Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
When I got nominated class clown in school, I remember my mom said, 'Don't be no clown.' So I went to my vice principal in my school and said, 'Can we change this to just the funniest?'
My dad kicked me out of the house when I was 18. I was supposed to go to community college. I wasn't really into going because I wanted to do stand-up, and he felt I was wasting my time.
I felt so contained at home. I always really felt like I couldn't be myself at home, so I was always quiet. I remember I used to sit in my room and listen to Bone Thugs and close the door.
When comics are in the room, people have a tendency to try to make them laugh. That doesn't really make you funnier. It makes you a comic's comic, but you aren't going to get a fan base doing that.
I was influenced by a lot of comedy growing up, I had good parents. They were funny, too. My mom was hilarious; my dad was hilarious. I guess being at home around the environment was just a good stage to get started.
I grew up watching people and companies commercialize Black History Month. I watched old McDonald's commercials, and they'd blacken up the commercials for 28 days then go back to normal in March. It got annoying to me.
I see myself touring internationally - everywhere, every theater, every arena - and putting out stand-up comedy specials until I can't even stand no more. Even then, I'll probably do my comedy special in a hospital bed.
CBS garners a predominately older white audience, and by having a show like 'Superior Donuts' on their weekly programming, it distorts what people are used to seeing in a positive way. It's a show I think was necessary.
I'd been writing sketches since high school, but 'Friends of the People' really taught me about structure - how to wait out a joke, how to stick with it for a while. It also made me more confident onstage as a performer.
My friend gave me a VHS tape of Eddie Murphy's 'Raw.' I watched it so many times, I fell in love with it. I would watch it every day, just picking it apart. And then I started doing open mics around Maryland and D.C.: that's where I'm from. And I haven't stopped since.
Broadcast TV has a very classy but old-fashioned way of doing television. That's what it's always going to be. But you've still got to introduce young talent and ideas and shows to the masses. That's the way you build a bigger and younger audience, introducing younger writers, comics, TV shows to viewers.
I sat down with CBS, and we talked about me developing a show for them. At the time, I was meeting with a lot of networks. And I told them, 'I don't want to be acting on your show as the token black guy. I want to do something that will change a network and will change the way people view African-Americans on TV.'