Nightcap Hour 1: Celtics DESTROY the Heat + Make Washington Jr. JOINS Nightcap + Gary Owen CRACKS JOKES & Ocho OFFICIATES Wedding

18:08But what I'm saying is, in order for the Lakers to make some noise,

18:13Chad Johnson:I mean, not the Lakers, the Heat to make some noise, they got to have another guy, bro. You can't put all this on Bam. Bam ain't going to come out here and get no 30 or no night. You know what I'm saying? He's going to do a little bit of everything. He's a working horse. I think with him scoring that 83, you know, everybody looking at him a little different.

18:28Shannon Sharpe:No, no, no. I don't. I don't. That's out of body. He had an out of body experience. It's almost like the situation where we hear about somebody having the out of body experiences where they have an enormous. Yeah. Strength or they do something out of this world. That's what Bam had. Yeah. Keep your family safe with help from Menards. From smoke and carbon monoxide detectors to fire extinguishers and more. Kitta home safety products keep your family protected in case of emergencies. Kitted detectors feature enhanced sensing technology that reduces false alarms and give fast alerts for more time to get out safely.

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19:16Shannon Sharpe:Our very, very special guest is joining us. University of Arkansas running back Mike Washington Jr. tipped the scales at 6 '1", 223 pounds. In the combine, he ran a 4-3-3. He had a vertical jump of 39, broad jump of 10 feet, 8 inches, and his stats in 2026, he only had 167 rushes, but over 1 ,000 rush yards and eight rushing touchdowns. Mike, how you doing, bro? Y 'all can hear me? Mike. Yeah, we got you. What's going on? I'm doing good. Can't complain. What's good? What's good, bro?

19:50Chad Johnson:Where you at? I'm in Arkansas right now. Okay, you still out there? Hey, hey, hey. He down there running them hills, man. Them hills got you right down there, ain't it, man? Everything got me right out here, man. Hey, hey. That's what I'm talking about.

20:05Shannon Sharpe:Mike, we saw the clip of you after you ran that blistering time. You became very emotional. At that moment, what was going through your mind and why did you become so emotional at that point in time? Really just everything. You know, I've been through a lot of adversity. I had bounced from school to school, been to three schools, was at Buffalo, New Mexico State, and then Arkansas. But really just everything, like all my hard work, it paid off. And that realization that all my hard work paid off just hit me at once. What has the process been like so far for you? Obviously, I understand how difficult the process is, especially when talking to the team, talking to some of the owners, talking to the higher-ups and the questions that they ask, what has the process been for you, you know, throughout the Combine experience?

20:55Honestly, it's been a blessing. Being able to talk to these different teams, you know, getting a chance to talk to, you know, the head coaches, running back coaches, the office of coordinators, it's really just been a blessing. I've been, you know, just trying to soak everything up.

21:11Chad Johnson:Mike, what's happening, bro? What's going on? hey what's your uh what was your training like preparing for the combine you know we know you ran a 4-3 obviously you did your thing in the combine this boosted you up on a lot of on a lot of people drafts boards what what was your training like what did you incorporate that helped you out you know in this combine uh really just it was really uh dieting um you know i was out there at fort myers training the x3 and uh you know i got a chance to at first when i came in my body was beat up you know because of the season yeah so i had to get a lot of treatment like i mean it was it was every day where i was just getting treatment working on my own body um but once i took care of um you know the nicks and bruises of the season he was really able to you know fix you know everything regarding my start um regarding my first three steps like all of that and that was like the biggest thing that i had to emphasize my first three steps we was able to get that corrected that though hey you you know what for myself obviously me being a foodie and being a nutritionist i'm curious when you say your diet you had to get your diet right to prepare yourself for the combine yeah what did you eat did what i mean what what kind of diet we talking about yeah i just had so um so when i when i'm talking about my diet i'm talking about like you know the macros and all that so protein i had a hit a certain i had to hit a goal every day um how much protein i had how many carbs how many fats um so i mean there was a lot of lean between 180

22:33Shannon Sharpe:and 220 protein grams of protein because theoretically you could eat a gram of protein per body yeah so you 220 so you can get somewhere between one night and 20. maybe you want to go add a little muscle you go to 230 230 yeah it was more so it was more protein than really any of them right right which was hard for me because i'm a big carb guy like i like my rights you know my That was like the hardest thing for me. But yeah. Eating quality protein is hard. If you eating chicken, you eating fish, you eating turkey, you eating lean cuts of meat. Yeah, that's a lot. You get a couple of burgers, a couple of hot dogs, some fried food, you blow right through that.

23:14Shannon Sharpe:Man.

23:15Chad Johnson:Man.

23:16Shannon Sharpe:You blow right through that bite.

23:17Chad Johnson:Yeah. You got to stay away from that fast food. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Joe, slow down, Joe. Joe, slow down. Ocho, Ocho, Ocho. Ocho the man finna be a pro. We need to, let's teach him how he should take care of his body, what he should be eating, what he should stay away from. If you want to keep that 4-3 speed when he get in the league, yeah, don't get satisfied, don't get comfortable, bruh. You got to keep your foot on the gas, you feel me? Yes, sir. Don't be listening to Ocho. Ocho out here eating McDonald's and all that. Ocho, his body type might not be like that. I mean, we the same side, Joe.

23:49We the same side. I'm 6 '3", 225. Yeah, man, man.

23:53Shannon Sharpe:Not even close. Hey, Mike, check this out. You mentioned your journey and adversity that you faced. University of Buffalo, New Mexico, then Arkansas. You're from upstate New York, right? Yeah. So you go to Buffalo. That doesn't suit you. You go to New Mexico. That doesn't suit you. What was it about Arkansas? What was that? So you know what? I think this is the place for me. I think this is where I can hone my craft. and I can become what I believe I can become? Really, so starting off at Buffalo, I had – a lot of people don't know this, but I was at Buffalo for three years, and I had four running back coaches in three years.

24:34So that was like the main reason why I left. And then going into New Mexico State, I had a decent season and ended up hitting a portal mainly because I just knew that I had to play against a better competition to get better looks. So that's why I hit the portal. But before Arkansas, I had committed to Utah. And when I committed, I didn't sign. I was waiting on the papers, and I mean a week went by and I didn't sign at all. I don't know if they were stalling or what. But, you know, Arkansas came into the picture, and, you know, they were able to put together a great game plan for me to graduate and then also presented me with the opportunity to, you know, play.

25:09So that was like the biggest thing with Arkansas.

25:13Shannon Sharpe:You mentioned playing against top-level competition. You know the top competition, the SEC, and the Big Ten. And you didn't have a whole lot of carries, but you averaged about six yards a carry. So what is it about, and looks at from the projection, Seattle, the Broncos, and the Bengals are three, are where you kind of looked at being projected at. Because I think all three of those teams, obviously K-9, he left Seattle and went to Kansas City. The Broncos, they could need somebody in the backfield with K.J. Harvey and obviously the Bengals. although Brown played extremely well they probably want somebody with a little bigger body and can and can pound it up in there and maybe you guys split carry because seemingly seemingly that's where everybody's going to the two-back system but what was it what was it about the SEC that really really like okay I see all these guys that come out every year that go there let me see what they're really talking about really um I feel like I had a season I had because you know just the motivation and you know determination when it came to really just playing the SEC coming in a lot of people were saying that I'm not SEC caliber.

26:20A lot of people were saying that I'm going to be third team and I'm going to ride the bench. I'm going to be handling out waters. So I really thought about all of that during the season. That was like really my driving motivation. Hey, when you talk about playing the running back position, obviously we all have our favorite players. If you think about your favorite players in the NFL right now, who do you mold or who would you say your playing style is like that's in today's game? I would definitely say Josh Jacobs. I've been watching him since he was in Alabama. The Raiders and Green Bay, I've been watching him all throughout his career.

26:58I would definitely say him. I like it.

27:02Chad Johnson:Hey, Mike, what you doing right now, bro, preparing for the draft? What it's like? I know you prepared for the combine, had a hell of a combine. What are you doing now, obviously, on the brink of getting drafted? what's your workout regimen like what's your thought process on even getting a chance to play in the NFL knowing that I'm sure it was probably a lifelong dream of yours what is it like right now? Yeah so right now I'm training Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and then next week we go into Monday, Wednesday, Friday Tuesday, Thursday conditioning so that's what my training is like and I'm also getting treatment everyday I'm taking advantage of all of that because it's all free in Arkansas enough so take that one right now um i feel like my mindset is starting to shift it um in terms of you know goals you know because this has always been you know a goal of mine um you know making it to the nfl and now you know my mindset is starting to change into you know you know trying to hit that legendary status right really i really just like that you know whatever it takes you know like you know whoever's becoming a pro bowler you know and eventually you know my end goal is being in the Hall of Fame.

28:13So that's where my mind starts. My mindset is there in the shift too. All right.

28:18Shannon Sharpe:So, Mike, you know, looking at the scouting report, the one thing that the first thing up there, ball security. Yes, sir. That you need to do a better job of securing the football. Ten fumbles over three seasons. What have you been doing to try to fix that small flaw that's in your game? Really just emphasizing it. Like I do position work every other day while I'm out here. and I'm just really just emphasizing it like I'm out cuts. Like I do a drill, position drill, then I'll run like a gasser and I come back while I'm tired because that's when I had my fumbles. I come back while I'm tired and I get back in the drill and I'm just emphasizing, you know, holding the ball tight.

28:59It's really just an emphasis thing. Yeah. You ever been to Cincinnati? I've been through Cincinnati. You been through? Yeah. Yeah, there's a good chance. You might be there, man. You know, you, Chase Brown, in the backfield. I'm probably going to be in the war room, you know, on draft day. So I'm just, you know, put my word in. We're going to send you to war, not no war room, to war. I'm trying to improve my team, that's all. That's all.

29:29Shannon Sharpe:You started a YouTube channel, right? Yes, sir. So tell us a little bit about that. Yeah, really just documenting my life, documenting everything. I want to be able to look back when I'm older and be able to show my kids everything. Okay, I like that. That's what's up, bro. That's what's up. So how long have you had the YouTube channel? And did you start it like, okay, did you start it during the season? Did you start it once you started preparing for the combine? When did you start this? Just say, you know what? I want to start this look back so when I'm here, I can have my kids, my grandkids.

30:02Shannon Sharpe:We can all sit down and take a look with your dad, look with your grandfather. Yeah, I started during combine training. So like a few months ago. Okay. Okay. Yeah. So you didn't document, did you document anything during your, your final season in Arkansas? Did you, did you any, you know, nah, so that's why that's, that's my only regret. I should have started during the season, but end up starting to after this, after the season, I got a couple, I got one video out right now. And then I have another one that, that should be dropping within, you know, the next couple of hours, actually. All right.

30:34I got to check that out. Yeah. Well,

30:37Shannon Sharpe:that's awesome, man. congratulations um i mean you the the process in which you've gone through you know going to three schools it doesn't matter where you started where you finished now i just want to share this information with you i know your lifelong dream was to play in the nfl but your journey doesn't start it now the journey starts so getting there is easy staying there is the hard part man continue to work continue to put god first continue to do all the things that you did to get you there but you're gonna have to do them at an even higher level now because there are a lot of There are a lot of guys that were All-Americans and All-Conference and all this at that level.

31:13Shannon Sharpe:And so in order for you to stand out above them and to make sure you stay at that level, you know what it takes because you got this far, continued success. So here at Nightcap, Ocho Iso, Iso is the University of Arkansas alum. Yes, sir. He's from Little Rock, Arkansas. So, you know, he gonna be watching with an eagle eye.

31:32Chad Johnson:Hey, hey, Mike, hey, Mike, hey, hey, stay ton of vision, bro. You know what I mean? everything else on the side them just distractions homie stay locked in and uh congratulations bro and i wish you the best on the draft and woo pig yeah congratulations man good luck on everything when you do get drafted i'm sure you have a team of people you know that direct you and what and what you need to do and what you don't what you need and need not do but if you need a nutritionist you know how that's your boy i can get you a nice don't do that i got a nice little plan for you man and get you get you right i got you yo how the family doing the family good everybody good mom dad brother sister everybody everybody doing good they're actually watching it right now so shout out

32:13Shannon Sharpe:oh hey mama hey mama what's happening what's up mama yeah make sure you subscribe make sure you hit that subscribe button and hit the like button while you're at it yeah yeah i appreciate it man all the best man god bless stay healthy and uh look forward to hearing your night hearing your name called on draft night. Yes, sir. Good luck, Mike. Yes, sir. Appreciate you, bro. Mike Washington Jr., University of Arkansas running back. He's projected to go fairly high. I mean, great size, 6 '1", 223, running 4 '3". You look at his vert, you look at his standing broad jump, it lets you know he's explosive.

32:51Shannon Sharpe:It also lets you know he did what he did in one of the preeminent conferences in football. Yes, sir. So now that you say, hold on, he battle-tested.

32:59Chad Johnson:Yeah.

32:59Shannon Sharpe:he can run like that he can jump like that like I said the only knock that I can find is that he gotta do a better job and take care of the football the quickest way to get your ass off the field is to put that Ocho remember earlier this year Derrick Henry as great as he was what did the Ravens do Ocho remember what I said what did I tell you was the problem what did he take off his hands what did he take off his arms them damn sleeves you can't feel a god damn ball Joe but listen for him another thing also you know what skin to skin feel like so we know you like skin to skin yeah yeah yeah oh yeah we know we know you another thing for him too Joe and Unc is coming and being a running back everybody fast huh you know what I'm talking about everybody can run but being able to do more at your position will separate you from everybody else being able to do more not having to come out on third downs, knowing how to pass block, being able to catch out the backfield.

34:01All that stuff matters and it makes you a lot more valuable outside of just the stats and what you did at the combine. I'm hoping he got the right people around him so he can be a much better running back than what he was at goddamn Arkansas is adding other tools to his toolbox. That makes you more valuable.

34:26Chad Johnson:and staying locked in to the point to where you focus. You know how, like, training for the combine? Because I'm sure both of y 'all have done it. You probably had to train your butt out for the combine. Then be like, once you get drafted, you can't exhale, bro. Hell nah. You can't exhale. You got to continue. You got to keep that same mindset as though you're still trying to get somewhere even though you're already there. You know what I'm saying? And like I'll say, as easy as it is to get there, man, it's much harder to stay. It's the same thing in the NBA, bro, because guys get so comfortable after they get drafted, after they know the ropes, after they know how much they need to put in.

35:06Chad Johnson:You can never get comfortable, bro. You always got to stay locked in and stay hungry.

35:12Shannon Sharpe:And I think, look, you got to be really special, really, really special running back to basically be a two-down back. I mean, to be like an Adrian Peterson, because Adrian Peterson came out a lot on third down. Henry comes out on third down. You got to be special. But it's not a whole lot of LaDainian Thomasons. There's not a whole lot of Marshall Fogs, though, and Christian McCaffrey. There's not a whole lot of guys like that. And somebody said, man, Eric Dickinson fumbled one time, 18 times in one season. Yeah, he rushed for 2 ,100 yards one time in the season, too. He rushed for 20 touchdowns in the season, too.

35:49Shannon Sharpe:Hey, he's different, man. Edie was different. I don't know if y 'all, I remember EDKB, we had the cherry curl with the glasses. Yeah, yeah. And he was the state champion, the 100 and 200 in the state of Texas. Now you know one thing, Texas, Florida, Georgia, when it comes to speed, if you win the state track meet in one of those, in California, in one of those three states, oh you can move.

36:15Chad Johnson:Yeah.

36:16Shannon Sharpe:You can move. You can move. You can move, move. You know what's so funny about ED2 Unc? When you look at his highlights, he runs so straight up. He runs straight up and down, tall as hell. Boy, that boy move. He be moving, boy. Eric Durrell. But it's great to see the journey that these kids, and to overcome things. He's from upstate New York. Obviously, he goes to the University of Buffalo. That doesn't work out for him. He goes on. He mentioned that he had four coaches. running back coaches while he was there. And then he goes to New Mexico State and for whatever reason, he's like, you know what?

36:55Shannon Sharpe:I had a good season, but I want people because look at the level of competition and I'm kind of doing this and they're going to hold that against me. So let me go against top level competition, do what I did, and maybe I'll get a better look. And he's probably played himself into a top three, probably not going to get out of the second or third. He could be a first round pick, but indications like he's probably going to go that second day, probably second or third round. Nice size, ability to run the football, got that kind of speed. 4-3-3 at that size.

37:24Chad Johnson:Hey, that was the fastest in the combine when they had a running back.

37:28Shannon Sharpe:It might have been. I think somebody might have had a 4-3 flat. But for a running back, but these guys now – see, here's the thing, the problem that I have with this, Joe. Guys are going and specifically training. It'll be like you, Joe, going and says, okay, Joe, we want you to shoot. Now, we're going to do a test, Joe, but you're only going to shoot threes from the right top of the key. That's all you're going to shoot, and that's all you did. You're going to get very proficient at that. And see, the thing is that can you play football? I love that you can run fast. I love that you can jump high.

38:06Shannon Sharpe:I love all of that. But at the end of the day, I ain't got no stopwatch on you. I ain't got no measuring tape on you. can you play football? That's what I need to know. Can that 4 '3 and that 11 foot and that 48, does it translate to get your ass on the field? I put a helmet on you, I put shoulder pads, and I put feats on your damn feet. Can you translate that? Because I'm sure you've seen guys that can jump out the gym and they can shoot it, but they get in the basketball game, and I'm like, son, what you doing? Right, right.

38:44Chad Johnson:I already know what you're talking about. Hey, some can, some can't. I think what happens is when you're in a combine or when you're training for the NBA, it's like, can you make those reads in the game? You know what I mean? Those game situations. Because in basketball, you ain't going to get the top speed. In football, you might. But before you get the top speed, you're going to have to wiggle a little bit. Oh, yeah. You understand? You understand? So I understand what you're talking about. Roll the window down. Do you hear that? It's the sound of spring. So bring on the spring at the Honda Spring Event.

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39:44Shannon Sharpe:Gary! We got a very, very special guest joining us. I don't know why. He came in the chat a little early, but he was looking. Why so serious? There he is. Very funny. Mr. Gary Owen. Gary, how you doing? Gary, what's up, baby? What's up, bro? What's up? Hey, hey. Gary, I haven't had an opportunity to talk to you since we did the Club Shay Shay interview. And hopefully you enjoyed the way it came out. We got a lot of positive feedback. hopefully people started clapping. Man, I ain't know Gary was that funny. But I've done 200 of these. And so hopefully you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed it. Of 200 pods I've done, I've only had one person to say they didn't have a very enjoyable experience.

40:26Shannon Sharpe:So I wanna say, hopefully you had a very enjoyable - Yeah, yeah, that was dope. Yeah, I got a lot of phone calls off that one. That was the one. So you got married. I mean, I don't even, you said you was dating. I didn't want to bring, I mean, I knew some things that were going on, but I didn't want to put you on the spot because I didn't want to be messy because people say I'm messy. So I didn't want to put your business out there in the street. But you've gotten remarried. You've got twins. What has it been like becoming a new father for the first time in what? Damn near two decades, Gary. I got a nanny this time.

41:00It's easy. It's light work with the nanny. Hey, matter of fact, Gary, you know, I'm glad I'm glad I'm leading with that question as far as doing something. Obviously, having older kids like myself and starting back over with twins. And I just told me not too long ago, Uncle and I and Joe as well. We talked about actually having kids again, you know, and no, no, no.

41:26Chad Johnson:You did. OK, hey, Joe, you Joe, you said you to agree. We talked about a triple marriage. We talk about us. We ain't talking about us having no kids. Well, Gary, I'm thinking about having twins. I want to know, what do you think about me having twins? Do you think it's a good move at this point in life, or should I just stick with what I have right now? Keep it real, G. You close to double digits. Might as well get that even 10. See? That's what I'm talking about. And so, wait, one thing. Obviously, you know how I am. I'm very financially savvy. so what does it look like having a nanny without having to tell me how much it really costs you know I mean like what do you think I had one before G I already know it's not as bad as people think it really is it's not that bad okay so ours isn't like living she's um she gets here at 7am she leaves around 5 so is she there 10 hours yeah she's there for 10 hours okay that's convenient that sounds convenient

42:29Shannon Sharpe:Does she do anything other than nanny? Does she cook? Does she clean? Or is that she's just a nanny? She just take care of the kids? When you got twins, I mean, she ain't really got time to do much else. Because she keeps everything in order. When she's not here, we see how important she is. I'll tell you that. And she calls in sick. Oh. Oh. Hey, don't worry about it. We got some medicine. We got some call, sir. We got some call. That's like the Bengals without Joe Burrow. Gary, let me ask you this, Gary. What was it about you getting married? What goes through your mind saying, hey, you know what I think would be a good idea, babe?

43:13Shannon Sharpe:We get Ocho to appreciate it. Talk to him, Gary. Let me tell you how this all panned out. It was like a 48-hour notice. So when we first decided, you know, we're going to get married, I went to another wedding, and I saw Cedric the Entertainer preside over it. I said, that's a good idea. Because it wasn't stuffy. It wasn't like, you know, God almost like threatening you. Sometimes I go to weddings, I feel like it's a threat, you know? Death to his part, sickness in health, bitter poor. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa. With Cedric, I go, oh, that was funny. So when ours came by, I said, you know, I wanted the groomsmen to be my Think Like a Man castmates.

43:54And so I was like, that'll be different. We all hadn't been in the same room since 2014. So everybody signed on. And then when it came to the officiant, 50 Cent volunteered. He was like, I want to do it. So I was like, great. So the whole time I was like, 50's doing it. We kept it low key. Tuesday, I get a phone call. I said, oh, this ain't good. This is good. And they said 50 was filming something in New Jersey. The weather was bad. He didn't want to wait till the last minute and cancel. So he was like, let's scramble. And I'm not going to lie. Ocho was the second person I reached out to. I reached out to four people.

44:38Ocho got back the quickest. So I was like, oh, he got it. Because he called me back immediately. So I called Matt Reif and then Ocho and then Deion Cole and Tommy from Power, Joseph Secura. in that order was the four people i called matt ocho uh dion and joseph and hey you know hey you noticed the black guy got back to you faster huh you're the fastest one huh you got back fast

45:08Shannon Sharpe:i don't know how many people uh that watch the episode but you got a very fascinating story you're from cincinnati you go to the military and you're like you know what i think i could do comedy and you started going to these open mics as in the military how did how did how did you like i want to fight for the country which is a very noble call that you know what i want to get on stage and tell jokes it was listen it wasn't about like the fight for the country it was um you grew up in a trailer park right outside of cincinnati i knew i wanted to be a stand-up was like how do i do it though i didn't know how i thought you started in la but like yeah who's got the most bases in California?

45:53The Navy does. If I join the Navy, they're going to eventually get me to California. I spent two years in the Honor Guard in D.C., and then the first chance I got to get to San Diego, I went, and that's when I started doing stand-up. The whole plan was to get to California and start doing stand-up, because I thought the whole state was L.A., because I didn't know.

46:15Shannon Sharpe:I've never been. Were you funny? Did you prank people? Were you cracking jokes? Did the teacher say, Mr. Owen, would you please sit down? Everything is not meant to be a joke. Did you always have this sense of humor? Or was it like? Nah, I was class clown, most obnoxious, everything in high school. Same. Yo, me and Chad, back in 2006, so I moved back to Cincinnati in 2004, somewhere around there, and I met Chad almost immediately. Like, almost the first day I got back, for some reason, ran into each other. And then I had this Tuesday night in Cincinnati, and it was killing like because i knew the i knew the ball players their off day was tuesday they didn't have a lot going on i go all right if i can do something on tuesday night once the bingles start coming then the hoes start coming

47:10we had all the bad shakes of cincinnati we had all the bingles i was like and then chad i called him in 2006 I called him I said yo he was coming every week so I was like um let's do Chad Johnson's Too Funny Tuesday hosted by Gary Owen so we did that that thing was sold out so far in advance like that 2006 year when me and Chad did it it was packed to the brim people still talk about that to this day back at Cincinnati that year yeah Gary what do you say because people's like

47:42Shannon Sharpe:Like, look, and Cat paid you the ultimate compliment. He said, Gary Owens been in this thing 30 years, and for whatever reason, we know the reason he hadn't because he hadn't sold his soul to the devil. But a lot of people say, you know what, Gary's really, but it's crossover. It's like when you go to your soul, it's like a Mardi Gras. It's like a HBCU convention. Because the black men and women, they love you. How did you how were you able to garner that crowd you being a white comedian? You don't choose your audience they choose you You know and my first chance to get on TV was BET Okay, I would have went on Telemundo if I spoke Spanish You just trying to get on anything Yeah, my first TV appearance was the Dayton game first really and it was funny because i was one of the three guys and we don't know who the girl is but when we were backstage the you know they do two two different um segments every episode so it'd be it's a guy picks um three girls and then a girl picks three guys right they well obviously it was a white girl picking three white dudes but when we were in the green room i saw some black guys i was like wait a minute are you guys here filming today they're like yeah I went through, can we switch?

49:08Can I do another episode? No.

49:15He was like, no, you were assigned to this episode. I said, I think I'll be on the other episode, though. But my first, that was my first TV appearance

49:24Shannon Sharpe:was the dating game. How do you think Chad did for the wedding? Back to the wedding. I mean, how many people did you invite? We had 170. Okay. Okay, close family, friends, and loved ones. Yeah, we had a nice mix of like, quote unquote, Hollywood, my entertainment friends, and then my wife's friends. You know, they're all from Houston. So it was a nice mix of ratchet with Hollywood. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll tell you what, at one point, the liquor start going. It got to about 11.30, which is late for the wedding. Right. Also, there was a twerk off on the dance floor. And I'm in the middle. Damn, at a wedding?

50:05So much ass was hitting my legs. I almost tore my ACL. It was getting flipped around like so much. I was like, one F.T. go this way, the other one. I was like, yeah. Hello, Gary. You got a twerk off at a wedding? Oh, we got it in. This wasn't a normal wedding, bro. I got roasted. Russell Peters and Lunell went up and roasted me at the reception. It was just fun, man. And Ocho, what I liked about it, I told him, man, don't stress. Yes, if you met, I want you to mess up. So he messed up a couple times because he said it was dark and he had sunglasses on. I said, I can't read this. It's too dark.

50:43I got the sunglasses. But I want it to be, it was imperfectly perfect. I mean, he, he, he made it his. So I didn't want, like, I didn't want the preacher to be like, it was all perfect and rehearsed. We, we didn't want it that. So. Was Ocho late? No, no. He got there on time. what hold on wait a minute you mean to tell me this man got no i said is he here they go he's already dressed let me let me here's what i'm impressed with the theme was black tux with a black undershirt we wanted the guys to be an all black so many guys said they couldn't find a black shirt how did chad confirms on thursday the wedding saturday he had a black tux black shirt i go if he can do it you guys should have been able to do it the other guy like we just didn't find a black

51:35Shannon Sharpe:shirt he found it hey no he came he came shirtless you thought it was a shirt hey hey hey you got to understand i i take i take being a officiant i take it very very seriously that was my first one hey gary now my services are open to the public right now i'm starting low i'm only charging 500 bucks so 500 bucks to officiate and with that package i can also perform with my little band i got a mini band down here in miami yeah yeah i just didn't want to lay hello gary you say you you say you say the old lady she's yeah thick i've been looking to get down there and look around it's a property oh can you show me can you show me around in houston a little yo yo she got me i met her at the gym oh you know you know a little something about that, Janet.

52:30Chad Johnson:I'm saying, how are you approaching her? If you met at the gym, you just walked up to her while she was working out? You waited. I told the story at the wedding. I saw her and she was stretching. I was like, dang, she's kind of fine. My rolemate, I said, yo, go invite her to a show. He came back. He goes, man, I got good news and bad news. I said, what's the good news? He goes, she wants to come to the show. I said, what's the bad news? He goes, she don't know who the fuck you are.

52:59I said, ooh, I got to be extra funny tonight. But we, you know, we was, we weren't in a place to date then. I was still, I was separated, but I was married. And she was, you know, she wasn't ready to settle down, so to speak. She had her guard up with me. And finally, we just always stayed in touch. And then, you know, it just worked out.

53:25Chad Johnson:but hey hey hold on i got one more question has she ever dated a white guy before you never you're the first always and the last you like that you like that because we talked about this you like being the first you think i don't hey i don't get those black girls i never have got the black girls that dated white dudes i get the ones that like wow first time

53:46Shannon Sharpe:always my whole life yeah hey but we but we we talked about this and you said uh i think you said on the show that you had only been with one white woman your entire life every other woman that you've been with has mainly been basically a black woman of color okay woman of color because

54:12Shannon Sharpe:Gary I mean Ben from hold on you from Midwest you say you're from a trailer park outside of Cincinnati so you're not even really in Cincinnati you're outside of Cincinnati maybe near the Kentucky border how how does a a red-headed white kid from a trailer park say you know what you got Jet Magazine pinned to your trailer Let me tell you something. Playing football and sports, whenever we played the inner city schools, everybody else would be like, oh, no. I'd be like, oh, yes.

54:50I was like, I'm about to ball today.

54:55Chad Johnson:Hey, you're going to earn some stripes today.

54:58Shannon Sharpe:Hey, man, when you coming to Vegas? You got to show Vegas. Vegas, July 17th and 18th at the Venetian.

55:05Chad Johnson:I'm gonna try to get to that

55:07Shannon Sharpe:if I'm in town I'm coming

55:10Chad Johnson:what about Atlanta when you come I know you probably be in Atlanta Atlanta's October something the first week of October that's gonna be at the Cobb Energy Center yo I ain't lying Shannon like I did your show what almost two years ago about about nine months ago somehow I got in the algorithms and everything just took off like the ticket sales they gave me they didn't give me I want to say I earned. I got a hundred city tour and we're doing all theaters and we're selling out everywhere. It's just, it, it just took off. It just took off. I think it was just me peppering all the time doing clips.

55:47Shannon Sharpe:Cause I made a decision. Well, you got, you got, you got, you got a lot of questions because everybody started asking you about the question about the situation with the eggs and the situation with your kids. And so the thing is, is that you didn't shy away from it, Gary. You talked about it. And once you get into that algorithm. Yeah. Hey, everybody's people that don't know, didn't probably didn't know who you were. Now they get to see you come up on their feed.

56:10Chad Johnson:Yeah.

56:11Shannon Sharpe:And you get rewarded for being in that algorithm. But also when people mention your name and a negative response, you also in the algorithm. Most of the thing is bad press. I'll tell you that. Yeah. Especially, especially your business. Because like, oh, let me see what, let me see if he's really funny. Let me see what's really going on with Gary Owen. If everybody says, because you hit it out, even on comic, you know, Def Comedy Jam and all the shows early on, there wasn't a whole lot. You, Honest John, I think those might have been the only two white guys that I actually saw on those shows. Yeah, there was one guy named Dante.

56:46I think Dave, I think Fluffy might have been on there. Fluffy did it once. I think Joe Coy did it once. For about the first seven, eight years of Comic View, it was only like three comics an episode and there was like 15 episodes literally like 40 comics they were choosing from. Then they stopped making it a contest the year I hosted and they opened it up. That's when they opened it up to like 500 comics. Then you got a little more diverse. In the beginning it was a contest. People forget that. Comic was a contest. They did that because Dev Jam was just like comedians. when bt wanted to do comedy they said well we want we can't do dev jam we got to switch it up a little bit so we'll make ours a contest so then when dev jam went away and i became the host of comic view then they went back to just being a comedy show again it wasn't a contest anymore

57:42Shannon Sharpe:and what you if i'm not mistaken you're the first and only white comic to host because some more hosted uh said hosted dl hosted uh yeah i'm the first i'm trying to think i think I'm the first and only white on-air personality they've ever had on any show. Because then I had the reality show too on BET. Boy, BET loved you. They did. I think since they've been taking over, I don't know how much original content we're going to get, Gary. So it might be all reruns. So you might still have a couple of episodes still airing. I don't think they're going to do much new content. They rerun everything on BET now.

58:20I think I saw Homeboys in Outer Space. Hey, Gary, I'm thinking about doing a little comedy myself.

58:30Shannon Sharpe:Did he just freeze? I think he froze. Yeah, he did, he did. That's normally what happens. I ask God every time he tell a lie to freeze it. You see what happens? Joe, our prayers wouldn't answer.

58:44Chad Johnson:Hey, Gary, I got a question. I seen the viral clip when Charlamagne asked you, had you been faithful your entire imagine you started choking right hold on hold on but i also heard you say that they came up in court as you was going through your divorce well it came up in mediation we never actually went to court when we got the divorce we ended up settling but she brought it up in mediation she goes yeah i saw the clip and i go what did they did they play the clip because a lot of times you go to mediation if you say something they'll play it yeah no they didn't play it you know we were once we got to that point we were pretty cordial so i it you'll play it if the guy's in denial or she has something to gain i i felt like i was very generous in mediation i think that's a sign of a good divorce i feel like i paid too much and she'll tell you she didn't get enough i'm like right that lets you know that's a good divorce but here's the thing you're saying i'm a comedian

59:46Shannon Sharpe:I was just making light of a situation. Of course I was faithful in my marriage. Yeah, right. No, that's why when I got married, when I proposed and everything, and everybody, you're going to have a bachelor party? I said, I had a bachelor party my first marriage. I'm good. I'm good. I don't need another one. Hey, you can hear me? Yeah, we got you. I don't know what's wrong with this Wi-Fi. I keep going in and out. I don't know. oh no oh no that's god answering joe and i pray yeah no go ahead what you want to ask gary you know i just started i just started doing um like stand up myself i've been trying to trying to tell jokes on here you know towards the end of every show you know trying to get netflix to give me a series give me a comedy special well i'm the last one you need to ask about netflix because they say to me every year okay okay i want i want to try one of my jokes and i want to see if you can get it.

1:00:43Oh, no. Okay. You ready? Yep. What do you call a cow's knee? What? A burger joint.

1:00:59You see, Gary, you see we got to go through.

1:01:07He laughed before he got the punchline. A burger joint.

1:01:16give the joke a chance to breathe hey i i could i could i could hey hey gary one day i promise you i'm gonna make it big i'm gonna make it big on stage somebody's stage you made it big you didn't know i'm talking about i'm talking about once i mean the my second part of life. My second part.

1:01:37Shannon Sharpe:Yeah. But Ocho, Gary, correct me if I'm wrong. It's just not good enough to be funny. You got to talk about something. You got to, I mean, the job of a comedian is take real events, be it somewhere else or by themselves and make them funny. And so to be funny, it's one thing to, oh man, that's dopey funny. But to get up there and stand in front of 200, 300, 500, 1 ,000, 2 ,000 people, and to just keep it going and going and going. But can I tell you something? Yeah, I've done that before. I've done that before when Gary hosted. Matter of fact, Gary, you might not you might you might not remember this.

1:02:12The improv by Marvin Dixon and Benji Brown used to host down in Copa. Tuesday night, Tuesday nights. Yeah, Tuesday night in offseason. Whenever the first comic got booed, if you see Marvin Dixon, the Benji Brown, ask him who finished the set when the first comic got booed every time. I remember when you went up one night in Cincinnati okay he had a funny joke Shannon he had a funny joke he'll get out of 10 he'll give you 3 I remember the one which one don't y 'all hate it when your Lamborghini breaks down and you can't oh you guys want to know nothing about that

1:02:56when you're in your helicopter and the helo pads booked up you can't you don't know about that he was kind of digging on the audience oh so not yet y 'all see a different side of old Joe he just playing no he ain't just playing oh that's funny I didn't fly in spirit I didn't fly in spirit to the wedding

1:03:21Oh, you What did you fly? American or United? United, he was in 1A I knew his seat number

1:03:28Shannon Sharpe:In the bulkhead Yeah, I can't do bulkhead They have to have a wheelchair to get me off It was short notice, that was the only first class seat direct that I could get a ball I was just happy they had one first class seat available, I was like, alright, I got it Listen, I'm not picky, as long as you put me in the exit row I'm good, I'm good I'm very low maintenance. Yeah. Where was the honeymoon, Gary? We didn't really have one because I'm on tour. So I took a week off of the tour. Okay. So we'll figure out this summer. I mean, this summer, the tour is going to Australia, New Zealand, and Europe.

1:04:04So wait a minute.

1:04:06Shannon Sharpe:So she'll tag. Well, I shouldn't use the term loosely tag alone, but she'll be going with it. Wait a minute. Hold on. Hold on. You on tour? Yeah. It's called No Heart Feelings. Hey, listen. Hey, listen, what you think about me opening up for you one night? All right. That's fine. Be ready. I'll be waiting in the wings.

1:04:32Shannon Sharpe:Gary, all of a sudden, you don't seem overly enthused by that offer. Hey, I'll give him a shot. I'll give him a shot. I'll give you a shot. You want to go up? Yeah. I like that. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. So Gary, do you have a regular person that normally opens up, or do you go to different cities and have different comedians? No, I got two guys I rotate. So they pick their cities, and they switch up. So I got two guys. I kind of rotate them. Ah, that's awesome. That's cool. That's awesome. So who would you say when you give these guys an opportunity to rotate, who gave you your first big break, Gary?

1:05:13Well, Guy Torrey was the first one to put me on stage in L.A. I would have to say Guy because he had Fat Tuesdays back in the day on Sunset Strip.

1:05:24Shannon Sharpe:Well, I know you love Fat Tuesdays because, boy, they have – And? But you're going to tell the story. It's bittersweet because that's where I met my first wife.

1:05:37Shannon Sharpe:Hey, Fat Tuesdays, do you remember a place, Gary, called Shark Bar? Come on. What about the Century Club on Sundays? Remember that? Wait, in LA? Yeah. Century Club, they had that way, I'm talking about way, way back. Yeah. Century Club is something special, bro. I remember that. Man. Man, Gary, congratulations on the marriage. Congratulations on the twins. Congratulations on all the success, the tour. No one is more, I don't like to say deserve. You get what you earn. No one has earned this more than you. The time that you put in, from what I can tell, I've never really hung around you personally, but from everybody that I've talked to that's in the space that you're in, nobody has ever uttered a word negative, even off camera, about Gary Owen.

1:06:33Shannon Sharpe:And I think if you can find people that can speak positive about you, even when the microphone or the cameras aren't rolling you've done a good job you've done a good job yeah well i just try to treat everybody i just try to be cool with everybody that's it i don't ask no i don't ask nothing from them i just just be cool chad knows i've been around chad a lot i've seen i when chad was at the top of his game in cincinnati when they had carson palmer and hushmanzada and rudy johnson and all them i saw people come to chad i was like i was always get disgusted at the things they would ask he okay let me tell you how disgusting people are real quick that 2006 season every week chad would draw a name out of a hat and he would leave people two tickets to the home game and if it was a road game he'd fly them in and put them up every week so we had this raffle and he pulled names out one week this lady came up first she came up to me and said can i talk to chad i said i'm i don't i'm not gonna be the go-between I ain't his manager and then she came up to Chad and said hey we got tickets the hotel was great the flight was great but yeah it was like 60 bucks for a cab and I was like you gotta be shitting me you went to Chad for the cab fare I was like people man Joe that's what Joe and I was talking about last week about somebody being ungrateful So you get two tickets, you get accommodations, you get a flight to the city, you get accommodations, and you mean to tell me you want the man to give you 60 bucks for a cash.

1:08:19Shannon Sharpe:I saw it happen. I saw it happen. I was like, you got to be kidding me. But see, but when we talk about, oh, man, that didn't happen. You over, and guess what? Gary, and this is how the chat operates. Well, Chad, you making five, six million dollars. You should have just gave us$60. dollars not thinking about what you had already done which you didn't have to do right i i was i was in i was like damn ocho you get a free ticket to the home game he said no he was giving our ticket to road games he would fly him to the city give him tickets put him up and then somebody complained about not getting 60 dollars for yeah i'm surprised ocho they didn't say you didn't give us a per diem here's our here's our receive for our beers and our fries you know i saw what happened i was so taken back by that i was i was disgusted i was disgusted by it i go yeah but i tell you what july you said july 17th venetian yep if i'm here in vegas i'm coming oh matter of fact wait you in you in vegas on the 17th of july okay here you go matter of fact hey joe make sure you you block your calendars that'd be the show where I open for you okay okay hey Shannon Joe I got he came through for my wedding I can't say no there's no way I can say no and I'm gonna be like if I say no I'm worse than the$60 people

1:09:50gotta let him go up he did me a solid he didn't charge nothing for the wedding Yeah. Oh Lord. Now I definitely got to go. Hey Gary, I got some good material too. Well, I ain't, you ain't got yourself to me. Gary, Gary, Gary, Gary, give him five minutes

1:10:07Shannon Sharpe:and help him Gary. Can you help him for five minutes Gary? You can do something for him. No, hey, hey, hey, I'm good. I'm good in front of crowds. I'm very good in front of crowds. I'm very engaged and I have something most people don't have, it's called stage presence. I become one with the crowd. I got you. I can't wait. Yeah. Hey, Gary. Just in case, have somebody on stand. Yeah. No, no, no, no, no. It's not just going to be me and Chad. I'm going to have a ball.

1:10:41He sounds like a guy trying to get into porn. Dude, I perform. We're going to have this other dude waiting in the wings. Just in case. You got Mr. Marcus late on.

1:10:54Shannon Sharpe:Oh, man, that's unbelievable, man. Gary, thank you for joining us tonight, man. We appreciate this, man. Tell the family I said hello to the new wife, the new kids, man. Congratulations on all the success. Again, look down the road. I appreciate you guys. All right, baby. Congrats, bro. Yes, sir. The very funny Gary Owen, man. Hey, I mean, you know what? When you funny without trying to be funny, man. Hey, that's me. You hear me? Honjo? That's right up my alley, huh? I don't try to be funny. Sometimes I get on stage and they just start laughing before I even say anything. Well, goddamn, can I tell the joke first?

1:11:35Yeah.

1:11:37Shannon Sharpe:I just disappointed at the people that after you did all that, wanted$60. Yeah, I mean, I wasn't tripping. I just gave them$6 out my pocket. I really wasn't tripping. I understood it. Some people aren't in a position you know where they you know you know i mean so i kind of i kind of saw it in that light well you shouldn't have win you shouldn't have win if you're not in a position if you can't afford a cab fare from the from the airport to the hotel or the hotel to the game and vice versa don't go i understand but i don't think i don't think winning two tickets being able to go to a bangham game out of town you know and your room is already paid for you all you have to do is just check-in and go to the game, I kind of saw it from their side and not having the fun.

1:12:23So I just gave them$6. I wasn't tripping. Ocho, you did this for a full season, bro? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, hold on, Joe. We had games, right? We had seasons where I'm sure some people in the chat that have been watching football long enough, we had some games where the games was blacked out, Joe, because they didn't send enough tickets. Joe, I bought up the rest of the tickets so everybody in Cincinnati could watch the game. I refused to let our game get blacked out. you know i should do some crazy stuff where some crazy stuff just to make sure them people was

1:12:52Shannon Sharpe:entertained man yeah man you might you might be yeah i'm a cool dude i just that just go that just goes to show you ain't nobody watching the broncos they never had no black that day well i mean y 'all y 'all ain't really had no bad days like we had now you gotta understand why when i got that's what i've been trying to tell you hey hey joe we were but that's outstanding I know I ain't buying no tickets. Hey, Joe, we was the laughing stock of the league, boy, when I first got there, boy.

1:13:21Chad Johnson:Hey, I know what you mean, Ocho. I know what you mean. Trust me. I promise you. What you playing with was that bad? Yeah. Atlanta. When I first got here, they had one.

1:13:31Shannon Sharpe:When you first got to Atlanta, the hog was terrible.

1:13:33Chad Johnson:Before I got here, they won nine games before I got here. Well, when I got here, we didn't win but 29 damn games. Out of 82. Okay, okay. Out of 82? I know what it... Out of 82, listen. So, like, I know what it feel like when you walk into the arena. I'm talking about it's empty. We probably had 300, 400 people seem like in the stand. It was bad, old Joe. And you can hear the basketball bouncing, Joe. You can hear more than that. It was bad. You hear everything. Everybody talking, the conversation. Yeah, it was bad. It's hard to, like, kind of get yourself going. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I done been there, bro.

1:14:11Damn. We won one game one year Two games the next year I think seven one year

1:14:18Shannon Sharpe:That's how y 'all got Carson Oh yeah exactly

1:14:25Damn

1:14:41Shannon Sharpe:ант