Speaker 1: Pushkin. Hey everyone, welcome to Talk Easy, a weekly podcast
Speaker 1: of interviews with fascinating people from all walks of life.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Sam Fragoso, Thanks for tuning in. This
Speaker 1: week on the show, we have actor comedian Lamour and Morris,
Speaker 1: widely known for playing the reoccurring character Winston alongside Zoe
Speaker 1: Daschanel on the hit Fox sitcom New Girl. Before landing
Speaker 1: that beloved role on the show, Morris honed his comic
Speaker 1: craft at Second City in Chicago, where everyone from Alan
Speaker 1: Arkin to Stephen Colbert to Tina Fey received their start.
Speaker 1: It wasn't long, though, before Morris moved away from the
Speaker 1: stage and in front of the camera. He worked for
Speaker 1: a while as a host on BET, did some smaller
Speaker 1: indie and student films, and most notably, appeared in commercials
Speaker 1: for State Farm, Taco, Bell, Twis, Miller Lite, and plenty more.
Speaker 1: I say most notably not ironically and not merely because
Speaker 1: a majority of the country has seen Morris in one
Speaker 1: advertisement or another, but because these ads, even now in
Speaker 1: preparation for this interview, are really damn funny. Even within
Speaker 1: thirty seconds, Morris can make you laugh, and it's that
Speaker 1: same silliness that can be found in his work on
Speaker 1: New Girl and most recently in the latest Barbershop film
Speaker 1: with Ice Cube, titled Barbershop The Next Cut. Great title,
Speaker 1: by the way. Less than twenty four hours before the
Speaker 1: finale of New Girls fifth season, Lamourn and I talked
Speaker 1: on the phone. He was at his house in la
Speaker 1: where we discussed his Chicago roots, Chair Smith's tendency to
Speaker 1: just shoot the goddamn ball, no matter the spot on
Speaker 1: the court, working as a young black man and a
Speaker 1: white Hollywood, and a whole lot more. All right, well,
Speaker 1: here's a little more, and morse enjoy. You were born
Speaker 1: and raised in glen Ellen, Chicago. Well, no, I was. Well,
Speaker 1: I was born and raised in the South Side of Chicago, Okay,
Speaker 1: which is a lot different from glenn Oh. I know that.
Speaker 1: I know that because I was partly raised on the
Speaker 1: South Side. Um, and I know glenn Ellen and I
Speaker 1: have distinct memories from that. So so when did you
Speaker 1: When did you move? I was about fourteen or fifteen
Speaker 1: when I moved to uh Wheaton and Glen Ellen. I
Speaker 1: went to high school in Glennelle, and I lived in Wheaton.
Speaker 1: Why did you Why did you move? Mom? Got a
Speaker 1: new job, and you know, south Side was getting a
Speaker 1: little a little rough, getting shot, getting shot at, you know,
Speaker 1: stuff like that was a little, uh a little too much.
Speaker 1: So she decided to, you know, a completely different change
Speaker 1: of scenery would be better for us. Did you face
Speaker 1: any of that, Yeah, a few times. I mean our school,
Speaker 1: you know, our school was in the heart of the
Speaker 1: South Side of Chicago, and so you would get fights
Speaker 1: all the time, you guys bringing guns. There was one
Speaker 1: time in particular, I remember when I was younger playing
Speaker 1: football in the street. We would play street football. It
Speaker 1: was a bunch of kids, literally, just kids, and I
Speaker 1: caught a pass over over a kid and he got
Speaker 1: mad and he slapped me, and so and so I
Speaker 1: remember pushing him and my brother broke it up, and
Speaker 1: then doing so that other kid's brother got mad at
Speaker 1: my brother and it became a thing where they started
Speaker 1: to fight. So my brother was pretty good. My brother
Speaker 1: ended that in like two seconds, you know. And then
Speaker 1: that kids, even older brother, runs in the house and
Speaker 1: grabs a gun and just start shooting in the open
Speaker 1: crowd for the kids. What and uh yeah, so me
Speaker 1: we just all ran and uh yeah, I remember those days,
Speaker 1: you know, Uh pretty frequently. Um, but yeah, that was
Speaker 1: that was not a fun a fun game of football
Speaker 1: for me. Yeah, I don't and I don't think and
Speaker 1: that's why I never went from Yeah, I think, I
Speaker 1: think you can you can blame it on that one
Speaker 1: moment pretty much. Uh yeah, I'm a basketball guy. Nothing
Speaker 1: the batter. I haven't playing basketball. This has a few
Speaker 1: sprained ankles, right you. Um, so your mom thought, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is not this is not tenable. We gotta we
Speaker 1: gotta move. Glenn Ellen is a particularly you know, it's
Speaker 1: pretty provincial suburb. Um. From what my memory of it was,
Speaker 1: I don't have much Did you like it there? I did?
Speaker 1: I mean, I like my It was kind of boring.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie, Yeah, very boring. It's very boring.
Speaker 1: But I like my friends, like you know, people I
Speaker 1: hung out with I still communicate with to this day.
Speaker 1: I still so of my closest friends in the world.
Speaker 1: I was just there recently. Um, hanging out in good
Speaker 1: old glenn Ella hasn't changed. But it's exactly the same.
Speaker 1: Yeah it is, um, but it's you know, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's it's to me, it's more of a place to
Speaker 1: raise your family than than La Is. Um. I I
Speaker 1: over there. It's just quiet. It's it's peaceful, It's people
Speaker 1: are just genuinely nice. Um are you know people? Are
Speaker 1: you saying people in la are not genuinely nice? Um?
Speaker 1: I can say for the most part, the people that
Speaker 1: I've met at fifty fifty's is that bad it's fifty
Speaker 1: fifty depends on what you meet, Yeah, but I like it.
Speaker 1: I like Lennell and man, it's it's it's a nice
Speaker 1: change of pace from you know, a couple of times
Speaker 1: a year. I gotta go back and just hang out
Speaker 1: and do and have a day of just nothing. It's
Speaker 1: almost like a vacation spotre It's very clean, you know.
Speaker 1: It's it's not like this, It's not like La La.
Speaker 1: There is a guy who I see constantly. He's just
Speaker 1: not homeless. He just likes playing in the trash and
Speaker 1: and he's on Hollywood Boulevard and it's hilarious to see.
Speaker 1: But it just, you know, that gets a little old.
Speaker 1: You don't see that in glenn Ella. Dude playing in trash,
Speaker 1: pouring trash on himself, going I'm trash, I'm the trash man.
Speaker 1: I sort of got this is the dude, who just
Speaker 1: does this. He's not homeless, he's just as a performance
Speaker 1: art or something. I don't know. This is not this,
Speaker 1: This isn't on venice and a speach. No, No, this
Speaker 1: is a Hollywood boulevard. He just sits in the trash,
Speaker 1: dumped on himself. You'll stare at you, going, look at me,
Speaker 1: I'm trash. It's it's you know, it's a piece about
Speaker 1: the decaying American culture. And uh, it's really profound. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he could just write a paper on it and not
Speaker 1: have to play in trash. He could do that. He
Speaker 1: could do that, but then you wouldn't know about it.
Speaker 1: You would just be a paper in a class and
Speaker 1: you wouldn't read that. That's true. Yeah, because I don't
Speaker 1: read off to No, definitely, Um, it's a huge assumption
Speaker 1: I just made on your part that I just I mean,
Speaker 1: you don't you don't read kinda sorry, I was drinking
Speaker 1: as you were asking me a question. Um, No, I
Speaker 1: I read. I read it. I mean I probably read
Speaker 1: too much, mainly scripts. I write a lot too, so
Speaker 1: I'm always reading something. So you know, I mean you
Speaker 1: when you're you're playing you play basketball in high school, right,
Speaker 1: slightly not really. Um, I feel like I feel like
Speaker 1: inte real basketball. I played in the South Side, and
Speaker 1: then I didn't really play. And when I moved, Um,
Speaker 1: when I moved to the Glen Ellen area, organized organized
Speaker 1: basketball wasn't very fun for me. I guess it was
Speaker 1: like it just was. After a freshman year, I was like,
Speaker 1: I can't follow rules, and then I would play summer
Speaker 1: I would play summer league and then just not want
Speaker 1: to play after that. What do you mean you can't
Speaker 1: follow rules? Are you like running around fouling people. No,
Speaker 1: it's not rules. It's well like rules at a coast game.
Speaker 1: It's like the plays. You know. I can't really I
Speaker 1: can follow plays like I know how to you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, Like I know exactly how to run
Speaker 1: a play and follow a play. It's just that basketball.
Speaker 1: Basketball to me, wasn't supposed to be structured. It was
Speaker 1: supposed to be fun. And I just like playing with
Speaker 1: my friends and goofing off. That's the that's the joy
Speaker 1: I get out of. It's being silly and not like
Speaker 1: not all this pressure behind it. It's like if you
Speaker 1: missed this free drill, everyone's gonna look at you and
Speaker 1: laugh at you. That was and you're gonna be, you know.
Speaker 1: But that's what I hated the most because I played
Speaker 1: my freshman year a little bit and they would they
Speaker 1: wouldn't make these drills to where like they'd put it
Speaker 1: all on one person and if you didn't do it right,
Speaker 1: then you'd have to do a lot, Like the whole
Speaker 1: team would have to do a lat Yeah, the whole
Speaker 1: team would have to do a laugh. Yet I know
Speaker 1: that's good because like it makes you really try hard
Speaker 1: you don't want to fuck up. But it also ah,
Speaker 1: it's it was the worst. Yeah, yeah, I can't. I can't.
Speaker 1: I can't. I can watch it, and I could. I
Speaker 1: could judge players who don't follow the coach's decisions while
Speaker 1: I'm watching like NBA basketball and god damn it, you
Speaker 1: know whoever at the time, j R. Smith, why would
Speaker 1: you throw up the shot from right there? And I
Speaker 1: got a realized year Smiths is just having fun. Man, Yeah,
Speaker 1: he has a green light. I think if I could
Speaker 1: do that, if I could play, if I could be
Speaker 1: Jared Smith, I think I would play a lot more
Speaker 1: basketball in high school. I think Jarr Smith is the
Speaker 1: only NBA player who's like broken past the gold net
Speaker 1: in terms of having fun. I don't think he gives
Speaker 1: a shit about the plays. He does not. He doesn't
Speaker 1: play defense. He just shoots threes and like when he's on,
Speaker 1: he's on. But he's like something he somehow has made
Speaker 1: it pro and convinced enough people that he's good enough
Speaker 1: to play. It's kind of amazing. Yeah, he's he's great.
Speaker 1: He's great in that in that situation. Like I was.
Speaker 1: I was actually able with my friends yesterday. We were
Speaker 1: watching Kas and Hawks and one of our buddies was
Speaker 1: just laid it on j R. Smith, like so funny
Speaker 1: to hear that. The general consensus of j R. Smith
Speaker 1: is that he don't give a fuck. J R. Smith
Speaker 1: is going to shoot the ball from wherever he feels
Speaker 1: like shooting the ball. That's right. He's also he's making
Speaker 1: a lot of money not to give a fuck. Yeah,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, I wish I could do that. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think we all sot. Which at which point did you decide, like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm not doing organized sports. I want to write or
Speaker 1: act or be funny. I'd probably say sophomore year in
Speaker 1: high school. Sophomore year in high school I started goofing
Speaker 1: awful lot, and I didn't really know where I was
Speaker 1: going as far as extracurricular activities. And then we had
Speaker 1: to do an assessment test where it would it would
Speaker 1: an attitude test, I forget, which it's one of those two. Yeah,
Speaker 1: where I would determine, it would determine you know what
Speaker 1: you're more likely to be, what field you know, where
Speaker 1: you're where you're where you're more likely headed in the future.
Speaker 1: So mine was all geared towards broadcasting, and so I
Speaker 1: tried it out in high school and I thought this
Speaker 1: was pretty fun. I was great on TV class journalism
Speaker 1: and I liked it. So I wanted to go into
Speaker 1: sports broadcasting sports journalism, so I kind of started that
Speaker 1: process a little bit. There's a guy that I that
Speaker 1: I got to talk to a few times. It's like
Speaker 1: a local Chicago sportscaster and its Corey McFerrin. He is
Speaker 1: like my idol. So at the time, it was like
Speaker 1: he's still he still does news in Chicago. And at
Speaker 1: the time his cousin, his niece, was a classmate of mine,
Speaker 1: Jamie McFerrin, and so she hooked it up where I
Speaker 1: got to meet him and it was awesome. And so
Speaker 1: even now till this day, when I come to Chicago
Speaker 1: to do promo tour, press tour. I still go and
Speaker 1: I and he interviews me, which is amazing. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: so after you know, after about a couple of years
Speaker 1: of testing that out in high school, I did a
Speaker 1: couple of plays and I realized, oh, this is this
Speaker 1: is where it's you know, being on stage doing a scene,
Speaker 1: creating funny moments around the character. Um and so senior year,
Speaker 1: after being kicked out of class so many times for
Speaker 1: talking in class or yeah, I had I had a
Speaker 1: teacher who I had one teacher who would just give
Speaker 1: me time in the beginning of class, mister Morrison, anything
Speaker 1: you want to say that I would me and my
Speaker 1: stride Chris Page. We would start talking about baseball because
Speaker 1: that particular teacher, that particular teacher m his son played baseball,
Speaker 1: and so we would always go, hey, how did your
Speaker 1: son do last night? And he would go for twenty
Speaker 1: minutes about how well his son played. And what he
Speaker 1: didn't realize is that we were just killing time to
Speaker 1: not do class works. That's right now, Now you're a
Speaker 1: hero in the classroom because they just avoided twenty minutes
Speaker 1: of work, Yes, exactly. And then he'll catch on go,
Speaker 1: all right, that's enough. I had other teachers who would
Speaker 1: just I would just tell jokes. Well I would I
Speaker 1: you know, it was a predominantly white school, So what
Speaker 1: I would do was I would I would I would
Speaker 1: grill them for being culturally biased and um, and they
Speaker 1: didn't like that very much. So I would be fit
Speaker 1: to be fit to the you know, detention and end
Speaker 1: attention is when someone referred me to Second City, um
Speaker 1: and said, hey, you know what, you should probably find
Speaker 1: a place to hone this uh energy that you have. Um.
Speaker 1: And Second City was kind of like where I where
Speaker 1: I got my improv start a comedy aspect of things. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean Second City seems to be the start for
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of people in Chicago. Well yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean it's a big placed to go. It's no offense
Speaker 1: to any other school groundlings and you know IO or UCB.
Speaker 1: But Second City, Chicago was like a breeding ground for
Speaker 1: just some of the funniest writers and actors um that
Speaker 1: I asked that I've ever seen. So what do you
Speaker 1: remember about that? Because I feel like everyone has their
Speaker 1: own stories and take about the Second City is as
Speaker 1: as their start. Well, I don't know a few things.
Speaker 1: There was a teacher we had, mister Gelman, who was
Speaker 1: a nightmare. I mean I remember mister Gelman being a nightmare.
Speaker 1: In retrospect, it was like, you know, you need some
Speaker 1: tough critic because now when you're dealing with crowds or
Speaker 1: tough critics, you can kind of take it. It's like
Speaker 1: if you went through Gelman, nothing anyone says or does
Speaker 1: con face you. I mean, he was that tough. Was
Speaker 1: it was? It was a tough but fair Was it
Speaker 1: just an asshole? A little from Colmar, a little from Colmay? No,
Speaker 1: he he was. He was a little both. But you
Speaker 1: know he was a little both. I mean there were
Speaker 1: times where he could tell he's just grilling a person
Speaker 1: just to get more out of that person. And there
Speaker 1: are times where it's just like, all right, now, you're
Speaker 1: just being ridiculous. What did he say to you that
Speaker 1: you remember? I feel like you have something specific, like insults.
Speaker 1: I remember I remember one thing that was happening. This
Speaker 1: is like my first class, it's my level one, level
Speaker 1: two or something, and we're with a group of people
Speaker 1: that we were You stay, this is the same group
Speaker 1: for most of the for your whole time in the
Speaker 1: training Center, and remember him saying something to me. I
Speaker 1: remember him, he said he. I remember being on stage,
Speaker 1: she's doing the scene. I remember her spending up going Lamar,
Speaker 1: You're not funny, You're not funny, stop it, And I
Speaker 1: was like what. I was so confused. I just remember
Speaker 1: doing your scene and being told very loudly across the
Speaker 1: theater that I'm not funny. And I didn't know what
Speaker 1: to do at that point. I was just like, okay,
Speaker 1: so that fucking or doing. What do I do in
Speaker 1: the moment? You're not funny? And I was like, great,
Speaker 1: all right, this is a very disgremdled individual. I can't
Speaker 1: wait to get out of this class. Uh so, so
Speaker 1: stuff like that. If you ask anyone with the training
Speaker 1: center a Second City about mister Gelman, I mean I
Speaker 1: could even put up a tweet probably let's do a
Speaker 1: Twitter pole exactly where was this a Gelman at Second City?
Speaker 1: And what are your thoughts? But I feel like people
Speaker 1: will genuinely have that same the same response about him.
Speaker 1: That's pretty fine though. I would think, right like, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's your first class, and I assume that throughout high
Speaker 1: school and within your family they constantly thought you were
Speaker 1: funny or at least humorous, and then you go into
Speaker 1: this class and this guy's yelling at you saying the
Speaker 1: exact opposite. Right, Yeah, that's that's That's pretty much what
Speaker 1: it was. It was like. But again, in retrospect, I
Speaker 1: think maybe it could have felt a little bit because
Speaker 1: it's tough and definitely tough and the skin because once
Speaker 1: you go on to any other teacher, you're just as
Speaker 1: super confident as possible, like I survived. It's not even
Speaker 1: like you made the past the classes, like you survived
Speaker 1: Gellman and then and you should be good from there
Speaker 1: on on. I ended up having him twice, which was
Speaker 1: like fuck, it was like a gelmant again. You know.
Speaker 1: The second time around he was a little less, you know,
Speaker 1: upset all the time. Did he did he ever eventually
Speaker 1: admit that you were funny? Yeah? By passing me, I
Speaker 1: think that has to be the criteria. If you pass,
Speaker 1: you know you got something. You know. I don't know
Speaker 1: even if even if he never actually said it, um,
Speaker 1: I don't care. I don't care. You know, I'm one
Speaker 1: of those weird confident like I don't really understand what
Speaker 1: if someone can if someone can discourage you with their words,
Speaker 1: It's like you may want to you may want to
Speaker 1: rethink what you're doing in the first place. So you
Speaker 1: never got discouraged while at Second City or see or no,
Speaker 1: it seems like ever no, no, you can't, um, you can't.
Speaker 1: You actually get more discouraged the further you get into
Speaker 1: this system, you know, you know, I'm on the TV show.
Speaker 1: I feel like I get more discouraged from time to
Speaker 1: time by by certain things. Just now, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. You know what I mean as opposed to
Speaker 1: when you were much younger, because back then, back then,
Speaker 1: I was kind of flying, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I was kind of in Chicago. I'm surrounded by funny people.
Speaker 1: I'm one of them, you know, talented people, and we
Speaker 1: all I got lucky in my even from college do
Speaker 1: page days in theater, most of the people that I
Speaker 1: performed with there were on my same level, if not better.
Speaker 1: So it was like, I can't I'm never in last
Speaker 1: place here, you know what I mean. So I felt
Speaker 1: like I always had room to grow, and you know,
Speaker 1: and I was able to. I was able to just
Speaker 1: continuously push push forward. And the end of being at
Speaker 1: Second City was exactly the same thing that I was
Speaker 1: either everyone was either on my level or funnier um
Speaker 1: in class. So I just felt like I was always
Speaker 1: I was always surrounded by great examples of what to
Speaker 1: do or people to to, you know, mimic or whether
Speaker 1: you're trying to do more. If you're trying to work
Speaker 1: on characters, there's like a guy in my class who
Speaker 1: was like really good at character, so you just watch
Speaker 1: him a little bit and see his process and his approach.
Speaker 1: Or if you're working on your writing or someone there
Speaker 1: is always better than you, so you could you have
Speaker 1: these resources at your at your disposal m to kind
Speaker 1: of take it, take advantage of that, and then you know,
Speaker 1: when you get out there on your own, you have
Speaker 1: all these tools. You kind of soaked up all these
Speaker 1: tools to use them on your own. And that's that's
Speaker 1: kind of what I'm doing now. Yeah, did you That's
Speaker 1: definitely what you're doing now. I mean I'm interested. Was
Speaker 1: there a moment in Second City where you're like, all right,
Speaker 1: this is this is it, this is I'm this is
Speaker 1: going to be my career. I can do this. I
Speaker 1: have you obviously had the confidence, but was there a
Speaker 1: show or a character or something like that. Yeah, there
Speaker 1: was we I used. There was one show I did.
Speaker 1: It's called Brownco. It was a group one of the
Speaker 1: companies there called Brownco. Actually, Keegan Michael key Um was
Speaker 1: one of the founders of that really. Um yeah, and
Speaker 1: so he um he was a teacher at Second City
Speaker 1: and he founded this this company called Brownco within Second
Speaker 1: City with Gianna Griffin and a few other people. Um.
Speaker 1: And what end up happening was I auditioned to be
Speaker 1: a part of that and I got in. And on
Speaker 1: top of that, they paid for my classes while I
Speaker 1: was there, um uh, in order to fast track me
Speaker 1: to get to the main stage. And and that wasn't
Speaker 1: happening with with a lot of that wasn't happening with
Speaker 1: a lot of students. Students had to go through the
Speaker 1: full class process, you know, they had to be known
Speaker 1: in Chicago as an improviser, go to the rounds. It
Speaker 1: took years to get to main stage. But me, it
Speaker 1: was a matter of one if that wow, you know
Speaker 1: before before it was you know, hey, let's they even
Speaker 1: pay for me to go to take improv classes at
Speaker 1: you know, io Improv Olympic um, just to just so
Speaker 1: I could just so it cannot seem unfair for everyone else.
Speaker 1: Oh ye hadn't even taking classes and he hasn't even
Speaker 1: done this. I was getting to perform m But you know,
Speaker 1: that's when I realized I was doing something right, because
Speaker 1: in Chicago it's a very slim talent pool ease at
Speaker 1: the time, it was so for me, So for me,
Speaker 1: it was it was it was kind of a blessing.
Speaker 1: It was just, you know, big, a small talentle I
Speaker 1: get looked at a lot more, and so I guess
Speaker 1: I was one of the better performers towards the you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I hard to say whether you're better
Speaker 1: than anyone or not. It's it's them profit. But I
Speaker 1: got a lot more looks than a lot of people
Speaker 1: at that time. UM. And so when I was finally
Speaker 1: they asked me to come and understudy for main stage,
Speaker 1: and I was still I was still at the training centers,
Speaker 1: I was still taking classes there. And then from that
Speaker 1: point I had an audition for the ET and before
Speaker 1: I could even perform main stage, I had to take
Speaker 1: the job for BT, had to move to New York. UM.
Speaker 1: So never actually got a chance to do it. But
Speaker 1: that during during like that little process, so that stage
Speaker 1: of being at Second City was when I kind of realized, like, oh,
Speaker 1: I think I'm on the right track here. What what
Speaker 1: year is this? By the way, for the beets all five,
Speaker 1: So you've the page ended in two thousand and three,
Speaker 1: I think right. Yeah, college the page was two thousand
Speaker 1: and three. Yeah, I mean this is this is like
Speaker 1: crazy quick. Most people are like working at a grocery
Speaker 1: store after college. I mean, you're you like you're all
Speaker 1: of a sudden you're on TV, like hosting stuff on BT.
Speaker 1: I mean, did you did you feel um within the
Speaker 1: Second City or amongst you peers, like any sort of
Speaker 1: resentment that they had, like what, how the fuck did
Speaker 1: this happen so quick? Um? I don't know. I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't think so, at least not that I know of.
Speaker 1: Um consuming, No one's ever going to tell you right well,
Speaker 1: you can feel it. I feel like you could. You could.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Someone may be passive, may passive aggressively
Speaker 1: say something. Yeah. I mean I don't think so. I everyone.
Speaker 1: Because here's the thing. Most of the people at Second
Speaker 1: City that I was in class with, a lot of
Speaker 1: them are in Los Angeles and a lot of them
Speaker 1: are working. You know that what at that time, I
Speaker 1: was in Second City. Let's see, T J. Miller was
Speaker 1: on a stage in Second City during that time. You know,
Speaker 1: I think Sam Richardson is on feet was coming in
Speaker 1: and uh, I mean it's cat. It wasn't. It wasn't
Speaker 1: like I was the only one at that particular moment.
Speaker 1: I was. But you know, you know, everyone has their
Speaker 1: own journey or their own past. So I didn't think
Speaker 1: that anyone wasn't necessarily feeling any type of way because one,
Speaker 1: because like I still kept communication with a lot of people. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I have friends that till this day were
Speaker 1: still trying to collaborate on things or collaborating on things
Speaker 1: that I that I came up with. So, um, if
Speaker 1: they if they feel some type of way, a couple
Speaker 1: of things. One they're not telling me about it. Two,
Speaker 1: please talk to my agent about it any concerns or
Speaker 1: questions or my publicist. I don't have the time. That's
Speaker 1: not like yeah, yeah it was, but but whatever, But look,
Speaker 1: it is what it is. Um, So someone's gonna get uh,
Speaker 1: someone's gonna send you some disgruntled mail. I think after
Speaker 1: this that's okay. Yeah, I don't check my own mail
Speaker 1: anyway you know that I do. I do know this, Okay,
Speaker 1: so um so bts two thousand and five, and then
Speaker 1: what happens from there? I mean I looked at your
Speaker 1: IMDb in two thousand and two. You were a voice
Speaker 1: in Urban Ground Squirrels a lot. You know what's so
Speaker 1: funny about resumes? And I had this conversation the other day.
Speaker 1: It was someone, you know, when you're first starting out
Speaker 1: doing these student films and doing these smaller projects that
Speaker 1: no one has ever seen, they look great on your
Speaker 1: resume to start when you're in Chicago and say, hey,
Speaker 1: I've been working. I really like doing stuff. And at
Speaker 1: the time, oh five, no one was really going online
Speaker 1: to check it was just like you know four Actually
Speaker 1: during that time, oh two, oh three or four, no
Speaker 1: one was. No one was saying, oh, let me go
Speaker 1: and check this out to see if this is legit.
Speaker 1: Because right out of high school I was auditioning for
Speaker 1: student films. I would go and literally I would take
Speaker 1: off of coffee shops like little student film papers that
Speaker 1: would say or a little what you call it, like pamphlets.
Speaker 1: I would say, you know, we're looking for this or
Speaker 1: we're looking for that, and they would post these posts
Speaker 1: up at colleges and stuff, and I would go there
Speaker 1: every single day and look to see if people were
Speaker 1: trying to make a movie or do something. And then
Speaker 1: Urban Ground Squirrels is something that a friend from high
Speaker 1: school's brother had a company called Wigglepuppy Productions and they, yeah,
Speaker 1: so they used to make videos for they still do.
Speaker 1: I think for fish. They would like cover all their documentaries.
Speaker 1: They would like do all this like you know, just
Speaker 1: like video footage. It was just concert footage stuff like that.
Speaker 1: And then they also were making like college and student
Speaker 1: films because they were at Columbia College. And so they
Speaker 1: had asked me to do a voice in the movie
Speaker 1: and I did. It's a it's a it's a live
Speaker 1: action movie, but partly there's like an animated squirrel that talks,
Speaker 1: and I did the voice of another animal. I forget
Speaker 1: which what it was, or died in Dave or something
Speaker 1: that voice for little David. Yeah, and I had to do, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's this kid who's talking and another guy is the
Speaker 1: way he's imagining him is if he's this old black dude.
Speaker 1: So I had to like make my voice like an
Speaker 1: older black dude and talk as this kid. That was it.
Speaker 1: But it's there that that thing is always going to
Speaker 1: be there in the morning, I was gonna be there.
Speaker 1: I could try to get any race. I don't know,
Speaker 1: I say, I don't know if that affects my star
Speaker 1: meter or not. I don't know. I think you're fine,
Speaker 1: But you didn't. You didn't do a film till two
Speaker 1: thousand and nine. So there was four years there. Well,
Speaker 1: in two thousand and five, once I started the T, UH,
Speaker 1: it was Hosking and comedy. So with the T you're
Speaker 1: under a strict contract, so I couldn't really do much.
Speaker 1: I lived in New York, and keep this in mind,
Speaker 1: I didn't have any ties to that film community is there.
Speaker 1: I had a second city and I went straight to
Speaker 1: that process. And so you know, once once I was
Speaker 1: in New York. Once in New York, you know, I
Speaker 1: would book movies. I book I think two different movies
Speaker 1: when I was in New York. But the BT schedule,
Speaker 1: UH said I couldn't do it. Um, so there was
Speaker 1: nothing I could do, you know. So there would be
Speaker 1: more films during that time frame under my belt while
Speaker 1: I was hosting, but there was literally nothing I could do.
Speaker 1: And also Bet there's no hiatus, so you're kind of
Speaker 1: working year round with New Girl. With New Girl at least,
Speaker 1: you know, you shoot for seven eight months out of
Speaker 1: the year, and then you get those four months to
Speaker 1: kind of possibly shoot another project if the if the
Speaker 1: scheduling matches up. And I've had to turn down multiple
Speaker 1: movies and in different different projects while filming New Girl
Speaker 1: again because of the schedule. So was the transition to
Speaker 1: b T to making that first film to have and
Speaker 1: have more? And that's that's four years and you decided, okay,
Speaker 1: I need any to make this jump. Um. Yeah. When
Speaker 1: I moved my left BT, I found myself in this
Speaker 1: circle of just not being very creative. It was I
Speaker 1: was in control of whatever it is that I wanted.
Speaker 1: I was a host, you know, I could just sit
Speaker 1: there and talk and improvise stuff. But I felt like
Speaker 1: I wasn't being challenged, so I just quit. I went
Speaker 1: Cold Turkey, I equipment job. I moved to LA and
Speaker 1: during that time I was trying to do as many
Speaker 1: on camera things as possible because I realized at the
Speaker 1: time I was with really Morris Agency and for hosting,
Speaker 1: and they just didn't see me as an actor, you know,
Speaker 1: it was kind of like, well, all we know you
Speaker 1: from is posting. You know, that's that's how we make
Speaker 1: our money from. You was hosting, so while you want
Speaker 1: to quit, And did a couple more hosting gigs and
Speaker 1: was just like, all right, I the longer it takes,
Speaker 1: the longer I you know, wait, the harder it's going
Speaker 1: to be for me to break in. And so to
Speaker 1: start doing as many indies as I could, short films.
Speaker 1: A lot of friends when I moved to LA that
Speaker 1: I knew were like indie filmmakers or you know, or
Speaker 1: trying to do it. So I would do these projects
Speaker 1: for them, these short films or these different things. And
Speaker 1: so yeah, that's I say, I don't know what to
Speaker 1: have and have more is I'm trying to figure out.
Speaker 1: But there's two thousand and nine. You're playing a character
Speaker 1: named Michael's Agent. But you also did all oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I remember that one good times. No, Well that was
Speaker 1: that was a student film actually from some people in
Speaker 1: Chicago Amar call, and that was literally them saying, hey,
Speaker 1: I got this bit, we need someone if you're in town,
Speaker 1: can you shoot this for us? It's like a student film.
Speaker 1: And I was like yeah, sure, and I literally was
Speaker 1: just like okay, um, and that wasn't in two thousand
Speaker 1: and nine. We shot that in I think way before
Speaker 1: and they put it out in two thousand. Okay, I
Speaker 1: think that's what happened. I I think I want to
Speaker 1: say I shot that like oh six, maybe yeah, five,
Speaker 1: But you're possibly I don't remember. You were also doing
Speaker 1: these like you did a State Farm commercial, you did
Speaker 1: a Taco bell I was rewatching him today, um, and
Speaker 1: I actually remember. I remember them like I didn't like yeah,
Speaker 1: like at the time, like obviously I didn't, I didn't
Speaker 1: know who you were really and but like now watching him,
Speaker 1: but they're so funny to me, just thinking like, oh,
Speaker 1: there's there's no more doing twigs and Lyne to his
Speaker 1: wife about well, see what happened was when I again,
Speaker 1: when you're stuck, when you're when you're hosting so much,
Speaker 1: I see that's the way people view you. And so
Speaker 1: in order to get out of that, I had to
Speaker 1: take the easiest route, in which I thought was commercials.
Speaker 1: You know, you go auditions for commercials. The auditions aren't
Speaker 1: very hard, and so and more people get to audition
Speaker 1: for commercials that they do for TV and movies. So
Speaker 1: I just made sure that all the commercials that I
Speaker 1: that I did or used for my reel were the
Speaker 1: ones that I was the star in or being funny
Speaker 1: in or speaking in. So when I put together my reel,
Speaker 1: it was, you know a lot of just me being funny.
Speaker 1: And then I had that reel, um and I could
Speaker 1: and that's what I would use. And you know, for
Speaker 1: a long time, I would get the struggle of oh,
Speaker 1: commercial is different from TV, and you know, and and
Speaker 1: all this stuff like that. And I actually met DJ
Speaker 1: Novak once, you know, bj nova Uh. Yeah, So I
Speaker 1: met bj Novak one day and he said to me,
Speaker 1: he was like, dude, you're from a TwixT commercial. I
Speaker 1: said yeah, and he said, man. He started talking about
Speaker 1: TV and stuff and saying, if I can make someone
Speaker 1: laugh in thirty seconds, then that's a that's a that's
Speaker 1: a plus, that's a really good thing. And he just
Speaker 1: kind of gave me confidence to keep moving and keep
Speaker 1: doing stuff because especially coming from him, um, you know,
Speaker 1: so I you know, I just took that notion, I guess,
Speaker 1: and kind of ran with it. Where I had friends
Speaker 1: that were doing a showcase or something in LA and
Speaker 1: then it was a group of three these I Second
Speaker 1: City guys and Ike Baron holtz Um, I actually actually
Speaker 1: Ike Baron Holts's brother John Baron holtz Um and my
Speaker 1: friend Chris Watoski. We're doing this thing and the other
Speaker 1: guy I named Mort and Chris couldn't make it, so
Speaker 1: they said we need a fair guy. So they called
Speaker 1: me and said, hey, um, we need you for this
Speaker 1: HBO audition. Can you can you help us? And say sure,
Speaker 1: I said, We'll send us your resume and you're reel
Speaker 1: and stuff, so we can award it to our manager
Speaker 1: so our manager can send it to casting. I did
Speaker 1: that my manager or I didn't have a manager, but
Speaker 1: their manager ended up calling me and asking me if
Speaker 1: I wanted to be repped by them because they saw
Speaker 1: my reel of commercials and thought, oh this is great.
Speaker 1: It's funny to consider guy. You know, we could we
Speaker 1: could do something with that. And so two months later
Speaker 1: I want to say I was our new girl. Um, well,
Speaker 1: the story behind that seems I don't I don't you
Speaker 1: like audition twenty times or something or it would be
Speaker 1: a smart fifteen. I believe it was fifteen times. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: which is unheard of. Yeah, that's a lot that's a
Speaker 1: lot of times. Yeah, yeah, well what were they uncertain about?
Speaker 1: I don't know. It was very strange. The whole process
Speaker 1: was strange because it was my first pilot season and
Speaker 1: I was getting a lot of good feedback from auditions. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I would get called back all the time
Speaker 1: because no one had ever seen me, seen me before,
Speaker 1: but they were surprised that I was talented, and it's talent.
Speaker 1: Sometimes people people will go, oh, he's young, funny and black.
Speaker 1: That never happened. So Eddie Murphy's dead, Like, you know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of like why can't It's like, you know,
Speaker 1: it's like people don't think it's a strange thing. It's
Speaker 1: a strange box that you get put in, you know
Speaker 1: when night. If you ask me, I go, I know
Speaker 1: a hundred funny black dudes that are you know, but
Speaker 1: none but none of us aren't getting the looks or
Speaker 1: the notice that that we deserve. And during that pilot season,
Speaker 1: I was getting a lot of recognition and so I
Speaker 1: thought this was great. And I remember having an audition
Speaker 1: for New Girl, two of them and then having to
Speaker 1: go back to test and then what did right after that?
Speaker 1: Right before I went into test for New Girl enough
Speaker 1: for me with a test, it's just the final audition
Speaker 1: in front of network execs and studio exacts that they
Speaker 1: kind of make that last decision based on you know,
Speaker 1: it's like it's the final audition. You and someone else
Speaker 1: are competing to impress these people, you know, that one
Speaker 1: final time. So I had this test coming up. I
Speaker 1: also had an audition for another show on CBS, a
Speaker 1: pilot called Assistance, and I went in the first time
Speaker 1: and they passed on me. But keep in mind, while
Speaker 1: I was auditioning, the woman who was reading with me
Speaker 1: kept dropping her lines and it was so weird, like
Speaker 1: it was almost like she was purposely reading terribly, and
Speaker 1: I was so confused. I was like, why is like
Speaker 1: I can't even there are certain lines I've never even
Speaker 1: said in audition because she was either not paying attention
Speaker 1: or would stumble on words or just stud me way off.
Speaker 1: And I was so confused. So I went back to
Speaker 1: my agent and said, hey, I know I had a
Speaker 1: terrible audition and she goes, yeah, we call they're moving
Speaker 1: forward to passing. And I said, no, You're gonna have
Speaker 1: to get me an audition and she was like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, that's not how this thing works. You had
Speaker 1: to look grow up and coming up so it'd be fine.
Speaker 1: And I said, no, you're gonna you really need to
Speaker 1: give me this audition. And I said I won't accept. No,
Speaker 1: I just won't. And I was willing to fire that
Speaker 1: agent if she couldn't get me an audition. I was
Speaker 1: that confident in this. And what ended up happening was
Speaker 1: I got to the second audition, but this time I
Speaker 1: got to read in front of the producers and the
Speaker 1: head of casting. And when I came in, the producer
Speaker 1: halfway through my session stopped me and pretty much offered
Speaker 1: me the part on the spot, and he said, well, here,
Speaker 1: you're testing for New Girl tomorrow. Can me ask you
Speaker 1: to take the audition? And I just laughed, but I said, yeah,
Speaker 1: I met me an offer, met me an offer. You know,
Speaker 1: Lord made offer first. But at this point I'm a nobody,
Speaker 1: No one knows who I am. Why would you make
Speaker 1: me an offer. I go to New Girl the next
Speaker 1: day to audition anyway, because what happens is if I
Speaker 1: test for New Girl first, New Girl is in first position,
Speaker 1: which means I'm I'm obligated to them until they pass on,
Speaker 1: until they until they released me from my contract and assistance.
Speaker 1: Even if they wanted me, they would have to be
Speaker 1: at the mercy of Fox to say Fox Fell likes
Speaker 1: the more and so we gotta we kind of gotta
Speaker 1: wait on our process until he's freed up. And so
Speaker 1: with that, Big said, they what right before I was,
Speaker 1: right before I was about to go in and test
Speaker 1: for a new girl, I get a call from my
Speaker 1: agent asking me to stop and both side the contract
Speaker 1: because CBS has it made you an official offer. So
Speaker 1: you when offers on the table, you gotta take it.
Speaker 1: You know, my first pilot season, you never know what's
Speaker 1: going to happen. I could pass on their offer and
Speaker 1: then end up not getting that and then not getting
Speaker 1: a new girl and then just be jobless. You know.
Speaker 1: Then it is Actually what's so funny about who helped
Speaker 1: me make the decision A couple of friends. My buddy
Speaker 1: rams Us and also on Chad Boseman Black Panther. So
Speaker 1: he's a buddy of mine, and he was sitting there
Speaker 1: telling me all the ins and outs of like because
Speaker 1: he was on the show for NBC. I think, yeah, NBC,
Speaker 1: And he was letting me know how it worked, and
Speaker 1: you know hey, he told me to do the audition,
Speaker 1: and in doing that and going to take that audition,
Speaker 1: I ended up getting two offers. So right when I
Speaker 1: took the CBS offer, it was so strange. I took
Speaker 1: a CBS offer, signed the contract. An hour later, Fox
Speaker 1: calls and makes me an offer, and I was so
Speaker 1: disappointed because I really wanted to do New Girl first.
Speaker 1: So they ended up getting the casting Damian Wayne's junior
Speaker 1: thinking that his show Happy Endings wasn't going to get
Speaker 1: picked up for a second season. Problem is, it did
Speaker 1: get picked up for a second season, and so he
Speaker 1: wasn't able to do anything past the pilot of New Girl.
Speaker 1: So they needed to make another casting situation. They need
Speaker 1: to cast another character. So what they did was they rewrote.
Speaker 1: They wrote a new character in completely in Winston, and
Speaker 1: they had meetings with a few actors who they liked
Speaker 1: for the part. I was one of them. In doing so,
Speaker 1: I guess I kind of wanted me to earn it
Speaker 1: more than I earned it the first time after they
Speaker 1: made me the freaking offer, and I had to go
Speaker 1: on audition about that about thirteen or twelve more times
Speaker 1: after that, And did you you you weren't discouraged once again,
Speaker 1: You're just like, all right, I'll keep doing it. I'll
Speaker 1: keep showing him. Well, well, I know at one point
Speaker 1: I did discourage at one point. At one point, I
Speaker 1: gotta say I definitely said, uh that. I told my agent.
Speaker 1: I said, if they asked me again to come in
Speaker 1: and read, tell them I'm not interested. I'm passing on
Speaker 1: it um and and I was going to that was
Speaker 1: that was me being because in doing this process, I'm
Speaker 1: missing out on so many other jobs. You know, this
Speaker 1: process took a couple of months. So it was me,
Speaker 1: you know, saying it was the saying yes to them
Speaker 1: to their auditions, but having to say no to other
Speaker 1: people for different gigs that came up scheduled. Why so,
Speaker 1: And it was just in hopes of getting this show.
Speaker 1: You know, looking back, I did the right thing by
Speaker 1: going in. My agent was kind of like, screw that.
Speaker 1: I'm not telling them no, You're gonna go in and
Speaker 1: read every time they call you. So I jumped to
Speaker 1: the hoops. And then here we are. You know, five
Speaker 1: seasons later, were you reading with the cast? And these
Speaker 1: auditions most of them. I think I had about two
Speaker 1: auditions without and then the rest was reading with the cast.
Speaker 1: Have you have you asked them since being on the show, like, hey,
Speaker 1: what what was going on in those fifteen auditions? Like
Speaker 1: why so many? Well yeah, well yeah, well a lot
Speaker 1: of it was, you know, you spend Liz Mary Will
Speaker 1: have spent years developing these characters for this TV show,
Speaker 1: you know, and then all of a sudden, you gotta
Speaker 1: do a casting change before you film. How do you
Speaker 1: do that? You know? How do you do that? So? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so you gotta start developing. So what they did with
Speaker 1: it on right side? Right these audition materials and bring
Speaker 1: people in to read, and depending on what people were
Speaker 1: giving them, they would kind of rewrite and they Okay,
Speaker 1: let's see him read this now. Okay, let's let's eliminate
Speaker 1: these people we still like the morning. Let's bring him
Speaker 1: in with this person between between these two guys. Now,
Speaker 1: let's have him come in and read these sides. We
Speaker 1: come in to read these sides. They'd like it. Okay,
Speaker 1: Let's bring him up one more time for our final audition,
Speaker 1: um with with these new sides? All right, great, um, okay,
Speaker 1: we don't like this one guy. Okay, Now the studio
Speaker 1: isn't sold on the morning because he's not a celebrit Okay,
Speaker 1: so how how do we how do we get that
Speaker 1: to work? You know? Um? And then essentially it would
Speaker 1: just go It would just keep that process would keep happening.
Speaker 1: I auditioned again exhibit at one point. You know they
Speaker 1: didn't Yeah, they didn't know what they wanted. Dude, you
Speaker 1: you beat out exhibit. Yes, I'll be out exhibit that.
Speaker 1: That may be the only thing you can beat him in.
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, I one, that's the only thing I
Speaker 1: get this character has. I mean it's blown up. The
Speaker 1: show has blown up, and I think, um and mostly
Speaker 1: because it's really consistently good and where most sitcoms are
Speaker 1: not particularly good, I think New Girl has sustained quality throughout.
Speaker 1: And Winston, I mean the character. Do you feel like
Speaker 1: it's definitely the role people know you buy? Now? Do
Speaker 1: you have any worry that like, oh, this is people
Speaker 1: think this is who I am and this is the
Speaker 1: role I'm gonna have to play? Um? No, Uh, let's see.
Speaker 1: I get people that come to me all the time
Speaker 1: and call me Winston and stuff like that. But the
Speaker 1: cool thing about my character, because then he has one
Speaker 1: trait and it's just weird. So it's not like it's
Speaker 1: the same thing every week. I'm not playing the simic
Speaker 1: sat character a week. There's always something different about Winston
Speaker 1: right episode of the episode that you can rely on.
Speaker 1: And I think it's great because after doing after doing Barbershop,
Speaker 1: you kind of see a different a little different side
Speaker 1: of what I can play, and you know, you know.
Speaker 1: So that's why I'm not worried that people will feel
Speaker 1: that way. I think people are you know, people are
Speaker 1: generally smart. Do you identify with Winston? I I identify
Speaker 1: with Winston a little bit. I start to tell why,
Speaker 1: it's hard to tell how. I just know the character's
Speaker 1: very easy to play for a reason, you know, certain
Speaker 1: scenarios she finds herself incially funny to me. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean I'm kind of like that. I'm more it's it's
Speaker 1: not it's hard for me to get women, and I
Speaker 1: don't stress about women in the way Winston does. But
Speaker 1: Winston can't really keep a relationship. And that's kind of
Speaker 1: I've kind of noticed that about myself. Well, I'm not like,
Speaker 1: I'm not hard and la to do. Oh very hard.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, very very hard, especially in your Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: um you you can't. It's hard to. It's hard to
Speaker 1: it's hard to what I want to say. It's hard
Speaker 1: to tell who's a really genuinely there for you. It's hard.
Speaker 1: You know, it's you meet people most of the time,
Speaker 1: they know who you are. Especially with social media. If
Speaker 1: you meet someone you know and you're having a conversation,
Speaker 1: everything's going to do it and they oh, what's your
Speaker 1: Instagram or you know or something like that, miss your
Speaker 1: Instagram and they go, oh, that's what I know you.
Speaker 1: Or you meet some one out and they ask the question.
Speaker 1: As always in LA, it's always what do you do? Um?
Speaker 1: I used to tell people I was a drug dealer.
Speaker 1: Um is being a drug dealer somehow better than you imagine.
Speaker 1: Girls responses to that, well, they usually laugh atics you
Speaker 1: know it's not true. But I have a body who
Speaker 1: tells people he's a garbage man. And you'll be and
Speaker 1: you'll be surprised at the reactions. Well, well, some I'm
Speaker 1: not positive. It's it's very mixed. You would think that
Speaker 1: it would all be not positive. They go, oh, he's
Speaker 1: a garbage man, blah blah blah blah. But some girls
Speaker 1: are like, great, he has a job, he has a
Speaker 1: good job. Um you know, uh the downside he comes
Speaker 1: home to La trash every day. Uh. But uh, you
Speaker 1: know it's hard to it's hard to decide, you know,
Speaker 1: And I guess that's that's a that's part of the
Speaker 1: getting to know a person process when you you can
Speaker 1: you can feel them out a little bit physically and
Speaker 1: you know, uhorically um uh get to you to make
Speaker 1: sure to understand you had to make sure to add
Speaker 1: that metaphor it. Yes, yes, yes you have to. Uh.
Speaker 1: But you know, you get a chance to assess the
Speaker 1: person out and you feel and get a feel for him,
Speaker 1: and a lot of times you'd be surprised, you know,
Speaker 1: most people aren't after that or considering that that you
Speaker 1: just gotta trust that you're just a genuinely charming person
Speaker 1: or they're just physically attracted to you or you know,
Speaker 1: or they just genuinely like you. And everything to do
Speaker 1: with your job. Now where my job comes into play,
Speaker 1: play in what I do for or living and being
Speaker 1: successful at it. Uh. It kind of gives you confidence
Speaker 1: to you can stand on your own and just be
Speaker 1: confident and and a lot of things that you got
Speaker 1: some boxes checked, You got a job checked. You know
Speaker 1: what I mean, you're you know, I it's just it's
Speaker 1: just one of those boxes that that most of the
Speaker 1: time when you're in a relationship needs to be checked
Speaker 1: a job, which is you don't have a job. It's
Speaker 1: kind of hard for anyone to want to date, you know.
Speaker 1: I think its to it makes it hard to keep
Speaker 1: things going right, definitely does. I mean, it seems to
Speaker 1: be hard for everyone. Dit I can imagine. How do
Speaker 1: you gauge someone's like genuine this when when? When you
Speaker 1: when it's very easy for someone to say, oh, you're
Speaker 1: on that show that's on once a week that's particularly popular. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I guess the way to do it. The
Speaker 1: way to do it would be to, you know, not
Speaker 1: open up your whole world to that person in the beginning.
Speaker 1: You know, you really know you're on a show it's
Speaker 1: particularly popular. What a lot of times, a lot of
Speaker 1: times that people are expecting is this latter slifestyle that
Speaker 1: you're going to be hanging out with Brad Pitt every day.
Speaker 1: You know, that's what people are looking at. And people,
Speaker 1: you know, think that if they date a celebrity, like
Speaker 1: they're going to take you to fancy parties and we're
Speaker 1: going to be on private planes and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: and you know, those things do happen from time to
Speaker 1: time in your life, but you don't have to open
Speaker 1: that side of your world up to any particular person
Speaker 1: and that you're dating. You know what I means. You
Speaker 1: could decide to keep that to yourself. You know, that
Speaker 1: could be that could be your own thing until later
Speaker 1: on in the relationship. If you want to open that up,
Speaker 1: and if a person's fine with that, you kind of
Speaker 1: have a better sense that this person isn't necessarily after that.
Speaker 1: You know, they they like you for who you are.
Speaker 1: And that's one way that I do it. If I'm
Speaker 1: bating someone, we you know, I like first dates. First
Speaker 1: dates are usually a pretty strong, a good impression to me.
Speaker 1: But every everything after that, for a little while, it's
Speaker 1: just regular people's stuff. I'm doing, just doing normal stuff
Speaker 1: that I normally do. If I get invited, it's like
Speaker 1: some cool, fancy party. I might not invite that person.
Speaker 1: I'll just bring one of my boys with me, you know,
Speaker 1: and see how that person reacts. If that person's like,
Speaker 1: why do you never take me do these parties? Then
Speaker 1: you kind of got a feel for that person already
Speaker 1: that they really want that. How do you I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm interested. How How do you think the show is
Speaker 1: obviously popular? I'm sure you have these you're talking about,
Speaker 1: these parties, you're talking about, like all this stuff is
Speaker 1: happening in your career. Do you think it's changed you
Speaker 1: in a way. I'm not saying good or good or
Speaker 1: bad both. Yeah, I mean, I'm ignorant now I can.
Speaker 1: I know it pretty much makes it very much made
Speaker 1: me a little smarter. If anything, it has changed me.
Speaker 1: You know, I've grown, you know, different levels of your life.
Speaker 1: I think it's important for you to change. You have
Speaker 1: to grow, to adapt to certain things and to adapt
Speaker 1: to your environment. But at the core, you have to
Speaker 1: stay You have to at least stay humble because humility
Speaker 1: is very important. And that's my family keeps me in check.
Speaker 1: I live with my brother and for sure he keeps
Speaker 1: me in check. That you can't get out of line
Speaker 1: with your family, you know what I mean. So that's
Speaker 1: kind of that's kind of the only thing you got
Speaker 1: to make sure you keep. You got you gotta keep saying.
Speaker 1: You got to know your roots. You got to know
Speaker 1: what you came from and never forget that. And a
Speaker 1: lot of people. You know, I hear from a lot
Speaker 1: of different people. Oh you know, I met such and
Speaker 1: such he was a dick. Or I met this other
Speaker 1: person he was a dick. He wasn't always like that.
Speaker 1: You know. It's a lot of times people say money
Speaker 1: just gives you a reason to be that you've always been.
Speaker 1: You know, you've always been a dick, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. That person probably didn't change. That person's probably
Speaker 1: just got a little money now so they feel like
Speaker 1: they can be an asshole to people, which is very strange,
Speaker 1: very strange, very strange concept for me to grasp. You
Speaker 1: have you avoided becoming a dick? Yeah, I don't. Here's
Speaker 1: the thing. It takes more energy being addictive person, it
Speaker 1: really does. You know. I get anxiety. I get anxiety
Speaker 1: not returning phone calls. You know, I'm like, ah, Funny
Speaker 1: called me. Oh god, I feel so bad, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. It's like a genuine Even when we
Speaker 1: were emailing back and forth that one time and I
Speaker 1: didn't respond, I was like, holy crap, I just come sun.
Speaker 1: I didn't see this. And I was very like, now,
Speaker 1: a dick would have been like I don't care. It's
Speaker 1: kind have been like whatever. Dude, you know, I'm not
Speaker 1: calling this person. I'm not returning this person's emailer. You know,
Speaker 1: you know that's yeah, that's what a dick would do.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I don't, you know, I just had a
Speaker 1: conversation with them one the other day. It takes a
Speaker 1: lot more energy to be an asshole to a person
Speaker 1: than to just genuinely treat a personal respect and just
Speaker 1: be kind to people. Now, it doesn't mean you have
Speaker 1: to be a pushover and do whatever someone else wants
Speaker 1: you to do. You're still gonna you still gotta be
Speaker 1: a yet stand your ground and be a man about
Speaker 1: certain things. But for the most part, I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: for the most part, I'm the same person I've I've
Speaker 1: always been. I've only changed personal On the personal level,
Speaker 1: I mean I have learned more. I've grown personally, you know, mentally,
Speaker 1: spiritually of a m to saint that I've grown. Yeah. Growth, yeah, growth, growth,
Speaker 1: Growth is good. Um, yeah, so growth is a form
Speaker 1: of change. I guess the last thing I wanted to
Speaker 1: mention you're talking about root, you know, roots, and we
Speaker 1: started with Chicago, and I think it seems appropriate when
Speaker 1: I saw that episode that I think you wrote on
Speaker 1: the show. It's the only episode you wrote. I think
Speaker 1: it's called par five. Yeah, and it's about you being
Speaker 1: a cop and being a person of color who's a
Speaker 1: cop on national television, and all this stuff continues to
Speaker 1: happen and unfold. Right, it's just surprisingly, um, not surprising
Speaker 1: for you, but for sitcoms. I found it to be
Speaker 1: particularly poignant and timely and really well done. But I
Speaker 1: guess my question is there is a question here. But
Speaker 1: you had to have thought. I'm assuming, like, yeah, I
Speaker 1: am a black guy playing a cop on this show,
Speaker 1: and all this shit is happening, particularly happening where you
Speaker 1: and I in Park grew up in Chicago. Yeah, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: now I I you know when night when that happened,
Speaker 1: when most of when a lot of stuff was happening
Speaker 1: during that time frame, Um, tray Von Martin and you
Speaker 1: know the Fredy Gray and all the all these different
Speaker 1: all these different people that were being you know, the
Speaker 1: subject of a lot of news headlines because of of
Speaker 1: of police violence. Um. I would get a lot of
Speaker 1: tweets about it. I would get, you know, people saying, hey,
Speaker 1: I does this feel to be a black cop on TV?
Speaker 1: You want to comment or do you want to say, Jay,
Speaker 1: how does it feel that your cat's name is Ferguson?
Speaker 1: You know, and so I would, you know, I just
Speaker 1: had to address it. And I think Darren Miller was
Speaker 1: the CoP's name who got off, and I believe that
Speaker 1: was him in the Michael Brown case. That's the cops name. Anyway,
Speaker 1: he got off, and I just had this weird taste
Speaker 1: in my mouth where I was just like, I can't,
Speaker 1: like I can't where there's a uniform on set like
Speaker 1: on National TV. I can't parade around like a police officer.
Speaker 1: I just I don't want to do it. And so
Speaker 1: we kind of had to come to a happy medium,
Speaker 1: and I just took took a step back and reanalyzed
Speaker 1: that anger I had, and I called Liz and I
Speaker 1: asked her, I said, I don't want to weather uniform anymore.
Speaker 1: So we had a conversation about it. Liz married whether
Speaker 1: our show creator, and and you know, we kind of
Speaker 1: came to an agreement that, you know, we get a
Speaker 1: lot of knowledge out of the storyline of me being
Speaker 1: a police officer, and through the years, my character switched
Speaker 1: so many jobs, and that's a whole other thing in
Speaker 1: itself that I wasn't happy about but um, you know,
Speaker 1: and so she was right, and so we just kind
Speaker 1: of addressed it, and she asked me if I wanted
Speaker 1: to help write that episode. I was. It's a very
Speaker 1: collaborative thing on set. We always give ideas. We always
Speaker 1: we always, um, you know, we try our best to
Speaker 1: we try our best to pitch ideas to to to
Speaker 1: Lise and she uses a lot of them, even me
Speaker 1: being Gakappa's my idea and so doing so, she said, hey,
Speaker 1: you know what, this time, instead of just driving out
Speaker 1: a few ideas, how about you come help write an episode.
Speaker 1: And that's what we did. And do you think it
Speaker 1: turned out well? I liked it. I liked it a lot.
Speaker 1: It was. It was a lot less you know, harsh
Speaker 1: than I would have written it, because you know, with
Speaker 1: studio note, with notes and everything like that, you kind
Speaker 1: of have to tone it down a little bit. Was
Speaker 1: there a lot of resistance on the studio front um
Speaker 1: on a ton of resistance. There's a lot of language
Speaker 1: that I had in it that was just instead of
Speaker 1: you know, using words like police m violence, I would
Speaker 1: I use police murder, you know. And uh, And I
Speaker 1: had a part in this thing where I said black
Speaker 1: people are being brutalized by police officers every day in
Speaker 1: this country, and that didn't make it. And you know,
Speaker 1: but again because you still I realized as a network
Speaker 1: TV and kids watch this show, you know you can,
Speaker 1: you can. You can have a message without being so,
Speaker 1: you can have a message without being so vile and language, Um,
Speaker 1: I can. Hopefully they can still learn something from it.
Speaker 1: I guess I don't know if that's I mean, is
Speaker 1: that that violent, is that that harsh vanguage? Well to me, no,
Speaker 1: but you know, studio for a network TV show to
Speaker 1: take a side so aggressive towards or against police officers, right,
Speaker 1: I could see why. I could see why they would
Speaker 1: play middleman. I could see why they wouldn't be so
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, I get it. It's political. Um,
Speaker 1: but you know, I'm going to write the episode was
Speaker 1: the It was a victory for me and I think
Speaker 1: for for anyone who saw the episode. It I believe
Speaker 1: it was a victory for for fans and people who
Speaker 1: were following the news and people who just care about people,
Speaker 1: you know, right, I mean five seasons the premiere is
Speaker 1: I guess when people are hearing this, um, it wouldn't
Speaker 1: be releasing it tomorrow, so it would be tonight. Five
Speaker 1: seasons coming to an end. I mean, how do you
Speaker 1: feel about it? I feel good, you know, I feel
Speaker 1: I feel very blessed to have that come a long way,
Speaker 1: you know what. I come a long way from being
Speaker 1: kicked out of class and sleeping in my car. The
Speaker 1: journey has been the journey has been an extensive one,
Speaker 1: but it's only the beginning. It's totally the beginning. In fact,
Speaker 1: we get we get a sixth season to shoot, so
Speaker 1: you know, the show was still going, still pushing strong,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Yeah, well, I mean I
Speaker 1: wish the best for you, man, honestly, God, thank you
Speaker 1: very much, man, I appreciate that. Well, there it is.
Speaker 1: Thanks again to La Mourn for making time and his
Speaker 1: hectic schedule to come on the podcast. You can catch
Speaker 1: the season finale of New Girl tonight Tuesday, May tenth
Speaker 1: on Fox. Also, be sure to check out The Morning
Speaker 1: Barbershop the next cut, which is out in theaters. Now,
Speaker 1: a couple things before we talk about how you should
Speaker 1: subscribe to the show, I want to thank Paste magazine
Speaker 1: for writing a little bit about Talk Easy and comparing
Speaker 1: us or even putting us in the same breath as
Speaker 1: Leonard Malton and Talk House and all that good stuff.
Speaker 1: I believe, as far as I know that that's the
Speaker 1: first bit of press the show has received, and I
Speaker 1: will not forget that, so thank you. Secondly, and I
Speaker 1: think most importantly, we finally have a website. I procrastinated
Speaker 1: a whole bunch on this thing. You can find it
Speaker 1: at talk easypod dot com. Has info about all the
Speaker 1: episodes we've recorded this far, this is number six, the
Speaker 1: guests who've appeared on the show, the people who work
Speaker 1: on the show and make it all possible, and just
Speaker 1: general contact. Whatever you want to do is on that site,
Speaker 1: So do check that out and rumber to subscribe to
Speaker 1: the show on iTunes and SoundCloud or your favorite podcasting app.
Speaker 1: If you want to send mail of any kind, hate mail,
Speaker 1: love letters, miscellaneous thoughts on M Trump is really the nominee?
Speaker 1: Are we doing this? That? Can? You can write about that?
Speaker 1: You can email that all that stuff at talk easypod
Speaker 1: at gmail dot com. I promise I read every one
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Speaker 1: a spare moment in your busy day, please give us
Speaker 1: a review on iTunes. I'm particularly bad at math, but
Speaker 1: I've been told by Corey that it helps us reach
Speaker 1: new listeners and that there's some wacky, strange, incomprehensible algorithm
Speaker 1: that iTunes uses. So if you can spare ten seconds,
Speaker 1: just click the stars on on the top of that thing.
Speaker 1: I don't know, you just there's like five stars you
Speaker 1: can give us, like you know, at least four lower
Speaker 1: than four. I'm not I'm not thrilled about. Um. If
Speaker 1: it's going to be a bad review, then then write
Speaker 1: the bad review, which you could also just do privately.
Speaker 1: You send it to the email. You don't need to
Speaker 1: put that in the in the public space, or you could.
Speaker 1: It's up to you. Free speech, um, anyway, if you
Speaker 1: want to help out that and me in the world
Speaker 1: to us. As always, our theme music is provided by Vanilla.
Speaker 1: Our executive producer is David Chen, Graphics by Ian Jones.
Speaker 1: Technical assistants provided by Joe still Water. Those original illustrations
Speaker 1: are provided by Krishna. Check out his work in the
Speaker 1: show notes. The show is produced and edited by Corey
Speaker 1: ATAD and I'm your host, San Fragoso. Thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: I'll see you next week. People who need people, people,
Speaker 1: people you know,