- 2 days ago
Chelsea Handler ('The Feeling'), Hasan Minhaj ('Off With His Head'), Jamie Foxx ('What Had Happened Was...'), Roy Wood Jr. ('Lonely Flowers'), Sarah Silverman ('PostMortem') and Seth Meyers ('Dad Man Walking') join THR in Off Script With The Hollywood Reporter.
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00:00When I first moved to L.A., I did two shifts at a sushi restaurant.
00:03Do you remember, it was on Sunset, there was a karaoke place.
00:05Yeah.
00:06The beginning of my shift at 6, somebody's like,
00:08Jamie Foxx is doing karaoke.
00:10And then at the end of my shift at 11, I went up, you were still on stage.
00:13Yeah.
00:13Like five hours of karaoke.
00:15Why?
00:15Every Tuesday.
00:16Why?
00:17Because it was the thing to do.
00:22Being funny is hard work, but this group makes it look easy.
00:25We're having an unfiltered conversation with six of the most fearless performers in comedy.
00:31Get to know the people behind the punchlines.
00:34Jamie Foxx.
00:37Chelsea Handler.
00:41Seth Meyers.
00:44Hassan Minhaj.
00:46Sarah Silverman.
00:49Roy Wood Jr.
00:50They're all on the record, but just a little off script with The Hollywood Reporter.
00:58Hi, and welcome to Off Script with The Hollywood Reporter Stand-Up Roundtable.
01:02I'm Lacey Rose.
01:03Let's get started.
01:04So we're going to jump in with a question for whoever wants to take this one.
01:08When was the first time you remember realizing you were funny?
01:11My dad was one of those dads that taught his toddler swear words.
01:16And then I yelled them out at the grocery store, and I saw all these grown-ups laughing despite themselves.
01:23And it made my arms itch with glee.
01:26And I chased that the rest of my life.
01:30That's a t-shirt.
01:32Made my arms itch with glee.
01:32I think it usually starts with cursing early and getting attention for it.
01:36Especially if you're a girl.
01:38Yeah.
01:38Doing something bad out of school and people going, yeah, look at her.
01:42And you're like, okay, I can run with this.
01:44For me, it was Little League Baseball.
01:46Huh?
01:46Fourth grade, fifth grade, I rode the bench.
01:49So you ride the bench, your job is to insult the other team and throw them off their, you know,
01:54throw them off their, you know, mentals.
01:56You were particularly good at that.
01:57Yeah, so we would just crack on the other team.
01:59And if you got the umpire to laugh or the other parents to laugh, like, that was like,
02:03it's like doing an open mic set.
02:05Making fun of teachers was big.
02:06Elementary school, making fun of teachers.
02:08Yeah.
02:09You had some zingers.
02:10Yeah.
02:11That was me, third grade.
02:12Yeah.
02:13But I was an intellect.
02:14So my father was a teacher.
02:18My grandmother was a teacher.
02:20So I was smart.
02:21I'm just always talking shit.
02:23And so Miss Reeves, and I'm in Texas.
02:27Son, you're not going to be able to stay in this class if you keep running your mouth.
02:30And so my grandmother brokered a deal with my third grade teacher.
02:37Let me tell jokes at the end of class every Friday.
02:41Wow.
02:41So they gave me like five or ten minutes.
02:43And then I would take the jokes off with Johnny Carson.
02:45Huh.
02:46You feel me?
02:47And I'd do it.
02:47Because the kids, the only reason I watched Johnny Carson is because we were poor,
02:50but the only television was in my room.
02:52So my grandparents would stay up and watch Johnny Carson.
02:55So I took them jokes, tell them to the kids.
02:57They thought I was amazing.
02:58You feel me?
02:59So that's how I figured it out.
03:02It's a good grandma, too.
03:02Did you do impressions?
03:03Yeah, I was doing Jimmy Carter singing You Light Up My Life.
03:10As a third grader?
03:11Third grader.
03:12And by the time I got to sixth grade, everybody from the city was, you know, coming.
03:17And then by the time I was, you know, ninth grade, and then it was Ronald Reagan.
03:21Well, well, it doesn't matter if, you know, a kid doing, the only black kid doing Ronald Reagan.
03:25Lacey, did you know that we're sitting down with the only comedian that has all the Infinity Stones?
03:30I did not know that either.
03:32It's just Jamie Foxx.
03:33I got on a United flight just to meet all five Infinity Stones.
03:36You run the combine.
03:37Your whole special was like five tools.
03:40Yes, bro.
03:40That was, yeah.
03:41Yes.
03:41You came out in leather, chains.
03:44Yeah.
03:44Sermon.
03:45T-f.
03:46Yes.
03:47And you saw the trailer for Jamie Foxx's.
03:50You're like, oh, son of a...
03:51Only, only, only a handful of comics can do this.
03:55Lights out.
03:56Hilarious.
03:57Come on.
03:57This is civil rights.
03:58This?
03:59Yeah, that motherfucker.
03:59Yeah, man.
04:00That only happens every three decades.
04:02You gotta have a real...
04:03It was comedy.
04:03It was a performance.
04:04It was a sermon.
04:05Like, it was all...
04:06Once you see a piano on stage, you're like, oh, I ain't got no piano joke.
04:09Yeah.
04:11All right.
04:11I suspect there have been people along the way that didn't always appreciate your humor.
04:15Looking back, what was the most combative or hilarious post-joke encounter you have had?
04:20Post-joke?
04:21Post-joke.
04:22Maybe it was a subject?
04:23I feel like there's gotta be a Trump one for you, Seth.
04:27Sure, but they don't feel that special.
04:30You know, I don't feel like I'm particularly alone in having crossed the line with what he considers good taste.
04:36Yeah.
04:37Plus, you're a Trump supporter now, so there's that.
04:39You know, I came around.
04:42We're all Trump supporters now.
04:44He's actually really nice.
04:46You guys just have a meal.
04:49I did an Oprah joke.
04:51So there was this rumor that me and Oprah was dating each other.
04:53I said, oh, that's a perfect joke.
04:56My management team said, don't do the joke.
04:57I said, I have to.
04:58So I'm in Madison Square Garden.
05:01Everybody out there.
05:02And I said, yeah, man.
05:04Since I won the Oscar, everybody's saying I'm dating everybody.
05:06And I could hear him, you know, sort of saying.
05:09So I'm laying in bed with Oprah.
05:11I lean over to Gayle and say, ain't this shit crazy?
05:14Hey, Stedman, get us some juice.
05:18Gayle doesn't know this.
05:20Oh, no.
05:21She didn't like it?
05:22She loved it.
05:22Stedman, hi, Jamie.
05:24That was so funny, Jamie.
05:25The hardest I ever bombed was at Madison Square Garden.
05:29Madison Square.
05:29It's Guardian, right?
05:30Yeah.
05:32Madison Square Garden.
05:33It was that concert for Sandy, Hurricane Sandy.
05:37And they had asked me and Bill Hader to do a Stefan.
05:43And Bill wisely said, I'm not going to do it.
05:45And then they said, what about Bobby Moynihan, his drunk uncle?
05:48And so we were, we'd ridden this thing to go out.
05:50And Chris Rock saw us backstage in costume.
05:52And he goes, you're going to do sketches?
05:56He goes, you're going to follow the Who?
05:58Oh, that's fun.
05:58With sketches?
06:00And we just, all our confidence drained out of our face.
06:03And sure enough, we just went out.
06:04And they were so angry.
06:06Was Hot Air that night?
06:07I don't know.
06:08Were you there?
06:08The Who performed, right?
06:09The Who, Arcade Fire.
06:10It was a, it's weird that you didn't remember us.
06:13It probably sounds like it's for the best, right?
06:17It was great, yeah.
06:18Politics gets me in trouble sometimes.
06:21But it's not so much a political joke as it is the early inclinations of the joke,
06:27where you haven't figured out all the live wires.
06:30I remember in San Francisco, this was, I don't know, week two of Russia, Ukraine.
06:35And the premise of what I was trying to say was essentially that we spend money to support
06:44other wars, but not wars in black neighborhoods, was what I was trying to say.
06:50But it came across from the email I got from the Ukrainian table that walked out, was essentially
06:58you don't care about us and our country, and I'm never watching Daily Show ever again,
07:03and they should, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
07:05And you finally get the joke together later on, but it just, it sucks because with political
07:11stuff, you've got to find the edge in the, and in hindsight, it's probably one of them
07:15jokes I should have done in New York on a Tuesday night.
07:17Work it out on a club, man.
07:18Where nobody cares.
07:19So the Ukraines were mad at you?
07:21Yeah, Ukrainian, there was a Ukrainian, there was a table of Ukrainians, and it was awkward.
07:24It was a table of Ukrainians?
07:25Yeah.
07:25Got it, got it.
07:26Okay, now, now, now.
07:27No, this is, I'm at, I'm at cops.
07:30I'm at cops.
07:30Ukrainian friends.
07:30Oh, oh, okay, copy.
07:31And I do a joke that basically came across as anti-Ukraine.
07:35I was, I'm not anti-Ukraine, I'm just like, y'all got money for what y'all want to have
07:38money for.
07:39And that's all I was trying to say, that ain't me hating on the invasion and you fighting
07:43back or whatever, but I didn't have enough jokes to support that part.
07:47And sometimes you got to let the take cook.
07:49Yeah.
07:50Let that take cook.
07:51Yeah, you're just like, oh, sweetie, you were just set up.
07:53It could have been almost anyone.
07:55I just needed it to juxtapose the punchline.
07:57The joke works without saying Ukraine, but because that was what was hot, I was trying to lean
08:00into current events, because you're supposed to be, shouldn't have done that.
08:05I thought it was funny to me, like, some people are like, I'm political, I'm a political comic
08:08or whatever, but then their jokes are like, Donald Trump eats pussy like this.
08:13You know, like, no?
08:17No?
08:18This is, you hadn't quite worked that one out.
08:20I had, I was working it out, I was working it out.
08:23I go, well, I should say something.
08:25Nikki Glaser recently said, so many of us feel pressure to reinvent ourselves or to get
08:32more honest or reveal more about ourselves.
08:35Who here actually feels that pressure?
08:38I have a full-length bush right now.
08:39He's like me.
08:44Floor-length?
08:45I like you and your bush.
08:46It's not floor-length.
08:48I don't think I could grow it floor-length.
08:50We don't know yet.
08:51Dare to dream.
08:51I don't know.
08:52Chelsea saw me once in my bathtub.
08:54In a bathtub.
08:55In a bathtub.
08:56I remember when you came over and I was in my bathtub, and it was the first time I think
08:59anyone ever saw my vagina from that angle, including myself.
09:05Right.
09:06And it was so insightful.
09:07Remember what happened?
09:09You know, you shave it and then you end there?
09:12Yeah.
09:13And I was like, I don't know.
09:15Can you take a picture?
09:16I need to see it.
09:17Seeing it through someone else's eyes must be fascinating.
09:19Yeah.
09:22The fact that y'all talking about your pussy is amazing.
09:25I don't know.
09:25For me, comedy is very personal.
09:27I'm airing my personal grievances, my dirty laundry, all of the things that are embarrassing,
09:33all of the things that are celebratory.
09:35Like, for me, it is very personal.
09:37So it's natural to be personal.
09:39Is that pressure coming from the audience?
09:42Is it coming from the industry?
09:42Is it coming from yourself?
09:43I think it's your choice as a creative, right?
09:46It's like, what kind of comedy are you doing?
09:48Is your comedy personal?
09:49Or are you telling jokes?
09:51Are you telling personal stories?
09:52Are you telling jokes?
09:53I think for each of us, it's probably a little bit different.
09:56For me, it's always been about my personal life, my family, my friends, what's happened
10:01to me, my experiences.
10:02But, like, if we just say, like, y'all's two specials, you'll say some wild shit that,
10:08like, if just your recent specials, you'll say some shit that, for me, it's like, can
10:12you give me a minute to digest that you were in a closet having a lesbian playing around
10:18as a teenager in Martha's Vineyard?
10:21Like, you will say something wild and speak past it where you will sit in it and give the
10:25audience an opportunity to, like, absorb the trauma of it.
10:29Because, like, that's what I struggle with.
10:31Like, I don't talk about myself on stage, like, yet.
10:34But you've talked about wanting to.
10:36I mean, that's something that you, like, maybe...
10:38That's the next...
10:38The next one.
10:40But we're like musicians in that way.
10:41Sure.
10:41We have a relationship with our audience, and so the expectation is different.
10:45Like, when someone sees Jamie or Seth...
10:47Oh, when I saw Jamie, it's the amount I wished I'd almost died.
10:51That's what's fucked up.
10:52I had a stroke to be...
10:53I didn't have any jokes, because I had a special deal for a long time, but I didn't
10:59have nothing to talk about.
11:00What was I going to talk about?
11:01I'm rich.
11:01I was behind my gates.
11:02I didn't...
11:04I remember running to Eddie Murphy.
11:05I saw Eddie Murphy at his house, and he says he was going to try to go do stand-up.
11:10Yeah.
11:10Remember that?
11:11Yeah.
11:11And I go to his house, and everybody went...
11:13Yeah.
11:14He said he's trying to do jokes.
11:16I said, you can't.
11:17This ain't funny.
11:18Like, the house...
11:20This is...
11:21Your house is too nice, and you got...
11:22Whatever that scent is, he had a scent that, you know, the shit that pumps through the...
11:27Oils.
11:28Like a hotel?
11:29Yeah.
11:29I said, what is that smell?
11:30He said, you don't like it?
11:31What is that?
11:31And he said, it's pomegranate sass.
11:33I said, the fact that you know that shit lets me know that you ain't funny, bro.
11:37Like, you can't...
11:38It was too perfect.
11:40So that was me.
11:40I was living in that.
11:41So I didn't have nothing to talk about.
11:43And then, the stroke happened, and I was like, oh, this is a platform.
11:49Which, I don't want to have another stroke in order to have another hour.
11:51Well...
11:52But...
11:52But you will if you have to.
11:54Yeah, if I have to.
11:55That's right.
11:55I also feel like...
11:56Now I play the stroke card.
11:57I also feel like comedians have to go in right now because there's so much more of a glut of opinions out there.
12:05So my opinion of the world has to be different from what everybody else with a podcast mic and a social media account and an IG live camera has to say about the worldly thing.
12:17What can you shoot, edit, and air in that two- to three-month window that hasn't been said about the thing that we're all seeing versus me talking about myself?
12:27Or just going, you know what, I only want to talk about loneliness, or I want to talk about being a father.
12:32Like, that, to me, is more interesting.
12:36So it almost forces you to go somewhere so you feel like you've got something that's worthwhile to say that's, like, of meaning.
12:42It's so true, it's like your hot take on something in the world, it's still valid, but while you're honing it over months to shoot a special, 1800 people have, like, recorded something in their car with their seatbelt on.
12:56And that immediacy is what's, like, where it's at kind of now, not in the format that we do, but on social media, which is how people consume entertainment.
13:08But I also think that's why it is, it can be beneficial to be telling personal stories all the time, because there is no hot take on that.
13:15Those are your stories.
13:16You know, you're talking about your experience as a father.
13:19But, like, no one's going to take that away from you, and no one's going to have a take on your story but you.
13:24So there is a benefit to having, you know, you personalize your comedy.
13:28And, like, you're, I think you're, Sarah, you tell jokes, right?
13:32You set up premises and you tell jokes.
13:34I don't find your comedy particularly personal.
13:38It's personal.
13:39It's like you have a personal style, right?
13:41But you're not revealing so much of yourself as, say, you are in your comedy.
13:47And I think that's a different, that's a different style.
13:50So this last special is completely about my parents dying and, like, everything in it is true.
13:55So this will be...
13:56No, you're right.
13:57It was a real turn.
13:57Did it feel different?
13:58At the time of this tape, Sarah's special has not been released.
14:01Let's just put that out there so I have not seen that one.
14:03But there is a moment in the middle of it where you stop and you pivot and you quickly
14:07tell a, I think it's a masturbation joke because, I think you said, you're like, right?
14:13Oh, yeah, right, right.
14:14You're like, oh, it is, this is getting so sad.
14:17Just when you think it's, you know, like...
14:19What was the masturbation joke?
14:20I'm just asking.
14:21What was the masturbation joke?
14:22I think about burying my parents and that I am not religious, but I, you know, I've realized
14:29that grief has a lot of DNA as religion.
14:32We're trying to find meaning in something that we don't necessarily have a handle on.
14:38And, um, but that I believe in science and I know that energy cannot be created nor destroyed.
14:46I wrote that.
14:47And, um, and then I say, but so I do feel like, no, they're not in their casket, but they're
14:53out there.
14:53And I feel like our loved ones are watching over us.
14:56Maybe not all the time, but at least when we're masturbating.
14:59And then I go, I don't know why I said that, and then I go, I think I needed to think that
15:04in order to come.
15:09And then I took a beat.
15:12But presumably, but presumably you do that because other, I mean, it's, it's this sort
15:17of...
15:17Release.
15:18Yes, release.
15:19Yeah, release.
15:20It's funny, like, reinvention, I think is, I would imagine, for myself, would be a giant
15:25mistake, whereas refining is, I think, what...
15:28I think you should consider reinvention.
15:30And you're alone with that, or do a lot of people say bye on my back?
15:33I do a lot of people say bye on my back.
15:34Good friends.
15:34Okay.
15:35But ultimately, that's what I think my goal is, is, like, to just get better, because
15:39I think if you completely are a different persona on stage, because, again, like, based
15:43on that story, like, you might be talking about personal stuff, but that's still a Sarah Silverman
15:46joke.
15:48Right.
15:49Which is more, like, refining.
15:51I just enjoy it because, like, I also enjoy consuming that type of stand-up because I'm learning
15:57more and new things and more interesting things.
16:01I'm not anti-topical humor, but my, my palate has changed.
16:05Yeah.
16:05I mean, Hassan went through something extremely unique in terms of character assassination.
16:11So, what are the jokes that come from that?
16:15Like, what is that?
16:15That's, yeah.
16:16At what point do you see the comedy potential in what can be, whether it's, it's your situation
16:21or your situation, and is it, is it, are you seeing it or somebody else saying, like, wait
16:25a second, there's comedy here?
16:27Yeah, I mean, I had to go through a comedy audit, which is its own thing, you know, by
16:33TurboTax, which is its own thing.
16:35So, and make sure you file, everybody, and bring your receipts.
16:37But Indians, we like receipts.
16:39But, but also, like, the, there's a critique aspect to it that's also very new.
16:43Yeah.
16:43But that, but that comes with what we do now.
16:47Sure.
16:47Like, the, the art form is ubiquitous and on the internet, and it used to be something that
16:51you could do in the West Village, and now everybody around the world can see, and so you just got
16:54to be aware of that.
16:56That's part of it.
16:56I mean, I am interested in hearing when you, in Long, when you were having that, because
17:01people were coming at him for not being truthful about the storytelling he was, you know,
17:08in his special.
17:08But when did you see the humor and the comedy in that?
17:13Yeah, I think, I mean, one of the first jokes that came to me is I called a buddy of mine,
17:18because you always, you also have to call that buddy.
17:20Yeah.
17:20And I was like, how, how, Rob, how bad is it?
17:23And he was like, the article is bad, but the photos are good.
17:28And I was like, that's fucking hilarious.
17:30It's good.
17:30That's objectively hilarious, you know?
17:32And it's also like, it is very funny to fail so bad that you bring back Jon Stewart.
17:37Like, that's objectively funny.
17:40Oh, that's right.
17:40It'd be like you dying and bringing back the ghost of Johnny Carson.
17:43Yeah, exactly.
17:44Like, that's pretty awesome.
17:45Right.
17:45To be honest, a lot of people are probably really happy how it turned out.
17:49So, it's like...
17:50Can I also say, from the Daily Show side, like, when they came out and they were like,
17:54yeah, Hassan's not going to be the host.
17:56And then we're like, trying to talk, like, nobody would say why.
17:59Like, nobody would give any details.
18:01Because we're, like, trying to figure out, well, if it's not going to be Hassan, well,
18:04who's it going to be?
18:04Should I stay?
18:05I don't know.
18:05Well, what happened to Hassan?
18:07Oh, well, there's a...
18:09We're just going to reopen the search.
18:11Like, nobody could even, like, even put into words what it was you were being accused of.
18:15Yes, he did not do anything.
18:16But this is like the NBA.
18:18You get traded.
18:19You get traded and you go through the portal and, you know, sign and trade and it happens.
18:24I think it was...
18:24What did they tell you?
18:25Oh, bro, that's the showbiz call.
18:28Oh, shit.
18:28We've had the showbiz call.
18:30No, I haven't.
18:30What's the showbiz call?
18:31The showbiz call.
18:32We are such fans of me.
18:34Yeah, you get the showbiz call.
18:35I never got that call.
18:36You get the showbiz call.
18:37I have an Oscar and Grammy, I'm sorry.
18:40It's a very loving rejection.
18:42It's the showbiz call.
18:43I think everything is fought for comedy.
18:45Okay.
18:45Like, everything in your life, good or bad, painful, it's fought for you.
18:49Yeah, yeah.
18:50I mean, you must have immediately thought...
18:52You must have seen the comedy in it immediately, right?
18:55I was doing so many jokes in the hospital, they were like...
18:58Yeah, like...
18:59Because I kept asking the doctor, I don't want to be stroke man, stroke man.
19:02Yeah, that's me.
19:02And my sister would be like, please, that's the only way I could get through it.
19:07I'm a comic, so it was like, even when I was heavily sedated, they gave me Oxycontin,
19:15Dilatin, and morphine at the same time for my pain, so I was kind of...
19:19They gave you that Sackler special.
19:20You know, they gave it, this is for your pain, and this is so you don't remember it.
19:25So they met and blacked me.
19:27So the motherfucker turned in the wheel, yo, take this here, and you won't remember...
19:31Anyway, so I'm fucked up, and then...
19:36This is not funny.
19:38I snuck my phone, because I didn't know what the outside world was saying.
19:42And so I snuck my phone to see what people were saying.
19:44And I've just been in this hospital, and I couldn't get my mind around it.
19:47I had a stroke.
19:47I'm in fucking perfect shape.
19:50The clone shit threw me.
19:52Yes.
19:52When they said I was a clone, that made me flip in the hospital.
19:56That's it.
19:56These motherfuckers are trying to clone me.
19:58I didn't have a stroke.
19:59So I'm sitting in the hospital bed like, these bitch ass...
20:03And then I saw me walk into my room.
20:06But I'm white.
20:07So I see the white me.
20:08But he had a Caesar too, just like you?
20:09No, all that.
20:10The white me.
20:11And I'm trying to get their attention.
20:14And no one said anything.
20:15And I'm like, that's it.
20:16They're trying to clone me.
20:17This motherfucker is all a thing.
20:19And so the next morning, I was out of my bed.
20:21I was standing there like Chris Pratt in Jurassic Park.
20:25I was like, what the fuck?
20:27And Dave was like, what's up, fuck?
20:29I said, what's up, Fox?
20:30I said, I know what's up.
20:31You're trying to clone me, motherfucker.
20:32I saw the white clone.
20:34And I know why you're trying to clone me.
20:36And make me white, because I'll sell better overseas.
20:39And all this other kind of stuff.
20:42So they had to call my psychiatrist.
20:48I had a psychiatrist on board.
20:50I'm sitting in this motherfucker.
20:51You read your conspiracy theory.
20:52I'm thinking I'm a clone.
20:53Yes.
20:53And when the psychiatrist says, are you all right?
20:56And I says, am I all right?
20:57Or am I all white?
21:00I saw what happened yesterday.
21:03I saw, motherfucker, you're trying to get the white
21:05motherfucking Jamie Foxx, and it ain't going to happen.
21:07So he just calmly goes, I think we're going to lower your dosage.
21:13And after that, they just cloned you as black guys, right?
21:17I see everything as funny.
21:18I just think we're over-serious-ing comedy.
21:23What would you do if you didn't have this?
21:25Politicians are held to, as opposed to the standards politicians are held to.
21:29That's just absurd.
21:29Yeah, these motherfuckers always think it's our fault.
21:32Like, it's always the comedian.
21:33I got, that was going to be the title of one of my specials, Kill the Comedian.
21:37Because it's just like, you know.
21:38It's also like, you're the only ones going after Trump.
21:40You're the only ones going after Trump.
21:42It's like, the pressure to constantly talk about Trump.
21:44It's like, we're also comedians.
21:46You're also supposed to give people, provide people with a reprieve from thinking about Donald Trump for a minute, for an hour, for however long your show is.
21:54You know, you want to provide that.
21:56That's why I like also doing stand-up, because I'm so tired of it, ultimately.
22:00It's like, I've been there, done that.
22:01Everyone knows how I feel.
22:02I can't just keep banging this drum.
22:04You weren't using your platform enough to speak about the issue.
22:08I, yeah.
22:09But like, how do you like, okay, it should all be jokes, everything's funny.
22:12Jokes.
22:12But we're dealing with audiences, bro, where they want to come and be emotional and feel.
22:17Fuck them, run them over.
22:19Run them over.
22:20Fucking tell that shit.
22:20But ain't the job to get the people to laugh?
22:22It's the last shit I did, I talked about, I didn't know I had gray hairs on my nuts.
22:27And I did 30 minutes on this.
22:29No, I didn't know.
22:30I didn't know, because I shave and I dye everything, but I never, and I cut all it.
22:34I never thought to look under there.
22:36You know, and then I'm dating this younger girl, and we're talking shit.
22:39Don't touch me, I don't, I can't, I can't relate too much.
22:42All right, what's an unpopular opinion you hold about comedy?
22:45It may be, it may be exactly what you're saying.
22:47Just be funny, fuck it.
22:49Like, I don't, I don't know, I know sometimes the chatter gets to you.
22:53Yeah.
22:54And that's why when I was trying to do my routine, I couldn't let anybody come watch it.
23:00Because they would say something, and then I would, oh.
23:02Oh, and it would make me gun shy.
23:05So, like, I would just, you know, try to stay in this sort of thing of I'm just going to say whatever comes to mind.
23:11But the minute someone, it's Adam, it's Adam, it's the Adam and Eve of it.
23:18When Adam said, I'm naked.
23:20Who told you you were naked?
23:21Does that make sense?
23:22Yeah.
23:22Yeah, so it's like, I just want to, I want to stay funny, which is hard because everybody just thinks it's, I don't know, I don't know what they think.
23:30They think it's, they think it's literal.
23:32Does that make sense?
23:32Correct.
23:33They think everything that we're saying is literal.
23:34Like, when I said I wasn't dating white girls anymore, I didn't really mean that.
23:39Anyone else have?
23:39Chelsea really put me in my place, and I was so grateful.
23:42This is a big admission, by the way, on the record, bro.
23:44Well, no.
23:45When black Twitter.
23:46Every black girl was like, thank you.
23:47And they see me with my white girl.
23:49Oh, this nigga.
23:49Hello, we're right here together.
23:51Hello, everybody.
23:52Please pick us up.
23:53I married a brown woman, so I kept it 100%.
23:57You know, love is love, but I did my part.
23:59That's not nice.
24:00I did my part.
24:01What is an unpopular opinion you guys hold about comedy?
24:05I don't like punchlines.
24:07I just like the setups.
24:10I think, look, I'll say this.
24:12I think the art form is bigger than ever.
24:14So when people critique it, I'm like, there's more comedians doing theaters and arenas than ever.
24:21So it's like watching the NBA contracts.
24:23The NBA contracts are bigger than ever.
24:25Yep.
24:26And the critique of it is louder than ever.
24:28So NBA contracts are bigger than ever.
24:30Stephen A. Smith is louder than ever.
24:31Yep.
24:32But both come with it.
24:33First of all, be clear.
24:35Yeah, but, you know, take the good with the bad.
24:37It's two worlds.
24:38It's this world, and then it's the real world.
24:41There's the commentary.
24:43There's the 281 comments that we think is the whole world.
24:48And then there's Joe Coy selling out.
24:50Arenas.
24:51Fucking arenas.
24:52There's, we're canceled here, but yet you're doing stadiums.
24:56I don't know how it plays.
25:01I don't even know how this plays, because we're discussing something that is, what's the
25:06particular, you know, it's, it's, it's the serious, most serious look at comedy, but
25:11it's motherfuckers out there working nine to five.
25:13It was scary.
25:13Paying tickets to come see you do your thing.
25:16And, you know, that's the other side of it.
25:18And it's a medium that's been pretty unscathed by cancel culture.
25:22Absolutely.
25:22Even though people have been canceled, they haven't been canceled.
25:24They haven't been canceled.
25:24Just like he was saying.
25:25Right.
25:26They're still selling out.
25:26It's kind of a medium where you can get away with what you really want to say.
25:30There is no other, I mean, other than writing or authorship, but you get to say whatever
25:35you want to say and however you want to say it.
25:38And it's up to you whether, I mean, it's up to your audience, whether or not they're
25:40coming for it.
25:41So it's, you're not being directed by another person.
25:44And there's a.
25:45It's such a sham of like, you can't even say what we want anymore.
25:49Yes, you can.
25:50Yeah.
25:50If you're a dangerous comedian, you see yourself as edgy.
25:54The thing that makes you dangerous or edgy is that there are consequences.
25:58You don't want any consequences.
25:59That makes it unfair to you.
26:01Yeah.
26:02You can say anything you want.
26:04It's a free country.
26:05Yeah.
26:06So it's like when you say like an unpopular opinion, to me, it's like, well, what's something
26:10about comedy you don't like?
26:11Well, whatever is something I don't like is something that work for somebody else.
26:14Sure.
26:14Yeah.
26:15So it's just, it may not be your joke bucket that you do or your style, be it talking about
26:21people or doing reaction videos or you do crowd work, whatever.
26:26It's all what the streets have chosen and decided that they like.
26:29It's a market.
26:29So, yeah.
26:30Yeah.
26:30So it's hard for me to like, I like the question, but it's hard for me to just go, well, I don't
26:34like that.
26:36I get it.
26:36It's probably because I can't do it.
26:37I'm not good at crowd work.
26:38So yeah, I hate on it.
26:41Wait, wait, Jamie, I'm going to ask you a question.
26:43Yeah.
26:43This is real.
26:44This is going to make every comic lose their minds.
26:46Is it true?
26:47Chris Spencer told me this story.
26:49Yeah.
26:50To do this special, you didn't go to a club.
26:53You practiced it in your living room.
26:54In my living room.
26:551.28 every single day in front of Chris Spencer and some other guys.
27:001.28.
27:011.28.
27:011.00 PM?
27:021.28 PM.
27:03I would come down and we built a little stage and I said, here's the set.
27:08Now we did like six hours to eight hours worth of material, but we dialed in the set.
27:13But we didn't get a chance to take it out on the road.
27:16How are you going to test that shit?
27:17Yeah, right.
27:18How are you going to test that shit?
27:19That's what I'm saying.
27:19So what people don't know is, is that it wasn't a tour.
27:26It was Atlanta.
27:27Yes.
27:28In two and a half shows.
27:29Yeah.
27:29I said, do a show on Thursday because I had an English director and I had never worked
27:36with him and I was trying to explain him, we got to land on the moon.
27:39Yeah.
27:39And he was very, well, Jamie, I want to make sure when we go into the eyes and we make
27:43sure that we go here and make sure that your face, you know, I've seen your early work,
27:47but I want to make sure that this, this and this, that and this, this and that.
27:49And he hasn't seen any footage from the living room?
27:51No.
27:52Roy, do you understand?
27:53He, he did a cold reading.
27:55Your director for your specials should know the material before you.
27:58No, but, but, but we didn't have that kind of thing.
28:00So we saw some of it, but he was more, and you know, this and that.
28:03And so then it was, I've never had an English or a white person tell me what black comedy
28:10is.
28:11Ooh.
28:11Yeah.
28:11So I had to do this.
28:13I said, well, you know, it's going to be black people.
28:14Of course, it'd be, there'd be blacks, but I want to make sure that when we go and we
28:17go and we, we, we peer inside, I said, man, but it's going to be black people.
28:20I get that.
28:21I get that.
28:21But the thing is, I said, okay, it's going to be some.
28:23Oh God.
28:25Why would you say that?
28:25I said, cause that's, that's what we're going.
28:27We're going to Atlanta.
28:28It's going to be some.
28:29And I saw it throw him.
28:30I said, don't let that throw you because you're going to need to feel that when we
28:35go.
28:35Cause we don't know what we're going to need.
28:37And I said, this is how it's going to go.
28:40Thursday night.
28:41It's going to be crazy.
28:42Cause the Thursday night ain't cool enough for Friday night tickets.
28:47So they're going to be a little rowdy.
28:49Am I right?
28:50Nah, Friday, all plus ones.
28:53Them motherfuckers was like, going to be like this.
28:56And then Saturday at 12 noon, we go to see that Jamie Foxx shit, right?
29:03And he's like, well, I said, that's how it was going to play out.
29:05And so then we go down to Atlanta and we asked Atlanta to just hold us down.
29:12Did you ever hear him on a cell phone talking to his agent being like, I feel as though I've
29:15been mischosen?
29:18No, you know what?
29:19It looks great.
29:20You did a great job.
29:21Hamish is the same guy that shot the Superbowl with Usher.
29:28And he was great because what he did, he allowed me to talk that shit.
29:32Cause most people would have been like, Hey man, I don't want to deal with that.
29:36He let me talk my shit.
29:38He let me have, he let me have what I needed.
29:43And then he says, okay, now I just need to make sure that this thing looks this and that.
29:48Cause we didn't have, he was great.
29:51In other words, because my whole team was like, yo man, we got this shit.
29:54You feel me?
29:55And so now, now I'm going back out, but I'm going to, I'm going to test my, test my shit.
30:00Are there places you guys think that audiences won't go with you or you're nervous about
30:05whether they will go with you?
30:07I mean, I'm on my way to Europe to do a European tour to apologize on behalf of our
30:11country, you know, and I hope, I hope they're with me.
30:14I hope they accept my apology and understand that all Americans aren't supportive of what's
30:19happening in our country, so that's, but I think as a comic and, and you guys tell me
30:24if you disagree, but we're all pretty known entities.
30:28So when your audience comes, they're coming for it, they want it and they know what they're
30:32coming for.
30:33It's not like, you know, we're starting out.
30:35So you have an advantage.
30:37But I wonder like someone like you, Seth, who is out on television every night as, as one
30:43thing, do people come to your standup shows sort of expecting more of that?
30:47And how do you then walk that?
30:48They might very well.
30:49I definitely have a fear that people buy tickets for me sometimes with the expectation
30:54that it will be a show about politics.
30:55And I don't necessarily want to go do that because again, I get to scratch that bitch all
31:00week long.
31:01And so hopefully the show is funny enough that if they have that expectation, they're
31:05not let down.
31:07But I do in the back of my head, don't, I also, you know, I've done a couple of specials
31:10where there hasn't been a lot of politics.
31:11So it's hopeful that the more I do that, the less people think that, but I, I, I worry a little
31:17bit.
31:17Do you, do you read your Ticketmaster reviews?
31:20No.
31:21Do you?
31:21Oh, no, don't do that.
31:23You do?
31:23Don't do Ticketmaster reviews.
31:24What's the worst one you've read?
31:25Ticketmaster reviews.
31:26Only for joke critiquing though.
31:28Oh, interesting.
31:29I don't care about anything else.
31:30Do you feel like you get a good, good, good, good?
31:32That's not fair.
31:32Because they'll, they'll start critiquing the parking.
31:34No.
31:34It'll be like, the parking at the Chicago theater was horrendous.
31:37Then we walked in, $12 for beer?
31:39Really?
31:40It's like, come on.
31:40Last Comic Standard made us live tweet in 2010.
31:43And you see all the worst shit about you in real time for eight straight weeks.
31:47So I'm like, internet hate doesn't bother me.
31:49But the idea of people going, oh, I thought he would have been more political.
31:53I'm like, well, no, that's, that's the CNN thing.
31:56That's not what I do now.
31:58And so that part, I'm like, oh, that's interesting.
32:01So then some shows, I'll front load.
32:05I'll change the batting order of the bits.
32:07Front load.
32:08All right, if I got 10 minutes on politics, I'll do that.
32:10Get it out the way.
32:11Give you what you thought you wanted.
32:13The late, great John Witherspoon.
32:14Mm.
32:16And you know this.
32:17God bless.
32:18John Witherspoon, because he knew his audience loved his movie appearances or whatever,
32:23his first five to eight minutes is just material about movies he's been in.
32:29Bang, bang, bang.
32:30You got to coordinate.
32:31Like, he would do the werewolf, the vampire.
32:34Yeah.
32:34Brooklyn.
32:35Yeah, yeah, yeah.
32:35He would do all of that.
32:37And then the next 53 minutes is just straight heat.
32:40Mm-hmm.
32:40So that's what the ticket, like, and I only know, because they don't say that on YouTube.
32:45They don't say that, and I never would be aware of that.
32:48And those are the only reviews I read.
32:49I don't go on YouTube and comment.
32:51Bob Sag at that shit.
32:52Bob Sag at that shit.
32:52No, it's Bob Sag at that shit.
32:53Bob Sag at that shit.
32:54Bob Sag at that shit.
32:54The first name that came in my head, because he's so dirty.
32:57His stand-up is so dirty, but it was America's dad.
32:59Bob Sag at that shit.
32:59This motherfucker.
33:00He had to just be ready to not be what people expected.
33:05He took it off the rails.
33:06Comedy bucket.
33:07This just motherfucker was free.
33:09I mean, they knew immediately, right?
33:10It was all left turn.
33:11Yeah, and they loved that.
33:12I mean, it's like, that really worked for him.
33:14But I just feel like when you're, oh, my God.
33:17Sanford and Son, he's doing the Sanford and Son shit, and then he goes to do Vegas.
33:21He said, if you see me holding a white bitch, I'm holding it for the police.
33:24And there's all these beautiful, cute white families doing it in the first 13 roles, you
33:29know, lead.
33:29But yeah, you gotta, you gotta, I understand about the comments.
33:34I don't like to read the things, because it fucks with your head a little bit, right?
33:39Like that.
33:40Be a woman.
33:41And I'm not trying to, but like, women comics, like, anything on Rotten Tomatoes, anything
33:45people can vote for, it's just zero, zero, zero, zero.
33:50Just so many people, so many, like, I don't know who they are, just very motivated.
33:55Yeah.
33:55Like, I don't ever read anything about myself.
33:58I just don't.
33:59I can hear bad things about me if I want to.
34:01Sure.
34:02I don't need to go look for it, you know?
34:04And especially as a woman, maybe it's different than being a man.
34:07I wouldn't know I'm not a man yet, but like, I don't want to hear, I don't want to hear
34:11about it.
34:11I'm not interested in hearing all the negative opinions about me.
34:14I'm aware they're out there, but it's not really my, of an interest.
34:19I will say I saw one about me that made me laugh, where someone said, and again, I'm
34:23very cognizant of being a white comedian over 50, and someone wrote, every white comedian
34:27over 50 either becomes anti-trans or a big old jar of mayonnaise.
34:35Because I will say, like, when I was 25, I was like, oh my God, guys, certain comedians
34:39of each and age, where they just start telling jokes about their kids and their family, and
34:42you're like, yeah, and then all of a sudden you realize, you're like, oh man, that's what
34:45I am.
34:46At least I, at least I leaned mayo.
34:48Well, it's like, you know, there was like a generation maybe after us that knew that
34:54it was hacky to talk about, like, airplanes and rental cars, but they didn't understand
35:00the reason why comics talk about that is because they're on the road and they're on a lot.
35:05They just were like, at Largo or wherever, knowing that that's hacky.
35:09It's like, it's, it's hacky because that's our lives and that's what we write about it, and
35:14nothing's hacky on its face.
35:16Any topic is fair game.
35:17If you can be hilarious on any topic, I, the, my favorite joke is an airplane joke of Kevin
35:24Neelands, but I feel like I tell more than him.
35:27Because I was not playing at all.
35:30I don't think the pilot was very experienced, you know?
35:33He got on, he was like, oh, thank you for flying with us.
35:37We'll be taking off in roughly five to ten.
35:39Oh, whoa, whoa, here we go.
35:41And he comes back on five minutes later.
35:44Oh, where is the, uh, oh, here it is.
35:49It's good.
35:50Presumably you do get feedback from, from other people, uh, in, in the industry itself,
35:54and that is stuff I would guess you, you do listen to and you do, uh, take to heart.
36:00What, uh, is there a piece of, of whether it's a compliment or a critique from some
36:04other comic that you've, uh, that you've used?
36:08When you're riffing with comics, like, we'll sometimes riff and be like, that's great.
36:11Oh, me, him, and Ronnie Chang, Daily Show Glory Days, we'd be in the hall just bouncing
36:16premises for specials and stuff.
36:18They go, oh, that's funny.
36:19They go, oh, that's funny.
36:20Helpful.
36:20Yeah, write, write that down.
36:21That's good.
36:22Uh-huh.
36:22Yeah, and then you just start building from there.
36:24Uh-huh.
36:25Because what, when you're riffing with a comic that you respect, it's, you're really respecting
36:28their discernment.
36:29Totally.
36:30Of like, oh, you see something.
36:31Yup.
36:32There's really something, there's a lot of fodder here.
36:34But for you as a, you know, you came up as a head writer.
36:38Yeah.
36:38All you had to do was, like, look at POV in perspective.
36:42So I bet your discernment of this, this is really great.
36:46This, this take totally works.
36:47I feel like with a lot of accuracy, I can just know it ahead of time how a joke's going
36:54to work.
36:54Like, the ones I feel like I can't, maybe this will work, tend not to.
36:58Yeah.
36:59And the ones that I feel like the writing's tight, you know, so I'm not surprised a ton
37:03on stage with how anything goes.
37:06I'm always surprised with specials, because, like, the last two specials I did, I shot two
37:11nights, one show each night.
37:12And both times, the first time was a shock, and the second time I kind of understood it.
37:19I was like, the first night, you're just excited, you got it.
37:23And now you're like, now I'm free.
37:24And then the second night feels magical, because you're not in your head, and you're, and so
37:29you go, oh, we'll just use the whole second night.
37:32And then the editor was like, mm, I'm liking the first night.
37:34And I go, no, no, no, no, I had all these, like, someone yelled out, and I had an amazing,
37:39like, totally in-the-moment thing.
37:42But it didn't look in the moment.
37:43It was in the moment, and it was totally off the cuff, but it didn't look that way.
37:47And then the first night was better.
37:50But because it wasn't better for me, my experience of it wasn't better.
37:54I just assumed the one that felt magical was better.
37:58But when you look at it, maybe I was in my head.
38:01Maybe there was an inner monologue going on, but it's a better step.
38:05Same thing happened to me.
38:06I think it's the precision of being in your head, right?
38:09Like, that butterflies actually help you focus.
38:12A hundred percent felt both times.
38:14Yep.
38:14Where I'm like, it's the second one.
38:16It's a thing.
38:16And then it's, no, it's the first one, where you were spitting out in your head, it looks
38:20so good on me.
38:20Because your experience wasn't as fun as the second night where you felt free.
38:26And I took some enhancements.
38:30Wait, what?
38:32I took some enhancements to go on stage, because I thought since Richard Pryor did enhancements.
38:37What are enhancements?
38:39No, hey, Jamie, don't do that.
38:40Don't implicate yourself.
38:41I was going to do some enhancements.
38:42It's like a clone blocker.
38:43Like cocaine?
38:44Like a beta blocker?
38:46Some people call it cocaine.
38:48Some people don't.
38:48I don't call it that.
38:49And some people don't, Sarah.
38:50Some people call it enhancements.
38:51I just want to be on the record.
38:52No one calls it enhancements.
38:53No, no, no, no.
38:55No one calls it enhancements.
38:57I want to go on the record to say I hate cocaine.
39:00Yeah.
39:01I just like how it smells.
39:02Okay.
39:03What?
39:03Terrible.
39:05Whatever it was that I did, I thought, okay, this is going to get me over the hump.
39:08So I went on stage and I said, I killed that shit.
39:11And this is when Marcus King was my manager.
39:13And I said, King, I know we recorded that shit.
39:16Let me see that shit.
39:17He said, you want to see it?
39:18And he played it back.
39:20And I was, and he was like, he says, and this is a different version of it.
39:28He says, sometimes when you think you're killing, it's not, that's what it is.
39:33Because we've all had those sets where, oh, that shit was out.
39:37And then you look back at it, oh, we were a little maybe too loose.
39:41Or we were a little too, take too much time in between whatever you're trying to get to.
39:46And when you're forced to be in an uncomfortable place, it's probably more interesting to look at.
39:52Yeah.
39:52It's also, you know, something when you learn about being nervous before going on stage.
39:57Like I didn't, I always used to go, well, when am I not going to be nervous?
39:59When am I not going to be nervous?
40:00When am I going to be free?
40:01And it's like nervous.
40:02Then you find out being nervous means you care.
40:04So being nervous and being overthinking things is why you deliver an A-plus set in your first show.
40:09You're present.
40:10Because you care and you're like, I've got A, B, C, and D and I'm going to deliver this.
40:14And then that's why it's a home run.
40:16Like Chris Rock was very complimentary of my last special.
40:20But he's just like, you got to do it, this didn't do it.
40:22Come on, man.
40:23But, you know, like he was, he's a master also at editing as well.
40:29And so he's telling me shit about like, all right, this joke, catch it, this angle, this punchline.
40:35Catch at a wide shot with this line.
40:37And I'm like, motherfucker, it's too late.
40:38We didn't shot the shit.
40:40For where I am in the comedy totem pole, especially in black comedy.
40:45Speak on it, brother.
40:46I feel like I'm imposing on the OGs.
40:49Like I can call D.O. Hughley and I know I got one call a year with D.O. Hughley on a premise.
40:55I know I got one call.
40:57Well, maybe with George Wallace, I got two calls a year.
41:00The whole world is crazy.
41:01I'll be thinking.
41:03The whole world is crazy.
41:04I'll tell you, L.A. and these streets, I'll tell you, La Cien, I don't like that.
41:10I hate that.
41:11La Cien, what kind of street is that?
41:13La Cien.
41:14Yeah, no, I don't think I've gotten.
41:16That's a good advice.
41:17Yeah, the whole world is crazy.
41:18That's an OG George Wallace show.
41:19But it's just you don't know what you're doing until you've done it.
41:25And that's the hardest part, I think, of putting any special together.
41:29And I also think getting so many opinions, not so many, isn't good for you either.
41:33Not that you're getting too many, but it's not good to get so many opinions.
41:37You have to own what you're doing.
41:38It's so singular.
41:39You're right.
41:39And understand what your thing is.
41:42Yeah, yeah, yeah.
41:42You know, what are you putting out there?
41:43And have confidence in your ability to capture an audience.
41:47My rule is almost like lunch.
41:49The right amount of people to, yo, what are we getting for lunch?
41:52It's four people.
41:52Right.
41:53Eight?
41:54This is how you end up at Sweetgreen.
41:55This is how you end up at Sweetgreen all the time.
41:57Four is ideal.
41:58Like, at what part do you listen to yourself and not listen to the other people that are advising you?
42:04When you get old.
42:05Now that I got older, my hunches aren't great.
42:08How do you know that?
42:09I have to lean on.
42:09Yeah, how do you lose that?
42:10I don't know.
42:11It ain't good.
42:14But if you tell me where to go get it, I can go get it.
42:16You feel me?
42:17Like, my execution is better.
42:18But isn't a piece of that also just you're surrounded by people who are saying, yes, you're great.
42:22I mean, you reached that point.
42:22No, I was around a lot of white people that were laughing at me.
42:25And I thought I was, well, these white people got it.
42:26Black folks tell you the truth.
42:27Black folks tell you a whole, it's a whole different world.
42:30We have to reenact 50 Cent and My Love Story.
42:32Man, that shit had me in the headlock for months, bro.
42:35I didn't know how to look at 50, because I had G-Unit jeans.
42:39We all did.
42:40No, I had G-Unit jeans, G-Unit shit.
42:42And vitamin water.
42:43Vitamin, I had everything.
42:45I was fucking...
42:47You didn't drink Formula 50 vitamin water?
42:49Yes.
42:49It does sound familiar now that you say it.
42:51When I first moved to L.A., I did two shifts at a sushi restaurant.
42:54Do you remember?
42:54It was on Sunset.
42:55There was a karaoke place.
42:57Yeah.
42:57Every Tuesday.
42:58Yeah.
42:58That was us.
42:59At the beginning of my shift at 6, somebody was like, Jamie Foxx is doing karaoke.
43:03Yeah.
43:03And I went up.
43:04And I was like, I just moved to L.A.
43:06I was like, oh, my God, I can't believe I've seen it.
43:07And then at the end of my shift at 11, I went up.
43:09You were still on stage.
43:10Yeah.
43:11Like five hours of karaoke.
43:12Why?
43:13Every Tuesday.
43:14Why?
43:15Because it was the thing to do.
43:17I would shoot my show, the Jamie Foxx show from 6 to 9.
43:20You had a job?
43:21I gotta be done by now.
43:23We got karaoke that starts at 9.45.
43:25You were there?
43:27I mean, I was...
43:28Did you get up on stage?
43:29No, I was working.
43:29Oh, you were.
43:30Oh, got it.
43:30Oh, right.
43:31Serving sushi.
43:31I had Whitney Houston there.
43:33It's 2000, and Whitney Houston is the female singer of the millennium.
43:40And me and Bobby doing Don't Be Cruel and shit, and then I got...
43:42At a sushi restaurant.
43:44On a Tuesday.
43:45At Miyagi's.
43:46That's it.
43:46We're at Miyagi's.
43:47Miyagi's.
43:47Oh, I remember.
43:48So we're there one night, and we partying, and then I said, I gotta use the bathroom.
43:52And while I'm in the bathroom, I hear, now, Jamie, let me tell you something.
43:54I don't do this for nobody.
43:55I get a million dollars to sing the song.
43:56It's Whitney Houston.
43:58Wow.
43:58But it's not camera phone days.
44:00I come out, I grabbed, it was a...
44:04Handicam?
44:05Yes.
44:05And Bobby had told, don't nobody film this.
44:07And I said, Bobby, let me get it.
44:09I filmed Whitney Houston.
44:11Whitney Houston goes up, and she says,
44:13And I will always...
44:18No camera phone, but people called their answering machines.
44:23Oh, of course.
44:24Right?
44:24Yeah.
44:24So I film Whitney Houston singing whatever the name of that song is.
44:31I will always love you.
44:32I will always love you.
44:33Whatever it is.
44:33Feels like...
44:34So I film it.
44:35So now, I got the tape.
44:39Whitney's lament.
44:39Go back to my crib in Van Alden.
44:41So as I'm sitting there, we having a little after party.
44:43Yeah.
44:44All of a sudden, I hear this.
44:45Somebody's at my door.
44:46How they at my door?
44:47They didn't ring the gate.
44:49They must have jumped the fence.
44:50It's Bobby Brown.
44:50I open the door, and Bobby, yo, I got to take that tape.
44:54I said, Bobby, I don't have a tape.
44:56Well, I got to take something.
44:58I was like, what the fuck?
45:00So he comes to my house, goes in my closet,
45:02and he's taking clothes and matching outfits and shit.
45:05And I'm like...
45:06That's collateral.
45:06He had to take a million dollars.
45:07Whatever the fuck, he's matching...
45:08He had to take the enhancements.
45:09He had to take the enhancements.
45:09And then he's matching the outfits and stuff.
45:11Do you have...
45:12How can I say it?
45:13What's the word that you think?
45:14Where are the enhancements?
45:14The enhancements.
45:14I'm not...
45:15Well, probably.
45:16But I'm not...
45:17I said, whatever you take, whatever you want.
45:19Did you have the tape?
45:19Were you lying?
45:20I had the tape.
45:21So you're lying.
45:22You lied to Bobby Brown.
45:23I'm not finna get this tape.
45:23What?
45:24Wait, where's the tape now?
45:26So I got the tape.
45:27Valued honesty above everything.
45:29So he takes all these clothes, takes off.
45:33And I said, cool.
45:34So I kept the tape.
45:35Twelve weeks later, I look on People Magazine or some shit,
45:39and he's got my clothes on.
45:41And it says, Bobby Brown clothes by Prada.
45:44I'm like, no, it ain't.
45:46It's clothes by Jamie Fox.
45:47Wait, where's the tape?
45:48I had the tape.
45:49I got the tape.
45:49It'd be pretty cool if I was walking through the background
45:52with a couple of trees.
45:54Temporo.
45:55What's your go-to karaoke song?
45:57At the time, it was YMCA.
46:00At the time.
46:02And now?
46:03Poison.
46:04Belle Biv DeVoe.
46:04Oh, wow.
46:05Wait, well, now I can't...
46:06It's driving me!
46:07Everybody sings it.
46:09I kind of have to know.
46:10What's everyone else's?
46:11Return of the Mac is another great one.
46:13Yeah, that is a great one.
46:13Rose's Outcast or That's What Friends Are For.
46:16Word.
46:16Dionne Warwick and Friends.
46:19What's the thing you always find funny, even if you probably shouldn't?
46:23People falling down.
46:25People falling.
46:25Down, like, long.
46:27It's not one fall.
46:29It's a series of falls.
46:30The stairs.
46:31And a body of water.
46:33Memphis gas station shootings.
46:37Specific.
46:37Took mine.
46:38Once again, Jamie takes mine.
46:41Jamie Foxx at the roast of...
46:44Was it Emmett?
46:45The Shaq roast, right?
46:46Emmett Smith.
46:47It was Emmett Smith.
46:48Shaq was there.
46:49And Doug Williams.
46:50Doug Williams, man.
46:50It's such a sad day.
46:52I have to watch it every six months.
46:53I do still love breaking.
46:55I love laughing at breaking, even though I know it's unprofessional.
46:59Yes, I do.
47:02Billy Crystal and Robin Williams was my first roast.
47:06How do you think that played?
47:07Not good.
47:08Them motherfuckers.
47:09Have you ever done a roast?
47:10I've done the Correspondent Center, which is a roast, but you're bombing, but later it
47:14works out.
47:15Nobody comes back at you.
47:16Nobody comes back at you.
47:17Yeah, you just bomb.
47:18That's a part of a roast that I have a real respect for, is that by participating, you
47:23are admitting that you're fine with people coming after you.
47:25No, I'm not...
47:26Roasting's not my thing.
47:27I'm not really, like...
47:28I don't have many comedy bylaws, but I generally don't talk about people.
47:33I don't know...
47:33I talk about issues, but I try not to just single out.
47:37I feel like I do too much roasting as a real person.
47:40You know, to do it on stage would just be taking it to an unnecessary level.
47:43Your Pacino roast was great, too.
47:45You gotta fight.
47:46You gotta...
47:47Oh!
47:47Like, you're...
47:48Right.
47:49Wait, I have to apologize to Chelsea.
47:51Please do.
47:522008.
47:53I think I came on your show.
47:55I think I came on Chelsea Lately.
47:57We all remember.
47:58Yes.
47:58We know where this is going.
47:59And I was very dismissive about celebrity news as a thing to make humor about.
48:05As a result, I was never booked again on Chelsea Lately because the producers clocked it and
48:10it was like, don't bring that back.
48:11But having now worked on CNN for 20 episodes and having guests who don't give a fuck about
48:18the topic that the fucking show was about is hard and I'm sorry.
48:24That's nice.
48:25But I probably had no idea about those conversations going on.
48:28No, I'm not saying it was you.
48:29It was one of your producers.
48:30But yes, I hear you what you're saying.
48:32Absolutely.
48:32You have to respect the show you're on to a degree, right?
48:35Yeah.
48:36It's like coming on your show and having nothing to talk about and refusing to supply any stories.
48:41You're like, what did you do?
48:43What is this?
48:43You're like, not talking about it.
48:45I refuse to talk about it.
48:46What is this at 30 Rock is crazy?
48:48What is this place?
48:50Yeah.
48:50What is this?
48:51What's the significance of this place?
48:53All right.
48:53We're going to do the hardest possible pivot to take us out.
48:56The lightning round.
48:57We want the lightning round.
48:58Doug, we want the lightning round.
49:01What is the most used emoji on your phone?
49:04Oh.
49:04Prayer hands.
49:05I can't say.
49:06I don't think I can say.
49:07What is it?
49:08Black fist.
49:09Pirates flag.
49:09Every time the Pittsburgh Pirates win a game, I text a pirate flag.
49:15But it's the Pirate flag.
49:16Got it.
49:17Yes.
49:17I was thinking it.
49:18Okay.
49:18Yeah.
49:19Also the black fist.
49:21Yeah.
49:21You don't use emojis, do you?
49:23Yeah.
49:24All the time.
49:24What do you use?
49:25What are emojis?
49:27What is this?
49:28It's cocaine that comes in a little.
49:29It's an enhancement.
49:30It's an enhancement.
49:31It's an enhancement.
49:32It's a text enhancement.
49:33All right.
49:34One more.
49:34All right.
49:35So much of our media is served up to us.
49:37What does the algorithm think you like?
49:39I was just saying, I'm getting a lot of my, the algorithm's giving me old Sarah Silverman
49:44show clips.
49:45Oh.
49:45Oh, that's nice.
49:46That's fun.
49:47That's fun.
49:47You mean like on your Instagram?
49:48Yeah.
49:49My algorithm thinks I am only interested in neck creams.
49:53And I'm not.
49:54Mine is home improvement and dark skinned women with big booties.
49:59Oh.
50:00Home improvement, the show or home improvement, the activity.
50:04Like painting and shit.
50:05And then there's just big booty black women.
50:07That's what I'd be into.
50:08Mine is like, um, like Ja Morant highlights.
50:11Uh-huh.
50:12But then ways to stretch your back after 40.
50:14Yes.
50:14Okay.
50:14Like lower back.
50:15Yep.
50:16Chiropractor.
50:17You guys are so.
50:18I'm so glad I asked.
50:19This is great.
50:19You guys are so pure.
50:20It's amazing.
50:21Um, ants?
50:22Mine are obese animals.
50:25Black women with large booties.
50:27And mostly.
50:28And politics.
50:30A lot of politics.
50:31Jamie, are you getting?
50:32Do you get any?
50:32He's looking at it.
50:33Is he trying to find them right now?
50:34What's happening?
50:35He's distracted.
50:36By the way, they have the same algorithm.
50:37It's the same one?
50:40No, the FYP is.
50:43For you page for them.
50:44It's crazy.
50:44Oh, that one.
50:45That one.
50:46No.
50:47Airdrop.
50:47Airdrop that one.
50:48That one.
50:49You know, you can just connect your phones now, guys.
50:51Wait, what are we looking at?
50:52Mine has more like.
50:54They're looking at their.
50:54Home improvement.
50:55I know, I get it.
50:56I want to know.
50:57Oh, my gosh.
50:58Okay.
50:59Pussy, pussy, pussy, pussy.
51:01Got it.
51:02Well, I'm so glad you all went on that journey with me.
51:05Thank you for taking us.
51:06Hey, by the way, cheers, everyone.
51:08Cheers.
51:08We had champagne and we didn't.
51:10Cheers.
51:10Now we can't do that.
51:12Cheers.
51:12Jamie, pop.
51:12Ha, ha, ha, ha.
51:14Ha, ha, ha.
51:15Ha, ha, ha.
51:16Ha, ha, ha, ha.
51:17Ha, ha, ha, ha.
51:18Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
51:19Ha, ha, ha, ha.
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