Episode 1111 - Byron Bowers
Marc:all right let's do this how are you what the fuckers what the fuck buddies what the fucksters what's happening it's mark maron this is wtf my podcast welcome to it the quarantine version of it not that different than the other version
Marc:really, to be honest with you.
Marc:Comedian Byron Bowers is on today.
Marc:We taped this before this shit went down, before the quarantining really got off in earnest.
Marc:I don't know if you know his stand-up, but he was also in Honey Boy, the Shia LaBeouf movie that he wrote, and Byron's
Marc:wife directed it which for some reason i didn't realize throughout the entire interview i didn't know that that was the situation he said that she was director i didn't uh think to ask because i'm a fucking idiot i guess but uh yeah his girl i don't know if it's his girlfriend or his wife i that will be revealed in the conversation
Marc:But nonetheless, funny guy, interesting guy, interesting perception of things.
Marc:As I recall, heading back into this conversation that I did a few weeks ago, I remember trying to kind of hang on to where he was coming from.
Marc:Make sure I was following the thread.
Marc:So that's going to happen for all of you shortly.
Marc:I appreciate I always appreciate all the emails.
Marc:I try to read all of them.
Marc:All you people that are getting and staying sober, very inspirational.
Marc:I always like hearing from you.
Marc:And I'm happy that even in this time of isolation and fear that I'm getting a lot of nice emails from people staying sober.
Marc:I've never I don't think I've eaten healthier in my life.
Marc:There's really no bending there.
Marc:Because you're limited to what you have in the house.
Marc:And I guess that really depends what you have in your house.
Marc:And I guess my heart has to go out to those of you with kids that have to supply them with the sugar and fun food that they demand and deserve as children to make them happy.
Marc:Even if it fucks them up a little bit, you'll give them a little of that stuff, right?
Marc:So that stuff's around the house.
Marc:And I bet you it's hard not to eat it.
Marc:Hard not to eat the fun cereals.
Marc:Who doesn't want a bowl of Cocoa Pebbles when they're in their mid-50s?
Marc:Why not have some of that around?
Marc:Is there anyone out there that does that?
Marc:Is there anybody out there in their 50s who still eats the cereal that they ate when they were a child?
Marc:Are there any 55 to 60-year-old people out there just reading the back of a box of Lucky Charms?
Marc:Not my thing.
Marc:Lucky Charms.
Marc:Not my thing.
Marc:Even the good part of Lucky Charms, the marshmallow things, were not great.
Marc:Not a fun cereal.
Marc:Quisp, not great.
Marc:I was Cocoa Pebbles guy.
Marc:I've discussed this before.
Marc:But are there people, are there people in their 60s fucking up the roof of your mouth with the Captain Crunch?
Marc:That'd be the thing to do, though.
Marc:You know when you're afraid and you think this might be it?
Marc:Why not have some cereal as opposed to, you know, shoot heroin or drink a pint of fucking bourbon?
Marc:or snort a bunch of rails.
Marc:If you're an addict and you're going down the drain, reach back into your brain and think about, what was that cereal?
Marc:That's probably where it started, man.
Marc:I'll blame Cocoa Pebbles for my drug problem.
Marc:I'll do it right now.
Marc:It was Fred and Barney's, it was their fault.
Marc:What else did you like?
Marc:Cocoa Puffs, I think, used to be good.
Marc:Frosted Flakes were okay.
Marc:That's all still around, right?
Marc:I have no reason to shop for this stuff.
Marc:I even enjoyed that cereal Life, but that seemed like a grown-up cereal.
Marc:Whatever you got to do to get by, people.
Marc:Seriously, though, just try not to compound the fear and panic and kind of hopelessness of isolation with self-flagellation and self-hatred.
Marc:Just know in your heart that nobody's doing anything that they can't do at home.
Marc:You're not losing.
Marc:We're all on the same page.
Marc:So...
Marc:It was only a matter of time before this would happen.
Marc:I mean, we've done well over a thousand of these interviews, and I was sort of hoping the day wouldn't come that we found out that a former guest died of coronavirus, but it happened the day before yesterday.
Marc:Adam Schlesinger, the composer and pop songwriter, former member and co-founder of the band Fountains of Wayne, musical producer for my crazy ex-girlfriend for years, Emmy Award winning, Grammy winning, I believe Tony nominated, Golden Globe nominated, but all that stuff.
Marc:He was clearly a musical wizard, a genius, a...
Marc:of pop songwriting, musical songwriting, very gifted man, but also a very young man, 52 years old, was not sick, was not compromised immunologically that anyone knew of.
Marc:He was a friend of a friend of mine.
Marc:And it's just, it's devastating.
Marc:It's really only a matter of time and probably a short time before everyone is directly affected by this virus.
Marc:And it's sad that so many people in this country don't really take it as seriously as they should.
Marc:But that's not really what I'm talking about here.
Marc:We lost a brilliant artist that had a lot of good years ahead of him.
Marc:and another guest a former guest of this show john prine one of the greatest american songwriters is sick with this disease and he's old and he's he's struggling for his life and i hope he pulls through i'm sad and sorry that we lost adam and like we do we don't like to do it but we do um
Marc:In honor of the artists that passed, we re-release or put the episode back in the feed so everybody can hear it.
Marc:I talked to Adam back in December of 2012.
Marc:Didn't know him that well.
Marc:Got a little familiar with his work.
Marc:My girlfriend at the time was a huge fan of Fountains of Wayne.
Marc:My friend John Daniel, one of my best friends, was really a champion of Adam's genius.
Marc:And I got to know him during that episode.
Marc:And you can listen to that if you want.
Marc:But it's just a sad day.
Marc:Sad day to have to say a few words for a 52-year-old man who is gifted and gone now because of this illness.
Marc:So rest in peace, Adam Schlesinger.
Marc:And take care of yourselves, people.
Marc:Really.
Marc:Really.
Marc:Jesus, God, I can't.
Marc:It's so hard on a day to day basis to kind of reconcile your deep habit and desire to think things are going to be OK with the fact of the matter.
Marc:And again, a great deal of gratitude and love and respect goes out to everyone, you know, helping the people that are overwhelmed with sickness and the sick, the health care workers, the first responders, police, ambulance drivers, people delivering food, people who are actually really doing essential services.
Marc:God, you know, thanks, you know, because a lot of us out here, we're holed up in our homes.
Marc:We can watch what's on TV.
Marc:We can look at our phones, but we're not going to the hospital every day.
Marc:We don't know the shit show of chaos and horror and death and disease that you guys are dealing with on a day to day basis.
Marc:Thank you very much for doing that.
Marc:And I hope to God I don't get sick.
Marc:But if I do, I hope that, you know, someone is there to receive me and take care of me.
Marc:And I hope that the supplies are there.
Marc:And I know most of you realize I don't need to have I don't need to tell you that, you know, obviously we're living in a failed state in that.
Marc:Our government's reaction to this was too late and it was not enough.
Marc:And a lot of what the federal government's supposed to do, they're not doing because over the last few years, but certainly over the last 20, whenever possible, Republicans try to dismantle the government.
Marc:Everything they see is non-essential.
Marc:And some of that being what was needed to respond to this properly.
Marc:So this is the goal, the failed state.
Marc:This is the Republican vision.
Marc:Let private enterprise take care of it.
Marc:Great.
Marc:So now we have people that need ventilators and masks and there's a bidding war going on over who is going to make a profit on those items and which states are going to sell to.
Marc:It's all working out.
Marc:Good vision.
Marc:But again, thank you to everybody that's sacrificing, self-sacrificing in the face of this horror show.
Marc:My job here has been deemed an essential service, but I wouldn't call it self-sacrificing.
Marc:I know that I'm in a privileged position, but I'm trying to do what I can.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:I was trying to figure out I'm doing something this weekend for comedy gives back.
Marc:It's called Comedy Gives Back Laugh Aid, and it's a benefit to help comedians who have lost work and income due to the coronavirus.
Marc:It's obviously not a cure, but it can do a lot of good.
Marc:ComedyGivesBack.com.
Marc:Check that out.
Marc:But I think it's Saturday.
Marc:Is that the 4th?
Marc:Anyway, look, man, you don't need paper towels.
Marc:If you have dish towels and you can wash them, you can use them.
Marc:You can use them for anything.
Marc:What did people use before toilet paper?
Marc:Seriously.
Marc:You never see that in any of the movies, the period pieces.
Marc:What are they using for toilet paper?
Marc:Where is that detail?
Marc:I like that detail.
Marc:I had to go out.
Marc:I had to go out into the world.
Marc:I've made my own mask.
Marc:Is that helpful?
Marc:I just cut the bottom off a T-shirt about five or six inches wide, and I cut one of the seams, and then I use the other side of the shirt, that seam, to go run down the line of my nose, down through my chin, and then just tie it behind my back.
Marc:But from what I understand, some people are going to give me some handmade, hand-sewn masks, which I'm excited about.
Marc:Because I think you probably should wear them when you go out.
Marc:Even if people are on the fence about it, why not just wear them?
Marc:Is it in any way a bad thing to wear them?
Marc:Also, my special, still on Netflix.
Marc:It's also brought all my other specials to the fore.
Marc:The other two that I did for Netflix over the years.
Marc:So all three are kind of front and center.
Marc:Going back to Thinky Pain, which I think was 2010 or 2011.
Marc:um and then uh too real and now the new one end times fun people are still enjoying and i and i'm glad you like it i like hearing about it so this is an email alexandra sent it dear mark yesterday i gloved up masked up and walked my suitcase from my brooklyn apartment to a hertz and got the fuck out of dodge
Marc:Read New York.
Marc:I'm one of the lucky few who has a job that is remotable and had enough bread in my basket to make this kind of rash decision.
Marc:I fled to Dayton, Ohio, where I am self-quarantining for my 14 days until my friend and her incredible family are taking me into their Corona tribe to ride this out.
Marc:They have land, four dogs, a cat, and most precious of all, each other.
Marc:I wanted to write you because the night before I left, I downloaded 10 hours of WTF to last me the drive.
Marc:I had a strategy and it paid off beautifully.
Marc:See full strategy below.
Marc:We're getting there.
Marc:Thank you for still podcasting.
Marc:I look forward to every dispatch.
Marc:I've been forwarding your newsletters to my friends who know I need a voice of reason, admissions of uncertainty, and, of course, a fucking laugh.
Marc:Love and stay healthy, and thank you, Alex.
Marc:Then she gave the layout.
Marc:Marin Drive.
Marc:Brooklyn to Ohio, March 31st, 2020.
Marc:Anthony Bourdain, one hour, 22 minutes.
Marc:A comfort episode for me and familiar enough with the episode to quasi-listen while I navigated out of the city.
Marc:Gary Shandling, one hour, 20 minutes.
Marc:As expected, once I was out of the city, I needed some space to process and get existential, thanks to you and Gary.
Marc:Mark Maron, as told to Mike Birbiglia, one hour, 34 minutes.
Marc:Another comfort episode that makes me think and laugh.
Marc:Rob Riggle, one hour, 10 minutes.
Marc:Remembered the 9-11 part of this episode and thought it would be soothing to hear about another time when the world imploded and remind myself that this too will end.
Marc:Maria Bamford, one hour, seven minutes.
Marc:You and Maria fleeing a nerd parade, said with love, in parentheses, back in the day.
Marc:No further explanation needed.
Marc:Bob Zamuda, two hours, seven minutes.
Marc:6.5 hours in and I knew I would need a never heard episode and a meaty one.
Marc:Was hoping this episode would provide some clarity on some of the Andy myths, but alas, or maybe, thank goodness, it didn't.
Marc:Nate Bargazzi, one hour, 22 minutes.
Marc:Bringing it home with a comfort episode to top all comfort episodes.
Marc:I'm from Nashville.
Marc:Nate's accent is soothing to my brain.
Marc:I've been to the Applebee's where he met his wife.
Marc:I sold drums at the Guitar Center across the street, and we'd have lunch at the B's.
Marc:And like you said, he's just so damn funny.
Marc:Well, Alex, thank you for sending this.
Marc:And I hope that maybe that'll provide a template for others who need to flee wherever and they have 10 hours to fill.
Marc:But as you should all know, you can go get Stitcher Premium and get all of the episodes.
Marc:All of them.
Marc:Cat update.
Marc:Buster is getting fat.
Marc:And Monkey is okay.
Marc:He's pretty good.
Marc:Everybody's well.
Marc:And now I'd like to share with you my conversation with the comedian Byron Bowers.
Marc:You can currently watch him in the film Honey Boy on Amazon Prime Video.
Marc:And here we go into the interesting mind of Byron Bowers.
Marc:You know, it's weird because I've seen you around for years.
Marc:We've never hung out.
Marc:We're always sort of in passing.
Marc:How's it going?
Marc:Man, you know what?
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:Did you get the feeling like we didn't like each other or what?
Guest:No, it wasn't that.
Guest:I just respect the game, and I know where I'm at, and hopefully I will get to the point where we face each other like we do now.
Guest:Right.
Guest:To me, I don't look at it.
Guest:I guess I've been disrespected, what I would call disrespected so much in life.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And coming from where I'm born in a small time, moving to the city, that I learned that you got to work your way up.
Guest:You got to earn that respect.
Marc:It was weird because I didn't have any disrespect, but I just didn't know.
Marc:I'd see you around, but by the time you were coming around, I was sort of moving out of the alternative rooms.
Marc:And then I'd see you at the store.
Marc:When you started coming around the store, I'm like, oh, there's Byron.
Marc:Because I felt like an old man already.
Guest:Well, it's perception.
Guest:It's perception.
Guest:It has nothing to do with you.
Guest:Right.
Guest:That's what I'm learning about life.
Guest:It's all perception and your own, however you handle it, dramatically.
Marc:Yeah, projections and perception.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:You assume things based on your own broken brain.
Marc:True, true.
Guest:But I recognize the pattern.
Guest:I'm like, if I get to a point, you know, like I just met Jay-Z.
Marc:Really?
Marc:Where'd you meet him?
Guest:At a gold party after one of the awards show.
Guest:Oh, really?
Marc:Yeah, after the Oscars.
Marc:Because that's where I said we got to do the podcast.
Marc:I saw you on the red carpet.
Marc:We're both standing there like a couple of comedians going, look at this.
Marc:This is fucking crazy.
Guest:This is crazy.
Guest:So that's why I'm at the point where I'm just questioning everything because it kind of like happened.
Guest:Life don't happen as you plan.
Guest:Well, what happened with Jay-Z?
Guest:Well, I shook his hand and he was just like, hey, but it was quick.
Guest:It was one of them interesting handshakes.
Guest:And I'm like, yeah, I'm a fan to Jay-Z.
Guest:The way he's shaking my hand is not like a business person, but it's like a fan, which is cool.
Guest:Because I've been through it so many times.
Guest:And then I got reintroduced to him.
Guest:And he was like, yeah, I met him already.
Guest:So I'm like, oh, okay.
Guest:The same night?
Guest:The same night.
Marc:So now you're annoying him.
Guest:Well, a part of it is, but I'm like, oh, we're going to bump into each other.
Guest:We're going to bump into each other.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because to me, it's like, oh, I'm on this level.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Just like when we were going to shows.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:When we started doing the same shows.
Guest:Me and you?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Like Nerd Melt?
Marc:Nerd Melt.
Marc:I feel like Nerd Melt was the first time I saw you.
Guest:Yeah, it started at Nerd Milk.
Guest:I was in the corner with everything, just watching it for the first time.
Guest:And then Emily, bless her heart, put me on to the Nerd Milk stage.
Guest:And I remember when she booked me, and I probably sounded cocky.
Guest:I was like, make sure it's a good show.
Guest:I told her that.
Guest:She's like, all my shows are good.
Guest:And I was like, oh, okay, I'm sorry.
Guest:I probably overstepped my lane, but yeah, man, it was some wonderful shows.
Guest:It hasn't been the same since.
Guest:Is it still going on?
Guest:No, but the scene to me has changed.
Marc:Well, I think that, you know, I think that it was built on a faulty premise to begin with.
Marc:You know, the whole nerd melt alternative comedy scene.
Marc:It had a crowd, but it was a trend.
Marc:It was a fad.
Marc:Whereas, like, you go to the comedy store, that's eternal.
Marc:That's true, but even the store was struggling.
Marc:The store was struggling, for sure, because it was like a dark fucking shithole for a long time, but then everybody got proud of it.
Marc:And Brenton got the social networking going, and they got rid of Tommy and brought Adam in, and then fucking Peter took over the place, and we all were excited to work there.
Marc:I think our excitement about the store brought the people in.
Guest:I agree.
Guest:I mean, Tommy, I was there.
Guest:I remember meeting Mitzi and shaking her hand.
Guest:So you go that far back?
Guest:I mean, I got in like 2010 or 11, and it wasn't a moment that everybody else had getting past in the store.
Guest:It's like watching my ex-wife leave in a U-Haul and then getting the call that I got passed.
Guest:Like, life is a balance, you know?
Guest:Is that what happened?
Guest:That's what happened, yeah.
Marc:So let's go back.
Marc:So you say, where do you come from?
Guest:I came from Atlanta, Georgia.
Guest:Atlanta?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And that's where you grew up?
Guest:I grew up in Atlanta, yeah.
Guest:Born in Athens, Georgia.
Marc:Athens, Georgia.
Marc:UGA.
Marc:That's a nice town.
Guest:It's nice.
Marc:It's a little rock and roll town.
Marc:That's the part I know.
Marc:I'm sure it's not.
Guest:I don't know what you know.
Guest:It's separated, man.
Guest:Yeah, I know.
Guest:Any college town, you have the locals.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And you got the college people that's there to have fun and stuff.
Guest:And the locals?
Guest:The locals, man.
Guest:It's like... You were local.
Guest:My family more the local.
Guest:Me going to Athens, I remember somebody saying, don't fuck a local.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:They didn't know I was from there.
Guest:Really?
Guest:But that's the thing.
Guest:If you have sex with somebody, don't have sex with a local.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because then you'll never leave?
Guest:Or they might try to trap you.
Guest:And I'm like, oh, they say the same about Jamaica when you go to Jamaica.
Guest:Is that true?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, versus, you know, different countries you go to is the similar thing, you know, like be careful of the locals.
Guest:They're going to pickpocket you or they're going to rob you or all that stuff.
Marc:I thought you meant like trap you into having a kid.
Marc:Well, that's the same thing.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:That's the far end of it.
Marc:Well, I mean.
Marc:You're lucky if you just get robbed.
Guest:You're lucky if you get robbed.
Guest:As opposed to a lifetime of robbing.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:So, I mean.
Marc:So that was word on the street.
Marc:Don't fuck a local.
Marc:Yep.
Marc:And you were a local.
Marc:But how long were you there for?
Guest:I think it's like 6.
Guest:I was back and forth, but I left at 6, and then I had to come back because the state was going to try to take me and my sister from my mother, so she had to send us back.
Guest:To Athens.
Marc:To Athens for a while.
Marc:So what's the layout of the family?
Marc:So you just got a sister?
Guest:I have a sister, yeah.
Guest:Two separate fathers, which is a blessing.
Marc:Two separate fathers.
Marc:So your sister's got a different father.
Guest:Same mom.
Guest:Same mom, different father.
Marc:So who's the blessing for her or you?
Guest:I mean, like, you know, most kids, I say get two separate rooms.
Guest:We got two separate dads.
Marc:So you had a relationship with both of them?
Guest:No, we didn't have a relationship with none of them.
Guest:So it was no the jealousy, you know, and when you play the dozens in the streets, they talk about each other's mom.
Guest:But me and my sister talked about each other's dad.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like, oh, your dad ain't shit.
Guest:Your dad ain't shit.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Your dad ain't only got one arm.
Guest:Fuck you.
Guest:You both knew it was empty and insults because you didn't know your dad.
Guest:Yeah, but now we're closer than that.
Guest:I was at her dad's funeral.
Guest:She was at my dad's funeral.
Guest:And when it ended, they folded the flag and they was lowering my dad into the ground.
Guest:You're hearing that clicking noise.
Guest:I remember looking back.
Guest:I was sitting down and she was standing behind me and I looked at her and she was
Guest:Her eyes was watery, and I was like, my dad's funeral was better than your dad's funeral.
Guest:She started laughing.
Guest:She was like, you right, you right.
Guest:Your dad was a military funeral?
Guest:He was, uh, they had the guys come out, yeah, and fold a flag because he was in the Navy.
Marc:Her dad wasn't in the military.
Guest:No, he wasn't in the military, but he was a he he had a normal life.
Guest:Like he worked 30 years and retired in three months into his retirement.
Guest:Dropped dead.
Guest:He passed.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:We didn't drop dead.
Guest:He was a very healthy.
Guest:He jogged like four miles every day.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But somebody hit him in a car, which is funny.
Guest:It's funny and sad at the same time.
Marc:That's the worst, man.
Guest:It's the worst because.
Marc:Probably texting, too.
Guest:You said who?
Guest:The person that was in the car?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's sad because, you know, he spent, he dedicated all that time to his job.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And they were just building their relationship.
Guest:And he was like, I'm going to do what I want to do in life now.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then it happened.
Marc:Got slammed.
Guest:Meanwhile, my dad, drugs, prostitutes, you know.
Guest:He kept living.
Guest:Paranoid, schizophrenic, yeah.
Guest:And I'm like, this guy, it's almost like rich dad, poor dad, you know what I mean?
Guest:But in a tragic way, he was like, eh.
Marc:Okay, so you're born in Athens and your mom splits and goes to Atlanta with you and your sister?
Marc:Yeah, she left my- Because your dad was a scary fucker or what?
Guest:No, she left my sister's father.
Guest:She was married to my sister's father.
Marc:Oh, so you're older.
Guest:I'm older, yeah.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:My mom and dad were never married.
Guest:Okay, yeah.
Guest:And, yeah, she split and left for reasons we're not quite sure.
Marc:Oh, really?
Guest:Yeah, because... Because I thought that was the good dad.
Guest:Well, I mean, to the next family, probably more than...
Guest:Right.
Guest:You know, you know, when you in our towns and you're not from L.A., people have kids 19, you know, 20.
Guest:Right.
Guest:They don't we don't know ourselves then.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Just looking back on the shit we all got into.
Guest:We don't know.
Marc:So like her her old man had her when he was young.
Guest:Yeah, a little bit after me.
Guest:They probably was 24 or 25, but I mean.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But what do you know?
Guest:Yeah, what do you know?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, so if you got dreams and you're in a place like Athens, then that really don't go together because.
Marc:I have no sense of Athens other than the independent music scene.
Guest:The independent and that you have the people that in any small town is like, you want to do what?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Man, you better go work at the plant, at the chicken plant.
Marc:Is there a chicken plant there?
Guest:Yeah, there's a chicken plant.
Guest:My cousin worked there from two different families.
Guest:My aunt on my mother's side worked there.
Marc:Just killing chickens and taking the feathers off?
Guest:Just taking them feathers off, man, and putting them in packages.
Guest:Trying to probably sneak some free chicken out the back.
Guest:Get some free chicken and some health care, probably.
Guest:Some health care, you know.
Marc:That's what you do it for.
Guest:Yeah, my grandfather hauled chickens, which was cool because he would bring chickens.
Guest:Chicken trucks?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Bring chickens like baby chicks home.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:We had chickens in the back.
Guest:Yeah, like they got a certain smell to them.
Marc:Baby chickens.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And you had big chickens in the back?
Guest:Yeah, big chickens in the back.
Guest:That's where the eggs came from.
Marc:Every day you had fresh eggs.
Guest:Every day fresh eggs.
Guest:Corn came out the back.
Guest:Wine came from the vine.
Guest:Really?
Guest:You guys made wine?
Guest:Strawback grandfather made wine, muscadine wine.
Marc:Did he have like a farm?
Guest:You know what?
Guest:Big enough piece of property for that shit?
Guest:They descended the farmers, right?
Guest:They didn't graduate school at all.
Guest:So they're farmers.
Guest:So that's what they did.
Guest:Acre, two acres of land.
Guest:I mean, which was big to me at the time.
Guest:It's pretty big.
Guest:man they had acres big yeah yeah watermelon beans and then the the land overlap with the neighbor's land so they gave him that land and he would give them like oh stuff he grew stuff he grew and then he would fish we go fishing on the weekend so this is your grandfather this is me young yeah training as a hunt they give guns at like eight and they trying to teach you how to really like feed yourself your grandfather yeah yeah and he grew all that stuff
Guest:He grew it, yeah.
Guest:Corn, I remember having to shuck corn and get split peas with your fingers.
Guest:That's nice, man.
Guest:It's not nice until you're older and you're like, oh, we had it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That was the life.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Pecans fall off the tree, you pick them, the pies come from that.
Guest:I moved to the city and it was just different.
Marc:Were you excited though?
Marc:I mean, it seems like, I guess it's hard to appreciate things when you're six.
Guest:Yeah, I mean, all I know is I just had a moment of sadness when I moved to Atlanta, right?
Guest:Sure, yeah.
Guest:But before then, you're out with bowing arrows.
Guest:You're getting sticks and you're hunting for wild dogs.
Guest:Bowing arrows?
Guest:Yeah, you're getting sticks and you're pretending they're bowing arrows.
Guest:And you're just in the woods hunting for wild dogs.
Guest:Wild dogs?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Were there a lot of wild dogs?
Guest:That's what we heard.
Guest:They'd be like, stay out of the woods.
Guest:There's wild dogs.
Guest:They'll attack you.
Guest:They probably was stray dogs.
Guest:But what'd you take with the guns?
Guest:You were shooting birds?
Guest:We started with birds.
Guest:Quails?
Guest:Cans and birds.
Guest:And BB is pellets, so you're pumping like 40 times.
Marc:40 times just again.
Marc:But not shotguns?
Guest:Shotguns they all had.
Guest:My granddaddy had like eight shotguns.
Marc:He didn't go out for the, what do you call those little birds, the quails or the doves?
Guest:Rabbits.
Guest:Oh, rabbits.
Guest:Rabbits, deers.
Marc:And deers?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Grind a deer and make deer meat.
Marc:I don't think you can shoot a deer with a shotgun.
Marc:You got to shoot it with a bullet bullet.
Guest:Well, you can because it's a heavy gauge.
Marc:I know, but then you got to pick all those pellets out of the meat.
Marc:These guys are like, I mean.
Marc:They nailed it.
Guest:I remember watching them break rabbit down, which was scary.
Marc:To rip that skin off?
Marc:Man.
Marc:Cut it up like a chicken?
Guest:Cut it up and just peel it.
Guest:I remember the peeling of this.
Marc:Disturbing.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:It's like a glove coming on.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I shot one bird.
Guest:I shot one bird and I watched it pass.
Guest:And that was the only animal I shot.
Marc:I had the exact same experience.
Marc:I couldn't take it.
Marc:I couldn't take it.
Marc:Like some guy talked me into doing it.
Marc:With a pellet.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And I watched it fall and die.
Marc:And if I think about it now, it upsets me.
Guest:Man, it's interesting.
Guest:And then 10 years later, you're in a city and gunfire just erupts.
Guest:Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
Marc:You heard it a lot?
Marc:Enough.
Marc:So you moved to Atlanta with your sister and your mother when you were six?
Guest:Six, then back to Athens, and then back probably like at 11 or 12.
Marc:So what happened?
Marc:The state was going to take you guys?
Guest:Yeah, according to my mom.
Marc:Oh.
Marc:I guess... The other guy, the father?
Marc:No father was there, yeah.
Marc:No, but he ratted her out.
Guest:Who called the cops?
Guest:Allegedly, it was an internal family thing.
Guest:It was a jealousy internal family.
Guest:Probably one of my mom's sisters.
Marc:Oh, really?
Guest:Yeah, it was, yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Oh, what the fuck, man?
Marc:Yeah, man.
Marc:So she was jealous of what?
Marc:That she had her kids?
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:You know that lady?
Guest:Your aunt?
Guest:Yeah, I just got into it with her.
Guest:Just now?
Guest:Thanksgiving.
Guest:I had to eat Thanksgiving outside.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I never thought I'd be the guy who get into the fight.
Guest:Every family gets a fight.
Guest:You had to eat Thanksgiving outside?
Guest:Yeah, I showed up to the South.
Guest:I showed up to Athens, Georgia with a Jew and a dog.
Guest:A Jew?
Guest:A Jewish chick.
Guest:Yeah, and a dog.
Guest:And a dog.
Guest:An Israeli and a dog.
Guest:That's your girlfriend's Israeli?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I tried to bring the dog in the house.
Guest:And they was like, you're not bringing this dog in the house.
Guest:And I'm like, I got papers.
Guest:All that L.A.
Guest:shit.
Guest:I got, it's my emotional support.
Guest:Dog.
Guest:Really?
Guest:And I ran in the house with the dog.
Guest:And it's like 40 motherfuckers just looking at me angry.
Guest:And I panicked because I didn't make any plans.
Guest:I just ran in the house with a dog.
Guest:Just ran in the house.
Guest:And I ain't know what to say.
Guest:So I was like, just get her some water.
Guest:She thirsty.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:She been on the plane all day.
Guest:That's right when you get there.
Guest:That's when I get there.
Guest:Did you have papers for the Jew?
Guest:No, no, no.
Guest:My girl just stayed outside.
Guest:She just stayed outside.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, of course.
Guest:But it's so weird.
Guest:It's just weird, right?
Marc:It's just weird.
Marc:So, okay, so your girlfriend doesn't even go into the house.
Marc:You go in with the dog.
Marc:Everybody freaks out.
Marc:Yep.
Marc:And that's not, and then, you know, so your dog's probably freaked out.
Marc:Dog freaked out.
Marc:And you're freaked out.
Marc:I'm on 10.
Guest:Was it really?
Guest:I got anger.
Guest:You know those anger issues you don't even know.
Guest:You're not even thinking once the thing, once the whatever you raise, whatever you want to call it hit, you just, you gung-ho.
Marc:I'll show right away.
Guest:You gung-ho.
Guest:Yeah, I just picked the dog up and just ran in the house.
Guest:Out of the house or in the house?
Marc:In the house with the dog.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So you actually have a license, papers for the dog because you need the dog?
Marc:It's an emotional support dog?
Guest:Well, I mean, it's my girl's dog.
Guest:Oh, it's her dog?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Does she need the dog for emotional support?
Guest:Yeah, and apparently I need the dog too.
Marc:The dog didn't stop the anger.
Guest:No, no, it didn't.
Guest:But I calmed down, you know what I mean?
Marc:It's a growing thing, I guess.
Marc:So what happened?
Marc:So your aunt got pissed off and you had to eat outside?
Guest:Yeah, we ate outside.
Guest:I mean, everybody, you know, the dog just wasn't coming in the house.
Guest:So you ate outside with the dog and your Jewish girlfriend?
Guest:My girlfriend and like my uncles and stuff, they were outside.
Marc:Okay, so it wasn't terrible.
Guest:No, it wasn't terrible, but it still was like, you got to calm down.
Guest:It takes like 10 minutes or something.
Guest:Oh, you had to calm down?
Marc:Yeah, I did.
Marc:You got a rage problem?
Guest:I never really looked at it, but it could be sometimes.
Guest:Once it starts, it's got to go all the way through?
Guest:It got to go, yeah.
Guest:It got to go.
Guest:I'm getting better at it, but it just came out of nowhere, though.
Guest:I don't know where it developed from.
Marc:In that moment or in general?
Marc:In general.
Marc:It's horrible when you get hit with it.
Guest:Yeah, so.
Marc:Like, you know, usually you can keep it under wraps and all of a sudden something will trigger it.
Guest:Well, I have.
Guest:Are you fucking kidding me?
Guest:Yeah, you get loud.
Guest:You get loud, man.
Guest:And I've had to apologize for people 10 minutes later.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:I used to do a joke about that.
Marc:Like, I'm closing the gap between an outburst and apology.
Marc:Oh, that's good.
Marc:Like, it used to be, and now it's a guy down to like, go fuck yourself.
Marc:I'm sorry.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:That's hilarious.
Guest:Look, man, I don't know.
Guest:People don't know, man.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:I think I put up with so much for so long internally and then held it in until it just... It popped.
Guest:It's like, oof!
Marc:Yeah, you don't know what's gonna pop it.
Guest:But it's better than, like, schizophrenia, you know?
Marc:So, yeah, let's talk... Okay, so you go back and forth.
Marc:You weren't taken away from your mother, but you end up growing up in Atlanta.
Guest:Yeah, I end up growing up in Atlanta with my mom.
Guest:My mom got her stuff together, and me and my sister moved back with my mom.
Marc:And that's where you went from age, what, seven or eight all the way through?
Guest:No, I was there back in Athens like six.
Guest:And then I remember landing in the fourth grade in Atlanta.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then having to deal with the school systems.
Guest:Even in both places, I had to deal with the school system.
Guest:What do you mean deal with them?
Guest:Because we lived in a different place than we were supposed to.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And I had disciplinary problems and they just couldn't send me home.
Marc:What do you mean they couldn't send you home?
Guest:Because normally back in the day, they would send you home.
Guest:Like, go home.
Guest:And you'd be like, I'd be like, I can't go home.
Guest:I live too far.
Marc:Oh, I see.
Guest:Where you live?
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:It took a few hours to get here.
Marc:Really?
Guest:I don't understand.
Marc:That's how they would find out.
Marc:Oh, because you wanted to go to that school, so you put down the wrong address?
Guest:I think that's where I was in charge of that.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:My mom just survived.
Guest:You don't know at the time.
Guest:She's just surviving.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But she got you into the school, but it wasn't the district you lived in.
Guest:It probably wasn't the district I lived in.
Guest:And then by the time I came back in fourth grade, I was at a school.
Guest:I just wasn't clicking.
Guest:I don't know what it was.
Guest:And then I got sent to this mixed school called Jolly Elementary.
Guest:Jolly?
Guest:Jolly Elementary.
Guest:A mixed school as opposed to a black school?
Guest:Mixed school opposed to like a black and African school.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I tested.
Guest:I took a test, one of those standardized tests, and I tested out of my class.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, that's good.
Guest:Advanced science, English, and math.
Marc:Yeah?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So you got to jump a grade?
Guest:I went from an all-black class to a class with five black people in it.
Marc:And how did that change things for you?
Guest:It was an adjustment.
Guest:I remember walking down the hall and people from my neighborhood would just take our heads and just mush them.
Guest:Against the law.
Guest:Like that's what the separation.
Guest:That's what you get.
Guest:That's what I got.
Guest:You know, it was like, oh, you you over there now, you know, and then you have to get on the bus with the people and get dropped off.
Guest:And I remember I got in trouble.
Guest:I couldn't go to gym class and they put me in this class.
Guest:It's three classes.
Guest:Advanced class is regular class.
Guest:There's behavioral classes.
Guest:Hmm.
Guest:So I remember like vaguely getting put in behavioral classes because I couldn't go to gym.
Guest:So they made me sit in the class with behavioral class.
Guest:And I remember sitting on a desk and they were going over math or something.
Guest:And I was like, y'all stupid.
Guest:Something like that.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like y'all don't get this.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Stupid.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And we all, they got mad, apparently.
Guest:Why couldn't you go to gym?
Guest:I got in trouble.
Guest:Oh, for what?
Guest:I couldn't go to recess.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:You don't know?
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:I had disciplinary problems.
Marc:Always had disciplinary problems?
Guest:I don't think they were bad as, like, people in my neighborhood.
Guest:I wasn't bringing guns to school or something dope or nothing, but I do remember hitting a chick with a book because she called me immature.
Guest:Oh, well, you showed her.
Guest:I closed the book.
Guest:I closed the science book.
Guest:It was like a frog on the front.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I looked at the book, and then I just took the bottom of my hand like a pie, and I just...
Guest:Poof, hit her in the face with it.
Marc:That's no good.
Marc:Yeah, I got in trouble.
Marc:So with all this going on, so obviously as a comic, we all had disciplinary problems, so I imagine you were just a smart ass and causing trouble and whatever, right?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:No guns, no drugs.
Guest:No guns, no drugs, nah.
Marc:Just being a smart ass and starting shit and hitting girls in the face with books.
Guest:Just getting beat up all the time.
Guest:You got beat up too?
Guest:Yeah, I mostly got beat up.
Guest:Really?
Guest:The girl I hit, the face beat my ass.
Guest:And the coach was going to stop the fight, and he was like, let him fight.
Guest:And I was like, motherfucker, it's a window.
Guest:You know that window that closes?
Guest:She had on like pan-lella shoes and a dress, you know what I mean?
Guest:And she didn't even grow.
Marc:And she beat you up in front of everybody.
Guest:She beat my ass in front of everybody.
Guest:And then we ended up going to high school together, and she never grew.
Marc:Oh, really?
Marc:Oh, so she just stayed the same size?
Guest:Same size.
Guest:And she's bragging about that shit.
Yeah.
Marc:I like seeing people I haven't seen in a long time when they come out of nowhere.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Oh, my God.
Guest:Don't you?
Guest:Yeah, I've been surprised, man.
Guest:I've been surprised, and it's like, oh, you made it?
Guest:Yeah, right.
Guest:You a lawyer?
Guest:Right.
Guest:Yeah, still alive, right?
Guest:Yeah, and not only that, you successful, and we came from not the, you know, we came from a certain place where a lot of people, and you know, I don't know if you, people fall off.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Guest:The older you get, it's like,
Marc:Yeah, they fall off or you get to a certain age, people start dying.
Guest:That's what I'm saying.
Guest:I ain't want to say that.
Guest:But yeah, I got 13 dead people in my phone and I cannot erase.
Guest:13?
Guest:13.
Guest:From this past decade.
Guest:That's recent shit.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like, from natural shit?
Guest:Natural and, like, it started, you know, the younger you are, it starts with unnatural.
Guest:Right, right.
Guest:Getting shot or boyfriend shotter, yeah, all these things.
Marc:Boyfriend shotter?
Guest:Yeah, my best friend's sister was, and the baby was killed by, like, a boyfriend.
Guest:Oh, that's terrible.
Guest:And the last thing he said to me was, like, you should get out of here.
Guest:You can make it for you smart.
Guest:atlanta yeah so that was the she was in the hood and they were playing on the car at night and um that's we and i was it was weird because for somebody to do that and say i love you that's that's weird so he said i love you and killed him and uh and then the next time no no they caught him but yeah the police called him before the family did
Marc:Well, that's an old adage that I read.
Marc:A police chief said that people only kill people over two things, money and pussy.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I read that in a book.
Marc:There's a quote from a police chief.
Marc:I think it's an old idea.
Marc:i don't know yeah it could be true no of course break it down if you if you keep it broad you know like what money equals property anything that you own yeah yeah if it's a big category yeah so okay so you when did you end up getting out i mean like what were you doing when did you start doing comedy
Guest:I started my first time on stage.
Guest:I think I was at a talent show in college.
Marc:Oh, where'd you go to college?
Guest:Southern Polytechnic State University.
Guest:Where's that at?
Guest:Marietta and Georgia.
Guest:What were you studying?
Guest:Engineering, electrical engineering.
Marc:You had a big plan?
Guest:No, stay off the streets.
Guest:My freshman year, I went to another school in Tennessee and I ended up selling crack for a little while.
Guest:So this was just to stay.
Guest:My goal was to stay off the streets.
Guest:Like I gave myself 10 years to be in college.
Marc:10 years.
Guest:10 years, yeah, because I can get financial aid because my dad was a crack addict at the time, so I could just be like... Okay, so let's explain this.
Marc:So you've grown up in Atlanta, but not in the hood.
Marc:You didn't get to the hood until later?
Guest:Yeah, I didn't get to... I was in a decent area, and I had good grades, and I was a nerd.
Guest:Then I got dropped off in Tennessee.
Wow.
Guest:By my mom.
Guest:What's that?
Guest:For college?
Guest:Yeah, for college and a new boyfriend.
Guest:And nobody ever went to college or could tell me how to survive this world.
Marc:So when you were growing up, though, you did good in school.
Marc:You weren't fucking around.
Marc:No guns, no drugs, no nothing.
Guest:No drugs.
Guest:My dad was already on drugs.
Marc:Did you know that?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You knew your dad was on drugs?
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:I found out the hard way.
Marc:So your dad, but you didn't know him when he was in the Navy.
Marc:Uh, no.
Guest:No.
Marc:So you knew him growing up for six years on the farm.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:It's just a neighborhood, but yeah, they grew stuff on the land, yeah.
Marc:But you didn't know him to be a crackhead.
Guest:He wasn't a crackhead at the time, no.
Marc:Okay, so when you're 15.
Guest:He was a guy who worked and probably was like a middle-class man.
Guest:He had everything.
Guest:Oh, he did?
Guest:He had the house.
Guest:He ended up having the house, the car, the boat.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:The extra land.
Guest:Another family?
Guest:No, not another family.
Guest:He wanted me to move back with him.
Guest:Oh.
Guest:And then the mental thing happened.
Guest:What happened?
Guest:At the time, I really didn't understand, but he ended up developing paranoid schizophrenic.
Guest:How old was he?
Guest:That usually happens in your 20s.
Guest:I mean, he was 21 or 22 when I was born, so it had to be like maybe late 20s.
Guest:Oh, never kidding.
Guest:And things just disappeared.
Guest:And then the drugs started.
Guest:What do you mean things just disappeared?
Guest:Like the house and everything was gone.
Guest:His job, it all was gone.
Guest:That's all I knew.
Guest:And I remember... Because you were with your mom at the time?
Guest:Yeah, I was with my mom.
Guest:I was in Atlanta.
Guest:And when I seen the house, he was like, I want you to move back in.
Guest:Look, I got all this stuff I accumulated to make a comfortable home for you.
Guest:And then I remember him grabbing me by my shirt collar and was like, it's later going around town telling people that I did something to her.
Guest:And I heard that you're telling people I did something to her.
Guest:To who?
Guest:To some chick.
Guest:This is your dad?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And he was like, but I didn't.
Guest:I just grabbed it like this.
Guest:And he grabbed me by my collarbone on my shirt.
Guest:And he's like, but it's all good.
Guest:You can tell them.
Guest:They can come for me.
Guest:I got something for them.
Guest:And then he removed the tiles in the attic and pulled two Uzis out of the attic.
Guest:And I remember telling my grandfather, he was like, I don't think you should see your dad for a while.
Guest:So the next time I seen him, all that was gone.
Guest:And they say he has a mental issue.
Guest:What?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So you go visit your dad, and he says they're after him.
Marc:He's got Uzis.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And he's ready.
Guest:He's ready, but you don't know, and you just calm.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because you've been around some street stuff, so you just kind of know to remain calm.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Don't freak out.
Guest:There's a gun.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So, yeah, and that was the last time.
Marc:So your grandfather, the farmer, said, you better get out of here.
Guest:Yeah, I mean, just don't spend time.
Guest:Just don't... And that's his father.
Guest:That's his father, yeah.
Marc:And he knew he was ill.
Guest:He knew something was wrong.
Guest:People, you know, started... He didn't know what, though.
Guest:Yeah, this is a black... You know how we deal with community... We deal with mental health.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it's a stigma, so we don't really know...
Marc:So you just kind of like, you know, keep away from him.
Guest:We'll see what happens.
Guest:Yeah, let's let him do his thing.
Guest:He'll figure it out.
Guest:He's a growing person, you know.
Guest:We could pray this thing away.
Guest:Yeah, right.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, but pray at a distance.
Guest:Pray at a distance, you know.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, and then, like, I came back to spend some time with him, and we ended up going to a crack house.
Marc:But so wait, so how did you know he had paranoid schizophrenia?
Marc:It hit me later on.
Guest:Much, much later on.
Marc:Was he put away?
Guest:I think my grandma told me that they went to the clinic, and I remember visiting him somewhere when he had on all white.
Guest:Oh.
Guest:And he was pretending like he was going to flee that place.
Marc:Oh, okay.
Marc:So you're still a little kid.
Guest:Yeah, this is in Augusta.
Guest:I still was young.
Marc:So he was in an institution probably.
Guest:Probably like around the institution or something like that.
Guest:Right, right, right.
Guest:And then I seen him after that, and I remember him being a security guard and trying to join the police force.
Marc:After he got out of the institution?
Guest:Yeah, after everything.
Guest:Was he on medication?
Guest:That I don't know at the time.
Guest:Did he ever end up on medication?
Guest:He did, but then here's the scenario.
Guest:When you're an addict,
Guest:and you're on drugs.
Guest:You stop drugs, you stop all drugs.
Guest:When you're a paranoid schizophrenic who's thinking that you were wrongfully fired from a job, and you got a lawsuit with a lot of money coming, but people try to give you drugs to make you prove that you're not qualified to get your money, then that's a whole different level.
Guest:So if a doctor tried to offer you a pill and you're paranoid because of a friend that you think he's in on keeping you from not getting your money.
Marc:And this is what your dad's situation was?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And what drugs do to you, it slowed him down and everything.
Guest:So he just didn't end up taking it would put him further down.
Marc:Made him more crazy.
Guest:The rabbit hole.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So he got to a point where there was no bouncing back.
Marc:Oh, so he was lost in his schizophrenia.
Guest:He was lost in his schizophrenic delusions, which I never understood until I did my first bad acid trip in London.
Guest:And I was like, oh, this is where he is forever.
Guest:This is where he lives.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I did it for seven hours.
Guest:He's here forever.
Guest:It's a cold, lonely place to be.
Marc:So what's the story where you go back where you said, you know, when you found out that your old man did smoke crack?
Guest:I found out he did crack.
Guest:I was...
Guest:I had to be like 15.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I went with him and like we ended up in the project.
Guest:We were supposed to go to the movies and he gave me some money.
Guest:Long story short, he's like, we're going to go get some food.
Guest:We're going to go to the movies.
Guest:I'm just there to spend some time with him.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And my mom never dropped.
Marc:And you were in Atlanta.
Guest:No, this is Athens, Georgia.
Marc:No, but you went back.
Guest:Yeah, I went back.
Marc:But you were living in Atlanta.
Marc:Yeah, I was living in Atlanta.
Marc:And he wanted to see you.
Guest:He wanted to see me and my mom would drop me off at my granddad's house.
Marc:The farmer.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because she trusted him.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:She didn't trust nobody else.
Marc:Right.
Guest:So he would come.
Guest:He came and picked me up.
Guest:And we went around the street.
Guest:Somebody was like, give me a ride around the corner.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I remember him saying, I got my son with me.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then he was like, all right, just go for a little while.
Guest:And then we went.
Guest:And then that turned into basically like, you know, you there.
Guest:And I remember like when I walked in the crack house, something's like, get out of here.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So I saw a basketball.
Guest:I went, picked up a basketball.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Went to the basketball, the projects across the street where my cousin passed.
Guest:And I was just in the projects like by myself, real scared.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And he came and asked me for some of the money he gave me.
Guest:And I gave him some money.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And he left and he came back and asked for the rest of it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I didn't give it to him.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then he got disappointed and he and then I got disappointed.
Guest:And I remember his car driving down the street.
Guest:He left you.
Guest:He left, and then he ended up coming back to get high, and then we went back to grandmother's house for me to get dropped off.
Guest:Like, no movies, no food, nothing.
Guest:And then I couldn't even... My mom was already at a place where whatever, so I couldn't even tell her really what happened.
Guest:I just had to sit on it.
Marc:Because you'd never be able to go down there again.
Guest:Yeah, and I just unraveled from there.
Marc:Yeah?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:What do you mean?
Guest:How'd that... Grades dropping, like... Oh, just after that event?
Guest:Yeah, because I knew I had to do something.
Guest:Like, I was like, I gotta do something.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Like, I don't know what I gotta do.
Marc:And this is before college, but you're still in high school.
Guest:I'm still in high school.
Marc:Are you mad?
Marc:Are you getting into more trouble because of this?
Guest:Well, not a, like, disciplinary problems, yeah, but it's like I ended up joining the basketball team.
Guest:I learned how to play basketball.
Guest:That day?
Guest:Basically, yeah, the pressure was on.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because that's the only way I knew, like, to get out of the situation.
Guest:Already, like, couldn't be with my mom because of the financial situation.
Guest:And then this thing with my dad.
Guest:So I just knew, like, what am I going to do?
Guest:You know what I mean?
Guest:Yeah, all right, yeah.
Guest:So, yeah, man, I just ended up, like, you know, I ended up on a partial basketball scholarship at this college in Tennessee.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And then you go down there and you don't know how to live.
Marc:You don't know how to take care of yourself.
Guest:Yeah, man.
Guest:People getting money for the stipends for the basketball players.
Guest:And I'm just there like on a partial scholarship broke.
Guest:I'm just trying to figure out where I'm at.
Guest:I'm failing my Christian classes.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I've been going to church this whole time.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So, man, I got... Church help?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Nah, not really.
Guest:I'd be horny in church.
Guest:But I remember, like, somebody busted my dad out with a bat, like a drug dealer.
Guest:And I remember being furious about that.
Guest:And I was like, man, I'm gonna have to kill this dude, right?
Guest:But I was like, I can't kill him.
Guest:Like, I just can't kill him like this.
Guest:I got to become like a drug dealer.
Guest:And when the opportunity presented itself, I started to like go in and I wanted to see how powerful crack was because it made a man like climb a telephone pole.
Guest:Who climbed a telephone pole?
Guest:My dad, I heard my dad climbed a telephone pole for some rock.
Guest:You know, you hear all these stories, you know what I mean?
Guest:That make you, like, furious, right?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And my aunt's on it, too, and my little cousin down there going through.
Guest:Your aunt's going, too?
Guest:My dad's sister is on it, too, yeah.
Guest:On crack.
Marc:And your cousin, too?
Guest:No, my cousin, he was, like, he's younger than me.
Guest:Oh.
Guest:So he was in the environment, though.
Marc:So some drug dealer cracked your dad's head and you wanted to kill him, but you figured you had to know what it was like to deal crack in order to kill him.
Guest:Yeah, you got to be one.
Marc:You just can't like... So you got to think like him.
Guest:Yeah, you got to like... Ain't no weapons and you ain't got nothing.
Guest:You ain't got no resources to really just walk up to a crackhead and just like... I mean, a crack dealer and do it.
Guest:But then, you know, when you become one, you like, oh...
Guest:So you became one.
Guest:It's not his fault.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Oh, I see.
Guest:Yeah, it's not his fault or he just, you'd crack.
Guest:Is that what you learned?
Guest:Man, selling crack is addictive.
Guest:It's addictive and I had to get out of there.
Guest:You didn't smoke it though?
Guest:No, no drug.
Guest:I still was sober the whole time really.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:How'd you get into the crack business?
Guest:I got a keen eye for observation, the same way I got into comedy, observation.
Guest:I knew at the time, because of my paranoia, I knew who was in a building, who had straps, every way in and out of a building, even how to get into a place if needed be.
Guest:And those are good skills for somebody that's a bigger OG than you, that can bring you in.
Guest:Because they go to dangerous situations, right?
Right.
Guest:And if you got a keen eye and know everything, and then it started with me stashing it.
Guest:For somebody else?
Guest:Stashing it, yeah.
Guest:It was just two of us, two-man operation at first.
Guest:It just started with me stashing it and knowing where to put it.
Guest:Stashing the vials?
Guest:Stashing the crack and the cookie.
Guest:When you break it in, it comes in the bottom of a jar and you sit there with the razor.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And then you just can't keep everything on you if you've ever been in that environment because, you know, crackheads will snatch it or you just don't know what'll happen.
Guest:So you just need a place for it, a stash.
Guest:You'll keep your main stash.
Guest:And we on a college campus.
Marc:Right.
Guest:So, you know.
Guest:It was easy to stash it?
Guest:It was not easy, but we definitely couldn't keep it in the room we were in.
Marc:So this was your roommate?
Guest:Not my roommate.
Guest:I had another room, and that was the thing.
Guest:We became roommates, but we ended up with the master key to the dorm.
Marc:How'd you end up with that?
Guest:I always feel like it was a weird situation, but somehow we got it off the ring of the RA and made a copy in time to put it back.
Guest:And what did you get?
Guest:What does that get you?
Guest:Access to empty rooms.
Marc:Oh, I see.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So that was your.
Guest:And I could break the furniture apart so I could put it like in desk and everything like that.
Guest:And people could be in the rooms and I know.
Guest:So you were selling the crack on the campus?
Guest:No, we was off Christian campus, but off the campus in somebody's apartment in this neighborhood in the hood.
Guest:Somebody's mom had an addiction for it.
Guest:So you barter, you do a barter thing and it'd be a crack spot, you know?
Marc:Oh, I see.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:So you had a little crack business.
Guest:We had a little crack business.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It got bigger when I left, but it was crazy because I remember it was a pharmaceutical company there.
Guest:And I remember looking at this in this town, small town.
Guest:A nick was $50.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That's how small the town was.
Guest:So it's a no brainer.
Guest:Like for $2 worth of product instead of $5, you're making 50.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:This is just profit.
Guest:It's a no brainer.
Marc:Well, with the crack.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:So you go in and, like, you get a good sample.
Guest:The crack cook is the most important part.
Guest:You know what I mean?
Guest:That's the chef.
Guest:And if he make a good sample and you give it to somebody, they're going to be your mouthpiece and get everybody else, right?
Guest:And we finally got that a good cook.
Guest:Yeah, man.
Guest:How long did you do that?
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:I don't think it had to be long because I got out of that school within a year.
Guest:Maybe six months, a few months.
Guest:You're lucky you didn't get fucking busted.
Guest:It don't matter, man.
Guest:It don't matter, man.
Guest:It's just the issues.
Guest:It's just issues all that time.
Marc:It's better to get busted when you're young than when you're older.
Marc:Well, yeah, but you don't want to go to jail either way.
Guest:No, no, it's just jail.
Guest:At the end of the day, when you look at, there's no people go to jail by now.
Guest:This is just jail.
Marc:Well, you didn't go to jail.
Guest:I didn't go to jail.
Guest:That was my main goal.
Guest:I was raised not to go to jail.
Guest:So how did you get out of the school?
Guest:I got kicked off the basketball team.
Guest:I was filling classes.
Guest:Because of the crack business?
Guest:I was just lost.
Guest:It was freshman year, and then my friend was dealing with his court shit.
Guest:By this time, it was already like people were mad in the town.
Marc:Your friend, the crack dealer?
Guest:Yeah, the OG, my OG, yeah.
Guest:What was he dealing with?
Guest:He was dealing with baby mama drama.
Guest:Oh, that was that one.
Guest:Yeah, that's a bigger issue, you know what I mean?
Guest:Right, right.
Guest:And he was like, I want you to take over this town.
Guest:I'm going to stay in this town and do it.
Guest:I want you to take over this town.
Guest:You were going to be the kingpin.
Guest:I don't know what I was going to be.
Guest:I knew somebody was going to die.
Guest:I know it was a point.
Guest:You cross a line that you can't come back.
Guest:I think that's true.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You just feel it.
Guest:You don't know who it's going to be.
Guest:I don't know if it's going to be me or somebody.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I already had an incident.
Guest:I had three separate lives.
Guest:I was on the basketball team.
Guest:I had this college life, and then I had this thing that I would do in the middle of the night.
Marc:The crack life.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I was hanging out with some white friends, and they went to buy some weed one night.
Guest:I fell asleep, and we ended up in some project.
Guest:And they got robbed.
Guest:And the guys, I stayed in the car.
Guest:When I got out the car, I seen these guys, like, reaching their hoodies.
Guest:And I was like, damn, are they after me?
Guest:But the white friend, they was oblivious to what was going on.
Guest:They thought I stayed in the car because I was scared.
Guest:I seen two guys on opposite sides of the building come with these guns.
Guest:And when they all hopped in the car, gunshots erupted.
Guest:And I found out that one of those guys' uncle had kind of worked for us.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So it was a weird thing on the situations that other people were in.
Guest:And I don't know if it was because of me.
Guest:Well, that's the thing about drugs.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You increase the odds of you getting killed for some dumb reason.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:That you might not have anything to do with.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And it's like, I'm not even on the clock.
Yeah.
Guest:Right.
Guest:You know, I got on a college T-shirt.
Guest:You know, I'm a whole different person right now, you know?
Guest:No shit.
Guest:So, yeah, man, it's like incidents like that, the pharmaceutical company, and I'm like, they winning, they legal.
Guest:They going to wipe us off the street and a new group of people going to come in.
Guest:I'm like, this is a bad, this is a weird pattern.
Guest:So you got out.
Guest:Got out and then like the situation, like me killing my own, I felt like part of me was like, I'm killing my own people.
Guest:Yeah.
Yeah.
Marc:It was a lot that weighed in on it.
Marc:So you were able to get inside of it of understanding the whole socioeconomic, personal, evil side of the drug business.
Guest:Drug business.
Guest:But you look up five years later, you broke, and them guys making probably like $14,000, $15,000 a week.
Guest:You know what I mean?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it's like, oh, the numbers increasing.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But then you got a moral struggle.
Yeah.
Guest:You got the moral struggle.
Guest:My anger issues happened then.
Guest:That's the first time I remember me just being mad.
Guest:When somebody flipped you for some money, it's like, well, we got to do something right.
Marc:Did someone flip you for some money?
Guest:I mean, the first thing that we started, it was soap.
Guest:Soap.
Guest:Oh.
Guest:Yeah, so it was a thing already.
Guest:So the first batch you bought was garbage.
Guest:The first batch was like, and then, yeah, they don't teach you about that.
Guest:You got to pay your dues in the game like with anything else.
Guest:You take losses, big losses.
Guest:But you got out, and then you went back to Atlanta?
Guest:I went back to Atlanta, went to engineering school.
Guest:Did you feel like you learned who you were?
Guest:No.
Guest:Comedy taught me who I was.
Guest:So you went to engineering school for how long?
Guest:Maybe seven years.
Guest:Seven?
Guest:Maybe.
Guest:Off and on.
Guest:I was there, you know what I mean?
Guest:Did you graduate?
Guest:I didn't graduate.
Guest:That was the first thing I completed.
Guest:But that's when you started doing comedy in college?
Guest:I started and then I stopped.
Guest:I started comedy and I quit because I got booed.
Guest:I'd never been in a comedy club before.
Guest:People said I should try.
Guest:You were at the Punchline?
Guest:Uptown Comedy Corner in Atlanta.
Guest:Yeah?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Open mic?
Guest:Amateur.
Guest:Amateur night?
Guest:I didn't know people go to school.
Guest:Is that a black club?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Mm-hmm.
Guest:Yep.
Guest:So.
Guest:Got on stage, never written a joke before.
Guest:Just went on and got booed.
Marc:Did you have a plan?
Guest:No plan.
Guest:Why'd you go on?
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:It was funny.
Guest:I mean, I used to crack people up at the table.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Just naturally.
Guest:So they're like, you got to go on amateur.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But you didn't have any plan?
Guest:You hadn't watched any comedy?
Guest:No, man.
Guest:I knew about Def Jam.
Guest:I watched Def Jam in high school while everybody would go on dates and stuff.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:When I was in junior high, my mom put a disc on my desk of Martin Lawrence Talking Shit album.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And that was the beginning of everything.
Guest:So you knew the idea?
Guest:I knew the idea and I watched it.
Guest:I was watching it in high school.
Guest:Deaf Comedy Jams on Friday.
Guest:And then...
Guest:That made me a bully in school.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:Because I could talk shit about somebody and just hurt their self-esteem.
Guest:So all the bullying stopped, you know.
Guest:And I became the man for a minute, you know.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And it was cool.
Marc:And that was the disciplinary problems.
Guest:Yeah, I mean, I joined the basketball team.
Guest:I would do nerdy classes in the day.
Guest:And even I'm with the people.
Guest:Your secret asshole.
Guest:Well, I don't know.
Guest:Probably let my girl tell it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So.
Guest:But the first time you got booed.
Guest:Yeah, I got booed, man.
Marc:I quit.
Marc:Right away.
Guest:I like the same for me.
Guest:Right away.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:So when did you do it again?
Marc:Maybe two years later.
Marc:Then I did good.
Marc:That same place?
Marc:Same place.
Marc:Where you put together some... I remember the first joke.
Guest:Yeah, I remember the first joke I wrote.
Guest:And then that night I killed and then I got booed every night since.
Guest:And then I quit again for like another year and a half.
Guest:You did good one night and then you go back once a week?
Guest:Once a week, yeah.
Guest:And you just stink.
Guest:Stink.
Guest:And then instinctively something, you know, I follow my instincts and it was like, this will take you to the promised land.
Guest:And then I just fought my way through it.
Marc:So you stayed there in Atlanta, going to school a bit, doing comedy, no more crack dealing.
Guest:No, that's over.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And then your old man's in the hospital or he's not?
Guest:He's not in the hospital.
Guest:He's doing from 15 to like 25 straight like drugs.
Marc:From you.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Your age, 15 to 25.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:He's not on anything and he's okay or he's not okay?
Guest:I mean, he's on drugs.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's hardcore.
Guest:Like he's withered down.
Guest:Oh, no.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like the finger, the burnt fingers and the voice.
Guest:Oh, I'm sorry.
Guest:He got one eye now.
Guest:He leaves home for extended periods of days.
Guest:We had to go get him for my college graduation.
Guest:I'm like the first graduate from college.
Guest:We went and got him.
Guest:Where was he?
Guest:He was in Athens, and we brought him back.
Guest:With one eye?
Guest:Yeah, we gave him a coat to wear, like a pea coat.
Marc:So he's like a street guy.
Guest:Yeah, you know.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, that's what it was.
Guest:Sad.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:I think he should be there for that moment.
Guest:This was a moment.
Guest:So him and my mom would beef.
Guest:I think he grabbed a booty or something like that while he was there.
Guest:During the ceremony?
Guest:Yeah, during the ceremony.
Guest:But he's out of his mind, right?
Guest:I mean, he's still got charisma.
Guest:He's one of the most charismatic people I know, you know?
Guest:But he's beat up.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:But he's beat up, but he's still in good spirits.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:What about the schizophrenia?
Guest:It's not as bad at the time because I realize now he was just self-medicating.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:Yeah, he was self-medicating.
Marc:So when you graduate college, is that when you decide?
Marc:How long after that did he die?
Guest:Oh, he died after TIFF.
Guest:last year.
Guest:Oh, just last year?
Guest:I left Toronto and came to L.A.
Guest:You were at the film festival for Honey Boy?
Guest:Yeah, doing Honey Boy.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then I had a week off.
Guest:Some was like, don't book any shows instinctively, and I didn't.
Guest:And I had a week off between Toronto Film Festival and Toronto just for laughs.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:I came home.
Guest:I flew to L.A.
Guest:I landed.
Guest:I got the phone call.
Guest:Then I went to Georgia.
Guest:and buried your dad and went and he died but i was with him and he opened his eye and we we was able to communicate for the first time and i was able to tell him that i love him and i'm not mad at him and i'm and i'm proud of him he lived a full life and and there's no need to feel like you fucked up because life is good
Guest:And he felt that peace.
Guest:We had peace and I felt them pass and my arm felt like this energy go through me and his body get got real cold.
Guest:And I told the nurses that he passed and he like passed in my in my arms.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Yeah, it was peaceful.
Guest:And my anger left when I when that whatever went through my body, that tingly feeling.
Guest:my anger left.
Guest:So I was able to comfort my grandmother and stuff.
Guest:Because I had to tell her mother that her child was gone, which is weird, you know?
Guest:He was in a coma.
Guest:He was in a coma the whole time.
Guest:And I've been here before because my grandfather was in a coma.
Guest:And I'm named after my grandfather.
Guest:So when I showed up, my grandfather came out of his coma.
Guest:And I was able to tell him I love him.
Guest:And he passed that night.
Guest:So it was like round two.
Guest:You know, I'm the last Bowers.
Guest:On the last bow or so, I went down, you know?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And all black.
Guest:I got the hoodie on, so I look like a Grim Reaper because my girl filming it.
Guest:That's a problem when you, like, you date a director.
Guest:Like, she filming everything.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:And, you know, my family, I don't like cameras and shit around.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:So we played some Elton John for him because that's what I remember.
Guest:He liked Elton John.
Guest:And the last time I tried to tell him that I that I loved him and stuff and he had an episode Elton John was playing.
Guest:And I thought he was going to die without him knowing how grateful I was that he was a great father.
Guest:So I brought that Elton John back.
Guest:Which song?
Guest:Rocket Man and Tiny Dancer.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Which is the gayest thing to me.
Guest:You could play.
Guest:But it's a very sentimental moment for him, for both of us.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it was a very one of the most peaceful moments outside of taking like shrooms that I've ever had in my life.
Marc:And you felt him pass through you and your anger left.
Guest:Anger left.
Guest:And I felt that peace for a long time.
Marc:And this was just, what, last year?
Guest:September, yeah.
Guest:September, Friday the 13th in September.
Guest:Huh.
Guest:Full moon.
Marc:Crazy, man.
Guest:Crazy.
Guest:Beautiful moment, though.
Guest:I told his mom, told grandma, he healed.
Guest:There was no other way to heal for him to have mental peace.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Because before, we would talk.
Guest:Once I learned how to communicate with him, we would just talk and try to figure out who was trying to kill him and how did he get in this situation.
Right.
Marc:That was always the conversation.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But you knew that nobody was trying to kill him.
Guest:Yeah, I knew.
Guest:But, you know, through improv, you know, you learn the yes and crazy people.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So if you don't yes and you're going to argue.
Guest:I did all the arguing with him that I was going to do.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And I understood.
Guest:Like I said, I had that bad acid trip and I had to tell my family everything that he say about us that we're trying to kill him and stuff is real.
Guest:Whether you believe it or not, if it's real in his mind, it's a delusion.
Guest:It's real.
Guest:There's nothing we could do about it.
Marc:So but it's interesting, though, I would imagine that once you start kind of like, you know, just playing along that at first they don't really quite know what to do about it.
Marc:But eventually they don't trust you either.
Marc:Correct.
Guest:They don't trust you, but you're still going along with it.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right.
Guest:It allows you to talk to somebody longer and spend time with them.
Guest:Right.
Marc:Right.
Marc:But eventually they'll they crap out.
Marc:Right.
Marc:They you know, you can talk to him for a while, but eventually be like, I can't I can't talk to you about it anymore.
Guest:Well, with me, no, I went the long haul.
Guest:But when I left, it was like I had to come down.
Marc:Because you got your brain all fucked up.
Guest:I got all fucked up.
Guest:This is the person that you realize, this person taught you about women or whatever he was teaching you about.
Marc:He wired your brain to begin with.
Guest:He wired my brain.
Guest:If somebody tell you, man, he might have been that way since he was 18, now that we look at it, then that mean everything, that time you spent together and that stuff he taught you might not have been...
Marc:Well, right.
Marc:You just have the same grooves in your brain.
Marc:So you talk to him for an hour.
Marc:You're going to leave going, maybe someone is trying to kill both of us.
Guest:Well, it's not.
Guest:It's just it's just the thing he told you about women.
Guest:You can't trust women.
Guest:They trying to after your money and shit.
Marc:Oh, so it's about women.
Guest:That's true.
Guest:Because he had like 200 women.
Guest:Yeah, he got a book full of women that he slept with, like photographs.
Guest:He showed me and my girlfriend.
Guest:That's his pride and joy.
Marc:His book of women.
Guest:He got a book of women and old family pictures that remind him.
Guest:I realize it reminded him of a time when everything was good.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So, yeah, man.
Marc:So did you have to unwire yourself around some of the things he told you about women?
Marc:Are you...
Marc:Believe it.
Marc:Yeah, because I'm in a real relationship.
Marc:Right.
Marc:So you learned.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So tell me about this acid trip that changed your mind.
Guest:I was in London and I was on a trip, which is, I never, some told me to never trip in a city.
Guest:And me and my girl, we was dancing in the square and everything was happening.
Guest:Then I saw some trash and it went bad.
Guest:What kind of trash?
Guest:Like London, like dirty London trash on the ground.
Guest:Oh, just garbage.
Guest:Garbage.
Guest:And I looked up and the city became garbage.
Guest:We was in near Buckingham Palace where they used to behead people.
Guest:So the history of the empire came down on you.
Guest:The energy, yeah.
Guest:You absorbing all this energy and I'm feeling man's need to take over and be powerful.
Guest:And it comes from a place of loneliness.
Guest:And I just got lonely.
Guest:And my girl and her producer, they having a
Guest:happy ass trip and they skipping in front of me and they would go in a place and I couldn't go in because the energy wouldn't allow me in and the cops would show up and they'd just be pacing behind me and I almost got hit by a car and yeah so I had to experience this trip alone and it was bad bad for seven hours and then I had uh and you believed it
Guest:I was there.
Guest:I came out of understanding it, but I knew that this was just a trip and it wasn't real.
Guest:But I was here to learn something.
Guest:I had to go through it like that.
Guest:So you knew that you were on a trip.
Guest:Oh, I definitely knew I was on a trip.
Guest:And everybody's phone died except mine.
Guest:And I had a battery pack.
Guest:And they was running around looking for battery packs or power.
Guest:So their phone could come on.
Guest:And I knew I had all the power, had all the resources, just like somebody who starts a corporation.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I saw that need to control the power, because if you have all the power, then people need you.
Guest:Right.
Guest:People need you.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it comes from a place of loneliness.
Guest:So once I told him I had the power, people got upset.
Guest:And I was like, I know.
Guest:And he's like, how could you do us like this?
Guest:And I was like, cuz.
Guest:You know, that real creepy whisper shit.
Guest:And then I just I needed to.
Guest:My girl actually pulled me out of the trip.
Guest:I looked in her eyes and saw love.
Guest:And I remember running the tub full of warm water because I felt the need to be in my mother's womb.
Guest:And I went and balled up and got into the tub.
Marc:How'd that work out?
Guest:Oh, I came down.
Guest:It felt comfort.
Guest:I felt comfort.
Marc:So, but coming out of it in terms of understanding your father, it was about delusions being real, that they're only delusions to people that aren't having them.
Marc:But to him, that's the way his brain is.
Guest:That's reality.
Marc:This is life forever.
Guest:Forever.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, so.
Guest:Got empathy.
Guest:I had empathy, but I knew I could not.
Guest:It's no more how we say, man, you crazy.
Guest:Why are you doing this?
Guest:That's all, you know, that's all it is.
Guest:And the family don't really understand schizophrenic.
Guest:So now I'm like, this is what he have.
Guest:I'm looking it up and I'm going to explain to my family, like, this is what's going on with him.
Guest:Regardless of what the, you know, the...
Guest:You know, what you think is going on and they tell you about these shots.
Guest:This is his reality that he lives in.
Guest:And it's real.
Guest:So he's going to, of course, not eat your food or say you're trying to poison him or you're going to see him outside eating your cactus plant and stuff like that.
Guest:Because he really you are trying to poison him.
Guest:In his mind.
Guest:In his mind.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Which is tough for the family.
Marc:Right.
Marc:So.
Marc:But you got closure.
Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, we got clothes, which is a beautiful thing in life when you look at this journey.
Guest:And yeah, it's trippy.
Guest:My whole set is kind of trippy now.
Guest:My hour is trippy.
Marc:Oh, is it?
Marc:Yeah, it scares black people.
Marc:Did you lay it down?
Marc:It scares black people?
Marc:Black people be scared of that LSD talk.
Marc:Oh, they are?
Guest:Because acid is not anything that's heavy in our community.
Guest:No.
Guest:Yet.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But I'm going to get it there.
Guest:Yeah?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Well, you do it a lot?
Guest:I've done it enough to really get the message.
Guest:Where'd you get hip to it?
Guest:Ari Shaffir.
Guest:Oh, yeah?
Guest:Shroomfest 2014.
Guest:That was it?
Guest:And Joshua Tree.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:And I did, and I met the creator, and I got to understand it.
Guest:I had a human experience.
Guest:On mushrooms first.
Guest:Mushrooms, yeah.
Guest:Not a black experience.
Guest:I explain to people when the weight of being blackness was gone.
Guest:The heavy weightness that we carry, the trauma that we carry around from slavery, that ended.
Guest:And I had a human experience and found out actually what it is to be human.
Guest:which was like the good and the bad, the destruction that we have caused on this planet that all of us are responsible for, as well as the beauty.
Guest:Like everything we got, computers, airplanes, we created from this planet.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then I had a spiritual experience after that, so I just kept moving up in levels.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But that was all on one trip?
Guest:That was one trip.
Guest:16 hours.
Guest:And you had the God experience?
Guest:Yep.
Guest:I met the creator.
Guest:But you had God in before?
Yeah.
Guest:I only had the voice, the spiritual thing of God, you know, guiding me.
Guest:Like that strong instinct of like, don't do that.
Guest:Don't get in that car.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Don't go over there that night.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And things will happen.
Guest:So you learn to trust that voice.
Marc:Right.
Guest:And then, but the mushrooms, you met the creator?
Guest:I feel I met the creator.
Guest:And when I say, it's almost if I met God as a spirit and he was like, you sit in this driver's seat.
Guest:And I realized how connected we are to the source.
Guest:And we're responsible.
Guest:Our responsibility, like, almost like we created plants and we created living things and we're responsible for these things, you know?
Guest:Like, I couldn't even step on grass out there because it felt like the grass was looking at me.
Guest:Like, they were my children and, like,
Guest:really like going deep into this.
Guest:The vibrations.
Guest:The vibrations, yeah.
Guest:The wind turning to jazz.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:Everything's connected.
Guest:Yeah, so.
Marc:Frequencies.
Guest:Frequencies, and I couldn't listen to rap music after that.
Guest:Too violent?
Guest:The frequency is just like heavy, the heavy bass.
Guest:Yeah, getting this real trippy music to listen to for like a week.
Guest:Because it took me a week to really come down.
Marc:But it's good.
Marc:So it reconfigures your brain.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Well, you did work with some trippy dudes.
Guest:You work with Eric Andre.
Guest:He's kind of out there.
Guest:Eric is, they out there on a whole, yeah, they on a whole nother level.
Guest:But yeah, they out there.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So yeah, I ended up with that whole alternative.
Guest:That's where all my alternative stuff.
Guest:That's where it started.
Guest:Came from.
Guest:After the trip?
Guest:Well, the trip, everything led me there.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:Everything led me there.
Guest:And then the traveling got heavy.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:going to Japan and going to Israel for the first time.
Guest:With your girl?
Guest:With my girl.
Guest:You performed there?
Guest:I did, yeah.
Marc:At a place called The Dancing Camel, yep.
Marc:So when you started doing comedy, it was primarily black clubs?
Guest:Black clubs.
Guest:I got booed in a comic named Ron G was like, yo shit's smart and clever.
Guest:You should do these white rooms.
Guest:And then I did the punchline and these other rooms.
Guest:And then I started having success.
Guest:No shit.
Guest:And then I got in the punchline.
Guest:and start working weekends.
Guest:And then another friend of mine, Drew Thomas, he was like, man, you raw and edgy.
Guest:You should check out these.
Guest:A lot of comics are out here that make people laugh and they do simple stuff.
Guest:Check these comics out.
Guest:And a comic who was a television show host, he was like, go see this guy.
Guest:I'm like, you want me to see this guy?
Guest:And that was Joe Rogan.
Guest:Joe Rogan came through the punchline and I saw Joe Rogan.
Guest:And I was like, damn, he talking about...
Guest:real like shit like edgy shit yeah in front of this conservative as Georgia crowd and then I saw Chelsea Chelsea handler come down yeah real raw yeah and I was like oh so I can do this thing you know I mean and then slappy squirrel you know Kathleen Madigan yeah who I end up hosting for you know the club would try to tone me down like hey you got a tone now uh-huh or they would cut my time yeah and I was like if I'm if I'm killing these features I
Guest:why can't i feature and they like they bring the features from la or new york and i'm like i gotta go to la and new york and that was the beginning of that talk you know yeah when did you move here 2008 economic crisis yeah economic crisis yeah yeah so it sounds like you like just went to school at the punchline
Guest:I went to school, but really, it was the beginning.
Guest:The beginning.
Guest:But leaving home and coming to L.A.
Guest:and sleeping in your car and doing all that crazy shit.
Guest:You did that?
Guest:Man, for no reason.
Guest:Because I couldn't work.
Guest:I just could not work.
Guest:So I had to do the other choice was to be the bomb and just work on the craft.
Guest:I remember trying to get a job.
Guest:My instinct was like, why are you spending three months trying to look for a job when I gave you the resources, the tools to actually make money?
Guest:That's what my instincts said loud and clear.
Guest:I was standing in line to fill out an application or something.
Guest:And I was staying with my homeboy, and they was like, hey, man, you got to pay rent or move out.
Guest:And I was in that line.
Guest:I was like, man, I got to move out.
Guest:And I moved out, and I slept in my car on Hollywood Boulevard behind the Laugh Factory where the houses were.
Guest:And I remember waking up in this neighborhood coming from Englewood, and I was like, man, this is a nice area.
Guest:People were jogging in the morning, and I would go to that coffee bean on Sunset, and I would wash up.
Guest:And Neil Brennan just moved here, and he saw me in a coffee bean, and he let me stay at his house that weekend.
Guest:And I realized, like, oh, I don't ask nobody for shit.
Guest:And then I end up crashing on people's couches, and me and Josh and Amiris, we squatted in an abandoned apartment.
Guest:and mid-city, and then me and Josh tried to find a place together.
Guest:Our credit was shit, and we were broke, and then we gave up, and the day we gave up, we found a place to live.
Guest:You and Josh?
Guest:In Beachwood.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it just was the nicest place, one of the nicest places I ever had.
Marc:How long did you live there?
Guest:We lived there for like a few years.
Guest:Then I was engaged at the time.
Guest:So my wife came and I ended up getting married in 08.
Guest:She came out here.
Guest:She came out and then that happened.
Guest:And then we lived together eight months and it wasn't the best time.
Guest:You know what I mean?
Guest:Very depressing time.
Marc:So you left the place with Josh?
Guest:Yep.
Guest:Josh moved out first with his girl and then I moved out with my girl.
Guest:And you got married?
Guest:I was married already.
Guest:When I moved, I moved here engaged in 08.
Guest:I got married.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it was silly.
Guest:Silly.
Guest:You know what I mean?
Guest:I've never been married before.
Guest:Fuck it.
Guest:And I was like, I love this person.
Guest:We'll try to make it happen.
Guest:But there's no way nobody get married.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, stay in separate places.
Guest:And like, yeah, it's all delusions.
Guest:So she came out here.
Guest:She came out here and then she moved back.
Guest:We got divorced.
Guest:She was not happy.
Guest:That was the same night you got passed at the comedy show?
Guest:That weekend I got passed.
Guest:I remember her leaving and I went and did a set at the store.
Guest:For Mitzi?
Guest:Not for Mitzi, but I was already on the list of getting passed.
Guest:I had already showcased and...
Guest:What was it like when you met her?
Guest:Was she okay?
Guest:Man, she was not okay, but she had this look, this dreamy look in her eyes.
Guest:And she was in a booth.
Guest:They had a booth in the kitchen at the time.
Guest:And I remember shaking her hand.
Guest:It had a coldness and a warmness to it.
Guest:Very soft.
Guest:And she was dreaming.
Guest:She looked up at me like that.
Guest:And Tommy was like, Mitzi?
Guest:His voice was so soft at the time.
Guest:Who, Tommy?
Guest:Tommy's, yeah, I never heard his voice.
Guest:Talk to her.
Guest:Yeah, so soft, you know what I mean?
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:He's like, yeah, remember you saw his tape, and he told me that she didn't understand shit I said on my showcase tape, but she knew the audience liked me, like I had rhythm or something.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:I got passed to the belly room first.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So I was just working out of the belly room.
Guest:So that was the system, the old system.
Guest:The old system.
Guest:And then I got brought down.
Guest:You're non-paid regular.
Guest:Non-paid regular.
Guest:And then when my ex-wife left, I got brought down to the main room.
Marc:You got paid regular.
Marc:Paid regular.
Guest:Paid regular.
Guest:2 o'clock in the morning.
Guest:Her parents flew out and they drove off in the U-Haul.
Guest:And I remember the truck going around the corner and I was about to get real sad.
Guest:And then I remembered, because they made a left, I remember watching my mom walk out
Guest:when we were separated and her making a left.
Guest:And I couldn't get sad at my ex leaving because I realized like, oh shit, I got this other thing.
Marc:This other trauma.
Guest:That I haven't dealt with.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I remember going in the house and looking at the betta fish and the betta fish died and I cried.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:A betta fish is, yeah, I had a little bowl for it.
Guest:A betta fish is a fish that you buy, it's cheap, you get it at Walmart and it can survive anything.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It could survive anything.
Marc:So you saw your wife's family take a left, and then it reminded you your mother leaving you at your... And I just walked in the house.
Marc:In Athens, taking a left.
Marc:Yep.
Marc:And then you walk in the house.
Guest:And the betta fish died.
Guest:And then that's when I cried.
Marc:That's when you lost it.
Guest:Yeah, that's when it felt like a failure because I could not keep a betta fish.
Marc:You know, it's already hard to keep a woman.
Marc:I get it, but you did just get passed at the comedy store.
Marc:Yeah, I got passed at the comedy store.
Marc:So that's what was going on.
Guest:That was going on, yeah.
Marc:You're going to let go of your real life and be a comedian.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:That's when the delusion started, as I say.
Guest:That's the question I ask.
Guest:What's the difference between a delusional father and a son chasing his dream?
Marc:Well, you have awareness.
Guest:Do I?
Guest:I mean, I made some pretty crazy decisions.
Marc:No, I know, but you have tangible evidence that you are doing okay.
Guest:Now, yeah.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But so did he.
Guest:Did he?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:At the end?
Guest:A guy saying that somebody's planning to kill him and they got him locked in the hospital.
Guest:And they set him up and he's in the hospital, right?
Guest:Can't go nowhere.
Guest:It's just as believable as me saying, I'm going to make it in Hollywood.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Marc:Okay, fine.
Marc:But the thing is, is that, you know, his whole life was reacting.
Marc:Your life was taking action.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And you had a plan and you had a skill set and you sought out to do it.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I mean, it's a it's a long shot to make it in show business.
Marc:But you you had a path.
Marc:I mean, his life was constantly constructing and reconstructing the conspiracy against him.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Sometimes it was credible because he was locked up.
Marc:But I don't see how it's that similar.
Marc:OK.
Marc:Do you know what I mean?
Marc:Yeah, I guess.
Marc:You've got to be delusional to think you can make it in this business, but after you commit and you work the skill set and you get on stage and you do the business and you know you're good at it and you know you're creative and you make decisions to build your act and meet new people and take opportunities and stuff, that's not the delusion.
Marc:The delusion was thinking you could make it, but learning how to do it and being successful at it, that's not a delusion.
Marc:That seems to be real.
Guest:Yep, so far.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:I'm just trying to tell you it's a little different.
Guest:It's a little different, yeah.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:I guess I still think of it in a crazy way.
Marc:Yeah, it's crazy.
Marc:We're in a crazy business.
Marc:And it feels like it can all go away.
Guest:And it can.
Guest:And it can.
Guest:That's the scary part.
Guest:You know what?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I seen success go away.
Guest:I know, man.
Guest:Me too.
Guest:And I seen it in my dad, too.
Guest:So it's always like that's different.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It hits you hard.
Guest:Like like chasing money and stuff.
Marc:I know is nothing there.
Marc:I guess that's true.
Marc:My dad lost everything, too.
Marc:And I, you know, and I don't necessarily.
Marc:But see, I can see why it happened.
Marc:And I'm not that guy.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:I don't think I am.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:Hopefully.
Guest:But I get compared to him.
Marc:What you do?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Well, I think you get, well, you know, the thing is that you did something, you know, you took some risks with your brain and you sent it out there and, you know, you saw some shit, you learned some things and it came back.
Marc:And so now you've got that wisdom.
Marc:You don't live in it.
Guest:I don't live in it, but when I'm sitting in an award show as a comedian, I'm always looking around like- The fuck is this?
Marc:How did I get here?
Marc:Yeah, I know.
Marc:Yeah, me too.
Marc:But the better thing is, it's like, what am I doing here?
Marc:And-
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:This is fucking ridiculous.
Guest:When I see you, I get excited.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because I'm like, what do we do?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:This is a guy who do spots in the OR.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And went through this game and it made you into it brought out you.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:I got into comedy to get me.
Guest:Yeah, and that's where I feel I'm at at this moment.
Guest:Like it brought, I'm able to talk about these things now.
Guest:And it's like, and now everything I get from here is a byproduct of the voice to me.
Marc:Yeah, right.
Marc:It's like, oh, man, I found it.
Marc:I found it.
Marc:You found yourself.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Well, no, and that always keeps me fucking straight in the head, you know, like even at the award show or whatever.
Marc:I like the idea.
Marc:I used to fucking do big things.
Marc:It was weird that I went to that award show and I didn't have a spot later.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:I always do that kind of shit.
Marc:I'll go do an amazing thing, and I'm like, ah, fuck, I got to spot.
Marc:Sarah Silverman's party, after doing that whole thing.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:And then I'm like, I got to get over there.
Marc:And it keeps me grounded.
Marc:I did that the night before.
Guest:I went to a William Morris party, dropped my lady off, went to the improv, came back, picked her up, went to the laugh factory, then the store, then went home.
Guest:Right.
Marc:So you know who you are.
Marc:It's crazy.
Marc:You got to do that so we know who you are.
Guest:In a tuxedo.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:In a tuxedo.
Guest:Right.
Guest:My shit don't go over well all the time when I'm wearing a tux.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:It's nice to give it a try.
Guest:Man.
Marc:Well, I think what we've learned, though, is that whatever our journeys were, no matter how crazy or angry or delusional we are, we know who we are because of standing on that stage.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I agree.
Guest:And I try to give that to people, man.
Guest:Like life is ups and downs.
Guest:It's the summation of it.
Guest:And we got to enjoy, you know, we got to learn how to enjoy the downs just like we do the ups.
Guest:Because when you see somebody pass, you know, a few people pass and they smile, you know, they got that look like I did it.
Guest:That's what it's about at the end of the day, whether life good or bad.
Guest:We got to do it.
Marc:Agreed.
Marc:Thanks for talking to me, buddy.
Guest:Thank you, man.
Guest:It's been an honor and a blessing.
Thank you.
Marc:That's Byron.
Marc:That is Byron.
Marc:You feel like he just got out of a head?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You can see Byron do his work.
Marc:I think you can look him up online and see some of that comedy, some of his comedy.
Marc:But you can also see him in Honey Boy, the film, the Shia LaBeouf movie that Byron's...
Marc:We'll be right back.
Marc:And now I'm going to play through a pedal through the Vibreverb amp using the built-in vibrato.
Marc:I'm going to do a little Raga riff with my Stratocaster.
Marc:Here we go.
Marc:Just like float, man.
Marc:Just float.
Guest:Thank you.
.
Guest:.
.
Thank you.
Guest:Boomer lives!