Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Entrepreneur: Kym Whitley is an HBCU grad, Emmy-nominated actress, Award-winning podcast host, single mom, and stand-up comedian.

Transcript

Entrepreneur: Kym Whitley is an HBCU grad, Emmy-nominated actress, Award-winning podcast host, single mom, and stand-up comedian. · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's to show that she
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: is the secrets of success experience firsthand by marketing and
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: branding expert Rashan McDonald. I will know he's giving me
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: advice on many occasions. And in case you didn't notice,
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  Speaker 1: I'm not broke. You know he'll be interviewing celebrity CEOs,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: entrepreneurs and industry decision make because it's what he likes
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: to do, it's what he likes to share. Now it's
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: time to hear from my man, Rashan McDonald money Making Conversations.
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  Speaker 2: Here we go.
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  Speaker 3: Hi, I'm Rashan McDonald's host, money Making Conversation masterclass. The
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  Speaker 3: interviews and information this show provides off for everyone.
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  Speaker 4: It's time to stop reading.
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  Speaker 3: Other people's success stories and start living your own. My
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  Speaker 3: guest is Kim Whitley's Nature graduate, activist, author, comedian, and
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  Speaker 3: most importantly Amon Kid.
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  Speaker 4: Was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and I found out raised
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  Speaker 4: in Sudan, Africa.
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  Speaker 2: Seventeen.
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  Speaker 4: We got talk. We got to talk with her. Her success.
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  Speaker 4: No holloist started with.
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  Speaker 2: Me as a cloud.
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  Speaker 4: You know, That's all I knew. Then I found out
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  Speaker 4: through more research A Copter school teacher.
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  Speaker 3: We would discuss her career outside of acting the legacy
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  Speaker 3: of our differend Uh David Orman this.
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  Speaker 4: You know, when you know somebody for a long time,
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  Speaker 4: you know they talented. Kim Whitley is.
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  Speaker 3: One of those people where before she started being as
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  Speaker 3: talented as she as a stand up coming, people always
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  Speaker 3: called me.
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  Speaker 4: He said, on who you recommend to be a funny hope?
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  Speaker 3: I said, Kip with me? She knows, I said, I
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  Speaker 3: knew she wasn't there's a stand up but she was
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  Speaker 3: just gifted. I mean she walked out on stage, nothing
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  Speaker 3: bothered her. I remember when we were in the Bermuda
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  Speaker 3: and with Earth Wind and Fired, she was like remember
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  Speaker 3: that God and the promoter said, who you recommend to
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  Speaker 3: come out there and host? I said, Kim Whitley, kick
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  Speaker 3: wit me and she came out. Because I always knew
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  Speaker 3: there was something about you. First of all, you're not
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  Speaker 3: afraid of anything. And then but the fact that I
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  Speaker 3: just knew that audience, you know, because it was like
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  Speaker 3: about ten thousand people staying at you in Bermuda.
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  Speaker 4: And Earth when Fire was headlined.
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  Speaker 2: That was when David David Arnold came with me.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, and remember Anthony Hamilton was there, Steve Harvey were
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  Speaker 3: all there, remember.
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  Speaker 2: And that's right, Smokey Robinson. That was so excited.
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  Speaker 4: You remember that because Gladys Knight was hanging out. She
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  Speaker 4: came on the side.
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  Speaker 3: And then little miss Kim really out there hosting this
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  Speaker 3: big old event.
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  Speaker 4: And I said, you come, and she came and paid it,
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  Speaker 4: she did everything.
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  Speaker 3: When did you start getting the stand up bug, which
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  Speaker 3: at the early days just walking out there. When did
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  Speaker 3: you start putting the thoughts or the seeds of being
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  Speaker 3: a stand up?
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  Speaker 2: I mean, we could really be transparent here because you're
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  Speaker 2: my guy, and I probably should have called you a
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  Speaker 2: long time ago. This is the truth is this. There's
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  Speaker 2: always fear, but I don't want the audience to think
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  Speaker 2: there's fear, because if the audience thinks you're afraid, they're
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  Speaker 2: not gonna ride with you. You have to be fearless
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  Speaker 2: and go out there and be free. And it's interesting.
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  Speaker 2: I've always you know, like that improv stand up and
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  Speaker 2: just talking to people I've loved. But when you put
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  Speaker 2: people think anyone can do stand up, you can't. It
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  Speaker 2: really is an art to stand up. And I started
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  Speaker 2: writing things down, like right when that movie Harlem Knights
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  Speaker 2: was out, and I had this little pad of paper,
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  Speaker 2: Dela ree a pad of paper might have been like
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  Speaker 2: this big, you know, and I used to write down
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  Speaker 2: little things that I thought I might have had three
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  Speaker 2: four jokes. And I met Red Fox and Ronaldo Ray
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  Speaker 2: and Richard Pryor and of course Eddie Murphy. And the
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  Speaker 2: truth is, I've always had I have a funny family,
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  Speaker 2: and I grew up with all boys, so you know,
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  Speaker 2: they were joning on me all the time. And you know,
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  Speaker 2: during that movie, I was the I was the guardian
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  Speaker 2: of the little boy in the movie because my friend,
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  Speaker 2: his father was an actor, couldn't make it that that day.
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  Speaker 2: He said, Kim, could you go to set? And I
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  Speaker 2: remember walking around a corner and Ronaldo Rey, you know,
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  Speaker 2: Ronaldo Ray trying to be funny. There were no chairs,
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  Speaker 2: and Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor and of course Red
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  Speaker 2: Fox were sitting in those director's chairs. And I went around,
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  Speaker 2: you know, in the set, I went around one of
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  Speaker 2: those corners and I saw these greats and I was
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  Speaker 2: so nervous I jumped. I was like, oh my god,
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  Speaker 2: I went around the wrong corner, Like how do I
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  Speaker 2: get you know, I was like, oh my god, cat,
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  Speaker 2: I backpedal, and Ronaldo Ray looked at me and say,
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  Speaker 2: hat hey, little girl. You know he says, long as
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  Speaker 2: I got a face, you got somewhere to sit. No, no,
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  Speaker 2: he said that in front of all of them. But
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  Speaker 2: you know Kim from Cleveland. And I remember looking at
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  Speaker 2: him and saying, and as long as you got a
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  Speaker 2: face like that, I guess I'll be standing. And all
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  Speaker 2: I know is Red Fox spit his coffee or it
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  Speaker 2: was Richard Pryor. They jumped out their seat. Bernaldo Ray
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  Speaker 2: was red, he was mad. I was in a sheer panic.
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  Speaker 2: Oh my god. And Red Fox came up to me
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  Speaker 2: and said, are you a stand up? And I said,
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  Speaker 2: I said no, but I want to be. And he said,
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  Speaker 2: get ten minutes of material together and I'll help you.
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  Speaker 5: Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more Money
• 5:35
  Speaker 5: Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making Conversations
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  Speaker 5: Master Class, hosted by Rashaan MacDonald.
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  Speaker 2: And he said, I'm tired of seeing these ugly funny
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  Speaker 2: That's what he said to me. I was like, he said,
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  Speaker 2: he said, pretty funny. And ten minutes for Sean is
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  Speaker 2: a stand up? You a new stand. I was like
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  Speaker 2: ten minutes, right, and I did. I was scared because
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  Speaker 2: my mother was like sex and rock and roll in La, right,
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  Speaker 2: and I didn't know. I was not hungry enough or
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  Speaker 2: I was not fearless to say give me your number,
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  Speaker 2: let's go.
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  Speaker 4: Right.
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  Speaker 2: Didn't do it. Red Fox died. The day he died,
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  Speaker 2: he died, I went out and did my first three
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  Speaker 2: minutes of stand up because I felt like I missed
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  Speaker 2: an opportunity and it pushed me in that direction. And
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  Speaker 2: I'm still not where I should be.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, Rashwan, I'm gonna tell you something and that I
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  Speaker 3: know you may not be because you know you always drive,
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  Speaker 3: You always driving for the ultimate joke.
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  Speaker 4: That's when you're a comedian.
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  Speaker 3: Because there's a lot of people going to say they
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  Speaker 3: think they find ady get off state and walk off
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  Speaker 3: state like they've done something. Not a blessing to see
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  Speaker 3: Cherrs Shepherd and her on tour several dates in the Northeast, and.
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  Speaker 4: I, you know, because when you saw somebody.
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  Speaker 3: In a long time and then you see them perform
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  Speaker 3: at the level that she was performing, I was like
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  Speaker 3: taking aback in a good way.
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  Speaker 4: And I told her, I said, you're your standard for real,
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  Speaker 4: and you.
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  Speaker 3: Really didn't accept that because you thought I I was
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  Speaker 3: just saying something to be with, but you really have
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  Speaker 3: That's what I'm saying.
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  Speaker 4: I'm just trying to get when did it turn?
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  Speaker 3: When did they click that this is what you could
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  Speaker 3: do as a stand up because as an actress you're phenomenal,
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  Speaker 3: But as a stand up, that's a whole differ. No
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  Speaker 3: script audiens don't know you You have to every certain
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  Speaker 3: amount of seconds, you got to generate some type of
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  Speaker 3: positive response, where as a laugh or a clap or
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  Speaker 3: a gold girl or whatever.
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  Speaker 4: That's a certain fear that you have to overcome. You do.
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  Speaker 2: And you know when it clicked. When my dear friend,
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  Speaker 2: the late great David Arnold, we went on tour together
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  Speaker 2: and I was forced to do stand up. So what
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  Speaker 2: David said was, Kim, we're gonna use your celebrity to
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  Speaker 2: get in these rights. That's what it was, right. I
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  Speaker 2: was like, I don't want to. I'm an improv stand up.
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  Speaker 2: I don't like doing the same material. That was the
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  Speaker 2: biggest thing to get over. I like talking. He said, Kim,
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  Speaker 2: to be a stand up, you have to repeat the joke.
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  Speaker 2: And I didn't even like listening to my own voice.
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  Speaker 2: So I had to get over that and we would
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  Speaker 2: book the date. So I was forced and David, and
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  Speaker 2: David was for We have a running joke. We had
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  Speaker 2: a running joke that I complained I quit before every show.
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  Speaker 2: I was like, I quit, I can't, I can't do it.
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  Speaker 2: Two shows a night, one show Thursday, two shows Friday,
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  Speaker 2: two shows Saturday, and one show Sunday. Whoa in these clubs?
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  Speaker 2: I was like, Oh, that's a lot of work and lazy.
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  Speaker 2: So David, he said, We're gonna use your celebrity to
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  Speaker 2: get me in these clubs so they'll know me. They
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  Speaker 2: don't know me. The radio station never gave him headphones
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  Speaker 2: to talk, and they were always with me this one.
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  Speaker 2: People don't understand. He was the heavy. I was the name,
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  Speaker 2: so I would get them. So I would we would
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  Speaker 2: do these clubs. We'd have a person bring us up.
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  Speaker 2: I would do first twenty minutes and then I would
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  Speaker 2: introduce him because always said, I'm yinga Ross. This is
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  Speaker 2: my Michael Jackson coming to the stage. But what they
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: don't realize is I was bringing him up to clothes
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  Speaker 2: because I knew he was gonna take it home. And
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: then we went up together and we cut a food.
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  Speaker 2: So that's when it happened when I really started developing
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  Speaker 2: my act. We did, he said, she said, and y'all
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: did for a number of years, right, Yes, we did.
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  Speaker 2: And then he he got so strong and so popular.
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  Speaker 2: He was going back to the clubs, selling out and
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: adding shows. I was like, really, just gonna leave me.
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  Speaker 3: He's gonna leave, yes, because it was funny, you know,
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  Speaker 3: when he when I saw his first Netflix field, we
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  Speaker 3: talked from David Arnold and it was Shotney Cleveland, and
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  Speaker 3: then I saw Kim Whitley.
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  Speaker 4: I said, what's going over there? And then I called you.
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  Speaker 3: I said, David, know what's incredible? I said, can you
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  Speaker 3: give me his number?
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: So I call it and I called him and I
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: just and he just couldn't believe I called him. He said,
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: you calling me? I said, yeah, dude, I gotta tell
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: you man, you funny brother. I said, can I interview?
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: He said, yeah, you can interview me? And it was
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: it was a blessing.
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  Speaker 3: I think when I look at the whole relationship that
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: you and him had, Okay, he was smart enough to realize, look,
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: I don't nobody know me, but I'm fun they know her,
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: but she needs to understand put and she can be
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: even more funny. So he gifted you with the work
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: that now you're taking advantage of because you got.
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  Speaker 4: A close a bit that you do on stage.
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  Speaker 3: Girl as a killer, I'm telling you something. I ain't
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: gonna tell you how something. But first of her whole
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: set is beautiful. The whole set is beautiful. And and
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: as as a stand up and I watched for women
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: to do stand up is even more difficult. It's more
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: difficult for sea young lady who is came into the
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  Speaker 3: acting game and then went on stage gifted and prov person.
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  Speaker 4: And then David said, look stop, we're in this right now.
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  Speaker 4: You let Red Fox go. We're gonna we're gonna make
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: it happen right now. And then all of a sudden,
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: you're blasted.
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: Now you're able to generate revenue for yourself as a
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: stand up comedian.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: Correct, Absolutely, Sean, you're hitting that one on the head
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: because we are definitely you know, I'm just like, it's
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: it's it's happening. They're like, you don't talk about Joshua
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: in your stand up and people always ask when I
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: was like, I don't find nothing funny about that boy
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: just agitated. Just get her mom, I'm mad at them
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: all the time.
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: That's her gift, right when she said that, I'm teasing
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: the breeze of people who are funny.
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: When she said that, that made me laugh because once
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: she that's what I'm saying. She's so young in the game.
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: That's why I know she gave eighty years old and
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: she was still won't be making people because one day
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: gonna really click in this she just funny and they
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: as a comedian, two plus two really is four. And
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: when she said that, ain't nothing funny about that bar
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: right there, I'm laughing hard because she was funny and
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: she just spoke because she's so brilliant in the way
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: we've seen her on so many scripted shows and HBO
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: and David you know you that was a big blow
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: up for you and blow and just being in prov
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: and being African American and being featured in that way.
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: That was huge. But then, like the funny part before
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: we wrap up this interview is a couple of stories.
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  Speaker 3: I gotta say to her that I didn't know okay,
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: because you know, you read people's bio. And then because
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: of the striker were limited on talking about movies. She's
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: in her TV shows, she's starting in so Rashane had
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: to dig dp.
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: Born in Cleveland, raised in Sudan, Africa. How are you right?
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: How? And that's when people are like, how did that happen? Yes,
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: you know, well it's interesting. I'm so glad it did
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: happen because I have that part of my life that
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: my father is an architect, had an architectural firm. But
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: back in the day when he first started, my father
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: worked for a company, Dalton and Dalton, and they were
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: building schools in Africa, and they sent over a black family,
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: a white family, and an Asian family. I swear it's
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: the craziest thing.
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: It was the.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: Sailors who were still friends with and the maidenans so
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: and they had so we went to Sudan and it
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: was an amazing experience because I remember as soon as
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: we moved in there was a spider. I swear the
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: spider was this big on the wall. Maybe because I
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: was a kid, there was a huge spider. But that's
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: how it happened. We my father was building schools and
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: Sudan and I know my parents said, you know, once
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: you get to high school, we got to leave because
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: they didn't have high school American high school there. But
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: I had an English nursery school teacher that American wreck
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: where we would go over and do all the American holidays.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: But I wasn't there. Like what happened was there was
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: a civil war and all the Americans had to get out.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: When I tell you, we left our dog in the
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: yard with a bone, that's all I remember.
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: I was like, this is horrible.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: Because we got the dog from another family that had
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: to you know, they brought families in and they gave
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: us the dog. The dog was mean. We couldn't even
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: get that dog for two weeks. We had to leave
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: on a leash and send food over with a stick.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: But became the best dog ever. But when we left,
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: we had to leave the dog and we had to
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: put our stuff on a ship up and get it
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: back to America. But in between that time, my parents said, well,
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: you know what, let's travel Europe because we we we
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: can't be we had somebody living in the house, so
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: we can't go back.
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: It was a lot.
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: It was a lot.
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: She's my good friend. She's a stand up extraordinary.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: We didn't even talk about the podcast, we didn't talk
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: about the wish.
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: We've been talking about everything, but because.
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: I had to get to sue An talk in, I
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: was not going off the show not talking about Confident
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: School Teaching days and sue An.
• 15:32
  Speaker 4: So I'm sorry audience.
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: Raseean had the ass some things he never asked the
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: great incredible stand up community, so follow.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: Me on Instagram and on social media. K Y M
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: Whitley across the board.
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: I love you and we talked soon again.
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: The incredible Kim Whidley took time to talk to us
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: on Money Making Conversation.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: Master Clafe, thank you.
• 15:58
  Speaker 5: For joining us for this edition of Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
• 16:02
  Speaker 5: Money Making Conversations Masterclass with rough Shan McDonald is produced
• 16:07
  Speaker 5: by thirty eight fifteen Media Inc. More information about thirty
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  Speaker 5: eight fifteen Media Inc. Is available at thirty eight fifteen
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  Speaker 5: media dot com. And always remember to lead with your
• 16:18
  Speaker 5: gifts