Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Kym Whitley, An Emmy-Nominated Actress, Award-Winning Podcast Host, Single Mom, and Stand-Up Comedian.

Transcript

Kym Whitley, An Emmy-Nominated Actress, Award-Winning Podcast Host, Single Mom, and Stand-Up Comedian. · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: It's to show that she is the secrets of success
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: experience firsthand by marketing and branding expert Rashan McDonald. I
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: will know he's giving me advice on many occasions. In in
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: case you didn't notice, I'm not broke. You know, he'll
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: be interviewing celebrity CEOs, entrepreneurs and industry decision makers.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: It's what he likes to do, it's.
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: What he likes to share.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Now it's time to hear from my man, Rashaan McDonald
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: money Making Conversations.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: There we go.
• 0:30
  Speaker 4: Hi, I'm Rashan mcdonald' the host money Making Conversation Masterclass.
• 0:34
  Speaker 4: The interviews and information this show provides are for everyone.
• 0:37
  Speaker 4: It's time to stop reading other people's success stories and
• 0:40
  Speaker 4: start living your own. My guest is Keim Whitney. She's
• 0:43
  Speaker 4: Nature BC you graduate, activist, author, comedian, and most importantly,
• 0:47
  Speaker 4: a mom. Kay was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and I
• 0:50
  Speaker 4: found out raised in Sudan, Africa. Seventy We got to talk.
• 0:55
  Speaker 4: We got to talk with talk a success nahaloist started
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: with me as a cloud.
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: You know, That's all I knew.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Then I found out through more research a Copter school teacher.
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: We would discuss her career outside of acting, the legacy
• 1:11
  Speaker 4: of our differend uh David omm the w GA strike,
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: SAG strike, and this impact on everybody's career because I'm
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: a member of SAG. I'm a member of WGA. Please
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: work with the Money Made Conversations Master Class headlining stand
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: up comedian Kim Whitley.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Hey, don't care?
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: What's that?
• 1:30
  Speaker 5: Shine?
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: How are you? That is so money? Look? Boy, look
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: how people make money. Now. Your studio didn't look like
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: this last time I was on are Oh you got a.
• 1:41
  Speaker 5: Mom?
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: I mean it's fans. See you got people behind you.
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: This is still cash and I still got the same
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: right in the background. I got to get it together.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Hey, kep upgrading trying to do my thing, you know,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: and I appreciate it. You know you behind me though,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: you see right there?
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I love it. Look at that I looked. I
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: love that. Oh yeah, I better be on that.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: That thing absolutely one of the originals. You know, when
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: I first started Money Made Conversation.
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: You call your friends, you call the people you trust,
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: people believe in you.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: And she didn't hesitate, And she's never hesitated.
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: And I've always been there for her, and I've always
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: been there in a position to be able to promote
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: the things that she value important in her life.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: And uh, it's been a blessing.
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: And but we all know that right now, at the
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: time of this interview, we're right in the middle of
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: a w G A and A as a sack stripe
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: And like I said earlier, I'm a member of both.
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: And I went on your social media and I saw
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: miss the Emmy Award winning Shirley Raff uh talking about
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: the importance of why this strike should happen, the importance
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: of standing strong, and importance of being a team. I've
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: seen uh uh social media posts of you out there, uh,
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: standing in the strike, and it's hot out that it
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: ain't a cold experience. You know, it's not fun out there.
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: So if you could just educate before we just get
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: into Kim and the things that you're involved the way,
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: especially the podcasts and the stand up coming talk about
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: the strike, because I have some ideas I want to
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: share with my audience because I don't think it's fair
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: what's happening to writers, what's happening to actors, especially on
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: the residual side.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Kim to Florida.
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: I thank you so much, absolutely, And of course you know,
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: I forget, you know, your career has been so long.
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: I forget you used to be the writer and the producer.
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: I forget that you used to be Sayda like you
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: have traveled this whole journey with us, and you know
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: exactly what we go through. And this strike was here
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: before two thousand and eight. We've done this before. That's
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: probably when you were definitely out here, you know, writing
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: and producing the first strike. I was a young actress,
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: so I already was broke, and I already probably had,
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: you know, I remember probably having you know, a regular
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: job and trying to be an actress. But I also
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: I was on the picket line and helping because even
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: if you're not in sag or in the unions, even
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: as a writer, people who are are striving to be
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: that they walk with us, they strike with us because
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: they want those things. And what has happened is a
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: lot of actors, including myself, I checked on mine yesterday,
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: live on residuals. And what people have to understand rights
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: jewels is there. That's what you live on in between jobs.
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: And I want the world to understand that you think
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: movie stars. That is the one percent. Everyone else is
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: working just like you, paycheck to paycheck and so so
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: the residuals are these small checks that come in between.
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: Every time a show is shown on another network or
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: it's a repeat, we get a little chunk, just a
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: little chunk. But it's enough to pay a light bill,
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: it's enough to feed our children. So when they stop
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: paying those residuals, everyone will perish. And I mean, this
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: craft will be done. The writers will be done, the
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: actors will be done, because that is the majority of
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: the people. And you have to realize that without writers,
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: you can't have actors, because actors are not We're using
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: the words of the writers, and if you allow this
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: ai to happen, it won't be good. We have to
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: understand those are computers coming up with scripts. They're not
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: going to be creative. They're not going to be different.
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: You will see things repeated over and over, and then
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: you will see me on every show in the same shirt,
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: the same hairstyle, doing some words from a robot. We got.
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: That is the main thing that we are fighting for.
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: And I wanted to listen to get my background because
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: I started writing in ninety three Steve Harvey gave me
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: my first shot on ABC, my first writer's job, and
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: I believe they when I got that contract, I actually
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: looked around and go, they're giving me the right and
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: because you know, and also from a minority standpoint, it
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: was very few African America people of color getting.
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: Jobs as a writer.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: Let alone absolutely got his job. Like now now.
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: I explained this to George Wallace because I wanted to
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: tell everybody from my perspective, when I got my first
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: writing job, were talking to ninety three.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: I was hired to do.
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: Twenty two episodes, twenty two episodes, right, twenty two episodes
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: or be a part of twenty two episodes that we're
• 6:49
  Speaker 4: going to be produced, and they produced them one a week,
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: one a week, then they take a break one a week,
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: one a week.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Listen to me when I say that.
• 6:56
  Speaker 4: And then we got We started in June and we
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: worked to March. So that meant that April, May, June, July.
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: You know, we had like basically three months because March
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: was off, April off in May, and so we come
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: back to work in June.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: And so that allowed me to actually have a job
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: where the checks were.
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: Being paid, pay rent, paid food, if I paid little, vacation,
• 7:21
  Speaker 4: medical insurance was being paid.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: Now that don't work like that.
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: They alread in eight episodes, they already ten episodes, and then.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: Tyler Perry figured out a way to double up.
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: And not saying negative thing about Tyler Perry, I'm just
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: saying the way the production has changed. You're doing a
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: series of twenty four episodes in two weeks, and there
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: was are traumas. That's what he was able to accomplish
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: basically during the COVID. And so that means that people
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: who are cameramen, people who are caterers, people who are grips,
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: people who are in stage production who normally will have
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: worked roughly four months to a minimum, are not working
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: weeks less than a month. And so didn't you take
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: away the residual? Like you said, that becomes a big
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: problem for us all. And I really wanted to get
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: that out on both sides of this table, because people
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: need to understand that we want to be out there,
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: we want to write, we want to but what's happening
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: is streaming is in the from the acting standpoint, is
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: treating us like they did the music artists. In other words,
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: they would do the audio, the act that singers wouldn't
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: get paid. The publicists they get a check, and the
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: and the writers will get a check. In the same
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: situation here, it's just giving out flat fees. They pay
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: you this, there's no future. They don't care how many
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: times they run it. And it's it's an exact situation
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: just that. For instance, uh it Secure just got sold
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: from HBO to Netflix.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: So that's what I'm saying.
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: All these big companies are doing business if you're not involved,
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: and you just sitting there on the sideline, just struggling, struggling, struggling,
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: And that's really what it is.
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: Correcto's sitting there struggling. People understand, And there's the grips
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: and the costumers that they can go from gig the
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: gig because they're doing the work for another show and
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: they can go. They might not get residuals. We're talking
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: about the crew. But when there's a strike, everyone suffers.
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: And if you're in a city like New York and
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: Los Angeles, the majority of the city is made up
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: of these people. Los Angeles is made up of everyone.
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: It takes to make a movie and a TV show
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: because you have all the grips, the craft services, you have,
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: the restaurants that feed us. It's all these people. So
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: when a strike happens, now the mayor even's like, I
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: got to get involved because the economy is going back,
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: you're gonna have we already have a homeless problem, We're
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: gonna have even bigger homeless problem. So people have to
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: get involved to talk to these studios to say, hey,
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: enough is enough. You're messing with the economy.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: So it's it's it's you know, it's really you.
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: You tapped in the summer. I'm gonna tell you something.
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: I've lived in New York, I lived in Houston, lived
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: in Chicago, living in this currently live in Atlanta. The
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: homeless situation in Los Angeles is crazy. You think you
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: got a homeless.
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: Problem, go to l A.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: How about out Huh, It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous.
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: And you're just saying right now, this particular strike can
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: only compound this situation and make things even worse. And
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: I just wanted to bring that up because of the
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: fact that you know, you and I are both involved
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: in the industry. We both play a major role in
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: you know, entertaining people. We've been entertaining people all our lives,
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: and it's important that you are appreciated and not you know,
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: look down upon, because they see, you know, uh, Kevin
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: Hard a big deal, or they see Wesley, They'll see, you.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Know, my man.
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: Digital Washington's big deal or Samuel Jackson's big deal, or
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: Bradley Cooper's a big deal.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: That ain't the every day Let's.
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: Really go break it down. Ra Sean, Billy Porter. Billy Porter,
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: who is a huge actor. He has to sell his
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: house because of this strike. So we have to think
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: about Billy Porter might not be Denzel, but he is
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: definitely at a level that he was making a certain
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: amount of money to pay for it. Might have been
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: a new house, I don't know, but he was very
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: upset and he voiced it. So we gotta think about
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: the people. They are the very top top, and then
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: they are the ones in the middle, and then there
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: are every day, even our background actors who want to
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: get one hundred dollars to do a show maybe a
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: day or something like.
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: That Lovely Ship for the Gears here this you know,
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: when you know somebody for a long time, you.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Know they talented.
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: Kim Whittley is one of those people where before she
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: started being as talented as she is a stand up
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: coming people always called me and said, on who you
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: recommend to be a funny hope? I said, Ki with me?
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: She knows m I said, I knew she wasn't there's
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: a stand up.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: But she was just gifted.
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: I mean she walked out on stage, nothing bothered her.
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: I remember when we were in the Bermuda and with
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: earth Winding Fire. She was like remember that, and and
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: the promoter said, who you recommend to come out there
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: and host? I said, Kim Whitley, Kip with me, and
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: she came out Because I always knew there was something
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: about you. First of all, you're not afraid of anything.
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: And then but the fact that I just knew I'm
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: talking about that audience, you know, because it was like
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: about ten thousand people standing at you in Bermuda and
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: the headlining.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: Was earth Windy Fire. Remember with earth headline?
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: David with me, Yes, and remember Ethan Hamilton's there, Steve
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: harpin all that.
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: That was so excited. Did you remember that?
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: Because Gladys Knight was hanging out, she came on the
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: sideline and then little miss kill really out there hosting
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: this big old event, and I said come, and she
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: came and paid it.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: She did everything.
• 13:26
  Speaker 6: Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
• 13:29
  Speaker 6: money Making Conversations Masterclass. You are now tuned into the
• 13:37
  Speaker 6: money Making Conversations. Minute of Inspiration with Rashawn McDonald.
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: Patti LaBelle is an award when your singer and actress
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: who has been called the Godmother of soul. She started
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: her career in the sixties and is still on top
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: of her game as an entertainer and businesswoman.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: So when Patti label speaks, you should listen.
• 13:55
  Speaker 5: I noticed since I've been performing for fifty six years,
• 13:58
  Speaker 5: I've touched so many people just when I hug them
• 14:00
  Speaker 5: or when I smile and say something positive to them.
• 14:03
  Speaker 5: They don't cost you enoughing to be a lister of people.
• 14:06
  Speaker 5: It's natural for me. I was born with this. I'm
• 14:09
  Speaker 5: a total giver. It don't cost me nothing to give
• 14:12
  Speaker 5: what God has given me. So I give it and
• 14:14
  Speaker 5: with a smile on my face. And as I said,
• 14:17
  Speaker 5: I'm seventy six. Whenever I go and say that, I
• 14:19
  Speaker 5: get this great feeling from the audience that they're pleased
• 14:22
  Speaker 5: to be with me that night. Now I'm going to
• 14:23
  Speaker 5: give them something special.
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: If you want to hear this full interview with Patty Label,
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: visit Moneymaking Conversation dot com.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: Keep winning.
• 14:35
  Speaker 6: Welcome back to the Money Making Conversations Masterclass hosted by
• 14:39
  Speaker 6: Rashaan McDonald.
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: When did you start getting the stand up bug? Was
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: that the early days, just walking out there? When did
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: you start putting the thoughts or the seeds of being
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: a stand up?
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: I mean, we could really be transparent here because you're
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: my guy, and I probably should have called you a
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: long time ago. This is the truth is this. There's
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: always fear, but I don't want the audience to think
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: there's fear because if the audience thinks you're afraid, they're
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: not gonna ride with you. You have to be fearless
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: and go out there and be free. And it's interesting.
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: I've always you know, like that improv stand up and
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: just talking to people I've loved. But when you put
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: people think anyone can do stand up, you can't. It
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: really is an art to stand up. And I started
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: writing things down, like right when that movie Harlem Knights
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: was out, and I had this little pot of paper,
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: whatever reason a pad of paper might have been like
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: this big you know, and I used to write down
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: with the things that I thought I might have had
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: three four jokes. And I met Red Fox and Ronaldo
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: Ray and Richard Pryor and of course Eddie Murphy. And
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: the truth is I've always had I have a funny family,
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: and I grew up with all boys, so you know,
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: they were joning on me all the time. And you know,
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: during that movie, I was the I was the guardian
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: of the little boy in the movie because my friend,
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: his father was an actor, couldn't make it that that day.
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: He said, Kim, could you go to set? And I
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: remember walking around a corner and Ronaldolray, you know, Ronaldo
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: Ray trying to be funny. There were no chairs, and
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor and of course Red Fox
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: were sitting in those director's chairs. And I went around,
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: you know, in the set, I went around one of
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: those corners and I saw these greats and I was
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: so nervous I jumped. I was like, oh my god,
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: I went around the wrong corner, like how do I
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: get you know, I was like, oh my god, cat
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: my back pedal. And Ronaldo Ray looked at me and say,
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: hat hey, little girl, you know. He says, as long
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: as I got a face, you got somewhere to sit.
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: All No, but you know Kim from Cleveland, And I
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: remember looking at him and saying, and it's long long
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: as you got a face like that, I guess I'll
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: be standing. And all I know is Red Fox spitty
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: his coffee, or it was Richard Pryor they jumped out
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: their seats. Bernaldo Ray was red.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: He was mad.
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: I was in a sheer Hennick and Red Fox came
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: up to me and said, are you a stand up?
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: And I said, I said no, but I want to be.
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: And he said, get ten minutes of material together and
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: I'll help you. And he said, I'm tired of saying
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: he's uh be funny. That's what he said to me.
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: I was like, he said, he said, pretty funny, And
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: ten minutes for Sean is a stand up? You a
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: new stand I was like ten minutes. And I was
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: scared because my mother was like sex and rock and
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: roll in LA and I didn't know. I was not
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: hungry enough or I was not fearless to say give
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: me your number, let's go. Didn't do it. Red Fox
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: died the day he died. He died I went out
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: and did my first three minutes of stand up because
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: I felt like I missed an opportunity and it pushed
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: me in that direction. And I'm still not where I
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: should be.
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: Oh Rashaan in that I'm gonna tell you something I
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: know you may not be because you know you always drive,
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: You always driving for the ultimate joke.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: That's when you're a comedian.
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: Because there's a lot people going to say this is
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: they think they find a day, get off Staate and
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: walk off State like they've done something. Not a blessing
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: to see sheer Shepherd and her on tour several dates
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: in the Northeast, and I, you know, because when you
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: hadn't saw somebody in a long time and then you
• 18:49
  Speaker 4: see them perform at the level that she was performing,
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: I was like takeing aback in a good way. And
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: I told her, I said, you're your stand there for real?
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: And you really didn't accept that? What because you thought
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: I was. I was just saying something to but you
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: really have That's what I'm saying. I'm just trying to
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: get when did it turn? When did they click that
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: this is what you could do as a stand up
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: because as an actress, you're phenomenal, but it's a stand
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: up that's a whole no script. Audiers don't know you.
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: You have to every certain amount of seconds, you got
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: to generate some type of positive response, was a lab
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: or a clap or gold girl or whatever.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: That's a certain fear that you have to own.
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: And you know when it clicked when my dear friend,
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: the late great David Arnold, we went on tour together
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: and I was forced to do stand up. So what
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: David said was, Kim, we're going to use your celebrity
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: to get in these clubs. Right, That's what it was, right.
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: I don't want I'm an improv stand up. I don't
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: like doing the same material. That was the biggest thing
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: to get over. I like talking. He said, Kim, to
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: be a stand up, you have to repeat the joke.
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: And I didn't even like listening to my own voice.
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: So I had to get over that and we would
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: book the date. So I was forced and David and
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: David was we have a running joke. We had a
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: running joke that I complained I quit before every show.
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: I was like, I quit, I can't I can't do it.
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: Two shows a night, one show Thursday, two shows Friday,
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: two shows Saturday, and one show Sunday, right in these clubs.
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: I was like, Oh, that's a lot of work and lazy.
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: So David, he said, We're gonna use your celebrity to
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: get me in these clubs so they'll know me. They
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: don't know me. The radio station never gave him headphones
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: to talk, and they were always with me. This one.
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: People don't understand. He was the heavy, I was the name,
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: so I would get them. So I would. We would
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: do these clubs. We'd have a person bring us up.
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: I would do first twenty minutes, and then I would
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: introduce some because I always said, I'm dying a ross.
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: This is my Michael Jackson coming to the stage. But
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: what they don't realize is I was bringing him up
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: to close because I knew he was gonna take it home.
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: And then we went up together and we cut a hole.
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: So that's when it happened when I really started developing
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: my act. We did, he said, she said, And.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: Y'all did the look for a number of years, right.
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: We did. And then he he got so strong and
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: so poppular. He was going back to the club, selling
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: out and adding shows. I was like, really, just gonna
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: leave me. He's gonna leave me, and he.
• 21:30
  Speaker 4: Did because I because it was for funny, Because you know,
• 21:32
  Speaker 4: when he when I saw his first Netflix fail, we
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: talked from David Arnold and I was shot in Cleveland,
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: and then I saw Kim Whitley, I said, and then
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: I called you. I said, David Arnold was incredible. I said,
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: can you give me his number? So I called it
• 21:48
  Speaker 4: and I called him and I just and he just
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: couldn't believe I called him.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: He said, you calling me? I said, yeah, dude, I
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: gotta tell you man, you funny brother. I said, can
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: I interview? He said, you can interview me? And it
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: was it was a blessing.
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: I think when I look at the whole relationship that
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: you and him had, Okay, he was smart enough to realize, look,
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: I don't nobody know me, but I'm funing. They know her,
• 22:14
  Speaker 4: but she needs to understand put and she can be
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: even more funny. So he gifted you with the work
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: that now you're taking advantage of because you got a
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: closing bit that you do on stage, girl.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: As a killer.
• 22:29
  Speaker 4: I'm gona tell you so, I ain't gonna tell you
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: how something, but first of her whole set is beautiful.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: The whole set is beautiful.
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: And and as a as a stand up and I
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: watched for women to do stand up is even more difficult.
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: It's more difficult for see a young lady who is
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: came into the acting game and then went on stage
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: gifted and provd person. And then David said, look stop,
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: we're gonna end.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: This right now. You let her Red five go. We're
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: gonna We're gonna make it happen right now.
• 23:04
  Speaker 4: And then all of a sudden, you're blessed and now
• 23:08
  Speaker 4: doing the strike you able to generate revenue for yourself
• 23:11
  Speaker 4: as a stand up comedian.
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, Ra Sean, you are hitting that one on the
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: head because since we can't do any performance for TV,
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: we are definitely you know, I'm just like it's happening.
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: I have Virginia Beach coming up on September eighth through
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: the ninth at the Funny Bone, and then I have Bethesda,
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: Maryland with Sherry you know, our two Funny Mamas on
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: October twenty eighth and Atlanta Comedy Theater November twenty fourth,
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: I mean November second to the fourth at the Atlanta
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: Comedy Theater. I came back I was like, so you
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: turned down? Did I take that? I did? I gotta
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: be forced. I gotta be forced. Atlanta Comedy Theater, November second.
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: And let me tell you why Rashan is so difficult
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: for me. It is I'm trying to ask her. H
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: It's difficult for me because I go back to the
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: old Kim that I don't like hearing the same jokes.
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: Do I sit down and write the jokes?
• 24:18
  Speaker 5: No?
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: Do I need to hire a joke writer? Yes? And
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: my stories and I have lots of jokes. I don't
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: take the I need new stuff to keep me excited
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: on stage. That's what I need. So a lot of
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: it comes out when I play with the audience and
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: I improv and have fun. But I really am looking
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: forward to building some stories and the and the truth
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: is this, in order to have stories, you have to
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: live life. You have to have adventures. You got to
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: take chances, you know, you gotta Yeah, I gotta go
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: travel and say, oh, when I went to Africa, let
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: me tell you all what happened. Because it's you. People
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: want to hear about your life and things that happen.
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: And Joshua was stories my son. They're like you don't
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: talk about Joshua in your stand up, And people always
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: ask when I was like, I don't find nothing funny
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: about that little boy just agitated. Just get her mom,
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: I'm mad at him all the time. So I'm trying to.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: Turn see right there, that's he that's her gift.
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: Right when she said that, I'm telling the breeze of
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: people who are funny. When she said that, that made
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: me laugh because once.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: She that's what I'm saying. She's so young in the game.
• 25:27
  Speaker 4: That's why I know she gave eighty years old and
• 25:30
  Speaker 4: she was still won't be making people because one day
• 25:32
  Speaker 4: gonna really click in this she just funny and they
• 25:35
  Speaker 4: as a comedian two plus two really is four.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: And when she said that, ain't nothing funny about that boy.
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: Right there, I'm laughing hard because she was funny and
• 25:45
  Speaker 4: she just spoke because she's so brilliant and the way
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: we've seen her on so many scripted shows and HBO
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: and David you know you that was a big blow
• 25:55
  Speaker 4: up for you and blow and just being in prov
• 25:58
  Speaker 4: and being African Eric and being featured in that way that.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: Was you.
• 26:04
  Speaker 6: Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
• 26:07
  Speaker 6: Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Let me tell you about the
• 26:14
  Speaker 6: host of Money Making Conversations, Rushan McDonald. He's a social
• 26:18
  Speaker 6: media influencer.
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: Eighty percent of his one.
• 26:20
  Speaker 6: Million plus social media followers or female. Rushan's a two
• 26:24
  Speaker 6: time Emmy Award winner, three time n Double ACP Image
• 26:27
  Speaker 6: Award winner, sitcom writer, stand Up comic, and former IBM executive,
• 26:32
  Speaker 6: and he has a degree in mathematics. More importantly, Rushan
• 26:36
  Speaker 6: McDonald will interview his business and celebrity relationships to empower
• 26:41
  Speaker 6: you with tips to succeed in your career that you
• 26:43
  Speaker 6: can only hear in the Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
• 26:47
  Speaker 7: Show programming is made possible in part by support from
• 26:55
  Speaker 7: thirty eight to fifteen Media, led by Emmy and n
• 26:58
  Speaker 7: Double ACPM Award winning television producer Rashaun McDonald. Thirty eight
• 27:03
  Speaker 7: fifteen Media offers social media management, podcast production, designs logos,
• 27:09
  Speaker 7: and develops websites. Additional services include brand management and career
• 27:15
  Speaker 7: development consulting services. More information is available at four seven
• 27:20
  Speaker 7: zero six eight eight three eight one five or via
• 27:24
  Speaker 7: email at info at thirty eight fifteen Media dot com.
• 27:28
  Speaker 6: Keep Winning.
• 27:30
  Speaker 8: HBCUs represent Black Excellence. If you attend or are an
• 27:34
  Speaker 8: alumnus of an HBCU. We want to hear about your story.
• 27:38
  Speaker 8: The MYHBCU Story Digital Library will allow current HBCU students
• 27:43
  Speaker 8: and alumni to share their stories. More information is available
• 27:47
  Speaker 8: at HBCU College day dot com. You can upload a photo.
• 27:51
  Speaker 8: The photo can be recent or from when you attended
• 27:54
  Speaker 8: your HBCU. More information is available at HBCU College day
• 27:58
  Speaker 8: dot com.
• 28:01
  Speaker 6: Welcome back to the Money Making Conversations Masterclass hosted by
• 28:05
  Speaker 6: Rashan McDonald.
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: But then, like the funny part before we wrap up,
• 28:08
  Speaker 4: his interview is a couple of stories. I gotta say
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: to her that I didn't know okay, because you know,
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: you read people's bio and you and then because of
• 28:17
  Speaker 4: the strike, we were limited on talking about movies. She's
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: in a TV shows she's starting in. So Rashan had
• 28:24
  Speaker 4: to dig deep.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: D Born in Cleveland, raised in Sudan, Africa.
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: How that's what people are like, how did that happen?
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: You know? Yeah, it's interesting. I'm so glad it did
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: happen because I have that part of my life. My
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: father is an architect, had an architectural right firm. But
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: back in the day when he first started. My father
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: worked for a company Dalton and Dalton, and they were
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: building schools in Africa. They sent over a black family,
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: a white family, and an Asian family. I swear it's
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: the craziest thing. It was the the Baylors, who were
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: still friends with and the Maidenans so and they had
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: so we went to Sudan and it was an amazing
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: experience because I remember as soon as we moved in
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: and there was a spider. I swear the spider was
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: this big on the wall. Maybe because I was a kid,
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: it was a huge spider. But that's how it happened.
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: We my father was building schools and Sudan.
• 29:33
  Speaker 5: And.
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: I know my parents said, you know, once you get
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: to high school, we got to leave because they didn't
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: have high schools American high schools there. But I had
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: an English nursery school teacher that American wreck where we
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: would go over and do all the American holidays. But
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: I wasn't there. Like what happened was there was a
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: Civil war and all the Americans had to get out.
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: When I tell you, we left our dog in the
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: yard with a bone, that's all I remember. I was like,
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: this is all because we got the dog from another
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: family that that had to you know, they brought families
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: in and they gave us the dog. The it was mean.
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: We couldn't even get that dog for two weeks. We
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: had to leave on a leash and send food over
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: with a stick. But became the best dog ever. But
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: when we left, we had to leave the dog and
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: we had to put our stuff on a ship and
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: get it back to America. But in between that time,
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: my parents said, well, you know what, let's travel Europe
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: because we we we we can't be We had somebody
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: living in a house, so we can't go back. It
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: was a lot. It was a lot.
• 30:36
  Speaker 4: That's that's a lot on that story. And then I
• 30:39
  Speaker 4: did some more research.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen.
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: See see whenever I've interviewed Kim, it always starts on parenthood.
• 30:47
  Speaker 4: When I cast her as a that's what.
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: Right now, I want to kiss me now face on love.
• 31:00
  Speaker 4: They want to kiss my grid because she was a
• 31:02
  Speaker 4: class Okay, he was true. Now that's what we always
• 31:06
  Speaker 4: start that interview. Then I do a little research and
• 31:08
  Speaker 4: find out in Compton she was a school teacher. Now
• 31:14
  Speaker 4: Compton Compton.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: Thanks to Wrap every time look up drive by shot.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: Who were you teaching?
• 31:24
  Speaker 4: And how fast did you get out of Compton to
• 31:27
  Speaker 4: be an actress? You know what?
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: It is so funny because you know I didn't know
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: that was my first When I came to Los Angeles,
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: I was like, I got a degree. And when you
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: have a degree, I was like, oh, I can get
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: certain jobs. I was like, I could be a teacher.
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: And my girlfriend, Carla, who went to Fisk with me,
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: she was a teacher, so she got me a job.
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: And do you understand another great experience because Compton was
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: not like you think Compton is. That's the thing. Compton
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: gets a bad name. And I was teaching in schools
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: where these children needed me. They you definitely go in there.
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: And the principals used to call me the general. So
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: I was a substitute teacher and they would call me in.
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: We got to call the general for this class because
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: the teachers that these kids, they was a mess now,
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: but they would scare these teachers off. And you know
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: what I'm talking about, what kind of teachers they would
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: scare them off. Came in and somebody scared me off.
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: I wrote my name on the board and then I
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: broke three yardsticks on the table. That's what I did
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: to start the class off. They was like, oh she crazy,
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: Oh she crazy. Baby. We became the best friends because
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: what we did is wasn't for your books out. Let's
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: do this, I said, let's talk about what's going on.
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: Let's have a good Let's just talk about why you
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: all scaring off these teachers. And we just really bonded.
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: The parents loved me. There were some children I would
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: teach during the summer. One lady was like, if I
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: do your hair for free, could you teach my daughter
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: how to read? Baby? She said. After that happened, her
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: daughter flourished because the daughter was acting up. So I
• 33:08
  Speaker 3: really took a special interest in her and just all
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: the children. Some of them lived in a house with
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: a lot of people. You know, there was Hispanic kids
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: and black kids, and so they didn't sleep at night.
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: A lot of them didn't get enough food, so I
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: made sure I had extra food for some and then
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: some I would let them sleep during class because they
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: didn't get to sleep that night. So it was a
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: lot going on, but I treasured that experience.
• 33:32
  Speaker 4: Wow, she's my good friend. She's a stand up extraordinary.
• 33:36
  Speaker 4: You know, we didn't even talk about the podcast. We
• 33:38
  Speaker 4: didn't talk about the Yeah, we've been talking about everything,
• 33:42
  Speaker 4: but because I had to get to sue An talking,
• 33:45
  Speaker 4: I was not going to get off the show not
• 33:47
  Speaker 4: talking about Confident School Teaching days and sue An.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: So I'm sorry audience.
• 33:52
  Speaker 4: Raseeon had the ass some things he never asked the
• 33:57
  Speaker 4: great incredible standing community.
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: Give him that schedule game before we leave.
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: Oh tour schedule Atlanta Comedy Theater November tewod through the third.
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: Virginia Beach Funny Bone will be on September eighth through
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: the ninth. But that's up. Maryland at the Bethesda Blues
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: and Jazz Club with Me and Sharing will be October
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: twenty eighth, So follow me on Instagram and all social media.
• 34:23
  Speaker 3: Kym Whitley across the board.
• 34:26
  Speaker 4: I love you and we talked so again. Incredible Kim
• 34:29
  Speaker 4: Widley took time to talk to us on Money Making
• 34:31
  Speaker 4: Conversation Master Class with McDon.
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: That's Kim Whidley.
• 34:38
  Speaker 6: Thank you for joining us for this edition of Money
• 34:41
  Speaker 6: Making Conversations Masterclass. Money Making Conversations Masterclass with rough Shan
• 34:46
  Speaker 6: McDonald is produced by thirty eight fifteen Media, Inc. More
• 34:50
  Speaker 6: information about thirty eight fifteen Media Inc. Is available at
• 34:54
  Speaker 6: thirty eight to fifteen media dot Com. And always remember
• 34:58
  Speaker 6: to lead with your gifts and both