Tommy Davidson on Finding His Identity, Race & Comedy

0:00Today's guest is a true force in comedy and culture, Tommy Davidson. From in-living color to the proud family, he's built a career that's made us laugh for decades. But at the center of it all, is identity. Because how do you find your voice and hold on to it? How do you grow and still stay true to who you are as an artist, a black man in Hollywood, and as a father? Today we're getting into the origins, the journey, the lessons, and the man behind the laughter. I'm so excited for this one. Today's episode is brought to you by our presenting sponsor, Starbucks.

1:07Falls most iconic beverage is here. The Starbucks pumpkin spice latte is back to kick off the season. Order now on the app. Tommy Davidson, come on out! Oh my gosh, I'm so excited. It's just different. Oh my gosh, this is too cold. Okay, so let me get this straight. We're shooting the matrix. Exactly. Exactly. You're going to do it right, ain't you, man? Oh my gosh, you're going to do it the right way. I'm fine. You look great. I'm fine. I feel pretty good. I feel like I look like a bomb a little bit, but that's good. You know what I mean? It's great here. I'm not doing it. You're doing great. You're doing great. You're doing great. You too. Oh my gosh, thank you. You too. I'm trying to do my thing like you do your thing. These are called cross compliments. Okay, let's get into this pre-show pull-up. We do this with all our guests. I had to chop it down because I would, this would be the whole day on the interview.

2:08Okay, so Zodiac sign, you're Scorpio. I feel like I'm surprised by this. Do you feel very Scorpio-y? I guess so. I guess, in a way, I mean we're supposed to be strong, willed. Yes. And, you know, not too smart. You all are supposed to yell at very smart. I'm just sitting sometimes. Wait a minute, this is Scorpio-y? You know, in the sort of relationship area, whatever. Ooh. I mean, that's the reputation. That's the reputation. And so, what about your rising or your moon? Do you know any of that stuff? I don't know it per se. Yeah, you don't know per se. I know it in a historical sense. To that me. Well, I mean, the Zodiac itself was an adaption of... Yes, yes. I mean, the ceiling of Dungeira, you know, it's an African thing and came out of that. So I know that stuff. That's fabulous. But, you know, I'm in the USA, so, you know, hey, when it's Starbucks opening. Okay. What is your love language? You just said I love love. Now, if you say I love love, what does that mean? Are you complimenting?

3:08Are you very physical touch? Are you kind of like, I'm going to do services for you. What's your vibe? It's just I love love. I love love and I know what it really is. You know what I mean? Not that I know what it really is over anyone else. Yes, yes. But the love that I've experienced, the love that I've experienced has made me love love. You know, so, you know, and I'll tell you about that. I'm black, as you can see, you know what I mean? But you couldn't tell when I was in high school you didn't know who my sister was, so you didn't know that my family was white. So my mother would come like we used to be late to school, right? Yeah, yeah. And when we got late to school, we had to sign up for detention. Me and my sister used to be a snow day, we missed the bus, we had to walk, right? So they would send my sister, whose white and blonde, to class, and they would send me to sign up for detention. So my white mom would show up and say, why did you send my daughter to class and my son

4:14to sign up for detention? And they'd say, I didn't know that was your son, okay? So, and she wasn't using good language, neither. Okay. Okay, in first grade, okay? I raised the black power fist and got sent to the principal's office for putting up the black power sign for the pledge allegiance, right? And so they called my mom and said, your son is in the office, he put up the black power sign, the black panther sign in class. When you do to come down here, she kind of liked to do that. Because when she walked in, I used to think she was crazy, she's like, where is he? So she went to the principal and said, what the, is my son doing in your office? She knew, right? Yeah, yeah. And she told her, and they told her, he put the black power sign up. And she told them, I never forget that she said, well, that's all he knows about him

5:18right now. He knows where he came from. But if you want to teach him something new, he learns fast, you know, and I did, the pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and I can do the whole thing. Okay. So when I say I love love, yeah, I had to come to love it because, or originally, I didn't know I was black. Wow. I thought my sister and my mom and my dad and my grandmother and my aunts and everybody were beige. Right. Because I learned to have to keep crayons. I didn't find out I was black until I was five. And even just would contextually what it means. That's why you know it becomes all this construct type of stuff, you know what I mean? Yeah. Right. So we loved me and my sister, we were farms and stuff. We grew up in Wyoming in Fort Collins, Colorado. And there was a lot of different cultures, environments. Well, there was a lot of animal births. You know what I mean? So we love litters like kittens were coming or puppies were coming.

6:21And the mom could be a black cat and have three white ones, a gray one and a orange one. So I thought that's how we were until we moved from there when they divorced to Washington, DC in 1960. Come on, Chag was getting shot. I don't know that because we're in the car and there's tear gas going off in fires. And we're on the floor, right? So I don't know where we are actually. I know we in in Fort Collins no more. Right. And you know, my sister, look, when I was little she looked like Cindy Brady and my brother looked like David Cassidy. He was from parts of families, she was from the baby punch. You're both of them were from dysfunctional stuff, I think. But that's my growing self saying that. But when we got there, the black kids beat our ass every day. The black kids beat all your ass. I call them black now. What you call them? The brown kids. The brown kids. And it was actually black folks. Yeah. And they beat all your ass. Every day.

7:21Every single day and they were calling my sister and brother. White cracker and they were calling me white cracker lover. I've told this story on podcast before, but you say I love love. I love love for these reasons, right? It took a while to get to that, right? So through my anger and through growing through it and then why did that then be in the middle of it all. And I didn't do anything. I didn't do anything but get abandoned in the trash and they found me. Well, that's what so you know what I mean? So that's where this all came from. This is exactly what I wanted to talk to you about today. The great question about identity, right? Because it means so many different things as a man, as a black person, just as a person, as you're generating. I mean, we can break it down to so many questions. Yeah. You said you were found in a trash when 18 months old, I think I had red. And so tell me, let's talk about the origin of that. So your mom, your adopted mother, Barbara, she found you in the trash and how did she, how did she find you? It was a national address by John F. Kennedy where he addressed White America and said,

8:24if you could do something about the rate, if you can say that you did in the future, then you say that you did something about this country's race problem. Wow. Right. And so my parents worked at Colorado State University and they said, you know, we're going to do something and they look for something to do. They found out that in Greenville, Mississippi, they were having a problem with immunizing children. There were some voting drives they wanted to go and they went there. It was the poorest, one of the poorest towns in country. So they figured and they knew it was all black. So they went there to do that and they wanted to do voting drives. You know, and they did that. My mom who gave me birth was helping them with that. She was young and, you know, they all were young, you know, and, you know, and they met her and she helped them with that and blah, blah, blah. All of this is I'm telling you in in in recollection. Sure, sure, sure. So they went back to where they were from.

9:27Not knowing anything about Tommy Jean. Your name was Tommy Jean, so my mother named me after her. So yeah, you have to be a biological mother. She knew her, right? Yeah, sweet. And a matter to years later. I can't wait to get into that. But I want to come here because I'm in it. Hey, man, hey, the coffee's good here. So, so yeah, and everybody's really, really nice. Okay. So this is like, we are the world as everything is here. Everything is here. Everything is here. Everything is like, I love love. It's just like, the soul train up in this bitch. Yes, please. You know what I'm like, okay, I can do this. You know what I mean? I was gonna be. They go back going somewhere else and wanted to stop in the town and they did. And they were looking for Tommy Jean and people said she left. We think she left her youngest child at such, such as house. And my mother was nozy, you know, and she went there and it was an empty house. People were doing drugs and drinking. Damn. She left out of there and she said something told her to look under a tire that was on the top of this trash heap and she saw my foot.

10:29Oh my gosh. And she and took the trash and there I was laying there unconscious. Dirty as I don't know what. I had a t-shirt on that was red and it said I'll be the president in 2-0 and then the rest was torn. So they took me to the hospital. I was in a coma, starved. I stayed there for like 60 days and left. So the only thing I remember from that point on. The thing, the first thing I remember from that point on was I remember being in front of a Christmas tree early early before Christmas playing with a red truck, a fire truck. And my dad came out and said that's not for you yet. You know, that's as far back as I can remember up till I was about 5, coming to DC. So all of those things pretty much composed the guy here, you know. So that was a great question, you know. And I actually got it from Smokey Robinson because I was at a concert of his and he said

11:30I love love it. I was like I do too. You know, and that's what hit me. You know, I mean, he and me ended up being friends. Everything comes to the answer if you live it out. Yeah. My mom has always said just keep living. Just keep living. He ended up being really key for me because a woman died in my show when I was in Philadelphia doing stand-ins. And this couldn't have been probably about maybe probably about 15, 16 years ago, maybe in Philadelphia. I invited her to the show. I was at a check cash and place on the Sunday. It was packed. It was closed. She opened the door. Yeah. They let me in. Everybody was like, oh man, Tommy Davidson is here. Who's Tommy Day United? She looked up. She was just working on the line. She said, oh, it is. You know, she sure is. So when I got up there to her, she said, white woman, right? They're a long story. But yeah, they probably should be the president here because, and I'll explain that. But she says, you're in town.

12:30Wow. She said, you made my birthday. And I said, you know what? Why don't you come to the show? She said, can I bring my kids? And they were like 21, 20. I said, sure. Bring them 15 minutes into the show. She passes out. She collapses. It has a massive heart attack. No one knows. This is so crazy. The ambulance comes in. They tell us, and everybody walked out. One by one, right? And I felt a kind of way because my mother just passed. So I'm back there with her kids who are hysteric. There was not a dry eye in the place. Audience or workers, you know what I mean? And the managers asked me, do you have one, I have a second show? And it's up to me. I was like, you don't leave that up to me. Why? Why? And so finally I said, yeah, let's have a second show because our job is here. To dispense happy. Yeah. You know, this world ain't got enough of it. So let's go ahead and do that, right? As they were walking out, I'm a little bit more emotional these days.

13:35You know, I'm thinking I'm a woman now. I think I'm coming on my, you know, I don't know what it is. I feel like, I know how you're feeling now because I'm like, what the heck is going on with me? I'm crying all the time. You know, is that what happened? I'm at least I had some kind of understanding and you do something about it. You know what I mean? And I can't, you know, so, so, so, I'm going to be totally honest. So, so, and they're walking out and people are shaking our hands and all the comics are at the front, right? You know, shaking these people hand, they bought them all drinks and didn't charge them anything. And this beautiful black woman walks up to me and she says, it's not beautiful. I'm going, what is she talking about? Beautiful. She said of all the things in the world that the Lord could have done to brought her up to heaven, he brought her to you to laugh her way on out of here. And I wasn't done with it yet. I wasn't done because I didn't, I wasn't happy with what happened, right?

14:36It was so sudden and it was so, you know what I mean? So I saw Smokey Robinson on the plane. And I had known him for years, he brought one of my ties, you know, the company little tie company, me and my wife put together. That's so good. You know what I mean? Her wife bought all the ties, you know what I mean? And so he was there and I've known him since I got to Hollywood and a lot of other people which I thought would never happen to me. Oh my God. And he was in first class and I went up there. I was on Southwest. And, and, and I was in the first class. I don't know what I was on but I wasn't in first class with him and I don't care. I mean, just, just, just from reaches and caffeine taught me, it takes Southwest. That's, that's Southwest. Southwest is the ****. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You had this person tell you **** like that, do it, right? I think it is because he was right. So, so, so, so, so yeah. And I've been rolling ever since. They even got first class. And that's a little hard on there and you get movies. So, so, and they give you pistachios for free. So, so, I go up to him and I go, I'm trying to get an answer for what happened.

15:39Oh my gosh. I'm asking, hey man, does this ever happen to you? Right. Because I mean his career you would have made me hit it possibly. Yeah. And he says, no, man. He says, um, for now on, invite all your, your enemies to your show because you're killing a baby. And I laugh. And I was okay. And I was alright. Oh my god. And I, and I paid itself off. I was at this tribute for Bobby Brown. Everybody knows who he went through. Yes. And I was like, yeah, we were everybody from Motown was there. Yeah. Smokey was there. And I got to feel like a real slave that I know what I'm talking about. And I'm like, Bob, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, uh, uh, uh, uh, Bob Hope at the Texas, you know, at the, at the, at the Texaco, you know, hi, Bob over here. You know, and I'm like, smoking Robinson told me, told me this on a plane and everybody just laughed. Yeah, yeah. And I was like, yeah, but that really happened. So when you say, um, when I say I love love, I do because the people that love me through

16:40my life weren't one color. Oh, I mean, what does that, that, well, nothing that I'm hearing with this too is the role of comedy. Mm-hmm. You know, and I'm curious for you, did you, when did you realize you were funny and when did you realize that comedy had a greater impact or that lack, making people laugh could have such a powerful impact? Well, what time is it right now? I'm ready to go. Everything used to come on. Let's get it to you. It seems like right now it's been lately. Yeah. Because I didn't really like, well, I didn't like really like comedy when I was a kid. I love music. That's so interesting. I love, I love, you know, performing. I was taking, I was taking my Academy Award in my backyard, you know, for, you know, Poseidon Adventure, you know, my, my heroes were like Ernest Borgnein. I mean, you know, I mean, I was, you know, I was a Hollywood wanting to be. Yeah. You really was studying the craft across the whole. Tiny kid, man. Yeah, man. So, you know, I don't, I don't, I don't, I never really gravitated towards comedy, but

17:44I was a funny kid. But I didn't like being funny. But it was already funny. Yes. Right. That's hilarious. But it was tough because I'd be at the table at Thanksgiving or Christmas with all the whole family and I'd say somebody started laughing. Yeah. I was a little bit about that actually and I finally asked my mom, you know, why does everybody always laugh at me? Right. And she said, they're not laughing at you, boy. She said, you have a way of, you, she said, you have a way of making people happy so fast that all they can do is laugh first before they can even think. And I didn't apply that until like, probably about a little bit after she passed away. I was able to apply that to, to, to the whole picture. Yeah. So, it was tough, you know, being in DC and growing up there in a sense that it was isolating in a way because I've been in between black and white for a long time. Yeah.

18:44I don't feel that way now. And I'm just so curious about how that is. But it was such a local anesthesia, man. Yeah. I mean, at the time and then when you think about a city like DC, 68, yeah. When we moved there and I learned what black and white was through the experience. So I went to my mother and said, you know, why do they call me a white cracker lover because I like graham crackers? That was my understanding. Yeah. My crackers are kind of dry. I have them with water. You know, graham crackers are good, man. They sweeten, give some apple juice. Next thing, you know, you're asleep on the mat in, in, in kindergarten or whatever. Right. So that was at the point where she was like, you know, I'm going to say, you know, I'm going to say, she told me like, okay, she, here you go. Yeah. People, your color, call people are color that when they don't like them. And I was like, well, what color are you? That's really it. So here we go, right? Yeah. Here go my education. She said, um, uh, and I said, well, what color are you?

19:46She said, we're white. I said, no, you're beige like the crayons. See? So she said, yeah, but that's what they call us. And I was like, I mean, this is such a stupid, like I remember having these conversations with my parents, but they were black. You know, they are black. So when I'm hearing you say this and I'm thinking about, I really wish that I could know what kind of person that Barbara is because she had the task of teaching you this and helping you to understand this. But then at the same time, you were the kind of kid that was able to put up the black power. Right. So you were also quite aware of having your pride around blackness, even within the confusion. So I mean, what she's sitting you down, having you watch movies like how did she teach you about that and you being able to integrate the love for your blackness while also understanding clearly what some of the issues that could be around it because of race. Like that was a lot. Baby, this is, you keep calling, yeah.

20:51You know what just came back into my life like it never left. The Starbucks pumpkin spice lights a and the second I saw it on my Starbucks app, I knew fall was just around the corner. The first sip took me right back to that fall feeling. And I remember how much I L O V E this part of the year. I can't wait for the leads to have their whole moment and the air to finally have some personality to it. But I actually want to be outside instead of rushing past everything. That's what I'm excited for. It's funny how a walk I've done a hundred times feels brand new just because fall is almost here. That's the thing about fall rituals. They're familiar in the best way. The iconic Starbucks pumpkin spice latte falls right into that category for me. Same drink, same meat, but somehow it feels like a whole moment every single time it comes back. So let this be your sign to slow down, soak the season in and grab a Starbucks pumpkin spice latte as fall begins.

21:53Celebrate fall with the return of the iconic pumpkin spice latte. Order now on the Starbucks app. Taste like fall. I think I just found our next family trip and it's Asheville, North Carolina. Yes, September is when the leaves start turning and I am building this entire trip around a porch. I need to find a home on Airbnb with the real porch because I can already picture mornings out there with coffee and evenings watching the mountains change color while my parents pretend they're not getting emotional about it. I'm putting the River Arts District on the list too because watching Glass Blow is work is like the kind of thing that my sister will talk about for years. My dad's already asking if Asheville has good barbecue, which yes, obviously that's so locked in. We're also doing the built more one afternoon. It's this gorgeous, gilded age mansion right outside of the city that makes you feel like you've been transported to Versailles. I want to watch my parents walk those gardens like kids again.

22:56So what I'm saying is find a place to stay on Airbnb and Asheville this fall. I'm building the whole trip around that porch so we can get that magical home away from home feel and I'm not even sorry about it. Yeah, but that was a great question because that's how I you know, that's how I learned to love love because I didn't know anything about that, right? But my family, that's white. My grandfather, I was spoiled. My grandfather was a cowboy from Wyoming. He did chemistry. He did, he was a scientist that did work for coal mines in in in Bolivia. So they spoke, uh, uh, fluid Spanish and the whole nine yards. Yeah. My grandfather would get on the floor with me when I'm playing cowboys and Indians and say, all right, the Indians are the heroes and the cowboys are not. Let's play. So it's the, yeah. Yeah. So if there's ever a stereotype, if every, there's a stereotype, there ain't because, because

24:04all black people link the same and all white people link the same. You know, but racism is the isn't it? It ain't it wasn't. Okay. Yeah. So these are the things that the, the ethics I paid for, I paid for yesterday. I paid for not listening to my mama about the word bitch. Yeah. Because if we say anything, we got punished. That's right. We clean up all weekend. We, we had to go to our rooms, whatever. And I used that word in my comedy early out, you know, in reference to, uh, Deon Warwick, just in a comedy thing. Yeah. And her son hated, hated that, wanted to fight me and I didn't see her for years. But she was a big part of my life. You know, she, her, her, her, her is a singer. She influenced me as a kid. Yeah. Her and Burke Bacarack and all that beautiful music. Yeah. You know, those people were revolutionary about getting together. There's a lot of, you know, feedback about the inward and it, we come across it up

25:04and down within our culture. Some people feel like it's a reclamation that you have other people that feel like it is the opposite, you know what I mean? And so it's interesting. And the beginning of your comedy, you used it, but then as time went on, you were like nah. Well, it didn't work. No, my, my mom was right. You know, she punished me for a reason, you know, and, and, and since I got, when I got to Hollywood on a comedian, I'm watching Eddie Murphy, I'm watching all these people and, and, and, and, you know, that becomes a word that just gets thrown away and blah, blah, blah, blah. I met Dion. It was my chance to apologize to her for that. Wow. And I didn't really realize that I broke my mother's promise, you know? And so I was able to go to her room and give her a big ol' hug and she was feeling it too. And I was happy about, about that. But, you know, I learned through other means of learning how to live better, you know, through my own personal stuff that apologies aren't nothing atonement and changing your

26:11behaviors. So I'm like, why sit here when you have a chance? Yeah. To go on apologies to her sincerely and personally. And I gave her the hug and she gave me the biggest hug. And it was wasn't until that moment that I really realized, again, how much I was loved. Because if it wasn't for my mother, well, if it wasn't for Helen Redding. Because, because, you know, I am woman here, me, me, me, me, me, and the woman's movement, that's what freed us all. You know, that's freed us all. I can have my own job. I ain't got to be pregnant in the kitchen and cooking for some men. It's just, you know, I can be independent in all of these things. And that was the lesson that was taught. Not the lesson that was taught. That's the societal lesson that came out of the poor, poor white women in this city that died in a fire somewhere in this city that couldn't even vote.

27:12You see? So, so, so power to the people. Yeah. So, it's, it's, it's, it's that, it's that boomerang of a higher love. So you're also talking about, because I think I was misunderstanding, you're talking about the B word. You called it on the B word. Right. Right. What's in it? Yeah. Yeah. And my mom taught me that early and I, and, and I discarded it because I was on, I was on a train to this success as a comedian. And I didn't heat it. So this makes me ask you, you know what I mean? You ask you about what, because this is exactly where I was headed when it comes to comedy. And when it comes to perform, performance, comedy, and how that aligns with what you truly believe and think. And when you're trying to sell a concept or message, like, how do you waver that? You know, because a lot of people feel like, well, this is stage, you know, this is a performance. So this is not what I believe. This is just the idea that I'm, you know, pointing out. How do, because I think that's the question that a lot of comedians are asking themselves,

28:13because the public is pushing back more than ever as it pertains to the integrity of someone in their comedy. And so it's the way the world. How do you, how have you found, because somebody might say, it's just a B word or it's just the X, Y, and Z word or it's just the thing. But I mean, you clearly feel that that impact carries further than just a joke. Yeah. But you know, the human impact doesn't really, really, really count until it impacts your ass. Okay. So, you know, the guy who says, just go ahead and send the missile and it, if it kills the little girls in the school, okay, you do something like that for just money, you know, and, and an eight, one particular color that will do it. Yeah. You know, and I learned that from her. When you fire, that's the way of the world. Love Earth would have found it. Yeah, plant the flower and you grow a pearl. It came from all of us. You know, the other guy had a song.

29:14Bring me a higher love. We can go on and on. You know, the cats in the cradle in the silver spoon, little boy, blue in the man on the moon. American is important. It's important more than just the color. It's important, the culture. Yeah. It's what it can is still in this crazy world. Yeah. You know what I mean? And that's not a political statement. That's a statement about life and cycle and living. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. Just the pattern. I mean, history will tell you that the pattern can change and nothing. You know what I mean? It just can change and change. You know what I mean? It just can change and change. You know, as an individual, but it starts there. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and this is all opinion. This is all subjective. This is all that's coming from me. But I can talk today. You know, I can talk about the experiences. Mm. You know, a lot of times that the experience isn't there or the information isn't there to back it up, then the belief isn't as strong. Mm. It's hard. That is so true. It's hard to phone that in.

30:14Mm. You know? Yeah. You tell me, you know, looked at this thing last night and I was like, there may be this space-link thing is good because this laptop looks nice and silver. And maybe this is the way I can do my, it'll give me a new speed on my computer and stuff like that. It's good start link and all this. Wait a second. And I'm going, why is the person who got the most money in the damn world ain't given nobody nothing? You know. And if you're mad about me, then okay. But you're trying to make even more. But it's so true. So it's like, what you're going to do. It's so true what you're saying because a lot of times. And I was ready to give a dollar. I'm ready to go like, if that's all I got to do to get more high speed on my, on my computer, then I'm going to do it. And then I would wait a second. Why am I giving this dude another dime? Not because of him personally. Yeah. But just because of the functions of it all. Not because of him personally. Yeah. But. I get it. Hey man. My mom would kick my ass if I was a rich person on earth and I ain't break off a dollar for somebody who's hungry. It's true.

31:15And I ain't scared to say it. And I sometimes are with myself and I'm sometimes thinking to myself, damn like, I don't want to think that everybody that has that type of cash is, you know, they have this thing online where it's like, there's no ethical billionaires. There's no ethical billionaires. You know, and it makes me feel like damn really could that be so true. But it does leave you with the question of damn like, I mean, I don't know because I'm not a billionaire, but I would hope to believe that I'd have something to break off. James Taylor. I seen fire and I seen rain. No facts that exist. Well, do that mean never, never thought I wouldn't see you again. This is limited. A bank account is limited to life's longevity. So whatever mountain you, I can, I can build a mountain of dollar bills, you know, damn near to the sun. But when it's time to go, I'm leaving it back here. Right. That's what James Taylor got to do with it.

32:16We all are involved. That's what you two got to do with it. That's what, that's what, that's what our Kanye got to do with it. That's what all of us down here got to do with it. You know, I go to the bodega this morning, I'm so glad to be in New York. I'm like, give me a cheese and give me a white bread with Prostromy American cheese and scrambled eggs and I catch you in my hand. I said, I'm going to show them here, but but back, you know, there it goes. Wait a minute. That's good too. That reminded me when you just said that, that reminded me of this thing that you didn't hear as bendable. You was talking about Telomundo. Uh huh. I was like, it's a part of me. It's the funniest thing you know. It's a part of me. It's like, stop. Yeah, that's right. It's a part of me. Oh, funny. Yeah, everything I do is a part of me. Like I told you, my, my, my mother's spoke, um, fluid Spanish. So I understand fluid Spanish. I can't speak it, but I understand it. Wow. Right. So in my neighborhood, if you're, if you were Guatemala and Mexican, Cuban, Puerto

33:19Rican, Dominican, whatever, you know, they came to my mother's house and she would help them with this and help them with that and help them with this and help them with that. And cyclically, if we look at what's going on now, and I only have my life force to communicate this for now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. If we're going to separate from a part of us, then a part of us is going to separate. So I don't understand how we have, we're in a place where everybody's so smart, but everybody don't see that. Well, how smart could you be when everything is not, if it's not, it's literally physics is cyclical. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like literally it has to continue. It cannot just go like that. And so I find myself there. I, you know, you gas like yourself at a certain point where you're like, well, maybe it's something I don't get because how can anybody not see this? And we, we don't all help one another. Well, obviously we're, we're only as good as the worst. Right. We're only doing it. If you're doing good, you think you really ain't doing that good if somebody else is doing

34:22really bad. Hey, man. Well, you know, I don't know why I'm, yeah, my grandfather would always say, he always would say, if everybody was the same, everybody would be chasing after your grandmother. Now, what do that mean? That means that's his baby. That we ain't the same. That's his chick. That's my girl. We ain't the same. Yeah. So you, you were my, with my grandmother, I'll tell you what, what happens? With my grandfather, I had to have as long removed when he was 91. I was his favorite. If I boxed him semi articles, letters, that's when people wrote letters, like I was his number one dude. I got in the photography semi his first camera. He's born in 1900. All right. He taught me different names of different cultures by watching football games. You know what I mean? He made sure I was ready for all this for this interview. I guess so. Okay. You know what I mean? And we went to UCLA Medical Center when he was getting ready to go into that operation. He was 91. His wife was 85, right?

35:27She walked in there to give him a kiss at A stop making out like teenagers. Oh, I got to say, let me get out of here. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So it all of a sudden made sense. What he said to me, everybody was the same, everybody chasing after your grandmother. And I used to say, why would they do that? Yeah. So you know what I'm saying? So they're not. And that's okay. That's okay. Fact. Yeah. But we're the same in the sense that if you blow our water away, we ain't got none of the drink. If you blow our food away, we ain't got none to eat. If you blow us away, you ain't got nobody else. Yeah. So the basic rules of the place, you know, we're already made before we got here. We like little monkeys that can talk now. Yeah. You teach me the ABCs and then I can write. And then I say, I don't believe in something bigger. Once you get all that in you, you know what I mean? But a beautiful part of what we are is something that we don't really realize.

36:31And it's good. Race is good. Because before we became organized societies and communities, we were just hunter-gatherers. And a group of us was on the side of a cliff. And we saw another group of us that looked different. The girls said those guys look good over there. And the guy says those girls look good over there. And we ended up all these colors. And it's for a good reason, you know? So all we have, all we have, you know, and all of... None of this comes from what I know. It's everything that comes from this moment from what I've learned. Yes. Right? Yes. We're all, you know, I'm here. Mm-hmm. And so it's important for me to make sure that I try to pass on. It was a great question. It was the question for me of the day. To pass on that love.

37:33Yeah. And it don't seem corny to me. It ain't corny to me. It don't seem... I don't seem like I don't feel any way about it. I don't feel any way about what you love to do. I don't feel any way about who you are. I feel a way about us staying. I don't know if you've seen a plan of the apes. Mm-hmm. But I dug... My favorite character was Dr. Zeyes. Dr. Zeyes was the scientist... Yes. That was responsible for the ape culture that took over the earth. Yeah. And he was hiding humans from us. You know, so finally, Jonathan Heston, his character, flew into the... flew into the future. He thought this was really earth, and he would have been taken over by a whole another culture of animal. Yeah. Right, which was the apes. And he couldn't stand humans. He couldn't stand him. When they found out that Jonathan Heston... When that scientist found out Jonathan Heston could talk, he said, we in trouble. Uh-oh. Don't step towards him, you're in the place! You know what I mean? I liked him because he had a nice orange outfit. He had the little sandals that had the little ape toe out

38:34and everything. Oh, how? You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He had the turtle neck, the mock neck and all. I think he's kind of cool, you know what I mean? And it wasn't until after the whole thing was done, where he was... Where Taylor had the gun on him. It's gonna kill you. You know, why are you keeping this from the apes? And he said, because you're gonna destroy us, you know? And so, Jonathan walked out of there, got on the porch with the white chick, rode off into the sunset, and saw the stature of liberty leaning in the beach. Right. And he said, you did it. You know, damn you all to hell, you did it. You blew up her own place. Jamaica say, you blew up the place. It was a place. You know, so I'm a little bit of everybody that's here. I'm a little bit of Jamaica. I'm a little bit French. I'm a little bit Polish. I'm a little bit Polish. I'm a little bit all the things. You know, I am, you know, genetically what I am. Yeah. And we all are. But I'm a part of...

39:35I'm a part of this psychedelic movement. I'm a part of the hippies. That's right. I'm a mama and then we're hippies. That's so dope. I'm a part of the... I'm a grew up... One of those kids that grew up when ecology was hip, when you took care of environment, when love was hip, right? How do we get that? It was hip. We're there. So I feel... We just got a negotiator pass. I feel that we are there, and then I also feel that something else is going on. But I'm following the wave of feeling that we're there. Yeah, but we just humans being now. We just humans being and we're still on our trajectory here. We don't know what this planet is going to present in the future, whatever. But we're here. And so, you know, we have human problems. And every day we try to... We try to just do the best we can with it. And we got things that hold us together. Love is one of them. Communication is another. You know, patience is another. Gratitude is another.

40:36Start to learn as you go. Tolerance is another. I didn't know these things before. I used to be mad at my mother. I'm like, why did you bring me to a ghetto in DC to grow up when you're white? You know what I mean? I got my gutted, you know? You had choices. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, she ended up... She ended up... Yeah, man. Yeah, man. And she ended up being... I ended up turning into her. You know who you kind of remind me of too when you're doing, yeah, man. Sammy, did you ever hear that? Where's your camera? Where's your... Where's your close-up camera? This is you. Yeah, I'm only looking at you with one high. You know what that means because he's Yerish. And you guys are good hip to that later. But he was Puerto Rican. He was a Jew and Black. Guys. Everywhere he moved, he got thrown out. That's who you are. I'm a holly.

41:40Hold on, I want to throw on the candy man with that. Okay, anyway. And this isn't candy, babe. Yeah, yeah, yeah, anyway. Oh, my God. Yeah, by the way, I'm playing him, finally, in a movie that's coming to theaters this year. Oh, my God. 24 years. What movie? Sammy. It's what it's called. Oh my gosh. I can not wait. You said that like Sammy. I can not wait. It's spreading around you guys. You know, you know, you are who good. Why are you Adam Sandler? I need you right now. I got your love, Adam. I mean, wait a minute. You got me thinking about what am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? I got with I got Boston. I got Markey Mark. I got Adam Sandler. I got I got I got slash. I got I got I got a Chuck D. I got we got that. Oh my gosh. Look what we got. Look what we got. No, look what we got. Look what we got.

42:45Yeah. Yeah. When you think about your comedy front of beginning of your days, we're talking to live in color, you know, stand-up sketch, all that stuff. To now, what what does success look like for you then? Baby, this is Kiki Palmer. Yeah. Discover Pandora Talisman, a new collection designed to help you express every side of who you are. Because the most powerful statement you can make is being yourself. I'm a Virgo, capital V, which means I notice everything. I remember everything and I have opinions about everything, but I keep most of them in a very organized mental filing cabinet. That's the sign. Analytical on the inside, polished on the outside, and deeply particular about what we put on our bodies. So when I tell you I found my zodiac symbol in the Pandora Talisman collection and immediately thought, finally, somebody captured what it feels like to be this. I mean that. It's not just a cute charm. It's the whole ethos.

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45:53Plus, their beauty advisors and shade matching tools take the guesswork out entirely in store or online. So no more settling, no more close enough, visit Sephora to find your match. You know, you won the Apollo, you're this community, you know, this everybody knows you as this guy. But over the course of your career, it has that has your have your goals changed and then what comedy has meant to you. It affected me like Kansas. You know, yeah. Carry on my way or so. I'm pleased. There'll be people waiting you are done. The same thing as where we can't to rest. Don't you cry? No more. Kansas, Kansas, Dorothy is from Kansas. The city. So she went from colors when she got knocked out. Yeah. To come back to her little black and white world and she was happy. Yeah, cuz home. Kansas again, John Brown, Kansas. That state didn't want to become a slavery state.

46:57So we decided I'm going to take that revolution on to myself. He took some slaves, got some guns, went down to Harpers Ferry. They walked. There was no airplanes. Went to get more guns and got killed along with his son and some slaves that joined them. So I did his song called Kid Zero, which is me. There's a painting of him coming out of court, where a slave woman, a black African slave woman had her child's kiss him on the cheek. And under her were white kids, black kids and all kinds of kids. Yeah. So I said, oh, wait a minute, I'm kind of like Kid Zero. I'm kind of like one of the black people that know that there's well-meaning whites in this country. And I catch black from that like Sammy Kiss Nixon and all the blacks jumped on him. Yeah. So I'm okay with that. Yeah. What are we going to do? So when you ask me, Kansas, these are the only answers I have. My brother, who was white Michael Davidson, gay, didn't know until I was 20-something. Right? He didn't know either.

47:57No, he didn't. But I didn't know. I used to call him a punk, because you don't help me with these people who are jumping me all the time. You know what I mean? You can't fight. You can't do nothing. But he brought me that album, Kansas. He brought me Fleetwood Mac. He brought me Earth Wind and Fire. He gave me a way to watch what he had. Yeah, man. And I didn't know he was keeping me out of street with those albums. Come on. So all that stuff is in me now. But what he did with his life was he was one of the first people to get AIDS. Wow. Really? I'm sorry to hear that. So him and his friends in, I think it's called Capitol Hill in Seattle where he had moved, because he was dying. Oh my goodness. They went to Congress. They went to Congress. And they got the government to make AIDS a legal disease so that AIDS can be insured for it. You see? My mother turned her projects into co-op.

49:00Meaning? Meaning you own your own apartment. She used to work for the house and has it for her for HUD. And that was her one of her greatest accomplishments. She did that. She also passed a law that community communities, the community collectives of a city, cannot accept government funding unless each community says that's their budget's okay. I found that out at her freaking funeral. You know what I mean? These people around me. Like Dorothy came back and was finally like, okay, you know, we ain't got much money. But that show is my uncle over there. Why? That show is my auntie. It's true. It's real. Yeah. It's not false. So we're not, you know, was that some living in her own time? That's Philip Bailey. Yeah, yeah, we're living in her own time. So I got taught by art.

50:03I got taught by everything around me that got put into me. Oliver got put into me. I'm like, why are you going to start with a little white boy? They have some old. They have some old. Yeah, like give him some old me. They're not eating that good. You know what I mean? Like I just surmise all these things in my, you know what I mean? Yeah. In my head that what about what was going on around me? You know, you take the head to the heart. You know, you know, ancient Africans believe that hey, you know, the head was like a computer. Yes. Oh my gosh. Yes. Absolutely. But if you store information in order, in order, which was called an education, then you can recapture that through feelings in the heart and have that come back to you. You have an extraordinarily fast processor. I can only imagine how difficult over the course of your life, you know, to make you feel odd. Um, just going back to the story that you told about your mother at the table and people laughing because you are already at, at, at, at chapter 10.

51:07Before somebody finishes their first sentence. Right. How have you managed that in your life? Obviously, you've managed it through probably your craft, but your pattern recognition and your ability to your math as ontology is quite fast. How have you been able to move through life like that? I observation, observation, you know, like we're not going to know. We're not going to really know, you know, but, but, but there are signs. Yeah. You see them saying there are signs, you know, you know, you, if you, if you, if you coming on from a club, you've been drinking or whatever, and it's about five in the morning, and you're at a light and, and somebody comes to the light, you know, on their way to work or they got the little dog in the car, the dog's going something wrong with you and I know it. You are not like the, you are not like the person that I'm next to right now. You don't have to go to work.

52:07And I'm a dog. Yo, you know, like there's something under it. Yeah. There's something under it, man. Yeah. And it's the same thing under the sidewalk because it'll crack for grass. This substance that we created that you make a solid as a rock. Yeah. And the sun's way, way up there. Mm-hmm. And the only way they can come up is that. Yeah. So something invisible said, ah, I'm moving that. Come on. Come on. You might be a tomato. Yeah. Yeah. You might be a pear. You know, these little monkeys might want to eat that. Right. And how often do you find that people think it's just jokes? And I'm asking, this is a double thing too, right? Because you obviously did a live in color and makes me think about your friendship with Jim Carrey and how close you've said that you guys are. I feel like you guys are probably similar in this regard where it seems like people are looking at the monitor of the computer. They're looking at the output, what's externalized and the expression, but often not what's processing

53:10the output. So he's black and I'm white because he's Canadian. That's a long story. I love Canadians. That's a long story. The war of 1812. Just look at the documentary. You'll know what I'm talking about. You know what I'm talking about. You know what I'm talking about. I'm like, they all what the Indians land was going on. You know, they're French and what? I don't understand it. But it'll come to you. You know what I mean? How? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We benefit from the Maple Leaf. We benefit from everything around us. You know what I mean? The hardest part is you got to get the whole collective on the same page. We're also different from all different backgrounds and represented by all different types of people that I got this from a movie The Day the Earth Stood Still. The One With Keanu Reeves and Jaden Smith. Okay. And at the end, you know, the alien comes here to make friends and say, hey, we're

54:11going to shut you guys down because you're one of the only, you're one of the only self-sustaining solar systems we have in the whole universe. So we're going to take all the animals and stuff off of here and then we're going to kill you. You know, and they were doing it. And at the end, the woman and the survivors finally were able to talk to the alien and the scientist who was hip to, you know, physics, all the stuff that we don't know about. Yeah. You know, like another wonderful Jew that got the, got the Adam split and they said, let's make a bomb. You know, um, um, yeah. Simply, right? That's pretty simply put right, right, right? If it wasn't for Sali and Abe at the deli in LA, I wouldn't be here because they let me go to the comedy clubs when I worked at the deli. So every, every, every one of us is a part of the damn thing. Yeah.

55:11You know what I mean? I forgot I was talking about it. Oh, so, so he says, so the, the, the alien says, well, that's it. This is that was your last chance. And you haven't been able to do that. And he said, yeah, but at the precipice, we always find a way. And if right now for this country, this isn't the precipice, and I'm just a person. Yeah. I'm just one of us, right? If we don't realize that we're the precipice now, then the rest is clearly evident. That's opinion. Yeah. It's clearly evident. Yeah. And I'm going from, I'm going from, from our practical means of, of global communication. Mm-hmm. You know, enough got to be enough for somebody. And I'm going from continuously what I've seen. Yeah. I'm going just from, mm-hmm. I'm looking at patterns.

56:12Yeah. You know, and if I'm looking at patterns, I'm, I don't want to say I'm scared, but I ain't excited. Well, I ain't scared because, because, because, you know, I've seen it. Pretty clear. Yeah. You know, historically, and, and historically, you could tell a baby this, uh, uh, that it's never really worked that one small group of people run the whole place. It doesn't, you know what I mean? So let's go through, let's go through Rome. Mm-hmm. Let's go through, um, Germany. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Let's go through Pompeii. Mm-hmm. Let's go through Egypt. Yeah. To, almost 3,000 years of civilized. Yeah. Culture. Things have to come around. And, you know, get dead and seem to share or whatever. Yeah. You know, they're back there. Yeah. I'm not going from, from, um, I'm not going from an educated standpoint. Sure. I'm going from the information this human being has taken in up to this point.

57:13Observationally. And I'm seeing it. Yeah. But, I'll say this. I'm powerless over it. You know what I mean? I'm just glad, you know, sometimes I don't know if I got to do number one and number two. I just go in the bathroom because I'm getting older now. And I don't know what's going to happen first. It's just practical because I don't want to be doing that. I don't love me. Right. You know what I mean? Yes, I know exactly what you mean. Yeah. And it gets to the point where you can be in and you can be in and then you just got to be out of it because it's out of your control. Hey, man. You know, it's like we could talk, we could get it, we could fund it, good to get. And then it's kind of like, I'm going to do what it's going to do. You know, and that's how it is. Yeah, and take it how it is. That's how I think that's how I have to deal with it too. You know, it's just taking how it is and knowing that I'm doing the best with what I can't like like that Mariah Carey clip. I'm doing the best with what I got. Right. So today, right? So me here today, let's check in, right? Right. I'm thinking I'm at the wrong hotel. I really wanted to be on the upper west side. I mean, I'm at the upper east side. I mean, the middle, I open the Murray Hill.

58:15I like in New York when I come out of like just in Murray Hill. And I got mad at my wife a little bit. It's like, hey, man, we should have got that, that, that, that. And the only reason why I was mad about that is because I was freezing to death one. And my favorite Chinese restaurant, I'm on there. You want just a spot? I was in my little spot. We love a routine. Right. You see what I'm saying? So, you know, you know, luckily Chinatown was there. You know, I ain't had nothing to do with that. But when I went out there, I was like, I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. Yeah. You know what, chop chop chop. When they, they speak my language, any old way, shut up here. You know, you know, they're like black folks. Shut up. I gave you a minute. You know, you know what I mean? It's just like a, you know, white folks in Jackson, Mississippi or somewhere like that. You want it or not. Either you're going to have it or not. My man, you know what I mean? You know what I mean? You know what I mean? You just going to, you go get it how you get it. You know, when Americans are pretty fair. They're my man. Hey, when they talked with it. When they talked, they're pretty fair. You know what I mean? This country's pretty fair.

59:16You know. Yeah, ladies, tell your lady, tell me this morning. No, we don't, we don't, so you're straight to my face. I like some expression. She's, well, complimentary coffee is at the bar. And if you really want an expression, you got to go upstairs to the cafe. And I was like, okay, I'll do that. I'm taking my ass up. I'm taking my ass up. Yeah. And I sat there. I sat there like at the bar. I just, I'm just going to get me a plain old coffee. Oh my god. But then I saw the cafe was right there. Yeah. So I had to wait in line for a little bit and this didn't the other thing. But I discovered that the dude that was giving it to me was from Mexico. Yeah. And we talked about that. And I said, I'm from Mexico. He said, really? I said, yeah, Los Angeles. And he said, I've never been there. I'm like, you got to go to Mexico. And you're missing out. Oh my god. Yeah, man, there's so much beauty around us. You are so big. And we're all covered up in it. Yeah. You remember the movie, Glory? Oh my gosh, my parents made me watch that when I was a kid. I was pissed. Okay, so you remember this scene? Why the hell they made me watch that? I was so angry. I was so angry.

1:00:16Because the scene was really important in this. So here's the Civil War. Right? Here's the slave from 400 years of labor that have a chance to kick in. Right? They don't get a chance to fight with their guns. Right? Okay, cool. Right? So there's one of them who is a male slave. There's been abuse all his life. He's full of hate. He can't, you know what? And finally, he's accepted into the ranks as who he is. Matthew Brodrick is from abolitionist money. Okay, right? Enjoy the play, linking and all that stuff. Right? We don't like you because of this. The Irish, you know, we're part of the whole thing and kicked in their stuff even though they have **** here. You know what I mean? All right? They had Tamini Hall, Long Story, but they got their stuff, you know what I mean? They're kind of in Tamini Hall now too. So, so, so here they are. Here's this cultured white boy that grew up in Boston, Massachusetts.

1:01:20That's the Colonel. Right? And they're going to their suicide. Yes. Really? Yes. These black men are like, we're willing to sacrifice our lives for this fort. And the Matthew Brodrick character comes to the lowly, bitter slave. And he said, you know, he picked the conversation we meant. This house stinks, doesn't it? This lady said, oh yeah, see we're bad too. And we all cover up in it too. They go into the battle. Him and Matthew ended up dead on the flag. Now I go to military bases around the world for 35 years. Okay? And one of the most wonderful things about a military is that they promote by merit, not by sex, your orientation or color.

1:02:20So you know how many bases or subs I've been in where they said, you want to meet the the sailor of the year and it's a little Filipino girl from Frisco. You know? Hi Tommy. You know? You know? I'm at a missile range in Iraq. And they say in this the radar system that governs that whole area. Yeah. Iraq's over there. No, I range over there. I rack over here. Whatever it is, I get mixed up, right? I'm not doing that. But whatever it was, they said you want to meet the main guy who runs these radar systems. And it was a Dominican from Grand Concourse. Now what the hell is Grand Concourse? Up in the Bronx. Where they shot New Jack City. Where you can get you can get a joint of weed and three new ports for $1.

1:03:21How does the salt tie in? It ties in that everybody that's protecting us is us. It all becomes so crazy. It's one thing. It's one thing. It's one thing. You cut down Cuba. You cut down Cuba. You cut down Cuba. You cut down us. But that's why I become. You cut down Haiti. I must say this. You cut down France. You cut down us. I must say this. And it's not. That's not partisan. I just learned that word from you actually. I said they said it enough. I mean, I think that means that you two different parties. You know what I mean? I remember the party, Allison, one land had because I like the cat with the hand. You know what I mean? And the worm because they was chilling. But, but, but, but, you know, she got caught in the damn house. They got too big for her. Small for them. People use those words. You know what I mean? People use those words. You end up using like parties. I never say parties into my life. What the hell is going on? You know what I mean? Yeah. It do. But you know, it just becomes.

1:04:21This is why I don't think that comedy gets enough credit, like meaning satire. Because it's actually quite horrific. Right. Like satire when you really get down to comedy in that regard, it's so true that it's painful. Like what you just said right now, it's so ironic, it's so ridiculous. Right. How we can be constantly fighting ourselves. Right. But confidently doing so. Yeah, when our eyes are out there. Yeah, when our eyes are outside, somebody else's mind. I can never, I never could get really the butcher. You got blood on you all day. You know, I, you know, I'm not going to, that, you want to do that. That's his thing. I was watching a documentary on the gilded age, you know, uh, uh, Teddy. Roosevelt, you know, you know, I thought we were going to pin the graces. No, no, no, I love him now. You know, you could have been any Teddy. Roosevelt, you know what I'm saying? But, but they were showing, uh, the other Roosevelt.

1:05:23Yeah. And, uh, who came in his wife. Were really staunch about reforms. So I, they talked about the meat, the, the, the meat, uh, uh, industry. What's down in the, the wall of nice clubs are now meat packing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, that's everywhere because you got to pack meat to eat, right? Yeah. And over your city, Adam Chicago and whatever. Yeah. So it was so poor and squalor. The rich were way up here that you could actually sell, right and meat to the poor. But when those reforms came around, you saw blacks and whites and all of them working in the butcher shops. Mm hmm. See, so I, I wouldn't want to be a butcher, but I love being a comedian. So pick what you want. Sure. Pick what you can handle. Pick what you want. But if we're going to be, uh, uh, the human race, right?

1:06:28I call it the human race for now because we're racing, we're all racing for the earth's resources, for water, for oil, for money, for sex, for this, for that is all the things we love that we live with, right? Consumption. Right. But if we look at things from a man kind. Yeah. Yeah. Then we're looking at our own kind. Right. But, you know, it can get a little bit, you know, you see a passenger bus in the head with a, with a, with a tear gas thing, you would think that everybody would say, okay, stop this now. Yeah. Stop it now. You know, and you sit at home going, I wish they would stop this now, you know, but 24 hours in the day and blah, blah, blah. So just, you know, we go a minute at a time where we are and, you know, this vessel right here can tell you whatever it wants to, but, but that was the perfect question because I

1:07:28guess that was what I was supposed to talk about today, you know, and we talked about so much. I think people going to be chewing on this. People going to be chewing up all this because your mind is pretty, uh, it's pretty incredible timing. It's not my own. You know, it's been influenced by a lot, but I'm glad that look, listen, I was able to, uh, there's a song that I have, I'm actually selling something. Finally. Uh, uh, there's a song that I have called, uh, uh, Mine Heart and Soul. No, the bars, his family is like all of ours. They got this function. They got all the stuff that they're here and they love each other, right? Yes. So I was able to take a Norman Rockwell painting and get the rights to be in the middle of it for this. And Norman Rockwell is one of the most famous paintings of Americana on the front of Washington post. When we were able to go to public schools, he put the little girl in the front of it. And then he has this one painting. I never forgot when I was a kid because I was always trying to fit in.

1:08:31So when I saw stuff like it attracted to me, yes. So I wanted that to, to be a part of that. So the cover of this song, Heart, Mine and Soul includes that painting and I'm in it. And Norman Rockwell is on my shoulder going, that's interesting. And I'm not the Tommy Davidson Davidson. I'm Tommy Davidson Barbara Davidson's son. That's my legacy. You know, we gain understand as we go. Well, thank you so much, Tommy. You are insane, incredible, amazing and just fascinating. That's the best way that I can put it. So fascinating. My ass over there. Thank you for coming on the show. I am so proud of your progression. And you have hung in there from the very, very, very, very, very beginning man. Proud for me, almost didn't happen. Oh my gosh. You know what I mean? I'm so happy I got to be a part of it. Yeah, your trajectory.

1:09:32Oh my gosh. This is a part of it. You got a platform. You know, thanks. All right. You got a platform, man. That means a lot. Really does. Yeah, man, amen. Hey. All right. Love you, girl. Love you. Thank you. Wow. What I took away from that is that identity isn't something you lock in. It's something you live through. In every season, ask something different of you. But the goal is to stay rooted in who you are even as you grow. So to everybody listening, let yourself change. Let yourself expand and don't question the version of you that you're becoming. I'll see you next time. Because baby, this is Kiki Pong.