transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:00] The whole time I've been in LA., but-

Speaker 2:
[00:02] When I first got there, the menus are written on Bible scriptures. That's how long I've been there. Scrolls, all the menus are scrolls. People have L.A.'d their horse out front, man. It's been a long time.

Speaker 1:
[00:31] What up y'all, it's your boy KevOnStage. Wanna welcome you to Not My Best Moment, the podcast where I talk to my friends, artists, athletes and entertainers about their failures and how it helped them get where they are today. If you don't know, my book Successful Failure is out now. New York Times best seller, pick that up wherever books are sold, except Target for now. I don't think we can do Target yet, black people. But if you go in there and buy it, just make it quick. All right, cause I don't want you to be, don't be seen with my book. If you're gonna go in there, you're supposed to go in, you don't be seen. Today, we have someone I have admired for a very long time. From my hometown of Chicago, he is a stand-up comedian, actor, rapper, writer, producer. You know him from everything from Snowfall, 21 Jump Street to Entourage and Barbershop. You know his comedy specials like Netflix's DeRay Davis, How to Act Black, and I Got Six Senses, and DeRay Davis' power play amongst others. His IMDB goes back to 2002, but he's been in the game nearly 30 years. In 2025, DeRay produced Just Neat, Self-Serve, which featured fellow Chicagoland actor, Just Neat. He also dropped his album Roach Sex in early March. You can catch him touring across the United States on his Ask Me In Person tour right now. Ladies and gentlemen, DeRay Davis.

Speaker 2:
[01:52] Thank you, man. That was a wonderful intro. I don't think I've ever had one like that.

Speaker 1:
[01:55] You deserve it all, man. You are a living legend.

Speaker 2:
[01:59] Congrats on your book.

Speaker 1:
[02:01] Thank you, brother. Thank you very much.

Speaker 2:
[02:03] Because I think when people hear a book, I don't think they think because I've been approached many times, but just the effort you have to everything, man, it's not as easy as people think, man, and that's a good thing to get those words on that page and be able to present them to people. I'm going to write a book. I hear my mother been saying she's going to write a book since I was five. But to sit down, man, it just takes so much patience and so much. So congrats on that.

Speaker 1:
[02:30] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. It is a labor of love and it takes a long time. As a comedian, if you have a new joke, you want to try out, you can get up and try that out tonight if you feel like. If you're so inclined with that book, you're going to be writing for a year, at least closer to a year and a half when you start to include the editing and the audiobook process. I'm happy to have that part behind me and have it out for everybody. We should have them t-shirts.

Speaker 2:
[02:58] Them t-shirts should be everywhere. They're such great books.

Speaker 1:
[03:02] Oh my God.

Speaker 2:
[03:05] Don't leave me on read.

Speaker 1:
[03:07] Right. I want to start by shouting you out. Everybody might not know this. A lot of people do, but you are actually the voice of what we thought was Bernie Mac in Kanye West's first two albums. I feel like that's not enough common knowledge. Can you tell us how that happened? I know you're from Chicago, but I mean, your legend in Laura goes back so long. You're on some classic albums. Like, how did that come about?

Speaker 2:
[03:38] Well, the gay thing was a new GLC for a long time. I worked in the Plaza. I think we all worked in the Plaza at some point, and Kanye and those guys had, Kanye and GLC really don't have to work record holders. I got the CD. I'm like, yo, this is bumping, this is crazy. Along this line, so fast forward, I'm moving forward with comedy. Interact with Kanye a few more times, cause I had a deal. I was working through Def Squad with Eric Sermon, Bernard Alexander. Shout out to my early music managers. Running behind Redman and Method Man and those guys, just trying to get on. I was in the react video, just trying to get on my side. And then I got a call from Cudi from Chicago. And he's like, yo, I'm working with Kanye and we're doing this video in LA. We just shooting his life. When he said we were doing the video, he said we were just shooting his life. He about to be MTV's, I remember the song, MTV's artist of the new artist of the year. Come through. Right. And I hadn't seen those guys a long time. I hadn't seen them for like, Riddle's a long time, hadn't seen those guys. But I knew he was bubbling. So I went through and we just chatted. He's getting a haircut and like, yo, we go to the studio. And I don't remember why he ended up in my car. I remember we were like, oh, cause he wanted to play the songs. And play my songs. So he plays through the wire. Cootie records the moment where I'm firsthanding in the car and I'm going crazy. And that's the moment that made the video. We get to that same day that we filmed that, we're in the studio. And they're trying to think about the intro is going to be.

Speaker 1:
[05:11] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[05:12] And I go in and at this time I had done no impression. Cause I just always want to, I just wasn't interested in sounding like anybody else because they had already made their way. I was like, that's not going to be my platform. Although I thought it was okay at it.

Speaker 1:
[05:24] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[05:24] There was people that had perfected it as well. You know what I mean? So I go in, I'm doing these terrible British accents. I'm talking. The most I had seen was the Full Monty. That's the only British man in Benny Hill. I don't know if he still got them. Then they were mentioning Bernie Mac and trying to get in contact with him. I think that was the conversation. I said, let me try. I'll just go try. That was the first time I had ever done it, had ever done his voice.

Speaker 1:
[05:58] Hold on, DeRay. Hold on. Hold on. You did that on the spur of the moment.

Speaker 2:
[06:05] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[06:06] Man, I thought you had been doing it. People didn't, I ain't going to hold you, DeRay. I grew up in church. I didn't know it was Bernie Mac for a good amount of years. A lot of people didn't.

Speaker 2:
[06:17] It was set during Bernie Mac. It was that bad. It wasn't a good impression the first time. It wasn't until I became confident on the second album. I was like, you're going to miss the West. But I started really trying to at least find it to at least be respectful.

Speaker 1:
[06:30] Right.

Speaker 2:
[06:31] Those guys, the Aries or one of those guys, because I wanted to make sure. Plus Chicago. Yeah. Yeah, man. That's how it happened.

Speaker 1:
[06:41] That is amazing.

Speaker 2:
[06:43] We freestyled. I think Broke Fire Broke, I came up with just in there. Those guys had left the studio. I think Big Sean, forget who I was in the studio, and they got them recording. And he's like, all right, DeRay, go do some skits. And it was like, just listen to the album first, let me know what you come up with. And I was in there by myself, and then I did the Broke Fire Broke. And when they sent it back to me, I heard all those voices on it, all the stomping, all the stuff. I was like, oh, this is real. And then we ended up doing it at the Grammys.

Speaker 1:
[07:08] Wow. That's amazing.

Speaker 2:
[07:10] That was one of the best moments of my life, in the middle of the Grammys, when they're doing... Jamie Foxx and him are doing Goat Digger.

Speaker 1:
[07:18] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[07:19] And then it's like a skit, and I was a skit, and it was so dope.

Speaker 1:
[07:23] You've done some amazing things. We're gonna get to you, you're getting into music. I wanna make sure that we'll get to that before we close. But I wanna go all the way back. Now, Quiet is Kept, I've said this a long time. Excuse me. Chicago is home to a lot of the world's greatest comedians. It's been like that for a long, long time. You've been one of the names that always comes up when people talk about people from Chicago that are funny. Your name comes up all the time.

Speaker 2:
[07:54] Oh, God.

Speaker 1:
[07:55] Yeah. It's some strict streets in Chicago. A lot of funny comedians come out of Chicago, and still to this day, a lot of new comedians are coming up are still very funny from Chicago. Just Nisha is one of my favorite. She's not really new. She'd been in the game for a long time.

Speaker 2:
[08:09] Overnight success takes 15 years in reality.

Speaker 1:
[08:12] Right. Exactly. She'd been in the game 15, 20 years.

Speaker 2:
[08:15] She's been getting her buzz and it works for her.

Speaker 1:
[08:17] Yeah. Exactly. But what happened? Did Chicago shape you in comedy? Was it your family? What happened to young DeRay that got your path going towards comedy?

Speaker 2:
[08:30] Well, unlike a lot of comedians, I had never saw it on TV. I had never watched Richard Pryor. I had never know. We didn't have cable. I didn't know what stand up was at all. My grandfather would tell me jokes. I laughed. That was it. He was a saxophone player. He played saxophone, stopped to tell the joke. The most raunchy jokes ever. I was in the middle of a whole lot of nonsense in Chicago, you know, hustling, doing whatever I could from regular jobs or whatever, you know, without getting in trouble.

Speaker 1:
[08:58] Yeah. You know what I'm saying? You know how we be in the streets, you know what I'm saying? Doing what we got to do.

Speaker 2:
[09:02] Yeah, doing what we got to do, man. Shirts, man, you know, bootlegs. But, and I was always good at sales and talking to people. I was, you know, I had to talk my way out of whoop-ins all the time, I had to talk my way out of stuff. So obviously, that part was already in me. Like, I just didn't know what it was, because I was working in some form of retail for a phone company. I was always able to talk to people and be some sort of translator between what the streets was trying to do and what whatever it is was trying to get, whatever point across, I was a good person. I was a good negrotiator. And me and my uncle, he was a bartender at TNT Comedy Hook. And I was married at the time. And I was going up there to talk to him about something. And I had my wife with me. I'm 19 years old, maybe going on 20. And I walk in and I see the stand up and it's Shea Shea. I don't know if you ever seen Shea Shea perform old school comedy, but he used to do jokes like, black people, we always want the restaurant, they ain't got it. He'd be like, Doc, we got Doc Pepper, and he'd be like, you ain't got no fruit punch? He just was really good at whatever it was in that moment, that frequency I heard, it was ringing, and it was like, I could do it. So I literally looked at him, walked through the curtain of my uncle's bartender and said, what's this? And he said, stand up comedy. And I said, I could do this just like that. And he goes, what, what you talking about you could do this? What are you, shut the fuck up, I'm sorry. Shut the heck up.

Speaker 1:
[10:35] No, you can cuss. I want you to be free.

Speaker 2:
[10:37] All right. Anyway, I wouldn't, I mean, I wouldn't. The superpower. I've learned it's a superpower rather than just blurring it for no reason. Well, I was like, he's like, no, you can't, no, you can't. I'm like, yes, I can. I was exactly with me and his stepson, with his son, you know, black people, that's my son. Ain't no step brother. We get along, that's my brother. But he said, so his stepson, my aunt's son, me and him would roast, I mean, since we were born.

Speaker 1:
[11:05] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[11:06] So I tell him, that's what this is. And he tells me, no, it's not. And I'm like, it is Uncle Jimmy. I'm like, it's the same thing. And he's like, no, it's not. Damian Williams comes through the curtain and I said, I want to go up there. And he said, when? I said, on stage. He said, we'll sign up for next Sunday. I was like, deal. And my uncle was like, all right, whatever. I go back to work at the phone company. It's so crazy how this works. So I'm writing down my jokes on a pad for the first, probably the last time in my career. I write down my jokes and the person who works there, her husband, she's on the phone with her husband. And I'm telling her, let me try this joke on you. And she's like, my husband's cousin runs a comedy club. And I said, where? She said, TNT. I said, that's where I'm going Sunday. He said, I'll call him right now. Call Damon. Damon picks up the phone. I said, hey, Damon, what's up? It's DeRay, remember me? And he said, how many DeRay's do you know? I said, I'll be there Sunday. And I went that Sunday and I never looked back. That Sunday, I went on stage. I was on stage. 13 minutes, my first time ever. Wow, 13 minutes. And I was in my first three minutes were like shaky. Then after that, I got heckled. And that was it. DeRay was born. I just started, I started roasting this guy in the first, two big guys in front, really big guys. And they said, go back to your joe book. And my first joke was, you wish it was part of the menu, you wish it was part of the menu, something like that. Something like, yeah, you wish it was more recipes for menu something. And they laughed. And I'm like, oh shit, this is it. This is it. This is it. And then I felt, no, I was, cause I was not nervous even going on stage.

Speaker 1:
[12:54] So wait, like, is your name pronounced DeRay or DeRay?

Speaker 2:
[12:58] So moving forward. Rock the room, the group, the two guys in front ended up being men at large. It was Jim and I and Dave.

Speaker 1:
[13:06] Oh, dang.

Speaker 2:
[13:09] So after I got off stage, they were like, you know, you just roasted Jim and I went to Apollo five times. And when I come on stage, all the comics, like they didn't, everyone was signed up. When I came off, I don't want to exaggerate, because in my mind, in my big fish story, they basically carried me. But I was like, I was like, they were like, yeah, like who are you? Like, not who are you, but more like, yes, this is first time. Like it was like, this is first time. He going to be like, it was that kind of vibe. And I remember, and then, so Damon goes back up, and I wrote the E really little on the page. So it looked like D.Ray. So he said, give it up for D.Ray. Now I'm in the back room like, you call me D.Ray, it's DeRay. So I yelled like, DeRay. He goes, DeRay, come on y'all, they're cheering though, get up for D.Ray. And now they're cheering. And I go, oh shit. And it may be out of order, but I know I got home and I changed my voicemail. So Damon called me to tell me I guess I had a good set. And my voicemail goes, hey, you reached D.Ray. And then Damon, then this message to me, his first message to me, his first voice message to me ever was, you D.Ray now, huh? You're welcome. Well, good job, young man. That was his first voicemail.

Speaker 1:
[14:23] Wow. Want to take a quick break from the show to hear from our ad sponsors. If y'all are listening for the first time, or don't know this, 13 minutes for a first time stand up comedian is unheard of. Most people do three to five minutes the first time at an open mic, and it feels like forever. So doing 13 minutes, I mean, a feature set is 20, 25 minutes. You were closing in on a feature set your first time up there. Did you feel like once that happened, you like, like the heavens opened up, you were like, oh, this is, this is my path?

Speaker 2:
[15:19] I walked outside and got booked for the next Sunday. So I had to go after that night, I got booked for the next Sunday at a hair salon for $7 on 79th Street, and I had to leave there and go back to TNT that night. So my first time on stage, I walked off and got a booking, and I was like, oh, this is it. This is the money, it's rolling. But I do in particular remember, I've always been about business and even in visiting my uncle up there, we were having business discussions. And I kept looking at the door and this guy named Tasi was taking the money. And then I turned to my uncle, he's like, you really going to do this, huh? I was like, yeah, I'm going to do that. He's like, what? And I pointed at the door at Tasi, he's like, what? And that was it. So four months later, I started my own riddles. I just wanted to be the promoter, I wanted to be the producer, I wanted to be the-

Speaker 1:
[16:03] Man, what?

Speaker 2:
[16:05] Yeah. It was maybe five months later, I was out of there. The first, and he know I haven't gotten. I just went and started my own right away.

Speaker 1:
[16:12] So wait, within six months of time, you go from never doing stand-up, not watching in nothing, you see it for the first time, you perform it for the first time, you get booked after your first show, and then you start your own room or club. Room. So for y'all who don't know, your own room for a comedian is like you don't have Mondays, or do you still have Mondays now? Still?

Speaker 2:
[16:38] That's my life, allow me.

Speaker 1:
[16:40] Wow. When I moved to LA, it was like, now you want to get good, you got to do Monday Rays, you got to want to stay good.

Speaker 2:
[16:47] I keep doing it because I consistently challenge myself because I've watched friends who have been great comics live here and I can't even remember their names because I try to float in this world where it's like, it may be make believe, but Hollywood, that's what was sold to us. The features we watched, the dreams we watched, the avatars of the world, that's why black people dream in color, because that's why we believe in aliens, because we're like, it has to be something else. So, I just wanted to keep that going. So I felt like Monday Rays, like that's the ground zero for me. And if I'm too big for that, then I'm too big. I've watched my friends come and take comedy for brainy, because it is a relationship. Man, I love the job. I love the challenge. I love to see new acts come. I love that when I first started, people, I don't want to get into names. I don't want to say who I've helped, because that's for them to say, but I love that I was able to just save their name and get them on stage. When I fought to get on that stage, I had street people from Chicago in the back willing to pay money to get me on stage. And the guy who was running the time said no. And I was like, bro, Zoo Man Miller was hosting at the time. I was like, bro, I'm telling you now, because my name, there was no TV, there's no movies. My name just was ringing off just riddles and DeRay's funny, landing in New York, ripping rooms. I didn't have no credits. I got a TV deal.

Speaker 1:
[18:07] People were like, why you get a deal?

Speaker 2:
[18:09] I'm like, I don't know. I don't know either. You think I give a shit, but I have no idea. Let's rock, let's go. And within hosting the improv for maybe five months, I had a showcase and I actually had comments from Chicago fly up, meet you. And I had my own showcase within that amount of time. I wanted my people to see them people. Cause I'd be like, I never feel, I never have a, like when I see somebody get some good, my jealousy is more inspirational than it is, you know, it's like, damn, like me and Dion always say, damn, what was I thought of that? It's like, I got, what was I doing that made me, what did I distract myself with that beat me to the punch? It's like, you know, but I forget that it's a relay race as well. I'm just running my fastest time every time. And when I pass the time back, I'm still off again, trying to come back again and learn, you know. So, I love, I just think the improv and Monday Raze, it's just a-

Speaker 1:
[19:03] How many years has it been?

Speaker 2:
[19:05] Too many.

Speaker 1:
[19:06] Cause you, when I, I kid you not, when I moved here-

Speaker 2:
[19:09] Oh Kev, if you say it, you great. So don't say it.

Speaker 1:
[19:12] No, I just remember when I moved here-

Speaker 2:
[19:14] Cause I know you young and I heard you do some old jokes. And I was like, what this talking about? You young, you talking, man, you know when you getting old, I'm feeling, I said, what the is you, if you don't get in that marathon, you know it only is me? No, I'm not saying how long.

Speaker 1:
[19:29] It's been the whole time I've been in LA.

Speaker 2:
[19:31] But when I first got there, the menus are written on Bible scriptures. That's how long I've been there. Scrolls, all the menus are scrolls. People have valet their horse out front, man. It's been a long time. The strip clubs, the wooden poles, it was a long time ago. It was a long time ago, man. I'm trying to sell albums, god damn it, Kevin.

Speaker 1:
[19:55] We go get to that.

Speaker 2:
[19:57] You're making me an R&B artist. They ain't going to believe I'm having a painting in my ears. Oh, man. Damn it.

Speaker 1:
[20:03] I remember a lot of comics, and I don't know if this was your dream, because stand up didn't seem like you didn't grow up with it, so it couldn't have been your dream lifelong dream. You made the transition not only to acting, you made the transition to dramatic acting. A lot of comics are good dramatic actors, so many. Robin Williams.

Speaker 2:
[20:27] One of my really good friends, Robin Williams, was he put me in. I did old dogs with him. I were licensed to work with him first, and then that's when I started the teachings. What all did Robin give me if I was to say it? My dialogue off screen, he gave me that, and he'd be here with it when he's talking, and then he'll come back to you for significance of reason. I could be here and I'm talking to you and then come here, in case you want to.

Speaker 1:
[20:54] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[20:55] So just, and then old dogs is improv-wise. So yeah, him, Jamie Foxx, who's.

Speaker 1:
[21:01] Yeah, Jamie, Jim Carrey.

Speaker 2:
[21:03] What about the people that drama just grabbed and kept? What about the Tom Hanks of the world, who was a little bit about comedy? And they said, hey man, what about the, you know, Jim Carrey will, yeah, Jim, Jim stayed comedic.

Speaker 1:
[21:15] That's a good point.

Speaker 2:
[21:17] They put like some people, I can think, because when you're looking at that improv wall, you like, I didn't even know they did stand up.

Speaker 1:
[21:22] Yeah. Yeah. And you are very believable. Like on Snowfall, had I not seen you be comedic, I would be like, this is a despion who is dead. I mean, dead serious about the role. Was it a hard transition to flip that light switch on to Drew Drama?

Speaker 2:
[21:43] Well, I think I got a little taste of it with 21 Jump Street, because I got to play like a tough guy, but still comedic.

Speaker 1:
[21:48] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[21:49] I like was a soft entrance to it. Like, you know what I'm saying? So, and then when John called about Empire, he was trying to just take me out of the comedic, like world for a minute. He wanted me to like completely empty out. So that's why he made me a murderer in that, at first, you know, the cookie cousin. So then when Snowfall came up, he ran to my apartment with the script. He's like, yo, yeah, I said apartment. I was like, I don't know. Ran to my apartment, my little apartment with the script and he's like, yo, I'm doing this show. I want you to be the lead. It's Jerome. So we shoot the pilot. I'm Jerome. I got cast as Jerome.

Speaker 1:
[22:27] Whoa, really?

Speaker 2:
[22:30] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[22:32] Wait, you got to tell this whole story.

Speaker 2:
[22:34] Yeah. So John had been working with One Word for a long time. They were developing the show. We talked about it and the show was initially about, from what he told me was he had a friend in Chicago named Jerome who was involved. So whatever, it gave me some back story line. I can't remember all of it. Then I got cast as Jerome. Then we did the whole thing like when Franklin, when Dancer auditioned, he auditioned with me. I was Jerome in the room.

Speaker 1:
[22:59] Oh my God.

Speaker 2:
[23:00] Who else was there? Kofi from Queen Sugar was up for Franklin. Malcolm Mays played Dancer's best friend. He was up for the role, but end of the day, Dancer is a strong try. Not saying the other guys weren't, but what the world would fit. You know how Hollywood is. You never know. Malcolm Kofi is doing beyond great superstar. They weren't wrong in their idea. He is a great writer, producer, BMF. They weren't wrong. They had to get rid of him early, actually. That's why he had to go to the first season, I think, because he had to do that other show.

Speaker 1:
[23:30] But I don't know.

Speaker 2:
[23:34] But those are all great guys. But people don't know Dancer, he was an actor and he was like four. He sent me a, I hate to be out subject, but he has this video of him doing Bad Boys, the scene where he's doing Martin and Wilma.

Speaker 1:
[23:48] I saw this at ABFF. I was like, oh, he had it for a long time.

Speaker 2:
[23:52] So, and I don't know how long the other guys knew about it, but he was around me. I can't remember the timeline, but after he got it, we kind of hung out as we were becoming, I was Jerome, he was becoming Franklin, so around like Hollywood being out, like his first parties, just being in LA on some vibe of being out. But he was always committed, so I'm like, yo, this bro, he's dead on. So, we shot the pilot. I was Jerome, Lauren London was Louis.

Speaker 1:
[24:24] Oh my God.

Speaker 2:
[24:26] Damson's mom was Jill Scott. Damson's dad was Isaiah Washington.

Speaker 1:
[24:30] Oh my God. This is a totally different show.

Speaker 2:
[24:34] Clifton Powell owned the club. He wasn't the lady that brilliant.

Speaker 1:
[24:38] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[24:40] I think he was initially Louis Pimp in the beginning of the, in that first one when John directed that one too. He directed that one. That pilot.

Speaker 1:
[24:49] Clifton Powell owned the club.

Speaker 2:
[24:51] Clifton Powell owned the club. I forgot what else happened, but I just know that I definitely wasn't ready. I'm glad it didn't roll because I was not ready. I was not. I can't believe. Amon Joseph is the guy who played with. He's been around for a while. So what it was was a blessing to the sky because I was not prepared for that role. I probably would have threw off the whole show. I probably would have, who knows, who knows, who knows? Different direction, different whatever. I wish I could still see that pilot. I think John emailed it to me a long time ago, but I know when I watched it even, I had a couple of moments that were strong, but those guys are destiny. And we're talking about that's why, what John did is he planned me with these actors who are brilliant and silenced me so I can learn, listen. That's why my role was me speaking. I'd be like, dang, I ain't gonna talk. And I started thinking about it. Do I want to talk? Because these motherfuckers is, dancing is looking at five different people at the same fucking time and going, and then about to play, Amon has a curl on. It's a New Yorker.

Speaker 1:
[25:52] And the thing is, Amon is not as big as you. In that show, he comes across like he's like 6'5, 6'6.

Speaker 2:
[25:58] Well, there's a few 89,000 pushups between every scene. That's another way to commit it. They never stood in. I'm in my trailer, you know, relaxing.

Speaker 1:
[26:09] I see how you clip.

Speaker 2:
[26:10] I ain't got much to say anyway. So, but it was a, at the end of the day, it was a great experience because even during the, the passing of John was heavy, of course, but we kept each other. We showed that we could work through COVID.

Speaker 1:
[26:26] Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:
[26:28] The producer, Andron, is a beast with like, listening to you. A lot of producers don't listen to you at all.

Speaker 1:
[26:36] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[26:37] And he like, who was emotional? What's going on, D? What's? Hey, I'm trying to. He tried. I'm trying to do this, but I was in love with comedy man too. And I couldn't get out of some dates I couldn't get out of. They had to do rewrites. That happened to me on Entourage too. I was locked in the Entourage. I remember seeing Mark Wahlberg and he's going in a club. And I turned him and go, Mark Wahlberg. And I'm like, I'm an actor, man. I was like, good to meet you. I love you. So he's like, yeah, he's going to club. I said, hey, man, I act too as this movie, Barbershop. And he said, see you on set. And I was like, yeah, all right. So I remember I went to audition for Entourage. Shout out to Chris Spencer's wife too. She did. I don't know her name, but it's good. I don't know people's names. Mr. Spencer is all I need to remember. You don't need to remember your friend's names.

Speaker 1:
[27:20] Right. Right.

Speaker 2:
[27:21] Spencer is all I need to remember. But she cast me. And then I remember I didn't know I was casting there. Mark Warburg calls me. I'm doing another film. I think I'm doing The Fog at the time. And I think, no, no, I'm doing something else. He calls and he says, hey, what's up, it's DeRay. And I'm like, who's this? Smart Warburg. What? Smart Warburg, I'm like, oh, that's not it. Smart Warburg, what you want me to hang up and call again? Calls back and he's like, hey, I'm gonna, so you cast me and then I had to do the comedy dates that I had booked because you know, man, the bills and mother people.

Speaker 1:
[27:56] Right.

Speaker 2:
[27:56] And I couldn't stay on it. So that's the same thing that happened with Snowfall. I got deep into my touring. I think I was getting prepared to shoot another special though I did what I do all the time. I make an hour. I love the hour. And then I get bored of the hour. Now I don't want to do the hour. So most of my specials have been a push like, D, just do it. It's going to be lights there and people there and then.

Speaker 1:
[28:18] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[28:19] Everybody just like Shaq, All Star, everybody loved that last joke. And I ruined that joke to this day when people play it. I'm just like, dude. They're like, it was so funny. I'm like, you didn't hear the key in this thing. You didn't hear the, there was an accordion right there. There's an accordion sample of it.

Speaker 1:
[28:37] Hey guys, taking a quick commercial break. We'll be right back. So, I want to go back to you being recast, I guess. I have two questions. One, how did it happen? And two, did you think it was a blessing at the time? I know you think it was a blessing.

Speaker 2:
[29:10] I don't know. You will never think that it was a blessing at the time. I thought, when they said they were redoing it, because they asked me to come reread, which I definitely had some emotion about that. That's one thing about it, man. When you don't know the bit, everything I'm good at, as far as comedy and stand up, I know the ins and outs and I consider myself a connoisseur, or do I religiously deliver information, like the gangsta rappers to the streets, that we wonder why people are clowning and we're giving them things to clown about. For the culture of comedy, I dumb down my material or how I'm feeling on my delivery, or act a little bit drunker than I am, but I know the ins and outs of it. I think me not knowing the ins and outs of acting and what goes on with how long people have been waiting on what was the way we've waited our turn and how much work we've done. It was a sense of entitlement by working with John and me thinking, I already had it. Then there was the edge of, some of my lines I had freestyled in the pilot were in this new script, and I had an issue reading my own lines. I made that issue known at the recasting, because I remember I was going to not go in. I said, I'm not going in, and John's like, well, don't go in. He said, you bitching or you acting? These are the exact words to me. So I was like, fucking, I'm going to go in. If it's mine, it's meant for me, I'll go in it again. I saw those lines and I tried to do them in the room. Then someone mentioned I did a good job on the pilot, and I had a DeRay rebuttal of, I know, that's why my lines are in here. I think that debted it for the, I mean, already was already not meant for me anyway. But I'm glad, I had a good feeling walking out. John called me about 10 times, leaving out, what are you saying? I don't know what. But it came back though, because end of the day, John pushed for me, and although I have a very unorthodox way of maneuvering through Los Angeles and Hollywood, how I've always, back to the wall, didn't trust much, John understood my reasons why. He made me speak about what was going on with my mom and how I had felt I had elevated my career at the same time, distancing myself from who we were, you know what I'm saying? As a black family, you're supposed to be doing for your mom, people, I was jealous of people in their mom's career, in their mom's lives, that they got along with their mom. And so I ain't want to talk to no who grow with his mama who they, I mean, I grow along who get along with my mama, who want me to do, so you didn't fit my, if that didn't feel good, comedically, I wasn't going to rock with you. So people thought I was arrogant, I just didn't want to have a conversation about something, because one, I don't think we have the same understanding of what I'm feeling right now, nor did I even know what I was feeling. So, moments like that. But I was not as disappointed, I think, in that as I've been in, I think I'm more, they had a conversation the other day, Two Comics, and they've been floating around, they've been doing this thing, which I really hate. I've always hated comedic contests, although I've done well in them, because you can't judge my fucking funny. Am I funny? And I don't mean just because I'm funny, I mean because I'm laughing. I'm laughing.

Speaker 1:
[32:30] Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:
[32:31] I sit with my boys, we had a best laugh, and you don't know my inside joke. I won right now. Comics don't get that part of it. If you don't laugh, I won you, because you didn't get my joke. I'm not alienating myself. I've made myself superior in this moment.

Speaker 1:
[32:44] Right, right, right.

Speaker 2:
[32:45] This is an escargot joke, and you all are peeling back tuna. So, instead of making us feel bad, right? But in comedy contests, I've always been like, man, I just don't like to compete, and there's been this thing going around about who's better than who, and who's good. And you don't want to get somebody like me started in that era because I don't live in the podcast world as far as negativity.

Speaker 1:
[33:08] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[33:09] And not even in competition. I do if competition was amongst gentlemen, we know how to talk to each other. And then we, you know, be only because I know how good I am outside of those lines too, and I would, it will be discouraging for everything we were trying to accomplish.

Speaker 1:
[33:23] Right.

Speaker 2:
[33:25] What's the end of the day? We're not going to be friends because we grossing each other, and that happens here.

Speaker 1:
[33:30] Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2:
[33:31] But I just feel like being...

Speaker 1:
[33:35] Give me something that's going to go viral in the shade room. No, I feel you.

Speaker 2:
[33:49] That's what I'm trying to get out of that, man.

Speaker 1:
[33:52] This ain't that type of podcast anyway. We don't.

Speaker 2:
[33:54] I know, man, but regardless though, they look for it, and it's not that I'm not away from it. I just stay out of that world. So I'm just saying you can't, and that was going around. So I just think, as of late, I saw this podcast in the young Spanish comic, Kev. I think his name is Kev as well. Kev was with Ryan Davis, and he was like, give me a top three, and he says, his first thing, DeRay Davis, because this is true emotion. And I think I see people filter their emotions due to who they think I'm as a person. And I don't mind that. I know the off court, on court, but when I'm on court, regardless of, I fight for my team, and my team are comedians. Always, every time, I've fought to get us the most pay. I've been banned from improvs for fighting over the overage and the charges for credit cards and why it's not matching the cash. And I fought to get back in the very deals that comedians do now with the scaling, they were to move around. These are things I beat up in my agents. I go and tell them and people come and say, hey, let them know why you got that deal. You tell people when they're at, when they want to add in shows, they want to let us get those. I was like, I won't come here no more. I got to do.

Speaker 1:
[35:12] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[35:15] So that beast, that person, he fights for us. Comedically, it's always, we go back and forth, but at the end of the day, man, I don't think there's nobody I can't close after, but I have to believe that because.

Speaker 1:
[35:29] Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2:
[35:29] Yeah, he makes one man's work, and I have, man, let me tell you something. I was on top of the world, bro. I forgot when it was, but I was rocking everywhere I went. I think I was getting standing ovation to the point where I was like, and I'm not saying I still can't, I'm just living in my time now where it's like, standing ovation, if they love me, like I'd rather let them play, and they actually start exploding. I got some out, and then, y'all, who you just think? I want a natural, organic. I've seen organic standing ovation not too long ago. There was a DC young fly who just sat still for a minute, and something had happened earlier with somebody. I kicked out of some, they had messed up the show, and he just sat there, and they start slowly cheering and cheering. I hadn't seen, I don't think I'd ever seen it. I'm gonna tell you the truth. I was like, that is what comedians, that is what you chase. See, that push of me? I know that's something that you're, in that moment you want to, you want to experience that, because that alone, so saying that is, when they're complimenting me, all I could think was that. That's one of the things I can place somewhere, because when you're judging me as a comic, or saying, DeRay didn't speak to me, or just that, and I'm talking to a thousand comics in my mind, Kevin. I know you get a lot of calls and requests, and Sue, thank God for Sue and people that helped me book the comics, because I want you all to go up. If it's not to do good, it's to do bad, so you can get the fuck out the way, so another comic can do good. Even with that, I do not grant you time on stage, because I don't think, no, no, you go up there, and you ruin three minutes, and then you make a decision, because it's the only job you can't get fired from. So now when you come back, not only do you got to say you're better than last time, you got to be even better than last time, you got to find out a comedic totem pole. So I give every time a good chance, get up there, show me, make me fucking work tonight. I don't book openers who are weaker than me in the beginning. I don't go, I want the person to uproar the room. I go, no, get up there and show me why, show me why I believe I'm DeRay.

Speaker 1:
[37:30] Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:
[37:32] There was a moment when I'm on top of the world, and we're in Miami, and Chris Tucker's hosting, and we're in a big, big, big arena. And I'm telling, I'm supposed to go last, because I'm on fire for whatever reason. I don't know what's going on during this time, but I'm DeRay. Even if I'm not supposed to go last, I believe I'm supposed to go last. DeRay ego is on.

Speaker 1:
[37:51] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[37:53] Full Afro out, you know what I'm saying? Home is working good. And then he says to me, who was it? He said, J LaMonde should close. Pookie comes to me and says this. And I go, I'm offended, but I can't. No, I'm closing. That's what it is. I'm last. Those people are you. I'm about to rip this up. I'm DeRay. I worked with Jay many times. I've seen Jay. I still felt, no, I was like, I'm still, throw the alley boob. I'm catching the bitch over the button.

Speaker 1:
[38:25] Right.

Speaker 2:
[38:27] Jay Lamont goes out there. I don't remember what was happening except. It was outside too. Some on a boat outside going across the goddamn ocean. playing. Indigenous people coming out. Shaking hands and shit.

Speaker 1:
[39:04] Bro.

Speaker 2:
[39:04] When I tell you, I went out there and I must have done every curse word I knew. I did every and it just was bad. I wasn't. I can't. I've never bombed or been booed. But if I were to say there was an emotion where I knew ego when I was listening to coaches from that moment on, I don't think I made the mistake again. I think anybody told me something that's like, hey, don't go in there, you're gonna beat your ass. I walked out that bitch with eight black eyes. I wore and it's white, but I walked out that bitch. Two blitz, one black, two braids out, and J. Lamont's there. Did you have fun? You mother had done no wrong. He had done no wrong, but did what you're supposed to do. He said, did you have fun? They're really fun, huh?

Speaker 1:
[39:55] You didn't get your ass.

Speaker 2:
[39:58] I'm going to get a brief. Somebody got to rebuild Frankenstein. I'll say that, but confidence is key with comedy, and I just never want to be- I need people to know that's probably the most confident I am in anything. It's just comedy. It's mostly comedy. Most of the acting stuff, I like to say, I've been in rooms, and I remember saying to a casting director, because I really rocked the role, and I was like, you let that other guy know I'm coming for him. I was talking about Terrence Howard. She just said, that's right. I just sold that, and guess what? I didn't get the role, by the way. Made it even funnier. I've been humbled in rooms. I remember auditioning for Tyler Perry's. So I go in, I forgot what role it was. I was reading, and there's three people in the room. And I studied the lines best I could. And I barely started reading. I got like maybe half way through the scene. And he's like, DeRay, I already know what you can do, man. I already knew you're a good actor. Thank you.

Speaker 1:
[41:07] Oh, dang.

Speaker 2:
[41:12] And I was on some stuff, I got rid of it. I was like, I think I hit this face. I think I drove home like this. I never had that. Oh, my God. DeRay, I know you're a good actor. It was like, but it was this.

Speaker 1:
[41:35] Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2:
[41:42] I looked to make sure nobody saw. I fell in front of some people.

Speaker 1:
[41:48] Right.

Speaker 2:
[41:49] So I say, man, I'm just saying I had my moment. So the confidence in comedy, I just don't want that to be. But I do wish there were times where I could have honed the power a little better. Yeah. Because some people can. Some people think it's just a bounce off of it and it absorb it and it sticks with them. But through the years, though, as comics have come back and they wouldn't get better or they're on their own platform, they come back and either say something to me. It's like, I don't remember that day. I'm like, bro, I'll tell you, I don't. But forgive me because I was shooting threes, bro.

Speaker 1:
[42:21] Right.

Speaker 2:
[42:22] Of course, I wouldn't think about nothing. I'll pass me the ball. I'm like, bro, I got to just shoot. Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[42:30] So tell me about you're moving, I don't even know if it's to say into music or back into music, but you're getting more involved in music. How did that come about?

Speaker 2:
[42:40] Yeah, man. I've always loved music. I've always done music. I've always rapped since I was 11 years old. Of course, I was doing more battle rap back then. I got more serious going to be a teenager, but comedy took off and right when it did, it's kind of when I was entering the air sermon in the Bernard and in the Death Squad days type things. These I've always dropped like little songs. I said I'm going to do it. Man, I'm freestyle in my back house for eight hours.

Speaker 1:
[43:07] Yeah. I saw you on stage with Afion at the Blue Note.

Speaker 2:
[43:10] Afion's a beast by the way, too.

Speaker 1:
[43:12] Yeah. He's good at everything. He's good at everything and he's a vampire.

Speaker 2:
[43:19] He's that kid you want to be cool with in school.

Speaker 1:
[43:21] One thousand percent.

Speaker 2:
[43:22] Skydiving today.

Speaker 1:
[43:23] Literally one thousand percent. I'd be chopping it up with him and then he'd be like, just go on Instagram.

Speaker 2:
[43:30] Right?

Speaker 1:
[43:30] Bruh, just-

Speaker 2:
[43:31] You'd be ranting, you'd be like, on certain of the day, you'd be like.

Speaker 1:
[43:34] One thousand percent.

Speaker 2:
[43:36] Duval.

Speaker 1:
[43:37] Oh yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2:
[43:38] Duval would be like, you'd be talking to Randy, be like, oh yeah, I use my jet to go to the- or he'd say something like, I would scuba dive with some sharks. And they was like, they think about this close. Like, you may get your shark snack.

Speaker 1:
[43:55] So are you talking about releasing music or albums or EP? Like how serious, what can we expect?

Speaker 2:
[44:01] My album is out. The album Roach Sex is out. And it's, I try not to because I like the name drop thing. Not that I, everybody hang with the name drop anyway, because we're also supposed to be doing something with our life. Like if I say I did this podcast today.

Speaker 1:
[44:15] Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:
[44:17] You know, it's Kev though, you know what I mean? Because you're famous. So it's like, I care. Me and Kev, me and Kev, that's not a thing. But so about, I want to time, I want to say it was 2003 years ago. I always send, me and Kanye would talk back and forth. I send them, we would talk about different things, whether it be, he's getting ready for a president, we had talks about, we made a TV show talks about. But just been communicating for a while. I would always send them songs, like, I like these bars, we changed this. This sounds cool, but this sounds cool. One day I was in Oakland, and he sends me the track back to me before it came out on vultures. It's just the track. And he's like, write to me. And he's never said that to me, nor ever sent me a beat like that. And I was like, heart pounding. I'm like, what the? That Wednesday I go in, right? What I think is probably one of my best verses in forever. Sent it to him. He's like, this is fire. Let's get to work. This is a long story, Kev.

Speaker 1:
[45:19] I'm here.

Speaker 2:
[45:20] He said, let's get to work. I couldn't get to Italy.

Speaker 1:
[45:26] Oh dang.

Speaker 2:
[45:27] To go work. He came back. We worked on some of it here, vultures here. I watched, he was, I was listening in a room. Just listening. For me to be, you know, I'm like, yeah, I'm great at comedy, but I also like people to listen to me because end of the day, it is our community culture and there's, there's a blueprint to everything. Yeah. So I'm watching and I'm just listening. You can't learn a lot, you know, in this, as much as he knows, you'll never know, but enough where I was getting better. Really, really good. Confidence of and working and working and working. And then still talking, then another song came up and I really went crazy on it. That song that I'm not coming out. I don't know if the song is going to come out, but if it does, I probably won't be on it because the song, it's a song has a lot of history to it, but it was, it brought, it made me say, you know what? I'm about to put the same amount of work to end up putting this song into my songs. Start working on Road Sex, made a due date of my birthday. I missed that by a couple of days. It's amazing, man. I'm going to listen to it and heard it. It's comedic to me because all rappers are comedic in some form. They say they're doing, but because of who they are to change, because how they look and you're not going to take this. But Lou is always saying to me, Punchline crazy, Yeast Punchline is like crazy. I know a lot of people, Boss D, what's his name?

Speaker 1:
[46:49] Bossman D-Lo.

Speaker 2:
[46:50] Bossman D-Lo, that girl. Yeah, yeah, Bossman D-Lo, a lot of words. I was like, excuse me. Some of the shit he say, you doing bro? This is crazy. It's like, this is to change.

Speaker 1:
[47:03] No, I didn't think about that. You are absolutely right.

Speaker 2:
[47:07] Look at the line, Eminem.

Speaker 1:
[47:09] It's really creative.

Speaker 2:
[47:10] Stay on stage. You don't think, if you take them though, I used to take down a line and I put it, if I said this line on stage, would it be funny?

Speaker 1:
[47:16] Right, yeah. Too many Urkels on your team, that's why your Winslow could be a joke. That could be a joke.

Speaker 2:
[47:23] You bet you got too many Urkels on your team, that's why your Winslow did.

Speaker 1:
[47:26] Yeah, that could easily be a part of somebody's set. Wow.

Speaker 2:
[47:30] I see you going down the street like a parade. Mercy. So I was like, and he did, that was a big thing. He was really big on line for line. I didn't know what he meant at first. And then he told me some stuff I didn't learn until I left. Until I not left, I was home by myself like, dang, also when I worked on this album, I was like, I get it now. I get it. I've always been a good rapper. I can always get in the pocket. I can always get good at writing, always good at, you know, and I've worked to get like exhibit. I've worked like I've always been in and out of the. It's been a long time I've been doing it. So it's not like I was rapping out of nowhere. And by the way, if I rap this good out of nowhere, bro, that's what's crazy. This comedy was out of nowhere. If I rap this good out of nowhere, that's just crazy. No, no, no. I worked on this. And first I had to learn how to talk because even if you watch my old specials, have these words I'm saying to you right now, I couldn't have even gotten out because I was stuttering. I was talking fast. I thought that's how Chicago people need to talk or the audience commanded it because you didn't have much time. So yeah, all this, I think, collectively came together for this new, this new to everyone else with this, this fear for it. I'm working on the next album already.

Speaker 1:
[48:45] I was just going to ask you like you've done literally TV, movie, music and stand up over the last 20 years.

Speaker 2:
[48:53] I'm going to shoot my videos at your studio.

Speaker 1:
[48:56] You said what?

Speaker 2:
[48:58] Yeah, as soon as y'all close tonight, we shooting all our videos over there.

Speaker 1:
[49:07] That's Studio Gawd, DeRay.

Speaker 2:
[49:13] We watch, you gonna see them all. We gonna greet and scream with that mic, bro. But yeah, I like Roots Sex, I love it, actually. I really love the album. We all shoot some videos to it, but I'm working on the next one already, man. Some for the ladies, man, some for the ladies, man.

Speaker 1:
[49:27] I love that. So before we let you go, tell people what you're working on. I mean, obviously you have the new album, Roots Sex is also out. Where can they follow you? All that, everything that you could say at the end of the broadcast.

Speaker 2:
[49:37] Follow me at DeRay Davis. It's my page, it's real. Nobody wants to be me, trust me. My credit too bad. So I have no fake pages. I'm not the one they want to. Roots Sex is out. Get it on Apple, Spotify, Baby Mama Music on the way. That's my first time saying it out loud because people be stealing. I had to wait till I bought the dot coms. YouTube, I broke down and did my own personal YouTube.

Speaker 1:
[50:06] There we go.

Speaker 2:
[50:07] Outside of the business. It's the DeRay Davis. And I just might drop a special on there.

Speaker 1:
[50:15] There we go. The game is changing.

Speaker 2:
[50:18] I've been holding special, which is the name of my special, DeRay Davis special. Many, many meanings to that. But I think I'm going to drop it over there. I've had some great offers, but we don't, you know what I'm saying? I don't like to be, I like to own my show.

Speaker 1:
[50:35] I feel you. The game is changing.

Speaker 2:
[50:39] That's not it, man. And praying, bro.

Speaker 1:
[50:41] I love it. I love it.

Speaker 2:
[50:43] Everybody out there every day, every day, that's the balance. You see me posting the rap music. You just know I listen to Mary Mary before that. Before you see it. You might see a little, you might see a little twerk is going on behind me. Just know she's safe too. And who am I to not allow this woman? I love it.

Speaker 1:
[51:07] Ladies and gentlemen, DeRay Davis, follow him, catch up with him, listen to the music, check out the stand up, and we'll see you next week. Appreciate you, DeRay. Thank you, brother. This has been a Unanimous Media Original. Not My Best Moment was produced by iHeart Podcast and Unanimous Media. It was hosted by me, Kevin Fredricks. Executive produced by Stephen Curry, Eric Payton and Sharla Sumter-Bridgeat. Co-executive producer, Kalena Maria Kutney. The executive producers at iHeart Podcast are Sean Tytone and Jason English. This series was produced by Peter Coulter and Jabari Davis. Co-producer, Kurt Redman. Special thanks to Stephen Curry and Will Pearson. Not My Best Moment is a production of Unanimous Media and iHeart Podcast. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.