Full: Tommy Davidson Opens Up On Being Underrated, Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy And The Capitol Riots

uh first off tommy i'd like to thank you for doing this interview with comedy hype we really appreciate it mm-hmm um i want to open up with uh who's your mount rushmore comedy my mount rushmore of comedy um richard pryor uh rear fox um eddie murphy yep um because i gotta stay above me you know i mean yeah um it started getting hard then yep robin oh robin harris williams williams dope um that's four yep how many yeah yeah that's four how many is on mount rushmore so yeah that would be four it's four yeah i put robin in there yeah i can i can live with that yes is it the physical yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah and i i'll make him interchangeable with george carlin mm-hmm so why are you interchanging with george collins why didn't cosby make your uh mount rushmore because cosby did a different kind of comedy mm-hmm than what i'm attracted to right right you know what i mean definitely comedy is like a uh bill cosby was more like a storyteller and really good comic though definitely really good comic but the people that i put on that list are like their challenge yeah you know you look at what they did and and um it's like you gotta you got some work to do it's not that the other comics there's lots that i respect and they're like what can i say if you just say four then somebody could be mad you know but just the originality that they brought to the game you know and and just the versatility of course the versatility that they brought to the game i mean that was all of them you know red fox it's it's it's because what he brings to the table is all of the 50s right and the 60s yeah so he's bringing a whole generation of of comedy before we were able to see it together at once yeah you know it's either we watched it with him and whites were separate you see he went through that whole era so that he got to get that exactly you know so now you put on eddie murphy in your uh did you see the new coming to america i haven't seen it i haven't seen it no i haven't seen i've seen the trailer though yeah yeah i put a headache because eddie broke it up broke it open for us yeah and eddie ready to king man so what do you mean by opening it up for you for this whole generation coming you know eddie came out probably i think in about 86 80 no 85. i think 80 he got on snl on 80 and then in 80. yeah delirious was 82 that's what i'm saying but the thing about it eddie murphy was the first young black dude to come out in comedy that talks like we talk right he's from our generation man you know he's not 60s back you know he's the 70s new freshness yeah 80s you know he's coming with and he's young right he may come in cool as they say yeah that's what i'm saying so any urban you know he from the city right you know what i mean like he brought it out and and he brought versatility to it yep just like characters storytelling you know all of that he he's the king man i give him that man eddie really is if you eddie went up there right now he'd kill yeah i mean kill the dude is just naturally funny yeah naturally talented i saw him one out of the comedy store and dude kept yelling out at him and he said man because eddie eddie wore yellow jacket so the dude kept saying you were century 21 you were century 21 and everybody laughing right he said yeah but i can get home and take off this jacket right you can't get home and jump out of that truck from there's life for you you know what i mean like so i was like that dude right there don't want to mess with it i could jump at his jacket you can't jump out and drive his life man right so um now you know the new coming to america is out it's been you know 30 years one and a lot of times when it's been you know that long of a gap people are kind of skeptical as if the new movie can live up to the classroom right right so beloved um what was your reaction when you first heard the new coming to america was another movie that eddie ain't putting me in right you know i'm like simple as that i'm like dude man yeah what the hell i gotta do man right you know it's like it's like um it's like an all-star game and you can put kyrie in or something you know i mean like nah nah let them how do you not choose kyle yeah yeah yeah yeah it's like you know what's that boy the braves who kills them uh uh uh raptors oh quite yeah it's like having an all-star game saying that we're gonna let kawhi sit for for this one right actually not making no sense yeah or it's like bird and magic saying i'll let jordan sit over there you know i mean they're all stars in their own right you know what i mean you know so and that's personal because i want to do it definitely i want to be a part of that man you know and you were attached to the coming to america pilot um do you why do you think um it didn't get picked up to series it wasn't funny it wasn't it wasn't funny you know as as i it wasn't funny it was it was like you know very white written at the time i didn't get a lot of help you know from eddie's team for the for the script do you feel like i don't blame him for it you know but you know hey right um i got a show with uh dc young fly right i suppose you know and it's with my company you know i'm with you on that man we got to kill this leave that's exactly you see what i'm saying the name's alone yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah you know i'm i'm that big number 12 in tampa and i got that you know uh uh i got that white out mm-hmm you know brown right you know so do you feel like if eddie murphy was involved with the project it would have been you know more successful i do i do because he knows comedy so so hey tell me what it is that we need to do here because i mean i was young too right like i was new to the business i was number 21 i think you know so i'm not really that savvy too so i'm raw i don't have as much technique as i have now you know so it would have helped it would help but but i do not blame him for that feeling though because that's not how it goes right he's not gonna come over and magically make that thing go on the air or whatever everything happens for a reason yeah you know and i love that dude and he's the best but how did i feel i never would have gotten a living color that is true so you know am i going to be the you know king of zamunda's little brother or am i going to be tommy davis who's like you know that big number 23 for chicago exactly double doubles every night don't miss down shots dunk with my left and right you know me mvps mvps man you know what i'm saying like right championship you know yeah i'm working on my own shoes right yeah so um you did mention the writing was kind of a huge problem of the pilot um in an article you did with medium um ken hetch was a name that came up yeah yeah and i am uh doing a little bit of research on good times and how they had a lot of white writers you're on to it go ahead exactly so um i guess having white people behind the scenes of a black show there is a certain disconnect with the audience um what are your thoughts on that it was a standard there wasn't any writers black writers back then in tv tv was like uh you know uh untouched frontier for us you know i mean so you know it was white writers writing for us see because i've never heard of have you ever heard a black person call another black person to jive turkey that was the white idea of how we talk exactly you know what i mean so it was like you know you you'll hear a white person go you know bubba in tyrone you know i don't know that many black people named bubba you know that's their their voice on us you know what i mean so that's what they were you it was a hierarchy that was in place you know it's not until in living color fresh prince of bel air martin jamie show uh mark cooper's show it's not until then that that that that tv started getting us behind the scenes yeah what do you think right the success of um in living color i think that was the change yeah no there were some more frank's place i don't know frank's place was on cbs it was a very successful forgot the actor's name but research at frank's place you know and then there was a lot of stuff that was going on with a lot of actors who were getting involved 227 and all the shows that proceeded but when we got on the air that's when it started getting sexy right definitely started getting real sexy that's when the writers you know that's when they said well wait a second they're good not only are they good they're funny not only are they funny they smart you know and um they were finally realizing that on tv right like america's just really realizing that we're like that now because of what happened yeah with them rushing the capital yeah and not exactly yeah watching you on in living color you know you know very versatile on stage you know you got to do a bunch of different characters um going back to the sitcom was there a lot of improvisation that you had to do because the scripts were so bad yeah yeah you know but i'm built for that yeah you know i just had a lot of raw talent around it you know that that's the show you got to remember that the show i'll go back to a question that you you asked me you think it why do i think it got cancelled i think it got canceled because one it wasn't funny but that's subjective because if that wasn't the case if that was the case then there'd be a lot of unfunny white shows that never we never would have seen you know when you're the gatekeeper you can decide what goes on there so i can't get in the mind frame of cbs you know why they would say no to that and nbc would say yes the first prince of bel-air it was the same situation yeah you know what i mean but when you're in charge you know you get to do what you want to do right i'll give you an example the nfl owners okay um okay so kaepernick was right right i appreciate all of the all the campaigns that are going on like you know and the nfl players coming and doing all this really beautiful stuff for black community and all this stuff but i ain't gonna forget that you didn't hire him again exactly you didn't hire him again so it's like what matters is what you do not what you say exactly you want to really prove it black lives matter hire that dude again and it's over ain't no riot they know nothing he was right you were wrong admit it you know i think they did admit it but they still won't hire them it's like admitting it is an action yeah you see yeah yeah a minigame is an action three birds on a log one decides to fly it's still three because an action has to always follow a decision you know right so the moment they do that and he gets his job back then they mean it but that was just using that to illustrate the power of the gatekeeper yeah you know what i mean so i'm switching gears a little bit um you know you gotta guest roll on martin you and martin are both dc comics uh how did you get the role the guest starring role as varnell hill it was uh john bowman was a writer for living color oh wow and um bentley evans and them like this you know they just were like man just come on over here they had something for you just come on over here man and they just they had an idea what it was when i got to the table read for for the uh for the show they didn't even ask me to do nothing they just said go ahead and the character that i picked was natural yeah final hell man creation yeah yeah man wow brought it right in wow so um going from martin how did you get the role in juwana man juwanna man was a was an example of um i got a call from i'm gonna forget his name um i got a call from warner brothers and they were having a problem with the movie because the movie wasn't funny and um uh i can't remember the name of the production company either but they called and they were fans of my personal fans of mine and they said we need a boost in this movie can you create a character to give us a boost wow you know so i i came up with puff smokey smoke yeah you should be getting writing credits for all these guys well you know i'm getting that now yeah you know what i mean you live and you learn man yeah or was there any hesitation in accepting that role because of the character was attracted to a man no uh-uh nah because because he didn't know right you know what i'm saying so he's thinking he's a woman you know so i'm good with that i'm like okay okay okay you can make that mistake these days right let me tell you you know what i'm saying so but it's what i was able to bring to the to the character you know i wanted to bring you know i wanted to bring like a puffy type character you know that persona yeah get out boys yeah i wanted to bring that into a guy that's totally crazy he thinks he's that dude yeah you pulled it off how do you fletcher it how do you like it you know you know that's where your country country got you crazy okay 357. you know and i got to freestyle and do all the things that i do man it was fun man that's a dope so uh throughout your career um i know um like black men and dresses has been talking has anyone ever approached you to wear dressed on the film or yeah yeah i remember auditioning driving in traffic right for a movie in a dress wow what was that it was a whole lot of different kind of attention driving that too i was like what the hell is going on but it was it was for a movie you know and i'm glad i didn't get it i'm glad i didn't get it yeah um i haven't had to do that yet right you know i haven't had to do that yet definitely and i wanted that movie because it was a penelope cruz oh it's supposed to be a big movie yeah so it's this big movie where i play this her friend who's this thing you know what i mean not thing but a transvestite or whatever so because of the gravity of it i was like man i'm gonna go for that but i'm glad i didn't get it because that was the only reason that was the only reason yeah i haven't been called to that role yet you know and it's not something that i personally feel comfortable doing you know yeah but it doesn't that's not saying anything about anybody else yeah that's me mm-hmm you know so is that something that you have fear no i don't fear it it's just that it's it's not something that i want to do personally yeah you know morally i would say i would say pref uh uh preferably and style wise no preferably it's my preference you know it's my you know i get a personal choice too right definitely yeah so it's like you know i just um you know i'm heterosexual i'm proud of it ain't gonna problem with it you know what i'm saying i'm um i got sons you know what i mean and i don't mind if they decide to do that you know what i'm saying but i raised them i modeled them behind me and there's nothing wrong with that right and if if if people start to you know persecute me for that then that's the same reason that they don't like us persecuting for i get my choice yeah exactly you know i get my choice i'm not hating on nobody you know what i mean right and um you know insight from from an insight i'll take you into one of the main reasons for me that that that exists is because of what they've done to the african man throughout this last 400 years emasculating not able and they're not able to do that but they continue to try to right so you know the second that they that the white man got on the shore of africa saw that 40 year old black woman looking good and she had a daughter that was 16 and the daughter there was 17. he said shoot that guy in the head and put them on my ship but i'm back yeah can we write in our own history now i'm there to protect her definitely so i uh i did get a chance to take a look at your book um i know nice now we're jogging of course of course got to get that plug in um in the book you said that uh you felt that you jim and takiyah were kind of a social outcast of in living yeah yeah yeah yeah can you elaborate on that well you know that's how it is you know you work on a job and everybody kind of just goes into their own group that's all you know so we weren't part of that main group we were kind of a subgroup or we were our own group you know you get with people who like you and stuff you know i mean who are like you right you know what i mean and um we had a lot of comments so that was our click that was our little click you know i mean yeah so um do you feel like keenan kind of spent a lot of time grooming you know the wayne's family members as opposed to you know yourself uh takiyah jim even kim coles had felt that a lot of her sketches were getting pushed to kim williams some of that did happen you know but i understand it i understand it i mean if i had my little brother you know and my sister on a show i would you know make sure that they you know got light and were able to perform but keenan was fair with us as a cast he made sure that everybody had an opportunity to score you see what i'm saying right there are times where they have more opportunities than we would but the opportunities you know were still there right you know what i mean and you know i didn't i you know and and when it comes to keenan's family you know the love i have for them the admiration that i have for them is that there's very few families that have that kind of cohesiveness that are together in the workplace too you know and i don't know what that's like so i don't know what i would treat my brother and sister like in that situation right you see what i mean yeah you know and and you know the fact of the matter is is yeah something like that happened but in the final analysis you know hindsight's always 20 20. yeah you know what i mean team's still one at the end of the day mm-hmm so you're afraid of getting cancelled you're afraid of getting canceled what do you mean like saying something wrong um on stage or something that might offend someone because you know canceled culture is really huge right now right right a lot of people are getting in trouble is that something that you're weary of when you're on stage no no no can't anybody cancel me but the per but but the entity that brought me here right yeah that's that's you know that's like saying ain't no more tomatoes gonna grow ever on the face of earth right and that ain't up to us you know what i mean definitely yeah tomato was here long before we knew it tastes good so um also in your book um you referred to you and jamie foxx kind of had a little riff between each other you felt that he was um kind of over performing or kind of upstaging maybe um can you elaborate on that as well it's competitive comedy in general just the business that we're in is just competitive you know what i mean and um there were some times when we had some personal brushes and the purpose of me putting that in that book wasn't for jaime or wasn't to illustrate the the conflict between the two of us the purpose of me putting that in that book was to to enlighten the reader that you can come across those kind of situations and still transcend them and still have respect for the person definitely you see what i'm saying yeah but move on to what you need to do you know what i mean yeah so i mean imagine hagler and ray leonard you know or ollie and frazier you know what i mean somebody gets to win somebody's guests to lose it's it's it's just one of those kind of sports right you know what i mean but there's no referees around and what do we do definitely hey you know what i mean yeah yeah yeah anybody there to call fat you know flag holding you know what i mean you know hey you know yeah hey that's below the belt yep you know you left in the ring by your damn self you got to keep the rules yeah you know what i mean so um earlier in the interview um kind of touched on this a little bit but um you mentioned michael jordan before you've called yourself the michael jordan of comedy so what do you mean by that just the versatility that i bring to the game which is the level of the level of my performance you know um in comparative terms you know i'm not saying that i'm better than anyone at all because how you can you do that artist's objective right right this is art you know but i encompass all of the elements of all the other comics in one that's all right you know dave chappelle does kind of a commentary kind of a comedy i do commentary comedy you know um you know on the other hand you know there's those political comics they do that stuff like a bill maher you know i do that you know character-driven comedy i do that impressions i do that you know storytelling and little anecdotes are truthful things you know truth or expose i do that you know ad-lib improv i do that you know so i'm saying with what i bring to the table the reason why i compare it because you know excellent dribbler knows how to pass to his teammates and get his team in the game results he'll hit the shot even if he ain't open on your ass right okay he'll flush it on you with one flush it on you with two flush it on your left or right yeah and want the ball in his hands when it's ticking down yep you see what i'm saying what's that versatility so that's what i'm saying you know i get excited about it because it's the it's the single thing that i can control in my whole career is what happens on that stage right just like him when he got to rock you know so do you still feel like you have something to approve in your career oh yeah but that's natural that's natural i'm i'm because you know i'm a performer you know i'm an entertainer you know a comedian is is is one of the strongest dimensions of me but i do a lot of stuff i sing you know i write i do animation i do straight voice overs you know i do i pretty much do it all you know right and i do it all well so of course you know i want to be the best that i can be you know and keep developing and keep getting better you know i get one life one you know one and i got examples of people who rode out of here with with credits with the best credits on their ticket in one one one ride sami davis junior prince michael jackson right you know what i'm saying like they maxed it they maxed their credit card here yeah as far as being able to achieve some of the things that they wanted to achieve you know what i mean so i want to be able to reach my full potential whatever that is because i know my full potential is going to benefit everybody it's what was what you leave on the table for the next person for me that counts you know that in the next generation yeah yeah you know right so yes did i just have um so one more question i think um the biggest takeaway is you know versatility uh you know you've done stand-up sketch movies tv uh is there anything that you haven't done that you still have on your show business bucket list oh yeah oh yeah i haven't done i haven't done um that's a list you know i haven't done the plays i want to do probably yeah i haven't done the broadway plays or my community plays like tyler perry would go out and do mayonnaise and stuff like that i have i have us some spiritual based plays and musical stuff that i'm thinking about you know what i'm saying uh my cgi movies my sci-fi movies my horror movies my you know yeah but she would be producing my action movies i can do i can be in them if i want or i can do them if i want i could do both yeah you know right i can do both of course yeah that white boy came over there and said that one's from ghana but it wasn't ghanaian but that was from that tribe and that was from that driver and that one from that trap put them all on the boat because i want that tobacco cut right and they were successful at it absolutely not be a fool not to look at it look at something that's successful and not adapt that model right but i'd be a fool to do it the way they did it yeah to do it your way yeah you know not to take a life for profit mm-hmm you know but profit life by giving profit life wow mm-hmm yeah so yeah so um yeah just add on to that like generational well everyone's kind of familiar with tommy um you know in living college did come on before i was born so i kind of had to work backwards i started with the proud family you know disney channel and then nice we're back right exactly wow when can we expect that that's a be out in september oh perfect that's not that long now yeah right around the corner i mean yeah definitely the new strain didn't get us right exactly but yeah just um as a kid you know i had to work backwards going from proud family to a living color you know you've been in the business for a long time and you've made an impact yeah thank you man i i'm i'm proud too to have done that you know i mean it's in and you know i i actually forget how long it's been sometime because i love this thing so much right you know and i got i gotta check myself not to not to fall into anybody's bag you know what i mean like not to not to to think if i just get people just like me in here right right and this thing if they just like me in this thing then i'm really getting somewhere yeah like if i get you know a million likes somebody likes me in here in this you know what i mean and it's hard not to think about that because the people with the money go how many likes you got right on that that's all they care about you know what i mean it seems like they care about the likes more than the laughs to get in on hey you know what i mean but you know you know we we black people came here with no likes right exactly you know what i mean yeah now we like what a couple blocks now we like what right yeah we run stuff now yeah yeah we came here with no likes look how far we've come and still no likes you know but we don't need likes because we we're born to give love like and love is two different things you know what i mean right yeah we got we got love and respect for others right or it had been us that went in the capital and did that trifling we're not trifling like that no even though they want to call us that right you know what i mean when we're doing something righteous and noble we go to jail when they do something trifling they get sent home wow

Channel: Comedy Hype

Views: 336,023

Rating: 4.9025493 out of 5

Keywords: comedy, jokes, laughter, stand-up, tommy daivdson, comedy hype news, ch show, Real talk, best comedians, bernie mac, in living color, booty call, movies, film parodies, humor, comedy hype news show, Best comedians, kim wayans, keenen ivory wayans, wayans family, def comedy jam, symphony thompson, comedian pierre, comedian capone

Id: PexyKm3r_P0

Length: 30min 26sec (1826 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 01 2021