Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Comedian Aida Rodriguez has “Fighting Words” for HBO Max & Leonard Robinson talks long road to Issa Rae’s Insecure.

Transcript

Comedian Aida Rodriguez has “Fighting Words” for HBO Max & Leonard Robinson talks long road to Issa Rae’s Insecure. · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversation. To have your host, Rashan McDonald,
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  Speaker 1: was time to stop read to other people's success stories.
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  Speaker 1: entrepreneurs and people I like to call industry decision makers.
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  Speaker 1: My next guest is a graduate of an HBCU Howard University,
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  Speaker 1: Leonard Robinson. He's an actor, writer, stand up comedian and
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: has a degree and Management Information System boor You can
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: be employed anywhere in this world with a degree like that.
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  Speaker 1: This year, Leonard is currently appearing on the fifth and
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  Speaker 1: final season of HBC Execute HBOS Insecure, where he's required
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: his very popular character the Emmy winning HBO competitions Insecure Errors.
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  Speaker 1: Every Sunday night, ten pm Eastern Standard Time, n pm Central,
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  Speaker 1: We'll be talking about Lender's career pursuing acting, writing and
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: stand up Lendard the car any member of the Ground
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Links famed Sketch Comedy and Improv Troop and also as
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: a cast member on EMPTV from my board Nick Cannon's
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Wild and Up. Please Welcome to money Making. A conversation
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: from Howard your first to Hollywood Letar Robinson. How are
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: you doing? Certain? How are you doing? Brother? Gonna meet you? Well?
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: You up Connecticut and then that's where that's what it
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: all started, right, Yeah, Originally I'm from Danbury, Connecticut, spent
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: a little time in Tokyo, and uh went to Howard
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: and really kind of found myself and found my place
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: and purpose over at Howard University, and then moved to
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: New York, came to Los Angeles and and now I'm here. Well,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: you know, literally, I gotta slowly done. He just ran
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: through your whole life. Man, your life is really interesting.
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  Speaker 1: You got judo in your background, you got rastling in
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  Speaker 1: your background. You didn't want to get into that whole
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: aspect until you got to college. So slow it down,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: you know, because that's what this show is all about.
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  Speaker 1: Because your your your resume proves to be that people
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  Speaker 1: expect certain people to do certain things when they are
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: hit in that direction, and you alnered that direction. Why
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: did you alter the direction? Well, you know, growing up
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: in a small town like Danbury, Uh, there wasn't a
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  Speaker 1: lot of outlets for people who want to act and
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: be creative in that space. And also I had parents,
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: you know where where that that was unfamiliar to them.
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  Speaker 1: So it's hard to encourage your children to do something
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: you're unfamiliar with and so I dabbled in it as
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: much as I could in UM in Danbury. But I
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: actually got into you know, very active in sports, very
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: active and wrestling in judo and and for a time,
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: you know, that was that was my focus. Uh. But
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: when I went to Howard, uh you know, wrestled a
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: very brief time at Howard UM. When I got to
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Howard also you know, majored in business. So you know,
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  Speaker 1: it's it's years and years of not necessarily pursuing my
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: passion and what I wanted to do. However, I think
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: all those things I did in between, or or the
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: reason why I'm able to keep doing what I do now,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: or reason why they you know, that makes me successful.
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  Speaker 1: You know, the discipline and and focused I learned training
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: for wrestling and judo, it's the same kind of discipline
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  Speaker 1: and focus that I bring into acting and entertainment. Well,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: you know, some not everybody who wrestler could act, you know,
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  Speaker 1: just like everybody wrap can sing. So you just talented,
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  Speaker 1: my brother, Let's go, we can throw that focus in there, Leonard.
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  Speaker 1: But you got talent, Okay, let's go appreciate, let's go,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: let's go. I like to separate people give them credit
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: because a lot of people want to just slide that well,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: you know he's focused. You know, well he can run
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: for a touchdown. No, now, that guy who ran for
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: that touchdown, that's his skill. That's just that's his blessing.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: That's that's what enables him to be great. And then
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: in reading your your resume and your bio, you know,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: like my degree was in mathematics, my minder was in sociology.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: And I went to work for IBM, and everybody thought
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: I was gonna, you know, live a life. I thought
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: I was gonna live a life and as a career
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: as an IBM executive. And but then I realized that
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: wasn't me. It was realized that you know, it was
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: it was, it was it wasn't creative enough for me.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: I think that was my turning point. I realized that
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: I was going to be boxed in one day and
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: I was not going to be happy with my life.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Was did you? Was that a similar tone with you, oh, Dent?
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: I mean my father worked for IBM over twenty three years,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: and uh, you know that's why we spent a little
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: time in Tokyo. Was transferred into transferred Tokyo for three
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  Speaker 1: and a half years. So it was it's in my
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: it was in my blood, just to you know, be
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: familiar with computers and business. So you know, my undergrad
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: was in Management Information Systems UM. I ended up programming
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: and doing systems administration work out of college for a
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: little bit. And the story I always tell is I
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: switched to a small boutique consulting firm and I was
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: doing a lot of back end programming, you know, making
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: websites basically is the short of it. You know, all
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: the all the engine that runs a website that you
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: don't see, and working long, long hours. You know, an
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: average was fourteen hours a day. And it was one
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: day when our project had stopped and we're waiting for
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: another project and I had we had nothing to do
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: for weeks, and I was literally banging my head on
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: the desk, saying, what am I doing here? This is
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: not what I'm supposed to be. What do I need
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: to do? And about the fourth bang I just popped up.
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  Speaker 1: I was like, I can quit. And it's such a
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: simple thing. But you know, for a lot of people,
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: you get put on a program, you get on a
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: put in on a path and you think, well, this
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: is what I'm supposed to do. You know, I was.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: I went to Howard University, I studied business, you know,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: a pledge to MAGA. Side five became the bost list
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: of our chapter. I served Undergraduate Supreme Council. Like I
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: was very Everything I was doing was related to business.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: It was it was about you know, organization and leadership,
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: and you know, it's something I had an aptitude for,
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  Speaker 1: but I didn't have a passion for so even even
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: throughout all that, I was always you know, in addition
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: to you know, the funny guy, you know, cracking jokes
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: in the office, or I would take acting classes. Uh
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: and you know, after work, I'd go take an acting class.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: And that's where I felt more alive, That's where I
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: felt more in line. But I had already invested so
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: much time into doing something else. I didn't think that
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: there was an alternative until I decided to make that
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: choice and say, no, I'm gonna make this choice today,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm gonna you know, I'd rather put in eighteen
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: fourteen hours for myself and figure this out, then put
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: in another fourteen eighteen hours for some other company to
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: you know, to make them successful. You know, it's really
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: interesting because then when I was reading your bio, because
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: a lot of your qualities with similar to my eyes.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: I remember when I was a freshman in college, I
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: looked at managing information system as an option. You know,
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: it's a degree option that eventually just wound up in mathematics.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: I went through Civil engineer and did chemical jineer and
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: didn't I wound up in mathematics and minded out of sociology.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: But you know, when you're doing these things, man, that's
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: an African American. You know, you're just trying to get out.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: You're trying to just build, You're trying to fit in.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: You're trying to fit in the white community as well,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: because you're trying to get that nice house, that nice car,
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: and this is the way we've been told you can
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: get there. And so when you start altering that, like
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: you said early in the interview, a lot of people
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: don't understand Leonard, that, Okay, you know what a stand
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: up comedy does to make money. They understand what the
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: engineer does. They understand what a bank teller does. But
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: with all what I told my family and friends, I
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: was gonna leave to pursue a career as a stand
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: up comedian. I could even tell him how it's gonna
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: make money. Okay, but I do that's what I wanted
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: to do. You know what I'm saying. You know what
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: I'm talking about learning. You know, you just know that's
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: what you wanna do. You're gonna throw you have a
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: plan of action, you have a passion that you're driven to.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: But then again, you know we're talking about insecure, But
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: you've been on n C I S, n C I S,
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: you know, Los Angeles, You've been on Young Shelton. So
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: your resume is not just tied to the interview that
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: I'm bringing you on the show about that success allowed
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: you to go back to your family. Your friends really
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: understood why you made that decision. How did that How
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: did it look at you? Now? Well, it's it's it's
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: funny because for years, my mother would always say something like, well,
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: you know you can when times got when times got hard,
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: and I would tell her, like, you know, it's a
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: little rough out here right now. You would always say,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: you know, you can go back to grad school, and
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: I was like, for what like and it would just
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: be years and years of that and but now you know, people.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: You know. I think Jay Z said something like when
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: you first come in the game, they try to play you,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: then you drop a couple of hits. Look how they
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: wave to you. That's kind of where it is right now.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: Like now it's you know, there's no way I can
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: go get a job and anybody's corporation doing I T work.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: I've been out the business. I've been out that business
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: too long. I have no idea how they do things. Um,
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: you know today it's it's something that I would, you know,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: maybe have a thirty minute conversation with somebody, but I'm like,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: oh that's interesting, cool, and then go about and go
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: about my business. Um so yeah. I mean when you
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: when you make when you do things that seem impossible
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: or try to do things that seem impossible to people,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: the first instinct, I think is to call them crazy.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: And that's what I experienced. You know, when I quit
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: my job and I laughed, a lot of people called
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: me crazy. Well, a lot of people have thought you
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: crazy when you played to make Aside Fire. You know
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: a lot of people thought I was crazy. You know,
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: they were going, why why, why? What was the ration
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: that behind that? But I would tell you this. It
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: changed my life. You know, I'm get to be just
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: on this conversation. I was just flowing through college with
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: no direction, uh, Leonard and and and I just I
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: saw a goal. I saw I needed to go. I
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: needed a platform where I could um start start moving
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: my life forward. And when I played still make it
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: side fire and moved my life forward and got me
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: into the community. And it changed my whole perspective and
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: the values that I have by pleasures of return. That's
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: why always recommen people, whatever turns you pledged, whatever sod
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: you pledge, it could be a blessing if you understand
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: why you did it. Why did you pledge fraternity? And
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: that perternity of charge was le'll make us out fire. Well,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: I I come from a long line of Black Greeks.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: You know. My my great grandmother, Um Jesse Halfcock, founded
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: a chapter in in Dayton, Ohim. She's a building named
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: after her at the University of Dayton. So there's a
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: long history a Ks on that side of the family.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: My father was a Kappa, my my uncle is is
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: an Omega from Fisk and Um that was just kind
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: of not really a question for me, to be honest
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: as a kid I saw always saw my uncle's brand
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: on his arm, and I just I was just like, yeah,
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: I want to get one of those. I don't even
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: know what it was. You didn't have the diamond. He
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: didn't have the diamond. Yeah, I mean yeah, I had
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: my dad been branded, I might have been a capital.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: I don't know now, but you were something you weren't right.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: But look, there was something about about, uh, the Omega's
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: that you know. My first week on campus, I went
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: to a I went to Omega party at Alpha chapter
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: and at our at the frat house, and I stayed
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: all night. I partied like I was one of the brothers,
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: and I said, I don't know what this is, but
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: I need to be part of this. And then, as
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: you know, you do more research and you get more
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: into it, You're like, oh, well this is way more
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: in line with you know, what I think my values are,
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: what I think my principles are, and so I'm gonna
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: strive to that. And some of my best friends you
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: know still to this day, you know, are from that era,
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: my line brothers and and other frat brothers and and
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: just aside on you know, my path into entertainment. You know,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: I credit one of my chapter brothers, Buddy Lewis UM
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: eighty four Alpha chapter. Yeah, well you know Buddy then Buddy, Buddy,
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: when I was in the undergrad um kind of set
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: me up and gave me my game plan because I
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: came out to Los Angeles to visit this con a
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: and stayed with him for a day and he took
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: me around and showed me how, you know, what his
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: life was like as a stand up. And when I
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: went back to Howard, I still had about a year
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: and a half left, but I knew I wanted to
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: be an actor and He's though, he was the only
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: person I knew and that was in the entertainment business,
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: and he gave me basically the foundation um that I
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: needed to to create my own blueprint on how to proceed.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: And without his mentorship early on, I don't you know,
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: I probably still I probably would be an actor today. Yeah,
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: but they are definitely no body uh my l A
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: day times the l A times is. I remember I
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: first met him when he was doing warm up on
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: the Steve Harvey sitcom Um that was on the w B.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: That when I first met Buddy and we became friends
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: to Fellers Love flowan fraternity brothers. That's the most amazing
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: part of that relationship. We'll be right back with more
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: money making conversation with writer, stand up comedian and actor
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: and HBO's Insecure Leonard Robinson. It's finally he here the
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• 16:45
  Speaker 1: you think. Find a forest near you and start exploring.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: I Discover the Forest dot org brought to you by
• 16:51
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• 16:55
  Speaker 1: is Rushan McDonald. Welcome back to money making Conversations. As
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: I continue our conversation with writer, stand up comedian and
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: actor and HBO's Insecure Leonard Robinson, when I think about
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: what you're doing, you know, I thought about when I
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: was looking at your resume, not just so stand up comedian.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: Then I realized what I did death comedy Jam. I
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: didn't Dame Chappelle. Every Spears, and of course it was
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: hosted by Martin Lawrence and there were there were were
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: not when we went on stage, and when I went
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: on stage, I didn't have any restrictions in my mindset,
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: you know. And I see how stand up has been
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: shaped by a culture and some of its rights. Some
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: of you should be much more sensitive about how we
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: what we say in the ramifications of how people perceive it,
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: because people can take what you say and shape it
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: to their own personal narrative. How as as as a
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: as a as a working and acting stand up comedian,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: how has that affected you as for a stand up
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: or maybe maybe not he has affected you as a
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: stand up? Um, you know, it really hasn't affected me
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: that much because most of my comedy is is very personal.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: It's it's really just I'm really just talking about me
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: and things that affect me. I think that I think
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: that oftentimes we can stand up want to step into
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: somebody else's conversation because we see something that's funny or
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: we see an angle. But you know, you don't need
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: to pick up every every fight, every conversation you know,
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: you can just let's let somebody else carry that. That's
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: that's all I'm gonna say about that. You know, I
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: don't well, you know, I want to get into uh,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: you know, being a comedy police or whatever, but just
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: just know that sometimes you can talk about some topics
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: in some areas that affect other people deeply and it's
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: not your fight. Well, you know something, I'm not even
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: guiding you into this conversation learning about being a comedy police.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: It is about certain things of having a certain amount
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: of freedom that I had in ninty two that today
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: I would have to think about that joke. Is that
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: joke worth? It? Is that joke worthy? The the consequences
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: that might come out of it, you know, and uh
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: and and and so now you know, we see its
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: impacting various comics over the last five to ten years
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: who have been who have done jokes in that nature
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: that affected their careers as well as now people perceive
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: them as a talent moving forward. And my whole thing,
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: it didn't affect me because, like you, I was always
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: talking about my lifestyle, my journey, my personal I never
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: went into social areas of concern and nature is like that.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: But it is different though, but during stand up comedy
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: is different today? Would you would you? Would you agree? Well? Uh,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: outside of just stand up, I mean, the world is
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: different right now. You know, people are becoming more educated
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: and and more informed on a lot more issues than
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: they had to be in the past. And with that
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: requires a certain amount of growth on your part as
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: the artist and new creative. Two. Understand where the world
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: is right now, the temperature of the world, and decide
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: are you gonna grow with it or are you gonna
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: draw a line in the sand and say I want
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: to stay right here? Keep saying these things? You see
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: it politically? Uh, you know, the last couple of years,
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: the whole America first bring back, bring back the good
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: old days like well, when you say things like that,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: well good for who? But you know um because because
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: because the words that you're using don't sound like it's
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: gonna be good for me. Yes, yes, yes, you know.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: The the enteresting thing about this whole world we live
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: in is that you know the opportunity to come into
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: your life that make a game changing role play in
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: your life. And I'm gonna say it's insecure, Leonard. You
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: know your your appearance because you did wild enough, and
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: I want to talk about that with Nick Cannon Connick
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: Canada a very good friend of mine as well. But
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: but Insecure is a is a groundbreaking series. You know,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: it airs on HBO. I saw that. I saw the
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: new season that aired, uh last night, let's just say
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: last night, the first of the fifth and final season.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: How did you get cast on that? And how did
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: the opportunity to come you away? It's far as an audition, Well,
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: I was really fortunate and out respect and then I
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: started auditioning way back in the you know, at the
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: pilot level. And I auditioned, uh and tested to for
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: the pilot, and then that didn't work out, and then
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: they brought me back in for another role when the
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: when the show got picked up and I didn't work out,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: and it brought me back in for about two or
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: three morals after that before I landed the Royal of
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: Torre and Jackson. So I really credit his Arae apprentice
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: for just having the determination, I want to say, on
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: their part to to work me into the show some
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: kind of way. You know, often as actors we always say, like,
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: you know, don't worry about trying to book the job.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: Try to work the you know, book the room so
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: that they know who you are and they'll find something
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: for you or you know, just do your best. But
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: I think in short, it's you know, what's for you
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: is for you, and you don't have to worry about
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: anything else other than that. Well you know what do
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: you know? What makes that show work for me is that?
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: And I think that's why you know, the kip bringing
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: you back, you know, they said, well, well he doesn't
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: fit this character. We'd be like like shoving mentor a
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: role that really doesn't blend because the characters makes sense
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: on that show. You know, when you look at that person,
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: that that person should be that person, you know, And
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: so your character was the same way as a character
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: that made sense for that whole thing. And so when
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: you got the opportunity to get on the set and
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: started seeing people react to your character, what was the
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: biggest thing that you felt excited about? And being um,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: you know, featured on Insecure and then being recognized as
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: a talent that's also building the cachet of Insecure. Yeah,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: I mean I came on season three, yes, and uh,
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: you know, waiting for the reaction and uh, I'm just
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: going you know the way the way I feel about it.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: You know, these roles, whatever you take on, try to
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: do your best, just to play it to the to
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: the best of your ability. And then the audience reaction
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: is whatever. People can feel any kind of way about
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: whatever the character is. As long as you feel something,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm happy. So I don't mind if it's polarizing
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: for some people. But it just you know, as long
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: as I'm part of the conversation, I'm glad. But outside
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: of that, I'm just you know, And I've said this
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: many many times, and I'm just blessed and feel fortunate
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: to be included in this world, in this universe because
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: this show is so game changing and impactful for so
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: many different reasons, um, largely off the screen. Um. And
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: it's just to be a part of that thing, that movement.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: It's if I feel blessed like they've they've they've launched
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: the careers of so many different people behind the camera,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: and that's just gonna further. You know, They've planted these
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: seeds all all across the industry right now, and just
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: it's it's gonna take a little bit more time, but
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: a lot of them are have already started to grow
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: and read. But you know, five ten years, fifteen years
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: from now, when you all these executives and producers and
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: directors and they talked about how they got their start,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: a lot of them, it's going to come back to insecure. Absolutely,
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: and that's a beautiful thing. You know that they that
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: when they had a show, they didn't just didn't keep
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: it to themselves. Absolutely, they opened the door for as
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: many people as they could and and not only let
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: them in, but gave them the room to learn and
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: gave them the opportunity to thrive. You know, it's really
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: interesting and and just to bring it back to Nick Cannon,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: you know, there's a lot of parallels between that and
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: what he does, and he's been doing so well. You know,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: I was going to go to a couple of things
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: that I can't do that you do very well. That's
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: improv and act. I can't act. I am very I
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: was amazingly funny on stage. You know I noticed near
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: bio you your writer. I was a sitcom right, a
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: very successful was a sitcom writer. But the whole aspect
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: of improving, which Steve Harvey, who managed, was a brilliant
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: improv person. And what just separates the improvisational side Leonard
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: Robinson from the acting side. Um, you know, they're closely related.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: I think, you know, the the improv aspect of it.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: I do a lot of improv shows at the Groundlings
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: Theater in Los Angeles, and did a lot of improv
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: before that. Um, you know, it's just on the fly.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: You know, we're trying to we're trying to make these
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: scenes happen, you know, based off of suggestion and uh
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: and hope it all works out. So it's a little
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: bit more like you know, acting on the edge of
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: a cliff, I want to say, then just being on
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: a on a set with the script. Yeah, I admire that.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: And then he was on the early years of Wilding Out,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: you know, which is the ultimate, which also is a
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: groundbreaking George Well, you know, so you have to feel
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: blessed about your life, you know, Wilding Out. I feel
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: it's the way we have to says the longest running
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: black and provisational show in television history. I think we
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: can say that. And then the groundbreaking HBO series Insecure
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: in terms of the life of to African American female
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: as they interact between life social dynamics, which is groundbreaking
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: as well. So you've you've had a fortunate career so far.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: And with that being said, the whole how did it
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: being in the early years of the of the of
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: Wild and out to what has become now? Talk about
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: that transition and watching that brand grew out because you're
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: part of two huge brands in your resume. Yeah, um, yeah,
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: I was really blessed. Uh. You know, it's like that
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: you've seen the Internet met I'm sure like you know
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: I started versus how it's going? You know, Uh, for me,
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: it's like Wild and I was like, how started Insecure?
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Is now how it's going? And I, you know, I
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: have a lot of love and respect you know for
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: Nicking and that show and everybody involved in it, because
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: that was for the most part, Yeah, that was my
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: biggest job that really kind of put me in in
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: Hollywood when I hadn't been in l a maybe but
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: six months when I got cast on that show. And
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: you know, before that, excuse me, before that, I was
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: just focused on honing my craft. I was just staying
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: in acting classes, taking a lot of improv classes and
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: performing and and doing as much stand up as I could.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: And I wasn't even really aggressively trying to get on television.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: I was just kind of building up my skills because
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: when I when an opportunity came around, I wanted to
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: be ready for it, and that opportunity came around. So
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: being part of the original cast the first four seasons
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: of Wild and Out was a was a real big
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: experience and in a big lesson for me. What interesting
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: thing about it is that one thing we do share
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: in common is the writing aspect. You know, you will
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: be part of the CBS Diversity Sketch Comedy showcase and
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: you were in the first writer's room. Why writing you
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: know why that why? That's that goes back to that logic.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: I think that's in your life, that focused as in
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: your life that to understand too Pless Too was four?
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: Is that what? What that would excite you about the
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: writing aspect of sitcom writing, especially the comedic side of it.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: You know what's funny is again? And it probably all
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: leads back to Buddy Lewis again because when I went
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: when I met him in Los Angeles, he was writing.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: He was also doing stand up, but he was also writing,
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: and I had a little seed in my in my
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: brain and and then somebody else said something about writing
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: and being an actor, like, you're gonna have to write,
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: learn how to write if you really want to show
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: people what you can do. And then it's it's one
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: of those things where if you try to follow up
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: on at the universe, you know, if you see or
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: hear things three times from three hundred places, you know
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: the universe is trying to tell you to tap into that.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: And so for me, the writing is is a way
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: to make sure that I always have an option on
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: bringing my voice and point of view to the world.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: Without that, I'm reliant on somebody else to create something
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: for me. So I do a great bill. I do
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: a great deal of acting. I do a great deal
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: of work. That's largely mostly what I do in between
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: I'm writing. In between I'm i'm, I'm I'm writing and
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: preparing for the next thing. Um, I'm just fortunate that
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: I keep getting interrupted by a bunch of acting jobs,
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: so the world's have to wait a little bit longer
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: to see a little warm All right, lets don't use
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: the word interrupted. That's a that's a blessed, that that's
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: a that's a that's you want them, you want them
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: off the bookies. We don't calling. We call them bookies.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: You know it. You know that's that old famous you know.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: You sit around the house and then one day you
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: get that phone call, you get three dates as a
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: stand up on the same day, you go, hey, what
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: was these? Why couldn't they be separated week by week
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: by week, a month by but by but exactly. But
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: you know, man, I'm happy you came on my show,
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: Ben because I wanted to hear your story and and
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: and I consider some things that you've done a younger
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: version of me, and you're doing great and your graduate
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: of Howard the players to make a sup fire just
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: a value system that comes with players, the fraternity of
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: the sorority. It's what I push. And the fact you
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: start on the final seat of Insecure, keep winning, Man,
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: I would always be a fan of yours. Man, if
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: you want me to promote, I'm based in Atlanta, Georgia.
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: So no, you got a frap brother. I know Buddy Lewis.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: If you call Buddy Luis right now, he said nothing
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: but positive things about our relationship. So when you come
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: through you through Atlanta, Georgia, make sure you stop in now,
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: come by my office and we'll break bread together. Okay,
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: no problem, I appreciate it and I will follow up
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: on that. Oh no, I know you will. I gotta,
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: I know you will, and it guess what I aim
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: to please my young frat brother. Okay, I appreciate you. Okay, cool.
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: Thank you for coming on Money Making Conversation, Lenda Robinson.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: Thanks for your time. I appreciate If you want to
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: hear any of my interviews or see anything by interviews,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: please go to money Making Conversation dot com. I'm Rashan McDonald.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: I am your host. We will be right back with
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  Speaker 1: money Making Conversations Minute of Inspiration with Rashan McDonald's Hi
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  Speaker 1: Rashan McDonald for Money Making Conversations with your daily minute
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  Speaker 1: of inspiration. Recently, as put with the CEO and founder
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  Speaker 1: of the American Black Film Festival and Howard Along Jeff Friday,
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  Speaker 1: we discussed how pursuing an executing your vision can aid
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  Speaker 1: future generations. You know how many black writers are working
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  Speaker 1: today and got deals at studios and first looked that
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  Speaker 1: the right of the third eye. That's a perfect analogy.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: As a founder, you get so obsessed with the details.
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: You often can't see things because your mind is not
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: clear sometimes, so you do need that person who you
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: trust to do that. If you want to listen to
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: this full interview with Jeff Friday, it's available on Money
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: Making Conversations dot com. Now let's return to Money Making
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: Conversation with Rushan McDonald. My guest is Ida Rodriguez. She's
• 33:29
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  Speaker 1: first hour long stand up comedy special, Ida Rodriguez fighting words,
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: and I believe me. She's fighting, She's she's doing it
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: to toe. She's Muhammad Ali, She's all at Joe and
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: Joe Fraser, She's Mike Tyson. It starts uh November four
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: on HBO Max, which I do have and I have seen.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: Her special is very funny. Eis HBO Comedy Specialist based
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: on her incredible life story, which includes surviving, surviving to kidnappings,
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: sexual in a period of homelessness with her children. It's
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: a comedian. Then're gonna slide right back to the world comedie.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: It's a comedian, No holds balled, explorational identity and family
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: A special conclusive with the documentary of Eida's travels to
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: Puerto Rico and the Medical Republic. The comedy special Slash
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: documentary celebrats Rodriguez fib political, Puerto Rican and Dominican heritage
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: as cameras capture her reuniting with her a strange father
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: and paying it forward for up and coming comedians. Please
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: welco with the money making conversation. Either Rodriguez, good morning,
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: Well either you know, first of all, you know I
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: on my background is a stand up comedian. Okay, I've
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: done death comedy, jam BT, have done specials, all that
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: stand up managed Steve Harvey. UH did share the State
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: Madason spect Guard many large venues around this country with him.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: So from a stand up comedy perspective, you know, I
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: always tell people comedy is like a one eight D
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: look at everything, you know, you might be looking at
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: this way, then we just flip it and that's where
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: we can see comedy when you might see sadness. And
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: so your special is kind of like built out of that.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: You know, you talk about your journey as a stand
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: up comedian coming out of the COVID setting and you're
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: doing in the Bronx. Why did you do it in
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: the Bronx? And what inspired you to do an hour
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: loan special? So well, you know that's the uh that
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: is the playoffs for a stand up comedian is to
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: actually get a special, an hour long special. UM. HBO
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: has always been the home of UM amazing comedy. UM.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: You know it is a coveted space for stand up
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: comedy and HBO Max now, which is you know, the
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: streaming platform that is creating a way for a lot
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: of people. UM. I've always wanted to to be there
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: and do the great things in comedy that a lot
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: of people have done, and my heroes like you know,
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: Richard Pryor and George Carlin and so on and so forth.
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: The reason I decided to do my special in the
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: Bronx is one of the Bronxes where I was kiding
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: out from when I was a little kid. My grandmother
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: took me from my mother. Um, while we were in
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: the Bronx, and my brother was born in the Bronx.
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: Um and the Bronxes where I lived before I moved
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: to Florida. My mom and I, you know, moved there.
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: We were on the run with my mother's partner at
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: the time. But um, I wanted to go back and
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: so back into the communities that that have sown into me.
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: I think that many of us, you know, we ascend
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: and then we go do comedy specials and venues that
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: our people don't have access to. And so, um, I
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: could have done that special anywhere and where my people
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: gotta get profiled. And when I say my people talking
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: about people of color, black people. UM, So when I
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: decided to do it in the Bronx, because I wanted
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: to bring something to the Bronx. The Bronx was devastated
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: by COVID. Um, you have had a lot of things
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: happening in that community, a lot of um, black and
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: brown girls being kidnapped and for human trafficking, just a
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: lot of things that have been devastating the community in
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: the last few years. I always been there, but the
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: last few years have been worse because it was devastated
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: by COVID and the economy was bad there. And I
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: wanted to bring money to the Bronx. I wanted to
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: bring um, and I wanted to the people of the
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: Bronx and then the neighboring communities to have access to
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: something that would bring them joy. Well, first of all,
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: super talented. I'm talking to either Venus Comedy, Special Fighting
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: Words as an erin on HBO Max. When I when
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: I look at you, first of all, you know you
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: look so it's just a compliment too. You know you
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: look first, were very attractor and but but it also
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: looked like you could be my fourth grade teacher. You
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: know you I've always wanted to be a teacher, so
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: so so that's good. That means that, that means that uh,
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: that means you approachable, That means that you have a
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: kind heart. That means that when you speak, you know,
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: there's there's a there's a sense of understanding and sharing
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: their information. And so when I was watching your comedy special,
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: it felt like I'm laughing, but you were sharing information
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: and then breaking it down and educating me at the
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: same time. But we get to laugh at the education
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: is that's just part of your comedy stylings, I believe.
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: So I think that I work on not being preachy.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: You know, a lot of comedians can be really preachy
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: on stage. I like to come from us the perspective
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: of I have had such a such a life, and
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: there have been some things that have been traumatic, some
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: things have been hard, a lot of things have been good.
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: I had an amazing grandmother that poured strength into me. Um,
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: And I just think that it's important for us who
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: are comedians, wherever we stand on that comedy spectrum, to
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: be true to ourselves. And so for me, it's about
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: you know, my favorite comedians are George Carlin and Richard Pryor,
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: And every single time I watched them, even now, things
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: that I've watched before, I still learned something. So I
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: wanted to UM, I just wanted to be true to
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: my voice. And I think that this was an opportunity
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: where I could just be me and just do what
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: I needed to do without feeling the pressure or the
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: censorship or the or anything from anybody else. Well, you
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: told a good story, a great story, because it's a
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: story I couldn't tell. I don't so I would tell
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: people it's important that when I look as a stand
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: up comedian or a former stand up comedian, I always
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: feel'm gonna be a stand up. I don't just tell
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: you that he's your blood. It doesn't soun you should
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: go back on stage. No, no, no, what you do.
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: See this is a difference between me and you. I
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: see you are blessing. You know. God just gave me
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: the gift to be funny. And in my mind was
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: always weird. You know, I'll be on state. I was
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: to be on stage telling your and white people be laughing.
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: They are they laughing at me? Are they laughing at night?
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: That's how weird my brain would go. And I realized,
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: you know, some real stand ups not for you. And
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: then thank god you No Deaf Comedy Jam came out
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: and I was able to go on stage and make
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: my audience to look like me laugh, and I realized,
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: you know something, I want to be behind the camera.
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: I want to be a writer. And so when I
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: look at you, a comedian, actress, writer, producer. So you're
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: sharing a lot of hats, which also you share on
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: this special as well. What do you enjoy the most?
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: I know you have a great comment special. I'm telling
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: you right now, I enjoyed your comedy special. You know
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: you did you more I could not do, which is
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: a testament to your comedy comedy cels because you have
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: an eye out there that I will that will I
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: did you see that? Okay? But then how does he
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: have the courage I mean used their work right there?
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: Courage to go on stage in front of strangers. You
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: know you're special. You know the front row you got,
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: you know, that's your people, But the rest of the
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: room you don't really know. Okay, So you're going with
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: doing your things. Talk about your approach to comedy item. Well,
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: funny for my special, we sat the people that I
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: knew in the back of the stage. We did the
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: reverse because the people that I'm closest to make me
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: a little bit nervous sometimes because they know me, they
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: know me so well so I don't. I don't want
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: to look and see a weird reaction from someone that
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: I know, because then I gotta I gotta live with
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: you for the rest of my life. Um, you know,
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: I've decided. I grew up in uh in the inner
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: city of Miami. I grew up in the hood, and
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: part of what we used to do when we were kids,
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: we used to do your mama jokes. We used to
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: do roast, you know. We used to call it uh.
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: You know, we used to crack on each other. People
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: call it joning, they call it roasting, they call it
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: all the other stuff. But that's what we used to do.
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: And when I realized that what we were doing was
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: processing our pain through laughter, that I decided. I did
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: that when I was when I started writing comedy, I
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: would just channel that and say, you know, how do
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: I approach talking about sexual abuse. It's such an uncomfortable topic.
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: It's taboo. People don't want to talk about this stuff.
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: But if it happens so much in our communities, and
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: I wanted to release people of guilt and shame. So
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: I sat I sat down early in my stand up career,
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: and I just made a decision that I was going
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: to talk about the things that were uncomfortable because it
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: helped me also heal. And so my writing process is
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: I write first, and then I incorporate the jokes because
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: I think about the things that I want to talk about.
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: Because I watched other comedians and I appreciate their comedy
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: and I love their stylings, and I watched what they're doing. Um,
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: but I know that my journey is different. And Tiffany
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: hot is just a really good friend of mine. What
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: she does in comedy, she also does process that seeing pain.
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: She's also very physical. She's got a lot of physicality
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: in her comedy. She likes to be really silly sometimes,
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: and that's just not my personality. You just told me
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: I look like a fourth grade teacher, because that's just
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: who I am, and you know I am. Had I
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: not encountered Chris Rock behind the scenes, had I not
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: encountered Dave Chappelle behind the scenes, I would feel like
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: I'm not a comedian. I would feel like I'm not
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: cut out for this. But the people who I really
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: like respect and then whose style of comedy I like,
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: like Bill Burr, They're just like me when they're behind
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: the scenes. They're just chilling. They're not like cracking jokes.
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: They're not on all the time. They don't need all
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: the attention in the room. Was like, I am a
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: comed know exactly. But you know, the interesting thing about
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: it is that as a comedian we always trying to
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: get to the next laugh real fast. You know, you
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: gotta I gotta hear that joke otherwise I'm a freak
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: out on stage. You it's more important to get your
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: story out in the laugh will be associated with it,
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: but it's really more important to you to get your
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: it's a message in your stand up comedy. I'm just
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: telling everybody, you know, I never heard of either. It's
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: not a not a negative thing. When I said so,
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: they say, you know, but she's just stand up. I
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: heard about her work that she had done. I'm talking
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: when I say heard seeing her, and so so when
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: I sit down and do I do my due diligence.
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: If I'm gonna interview someone as talented as you, I'm
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: not just gonna halfway go through the process and care
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: you're funny. You're funny. You're funny because I think it's
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: because you have you have a craft, and it's a
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: very It's a very key craft because you can't sing
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: your way out of up bad joke, you know what
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: I'm saying. You know, if Joe ain't going you, you
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: just can't suddenly just start singing, you know. And it's
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: a tap dance, not on what we do with stand ups.
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: You know, when that ship started going down, you know
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: what I'm talking about, that start going down? You are
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: sunk and so watching your journey, how did you we
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: talk about That's what you decided. But how did you
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: get into stand up comedy? And then when you realize
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: that you know something I can do this? Those are
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: two questions right there. So I'll tell you the truth.
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: I love stand up comedy since I was a little kid.
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: My uncle, my uncle David, who's my the youngest of
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: my uncle's. My mother had me really young, so I
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: grew up in the house with my grandmother and my
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: uncle's and my uncle's were you know, very My uncle's
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: gave me hip hop, they gave me comedy, They gave
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: me Bruce Lee, and they gave me most importantly, more
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: important than every anything else, and you mentioned them earlier,
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: they gave me Mohammed Ali. So um, you know I
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: always was fascinated with comedy. I used to grab the
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: broomstick to entertain my mom. She said, I used to
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: put a towel over my head and I used to
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: make her laugh. Um, I used to sing singing to her.
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: I syrink, but she's like, I always made her laugh.
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: I always was fascinated with comedy and it was something
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: that I wanted to do, but I wasn't encouraged to
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: do that because women, especially in my culture, are never
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: encouraged to do stuff that feels masculine. So, UM, I
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: was doing a My friend had a birthday party and
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: she invited me to come do a roast because she
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: always thought I was funny. And she was like, I
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: don't want anybody who's not thoughtful to roast me because
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: I don't want somebody to just, you know, just degradate
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: me or if I wanted to be thoughtful, and so
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: she was like, I know that if you do it,
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: it's going to come from a place of love. But
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: she also invited Chris Spencer to do that because Chris
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: Spencer and her um were classmates. So after the roast,
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: Chris Spencer comes up to me and says, write this down.
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: He was like the Westwood Growing Company. And I was like,
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: what's that. He said, that's on the open mic. He said, you,
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: my friend, are a stand up comedian and you need
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: you because my career just was not taken off as
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: an actress. I'm tall, I'm five ten, and that's just
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: it's really hard when you're tall and not white in
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: and let's just keep it real, you know, in this business.
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: Um you know there he got Charlie's there and Sobriney Weaver.
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: But it's just been really hard for tall women who
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: are not already famous because of course Tyra Banks can
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: get a role. And so he was like, you should
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: be you should do stand up. You should at least
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: try it, he said. I I could be wrong. He
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: was like, but I know what I know, and when
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: I see a stand up I know what it is.
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: And I started doing it. Um. I was on the
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: radio some I was talking somewhere and Speedy invited me
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: to come to Speedy's comedy Corner on the on the Foxhole.
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: And he also was like, girl, you need to start
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: doing stand up. You you are a stand up comedian.
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: So they had this comedy show that they were doing
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: with the Foxhole in Arizona. I was hosted by Bernard
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: Dette Stanis, who is Thelma from Good Times, the Queen
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: that I love this woman. She was like the epitome
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: of beauty to me when I was going out, and
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: so she they I go and do this show. And
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: as you would know, when you first do stand up,
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: your first show, you always do well right, because it's
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: all adrenaline and if all that energy and all the
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: funny you have stored up from your whole life and
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: you just give it to that that first five minutes
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: and you think when you walk off there that you
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: Richard pryor absolutely then so you know. So then um,
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: I go do first Impressions at Chocolate Sundays. Um Pooky
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: And my friend who's who had the birthday roast is
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: really good friends with Pooky too, and she said, Pooky,
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: you gotta put her on stage. She's a comede. She's
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: gonna be good, you know. He's like, she's not ready yet,
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: and and Leah's like, it's my birthday. It was it
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: was Memorial weekend. She was like, you gotta put her
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: on stage. Three minutes at right, I get on stage.
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: I my first joke, hits, I get cocky. I see
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: Pookie in the audience. I look at Pookie and I said,
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: you said, I wasn't ready, mother, you know what? And
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: then I went back to my set and our bomb
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: for the rest of the two You know, when you
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: bomb in two minutes feels like two minutes, it's ten minutes.
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: It's like, you know, it's like the worst. I just
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: melted onto the stage and that after that the stage
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: because I need to tippy about Chocolate Sunday. Chocolate Sunday
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: is deep premiere comedy night in Los Angeles. So she
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: wasn't like at a little side hole and and this
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: whole comedy club is tied to the whole Kevin Hard,
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: which is tied to Jeff Clanagan. So she was like
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: at the Who's Who Club, And that's what they call
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: it Chocolate Sundays. And so out you go down there
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: in Hollywood is a line out the door every time.
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: So her good friend put her on the spot in
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: the top venue. It used to be Coming Stories who
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: was right down the street, but just not anymore. It's
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: just the Laugh Factory. And so she was walking on
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: stage and she directed her little cute little phrase and
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: my man Pooky who was a nice guy. He's shot you,
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: by the way, just like Kevin Hard. And she walked
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: off that stage amidst silas. I remember one time either
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: I walked off stage to silence, and then the people
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: started to clap right, no no, no, no, no, no
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: no no. Please give me the same reaction y'all gave
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: me for the time I was on stage. So don't
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: suddenly give me energy like you really. If it's to
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: get me on stage the applause, give it to them.
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: But if it's just an applaud applause, give me that
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: same silence I've experienced. So I know when you walked
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: on stage it was not a good moment for you.
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: How people were like good, good, I love it, and
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: that at the moment that led you to acting still
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: led you to writing. But do you like the moment
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: though when I'm bombed though, And I'm sorry to cut
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: you off, but that was the moment. Because I did
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: really well in Arizona that very first show that I
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: was on stage. I got enough, I got a standing
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: ovation and I realized I wasn't talking about nothing I was.
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: I didn't have a set. I was just on stage
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: talking and they were laughing at what I was saying,
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: and I thought that was stand up. When I went
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: to Chocolate Sundays and I actually wrote some jokes and bombed,
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: is when I realized that comedy stand up comedy is
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: an art and a science, and it's not just people talking.
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: There is structure behind it. And that was when I bombed.
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: Was when I said to myself, I want to do this.
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: I want to figure this. I want to get on
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: that stage and get the laughs from beginning to end,
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: and I'm gonna sit down and I'm gonna figure out
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: how to do that. Wells does not bomb in her
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: special HBO Max Special Cars fighting words. She's historical and
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: by the way, she's five ten, but I got a
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: complimentary She has beautiful legs, y'all. She wears an outfit
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: when she reminds everybody that she's five ten, it's white
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: and she is like, now, how did you pick out that?
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: If I gotta go there, because I looked as I
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: appreciate you asking about that because that often means a
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: lot to me. So the designer who made that outfit
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: is a lot Latino designer that was on Project Runway
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: who reached out to me on on Instagram and said, hey,
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: I don't know how, but he's like, I love you,
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: I love what you stand for, and I want to
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: His name is Celestino. He said, I want to make
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: something for you. How do I show up for you?
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: So we talked about it. He actually made all the
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: outfits that I wore in the special, the ones I
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: wore in the Dominican Republic Puerto Rico, and the one
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: I wanted stage. But those cutouts that you see at
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: the top are the cutouts of the Taino people and
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: um It's which are the indigenous people of Puerto Rico,
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and that's my grandfather's tribe. So
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: that's what inspired that outfit. Beautiful. Now let's go to
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: the documentary side. You know, I don't know if I
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: got sad. You know, your your dad. You got to
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: meet him that uncomfortable moment. It was uncomfortable for me
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: watching it all right, when you finally made him. It
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: was do I tug him? Do I opened the door?
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: Do I say, Daddy? What the heck is? What was
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: running through your mind? Meeting your father and meeting your
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: father being taped simultaneously? You know it was. It was
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: a chance that I took um a couple of reasons. One,
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: I wanted to have that moment forever because my father's old,
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: and I don't know, I didn't because of COVID and
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: all of the stuff that was happening with his uh
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: you know, him being deported and not being able to
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: come here and all of that stuff. I was like,
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: I don't know what I'm gonna see him again, if
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna see him again, but I definitely want to
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: hold that moment because you can't see it when it's happening.
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: You can only feel it. So I wanted to go
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: back and see it, um, which I saw for the
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: you know, it was it was really painful to watch. UM.
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: The other thing is that there are a lot of
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: us who have not grown up with our parents with
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: a parent, a mother or a father, and we have
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: this idea about what it's gonna be, you know, like
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: we had like, oh, when I meet my father, we're
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: gonna hug make up for lost time. And I just
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: wanted to just I wanted to give a nod to
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: a lot of people who have experienced this and just
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: to let them know it's okay. Um, you know, sometimes
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: somebody's not in your life and you know the most,
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: High knows the most. And so for me, it was, um,
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: I wanted to just free a lot of little girls
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: and little boys like me who haven't been around their
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: parents and to let them know that they're not alone,
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: that a lot of people go through that. And it's
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: okay to feel what you feel because you saw I
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: didn't look excited and like I like I said, when
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: I say the word comfortable, it's good. It's a good
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: uncomfortable because you know she is this is a sincere moment.
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: This is a moment that you know, two ways she
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: could have. She could be dreading this moment and she
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: could be wishing for this moment simultaneously, which is what
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: she leads to Like a lot of doubt and a a
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: lot of questions. You feel it all in that one
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: moment right there. And even when he sits down, he
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: doesn't know what to do either, you know. And so
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: so you have two people coming into a space. They
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: know their names, but they don't know who they are.
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: They don't know what to say. And that's why it's
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: this special was so good because it takes you on
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: all these journeys or you're gonna laugh a lot at
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: the special fighting words. I laughed a lot. I enjoyed it.
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: I you know, I didn't pause at one time when
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: when when she walked out on stage in the Bronx
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: and and announced herself and standing there's five all five
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: for ten of her and the crowd so low they
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: standing up for her. The DJ announces her, she come
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: out on stage doing her little dance and all that
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: good stuff, and she dances away and to the Puerto Rico.
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: She dances away to the Dominican Republic. And then you know,
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: I'm a foodie. Now, I kind of got mad because
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: you see them to all that great food, talk about
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: the food, talk about the experience that you're going back
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: to Puerto Rico, and bluff. I'll be remissed. She pays
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: it forward, y'all because she has other young comedians on
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: the show and just recognize them. They're not doing full sets,
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: but the fact that she allowed that to happen was
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: a blessing for their careers because a lot of people
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: are gonna watch this special and just being able to
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: tag that because people healter our tifty Hanitch just hep
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: to out want the psychists Shaquille Neilans he to out,
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: you know, even Pooky Helter out her best friend he out.
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: So she's always had Chris Spence he to Speedy Helter.
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: So she's always had this mindset that if I've been here,
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna help somebody else. That is really the nature
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: of your personality. And I just wanted to say you
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: are good. I'm a fan now. I may not I
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: know who I Riquets was, but I know who she
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: is now and I will always support you. Thank you.
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: I appreciate that. And as you called that list of names,
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: if you make uh, there's one distinct commonality in all
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: of them is that they're all Black American people. And
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: I say Black American because there are black Latinos to
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: Latin the people, and I want to I want to
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: bring to light that. But I just want to say
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: that had it not been for the Black American community,
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: my career would not have taken off. And the thing
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: is that I'm always going to be thankful for that,
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: and I hope that we can spill that into my
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: community to learn how to support each other that way
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: and to pay it forward and not to just blow
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: each other up because it's always been. I mean, Tama
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: Goings and Valerie Bending are the ones that that put
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: me on the Shock All Star was the first Latin
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: person to ever do that. Wanda Sykes and Page her
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: With put me all Last Comic Standing, Tiffany gave me
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: my first half hour special, and that has always been
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: something very important and meaningful. I grew up in a
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: in a predominantly black and brown community. My high school
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: had two white kids. Everybody was Latin or black, and
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: we and we rocked with each other because it was
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: us against the world. You know, we had our beaks internally.
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: Of course, to say that that that didn't happen is
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: a lie. But at the end of the day, when
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: we were gonna do speech and debate, it would be
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: us against the white boys, because we are all we had.
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: And I'm always gonna be eternally grateful for the people
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: who showed up for me. Kenna Hart also put me
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: on l O L. He's the first person to bring
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: to put me up on a stage in Montreal for
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: the just the last a couple of years ago. Absolutely, so,
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: you know, I mean, we can't just you know, exploit
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: the black community and then you know, forget about them
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: when we win, because a lot of people do that,
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: and I'm always I'm always gonna rock with my people.
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: And when I say my people, I say black and
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: brown people because that's really who my people, that's who,
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: that's my people, My dear. She's a comedian, she's an actress, writer, producer,
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: executive producer, Ida Rodriguez, Fighting words. It's Aaron now HBO
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: Max Uh. It's a comedy special slash documentary. It's travels.
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: It's an inside look at a brilliant stand up comedy mind.
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: And guess what, she's funny. Thank you for coming on
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: my show. Thank you for having me on my show,
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: and keep doing the good work. We appreciate it, We
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: need you, and um that's part of my work. My
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: one work is bringing financial literacy to the communities that
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: are like mine and and we gotta keep doing it.
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: So keep doing the good work. Thank you, Thank you,
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: big timer. If you want to hear or see any
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: of my interviews and money making conversations, please go to
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: money Making Conversation dot com. Roshan McDonald I am your host.
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: You've been listening to money Making Conversations with Rashan McDonald.
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: Please join us next week and always remember leaving with
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: your gifts. Money Making Conversations is a presentation of thirty
• 1:00:31
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• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations Minute of Inspiration with Rashan McDonald Him
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: Rushan McDonald for Money Making Conversation with your daily minute
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: of Inspiration. This week I sat down with the executive coach,
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: pastor and author of Chasing Failure, How Falling Short to
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: set you up for success? Ryan Leak. He champions operating
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: based on the true desires of your heart as opposed
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: to being pressured by others to fit their expectations. I
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  Speaker 1: can't tell you how many business owners are just doing
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  Speaker 1: the family business just because it's the family business and
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: haven't paused long enough to go what else would you do?
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: And there was so much pressure on them from a
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: very early age that you're going to take this business
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: that that can bring about tremendous pressure of going. You
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: already filled in the plane with my future, and so
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: some people don't feel the permission to start over and
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: have a clean slate. And I like to just tell
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: them who's making those rules. If you want to listen
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: to this four interview with Ryan leak is available home
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