- 2 hours ago
In the season two premiere episode of The Hollywood Reporter series Emerging Hollywood, ‘Saturday Night Live’ cast member Chris Redd opens up about growing up in Chicago, pitching skits that are “unapologetically Black,” who wrote Kim Kardashian’s opening monologue and talking openly about mental health.
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00:01Hollywood is being rebuilt by artists not afraid to disrupt the status quo.
00:06Telling fresh stories and bringing to life characters who until now have been confined to the margins.
00:12This is Emerging Hollywood.
00:17Chris Redd, what's up, my brother?
00:19How are you, man?
00:20I'm good, man.
00:21How you feeling?
00:22Feeling good, feeling a little tired.
00:23Okay.
00:24You know, I've been working hard.
00:25That's an honest answer.
00:26I think after COVID, everybody really answers how they feel when somebody says how they
00:31doing.
00:32For real, because I think Small Talk died for a little while.
00:38You moved from Chicago, from St. Louis at the age of eight.
00:42Yeah.
00:43What was that experience like, that change for you as a kid?
00:45Man, it was rough because I didn't want to leave.
00:47I didn't like change as a kid.
00:48I remember specifically my mom saying like she got a job and we were going to move and
00:52I was like, what?
00:53No.
00:54Ma, you said we would never ever leave.
00:56You know what I'm saying?
00:57That child thing.
00:58You said you'd never leave.
00:59We would never go nowhere.
01:00Then we went to Chicago and I was like, oh wait, this is where gangsters are.
01:03I want to come here.
01:04Did you know that when you moved at the time?
01:06Yeah, because I was like really into that, right?
01:09Because my uncles were gang banging and they were the cool ones.
01:11You know what I mean?
01:12And we were the ones that were living on the outskirts of the city.
01:15So I was like really down to get to be around my people.
01:18Because my parents made sure we were always raised like with our southern roots, you know,
01:23intact.
01:24So every six weeks we would go down to Mississippi for three weeks because we had a year round
01:28school in St. Louis.
01:29Basically what it did was it like it kept me grounded, but it also made it so that I can
01:34never feel comfortable anywhere for real.
01:36Like I'm always, I always have to feel like I'm on the move.
01:39Yeah, yeah.
01:40You never get comfortable because you don't know when you have to get up and leave.
01:42Yeah, exactly.
01:43Ooh, that probably gave you trust issues with people too though.
01:45Yes.
01:46I don't know why I pointed at you.
01:48I don't trust you.
01:49I don't trust you.
01:52No, but it made it tough to like set roots down.
01:55And I didn't know that was happening at the time.
01:57But now that I'm like, I've been touring for 12 years doing comedy and I'm like,
02:01that's why I can't sit my ass down nowhere.
02:03How did that impact you in relationships now though?
02:05Because do you still have problems getting close to people?
02:08Well, I'm working.
02:09I've been working on it for some years.
02:10Because I'm in therapy and everything.
02:13So I started to realize like the little triggers that I had that I didn't know what to call
02:18it.
02:19And then when I put the name to the anxiety, my social anxiety I have and like depression
02:23and all that stuff, I was really able to like, oh, I'm not doing this because I don't
02:27like this person or whatever.
02:28I'm doing this because of this thing that happened.
02:30And you was a kid.
02:31Yeah, that I didn't realize.
02:32Now when you moved to Chicago, y'all moved to the suburbs, right?
02:35So were y'all in the hood in St. Louis?
02:37We were in St. Louis proper, then we were in St. Charles, which was just like on the
02:41outskirts.
02:42It was a suburb, a little racist at a suburb.
02:44My parents had an affinity for moving us to white racist suburbs, but they're from Mississippi.
02:49So I think in comparison, it wasn't bad.
02:51You know what I mean?
02:52Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:53I'll take a little bit of racism if it's a better education for my kids.
02:55A hundred percent.
02:56Like they got nice computers.
02:57You can take a there too.
02:58Yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:59Yeah.
03:00Exactly.
03:01They got new books.
03:02What are you complaining about?
03:03Word.
03:04But for us, it was like, yo, I want to be around my people.
03:07How did growing up there shape your outlook of the world?
03:10I saw how work ethic can sustain you.
03:13And being able to communicate with anybody and work with anybody and be around people
03:18is how important to have patience is with people because I had anger issues.
03:22I didn't have a lot of patience when I was younger, but over time I learned how to have
03:26it.
03:27But it really shaped me in being able to go to any situation and feel comfortable.
03:30My family was in the hood, so I would always visit them.
03:33So I was always able to go to any situation and just be able to blend in and know how to
03:37handle myself.
03:38So it really helped in that way.
03:39And then like how to handle like people that I don't agree with.
03:43You know what I mean?
03:44When you say don't agree with, you mean like on a social level?
03:47Mm-hmm.
03:48Racial, everything.
03:49On social level, racial level.
03:50Whether it's white or black, you know what I mean?
03:51And learning how to separate the art from the person was something that we learned real
03:56early as Chicagoans.
03:58You know what I mean?
03:59You see Kells pull up to a high school and you're like, what?
04:02Hold on.
04:03Hold on.
04:04You saw some of that?
04:05Bro, yeah.
04:06He used to pull up at Oak Park and he would pick up like one of my cousin's friends.
04:10No.
04:11Yeah.
04:12I hated it, dog.
04:13But I was stepping in the name of love still, but I hated it.
04:16When you were younger, did you even recognize like, that's wrong what he's doing?
04:20I recognized it with Aaliyah.
04:22Because I had a huge crush on Aaliyah.
04:23Mm-hmm.
04:24And then I was like, wait, she's dating him?
04:27He out!
04:28Yeah, yeah, yeah.
04:29We letting this happen, you know?
04:30Yeah, yeah.
04:31And like, why are we letting Kells do this?
04:32Well...
04:33You know what's crazy?
04:34I mean, when you was younger and you used to see the older dudes picking up the young girls,
04:37all you thought in your mind as a young kid was like, man, I gotta get me some money.
04:39I gotta get a job.
04:40But I also had friends who were dating older dudes and they were always like, you know,
04:44I don't date none of y'all young .
04:45I date this guy who works at Blockbuster.
04:47He's 25.
04:48I get free tapes.
04:51I'm like, bro, I just hate this , dawg.
04:55And then I became 25 and I was like, ew, oh, they was real gross.
04:59You know what I mean?
05:00Yes, 100%.
05:01Because you look at the little babies like, what the, what is you doing, dawg?
05:03100%.
05:04Now your parents been together for 33 years.
05:06Oh, they corrected me.
05:07They've been together for 38 years.
05:0938 years.
05:1038 years.
05:11My God.
05:12What was your relationship like with them growing up?
05:14It was rough at first because like my dad's a Southern man and like he did a lot of growing
05:20throughout my life, but like he was very much, we ain't friends.
05:23I'm your dad and that's it.
05:24So like the communication was a little short.
05:26He also has anxiety.
05:27That's where, that's where I got it from.
05:29My mom was like a working woman, had a lot on the plate and she was a little bit mean and strict.
05:33If you weren't going like the route that she went, school, you know what I mean?
05:38Like, which I never did.
05:39Then we just bumped heads.
05:40We bumped heads a lot.
05:41So I was always in and out the house and just got kicked out real young and started living
05:45with friends and wanted to be in the streets doing, doing dumb shit.
05:49What did your parents instill in you?
05:50Definitely work ethic, man.
05:51Okay.
05:52They both worked, you know what I mean?
05:53And they both made sure that their family was straight and family was always a priority.
05:58Even if we were bumping heads, like I remember not even being in a house.
06:01I was like kicked out at 16, not even being in the house, but like holidays, you come,
06:05you show up and you show, like Thanksgiving, you come in this door.
06:08You come in the house, you having dinner with us and then you go out and do it.
06:12So I remember I would always have to come home.
06:13Christmases, you would always come, come back.
06:15And it was like working through things.
06:17Even if you don't see eye to eye, you work, you work through it.
06:20Cause it's family.
06:21You only got one of them.
06:22And dealing with certain things like racism.
06:24We saw things differently with racism.
06:26They were about to think of like never, never let them see you sweat.
06:29And I feel like that has like a negative connotation to it sometimes because people don't know where you stand.
06:34So they can keep pushing your buttons and keep triggering you if you don't like express yourself.
06:38And so I really took that to heart growing up.
06:40There were some situations where I was like, damn, I think I'm not communicating how I feel the right way.
06:46And it's because I have this thing in my head that I've been living by of never let them see you sweat.
06:50Sometimes they need to see that sweat taking back the hell up.
06:53You know what I mean?
06:54And how did that affect how you would later approach things in regards to like your mental health?
06:58Mental health was not a conversation.
07:00At all.
07:01No, I remember trying, I remember trying to figure it out cause I knew something was wrong.
07:04And I had some, you know, I just went through it as a kid.
07:06I remember writing this note like, I'm having thoughts of just killing myself.
07:11And I wrote this note and I left it in the kitchen so that like, cause I knew every morning they'd walk past and they would see it.
07:16They saw it, but they never spoke about it.
07:19And so I saw the note and I put it back and I just never did it.
07:22Clearly I wasn't really about that life, but I remember vividly feeling it that way, you know?
07:28But it was a thing where like, it took me a long time to really go and figure it out.
07:33And it wasn't until I got SNL and everything, when all my anxiety was like really at the height of everything.
07:38That's success.
07:39I had worked for so long to get, to get like everything that I was getting.
07:42And I was like taking vacations and I was still sad.
07:45And I was like, how am I sad on a beach and the sun is out?
07:48This is crazy son, something's wrong.
07:50And so then I finally went and did therapy.
07:52And then when I started, I started talking to my folks and I was like, hey, we're going to have some tough conversations.
07:57I'm working through some things.
07:58So I hope y'all are ready for that.
07:59And they were mad open about it.
08:01To the point where they were having therapy sessions through me.
08:04So I would have my therapy sessions, call them.
08:06And then they were like, so when you feeling this way, what is this?
08:09I'm like, y'all can go to therapy if you want to.
08:12I feel like we're the first generation that has the luxury of healing, right?
08:17So it's like when you started your healing process, going to therapy and everything, how did it make you view your parents differently?
08:25Oh, I had so much more appreciation for everything.
08:28It was a lot of years, me and my mom's bumped heads.
08:30It was like, well, there was a lot of shit I didn't understand.
08:33Black woman in insurance in Chicago, just like the first of her kind that she made it out of Mississippi, moved us there.
08:40And it was dealing with all kinds of racism at work, but still coming home and like putting food on the table.
08:46And nothing changed my perception, like looking at the birth certificate, hitting my 30s, looking at when they started a family and being like, damn, 32.
08:55I had just made a real check at 32.
08:57You know what I'm saying?
08:58There was no way I could have started a family.
09:00Like it just puts everything in perspective.
09:02You know what I mean?
09:03You understand the stress and everything that they were going through.
09:05Yeah.
09:06And you realize that they were just doing the best they could with what they had.
09:08100%.
09:09Financially, mentally, spiritually, everything.
09:11Everything, man.
09:12Just like day by day, like we do.
09:15I read when DMX passed, you tweeted, he was easily one of your favorite rappers growing up and that your childhood would not have been the same without him.
09:22So how did X influence you?
09:24X was what I wanted to be.
09:26X was, you know what I'm saying?
09:27Like X was just cold.
09:28He was hard.
09:29I love dogs.
09:30He was a dog.
09:31You know what I'm saying?
09:32Like he was just, and he was authentically him all of the time.
09:35All the time.
09:36It was just like, oh, he real.
09:37Like he love God, but he'll knock your ass out though.
09:39And his music was just hard.
09:41It was energizing.
09:42And I had like, I was real manic as a kid.
09:44I had a lot of energy because I got ADHD and shit and I didn't know how to like control
09:48that.
09:49So that energy was something I liked.
09:51Like he just changed my life.
09:52I bumped that man every single day.
09:53Flesh of my flesh.
09:54I knew, I know every word of that damn thing.
09:57Like all them, all them tracks.
09:58I saw you say slipping.
09:59Slipping basically got you through a depression or something.
10:02Yeah.
10:03Yeah.
10:04Yeah.
10:05I was going through a lot of shit in school.
10:06And so between that and it's like breakup I was going through.
10:07I was listening to that and just really like having those dark thoughts and just, and just,
10:11it's just knowing that it could be bad.
10:13Like DMX was a, was a great like representation of he's going through worse.
10:16I worked on perspective a lot, which, which is something my pops would talk about a lot
10:20with, uh, with having patience is having perception and taking a step back and seeing
10:24that shit ain't that bad, you know?
10:26So where did the sense of humor come from?
10:28It came from, um, my social anxiety.
10:30I was always uncomfortable talking to the people are getting vulnerable.
10:33So what I would do is I would study all the, all these comedians and listen to comedy.
10:38I would just study comedy a lot just to, just to be able to hang in conversations, to walk
10:43up to the lunch table and be able to say something.
10:45People laugh and I get comfortable.
10:46When did you develop that skill?
10:47Do you remember what age?
10:48Oh, er, like early.
10:50I listened to Richard Pryor's album for the first time when I was eight.
10:53When we'd go to church, uh, I would, I would just be trying to tell jokes.
10:57I remember getting in trouble for that because I had said one of his jokes, one of his
11:00mud bone jokes and they were like, you can't say that in church.
11:04Uh, but people were laughing and I was like, ooh, and I just remember loving that feeling.
11:07But I was rapping at the time, so I didn't really, it didn't really register to me that
11:11I wanted to do comedy until I hosted this event at my community college, this, uh, variety
11:17show.
11:18And it was the first time I ever hosted something.
11:20And it was like 400 people there.
11:22I was nervous as hell.
11:23And this dude was doing this nunchuck routine and he was just like, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah.
11:28And I walked out after and I was like, damn, give it up for the only ninja that'll kick
11:32your ass and his own ass.
11:33And like everybody died.
11:35And then I was like, oh, this is, this is what I want to do.
11:38You got that feeling.
11:39Yeah.
11:40It was, it was something I had never felt.
11:41Not even with rap, not even killing the show.
11:43Nothing like that.
11:48SNL was like your, would you consider that your first big break?
11:50SNL was the first time I was like, okay, I'm, I'm really on TV for real.
11:54And like, this is, I'm here.
11:55You know, Chicago, I really, I really grew up in that scene of improv and sketch.
11:59And I just always wanted to do a sketch comedy show.
12:02SNL is like the super bowl of all that, you know, but I really wanted to go there and
12:06learn what they do and then make my own thing.
12:08You know what I mean?
12:09Cause I didn't know if I was ever going to either get on SNL.
12:11You don't know if you're going to like pop or be good on the show.
12:15So I always have like a plan.
12:16So I'm like, okay, if I, if they kick me off after a year, I've learned what I learned
12:21the techniques and I'm just going to go apply it to my own thing, you know?
12:24But it's just the history, man.
12:25Eddie, like the people who really got me into comedy, I just want to be a part of that legacy.
12:30You know what I mean?
12:31You auditioned?
12:32I auditioned.
12:33Yeah.
12:34The first year I auditioned and I did well.
12:35And then on my way home, somebody had leaked that I had got the job before I even knew
12:39I got the job.
12:40Wow.
12:41All these articles were coming out.
12:42So I'm on the plane sitting next to Melissa, Villasenor, who's on the show.
12:45And she auditioned with me and her and Alex Moffitt, we're sitting on there.
12:50I'm seeing all these headlines go on and we're sitting next to each other.
12:53She's not in this headline.
12:54It's just me and Mikey Day at the time.
12:56And I'm not, I don't know what to say.
12:58I'm like, this is not how you get jobs.
12:59You don't get jobs from like headlines.
13:01It ended up that they just leaked it.
13:03I never got the job.
13:04They put me on this like hold for a year, but they never like cleaned up that thing.
13:08So everybody just thought I had the job for like a year.
13:10That next year when I actually got the job, they were like, okay, so we're going to make
13:13the announcement in four days.
13:15I was like, four days.
13:16All right.
13:17Now on SNL, you play a lot of black characters.
13:19Yeah.
13:20Those characters might not even be representative.
13:21They didn't have somebody like you on the cast.
13:23How do you feel about that?
13:25I feel like there's no way around that because what you're trying to do as a variety show
13:31is do stuff for your culture that represents what you like to do.
13:35And it's amazing to us that we have this many black people to make a dinner scene.
13:41I'm excited about that because if I wasn't there, they wouldn't be doing that.
13:44You know what I mean?
13:45It does get a little like weird.
13:48Daniel Kalula hosted and we did this vaccine sketch.
13:51And when you see black people talking about it, sometimes they'll be like, what?
13:55They saying that we don't get the vaccine?
13:57Like that's not what the sketch is saying.
14:00We were all sitting in a room like, hey man, this is funny to us because we have people
14:04in our lives and you might have people in your life that have this conversation.
14:08So we want to give something that you can relate to, but we're not trying to say and
14:12represent everybody in a way that like, in a negative way.
14:15We're just not trying to do that.
14:16I feel privileged in that way, but sometimes people take it different.
14:20That's always the pressure of being like one of the only black people in this space
14:24because black people are not monolithic, but also I'm not representing all black people.
14:29Right.
14:30I'm black and I'm representing me and myself, but I'm not representing the whole black community.
14:34Not at all.
14:35It's like, but they will come at you sometimes like you trying to do that.
14:39You know, of the current cast, you know, the part calls for black guys, you and Kenan.
14:44Yeah.
14:45Michael Shea, but he's really just on Weekend Update.
14:47So the options are limited.
14:48It's not like that for the white guys.
14:50Is that something you talk about with Kenan and Michael?
14:52Oh, we don't have to talk about it.
14:54We just, it's something you come in knowing, you know what I mean?
14:57Wow.
14:58And there's tracks because there's definitely, I call SNL kind of a little Hollywood, how
15:01it's built up, you know?
15:02And so you have your famous folks, you got your leaders of the pack, you got your newbies,
15:05you got your newbies, you know?
15:06And everybody's trying to like get in where they fit in.
15:09When it's a very famous black person that they want to write about, I always be like,
15:14all right, it's probably going to Kenan, you know, cause Kenan been there and it's going
15:18to go to Kenan first.
15:19And if it's not, or if it's a person that looks like really like me to the T, then it's
15:23going to go to me unless I have something for it and I can go to them.
15:26But like, that's kind of how it works out.
15:28And Chase kind of never in anything unless he wants to be in something.
15:31You know what I mean?
15:32That's a thing we've, yeah, just come to understand.
15:35Like we, we know when somebody black is in the news or somebody black is doing something,
15:39one of us is going to play it.
15:40How have you grown since, since joining this show in 2017?
15:43In so many ways, bro.
15:45Just being able to understand and deal with the pressures of the job, to understand how
15:50to write better, to understand like production and producing a sketch in a short amount of
15:55time what you need and being just real proactive about like, just getting things done, man.
16:01I'm, I'm, I'm able, I'm just stronger as a comic.
16:04I'm still learning from that place too.
16:05I'm still, I'm still stretching like impressions and cause I didn't really do impressions.
16:09I like doing characters and impressionist was not, was never something I saw myself doing.
16:13So when I was like pushed in that way, it really like opened up a thing in my mind.
16:18Like, oh, maybe I couldn't do, maybe, maybe I can do some more of these.
16:22You know what I mean?
16:23Do you feel hesitancy or like pushback, like pitching a skit that's unapologetically black?
16:29No, I do it all the time.
16:30Yeah.
16:31I think that's, that's, that's part of the job is like to pitch something and see if it
16:34worked.
16:35You know, we, Soulja Boy was like, nobody knew, nobody white knew who that was.
16:39That's crazy.
16:40And I was like, yo, if we, if we just write it funny though, dog, if we just write it as
16:43funny as we can, you know, maybe they'll look past the fact they don't know this .
16:46And that's wild.
16:47Cause I mean, even that week he did like 20 million views on YouTube or something crazy.
16:52At that job, you really see the separation and what fame and relevancy is depending on
16:57who you are and what chair you're sitting in.
16:59And white culture and black culture, while they like intersect and intertwine and work
17:03together, there's still shit that's really, really popping to us that they have no idea
17:08is happening.
17:09And Soulja's always been like, anytime he does something, it's going viral, but it won't even
17:13touch some of their worlds at all.
17:15That's right.
17:16So it's really about that balance.
17:17Man, I remember doing a, I remember having Method Man in a, in a fresh print sketch and
17:22he came on the screen and no one reacted and it was wild to me.
17:26At SNL?
17:27Yeah.
17:28And I was angry.
17:29I was like, what the, that's Method Man, bro.
17:31Pete just had him in the Walking and Staten video and they, and they made some noise.
17:35I'm like, yeah, he about time, about time y'all respect him.
17:39But also he's been working like crazy since then.
17:41That was like, there was a five year difference between those two.
17:44Who wrote Kim K's monologue, man?
17:46Woo!
17:47It's always, it's been rumors.
17:48It was, they said it was Michelle Wolf, but then they said it was the cast of SNL,
17:51like.
17:52Man, she has, she has some heavy hitters.
17:54I feel like who y'all are hearing is probably pretty accurate, but she has some heavy hitters,
17:59man, taking care of her, dog.
18:00But y'all sworn to secrecy on that or something?
18:02Nah, I don't know.
18:03I don't know if I'm sworn to secrecy or not.
18:05I don't know.
18:09You know what I mean?
18:10All those names that you just mentioned were involved.
18:12That's what I heard, too.
18:13You know what I mean?
18:14Good one.
18:15He said, that's what I heard.
18:16That's what I heard.
18:17They were involved, but that's what I heard.
18:18I ain't see it.
18:19I remember being at that table read, dog, and hearing that monologue, and I was like,
18:22yo.
18:23And she's like, is it good?
18:24I'm like, yo, if you do it just like that, unapologetically, that's it.
18:29So were the people who wrote the monologue at the table read, too?
18:32Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah.
18:33Okay, okay.
18:34Nah, they went at the table read.
18:35Did you hear the names you just said?
18:36They don't be just showing up to table reads.
18:37I didn't know.
18:39What's the grind like for SNL?
18:40I mean, we know it's constant.
18:42It's constant hustle.
18:43How does that affect you mentally?
18:45Do you look forward to when y'all are off?
18:47Yeah, for sure.
18:48Okay.
18:49Because I go so hard, just in general, but especially with that show, to be good at it.
18:53I'm an insomniac, so my sleep patterns are really messed up.
18:57But every time it gets close to September, my adrenaline just starts pumping around 12,
19:03about around midnight, to push me through these all-nighters.
19:07Wow.
19:08Because you're basically like, Tuesday night to Wednesday has been one day for me for the past
19:13five years.
19:14Tuesday night to ...
19:15To Wednesday, yeah.
19:16Wow.
19:17Because you're like, Tuesday's writing night, and then Wednesday's table read.
19:19But you're up all Tuesday night, just like writing and getting things together.
19:23Because your due date time for your sketch to be turned in is, what, noon that next day?
19:29So you might be writing three or four things.
19:30Or if you're doing a song, you got to make the beats and do the edits and all that before
19:35noon that next day.
19:36So how do you disconnect?
19:37Man, I'm learning how to disconnect by just sleeping.
19:41I don't get a lot of sleep.
19:43I'm forcing myself to go into my sleep routines.
19:45I need that in order to keep the anxiety down and actually rest.
19:49Taking vacations.
19:50I just took my first or my second real vacation.
19:52Ever?
19:53Yeah.
19:54In life?
19:55Ever, dog.
19:56I need more of those.
19:57It's crazy because I was setting up my tour schedule and I purposely put breaks all throughout
20:02my tour so I could force myself to take off and learn how to just do that on a regular
20:07basis.
20:08Because I just went this year and a half just straight every day, including weekends, working
20:13or shooting, something.
20:15So I was like, man, I need to learn how to chill.
20:18Yeah, I learned that staying busy is a trauma response.
20:21Yes.
20:22And being that I've been fired, I've been fired seven times in life but four times from
20:26radio so I never wanted to take no break.
20:28And I'm like, if I take a break, I'm not going to have anything when I come back.
20:31Yeah.
20:32And it's like, no.
20:33You can't pour from an empty cup.
20:34You got to disconnect.
20:35It's definitely a trauma response because I was like, yo, I got to go hard because someone's
20:39right behind you working harder than you working.
20:42And I just remember all them years, I was broke to 31.
20:44So I just had so many years of seeing my checking account in the red and just not having
20:51much.
20:52So I was hustling like I was still in that place and not adjusting myself to where I am
20:57now.
20:58It took therapy and time to really get there.
21:00You know what I mean?
21:01But now I'm working on it, trying to chill.
21:03Absolutely.
21:05You were among 19 black Second City alumni to sign an open letter publicly demanding
21:13an investigation into the theater's history of racism and sexual misconduct.
21:18Did you ever second guess that decision or waver at making that decision?
21:23Nope.
21:24Not at all, man.
21:25I think that institutions need to look at themselves and work on things.
21:29And I loved working at Second City.
21:31It gave me all the foundation I needed.
21:33I built a lot of bonds there.
21:34So it wasn't like I was hating the place.
21:36There was also times where I would work hard and get something.
21:40And one of my teachers would come up like, hey, man, it's great to be black, huh?
21:44Because you get fast tracked in here.
21:45Wow.
21:46Like you didn't work hard.
21:47You're in your spot.
21:48Or you're negating how hard it is to be black in improv.
21:49You know what I mean?
21:50We just had to fight and establish ourselves.
21:51So I think it was just going to make it a better community and more open if people paid
21:53attention to that kind of thing.
21:54I think the issues that we wanted to talk about and get addressed got addressed.
21:58Absolutely.
21:59So I don't regret that shit at all.
22:00Some people will say that you jinxed black people because at the end of February 2020,
22:03you said on Weekend Update, black people cannot get coronavirus.
22:05Yo, so I did an update addressing that.
22:06But I'll address it here because, see, the way you write updates is like you say the
22:11most wild thing you can at the end of.
22:12Yeah.
22:13Now, when that happened, it was a week before it became a pandemic for real.
22:15It was just a week before it became a pandemic for real.
22:17And it wasn't if people paid attention to that kind of thing.
22:18I think the issues that we wanted to talk about and get addressed got addressed.
22:20Absolutely.
22:21So I don't regret that shit at all.
22:22Some people will say that you jinxed black people because at the end of February 2020,
22:24you said on Weekend Update, black people cannot get coronavirus.
22:29Yo, so I did an update addressing that.
22:34It became a pandemic for real.
22:36So when I wrote that update and I did that update, it was only on a cruise ship, whitest
22:41cruise ship.
22:42It wasn't Tom Jordan's cruise ship.
22:43It was a white ass cruise ship.
22:44And it was only like about 17 white people that had this virus.
22:48Yeah.
22:49And so I was like, oh, black people can't get that shit, you know?
22:51And so I just yelled that because it was like, yeah, every person that is getting it
22:56is white and we can't get it.
22:59I remember that being a thing on social media.
23:00Yeah.
23:01People saying that melanin protected you from COVID.
23:03I remember that.
23:04Yeah.
23:05And so, you know, we were all learning day to day.
23:07Turns out the day I learned what I said was hella wrong was the next day, I think.
23:13Because they were like, oh, it's affected our communities more than anybody else.
23:16I was like, wow, that aged poorly, you know?
23:19Yeah.
23:20Right.
23:21I'm a scientist.
23:22You know what I mean?
23:23Why are they listening to you anyway?
23:24I never intended that.
23:25Look at my grade.
23:26I don't know what's going on.
23:28Let's talk about some self-care and mindfulness, man.
23:31Like what do you do when you need to put your mind at ease?
23:34I box every day.
23:37So that helps me with my anger issues and it just sets my tone, the tone for the day.
23:43Keep my mind right, my body right.
23:45I relax.
23:46I sit.
23:47I read.
23:48Meditate, I guess.
23:49I be trying to meditate and sometimes I do and most times I just nap.
23:52You know what I mean?
23:53I just try to zen out and I try to keep my screen time down.
24:00How often do you talk about mental health openly with your family and friends?
24:04All the time.
24:05Because I just hope that I can influence them to care about that thing too.
24:14And I put it in my set.
24:16I talk about it in my comedy.
24:18I just think it's an important thing and I know you talk about it a lot, which I love.
24:22And I think that black men, men in general should be talking about this more because
24:27all men need therapy.
24:28You know, we all need it.
24:29Everybody needs therapy.
24:30I feel like if you're walking on earth, you need it.
24:32100%.
24:33Three things changed my life.
24:35God, black women, therapy.
24:37Four things I would say, yo, this and money.
24:42I think that's why I got to the money the way I did.
24:44100%.
24:47Do you approach self-care and mental health differently now than when you were younger?
24:52Oh, 100%, man.
24:53Because I remember going to a therapist one time when I was younger.
24:58It didn't really connect with me.
25:00And then I knew I had anxiety and I went to a doctor about it to talk about it.
25:03And then they were like, hey, do you smoke weed?
25:07I was like, yeah.
25:08And they were like, well, stop doing that.
25:09You'll be fine.
25:10And it's like no one was trying to really help.
25:12And so I, but I was giving up real quick.
25:15Whereas like now I was like, I knew there was an issue and a problem and I was just older
25:19too.
25:20So I took it more serious.
25:21I saw my friends well adjusted as hell, like going, going in there.
25:25I was like, and I realized after doing it, like, man, you can really tell when somebody's
25:29not working on themselves.
25:30100%.
25:31You know, and I just didn't want to be the person not growing and not evolving myself.
25:35You know?
25:36When you went younger, what was it for?
25:37Behavioral issues as a kid?
25:38Yeah.
25:39Same.
25:40Really?
25:41Why they do that to us, man?
25:42Dog.
25:43They do that to every black man, man.
25:44Every black man.
25:45You act up in school.
25:46Now you got to go see the therapist.
25:47Right.
25:48Truly.
25:49I was acting up a lot.
25:50I was beating up a lot of white boys, but they asked for it though.
25:52They were asking for it.
25:53But yeah, I had anger issues and they were like, well, why?
25:56Like, what are you mad about?
25:57I'm like, sometimes I don't know.
25:59That's the issue.
26:00.
26:01Aren't you the scientist?
26:02Yeah.
26:03Didn't you study this?
26:04Why don't you know how to get to the core?
26:07And getting a good therapist that really knows what they're talking about changes the whole
26:12thing.
26:13Because once I had a good one, I was like, oh, this is what I was searching for.
26:16All right.
26:17Let's talk about Keenan.
26:18Yeah.
26:19You're part of the cast of Keenan.
26:20What's it been like working on that show with Keenan himself?
26:24You know, outside of the SNL setting.
26:26Yeah, man.
26:27That's bro.
26:28That's family, you know?
26:29And we have such a great chemistry comedically, bro.
26:32You know, in life in general, but comedically, we just build off each other.
26:36It's not work for real.
26:37You know what I mean?
26:38We show up, have a good time, elevate things around us.
26:41And our whole cast kind of clicked as a family quick in this unbelievable way.
26:46It's good to see Keenan getting his just due because he's been around for such a long time.
26:51Has he always been like a mentor to you?
26:53Yeah, like from the first day I walked in to SNL, he was like, take me under his wing.
27:00But he's like that with everybody almost.
27:02He's just like the godfather of that place.
27:04You know what I mean?
27:05Like, no one's been there as long as him.
27:06No one's gonna be there as long as him.
27:08But he has all the wisdom and a cool approach to all of this.
27:12I've been wanting to ask you about this since we've been here all day today.
27:16The Peacock comedy show, Bust Down.
27:18Yeah.
27:19What is that show about?
27:21Bro, it's about four friends in Gary, Indiana at this casino.
27:25Why Gary, Indiana?
27:27Because we wanted to pick a place that just nobody want to go to for real.
27:33We wanted to pick the most normal non-Hollywood place.
27:36Word.
27:37You know what I mean?
27:38In the middle of the country.
27:39And it's just like four people who just want to solve issues the only way they know how.
27:45And they're just fucking it up.
27:46It's a black version of like Always Sunny.
27:49Wow.
27:50So every episode we have like a topic that we're going to tackle.
27:54And all four of us try to tackle it in a certain kind of way.
27:57And me, Sam J, Jack Knight, and Langston Kerman wrote it and created it.
28:01And we've been friends.
28:03We're friends for real.
28:04And it's like a five year journey, bro, to make this black show.
28:07We went to white room to white room.
28:09Just like.
28:10Trying to make this black show.
28:11Trying to make this black ass show.
28:12Gary, Indiana though?
28:13That's the Jacksons and Freddie Gibbs.
28:15And Freddie Gibbs plays our HR person in the show and he kills it.
28:20The HR?
28:21Whoa.
28:23Yeah.
28:24A lot of Jackson references?
28:25Not one.
28:26Okay.
28:29Not one.
28:30Man, I can't wait to see that.
28:31What do you got on your career bucket list though?
28:33To do more shows like the ones I'm doing.
28:35More movies.
28:36Specials.
28:37I'm working on a stand up special for HBO Max now.
28:40I just want to continue to do what I'm doing just on a bigger level and do things that are
28:45more me focused where I can lead some things.
28:48You know?
28:49But just do things that really move me and give back to the culture.
28:52You know?
28:53Who's somebody you'd love to work with?
28:54Oh man.
28:55There's so many.
28:56I would love to work with Donald Glover again for sure.
28:59I'd love to do something with Issa.
29:01I would love to do something with Dave.
29:04I mean I can name a bunch of folks.
29:06Is there something outside of comedy you're eyeing in the horizon?
29:09Yeah.
29:10I want to do a musical comedy visual album.
29:14I've been working on that for a while.
29:16And a black Charlie Chaplin thing I want to do.
29:18Mmm.
29:19I really like Charlie Chaplin.
29:20What he did for television and coaching.
29:23I think I want to do a version of something like that.
29:26Interesting.
29:27What would that look like in this era?
29:29I know.
29:30Yeah.
29:31It's been the thing we've been working on.
29:32Alright.
29:33Now if you could go back.
29:34This is my last question.
29:35What would you tell an 18 year old Chris Redd?
29:38Finish school a little bit.
29:40Just stay in the community college.
29:43Just finish that creative writing course you wanted to do.
29:45And I would tell him that like you don't have to like.
29:48There was like a job or two I could have got that could have helped me out.
29:52I don't know.
29:53Because if you change one thing it could change the direction.
29:58You know what I would have said?
29:59I would have said hey man buckle up bro.
30:01Because you ain't about to pop till you're 31.
30:03Wow.
30:04So buckle up.
30:05But you're doing everything you're doing.
30:06You're doing it right.
30:07But buckle up bro.
30:08It's going to be a while.
30:09So what do you want to say to a 50 year old Chris Redd?
30:12Hey man how many houses we got?
30:14How much land do we have?
30:17How many people do we put on by now?
30:19Word, word, word.
30:20Because by that time I want to be giving back to everybody in my life.
30:23Giving back to my city.
30:24All the cities I've lived in that helped make me who I am.
30:29Hopefully I have some kind of school in Chicago for kids who don't learn the same as everybody else.
30:35Or just like who want to take a creative path.
30:38Like I just want to, there's things I want to do and land I want to buy for my people.
30:42All right.
30:43Yeah so I'm hoping I'm doing that.
30:44Chris, pleasure building with you King.
30:46Hey man amazing time man.
30:47Absolutely.
30:48For real.
30:49This is great dog.
30:50100%.
30:51Hope so.
30:52No wait what to do and leave.
30:53I giants out here and sign up.
30:54Think that I can definitely forget.
30:55You
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