to
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: do your tapers of General Hospital. Man, that really, first
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: of all, you grew up watching soap problems. Let's talk
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: about the biggest thing that was the biggest thing for
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: me you know, I don't consider myself an actor. They say, otherwise,
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: they think that I'm pretty damn good. Frank Valentine Uh
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: for the executive producer for General Hospital. They brought me
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: on in like two thousand sixteen or seventeen, and they
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: asked me to make an appearance as a character named Brick.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: I did show up in General Hospital in two thousand
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: and seven. It was like a ten second scene or whatever,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: and that was all. But this is years later and
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: Frank uh, they General Hospital asked me to come on
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: and play a surveillance expert named Brick. And obviously I've
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: been watching the soap since I was eight years old.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: So the star of the show, which is Maurice Bernard,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: who has become a very dear friend of mine. Um
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: and he's he plays the character Sonny Corinthos in General Hospital.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: I'm his sibilance expert. He's the head of the mob.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: I'm his surveillance expert. And so I did one scene
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: with him and he looked at me and said, WHOA.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: He said, you're a natural. And executive producer came right
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: downstairs in the middle of the scene and he said,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: you you've never done this before I said no, sir,
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: he said, would you have time to do this in
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: the future, And I said why He said, I want
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: to make this a recurring world. We want to create
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: this character for you because they liked it that much,
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: and so I immediately jumped at it. I was credibly,
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: incredibly honored um and ever since then they've had me on.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: I went from having three lines to the very next
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: time I appeared, they gave me forty lines, and ever
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: since then there's been thirty forty fifty lines spanning two
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: or three shows to what have you that I've been doing.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: And you know, for me, I always try to tell
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: folks my number won't focus is to make sure I
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: don't forget my lines, because when you do that, you
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: mess it up for everybody else because if they remember
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: their lines with the union workers and the time they
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: spend doing all of this stuff, they've got to do
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: it over and stuff like that. So you gotta make
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: sure you're on top of your game. But ultimately, I
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: have a lot of fun. I've grown to really really
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: love it, and now I am interested in acting more
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: and more because here's the thing that I've grown to
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: appreciate about these wonderful actors that I've run a course.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: First of all, Maurice Bernard, like I told you the
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: General Hospital of the guy that plays Victor Newman on
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: Young and Arrestless, Eric Braden, He's one of my dear,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: dear friends. He met he and I met years ago.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: Ever since then, we're in separable. We talk all the time.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: We have lunch of dinner every single time I'm in
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: Los Angeles and what have you. And I actually introduced
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: him and Orice Bernard, the two biggest soap opera stars.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: They had only met one another once crossing path. They
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: had never sat down and broke bread. And I actually
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: took the two of them out to dinner years ago
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: so they could meet and break bread. And both of
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: them are my friends, and I can't say enough about them,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: and a kind of advice that they've given me about acting,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: knowing that I wasn't necessarily trying to be an actor,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: but if you're gonna do it, damn it. Tried to
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: do it right, and who's better to learn from them
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: to the best that I've ever done it in soap operas,
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: And so you know, I remember that and the advice,
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: you know, because Denzel is a huge basketball fan, Denzel Washington,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: and I ran across him, and I run across them
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: a lot of Laker games. At one time, we had
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: the pleasure of hanging out one evening and I asked
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: him about the work one time when I interviewed me.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: He called into my radio show and he said, the
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: final product is for the fans. I'm about the work,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: the process, the grind, the day in and day out, meticulous,
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: tedious work that you have to put into perfect your craft.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: And the reason why that resonated with me so profoundly
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: with Shaun is because that's what I attached to all
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: my work. Everybody right now is celebrating Stephen as World
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: coming on ESPN Plus, or they're talking about my sports
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: and it was Stephen A. Smith the NBA Show, or
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: they're looking forward to the new year, or it will
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: first take. All I think about is going day to
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: day and making sure that I do everything that I
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: can to deliver to the audience what their expectations are
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: of me and to exceed those expectations. And I let
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: everyone else judge the final product, because once that's finished,
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: I gotta work the next day. I don't have the
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: luxury of sitting around and celebrating what I've accomplished when
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: I got worked to do to make sure that I
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: deliver to the audience what's been promoted. Now, we thought
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: we'd be celebrating this movie in the marth of January,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: but because of COVID and eighteen, they really rechanged the
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: release date to May fourteen. And this is an animated
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: movie called Rumble and you basically playing yourself or sports
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: analysts of sports castor and at the w w E.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: He's one of the producers of this project along with
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: Paramount Animation. Now that stephen A, you know I've seen this.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: This what I'm just tell you all some about Stephen Ames.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: Stephen A is one of the most talented people I've
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: met in this business. But also he tends to not
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: understand how talent that he is. And that's not the insult,
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: because he will give you a d. And the reason
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: I say that because just like he was shocked when
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: it came down to General Hospital said wow, I always
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: tell him he's funny. Man, I don't believe there. I
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: don't believe that, Rashwan. You keep saying I'm funny. One
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: of the funniest people I've met now Rumble. When I
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: saw the trailoa on that I was blown away and
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: I said, he said, rich that that that that works
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: for you. I go, man, that's outstanding. And so let's
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: talk about how your character in Rumble group every time
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: you went into a looping of the movie. Well, it's
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: voice over work, and so of what happens is is
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: that you know, people usually want you to do what
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: they see you do on television. And my whole point is,
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: you know, one of the things that I learned from
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: the voiceover work is that your cadence, uh, your tenor
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: all of those different things, just like you do in television,
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: there's a time and a place for everything. There's a
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: time to raise your voice. There's a time to lower it.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: There's a time to say nothing and just use your
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: facial expressions, you know, isn't There's a time and a
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: place to utilize all of these uh things that are
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: available to you and are at your disposal. And so
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: the same as applicable to when you're doing voiceover work.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: They might want you to do X, Y and Z,
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: but if you have a feel for the character, the
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: more you have a feel for the character, the more
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: you're asking you. The more you're asking of yourself to
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: deliver in certain different things. You know you might be
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: called upon to be a bit more animated. Some this
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: is may call may call you the dollar back. And
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: so you have producers, executive producers and the like. They
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: have an idea what they want, but when they call you,
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: you also got to remind them that you're somewhat of
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: the expert. Like, for example, if you were asking me
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: to just be the actor on on on on the
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: General Hospital, well you can. I can defer to the
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: executive producer all day every day because that's what they do.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: But to voice over work. You asked me to come
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: on and to be a sports announcer sports broadcasting, Well
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: that's what I do every day. So when you came
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: to me and asked me to give this line of
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: that line, I'm like, no, that doesn't work here. That
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: may not work here because that's not practical. This is
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: what we do. And they defer to my level of
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: expertise me because I'm the one that does that every day.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: And so you're learning what they want and what they need,
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: but you're also applying your expertise to the equations. So
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: you're giving them a feel for what this role is
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: supposed to be. And in order to do that, you
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: have to go on to folks trust. You have to
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: visualize things for them as well. And when you're able
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: to do that with voiceover, and then you're able to
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: do that on a soul problem, all of a sudden
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: you go back to your regularly, daily, regular, daily job
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: and you're saying, Okay, these are things that you can
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: apply to whatever you're doing every day because they have
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: this vision, but you have this vision as well, and
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: you're the one doing it. Plus you're in tune with
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: your audience, etcetera, etcetera. That's what you're trying to bring
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: to the table, and that's what I've been blessed and
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: fortunate to be able to do. And you're doing a
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: fantastic and closing Um, Stephen A. Smith. That has become
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: a pretty famous name, Stephen, especially to stephen A Park.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: Where did that start? The stephen A Smith Park? I
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: got left back UM in a third grade at a
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: first grade reading level. I had dyslexia. Didn't know it
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: until later on in life, believe it or not, UM,
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: but I could not comprete him what I was reading,
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: so I got left back in the third grade. In June,
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: I went to summer school. July and August, I completed
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: my summer courses and as a result, I was promoted
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: back to my right grade, the fourth grade. By that September,
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: I went through the fourth grade and I got left
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: back again. This time I was held back the whole
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: year because I still had a first grade reading level.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: And I was ridicute, because you're you can imagine how
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: crul kids can be. And I was ridicute, excessively laughed at.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: I was so embarrassed. I didn't come out of my
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: mother's house for a couple of weeks. It was, you know,
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: I sold my dad in the backyard, you know, looking
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: at my mom and saying that, you know, there's not
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: much hope for him. He doesn't have that level of
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: intellect and all of this other stuff. And I remembered
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: that and I just said never again. And I remember
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: where my mother refusing to go along with that motive,
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: thinking he said he just needed to work hard, he
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: just needed to do his work, he just needed to focus,
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: not be distracted, etcetera, etcetera. And she got me a tutor.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: Plus I had a family friend. Plus I had my
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: sister Linda, who were all collaborating with my mother to
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: teach me how to read better. And it was all
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: spearheaded by my mother's diligence and her commitment and her
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: love to me. So as a result of that, when
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: I entered the journalism field, I decided to enter the
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: journalism field, and I had a byeline for the first time.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: I remember stephen A because I used to hate my
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: name because my mother used to call me Stephen, not
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: Stephen and and and and and she used especially when
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: she loves mad at me over something. And so I
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: hated my name at the time because of how it
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: was spelled. It wasn't spelled with a V. It was
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: spelled with a pH, and I eat it. And so
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: as a result of it, once I once I got
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: to college and I was an honorable student um, and
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: I had my byeline for the first time. It was
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: the tribute to her, stephen A. Smith, because that was
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: me saying thank you, mommy, I love you, and you
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: were right all along. My name, ain't that bad, It's okay.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: And it was a tribute to her. And that's the
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: only reason why I had the A in the middle
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: of my byeline, Stephen A. Smith. It was because my
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: name is Stephen Anthony Smith, and she used to say
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: Stephen or Steven or Stephen Anthony whenever she was upset
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: with me, and that's why they liked my name. So
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: once I finally was succeeding, and not only succeeding, but
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: in the field of journalism, and I had a byeline.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: The byeline was a tribute to honor heart. Awesome brother.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: Step You never failed to U not emotionally, uplift me.
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: You're motivational. But part I'm happy and part of this ride.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: All right, this is you know, this is a half
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: hours went by real fast, and uh, I wanna thank
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: you for coming on money making Conversation. I'll be seeing
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: you in a couple of weeks, even a couple a
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: couple of weeks. Get well, well, I want to thank you.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: You've been an incredible help. You're proud to be working
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: with you. I'm proud to have you as my ace. Uh.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: You know you're gonna be executive producing my show alongside me.
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: You're my number two, you're my business manager, and you're
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: somebody that I trust and have a profound level of
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: respect and love for I appreciate everything that you've done
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: for me. You know, I still want you to change
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: that laugh and I'd like you to get rid of
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: that damn beard is so thick. You know what I'm saying,
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: Shave it up just a little bit. I don't know.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: I don't know why you got on a three piece
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: suit with your jacket closed while you're talking to me
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: while I'm on vacation. But that's Michellan, That's who you are,
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: So you know, knock yourself out. There's only one year,
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: my brother. I understand it. I get it, and I'm
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: cool with it. I appreciate it. Man, we talked so
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: stephen A. In this season of giving, Coals has gifts
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: for all your loved ones. For those who like to
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: keep it cozy, find fleeces, sweaters, loungeware, blankets and throws,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: or support minority owned or founded brands by giving gifts
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: from Human Nation and Shame Moisture and in the spirit
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: of giving, Coals Cares is donating eight million dollars to
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: local nonprofits nationwide. Give with all your heart this season
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: with great gifts from Coals or coals dot Com. Still
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: living in manually taking notes. There is a better way
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: to start the new year with auto dot ai automatically
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: get meeting notes. Auto dot ai works for virtual meetings
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet. Sign up on
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: the web for free or download in the app stores
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: auto dot ai. That's O T T E R dot ai,
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: sticky notes, email alerts, a string around your finger. They're
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: just not big enough. So here's a big reminder from
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: the California Lottery. Tomorrow's Megamillions Jack potty Million play out.
• 32:01
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• 32:03
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