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

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

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