Cedric The Entertainer Talks His Comedy Breakthrough, His Show ‘The Neighborhood’ and Emmy Hosting

let's go ride a train you came here though it's all good when did you cross over where like you realized all of a sudden you were famous dude like michael jackson can get your phone number just know that he literally just called you out of the blue now were you funny growing up you got into jonesing right people feel like they know me already and i use that as a tool have you ever totally bombed i had a night at a show where it was so bad i offered people a money back they walked in there and cussed them out and i mean they laughed so hard carlos hey family welcome to the show hey listen if you're in a laughing mood today we have a terrific one for you one of the original kings of comedy is here to bring the house down that's right cedric the entertainer is here also coming up i'm gonna introduce you to mandy price now she's the co-founder and ceo of canaries and a member of hennessey's never stop never settle society more on that in a bit you're gonna love meeting her but first my main man cedric the entertainer he's turned his love of comedy into one hell of a career killed it on stages all over the world and in fact he's used that exposure and talent to build himself an incredible film and television resume of course i'm talking about projects like steve harvey show barbershop the soul man and his latest that hit cbs sitcom the neighborhood for more this is your 2021 emmy host cedric the entertainer the carlos watson show is brought to you by american family insurance hey cedric what's up my brother how you doing hey man you're looking young yeah man you know what i'm saying i got a few little injections okay all right you're not afraid hollywood is treating you right i love it and you know what don't laugh because a couple of us are starting to get them you recognize it like you know age is real but you know you're normally black don't crack but you know it's been showing some fault lines lately that is a good way to say it what did you do for the summer man he was trying to create and produce other shows we had you know the the success of the show coming out on balance and then yeah uh then i produced a little summertime show that i do for myself for cbs the greatest at home videos and so we did we did some more of those this summer right now we're all about that joy that aspiration that motivating factor to say hey life is worth living get up and go for it and you just don't want to miss what the human spirit has the ability to do we got it right here on this show am i projecting or are you someone who likes to stay busy i always say it's a little bit of the midwest upbringing and i lived in a single-parent household my mom was a school teacher and it was and it was my younger sister and so as the male you know i felt like it was kind of like it's sealed to be active to be able to be a participant so i even look at my job like that to this day you know even though it comes with celebrity and recognition i really look at like a guy who's getting up to go to work i don't really like oh i'm famous you know so people like yo man are you so humble all the time so chill i'm like dude i've just got a job that's the way i look at it when did you cross over where like you realize all of a sudden you were famous a couple times one is i've won a uh a comedy competition in chicago and they put me in jet magazine okay i remember jumping yep yep yeah you don't i don't know what people need as far as fame but could be in jet in the hood yeah was like a whole situation and then the next time that i really felt like really famous was after the bud light commercials uh i did in the super bowl i got too long for that fire with a great taste that won't fill you up and never let you down make it a bud that's not that bad i've been on television i've done movies but you don't realize how much impact the commercial is basically on 10 times 12 times in the day so your opportunity for exposure is crazy so it was like people seeing me in the airports and stopping me and i was like yo i'm out here now that's crazy what's the best thing that's ever happened as a result of being famous one michael jackson called me at my house one day god don't know how he had my number or nothing but i was sitting at home i just had my son who's about to be 21 now so i was holding him like a baby and i get a call and it was like uh cedric the entertainer and i was like yes it was like you have a call from michael jackson and i was like what i think it's a joke and then he was like hey man how you doing i was like yeah crazy he literally just called you out of the blue dude like michael jackson can get your phone number just know that [Laughter] he liked the movie johnson family vacation and wanted to tell me to keep you know keep that kind of comedy up he was you know being from indiana that all made sense that traveling with your family to go visit family so he loved that movie that was that was one of those moments i say come with being famous give me another one what else uh what else came with being famous we were shooting uh the steve harvey show and uh halle berry's uh dressing room was across the hall from mine she was getting ready to go do something some other show and she kept she was coming out the door to go to the set and i stopped it and i said how you doing and i said look at me just for a second do you feel anything [Music] but do you feel anything as you look at me you know what i have not been that creative i need to be more creative you just expanded my catalog everybody going for the romance i'm dealing with whatever emotion comes out first i'm willing to take the long road that's what i'm saying oh man oh i love [Music] it faster our home is the training ground for her dreams policy ensure carefully dream fearlessly think about my son he like the little mixed girls he like the girls who's like have black half white little curly hair that's his thing you know and he gonna go out on dave you know he gonna tell me take them to the movies you know i'm like cool nice you know he hopped in the back seat with her i'm like i'm like when the hell i turn into uber driver god damn [Applause] how did you get into comedy in the first place because uh that wasn't your first job was it i had many jobs you know i went to college graduated southeast missouri state in cape torado and you know i worked in radio for a minute uh i sold fax machines for the ricoh corporation for a minute you know when they were new that was a new technology i was i was considered selling spaceships at the time what are you talking about and then was working at state farm and you know basically transitioning to comedy at night like most people trying to just find you and find your way in life young man the first time i ever did comedy you know another comedian basically worked me through my set told me how to do it basically taught me how to be a professional right and then i won five hundred dollars the first time i ever did it so that was so you know how white people are when they try to get you to feel comfortable man he said all the wrong stuff don't mind you know what slitter i like black people hell i got a pair of black boots i got a black pickup truck i even got a colored tv [Music] now were you funny growing up well we used to call it st louis we called it the jones jones right like you got me jones so and you know in the lunchroom we had three lunches we had first one second left third lunch i was on third lunch but the kids from first lunch would be like yo like come try to get me out of class they were like yo man you gotta come down here get old boy today man you've been killing us did they call you the entertainer back then or no hollywood i had relatives out here as a kid so we would come and visit and i had a shirt a t-shirt that said hollywood on it that obviously now in in retro retrospect i must award quite a bit right because it became my nickname uh all even to the point that my kids and peers would call my mom miss wood they didn't even know my name i was really like hollywood people were like come on be like how you doing miss wood see like who are they talking about now how did it switch to uh cedric the entertainer well that name kind of came about as i started to really you know do comedy more professionally i was doing a show one night and the guy was introducing everybody as the next comedian and i was like i just wasn't comfortable with being considered a comedian i told him to call me an entertainer he introduced me as cedric the entertainer i went up i had a great show and then when when i came off he called me 70b entertainer again so i just kept i'd been asked throughout my career you know especially earlier on to change it you know everybody thought like it was too big of a name to take on uh you know i you know definitely had agents you know that would be like you know nobody's doing like the big names anymore everybody's going by their real family surnames but uh you know for me it was you know it was it wasn't even a name i gave myself you know i embraced it for that reason like now i'm i'm this guy when i'm doing those jokes white people like space movies black people don't really do space like that my people love space movie they love movies about the moon and mars where they can be leaving our ass down here on earth that's what they think they think they're gonna leave us down here on earth they're gonna move to the moon ain't gonna happen y'all moved to the moon dammit we coming to the moon so what would have happened cedric if you hadn't made it do you think i was working at state farm but i always even then i had an entrepreneurial kind of spirit like i always found little hustles and you know kind of business ideas so i think i would have you know maybe found my way into some kind of business probably maybe would have found my way back into the you know the news area or something like that or sports announcing i don't know but i you know i i studied that kind of stuff in college and had and had an opportunity to work for a cbs affiliate when i first graduated doing like fun news maybe only at kevin fraser's job [Music] most interesting thing you've learned about dreaming fearlessly because so many people subject you know want to dream fearlessly it's hard it's difficult people are scared to do it especially in this world what have you learned what would you tell a younger version of yourself about how to dream fearlessly and bring it alive well i think like the thing about dreaming fiercely is really trusting that is that don't doubt yourself from trying like don't stop yourself from what you believe is going to happen let the chips fall what they may your best opportunity is really going to come by being in the situation and getting out there and that was one you know like for me growing up in a single parent household i was doing really well i was making good money for a young guy i was probably 26 27 making nice money i got a house i got a car but for me to say like i believe in comedy i just came up with a plan i saved up enough money and i had a strategy to do some shows and then i had a quit date and i did it and i just i quit on that day my son's 15. he's been here on the swim team so you know that swim they'd be getting you in a different kind of shape so he all of a sudden my son out of nowhere got all shoulders and chest he gone walking in the house one day what up dad i said oh no you might want to put all that up when you walk in the house put them shoulders in the closet put your chest in the drawer i agree i have all this walk around my goddamn house hey look back for me i don't know if i fully know how you broke through and how you think about why you broke through my style was very relational like i felt like talking to a cousin or looking at an uncle or you know if i perform like that where it doesn't feel like oh somebody's walking up kind of just telling you these jokes and i really emulated my style from the late robin harris oh man i loved him he was the kind of comedian that when i first saw him and i identified with him the right television came at the right time for me like you know and so many of my peers i would say we landed in that space where uh all the guys from my class the comedy uh uh most of us are still around and still doing well dlc jamie chris rock was a little bit ahead of us but uh but all of us that kind of came in that that era where def jam was high uh comic view for me was the one on bt i made the you know the choice to go to comic view and it made me a household name because i was the host and when i became the host you know like in the african-american households i was known and that made me a star and then the steve harvey show and in the movies but uh all of it really really kind of stems from the idea that i think that people feel like they know me already and i use that as a tool who's in your comedy mount rushmore robin harris eddie murphy richard pryor george carlin love robin williams as well richard jenny he was a favorite comedian of mine growing up so i would throw him up there somewhere now have you ever melted down on stage have you ever totally bombed oh a couple of times man i remember having a night in in st louis where when i i you know i was popping man everybody was coming to see me i was going i was getting it in and i had a night at a show where it was so bad i offered people a money back i was just feeling bad for myself not expecting people to really want their money back they want their buddy back i love that i was like oh really she you know taught me one time just totally be yourself man as much as you want to make them laugh if they're not laughing and you having a good time then just rock it that way and just don't even worry about it you know so i've learned to do those kind of you know those kind of things on stage to help me like whenever you know whenever you feel like it's going down a horrible rabbit hole to nowhere but you know it is uh it is such an opportunity in this life to take the stage as many times as someone like you or steve does and to have people paying attention to you enjoying you paying their money looking forward to it and in a way what i think about you guys up there is also such a responsibility too because you know we're showing up hoping that you're gonna make us feel better yeah i mean you know and that's the thing that i think that i always tell young comedians is that you got to remember that people come here and they pay they pay their money they've had all kinds of experiences today you know your job is to go there and entertain them you know go in there and try to embrace that be your greatest self and see if you can transfer that to them to just get people to transform from from where they really are in life to this space that's about laughter and joy and a good time and uh that's what i believe you know what the comedian is supposed to do there are some white people that love black people just because they're black makes them feel all good on the inside hey i have lots of black friends i'm a good person oh my god don't you just love hamilton tell me how you feel about hamilton what's the greatest musical of all time oh my god hey what about neighborhood how's that been we're going into the fourth season congratulations it's really great to have this show man the whole gentrification thing is very real in our communities and so we wanted to be able to tell the story from you know what that feels like that the world is becoming this melting pot that people are uh you know more and more you know living next to each other and side by side and you know that's what you know a cohesive world should operate as you know that we should be able to learn from and grow with and recognize uh the differences in each other and still be able to live side by side now as much as you enjoy it as a comedy you guys tackle some very as you said like serious cutting-edge issues as working on the show changed your mind about anything or did it offer you new perspectives on anything i mean you know being being a guy over 50 i've seen so many things in this world like you know we we attacked the uh social injustice you know in our first episode last season that got us a lot of acclaim i'ma organize a protest they want you to fight with this but you got to fight with this where's malcolm well i thought he's with you i'm going back out there i'm going with i don't need anybody else i love out there come on dave you know the main thing is you learn from my white counterparts kind of perspective and then be able to educate you and i think in these close quarters like this you're able to give a far more education you know you know like even to the point that you know i remember there was a whole thing in that episode about using the term allies and they wanted to lock on us and look we're not doing that we're not doing these lock-on terms that kind of justifies or wipes over you know all these years of social injustice by saying just because i stand here now i'm considered an ally and that gives me this past i'm sorry if i seem racist hey hey man i'm i'm sorry if i seem racist i was like those are the kind of terms that i believe you know how we let people off the hook we need to really deal with this we need to really know like how did that make you feel that i i had the power to tell you no did that make you feel something i tell y'all start walking down the street i'll see this lady the white lady gonna come up to me like oh my god i can't believe it's you you got a little daughter with her she was like can we take a picture with you i'm like of course you know i'll take the picture with him somebody leave i don't walk off she like thank you ceelo what happens when you are in front of all white audiences is that a different comedy set and a different relationship for you than when you're in front of you know the audience that's one of one of the first times that i bombed that i really recall was me trying to change my set for an all-white audience and i i bombed because i went up there and i you know i basically got outside my authentic self and was trying to do what i thought they would like or would relate to and so uh and i remember that i bombed and steve walked a bit and cussed them out and i mean they laughed so hard carlos yeah they were laughing at him going off on them it was like wow from that moment on i recognized like yo that's this is all you got to do in life just don't even worry about it just right ride a train you came in on it's all good they don't like that one then they just don't like it but don't don't try to make them like you that's what that's what i identify with my character in barbershop and a lot of people you know i gotta had some controversial about it uh but but what i was tapping into as a you know as an actor was that this guy was old enough not to really worry about your opinion about his opinion like he didn't care about what you thought about his opinion and so therefore he could say what he wanted like and and i love that you're wrong you're walking by yourself this time pal i ain't with you i'll take one thing you better never let jessie jackson hear you talking about like man biggest mistake or biggest failure you've had in this life somebody worded this perfectly i i gave up for what i wanted in the long run to get what i wanted right now and that's that would be one of those things i had a plan and i knew that i had this plan and i pivoted on that plan because i accepted what i could get right now and then that's one of those things that you always go back and you're like man if i just would have did it my way i'd have been way further and and so you're saying you would there was a movie or something that you took in the short term instead of maybe a series or a different project that you really wanted movie was the honeymooners and the honeymooners did great but the movie that i wanted to do would have been a franchise i i know it in the director i wanted and everything we would have had a big big big movie career most beautiful place you've ever been to oh man oh australia queensland the surfers paradise over there ooh that sounds beautiful i've been to australia but only to sydney and melbourne yeah you gotta go to their miami version that's really pretty over there and are you an airbnb guy are you a hotel guy if i got the whole family going with me we're gonna get a house and rent a house we travel pretty heavy and you know so that it's better for us to like have a house and just operate from there hey i'm gonna hit you with a little bit of rapid fire let's go all right i say obama you say what coolest ever i say cleveland you say what steve i say greatest athlete of all time you say joy most interesting book you've ever read monster cody the thing you're most excited about hosting the emmys mainly you know the celebrity celebratory energy of the night man like i feel like television has got us through it's gonna be so many wonderful stars out i just really look forward to giving that vibration off is this idea that we're gonna be here um really you know commending each other and laughing and patting each other on the back for the work that was done if you could have dinner with anybody dead or alive who would you have dinner with vernon jordan love love the swagger of frederick douglass and then not a real person but nookie thompson from boardwalk empire i like all three of those vernon jordan he would send me notes sometimes uh when i was on the air he said don't wear that shirt again he said that was a one-time shirt hey cedric man i so appreciate you and uh i really appreciate you stopping by yeah same here man definitely enjoyed this man super cool dude mike what you think cedric is the guy i mean who doesn't love steady [Music] he's always funny uh his line about um halle berry i had a hard time holding it i thought that was so funny like who didn't love holly berry but he said anything anything like this is so funny also he was exactly what i expected him to be i enjoyed every moment i wish you guys could have went long i was just saying to my cousins that we were going to have them on the show today and one of my cousins pointed out he's the reason why our family has laugh wrinkles but then he was talking about how he he got injections on the fault lines i found this fascinating conversation the more fascinating once you guys started talking about race and how hard it is for us to prove that we've always been allies that we grew up without racism without seeing color like we kind of did what we could at the time but that's not enough i found this conversation amazing not because he's this entertainer i found this conversation amazing because he has a lot to say about a topic that we all really need to be talking about hey i hope you enjoyed cedric the entertainer how could you not laugh how could you not enjoy him such a good guy such a relatable guy loved what he had to say about the honeymooners trusting your gut never knowing where that could end up all kinds of goodness there hope you enjoyed him as well listen now as i promise it's time to introduce you to yet another incredible person and by the way an equally incredible program it's put on by our friends at hennessey it's called the never stop never settle society recognizes strivers and dreamers who are creating change in the face of diversity now today we're going to shine a light on mandy price she's the co-founder and ceo of canaries a company that uses technology and data to improve diversity and inclusion in the workplace really incredible company for more here's my time with mandy price [Music] hey mandy hi how are you good how you doing good what made you decide to apply to the never stop never settle society so one of our teammates saw the application and we were just really really inspired by tennessee's commitment to closing the gap for black entrepreneurs and for addressing a lot of disparities that we see within our society so we were honored to be one of the recipients and really really thankful for the commitment that they're showing towards uh black entrepreneurs mandy take me back were you slated to be an entrepreneur uh from early on i never thought i'd be an entrepreneur but like most entrepreneurs i was driven by my passion so when i was practicing law i was on the civil rights board and did many many things with respect to promoting social justice issues and over time you know i faced many many challenges that many women and people of color especially black professionals face in the workplace and you know i kind of grew up in a lot of programs that teach you how to navigate the workplace i felt like what we were doing a lot of times was teaching people how to navigate a broken system a system that we knew didn't work and i felt that i don't want to teach these same skills to my children i want the work environment to be fair for them not for me to continue to teach them these survival skills that have been passed down from generation to generation and so that's one of many light bulb moments but i think as i started to have my children i just i wanted the workplace to be different and i wanted it to be fair when did you start canaries yeah we started in 2018. i enjoy it because it's my life's passion and i feel like my purpose in life our company is focused on diversity equity inclusion issues and so what we've seen obviously within the last year and a half right is a fundamental shift when it comes to dei so for us it is a very exciting time especially when we think about the way we approach dei is really around helping organizations think about it from a systemic and institutional standpoint and when we first started the company we felt like we were speaking a different language and votes we were talking about measuring equity inclusion and creating policies and practices to promote inclusion and equity and people would tell us they had a pipeline problem they were just we're you know we just need to recruit and we feel like people are finally speaking the same language as us who have you found so far really seems to be locked in really seems to be taking the opportunity seriously and really engaging with you guys in an ambitious way we see certain ceos certain boards or certain shareholders and investors that have made this a priority for their organizations and that's really the kind of common thread that we're seeing but one of the things that you know we kind of worked ourselves in a frenzy of thinking this thing only lasts for six months or maybe a year and we're still seeing companies focused on these issues and we're still seeing boards and shareholders ask about them and we're still seeing regulations come down right sec has all these different rules and companies like nasdaq and goldman sachs saying we're not going to take your company public if you don't have diversity on your board nasdaq saying if you don't have a certain level of diversity you can't be listed on our exchange so we are seeing all the things that are pointing to this isn't a blip that this is long-standing and it's going to be something that organizations have to pay attention to and if everything goes well 10 years from now what will be true about canaries paint me a vision well we know di issues aren't just u.s issues they're global issues and so 10 years from now we hope to be working with many many companies across the globe to help ensure that they are creating that inclusive and effortable environment for all their employees and that dei is truly elevated with every other business priority where the idea of measuring and tracking it over multi-years isn't a foreign concept and so that's our goal to really ensure that this work continues like you said it's not that blip but 10 years from now this will be a no-brainer for companies amen i hope i hope that happens mandy was very nice to meet you uh thank you for the work that you're doing and congratulations thank you so much carlos hey that was mandy price my thanks to her and everyone at hennessey in the never stop never settle society hey while we're saying our thanks i want to thank all of you for tuning in we'll see you next time right here on the carlos watson show hey tune into the carlos watson show it's like no other you're gonna enjoy it every weekday on youtube [Music] you

Channel: The Carlos Watson Show

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Keywords: carlos watson, carlos watson show, ozy, OZY, news, trevor noah, daily show, james corden, stephen colbert, jimmy kimmel, late show, late late show, tonight show, jimmy fallon, oprah, jon stewart, talk show, late night, comedy, podcast, comedian, comedy central, snl, blm, Cedric the entertainer, BET's ComicView, BET, The Original Kings of Comedy, Barbershop 2002, The Neighborhood, Madagascar, DAVID SPADE, stand-up, Kevin heart, race relations

Id: x5hnYLk_cYM

Length: 31min 36sec (1896 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 15 2021