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The Hollywood Reporter’s Daniel Fienberg with Reginald Hudlin, Guy Torry, Finesse Mitchell, and Luenell, to discuss their series ‘Phat Tuesdays’ in a THR Q&A powered by Vision Media.
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00:00welcome to the thr presents conversation about prime videos fat tuesdays the era of hip-hop
00:11comedy i'm thr chief tv critic daniel feinberg and i'm joined by fat tuesday's creator and
00:17executive producer guy tory direct director and executive producer reginald hudland and
00:23comedians lunel and finesse mitchell thanks so much for joining us guys thank you for having
00:28you for having us i want to start at the beginning here with guy and reginald when did you realize
00:35this was a story that you wanted to tell and that it was a story that wasn't being told by anybody
00:40else and that you guys needed to be the one to tell it well for me it was 13 years ago i was on a
00:45flight with another comedian who said they missed fat tuesdays and the younger comics need to know
00:50about fat tuesdays and i and a light bulb went off and i came back home and i went through all my
00:57stories and archives to see if there was anything there and i started talking to comedians to see
01:02you know what their story was and former employees and even former patrons and they were like telling
01:07all these amazing stories about fat tuesdays that i had that i didn't know or forgotten about and i
01:12started putting it together and then you know several years after that i contacted reggie when
01:17he was on the set of django uh and and i told him about it we had like a two-hour conversation
01:23and then it kind of fell by the wayside on my behalf because i got you know busy with other
01:27projects then i picked it back up four years ago and and said you know this is something that we we
01:32should tell and i think the only person uh who could have really directed this and told the story
01:37that i trusted with the story was reggie hugger thank you guy look for me um it's very you know it's
01:45very easy to underrate the importance of what i call near history right we're not going back to the
01:521940s of 1970s this is things that happened in our lifetime in our prime right we were there we
02:00were part of that whole movement and but you know for those of us you know talking to younger people
02:08talking to our kids who don't know how things happened and very often we don't know how things
02:16happened because we were too busy doing it we're too busy with our nose to the grindstone to stop and go
02:21wait a minute let's take two steps back and appreciate the arc of history that we witnessed
02:28and played some part in you know to go from the comedy act theater and how important that institution
02:35was you know to as seismic an event as the la riots guy fresh in town from st louis responding to both
02:50the institution and the event in creating fact tuesday which changed the shape of comedy
02:57worldwide that's not an exaggeration that that's that's an honest take on it so for a guy to come
03:04to me and say hey reg let's tell this story and i said oh so i get to hang out with the funniest
03:12people in the world most of which are my friends and we get to tell funny stories and they and they pay
03:17this for it oh yeah this sounds like a really good idea and when did prime video become involved when
03:25did you decide the right place for this to air well you know i i i went to uh originally went to
03:31gramnet uh chelsea grandma's production company they love the idea uh they then took it to original
03:36production original productions you know wanted to be involved as we start shopping we start having
03:41meetings with networks and studios and things like that amazon you know said the right things at the
03:47right time and they they said what we wanted to hear and they were just very open and you know
03:52what they really said what we love was we're gonna we're gonna get out of the way and the fact that
03:57they a company as big as amazon wanted to you know go on this ride with us was just great and there
04:03was some other directors you know pitched and things like that but you know i was i was i was set on
04:08reggie and uh thank god that you know he delivered uh reggie to us and when i told amazon that reggie
04:14was interested they're all on board all hands on deck and i you know amazon was really extraordinary
04:21partner to us i mean they understood what we were trying to do they supported us in all the right
04:27ways um and you know guy is a beloved person in the world of comedy uh everybody respects him
04:36not only for his wit but for his moral center uh and that's why he was able and you know that's an
04:43underrated thing they go oh yeah he's a he's a person with a strong moral compass but you know
04:48it's kind of a big deal in show business where trust is an integral part of what you know how it
04:54all works the end of the day contracts whatever there's a handshake and there's a look in the eye
05:00that go i'm going to do what i said i was going to do and guy is that person which enabled him
05:07to build something from the ground up with no previous experience because people trusted him
05:13and he delivered on his work so then you know decades later he called people hey we're doing
05:21a documentary about that thing we all did together everyone's happy to jump back in and and tell the
05:29story because people feel about guy now like they thought about guy then he's a good guy
05:36nice and linnell what was your reaction when you got the call to do a documentary about this
05:43particular moment in history i couldn't have been more pleased because those fat tuesday days and that
05:52era well you know some of the happiest times that that we had in comedy not to say that other times
05:59were any less happy but there was a real community in los angeles there was a pilgrimage to come here
06:07there was everybody was here you could see some of everybody it was star studded it was electric and it
06:14was fire and to be involved in that and be able to take the stage in front of an energy like that was
06:20amazing to be able to revisit that and get that feeling again and just the telling of the stories
06:26and the remembrance of it was amazing again so i was really glad that he included me and i'm
06:34definitely definitely proud of the documentary so proud i'm gonna say this whenever i called
06:40lunel for something when i was working on the sizzle lunel always pick up the phone she always came
06:45through and all no matter what whenever i called her she needed and i always appreciate that thanks
06:51and finesse what was it like getting the call uh well guy owed me money so i thought the call was
06:58about that and so this was like a nice consolation prize to be a part of something like fat tuesday
07:06because it's like lunel said there was a after deaf comedy jam and and a couple of great seasons of
07:15comic view black comedians really thought okay i've made it i've been on def jam or i've been on
07:22comic view so we all saved what pennies we could and moved out to la thinking that was the next step
07:28and the reality was was that you couldn't get on at the laugh factory and you couldn't get on
07:33at the improv you know not to the ease that you were getting on in your your city that you came from
07:40that's right and you couldn't get on you know at the laugh uh at the uh comedy store and nor in some
07:48instances did you want to do the comedy store at that time but one thing that comedians always know
07:56to look for is black knight well where's black knight who has the black knight and guys started fat
08:03tuesdays and when i came out i mean it was it was already so star-studded and and and and popping
08:11that i was just one of those guys that was like guy remember what you said you said this remember
08:16what you said i was that comedian remember remember you said okay next week you promise okay so when
08:22when when reggie's did that whole part about looking somebody in the hot eye and doing the handshake i
08:28didn't know who he was talking about because god shook my hand plenty of times and didn't put me on
08:32but uh what lunel said was spot on uh the family the camaraderie and people being fans of people
08:44that we've seen on comic view and death jam and all the other type of urban shows we were fans of each
08:50other we were really rooting for anybody to get something and uh if you couldn't get on stage fat
08:58tuesday was definitely the place you wanted to be even if just to network and hang out
09:02and be around people that you knew were going through a similar struggle and i think a lot of
09:07us were struggling back then and doing shows for pennies so you know we could at least go to that one
09:15spot on tuesday all feel like kings and queens and just you know whether we was going to crush it that
09:21night or root for somebody to crush it that night and or i'll keep it 100 want somebody to bomb so that
09:28they won't be in your way the next week and you might that's one less person out the way
09:33to finesse's point this handshake and the eye looking yes sometimes you did not get on stage
09:41because one of the things that i wanted fat tuesday to be different from the some of the other black
09:45rooms of clubs was structure in order and and i made sure fat tuesdays we had a structure and respected
09:53everybody not you know and not just be the wild wild west of comedy where everything went on that's
09:58why we were able to to have anybody come to the room and as long as you were funny you got on from
10:06women to the lbg tv plus community before it was a thing there was no me too uh going on on quip
10:12pro quo so we ran fat tuesdays with structure i just want to say i'm glad fat tuesdays came through
10:19when it did because had we had social media like we do now it probably would have been a lot
10:26different and i think you really had to go up there to see who was up there versus just getting
10:33a text from somebody in the know i mean you do it now and everybody's bootlegging pirating sending
10:39video and and and and doing it for personal gain but back then it really was i have to go support fat
10:46tuesday because i don't know who's going to be there tonight and and so you went other than the
10:51comics that you knew were going to be performing you didn't know spike lee was going to be in the
10:56crowd or man who's going to be in the crowd or all these you know kobe i still i know who norman
11:03limousine is just because of fat
11:04that was the first person with a sponsor norman lewis norman lewis norman lewis limousine
11:17i still use them
11:20it feels notable to me that another network did a five-hour documentary about the comedy store
11:28that made i don't believe any mention at all of fat tuesdays and that to me when i watched this
11:37i both had the reaction of being like oh oh my goodness this is something i didn't know all of
11:41these details was about but then being like wow someone thought they could tell a story of the
11:47comedy store and ignore this entirely did you guys know that that other documentary was being made
11:52well you know this was in the works first tattoos has been in the works for like i said i started 13
11:58years ago was underground for nine and it was only four years ago when i started i took to my agent's
12:03office but i i saw the documentary and when we actually uh met with showtime about one of the
12:10streaming networks they wanted to see what we had and i knew they already had the other doc and i was
12:14like no i'm good i'm good and uh yeah i heard they weren't mentioned i was disappointed for a hot
12:20second but i was like you know what let us tell a story our way well and and i saw the documentary
12:26as well and i was insulted as well but it just falls in the line of the rest of our history that's
12:33being taught in school if we was raised from from we was raised from you know fat tuesday heck we've
12:40been raised from everything else too so that's why we do our own that's why there is a bet that's why
12:48there is a soul train award that's why there is a naacp award because of the non-inclusiveness
12:54of the established uh entities that have been there for years and honestly it was a blessing
13:01yeah because why should we settle for 10 minutes right you know in another documentary we we had three
13:11hours easy of story to tell right so let's let us tell our story in full and you got 15 hours
13:18that didn't even make the documentary this is all i'm saying we got i guess we got gold left over
13:23right we got gold in the in the sock drawer so so i mean so it was better for us to tell our story
13:34our way not wedged into somebody else's story so i'm grateful and i was shocked i was shocked simply
13:43because i've seen that so many times and i had the the chance to be on uh snl in my career and i
13:52watched certain sketches didn't get picked that were the funniest sketches you know but to watch
14:00five hours about one place the comedy store and fat tuesday not be mentioned right everyone knew that
14:09fat tuesday kept the lights on for at least a good four strong years amen that was to me just to see
14:16the different comedians and no one parley and everybody i was just kind of like wow i forgot
14:22all about it i wasn't even asked to be in it but i was just like wow mention tuesday night but you know
14:28you never but it was such an exciting night such an exciting time for the comedy store because if they
14:34weren't dark they were definitely under 30 people even on the weekend so fat tuesday was like a huge
14:42revenue booster for them and it literally kept people employed and they admit that they admit that
14:49they did okay yeah and and and i will say this i mean that was their dark years
14:54and and everybody has a little dirty dark secret and fat tuesdays was the little dirty dark secret of
15:03you know the comedy store at that time but you know they supported this documentary which
15:08we're happy to shoot there and they were honest about you know what the night meant to them so you know
15:13that was that's water under under the bridge and but but but but be clear it was insulting for sure
15:21oh it was i was offended at first but then you know god was god was like don't worry about it
15:26you're gonna you're gonna get your right just chill and it always happens like that because i never would
15:31have thought that my name would be on the wall and when guys said oh and by the way there's a surprise
15:36you know we're gonna get these people's names on the wall and i was like what people he was like
15:42dummy you and everybody else and that was that was a shocker to me because i had done so many black nights
15:50you know throughout my career up there that by the time it was time by the time the club kind of blew up
15:55and got on his feet again i went to do you know sign up for thursday friday saturday and told i was i
16:03was told i wasn't a regular so that i would have to audition and i was just sort of like yeah i'm kind
16:09of 20 years in bro i'm not auditioning and i think i think also what really hit home was when cedric
16:15the entertainer said i have a star in the hollywood walk of fame but i don't have my name on the comedy
16:21store wall and then when it happened when we were actually looking at our names on the wall
16:28i thought that was temporary i told guy i thought that was temporary and they were going to take that
16:33section of the wall and put it around back or put it on the side like it was unbelievable to me that
16:39we were really going to be there on sunset boulevard where you can drive by and see your name so the
16:44whole thing has just been you know more than a blessing like my my daughter and i took pictures under
16:49there my grandchildren after it's still up there when i had them you know we'll be able to see it
16:55it's more than a documentary it really was as a one of those epic moments in in your life that you
17:02really are proud of definitely emotional for doing that emotional and that was yeah it was a it was a
17:09huge moment because when we were talking about how we want to wrap this thing up and we were talking
17:15about all the different threads in the conversations we had had and the idea of acknowledgement and being
17:22on the wall or is your name on the wall is your name not on the wall it just kept coming up as a
17:27natural motif in every interview we did so i just thought well why don't why don't we do that and then guy
17:34reached out and we're really grateful uh to the proprietors of the comedy store who embraced the idea
17:42fully and absolutely as lou and el said it was we thought oh we'll get some on the side here over
17:49here no no no the very front of the store right around the entrance it was it was it was really
17:57prime real estate it was an extraordinary unbelievable unbelievable action of respect and i really give them
18:05their kudos for uh stepping up and embracing the idea 120 and the the the shooting of that scene
18:14and as guy pulled that pulled that sheet down and you guys saw yourselves i mean these are funny
18:23cynical cold-hearted people and in that moment it was like the end of the grinch their heart grew
18:30three sizes there was there was no it was real it was real love in that moment it was a beautiful
18:38beautiful thing i couldn't believe it i could not believe it to see like my name and it was like the
18:45way and where it was placed and guy said it was all just random but to me that's just nothing but god
18:51i'm i don't think i don't think i said the entertainer or lunel or or you know d ray davis or
18:58whatever but to see my name and saw i i cried i i know i was getting you know a little all of us
19:04all of us good crazy was when i was in there doing the interviews i was giving them comedy gold
19:11but you know what they use daniel they use my so that more comedians can say finesse you soft you a
19:18bitch my name is still on the side of the comedy so while it's not up there with these wonderful
19:28comedians because my name was already on the wall and i just felt like man these my colleagues man
19:34they they deserve to be on there just as much as i do if not even more so that was my drive it wasn't
19:40it wasn't to get my name on the wall because it was already there right these comedians who held
19:44fat tuesdays down and fat tuesdays held the comedy store down then they deserve to be on that wall
19:50that to me it just cemented all the stories with just this big trophy for black comedy you know what
19:57i mean here's your trophy for all these things you went through whether you're a huge success or you
20:02are hot for three years and disappear everybody knows who's who in this business especially in black
20:08black comedy and just to end it that way i i when i say i was there and i from jb smooth to d millen top
20:15rest in peace people were emotional oh yeah and and with with comedy being such a me me me business
20:22to have somebody who's actually fighting for somebody else fighting for us like we wanted to give
20:28him anything he needed anytime he needed it that's why i felt anything you need and and i'm like i said
20:34this documentary is one of the proudest things i've ever done and i've done some things all right
20:39yes you have i'll be over tonight i won't be here i'll be at the adam sandler premiere i'm sorry
20:47i'll be your plus one white folks love me
20:54guy what was the conversation like with the comedy store people about getting the names up what what did
21:03what did you broach what did they respond how how much back and forth things did it take to
21:08actually get that it wasn't that much back and forth of course they they want to stick with tradition
21:13because mitchy shore had her you know her route to the comedy store and getting on the wall and things
21:19like that and after a conversation uh with peter shore and he consulted some other people to see you
21:26know would it be okay and is that deserving of you know uh being on the wall
21:33and because fat tuesdays is such a big part of of the the comedy store's history and these comedians
21:39being such a big part of fat tuesday's history it was they came back and said okay let's let's figure
21:45out how we can do this and make this work of course i came back with 200 names and they're like wait a
21:50minute you can't hear the we got that one space i had i kept i kept you know doing it down
21:57and they still want to do more they know there are more comedians who made the wall
22:01uh were a part of the success of fat tuesdays and we're in conversation to doing more stuff to
22:06honor you know just the fat tuesdays era and that era of comedy but uh peter shore who's one of the
22:12owners now um was was welcoming uh the um the talks the series treatment of the comedy store walks
22:21an interesting line because on one hand obviously they gave you that fat tuesday real estate they gave
22:27you the room to exist they gave you that stage but on the other hand the reason why it needed to exist
22:33was because of all of the neglect that led up to it and all of the institutional racism for want of a
22:39better word hello how how did you want to approach what is really kind of a tricky line because they're
22:47letting you use the facilities and all of that and and obviously you need their participation to some
22:52degree but you don't want a sugar coat that has had to exist for a reason and that's why you have a
22:58reggie hubby
22:59i mean the safest way to tell the story is honestly you know and the fact is it's you know a lot of
23:11people just want to go oh someone so is good or bad i mean that's that's a conversation i had with my
23:16child when he was five you know you know adults realize things are complicated right and the fact
23:23is um mitzi short's a comedy legend for a reason she launched a lot of amazing careers she was a
23:30tireless champion of richard pryor who we all bow down to right as as the you know the big bang
23:38of comedy as we know it so you and and as you said and given the opportunity they supported
23:46guy um you know building something out of nothing uh at the same time you've got to be honest about
23:54you know what the culture was at that time and you know that that um you know that okay we've got
24:02two black comics enough already you know and look whether whether it's the comedy store whether it's
24:09mtv i really respect a institution that honestly admits hey there's this thing we did in the past
24:18it wasn't cool we acknowledge it to everybody and we're okay with acknowledging it because we have
24:25evolved beyond it and that's a stance that takes courage and i respect it and that's the exact
24:32conversation that i had with peter sure acknowledge it and he said you know what how do we write this
24:37wrong and and that was i was like when i heard that i was like wow amazing and when i when i when i was
24:44able to share with the rest of the crew the group we're like yes yes and and the comedy store was the
24:51place for fat tuesdays because if you look at the comedy store laugh factory and the improv the comedy
24:57store is the comic club that took all kind of the the mixed nuts the yakov smirnoffs and the and the and
25:04the richard priors and the and the um jim carrey's so to have it at the because all the other clubs
25:10were really buttoned up you know the comedy store was you know the zany place that was that was nuts
25:16with um sam kennison and all that so we were not welcome in other places so why not the comedy store
25:24there's a perfect place to have fat toothers because to them we were considered you know mixed nuts and
25:29and and you know unwanted children as well going into the series did you have a sense that it was
25:37going to be as much about your relationship with your brother as it ended up being or was that a
25:41a fortunate byproduct an unfortunate byproduct how did you decide how much of your personal business
25:47you wanted to air on prime video good question it was a fortunate uh um byproduct because you know
25:56you have to get into the origin story of myself and origin story of my brother and how i even came
26:01to la and he's such a big part of me doing comedy he he inspired me he i i my big brother everything
26:09he did first i came behind and wanted to do just as well if not better so to have that part of the you
26:16know the story was like it was just it was organic and it came out and it came out and and i trusted it
26:25in the hands of reggie uh and and you know the the emotions were real i'm i'm a i'm a great actor
26:33but i ain't that great uh i tried to fight him back uh like like you know finesse did but um
26:40no it was just real and raw and and you know it was what it was it was beautiful i mean once it
26:48started coming look you know that stage if you use it right it's truth syrup right amen that's right
26:54right so a guy got on that stage and told his truth and the raw emotion came out and that
27:02dictated what we had to do once you once you reveal these okay we have to play this all the way through
27:08uh and it became a a very natural powerful thread that is relatable to everybody you know you know
27:15every family has those kind of tensions and challenges so he said look now we have the story of the
27:22of fat comedy of fat tuesdays with the story of black comedy and now we have the story of two
27:28brothers in comedy so we knew we had the structure that would hold people's attention for all three
27:35episodes because they had an emotional hook that made them care for sure it hurts it hurts when your hero
27:42fights against you
27:44yeah i mean but you know what if you have a family and you happen to be in the same
27:51business just because we didn't see the wayans fight don't mean they didn't fight
27:56you know yeah you know but guy and brad a royal
28:01but guy and and joe you know it was like uh urban legend stuff like we were there like we knew it we
28:10saw it you know it was a big buzz like everybody knew that there was issue and knew at the end of
28:17the day you could they could say anything to each other but you couldn't say anything about them to
28:22somebody else they would get on you about you know about the very person that they were fighting
28:26with and it was really a love story you know it was really beautiful to see it and and people want
28:32to see guy and joe sitting next to each other we like that you know yeah it was great good book
28:39now because god's like hey you're sitting next to him
28:47just splices together no same
28:56i want to get to my last question which is sort of a big picture question about kind of the state
29:04of comedy because the documentary ends with the idea that we're at a transitional point both for
29:10comedy but for black comedy in particular with youtube and tiktok maybe providing platforms and
29:17outlets and maybe usurping the role that clubs used to play and getting voices out there i'm curious
29:24from all of your perspectives what we've gained or maybe lost in that transition well i feel that
29:32there's beauty in the struggle you know and i feel that a lot of people right now they're just they
29:38don't have to struggle they just have to do a few things and push a few buttons and get a few
29:44followers and they can get booked in the very club that you worked your ass off to get into so for that
29:51i have had issues with that now i know that i have to change such a time and i have begun doing that
29:58because there are some really talented people out there but i think that all of them can't be
30:03classified as comedians some of them are comedic actors they just don't everybody want to be a
30:08comedian so bad but some of them people can't take that stuff from the internet and put it on the
30:13stage it doesn't translate and that's what a comedian can do but a comedic actor will be able to do
30:20that if you tell them what to do if you put them where they need to be and and and they're reading
30:25scripts and doing stuff like that which they have to write scripts to do the little skits that they
30:29do anyway i think there are some talented people out there though and have been able to be exposed
30:35more through the internet but you know they'll never know what it's like to drive from chicago to
30:40los angeles to try to get five minutes on comics or comics in a car and five of them in a room
30:47they don't they'll never know what that was like because everybody thinks they deserve a sweet
30:52these days but baby there was there was beauty in that struggle and those bonds you know when we were
30:57broke and hungry and sleeping on each other's couches i've had five comics in my house at one time
31:04i've had to cook for them we've done all that stuff and i just feel like a little bit of that type of
31:10camaraderie has been lost due to the the internet but i'm you know i'm trying to change
31:17oh i you know what my my sentiments exactly i i feel like coming from uh i mean this was a choice
31:33for me i went to the university of miami i graduated i was going to work in my family business
31:38and i just caught the comedy bug and so i threw all that away to get on stage not knowing what
31:46was going to happen or where it was going to lead but when i did get that first comic view in atlanta
31:50my naive sometimes being naive is bliss ignorance is bliss i took twenty five hundred dollars and moved
31:57to la i that first tv appearance told i was ready for la and i moved to la and had no clue what the
32:07jungle was what it was just me making that journey meet people like guy to meet people who had rooms
32:16um you know the monday nights at the improv or whatever just to just get up just to hear about
32:24one day tracy morgan staying with it somebody told me if you want to make it don't leave la
32:28just to hear about tracy morgan leaving snl and they were looking for the new black guy
32:33i had just i just happened to have the right bit at the right time how black people found out crouching
32:39tiger hidden dragon had subtitles at the magic johnson theater it was the right bit at the right
32:46time always stand people up me acting out this bit being at the magic johnson theater to the point
32:53where it caught lauren michaels eye and i and i got um you know i got asked to join the cast as a
33:00feature and that kind of started my career in order to you know do more things but today
33:07like lunel said you don't even have to leave your couch and that is the difference all you have to
33:15do is turn your telephone on to you and just be consistent whether it's good or bad if you're
33:20putting up five videos a day it's gonna find a home and that for four or five years next thing you
33:26know your own platform your own followers and the industry shifts to the numbers instead of to the
33:33talent just because you have necessarily mean you have true talent and sometimes what lunel and what
33:40lunel is saying is that doesn't always translate except for the few exceptions that are out there
33:44killing it because they can do both but there are some people who really i feel like kind of
33:49disrespect the past because they instantly want a crown that people know who's been in the business
33:55you didn't really earn that crown i mean you did your part and did your thing and i don't want
34:02to sound like a hater but it's just a different path and so when you try to step on the toes of
34:07people who took that path of just you know there's a rocky road nobody got a car nobody got sandals
34:13y'all on bare feet walking for 10 miles well some people did that and and so sometimes i'll just
34:21button it up by saying i think it's in a i think the state of comedy and black comedy but especially
34:28comedy in general especially from stand-ups it's in it's in good hands because there's so many
34:32platforms now and a lot of times unfortunately when something tragic happens in the black community
34:38hollywood wants to open up their ears to black stories and it allows people to tell their stories
34:44and it allows people to sell new development only because now hollywood is looking you know only because
34:50of something but it only came out of tragedy you know so much development got sold because of george
34:55floyd's death because people felt like oh let's tell more stories because their ears were open
35:01and for the first time for the first time for the first time for the first time what it happens like
35:07it's like a it's like a a leap year it's almost like every it's like an olympic year every olympic year
35:13hollywood's let's let's you only have so many reggie hudlands like reggie's about to tell me no on a
35:20great project because it's only
35:21but what we what we do is we keep throwing stuff up against the wall and because of the the new
35:32internet sensations being combined with old talent being combined with great writers like warren
35:37hutcheson and and um ralph farquhar and all these different people from old school to new school
35:42you know you can get a story in and i'm so proud of god for being able to get this story told
35:48because you he combined a lot of new school comics who weren't necessarily there doing the grime of
35:54the fat twosies but he put them on the dock anyway but he combined new comics with old school comics
35:59and comics who i never saw even step foot in fat twosies but they on the dock talking about the
36:04importance of black comedy and i think that was a brilliant move including everybody well to make
36:10this real quick i agree with both finesse and lunel you know you big when you go by one name i still
36:15gotta use my last name um but they're both lunel hit on on the head it's about that grind it's about
36:22that struggle and comedy is truth and pain and all those years on the road all those comic clubs late
36:28at night especially in la gangbangers coming to your show heckling you and you could lose your life
36:33you know out after the club in the parking lot on the sidewalk because you got into a battle a mama
36:38joke battle with a cripple or blood or whatever all those promoters who are gangsters who don't have
36:44your money and they want they want to put a gun on the table when they pay you all the drunken nights
36:48and everything it's about reps and being on stage and being uh uh true and tested those those nights
36:55i mean the relationships that are ruined um as far as like divorces you know being away from your
37:01family traveling all the time uh my agents managers fussed at me because i'm i'm out doing stand up
37:09when i should be resting for an audition in the morning and because stand up is is the girl that
37:13brought me to the dance and staying true to that so you know i i embrace and i welcome this new school
37:18of comedy as bob sunday calls them social medium social medians uh i love that that phrase he came up
37:25with and i but but i wanted to have them in the documentary because i wanted to bridge that gap
37:30they are our future and i'm a fan of comedy and and a lot of the ones that that finesse mentioned
37:36he didn't say names but they do respect the old school they do respect the past and they ask
37:41questions all the time and and those are the ones i'm like okay let's bridge this gap let's teach them
37:47how to to be comedians stand up comedian but but also show us how to do that social media thing that
37:53you do and i think that's the the marriage that i wanted to do and and the the bridge that i wanted to
37:58form between old school and new school i here's i look at it i think more is more uh i i have never
38:07seen any medium of communication eradicate a previous medium of communication meaning television did not
38:16erase radio right people still make movies um so if there so now the social media platform
38:24it's just additive so you know during covid there was a place where people could do comedy or there
38:32are people who may or may not have a gift for being able to do stand-up but in this new medium they were
38:38able to express sort of a buster keaton comedy or however they did their thing or created something
38:45entirely new at the end of the day stand-up's going nowhere because the power to get up in front of a group
38:52of people is you and a microphone and you live and die by your word is an incredibly powerful thing
39:01it is cost effective which means if you do it great you walk home with a trash bag full of money
39:08and ain't nothing wrong with that and you don't need you don't need to cut it together you don't need
39:16uh technology to distribute it you can just stand up and do it and that power will never go away
39:22um so i'm all i'm all for more is more uh i love the old school i love the new school i want to
39:30encourage everybody because that's that's how the brilliance happening steel sharpening steel
39:36hey reggie i have no idea that that's a true statement with a bag full of money because
39:42all of us have done shows with drug dealer promoters where they had to go in their corners
39:47and pick up the money from the street guys to give us our money for the show and sometimes some of
39:55that money come back with blood on it you know i can't i came out of oakland you think i didn't have
40:00a little blood on my money so many grimy things that happen in this business yeah but the most
40:06heartbreaking thing stand-up comedy does not love relationships does not love love because
40:14you'll break up five times with your with your with the love of your life only because they cannot
40:19compete with stand-up comedy that's the truth and that's the heartbreaking thing about comedy trying
40:25to fall in love and and stay in love with comedy at the same time and try to explain you can't get
40:31rid of either one but if you had to choose hey no and what about being a mother doing that right
40:39i always used to fathers going off to work going off to work going off to work whatever but a mother
40:46yeah leaving a child you know to go do comedy like that shit is like literally almost unheard of
40:55because people just don't talk about it but that's a painful painful choice you got to make right there
41:00when we uh i went to the comedy store recently with my daughter who's 26 and i went back in the
41:07dressing room with her i actually got choked up because i can remember my daughter sitting at that
41:13bar in the green room doing her homework while i was on stage i can remember asking other comics maybe
41:21watch my baby while i was on stage i i remember my daughter danced on the comedy floor comedy stage
41:29uh comedy store stage after michael jackson passed away she did a michael jackson like tribute dance
41:36at the comedy store so to go there with her as a mother you know it was it was just nostalgic and it
41:43and it got me choked up those if those walls could talk right at that comedy store if those walls could talk
41:49i was in a relationship but i remember telling uh the the one i was in a relationship with like
41:54don't make me choose because that's a very easy choice no disrespect but but comedy was always my
42:01first love my first wife when it comes to that basically because it fed me it made me happy it made
42:06me sad it allowed me to travel it allowed me to bring joy to so many people and it's so important to me
42:13it's so important to me because comedy is is medicine laughter purifies the air right so many
42:19people that need to laugh that's why i can't understand why people get snatched on stage or
42:26other comedians going other comedians on stage people come to those shows to laugh not to hear about
42:32what's going on in your life unless you make it funny and i remember after 9-11 just to interject
42:38after 9-11 we were you know when everything was shut down i'm like oh my gosh ain't nobody gonna be
42:45wanting to see us on stage no more now and yet those comedy clubs were filled because people need it
42:53it's like they come to us we do it is a gift and we do do work like a preacher we give people what
43:00they need and can let them escape through our words and these are just words we're not standing up there
43:08with movie screens behind it when i'm standing up there with props or any of that kind of stuff
43:13this is just our opinion what we have to say and it's healing for people and the comedy clubs have
43:18always been a sanctuary for folks to go and get what they need from them to us and that Tuesday's
43:25that Tuesday was an assignment from God and it was i'm glad he used me to allow to allow me to have
43:33comedians to give a voice to the voiceless and to bring laughs to those who needed it and every
43:40comment that came to the comedy store during Fat Tuesday's days whether you were bombed or whether
43:44you did well whether you had a name you didn't have a name i thank you all because you all were the
43:49backbone and the blood of Fat Tuesday i love i love that as a as a stopping point that is a great
43:56note to end on Fat Tuesday's the era of hip-hop comedy is available on prime video thank you so
44:02much to Guy Torrey Reginald Hudland Lunell and Finesse Mitchell thanks everybody you guys
44:10love y'all
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